Thunder Squad Dynamic

## Overview

The Thunder Squad, often abbreviated as the TS, is one of the enemies of The Soup Pot. The TS is a small group of irritable adolescents founded by L, B, and E (full names omitted for privacy). The TS and TSP have frequently taken hostile action towards each other on HSD (High Source of Distraction), a social platform run by a school. The hostilities, which ranged from brief sarcastic exchanges to long roast battles to extensive writing projects, began in 2018 and continued up until the school year of 2019-2020.

## Historical Background

The Thunder Squad began as a roleplaying group founded by the two original members, L and B. The hallmark of this group was a picture of a bolt of lightning which had to be set as the person's profile picture on HSD. The picture often changed; the leaders of the group could select a new picture and communicate it to the rest of the group, which would then alter their profiles accordingly. Although not mandatory, the bio of the person would also be altered. This alteration could range anywhere from a simple mention of the group to a paragraph-long explanation of group details and roles.

Hostilities between the TS and TSP originally stemmed from beef between the individual members. One reason was that TSP contained two HSD moderators, Tomato and Chef. The TS often got in trouble with the moderators of HSD, due to their roleplaying nature, which activity had been banned for sanity purposes. In addition, the members of the TS possessed an inclination towards aggressiveness and rebelliousness, which traits prompted them to revolt against HSD guidelines. Their frequent immature and disrespectful language directed towards the HSD moderators caused frustration on the parts of Tomato and Chef. As Chef was also the leader of TSP, the frustration was shared among the other ingredients as well.

Cooked bovine protein also existed between individuals of lesser authority. Cucumber was at one point involved in a prolonged roast battle between numerous members of the TS, including L, B, and G. This battle resulted in at least one participant receiving a strike from a moderator. Since this event, relationships between Cucumber and the Thunder Squad have been rather cold. Cucumber's noticeably sarcastic nature had a place in the Thunder Squad's fan fiction, as a superpower opposing the TS.

Hostilities also originated from the nature of The Soup Pot. Because, at least at the time of the conflict, all of the members of TSP were also on HSD, The Soup Pot had a conspicuous presence on the social platform, a specific example being the cat girl cosplay. TSP occasionally posted original artwork and designs from the members of the group itself onto the platform, which increased their publicity. Brief but frequent mentions of the group were also made by members on HSD in various contexts and threads. This led to many students on HSD, including the TS, to misconstrue TSP as a clique of popular kids. Because of the competitive and belligerent nature of the TS, The Soup Pot became a recurring target for their roasts and roleplaying battles.

## Timeline

### Beginning of Hostilities

Hostilities between the two groups began in the year 2018. During that time, the TS had amassed a large following of at least thirty members, which they called an army. Within the first few weeks of the group's founding, several of the members already were given roles. Although this has not been confirmed, L is allegedly the Commander of the Squad, with his friend B and E taking roles resembling generals. It became a custom during roleplaying sessions to call each other "Comrade," after the manner of the animals in the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell.

As the roleplaying sessions of the TS increased, they fell under the radar of the moderators, who then banned their activities. This was seen as a victory on the part of The Soup Pot, who by then had grown veritably frustrated by the unruly behavior of the TS. However, the TS managed to host their roleplay on a social media platform outside of HSD, where they were able to pursue their absurd passions outside of the moderators' jurisdiction. Although regrettable, this development led to a slight decrease of the Thunder Squad's activity on HSD, which the members of TSP enjoyed.

### Fan Fiction

In the middle of the school year, the TS produced a fan fiction. This fan fiction originated as a collaborative writing project thread on HSD, which the members of the TS decided to join. Conducting their discussion outside of HSD for fear of the moderators, they set their fan fiction in a fantastical world in which HSD became a physical location, and the moderators villains with overly complicated weaponry. The fan fiction, which did not violate the HSD guidelines, served as an outlet for the Thunder Squad's irascible and combatant tendencies, where they could pulverize, incinerate, and otherwise destroy the mods with impunity.

The fan fiction of the Thunder Squad irritated The Soup Pot for a number of reasons. The first was the unusual and perhaps puerile premise of their fictional work. The conversion of HSD to a physical locale resembled the imagination of a pre-k child; and the use of overcomplicated armor and weaponry was reminiscent of teenagers who play too much Halo and Fortnite. Their depiction of the mods as villains was also a thinly veiled attack on the actual figures of authority. For these reasons, TSP found the fan fiction very hilarious. Many of the members read parts of the fan fiction and discussed it in the group, both annoyed and amused at the portrayal of the characters.

Many of the individuals within TSP had personal issues with the fan fiction as well. In one of the chapters of the fanfic, Pigeon was portrayed in a semi-romantic manner towards L. Far from well-written, the scene was both ludicrous and cliché at the same time. Furthermore, Pigeon was annoyed by the low quality of writing demonstrated in the fanfic, as she herself was an author of five novels.

Chef was also annoyed at the depiction of the mods in the story. Many of the moderators involved were her own close friends, and she felt that the fan fiction was somewhat of a personal attack. Cucumber, although appearing only briefly in the fanfic, was also disturbed by the harrowing lack of creative skill evinced in the work, as well as the distressing and gargantuan number of grammatical errors (committed mostly by B). Shark too was bothered by the latter, and did not hesitate to post her blunt critique on HSD.

### Fan Fiction Response

For the full article on the fan fiction, visit the page here.

The reasons listed above led Shark to begin her own fan fiction in response to the one by the TS. This response fanfic was meant to satirize the original fan fiction. It featured the same key characters, cliché scenes, and overly dramatized situations in ironic and humorous ways. Instead of possessing actual overcomplicated arms, the Thunder Squad owned sets of cardboard armor and fruit weapons which they were convinced were actual guns, much like Don Quixote. In this response, the true silliness of the TS was revealed.

Originally shared with just Cucumber, this response fan fiction soon gained popularity among the members of The Soup Pot. Building upon the premise, Cucumber and Shark took turns composing chapters of the response fanfic, with Pretzel contributing a solitary (but hilarious) chapter.

### End of the Fan Fiction

Although The Soup Pot kept the authorship of the satire fanfic anonymous, the Thunder Squad highly (and correctly) suspected TSP. Angered by their satirical portrayal in the response, various members of TS responded to it with vitriol. Other members of HSD thought the satire was hilarious; and several members of the TSP anonymously expressed their approval of the work as well. These contrary opinions led to escalating drama, mostly on the part of the TS, who continued to berate TSP, calling them cowards. TSP, however, kept silent and made no response as a group.

At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, the moderators cracked down on the TS on account of this drama. This was considered a victory on the part of TSP, as the actions of the TS was greatly restricted. They were required to ask permission from any person on HSD they included in their fan fiction, to limit their activities to a solitary discussion thread, and to conduct their relations with TSP in a peaceful and non-dramatic manner.

The Soup Pot felt no need to continue their satire following this event, since the TS was no longer producing works on a large scale. To conclude the fan fiction response, Cucumber wrote a final episode to conclude the series. Unlike the previous chapters of the response fanfic, this episode was not released publicly on HSD. It was originally planned to be sent exclusively to the moderators, who had expressed private enthusiasm towards previous episodes; however, due to confusion as to whether Chef or Shark should send the episode, the release was deferred until it was eventually canceled.

### Truce

In the middle of the school year of 2019-2020, drama arose between TSP, the TS, and the HSD mods concerning YouTube links. Some mods held that the links should be prohibited; other mods, as well as TSP and the TS, disagreed. Heated debates between the three groups took place both on HSD and elsewhere. Chef and Tomato, although both moderators, disagreed with the link ban. Chef was an especially strong proponent of her view, writing lengthy arguments on Discord in opposition to the ban. Because of her comparatively skillful rhetoric, the TS decided to make Chef their leader, at least temporarily, for their anti-ban movement.

A short conference was held in TSP as to whether a truce should be enacted. The decision turned in favor of the truce. As a result, TSP and the TS decided to indefinitely suspend all hostilities in the presence of a common enemy.

Since then, hostilities between the two groups have greatly decreased. Part of the reason for this was that a number of TSP and TS members had either become less active on HSD or left it completely. Any remaining interactions were limited to individuals only, not on behalf of either group.

## Aftermath

At the time of the writing of this article, drama between TSP and the TS have virtually ceased. The only interactions were the occasional sarcastic remark or brigade made to each other on HSD by individuals, an example being when Chef, Shark, Cucumber, and a number of other TSP members, as well as many other HSDers, pointed out by means of a comment-string a typo made by L.

Recently, Tomato made an urban dictionary entry regarding the Thunder Squad. Although no specifics were mentioned, the entry defined a "thunder squad" to be a group of overreactive individuals who were unable to take a joke.

This article will be updated should any new and interesting developments take place.