Hi Katia! I Have Been Friends With Hayley Forever And I Hear About You So Much And I Am Honestly Shocked

I read the New York Times headline for this ("Tolkien Estate Wins Court Order to Destroy Fan’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Sequel" - article should be unlocked and readable for all!) and thought "Ah shit, they're coming for fanworks again? Really?" And then I read the article.

He. He what?

Well. Clearly this was his mistake, we should all know at this point not to shove our work down the throats of the copyright holders. But still, forcing him to destroy all copies? Really? That's a bit ridiculous don't you th-

Yeah, alright. Knock yourselves out, Tolkien estate.

the Guardian

Copyright claim against Tolkien estate backfires on Lord of the Rings fanfiction author

Demetrious Polychron ordered to destroy all copies of The Fellowship of the King after claiming Amazon prequel infringed his copyright

“The US-based author Demetrious Polychron published what he described as the “pitch-perfect” Lord of the Rings follow-up in 2022, titled The Fellowship of the King. He planned for the book to be the first of a seven-part series inspired by the franchise.

“But the following April, Polychron attempted to sue the Tolkien estate and Amazon over the spin-off TV series The Rings of Power, which he claimed infringed the copyright in his book. A California court dismissed the case after the judge ruled that Polychron’s text was, in fact, infringing on Amazon’s prequel, released in September 2022.”

My best friend died today.

There are so many things I could say about him - that when I was afraid of the police after an incident he drove my car for months, that he lovingly insisted I try different foods until my tastes expanded, that we built my desktop computer together - but my mind is consumed by one thing.

When my wife and I went to visit him for the last time in late September, at one point I asked him what he was going to do with his writing. It was something we'd had in common from the very beginning; though the things we each wrote were very different, writing felt like breathing for both of us. We didn't share our work often, but the fact that we loved doing it was a fundamental facet of our friendship.

He told me that he hadn't really thought about what he was going to do with his work. Probably let it die with him, he said. And I looked him in the eyes, and said fuck it inside my head, and asked, "Would you let me read it?"

"It's all smut," he said.

I raised one challenging eyebrow. Do you even know me?

"...fair enough," he conceded, and then added, "but it's bad smut."

I raised the other eyebrow.

He laughed. "Yeah, fair enough. If you want it, you can have it."

"It's not like you'll be around to be embarrassed," I pointed out, and he laughed again. It had hurt to watch, because laughing made him cough. But I was getting used to it.

I watched him sort through all the documents and put them in the right folders. "Wow," he said after a bit, "I didn't realise I had eleven whole chapters of this one."

I leaned in, fascinated. "What's this one about?"

He frowned a little. "It's kind of like a fanfic? But not really. Sort of like... how Fifty Shades of Grey is to Twilight. It is, but it's more than that."

"Ah, yes, sort of a fanfic, how terrible," I said.

"...fair enough," he said.

When I got back to the hotel that night, I backed those files up in three places. I gazed at their names in fascination but didn't open them.

I am the curator of my best friend's writing. Every document he breathed life into, I can hold in my hands. Today I will open the chapters one by one, and read every word he wrote. I had never expected to be someone's fannish next of kin (and though much of his work is original, I think this still counts), but I am grateful, so grateful, for the honour.

In the days and weeks (and months, and years) to come, I will read his words over and over and marvel at his beautiful (dirty) mind. I will come to love his characters and his scenarios, and perhaps one day I will remix some of them. Breathe new life into pieces of his worlds even though he is no longer around to do it for himself.

I should be devastated. And I know that I will be, from time to time. I will be devastated and I will be angry and I will regret, so deeply, that we did not have more time. But for now in this moment I am honoured, honoured to have this piece of him still warm and breathing in my hands. I am uplifted by the works of art (no matter how bad they may or may not be) that I hold. Nothing could have ever been more precious.

I love you so deeply, Yang. Thank you for being mine, though our time together was shorter than I ever could have wanted or anticipated.

And thank you for trusting me.

Tumblr rn

Happy Halloween from Hoebi-wan Kenobi 🎃

hi, a lot of you need a perspective reset

the average human lifespan globally is 70+ years

taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult

at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)

'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65

it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age

it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.

you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.

young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!

there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big

Forgot I had the "Cloud to Butt" extension and opened a Final Fantasy VII fic

For the female character ask, what about Master Vokara Che? She's such a cool character and there really isn't enough content on her out there.

You are right Anon! I am not sure if this is her canon appearance (I used one I found on Wookieepedia) but I really love Vokara!

ds9 characters as onion/reductress articles

when i say i like hiking, i don’t mean “eight mile backpacking trip with special gear and an emergency beacon” sort of hiking, i mean a three mile loop to go look at pretty things and then a huge brunch after.