It all started here. I woke up and looked at 'my' Discord server for the bloated tic of a fanfic (hey that rhymes, neurospicy two seconds!) I write with my partner SonaBeanSidhe, Aran Thranduil's Dining Hall. There hadn't been enough tea yet so the natural response was 'wth is this?' Well, THIS was going to Hoover my next two days and counting. Just visit the post, dear friends of the writing persuasion and you would see (I'll save you time because I'm nice this way) that there are many screenshots supporting just what the meme says: This Instagram OP knows a writer who found herself in a steaming pile of mess with the Google Docs TOS (which is really also the Google Drive TOS, making it somewhat difficult to locate said TOS. I'll save you more time. Here:

This information comes from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/148505#zippy=%2Csexually-explicit-material So, it was the act of sharing the files, not having created or stored them that triggered what had happened. Okay, still not reassuring. In the meantime, I was concerned enough to post what had happened to r/FanFiction. Within minutes, my post had been frozen by the mods there. I can see their concern. I believe they had only seen the meme-like first screen of the Instagram post, and it does come off like a bad Snopes Fail. They asked me for more proof. The first thing I did was a search for previous instances of Google having frozen Drive accounts previously. They are limited, but they exist. The concern here had to do with the current lack of information as to why the action happened, and whether we who collectively authored and had shared Docs with explicit content were about to have our Drive accounts fall before the scythe of an overzealous AI rollout on the part of Google. Which led to the second part of this. My first response to the mods was as follows:

A little while after I sent this, an update appeared on the Instagram OP's account (easy to find) so I added this:

The salient point of the update was that the author had received restored access to her Drive, but NOT the Doc that had started the entire difficulty. I waited for a response. And waited, and waited. In the meantime, I had no means to add to, respond to, anything to my original post or defend myself against some fairly sharp initial criticisms leveled against me by individuals who clearly hadn't read anything beyond the initial meme. Special. While I understand a sub this large likely has a lot of messages to field, I also felt that given they managed to freeze my post in a matter of minutes, they were really taking their time responding. So I weighed in on Instagram with a message of support. If nothing else is taken away, please take this: Back up your files. It's easy to create an alt Google account; this other account will have its own Drive storage. Share your folders and files with yourself. If you don't already realize, in Docs under the File dropdown menu the third option is Make A Copy. If you have shared the original document 75 times, you won't have shared that copy at all. Consider backing up your works to Indie platforms like Get Hermit, Ellipsus and The Quill. There may be others. Your own external hard drive is also a very good idea. But wait, you ask. What about just using MS Word, or having copies as a PDF file in the Adobe cloud? Not so fast, my friend. Look at Microsoft and Adobe's TOS regarding sexually explicit content...you'll get an unpleasant surprise. I did. In the meantime, a third update came from the OP on Instagram shedding far more light as to what had likely gone wrong. She had shared the Doc with she guessed 18-20 people as beta readers. The belief is now that one of these persons actually turned her in to Google via their abuse form. To quote one of the commenters on that update: "I heard from an agent that Google will only do this to your account if someone reports it. Google isn’t scanning docs for explicit content (except maybe images), but yeah, for this to happen, someone had to report her document to Google." This felt like a relief...and yet is still packaged inside a cautionary tale. How many of us have shared by 'whoever has this link'? I have, or rather, I had. I revoked all such permissions to all large stories and folders in favor of my few trusted long-time friends and beta readers. The works are on AO3. I don't need those Docs links to be free floating all over the place, not after seeing what can happen. I was on vacation in England some years prior when I realized I had lost the ability to send out all outgoing Gmail. It took me several days to figure out what had gone wrong and nearly lost me my ability to receive Covid test results at a time when that was a travel necessity...almost disastrous. Fortunately I had multiple email accounts and could work around the problem. Which brings me to the last of this.

While including the subreddit mod's responses here may seem retaliatory/petulant on my part...I'm at best miffed at their shortsightedness, maybe mildly insulted, mostly shaking my head at the fact that there is something to have been learned here that could have affected any one of us. No one was spreading misinformation. Something had indeed happened. The source of it had been unknown at the time of posting. Had they left my post alone I would have gladly redacted as it unfolded; the reason for placing it on that sub was not to create a giant stir but to let others know of the risk of this happening at all and to encourage backing up that which most writers invest a considerable amount of their emotional well-being; the safety of their written works. Yes, I'm neurodivergent. No, I don't always see the world as others do. No, I still don't think this difference allows the response to be interpreted as much other than a slight and working against the interests of authors (I'm on their side and last I checked, readers need the authors to have the things that are written in order to have the things to read. Just saying). Whatever, what really matters is, if you feel this is worth sharing, share, take away the important bits, and if someone out there just wants to write it up in 3 sentences so it isn't a tl;dr, do that too.

Have a Googly day, to all near and far, in these times in which we live...>.>

Discovering a new artist is so fun. Did I mention this talented person is also in the Tolkien fandom? I have problems that extend past Lord Wind Master...

Shi Qingxuan 🍃

This made my day...what a fantastic He Xuan! Epic bonefish!

He Xuan for muigiel 🌊

Well how can I not be excited about this even if the timing is absolutely horrible for me as I am going to be in Ireland with who even knows what connectivity while I am there. I have one for every category because of course I do. Why am I in Ireland? To take original photographs for the project now entering its eighth year, the co-writing of that fanfic, At the Edge of Lasg'len with my partner SonaBeanSidhe. I can try, but I'm feeling doubtful...maybe next year! Cheers that someone is doing this!!

Tolkien OC Week

A fandom event for OCs and underdeveloped characters in Tolkien's world!

This event celebrates both characters of Tolkien's world and our own characters that need more love, by creating and reblogging all kind of fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos, fancrafts, headcanons, playlists, edits, moodboards etc.

The event is modded by @yellow-faerie, @elamarth-calmagol and @stormxpadme and will take place between 21st August - 27th August 2023 for the third year running.

NSFW text entries are allowed and we’ll tag them accordingly when we reblog them, but please put them behind a “read more”.

We'll also be tracking the tag #tolkienocweek during this week!

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Event schedule for 2023:

Day 1 (21st August): Family members

Tolkien often neglects to mention the family members of major characters: for example, leaving both Celebrimbor and Fili and Kili with only one named parent. In others cases, such as Bilbo's family tree, he gives a name and nothing else. Share a character who fills in a gap in a family tree, or create a speculative family member, such as siblings for Legolas.

Day 2 (22nd August): The Bad Guys

Share an OC who belongs to the wrong side of the story, whether they're knowingly evil, misguided, or just doing their job. Maybe they're an orc or a balrog, an unrepentant kinslayer, a Southron or Easterling soldier, or one of the hobbits who worked with Saruman in the Shire. Explore their life and point of view and why they went down the path they did.

Day 3 (23rd August): Diversity

Share an OC who adds diversity to Tolkien’s world, whether it is their race, gender, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, or another characteristic.

Day 4 (24th August): Forgotten Characters

As Tolkien created his stories, he abandoned some characters, such as Eriol the Mariner, and changed major characteristics of others, such as the idea that Erestor was a half-elven relative of Elrond. Other characters, such as the Dunedain chieftains fostered by Elrond before Aragorn, are forgotten by the fandom. Create a fanwork focusing on one of these forgotten characters or characterizations.

Day 5 (25th August): Shipping

Share an OC that you ship with a canon character. It could be a marriage, queerplatonic relationship, or one-night stand, canon compliant or AU, or any other sort of ship you want!

Day 6 (26th August): Alternate Universes

Share an OC who couldn’t be part of the canonical story, such as Boromir's child in an "everyone lives" scenario, a roommate or professor in a college AU, or a dimension-hopping "tenth walker".

Day 7 (27th August): Freeform

Did you have someone who doesn’t fit any prompts, or too many characters for one of them? Today, share any OC that you want.

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Since we want to celebrate creations about neglected characters all year long, the mods will occasionally reblog posts and fancreations about OCs and underdeveloped characters. If you would like to see your post on our blog, you're very welcome to tag tolkienocweek. Since tumblr's tagging system is often being faulty, don't hesitate to message us, too!

We are looking forward to see and share all the awesome work you come up with!

And Felagund Seeing That He Was Forsaken

Scribbles and Drabbles 2023! @fall-for-tolkien Anyone who somehow wants to know more about this er art thingy once again I couldn't get going until kind of the 11th hour because my mind is really uncooperative these last few days whatever, please go to my account on DeviantArt same username where I have described this work and its process and details elaborately. Oh wait I can say something here:

Serious positive: OH WOW THESE SPATTER BRUSHES I WANT TO USE THEM EVERYWHERE ANN STOOOOOOOOOOP

Serious negative: What do you mean the rock brush won't put in more shadowing than this are you kidding me do you not know the meaning of the color black it's 2 am the dog understands black why doesn't the computer herlppppp So it's like this. And Discord streams Krita, hee hee!

Any belief I had that my second fandom was remotely obscure just flew clean out the window. Well I've still got 1111?

Hey everyone!

This is the next in our series of pilot surveys for the AO3 Demographics Survey 2023 - an independent research project about the demographics and behaviours of AO3 users, which is planning to launch later this year. (Please note that we are in no way officially endorsed by or affiliated with AO3!)

The purpose of our pilot surveys is to seek feedback about which questions should be included, the best phrasing of questions, and similar design concerns. This survey focuses on questions from the "Fandom Behaviour" section of the survey, which is about how people participate in fandom beyond their use of AO3 itself.

If you are willing to give feedback, we estimate the survey will take about 15 minutes. No data collected as part of this survey will be included in the final project; it is for survey design purposes only.

This pilot survey will run for about a week, or until we have received 500 responses, whichever happens first. Signal boosts are appreciated. Thank you!

"Of All the Transmigrations, Why Am I A Prisoner?" chapter 109 illustration, panel two. Created in Krita 5.1.5

Credits: manhua artist Cai Ji for reference of Tian Que villa. Apologies to Qin dynasty China for my gravity-defying reorganization of their astonishing architecture >.> Translation: demoniokitty

Created using Krita 5.1.5

"Of All the Transmigrations, Why Am I A Prisoner?" chapter 109 illustration, panel one. Created in Krita 5.1.5 Credits: manhua artist Cai Ji for reference of Tian Que villa. Apologies to Qin dynasty China for my gravity-defying reorganization of their astonishing architecture >.> Translation: demoniokitty

Created using Krita 5.1.5

Placing the figures as a broken circle atop a mosaic with such specific symbolism...this is a special sort of genius. I admire this artist so much!

"Leithian"

Tol-in-Gaurhot

Finrod

mixed media, 63*44 cm

Fanart illustrations for chapter 107 of Yi Yi Yi Yi (1111)'s novel "Of All the Transmigrations, Why Am I A Prisoner?" The scene depicts things going terribly wrong as two men escape into a cliffside cavern, the second losing their rope with disastrous results. Because of great skill as a martial artist, his companion is able to pluck him into the cavern entrance by a wrist in a violent motion. More detail on DeviantArt under my same username if somehow someone wants to know more, I check in here really randomly. I became fairly skilled at photomanipulation and digital painting because a year ago I would have firmly insisted 'I can't draw figures or faces.' So, this feels like progress. I'm adding Krita to Gimp in my portfolio of art freeware; these two panels were speed-generated and it was a great 'well what can you do?' challenge because I tend to mire down in overdoing everything and distractions. Then again, overdoing everything is also known as Learning Stuff...

First Lines

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

Ann's Rules: Ignore the above if you want to ignore the above. Because rules are meant to be ignored especially if they are on the Internet.

@zhie tagged me...the problem being I know like two writers on tumblr but...oh well? lol.

Earlene stepped off the plane at Donegal International Airport, desperately tired after traveling so far and enduring an epically tedious layover.  At the Edge of Lasg'len. [co-written with SonaBeanSidhe] (Our heroine has just arrived on native soil.)

“Ge? Ge can you wake up?” a quiet voice asked. “Teapot came with me, and I have tea for you.” All Beginnings Are Difficult | Wànshì qǐtóu nán 万事起头难 (Two brothers work to reconcile their shattered relationship amidst Craziness, including a sentient Teapot.

) Faeleth leaned around the chimney from the Heart Room side to see her mother and father standing next to each other, their backs facing her while they stuffed garlic cloves and herbs into multiple dead animals. Vannymorr's First Yule. [co-written with SonaBeanSidhe] (It's Christmas Day at the fantastical, sprawling multi-family home of Eldamar inside Eryn Lasgalen. Of course there's food, lots and lots of food. And weirdness.)

Holding his breath. Holding His Breath. (This dark tale begins with someone under literal water.)

“What shall we do together?” Nenni asked Amaranthine. Chiaroscuro. (Mother and very young daughter decide on what to do...)

The motions. They were the steps one danced when required to do so. The So Much There Still Was. (The words have to do with performing the necessary routines of life, but this is not living.)

Vanwë stared at the small loaf before him. Ghosts. (A diner ponders his bread.)

Lightly, Nenni found herself being shaken on the shoulder. Amaranthine. (A sleeper awakens).

The magnificent snow fortress gleamed in the pale winter sun. Under Pressure. [co-written with Zhie - who is the author of the opening sentence ;-) ] (Children have a magnificent snow fortress at a party.)

“I think we should celebrate,” suggested Gildor. Peacock. [co-written with Zhie - who is the author of the opening sentence ;-) Wait, does anyone detect a trend here?] (Gildor wants to celebrate having at last tidied up after a grand wedding celebration at a large shared home).

Tagging time: @spiced-wine-fic

Why stop. Also Brilliant!

🍁 Elladan and Elrohir Peredhel (I have always been obsessed with the twin sons of Elrond)

Initially I was going to make this piece a lot more detailed and lot less stylised (I even have a version where they’re wearing matching tunics etc ) .. but I changed my mind. Turns out I prefer them bare and sketchy for this painting! 😅 So I’m calling it done. Or abandoned. Same thing in art tbh!

Brilliant!

Young Feanor

Old sketch, patreon

More Back To Middle Earth month! Enjoy our guild's list of 'everyone's favorite villian or is he?' fanfic recs. My personal answer to this is, It's Complicated. But, I say that about a lot of things...

Morrigan's Mathoms! Valuable (maybe), sentimental (!) and useless (arguably). A print of the clipper Dreadnoughtand a broken clock from my great great grandparents Sanders' home in S.C., my great-grandmother's Belleek sugar/creamer set and her peculiar 'jade and carnelian peony tree', a vintage Chelsea ship's bell, a Venetian Carnival mask and glass calligraphy pen, and brooches from each of my grandmothers - one biological and one adoptive. Last but not least, a two liter volumetric flask. I thought it was pretty Hobbitish. And of course, behind each object lies a grand tale to which I could speak (and write) to the edge of ruin...

Spectacular concept, with shades of her previous work depicting Daeron. I'm speechless, standing shouting "Brava!"

Feanor

...and his greatest creation, which changed Arda

Behind Feanor is the blessed Aman, flying around in glittering shards.

mixed media, pastel paper, 61*26,5 cm

Somebody give this person a medal and beg them to do TGCF and SVSSS >.>

hello cyan. you have the cutest voice! one thing i’d really like to hear is the MDZS character names. it’s my fave thing in your podfics, the contrast with english is so beautiful! if you could go through birth name / courtesy name / title at like, the normal speed & then more slowly it would greatly help me both as a fan & as a mandarin learner. totally okay if you don’t have the time/would rather not do this. you are great & i wish you an awesome day!

requested by anon!

lksjdflkjs ;A; thank u so much?? honestly the amount of flubbed codeswitching that happens during podfic recording is uh, a lot so I’m glad you like them!!

anyways, have this uhhh, fairly long recording. D: you should be able to download it with xkit, so you’re not trapped on the tumblr audio player.

it’s entirely possible I might have made a mistake somewhere in this post? I was mostly going off memory!! if anyone notices one, drop it in the notes, thank you! mentioned it in the actual audio, but I’m also willing to do a second one with like, swords and weapons and minor characters, if anyone’s interested in that haha.

Characters in this post:

Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang, Jin Guangyao, Jin Zixuan, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, A’Qing, Xue Yang, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling, Ouyang Zizhen

Sects etc:

Yunmeng Jiang, Gusu Lan, Qinghe Nie, Lanling Jin, Qishan Wen, Yi Cheng (Yi City)

Full list of names and tones under the cut.

EDIT: now with a part two! see under the cut. + pinyin basics post!

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