Lúthien & Huan (2022)

A Fingolfin for @nolofinweanweek

On the morning of the day he rode off to challenge Morgoth, in my mind.

Here is the artwork for @silmarillionepistolary day 6, Loss and Betrayal.

It is dark in Valinor.

Finwë, still remaining in self-imposed exile with his son and grandsons, fears for himself and the people he abandoned - never has the world been this dark, not even in the first days at Cuivienen. Melkor betrayed them all, and is nowhere to be found, but the Two Trees are dead, still bleeding black venom from the attack. Fëanáro is gone, he was summoned by the Valar, who seem to think he can help right the wrong that was done here only weeks ago. Finwë worries that his son will be too bitter and too proud to listen.

He misses his family, the ones he left behind when he chose Fëanáro’s side - he knows that Nolofinwë was deeply hurt by this, but he still thinks his eldest son needs him more - and he prays they are all right. Formenos is silent, but not dark … the Silmarils, set into the wall above his son’s throne, cast light into every corner.

I worry for him, Finwë writes. He needs me. It is dark, but those gems…

He pauses, looking up at them, before he takes a deep breath and goes on: Valar forgiv-

Finwë does not get to finish the sentence. He does not even have time to react as the heavy iron doors of Formenos are blown right off their hinges by a single strike of a massive iron hammer. A pitch-dark form rushes forward, and before Finwë can even cry out, Melkor’s hammer swings into him, and the force of the blow sends him flying backwards. His body collides with the wall far behind, and the last thing he sees is Melkor prying his son’s coveted jewels from the wall.

downloading a fic when ao3 dies (when you have the link)

looks like ao3 is down again and i was in the middle of a multi chapter fic when it died on me.

and if that happens to you, this is what you can do to download the fic:

copy paste https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/00000000/fic.html in your browser url

replace the pink bit with the number right after /works (that's the work id)

for instance, in https://archiveofourown.org/works/44970790/chapters/113154673 the highlighted bit (44970790) would be the number you swap for the 0s

the download link will look like https://download.archiveofourown.org/downloads/44970790/fic.html

if you want the fic to be downloaded as an epub instead, use .epub at the end of that link

it should start downloading on your device

i'm sure a bunch of people know this and use it but in case you don't, hope this helps

Fellow Windows 11 users: how to disable newly-installed Microsoft AI!

Folks, with the new updates that've come down recently, Microsoft has installed its "Copilot" AI app on your machine. It cannot be removed.

But it can be disabled. Here's how (courtesy of the excellent Pihko Misit, aka @smokepaw.bsky.social over at Bluesky). I've just done this to my own desktop machine, and all's well with it now.

Here's what to do:

(1) You need to have Admin rights for the machine and be logged in to the administrator account.

Now, right-click on the Start menu (Windows logo on the Taskbar.) A menu pops up; about half way down it you'll see Terminal and Terminal (Admin). Click on the Terminal (Admin) option.

(2) A DoS-like box will open. (For those of you who've never interacted with a Windows terminal window before, it looks like this:)

On the command line (i.e. the first empty line), copy and paste this:

reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot /v TurnOffWindowsCopilot /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Then hit Enter.

If successful, you'll see a line pop up saying so. Congratulations! But you're not quite finished.

Now you need to close all programs and fully shut down the machine. A restart isn't enough, it needs to be fully powered down and started back up.

"And now," Pihko says, "ou have a NSA-like AI spy dormant on your machine. Stay vigilant, odds are it'll turn back on with future updates! Big Corporate wants you to be compliant. Don't be!"

i just wanted to say thank you to every fanfic writer out there.

thank you for writing what others haven't, what others can't, what others won't.

thank you for writing what can be judged and hated, but writing it all the same.

thank you for indulging in something that you love and allowing the rest of us to love it with you.

if you have one kudos or one thousand, one comment or one hundred, one bookmark or fifty, i love each and every one of you for writing them.

thank you.

alaska’s pretty bright once you crack her lightless shell

@maedhrosmaglorweek, Day 6: Respite

Near the end, Maedhros will not sleep alone.

The new Thor is so so good, I had such a good time watching it!! Have two lokis because I really felt like drawing him