You Know What I Think Is Really Cool About Language (English In This Case)? It’s The Way You Can Express

older lotr illustrations sometimes depict éowyn wearing ridiculously small armour. apart from the problem general sexualisation of the only female character (who really does anything), there’s another hilarious thought:

éowyn pretended to be dernhelm, a man. to fit in, she must have worn men’s armor. so the armor in the illustrations is normal for rohirrim.

therefore, all the rohirrim rode to war just like that:

idk if this is a young fan thing or new fandom culture but some of yall think fics are abandoned way too quickly. a few months or a year or two is not unusual to go without a fic update. sometimes fics take longer to write, other times writers have rl events, or maybe there's multiple fics and one gets more priority. there are tons of reasons for fics not to be updated every week or every month. it also isn't uncommon for people to come back and update fics after a number of years—ive read updates that took five, or ten years. people's lives change, but they still want to tell their stories. personally, i never consider a fic abandoned unless the author has said so; though if it's been a few years i manage my expectations. but a last update being a year ago is... generally not a sign that a writer has abandoned their fic

None of your old writing was a waste of time

You had to write what you did, when you did, so you could write what you’re writing now.

We only get better with experience.

So don’t worry if what you’re working on now doesn’t quite feel up to par. Think of it as paving the way for bigger and better things to come.

Today I saw certain (I hope younger) fandom members doing a thing on twitter where they called out fandom-famous fics and saying how bad they are.

And, no. We don't do that. We aren't rude to each other like that. If we don't like a fic we move on and find one we do like. We do not go slagging it off on twitter to make ourselves look cool.

Authors, artists, video editors, gif makers: all of these people give huge amounts of their time to provide you with content for free. They don't owe anyone anything, and being cruel about what anyone makes is below us as a fandom.

Rewards

“I refuse.”

Tobirama frowned at the instant rebuff. Madara hardly ever refused him these days, but this was something that Madara absolutely refused to do no matter what.

“Madara, you are being unreasonable,” Tobirama pointed out, crossing his arms and readying himself for a change of tactics.

“Unreasonable? I’m being unreasonable?” Madara said, turning around where he was skimming through a mission scroll and pinning Tobirama with an impressive scowl. “I refuse to be your guinea pig any longer! You turned my Sharingan neon pink for a week! I was laughed at by my enemies before I burned them alive for laughing at me!”

“It was an unfortunate side effect,” Tobirama agreed solemnly.

“And then you left me nearly blind after messing with my Mangekyō Sharingan! I couldn’t see for three days! I walked into a damned tree!” Madara ranted hotly, pointing to his eyes to emphasize his point.

“You were hardly blind. Your eyes were just more sensitive to light,” Tobirama dismissed the accusation calmly.

“You only care about my eyes!” Madara hissed. “I refuse to participate in any more of your experiments!”

“That is untrue,” Tobirama denied.

“You haven’t slept with me for two damned weeks because all you want to do is experiment on me!” Madara accused, now pointing at Tobirama to emphasize that particular point.

Tobirama paused, thinking back and realizing that, yes, indeed, that particular accusation was true. It wasn’t as if Tobirama could get in the mood when there was so much to learn with an available specimen — or rather, volunteer was readily available.

“I’ll let you do anything you want tonight if you let me continue my research,” Tobirama offered.

Madara paused, looking like he was seriously considering it for a minute before he shook himself and scowled. “That’s unfair. You can’t do that!”

Tobirama locked onto the lapse of Madara’s indignation with the precision of a predator and ruthlessly exploited it. He slinked over to his displeased lover and got right into Madara’s space, causing the man to tense in wary suspicion. Tobirama placed a lingering hand on Madara’s chest, trailing one finger lightly over it. Tobirama certainly wasn’t above more…persuasive options if the need called for it.

“You’re the only one I want to do it with,” Tobirama murmured, gazing at Madara through his lashes.

Madara swallowed at the suggestive wording. “You mean with your experiments, right?”

Tobirama tilted his head, aware that he had the entirety of Madara’s reluctant enraptured attention. “Can’t it be either? Besides…”

He pressed a little closer, their lips mere millimeters apart, breath warm and enticing between them. Madara sucked in a shuddering inhalation, eyelids lowering in anticipation.

“…The rewards you’ll reap will be entirely worth it,” Tobirama promised in a silky purr before abruptly drawing back and shrugging nonchalantly. “However, since you’re that opposed, Kagami and Izuna have been quite eager to volunteer. I suppose I’ll go and request their assistance after all.”

Madara blinked rapidly, looking half dazed when Tobirama was suddenly a few feet away before the words sank in. Before Tobirama could take two steps, Madara swiftly reached out and snatched his wrist, pulling him back.

“Wait,” Madara said before grudgingly grinding out, “Fine. I’ll do it, damn you. But I want my reward first.”

Tobirama raised a brow and allowed the curl of satisfaction to settle in his being before he nodded. “Let’s get started right away then, shall we?”

“You guys,” a voice came from their right where a hapless witness had watched the entire thing with an increasingly embarrassed blush. “Can you not do this in my office every single time?”

Hashirama, unfortunately for him, was entirely ignored while Madara hastily whisked Tobirama away to the Uchiha compound with all of the intentions to reap his well-deserved reward.

"well, the Uzumaki and Uchiha have around 25-ish members again, which would allow them to be reinstated as clans allied to the village by charter right," Tobirama stated, entirely unfazed by the eyes of the many clan heads watching him speak. Itama shifted his tiny (painfully tiny, was he always that small??) body in his hold, gripping on tighter to his mother's fur collar. both he, Kawarama, and Nawaki were heartbreakingly silent through the whole ordeal, even when the resurrection started by way of the lost Hatake boy, Orochimaru.

"but the Hatake and Senju still only have less than 10 and 15 members respectively, meaning that there would be a power imbalance between the four newly resuscitated clans. given the feud that is, arguably, still active to some of us revenant, it doesn't seem wise to leave it be."

and that was the crux of the matter. several members of both the Uchiha and Senju that had been resurrected had died when the Senju-Uchiha blood feud had been ongoing. both his brothers (his brothers!!) had died far before the village had even been a thought in Hashirama's wood cork of a brain, along with Madara's own siblings, like his older brother Hidehiko, Izuna, their younger brother Matsuri and his twin sister Shouko, and their youngest sister Choushi. thats not even mentioning the adult shinobi under the same circumstances; 22 year old Senju Yasuiro and 28 year old Senju Fuushinshi had attacked and injured Uchiha Kouga, and also injured the man's 12 year old niece Uchiha Rukia, before Tobirama, Madara, Hashirama, and Mito managed to tie them all down.

(if Fuushinshi was sporting a break in his arm, in the same place as young Rukia, well. That was between Tobirama and his cousin.)

"Thats not even mentioning the non-clan shinobi who were resurrected, who, in all likelihood, are probably related to one of the four clans in question. if they become affiliated with said clans is entirely by their own choice." he said, his tone brokering no room for argument. Tobirama was honestly surprised that he hadn't been interrupted yet, but it might be the shock of having so many once-dead shinobi in Konoha's meeting hall.

pursing his lips ever so slightly, he looked to Hashirama, holding Kawarama who was making faces at Itama, then to Touka who was standing behind Mito and holding Nawaki. his brother tilted his head and Touka nodded, flickering her chakra in code pattern for 'plan, question.'

Tobirama sighed, mostly as a visual sign of reluctance for the other clan heads present. 'contract, agreement. kill, home-clan; fade, wild-clan.'

Hashirama's eyes sparkled, his smile not fading from his face in the slightest.

"our agreed upon solution to both the power imbalance and the lacking size of the Senju and Hatake clans is to incite the charter's directory number fourteen."

only two of the clan heads seemed to recognize what he was referencing, tjose being the Nara clan head, as expected, and Madara, who literally co-wrote the damn thing with him. Madara threw his head back with thundering laughter, which Tobirama related to on a personal level.

it was extremely ironic that the ones to end the Senju way of life would be the very people who had been hurt by it the most.

Itama jerked in his arms at the noise, so he adjusted his grip to hold him tighter. several eyes landed on the still laughing Madara, who Tobirama knew was not going to explain anything. the Nara head didn't look any worse, so he either knew what the Senju used to be like, or he simply didn't care.

Tobirama had expected most of the clans to not have invested in that particular article after it was written, but... he was extremely unpleased with Hiruzen's puzzled, near silent question of "the what?"

Madara's laughter died off with the (to most) unexpected line of, "wonderful play, Senju." vicious smile almost mocking to anyone unfamiliar with him. which was everyone except him, Mito, Hashirama, and Izuna.

Tobirama simply inclined his head in acknowledgement. he ran one hand through his hair, carefully avoiding the carefully disguised braids he'd tied into it this morning with Hashirama, Touka, and Orocchi.

"to answer your question, Hiruzen, 'the what' is the clause in the village's Constitution that states, 'when a clan is no longer large enough to support itself and its members, an allied clan who is willing and able are to induct the clan into their own, allowing the continued survival of the bloodline. this can be enacted when a clan's number drops beneath the range of the clan's expected member count.'"

clearing his throat, he continues on, projecting his voice to call over the now disorganized shinobi.

"in essence, this means that the senju will join either the Uchiha, Uzumaki, or Hatake clans, as those three have priority over other clans in the village due to both personal and blood relations being closest. thus, to avoid further power imbalance in the number of members to each resurrected clan, the Senju will be hosted by the Hatake clan."

I don't know who needs to hear this, but as a creator -

I am fine with "the audience" -

downloading my fics

printing my fics

copy/pasting or screenshotting my fics

sharing your saved copy of my fics with anyone else who might want them in the unlikely but never impossible case that my fics are no longer available on ao3

making a book of my fic(s) and running your fingers across the pages while lovingly whispering my precioussss

doing these things with anything I create for fandom, such as meta, headcanons, au nonsense like 'texts from the brodinsons,' etc

I am not fine with "the audience"

doing any of the above with the purpose/intent of plagiarizing my work or passing it off as their own in any capacity

feeding my work into ai for any reason whatsoever

Save the fandom things. Preserve the fandom things. Respect the fandom things.

Enjoy the fandom things.

Guys, gals, enbies, people who are posting on AO3 do not care about the things you don't like about their fics. Seriously, you don't need to tell us and, in fact, we're basically pleading with you to not tell us.

Don't like how it's being written? Click back.

Don't like one of the characters? Click back.

Have nothing positive to say? Click back.

Legit do not comment your negative shit because we do not care.

We're not writing for you, we're sharing it with you.

Ok I want to say something controversial

But you are responsible for your own safe spaces. You can block tags, block words, block people.

“But i thought fandom was supposed to be a safe space” —yeah you have to curate it.

Unfortunately one persons’s safe space may be another persons’ trigger. That’s ok. Simply block them, block the tag, block the word etc. They can do the same for you.

Maybe I’m just out of touch, but I’ve been around since the days of “don’t like, don’t read” and that’s a good philosophy. If it squicks you, scroll past. If it causes you anxiety or upset, block! Plenty of people are responsive if you ask them to tag an upsetting trigger. And if they’re dicks about it, block em.