A sort-of Christmas-themed fic (well, there’s a Christmas in there, anyway?) starring a very minor Doctor Who character who I always liked.
Title: Loophole Fandom: Doctor Who Summary: After Clara’s death Rigsy has to return her body to the outside world, and mourn his loss. Notes: I took some inspiration here from the original script of Face the Raven, which contains a little bit of extra stuff about Rigsy and his partner and his life. It seems to have been deleted from the official BBC website but the Internet Wayback Machine caught it!
The reason we could hear all of the Jedi voices in TROS is because Qui-Gon’s been piecing them back together since Order 66 happened.
While he was chatting with Obi-Wan on Tatooine, he was sitting in the metaphorical clover field of the Cosmic Force, patiently picking through it for all the little bits of Mace Windu’s soul, so he could hear his friend sigh with exasperation at him for the rest of eternity. He collected the scattered pieces of Ayla’s soul like eggs in a basket, remembering the way she giggled as Quinlan gave her piggyback rides through the Temple. He used one of those blueberry picking filter things to find Kanan Jarrus, because he had people to watch over.
It was slow going, but it was worth it for his family, to hear them again. And when Obi-Wan and Yoda died, they joined him in his work. That’s why we can hear them. Ki-Adi, Adi, Depa, Luminara, Plo, Kit, Agen, all of them. Qui-Gon. Clover patch. Blueberry picking. Egg hunting.
Recent unpopular events in the Spider-Man comics (yes, even more of them) have got me thinking about the whole concept of ongoing comics as a storytelling medium. And then I have to stop and take out a word, because I don’t think what comics have at the moment is storytelling? Not in Marvel world, anyway, not sure about DC comics. If Spider-Man or Iron Man or Dr Strange aren’t allowed to grow in many significant ways, or to stay dead if they die, how can that ever work?
At the moment it feels like current comics “canon” is more just us the readers seeing people play with toys over and over again. There’s a lot of value in playing with toys, of course, but why should one person’s made up playtime story matter more than another’s? Can’t my fanfiction be canon too, especially in a world like Marvel’s where canon barely exists as is? Didn’t several of their characters fight in the Vietnam War until Marvel literally, and yes this is as bizarre as it sounds, replace the Vietnam War with a fictional war involving a sentient country? How on earth are you supposed to have a “canon” when stuff like that is going on?
At the moment it feels like Marvel comics are at best a testing ground for ideas that might make it into the MCU, and at worst a long and convoluted advertisement for Funko Pops and Fortnite skins. You can’t grow attached to any character because a retcon or shocking twist will inevitably happen and ruin them. You can’t appreciate your favorite toy because some other kid on the playground is going to rip it out of your hand and stomp on it, and good luck affording a new one. I’ve heard comics called modern mythology but they’re only mythology via capitalism, and thus not mythology at all, in the same way that a story which is forbidden to end cannot be a story.
I didn’t hear it from anybody. There’s no official word. HOWEVER, I’ve seen the signs and the signs aren’t good.
All Hints of Moderation Have Ceased
There used to be a pretty rigorous team of moderators who ran the site but it’s noted (and not just by me) that for a while they haven’t seemed as responsive if they’ve been responsive at all.
Fics that would have been pulled in a heartbeat stay up. Spam bots do seem to have taken over PMs.
Their Authentication Server’s Been Wonky
The authentication server has sometimes been entirely non-functional for users. In my case, fanfiction has kept me logged in for an eeriely long time, far longer than it ever used to.
Their Email Server’s Been Black Listed
Their email server has been black listed by a prominent email provider (i.e. mine). I’m not talking sent to junk, I’m talking it will not send to the inbox as in it has been straight up black listed. Their solution to this is to tell me, the user, to white list their email rather than improve their reputation.
This is a terrible solution and a sign that things are not good.
Rather Than Pay for More Servers They Use Cloud Flare
It’s probably been noticed by everyone that they’re employing DDOS protection via cloudflare. Well, that’s nice and all, except that it’s slow, clunky, and annoying. It’s not a good user experience and the more expensive but good option would be to up the number of servers they have or use a more seamless DDOS protection solution.
This is a sign they’re not willing to spend the money for the good stuff.
The Proliferation of Ads
Fanfiction is now riddled with ads when not using ad block. It’s ads every few paragraphs, completely breaking up a story. It’s utterl illegible. To me this reeks of trying to wring out every last cent out of viewership without putting in effort of attracting people.
They know people are leaving so they’ve stopped trying at all.
They Didn’t Renew Their Cert
Now, this I heard from somebody else but this IS THE SIGN. They didn’t renew the cert for their website. Now, it expires in several years, but when it does you will no longer be able to traverse safely to the site and it may not even exist.
What Does All This Mean?
Is fanfiction going down today or tomorrow?
No.
But it means that if the email server fails… they might not fix it. If the authentication server fails… they might not fix it. If one of their databases fails and they have no backup… those fics might be gone.
It means that access could be lost, certainly for me as an author, with no warning and I may not get it back.
Be Safe, START BACKING UP SHIT
Wow, okay. Jesus christ I can’t believe I’ve gone through about four end of an eras in the past month.
Man my fanfiction has been all about the Peters recently hasn’t it? This one stars Peter Parker but is actually about Peter Quill. There is no point in loving Quill because everyone on the internet and beyond loathes him, but I do it anyway.
Title: Peter and Peter Fandom: MCU/Spider-Man/Guardians of the Galaxy Summary: In the immediate aftermath of Tony Stark’s death, Peter Parker suddenly runs into a weird dude.
No, that’s not a warning, that’s the title of the fic! I mean, there ARE spoilers, big ones. But the fanfic is also called “Spoilers.” Ya with me? Okay good.
Title: Spoilers Fandom: Spider-Man Summary: Two characters from different universes talk about their lives and relationships. Notes: Disney seems determined to excludebisexual relationships from their Spider-Man franchise. This is… not the case here.
