Hello, my fellow Zootopians!

This is not a new chapter, merely an announcement - quite an important one actually. But for you to understand what I'm going on about here, a somewhat lengthy explanation is in order.

A few weeks ago, I received a review by a user named Venomheart the Dreamer who told me that Chapter 18 of "Now Your Nightmare Comes to Life" would violate the Terms of Service of this site - namely the lyrics of the song "Metalingus" by Alter Bridge (written by Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, from the album "One Day Remains," Wind-up records, 2004), which I gave almost in full in that story.

This struck me as odd.

Not the comment per se. I knew about that rule, have always known about it in fact (I'm one of those crazy guys who reads the mouseprint before he signs a contract), but I decided to take my chances and violate it anyway, simply because it fit the context so well. And while this may not be okay according to the Terms of Service, Germany is a free country (thanks in huge part to the United States of America, where the very same rules apply, which also goes for most other countries in the world), which means I can do whatever I want, as long as I don't violate any laws.

And I haven't.

Contrary to what other people might believe, and what this site wants you to believe, it is perfectly okay by law to give quotes, provided you give the source in full and acknowledge that it wasn't you who came up with the quote. Scientific work at University would be pretty much impossible without such a set of laws in place. And those rules as laid out by said laws I have always followed, and will always follow. It's how I was taught to write works of science while at University, and I use the very same rules when writing fanfiction.

Those of you who followed my stories know that using quotes is a staple of mine. I do it, because I love doing it. I'm not ashamed to admit that a part of it is pure, unadulterated bragging - "Look at me! That's how many quotes I can remember!" -, another part is a bit of poking fun at other works published before - "Look at me! I can make even the weirdest quotes work within the realms of my story!" -, but mostly, it's about entertainment. Sometimes it's just plain funny to have Judy talk in the voice of Albus Dumbledore or quote from a song by Led Zeppelin!

Why invent the wheel again? Why don't use a quote if it fits into the story?

To me, it simply adds an extra layer of fun, and given the fact that most of my readers seem to agree with me - after all, finding quotes I hide within my stories is something that several of my faithful readers seem to enjoy immensely -, I never saw any problems with this.

The rule imposed by this site may be in existence, but if put before a court, it would stand no chance of survival, simply because, like I said, in the real world, giving quotes is perfectly okay, if you do it right, which I always have. (And before you try and contradict me here, I have asked a friend of mine, who happens to be a lawyer. I presented my stories to him, and he told me that I was walking firmly within the boundaries of law. According to him, nothing within my stories violates any laws in any way, shape, or form. Well, apart from the fact that it's fanfiction, which, from a legal point of view, is always walking a very thin line between being okay and not being okay.)

Be that as it may, I was fully aware that I was taking chances with my stories, but I had no intention to change anything about my approach.

But like I said, that's not what struck me as odd.

No, what really puzzled me was the fact that it is only now that I am alerted to the fact that my story violates the Terms of Service.

For you to understand what I'm talking about, let me remind you that "Nightmare" was the first story I wrote, and I did it in May/June 2016. That was almost exactly three years ago.

Three years.

I don't know about you, but I simply cannot call this fast work in any good conscience.

It took Venomheart the Dreamer three years to stumble across this by accident? For realsies?

Doesn't strike me as awfully perceptive.

Anyway, I told this person, whomever he/she is, almost exactly what I told you just now, and as far as I was concerned, that was it.

Fine, I thought, let's move on! Time to complete the next chapter of "Hammer!"

And then, some guy named ZadArchie from a group of people who call themselves "Critics United" sent me another review, telling me almost exactly what Venomheart the Dreamer had already told me. On top of that, he/she told me that I am not allowed to use songs/lyrics in my stories at all, because it would be considered plagiarism.

Sorry, dear sir/lady, you're wrong. It's only plagiarism if I elect to not mention that it's a quote made by someone else. If I give the source, which I always have, it's not plagiarism, it's quotation. That's the law, whether you like it or not. Maybe it doesn't conform with the Terms of Service, but it's certainly not illegal.

That's basically what I told ZadArchie in my reply. And he/she, whatever, decided to launch into an argument. Which may have gotten a bit heated, but I guess we're both to blame for that. Anyway, at one point, I told ZadArchie to not bother replying, because I had my opinion, and nothing he/she could do would be able to change it.

But he/she did reply, and in that reply, I was explicitly called someone who "pollutes the internet."

And that was the point when I gave the aforementioned lawyer friend a call. I read the entire exchange to him, and he bluntly told me that this remark by ZadArchie is nothing but an insult, plain as that. "Someone who pollutes," he told me, "is a criminal, so this person is basically calling you a criminal." He then made a pause and added: "You want me to press charges?"

"Even if I would," I replied, "I simply can't. This person is hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. I have no idea who it is."

He merely snorted. "The internet is surely turning into some completely law-free zone! You really wanna continue doing what you're doing?"

"I'd love to," I said. "I love doing this, and to my unending astonishment, there are several people out there who seem to love what I'm doing. So no, I have no intention of quitting."

"Have it your way then," he said.

So I replied to ZadArchie, telling that person in no uncertain terms that he/she should be thankful for the anonymity of the internet, because if we met in real life, he/she wouldn't like the outcome very much.

Since I'm a law-abiding citizen, I had assumed, maybe a bit foolishly, that this person understood that he/she was walking on very thin ice here, as far as law and order is concerned, that I had threatened him/her with legal consequences. But he/she obviously thought I was threatening him/her with bodily harm. So guess what he/she did?

Yup! Reported me for harassment!

And guess what the site admins did?

Yes, they blocked my account for 24 hours!

I have a long history of being harassed. I was bullied and harassed for most of my childhood, which means two things: One, I know when I'm being harassed, and two, I abhor harassment in all its manifestations. And I positively detest those that harass!

And I don't know about you, but I felt mighty harassed by ZadArchie! And the site admins as well!

So after some careful consideration, and more consultations with my lawyer friend, I sent ZadArchie one last reply, telling him/her that if we should meet in real life, he/she can expect me to drag him/her in front of a judge, pressing charges for insult and harassment.

I doubt he/she will like that outcome very much!

He/she did reply to me, but I haven't read the reply yet. Nor am I about to - I have deleted it, as a matter of fact -, because to be perfectly frank, I couldn't care less.

Particularly because that wasn't the end of it! Not by a long shot!

Another user named DarkSiren49, also belonging to this "Critics United" group, gave me a very similar review.

As you can probably imagine, by this time, I was very annoyed.

And then, as the proverbial icing on the cake, just yesterday, I received another review from someone who calls himself/herself "Shadow Fuhrer 2019." And I need to quote this one, at least the first sentence of it:

„Du Arschloch, du verstößt weiterhin gegen die Regeln der Critics United Nazi Party und wir werden dafür sorgen, dass deine IP-Adresse von dieser Seite verbannt wird."

In case you don't understand German, here's the translation:

"You asshole [sic], you continue violating the rules of the Critics United Nazi Party, and we will see to it that your IP address will be banned from this site."

What followed was a quite impressive list of quotes, about 50 in fact, all made by one single man.

And that man is Adolf Hitler.

Needless to say, each one of those quotes is more disgusting than the previous one.

And guess what? The review really ended with the words "Heil Hitler! Heil Critics United!"

I'm not making this up! I wish I was!

I have no idea whether this guy was serious or not, whether he/she wanted to poke fun at Critics United's expense or is allied with them. Either way, it either is criticism gone too far or an attempt at humor that's so tasteless, it's outright revolting.

As a matter of fact, the whole writing persona is just revolting! Just check it out! Pardon my French here, but whomever he/she is, he/she is basically pissing on the graves of the millions and millions of people who lost their lives due to what Hitler and his bunch of criminals did during the Third Reich!

Be that as it may, I have reported the review, and the whole guy, to the admins of this site. I have no idea what the outcome of this will be, and to be honest, I don't give a shit. (Again, pardon my French here!)

Because the writing's on the wall.

Some people obviously have it in for me.

Simply because I exercise my right, given to me by birth.

Yes, I admit that I'm violating the Terms of Service, but I've never broken any laws. I am, and always have been, in full accordance with the law.

I guess the same thing cannot be said about ZadArchie, and it can definitely not be said about Shadow Fuhrer 2019. And I also have very strong concerns about a group of self-proclaimed "Critics United" who display a "holier-than-thou" attitude that's almost scary.

Yet it seems those receive protection, while I receive none.

Sooner or later, someone of those, ahem, "critics" will report "Nightmare" to the admins - maybe ZadArchie already has -, and those will probably remove the story from this site.

And why stop there? After all, "Wound" and "Hammer" are also full to the brim with quotes?

Hell, why not banish this guy for good?

I'm merely forestalling that which, to me, seems inevitable:

As of now, you can consider this story, all my other stories, and this account, stone cold dead!

J.O. aka TheCatweazle will officially cease to exist!

I can not, and will not, publish stuff on a site, or condone that site, or even promote it when it insists on establishing dubious rules which won't stand a chance in front of a court of law, allows people to harass me and even blocks my account on account of harassment! Particularly not when I was the one being harassed!

In short, I'm leaving this site for good!

This account will remain open for a few more weeks, maybe months, so that I can continue replying to your reviews, but after that period of time, I will personally delete all my stories and this account.

But that's not the end of the story. Literally!

I have decided to join "Archive of Our Own," and I will continue publishing stories there. Since I've gotten used to the name, my pseud, as they call it on AO3, is "TheCatweazle," obviously. Maybe they will allow me to follow my hobby in peace and quiet.

This will also allow me to do something which I've been itching to do for some time, more than a year now in fact:

Ever since "Wound" erupted out of me, the whole storyline I had created felt incredibly out of sync. When I had started writing "Nightmare," I had no intention of ever writing a sequel like "Hammer," but that's exactly what I ended up doing. And then "Wound" happened, and ever since that fateful day, nothing ever made sense all of a sudden. Everything felt disjointed, disconnected. Still does, as a matter of fact. Right now, the whole storyline is so convoluted, even I have to regularly re-read some of the stuff I wrote, checking whether everything is still in sync.

So I'm using this opportunity to rework my stories. All of them! Starting this time with "Wound." I will make this the true first story of my story arc, finally writing everything as if it had been my original intention to start the arc with "Wound," to segue into "Nightmare" and then into "Hammer."

And I'm not talking about a small-time round of proof-reading here, like I did after I was done with "Wound." I'm talking about a major overhaul!

The shapes of "Wound," "Nightmare," and "Hammer" will change completely. I'm basically writing a completely new story, encompassing several other story ideas I've been toying with for months. Maybe I'll even add a bit of new stuff, just for good measure! Maybe I'll split things up. Maybe the trilogy turns into a tetralogy, maybe even a pentalogy. Hell, I can even imagine it becoming a hexalogy!

The sky's the limit!

But the bottom line is, this story will be finished! It may take me years to finally get back to where I am now, but rest assured, somewhere along the line, this story will be finished!

So keep a weather eye open for TheCatweazle on AO3, and wait for the first chapter of "Wound," although it'll probably be published under a different name. To be honest, I've never been really content with "How to Treat a Festering Wound." It was little more than a name born out of necessity. I wanted to publish it, I had no idea how to call it, so I used the first thing that popped up in my mind. And the longer the story existed, the less I liked the name. It just sounds cumbersome. So it'll most certainly receive a new name, one I haven't decided on yet. But I'm confident that you'll recognize it when you see it anyway.

Thanks a lot to all of you who followed me and my stories thus far, who sent comments, reviews, and other words of encouragement, who read my stories and declared them their favorites, who patted my shoulder and told me to keep going when I was walking through a pit of misery!

You are the reason I'll keep on doing this instead of just retiring my writing persona!

I do thank you all from the bottom of my heart! I wish you all the best of luck! Stay healthy! Stay safe! God bless you!

And, of course, take care!

This is Jens Ostendorf aka TheCatweazle, signing off!