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...Though given my lack of ability to understand technical details (I have something of a short attention span) it might be tricky. Well, that's what research and planning are for, right?

I'm also partially inspired by a novel I found called "Dirty Magic". Basically it takes place in a world where magic exists, but the story focuses on a cop dealing in illegal potions. (It's part of a series, and I haven't read the rest of them yet, so I'm not sure if actual spells are involved).

That being said, I do recommend this book if you like urban fantasy. The author really put a lot of work into creating the world, something I want to emulate. Be warned though, it gets pretty intense at points.

Minor typos: " thought he" in the first line and "DIS" -> "DIA" (as you know, DIS never existed)

Now, my thoughts here are basically that this was a nice, surreal, thing that fits in the setting of the PPC rather well.

- Tomash

Must've gotten lost in the Board's formatting and thought that there were way more people here than there are, haha! Whoops!

And the fracturing also does make sense. I kind of want to take a look at those, just out of curiosity/my "what if there's something funny (long rant about the original PPC, rules that don't make sense/are exactly the same except for one thing, uncreative name that has to do with ours, etc.)?" instinct. Evidently if they were all started by drama and failed, they could have these things, because from my deduction, I can guess that the general idea behind them was "the PPC except not the PPC," and there was no real change to any fundamental concept, making it have no chance against us for people looking to join something like this. I guess.

As for your question about larger organizations, this is what I think I have so far: when there's a huge amount of people and no one real "this is how things are done", a small conflict between a few people can escalate beyond control or compromise, and basically create a bunch of warring factions, some of which may go off on their own and start a different organization. Basically, using internet terms, flame war + no moderator to define the rules and ban those who don't follow them = possibility of fractures. I think. It probably has more nuance than that (I mean, we have our Constitution, so there is some degree of "how it's done" here), but this is what I've figured out so far. (Technically I learned this from a how-to on writing fictitious organizations, but the logic behind it makes sense in the real world. I can send you the link if you wish.)

-Twistey

It's a shame he had to break up with that guy to become a Space Marine, and that he's been kinda repressing the pain of that for the last several thousand years.

I liked how you used plain dialogue to tell most of the story. It worked pretty well.

The last line is good description.

- Tomash

I'm glad it "worked." I know it's an utterly bizarre story, especially for me, but . . . I was puzzling over the prompt at work and it just kind of surfaced in my brain. I read my Complete E.A.P. way back in high school, so I don't know what brought the Angel of the Odd back into my consciousness last week . . . At least Larfen got a character out of this?

—definitely getting all of these reviewed, at least by the end of his next weekend

A perfect rendition of Ilraen's first date cultural assimilation session, and awww! Farilan does have a heart! If I didn't ship Faraen before, I sure do now.

And no nitpicks from the resident Haitian on the (admittedly limited) French! That's a plus!

If I am stepping out of line, then please say so. However, what do you mean, "if I hadn't shown up here, it probably would have been[worse]"? I thought you mentioned that your parents were accepting and that you were glad to get it off your shoulders?

but it seems that doctorlit said basically everything that I would want to say before I even took a look at the interlude. And even though the beginning of the relationship is still in the works, a quick look at Whitney's page on the Wiki showed that I seemed to have missed or forgotten a few missions. Looks like I've got some reading to do!

Good luck with that mission you're working on. Knowing you, it will be worth the read when it comes out.

I hope you enjoyed your holidays, and good luck in 2018!

Extra comma: It may have been particularly cold this evening,, but she was in no way going to miss her daily session.

Whether or not this continues, which I sincerely hope it doesn't, I am backing out of it. All of it. Having been involved with both concerned parties for a notable length of time, I am personally shattered that it ever came to this. I think I'm still in denial of what's happening; what I saw during the previous months is so starkly different from what's gone on the past few days, I can scarcely believe this is real. For that matter, I am deeply sorry. I'm sorry that this happened in the first place and I'm sorry for any and all pain I caused during this argument. If I've wronged you in any way, I acknowledge it and I apologize with all the sincerity I can muster. I feel as though I have lost my family over the course of this discussion and nothing about what seems to be the final assessment sits well with me, but it's apparently not my place to say. I'm not in possession of the full facts and I'm honestly not qualified to be here, making judgements. I am sorry for my hurtful words, I am sorry for overstepping my bounds, and I am sorry that I can't agree with most/many of you. I hope that in time, we can all recover from this, and that someday I'll be able to wash the bitter taste from the back of my throat. But for the time being, I need both time and space, so this is my goodbye.

and I did not get lost, which is always a good thing. But one sentence is throwing me off:

“Charge,” both agents whispered, leaning farther around the tree to watch with bile fascination.

That last phrase there, "bile fascination", threw me off. At first, I thought it was a typo for "vile", but that doesn't seem right either. Could you please explain what you were going for here?

This is doing more harm than good. A lot of hurtful things have been said here, and it's putting everyone through hell.

I'm not trying to gain sympathy points by saying this- Y'all can believe what you want about me, but I don't want more people to get hurt. I just want this fighting to stop. And, if it means I'm not allowed back into the PPC, then that's fine by me.

I make my apologies, and I'll keep my distance.

Goodbye, it was awesome meeting you guys.

This (and your previous note) are obviously very personal, thank you for sharing them. I know it can't have been easy.

Theoretically speaking, though, the question that has been asked is "are we okay with Sprinkles returning to the Discord?" And a possible answer to that has to be "no, we are not"- if a no is impossible, a yes is meaningless.

Is "no, go away" the right answer? Of course not. I don't think there is a right answer, and the second-chance section of the Constitution is a statement by we-the-community that "no, go away" is the wrong answer.

Thank you again for speaking up- I know someone raised similar concerns when Bram came up, and I appreciate that too.

I still don't know what I think, honestly. This one is hard, there are no good options.

The way I see it, a large part of why we eventually banned Zdimensia for good is that she was stomping on our collective boundaries (insulting a whole lot of people, trying to dictate the terms of her relationship with the community etc etc.) and didn't stop after we'd explained the problem and given her a chance to work on it/stop.

I'm willing to say that Zdimentia was actually trying to participate and ... couldn't. So we had to cut off our relationship with her for our own well-being.

The ultimatum as you phrased it wouldn't be OK, but we're sorry, your issues are making this place unsafe/[are effectively abusive behavior towards the community]/.... and they don't seem to be improving, you'll need to leave is something we've said before (IMO) and that we hopefully won't need to say again. (That being said, some sort of warning between "please stop" and that sort of thing might be a good idea if we somehow end up in that point.)

- Tomash

Okay, now that I've read everything people have posted, I have to say I don't support the idea of Sprinkles coming back into the chat at this time for a few reasons which I'll lay out. Let me say something that's been said many times before by other people, but bears mentioning again: Sprinkles, I hope you get the support and help you need. I don't think you're a bad person; I just think the best thing for everyone would be to take a break for a while.

Now, as to why.

As I see it, Sprinkles has been abusing at least one person for an extended period of time, and that person reached out to others for help before deciding to block Sprinkles. I don't think Tomash's proposal is realistic precisely *because* it's ideal. People are not ideal. People make mistakes. I think it's likely that some kind of accidental interaction between Sprinkles and Person X will happen, and that that interaction could be harmful to at least one of them, to say nothing of the rest of the community as a whole if it happens outside PMs. Tomash has a good proposal, I just think it's not likely to be followed even if everyone has the very best of intentions (and I'm not saying anyone doesn't).

Now, I haven't been in contact with Sprinkles. I don't know his exact situation or what steps he's taking in real life. I don't know who Person X is, so I can't speak for them. Maybe other people know more and haven't said anything yet that could change my mind, and if that's the case (and people are comfortable sharing), I'd appreciate hearing it. Unless and until that happens, though? The safest option for both Sprinkles and Person X is for Sprinkles to cut contact through the PPC Discord.

What happens in PMs between Sprinkles and other people in the PPC is outside what I'm willing to talk about. I'm only suggesting he be asked politely but firmly to stay off the PPC Discord server for at least a few months... and most importantly, we should defer to Person X as for when (or even if) to let Sprinkles back in.

To clarify, I'm writing a Doctor Who fanfic series that will feature the Fifth, and even though I'm currently watching his era to get an idea of how he works, I'm still nervous I could screw his character, dialogue, and reactions to certain scenarios up. What I'm asking is, if someone on here knows the Fifth Doctor's character well enough, or if someone knows someone else who does, would you be willing to beta my story to check and make sure I'm not messing things up? Thanks!

I was not saying that they should be forced to be friends or even to have continued contact. I said that everyone, even Sprinkles, should be given the opportunity to stop and apologize. As in, the section of the PPC's constitution that says people are supposed to get that chance.

This has gone from, "You are fine." To "You are an abuser who will likely be thrown out of the group forever." With no steps in-between.

Do I think this unnamed person should be in charge of telling him this and working it out with him directly at this point? No I don't think they should be forced into that. But as a community do I think we should follow the stop and apologize proceedure? Since no one has said they think Sprinkles was behaving with malevolent intent, Yes. Otherwise what was the point of including that?

I am not blindly supporting Sprinkles behavior. He needs to stop. And if his attempts to directly apologize are making things worse, then that needs to stop as well. He should take a break, cool off, come back in a week or two, and apologize to the community at large. He should probably think of steps he can take to prevent this from happening again and, with a cooler head, outline those steps.

I believe the [i]voluntary[/i] cooling off step is important. Sprinkles is likely in full blown panic mode right now with very high emotions and cannot look at this logically/sensibly.

As you can see, I believe Sprinkles has a lot of responsibility to the group in this situation. The group's responsibility is then to give him a legit second chance. (Caveat to all that is if he was found to have had malicious intent or if he doesn't stop harassing or doesn't take a bit to cool down and then apologize from a sensible frame of mind).

What he was doing wasn't healthy. He did not do it in a vacuum, however. The situation was two people behaving in very unhealthy ways and they both have things they need to work on.

Before I get jumped on for saying that, are we going to advocate for person X to continue to be victimized? They need help, too, so that next time they don't feel obligated to tell someone making them feel bad "You are fine." And I am painfully aware that that is easier said than done, but if real life help is available, please take it. Don't end up imprisoned by your fears like I have.

When I wrote the above post, I only knew Sprinkle's side of the story. I was not aware of the extent of the abuse, to the point where the interactions between Sprinkle and the victim that I was aware of did not even register as abuse to me, or the extent of the distress it caused them. Had I known about it, I would have featured it in the post; however I fully understand the victim's decision not to share it with me. I did attempt to contact the victim; both to try and set up a discussion between them and Sprinkle, and to find out their side of the story. They refused, a decision that I do not blame them for in the slightest. At that time however, I attempted to get their story even after they told me to drop the subject. I have already apologized to them in private, but that happened before I brought the discussion to the Board. Due to what I learned from this discussion, I think a second apology is in order. I am sorry for not respecting the victim's wish not to discuss the matter. I fully understand their decision not to, and should not have pressed the topic.

As to what happened, I do share the opinion that Sprinkle did not intentionally inflict abuse on the victim. I also think that shutting of Sprinkle was a good decision, or at least better than keeping up the abusive relationship. Was it the best option there was? I have honestly no idea. I think things might have turned out better in the aftermath if they had maybe asked someone they trusted to explain the situation to Sprinkle. However, I do not blame them for not doing so, and I am not sure if I would have done it if I had been in their situation.

Maxe's idea of a moderated discussion sounds like a good idea in theory, but, as they admit themselves, it is not practical in this case, and trying force both parties into it would be a horrible idea.

I support Sprinkle being allowed back, however I also think Tomash's proposal, possibly with a few tweaks and clarifications, is a good idea, but I'd be interested in hearing the victim's thoughts on it if they are willing to voice them, either themselves or through Delta.

One final note to everyone: There is something important to learn from this situation for everyone who offers emotional support to others. First, what you're doing is admirable. But you must never forget to take care of yourselves. Back in EMT training, we learned a principle that roughly translates to "Make sure you are safe before attempting to save others." It was mostly meant as a warning to look out for possible dangers and not to take unnecessarily risky actions. I don't want to say"Don't help others if you have mental health Issues yourself", in a lot of cases having experience with mental illnesses can be very helpful. I want to say that your own wellbeing is important as well. (Again, this is *not* intended as an attack on the victim, but as an important warning to others).

~Ak

Delta, believe me, I know more than well how my behaviour can and does hurt other people.

That's why I always make sure the others are okay. That I give them good enough warning (with my triggers and any other issues that come up.)

I really hate it when anyone I know is hurt. It blows even more when it's because of me.

A) It was never about the outburst in generic_channel. If it was just that? This wouldn't be an issue at all.

A₂) I appreciate that you're advocating for Sprinkles, but it really feels like you're overlooking the amount of pain that Sprinkles had unloaded onto the unnamed person. They know what's happening with Sprinkles! They know intimately, because he's been unloading into them for months in ways they were not comfortable with.

B) Again, nobody is saying that Sprinkles is Bad or An Abuser. He fell into an abusive pattern of behavior, made infinitely worse by his counterpart's falling into an abuse-victim pattern of behavior. Neither of them intended it to be an abusive interaction, I'm sure- but that was the pattern they both fell into. I suspect that you've felt that pull too- in a moment of frustration, or anger, or sadness, when the first emotional tool that comes to hand... is one that was used to hurt you.

B₂) They're not comfortable speaking up for themselves. I've said this repeatedly. I've also volunteered to advocate for them- and once again, you are trying to insist that they must put themself on the emotional firing line. This is, for the record, one of the reasons I had to work so hard to get their permission to say anything at all- because they were terrified that they would end up hauled before the Inquisition. That this whole mess would become about them, not the situation at large.

So, no. I do not think they are under any obligation to identify themself, nor do I think that we cannot reach a consensus without their direct input. This is why I volunteered to be their advocate- because they were not comfortable speaking for themself.

I'm willing to (and probably have) staked a reasonable amount of my reputation on it not being the case here- as I'd mentioned, I got corroboration from multiple sources, including my own observations, on the people involved before saying anything.

That's really the worst part about abuse, imo- it's so cyclical, it ingrains itself into its victims like a virus, waiting for the wrong moment to take over their actions and spread itself again.

-Delta

It is entirely possible to respect a victim's desire to cut off all contact, without levelling blame at a person who unintentionally engaged in abusive behaviour.

hS