some might say I am. a fun guy.

This sort of delusional manipulation is kinda normal??? Of course, it's not always that you get someone messing around with people in this scale and with so much public around, but any company, friend group or related organization you join is open to have at least one person inside who is plotting against someone else and spreading lies.

It's some sort of survival instinct combined with a large sense of self importance. Normal healthy people tend to take their bad feelings towards someone else and consider alternatives like "maybe they had a bad day", "we are just far too different", "we don't see eye to eye", instead of thinking "this person is the WORST and I have to TAKE THEY DOWN because they are out TO GET ME and DESTROY EVERYTHING I LOVE"

These people benefit a lot from the new normal of "always believe victims" -- because they know that if they play their cards right, with the right amount of storytelling, they can get anyone to side with them. Someone who was many different stories of having enemies, being persecuted, who had a history of fighting multiple people, usually is someone who is spinning tales, because statistically it's very hard to be THAT unlucky in life.

Of course, it's complicated to see all that when the lying is done by someone who is part of a persecuted group, a minority or a vulnerable person. There are people who will use their social vulnerabilities to wreck havoc on a friend group.

IN CONCLUSION: whenever someone is telling you something horrible they have been through, don't doubt it, but be open to be challenged.

The best to do is keep your eyes and ears open, and not take conclusions without investigating, asking around and waiting. That's why cancel culture is so dangerous when it demands immediate action!

Also, when the manipulator has some sort of political power (as in, it's someone higher on the corporate ladder, or a leader of your community), the best you can do is not challenge them so you don't become a target because they will use their power to harm you. Step away and find something else to do. If you feel strong enough, you can offer support to victims, but I don't think anyone has to be a hero in this sort of scenario.

or the concept of a pride flag is considered to be inappropriate for 13 year olds.

happy pride 2026. here's a pride flag for when corporate interests of a site run by dogshit transphobes, handwringing pearlclutchers, and "powerless" "allies" tell you that pride and your gender is no one else's fucking business:

I was like, “It’s just a hat. If you like it and you wear it, it’s not a woman’s hat, it’s just your hat. You don’t need to follow what the tag says if you don’t want to.” And it was like I gave him some kind of awe-inspiring wisdom he’d never considered, and he left with that hat on his head.

I was like, “It’s just a hat. If you like it and you wear it, it’s not a woman’s hat, it’s just your hat. You don’t need to follow what the tag says if you don’t want to.” And it was like I gave him some kind of awe-inspiring wisdom he’d never considered, and he left with that hat on his head.

but then I realised that same challenge would be infinitely more funny with folks who have atypical or horror OCs

SBK's collective statement:

A couple of the individual statements that I feel are most important are Rubyco's and Musithical's, hyperlinked here. Please read them, and offer support to the affected parties as you are able.

The SBK community discord can be found via the SBK linktree, but please note that it has been a huge priority of the Skyheads and mods during this ordeal to keep the community a safe space; all are welcome but please be polite and don't join solely to talk about this. Avid and Marm's discord servers have both been locked down into a permanent read-only state.

You are not a bad person for supporting them

They were manipulators and that’s what they do, they manipulate

For a lot of us, those chats became safe places, those safe places do not have to disappear. Just because the chat won’t exist anymore, that doesn’t mean that we have to stop supporting each other

It does not matter what you choose to do with your fanworks, me personally, I will not be continuing my fics with them in it but I’m not going through the hassle of deleting anything. I’m proud of the stories I made, I’m proud of what I’ve created, they won’t ruin that for me. But I will not continue them

There’s a lot going around on what to do about V!Avid and, personally, I believe it is up to us. Each individual, I believe my friends when they say they are claiming V!Avid because the “creator” didn’t care about him, I don’t mind the people who don’t want to write him anymore. It is up to you, and we should not be attacking anyone for writing a CHARACTER that was so beloved by the community but so clearly hated by the “creator”