hey pals, so here’s the situation.
my pal vera came to me and was like “yo wanna do a draco/astoria/pansy plot” and i said yes. we went into a skype group and starting plotting, the three of us. during that period, we all decided we wanted more people to join. after the next three people joined, we continued plotting. every part of our roleplay, now known as emerald silk, was a collaborative effort made by everyone in our group.
enter in another group, claiming we (specifically, vera) stole their plot. we knew this wasn’t true, because the six of us plotted it out together. vera denied their allegations and they went through with their threats of “going public”, trying to expose her. now, to be very clear, we are a group of six people. our roleplay is currently closed & private. we are not taking any traction away from their roleplay, nor do we want to. on top of that, the majority of us hadn’t even heard of this roleplay. truthfully, i don’t even know the name of it right now. but anyway, they all thought we stole their idea.
the next part of this whole story is that vera accidentally misgendered ciel. it was a mistake, one vera would’ve apologized for given the chance but bun blocked her. no one in our roleplay condones purposefully misgendering someone. that is a nasty thing to do to someone. but i will admit that we also weren’t aware of neopronouns. we have since educated ourselves and fully support any and everyone using these pronouns. we also extend our apologies to ciel.
the reason i’m making this post is because members of that roleplay have started sending vera hate messages that are beyond inappropriate. we all understand that a mistake was made and there has been a misunderstanding about where our plot originated, but to bring it as far as harassment is wrong.
we don’t want their roleplay shut down, we don’t want to cause anymore drama. this post is our explanation, apology, and hopefully the end of this entire ordeal. this is the last any of us will be commenting on this situation.
- the current members of emerald silk
alright so, i’m going to address the last half of this post first. you do not have a right to say that my members and i have been sending you hate messages when you have zero proof that we have done so. i would never stoop so low as to send someone a hateful message over anonymous, and i would never approach someone else and ask them to do so. people who are going into vera’s inbox and sending messages to her are people i do not know. i have said everything i have to say to vera to her face and on my blog which she can view herself on her computer or her phone. hell, i’m addressing this to you right now aren’t i? if any of my members have sent messages, it has been without my knowledge as they are all grown people who are responsible for their own actions. whether or not you all believe me is your own prerogative, but without solid evidence linking these messages back to us, i would refrain from trying to drag our names through the dirt to try to make yourselves seem less guilty.
now, as for vera’s misgendering comments, i don’t expect everyone to be perfect. i truly don’t. i understand that accidents happen and i was willing to forgive if she had acted like she gave two shits about it. her first response to misgendering me was to make an immediate, poor excuse by saying that she assumed by looking at my url that i used she/her. it was not to apologize or immediately correct her mistake which, understandably upset me. it upset me thus further when she continued to do it. they/them is still misgendering me when my pronouns are on my blog. if she wasn’t sure what my pronouns were she should have made a post asking on her blog or reached out to one of her friends to politely send me a message about it. she did neither of those things and continued to act as if she did not care beyond using neutral pronouns for me.
i have every right to be upset over her misgendering me and seeming very insincere. i have every right to be upset over her turning around and victim blaming me. “well, ciel should’ve come to me and educated me about buns pronouns and transgender people.” no? it’s not my job to make you less ignorant? it’s not my responsibility to educate people in positions of power. i would not expect a person of color to educate a white person, i would not expect a person who is not straight to educate a straight person, etc. it’s not our jobs to make you less ignorant. you have the power of the entire internet at your disposal in this day and age. it’s only when you’ve exhausted all of your resources that it’s okay to ask. i’m generally willing to help people as well and have answered many questions about gender and trans people on this blog over the past couple of years. but the second you put the blame on my shoulders? all my sympathy goes flying out the window. misgendering trans ( and non trans nb people ) is serious. it is damaging. it can be emotionally devastating and triggering. brushing it off and acting as if it’s not that serious and putting the blame on the person you misgendered is wrong. it’s as simple as that. again, i understand mistakes happen and i’m forgiving if the first move you make is to apologize sincerely and rectify the situation, but that’s not what vera did. me blocking her is not an excuse either. now you all know what to do if an event like this ever happens again.
as i’ve stated before, the roleplay was not a private one initially. there was an advertisement posted on vera’s blog for it. there was a little application people could fill out to join. it does not appear in any shape, form, or fashion to be a private group just between friends. even if you only let people you knew in, you still opened it up to the public. my roleplay is technically also a private group. i extended invitations to join to my mutuals and other people that follow me, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who wants to join can. vera was one of those people in the second round who i invited.
how can she send me a message about “my roleplay looking great” if she has absolutely no idea what it’s about? i’m not trying to say that the plot for my roleplay is super intricate. i know it’s not. however, that doesn’t mean that there are a million and one roleplays with the same exact plot and it’s obvious that she got the idea from my roleplay considering that the premise is exactly the same. i have asked her kindly to make minor changes to her plot. that’s literally all i ask that she do. she keeps saying that “i gain nothing from making her change / take down the roleplay”, but she still took something that was my intellectual property. stealing of any kind, in any capacity is wrong. taking someone else’s plot for their roleplay is still stealing, even if you add a special twist to it.
i’m sorry that she is receiving hate and i ask that no one do something as cruel as that. but i’m not being ridiculous for pointing out the fact that both of the things she did was wrong. i am not trying to purposely start drama, but let’s not forget that it was my members first and foremost that brought it to karin’s and mine attention. if other people are spotting the glaring and very obvious similarities then, it only makes sense that we would speak out about it.
you misgender someone once and you don’t apologize? you’re an asshole. you misgender someone twice and still don’t apologize? you’re scum. sorry i don’t make the rules. :)
for the one millionth time, if you are not black!!! you can’t say the n word!!! that’s the end of it!!! not in roleplay, not in a song, not in a book, not in ya dreams, NEVER. take it out ya vocab and go somewhere!!!
let me just start by saying this: people can plug their ears and yell and scream, but that doesn’t change the fact that they actively and consciously stole something from someone. to elaborate on my point, @veraviva stole the idea for my slytherin small group mumu roleplay, after being interested in joining it the second round of accepting members. proof is under the cut.
also the misgendering is ridiculous “i thought the pronouns were a joke” 1) ciel said that they werent and also 2) pls do your research neopronouns are a Thing