So I'm being blackmailed. Warning: WAY TL;DR

[WednesdayAddams]

Alternately titled: I'm not new here, and a lot of you probably know me. I apologize in advance for all the drama about to descend. But hey, the nonnies are going to be VERY happy; this will be the juiciest thing that's been posted there in weeks.

The messy background: A few years ago, I went through a rather ugly breakup, the details of which the other party was way too happy to share online and with our IRL friends. He also turned a little stalkery (called my ex, called me 49 times straight once [that was fun]), asked our friends to take sides, (drunk) called the people he found out I was dating....all kinds of drama. I just wanted to get as far away from it as possible. Simply put, I walked away. Sold my condo in California, came here and dropped off the Dope. Where I had a different username (not Syntropy. Hold your horses, I'll get there). I mostly stayed away from the internet except for a few occasions, which was easy, since I'd started school again.

Giraffe started this MB, and it felt like home. However, it was relatively small, and there was at least one person here who knew me IRL and would have felt obligated to tell my ex I was here, and that person was already feeling way too much in the middle of the entire mess. So I chose my middle name and my grandmother's last initial a username and was miserly with my personal details. I told precisely three people I was here. One of them is now threatening to out me because I said something that painted him (in his opinion) in a less than flattering light. Very much 'don't forget I know who you are.'

Fuck that. Blackmailers and coercion piss me right the fuck off. So, Excalibre, since you do vanity searches looking for people talking about you, here it is: I choose to out myself. I will not hide in fear until you decide to do it for me. I've already gone to Gfactor on the Dope and told him about my sock (Syntropy), I've gone to Giraffe and the mod staff here, and I am now telling the rest of you. Without further ado, here are the PM's from Exy, my response, and my PM to Gfactor. And now you know who I am. I do apologize if anyone feels misled. Oh. And huge huge thanks to Giraffe, Fenris, haj, Veb & Dolores Reborn for all the support and kindness over the past couple days while I hashed this out.

Here's my PM to Gfactor, which includes the PM's from Excalibre:

Hey, Gfactor.

I used to post here under the username Maureen. I stopped posting with that name when I moved back home to Texas, as I had a lot of personal issues and was attempting to distance myself from them. Unfortunately, they included some online friends from here as well as IRL. The person I was seeing was being fairly stalkery, and when I left, I did it in a vacuum.

I know it was a stupid thing to do, but changing my name here would have required me to at least put my 'old' name in my sig, and I was just that paranoid that he wouldn't have left me alone. I'm sorry. If I wind up banned on both usernames, I will totally understand.

Now, to be completely honest, I'm coming forward for a reason. Exy's blackmailing me. Er, Excalibre. Yeah, just can't seem to get away from the drama, can I? He and I were fairly close when he was posting here and even for quite a while after he was banned. Apparently I ran afoul of him for posting this on the GB in response to his posting Sampiro's personal info at the snarkpit. Exy feels that friends don't disapprove of other friends' actions, no matter how obnoxious those actions may be. The conversation went down like this:

I don't respond well to blackmail. It tends to piss me off.

So, I sat there getting more angry and more angry and finally decided to out myself to the GB staff. They deserved to know, and I won't be blackmailed. Will probably out myself at the GB as well, because once I do that, he has absolutely no hold over me whatsoever. But I did want to make it a clean sweep and tell someone here as well, and you're the moderator here I'm most comfortable going to. Sorry 'bout that.

As I said, I'll take my licks. If it means both accounts are banned, then so be it. I hope everyone would be willing to consider allowing me to carry on with Syntropy, but if not, I'll understand.

Thanks for listening

So, now y'all know the whole sordid story. Personal life totally cratered, and I was less than proud of a few things associated with that username. A clean break seemed like the path of least resistance, and the easiest thing to change while I got back on my feet. I couldn't take any more drama. Really, it's amazing how you don't realize how much drama is surrounding you until you step out of it and look back. And think, 'wow, that there? That was a trainwreck.'

Personal note to NoClueBoy: Honey, I hope you can forgive me for not coming to you personally when you got here.