[DaelaParticipant]

If this happens again during TV time I’m going to tell Tom he can kick rocks, the OOA has the real drama!

[DaelaParticipant]

I read III’s message in Peridot’s voice.

[DaelaParticipant]

I really love this @coryphella – thank you for sharing!

[DaelaParticipant]

Mark, or Benny, I’ve been trying to put my finger on why I was so troubled by your post.

And then I remembered.

“Benny is the one who got Addison into this thing, The Church of Anoch. Tom and Margaret take exception to it being called a “church” because it is the furthest thing from holy. They do not like Benny one bit.”

^That’s from Sean Decker and Kim’s report on the events of May.

Nowhere in your post do you take responsibility for dragging Addison into this mess. Instead, you keep playing the victim.

It doesn’t sound like you’ve been a great friend to Addison. Maybe you should come clean if you want us to trust you.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  Daela. Reason: added "Decker" to keep the Sentry happy

[DaelaParticipant]

Mark, I’ll be frank. As much as I love Addison, you get on my nerves. One moment you’re pleading for everyone to listen to you, the next you refuse to share information. You’re ineffective, and you don’t seem like a prize.

I believe that Addison is in trouble. I do not believe you are the answer to that trouble. To be honest, if I were to whisper “Carlos” in Addison’s ear, I’m not convinced she wouldn’t shrink from me in horror.

You don’t seem to be working with Addison’s parents, and you don’t seem to be working with BoS. Why is that? How do we know that you aren’t a lone deluded stalker?

Give us something to work with here.

[DaelaParticipant]

Thank you all for doing this!

[DaelaParticipant]

Further evidence for this theory: in the first letter that GK4 left behind, there’s an interlude that sounds like it’s coming from Addison.

“IS this getting through??? I’m sorry, my head hurts… I’m rambling. I’m just so tired…I’m an actress, first and foremost.”

At the time, we were confused and thought perhaps GK4 was an actress. I think it was @mike who suggested that perhaps GK4 and Addison were actually merging, and we were getting a glimpse of Addison in that paragraph.

[DaelaParticipant]

@mike Yes. 100%.

(This is why you’re the one and only Scribe.)

[DaelaParticipant]

I’m with @atticus360 – this should be Addison’s choice. The woman has agency of her own: she’s not a weapon for us to use or an object for us to save. She’s a person.

(That said, because she is a person, I tend to doubt that whispering the word “Carlos” in her ear will be enough to trigger some sort of epiphany. I’d find it more likely that she’d respond to friendship and offers of support.)

[DaelaParticipant]

@mike Sorry, I should be more clear. I guess I’m disagreeing with both you and Addison.

I disagree with Addison, because he said that Benny was “attacked instead of reasoned with”. That’s simply not true, many people tried to reason with him. I don’t think it’s productive to rewrite a history that casts Benny as an innocent victim and the forum members as the snarling pack who destroyed him for being an outsider. That’s far from what happened.

I disagree with you, because you said “Someone is here threatening us and we’re supposed to care about them? Sorry, life doesn’t work that way.” I like to think that life does work that way, and that nobody who responded to Benny (or at least, very few) did so because they didn’t care about him or because they saw him as a threat.

Here are some quotes from people addressing Benny:

“I am sorry for your pain and your loss, truly I am.”

“Good luck. I sincerely hope that you and I don’t find ourselves on opposite sides of this conflict.”

“Good luck. And, if you can, reach out to some of us if you need us.”

“Good luck brother”

“…will do what I can to help.”

“I sympathize with you, sir, I honestly do.”

Most of us did not have a “get out of my house, betrayer!!!!” response. I don’t think it’s useful to pretend like we did, or that such a response would have been justified.

[DaelaParticipant]

Gotta disagree with our Scribe here.

It would be wrong to belittle and reject someone out of knee-jerk in-group bias. I would like to believe we are above tribalism. And I think that we all have a fairly nuanced view of the OOA: nobody sees it as an unmitigated good. (If nothing else, everyone here disagrees with Four, III, or both.)

The reaction to Benny, as far as I can tell, did not stem from a primal “better not mess with us” attitude. Instead, it was informed by:

1) Benny’s repeated refusal to believe that his ex-flame had any agency
2) Benny’s refusal, from his first communications in May until the present, to disclose any useful information, despite multiple participants reaching out and PM-ing him
3) Benny’s suspicious cutting of all ties, not just OOA but BOS and seemingly the Barrows
4) Above all, Benny’s disingenuousness in claiming victimhood while hiding his own level of responsibility

I most definitely don’t want to interfere with the compassion we all ought to feel for him. This event will hopefully prompt some introspection and perhaps, in the future, kinder interactions with those we disagree with.

That said, I don’t think pointing fingers at the forum community is fair or right. Most of us gently suggested (or, admittedly, not-so-gently *raises hand*) that Benny take a breath and think about his relationship calmly and rationally. Many posts were framed as an offer to help. Let’s not create a narrative wherein the forum turned on him solely because he questioned the OOA. That’s not what happened.

[DaelaParticipant]

@jeromy I like your style.

[DaelaParticipant]

I really like this.

[DaelaParticipant]

I’m right there with you.

[DaelaParticipant]

Why are we assuming that III is the one destroying Addison? Four is, at the very least, overseeing Addison right now, if not possessing her outright. I know we’re all anxious to cast Four as the hero, but I’m not sure III can be held responsible for this one.

[Author]

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