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    Cobalt

    @Cobalt

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    Best posts made by Cobalt

    • Predators and Roleplaying Communities

      I’ve thought about making a post like this for a while. I usually decide not to because these are things I haven’t told anyone outside of therapy. I’m not sure if I’ll actually hit submit on this even when I’m done.

      The tl;dr is that-- I’m really proud of how far this particular community has come when sexual predators poke their heads out. And I wish that the community we have now was the community we had when I first started mushing. And below the spoiler are the specific reasons of why I wish that.

      Content Warning: Grooming, sexual assault, slut shaming, and various unpleasantries.


      I’ve had questionable online/cyber sexual encounters since I was thirteen when I first started out in the MU* genre. Very briefly when I was in middle school I played on the original “Vampire Wars” mud. Long enough to exchange emails with a 20-something-year-old from the Netherlands. Who I would consider my boyfriend and who would email me sexually graphic things.

      Flash forward 2-ish years and I had moved to live with my dad in California, and was home schooled with no real social life. So I got back into the MU* world. The first game I really played long term was Vampire Wars Classic. It was a mud, and not super on roleplay. But it was better than trying to RP on forums or through email RP.

      VW was nebulously based on VtM. The leader of my in-game clan was a 30-something-year-old-man, who knowing I was a minor initiated “roleplay” with me. It was, of course, only sexual. At that age I really didn’t know any better and hormones were starting to finally kicked in. And considering I was home schooled, I didn’t really have age appropriate relationships available to me.

      This roleplay ended up with me being labeled a slut and a whore. Where someone who I thought was a friend of mine showed me a chat between him and one of my other supposed friends about how much of a slut I was. I was given so much grief and was honestly really harassed because of it that I would eventually just leave the game.

      Sometime later, off game, via AIM or MSN or something. There was a man probably in his forties (from the game) who I had talked to occasionally. He wasn’t anyone who had shown any interest in me, and was just someone I just chatted with occasionally. Until, one day-- the very same day I had been complaining to him about being so poor living with my disabled father I didn’t have anything to eat --he suddenly initiated a very graphic sexual conversation.

      He stopped talking to me almost immediately after. Maybe he felt guilty. Maybe he just got what he wanted and didn’t care to talk to me anymore. Doesn’t really matter. There were various other men who happily acted like my friend until they were horny and wanted me to write out smut with them. Every single one was aware of how old I was. I never hid my age. One of which told me was a youth pastor RL and it was “wrong” but he was happy for me to write out a scene blowing him.

      There were various adult men who were happy to treat me like garbage in “public” but were just as happy to write out graphic sexual scenes with me in private. It has taken me a very long time to understand just how fucked up that was.

      Anyway, I left VWC for LAmush at the behest of two friends (people who had never done anything inappropriate toward me). And for a year or so I was able to RP with my hearts content without the pressures of writing out sexual contents.

      Until… The game had a resurgence in popularity. I constantly can’t remember the order in which I had encounters with these three men.

      Back before skype was much of a thing, before discord, etc. I would talk to people with my own phone! (Ugh, adult me shudders at how stupid that was). And there was one guy from LAmush who I would talk to on the phone while he was at work as an over night security guard. And this is, again, not someone who I had any expectation of a sexual encounter with. I’m pretty sure I was 17 when this happened. But one night we were talking and suddenly his breathing changes and his voice gets all weird.

      And my brain sends out a red flag. And I go, “What are you doing?”

      Out of no where he goes, “Stroking myself?”

      I think he’s joking and laugh about it and go, “No really what are you doing?”

      Well, really, he was jacking off. And now I’d love to say that 17-year-old Cobalt was strong and brave and hung up. But 17-year-old Cobalt froze and listened to this creep jack off. We didn’t talk again after that.

      Then, one late night one of the three headwiz of LAmush, has had a little too much to drink. And we are sitting and talking. And he’s telling me this story about how he married his wife because he loved her but he finds her completely unattractive. And he’s expecting to be praised and told what a good man he is because he married for the right reasons. But, also, he has a major crush on one of the other players, and oh he touched her inappropriately at a large gathering of players for the game they held. But if I ever tell anyone that he’ll ruin me.

      Then suddenly, it goes from him talking about his crush on this other player and how his wife is unattractive to what he would do to me if I was there with him.

      Like everyone before him, he disappeared into the aether.

      The only person who ever made sure I was an “adult” (e.g. 18) before initiating IC or OOC sexual conversations with me was this last dude. Who introduced me to Shangrila, rather than RPing out sex on LAmush. Who, compared to the others, at least made sure I was 18 before having me roleplay out his BDSM fantasies with him. Still pretty fucked, considering it was pretty well known I was 16-17 when I started playing on LA, and he was a long term player.

      Then, there is my ex-husband. Who I will keep short and sweet because I don’t want to deal with any of his friends who might still be in the community:

      I was just 18yrs old when I joined his game. He was 35. He initiated private conversations with me. Learned I had just graduated high school, wanted to go to art school but didn’t know how to pay for it, and was worried about spending the rest of my life living with my disabled father watching him slowly die. He casually offered me a “couch” to crash on if I wanted to move to Florida and go to art school there! Then it became flirty conversations. Then it became we were a couple. I’d move out there to be with him, he’d help me get into art school, teach me to drive, and etc. Then I moved out there.

      Flash forward 9-years and I can’t drive because he won’t let me. And refuses to teach me. This condo is his. The car is his. I can’t take any job that doesn’t fit his work schedule. I haven’t gone to art school because we “couldn’t afford it”. I haven’t seen my family in years. I have no RL social life, only mushes, and etc. When I put my foot down and say I’m going to go to college finally, he accuses me of trying to kill him because the stress of me being in school while he works will give him a heart attack.

      Also during that 9-year-time span I was physically sexually assaulted at a two-day Camarilla LARP, and my chapter chain did nothing about it. So I quit the only RL social life I had.

      Thanks to a real life friend of mine from my childhood and @Tributary I managed to get out.

      There are so many predators that lurk not only in the MUSH community but in other roleplay communities. And I am just so fucking thankful, that we’ve decided as a community to not allow this shit to fly anymore.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Why is Pack closing?

      Trigger Warning: Sexual assault, victim blaming, and narcissism.

      I was not going to “name and shame” because I didn’t really want to deal with the mega-freak out that will becoming my way. But that was cowardice on my part. So here we go:

      A log was presented to me of Mackenzie ICly attempting to seduce another character that was high on drugs. This is sexual assault. Full stop. And it is against the rules of this game. Further more when told OOCly that sex wouldn’t be happening in character Mackenzie player posed a “joking” disappointment. Then after that, the scene that followed to the “next morning” was so full of gaslighting, victim blaming, and a classic narcissistic spiral that I was left deeply disturbed OOC.

      She proceeded to roll dice to convince her victim, IC, that they had had sex after for a very large portion of the scene. Where she ICly berated and talked down to her victim. And yes, that was all IC, but given I clearly laid out in my policies that sexual assault RP is not acceptable it is not ok. And, further, I 100% guarantee that this player was not doing this with the OOC knowledge she was RPing out the gaslighting and abusive of a victim of potential sexual assault. It came across, very much, that she was OOCly upset she was told no for tinysex and so was going to punish the player who turned her down with nasty IC drama.

      When told to leave IC she refused to do. and her final pose was so overwrought with narcissistic manipulation I legitimately had a flash back to abuse suffered by an RL ex-partner.

      This was 100% the final straw. It is 100% RP I did not want to facilitate.

      I don’t know what about the theme here drew this type of player, but no one should have to deal with this sort of BS. And if I’ve facilitated a theme that makes people think they can do this? I will not continue to facilitate it.

      To continue to name and shame:

      I have been told (by more than one person) that Mackenzie@Pack was Macha@MSB.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: MU Peeves Thread

      Could people just, like, not be creeps?shrug

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • Why is Pack closing?

      @Gasboy said in Coming Soon: The Pack an Ares Game:

      @Cobalt That’s a bummer? What happened?

      I’m closing the game because I have gotten tired of playing whack-a-mole with the bad actors in the community.

      I am busy with RL that is true, but I had plans to jump start the game once I got moved into new house.

      However, increasing number of complaints have been filed about numerous players-- not just one. That it became obvious to me that there is something in the theme itself that draws out a certain type of player.

      And ngl, the final straw was something reported to me that was obscenely traumatic to read. To the point that I couldn’t facilitate a game where that type of shit went on, even in private scenes.

      Tl;dr: I’m closing because the theme attracts creeps and I’m tired of bouncing them off the game one by one.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread

      The whole part of “my experiences with Cobalt tell me she just wanted Isaac for herself” is hilarious because I had Isaac on my “to be watched” (and honestly should have just banned him) list.

      But it feels like a reflection of Derp himself. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve likely done some mean girl shit over someone I wanted to RP with in the past. I started mushing when I was 17 (if you don’t count my brief stint on a MUCk at 13). I was also living with someone who groomed me and kept me isolated from any sort of social contact out of mushing.

      But I’m not in that situation anymore, and I’ve had a lot of time to grow and heal and try to be a better person.

      I don’t think Derp has ever really sat himself down and tried to improve himself. I can’t say that banning someone for getting too close to a potential TS pattern, but it’s telling he thinks that of a known woman game runner.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • Memes

      I feel called out.

      24B0B945-9A13-432E-B2E8-F5594FE45D03.jpeg

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Macha Awareness (And Unappreciation) thread

      FWIW I got the game back up today. Thank you to Tat and Faraday (who I am not tagging so they don’t have to ride this roller coaster) for helping me figure out how to do that.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Pets!

      alt text

      -.-

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Why is Pack closing?

      @KarmaBum No.

      So, a person came to me and said “a group of us were talking and we were wondering if you would give us a copy of the db”

      I said, sure with some conditions. I would need full transparency on who would be taking over so people would have time to opt out and have their data removed from the game.

      Turns out the loudest voice in the group was Machakenzie. I said “yeah, no, I would just remove every single character, log, and player build before I let anyone have it if she’s involved” because I’m not about to let her have access to people’s ip.

      I made a post on the game saying if someone wanted it, it’d be will be there would be some strings attached. And I’m not sure if posted this part or not but after discussing it on the ares discord came to the decision that it would be more work than I wanted to do to expunge the dB sufficiently to hand it over. So instead I would just help someone install my config files that don’t have anyone’s info on them onto their own game.

      In the meantime, I got a message that Mackenzie was asking the original person about it to get an expunged version of the dB. At which point said person gave me a heads up and said “I don’t want to be in the middle of this anymore”.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: MU Peeves Thread

      This may make me seem like a heartless Bitch, but boy it would be nice if people would stop telling me they are going to go cry because of MUSH drama.

      It evokes more of a desire to back away from the person telling me than sympathy. And I try to be kind to people OOCly.

      But for fucks sake…

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt

    Latest posts made by Cobalt

    • Break Lite

      My RL is kinda crazy, I’m dealing with figuring health stuff, ushering young adults out of the nest, and general just have brain fatigue. I haven’t been writing either for RP or my own enjoyment.

      I’m ok, just tired and busy. Just wanted to let folks know I’m good but probably not going to be around on any game for a while. I love this community, tho!

      Stay fresh cheese puffs! See you when I see you!

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: RL Peeves

      Can someone explain to me why 19-20yr olds think they are entitled to literally every single food item in the house?

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: General Video Game Thread

      I spent 100+ in Enshrouded and now I have nothing left to do in the game and my life is meaningless.

      posted in Other Games
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: General Video Game Thread

      @dvoraen PLAY LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER WITH ME PLEASE

      posted in Other Games
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: I did a YouTube thing…

      @JLo I was using the free version of davinci. I’m planning to do another video where I focus on smooth jump cuts and stuff, just haven’t decided what game to record. I was going to do Stardew because going through side paths would be a good place to cut/mess with jump cuts but got kinda bored 😐

      posted in Other Games
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Stupid Memes

      IMG_0818.jpeg

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Stupid Memes

      IMG_0788.jpeg

      posted in No Escape from Reality
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Installing Arxcode?

      @bear_necessities Right, using ares I would drop the visual part of pretty clothing and items would become props that add modifiers to rolls rather than an art form.

      posted in Game Gab
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: MU Peeves Thread

      @allthecookies I had to stop after about five pages? It was just wow. Ortallus must be a peach in real life to deal with.

      posted in Rough and Rowdy
      CobaltC
      Cobalt
    • RE: Installing Arxcode?

      @Faraday I think I am going to grab the inventory, honor, and economy plugins by Lyanna (sp) listed on the ares plugin site. To kinda soft emulate the economic and crafting systems from Arx.

      posted in Game Gab
      CobaltC
      Cobalt