the pressure situation is horrible and people genuinely need to shut the fuck up.
To clarify:
Wishing death upon somebody and laughing at their supposed suicide video is NOT okay in any capacity. I get the anger, I truly do, but it is extremely unhealthy to cope with your anger in that fashion.
Most of the arguments zeal supporters use consists of misogynistic and ableist language. People with BPD are not “unstable,” “manipulative,” or “dangerous.” They are regular people who may be struggling with mental health. Women are not untrustworthy by default, that is misogynistic. Zeal’s actions are not excused by his autism and never will be. By giving his autism as a reason for his behavior, you are painting autistic people as sexual assaulters.
Even if Ren’s accounts aren’t 100% reliable in your eyes, she still suffered genuine trauma as a result of the encounter and is STILL dealing with the aftermath.
Zeal and zerum are horrible people regardless. They both have a history of treating their fanbase horribly + other disgusting things. There are numerous screenshots and docs made about Zerum and Zeal besides what’s currently happening
It’s going to be difficult to cover everything given the massive amount of information that has come to light, but I’ll do my best. If you feel I’ve missed any relevant details, please let me know.
Before starting, I want to make one thing clear: the document Zeal released in his defense is not proof of innocence; it’s simply his perspective. Lacking sexual experience does not give you the right to push someone else's boundaries. Likewise, being neurodivergent or having autism is never an excuse for failing to understand when someone says "no."
It is also vital to recognize that the "perfect victim" does not exist. Even if REN acted erratically at certain points, that does not strip away their status as a victim, nor does it allow us to jump to instant conclusions. We cannot start supporting Zeal or claiming REN lied while ignoring 200 pages of evidence just because the situation has become messy.
REN acknowledged (in their document, which was taken down due to mass reporting) that they may have appeared enthusiastic as a trauma response. However, we must not forget that Zeal remained the aggressor, utilizing coercion to force "consent." Furthermore, he and his accomplices—Kat, Zerum, Wil, and Cyborg—are still being held accountable for being homophobic, transphobic, racist, misogynistic, and ableist. Their track record as overall toxic individuals remains unchanged.
With that in mind, I will summarize the defense document, the multi-tweet threads, and REN's recent statements, alongside new information regarding Zeal’s actions—points that his supporters have yet to address. I’m not claiming to have the absolute truth; I am simply presenting the information that has surfaced so we can look at the full picture.
Following his hospitalization on April 9th, Zeal’s family released these responses on his behalf. According to their statement, Zeal remains offline under medical supervision without personal internet access. He reportedly wrote most of the 10,000-word document on a borrowed laptop while in the hospital, with his mother helping to structure and post it, as well as reading supportive messages aloud to him.
The Timeline and Hospitalization
Zeal claims that when the 145+ page document was dropped on April 8th, he immediately signed off to write a defense because he believed the claims were false. However, within 24 hours, he experienced what he calls "mass abandonment"—friends, co-workers, and idols blocking and distancing themselves before he could respond. He states this spiral led to his suicide attempt that same night. He remains hospitalized and describes the process of writing this document as "painful, grueling, and deeply humiliating," but necessary to defend his name.
The Core Defense: Mutual Interaction
Zeal’s central claim is that the encounters during RDC 2025 were mutual and consensual the entire time. He points to their five-year history of flirting and notes that REN had been constantly venting to him about their mental health and past relationships. His detailed version of the events:
September 3rd: After comforting REN (who was crying in the lobby) with permitted hugs, they invited him to their room. He claims they initiated the first kiss ("Can I kiss you?"). He denies aggressive pinning, stating they simply interlocked fingers. He asserts that when they said "it hurts," he immediately stopped, checked if they were okay, and only tried again after they said yes. He notes there was no penetration that night; he was embarrassed by his "poor performance" and even joked about writing a "Google Doc" about how bad he was at it.
September 4th: They reportedly bought lube together. He describes this second encounter as slower, at REN’s pace, and involving more consent checks. Again, he states no penetration occurred. Afterward, they showered together and REN slept on his chest.
Specific Rebuttals to Graphic Claims
Zeal provides verbatim counters to the most serious allegations:
Physical Restraint: He denies "pinning them down," stating his only intention was to hold their hands.
Physical Contact: He denies "aggressive" fingering, claiming it was merely "poorly" done. He asserts REN was visually guiding him by doing it themselves.
The Oral Incident: He denies forcing a finger down their throat, explaining that his long hair accidentally fell into their mouth once.
The Word "No": He claims that when they said "no" to something later, it was in a "laughingly embarrassed" tone, and he covered up immediately. He insists he provided aftercare (washing them both up) and was not dismissive.
Post-Event Evidence
Zeal’s strongest evidence consists of logs and social media posts from REN following RDC. He highlights a tweet where they praised him for "not trying anything uncomfortable" and messages calling him "gentle," "soft," and "handsome." He notes that they continued to send explicit fantasies and drawings weeks later while they were thousands of miles apart, arguing this contradicts an immediate assault narrative.
Breach of Trust and Conclusion
Zeal explains his eventual distance as a reaction to REN disclosing their private intimacy to six people and team members against his wishes, which he viewed as a major breach of trust. He also alleges they harassed other staff members with uncomfortable DMs. He claims he tried to distance himself slowly to avoid triggering them.
Ultimately, Zeal owns his "communication failures" and blurred professional lines but refuses the "assault" label. He suggests REN may now genuinely feel the encounter was non-consensual due to retroactive trauma processing and their mental health history, but argues that their contemporaneous words show otherwise. He clarifies that no other team members were present during the encounters; they only learned about it from REN afterward.
Evidence of Culpability That Cannot Be Refuted
Beyond the narrative presented in the counter-document, there are several critical points and pieces of evidence that suggest Zeal’s accountability, many of which remain unaddressed or are exacerbated by his own defense.
First, a major point of concern involves Zeal’s awareness of who he was interacting with. Despite claiming to have known REN for five years, records show he asked for their age thirteen days after the incident; he was also reportedly unaware of their real name at that time. This raises a disturbing red flag: it suggests Zeal proceeded with the encounters while believing there was a possibility that REN could have been a minor.
Then there’s this absolute piece of shit statement in his document: "Consent given cannot be retracted 6 months later." Not only is this fundamentally untrue, as it dismisses the reality of how victims process abuse, but it also inadvertently implies that genuine consent was never established from the start. This pathetic line of reasoning seeks to invalidate victims who take time to understand or come forward about their trauma, which is a common and documented psychological response.
Regarding REN's behavior following the event, it is essential to look at it through a lens of trauma. The reactions and interactions Zeal cites as "proof of enjoyment" can be explained as hypersexuality or "fawning," which are recognized coping mechanisms used by survivors to navigate the aftermath of an assault.
Finally, the document appears to be selectively edited to favor Zeal's narrative. He notably omitted a section where REN explained the concept of consent to him, as well as an indirect admission where he apologized and cited being "excited" as a reason for his actions. Additionally, his defense fails to provide any logical explanation for the physical bruising on REN's neck, leaving a significant piece of physical evidence completely unaddressed.
Current Updates from REN
After seeing REN’s latest updates on their server, I’m even more convinced of where I stand. Even if this has turned into a "he said, they said" mess, we have to keep supporting REN. Trauma isn't a clean, perfect story, and a polished document can't erase the reality of what happened.
It honestly makes me sick and sad to see who’s actually defending Zeal. It’s mostly just little kids who care more about a video game than a human being's life, along with irresponsible, stupid adults who choose to be blind to the facts. It’s revolting.
At the end of the day, supporting a victim shouldn't be up for debate. Despite how much information is being thrown around, the core of this situation hasn't changed. Stay with REN.
now that pressure’s gone to shit for obvious reasons, here’s a list of things that made me mad about the game & the dev’s treatment of it that i was too afraid to talk about before.
please note: this is not in any way comparable to the deplorable actions of zeal towards ren. that is by FAR the worst thing to come out of any of this, and it needs to be taken seriously. i am posting this as what, prior to the allegations, would have been constructive criticism. now it is coming from a place of anger and disgust, so i’m not mincing words.
additionally, i am on twitter once every few months at most. most of the things i’m citing here aside from the game/wiki are things i either encountered very recently or things i specifically searched for.
-SEBASTIAN-
the fish, the myth, the legend. a character with so much potential, handled in just about the worst possible way. let’s talk about him.
the way his ethnicity was handled was lazy and quite honestly insulting. as a white individual i can’t comment on the experience of being chilean-american, but nearly every recent post i’ve seen from chilean fans (and more largely hispanic fans in general) has been negative, and with good reason. sebastian being chilean felt like a complete afterthought. it never came up in the game at all despite zerum’s claims that he was entirely fluent in spanish and spoke it all the time prior to his arrest (and that, despite speaking in english 100% of the time, he “thinks entirely in spanish”??) and essentially it’s only ever mentioned with the fact that he,, likes empanadas. obviously, a character’s ethnicity does not need to be a large part of their personality, but it feels like zerum reduced him to a stereotype while conveniently avoiding any actual effort or work that could’ve been put in to flesh it out even slightly.
extending my previous point, half of sebastian’s lore and other facts about him were not present in the game. if you didn’t go searching on the pressure wiki, you would not know that he was chilean-american, or that he had a younger brother, or where his ring came from (more on that later), or any of the dozens of other “fun facts” shoehorned into the official wiki by zerum. this is a problem i have with more games than just pressure, but they took it to the extreme.
speaking of the ring… oh god, the ring. for those unaware, “zerum” is both the screen name of sebastian’s “creator” (whether she actually created sebastian is currently being disputed and it’s not looking good for her, but i digress) and the name of her original character, a bunny-humanoid who we know absolutely nothing about. i will refer to the oc as “OC!zerum” to avoid confusion. there was originally no lore between OC!zerum and sebastian in the game, but as people started shipping themselves with sebastian and creating ocxcanon content, zerum became upset and announced that he had been married (or engaged, it’s unclear) to OC!zerum the whole time, so any ocxcanon content was invalid and banned from the discord server and other places she could see it. this was supposedly only enforced in the discord server (which would’ve been fine on its own, it’s her server ig) but it was enforced everywhere else, too, just not officially. there was an onslaught of posts from her that were a mess of passive-aggressive rants about ocxcanon/selfshippers despite both zerum and zeal claiming they were “fine with selfshippers outside of discord”. now, if she genuinely wanted to create a romance subplot for sebastian, it would’ve been at least somewhat more manageable, but it didn’t seem like that was the intent at all. the whole OC!zerum situation wasn’t treated like a plot point, it was treated like a “fuck you” to anyone who made any ship content with sebastian outside of shipping him with OC!zerum… despite the fact that nobody knew anything about her and she was not a character in the game. A ring was added to sebastian’s character model as a “reminder”, and every so often zerum would once again vaguepost about her frustrations towards people not “respecting her boundaries” which would send her fans hunting for anyone posting any non sebastianxOC!zerum content. people were doxxed, sent threats, and insulted. it was extremely ugly and unprofessional on zerum’s part.
this brings me to another point: zerum, and to an extent many of the other devs and writers including zeal, not understanding the concept of a fictional character being public. when you put your oc into a video game or any other piece of public content, you are losing your ability to have full control over them. it sucks, but you have to learn to live with it. people are going to create things that don’t align with the way you see your characters, and you have to accept that. the fact that sebastian was “zerum’s oc” and “belonged to her” was reiterated over and over again to the point where you’d thing you were looking at an adoptables page, not the page for a video game played by millions of people.
with every recent update, sebastian became more cruel, mean-spirited, and inhumane. this directly went against everything zerum and zeal said about his character outside of the game, and it was pretty explicit that it was done solely to make players stop shipping themselves with him. i wouldn’t be surprised if adding an actual animation of him during the death scenes instead of just the light from his eyes was another attempt at that. (quick note, i hated that they did that. it took away the spook factor completely and just made it goofy and aggravating, which i suppose makes sense if they wanted people to like him less. that may just be my personal preference, though). i shouldn’t need to explain why this is a shitty and weird thing to do, not to mention a horrible strategy for game development in general.
-P.AI.NTER-
so much potential, so little time. (except there was a lot of time, actually. it just wasn’t used properly.)
my first gripe with the way painter was handled was that members of the team repeatedly told off anyone who asked about their pronouns or identity (they are a computer, it was a reasonable question) because it “wasn’t relevant to their character” all while giving a hundred fun facts about sebastian that were completely irrelevant to the game but were all added to the official wiki. it was handled super weirdly and even just “painter doesn’t really have a concept of gender” would’ve been an acceptable answer. instead, people were shut down and borderline made fun of for asking.
sebpainter, the ship between sebastian and painter, was very popular for a period of time. now, to the best of my knowledge, pretty much everyone who enjoyed that ship would have had absolutely no problem with the ship not being canon. what was strange was that it was only after this ship started becoming popular that zerum started insisting that they saw each other as siblings. again, if it had ended there, it maybe would have been a little borderline on her part, but still basically okay. and then it got worse. zerum and her fans would harass anyone who enjoyed the ship, all but directly calling it incest despite the fact that in the game there is no reason to infer that they see each other as siblings. players were just expected to have read all of zerum’s twitter page and gathered information about their relationship there. it was really weird and i can’t imagine anyone involved on any side of the argument felt comfortable about it. (and this is coming from someone who personally saw them as sibling figures. the harassment towards shippers was fucked up and completely unjustified.)
-ISSUES WITH THE DEVS IN GENERAL-
the ring incident, the sebpainter discourse, and a lot of the other discourse surrounding the characters in pressure boiled down to a certain type of unprofessionalism on the part of zerum, zeal, and some other members of the team. they saw themselves as being on the same level as the fans to an unhealthy and overall negative extent. things like expressing dislike towards sebpainter or jokingly telling people to “cope” because your ocxcanon is better than everyone else’s are things that are perfectly acceptable to do as a fan, but unprofessional and potentially dangerous to do as one of the creators. this applies especially when you’re the creator of a roblox game where a lot of the fandom is younger and lacks nuance. entire hoards of people would attack each other online because of statements casually thrown around by the development team, and zerum in particular had a habit of treating sebastian like he was still her personal oc and not a character in a video game. again, you can have your own personal version of a character you create! that’s perfectly fine! but when you put them into a public game, you are giving up your ability to make that the widely accepted version of them.
almost every interaction, and i mean, like, 95% of them, that we have seen zeal have with fans has been negative, hostile, and strangely defensive. he has threatened to sell the game on multiple occasions when completely valid criticism was brought up, victimized himself in every possible situation, and never acted mature or like he fully understood the extent to which his actions were reaching people. his suicide threats now are a repetition of behavior he’s had for a long time. any time someone would accuse him of something, he would guilt-trip them, bring up his autism and poor mental health, and refuse to actually acknowledge what he was being accused of. if his first half-joking threat to sell the game had been a one-and-done, whatever. everyone freaks out sometimes, it happens. but instead of getting better, zeal got worse. it happened multiple times to the point where everyone was walking on eggshells posting any sort of constructive criticism or bringing up anything he’d done wrong. i can’t imagine how it must have felt to work on the team during that time. as we now know, he would only get worse.
i want to state again that none of this in any way compares to the atrocities committed by zeal against ren. that should be the main focus right now. this is just a rant written by a tired college student because it finally boiled over. please send your support to ren and to others who have come forward about their experiences. if you see something, say something. keep yourselves safe, keep each other safe. thank you for reading. <3
The google doc. (If it gets taken down, archive.org link)
Zeal's initial statement
Suicide baiting (screenshot from [RAAAAH THE ARCHIVE HAS BEEN CENSORED] !)(+video archived)(another link to the archived video, but not broken.)
Zeal's mother's initial statement. (At least, the Pressure staff claims she is.)
Zeal caught playing Arsenal after his suicide attempt.
Concerning Zerum:
Zerum's lie, predicted by the doc.
"Stepping Down"
Toxic behaviors (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Deleting evidences (to take with a grain of salt, as it could be fanarts she reposted being deleted)
Zerum exploiting people (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link) (note: victim was 17 at the time [CONFIRMED INFORMATION]) (+other victims speaking up)
Zerum's homophobia (if the linked tweet gets taken done, archive.org link)
Zerum admitting she supports Zeal + backtracking (if the tweet gets taken down, archive link 1 and 2.)
Zerum changing from "I didnt mean to type this" to "I got hacked" + saying the n word and backtracking afterward. (if the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Deleting her strawpage to avoid consequences (beware, the URL got snipped)
Zerum still has Zeal friended on Roblox.
Concerning Kat:
Kat's initial reaction (Deleting the twitter account)
A testimony on Kat's ableism. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Kat has exploited artists and didn't pay them. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
A testimony on Kat's toxic behavior toward her friends. (if the linked tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Concerning Wil:
Wil's initial statement (Will need to add the screenshot of him blocking Ren)
Non-sexual grooming (if the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Wil was aware.
Wil's updated statement. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
Wil still has Zeal friended on Roblox.
Other stuff:
Financing Pressure
The devs are silencing anyone speaking out against them. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
The team has encouraged harassment. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link) (+other testimony and its archive link)
People speaking up on Sebastian's poorly executed double nationality.
^ This is likely due to human!sebastian was based on Zerum's k-pop crush. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link)
The team has manipulated other devs such as Kobrik into believing Ren was lying and into making disgusting statements. (Link has Kobrik's initial statement+the explaination.)
They have also lied and told some people that Ren was the abuser. (If the tweet gets taken down, archive.org link. It. doesnt show the stuff in the right order, look at it from end to start.)
GIANNI STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
ARTY STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
JS HARRIS STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
ELLIS KNIGHT STEPPING DOWN !!!! WOOHOO !!!!!
(other VAs have also stepped down, but I haven't found their statements. Feel free to send it to me !)
Please show your support to Ren/NoLongerNull during these times.
This is not about Pressure, this is about a real person that got hurt. Please support the victims, what happened was disgustingly and inhumane. I feel sick to my stomach.
I don’t associate with Pressure anymore from this point on.
This is gonna be relatively my last Pressure post, either for a while or indefinitely due to stuff that has happened recently. Bad stuff was revealed, and to be honest the community's answer wasn't the best either.
I don't know the smaller details, and honestly I don't really want to know much of them. Not because I don't care, but because when real people are involved I tend to care too much, sometimes to where it breaks me a little bit...which is definitely not healthy, specially when I can't really do much about it without compromising my own mind.
So, for the sake of my sanity, I'm gonna play the waiting game. As much as I love Pressure and the genuine good it brought to the table, I would probably do well with a break from the whole thing after giving this small contribution to the conversation (which so far is really all I can do.)
In conclusion, this is just a bit of a farewell piece of art for something I came to love (and I think it is appropriate to make it because instead of just passively giving exposure to the game it does bring more attention to what actually happened,) but at least for now I'll focus on some other stuff. I just thought this was still something important to share.
Zeal defenders make no sense to me. Let’s say IF he didn’t do it, there was still mistreatment in the team, underpaying artists, harassment, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. Why would you still want to support that anyway? Y’all are too compliant, it shows your true colors.
You all really care for a game more than the fact of someone being a sexual predator. Going to defend him instead of the “possible” victim says all I need to know.
Anyways go support Ren/Nolongernull, stream their music on Spotify, 100% of the funds go to her.
If you are supporting Zeal, this is what you're supporting.
Does this not highlight his mentality? After engaging in this behaviour with Ren, he only then thought to ask him about his age. This is unacceptable. Doesn't matter that Ren was an adult anyway, this is STILL unacceptable behaviour.
Do not fucking follow me if you support Zeal, Zerum, Kat, or any other guilty parties.
They covered for a RAPE and insinuated that Ren, the VICTIM, was responsible. It isn't just Zeal. It is Zerum. It is Kat. It's all the people who turned a blind eye to sexual abuse. Do you see how genuinely disgusting that is?
I have yet to post a full response on here, because I mainly post my art on Twitter. But, regarding my content going forward, I will not be posting any Pressure content that directly supports the game.
What I mean by this, is that if I were to take Sebastian, Painter, whoever, and draw them, it would be in no way the universe of Pressure. They will not be associated with Urbanshade and its lore. I will develop my own lore for them, change their designs based on my lore, and bring content to you that is of my own passion, not fan art of a game made by a horrible person. I will also post art of other media that I enjoy, like Regretavator.
I have to admit that these characters meant something to me, and it hurts to know that a character I saw myself in was made by a horrible person. I am deeply disgusted with Zeal's actions and his inner circle that tried to protect him.
I will no longer play the game or give them my money. Please support Ren and let their voice be heard.
Going forward, if anyone following me still supports Zeal, Zerum, Kat, and anyone else who worked to suppress Ren's abuse, I will ask you to unfollow me right now.
If your first reaction to seeing a multi-page document with evidence that the developer of your favourite game sexually assaulted someone is to say "Proof can be faked, so we shouldn't believe them," then you are a horrible person.
If you side with the assaulter just because they made something you like, then you are a horrible person.
This is my final statement regarding Pressure, including the situation around it and any further works from me. Of course, this is all in support of Ren. However, I wish to focus this post towards Zerum, specifically “Sebastian Solace”. I feel obligated to share the truth from my short yet surprisingly telling experience working on his ref sheet.
I would also like to take this time to finalize my stance as an artist and a person, now that it’s been a second.
———
PLEASE READ:
I trust. I hope and trust all of you. ALL OF YOU. To know that I don’t do this with intent of “making more drama”. I want to give people peace of mind and let the truth be heard. I want people to have solace.
———
“Sebastian Solace”
It has now been brought to my awareness several times that Zerum is publically racist (as well as homophobic, ableist, yada yada). This allows me to reveal my disgust with how Sebastian Solace has been treated.
I will reveal *for her* that Sebastian, the Chilean American angsty 2012 grunge character, is intended to be 100% based off of a Kpop idol in personality, looks, body type, accessories, everything.
You can figure out who for yourselves, I feel no need to bring the person into this. But the guitar pick necklace he wears is the group’s merch. As far as I’m aware, it has no deeper meaning. I suggested changes to it. She denied changes. It is the merch to a T.
I mean no hate to kpop fans or that group btw. I don’t mean that in any way, I think they’re fine
Zerum sent me countless photos as reference, but only used the aforementioned idol, saying she wanted him to be “just like him”. I questioned it, voicing concern for not being Chilean if I made the modifications. I asked if she had any input on the fact that those were modern outfits and hair, but this was Sebastian pre-experimentation (early 2010’s). Instead of responding with her thoughts, she drew over my artwork asking for me to do “exactly so”: A modern hairstyle akin to that of the idol. She wanted a toned body akin to that of the idol. Clothing exactly like the idol. HEIGHT exactly like the idol. The only time his race was ever mentioned to me was by Kat, who told me to make sure that his skin tone was the same. “We don’t want any whitewashing”. I had trusted the writers- I had trusted ZERUM with at least depth of character writing. But what I got instead was the belief that whitewashing was purely skin tone. I was disgusted.
I have since deleted our dms, but she said to me along the lines of “this is so stupid, everyone would laugh”. Her and Kat both said if people found out about this, “[idol]’s photocard would increase in price!” I hated these statements the moment it entered my dms. The arrogance.
So I will say this with confidence: Sebastian is Zerum’s kpop crush. And she proudly married him, boasting about how she kept him from everyone. He wasn’t made for anyone else.
Please see this post if you would like proof of some shitty stuff she said (tw: homophobia, transphobia and the like)
I am putting the ref sheet here as I have deleted it off of my page, my portfolio, and I feel sick knowing she has my work on her twitter. But it’s just for reference to what I’m talking about.
I get it may not Look like much. I tried to keep what I thought was true as much as I could. I kept his body shape wider than I think she wanted. I kept his hair curly, trying to keep strands flying around. But the outfits, the accessories, all of it. It was directly from Zerum, telling me to copy the idol verbatim.
My final proof to that situation is the third image there. I posted with my original post. Frankly, I didn’t want to post it. I saw someone with it as their pfp though, meaning Zerum posted it elsewhere. I thought no reason to hide it. It is once again, a direct rip from the kpop idol in the exact pose. I hope some of you connect the dots. She just wanted a version of him that was hers and only hers.
Now, I don’t want this to sound like you can’t make a character in which you yourself love and adore, romantically or platonically. You can make characters based on your irl crushes, that’s fine. That’s awesome! What’s not awesome is lying, letting people believe there was truth to everything you made up. Putting labels on the character just so it was “different”. Shunning people who didn’t believe what you believed about a widely beloved character (that in turn wasn’t even the real character??!??). But you shun them because the widely beloved character was actually just your crush, hand-tailored for you and Only You. This should not have been in the game or even related to the game. This should be a private oc. By integrating this into the game, Zerum has caused what she hated: people “taking” her crush. But it’s her fault.
I beg of any of you who love the Sebastian we were led to believe existed, whether that be platonically or romantically or whatever. I beg you to rip it away from Zerum’s arms.
The writers do not get to choose what entire culture and heritage is just a label to give an oc for fun.
My statement was prepared before this came out. See the details. It’s exactly the photos I was given and whatnot.
———
My final thoughts to Pressure and its community
We are all left in shambles. The amount of artists I’ve seen completely devastated because they poured their hearts out into the media, only to feel like they were held in a chokehold because of it. I am disgusted. I want nothing to do with Pressure. Nothing to do with its IP. I have deleted my official art, as mentioned. I leave my fan work up as a statement of my progress and a statement to how I approach characters and their relationships.
I am so sick to my stomach knowing I was ever involved in this fucking game. Knowing I ever wanted to be a part of it. I might speak for more people than I think, but I personally always saw the way they connected with community artists and thought “that could be me”. I wanted to interact with the devs, to be a part of the team somehow. How fucking vile. How fucking horrendous everything would turn out to be, and I feel ashamed to have had that hubris within me. I say it as I’m sure I’m not the only artist, commissioned or not, who wanted to be involved in its “open community of developers”. I hope I speak for all of us when I say that the people we idolized do not represent us now. But I know I’m not the only one ashamed of it anyways.
I wish luck to those like me who feel taken advantage of. I wish luck to those who feel like they can’t trust a community again. I wish luck to those who relied on the game as a comfort. I don’t have kind words, some advice, or really… anything. I don’t have anything to say, because I haven’t figured it out.
But there’s no rush.
To those of you who found comfort in Sebastian, just know that the Sebastian you loved was already your own original take. “He” was never who you thought he was. “He” was made for Zerum, and nothing more. Any headcanons, any gender identifications, any sexualities you gave him, that is more than Zerum ever would have the gall to do. He is not Zerum’s character. Sebastian was a PR act.
Please. Make your own Sebastians. Give him his chilean heritage. Let him somberly play guitar in the park at midnight because he needed somewhere to think. Let him pierce his ears impulsively at the age of 12, only to be caught by his mom or his siblings. Let him be in middle school band playing the trumpet. Let him be who Zerum never wanted him to be.
———
I need time. I haven’t been thinking straight or drawing straight or anything. I feel so ashamed I tried to rush through it via the greed day artwork I did. I can’t shove myself into another hyperfixation forcibly. For now, I will probably lean back on my OCs, waiting for the next fixation to come.
I am hugging my sea bunny and convincing him that he’s been saved from the hellhole he was born. I am taking my seb keychain and retiring him to my merch collection, forever to be held in pristine condition as a relic of my loving past. I am trying to move forward with kindness in my heart towards myself for loving what I loved. I encourage you to do the same.
Do not be ashamed of who you were before this all came out. We didn’t know. And we loved the material. Nothing will deny that. Don’t shun it out of your life just because of that. Accept it happened, accept the source material is dead, know you’re not supporting it anymore in a physical and monetary sense, and move on.
He'd burn that ring the second he found out. He'd burn it along with their stupid vows. What ring??? Bitch there was never a ring. Zerum aint his owner anymore and Zeal should rot in hell.
Yall go show Ren some support. Please, speak out for victims of rape/S/A, we cannot let this go unpunished.
turnnoffyourmind
kianamaiart
izzy806
blakekathryn
vaporwave
