a closed starter for @bazwrites based on this post featuring kamile.
“you know you can hold my hand, right?” typically public displays of affection would make kamile squirm however she had been the one to suggest this arrangement. actually making it seem like something believable would work more in their favour than not. after outstretching her hand, she gave a little wiggle of her fingers for good measure. “you can try and look into me.”
“hey connor, what the hell is happening with jump?
+aka, for those of you looking for answers.
fair warning this is a very long story, and it isn't a very nice one. for the sake of not being a huge asshole, i'll refrain from mentioning the other party by name/url/ao3 handle/whatever, because i'd rather not send the dogs after this person like they were for me.
and to those of you who have been following me since mid-to-late august (around when this whole thing started) (and, coincidentally, when jump became the most popular fic in the dear evan hansen tag on ao3, but we'll ignore that little detail), you might know who the other person is in this whole situation. i know most of my friends do, and for my friends and otherwise please don't go after this person. don't reblog with their name or fic title or whatever, because the point of this post is to serve as an explanation for why jump is going down, not start a manhunt for this other person.
i digress.
around mid-august, i began receiving comments and a few asks regarding a chapter of jump (28, to be specific). in essence, they were saying that i had "ripped off" a certain plot point of a certain fic, which. to be honest i didn't think a whole lot of? because the messages i received didn't say anything about what i had ripped off, just that i had done it.
it came to a point where i messaged the author of this other fic and briefly explained the situation, and made my case. i got a response sometime the next day and it wasn't one i was hoping for.
which, of course, i've accepted that at this point - people think i did plagiarize. the author of the other work thinks that i did. i know that i didn't, but i need to acknowledge and accept that a lot of people think i did.
what i didn't accept was the "term" i was given - to put a note on the chapter in question crediting this author for the "original idea."
which, you know, was offensive to me - because jump had always been my idea. despite what was being said, i knew that i hadn't read the sections of the other fic that i was accused of stealing, before i had published my own chapter. so i couldn't have taken the idea, if that makes sense?
i didn't respond to the other author's message, and that was wrong of me. i know that that was shitty of me to not offer a response, and there isn't really an excuse for that? but it happened, and it was shitty, but.
for the most part, things quieted down for a bit when i posted chapter 29, and i rather naively assumed that things had permanently gone quiet. i'd made an incredibly long statement in the end notes of the chapter, and i said that if anyone wanted to say anything further they could feel free to pm me, because it was counterproductive to yell arguments at each other through my inbox. funnily enough, no one took that offer and messaged me, but i can't say i'm surprised. without the shield of anon, people tend to not disagree so violently.
after 30 got posted, however, things sort of exploded.
immediately people took it upon themselves to leave nasty comments and asks in my inbox, which hurt but at this point i had come to expect it from the whole situation.
sometime after that, the callout was posted.
which, of course, made me freak the fuck out.
what was worse was that i found it on accident; someone reblogged a post of mine with something nasty and i was confused so i checked their blog, and. well.
it had the title of my fic all over it, it was in the main tags, and i knew immediately when asks started piling up that none of them were going to be good. and they weren't. i haven't gotten death threats a whole lot, but that day was definitely a peak in me receiving them.
there was.....a lot in the callout, and it took me a good few hours to get myself to a state where i could read it without freaking out again.
this was early on in the post, where i was accused of shot for shot rewriting sections of a certain chapter of this other fic, when, again, i hadn't read it until chapter 28 was posted and chapter 30 was long since drafted and in the process of being written, but. (the bit of the sentence that is cut off reads "however, as the author of [fic], chapters 28 and 30 read like-")
note how no proof of this is provided, or anything beyond the chapter numbers.
this next bit is from the pm i received from them, and it's interesting in how it reflects the author's...i dont know how to describe it. i suppose arrogance is the best word i can find? for them to insinuate that their work is so well known enough that even if people haven't read it, they'd know about it.
(cut off sentence: “at the very least, the final chapters of [fic] are pretty-”)
the same sentiment is reflected here, in the callout.
the callout also points out that there's no indication of where i got the plot for jump, and that's because i made up the plot. the idea to kickstart the story i got from a prompt blog (here, if you're interested) and it states very explicitly in its terms of submission (here) that anyone submitting an idea for a prompt gives full permission to anyone to use it, credit unnecessary.
so that isn't exactly a 'gotcha!' point.
the last bits of the callout talk about me being rude to fans and making vague posts on tumblr, which. no proof provided so i, again, have no idea what they constitute as rude or vague.
it was.....a lot. and i had no idea what to do. i was scared, and i didn't know how to deal with having the fans of some 26 year old coming after me like that. i shut off anon, and i took a break of a day or so from tumblr, and that was pretty much that?
until two weeks ago, when i received this email from archive of our own:
so, things had obviously escalated. things had moved from calling me out publicly, to moving to get my work deleted. it messed me up pretty bad, and for a while i was freaking out.
after a day or so, a few of my close friends (one of which who has had prolonged access to both the jump writing document and the planning document) and i emailed ao3 with our appeals. i don't currently have copies of my friends' appeals, and all that is in mine was essentially what i've said publicly, with a few mentions of previous incidents. after a two week wait period as they reviewed my appeal, i received this email last night:
it strikes me how again, it's said that i shot for shot (or rather, replaced synonyms and the like) took this fic, but then again i'm not given specific instances, and then in the same paragraph it mentions that "whether you intentionally plagiarized or did it subconsciously after reading their fic, you are still responsible for the content." i don't understand how i could have taken scenes one by one and replaced synonyms, but also "subconsciously" plagiarize?
and, better yet, how can i plagiarize something i hadn't read until after the accused chapter was posted?
let me just say that i don't know for certain it was the author that made the complaint, but i would bet a whole lot on that possibility. even if it wasn't them who made the claim, they have to be notified because it involves their work. so.
and that's essentially where we're at now. jump is being deleted on november 10th, one way or another. and i am so, so angry.
i understand wanting to protect one's work. it's the reason i've maintained my innocence, and appealed to ao3. i want to protect my work from accusations i know aren't true.
but to have something i've worked so hard on for nearly seven months ripped from my hands? it's not fair. it's quite honestly bullshit.
this isn't meant to convince any of you one way or another of what happened, because you can all think for yourselves. whether you believe me or not, at this point it doesn't matter, because jump has already been sentenced to its fate.
but i know what i did and didn't do. i wouldn't still be fighting this if i wasn't sure of my innocence.
i'm angry. i'm going to be angry for a long time. this whole situation has made me fucking hate even looking at my writing anymore. what would possess someone to go so far as to get my work deleted, i don't really know.
as the author has stated, no one really "owns" fanfiction. so what gives them the right to take my work away from me? my accomplishments?
i hold no ill will towards the other author, but i hate this situation and i hate what they've done. i hate that there is someone in their mid twenties out there who has taken it upon themselves to take away a 17 year old's passion project.
am i bitter? yes. and i'm not apologetic for it. i didn't plagiarize anyone in regards to jump, plain and simple. no matter what anyone else says, i know the truth, and the people i care about know the truth, and i can't do a thing about anyone else, so it doesn't really matter.
a few friends have asked for me to make jump available by other means, and i'm considering it. because even though the hits and comments will be deleted, as its always been, jump has been for my own enjoyment. for me to tell a story i think needed to be told. and just because it's being cut short doesn't mean it still isn't worth telling.
if i do make it available elsewhere, i'll let people know. but this is where i leave you for now.
like i said in the beginning of this stupidly long post, please don't go off and attack this author. i'm angry, but taking it out on them will do nothing. it will only make things worse. jump is being deleted, and no amount of nastiness will change that. so we may as all just be nice.
if any of you have anymore questions, feel free to message me or send me an ask. anything general or non-specific i'll answer in asks, but if you have anything you'd like clarification on in regards to specifics, please message me privately.
and. um. i guess that's it?
thanks for reading. i’m sorry. i wish they hadn’t taken it this far.
hiiii! nice to meet you. my name is baz, and i write on ao3 and draw for fun :]
if you couldn’t tell already, my favorite driver is doriane pin for duqueine racing, but im overall a veeery big merc supporter and i love george and kimi as well (honestly mostly apathetic towards kimi #GR1ND rn). i also support alex, arvid (fellow brown boy), and oscar (f1).
important!!! dni is you don’t like rpf this is an rpf centric blog i will use to talk about ARR PEE EFFFF!!! you have been warned.
the ships i write are:
dorabbi my Beloved yuri
galex my other beloved yuri
and sharks yaoi >:D (greky, samisa, willmack)
my tags are:
#bazwrites: to talk about writing, ask for advice, and generally just allll my writing stuff
#bazdraws: same as above, just for my artstuffs!
#mp63files: i’ll be posting all my finished art and writing under this tag so y’all can get to it real easy.
if you know me from another platform pls refrain from doing an exposé on me thanks. i made this blog for a reason!
more me stuff now. im genda fluid and i use he/she prns and im only a mere 17 years of age so be nice to me <3 i love cats and mango sticky rice and hockey. (sharks fan bay loyal bay local in-n-out burger go dubs all that jazz)
Ok. that’s about it folks! go forth and enjoy the blog and remember to stay cool and give $20 to your nearest transperson
ok so hear me out. she’s the man bearnelli au where kimi gets kicked off his team (gets outed?) and transfers to the rival school to play football and all the drama goes down and he confesses at the end possiblé? idk random thoughts.
