| \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t | \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFoogYakymo\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t | \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Everest and his good friend Tybalt the deer having a nice play session after Biden's inauguration <3
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So this picture requires a bit of an explanation;
I should probably start off with clarifying that I an in fact, Australian, and have no real interest in American Politics outside of staring in awe with a bag of popcorn at the pure fiesta of watching the most powerful country in the world kneecap itself back into the third world.
The story of this picture can be traced back about a year. I am having a nice conversation with \r\n\t\t\t\t\t
| \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t | \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRiskItForTheBiscuit\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t | \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
His main source?
A telegram group known for exposing furries.
Funnily enough, I had had a run-in with this group prior to being told about it. The owner, Tybalt, was a tad infamous around drama/kiwifarms-esque groups, and had previously been goaded (by me) into posting one of my old gore commissions to his cringe group. It was a pleasant experience all up; for the one threatening message I got, I had about 12 people message me to warm me about the malicious act, and it overall gave me a lot of, for lack of a better word, pride in this community. Tybalt was a bit of a tool, but I knew that he was a relatively harmless tool. Out of curiosity, I joined the exposed channel, to see if i could get a bit more information on how these exposés were curated.
Turns out... They weren't curated. Tybalt would receive reports based on his infamy and then repost them without a single second of fact checking. It was a little disappointing... I thought long and hard about whether or not having an unmoderated 'watchdog' vigilante group was even a good idea, especially one caring more about having a clear target for their own now vindicated vitriol than actually improving the community. I came to the conclusion that while a list of bad actors would be useful, without a fair and just way to police the moderation of such a list, it will only ever be abused and used as a free pass to bully a third party while maintaining a perceived moral high-ground (much the same way twitter does).
Still, I was... strangely enamoured by the group. They were all horrid people, but I was smitten when I realised I made no attempt to hide who I was and yet... they didn't kick me. The moderators acted under the rather libertarian belief that as long as I wasn't hurting anyone, I was free to stay and be made fun of, and that banning people who you don't agree with does nothing but create an echo chamber... I really appreciated the sentiment, and thought for a second that maybe... just maybe, I could help sway this group into being a legitimate and useful service.
I ended up briefly becoming a moderator and assisting Tybalt in vetting reports; it still felt mean spirited but at the end of the day, I would rather reports be vetted and released than just released.
I kinda warmed up to Tybalt eventually. He was still kinda young, and it was clear that, in his own fucked up way, he was attempting to do the right thing. He had little to gain from reporting on zoophiles or convicted pedophiles, he didnt seem to care about view count or membership rate, he was just a weeb with a dark sense of humor, who wanted to try and sanitise the furry fandom in a way that would make him feel less bad about being a member. He reminded me a lot of myself, honestly. None of us are perfect, but I feel like a person worth knowing is simply a person who is willing to get up every day and do what he thinks is right.
Tybalt and I had a lot of heated discussions about the morality of cub porn. Hot take but I actually think cub porn is weird and gross, but I mean... so is most porn! Ultimately, it is a safe and controlled way to explore problematic thoughts and fantasies, and as long as cub porn lovers can maintain a level of self-awareness, it should be encouraged over the classic strategy of suppression. Tybalt always thought of it as a gateway to worse and worse things, and no better than the real abuse of children, but regardless of that viewpoint, we still respected each other.
Then it all went down. One day, about 40 days before the presidential election for America began, Tybalt piped up in the chat
"There is literally no way Biden has a HOPE of winning!" he wrote, smugly as could be. "I don't even know why the democrats are trying... Trump has literally already won!"
I was feeling a little cheeky that day, so decided to call him out on this.
"Oh, I dunno Tybalt, I'd put good money on Biden winning honestly"
Tybalt took the bait
"Dude... I'm literally going to put a hundred dollar bet down on Trump winning, its free money..."
"How about this Tybalt... If Trump wins, I will buy you any gundam toy statue you like, up to $50 US, off your amazon wishlist. But if Biden wins... You have to get cub porn with me. Whatever I want, and you have to pay for it."
"It's a deal." He said, without faltering. "Someone screencap this shit, I'm getting a free figurine bois!"
The bet was wafted over my head for the weeks following, the smugness at its peak during the initial few days of the counting, showing a VAST majority of the states red, but It was obvious the race was nowhere near over, if you weren't ignoring half the facts.
One by one, the red states turned blue as the mail in votes were received, and Tybalt started to have a bit of a panic attack.
"this is retarded. This shit is obviously rigged. The bets off, obviously, it doesn't count when the game is fixed."
"Tybalt come on, you can't be this delusional..." The initially funny situation had resulted in tensions higher than I had anticipated, and it was no longer an enjoyable experience "I don't even want your money, but once Biden is Inaugurated, I am posting the porn. You agreed to this."
"You post that shit and You will lose a friend, I am serious."
I never expected Tybalt's money, honestly... I respected him but I knew him well enough to know that he would never actually follow through, but the excuse of 'the election was rigged' was more cringe-worthy than I was expecting. I expected the whole thing to be played off like an elaborate prank on his behalf, but what I got was tantamount to a sobbing and stuttering wreck unsure of how to handle the situation.
"Why do you care so much about this Tybalt? Everyone knows you aren't into this shit, everyone's seen the bet. Everyone KNOWS this is a joke... why do you care if it goes online?"
He took a while to respond.
"I just don't want people to think I'm a cubfag..."
Now... I know better than anyone that Tybalt is a sociopath. He is not above some pretty intense manipulation to get power over the people around him, but I relented for a while. I was still going to post this piece, but I would wait until the American legal system had been given enough time to settle all cases regarding the outcome of the election, as pathetic as those cases were. I wanted to stay good with the dude, even if only to have an asset in future.
Then, unfortunately, a bunch of things happened at once that are hard to summarize...
- The rooms tendency to let cub fans stay to be mocked and laughed at had resulted in them having a majority stake in room activity
- a couple of tybalt's close friends in the group ended up being into cub porn the whole time, and were using the group as a way to justify their interests
- The group ended up splintering after Tybalt took an unexpected absence due to real life issues. The groups had become a 'lulz' side and a 'watchdog' side; one being there as a community service, and one being there to laugh at the freaks. This splinter ended up being snuffed out quickly due to Tybalt returning and permabanning anyone who joined the watchdog group, renegging on his desire to distance himself from drama and caring about content. Both groups used the same channel for content which essentially killed any intent to peacefully resolve the situation.
- not long after the splinter formed and died, one of the old admins had taken it upon himself to attempt to honeypot prior members of the community by stating he was 15 and attempting some kind of entrapment. Unfortunately, it turned out that this moderator... was indeed actually 15, and was still a member of the group known for posting badly censored cub and illegal material.
- I questioned Tybalt a few times about this but the question was always dodged. He knew that whatever he answered, it would not go down well. He ended up going with "I think he is mature enough to stay"
For lack of a better word... I was disappointed. I saw a lot of myself in Tybalt, and really thought he might end up being a really good person. I do still feel very sorry for the dude... I can forgive a lot. He is entitled to his opinion on cub art, and he is entitled to run his groups however he wants, but knowingly allowing a 15 year old to be exposed to that kind of material is unforgivable, and I come out of this story thoroughly defeated.
but at the end of the day, I can at least share with you all this memory of the good times <3