Now at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_YWE5_9rDDENg1-bzMAbIsA0QExuV5jyp0RZlx5b9qU/edit?pref=2&pli=1
"This document was originally found at http://stormlight.starslikerain.net/docfiles/tale.doc but is currently unavailable at that URL. The words below are not my own, but come from a former associate of Andrew Blake’s, when he was active in the Star Trek: Voyager fandom as Strwriter and Voyagerbabe.
I discovered fandom quite by accident through a simple yahoo search. At the time, my fixations were X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager. It was the latter that led me to meet You Know Who.
One morning in my inbox, I discovered a very-well written, very kind feedback. The sender had the identity of "Player". This person (the email was unsigned) had gone the length of four paragraphs or so. The next morning, a second email--but unlike the first, this one was signed "Amy". I replied to the second but received a bounce notice. In hopes that I could regain contact, I left a note smack on the front page of my website for her. Success! A third email from Amy was in my box the following morning--with the correct address.
It was obvious from the start of our talks that her family life was not the ideal. She was well taken care of but her parents, especially her mother, expected perfection out of her, whereas her younger sister Caroline was permitted to get away with anything and everything. Having friends in her shoes, I could easily sympathize and express disgust with the way she described her overbearing mother. Some prize-winning examples she gave me included the following: grounding her for receiving a B on a quiz, being blamed for most of Caroline's behavior, and screening her every friend to the point of ridiculous. But after a few months, her parents had apparently decided (I assumed by reading my emails over Amy's shoulder or perhaps even reading them first) that despite the age difference, I was "suitable".
This began the privilege of phone calls from Amy to me, of which there was at least one a week. I always figured if the phone calls stopped, that her parents would have decided the bill was too high. Or she was grounded, usually caused by Caroline. But the few times that there were gaps in phone calls, the latter explanation was always the one.
Caroline's behavior is the one thing I know was not a fabrication. Prime example: the Christmas after we met, Amy prepared a package for me--homemade cookies, some of her artwork, and a video tape. I never received it and weeks later, found out why. She had to hide the package because of Caroline's habit of stealing. Sure enough, Caroline had proceeded to get her hands on the package and destroy it.
Amy was permitted to call me and tell me why she was grounded. We weren't two minutes into the conversation when Caroline proceeded to get on the other extension, call me vulgar names and tell me "there isn't shit anyone can do about what I did to your stupid package". When I dished it back at her, she went crying to Daddy. Mr. Player got on the phone, wanting to know what was going on. Amy tried to explain but I cut her off and read him the polite version of the riot act, making it clear that he and his wife needed to take their younger child to heel. Of course, he wasn't keen on the language I'd used, but mumbled some promise about Caroline being punished as well since he'd found the remains of my present in the kitchen trash and it was obvious that not even his psycho of a wife could dispute such hard evidence.
Christmas came and went. The very evening of the day after the penalty was lifted, I called. Mrs. Player was the one who answered and I figured this would be the end of it. Given all I'd heard from Amy, I expected to be chewed out for yelling at her pwecious, told I could never speak to Amy again and be hung up on.
Surprisingly, this was not the case. The Caroline incident was never mentioned. Instead, before giving the phone to Amy, she wanted to know more about me. She questioned me about my job, my family, my past. Whether to deduce if I was sane (since I have little doubt she was told by her husband that I'd called her baby a few choice impolite names) or doing what most normal parents would do, I don't know. I figured it was a combination of both and when she complimented me on being "sensible" and then passed the phone to Amy, I could only figure I had passed inspection.
Amy's first piece of news that day was that she'd gotten a friend of hers hooked on Voyager and was trying to convince said friend to join the online community. "Great!" was my response, figuring this person would just be as fun to talk to as Amy herself. Who was she? I was told she was like me--only a select few know my real name. (Even Mr. and Mrs. Player knew me only as Darci, my high school nickname.) But she'd decided on a Net nick--Voyagerbabe.
As VB began showing up in the online circles, she became Amy's and my main topic of discussion. After a lot of pressing, she finally said she would be allowed to tell some of what she knew--as long as I kept the secret. When I agreed, what unfolded was something that could easily come straight from an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Being starved for days. Locked in closets. Forced to ingest household chemicals. Being beaten and burned for stealing food. Farmed out to the bio-parents' friends as a sex slave. Similar tales you heard in the news--exposed only after the parents were prosecuted to the fullest extent. Except that VB had miraculously been a survivor.
I never expected this to come out of VB to anyone else but when VB joined an adult fanfiction list, someone apparently ran to the moderators, claiming that VB was underage. I was startled to receive a bcc copy of the tale in what was VB's own words as a response to "assure" them she was who she was and not an underage friend of Amy's. The email detailed much of what Amy had told me over the phone, beginning with the explanation that she had been found by a young boy who had been pet-sitting for a neighbor, happened to look out the window and see through the open blinds a girl his own age tied naked and gagged to her parents' bed--and had thus called the police. *
But assuming at the time that this was real, I was. To see it written in her "own" words (and signed "Ciyerra Tallaver"), all I could think was "good God, I'm surprised she's not lost her mind." I was later shown by VB a reply from the senior moderator promising that what had been shared would be kept quiet and they would calm down the person making a fuss.
Amy and VB had talked between themselves so that the next time she called me, she said VB was willing to talk to me. It was maybe five minutes, but I could have sworn at the time that I was talking to another person. The voice was feminine but very rough-sounding, which I took to be caused by the attempted poisonings.
A well-known member of the adult list, known as Ms. E., soon came to harass me, telling me that if I knew VB was underage, I'd "better admit it now". I was annoyed with the woman's attitude and flat-out told her that I'd spoken to two different girls on the phone and she needed to get over herself. Ms. E. was quite perturbed by the fact that I wouldn't "admit" to any wrongdoing so she finally dropped it.
By this time, a girl named Melinda had joined the fandom as well; however, her true colors were more quickly revealed. For reasons unknown, she decided she would attempt to trash several friendships (Amy's and mine included), as well as the reputations of several well-known fic writers. Amy's upbringing and Mommy Dearest's behavior were common knowledge, so Melinda fed her slash stories while lying about their content. As soon as Amy saw the first hint of slash, she closed the link, told Melinda off and blocked Melinda from her AIM buddy list. But her parents refused to believe (even with an AIM log in front of their faces) that Melinda was behind it.
During the three months Amy was offline, the moderators of the adult fic group finally booted Melinda out after she was caught harassing other members with the same ploy. Unsurprisingly, Mommy Dearest tried to blame me for the slash incident. I had to tell her TWICE the many things Melinda had been up to in order to shut her up.
The next winter was coming and Amy started telling me she had "met someone". His name was David and he worked at CW. She described him, head to toe, said VB had met him and liked him. So what did the parents think? They didn't know, because Mommy Dearest assumed Amy would "forget my long-term goals" if a boyfriend was around. I could only roll my eyes at that.
At some point, the discussion of Mommy Dearest's lack (IMO) of parenting skills brought about a question I finally remembered to ask: if they were going to forbid her to date, why did they allow her to be friends with someone with "that kind" of past? (I phrased it that way since every other person I've met with Cydney Player's frame of mind will often play the victim blaming game, convinced that the victim "did something" to "make" the abuser act out. Usually such people end up considering these victims "tainted goods" and be afraid that something bad would "rub off" on themselves/their family members.) Amy said that her parents realized what VB went through wasn't her fault so unless she ever started showing signs of "bad influence", they could stay friends.
Wow, there was compassion in the woman! (Could've fooled me.)
Three days before Christmas, my phone rang mid-morning. It was Amy. And she did not sound like herself. I asked if she was all right. The response was a tear-choked scream of "he's DEAD!"
It was never clear (because Amy was speaking through tears) who was driving--David or David's mother. But the nasty ice storms that had visited the East that week had made the local roads in the area a death trap. Despite their careful driving, the car skidded on black ice and slammed head-on into a tree. The mother suffered critical injuries, but survived. David's neck was broken and he was pronounced dead at the scene. **
Contact became more sporadic after that. I called that year on Amy's birthday--got her mother, who was surprisingly polite. No call back. Got an email a month later--grounded thanks to Caroline, again. As usual, my response was sympathy and a rant about how stupid her mother was.
Well apparently Mommy Dearest was up to reading emails that didn't belong to her again....because three months and four phone calls later (Amy made three, I made the fourth and last), I was read the riot act. How DARE I judge what kind of parent she was or have any opinions on "family business". I told her I dared because I was Amy's friend and she had better count herself lucky that she didn't behave like VB's birth parents had or I'd have made sure the Williamsburg PD paid her a little visit.
Of course, I got hung up on. Big surprise there.
Fast forward to about 2001-02. I spoke briefly to VB and was told that even she had lost contact with Amy; that she'd been shipped off to some sort of boarding-school style college. Given a recent expose on Pensacola Christian College had just hit the Internet, I was inclined to believe this was true. In fact, I wondered if that was exactly where she was now. VB promised to pass on word to Amy when she saw her for the upcoming Christmas holiday....but I never heard from her again.
* - that description is almost verbatim to the best of my knowledge. Unfortunately, the email itself is long since lost. ** - I honestly do not know if this boy ever existed and/or was ever involved with her. I tried to see if there was an online news article at the time, but I have never been very good at searching news websites and did not know the boy's last name so upon finding nothing, I shrugged it off. After all the bad weather had been a big story that year so I also assumed that the death of one teenaged boy would not make any sort of mark on the national news."
Strwriter and Voyagerbabe / Allegations of sexual abuse
Now at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_YWE5_9rDDENg1-bzMAbIsA0QExuV5jyp0RZlx5b9qU/edit?pref=2&pli=1
"This document was originally found at http://stormlight.starslikerain.net/docfiles/tale.doc but is currently unavailable at that URL. The words below are not my own, but come from a former associate of Andrew Blake’s, when he was active in the Star Trek: Voyager fandom as Strwriter and Voyagerbabe.
I discovered fandom quite by accident through a simple yahoo search. At the time, my fixations were X-Files and Star Trek: Voyager. It was the latter that led me to meet You Know Who.
One morning in my inbox, I discovered a very-well written, very kind feedback. The sender had the identity of "Player". This person (the email was unsigned) had gone the length of four paragraphs or so. The next morning, a second email--but unlike the first, this one was signed "Amy". I replied to the second but received a bounce notice. In hopes that I could regain contact, I left a note smack on the front page of my website for her. Success! A third email from Amy was in my box the following morning--with the correct address.
It was obvious from the start of our talks that her family life was not the ideal. She was well taken care of but her parents, especially her mother, expected perfection out of her, whereas her younger sister Caroline was permitted to get away with anything and everything. Having friends in her shoes, I could easily sympathize and express disgust with the way she described her overbearing mother. Some prize-winning examples she gave me included the following: grounding her for receiving a B on a quiz, being blamed for most of Caroline's behavior, and screening her every friend to the point of ridiculous. But after a few months, her parents had apparently decided (I assumed by reading my emails over Amy's shoulder or perhaps even reading them first) that despite the age difference, I was "suitable".
This began the privilege of phone calls from Amy to me, of which there was at least one a week. I always figured if the phone calls stopped, that her parents would have decided the bill was too high. Or she was grounded, usually caused by Caroline. But the few times that there were gaps in phone calls, the latter explanation was always the one.
Caroline's behavior is the one thing I know was not a fabrication. Prime example: the Christmas after we met, Amy prepared a package for me--homemade cookies, some of her artwork, and a video tape. I never received it and weeks later, found out why. She had to hide the package because of Caroline's habit of stealing. Sure enough, Caroline had proceeded to get her hands on the package and destroy it.
Amy was permitted to call me and tell me why she was grounded. We weren't two minutes into the conversation when Caroline proceeded to get on the other extension, call me vulgar names and tell me "there isn't shit anyone can do about what I did to your stupid package". When I dished it back at her, she went crying to Daddy. Mr. Player got on the phone, wanting to know what was going on. Amy tried to explain but I cut her off and read him the polite version of the riot act, making it clear that he and his wife needed to take their younger child to heel. Of course, he wasn't keen on the language I'd used, but mumbled some promise about Caroline being punished as well since he'd found the remains of my present in the kitchen trash and it was obvious that not even his psycho of a wife could dispute such hard evidence.
Christmas came and went. The very evening of the day after the penalty was lifted, I called. Mrs. Player was the one who answered and I figured this would be the end of it. Given all I'd heard from Amy, I expected to be chewed out for yelling at her pwecious, told I could never speak to Amy again and be hung up on.
Surprisingly, this was not the case. The Caroline incident was never mentioned. Instead, before giving the phone to Amy, she wanted to know more about me. She questioned me about my job, my family, my past. Whether to deduce if I was sane (since I have little doubt she was told by her husband that I'd called her baby a few choice impolite names) or doing what most normal parents would do, I don't know. I figured it was a combination of both and when she complimented me on being "sensible" and then passed the phone to Amy, I could only figure I had passed inspection.
Amy's first piece of news that day was that she'd gotten a friend of hers hooked on Voyager and was trying to convince said friend to join the online community. "Great!" was my response, figuring this person would just be as fun to talk to as Amy herself. Who was she? I was told she was like me--only a select few know my real name. (Even Mr. and Mrs. Player knew me only as Darci, my high school nickname.) But she'd decided on a Net nick--Voyagerbabe.
As VB began showing up in the online circles, she became Amy's and my main topic of discussion. After a lot of pressing, she finally said she would be allowed to tell some of what she knew--as long as I kept the secret. When I agreed, what unfolded was something that could easily come straight from an episode of Law and Order: SVU. Being starved for days. Locked in closets. Forced to ingest household chemicals. Being beaten and burned for stealing food. Farmed out to the bio-parents' friends as a sex slave. Similar tales you heard in the news--exposed only after the parents were prosecuted to the fullest extent. Except that VB had miraculously been a survivor.
I never expected this to come out of VB to anyone else but when VB joined an adult fanfiction list, someone apparently ran to the moderators, claiming that VB was underage. I was startled to receive a bcc copy of the tale in what was VB's own words as a response to "assure" them she was who she was and not an underage friend of Amy's. The email detailed much of what Amy had told me over the phone, beginning with the explanation that she had been found by a young boy who had been pet-sitting for a neighbor, happened to look out the window and see through the open blinds a girl his own age tied naked and gagged to her parents' bed--and had thus called the police. *
But assuming at the time that this was real, I was. To see it written in her "own" words (and signed "Ciyerra Tallaver"), all I could think was "good God, I'm surprised she's not lost her mind." I was later shown by VB a reply from the senior moderator promising that what had been shared would be kept quiet and they would calm down the person making a fuss.
Amy and VB had talked between themselves so that the next time she called me, she said VB was willing to talk to me. It was maybe five minutes, but I could have sworn at the time that I was talking to another person. The voice was feminine but very rough-sounding, which I took to be caused by the attempted poisonings.
A well-known member of the adult list, known as Ms. E., soon came to harass me, telling me that if I knew VB was underage, I'd "better admit it now". I was annoyed with the woman's attitude and flat-out told her that I'd spoken to two different girls on the phone and she needed to get over herself. Ms. E. was quite perturbed by the fact that I wouldn't "admit" to any wrongdoing so she finally dropped it.
By this time, a girl named Melinda had joined the fandom as well; however, her true colors were more quickly revealed. For reasons unknown, she decided she would attempt to trash several friendships (Amy's and mine included), as well as the reputations of several well-known fic writers. Amy's upbringing and Mommy Dearest's behavior were common knowledge, so Melinda fed her slash stories while lying about their content. As soon as Amy saw the first hint of slash, she closed the link, told Melinda off and blocked Melinda from her AIM buddy list. But her parents refused to believe (even with an AIM log in front of their faces) that Melinda was behind it.
During the three months Amy was offline, the moderators of the adult fic group finally booted Melinda out after she was caught harassing other members with the same ploy. Unsurprisingly, Mommy Dearest tried to blame me for the slash incident. I had to tell her TWICE the many things Melinda had been up to in order to shut her up.
The next winter was coming and Amy started telling me she had "met someone". His name was David and he worked at CW. She described him, head to toe, said VB had met him and liked him. So what did the parents think? They didn't know, because Mommy Dearest assumed Amy would "forget my long-term goals" if a boyfriend was around. I could only roll my eyes at that.
At some point, the discussion of Mommy Dearest's lack (IMO) of parenting skills brought about a question I finally remembered to ask: if they were going to forbid her to date, why did they allow her to be friends with someone with "that kind" of past? (I phrased it that way since every other person I've met with Cydney Player's frame of mind will often play the victim blaming game, convinced that the victim "did something" to "make" the abuser act out. Usually such people end up considering these victims "tainted goods" and be afraid that something bad would "rub off" on themselves/their family members.) Amy said that her parents realized what VB went through wasn't her fault so unless she ever started showing signs of "bad influence", they could stay friends.
Wow, there was compassion in the woman! (Could've fooled me.)
Three days before Christmas, my phone rang mid-morning. It was Amy. And she did not sound like herself. I asked if she was all right. The response was a tear-choked scream of "he's DEAD!"
It was never clear (because Amy was speaking through tears) who was driving--David or David's mother. But the nasty ice storms that had visited the East that week had made the local roads in the area a death trap. Despite their careful driving, the car skidded on black ice and slammed head-on into a tree. The mother suffered critical injuries, but survived. David's neck was broken and he was pronounced dead at the scene. **
Contact became more sporadic after that. I called that year on Amy's birthday--got her mother, who was surprisingly polite. No call back. Got an email a month later--grounded thanks to Caroline, again. As usual, my response was sympathy and a rant about how stupid her mother was.
Well apparently Mommy Dearest was up to reading emails that didn't belong to her again....because three months and four phone calls later (Amy made three, I made the fourth and last), I was read the riot act. How DARE I judge what kind of parent she was or have any opinions on "family business". I told her I dared because I was Amy's friend and she had better count herself lucky that she didn't behave like VB's birth parents had or I'd have made sure the Williamsburg PD paid her a little visit.
Of course, I got hung up on. Big surprise there.
Fast forward to about 2001-02. I spoke briefly to VB and was told that even she had lost contact with Amy; that she'd been shipped off to some sort of boarding-school style college. Given a recent expose on Pensacola Christian College had just hit the Internet, I was inclined to believe this was true. In fact, I wondered if that was exactly where she was now. VB promised to pass on word to Amy when she saw her for the upcoming Christmas holiday....but I never heard from her again.
* - that description is almost verbatim to the best of my knowledge. Unfortunately, the email itself is long since lost.
** - I honestly do not know if this boy ever existed and/or was ever involved with her. I tried to see if there was an online news article at the time, but I have never been very good at searching news websites and did not know the boy's last name so upon finding nothing, I shrugged it off. After all the bad weather had been a big story that year so I also assumed that the death of one teenaged boy would not make any sort of mark on the national news."