Why This Year Has Sucked. · 11:00pm Nov 26th, 2021
As many of you probably already know, this year has been... terrible for me. What started as some seasonal depression lingering from last year combined with the covid blues became much worse at around my birthday (About 5 months ago) when a close personal friend attempted to blackmail me. He claimed to have incriminating evidence of me doing something horrible, and demanded I pay him a considerable sum. I don't need to tell you all this but writing horse words ain't exactly lucrative, so I couldn't pay him. I got a lawyer, and prepared for the summons, but was not surprised when that didn't happen.
Instead, he went to my friends and family, attempting to drive a wedge between me and them in order to further leverage his effort to make me pay up. Needless to say, I lost a lot of close friendships, including the person in question, who threw away nearly 2 decades of friendship in order to try and extort me. I was able to recover the majority of those friends after I produced evidence of his attempt at blackmail, and showed evidence of the time he tricked me out of the house and attempted to rifle through my belongings and computer in order to find more things to blackmail me on. Unfortunately for him the most illegal thing I do is jaywalk, so he found nothing. Despite all that, most people are on my side, but avoid me out of a desire to not get involved with the ensuing drama, which I can't say I blame them really.
So where does that leave me now? Well, I don't want to go to court. I know I'll win, my lawyer has pretty much stated that his entire attempt to blackmail me has left him with no possibility of victory, but he could try if he wanted. I'd lose a lot of time and money, but my name would be cleared. I don't really want to go through all that though. Plus he has also yet to actually continue with his attempt to press charges, though he put in a statement with the police.
My theory is that so as long as he continues to not press charges, he doesn't have to prove any of his claims, and I can't hit him with a defamation suit as that would require the initial thing to be resolved. So where am I going with this? Well, let's just say that having that looming over my head for nearly half a year at this point has been extremely mentally taxing, and to say that I've been depressed would be an understatement. There have been many days where I've laid in bed unable to do anything more than eat, read and go back to sleep. This is why I fell behind on Patreon stories and commissions though I've recently mostly caught up on both of those fronts.
Also, don't worry, I was never suicidal or anything, even at my darkest moments.
Why am I telling you all this? Well partially just as an explainer as to why I've been miserable, and unproductive but also partially because I've wracked up some fines due to my inability to pay bills on time. So if you wouldn't mind lending me a hand I've got a PayPal donation link over here. I'm not about to be homeless or anything though, so don't pity me too badly. I'm also getting through my commission backlog, but I owe people a lot of words so it's going to be a week or two until I can actually move on to paying work.
I was also able to call in a favor with a friend and get some counseling so I'm doing better mentally now, which is why I finally feel comfortable enough to say all this. As such I'm doing much better now, and I finally feel like I'm doing more than just treading water.
Tldr. Lost a bunch of friends, got tied up in a complicated legal drama, got extremely depressed for a while there, and need a bit of help.
Paypal link, in case you missed it. Or if you would like to get something for your support my Patreon and subscribe star are here.
I will also not be answering any questions about specific details as that could potentially cause problems for me in the future. This is about as deep as I can go without running into potential legal trouble.
Also also, if you don't believe me or whatever well I couldn't say I blame you. This is a pretty rigodamndiculous situation and one that feels unreal even to me. I'd love nothing more than to give you all the evidence but that would really come back to bite me.
Edit* thank you so much to that one person who donated so far. I greatly apreciate your support.
What a fking joker. I'd just sue for trauma and mental damages and have him flounder.
You could have pressed charges on him as blackmail is a crime, but I understand that you just want this over and done.
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I'm tempted, but even if you win you need a large initial cash investment to get a lawyer, drive to and from the courthouse, take time off, and even if you win it's a stressful as hell experience.
Plus I'm not a vengeful person. If my ex-friend just apologized, and put out some kind of public statement that they were wrong I'd be more than happy to just let it rest. Life's too short.
What a terrible person.
He's shot himself in the foot but he's trying to drag you down with him, by all means, you have way more blackmail material on him than he does on you, I assume you have proof of him trying to extort you, and threatening to lie about you.
If he's going to use his own reputation to try and destroy yours, then you have all the tools you have to do much more damage to his reputation than he could ever do to you, crushing his ability to harm your own reputation, without putting yourself in danger of a legal case, since you wouldn't have to lie.
Ultimately, the choice is yours, and you should do what will be the best for you.
Ideal situation, he apologizes, and admits he lied to the people he lied to, all is fixed for everyone, but if he won't, then you need to prevent further damage.
I'm sorry mate, that is such a horrible thing to hear about, that someone you considered a friend would backstab you like this, It's good to hear that you pulled through it all in the end, and he didn't get what he wanted.
I hope from here out, everything gets better for you.
Stay safe.
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Your lawyer already said you'd win. Ask him if due to this, he could cover the cost of the therapist, and punitive damages. ... and lawyer fees. Thats a stipulation hed be able to advise is possible enough too.
Not that you should do it, but you have a lot more to blackmail him with if it comes down to it:
Defamation.
(Attempted) Theft.
Blackmail/ Extortion.
Mental/ emotional reparations.
Probably Fraud somewhere in this.
Legal fees.
Vandalism/ destruction of property if there was any when he tricked you out of the house.
Lost wages from work if your hours can't be adjusted to compensate.
Knowingly trying to put an innocent man behind bars. Pretty sure that's also extremely illegal.
Pretty sure most of what he was doing to get evidence was illegal anyway, so it shouldn't have had much, if any weight in court even if he found any.
I'm personally just extremely spiteful and at times like this, greedy, but I'd be pressing charges and suing for everything I could for everything he's worth. Even if I would never see the money he would owe me, I'd still be glad to have a restraining order, him being indebted to me for the rest of his worthless life, and see him get locked up long enough to drive the point home to not fuck with me.
Keep your head up fam. I know all about nasty characters trying to keep you down. I'm glad to hear you're keeping your head up in spite of it all, good on ya.
Maybe explain to him that you would literally die if he took that much money from you and he therefore has no leverage?
If you want my opinion on suing him I say go for it for many reasons. Ignoring cash reparations it would help cement to others he is full of shit. Second it proves you won’t take crap like this. Half the time people act like assholes is people let them get away with it. Third and I might be wrong on this I don’t know the courts but hopefully it would leave a record that he already has tried to blackmail someone making any later attempts much harder for him to succeed with
.....there is a special level of hell for people like this former friend of yours....
Sorry about your awful year, don't have much to spare but I can be here and cheer you on and support you like that.
*Hugs* I'm sorry for you.
This year, for me, was better but yeah.
Reminds me of the time my previous landlord let her relative and her employee live in my building so that they could conspire to fabricate evidence against me to get me thrown in jail so that she could rent the room to someone else. Thank goodness renting laws favor the tenant. I don't understand how people can be so fucked up. I left anyways, but put up a bunch of bad reviews describing the incident online so hopefully she has a hard time finding tenants now.
I hope everything works out for you.
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Specifically, the Fourth, Eighth, and Ninth Circles of Hell. Most likely the Eighth, since deeper circles take precedence and I doubt that the douchebag qualifies for the Ninth.
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depends, if its dante's hell he does, as thats the circle reserved for those guilty of betrayal, the worst sin in the author's eyes.
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Hm? I thought it was reserved specifically for the greatest traitors in history, not just your everyday backstabbing bastard.
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nope anyone and everyone guilty of betrayal, starting with lucifer himself, and later kane ect ect.
granted i do expect if someone comited another sin more flagrently they would end up in that circle, so say for example if the act of betrayal was an acidental consiquence of an act of lust (ie sleeping with your best friends wife) then you would probly end up in the lust cricle instead