Anyhow, for the record here is a round up of what has been revealed and transpired so far.
Notes between Ferality and Dragoneer (the leaking of which started this). I seems from the time stamps ("15 days ago" last saturday) the notes were sent around the end of November/start of December:
I'd like your advice on an issue I have with a very well-known user of this site. I don't know who else I could turn to.
Less than a year ago this user coerced me into having sex with him. He manipulated me emotionally when I was depressed and especially vulnerable. I am still dealing with the trauma that situation has caused.
Only after my experience with him did I hear about him having done the same thing to other female artists within the furry fandom before. I do wish someone had warned me about him. I know that he is beginning the cycle again with at least one female artist that I know, who has just turned 18. He is at least 27 years of age and is very well aware of what he is doing. I can only speculate how many others he has solicited.
It especially concerns me that while in his presence, he boasted about his previous use of alcohol to rape a girl.
My question to you is should I stay quiet like that majority of his victims have, or should I say something? And if I do say something, should I avoid saying it on FA? I have never spoken up about my experience with him except to those closest to me. If I could prevent him from abusing another person like he has me, I think it would be worth it.
Thank you for your time,
-Ferality
Can you give me the details on the person/circumstances/dates/times?
I promise I will keep it confidential. But if he's doing something like that I can try to do a quick survey from my side to see if I can see any discernible issues.
Plus (don't take this the wrong way) going public with anything like this turns dirty. Sometimes it's best to know the circumstances between all involved.
Thank you, and I agree that something like this would probably turn dirty, which is why I chose to contact you first. Drama or revenge is not what I am after - what has been done has been done, and I only seek to prevent it from happening to other people.
The person is Zaush, and the date of the event this past new years weekend. I had been talking with him via aim (sadly I do not have any logs) and personal cell phone texts/calls. This was also when he had still been in a relationship with his ex-fiance, Keovi. They had both explained to me that they were in a "swinging" relationship when I met them in person at Califur earlier that year (June 5-7, 2009). During the convention he expressed interest in having sex with me, which I declined and let him know I had a boyfriend. He then proceeds to try and convince me to do an art trade with him depicting our characters having sexual relations, to which I told him I wasn't comfortable with. I told them both that I admired their artwork and intended only to be friends with them. They both seemed ok with this.
After the convention Zaush talks to me on AIM and constantly brings up sexual conversations. I eventually tell him I was physically incapable of having penetrative sex, which at the time was a great source of depression for me, in hopes that he would leave me alone . He goes on to insist that I am emotionally broken and my current relationship is the source of my agony. The relationship I was in ended shortly after this exchange, and I sought to spend some time single in order to figure some things out for myself.
I continued to talk to both Zaush and Keovi during this time, and decided to visit them in early October in order to take a look at Keovi's art college, since I was seeking out possible colleges to transfer to (I was nearing the end of my associates degree). During my stay there I was constantly pressured by Zaush into having sex with he and Keovi although I explained to him before I arrived and during my stay that I was not interested. I eventually relented and allowed him to massage me while I was topless. He then proceeded to pull down my shorts every chance he got while he was on top of me. At this point I was too confused and intimidated to tell either of them I was uncomfortable. This event ended in them having sex together in front of me. I left the next day.
I stopped talking to Zaush after this for a while, but eventually resumed contact with him nearing the end of the year. He began insisting that I visit again, stating that it wasn't fair that Keovi slept around when he didn't get to, and that I owed him sex. He called me angrily twice to yell at me about his frustrations that I wasn't comfortable visiting or having sex with him. I became very depressed. He began to explain that he was just trying to act in my best interests, and that he could help me with my sexual dysfunction. He claimed to have helped Shinigamigirl with the same issue.
When he explained that Keovi was going to China to spend new years eve with her father, he again pleaded that I would come down to spend the weekend with him. After being badgered and harassed I gave in and arrived at his house. He called Keovi shortly after I arrived and asked her permission to have sex with me, which I think was also another way to manipulate me. He asked me if I had ever drank before and I said no, then proceeded to tell me that he wouldn't give me any alcohol before he fucked me because he had been accused by a woman of using alcohol to her. This made me very uncomfortable. We were the only ones at his house and I was 3+ hours away from home. I insisted that we use condoms, but he would not. Since he was much larger than me (I am 5'2") I felt like he could become violent if I had chosen to leave at that time. So I stayed had unprotected penetrative sex with him at his house. I spent two nights (December 31st 2009, January 1st 2010) and left in the morning of the third day (January 2nd 2010) because I had work later that same day. He begged me to quit my job and stay with him because he was so lonely. I was glad to have an excuse to leave. I have been testing for all major STDs ever since.
Sorry for being so long-winded. This was my personal encounter. The artists I know of which either he has stated he has done this to, or have stated themselves that he has approached them soliciting sex are: Littlebluewolf, Shinigamigirl, WolfNymph, Vantid, and most recently Rainbowjokerhound (the 18 year old I spoke of). I am concerned for the safety of other female artists because he chooses to prey on smaller females (around 5 feet in height) while he is actively working out and taking protein suppliments, is emotionally manipulative, and becomes verbally violent when resisted.
Thank you for your time,
-Ferality
Okay, yeah... that's... I'll need some time to think this one over. It's definitely a complex issue.
Thank you for taking the time to think about it. I know Zaush contributes to the site and is definitely fairly popular (which is why I hesitated to say anything about this to anyone) but I'm worried he might do what he did to me, or worse, to someone else. I'm not sure asking you to ban him would do much to help the issue, though. And I am not sure that he directly uses FA to solicit sex from people, so if that's the case I can understand how it might be out of your hands. That's why I wanted to ask your advice, and I do trust your judgment.
If it ends up being the only thing I can do is to continue avoiding him while looking out for other female artists and warning them in private about his tendencies, then that's that. I wont bring this issue public, and I do ask that you notify me before you say anything publicly, or even to Zaush. I'm afraid he might try to harass me (he may still have my phone number and other important information).
Thanks for hearing me out,
-Ferality
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http://i53.tinypic.com/2enszue.jpghttp://i51.tinypic.com/2niv478.png^
Zaush's intitial reactions (on twitter) was to deny everything & he posted logs of conversations he allegedly had with Ferality, in order to bolster his position.
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http://i54.tinypic.com/2vanvc1.jpg^
Quite quickly after this all came to light, someone left a shout on Zaush's page saying that they told him this would happen if he kept on behaving as he did. They also refer to Zaush's "other secret" (thus far, not brought to light).
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http://i52.tinypic.com/250m1jp.jpg^
Littlebluewolf states that Zaush tried the same things he tried on Ferality, on her
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http://i52.tinypic.com/2pts048.jpghttp://bridgeportcat.livejournal.com/96818.html?thread=707122#t707122^
A friend of Keovi states that they've known about Zaush's behavior for a long time, also confirms that Zaush' attempted to "agressively sabotage" Littlebluewolf's relationship with her BF
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http://fifteen10.com/saves/journals/1952230/2010-12-19T04:56:16-05:00.html#cid:16202235^
Dragoneer posted a (now deleted, but archiveD) journal about FA's data loss disaster and naturally people started asking him about Zaush. He apparantly hadn't read the origal note properly, since he appears to think that Zaush backed off and he says what Zaush did was not rape.
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http://fifteen10.com/saves/journals/1952576/2010-12-19T15:38:11-05:00.html^
Dragoneer made a journal about "the Zaush issue", to try and clarify his original comment. He later deleted this journal, but it was archived.
http://fifteen10.com/saves/journals/1952576/2010-12-19T15:38:11-05:00.html#cid:16206614^
Ferality spoke on the journal about her opinion of Dragoneer and what she was doing now.
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On a members-only and closed livejournal community, Furrydrama_2, Dragoneer stated in a now deleted thread that his own GF was able to identify Zaush merely from the description of his behaviour and that he had tried to make her have sex with him too (presumably before she entered into a relationship with 'Neer):
I tried to clarify that, but I doubt it will matter at this point. When I told Sciggles of this, I left out names... and she mentioned that Zaush tried to do something like this to even her. But she mentioned when she said no, despite him keeping asking and insisting, he backed off.
So I can't verify it on every instance, but I didn't agree with Zaush and the accusations concerned me. I just didn't want her getting burned.
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http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1966002/http://forums.vivisector.org/index.php/topic,442.msg4108.html#msg4108^
Zaush posts a journal on FA about all this.
I find it astonishing that Neers GF was able to identify the person as Zaush right away, simply from a description of his behaviour. I didn't notice the boasting about using alcohol to facilitate rape before either. :/
