Alternate Title: King Nothing
When I first moved out to Solitude I thought it would be a barren, empty region. Instead what I discovered was a thriving community of industrialists and small gang PvPers. Next to the now defunct <STFU> alliance, the largest and most active group in the region was <GSC>/<N.E.S.T>. Every day I would log in and, across the EU and US timezones, members of <GSC> would be out in droves, busying themselves with the harvesting of resources and the destruction of NPCs. It was beautiful to see so many brave miners venturing forth into the dangers of LowSec and working together.
It would be easy for me to take the credit. After all, the lull in activity (and decrease in membership) correlates perfectly to <GSC> resetting Solar Winds and subjecting themselves to the meatgrinder that is my content factory. But I can't take the credit (or blame, depending on your perspective) here. Instead, the onus is on Padrick. It is Padrick, you see, that is leading his organization to ruinous decay. And he is doing so through a stubborn, willful pride and elitism - which he mistakes as wisdom and maturity.
While Padrick would never admit it to me, he's in a desperate and untenable position, and he knows it. And he also knows that he put himself in that position. Instead of taking ownership of his poor decisions and handling it like a man, he has spent the past several weeks whining to [TDSIN] leadership about my "harassment" of his linemembers, and petitioning them to "do something about Xuixien". Eventually, [TDSIN] had to tell Padrick that they couldn't help him; he was taking up too much of their time and energy without producing any positive results (because Padrick refuses to negotiate or compromise), and would instead have to solve his own problems.
I'm content to see <GSC> collapse out from under Padrick's feet, but in the interest of making life a little easier for my friends in <WHBOO>, my CEO and I drafted up some peace terms. Padrick has been given these peace terms. He just refuses to accept them, and instead would rather argue over the details, haggle, and bloviate incessantly about what a "bad person" I am:
Carebear elitism is... interesting.
What are the terms of peace? They're actually very, very simple:
These terms cost <GSC> almost nothing, and allows them to do what
normally wouldn't happen: to reblue with a pirate organization that they
had betrayed and reset. Normally, that would come with a heavy cost -
if the pirates were willing to negotiate at all. Padrick's response,
predictably, was angry and aggressive hurfablurfing because he didn't
want to accept the terms as written. He wanted to haggle, and negotiate.
He wanted to flex and exert control that, frankly, he simply doesn't
have.
With everyone's patience with this manchild thoroughly exhausted, I was invested with plenipotentiary powers in the matter. Padrick was told that any further discussions would only take place with me. His final words on the matter: "there is nothing left to discuss."
I see the game Padrick is playing in refusing to talk to me directly: to wait me out. By not responding, Padrick thinks I'll eventually get bored and go away. He is incorrect. While Padrick has lived in Solitude for many years now, and he thinks he has "griefers, trolls, and gankers" figured out, he has never deal with someone like me before. In the past, buckling down and remaining unresponsive might have worked. But it won't work here.
Padrick maintains that there is "no reason" to change standings between <GSC> and Solar Winds. But I can think of many reasons. There are many more screenshots, provided by friendly elements still within <GSC>, but for the sake of brevity I will only include a few:
A Lack of Personal Responsibility
Instead of admitting to his member base that the reason they are having such a hard time in LowSec is due to bad decisions and poor displays of character on his part, Padrick has decided he would rather gaslight everyone and concoct conspiracy theories about "shell games". As his alliance bleeds members, starves for LowSec ores and runs low on fuel blocks, Padrick maintains that it's simply not his fault. Bad people are "cheating" and doing bad things. People are colluding against <GSC>!
There is an easy way around it: all Padrick has to do is grow a set of testicles, stop gaslighting his membership and telling lies, and instead reach out to me on Discord or in-game, and simply say: "yes".
Solar Winds, <WHBOO>, and other groups in Solitude are currently building a great little community out here. The region is slowly shaping up and becoming what I originally envisioned so many months ago. <GSC> are the only ones who refuse to come to the table and get involved. Instead of doing what needs to be done for the health of his kingdom, Padrick would rather sit on his throne, unaffected and uncompromising; the king of his empty castle.
UPDATE 09/10/2021: Gaslighting Continues
This will (probably) be the last update I write on the situation between [SW-SS] and <GSC>. The boys are right: irrelevant and inconsequential people are being allowed to take up too much of our time and energy. We're building something great in Solitude, and if stubborn and ignorant people don't want to come to the table, for whatever reason, that's their problem. And since Padrick refuses to come to the table - refuses to reach out to me - hostilities will continue. There's nothing more for us to do; he's made his bed, and he is sleeping in it.
I will leave this here, as additional examples of failed leadership. This is Padrick's response to his line members learning about the terms we are asking for: gaslighting and outright lying:
First of all, Padrick doesn't know what "AWOXing" is. AWOXing is when you shoot friendlies - corp mates, alliance mates, fellow fleet members, or blues. AWOXing is never shooting neutrals, regardless of who they're blue with. "Bluefucking" is not the same as AWOXing. Bluefucking is when you fuck blues over - relisting market items for a large markup, running all the sites in a system, cherrypicking all the good ores, etc. Shooting neutrals who happen to be blue to your blues is not "bluefucking" nor is it AWOXing.
Just because someone is blue to our blues, doesn't mean we have to also blue them up. This is Padrick's survival strategy in Solitude: get everyone blue with <GSC>. This works with little rinkydink nobody groups like Shadows of Solitude and Psychotic Confederacy. It doesn't work with Solar Winds: if you want blue, you need to bring something to the table. Right now, <GSC> brings nothing to the table, except the demand to operate in LowSec and be left alone.
If we want to talk about "bluefucking" however:
As a ranking member in the Imperium, and the leader of a LowSec alliance that contains a number of Goon alts, just who in NullSec is Padrick going to supply these LowSec ores to? Perhaps... the Imperium? The same Imperium who helped destroy a <WHBOO> Athanor? Tsk tsk. I thought <WHBOO> and <GSC> were blues? Why is Padrick bluefucking? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye
Second of all, Padrick didn't reset Solar Winds to -5 because of anything to do with <STFU>. He reset us to -5 because he was strongarmed into it. [QUOKA] had started shooting <GSC> structures demanding that we be reset. Shit rolls downhill, so in response Padrick starting making all these demands on us - such as me taking my blog down, not talking in Local anymore, not PvPing, etcetc. The problem is, we're not downhill from <GSC>, so Padrick couldn't get his way, and he reset us. [QUOKA] left 2 weeks later, and <GSC> has been getting camped by us ever since.
Third, and most important: Solitude Pest Control and Tear Extraction [UL0ST] is simply being used an excuse by Padrick not to accept our terms. It's a whataboutism, a way for him to exert control and influence on the situation. He was already told he would be set to +5 and that we would leave him alone. Obviously this includes [UL0ST], but - if Padrick has any concerns regarding my ganking alts, all he has to do is... reach out and talk to me like a man.
But instead of reaching out to me like a man, Padrick would rather gaslight and lie to his dwindling membership. And so I'll leave it here, because this is where we are. Solar Winds is more than happy with the current status quo, and has no plans on changing it for any reason until Padrick nuts up and reaches out to me. He's free to continue bloviating about what a terrible person I am on his Discord - I will enjoy living rent free in his mind while I move on to other things and his organization continues to fail.
Take care, dear readers.
