Life in Solitude: The Snake in the Grass

When I last left this series it had concluded with a bit of a cliffhanger regarding <GSC>. The ultimate outcome of that was a peace treaty struck and quietude returning to Solitude. Finally, the last vestiges of <STFU> had been pacified or rendered irrelevant, and the dust from interpersonal conflicts and drama had settled into a nice live-and-let-live status quo. <GSC> and [SW-SS] were able to resolve our differences and were finally blued again. Nature was beginning to heal, and the rightful order was restored.

There was a brief period where some group called Dishwasher Hooligans or something (I forget, but their executor is named Tim-something and throws the N word around) was blobbing Solitude with large fleets, outnumbering <WHBOO> by 40+ ships, with caps on standby. This was all done in the name of "good fights", so of course they started complaining about <WHBOO> bringing friends so that they'd be only slightly outnumbered. While they were complaining about nearly-even numbers, Dishwashers' standby fleet kept getting bigger and bigger, and they started jumping in FAX support once the fight wasn't going their way. This lowbrow, cheesy, chestthumping "frat boy" style gameplay is something I find terribly boring and not engaging, and so it merits only a brief mention in my blog.

Dishwashers aside, Solitude has largely been at peace. But peace in EVE Online is short lived. War has once again returned to the region, the consequence of one man's scheming and backroom dealing, born of his own resentment and toxic narcissism.

And that man is Padrick Millar.

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I hope my readers will forgive my long absence. Real life has gotten in the way of my playtime, and it turns out that playing EVE is leagues more interesting than writing about it. That is, when there's something to do. I'm a conflict-oriented player, and a peaceful Solitude - goal as it was of mine - was not conducive to my unwavering attention. With Solitude at rest, there wasn't much for me to do, and boredom led to a lapse in my logins.

All that recently changed when I was handed choice bits of intel from a contact I didn't even know I had within the <GSC> leadership structure. You see, once <GSC> was blued up again, I mostly ignored them and let them go about their business, and pretty much vanished from the game. I went about my life, banging strippers and snorting blow off my hot Asian professor's asscrack. (Just kidding. As you've probably heard from my enemies, I'm a basement dwelling neckbeard who never leaves my mom's house).

But then a DM opened on Discord, and someone was asking me if I wanted logs of Padrick - the executor of aforementioned <GSC> and subject of more than one blog post - planning on stealing his alliance's structures and having mercenaries attack <WHBOO>.

Why yes. Yes I would.

Only Slightly Surprised

Now, Padrick has always seemed like a bit of a weasel to me, so it wasn't exactly shocking that he'd screw over the entire membership of <GSC> by removing their infrastructure to line his own pockets. While it wasn't a direct concern of mine - the internal affairs of other groups are not not something I get involved with - I always love a bit of gossip:

Forgive the sizing. I have no control over what I'm sent from contacts.

Being the manipulative weasel he is, Padrick wants to do it in such a way as to prevent any "blowback" (aka, to avoid the natural consequences of his actions), such as people blowing the structures up to prevent him from stealing them, or keeping them reinforced to prevent a transfer. His interlocutor gave him a firmly chastising response, pulling no punches to tell Paddy boy what a grimy course of action that would be. Padrick then tried to further justify himself:

"If anything, I'm owed." It's par for the course with Padrick; he is toxic entitlement personified.

The Snake: Revealed

What I was really interested in, however, was the accusation that Padrick has been plotting, for months, against <WHBOO> - his blues. I almost couldn't believe it, even as I was reading the logs. Padrick? Being dishonest and manipulative? The same Padrick who hates "low class" behavior such as smacktalk in Local, and then spent months posting nasty rants about what a "scumsucking bottom feeding psychopath" I am? Padrick - who got onto a soapbox about how much he hates "bluetanking" and "bluefucking" - would engage in bluetanking and bluefucking? No, it couldn't be!

Yes. It could:

"We're really sad that these entities (that we hired) are attacking you. However, it is our official stance to remain neutral in such affairs." You can't make this shit up.

There are dozens of screenshots, but for the sake of brevity, I only posted a few choice examples.

Despite what he says, "us" does mean <GSC>, as he is the plenipotentiary of that organization and his actions are, supposedly, on behalf of his organization's benefit. He wants <GSC>, and by extension himself, to be the dominant power in Solitude. But that will never be now.

Ironically, Padrick's double-dealing has led to his structures being attacked by a CalMil fleet that... included I-RED representation. I'm not sure what the story is there, so I can't speak to that.

I messaged Padrick to inform him that in light of information that had been made 'public', I would be resetting his group's standings. He warned me that my contact within <GSC> (interestingly, he already knew who it was) was an "information broker" and a "snake", and that it was important that I not fall prey to his "manipulation" and "misinformation" (typical narcissistic projection).

And maybe it's true. Maybe my contact is a snake.

It doesn't matter. Padrick still did what he did. He still made the plans he made.

At this point it's worthwhile to take a (brief) trip down memory lane to see how we got here:

<GSC> and Solar Winds used to be blue. We were blue for many months and had a good relationship.
[QUOKA] demanded that <GSC> reset my standings and drop my docking access because Cryin' Andy's feelings were hurt that his entire corporation was losing a shooting war against one dude that he started.
Padrick maintained neutrality, but [QUOKA] started shooting <GSC>'s structures. Padrick, self-serving weasel that he is, created this narrative that I'm sort of racist, sexist, psychopathic super troll who just wants to burn everything down, and therefore, the at-fault party. This "justified" Padrick conceding to Cryin' Andy's demands, setting me red, and locking me out of his stations. Two weeks later, [QUOKA] conceded to me and left Solitude for NullSec.
Being not blue now, I ran around Solitude farming <GSC> miners for content. Most of the old guard I remembered were gone and there were mostly randos who I never spoke to left, so it didn't phase me much. Naturally, they cried to Padrick about it and their activity levels fell off a cliff.
Padrick then proceeded to cry cry cry for weeks and weeks and weeks to anyone who would give him the time the day about what an awful person I was, that someone had to do something about me, and in his own mind created this fiction that everyone who wasn't jumping to his beck and call to "TaKe Me OuT" was not just complicit in the situation, but actively colluding with me and playing "shell games" with "bluetanking" to specificially screw him over.
I was tired of hearing about it from everyone, so I tried to reach out to Padrick regarding terms of peace, but Padrick was refusing to answer my DMs or EVEMails, so I had to use intermediaries and "leafleting" to deliver my peace terms to the obstinate old fool.
It was then that Padrick spun his narrative that I was attacking his alliance and making all sorts of demands. You can see those on a previous blog about him. The problem with his narrative is that he was the one whining about the situation and wanting peace - and I have the receipts.
And here is where we are: Padrick finally conceded and we reset eachother blue. But during the entire affair, Padrick was plotting to destroy <WHBOO> and get them kicked out of Solitude because they wouldn't pander to his every wish and whim and stop being friends with me.

Giving Peace a Chance

A few days after resetting <GSC>, I noticed some new faces in his home system. I waved and said hello, and learned that they were there to attack <GSC>. Some of them had read my blog, and knew about the rocky relationship between <GSC> and myself. They invited me along. However, before I got involved, I decided I would indulge Padrick's offer to hear "his side" of the story and give him the opportunity to explain himself, to come clean, admit his mistakes, and apologize.

Naturally, he tried to lie to my face, directly contradicting his own statements made in the "privacy" of his Discord channels. He spent a while trying to tell me what a horrible person Saif is, how he stole a jump freighter, yadda yadda. What I was concerned with, however, was Padrick's actions. I pressed him, and he spun a narrative quite different from what I was shown. Where before he was actively reaching out to other groups and planning the fall of <WHBOO>, the story he tried to tell me was that he was just a passive observer willing to "look the other way" if <WHBOO> got attacked. I called Padrick out on his bullshitting, and posted the screenshots themselves. He was backed in a corner now.

What was Padrick's response to this when I confronted his bullshit with the truth?

It's someone else's fault! Of course, Padrick is completely innocent here. He is not in control of himself and his actions are the responsibility of third parties. It's not his fault because he was angry. It's not his fault because ExookiZ wouldn't do what he wanted him to do. It's not his fault because "context", and the final parting shot of every narcissist after getting caught out: "whatever, believe who you want to believe".

Sure. I will. I'll believe the cold hard screenshots.

I've never met a man with more flexible ethics and morals than Padrick. While most people are a bit flexible, they do feel a twinge of discomfort in the back of their mind when they act shitty or inconsistent. It's called their conscience. Padrick, unlike most people, instead has a little voice in the back of his head that justifies his actions.

And it's always someone else's fault.

Walls Closing In

In the coming days, the who's-who of the conflict began to reveal itself. Former allies of <GSC> began to reset them. Cruisers Crew showed up to defend <GSC> during the first round of attacks, but failed to prevent anything from getting reinforced. Manifesto - former <STFU> vassals - pledged for <GSC>. When I saw <.M.> sitting on the structures, I decided to reach out their leadership and figure out what was going on. Things went south very quickly. Such is life when you deal with idiots:

Poitr, short sighted child that he is, did not seem to care that the blues he was defending were actively plotting against mutual blues. "You today, me tomorrow." as the old saying goes. But some people can't think that far ahead, and Poitr is one of them. Poitr doesn't seem to have thought a lot about how his siding with <GSC> would affect the geopolitical situation in Solitude - including the longevity of his group's operating peacefully in the region. I understand his personal animosity towards me. But like I pointed out to him - one thing you can't say about me is that I'm a liar, a schemer, or an oathbreaker.

I notified him that the entirety of the peace treaty between our two groups was hereby null and void for the duration of the conflict. His response was "aight dude", and they began to green my killboard shortly afterwards.

But I saw other groups - people I'd never heard of - showing up to attack GSC structures. Padrick has shat in a lot of people's shoes. Not only is NOIR. involved (hired by someone, but I haven't been able to traingulate who), but so are random assorted CalMil and AmarrMil pilots. <HC> is also showing up to shoot <GSC> structures and miners, I'm assuming opportunistically, but with Padrick's reputation for fostering bad relationships with other groups, I wouldn't be surprised if they're now on campaign against him.

The ground has completedly collapsed beneath Padrick's feet. I messaged my contact in [-XXX] to tell them what a shitbag Padrick was and that they were free to call off the peace deal I'd brokered if they wanted - only to find out that they'd called it off already due to being tired of dealing with Padrick's nonsense and constant pestering and demanding.

So how are things going for the <GSC> bloc so far?

Not very good.

But my killboard's green.