kumquatwriter

[kumquatwriter]

i recently left a cycle of abuse and listened to your story. i think im on a road of healing. thank you for existing.

Thank you for existing too! I am so glad you're out. Healing thoughts and best of luck on the new path ❤️

[kumquatwriter]

coming here from strange aeons! im so relieved you're doing well, i teared up hearing about your mom's compassion and how you worked through things together. for a lighthearted question, what is your favorite comfort movie?

I have several and they change over time. Currently I'd list:

Amelie

Dawn of the Dead (remake)

Train to Busan

Princess Bride

Anything Star Wars

Boogie Nights

A Mighty Wind

Goonies

[kumquatwriter]

Hello Abby!! I hope you are doing alright. I'm writing to inform you that an Italian youtuber has made a video about the bitofearth+dayd situation. It's very condensed but it was quite well done, i think. I wanted to let you know that now the Italian community knows about this story given that Adrian is a fairly mainstream creator. Sorry to bother you, lots of love :3

Cool! Send me a link? I might not understand but I'm still curious

#andythanfiction #thanfiction #craftycatdad #andy blake #andrew blake #that andy thing

[kumquatwriter]

Reblogging for this amazing and well written commentary. "Aesthetic regurgitation of responsibility" might be the best description of Andy's drivel I've ever heard.

Andy, who is well known for his fauxpologies, lectures people on how to apologize and take responsibility for their actions without making excuses.

[kumquatwriter]

THE FUCKING AUDACITY

Andy, who is well known for his fauxpologies, lectures people on how to apologize and take responsibility for their actions without making excuses.

#andythanfiction #craftycatdad #andy blake #thanfiction #andrew blake

[kumquatwriter]

Whaaat? He's lying about his experience, background and connections in order to make himself look important and knowledgeable?? Say it ain't so!!

Fucker doesn't change.

Another lie

I just received an email referring to Andy's bio, as shown in this post of mine. From someone in the industry:

I can say from direct experience that nearly all of this is a lie. The “large Los Angeles costume house” that he worked for is one I worked for for over 3 years - he worked there on a part time basis for less than six months before he was fired. His work was sub-par and the owner has said that he vastly over-represented his skills when applying.  additionally, I have multiple friends for whom he has offered to make costumes. nothing he has made has even been wearable. we are talking “seams splitting when you bend over” levels of bad. I don’t know a single person for whom he has made a functional garment, nor have I ever seen any kind of portfolio of costumes he has produced. I actually don’t think I’ve ever seen a single thing he has sewn, but he seems to think he can charge money for “consultation”? Absolutely egregious. 

To clarify, Andy was working for a costume house until he was sidelined by long COVID, but it was not a "large" one. The costume house this person is referring to would be one that Andy worked for when he first came to LA.

The closest thing to a portfolio that Andy has, as far as I know, is his costuming Instagram. At least one of the costumes featured in it broke the first time the commissioner wore it and caused them extreme physical discomfort (unrelated to the breakage). I've heard that other people who have commissioned from Andy have had issues with their costumes that they've had to fix themselves, or pay others to fix.

#andythanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #thanfiction #andrew blake

[kumquatwriter]

I'm yet another Strange Aeons viewer and I was curious if you've heard of the Final Fantasy House. I was rewatching Fredrik Knudsen's video about it and the similarities between that cult and Thanfiction's cults are so crazy to me.

Oh yes I've absolutely gone down that rabbit hole. That was the first story I heard that sounded like the cultish abuse I went through and it was incredibly validating that I am not the only person who got sucked in to this extremely specific kind of crazy. I'm endlessly fascinated by other stories like mine.

#andythanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #cults and recovery #strange aeons #thanfiction #andrew blake #that andy thing #FF7 house

[kumquatwriter]

Hey I know you are probably getting a lot of traffic from strangeeons watchers but I am also coming from that video and I just gotta say Im so glad you are alive and away from that situation and truly you are strong. You shouldn't HAVE to BE strong because people shouldn't be that fucking batshit insane and manipulative but there are genuinely horrible people and you are strong for having been in the situation you were in and come out the way you did.

All the love sis. Fuck that man and fuck others like him. Hope they fall in a large hole.

-As a cult survivor myself

❤️

#andythanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #thanfiction #andrew blake #that andy thing #cults and recovery #strange aeons

[kumquatwriter]

Been reading your blog for a while now, old posts and new, since coming here from the Strange Aeons videos. I must say, for all accounts, you are a good writer. English isn't my mother tongue but I can tell your style is informative, insightful and a bit cheeky. I'd totally read something biographical if you ever decide to publish anything not in blog format. Cheers from sunny Brazil!

Thank you! I will definitely post here when my book is completed and available ❤️

#andythanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #thanfiction #andrew blake #that andy thing #cults and recovery

[kumquatwriter]

Hi! I, like many others, just came from the strangeaeons video. I first stumbled across your blog a few hours ago, and thought "hey! Strange did a video about this a few months ago I haven't seen yet, may as well give it a watch".

Oddly, the video made me realize that an ex-friend of mine is oddly similar to Andy. Aside from the financial manipulation (I'm 19, they're 20, we both live with our parents), they employed many absurdly similar tactics (trying to convince me they could communicate with spirits, forcing me into spiritual practices they pulled from the internet (but lied about saying it was cultural) and convincing me I believed in them, pulling me into a mostly-fake nonprofit, refusing to be wrong about Literally Anything and encouraging me to cut off people who criticized them-- also, heavily trying to convince me to move in with them and start some communal living situation which would have been Very Bad!). I've been mostly avoiding them for months as my friends, who also used to run in their circle, made me realize a lot of things Did Not Add Up. But hearing your story has made me realize that it could have turned into a *very dangerous* situation. I'm glad to be mostly no-contact with them now that I've heard your story, because I didn't realize how fucked up it was until now. They definitely have cult-leadery traits and a victim complex, which is a dangerous combo in a group of severely mentally ill + outcasted teens!

Sorry if this sounds trauma dump-y. I mostly wanted to thank you, because my situation was similar to yours, but on a MUCH smaller scale. I don't want to think about how much closer it could have gotten. Thank you for putting your story out there. It's made me realize a lot, and I'm definitely starting to piece together some of that period of my life because of you. You rock! I hope you're doing fantastic, and I'm super proud of you for getting out.

Wow! It never ceases to amaze me that other people are like Andy. I mean I know he isn't THAT unique, but still. I'm so glad you were able to get out and away! Thank you for sharing your story - it means a lot when I hear I've made a difference for someone. Be wise and wary and well ❤️

#andythanfiction #thanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #andrew blake #that andy thing #cults and recovery #strange aeons

[kumquatwriter]

I know better than anyone how complex this stuff is to keep straight. There's a book's worth of stuff that hasn't even been published yet. And this podcast did some excellently detailed deep dives into a few parts that haven't been explored as much. I really enjoyed it... However, there are a few factual errors that I want to address, if only because I had a good solid laugh over them. I've only listened to part one so far as well.

1) I was not 15 when I met Andy. I was 23 and he was 18

2) little Sam was and is a real person. She was the one who was 15.

3) um, the soul of Elijah's unborn twin? I don't know how they came up with that twist but I had to pause the podcast while my husband and I recovered

4) My Son? A sparrow! had nothing to do with the Others. That was way later, when he rewrote his history and said I took his son from him.

5) I was gone when he started doing Harry Potter stuff

@thisweekinfandomhistory, y'all did well overall and it was a delight to listen. I'm looking forward to part 2 today. I especially enjoyed how you read from my blog - it felt like listening to an audiobook of my own writing which was amazing - I've heard people quote me but never *narrate* me. Thank you!

The podcast is called This Week in Fandom History. And I thought that claim was inaccurate. They specifically said Little Sam wasn’t real and it confused the hell out of me because normally they seem to be drawing heavily from your timeline so I thought I’d go to their obvious source and ask.

Yeah, Little Sam is a real person, although that's not her real name. It looks like they were confused and thought she was one of Andy's Others.

Here's a link to TWiFH's two-parter on Andy. I haven't listened to it yet; I'm going to try to get through it tomorrow.

#thisweekinfandomhistory #thanfiction #craftycatdad #andy blake #andythanfiction #andrew blake

[kumquatwriter]

Little Sam is definitely a real person. How weird someone would claim otherwise

The podcast is called This Week in Fandom History. And I thought that claim was inaccurate. They specifically said Little Sam wasn’t real and it confused the hell out of me because normally they seem to be drawing heavily from your timeline so I thought I’d go to their obvious source and ask.

Yeah, Little Sam is a real person, although that's not her real name. It looks like they were confused and thought she was one of Andy's Others.

Here's a link to TWiFH's two-parter on Andy. I haven't listened to it yet; I'm going to try to get through it tomorrow.

#andythanfiction #thanfiction #andy blake #craftycatdad #andrew blake

[kumquatwriter]

Reblogging for commentary.

Andy's latest version of his history: he "effectively" led two separate cults by accident because of an "echo chamber" that affirmed his erroneous beliefs. All he really wanted to do was help people! And remember, he was hiding the fact that he was trans, so that made him especially prone to going off the rails and ending up as a cult leader somehow. Twice. If only the people following him had known to be wary of an individual claiming to have "a Great World-Changing-Reality-Shifting TRUTH" because that's totally what he did right up front!

The reality is that he literally led two separate cults, which he built and maintained using time-honored techniques right out of the standard cult leader playbook, and he abused people within these cults. Read Abbey's blog for a high-level overview of how he drew in her and the Bagenders, his Lord of the Rings-based cult:

[Andy] was very skillful at letting other people draw conclusions that he controlled. With time and perspective, it was a clear and obvious pattern. He’d spend as much time as possible isolating his next target, taking extended walks and talking for hours and hours. Eventually, he’d start weaving in all the supernatural stuff and then suddenly someone else “had figured it out.” Which, of course, was more proof; they hadn’t been told, they had put it together independently. And once we believed, we believed.

Oh, and this should go without saying--but trans people (including those who are closeted) and people with mental illnesses are in no way more prone to cultbuilding behavior than anyone else is. It's unconscionable that Andy is still using these things as excuses for what he did.

#thanfiction #andythanfiction #craftycatdad #cults and recovery

[kumquatwriter]

And, as always, the cycle continues. Now comes the public "explanation" of his past. Nothing new here - he's changed up the backstory enough to fit whatever new narrative he's using, but it's the same shit show. I've been watching this cycle repeat for decades at this point.

Andy's latest version of his history: he "effectively" led two separate cults by accident because of an "echo chamber" that affirmed his erroneous beliefs. All he really wanted to do was help people! And remember, he was hiding the fact that he was trans, so that made him especially prone to going off the rails and ending up as a cult leader somehow. Twice. If only the people following him had known to be wary of an individual claiming to have "a Great World-Changing-Reality-Shifting TRUTH" because that's totally what he did right up front!

The reality is that he literally led two separate cults, which he built and maintained using time-honored techniques right out of the standard cult leader playbook, and he abused people within these cults. Read Abbey's blog for a high-level overview of how he drew in her and the Bagenders, his Lord of the Rings-based cult:

[Andy] was very skillful at letting other people draw conclusions that he controlled. With time and perspective, it was a clear and obvious pattern. He’d spend as much time as possible isolating his next target, taking extended walks and talking for hours and hours. Eventually, he’d start weaving in all the supernatural stuff and then suddenly someone else “had figured it out.” Which, of course, was more proof; they hadn’t been told, they had put it together independently. And once we believed, we believed.

Oh, and this should go without saying--but trans people (including those who are closeted) and people with mental illnesses are in no way more prone to cultbuilding behavior than anyone else is. It's unconscionable that Andy is still using these things as excuses for what he did.

#craftycatdad #andythanfiction #thanfiction #andrew blake #andy blake #cultbuilding

[kumquatwriter]

Hello! Like a lot of people I found out about your story from the strange aeons video essays, and I really wanted to thank you for sharing your story as someone who does a lot of work with local pagan groups. I work hard to educate people about warning signs of cult practices, and to help prevent their groups from becoming abusive and cult-like, since I live in the Bible Belt and a lot of these groups have to remain a bit small and isolated to keep safe, and this can sometimes be a breeding ground for cults. Your blog and those videos make for excellent sources I can point to for examples and information on how small insular cults can operate, since a lot of the people I know have only heard about big famous cults like heavens gate or jonestown. You sharing your story has helped educate so many people, and I’m sure it was likely very painful to do so. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your kindness and your sharing.

Wow! Thanks for sharing that - it's my greatest hope that people can learn from my experience and maybe avoid a similar one! ❤️

#cults and recovery #andythanfiction #thanfiction

[kumquatwriter]

Why do you think that Andy specifically uses fandom to build cults/manipulate people, rather than more conventional religious or spiritual ideas?

This post is pretty long, but well worth a read, and gives a number of reasons why fandom has been the most convenient avenue for Andy to abuse people. Here are a few excerpted points:

Fandom has an unending, always-increasing, EXTREMELY OPEN supply of victims. [...] In real life, people are very unlikely to come up to you, sobbing, stumbling, and generally in extreme distress, and open up to you about their extensive emotional damage, their deepest, darkest secrets and fantasies, the subjects that are central to their passions, their enjoyment of life, and (in extremity) their willingness to keep breathing for another day - yes here’s the complete list - and their extreme sensitivity to certain stimuli that will quite possibly leave them shaking, their heads spinning, and their minds wide open to all sorts of fuckery - yes, here’s the other complete list. Because that would be giving a predator the keys to the kingdom, and people are distrusting enough in the offline world that they’re hardly going to leave that open for every stranger to examine, digest, and consider at length. On Tumblr, that’s sometimes contained just in the blog header. [...] An abundance of vulnerable teenage girls and naive twentysomethings. [...] A lack of parental supervision. A lot of people in fandom are HIDING from their parents. Excellent! It means the ONLY authority figures are authoritative, wise, kindly BNFs… ones who are so concerned for socially-isolated, mentally-ill teens…

As I noted in my reblog of that post, Andy did add elements of various religions into his cults, especially as a means of explaining how "channeling" worked and why it was a legitimate practice:

Remember, when he was first getting his claws into Abbey, how he went on and on about how a “pagan priestess” told him that elves, hobbits, etc. were real? This was the person who allegedly told him that he was a “Rare Lesbian Paladin” and that these spirits were reaching out and communicating through him. Supposedly the “Great Mother” was connecting to Abbey through Pippin, which makes no sense, and occasionally he would throw in the names of a god or two that was actually worshiped by some past culture.  Apparently this evolved into an actual religious…thing. I hesitate to say “practice” because it doesn’t seem to have been organized at all, but in her AMA, Abbey elaborated a little on the Tolkien-influenced “pagan” thing he was doing with her, Diamond, and Little Sam. She also said that toward the end of their involvement, he was trying to get her into Catholicism.

#andythanfiction #thanfiction #andrew blake #andy blake

[kumquatwriter]

thank you for telling your story. i just watched the strange aeons videos and the fact that you have made your perspective available is incredibly admirable. through the videos i was repeatedly reminded of someone i accidentally started a cult with in 2017. it was an abuse support group on facebook that lead to me living irl with a dangerously manipulative and sadistic person. seeing that andy got into abuse advocacy in his twisted way and used it to exploit people really sent me back to that time. i haven't ever told my full story, i've forgotten or blanked out a lot of it, and the rest i'm not sure anyone would believe.

so i guess i shared all of that so that when i say how important it is that your story's being told, you know it's coming from a place of genuine admiration. i wish i had your balls

Wow, thank you! It's wild when you run across someone who has similar experiences to whatever wild, scary, I'm-the-only-one things you carry. Honestly it is one of the main reasons I'm so open.

Andy made me believe I was special - the chosen one, etc. Part of my healing is recognizing I am NOT the super special chosen one. I don't have to be the chosen one to deserve love and acceptance. I can put good in the world as just a person living their own life. I don't have to suffer the isolation of being The One, either. I can show others there is hope

#andythanfiction #andy blake #thanfiction #andrew blake #that andy thing