phonesunderground

[phonesunderground]

Huh. I disappear for a few weeks and gain some followers.

Yo. Sup? Sorry it's quiet around here. I've got a reply to do on thenextcat, so you all can look forward to that, maybe.

#(Phones OOC)

[phonesunderground]

STARSET - Let It Die (The Maniac Agenda Pleasant Nightmare Remix)

An electronica remix of an unreleased song with one hell of a beat. Be sure to check out the rest of Starset's songs. (Their other two songs, anyway.)

#(Phones Recommended) #(Phones Scheduled)

[phonesunderground]

With less than two weeks of school left (yes, right after Thanksgiving break ends) and considering where I am with my work progress, I am going to have to switch gears into full-on collegiate scholar. If I’m lucky, I’ll have some time to breathe before finals next week.

#(Phones OOC) #(Phones Queued)

[phonesunderground]

kingpin-of-sass started following you

 I'm exhausted, but I'll still say hi. Feel free to make a starter, or I'll come up with something~

#(Phones OOC) #kingpinofsass

[phonesunderground]

on the issue of plagiarism

If most of you guys have forgotten me, that’s fine. I RP a Composer variation of Neku Sakuraba, and I’ve been on hiatus for a long time, trying to get an issue cleared up. But it’s clear that the other involved party isn’t going to cooperate unless I give him a bit of incentive, so I’ve decided. It’s high time I took this to a public medium.

The short of it?

Tumblr user wakelessdream, formerly known as sakuraba—neku, plagiarizes writing.

I’m not going to keep this under a read more because I have kept my mouth shut on this for months, hoping for a private resolution and for him to privately take down the work he has plagiarized from me. So sit tight; you’ll be in for a bit of a ride.

I’ll try keep this organized, so here goes.

PART I

All right, first up, I had a thread with Tumblr user theflowerfield a long time ago, sometime in January. But roughly three months ago (with today being November 25th, that means sometime in August), wakelessdream created a starter with almost exactly the same wording as that of my first reply to theflowerfield. See below:

In case you’re wondering about the Japanese time stamp, here:

But his post mirrors mine from January:

Notice that his post is more or less a copy-and-paste of mine. If you’ve noticed anything about his writing, it’s that he rarely uses present-tense writing like I do; rather, he sticks with past tense. If you need any evidence of that, just read some of his other posts. Or hell, just read the parts I haven’t underlined in his post. He hasn’t even taken the trouble of adjusting tenses to make it seem like he originally wrote this. Imagine my shock when I first read his post, thinking he’d decided to try something new, only to get stricken by déjà vu because that is my writing.

If you’d like original links to the posts or larger versions of the screenshots, here:

My original post / screenshot

The post in which he plagiarizes / screenshot

PART II

If you still don’t believe me, there are more instances. Next up is a thread I had with valiantsky, and wakelessdream pulled a paragraph from my post and made minor edits and simply called it his own. Here’s his post:

Again, there’s the “POSTED 3ヶ月前” thing, which just means “posted 3 months ago” if you care to recall the Google Translate screenshot. And now, here’s mine:

Wakelessdream has changed some of the wording, sure, but this writing is indubitably mine. The majority of it is exactly the same. And for the record, wakelessdream, look, it’s great that you care about the quality of your starters, judging by how you wrote “hope this is okay” in your tags, but considering that this is my writing, that’s just uncalled for. How dare you say that as if it’s your writing.

For the skeptical, here’s the time stamp of my post.

And for those who think I’ve pulled that time stamp from an older post, here are the original posts, for those who want to see for themselves.

My original post / screenshot

The post in which he plagiarizes / screenshot

PART III

Here’s another example, except this time, he’s synthesized pieces from two of my posts, both from the same thread with slantslide, for one of his replies. See his post:

That first underline segmented, he plagiarized from this post of mine:

The second segment, he plagiarized from here:

If you’ve noticed, wakelessdream’s reply has that same inconsistency with past and present tense because he didn’t bother making the writings blend in his post. It was simple copy and paste, with a few minor word swaps. And for those who want the time stamps? His post was three months ago, in August. Mine? March 15th for that first post, March 26th for the second. Still don’t believe me? Have some links.

My first post / screenshot

My second post / screenshot

The post in which he plagiarizes pieces from both of the aforementioned / screenshot

PART IV

Yeah, not done yet. No worries, I promise this’ll be the last, thank god.

In one more starter, wakelessdream takes little pieces of another post of mine, this time from the same thread I had with theflowerfield, mentioned earlier. Again, three months ago. My post was from January 27th. Here’s his post:

Now here’s mine:

And again, for the skeptical:

My original post / screenshot

The post in which he plagiarizes / screenshot

Afterword

Before you ask, yeah, I’m mad. I’ve contacted him twice already, only to have both of my asks ignored. I’ve received no replies—nothing, nada, zip. Here’s one of the asks I sent:

I’m not going to turn a blind eye on this. As a roleplayer and writer, my writing is precious to me. I put time and effort into all of my posts, and to see them carelessly plagiarized like this makes me seethe. What self-respecting writer wouldn’t be mad, especially after being ignored subsequent to repeated attempts to contact the other party to politely ask him to take the plagiarized content down? No, I’m done waiting. What I don’t get the most is why a roleplayer would even bother plagiarizing—what is even the point of roleplaying if you don’t write your own work?

So, wakelessdream.

Take down the stuff you plagiarized.

If you were so stressed about producing starters for people, maybe you should reconsider why you’re even roleplaying. And for starters, I guess this goes to show that even the seemingly nicest people ever can go and do things like plagiarize.

What the actual fuck, man.

If anyone actually thinks I’m wrong after all this, come at me. Anon disabled because if you don’t have the balls to show your URL, you don’t deserve the chance to message me in the first place.

#(Phones Queued) #hides i am just a little neku but plagiarism is still a no-no

[phonesunderground]

"Shut up, Josh."

“God washes you of all your sins —”

"Oh, you meant me, right?" Sorry, he’s not washing anything for you.

#composingmanipulation

[phonesunderground]

mORE YELLING

allkeeper replied to your post: allkeeper replied to your post: joshuya kiryu…

yelling

"What sweet sounds, it’s like an orchestra to my ears~"

#chaoticlepus #(Phones OOC)

[phonesunderground]

"Nice. That should keep him in the dirt. You're probably in need of a vacation, huh?"

"Trust me, I did. Purified him this morning."

#taiyoushounendjango

[phonesunderground]

Huh. Sakuraba-kun... Maybe he would never get used to this. Still, it was better than stagnating in his own world endlessly. In all fairness, Neku didn't know what else she was supposed to call him, but...maybe he wasn't expecting usage of his name at all. The same way he used to be toward others. Hey, you. Weirdo. Creep. Idiot. Stalker. He just gave people titles.

Neku quickly snapped out of his reverie at the question. "What!? You mean you don't know?" CAT was perhaps the only thing he was passionate in his teenage life, and it was still pretty damn important. "Maybe it's a Shibuya thing... CAT's this designer, see. But they're kind of mysterious. No one knows if it's a bunch of people or just one. I've heard crazy talk that it's twenty of the same person, but I don't buy it. Actually, these headphones are Gatito-brand, but because CAT's a buyer, they do a lot of work with him... Or something like that. I never did get the details right. They were still limited-edition."

"Exactly. Sometimes I get lucky, though." Like that TV shopping program thing. Sometimes she found useful stuff in there, ones that could help battling Shadows easier. If fast enough, she could snag three sets of medical supplies for the price of five. Whoopee. Fancy that.

The mention of his name got a grin out of her, but she’d heard the word CAT a few times in the conversation that she couldn’t help but feel intrigued. “Same here, Sakuraba-kun. It’s been a pleasure,” she said. “I’ve been wondering, though… what’s a CAT?”

#crimsonxheadphones

[phonesunderground]

"...I hope you gave him a faceful of sunlight."

"I have no clue. This vampire just…kidnapped me, and completely forgot to take my gun away."

#taiyoushounendjango

[phonesunderground]

"Kidnapped? What brought that on?" Poor Django. It seemed like worse and worse keeps happening to him.

"It…could be better. I’m debating on just relaxing for the next few days. I got kidnapped yesterday."

#taiyoushounendjango

[phonesunderground]

"I hear ya. What's the point in TV if you're not interested in what it has to offer, right?" Wow, opening up to people wasn't so bad. Or maybe he just got lucky pointing out some girl's sweet headphones and she happened to be a really cool person. In a way, it was...exhilarating. And weird. When will I ever get used to this? "Graffiti is graffiti. But CAT tops the rest. Oh, but don't tell anyone I said that. The name's Neku. Neku Sakuraba. Nice to meet you."

"Maybe. I hope so. Call me when that happens." Which shouldn’t be too difficult as long as she wouldn’t forget to give him her number. Oh, and her name. Names were important things.

"I’ve seen pictures from the internet," she admitted, having recalled a phase in her life where she found herself crazy about Shibuya. It seemed like a spiffy place at the time, and if it made headphones like the one this guy was wearing, it was even more of a spiffy place now. “Always been a fan of rough graffiti, or—sorry, it’s art. My tastes in music seem to fit that kind of thing. I could care less about the commercials, though.” She let out a laugh.

"Oh yeah! My name’s Minako, by the way. Minako Arisato."

#crimsonxheadphones

[phonesunderground]

Welp, it's that time again. Expect slow replies or none at all. *pulls out essay*

#(Phones OOC)

[phonesunderground]

mmamagician started following you

 Neku clutches his head as a seemingly normal girl passes him...

#aka hi there #mmamagician

[phonesunderground]

Neither, then. The guy just took it in stride. Neku guesses that's not unusual, since he's a fifteen-year-old trying to intimidate a...whatever the heck this guy is.

"...A demon?"

First he witnesses an attack from a mob of angels, then he gets mistaken for a demon. What is his world coming to? "My clothes aren't that dark." He looks down at himself. Well, I guess they are a little bit, but... "Do I really look like a demon to you?"

...Why's he looking at me like that?

[♚] - "I thought you were a demon. Spiky, dark colours."

[♚] - "It’s an easy enough mistake to make."

And he really wants to pull his spiky hair. He’s a dick like that when he’s feeling violent.

#onceiwasachildbutnowiamdemonic

[phonesunderground]

Neku smirked at that. "It was a while back, and pretty expensive, too. But hey, who knows? Maybe CAT'll come out with another rare design. They sure know how to keep the masses hooked." He, Neku corrected himself. He knew CAT personally and all. "I guess if you haven't been to Shibuya, you might not have seen their wall art... But I'm sure their cell phones and commercials have been floating around. I'm not sure when the craze will pass."

"Wow, I’ve never been to Shibuya before. If it were that crowded I’d stick my phones to my ears everyday." She rarely paused her music player for anything save for the more important stuff, but finding another headphone enthusiast was well worth it. Minako gave a small pout at his latter statement, though. "Oh, so I’ve lost my chance to get one for myself, then? Too bad."

#crimsonxheadphones

[phonesunderground]

...Is he...following me?

Great. The last thing he needs is some weirdo stalking him. Neku turns some weird corners just in case he's got it all wrong, and when it seems he can't lose the guy, he quickly rounds on him.

"Why are you following me?"

Maybe being straightforward will scare him off. Oooor it'll provoke him. Neku thinks he can handle one or the other.

Initiate stalking mode.

Just in case it’s a demon capable of pretending to be human.

Plus he wants to pull his hair.

#onceiwasachildbutnowiamdemonic