Breaking Bird

Posted on August 11, 2023 by Sidie9

This is an official statement from the Cabinet of the People’s Imperial Confederation Congress of Soviets.

On the 8th of August, 2023, Templars leader Dawnables contacted PIC leadership with an extremely sensitive subject regarding FerdtheBird1. The conversation revealed that he had been in a mature relationship with a TCP staff member. Screenshots suggested that Ferd had acted in an inappropriately sexual manner. Furthermore, though they were minors, the age dynamic (1.5 years) was deemed as imbalanced. Dawn showed concern that Ferd may be taking advantage of the TCP member, due to the age gap and real-life information Ferd may have about the individual. It is important to know that we were later sent screenshots confirming Ferd had been given consent, along with the staff member acknowledging that they gave him consent.

Please note that considering Ferd is a minor, we will not be releasing any screenshots of any mature issues mentioned in this post.

With many of us being adults responsible for the PIC server and army, we truly feel we did our best at that point to address the situation. Ferd was spoken to and told to block the individual and cease all communication, which he immediately complied with. In addition to this, the individual was banned from the PIC server, not due to any wrongdoing on their end, but to ensure that we weren’t providing a setting for any further conflict or communication between Ferd and this person. At that point, the situation could only be described as weird and uncomfortable at best. Although we felt the content of the screenshots was inappropriate, the full dynamic of their year-long relationship could not be determined by a few screenshots. Additionally, at that point, there wasn’t enough incriminating evidence of misconduct to remove Ferd. We also took into consideration the fact he was a minor and did our best to act with sympathy and understanding. We concluded feeling uncomfortable and unsure about the situation, but we felt we did enough to address it and move forward.

However, we were still met with pressure from Templars leadership, who in simple terms didn’t agree with our perspective. Despite back-and-forth conversations between our leadership and theirs, they were still upset and let us know that they would write a post if this continued.

Shortly after this, Ferd began banning Templars leadership from the PIC server without consulting the rest of our leaders. As we’re writing this, he has continued to ban multiple individuals despite being told to stop. Combined with everything that had been going on the past few days we were worried this could cause more issues. The anti-TCP talk began to increase on his end in our main chat which could result in increased tensions between our armies. Considering Templars had threatened to write a post, we were worried this could set them off. We spoke to him immediately, however, this was not viewed lightly by our Congress of Soviets along with many of our staff members.

Multiple high-profile members of PIC proceeded to add Shallissa and Sidie to a group chat. The PIC members explained that they knew what had been going on between Ferd and Templars, and they wanted him removed. They provided a detailed list of reasons why they wanted him removed, also providing new details on the situation between Ferd and the individual from Templars. While we felt that many of the reasons were things that could be worked through, unfortunately, there was something big we could not ignore. New allegations surfaced revealing that Ferd had begun a relationship with individual #1’s in-real-life best friend. While this alone was concerning, it was disclosed to PIC leadership that this person was even younger than the original person (14 years old, 3.5 years younger). The screenshots we received contained a conversation we deemed to be flirtatious in nature. Moreso, we were sent a screenshot of Ferd admitting he would date individual #2 if it meant no one would find out. Although Ferd is a minor this was something many of us couldn’t overlook.

With a large majority of our staff wanting him removed, PIC leadership had to comply. PIC Leadership proceeded to begin the removal process.

Shallissa still wanted to talk to Ferd to discuss the new allegations. It should be noted and considered that Ferd denied having a relationship (or intentions to start one) with individual #2. He also stated the disclosed age was incorrect and that he believed the individual to be a year younger than him. In addition, Ferd explained that he didn’t know they were in-real-life friends with individual #1. We truly did listen to his defense and shared it with our staff who proposed his removal, however, the consensus was still to remove him.

We want to state for the record that PIC has never before gone through a formal coup. While our leadership and a large portion of our staff were in agreement, we wanted to ensure this was done by the book with no room for error. As per our Constitution, we presented the case and Ferd’s defense to our Congress of Soviets who individually voted on whether or not to remove Ferd. Needing a 2/3 majority to proceed with the coup, we contacted all 8 active members of our Congress. 7 out of 8 voted to remove Ferd, with one individual deciding to abstain from their vote.

The Congress of Soviets of the People’s Imperial Confederation, comprised of PIC Legends and key figures, officially removes FerdtheBird1 from all leadership positions within the Confederation.

This coup is not a decision we took lightly, as we prefer to give leaders an opportunity to step down when met with scandal. However, we know that the contents of this post have started to spread. We believed a post written by a leadership that cares about Ferd was much kinder than waiting for another army to attach him to scandal through a cancellation post. The last thing we wanted was for anyone to have an opportunity to use this situation or any screenshots as a means to cancel a minor. While this post contains questionable themes, and he definitely made mistakes, please remember that Ferd is an underage teenager and should be treated with the sympathy many adults seem to lack in sensitive situations such as these.

While this incident will be forever attached to our history, showing our staff members that we will always prioritize their input and concerns is absolutely essential to our values. Additionally, we wanted to ensure that this was handled as gently and fairly as possible. After all, we are a community For The People, and remain loyal to our community.

This is a first for our army and will definitely be seen with a fair amount of scrutiny from members of the community. I hope our care in protecting the involved minors’ privacy can be respected. More than anything I hope this shows PIC staff and high-command members how much we adore and value them as members of the Confederation. Without our staff, we would have no army, and we respect their views and input an immense amount. While this will be a hard time for PIC, we stand together as a united front and will emerge from this with strength and collaboration