I have finally completed all the questions in this AMA. Follow up questions may be sent to my tumblr, although I don't promise immediate answers
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You've mentioned a time you believed you saw Andy making a river run backwards. I'd like to hear about that incident in detail. Were other people there? What did Andy say about it? Was it a hallucination induced by sleep or food deprivation? Or an "Emperor's New Clothes" thing where you made yourself believe you were seeing it because you wanted it to be true? Or something else?
The Bagenders went on a road trip to see Little Sam at her parent's house. I can't remember if it was just a visit, or if we were taking her back to Portland with us. I think we had two cars
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Do you think Andy has ever believed any of his own stories/lies? I'm curious if you think he deludes himself or if the lies are meant solely and/or primarily to manipulate others.
Sort of related but a bit off to the side - Why do you think he regularly tells lies that are easy to fact check/disprove?
I do not think he has ever believed his stories/lies.
I feel fairly certain he's a compulsive liar. I don't know if it's something inborn, or just being so steeped in deception that he has no control. A less hilarious Cartman-with-self-induced-Tourette's, so to speak. I do know that he's done it since childhood, though.
That's the biggest thing that trips him up, because it's almost always some small, solidly provable lie that gets through the chink in a follower's armor.
For me, it was finding a receipt for something he'd told me some story about. We were trying to find an apartment in Virginia (the week I left). He'd spun some elaborate story about how the current Core (Zack, and original character) got it discounted or free or something already hard to believe. Something about looking at this piece of paper that flat disproved, incontrovertibly, that he was lying... It was what we Bagenders called "the white light." (which was an in-joke with "Orlando Bloom")
There is probably no actual good answer to this, but I'm wary of him turning up in one of my newer fandoms, because I think a lot of things about it would appeal very strongly to him both in terms of his narrative/trope obsessions and because the makeup of the fandom is largely younger fans in their first or second fandom.
It seems like he's fandom-shopping at the moment, so is there anything you would recommend people who know about Andy can do to make him stay away? I know Teen Wolf and WTNV seem to have effectively told him to fuck off, but is there anything they could've done better?
I don't know. I think it's awesome when a warning post goes around, but there's only so much that *can* be done. I think he will find victims no matter where he is. He has the best luck online though, and I think he prefers a larger circle with an inner core to the kind of intensity with only a small group.
I'm glad every time I see a warning start up, though. Because it means people *know* - by which I mean the authors of the warnings - and are helping people keep from being drawn in.
Ah. I think it might be because I'd enclosed two links in reference to some questions that were asked on one of the recent fail_fandomanon threads. Let's see if it'll go through without them
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First - I don't think it's likely that Andy sabotaged anybody's plumbing. It isn't that he hates to work - it's that he doesn't work *that* way. He doesn't operate with sabotage - physical or otherwise. I think he'd consider it beneath his dignity to sabotage someone. Andy is an *opportunist* more than anything else. He will dive on a weakness, an opportunity, an idea, an event - and exploit it. He also likes to cultivate honor-based debts. He likes to give gifts and help people because they owe him, in one way or another. And then they are more likely to move closer, accept more, begin to believe more.
Second - he will work mind-bogglingly hard sometimes. He's always working - just doesn't hold a job. He doesn't like having people tell him what to do. Doesn't like not being the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON. Doesn't like being a "normal person." But that doesn't mean he's lazy. I do agree it's dangerous to create that impression.
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http://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/98957.html?thread=486288525#cmt486288525
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Sort of related but a bit off to the side - Why do you think he regularly tells lies that are easy to fact check/disprove?
Reply
I feel fairly certain he's a compulsive liar. I don't know if it's something inborn, or just being so steeped in deception that he has no control. A less hilarious Cartman-with-self-induced-Tourette's, so to speak. I do know that he's done it since childhood, though.
That's the biggest thing that trips him up, because it's almost always some small, solidly provable lie that gets through the chink in a follower's armor.
For me, it was finding a receipt for something he'd told me some story about. We were trying to find an apartment in Virginia (the week I left). He'd spun some elaborate story about how the current Core (Zack, and original character) got it discounted or free or something already hard to believe. Something about looking at this piece of paper that flat disproved, incontrovertibly, that he was lying... It was what we Bagenders called "the white light." (which was an in-joke with "Orlando Bloom")
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It seems like he's fandom-shopping at the moment, so is there anything you would recommend people who know about Andy can do to make him stay away? I know Teen Wolf and WTNV seem to have effectively told him to fuck off, but is there anything they could've done better?
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I'm glad every time I see a warning start up, though. Because it means people *know* - by which I mean the authors of the warnings - and are helping people keep from being drawn in.
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First - I don't think it's likely that Andy sabotaged anybody's plumbing. It isn't that he hates to work - it's that he doesn't work *that* way. He doesn't operate with sabotage - physical or otherwise. I think he'd consider it beneath his dignity to sabotage someone. Andy is an *opportunist* more than anything else. He will dive on a weakness, an opportunity, an idea, an event - and exploit it. He also likes to cultivate honor-based debts. He likes to give gifts and help people because they owe him, in one way or another. And then they are more likely to move closer, accept more, begin to believe more.
Second - he will work mind-bogglingly hard sometimes. He's always working - just doesn't hold a job. He doesn't like having people tell him what to do. Doesn't like not being the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON. Doesn't like being a "normal person." But that doesn't mean he's lazy. I do agree it's dangerous to create that impression.
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