Entry tags:

baleetion, fandom: doctor who, sockpuppets, yay screencaps!

Over in Doctor Who fandom, it seems like Doctor/Rose fic writer jeprdyfrndly (aka Victoria Lane-Lyton), BFF of fellow Doctor/Rose fic writer amberfocus, has a serendipitous life. She met her gorgeous husband, also a Doctor Who fan, when he saw her reading a Doctor Who book in a cafe. They had a lovely wedding (the groom's cake even had a Doctor and Rose on it!), went on a European honeymoon that included several Doctor Who-themed locations (London, Cardiff, and Barcelona), and settled into domestic bliss and financial security (he owns a coffee shop; she has access to a trust). Then she got pregnant despite two kinds of birth control, and had twin girls (she herself is a twin, and there's a history of twins in her family). She's a stay-at-home mum now, but her husband hired a high-school girl to help out by coming in for three hours every day after school to cook, clean, and mind the twins.

A few days ago, she posted a picture of her adorable babies.

The only problem? Those aren't her kids. (According to the metadata, the picture is from 2006. In fact, the girls in that picture are two years old; Victoria says her twins are less than ten months old and are small for their age.)

Huh. That's weird. Why would she post a picture of someone else's kids and claim them as hers?

And for that matter, why would aforementioned BFF amberfocus leave a positive comment if they're someone else's kids, considering she probably knows what they look like, since she saw them in person last month?

On closer inspection, amberfocus is involved in a lot of the major events of jeprdyfrndly's life. They beta (and even rec!) each other's fic. amberfocus introduced her to LJ. She went to Victoria's wedding (but oh no, she forgot her camera, and Victoria's awful private about pictures on the internet, so you'll never see that Doctor/Rose cake topper, sorry :(). She made Victoria take that fateful pregnancy test, and went to an ultrasound with her. (ETA: She also kept everyone updated when when Victoria went into labor early and was kept in hospital for treatment, and announced the babies' birth. According to a mousie on who_anon, the names "Lily" and "Iris" are a common trope in D/R babyfic.)

Victoria and her husband even have their own Facebook profiles. (Isn't it amazing how much they look like Billie Piper and Kellan Lutz?)

All evidence points towards jeprdyfrndly and her entire backstory (and her fic, too) being the work of amberfocus (something that some people have suspected but before now had no proof of).

The big question, though, is WHY go to all that trouble of creating an elaborate sockpuppet if the most self-serving thing you're going to do is rec your own fic?

Deepest thanks to the mousies of who_anon who first posted about this and did most of the work (and if things are deleted, caps are here and here, as well as in in more recent comments, which I can't link to directly because I can't get into LJ right now.)

ETA1: Screencaps showing amberfocus and jeprdyfrndly have the same IP address. (thanks, minibalrogmum!)

ETA2: And so the backpedaling begins! She was trying to protect her own privacy...by using a picture of someone else's kids.

ETA3: jeprdyfrndly has been deleted. amberfocus says she is the victim of photoshopping bitches and flounces.

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zara_zero
2011-10-26 08:21 am UTC (link)

I'm entertained by the extreme fanfic-y level of detail with which

amberfocus recounts her "friend"'s wedding.

Every rose bush seemed to be in full bloom and the air was heavy with their scent. The weather was ideal. Gorgeous and warm with a light breeze. She looked amazing in a close-fitting strapless gown with silver rhinestones on the bodice. Her veil was in three layers, the center one being blue. She had her blonde hair up in a sweet updo with long bangs angling down to one side across her forehead.

She even specifies the exact number of tiers on the cake and what shapes they all were, etc. — all of which she remembers perfectly, of course, despite not having a camera!

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napalmnacey
2011-10-26 08:59 am UTC (link)

Yeah. If you asked me about my sister's wedding cake, my SISTER'S, I'd be like, "Oh shit, um... it had white frosting? I didn't have any? I was too busy puking from the social anxiety of being Maid of Honour and the emotional wrench of having my sister get married on the same day? And having my ex-boyfriend as the Best Man?"

I had a red dress on. Tina had a white one. Fishtail, with lace. Very classic. She looked fucking gorgeous. I blubbered like a baby all through the ceremony, even though I promised myself I would *never be that bridesmaid*.

That's a realistic recall of a wedding party. Don't ask me what the roses smelt like. The river was too ponky for me to smell them.

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	chaos_theory 2011-10-26 12:31 pm UTC (link)
	I made and served my sister's wedding cake and I only have very vague memories of it other than: 1. it was white, 2. it was three-tier, 3. It was covered in edible flowers. I think there were fancy buttercream dots to cover up the joins between the tiers? I think? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	phosfate 2011-10-26 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	I got food poisoning or flu or something and threw up violently in the bride's bed two days before the wedding. At the ceremony I was mainly concentrating on keeping my suddenly too-big strapless bridesmaid's dress aloft. I think there was cake at some point. I don't know if I could eat it. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2011-10-27 03:11 am UTC (link)
	I'm sure there was a cake at my wedding, but I couldn't describe it offhand. I think it had raspberry filling. I distinctly remember putting my foot down on that whole shoving-cake-at-the-bride's-face stupidity when it was suggested, but that's about all that I distinctly remember. I'm pretty sure it was nummy, though, IIRC. And now I want cake. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	librarianmouse 2011-10-27 05:02 am UTC (link)
	FW has been making me want cake a lot lately. If I can't fit into my dress for my high school reunion, I'm blaming fandom! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	blue_penguin 2011-10-27 06:22 am UTC (link)
	The only wedding cake I have any particular memory of is the red velvet cake at my aunt's fourth wedding. I ate two slices and then later that night had a serious allergic reaction, and that's how we found out I was allergic to red food coloring. All the rest of the wedding cakes I've experienced... were cakes? Had white frosting? Probably tasted like cardboard? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	evilsqueakers 2011-10-31 01:34 am UTC (link)
	My former BFF's mom got married when I was in late middle/early high school. I was at the wedding. No idea what happened there. What I do remember is making about 6 hours worth of mini pigs in a blanket with my mom and then having a kid steal like 75 of 'em all at once. Literally, they were gone before either one of us could eat one at the reception. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	chaos_theory 2011-10-31 02:44 am UTC (link)
	I also made tons of pigs in a blanket for the wedding and, this I do remember, while we were taking wedding party pictures the guests ate them all. Didn't leave a single piggy behind. I slaved over them and I didn't even get one! I was SO SAD. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	evilsqueakers 2011-10-31 03:31 am UTC (link)
	See, I was straight pissed because I was hungry and made a little extra for me. I was left with...some mac and cheese, peas, and minor salad. My mom and I had to get after. We were not pleased with this fact since we didn't even volunteer in the first place. Just militarily told to. I wasn't even in the wedding party. Not even asked. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eilisliana 2011-10-31 09:17 am UTC (link)
	Not a wedding but after several family get-togethers where the cooks didn't get any or very little of the special dishes, we had to start keeping food back for the poor cooks. Because the non-cooks are more than willing to take 8 deviled eggs before anyone else in line gets there. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	faeryfroggy 2011-10-28 01:56 am UTC (link)
	I barely remember MY OWN wedding. Thank God I have pictures. I do remember that everything smelled of buttercream icing after my husband accidentally shoved cake up my nose... (Reply to this)(Parent)

athersgeo
2011-10-26 09:58 am UTC (link)

I can actually imagine being able to exactly recall all the details of the cake - but that's largely because I would probably have been drooling and/or staring at it most of the reception because
1) It's CAKE.
2) I'm always interested in seeing what people have as a wedding cake (I can still remember the details of half a dozen or so cakes from when I was working as a waitress at one of the wedding venues in Bristol!)
3) I do have the sort of freakish memory that focuses on the very silly details to the exclusion of the important stuff
4) Did I mention? It's CAKE!

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	mirhanda 2011-10-26 04:37 pm UTC (link)
	She goes through all of this to prove was a ~special snowflake~ she is and then describes herself wearing the exact same wedding dress that 99% of brides for the last ten years have worn. Tsk tsk. You'd think she'd have come up with something different and exciting. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	the_sun_is_up 2011-10-26 07:42 pm UTC (link)
	Oh god, the purple prose Mary-Sue-ness, it burns! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	seiberwing 2011-10-26 08:13 pm UTC (link)
	I am really hungry for cake all of a sudden. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	puipui 2011-10-27 03:12 am UTC (link)
	IAWTC. wants cake (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	singe 2011-10-28 05:49 pm UTC (link)
	Caaaaaaaake... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	meagenimage 2011-10-27 08:13 am UTC (link)
	I remember exactly what my wedding cake looked like because I saved a piece of it to share with the entire Internet. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	singe 2011-10-28 05:51 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, that looks so good! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ahimsa 2011-11-06 12:53 am UTC (link)
	Yay, you brought cake! (Seriously, I can actually see myself writing all that down at the time, if I forgot my camera, knowing that I'd forget later and would want to post about it. But I'm a daft maid and would find a way to get a moleskin notebook into my bridesmaid dress or something.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

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