Hurricane/Maelstrom/Hidden Treeline Incident

Note: I only remember some of the story, and I might not even have heard all of it. Some of the info here may be incorrect (not that there's any way to check anymore :c).

## Hurricane

This happened at the end of July of 2018. A rather well liked MBer who went by Hurricane was said to have died in a car crash. Her sister had logged on to the account and posted this, letting everyone know. She also divied up Hurricane's OCs to people she had heard hurricane mention a lot. People looked it up, and sure enough, there was an article people had found detailing the death of a Ukranian (because Hurricane was from Ukraine) girl in a car crash. Understandably, the entire WoFMB was shaken by this news. People began putting "#RememberHurricane" in their signatures, and many MBers petioned to get a character named Hurricane into one of the books. They wrote letters to Tui. Somehow, I still have a copy of the letter that I sent saved in my notes. It was based off of a template another MBer had provided and edited a bit. It went like this: (also sorry for the weird spacing I'm not very good at wiki things)

Hello, Tui!

I'm writing from the Wings of Fire Message Board on the Scholastic Wings of Fire site. Recently, one of our members passed away before her time. On the MB, she was known as Hurricane and it would mean so much to all of us if you could name a character in the series after her. While they don't have to be an important character, or even appear more than once, we would all appreciate if you could do this.

Thank you for your time.

Ivy, and the rest of the forumers of the WoFMB

For a while, Hurricane was all over the forums. Memorials where people talked about all of the interactions they had had with her and the things they would miss. MBers who I had not once seen change their signature in all the years I had been there gave theirs a blue theme will the hastag and many inspirational and supportive quotes. Even after everything had been cleared up, people (who presumably hadn't heard the full story) still had the hastag in their signatures. This was big.

## Maelstrom / Hidden Treeline

After a month or so, Hurricane's sister took over the account and started going by the name of Maelstrom. She joined RPs, chatted with people, and generally was just a normal MBer. Everything seemed to have mostly gone back to normal.

This went on for a bit before another user who went by Hidden Treeline joined. No one thought much of it, because she was just another new MBer. But after a bit, people started noticing some similarites between Hidden's typing style and Hurricane's - same colors, same fonts, same sizes. People confronted her about it, but she denied all accusations, saying things like "I can type how I want" and "I really have no idea what you guys are talking about". This died down after a bit, but certain forumers kept an eye on her.

## Alive?

This is where I forget some details. Sorry if I'm unclear and not making much sense.

At some point, people figured out that Hidden Treeline was Hurricane. I'm not sure how, but they did. They then confronted Maelstrom, asking why she had lied and said that her sister was dead. Maelstrom then said that her parents had made her lie, and Hurricane was actually suffering from severe depression. She rarely got off of her computer, and when she did she didn't leave her room. She rarely went down for meals and was constantly angry at the rest of her family. The only person she would talk to was her boyfriend, and even him she ignored/shut out a lot. Her parents got very worried about her, and tried to take away her computer, thinking it was the problem and that would help Hurricane get better. This only made her even more mad at them.

Eventually, it got pretty bad. They sent Hurricane to some sort of really fancy and speacial psychiatrist (or something) in the States. They told Maelstrom to log onto Hurricane's account and tell everyone that her sister had died.

Of course, as soon as Maestrom explained this, people got very suspicious. And angry. Pretty angry too. Why would your own parents make you lie to your sister's friends saying that she was dead? And why use the death of an actual real human being with no connection to you whatsoever to help pull the lie off? Eventually, people forgave Maelstrom, and gave her support, as well as asking her to pass on support to Hurricane.

## Lies

This is where I forget the most details. Some other people may be able to fill in, but until that happens, my apologies.

At some point, it was revealed that all this was a lie. I don't know if some MBers did some sleuthing and made Maelstrom reveal it, or if she just decided to on her own. It could have been a little bit of both.

Many of Maelstrom's lies involved the circumstances of the accident, such as Maelstrom's claims on where she was at the time; first, it was in the car with Hurricane, then it was Maelstrom having been at home confronting Hurricane's boyfriend when the accident happened. Some of it involved personal info such as names and stuff about Hurricane's background that was put out there by Hurricane herself; however, this personal info will not be included on the page, as it *is* personal info, albeit personal info made public by the subject of the info herself. Nonetheless, the holes in Maelstrom's story and overall suspicious behavior began to pile up quickly.

Anyway, Maelstrom made a post saying she was sorrry. Not only was Hurricane still alive, she was Hurricane. She was also Hidden Treeline. This had all been one big lie. A few hours after the revelation thread was posted, the mods locked it. They didn't delete it, though I don't remember why. Something about learning and growing maybe? At the end of the thread they made a post giving their reasons, and also saying something like "this is a very tight community, and it hurts when someone lies to you all like this".

Well, that's it. The account stopped posting, though I don't know if it was banned or if she (Hurricane, Maelstrom, Hidden Treeline, whoever) just left the MB. People who know more / have more details, please add them! I just made this article because I saw it didn't exist yet and it's not like I have anything else to do right now.