Scion | Kyoto 🌻 · @KyotoSSB
3rd Jul 2020 from TwitLonger
Regarding Remo.
This is going to be a lot of information to cover, and not all of it is easy to talk about, so please bear with me. I would like to begin my statement by saying that I was oblivious of the fact that the person in question could be so egregious in his past actions and was blinded by his manipulative grooming tactics. He would always pass off the rumors being spread as 'shit talk' and I believed him, as did many others, because I considered him a friend. Even until today, I was so hesitant to share my side of the story. Some dates may not be exact, and there is some information that I am sharing to the best of my ability. The evidence that I provide is not a complete collection of events however it is what I do have available to me.
I have received consent from all parties mentioned by name (proven with screenshots down below) to mention them in this statement. Others who wish to remain anonymous will be left as such.
I first met Remo (Javian Mitchell) through a close friend of mine sometime in later 2018, around August, which was fairly soon before Ultimate was set to release. The aforementioned friend wishes to remain anonymous and so I will respect them. We met through a mutual friend who lived with me in Lake Charles, Louisiana at the time, who coincidentally hooked us both up. We connected quickly and I was invited down to the next big event in Houston, Super Smash Fight Club 3. (SSFC3). When I asked where we would be staying, I was told we'd be at a place called OCM house, to which I took the proper precautions upon meeting someone new and told loved ones where I'd be. I felt unsure, but was excited at the prospect of attending a large tournament and staying with someone I care about at a smash house.
This is where I was introduced to Remo. He was a friendly guy, and I like to believe that I trusted him almost immediately. He made it feel quite easy as many of you know he was always so hospitable and invited plenty of people over, always making them feel at home. I felt comfortable around him quickly, as I usually am not one to hesitate on making friends. Things went pretty well for a while; he would invite both of us to events, feed us, house us, and never had a problem allowing me and my dog to come hang out whenever (despite the 2 hour drive from LC to Houston).
The more I got to know Remo as the next few months passed, the more I started to realize just how sexual of a person he really was and how off-putting it could be. I tried to deny it for a very long time. I told myself that 'that's just how he is'. There is nothing inherently wrong with being a sexually-open person of course, however he would behave in this way at the most awkward and inopportune times. It did not help that Remo was a very important figure in the HTX community and was a nationally recognized tournament organizer. It's easy to be intimidated by someone like that. Seeing all of these others come out with their stories though, I feel sickened to know that I was taken advantage of and used for this man's personal desires.
There were instances where I would reciprocate these feelings and interactions. As the saying goes, there is a time and a place. I will not deny that not all of these encounters were unwanted or unappreciated, especially in the beginning. This person I was seeing at the time often had consensual sexual encounters with Remo, to which some of them I attended. While there was nothing inherently wrong with this, as consensual adults will do as they please, things with Remo were always about sex, no matter when the conversation took place. I believe that I didn't realize how much of an issue this was until time passed and things really started to sink in, especially recently with others also telling their stories.
Amongst the friends I made and people I met during my time In HTX, there was Xavier (@naptimehtx) and Kalise (pixlsugr), and a few others who wish to remain unnamed. I have so many amazing experiences with these people, and they were the ones I would spend the most time with, along with my mentioned partner at the time. We would do things that normal friend groups do, but at the end of the day after having a lot of fun and going back to OCM house, Remo would always try to text me to come upstairs to have some 'fun'. It gets very draining after a while, and often I would just not respond or go to sleep in order to avoid dealing with this.
This specific instance I will be telling you about involves Naptime, Remo, and I. At this point I was single again, as the yet-again aforementioned partner and I had mutually broken up on good terms. We are on great terms today and remain close friends.
I had planned to go over to OCM house to spend a weekend with my friends. Remo and I had been texting, as had Naptime and myself, who was currently single. I met up with them and we played Smash together, had a few drinks, and one thing led to another. To note however, I was not drunk and this is all to vivid memory. We started messing around a bit and after a moment Naptime went to use the restroom. While he was doing so, I checked my phone to see that Remo (who was sitting less than 3 feet away) had messaged me.
I do not have any recorded evidence of this conversation, as it was attached to my old Facebook account that has been long deleted for over a year. I however will give a brief rundown of how the conversation played out. Remo essentially had asked me to "see if he'd be willing to mess around a little bit" because he's "bicurious" and told me that he "always wanted to". I was immediately uncomfortable and told him I wasn't so sure about that. He pressured a bit more to which I ignored him at which was when Naptime came back into the room and we proceeded with the act at hand. Remo, instead of joining in, sat back and watched, playing with himself. I am with Naptime here where he said that he didn't think much of it at the moment.
Once we were finished, I was exhausted and tucked in with Naptime to fall asleep. We were sharing a bed with Remo, but I was cuddled up with him. I was already so frazzled and put off with the exchange through text we'd just had that I wasn't really even sure what to say at the moment, but I was already planning on telling Naptime when I could. At this time, Remo had popped some sort of sexual enhancement pill and was unable to 'keep it down' so to speak, as he said. Naptime and I were already falling asleep, but Remo started to touch me and grope me. Naptime 'read the room' so to speak, and as I exchanged an uncomfortable glance with him, he spoke up and told Remo to 'stop touching her, she's really tired dude, just beat it yourself or something'. He really didn't take no for an answer immediately and continued to do so until I finally fell asleep and Naptime persisted in telling him yet again to please stop.
The next time I was able to see Naptime in person, which was soon after, I showed him the conversation on my phone and let him scroll through it. He was extremely off-put by it but did not confront Remo immediately. I understand how uncomfortable that must have been for him, seeing as how that was his best friend at the time, and I cannot imagine how it felt, but I will never regret showing him and expressing how it made me feel.
It was thanks to this action that I took that allowed us to step up to this situation today and make note of it, as we both believe it was an incredibly predatory act amongst an otherwise fun, consensual time between three friends.
Upon reflection, Remo hardly ever messaged me unless it was involving something sexual. Shortly after this happened, I started seeing my current boyfriend Bailey (@koterfgc) and decided to, again, be in a monogamous and committed relationship. I was no longer open to experimenting with close friends and remained entirely dedicated to him only.
This is a very difficult thing for me to talk about and for several different reasons all at once. I considered Remo to be a friend despite the way I was treated and my realization of this in hindsight. It was hard to see that I was being groomed and womanized. I do not seek pity, but I struggle with my self worth so often and I feel that I was an easy target to prey on for that. He knew how fragile my mental state was at that time in my life and how anxious I was about losing people that I cared about. I've had another anonymous source tell me how much he hated me along with other women in the community, but tolerated us because we were seen as easy for him, especially if we were single. Even then, a relationship didn't seem to ever deter him much from trying.
Speaking of relationships, he always even if inadvertently guilted me and the rest of my mutual friends for being in happy, healthy relatiionships. They have stated as well that he did this to them on more than one occasion. It always made us feel guilty for being around him when we were at OCM house.
I want to close my statement with an apology; though it may not seem necessary to some I believe that I should be held accountable for not believing the rumors. I have friends that are minors that I drove to that house for Sunday events. I should have spoken on my experiences long ago, but the strength of others has allowed me to be open about it in a way I was too afraid to before. It was so easy to have wool pulled over your eyes for so long when you were treated to free housing, food, hospitality, and even free events. I cannot thank everyone enough for the love and support I have received over this. I will not take that for granted. I believe that this community can change if we work together.
Screenshots
1. A good example of him making us feel guilty for being in a relationship around him. // https://i.imgur.com/WiD55sW.jpg & https://i.imgur.com/cZnTEnz.jpg (first screenshot cont.)
2. Him just being overall awkward/bringing up sex at completely unrelated moments and me ending the conversation there. // https://i.imgur.com/AmSZ8al.jpg & https://i.imgur.com/0IUVT3g.jpg
3. More weird guilting me after I just finished comforting him when he was down // https://i.imgur.com/cZnTEnz.jpg
4. Weird conversation about my boyfriend that's really off-putting after I read over it again. You can see how disinterested I was during this as well. When I said here "I've heard stories" I was referring to things that Pixlsugr & Naptime previously told me. // https://i.imgur.com/p4bNmWA.jpg https://i.imgur.com/p4bNmWA.jpg
And finally the consent from Naptime & Pixlsugr to use their names in this TL // https://i.imgur.com/66IN6gY.jpg & https://i.imgur.com/bE8BjSo.jpg
Other TL Links for Reference
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sra7q3 (Naptime)
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sra6r4 (PL)
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sra5n4 (GrapeApe)
https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sra4n5 (Karna)