Please read until the end for the official statement from Prior Bumble following this matter.
Late last night, after the army retired to its Discord chats following a hard night’s recruitment, Lieutenant Kailey pinged Commander Prior: “Um sir?” Prior was getting ready for bed; turning electronics off and moving dishes to the sink. Confused, Prior opened his Discord again to see many pings for him in the “new-recruits” channel, and his blood turned to ice.
There, in the “new-recruits,” was a bright white name: CollinZFresh.
Anyone who knows Commander Prior well, and who has read his website for RFCP, knows who CollinZfresh is (see the “History of RFCP” tab). Collin is Prior’s former leader from the People’s Republic Army in 2008. For ten years, Prior has searched the Internet for Collin in hopes to reunite. He never succeeded. Prior’s reverence and love for Collin is overwhelmingly evident in everything about the RFCP, so much so that even RFCP soldiers know how profound this moment was about to be.
Everyone online at RFCP hushed when Prior arrived to meet CollinZFresh. The soldiers moved to a different channel to commentate on the encounter so Prior and Collin could talk without interruption.
Prior’s stunned elation was real. But something also felt different to Prior. Collin was speaking differently. He was never so cautious and formal. He was the type to bust into a chat and say, “Hey, what’s up, is Prior here? Thanks man. Dude! It’s Collin!” This was not matching the dialect of this newfound CollinZfresh (also, Prior noticed that the F was capitalized in CollinZFresh whereas the original username was CollinZfresh). The soldiers expressed their hesitation on the separate channel:
And back on the other channel, an emotional and shaky Prior tried to investigate. He knew that there needed to be some validation that after a decade, his old leader truly did find him. So Prior asked questions only Collin would know.
“What was on our flag that people criticized us for?” Prior asked.
The newfound Collin replied that it was a red flag.
“But what was ON the flag though? You made it. What was ON the flag that we got heat for?”
The answer Prior sought was a certain symbol. Prior then asked Collin to name some of our soldiers, quickly.
At this hesitation, Collin made a reluctant confession.
Prior and the soldiers’ level of belief was at an all-time low. Prior was about to discard this user as a fraud when Collin said something that would be surprising for anyone else to know.
The hack referred to the PRA website being hacked and almost destroyed, before a few valiant PRA-supporters recovered some of it.
Back with the RFCP soldiers on the other channel, skepticism continued to circulate:
And then, Prior made a rapid appearance to the RFCP channel with only one order:
Following his demand, the RFCP soldiers began pinging Commissar Redovyco (082), Prior’s beloved second-in-command, to arrive and observe what was happening.
Back with Prior and Collin:
Collin wished to PM with Redovyco, but Prior was not convinced enough to send Collin off to PM’s. He continued to probe, but his heart still grasped for hope that it truly was him.
And then Prior said,
“Collin, look around you. Look at the RFCP. Look at me now. It is clear I have not forgotten you. I am the leader now. You’re in my territory now, but all my soldiers know you because they know how deeply I loved and revered you.”
Then Prior thought of a true and final test to prove his identity. It would involve showing a bunch of photos and having Collin choose the one that was relevant to the PRA, something he could not possibly forget because it is physically with Collin to this day. Prior said, “Will you allow me to do this test?” And just like that, “CollinZFresh” backpedaled and hastened for escape.
“I need to think about it,” he said, and then tried to bid farewells.
Emotion arrested Prior.
“I don’t want you to go,” Prior said. “Don’t. I don’t want to lose you for ten years again.”
But “CollinZFresh” left.
Back in the RFCP soldier chat watching all of this:
Commissar Redovyco proceeded to counsel the Commander in his wounded and confused emotional state, while Lieutenant Kailey launched a valiant reconnaissance effort to get to the bottom of this mystery. She cross-checked his name in every record she had access to, and even compiled a transcript of the conversation with notes as to how long it took the newfound Collin to answer. She stayed up late and rose early to deal with this.
It spooked Prior to his core. As a sufferer of PTSD in his real life, the thought that, if this isn’t Collin, someone somewhere out there sought to so personally mess with his head provoked his terror responses. He woke and abruptly sent this in an @ everyone to his soldiers:
And he slept.
In the morning, the truth was revealed:
RFCP reeled once more.
When Prior woke, the news hit him, as did the comfort of his soldiers.
“I don’t want to see you shaken,” said the Commissar in PM. “….it was Xing.”
“This isn’t the end,” another soldier PM’ed him. “He’ll turn up for real someday. Until then you have us, and we love you dearly.”
Prior wishes to make this official statement now to all the readers an all his soldiers:
“You have witnessed a moment I have longed for for ten long years, and what I would say if I met my old leader face to face. My feelings were humbled and arrested. My speech caught in my throat. I trembled. It was a side of your Commander softer and more vulnerable than many of you may have ever seen. Now we know the truth. Someone sought to terrorize and sabotage my head using my affections as the weapon. Xing was behind this. Xing whom I still believe has humanity within him, can be redeemed, but who has delivered a blow to the chief of the RFCP. I am embarrassed. I am regretful to have called him ‘sir.’ Never again will you see your Commander surrender such submission. Even if the real Collin came forth, joyful our reunion would be, but he is not the leader now. I am. My place is here. Not for a second have I, or would I, consider leaving RFCP to become his Commissar again if ever he returned and reawakened the PRA. I am Prior Bumble, Commander-in-Chief of the RFCP, and no one is my sir. My beloved Autocrat CollinZfresh remains my leader in my heart, but only in my heart. And maybe not even entirely at that. In many ways, I have risen and overshadowed Autocrat Collin. He would be proud of me, and I am proud of all I have created. I am shaken, but undaunted. I am offended, but unbroken. You may rest assured that your leader is stronger than ever. I will lead you with steadiness and confidence until my last day.”
And he sent this note to Xing:
CollinZfresh, the real one, is still out there somewhere. Unaware that his second-in-command is now a great leader, unaware of how cherished him name is among a new generation of soldiers he may never know.
But most of all, unaware of how much he meant to Prior Bumble.
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