Plagiarism is "the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work."[1] That is, both imitation (or outright copying) and failure to be truthful about that imitation are necessary attributes to call it plagiarism. It is possible to copy or imitate openly without quoting the original work word for word (pastiche, parody, satire, homage); it is the lie (of commission or omission) about sourcing that makes it plagiarism. (Fanmakes and related tropes such as songfics are often put into this category.) - Fanlore: Plagiarism

Many of the complaints I found on FFN’s community for reporting plagiarism are typical copy/paste/change names stories.

But let’s look at these two points: 1) That is, both imitation (or outright copying) and failure to be truthful about that imitation are necessary attributes to call it plagiarism. 2) it is the lie (of commission or omission) about sourcing that makes it plagiarism.

The story I was most curious about was this claim against a story written by MrsFizzle in the Boy Meets World fandom. I started to reach out to the author who made the claim, Mercedes Aria, to ask about the details she mentioned in her Author’s Notes. Then I read her Tumblr post, Why Am I Blocked: A Tumblr Ask Answered and decided not to.

This is a case that goes beyond plagiarism and into harassment big time.

I started to examine this case by reading the stories in question, however, it will take me some time to do that. While MrsFizzle’s story is relatively short, Mercedes Aria’s series is not. It’s extensive and according to what she’s said on her Tumblr and in ANs, the stolen works span the series. I finished MrsFizzle’s story and have only gotten started on Mercedes Aria’s main story. But the similarities are there and obvious.

Given the length of Autumn in Philadelphia, I’ve been taking breaks to investigate the public claims against MrsFizzle who also goes by Kaylie Night and, according to her FFN profile, is a published author. However, it’s hard to fully investigate the claims since Mercedes Aria, though highly active, is unwilling to share the document detailing her case against MrsFizzle. She says on Tumblr and Reddit that she has been approached by people claiming to want to help her then demand to see the link.

MrsFizzle, on the other hand, appears inactive across all her sites since at least September 2024 except for one site with the last activity being December 12, 2024. As of this writing (January 2025) even her author’s website does not work.

What I can look into raises a lot of questions.

Specifically, the comments she left on Mercedes Aria’s stories. You can look at these comments yourself on Autumn in Philadelphia and Flashbacks (on AO3). MrsFizzle was very into the story and the OC Mercedes Aria wrote, however she also seemed terribly upset that story did not go the way she wanted and proceeded to go into detail about it even though she admitted to not reading the summary or tags and that she shouldn’t leave the comment at all. Mercedes Aria seemed upset to have caused any distress (MrsFizzle claims in her comment that she “cried for three hours. Fell asleep, slept through the night, woke up crying again” over the story not turning out the way she wanted. MA seemed extremely sweet and sincere, and the exchange that went on for a while over a couple of chapters ended agreeably.