Peeking beneath the surface of one-sided friendships
There’s a saying about ponds: from above, the water looks calm, reflective, and peaceful. But beneath the surface, there’s movement—currents you don’t see, ripples you didn’t cause, and sometimes things swimming quietly in the shadows. Friendships can be a lot like that pond.
Welcome to DuckTalk, where I talk honestly about the truths that don’t always get spoken out loud.
When Support Becomes a Skillset to Borrow
Most of us have been there. You’re doing something you love—building something, learning something, creating something. A friend notices. They admire what you’re doing, maybe even celebrate you for it. Then, slowly, they want in. They ask questions. They ask for help. They lean on your knowledge, your experience, your time.
And because they’re your friend, you give it freely.
You share the shortcuts.
You share the lessons.
You share the mistakes you made so they don’t have to.
You want them to win too. That’s what friendship is supposed to be, right?
But sometimes, somewhere along the way, the dynamic shifts.
The Flip Beneath the Surface
Instead of collaboration, there’s competition.
Instead of appreciation, there’s quiet resentment.
Instead of open conversation, there’s silence… and then distance.
They start building something of their own—something inspired by what you showed them, what you taught them, what you helped them understand. And instead of continuing the friendship in honesty, they begin to move differently.
No conversations.
No clarity.
No accountability.
Just quiet actions behind the scenes.
Sad things done out of sight.
Decisions made without you, about you, or around you.
It’s the kind of shift that doesn’t happen loudly. It happens quietly enough that when you finally notice, it feels surreal. You’re left wondering how someone who once stood beside you is now moving in ways that feel… unfamiliar.
Not because they grew.
The Back Story
I own a company called DuckServ it’s a design firm where I design things for not just content creators but for companies looking to either, re-brand or start a whole new company. I was friends with someone who I saw as a brother to me and they were re-designing themselves on Twitch, and they “hired” me to design their entire new look. So I created an invoice and because they were my friend I decided to give them the friends & family discount (bad mistake on my part). Which I later found wasn’t the thing I should’ve done as it bit me in the end, but lesson learned. By discount what I mean is I charge $400 to $1,200.00 for basic re-branding.
Breakdown cost
Consultation Fee: $75.00
Basic Brand Kit #52 (Custom): $400
Business Document Creation: $250
Streamer Package #1: 100.20
Sub Total: $825.20
Tax: $40.00
Grand Total Owed: $865.20
Total Charged: $121.13 (86% discount after taxes)
I created all the work myself, worked it all out to their liking and submitted everything I’ve got email receipts and they picked the design they wanted to use and go with. So I worked on getting everything together, while doing this I helped create their “seasoning” logo as a this is a concept and showed them it. They then used an AI program and altered said image to something else with out my permission but again, we friends so I didn’t say anything.
They were creating a men’s mental health support group as well called “ManTalk” and with everything going on, they needed a discord for their community.. They set one up and had me help re-design it more professionally. I put approx. 34 hours into making their discord the way they wanted it secure and made it where it ran itself basically and they loved it.. Or so they claimed but later said it was to “professional” for them.
Mind you while doing all this I was also one of their Twitch Mods and was helping create the commands, and monitoring their chat when they went live with another one of our friends. We were a well oiled machine until we wasn’t. There wasn’t any hey I have a issue with something and we need to discuss this but yeah… Getting a bit ahead of this so let’s rewind a bit and talk about people in the community hiring me for help.
A few of the people in their community asked for my help with some projects. One being homework, sure why not it’s about computers and so I helped them. Didn’t say they had to pay any large amount but hey you know a tip wouldn’t hurt but anyways. They didn’t do anything but take credit for everything and then I designed a company logo and name for another person in their community Paid nothing.
So I mentioned this and they made a big deal of it and told people if you hired myself (Duck) you need to pay him or get out. But yeah needless to say it was all talk because they weren’t really about that life and just putting on a show once again.
Now following this event, I ended up losing my home, and became homeless and so I was given a short window to get all my stuff and get out of where I was living. So Homeless, and not sure where I was going, Thanks to a brother of mine and a few friends I was able to get into a Hotel for about 2 weeks till I could get a better living arrangement in place. I got into a new place out of the cold before the snow really came down and started slowly getting back on my feet. Mind you I ended up putting a lien on my company to get food and such, and then while doing it all kept in contact updates everything that I could. Worked with my PC in the hotel and made the design work and reached out, they didn’t contact me, no response.
The Ending
So while rebuilding back things and still trying to get this guy his stuff, he decided to report my Cashapp as a scam attempting to get their $$ then blocked me on twitch discord, and all other socials after attempting to tell everyone that I was the devil and a evil person.
They still continue to tell their side of the story as if they were innocent and didn’t do anything wrong. Well here we are and he is still talking like he didn’t do anything and that I’m just the devil but its okay. Because honestly I don’t care but I’m just going to do me and that is all. I’ve cut ties with him and his wanna-be ways because he’s just toxic and if people listen and see that everything they say then you’re just not seeing that people are being fooled.
Taking the Highroad
I’m only posting this because I’m tired of not getting the chance to tell the truth and my side of the event of things. But like I said everyone needs the whole picture then they can decided for themselves, but you know people don’t do that and just get to hear one side and decide oh I want to be like them and that person so I’m going to believe them and push the same message they say because they will notice me.
Any who That’s all 😀 Thanks for visiting my DuckTalk.
