Hey weirdos, it's Gauzetearer.
So just yesterday, I was playing JackBox with some online friends. Real nice people. We were playing Mad Verse City. It's the one where you play as mechas and rap battle each other with mad libs.
So when we played, one of our friends couldn't join—in fact, one of the few IRL friends I have. Let's call her P. The reason she couldn't: Someone else had gotten in. Their username: "Hard" And they were playing the white and blue evangelion-looking bot that had a floppy disk 4head.
When I asked, "Who's Hard?" Of course everyone laughed and said they were hard. Then I asked again. They all got quiet.
"Well, it's not me!" Said P. Then another friend. Then everyone.
"Heh, we got ourselves a gangstalker." We just remade the room, thinking someone had gotten in by mistake.
But it happened again.
"Ok, seriously!!!" said P, "Who's using their phone and computer to play twice???" Everybody said they were only playing once. We just went along with it, thinking someone else in the server was using an extension or something to see the stream.
Then it was Hard's turn. They said just... random shit... about like... JFK... and the moon landing. Everyone had a big laugh at it, even P. "In hard we trust!!!" They said. "IN HARD WE TRUST." That phrase is eating at me. Like this... random person... had a grasp on my friends... like a cult leader.
Then we got to Hard's turn in the second round. The last line of their rap: "In Hard we trust." It didn't even rhyme, but they got all the votes. I'm ashamed to admit it, but even mine.
I was against Hard in the final round. I was second place. I busted out my best rap about them being a knockoff unfriended, bs creepypasta. That part's still true, just wish it wasn't my life.
Then their rap came. It was my full, legal name. That's it. Thankfully, my friends took it to be a random name.
P dm'd me, "WHAT THE FUCK, WHO IS THIS GUY???" My response, "IDFK?!!?!? IT'S NOT YOU???"
P: "NO WTF I WOULDN'T DOX YOU!!!!"
Me: "WE GOTTA STOP PLAYING!"
We both logged off instantly, and we got in a private call.
Me: "Oh my fucking god, what the fuck."
P: "We gotta call... what, the internet police?"
Me: "Maybe like... get a service to clean my digital footprint? This is fine, we can handle this, just... who is hard?"
P (In a stilted, dull voice): "I'm hard."
Me: "What? Oh, ha, ha. Not funny."
P: "I'm hard."
Me: "You mean it was you? Why... I thought we were friends, and you doxxed me to the server?"
P: "I'm hard..."
Me: "What do you mean you're hard????"
She disconnected. This morning, I had a message from her. It was captioned "In Hard We Trust." It was a picture of her. But... she was... all rigid, smiling. It was like she was frozen. I noticed... cracking... around her lips. Not normal chapping... like her face was rock solid and was stressed too much... like it was hard.
I noticed something horrible: It was a full body image. She lives alone.