Tongue in cheek short story about the horrors of Discord and those damn beeps.
It had been a long time since Jerry had talked to some of his old friends from a certain social media site. He had lost contact as life got away with him. Jobs, family, life, you know the drill, the usual stuff. Time just passes by and you mean to come back and catch up but next thing you know it's been far too long.
He didn't even mean to go. He couldn't even remember what happened. Maybe it was when he moved? Maybe it was when his computer crashed? Whatever the reason, he hadn't talked to them in a while. But he missed them. Even the ones he barely remembered. He liked chatting with them.
So one day he finally signed back in, opened a few tabs in his browser, and tried to connect back with Discord.
What was his password again? He clicked forgotten password. What's the email? Oh god, what's the password to that email? He checked his password manager.
DOH! He saw the password to discord and the email right in there, and he remembered them the instant he saw them. Well, sometimes it's like that.
Even though life had gotten away with him, it wasn't like life had been fun. He wasn't bar hopping and living the good life with happy tales and happy trails. He was barely skirting by to be honest. His room and his life were a mess. He was tired all the time. He never felt right anymore. People kept telling him that he looked like he was aging too quickly. Now he had developed a cough that wouldn't go away.
His room smelled musty and of old sweat. Dimly lit by the computer screen as he desperately tried to reach out to friends from the past. A time that wasn't much better than now, but he at least had some online friends to talk to every night. Not that he didn't go on other social media, but it wasn't the same. Did most of them even care? Did anyone really?
He managed to get logged into Discord only to see that most of the old servers he belonged to were gone. The ones still there seemed dead. Some of the rooms on them had been deleted and they were only skeletons of their former selves.
He clicked his friends list only to see a couple names he didn't even recognize. Who were they again? No one he remembered.
Back to the servers. He clicked through them. Saw a few names he recognized, but from weeks before. Should he mention them? Or should he just start talking?
Falling victim to the social anxiety, he decided to just start talking in one of the server's main chats. "Hey, what's up? I haven't been around for a long time."
Dead. Nothing. No response.
"Well, whatever. I guess I'll check out my old blog while I'm waiting." He looked through his old blogging site. Things he didn't even remember writing. Posts from all sorts of people he didn't remember or know. Wait! He recognized that name! Who was that again? He read through the post.
*Like.* Comment: "Nice to see you're still hanging around. Enjoyed reading about your trip." He continued typing, trying not to leave some worthless comment but also trying not to be too long winded. He failed.
*BA-BEEP* He recognized that sound! That was discord! Was it a message? Maybe someone posted in the chat? He looked through his windows looking for Discord. There it is! The chat was still open and no one had replied. Maybe it was another room? A DM? He didn't see anything. He checked through the other servers. They all seemed dead.
"What is with this? Does no one hang out here anymore? Did they all move to a new chat room?" He searched through blogs trying to find a link to join another chat. It wasn't easy. No one was really talking about chat rooms or Discord that he saw.
After a while he found a link and joined another server, but it too was dead. "Hey, I'm back after a long time."
"Nothing. No response."
"What is with this? Why is it so dead? Why is no one answering me?"
*BA-BEEP*
"Where did that come from? Which room? What server? Was it a DM? Where is it?" He frantically searched through the windows. "WHERE IS IT!?" He sighed and leaned back in his chair. This was gonna seriously mess with him. Wha--
*BA-BEEP* He checked the rooms again. Nothing. Where was that coming from?
"Ahhh!" he screamed, internally, in frustration. Fucking Discord! He remembered why he hated this app. Always with the noises and alerts and all the windows and chats. He was always hearing some beep from somewhere and he didn't know where!
He went back to his block and his friends list there and checked out a few. He saw a few more names he recognized. He left a few comments. Wrote a blog that was kind of worthless, or so he thought. But it was getting back in the habit. It established that he was back, without making any promises.
Every so often, but not too often, he'd hear that familiar beep. *BA-BEEP* But usually find no messages.
Someone did eventually respond in one of the chats though. He started talking to them. Someone he long forgot. Not too close, but not someone he didn't know. It was fine. This was fine. It was something. He's try. He'd try to come back and maybe he'd reconnect. Maybe it would take some time. Maybe he would never get back what he was chasing, but he'd try.
*BA-BEEP* There was that damn beep again! He checked the windows again. Where was it coming from? Whatever. It was late. He needed to go to bad.
Jerry pulled his shirt over his head, threw it in the general direction of the hamper, and fell forward on his bed, grasping his pillow.
To sleep. A chance to dream.
"Rahh! Jerry! Why did you abandon us? We were your friends!" A blue luminescent ghostly figure grasped at Jerry. It was covered in chains, chained down to a computer on a desk. Behind it floated a bunch more blue luminescent ghostly figures, chained to desks. "Why Jerry?" "Why?" "We were your friends!"
A ghostly figure of a woman floated towards him, grasping at him, opening her mouth as if to scream. *BA-BEEP*
Jerry woke with a start, drenched in sweat. He had left his computer on. It was just a nightmare. That beep was real though.
He checked the rooms with eyes half asleep. Still nothing. Dead. This wasn't going to be easy.
He hated Discord and that damn beep. He just hoped he could maybe reconnect with his old friends, and that they weren't as dead as the chat seemed to be.
I'll end it here. It was only meant to be a short tongue in cheek story about Discord. I might choose to rewrite and/or continue it later, I don't know.
Image created by Imagen 3 through Google Gemini
I don't think it knows how computer screens work, but it's good enough.
I was having trouble finding a Creative Commons Image that I trusted I could actually use, so I gave it a shot.
Once again, @commentrewarder is enabled, as it has been on various recent posts of mine.