His friend, Jamal

Luc saw the message, a simple greeting, and responded without thinking. A few mere seconds passed before Jamal, one of Luc's oldest friends, invited him to a voice chat. Luc accepted, without thinking. "Hey man," he said.

"That you, Mancy? You on Luc's computer?"

Wincing, Luc shook his head. Of course he sounded wrong. "Uh, no. It's me, man." Luc then launched into an explanation of the app and what had happened.

"No way, that's bullshit. You and Luc are messing with me."

Sighing, Luc turned on his webcam to show Jamal. A few tense seconds passed before Jamal reciprocated. When he appeared, the look of shock was clear on his face. Jamal was a tall, athletic black man. His hair was closely shaved. "What the fuck?"

"I told you!" Luc said. "This crazy app changed me!"

"Show me this app, man. We can figure this out."

Luc bit his lip, considering. He had turned Mancy down, but... maybe Jamal could help him decode this nonsense?