The "Rusty" Lie

*The **Rusty** Lie* was a complicated and long-running lie that was created by yorick22, or "Cough Man" (A humorous way of saying *Kaufman,* which was part of yorick22's FANDOM username, SPCKaufman99) after she first began using discord on 28 February, 2020. The lie lasted from March 2020 until March 2021, when it was finally brought to its end by yorick22 herself. However, the lie still lasted for a longer time in some places, most notable *Hypothetical Tornadoes Wiki,* where the lie stuck until 10 August, 2021. The lie's narrative was very messy and generally unbelievable, however, most believed it for the entire time it was going, despite the glaring inconsistencies, yorick22's immaturity, and straight up ridiculous statements.

## Main Points of the Lie

Despite the lie's messy narrative, a few important points of the lie remained consistent throughout.

1. yorick22 was a 20-year-old (later 21) man named ***Rusty Thomas Morgan.***
2. Rusty was born in the town of Kaufman, Texas, and lived in an apartment in Rockwall, Texas.
3. Rusty was born in December, 1999.
4. Rusty worked at a Wendy's restaurant in Rockwall, Texas.
5. Rusty attended Dallas College-Mountain View Campus, a community college located in Dallas, Texas. (Sidenote: It was explicitly stated that Rusty was attending the college to graduate in the field of Air Traffic Control, which the college did not offer classes for.)
6. Rusty drove a Subaru Car, most likely a Subaru Imprezza.
7. Rusty had chased several tornadoes, most notably, the 3 March, 2019 Beauregard, Alabama tornado.
8. Rusty was a supporter of the Tea Party.
9. Rusty owned a Glock Handgun for "Self Defense"
10. Rusty had visited numerous US States.
11. Rusty owned a black-eyed white ferret named ***Wheatley.*** (*See Section)*

## Prelude

yorick22 first joined the Hypothetical Tornadoes Wiki under the name "CaramelTV" on 18 February, 2020. However, the lie would not start until days later, and yorick would continue to use the wiki not posing as Rusty. On 28 February, 2020, Frankie joined the HTW Discord, now under the name "SPCKaufman99" and she started to use the application regularly. It should be noted that yorick22 had made her Discord account several months earlier, but had rarely used it until she joined the HTW server. Now that she was in the server, the lie could now begin.

## The Beginning

The lie first emerged on 29 February, 2020, just a day after yorick22 initially joined the HTW Discord, when she stated that she had chased chased the 2019 Beauregard, Alabama tornado, indicating that she was at least old enough to drive. On 1 March, yorick22 said that she would go on a temporary hiatus (which was a lie in and of itself) due to "Exam benchmarks", implying she was probably in a college, despite the fact colleges in Texas do not have benchmarks for exams. A day later on 2 March, she responded to a person who needed help with a math problem with "I know the answer- it's New Jersey" and "I dont know what it means", to which the person with the math problem responded with "You're in college." yorick22 then tried to avoid the conversation by trying to talk about Animal Crossing. She would then continue to lie about several things, and on 11 April 2020, she would state that she was 20 and worked at a Wendy's. This was the first time she had brought up her age or occupation in the server. Also on 11 April, yorick22, replying to someone who asked what gender she was, said "My name is *Rusty.* What do you think?" Before this, she only went by Kaufman or Cough Man. However, the last name Morgan was not brought up until 7 June, when it was revealed what Rusty's last name was. The middle name "Thomas" would also be revealed soon after.

## Rusty's political views

In the beginning, Rusty was a staunch conservative, mirroring yorick22's actual political views at the time. She stated numerous times that she was either a libertarian or a supporter of the US Tea Party, and said multiple times that Donald Trump was "overall a great president". She frequently showed disdain for the Left and for "Woke liberals".

An early example of yorick22's right-leaning political views came during the 2020 George Floyd protests, when she showed great anger towards protesters, saying that "All lives matter" and demanding the faces of protesters be shown. She also stated that she owned a Glock handgun for "self defense" and that she would sit on her porch with a gun next to her, presumably to shoot protesters. She also said that "Every large city in America will be full" and showed great fear when she learned that a protest was being planned in Dallas, as she believed it would turn into a violent riot with many casualties. She also said that "straight cis white conservative males have the least privilege" and believed that black men had much higher privilege. She also believed that capital punishment be brought back solely for protesters. yorick22 generally showed little regard for the actual reason for the protests and believed that it was all for a "dumb reason". She generally learned little from this experience.