History of The Book

It's actually a very compelling story on how the Book came to be. In truth, it was a real fluke: a downright accidental creation--something that we all agree exists in a realm beyond our reality and is somehow tapping our own beings to be brought into this existence.

Its roots were innocent enough: once upon a time there was a message board where we frequented, along with a few other internet friends. There was a roleplaying forum, designed specifically for those of us who, for some reason or another, felt a great need to create characters and have them go on adventures.

At one point, for reasons beyond my capacity to explain, everybody packed bags and moved to a new board. But sometime before THAT happened, a one Irwin introduced an idea she had come up with for a NEW game to play. Little did we know what the game had in store for us. It went a little something like this:

2/21/03 - Okay... for anyone that's interested, this is that thing...
....I was talking about on the other thread. RP seems the best place for it as [Vaecrius] said. If you want to join in, express an interest.

It's like a round robin story or something. Everyone thinks up a character and a villain (you can have sidekicks and minions if you want too). Each person writes a chapter of the story. There's no DM or anything, so we have no idea where it will go and you can take it anywhere you like. After everyone's had a go, we could even go round again (we'll probably be sick of it by then). All that's asked is that you leave the end of your chapter open for the next person. Each time a person writes a new chapter, their 'hero' effectively joins the 'party' and the 'party' is called upon to fight their 'villain'. They can defeat the villain, the villain can run away to return later, whatever. I suppose the villain could even become good and join the party... you can put any kind of character, any genre, any mecha, whatever you like in it. This is just for silliness, so ridiculous things can happen and you can bring in any silly character from any media. You can also write in any style you like... I've got a fairly good idea of my chapter, so I'll go first if you want. Any takers?

The start of this process was slow and clunky: in the end, four of us became unknowing victims in the Book's evil plot (we all go by many names, but these are the four we have chosen for our incarceration): Irwin, Vaecrius, Tredert, and Joe.

As Irwin stated in that first, faithful post, we never expected to get farther than one round through the story... but that didn't happen. We kept going, kept writing, for some strange reason. And as we did, the chapters began to grow in size. A story soon formed, a plot was born and, in a downright eerie turn of events, we started to see relationships and patterns within our story--coincidences that were too true or often to be just coincidences, not just within our story but in the world around us. The Book was no longer a ficitional piece of work--it was something that drew upon the very world around us--our experiences--and used those to shape and mold itself into existence.

At one point, we thought we were struggling with a title for our epic:

Vaecrius: The Book of Fluids... o.O
Irwin: Which is what me and Tredert are tentatively calling it... for lack of a better bloody name... since I can't think of one.
Vaecrius: Since I can't think of anything better right now, I'll not object... may I ask why Book of Fluids?
Irwin: Tredert drew out this massive map where there was a Fluid link (either sexual or family) between every single character...
Vaecrius: O_O;

Upon which, later that evening, Vaecrius struggled to offer up different titles for which to call The Book, including The Balls of Bushthulhu and Cosmic Plush Reindeer of DOOM...

Irwin: I'm still with the Book of the Fluid Universe.
Vaecrius: The rhythm just doesn't seem to click... given the choice between those two I'd take The Book of Fluids...
Irwin: This is going to be one of those 'working titles that we end up having to make do with', isn't it.. ?

And thusly, The Book of Fluids named itself.

More than three years have passed since that day, and the story has grown, the characters have changed, the tale has twisted and transformed and evolved into its current state. Even when everyday life kept us away from our computers--when unexpected events made it impossible for us to contribute for indefinite periods of time--we could hear the Book calling us, beckoning for us to come back...

... and now it has you...

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