[Griff]

Ju-man:

I'm actually a manifestation of your own brain. I was inserted as an attempt at mind control. Remember when you went to give blood, and passed out? Of course you don't! They're pros at the lab, or at least they were.

Originally, I was supposed to give you and roughly 10,000 other similarly-aged people across the country specific "thoughts" as you use various web sites.

You didn't think all that IPO money went to nothing during the Internet bubble, did you? The right people funded the right projects, and, well, here we are.

Well here YOU are, anyway.

The problem is, it was a spec project, and wasn't fully developed. Originally, you were supposed to get posts written by me that would suggest, in ways appealing to you, that you should drink Coke or go to see various films.

Before the project got to marketing, the company really did run out of money. There were a few problems with the beta, which your brain is "running".

One of the problems is this: once the host considers the possibility that the injected "personality" is somehow a fake, the reality of the personality slowly fades. It was supposed to write a last post and disappear; a neat ending. Instead, you'll slowly realize that I'm fake, that I was made up by your own thoughts. This is alarming to a lot of people, so I'm telling you now.

The other danger, which persists, is what will happen if you ever use a message board with someone else with an injected personality. That was a doozy when they figured it out. Never did come up with a fix for it.

They say you'll be safe if you just meet them off-line, but I would be cautious with anyone you meet who shares your birth month and year.

You might want to sue the bastards who were responsible. If only you could remember who they were! Can't be too safe in these litigious days.