What if it was all just a novel that we walked into unwittingly?

“This place is SUREAL!” These were the words of a newbie blogger to SoulCast. It certainly has become that way. Something has happened since the Crash of August 6th. It is like the skin of the SoulCast universe has been breeched and a slew of characters from another blogging dimension have come in. I feel like I am in a Twilight Zone episode.

And didn’t TheNakedProfessor mention something about that just after the crash? He posted a blog entry about HBC being in the bloggers twilight zone. SithBorg’s name came up I think. It was shortly after that time things went weird.

HBC disappeared for a few days. He later told of a trip to look at paintings somewhere I think. I don’t do any research; I just remember impressions so bare with me here. A couple of peculiar things were that TNP usually commented a lot on his own posts. It helped make them more popular, I thought. He would write three comments to reply to one person sometimes. But TNP also slipped away for a bit. He came back with a hilarious post about SoulCast and what had happened after the crash and what SoulCast was saying about its growth. But he failed to comment much on it. Then at last he commented and made reference to the absence of HBC. His sentence was incomplete and finished with "..." The comment that immediately followed was HBC announcing in his usual (“I laughed so hard I shit myself”) way that he was back. By the sounds of previous posts and comments, HBC and TNP were friends or had become friends. Did they communicate with each other just before those posts appeared? The coincidence is uncanny.

Then Madame Sosostris vanished, taking her posts with her. HBC called out for her. She came back. I went to TNP’s blog and found his latest entry was a repeat from some weeks ago. His comments were also strangely lacking on SoulCast, even to comments posted on his blogs. Something was amiss. Why were some of SoulCast’s most popular bloggers vanishing and returning all around the same time?

Then HBC started posting really deep blogs from his memories and heart. He had been bitten by a tick and had some rare case of lyme disease that was not treatable. The doctors called him an anomaly. Was he going to die? His last few posts were not like the man we knew in the beginning, although there had been hints that his condition was changing him. There was his post about crying and his last sermon post that appeared a short time before he disappeared.

I was off SoulCast for a couple of days but when I came back there was a blog posted by SithBorg that mentioned something about us being writers and why wouldn’t a writer want to introduce multiple characters into the community to see how we reacted to them. It was a thought that had been nagging me recently. How real is SoulCast? How many bloggers are real people? Probably most are, but who was to say that someone wasn’t having a bit of fun out there while writing a novel? SithBorg’s blog made me think of TNP’s twilight zone entry and his connection with HBC. There was also Lt.CmdrWorf but I hadn’t followed his blogs enough to know how he fit in. He did work with TNP and HBC to put together a brief summary of American history from the Civil War to present times. Had he become an outside-SoulCast friend of TNP’s and HBC’s? Was there more of a connection between the various bloggers than just SoulCast?

So I was wondering about the connections between HBC, Madame, and TNP, and wondering how SithBorg fit in when I saw that two new bloggers were slagging off HBC. It was weird. Their posts always appeared one after the other except in the odd case where someone happened to get a post in between. It was too coincidental that two people would both appear on SoulCast, both be reading HBC’s stuff and both be ready to insult and criticize him for whatever he said. They had to be friends. They had to be working together. The efforts they went through to harass HBC were too much. They were like sharks after a wounded fish. Or were they just one shark with two names?

Now HBC has always left a good impression with most SoulCasters. He came across as a strong man of stout opinions but with an open mind and a warm heart to share. He never took crap from anyone but was ready to stand down and apologize when he said too much. Suddenly HBC was hurting. He was patient with his attackers and let them have their way with him. He didn’t delete them or try to fight back. Everyone else jumped to HBC’s defence but HBC was not the same.

And then he vanished. All his posts were gone!

TNP still seems to be nowhere in sight. SithBorg is laughing at us. The Chef/Kevin duo is now after silverwhisper. People are talking about false bloggers and multiple bloggers. TNP’s twilight zone blog comes to mind. What on earth is going on out there? Maybe the newbie who said SoulCast is surreal knows something. Maybe SithBorg knows something. Madame Sosostris claims she can’t find anything about HBC. The rest of HBC’s friends are sad or angry. SoulCast has been turned into chaos. What on Earth is going on here? Is this a conspiracy? Is this some weird alternate reality? Are we innocently living in someone’s novel?

Am I just being paranoid?

This reminds me of the Matrix in a way.

Note: I typed this last night. I have now seen the news that HBC is in hospital so the above is just the work of an over-active imagination. However, I just peeked at TNP's blog and have found him to be dead. Coincidence?