What: Vipre

This is Vipre (pronounced Vee-pray), well, a scan of Vipre anyway. The original Vipre is cardboard and was delivered to Mike as some unwanted advertising mail months ago. Since then it has developed into a game that Mike and I play. The objective of the game is to have the other person find Vipre.

The first time Mike just threw it over the cube wall to me. I got him back by putting it in his lunch bag while he was away from his desk. The next morning at 6:45 I received an e-mail; "Subject: Ouch. Body: Vipre just got me." After that Mike put it in the storage over my cube, and it fell out on me when I went to get a DVD one day. I put small copies of Vipre on his Ctrl, Alt and Del keys while he was out at lunch with the original out in the open acting as a decoy.

The rules are:

• You take it in turns, so when I hide it it's up to Mike to find it. Once Mike finds it, he hides it. When you find it, you are "Vipred",
• The idea has to be your own: we can't ask for suggestions on hiding places. We can, however, use third parties to Vipre the other. Example: we can hide it in a stack of papers or mail that someone is going to give the other,
• You can't bend/roll Vipre.

Vipre has experienced a quiet time over recent months. Mike told me it had been destroyed in his backpack, which was feasible because he had had it in his bag... After about 6 weeks I cleaned my desk and it turned up at the very bottom of a pile of junk, in an unmarked envelope padded with colored paper so that I would have to open it to see what it was. It was a patient and well played Vipre-ing by Mike. The effect that Vipre has is interesting - simply mentioning that Vipre could be around prompts a search of your desk...

On Monday, Vipre returned successfully and unexpectedly to the world. Last Friday Mike locked something in his desk, and asked me to hide the key so that it would be safe. After he left for the weekend I hid Vipre in the bag that he had locked in there, and waited for him to ask for the key. He asked for it, I gave it to him and he opened the drawer. As soon as he grabbed the bag his hands went up in fists above his head, and he leaned back and swore.

In my opinion, it was a good way to be Vipred.