“You don’t know Max and Emmy in real life?”
“I know them in real life. It’s not like they’re pretending to be somebody else just because they’re online.”
“I mean face-to-face, as in you could reach out and touch them.”
“No. One of them lives in Canada and the other’s in school in California.”
“So you’re used to interacting with people mostly on the internet.”
“I guess. Before Wallace I mostly only interacted with my family. Is that bad?”
“Not necessarily. Many people, especially teenagers your age, find their closest friends and communities online. I apologize for saying ‘in real life’—I didn’t intend to sound like I thought they weren’t valuable relationships.”
“That’s okay. You’re better than my parents were.”
“What do your parents say?”
“Lots of things. They used to say they were okay with the online stuff, but I don’t think they were. They were happy when Wallace came around, though. I guess they thought I was breaking out of my shell, or whatever.”
“Were you?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I started doing more stuff outside my house, but it still wasn’t the same as being online.”
“How did you feel online?”
“Like the creator of one of the most popular webcomics in the world. I was invincible. It’s so much easier to deal with people when you feel like they can’t touch you.”
“It’s normal to experience those kinds of power differences. Did you feel that way around Wallace all the time?”
“No. Sometimes, but not all the time. I pretended to be a fan too. Wallace is the most popularMonstrous Seafanfiction writer.”
“Why don’t we talk a little more aboutMonstrous Sea?”
“Like what?”
“Why don’t you tell me what it’s about?”
“You haven’t read it? Ugh—sorry, that sounded bad. I mean like, all of this is aboutMonstrous Sea, I thought you might’ve gone online to look at it ... sorry, I’m not pretentious, I swear.”
“That’s okay. I did look it up, but I wanted to hear you describe it.”
“It’s ... hard to explain. There’s a boy and a girl and—have you readFaust? Or seen it? You know the Faust legend, right?”
“Yes, I know Faust.”
“Okay, so the boy and girl have basically sold their souls for great power. Kind of. It’s weird. They live on this huge, distant planet called Orcus, and it’s mostly ocean. The boy and the girl are the only ones who can kill each other, and they’re pitted on opposite sides of a war—I’m not explaining it well.”
“You’re doing a fine job.”
“So the girl finds out she’s been misled by her side, and the boy tries to influence her over to his, but he turns out to kind of be the monster everyone always said he was, just in a different way....”
“How long have you been working on this?”
“A long time.”
“Do you think about it often?”
“Every day. Sometimes it’s all I think about. But I haven’t been able to work on it since ... a few weeks ago.”
