Hello there! I know I'm late making this, but in some timezones it's still Saturday so let's pretend that I'm right on schedule. Anyway, the point of this episode is to give you, the readers, some information about the characters and myself. Basically I'll just give you general info that probably won't come up in the story. 

Author Info:

I feel like a question I get a lot from my friends and family is what inspired me to write this story. Basically what happened is about a year ago I had a school assignment to write the beginning of a fantasy story. And I had this idea where there was this teenager who discovered that everyone he knew was a robot. 

That sounded more like sci-fi than fantasy to me, so I edited my story to make it more fantastical for my assignment, but I really liked my original idea and the characters and felt like I needed to continue the story. The story remained dormant until around November (I'm not sure) when I started it again from scratch. 

That was around the same time I discovered Tapas, and since I've always wanted to write stories for people I felt like this would be a good first step. So I wrote more and eventually figured out how to post something on here (I'm not very good with technology), and the rest is history. 

Another question I feel that authors get a lot is whether their main character is based on them. In my case the answer is a definite and resounding yes. I wanted to put someone who shared my weird qualities and struggles into the story as a way to represent myself and others like me. 

I haven't read very many stories that have a main character with depression, anxiety, ADHD, or OCD, let alone someone that has all of those things. I feel like there are many misconceptions surrounding these concepts that I wanted to help clear up. For example, I always hear people saying "Ugh, that piece of paper that's slightly off-center is really triggering my OCD." 

And I know that person meant no harm, and saying that doesn't seem like a big deal to them, but it hurts a little every time I hear someone misusing the definition of OCD. 

Another reason I put a character very similar to me in this story is because I am very single, and if the main character of my story--who's almost exactly like me--can find someone that loves and accepts him for who he is, than even if I never find someone like that in real life at least this version of me will have. 

A question no one has ever asked me but that I'll answer anyway is what I picture my characters looking like. I purposely left any super defining characteristics out of the story so that everyone can picture the characters however they want, but that doesn't mean that if a movie was made out of this book (not that anyone would want to make a movie about this) I would let just anyone play my characters. 

This is completely hypothetical, since no one in their right mind would make a movie out of my story, but if it ever did happen I would want my two main characters to be biracial, just because as a biracial person myself I don't see very many biracial people in movies or TV, and even if I do the actors aren't usually playing biracial characters. 

I still love watching movies and TV, of course, but sometimes I wish that there would be more main characters that are biracial instead of just being the best friend or villain, if they're even in the show/movie at all. 

I guess now that I've told you about my ideas behind this story I should probably tell you some basic info about me that doesn't involve the writing of this story. 

My name is Jessica (Jessie) Johnson (since I have such a generic name I gave my characters generic names too). My birthday is October 14th. My favorite food is probably eggplant parmesan, which I know is really specific, but I just like it, okay? 

I'm from the United States of America, although judging by the state of our country I often wish I wasn't. My parents were also both born and raised in the U.S., but my dad's ethnicity is a mix of different European countries and my mom is Korean. 

And no, I don't know Korean, although sometimes I wish I did because every time I visit my maternal family I can see them looking at me while talking in Korean, and I want to know what they're saying about me behind my back. I only know one language fluently, which is English, but I speak some Spanish and I'm learning Swedish. 

My favorite genre of music is...I don't even know. I listen to pretty much everything, especially musicals and 80s stuff. 

My favorite book genre is realistic fiction, which is ironic because nothing I'm currently writing is realistic fiction. 

Things I like include talking to my friends, avoiding all social contact, eating good food, sleeping, reading--especially the stuff on here--, drawing, writing, and watching TV. 

Things I don't like include random uncalled for clapping--especially when it's offbeat, but either way it's probably my biggest pet peeve--, people who don't apologize when they're clearly in the wrong, panic attacks--especially ones in public--, school, being expected to blindly obey someone just because they're older than me, doing nothing yet still feeling constantly drained of energy, myself, and being told that mental illness isn't a real issue.

Character Info:

Caleb Smith is 16 years old. His birthday was mentioned in the first paragraph of the story (this is totally the only reason I'm not sharing his birthday and definitely not because I forgot). 

He is 5'6", or 1 meter and 70.888 centimeters tall. His favorite food is a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. He likes reading mystery novels. His favorite genre of music is punk rock. 

He likes Mark, the rain, forests, dogs, video games, geometry, being alone, and kayaking. 

He dislikes manipulative people, geology, himself, wearing fancy clothes, crowds, waiting for long periods of time, being late to things, and sewing. 

Mark Baker is 16 years old. His birthday is December 22nd. He is 6'0", or 1.8288 centimeters. His favorite food is an omelet. His favorite book genre is fantasy. His favorite genre of music is rock. 

He likes Caleb, rock climbing, cooking, swimming, penguins, trains, his hair, and bacon. He dislikes pollution, being sick, dicing vegetables, lying to people, heights, werewolves, and puking.

Thanks for reading! I'll go back to regular updates soon, don't worry.