I feel weird. I finished reading what was left of the fanfic.
Somehow, I can "feel" the author through the writing. He reminds me of the guy who was set up to be my rival/companion in elementary school, by teachers who didn't know what to do with us. And something in him of Rosewood, too, though that may just be the AI research that makes people smell like that...
And then I read the reviews he'd received. It was so strange. I could feel everyone's minds like little points of light, ranging from brown to searing blue. Different showers of color, with different goals, different reasons for coming, sitting down, writing something.
I think I might write him an email. He's intelligent. He's managed to receive 13,000 reviews, mostly from people who don't seem to have the slightest idea what they're talking about. I imagine he's rather bored.
On the other hand, I can already feel that he's a flaming asshole, because I have a good nose for that nowadays. What he wants is for more people to look at him. What he thinks he wants is to write something really good, just because. But the first one is important. He defends the slightest flaw with too much weaponry. He doesn't know how to bow down and take the reputation drop with a smile. He understands the theory but he can't see his own practice. And that makes him unnecessarily nasty from time to time.
On the other other hand, who ever said I had to make friendship selections based solely on niceness?
On the other other other hand, why would he want to talk to me?
Placed in the happy thread because I would have never thought to reach out to an interesting person before. Wouldn't even have processed "the writer of my current favorite fanfic" as a person, just as an idea. Words and words.
So perhaps...