Eliza and Her Monsters

Eliza struggles to keep producing her MS pages after the break, distracted by texting with Wallace. She maintains her commitment to quality because whenever something isn’t as good as it could be, she feels bad about letting the “story” down. When she isn’t drawing for the webcomic, she makes fan art for Wallace, who keeps comparing her to LadyConstellation. She starts to wish that he knew who she was, but she doesn’t tell him. She takes the same approach to not telling him that her mother took her to the doctor, who prescribed birth control pills.

On Saturdays, Eliza and Wallace go to the bookstore to spend time with the other Angels. At some point, Cole comments that it’s weird to go to a bookstore every week and not buy anything, so Eliza suggests Children of Hypnos. The others have never read the series, but they do know about its creator, Olivia Kane. She never finished writing the series and seemingly vanished, leaving her fandom and others to speculate about her fate and her mental health. Eliza gushes at length about the series and her favorite parts, and Wallace decides to purchase the whole series. When Chandra and Cole start arguing about the orientation of Monstrous Sea characters, Eliza sits back again, enjoying the conversations her creation has sparked.

Later, Wallace messages Eliza about his realization that the books are about depression. Eliza hadn’t thought of it that way, but the explanation makes sense. She hadn’t meant to recommend that Wallace read a series about depression, but he says that he enjoys the way the series—much like Monstrous Sea—isn’t overly obvious about its meanings. They chat a bit about characters, particularly those in MS, and how it’s sometimes easier to deal with fictional characters than real people.

On the second day of winter break, Wallace finishes the last Children of Hypnos book and messages Eliza that he needs to talk about them in person right away. Realizing that this means that Wallace will be seeing her bedroom, Eliza rushes to conceal anything that would tip him off that she’s more than just an avid fan of Monstrous Sea. She unplugs her drawing equipment from the computer, signs out of her LadyConstellation account, and takes down the sticky notes with future MS ideas and tasks. Still, she can’t hide everything. When Wallace arrives and meets Eliza’s dog, Davy, he assumes it is named after Dallas’s sea monster. Eliza doesn’t tell him that the sea monster was named after the dog.

Wallace can’t believe that there’s not a fifth book to conclude the Children of Hypnos series; Eliza says that means he’s a true member of that fandom, having experienced that “pain.” They discuss Olivia Kane’s disappearance and whether it was fair for her not to write the finale; they speculate that perhaps the fact that many people produced fanfiction versions of the ending means the work now belongs to the fans. Wallace wants to write Kane a letter.

After lunch, Eliza and Wallace cuddle in her bed while watching Dog Days reruns. He writes her a note, asking to kiss her, but she writes back about her anxiety and how a surprise kiss would be better, when she can’t overthink it. He respects her wishes. They hold hands.

Eliza and Wallace cuddle with each other as long as possible before she has to get up to take her brothers to soccer practice. They hang out and hold hands until Eliza has to pick up her brothers from soccer. Wallace tags along. They walk the track around the gym while Sully and Church finish soccer practice. Eliza vents about how her parents assume she’s doing pointless things online when she’s talking with friends or drawing. Wallace understands online life is just as important as offline, but he also says that maybe her parents don’t understand because she snaps at them. She also shares that she thinks her brothers hate her because they aren’t interested in any of the same things. They like sports and video games, and she enjoys art and quiet time. Wallace advises that she make it a priority to hang out with them more. Eliza appreciates his listening and advice. Wallace finally admits to her that he did play football and asks if Eliza will meet his family, now that he’s met hers. She’s nervous but agrees. On his rainmaker profile in the MS forums, Wallace has posted about Children of Hypnos—and how the “Cute Girl from School” was the one to tell him about it.

On a Friday evening before Christmas, Eliza goes to Wallace’s house to meet his family. His stepmother, Vee, is welcoming and tender. His half-sister, Lucy, is athletic and fun, like her brothers. His stepsister, Bren, works at the same doggy day care that Davy attends, and she recognizes Eliza from there. They’re all sweet to Eliza, who notices that Wallace seems louder and more confident around his family. At dinner, Wallace again encourages Eliza to upload some of her drawings to the MS forums, and she tells him she’s thinking about it.

Wallace’s stepfather, Tim, asks everyone what they accomplished that day. When it’s Eliza’s turn to share, she doesn’t have much to say, not wanting to admit that most of her day involved Netflix and rereading the latest newspaper story about Wellhouse Turn several times. Wallace takes her turn, explaining how he helped with a scared dog at the daycare and sold two commissioned stories. Despite Wallace’s success, Tim chastises him for focusing so much on fanfiction and for thinking he could make money with his own writing. Vee tries to keep the conversation from going further. When Tim asks Eliza about college, she stammers that she will major in graphic design, though she wants to say art, thinking Tim will disapprove of the latter. As Tim goes back to talking about fanfiction as a hobby, Wallace gets increasingly agitated and finally asks if he and Eliza can be excused.

Wallace takes Eliza to his basement bedroom and vents about Tim’s lack of appreciation for his writing. Wallace doesn’t see the point of working at a job just to make money, and he wants to write as long as he can. Eliza admits that she doesn’t actually want to major in graphic design—she just wanted to placate Tim. They cuddle in his bed, talking more. He asks her to be his girlfriend, and she accepts. Eliza has a moment of nervous self-consciousness before allowing herself to relax in Wallace’s arms.

Eliza says goodbye to Wallace’s family and tells Wallace she’s glad he asked to make their relationship official.

At home, Eliza’s family wants her to talk about her dinner and watch a movie with them, but she gives them short answers and hurries to work in her room. Eliza takes Wallace’s encouragement to heart and posts her fan drawings of MS.

When Eliza wakes up the next morning, she has dozens of texts and private messages from Emmy, Max, and other admins wondering about her well-being. LadyConstellation always uploads new pages on Friday nights, but nothing went up last night. Although Eliza thought she scheduled the post, she finds that she didn’t hit “publish” before she went to Wallace’s house. She posts the new page as fast as she can, and, as LadyConstellation, apologizes for the delay in the forums.

Wallace plays video games with Eliza’s brothers while he waits to take her to the bookstore. As usual, Wallace takes Wellhouse Turn slowly, as if—Eliza thinks—he’s worried about losing control of the car.

The Angels are already talking about LadyConstellation’s late posting, and Megan admits that she is always disappointed when there’s only one new page at a time. Inwardly, Eliza feels resentful of this, but she also remembers her disappointment when Olivia Kane stopped writing. She doesn’t like to disappoint her readers, even though the work feels exhausting. Eliza is relieved when Megan suggests going bowling. She even lets Cole give her some pointers to improve her game. Eliza finds that she’s genuinely enjoying herself in a social situation—an unusual sensation.