Read Online The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash - Free Book Online

Homo Sapiens Studies instructor fed her in school. Hence . . .” She swoops her arm up to indicate herself.
    â€œAh, of course. I see. Hence Blade Runner  . . .” Devin glances over at me and grins like he’s just discovered the theory of relativity. “And Mad Max!” He taps at his ear to indicate he has now noticed that I also have a green ear. Needless to say, I’m not impressed.
    â€œRight!” Roxana says as if she is. “And here’s a fun fact: Zinc based the character of Noth on himself. He started out as a sci-fi author, you see, and not a very successful one. He was feeling really jaded about that industry when he started writing Althena. Anyway, read the original series. They are wonderful. Zinc has these gorgeous panels, coupled with just the perfect words, and it’s just like poetry, really. Comic book poetry.”
    I’m starting to smile despite myself because hearing Roxana talk so reverently about something I also deeply love is intoxicating.
    â€œThe original?” Devin asks. “As opposed to . . .”
    â€œOh. Right. So Zinc and Young Guns had a huge falling-out. That’s why the series only ran for two years. Afterward Zinc basically disappeared. But Young Guns owned the rights to Althena. There wasn’t any overt interest for a long time, but pretty soon the fansites started to get traction and some of the kids who were fans when they were teens started to get old enough to become, like, executives. So long story short, five years ago, there was a reboot.” She pauses dramatically.
    â€œAnd . . . we do not like this reboot?” Devin asks.
    â€œNo, sir, we do not,” Roxana says emphatically. “It has none of the subtlety or the nuance. And certainly none of that otherworldly art.”
    â€œOr the humor.” I can’t help but butt in now. “No sly little jokes.”
    Roxana looks at me and snorts. “Those guys don’t know no Sly that isn’t a Stallone.”
    â€œIdiots!” I proclaim.
    â€œFools!” she responds, not missing a beat.
    â€œSo then . . . you guys think the movie is going to suck too?” Felicia interrupts our well-rehearsed dialogue. “I thought you were excited for that panel today.”
    â€œAh, well, we did think the movie was going to suck,” Roxana starts, and then turns to me to continue.
    I oblige. “But then word got out that Zinc himself—who hasn’t been heard from in twenty years, mind you—that he had actually given the film his stamp of approval.”
    â€œWhich means that the movie has to be based on the original,” Roxana concludes. “And Zinc being here today basically confirms that.” She looks at me, and I can see all the excitement and disappointment pooled together in her eyes.
    â€œIt does,” I say as my mind goes into overdrive. I should treat this panel problem like brainstorming one of our stories. That’s how I’ll figure it out, by thinking What would Lockbreak do?
    â€œAh, right,” Devin cuts in again with his perfect British accent. “I had been hearing mutterings about him. So, really, no one’s heard from him in twenty years?”
    â€œNot a peep.” Roxana turns to him. “No photographs. No interviews. No social media. There were even rumors that he was dead.”
    The doors to the room we’re standing by finally open and a stream of people file out as Roxana continues to tell Devin some of the more outrageous theories surrounding Zinc over the years: That he was an alien himself. That he never existed. That he has spent the past decade running a tantric yoga retreat in East Chatham, New York.
    We’re finally let inside. They don’t clear out these smaller rooms between panels, so there are quite a few people already seated by the time we get in, likely taking in a block of panels at once. We find two seats in