Thalassic

My name is Bird Howsley, and I'm a beautiful disaster. Okay, "beautiful" is probably being generous. But the "disaster" part is right. In a brutal dystopian waterworld, where survival depends on skill and smarts, I'm pretty much always one bad decision away from watching my life go completely down the drain. Luckily, I have a lifeline: my cute, level-headed sailing teacher, Sargo Paz. Did I say cute? I didn't mean cute. He's just a friend. I definitely don't have weird sex dreams about him.

So I just found out that Sargo has been abducted to a city eight thousand miles across the Salt. Which means if I ever want to see him again (which I'm pretty sure I do) I'm gonna have to embark on a treacherous voyage to get him back . . . alone. Dangerous? Yes. Insane? Definitely. Necessary? Well, I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with the guy, so . . . yeah. The problem is, I'm still a massive asshole and I haven't really gotten over this drinking thing. And there might be a teleporter inside my head. Oh, and I still don't know how to sail.

Things are not going well. I've been drinking a lot. But I don't think anyone would blame me. I'm alone. Abandoned. Sargo abandoned me. No. I drove Sargo away. At least I have therapy. That's good—at least, that's what everyone tells me. Rav, my therapist, tells me my drinking problem has hidden roots. She says my brain is "wired differently" and we need to figure out how to make my wiring work. She calls it "unlocking my superpower", which feels condescending, but I guess I'll go with it. What happens once I unlock that superpower? I don't know. We haven't gotten that far yet.