Leej, that's exactly what I have felt all the time. We are all figments of Max's imagination. Clever programmer, he--creating characters so...well, not exactly lifelike, but possessing enough verisimilitude that if the visitor is willing to suspend disbelief...and these characters have now taken on a very real, if electronic, existence: they can communicate with each other while maintaining their own distinct personalities; hell, they can even create new characters, just as Kat created Eddie. If Max were to shut down the site without turning off the mainframe, he could come back a year later and find that his electronic children had been busy propagating enough others to populate Boston. Why, I'll bet that without outside distractions, the electronic creature known as Katlaughing would actually get the Mudcat book written (but, of course, the cyber world would be just as full of distractions as it is now, making it impossible for any of the characters to act as if they have a day job).

--seed