Your Biggest Fan
You have time off in the afternoon. There's a library in town, you hear, so you walk in search of that. You're glad for the broad daylight as you pass the town's alleyways.
The library is styled like some kind of ancient fortress, even though it's only two stories tall. When you step in there's a lot of greenery, lit by sunbeams from the ceiling. They're growing vegetables in here.
A librarian named Jahnbuck greets you and shows you the history section. You're quickly confused, even after you remember that the pages go right-to-left. So why are you here again? Well, you'd heard about this country having been conquered, and there's the too-personal subject of how magic works in this place.
You bask in a pool of light, browsing a stack of dusty books that makes your nose twitch. It looks like these Fen people are from an empire of deserts and jungles, and have some religious "Teachings" too weird to explain. Apparently they're very convincing at swordpoint though. The empire isn't obviously killing people these days, at least not locally, but it's not particularly nice either.
A pair of ears twitches over the book in your hands. "Senorita?" says their owner.
You look up and find a long-eared, sand-colored fox. He's the first you've seen in town, actually; everyone local seems to be the red or grey-and-red kind. His clothes are odd too, with many buttons and pockets on his vest. He says, "The illustrious Lenara Vale, I presume?"
You freeze. First of all, if your sense of the local language is right, he's one of the "Fens" people here resent. Second, are you Lenara for purposes of talking with a strange outsider? "Um, hi?" you squeak.
"Bueno, senorita!" he says. (No, he's not really speaking Spanish. That's just the easiest thing to compare it to.) "I am Eloy Alejandro, visiting town as an admirer of your studio. A 'fan', yes?"
"You came here for a movie tour?" you say.
"Unofficially. But I am here as a repairman. I mend things that are broken. Computers, mainly. A surprise very pleasant to meet you here. It speaks well of your intellect."
You smile a bit. "Just studying history before getting back to work."
"I'm not interrupting you, I hope?" His ears droop in obvious pleading for attention.
Oh, what are you doing letting a man flatter you like this? A possibly-evil foreigner too? For the moment you say, "I have a few minutes."
"Well. I want to say, I've noticed the theme of your work, and think it brave of your studio. Do you know Zellon Fabrosi? His 'Chalice' movie is brilliant in its own way. But the interactivity of your cartoon productions is something else again. You get to feel the anger, the resistance in the way Wylan moves. Or yourself."
Lenara's been in other movies with Wylan, and they're these "cartoon" productions where someone can hop into first-person mode using the motion-capture machines. That means this Eloy guy has probably watched the things, and romanced you from Wylan's perspective. Or him from yours. Either way it's kind of disturbing. And he actually liked that Chalice thing? No taste!
Wait a minute. Evil big-eared things were the villains, and the paranoia plot was about someone getting forcibly turned into one? That's... more political than you'd imagined junky fantasy to be. "Thanks, I think. I'm not trying to interfere with the Fens, though."
"Of course not," he says with a wink and a tailwag. "But it's nice to see some among your people having an influence cultural on the empire. Many young Fens watch films, and over time, who knows where that leads?"
Time. "Oh! I need to get back to the studio," you say. It's strange to think about your having an influence on the world situation here, just by performing.
Eloy bows to you. "Glad to meet you, in any case. I hope to take a studio tour later, if they'll allow it...?"
"I'll try to get you a pass." His eyes light up at the offer. Fanboy fox!
As you get up, the foreigner moves to fetch the books you've pulled out. "I will return these for you, senorita." He glances at the titles. "Oh, planning a magical tale next?" One of the books is a guide to magic.
"Maybe," you say with a nervous smile that you hope gives away nothing.
"Excellente! I shall look forward to it. Good day!"
You get out of the library, feeling flustered several ways at once by the foreign man with his odd compliments and questions. You hurry back to the studio. For the moment your next actions are obvious -- get back to work for the rest of the day's scenes -- but then what? And how are you feeling about this whole situation?
Written by Snow on 13 June 2010
