Bystander (Lev)

“What are you texting?”

“What?” he was distracted by a sudden question.
He was using the lens for most of his online activity, so it should not have been obvious if he was reading, writing, watching, anything else, or nothing at all. But Liberty, standing barefoot on a thin line marking an end of a welcome area, pointed at his hand.

“Your fingers twitch a little.”

Oh. He always thought of writing texts digitally as typing, even though he didn’t have to use a keyboard with the lens. He learned to operate his lens via typing; before that, he used keyboards and touch screens all his life.

“A curious observation! Thank you for it. I am sorry I had to divert my attention from you, dear guest.” He made an inviting gesture, “Would you like some tea?”

“So, how is it going?” Liberty had just sat, but she was already eating the second cookie and speaking with her mouth full, “Are you happy with the movie production?”
“Nothing is the way I expected. It is exciting, I think.”

“But you look more angry than excited,” Liberty said while eating another cookie.
“It shows?” Lev shook his head. “They are bending the source material in ways that change, twist, destroy it. Why do they even need me there if they are not listening?”

“Whoa, you really are angry. And sad.” Liberty finished her cookie and didn’t take the next one.

“They are just shitheads; all they can do is fail at making their movie; they can’t do anything to your book.”

Lev smiled a little. This attempt at consolation did not work on him, but he had to appreciate the effort.

“You are unusually attentive today. Thank you. What is going on in your life?”

Liberty sipped her tea before answering.

“I had to go to the hospital today. Some money had been dropped on my account a couple of months back with no requests, but they only have to remind me a week before the deadline for choosing a service. Since I could not really use it for anything else anyway, I updated my gear” she made a slight pause but didn’t sip. “I don’t know why, but he seems to want this for me. At least I know that he is doing ok somewhere.”

But you don’t, Lev said to himself. He never shared his view on the subject directly, but he seemed to perceive a story Liberty told him very differently from her. From a version of her, she was showing him, at least.

“So, that’s why you were late. What are the upgrades this time?” Lev belatedly rambled as he lifted his eyes from the floor.

Liberty looked at him with a weird expression. In fact, she was looking a bit to the side at first, likely at something invisible to him, and then she looked in his eyes. At first, he thought she got a message and read it through the lens. But as she looked at him, it clicked. She had been not very observant normally, not too sensitive to his emotions. And today, it made perfect sense to think about whichever new features she got; she could probably flex her arms or something like that. But she was looking around, noticing things better than before. She must have upgraded her perception then, probably with some kind of AI tip service going with the lens. And the hairstyle was likely to cover the side of her head where they placed the hardware required to install anything but basic lens apps while still having a good battery life. And with that upgrade, she seemed to catch his reaction to her words.

Before he could come up with a satisfying explanation, his door played a little tune reserved for deliveries. His face must have expressed a genuine surprise before he went to open the door and remembered that he had ordered a fruit set. Lev brought the set to the kitchen.
“It has a card,” he stated as he placed it on the table.

Fortunately for him, the girl seemed to be interested in a card, as she took it and started reading.

“Looks like a present from a fan.”

Lev seemed to have a moment to think. He searched for techniques for hiding one’s emotions, but most pieces of advice were as good as “take a deep breath” or “don’t move your eyebrows .”Even though his search results were projected into his lens, invisible to anyone but him, it was still awkward to be reading it in front of the one he was preparing to mislead. He was only planning that in case there would be no other way, of course.

Liberty laughed. As he looked at her questioningly, she turned the card so that she could see it too.

“It is signed with your name: Lev Korolev,” she explained.

That was why he never wrote in a hurry. And always check his work before submitting it anywhere. Now the situation was even more awkward, and Lev suddenly felt that it was late already and he was tired.

“Don’t pronounce my surname so that it rhymes with my name. I taught you how to do it properly, haven’t I?”.

“Everyone says it like that. It sounds better this way!” Liberty protested with a chuckle.

“That must be a price to suffer for my fame,” Lev sighed.

“If this was the price, lots of people would have been getting fame.”

Liberty was done with her tea, but she was still clutching her cup with both hands. She looked down. If Lev was not so tired, he would not have mentioned fame. But he thought so little of it that he always slipped.

“As I said, I could always introduce you as my muse. You can get interviews and media attention. Just say.”

“Everybody will just think that we are lovers. They will probably ask about your personal life and then feel cheated when I would not know what to say.”

“But Viviene is heavily based on you, on my impression of you when you came to my place searching for your family. People love her and will love you because you are similar.”

Lev traces Liberty’s gaze to a wall, accommodating a fanart of Viviene fighting a giant battle robot. The scene was taking place in destroyed greenery, so it has lots of flowers, contrasting the peace of nature with the intensity of the fight. Viviene was a tall, curvy woman with cinnamon skin and snow-white hair adorned with blue beads. She had an artificial arm colored white and blue. Liberty was slim, Caucasian with light-brown hair dyed red near the tips; her prosthesis color mostly matched her skin tone.

“I should have kept the appearance.”

“And everybody would have thought that I am a cosplayer. I am not Viviene, I did not even read your story. I am no one special. That is why even if I give an interview, no one will care”.

Lev was not a very social person, but he could tell he was not helping her, despite his good intentions. She always refused everything good he tried to offer. He did not think that she was right, but he also did not feel he would be able to convince her.

“It is all up to you. Just remember that you brought me luck, and I am forever grateful, alright?”.

Liberty nodded. There was an awkward pause, Lev offered her more tea, and she nodded again. When he placed a cup before her, she caught his hand. She used her right hand, and her grip was painful, but he endured.

“Don’t feel guilty just because you have what I want,” Liberty said quietly.

That was not what he felt most guilty about. And it was not a choice. His face probably revealed that he could not promise that, but he still managed the smallest nod.

The door played a tune Lev had not heard for a long time. The one for an unfamiliar visitor. Lev exchanged glances with Liberty and opened a view from a security camera in his lens. He observed, indeed, an unfamiliar person: a man with an unusually handsome face. Lev shared the image with Liberty and gestured for her to stay where she was while he went to open the door.

As the door opened, the handsome man bowed politely. He was holding a white envelope with something written in golden letters. Light gold letters on white were difficult to read, but if Lev was to judge from the layout, it was likely sender and recipient information.

Even before Lev reached the door, he got a private message and read it as he was looking at the man. The message was from Liberty, stating that the man was likely a Fujitora-Lahache representative. Lev didn’t know much about the company besides Liberty using their products. Still, he could recognize the FLC logo on the man’s scarf.

“Did you come to offer some sort of marketing collaboration?”

“And a chance for wealth and fame that goes with it,” the man nodded.

“Personally? With a physical letter?”

“To demonstrate how invested we are.”

Or to take advantage of his awkwardness around people, suspected Lev. It would have been highly distracting if more companies employed this archaic mode of communication. Lev was unsure what feelings they were planning to evoke, but he was even more inclined to decline their offer after such actions.

“As I stated, I am not planning any marketing integrations in my stories. Viviene will use body modifications from an unspecified company.”

“A pity,” the man nodded but continued to smile slightly at Lev, showing no intention of leaving.

For a second, they looked at each other silently.

“Do you have anything else to discuss with me?” Lev asked when the silence became unbearable.

“No,” the man admitted, “but I have a request.”

“A request?”

“May I enter your property?” the man was smiling for the whole duration of their talk, but at these words, his smile widened “so that I could meet miss Liberty Wright and discuss her offer.”