Having survived an onslaught of potentially deadly false alarms, Viviane, Kylian and Luc finally arrived at Acel’s private photo studio. From the outside, it looked modern with a flat roof on top of a two-story high commercial retail front with straight vertical and horizontal edges. No typical windows were installed. Instead, large panes of plate glass flowed seamlessly into the walls pretending to help hold up the building.

The time had arrived. Viviane hesitated to ring the doorbell. “Well, we’re here,” she told the men. Before Viviane could reach for the doorbell button, the front door swished open and Acel Yu burst out to greet Viviane. He acted and sounded like he had been ingesting caffeine all morning.

“Ah, Viviane! You’re here just in time!”

Acel reached out and grabbed Viviane by the hand, whisking her inside. He noticed Kylian and Luc, too.

“And I see you’ve brought along TWO boyfriends! Usually, it’s just one, but I suppose if you can have that kind of relationship with two men at the same time without them being jealous of each other, then good for you for making it work. I know it would never be possible with two women.”

“Oh, it’s not like that at all!” Viviane tried to correct Acel’s misconception.

“There now, you don’t have to explain your kinks! You’re perfect just the way you are. Please come in, all of you.”

Acel led his three visitors inside his photography studio. Acel walked with a peculiar gait which might have gone unnoticed to the casual eye. It was not a “limp”; it was more stiff than relaxed. It was probably the walk of a self-absorbed person living in his own reality bubble. Acel led them into a spacious, tall room used for taking pictures. It had all the equipment and lighting similar to that of the Soyeux photo studio.

Acel took notice of Luc since he dressed in the uniform of the STS.

“This friend of yours, he has a name?” asked Acel.

“The name’s Luc, buddy.” Luc eyed this suspicious Acel Yu fellow.

Acel examined Luc a bit and became more animated after just a few seconds. “His cosplay is very impressive! The costume you have on is quite convincing. You must have worked very hard to assemble all the details. For the work of an amateur, I’m thoroughly impressed! It’s very realistic although I’m afraid you cannot fool a professional such as myself. However, I have to say that whoever designed the uniforms for the STS did a dreadful job. No attempt at aesthetics to speak of at all.”

“Listen pal,” Luc growled, “I’m the real deal! I’ll bust your noggin’ wide open if you try anything funny with me around.”

“How perfectly delightful! He speaks in-character, too!”

Unconvinced that Luc was a genuine STS Agent and pleased with his misconception, Acel now turned his attention to Kylian and tried to size him up. He scratched his chin and held his elbow in his other hand while he looked Kylian up and down.

“Who is this stuffy individual we have here? Please don’t be offended my staid guest! I only mean stuffy as compared to the faux STS Agent, who is at least attempting to be interesting.”

“That’s Kylian Bouche,” answered Viviane.

“Yes, ‘Kylian Bouche’ appears to be an appropriate name,” concluded Acel. “He looks like a ‘Kylian Bouche’. Why, he can’t be anything other than a ‘Kylian Bouche’. Isn’t that right, my starchy guest?”

“Ah…” was all Kylain could say.

Acel became all animated again and slapped Kylian so hard on the back making him stumble. “You see? Of course, I’m right! He can’t deny that he is a ‘Kylian Bouche’ because the name fits him and he fits the name and they define each other so well that they can never be separated. My God! I am a genius to be able to recognize the obvious!”

Viviane, who started off somewhat appalled at Acel’s weak grip on reality, now tried to suppress a giggle as she accepted Acel’s alternate reality as nothing more than a kind of creative well from which he drew his inspiration. Perhaps it was his ability to exist in another reality which made him such a renowned artist-photographer in the first place.

Acel, less animated now, continued with his cold analysis of Kylian Bouche. “Normally, I would say that this man has no sense of style, but knowing that he is a ‘Kylian Bouche’ I can understand that he’s trying to telegraph a message of sober sedateness with his fashion choices, so I would not have him change a thing. He is perfect in his imperfection! Although I understand where he’s coming from, I can’t say his expression of style necessarily suits my taste.”

Viviane tried very hard not to laugh out loud at Acel’s description of Kylian, but she had a difficult time containing herself. Kylian, on the other hand, fumed while biting his tongue. Yes, Acel had called Kylian a boring fuddy-duddy while trying to make it sound he was doing so on purpose and then complimenting him on it.

“And now to you, Viviane, and why I asked you to come today.” Acel’s voice became serious.

“Yes?” Viviane responded.

Acel ducked out of the studio and returned with a long, white dress that sparkled.

With a flourish and bit of drama, Acel presented the dress to Viviane. “This is Louna Lapin’s final showpiece wedding dress for her upcoming runway show. Please put it on. I want to see you in it.”

The sparkling white wedding dress dazzled Viviane. It was like nothing she had ever modeled before. It was made of sheer fabric which acted like a canvas. Upon this canvas, vines with their flowers and leaves grew wild, randomly snaking up and down the fabric giving the dress a feeling of nature and beauty coming from the natural, organic shape of plants. Because of the sheer fabric underneath, a good deal of skin was hinted at underneath the flowers and leaves. The front of the dress had a deep V-shaped neckline which went down almost to the belly button exposing most of the chest and the inside curves of the breasts. The bodice wrapped around to the back and the vines crawled over the body-conscious upper half of this wedding dress. It was a steamy look yet also a look which celebrated the beauty of the female form as natural, pure and un-sinful. A true work of art created from a talented and gifted designer.

Viviane gasped, “It’s beautiful!”

While Viviane marveled at the wedding dress, Luc remained on duty and looked around and investigated anything and everything trying to find hidden threats. He was too busy to pay attention to what Viviane was up to.

Kylian, on the other hand, was curious. “Why so much fuss over a wedding dress?”

“Oh, you don’t know, do you?” said Viviane. She forgot that Kylian knew nothing about fashion.

“Don’t know what?”

“It’s tradition that the designer’s last look in a couture show is a bride wearing a wedding dress. It’s usually the most ornate, most elaborate and most laborious piece in the show and since it comes at the end of the show, it makes a lasting impression.”

“Really?” Kylian had never seen a runway show before, not even on the Internet.

Viviane laughed at Kylian for although he was a Ph.D. in Physics, he was a dummy when it came to modeling. “Yes, really, you silly! You should believe me. Just stay here while I put this on.”

Typically, Viviane changed clothes out in the open as she usually did when modeling for Soyeux. This time, however, she looked for the curtained dressing area and when she didn’t find it right away, her heart beat faster. When she did finally find it, she ducked inside with the dress and pulled the curtain tight. I’m usually not this modest, but with Kylian and Luc here, I didn’t think I’d become this shy.

While Viviane changed into the wedding dress, Acel busied himself setting up lights and adjusting the many dials and buttons on his camera. He talked to himself while he worked and Kylian overheard one of Acel’s particular musings.

“Viviane Fox, ahm?” Acel mumbled, “A peculiar name for a captivating young lady. It sounds somewhat unusual, somewhat foreign.”

Foreign sounding? Kylian never gave much thought to Viviane’s name before. Her first name was quite ordinary as many baby girls born in the UEN were named “Viviane.” Her last name, however, was definitely unique, but it did not seem weird. Kylian thought back to everyone he could remember, but he could not recall anyone with “Fox” as a surname. It was a strange, unique name, mysterious and beguiling like Viviane herself. Maybe what Acel said earlier about the name defining the person and vice versa was true?

These thoughts rattled around in Kylian’s brain but evaporated the instant Viviane stepped out from behind the dressing room curtain wearing the most beautiful dress anyone had ever yet seen on her! The fact that it was a wedding dress did not seem to matter since the look was so striking.

Upon seeing Viviane in such a gorgeous dress, Kylian’s eyes widened and he froze in mid-pose. He was speechless and paralyzed. Luc, who was busy scanning everything for hidden dangers, also stopped to stare, for the first time noticing that something interesting was happening. As a law enforcement officer with police authority, normally, he did the arresting, but this time, it was he who was arrested by Viviane’s radiant beauty.

Because of the sheer fabric underlying the vines on top of it, a lot of skin color diffused through so it was unmistakable that Viviane was entirely nude underneath, yet there was enough opaqueness that she was covered up where it mattered the most. Viviane, who had modeled lingerie for Soyeux no less, felt more vulnerable in this dress than anything else she had modeled before. Her cheeks glowed with a natural blush on them from feeling so vulnerable.

Since Kylian was paralyzed and could not speak, he could only think to himself. She’s so beautiful, I think I might cry.

Before any waterworks began, Acel sprang into action and took control of the situation.

“Oh my! You look exactly as I imagined!” gushed Acel. “Quickly now, we must capture these images before the feeling disappears.”

Acel commanded Viviane to step in front of his camera and directed her through several poses. He had her walk a lot so he could capture the motion of the dress. All the while, Viviane heard her heart beat in her ears and her face and skin were a little flush for this photo shoot. She summoned as much confidence as she could find within herself to get through the poses, and her looks were demure and coy at the same time. Acel snapped pictures without stopping. He wanted to capture some elusive feeling of subtlety and drama which should not be able to exist simultaneously, but which he knew Viviane would be able to pull off.

After about an hour, the shoot wrapped up and Viviane hid behind the curtain to change back to her normal street clothes. Acel again busied himself with his equipment and downloaded the pictures from his camera to a computer with a large, flat screen. When Viviane stepped out, her heart rate had subsided, her skin was not tense, she appeared casual, cute and pretty; Viviane was normal again. She came over to the computer to see some of the pictures Acel took of her.

Acel was excited to share. “Look! There are more than several excellent images. Here’s one. I’m going to suggest to Louna that she include you as the final model in her show and I’ll try to get these photos in front of some fashion editors to see if they like what I’m seeing.”

“That’d be wonderful if something becomes of these pictures.” Viviane hoped.

Acel, on the other hand, was more than hopeful. In fact, he knew. “Oh, it will! I know it when I see it and you, Viviane, are truly alive when you model. I love it! But before you go, please sign the model release form or else I won’t be able to sell any of these photos.”

For someone who lived in an alternate reality, to be worried about getting paid for his photos was about the most grounded and practical thing Acel had said today showing that he could float back to real reality when he wanted to.

Nonetheless, as Acel predicted, it all came to be. Within two weeks, Viviane walked as the final model in that gorgeous wedding dress in Louna Lapin’s couture fashion show and made a big impression at the end. “A stunning look for Louna Lapin and a new model sensation discovered,” wrote reviewers of Louna’s wedding dress. Acel’s studio pictures were shown to fashion editors who put them on the covers of bridal magazines and on the front pages of their websites. Viviane was getting the big-time exposure she had hoped and wished for her modeling career and other designers were calling her asking her to walk in their shows, too. Immediately after appearing in Louna Lapin’s show, Viviane signed with a talent management company who hired an agent for her and they began booking her for all kinds of modeling and spokesperson jobs.

It was a whirlwind of events that kept coming one after the other. Once discovered, a race was on to get as much work as possible before the spotlight faded and moved on to the next hot thing. Before long, Viviane’s image started to appear in other places outside of the modeling world. Her pictures started appearing on television, on billboards and in commercials. Gossip websites dug up her old Soyeux catalog photos and posted them, too, for her growing fanbase.

In just over a month’s time, Viviane was well on her way to becoming famous.