Louis' Headspace is one of your favourite to visit, on the very rare occasion you ever need to do so.

The Cranium Conference, now 6 years ago, is an ethereal memory, and you have visited a Headspace three times since. Once, to update your avatar, once to aid a designer who had been struggling with translating an idea from the concept stage into hard ideas, and now to update your avatar once more.

Louis was the one who had initially volunteered to allow you to do the redesign, and had volunteered again when you had asked about it, much to your delight. His Headspace is a quiet, twilight tundra, dotted with ice-cold ponds that reflect the silver moonlight that rushes across it clearer than any mirror you could find. With the moon casting its light across the ice and the pools of water giving extreme clarity of reflection, you quickly found that positioning yourself properly against the light was by far the most effective way to make minor and major alterations, and review the results afterwards.

So you make your way to one of those pools and stare into it. Your skin is papery and thin, and your outfit that of a ballerina wearing a sash with an attached spangle that glitters in the silver light. Your dress is plain, white and simple, a dancer's dress. It's fairly good as it is; you do appreciate the ballerina aesthetic. Nonetheless, you know different ways that this could be improved. You start tweaking the dress, your face, your posture.

The task is absorbing, and so you almost miss it.

A twisting, pure white spectre passing by overhead. Against the silver glow of the moonlight it seems to resist illumination, instead giving off its own soft white light. It trails like silk in the still air and glides as if held aloft by wind. It is strange. It is beautiful.

Turning to face the creature, you're not entirely certain of its nature. Is it a psychic Entity? A feature of the Headspace? Something else? But the longer you stare, the less it matters. More than anything you have ever seen, this creature is sublime.

And then it is gone, twisting and dissipating into nothing, the memory of its beauty the fading ripples on a pond.

Entranced, you are stunned for a few seconds. Then, slowly, you turn back to the pond to continue your work.

Wonderland has many sights to offer, but at the end of the story Alice always returns home.

The atmosphere outside of the theatre is electric. People slowly file inside, excitedly talking amongst themselves.

“Did you hear Veronica De Virve is supposed to be attending as well?”

“I know! People have been hyping this one up for months now. I'm so excited.

Outside in the cold winter air, and in the confined, plush corridors of the theatre itself, smartly dressed salespeople proffer programs to passers by. Opening the program to the cast list, this excerpt appears:

Museford Cheese Marketing Board Theatre Presents: Antigone

Antigone: Aira Aalto (she/her)

Age: 29

Place of Birth: Museford

Bio:

Aira has lived and breathed performance her whole life. After studying Psychology and Philosophy in London, she entered the modelling industry at age 16 before her stardom debut on the fashion magazine Runway soon after. Not content to rest on her laurels for too long, she moved to Museford soon after, where she hosted what locals have come to colloquially call “Summer Fête Prime.” She also did much to aid in the murder investigation that cleared her famous older sister's name, and has remained a stalwart defender of her ever since.

Of course that didn't slow her down. After the investigation was concluded, she returned to London where she would go on to not only model for Europe's most prestigious designers, but start her own brand of clothing herself. Fans of Aira would go on to call her signature slightly esoteric and ethereal style Alt-O's (Alternative Outfits, or Aalto-Outfits).

Aira is now retired from modelling herself, but continues to work in the industry as a designer and consultant. This will be her theatrical debut, and it is only fitting that it start back in Museford, where the wind truly came under her wings for the first time.

Fun Facts!

Since the news of their relationship became public, Aira has never missed one of Veronica's much-publicised birthday parties, and Veronica has never missed one of hers.

Aira is a psychic! A facet of her life she does not often talk about, but many in the fashion industry have sworn by her incredible ability to spark ideas in their brains when she chooses to enter them.

Aira is a practiced ballerina and has expressed an interest in pursuing this as well as theatre.