1920s: Alice and Anna

 

Meanwhile, in Del Sol Valley, Alice is the new starlet of the year. Gone are the days of nervous auditions and begging for parts. Instead she has steady employment with a major studio, who also monitors her marketing and crafts parts to suit her strengths. Lately, she's been shooting a historical movie, against one of the two most leading male stars in town. Everyone says it's going to be a major hit and Alice definitely takes it serious, practicing her acting in the mirror and inviting over the director and co-stars to talk over their parts:

At the set, Alice knows well that she can demand to wear whatever she wants to wear, but she is not that arrogant, but start in hair and make up just like everyone else. She isn't sure about the hair-do (did they really have braids like this back then?) but she never complains. It's one of the things the studio really like about her. Instead she focuses her energy on the part, and it really is a part for a lifetime, offering her plenty of opportunities to show off her acting skills. Everyone is happy with the wrap, and Alice just knows it's going to bring her one step closer to being a global superstar.

Back home, Cora has let herself in and is practicing her guitar playing for an audition she has. Unfortunately, she has not managed to get over that stage yet. In fact, Cora's career seems to have hit a stand still. She's always the extra, never the lead or even the side kick, and she cannot help but to be a bit jealous of Alice success. Not to mention that she wants more than what they have. Alice however is terrified. "We can't!" she replies absolutely terrified as Cora suggest they live together. "We'd never find work again, the studio would wash their hands of us. We can't!"

But even if they do not see eye to eye, the two love each other and when they are on their own, there is certainly no lack of romance. It's only in public that Alice is scared, understandably so, given her history. 

She writes to her sister: 

I don't know what to do! I can't risk anyone finding out, it's my entire career, my future, my reputation. And yet I love Cora and want to be with her, not just stolen moments when no one sees, but the way others can be. To be honest, I simply don't know how to reconcile the life I want with the life I can have. I wish you were here! San Myshuno is too far off. I miss you. 

*** 

Because it is in San Myshuno that Anna has settled as she's returned from Selvadorada. She knows both her sister and her parents wanted her to live elsewhere, but this is where she wants to be right now. Where she can make money off publishing her photos and where she can most easily sell her many artefacts, which is selling faster than she can authenticate them. She's timed her return well, as there is a bit of a craze for antiquities at the moment. 

Just months before her own return, the news broke of how Howard Carter found King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. Now everyone wants all things Eqyptian, and in lack of that, old. It does bug her a bit that Carter's discoveries so outshadow her own, as she thinks the discovery of the biggest Omiscan temple is just as important as the discovery of some previously unknown minor king in Egypt. There is nothing she can do about that, however, and so she tries to focus on what she can do. 

 In her own home, she is constantly reminded of her Selvadoradan adventure, as she has kept a lot of artefacts for herself, and covered her walls with some of the photos she took. The apartment is small, somewhat cramped, but Anna has never cared much for things anyway. The first few weeks after returning from Selvadorada she slept on the floor with her sleeping bag. The one thing she miss is the opportunity for Omisco to run lose, but to compensate she brings him to San Myshuno Meadows once a day so that he can run around free for at least a while.

She's befriended one of the neighbors, Johnny Lamotte, and though she is slightly hesitant about his evil streak, he is fun and easy to hang out with and even plays with Omisco at times. She figures that if Omisco likes him, he cannot be all that bad, and a lot of men who returned from the war has issues that they have a hard time getting over. Still, she wish he wasn't so flirty. He tried to seduce her the very first time they met, and has been noisingly having sex in his apartment. Honestly, the man seems to have no shame. Which might be why it's so fun to go with him to the local speakeasy, hidden in a basement under a nearby closed factory. As others are inspired by Egypt, Anna makes a point of showing up in clothes with a distinct Selvadoradan, and Omiscan, design.

To her own surprise, she find herself taking up her father's profession as a writer. Not the same way, of course. She does not write fiction, nor is she tied to a publisher, but instead write freelance articles about her time in Selvadorada to accompany the photographs she sells. She, who has a hard time staying stationary for too long, now spends her days by the typewriter, or by the archaeology table. She have to admit that the daily trips to the meadows and the botanical gardens, is as much for her own sanity as it is for Omisco's.

Restless as she is, she has already started planning her next adventure. She's read about this mountain called Mt Komorebi in Japan. Supposedly a real challenge that only a few master. So of course she has to master it. Not that she knows anything about Japanese culture, or climbing mountains, but if she could learn to deal with the jungle, surely she can learn to climb mountains? She tackles it the same way she did the jungle, by reading about others who has done it. Yet she does take her time to respond to her sister's letter, because in the end, what could possibly be more important than family?

I know you wanted me closer, as did mother and father, which is why I chose to favor neither of you. Besides, it would only be so much harder when I leave again, and you know I will. I cannot stand to be cooped up for too long. I need the nature, the struggle and the danger to feel truly alive. I started dreaming of the mountains already when I was in Selvadorada, and you know I cannot stay away from a dream for too long. 

 I cannot advice you properly on your situation with Cora, other than to not give up. Love is worth holding onto for you never know when it will be snatched away and lost forever. Find a compromise, one you can both live with (and the studio too), and do not give up. 

Your loving sister, 

Anna