*click*
"The time is 10:15am, seventh moon, eighth day. I'm in a private room at a local tea shop, The Crow Flies, which I must say has the best jasmine tea I've tried in a few years. I'm here with... actually, why don't you start by telling us your name?"
"My name's Janette Of The South Shore, but I mostly go by Jenny here. She/her."
"And a physical description, in your own words?"
"Oof, those are always tricky. 5'3", gray eyes and hair, pink skin. Cherry blossom pink, I like to say. Um. I just got my hair cut into a bob, a severe bob, I didn't want it quite this severe but I think it'll grow out."
"Remember this is for a study on the local regions of the fae wilds."
"Oh! Right. Um. Two arms, two legs, digitigrade. Two eyes. I don't have wings but I can hover on new moons sometimes. That's my only drop of magic. Spring court, technically, but I don't have the hungers so I've been thinking of moving."
"Where would you like to move to?"
"Into the city, ideally, but the citizenship process is hard if you don't grow up to it and I only reached the area a couple years ago. So I'm thinking Summer. I'm close to that border right now anyway. I'm hoping I can get a job working for one of the engineers out there, pick up some of the science, maybe test into one of Spire's maintenance crews. It sounds a lot nicer than sanitation, and that's about all I'll be able to get without a lot more schooling. You know how expensive those classes can be."
"I do. I'm in summer myself, right now. I'd be happy to talk about that a bit after the interview."
"Oh! That would be nice!"
"So you said you reached the area a couple years ago. What brought you here? What can you share about that journey?"
"Ha! That's a very diplomatic question, but my trip wasn't so secret or painful. I got lucky. Um, I didn't know about Spire until I was fairly close. My home world... how do I say this... I'm not from a court."
"You did say you don't have the hungers."
"Yeah. I'm fae under Spire's legal system but I'm not like.... I think I have more in common with the humans here than I do with most of the fae. That's a big part of why I want to move into the city. It's weird out there, deep in the wilds, if you don't have a court to fall back on. Precarious. So um... Oh, my journey. So, I think my world is still out there, I hope. But I lost it. I got pulled into a revel."
"That's... I would love to hear whatever you're willing to share on that, but I will remind you that you are not obligated to give me any details, and that this recording is part of a larger research project. Even if we anonymize the final data, many researchers will have eyes on these transcripts."
"You're sweet. But it doesn't hurt so much these days. I think I actually gave up that capacity on the way. It was... early spring. Right before the equinox. Winter had its hooks in still, but the dancers all smelled of spring flowers. The songs all sounded of growth, new buds. They were.. beautiful. Beautiful in ways I'll never have words for. My memory is patchy, but that shines bright. I'm lucky that I wasn't much of a dancer, I felt no draw to those circles. But I fell into the tents, the conversation circles, did everything I could to get those beauties laughing. It was beautiful, you know? I knew what I was losing. It's not like that was disguised from me. It just felt so worth it, in the moment, to hear them laugh. To make them happy, to hold their attention. I guess they held mine much tighter, in the end. And the cold... I lost a lot. But, um. I mean I'm here now."
"How did you get out?"
"It felt like it just ended eventually. I think there was a tiff between some of the pixies and the elves. The group fractured, and I fell through the cracks. There was a.... a long time, searching for those familiar faces again, before I even considered searching for a way home. And by then it was far too late. There was no path back, just the woods, all these strange plants and animals that I'd never seen before, strange weather, strange everything. It was very disorienting."
There's a pause. The noise of sipping, clinks of porcelain. The grinding noise of a window being opened, only identifiable by the following hiss of a deep inhale and a soft cough. Someone smoking out the window. Someone gathering her thoughts.
"Eventually I had to decide between building a home where I was, this random corner of these strange woods, or walking. Just... moving, anywhere. So I picked a direction and walked. There were no paths. Everything was mostly the same, over and over. I think I had drifted more into winter 'cuz I'd see a settlement occasionally and it was always so... grim. Scary. Sorta pointy, you know? Jagged. And the people looked so odd. The glamours wore off and everyone I saw seemed strange and frightening without them, so I avoided people entirely. Like, I wanted to find my way home, you know? Or at least find A home. I didn't quite understand for a long while that this wasn't just... some weird forest in my home world. And then I found... I guess they found me actually. I'd gotten in the habit of sleeping up in trees, cuz it felt more secure. And I woke to this big group encircling my tree. All different shapes and colors, from all different worlds. They thought I was a dryad! And they wanted to wake me to try to trick some favors out of me. Well I was awake and I didn't have much to give them, but once the confusion was cleared up and it was clear that they weren't intending to bewitch me I talked them into letting me join them."
"That sounds really scary."
"It should've been, I think. But no, I was mostly frustrated. Confused and mad at everything for being confusing. Having folks to talk to helped. And having an objective- they knew about Spire, and what direction to go. We walked the border between Spring and Winter, dodged to one side or another whenever we thought someone'd noticed us. And then eventually it was all...."
A pause.
"Do you mind putting that in spoken word, for the recording?"
"Oh, right. Ah... I don't know the right translation. Not the city yet, but more people everywhere, buildings. And not all one court, so not so risky as the odd settlements out in the woods might be."
"Suburban?"
"I guess.. not exactly, but yes. It was all suburban, and there were guards, and nice people with tiny spectacles and lots of pamphlets. We were welcomed. And there were areas out deeper in the woods where we might've set up tents, but we didn't have enough tents for all of us. I mean I didn't have anything, just a little purse and some food I'd foraged and the clothes on my back. So the group split up. I stayed with this one girl, Marie, and her boyfriend. I think they were from the same place, some court from way far off. They would... go hunting, sometimes, while we were traveling. Dip away and refuse to say what they'd been up to. We still talk sometimes but we've never been close enough for me to know... anyway we stuck together for a bit. We were on the street for a few weeks, and then Marie found a homeless shelter we could go to, and we didn't have any possessions so all the normal downsides didn't really hit us. Me and Marie got beds near each other most nights and her boyfriend had to go to a different shelter but we'd still spend most of our days together. There were showers there, that's most of what kept me in that area. And that if we missed a night we'd have to go back on the waitlist. Um. That was almost worse than being in the woods, in some ways, cuz we were So Close to being Somewhere, to being real people, and we just couldn't... couldn't quite reach. But I knew how to sew decently well and I'd spend a lot of my free time working with the shelter, patching things up for people. And eventually I met this lady who was fixing up this house... that's a long story, but I was able to get my foot in the door, and get a tiny little flat with Marie and her boyfriend. I couldn't pronounce his name right so I called him John, and he hated that. We never got along. But it's not really my fault, like, they had beaks, they had all these noises that I just couldn't make, it's not my fault that his name had more of those than Marie's. And then eventually the two of them moved out, but they waited until I had a real job so I could afford to cover the rent. And uh... oh, sorry, that's a lot more than what you asked about."
"No no, this is good stuff. Thank you for sharing."
"Yeah."
"Do you feel safer now, in the near wilds, than you did in the far ones?"
"I do. I think, knowing what I know now, I could go out there again and be alright. But I'd rather be near the city."
"Why is that?"
"I have some friends here. Humans mostly. And I like to go to the big bath houses, and the plays when I can afford them. And... I don't know. The smaller towns out there, they remind me a lot of my home, but not quite. It's the uh... do you know the word for um..."
"Uncanny valley?"
"Yes! A lot of the places out there, they are like the valley to me. They remind me of home but they are never quite that, and they make me miss it so much that it hurts. Being in the city, everything is so different. The home I have here is mine, it's now, it's good but it's not full of those memories. I'd rather build up the life that I have, than waste away out there longing for what was."
"That makes sense. You said you're hoping to become a citizen?"
"I hope to, yes. I save up my money and then when I have enough I spend it on classes. I don't want to work in sanitation. The only skill I brought here is mending, but sewing, fashion, those paths are in too high demand. Even the kids who study for that for years, they don't all get it. So I take classes. The ones made for immigrants, 'fae remedials.' I hate that term. I don't like being called fae. I was brought here by fae, abandoned by fae. But I came to Spire through the third world, so I am fae to them, and the classes for new fae are the ones that I need."
"What would you prefer to be called?"
A long pause there, uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry-"
"No, it's ok. I don't get asked that often. We called ourselves ~a#(lo#@s, but most of those sounds don't fit right in most mouths here. I can be an immigrant, I guess. Or... I don't know. Just a person. Just Jenny. I'm the only one from my world who I've ever seen here. It seems wrong to try to name myself like that."
"Wrong how?"
"Foolish. Conceited. To say I'm that special, to call myself my own unique type of being... it's true, but everyone is unique, everyone is different. Every person everywhere is their own person. Except the dwarves, I guess, they're all kinda the same, but... wait, no. Oh gosh. I've put my foot in my mouth. The Scholar isn't part of this project, are they? This is so embarrassing."
"No, it's ok. I think I understand what you mean. And no, the Scholar probably won't be looking at this data, though I can't make any promises."
"That's good. I think they're really cool! Dwarves, I mean, I don't know the Scholar, I've never met them. But I've met the Diplomat, and they're nice, and I think it's really neat how they operate, how they move in the city. They've helped me a couple times to find different resources when I was first starting out here, and they had such sweet things to say about my sewing, which is so kind coming from them because I know dwarven sewing puts anything I could make to shame, but they were clearly trying to hard to be nice and to make me feel welcome, and-"
"Take a breath, Jenny. It's ok."
"Right. Ok."
"You said you're trying to get into the engineering program?"
"Um. Yeah, kinda. Engineering classes. The classes are expensive, if I can get work under an engineer out here it'll help. Maintenance work program. It's grimy work, it's hard, but I think I could make the cut. I like working with my hands."
"Where are you working now?"
"I'm waiting tables in Near Spring. I wanted to learn to cook, but they kept putting me out as a server. I think cuz my paperwork all says I'm spring court. I didn't think that would matter as much this close to the city, but I guess it does."
"Do you like it?"
"Hells no. I hate having to smile all day. And it's exhausting, everything is so rushed. And it's mostly working for tips, right, it's just really really hard. I know maintenance would be hard too, but at least I wouldn't have to put so much thought into my hair and my makeup each day, you know? That's part of why I wanted my hair cut shorter, but it's So short now, I worry my tips won't be as good for a while. You know, if I'm not as pretty. Or if I'm self conscious and so I'm not able to be as bubbly, cuz I'm nervous. I always get worse tips when I'm nervous about something."
"That makes sense. I think it's really cute, for what it's worth."
"Oh, thank you."
"You're welcome. One last question, if you have the time?"
"I can do one more, I think, yeah."
"If you could work on any job track- no application, no tests, you're just in and you get the training and the career track- which one would you take? What's your dream job?"
"Ooh... I'd have to think about that. My skill doesn't matter? I get all the training automatically?"
"Your skill right now doesn't matter."
"I'd like to work at the theater. Not on stage, but like... costumes. Lighting. Or making those crazy sets that all move around, with all the gears and pulleys. They look like a nightmare to design but when they work they look like magic. And it's all the more impressive because it Isn't magic, it's just hard work and clever little secrets. Helping to make something beautiful happen, without all the attention right on me. I want to help people, you know? Help them to make something More than they could do on their own. Be part of a team."
"I think that's beautiful."
"Thank you. Is there anything else? I don't want to rush you but I do have to go soon if I'm going to catch my train."
"No, that was the last question. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, Jenny. Let me click this off, and if it's alright I can walk to the station with you and tell you a bit about living in Summer."
"That would be lovely."
*click*