The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

WULFRIC remembered what Aster had said about special photos being mixed in with the regular ones. They were like rare pulls, not just because they showed Aster in his character costumes, but because there were only a few of each. And Wulfric had just gotten one!

How lucky was he? He had not even seen the other surprise gifts that his soldiers had collected for him. He hoped those boxes contained at least one or two rare photos as well. Should he call Leland right now and tell him to gather all the boxes and send them to his mansion?

As he contemplated that, he remembered he was still recording.

“Oh! Look at this,” he said, holding the photo up closer to the camera. “It’s a photo. This is Aster in his Luan Escanor role. The robe and the pendant and everything. So this is what the surprise gift is.”

His voice went up a little at the end, trying his best to sound surprise and excited. He didn’t want people to think that he knew about the photo beforehand. Which was easy to do since he was truly very excited at this moment. He turned the photo around to check the back, then flipped it back to the front.

He set the photo down carefully on the desk and picked up the clear case. An idea suddenly flashed in his mind. “Wait. I think I know what this is for.”

He took the photo and slid it into the case. It went in smooth and fit snug on all sides.

“See? It fits perfect. Now the photo won’t get bent or scratched. Aster really thought this through.”

He held the case up by the little keychain loop attached to the top and shook it a little.

“And we can hook this onto stuff. I think? Like a bag strap or a belt loop. Maybe if we could customized this, we could even attach it to our Terminal.”

Wulfric set the case down next to the box and the letter. The photo stayed inside, facing up so the camera could still capture it.

“That’s the end of this box opening,” he said. “Now that you’ve seen how fun it is to open Aster’s gift, I hope you all get to do the same. Maybe us Starlights can start a new trend.”

He almost laughed after saying that. He could not believe he actually knew those kinds of words, or that he even said them out loud. Aster had changed a lot of things for him. All of it good, of course.

Wulfric stopped the recording and carefully placed the letter and the photo back inside the box. Then he called Samuel on video. The other man answered right away.

“General,” Samuel said, his voice uncertain. It was his day off, and he clearly did not know why Wulfric would call him right now.

Wulfric glanced at the background of Samuel’s video feed. The other man seemed to be in a busy place, maybe a mall. He’s probably out watching Aster’s movie. Not that Wulfric cared.

“I’m going to post something later,” he said. “Share it on [Cyberspace] and on the fan site. Tell everyone they should do the same. Make sure to tag Aster and IndieFlix.”

“Okay?” Samuel said, still confused about what the general was telling him. He could not exactly say no. He still wanted to keep his job as the other’s housekeeper.

Satisfied with that answer, Wulfric ended the call. Next, he sent a message to Leland telling him to post an announcement that all soldiers who watched The Shadow Within should send the gift boxes they got to Wulfric’s study. He did not bother calling Leland because he knew he would just get a long lecture. At least with a message, Leland would not bother to send back a scolding reply. Though Wulfric was sure he would still get one tomorrow, anyway.

Well, not that it mattered. He just had to pretend he was listening and wait until it’s over.

He opened his Terminal and played back the video he had recorded. He was not very good with technology, but he could still do some simple editing. Wulfric made sure his face did not appear in the video, and that nothing in the background could give away who he was. After that, he used a voice changer to make his voice sound deeper. He was not worried about anyone reversing the edit to find his real voice, since he used a military grade program to do it.

Once he was happy with how it looked, he uploaded the video onto [Cyberspace].

White Wolf (@astridsnumber1fan): [Here is my unboxing video of the surprise gift that Aster prepared for all Starlights! *video attachment*] @astridtownsend @IndieFlix

And surprisingly, or maybe not that surprising, that little video ended up starting an actual trend.

***

After a long day of nonstop activity, Astrid finally made it back to his apartment. He was already hungry. Good thing he had planned ahead before leaving that morning. He had made a simple dinner and put it in the freezer. Now all he had to do was heat it up. So that’s exactly what he did.

While his food was warming up, he got his bath ready. He planned to eat first and then take one after. Once he finished setting up the bath, he went back to the kitchen. The food was already heated, so he took it out and set the plate on the kitchen bar counter. On it was just a simple steak with mashed potatoes, carrots, and corn.

He sat down on the bar stool and cut into the steak. The first bite felt amazing, a clear sign of how hungry he really was. He was about halfway through the meat when a notification beeped from his Terminal. He set down his knife and fork, then opened the screen to find a message from Ellis.

[Astrid, have you seen this?]

Attached to the message was a link. Curious, Astrid clicked on it, and the link took him to a post that White Wolf, a.k.a. Wulfric, had posted a few hours earlier.