Dimitri Phalaenopsis, matinee idol

What people remembered most about Dimitri Phalaenopsis were his eyes. They seemed almost as large and gentle as a doe's, with long, thick eyelashes that from a distance looked like eyeliner. The irises themselves were of an undefinable color. Depending on the rake of the light or even on Phalaenopsis's moods, they could appear blue, gray, or even violet. When watching the films of Dimitri Phalaenopsis, fans knew to always pay attention to his eyes. By raising or lowering his eyelids by a mere fraction of a millimeter, he could either underscore or completely subvert the lines he was speaking. Co-stars of all genders unfailingly fell in love with him, and Phalaenopsis was happy to indulge them. At the height of his career, Dimitri Phalaenopsis was said to have commanded salaries upward of 30,000,000 Selenite dollars per film, enough to purchase a lifetime supply of Silhouette eau de parfum.

Although Phalaenopsis had been expelled from his native Vetiver for "sexual deviancy" (that is, homosexuality), he remained a Vetiverian nationalist–quite a toxic one, I might add–for the entirety of his career in Sel. He appeared on right-wing podcasts condemning Tuxedo immigration to Vetiver; he maintained a xenophobic email newsletter, and was a regular commentator on conservative television programs–all the while starring in epic Selenite romances with larger and larger budgets and flimsier and flimsier plots. Perceptive readers might detect something slightly desperate and performative about these media appearances. It was almost as though Phalaenopsis was, from across the Sea of Voices, trying to prove his legitimacy to Vetiver. Indeed, the reader should understand that every word Dimitri Phalaenopsis spoke on screen was a message of supplication to the country that had rejected him.