Chapter 1 - A First Shoot with Mister Puzzle

Eulàlia.

It’s not a usual name. Not at all. I know of only one, my neighbour, Lia. That’s why I was pretty sure it was her before I even clicked on the link, and it turned out I was right.

Let me explain.

I didn’t do it on purpose or anything like that, I had not gone looking for my neighbour on the internet or any other kind of creepy thing. It was a pure accident. I was looking for teddy bear porn and Google sent me to her.

I guess that needs explaining better.

It started as one of those memes that pop up on Twitter reminding you of something you’d completely forgotten about or never even knew existed in the first place, and you then turn to Google just to check if it was a real thing or not. Exactly the kind of thing you do when you’re a glass of cider in and bored on a Tuesday evening after a tedious day at work.

‘Bondage Bears’.

If I had been remembering them correctly, they were cute little teddy bears with longer legs and arms like a human who someone had the idea of dressing in faux bondage gear; harnesses, gimp masks, leather chaps, the whole cliché. I’d forgotten all about them until something trended on Twitter - God knows why - and once reminded, I decided to see what had happened to them as I realised I couldn’t remember when I’d last seen them in shops. So I did a little digging and I think they are still going - sort of - but there are also a lot of people who are making harnesses for bears, even rope sets, so it wasn’t clear if that was continuation or inspiration.

Regardless, one of the things Google suggested was an OnlyFans of ‘Eulàlia: A Girl And Her Teddy Bear’. As a modern single man I’d heard of OnlyFans - ahem - and so I thought I’d take a look, you know, see if there was anything free without paying for it. Just for curiosity’s sake, you understand. Also, I wasn’t sure it was the same Eulàlia as the one who lived next to me and I was curious about someone else sharing that name.

So I clicked in, and heading up the profile of the ‘content creator’ was a picture of none other than my neighbour Eulàlia, nude, but cuddling a bog-standard teddy bear sat in front of her so it was hiding everything. Kind of sweet but also a bit erotic too as it made you think even more about what you couldn’t see.

My neighbour? On OnlyFans?

For appearance’s sake I’d like to be able to say I didn’t nearly pull a muscle in my back as I leapt for my wallet to join, but yeah, I joined. It helped that she only had two tiers, $5 for a pic or two a week and not often ‘lewd’ as she called them, and then she’d Dm you an offer for an additional full set per month for $15 with the promise that sometimes they would be quite ‘saucy’, her words, pay-to-view they call it. I thought that was sweet, really, that she wasn’t calling them nudes or explicit, just ‘lewd’ and ‘saucy’. It made it more playful and also more in keeping with the woman I’d exchanged hellos and had brief conversations with. What really helped tip me over the edge and subscribe, however, was that Lia was cute as a button, looks way younger than she is, and might have made my day when she took to sunbathing in her garden the year she moved in. She was wearing her bikini the whole time but even so. Oof!

So I paid my $5, logged in, and checked everything out. She’d been doing this for a while, and I was scrolling down her feed when I received an automated ‘hello’ offering me that month’s bonus set. I mean $15 isn’t that much, it was a set of 30 photos, and there was the tantalising promise of seeing even more of my neighbour.

So I paid my money, the set downloaded ... and Christ, seeing Lia (“it’s what my friends call me”) nude with her teddy made my day. Actually it probably made my year. Being a single man I may have given thought to Lia in her bikini from time to time, and now to see what was underneath that bikini? This is what the internet was invented for, I’m sure.

And that’s when things got weird.

“Hi, Jim,” Lia said as we both got home at the same time, me from wrestling with the Unreal Engine, Lia from the gym if the red’n’pink Lycra two-piece was anything to go on.

“Hi. Been running?”

“Nope. Just a shy girl, that’s all.”

“A ‘shy girl’?” I asked, the brevity of the shorts combined with the expanse of visible Lia between her shorts and her exercise bra making ‘shy’ an odd concept. The tightness of both bra and shorts was also absolutely not making me think of ‘shy’. Wow, yes, but definitely not ‘shy’.

Lia nodded. “I always come home to shower. More private that way.”

“Your gym makes you shower in public?”

Lia giggled, a nice sound. “Not quite, but they don’t believe in cubicles, so unless you want to be someone’s eye-candy, you come home to shower,” she explained, an odd distinction given what I knew she got up to on OnlyFans, but then again her OnlyFans photos were quite sweet, actually, and she wasn’t always nude in them. Interesting.

“Got it, but isn’t it cold in the winter?” I asked, wondering if she took the bus home dressed like that. I couldn’t see it.

Lia nodded. “It is, but I wear more and run back more. Have to keep in shape.”

“I can see,” I teased.

“Cheeky. Anyway, sorry to ‘hello and bye’ but I’ve things to do.”

“No problem. Er, sorry if that sounded a bit weird.”

Lia smiled. “Not a problem and not weird. You’re nice. All’s forgiven. Bye!”

“Bye!” I said, and she was gone, off to do whatever she had to do, leaving me kicking Freud and his slips in a corner.

It was a few days later on a quiet Saturday afternoon when there was a soft knock on the front door. Puzzled who it could be as the postman had already delivered the day’s leaflets, I was even more puzzled when I opened the door to see a worried-looking Lia stood in front of me, blue jeans, white tee-shirt, and bright red house-slippers with a fluffy trim. It was a look all right.

“Hi. Er, how can I help?” I asked.

Lia laughed weakly at something before she answered. “Shows, does it?”

“Random knock on the door on a Saturday afternoon for the first time ever? Yeah, it does.”

“Figures,” Lia shrugged. “So yes, can you, please? Also, tell nobody.”

“Well Jane Bond, not knowing what you want I don’t know I can say ‘yes’ but my not knowing what this is all about kind of means I can’t tell anyone as I don’t know anything I could tell.”

“Jane Bond? Ha-ha, I suppose it is a bit cloak’n’dagger. If we can keep it that way, we just might make it through this together.”

“Together? Interesting. Doesn’t explain anything, but you’re certainly making it sound intriguing. Would you like to come in? Perhaps I can trade you some tea for some explanations?”

“Tea first?”

“Goes without saying. The kitchen is this way,” I said as I held the door for Lia, ushering her ahead of me and into the kitchen where some light opera was playing from the speakers. Most of the time I listen to Radio 3 but not on a Saturday; that’s when it goes ‘mainstream’, or at least ‘mainstream’ as Radio 3 programme schedulers understand it. Not my taste. Bluetoothed Verdian froth from the old media pc upstairs soon cures that, though.

“I’ll boil the kettle,” Lia offered, clearly feeling the need to be helpful as she threw out the old, filled it two-thirds of the way with fresh, and clicked it on. Whatever else, I now knew that Lia took her tea seriously, though we had yet to establish the milk order.

“Earl Grey, Cardamom, or Darjeeling?” I asked as I opened the tea cupboard. Yes, I have a tea cupboard. Like I said, tea is that important. There’s even some coffee in there. Somewhere.

“Cardamom?” Lia asked, like the first time someone offers you salted caramel and you know and trust the person, but salty?

“A little spicy, a little menthol, even,” I said as I popped the stopper from the caddy and held it for her to smell.

“Hmm, I’ll risk it, I think,” Lia said, taking one of the kitchen stools as I did things with teapots, teacups, and the other things needed for tea.

“Milk? Sugar?” I asked as the kettle boiled, I offered a prayer of thanks to the gods of tea, and poured the slightly off-boil water.

“A little of each, please? Milk first?” Lia asked cautiously.

I looked shocked that it could be any other way. Science has even proven it is the correct way.

Lia laughed. “Thank God you’re not one of those.”

“Not in that way, no,” I said as I added a splash of milk to each cup, set them on the table, set the teapot and strainer down next to it, and finished off with the sugar bowl. “Light or stewed?” I asked as I sat.

“Light, please.”

“Correct choice,” I said as I poured the tea, we added our tastes for sugar, took a sip, and both gave that satisfied smile that comes from a perfect cup. “Well?”

“That is some tea all right. I need the name of your merchant.”

I chuckled. “I’ve a spare packet if you want it. I always keep a spare so I don’t run out.”

“You’re sure?”

I nodded.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. So?”

“About that...”

“You sound ... cautious...”

“We don’t really know each other,” Lia said as though that explained it. “I, ha-ha, I don’t even know your surname.”

“Does that matter? Knowing my surname, I mean.”

Lia shook her head. “No, but, no, you know, it doesn’t matter,” she said, clearly changing her mind on patronymics. “I just split up,” she sighed.

“I’m sorry,” I said, wondering where this was going.

“With my photographer.”

“I’m sorry?” I asked.

“I broke up, with my photographer, and it’s Capell,” Lia explained.

“Okay, taking the easiest part of that first, Capell? I’m guessing a surname?”

Lia Capell nodded.

“Well, Mr. James Pearson, several years of this parish, is delighted to make your formal acquaintance, Miss Eulàlia Capell.”

Lia smiled. “Thank you, but I’m still going to call you Jim and please call me Lia. Although, you know you’re one of the few people who know how to say that, my full name, and you do it so well I’m a little tempted to keep you saying it.”

“Dealer’s choice, but it seemed only polite to learn how, even if you go by Lia.”

“It is, I do, I’ll continue to, but I still appreciate it.”

“Nice to know. So what was that about a photographer?”

Lia took a sip of her tea. “Let me sneak up a little on that, please?” I nodded, so she continued. “So, you don’t have a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, I mean it’s okay if you do, either, I mean.”

I smiled. “No. No girlfriend. No boyfriend. I had one, a girlfriend that is, but it didn’t work out very well, so I’ve kind of been taking it quiet the last couple of months,” I said, using the English euphemism of ‘couple’ when the truth was ‘Christ, six months already’.

Lia nodded as though I had explained something important. “You know, you could really help me out here.”

“I gathered that was why you’re here drinking tea, but I don’t see how you needing help, me, and a photographer’s sacking come together. I can see how they might, but not how my being single is a factor.”

“Well it’s not, but, er...”

“Lia, just ask me,” I gently suggested. The tea was getting cold.

Lia nodded, and finally made up her mind. “Do you know how to use a camera, not one on a phone but, you know, a proper one?”

“Kind of. If it’s one of those big ones like the pros use then no, but if it’s something with an ‘auto’ mode, then yeah, I can use one of those if someone shows me which button to press,” I said before I asked. “Though isn’t this a lot of hemming and hawing over your passport photo?”

Lia laughed brittlely. “It’s not my passport photo.”

“So a nude then?”

“What!? But how...?”

“Lia, you wouldn’t be so coy about asking me to take a ‘normal’ photo, would you?”

Lia shook her head. “I guess not.”

“The answer’s ‘yes’, by the way. Not to see you nude, but to help you out because you clearly need this for some urgent reason. Maybe you’d like to tell me why?”

Lia smiled. “You know you might just be saving my life.”

“I didn’t know your nudes were so valuable.”

Lia chuckled. “In my case, they kind of are,” she said, finally relaxing a little.

“Because...?”

“Okay, long story, short summary. I sell photos of me nude on the internet, site called OnlyFans. My ‘thing’ is that I pose with teddy bears. Some people think it’s cute. Some find it kinky. And, er, I don’t look like I’m all that old, so...”

“You have other fans, too.”

Lia nodded. “Wouldn’t be surprised. My problem is that my photographer just got his arse handed to him for asking if I’d like to move into porn. Again. I said no. Again. He kept on about how much more money I could make if teddy did more than just sit on my arse or whatever. We argued. I lost it with him and told him not come like he was supposed to today, and now I need to get some photos done for the start of the week, midweek latest and I don’t have anyone to shoot me.”

“You don’t have the time to look for another photographer? You don’t know any?”

Lia shook her head. “I like it here but this town’s kind of on the small side. Good photographers, not just guys want to see some girl nude? They’re hard to find, and I don’t have the time because I may have kind of run out of sets.”

“And then you’ll lose subscribers?”

“So you know about OnlyFans?” Lia asked, equal parts curious and amused.

I nodded. “Bumped into it a while back by accident.”

“Christ you didn’t find me, did you?” Lia joked.

“Er...”

“Oh fuck! No! You didn’t!?” Lia gasped, her face unsure whether to be shocked, surprised, or just fall off the cliff into manic laughter. For now it was going for all three at once. “Shit,” she sighed.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was looking for something else, got a link suggestion and ... you know, you really should use another name.”

“What’s wrong with Eulàlia?” Lia asked, pained.

“Nothing other than it’s about as unique as it gets, so when I saw the thumbnail and the name, I clicked out of curiosity.”

“Curiosity? About me nude?”

“Actually, and I promise this is the truth, but I was curious how ‘nude’ and ‘teddy bear’ come together. Also about anyone else called Eulàlia,” I said, realising how convincing that sounded. Ahem.

“That’s fair enough I guess but you never said anything. You’ve seen me nude, Jim!”

“I know, but you tell me, Lia, what could I say? Hi, just saw photos of you in the nude on the internet rolling around with a teddy. So how’s your day been?”

Lia sighed. “I guess that’s not how neighbours are supposed to interact, is it?”

“Supposed? Can’t say. But like I said, I didn’t know you all that well, and what would be the point of saying I’d seen your photos? Making you feel awkward like you are now? Not my style. So I said nothing and tried to not let it slip that, well, that I knew.”

“So you know what I do, that I’m a very soft core model, but you didn’t say anything because you didn’t want to make me feel awkward about it?” Lia asked. “That’s really kind of sweet of you, especially as we’ve only just been introduced,” she smiled.

I shrugged. “Just trying not to be a jerk.”

“Okay Mr. Jim Not-A-Jerk, what about it? You want to come see if we can figure a way out of this for me?”

“You’ve everything set up in your house?” I asked as I realised I’d never thought about where she ‘did the deed’.

Lia nodded. “Second bedroom, studio when I’m photographed, office the rest of the time.”

“Very efficient. I take it we’ve time to finish our teas first?” I said as I held up my half-drunk cup.

“Tea this good? Damn right we do. Cheers,” Lia answered as we finished our drinks, Lia visibly relaxed, and I couldn’t help but wondering what I was about to be getting myself into. Confessions Of A Photographer?

“In here,” Lia said as she opened the door to her second bedroom, a room I realised I was quite familiar to me as I had seen all the photos she’d taken in here. The studio side was done out in an interesting combination of girly meets American twee, meaning lots of bright pale colours, plenty of lace trims, and the kind of sweet but slightly impersonal décor which it was possible to project a lot of moods onto, Lia’s or the viewer’s. What I had not seen, of course, was the various lights and reflectors which were tucked away against the one wall, or the camera and tripod which stood waiting like some insect to snap her up. On the opposite wall to the studio was the office, or as it looked to me, a desk’n’chair with a PC and a quite large screen.

“This camera?” I asked as I cautiously approached the arachnis nikonoi.

Lia nodded. “The lights are triggered from it, so you line me up, make sure I’m in focus, and press.”

“No autofocus?” I worried.

“Can’t trust it. It gets confused between me and the bear or whatever, and, ha-ha, they’re not paying for photos of the bear, are they?”

“You’re sure they’re not? Maybe they’re furry?” I teased.

“Ooh, maybe I should do a series where teddy is the star and see how they go?”

“You’re sure you understand what ‘furry’ means?”

“You’re sure I don’t?” Lia asked, winking as she got me.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said, not really sure what that meant, and writing it off to anxiety. “Now that you’ve got me here, what’s the plan?”

Lia flushed slightly. “First off, I need to strip so you can get used to seeing me nude. For real,” she grinned.

I nodded. “Want me to go wait downstairs? Maybe get you a drink or something?”

“Why? You’ve seen me nude.”

“I’ve seen you clothed and I’ve seen you nude, but stripping off? That has ... other meanings. So I’ll go see a man about a dog while you do that.”

“Oh. That’s, that’s thoughtful and insightful. Why’re you single?”

I shrugged. “She was a coffee drinker,” I teased, though it was also true.

“Coffee? Wow, close shave there.”

I chuckled. “So, I believe men with dogs can be found in kitchens for those who might want a drink as they work?” I ‘hinted’ as I fished for a genuine sounding reason to absent myself a moment or two.

Lia smiled. “Thanks. Water’s fine. Bottle each? I’ll, er, I’ll be in here when you get back.”

“Right.”

“Jim?”

“Hmm?”

“Thanks. For not being weird about this.”

I shrugged. “Lia, if this is what you do to pay the bills or just for pocket money, it’s literally your business, and what you do is your business, not mine. You need a favour, it’s something I can do I think, and that’s the end of it. Of course there is also the whole seeing you nude thing as well,” I teased.

“Trust me, by the time we’re done, you’re so going to be over seeing me nude.”

“You want to bet? It’s not like I’m thinking of cancelling my subscription or anything like that?”

Lia laughed softly. “Good to know I’ve still got that little boost to my income, now go see that man with a dog, okay? Oh, and this will probably take a couple of hours, especially when the golden hour kicks in and me and the bear get that dreamy lighting.”

“Got it. See you in five,” I said as we smiled a little awkwardly, hesitated for a moment, and I then headed off to the kitchen.

I admit it, I took my time. I know she’d said she was ready to be nude in front of me, but an extra minute or two might help her get passed the initial ‘what am I doing’ of it all. It also gave us both time to accept it was going to happen. Or change our minds. In the end I let it run close to five minutes before I was standing back in front of the door to her second bedroom, two water bottles in one hand as I gently knocked.

“Jim? There was no need for that,” Lia said as she opened the door. Nude. Naked. Stark bollock. The whole ... wow.

“Er, water...” I managed, handing Lia hers and desperately wanting to drink mine straight away. Dry throat? Me? Sahara dry.

“Thanks. You know you can look. You have to really, don’t you. So, y’know, get it over with?”

“I’m not sure I ever will,” I teased as I stepped inside, still making eye contact so rigorous I should have won medals for it.

Lia nude.

Oh God.

She was maybe 5’7” on a good day and comfortable with it as I’d never seen her teetering around on heels. She had pale skin that was ever so lightly tanned, no moles I could see, smallish tits that just stuck out thumbing their noses to gravity, and pale pink nipples that looked as if they’d firmed up a little. Stress stiff? She also either used to shave her pussy and was now letting it grow back, or she had the cutest fuzz I’d ever seen, the same shade of ashy blonde as her hair and her eyebrows. She had a slightly heart-shaped babyish face that made her look way younger than she was, large pale blue eyes that looked green sometimes, lips that were only slightly darker than her nipples but still pale, and right then she was smiling at me as she caught my gaze. “Hell of a way to earn money, huh?” she asked as she nodded to the small collection of plushies and teddy bears sitting on a beanbag in the corner of the room.

“I’m not judging,” I said.

“Didn’t think you were. It’s just, sometimes, it is kind of ridiculous, y’know, I sell photos of me nude with a teddy bear, and that pays for everything.”

“Everything? You mean this isn’t a sideline?”

Lia shook her head. “Not right now it isn’t, no. I’ve enough subscribers to pay for the mortgage, the bills, the gym, and a little in the bank each month. It’s a global thing y’know, niche OnlyFans models.”

I shook my head. “I’d never really thought about it,” I said and I hadn’t but I guess if you were up at the top or even just leading the field of a very small field, global numbers could add up really quickly.

Lia shrugged. “No reason for you to have, but yeah, I get subs in dollars, Euros, pounds, and quite a few come in Yen, too. All converted, accounted, and tax paid.”

“Wow. Well, I’ll try to do what I can and not mess this up, give you a little time until you can get a professional photographer in to do, er, this?”

Lia sighed. “Professional photographers? That’s what he was supposed to be. Sorry, not ranting here. Tell you what, we’ll see how today goes, and if you do good and if you’re interested, maybe you could do this for me on the regular? And since it’s a professional thing and you’ll be my photographer, wouldn’t that make you my professional photographer?”

“That’s, that’s not something I’d imagined for today when I got up this morning.”

“Nor standing here chatting with me nude?”

“Definitely,” I said, that rigorous eye contact working hard on earning more medals.

Lia laughed. “World’s a weird place, Jim, why don’t we try and just have fun, I mean come on, how on Earth can you be serious when I’m nude and hugging a teddy bear?”

“Good point,” I said taking a theatrical sigh. “Okay. Professional but fun. Got it.”

“Before we start, um, there’s one more thing I need you to help with...” Lia said, suddenly shy and coy.

“What’s that? You have a ‘good side’”?

Lia laughed nervously. “I do and it’s my left but, er, this isn’t that.”

“No?”

“It’s ... it’s my nipples.”

“Your nipples?” I asked, unconsciously glancing down and seeing what looked to me like a very nice set of soft pink nipples. “Nothing wrong to my eyes.”

Lia smiled. “It’s the right one.”

“The right one?”

Lia nodded. “Leftie? She’s fine, always perky, always ready to pop up at a moment’s notice, but Rightie? She’s a little shy sometimes. So just before you click a photo, can you check on Rightie for me, make sure they’re twins, y’know, not one hiding as the other one comes out to play.”

“So you want me to check your nipples match every photo?”

Lia smiled and nodded.

“And your previous photographer messed this gig up?”

Lia nodded. “Sequins? He was gay as Christmas On Ice so I guess that wasn’t a ‘thing’ for him.”

“Still, walking away from a gig because you insist on something someone already said ‘no’ to? Dumb.”

“I wasn’t a high payer. I guess that’s why he suggested I do some porn.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry you lost him. At least he was a professional photographer.”

“Yeah, really professional all right. Who knows, maybe a little ‘investment’ in me being nude might give the photos a spark?”

“‘Investment’?”

“You are enjoying what you’re seeing?”

I smiled. “Honestly, part of me is very glad ‘Sequins’ screwed up and I’m here to help out, regardless that I’d do it anyway, but yeah, I’m not struggling to be here.”

Lia smiled. “It’s a hardship, right?”

“Well you’re the one comfortable being nude, I’m comfortable with you being nude, but I’m not as comfortable...”

“Providing direct feedback on what you see down the lens?” Lia suggested.

I nodded.

“Okay. I’ll play nice, and in all seriousness, you’re getting dinner for this.”

“I am?”

“You know the photos will still need going through? Maybe you’ll see them different to how Sequins did? Maybe better? Maybe make me more money? But yeah, we take some photos, review some photos, and then dinner. You do like fish’n’chips don’t you?”

I smiled. “Can’t think of a better dinner companion and a better meal.”

“And wine.”

“Wine?”

Lia nodded. “Ice cold white wine with the fish’n’chips, it’s the best thing.”

“It is?”

“Oh absolutely. You sip the wine and it prompts you to eat daintily. Or at least I do.”

“No quaffing?”

Lia shook her head. “I’m a lightweight.”

“Well at least I won’t have to worry about driving after.”

Lia smiled as she picked up a plushie and climbed onto the bed. “Okay for the first set I was thinking...”

And so we got to work, Lia posing herself, me checking on Rightie whenever it came into view - and when it didn’t, I’m such a professional - and pretty soon we were an hour in and we’d taken what Lia said would be three sets, one with a teddy bear, one with a purple plushie, and one with her rolling around on the bed with a dozen assorted stuffed animals. At first I’d taken a lot of time messing around with the camera, fiddling with the focus and stuff, and checking the flash was firing with every shot. After a little while, however, I began to get confident, trusting the sync mechanism between the camera and the light even though it was wireless, and not long after that I stopped fussing the focus and we really started to motor.

“Er, is three enough?” I asked as we paused for drinks, Lia’s nakedness now being part of what was normal that afternoon, even though I did catch myself thinking ‘wow’ from time to time.

Lia shook her head. “Not really. By the time they’re edited them down, that should make three sets of twenty, plus one or two BTSs.”

“They take much editing?” I asked. “Also, BTSs?”

“Editing? It depends. You’ve been pretty good at calling out so I’ve known when you’re about to take the shot. That should mean not too many photos where my eyes are half closed or things like that, but they’ll still need PhotoShopping so they’re consistent, all the same lightness, adding my logo, that kinda thing. Oh, and BTSs stands for Behind The Scenes. Some people like ‘em, helps them to feel more connected if I’m being a goof and not being perfect in every shot.”

“I noticed you never do the ‘model pout’ shots,” I said.

“Never have, never will, especially in this post-Sequins era,” Lia said. “Nothing wrong with professional poses and expressions, but that’s not how I started, I never did the training, and I get more comments from when I look like I’m being just me. Which I am. That said, if you could take more ‘when I’m not ready’ shots or candids when I’m busy sorting things out, that’d be really helpful.”

“Like when you fell off the bed?”

Lia laughed. “Yeah. That would’ve been a fun cover shot, me with my legs in the air and laughing like a little kid.”

“Planning on recreating it for the camera?”

Lia shook her head. “BTSs have to be spontaneous.”

“Got it. So what’s next?”

“Mister Puzzle.”

“Sorry?”

Lia smiled. “Mister Puzzle. That’s him, over in the corner,” she said as she pointed to something that looked a little like Toothless if Toothless had been fluffier and pink.

“That’s ... that’s something.”

Lia nodded. “He was a gift from one of my subscribers. I sent him a couple of uniques back, photos just for him of me with Mister Puzzle, but...” Lia sighed. “I can’t make him work.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t feel him.”

“Sorry?”

Lia smiled. “Not like that, cheeky. Okay, I know it’s all projection and preconception, but for each of the bears and plushies, I try to imagine them having a personality. Then, when I interact with them, I can be a little more ‘real’. I know, it sounds silly, but when you see the photos you can see what I mean. The thing with Mister Puzzle is that he hasn’t ‘spoken’ to me yet, so I don’t know how to interact with him. Is he shy? Confident? Tricksy? I don’t know.”