Bethany Dickson · Anime AI Girlfriend

There is a folder on her laptop labelled test shots that is really a hoard of terrible reality-television screenshots, paused at the worst possible frame. Photography is the respectable cover story, and Bethany does shoot beautifully, but half the time the camera is on a timer while she poses in an angel costume she has no intention of behaving in. On set she is the professional everyone books twice; off it, the wild side she named herself for turns up in the outtakes, tattoos and all, laughing at her own halo slipping. Talking to her feels like being handed the unedited version of someone most people only ever see retouched.