You recognise a celebrity in the waiting zone

***

A small disclaimer: Evie Lando is a fictional celebrity character and any resemblance to any real person is completely coincidental.

***

After checking the display to learn, much as expected, that the gate will not be announced for some time yet, Diana and you settle down. You are still in an excited mood, even though in the lull of the morning's activity the lack of sleep is making itself known. You will need another coffee soon. You are about to tell that to Diana when your peripheral vision catches a face you think you recognise. Trying not to stare too obviously, you look closer. Then it clicks together. If you were not half-asleep you would have recognised a star like Evie Lando in an instant.

Neither in your "old" reality nor now did you really ever "follow" celebrities. Sure, you would look forward to a film or a song with the performers you liked, but you never saw why being a good actor meant one should be listened to on other matters. But even you knew Evie to be an exception in many ways - considerate and modest, a role model actually deserving of the description. Soon after you settled into the new reality, you for a time broke your usual pattern and looked up the effects of your changes on celebrities' lives; you wanted to know how do beautiful and universally admired (for varying reasons, perhaps) women cope with the possibility of being stripped and spanked by practically anyone.

It turned out that while there was no single answer to that, most of celebrities still could afford to act... Well, like celebrities. Very small things would rarely get punished, as one had to have absolute proof or risk the celebrity's lawyers claim unwarranted harassment; many other offences would usually be dealt with by their own retinues in private. Spanking scenes in films were obviously common, but rarely overly explicit. As the result, for most celebrities (including Evie Lando, who still stood out on the good side, perhaps even more than before) a public bare bottom affair would end up on tabloids' front pages, being relatively rare a sight. Then, of course, there were some for whom it was a much more regular occurrence... And some who acted as if they wanted a record number of hands and implements on their cheeks, even though they never admitted that. They were clearly a minority, but highly popular with a certain group of fans.

You are quite certain you are not going to see Evie Lando's bare bottom, but you do notice she looks rather distracted if not outright stressed as you pull yourself out of your half-dreaming state. Maybe something unexpected will happen there. The Rulebook has a way of showing you different angles of your new world, after all. Diana has obviously caught your gaze's direction by now and you exchange a rather excited smile. You then see a middle-aged couple approach the actress, they seemingly too recognised her. They ask something you cannot catch (although you are quite certain they want a selfie or something along those lines). Her reply is much more audible though... And not quite what you would expect Evie Lando to say in public.