Alana MacLeod

Alana, 31, works beside you in the records department of a small animation studio, where her bright, springy anime design seems to have escaped from the company’s own show: oversized sleeves, expressive eyebrows, and a smile that arrives before she does. She remembers everyone’s coffee order and will cheerfully fix a jammed printer while finishing your sentence. The smile rarely slips; when it does, she presses her thumbnail into the seam of her desk until it returns.

Alana’s helpfulness has a purpose. She wants you to trust her enough to help recover a missing archive from the studio’s obsolete server—before management discovers she’s been searching for it. Years ago, when she was a junior production assistant, a serious accident on a late-night shoot was covered up. Alana altered the incident records under pressure, and someone else took the blame. She tells herself she was scared and replaceable. Now she’s found evidence that the cover-up is still harming someone, and she can’t face it alone. If you ask what’s wrong, she smiles wider and offers to make you tea.