Scene: A dimly lit dressing room on a film set in London. NATALIE PORTMAN sits before a vanity mirror, removing stage makeup. The lights flicker. Suddenly, a figure in a Guy Fawkes mask and a black cape stands behind her reflection.

Natalie Portman: [Gasps, spinning around] V? But… that was years ago. The mask was burned.

V: Ideas are bulletproof, my dear. And apparently, so are film contracts. I have been observing your latest venture. This piece… ARCO.

Natalie: You’ve seen the dailies? It’s just an indie project. A study on structure.

V: [Pacing theatrically] Structure! Precisely. The architecture of the alphabet is a vicious thing, is it not? I viewed the title card. A-R-C-O. A bold arc, a bridge to nowhere. But it feels incomplete. It lacks a certain… termination. A finality.

Natalie: It’s an open-ended title, V. It’s supposed to be abstract.

V: It is not abstract; it is amputated! You are missing a single, terrifying letter. A “T”.

Natalie: A “T”? Why would I add a “T”?

V: [He draws a gloved finger through the air] Consider the transformation. You take the chaotic energy of the ARCO—the bow, the curve—and you apply the “T”. The Truth. The Terror.

“Add the ‘T’, Natalie, and the Arc becomes a Nationality. It becomes CROAT.”

Natalie: [Blinks] Croat? Like… someone from Croatia?

V: Precisely! The Cravat! The coast of Dalmatia! A history of empires rising and falling, much like the plot of your film.

The Linguistic Shift

V: Look at the symmetry you are denying the audience:

• ARCO: A musical instruction. To play with the bow. It is fluid, sliding, unfinished.
• CROAT: A defined identity. A people. A fierce history of independence.

Natalie: So you’re saying my movie about abstract shapes should actually be a biopic about Balkan history?

V: I am saying that without the “T”, you are merely playing the fiddle while Rome burns. With the “T”, you invoke a nation.

Natalie: [Smirking slightly] You have a very strange way of critiquing scripts, V.

V: I merely seek to vindicate the vocabulary. The world is a stage, Natalie, but the script needs better spelling. Secure the “T”. Embrace the Balkans. It is the only way to truly finish the Arc.

[V bows deeply, his cape swirling around him.]

V: England prevails. But Croatia… endures.