Flycatcher

In the Aguda Empire, a flycatcher was a person employed in a household ostensibly to catch flies and other pests. However, later on in history, their role became that of prestige symbol or sexual object, or even sex worker, to an extent that this supplanted their role as pest control. Flycatchers were generally young men, seen as having the fast reactions, dexterity and physical endurance to do the job.

Flycatchers were a symbol of a household's wealth, sophistication and taste, and much of their role was simply to be seen (or even just known about), by visitors, passers-by and other members of the household. They were appreciated for their looks both by their employers and guests, and might in some sense be regarded as living sculptures. By their character and appearance, flycatchers advertised their employers' aesthetic refinement or sexual preferences, even if they did not actually provide sexual services. They were also expected variously to actually catch flies and deal with other pests (such as mosquitoes, fleas, rodents), to help with errands around the household, to be entertaining for guests and household members (such as by conversation or physical feats), and to provide sexual services for members of the household and guests. The roles of flycatchers varied considerably from household to household and from time to time, dependent on the particular negotiated relationship between them and their employers, especially as the coy fiction was maintained that they were primarily pest control employees.

Only the wealthy could afford flycatchers on a full-time basis, though the relationship between flycatchers and their employers was not necessarily commercial; the relationship would often take on elements of patronage, especially with regard to interpersonal and sexual relations, even as the flycatcher might be receiving a more regular pay as a household employee. Flycatchers who were in demand (for their appearance or wit) often leveraged such for material gain, and it was a part of the cultural conception of the flycatcher that they were flighty and shallow, moving between patrons quickly or working for multiple households at a time (though most were more or less attached to a single household). Some flycatchers attained celebrity status, but it was never considered a respectable occupation for the upper classes. Flycatchers were also considered their employers' friends, however, or at least to an extent more than other domestic staff.

In the late Aguda Empire and its aftermath, the phenomenon died out, as it was banned owing to Euclean colonial influence, which saw the practice variously as adulterous, immodest, unhygienic, disturbed or homosexual (the practice becoming particularly associated with male homosexuality, even though probably more patrons were female). Moreover, the gentry was the most numerous class with the means to employ flycatchers, but it was also the class that converted to Sotirianity most readily, further reducing the practice's prevalence. Flycatchers faded from public consciousness from the 19th to the 20th century. A revival of academic interest has taken place in the 21st century.

History

Origin

Domestic staff or professionals have been employed to deal with pests for millennia in Dezevau, utilising a variety of methods not limited to manual catching, but including poisoning, traps, fumes, and screens or coverings for doors or windows. The distinctive phenomenon of flycatchers is believed to have originated in early Dabadonga (founded 1472), though some assert its descent from earlier practices from Gobobudi.

Flycatchers were a kind of conspicuous consumption for the well-to-do households establishing themselves in the new imperial capital, especially under circumstances where personal reputations were not as well-established as in older cities, and where the architecture of the city was in flux. The commercial prosperity of the early Aguda Empire influenced a hedonistic, indulgent ethos among its benefactors. Even before flycatchers became associated with sexuality, employing one was a sign that one appreciated one's personal comfort (in terms of not being bothered by pests even temporarily), that one was willing to pay for it, and that one had style and taste in doing so.

The density and magnitude of population and activity in the city may also have concentrated to a greater population of pests which needed to be dealt with, or climatic shifts may have resulted in the same. Moreover, some ornamental or temperature-regulating architectural features common in Dabadonga may have contributed to the presence of flying insects indoors, though this is largely speculative. It is clear, at any rate, that flycatchers only mainly dealt with the few pests that slipped through to be nuisances to those in the household, and were not responsible for public sanitation, sealing building entryways, food safety and such.

Popularisation and sexualisation

Over only a few decades, flycatchers came to be associated with sexuality, albeit more as a symbolic archetype at first. Contemporary commentators wrote that it was inevitable that such virile, flighty, visible young men should attract attention, and that they should respond positively. In the context of a cultural milieu that accepted or even celebrated casual sex, flycatchers found themselves in a prime position, given their relative idleness and especially given their free access around the household. Savvy and attractive flycatchers could also play into their desirability to earn more, even without necessarily any change in their duties.

To some extent, flycatchers assumed and exemplified the preexisting trend of liaisons between members of households and those they hired; flycatchers' rise could be tied to a possible decline in sexual relations between staff and household members, resulting from a trend of increased commercial and legal formality in the Aguda Empire. Even as they were formally employees, flycatchers came to occupy a medial social status between the household's staff and its members; this is reflected in some accounts where flycatchers regard the household's staff as their own to order around.

There are records of incidents and misunderstandings arising from confusion about the exact role of flycatchers. Sexual service was rarely if ever explicitly part of the terms of employment, but some patrons felt cheated or insulted where their advances were rejected by someone who had otherwise accepted employment under normal terms. Those who were employed purely to actually deal with pests took issue at times, but mostly the terminology changed, with the common term for them becoming "pest workers". It was especially relevant that children were employed as flycatchers originally because of their reactions, agility and idleness, but as the role was eroticised, it became unfashionable or even taboo to employ those who were too young. Children and others became pest workers, working more substantially to deal with pests in general, compared to the way in which flycatchers only dealt with the pests most immediately relevant to their patron in person. Pest control businesses and programmes in government came into being, further pushing flycatchers out of their traditional flycatching work. Pest control work was not limited to wealthy patrons, but was a business sector which was engaged by other businesses, poorer households, government, etc.

Under the Great Agudan Peace (beginning around 1563) flycatchers became fashionable throughout the empire, albeit mainly only in the provincial capitals where wealthy and urbane households congregated. Urban culture in provincial capitals took its lead from the capital, and it was the erotically charged notion of the flycatcher that was popularised therefrom. By the 17th century, the connection between flycatchers and sexuality was paramount in the popular imagination in the core regions of the empire.