TIMEY WIMEY LETTER PLOT

[ironwood]

Greetings, chelonauts! This post marks the beginning of an optional plot proposed by DJ. It's a player-driven plot coinciding with the Chihuelans arriving, taking place all throughout the month of September.

Keeliai is in a state of unrest, due to the drought of the previous month and the tension over the Chihuelan ambassadors. ('Invaders', many kedan will correct you.) For weeks, the kedan equivalent of palm-readers and soothsayers have warned whoever will listen that the Dreaming must eventually act to balance the unrest. So far, there's been no evidence of that. Throughout September, however, Foreigners will notice an interesting little wrinkle.

What happens ICly:

Characters will come across a letter which may or may not be addressed to them. If the character has a mailbox or letter-slot, that's where they'll find it; otherwise, they might find it slipped underneath their door, or rolled up and stuck in an item which is a reliable part of their daily routine. These letters will be wildly different from each other in length, subject matter, and tone, but they'll all share one thing in common: they're all written by a future version of the character who receives them, and they're all - more or less - directed towards the receiver.

What happens OOCly:

You get to write the letter your character receives!

This is an extremely versatile plot. You can choose not to have your character involved at all. You can decide exactly what the letter looks like (handwritten or typeset, for example), exactly what the letter says, and exactly when the letter arrives. You can choose the version of your character who sends the letter. While the sender must be your character, and it must be a future version of your character, they don't necessarily need to be a canonical version of your character. (AUs, anyone?) Likewise, the letter they're writing might not be meant for your character specifically; it might be meant for a completely different universe's version of your character, or it might be meant for your character back when they first arrived in Keeliai. The letter can be as long or as short as you want, and contain whatever information you'd like. It could be a piece of advice, a one-word warning, or pages of poetic prose; it's up to you!

Please use this post as free-range plotting and discussion, or for posting the letters you write if you want to share. (Note that posting the letter is entirely optional, and you're free to handwave it if you'd prefer! This is just to give players an opportunity to share whatever insight they come up with.) If you have any questions, please direct them to the questions comment below.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[ironwood]

If you have any questions, please ask them here.

QUESTIONS

[irishthor]

CAN THERE BE... more than one letter? :V

Re: QUESTIONS

[ironwood]

After some discussion, we've elected to keep this plot to one letter per character, to maximize the impact that their arrival has on the characters.

QUESTIONS also this is Alex too lazy to sign out of future!Gene's account

[tarmairon]

Can the letters have small trinkets or photographs or similar enclosed? And I do mean small/insignificant, nothing to the level that would need AC points spent on it or anything - like a coin dated the year the letter was sent as proof it's from The Future.

CAIN

[insertdadjoke]

Cain is going to be severely discombobulated from receiving his own letter. Not necessarily in a bad state, but more thrown-off than usual. He's theoretically going to have gotten it already and likely will only be showing Anton to confirm that the words are real.

However! People are free to notice him being scatter brained and somewhat unsure for, like the first time ever since he's been on the turtle. This letter is really going to shake him up. Anyone want in on a Cain who is apparently not all-confident?

[skeletonenigma]

You know what I think would be funny? Cain's scatter-brainedness coinciding with Skul coming back, and Skul completely misinterpreting why Cain is scatter-brained.

There could be awkward attempts at comfort.

[insertdadjoke]

For reference, this is the letter:

You're doing just fine. He's still in there.

Remy says hi.

-Roman

SOL and ANTON

[gistful]

Solomon's letter:

'Don't jump out of the shadows.'

He won't know what the fuck it means.


Anton's letter:

'Say no to Mevolent.'

He won't know what the fuck that means either. :3

/zips lips on whether they're AU or canon

[insertdadjoke]

Boys, stop being ambiguous at your past selves.

Oh also, would you like me to put up the starter for Anton for when you're ready? Or I can hold on posting it too idk.

[skeletonenigma]

I still think Skul should see Sol's letter.

... Possibly Anton's letter too.

[skeletonenigma]

It's Hopeless.

No context for you.

[edgeoftheknife]

....

I hate you.

except not really ilu so much

[purered]

Klaus's letter will read as such:

This makes it the third time in so many months.

Please consider some restraint. He would have been worth questioning.

[redlightgreenlight]

Klaus...did you explode someone?

[skeletonenigma]

Klaus, stop exploding people.

Arno's Letter

[stubbornlittleshit]

Arno's Letter here SPOILERS FOR AC: Unity, Unity Novel and Dead Kings DLC

Valdis's letter

[redlightgreenlight]

Psalm 139:12. -Valdis

I sure hope that the Hotel has a bible lying around because Valdis definitely does not have the whole thing memorized.

[skeletonenigma]

I don't know if the Hotel does, but if it doesn't, Skul can help you out. He's got most of it memorised.

[stainedglassreflections]

Because Sion's life is a mess.... he's not going to be getting his letter on time. He'll be getting something that would have been helpful a month or two ago because why not.

Keep Ferris home. Let Luke do his job. Because I can't, and he can't either.

However it is going to be handwritten, and thus look like this, so he will BS that it is something else.

And probably be noticably more down on himself after. Welp.

[wolfstrike]

Yuri's letter will be written in his own handwriting in his own language from his world.

It is written on the back of this.

Duke needs a punch in the face. Trust me, he really deserves it.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine's, I think, will be a lengthy treatise on the nature of memory, written in form-perfect ancient elven. It is notable for two reasons; first, that it incorporates several concepts about the soul that are definitely ancient Egyptian, and second, that there are light, sketchy annotations in modern elven which she does recognize as her handwriting.

In the common language, she's added a postscript. It's cryptic, cannot possibly mean what she thinks it means, and she will not, in fact, be telling anyone about it at all. (It reads: Don't worry. Colette likes him.) (Colette likes almost everyone, the pronoun alone is ambiguous... it's almost like Raine has gone out of her way to mystify herself. She will have words for her future self if they ever meet.)

---

As for China:

She is mailing herself several spoilers about her own series, including secrets about Erskine and Skulduggery, and things they will (probably) regret her knowing about her future. She thinks this is hilarious.

Mostly she will hold things over their heads, if the opportunity arises. I'm not 100% sure on the exact phrasing or where she's going with it, but she's going to be terrible. That's a given.

[walkthedarkpath]

Vergil's letter will be under his door in the Sky Sector, on fancy stationary written in his own handwritting in Italian and Latin. His older self knows he was always a touch too paranoid for his own good. Long letter short: Cheer up emo kid.

The Letter:

Things have never been easy, I know I lived through it with you. These eyes have seen all you have seen and much more. Vast happiness and never ending sorrow. It was never your fault. No matter WHAT Sparda told you before he left, no child can bear the burden of a parents death. You pushed away the only person who could understand that pain in the name of protecting them.

You see yourself cursed and a curse to all near you, but take the words of an older wiser version of you that never should be. Lighten up, Vergil, take a breath, watch the stars and enjoy the beauty of the world around you. Carpe Diem. Your life is not over yet, not unless you deem it so. Go repair the burned bridges and give us both a brighter tomorrow. Leave all that black behind and wash the world in elegant blue.

-V
Audentes Fortuna Iuvat

BEHOLD! For I am... late.

[irishthor]

I've decided on Shay's letter. It'll be written on simple paper, no fancy writing, and simply read:

It is not your fault.
Don't blame yourself for anything that happened after Lisbon.
Síochán leat, agus d'fhéadfadh siad an chuid eile i síocháin.
Yours,
Shay Patrick Cormac

This is something Shay will be mulling and chewing over for the next month or so, constantly looking at it when he thinks he's alone, quickly stuffing it away when people approach.

I encourage people to try and find out what it says... and try to find the meaning.

It's Mail Time with Eyebrow Squad!

[wrathfulkhan]

Gene's letter will be in Chinese, with the postscript in English:
It will be all right, xiǎolóng. Pepper will come around, but in her own time.

We are so much better than we think we can be. We are not the monster we fear. We don't have to become it. It all depends on which wolf you feed.

Tony's right about us, in the end. (Don't tell him I said that. It'll inflate his ego and make him even more impossible than usual. I don't particularly want to deal with that, and I'm assuming you don't, either.)

Things will be okay.

P.S. It worked.

Jackie's letter:
Ever thought about bartending?

Deon's letter:
[the file path to the Moose video logs on Vincent's laptop, followed by:] Talk to him.

[highprofilerichkid]

Tony's letter is written in a cipher that he created when he was younger. When decoded, it reads:

Hey, Dweeb.

I don't want to say too much and ruin all the surprises, so I'll keep this short: you're doing good.

Our life's never going to be easy, but I think you've figured that out already. Just count on the people who count, and you'll be okay.

Things will be weird with Pepper for a while - don't forget that she's your friend before anything else, and she's always had your back. She matters just as much as Gene does. Especially when it's just the three of us.

You know we can be kind of a pain in the ass, but there's some great people who are willing to put up with us. Don't take them for granted. Listen to them. You've still got a lot to learn.


Oh, yeah. One more thing. I know what you want to ask, and here's your answer:

It works. And it's worth it.

-T