bakerstreet | today, at last, a letter came

THE PENPALS MEME

There's nothing like a little old-fashioned exchange to take your relationships to the next level! Sniff the paper, carry it with you, tuck it into the box under your bed... These are some precious memories you're about to make. Of course, snail mail isn't the only way to your penpal's heart.

→ HOW TO ←

1. Post character/preferences.
2. Use the handy-dandy RNG to pick your penpalling method.
3. Roll again to determine the relationship between penpals.
4. ???
5. Profit!

→ SCENARIOS ←

001. Regular Old-Fashioned Snail Mail. Perhaps you know whom you're writing to; perhaps it's only someone you've been assigned to write letters to for whatever reason, or you might even be sending your letter to the wrong place. Who knows what happens at the post office?

002. Unconventional Old-Fashioned Some-Kind-Of-Mail. You wake up one day and there's something strange in your mailbox. Maybe it's just sitting there by your bed where your family dropped it off. However you come upon it, you're the more inventive sort of penpal. Exchanges of pictures or presents, songs or sweets, or even dinner, even living creatures; you never know what's going to pop up next, or perhaps you have a system going.

003. Your Wall Is My Wall. And no, not the Facebook sort of wall. I guess we're still going old-school here, because there's a wall, a piece of floor, a ceiling, a desk, some sort of unconventional writing surface where you've found a note and decided to air your own thoughts on the matter. For some reason, the next day there's a reply waiting for you! What on earth have you gotten yourself into?

004. Let The Board Do The Talking. Words or tokens aren't good enough -- you're much more interested in skill. Board games, word games, logic puzzles, riddles, secret code, guessing games about each other's identity -- it's all about showmanship here. Of course, you've never seen your opponent, but you both know where the chess board is and when to check it.

005. Pass It Along. Passing notes is something you do in grade school, but why stop doing it when it's so fun? Besides, it lets you practice your origami. Just take care that your note doesn't meet with an aspiring editor somewhere along the way.

→ RELATIONSHIPS ←

01. Perfect Strangers

02. Old Friends

03. Wrong Address

04. Bitter Enemies/Rivals

05. Lovers

06. Family

07. Professional (Employer/Employee, Leader/Follower, Master/Servant)

08. Two Personalities In A Multiple Personality

09. Imaginary Friend

10. Pick Your Own

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[So Paps might have had a little trouble making friends in school. A tiny bit. He was always loud, but even worse about thinking of others' wants and needs, and he hadn't diligently practiced manners yet... Kinda off-putting.

But that didn't stop him from practicing friendship by sending notes to his imaginary friend.]

[At first, Sans just left the notes for fun. Usually, it was bad jokes, awful poems, shower thoughts, and so on. The stuff a kid his age would think was funny or subversive, taped to the wall of a small, closed-off alcove at school that most people didn't go to. As much as Sans liked other kids, sometimes it was nice to have the quiet.

He didn't expect someone else to have the same idea. It didn't take him long to figure out who wrote them, and the imaginary "who" they were meant for. So he started writing back.

The next time Papyrus comes to the wall, there's a torn piece of paper and a lollipop taped under his last note:]

hi

mr. dreemur came to our class today and gave out candy for answering questions. i don't really like grape, but maybe you do.

thats cool that you saw a royal guard. what are they like? i heard they're super tough.

[Lunchtime is great, but the gross sticky stuff that gets in between his fingers is awful and Papyrus hates it. Like almost every day, he asks to be excused to the bathroom, so he could wash them thoroughly before they all had to go back to class.

He wasn't really sure why they were called bathrooms. It wasn't like the bathroom at home, there wasn't a bath in it. Just mirrors and sinks, a trashcan. And a little shower for the messier and more watery monsters to rinse themselves off before continuing the day. But a shower wasn't a bath!!

One of his previous notes had said as much, words slanting up and down across the page. A few of these notes had been written on the back of his old quizzes since he didn't need them anymore... and the backs of those pages didn't have lines.

But he finishes washing his hands, carefully dries them off, and steps out. The bell hasn't rung yet, so there's enough time to sneak into his secret base and leave another note for his even-more-secret penpal. So secret that his penpal didn't even know to write back yet! But they would figure it out eventually.

Maybe even... today?? There's a paper in the alcove, one that he hadn't left! And candy!!

He almost trips in his haste to read the note and see who the candy was for. There's no name on it, so he can't be completely sure it's for him... but that also means there's no name on it saying it's not for him! That's close enough.

Sucking on the lollipop and reading outloud to himself, Papyrus pens an addition to his note, to properly acknowledge his totally not new penpal's letter.]

Dear Secret Friend,

Hi, I hope you Are well and doing Okay in your class!

Remember my big report on Volcanoes and Heat and G. O. Thermul Energy?? It was due this week and I did okay. Remember I said my Dad was going to took me to Hot Land to see what its like? Well he did. It s terrible and I dont know why anyone would live there. Every thing is hot and smokey and moving. All the time. But it s Very Important so Im glad some body makes it work. Some body else.

Sciencerely,

Your Secret Friend

P.S. Royal Guards are very tall and scary looking! I thought there would be one but there were TWO. They were in black armor and carrying weapons. Al the time! But they were nice enogh I guess. They make sure no body goes in the core except the people who are supposed to. So no body presses a wrong button and turns every thing off. That would suck!

P.P.S Thank You for writng back this time!!

Edited 2016-11-13 15:51 (UTC)

[After recess, Sans didn't get the chance to reply. Dad picked them both up right after school. The next morning, however, there's a sticky note under Papyrus' addition to their page - there being no more room to keep writing. The "note" was actually pretty big, and shaped like a panda to boot. Remind Sans to hide his stationary later.

The skeleton didn't see what Papyrus told his imaginary friend about the big report, but he had helped his brother with it enough to know exactly what he was talking about.]

hi secret friend

i'm doing good and okay in my class. it's science class. not a lot of kids in my class like it but i do. it's fun. we're learning about all the cool plants in waterfall right now.

if you don't like hotland you would probably like waterfall. it's not hot or smoky, and there's a lot of water and glowing stuff. my teacher says its called "bioluminescence". there's supposed to be a snail farm there too. i've never seen it, but my teacher's going to take us on a field trip.

your dad and the royal guards sound cool. mr. dreemur said they go to the castle a lot. they practice fighting with him and water flowers and stuff.

p.s. i like how you wrote sincerely. like science + sincerely. that's funny. l o l.
p.p.s. i mean the royal guards. i don't know if your dad fights or waters flowers.

[ Another day, another opportunity to practice his perfect attendance and friendship.

Unfortunately, their dad wanted to chat and give Papyrus a hug or three before letting him go off, so Sans got a headstart into the building... and Papyrus didn't get a chance to check his secret place before classes started. That was fine, he got to go after lunch.

The new note, which was not a huge and exciting surprise that had him jumping for joy for a minute, was in a drawing? Apparently his not-new totally-real friend really believed in eating things. Lollipops, giant mouth bear notes...

And they complimented his pun! He wasn't sure they would catch it, but they did! He starts writing a response, rereading it as he goes. ]

Dear Secret Fri
Wait that swrong
We cant both be Secret Friend because Im not you and youre not me. I wouldn t just write to myself. That would be lame! and stupid! and boring!!! And Im not any of those things!

But. that doesnt mean we cant write. We just need... CODENAMES. So think of one!!!

Do you like all the glowing water stuff? I havent seen it yet either. But that sounds okay. Do you have to swim everywhere to get anywhere? Puzzles on roads are better.

Sincerely
- I need a Codename too

p.s. Thank you I know it is!
p.p.s. My Dad doesn't fight flowers! How would flowers fight. Pollen bullets? Petal storms??

[No surprise there. Sans was usually the one running off before their dad could catch him in a couple dozens hugs too. Geez. He's not a baby anymore, Dad.

Anyway. This time, at least, he got a chance to check the wall during gym. No candy or anything like that this time. That'd probably be too suspicious if he did that all the time. He uses another panda pad note anyway.]

ok. i want to be called

[There's flecks of pink rubber and a lot of partially erased lines underneath:]

fartmaster

and yeah, i like the glowing water stuff. our teacher brought some in a jar once and showed us pictures. i don't know if you have to swim. if you do, i float really good. so it's probably not hard.

p.p.p.s. vine whip?

today, at last, a letter came

003 - 09

making up some stuff so hope this works!

i made up even more stuff!!! have at thee, improvisor

now i gotta do it right

its a big responsibility okok

the nice thing about a lot of my icons is that sans looks like a small child anyway