bakerstreet | old-time penpals.

Entry tags:

[meme] epistolary

old-time penpals.

Epistolary

It's all text messages and Facebook entries these days, isn't it? Maybe you're from a time or a world where letters are still being written or maybe you're just saying fuck it to your computer and your phone and to the fast paced contact methods of modern day society, instead writing a letter to someone you rarely see or can't for whatever reason see right now. Be it because of distance or personal issues that are more easily addressed on paper. Come on, you don't need an excuse, just write that damn letter!

How to play -

1. Top-level with your character. Include prefs and the like, if you wish.
2. Others now leave a comment with a letter their character has written yours.
3. Have your character respond, then go tag around as you wish.
4. Be entertained!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1. Dear____,

Get your fucking shit together.

Tommy

2. Taking a detour. Got a spare room?

3. [your letter]

[ old friends, new friends, Mina's a big letter writer ]

[ modern AU penpal/postcard shenanigans or GoT AU or other fantasy-type AUs. OTA for gen, M/F for shippy. ]

( info. f/f for shipping, gen preferred. can be based in Copenhagen, New York or Paris, depending on canon point. please specify if you have a preference. )

Alizée,

When I was seeing Wes (I think that's the best way to put it; he likes to be seen), I wrote a line from something I was working on (about him) on his arm one night before he had to fly out of the country. When he came back, he'd had it tattooed there in my handwriting. I couldn't figure out for the longest time what the problem was. Why it bothered me so much. I think it was that it was this great, romantic gesture that he was making for me with one eye on the rest of his audience. When he thought he was in his writer phase, he went to Paris and smoked cheap cigarettes and fucked dancers from the Moulin Rouge (presumably with less consumption than is romantically popular) and he still updates his own fan websites. Being Wes Lode is performance art. It was just another project. He's tried to buy the rights to use those poems a few times.

Poetry is personal excavation. You cut something out of yourself and it's freeing, but it's not about you any more when people engage with it. In a manner of speaking it's a hundred small suicides - death of the author every time you remove some part of yourself and give it unto the world. I don't usually write on people any more; it entangles me in something more personally exposing. It alters the meaning.

Find enclosed several drafts & the music I've proposed.

G.

Oh, you are brave, Gwen. As artists have to be, to put themselves on display in this way. People like to elope with the arts and what they return to the creator afterwards has often been altered beyond recognition. To me, that's the exciting part of all artistic expression; the reaction and reflection it causes. Although I can see how it must feel like ceasing to exist a little every time. "Death of the Author."

I've read your drafts and I've listened to the music - and I recognise that they are like chunks of flesh torn from your chest, they could just as well have been penned in blood. But with me, girl, you won't get any grand, romantic gestures. I won't visit you next time and have my favourite quote tattooed across the slope of my hipbone. Because I'm not my own performance, that's not how dance works. If you choose to have your words written onto my body, if you really go through with this and allow me to dance them, you need to understand that I'm a blank canvas, every step is given to me, every instruction, every interpretation. I am movement and energy. I am the personhood added to your writing, but I'm ultimately method, not content.

The content will remain yours. Perhaps that will bother you less.

Alizée.

( her response goes through several longer drafts, but what finally gets sent is just this: )

That's why. 💋

G.

( the reverse page reads, )

I have not battled my demons. I have invited them in; I have given them names.

( the next letter is more of a small package, containing a postcard - an artistic photo of a couple of old houses in inner Copenhagen, hollyhocks growing up the drainpipes and a dvd on which has been written in felt tip: nocturnes. it is a filmed studio run-through of a contemporary ballet variation as danced by Alizée.

the postcard reads: )

I'm currently rehearsing this solo. Rikke agreed to film it for me, so I could send a copy to you. I wouldn't tell her why, though in her particular way she got me to admit that it was a gesture of confidentiality. A gift for someone who has handed me strings of her heart and whom I've, in turn, left empty-handed, but not any longer.

Here. Have my hands, my feet. My canvas self, my movements, my energy.

I am my own greatest demon, but I have embraced me.

[ info in journal, all about letterwriting. ]

My dearest
Dear
My dear friend

Crowley,

I realize this rather an archaic form of communication, but I do not have an electronic mailing address, nor do I know yours. I do, however, have your home address (how many Anthony J. Crowleys can there be in Mayfair?) and thought I might write to you this way.

As far as I know, you've been out of town due to work, and I am unsure of your return date. But consider this an invitation to drop by for tea, when you're back in the city.

Yours most fondly
Yours truly
Your ~~dear~~ old friend,
A. Fell

PS: Is it worth it, do you think, to get an electronic mailing address? I fear the hassle and upkeep might be more than the reward.

[ Aziraphale's letter is picked up only a couple of days later, and he certainly knows the letter's author before he's even opened it - he'd know that ridiculously neat handwriting anywhere.

That, and his social circle is hardly overflowing; who else would take the time to write to him? Or better yet, who would take the time to write to him instead of, say, texting, or email?

Still, he had to smile (it was such an Aziraphale thing to do.) And later that evening, when he'd settled on his sofa with a glass of red and with his speakers playing in the background, he figured he'd respond in kind.

Why not. ]

Angel,

Perhaps it is by human standards; I'll count it as archaic when a future reply arrives rolled into a scroll, delivered by horse and carriage.

Been in stateside for the last few weeks - for a continent so hellbent on calling itself the greatest nation on Earth, you'd think they'd have worked out how to make a decent cuppa. The coffee's not bad though.

But, on that note, I'll gladly take you up on that invitation.

Your affectionate enemy,

A.J. Crowley

P.S Might be a bit quicker; Royal Mail's due to go on strike again. Should be any day now, fingers crossed.

M/M for romance and shipping

I hate writing these, because I know nothing about you, but I'm supposed to write something interesting to grab your attention.

I'm the Doctor. I'm a super-intelligent, alien-being, who flies in Time and Space. I'm also a scary handsome genius from space, depending on the day.

I make a habit of saving the human race, no matter what planet I find them on. Yes, when you travel the whole of time and space, you can find humans pretty much anywhere. It's what humans due: multiply and conquer.

I'm currently stuck on Earth. I say stuck. It was a promise I made. And I'm mostly succeeding. I miss the stars though. To pass the time, I teach at a Uni. You're probably wondering what classes, it's easiest to say 'everything'. I've been called to at least substitute teach for every department in the uni.

It keeps me out of trouble. And distracts me from the travelling I want to do... mostly.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The Doctor

[ The missive is short, but immediately irritating: ]

Good King Pellinore, how goes your fated quest?

[That it finds him by way of a Panamanian hotel porter makes it doubly so. How the devil did you know to send it here, John?]

Dear Jack,
My business is proceeding according to plan. In two day's time, myself, Doctor Pelt, and our guide make our way down the Cricamola and then into the tract where the 'quest', such as it is, shall begin in earnest. Barring the loss of Pelt's nerve or the incompetence of the local man, the next time you write it will be to one of two individuals distinguished for the successful capture of a live South American Bangled Boar.

Your interest is appreciated. I would be happy to divulge the details of the animal's 'deathmask' when next we cross paths.

Best wishes and good health
And so on
Your Friend,
Pellinore Warthrop

[The handwriting is atrocious. The sum all but says, in all capitals, DO NOT COME HERE.]

Edited 2019-07-04 21:42 (UTC)

[ He lurks at the edge of the web belonging to the busy little monstrumologists. He wants to hear their secrets, he wants to play with their toys, ruin their days. As the pre-eminent monstrumologist, that makes Pellinore his favorite one to stalk. He always thinks he's being so careful and clever. He always thinks he's hunting dragons.

A reply is waiting in a small town off the Chiriquí Lagoon, a location he seems familiar with: ]

The lagoon is lovely this time of year, isn't it.

[ Which bears the question: what does John Kearns hunt in the Panamania wilds. What ugly things catch his attention and draw him all the way down the coast. Men, or Maricoxi? ]

While unbelievably stupid, boars are savagely territorial. Don't let it lure you into the brush, Pellinore. It will circle 'round behind you and cut you off. I've seen men lose whole limbs to infection from their nasty bites. I would hate to see your ego bruised by an ugly, simple-minded brute.

Though you didn't need me to remind you of that, did you.

Good hunting.

Edited 2019-07-05 01:10 (UTC)

[Send a raven with a love letter, hate mail or business.]

[ooc: Prefer shippy things, please!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

old-time penpals.

Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders)

Mina Murray | Dracula

Jane Solo (r!63 AU) • Star Wars

alizée niang | original | ota

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

loy fury | original | ota

Crowley | Good Omens

awesome PB choice

tyvm! c:

DC Comics ➔ Selina Kyle

Kukui | Pokemon

Mary Crawley | Downton Abbey

Twelfth Doctor | Doctor Who

Abby Arcane • Swamp Thing • OTA

DC Comics ➔ Lois Lane

dr. pellinore warthrop | the monstrumologist | ota

no subject

no subject

no subject

Aleksei Vronsky || Anna Karenina

Tyrion Lannister | Game of Thrones | open

Nico Acosta | OC | M/F

Evie Montgomery | OC | OTA