RADIO | AUDIO | some idle curiosity

[skeletonenigma]

[The message over the handsets is short, succinct, and to the point. Long story short: the detective is bored, so the first thought to capture some of his idle curiosity gets put to the Foreigners at large.]

Who else has received letters from themselves?

Comments

[solo_patria]

Oh good! I am not going mad, then.

I ah...mine was from another universe, of all things. Is that stranger or...

[skeletonenigma]

[Now that perks his interest.]

Another universe? How do you know?

[solo_patria]

[Enjolras sounds a little hesitant, because..]

It does sound odd, I know. But it was dated some months after my death. The Citoyen Enjolras was writing it to me as he awaited his execution. Admittedly, for the same things that I did at home, but I was killed on the spot, not asked to wait or put through a show trial. I think it would have broken me entirely

[skeletonenigma]

[... Well, Skulduggery's inclined to agree. Alternate universes. That does throw an unexpected twist into things.]

It doesn't sound odd at all. Well, not any odder than anything else. I take it your letter is longer than a single sentence?

[solo_patria]

Oh, rather.

[Enjolras has to laugh a little at the thought that any version of himself might manage to bring things to a single sentence. He's never had the skill of brevity.]

I might have expected it at that. My editor and my professors always said I didn't know when to stop. He's included details of his case, this other me, thoughts on my own fate, and how lucky I was, though he goes on to his own death happily enough, love for our cause and people...

I must be exhausting, in print, sometimes. And pretentious.

But do you mean to say your own is so short? Are you offered any clues or advice as to anything in that?

[skeletonenigma]

[Heeeeeeee's just not going to comment on the exhausting and pretentious bit.]

Two words long, yes. It's a clue in itself, but advice? Not really. I shouldn't be surprised, even if it is infuriating.

Did the alternate version of you write the letter knowing you were the one who would receive it?

[solo_patria]

[That's appreciated, really. Enjolras would accept it, but he prefers not to have it confirmed, SO....Moving along.]

A clue? To something here or at home?

And yes. for me, especially. He KNEW some things about what's come to pass, the island, the war, everything. Had some advice that I've been told before by those from home during a ritual. There is...a connection to that, maybe.

Yours does sound infuriating, I agree.

[skeletonenigma]

I don't know. I thought it was something here, but now I'm not even sure I was the intended recipient. It's referring to someone who, in my universe, died over a century ago.

[Which was why solid evidence of alternate universe shenanigans perked Skulduggery's interest so much. It's another piece to the puzzle.]

Would you say that someone from Keeliai might have explained things to him?

[solo_patria]

That should be odd, you are right.

[Still, Enjolras is squinting, more than anything else here.] The boundaries of time and place HAVE become so blurred here...even death does not seem to have done much for some people, those who are meant to reach us here, or to be here themselves.

[Enjolras is pulling out his letter, smoothing it, smiling at the date, in spite of himself.]

I would suppose it could be possible that someone had done so. It would make as much sense as anything else. Funny, though. [He pauses, tapping the date of his letter absently.]

I should think it was a different version of myself, in any case, not...a future returned one by any means. Even I do not date my letters using the particular calendar he did. Particularly when he points out that there is no way for it to have remained in vogue in his world, either.

[skeletonenigma]

[The frown is evident in Skulduggery's tone.] You mean he used an older calendar to date the letter, and then deliberately drew your attention to that?

[solo_patria]

[Enjolras pauses, making a thoughtful sort of hum as he considers that.] Not so overtly as all of that, but he speaks of a world in which the same cycle of events occurred up to the manner of our deaths.

The Great Republic had a calendar of its own, drawn up to represent the new dawn of rebirth in France. When it fell, so too, did the calendar. He uses that same measure of dating, even while addressing the fact that so much else changed. It is an assumption, but a reasonable extrapolation given what I've been told.