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

[insertdadjoke]

[ why do you think we're in strikethrough here ]

Nice assumption. But I'll play nice: mine is absolutely from the future. Or... a future. However you want to get into the metaphysics of it. Twelve words.

[skeletonenigma]

[and here I thought that was just window dressing]

Did your future self come out and say he was from the future?

[Must be nice, getting such specific information. Totally not slightly jealous. Nope.]

[insertdadjoke]

Explicitly? No. The tone was definitely indicative that he knew who he was writing to, however.

[ Encouragement. Promises. Just a plea to keep going and wait for that better future just around the corner.

Then again, Roman never said how far he was ahead. ]

It felt like a writing exercise I wasn't actually supposed to get. You know? That thing they make kids do in school but for time capsules to their future selves, not the other way around.

[skeletonenigma]

[And now that Skulduggery has a little more context from everyone else, things make even less sense than they did. The letters are as individual as the Foreigners. Just how powerful is the Dreaming?]

I don't, actually. Time capsules?

[Skulduggery has literally never been to school. What, are they teaching kids time travel now? Why hasn't Valkyrie mentioned that?]

[insertdadjoke]

[ Cain chuckles, but he isn't surprised, either. ]

It's a thought experiment, really. Kids think of things they'd like to ask their future selves or say things they want to remember when they're older and leave things important to them in a box to bury. If you remember it, you dig them back up in ten years and marvel at how much you've changed.

[skeletonenigma]

Why do they do that? I thought the general consensus among academics these days is that people don't change.

[Besides, how many people actually remember to look at something they wrote ten years ago?

This is a very poorly-designed thought experiment.]

Waste of a good box, if you ask me.

[insertdadjoke]

You're asking the wrong person. All I know is I had to help my kids pick out what to box and their mother helped with the letter.

[ He sounds fairly amused about it, anyway. ]

Don't know if they ever dug it back up, either. The reverse, on the other hand, while usually impossible... much more practical.

[skeletonenigma]

I can't disagree with you there. The problem is that my two words are extremely vague, and don't seem to be referring to anything relevant. This future version of myself has wasted a valuable opportunity.

[Don't even try to ask Skulduggery if he'd do the same thing right now, Cain. Don't. Don't do it.]

[insertdadjoke]

[ Contrary to popular belief, he knows better. ]

Hate to say it, but that does sound like you. Maybe he thought you'd be at the point where you could understand its simplicity. Or maybe he was protecting you.

[skeletonenigma]

Protecting me?

[Words cannot express how sardonic that tone is.]

No. More likely, he thought I would immediately understand, and was trying to make sure I would be the only one to understand. Unfortunately for him, the message either arrived too early, or it wasn't meant for me at all and the Dreaming appropriated it.

[insertdadjoke]

[ Skulduggery's tone does it. Cain laughs. ]

Wonder if there's a way to mark it as return to sender?

[skeletonenigma]

If you find one, let me know.

[Simultaneously a joke, and utterly serious.]

[insertdadjoke]

Almost even worth actually looking into.

[ Not that Cain has the best idea where to start. This is probably the field of the magic-users. ... ignoring the fact that he now has his own type of magic to contend with, that doesn't count. ]