tushanshu | [video]

I don't think it means anything, other than the Dreaming is weird.

[If only it were that easy.]

[Still, the corners of her lips twitched upward. She straight her posture enough to meet Jack's gaze through the screen.]

Did you get one?

Unless I threw it out with the recycle, nope.

[Her brows rose. Actually slightly surprised. Jack was already dead, so it couldn't be because he died. Because that hadn't stopped him the first time.]

Why do you think that is?

Wouldn't your future self want to tell you something? I mean...if you could write a letter to your past self right now, wouldn't you?

You know, I thought about it since Skulduggery brought it up, but... I don't think I would?

[The surprise continued.]

Why not?

[If given the chance, Midii was pretty sure she would. Less sure that her younger self would have trusted such a letter--either because, in those days, she hadn't believed enough in magic to think it was real, or because such a thing would have aroused too much suspicion to trust it--but, knowing what she did now, she would have tried.]

[Who knows? It might have saved her from some of her greatest regrets. Both on and before the Turtle.]

I've been thinking about that, since people mentioned that they were showing up. If I had to guess... maybe future-me I knew that I'd keep looking for things to come, instead of looking at the things in front of me.

After all, it would be bad to get over being obsessed about the past, only to get obsessed about the future.

[...that was when it hit her: Jack was right.]

[And it was the exact same for her, in every way. Maybe not obsessed, but she had spent so long focusing on her past. The things she did. If a letter had come from her future self...one that she could somehow confirm was legitimate...she would have started prioritizing the future over the present. Poured over every last word until she was sure she knew everything she needed to.]

...it would be nice to know if my future turns out better than my past, at least.

[She was still neutral on the present.]

I think it's normal, especially for those of us who... you know, have pasts that play a big part in who we are. So I'm choosing to think that not sending myself a letter, just means that I'm in a place where I'm okay with that. Which is a good thing!

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[It's not very often that a lack of something to examine is strange, but Skulduggery's not going to turn a blind eye to something which breaks a pattern.]

I'm not sure. It could just be because the Dreaming is fickle.

On the other hand, it might be because you never wrote one in the first place. And that begs the question of why the rest of us did. I certainly wouldn't have written anything if I didn't think there was a point.

[~~Leave it to Midii to break something.~~]

[The fact that Jack had already responded and admitted he hadn't received a letter helped some. Not much--it still left far too many unanswered questions--but it did offer her the opportunity to assume a different reason than her worst fear.]

That much, I would think is obvious.

You wrote something to yourself because the you of then thought there was something the you of now needed to know.

Yes, but unless the me of then knew there was a way for the me of now to receive it, the me of then wouldn't have bothered.

[A short pause. Even Skulduggery needs a second or two to make sure what he said actually makes sense.]

That means someone must have told me that was the case. Or possibly something. And that's not taking into account the various alternate universes some of the letters have come from.

[...]

[Okay, she had long ago accepted magic and parallel worlds and all those seemingly incomprehensible mysteries of the universe. But there was still something about what he said that bothered her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it. Not yet.]

It's as if...the letters arrived the same way we all did.

[Different universes. Different points in time from each universe.]

Except...I was told that if we ever went home, we wouldn't remember anything about Keelai.

[Skulduggery can personally vouch for that, unfortunately.]

Exactly. That's what makes it interesting. We may be in for a few more surprises before we leave.

There's also the possibility that someone else wrote all of these letters. I'm not sure why, other than to unsettle as many of us as possible. Maybe you're impossible to unsettle.

[She almost burst out laughing at the irony; a lack of letter had unsettled her more than anything her "future" self might have wrote.]

I wouldn't say that.

I'm just...I don't always express it as openly as some people.

Impossible to visibly unsettle, then.

[That doesn't make much sense, of course; if someone knew enough about every Foreigner to write all of the letters, it was very unlikely they didn't know what Midii's reaction would be. But the more Skulduggery learns about these letters, the less anything makes sense, and a part of him's resigned itself to being forever in the dark. Jokes come easily when you've reached that point.]

[It was difficult to tell if he was being patronizing or flattering...or if he actually, truly meant it. The latter would have been a huge compliment to her "acting" skills, at least.]

Sure. We'll go with that.

It's...easier than thinking that this is all real, and the only people who didn't get letters from the future are the ones who have no future.

[Arno's smile is rather cynical, and wry as he looks at her, and, although he's not exactly drunk right now, there's something fairly off about him.]

I would guess that you were rather lucky. OR, alternatively... [There's a glint of his eye.] that YOU were not responsible for anything you had to warn yourself about. That would not surprise me, knowing you for an intelligent young lady.

Edited 2015-10-08 00:51 (UTC)

[It never failed to amaze her that there were people who could think of her in that way.]

[Not the intelligent part. She knew she was smart. The part about her not needing to ever warn her past self. Though, if anything, it would perhaps be the her of now warning the her of age eight. If she ever thought the her of age eight would have listened.]

Either of those have an equal chance of being true.

[Specifically, very little.]

[Even as she spoke, Midii watched him through the screen. She might not have known him well enough to tell for absolute certain, but even through the video she noticed him acting...tighter than usual, would be the best word to describe it.]

I'm guessing you weren't very happy with what your letter said.

[In Arno's case, it was a theory, more than anything else. And Midii seemed to be so capable that it felt like a reasonable assumption to have made. Admittedly, it was a guess, but even so. The thought had occurred there all the same.]

Perhaps they both are true, in part. [After all, it seems reasonable enough to him. She could have been lucky AND lacking in things to deliver warnings about. It felt quite possible, anyway.]

I...no I was not. ["Tight" is a good word for it.] I've learned the awful things my actions, and more than that, my failures, will produce at home. I know that being here means I am apart from it. a new person, but...I am still shaken, I suppose. What I learned was...heavy.

Something you wouldn't readily admit to a public network, I'm sure.

[Which was the only reason she didn't bother asking; because she didn't expect an answer.]

Do you think it made a difference? Getting to read that letter?

Well, actually...

[It's not something Arno's so much ASHAMED of in parts, as he has a hard time saying them for other reasons.]

Whatever I say of it...it makes things real, the part that I ruined. The rest...it can't be said for other reasons. Historical ones. The first...I let someone I cared for die. Again. It...

She's the third.

[Arno stops, shaking his head.]

If I retain ANY memories when I'm sent back from here, it will have. Otherwise...I don't really see the POINT of it, I guess.

It's probably better if you haven't heard from anyone, unless some people have been told things about their lives HERE. I admit that would have been more helpful.

[Not all of what he was saying made sense. Though she supposed it would have made sense to him, with proper context and the type of history that could fill in unspoken gaps. Names and instances past that Midii couldn't relate to. She's the Third. Third what, exactly? And how did they die? There was only so much she could say on that subject. It hardly felt right saying anything at all.]

[But with regards to the letters as a whole....]

That is...one thing I've noticed.

So far, none of the letters seem to have much to do with Keelai. I wonder why that is.

[Simply the third person that Arno had allowed to die. It was funny. He was an assassin for God's sake. He killed people all the time, but those deaths were different. The people who were dead because of things he'd DONE weren't the problem. The ones he'd failed to stop, though, those hit hard and marked his failures overall. At least the other context, of the revolution...he doubted one assassin might have ended THAT.

He was no Altair or Ezio, after all, despite the illusions he'd had at home. Some things were easier to let go than others, and maybe his priorities were off as to what was the more important, but, it was obvious nothing would change NOW.

Better that they keep the subject changed than go into all of that, anyway.]

That IS rather odd, thinking about it. I've heard of other worlds, where people know what has happened HERE but... If there is not much coming in from Keelai itself in future...

[Were they looking at a possible future with NO Keelai? That thought was horrible.]

What other worlds?

[That part was new to her, and piqued her interest far more than any immediate assumption of what a lack of mentioning Keelai could mean; in truth, there were still too many possibilities. Including one that might actually explain why she, of all people, had never gotten a letter.]

You mean, like Death and Dreaming?

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