dramatispersonae | Amethyst

Amethyst

[ You’re in a corporate boardroom… of sorts. There’s no door and the walls are all glass, open to a clear blue sky, but if you look out the glass and down, there’s nothing but a layer of fluffy white clouds. If you look up, nothing but sky and sun. The room is dominated by an odd table that hasn’t decided what shape it wants to be – there’s a square corner on one end, but the rest of it is wavy and ellipsoid. The chairs are swiveling leather office chairs, quite comfortable and quite ordinary. The tea service and digestives have come along as well.

In the middle of the table are three typewriters with paper primed and ready to go, the mailbox, and a typewritten.

Dear Kingfisher:

We’ve gotten some very good submissions so far, but not enough to go to print! Talk amongst yourselves and write a letter asking for help solving a problem that you face, as a team or as individuals. And don’t be afraid to send in more than one. We’re such a popular feature!

- M

]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... Advice?

You look so annoyed! Anyway, did you write a letter? Because I didn't.

Self-help letters are bothersome.

If you're going to nap in the corner and Haruki doesn't want to talk about anything ever, I suppose we can write about my problems.

You sure? Haruki suggested we just make something up.

There are definitely some things I wouldn't mind getting anonymous advice on.

Well, if you really want the advice, ahh...

If you're both going to be embarrassed for me we could just make it up... but, um, I sort of want to ask about... romance... things...

Ahh, I won't be embarrassed. If you think they can help...

But you have to help me make it not so obvious that it's me.

We can tweak stuff.

It's like this.

[taking a seat]

Oh, you have an idea?

No, nothing I would want to share with anyone. If no one has suggestions we can make something up.

I'm much more comfortable with making something up.

We can make it something generic. "How do you deal with having amnesia?" or along those lines. That's something everyone has experience with, but it doesn't have any indication of who we could be.

Jill wants advice.

If she wants it we can go with hers too.

I guess it might be helpful. It's anonymous anyway.

If it helps her out I don't see why we can't.

Yeah. Now to make sure it's not obvious.

Do you have anything you want to write about?

Not off the top of my head.

I've got some things...

Do you? We can go with those.

Are you going to get really embarrassed for me if I want to ask about romance stuff.

[. . .]

Only if you start asking about sex, since I don't think you should be asking anyone in Aather about that.

I'm not going to!

Okay then, what are you thinking of asking?

I want to know what people would suggest not for sex but just for date ideas when you have two people who really like doing things like dancing and that but they're really different sizes because one of them is a bird but I can't say that because then everyone will know it's me.

Ahh, can you just say "really different sizes" or that your date is extremely short?

There's no way to indicate the difference without people narrowing it down in their minds. But if the height is one of the key factors that prevent you from doing the activities you like then it's worth putting that in there.

What about just... different physical abilities? Because it's not just size, it's that I can't fly and, you know, things like that...

"Dear Aather,

I'm going out with someone and we have pretty different abilities. We have a lot of fun together, but sometimes it's a little sad not to be able to enjoy activities the same way other people do, or the same way we would if we were more similar physically. What kind of dates would you recommend?"

Or something...

Oh, that's a good way of doing it. It's a lot broader.

If it has more to do with abilities then that removes the physical aspect of it. At least a few answers might hit on what you're looking for.

It's both... that's why I said "physically similar" in the letter, too.

What about how to sign it, though?

Curious in Camelot?

It's as good as anything I could think of.

That's fine with me.

We'll keep our fingers crossed.

[ submissions go here with your team name in the subject of the comment ]

[ One of the typewriters begins typing on its own, eventually printing out:

Excellent, excellent, this is enough material to keep us going for quite some time. Now, get to work answering the letters!

The mailbox makes a coughing noise, and up comes a… large newspaper. Each column starts with one of these letters. The space below each letter is blank… for now.

The typewriter keeps going:

Just stick your letter in the mailbox – “Dear So-and-So” – and it will find its way into print. Oh, but we don’t want to give bad advice. If you see someone giving advice you disagree with, feel free to correct them. Remember, you get paid by the word… no, paid by the letter… no, brevity can be the soul of wit… no, rewarded based on productivity… aha! Giving a good answer or many good answers will help you win! But the newspaper business can be about entertainment, so there’ll be a reward for pleasing your peers as well. Yes, those are good criteria.

Now, get to work.

- M

Yes. It’s a magical newspaper that will update in Aather-realtime with the contents of the linked DP post, so your characters can snipe at other letter writers and call their advice terrible.

Use this thread for discussion and this post for submissions. ]

Shall we give ourselves individual names? I could be Kingfisher Beak and Night could be Kingfisher Tail and Haruki could be Kingfisher Wings or something.

I was just going to go with numbers, but yours is more creative. Why not?

Haaah, it's kind of cute. I'm going to answer the dragon.

Go on, then. And if we want to talk any of them over we can, but this is probably easier.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Amethyst

ROUND ONE

DISCUSSION

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SUBMISSIONS

ROUND TWO

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