Story Reader / Affection / Selena: Tempest / Story

Dear Stranger:

I know you might be confused seeing this in your mailbox.

If you're too busy with work and have no time for stuff like this, feel free to toss this letter into the trash.

But if you do happen to have some free time or are looking for a way to kill time, please consider flipping over to page two.

...

On a random day, you receive a letter from a stranger in your personal mailbox.

Most people in this day and age wouldn't send handwritten letters unless it was a confidential document. For one, it's a waste of resources, and for another, it's not instantaneous.

But this letter clearly isn't of the confidential sort.

The royal blue ink, the soft, smooth sheet, the elegant cursive letters, and the faint woody scent of powder...

is all too exquisite and meticulous, almost as if it were a message from another world.

Letters have almost been completely replaced by comms in this era. A formal letter like this is exceedingly rare, and only glimpsed in movies filmed in the previous century.

Who would use such an antiquated way of communication?

Feeling confused, you slowly flip over to the next page.

...

...

...

I'm glad you're reading this line. This means this letter hasn't ended up crushed in the trash can.

Please don't get me wrong. This is not a prank.

Truth be told, I'm looking for a "pen pal".

I'm not sure if you know what a "pen pal" is.

I only learned of it recently when I saw it in a book from the Center of Basic Public Education's library.

Basically, pen pals build a friendship by writing letters to each other.

People say that, a long time ago, before the information age arrived, people would write letters to communicate across vast distances.

Perhaps you might think that such an inefficient and costly way of communicating is tedious and a waste of time.

But when I saw this method, it just seemed so...

Romantic.

Romantic. Yes, that's right, it's the type of romance that we lack in this era.

An era in which everyone is always in a hurry, in pursuit of maximum levels of efficiency.

The act of finding stillness and putting your thoughts on paper is simply inconceivable.

There are even times when I feel that the written word is better than spoken language when it comes to expressing what's deep in your heart.

No matter where I am, things like good etiquette and upbringing... weigh heavily on my shoulders, smothering me.

It's only when I'm writing that I can cast off those shackles and be myself.

The words I can never speak, the feelings inside I can't say out loud... the written word will say what my voice can't.

What's more, I won't have to deal with the immediate reaction from others, nor will I feel ashamed of the unseemliness of my actions.

I can write whatever I want on paper and the words that appear on the page reflect who I am inside.

I seem to be blabbering. Forgive me for being so immature as to get overexcited and let my emotions get the better of me over such a small matter.

Anyway, since you've read up to this point, you should already have guessed.

I would like you, a stranger, to be my pen pal.

At first, I was thinking of trying out this method of communication with my friends,

but I came to realize that it was too deliberate, making it more awkward than it should be.

So I started contemplating sending this letter to a random address in Eden, to a stranger I've never met.

I don't need to know who you are. Neither do you need to know who I am.

All we have to do is use this antiquated but simple method of communication to slowly get to know each other.

Let me briefly introduce myself. I'm Iris and as you've probably guessed, this is not my real name, but rather, a pen name.

Well, that's enough about me. After all, you might not want to know everything about a stranger's life all at once.

Perhaps we can talk about our hobbies in our next letter and share what we're passionate about.

I've attached a return envelope and a blank sheet of paper with this letter. I hope to hear from you.

If you're too busy with work, don't worry about it. This shouldn't be an onerous process.

All you have to do is to write your thoughts on the subject down. I'll be really happy with just that.

Yours faithfully,

Iris

For some reason, you decide to sit before your desk.

After quite some time, she finally looks up in the dim light and peeks at the letter in her hands.

As if it were a real person and not just an object.

She didn't actually have high hopes of receiving a reply when she sent the letter.

That's why she's completely overjoyed right now, to the point of blushing.

After calming herself down, she covers her eyes and peeks through the gaps between her fingers at the letter paper spread out on the bed.

Hello, thank you for your letter. My name is [player name]...

And softly repeats the name in the signature.