Prompt 6 (Mysterious Mail): The mail is always bad this time of year, but it seems like something's gone a little extra wrong. You’ve received something that’s not quite right. Maybe it’s a box that looks like it’s from a completely different era, wrapped in brown paper and tied with dark twine. The box has scuffs and scrapes and a yellowed name tag--with your name and address on it. There is no return address and no indication where it came from. If you open it up you will find some sort of timeless item that feels as though it is easily decades old. It may not be particularly valuable, but this item seems to have been lost to time--and somehow ended up in your possession. Any time you look at it you are filled with the same sensation of timelessness.

Maybe it’s an old letter with no return address, no name on it; it's impossible to tell who it is from or how it got there, given that it might have arrived in your mailbox, your front door, or maybe it even just showed up inside your house. If you open it, the letter is dated from decades ago and contains some surprising information; it is a letter lost to time and contains some secret. The content of the letter is up to the player; it might contain a confession of love, an admission of guilt, the secret of some crime--no matter what the letter contains, it leaves you with news to reflect on. Do you try to seek out anyone mentioned in the letter? Do you investigate or try to hand the letter over to someone else? Does the content of the letter reflect your life in some way? ...Do you have to worry about someone breaking into your house to leave strangely coded messages?

Maybe you’ve gotten both and really need to phone up the post office to see what’s going on.


Ryan walked out the twins nursery having finally been able to put Nikki down. He very much enjoyed holding all his babies, but he wanted them to also get used to sleeping in their rooms. It was too often that he and Dmitry had all three in their bed with them. It was honestly the most indulgent thing about Dmitry because Ryan swore he liked having them near them at night.

He padded down the stairs, socked feet, silent on the steps, months of parently keeping him from being heavy footed as he may have once been. His husband was currently napping on the couch and they were all having a lazy sunday. Ryan was perfectly fine with that and headed into the kitchen to make some tea, wanting to try the salted caramel one that Lily insisted tasted just like the candy. He was skeptical, but also didn't think Lily would really exaggerate something so simple.

His tea was nearly done and smelled delicious before he noticed the box on the kitchen table with a few pieces of mail and things he’d ordered off amazon for christmas. He looked at the small, worn box, wrapped in brown paper, his name penned in calligraphy and ink with a wax seal.

“Mitry, love, did you bring the mail in? I got a rather strange package …” he called softly but didn't get an answer, figuring that his husband was still sleeping. He sat down with his tea in hand and looked over the package, a bit worried, because the city they lived in was forever causing them all sorts of issues. Nothing could really be taken with a grain of salt because the city could just be that dangerous.

He heard shuffling on the baby monitor, but no cry and he quieted after a moment. He wondered if he should open the package, but decided that he might as well. If he needed to protect himself or his family, he would without hesitation even though it would likely cause some problems.

He picked up the box turning over in his hand before slowly peeling open the small box from the side. When it was free of the paper he realized it looked like something of an old keepsake box and he wondered now if maybe his mom dropped it off. It wasn't like there was a name or return address on the thing.

At least the package seemed harmless, making him less hesitant about opening it. He gently pulled the top off the box to find what looked like a decades old handkerchief inside. It must have once been white, but it had yellowed with time, the monogrammed initials unreadable. When he pulled the handkerchief out something fell out, making Ryan jump as it floated to the ground. The paper landed face down and Ryan figured the hanky was just to protect the paper. He leaned down and picked it up, turning it over to find a photograph.

The photograph was old, slightly faded from its age and lacking color instead in sepia. It was a curious photograph, someone had photographed a woman on the beach standing in the crashing waves. Her hair and skirt fluttered in the wind while she looked out over the ocean. Ryan had no idea who the woman was, it couldn't have been his mother, the photo was too old.

He placed the photograph to the side and went to grab his phone before heading back to the table with it. He snapped a quick picture of the photograph and sent it to his mother asking if she sent it. When she responded that she had never seen the photograph before he was even more confused. She didn’t recognize the woman, but she could tell him that she was pretty sure the beach was in Australia.

She wasn't 100 percent sure, but she felt like she had been there before, but the woman in the picture was definitely not her. He looked to the living room, but he doubted it was anyone his husband knew as the package would likely have been addressed to him. He got up turning the photo over in his hands, trying to find some cool, but none seemed forthcoming.

Twenty minutes had gone by and he would here Silas crying in the living room, which meant Dmitry was up and had already grabbed him from his nap.

“I’ll be out over in a second with the bottle babe …,” he said headed back over to the fridge to grab a bottle to warm up, “are Livvie and Nikki, still asleep?”

WC: 796