#the pen pals

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

imagining a modern au with cam, pal, and dulcie where palamedes is like yes this is my wife dulcinea and then camilla walks into the room and plops down like hip-to-hip on the couch between them and pal just leans his head against her shoulder without thinking about it and dulcie starts playing with her hair. at least one of them is already halfway into her lap. and the person very reasonably asks something along the lines of "oh, are you guys poly?" and the three of them are like. no of course not why do you ask.

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

i think sometimes about how, when he's listing the people that cytherea has hurt, he doesn't even mention himself.

she has hurt him. she's put him through hell these past weeks. she killed one of the people he loved most in the world. but he's not angry on his own behalf, oh, no.

most personally, this is for Dulcinea Septimus.

imagine you are palamedes sextus. you spend twelve years exchanging letters with a woman who is seven years your senior. you become the heir to your house just to meet her as an equal. you love her to the point of invention. you both know that her time spent alive has an expiration date sooner than most, and so one day you decide to propose to her - even though you know that she can spend the rest of her life with you but you can’t with her, even though there are imperial rules forbidding interhouse marriages between necromancers, even though you’re here and she’s there and you’ve never even met in person - but you want her to spend her days with someone who cares about her. but you’re so young, only nineteen, and there are still all of those reasons listed above, and so she turns you down. but it isn’t because she doesn’t want to say yes. and then over the next year the letters come fewer and farther apart. and then you’re both invited to the emperor’s house - both of you, together, physically in the same place for the first time - and you show up and she’s here. and it’s like she doesn’t know you. she doesn’t spare you a glance. and you’re still so tender with her - you can’t help it, there’s care baked into you, and you can’t resist helping her, loving her, going so far as to kiss her knuckles in front of company - but still. she doesn’t acknowledge anything that happened between you. she’s moved on. she must have, because she’s spending all this time with the cavalier from the ninth - who is, by the way, two years younger than you, and that doesn’t escape your notice because nothing does - and what can you do? what are you supposed to do?

you tell your cavalier that you’re glad she’s spending time with someone who makes her laugh.

[unknownmads]

CANT STOP THINKING ABOUT INMATE TOJI AND CUTE LITTLE Y/N WHOS SO NAIVE TO BIG BAD TOJI

CW: Slight smut (mentions of his pp🤭)

☆☆☆

thinking about Prison toji who you met when your college has you do a little project in your criminal psychology class. The project was make a penpal get to know them ask why they are in prision, what their lives before was like, do they regret what they did etc. basic questions of course all you had to do was get the most information out of the penpal about their personal lives as you could.

Prison Toji who only signed up for the program because it was part of his latest court order saying he ‘needed more understanding’ so a penpal would give him a friend while they stay safe😭 he ofc hated the idea and thought it was the dumbest shit ever. until he got his first letter, from you (duh).

Prison toji who got mail for the first time and it was a little white envelope with a cute little sticker sealing it. He deadpanned *is my penpal an idiot these letters are for a prison not a daycare* he silently judges examining every detail as he opened the letter. i read the letter taking in every little personal detail you shared with him, your cute little name, how you loved your cat, how you’re new to the city only just moving for school, of course the boring questions for him as well. But at the very end of the letter he noticed an extra little note.

Ps. i left a few photos of myself along with some of my cat! i think it’s only fair since i got to see your photo on the website

Prison toji who grabs the envelope he previously had thrown to the side and pulls out 3 polaroids. One of you and probably your cat you’re dragging it into the photo with a big grin on your face. the second is a photo of your face a soft smile on your lips meant for whoever took the photo but Toji couldn’t help but wonder if that little smile was for him. Until he pulls out the third photo it’s a full view of you, you’re out in the city dressed all out, and Toji couldn’t help but know you chose that photo just for him.

Prison Toji who can’t wait to finally get some alone time so he can truly appreciate your pretty photos. And immediately goes to write you back answering all your cute little questions. Telling you where he lived before, how he ended up there, telling you what he did for work before (Surprise he sold drugs😍), telling you what he does to occupy his time here (he works out he just wanted an excuse to tell you how strong he is), and he asks you some questions.

Prison Toji who has been relentlessly flirting with since you started writing to him, asking if you had a boyfriend, how your school was going, why you moved to the city, how a cute lil thing like you is still single. You had been writing each other for a few weeks now which is a lot less than you think when you know how long mail takes. But your letters to each other are long. answering every little thing each other asks, learning about one another more and more. You had really connected so you finally ask him the big question he read the words as clear as day.

~Do you think i could come pay you a visit? ~

Prison Toji who had to immediately write back answering the most important question first.

~ And doll, you can come visit me anytime id love to finally meet you and see your pretty face in person~

he wanted to be nonchalant.

Prison Toji who was sitting in bed looking at your photos when he was called

“Zenin, you’ve got a visitor. away from the door.”

Prison Toji silently followed standing on the other side of the cell while the guard came in to handcuff him and bring him to the visiting area. Once he was in the room his cuffs connecting him to the table he waited. until he heard the door open again. He felt his cock twitch in his pants as he saw the guard guide you in. You were wide eyed taking in the new environment until they landed on him.

Prison Toji was large, you knew he was tall and muscular thanks to his letters and photo but nothing could have prepared you for the real deal. Eyes widening even more when you fully take him in. seated At the grey metal table his hands on the table as the guard had told him to. his hair poking at his eyes which were staring drinking you in. his lip in a smirk helping you notice the scar on it which you couldn’t really see from the grainy prison photos. His shirt stretched against his muscles showing off a few tattoos hidden along his skin. the view making you squeeze your thighs together to release some of the pressure building.

Prison Toji who took in as much of you as he could as he watched you shuffle into your seat across from him, enjoying how you squirmed slightly within his gaze, his smirk growing into an almost full smile.

“hey doll it’s good to finally meet you.”

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC PROMPT #24

Been a while since I wrote a prompt. Let's change that!

✦

Pen Pals

Red Hood comes across Cujo somewhere in Gotham (location and reason like feeding off of ambient ectoplasm, looking for a new toy, lost, etc are your choice). At first, he's kinda freaked out over this pup that glows Lazarus Pits green but slowly learns that Cujo is relatively harmless as long as no one threatens him or anyone under his protection. Kinda hard not to learn that since Cujo has been glued to his side ever since he found the pup roaming the streets at night.

Cujo eventually gets into Red Hood's good books when the sweet little pup turns into a rottweiler the size of a small house and nearly bites the Joker's head off due to him being his usual creepy, rancid self.

Once he's gotten comfortable enough around the strange dog, he gets close enough to spot a tag/nameplate that reads the pup's name along with "Belongs to Phantom" scratched onto the back in messy handwriting.

He thinks nothing of it until Cujo starts getting restless and Red Hood gets the feeling that he'll be leaving Gotham soon. So, given the dog is clearly supernatural and his tag had no contact information, he assumes Cujo is basically a free roam pet and is able to get back to his owner on his own.

The night before he feels Cujo is going to leave, he ties a letter to the pup's collar. The next night, Cujo is gone.

Weeks pass and he thinks of Cujo often, wondering if he made it back to his owner. If his owner got the letter. If this "Phantom" is similar to him. He doesn't think just anyone owns a Lazarus green dog that reeks of death magic.

It's not until he's out on patrol one night, almost two months later, that Cujo suddenly appears and barrels into his stomach. As the excitable pup slobbers kisses all over his helmet, he sees an envelope covered in stickers attached to Cujo's collar.

Looks like he's got himself a pen pal.

[die-rosastrasse]

Fragments of a fantasy-themed letter for my Irish pen pal 🌿✨

[ghost-bxrd]

Prompt:

Dick starts writing letters to leave at the apartment Jason used to live in with his mom. The apartment set to be demolished along with the entire building during the next month.

It’s supposed to be cathartic, according to Dinah. A method to come to terms with all the things Dick never got to say. With the fact that he lost another member of his family. And the fact that he’ll never get to talk to them ever again.

He has one month to say goodbye. One month that he never got with the actual Jason.

It’s stupid. And it’s even more stupid because it works.

And then someone starts writing back.

[frenchphobe]

griddlehark modern pen pal au where they don’t know each other but are assigned as pen pals for those pen pal projects you get in middle school and it just turns into them sending each other hate mail and somehow they just keep going for several years, even though they dont rly have to

[mabelsdesk]

wax seal set ♡ buy here

[dame-nostalgique]

Spring-inspired envelope 🌷🕊️

[jsketch12]

Bomber meets an old friend

[itsmebeff]

[knight papyrus , dess holiday] learning from the best

[lastflowerofyourhouse]

rereading harrow the ninth and...dulcie said she hoped camilla would notice something was off. camilla. not palamedes.

and now. you all know me. i never overthink throwaway lines and accidentally make myself sad. i've never done that before. but we've all read the mysterious study of doctor sex. palamedes is the boy detective. camilla is smart, and i am absolutely not discounting that, but in that story and in most of their scenes throughout the series, she tends to defer to his judgement. and surely, dulcinea would know that. even if she didn't know them that well (given that she never met either of them in person), anyone would probably have pinned their hopes on pal. so why does she say camilla's name, and not his?

i propose: because she knows them. she's right. camilla is the one who would notice, because camilla is the one with a standard for how people should treat palamedes. dulcie knows pal well enough to know that, if her impersonator hurt him, camilla is the one who would realize something was off.

of course, in gtn, cam doesn't fully figure it out, but she is the only one who expresses real anger about how "dulcinea" is treating him. palamedes is upset, but prepared to look past it.

and this just makes me so sad. dulcinea, even about to be murdered, didn't tell cytherea about palamedes and camilla, knowing that palamedes would be deeply hurt, in the hopes that camilla would notice there was something weird going on. because pal, for all his intelligence, hasn't figured out that people who care about him suddenly becoming weird and cold is suspicious.

this really is a series full of people who care about each other, because none of them can care about themselves.

[enbycarp]

Hey all, it's Juneteenth. I feel like this is a good day to talk about folks in prison.

I'm pen pals with several folks in prison. I've been doing this for many years now, and i think it's one of the most important things I've ever done. I started because i was interested in prison abolition, and i was told this was the way to get started in that movement. It's also a way to invest in our communities. Because queer, poc, poor, and disabled communities are disproportionately affected by the industrial prison complex. It's our people who are being thrown into cages and often being forgotten, tortured, enslaved, and denied their rights. We can invest in our communities and participate in mutual aid no matter what our resources or ability levels are. Being a pen pal requires investing a pretty small amount of time and money. Literally, if you can write a letter, you can do it (and often, you can send the letters online, so you don't even need paper).

I have made some true friends as a pen pal. People who have offered me support as much as i have offered them. I have one pen pal who i can talk to about things that i don't talk about with anyone else.

I won't lie, it's not always easy. There have been a couple pen pals that i didn't get along with well. I had to tell them that it wasn't working and gently end our correspondence. I've had two pen pals that stopped writing to me after they got out, and i just have to hope that they're ok out there. And these folks put up with really hard, sometimes horrifying shit inside. It can be hard to process that. Though, I've known other folks with pen pals who clearly set boundaries about what they're comfortable talking about and that's worked for them. I've had a pen pal ask me to do more than i was able to do for them, and i had to tell them no. They understood. You have to be able to set boundaries in any relationship, though.

You get to decide what you can do to help a pen pal. For some of us, that's just writing letters. I sometimes send gifts to folks (mostly books from Amazon). For one of my pen pals, i look up info about magic the gathering or D&D because she plays those games inside. For another, i wrote a letter to help support her case for getting a shorter sentence. One friend likes me to look up facts about his favorite actresses and sports teams. When one friend was facing transphobic discrimination, i organized a call in to the superintendent (and we really helped her). Some pen pals are looking for romantic connections (they generally tell you up front of that's the case). Many queer prisoners just need a connection to their community.

Please at least check out www.blackandpink.org and learn about what being a pen pal can mean for people on the inside. That organization has connected me with several queer pen pals. Even if you're not going to sign up to be a pen pal, just take a few minutes to learn about it.

Thanks!

Ps: you can ask me if you have any questions about

[puccadraws]

Together, we are one! Pen Pals Forever!

[stoneshipper]

imagine your f/o...

... writing you a love letter! they'd put careful care and consideration into every aspect of it - from the stationary to the pen they use to write to you. maybe their handwriting is naturally neat, or perhaps they write with such quick passion that it's harder to decipher. in any case, their letter is filling with nothing but compassionate words that they hope to use to brighten your day and make your heart feel warm ❦︎

dividers made for me by kynibyou! 🍂 prosh¡p dni.

[smallz-o]

yippee!