Bottled Letters is a Pirates SMP fanfiction by an anonymous writer. It chronicles Apo and Red writing letters to keep in contact after being split between two different factions on Recruitment Day.
The fic can be found here
on Archive of Our Own.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Red makes it clear that their business and partnership should be kept secret.Red: Okay then, well I kind of thought this [partnership] was a secret kind of thing. Just me and you. And the drugs and alcohol.
- Emoticon: Apo uses one in his last chronicled letter. Red is excited by the prospects of its use.Apo: I don't like this stupid faction, they're too soft and none of them know what being a pirate really means. :(
Red: You made a face in your letter! I didn't know you can do that. - Epistolary Novel: The fic consists entirely of Apo and Red's letters sent back and forth between each other, save for a bonus meme/image in the end notes.
- Handwriting as Characterization: The font used to indicate Acho's handwriting is fancy blackletter, indirectly hinting at their privileged Heron upbringing on the Faction Isles (albeit canonically being The Un-Favourite). It also stands out in contrast to Apo and Red's more organic handwriting fonts (Ink Free and Kristen ITC, respectively).
- Message in a Bottle: Implied to be how Apo and Red are sending their letters between each other, given the fic's title.
- One-Shot Fic: The fic only has a single chapter.
- Nepotism: Discussed with Scott, who has been Promoted to Love Interest in the fic.Apo: Apparently [Scott] is from people who are known here and that gives him an advantage. I think there is a word for this.
- Promoted to Love Interest: Downplayed. In this continuity, Apo has a one-sided crush on Scott, while there is little indication of anything non-platonic in canon outside of a few mixed-message jokes.
- Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Apo and Red's dynamic is portrayed as one, with them referring to each other as "(business) partners" and some of their letters almost sounding like they're in a long-distance Secret Relationship, separated because they're from different factions. The fanfic's tags state that the relationship in question is platonic.Red: This is late but I miss you. It's a bit sad here at the Kite base. There are people but none of them get me like you do Apo. You're my bestest friend. My world. I am very sad that we don't see each other often, because when I am awake I think about you. I wish we could be together and no one would be able to stop us.
- Slice of Life: The fic doesn't have an overarching plotline outside of two separated friends trying to stay in contact with each other while writing about their daily lives away from each other.
- Unconventional Formatting: Unlike most AO3 fics, which use plain text, Bottled Letters is coded by HTML/CSS to alternate between fonts to indicate who's writing (specifically stylized with handwriting fonts) and to visually separate the letters into individual text boxes.
