Dear Seagull,

Ok, in this letter I will just be asking questions and saying a bit about myself to get to know you better <3 I'm so excited eeeeeeeeeeeee

I wanted to start off by talking about your beautiful art! I love stalking people's accounts bwahaha because it helps me come across amazing projects like your art dumps! i am honestly in awe of the beautiful art you do - it is actually so stunning how do you do it?? i think your most recent leader app was one of the best apps i've ever seen <3 It was AMAZING. What platform do you use to do your art? Do you do any other art?

I mentioned that I'm super interested in astronomy, but don't really know much about it, but it seems like you also really like it! I just think everything about astronomy is so cool - I'm particularly interested in terraforming! I wrote a poster about it for a competition at my school, and it was so cool! i learnt about how humans could, in the future, terraform venus and mars!! so cool :0 what sort of other sciences are you interested in? I personally love biology, despite being super squeamish about the idea of when we have to do dissections later on in school

You mentioned in your intro that you like music! Do you play any instruments or sing? I saw your project where you sang! it was not dreadful!!! - your voice is super pretty <33 i think i commented on it? i play the flute and absolutely love it <3 What sort of music do you listen to? I listen to lots of chill, indie music - I love Lyn Lapid as well as Laufey who does jazz-pop style singing and it is so beautiful ^^ I also love classical music - it's so underrated! i

And I'm assuming that you read a considerable amount of books - most swcers do! If so, what genre do you like to read? I love historical fiction, but it often makes me cry, especially the Book Thief, which was so amazing but so sad ToT
and related to this, what genre do you like to write in? Again, I love historical fiction!

That's it for this letter! I'm so excited to read your reply!

Your fellow Penpal,
Silvi

Dear Silvi,

I am so so excited to be your penpal! <3 I absolutely can’t wait to receive and write all your letters, this new activity all seems so fun and exciting. Thank you so much for this first letter!!

First of all, thank you so so very much for the compliments on my art, you are way too kind, that genuinely means so much to me : ) I’m not too sure how to answer how I do it… I’ve just loved drawing for as long as I can remember I suppose, although also to me I can still see all the faults and things that could be better lol. I’ve been thinking of starting a platform somewhere recently based around art/crafting and maybe posting my process or speedpaints but I haven’t actually got round to it. I actually feel like recently I haven’t done as much digital painting as I’d like to so I’ve been trying to get back at it.
For my digital art, I mostly use procreate! But I also do indeed do a lot of other art - I love sketching, painting (mostly acrylics and watercolour), creating collages, scrapbooking/journalling, drawing with alcohol markers, oils, even photography and editing, honestly I will try any art supply and/or medium, really. I also want to experiment with filmmaking and animation, (either hand drawn or stop motion animation!) but again I have not been quite put together enough to make time in my brain for that just yet. What about you? Do you have any art aspirations or things you especially love to do?

I enjoy doing a ton of different crafts and activities too - sculpting with air dry clay or polymer clay, upcycling things, jewelry making, making beaded decorations, miniature making, paper mache, and… yarn crafts!! I saw from your profile that you are a crochet fanatic, which is fabulous: I, too, am a crochet demon aha !! :-D I mostly make realistic looking crochet animals. I call it crochet taxidermy. Tell me about your crochet! How long have you been crocheting, and what do you like to make? Do you have a favourite project you’ve made? :eyes: if you want to share any of your creations I would love to see.

That sounds so cool - I do indeed absolutely love astronomy, and I’m actually doing it as one of my subjects at GCSE level! I loved space and astronomy before that, and I did not know that it was a GCSE option until I did it but it’s very very fun and very very interesting. Although since I’m not in mainstream school at the moment, and the school I am currently getting my education in doesn’t offer it, I have to learn all the content and do all my revision completely independently in my free periods and such which is maybe a tiny bit overwhelming at times lol. I love it though! My favourite thing to learn about is probably the origin/formation and evolution of solar systems and other space phenomena, and the life cycle of stars and such!
However, I actually do not know that much at all about terraforming, though it sounds so incredibly fascinating : 0 I’d really love to research it and learn more. Can you tell me anything about it? Please feel more than free to infodump about the things that interest you if you would like to, hehe.

Honestly, I’m interested in any sort of science, it’s like I’m always ravenous to know how everything works (even if much of it hurts my poor little brain ha). That said… Yay, I looove biology! I weirdly don’t find the idea of dissections too offputting because I think it would just be so cool and interesting to see, but I know a lot of people do, very understandably lol. I love zoology and animal biology specifically, and I’m hoping to start a course at some point (well, hopefully next year fingers crossed) for Animal Management and Science. I also absolutely love genetics - I need to think of more adjectives help but I’ll say it, it’s so interesting - and medical sciences!

Yes, I love music! When I was younger I used to play clarinet and I did that for quite a while but lowkey hated it lol, and I also tried piano for a little bit, but I now play guitar - though not particularly well, I must say, but I’m slowly improving I hope - and I’m definitely going to stick with it this time, I genuinely really love it. At the moment I know about nine or ten songs on it : ) and thank you so much, I do love singing however my voice just cringes me out sob </3 what about you, do you ever sing? What do you enjoy playing on the flute? Ahh I’ve always thought the flute is so so beautiful and magical sounding!
As for what I like to listen to, I think I’d say I love the indie, folk, rock, psych rock, shoegaze, emo, midwest emo, grunge, and alt genres most but I will sincerely give absolutely anything a go!
Classical music is one hundred percent underrated! <3 I love it too, although I admit I don’t tend to go for it to listen to all that much, since I love lyricism.

In regards to books; absolutely yes. I love reading so much, it might be an issue lol. On my profile I have my running total of books I’ve finished reading since January – so far we’re at 22 : D A couple of my favourite books recently were The Secret History by Donna Tartt and Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova, both of which I read in December. But in 2026 thus far I’ve got through: Dallergut Dream Department Store, The Body Keeps The Score, Frankenstein, Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Of Mice and Men, Here In the Real World, The Time Machine, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Badgerlands, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, salt slow, The Turn of the Screw, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, Orbital, two non-fi books about autistic experiences, The Book Thief (!!!), This Is Going to Hurt, Into The Silent Land - Travels in Neuropsychology, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Number Ten, and most recently, Rabbitbox!!
I thought the Book Thief was really good, so, fabulous pick <3 I honestly cannot say what my favourite genre is. I have very eclectic taste lol. But I do like a bit of magical realism, horror, or stories that are just kind of peculiar or messed up in some way.
Honestly it’s hard to label or put my finger on but I think I write mostly magical realism or subtle horror, and those are probably my favourite!
I’m slightly scared of writing Historical Fiction because I feel like there’s so much to get wrong and I’ll write it so inaccurately hahaha.

Thank you again for being my penpal and I can’t wait to read more of your letters :-)

Love from your penpal (well, typing-pal?),

Seagull

1166 words

Dear Seagull,
Hello again! How are you doing? I might be ranting a bit in this letter, so prepare yourself for my useless ranting!

First of all - you use so many art mediums! That's so cool - if I was that arty, I would probably stick to one or two so I can improve on them, but it sounds like you're good at everything! What I've seen of your digital art so far is incredible, and I can't even begin to imagine how good it must be in real life! Wow, I went very over the top there! I think you should totally try and get into animation! I love stop motions, as they can be so simple to create but they can look really cool! They can also be really complex, which is awesome as well! In answer to your question, I would absolutely love to get better at human anatomy! I am absolutely useless at drawing people, and honestly I'm not incredible at art overall! I think my skills lie more in the textiles area when it comes to art - we did a textiles project last term in my school where we had to make dresses out of sugar paper, and my skills came into full here! I was placed in a group with two other boys, so I just ordered them around and we won the competition! I also got to complete lots of sketches for this project, and I was super proud of the sketches I created of our dress!

Yes, a fellow crochet demon! I love how you call it crochet taxidermy! I've been crocheting for about a year, so I'm not a complete beginner, but I still have lots of room to improve! I am unhealthily obsessed with it, crochet a lot in my free time! In general, I prefer to create non-amigurumi projects, such as book sleeves and hanging plants! These project are amazing gifts and are so cute! I've recently been getting more into crocheting toys, and have recently crocheted a lot of turtles <3 I've also made a granny hexagon cardigan, but I don't know what possessed me to choose the colours for it as they weren't the nicest! I'm now making a more cropped style (granny hexagon) cardigan with a shell stitch border and this time I've gone for one colour - light blue! It's not going to be perfect, but it doesn't need to be and so far it looks really cute <3 I was thinking I could post you updates on it, as that would motivate me to finish it! So far I've created the two main panels and extended out the middle and now I'm extending the sleeves! I admire people who crochet animals so much as they can be so complicated, so I'm sticking to the simpler ones for now! Have you ever crocheted your own clothes? :eyes:

Wow, I've never heard of astronomy as a subject for GCSEs. That would be super cool! I find the origins of the universe very interesting - being a Catholic but also very interested in science! I could spend a while getting into that but it would probably get a bit heavy, so I think I'll just leave that one there!
Yes, I would love to infodump about terraforming! So, in short, terraforming is the process of making an inhabitable planet… habitable lol. It is often seen in science fiction, but it is believed that in the future humans could do it too. On colder planets, they often have frozen water beneath there surfaces, so you can heat up the atmosphere by importing different gases, or waiting for a few thousand (or millions, more likely!) years for it to move closer to the sun! I can't remember too much right now and I don't have my research to reference at the moment, but I find terraforming extremely cool! There's a planet called Titan which will be in the ‘life zone’ of the solar system when the Earth is swallowed by the sun! It is believed that when it moves into the life zone, it will essentially turn into a mini Earth! It has frozen oceans and the right atmosphere for us to live in, so humans could just rocket over there!!

I'm not super sciency I must admit :> However, I would love to know more about it and it does itnerest me a lot! Biology in particular interests me, and I enjoy Biology lessons a lot! Other than astronomy, I find physics quite dull sometimes, but that might be to do with the teacher… *cough cough*
We just completed a topic on genetics in biology! I find it very interesting learning about twins in genetics as I am a twin and my mum is a twin - which is quite rare!

When it comes to singing, I think everyone judges their own voice a lot as it's actually a part of you, if that makes sense?
On the flute, I love to play super fast and high pieces when I'm practicing as they are super fun! When performing I prefer to pick a prettier piece (still up high though) as that's what I prefer to listen to if I'm listening to the flute.

I haven't heard of many of the books you said! Apart from the Book Thief-
I personally really dislike horror stories! I love a bit of thrill in my books, but I just finished a short horror story (about 150 pages- I finished it in one evening) and I had to read something else after it as it scared me so much! I think everyone likes fantasy, and I love the Grishaverse - Six of Crows, Shadow and Bone etc which if you don't know is a fantasy world that I won't go into as it's a bit complex!
I also love anything based on mythology - it's probably my favourite style of book actually! Hi-fi does intimidate me a lot in both reading and writing, but I've found some of my best reads there. I also love super cosy light-hearted books, with a bit of romance in as well?

I'm really sorry, but I want to rant to you about something as I have no one else to really rant to lol <33
For nearly a year I've been having quite a lot of nosebleeds - they come in sections. I'll have a month where I have a few a week and then a break when I have none for a while. Last summer I had about 2 weeks where I was having 2 nosebleeds a day which was absolutely horrible! I've had a long back, but this winter they started to come back. I can always tell a few days in advance when I will have one - on Monday I said i think I'll have one this week and yesterday I had one! I am constantly paranoid of getting nosebleeds in really bad situations - I had one recently when I was brushing my teeth! Not fun
Anyways, rant over!

I can't wait to see your reply and thank you so much for being my penpal! <33
Lots of love,
Your bestest Penpal,
Silvi

P.S. That was such a long letter!

made it into a pretty letter, hopefully the image loads - if not, or it comes out too tiny and blurry, here is the transcript <3

From:
Seagull, Cyberpunk City
To:
Silvi, Dystopia Expedition


Dear Silvi,

Once again, hello!!
Firstly… I am SO sorry I’ve taken this long to respond to your letter! Things have been so overwhelming but don’t worry, I have not forgotten. I hope my reply shall not be a disappointment for the waiting time.
In preparation for ranting, don’t worry at all - I am absolutely fine with that because I would and do love to read your rants and rambles, the longer the better ehe : D

Awwh, thank you so much for the kind words again - I’m sure you would be absolutely fantastic at anything you try your hand at too, quite frankly. Even if you’ve never tried something before, I honestly find that so much of the time technical skill is one genuinely of the least important qualities in creating art, what really makes things is concept and creativity and passion <3
To be honest, I kind of wish I did stick at just a few things a little more to improve on them lol. Alas, thus far I have not really been that kind of person, I keep on dropping things, experimenting with something new and unfamiliar, going oooh yay exciting, then getting bored and itching to try something different, aand rinse and repeat. I need to start to hone my skills on some specific mediums. Help.
Wow, that textiles project sounds so so cool? That’s amazing! I’m in awe, you say it sounds like I’m good at everything (which is so kind but I wish it were true lol </3), but one thing I’m most certainly really not good at is designing clothes or sewing clothes despite loving the concept and wanting to be good at it and do it, it’s really not for me lol. Maybe one day… soon…
Have you dabbled in other textiles projects/made anything else? Also, sending you a massive congratulations on winning that competition!! From the sounds of it you absolutely deserved that, the dress sounds so incredible.

Yess! You know, sometimes it very much feels like that (crochet taxidermy) to be honest because for a lot of my projects like that I have to pose them with metal wire and yarn wrapped wire and glue and use pliers and stuff aha it’s a whole ordeal. Ooh those sound like some great projects, i’ve actually been meaning to make some plants for so long and I’ve still not yet ever got round to it :’ ) I’ve seen crochet turtles a lot and they are always so adorable. Though personally I feel quite inspired to try and make an ultra realistic one >:D
I’ve never actually made anything out of granny squares myself, let alone hexagons and such lol, which I think is maybe slightly unusual? I feel like it’s the OG of beginner crocheting (my first completed project was actually a moomin, haha : D). Although I do know how to make them because I made quite a few and gave them to my friend for a collaborative patchwork blanket <33 I never actually got to see the finished project of that, hmm.. I’ve got well and truly distracted there but now I really want to ask her about that.
Back to the topic… granny hexagon cardigans are so cool looking! It’s a shame you don’t like the colours but to be honest I bet they aren’t half as bad as you think! We’re all our own worst critics, I bet it’s gorgeous to someone out there. Even so, honestly, I think we (every crafter) have all done something like that at some point sobs… I know I certainly have haha. Your new one sounds epic, and best of luck with it!! Since it’s been a little while, any updates on it as of now ?? : 0
Uno reverse - I admire people who crochet clothes!
I’ve crocheted fingerless gloves, scarves, hats, etc.. buut that’s about it, if those even count properly as clothes. However, I really do want to make something bigger, and in particular there are some jumper patterns I would love to do because I love wearing jumpers and I have so many, it would be cool to have some I’ve made myself! I don’t know if I will have the patience to keep with it (I like doing all the little fiddly and complicated bits in animals and smaller more complex patterns and such or I can get tired of doing the same thing for a long while and my mind wanders) but we shall see. If I have the motivation and initiative to start in the first place, that is. Cries. Anyway, I want to make a pattern called the “catghan sweater” hehehe, if you want to look it up it should appear.

Yesss I love having astronomy as a subject it’s my favourite <3 That really is really interesting, honestly if you do want to get a bit deep and get into it I’m happy to listen, but equally it’s very understandable if you do not lol.
That’s so extremely cool thank you so much for that little infodump! Ooh, you know what, it reminds me of how I’ve been studying electrolysis and that it could potentially allow us to travel to far out distant planets at some point. Basically, rockets are fuelled using hydrogen and oxygen, and electrolysis can split things into their elements using electricity. So, since a lot of planets have a huge amount of ice beneath them, we may at some point have the technology to simply use the ice, which obviously is water / H2O, to obtain the hydrogen and oxygen molecules, which then could be used to make rocket fuel.
We could use other planets basically as a petrol station to fill up and continue on long voyages!
I did not know that about the planet Titan : 0 but now I fear I may be lost down a rabbit hole for quite some time.

That’s so fair, teachers can definitely make or break whole subjects sob. I love biology too, especially zoology, medicine, and also, GENETICS. YES. Genetics is so interesting, I absolutely agree. But also, that’s a huge coincidence – I AM ALSO A TWIN!

Yeah, that totally makes sense, people definitely do often really hate their voices, especially when it’s played back. I think because it always sounds SO different than it does in our heads, and it’s slightly horrifying to hear how warped and twisted it actually is to everyone else ehe. And that sounds so pretty - do tell me if you ever post a recording of your flute playing or anything ; D

Books - Yeah, I don’t really expect people to know many of them tbh, I read some obscure and niche books I think.
About horror stories – that’s totally fair!! For me I actually hate reading romance hahaha. We’ve all got such different tastes in media. Which horror story was it that you read may I ask? Ooh I’ve heard of that series, and I have a friend who likes it, but I’ve never read it – maybe I will one day, but I’ve got suuuch a long to-read list lol. I’ll certainly try.

Oh my goodness don’t apologise at all for that!! <33 it’s totally fine!
That sounds so so hard, I’m so sorry! :{ definitely not fun at all. Have you got them checked out at the doctor’s or anything like that? There might be a specific reason that they’re happening, and maybe something could help you! I have quite a few nosebleeds too but not nearly as many as you by the sounds of it, and I usually know when/why they’re happening – I can’t imagine how frustrating and anxiety inducing it must be to worry about when you’re going to get one like that <//3 I wish I could help more, but always feel free to rant and yap about your troubles c:

Again, that was… long haha. I cannot wait to read your reply and I hope you are having a wonderful day <3

Lots of love from your dearest strange bird creature penpal,

Seagull


(1345 words)

Dear Seagull,

This will be a very short letter - I may have time to write another one tomorrow, but I'm not sure as I will be packing to go on a trip! I am going on a residential to stay at a nearby boarding house?! A slightly weird location, but I'm super excited! We're essentially going to practice for 3 and a half days, and then we have a concert on the last day! We have 16 rehearsals in total, all of them over an hour, so I'm going to be super tired! This may be my last letter to you, so I want to thank you for being an amazing penpal! I have loved getting to know you more. In answer to your question about updates on the cardigan - yes, I have finished it! It is super pretty and I just finished blocking it and am so excited to wear it <3

I loved the format you did for the last letter! It's so whimsy and pretty! Thank you again for being an amazing penpal, and I hope to see you next session! Bye, for now!

Lots of mangoes,
Your crazy Penpal,
Silvi <3333

408 words

Dear my wonderful ‘crazy penpal’ Silvi,

Don’t worry at all! I shall probably end up keeping my reply on the shorter side this time, too, haha. But trust me, I would absolutely love to receive any and every single one of your letters, no matter how long they are!

Anyway… oh my gosh, that sounds so exciting!! Good luck with packing ehe, although most normal people probably do not need that but I am so abysmally bad at packing for trips myself, I definitely do lmao. So hopefully you're better than me.
I’ve got to be honest I did not really know what a boarding house was, but I looked it up and that seems like a fairly interesting place to be staying oooh? It seems like it will be amazing, although that is quite a ton of work… fingers crossed you don’t end up too utterly exhausted afterwards. I hope you have so so much fun, and do feel free to tell me all about it when you come back if you would like to!! Even if just on my profile at an unfortunate and tragic swc-less future time which shall not gain us those delicious points anymore ; D You’re genuinely such a lovely person to talk and i’d be genuinely very interested to hear from you about it.

Ahhh, you’re so sweet. I will have to fire all of that right back at you… you’ve been such an amazing penpal and I have also absolutely loved getting to know you so much more through these lovely letters. I’m so happy that we’ve done this and i got to become a closer friend to a fabulous and epic silvi : D

Yayyyy!!!! Ahh! Massive congratulations on your completed cardigan, that’s got to be the best feeling ever finishing something like that. Now time to style it hehe? B} And I would absolutely love love love to see if you ever decide to post some photos of it or any of your other crochet creations on scratch like that.

Finally, thank you so much! It was so fun to make! Sorry that this letter has gone back to boring again bahaha, I do be rushing a bit. Awwe whimsy is the best compliment I could receive I think. If i aim to be anything, i aim to be WHIMSICAL

Lots and lots and lots of mangoes,
And even more rats
Your most peculiar pen friend,
Seagull <3