[@Robo27]

I think that for the sake of convenience we can say that from here on out each character exists in a sort of 'space-time limbo' where they are able to assume that all events occuring in IC are occuring simultaneously despite what would otherwise be obvious time-skips. For example, your character could respond to my letter immediately despite the fact that it should take some time to reach you while also continuing to respond to events that should have happened in the past.

Again, this is also sort of for convenience since if we actually kept track of time on this things would already be way, way out of order.