& those bright blue eyes can only meet mine across a room filled with people less important than you

[sockpuppeting]

Originally posted by cornichaun; reposted by request!

The Soulmate Fuckup Meme
There's a name on your wrist. Maybe you were born with it; maybe it arrived around the time you reached adolescence. It's spelled out, in clear script - the script you learned to read first, your native language. It's the name of your soulmate.

What would a world like this be like?

Fucked-up, that's what.

(Based on this tumblr post.)

PROMPTS:
Choose just one, choose a couple, mix and match. Do what you want.

RELATIONSHIP
1: ORIENTATION CONFUSION. The name on your arm is the wrong gender. Maybe you thought you were straight, but the name is the same gender as yours. Maybe you knew you were gay, but the name is opposite-sex. Maybe you just didn't want anyone to know, and you hide your arm, pretend to be something you aren't. But there it is - the evidence glares at you every time you brush aside your sleeve. The name has to be right. Doesn't it?
2: JUST PLAYING AROUND. You're not soulmates with the person you're with. You're just playing around. Or maybe you're really in love - and no one will believe you. How do you face the complete inability of society to accept you? How do you face the inevitable, fated end of your relationship? How can anything be important, when you know it won't last?
3: ONESOMES, THREESOMES AND MORESOMES. You're soulmates with person A who's soulmates with person B who's soulmates with you. What now? - Or maybe you're meant to be in a polyamorous relationship. Or you're asexual, and the thought of that name fills you with dread.
4: ALONE. Your soulmate died. Your soulmate never showed up. Your soulmate never existed. Or your soulmate refused you.
5: FIRST TIME. You've never dated anyone else before. What would have been the point? And now you're moving in, you're getting married - why wait? You're soulmates, aren't you? What could go wrong?
6: TOGETHER. Yep. Here we are. Here you are, and here I am, and here are our names on each other's arms.
7: OTHER.

STAGE
1: INVESTIGATION. So there's this name, and you've plugged it into Google, and the only match you can find is some asshole's Facebook account. He looks like a real jerk. Or maybe you got nothing, and you hired a private investigation firm that specializes in this kind of thing. Now you have an email address, or phone number, or a home address, and what's next is to pick up the phone, write that letter, knock on that door.
2: REVEAL. A superstar's name is on the wrist of a teenager. The President's name is on the wrist of her opponent. Your name is on the wrist of someone in jail. Turns out that name on your best friend's wrist was yours - only you never knew, not until you found out who your parents were. You've just discovered your soulmate, or just revealed yourself to them. What next?
3: GETTING TOGETHER. You're in the early stages. Dating, maybe. Getting to know each other. Moving in, under the watchful eyes of other friends, happy and soulmated and eager to have their view of the world confirmed in you. But do you even really know this person? What makes you so suited, anyway?
4: TOGETHER FOREVER. Maybe you've been together thirty years, and you still have that same fucking argument about who washes the pans after you cook a steak. Maybe you sit in silence because there's nothing to say, and it's incredibly boring. Maybe you work in harmony, but you wonder: is it because you were supposed to be together all along, or just because you never had another choice?
5: TECHNICALITIES. Society won't let you get married. So what if you just change your name to the name on her wrist, and she changes her name to the name on yours… Or maybe you can't get insurance, because you're not married with a soulmate. Don't have the right to vote. Can't get promoted in your job.
6: A BROKEN SYSTEM. Soulmates might be perfect, but people aren't perfect. The world isn't perfect. And this world has screwed you over, time and time again. But - maybe you still found a way to be happy.
7: OTHER.

Comments

usagi tsukino ( sailor moon ) ota

[tiare]

( the more tragic, the better. also open to reincarnated soul mate screw ups, because who we were in pasts lives shouldn't define who we are now. )

mako mori ( pacific rim ) ota

[dekiru]

4 / 7

[herpetology]

[ Newt could remember -- what was it? Whatever, years ago. The first time that he and Hermann met in person. They'd had a kind of weird online relationship... thing for ages before that. Then they meet and it's like destiny or something ridiculous like that. Their names match each other's. They're soulmates.

And neither one of them liked it.

Newt hated the idea of being told what to do, by fate or whatever. Besides, how often had this sort of thing actually worked out? They hated each other!

Then they worked together more. And more. More and more time together and Newt couldn't see himself with anyone else. He was actually totally in love with the guy. Which would normally be great! They were soulmates! It worked! All the way until it didn't. Hermann was married with someone he apparently knew for a whole lot longer than he ever did Newt, which was saying something.

So here he is, with Mako, busting out the good alcohol to celebrate something or another. It's not a celebration anymore. It's hard to get Newt down but this? This could do it. He ignores it most of the time by throwing himself into work and attending way too many concerts and drinking way too much - like he's back in university again. He needs the distraction and Mako is a pretty great one.

He holds out his cup to be filled with more sake. He's been quite for about ten minutes straight without Kaiju guts keeping him occupied. ]

arthur | inception | ota

[diecast]

[ perfectly fine with assumed cr/aus/whatever. will match to prose or brackets. ]

connor walsh | htgawm

[iustitiae]

Stiles Stilinski | Teen Wolf

[ingoodcompany]

[ OTA, can start.

He usually keeps his name covered up via wristwatch. ]

[mygame]

[If you're willing and I'm not eating too much of your time?]

saotome yoichi / owari no seraph / ota

[kindhearts]

beca mitchell ( pitch perfect ) ota

[mixup]

idk bro I couldn't pick a prompt but I couldn't not tag you, fight me.

[acafella]

[ Do you ever stop to think about how many Beca Mitchells there are in the world? Jesse has, Jesse knows because he's googled them all. He's facebooked and researched and instagrammed, practically every single social media sight he's ever signed up for he followed promptly with a search for the name written on his arm.

Fun story, there are so many. There is literally an infinite amount, and he's had so many weird first dates with Becas who turned out to actually be Becky or Rebecca or Abecas on one weird occasion.

And yet somehow, some weird way, when he's wandering through the halls and a voice over the intercom politely informs the campus that Beca Mitchell's party is waiting for her in the AG Lobby, he just knows. He literally leaves a class in the middle of a lecture, stumbling over desks and out the door, running like an idiot down three sets of stairs and praying he manages to spot her in a crowd.

Which is why there's this weird gasping guy half hunched over in the lobby, wheezing and looking around sharply for seemingly no discernable reason by the time she arrives.]

pavel chekov | star trek | ota

[astrogational]

aoi asahina | dangan ronpa | ota

[lifesavers]

i d k

[hacklimate]

[ Chihiro remembers when he first really noticed the name on his wrist, when he was young. Asahina Aoi. He wondered who she could be, where she was, what sort of things she liked. Computers? Sports? Dolls? He also remembers when some boys who were teasing him saw the name, the girl's name on his wrist.

"What girl would want a boy who's weaker than she is?"

Because that's what he was, weak. Small. Frail. Not like other boys, who were big and strong. Eventually, this leads him to hiding behind girl's clothes, wearing skirts and dresses. All to avoid that word. Weak.

He tries not to give much though to the name on his wrist, to the girl it represents. No, she surely wouldn't want such a weak man-- especially not one who hides his own gender to avoid a word. He's certain that with all the people in the world, some 7 billion, the chances of meeting her by accident are statistically impossible. Many people do meet their soulmates, or the people who have them as soulmates (they don't always sync, oddly enough), yes, but those people seek each other out.

The chances are nigh impossible. But then he begins schooling at Hope's Peak, and meets his classmates. There's the Super High School Level Swimmer. Asahina Aoi.

It's a terrifying possibility he hadn't considered-- the idea of meeting the girl who's name he has. It wasn't something he planned for. After first meeting her, he avoids her like the plague. He doesn't know what name is on her wrist (surely not his, for her sake), and he keeps his own covered by his sleeves or a band, much like many other people. He has zero plans of approaching her, and if possible intends to limit his contact with her. No doubt she won't even notice that one of her classmates seems to be avoiding her, considering how forgettable he is.

It's the better option. ]

Steve Rogers | MCU | ota

[ethics]

Rock Lee | Naruto | m/f

[niceguypose]

Re: Rock Lee | Naruto | m/f

[nolongeronthesidelines]

Is it terrible to think of a #3 situation where Sakura is Lee's, Sasuke is Sakura's, and no one even knows what Sasuke's is, because he is flat out ignoring it and running off on VengeanceQuest

Dick Gumshoe | Ace Attorney | m/f

[paybent]

some weird military cop au but alchemy still exists ok idk tell me if you want anything different

[crosshaired]

[ The name on Riza Hawkeye's wrist is Roy Mustang. That has always been the name on her wrist, since she was a little girl. She'd been born with the script bold and clear and easy to read, and when she had learned to read, the name of her soulmate had been one of the first things she'd read. She'd never gone looking for him, even so. Her father had never had time to deal with that sort of thing, too lost in research, and Riza had been busy taking care of her father. Had figured that if there were such a thing as fate, it would happen on its own.

It had. Roy Mustang had shown up and become her father's student, his only student. He'd learned flame alchemy and Riza's name had been scrawled on his wrist. He'd once said His name was Hawkeye, so I thought perhaps - perhaps it had been fate, or something. Roy was like an extension of herself. He and Riza were different in many ways, similar in others, but they were a team above all else, especially after she followed him into the military. Into the dark, always. She had his back, to defend, to cut down - whatever he needed.

Except for the one time she didn't manage to get there in time, when she wasn't standing steady at his back, and then he was just gone. There wasn't anything left of Roy Mustang but a scar on Riza's back and his name on her wrist. There wasn't even a proper body, because that had burned away.

Years ago. Years ago, now, and Riza's not military but she is a cop. She does her work quietly and efficiently and doesn't think about things like fate and soulmates any longer. She wears a watch on her right wrist and only looks at the name beneath it at night, when she's alone.

Dick Gumshoe's name isn't on her wrist, but it is familiar. She can't think why, when she sees he's coming into the department she's in, checks over the transfer papers and mentally shrugs. It isn't until later that she remembers.

Letters. Letters she'd never opened, letters she'd never cared to read, because she'd been so lost in grief when Roy died and after that she'd just never found herself again. She'd lost herself in work. She'd lost herself in losing herself. She'd once told him that if he died she didn't have a reason to exist any longer, and sometimes that still felt true.

Other times she'd hear what he'd say to her, hear him yelling at her, and it kept her moving forward mechanically.

She'd thrown out every letter from Dick Gumshoe without reading them, and now Riza wonders if she should have, because the first time they meet is on the crime scene of a murder and the transfer detective is looking at her like she's changed his entire world just by giving him her name as she crouches down by the body - an old man, late seventies, no name on his wrist. That still happened sometimes. ]

Detective? [ It's a prompt, even as Riza's lips twist downwards. If she'd ever read any of those letters, she'd know why they were sent. The system messes up sometimes. Sometimes people's soulmates die, like Riza's. Sometimes it happens before they ever meet. Sometimes, like the victim, people just never get a name.

Sometimes they get a name and the person they got doesn't have a matching name on their wrist. Riza's wrist says Roy Mustang, but Dick Gumshoe's says Riza Hawkeye. It happens. ]

Rin Tohsaka | Fate universe | OTA

[servantfail]

More interested in the things that deal with being uncertain, impossible match ups, or unlikely ones, or that kind of thing. Not interested in scenarios where soulmates don't pan out, fake soul mates or 'why did I get one so early'. Dead, how do I move on ones or 'all my life and where are they??' and the idea of soulmates ruining all relationships that aren't between soulmates and stuff are fine.

As is a situation where soulmates are compelled to fit, so an awful match up means that these two people will be forced to fall in love anyway.

Sakura Haruno | Naruto | OTA

[nolongeronthesidelines]

I have an old messed up soulmates AU for Sakura where her soulmate mark is just a smudge, but whenever she gains feelings for a person, that mark becomes their name. Whether or not their name is hers. (And it hasn't been so far). So basically, a broken soulmates mark that just exists to show off her feelings and make it seem like she's faking.

Is freedom of choice in a world without it a blessing? A curse? Are her friends jealous or disdainful? Does she have friends like her with defective marks that fix themselves? Does she grow up forever alone? If someone has her name can they win her over??? Will hers ever settle on one of its own accord?

Angst.

4 - 6 I hope this works for you!

[convenientgod]

Eiji's a traveler through and through, living on what little money he managed to raise as he stopped by a town. He doesn't stick around for too long as he usually left in a few days, week, or if one were to be lucky he stuck around for at least a month. That however didn't mean he didn't come back to visit for a while again and check up on the friends he made during his stay.

With how thoughtful and friendly Eiji could be he naturally made quite a bit of acquaintances but there were really just a few that could be considered a friend. Sakura just so happened to be one of those friends, to Eiji. So when he returned to the Village of the Hidden Leaf in his unusual get up, he headed straight to go find his friend.

Once spotting Sakura, he's raising a hand up and waving to get her attention.

"Sakura!"

james t. kirk » star trek aos

[incautious]

4 + 2

[starwhore]

Peter didn't know a whole lot about Earth and their whole shebang with space travel. He'd grown up way outside of that and the planet itself after Yondu and the gang had grabbed him off Earth years ago. Going back after he'd been old enough to even make the effort just felt... weird. He didn't feel like he belonged there anymore, which was fine by him, he had enough to deal with else where in the galaxy he was in.

Which of course fate just had to intervene in. They'd gotten a pretty big job through a few grape veins that Peter wasn't exactly thrilled about, but he'd been nominated to do it since he was terran. Human. Whatever. Get some intel, schematics for some kind of warping device, off this terran class space ship. Right okay, seemed easy enough. Well, he had his pickings, apparently they all carried this sort of warping capability, he just had to find one and get on board, snoop around and find what he needed, make a grand escape and get the hell outta dodge.

So that brings him to the present, making it seem like his ship, the Milano, is having some malfunctions and he needs help. He sends out a basic SOS distress call, hoping to catch the attention of a terran ship, he's in their galaxy after all. Fingers crossed nothing else responds first. That would be his luck. Peter spends his time waiting for an answer to his apparent distress by listening to music and sitting at the table where his comm screen was, tapping his foot impatiently. Grumbling about how Yondu owed him for this.

All the while his fingers brush over the name on the inside of his left wrist. A name that he knows so well he can spell it both forwards and backwards. Without making a mistake. James Tiberius Kirk. What kind of middle name is Tiberius. Stupid, that's what. Or that's what he tells himself anytime he lets himself get caught up thinking about this person that he's yet to ever meet or find. He's search to the best of his abilities where he'd grown up the majority of his life, but the name was very terran. Very Earth. Something he wasn't thrilled about. The idea of going to Earth to search for this guy wasn't ever at the top of his list, but still, there was that pull, the desire to meet him some day. Which he would then brush off and try to ignore soon after.

Soulmates. What a dumb idea. He'd been with plenty of people, didn't matter who they were, he just liked having the attention and closeness of another being. Love and all the mushy stuff just got in the way. Better off without the whole soulmate thing. Right.

Katsuie Shibata | Sengoku Basara | OTA

[nomorekings]

[Regardless of what the name on his wrist is, there's only one person who he's ever loved and she doesn't even know who he is. Open to playing out whatever mess this might end up causing.]

Judar | Magi | OTA

[fallensun]

[He's on the record as hating that whole "fate and destiny" business, so good luck, soulmate...]

7-2/6

[feathersdyedred]

[ooc: Ok, so not as 'screwed up' as some scenarios, but I wouldn't call their canon relationship healthy by any stretch. Plus, them "working" together by force rather then choice? It might actually stall then destroy the world plot.]

[Honestly he's never thought twice about the soul mate thing. He's assumed he doesn't have one and/or it doesn't matter because he has bigger better things to do.(and thinking about it only gives him nightmares it would be a member of Al Thamen or he's going to be bogged down by an idiot girl and will never accomplish his goals.) He's also never seen the appeal, since physical contact is something he doesn't care for but tolerates.

So yeah, it's something he diligently ignores.]

If your looking for Kougyuko she's not here, Lord Priest.

[He's aware the Magi has shown up, it's not abnormal to have his training interrupted. Judar either doesn't know what patience is or refuses to implement it. He doesn't think it will work, but he can try, right?]

Chris Argent § Teen Wolf § OTA

[carrying_a_lightsaber]

[mygame]

[Evil laughter just doesn't cut it]

Artemis | Greek mythology

[aeginaea]

levy mcgarden | fairy tail

[scriptive]

Midorima Shintarou | KnB

[veteran_king]

Sai | Naruto

[painted_seals]

roxy lalonde | homestuck

[muties]

[ramified]

[ On Alternia, you're born with five names on your wrist. Two in gray, one in black, one in pink, one in red. Lined up neatly in some cases, criss-crossing in others, but always there. Mostly. Aradia knows that Karkat doesn't have a single name on his wrist - he's different in so many ways - although he never says it, exactly. The voices whisper in the night, though, and Sollux lets it slip, once. Sollux with Aradia's name on his wrist in pink, and their moirailship has always felt like serendipity.

Even though she doesn't have his name on her wrist. Aradia, like Karkat, is different. She doesn't have a bare wrist, though. Instead there's just one name, in red pink black gray, every letter a different shade of the four quadrants.

On Aradia's wrist is a name of a person who doesn't exist. Roxy Lalonde. Sollux is the only one who knows the name, and he's searched every database for her, but there's nothing. There's no such person as Roxy Lalonde, and neither of them has ever heard of a name written like that, four quadrants in one single person. For the most part, they don't think about it or talk about it; Aradia has never really cared too much about romance. She cares about Sollux, and she's pale as the grave for him, and her name on his wrist is enough for the both of them.

One of the rare times they meet up, he idly inks his name onto her wrist beneath Roxy Lalonde. Sollux Captor, lined up neatly below it. He doesn't use a pink marker, though, but uses red blue red blue red blue for the entire pattern. Aradia's used to duality at that point - has always accepted his twofold nature - and just laughs. Lets it fade away instead of washing it off. Sweeps later she will still remember how it looked, and sometimes she'll trace the letters that aren't there in anything other than how she feels. She has no proof of it to give Sollux (her name, his wrist) other than being there for him as best she can.

Until she dies. Until they start the game, and Aradia finds it hard to care about anything. She can barely even care about Rose Lalonde, though Sollux tries for the first time in a long time to talk to her, after he learns the human's name. He barely cares about them until that moment, he badgers Rose about Roxy (gets nowhere, blows her computer up in frustration) and tries to make Aradia feel anything at all. She's too far gone to register it, though. Until she dies again and suddenly she's able to sympathize, able to remember - she remembers a little, beforehand, hugs Sollux and apologizes and knows they'll meet again.

The entire time she'd been made of metal, Equius' name had been at her wrist, carved by the troll who made her robotic shell. When Aradia burns into being alive again, green flames flickering, she doesn't have time to check; when she jumps through Jack to where she waits for the humans to come, she glances at her wrist.

It's there again, the same as it always was. Roxy Lalonde.

Humans, Aradia knows, figure out quadrantmates differently. They don't even have quadrantmates. So she never worries about it - not really - because she's simply happy to be alive, and the details don't really matter. Still, when she sees the sleepwalker in the dream bubbles (Roxy Lalonde, and Rose pointed her out without being asked, when her mother drifted through) Aradia follows along. Gently keeps the human girl out of trouble. Reaches out for a pale wrist and holds it in her two gray hands, examining the blank expanse of skin.

When she looks up, Roxy's pink eyes are open. Aradia smiles. ]

Hello, Roxy.

maya fey | ace attorney

[mediumburgers]

what is my life what are my choices, these are your choices

[bewrightback]

a. The original trilogy happened, then the soulmate marks appeared. Awkwardness ensues. (although this one technically doesn't fit this version of the meme)

b. They are bona fide mutual soulmates. Except one of them has died shortly after they starting getting to know each other (if Maya's the one who's gone, maybe it was in the bad end version of the De Killer case?), so now they only occasionally meet through another Spirit Channeller (most likely Pearls). Or they're reuniting for the first time via a spirit channeling.

c. Maya's soulmate is Phoenix, Phoenix's is Dahlia, who received the death sentence long before he met Maya. Phoenix has been cold and distant about the soulmate system ever since, but he has otherwise been kind and caring to Maya, without knowing her soulmate truth.

d. This one I'm unsure of but listing to have one more horrible scenario. Maya's soulmate is Phoenix, and Phoenix tries to pretend that Maya is his soulmate too, but it is in fact actually Mia. I'm not sure if he would be hiding this because of genuinely wanting to be with Maya or just to appease Maya while getting opportunities to see Mia again via the spirit channeling.