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

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[Judar snorts and rolls his eyes.]

No. C'mon, be serious about it if you're gonna play! The only way that could be true would be if I had his name and he had someone else's because you know he'd make a huge deal of it.

[It doesn't even register that, even if it wasn't Hakuryuu's intention, he's been tricked into answering the question. That could easily have been something he could have answered with a "maybe" because mismatches like that do happen and it's not like he hasn't raised a few dungeons for the guy.]

Ugh, come on, why am I even guessing if you don't know if I'm right or not? At least give me a hint.

[Judar, despite his immense destructive power and innate knack for learning complicated magic, doesn't exactly have the sharpest mind in the palace.]

Ok, If I look I won't want to play anymore. [That's a hint, kind of, right? Guess he does remember. He thinks this is good hint if only because Judar may not get it right away. It has nothing to do with present company.]

I guess he might, but I'd think you'd have more to say on the matter.

That is a possible outcome. [Sometimes he thinks he should feel bad, since he's better at this stuff then Judar, but fair's fair and it's not like he won't getting bugged again later. He may as well have some fun with this.]

Edited 2015-02-13 06:54 (UTC)

That's cheating! Of course you're gonna win if there's no way for me to know if I'm right or not! You know I can just freeze you to the floor and look, right? At least I'm trying to play the game the right way.

[Which isn't something he does often. Hakuryuu should be grateful.]

I bet you just don't want me to know.

I gave you a hint. [Let him see if he can think of something that won't give it away. He'd better give him a proper hint before that happens. He has no doubts Judar might lose his temper and that would be unfortunate. Plus he is trying to play fair.] 'It's not one of my cousins?' Better?

If you want to know there's not going to be much I can do about it.

So, your next guess?

[Judar slides down the wall and sits on the floor, like the effort of thinking and standing up at the same time is just too much for him. "Not one of Hakuryuu's cousins" is, like, the worst hint ever. Instead of lowering it down at all, it opens it up to being the rest of the world instead. But worse than that...]

So you do know who it is! Stop messing around!

Isn't that the point of a game? [OK, OK, though. He sighs.] It's still a noble. Or at least someone who living in the Palace and isn't a foreigner. Technically.

[Which is about as far as he can go without giving it away. Sometimes he forgets Judar doesn't like thinking too hard. He's impatient and Hakuryuu should be more careful not to aggravate him. He still has no interest in giving it away and feels that hint may give too much away.]

Edited 2015-02-14 07:39 (UTC)

[Judar groans and grumbles. These games are no fun when he's the one who has to do the guessing. From what Hakuryuu is saying, it's certainly possible that they're a matching set which is something that, honestly, he doesn't really know how to feel about. It's not that he doesn't see potential in Hakuryuu, of course he does, but right now Hakuryuu is nothing but serious and boring. Not to mention the fact that he refuses every last thing Judar offers him.

Of course, refusing him is refusing his own fate in a way, which is something that should make Judar happy. Except it kind of doesn't. He's not too thrilled about the whole "destined soulmate" thing in the first place, but in some deep, dark place he doesn't want to admit to, he thinks that maybe it might not be so bad if it happened to be someone he could choose as his king. Mostly because he doesn't want to admit that he wants to choose a king, either.]

Well, if it's me, you're kinda being a shitty soulmate.

[He figured that gave it away. Now the question is how does he proceed. Does he deny like he originally planned or admit to it? It still sits badly with him, having a member of Al Thamen and one of the witch's henchmen -as far as he knows Judar is still willingly working for them- as a proposed "soul-mate".

He wants to do things his way, without anyone even associated with Al Thamen's help. They could get along otherwise, he thinks, Judar's kind of annoying but not too bad. It's Al Thamen and the witch who are the problems.] Because you really have to guess?

[He feels safe with that answer, at least. He doesn't want to think about what would happen if the witch were to discover the name he's got. Or Kouen, or the Emperor. Hakuryuu would have more standing, be worth more in their eyes but that's not the worth he wants. He'll take that with his own hands.]

Your a magi, do you know why we have "soul mates" to begin with? [A question better asked to someone else maybe.]

Just another way to keep us in line, I guess. I mean, people have all sorts of stories, but that's what it comes down to. It's why I won't show mine off, no matter how much they bitch at me about it. They can believe whatever they want about what it is.

[Not that he's really been that secretive about it, aside from hiding it under his bracelets. If anyone pays enough attention to him, it's kind of obvious.]

It's not like it's gonna do me any good anyway.

[He'd ask what that means, but Judar's probably right, since Hakuryuu has no plans to work with him. At this moment, at least.]

I though maybe there was a way to undo it. Do people bother you so much over it? [No one really pays much mind to his, outside what's considered polite for conversation.

Judar has guessed his. Hakuryuu is uncertain of Judar's. He's not entirely sure he wants to know, not for certain. His guess makes sense. Why else would Judar pester him constantly?] I guess people are just lulled by the idea of never being alone.

Never being alone, doing what they're "supposed to do"...whatever. Everyone's been trying to get a look at mine since it showed up.

[He tugs at the bracelets irritably. Really, he'd take them off and show Hakuryuu if he thought it would do him any good right now. He may still if it looks like it might have any sort of effect at all.]

Not like I care what it says. I'll do whatever I want.

[He shifts the bracelets enough that a trace of the name is visible and he frowns at it.]

I kinda wonder what whoever was the third Magi before me did about this crap. Yunan's obviously not doing shit about his and whoever that old relic in Reim had has to be dead for centuries at this point. Maybe it was her king, but who knows.

What else is there to do? People are really simple, [Maybe he shouldn't talk like this, but he's focusing on his training, it helps him think. Less on what should be said vs what shouldn't.] at the end of the day. Keep them fed, give them a place to stay, and a purpose and their happy.

[A good thing about being Lesser Son maybe, no one really cared what his said as long as he had one to avoid embarrassing the family. At least from most people, he's surprised his sister didn't question him more, happy since it would mean bringing up all kinds of things he'd rather not discuss.

Put him in a lime light he wants but wants through his own power.]

...Maybe Magi don't have to do anything?

Too bad there's no real way to know.

[Judar slides down further so he's lying flat on his back with his arms spread out. This conversation feels like it's sucking the life out of him.]

Uggggggggh. Hakuryuu, you don't have to be this boring, you know. Go conquer a dungeon or somethng! I'll raise a good one for you! There's no need to just do...this [He waves a hand vaguely.] all the time! It's kinda pissing me off.

No, thank you, lord priest.

[He's still determined to do this on his own.]

This isn't so bad. How would you know which dungeon it is anyway?

Edited (extra unneeded word) 2015-02-16 08:05 (UTC)

Huh? Why would I have to know which one? If I'm raising it, it's gonna be better than something those relics can dig up.

[He's firmly convinced that the djinn in the dungeons he's raised are superior to the rest. Scheherazade's losers in Reim barely use theirs for anything and obviously there's no quality control on Yunan's end. He just raises dungeons and waits to see who shows up, it looks like. That would be how the Seven Seas Alliance ended up with theirs, probably. Most of that happened when he was still in diapers, anyway, so you can't expect him to know about it.]

If you go out and find yourself a djinn in a dungeon I didn't raise, don't come crying to me when it's lame.

They have quite a bit of experience to you. [Plus Judar raises lots of them. Maybe quality drops after a while, and that's why Yunan and Reim's Magi didn't raise very many.] Didn't you raise that dungeon in Balbadd?

What would you do if it's not? [He doesn't know about that, but he doesn't have enough proof to argue. A "lame" Djinn can be good in the right hands. Their tools like everything else, aren't they?] There are a lot of dungeon's out there.

Would you still help me if I did have a dungeon you didn't raise?

[To his credit, Judar doesn't actual pout, but he does sound rather peevish about that possibility.]

I would, but you better be able to handle two djinn because I'd get you a better one.

[He won't even admit that he wants to choose a king most of the time, but at the same time, he's very particular about how he wants it to go if it actually happens, apparently.]

[That almost makes him laugh and he's not sure why.]

Like you'd let me be content with just one even if I went with you today!

[It's almost endearing, the stuff Judar is willing to consider for him that he's not sure he would for other people. He's not really sure what to make of it, really. It's almost like he wants to be friends. Which is weird in it's own way.]

Nope! You need at least three!

[He doubts Hakuryuu can handle more than that, but you never know. Seven is probably out of reach, but maybe he could shoot for four and outdo Kouen. That would definitely be worth it just to see the look on Kouen's face. Maybe he'd actually manage a new facial expression for once.]

[Judar officially has more faith in him then he does. He'd be amazed if he finds more then one dungeon. Since finding those means leaving Kou. His uncle is being a bit....stubborn on that.]

It'd be...interesting to see how that goes over.

[not just Kouen but the rest of the Kou siblings, the emperor, Al-thaman and his mother....It's an idea with some merit...if he could actually do it.]

Kouen would shit himself. Come on, you have to do it!

[Judar drags himself up from the floor, finally energized enough to make it back into a seated position. This is about as receptive as Hakuryuu has ever been to the suggestion. It's not like he's actually agreeing to anything, but at least he's not rejecting it completely and swearing he'll never agree to it. As irritating as it is, that's progress.]

Just one to start! No one would argue with that.

I don't know about that. [How did Judar grow up in the palace and no one got after his language? or was it no one cared? The second one makes more sense to him then the first.] Kouen is very stoic. It's hard to know what he's thinking.

I intend to get one. [It's just not in his preferred plans to get it from Judar.

Still is is an amusing idea turning their own power against them.]

[Hakuryuu is in a difficult mood to day. Actually, Hakuryuu is in a difficult mood all the time. It's annoying and Judar flops back down on the ground because of it.]

So go to a dungeon with me already!

[His patience, such as it is, is running thin.]

How would we get out of Kou if I were to consider it?

[It would be easier with free reign. He's really mostly humoring the Magi, he's got his eye set on doing this on his own...at least at first.

Judar's always impatient, so this really isn't out of the norm for him.]

Since you don't really pay attention to family matters, The emperor has once again declined any of the family requests to leave the country.

Which is probably by Kougyuko is...somewhere.

[Judar shrugs as best as one can when one is flat on one's back.]

He denied family requests, but it's not like I'm family. They usually let me do what I want to do if it suits their purposes.

[There's no small amount of resentment behind that, but he manages to keep his tone mostly nonchalant.]

I'd told Kougyoku I'd toss her over the wall if she wanted, but she threw something at me.

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