bakerstreet | Made Together

Made Together

a dark shipping meme

tl;dr version — a meme that explores a shipping concept from a darker perspective. Characters, brainwashed by losing their memories and other scientific deviancies, are bonded with their "lifemate," who they're said to be created for. They must live together and grow co-dependently close, all while the machinations behind the scene are twirling like cogs in order to move them closer to the darkness.

Anyone can be manipulated. You just need to work at them through the right person.

You wake up, groggy and confused, in a white room that is expansive and furnished with all white furniture, yet pristine. The white is probably so bright that it hurts your eyes and you may have to blink for a moment. It doesn't help that your body is swathed in white, too; you're wearing what appears to be a modern day white cotton scrub top and and bottom. In fact, the only spot of black on you is on the palm of your hand: right in the center, there's a barcode. Under that, in neat, angular print, is a name. Your name.

It's a good thing it's there because otherwise, you wouldn't know it. Your memories are gone. You don't know how you got here, why you're here, or much of anything else. Soon, however, you'll know that you're not alone. The other person is not you're captor, that much is for sure. They're clothed like you are and look just as confused. They even have the exact same barcode as you, down to the last number. The only thing that differs is the name under it.

But the room is furnished for one alone. One bed, one couch, one bathroom. You two don't know much, yet you know you are two. The secret is soon made clear by a voice over a hidden loudspeaker. The voice claims to be a scientist and announces the purpose of you being here. This is the first day of your existence, they say, and you two were created together and for each other. Lifemates, the term is. You both are the perfect scientific experiment, and let man not tear asunder what science hath created.

And that's it.

Accept this or not, there seems to be little recourse. The room has no visible entrance or exit. The walls don't budge if you hit them. Nothing works. The only time anything changes is when food is brought in, but neither of you have ever seen that occasion. No matter how long you stay up, you always fall asleep when food or other necessities come in. Could that have something to do with the soft, soothing voices and pleasant feelings that sometimes come when you least except them?

You and your "lifemate" may be mutually scared, get along swimmingly from the start. It doesn't matter. Eventually, you'll become closer and closer. Lines will get crossed. Boundaries will get obliterated. Maybe it's because they're the only lifeline you have. Or maybe, maybe what the "scientist" said is right. You're created for each other, and this is your natural state. Whatever the case may be, as time goes on, you want to stay with them, even if you still want to leave this place. After all, how could you leave the side of the person you've spent your whole life with.

Yet there's something in your mind that tells you there's wrong here. Sometimes, at night, you'll get images of another life, and later, during the day, you'll feel hints of an existence you've never known. Luckily, you have your lifemate to get you through this.

HOW TO PLAY

Basically, your character has no memories and are power-nerfed...for some options.
Reply with your character and preferences. Also be sure to mention whether or not you'll play smut, since some options are smut-tinged.
Reply to others!

PROMPTS

First Meeting — You've just woken up and are getting the news.
Learning about Each Other — Though you don't have memories, you still have personalities to navigate.
Distaste — You don't like each other. How are you created for each other at all?
Guard — While one sleeps, the other looks on. Why does their sleeping form bring up so much fondness?
Unwittingly — You didn't want to give in, yet you find yourself being pulled in by your companion and growing protective of them.
Closeness — Soft words grow into soft touches, embraces, tiny kisses, and a gentle (relatively) haven.
Initiating — The first time you're going to be intimate, or the five millionth time, it will be on your own terms.
Need You Now — You've grown reliant on your "lifemate" to keep you calm or even take care of you, whether you want to admit it or not. You may even need them beside you to sleep or
Physicality — Your relationship has a full-on carnal aspect. What else is there to do?
Twisted by Science — Your emotions have been tampered with to make you love your lifemate more because you weren't responding.
Pure Love — Despite the situation, what you feel for your companion is real. You truly love them, even if you haven't told them.
Connection — In some cases, lifemates have been known to have a mental connection, where they can share some thoughts and all pain.
Aphrodisiac — The sexual bonding between the two of you isn't progressing in a way it should, so one or both of you is injected with a potent aphrodisiac. That should do the trick.
Implanted Memories — You remember happy times with your lifemate. Surely those memories are real.
Flashbacks — You remember another life, and it doesn't match up with what you know.
Nightmares — Waking up in the middle of the night, sweating in fear is never a wonderful experience. Luckily, you have someone close by to cheer you up...if you want to worry them with your dreams.
No One but You — You've decided to ignore the scientists and make the best of what you have, carving out a little life together.
Scientist — You're not actually a lifemate, you're a scientist! However, you've developed pesky feelings for one of your subjects.
Breeding Stock — You're not humans, you're animals, and the scientists want you to breed as such.
Protect — You'll fight off anyone to protect your lifemate, scientists included.
Power Surge — What are these powers that have suddenly appeared? You've never had these! Your lifemate should stay back, lest you hurt them.
Training Together — New equipment has been put into your living quarters and you've been told to learn to work together perfectly. Whether you're both fighters or one is a fighter and the other their handler or healer, you must fit as well in battle as you do in life.
The Veil Falls — The curtain is raised, and you see that you're not an experiment. You had a life that's been stolen from you. Your mate had one, too. What will you do with this new knowledge?
Wish to Forget — Instead of being angry or glad about your past existence, you're horrified by what it was like and only want to live in the now with your lifemate.
To Garner a Response — The scientists want to see how you'd respond if your lifemate was hurt.
A Task Given — In order to guarantee the safety of your lifemate, you have to do a certain task. Maybe hurting someone else isn't a big deal as long as you get what's yours back.
A Taste of Freedom — You and your lifemate are allowed out, but you have a job to do.
Separated — You've been disobedient and as such, you two will be punished by separation.
Escape — There's a tiny window of opportunity to get out. Take it. But no one gets left behind, even if you would have before.
Separate Ways — Now that you're out, there's no reason to stay together, right? You're not really lifemates, right?
Can't Be Without You — ...only not, because now you're dependent on each other, and you can't live a life alone or with another.
Hard Time Adjusting — It's different living in the free world when you're used to being in a completely controlled habitat.
Living a Peaceful Life — You've managed to get past all the challenges and are now living a normal life together. But did the scientists ultimately win? After all, you are still "lifemates"...and there's still the trauma to deal with...
ANYTHING ELSE or WILDCARD OPTION!!!

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( Surely, they've been together for an eternity, right? )

There's a young man wrapped up in blankets in the bedroom, tossing and turning inside his self made cocoon. He blinks, halfway between sleep and wakefulness, when he notices something black and blurry on his hand.

"Mn..?"

He untangles himself enough to pull his arm out, only to bump against something - or rather, someone. Well, if he was half asleep before, that shock was enough to wake him up completely. He freezes, before he slowly, slowly rolls over to face his bedmate.

[Voice testing.]

[OOC: Okay so should we start from the beginning with the two of them or maybe somewhere in the middle?]

[Early-ish, but a little past intro phase? It would be interesting to have them start out not quite comfortable/trusting one another yet, if you're game for that. I'll start if you want me to, just let me know.

(Also, skinny Steve is an option if you prefer that route, but I was going with Big Steve as default).]

It's probably their creators' fault for introducing them in such a sterile setting. Steve remembers looking around the white room, pristine and perfect, like it had never been touched at all, and the thick, pale grey curtain hanging down the center of the space. Looking down at himself, he was dressed in the same crisp, starched white. Matching.

The voices came over the intercom, then, explaining the situation without giving any sign of showing themselves. Lifemates. Sure. He didn't contradict them, but Steve felt uncertainty from that moment, and when the curtain was drawn back, it only increased. The other side of the room was just as white, but the had dressed the other man, the lifemate, in black cotton scrubs, an exact contrast to Steve's.

It was eerie, especially with the gleaming silver arm. For that first moment, he felt like the room was ghostly around them, and the lifemate was the only real, living thing there. It wasn't the best foot forward. Steve was reluctant to come close, skeptical of the voices and torn where Bucky, his lifemate, was concerned.

No touching, he insists to start with. Stay on your side of the room. And he talks politely, addresses him with kindness and respect, makes sure the food supplies they're given are enough for him, but he's wary as a wild deer brought indoors, sleeping on the one chair rather than in the bed for two.

Until the third night, when he suddenly looks at him from the opposite end of the couch and says slowly, "I feel like if I touch you, everything else will disappear. That's irrational."

Irrational, but understandable, perhaps. There's some kind of subliminal draw between them. It's possible once the bond forms, nothing else will matter.

Bucky had been wary himself. Not as wary as his lifemate had been, but wary enough. He'd had no problem staying to his side, keeping away and just talking, but there was a strange pull he felt, a need to get closer. He fought it down though, just bunching his hands up whenever he felt that urge to reach out or to move closer.

It was especially strong at night, when sometimes he would wake up and see Steve sleeping on the chair. He wanted to comfort him. To move him somewhere because he looked so...uncomfortable there, but he always stopped himself at the last moment, going back to lay down and curling up.

The third night, Bucky was curled up on the end of the couch away from Steve again. He had drawn one knee up to his chest and was staring straight ahead when the other's words drew him from his thoughts. He lifted his head to look at him.

"Everything else? What everything else?"

If either of them were so inclined, they might wonder about this experimental design. Why create two adult beings from scratch rather than raise them from childhood? Why instill them with enough instinct to be wary of their captors--because it's clear enough they both are--and why push them together so hard from the start of the experiment, rather than giving them time?

Surely, Steve thinks, that's more likely to induce Stockholm Syndrome than love. And then he wonders where the hell he heard the term 'Stockholm Syndrome'.

It's worrisome, the way Bucky seems to tune out when he's not being spoken to, either by Steve or their scientists. He thinks it must be indicative of the other man's unease, and sometimes in the past couple days he's made efforts to fill the silence, with small talk or humming followed by speculation on how he knows the tune he just came up with.

Tonight, though, he's unsettled on his own behalf, because he knows instinctively touch will break a barrier that can't be erected again, and he also knows that it's going to happen, sooner or later.

"The room," he answers. "The furniture. The voices. Myself. Everything. This set-up...I don't know what they think they're doing, but I know it's not what they're telling us they're doing."

He glances up to where the voices come from most often, scowling as if daring them to interrupt. They don't, and slowly his expression falls back into tired uncertainty. "I don't want to give into them. But I want...you." He looks at Bucky and holds out his barcoded hand. "Don't know if that's because they made me that way or not."

He's watched Steve ever since he broke the silence, wondering what he would say next before tilting his head and then contemplating what he did say. He looked at the bar code on the other man's hand before looking down at the one on his own flesh hand, biting his lip before tracing the markings with a metal finger.

"I don't know either. I feel...weird. When I think about you. Like..." He stopped for a long moment, glancing up at where the voices came from as well, his own voice lowering even though he knew instinctively they could still hear him somehow. "Like we are more than this. I can't remember more than this room. Than waking up here and finding you and the voices telling me that we were made for this, but I just...know that we are more than this. And I want you too."

"More than this..." he repeats and waves his un-tattooed hand listlessly at the room around him. "I'm not even sure what 'this' is. It doesn't make sense to me. I know they keep saying it's not supposed to."

Which is more than a little insulting, if you ask him. Rats, they were told, don't need to understand why the maze exists. Only to run through it to the best of their abilities. But this isn't even a maze. It's more like being stuck indoors on a rainy weekend.

He nods at Bucky, though, and dares to move a little closer, seeking contact for the first time. "I figured the best way to stick it to them was to keep my distance from you. But that's not gonna work. We have to figure something else out. Together."

On that note, he clasps his hand, gently enough that the other man could pull away, but firmly enough to leave no doubt he wants the touch.

He almost shifted back away from Steve when he came closer, his eyes widening. He just stared instead as the man grasped his hand, not moving to pull away or do anything else. "Like what? I don't...what do you possibly think we could do?" He asked quietly, tilting his head a bit.

He dropped his eyes to their hands, slowly moving his fingers until they were laced with Steve's.

"I'm not sure yet, but there's bound to be something." In point of fact, he doesn't have any concrete plans for escape or rebellion. They never actually see their captors. He has to assume they come in from somewhere when they bring food, but he hasn't been able to stay awake to see it. Presumably Bucky hasn't, either. Still, even if there's some kind of bizarre direct transport system to get food inside to them, they have water running from pipes in the wall, so the cage they're in, the set of white rooms, is unquestionably permeable.

If water can get in, if food can get in, there must be a way for him and Bucky to get out. It's just a matter of figuring out how.

In the meantime, the touch of warm skin on his is a welcome and thorough distraction. "I...ohh." He blinks at their hands, intertwined, and it's a relief that the room is still there, that he can still tell where he stops and Bucky begins.

"You're warm," he observes nonsensically. Maybe reality hasn't dissolved around him, but at the moment he's distinctly and suddenly uninterested in it, instead raising the hand to his lips and kissing the backs of the other man's fingers.

He couldn't help but stare at where they were connected, squeezing his hand slightly before watching as Steve lifted his hand and started pressing his lips to his skin. His eyes widened a bit and he inhaled sharply, swallowing. He shivered slightly, licking his lips as he just continued to watch him.

"You are too." He said quietly, thumb brushing against Steve's hand. "I..." He bit his lip, scooting out a bit and getting closer to the man. He breathed out, reaching out with his metal hand and touching his face.

prompto argentum | final fantasy xv

setsuna meioh. sailor moon. f/m

1, with a side of 14

Rey || Star Wars: The Force Awakens || F/M

Yoon Tae Min | At The End Of The Road | OTA

vanille ( ffxiii )

Steve Rogers//MCU//OTA

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((Here's this! Can edit if you want.))

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((See how this works for you.))

It's perfect! Whoo! Also shall we consider bringing in 12 at some point later on?

Sure!

Sorry for the delay, was traveling.

never a problem!