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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bakerstreet2017-03-25 02:28 pm
Subtle and interesting! Neat, thanks.
She abandons the wall and gets on the floor to look under the bed, then gets back up with a dissatisfied grunt. "Not even dust under there. There's a point in favor of their being godlike creators, I suppose. Who ever heard of a bed without dust underneath?"
The oddness of her sentences strikes her, of course. How does she know about colors, or dust, or beds? How does either of them know anything? More ticks for the we were taken from somewhere side of her mental checklist, as opposed to the we were created here side.
no subject
He walks across the floor to peer into the bathroom, and finds it not all that strange, but certainly just as white and unused-looking and faintly creepy as the rest of the place.
Hearing her grumble about dust, he gives a little laugh and rejoins her. "If I were a godlike being, I wouldn't use my powers to get rid of dust bunnies. They have to have something better to do with their time."
Dust bunnies. Dust bunnies? What a weird turn of phrase that is. Where'd he get that from? He gives her a faintly perplexed look, as if to ask if he just said what he thinks he said.
What he ventures out loud, though, after a moment, is: "Let's find something to pull up the carpet with."
((The thing I really cling to with playing Steve is the idea that under all the star spangles and muscle he's still that scrawny kid who got beat up in half the back alleys in Brooklyn. That's what shaped him. Hence why I play both big and small Steve from the same account.))
<3
Having given up on the bed, there's not much else in the room to explore. Hawke looks down at the carpet. Seems unlikely they'll find anything, but the idea of doing a little bit of damage has some appeal in its own right.
"I can think of worse things to do with phenominal godlike powers than eradicating dust. But I'm pretty sure there isn't a white crowbar around here that we've overlooked," she says dryly. "Our hands are it. Still, it's worth a try. You get that corner and I'll try this one?"
no subject
He's not sure where he heard that, or if it was simply programmed into him. Seems like a strange tidbit of information to be created with, but then so much of what he's said and thought in the last few minutes fit the bill there, it's getting jaded already.
He chuckles wryly at the idea of a white crowbar, hiding in a corner somewhere. "Well...if there is, it must be under the carpet already. Let's see what we can do."
He cracks his knuckles and crouches to pick at the carpet fibers, hoping to find a raw or loose edge. It's slow going, and the best he seems to be able to do is come up with a couple little poufs of silky white fuzz. He speaks again after a minute, back still turned to her: "Just so you know...I don't get the whole 'perfect lifemates' thing, but I'm not going to try to do anything to you without your permission."
You know, just in case there was any doubt about that.
no subject
She pauses when he speaks, and smiles at his back. It is courteous of him to state that openly, and she prefers the directness to keeping that particular awkward expectation of them unspoken. "Just so you know, I'd kick your ass if you tried," she says, with a wry humor. "But I'm willing to trust that you won't. You don't seem the type."
Quite the reverse, in fact. He hasn't even given her a serious look-over yet, much less treated her with any sort of entitlement. And that despite the provocation of being told that she's meant for him (and vice-versa), and their being locked together in a room with only one bed.
She goes back to testing the floorboards, then stands on a chair to examine the ceiling. The light source is nothing she recognizes, coming from all the walls just where they meet the ceiling, as a gentle glow. She wonders if they'll dim and fade to mimic night as the house pass, or if the light will just stay on forever. Horrible thought. "Back at you, by the way. In case you were worried." She feels along the corners of the wall and still can't find anything like a seam, not even where it stops glowing. "How does this even work?" she asks, frustrated by her lack of knowledge and more frustrated by the lack of anything resembling a way in or out.
no subject
He doesn't look back at her until she says she'd kick his ass, and then he actually grins. "Glad to hear it," he says, and means it. Maybe he was programmed to like tough women.
"We'll figure out sleeping arrangements later, I guess, if we can't get out." He's capable of sharing a bed in a platonic arrangement, he thinks, but he also has no objection to the couch. Unfortunately, 'if we can't get out' is looking more and more like 'we can't get out'.
He prods at the floor a little more, then stands and comes over to watch her. "I don't know if I was worried or not," he says honestly, because he feels like he might be strong enough to take her on if she tried, and also because she doesn't seem any more inclined to push herself on him than he is to her. "But it's good we're on the same page. I think...we've only got one another to rely on right now."
He shakes his head. "It's like there's no seam or end to any of the walls or floor. The only other thing I can think to try is the plumbing."
That could get messy.
no subject
She steps off the chair, sighing and running a hand through her short hair, which sticks up oddly for a moment afterwards before falling more or less back into place. "Well, the way I see it is this." She looks at Steve directly. "I'd really like to piss off whoever's trapped us in here, and I definitely don't want to go along with their plans. Unfortunately, their plans seem to require us to be very good friends." She says it with a certain amount of sarcastic innuendo. "So from that point of view, I should view you as an enemy as well, or at least keep my distance, if only so as not to give them any satisfaction. Whether you deserve it or not."
She waves a hand, dismissing this notion. "But I'd rather have an ally, seeing as you don't seem any more pleased with the situation than I am. It's not like I'd get far sitting here banging on walls on my own. If that means we're going along with their hopes to a limited extent, fine. At least it means I'll have company when I eventually get out of here and make them very, very sorry. So with that in mind?"
She holds out her hand for him to shake, if he wants. A partnership of sorts, of not the one they've been told to have. He's right. They only have each other to rely on.
no subject
Maybe there's a method to their captors' madness after all.
He watches her move, the resettling of her hair, the way she carries herself, the expression of completely-justified irritation on her face, and feels suddenly, nonsensically struck by how attractive she is. Perversely, it's the sharp edges that hit him hardest; the sarcasm and anger, the possibility that she might actually attempt to and even succeed in kicking his ass. He gives a shake of his head as if to clear it, and then nods, because he is listening. "Honestly, I can't argue with your conclusions."
He hadn't reached that point, himself, but he couldn't fairly blame her if she decided to treat him as part of the prison. Still, he's relieved she's willing to set that much resistance aside, because he thinks he might go crazy, stuck in a small set of rooms with someone who hates him.
His smile shows his relief, and he clasps her hand firmly. "Thank you. There are no guarantees right now, but we'll get as far as we can together."
We might want to jump forward in time a bit. Suit you?
What she doesn't say is that another minor point in favor of the idea that they've been created is that Steve is about as perfect an example of a human male as she can imagine. It's not just that he's physically attractive--though he is, no one could miss that who had eyes in their head. It's the way he's almost perfectly strong and proportioned, to an extent that seems impossible for nature to have managed on its own. She'd be willing to bet that if he took his shirt off, those muscles would glisten.
Not something she's about to suggest, however. And he acts normal enough, given the completely bizarre circumstances they're stuck in. Much more polite than most people would be, which makes a bigger impression on her than any of his physical characteristics. Though he does have a nice smile.
"Had you noticed what else is strange?" Hawke waves at the empty, white (she's already starting to dislike the color) room. "There's nothing to do in here." She looks up at the ceiling. "You couldn't provide some books? A deck of cards? A stick, even?"
The ceiling doesn't answer. She didn't expect it to.