Mayfield/Holly Heights: The Meme

[funandcutememes]

The Not So Happily Married Meme

(or the FORCED FAMILY UNIT meme)

Let's get one thing straight. Not all marriages are happy. They don't start with love, and they don't end with it. In fact, some marriages are more arrangements that anything. Whether it be through the will of an iron-fisted totalitarian government or something as ancient as tradition, people end up stuck. And now, you're one of them. Maybe you were assigned you partner. Maybe your parents picked them out. Maybe it's something different all together. But no matter what, you're going to be with them in some shape, fashion, or form.

So, what can you do? Do you just deal with it? Try to find a way out? Or worst of all, do you blame your so-called "spouse" for all this? You'll have to do something.

HOW TO PLAY;
1. Comment with your characters, putting any preferences you have in the subject. These are your OOC preferences, however. Remember, in meme your character's preferences won't matter.

2. Reply to others! You can use the RNG to roll for the WHY (why are your characters in this mess), the WHEN (what stage are they at), and the HOW (how do they feel about their partner). Or just wing it.

3. The fun of this meme is putting together characters who would normally never be together or have no business getting married, whether it be cross-canon, enemies, or strangers. But feel free to do what you want. Unlike your characters, you're never forced.

4. This is not a smut meme, nor is it a romance meme. There is a smut option and a romance option, but neither are required. The focus here is on CR and coping with situations that might be fairly unpleasant.

5. Have fun! And by that, I mean be miserable.

WHY;
1. GOVERNMENT: You live in a world where all aspects of life are controlled by the government. This includes who you're matched up with. Take "government" to mean anything you want it to, whether that be actual government or something like gods.

2. ARRANGED: Due to your culture, status, or family, you have an arranged marriage. Your significant other was picked out long before now.

3. SOLD: One of you belongs to the other in some way. At any rate, it's not a completely consensual arrangement.

4. KEEPING UP APPEARANCES: You don't particularly care for this person, but you have to look good for some reason. They'll do for that.

5. SHOTGUN WEDDING: Because of outside circumstances (read: an unplanned child), you're stuck together.

6. CURSED/POTION: At least one of you is under the effects of a curse or potion that binds you both.

7. THE BEST I COULD GET: Either one of you or both of you are settling. This is just a marriage of convenience.

8. Wildcard/free space.

WHEN;
1. JUST MET: You've never seen this person that you're engaged, intended, or assigned to. This is your first meeting.

2. JUST MARRIED: Ceremony or knot, you've just tied it.

3. CONSUMMATE: What's a married live without consummating the union? Whether it's for some kind of ritual, a fulfillment of a contract, or the need to produce offspring to become workers, you have to come together.

4. IN THE FAMILY WAY: Congratulations! You're about to bring a child into this (potentially loveless) family. Are you proud?

5. MARRIED WITH CHILDREN: You have kids already. They might be biological, or they might be state-assigned. How's the family life going?

6. FILLING YOUR ROLE: The two of you have a job or purpose, such as starting a business.

7. TRYING TO ESCAPE: You have to get out. You can't take this life anymore.

8. THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE: Since you didn't ask for this marriage, one of you has a lover on the side. Do you tell your spouse upfront, or do they find out themselves?

9. Wildcard/free space

HOW;
1. STRANGERS: You hardly know this person. Getting to know them is important (since you're only going to be spending the rest of your lives together) , but are you willing to put forth the effort for that?

2. HATE: They've ruined your life. Maybe not directly, but they're there and that's enough.

3. LOVE: There might be a light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps you do love each other, or you're at least learning to do so.

4. IN THIS TOGETHER: It may not be perfect, and you might not be be in love, but you're making it work for yourselves or for any children you might have. And hey, sometimes friendship like that can be a strong enough bond.

5. Wildcard/free space

Comments

Silas Dengdamor | Dirk Gently | OTA

[tumemanques]

[ Silas is a prince, so arranged marriage makes the most sense here - his family controls mining resources, which may play into things as well. In canon he's deeply in love, but I'm willing to work around that as needed. Feel free to comment/pm to discuss! c: ]

cersei lannister | game of thrones/asoiaf

[skirka]

Jin Guangyao (Meng Yao)|The Untamed|m/m

[hidden_fragrance]

Re: Jin Guangyao (Meng Yao)|The Untamed|m/m

[doesknow]

_[ohai]

[hidden_fragrance]

[Hello there. Well, this looks fun. Can we assume they are arranged? Would this be before or after Mingjue's death (depends on how angsty you'd want to go) or after?]

[doesknow]

_{[Definitely arranged! Ooh the angst potential... honestly I could go either way! Do you have a preference?]}

[hidden_fragrance]

[Perhaps JGS sees a young, vulnerable, newly made sect leader that he can pressure his unwanted son into marrying? Thinking that because Meng Yao lived in Qinghe he would no to how to exercise influence of Huaisang?]

[doesknow]

_{[perfect. And NHS has no way of saying no and keeping his subterfuge, with a side of keep your friends close...]}

[hidden_fragrance]

[ooh I like that. I'll get the ball rolling. Let me know if this works.]]

Jin Guangyao walked the length of the blossom garden. To outsiders, it looked like a leisurely stroll and it was not unusual behavior for him, but inwardly he was stewing. His father had not even bothered to share with him these plans, and even if he had the last thing he expected was for Huaisang to accept. Wasn't he still grieving? Had his father bullied him into this?

He supposed he would get answers soon. Nie Huaisang would be arriving shortly to escort him to Qinghe. It was appropriate for courting couples to spend some time together and no one much cared if men were supervised.

Or this is karma and because you caused his brother's death you get to take care of his remaining family till death do you part, he thought, sardonically.

This got a bit long lol

[doesknow]

His plan had been perfect - paint himself as weak and ineffectual (easily done, when he effectively had been for so many blissfully ignorant years), continue to rely on Jin Guangyao as he always used to and slowly gather what he needed, whatever information or skills or allies he could find, until he had the means and opportunity to destroy him. He'd slip up eventually and Huaisang would be there to catch him, and he would never, ever see it coming.

Then Guangyao's lecherous bastard of a father had gotten himself an idea - no doubt clumsily attempting some manipulation of his own - and a marriage proposal had arrived a disgustingly short time after Mingjue's funeral.

Huaisang had evaded it at first, with hand wringing and awkwardness and dithering that he hoped would make the other sect leader give up and go away, but his act was a little too good - the pressure had increased, and Huaisang had been left with two options. Put his foot down and risk ruining the reputation he was carefully building... or change the plan.

The idea of spending that much time with his brother's murderer made his skin crawl, but he couldn't deny it would be an effective way of learning all his secrets.

So he'd agreed.

He arrived in Lanling with a proper entourage and a host of gifts, and after greeting Jin Guangshan and going through all the usual pleasantries, he volunteered to go in search of his betrothed rather than sending a servant to fetch him - it was hard enough to look the man in the eye and pretend nothing was wrong, right now he really didn't want to do it with an audience.

When he found him in the garden he paused, just watching him for a moment.

Was he really going to do this?

Duo Maxwell | Gundam Wing | M/M

[deathsangel]

(Duo is 18. Permissions/kinks here.)

Tifa Lockhart | Final Fantasy VII/VIIR | M/F

[mylockedheart]

(Permissions/kinks here.)

Noctis Lucis Caelum | Final Fantasy XV | M/M

[princeofnight]

(Permissions/kinks here.)

Stiles Stilinski | Teen Wolf | M/M

[runningwithwolves]

(Stiles is 18. Permissions/kinks here.)

Alina Starkov | Grishaverse | M/F

[sungrisha]

(Book or Show. I prefer the show with book details thrown in. M/F for everyone but F/F for castmates. Permissions/kinks here.)

[niteofren]

[Interested in trying something with these two? I was thinking perhaps government or sold?]

[sungrisha]

(Sure! I would love to give them a try. Sold is definitely interesting to me.)

[niteofren]

[Snoke either dies or otherwise loses Ben’s contract and Alina ends up buying it? And they don’t actually stay in Ketterdam so they have to at least pose as a couple?]

touma taishi / servamp / ota

[purebredvillain]

Madam Yu | The Untamed | OTA

[talkshitgetwhipped]

jack √ tales from the gas station

[stations]

( character info | permissions | canon tl;dr - he works at a twilight zone nightvale horror style gas station & shit's starting to get apocalypse-level real. )

[oversight]

He's come in for a cup of coffee looking well-dressed, polite and polished — spiffy, in a word — but as he pays in cash at the counter Blake can't help but feel an echo of his own deep tiredness in the face of the man behind the counter. Jack, he notes from the name tag before apologizing for only having a hundred dollar bill. It's a somewhat typical interaction that ends with a tip left in his wake as Blake put his face into the plastic lid of his to-go cup and hits the door.

Literally.

The flimsy cup crumples, the cheap lid flipping off like a coin, and Blake folds over briefly to hiss out a curse as the coffee goes everywhere. He thinks for sure the door had opened out earlier, and when he tests his decent memory, he finds the door doesn't open in either. The frame rattles against a phantom lock and behind the glass, a gleam of white light gathers together with the sound of what can only be described as a demonic dial-up modem, both growing in intensity until everything feels like it must be ceasing to exist altogether.

-----------

Thanks to the resonance of the chorus of phantom voices singing their praise over their recent matrimonial victory, it's nearly two minutes before the ringing in Blake's ears subsides enough that he can shake off the worst of the dizziness and come back to himself.

The gas station is still here, but Blake inexplicably feels tethered. Something shuffles behind the counter — Jack, he presumes — and as the movement continues he finds himself drawn in further as if an invisible chain connects them. His skin tingles. The hair on his arms is standing on end.

"Did— uh. Did we just get... hijacked? And—" Blake swipes at the cold coffee down the front of his once crisp outfit. "—married?" It would explain the hazy memory of being hijacked by some ethereal, otherworldly hive mind, their strange demand for a genuine representation of a symbolic human connection, the way the world felt wrong and at risk until Blake had agreed.

He's pretty sure Jack didn't get much of a say, which may prove to be a problem if this strange place has its way...

[stations]

Honestly, the guy's lucky they even have change for a hundred. Two days ago they got robbed of the whole entire 87 dollars they had in the register. Fortunately, Crazy Greg ventured in yesterday to spend fives and tens and ones and twenties (in that order) on scratch-off lottery tickets, getting progressively more annoyed with Jack like he's a dealer at a casino stacking the cards against him. Finally, the guy one twenty of his own dollars back, seemed smug about it, and wandered out into the night from whence he came.

That's actually a little weirder to him than what happens today.

Doors locked. AT&T connecting to his PC in 2001. A distressingly congratulatory hymnal. A sudden, instinctive understanding that he's probably going to be filing jointly on his taxes this year.

Boy, does he have bad news for whoever that was about Jack's capacity for genuine human connection.

"Looks like it," he says mildly — and sounds way too unconcerned about the whole situation in the process, probably. But more importantly, he's still on the clock, so he nods at the cup in Blake's hands. "You can replace that if you want. We do free refills."

[oversight]

Blake scoffs. Of all the things he could imagine his companion saying — "mazel tov," maybe, or "I want a divorce," — the very last thing he expects is a free refill. It's the kind of reaction that sets him on edge, if only because it's so far outside the natural order of things. Like Jack gets mysteriously married to a stranger six-to-seven days a week (maybe more if the general laws of reality are as bent as they seem to be).

"Yeah, thanks," he huffs, and he's stalking back into the aisles as if he's going to take advantage of the offer even if he's not; it'll give him time to think.

What in the ever Lovecraftian Hell is going on? The tingle in his skin is subsiding, but it's at the end of a row that the invisible tether snaps taught and he very nearly pitches forward on to the ground, likely tugging Jack as he rights himself by gripping on to a shelf. It's like a pair of handcuffs or a tight grip around his wrists and while there's some give, he's not sure it's not from the other side of the line, a give to his take.

A mess of air fresheners scatter at his feet and the muttering that follows can probably be overheard as a collection of quiet swear words follow by, "Sorry," which he says without cleaning the spread.

By the time he's returning back to the front, he's pulling on a crisp, dry t-shirt with its novelty image of a Bigfoot proclaiming "Hide-and-Seek Champion." He claps another twenty on the counter and tiredly levels his gaze on Jack. "Heard this place was a little... weird—" Understatement. "—but you're the first person I'm meetin' to act like it's normal." Could coming here to follow a lead have actually lead Blake right to where he needed to be? A little more investigation might say for sure, although he's not entirely convinced there aren't more things to discuss than strange circumstances. Like celestial nuptials.

[stations]

So, yeah, about all this. See, the thing is, Jack sees weird shit all the time. Granted, no, he's never been married here before, but he's definitely been kidnapped, hijacked, astrally manipulated, and told that something was Super Significant for Reasons that he found he could just outright ignore with absolutely 0 repercussions for pretending it never happened.

But then Blake goes and gives him a yank while he's in the middle of trying to re-stack a candy display that fell over in the process of all the hubbub, and suddenly things are Significantly More Concerning. He happens to be precariously balanced on his left foot at the time, prosthetic hovering just an inch off the ground, zero leverage with which to keep himself gracefully still.

He smacks into the display, and it goes toppling over again — and Jack nearly goes toppling with it. Catches himself on the counter at the last second, so when Blake rounds the corner again, he's levelled with a mildly miffed look. Butterfingers are way too on the nose for this little moment of slapstick, he's having none of it.

"I mean, yeah, it's weird, but I'm pretty sure the ceremony's not gonna hold up in court," he answers, and his voice has a rare, unique gift — it's so deadpan, it's hard to tell whether he's being serious or dry. "Even if it does, Vegas rules, right? No consummation is grounds for divorce. You're good-looking and all, but I'm pretty sure I can keep it in my pants until the paperwork goes through."