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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!!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[Partial to: 6,12,16,23,24]

Edited 2023-01-26 20:22 (UTC)

Xuan slept on the floor at first, like a dog, despite how the scientists made their disapproval clear. But when all their time is spent together their boundaries have eroded, and tonight he has crawled into their shared bed, curled into himself with his arms around his chest, reluctant to be close even though he has no memory of why.

Perhaps it's the things he dreams of. However much, during the day, he feels subsumed in Qingxuan, the lifepartner he was made for, at night visions of some other life swirl up from his subconscious. It's a dark and vicious life, filled with tragedy and conflict. Nightmares of helplessness in the face of brutality, of pain and death and hate. Of drowning forever in the cold dark.

He wakes up shivering and panicky, the memories already dissipating like smoke. His tight pillbug curl has relaxed some and he's pressed up to Shi Qingxuan, a painfully comforting presence when he's still piecing himself back together and trying to get his gulping breathing back under control.

Sounds good to me!

changing_winds - 2023-01-27 21:13 (UTC) - Expand

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. Also prefer characters closer to his own age, definitely none of the kids. If this turns out to be a Hawkins Lab experiment that's definitely fine, but we've got to get there first.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. This does seem like the kind of experiment bl/IND would run...]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. I'm only about halfway through S2 of Redemption, so no spoilers please.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. Yes, even with canonmates.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. It's entirely possible that this is a dreamscape gone wrong, or some kind of prison for dreamers.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. Good luck with the winged blind dude who can feel colors as your partner, though. I mean it.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. Much prefer characters closer to her own age, and if this turns out to be some kind of Hawkins Lab experiment, that's fine by me, but we have to get there first.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters. A-OK if this is some kind of Hawkins Lab experiment, but we have to figure that out as we go.]

[Cross-canon encouraged, much prefer plot-type prompts over smut/shipping-type prompts to the point that I will ignore smut/shippy starters.]

It was hard to tell how much time had gone by since they first woke up there. Meals were brought irregularly, and the artificial light in the room was kept at the same level constantly, leaving no opportunity to gauge time at all.

Frankie knew three things for certain: his name, that he hadn't always been here, and that something was very wrong. He couldn't be sure of anything else. He couldn't remember anything outside the room, but he knew it was out there. His name... it had been on the tip of his tongue, tumbling out easily when Henry had asked, even though the disembodied voices that communicated over the speakers never addressed either of them by name. Frankie might not have know how he remembered his name, or how he knew it was right, but he did.

As for what was wrong... he didn't know exactly what it was. But he was constantly uncomfortable, like he was reaching for something that wasn't there, or hiding, or kept from him. And he knew it wasn't right. Sometimes he caught himself staring at the way the light hit the edges of the furniture in the room, knowing something was missing, something he needed, but completely at a loss for what that was. He wanted to find a place to hide, somewhere where the light couldn't get him, where it would finally stop eating through him and devouring him alive, but of course the furniture couldn't be moved and there was no place to crawl out of sight of their ever-watchful captors.

Having Henry there was the only thing keeping Frankie sane at that point. The voices had called them "lifemates," but that term felt so forced to Frankie. The way the said it... like they needed to convince their captives. Frankie didn't think it was true, but there was no way out, and Henry was Frankie's only real company. Luckily, so far, he'd been very good company, despite... the whole situation.

Still, Frankie was starting to feel desperate. There was just too much light. In his latest attempt to escape it in whatever way he could manage, he'd taken all the bedding and was making an effort to create a pillow fort. So far no voices had tried to stop him, and it was actually going... okay, though it was hard to actually make a structure with just the pillows from the bed.

"Do the cushions come off the couch at all?"

Shi Qingxuan|TCGF|ota

16, maybe eventual 23+24?

Shen Qingqiu| The Scum Villian's Self-Saving System|m/m

natasha romanoff | mcu | ota

Maedhros | the silmarillion | ota

Severina Snape | Harry Potter | f/m

Steve Harrington + Stranger Things + OTA

Bane | Nolan!Batman | OTA

Shiny | Fabulous Killjoys OC | OTA

Shay | The Uglies trilogy | OTA

Eliot Spencer | Leverage | OTA

Nicky | The Old Guard | OTA

Apollo | Inception OC | OTA

Iggy + Maximum Ride (canon divergence) + OTA

Chrissy Cunningham (AU) | Stranger Things | OTA

Ariel 'Cap' Wilson | MCU (rule 63) | OTA

Eddie Munson | Stranger Things | OTA

Eggsy/Mordred - Kingsman - OTA

Henry | X-verse OC | OTA

haaaay have this thing i did

Joe + The Old Guard + OTA

Klaus | Umbrella Academy | OTA

Mina | Urban Fantasy OC | OTA

Layla | Moon Knight | OTA

Phasma + The Star War + OTA

Steven &/or Marc | Moon Knight | OTA

Maddison | OC | M/F