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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

Frankie sighed at that, and combed his fingers through Henry's hair. His hands started the practiced movements of braiding, something he never had to think about, that his body just knew.

"I'm not sure I like that," he said softly. "Maybe we should try to make up a happy song." He braided quietly for a moment. "I don't think I know how, though."

He let his head tilt forward against Frankie's chest again at the hands in his hair, that was, and had always been, a surefire way to relax him even in more tense situations than they were currently in. His fingers finally stopped twitching as he answered quietly, "I don't think I know how either."

A careful little head-shake followed, not wanting to dislodge Frankie's fingers or interrupt the braiding, "It's fine, we have other things to do, don't we? Besides thinking of a song?" They must have some kind of task to do, even if it was just re-arranging the blanket fort to make it a little sturdier, somehow.

"There's probably food," Frankie pondered quietly, hands gentle in Henry's hair. "And if they want us to do something specific they'll tell us." Other than that, he couldn't really think of anything. He wasn't sure he particularly wanted to move just yet.

"I don't think I'm hungry." He replied quietly, still half-muffled against Frankie's chest. He knew that he was usually hungry, and it wasn't necessarily that he wasn't now, it was more that he didn't want to leave the relative peace and calm that they'd managed to make for themselves in the fort.

He was reasonably sure it was the first time he hadn't been ready and eager to see what the Voices had set up for them, but he was also reasonably sure that he didn't care for once, and he wasn't entirely sure what to do with that information, "We can... stay here, right?"

"They haven't told us to leave yet," he answered softly. He finished off the braid he was working on and moved to another section of hair. "They would have told us if they wanted us to do something." He wasn't really sure how he knew, but he did, with a certainty that was lacking in pretty much everything else that crossed his mind.

They were watching, he knew that. And if they wanted them to stop doing what they were doing, there was nothing Frankie and Henry could do to refuse them. He scowled a little at the thought, but didn't say it aloud. They were listening, and he didn't want to disturb the calm he and Henry had created in their little nest.

His response was a quiet little: "Yeah." That was about what he'd figured. He knew they were being observed, and the fact that they'd been left alone where they were was... something that he knew should be worrisome, because it meant that they could have done anything at all to the room and were just waiting for the two of them to emerge and notice it.

But at the same time, if it was something they were supposed to see, the Voice would have said so by now. At least, he figured as much, it wasn't like they'd gotten a lot of time for quiet contemplation before, if their keepers wanted them to do something, they said so, and not doing as they were told really wasn't an option.

Then, as if he'd just remembered it, he added: "We were going to darken the bathroom." In the same near-silent voice, "We should eat and then do that. Soon, but not yet. Don't want to move yet."

Frankie's hands stilled for a moment. He'd forgotten. But the moment Henry said it, he felt the deep yearning for darkness that was only partly sated by their little fort. "Yeah." He slowly started braiding again. "If they don't make us do anything else... yeah."

"Even if they do, we can remember that much, right?" He knew that sometimes he forgot things, and he was pretty sure that Frankie did too, and he knew that some of the things he'd forgotten were actually gone for good, but some of them kept bubbling back up to the surface.

Like the plan to darken the bathroom, what it would do and what it was for he didn't know, he couldn't come up with any real reason for it except that it was something to do, and that Frankie seemed to be more comfortable out of the direct light that was the rest of their room, diffuse across the entire ceiling, yes, but still direct in that there was nowhere to go to get away from it.

"You remembered it so far," Frankie murmured as he gently scratched Henry's head. "I don't know how long they'd let us have a dark room, but..." he sighed deeply. "I think I need it, even if it's only for a little while." He started up the braid he'd been working on again.

"Is there anything you feel like you need?" The fort and making the bathroom dark were for Frankie, and he couldn't remember if there was anything they'd discussed that Henry needed.

That question was enough to have his brow furrowing again, it shouldn't have been difficult, he knew that much, he should know if there was something he needed that the Voices weren't providing, and more than that Frankie's fingers in his hair were soothing enough that it was easier just to let his mind drift than to try and think of anything he might be lacking.

Finally, though, after a long moment of silence, voice still just the barely-there murmur that it had been before, "I want to write. But I don't think you can help with that." He wasn't even sure what it was he wanted to write, but he just had a sudden yen for the feeling of pen in hand and notebook in front of him, like it was a physical ache to miss it.

Frankie considered that quietly. He finished off a braid and started on another, combing his fingers through Henry's hair first before sectioning off the strands and weaving them together.

"I wonder if they would give us paper and pen if we asked." It was hard to tell what the Voices would provide them and what they wouldn't. Sometimes when they asked for something it was in the room the next time they woke up, and sometimes they were completely ignored. Frankie couldn't remember if they'd asked for pen and paper before, but it might be worth a shot.

He considered that himself for a long moment, brow creasing a little, and what he came around to was: "We should wait to ask, until after." If they asked before putting their darken-the-bathroom plan into action the request was likely to be denied, or more likely than it already was, but if the plan didn't actually work, if they were made to forget having tried, but somehow still remembered what it was he'd wanted, there would be less reason to deny it.

At least, that was how Henry's logic tree was working at the moment, he wasn't really sure how accurate it was.

Ready to comply

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