now kiss

[misheard]

The Soulmate? Jamjar?? Meme

So whatever you were doing - sleeping, eating, dying - you've been whisked away to a strange place. Well, no, actually it's a pretty cozy-looking apartment, it has an entire fridge and everything - but it definitely is not where you were. You should not have woken up in this apartment's only bed, along with somebody you've never seen before.

After you stop having hilarious misunderstandings with your bedmate, you may make your way outside only to find: it's pretty nice out here? Very 21st century suburbia. Some of the buildings seem a little out of place, like someone requested a jousting arena and a virtual reality room and the Angel did their best to fit them in-

Wait, back up a second.

The giant angel flying by (white wings, halo, radiance, the works), upon seeing you gawking, will happily inform you that this is your new home, and they brought you here because your soulmate was tragically born in another world. But now you're here together, living peacefully with nothing to stop your love from blossoming!

And no, they won't send you back. You'll be much happier here once you get used to it. Living side by side with your soulmate and being encouraged to get to know them, or get to know them, what else do you need?

Options, because we like options:
1. Soulmates are a known thing. Apply all the soulmate tropes you wish - not seeing color until you meet your soulmate, having your soulmate's name written on your body, etc. You can tell that at least the Angel's claims about this person being your soulmate are true. It doesn't necessarily make things less awkward.

2. Soulmates, what hogwash! Soulmates aren't a thing that everyone knows about and everyone has where you're from. You might believe in them, but you also believed in Santa when you were younger. Or you might think this whole thing is stupid, and your growing attachment to your 'soulmate' is just a coincidence.

(Post with character name/canon name/shipping preference. Due to the nature of this meme, cross-canon CR is encouraged and almost essential unless you have some alternate universe shenanigans in your canon.)

Comments

[gemuinemanagement]

[He's just embarrassed...

Sure enough, the marks appear on Suga's skin. Suga looks at his wrist, then at her. Then writes an answer.]

I didn't know soulmates were real
I didn't think I'd have one anyway

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ she doesn't know that?! ]

You didn't— everyone has one.

[ except her, which had been understandable, but apparently she's not an exception after all? ]

[gemuinemanagement]

Just stories

[Considering what else is 'just stories' where he's from, he should have been more suspicious.]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ she just looks completely baffled by that concept, even giving her head half a shake. what? ]

[gemuinemanagement]

[What what?]

This w/ writing on skin doesn't happen

[ghostfromthemachine]

Doesn't...

[ SIMPLEDOG INTENSIFIES???????? ]

...I. Suppose this is what that angel meant by "different worlds," but...

[ but that's honestly kind of a horrifying thought?! ]

[gemuinemanagement]

I didn't know there were different worlds
But I believe it

[It isn't that much stranger than vengeful ghosts that live in his backyard, honestly.]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ half-muttered ]

I have an easier time wrapping my head around that part than the idea it's "just stories" where you're from, to be honest.

[gemuinemanagement]

Why

[Are soulmates such an integral part of her universe...?]

[ghostfromthemachine]

...where I'm from, almost everyone grows up writing to someone. There are... sometimes one person is born a while later than their partner, or one dies, but that's important in its own way, too.

[gemuinemanagement]

[Suga tries to imagine such a world, where everyone knows that there's someone out there meant for them, where they always have someone to write to.

In such a world, he would have been far less lonely, wouldn't he? Maybe everything that cursed him wouldn't have happened. Then-]

I wish I was born in your world

[ghostfromthemachine]

...me too.

[ it tumbles out thoughtless and selfish, and she winces. but— if he'd been born there, she wouldn't have been taken her family. her coworkers. ...the graves and memories of the people who had made her who she was.

and if she'd had someone to write to— if she'd had that certainty, growing up... ]

... but.

Perhaps it's better that you weren't.

[gemuinemanagement]

[He doesn't know much about her world save for the soulmates thing. Perhaps it's worse in every other respect. He can't make a call with any certainty, and it's not as though he could change things even if he wanted to.

But.]

I wouldn't be lonely

[ghostfromthemachine]

...Maybe.

I'm... a lot younger than I look. You would still have been waiting alone.

[gemuinemanagement]

I'm used to waiting

[...After a second, he crosses that sentence off, because it isn't quite waiting when there's nothing to wait for.]

I'm used to being alone
It would be easier if I expected it to stop

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ ... she doesn't have a good answer for that. just looks away and down.

(just thinks faintly, fleetingly of the night her life had ended, and the confused blur of time and pain that had followed— what it might be like to live through that sudden silence from the other side. ...what it might have been like to live through all of the other tragedies that had made up her life, even if only at a distance.) ]

... it probably doesn't do any good to think about it. It isn't something that can be changed now.

[gemuinemanagement]

[Suga nods. He's spent enough rainy nights asking himself what his life would be if he just hadn't gone in the forest that day that he knows that what-ifs don't help.]

I'm glad we met now

[ghostfromthemachine]

[

things she hates: being a cryer. ]

[gemuinemanagement]

[?!

He doesn't know her well enough to offer a hug, but he can't just do nothing. After a moment's hesitation, he sets a tentative hand on her shoulder.

It's okay...?]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ she goes limp under his hand, tipping slightly toward him, before muttering into her own knees, sounding wobbly and also deeply aggrieved: ]

...Sorry. I'm— I have even slightly too many feelings and I start leaking...

[ ...wait, she can't even see him reply if she's hiding her face like this. uuuuuugh. UUUUUUUUGH. scrubbing at her eyes and generally trying to get it together ]

[gemuinemanagement]

[She can't, but it's okay, because he's not going to write her a response she can't read. Instead he pats her shoulder a couple times, before switching to headpats.

Is this how you do comfort??]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ hey, it's the thought that counts, and that's frankly good enough for her. ... even if the fact he's being thoughtful does make her sniffle again aaaaaaaaaugh

headpats means exposure to just how ridiculous her static aura is, though. her hair sticks to his hand the way it might to a charged balloon. ]

[gemuinemanagement]

[Oh, that's very static-y. But static isn't the worst thing in the world, so he just keeps patting her head until she stops crying.

Some people have static auras, some people smell bad to malevolent spirits, it's fine.]

[ghostfromthemachine]

[ it was at least mostly a slow-but-steady drip to begin with, rather than a full flood, so it doesn't take that long. after a bit she wipes her less damp hand on her leggings and then reaches up to snag his sleeve with it. ]

...Thank you.

[ speaking of smelling bad, though. he's gotten closer to her, and while she isn't malevolent, exactly... she sure isn't not, either. she died in pain and fear and rose again solely out of the sheer furious desire to inflict the same on others. no matter how much she digs her heels in against that first impulse, no matter how much she changes, that isn't something that will ever go away.

so her next snuffle is almost more of a sniff, accompanied by the faintest nose-wrinkle as she tries to figure out what even the heck it is she's smelling. ]

[gemuinemanagement]

[...He's not totally unfamiliar with that expression, at least among spirits that have noses.]

Sorry
I'd have told you if I realized you were a spirit
I don't smell very good to them