MATCHMAKING POST: PRIDE 2023

[paranomasias]

LYNDON'S OPEN MATCHMAKING POST 2023: PRIDE EDITION

"What the hell is this, Lyndon?"

Good unnecessarily aggressive question, hypothetical person! Basically, do you remember that "Give me one of your characters and I'll match them with one of mine" Plurk meme?

"I'm a strawman you invented for this post why would I-"

ANYWAY, this post is like that, because I love that meme a lot and have way too many characters by far. So here is how this is gonna work, basically!

1. You leave a comment with a character journal you want matched up!

It's gonna be gay in some way bc pride month, even if that's Two Bisexuals, but include maybe what kinds of characters you think might ship well with yours, and like... a quick summary of their personality for me! Also specify if you're here for smut or not or if you want assumed cr or a particular relationship stage or... whatever other information you want to put in. Age range, certain characters/canons you definitely don't want, whatever! I wanna stretch out some of my lesser-used journals here, though, so no specific character requests!

2. I will reply with an offer!

You are obviously free to veto or respond or whatever, but I'll run through my muselist (or inevitably for someone make a whole damn new account) and find someone and reply with an ooc hashing-things-out comment. If it works, reply with a starter or an affirmation if you want me to start!

3. WATCH THAT MAGIC HAPPEN or potentially watch this idea crash and burn

Anything's possible when you believe!!!

Comments

[liedol]

i had like a whole starter written up on my phone then when i went to retrieve it from my notes app it had vanished so now i have to chew it to pieces

the original plan was that they were going to be the only ones awake on the tour bus and have a late night slightly too vulnerable girl talk !!

[atdemonhead]

[ IT'S OKAY I GOT U ]

[ The tour has been a success, by all metrics. Through Canada to start, and now swinging down into the States. It's a ways to the end of it, but it's been so... freeing, now that Scott's whole sad little story is behind her.

It's a weird pairing to be sure, a Canadian indie rock band and an idol group, but she's been secretly cribbing inspiration from Japanese media long enough that it feels like it might as well be time to pay back? Sure. She can go with that. We're all riding high off of the recent success of non-Western artists (and that one Clash at Demonhead single that went huge in Japan) and that's fine.

And it's obviously not like B-Komachi is bad company, such as it is. Envy's the only member of The Clash at Demonhead who speaks literally any Japanese, a product of being young and not trusting the old official subs for anime from the nineties, which means she's the only one who can keep any of them any company, but a lot of them don't have the English to meet her halfway, which is unfortunately what a girl needs when her Japanese education started with words like "hope" and "despair" and "Rose Bride." But Ai has.

Ai. It's been honestly refreshing to make what might be an actual friend in the industry - not that she'd categorize it like that herself, of course. Friends with the f in lower case aren't nearly as useful as Friends when it comes to being a pro musician. And she's sacrificed too much to get where she is. Even if-

Right now it's like one in the morning on an empty road somewhere outside of some town in the middle of the US, there's a whole night's drive ahead of them, and Envy can't sleep. She's out alone in the common area of the bus while everyone else (on this bus, anyway) is asleep, spiral notebook out and pen in hand. There's something so real about handwritten lyrics, even if that makes her sound like the most pretentious loser in the world. ]

... Alright, what rhymes with "night" and doesn't suck...?

[liedol]

[ Ai had always insisted to Saitou that she'd never go overseas for any kind of location shoot – the idea of piling onto an airplane and jetting out to some totally foreign place with nowhere to hide, surrounded by people she couldn't speak to or understand and no chance of being able to go home and turn off until all was said and done sounded excruciating. And while none of that had changed, exactly, her priorities had just a little. When it had just been her to worry about, the choice had been a one and done consideration but when she'd started thinking about in terms of Ruby and Aqua being able to come along, giving them the chance to see these new places and sneaking away to have normal family time in a place that didn't know her well enough to catch her in the act...

Well. Her tune was considerably changed after that.

The tour so far hasn't exactly been fun, even if Ai's been tolerating it well enough. There's nowhere to really breathe in the tour bus and she doesn't even have the comfort of having Ruby and Aqua nearby – they've been travelling with Miyako, just to keep up the ruse of just whose kids they are and she's been trying and failing not to be too grumpy about it. The language barrier has been a good buffer in keeping her from having to get along with the other girls more than she can stomach... but then there's Envy.

If she's honest with herself, as she so rarely is, talking to Envy hasn't been... terrible. They're muddling along with some horrible amalgamation of both their languages that would probably make a linguist cry to overhear it but works just fine for them. Envy gets mad, Envy doesn't take shit and it's sometimes a little refreshing for Ai to unload on her just a bit and let her go off on her behalf.

She's not really thinking of Envy when she eases herself out of bed, though. She's thinking that she's sick of sleeping hemmed in on all sides by other people and that it'll be a godsend if they ever get accommodation elsewhere. She could do with a little fresh air, so she makes her way to the door that leads out off the bus and– ]

Oh! [ She pauses, halfway out and looking a little unsure of herself. ] You're still awake?

[atdemonhead]

Not tired.

[ It's a lie, of course. There's no point on a tour when anyone isn't at least a little exhausted. But, much like half of Aka Akasaka's characters, Envy's a practiced liar.

She gives a little less-than-half (a third, maybe?) smile as Ai walks in, settling into their hellish linguistic milieu. ]

Figured I'd try to at least be productive, but... the words are not coming tonight.

[liedol]

That's what happens when you try and force it. [ her voice is a little chiding, but playfully so – she knows she's not telling Envy anything she's not already aware of. ] But you wouldn't be trying to force it if you weren't stuck in the first place, right?

[ The night's a little chilly, but Ai ambles over without any apparent discomfort so she can peer over Envy's shoulder at the notes. It's not like she can actually read any of it, of course, but she's nosy anyway. ]

What does it say so far?

[atdemonhead]

God, it barely matters, it's so cliché and... ugh.

[ A beat. ]

Do you know what cliché means, it's- it's a French word, god- point is, this crap isn't worth spending time on. It's been done.

[liedol]

[ Ai's gaze drifts up from the notes to Envy's face – she's getting used to reading what all the different sorts of scowls mean, an emotional vocabulary way more varied than the smiles Ai pastes on day to day. If she's reading this one right – and she thinks that she might be – then... ]

They do say pretty much everything under the sun's been done before... but is that really what you're so worked up over?

[ She doesn't think a little case of writer's block would have Envy quite this worked up. ]