tl;cr meme

[marriagebroker]

post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.

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[hexensabbat]

hello

[poans]

Their first meeting kicked off with a half-hearted turn. Everything was half-hearted on Yi Sang's part, because he was going with the flow and largely following Ringo's lead as opposed to taking an active interest in what was going on around him. He'd joined the game with the intention of playing by its processes, if mostly to see where doing so might take him. Yi Sang at this stage had abandoned his final tether on the past he looked back on with a confusing mixture of fondness and regret, so he was alone and despairing, wondering if he should just give in instead of struggling to live on a thread of hope that might not even exist. Coming in with unresolved grief, he was certain that nothing would last, yet that desperation for change propelled him to continue interacting with Ringo regardless; hence, he gave her the abstract answer of walking until his feet stopped him. He was, in a way, here in body, yet trapped still in the cage he'd left in mind.

Too, Yi Sang had faced lifelong difficulty when it came to expressing himself. His thoughts were plentiful, and it was such a wearying process to sift through and put them, as well as his deeply sentimental feelings, to words that he'd usually tell someone he wasn't thinking anything. As an abstract thinker, he subscribed to this more than the label of philosopher, which he does eventually accept in canon when he's described as one, but at this point in time his grip on his identity was rather tenuous as he considered himself to be nothing like his seemingly nonexistent thoughts. His frame of mind was also the result of the treatment he'd received from previous company prior to the game, wherein his wishes had been ignored and he, bereft of vitality amid his grief, treated like something to be used. He was a taxidermied genius; though he'd left precisely to breathe life back into himself, he was mired down by such troubles that surfaced throughout his encounter with Ringo.

Even so, he probed if she had ideals that guided her. It turned out that she was a free spirit who lived life as she pleased while dispensing aid to the needy. This was very commendable to Yi Sang, who had always dreamed of flying free, unfettered by the City's cruelties, so that he wouldn't have to take anything from anyone, only to be utterly crippled by a recent metaphorical fall. Her job description was absolutely wild, but, being in the state he was, he took what she told him in stride for the most part. They hailed from different worlds, which meant the possibilities were endless.

What he knew for certain was that Ringo was someone worthy of respect—and who gave him much to think about, because artificial intelligence is the greatest taboo in the City to where entire clans and corporations are wiped from the face of the earth for simply dabbling in it. It was surreal, living in the same residence as she for the next month!

Spin the bottle was as awkward as it could have gotten, but he once again iterated that he was just following the games' rules. The differences in their natures became more pronounced here when Ringo remarked that she wouldn't want to live apathetically, as he was doing. Between this and her vivacious pursuit of the human experience, they were standing on opposite sides of the same river. He couldn't wholly relate, but he could watch and see where her quest would lead her, which more or less persisted during discussions of perfect matches, where he would sit in his dispirited apathy while she poured all of her energy into voicing her calculations aloud.

Yi Sang followed all the numbers and logic, but he stuttered where matters of feeling and the so-called spark were concerned. At the same time, he was resistant to the idea of viewing the individuals behind the matches clinically, so he was uncomfortable with the vernacular of ranking matches after the first ceremony despite seeing the wisdom of crunching numbers. His retreat into his typical answer of "nothing" stemmed more from lack of confidence, though, where as a researcher at heart he didn't want to speak up until he had enough evidence to make his claim, except he had no idea what to make of the mystery algorithm. This in tandem with vibes and gut feeling being so vague for him to define on such short notice drove him to his usual source of frustration, all of which was compounded by lack of motivation to make an effort in the first place. He dug the hole and put himself in it, earning everyone's disappointment, and decided to waste less of their time by focusing instead on Ringo and Furina, in whom he saw considerable compatibility between their values and personalities based on his observations.

His inner thoughts were vindicated by the truth booth, where Ringo and Furina shared such a wholesome moment. They opened up, bared their vulnerabilities before one another, and moved forward together. It was a truly ideal display that he quietly appreciated from the periphery. And it was partly because he thought so highly of them that he and Maya agreed on making the hideous balloon bouquet for them.

Yi Sang was, however, in the pits for most of the second and third weeks. What glimmer of hope he'd imagined seemed to have snuffed out by the end of the first. He felt that everything he did was pointless and ceased seeking even the small entertainment of humor by becoming unresponsive to the wordplay he so loves. His cognition shifted by the third week's midpoint, shortly after which he responded to Ringo as a joke, and from there they had their first active conversation! She asked whether he was . . . a yaoi or a het . . . and he answered decisively. In a way, Ringo and Furina were one of the matches who inspired him to choose Odile for the upcoming ceremony. He was still in the process of coming out of his passivity, so that she took to his words and even involved the group as a ripple effect meant a lot to him. He also liked that he was finally able to engage with Ringo the way she deserved interaction, and it was very exciting.

That energy carried over to the post-ceremony talk, during which he wasn't torn up in the slightest about the probable results and more interested in engaging as many players as possible. He easily agreed that Luka, his other surprise candidate from the night before, was his likely match and used this opportunity to apologize to Ringo, because now that his feelings were out in the open as opposed to buried beneath the metaphorical flowers marking his heart's grave, he could act on the shame stemming from his past behavior. He had no idea what she meant by Yingying's being a good influence. In fact, it had been a joint effort on everyone's part!

In summation, Ringo was someone Yi Sang considered a respectable individual whose very existence was yet another proof of science's miracle. It was novel at times, though he enjoyed her for who she was more, no matter how much he was fumbling in her eyes. He sincerely hopes that she and Furina go on to have all the human experiences they can possibly grasp, and then some.