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Post by Anna Davidson on Mar 29, 2019 14:04:13 GMT -5
Soulmate Marks
Marks that appear on the 16th birthday of a person on either forearm or hand. Each mark is unique and will match exactly in size, placement and design to one or more peoples marks. It is possible to have more than one mark. It is possible for more than two people to have the same mark.
There are two types of marks, romantic and platonic. Romantic marks are pink in color. Platonic marks are green in color. If the person(s) who has/have the matching mark have already received their mark it will have a dark border on the outside of the mark. If they have yet to receive their mark, it will stay without border until the day everyone has received the mark.
Not everyone has both types of soulmates, but everyone has one or the other at a minimum.
It is common for people to date before getting their marks and even after getting them, as there is no saying at what point a person will come into contact with the people(s) who have the matching mark(s). It is not unheard of for people not to meet the match of their mark until their midlife or later. Should the other person die, the mark fades into a scar. People are allowed to marry someone who doesn't have a matching soulmate mark but it's rare that people do.
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Post by Anna Davidson on Mar 29, 2019 14:06:49 GMT -5
On the night before her sixteenth birthday, Anna sat nervously, watching the clock and waiting for the time when it'd strike midnight. Which was stupid because she knew more than well that her marks wouldn't appear until midday the next day, when she officially turned sixteen. Still, she knew that she was barely going to sleep tonight. She wondered if she would have a romantic soulmate - she prayed she'd have one, actually - and if she'd have a platonic one. Her moms each only had the one romantic soul mark, starting on the knuckle of their left pinkies and winding midway up their fingers before ending in a slotch that covered the back of their smallest fingers up to the top. Her brother however, had two marks. A romantic mark in a thin semi-circle that near folded into his elbow that still had yet to be outlined, and a platonic mark smack dab in the middle of his right hand which no one was surprised to see matched perfectly with the one that had appeared on Landon's own palm a month before.
For herself, she knew what she wanted. She could picture the marks that she was hoping would appear on her skin. She'd often stared at both her hopeful platonic and romantic soulmate's marks, checking casually whenever she saw them to see if they'd been outlined yet. Thus far, neither had suddenly gotten the foretelling outline. Which was serving to keep her hope alive. It didn't really matter if she was platonic soulmates with Kylee or not, though she felt like the other girl was a half of herself and it would make perfect sense. Still, she doubted that their closeness would change whether or not she had the mark that matched the brunette's. It'd still be nice though, to see a twisting almost figure eight on her left forearm.
As for her romantic hopeful, well, she'd liked Noah for a long time, although they'd just actually started to see each other after the new year. He was funny, smart, an actor like herself. She'd practically memorized his mark, the almost ovular ping pong ball sized splotch on the inside of his right wrist. Obviously, if she had a different romantic mark it meant that there was someone better suited for her out in the world, but... well, she couldn't help but want it to be him anyway.
Unsurprisingly, despite the fact that she had class the next morning she could barely sleep. So she went to class exhausted, constantly looking at the clock and waiting for exactly 1:37 pm. She didn't text Noah or Kylee, nervous about what would happen, though she noticed that Claire was giving her amused looks every time she caught her looking at the clock.
Finally, it happened. The hour came and she felt the marks appear, felt them as if they were being scratched into her skin quickly and deeply. The platonic mark appeared first and she was glad that she'd worn short sleeves so that she could see it, an outlined almost figure eight in green showing on her left arm and causing her to grin. As soon as she got out of class she'd text Kylee a picture, though she was sure that the brunette would know already as the outlining would have happen place for her.
Then, on her right wrist, a pink oval mark appeared, complete with the dark red outline that had her grinning like an idiot and almost crying as she traced her fingers over it. It seemed impossible that she should be so lucky but she wasn't going to complain. Not when she kept smiling every time she saw that uneven splotch, angry looking against her light skin but oh so beautiful.
The rest of the day dragged on, but once she got out of class she caught sight of Noah waiting outside for her and she couldn't help but run over to him, her arms wrapping tightly around him as she smiled brightly at him. "I always hoped it'd be you," she told him, so happy that nothing else mattered. And when he turned her head to kiss her, she kissed him with everything that she had. He was her soulmate after all.
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Post by Emily Parker on Mar 29, 2019 15:36:35 GMT -5
It shouldn't have come as a surprise at all that Emily's family wanted to be around her on her sixteenth birthday. After all, they usually spent birthdays together but this one was different and everyone knew it. A sixteenth birthday was the day her soul mark would appear. She was nervous about it. Nervous that she'd be someone without one, although there'd never been a documented case of someone without a kind of soul mark. Still, it was hard not to be nervous. Her parents had matching marks, three stripe like pink marks that went up the back of their right hands. Her dad too, had a green x shaped mark in the webbing of his thumb that represented his relationship with her aunt Addie.
Her younger sister kept teasing her that she already knew what mark she was going to get and that they should invite Thomas over so that the two of them could just kiss when it appeared but she told Karen to shut up. It was very possible that she wasn't going to have a match to anyone that they knew. Andrea was that way, her older sister having an outlined mark that looked a bit like a star located on her left arm, large enough that it wrapped from back to front. Yet she'd had no luck in finding the matching owner of the star mark.
As it closer and closer to the hour of her birth she got more and more anxious, wondering what was going to happen. But she knew that she wanted to be alone for it. She looked at her parents and spoke up. "Can I just go to my room for the mark and come down after?" she questioned, ignoring the way that her mom looked hurt though her dad looked like he had expected this at least.
"Sure, Em," he answered with a smile. "Take your time and come back down when you're ready."
She nodded and climbed the stairs up to her room, closing the door and breathing deeply out of her mouth, wondering idly if Thomas was looking at the clock at his own house. If he was waiting for the exact minute that she was born too, hoping that an outline would appear around the perfectly square mark that colored his right arm almost dead center. Of course, he had already an outlined green mark that was also on his right arm, a small circle shared by Shane right on the bone of his wrist. What if her mark was anything else? It'd felt almost wrong being with Paxton, with her ending up comparing him to Thomas without thought.
The minute before it was supposed to happen she closed her eyes and waited for the pain to come. It did, just as she'd been warned it would. Only one hit of pain came, meaning she only had the one mark. It was on her right arm, but even so that didn't mean anything. When she opened her eyes she looked down and saw the perfect square, almost dead in the center of her arm and colored with a red outline. Her breath came out in a huff of surprise and suddenly she was grabbing her phone dialing the number that she knew better than any other. He picked up on the second ring, "Em?" he said her name like a question, wanting to confirm that he already knew to be true.
"Thomas," she replied, affirming his unspoken question. She knew that he'd understanding what she meant and she couldn't help but grin. "Did you... you want to come over for my birthday dinner?"
She could hear his smile on the other end as he answered. "Yeah, I'd love that."
"I'll tell everyone to wait for you," she told him. "But I have to go back downstairs. They're all waiting for me. I just... I needed to hear from you."
"Of course," he answered. "I'll see you later."
When she hung up the phone after agreeing with him she laid back on the bed for a moment and then got up and made her way back downstairs, ready to hear Karen gloat about how right she was.
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Post by Claire Medawar on Mar 29, 2019 18:51:51 GMT -5
Claire was a little bummed that her birthday fell during the summer, since her closest friends happened to live where she went to boarding school. Not that she hadn't seen her friends yet this summer, she'd gone to see Anna the week prior actually, having just gotten home a few days ago. Her family was going to celebrate with her - even her dad wasn't going to be off somewhere this year. That was exciting. This year was kind of a big one actually, her sixteenth. She knew that her mom was very excited about her getting her marks, just as she had been when Jack got his. Of course, Jack's mark wasn't that impressive. It was small, a splotch maybe the size of a paperclip on the outside of his left arm. Her parents own marks were quite a deal more impressive. Their twin marks looked almost like a hand had grabbed their right wrists from the bottom, with tendril like splotches curling around to the top of their arms. She liked them, how obvious they were and undeniable. People saw them together and knew instantly that they were supposed to be together.
She hoped that her own mark would be as impressive. Though, she honestly just wanted to have a romantic mark at all and that wasn't a given so she tried to wrap her mind around the idea that she might not get one. Luckily, she wouldn't have to wait all that long to find out as she had been born early in the morning. So when 7 am rolled around she was already wake and waiting for the telltale marks to appear against her skin. Downstairs she could hear her mom making breakfast, probably something big and special for the day. Possibly all of her favorites, which was something to look forward to. But then, her mind was taken off of it when a sharp pain came on her right arm. It faded quickly enough though and she looked down to see a small mark, nothing terribly impressive but at least not as small as Jack's. It was a thin semi-circle shape that came to the crease of her elbow and looked terribly familiar. Already it was outlined in red - something she was glad of since she wasn't sure she wanted to date someone younger than herself.
Still, staring at it she felt a sense of deja vu as she wondered where she'd seen the mark. Then, suddenly it hit her very quickly. Joseph. Anna's brother. She'd seen this same mark on him, had noticed it as he'd braced himself above her while they had sex. Noticed it after that too, on the days he was shirtless and in the pool. It hadn't been outlined then and he was tan, so it hadn't stuck out as much as it did against her own skin. She thought about him, his smart mouth and his seemingly endless appetite. She thought about the way it felt when he kissed her and how his hands felt on her body. She thought about what Anna said about his dating habits and about how good his platonic soulmate was. She also thought about the fact that he lived in New York City and she lived in Los Angeles. She was sixteen, there was no rush on anything. She didn't pick up the phone to tell him and she didn't pick up the phone to tell Anna or Kylee right now either, knowing that they'd probably want to see pictures and would know who the matching mark belonged to.
Instead, she got up and made her way downstairs where her mom was busy cooking breakfast and her dad had his tablet up.
"Good morning, birthday girl!" her mom exclaimed happily, walking over to give her a hug and a kiss and catching sight of her mark. "Oh my goodness, a romantic mark? That's so exciting! And with an outline too, already?"
"Yeah," she answered, shrugging lightly.
"I bet you can't wait to find them," her mom said, smiling a little as she looked at the mark. "Knowing they're out there somewhere."
She shrugged and gave a tiny smile. "I'm not in a rush," she replied. "I know that he's out there, that's enough for now."
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Post by Jamie Kostka on Mar 30, 2019 14:39:55 GMT -5
He's worried, there's no denying it. Jamie is anxiously awaiting the time of his birth on the cold December day, waiting to see what marks might appear on his skin. Neither of his parents have romantic marks, though they both have platonic ones and to him they seem to be very happy together. His fear isn't that he won't have a romantic mark - because clearly there are people who don't and manage to have fulfilling romantic relationships. His fear is that he'll get a romantic mark already outlined because that will mean that he isn't supposed to be with Rachel and he just confessed his feelings to her over the summer. The artist's birthday wasn't going to be until Spring though, so if he had an unoutlined mark he would have to wait and see if she had the matching one. Then again, he wasn't sure what the situation was with Felix. He knew from some internet snooping that the guy had already had his birthday, but Rachel didn't mention anything about his mark one way or another. Not that she should have, it was sort of a person thing.
Nonetheless he tries to put it out of his mind. Rachel won't be back from school until a few days from now anyway, so he doesn't have to worry about facing her yet if he has a mark with an outline. His parents try to reassure him too, about how it will not be a tragedy if he doesn't have a romantic mark and that he'll get through it. That there is no guarantee even that Rachel will have one. He tries to let it reassure him, but it doesn't really. And as it gets closer to the time when the mark or marks will appear he asks if he can be alone, which is a privacy that his parents grant him. The hour of his birth arrives and the pain does too, a sharp, quick searing in the back of his left hand. He looks down and sees a red mark, unoutlined, looking like a puzzle piece gone wrong on the edges no bigger than an inch total. That's it and he breathes a sigh of relief. Now he just has to wait for Rachel's birthday to roll around in order to find out if she's got the matching mark. He decides not to take a picture and show her the mark yet, figuring that she'll see it when she gets home in a few days.
She does see it and comments on the shape of it, noting the same thing that he did about the puzzle piece structure of it. They don't talk a lot more about it though, probably since her own mark won't appear until April. And he so he waits for the day of April 9th, he's filming that day. On set, waiting for the time when he'll know if Rachel's got his matching soulmark or not. It comes at an inconvenient moment, during the middle of a scene when he feels a less sharp pain than before but quickly looks down to see his small mark is now outlined in red.
"Oh my God," he exclaims, interrupting his costar who is in the middle of her line. Everyone turns to look at him because he isn't one to screw up scenes, but they catch sight of him looking at his mark. They all come closer to take a better look.
"It got outlined! How exciting!" his onscreen mom, Jenny, says with a smile. "Think you know who it is?"
"That girlfriend you've been seeing?" his onscreen sister, Nadia, questions teasingly. "Gabe Mead's daughter?"
"It is her birthday today," he answers. "But I won't know until we get this done, so sorry for interrupting you, Jenny."
Everyone takes their positions back and they roll the scene from the top, Jamie trying to be present in his work despite the way that his mind read as he itched to call Rachel and ask if she had the dissolving puzzle piece on her hand as well. The odds were good, but he wanted that confirmation. They got through the scene and the next before he was given a break and at that point he rushed off to get his phone, opening it up and seeing a text from Rachel.
It was a picture, showing off her left hand and arm. On her hand the matching mark was outlined and he grinned, though he noted another red mark about two inches below her wrist. A diagonally oriented line, slashing across her arm from one side to the other with a width of about five centimeters. Was that the mark that matched Felix's? He didn't ask, he simply dialed her number and found that he got her voicemail. That was okay with him. He knew that she'd call him back later. "Hey Rach, I'm guessing you're busy but I'm so glad it's you. I love you and I'll talk to you later. I'm on break for another twenty, but call me later, okay?" he couldn't stop smiling even as he hung up the phone. This was the best day of his life, hands down.
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Post by Zane Harris on Mar 30, 2019 17:03:14 GMT -5
To be honest, it came as a bit of a disappointment to Zane when on his sixteenth birthday he felt the sting of a mark appearing on his skin and looked down to see that it was a romantic mark. A large one at that, a strange star shaped unlined pink mark starting in the middle of his left arm about an inch in height wrapping around to the back of his arm. No platonic marks appeared. He'd been hoping for a platonic mark. His parents had romantic marks, they'd even matched but his dad had decided that he was 'tired of letting some stupid mark decide his life' and that had happened just a few months before his birthday had taken place. Now his mum was looking at moving them to the United States where she'd originally came from to help take care of his ailing grandmother. The marks, they were a sham, he had decided, if a person could decide to just cast them aside and move on with their life what was the point in them?
Despite that, his mum wants to make a big deal out of his mark. She exclaims how happy she is for him, like it's a guarentee of happiness when it is in no way that. He doesn't bring that up. He lets her celebrate, but he doesn't look for the match of his mark. He knows people have habits of looking at the marks of others out and about, so he starts wearing long sleeves all the time. Even in the summer, he sucks up the heat and wears sleeves that cover his mark since it is too large to cover it any other way besides bandages and he doesn't want to do that.
It's almost a year and a half later that he gets the outline on his mark, but that doesn't change anything for him. He still doesn't purposefully look at other people's marks. When he goes to college he decides not to tell his new close friend because already he can tell she is the type that would meddle. They know each other two years and she has no idea what his mark is or where it is due to his strict long sleeve policy. Yet, somehow she still ends up being the one who leads him to the other half of the mark.
He's supposed to meet Heather at her place, so he heads over and finds that she isn't there. Who is there though is her roommate, whose mark is very easy to notice against her pale skin even though he's not looking directly for it. His heart stuttered in his chest as he recognized that star shape instantly, the one that he hid away everyday was here on her arm. He didn't say anything, just went in when she invited him in. She asked if he was here to date Heather and he almost laughed at the irony there. Instead they disagreed about how polite it was to ask people about their personal lives. He didn't mention the mark.
They see each other again, due to Heather's presence in both of their lives. Unsurprisingly, they don't make nice. He is more and more convinced the marks are bullshit. Then, on Heather's birthday they end up having sex after a few drinks. He wakes up and quickly gets dressed, hiding away his mark and hoping that Andrea hasn't seen it. If she had, she doesn't say anything. He still doesn't say anything.
It isn't until fate conspires against him that anything changes. He's at the hospital, working a clinical shift and he's supposed to meet Heather but he's going to be late. Rather than having her wait outside for him, he goes to tell her about being late. He doesn't remember that he's not wearing anything under his scrub top, so his mark is on full display. Not until he hears Heather exclaim, "Oh my God! That's Andrea's mark!"
He curses when he looks down and sees the mark. "It's rude to out other people," he replies steadily. "But yes, I know. And I don't have time for this. I have work to finish."
"Then I'll wait for you here and we're going to talk about this," Heather says stubbornly.
"You'll be there a while."
"So be it!"
Unfortunately, Heather was good on her word and when he got out she was waiting for him. She made him get into the car and she started bothering him about why he hadn't told Andrea already. She insisted that the other girl had a right to know if he knew. He told her that he didn't believe that the marks were binding due to his own parents but with a lot of pressure from her finally agreed that he would tell Andrea as soon as he saw her next. Then insisting that he wasn't going to to do it today but instead would do it before the end of the weak. That was a risky thing because he knew that Heather would hold him to it, but at least it gave him time to figure out how to approach it.
On Saturday he went to Heather's apartment, aware that Andrea would be there alone and he knocked on the door. She opened the door, looking surprised to see him and he forgot what he'd decided on in order to break the news to her. "I, er, I thought that I should tell you, I've got the match to your soul mark," he told her slowly. He didn't push up the sleeve of his shirt yet though.
"I know," she answered, surprising him.
"You know?" He wondered when she'd found it. It had to be when they had sex. Yet, he hadn't been any of the wiser. "If you knew why didn't you?" He asked before he could think about it which was unfair because he'd known and he hadn't said anything.
"You weren't in a rush to say anything," she pointed out. "I thought that if you weren't going to say anything I wouldn't either."
"Okay, but the way Heather was talking this is something you've been waiting for for a long time," he said, still confused on where her mentality came from.
"Yes, but... I thought you might not say anything because you were disappointed, that it was someone like me," she looked away at that.
He sighed, not wanting to have had anything like this happen. "I'm not disappointed that it's you. How could I be? A smart, kind, beautiful woman as my match? I could do a lot worse," he told her, sincerity ringing through his words. "Can I just... can I come in and explain something? About my relationship to the marks?" It wasn't a surprise that she agreed and reluctantly, he explained his own parents situation. He explained how broken his mum was when his dad had rejected their bond, explained how it shaped the way that he thought about the marks and explained why he didn't put much stock in them. But then, he admitted that he liked her and that he hoped things worked out. He just didn't expect them to and wasn't going to let the marks decide anything for them. They'd decide it themselves.
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Post by Eli Butler on Apr 1, 2019 11:53:10 GMT -5
When he got his mark, Eli was excited. The romantic mark that formed on his right arm about midway up was shaped much like a heart, albeit a strangely uneven one. Still, it appeared already outlined, which was exciting news for him. He liked the idea that someone out there had been waiting for this moment, that they now knew that he was out there too and that someday they'd meet one another. His parents shared a romantic mark and recently Issac had found that his new girlfriend Ava shared his as her birthday had passed just a couple of weeks ago. Those with romantic marks seemed so happy when they found their partners and he couldn't wait to be one of those people.
The problem, he finds, is that you don't know when you'll meet the other person. And so years pass without him finding the other person. It's not that he doesn't look, he does. And he allows himself some nights with people because, well, it gets a bit lonely and he has needs. It doesn't keep him from hoping that the guy or girl that he brings home might have the mark that matches his own but no one does. He begins to think, after seven years, that maybe he's going to be one of those people who doesn't meet their soulmate until he's much older. It's not a great thought, but he accepts it for what it is. He's got Hammy, his dog, and his friends and family to keep him company. Of course, it doesn't help that there's Issac and Ava and his older brother with his wife who is his match. People around him having children already, settling own with their other half. His younger brother has only a platonic mark, but he finds someone anyway and marries a girl that had a mark that was scarred from the moment that it appeared. If she has issues settling for someone she doesn't tell anyone and he really does think his younger brother is truly happy with his wife.
And so it continues. Ten years pass since the mark appeared and he feels no closer to finding his romantic soulmate when he goes out one night. It's been a while since he's gone out and he wants to be with someone, if only for a night. He runs into a cute blonde, if she's got a soulmark - and she must, everyone has one - she has it hidden. Some people don't want their marks on display for everyone, want to do things in a way not dependent on the mark. He flirts with her because even though she's looking younger than him - so no way she'd have the matching mark anyway - she is attractive. Then she leads him back to to the table where she has friends waiting and the blonde that's there catches his eye immediately as they're introduced. She's more than attractive, she's simply stunning. He can't help it as his eyes move automatically to her right arm after they've been introduced, and his heart nearly skips a beat as he realizes that it's her. That she's the person who has his mark, that she's the one he's been waiting for.
He doesn't say anything right away, feeling like it'd be weird to do so in front of everyone. Besides, his own sleeves are long and covering the mark. So for now he just talks to her, tries to talk to everyone but it's no doubt that he's wrapped up in her. In getting to know this person that he's been waiting to meet. She's intelligent, kind, she has a beautiful smile and when she laughs he feels it like it is making him happier. When they decide to get out of the club, he suggests going for some coffee somewhere quieter and they talk the whole way to the coffee shop. While they're there he decides that he's got to let her know. It feels like it'll burst out of him anyway.
"Evelina, I think I should let you know that we've got something pretty important in common." He unbuttons the bottom of his right sleeve, then pushes it up so that he can reveal the mark on his arm. The one that's on the same place as hers. Suddenly he's nervous, waiting for what she'll say in response. He'd been expecting something positive, but what he had was silence.
"Oh wow," was all she said, though she didn't take her eyes off of the mark. Nothing else was forthcoming.
He started to get nervous, wondering if he should have said something sooner? Should he have done this in private? Wasn't she glad to have found him? Maybe she didn't really like him that much. His thoughts were swirling. Waiting was not doing him well and she didn't seem inclined to say anything else. "Are you- I mean, are you disappointed?" he couldn't help but ask.
"No, no," she assured him, looking back up at his face. "It's just... I wasn't expecting this tonight. I'm surprised."
He didn't feel the same way, but he wasn't going to let that be her problem. For him, it seemed natural. Right. That of course it would be her, the initial shock of surprise was quickly worn down by excitement. But then, not everyone responded the same way. "Right, I just thought you should know though," he told her, not wanting her to think that there had been other motives for this.
"Yeah, okay," she nodded, still seeming a little out of it. There was another beat of silence, where he now didn't know what to say. "Can we just, let this happen the way that it happens?"
He gave a slight smile and a nod. "Sure," he answered, wondering if there was something else toward her seeming reluctance toward everything. If there was, he wasn't going to find it out tonight. "So, I think I started to tell you about the time that Hammy decided he wanted to try coffee on the way here?" And he continued, hoping that he didn't mess up the entire night.
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Post by Marcus Huang on Apr 4, 2019 16:47:11 GMT -5
On December the 7th, Marcus sat waiting to see what his mark would be and where it would be located. His birthday was late in the evening, so he'd gone through the whole day waiting to see what would happen. Given that both of his parents only had platonic marks, he was expecting the same. He'd thought a lot about the marks, what he wanted out of one. His parents had married each other, for a soulmate was a soulmate and one was not better than the other. His grandparents too, had shunned their romantic marks in favor of marrying the person who had their platonic marks instead. Romance, he'd been told, was a tricky business and an unreliable one at that. Better not to have a romantic partner, but a platonic partner with whom you could be happy for sure. He had a feeling that Evelina would end up being his platonic soulmate and he had no problems with that. Evelina was intelligent, she was beautiful, and she was someone with whom he usually saw eye to eye. All in all, she was the perfect kind of partner to want.
When the time comes though, he doesn't just have a platonic mark. Although one does appear, a simple looking triangle located on the inside of his left wrist and it's smaller than half an inch in length. It has no outline, which serves to further his theory that the matching mark will probably be held by his best friend who won't turn sixteen for a while now. But also, there was a romantic mark too. So small that if he hadn't felt the pain he might not have noticed it right away. A thin incomplete band, wrapped around his left index finger, less than a centimeter wide. Unlined it was even less noticeable, something that most people would overlook and he found himself glad of it since he didn't plan on doing anything about it. Still, the idle question of when it would become lined did come to mind, but since it didn't matter anyway he pushed the thought away.
Evelina's birthday comes and his platonic mark gets its outline. His parents wish that it could have been a Chinese girl to be the match, but they like Evelina well enough. They think she'll make a good match for Marcus and they all go about their lives, not worrying about anything else. High school finishes, college begins and Marcus throws himself into his studies. Evelina gives into some creep who keeps pushing her to date him, and he lets her know that he does not approve of the relationship. It's one of the few times they stop talking to each other, but it doesn't last long. Her boyfriend gets her pregnant, he leaves her, and he decides it's time to step up. He proposes to his best friend, his soulmate, and she says no. She has a romantic mark, one that is outlined and she does plan on someday meeting that person. She doesn't want to marry him.
He doesn't know what to do with that. His plan had been to marry her. He never gave thought to the mark on his finger, except for once when it had been outlined a whole seven and a half years after it had first appeared. That sealed that for him. He had no interest in being with someone so much younger than him. So he decided to just throw himself into work and then find someone along the way that he could become friends with and eventually build a family with. He's got so much schooling though that what happens is a series of short flings, none ever lasting long.
Until Kaitlyn, just a beautiful blonde that he approaches one night when they're out. They go back to his place, have amazing sex and exchange numbers. They hook up again and again, until it becomes regular and she's staying the night. He doesn't catch sight of any soulmarks on her, though she has a ring that she never takes off. He notices it after a few weeks, notices it on her left index finger and he can't help but wonder if that means she has the matching mark to his. It would fit, she is young. About seven and a half years younger than his twenty seven years, even. But no, he doesn't cover his mark and he is certain that she would have said something if she had the same mark. Probably her mark is also on her left index finger but is something different. He tells himself that every time he catches his gaze lazily fixing on her ring.
Then, a few weeks later she slips up. She doesn't put the ring on after a shower, she comes out and is looking tempting in just one of his under shirts. He approaches her, fully planning on taking her into the bedroom when his eyes catch her left hand. And there it is, the same width, the same place and he reaches out and grabs her hand to turn it over. Sometimes people have similar looking marks but there are always differences. But no, this mark doesn't wrap all the way around either. It's an exact match to the one on his hand. He drops her hand, as if it has shocked him and steps back looking at her in disbelief.
"You knew, all this time you knew and you didn't tell me," he says. It's not a question, it's a statement of fact. He's hurt too, by this turn of events. That she'd kept something this important from him because even though he doesn't put stock in romantic marks, it feels like the kind of thing that should have been shared. It feels wrong that she's kept this from him. There is a sense of betrayal that takes him by surprise.
At least she looks slightly uncomfortable. "I didn't like, know right away, and then I was just not sure how to approach it. And then, the longer I knew, the weirder it got that I didn't say anything."
"So what, your plan was just to never say anything?" he questions, wondering where in the world she could have been going with that.
"Obviously not. I was just trying to figure out a way to bring it up," she answers. "And I hadn't yet."
Somehow, he found that he couldn't talk about it anymore. Couldn't find a good reason why she would have waited so long. No, it didn't make sense. So, he shook his head and turned away from her. "I need to go for a run," he says, going to grab his tennis shoes and his keys. He didn't allow for argument, just made his way out of the apartment and started running as he wondered what to do now. It figured that he'd end up finding his soulmate after all and it figured that it wouldn't be easy. So, he finds himself running to Evelina's place, hoping his best friend would help him make sense of this mess.
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Post by Alyssa Travers on Apr 4, 2019 17:59:36 GMT -5
Alyssa was curious, more than anything else, as she waited for her marks to appear. Of course, she was also quite busy, because her birthday happened to fall on Halloween night and she wasn't going to stop herself from having a social life just because there were going to be these marks appearing on her skin. She didn't know what she was going to get either. Her parents shared a romantic mark, a strange looking blob with projections that looked roughly like a strange octopus and htat her mom hated because it was ugly looking and "a pain in the ass to cover up" where it was, starting up on the lower part of the back of her left hand and continuing down over her wrist onto her arm. Alyssa hoped her own mark wouldn't be so strange looking.
Her best friend, Mackenzie, had already gotten her own marks the year prior. They were a bit of an oddity, though the adults in her life seemed to have some idea as to why, but they hadn't shared that. On the insides of her arms, located about three inches down from her wrist sat a flower shaped blob, looking like someone had forgotten to color the lines in. It wasn't obnxiously large, maybe a little less than an inch in size all the way around. The strange part was that the exact same mark was on both of her arms, like a mirror image when she held it up. Only one was pink and one was green. Neither was outlined. She and Kenzie had spoken about it, but Kenzie wasn't ever comfortable in those conversations. It was like the older girl didn't want to talk to her about the marks or what she was hoping out of them. She at least hoped that tonight she'd get the one to match Kenzie's right arm, the friendship soulmate that she thought of the other girl as. It was very possible she'd only get that green mark and no pink mark, but that didn't bother her.
Given that she was at a party, it shouldn't have been surprising that she lost track of time. She wasn't watching a clock as she danced, chatted and overall had a good time. Instead, she was only aware that the time had come when a burning like sensation happened on her arms. Both of them, around the same place. She excused herself to the bathroom to get a look at her marks in the light and realized, immediately that she had Kenzie's marks. The mirrored marks, outlined and bold against her skin as she took them in. Kenzie was her platonic soulmate, that's what the green mark said. But, the pink mark on the other side said she was her romatnic soulmate and suddenly it made sense. The perfect mirroring, that spoke to the same person being both side of what some considered to be the same coin. A soulmark was proof of a person that was everything you needed in one capacity or another. And didn't it make perfect sense that it would be Kenzie that would be her best friend, but also her romantic partner. She'd noticed that the other girl was beautiful, of course she had, and she'd even at times thought of her in ways that weren't friendly.
The occasional urge to see what she tasted like, to press their lips together and find out how Kenzie kissed. The urge to feel her breasts in her hands just to see how they fit. Those flashing moments that she brushed away because hormones, but that now spoke to something more. And even though she'd never considered dating Kenzie before, it made perfect sense that someday she'd marry her. That eventually it would have always led back to her spending her life with Kenzie. Kenzie who was intelligent and cautious and someday going to be a workaholic who would try to be there when she needed her.
She could see their lives in front of her now, a life where she was standing by her side at important dinners, where she got mad and Kenzie made it up to her with flowers and jewlery, where she demanded Kenzie come into bed during college and where someday they had a child who had everything they could ever want. It was a life that she would live very happily, with no regrets. It'd be comfortable and she'd be well loved and even better taken care of. She'd travel the world with Kenzie and they'd hire a cook and a mai. She'd throw gatherings and Kenzie would compliment her on a job well done. Kenzie would come home stressed from work and she'd distract her so thoroughly that work would be the last thing on her mind. It was all laid out already. But then, wasn't that what these marks were? A mark of fate?
She reached into her clutch and grabbed out her phone, dialing Kenzie's number and smiling as she heard her voice on the line. "Alyssa, is everything okay? I um, I thought you were at a party," she said. She was trying so hard to be normal, not wanting to bring it up even though clearly she knew. Kenzie was not a good actress. Despite that, she felt a surge of affection for her.
"When you propose, it's going to have to be spectular," she responded, not replying to any of what the other girl said. On the other end she heard Kenzie sputter a little, clearly not having expected this. "I'm not going to just say yes because of these marks, got it?"
There was silence on the other end for a moment. "Got it," Mackenzie said, her voice a bit shaky.
"Good, and I'll expect a great first date too," she continued on, not slowing her train of thought. There was no turning back now and she had no reason to want to.
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Post by Felix Craine on Apr 18, 2019 13:32:49 GMT -5
Felix had never been crazy about the idea of soulmarks. To him they seemed to very a very stupid thing. A mark on your body telling you who you should stick close to, or who you should love seemed to be a joke. His own parents certainly had never cared much about their marks - they'd shared one, he knew, from his mom's rantings but what did that matter when one of them was in prison for selling and the other was in and out of rehab for using drugs. They may have been fated to be together, but they certainly should not have been. There were his foster parents, to counter balance the awful reality of his biological parents and what their marks brought them. Sarah and Jeremy were good people, the genuinely good type, who shared a romantic mark and seemed to radiate love toward one another. Even so, the more cynical part of himself wondered if the whole reason that they'd gotten together was just because of the mark. If that was the case, they were forcing themselves together and could have been happy with anyone if they'd tried.
So, he certainly was not looking for a romantic mark to appear on his skin. He was okay with the idea of a platonic one, since it just meant to be friends with someone and that was far less of a commitment than what a romantic mark tended to imply. Besides, he wasn't even sure he could ever be happy just being tied down to one person. It seemed stifling to him. As it was, when he started seeing people, he didn't see anyone seriously. He stuck to flings and friends with benefits, not wanting to form an attachment to anyone.
He started to mess up though, when he began seeing Carter's sister, Rachel. They saw each other often, mostly just for physical things, but he had to admit that he liked her. She was sharp, funny, and didn't take herself too seriously. On top of the physical chemistry that they had together, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that he started to get attached to her. Slowly, without him realizing it. He started to spend time with her more and more, until they were in a strange place where it wasn't a relationship really but it was the closest thing that he'd ever had one. When Rachel mentions that she wants to start dating her best friend, he feels a touch of something like fear but he pushes it aside. It turns out that he didn't need to worry either, because she explains that she wants to date her best friend without stopping things with him. That the other guy is fine by it and they'll make it work.
Then, his sixteenth birthday came and though he was still hoping that he would have only a platonic mark or even a mark that was scarred over - he didn't get his wish. Worse, he got two separate romantic marks. The first he notices is a diagonal line, cutting across his left arm with a width of a few centimeters. It's unlined. His mind thinks of Rachel before he can stop it and he hastily pushes that thought out of the way and looks to the mark on his other arm. It's a romantic mark too, a peanut looking shape that sat practically in the center of his arm. Being unlined as well, the thought that there were two possibilities for Rachel being the match to a mark did come to mind. Though, he was easily distracted from that to the fact that he had two marks at all that were both romantic.
He'd learned a little about polyamory when Rachel had brought it up, thinking it might describe himself too. Apparently it did and that was actually a bit of a relief. It did, of course bring to mind the idea that it was Rachel who would share a mark. But then, what would happen if she didn't? He didn't want to entertain these thoughts even longer, so he went ahead and ignored them to the best of his ability.
He tried to ignore the marks as much as possible going forward. He'd caught Rachel looking at them the next time that they'd gotten together, though she didn't mention it. Nor did she mention it when, a few weeks later the peanut shaped mark got an outline. It happened, ironically, when he was busy hooking up with Rachel and he'd almost missed it because he was so taken in all the sensations of his body that he barely noticed the more painful one. He also tried not to think about whoever it was that had turned sixteen so shortly after himself. After all, there was no saying when or if he'd even meet that person.
When he ended up meeting Rachel's boyfriend, he got stuck on how much he didn't like it. Didn't like the fact that this guy was so confident in his relationship with Rachel. Didn't like this feeling that was given off, like he was the disposable one here. And he found himself wishing that Rachel might at some point be the one who got that diagonal line. It was a thought that struck him dumb for a few minutes as he reveled in the undeniable attachment he'd formed and the attachment he wanted to her. It was too much to handle, even when Rachel tried to talk to him and they agreed that nothing had to really change between them.
Breaks came and went and then Rachel's birthday rolled around. No matter how much he was trying not to focus on the fact that she'd be getting her mark or marks, his mind wandered to the fact throughout the day. And when he felt the sting of the line getting its red outline... he couldn't help the sigh of relief that came as a result. Rachel sent a text to him, a simple image, showing the matching mark to the one that he had and another mark on her hand as well that was outlined. Was it Jamie's? He didn't care. He didn't have anything to be jealous about. He was just as serious as Jamie was.
It took him all of two minutes to decide to go and see Rachel, who opened the door to her room after one knock. There weren't words that he could think to say, but it didn't seem to matter because he pulled the artist into a kiss and shut the door behind them and that was all that mattered.
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Post by Natalie Martin on Apr 23, 2019 14:34:23 GMT -5
The thing about soul marks was that Natalie wasn't sure that she wanted one. She had no bad experiences in her life around them. Her parents shared a romantic mark and they were very happy together. Maybe, she'd read too much into people who were not happy with the mark sharer that they had. People who felt trapped in a relationship just because of the markings that were on their skin. That wasn't what she was afraid of for herself, but she didn't want to be with someone who only wanted her because they happened to have the same miscolored pigment on their bodies. Nor, did she want a friend who felt obligated to her for the same reasons. She wanted people to like her as herself, to want her for who she was. It didn't seem like an unreasonable thing. Some people thought differently though and thought that she was very strange for worrying about such a thing. Those were people who had a very large amount of faith in the marks. She was never one for blind faith.
Her sixteen birthday came, although it wasn't really her birthday because being born on leap day meant that her birthday only came every 4 years, but on March the 1st, the mark came anyway. Her birthday was early in the morning and since she'd made no attempt to stay up to see her marking, she was awoken by a stinging on her right arm. In the dark she couldn't see anything, but she didn't jump up to go to the bathroom. She went back to sleep, trying to ignore the fact that her body had something new and foreign on it. The next morning as she got ready she couldn't help but look though, glancing down at her arm and finding that her mark was luckily not very big. Located just below her wrist bone, a small trapezoidal shape sat - no bigger than a quarter of an inch, a pink mark that was outlined in red was now present on her skin.
She knew some people covered up their marks and it helped that she already was one to wear a watch. Once she put on her watch the mark wasn't even visible. So, she went about her day without any fear of anyone noticing her new mark.
As such, she did her best to forget about her mark, not on the look out for the matching mark. It seemed unlikely that she would have met the person who shared it anyway.
She went about her life as normal and part of going about that life as normal was hanging out with her friends when she had free time. One friend, who she had made recently, was a boy named Seth. He was very cute, very sweet and for a white boy surprisingly self aware of his privilege. All together, she couldn't help but have a little bit of a crush on him even though things were currently a strictly platonic relationship. So when he asked if she wanted to do something, she agreed and took him to favorite Korean restaurant, inviting him to try some authentic food.
He was more adventurous than she anticipated and when she asked him if he wanted to try some of her octopus, he surprised her by accepting. He reached across to her plate that she was offering out and she saw it. The very same trapizodial shape that hid behind her watch. It was a good thing she had a good poker face because the shock that she felt was intense enough that had she been standing she probably would have had to sit down. Unthinkingly, her eyes looked up to his face. This was the guy that the universe had decided would be her perfect match. This lanky photographer, dirty blonde and very white, but attractive and kind and willing to try new things.
Suddenly, she was afraid though, to tell him that they shared the same mark. Not wanting him to decide that he was interested in her just for that purpose. So she tried to ignore the mark and finished her dinner with Seth, chatting with him and having a really good time.
Summer came and they kept in contact, though she tried to make sure she wasn't forcing anything just because she thought that she should be. It happened though, that she found herself naturally just wanting to talk to him. Naturally, wanting to know about how things were going and missing spending time with him. Then, she found out that he liked her as his mom teased him about it and she felt her heart lift. They agreed to go on a date when they got back to school.
The date went very well. She was really happy and so when they went on another date, at the end of it she invited him back to her room and decided to let him in on the fact that they had the same mark. "I've got something to show you," she said, once they were inside her room and sat on her bed. She undid her watch and held out her wrist to him so that he could see the mark there. He looked at it and then looked back up at her, as if he was surprised by its presence. Not that she could blame him.
"I'm sorry I didn't show you before, I just..." she paused, trying to gather her thoughts.
"I understand, it's a lot to have your life decided at sixteen," he offered. He did look like he was nervous, like something might be bothering him. It made her feel bad, though she knew she had logic on her side in this.
"No, it's not that," she answered and then sighed. "It's just... I didn't want you to want me just because of this. I wanted you to like me outside of the mark. I didn't want anyone to feel forced to be with me."
At this he looked surprised, as if that thought hadn't crossed his mind before. "Natalie," he said, reaching out to push her chin up to look at him more fully. "I was hoping that it would be you. I'm not picking you because of a mark, believe me."
She leaned forward, capturing his lips in her own and kissing him gently. It took her a minute to pull away and when she did she stayed close still, their noses practically touching. "I'm glad it's you," she told him quietly. Because she really was, maybe the universe knew what it was doing.
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Post by Shane Micklesen on Sept 2, 2020 16:18:30 GMT -5
Shane tended to view life as an adventure and so on his sixteenth birthday, he just saw it as another part of his adventure. Getting soulmarks was going to be an adventure to find the matching piece of them. He could guess already, who would hold one of them and it was his twin brother. Thomas was less of an adventure, he would place money on who would hold his twin's romantic mark even if it would take a little under a year to see the result. Still, he was confident on that end. In terms of who would hold his own... well, that he had no clue about and that was what was exciting. There was, of course, the possibility that he wouldn't have a romantic mark, but his parents shared one and even Kevin had one so it seemed likely that he would have one too. If not, he supposed that there'd be even more of an adventure to find someone to settle down with but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.
The day seemed to drag until it got ot the point where the marks did appear and he was surprised, pleasantly, when he realized that he didn't have one or two marks, but three total. There was a green circle on his left wrist, directly on the bone that he didn't have to wonder about for long because only a couple of minutes later it was outlined as Thomas got his marks. Another green mark was on his left arm, a triangle shape that was about an inch long and pointed outward. He wondered, idly, if that would end up belonging to Karen, as they'd gotten closer lately but it would be a while before that was discovered. Then, on his right thumb, maybe an inch long, was an unoutlined pink mark that sort of looked like a sideways spoon if he had to describe it. He had no idea who the matching mark would belong to, but then, Kevin was still rocking an unoutlined mark and he didn't seem to be too concerned about it. There was time to figure it out still.
It was a year and a few months later when the outline appeared on his romantic soulmark. It happened out of the blue, without Shane having had any idea that it was coming - which he supposed was the case for most people. It wasn't like everyone was like Thomas had been, waiting anxiously the birthday of who he thought was his soulmate (and it had been, which Shane had not tired of teasing him over in the last six months). The only disappointment that Shane had was that Kevin had gotten his own romantic soulmark outlined before Shane had, but he did not stop teasing his older brother that his apparent soulmate was younger than Emily even if they were older than Shane's. Ever since the line appeared, Shane pondered aloud who it might belong to. What kind of person they might be, even slipping to ask if anyone thought it might belong to another guy - a conversation that dissolved into him figuring out that the idea was not something that Shane minded at all.
As everything else in his life, Shane took the mark to mean that an adventure was ahead of him. He did not purposefully seek out his other half (other sixth? with three soul marks and each person being half he wasn't sure what the math was and when he'd tried to ask Kevin about it his older brother had told him he didn't have time for this nonsense) because he knew that eventually they'd end up meeting each other. As such, he didn't stop himself from getting involved with others either, figuring that there was nothing stopping him from living his life in the meantime and neither of his parents had anything to say against it. Both of them seemed to be fully on board with it, saying that being involved with others was a good way to grow and find out about himself.
On occasion he'd find himself glancing at the marks of others, mostly out of curiosity. He didn't expect to actually see anyone have the matching mark, it was just a habit. Of course, he knew that some people also hid their marks for whatever reason, but Shane figured that if his soulmate hid their mark he'd still end up coming in contact with them most likely and he never bothered to do anything to cover his own up.
Things continued this way for another year with Shane happily going about his life, graduating from high school and starting at college where he met new people that didn't hold his mark but were nice to know anyway.
The day that he found that he had already met the other half of his romantic mark happened by accident. If anything had been logical, it would have been Kevin going with his mom to drop off the old refrigerator to the daycare of one of her old friends. If things had been logical, the one there to help unload it might have been Sofia or Ethan or even Liam. Things weren't logical and it was Kylee and Shane who ended up there.
Shane had known Kylee since he was young though their families weren't near as close as his was the Parker or Hale households and it'd been a few years since he'd seen her in person. Social media was different, he'd noticed her there now and again as he scrolled through it. Noticed that she'd grown up gorgeous, that she was very attractive. Seeing her in person reminded him of that, so after they'd sorted out how they'd been the ones who ended up on the insane duty of helping to move a refrigerator, he decided to flirt with her some.
Why shouldn't he? She was good looking and he was there and as far as he knew she was single. Not only that, but he realized as she spoke that she wasn't wearing make-up. On social media she always had make-up on, always. Even without it though, she was insanely good looking and he was going to let her know. "I just realized, you're not wearing any makeup," he said. "I've never seen you without makeup - you know, since you've started wearing it. You weren't a five yera old decked out in lipstick and that eye stuff. But you've got a good face."
A blush colored her cheeks and she glanced down for a moment. It was endearing. "Well.. thank you." It made Shane feel a little smug to see such a simple observation paying off. "I actually just figured there was no point in bothering with it today since we'd only be coming over here."
Shane had never considered the occasions that lead women to put on makeup before, he thought they just sort of did it or didn't. "Well, like I said, you've got a good face so bothering or not, I think you could go other places and people would think so too," he teased her. "You'd probably have other people stopping you to say what a good face you have. Ask if you'd considered modeling. You know, the usual for beautiful girls."
His teasing seemed to make her happy but there was an underlying shyness to her as well as she pulled lightly on her shirt sleeve. "I'm not sure it would go quite that far," she said as she looked back at him with a small smile.
With how much Shane had been hanging out with Karen lately Shane had forgotten that there were people other than Emily who did not just accept every compliment as if it were a given. "I would," he grinned. "But it's probably safe to say that we're going to need to agree to disagree to end this. Or we could do a round of rock, paper, scissors, but I warn you, I'm pretty well trained in the art of beating people at games of complete chance and skill. So, you'd be going in at a bit of a disadvantage up against me." This was all playful banter. He was no better or worse than the average person at rock, paper, scissors.
Kylee laughed at it though. "Well I'm sure you're well trained, but I don't think you'd find it easy to beat me," she teased back. Apparently a bit more at ease with him than she had been now that he wasn't just laying on the compliments. "I have training of my own."
Her teasing was refreshing and interesting, it made him just engage more. "Oh, you have training of your own?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. His tone was serious but his eyes danced. "I'd like to see it put to the test, but be warned. I had to overcome classic twin telepathy in order to get my training finished. So I think I've got a leg up on you. Unless you've got a secret twin you and your family have been hiding from the rest of us."
"Twin telepathy does seem like something tricky to get around." She seemed like she was trying to keep serious like him but her amusement colored her tone and there was a smile that played at her lips. "And not something I have experience with." She shook her head. "I do, however, have a very bright, very insightful little sister who loves all kinds of games, and playing against her has given me skills of my own."
"Sounds like a challenge to me," he taunted, bringing his hand up to the starting position. Their eyes were locked and she didn't pay attention to his hand. "Let's see what's stronger, little sister or twin brother. I've got to predict that twin telepathy will win this one though." Now he gave her a cheeky grin and she giggled back.
"Alright, best two out of three then," she answered, her own hand raising up.
It was then that he looked down and he froze, he smile falling off of his face as a look of surprise took hold instead. Right there on Kylee's thumb was his spoon mark, identical and outlined and staring back at him.
"Shane?" Kylee sounded confused, she hadn't noticed it yet but following his eyesight she saw where his gaze had landed and then looked over to his hand, catching on. "Oh." It left her in a surprised way.
They stood there in silence and then Shane couldn't help but laugh, throwing his head back and shaking his head at the same time. The logic of the marks wasn't something that he'd ever been able to puzzle out and he couldn't find many people who could. It was just one of the mysteries of the universe, his dad liked to say. And now that he was here, he couldn't help but believe it.
Chancing a look at Kylee, Shane saw that she wasn't looking too comfortable at the moment and he held up a finger to let her know that he'd explain in a moment. "It's just- now Ethan and Kevin not being here actually serves a cosmic purpose."
At that she couldn't help but smile a bit too. "I guess it does," she agreed.
"And I guess we're going to be spending a lot more time together," he went on, finding that he was very pleased with the idea. Kylee was interesting and he had a feeling that they were going to have a lot of fun together. She blushed a little as she nodded but she looked happy with him. "I think, this is the start of a very exciting adventure."
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Post by Karen Parker on Sept 2, 2020 19:22:48 GMT -5
The thing about being the youngest of three was that Karen already knew a lot about soul marks from seeing her older sisters deal with them. Well, sort of. Emily had one single mark and it matched - to no one's surprise - the romantic mark that Thomas had so that was pretty much the most anti-climatic mark reveal in the world. Andrea on the other hand spotted a, frankly more impressive, mark that was missing its match. Karen was interested to see who would end up sporting it and she knew that her sister was just as eager to figure it out. Then, of course just recently Shane had reconnected with Kylee after finding out that she had his romantic mark and he seemed happy thus far. There was no saying that Karen would have a romantic mark and that didn't bother her to be honest. If she just had a platonic soulmate that would be fine. Despite the fact that all the adults in her life had the romantic soulmarks she didn't think that it was a necessity.
It wasn't like she was taking dating seriously right now anyway, she was far too young with that. Sure, she'd started seeing Chloe a few months ago and things were pretty chill between the two of them but she felt a little like she was just the first stepping stone in Chloe's relationship with women as she'd only ever been involved with the opposite sex before. It was kind of an honor and she was happy with it. By now she'd seen the marks that Chloe wore, a platonic mark that looked like a slightly uneven spiral and sat on the back of her right hand, mirrored on her twin's body. As far as she knew it was the only mark that Elsie wore, but Chloe also had a romantic mark. It was an unassuming thing, a little almost incomplete circle that looked like a pie missing a piece probably a few centimeters across that was on the outside of her left forearm. It was unlined. Her eyes caught it now and again, as if she was checking up on the progress, almost expecting that it would suddenly have a red outline against it one of these times. It never did. That likely didn't mean anything.
Certainly it didn't mean anything that Karen still hadn't gotten her marks yet. No matter what Shane said.
Given the fact that her birthday fell on a Wednesday and that classes took up a large portion of Karen's day it wasn't surprising that she'd be in class when her birth hour was to roll around. She knew that she'd end up updating the family chat before the end of the day with what happened, knew that they'd all be waiting for it and that Shane would likely straight up just call her to bother her if she didn't reach out to him. There was not so subtle speculation amongst the family group (hers and his) that the still unlined soul mark that rested on his left arm might belong to her. Personally, Karen didn't need a soul mark to know that she and Shane were going to bother each other for years to come. It was gay/bi solidarity.
Dance class was when it happened. She was in the middle of a jump when suddenly there was pain on her left arm, a deep and scratching pain that felt burning around it after. She grimaced and completed her jump before looking down at her arm and for a moment the world just stopped. It wasn't one mark, although it looked close enough that it might have been. On her skin - sticking out stupidly with how pale she was - there was a green triangle, outlined and very clearly matching the mark that she'd seen on Shane's skin a million times before. If she had to guess he was probably already texting her and bragging about being right, maybe making a stupid joke. But right next to it, as if trying to form the rest of the picture was Chloe's mark. It was that stupid incomplete pie and with her triangle so close it looked that if it were pushed just a bit over the triangle would fit into the empty space of the pink mark. Like some stupid powerpoint chart where one section had been pulled out to illuminate how important it was. Already she could guess Shane was going to make 50 or so jokes about the fucking pie chart on her arm apparently showing a large percentage of soul belonging to Chloe and the other part belonging to Shane.
This was not what she was expecting and she didn't know what to do.
"Ms Parker, care to join us back here on Earth?" her teacher asked sharply.
"Yes," Karen sighed knowing that dance class was not the place where she was going to get peace. So she shoved it aside and went back to practicing, trying not to think of anything other than what she was supposed to be doing.
By the time class came to an end Karen was unsure what the hell to do next. It wasn't like Chloe didn't know today was her birthday. It wasn't like she could just hide this forever or that she thought that the other girl wouldn't put the pieces together - a voice that sounded stupidly like Shane's joked about pie pieces and she wanted to drown herself in the shower that she was currently taking. The only thing left to do was accept that she was going to have to tell Chloe and apparently she had her whole life figured out at sixteen.
Chloe wasn't the problem, she liked Chloe a lot. The problem was... who wanted to know who they were going to spend their life with at sixteen? Who decided this? Who thought it was a good idea?
Karen checked her phone when she was dressed and found that Shane had sent a barrage of text messages, several photos of his newly outlined mark, a few gifs and a meme that was so stupid she couldn't help but roll her eyes. After texting back a quick, shut up, she got her books and went to her last class of the day. The history lesson was harder than usual to sit through and she wished that she would have just gotten her marks after school had finished, not that she'd know what to do any better then. Her notes weren't great, though she managed to take some, trying to figure out how to talk to Chloe without seeming like it was Chloe that was the problem. After all, she didn't want to hurt the blonde's feelings even though she had no clue what she was feeling about all of this either. For sure Elsie probably wasn't thrilled about it.
The first thing she did after classes were over was send a group text to the family, showing off her new marks, knowing already that they'd know who both belonged to. As expected her mom was excited and happy for her, Emily and Andrea both were congratulatory for her and her dad posted some gifs about his baby growing up and a 'I do not see' image. Shane had made and tagged her in a overly photoshopped image of the two of them declaring that they were now best friends forever where he'd just straight up photoshopped his mark onto her arm as he didn't have a picture of it. She flat out refused to send one when he asked, wanting to put off the jokes for as long as possible.
For the next few hours she just didn't contact Chloe, which was a bit odd in their normal day to day communication and she guessed it was the other girl not wanting to make the first move after what happened. Finally, though she sighed and clicked the Facetime icon on her phone.
Unsurprisingly, Chloe picked up after just a couple of rings. She looked a bit nervous though she was clearly trying to hide it. "Happy birthday," she greeted.
"Thanks," Karen answered and there was another beat of silence. "Okay, let's just get this over with." She held up her arm with her stupid almost pie chart of marks. "You know it and I know it. Here it is."
"Don't sound excited about it or anything," Chloe said under her breath before continuing louder. "I sort of figured that would be the case."
"It's not you," she rolled her eyes. "It's about me."
"Really? That's what you're going with? It's not you, it's me?" Chloe looked decided unimpressed.
Now Karen fixed Chloe with her own unimpressed look. "I like you Chloe, you know that. I just wasn't expecting everything to be so obviously planned out this early. You know. It kind of puts a bit more pressure on what we're doing."
"It doesn't have to. Nothing really has to be different," Chloe pointed out with a shrug. "I don't see why we can't continue on as we have been." There seemed to be something unsaid there. Maybe the idea that it was clearly how things were going to end up anyway.
"So you're fine with nothing changing."
"I'm fine with nothing changing right now."
Karen didn't know if it was possible to argue with fate or whatever, if anything she did now would ultimately matter - her dad had a lot of opinions about this topic and she'd heard them all without ever coming to a complete conclusion. She supposed that all she could do was go forward and that things with Chloe would either sort themselves out or they wouldn't. "Okay," she answered. "I guess we're still on for Saturday then. I mean, after my party on Friday."
The call had a sense of normalcy after that and if Karen got a threatening text from Elsie, well Karen probably texted her back to tell her to fuck right off. Chloe might be her soulmate but Elsie was not and that was one relationship she still had a say over. Somehow, she had a feeling that Chloe would have a tougher time fitting the pieces of her soul together than Karen was going to.
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