Once upon a time, two children met to play together. They each brought something special with them. The little boy had a bag of beautiful marbles. The little girl had a bag of delicious candies.
The boy offered to give the girl all his marbles in exchange for all her candies, and the girl agreed.
The boy gave most of the marbles to the girl, but secretly kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble for himself. The girl gave him all her candies as she had promised.
That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep at all, because he kept looking over at the marble he'd kept and wondering if the girl had hidden the tastiest of her candies from him the way he had hidden his prettiest marble.
If you don’t give your all in a relationship, you’ll always doubt the other person.
It's a lesson for kids, so not much nuance, but the point isn't that you have to give someone absolutely everything. It's that they agreed on what they were going to give each other and the boy knowingly didn't hold up his end. If you're the sort of person scheming to get more than you give, you're gonna assume everyone else is like that too and never have a healthy relationship.
I know people like that. Beck comes to mind. Also that sounds like a marriage metaphor. Or I suppose here a contract one. I have a hard time drawing lines between the two, given what the City is.
They're both meant to be long term commitments with legal benefits. You could argue about similarities and differences between the two but honestly I don't think the technicalities matter as much as how you treat them, you know? Even back home what marriage means to people varies a lot between cultures and throughout history anyway.
The big difference to me is that marriage implies you're in love and even a permanent contract can be platonic. That's me personally -- there are places in my world where marriages are arranged for social or financial reasons, you know? But how I was raised, it's gotta be romantic.
Yeah? I'm not surprised, actually. I think if you were around couples who married for love you probably picked up on it, even without knowing the cultural implication beforehand.
I think that would appeal to Ephemera. I don't think my relationship with Cyram's ever been that sort of thing, exactly, but it's also never been without kink.
It appeals to me, too. No big ceremony, no religious bullshit, just vows in front of a few people we cared about. And then whatever my best friend wanted to do for a party because neither of us could ever tell her no.
[ Boy is he ever glad this is text, because :( ]
Those things don't have to be mutually exclusive. But it's more important that whatever you did felt right for both of you.
Her name is Lup. She made our rings for me, since it wasn't like you could go shopping on that world. You've probably seen mine and didn't pay much attention, I wear it on a chain now.
I used to wear it, but sometimes I'd catch him looking at it like the reminder was too complicated so I took it off. Then we signed, and around the first time we decided to renew he came across it in the drawer and said it was okay if I put it back on. So we talked about it, and the chain felt right.
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notleavingquietly) wrote2037-07-18 11:23 pm
text; un: holloway
The boy offered to give the girl all his marbles in exchange for all her candies, and the girl agreed.
The boy gave most of the marbles to the girl, but secretly kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble for himself. The girl gave him all her candies as she had promised.
That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep at all, because he kept looking over at the marble he'd kept and wondering if the girl had hidden the tastiest of her candies from him the way he had hidden his prettiest marble.
If you don’t give your all in a relationship, you’ll always doubt the other person.
Re: text; un: holloway
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When you say that about contracts and marriage, you mean the permanents?
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How do you see them? Marriage and contracts?
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I kinda miss being engaged.
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Who were you engaged to?
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Ephemera. I asked after about two years... still threw him for a loop.
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Did you do a wedding?
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[ Boy is he ever glad this is text, because :( ]
Those things don't have to be mutually exclusive. But it's more important that whatever you did felt right for both of you.
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Does Ephemera know what it is?
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I used to wear it, but sometimes I'd catch him looking at it like the reminder was too complicated so I took it off. Then we signed, and around the first time we decided to renew he came across it in the drawer and said it was okay if I put it back on. So we talked about it, and the chain felt right.
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I respect that.
But also, for fuck's sake.
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--wait what? Why would you be concerned about me?
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