Alicornutopia

Flicker has started talking about a hypothetical girlfriend-o-mat. Despite its being ethically questionable, I think I would find a sandbox featuring a hypothetical partner-o-mat* interesting, although I’m not sure how to solve the ethical issues. But I’m imagining, say, an Adarin using the machine (maybe he's forced to by the horrible society around him) and getting a Bell.

*The obvious way to make the words “girlfriend” or “boyfriend” gender-neutral would be “childfriend”, which obviously does not work.

If it literally created an SO to order it would be creepy as all hell. As an unusually effective possibly transdimensional matchmaking machine, however...

I think the neutral is "genderfriend".

I'm seeing, like, "Character A stumbles across strange machine in abandoned laboratory and ill-advisedly presses big red button, receives soulmate".

And I'm seeing it as Mark/Ari, because I am a simple man with simple likes.

Googling gives lots of options for generic terms. I think “datefriend” is the one I like best, for the rare times I would need such a term (usually I want more generic—romantic partner, SO—or specific person—where I would use whatever term they preferred).

I suppose if the device teleported you to another world near somebody who had mutual attraction potential and wouldn’t mind moving to a new plane, that could work. It might then show an Adarin a Shell Bell or an Aether. As long as the machine also provided a means of getting back, it would be mostly useful and shouldn’t have too many ethical issues (although still some).

I didn’t want to say Mark/Ari because Marks and Aris have both been shown with other partners. I think Adarins are the only ones we haven’t seen with multiple types of SO.

Well there's, like, Edward. But you're right, Adarins do seem to have quite a strong pattern there.

I notified Aestrix that a comment was coming up that I expected the Adarin template to feel smug about. An Adarin is pretty exactly what a Bell would order up out of a genderfriend-o-mat unless they had somehow already gotten the idea of just going with an alt of themself.

(And it's possible to devise Bells for whom alts of themselves wouldn't work; like, the Incandescent Bell we never got around to from the BDSM AU would not be able to make it work with another Bell because Bells may come in more than one gender and come in masochist and ace and bi and gay and so on... but they don't come in "sub". At best they come in "vanilla but willing to play around with it" and that wouldn't cut it.)

Presumably the datefriend-o-mat does something with people who don't have a single best possible partner, which encompasses most purples.

A Mark who hit the button on the mystery box would probably get an Ari or maybe a Revan.

God only knows what a Miles would get - depends heavily on context. You could give them an Ekaterin, a Gregor, an Yvette, another Miles, a Bell, a Libby, Torin Kerr...

A Joker could get practically anybody. The characteristics of the person are almost incidental, it depends completely on how much they would appreciate a sudden dateable Joker.

This entire concept is sooo amusing xD

AndaisQ wrote:I'm seeing, like, "Character A stumbles across strange machine in abandoned laboratory and ill-advisedly presses big red button, receives soulmate".

And I'm seeing it as Mark/Ari, because I am a simple man with simple likes.

you are a man of great likes.

Adarins get kind of upset with me if I suggest that maybe that they should have other options besides Bells available via button press. "What? No! Only Bells! All circumstances! Bells!"

Yvette growls at the prospect of the machine existing and is not only the opposite of tempted by it, but she is asking how the hell she can break it. If it brings in only willing participants she will refrain from breaking it but growl at it from a corner. She kind of, uh, hates the idea of there being a button of this kind at all and would be upset if I ever made her press it, so, I will not do that thing.

Revan thinks he'd get a Libby. Not to imply that he wouldn't be happy with anyone else, but Revan's been making heart eyes at Libby in my head for a while now. He's maybe biased.

Zevs would probably get a Luzia-equivalent, or maybe a Joker. An Alli is also a valid candidate.