Sage

BEN

✦quality time✦

✦physical touch✦

BEN’s rather easy to please if you’ve got the personality to match.

He wants to include you in as many activities as possible. To him, you’re more than a pretty face that keeps his bed warm – you’re his best friend and he’ll treat you as such… even if he communicates this poorly through a hundred layers of post-modern, perverted, depraved internet humor.

Most “dates” will be spent playing video games and absentmindedly talking about God knows what. It’s what he feels most comfortable doing, especially if he gets to hard-carry you. You’ll literally never hear the end of it, but it’s all in good fun. Plus, he’s a good multitasker and only ever remembers what’s going on in a conversation when there’s a lot of background noise and he gets to keep his fidgety hands busy.

You could explain your field of study or profession to him using highly technical terms and he’d be able to process that knowledge and ask thoughtfully transformative questions about your wants and dreams… as long as he gets to vape, listen to music, play video games and scroll through social media on his second monitor while you’re telling him all about your life, engaged in a game of your own or joining him in co-op. Truly his favorite pasttime. BEN loves entertaining you. It boosts his ego knowing that he doesn’t even need to put in any effort… you’ll think he’s funny regardless. There’s an unknown fuzzy feeling growing in his chest every time you’ll laugh at one of his stupid comments. He likes knowing that he’s taken seriously but not literally. This profound emotional stability is also why he likes touching you so much.

He’s not very clingy, his love isn’t suffocating, it’s a quiet buzz instead. Feeling your skin against his becomes another form of mental stimulation for him quickly and he almost needs it to regulate his emotions sometimes. You’re his safe place, which is why he needs you to know that he’s there for you, too. His physical form, due to his… unconventional circumstances as a living, breathing computer virus, doesn’t often leave an impact in real life so he makes sure his presence is felt around you.

✦ ⎯⎯୭ ୨♡୧ ৎ ⎯⎯ ✦

Toby

✦physical touch✦

✦gift-giving✦

Toby has that special death grip on you, I fear.

He is absurdly clingy and only ever happy when you’re by his side… essentially glued to him. This man is unbelievably touch-starved and desperate so he cannot help but act a bit out of line sometimes.

To him, it’s perfectly normal to bury his head into your neck and audibly smell your hair, commenting on your shampoo and perfume and telling you – with hearts in his eyes, mind you – that he missed you even though it’s barely been 12 hours since he’s last seen you. And he means every word.

Yes, Toby is socially inept and behaves a bit strangely… some would even say inappropriately.

He truly does not mean any harm doing this, though. It’s actually pretty cute how honest and blunt he is with you. He’s not afraid of being himself around you after he gets used to you as his partner; then he’s at his happiest when you pick tonight’s show and let him curl into you and hold you as tightly and intimately as he pleases. His big brown eyes would follow you around and every time you hold his gaze he’d look a little less sad. He’s also just a little quieter, more at peace, when you touch him. He’s so wired and twitchy due to his barrage of issues that these moments recharge him completely and make him fall that much deeper in love with you.

At the same time, he just adores handing you stuff that reminds him of you. It’s almost never an elaborate gesture and mostly involves little trinkets and seemingly pointless objects, but Toby is so sincere that it’s guaranteed that there’s always a deeper meaning behind everything. He may not realize this himself but he needs to include you in everything he does. He just wants to drown in you, which is why you’re circling his thoughts even when you’re off doing your own thing.

No matter the place, he wants to prove that you’re a part of his every fiber – whether it’s a seashell, an acorn, a feather or a blurry-ass picture of a stray cat he’s taken, he shows you something once you reunite at home.

…And he’d be delighted if you’d do the same, honestly.

✦ ⎯⎯୭ ୨♡୧ ৎ ⎯⎯ ✦

Laughing Jack

Easily most likely to form an unhealthy bond with his partner.

Jack would move mountains to keep you by his side. He would light himself on fire to keep you warm. Once he’s chosen you he’d be aware of the danger he’d be in. He’s never known romantic love before and never will again. You’re his one shot, his first and last attempt and he is intimidated by the sheer scope of his feelings. You’re the only one truly capable of hurting him – you could shatter his soul into pieces by abandoning him now. Jack doesn’t fall in love easily at all but when he does it’s a commitment for life whether you want it or not.

He’s used to being overlooked, being overshadowed and being forgotten. He’s broken in ways that aren’t human; he’s an anomaly, an abomination. Meant to be an imagination come to life he can’t help but feel like he lacks purpose if he cannot live up to what he was meant to represent, a fantasy. He was meant to be whimsical and joyous yet turned out to be bleak and depressive.

Deep down, he is deathly aware of what he’s become.

You will have to be both incredibly intelligent and emotionally tuned-in to realize that Jack started playing a role as soon as you officially became a couple. The title cemented the idea into his head that he will have to keep you happy to be worthy of love, because nothing in his life has ever been unconditional. Every bit of joy has been followed by heartache in his life. Jack’s waiting for it this time around and prepares for it by ripping himself apart in the meantime. He can be stopped but it’s very much difficult to deprogram him.

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Toby

Toby never even thought he’d arrive at this stage. He dreamed of falling in love and finding his special someone, but his life was thrust into chaos before he’d known it.

He’s never had a single positive bond outside of his own family back then and even then they were shaky and rooted in shared trauma. He’s known what social exclusion was before he could spell his own name, never having a place where he belonged.

Now he wants to do better and break the cycle, but it’s hard.

Toby definitely puts you up on a pedestal. Outside of his… profession he has no confidence in himself and thinks you’re weighing your options every other day. He needs a ridiculous amount of reassurance and displays of affection in order to stop spiraling. Romance with him isn’t easy because he’s so clingy and unpredictable. One day, he’ll act like the most confident lover and stare at you in confusion when you’re doting on him and other days he’s falling apart because you didn’t text first. It is that extreme and there is no in-between with him.

You will have to be attentive and sweet to a fault to make it with Toby, always relying on empathy and clear communication to make this relationship work, otherwise he’s simply going to destroy your life by escalating further and further. He does not know normal and needs to be taught from the ground up, one day at a time. At the same time, his love burns the brightest because he is so desperate to be different from what he’s known deep down.

✦ ⎯⎯୭ ୨♡୧ ৎ ⎯⎯ ✦

BEN

Surprised to see him this high up the list? He’s here for a completely different reason. BEN is brilliant in more than one way. He’s unbelievably intelligent intellectually and emotionally. He thinks about what most people are numb to or unaware of. That led to an isolated and lonely life no matter what he does. Jokes and strange compulsions aside, BEN could do so much more with the cards he’s been dealt despite everything but he refuses to show a different side of his, fearing that it would shift his relationship dynamics altogether.

You got to know him as a nonchalant funny guy, you fell in love with that side of his, would you truly love the anxious BEN who needs to down a cocktail of stimulants while obsessing over his video game of the month to quiet his ADHD-riddled brain because he thinks so much that he just… shuts down sometimes? When the world goes quiet is when his brain gets loud and he absolutely despises it.

Nothing ever truly challenged him. Even when he hit rock bottom he managed to get by relatively unscathed… which is exactly why he cannot deal with friction at all. It completely disarms him and destroys his act. He wants to show that he cares but is afraid of the consequences of opening that can of worms.

BEN knows that relationships are tough work but he is truly desperate to keep the peace because he doesn’t know what to do with himself otherwise.

You will have to match him in intellect and humor in order to push through his worst habits and get to the bottom of his carefree nature, unraveling at his own pace. Casual as ever, BEN would throw in certain things that happened to him in passing and that’s when you know that he’s slowly changing.

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Tim | Masky

Tim, despite everything, still lives. Sometimes it’s a positive yet most often it’s a reason to want to burn down the whole world. This life wasn’t meant for him. He hates himself for becoming a little less himself every passing year. The man he once was and the one he turned out to be hardly have anything in common these days… aside from the deep distrust that’s corrupted their entire being.

It’s no wonder that Tim doesn’t let people get close to him because everyone he’s ever loved died before his very own eyes, sometimes at his own hands. He’s a ticking time bomb just waiting to drag someone else down to Hell with him. He doesn’t trust others since he’s been through so much trauma and betrayal over the years but he trusts himself even less.

However, Tim is still a selfish, selfish man. He can still fall in love and he falls hard. It’s a life he isn’t allowed to have, but a man can still dream. He approached you because he acted on his feelings, he wasn’t thinking rationally about the baggage he came with and wasn’t aware that it would derail your life, too.

He would want you to be pliant and obedient, but he needs the opposite. Someone who wouldn’t run when things get rough, someone who could put him in his place and talk back. Still, you would have to be soft and kind to get through to him. He cannot deal with stern pushback, that would just provoke him, but he can be persuaded to let his guard down and reveal his lowest moments to you if he trusts that you wouldn’t turn on your heel. Then it’s “us against the world” – forever.

✦ ⎯⎯୭ ୨♡୧ ৎ ⎯⎯ ✦

Jeff

Oh, oh.

Jeff has a list of issues that make him very unstable but the worst ones in this situation are his commitment issues coupled with his arrogance. Deep down, he knows what he is and that he’d be better off dead but you picked your poison, which means this is on you rather than him. He just went along with it because… he was bored and thought you were hot.

Jeff is a hedonist through and through because he’d break under the pressure if he had to consciously dissect his life and unpack every traumatic experience to process it properly. He cannot do it and nobody will ever have the power to make him. Then why mention this at all? Well, once things get bad, Jeff has a particularly terrible habit – he destroys his life. Not literally but it comes close. He runs away and numbs the pain in whatever ways he deems necessary. Even though he would hate you for it at first, you have to chase him when he gets like that and insist on working on it. Jeff doesn’t know reason but he does know emotion.

And as soon as he realizes that you love him enough to run after him to stop him from ruining whatever you guys had his ego grows tenfold. He wouldn’t even understand why he’d prefer to listen to you than give into his desires, he’d never dare to explore this feeling… but it’s there.

Knowing he’s the only one able to make you behave that way has him high as a kite off the power it gives him over you… and deep down it makes him feel better about the power you have over him, even if he’d never admit it to you.

✦ ⎯⎯୭ ୨♡୧ ৎ ⎯⎯ ✦

Brian | Hoodie

Brian knows that some things are unforgivable. There’s no path toward redemption for him to take anymore. He’s gambled away his chances and lost at life. Sucks to suck. He never wanted to be evil; in his mind, he just is. That hardened him considerably and caused him to view people like they all have bad intentions in mind. Most of the time, it works. He deescalates situations since nobody would like to see what he’s capable of… it has saved him a lot of migraines. What drew him to you was the fact that you were pure. Your warmth engulfed him so quickly that he thought it was a tactic to burn him alive, but he couldn’t be further from the truth. He was a charmer with a silver tongue yet you didn’t care about that, you wanted to get to know him.

His greatest vice in your relationship was probably his tendency to atone for his sins through your kindness. Brian’s protective instincts just kicked in gear around you and he found himself far more emotionally invested into you than he liked.

To him, you weren’t his endgame… he wasn’t allowed one of those. You were a distraction. Yet he found himself falling deeper and deeper, which is why he slowly revealed things about himself that proved that he was darkness while you were his light. It was his way of testing the waters, watching you very carefully to see whether you’d be squeamish around him after realizing that you didn’t know the man who claimed to love you. You would never know the depth of his depravity but you’d have a general idea when the time’s right.

You still looked at him like he was your whole world, albeit a bit more concerned.

And he flashes you a real smile.

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Eyeless Jack

All in all, compared to what Jack’s been through he’s a well-adjusted person with a sound mind. Most of the time, anyways. The only thing that he’ll have to carry around for the rest of his godforsaken life is his existential insecurity. Jack loathes himself more than anything else. He’s ashamed of… everything he represents. From his looks to his endless hunger for flesh – it’s a testament of his… wrongness.

At the same time, he yearns for connection. Just a friend would do! Seriously. He doesn’t dare to ask for anything. Even among freaks, he’s the other, the monster. He’s aware that most of his human features were eliminated and that he’ll never get them back, but his soul has largely remained intact, unfortunately. When Jack isn’t starving, he still possesses a moral compass, has a sense of justice and a code of conduct that he strictly abides by. He’d rather tear himself apart limb by limb than give into his demonic urges. He objectively looks the least human yet has the most humane heart out of everyone, which is also why he struggles so, so much.

He has little reason to be so wary of himself even if most of the others think he’s creepy as Hell – as long as he locks away the demon within him he’s, all things considered, a fantastic friend, lover and, yes, mate. Jack doesn’t need your reassurance because you’d never change his sickening beliefs about himself but it does lessen the sorrow one compliment at a time.

You don’t need any special traits, in order to be compatible with Jack you just need to give him a chance and look past the monster and set aside your fear to let him in.

He’ll forever be indebted to your kindness.