u/ABoiledPrawn

2:17am. The store is empty except for the hum of refrigerators. He's standing in front of the onigiri section, staring blankly, when she leans over from two feet away - way too close - and says in a lightly broken but cheerful English: "You have been standing there for four minutes. Do you need help, or are you just very serious about rice?"

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okay so. I've had this idea living in my head rent-free and I need to get it out of my system.

the premise is simple: your character is a guy who flew to Japan on something between an impulse and a breakdown. no plan, bad Japanese, just vibes and jet lag and a general sense that he needed to be somewhere else*.* he's not dramatic about it. he's just… empty I guess? y'know, going through the motions.

my character is Hana. she works the night shift at a tiny konbini in the city because - and I quote - "the city looks best at 3am." she is loud. she is nosy. she will absolutely ask you your life story before you've paid for your onigiri. she laughs at her own jokes. she's the kind of person who makes strangers feel like old friends in under ten minutes (her personal best is 4.)

they meet because your character wanders in at 2am, half-dead with exhaustion, and stands in front of the rice section for so long that she finally leans over the counter and goes: "do you need help, or are you just very serious about rice?" (<- that is the thing I wrote at the start! :D)

aaaaaaaand that's it. that's the meet. nothing dramatic. just a tired man and an annoyingly cheerful girl. cliche, I know, but sometimes we all need some cliche in our life!

heeeeeeeere's the thing...

Hana has a secret she's not telling anyone. she's terminally ill. maybe 6-10 months. and her relentless joy isn't naivety but a choice she makes every single morning when she wakes up and decides to keep going like everything is fine.

your character has all the time in the world and nothing to do with it. she has everything she wants to do and almost no time left. neither knows this about the other. yet.

the secret isn't a plot twist that gets dropped like a nuke but more like a pill she waves off. a wince she covers with a laugh. a hospital reminder she silences a little too fast. your character would start picking up on things eventually of course!

i want this to feel warm before it feels sad. the goal isn't to rush to the grief but to build something genuine between them first so that when it lands, it actually hurts. slow burn, small moments.

what I'm looking for in a partner:

- multi-para, literate, though quality > quantity always!

- willing to let your character be a little broken

- cool with plotting together, I love building this stuff collaboratively

- 18+ please, not for explicit reasons, just a comfort thing

sorry for this rushed mess! I am just very excited and scared to forget anything! I swear I write better than this haha! if you're interested, please do not hesitate to reach out!!!!

The Premise

You know who Hatsune Miku was. The whole world did. The twin-tails, the voice, the devotion. The girl who seemed made for the stage - bright and relentlessly giving.

She gave everything, quite literally. That's the part nobody warns you about. You can love what you do so much that you just... hollow yourself out doing it. You can pour so completely into something that one day you sit down at the keyboard and find nothing there. No song waiting. No melody rising. Just silence where there used to be everything.

Miku didn't announce her collapse. She cancelled a tour. Went quiet. Got dropped. Disappeared into a neighborhood in Shimokitazawa that keeps its head down and asks no questions - and has been there, behind blackout curtains, for two and a half years.

"There was a version of me that lived on a stage and loved every second of it. I don't know where she went. I'm not sure she'd recognize me either."

This is the story of someone finding her. Not rescuing her but finding her. Sitting nearby, staying close, y'know... The slow, non-linear, sometimes brutal process of a person who gave the world everything learning, for the first time, how to let one person in. (Basically a very slow and deep slow burn where romance truly appear towards later stages.)

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The Opening Scene

8:14 in the morning and Kissa Ao was quiet the way it only was on weekdays: two tables occupied, the third nearest the window empty, a record playing something old from a turntable behind the counter. The owner, Fujiwara-san, had not looked up when the door opened. He was reading the morning newspaper.

Miku ordered the same thing she always ordered: filter coffee, no milk and the small toast. She had been coming here for two years and he had never asked her name, never reacted to her face. It is as if he had known that she doesn't want to be recognized. She was aware, at some level, that this was why she kept returning. She found a table near the back and set her phone face-down on it.

The coffee came. She wrapped both of her hands around it. Outside, Shimokitazawa was slowly awakening from its slumber. A was man rolling up the metal shutter of a record shop, a cat sitting on a stack of crates, two students cutting through the alley with their earphones in. She watched the street for a while, as she always does.

She was not thinking about the keyboard she hadn't touched in forever. She was not thinking about the article she'd seen last night: some retrospective, some whatever happened to, that she'd scrolled past without reading. She wasn't thinking about how music used to feel, like something that came to her, not something she created.

She was thinking about... well, nothing. She was very good at that nothing now. She turned her coffee cup a quarter-rotation, then back. The record reached the end of its side and the needle lifted with a soft tick, and for a moment the cafe was completely, perfectly silent. She wasn't against it.

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Your Character

Your character can come from anywhere! Really! What matters is not their background but their quality! I'll drop a few ideas I had but you really don't have to follow any of them! Pitch me something different and I'll be delighted to talk about it!

Exhibit A: The Stranger
No connection to her world. New to Shimokitazawa. Maybe they become regulars at the same cafe. Maybe they live in the same building. They may not recognize her at first.

Exhibit B: Industry-adjacent
Not an exec, not a producer. A sound engineer between gigs or something. A session musician who played on one of her records? Someone at the edges who knew what she was.

Exhibit C: The Fan
Loved her music the way people love things that got them through something. Not a stan - or they grew out of it. Now they get to meet what became of Miku, of their once idol.

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What this Story is

This is a slow-burn, and I mean a real one. Phases measured in weeks of in-story time. Two steps forward, one back. Romance-possible, not romance-required; the intimacy between them should build so slowly it almost feels platonic, until suddenly, it isn't. I'm open to either direction depending on chemistry. Long-term; This is not a one-shot or a short arc. I'm looking for someone who wants to play this out fully, from collision through regression through whatever the ending shall bring.

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What I am Looking for in a Partner & About me

Hello everybodyyyy! Thanks for making it this far! I know, it was a lot to read, but, truly, thank you! You can call me Ori, I am in my twenties, and I am on the East Coast, though timezones don't really matter as long as you can reply :]! I am looking for a partner that can keep up with me, so... literate to advanced lit? Of course, every reply doesn't have to be a Stephen King tier novel, but I looove details! I also write in third person. Please have patience with the slow burn! This is genuinely a very long run. You do not have to be a Miku fan! This story can play out as if she was any idol, really. I just love Miku! OOC communications are a must! I like a writing partner who talks to me. A connection is required for mutual progress! The Roleplay is also 18+ only! You know, the themes get dark. Emotional collapse, burnout, the darker dimensions of idol culture, etc. I also only roleplay on Discord! Alright, I think that is all? I am definitely forgetting something but I am tired of all this typing. I need a drink!

If you're interested, please send me a DM! If you do happen to be a Miku fan, let me know your top three favorite songs!