Soul mate- a person with whom one has a feeling of deep and natural affinity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, and/or compatibility.
Soul mate. One true love. Other half.
Every person is born with a letter on the palm of their hand, just one letter. Supposedly, it's the first letter of their soul mates name. No one knows exactly why it started, or when, really. It's just there. Growing up, children are often told the most common explanation, in the form of a fairy tale, a story that you tell your children when they start asking questions. When rumors start fly to around the school yard, spilling from 5 year olds mouths in excitement.
It tells of a man, who lived long ago, back when the United States of America was a democratic-republic. Now this man was nothing special, very ordinary, invisible to many, you could pass him on the street without giving him a second glance. He was a successful man, but like many people, couldn't find love. He was heading into his second divorce, bitterly, of course, and had all but given up on the concept of soul mates. After all, both marriages had started out beautifully, and had both resulted in children. He had been.. content. Looking back, he had realized he had never been truly happy with either wife.
From there on, the stories split apart. Some say God had rained down from the Heavens and pitied the fool, others say an Angel, defying Gods command, aided the lonely soul, and soon was cast from heaven to walk amongst his impure creations. Other religions use their specific deity, but every version, in every language, all end the same way, with a letter imprinted on his palm, the first letter of his soul mates name.
Now, you're not just stuck with a letter sketched into your palm forever, in time, the letter fades, unless, of course, you find your match. When you meet them, you might not know for sure, it might not be like those old movies. Your eyes might not meet across the way, you might not feel some magnetic force compelling you over to them, there might not be a magical spark and it might not even be love at first sight. More like love at first touch. Whether it's an accidental brush of the hands in passing, of a formal handshake, the moment the contact is made, the first name is completed. Some people don't feel a thing, while other have been known to report a sensation ranging from a slight itch to a short spark or long dull burn. With a name etched across your skin, permanently, after the first encounter, most couples don't even use rings, the name on your hand says enough, that you're taken, in love, and are destined to last. Officially off-limits to other suitors, bonded to one another forever, which is one reasons the tradition of proposal, rings and engagement died out. Why wait if your guaranteed that you're destined to be?
Of course, some couples still go the traditional route, with the proposal and marriage, the whole nine yards. The only difference now is that you can't get a divorce, fallen out of fashion, and eventually became illegal, because people only marry their soul mate, they know this is their one and only.
Destiny- the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events.
Destiny. Fate. Set in stone.
Back in the pre-letter age, very few people believed in destiny. Most just assumed they had free will, that they actually had a choice in the matter of love. That the "honey moon" period of the relationship would never die. Those naïve fools. They always end up with a broken heart. And what's worse, they often dragged kids in the matter. Broken hearts and broken homes. It was a time of chaos and misery.
Now, in the post-letter age, people are much happier. There are no misreading feelings, no reason to test the waters or fear falling in love with the wrong person. The letter saves us from confusion. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule.
It's a terrible thing, frowned upon in our society. Nearly all of the people commit suicide, or go into hiding, because they know. They know that this person isn't meant for them. But they still fell. Their hearts betray them, but no matter how hard they try, they're fallen. They say you can't choose who you fall in love with. Some even have a child, but these kids are shamed, shunned in the community. Because they weren't destined to be, a glitch in fate's design, a mistake, per say.
The Amiss, that's what those people are often referred as. Whether they fell for the wrong person, or are a lovechild from them, that's their title, and they are forced to be different, an outcast. Left alone in the world, without somebody to love them.