Today in MiL, I have a story that I’m sure will melt everyone’s heart! I interviewed Celine who met her other half Matthew on hexrpg.com, a Harry Potter RPG site, when she was only 15 and he was 17. She was “Mayoke” and he was “Axrix” who were both new students who met on the Hogwarts Express. They first talked shyly about what sorting they may be put into- she got into Gryffindor and he into Slytherin, but soon they’re shyness wore off as two realized that Harry Potter wasn’t the only thing they had in common…
Celine: Another interesting part of our meeting was that he and I signed up on the very same day (Dec. 16), but just a couple of hours apart. He lived in AK at the time so the time difference was a couple of hours, but we both found the site the same day, after school, and signed up immediately. Oddly enough, we didn’t touch our accounts until one month later, STILL on the same day (Jan 16) and posted that thread on the same afternoon. Weird, huh?
Chicka: Yeah! That is WEIRD that you both signed up at the same time and winded up posting on the same day! What was it that attracted you to him, and did you two exchange pics with each other?
Celine: Yep, we exchanged pics but that didn’t happen until a few weeks or so later after first talking. It took awhile before we realized that we didn’t know what the other looked like!
I was attracted at how he came off as a decent guy, if that makes sense. It was like, he could have very easily bragged about things that he didn’t do or whatnot but he was very… humble when we talked about real life things. At the time, I guess we were cautious because it was an online thing and, you know, you could never be too sure, but one day he said, ‘if you’re comfortable with it, I would like to talk to you on the phone’. And I really liked how he was polite about it. So I agreed and when we talked on the phone, that’s when I honestly started to like him.
He was very polite and courteous when we talked and he was funny without trying hard. He asked thoughtful questions without being too prying and he told me about himself without completely dominating the conversation. All in all, it (to me anyway) was a fantastic first conversation! 
We only talked for about 20 minutes maybe, but we ended up knowing a little bit more about the other. It probably sounds all mushy gushy, but Matt’s a very considerate guy and I really liked that about him.
Chicka: Awwww! I love mushy stories, so don’t worry 
I know how it is dealing with 100s of guys on the internet every day, so when you actually talk to one who’s kind and considerate, it’s actually shocking! So when did you two just decide you had to meet?
Celine: We didn’t meet until Christmas break of that same year, but after the first conversation we expressed a wish to do so. So we began planning!
Seeing as we were still both in high school at the time, we had to get parents to agree and when they did, he suggested to be the one to come down to me instead of me coming up to see him because he was considerate (again) of the fact that I was younger and that my parents might not be comfortable with me leaving. So he flew down to GA from AK about a week before Christmas and my dad and I picked him up from the airport. When we saw each other, we were hesitant at first because we weren’t sure. It doesn’t help that we were gawky, awkward teens and when we finally introduced each other, we just shook hands instead of hugging! We were shy :). And on the way back to the car, he kept pinching me in the arm and when I finally asked him why, he said that he wanted to make sure that the situation was real. He stayed til New Years and we both cried when he left.
Chicka: I bet that was an awesome Christmas present in itself, and I guess this sealed the deal on the trust issues you may have had about anything. Was it hard to keep interested in him since you were having a long distance relationship (and since you were young), or did you keep each other company through role playing online? And did you two play any role playing games together as well?
Celine: Definitely the best present ever! To have finally met each other, hugged, held hands, and act like a regular couple made the previous months worthwhile and it opened up the conversation of us wanting to be with each other for longer than school breaks. I mean, yeah, we still had some trust issues, but we learned and worked through it as the months went on.
And no, it wasn’t hard for me to keep interested in him despite the distance. Matt is the most random person I’ve ever met and he makes every conversation interesting. It kinda saved us from the whole ‘we’re seeing each other way too often’. We already understood that it was going to be a bit more difficult really so we had to learn to deal with little fights and tiffs with a bit more maturity. After meeting, we ended up talking more on the phone and IMs instead of talking thru the site and our Rp-ing kinda tapered off at the time.
The RPs that we did keep, we let our characters become a couple and I guess it was an outlet, letting the characters hold hands, hug, etc because we couldn’t at the time. ^^
One thing we did pick up on is while we talked on the phone, we would play our PS2s together. We would go out and buy the same game (typically the Final Fantasy series), play them together if we were on the phone, or apart when our phone cards ran out. We would compete to see who would finish the game first, who unlocked the most secrets, etc, and we would also act like each other’s walkthroughs thru the FF-series like ‘oh, there’s a chest in that corner that you really can’t see’ or ‘I killed this boss with this and that’. It was a different sort of ’spending quality time’ but, hey, it worked for us! And on really bad days where we really just wanted to see each other we would go, ‘one day, we’ll talk face to face instead of over the phone’, making mushy little promises like that and for the mean time, that was good enough.
Chicka: I always had to buy the walkthrough’s and search in random forums to get help on Final Fantasy, 
I’m so jealous! That sounds like so much fun, and to be so young you two love birds seemed to handle the distance very well. Gaming and role playing together definitely seemed to take the edge off of the loneliness of being away from each other. When was the breaking point where you finally decided that there would be no more long distance?
Celine: Haha! I depended on walkthroughs too! But Matt said he wanted to play the game his ‘own way’ so I tried it and it was more fun in the end. I didn’t like dying more often than I usually would have, but it was all in good fun.
He was originally going to join the Marines after high school, but a few months before he graduated, he changed his mind and said that he wanted to move down here to GA. It wasn’t a very well thought out plan but my mom and dad, who already liked him, offered him a place to stay, rent free, until he was able to survive on his own, i.e. have a job, etc… So, he graduated, stayed at his home a little longer to earn some money, then moved down. It was about a year and a half of online dating before we were finally a regular couple! Well, him staying in my house didn’t exactly make it ‘normal’ (it’s almost like an anime plot), but that just meant that I got to spend more time with him! It really was worth waiting for.
Chicka: You had some cool folks! I know lots of people would die to have their boyfriend stay with them at that age! Well, since your story is almost like a fairy tale love story, with the unconventional meeting on a Harry Potter forum, would you say that once you got your prince you lived happily ever after?
Celine: Yeah, my parents were really understanding, but of course, they laid down some seriously strict ground rules. Happily ever after? Goodness, no! Well, at least, not until 2 years later anyway. It was like, the online thing was merely a preview of what was to come!
He finally joined the Marines late the following year (Dec. 2005) and after boot camp, he proposed, but had to leave again so we were back to a long distance, online relationship for about 9 months. He was really busy during that time so there wasn’t much time to play games or talk on the phone like we used to.
Then he was transferred to NC and he got to visit me every weekend and our quality time, once again, was playing video games/hanging out, but now in the same room. We had to be thrifty with money so we hardly went out on ‘proper dates’, but playing games was good enough quality time!
After about a year long engagement, we got married and I moved up to NC with him BUT four months later he got deployed to Iraq, so BACK to another long distance, online relationship/marriage for about 7 months.
Then when he came back (which was this May), we were finally together again and that’s when he introduced me to the wonder that is WoW. We played together, back to back, in the same room, and it is indescribably fun! At the moment, he’s back in CA doing some desert training, so there’s hardly any contact, but he’ll be home in about a week. What REALLY sucks about our relationship is that in the 5 years we have been together we have spent barely 2 years in each other’s company. It’s kinda crazy when I actually put a number to it, but we’ve spent so much time apart and normally that would drive any one else crazy, but I guess because our relationship started out long distance, it prepared us more or less for the future time we’ll be spending apart. We’ve learned to be much more patient with each other and in the relationship and learned that if something’s bugging us, we just come out and say it because who knows when the next phone call would come with his schedule. It was a good start considering we had no idea that we would have to part again! It was like a trial run, or something. 
But right now, where we are in our lives, I could honestly call this a happily ever after, because I know that it could have gone a lot worse than it did. Sure, we were separated a lot, but it never hurt our relationship and it just made us appreciate the time together even more. It’s kinda like the romance and the spontaneity is still there because we never fell into any sort of routine, if that makes sense.
Chicka: After all this time apart you’re still together, and in most relationships it would have fallen apart with the long bouts of distance you’ve endured. I think it’s safe to say that gaming and role playing has played an important role in the happiness of your relationship and keeping that bond while you’re far apart. Not to mention you have a wonderful husband! It seems to me that you got the “good ending” in Final Fantasy.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Awwwww thats soo cute!!
It was certainly a ‘Final Ever-After Fantasy’ ^^!!
Loved it, me and my husband met when we we’re 15 and have been high school gamer sweethearts ever since ^^
Cuuute story Chicka!! <3
September 12th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
awww! This was uber cute!! I never would have thought of starting a feature about a topic like this, but it makes for a fantastic read!