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Playing With / Long-Distance Relationship

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Basic Trope: Two halves of a couple live far away from one another.

  • Straight: Alice and Bob are a couple, but Alice lives in California and Bob lives in the UK.
  • Exaggerated: Alice lives in California, and Bob lives on the moon.
  • Downplayed:
    • Alice and Bob live three hours apart by car, and communicate via messaging services such as Discord and the phone between visits.
    • Alice and Diana don't have a romantic relationship over the internet. However, they regularly make video calls to each other and let the other control their remote vibrator during them, to see who can keep a straight face longer — in essence, they have a "Long-distance Friends with Benefits" situation.
  • Justified:
    • Alice and Bob started dating when they did live in the same area, but one of them had to move.
    • Alternatively, they only realised their feelings for each other after moving apart and decide to act on it despite the distance.
    • Alice and Bob met at a Fan Convention of some sort and only get to see each other in person once a year at the convention.
    • Alice and Bob met on an online dating service or through a "pen-pal finder club" or something.
    • One of them is in the military, and is on active duty.
    • For whatever reason(s), Alice and Bob have to keep their relationship a secret.
    • One of them has been sent to Prison.
  • Inverted: Alice and Bob live in the same town or city.
  • Subverted:
  • Double Subverted:
    • But then it turns out that Alice is a foreign exchange student from England and has to go back there at the end of the semester. And Bob doesn't want to break up simply because of that.
    • But then decide later that they can make it work and close the relationship, or simply end up not seeing other people anyway.
    • But they live about an hour or two away, so meeting up would be inconvenient.
    • They really miss and/or want to see each other in-person, though.
  • Parodied: Alice and Bob live in completely different universes!
  • Zig Zagged: Either Alice or Bob is constantly moving, and thus moves either significantly closer or further away from their partner.
  • Averted:
  • Enforced: "Hmm...let's see. Last season, Alice was Put on a Bus, but we want her to get together with Bob without too much Continuity Snarl...I know! We'll make them have a Long-Distance Relationship!"
  • Lampshaded: "My girlfriend lives in England, so I only get to see her once a year...thank God for the Internet!"
  • Invoked: Alice meets Bob through an online forum.
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied:
    • Alice and Bob decide that warm, fuzzy feelings to the contrary, an LDR is just too stressful and inconvenient. They decide to be Just Friends.
    • Deciding that such a relationship is too stressful, they decide to close the distance by moving in together.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "Oh, so Alice is Put on a Bus yet decides to get together with Bob anyway? Who else is getting the feeling that they're foreshadowing her return?"
  • Implied: Bob is seen gazing longingly at his phone sometimes while typing text messages and occasionally mentions his girlfriend, but she is never seen nor is it mentioned whether she lives in town or not.
  • Deconstructed: The long distance can put strain on the relationship: there's UST and the fact that the other person is missed but not there, and it can lead to cheating...or jealousy and suspicion of cheating.
  • Reconstructed: Alice and Bob agree to spend time talking to one another and invest in webcams, and they make the most of the time they do get to spend together in person. They also agree to be faithful to one another and stick to that.
  • Played For Laughs:
  • Played For Drama: Alice and Bob miss each other so much, and get jealous...the relationship becomes an emotional rollercoaster. Can they overcome their problems? Or will they end up breaking up?

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