The wheel, not the heart
FLAMES is a procedure. You do not interpret “energy” and you do not weight vowels. You cancel, you count, you strike letters off a six-item list. That is why two classrooms can disagree about a couple: they cancelled nicknames differently, or they counted from the next letter after a strike instead of restarting at F. This page documents one consistent walk so a result can be checked.
The six labels are theatre. “Enemies” from a leftover count of five is not a feud. “Marriage” is not an invitation to book a hall. Keep the drama on the screen.
How the leftover count is used
After one-for-one cancellation, let N be the number of letters still standing. Start on F. Count N steps around whatever letters are still on the wheel, remove the letter you land on, and continue from the next surviving letter. Repeat until one letter remains. That letter is the category.
Example rhythm with N = 4: count F-L-A-M and strike M, then keep walking L-A-E-S-F… until the list collapses. We never reduce N itself — the same leftover count is reused every round.
Worked example: Amit and Neha
AMIT and NEHA share one A, so that pair cancels once. Leftovers are MIT + NEH, count 6. Walking F-L-A-M-E-S with 6 lands on M — Marriage. Compare that with “Amit” and “Suman”, where A and M both cancel: leftovers IT + SUN, count 5, and the same walk lands on F — Friends. One cancelled letter changes the whole wheel.