I Have Just Tried Making American Strawberry Cookies. But Somehow My Pure Britishness Got In The Way

YinWar will be switching in Jack & Joker, and we all cheered!

I'm not even exaggerating when I say these two have been going against industry standards since the very beggining, when they took the piss out of fanservice so hard that they became known for capsizing their own ship, and now they'll further deviate from the BL fixed pair norm and reverse roles as a way to tackle certain queer topics. Just last year @poetry-protest-pornography and I were talking about YinWar having both the willingness and the range to pull off something like this since they weren't held back by any company, and of course these men will deliver given that they have the luxury of doing whatever the hell they want as independent artists and producers of their own series. Dreams do come true!

[Eng trans.] Yin: I mean, people, let's say fans, will focus on "YinWar". By definition, "Yin" is the top in terms of roles, right? Y: So, I listened to the writers' ideas. They said that they intentionally reflected this issue, and that, in reality, it's not something fixed that way. Yin/Seoul: It switches. Y: Right. S: So it can be WarYin or YinWar. Y: Right. War: They wanted to convey that it's a matter of preference, and that it's much broader than that. It's broader than we think. The fact that two men should have fixed [sex] roles, only that way, or that people can only have one specific preference, it's not true. It's very flexible. It's something normal. Y: If people intend to be open-minded, we really have to be open-minded in the sense that they wanted to convey. After listening to it, it's brilliant. It's right. It feels like how it should be.

Cats vs my mum

Cat: claws at the carpet.

My mum: no! You ratbag!

Cat: glares and pointedly continues.

My mum: You’re never gonna make friends because you’re an arse.

Me: ouch harsh*.

Watching history 3: make our days count, and I’m only on episode 6 but I’ve cried and laughed more than I have with other tv shows.

I can’t wait for the next episode.

Update: shit. This made me cry for days. Don’t watch the ending. I’m never trusting history again!!!!

Preach!!!!!!^

I JUST WANNA TALK ABOUT NIE HUAISANG FOR A HOT MINUTE.

Ok. The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi has a lot of awesome characters. Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan? Epic. Love ‘em. Wen Ning? Precious. And I would die for the Juniors.

One character I was absolutely sleeping on was Nie Huaisang.

Now, one of my favorite tropes is Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass, except Nie Huaisang isn’t any sort of secret kung-fu master. He’s legitimately bad in a fight, and would rather other people do it for him anyway. And he’s not a schemer, not really - he stays in his lane, minds his own business. He just wants to sit here and feed his birds.

Except he’s always paying attention. He’s absolutely an airhead, but he’s listening. And watching. And asking the questions that sound dumb but make another character realize something important.

This ambush predator’s strength is being underestimated by literally everyone.

And he could have so easily been evil. He and Jin Guangyao have this in common: they are polite, and subserviant, and people don’t think much of them. But while JGY seeks recognition, power, and retribution, Nie Huaisang be minding his own business.

Until he isn’t. (Aw now you fucked up!) Then he’s gonna end this man’s whole career - with minimal effort and personal risk, of course. 

Just, wouldn’t it be a shame if the one guy with the power and motive to end you came back to life? And almost immediately met up with his soulmate “good friend” who would both kill and die for him? Wouldn’t it be a shame if the people who knew your darkest secrets were empowered and allowed to tell their story? Aw, nuts. Rough for you, man.

But my favorite part is how he absolutely wants no recognition. When JGY gets the chance, he monologues for two episodes. Nie Huaisang doesn’t say shit, and he would appreciate it if you’d stop bringing it up, actually.

I just - I might have to rewatch the show just for him, because during those last few episodes, every time he turned up just to say how he didn’t know anything about this or that, I almost died. 

Dude took a nap face-first on a dirt floor for hours just to avoid confrontation. Fucking legend.

SO HERE IS THE WHOLE STORY (SO FAR).

I am on my knees begging you to reblog this post and to stop reblogging the original ones I sent out yesterday. This is the complete account with all the most recent info; the other one is just sending people on senselessly panicked avenues that no longer lead anywhere.

IN SHORT

Cliff Weitzman, CEO of Speechify and (aspiring?) voice actor, used AI to scrape thousands of popular, finished works off AO3 to list them on his own for-profit website and in his attached app. He did this without getting any kind of permission from the authors of said work or informing AO3. Obviously.

When fandom at large was made aware of his theft and started pushing back, Weitzman issued a non-apology on the original social media posts—using 

his dyslexia; 

his intent to implement a tip-system for the plagiarized authors; and 

a sudden willingness to take down the work of every author who saw my original social media posts and emailed him individually with a ‘valid’ claim,

as reasons we should allow him to continue monetizing fanwork for his own financial gain.

When we less-than-kindly refused, he took down his ‘apologies’ as well as his website (allegedly—it’s possible that our complaints to his web host, the deluge of emails he received or the unanticipated traffic brought it down, since there wasn’t any sort of official statement made about it), and when it came back up several hours later, all of the work formerly listed in the fan fiction category was no longer listed. 

THE TAKEAWAYS

1. Cliff Weitzman (aka Ofek Weitzman) is a scumbag with no qualms about taking fanwork without permission, feeding it to AI and monetizing it for his own financial gain; 

2. Fandom can really get things done when it wants to, and 

3. Our fanworks appear to be hidden, but they’re NOT DELETED from Weitzman’s servers, and independently published, original works are still listed without the authors' permission. We need to hold this man responsible for his theft, keep an eye on both his current and future endeavors, and take action immediately when he crosses the line again. 

The timeline, the details, the screenshots (behind the cut)

Sunday night, December 22nd 2024, I noticed an influx in visitors to my fic You & Me & Holiday Wine. When I searched the title online, hoping to find out where they came from, a new listing popped up (third one down, no less):

This listing is still up today, by the way, though now when you follow the link to word-stream, it just brings you to the main site. (Also, to be clear, this was not the cause for the influx of traffic to my fic; word-stream did not link back to the original work anywhere.)

I followed the link to word-stream, where to my horror Y&M&HW was listed in its entirety—though, beyond the first half of the first chapter, behind a paywall—along with a link promising to take me—through an app downloadable on the Apple Store—to an AI-narrated audiobook version. When I searched word-stream itself for my ao3 handle I found both of my multi-chapter fics were listed this way:

Because the tags on my fics (which included genres* and characters, but never the original IPs**) weren’t working, I put ‘Kara Danvers’ into the search bar and discovered that many more supercorp fics (Supergirl TV fandom, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor pairing) were listed.

I went looking online for any mention of word-stream and AI plagiarism (the covers—as well as the ridiculously inflated number of reviews and ratings—made it immediately obvious that AI fuckery was involved), but found almost nothing: only one single Reddit post had been made, and it received (at that time) only a handful of upvotes and no advice. 

I decided to make a tumblr post to bring the supercorp fandom up to speed about the theft. I draw as well as write for fandom and I’ve only ever had to deal with art theft—which has a clear set of steps to take depending on where said art was reposted—and I was at a loss regarding where to start in this situation.

After my post went up I remembered Project Copy Knight, which is worth commending for the work they’ve done to get fic stolen from AO3 taken down from monetized AI 'audiobook’ YouTube accounts. I reached out to @echoekhi, asking if they’d heard of this site and whether they could advise me on how to get our works taken down.

While waiting for a reply I looked into Copy Knight’s methods and decided to contact OTW’s legal department:

And then I went to bed.

By morning, tumblr friends @makicarn and @fazedlight as well as a very helpful tumblr anon had seen my post and done some very productive sleuthing:

@echoekhi had also gotten back to me, advising me, as expected, to contact the OTW. So I decided to sit tight until I got a response from them.

That response came only an hour or so later: 

Which was 100% understandable, but still disappointing—I doubted a handful of individual takedown requests would accomplish much, and I wasn’t eager to share my given name and personal information with Cliff Weitzman himself, which is unavoidable if you want to file a DMCA.

I decided to take it to Reddit, hoping it would gain traction in the wider fanfic community, considering so many fandoms were affected. My Reddit posts (with the updates at the bottom as they were emerging) can be found here and here.

A helpful Reddit user posted a guide on how users could go about filing a DMCA against word-stream here (to wobbly-at-best results)

A different helpful Reddit user signed up to access insight into word-streams pricing. Comment is here.

Smells unbelievably scammy, right? In addition to those audacious prices—though in all fairness any amount of money would be audacious considering every work listed is accessible elsewhere for free—my dyscalculia is screaming silently at the sight of that completely unnecessary amount of intentionally obscured numbers.

Speaking of which! As soon as the post on r/AO3—and, as a result, my original tumblr post—began taking off properly, sometime around 1 pm, jumpscare! A notification that a tumblr account named @cliffweitzman had commented on my post, and I got a bit mad about the gist of his message :

Fortunately he caught plenty of flack in the comments from other users (truly you should check out the comment section, it is extremely gratifying and people are making tremendously good points), in response to which, of course, he first tried to both reiterate and renegotiate his point in a second, longer comment (which I didn’t screenshot in time so I’m sorry for the crappy notification email formatting):

which he then proceeded to also post to Reddit (this is another Reddit user’s screenshot, I didn’t see it at all, the notifications were moving too fast for me to follow by then)

... where he got a roughly equal amount of righteously furious replies. (Check downthread, they're still there, all the way at the bottom.)

After which Cliff went ahead & deleted his messages altogether. 

It’s not entirely clear whether his account was suspended by Reddit soon after or whether he deleted it himself, but considering his tumblr account is still intact, I assume it’s the former. He made a handful of sock puppet accounts to play around with for a while, both on Reddit and Tumblr, only one of which I have a screenshot of, but since they all say roughly the same thing, you’re not missing much:

And then word-stream started throwing a DNS error.

That lasted for a good number of hours, which was unfortunately right around the time that a lot of authors first heard about the situation and started asking me individually how to find out whether their work was stolen too. I do not have that information and I am unclear on the perimeters Weitzman set for his AI scraper, so this is all conjecture: it LOOKS like the fics that were lifted had three things in common:

They were completed works;

They had over several thousand kudos on AO3; and

They were written by authors who had actively posted or updated work over the past year.

If anyone knows more about these perimeters or has info that counters my observation, please let me know!

I finally thought to check/alert evil Twitter during this time, and found out that the news was doing the rounds there already. I made a quick thread summarizing everything that had happened just in case. You can find it here.

I went to Bluesky too, where fandom was doing all the heavy lifting for me already, so I just reskeeted, as you do, and carried on.

Sometime in the very early evening, word-stream went back up—but the fan fiction category was nowhere to be seen. Tentative joy and celebration!***

That’s when several users—the ones who had signed up for accounts to gain intel and had accessed their own fics that way—reported that their work could still be accessed through their history. Relevant Reddit post here.

Sooo—

We’re obviously not done. The fanwork that was stolen by Weitzman may be inaccessible through his website right now, but they aren’t actually gone. And the fact that Weitzman wasn’t willing to get rid of them altogether means he still has plans for them. 

This was my final edit on my Reddit post before turning off notifications, and it's pretty much where my head will be at for at least the foreseeable future:

Please feel free to add info in the comments, make your own posts, take whatever action you want to take to protect your work. I only beg you—seriously, I’m on my knees here—to not give up like I saw a handful of people express the urge to do. Keep sharing your creative work and remain vigilant and stay active to make sure we can continue to do so freely. Visit your favorite fics, and the ones you’ve kept in your ‘marked for later’ lists but never made time to read, and leave kudos, leave comments, support your fandom creatives, celebrate podficcers and support AO3. We created this place and it’s our responsibility to keep it alive and thriving for as long as we possibly can.

Also FUCK generative AI. It has NO place in fandom spaces.

THE 'SMALL' PRINT (some of it in all caps):

*Weitzman knew what he was doing and can NOT claim ignorance. One, it’s pretty basic kindergarten stuff that you don’t steal some other kid’s art project and present it as your own only to act surprised when they protest and then tell the victim that they should have told you sooner that they didn’t want their project stolen. And two, he was very careful never to list the IPs these fanworks were based on, so it’s clear he was at least familiar enough with the legalities to not get himself in hot water with corporate lawyers. Fucking over fans, though, he figured he could get away with that. 

**A note about the AI that Weitzman used to steal our work: it’s even greasier than it looks at first glance. It’s not just the method he used to lift works off AO3 and then regurgitate onto his own website and app. Looking beyond the untold horrors of his AI-generated cover ‘art’, in many cases these covers attempt to depict something from the fics in question that can’t be gleaned from their summaries alone. In addition, my fics (and I assume the others, as well) were listed with generated genres; tags that did not appear anywhere in or on my fic on AO3 and were sometimes scarily accurate and sometimes way off the mark. I remember You & Me & Holiday Wine had ‘found family’ (100% correct, but not tagged by me as such) and I believe The Shape of Soup was listed as, among others, ‘enemies to friends to lovers’ and ‘love triangle’ (both wildly inaccurate). Even worse, not all the fic listed (as authors on Reddit pointed out) came with their original summaries at all. Often the entire summary was AI-generated. All of these things make it very clear that it was an all-encompassing scrape—not only were our fics stolen, they were also fed word-for-word into the AI Weitzman used and then analyzed to suit Weitzman’s needs. This means our work was literally fed to this AI to basically do with whatever its other users want, including (one assumes) text generation. 

***Fan fiction appears to have been made (largely) inaccessible on word-stream at this time, but I’m hearing from several authors that their original, independently published work, which is listed at places like Kindle Unlimited, DOES still appear in word-stream’s search engine. This obviously hurts writers, especially independent ones, who depend on these works for income and, as a rule, don’t have a huge budget or a legal team with oceans of time to fight these battles for them. If you consider yourself an author in the broader sense, beyond merely existing online as a fandom author, beyond concerns that your own work is immediately at risk, DO NOT STOP MAKING NOISE ABOUT THIS.

Again, please, please PLEASE reblog this post instead of the one I sent originally. All the information is here, and it's driving me nuts to see the old ones are still passed around, sending people on wild goose chases.

Thank you all so much.

Dream catcher pt1

Soulmate Marks AU, RamKing.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097002

Everyone had a soul-Mark. The universe’s stamp on two people to mark them as soulmates. Some were a simple shape, others were lyrics, words or complex images. They could be in black and white, or full bursting colour. They could be positioned anywhere on the body. Rare cases they were under the hair or on the tongue.

Out of King’s friends, only a few of them showed off their soulmate marks. Bohn’s was on his left arm, positioned just above the crease of his elbow. A bouquet of red roses about ten centimetres tall. He wore it with a certain smug pride. The beautiful design much too pretty for someone of his character, their friendship group agreed. Boss and Mek both had the same soul-marks. The couple having been together since they were freshmen. They wore the black circular patterned marks like a fact. They belonged together, no-one could deny it.

King didn’t particularly care for the marks. His was stamped on his back at the base of his neck between his shoulder blades. A remarkably complex image of a dream catcher with black lines curling around the feathers. He liked to keep it out of the way, not hidden exactly, but private. Soulmates were an intimate thing. King knew that his would come along eventually. He was not going to go and search for them. For now, his plants and his studies occupied his time. But sometimes when he would admire it in the mirror, neck twisting awkwardly to see it, he would smile. It was such a stark black and white image, but complex and soothing. King would occasionally wonder if it would protect him against bad dreams.

The whole thing began when Bohn started to pursue a younger medical student called Duen. King found the situation amusing. Bohn insisted that the boy was his soulmate. The red roses Duen turned up with every morning proof. It was fun to see the cocky playboy Bohn so entranced. It took a few weeks before they got together but after that they were seen regularly around campus with besotted smiles. The red bouquet of roses on Duen’s wrist matching Bohn’s.

King was having to excuse himself from lunch early in order to get away from the two sets of couples. Boss ranting on about some test while Mek watched lovingly. Duen and Bohn smiling shyly at each other between every few bites. It was all sickened adorable. King had to get a book from the library anyway, so he excused himself early. Tee had gave him a pleading look as he left. The man now the third wheel. King made a mental note to hang out with that friend more, now that the rest of their group was occupied.

The library was quite quiet that day. King began strolling through the shelves, fingers trailing along the spines as he looked for the book he wanted. He was supposed to go to the engineering section at the back but he got distracted by the plant section next to the fiction books. He decided on a quick detour and began to read through the titles. After a few seconds, the sounds of soft footsteps made him look up. A younger student passed by the aisle and King remembered that he still had to find his study book. Reluctantly, he parted with the plants and followed the student round to the engineering section.

He found the book easily enough and pulled it from the shelf, tucking it under his arm. His eye caught something through the gap between the shelves. The student was leaning against the shelf opposite, reading the back of a book. He was mixed, paler than King, with a finely cut angled face. He was handsome. Short hair gelled back and black skinny jeans with ripped knees hugging his legs. The paleness of his skin and the way he stood gave off a silent stoic air. His tattoos and the ripped jeans making him look cool and aloof.

That was not what got King’s attention though, although his brain absorbed the information anyway. No, what he was looking at was the black design behind the man’s left ear. A dream catcher with black swirls dancing around the feathers. The swirls looking like the stems of a plant. King had to blink a few times as a jolt of surprise rant through him. His own matching mark itched under his shirt.

His soulmate was right there. King hadn’t been expecting him, nor had he been looking. But there he was. The man’s eyes flickered up, as if he could feel King’s gaze. King hurriedly looked away, trying not to blush at being caught. When he looked back up, the other man had disappeared. King tried to quell the rising disappointment. He would see the other again. With a sigh, he took his book up to the checkout desk. He’d see the cool looking boy again.

——

The second time he saw him, the guy was bent over a plate on the grass. King paused and poured the last few drops of his drink into the nearest plant pot before wondering over.

“You looking for something to put water in?” He asked. His soulmate looked up but didn’t answer. King held out the empty plastic cup and the guy took it. Smiling at the fact that it had been accepted, King crouched down next to him as he poured out some water.

“Are you feeding a cat?” There was no answer.

King tried again. “You a first year?” Still no reply.

“Why won’t you answer?” King’s tone was not annoyed. He understood that maybe it would take a while to get him to speak. Not everyone was as weird and talkative as King was. The silence reminded him of his plants.

“Can you speak Thai?”

“Hello? What’s your name? Where you from?”

“Bonjour?”

“Nihao?”

“Annyong?”

The guy raised his eyes and looked at King pointedly, obviously annoyed by the persistence. King beamed at him unashamedly. He would have said more but at that moment a dog came running over. Fear jolted his breath and King was leaping back onto the table behind them, trying to get himself away from the dog as quickly as he could.

The dog didn’t pay him any mind, which King was grateful for. It lolloped over and began munching at the food his soulmate had put down. The guy stroked its head fondly, completely at ease with the large animal.

“Eat slowly”. The words were quite but King already liked the sound of his voice.

“You can speak Thai!” He accused, only to yelp as the dog looked up.

The guy rolled his eyes and stood up, shouldering his bag.

“Where are you going?”King called as his soulmate began walking off. King looked at him pleadingly. “Hey! Take your dog!”

“Wait”. The guy didn’t turn around.

Maybe King needed to rethink this soulmate thing. If the guy was willing to leave him with a dog, then maybe he should just stay away. The dog sniffed at him and King tried not to scream. Yeah, maybe he should just go without a soulmate. That sounded like a good idea.

——

The second time King bumped into him, it was when Tee had tricked him into helping him with the volunteer project. King had meant to leave, regardless of the free drinks, but the younger students got there before he could. It surprised him though when his soulmate wandered through slightly late and sat down at the corner opposite. The guy seemed too shy for things like this but King liked having his mental picture of the guy changed. Obviously his soulmate was not as shy as he appeared.

So he found himself staying. Spending the meeting taking sips of his drink and listening to Tee talk, eyes trying not to dart towards Ram. He needed to stop being so creepy.

When the meeting had ended and all the juniors had gone, King turned to Tee. “Tee, the junior who was sitting there, is he from our university?”

“Hmm? Oh ram? Yeah. He’s on my roll”.

King nodded at the information. “What haven’t I seen him before?”

“Ram doesn’t usually do group activities. I don’t blame him. Visible soul-marks like that tend to get stared at”. Tee was right. It was not unusual to have a soul mark in a visible place but people tended to cover them up if they had not found their match. Ram’s was in a position where it was practically impossible to hide. It must gain him a bit of unwanted attention at times. King nodded again and took another sip of his drink.

“He only joined because I was begging him”, Tee continued. “He doesn’t talk much. It took me a few weeks to even find out that he was called Ram”.

“Ram”, King repeated, eyes looking up at the door Ram had left through. “What a weird name”.

“You always show interest in weird things”, Tee remarked. “He’s got a pretty soulmate mark though. Where’s yours again?”

“On my back. You’ve seen it before”.

Tee shrugged. “It was so long ago that I’ve forgotten. It was similar to that right?”

“Similar”, King agreed, glad that Tee had not recognised it on Ram. He wanted the time to get to know his soulmate at his own pace.

Ram. He pondered over the name as he finished his drink. His soulmate was weird and interesting. King liked weird and interesting things.

——

Later, when he had returned to his parents house for the weekend. He found himself searching up his soulmate’s name.

“Ram. Means glorious”, king read aloud to his plants. He chuckled. “It doesn’t suit him does it?” The plants did not respond but the sight of their lush green leaves made him pleased nether the less.

——

The third time King saw Ram, the guy was sitting at the bench King had used to hide from the dog. He watched as a Ram stood up to greet Duen. The two first years talked a bit as they passed over the donation box. As Duen left, King skipped up.

“So you can speak”, he greeted. Ram looked over, eyes suddenly closed. King tried not to let that weaken his resolve.

“You can even talk a lot”. Ram didn’t answer and moved to walk passed him. King held out a hand. “Wait, what if I want to donate?” Ram paused and stepped back. King tried not to grin.

“According to my analysis you only speak to people that you are close to right?” King broke off as he pushed some folded money through the slot of the cardboard box. “Wait, I’m not done donating. Since you only speak to people you are close to, then in order to get you to speak to me, we must become close right?” King pushed another note into the box.

Ram tried to push past again but King caught him. “But how to come close?” He continued. “With you being so cold to me. I should start by calling you cool boy and continue from there. That sounds closer right?” Ram just stared at him. King hesitated, another note in his hand. Seeing his hesitation, Ram took the note from his hand and pushed it Into the box before walking away.

King hurriedly turned around. “No answer means I can call you that!” He called at Ram’s retreating figure. “Cool boy!” He shouted, a tinge of frustration in his tone. Damn him and his stoic face.

——

The fourth time was when King was helping the volunteer group with their work. This time he knew that Ram would be there and had maybe come because of him, not because of Tee’s nagging. He was taking a break and scrolling through Facebook when he found a post that Ram was tagged in. He smiled as he sent a friend request and typed out a message.

,Look to your right.’

Across the courtyard, Ram leaned against a pillar as he took a drink. King watched as he took out his phone and looked up. King waved and Ram’s eyes settled on him. He gave him a smile before looking back at his phone and typing another message.

,If you don’t want to talk to me then you can text on here.’

King looked up hopefully only to frown in disappointment as Ram tucked his phone back into his pocket. King quickly typed.

,Are you ignoring me?’ Ram took a long drink and began crunching on some ice. The phone still in his pocket.

,I’ll make you talk to me eventually’. Ram tossed the empty cup in the bin. King tried to ignore his growing frustration. Ram was just trying to stir him up now.

,Remember Cool boy.’

King looked up again. Ram finally took out his phone only to hold it up to his ear. King bit his lip in annoyance. If that was how he wanted to play it, then fine! King would just continue calling him cool boy. Ram would open him up eventually.

——

The next time he saw him (king had stopped keeping count), Ram was sitting at a bench working. King walked over curiously, leaning over the other’s shoulder to see his worksheet. It was one he recognised. A class he had taken a few years back.

“There are many mistakes”. Ram jumped and turned to him, a accusing look in his eyes. King tried not to laugh. His previous frustrations melting at the sight of Ram’s stressed eyes and annoyed lips. “You can at least greet me cool boy”. Ram rolled his eyes at the nickname.

“What are you doing?” King asked. Ram didn’t reply but King was expecting it. He sat down on the bench next to him and peered over at the worksheet. “Of work from Mr Wachi? I know that. Let me teach you”.

King grabbed at the paper but Ram held on. Frustrated again, king tugged at it. “What? You don’t want me to teach you?” Ram stared at him. King tagged at the work again. “Okay, grab it, tear it off but then you’ll have nothing to submit”. Ram looked away and let go of the sheet.

King grinned triumphantly and pulled a pencil from his bag. He turned the paper around and began gesturing at the questions as he talked. Ram never spoke throughout the whole of King’s tutoring session but King did not mind. The occasional nod of his head and the clearness in his eyes showed that Ram was understanding King’s words.

When he was finished, Ram took back the paper and began packing his books and pencils back into his back pack. King sighed and turned to leave. “I’ll be going then”. A sudden hand on his wrist stopped him. The touch sent a spark rushing up his veins. It felt wondrous. And from the widening of Ram’s eyes, he felt it too.

King barely had time to absorb the open surprise on Ram’s face before the features closed off again and he was being pulled along.

“What’s going on?” Ram gave him a sharp gaze that made King feel breathless. He began walking, tugging king along behind him. “Hey where are we going? Cool boy!”

Ram continued leading him across campus. King followed along obediently, voicing the occasional question and not getting an answer. The touch of both their skin feeling warm and pleasant. He was obedient until they passed the dog from the other day. Immediately King was tugging against Ram’s grip and digging his heels into the grass.

“Cool boy! I don’t like dogs! No! Cool boy! Don’t!” He whined as Ram didn’t stop. He was obviously much stronger than King because Ram continued pulling King along behind him regardless to his struggles. “No! I’m afraid of dogs!”

Ram stopped and King halted. He managed to force his gaze from the large Labrador and on to Ram’s face. His dark gaze was calm and questioning, the hand on his wrist still comforting. King met his gaze and forced his breathing to soften. ‘Trust me’ Ram’s eyes seemed to be saying. King trusted him before he even asked. Behind Ram, the dog barked and King flinched. But he didn’t pull away. Ram turned and glared at the dog. It quietened and Ram continued walking. King running next to him in a desperate attempt to keep Ram between himself and the dog.

Ram took him to a restaurant just off of campus. His grip on King’s wrist only releasing once they had gotten to a table. King took his bag off and sat down, fear fading. “I was wondering where you were taking me”, he remarked as he looked around. “You want to thank me with a meal?”

Ram nodded once. King grinned, inwardly finding the cute gesture adorable. He turned and called for a waitress. She bustled over and gave both of them their menus. King spotted what he wanted and quickly wrote it down, passing the notepad to Ram who followed suit. Once the waitress was gone, King smiled.

“Thank you for helping me just now”. Ram nodded as if to say ‘no problem’.

King continued speaking. “When I was younger there was a vicious dog near my grandma’s house. One day it broke its leash and bit me. That’s why I’m traumatised”. Ram’s gaze turned sad. King wondered if he was sad over his fear, or sad over the dog being vicious. From what he gathered, Ram loved dogs. He felt a stab of shame of being afraid of them. Why did he have to be soulmates to a dog lover? Mentally, he made a resolution to try and get better around dogs.

Luckily, the food quickly arrived and King dug in. He was starving. “Hey, my friend didn’t order this”, he said, pointing at the third plate.

“It’s on me”, the waitress smiled flirtatiously at Ram. King frowned. Her soulmate mark was on display on her shoulder, a leaf. Nothing like Ram’s dream catcher. “Can I exchange it with your line Id?” She asked. Ram gave her a glance then turned back to his food.

King sighed. “I’ll eat this for you then”. He saw no point in wasted food. The waitress pouted and snatched the plate back, bustling off.

“Cool boy”, King whined. “Could you be more subtle when rejecting someone? I’m scared to order a drink now”. King liked the fact that Ram had rejected her but the way the waitress was now looking at them gave away her displeasure. Ram rolled his eyes and continued eating. King shrugged and followed suit.

King walked slowly with Ram down the street, the meal a happy weight in his stomach. “My car’s just over here. Thank you for sending me”, he smiled. Ram nodded as King’s phone rang. It was just his mother calling to check if he had eaten. When King ended the call and turned back around, it was to see a bottle of juice in front of his face. He jumped in surprise.

“Whoa. When did you get that?” Ram looked at him expectantly. “Is it for me? Thank you”. King took the juice and smiled. “If you have any more questions, feel free to text me. Thank you for the meal”. Ram nodded again and walked off, leaving King standing with a contented smile in the street.

He looked down at the juice in his hands. The cold liquid making him feel warm and fuzzy. Ram had taken his complaint seriously and actually brought him a drink. He was so sweet. A buzz came from his pocket and King rummaged for his phone.

,Thank you for teaching me senior.’

King couldn’t help the wide grin. Maybe he could do this soulmate stuff after all.

tin putting a piece of cantaloupe ( fruit ) into his mouth , while looking can directly in the eyes and saying “ cantaloupe is tasty “ has the exact same energy as ming eating a kit-kat bar and saying “ i love kit-kat “ to kit

and i’m loving it

Try Sweet Home.

So, I watch Strangers from hell and Alice in Borderland and now I got a little obsession, do you guys know more series like this?

Favourite Trope: meeting before canon plot starts.

BL dramas where the characters either met as children or before the show plot started. (Will include spoilers for each show).

- Time of Fever.

This drama was beautiful. It portrayed two childhood friends who were separated for two years to then reunite in their late teens.

The show explores how they struggle to adjust to the new people they have become while trying to pick up where their friendship has left off. The introduction of new feelings and the personal struggles each character goes through in relation to this was explored beautifully. There was a real sense of long pining and teen awkwardness that both the actors and the cinematography displayed with effect.

It was a beautiful show that had me clutching at my plushies at frustration over the chemistry between the main characters. You get a real sense of depth in their relationship. There are many layers and history between them that just gives the show a more poignant feel.

Available on KissKH.

- Minato’s Laundromat.

I have mentioned this drama before and I will probably do so again. This is one of my favourite comfort dramas. While a bit cliche and unrealistic and clearly based off a manga, it is still a fun and capturing watch.

This show tells the story of a jaded man in his late twenties and the peace he has found running a laundromat and the young man who is pursuing him. Their dynamic is flirty, teasing and fun. The characters going through their own growth and learning about each other before they get together.

The added reveal that the main character saved the male lead from drowning as a child adds depth to the male lead’s stubborn pursuit of the main character. What was a memorable but ultimately past moment for the main character was a life changing experience for the male lead. Their first meeting before the show really adds backstory for the show plot and adds another layer to their dynamic.

Available on Viki and KissKH.

- 4 Minutes.

This show was a whirlwind of second guessing plots. With plots layered on top of one and another the reveal that the main couple met as children, an event forgotten by both of them, served to be more of an Easter egg for the viewers rather than adding much to their story.

A Easter Egg that I and other viewers ate up. It was fun to watch their interactions as children and see them unknowingly play out similar interactions as adults. Since the majority of this drama plot involved the viewers having knowledge that the characters did not have themselves, the viewers having a omnipotent view of all the interacting events, this reveal into a bit of their childhood was a spoon of sugar to sweeten us for further angst.

Still, the scene was adorable to see and it only added another layer of ‘What if’ to the plot line.

Available on KissKH.

- We Best Love.

Instead of childhood friends to lovers, this is childhood enemies to lovers. Well, one sided enemies to lovers. That just means that their chemistry was that just bit more fiery than other dramas. And I love a good enemies to lovers dynamic. Especially one with lots of history as this one had.

Even in season 2, when they have gone from e-bikes to lovers to bitter exes back to lovers again, their chemistry has a passion to it that many dramas miss. The main couple love each other so much that it angers them. They simply cannot get over each other and even when fighting and manhandling, they are gentle and sweet. As a viewer you can really feel the history between them despite them not getting to know each other on a deeper level until university. The fact that they don’t truly learn about the other properly until they’re adults means that their relationship can develop further than it would have ever done as children. It was great fun to watch.

Available on KissKH and Bilibili.

- Mr Heart.

If you want one sided unrequited love between a silent admirer and someone who doesn’t know he exists, then Mr heart is for you. Adorable and sweet. The drama starts with Jinwon being properly introduced to Sangha and as it develops the viewer gets to see their backstory from both their points of view as the characters get tangled in their marathon careers and their backgrounds.

Well made with a sweet atmosphere despite the angsty parts, it is a wholesome drama with a lovely ending.

Available one Viki and KissKH.

- I became the main role in a BL drama.

This is a short Japanese bl, only 4 episodes. Yet it had such a funny and wholesome story. The character development between the MC and the ML is so sweet and perfectly explored despite the short run time. The side characters were fun and all of it was well acted.

The reveal that they met briefly when they were teenagers is the perfect backstory for the ML’s love and devotion to the MC. He accepted him for his differences and it left a lasting impression.

This show had me laughing.

Available on Bilibili and KissKH.

- Word of Honor.

While China made this a bromance, it’s still high quality gay (with all that flirting and long pining stares, how could it not be?). I love the slow burn and the mysteries that move the plot along.

Especially the mystery behind Wen Kexing’s past. That had me hooked for the majority of the show. The revelation that he and Zhou Zishu had met as children, that their lives were always meant to be tangled together was both lovely and bittersweet for me. Their lives both full of tragedy and trauma yet they still found each other. I did cry watching this show, more than once. Yet I still love it.

Available on Netflix and Viki.

- Kiseki: Dear to me.

While the main couple meet for the first time during the canon plot. The side couple are childhood friends to lover trope, but not without angst and separation and lots of drama.

In any other setting, with any other characters their dynamic would be toxic. It’s codependent and even with the separation, they are too obsessed and wrapped up in each other. They carry a history which is clear in all of their interactions and chemistry. Even though we don’t get to see know how they met, we know that their history is tangled and caught up emotions.

It’s safe to say that the second couple stole the show for me. I wish we got more of their backstory.

Available on Viki and KissKH.

- Old Fashion Cupcake.

Another excellent 4 episode drama from Japan. This show is the love story between a 39 year old office worker and his 29 year old coworker. Since the characters are adults there is a softness that is sometimes lacking in other dramas. They are independent and do not need each other. That makes the moments of vulnerability and affection between them that much sweeter.

Their shared history and the flashback of Nozue interviewing and hiring Togawa just add more history to their bond. I love their romance and their bond. One of my favourite comfort shows.

Available on Viki and KissKH.

This took far longer than I expected. Hope you like the recommendations.

Feel free to comment any trope recommendations you want next.

I just love this image

Abercrombie & Fitch, 2003, shot by Bruce Weber.