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My idea for this story was born from being tired of works where the complications are a character doesn’t have soulmates/magic/whatever, and the solution is ‘just give them a soulmate!’
I was intentionally trying to sound like i was planning on a plot twist that Tommy was actually their soulmate, because I had observed that making an audience *think* they’ve figured out the twist will make them miss the signs for the actual twist so I was just executing a three million step plan lmao
The idea was to have a lot of fluff that’s tinged with angst and self-loathing, with a couple of scenes that switch to the POVs of the others to give a quick mindset check-in. These scenes would’ve been like “it’s strange how easily he fits in with us… i wonder…” so everyone would roll their eyes like we GET it Tommy’s hiding the fact that he’s their soulmate because he hates himself
AND THEN
At a random meal, Tommy would feel a sudden, near-unbearable pain along his soulmark. He’d pale and excuse himself and shut himself in his bedroom, tearing off his sleeve-thing to see the veins turning a sickly dark grey. When he didn’t reappear, Wilbur (who at the time seemed a totally lovely guy) would check in on him, find Tommy sweating and clutching his arm, and shout for the others in distress. They’d have a conversation and find out that Tommy met his soulmate, who hated his guts, and who hadn’t decided to forcibly shut off the link until then. They’d comfort him, tell him he’s not a nuisance, et cetera, and he’d break down crying and all that
For the resolution it would just be additional fluff - Wilbur impulsively being like WE CAN GET TATTOOS TO ADD YOU TO OUR SOULMARKS and phil vetoing it for now bc Tommy would totally follow his example and is too young to commit to a tattoo, flash forwards to Tommy in like five years being comfortable enough to leave his mark uncovered in public and just loads of general SBI iconicness :3
But yeah, super sorry to anybody who was genuinely invested in this work. The lovely comments motivated me to make a few more shots at it, but since my SBI era was so early in my development as an author, I always tried to rewrite the first chapter according to my developed style and just couldn’t quite manage it. I hope my little update helps *tie up the loose ends* (comedy GENIUS right here)
love you all, and God bless you <3