Soulmates are stupid i love you on purpose

soulmates are stupid i love you on purpose by shukyou (主教), with art by melanofly (メラノ飛) first appeared in issue Issue 94 in 2021.

Author's Notes

Behold, the story that dares to ask the question: What if your soulmate was shitty?

The title of the story is taken from a Tumblr text post by user slytherverse, which (imposed over a certain screencap) I had at the bottom of the file the entire time I was working on this story. By the time I was done, it had stuck.

Melanofly’s art absolutely makes the piece. I can’t say enough wonderful things about how beautiful (and steamy! yowza!) it wound up being. Such an absolute delight to see one’s characters come to life so marvelously.

Artist's Notes

It’s my first time illustrating for an author on SSBB! I felt like I was in gym class and finally chosen to be on the A-team, haha!! Thank you to Shukyou for letting me illustrate the story. As always, Shukyou’s storytelling draws you in quickly and the characters feel very real/relatable. I cried when I read it, but I won’t spoil it—please go read the story!

I tried to emulate cinema/film by using a lot of faux depth of field (DoF) and widescreen ratio (16:9). I can absolutely imagine the story playing out as an acted drama.

In the first image, I wanted to convey the polite distance between the characters as they sat in the cold. Bailey talks about cities and being somewhat unnoticeable within them, so it made sense that the figures were smaller in the overall composition—that way you could also see the contrast in body language between them.

The second image has the opposite vibe from the first. It’s a closer shot, where things are generally warmer and intimate. I wondered if it was dark or light in his room, but settled on “it’s dark because he is soft goth but there’s probably a single light above” somewhere.

I struggled with the third image because of its…simplicity? Did I just want to draw the hands holding? Or show their expressions? I tried to do both. I landed on cooler lighting because the emotions for the scene are mixed. I looked up morgue hallways but found a bunch of horror video game screenshots instead. At the last minute, I learned about the term “dutch angle” from folks critiquing the (now cancelled) C0wboy Beb0p live action. I looked up what it meant (tilted camera angle) and realized it was perfect for the last image in the story.

External Links

This story is also available on Archive of Our Own (AO3).