OPEN LETTER TO FANFICTION WRITERS ON ACCESSIBILITY; PLEASE READ.

first of all, thank you for spending your time, seldom acknowledged and definitely deserving of a compensation you are not receiving, to entertain us. i’m speaking on behalf of more than just blind readers, but everyone. you’re sick as hell.

i’ve summoned you to provide some information you may not already know. i know a lot of you like fonts. especially those who cross post their work on wattpad. i admire any and all acts of aestheticism to a degree, and can understand the desire to use them. (blind folk, sorry y’all. momma’s making a point.) 𝔰𝔱𝔲𝔣𝔣 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰, it’s cute. 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐟𝐟 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 is a little cuter to me, if i had to choose. or maybe 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓁𝒾𝓀𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈?

now, sighted folk: if you’re on mobile, i implore you to participate in a little exercise for me. select this text and scroll through all the copy/paste/define/‘search the web’ options until you get to the speak portion. if you need to change a setting for your phone to do so, would you mind? i’d really appreciate it.

please make your phone read aloud part of my post, and be sure to include any bits with those super cute fonts. 𝕚’𝕝𝕝 𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕞𝕪 𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕒, 𝕣𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖. 𝕚 𝕙𝕠𝕡𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕝𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕝𝕪, 𝕚 𝕕𝕠𝕟’𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕖 𝕤𝕢𝕦𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕪 𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕠𝕤 𝕚 𝕔𝕒𝕟’𝕥 𝕤𝕖𝕖.

whether you participated and discovered it for yourself or you thought this was a crock of shit you’d rather not sniff, i’ll tell you! screen readers cannot dictate words using those fonts. at least, on a majority of devices. not mine, or any of my mutuals elsewhere.

you do not have to change your behavior on my behalf, but please be aware that fonts limit access to your work.

blind readers do exist, i exist, and i am bound by the same feelings of dogged longing that make other sad horny bitches read angsty, smutty, father-wounded nonsense.

thanks for making it this far. i really hope my sincerity is being conveyed, reading makes me so happy and i’m not the only person on this app who relies on accessibility settings more often than not. do with this information what you will, and have the day you deserve!

SIGH

I wanna talk about both of this two points, but before I start:

• This post might contain spoilers, if you're planning to read the manga or watch the anime when it comes out be prepared or don't read this post.

• I'm aware a lot of queer people read queer series for an obvious reason, I will be talking about people who OBSESS over queer media, specifically young girls with mlm content.

• I'm not trying to be offensive and neither should you if you don't agree, thx!

Now we can start!

1) Is "The summer Hikaru died a BL?"

Yes and no.

Currently, the series is tagged as Horror and Slice of Life. It used to be tagged as a BL, but the creator has removed it for unknown reasons.

HOWEVER, the main characters (Yoshiki and Hikaru / "Hikaru") are MEANT to be queer and it's not like the author is tryna hide it!

It's been implied that Yoshiki had feelings for the original Hikaru. Now that his best friend is gone, he developed an ambiguous relationship with the being that replaced him (aka "Hikaru"), ambiguous because while the attachment came from his denial of Hikaru's death he started to see "Hikaru" as someone different, wanting to help him. Meanwhile, even tho it's less clear, Hikaru also had feelings for Yoshiki.

Hikaru was told that his family members should get married quickly because the family is safe from Unuki-sama, and if they wait too long, their loved one will be taken by it, by marrying them they would become part of the family and automatically safe.

Hikaru can't marry Yoshiki because he's a boy 🧍‍♂️.

After his death "Hikaru" takes his place, his dying wish was for this entity to keep Yoshiki company (in the one-shot published by the author BEFORE the series his wish was to tell Yoshiki about his feelings).

Meanwhile "Hikaru" gets immediately attached to Yoshiki. When Yoshiki asks him if he's really Hikaru, he hugs him and cries, not wanting to kill him cause he likes him.

"Hikaru" has also given sort of a confirmation of the real Hikaru's feelings (saying that he's probably so attached to Yoshiki bc the original already was).

In later chapters (I believe volume 5), "Hikaru" also tells Yoshiki that he loves him, he doesn't know if it's platonic or romantic, that's it.

So in conclusion, TSHD isn't officially a BL, but it's obviously meant to be queer and that's an important part of the story, so denying Yoshiki and Hikaru / "Hikaru" 's identity is wrong.

2) The Fujoshis will mischaracterize them?

I don't really like using terms for my reading preferences, but I also don't like getting stuff wrong, so as far as I'm aware, Fujoshi is just a name used for girls who read BL, are there girls who fetishize mlm relationships? Yeah, but we shouldn't act like it's a "Fujoshi thing" where all of them do it.

It does bother me that a lot of girls will get into the series just because they heard it's a BL, and that will definitely bring mischaracterization of some scenes, but like, all fandoms have this issues and if that's one of the prices to get this series more popular I'm lowkey down for it ig...

Anyone has their preferences in reading and as long as the mcs don't get sexualised (they're 16/17!!) I really don't care that much, and you shouldn't either 🫶