Seconding Jean. "Single destined soulmates" is something that immediately makes me nope out, because while it's not a concept that I think there's no way someone could play that I would find interesting, what I would find interesting is not something 99.99% of soulmate AU fic is interested in writing, and what they are interested in writing often feels to me like a shortcut around most of the parts I'd actually care about. Stories about destiny where the inciting incident is Destiny, you know that Destiny is going to win in the end, know what that looks like, and that's an outcome you're supposed to be cheering for are a tough sell for me; I need more ambiguity and room to be surprised to care much. Stories where people have soulmate AU mechanics connected to everyone important in their lives, on the other hand, feel more like a way of externalizing the interpersonal relationships that are already there, which makes it work more like a vehicle for character study.
Speaking as a shipper I can appreciate a good "the destiny is telling these two to get together" but, like. IDK how else to explain it other than it being the emotional equivalent of a ravishment kink. "Sorry your self-esteem sucks, but the universe is literally handing you someone who will never ever get tired of telling you they love you. Get over yourself xoxo" is just a really funny thing to put a character through, but it's not exactly escaping the your partner vs everyone else trap. I just feel like that's a distinctly different genre of popcorn romance entertainment than soulmate stories that grapple with the idea of A Destined Partnership For Good Or For Ill and all of the various baggages therein. Or at least I experience it as a different genre of entertainment. I approach it the same way I approach high-concept kink, I'm not here to analyse the worldbuilding, I am here to experience visceral gratification of the blorbos kissing lmao
they're the same AU. geese were introduced to deal with the roach infestation in the soulmate system and the rest is history
