untamed social media au but they're all in an unrelated fandom and it's way more focused on their opinions than their interpersonal drama

lwj has a twitter account dedicated to providing citations to other people's meta analysis. he never offers his own he just replies with stuff like "episode 14, 25:06" or "book 4, chapter 9". Everyone thinks he's a bot for months

he's so thorough and the fandom is so small that him NOT responding to your tweets counts as an act of active disdain for your opinions. su she has never gotten a reply from him

the first time he posts any thoughts of his own it's in response to a thread by wwx that's like, a deliberately provocative counter-reading of established fanon that he posts at like 3 am

wwx wakes up to find he's gotten absolutely ratio'd and the only replies instead of quote-tweets dragging him are from lwj which isn't a surprise at first but then he checks them and they're NOT citations

they're like, two tweets like "this is intriguing, if fanciful. have you considered bringing in the moment at [timestamp] to support this reading?" and then a followup like five minutes later like "Thank you for your thoughts." both sent at like 6 AM

wwx quote-tweeting on priv like THEY'RE NOT A BOT?? AND THEY LIKE HEARING MY THOUGHTS?? WTF?? and nhs is like oh yeah they're not a bot i think my brother knows their brother? they follow each other on main anyway

he sends wwx lwj's main which he never uses and wwx has a seven tweet meltdown on priv about how hot he is in his pfp

obv now wwx has a MISSION to get lwj to respond to him with actual thoughts... he becomes even more insufferable and rambling. lwj always cites stuff for him when relevant but doesn't engage further

(su she keeps screenshotting like THIS IS BARELY EVEN TIED TO CANON AND HE GETS CITATIONS?? but everyone has him muted except jgy)

one day jiang cheng and wwx get in a heated disagreement about character motivation & lwj goes through and likes all of wwx's tweets and none of jc's

wwx flips out on priv and then before he can chicken out responds like SEE? EVEN LOCAL EXPERT @ LWJ IS ON MY SIDE and lwj responds like "not an expert. but yes, you are correct" and wwx rides that high for weeks

after this wwx starts tagging lwj directly in other bullshit and lwj keeps responding with short responses and liking all of wwx's tweets, even the ones that aren't about fandom stuff, and one day on priv wwx is like. what if. i posted a selfie. would he like it.

jiang cheng is like & nhs is like DO IT COWARD so he DOES IT... it's him grinning & throwing a piece sign at the camera in a merch shirt from their shared fandom & then a second one where you can tell he made it into a crop top & he's doing that leg up on bathroom sink pose

lwj likes it after Exactly an hour, down to the minute

wwx telling himself he is NOT disappointed by this delay even tho lwj is always punctual about liking his other tweets... maybe he just felt bad about not being consistent and went back and liked it for the sake of thoroughness? also NOT disappointed he didn't reply to it haha.

anyway after this he gets really busy with life stuff - either jiang family drama or a-yuan, dealer's choice, maybe both - and isn't around much when the next episode or issue or whatever of their fandom Thing is comes out

lwj doesn't have a priv—his private thoughts are no one's concern—but he does have a conversation over text with lxc about the social conventions of liking someone's selfie where the undercurrent is clear panic that he's somehow scared wwx off

lxc reassures him that liking selfies is totally normal & fine even if you don't know the person that well, & that people go inactive for all sorts of reasons, it surely has nothing to do with lwj, and lwj is like *internally* yes. i must remind myself that i don't matter to him

but lxc also says that if he's worried he should reach out to this person, casually, & so two days after the new episode lwj @'s wwx like "did you see the new episode? I would be interested to hear your thoughts, especially in regard to [linked thread of wwx's previous rambling]"

nhs IMMEDIATELY screenshots it and posts it on priv tagging wwx's priv like HELLO?? bc he's been checking notifications there more than main while he's on semi-hiatus and wwx is like OMG????

wwx on priv: does this mean he MISSES ME... i can't believe he even noticed i haven't been around... he remembered my thread?? i should watch it immediately so i can send him my thoughts but then i'd be leaving him hanging for like FORTY FIVE MINUTES

wwx responding to lwj on main: oh man this is intriguing ! i haven't watched yet tho i'm sorry :(
second tweet: hey tho if you're down to watch it again maybe we could stream it. you'd really get my unfiltered thoughts then! hot off the brain haha
wwx on priv: why did i say that

lwj takes like fifteen minutes to respond and wwx is already typing out "no pressure obviously i can also just let you know when i've watched" when he replies, "I would like that." and then a moment later, "when?"

wwx on priv: why does this feel planning a date

jiang cheng: because you project your feelings on other people like it's your job??????
nhs: because it's a date????

jc: wtf no it's not
nhs: uh.... it is
jc: it's not a date when you and watch stuff together why would THIS be
nhs: what do you MEAN it's not........... a-cheng you're breaking my HEART........... how could you SAY THAT.......
wwx: hey can you guys not do this in my mentions