Let me use a tamer, fluffy trope as an example of "it's okay in fiction, but it's not necessarily okay in real life." Maybe that'll get the point across to some people.

Coffee shop AUs.

People adore coffee shop AUs, where one character is a barista and the other is a customer and one asks the other out and they fall in love and live happily ever after.

But people don't really like when that happens in real life.

Employees who work fast food & retail HATE being hit on by customers. I've been there, trapped behind a cash register while a customer lingers too long, asking me personal questions, and I HAVE to smile and be polite even though I'm not interested at all. It's uncomfortable.

And vise-versa. If I just want my coffee so I can get to work in the morning, I'm gonna be unhappy if the barista starts flirting with me. Or if I just want to order dinner, I'm gonna be uncomfortable if the delivery guy tries to give me his phone number.

I see tweets about these situations often, about how it's inappropriate. Yet knowing this, people still write coffee shop AUs. Fantis love it too.

Could it be maybe because... they know it's just fictional? And wouldn't necessarily be okay in real life??

Hopefully this thread doesn't jinx anything, I'll rip my hair out if fantis start cancelling coffee shop AUs next week lol.

So yeah to be clear: coffee shop AUs are fine! Flower shop AUs are fine! They're cute! I love them! Keep writing them, they fuel me.

I'm just saying, it's an example of "this concept is okay in fictional settings, but isn't necessarily as acceptable in real life."