#People who give so much of themselves to someone who doesn't have the capacity to give any part of themself away.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Assisting Acquaintance Acquired.

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[promptsbytaurie]

anything with wing clipping. i once tried to do research on it for a fic and,, it is SO angsty

i got u fam <333 (i have way too much brainrot on this bear with me LMAO)

tips for writing ✨wingfics✨

!!please credit/tag me if you use this!! i'd love to see what you write!!

physical differences:

area where wings connect to their back is insanely sensitive!!

feathers falling e v e r y w h e r e

wings are big!! if the wearer hasn't had them for long, or is younger/inexperienced, they're gonna knock shit over

~birb noises~

they're actually really good singers with insane lung capacity, a lot of them are/could be opera singers

thin bones, so they're super light and even though most think it's embarrassing to be picked up so easily there's always One Dude who's like 'carry me everywhere'

smaller birds = smaller people. most wings correspond to a specific species, and hummingbird varieties are notoriously short (though never say that to their face, they will probably murder you <3)

unless the avian is a kind of waterbird (penguins, sometimes eagles) going into water will clog their wings and they could drown!! adding onto this i imagine that avians have special bathtubs and brushes and stuff so that they can properly clean their wings

on the flip side if an avian does NOT clean their wings they can get tangled or matted which a) is super painful b) could impact their flying and c) could cause sickness !!

dislocated wings >:(( this happens about as often as dislocated shoulders do with regular people. this can be caused by a couple things like blunt force, trying to manuever/twist wings in ways they aren't supposed to go, or flying too often/straining wings.

psychological differences:

preening!! it's intimate, but doesn't have to be romantic/sexual. obv there is room for very fluffy and romantic moments but it can be either way

flock!!! it's kinda like a family or a pack

the urge to Make a Nest and Only Let the Flock In

once the Flock is In the Nest then the Flock Will Not Leave Ever

molting!! old feathers fall out to allow new ones to grow in !

molting is basically the bird version of a period except all birds have it once or twice a year. they're more emotional, super sensitive, and extra clingy during molting!!

if an avian gives you one of their feathers it's basically a version of marriage, except it doesnt have to be romantic. its essentially a promise, like a 'we're with each other forever' kinda thing.

just as humans have discrimination, i imagine that avians have it too. more common species like songbirds, ravens, or crows are probably valued in society way less than those like eagles, doves, or parrots, and there could also be stereotypes against species like vultures or condors.

on wing clipping:

in my mind wing clipping is a lot like trimming your fingernails realllly sloppily, except the difference is that you should NEVER clip an avian's wings.

what i mean by fingernails is that the nails themselves don't hurt but if you do it sloppily there are Consequences: clipped too short -> irritated skin. clipped inconsistently -> sharp edges, snags on everything INCLUDING other feathers

huge violation of boundaries/self!! clipped wings -> can't fly. flying is integral to avian health and if they can't fly their mood and mental health will fall drastically.

clipped feathers take a long time to grow back, and therefore clipping has long-term effects. it also damages the feathers themselves (obviously) in ways that sometimes can't be healed

if an avian's wings are clipped their trust goes DOWN and their insecurity goes UP. its likely that if someone else tries to touch their wings they will freak out

clipped wings also make avians more jumpy and paranoid because they've lost their major way to escape/protect themselves: flying away.

angst potentials in wingfics (spoiler: there's a lot):

like i said, clipped wings -> can't fly. write about an avian's first time flying again. (not super angsty but still)

SUPER angsty: write about the actual act of wing clipping.

an avian is neglecting their wing care and tries to hide it.

relationship between a 'noble' avian (eagle, dove, etc) and a 'basic' avian (crow, raven, etc) and society's dislike of the relationship.

or maybe avians are a minority in a human world, and an avian has to hide their wings to be safe.

hope this helped!! <33

[fuckyeahisawthat]

thank you so much for that excellent chani post. i've seen some annoying takes on twitter about how not making her totally devoted and subservient to paul makes her 'unlikeable' and i'm like. buddy. i think that speaks more to how you see women. than anything about her. this chani is very dynamic and interesting to me.

i'll be honest and say i've not read the books. this is me speaking from what i've seen of summaries, but i think giving her a real cause to fight for yet also genuinely loving paul gives her an interesting struggle, and also plays into how the portrayal of the fremen (seems to me to be) more diverse and nuanced. as in, the fremen themselves seem to have more of a push-and-pull to them. the clarification of how different fremen believe differently (the south being more fundamentalist) is a very important thing to include in a movie where you can run into the danger of saying that all adherents to a foreign, islam-adjacent (in coding) religion are all fundamentalists. that can (in less nuanced hands) be a pretty irresponsible thing. so showing that there's also more secular/pragmatic/less dogmatic sectors of the culture seems a pretty good counterweight.

so yeah. this is how i processed it as a movie-goer. and having chani represent that aspect (believing in people over prophecy, action over religion) and having stilgar as the humanized face of the southern peoples (showing that yknow, regardless of being fundamenist beliefs, theyre still PEOPLE with the capacity for love, friendship, honor) makes total logical sense. you're not just "telling" us that there's different aspects to fremen culture, you're SHOWING us by showing different characters who represent those aspects, without demonizing either or turning either into a one-note stereotype.

Thank you! I'm not someone who was a long-term fan of the books before the movie came out (I tried reading Dune as a teenager when I was reading a lot of classic sci-fi but found it too boring) but I did read Dune and Dune Messiah after the first movie came out, both because I wanted to know what happened next and because I wanted to have an opinion on how the movies worked as adaptations.

(book and movie spoilers below and also I basically ended up writing a whole essay in response to this)

My single biggest frustration with the book is that after they arrive at Sietch Tabr and Jessica drinks the Water of Life and becomes Reverend Mother...the book up and skips two years of the story and when we next see Paul he's already got Fremen followers who are ready to die for him and he's in an established relationship with Chani. Oh I was SO MAD when I got to this part. I was like FRANK. FRANK!!!! Did you seriously just skip two years of the most interesting part of your own story???

The thing is, even though I know that Frank Herbert's intention was to write a critique of the idea that oppressed people need an enlightened external (white) savior to liberate them...if you don't provide an alternate explanation for what's happening then you end up falling into some Orientalist tropes anyway. And because, in the book, we don't see the process of how your average background fedaykin comes to trust Paul as a military and political leader, there is nothing in the text to counter the idea that the Fremen are a bunch of unquestioning religious fanatics easily swayed to do violence by belief in a prophecy.

My second biggest frustration with the book is that we're given no reason at all why Chani would fall in love with Paul. While she has some memorable scenes, she doesn't have a lot to do as a character in the book, and she's missing from a whole chunk of the end...because she's in the south...because she and Paul have a baby, Leto II, who's then killed off-page when the sardaukar attack the south. (I'm honestly really glad they cut this from the film, because it never seemed to be given the narrative weight it deserved in the book.)

So you can imagine how happy I was when the Villeneuve movies figured out how to address both these frustrations by tying them together. The fedaykin don't just blindly accept Paul because of some prophecy. They come to trust him because he proves himself as a fighter, and because he starts out from a place of genuine solidarity and humility--which it is possible for him to do because he has no structural power over them at that point. And Chani falls in love with him for the same reason, in that heady environment of fighting side by side for a political cause, and maybe for the first time in a while starting to believe that you can win.

I think the Villeneuve movies improve a lot on what's in the book in terms of how the Fremen are portrayed...when we're with the fedaykin and/or Chani and Stilgar. There we see political debates and discussion and the fact that not all the Fremen think the same way. And we also see little humanizing moments of folks just hanging out, celebrating after a victory in battle and just shooting the shit and being friends.

I do wish the movie had extended this to more parts of Fremen society. If there's one thing I could have added, it would be seeing more of daily life in Sietch Tabr. It makes sense that when we're seeing things from Jessica's POV, she is more distant from and suspicious of the Fremen, seeing them as a force to be manipulated, but I wish we had even one or two scenes of people just being people in the sietch. It felt kind of weirdly empty and not particularly lived-in as a place, and I think they could've easily countered this, with scenes from Chani, Stilgar or Paul's POV, and that would have made it hit even harder when the sietch is attacked.

If there were two things I could have added, I wanted more exploration of the people of the south. Why are they more fundamentalist than the Fremen who live in the north? (We get one line about how "nothing can survive [in the south] without faith" but I wanted more than that.) While I think the movie did a fantastic job of humanizing and differentiating the Fremen we see around Paul, when we get to the south it does backslide a little into "undifferentiated mass of fanatics." Surely the people of the south also have some diversity of political views.

I think there are some interesting threads they could have pulled on in terms of how proximity to direct colonial violence shapes people's ideology. Sietch Tabr is one of the closest Fremen communities to Arrakeen, the seat of colonial control. They have probably had to mount some kind of armed resistance for generations just to keep from being wiped out. I can see that producing skepticism of the prophecy ("well I can't sit around waiting for a messiah but I do have this rocket launcher") as well as resentment at the idea of someone swooping in and taking credit for a struggle that you've put your life on the line for, and probably a lot of people you know have died for. There seem to be some generational differences, too, where young people of Chani's generation put less stock in the prophecy, while the true believers are mostly older. I can see faith in the prophecy coming out of despair--when you've been fighting for decades with no change, maybe you draw the conclusion that only an outside power coming to your aid will make a difference. While the people of the south are still under colonial rule, maybe being generally outside the reach of direct Harkonnen violence (the Harkonnens don't even know they're there) makes the concepts of both oppression and liberation feel more abstract and more receptive to being filled in with Bene Gesserit mysticism. It seems absurd to want more from a movie that's nearly three hours long already...but I wanted more of this.

Still, I do think they managed to improve on a lot of things that frustrated me or are simply dated about the book, while keeping the political thriller/war drama/epic tragedy elements that I think are the heart of the story, and in some cases drawing them out more clearly and effectively than the book did. The best kind of book-to-film adaptation imo is one that has a strong point of view in terms of what the story is About, on a large-scale thematic level, and is not afraid to change individual elements of canon in service of telling that story the most effective way possible in a cinematic medium. While there are always things I want more of, I feel like Denis Villeneuve really, really understood the assignment in terms of the overarching themes of the the story and he delivered so fucking well.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

honestly critical role has never been more relatable than Caduceus/Taliesin in the Rumblecusp arc

being put in an environment where you SHOULD thrive, only to fail comically at literally any given opportunity and discovering for the first time that you have some surprising capacity for resentment for something you love that you've built your whole identity on

also I know Caduceus is dumb as rocks in an education sense but those investigation checks they kept having to make felt like they SHOULD be wisdom checks at this point (because common fucking sense would tell you to just hand your shit to someone else once you notice you lose possessions every night) so watching him spectacularly fail every single one of those felt exactly like my life feels right now. Like I should know all the ways to prevent this and yet every day I fail again at the same task right out the gate

the absolute resignation this is all met with. like even for Caduceus that was a level of nonreaction I never thought possible. not a zen unbotheredness, just complete defeat. there is so much frustration underneath the surface and yet such a complete lack of energy to try and fight it, truly only going through a pandemic and/or a real weird mental health funk can breed the vibe of "help. it's again."

also, as someone who doesn't really give a shit about sex, like Caduceus, and prides themselves on their eloquence, like Taliesin, I've never seen myself so clearly represented as i have in the character and the player's combined struggle against the horny-twelve-year-olds energy of this cast

I too have experienced the "i see you giggling over something i said that wasn't even that much of an innuendo but i'm just gonna keep talk- oh no yeah no what i've said now is just a much bigger innuendo" so many times

and then you try and choose your words more carefully. because that's like, the one thing you're good at. and discover that a) once the giggles get going, it doesn't fucking matter and b) there's now not one synonym left in your brain that's not an open invitation

and now you're somehow the least invested in the joke but the most embarrassed by it

"how much of your brain is just innuendo???" the number of times i've wanted to ask people that

the deep disappointment when Travis joined into the madness

living vicariously through the mumbled asides of "all of you. it's all of you" "it's nonstop!"

also watching your group make a TERRIBLE plan but being unable to come up with a better one, so instead of poking holes in it until all your friends hate you you just quietly watch the catastrophe happen, and pray you'll have enough restraint left by the end of it to not say "i could've told you so" out loud

[roastie]

like when people talk about the trad thing and women being happier naturally serving their husbands or whatever the counterargument is always to do with oh well it's a personal choice but it never goes deep enough. you get one life on this earth, a girl gets one single life just like a boy does, to do as much with as possible before it ends, and so many men out there would feel confident that a womans role is to spend that life - whole entire precious single life, only one you get then youre dead and gone forever - repressing her inner life and aspiration, forcing it down and happily resigning herself to a secondary existence with no hope at any real accomplishment, a vessel to enhance the lives ov others who are more important, and not only that but convince themselves that a woman would be happier doing so, she's not even aware ov what's she's missing because she doesn't have the capacity to understand what human life means. that it's her natural state ov being. we don't give men enough credit for the absolute level ov delusion, the concrete inability to think about anything deeply at all, even when they play at it you can tell it's all self involved drivel, worthless if it comes from someone who can't recognise humanity whne it's right in front ov them lol. the way a man views women and the assumption that she is divorced from humanity is an utter projection ov their own warped worldview and lack ov understanding ov what human life actually is onto her. very strange lol

[endlessdreamworld]

For the request, can I please have yandere Topaz (hsr) alphabet? Can be gn or female reader.

Affection: Topaz shows affection by giving you whatever you need, whether you need to be fixed or fed. She would match her darling's intensity. Whatever darling wants, darling gets.

Blood: She's willing to get her hands quite dirty, but violence will never be her first or second choice.

Cruelty: Topaz would abduct a foolishly stubborn darling and treat them like a pet. She'd give her darling boundless patience. Big life changes require time to adjust to, after all.

Darling: No, she's got some pretty strong morals to the point that she often gets herself in trouble with how much she holds back.

Exposed: She bares her entire heart to her darling. That being said, she doesn't really have gaps or weaknesses. She's too self assured to feel vulnerable around anyone, darling included.

Fight: Topaz counts on her darling fighting back, and wouldn't fault them for doing so. When her darling lashes out, she'd put them into a hold until the fight is out of them. She'd forgo bindings and restraints unless her darling was a risk to themselves. When injured, she'd patch herself up after the situation is resolved.

Game: She doesn't see it as a game, and more of a differing opinions kind of situation. That being said, she's not too fond of seeing her darling trying to escape and takes it as a sign of personal underperformance.

Hell: Topaz, outside of holding you against your will, is relatively laid back. The most hellish part of the arrangement would be before you reach acceptance. Her relatively gentle and hands off nature would make it seem like it'd be easy to run away which is far from the case. This disconnect has the capacity of really fucking with her darling's head.

Ideals: A very happily ever after situation. Just the two of you, happy and fulfilled. It's actually very basic and wholesome, all things considered.

Jealousy: She doesn't have jealousy issues for the most part. She is a sore loser which could turn into a burning feeling of jealousy if she lost in something she considered her area of expertise. When feeling that way, she would cope by locking up her darling for a bit and throwing herself into her work for a bit to blow off steam.

Kisses: As mentioned in 'Affection' she would match her darling's energy. She's really good at putting the needs of other's first and helping them feel more at ease. If her darling wants to play, it's play time. If her darling doesn't want to talk, Topaz won't push them.

Love Letters: She'd approach her darling like a very persistent friend, slowly (but not maliciously) isolating them. Topaz would take care of everything, so things and people that become redundant would slowly be pushed out.

Mask: Yes, but well, actually no. Most people are aware of how reliable Topaz is, so if you reached out to others about her behavior, they would be confused about the issue. Yes Topaz is Topazing, what's the problem?

Naughty: Punishments are dangerously lax, for both parties. Just like a parent needs to steer their children, a yandere needs to steer their darling. An unstimulated, free range darling can feel neglected in a round about way. There needs to be more than just a locked door to invoke that juicy, juicy Stockholm syndrome.

Oppression: As mentioned above, too little.

Patience: As mentioned above, too much.

Quit: Capable =/= Willing. Topaz would need a reason to move on.

Regret: Topaz doesn't feel regret often, if ever. She's too focused on moving forward. She'd never let her darling go, unless they're going somewhere else together. Whether that's a change of location, or a shift (forward) in the status quo of the relationship.

Stigma: Her childhood shaped her into who she is. The Topaz of today is the most logical outcome of the circumstances of her upbringing.

Tears: She'd feel absolutely awful. Nothing makes her feel worse than the feeling of failing her special someone.

Unique: I'd consider her pretty unique by yandere standards since she operates so differently from the usual.

Vice: Her darling could really take advantage of the element of surprise and Topaz's lack of willingness to act violently against them.

Wit's End: Never ever ever.

Xoanon: The happiness and affection of her darling is her greatest ambition.

Yearn: She can pine pretty long. The only reason she'd snap is if there would be a shift backward/away from the status quo. Her darling needs to move away? Well we can't have that. Time to lock them away.

Zenith: She'd let her darling break her before she'd inflict any sort of violence upon them.

Thank you for the request! I hope you like my interpretation of Yan! Topaz.

[double--hh]

Sorry my gay ass fell asleep but ok ok. Gonna start with the hierarchy first because I think about it too much.

The Horsemen are all technically the rulers (Yan Luo, Shub, Ishtar, Teutates), but since the place they live (which is honestly just more of a small village with a huge castle where all the Horsemen live) is owned by Yan Luo's family she technically holds the title of ruler. As I said in my headcanons post she is the youngest because Death and War are hereditary titles (Death and War tend to leave no survivors and be generational. Famine will keep whoever is causing the famine alive, and Pestilence requires creation and life). When the Horseman title is passed down, the next in line will be "branded" with a magic sigil which allows the older Horseman to transfer their powers. A Horseman cannot die when holding the title, but once they give it up they very much can die. Consorts are anyone with relation to the Horsemen, be it family or lover. They are required to have the symbol of their Horseman somewhere on their clothes or an accessory, and it is a sign of great disrespect to align yourself with a different part of the apocalypse. Next are ritual performers who. Perform the rituals or provide sacrifices (Abducius used to sacrifice people but in my version one of the fankids I made took over). These three upper rungs are privvy to information the general public doesn't know. Common Nightmares are everyone else. The extra guys (Chester, Clown, Nightmare Clown, Mask Ghost) aren't part of their society, and dopples are regarded as animals. 42 and Peach Peach are just. Outdoor cats you aren't supposed to feed.

Alignment is just which part of the apocalypse you aling yourself most with. Death is the absence of change and. Death. Pestilence is creation, Famine is constant change and being able to handle it, and War is destruction. You can choose to wear the symbol of the Horseman you are aligned to, but it often doesn't curry you any favours and can even make people just. Really mad at you. So most people do not do this.

There are marks you can get that do magic things though! Yan Luo's handmaidens and Teutates' army all have magic sigils on their shoulder blades so they can be easily summoned by their respective boss. Summoning people they know is something all Horsemen can do, but it takes a lot of energy and focus so having it as a button press is just so much easier. Other Nightmares can also create marks, but those take a lot more power and time, so most won't. You can also create charms to override any magic placed upon someone by a Horseman.

The group has a sacrifice every full moon to replenish their power. Everyone must attend because in order for this to work in any capacity the power must flow through each member of the Nightmares, completing the "circuit". There are also week long festivals dedicated to each Horseman because. Again they are really important. Spring has a fair with games and such, and Ishtar's special ritual includes no sacrifices. Summer has a week long feast with a mass sacrifice right in the middle so they can have meat. Fall has the tournament where a bunch of humans must fight both themselves and occasionally a Nightmare, and the winner fights Teutates. Winter has a week long funeral, concluding with a final sacrifice to start the new year. Also, each Horseman has a certain thing they go through each season, and all of the other Horsemen are affected but people with opposite seasons (Yan Luo and Shub, Ishtar and Teutates) are less affected. Yan Luo does into a deep depression each winter, Ishtar gets a certain way, Shub gets ravenously hungry, and Teutates is consumed with bloodlust. This also affects the rest of the nightmares too, just also to a lesser extent.

Going back to the Mask Ghost I just want to say I think she is a victim of the Nightmare Clown and now is forced to ask to be let in but never stay.

Also! In my version, the Nightmare Realm is a real place because my doorman character (the dOOrman) is connected to like. My pantheon of gods. They are also not human, they are a type of extra dimensional being known as a Contrivance which are beings created from the pure hope someone will come to save them. That's why they are a doorman! But yeah they had intrusive thoughts so bad they created a whole pocket dimension (I personally think the Nightmare versions are how the outside world perceives each of the neighbors so. Yeah :). ) They still aren't a human in the nightmare realm, they are an angel. A different kind of angel to Quachil though.

That should be it for now but. If you have any questions. You can totally ask :3

bro i LOVE how deep your horsemen au/hc is, id love to see this as a fanfic/comic!!!!!!!

[midnightstargazer]

thoughts on sunshine james

I mean, it's not canon. I can see where it comes from, but it's not the James we see in the few actual flashbacks of him.

James, in canon, was very loyal and selfless towards the people he loved the most. He treated Sirius like a brother and welcomed him into his family's home when Sirius ran away. He accepted Remus when he found out he was a werewolf and went to great lengths to help him. He fought and died in a war that he could have opted out of, probably for Lily's sake and because it was the right thing to do. And, of course, he never questioned whether he could trust Peter, to disastrous results. This is where the sunshine characterization comes from, I think.

But he was also someone who had very black and white ideas about right and wrong. The other Marauders + Lily showed a capacity to see gray area when it came to the people they were closest to, or just in general.

Lily was friends with Snape for years, even after he started hanging out with the future Death Eaters' gang, even knowing he was using Dark magic.

Remus understood that the Marauders' bullying was wrong, but did not stand up to them about it and still saw them as good people. Later in life, he was able to tolerate Snape and trust Dumbledore's judgment on him.

Sirius gave us the line "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters" and was pretty forgiving in his assessment of Regulus ("stupid idiot" is a very mild insult to be immediately followed by "he joined the Death Eaters")

Peter - well, Peter betrayed them to Voldemort, so obviously he wasn't very concerned with morality.

James, on the other hand? Saw the world in black and white, not a lot of nuance. He absolutely despised pure-blood rhetoric and Dark Arts and wanted nothing to do with people who aligned themselves with those things. No exceptions. And while he was generous and loyal towards his friends, he had no problem being cruel to people he deemed bad. It's very strongly implied that his reasons for targeting Snape were connected to Snape's interest in the Dark Arts and use of the word "mudblood." He felt like it was acceptable to bully Snape because Snape was not a good person.

(I think there was definitely also some personal dislike involved, which would have existed regardless, hence the "it's more the fact that he exists" comment. But still, Remus and Sirius seem pretty convinced James hating the Dark Arts had a lot to do with it).

This sort of "it's okay to do bad things to bad people" mentality is pretty much opposite of what sunshine James usually ends up looking like in fanon. Largely because sunshine James is usually paired with Regulus. And, obviously, to make that work, even with the softer versions of Regulus that usually go with the ship, James has to be a very forgiving sort of person who's willing to see nuance and give people a chance, not someone who takes a hard line stance against blood purist ideology or Dark Arts.

This is why Jegulus doesn't work for me unless it's very far removed from canon. Because if Voldemort exists, and the war is happening, and they both have their canon views on blood purity and Dark Arts and join their respective sides, I just don't see it. If Regulus survived his trip to the lake and was actively working against Voldemort in the long term, then maybe. If his views also changed quite a bit. But even then, I still think James would be starting with a negative opinion of him and it would take a lot to get him to reconsider. I'm not saying Regulus doesn't deserve a second chance, or doesn't deserve to be loved by a good person. It's just... not how I see James at all.

tl;dr - canon James is a good and loyal friend but not an all-loving ray of sunshine who wants to see the best in everyone. The sunshine characterization makes Jegulus possible with a closer-to-canon plot and setting, but it isn't really compatible with James's canon characterization.

[nanomooselet]

Little but Fierce VI

She winds up… there's the pitch…

Poor Nick. It never stops being funny. I'd feel sorrier that this happened to him but he's such a bastard in his introductory episode. It's like karma in advance.

Heheh. Kar-ma.

Meryl and Wolfwood behave very much like siblings to each other, while Vash and Roberto treat them like their awful terrible kids. Roberto does actually try reach out to Vash as a mentor once or twice, but of course Vash is fuck-off old and doesn't need that kind of assistance, so he's gently deflected. Roberto is old and wise enough to keep his distance. Nick, for his part, enjoys pissing Roberto off, and Roberto is for his part duly pissed off.

Still, Vash is the reason they're all even there in the first place and Meryl shows him concern. And Vash, in his way, fusses over Nick the way Roberto feels responsible for Meryl. A lot of what Vash does, he's doing pretty much solely for Wolfwood's benefit. I mean, look at this pathetic wet kitten of a man - you can't tell me he doesn't need it.

I've already talked at some length about why exactly Vash is like he is about Wolfwood, but what's he like about Meryl?

Pretty much exactly as fond. He's just quieter about it. To my read, he's confident she and Roberto can look after themselves and each other. That's really endearing to him, but not something he has to do anything about. And Meryl's not suffering the same kind of identity crisis as the Punisher/Wolfwood/Nico. Meryl knows exactly who she is, she's just trying to get everyone else to acknowledge it, and Vash does so from the first - she's never anything but "Meryl" to him, not "newbie" or "little lady". She never has to demand that of him.

Nor is she in directly a victim of his godawful brother, which thankfully means she isn't his responsibility to help - or at least, no more so than any given human. Also, it's Vash. What's that? Someone is invested in his well-being? Golly, that sounds suspiciously like he's being cared for (which of course he doesn't deserve), or (more reasonably) like someone vulnerable to being caught up in Knives's manipulations. Or just someone vulnerable to Knives period. Stampede out!

I though you guys were buddies./I thought you three had something special. 

No way./Yeah, not really.

Too bad for him, he's met his match in Meryl Stryfe.

In direct contrast to every other character around Vash, she's only one there not because she has to be, or because she needs or wants something from him, but because she decided to be. She's one of the only characters with agency, after all.

Real people aren't monsters like that./He's a man, not a monster.

But I won't give up, no matter how unreasonable the assignment!/I won't abandon an assignment just because it's silly.

We can't just leave him hanging here./No way. We can't just leave him here.

And she's also decided he needs help. So come hell or high water, this man is getting helped.

It's her knack for finding the truth without quite knowing the reasoning behind it. In physical terms Vash really, really doesn't need help, and it's the mistake Knives always makes; that because Vash ostensibly doesn't have powers like him, he's in need of a defender. (And because this is Knives, that means it's up to him personally, and he's entitled to Vash and his exclusive love/loyalty/devotion in return. Any protests Vash makes are clearly just human corruption.) But what Vash actually needs is something his brother has never, in any version of the story, demonstrated the capacity to give him. Even sensitive little boy Knives back in Maximum relied on others for reassurance up until the moment he decided he couldn't.

Vash is more inclined to be someone others rely on, to the point of being maladaptive. It's being unable to help that gets to him, especially when he's held responsible.

What he needs is emotional support. Or, well... faith.

Wolfwood gives that to him eventually, but it takes some serious work, and it comes with its own attendant difficulties, like the fact that Nick's not in a position to extend Vash help himself no matter how much he might want to. Nick is, like Rosa and like Vash, a pragmatist. Do what you have to do.

Meryl has never needed that kind of direct demonstration. To her, Vash is a person, and people always need help, and she's not going to be prevented giving it. End of discussion. And despite being mistaken on some particulars, on this point she's more right than even she knows.

The contrast with Wolfwood is incidentally why Meryl hitting Woofwoof with the truck isn't just fucking funny, it's the perfect way for him to be introduced. He can't catch the same bus as Vash by happenstance because this time Vash is his actual target. He can't have Angelina II because personal transport is autonomy he's not permitted to have.

Instead, Meryl's own autonomy and narrative significance had her run the plot right into him, completely ruining whatever plans were laid for his entrance. Notice Roberto tries to steer Meryl away from the collision course they're on, to no avail, and Vash winds up flipped over. Fantastic.

Wolfwood is getting dragged around; Meryl is the one doing the dragging. When she discovers Vash's secrets, she works to accept them and integrate them into her worldview - which means that the moment she learns he's a Plant, she doesn't reject him or become fearful of him. She instantly accepts that must mean the Plants are also people. That gives her a fuller understanding of the conflict, and especially Vash's view of it, than most. It's not a matter of "Whose side are you on?" It's "How do we move forward together?"

Wolfwood's knowledge has all been filtered through the Eye of Michael, so he's more aware of the details, but can't disentangle his true beliefs from the ideology driving them.

Meryl has a better understanding of the abstract. And that, in turn, entitles her to learn what the available methods are, and judge them...

...But it also entitles her to something more precious: Vash's unquestioning trust.

It's certainly much less dramatic than the demonstrations between Vash and Nick, but I have to say: any amount of exposure to Knives and his histrionics would leave me, at least, pretty relieved to have it.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

[zmediaoutlet]

"but Dean never felt quite as balls-out wild as he did on his belly under his dad" is it because he trusted sam not to hurt him in a way he didnt trust john? is it because sibling incest is just that little less fucked up than parental incest? is it because of the insane power dynamic? is it because of johns particular brand of gross fucknasty hotness and masculinity?

answers to these questions in order:

Sam's capacity to hurt Dean is actually greater than John's, not that any of the three of them know that (at first). Both physically and emotionally. If you don't believe in John The Monster, and I don't, then you're left with someone who -- yes, even if he is doing this -- is still not trying to hurt his kid. A terrible circumstance they've found themselves in and extricating from it would cause even more damage. John can harm Dean with lack of expectation and lack of pride and lack of care but -- Dean expects all that, and bears up under it, and takes it as his due. Sam's a bull in a china shop, comparatively. He doesn't expect that Dean cares as much as he does about what Sam thinks about him -- how much Dean hopes for, from the only person he's ever cared about this much -- and so he can say whatever, or do whatever, and he's not realizing how much soft underbelly is available to be shredded (often until it's too late).

sibling incest is like a LOT less fucked up than parental incest, like a LOT, and particularly the way Sam and Dean go about it. Even with the weird dynamic Sam and Dean have, they are brothers first, and they have a give-and-take power dynamic and partnership that means they are both entering this with eyes mostly open. The thing with Dean and John is turbo weird, monumentally fucked, and the things you can do and think when you're not able to even look at the thing in the light of day -- woof.

but also, yes, John's particular brand of gross fucknasty hotness and masculinity. tbh JDM himself, on a meta level, is way grosser and fucknastier and hotter and more masculine, but that does trickle through the comparatively damp John Winchester, and lawdy lord. Sam's masc and hot and fucknasty too but it's tempered with thoughtfulness and sensitivity and, while I don't think either of them actually think about Sam as the "little" brother that often, their orientation around each other necessitates a more even playing field. Daddy Dom John is another foxhunt altogether. And if you believe, as I and all right-thinking people do, that Dean's most essential deepest wish is to just -- submit, to give up, to get washed under below a wave of just not having to decide -- to get fucked -- no one in the whole wide and wild world can fuck so comprehensively as his daddy.

[666writingcafe]

Belphie As A Lover (NSFW)

Before MC, Belphie just doesn't have the energy to deal with people in that capacity. The most he will do for someone is allow them to ride him, but they have to do all the work. The few people that have slept with the Avatar of Sloth will reveal to whoever asks that the experience is rather underwhelming, especially since Belphie has a tendency to fall asleep before the deed's done. Now, he does have the ability to give people wet dreams, and he taps into this power semi-regularly. All he has to do is to enter someone's mind, figure out who and what they're into, and go from there.

With MC, he comes to realize that rather than draining him, the human actually helps energize him. While part of him finds it refreshing, part of him also finds it annoying, because now he has to figure out a way to get rid of this excess energy (otherwise, he won't be able to sleep). The "problem" worsens as his feelings for MC develop, and there are times that he feels like he's going to bounce off the walls. MC eventually notices and takes action, but initially doesn't expect anything in return. This riles Belphie up even more, because how can someone be so sweet and not be rewarded for it? As the two of them grow more comfortable with each other in the bedroom, they find themselves teasing each other, which makes the experience that much more enjoyable for both of them.

[raisedbythetv89]

*tw* mentions of sa throughout the btvs series:

Expanding on the thoughts in this post about fandom culture and etiquette for how to make this a safer and more enjoyable space for everyone no matter who you ship

If you are a fan of btvs or ats no matter who your favorite characters are or who you ship - you have suffered at the hands of joss whedon's narcissistic personality and the subsequent emotional abuse he not only put the actors and his characters through but the audience as well

He gave us characters and relationships we fell in love with and then always, without fail, something horrible happens to one of them or they do something horrific and we're forced to cope with the emotional whiplash that happens every time he does it and decide if we love the character or relationship enough to cope with what joss did to them or if that's it for us enjoying that character or relationship

Like Bangel? Surprise! He's gonna lose his soul and completely psychologically destroy Buffy! AND THEN he's gonna come back and turns out he's been lying to this whole time to Buffy and he actually loved Darla so much he tried to be evil even with the soul first and actually stalked Buffy for a year before he introduced himself and fell in love with the sight of her crying at 15 and we made her look SUPER childlike and innocent to really up the ick factor!

Like Spuffy? Here take the most traumatic depiction of attempted sexual assault we've ever seen in the series that comes out of absolutely nowhere and is specifically designed to punish women after Spike was the only person who could be there for Buffy besides Tara as she battles her severe depression!

Like Tillow? Well Willow goes from empowering Tara and standing up for her to yelling at her to shut the hell up and then magically drugging and sexually assaulting her! and then when Tara calls her out on in she uses the "I didn't mean to" line and then is gonna use magic on her in the exact same way! and then we're gonna rush tara forgiving her just to kill her off!

Like Fuffy? Well Faith is gonna steal Buffy's body and then sexually assault both buffy and riley simultaneously while trying to goad riley into violating buffy's body as much as possible!

The list is truly ENDLESS you either survive on btvs long enough to do something horrific or you're killed off in a brutal, shocking and senseless way (I'm not going to list every single relationship and horrific event as it seems unnecessary and I know I can expand on the above example even further but again it feels unnecessary so please don't freak out if you feel I missed something this is by no means an exhaustive list)

Joss hates people, he hates women, he hates people of color, he hates his audience. Doing horrible things to people you claim to love is incredibly normal for him and any abusive narcissist because they don't love people or even see them as fellow humans - they're just things they play with for entertainment or to make them feel good about themselves which is why this is so prevalent in the buffyverse in the first place

Liking a ship where something horrible happens, you're not condoning it - it happened TO YOU. You were going along loving a character or relationship and then the creator got bored or angry and decides to throw a narrative punch just because he can and he likes the control it gives him to make a bunch of people react in certain ways emotionally and he loves to ruin things people love that's a huge thing for narcissists - if they see someone else feeling good about themselves or experience joy they want it destroyed

We have all suffered at the hands of this man, everyone has their favorite characters for very specific and deeply personal reasons. Just because you can't move past or accept certain behaviors from a character doesn't mean you get to dictate that for everyone else. Truly loving or connecting to a character means you have more capacity for forgiveness than someone who just liked them - and loving a character also usually comes with a deeper understanding of that character in the first place that can give you perspective and understanding that helps you contextualize the bad things.

Loving even the worst fictional characters literally harms no one, but attacking, shaming, judging, feeling superior to real people for their fictional tastes does so don't come on here and "well actually" me with "well MY fav didn't do [x]" or "MY fav never did anything.." because that's not the point. The whole point of this post is other btvs or ats fans who like different characters or ship difference ships are not you enemy - JOSS WHEDON is the only enemy here - be mad at him and only him, hate on other characters all you want but being cruel to other fans who don't agree with you is exactly what joss wants and we all hate that fucker so stop playing his game and don't be a dick.

[the-lark-ascending69]

I didnt love S3 but Steve peaked there. Robin became the final puzzle piece he needed to complete his development - thanks to the actors because the duffers clearly didn't know what to do with him. Steve spent the last three seasons chasing after a girl who would never be his soulmate, and when he accepted that, he tried to find someone else to love instead. He tried flirting with any girl whose attention he could hold for over 60 seconds, except for Robin - setting her apart already, though for the wrong reasons initially. She was originally meant to be Nancy's replacement as Steve's arm candy, it seems, but making her a lesbian at the last moment is really what saves S3 for me, not only because she's my baby, my favorite character and I adore her with my whole heart, but also because... the improvised straightbait turned out to work incredibly well at the time to cement the conclusion of Steve's arc - he was a piece of shit and lost Nancy to someone who was better for her (say what you want about Jonathan, but that's clearly the idea the writers had with him, regardless of the effectiveness of the execution). Steve couldn't get Nancy back, and really, he shouldn't be focusing on romance at all because that's just not what he needs to grow as a person. The people who truly challenge him, push him to be better and motivate him to grow are his platonic bonds - Dustin and Robin. He couldn't "fix" everything with Nancy (meaning that he couldn't go back to before everything changed, as if he hadn't messed up). Nancy may appreciate the change but she won't go back to him. Steve doesn't need to change for love - he needs to change for himself, in order to be a better person, period. And Nancy has no reason to stay and watch him grow, she has her own matters to attend to, and she doesn't have enough space in her life for Steve. So Steve finds new people, somewhere else, away from Nancy, and he grows thanks to them.

Robin being not only just his friend but also being completely and eternally unavailable to him works perfectly here. The audience believed, alongside Steve (and the Duffers lmfao) that what Steve needed was romantic love, but Robin proves him wrong. He gets over his ex-girlfriend and finds a sister instead.

And then Season 4 ruins that, for no reason and to no one's benefit. Steve regresses. The growth is undone, for the purpose of keeping Nancy in that eternal love triangle loop that seemed to have been solved two seasons ago. It's sad and disappointing and I'm hoping they don't revisit that in S5.

What I would've done instead would've been to let Steve finish his arc in S3. S4 Steve has a flat arc now. He learned all he had to learn. He's fine. Now, he's here to teach others what he's learned, and I think it would be very interesting if the person who learned from him the most turned out to be Nancy. Steve basically just discovered the power of friendship, and deep emotional connections and trust and how closeness to others makes you stronger. Gives you a purpose. He learned to love and care for others and now that's his strength. Have him tell her about how much he cares about Robin and Dustin. Show him bonding more with Lucas and Max. Contrast him with Nancy, who is isolated, who just lost another friend after leaving him alone, and is desperately trying to protect Max from Vecna. Maybe she's hesitant to become friends with Robin, or to rely on her and Steve to share the burden, or trust the kids to take care of themselves on some capacity. Nancy has become more and more isolated as Steve grows closee to other people.

Then Steve sacrifices himself in S5 to save either Robin or Dustin or both of them idk I think that would be the best conclusion to his arc. Passing on the torch to one of them. Maybe Robin becomes the new babysitter and protector. Maybe Dustin becomes the new hot boy at Hawkins High idk but I think an ending of this sort would fit. He doesn't even need to actually die, if he somehow survives it still works, just having a sacrifice scene (not played for laughs) would be a perfect way to conclude his growth and move on to inspire others to grow like others have done for him.

[otomes-and-tears]

thoughts on shiloh and jb,,,, theyre so fun to think abt as a dynamic no matter how u choose to slice it

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT THIS, ANON!! I want to smooch your forehead. I'm so happy rn.

Okay so-- I like to think that Shiloh initially only agreed to date JB out of self-interest, but eventually developed genuine feelings for her that he's in denial about.

We all know that he chooses to closely associate with people who will offer him something in return, and being with JB is DEFINITELY beneficial for him in the beginning:

First, by going out with her he's setting himself apart from the other jerks. He already acts differently from them, being nice, cheerful and helpful, and dating someone who others would consider desirable would do good for his social standing (and we know that shiloh has a bit of a reputation for being a manwhore, so actually settling down with someone for once would make him appear better) and it would solidify the idea that he's in the jerksquad by mistake and that he's "totally normal you guys" for people who still didn't catch on to him being a snake.

We also know that part of the reason is literally just that JB is the one thing that all the jerks have in common. They're all attracted to her in some capacity, and Shiloh can rub it in their faces in his own way that he "won" by being with her.

I think that JB being physically attractive and fitting his type are just minor points for him. If it was down to just physical attraction he wouldn't have bothered with a romantic relationship. He did, canonically, have a bunch of flings, so we know that for him accept a serious, exclusive relationship meant that there was a lot of incentive for him to do so.

So by all accounts, this is literally the perfect scenario for him: He's with someone attractive and fun, he pisses Pran off, people will see him in a better light and, the best part of all, JB is aware that he has ulterior motives and doesn't care about what they are, just as long he's praising her and being amusing.

There doesn't need to be any actual feelings involved. It's a mutually beneficial relationship that hinges on both parts fulfilling their pre-assigned roles. It's straightforward and uncomplicated, even if their dynamic is kind of fucked up if you think too hard about it.

But... And maybe this is just the hopeless romantic in me, but I do think that Shiloh eventually starts developing actual feelings for JB, and it would be fucking terrible for him.

There's this one post where GB lady talks about Shiloh's loneliness, and I think about it way too much. Even if you choose to see him as someone who just discards and replaces people in his life as soon as they're not of use anymore, he still feels isolated and lonely, because of course he does! Shiloh spent his entire life not letting people in and just following whoever established themselves as a leader, he even admits to it himself in Our life.

Shiloh doesn't have any actual, meaningful relationships because he can't have them and still maintain that same pattern of behaviour that he's used to, and letting go of these old habits would be incredibly difficult for someone whose entire childhood socialization was built onto this foundation.

Like-- I know that is a clichê for people to trace back everything to someone's childhood, but I cannot stress enough how CRUCIAL childhood socialization is for human development. Of course, people can grow and change even if they had difficult childhoods, but you need a good foundation in order to build healthy habits, and while Shiloh did have loving parents who wanted to do good by him, the behaviours and thought patterns he picked up during his childhood are still things we can see he struggles with throughout his life.

Building long-lasting connections with people means that he needs to allow himself to be vulnerable and genuine, It means that Shiloh needs to let go of the safety of the "boss and sidekick" dynamic that he's used to, and that especially, he would need to let go of his habit of entering relationships with the expectation of leaving them eventually.

I don't think these are things he's incapable of doing, if you choose to believe that he was being genuine with Liz during their conversation in OLBA, but these are things that he has resistance to trying because they have outcomes that are difficult to predict, and Shiloh is as his most comfortable when he's able to read someone and be what they need him to be or manipulate them into giving to him what he wants. He thrives on predictability and control.

I believe that actually falling in love with JB would be something he'd be in denial about for a long time. I think it would be hard for him to rationalise having actual, genuine feelings for someone after he spent an entire life avoiding them, and it would be even harder for him to deal with the very real possibility of this relationship having an expiration date, or, even worse, him wanting to be with her past her usefulness.

And it's not like he has anyone to talk to about these things, or that JB would even believe him if he admitted to actually liking her. I do think that Shiloh is the kind of person who would try to bury these feelings inside as much as possible to try and regain some sense of normalcy and you'd never be able to tell, bc he's just acting like normal.

By the prom scene, I think he actually likes her. I think he purposefully takes advantage of the fact that she doesn't take anything he says seriously to say things he actually means. I think him opening up about his manipulation tactics goes beyond him just wanting to manipulate her further (though I do think that keeping her interested enough she doesn't want to break up is a good motivator for him to keep on manipulating her too) and is also Shiloh's way of testing her boundaries and just how much she's willing to put up with if he starts being honest with her.

I don't think he knows whether or not to break up with her by graduation. She's asking him, but he doesn't know what to answer. Being with her beyond high school and putting effort into staying with JB long-distance doesn't really benefit Shiloh like it did when they were both in high school, and staying with JB long-term would mean that at some point he'd have to look deep inside and ask himself if he's willing to change.

And yeah, he's lonely, and he loves JB, but is that worth giving up everything you know?

Buuut if you want my honest opinion, which I'm guessing you do because you read through this mountain of text, I like to think that him allowing Liz back into his life is a good sign. It, at the very least, means that he is willing to maintain one relationship and that he's willing to be at least somewhat honest with someone. That's already miles better from where he was when Xoxo Droplets started.

By the way-- if you agree or disagree with anything I said here I'd LOVE to hear people's takes on this topic! I love talking about them!

[tordenvejr]

Hi dear. I've got a question about burn out that I dont know if you can answer, but if not maybe your followers would be so kind to share some experiences. I have been feeling very tired for a long time, I cant concentrate on anything, and at work I have become forgetful, angry and I cry all the time. I saw a nurse the other day and she said I should see a doctor and be put on sick leave. I don't feel like I'm sick enough to go home, yet like... do I really know better than a nurse? At home I do nothing but sleep and absolute essentials, which is making me depressed, but I don't feel /sick/... if you understand what I mean. I was raised that if i could get out of bed i'm going to school and it is a core belief of mine that it's important to not give in easily. Is burn out always very much a physical sickness or not? I don't know if it's time for some self-care or to grit my teeth and keep going... :(

i'm going to be very direct with you, know that i mean it with care 🤍

you say your core belief is to not give in easily, what is it you're not giving in to? because the way i'm reading this it's "i don't give in to my needs" which, if accurate, is very dangerous.

if you hold onto this core belief for another year, 5, 10, 25 what is your life going to look like? will you be happy? healthy? peaceful? will you be alive?

picking up a belief doesn't mean you live with it forever, but you do have to put it down for that not to be the case.

where did you pick up the belief in the first place? if you picked it up from a trauma then the charge of that trauma emanates throughout the belief and into your life everywhere it touches. who did you pick up this belief from? are they happy? well? healthy? do they love their life? this is who you're modeling your life after so it's worth taking a moment to assess.

it sounds to me like there might be a theme of giving authority over your life over to outside influences; who raised you, the nurse, even me. this is not sustainable, and it isn't our place to assess your needs and certainly not to assess your right to have them. the needs are yours, you are entitled to them by virtue of having them.

if someone came to you and said: i am tired, i can't concentrate, i am forgetful, i am angry, i am crying, all i do is sleep, i am depressed

would you be concerned with whether what they're experiencing qualifies as burnout or would you just tell them to rest?

it seems to me that having burnout could be just another permission slip that it's "really bad enough". you are training your entire being to scream in order to be heard by you.

waiting until you're burned out or at the end of your rope is not admirable, it's not a strength, it is self destructive and damaging, emotionally, spiritually and physically.

how sick do you need to be in order to give yourself what you need? pick your limit wisely because without change that's the extent that it can go to. some people will be dying and still deny themselves compassion and care. navigating life to be as stoic and dismissive of your needs as possible serves absolutely no one, certainly not you, and not even those that demand it of you.

you know you're exhausted, you know you can't do any more, you don't need my permission or anyone else's, give it to yourself.

go back to the first day you didn't have the capacity for school and your needs were dismissed. rewrite this belief, and say: "no, i'm getting out of bed AND i'm staying home. maybe you should too."

caring for yourself is a lifelong practice, so yes it's time and it will continue to be time

[steveandthesea]

I'd rather not talk about politics on the Internet since it usually just turns into putrid bile and shit slinging, but here we are.

To my American friends - or even strangers - I am here for anyone who wants to talk. It feels like there is nothing I can do; I have no influence, no money to donate to any causes, but if I can offer any strength or support to anybody, then I will do that.

Please don't sink into despair. Please don't think that this is never going to get better. Please don't think that you're alone.

If you have the strength, then now is the time to gather and unionise. Now is the time for everyone to support each other. Now is the time to check in with your most vulnerable friends and family members.

And if you really have the strength, now is also the time to reach out to those around you who have voted for him; to your family members or friends or colleagues who voted for the man in question, and give them a reason to value you over the choice they have made. Anger and sadness are valid right now, and you absolutely should show your anger to those in power, but if you can face being one-on-one with someone close to you who holds those views, then showing them love, compassion and empathy will do so much more to change their minds. Because if you can find a way to understand why someone thinks the way they do, and if you can listen to them, you'll already be doing more than anyone else does, and you'll have a much better chance of ever changing their mind. Do not waste your time and energy arguing with strangers on the internet. Nobody ever changed their mind because someone else sent them an angry tweet. Challenge and question people's views, ridicule and scrutinise opinions. But do so in a way that invites that person to question themselves, and most of all try to make that person see that you want the best for them too, and let them know that they are welcome in the better future we want to create.

Remember that the vast majority of people who voted for him have shot themselves in the foot. They have been lied to, tricked, deceived into voting for their own misery. They will continue to believe that he is their saviour and that "the other" is the enemy until someone is able to show them otherwise. Many of them are hurting, suffering from the same oppressive system as everyone else and they don't even know it. But they won't change their mind for someone who shows them anger and points the finger at them. Don't make these people your enemies; they are not the enemy. The enemy is the power and the system that has turned us common folk against each other.

I'm under no illusion that this is easy to do. To look in the face of someone who voted for him, someone who holds racist, misogynistic, ableist, homophobic, transphobic views and to calmly offer them your love and support is maybe even impossible for some of us. To keep calm and composed and to show strength and reason in the face of oppression is a huge expectation. Realistically this may only be an option for those of us with more privilege; this is very much work for allies more than women and minorities. But it's important to remember that when you display your anger and hatred towards someone, you do nothing to change that person's opinion, and you only serve to prove the point of the oppressor who paints "the other" as the enemy. That person doesn't cease to exist when you stop talking to them or cut ties with them for their beliefs. They're still out there, and they'll still vote in the next election. Do not be the enemy. Be the voice of reason. Be a source of love.

All the same, also remember that some people are a total fucking lost cause, that it's not your job to educate everyone, and that often that energy could be better spent on the more vulnerable people around you who need that support. Not everyone is going to have the capacity to stay calm and kind in the face of people who literally don't think you should have the right to your own body, or to even exist. Not every person who believes any of that is worth your energy even if you do have it.

But nothing changes until something changes. And if you have the power and strength to change just one person's mind, even just enough to get them to question their ideas, then that's a power that you absolutely should use.