an evening star ✩

Xenophilius takes a deep breath before entering their bedroom, his heart breaking at the sight of the woman he loves curled up in bed, unmoved from the position she was in hours ago. He places a cup of tea made exactly how she likes it on the bedside table and sits on the edge of the bed. 

“I've made you a cuppa,” he murmurs. “And if there's anything you want to eat, anything at all, I can get it for you.” 

“I'm not hungry,” Pandora replies, exactly what he was expecting. 

“You've got to eat something, dear.” 

“I don't deserve to.” 

He sighs, heartbroken by her pain. “You can't blame yourself for everything that's happened.” 

“I knew Evan was going to die. I could have warned him. But I hesitated, not wanting to get involved in the war, and now my brother is dead, and it is entirely my fault.” 

“You weren't to know when your dream would become a reality. For all we know, it could have been years.” 

“Except it was a week, not years.” 

“You can't blame yourself for your brethren's choices that led to his untimely death.” Xenophilius brushes some of her blonde hair out of her face, gazing into bloodshot eyes. “He made his choice. You offered to let him stay with us, away from the fighting, yet he chose to be on the front lines, on the wrong side. There is no one to blame but him.” 

“I should have tried harder. I should have-” 

“There is no one to blame but him,” he repeats. 

“But-” 

“Pandora,” he interrupts, voice gentle, “you did the best you could to save him. But his death is not on you, I promise.” 

Tears start streaming down her face and Xenophilius lies down next to her, wrapping his arms around her shaking body as she cries into his shoulder. He wishes he could just take all her pain away, but losing a brother—a twin—is something unimaginable. This isn’t something that will go away any time soon, but he vows to always be there for Pandora, no matter what.  

Hi! Are you cis in the UK and you'd like to support trans rights? Great!

How: buy a trans flag pin and wear it in public.

Why: chaff is an overwhelming amount of false positives so that when a missile gets close to the plane, it hits the chaff and not the plane.

In practice: the goal is to make it DIFFICULT to identify trans people to target with bathroom bans, and to create many FALSE POSITIVES for businesses.

Basically, you might get accused of being trans and kicked out, because of the badge. You say: I wear the badge because trans rights matter.

You follow up with a letter to the business saying you're fucking furious because some nosy dipshit just tried to play fucking genital police with you in the loos. You know lots of trans people (don't name any, if you do) and you wear the pin in support and you're disgusted at them for allowing this.

Blame the business for allowing the behaviour.

Businesses see that their cis customers are getting bothered over a badge and may clarify trans-inclusive policies, so they can kick out the bathroom botherers instead of nice cis allies.

You only need to buy and wear the badge, and you are protecting trans people. You can be genuinely heroic. Even one cis person doing this helps, and everyone you get to join in helps even more.

Non-affiliated badge link:

https://rainbowandco.uk/collections/trans-pride/products/transgender-pride-flag-badge