is that it is full of people who think like I do and love like I do and manage interactions like I do and have relationships with ethics like mine; and this reflection doesn't require that I be more human but it does make me feel more okay, more real, less toxic. And that's why I've read getting on for 300k words of MCU fic despite not having any familiarity at all with canon, and it's why I'm working on reading everything she's ever written and why I'll keep reading all the things she writes. Because: these people? They have no ladder and they have no rope; they can't see where the sun is rising; they can offer no hope; but they see me and I'm not alone.