Vampires Smp Shelby makes me so sad.
Shelby spends so much of her pov believing that the townsfolk wish ill on her.
Which, to be fair, is not entirely unfounded. There are members of the town who everyone- from the vampires to the other townsfolk to themselves- can recognize acted out of fear early on in a way that wasn't productive.
But while Shelby absolutely has reason to feel like she doesn't belong in town..the others love her. They do.
Avid looks for Shelby. He tells her not to let the opinions of others get to her, he tells her he knows she's good, that she isn't the type of person to hurt others. He tells her she's his friend, and later leaves food for Shelby.
Drift just lights up when she runs into Shelby, rushing to greet her, so happy to see Shelby. Drift isn't afraid, or angry, she misses Shelby, wants Shelby to come home. Pearl, Cleo, and Drift tell Shelby that what she does matter, not what she is, and that they want her back.
Apo speaks kindly to Shelby, they don't hate her, not like they hate Scott. Apo tells Shelby that she's loved and missed. When Shelby points out that Martyn burned her, Apo tells Shelby that Martyn wants to talk to her, not fight her.
The town isn't perfect, and they did give Shelby reasons to doubt them, yes! Avid's jail cell, Martyn striking Shelby during the battle at the castle, Avid burning Shelby's house without thinking about what it would mean.
But nobody hates Shelby. Even when she's angry with them, even when she drives them away, even when she, understandably, thinks they see her as an enemy. Whenever Shelby's brought up, there's nothing but fondness for her, for her quirks and kindness and the memories they share, as well as maybe grief that she's gone.
Which is where Scott and Owen jump in, of course.
When Shelby is invited back to town, Scott floats the idea that she's being invited back so they can hurt her. When townsfolk say they miss Shelby, Owen twists it into an admission that they see Shelby as lesser now, "She's not gone", nevermind that they mostly miss her because she doesn't speak to them anymore. Scott and Owen both feed into this thought in Shelby's mind tat the humans will never give her a chance or listen to her, that they want to hurt her. Fuck, when Avid leaves Shelby food and Owen actively changes the gift into a threat to manipulate her.
And of course, lets not forget that Scott and Owen hurt her! Just as much as- or honestly, probably more than- the town has! And worse is how they refuse to acknowledge the hurt they caused Shelby. But in some ways, they don't have to. Because they've convinced Shelby she has to forgive them, that noone else will accept her, noone else loves her like they say they do (they don't love shelby), they're all she has, so she can't afford to let herself feel the hurt and anger clearly bubbling inside her, because it's not safe to be angry with her "new family", and she's convinced there's noone else to turn to.
Shelby has been hurt by both sides to a degree, but one of those sides loves her and wants desperately to bridge the gap, and the other is isolating her and will never acknowledge or care how they hurt her. And Shelby is so thoroughly isolated and convinced the town doesn't want her (when they do, they do, she haunts them, conversation of how much everyone misses shelby is constant) that she doesn't feel like she has the choice to be angry with or push back against the other vampires, or to reconnect with her friends in town who want to try.
Chat I need you to understand how miserable Shelby makes me. She lost her biological family, was outcast by the place she came from, and then when she starts to make friends in a new place she's attacked and isolated from the people who love her through fear and misunderstanding, and she deserves so much better.
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