#children alone

[searedwithscars]

McDonald's is a place of fun, shit food that tastes like a dream, and filled with family memories.

McDonald's is never a place of danger. Except that it once was.

She had found us a table to sit at and made sure we were safe. It was so crowded that I could just barely see her through it while she was at the counter ordering. I always made sure I could her. That was the rule. We had to be able to see each other if she had to leave us alone briefly.

It took such a long time for our food to be made. Why was it taking it so long? I didn't understand. But what child ever does?

I didn't feel good about her being gone so long. The dread of being left alone was worsening. I kept eyeing the crowd, making sure no one was looking at us. She'd told us stories of children being taken before and that seemed to be strongly in my mind.

It was my third or fourth scan of the room where he had made eye contact with me. He looked old, too old to be there alone. Yet, he was undoubtedly alone. There was all this food on his table, and only himself sitting there. He scared me. Something about him didn't sit right. So, I looked away from him, looking at them instead and making sure they were okay and not looking at him too.

I noticed that he was looking at this man, and I looked back at the man in time to see he had lifted up his hand, his index finger curled and uncurled. The grotesque gesture of 'come here'. I grabbed his arm because he wanted to do what the man had gestured.

"We have to stay here, wait for her to come back with our food."

"But he's asking us to come to him."

He managed to pull out of my grib and started making his way to this man.

And so I grabbed her hand and made us follow him. I had to make sure he'd stay safe. That he wouldn't leave with him.

I managed to catch up to him just as he got to the table. Now, all three of us were there with this strange man. I was so scared I wanted to find her, but from here I couldn't see her anymore. She was still waiting for our food.

This man gestured to his own food and offered it to us. I was about to answer when he said, "Yes, please." He went to grab some food, but I stopped him. I told him that she'd be coming back to our table with our own food. The man was watching us, and his eyes were terrifying. I didn't know him. Had he poisoned the food? Why wasn't he eating the food himself? Why was he asking us to come and eat it? I was terrified.

He looked sad to be told he couldn't eat this food, but he didn't touch it. I was so glad he didn't touch the food. This man kept trying to tell us to eat it, however, too persistent.

"We don't know you, and she's on her way now. I see her looking for us." It was a lie. I had to lie. He was terrifying me. Why wasn't he terrifying him, too? Maybe he was too young to understand.

I was still holding her hand, and I reached for his, too. We had to get away from him now. It was so crowded here that we weren't being noticed by anyone, and she was still at the counter, waiting for our food. It was taking too long to make. I had to tell him we needed to leave now, go back to our table. He didn't look happy, but let us go. My lies seemed to have worked.

I dragged them back with me, back to our table. When we sat back down, I sat with my back to him. I didn't want to see him and his eyes.

She must not have seen us leave the table, because when she came back she didn't say anything. I turned around to see if he was still there, but he had gone. Should I tell her what happened? Would she be angry? I didn't want to get us in trouble. Would she even believe me? And so I didn't say anything. Not for a long time.

Nowhere seemed safe anymore, not even the child friendly places.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Those were Vanessa's friends too in the FNAF movie

[kookiekult]

Blackman: "Five *had* to have a love story-"

Okay??? He already did but I guess Dolores means nothing to you. 🙄

[clouvu]

Nothing in the world belongs to me But my love, mine, all mine

[alonsoings]

“kimi antonelli could be racing in f1 as soon as spain!”

kimi antonelli is like 12 and needs to go to bed can these f1 teams please be normal for two seconds

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 112

Once again, you know who is underutilized in DCxDP crossovers? Battinson. Skrunkly shivering boi. Who we should definitely give children to care for. 

 Did you know that Jason canonically had a brother named Danny? Well you do now, and it should also be used more. 

 We all want to give Battinson a robin, so why not give him four for the price of two. He of course gets Dick from the circus- he’s never going to go into public again, this was the first time he’d gone to do something out of his comfort zone for a while and look how that turned out. 

 And on one of the nights that Dick has to stay home (Alfred insists he must finish his homework if he wants to go out on patrol) Bruce returns to the batmobile to find not one child, but two. Is Danny reincarnated? Just appeared one day? Who knows, but he’s here now and going to protect his little brother. 

 Bruce might have tears in his eyes when they both hit him in the kneecaps and bolt because even with the armor it still hurts. How he manages to grab both kids he’s not too sure, but he ends up getting them food after they put the tires back. He also doesn’t understand how he’s convinced them into the car but they’ve both conked out and maybe he’s panicking and needs Alfred- 

 D-Dick why is there another child here? He’s the neighbor, cool cool. W-what do you mean he’s home alone, he’s like, 4?? What do you mean he’s been alone for a week now???

…

Alfreeeeed-

[thottybrucewayne]

I think what I want to get into with the "Anyone can do harm." thing that I keep beating yall over the head with is that literally anyone, anyone at all can do harm it's not "in your DNA" to be an abuser or written in the stars that you'll be a predator. Whatever image you have of an abuser in your head, drop it and replace it with your favorite person in the world and you'll probably be closer to the truth than you realize. It's easy to address harm when it's coming from someone you already hate. I see it happen all the time. Someone you couldn't stand for no real reason does something heinous then all of a sudden here comes the avalanche of "I always knew they were a fucked up individual." No, you didn't. There is no possible way you could have known, you just already didn't fuck with them before they started doing something you could use to justify your hatred of them. I'm guilty of it too! I'm petty, mean, vindictive, and yes! I'm way quicker to believe something bad about someone I hate versus someone I love because I'm human. Still, y all gotta learn to move past that initial "Well, they were always nice to me!" gut feeling and understand that nobody truly knows anyone and anyone can be capable of anything. Even victims. Even you.

[favroitecrime]

Palestinian freedom fighters breaking out of Gaza and reclaiming their occupied territories. They’ve taken over israeli tanks and have chased out the settlers that were on that land. They’ve launched rockets everywhere and the iron dome has failed to intercept. This is about to mark a momentous event in history.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

[weaponizedalibi]

Erm guys I think she might know how joan of arc felt...... lol.........

Made in flipaclip, edited in cap cut. Song is Bigmouth Strikes Again by The Smiths

[deluxeyellowflower]

If you're USamerican and feel very strongly about how people vote in this upcoming election, if you feel hopeless about how those around you aren't voting, here's some suggestions.

Sign up to be a poll worker or election worker in your county. You might need to call or email the local election office to find out how to do this.

Get very familiar with your local voting process and its bureaucracy. Know the important deadlines and remind people of them. (Being a poll worker helps a lot with this.)

Ask your friends and family if they're voting. Have progressive voting guides on hand if they don't know who or what to vote for. Offer to drive people or go with them to vote. Fill out your mail-in ballots together.

Organize and join get out the vote campaigns. Canvass. Table. Flyer. Call. Text.

Don't shame people for ambivalence, disinterest, or hostility to voting. Be curious. Provide practical advice and tangible support.

[nelkcats]

Family Trip

Danny loved her, like a sister, a daughter or something in between, but Ellie was happy as long as he was there to take care of her. She felt protected but couldn't stay forever.

She had already explored the whole world, and as interesting as the Infinite Realms seemed in reality they didn't interest her that much. Ellie was sure she needed to go further, but she didn't know how to let Danny know. So she simply told him straight out, that the universe they were in was no longer enough for her.

Danny accepted it, and told her that there were many other universes that she could explore, he told her that Clockwork had told him about some of them. Ellie was excited, she could travel more, but for the first time she hesitated, and realized that she didn't want to travel alone.

She asked Danny if he wanted to travel with her and he gave her the flattest look in existence.

"Obviously I'm going to travel with you" he said. And that was that. No discussion, no questions asked.

They both packed a couple of backpacks as if they were going hiking and asked Clockwork. He just tossed them Dan's thermos before offering them a method of travel. Danny frowned but opened the thermos anyway and dragged Dan with them as he yelled about injustices and upset families.

They ended up in Gotham, in front of a man with a helmet and a guy dressed as a stoplight. Danny waved and asked them for a chat (he probably wanted to ask for directions) while Dan sulked in the back. Ellie looked at the architecture curiously.

Unfortunately for Danny, the stoplight guy pulled out a sword and the helmet guy pulled out a gun. They both looked tense as they looked between the three of them. Danny frowned (his green eyes glinting with annoyance) before nodding towards Ellie and Dan and disappearing.

Thus began their vacation in a world where everyone wanted to shoot them; Danny felt at home, Dan wanted to steal an exotic candy called crypto-something and Ellie was happy to explore.

Their family trip had officially begun.

[nothingbizzare]

Mother

[leal-hound]

in another life i found you sooner

[muckyschmuck]

your mom

[uncanny-tranny]

An important aspect of youth liberation is not tying the idea of later adult care with having children.

The broader attitude that only your children can ensure that you get taken care of when you grow old is not a good precedent to set. Having children should not be what ensures that you can live through old age, and fear mongering people with the idea that nobody will ever take care of them (or, rather, shouldn't) is such an awful motivator to have children.