#mention of death of children tw

[uncanny-tranny]

To my fellow US Americans: If you are planning on arming yourselves because of the election results and what might be on the horizons, I urge you to be a responsible gun owner.

Take as many classes as you can. Get certified in gun safety, even if it's not required to own a gun in your state. Get a gun safe. A good gun safe. Lock your gun up. Don't leave it armed. Don't wave your guns or gun-owning status around and don't pose with guns like they're toys. I'd say not to make gun buying an impulse purchase, either. You are investing in something that holds great potential risk to yourself and others - treat it like a responsibility.

I'm not here to argue about if Americans ought to exercise the second amendment in the way it currently exists. That's not the point - we have always had the second amendment, and I doubt it's going anywhere. I am more interested in making sure we don't see a surge in accidental, negligent gun ownership.

As a queer person in the US, I can understand the mindset behind people's spiked interest in arming themselves. I'm not arguing against that. As a child of gun owners, I know just how huge a responsibility it is to own a gun, and I hate the general attitude we Americans have about guns. Please don't contribute to that. If you own a gun, it is you inherent responsibility to take care of that gun (which is why I can't own a gun yet - I don't have the resources to pour into proper ownership).

[girlinafairytale]

[vampire-rodeo]

Every time I hear about a school near me (USAmerica) banning cellphones in classrooms, my immediate thought is fear for those students there, because what if one day they have a shooting and those students can’t call their mothers? Because legislators are more concerned about technology than guns.

[leona-florianova]

Dane and Dark Dane.. 

[hussyknee]

Narmada and her sister Sharika are the daughters of prominent Tamil feminist and human rights activist Rajini Thiranagama, who was murdered when they were children. Every time they speak of her I move away from grief that her life was so brutally cut short, to joy that she spent those years living a life more full of light and love than many can fit into a hundred. Nothing can compare to the legacy of being remembered this way by your children.

[tac-bat]

Why I love How Sky Portrays Death

Before I start, I go into detail about death and loss, and description of the afterlife and dying and examples of it in sky and a little mention of religion irl.

I wrote this while sleep deprived if this makes no sense, i'm not sorry

Take this all with a grain of salt as this is purely my observation and interpretation

To many, death is scary, unpredictable, and inevitable. Death is frightening because it represents the end of life, the loss and grief it brings, and the uncertainty of where we will go. Every religion has its own version of the afterlife, from our soul moving to a new body, places ranging from rewarding good and punishing evil, to simply being nothing. Death is scary because we'll never truly know what lies beyond or what awaits. It's complicated ,heavy, and it's something that many have delved deeper into too. I only bring this up because the sky not only answers, but embraces death. How? Let's take a look.

Orbit

Sky's interpretation of the afterlife is perfect. "All are given breath by starlight," as stated in the intro mural, everyone ends up back in the stars someday, becoming spirits that travel to this small part of the galaxy. They even seem to become one with the light and stars if they so please. And it's relaxing; it's soothing.

They know it exists.

Spirit's have shown from the beginning of the game that they can descend and ascend whenever they please. See all TS's, Grandma, and event spirits like Yeti, who appear briefly during Feast to cast a snowman spell before ascending. According to this logic, orbit is widely known because ancestors were bound to descend to explain what happens. And spirits aren't gone from their loved ones' lives; they're still present. They're not gone and can visit anytime they like; it's not hard for me to imagine them visiting others during holidays and events.

Gravestone's

In every social space, there are gravestones for every base-game ancestor. What's interesting is how they're laid out; unlike regular graveyards, which are organized in a line, none of the graves are uniform, some being lengths apart. This is very clear in Prarie, with one near the closet and another nestled in a cave; even irl graveyards that are less uniform don't tend to put burials that far away, but Sky does. It almost seems like an ancestor could've possibly chosen the placement themselves. You also have the special burial site at the 8-player door, a working elevator and all, the graves have their own little buildings and stones draped in gold, implying a ceremony as we know. Not only that, but Valley's way of honouring death is extremely interesting.

Let's talk about Samekh's temple

Valley really demonstrates how death is viewed—not in a morbid way but in an honourable way. The hallways of both races are lined with gravestones, with the exception of some open spaces. When compared to decorations such as the eight-player door, the gravestones themselves are painted in gold. They're unlike any graves seen so far, and you can argue that these were reserved for champions, and if so, I feel like the halls would be packed considering this is the valley of triumph, but no, there are still a few open spaces. Which makes me adore how there are gravestones in the twin's temple.

Their temple is the only one that not only has gravestones inside, but is lined with them! And considering their position and how we know they play a big role in the sky as leaders, to the point where they have a temple, it makes the fact they share it as an ancestor's final resting place so heartwarming to me. They were under no obligation to place gravestones; they could have dragged the banners down, added more statues, or even designed something similar to Daleth's temple like the murals we see, but they didn't. They allowed the room with their shrine to be a graveyard, they value their people's lives; they regard it as an honour, and whether those are the graves of champions or ordinary people, they value them all the same.

And it still hurts.

Even in the sky, where the question of death is answered, it still hurts.

It hurts when Mindful and a Tearful miner witness the deaths of their friends, Tearful having to bury their own. It hurts when Teabrewer returns with herbs for their loved one who died while they were away, so much so that they become anxious when they leave anyone alone, as seen in their info card. It's horrifying to know how many ancestors died in the war with no way to escape, faced with the fear of death every day.

Death is still scary in Sky, and I love it for that. Even when you know where you'll go, you still value your life; you don't want to die, and you don't want to go. But when that time comes, when you choose to be one with the universe, or roam your home with your star-kissed body, you'll never be alone. And that's why I adore the way death is depicted:

Because it's bittersweet.

[azuresins]

hey I'm not trying to get you hate but question about the poison theory... I could believe an older child could do that but why would you think a 5-year-old would? That's the part I think most people just can't get passed

I've answered this before, several times, and I'm not sure how many times this needs to be said, before people realize it's not something I'm arbitrarily making up... it's not "I believe this might happen in fiction" -- I suspected it because there have been well-documented cases of living, breathing 5-year-olds who have done this exact same thing, before. In fact, ones who have done much worse! And it was not an abuse case.

But I realized, very, very quickly, that while some people genuinely wanted to have a discussion, there were a number of people who were asking me about this, (or about asthma in general) in really bad faith? To find fault with me and put words into my mouth, paint me as someone who just hates children for no-reason or doesn't know anything about asthma. Read all of this carefully, please.

The sources and documented evidence out there, of 5-year-olds (and younger) who have killed or harmed animals, infants, are real people... and these deaths and injuries, as a result of these children and what happened to their families, are often extremely sensitive in nature. I can't justify continuing to send links of this type of evidence to people, who dislike my theory, to these studies and documentaries (the amount of content warning labels I'd have to provide, alone...) to... what...? Gawk at? Just to prove that it happens?

Should I have to explain to strangers or irritated people who have a reason not to like me, for what I think about a fictional story or character, that I actually have asthma and that I know the difference between types (most people don't know there's different types to begin with) and why none of this is adding up to me? Probably not. I know that this topic is sensitive in nature but suddenly, a lot of people were making judgments about my character and wanted to know details about my personal life. Why is that okay? If I ever came off overly defensive about this in the past, I apologize, that was why.

Back to the subject... Five-year-olds who are capable of getting into things they aren't supposed to, and playing with ""medicine."" Is that a rare occurrence? No. Five-year-olds capable of playing with ""medicine"", knowing the outcome might be harmful...and doing it anyway? Actually a lot more likely, than you think it is. Is it rare? Absolutely, but sadly... but not so rare that it's not well-documented and studied. The evidence is out there, and if people want to find it, they can do so. You don't have to take my word for it. And people can believe, what they want to believe. If they look at all of the behavior shown of RealCiel, and just shrug and say he surely can't be one of those kids. Fine. However...

- I'm suspicious, when a ten-year-old hides the ability he can regurgitate at-will, and likely had to practice this ability to perfection. He could have died, he could have choked, right then and there and just didn't. Am I supposed to believe this is the first time he's done something like that? He did it with such confidence, when he swallowed that huge ring. He knew he could keep it safe, and get it back in what I assume was a much more dignified way. That ring wasn't so much as tarnished, by his stomach acid. Why did he think he'd need this ability? Is it a watchdog secret? Or is it something he figured out on his own, and taught himself? I'm also suspicious, of the circumstances surrounding "that day" and the way real Ciel behaved, up until the moment he left the bedroom. - I'm suspicious that Tanaka was the only person spared and survived the fire, and that this master butler, a man who can stop a bullet with a sword, did nothing and seemed completely panicked... his last words before injury were "Don't come closer, Master Ciel is--!" Master Ciel is what? - I also find it an odd choice, that he trips/falls twice but both times, where moments where his brother was supposed to receive attention and he refocused it back on himself. Once during a fencing lesson when O!Ciel tried to talk to Lizzie, and once more when R!Ciel brought him flowers from the outing, he tripped and they were scattered everywhere. - I find it an odd choice, that O!Ciel was concerned with making everyone on the estate happy and worried about solving all of their problems and was considering the burdens of caring for so many people... while real Ciel compared them to livestock... like currency, and worried if they didn't keep things running right, they'd leave. A remark that wasn't unnoticed, by their father. - I'm actually not-at-all startled by how hard, R!Ciel took being told that his brother was going to leave him, someday. How hard he protested and how emotional he got, I think that part is fairly normal... but I am suspicious, of how immediate and quickly he recovered. The moment he realized, "Oh. ... I don't have a choice." Shouldn't he have cried harder? But he smiled, immediately and his tears dried up on a dime. Maybe a child in his position would have tried to run away... but with a sick brother, how could he? I don't think he just accepted it happily, I don't take that reaction at face value. I think he wanted his circumstances to be very different and someone, saw this and took advantage of him and manipulated him all the way to the events that lead to "that day." - And last but certainly not least... I'm extremely suspicious of the way Sebastian-the-borzoi reacts to Our!Ciel, especially the nose-prodding and constant barking at him, and only him. It looks a lot like a service dog alerting. They bark, they prod. They do not give up. He knew something was wrong, and if nothing else... I trust and have faith in that dog. It's not any one thing Real Ciel did, it's...everything we were shown of their childhood, combined. Could there be another party at play, here? Of course, I think it's obvious this child couldn't have acted alone. Someone with ill intentions... used him.

I don't blame him, for what happened "that day", I don't think he's 'evil' and I'm not 'out to get him' or whatever it is people think. ...

It's something that not a lot of people LIKE to think about, I'm sure, what children are capable of. But not every child who does that, is abused, and it's NOT always the cause of these behaviors. To say so? Is not only incorrect, but... it's really a slap to the face to the parents and caregivers of some of these children. I read about one case of a child who tried to kill his siblings on multiple occasions and blamed other grown adults for years, before he was caught. They found needles, knives, candy, and his mothers meds under the carpet padding in his closet. He would go to school and manipulate teachers and tell them things like, "Mommy didn't pack me a lunch today!" When she actually did, he was throwing his food, in the trash. He was not abused at home or in school, or treated any differently than his other siblings, who did not display any of this behavior.

Some people are simply born "different" and children do very strange things for attention and their ideas of love and affection, there's... a lot of people in this world, that dedicate their entire lives, to trying to help these children and understand why this occurs. To the best of my knowledge, when this occurs and abuse is not present or a cause, it's thought of as something that is neurological, with possible genetic factors at play.

While a lot of them are caught, early on (with symptoms often manifesting beyond a shadow of a doubt, around age 5... the most extreme case I've become aware of, showed alarming and severe signs at age 3 ) ... some children, learn to mask and learn how to avoid getting into trouble, and to make sure they're the most popular and well-loved person in the room. They mask so well, that this never gets properly diagnosed well into adulthood. The adults often lead quite successful lives, and don't usually seek help... because they don't feel like they need help. Why would they, unless they're forced to? For what reason? They say that psychopaths make up 1% (1 in 100 people) of the population. Yet, 20% of the most successful businessmen in CEO positions (1 in 5), are psychopaths. That all being said, this is a theory about a fictional character ...and I don't condone people using it, to hurt someone or to manipulate whether they agree or they don't. People are allowed to interpret Real Ciel differently, than I do. You're allowed to like him and think I'm incorrect. You're allowed to like him, even if I AM correct.

[dead-salmon]

so jkr is back to tweeting

[rollerska8er]

they want to hurt our children

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists, while doctors in the United Kingdom turn a blind eye to the suffering and misery of children who just want to be girls, or boys, and are in so much pain because of that, but have now had their entire lives turned into political ammunition by adults who want them quietly legislated to death.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists, while bombing raids and armed men and women in the Gaza Strip kill over 11,000 children and counting, because these adults do not see them as fully human, just obstacles in the way of their righteous vengeance.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists, while a ten-year-old girl learns that she is pregnant and it is her stepfather's, and that the good churchgoing men in her government believe that terminating this pregnancy would be a far worse crime than the crime of raping a child, so she has the choice of fleeing everything she knows, or bringing a child she has neither the means nor ability to raise to term, while still a child herself.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists, while children regularly go through drills where they cower under desks in anticipation of the day that may one day come where they will be forced to text loved ones telling them they love them as shots ring out in the halls.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists, after a policeman shoots a twelve-year-old boy with a service weapon for carrying a toy gun, and never sees the inside of a prison cell, because of course, he was just trying to protect himself from a potential threat.

"they want to hurt our children," say the fascists.

[uncanny-tranny]

A really sinister aspect into how people view children and parents is the idea of children being a replaceable commodity.

I've seen this in the way people talk about parents who have lost children but have surviving children... "Oh, at least you have other children," as though a child is just an interchangeable tool, a machine that dispenses what you want from it without it being sentient, whole, and feeling. The fact that people say that in order to comfort somebody shows, to me, how deep this mindset is engraved in people's brains: children are interchangeable items, and they do not fundamentally matter.

[nightmaretherabbit]

(Hi ignore I'm late-)

For all the kids, 🐇

(you aren't late at all)

🐇 - How they were lured

Susie was lured with the promise that springbonnie (William) had found her puppy and that the dog wasn't really dead like her parents said .

Gabriel and Jeremy were lured with the promise of a cake (It being Jeremy's birthday when they were at Freddy's)

Fritz just wanted to be included in whatever the others were doing

Cassidy followed Gabe because they were told to stay with their big brother

[earhartsease]

if we had a shilling* for every time we read a children's book where the whimsy suddenly turns majestic as one of the characters meets the god Pan, we'd have two shillings, but it's weird that it happened twice

once in The Little Grey Men where the old gnome Dodder summons Pan (on midsummer's eve) to help the woodland creatures obliterate the bloodthirsty farmer by stuffing blessed oak leaves down his gun barrel and then all watching him, well

He pressed the trigger and then … something went ‘pouf’ at the giant, blowing him out like a candle.

and once in Wind In The Willows where Mole and Rat meet Pan in a chapter called (and no kidding) Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

old children's books did uphold some awful cultural bullshit ofttimes, but they also didn't hold back on the disturbing magical prose

*going with an ancient brit equivalent for a nickel here

[doombum]

For @and-stir-the-stars's #cc weekend bash

Saturday 6th: Friend / Family / Haunting

Trigger warnings: mentioned child death (I mean, it's fnaf so... Nothing out of the ordinary), mentioned abuse

Family hurts.

They hurt, they scream, they cry, they mock, they hate.

That’s what Evan had learned in his short life.

Don’t get him wrong. He did love them, and he really hoped that, deep down, they loved him too. But it still hurted. The way they looked at him, the way they sneered, and mocked, and laughed and pushed him away.

But that’s just what family is. Or so he thought.

He had been wary of the newcomers when they first arrived, one by one, around the restaurant. They were just like him. Stuck in the building, trapped into an animatronic, unable to do anything but wander down the halls and cry at their fate.

They had scared him, the way everything always did.

But as time went by, and he grew bored and lonely, watching them chatting and playing together, Evan slowly approached them. They had given him his space after their first few tries at talking to him, understanding that he needed to come to them in his own time, and they welcomed him with open arms when he finally did.

Jeremy had been the first one he had approached. At only four years old, he was the youngest of the group and he didn’t seem to have fully registered what had happened to him. Evan had been rather rude to him when they had first met, and despite having apologised for it since, he had still been a bit hesitant to talk to him when he had seen him play with makeshift dolls on the main stage.

However, he quickly realised there was no reason for him to be shy or hesitant around the younger boy as the kid had openly invited him to play with him as if they had been friends for years. It had thrown him off a bit at first, to be around someone as energetic and chatty as Jeremy, not used to this type of enthusiasm, but he quickly grew rather fond of it.

Being around Jeremy, playing with him and making sure he was as happy as he could be despite the circumstances, made Evan wonder if that was what being an older brother felt like. His own sure never acted like that towards him. But it didn’t matter, because he could be better and he was resolute to be.

Surprisingly, Gabriel was the next one Evan warmed up to. He would come around the main stage when he and Jeremy were playing with the dolls and talk with them from time to time. He never played with them, though, claiming to be too old to be playing with dolls and plushies. It reminded him of Mike telling him the same thing, except that Gabriel didn’t mock him for doing it or tell him he should grow up and stop being so childish.

Like him, Gabriel didn’t have many friends before it happened. From what he said, people thought he was weird and he came off as rude because he tended to be very blunt about things and spoke his mind without really thinking it through. Evan didn’t really understand why people would see it as a bad thing. He personally would prefer it if others were more like Gabriel - it was tiring to try to decipher what people meant all the time, and he often guessed wrong anyway.

The more they talked and learned about each other, the more Evan grew to trust Gabriel and confide in him about his fears and apprehension about their situation. And Gabriel learned to do the same, explaining that he felt the need to be strong from the others because he was the older and he had to protect the others - or at least he had been before Fritz arrived a couple of months later.

He had been apprehensive of Susie at first, because, being a girl, she reminded of his sister, Elizabeth, and he was scared that she would end up to be just like her and mock him and belittle him constantly. However, she turned out to be nothing of the sort, and he found out that not all girls were “pests”, like his brother would say.

She had been the one who had made the rest of them leave him alone when he had needed some space and time to process what had happened to him. She always made sure everyone was as happy as they could be and always lent an ear to whoever needed it.

Evan found himself comparing her to the sun often, always smiling and illuminating the room whenever she appeared. It was hard to be in a bad mood when she was around. Even when he had been ignoring everyone, and had been wary of her, she had succeeded in putting a tentative smile on his face with her jokes and attitude. She had also always made a point to remind him that he was always welcomed to join them when he felt ready.

He felt a bit guilty for not having gone to her sooner than he did after all she had done for him, but she waved his concerns away, saying everyone did things in their own time and she just had to be patient for him to come around - something her brother taught her, apparently. He wished he had a brother like that, maybe he wouldn’t be dead if he had.

Fritz was the one he had been the most wary about. Being the oldest of the group, and deeply attached to Foxy, he was a painful reminder of his older brother and all the pain he had put him through. As such, he still avoided him like the plague by the time he had befriended the three other kids, much to their dismay.

It wasn't until he found him, one day, crying, hidden behind the curtains in Pirate Cove, that Evan actually talked to him properly. He had then discovered that Fritz was just as scared - if not more - as he was when he first woke up in Golden Freddy as a ghost. The older boy was terrified of what had happened to him and of the possibility of his killer coming back and killing even more kids.

Evan had spent the rest of that day comforting him and trying to get his mind off of things, talking about the rest of their friends or about the shows they liked. Turned out they both enjoyed Fredbear and Friends and they ended up bonded over their favourite episodes, much to the others’ surprise as Evan later found out Fritz wasn’t usually much of a talker.

The whole experience had been quite an eye-opener for Evan, who then felt very guilty about how he had misjudged Fritz and his subsequent behaviour towards the surprisingly reserved boy. He had made a point of apologising for it, and of explaining why he had been so wary of him in the first place, for the first time since his death, opening up about his older brother and what he had done to him.

Over the years, and despite their rocky beginning, the five ghosts became close friends, sharing laughs, stories and fears openly with one another. It dawned on Evan that he had never felt so happy and accepted in his entire life. His friends had slowly taught him what a family was really supposed to be like, making him realise that families are not supposed to tear each other apart or mock each other.

He had been sad at first, at the realisation of how bad his family had been to him and to each other. But that didn’t matter anymore, because he had found a new family. One who loved him, and cared for him, and never looked down on him or tried to hurt him. So maybe death wasn’t so bad after all.

[crumbleclub]

I'm always torn in how I'd want things to conclude.

Narratively, I love when the protagonist is doomed to fail. The happiest day wasn't enough; it could never be enough. All that terror can't be undone in a moment. It's almost like the story should never end; Michael will always be chasing his own sins as much as he's chasing his father's, and you cannot change the past. It doesn't happen.

On the other hand, I do want the kids' suffering to end. I want them to be happy. At the very least, I want them to have some amount of peace. As wounded as Evan and Elizabeth are, I don't think the goalless suffering and the endless cycle of self-torture and mourning Michael puts himself through– in addition to the pain that needs to happen for him to complete the tasks needed to give the souls any semblance of peace– does anything to help them. Elizabeth doesn't have as much reasoning to be angry with him, and Evan, as tormented as he felt, doesn't seem like the vengant sort. I don't think that's what they want.

The souls of the others probably wouldn't understand it. Most of them don't know who Michael is. Charlie doesn't recognize him. Michael's pain doesn't do anything to help them, either.

(I sometimes wonder if Michael struggles to keep his urge to punish himself from becoming selfish enough to jeopardize his mission. He can't help them if he's not at least somewhat functioning, but by god does he want to destroy himself in every way. He's not sure if it's cathartic or if he just knows that he deserves it.)

Maybe, even if the happiest day isn't enough, it is something. Maybe it's closer to what the kids want than what Michael would have happen would end up being. Their suffering has been acknowledged, and they're not stuck in place anymore. Maybe some of their awareness returns to them. Things aren't fixed, but they can begin to understand what happened as they awake from the mindless agony they'd been trapped in. They can talk across the table, now. They can ask their questions and say their piece. If nothing else, they can rest knowing that someone is at least trying to understand what happened to them and how they felt. I wonder if any part of Evan would be happy to see his brother doing his best to finally be there for him. I'd like for there to be something in that which would make him smile, if only for a moment.

Maybe the gesture itself would mean something.

[nyiibat]

I was doing my laundry at the laundromat earlier , I saw a mother and her adult son fixing and cleaning up stuffed animals. It made me think about how my grandfather when he was alive would take me and we’d play claw machine the entire year collecting stuffed animals and at Christmas time being them to the children’s hospital to be handed out to the patients there.

[archduchessofnowhere]

Archduchess Marie Valerie's diary entry on the death of her aunt Helene, Hereditary Princess of Thurn und Taxis, in May 16, 1890:

19 May. In the morning ½ 8 a.m., Mama [Empress Elisabeth] arrived - sad and afflicted. Aunt Nené [Helene], who did not believe she would die, was happy to see Mama and told her "Old Sisi" - she and Mama almost always spoke English together - "We two have had hard puffs in our lives", Mama said. "Yes but we had hearts", replied Aunt Nené… When Mama asked if anything hurt her, she replied: "no nothing". She often became delirious, spoke of her husband [Maximilian Anton, Hereditary Prince of Thurn und Taxis, who died in 1867], of Bubi [Maximilian, Helene's eldest son, who died in 1885] and Elisabeth [Helene's youngest daughter, who died in 1881], and did not regain consciousness during the last afternoon, being cared for sacrificially by Louisa [Helene's eldest daughter] and Manni [Albert, Helene's youngest son].

In the afternoon during a walk Mama said, that Aunt's death had made her bitter lately, she understood, that one could commit suicide out of sheer fear of such a miserable end. It is so terribly sad that Mama has no comfort in her faith.

(Translation by DeepL, except the dialogues, which were originally in English; keep in mind that in a machine translation a lot of nuances may/did got lost)