#parental guilt

[guardian-of-da-gay]

Breathless

Read on Ao3

For Whumptober 2024 Prompt 1: Panic Attack

tw for implied bullying, panic attacks, undiagnosed PTSD

“As far as I’m concerned, this is a good thing!”  Knuckles said petulantly from his place at the very back of the car.  “Now I won’t have to go back to that school!”

“You’re suspended, not expelled,” Tom said, his hands clenching and unclenching around the wheel.  “Means once your suspension is up, you’re going right back to school.”

Looking in the rearview mirror, Maddie could see Tails staring deeply at his shoes.  Sonic was wincing, eyes flicking between Knuckles and his parents in the front seat.  He was obviously debating joining in the fight, but keeping out was the better option here.  Maddie was in no mood for him to make light of the situation or try to cover for his brother.

Maddie felt overwhelmed.  Too much had happened that day and it all centered on her eldest.  She’d never regret adopting her kids, but out of all of them Knuckles made her feel like she was in over head.  She didn’t know what she was going to do with him!  She couldn’t believe he’d gotten himself suspended.

She was apocalyptically angry.  Even Tom was mad.  He was trying to stay calm though.  Trying to keep being the fun parent.  Maddie was usually all for that, but not today.

“When we get home, you are grounded!”  She said.  “That means no–” here’s where she would rattle off the fun things he was suspended from: TV?  He didn’t care about TV.  Video games?  He didn’t play any.  Going out with friends?  He didn’t have any except his brothers (and Wade).  Knuckles didn’t do fun things in his free time unless they made him.  They’d grounded him from grapes in the past, but he could totally get by without them.  Grounding him from training he’d just ignored .  But they couldn’t just not punish him.  He’d broken a kid's arm and blown up a bathroom for Christ’s sake.

“No going outside!”  She said.

“What?!”

“Yeah!”  She’d found a good one, she thought.  Judging by his angry gasp, she’d actually found a consequence he would actually feel.  “No training.  No runs.  No hiking.  Unless you’re with me or Tom–”

“Or the house is burning down!”  Tom cut in.

“--or there’s an emergency like the house is burning down!  You are housebound, young man!”

Several things happened very quickly after that.

Knuckles yanked on his seatbelt.  It locked.  He yanked again and broke it completely from its socket.

There was a chorus of ‘Hey!’ ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Dude, chill!’ ‘Knuckles, calm down–!’

Then the back of the car exploded.

The front end was blasted forward into the other lane.  Tom jerked the wheel, tires and passengers screaming.  The wild swerve had the car tipping violently to the side.  Just when Maddie was sure they would flip, it swung back the other way and the car landed, with a jerky bounce, right-side-up, stationary, and seemingly fine.  Except the back of the car was gone.  

And so was Knuckles.

There was a click as Sonic unbuckled and then he vanished as well.  Maddie could see a blue blur vanish off the side of the road, following a burst of red electricity.

She turned to the youngest first.  “Are you okay?”  She asked Tails in the back.

“I’m fine,” Tails was flinging off his own seatbelt and jumping out of the wreckage of the car, tails spinning.

Maddie turned to Tom just as Tom turned to her.  “Are you okay?”  They asked each other at once.

“I think so,” Maddie answered, rubbing her neck.  She definitely had some whiplash.  It hurt now, it would kill  tomorrow.

Sonic reappeared at her window. “Something’s wrong with Knuckles!”  He cried.

You don’t say?  Maddie thought, pressing at the tense muscles of her neck.

“I think he’s having a heart attack or something!”

“What?!”  Tom demanded.

Maddie forgot about her neck.  She unbuckled and jumped out of the car.  Sonic led the way and she ran after, her mind racing along with her feet.  Knuckles couldn’t really be having a heart attack, could he?  He was far too young and fit.  But he had also lived a rough life.  Could he have a hidden cardiovascular problem from some old illness or injury?  Her vet brain was taking over, mentally flipping through the possibilities.

Tails stood at the top of a short ridge, marking their way.  He turned, hands wringing as they approached.  “Something’s really wrong with him!”  He said.  “I don’t think he can hear me.”

Maddie crested the rise and saw Knuckles at the bottom, back pressed against a tree, crouched down with his fists up, blocking his head.  Even from where she stood she could tell he was shaking.  His quills were glowing slightly.  He didn’t look at them.

Maddie stumble-ran down the rise.  “Knuckles!”  She slowed as she approached.  He didn’t acknowledge her, but she could see his side heaving as he gasped for air.  “Knuckles?”  He still didn’t respond.  She wasted a second debating what to do.  But she couldn’t give him space.  Not when he was breathing like that.  “Knuckles, honey, it’s going to be okay–”  She touched his shoulder and his whole body jerked away, slamming into the tree.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!”  He roared.

For the second time that day, Maddie got whiplash.  Sonic yanked her away at speed just as an explosion of red lightning erupted from the echidna’s body.  She was lifted off her feet and crashed into Tom, who managed to keep his footing at the top of the rise.  At this rate, she was gonna be in traction tomorrow.  

“Sorry,” Sonic said hastily.  “Saw where that was going.”

“Knuckles!”  Tom yelled, tone caught between concerned and sharpness.  “What are you doing?!”

“What did you do–What–”  Knuckles wheezed and gasped for breath.  Maddie righted herself.  He was hyperventilating.  “ What did you do to me?! ”  He demanded.

“Woah, we didn’t do anything, Knuckles!”  Sonic said, zipping down closer to the echidna.  “You’ve got to calm down and let us help you.”

“Get away from m–me!”  Knuckles face scrunched, teeth grit as he continued to gasp for air like a drowning man.  Red electricity fizzled off of him warningly and Sonic took several steps back.  He looked up at Tom and Maddie, his helpless gaze matched by the one Tails was giving them.

“This doesn’t look like a heart attack,” Tom said so just Maddie could hear.

“I didn’t think so either,” she said.  “You guys just keep back a second, okay?”  She stepped out of Tom’s grip.  She didn’t see the look Tom shot to Sonic, but she saw Sonic nod, resolve in his eyes.  She had a feeling if Knuckles exploded again, she’d find herself yanked back at warp speed once more.

She approached the trembling echidna, cautious but not afraid.  She faced down bulls, pregnant beef cows, and feral cats on a near daily basis.  And this was her kid.

“Stay back!” Knuckles roared at her approach.  “I’ll hurt you!”   He said it like it was both threat and fear.  Electricity arced off his trembling body.

“Honey–”

“Don’t call me that!”  Knuckles yelled, his voice strangled and breathless.  “ You gave yourself away!  I know your game–” he wheezed “--you use sweet words so I don’t no-notice you locking the cage door–”

“We’re not locking you up,” Maddie said.  “We’d never do that, no matter how much trouble you’re in.”  She kept advancing forward, stooping at the waist so she wouldn’t loom over him.  “But that doesn’t matter now.  I need you to calm down–”

“No!  No! ”  He growled, sucking air rapidly through his grit teeth.  “I need–I need to get away…”  He fumbled with his hands, movements made clumsy by his shaking fingers.

“Do you want to go home?”  Maddie asked.  Maybe he would feel better if they were in a familiar environme–

“I need off this planet!”  He ripped at the cuff of one glove and a golden ring flew out and disappeared into the grass.  Knuckles let out a sound that was half growl, half sob.  He pushed himself into the tree, looking anywhere but at her.  “ What did you do to me ?”

Maddie shook her head.  “Nothing, honey, you’re just… I think you’re just having a panic attack.”

“I’m being attacked?!”

“No.  You’re safe,” she said firmly.  “But your mind is tricking you into thinking you’re in danger.  But you’re not.  You’re safe .”

“Yo- you’re tricking me!  I can trust my–my mind!”  His words fumbled around his rapid breathing.  “I can trust myself!  I–”  His eyes flitted around, seeking escape.

He squeezed his eyes shut tight again.  He was beginning to list to one side.  Maddie feared he might actually faint if he couldn’t get his breathing under control.

There was nothing she wanted nothing more than to reach out and right him.  Then maybe grab him up into a hug.  But she couldn’t.  Helpless and overwhelmed, she didn’t know what to do.  Hugs and kind words were her go-to methods for Sonic and Tails.  Knuckles had spat at her kind words.  He’d screamed at her hug.  Her big tough boy was falling apart and there was nothing she could do.

“I can’t–I can’t–” Knuckles gasped for breath, clutching at his chest and swaying slightly.  “I can’t breathe .”

“I know,” she said miserably.  “I know, honey, but you have to.  You’re so strong, Knuckles, I know you can.  You have to take a deep breath like–” For her it would be yoga, but for Knuckles? “--when you meditate?  Try to meditate.  Focus on your breathing and nothing else.”

“I want it to stop,” Knuckles said.

“It will,” Maddie promised.  “It’ll be over soon.”

Maddie had had panic attacks before, in vet school.  She didn’t think they’d been this bad though.  Or maybe this was just what it felt like to be on the other side.  She’d need to ask Tom.

She resisted the urge to try and get him counting his breaths.  When Tom had done that she couldn’t do it and then she’d just felt more stressed for failing to be helped.  She doubted Knuckles would feel the same way, but he was so independent–like ‘decides to break the arm of a kid that’s bullying him instead of telling literally anyone’ levels of independence–that he would probably be stressed most that he couldn’t control himself.

No, they just had to ride this out.  Maddie remembered it always felt like her panic attacks took forever to go away.  It was the same when watching one.  

Knuckles’ face scrunched as he breathed forcefully through the nose and out the mouth.  It was still too fast.  She worried, was he getting enough oxygen?  One of his hands fell away from his head and to the ground, propping him up.  Maddie squashed the urge to rub his back.  She wanted so badly to be able to soothe him, but all she could do was crouch beside him and whisper that it would be okay.  It would be over soon and then they could go home.

“I’m sorry,” she said.  “I’m sorry I started this.”  She was sure she was the cause.  It made her feel even more awful.  “It’ll be over soon.  I promise.  We’ll go home and you’ll feel better.”

“Will I…”  Knuckles’ breathing was a tiny bit slower.  “Will I still be g-grounded to the house?”

“No,” Maddie said quickly.  Her bright idea didn’t seem so bright now.  “I’ll– We, you, Tom, and I, will talk about what would be a fair consequence later.”

His voice pitched up and shook.  “Will you break my arm?”

“What?  No!”

“I broke that boy’s arm.”

“We will never punish you by hurting you,” Maddie said firmly.  “Don’t worry about that now, okay?  Just focus on breathing and feeling better.  That’s all you need to think about right now, okay?  Nothing else matters.”

Maddie didn’t know how much longer it was before Knuckles was breathing normally again.  Long enough that she saw a flash of red and blue on the other side of the rise.  Someone must have found their empty, destroyed car.  At the top of the rise, Tom had the other two boys in some kind of huddle.  He left to deal with whoever had just arrived.

Beside her, Knuckles straightened.  She glanced over at him.  He was sitting more normally, breathing more normally, and looking absolutely awful.  Maddie remembered that post-attack feeling.  Like a soggy, wrung out dishrag.  Even someone as strong as Knuckles wasn’t immune to tha.  But it was over.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Maddie said in her softest, ‘approaching a scared dog’ voice.  “We can go back up with the others.”

Knuckles didn’t look at her or answer.  He just stood up and started trudging up the little hill.  Maddie followed after, watching him.  His movements were a little unsteady, like his limbs had forgotten how they worked.  Knuckles always carried himself like he was eight feet tall.  Seeing him off balance and shaken felt wrong.

Knuckles didn’t acknowledge Sonic or Tails.  Sonic opened his mouth to say something as he stalked passed, but cut himself off.  Instead he and Tails fell in line, flanking their brother as they all headed back to what remained of their car.

Tom was talking to an officer.  Maddie couldn’t remember his name at the moment.  The man  was looking at their destroyed car and scratching the back of his head as Tom spoke to him.  He lifted his head so Maddie could see his confusion clearly.  His gaze swept over to them and when his eyes landed on Knuckles his expression cleared.  He nodded like Knuckles’ presence had just answered a question for him.  Maddie was almost offended before she remembered that this was Knuckles’ second act of destruction that day.  This was his m.o. Their insurance premiums showed the scars.

Tom turned away from the accident and came jogging over.  He watched Knuckles just a little too long as he approached.  Maddie could see the moment he realized he was staring.  Tom looked away and avoided looking at him again.

There was an awkward pause as the whole family seemed to be waiting to see if anyone would acknowledge what just happened.  Maddie was of the mind that they weren’t going to do anything that made Knuckles uncomfortable until he looked less visibly shaken.  And Knuckles looked like he wanted everyone to forget the whole thing.  So, for now, that’s what she was going to do.

“Uh…”  Tom broke the silence.  “Wade’s going to come pick us up.”

Oh, Maddie felt a genuine flash of relief.  “Oh, Wade?”  She looked at Knuckles.  “That’ll be nice, right?”

Knuckles wasn’t even looking at her.  He was staring at the car with a look of deep confusion.

“Knux?”  Sonic asked, his voice softer than usual.

When Knuckles finally spoke, his voice rasped:  “What happened to the car?”

All the Wachowskis looked at him with varying levels of confusion, concern, and dismay.  Maddie’s heart plummeted and for the first time in this whole incident she felt a flash of true fear.  She looked into Knuckles’ genuinely baffled face and knew she was truly, deeply , in over her head.

[curiousdamage]

When the remaining Crain children travel to Jacksonville to settle Hugh's affairs, they face the woman they'd be avoiding, ridiculing, and in Steven's case, being downright nasty to, for the last ten years. From her, they began to learn who their father was for those years and all the things he'd been doing to try to help them from behind the scenes.

[writing-for-life]

Today, I’m hurting, and I just need to get it out somewhere (might delete later).

My kid is kind, empathetic, sensitive. She hardly ever asks for anything and is grateful. Yesterday, she cried out of nowhere. It was because she has never been on a holiday abroad. She never bothered until now. And she only bothered because her friends asked her why she’s never going abroad, and if she is “poor”.

“Mum, are we poor?”

My heart broke into a million pieces. We don’t have the funds to go abroad. We always try to do other stuff with her, we are emotionally present parents (at least that’s what I hope), I have a really close relationship with her. We talk for hours every night at bedtime, to the extent that I’m sometimes not out of her bedroom until 11 at night. I try so fucking hard, but I can’t give her the one thing she would really love right now—a holiday abroad.

And you can’t imagine the pain you feel as a mother when your child is hurting because she gets old enough to begin to feel what peer pressure is, and because people judge you for the stuff you can or cannot afford, and that kids obviously learn this from somewhere/someone.

Logically speaking, I know I shouldn’t feel like this. But feelings aren’t rational. All I feel like now is a failure who still lives in a small flat like a student because she and her partner made life choices that were grounded in being artists (even though I left part of that life behind, the financial implications are still what they are).

She is bright, articulate and has so much going for her. But yesterday, I saw a glimpse of sadness in her that honestly destroyed me, and I felt unable to do anything about it.

We are probably the most (over)educated, intellectual parents in her class. But financially, we have nothing to show for it, and today is one of those days it really sucks.

I don’t care about this stuff because I’m just the type of person who is happy sitting somewhere with a book. But I care about *her*, and I remember a time when I got the same shit from my classmates.

History repeats itself, and I feel really useless for making my child unhappy…

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Put that thing back or so help me.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[no-i-wont]

I neglect all of them because periodically... The guilt resulting is profoundly damaging. Where is the "village"?

We can’t have it all!

For me it’s always personal hygiene & diet that falls first.

Soouse: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqszvcptShd/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[can-i-get-a-yippee]

Thinking about Maddie as a child not being a donor match for her little brother and crying every night because she feels like she failed him,,, Thinking about how happy she would be when Buck is born and how excited she is when her parents exclaim that he’s a match for Daniel and he’ll be able to save him when she couldn’t,,,, Thinking about Maddie sneaking into Buck’s nursery and holding his little fist and telling him about how much fun they’re gonna have when Daniel is better from the hospital and how much she and Daniel already love him,,, Thinking about Maddie holding little baby Evan in her arms at Daniel’s funeral because her parents can’t stand to hold him after the graft failed and whispering in soft tones as they lower the coffin into the ground that she’s so sorry Daniel that she was a bad big sister but she’ll take care of Evan — she’ll be better this time

[queenie-ofthe-void]

Cough Syrup

written for @steddiemicrofic August

prompt: plug || wc: 437 || rating: M || cws: sick fic, reference to child neglect, references to sex

~~~

"Baby," Eddie sighs, "just plug your nose. I promise it'll go down easier." Steve keeps his mouth sealed and shakes his head as he leans further back into the pillows propping him up against the headboard. Eddie’s very carefully holding the spoon in front of Steve’s face, syrupy red liquid on the verge of overflowing onto their comforter.

“You say that every time,” Steve complains. He moves his head to the side as Eddie makes his move and misses. “But it smells, and it’s gross, and it felt thick and disgusting in my mouth yesterday, and I’ll be fine without it.” 

Steve watches as another thread of Eddie’s patience unravels. After three days wasting away of fever and bone-wrenching aches, he’s surprised Eddie hasn’t just dropped him off on the hospital curb in a cardboard box, sign affixed to the side reading ‘Oversized baby for adoption. May need extra care. Fully vaccinated’.

“Steven James Harrington.” Full government name– with his correct middle name– means he’s in deep trouble. “You’ve inhaled nasty, probably radioactive, floating Upside-Down ash. You’ve accidentally swallowed demobat blood. You’ve drank shitty beer out of a communal bong, had your tongue down every girl’s throat in Hawkins, and inside my asshole–”

“Oh my god Eds, don’t say it like that.”

“–yet for some reason, you refuse a tiny bit of cough syrup to help you sleep.”

Steve rolls his eyes and sighs. In his attempts at being dramatic, he breaks into another coughing fit that has him reaching for the water glass on the nightstand next to all of his used tissues.

“I’ve been sick before and I’ve never needed drugs.”

“Never needed it,” Eddie leads, grabbing his hand, “or have your parents never offered it before?”

The question hits like a punch to the gut. He’d never thought about it that way. How his parents told him he’d get better soon, that he just needed some soup and crackers. If he focuses on being sick, it’ll just make him worse. How if he ate healthier he wouldn’t get sick in the first place.

“Stevie,” Eddie says gently, running his fingertips across Steve’s sweaty, overheated forehead. The fondness floods over him like a tidal wave, washing away all thoughts of his parents’ lack of love and care, something that's always so obvious from Eddie.

“The medicine will help you sleep. And if you sleep better,” Eddie says, and Steve can already see the trap forming, “then I’ll sleep better.”

Eddie smirks as Steve swallows around the spoon, nose plugged. They know Steve would do anything to help Eddie, even if it means helping himself too.

[dannydevitosthiccdog]

I'm so not normal about this right now but this NEEDS to be said

Ethari knows

We don't know exactly how the lotuses work, but I hc that when Rayla went to save her parents and Runaan, she essentially 'died'

Ethari is watching Rayla's flower sink into the water, similar to Runaan's, and just being overwhelmed with grief. She was alive just days prior. She returned his moon bather thing? He's lost his daughter and husband. Then, through the tears, her lotus rises again, and then through the corner of his eyes, he sees something he thinks he'd never see again . Runaan's lotus slowly rises to the top. He doesn't know how it's possible, but Rayla brings her husband back from the dead.

Certifiable roller coaster of Emotions for Ethari in less than 10 minutes.

[bet-on-me-13]

Unknown, the Wandering Hero

So! We all know the typical Vivisection AU, right? Danny is revealed to his parents and they take it in all the wrong ways. They capture him, Vivisect him, and eventually he manages to escape with the help of his friends.

But what about his Rouges?

Sure, we all like to think of some of the more friendly ones like Ember, or Sydney, or Johnny 13 and Kitty, but he has WAY more Evil Rouges than good ones.

Without Danny there to reign them in, the Rouges spread out across the world to fulfill their obsessions, unhampered by the Heroes and Villains of the world that have no means to fight them.

And Danny? He feels responsible. He was the one to open the Gate, he was the Sacrifice, the one to let them through. And when the going got tough he just up and left? No, that won't do.

His Obsession is Protection for a reason, and nothing has changed. All he needs to do is expand his area of focus a little.

Danny, after healing up, starts wandering the world in search of the Ghosts who have escaped into the Mortal Realm. He battles all of his old foes, as well as many new ones who he hadn't met before.

His travels take him far and wide.

He defeats Skulker in Metropolis, as he is trying to hunt down the Super Family for their pelts. They are the last of their race after all, so he is inclined to try and hunt them. Honestly dealing with Skulker was easy, dealing with the Rich Asshole who was funding him was a nightmare.

He chases down Spectra in Gotham as she tries to feed on the misery of an entire City. (Thanks to @impyssadobsessions for the idea, this Prompt specifically). She is actually a very tough fight, especially powered by both the Misery of an Entire City as well as his Own Misery, but he manages.

He defeats Technus is Central City, as he tries to Raid Star Labs for their advanced Tech. It actually took a while to beat him after he amped himself with all that Power, and he did need help from the Local Hero to deal with him. He's just thankful Technus is one of the more "Harmless" ones.

After every Victory, he sends them back to the Realms using the Banishing Spell that Sam taught him a while back (the only bit of magic he ever really managed to master).

He knows they'll eventually find their way back out, but it's all he can do anymore. It's his eternal Punishment for unleashing them out into the World in the first place. He was the Catalyst for this Situation, now he was tasked with Fixing it, no matter how long it took.

...

The Justice League is caught in a tricky situation a the moment.

In the past few months, they have been encountering more and more of these Extra Dimensional Beings known as Realms Ghosts across the World.

Justice League Dark has had some success in battling them, but even they are getting tired of having to deal with every single incident alone.

They did get approached by a Government Agency known as the Ghostly Investigation Ward that seemed to want to help, but it didn't take long to realize that their main Aim was to Genocide the entire Race. The JLA had quickly cut ties after realizing that, and took what little Tech and Information they had been able to gather.

Still, it wasn't easy to deal with these Entities.

Thankfully, they have had some outside help. An Unknown Being has been routinely showing up whenever a Realms Ghost appears and defeating them, before using a (as described by Constantine) "Rudimentary Banishing Spell held together by willpower and luck" to send them back to their home Dimension. There's honestly no way it should be functional, but he did make it work either way.

They don't know much about this Unknown, aside from the fact that he seems to be the only one able to consistently damage the Realms Ghosts. His Powerset leads them to belive he may be from the same Dimension, or at least drawing his power from the same Source, but as he actively avoids the League and takes every opportunity to not talk to them, they know they aren't getting any answers any time soon.

Over the past few months, they had affectionately started referring to him as Unknown, creative they know, because they could never get his Real Name. Sure, some of the Realms Ghosts seemed to recognize him, but they always called him stuff like "Whelp" and "Punk" and "Usurper", which were not very good names to use when referring to him. Although the last one was a bit concerning.

They had only managed to trade a few quick words with Unknown in the past few months, but it was enough to get the Gist of it. He was just doing his job, sending the Realms Ghosts back where they belonged. There was apparently a Tear in Reality letting them through, but he seemed hesitant to reveal what he knew about it.

After a few months of sparse interactions, they eventually managed to convince him to at least take an Emergency Communicator. Just in case. They even let him take it apart to look for any Tracking Devices, which earned them a small bit of trust. They took whatever wins they could.

Fortunately, it seemed he never did need it. In fact he was getting more and more efficient with every battle, defeating his foes in half the time it would have taken before.

Unfortunately, it didn't last forever. One day, the Communicator went off, a distorted voice quickly saying, "Need backup, some of them decide to Team Up" before cutting out.

They quickly rushed to his location, finding an active battlefield with no less that a dozen Ghosts battling Unknown. And he seemed to be on the ropes.

With their arrival, the combined force of the Justice League and Unknown eventually managed to defeat the Group of Ghosts. Justice League Dark volunteered to work on the Banishing Spells while the others cleaned up the damage from the Battle.

One of them approached Unknown to make sure he was ok, and froze.

During the battle, Unknown's Mask had been Torn off, and they could finally see the face of the Hero they had been working with for the past few months.

And he was a Child.

[hamletthedane]

Shakespeare: I will create two teenage characters who are explicitly proto-postmodern examinations of the nature of character and fate within fictional narrative. I am their creator and - like their parents within the narrative - I exercise complete control over their fates, no matter how much they struggle against it. They are born like Athena from my mind and doomed to die by my pen, by my complicity in the narrative negligence of them, by my own actions and wishes-

Actor: cool, what's their names?

Shakespeare, father of twins named Judith and Hamnet: uhh…. Juliet and Hamlet.

[olailamajnoon]

Dick on the phone, at 3 pm in the afternoon: Forgive me father for I have sinned.

Bruce, just woken up, squinting at the alarm clock: Dick it's 3 pm. what is this.

Dick, tearfully: My confession! I couldn't sleep, Bruce. I was the one who drove my hamster to suicide! I didn't feed him malt cookies like I was supposed to! He climbed on the exercise wheel and didn't stop running until he died.

Dick: *continues sobbing*

Bruce: okay so first of all.

Bruce: I'm not a priest.

Bruce: And second of all. Animals don't commit suicide.

Dick: Mari did!

Bruce: You named your male hamster after your mother...?

Dick: NOT THE POINT, BRUCE!

Dick: but yes.

Bruce, sighing: There's so much to unpack here I don't know where to start.

Dick: I killed him, Bruce. I should have died along with him!

Bruce:...

Bruce: It's possible that you've associated your hamster's death with the trauma of your parents' death, possibly because of shared names, and you've displaced your survivor's guilt from the first onto the second.

Dick:...

Dick: So what should I do.

Bruce: In my experience, the best way to deal with survivor's guilt is to save as many people as you can, possibly people in the same situation as the loved ones you have lost, hoping that the heroic nature of your deeds lets you sleep at night.

Dick: And what if that doesn't work?

Bruce: Then you drink. Get shitfaced drunk every time you feel a pang. Or you can pray to a nonexistent god and an uncaring universe.

Dick:...

Dick: If I come over, will you break out the good whiskey.

Bruce: I thought you'd never ask.

[incognitopolls]

For the purposes of this poll, money guilt is when you buy a thing and don't use it, and then you feel guilty about buying it in the first place. For example, anon's parents have money-guilted anon when they (the parents) bought anon things anon wanted but anon didn't use them very much.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[semperreformanda]

how ironic is it that housekeeping and childcare cost so much money but when a mom does both she’s “just a stay at home mom”

[stagefoureddiediaz]

The Helena diaz of it all has me fascinated. I’ve said for a long while that Eddie’s real issues are his mommy issues and this episode just cemented for me that we’re gonna explore that and deal with it.

Because it’s Helena who forced Eddie to grow up to fast - because her husband wasn’t around much - so she pushed Eddie into de facto parent and husband role ls - selfishly filling her needs and ignoring the damage it was doing to her son (it is a form of abuse in my book).

Eddie then had the audacity to fall in love with and marry Shannon and get her pregnant. It’s why Helena was always so off with Shannon - she was punishing her. She is also punishing Eddie for all of this and his refusal to return to El Paso only cemented further her bitterness and resentment.

Now she does have Ramon back she doesn’t need Eddie any longer to fill that role so she is still punishing him and part of that is tied into her glee over now getting to parent Christopher - something she has always been intent on doing the doppelgänger just gave her the opportunity- as well as allowing her to further punish her son and his love of Shannon.

Her barbed comments about building a pool were all about showing what she can provide Christopher - how she is parenting him better than Eddie - it’s part of her mind games - making Eddie feel like more of a failure as a parent to his son.

The reality of course is that the reverse is true - Helena’s parenting is all superficial, flash and showy - it isn’t the hard day to day parenting when things get tough and you have to be the bad guy. While Eddie has made mistakes, there is nothing superficial, flash, or showy about his parenting. It’s why bucks comments about Eddie being a great dad are so important.

Eddie feel like a failure right now and that he is entirely to blame for everything. But in reality, while he does bear a bit of the responsibility, the truth of the matter is that he needs to learn and deal with the fact that all of it actually stems from Helena and her abuse of her young son - Shannon never stood a chance just like Eddie never has.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Custody Battle: START

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[one-and-a-half-threat]

This is so embarrassing I’m literally an adult sitting in my adult college class for adults, half-listening to the lecture because I feel physically sick to my stomach thinking about the fact that Mabel and Dipper only go home alive and happy and together in one timeline. All the other Mabels and Dippers who had to spend the bus ride home alone, or died, or suffered a fate that kept them stuck in gravity falls. This is humiliating. I am an adult who has a job and goes to college and I’m trying not to puke over the non-canon fates of fictional characters. Somebody please just kill me I need to be put down