On Age-Inappropriate Halloween Cinema

[coldsong]

Up and down the Plaza, stores appear to have broken out spooky season decor. Bats, pumpkins, ghosts made from what look suspiciously like upcycled shower curtains, spiders made of pipe-cleaners, etc. Some of the bakeries have cakes topped with fondant witch hats. Some have pumpkin spice everything. Loki is sitting on a bench with black coffee, defying pumpkin spice season in a way he usually does not. Something's on his mind.

"I have four children, and while you wouldn't know it upon conversing with them, they've been through a lot in the past few years. They've seen horrors that adults should never have to face, and for the most part they've recovered awfully well." There are still therapy sessions, and will be until the children age out of them, but aside from that, they're pretty normal.

"I am prefacing this question with that information to give you context. What in the name of all that's holy am I supposed to do with a child that's developed a sudden irrational terror of clowns?"

"My youngest was visiting a friend and somehow caught part of Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I wouldn't have played this movie for them, not because I'd anticipate him having this reaction, but because it looks ridiculous. They kill their victims by turning them into wads of cotton candy, for fuck's sake."

Sigh. "But the mind of a child sees things differently, and now poor Eindrid is so petrified of the damn things it's got the girls jumpy, too. It's going to be a problem if we go Halloween shopping because they're all over the place. I would welcome any suggestions...except for exposure therapy. I'm not doing that to my children."

Comments

[desertpowered]

"Clowns?" Paul cocks his head a little. Eindrid isn't one of the children he's closest to, but Paul is nevertheless a friend and peer of the children. He might be able to help out as one. Paul isn't free of fears, obviously, but he's trained in emotional control and managing those fears...if in ways that probably wouldn't be recommended or safe for any child.

It's also a fair bet that he has faced worse things than clowns, even ones that turn their victims into cotton candy and drink their blood. Honestly Paul finds that idea very quaint. He's confronted monsters of the human or nonhuman kinds. Drinking blood sounds like something the Harkonnens might do just because it's in line with their image. Cotton candy, not so much.

Paul himself isn't as put off by the idea of blood-drinking out of necessity - after all, a lot of water is in blood, and he's consumed the body water of another person he had recently killed. Much of Arrakis' fauna feeds on blood as a water source. No need to tell Eindrid that, though. Fremen culture has a kind of economic ruthlessness that might be too much for him.

"Perhaps a little harmless exposure to clowns might help him see that they don't eat people or drink their blood? Let him see that they're just people in costumes and makeup."

[coldsong]

Loki doesn't know about the whole fear is the mind-killer litany, or any of the unfortunate practices associated with it, to which he would most definitely not want his children exposed. He does know that Paul is a good example of cool-headedness most of the time, though.

He smiles wryly in greeting and considers the suggestion. "If he were older I'd go ahead with that, but he's barely more than a toddler. He's about the equivalent of a human four-year-old. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd like to make sure I'm not going to shock his little system."

A pause, and then: "That, and I was told to man up an awful lot as a child. I'm not raising my four like that."

[desertpowered]

Paul listens and then nods. That's fair - his own recommended methods are affected by his own upbringing, which was fairly ruthless and where he was taught to fight from a very young age. It wouldn't be for everyone. It certainly wouldn't be healthy for anyone outside of his particular culture and position.

"Maybe a harmless movie about clowns to counteract the scary one, then? That might give him a more benign image of them. Something appropriate for a toddler, obviously. I could research some suggestions."

Still the basic idea of exposure, but in a less direct way. Paul still figures that the idea might work out for Eindrid, but needs to be toned down into something less threatening to a very small child. Certainly nothing physical and nothing scary. He's sure there are movies or television shows with friendly clowns out there.