nexus_crossings | On Age-Inappropriate Halloween Cinema

On Age-Inappropriate Halloween Cinema

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."

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Halloween anything drew Jake to things and the store fronts are among them. Though his talents are much better than these DIY displays he can appreciate the creativity and enthusiasm of it all.

He isn't expecting the man beside him at one of them to start talking about his children but it's not that unusual. Some people are free with their words and lives. The questions though were too on point in an almost uncomfortable way.

"We use them in horror movies because it's a normal human fear." Jake felt like he knew a lot of people that would sympathize with a child scared out of their mind by evil clowns. Though, as this father went on he realized he was looking for advice.

"Would it help for the kid to see someone else get made up as one? I know that helps some people with zombie fears." It was an idea and one that he was more than capable to help with if needed.

There is something about the DIY nature of Halloween that really appeals to Loki. Frequently he'll have his kids making paper bats and the like around this time of year just for the fun of it. Pumpkin carving is essential. It's a little different right now because he's not sure he can bring Eindrid to the plaza without setting him off. Some of the shops have Killer Klowns costumes, no less!

"Is it? I've never been quite sure about the origins of that fear. Do you suppose it's just the fact that the person's face is covered, or is it something to do with cultural symbolism?"

"Oh, they're not fans of zombies, either," he says, but that's something they've been over before. Hela's draugr were different enough from pop culture zombies that it's been comparatively easy to separate the two.

"That's not a bad idea, though. Maybe I'd have them watch a video first, rather than do it in person..."

"I've always heard it is the uncanny valley, the same way dolls bother people." Jake knew a lot more on the subject than this person probably wanted to hear. "Some people don't like the painted on expressions that make it hard to see emotions, my cousin doesn't like the make up, or the unpredictable noises."

What the father beside him was mentioning all felt normal for kids. Fear of clowns. Didn't like zombies. Maybe this was one of those overreactive parents that didn't ever want thier children upset about anything? Jake couldn't know for sure.

"There are plenty of tutorial videos on horror make up." Jake had watched more of them as a teen than anyone probably should have. "If you want something movie grade, I'm not bad at evil clown make up."

His typical interest was demons and vampires but it might be fun to make up a bunch of kids some afternoon.

Oh hey, it's Loki! Khaishan slows his walk to consider what he's saying, which really isn't setting the mood for a light-hearted reunion. But he can't blame the man for that when he hears the trouble, a sympathetic chuckle slipping from him as he moved to perch on the bench alongside him, tail flicking idly to one side.

"I was terrified of clowns when I was younger," Admitted in a wryly amused tone, with a light shrug. "We didn't have them on the Steppes, so my first experience with one was when he popped up in front of me at an All Saint's Wake celebration. He meant well, was just trying to entertain me with some little horn or something, but to say I was startled would be an understatement. A small incident to be sure, but after the year we'd had I think I'd simply hit my limit of how many scary things I could handle."

"Were you? They've never particularly bothered me. I think...perhaps because I shapeshifted from an early age, the idea that I wasn't looking at a person's real face just didn't scare me." Loki is more than a little pleased to see Khaishan in this context. He's a friend, and he's seen quite a bit of the children.

"I suppose anyone jumping out at you is cause for alarm, though. Is All Saint's Wake like what they call Halloween here and on Midgard? It's sort of a celebration of the close of the harvest season and the thinning of the veil between worlds."

“That is quite a conundrum.” Isamu paused, pumpkin spice latte in hand. “Often, impairment in mechanisms of depotentiation in the amygdala of vulnerable individuals makes extinction of fear to be rather difficult. Which has the potential to make exposure therapy difficult, even if it still considered the preferred treatment option for phobias, including coulrophobia.”

He sat down next to Loki, thinking for a moment.

“Perhaps it would be easier to begin with the other children, as they are merely learning to associate clowns with danger due to observing and mimicking another’s fear. stop that before it has the chance to be classically conditioned.”

"Hmm... maybe. The uncanny valley makes both more and less sense when you come from a world with dozens of different humanoid species."

He looks thoughtfully at the man. "You're a professional makeup artist? That always sounded like fun to me." It's not a skill Loki needs, because he can shapeshift, but it's certainly one he can respect, the way a mage can respect someone extremely skilled at sleight of hand. It's fascinating to be able to perform illusions without magic.

"You know what he does love, is sea monsters. There is nothing oceanic that scares him in the least. I wonder if I could use that as a bridge to make him more comfortable with scary clowns."

"Yes, well... they've been exposed to their planet literally turning to dust, so I think anything more would be overkill." He sighs. "What do you know about child stages of development? If Eindrid were human, he'd be about four years old."

"Your suggestion has merit, though I'm a little concerned Una will respond by just attacking clowns on sight. She still wants to be a warrior princess."

"That makes sense- I think I might not have been as alarmed if I'd been raised among other races. We'd see a few Hyur here and there in Reunion, but generally it was all Au Ra, mainly Xaela." He hummed thoughtfully considering the problem.

"It is just like Halloween sounds, it seems. I was older than Eindrid when it happened so it was a bit easier to help me learn to get past the fear... my sisters found a book about jesters, clowns, and the like for me. It made it a bit more bearable knowing academically what they were. That it was just paint and costume and the like. Maybe something similar? A nice story where a clown is included in some more friendly manner. Not the main focus perhaps but a helpful figure."

"A book is a good idea," he says thoughtfully. "Midgardian pop culture seems to have concluded that clowns are just inherently creepy in film, but older books might be all right. And jesters are slightly different..."

"Fortunately they've never run afoul of anyone painted up who was actually dangerous." He frowns a little, thinking of the Joker.

"It makes it a bit 'safer' too, than encountering a clown in person. On a page, there's not the same sort of threat to be worried about after all..."

Khaishan tilted his head, as another idea occurred to him. "You could also make the things they do less scary. Teach him about balloon animals, or get him some of the accessories. You know, the squirting flower, or small magic tricks. Knowing the actuality of what someone does versus what you think they'll do goes miles towards easing fears I've found."

"I don't think it matters or apes or other animals would make it not happen." He'd never met someone who didn't look human but it made sense that too close but not quite human would apply still no matter how many species there were.

"Yes, I'm specializing in horror props and prosthetics." Jake was proud of his work and it showed even if he was still new and had a lot more to learn.

Jake paused and tried to concentrate on his trips to the zoo. He often went there to get ideas for make up or body parts. "I think there is a batfish, or something, that looks like it has clown make up. The aquarium in Santa Monica has them."

He couldn't quite remember the name of the fish but he could probably draw it if he had paper.

"Fair point. Evolution is bizarre."

"I think Sigrid, my older daughter, would be interested in your field of work. She's always been interested in the theater. Perhaps not horror so much as musicals and drama, but it's valuable to branch out."

A trip to the aquarium never goes wrong with Loki's kids, so his expression brightens at once. And then he facepalms. "And there are clownfish, as well. I'm an idiot. I can just have him watch Finding Nemo and go from there. Either he'll decide clowns aren't scary because clownfish are nice, or he'll sympathize with the barracuda that eats all of them in the beginning. Either way, problem solved."

"I don't just do horror but it's what I like most. I've made armor, puppets and a lot of other things while in school." Jake had tried not to pigeon-hole himself in one style even if his heart was set on horror and the aethetics, particularly vampires.

He hadn't thought of clownfish either since he was thinking of looks. "The fish I was thinking of has big red lips." But he supposed a clownfish was a good place to start as any.

"I am not going to frighten him... am I?" Harley has many characteristics of a clown, it is part of her past, her story.

"I completely understand the fear of the clowns... but my experience was a lot more personal than what any horror movie could try to impersonate."

Harley sits down beside Loki. She does have a pumpkin spiced drink, with a load of whipped cream on it.

"No, no, dearest. I thought about pointing out some of the similarities between your aesthetic and the clowns and reminding him that you're not scary, at least not to our family...but then I was afraid it would confuse him."

When she sits beside him, he leans over to kiss her cheek gently. "Anyway, there's a difference between the commedia dell'arte and Killer Klowns. Have you seen the movie? I actually thought it was rather funny when I saw it a few years ago, but I'm not a fan now."

"It is important not to confuse him. We should find a way for him to regain his own power, in this situation." She muses.

"No I have not. I never was a fan of horror movies with clowns..."

"That's a good way to look at it." He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. "He's grown so much, you know. They all have, but he was the littlest when he came to me, so it shows on him most of all. I suppose that's part of why it's bothering me so to have him scared like this."

"Mm." He grimaces sympathetically and nods his understanding. "Do you like other horror movies?"

"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."

"Being scared is part of growing up. It is how they learn to protect and defend themselves..."

"I am a fan of those camp horror movies, as strange as it sounds. And those silly ones, with pajama parties and silly girls doing truth and dare."

On the bright side, at least Loki was trying to mitigate the fear of clowns, not the fear of planets turning to dust. The boy could have been watching Star Wars Episode 4 instead of Killer Clowns from Outer Space…

“From a psychological standpoint, not as much.” Isamu had to admit his shortcomings. Though he had read considerable amounts on a wide variety of topics, this was only tangentially related to his primary field of study. “Though I am aware of the differences in the functional structure of the cerebral cortex in a child brain compared to an adult brain are extensive, including medial frontal areas that play an active role in the cognitive appraisal of emotion and anxiety. Which should speak to the opportunities you have to impact these fears now.”

If that was any consolation.

“You do not need to put any clowns in harms way to begin teaching them that they are safe.” He added. “There are plenty of other ways to approach the subject.”

He was thinking more about something personal than actual research.

“When Minoru and I were young, about four years old too, actually… Mama needed to go to the hospital for an operation. As you might be able to imagine, to a four year old, this is a very frightening and traumatic experience. So, our parents took many steps to prepare us - from reading books to watching age-appropriate television programs on the subject, to having long talks about it, visiting the hospital - and it truly did assist in mitigating our fear.”

It was essentially exposure therapy.

“What I honestly remember most was that neither Mama or Papa were afraid of what was happening. Or rather, if they were, they did not outwardly show it. And I felt safe because of that. I thought, if they are not afraid, I have no reason to be afraid either.”

She cocks her head to the side, pondering the situation a bit. She's dealt with a lot of trauma in her past, as has her daughter, but this... this was new... if a bit amusing. She tried to remain a bit stoic, a small grin creeping across her lips as she struggled to hide her delight in the absurdity of the situation, but alas, she was here to help, not poke fun at the situation... well... mostly.

"Coulrophobia isn't as uncommon as you might think, though yes... developing it from something so absurd... I can't help but laugh a little."

She twirls her parasol between her fingers idly as she thinks for a moment.

"All in all, hopefully it'll fall to the wayside and they'll outgrow it like most childhood fears. I'm not sure what horrors they experienced before this, but I would assume this is nothing compared to what they've already faced. Then again... the imagination of a child is a powerful thing... Perhaps tapping into their rational side could work?"

She takes a seat, stretching a bit.

"Explain to them it's not real, or better yet, show them, if you can. I'm sure there's probably some documentary or behind the scenes piece out there somewhere."

The Nexus may be embracing the more spooky side of the season, but Thor is not, clad in a cozy knit sweater and jacket combo that wouldn't be out of place on an alpine hike. There's a brilliant orange oak leaf tucked behind one of his ears in a manner that implies its placement was deliberate, and the bead he's used to secure the braid in his beard is polished copper. Completing the image of casual harvest deity is the foraging basket he carries in the crook of his arm, practically overflowing with chanterelles and porcini mushrooms, and wild blueberries and lingonberries.

He drops onto the bench right next to Loki, possibly before his brother even realizes who he's addressing, should he fail to look up in time. His frown is only faintly amused, concerned for his little nephew but also somewhat baffled by the subject of his terror. "They're that prolific that it's a problem?"

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."

"I can't blame you for being amused," he says, though his tone of voice says he's not pleased about it, either. "For what it's worth, Eindrid is about the equivalent of a four-year-old, so as silly as it is, he is at the age where silly fears ought to be tolerated. I just wish he hadn't seen the movie."

"The girls have less of an excuse for being scared, and I'm wondering if part of it is just that they want attention."

"Hmm..." a behind-the-scenes film has some merit, though he'd have to vet it himself first. "I can definitely look into that. Or maybe at least some children's media that has friendly clowns in it."

Loki isn't paying attention to who he's addressing. Mostly he's just venting, really, though he'll listen to suggestions happily. He starts slightly at the thump of Thor sitting beside him, blinks at him, then grins wide and bright. Yes, he's happy to see him, but really it's the orange leaf behind the ear that's got him so amused. That's just cute. He's going to make a point of not reminding him about his run-in with Hazel lest it discourage his festive mood.

"Apparently the film is some sort of cult classic," he says with a sigh. "You know how Midgardian pop culture is. Something being ridiculous and ill-conceived makes it ironically popular. There are decorations and costumes based off the characters. That, and there are other scary-clown movies."

Thank goodness poor Eindrid didn't see It.

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.

She shrugs a bit, thinking things over.

"A friendlier movie could work... assuming you can get them to even engage with it in the first place. I'd still say the best chance you have is breaking the illusion that there's anything to be afraid of in the first place. If you can get them to realize clowns are nothing more than people in colorful makeup, problem solved.... hopefully..."

She gives him a slight smirk, trying to stifle a laugh.

"As for the girls, yes, it's likely they're just looking for attention or feeding into it just because they can. Reminds me of something I would do when I was younger..."

Her lips curl into a wry grin.

"...or even just a few years ago... god I was such a little shit haha..."

For as many consecutive years now as Thor has lived on Earth, some of the quirks of humanity still take him by surprise. Killer clowns, apparently, are one of them. The crease between his eyebrows deepens slightly but he nods. "The public's interest changes by the moment, too. Maybe next year there won't be so many."

Which is. Not exactly helpful, he knows. A year is little to an Asgardian, but to a child, it's not as though they've had centuries of learning patience just yet. If Eindrid feels left out, it's not going to bring any more peace to Loki's house.

He shrugs, setting the basket down on the bench to his other side, and casually offers his brother a small handful of blueberries. The arctic growing season is short, which means they're fairly tiny, but intensely sweet compared to those grown in warmer climes. "Does he have to do the shopping part?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

On Age-Inappropriate Halloween Cinema

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject