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

[unholyterror]

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.

[desertdancer]

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."

[itmeanscourage]

“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.”

[sweetcandygirl]

"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.

[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."

[tielle_mortevus]

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."

[pirateangelbaby]

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?"