thank you for watching my dream!

My theory is that actually, toby fox is trying to frame this situation as a GOOD thing.

It's very easy to look at her literally living in the dark world and be afraid that it's a trap or is going to backfire, but today this situation reminded me of real-life situations that are analogous to hers: online fandoms*.

*(this theory might also work for other types of communities but stick with me)

There are so many stories of people who talk about their fandom being their lifeline, about making friends, having something giving their life meaning and happiness, improving them as people, and sometimes literally saving their life. As soon as Susie entered the dark world, she was given the chance to make friends and have something to really make her happy for once, and she has been improving as a person (and a lot of it was simply just giving her a proper chance)! Her literally living there seems like an analogy to how these people cling to their fandoms as their lifeline, pouring every spare moment they have into it, and it gets them to a BETTER place as a result, despite the fears of going too far; it seems quite often, that this simply doesn't end up being the case.

There's also further similarities between these dark worlds and online spaces. There are so many people out there in the world that we never get to see, never would get to talk to or even fathom that they exist, other than a vague feeling of the world being a big place with a lot of people in it. But when we enter an online community, those people suddenly come to life for us. We all get a name and an avatar, giving us form, and share an experience together that we enjoy, our dark worlds. Often some of those communities we close for good, but sometimes we keep some of the friends we made while still in them...our recruits? :) And then we find new fandoms and start the whole thing over again, just like Kris opening new dark worlds that hold new adventures and new friends. Toby hard-pushing the idea that the Darkners are real people and not just "objects" really makes a lot of sense in this context too. To some people, the internet is just a screen, but we know we are talking to real people, even if it looks a little different.

New technology discovered: ♻️Recycling! You may now uncraft 🦑🥪Squid sandwiches back into 1🍞bread and 1🦑squid.

i HATE self-censorship for a lot of reasons, but being in crisis work makes it even more frustrating. who are you censoring for? like i am being so fr, WHO are you censoring for? have you even thought it through? people who have been raped know that they have been raped. if someone attempts suicide or is grieving someone who did, saying "sewer slide" isn't going to protect them from any of the feelings. a murder victim's family isn't going to feel better bc you said "unalived" instead of murdered. if anything, it's just extremely invalidating and othering. it's saying "what happened to you is so bad that i won't even say the word," which is NOT trauma-informed care. you are not protecting survivors/victims when you self-censor. the ONLY things you protect when you self-censor are the puritanical ideologies that are being encouraged by rich fascists who want your money and obedience

We should be treating teens as more adult than we do. I don't mean some lowering the age of consent creep shit, I mean presuming competence. Get a job, learn life skills, learn to cook, be fully responsible for a pet, walk places alone (in daylight) or with a friend, have intergenerational friendships, teach skills to littler kids, be someone people can trust with more than wiping their own ass. Be someone they themselves can trust to do stuff and go places. We're stealing children's confidence by treating them like they can't do anything. Treat them like they can and should do many adult things and more will find the confidence to practice at them.

When I was still nursing in NY and occasionally helped out our colleagues in ER, several times I saw small children who'd been taught what to do save their whole families from burning buildings by having been coached in how to use the phone to call for help and say what the trouble was, even when their parents and other older kids were unresponsive.