shitposting rave 2, electric boogaloo

what's a parent?

 

... uh. Let's not go to the robots for parenting advice, okay?

 

Ah, here's the point of interest.
Some families have, uh, difficulties with certain permutations of personality. A naturally curious child, for example, will wither in an environment that demands complete obedience. In cases where the child would not be able to take care of themself, a foster family would be sought, if they're old enough they get their own hideout and the opportunity to build a support system that is not under the control of the parents.
It works... usually.

... And there are cases where it should've been done sooner, if I go by the younger party...

 

Those conditions are necessary, but NOT sufficient.

Children are not property. They are dependent upon adults, and in societies which are decent and just, there must be measures in place to give them recourse when their guardians mistreat and traumatise them, either through action or inaction. Also, there must be measures in place to ensure that they learn to make informed decisions for themselves and are not steered into lives they might not choose if they had been properly educated or dumped into the polity to vote and go to work without learning how to think for themselves.

Even if you only consider your own self interest, allowing people to do as they please with their children eventually leads to high rates of mental illness, crime, and suicide, not to mention unpleasantly authoritarian societies.

 

If kits are unhappy when they're tiny, they will usually die.

If kits are unhappy later in their childhood, and choose another parent or another pride entirely, that is their right. And among my people, though not, unfortunately, on the world where I live, no one may interfere and their mother must bear the shame if she has misused them.

 

Don't assume we're all awful just because Cybertronians don't understand proper social structures. We might not have the same groupings as mammalian species, but we are communal sapients ourselves.

That... seems unusual, but I will admit my own frame of reference is rather limited, I'm not a sociologist. A Licentan who harms their own crewmate feels that crewmate's distress and pain as their own, so a situation as the one described is... unusual? I don't want to say "impossible" because in any given society there's going to be a low point, but. Even taking the situation at face value, it...

I don't know. Aliens are alien, who'd have guessed? May have to take a bit to process, reevaluate stance. Hard to remember sometimes that most social units function as alliances, not hive-minds.

Still having trouble parsing "society where guardian harms charge*," but gratitude for further explaining position.

*for given value of "actual harm," not little things like "no you may not stick the poisonous insect in your mouth, even if it looks tasty and you cry at me because you want to eat it anyway"

...was unaware emotional state had effect on organic species' physical wellbeing. Or is this specific to Valiska's species?

And of course sparklings can choose their own crews! Not arguing that point. If one wishes to leave, then one leaves, restricting that most basic freedom... I.

I am learning many things today, it seems. The universe is a big place, and sometimes awful for all the good it also contains.

 

I wasn't saying that you guys are awful. I was saying that you guys have no frame of reference for this kind of thing.

 

Not Cybertronian. Will gladly admit that their system of harvesting sparks and shoving protos into premade forms is disturbing as slag. I do have a frame of reference for raising sparklings, not just dumping them on a battlefield and running off!

 

It is unfortunately very common that guardians will harm charges, though it is not the norm.

And organic species can indeed die from toxic emotions, although my wife's species is more sensitive than most. I have theorised that the close maternal and sibling bonds they develop are a large part of why they never developed patriarchy, even though pregnant women and small children are even more vulnerable than in most species.

 

Also, Ford, we can't be enslaved. Because we die or go violently mad when our wills are broken. Patriarchy seems to rely on many forms of slavery that we never developed.

 

That seems... inefficient. Then again, nature rarely works efficiently. Maternal/paternal divide indicative of physical dimorphism between genders? Stronger bonds generally mean more protection during vulnerable times, especially when taken as a larger social group-- more eyes, more guards, and so on, makes for a decent survival strategy assuming there's enough resources to support the whole group.

I. Do not think I want to respond to the first point right now. Not Stanford's fault, processing just... takes time. And thinking about biology is less stressful than imagining any universe where I intentionally hurt my own sparklings.

 

Whatever, my mom was great.

 

She was your mother and I understand that you love her, but I do not think so, little sister, and this is not the place to discuss it--but if you ever really want to know why I feel that way you are welcome to ask me privately.

 

It is emotional for us as well.

When I was ten I chose another mother and another world.

Stanford and his brother did not have that option. But they should have.

And we are determined that our adopted children and our fosterlings and our kits will never feel anything other than loved with us. They may be angry, anger happens; but there will be no harm done.

 

Aw, Valiska, our parents weren't that bad...

 

You can't possibly actually mean that.

 

Yeah sure.

 

That is admirable. Thank you for the further clarification, and the time to work through the new information. I... shall likely not attempt to engage with the [Stanford-and-Valiska] vs [Rick-and-Morty-and-???] disagreement further, now that my initial query has been answered, but thank you all the same.

 

Thank you, Ma'Vali, I appreciate your efforts, also for the sakes of Loreli and Chroma.

I have to confess the experience of an extended family beyond clade and lusus-bonds was very alien at first, but under the cut I am glad I have you and everyone else, and a safe place to retreat to and I don't have to worry about what the future will be like. Even if I still do - old habits, et cetera.

If @Silverburst has the capacity to take in some more alien societal data - Alternian society is different, as well. Our species is reared by beasts referred to as lusus naturae. There is a wide variety of these, and most if not all of them have non-lusus versions, so it might be a mutation of sorts? A lusus shares its charge's blood colour. We are raised to be aggressive and competitive, only forming bonds in small romantic groups, called clades. We do not actually know who our genetic parents are, and only very few trolls ever get the chance to meet theirs.
I'm basically currently also an experiment on the possibility of adapting a troll psyche to a more social context! It's quite interesting.

 

I think that if they had let you two have your own fight, instead of throwing you out in the street, you would have had your fight and it would have been over.

And don't tell me I owe my life to their foolishness. What if Ford had not been too broken to appeal that decision and find a way to go and do what he needed to do instead of ending up with that fool who couldn't choose him over respectability at that terrible school with that bogus grant, and what if you had understood that you are the kind of man who can teach himself physics, cryptography and ritual magic? The work you would have done would have brought you out here without the triangular barnacle.

And if you had come with Ford, my sister's life might well have been different, too.

This is what I think about some nights, what I thought about often after you took him from me and before I came after him. Your father should be very glad that I don't know how to raise the dead, because I might have done it just to kill him again.