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[ Sasuke thought about asking this through text. He likely should have, because his emotions have been strong lately, a lot stronger than he wants them to be, and his anger has been nearly as quick and hot as it was when he was on his path of revenge. But it feels cheap somehow to ask such an important question via text. He can't do video due to his eyes, so he tries to keep his voice even to conceal just how much this question means to him.

The feed is silent for a little longer than is probably natural, but he's still figuring out how to us his omni, so. Y'know. Be gentle here.

Finally, it picks up a sigh that almost sounds annoyed. ]

How did the world treat orphans where you're from? Was there an age where someone was considered a child versus an adult? Were there children who were considered unworthy of help or were the rules in place blanketed towards all children?

[ There's a pause where he realizes he should make it seem like this is less about, y'know, him, and more about curiosity on how to help kids here maybe. Uhhhh... ]

... Would there be things from your world that you would want to see offered to the children in this one?

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TROLLS DO NOT HAVE PARENTS THEREFORE WE HAVE NO TRANSLATABLE CONSTRUCT OF "ORPHANS." WE DO HAVE CUSTODIANS BUT IF THEY DIED, THEY JUST DIED.

ADULT TROLLS WERE COMPLETELY UNINVOLVED WITH CHILDREN TROLLS. WE WERE MEANT TO LEARN HOW TO SURVIVE IN OUR WORLD ON OUR OWN. DEFECTED CHILDREN WERE CULLED IF THEY WERE DISCOVERED. FOR THOSE OF US WHO SURVIVED CULLING, WE JUST HAVE TO FIGHT THROUGH TO ADULTHOOD. MOST DO NOT MAKE IT, BUT MANY DO.

CHILDCARE APPEARS TO BE A STRONG CONCEPT AMONG HUMANITY. I WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN IN KNOWING WHAT I WOULD HAVE WANTED AS A CHILD.

AGING FOR TROLLS IS COMPLICATED. WE CAN LIVE SO LONG AND IT DEPENDS ON YOUR BLOODTYPE.

They were killed immediately. All people were. I'm only alive because of bullshit time shenanigans. We were not seen as a salvageable race so we were exterminated by our invaders.

Prior to the invasion, as far as I'm aware, orphans were delegated to the government and typically lost in the system. 18 seems to be the generic age for adulthood, but I feel that topic is more complicated than a mere number suggests.

Rules tended to be arbitrary and illogical. Stuff like you can literally be murdered in war at 18, that's fine, but you can't drink alcohol until you're 21. You can drive a 2 ton hunk of metal around, but you can't watch porn.

(...What did he want as a child? It's an easy enough answer, but he figures it probably doesn't really count. He came from an unusual situation.)

It would have been nice to have someone to talk to.

[ This isn't really the sort of post Yuri would normally answer, but it hits a little too close to home for him to ignore. He contemplates answering for a long while, and decides for it, picking up the Omni to do his best: ]

We had a group home, where I'm from. There were a lot of kids who lived there, a dozen or so at a time, all ages from babies to, well, basically adults. I lived there til I was 16, then I got a different space, but it was all still, y'know, I didn't pay for it, at least not with gald.

We took care of each other, in the lower quarter. I took care of the other kids however I could, and Hanks and Jiri always made sure everyone had enough food and clothes and a bed. No one was ever forced out. Dunno how it works everywhere else on Terca Lumeries, or even in the rest of Zaphias, but that's how we did it.

The orphanage here seems to work kinda like that. I've seen kids there who could be out on their own, if they wanted to. As long as every kid who needs it has a bed and food, that's alright.

...was that not how it was in your world? [ Just taking a wild guess here ]

I don't think there's anywhere in the wide expanse of the multiverse that treats orphaned or troubled children with anything resembling kindness.

In the town I grew up in, the answer is badly. There was a cult that was rather rigorous in inflicting it's teachings on young people and whenever they strayed they were punished. Sometimes the ones that believed the most were punished as well, to ensure that nobody ever felt safe enough to stop striving for perfection.

In the underground civilization I fell into as a child, their own children were treated well, and so was I, but then a tragedy occured and from then on every human child who fell just like I did was hunted down and murdered to keep morale in the kingdom up.

[ Mako's in the middle of prepping for what is turning out to be a truly massive party, but in the brief moments of downtime between tracking down lanterns and chairs and enough food to feed half the city, he's been keeping an eye on the feed, and...

well.

A good thing, probably.

It's another few hours before he answers, but it's worth answering. He wonders what's going through Sasuke's head, what he's hoping to find. ]

I don't think it was a universal thing in our world. Probably should've been. The Hundred-Year War left a lot of orphans running around, there must've been... something.

My city handled it really badly. There were too many of us. Lots of kids slipped through the cracks, ended up on the streets, and that was better than being dragged to one of the homes they set up. Those things were a joke. It was—I don't know. Not malicious. Landlords kicked you out no matter how old you were once you stopped paying rent, and stopped thinking about you after that. You didn't have money, you weren't worth anything. Age didn't matter.

[ Of course Karkat's answer would sound the most familiar. Like everything else they've ever talked about hasn't been so close to each other. ]

From what you've told me about your world thus far, this doesn't surprise me.

I had thought childcare among humans only mattered from parents to their own children before this place. But people seem very adamant about it here.

How long on average?

How would you approach the topic if not by numbers? We had to reach an age of maturity in order to drink or to get married, but those laws were often easily bent if the person in question showed they were able to handle themselves the same as an adult.

[ That request, tho. That tugs at him for sure. Clearly Dirk would've fit in with the Isolated Orphans Club he and Naruto had going on. ]

A professional or just someone in general?

[ Another world where people took care of each other and kids weren't left to fend for themselves!! Outside of this post, they're outnumbering the shitty ones that sound more familiar to him at this point, and while he'd been more curious before, there's something about it that makes him angry now.

Something that he at least has the decency to try and swallow so that he doesn't snap at Yuri for asking a perfectly reasonable question in return. ]

No. Some children went to the Konoha orphanage, but any that were shunned by the village in any fashion were left to raise themselves. We were given a small stipend until we were able to secure our own income, but that's true of anyone without work, so it wasn't unique to looking out for our well-being.

From everything I've been told by others in this place, you are incorrect. It is arrogant and idiotic to assume that because your own world was cruel that every reality in the multiverse is the same. Things are too varied for any broad assumptions like that to be made.

That being said, the way your world responds is more familiar to me than the ones which do the opposite, so it's at least safe to say that cruelty is a constant in many worlds.

...fuck that. What the fuck? Just giving kids cash isn't going to-- [ Well, now it's Yuri's turn to get angry, indignant. He doesn't have a problem with kids fending for themselves, he considers himself having done that, for the most part, but having to do it? Not having a choice? He worked so the other kids did have the choice, so they didn't have to learn to fight if they didn't want to. ]

What the hell could a kid do to be shunned? That-- you don't have to answer that. But I'm fucking sorry that your village was that fucking stupid.

[ Somehow Sasuke's unsurprised that Mako's city handled orphans in a similar manner to his own; orphanages that did absolutely nothing for anyone and children suffering because a government didn't step up and do what they probably should have. Maybe a lack of targeting specific types of children who suffered, but...

It's probably fucked up that he feels comfort in hearing the familiar more than he does the worlds that handled it better. ]

Mm. Age not mattering seems to be the thing that surprises people the most here when I speak to them. There's some idea that the younger you are, the more awful it is. Maybe war torn worlds have more similar flaws to one another.

I suppose they figure if you're old enough to become a jonin if you've dedicated yourself enough to your ninja training then you're old enough to figure out how to buy groceries and pay rent.

[ Never mind that not every child became a shinobi or that most children didn't start training at the ripe old age of fucking five like Itachi and Sasuke did. That's clearly not the point!! Somehow!! ]

... I'm told they've changed since the last war. Though it's been slow.

Really? Did society as a whole make things easier for them or were the kids themselves the ones to take care of their own?

There's always individual exceptions, but rarely institutional ones. In that underground kingdom I mentioned, the Queen would take care of the children who fell and provide protection and shelter. But they'd get restless and want to go back to their families, and that's when the King's soldiers would hunt them down and kill them. See? Individual vs Institutional.

The King was a kind man who was fond of children, he didn't want to hurt any of them, he would have very much liked to have provided a loving home to anyone who came to him. He still killed them all.

Edited 2022-02-19 04:24 (UTC)

It's been a mix, but this city itself has the society take care of their orphans. The orphanage takes in and cares for any child who needs someone. It automatically contradicts your initial assumption.

The King sounds like he was either too weak to be worthy of the title or like a liar who didn't care about children at all no matter what persona he displayed. You can't be truly fond of children and want to protect them and also be willing to kill them anyway just because of institutions.

Yes, and I'm sure this world is so kind to children with the rampant blood curses and corruption and all the powerful individuals with authority over this place that have already fed on and tortured a dying little girl they claimed to love to further their own interests. But yes, I'll admit that there's certainly people here who do their best.

The King was my adoptive father. I know the kind of man he was. Weak, yes, but not dishonest. You would be surprised at the horrible things good people can find ways to justify under the right circumstances.

[Of course he sees this and immediately starts fretting that he was too blunt or pushed too much.]

Did...did I upset you? I-I’m truly sorry if I did...

I don't claim to know anything of the circumstances around the girl or the history of this place before what it is now, but the world that has grown out of it does seem to try to help others. Being rampant with corruption does not reflect on the way they run their city overall, anymore than a peaceful city in a war torn country is responsible for the violence that happens around them. If anything, the darkness of this world almost seems to be the trade off for a city that tries to take care of its people. If people are doing their best, and, following your own word choices, there are institutions set up to help them do their best, then it shows it is not simply individuals.

I wouldn't be surprised by anything. I've seen it first hand. And I've also seen the way family can hide their true selves, or how people can believe so deeply that they are good or that they care while their actions show anything but. Killing children is the opposite of wanting to protect them, no matter what a person says or believes about themselves.

[ .......... He probably should have seen that coming. ]

No. You aren't the first person to tell me that things were different.

...I want to know if Konoha is the odd one out.

Well...um...I don't know what happens in general, but I know sometimes an adult will kind of just adopt kids that are living on their own. There are definitely ages that kids are considered kids, though.

[ Oh. Like Shiro. This would have been an answer that surprised him more before getting to know that guy, though he still doesn't fully understand it. ]

Without any strings attached or expectations of repayment? And what ages would you say those are?

Edited 2022-02-19 05:07 (UTC)

where I'm from 18 is considered an adult for the most part.

there were rules in place to protect kids, yeah, but they didn't always work as well as they should. theoretically all children were worthy of help, but in practice prejudice fucked things up fairly often.

there were organizations set up to adopt orphans or kids whose parents couldn't look after them. my little brother was adopted, actually.

so I'm pro adoption, obviously. we also have programs where I'm from where you might not be a full guardian to a kid who has a parent but you are like a big brother or sister. someone they can trust and talk to, you know? I think kids here deserve all of that.

I guess. I haven't visited the orphanage, but I don't trust them on principle. I might look into it. This world is a strange mix of abhorrent and inspiring.

I wouldn't have predicted he'd be capable of it either. The Queen, yes, but she's smarter than him and would have only done what she had to, rather than wobble over it and stew in self hatred and self pity for decades. But admittedly his reasons are a bit more complicated than that.

What if the only way to protect the children who relied on you was to kill children who were afraid of you? What if the only way to give an entire civilisation the hope that they have a future was to do something as truly awful as murdering children?

Would you say that every ruler in history has held active malice for all the millions of people that get trampled in their wars or under their orders?

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying he's a good person after what he did, but I do believe he genuinely loved me and my brother, and I do believe he wanted to be kind.

His last words before I killed him were to offer me a "nice cup of tea."

[Lot of daddy issues with this one.]

Edited 2022-02-19 05:41 (UTC)

[Her impulse is to write in text. There was a certain comfort in the anonymity, but the more she heard, the more she knew that this was not something to hide her identity behind. That felt... too impersonal, too distant.]

[For a mercy, she learned how to do this talking to Fat Billie.]

It... depends. My village was a fishing village, and if that orphan did not have immediate family, then they could be brought to a fishing family to earn their keep mending nets, chopping wood, and gutting fish. In exchange they would be fed and kept warm, though some were better at this than others. Since we were small, they would usually be taught the fishing

But we were a small village, and in bigger cities, they could be brought to a working family to be an apprentice or servant or turned over to the convent--Lathander, probably.

I'm an orphan. Well, maybe my dad's still around. He was never in the picture.

There was a foster system back home, where certain homes accepted kids that were taken away from their parents for whatever reason. You had social workers who'd come in and check on kids from troubled environments. [She seems unsure how to word this...] I think they kinda mean well? Mine probably did. Still, I learnt pretty quickly that it's better to just lie to them so they'll leave you alone.

The homes they put you in are fuckin' garbage, they work you to the bone and sneer at you for not being grateful to them for being paid to feed you dirt. They won't let you go to school, will dictate everything you do, force their religion on you... I've only been to one of them and it was apparently one of the better ones, which is saying something considering they were only accepting foster kids to feed to their undead blood drinking son they kept chained up in the attic.

Orphanages, or group homes, mostly. Until they were eighteen.

[That's less important than the rest of the questions, though.]

They covered everyone. Even the ... 'problem kids'. Unless you broke laws, and even then, your records were sealed if you were underage. [Sure, people pretty much tried to wash their hands of said problem kids. They didn't get the best picks of anything, got overlooked and undersold.]

[But it doesn't sound like what Sasuke means.]

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video; un: AskMalice (cw for mentions of child abuse, foster system, neglect)

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