Silent's getting a bit antsy, so we both decided to put the final two questions in one post. Again, be as specific as possible, and thanks a lot for helping us out with that. I know some of these can get personal, and it's hard to open up about those things.
Question Four:
Why do you think there has been a surge in Fear activity and a sudden emergence of previously unheard of Fears? If you believe that they were created recently, how and why?
Question Five:
What do you think the Fears are?
No freaking way. The Fears have been around as long as humanity, I'm positive of /that/ much. I mean, except for the Newborn, but there were other circumstances.
ReplyDeleteAs for why they're so active? Maybe they all got bored at the same time. Or, there are those theories about 'the Great Game' - maybe they've finally got all their pieces on the board and they're really getting into it, now.
Now, what do I think the Fears are?
I think they're us. They're the darkest part of us, and they're going to exist as long as we do. As long as we hate ourselves for our flaws, they have a reason to prey on those flaws.
#4: In my experience, they seem to spread through contact like a virus. A virus that targets our primal instincts. Each one has a different carrier, targets different people.
ReplyDelete#5: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Do you really want to know? I don't. I just want my life to return to something resembling normal.
The PREs are manifestations of our anxieties, warped into 'Eldritch beings' capable of terrible things.
ReplyDeleteI suppose that is only the definition, which is not what you're asking for, is it?
As for 'why', I remain shamefully ignorant of their motives, and can provide no theories or explanations.
Why the surge in Fear activity? Honestly, I haven't a clue. To me, it's like the Charge of the Light Brigade: ours is not to reason why, ours it but to do and die. Only, you know, I try to avoid the whole 'dying' thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd what are the Fears? There are theories. None that I ascribe to, though. I don't believe they are tulpas, created from humans believing in them. I don't believe they are the boogeymen of our nightmares or that they were the original inhabitants of the Earth or even, as one crazy runner tried to convince me, aliens from a distance universe seeking to terraform our world (I think he was also confused about the difference between "galaxy" and "universe").
What are they? They are. That's it. They just are.
This so-called "surge" in Fossil activity is unusual, but there can be patterns found, even in entities that are considered "eldritch." For instance, though the Genera Center has yet to prove it, there are rumors of a Fossil that we have deemed Fossil-Type GINNUNGAGAP, or as others called it "the Quiet." These rumors have arose in recent years and this Fossil has gone from little-to-no-chatter to nearly fifty percent of interviewed runners knowing of it - and that tells us something. Perhaps the Fossils are increasing their activity due to GINNUNGAGAP, perhaps they are increasing their prominence due to some sort of looming threat to their existence or the existence of this world.
ReplyDeleteAs for your second question, we still have yet to determine what kind of entity a "Fossil" truly is. Most appear to be biological entities, but then assumptions cannot be made with concern to these eldritch beings. Science will have to improve before it can determine what they are.
They've always been here, but as for why there are more reports now then before? It's very simple: the internet.
ReplyDeleteYou see, before the magical land of the internet appeared, to get something published people had to go to an actual publisher or a newspaper to try and get their story out there. And most of the time, they couldn't, because their stories (true though they might be) were derided as "crackpot" and "insane ramblings." I mean, I'm sure a lot of them were insane ramblings from crackpots, but some of them were probably Fear-related.
And so in the past, these incidents would go unnoticed. Missing persons would never be found and nobody would know why, but it wouldn't be reported that someone saw a tall man with no face - because that was crazy. But now we have the glorious internet and everyone can publish to their heart's content and so this venue provides us not only with the crackpot and his ramblings, but with the stories of the Fears and now we can see just how many there are and what they do.
As for what they are, I think perhaps that's for someone better than me to answer. Every time I've tried, I always come up empty handed.
they increase because we increase. they are more because we are more.
ReplyDeletewhat are they? they are words on a page, just like us. and just like us, they are not real and have never been. but just because they are not real, does not mean they cannot hurt us.
ideas can kill, after all.
I think it doesn't matter one way or another. They're here. They have us. Why not make peace with it? You'd all be much better off if you didn't fight them.
ReplyDeleteAs for how common these Fears are, now, they weren't when I was out there. There were mumblings, sure, but nothing like this. Maybe you're just blessed.
I really can't comment on the increase in Fear activity. Hell, I hadn't even heard about any of the Fears before I was targeted by the Choir.
ReplyDeleteAs for what they are...well, I have theories about the Choir. I know that it sometimes shows up as mold, mold that spreads and infects and twists all the sounds around it. I think perhaps it's some form of life that developed long ago and adapted to life so well that nobody noticed it - think about it, plants and animals have evolved over the years to better survive, right? Bugs that look like sticks and leaves, plants that trap insects or look like other poisonous plants.
What if the Choir was a plant that evolved similar to that, only with sound? It evolved to mimic the sounds around it and eventually manipulate them.
Doesn't explain why it goes after certain people, but no theory is perfect.
What if there were certain people that had an... well, not an ability, but a curse? What if this curse allowed beings outside of our universe to enter it, and all it took was belief in the subject and/or a strong emotional tie? Of course, whatever being came through due to this cursed person wouldn't necessarily have to target that individual; they could spread out, start going after other people. And maybe, if they were defeated before, this is their return and they're making the most of it.
ReplyDeleteThink about it. Someone with this curse has already been haunted by one of the Fears (or something else, even); they get online to research it and end up reading one of the blogs dealing with the other Fears. Since she knows one of them exists, that must mean the others exist, too, so ta-da! You now have an entire group of Fears in your world. That explains the sudden burst in Fear sightings.
The problem, of course, lies with finding a way to distinguish these cursed individuals. If it's true, the curse might be on any of you... Or it could be someone at random in the world, and that makes it a lot more dangerous because they have no idea what they've done. The Fears may not even be hunting them, either.
As for what they are, I've read a few theories in the documents I'm looking at. The one that's widely believed is that these things come from another world, but I've read a few that suggest that something within our universe created them. Whatever they are, you can easily trace their path through history. They exist in myths, legends... campfire stories you tell to scare the other kids... It's all there. It may not seem like a Fear at first, but if you dig deep enough into the true origins of a lot of stories, there was some amount of Fear influence there. The bogeyman, the thing we used to hide under our covers because we thought it was going to get us? That's the Rake. Bloody Mary, the 'ghost' that hides within our mirror and comes out when someone says her name a few times? A variation of the Mother of Snakes.
This is all hypothetical, of course, and since I'm almost certain none of us share the same exact universe, the possibilities for what the Fears *are* can be endless. Maybe they are beings from another world, or maybe they're beings that evolved into what they are today. Maybe they were thought up by a bunch of writers and the tulpa theory came into effect. It's up to the individual to decide what they are.
Previously unheard Fears? I think that every Fear has been heard of in some way, shape or form. It's just that nobody has been alive or able to tell us about it. The recent upsurge in blogging (perhaps caused by the Rake?) means that more and more of them are becoming known. I would bank on more of THEM coming to light soon.
ReplyDeleteAs for what they are... Well, I think that question can be hard to answer. THEY are above us as surely as humans are above the average dog. We just happen to have the intelligence and cognitive skills to appreciate and to hypothesize about it.
Note that I don't think that they're better than us so much as above us.
Regards,
Benzene