demagogue on 5/9/2010 at 17:42
It's like good scripted sequences going on in-game. You don't want the player literally involved because they'll fuck it up, but you can make things happen right in front of them to actors/NPCs that react to them, and you're left standing wondering what's next.
It's also good that you only knew them by their character personas. Even if you know they're actors, if you really have no idea who they are in real life then you're more likely to just run with their character personas , since that's all you know... I'd imagine.
Scots Taffer on 5/9/2010 at 23:16
No matter where and when, the realisation that I might die at this point in time due to something beyond my control.
Bad turbulence makes me extremely uncomfortable because of a near-miss we once had many years ago, but generally I'm fine with air travel.
The deep ocean, not because of the creatures that live down there, but because of miles of fucking water that crush down on you and the pressure turns you into dust.
A page full of dethtoll threads. (I kid because I love)
Anything happening to my kids... I had a recent incident in Dubai at a packed water park at night where my daughter disappeared for about a minute and a half, there is nothing really quite so terrifying. I find stories around kidnappings, murders and abuse of children to be deeply disquieting.
Kuuso on 5/9/2010 at 23:39
There's not much I can think of that truly scares me. Sure, swimming in deep water (at night, urgh) and being in complete darkness in the woods is unnerving for sure, but truly terrifying - no.
I fear for my gf, who's now living alone in a different city than me and lives in a neighbourhood, which isn't the best.
Tocky on 6/9/2010 at 00:08
You know when you are camping and facing the fire at night with no other light? What if somebody ran up behind you with a hatchet and cleved your skull into? I know it's unlikely but there are people that crazy. There are people crazy enough to do anything. It doesn't sound scarey right now but go camping now and tell me you don't think about it when you are the last one up tending the fire. Heh.
Muzman on 6/9/2010 at 03:54
Ah. That sounds cool. I was thinking of something more ill advised from the first description, like a Camp Crystal Lake theme weekend or something.
Anyway, there was some old psychology game I saw in action once where people ended up describing their idea of hell and their deepest fears without really knowing it. Most of the ones here fall into that category; pain, violence/dismemberment, mistrust of others (mistrust of self too), being trapped in a confined space with no apparent way out (that you can't see out of. Sometimes they're dark, sometimes light), drowning, eternal solitiude etc.
I wish I could remember it.
Apart from those things, the thing that gives me the most peculiar sense of dread and haunting is the idea of swimming in deep water with something very large underneath you. Sounds like it makes some sense; sharks or something. But it can be just about anything of that sort. Photographs of divers treading water somewhere like Guadalcanal where you can see wrecked destroyers from the war beneath them: yikes. Or boats/dudes hanging around the edge of an iceberg in fairly clear water and you can see the underwater portion peeling away into the dark.
Big stuff underwater. Heebie Jeebies.
demagogue on 6/9/2010 at 04:11
Quote Posted by Muzman
Anyway, there was some old psychology game I saw in action once where people ended up describing their idea of hell and their deepest fears without really knowing it.
The one I remember is: You're walking through a forest. (1) What does your forest look like? (2) You see a body of water; what does that look like? (3) A bear jumps in front of you on the path. How do you deal with it? (4) You see some cup or vessel of liquid. What is it? (5) You find a key on the path. What does it open? (6) After a while, there's a wall that ends the path you're on that you can't see over or around. What does the wall look like and what, if anything, is on the other side of it?
Pretty sure this is NOT the one you're thinking about. But this one isn't bad at pulling out some embedded feelings without realizing it, some fears included. (Maybe I should make it into its own thread.)
Vernon on 6/9/2010 at 05:01
I guess the ordering of the questions is key in those things
The Marble Hornets stuff is good, thanks for posting. It reminds me of some rabbit-hole-style interaction-based horror story off the internet a few years ago. I can't remember it so well - I think it was similar in that it was someone retracing someone else's steps around America. You could find clues in newspaper cuttings and in parts of this guy's journal. I wish I could remember what it was because it was pretty good
SubJeff on 6/9/2010 at 06:02
Holy crap, I totally get that "large thing underwater" Muz! This thread has made me realise/remember my irrational fears.
Scots Taffer on 6/9/2010 at 08:44
Yeah, it's a concept that makes me distinctly uncomfortable as well as the notion that the floor of the beach just tapers off and then whoom, hundreds of feet drop-off into open ocean. That sense of dangling your legs over the side of a skyscraper, only different.
SubJeff on 6/9/2010 at 09:25
As to some of the more medical fears here; local anaesthetic to the eye and awake surgery doesn't seem to upset people much. I've obviously seen a bunch of these surgeries and despite it being the eye (THE EYE!!) no one stresses about it once it's numbed. People freak out much more about having a general anaesthetic or even just having veins cannulated! One of the awesome things about awake eye surgery is that the minute it's done the result is instant. Replacing lenses is great to watch as one second they can't see at all and the next they're all "OMG, I can see normally again!".
And bleeding out? It looks fairly painless tbh. People just sort of... fade away; it's almost like going to sleep. Of course, the cause of the bleeding out in trauma cases might be painful (though often people seem too stunned to care). About 3 years ago I saw a guy who had both lower legs run over by some asshole in a white van, bones broken and had just ripped through the skin and muscle, really messy, and without any pain relief he was just calm as a cucumber and talking normally. Of course he couldn't see the injuries or he might have freaked but the point is massive trauma doesn't always cause agony. So as long as you're not in pain bleeding out would actually be one of my preferred ways to go!
I hope that goes some way to soften those fears.
Oh, I forgot one thing. Wild animals. There is almost nothing I wouldn't do to escape a lion or tiger or bear or whatever. Human on human violence may be grim but I think there is nothing more viscerally terrifying than being ripped up by a big cat or bear. Shudders.
