Your primal fears, nightmares, ...

[Mr White]

I'm working on a simple game, call it an interactive book, for another forum. I want to seriously scare the players (as much as that is possible when reading a small text every day or so).

So what creeps you out? What nightmare really followed you around for a while? What gets you uncomfortable for some reason?

Thanks in advance.

[Maximum Zersk]

Well, you have to remember something about this project is that fears can be terribly subjective. One man's fear is another man's ticket to a date with Rosie Palms.

Anyway, my fear would probably be the dark. Scares the hell out of me.

[Asta Kask]

I fear zombies and the living dead. Seriously freak me out.

[Lyndworm]

Not to brag, but I've never really been scared of anything. Commitment, maybe.

[Dr.Epic]

Tornados

Why: they're destructive and you have little time to prepare yourself. A hurricane is more powerful and does more damage but they can be tracked a long time in advance. With a tornado you might have an hour tops to head for shelter and make sure you can save all the important people and items in you really need/care about.

[Killer Angel]

Spiders. 'nuff said.
(I don't exactly fear them when I'm awake: i can watch 'em, even with a sense of repulse, but the nightmare... they have no rivals)

[Coidzor]

Hmm. My nightmares about being too weak and powerless to help others seem kind of underwhelming and less than visceral now.

[Anuan]

Sharks.
Octopuses.
Being part of something that brings about the Antichrist or similar destruction.

Edit: Left the first one of the next post out. Hydrophobia, srsly.

[Frozen_Feet]

Deep water. While I'm adept swimmer and even enjoy swimming from time to time, often I choose not to simply because water scares the hell out of me. It's also a common element in my nightmares.

Mirrors. Putting lights on in dark room which has one always causes me shivers. It's fear of the reflection having or missing something that is or isn't in the real world.

Falling from a cliff - this is an odd one, because often in my dreams I can fly. It's often combined with someone (often a little child) pushing me off the edge in a fit of childish rage.

[Felixaar]

Hmm, there's not a lot I can contribute here, but there's a little.

1#: Loved ones dieing. My (hypothetical) children and wife mostly, the rest of my family I'm not too worried about. Not because I don't care but because they don't take up too much of my life, it would not be like one of those support pillars has crumbled. Well, it would if it were my mum or dad, but I'm not really scared that will happen for whatever reason. I don't think my hyp. wife/kids will either, but if they did it would be something I'd be totally unprepared for.

2#: Totally screwing things up. I have a friend I'm looking forward to seeing this year and I have constant dreams were I see them and things all go to plot, once it turned out that they wore a wig and had a prosthetic tongue.

3#: Being in the same place next year as I am now. I don't begrudge my life here, but been there, done that. I want to move on to something more exciting and lucrative.

Yeah, nothing that really fits in a game :smallsigh: sorry.

[Mr White]

There are already some good basic ones. Some more detail would be nice.

I once freaked myself out by running next to a hedge at night. I knew I made the hedge rustle myself by the air I displaced but I couldn't help but constantly run faster and faster.

I also dream about falling a lot. It's no nightmare though. I'm always very calm and actually accept my death. Then I hit the ground and notice I haven't actually broken anything.


Well, you have to remember something about this project is that fears can be terribly subjective. One man's fear is another man's ticket to a date with Rosie Palms.

I know fears are subjective but I'm mainly looking for inspiration. Besides there are a lot of 'themes' that are shared almost universily.

[Athaniar]

Spiders, mostly. They're just so creepy...

[Killer Angel]

Loved ones dieing. My (hypothetical) children and wife mostly, the rest of my family I'm not too worried about.

(Look at Felixaar listed gender).
The Gender Bender Week, isn't ended the last sunday? :smallsmile:

[Anuan]

A lot of people keep their Gender Bender stuff on for a lot longer than others :smalltongue:

[Dallas-Dakota]

What ever do you mean, Annie?:smallamused:

[Scorpina]

Pregnancy, and more generally any lifeform growning inside another lifeform. It squicks me out in a big way.

[Coplantor]

sheesh, I fear beign observed, or when I'm in a room full of people I fear that maybe, just maybe, someone there might be reading my mind. I hate it when people look though my stuff, it sort of scares me when someone opens my notebook or drawingbooks, I dont really know why.
I also fear death, no, fear is not the word, it terrifies me! Beign lost in time, forgoten, tossed into oblivion. I love thinking, I love to imagine things, so death, beign the end of it all, is probably what frightens me the most and why I'm sort of obsessed with the idea of science beign able to make people immortal.

[Deth Muncher]

I also dream about falling a lot. It's no nightmare though. I'm always very calm and actually accept my death. Then I hit the ground and notice I haven't actually broken anything.


Apparently, somebody got lucky and rolled all ones for their falling damage. And had DR20. :P

[The Dark Fiddler]

Slender Man as presented in Marble Hornets is pretty much everything I'm afraid of. The unknown, the dark, being stalked, and things looking through windows (I don't know either :smallconfused:).

[OverdrivePrime]

A really hot redheaded seductress who turns out to be a mime? I can't imagine much scarier than that.


(still occasionally has nightmares about his crazy red haired ex-fiance from 10 years ago, and was harassed by a mime when he was 3 or 4)

Yeah, not much truly scares me for real. Powerlessness, maybe. Loss of loved ones, definitely, but my own death? Not so much.

[Incompleat]

Not sure if this is the kind you are asking for, but many of my creepiest recurring nightmares as a kid were centered about people I knew - family, mostly - changing.

Not sure if "turning into monsters" is the right term here: typically, their look did not change at all - but they walked a bit differently, they did not talk to me, and sometimes their eyes (not just the pupils, their whole eyes) became orange-reddish for a moment.
Also, they smelled strange, sort of like burnt plastic and honey (I have always had a rather good sense of smell IRL, and I routinely dream odors).

Usually, they did not attack me at all unless provoked: they just stood there, talking in some language I could not understand and ignoring me.

The worst was when it happened while we were driving somewhere: the smell filled the car, I could see their eyes reflected in the mirror, and I could not get out.

[Atelm]

Deep water. While I'm adept swimmer and even enjoy swimming from time to time, often I choose not to simply because water scares the hell out of me.

This as well as drowning. But for me it is mostly alright if I have visual contact with some other person while I swim. If there's no one there or I lose the visual while I swim, I easily panic.

The reason? I nearly drowned twice when I was younger, once at the age of four and the other time when I was seven.

[Alyss]

Spiders and abandonment. My deepest fear is being abandoned amidst a swarm of spiders.

[Phaedra]

Clowns. They're planning something behind those painted on smiles.

[Coplantor]

Clowns. They're planning something behind those painted on smiles.

What about flies? the way they rub their hands... they are onto something... evil...

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Ledges
One might say heights, but those don't bother me. I'm an avid climber. It's specific heights. Helpless heights. Its heights that offer no chance of survival. Cliffs, ledges, planes, that sort of thing.

As a child my reoccurring nightmare was jumping off a diving board on the top of a skyscraper.

Now I often dream of young children walking towards the edge of a cliff, climbing out of windows or walks along roofs. I run to save them but never get there in time. Scares the HELL out of me.


Being of No Consequence
I'm not exactly a socialite, and I like periods of 'me time', but I've had dreams all my life where I can't be seen or noticed or felt. It's like I'm a ghost who can do nothing and effect nothing.

Usually its me trying to be noticed by the woman I love but she just passes through me.

Sudden Movements/Noises
This is a fear so primal it's almost not a fear. You do not jump out at me from the dark screaming. You could possibly die before my brain catches up with my body.

As a young child I went in with my parents to buy a tv and was nearby when someone in the next aisle being shown the controls of a giant sound system turned on the speakers i was standing beside. The volume was on max. My mom said I didn't cry, nor did I faint, I just fell onto my stomach and wouldn't move for hours. They almost took me to a child psychiatrist.

To this day sudden loud, white noise like static, air horns, and gunshots will turn into a fight/flight response. Other noises will to, but those are the worst. Things rushing at me trigger the 'fight'. My older cousin a couple years ago jumped me from behind a building for fun and I had grabbed him and hurled him 10 feet before my mind kicked in to who it was. The dude is more than a head taller but that stuff triggers my adrenaline like nothing else.


House Centipedes
Ok, it's hard for me to admit this but there is a creepy crawlie that sends me into spasms. I love bugs and spiders. Never so much as made me cringe. I'm a hiker, spelunker and naturalist and have crawled through tunnels of camel crickets, played with giant millipedes and caught daddy longlegs for hours. As a child I would put those huge black carpenter ants on my arms and watch it scurry up and down.

However... house centipedes creep me the HELL out and I don't know why. It is absolutely primal. I just see it and IT MUST DIE. If you knew me you'd know how completely against character this reaction is. I almost never squash anything, I just catch it and let it out. I'll squash roaches, but not out of 'EWWW' I just don't want them in my food. There is no fear. House centipedes creep me out though.

http://www.insectidentification.org/imgs/insects/house-centipede.jpg

[bosssmiley]

Centipedes
Suffocation
Damage to the eyes
Mirrors in darkened rooms

[Coplantor]

Centipedes
Suffocation
Mirrors in darkened rooms

Gosh, I forgot that one, it's just, when I was a kid I thought those were portals to an alternate dimension where horrible things beyond my feeble imagination resided. I always closed my eyes when I had to go from my room to anywhere else because of the bathroom mirror.

[deuxhero]

Death, government, loss of self.

[Zeta Kai]

I'm not telling you guys! :smalltongue:

In all seriousness, though, in the interest of fair disclosure:

Slender Man as presented in Marble Hornets is pretty much everything I'm afraid of. The unknown, the dark, being stalked, and things looking through windows (I don't know either :smallconfused:).

This. Oh, so this. Being watched. The inability to trust what's real. An unknown inscrutable force of vague malevolence. Being corrupted by some force without my knowledge. Being chased. Oh, Slender Man, I love/hate you so. You're my biggest fear/fascination since Samara fell down the well.

[Whammydill]

Large bodies of water in the darkness/night.

[deuxhero]

Oh, forgot organ legging.

[Zanaril]

People don't like not knowing something, especially when they know there's something there to know.

They especially hate it when their carefully gathered clues turn out to be pieced together in completely the wrong way, leaving them adrift.

Like when you remember five minutes before school that there's an important piece of homework you need to hand in first lesson, one which you've forgotten to do. And up until this point you thought you had everything up to date.


...Look, teachers can be scary.

[Strawberries]

I'm not afraid of spiders, just of whatever bug can fly and has a stinger. But this is just an irrational phobia of mine.

Of course mundane fears like losing your job or getting sick, or losing a loving one aren't really what you're looking for...

So my suggestion is to go with a classic. I would probably be scared out of my mind of the irrational. Things that I can't explain with logic, that don't fit in the acceped rules of the world. And I'm not talking about something big, like a Cthulhian abomination emerging from the sea, but small, easily overlooked things, that question your perception of reality.
An example would be the beginning of "House of leaves" - the house that is bigger on the inside, but just one quarter of an inch. That would seriously freak me out...

[Symmys]

I can't think of anything specific that I'm afraid of (although the thought of eye damage does freak me out a bit).

However, once I dreamt the apocalypse.
It started off as a normal (i.e. really weird in retrospect) dream. However, at some point I found myself in the bathroom. I look out the window. The sky is red. Not blood-red, but that orangey-pink red you get at sunset. The clouds are flying by like they're in a time-lapse video clip. I know that it's the end of the world. I just do. I remember actually getting on my knees and praying. I've never had any other dream where religion came up at all. So there I am, praying for salvation, and then... the world ends. No sudden bright light. No flesh-melting explosion. Just a sudden stop as I wake up. It takes a moment for me to register that I'm still alive.

I have never been so terrified in my life as I was in that dream.

Also, I'm scared of eternity. I find the idea of living forever as scary as the idea of dying and there being no afterlife.

[Drakevarg]

Centipedes.
Having my back to anything.
Nonexistance. Death, I can handle. The possiblity of there being nothing after that is what terrifies me.
Anything being moved in an empty room.
Darkened doorways.
Sheer cliffs. Heights don't bother me so much as the idea of having the ground being really far way STRAIGHT DOWN.
Anything from the Abyssal layer of the ocean.
When its late and everyone has supposedly gone to bed (I'm naturally nocturnal, so I'm usually the last one awake), any noises whatsoever.


The big ones are bolded.

[Makensha]

Perhaps this nightmare contains one of my greatest fears considering how long ago it was and that I still remember it.

The Joker. No really, the Joker. Not the new "Ya know how I got these scars" Joker. I mean the old one. And he's everywhere. No matter where I ran, he was always one step ahead. And not only that, but he was everyone. The janitor, the secretary, the waiter, etc. all end up being the Joker. Except my cousin, who enters towards the end of the dream. She talks to the Joker at a diner and becomes terrified (in the dream I was too far away to hear what he said). Her face becomes quite literally becomes white. And then! I wake up.

So possible fears could be isolation, being chased by crazy people, everyone being against me, clowns (doubt it), being powerless to stop others from having pain inflicted upon them, unnatural abilities, and turning my head only to find myself in a different room in the blink of an eye with a janitor mopping the floor. The janitor (who's head has been hidden up to this point) does a slow head turn with a huge smile on his face and eyes that scream "I'm going to dissect you."

[CrimsonAngel]

Pale, faceless girls crawling out of the floor with greasy, stringy hair covered in blood.

Oh, and clowns.

[Strawberries]

Pale, faceless girls crawling out of the floor with greasy, stringy hair covered in blood.

Oh, and clowns.

Thanks, CrimsonAngel. It's 1 o'clock at night here. If I'm dreaming this, I'm going to blame you :smalltongue:.

Edit: the girls, not the clowns. Clowns don't scare me. Well, It. But just It.

[CrimsonAngel]

Remember their long gross fingernails and cadaverous fetures.

[Maximum Zersk]

Thanks, CrimsonAngel. It's 1 o'clock at night here. If I'm dreaming this, I'm going to blame you :smalltongue:.

Edit: the girls, not the clowns. Clowns don't scare me. Well, It. But just It.

What about Heath Ledger's Joker?

[Solaris]

What about Heath Ledger's Joker?

He reminded me too much of myself for there to be any fear.

I'd say zombies are my one real fear.

[PersonMan]

Several years ago I had a strange dream, involving me lying in my bed, and something was getting farther away. The distance was incredibly important, and I was filled with fear. To this day I don't understand what, how or why.

Also, death by suffocation is strangely panicking. A few years ago at my little brother's party I was dogpiled by him and a bunch of his friends and got frantic, going crazy trying to get them off of me.

Sometimes when I'm in bed I get a sudden, irrational fear of completely unavoidable death, like a plane falling into our house, a nuclear missile hitting us, etc.

[Maximum Zersk]

Personman...

"It's not irrational."

[Mando Knight]

Well, you have to remember something about this project is that fears can be terribly subjective. One man's fear is another man's ticket to a date with Rosie Palms.
Not to brag, but I've never really been scared of anything. Commitment, maybe.And in this case, another man's ticket to some real action. :smallwink:

What about Heath Ledger's Joker?
Psychotic, occasionally disturbing, but not scary.

...Let's see... fears... fears...

...Fear of being inadequate/incompetent. The fear that I'm just not good enough is basically the basis for anything I might appear afraid of. It's not whatever I'm facing that I'm afraid of, it's me not being able to get myself to face it properly.

[Maximum Zersk]

And in this case, another man's ticket to some real action. :smallwink:


Bow-chika-wow-wow.

[lord pringle]

Pain and eternal life... usually combined *shivers*

[ClockShock]

Pale, faceless girls crawling out of the floor with greasy, stringy hair covered in blood.


Just little girls in general.
Children can be scary when they want to be. :smallfrown:

[Zephykinns]

I fear falling. Not heights, but falling. Odd huh?

[LemonSkye]

Lessee...as for video games, the enemy that scared me the most was from Super Mario Bros. 3. It was the sun. Y'know, the one from World 2 that chased you across the screen? I've had recurring nightmares about that stupid sun since 2nd grade. *shudder*

A lot of my nightmares tended to have the same theme: something or someone that was supposed to be helping me or keeping me safe was actively trying to harm me instead. I used to have "House of Leaves" style nightmares all the time as a kid. There used to be spontaneously appearing (and disappearing) secret passages, rooms where the lights just wouldn't turn on (whether or not the bulbs were blown), random explosions, malicious entities in the VCR...and no matter where I was living at the time, the setting was always my grandmother's house.

Lately, I've been having recurring nightmares that have mixed this with straight-up cosmic horror. There's this entity named Butan (with links to Mengele, for some reason) that's possessing any house I live in, and no matter where I go (or how thoroughly I destroy the house), he keeps following me, using the power or phone lines to escape and go to the next house. Even if I find somewhere not connected to civilization, he's still there. I can't get away. I'm never safe.

[ClockShock]

Also, because it hasn't cropped up too often, and should be relevant.

Being alone. If not a fear in itself, people often find it easier to deal with certain fears when they're with people. If you isolate them, everything gets much scarier.
This works even better when one starts off in a group, and is suddenly isolated without explanation.

[Mando Knight]

Lessee...as for video games, the enemy that scared me the most was from Super Mario Bros. 3. It was the sun. Y'know, the one from World 2 that chased you across the screen? I've had recurring nightmares about that stupid sun since 2nd grade. *shudder*

...Did it not occur to you then to use the P-Wing from World 1 to avoid the mess? That's how I solved it in... (4th?) grade. Didn't even have GameFAQs or similar sites to rely on then, much less use them.

[LemonSkye]

...Did it not occur to you then to use the P-Wing from World 1 to avoid the mess? That's how I solved it in... (4th?) grade. Didn't even have GameFAQs or similar sites to rely on then, much less use them.

I've always been kind of a completist with video games; I try and play through every level if I can. It actually wasn't that hard of a level for me, anyway--I got through it easily enough. I just had nightmares about it later. *shrug*

[Mando Knight]

I've always been kind of a completist with video games; I try and play through every level if I can. It actually wasn't that hard of a level for me, anyway--I got through it easily enough. I just had nightmares about it later. *shrug*
The P-Wing lets you complete the level easy: just fly over the entire level since it's not one of the pesky ones where flying doesn't solve everything.

'Course, it's not one of the ones where you can find a hidden Tanuki Suit in the level so you can get the elusive yet awesome P-'nuki Suit...

[Brendan]

something being ever so slightly off. as in, going through the day and there being one little uncanny feeling that something is not real or that something is being withheld. That just freaks me out

my imagination of what a nightmare could be or what might happen if this was a horror book is the worst. seriously, I cannot turn my brain off when I see a spongebob cookie box and imagine it standing up, or even worse, changing facial expression.

[Partof1]

Invasion of privacy. I had a dream once, rather recently, that terrified me, because I came home to the doors open, and I knew someone was still there, like x-ray vision, and I could see them in the basement. And scarier still, they weren't doing anything, just sitting cross-legged, unmoving. So, the unknown is scary, too.

Being alone in otherwise unscary situations is rough, alone physically, or completely abandoned is bad.

I'm a logical person, so I don't like not understanding, or learning I've misunderstood something, and that could be applied to a scary situation, danger, but one isn't sure how it happened, or they could be unsure if it is dangerous.

Sorry if I ramble, but I hope I helped.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Large bodies of water in the darkness/night.
One of the creepier dreams of mine was this giant cesspool in this enormous basement the size of a football field. It was like a swimming pool, but so deep you couldn't see a bottom. This white, nude woman is floating facedown in it with pointed ears. I approach it, thinking she's drowned, but then she suddenly dives down.

[Zocelot]

I'm made extremely uncomfortable by large swarms of insects, although it's not exactly fear. I'm terrified of being crippled, but left alive. Depending on the severity of the crippleness, I'd rather die.

[Drakevarg]

I think the worst nightmare I ever had was from when I was like six or seven. I was walking around at my babysitter's place and there were scarecrows everwhere in the backyard. Not doing anything, just... lying there. The fact that is was autumn didn't help anything.

Nothing even happened in that dream, but for some reason it still scares the hell out of me. Inexplicable foreboding, wut wut.

[CrimsonAngel]

The dark, silence, me being at all incompitant, and loosing the people I love.

I'm deep like that. I've also had the same dream the past few days and I can only remember one part.

[Umael]

Not to brag, but I've never really been scared of anything. Commitment, maybe.

Just have to comment on this.

There is a difference between having a fear of something and just being scared.

A fear of something is having an association with an object, person, location, situation, condition, or what have you and a psychological and possibly unreasonable (and unfounded) fear.

Just being scared is part of a healthy survival instinct.

I.e., if you have never been scared, either you have never been in a situation where there was some real or perceived threat to your life or well-being, OR your survival instinct is not what I would consider healthy.

[Strawberries]

What about Heath Ledger's Joker?

Naah, I like the Joker :smallcool:

[Coplantor]

...An example would be the beginning of "House of leaves" - the house that is bigger on the inside, but just one quarter of an inch. That would seriously freak me out...

Oh, yes, I understand that, if it was a 3 feet difference then it would be amazing, I would be surprised, intrigued, but in a good sense, but a quarter of an inch seems disturbing, like if the universe is playing with me

[Brennan]

Thanks, CrimsonAngel. It's 1 o'clock at night here. If I'm dreaming this, I'm going to blame you :smalltongue:.

Edit: the girls, not the clowns. Clowns don't scare me. Well, It. But just It.

It isn't actually a clown. It is a being so terrifying that it is beyond human comprehension. Humans merely register it as being a huge spider or other arachnid creature, with a large eggsack and terrible, monstrous features. It is also a female, and has been around since the age of dinosaurs. It appears as Bob Gray, better known as Robert Gray, mostly known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, to lure people in, and/or tap into their deepest fears.

[bosssmiley]

The dark, silence, me being at all incompitant, and loosing the people I love.

Stop it! Your mastery of irony is killing me. :smalltongue:

[Jayngfet]

Myself. I'm scared that one day I'll lapse and give in to my instincts, and in general do something I'll regret. Guess it's the sort of thing that comes with being big enough to snapmost people in half like twigs if you actually put serious effort into a fight.

[Strawberries]

It isn't actually a clown. It is a being so terrifying that it is beyond human comprehension. Humans merely register it as being a huge spider or other arachnid creature, with a large eggsack and terrible, monstrous features. It is also a female, and has been around since the age of dinosaurs. It appears as Bob Gray, better known as Robert Gray, mostly known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, to lure people in, and/or tap into their deepest fears.

Yeah, that would be the reason why It is the only clown that could scare me. Also It can appear as the thing you're most afraid of. It's kind of an interesting point that it prefers to prey on children, since children's fears are easier to sum into a single image.


Oh, yes, I understand that, if it was a 3 feet difference then it would be amazing, I would be surprised, intrigued, but in a good sense, but a quarter of an inch seems disturbing, like if the universe is playing with me

That's exactly what I meant. I think I could deal with a big contradiction to the laws of reality. The scientist in me would probably be all over it trying to make it fit into my view of the world, but a thing so easily overlooked would terrify me.

[Bouregard]

Missing an appointment. Yes I have frequent nightmares about arriving late.
Don't ask me why. But I always prided myself to be punctual.

[Asta Kask]

I fear zombies and the living dead. Seriously freak me out.

Being judged. Weighed in the balance. I'm always scared I'll come out wanting.

[Starbuck_II]

I'm working on a simple game, call it an interactive book, for another forum. I want to seriously scare the players (as much as that is possible when reading a small text every day or so).

So what creeps you out? What nightmare really followed you around for a while? What gets you uncomfortable for some reason?

Thanks in advance.

Creeps me out? Something in dark I can't make out. It might be the mystery: "What is it? Could it be dangerous? Could I take it?"

The nightmare where I was a superhero, but some punks could beat me up after throwing something on me (Kryptonite?)
It scared me because I felt the bruises. I didn't just dream I was beat up..noo I had to dream the whole beat down.
It was the powerlessness that got me.

My friends being hurt and being unable to help them in one dream.

Being divorced by my dream wife... that hurt even though I don't even know her. In the dream, She came in the house to get her things I was crying apparently. I was watching a movie about events in our life we apparently taped. Like wedding stuff (it was sad about all these fake events happening but now it was over). The dream version of me must have really loved her.
It stayed in my minds for about a year. I still worry will this happen when I am married.

Originally I was afraid of spiders: I had this dream with this 2 foot wide spider in a 10 foot big web. But eventually I researched spiders in school and learned that for most part they aren't that bad at age 16.
However, Spider webs I hate having them on me: I got rid of my spider fears at but I still hate webs. Just icky.