I have the night creeps.

MadassAlex

So I'm up at 5am because of hayfever making the interior of my mouth itchy, on my computer in the dark, and I catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. It's in the shape of some terrible monster -- because my imagination makes it that way. And then I can't help but develop the image in my head. White, pallid skin. Hunched back atop a muscular, white body. Red serpent eyes, and a leering, grinning mouth, with a cord-like tongue that extends out to test the air. Its body shivers and spasms with the excitement of an imminent kill.

Fuck my imagination.

Crimson

You're being haunted by a daemon.

You know what you must do.

IanExMachina

^^

Just remember your 'swordliness' and know that you'll be safe?

MadassAlex

Well, it's not an issue because I turned a big light on and am just lighting up a smoke (daemons are weak against cigarettes).

In any case, my only sword is blunt because

- I need it to be.
- I can't afford more right now.

So if I was attacked by some horrible thing, it'd be about as good as a steel club. Which gives me a fighting chance, I suppose, but I don't like the odds. x_x

captainbrass

I know the feeling, Alex. Not so long ago I walked into my own living room and got startled by a coat hanging on the back of a chair glimpsed out of the corner of my eye.

I've also had dreams that something scary was sitting on top of me in bed and woken up gasping for breath. I suppose experiences like these are how stories about ghosts and demons start out, made more colourful in each re-telling.

Shichibukai

Story of my life. Except I'm eternally watched and harassed by 8ft aliens and demon-forms instead. Scary shit. My imagination loves torturing me with something worse than Lovecraftian horror.

 

MadassAlex

I've also had dreams that something scary was sitting on top of me in bed and woken up gasping for breath.

---

This is pretty close to sleep paralysis, which I've had. Terrifying the first time around, but once I had identified it, it was actually pretty cool to observe.

What sort of exacerbates this for me is that I, of course, want strange creatures and monsters to be real. Just not while I'm in my dressing gown, my sword blunt and out of reach while I have hayfever. <_<

Icalasari

^ What if the strange creature is an elf like the ones in Santa Claus tales, and the elf has a brand new sword for you that will never dull and a cure for your hayfever? ?

MadassAlex

I'd be suspicious, but would graciously accept the sword.

I mean, why did the sword come to me? Did I earn it? If so, how? Or is it cursed, and must be accepted willingly? We all know the stories -- you never just get a magic sword. There's always a catch, somehow.

Icalasari

The catch is that it was made by elves in Santa's workshop

MadassAlex

What, no expectations? No "go save Narnia"? No "slay the beast", or "confront your greatest fear"? "Quit smoking", perchance?

Nothing?

Icalasari

...Be good for the rest of the year?

MadassAlex

Be good? With a sword that never dulls? Mein Gott!

MadassAlex

5:55 AM, sun rising.

I think the monster's gone, at least until nightfall. I shall use the day to prepare myself for the battle ahead.

Icalasari

^^ But it would only have to be until Christmas that you'd have to be good

MadassAlex

-sigh- Alriiight.

Icalasari

Hey, at least it's less than two months away

IanExMachina

So Alex would you accept an eversharp sword of your chosen style.

However you would have to be chaste to wield it.

(Say like a month of chasteness before you were able to wield it again after sex.)

Icalasari

...And now I'm imagined an enchanted ever sharp sword that is as long as a butter knife but can expand up to the size of a two hander connected to your horniness

Forzare

I've never experienced this, but I get sleep paralysis all the time, and it freaking sucks. Being paralyzed is something that freaks me out, so when it happens, I'm always afraid to go back to sleep.

So I kind of know that feel bro.

Wicked223

My mind constantly torments me with stringy-haired ghost girls banging on my window and strangling me in the shower, but I think I'd rather have that than sleep paralysis...

MadassAlex

Say like a month of chasteness before you were able to wield it again after sex.

---

Huh, that's an interesting catch. If chasteness refers to literal sex, then I'm fine -- instances of that are few and far between for me -- but if it's masturbation, that sword's never gonna see any use. xD

Gelzo

Guns are probably more practical, right?

Anyway, I haven't been scared of the dark since I was younger, but I do get a little more wary walking around certain parts of the city at night, and I know there are predators like coyotes that can end up in your backyard back where my family lives, so I'm more cautious at night there too.

But I don't think that even when I was a kid that my mind created much in the way of phantoms for me. I had a hard time understanding where the fear of monsters under beds or in closets so often mentioned in popular culture came from.

Though, more realistic but still unlikely scenarios have played out in my head. I sometimes lay in bed thinking about what I would do if someone broke in. Walking next to traffic or over a bridge, I wonder if I could survive if someone tackled me. Sometimes when I get a call from family, I mentally prepare myself for news of a death. I wonder if the day will ever come when my inhibitions and morality break down and I assault someone out of the blue on a whim.

But then, my imagination isn't especially vivid as far as I know.

MadassAlex

I'm not usually afraid of the dark. I walk around my house in near pitch black regularly, and used to take midnight strolls until I learned better. But once in a while, my imagination just gets juiced by something and then every shadow hides something terrible. <_<

Guns, being mostly illegal in this country, are much less practical than a sword through context. Although in context of gribbly monsters, I'd want a sword anyway; its physical resistance gives me something of a limited shield, too, and Gribbly might end up cutting himself trying to get me.

Forzare

I've spent so much time in the dark over the last two years that I'm practically more comfortable in it than in the light. 

You could always just keep a wood axe or something next to your bed.  Gribblies aren't generally coordinated enough to dodge a swing.

Gelzo

I dunno if you really need to invent a monster for a creature combat scenario. Would a wolf or a bear or whatever crazed by hunger be less difficult to face than what you're imagining?

I hear there's a method of hunting some kind of predatory cat that involves keeping still and carefully aiming a spear so the animal impales itself as it pounces. I wonder if you could do something like that with a sword with other animals.

^I don't think it's a good idea to give in to paranoid delusions and prepare yourself for something that can't happen. There's tons of ways to imagine a scenario that would never happen that requires you to do X to survive. You're probably better off preparing for a human intruding.

MadassAlex

^^ Pfft, I'm not night-creeped out enough to keep an actual weapon nearby, save for my sword, which is lethal enough while blunt if I swing by blade and go for a pommel or crossguard strike. And that's only there for convenience.

^ An animal is sort of a tangible thing, though. A bear would be a pretty frightening adversary, but something like a wolf? Well, two of the four basic guard positions are cover positions that would defend well against any animal pounce, and the German style promotes striking in such a way as to create a barrier between oneself and one's adversary anyway. I don't think there are many animals that could best a swordsman. Steel's better than flesh, after all, especially when it's sharp.

Schitzo

I'm in a constant fighting stance whenever I'm in the dark going from point A to B. My fear of the dark is that bad.

Forzare

Apparently you people are taking my suggestions to actually sleep with an axe by your bed as a serious one.

This is false.

MadassAlex

Oh. Yeah, shoulda known better. <_<;

Shichibukai

Apparently you people are taking my suggestions to actually sleep with an axe by your bed as a serious one.

Couldn't hurt. I have one easily accessible elsewhere... but I don't know what good it would do. These things are kinda... able to kill/disable/torture you with one fell strike. The axe would have no room to swing.