You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Harry Potter gave me the strength to overcome my fear of escalators.
Specifically, I got impatient waiting for the elevator at a midnight release event for Order of the Phoenix and just started using the escalator at the bookstore.
so besides dogs, and at different points but before entering my teens:
Maleficent Chernabog heights large spiders mascot costumes and similar fire bees going to sleep, because of the nightmares maybugs kids at school covert sexual innuendo in children's entertainment (i'm not joking) cows masks loud noises being lost and alone stinging nettles clumps of ferns, because bad things could hide in them bad luck injury, even minor injury lightning somehow pooping my intestines out into the toilet ghosts and vampires the patriarchy sunburn dark rooms, and especially mirrors in dark rooms aliens rules being ignored, disobedience to authority in general spontaneous human combustion the concept of horror movies (imagined to be much scarier than they actually turned out to be) adults who were angry
i was a wuss is what i'm saying
kinda surprised not to be the only one who was scared of mirrors
with hindsight it's odd that i was never particularly scared of demons, but i guess i figured they couldn't hurt you so long as you weren't a bad person . . . God was much scarier, albeit not when i was very young
the concept of horror movies (imagined to be much scarier than they actually turned out to be)
Nah man, that's common.
Like, as a kid you know that some things that aren't horror movies are scary, and also you don't know what the limits are, so you create vague ideas in your mind that are scarier than the thing itself.
i think it was the idea that 'these movies scare adults' and keeping in mind that i was scared of Disney movies which i knew adults didn't find scary at all, which made me imagine that films that were *supposed* to be scary must involve some kind of unspeakable mentally-scarring horror
also i think a bunch of my fears were common (spiders is pretty normal, i think? and heights must be) and a bunch were probably not so common, like the fern thing; i just vomited up a whole list in the order that i remembered them
Pinocchio (that bit where they turn the children into slave donkeys)
Spiders
The dark (still not fond of it, to be honest)
Also, Tachyon, wrt fear of mascots - there is a girl in the trombone section here who is terrified of them :( It made basketball band stressful for her since the mascot tended to come over and chill with the band frequently and mess with us. She knows who is in the costume, too, but it doesn't help. Prolonged mascot exposure would have her break down in tears. :/
dogs, yeah the dark loud noises fire (still afraid of) heights (still afraid of) blood the dark most movies, not just horror ones heavy metal music (obviously got over this one) water/drowning the dark large/loud machinery (still really don't like) balloons the dark
i did get over the mascot thing pretty early, but i can still remember the nightmares
i can't really imagine being scared of them now, but i think it's like masks - even if you know it's a person underneath, they still don't look human, and they're bigger than a person
i dunno, sorry about trombone girl, erio, that's really unfortunate
Comments
and like, a ton of other things
but dogs were a big one
Specifically, I got impatient waiting for the elevator at a midnight release event for Order of the Phoenix and just started using the escalator at the bookstore.
Maleficent
Chernabog
heights
large spiders
mascot costumes and similar
fire
bees
going to sleep, because of the nightmares
maybugs
kids at school
covert sexual innuendo in children's entertainment (i'm not joking)
cows
masks
loud noises
being lost and alone
stinging nettles
clumps of ferns, because bad things could hide in them
bad luck
injury, even minor injury
lightning
somehow pooping my intestines out into the toilet
ghosts and vampires
the patriarchy
sunburn
dark rooms, and especially mirrors in dark rooms
aliens
rules being ignored, disobedience to authority in general
spontaneous human combustion
the concept of horror movies (imagined to be much scarier than they actually turned out to be)
adults who were angry
i was a wuss is what i'm saying
kinda surprised not to be the only one who was scared of mirrors
with hindsight it's odd that i was never particularly scared of demons, but i guess i figured they couldn't hurt you so long as you weren't a bad person . . . God was much scarier, albeit not when i was very young
and being seen naked by a non-relative
I don't blame you. For such a being to exist, so immense and so terrifying that even the moon is but sustenance for its needs...
i think it was the idea that 'these movies scare adults' and keeping in mind that i was scared of Disney movies which i knew adults didn't find scary at all, which made me imagine that films that were *supposed* to be scary must involve some kind of unspeakable mentally-scarring horror
also i think a bunch of my fears were common (spiders is pretty normal, i think? and heights must be) and a bunch were probably not so common, like the fern thing; i just vomited up a whole list in the order that i remembered them
the dark
loud noises
fire (still afraid of)
heights (still afraid of)
blood
the dark
most movies, not just horror ones
heavy metal music (obviously got over this one)
water/drowning
the dark
large/loud machinery (still really don't like)
balloons
the dark
:(
horses were even worse, but i didn't have to go near them so often
i can't really imagine being scared of them now, but i think it's like masks - even if you know it's a person underneath, they still don't look human, and they're bigger than a person
i dunno, sorry about trombone girl, erio, that's really unfortunate