[GUIDE] Human Fear, the Human World, and YOU!

[TiH Helpful Guide]

Human Fear, the Human World, and YOU!

The Human World goes by many names: The Crossroads, The Fleshy Lands, The World of Twelve, The Buffet. It is visited for one purpose and one purpose alone: to harvest precious human FEAR. The FEAR of the human masses is what Halloween itself is made of, and that FEAR continues to create new lands and creatures within Halloween.

Without FEAR, the entire World of Halloween could not exist - thus, creating and harvesting new FEAR from the Human World is considered a duty for all those who dwell within Halloween.



Table of Contents:
Post One: Tasty, Tasty Human Fear
Post Two: The Human World
Post Three: The Human World & You: Knowledge and Memory  

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Tasty, Tasty Human Fear!

Humans: Delicious Cattle

Humans generate FEAR - because of this, keeping them alive is very important! A dead human cannot produce FEAR, after all. So, despite how scary and toothsome and able to kill you many Halloween creatures may appear, killing humans is hugely frowned upon. Scaring humans is more about the threat of bodily harm (or death, or disease, or whatever) than actually going through with said threat.

Human-killing is very, very strictly regulated. One must undergo an intense training program, pass, and then successfully acquire the license that allows for human killing - and the only time one can start this process is as an experienced third year student. Those who kill humans without a license (or who go overboard with a license) will be severely punished, up to and including banishment from Halloween Town... if the authorities find out about it...


The Power of Human Fear

Human FEAR is an extremely potent thing! As mentioned before, it's what everything in Halloween Town is made of, from students to plants to animals - even the ground, water, and air is made from FEAR. Those who are particularly feared by humans are often well-respected within Halloween Town. The reverse is also true: those who can't command a great deal of FEAR tend not to have much power, respect, or influence in Halloween. And if you aren't feared at all... well, you may just cease to exist entirely!

Human FEAR can cause new creatures to come into existence within Halloween. For example, if a particularly scary movie starring slime demons comes out in the Human World, that new wave of FEAR may create new slime demons within Halloween Town itself! It may also grant additional power to existing slime demons. Similarly, human FEAR can also cause new places to appear in Halloween Town.


Harvesting Fear

While sometimes fortunate chance - a scary game, novel, movie, etc. coming out in the Human World, or a scary event happening - may direct FEAR to a particular species or faction within Halloween, depending on such things is rather foolish. The best and most reliable form of FEAR is the kind you harvest yourself... by going to the Human World and scaring the pants off of some poor b*****d.

So delicious.  

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The Human World

A Mysterious Place

Even though the creatures of Halloween are dependent on humanity for their survival, they don't actually know too much about human day-to-day existence! Any knowledge they have tends to be visceral and instinctive: head for dark places, be creepy, and scare. Outside of this, general knowledge of human culture is relatively scattered. (Think of the Wizarding World in the Harry Potter books: wizards only awkwardly understand Muggle culture, and even have special Muggle Studies classes. Halloween Town creatures are the same way towards humans.)

Naturally, there are a few special beings in Halloween Town (not students!) who know a great deal, either through personal experience/research or by collecting that information from others. Students at Amityville Academy may take Human Studies courses... of course, it's anyone's guess as to how truly accurate the information presented there actually is.

There two things about the Human World that are well-known and taught to all aspiring students when appropriate: the first is that the Human World is naturally resistant to FEAR. If you don't possess enough FEAR to start with, you will not be able to affect anything in the Human World - you won't be able to touch objects, and humans will not even be able to see or hear you! Beings with very little FEAR, such as minipets, may not be able to survive in the Human World at all. For their own safety, children and lower-level students are not permitted to enter the Human World.

The second thing is that the Human World has a strange version of day that involves a massive light billions of times brighter than Halloween's own pumpkin sun. This hideous orb is called the 'sun', no pumpkins involved, and its light can be inimical to some Halloween species, burning them on contact. The light of the 'sun' also appears to empower humans and make them less vulnerable to scaring.

While Halloween Town creatures can go out during the Human World day, they do so at their own risk. Scaring during the day is so much more difficult that very few creatures actually try it - however, those who can pull off quality Day Scares are considered Master Scaresters!


Travel to the Human World

There are many doors to the Human World in Halloween Town, and each door gives the user a choice of many delightful locations. Haunted houses, shadowy closets, eerie caves, spooky woods, hospitals - any place that often gives humans the creeps is capable of creating a doorway back to Halloween. Where a creature prefers to haunt/hunt/harvest depends on their species: ghosts may have special haunting grounds passed on like family heirlooms, while monsters have a special talent for lurking under beds and in closets.

These doors are all guarded and regulated by the Boogeymen, Halloween Town's police force. The Human World cannot be entered without going through one of these doors, and to do so you must have a passport. Passports are required both to enter the Human World and to get back to Halloween!

Losing your passport in the Human World is a very bad idea. Without a passport, you can't get back into Halloween Town, leaving you stuck in the Human World until someone notices you're missing! This may take a really long time - indeed, some of the truly long-lasting haunts and monsters seen over the years in the Human World are a result of creatures being irresponsible with their passport.

Student movement between worlds is monitored very closely, so it's rare for them to have to wait more than a day or two for a rescue. Nose Goblins are not allowed into the Human World except on carefully supervised field trips.  

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The Human World & You: Knowledge and Memory

You've Never Been There... Alive!

Since the Human World is so closely watched and restrictured, your student should not have visited the Human World prior to enrollment at the Academy. They will have heard about the human world mainly though stories, books, and the occasional bit of smuggled goods - possibly from their parents, but nothing detailed! If you have any questions, ask the GMs in the Ideas, Questions, & Suggestions thread.

If your character is a ghost or undead that used to be human...


Memory for Ghosts & Undead

If a ghost or undead is created from the death of a human (and there are other ways for them to come into being - see Life & Death in Halloween for more information), they still can't remember the Human World! At the moment of death, ghosts and undead lose their memories of their former lives. They cannot recall what the Human World was like, any exact moments in their past history, or the names or faces of people they once knew. They are a blank slate, equipped only with the knowledge of the basics and what their name is.

In a way, newly-dead ghosts and undead have a sort of "detached" memory if you will. They know what things are and how to use them providing they have had experience with them in their past life (ie, a former chef would still know how to cook). They would even have strong feelings attached to the knowledge, however they do NOT know the specifics. For example, a ghost who was a former chef would know that someone was a fan of their pancakes, but they would NOT know if it was a former lover, child, family member, or tough-to-sell food critic. They would just know that someone enjoyed them to the point that they'd always smile, for example.

However, when it comes to emotions, newly-dead ghosts and undead can only remember STRONG emotions. A chef-ghost for example would not remember working in a restaurant. If, however, the restaurant was their own the thought of working in and managing their own might fill them with a warm, fuzzy nostalgia. A chef-ghost who worked in a cafeteria on the other hand might recoil in horror at the thought of being asked to cook for a large number of guests if their experience in working in a school cafeteria was horrifying enough with the screechy little buggers.

Of course, if ghosts or undead are born in Halloween, then they suffer no memory loss. They merely grow up just like any other kid born and raised in Halloween.