"Going off 'the Beholding is the fear of being observed', uh... well, Buried seems obvious, though strangely specific? Fear of being buried alive and maybe some allied concept I'm not thinking of. Lonely would be fear of being alone, of isolation? Not sure what distinguishes Hunt and Slaughter... the Dark could just be, uh, the dark... is the End the fear of death?"

"The Dark is just the dark and the End is death, yeah. The Web is being manipulated, and also spiders--no, we don't know why they go together so often, but they, uh, do. The Buried is most centrally being buried alive but also has to do with pressure, and can involve drowning or even just particularly intense social pressures. Lonely is absolutely fear of being alone, although it also tends to play up the concept of social isolation; of being functionally alone even when surrounded by other people. The Vast is--agoraphobia, fear of heights, vertigo--once, some time ago, wealthy Vast, Dark and Lonely cultists got together to do an incredibly horrible space station."

Nod nod. "- how private is this, should I not write it down even now that I am rich in notebooks -"

"No, that's fine. I guess if it's not too annoying it might be better to do it in some other language than English or Chinese, but I'd be a terrible hypocrite to tell anyone not to take notes."

"I have good enough French to notebook in it, what are these things' French names?"

She translates. « Would it then be more convenient to continue in that language? »

«Might as well.»

« The Stranger is the fear of the uncanny valley, of things that seem human but aren't quite, or of things that could be inhuman under a disguise--if there are any mals that mimic a human voice in order to lure in victims, that would fall under the Stranger's purview. Themes that the Stranger has used include clowns, taxidermy, mannequins and robots. »

Scribble scribble. Her handwriting is very small. «There are mals like that, yes.»

« The difference between the Hunt and the Slaughter can be a subtle one, but ultimately the Hunt is as much about the pursuit as the kill, and the Slaughter is about violence--if it wants to eat you, that's Hunt; if it wants to hurt you, that's Slaughter. Slaughter also comes up a lot when wars happen, and the Hunt is more centrally a fear of animals than of human beings. »

«Of animals! Huh. The animals doing the fearing, rather than this being an entity about fear inspired by animals.»

« Yes. The natures of individual fear entities are emergent properties of fear that is experienced in the world. The Flesh is the youngest one, and it's the fear of animals being factory farmed. »

«...gosh. Suddenly much gladder that I haven't eaten a dead animal in three point five years.»

« I don't think the Fears touch this world at all, if that's any consolation. »

«Yes, but if they're - sophisticated, enough, to generate might-as-well-be-gods -»

« That's absolutely an understandable reaction, and I don't know if sophistication is the thing at all, but fear is not sophisticated. It's an incredibly basic instinct. Which does not mean that you're wrong. »

«I don't have this reaction as much to the Hunt as to the Flesh. There hasn't been pressure suitable to evolve a response specifically to factory farming.»

« Factory farming is really fucking horrible and I do try to eat only free-range meat, yeah. »

«Anyway, the others?»

« The Spiral is the fear of not being able to trust yourself--your own mind, senses and judgment. Lies, hallucinations, madness, paradoxes. Fractal theming, whence the name Spiral. The Corruption is disease, vermin, uncleanliness, and parasites. The Desolation is the fear of losing what is important to you--not your life, necessarily; although Desolation cultists certainly do plenty of killing. But having to live with the aching void left behind when what you care about is gone is central to their philosophy, such as it is. The woman I used the notebook to flee was Desolation, but I wasn't really her intended victim; she was trying to get at my parents through me. »

«Do these cultists get... anything... out of being cultists?»

« Magic. Our kind of magic is fueled not by mana, but by the fear we offer our patrons. The Eye is held in low regard by many for much the same reason that I consider it the best--my own highly compatible nature aside--we're bottom feeders. Scavengers. By watching, we can recycle the terror that people already feel, often as a result of the actions of other powers. What powers people end up with depends on their patron, but only to a degree--by any reasonable definition, healing fast isn't an especially watching-themed thing, but Papa has it. A lot of us live longer lives, one way or another--I've already told you how old Dad is. People who draw power from the Vast can often fly. Jude Perry--the woman who kidnapped me--can reshape her own body like molten wax, and burn things with a touch. »

«Did you have Beholding powers or were you just partial, I'm getting an inconsistent picture there.»

« I didn't really have any definite Beholding powers but I was sort of--attached--and I always expected to do more and get stronger later; it's in most respects most accurate to model me as having been a very very weak Watcher. »

«Was opting out not realistic? Would've left you open to the others or something?»