[NR] The Boogie Man - Chapter 510

Both Jason and Rosha turn towards Courtney. She looks to the side and doesn’t say anything, but Rosha doesn’t let such obvious avoidance pass. “So”, Rosha raises an eyebrow, “Would this be why we ended up moving recently?”

Courtney shrugs, “There were certainly other more pertinent reasons at the time. Also, we aren’t the only ones to have done so. Jason created a bit of a kerfuffle. In fact,” She turns to him, “Jason, why don’t you tell us what exactly happened? A lot of people were shocked when an area was suddenly free of certain elements.”

Jason shrugs in turn, “Yeah, there is a reason certain elements in myth always seem to be hidden away in far-off places or in the dark corners. There is a saying about how ‘sunlight is the best of disinfectants’.

“In the normal swing of things, it is used to mean that transparency is important to keep stuff like businesses and governments ‘clean’. Well, in the realm of mystics and magic, it takes on another meaning. The light of a quote unquote good soul will help keep an area free of spiritual corruption.

“Good in this case, does not actually mean someone who others see as good. Rather, those who have developed a moral compass and abide by what they consider moral. This is why so many weak evil forces prey on children. While they might strive to be a ‘good child’, that has more to do with outside influences than any actual internal understanding of morality.

“Also, as I said, this has to do with someone’s own belief in what is moral. A person who most would see as a saint might not count for this because all they can focus on is how they’ve failed. All the while, a person who has committed horrible things, but has a warped sense of right and wrong might work.

“Anyway, one part of cultivation is developing a sense of self and working towards doing only what you feel is right, not what others expect of you. In fact, one way to develop an inner demon is to willingly go against those principles. Now, with that in mind, why does stuff generally viewed as evil end up off in the shadows?

“Because in a community, people will share a certain set of morals, even those who break the rules. A thief, even if stealing to feed their family, will see that as evil. So elements of the supernatural that align do not align with those moral guidelines will be pushed away.

“So those beings who draw upon those elements will follow those elements and end up in the dark corners. A good example is the fey boogie man. They feed on fear and yet most societies see causing fear as a bad thing. So it is only in dark places away from people with those beliefs that they can find their meal.

“Which of course goes hand in hand with scaring children. Each soul will have an effect that can reach quite far, but it will be disrupted within a certain range of another soul. Thus, not only are children easier to scare, the classic ‘monster under the bed’ is in the perfect position to do so.

“With the child literally right above them? The child’s soul is able to disrupt the parents’ ability to drive away such elements and also why there isn’t a monster under the bed when they come in to check. An adult’s more stable soul easily overpowers the child’s soul at that point, and the darkness within which the monster hides will be driven away.”

Courtney, “While that is interesting, why would you push away the corruption? It isn’t like I think corruption is moral or some such. At the very least, there should be someone like that besides you.”

Jason, “Do you think mushrooms are evil? Or how about eating plants?”

Courtney frowns, “No, but that is different from what these elements have been seen to do.”

Jason laughs, “While I would certainly be willing to agree with you, at some level what they’re doing isn’t evil. Just like in digesting a plant, these corruptive elements are eating other elements and turning it into more of itself. A decent analogy would be the phyto and zooplankton in the sea.

“The corruptive elements are the zooplankton, eating away at the phytoplankton to make more of itself. All the while, larger entities mostly ignore them or eat them all indiscriminately. So even if in the specific you see them as ‘evil’, your soul doesn’t care. For such basic elements of the world, it takes more than deciding you don’t like them to push them away.

“The reason such things work with the darker elements is because those are so much more complex. Just look at the boogie man example. It wasn’t fear itself that was pushed away, but rather the more complex concept of causing fear to others.

“A boogie man can’t just go out into the forest and scare a bunch of deer for a meal. While what they feed on is fear, it is the fear from those who fear is an option. To scare a deer is simply to make them think there is a potential threat. On the other hand, you can scare a human with a movie even if they are certain what is happening on screen could not happen to them.”

Rosha, “Blah, blah, blah. While interesting, all you’ve said is what you did shouldn’t have happened. Now, I didn’t know I had moved into the place this all went down, but I had heard about it. Why are you special? Why does the corruption flee the light of your soul?”

Courtney nods, “At this point, even the authorities aren’t able to pin you down as the source. They suspect since the whole damn effect is apparently centered on your apartment. However, no one has even managed to cause such a widespread effect on any of the melange of power now floating around our planet. What did you do?”