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Arnold wrote about the unspeakable here http://goblinpunch.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/outsiders-memes-prions-and-dreadful.htmland it reminded me to post about an idea I gave Patrick when he was writing some monsters for James Raggi that he didn't use. (Patrick didn't use the idea, Raggi is going to use the Monsters I'm pretty sure)
Okay so children's games are weird on how long their history can be , and how unclear it is how much they are being passed on and how often they are being independently discovered and how surpsing it is to discover someone from a different country uses the exact same name for bullrush or tag or go home stay home or even when they have the game but with a completely different name
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Someone mentions whip crack in the comment, a game believed to be invented by the comment's author childhood peers and someone else links a Winslow Homer Painting depicting the same game
(Shut Up and Sit Down has some great stuff but possibly have bought the troll line about Zak being the devil? Not sure if they have done subsequent research . Also can't seem to tell the difference between "monolithic representation of women as sexy sex people is bad" and "women as sexy sex people is bad" )
Anyway my point is kids games, folklore and songs can continue for very long time without anyone really thinking about them or writing them down , or knowing what the hell they are about when they hear them (until someone is like Oh Ring a Ring Rosey is about the Plague or Humpty Dumpty is about a Cannon or a king or something with various levels of evidence and plausibility)
So if you wanted to warn future generations about a extra-real threat and part of this threat was thinking too hard about it or creating information about allowed it more access to the world or some other side effect , having it be in kid's lore is perfect.
It gets passed on without being written down, when kids stop being kids they forget about it, and when they are kids their understanding of fantasy and reality is different to that of adult which might be a safer way to engage with the information.
However:
>it would have to be vague enough to not trigger the effect
>it would still have to recognisable as giving relevant advice if the entity ever shows up
>Some dickhead academic if they started seriously studying it would put themselves and anyone
reading their notes and then anyone who has read the notes who hears the rhyme at risk
>it would have to be "catchy" to kids. Who knows what kids are going to like? Vital information might have to left out or mutate out by itself
>it could exist as a game, song, folklore, or a combination of all 3 , for example trying to walk along a path without stepping on a crack "step on a crack break your mother's back"
NURSERY RHYMES AND THE HORRORS THEY FORETELL:
(feel free to add some of your own in the comments or on the g+ post where I tell everyone that I blogged )
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain
and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again
It's a crack in space that looks like a tiny spider but when you look at it appears to be too small to see but you can see it anyway and then it fills your entire focus field and destroys you.
It will enter this world through pipes and holes build by people and whose purpose has been lost.
Rapid temperature and humidity changes destabilize it .
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle, twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
When the blazing sun is gone
When he nothing shines upon
Then you show your little light
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
If a new star appears in the sky don't look at it , especially don't think about it , it will swallow everything else in the sky
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again
The rulers of this world are tireless slaves to rotten barrier lords , whose function it is to separate reality from fantasy. They wear out and fall , and sometimes try and maintain themselves through manipulating this world to create social structures that they can use as metaphysical ladders to climb back out of this world. They are the seeds of their own destruction as organisation creates as much chaos and discord as it seeks to eliminate
Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down
The first warning is weird circular scab formation
the second is entering small spaces causes bruising
then everything will burn
leave. Do not return.
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,
The reason why - I cannot tell;
But this I know, and know full well,
I do not like thee, Doctor Fell
That guy you don't like who keeps doing weird things to bodies is a extra-real horror and will try and blank all appropriate emotional responses to the horrible things he keeps doing in front of everyone with his powers.
So you should not try and justify or explain yourself but just burn him alive or throw him off something high
If wishes were horses
Beggars would ride:
If turnips were bayonets:
I would wear one by my side:
When facing a phantasmist , the less plausible the weapon , the more dangerous it is to the phantasmist.
One for sorrow,
Two for joy,
Three for a girl,
Four for a boy,
Five for silver,
Six for gold,
Seven for a secret,
Never to be told.
Eight for a wish,
Nine for a kiss,
Ten for a bird,
You must not miss
You must not miss
It will take many forms. Some of them physical, some of them abstract. When it is a bird you can end it. You will have one chance.
Do not miss.
