Where Nightmares Fear To Tread AKA An Overprotective Monster Quest
is a story run by Moronis on the Sufficient Velocity forums. Began in November of 2016, it stars a boogieman named Dule in a world full of supernatural strangeness ranging from mages to vampires to eldritch horrors to forgotten gods and stranger things still. Dule takes up the task of protecting its creator and the child it was originally meant to scare, Ela, as things in the town seem to conspire to hurt her. Along the way, the newborn creature of belief discovers all the magical and mundane oddities surrounding the town, and begins plunging further into the deep end of a world run on belief, magic, and fear.
Billed in part as a horror story, the story and its setting are somewhat reliant on attempting to loosely describe otherwise indescribable things. Examples would include the description of an eldritch abomination that appears in the setting, which is roughly described as 'what happens if you shove an infinite number of birds through a kaleidoscope.' The story's humor, similarly, comes from much the same place, making use of the absurdities of the setting, its cast, and their interactions to try and ultimately portray inhuman creatures mimicking human behavior for their own means and purposes.
The story also attempts to explore, to varying degrees of success, the meanings and ideas of fear and what it means to an individual person as well as a society, how belief can change the very nature of a thing, what it truly means for a thing to be evil, and other topics of a similar nature. Dule's relationship with much of the cast and their own introspection into their purpose as a boogieman brings up much of this, as does observations of others within the setting.
As of October 18, 2019, it is sitting at 203 updates, so pack snacks if you plan to binge read it.
Was Cut Short as of August 23, 2020.
This story provides examples of:
- Abstract Apotheosis: The Horrors, Boogiemen that have grown too large on fear and belief to remain Boogiemen any longer, are said to have done this. Given that they are confirmed to be in a constant state of starvation and pain, to the point that many of them are no longer truly self-aware entities, this is a Bad Thing.
- Affectionate Nickname: Dule has one from the Nannies as 'The Wallflower.' Ela just calls them Dule or Boogie.
- Ancient Evil: Amongst others in setting, The Primal Fear is confirmed to be one of these.
- Always on Duty: The Mages represent this trope, being an organization of individuals that are spread too thin trying to keep all the supernatural craziness in the world from swallowing it whole.
- Ascended Demon: Actual demons aside, the Nannies can count, since they're boogeymen who eventually grew beyond their purpose as mere fear-mongers, and embraced the other side of their role to teach children how to be brave.
- Badass Boast: Jeremiah Crowley has a great one to give of his credentials.My great-grandmother was a woman so vile that in death she became a demon, her soul's twisted shape finally able to take the true physical form it deserved. I slew her. I shattered a twisted perversion of the World Tree and put an ancient lich to rest as part of my first week in service to the Old Man In The Mansion. I've even helped kill gods who didn't know their place in this and other worlds. So what made you think you would be any different from those I've slaughtered? Prophet... I am the Devourer Of Gods And Demons. And you? You aren't even worth this speech I'm giving. Now burn.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Although each of the main monsters has their own major Big Bad to face, the fact that they're all located in the same town and Dule can't help but stick their nose (figuratively) into everyone's business causes this trope to become applicable.
- Dule's Big Bad is the Primal Fear, the First Boogeyman.
- Alex and Gunnolf's Big Bad is the Prophet, head of the Flesh-Takers and an insane Serial Killer with a taste for the supernatural.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Abound amongst the many Eldritch Abominations in this story.
- The Locksmith, the Songsmith's fellow entity, is a very curious sort and loves to take things apart to find out how they work. Whether or not its subjects can live through the taking-apart is of no concern to it.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Belief is a powerful thing for boogeymen. It creates them, strengthens them, helps them grow... and in the tragic case of most Horrors, can warp them into something monstrous.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Dule often engages in this, contemplating the hows, whys, whens, wheres and whats of boogeymen and their origins. It actually has a purpose; coming to conclusions/realizations/epiphanies on certain topics make Dule stronger and smarter.
- Cool Teacher: Alexander Card and his teaching assistant Gunnolf Ignolfson are well-regarded, if eccentric teachers at the local middle school, who the kids like and respect. Crosses over with Badass Teacher since they're a vampire and werewolf respectively.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Played with. While Dule's somewhat goofy and does some odd things from time to time, that doesn't really detract from the times they've viciously and brutally put down things that were threats to Ela or her friends.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Dule's first encounter with the Prophet goes... poorly. The guy's a Big Bad in this story for a reason.
- Then it's flipped when the Prophet picks a fight with the mage Jeremiah Crowley, also known as the Devourer of Gods and Demons.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A major theme of the story and its setting. Things that are dark or frightening aren't bad so much as they are simply fulfilling a purpose that is necessary.
- Do Not Go Gentle: Both the Nightmare and the Dread are damaged by Dule enough that destruction is certain on the subsequent turn, and both times, they decide to go down in a final charge against the titular boogieman.
- Eldritch Abomination: Alongside the actual eldritch abominations that exist in setting there also exist Angels and Demons, each of which has a unique appearance that is decidedly odd. On top of that, there's the Horrors, the Primal Fear, the Gods, the Fae, and still more.
- Epic Fail: The first time Dule tried to scare a particular child in Ela's school, she turned around and punched them in the face. Then again, she is a descendant of the God of Bravery.
- Female Monster Surprise: All There in the Manual (or Sidestory) - the Wendigo was once a woman named Fawn, the older sister of Levi, the boy she decided was Not-Food. She was in a plane crash, consumed human flesh to try and survive, and ended up turning into a wendigo.
- Fight Off the Kryptonite:
- Through understanding of himself and identifying the source of weakness within his body, Dule is able to excise it and become immune to a boogieman's usual weakness of direct sunlight.
- According to his character stats, Gunnolf the werewolf is unaffected by silver due to making peace with his inner wolf.
- Flipping the Bird: A poltergeist that haunts the family's neighbours for a time loves to do this.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Alexander Card. His buddy Gunnolf counts as a Friendly Neighborhood Werewolf.
- Fur Against Fang: Defied by
Word of God, who states that vampires and werewolves would have a more symbiotic relationship. - Geodesic Cast: A cast made out of several monsters, each protecting a young kid from a Big Bad out there.
- Hero of Another Story: While Dule the boogeyman is the main character, the other six monsters that could've been the main characters are all present in town and have their own problems to face, children to guard and enemies to overcome.
- Alex the vampire and Gunnolf the werewolf share the same storyline, trying to protect their young charges from a cabal of Flesh-Takers.
- Elijah the angel, having been freed from his prison, is trying to protect a Marked Child that is his conduit back to the heavens, hunting down demons, and grappling with his true purpose from the Divine.
- The Beast is a wendigo that has taken a particular interest in a boy who it has decided is not food, protecting him from other wendigos.
- The Songsmith is an extradimensional being that has found itself trapped in the head of a child that was about to become a sacrifice for a cult.
- The Grey is an alien that had crash-landed on earth and is trying to find a way to repair his ship and get his navigation maps out of the head of a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dule doesn't interact with him at all, and he eventually finishes his quest completely behind the scenes.
- Great Gazoo: The Wandering God.
- Henshin Hero: Ela and her friends are major fans of a show that exercises a variant of this in universe.
- Horrifying the Horror: Happens a lot, since the main characters of this story, all monsters in their own right, are not immune to being surprised or scared by the foes they face. Of course, that doesn't exclude them dealing this to their own foes.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: The Primal Fear. Locked into their purpose as a fear to be loathed by humanity, they wish to end their suffering, but cannot as they are immortal. Their only hope is Dule figuring out how to do it for them.
- Living Shadow: Dule's regular form. He can also become corporeal and shapeshift his body to interact or fight with foes - most often into a hangman's noose.
- Loophole Abuse: Jeremiah Crowley the mage may be powerful enough to handle most problems, but he's on vacation and his patron would be upset with him if he actively went looking for trouble. But then again, he can't be blamed if he's "suggested" by others to vacation in a certain part of town and "accidentally" runs into a Serial Killer causing trouble?
- Meaningful Name: If Alexander's middle name starts with a U, one would only need a look at his name written as Al U. Card and instantly know what he is.
- Monster Mash: Absolutely. The seven main monsters of the story are a vampire, a werewolf, a boogeyman, an extradimensional abomination, a Wendigo, an angel, and a grey alien.
- Mr. Exposition:
- A Fae Muse that has taken a liking to Ela's brother often shows Dule images of other important characters around town, including their main adversary, the Primal Fear.
- The Wandering God is often the one explaining the mythology of this world to Dule, usually from a book called the Old Tales that Dule found lying around.
- Mugging the Monster: During Dule's long-running battle against the Nightmare, it finds out that assaulting Dule's Shadow Home while the Wandering God is crashing there is a very bad idea.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Downplayed with Dule themselves. Their name doesn't sound that bad at first glance, until you look it up and find that "dule" is another name for a hangman's tree. And guess what's one of Dule's favourite ways of dealing with threats?
- Noodle Incident: Gunnolf apparently once used a demonically-enchanted flamethrower obtained from one of Alex's associates to cook barbeque.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: Wherever the town the story is set in is, it's playing host to a Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire and his werewolf buddy, a visionary boogeyman, an influx of demons and an angel to smite them, organ-stealers, demonic cultists, and an Eldritch Abomination or three. Later investigation reveals that whatever draws the weirdness here, it was here long before the town.
- Oddly Small Organization: Any group of Mages is this, though it's justified given how relatively few people are born to magic and survive having it.
- One Degree of Separation: Ela, Dule's protectorate, and her brother Amancio were once friends with a brother and sister named Levi and Fawn. Fawn survived a plane crash, died despite eating human flesh to try and survive, and was reborn as a Wendigo.
- Organ Theft: The schtick of the Flesh-takers, crossing over with Appendage Assimilation. Their bodies are a mismatch of parts attached Frankenstein-style, constantly looking for new bodies to make themselves stronger. Especially if they belong to special beings like mages or demigods.
- Predator Turned Protector: Alex is a bloodsucking vampire. Gunnolf is a carnivorous werewolf. The Beast is a humanitarian wendigo. Dule is a fear-devouring boogeyman. All of them have reasons to shelter an child and protect them from danger, even when they would normally be devouring them instead.
- Personal Raincloud: The Drowning Horror technically has one of these, as it uses the rain to shield it from the sun which, as a former boogieman, it finds extremely painful.
- Red Herring: Dule is concerned when Ela's mother shows up with blood on her hand and being vague about where it came from, but upon investigating, they find out that she injured herself making a sculpture birthday present for her daughter.
- Stealth Pun: The mages that come into town to investigate all the strange goings-on set up their base in a pocket dimension that links the many hedges around town. So, they're "hedge wizards" setting up shop in a "hedge maze".
- Summon Bigger Fish: Dule seems to like this tactic.
- When Dule discovers that a Horror of drought named the Hellish Light is hiding under the school and about to wake up, he gets the idea to lure another Horror there to cancel both out - specifically, the previously-encountered Drowning Horror of water. It works; a Horror of drought contacting a Horror of flooding are so anathema to each other that they end up driving each other away from town.
- Have a wild Nightmare rampaging around the dreamscape? Have it gain the ire of the Sandman, a larger and deadlier entity walking through the desert of dreams.
- Accidentally run into the Prophet who can easily cut his incorporeal form with enchanted blades? Get a high-tier mage on vacation in town to "happen" to vacation right where he happens to be.
- Have a Dread out for blood? Make sure it runs within range of the First Mage and the Sandman.
- The Dark Times: The Time of Shadows, a period after World War I that caused boogiemen worldwide to go from scaring people to actively harming them. According to the Wandering God, what happened was that the Primal Fear woke up for two days, and in that time, talked to many boogiemen and caused many of them to turn into Horrors or worse from the revelations he told them.
- The Ghost: The Grey is the one main monster that Dule never meets or contacts throughout the story, only hearing bits and pieces of his tale here and there.
- The Power of Friendship: Dule's curiosity to make friends with other contacts like the mages, Alex, Gunnolf and Elijah allow them to pool resources and handle problems much more efficiently. The mages get more info from Dule's curiosity, Alex and Gunnolf get to have their Flesh-Taker problem curtailed significantly, Elijah gets assistance hunting down the demons around town, and Dule gets allies in his fight against the Dread.
- The Sacred Darkness: The full name that the boogeyman takes for themselves is "Dule, the Sheltering Dark".
- Those Two Guys:
- Alex and Gunnolf have this dynamic.
- Steve and Frank, the first two mages that Dule meets and his most frequent contacts in the organization.
- Tragic Keepsake: The Beast is particularly protective of a teddy bear carrying a heart. It was a present that Fawn was carrying for her little brother Levi during her fateful plane crash, where her attempts to survive by eating dead human flesh eventually turned her into a wendigo.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Ela is a huge wrestling fan, and her enthusiasm bleeds over into the Nanny and Dule. Fitting, since her father is a professional wrestler, "the Sultan of Suplexes".
- You Can Talk?: Ela's Nanny's reaction when Dule speaks for the first time, after following Ela to school and learning how to talk.
- You're Insane!: The Crone's reaction when Dule outlines a plan to drive away an awakening Horror with another Horror.
