Irrational Fears is a 32-page webcomic by Ursula Vernon. The original site
it was hosted on is no more, but a mirror is available here.
It starts as her attempt at facing some of her fears (of the Things That Go "Bump" in the Night variety) by confronting them with a chupacabra-version of herself (later named Chu).
In the first story, "The Thing That Starts With "A"", she looks up an obscure monster she learned about as a child, which turns out to be an ahuizotl, and hunts it down to get answers from it.
In "Monsters Under the Bed", she ventures into the world under her bed to confront the monsters that lurk there.
Warning: Spoilers below. Read ahead at your own risk!
Contains examples of:
- Author Avatar: The author opted to draw herself as a chupacabra, as "you send a monster to beat up a monster" and she didn't feel like drawing herself five dozen times.
- Chupacabra: Chu is a modern one who is more at home petting a goat than slaughtering it, like any modern human who doesn't have to hunt for food.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: As an angel, Dusty skewers a monster "with the offhanded efficiency of someone toothpicking cocktail weenies at a wedding."
- Facepalm: Chu does this in response to Dusty admitting that he has many, many relatives also named Dusty, but named after different kinds of dust.
- Friendship Trinket: Dusty gives Chu a feather from his wing to remember him by.
- Hair-Raising Hare: The monsters under the bed turn out to be rabbit monsters. This is because they were formerly dust bunnies.
- Heavenly Blue: Dusty's angel form is sky blue.
- Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: The comic discusses the feeling of safety from monsters under the bed we get from being covered by a blanket, stating that it's a rule we're born knowing.We know, though — absolutely — that it can't get you so long as you're completely underneath the blanket. If no skin is exposed, you might asphyxiate, but you're safe.
It's a rule. You're born knowing it. - Living Dust Bunnies: The world under the bed is full of living dust bunnies, which live in fear of the monsters under the bed.
- The Needs of the Many: When Chu reaches out from under the blanket to saves a dust bunny, she acknowledges that she is potentially costing the safety of herself and several other bunnies.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The ahuizotl, a creature from Aztec Mythology.
- Picky People Eater: The ahuizotl is said to drown people and then leave their body on the shore minus the eyes, teeth, and nails. It's assumed that it eats the eyes, and only the eyes.
- Prehensile Tail: The ahuizotl has a hand on the end of its tail.
- Red Is Violent: The nightmares are red. The monsters under the bed have red eyes, as well.
- Rule 34: Mentioned during ahuizotl research.It sounded legit, but it's the 'net. If I looked long enough, I could probably find ahuizotl porn, slash fiction, and a site about ahuizotl gov't cover ups.
- Safe Under Blankets: The comic discusses our instinctual fears about monsters under the bed, and the corresponding instinctual feeling of safety under a blanket.[…] it can't get you so long as you're completely underneath the blanket. If no skin is exposed, you might asphyxiate, but you're safe.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: The author discusses how we have an instinctive fear of monsters under the bed, but know that we are safe under a blanket. Her chupacabra ventures into the world under the bed to confront the monsters there.
- Was Once a Man: The monsters under the bed turn out to be former dust bunnies that were transformed by nightmares.
- Weird Currency: Turns out ahuizotls use teeth and nails as currency, as they last underwater and aren't too common or rare.
