An idea I had

[CountVanBadger]

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a couple years now, and for some reason I haven't been able to get it to shut up for the past few weeks. I'm not going to do anything with it (yet) since I've got so much else going on, but I want to talk about it a little. Maybe that'll help me get it out of my skull for a while, and it might lead to some fun discussions.

It takes place in our world, where the barrier between reality and the dream realm has been eroded, making it easy for ideas to slip into our world and take physical form. Basically, we're facing an apocalypse of tulpas.

You know how you can have the most terrifying nightmare ever, but when you wake up you think "Wait, that wasn't scary at all"? Tulpas can do that. They feed on our fear, and since they're literally nightmares given physical form, they can force us to feel fear. There are only two ways to beat them. One is to be really, really good at controlling your emotions. The other...(dramatic trailer music)...is to be Nathan Haggard.

Nathan is the only successful result of a experiment to make soldiers who can fight tulpas. He had his amygdala removed, completely eliminating his ability to feel fear. And without fear, he's able to go toe to toe with toelpas...I mean tulpas.

The downside to this is that he's almost completely unable to function in normal society. Being unable to feel fear, he lacks any sense of caution or self-preservation, and possesses virtually no filter. Basically, if he's allowed to run around by himself, he'll either end up killing himself or he'll piss someone off and they'll do it for him.

So he's assigned a nurse. The story would be told from the nurse's POV, sort of a Watson-to-Sherlock kind of setup. Nobody outside of Nathan's organization knows about his job hunting tulpas, so his nurses usually end up either dying, quitting, or being driven insane. Alex is his latest nurse, a former Marine trying to get her nursing degree after being discharged. After all the time she's spent in combat, maybe she's exactly the kind of person who can keep up with Nathan.

If I ever did write this, it'd be half action/horror and half comedy. Nathan would be written similarly to Ash from the Evil Dead movies, only less cowardly, and both stupider and smarter at the same time. When he's not fighting living nightmares, Nathan is out being the least socially competent person on earth while Alex desperately runs damage control.

What do you guys think?

 

[TheKillingAlice]

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a couple years now, and for some reason I haven't been able to get it to shut up for the past few weeks. I'm not going to do anything with it (yet) since I've got so much else going on, but I want to talk about it a little. Maybe that'll help me get it out of my skull for a while, and it might lead to some fun discussions.

It takes place in our world, where the barrier between reality and the dream realm has been eroded, making it easy for ideas to slip into our world and take physical form. Basically, we're facing an apocalypse of tulpas.

You know how you can have the most terrifying nightmare ever, but when you wake up you think "Wait, that wasn't scary at all"? Tulpas can do that. They feed on our fear, and since they're literally nightmares given physical form, they can force us to feel fear. There are only two ways to beat them. One is to be really, really good at controlling your emotions. The other...(dramatic trailer music)...is to be Nathan Haggard.

Nathan is the only successful result of a experiment to make soldiers who can fight tulpas. He had his amygdala removed, completely eliminating his ability to feel fear. And without fear, he's able to go toe to toe with toelpas...I mean tulpas.

The downside to this is that he's almost completely unable to function in normal society. Being unable to feel fear, he lacks any sense of caution or self-preservation, and possesses virtually no filter. Basically, if he's allowed to run around by himself, he'll either end up killing himself or he'll piss someone off and they'll do it for him.

So he's assigned a nurse. The story would be told from the nurse's POV, sort of a Watson-to-Sherlock kind of setup. Nobody outside of Nathan's organization knows about his job hunting tulpas, so his nurses usually end up either dying, quitting, or being driven insane. Alex is his latest nurse, a former Marine trying to get her nursing degree after being discharged. After all the time she's spent in combat, maybe she's exactly the kind of person who can keep up with Nathan.

If I ever did write this, it'd be half action/horror and half comedy. Nathan would be written similarly to Ash from the Evil Dead movies, only less cowardly, and both stupider and smarter at the same time. When he's not fighting living nightmares, Nathan is out being the least socially competent person on earth while Alex desperately runs damage control.

What do you guys think?

I like the general idea of it.
But here's a few catches:
When was that experiment done to him? I do get the difference it would make, but even without fear, he has life experiences and should still understand, without any fear, what goes and what doesn't. Even general decision making, though sometimes indeed affected by our perception (and fear plays into that perception) you still know what might kill you. "Not being afraid" is not the same as "not having any common sense". Was he originally autistic?
Why would nobody know of his job, if they are in the midst of an apocalypse? And why would his nurses have to go insane? Even if she's supposed to help him, he can't be "nursed" during his fights (he won't be able to "not" be in danger and he has to be able to make fast decisions, without someone behind him, yelling what he shouldn't do) and if that was the case, you'd at least put in a male soldier with a bit more points in constitution. Why a literal nurse?

 

[CountVanBadger]

even without fear, he has life experiences and should still understand, without any fear, what goes and what doesn't.

He knows, but he forgets. It's easy to forget that walking into traffic is bad when you don't have a fear instinct to remind you, especially when you're thinking about other things.

Why would nobody know of his job, if they are in the midst of an apocalypse?

It's a Men in Black situation where people handling the problem have mostly kept it under wraps.

And why would his nurses have to go insane?

Repeated exposure to living nightmares can have that effect.

Why a literal nurse?

Because the nurse is coming from the non-tulpa hunting side of things.
"This man is a danger to himself and others! He needs to be in a rubber room somewhere!"
"I'm a shadowy government agent type guy and I'm afraid locking him up isn't an option."
"Then he at least needs a live-in nurse to take care of him!"
"Your terms are acceptable."
"Oh, hi! Are you my new nurse? Well, try to keep up if you're coming along!"

 

[TheKillingAlice]

He knows, but he forgets. It's easy to forget that walking into traffic is bad when you don't have a fear instinct to remind you, especially when you're thinking about other things.

It did come to mind, but how many years has it been? It would need to take time to completely unlearn his common sense, to the point of him needing a nurse and having had several already since then.

It's a Men in Black situation where people handling the problem have mostly kept it under wraps.

Then it wouldn't be an apocalypse yet. Wording!

Repeated exposure to living nightmares can have that effect.

Ah, sorry, that was the precursor for my following words; I did catch that, but I thought it unnecessary, because a nurse in that situation would stifle action and seem contrived.

"Your terms are acceptable."
(Twenty nurses later)
"Hmm. Maybe we need to try something else."

I get the "fun" factor of it, but he seems to fight just fine, simply for him not struggling with the induced fear. If a normal person can't actually exist close to a Tulpa, it makes no sense to throw a random nurse into this situation. She would have to step away in these cases. If normal people can be made "unaware", there must be some level of control they have, otherwise the premise doesn't track. With any level of control in place, he could send away the nurse. She has no place being there, hence why it would seem contrived.
Having a "soldier" would make no difference. If it's about training, give him a man, that would make far more sense. It doesn't even have to be a nurse, since he's not actually in need of an aid; he's in need of a babysitter. If the fear induced by the Tulpas is the issue, a former soldier is no better than a regular nurse.

 

[Zagaroth]

The biggest issue I have with the set up is that you have his social interactions sound like he lacks empathy, when all you removed was fear.

Fear is danger sensing, which can trigger either avoidance or aggression behavior, but even without emotional fear driven reaction, you can care what other people think and if other people hurt. Also, fear is not needed for rational danger analysis, and can avoid irrational fear driven decisions. For one thing, he still feels pain, and knows that he does not like it. Jail also would suck, bad food, no luxuries, etc. Therefore avoiding pain and jail would still be priorities; he'd just react slower as he has to make cost/benefit analysis instead of fear helping to guide him.

Heck, he may not be *afraid* of being run over, and thus able to calmly go about dodging traffic if he has sufficient cause, but he knows that he would not enjoy being run over, and therefore would avoid the risk with out sufficient cause.

Really, if anything, he'd be calm to a freaky/creepy degree. If he doesn't feel fear, he doesn't feel fear-generated anger, which is basically all anger. He doesn't fear loss of reputation, he doesn't fear what other people think, he doesn't fear laughter, etc., and without those things, there's no reason to care about stuff like insults, because insults do not threaten him in any way.

No fear means no FOMO, which means he is not really going to care if someone else got the special collector item or ate the last doughnut or whatever.

Fear drives most aggression. So he'd be lacking aggression in most scenarios, while also lacking emotion driven avoidance.
Call him chicken when he walks away, and he won't care.
Tell him you are going to fight him if he continues toward his goal, he'll do a cost/benefit analysis of what gets him what he wants the most, and then continue fearlessly if he believes it is the best option.

Absolutely destroys adrenaline driven metabolic boosts though. Might want a combat stim pack that includes adrenaline.

 

[TheKillingAlice]

Fear is danger sensing, which can trigger either avoidance or aggression behavior, but even without emotional fear driven reaction, you can care what other people think and if other people hurt.

I thought so, too. I wasn't sure what way he wanted to go, so I just asked if he was autistic to begin with - because of that, I mean, that wasn't meant to be a joke. But there's, like, more plot holes in there that would need to be filled.
Other than that, the idea is pretty rad in my opinion.