Check the OOC first:<a class="postlink" href="https://creativefreedomrpg.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&amp;t=53858">https://creativefreedomrpg.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&amp;t=53858</a><br/><br/>“Yes, I am filming. Geez.” Chris pointed the camera of his phone at the driver of the car. “And here you see the idiot that asks me to film outside the window as we are driving in the middle of nowhere.”<br/>“Just film outside already,” Daniel, who was driving the car, seemed more excited that irritated. “You just happen to have the most battery of us.”<br/>Some snickering noises came from the backseat. “I don’t wanna hear from you, Mr. 11% and Mr.18% from the cheaper places,” Chris jokingly said towards his friends on the backseat, Henry and Jack. “So, Mr. I-am-driving-so-someone-else-has-to-film, what is this about?” Chris did obediently point the camera outside the window by pressing his whole phone against it. “Is this fine?”<br/>Daniel glanced over and nodded. Then a smile broke his face. “Do you guys know the story of this road? They say that a beast roams around here that is impossible to film or catch. Even though there are many eyewitnesses, nobody wants to give an interview or something like that. Isn’t that pretty cool? It would be awesome if we happen to film it. And it is on our way, anyways.”<br/>“Is that why we are taking this huge detour?” Chris was fairly unimpressed. Going off the highway, to this long road, with no lights or houses or anything, in the middle of the night, was not his idea of ‘cool’. If this shitty old car of Daniel broke down now, then they would be stuck out here. There is probably no cell phone coverage here either. Why did he agree again to join these idiots on this road trip? Ah yes, it was because at the destination, his favourite author would be giving a signing session. While Daniel, Henry and Jack go drinking and partying. Despite the very different interests they were still friends with each other. Chris sighed and glanced outside the window on his side. “What kind of beast is this supposed to be anyway?”<br/><br/>“Apparently it is some kind of demonic beast. Looks like a gigantic wolf and can walk on two legs. Complete with glowing eyes and stuff,” Daniel seemed to enjoy this detour. Although that was all he knew. “It attacked some people a while ago and people keep seeing it every now and then.”<br/>“If you planned to try and find this beast then you should have brought better equipment than my phone.” Chris noted with some sarcasm. “Like night vision camera’s and stuff.” Agreeing noises came from the backseat. “Now I am just wasting my battery on filming complete darkness.”<br/>“It was more of a spontaneous decision to go this way. And it is not like we will see the beast anyway.” Daniel still seemed to hope to see it. Gladly he was concentrating on the few meters of road lit up by the headlights of his car, instead of looking around all the time.<br/><br/>Chris sighed and looked outside the window on his side again, while holding his phone as well. The radio had broken a long time ago. “Did you guys know that it is very easy to fool the human senses?” Chris broke the silence and fixated his gaze to the front.<br/>“What do you mean?” Jack asked behind him. “Like a magic trick?”<br/><br/>“Not exactly, even easier than that,” Chris started to explain. “You know that we perceive the world with our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.” He could almost hear Henry rolling his eyes at one Chris’ endless lectures about something weird again, but there was nothing else to listen to and he also did not manage to come up with a better topic. “How we perceive the world depends on what our brain makes of whatever these senses give as input. In other words, only the person themselves can do this and there is no proof whatsoever that someone else perceives the world in the same way.<br/>For example, when I look at the sky and call it blue, then that seems very logical to everyone. And when I point at something else that has the same colour as the sky and say that it is blue then nobody will object. However, is the blue that I see, the same as the blue that you see? If it were possible to switch bodies, then it may become clear that what I call ‘blue’ is a different colour for you, like ’green’. Nobody can explain what blue looks like and nobody can use another person’s senses to see the world, so this is very possible. When trying to explain a colour then most likely they will use examples like the sky. So it may be that I just learned that everything that has the colour of the sky is called ‘blue’ even though that may not be blue at all. But then again, there is no way to prove that wrong because everyone else has learned the same thing and since nobody can use another person’s senses, nobody can check if everyone really sees the sky as blue.”<br/><br/>“What’s your point?” Daniel interrupted Chris.<br/>“That you can not trust your senses completely. Or at least that you can not assume that the way that you perceive the world is the same as how anyone else perceives it. Actually, we can take this even further. Because your brain does also have an influence. Your brain processes the input that your senses give you and give you an impression of the world around you that way. Yet this does not always happen very reliable. It is influenced by quite a lot of factors. One is that your brain has a tendency to fill in any gaps.”<br/>“How does that work?” Henry asked. “That sounds like you are making stuff up.”<br/>“I can show you, just a moment,” Chris answered and passed his phone to Jack behind him. “Here you fill for a bit, I gotta get something from my bag.” Jack took the phone without a comment and held it to the window by his side like Chris had been doing before. The backside windows of this car were a lot smaller that the front side windows. Chris rummaged through his bag by his feet until he found some paper and a pen. He scribbled something on it and then handed it to the passengers in the back seat.<br/>“What do you see?”<br/><br/><div class="inline-attachment">
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</div><br/><br/>Jack and Henry stuck their heads together to look at it. “A triangle. So?” Jack was unimpressed.<br/>“Are you sure?” Chris asked. “Because I only drew some circles with a piece missing.”<br/>“This is obviously a triangle. You just added those blobs you call circles to it,” Henry laughed. “What is this supposed to show?”<br/>“Then look a bit closer, there are no lines there to make a triangle. I used a pen so it was impossible to erase anything.”<br/>The two gazed intensely at the piece of paper even using the flashlight of Henry’s phone. There were no lines for a triangle, only those pacman blobs. “You are right. What kind of trick is this?” Jack was thinking of somehow using this to impress women later on.<br/>“It is no trick,” Chris explained as he took back his phone and pushed it against his window again. “Your brain is simply under the impression that there should be a triangle there and it filled in the gaps.”<br/>“Show me, I want to see this triangle as well,” Daniel complained.<br/><br/>“No, keep your eyes on the road,” Chris refused his request before continuing. “What I am trying to say is that it is fairly easy to fool the human brain. And filling in the gaps on such a simple optical illusion is not the only way. Illusions also exist for the other senses. Although only visual and auditory illusions have been studied, since thinking up any of such illusions for the other senses is too difficult.<br/>There is also the way that a bias can influence your perception. That means, if you expect to see something than you will most likely see it. Or if something happens very fast, it can be a combination of filling in gaps and seeing what you expect to see. Then there are of course various substances that can influence your perception as well.”<br/><br/>Snickering noises from all three of them. “Get your mind out of the gutter. I am talking about substances, which are produced by your own body in certain situations. For example, adrenalin, or dopamine and so on. These can influence your perception a lot. Have you ever read eyewitness reports on a robbery? Several people see the same thing but give very different reports. The robber was average height, or very long. Normal build or fat. Glasses or no glasses. The clothes where black, dark blue, dark green, dark red. He or she. Holding a gun, a knife, or a stick. And so on. Everyone is sure that what they saw is correct, but the differences are huge. Of course witnessing a robbery, even from a safe spot, will make the adrenalin shoot up. And every witness will be sure of their report. Nobody is lying.<br/><br/>Did the world ever seem brighter to you when you are happy? It seems like dopamine has that kind of effect. Any other substance that can reach the brain, including the ones that you guys were thinking of, can mess stuff up as well. Of course, a combination of all of them is possible too. How about an example that includes Daniels monster? Let’s say you are walking alone, so you can not rely on anyone else’s perception, in a dimly lit place, so vision is not optimal, and you are suddenly attacked by something. This something is gone very quickly and you did not get a good view of it. You know that there are wolves in the area so ears and tail and fur are quickly added into the perception. That fits in well, because it is not as if a bunny would attack you. But your brains also fills in some more gaps, adding in some adrenalin, and the wolf is a lot bigger. Stop laughing guys. This kinda stuff happens a lot in a threatening situation. The attacker is often perceived as being significantly bigger than in reality. And when there is nobody else around that could have seen it. Even if you are not lying, it is not necessary so that what you saw is reality. Even the noises a dog makes can sound like words after all. “<br/><br/>The last example made the other guys laugh, but somehow the whole story was a bit unsettling.<br/>“Are you saying that the demonic beast of this region is nothing more than an illusion caused by bad perception and brains doing whatever they want?” Daniel was a bit annoyed as well, that Chris seemed to be making fun of this.<br/>“Not really. As I said, it is difficult to trust your own perception of the world. You can still verify something outside of your own perception with others. As long as they can see the same thing, it is somewhat feasible to believe it. And you know I have an interest in weird stuff as well.”<br/>Everyone in the car remained quiet for a while. It was not a horror story but in the complete darkness surrounding them, it was still unsettling.<br/><br/>“Can we talk about something else now?” Jack tried to lighten up the mood a little.<br/>“Sure, how about a guessing game?” Chris asked.<br/>Since nobody had any better idea, they all agreed.<br/>“How long did I talk earlier?” Chris asked.<br/>“Seemed like forever,” Henry complained.<br/>“Like 10 minutes?” Jack estimated.<br/>Chris leaned over to Daniels side. “Let’s see, we are currently driving about 90km/h. You know that this road has a 60km/h restriction right?”<br/>“It’s not like anyone is going to do to any checks at this place. I think that even during the day there is not much traffic here. They can’t make money out of this.”<br/>“Now then, which animal would be able to run at about 90 km/h for more than 10 minutes?”<br/>A moment of silence spread through the car before the first answer came from Daniel. “A cheetah? They can even go at 120 km/h.”<br/>“That’s true but they can not keep that up for so long. A few seconds to a minute at most.” Jack seemed to have more knowledge about cheetahs than Daniel did.<br/>“Maybe some kind of bird?” Henry opted.<br/>“No it seems to be a mammal,” Chris answered.<br/>“Wtf, do you even know the answer yourself?” Jack was already annoyed with this game.<br/><br/>“Well, then let’s ask it in a different way. What has been keeping up with this car for a while now and is still running next to us?”<br/>The car made a sudden harsh movement as Daniel gave jerk at the steering wheel. Chris was pressed against his seatbelt and anything loose inside the car changed place. Luckily, he managed to bring the car under control again. “W-what do you mean?”<br/>The back windows where too small or properly look outside. Daniel had to focus on the road, which was getting bumpier.<br/>“For a while now, something is running along side the car.” Chris’ voice was still fairly calm. He also did not look outside the side window as he was talking. “It is too dark to discern a form, but what I believe to be eyes seem to give off a red/orange light. Nothing like the reflecting retina of a feline, but light of their own. The way they are occasionally falling back and catching back up and the regular up and down movement, appears to be as if it is running on four legs.”<br/>“Isn’t it just some kind of reflection?” Henry seemed to be a bit nervous.<br/>“A reflection of what?” Jack asked irritated. This whole thing is completely ridiculous. “There is nothing out there to reflect! The only light source are our headlights and those are yellow!” He tried his best to look out of his window to see it.<br/>“Also,” Chris added. “If it was a reflection then it would stay at the same place and not move independently from the car.”<br/>“You are not even looking outside the window,” Daniel remarked as he glanced over.<br/>“You said the beast was demonic. Demons can look into your soul and see all the sins you have ever committed and use that to gain control over you. I am not going to look at it more than needed. I just glanced over every once in a while to see if it remained next to us.”<br/>This made Jack instantly give up on trying to look at it. He was by no means an innocent lamb after all.<br/><br/>“I’ll just go full speed and get us out of here now,” Daniel proclaimed full of imaginary confidence. He had caught a glance of the orange/red light outside the window when he had looked over to Chris earlier. Even though it was his idea, now that it all seemed to be real, he was not so courageous anymore.<br/>“Don’t,” Chris warned.<br/>“What are you talking about? This monster is dangerous, we need to escape!”<br/>“If it wanted to attack then it could have done so for a while now. Don’t do anything to trigger an attack!” Chris was also getting a bit nervous. Jack, who couldn’t control his curiosity after all, had now also seen this eye-like pair of faint lights next to their car. Only Henry had not, as his seat was just in a position where he could not.<br/>“Then what do you suggest we do, smartass!” Daniel really wished he had not taken this detour now. This monster was dangerous and had already attacked and killed people in the past.<br/>“Since it is just running next to us, it may just want to make sure that we leave,” Chris started. “Also, do you think you can out speed it with this crappy old garbage dump you call car? Since it can keep up with us for a longer time now, I don’t think this is its max speed yet. And can you say for sure that you can accelerate fast than whatever that is?”<br/>Everyone was silent while Daniel thought about that for a moment. “Argh, fuck this!” He yelled and stomped his foot on the gas pedal. His fear had clouded his judgement and he did not listen to his friend. Chris clutched with one hand his seatbelt at the sudden increase of speed, while with the other he was still holding his phone to the window without realizing it.<br/><br/>“Be careful!”<br/>“Is it still there?”<br/>“I can’t see it, did we lose it?”<br/><br/>The speed went up and up and the bumps in the road made them skip in their seats. Until one of the front wheels hit an especially nasty bump. Daniel lost control over the speeding vehicle and in the sight of the headlights, a big solid tree suddenly showed up and blocked the view.<br/><br/>As Chris opened his eyes, he could not see anything. He leaned back in his seat to discover that some white blob had been blocking his view. An airbag. His head felt fuzzy and dizzy and thinking was hard. Beyond the deflating airbag there was a tree standing where the front end of the car should be, behind a severely cracked windshield. One headlight was still functional. Showing a cloud coming from beneath the car. Chris looked to his side and wondered why Daniels butt was leaning over the steering wheel, with only his legs being still inside. Somehow, he felt that it was better to get out of the car. The door was stuck. Oh, it was because his arm did not go up to reach for the door handle. His range of motion also seemed to be oddly restricted. Ah, he was wearing a seatbelt. After removing the seatbelt, he reached with his other hand for the door handle. The door opened a little bit and got stuck again. It was too difficult to gather a clear though in his fuzzy head, so Chris randomly kicked at the door. It worked and swung open enough for him to get out. He tripped and fell down. Something wet dripped into his eye. It was too dark to see the colour of the fluid as he wiped it away. Somehow crawling up to his feet, he managed to take a few steps to the backside of the car. The small back window also was cracked. Next to the still working backlights, his legs gave out and he sunk to a sitting position. The fuzziness in his head started to become fuzzier and his gaze started to become cloudier. The horizon did not seem completely dark anymore as the morning was approaching. Chris had no idea if he had been sitting there for just a few moments or several hours.<br/>Something was approaching from the darkness towards the small red backlight of the car. Chis tried to gather some concentration into his view of what it was, but that did not help the approaching cloudiness of his sight. It slowly came closer, first on four legs and then it straightened up to two legs. Walking like a human it came within the reach of the ridiculously small light. Enclosing features like the big size, the claw like hands, the wolf like ears and tail. And above all those eyes that seems to be giving off light of their own. Those two red/orange spots was the image that remained with Chris the longest while he lost consciousness.