Editing Bogeyman (section)

=== Types ===
Bogeymen can be loosely divided into two types, based on their lifestyle and ways of remaining on Earth. Those whose power and existence is tied to a certain event, and the predators who prey on human fears for nourishment.<ref>Bogeymen come in two forms, with some being tied to events and others just acting like people. Event bogeymen don't have a lot of power outside of certain times or loops. [...] Other Bogeymen resemble living people, but fall more into the realm of heavy carnivores, dining on fear. Like heavy carnivores, they don't need to eat often. [...] Not all find a rhythm that sustains them, but those who don't tend to get pruned or bound. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8r4hha/_/e0qz9pn Comment by Wildbow] on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref>

"Event" bogeymen generally only exist or have power during certain situations - a time of day, an anniversary, a ritual, a person following a rumour, etc. Outside of those situations they might hibernate, or might have no concrete existence at all. During them, however, they are empowered and the odds are tilted against their victims. Situations where the Abyss is closer to reality may make them active outside their normal prerequisites.<ref>Event bogeymen don't have a lot of power outside of certain times or 
loops. If they're active at night and nobody's looking for them, then they might not exist during the day. The Faceless Woman could well be this sort - she's just not really around or is semi-hibernating at times she's not active. If you go places she's been known to hang around, you might smell the cigarettes, you could follow that smell to her and she'd be there. (She hangs out with the Revenant, so her existence might be reduced to a strong cigarette smell in the other room) - If it's night, she might be wandering around, and if there's someone scared and isolated, it might draw her out. For some it's about rumor or the use of a name, or about dates, times of year, or other prerequisites. These tend to be less of an existence, though, and more of a... kind of a ritual. If you meet the prerequisites or provide the right excuse for a Bogeyman whose existence is this concentrated into key moments, your odds go steeply down, compared other situations. Obviously the nature of what was going on in Jacob's Bell brought the Others out to play on a more consistent, permanent basis. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8r4hha/_/e0qz9pn/ Comment by Wildbow] on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref>

"Predator" bogeymen follow a similar schedule to humans, alive 24-7. Unlike humans, however, they feed on fear (with the fear of humans being much more effective than that of animals), and they don't need to feed very frequently. They generally spend much of their time seeking out and preparing for their victims. Predator bogeymen who settle into a lair generally devote their time, Abyss connection, and fear-energy into corrupting that lair to serve as a better killing ground. Others roam freely, investing their energy back into empowering themself (with the drawback that excessive feeding causes them to mutate) and seeking out opportunities to feed,<ref>Other Bogeymen resemble living people, but fall more into the realm of heavy carnivores, dining on fear. Like heavy carnivores, they don't need to eat often. Finding other things to eat helps fill the space between, so they'll do that a lot, and beyond that they tend to patrol or wander. If the Milkmaid locates herself in the abandoned farmhouse and the surrounding fields, then she might get to know the ins and outs of the property, where the fence is reliable, where the holes in the ground are, and she'd find the things to alter the property. A whole day can be spent on one window, so it's ajar but closes when someone slips through.<br>[...]<br>It's not really a Crone Mara style adjustment of territory over decades or centuries - more that obsessive focus, memories of the Abyss, and the influence of the Abyss itself staining reality can help make this work. The places she visits and the things she does serve to taint areas and things. The milking machine is a big one for this particular bogeyman, as are the cows of her barn, which might start to end up more abyssal (mutated, with special properties, potentially with skins that transmit sensation after being sewn on). For Bogeymen of this type who aren't the Milkmaid, it could be something like the house being bigger from the inside, or hallways that look different when you revisit them.<br><br>Other Bogeymen are less focused on their own hunting ground and might just wander or keep their eyes, ears, nose, and Other senses out for potential victims or places to lurk. Excess power and fear aren't invested into things or places, but back into the bogeyman. Consider it something like how a human gets fat, but a Bogeyman changes when it consumes in excess.<br><br>Not all find a rhythm that sustains them, but those who don't tend to get pruned or bound. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8r4hha/_/e0qz9pn Comment by Wildbow] on "What do most Others do all day?"</ref> like war.<ref name="WoG">:Just how many Others were swarming in the trenches? I can assume there were tons of [...] imps, ghouls, boogeymen and goblins in them due to the sheer amount of awfulness, rottenness and corpses present, but just how severe was the issue? Were they in such abundance that practitioners being a Scourge, Goblin King [...] or was there little to no real difference that the practitioner "meta" would change.<br><br>Violent and gross others likely thrived in the background in wartime. - [https://redd.it/8upije Wildbow on Reddit]</ref>

Alternatively they can be subdivided based on their specific "bogey" approach.<ref name="types4">Bogeymen came in types.  Trappers, stalkers, slashers, hunters, terrorizers, with a dozen more labels besides.  They had patterns of behavior that were reinforced with Abyss-granted powers, technique, or rules.<br>[...]<br>This guy… Lucy pegged him as an ''oubliette'' bogeyman.  Or a dungeon bogeyman.  The tools for building, the way he seemed most secure when standing, not moving… he was probably at his most effective once he’d had time to build an entire place around himself, rife with traps and false exits.<br><br>The one she’d read about had had been a schoolteacher who’d had an entire abandoned school in the countryside.  Succession bogeyman, terrorizer and oubliette.  Kidnap one popular boy, age twelve to seventeen, confound police, bait the kid’s frustrated, desperate friends toward the school with clues the police would discount, then trap them within, with each room being a special brand of hell, with hazards and barriers dropping in, meant to separate them.  He’d had special powers to mentally break them, he’d traumatize them until they couldn’t think straight, then kill them once he had them all together again, mentally broken.  Sometimes he died or got killed, but he always fucked up at least one kid enough that the kid would go on to repeat the pattern, becoming the next ‘reform teacher’, inheriting the powers, pattern, and history. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2023/05/27 Excerpt] from [[Finish Off 24.5]]</ref> Some might make mechanical torture trap rooms, some may be able to psychologically break people with or without physical torture, [[Bougieman|some can retroactive 'edit' a territory]]. There is room for near endless variation.

Group bogeymen are a pair and highly coordinated while still being separate individuals, so a Duet bogeyman would be a pair of such, taking down one can drive remaining members into a frenzy.<ref>Duet bogeymen were paired, working in concert together, in the same way Freak and Squeak might… just less intensely woven together.  When they popped out of the Abyss, they’d do it as a pair.  They could practically read each other’s minds.<br>[...]<br>When one died, the other tended to intensify. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2023/05/27 Excerpt] from [[Finish Off 24.5]]</ref>