[Missing the point by a mile. For god's sake, Festival.]
Literally everything that isn't human in our world wants to maim, torture, or kill humans. Or worse. Their source of power is abject terror. They are designed to inflict it, feed on it, and relish it. He has been personally victimized by multiple inhuman creatures in our world. The Stranger's Circus of the Other and the Not-Them. The Corruption's Hive. The pockmark scars all over his body are from sentient evil worms attempting to burrow into his body and turn him into a flesh puppet to spread their disease onward.
He's barely had six months out from being attacked by the Hive. He had absolutely no social support network after that attack. Or after what happened to his brother. Because no one would have believed him. People don't believe in the real monsters where I'm from because most people will never encounter them. We have. We're working against every instinct that says anything that isn't human is going to hurt us. I'm managing it better than he is, obviously. And it's not an excuse. But it's more complicated than 'he's just racist.'
cw: mention of parasites/burrowing insects, body horror
Literally everything that isn't human in our world wants to maim, torture, or kill humans.
Or worse.
Their source of power is abject terror.
They are designed to inflict it, feed on it, and relish it.
He has been personally victimized by multiple inhuman creatures in our world.
The Stranger's Circus of the Other and the Not-Them.
The Corruption's Hive.
The pockmark scars all over his body are from sentient evil worms attempting to burrow into his body and turn him into a flesh puppet to spread their disease onward.
He's barely had six months out from being attacked by the Hive.
He had absolutely no social support network after that attack.
Or after what happened to his brother.
Because no one would have believed him.
People don't believe in the real monsters where I'm from because most people will never encounter them.
We have.
We're working against every instinct that says anything that isn't human is going to hurt us.
I'm managing it better than he is, obviously.
And it's not an excuse.
But it's more complicated than 'he's just racist.'