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Audioplays
The Doctor: The creature's been feeding this way all along for centuries, usually without being noticed. Only a few people are sensitive to it.
Ace: So that's what Walter's hearing, right? In her voice. And once it's stirred up these emotions—
The Doctor: It feeds off them.
Ace: [sighs] Why couldn't these things eat happy thoughts?
The Doctor: That's not what it was designed for...
Ace: So that's what Walter's hearing, right? In her voice. And once it's stirred up these emotions—
The Doctor: It feeds off them.
Ace: [sighs] Why couldn't these things eat happy thoughts?
The Doctor: That's not what it was designed for...
The Scourge Leader: We have her, Demi-Leader! Her friend is going to kill her! Is her panic not delicious?
The Demi-Leader: She is considering falling into the darkness! Her little mammal brain is trying to encompass the idea... but her body is rebelling! Oh, this is fine food!
The Demi-Leader: She is considering falling into the darkness! Her little mammal brain is trying to encompass the idea... but her body is rebelling! Oh, this is fine food!
Comic Books
I feel. Feel everyone else's hate, love, pain, fear... and it becomes this... (forms ball of black energy) Of course, you saw what happens when it goes the other way.
— Powerboy to Supergirl, Supergirl (2005)
A little piece of home to pour your heart out to. Days and weeks and months of raw pre-teen emotions churning and bubbling their way into my precious emotion-collecting machine.
— Mr. Mxyzptlk, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
Fan Works
"Oh Asuka, your jealous rage is to my palette like a sweet summer's wine in comparison to the various emotionally repressed idiots I have been subjected to."
— Shinji, Thousand Shinji
Films — Live Action
"Oh, the tasty, tasty, BEAUTIFUL fear..."
— Pennywise, It (2017)
"You ALL taste so much better when you're afraid!"
— Pennywise, It (1990)
Literature
The Monster enjoyed the Academy Awards, and always made sure he got the best seats for the ceremony. The tangle of emotions was so delicious. Winners and losers were meat and drink to him. These days, he just tapped his meals, disdaining to drain them completely, sampling the dreamstuff but sparing the flesh. It was a revelation, how much he could enjoy feeding without killing. In a sense, there was more delight in leaving his broken prey alive.
Let there be no fear. Fear is not what I crave, neither what I desire. It is corrosive to the palate, like vinegar in place of wine.
Let there be courage, not cowardice; let there be arrogance aplenty. Self-confidence, not self-doubt; security in one's skills. And the willingness, the restlessness, the boundless physicality of the only constant: the testing of one's limitations. Assumption of risk, not reticence. The challenge of Chance.
Make me no predictions. Write me no prophecy. Permit me to take what is best of you, what is best in you.
Let me liberate it. In me you will live forever.
Let there be courage, not cowardice; let there be arrogance aplenty. Self-confidence, not self-doubt; security in one's skills. And the willingness, the restlessness, the boundless physicality of the only constant: the testing of one's limitations. Assumption of risk, not reticence. The challenge of Chance.
Make me no predictions. Write me no prophecy. Permit me to take what is best of you, what is best in you.
Let me liberate it. In me you will live forever.
Something was happening. The shapes, the colours of the emotions of the prey were changing. The tall, thin one, the mobile one made of plastic and metal, was afraid. Very afraid.
Delicious.
Nurture the fear. Help it grow.
Then feast on its succulence. Feast to gorging.
Must change.
Must change, to nurture the fear.
Delicious.
Nurture the fear. Help it grow.
Then feast on its succulence. Feast to gorging.
Must change.
Must change, to nurture the fear.
—Red Dwarf: Better Than Life
"We sup of blood and fear, we rejoice in flensing away that which occults the truth. Pointless to repeat what you already know. Wolverton and Rourke told you everything. Your recognition of these facts is a chemical bloom that lights your cerebral cortex with fireworks. It is this dawning of horror upon primitive minds that gives me my greatest frisson. I have lived thousand of your own lifecycles and the taste of your revulsion and horror never grows stale."
— Bronson Ford, The Croning
Live-Action TV
"Deriving sustenance from emotion is not unknown in the galaxy, and fear is among the strongest and most violent of the emotions."
— Spock, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Wolf in the Fold"
Music
"Addicted to the taste of fear
From the moment that it touched my tongue
And now I smell it when it's near
You never meant to, but you brought me some
The table's set, now let me find a wine to pair up
Don't be afraid to share what you're scared of"
From the moment that it touched my tongue
And now I smell it when it's near
You never meant to, but you brought me some
The table's set, now let me find a wine to pair up
Don't be afraid to share what you're scared of"
—JT Music, "What You're Scared Of"
Tabletop Games
The Voices in the Dark love children. Children are their meat and drink: the fears and agonies of children are ambrosia on their lips. They are particularly fond of those few children on the verge of discovering the supernatural, but when such children aren't available, they hunt for their food, for the perpetuation of their purpose, among the poor, the desperate, the neglected, abandoned, and abused. The Voices batten like lampreys onto the minds and souls of these children, ferret out their deepest fears and pains and torment them without mercy, every waking and sleeping moment.
— "High, Sweet Evil Laughter," Innocents
The fact is, your brief stay in the Underworld taught you of the appetizing banquet to be had from human passions. Like any connoisseur, you have learned that the most savory dishes mingle the spices.
— Roleplaying hints for Ghuls, The Bygone Bestiary
The Dark Eldar see the other inhabitants of the galaxy as little more than cattle, livestock that can be brought to bay or slaughtered at any time. Their fodder, however, is not meat and muscle, but the anguish and despair of the weak. The Dark Eldar do indeed drink blood, but also tears, and most sustaining of all, the raw essence of pain that they wring out of their captives.
— Inquisitor Lord Czevak, Warhammer 40,000: Codex - Dark Eldar (5th ed)
Death is my meat; terror my wine.
— Asdrubael Vect, a Dark Eldar, Warhammer 40,000
Video Games
Their anguish was my nourishment. Their hatred bled across the void and awakened me. I drew deep of it and grew strong again.
— Ganondorf, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Western Animation
What's that? Fear! Delicious fear! Somewhere on Earth, someone is so frightened that his terror is reaching me! I love fear. It makes me STRONGER!
— The Bogeyman, The Real Ghostbusters, "The Bogeyman Is Back"
As queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!
— Queen Chrysalis, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "A Canterlot Wedding: Part 2"
