Delaney
Appearances
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Devs Mourn Black Panther Game, Reveal Details - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.29.25
I liked it!
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Devs Mourn Black Panther Game, Reveal Details - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.29.25
Problem gelöst.
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Devs Mourn Black Panther Game, Reveal Details - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.29.25
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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Devs Mourn Black Panther Game, Reveal Details - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.29.25
Wir machen eine kulinarische Reise.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
My name is Delaney. I'm 24 years old and I'm from Oklahoma City. I would say I've always been a very open person, but I would also describe myself as like a healthy skeptic. I never fully write things off, but I also, if there's something else that can like explain something, I will definitely go to that first. This story takes place in 2020. It was actually August 21st, 2020. It was a Friday.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
At the time I was dating this guy. He had gotten me into hiking and he was an Eagle Scout. So he was pretty well versed in the outdoors and pretty comfortable. And at the time I was working at a museum that closed at six and I We had planned after I got off work, I would drive out to his place, which was about 30 minutes away. And then we were going to go on a hike at night.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
So we were going to an area called Lake Thunderbird. And some of the locals call it Dirty Bird because it's just kind of
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
gross like it's not very pretty or picturesque it's just there there's not a lot of great hiking near Oklahoma City a lot of it if you want the nicer trails you have to drive out so this was just convenient for us there's so there's like the lake it's not too big but you can boat on it and you can fish
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And the area around it, there's several marked trails that are, in the summertime, pretty dense, I would say. And the particular trail that we went on was very dense. And he had hiked this trail before us. by himself at night and gotten a little bit disoriented, a little bit lost. And he was kind of a thrill seeker. So he wanted to do that again. And that was sort of what we planned on doing. So
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
I was a little nervous leading up to us going, and we arrived at the park area, the trailhead, around I would say like 7.30, 7.45. The sun had just gone down. It was still kind of light outside, and there was nobody else there. no parked cars in the lot. I think the last car that was there, we saw the people like get in their car and leave. So it was winding down.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
There were still some people over by the lake, but not on the trail. So we get out of the car and we start on the trail. And I felt really calm for some reason, which was weird. And I noted it as weird because I am sort of a jumpy person, but for some reason I just felt very calm and at ease. And I was, I think I even said it to him. I was just like, I feel pretty good about this.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
We started off on the trail and it was sort of that blue hour where everything is still visible, but you can't make out like the bark on the trees anymore. The trail itself was pretty dense, and the trees kind of canopied over. So you see the trail in front of you, but other than that, around you, you just see forest. So we were walking down the trail.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
We were walking for about 15 minutes, and I did notice that it was sort of quiet. It wasn't dead quiet, but it was still quiet. So we're walking, and I'm looking at him as I'm speaking to him. I'm kind of just chatting as we're walking, and I'm looking at him. He's to my right. He abruptly just stopped in the middle of the trail, and he sort of put his arm on my arm to, like, stop me as well.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And I'm looking at him, and the color... has just drained from his face. I had seen him be startled before or, like, shocked, but I had never seen him have this, like, look. He just froze and I felt confused. I think I thought he was maybe messing with me. Since I had mentioned that I was calm, I thought maybe he was sort of pulling a prank on me. But...
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
He just sort of said under his breath, like, what is that? And I'm like, what? And I look ahead of us and I see this thing in the trail, like about 30 yards ahead of us, just standing there. It was this humanoid figure that was probably between like six foot three and six foot five. It was taller than my boyfriend at the time, who was six one. But it wasn't towering. It was just like very tall.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
Blender. And it seemed like fleshy, but it wasn't. It was like drained of color almost. So it was sort of like grayish brown and its proportions were just completely off. It was standing straight. It wasn't hunched over, but standing straight, its arms were nearly to its knees or where its knees would have been. There was no hair anywhere on it. It was just sort of like
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
If you made a stick figure with long arms into CGI and put flesh on it, it felt more like a masculine figure, but it didn't have much distinguishable male or female features. I couldn't really make out any facial features. I don't want to say it didn't have a face. That, I feel like, did get kind of lost in the distance because of the time of day, but I didn't see shadows of facial features.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
but I could tell that it was facing us. Its head was relatively small compared to its body. Not tiny, but it just kind of looked like a normal-sized head on a larger body. I would say its torso was a little bit longer than that of a tall man. Its shoulders were sort of narrow, and it seemed like its arms sort of protruded out from it more like it had a longer elbow to fingertip ratio.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It was slender, but not like bony or like skinny. I don't know, it was hard to make out like the joints on it. Even the way it moved, it just kind of swayed. It was very elastic looking, I guess, almost. When I first laid eyes on it, it was like almost indescribable, the feelings and the way it felt to see that thing standing there.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
First of all, my state of calmness fully dissipates and I'm washed over with this fear that feels more intense than anything I've ever felt. It was primal. I've been creeped out before. I've had adrenaline rushes. I've had scary encounters with other people, but nothing has ever made me feel this much intense dread. I felt like I was no longer the top of the food chain.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It felt like I was being hunted nearly. It was just like, I'm prey now. That's what went through my head. It's just, I'm prey. Aside from the proportions of it being wrong and it just looking completely out of place against the surroundings, the energy that I felt, like the shift in the air, was so unnatural. It was like nothing I've ever felt before.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And I think that's sort of what also solidified to me that this was not just a deformed world. person on the trail. It almost felt like it was like in my head now. This is why I felt calm leading up. Like it did that. Like it had this presence that sort of lured something towards it. And then once you actually are within its area, like the prey drive kicks in. And that's what it felt like. It
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
At this point, it was probably approaching eight, but it's the middle of summer, so everything is still visible. I can see all the trees. I can see the trail. I can distinguish where the trail ends and the tree line begins. I just can't see texture. I can still see colors and shapes. So I got a good look at this thing, pretty unmistakable.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It wasn't too dark that I couldn't make out what was going on around me. But it was a very eerie time of day to see something like that. Because it's like I knew that by the time I turn around and start walking back, it's going to get dark.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And I don't know if it was something that was protecting the forest, because I also feel like, you know, if it wanted to have gotten me, it could have and would have. I do feel like just based off of its movements and the speed, I wouldn't say it flashed. It wasn't so fast that I didn't see it move, but it was extremely swift.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It sort of looked like when it noticed us, it moved its body, like its whole body. And then in one stride, it like took its leg and like took one big step into the tree line. At that point, it sort of just became one with the forest, but I could still see it. It was just very camouflaged as soon as it stepped into it.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
After it took the stride into the tree line, I wanted to book it out of there as fast as possible. I turned and I started to sort of run and my ex grabbed my arm and like kind of pulled me back and he's like, we need to just stay calm and walk. And I was pissed at him because I wanted to get out of there. It was, I felt so scared. And like, I just, I don't know.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
I was angry with him for trying to slow us down. But he said, basically, if you run from an animal, you're going to get chased. Not that this was an animal, but, you know, with him having more wilderness experience than I did. I think his instincts kicked in and... He just wanted to try not to provoke whatever this was to gain any traction on us. So I'm like, okay, let's just speed walk then.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And I asked him, I was like, can we just walk fast? And he's like, yeah, let's just hurry. And he seemed like he was fully in shock at this point. He wasn't, you know, making any jokes or trying to lighten the mood about this. Like it was, It was very serious, very like solemn moment for us because he wasn't the type that was always super serious. He was pretty much a jokester.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
But in this moment, he had his head on very straight and he was like, we need to get out of here. So I pull out my phone and I'm trying to open my camera because I want to get a picture of what is behind us. I knew it was still sort of in the tree line. And I kept looking over my shoulder to see if I could see it. And I could see it, but I couldn't. It wasn't invisible. It was there.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
I couldn't really see it moving much more except maybe like I still sort of saw the swaying and that's the only reason I could still see it. I couldn't make out much more about it other than like the movement. I really didn't get another good solid look at it but I knew it was there and I knew it was keeping pace with us.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It didn't really close in on any of the distance between us from what I could tell. It seemed like it was just sort of stalking us out And as we were walking back, it was getting darker and darker, and I was getting more and more scared for my life. I didn't know if I was going to be able to make it off that trail.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
I really thought that something bad was going to happen because I was just filled with this guttural dread. I felt sick. I felt like when we got off the trail, I felt like I was going to throw up. And he saw it two more times. He got a good look at it. And he said to me that it was keeping pace with us, but it wasn't getting much closer than it initially was.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
When I asked him how he saw it moving, because I didn't get very good looks at it over my shoulder as we were leaving, but he said that for every two steps we took, it took one step. So it was just graceful. and like gliding nearly. He was sort of like dodging between trees in the dense forest, but looking like it was just effortlessly keeping up. And finally, we reached the end of the trail.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
We were only about 15 to 20 minutes into the trail. It took us less time to get out because of But it felt like forever. It felt like we were on that trail for 30 more minutes. But in reality, it probably took us about 10 minutes to get off the trail. And we parked pretty close to the entrance to the trail. So we just ran to the car and got in and locked the doors. And we just sat there.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
both sat in silence staring at the opening to the trail for about like five minutes and I break the silence and I just say what the hell was that and he just doesn't even look at me he's just still looking at the trail and he just says I don't know and shakes his head and I asked him if he'd ever seen anything like that and he said no and I said well will you tell me what you saw
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And he said, it looked like person-like, but it wasn't a person. And its limbs were long. And I was like, that's what I saw too. And it was fast. And we both were sort of stuck on that too. It was like, it was just, it was too fast to be mistaken for something else or like a person or an animal. And it was on two legs. So there's really no animal that it could have been.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
So we left after that and we just went back to his apartment and I barely slept. And when I did sleep, I had nightmares about it, about being like chased through the woods by this thing. And the next day I tried to bring it up with him and
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
Even though in the moment he agreed, like, we both saw something non-human on this trail, after sleeping on it, he just began to sort of deny that it ever happened. And I tried to pull it out of him. I wanted to talk about it because I felt like this lingering anxiety and, like,
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
impending doom feeling for quite some time after I would say like I mean at least a week if not longer I thought about it a lot if I you know stopped thinking about it it would pop back into my head and I tried to bring it up with him I thought that if I put a name to it it would help me get past all of that baggage that came along with the experience.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
But his coping mechanism was just sort of to deny it. And he suggested that we just both hallucinated the same thing. But I was 20 at the time. I didn't drink. We didn't do any drugs or anything like that. So there was really no reason that we would have hallucinated something, let alone the same thing.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
But he just kept insisting that, you know, it was in our heads and that I need to stop bringing it up because I sound crazy. We broke up, you know, because he was a jerk. I happened to be moving, I think it was like just a week later. And I had been living with my grandparents. I was in college and I was taking some time off to work.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
So I was just working two jobs and I was ready to, you know, move out and get an apartment. And my dad is helping me move my things. And we're in his truck together. My dad is a very skeptical person. He does not believe in anything paranormal. And I sort of thought that I would get some closure by him telling me that I sounded crazy. Because, you know, like, my ex, it was one thing. He was there.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
So, like, even if he tells me I'm crazy, I'm like, well, you were there, so you can't really, I don't, you know, I know you're just denying it. But I felt like if my dad told me, it would just comfort me. So I said, hey, you're going to think I'm crazy and you're not going to believe me. But I saw something last Friday at Lake Thunderbird. And he cut me off immediately.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And he was just like, you're messing with me. And I was confused. I was like, what do you mean? And he was just like, who did you talk to? What is making you bring this up? Are you messing with me? And I was just like, no. What are you talking about? And then he goes in to tell me his own story.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
Before I tell him anything about what I saw, he starts telling me, hey, I was at Lake Thunderbird last Friday and I saw something weird.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
I just didn't know what to say. I was just so in shock. I was just like, I can't believe that. Why did I even bring it up? You know, it just made me feel worse. I was like, wow, I really did see something. The main discrepancy between our description of it was that he described it as being dark. And I didn't necessarily think that it was like dark.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
It sort of blended in with the environment around it. It was sort of like mid-toned, I guess. But I also saw it at a different time of day. I believe it was the same thing. I don't know if it just looked darker because of the time of night. Maybe like camouflages or... I don't think he got as good of a look at it as I did.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
Because I think that his was sort of just like a dash, whereas I sort of saw it like stall in the trail and then move into the tree line. When he was telling his story and he said, I think I saw a Bigfoot or something, we both sort of laughed. But I could also tell that he was... Very serious because this is like a topic of conversation, a territory we had never gotten into before.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And so the fact that he was telling me about this unexplainable thing that he experienced that he doesn't think is... is like a worldly creature. It just sort of like brought about this seriousness and tenseness. And he seemed a little like nervous telling me.
Otherworld
Episode 124: Off Trail
And I think that scared me more because him telling me that he was scared, I was just like, oh, that's really scary because I've never seen him scared in my life. Both of us kind of thought we were crazy. And then when we talked to each other about it, it was sort of like validating that maybe there is, you know, something out there.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Say No: Boundaries with Nedra Glover Tawwab (Best Of)
Like Abby, I've always been a people pleaser and I'm now working through that. The roadblock I keep running into is how do you exit friendships, and situations where you don't want to say something too mean, but you also need to establish that this only worked for the people-pleasing version of you. So please let me know and thank you for all that you guys do. Oh, and my name's Delaney.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Say No: Boundaries with Nedra Glover Tawwab (Best Of)
I didn't even say that.