Last-Ditch Page 58
False Positive: A Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Webcomic Anthology
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Good News for People Who Like Bad News
01-18-24
Dear False Positive Readers,
This is Ashley Walton, Mike’s sister and editor of False Positive. I have really terrible, awful news and a tiny bit of good news.
You might have noticed it’s been a couple years since we’ve posted anything on this website. Well, brace yourself for the saddest update I’ll ever share.
Well! I guess Wendigo wasn’t as strong as he thought. Dr. Macready, I presume?
Holy crap – ANOTHER callback?!
When’d he go?
The astronaut looks like a tech developer lecturing all and sundry about social justice … so you know he’s the devil incarnate.
Don’t you just hate it when a private conversation is interrupted by a monstrous severed head being rudely tossed in the middle of your evil monolog?
amen, so rude
Honestly, interrupting any monologue saves time. I always try to keep a few monstrous severed heads around in case someone starts explaining their plan before they kill me.
The way he’s talking to them, I think heads are gonna roll.
…Oh wait! That’s already started.
“You know far too much about my Don Johnson-esque fashion sense!”
What I don’t get is that if the “ancient one” is supposed to be lovecraftian horror from the beginning of universe how could defeating it be this simple? I mean there are obviously spacefaring races much older than humanity so it seems simply unbelievable that a human could be the first one to outwit something that has been around for eons – and do it in such a short time.
I’m also surprised Wendigo was taken out so easily by someone who was at a great disadvantage (assuming it is doc who took it down). It seems the cosmic thingies are pretty pushover when compared to humans.
I’m calling red herring here…
Uhm… tell me this oh doubting thomas.. have you EVER heard of in any SciFi tale or movie book otherwise of a human using a black Hole as a weapon of assasination for an Elder God? I rest my case… this was NOT easy to set up… and only barely succeeded. Plus, the Elder God was not killed… he was put beyond the Event Horizon of a singularity… which means, by physics as we know it.. he will not be able to interact with out time-space for a time so long as to be beyond the life0-expectance of our universe.
THAT..is NOT death!
“That is not dead which can eternal lie..and with Strange Aeons Even Death may die!”
Pretty much yes. Happens in every superhero comic – either a black hole or a nuclear weapon or human with super powers (check how Jenny Quantum killed the creator of earth which was a cosmic horror) but that’s not part of the cosmic horror genre or horror genre in general.
I think you are missing the point. It’s not that it *can’t* be sealed off or killed or whatever. The point is that thing has presumably been around for eons and it and its kind kind authorized the magics they have been using (which is what it said) AND there have been races and acolytes that have been around far longer than humans. Again something we have seen in stories already.
It’s pretty inconceivable a situation like this hasn’t happened in 13 or so BILLION years – or however long that thing has been around. Supposedly now member of a race who has been around for a couple hundred thousands years AND civilized less than a few thousand was the first one to figure out how to outwith and destroy it. There’s simply no way it’s out of picture for good.
The primary element of cosmic horror is how helpless and outmatched humanity is against these horrors. Their victory is inevitable and can be only staved off for a time. That makes it horror. Actually that’s the key element of most horror stories. If you think about it, the critters themselves are far from horrifying. What makes Freddy Krueger, Cthulhu, or even a regular zombie scary is not it’s shape or behavior. There’s nothing particularly scary about a human with claws, a giant squid-monster, or animated human remains. They are just gross. It’s the sense of total bleak futility that makes them horrifying. You can’t kill Freddy, you can’t kill Cthulhu and while you can kill a zombie you can’t kill the plague which is what is making them appear.
What I suspect here is that each acolyte is in fact part of the ancient one. It has seeds in each of them. Like body snatchers puppets we have seen before but with more autonomy.
TL;DR; Eon is a too long time for it to not be prepared against a coup like this.
Power breeds complacency, that’s one thing (that applies to both the Wayfarer and Wendigo, and we’re shown in this very story that Wendigo is indeed a bit of a pushover).
Another is we don’t know the Wayfarer’s age. Yes, it’s at least as old as humanity – but it might as well be *exactly* as old as humanity, in one of those “existence from belief” kind of deals. Nothing here indicates it’s anything *remotely* as old the Universe.
And that’s only if we take its words at face value.
Third, no, if you choose to be so nitpicky, you don’t get to conflate all existential risks into a single bag labeled “threat”. A nuke is a completely different destructive mechanism than a black hole. Preparing for one does not make you ready for the other.
Adding to the point, waayyyyy back in Constriction it was discussed (by e.g. me) that the “black hole” doesn’t behave like a natural one, meaning that’s not actually (purely) a black hole. So a contingency that may have not been seen in a million years or more.
Fourth, another assumption here is that the Wayfarer *wants* to preserve its existence at all costs. Who’s to say that’s the case?
Fifth, sure, there’s a central cosmic horror story theme in False Positive, but there are also “happy ending” precedents, like Incantation and basically all stories with the Exile(s). By the way, note how e.g. Incantation had a “happy ending” for the *protagonist*, but was still “cosmic horror” for the other characters.
Funnily enough, I agree with the central point, that the Wayfarer may survive in some form (I’m guessing the Dark Souls reference is a hint), I just think most of the assumptions here are entirely superfluous.
PS. I went back a few panels and now see that the event horizon has been shrunk considerably in comparison to the one in Constriction. That’s a nice touch, quasilucid!
What made this situation unique is that, for the first time ever, one of the Ancient One’s own acolytes betrayed them, which seemed impossible, and that the Secret Library was breached, which had also never happened before.
Still unusually easy for an Eldritch Abomination, but I’m not too disappointed. This story is more Eldritch Adventure that Cosmic Horror.
I hope the Ancient comes back though.
I REALLY like the spaceman’s new outfit. Super snazzy.