Shadowgirls

Well, they do say that out of all the animals in the world, the ones who most resemble humans socially are ants. And while one ant isn't threatening (Usually... some of them, like those crazy South American Bullet Ants, are plenty threatening even if there's only one), almost nothing wants to mess with the whole nest.

Edit: And now that I think about it, this analogy would make the Great Old Ones, who DO want to mess with the whole nest and do so successfully, into the equivalent of a giant cosmic aardvark. Which is awesome.

Actually, this whole debate has made me wonder about something concerning the pact between the EOD and the waterbreathers off on Devil's Reef...

Ok, your people are starving, I can understand a pact that benefits you all. Blood sacrifices and becoming willing breeding stock, check those boxes to save the community... I can maybe understand that. I'm now wondering why continue with it (if we're such a badass species and all ). Is this now a Faustian deal with no possible backout (commonly know as the "Oh noes - it's Cthulhu!" Clause), or is this a The Wicker Man-esque "What my grandfather began out of expediency, my father continued out of love," situation?

I mean, Innsmouth no longer needs harvest, so is this just about the moolah? Maybe it's just me, but I think it'd take some faily astronomical greed to make you want to dance the wild mambo with the Creature form the Black Lagoon. If it isn't that, well, I guess it's the Deep Ones that have solid gold between their legs

Mondo Kane wrote:Actually, this whole debate has made me wonder about something concerning the pact between the EOD and the waterbreathers off on Devil's Reef...

Ok, your people are starving, I can understand a pact that benefits you all. Blood sacrifices and becoming willing breeding stock, check those boxes to save the community... I can maybe understand that. I'm now wondering why continue with it (if we're such a badass species and all ). Is this now a Faustian deal with no possible backout (commonly know as the "Oh noes - it's Cthulhu!" Clause), or is this a The Wicker Man-esque "What my grandfather began out of expediency, my father continued out of love," situation?

I mean, Innsmouth no longer needs harvest, so is this just about the moolah? Maybe it's just me, but I think it'd take some faily astronomical greed to make you want to dance the wild mambo with the Creature form the Black Lagoon. If it isn't that, well, I guess it's the Deep Ones that have solid gold between their legs

Oooooh, I can actually answer this one!

Yeah, as it turns out, once the whole cycle has started, if you try to break it, the Deep Ones freaking kill you. Remember, that whole 'plague' thing that killed half the town, way back when, was because the townsfolk who weren't EoD decided they didn't enjoy being sacrificed and arrested the Order members, stopping the deaths. The Deep Ones responded to the sudden lack of sacrifices with their usual tact... by going completely berserk and eating half the populace.

And this still holds up in the face of our technology today, even. Maybe as a SPECIES, with our awesome country-smashing weapons, we could repel an invasion of fishmonsters, but one little New England town? Not so much. By the time the military got there, the damage would already be done; and by now, I've got to imagine the fine people of Innsmouth know that even if humanity as a whole survives the coming Fishpocalypse, THEY are sitting at ground zero. Whether we win the overall war or not, they're dead meat. At this point, it's in their own best interests to just kinda go with the flow.

Oh, I figured as much from the Proggies profile, A... I was hoping to hook me an answer from the Owlman about whether there's more to it than "Oh noes - we iz fishnomz!"

As in, do people not just accept it as a way of ensuring Innsmouth stays on the map, but something that the first families of Innsmouth welcome; the Lovecraft version of a deb-ball, only with Mervs in Tuxes

"Hi Mr. Johnson. I come take pretty girl-child to ball. Home by midnight. Promise."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... God, I hope not.

Society with fishmonsters... oh God, I wish I'd had that idea right at the beginning of the writing competition! Watson! The Typewriter!

As Ren Hoek would say, I'm a sick little monkey

I don't know... the thought of a bunch of fishmonsters walking around interacting with society in a normal, everyday manner sounds just a little too much like that sitcom with the Geico cavemen.

Oh no, I meant the movie Society. If you've never seen it, you should... one seriously surreal, messed-up movie... kinda funny if you're a bit twisted

The only way I can describe it if you've not seen it is to try and imagine 'The Aristocrats' joke as a completely weird semi-Lovecraftian horror movie.

Looking back, I probably should have recognized that you were talking about something in particular. What with, y'know, the italics. Man, thinking is hard.

Mondo Kane wrote:Actually, this whole debate has made me wonder about something concerning the pact between the EOD and the waterbreathers off on Devil's Reef...

Ok, your people are starving, I can understand a pact that benefits you all. Blood sacrifices and becoming willing breeding stock, check those boxes to save the community... I can maybe understand that. I'm now wondering why continue with it (if we're such a badass species and all ). Is this now a Faustian deal with no possible backout (commonly know as the "Oh noes - it's Cthulhu!" Clause), or is this a The Wicker Man-esque "What my grandfather began out of expediency, my father continued out of love," situation?

I mean, Innsmouth no longer needs harvest, so is this just about the moolah? Maybe it's just me, but I think it'd take some faily astronomical greed to make you want to dance the wild mambo with the Creature form the Black Lagoon. If it isn't that, well, I guess it's the Deep Ones that have solid gold between their legs

Wickerman is my guess. They actually BELIEVE in it, look how hard they've been trying to wake Dagon a creature that means doom and lots of it. Maybe it's because they think (or are) they are exempt from the whole end of mankind deal, maybe they aren't completely human anymore, and maybe it's just a basic desire to be part of a secret club. When you get right down to it, it's just like hazing..... Only you sacrifice people and sleep with intelligent critters.

As for the creature from the black lagoon, maybe it's one helluva ride

Well, we humans would win. Yeah, we'd lose people. But they'd lose, period.

Thats enough for me.

That makes me think of the movie ANTS. Million's dead in an attack on the Termites, but 1 ant survives... Ants win *lol*

Charles wrote:I recall another good sci-fi series where a group of different alien races faced a far superior and deadlier one in great space battles. They discovered Earth in their region and decided to inform us humans of the impending doom and ask for us to assist (they figured as a low-tech race, we could probably provide simple troops or something).

What they found was that even the weakest of healthy humans was far superior in strength and toughness to any other alien member of the group. We give them a friendly slap in the arm and it would break in 3 places! The foe they faced had psychic powers as well, so they figured they'd better get one of the races on their side with some mild psychic power to see how easy it was to probe us... The thing screamed and said we we're going to kill them all (the beast/animal in all our subconcious).

That sounds vaguely familiar. Do you remember the name of the series?

It sounds like the author was a follower of the John Campbell school of science fiction. Mr. Campbell would not accept any story that didn't have humans superior to all alien races.

FOUND IT!

WORLDWAR by Harry Turtledove

I particularly liked the dilemma faced by the Jewish people with betraying mankind by fighting alongside the aliens or risking the FINAL SOLUTION by fighting alongside Hitler's army.

Hrm.. I read a single-book variant of that tale, Charles, and loved it - can't recall its name just now, but it was also a fantastic read.