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Starry Eyes [Worm/Lovecraft Mythos]

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I like the touch of taylor knowing the full version of proverbs. Very fitting to the anti authoritarian views of both taylor and annette.

One of my favourites in that category is the full form of 'Blood is Thicker than Water'

In its short form it seems to say family is more important than anything else.

But the full form is:
"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

Which is saying that the family you choose is more important than the one you're born into.
 
Madou Sutegobana said:
I actually prefer the rebuttal, "Carelessness killed the cat. Ignorance framed curiosity!"
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My mother's line (she even had a T-shirt with it) is "Ignorance killed the cat, curiosity was framed".


Zeuseus said:
I like the touch of taylor knowing the full version of proverbs.
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Except that isn't the full version, that's a recent (relatively speaking) addition.
The origin was "care killed the cat" i.e it died from worrying too much, that evolved to the modern form and then in 1933 someone in a college magazine added the "satisfaction brought it back".
'Curiosity killed the cat' - the meaning and origin of this phrase

Curiosity Killed the Cat - Meaning, Origin and Usage

Literary analysis for the phrase Curiosity Killed the Cat, with meaning, origin, and usage explained; as well as the source text.
literarydevices.net
 
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Ia Ia Taylor Ftaghn!

It LIVES! I missed this fic so much!

Who needs sleep? No, seriously. We can dream whilst still awake! Dream of Azathoth little dreamlings, dream of Nyarlahotep and the Sleepless City.
 
TerrorCooper said:
Her Humanity meter would probably start dropping a whole lot faster. Also, I can't help but wonder if the pattern of the stars 'beyond/behind' her evoke a dressed woman or a... less than even vaguely decent one. Or somewhere in between.
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I think it's far more likely that they just cause terrified gibbering and gnashing of teeth. Also, while the author deciding that an underage character had a constellation inside her that looked like a naked person would probably be a first for the mods, anything happening that made it relevant to the story would be skirting a line.
 
So I stopped reading this fic when the update rate slowed to a couple chapters a year, and just finished a reread with 3 years' worth of new chapters.

The Panacea interlude was fantastic! A minute-long platonic whirlwind romance between a girl and a tentacle monster, after which she spends an hour (figuratively) glowing before announcing that she's the proud mama of a baby shoggoth. I can't wait to see the (hopefully figurative) fallout once Taylor and Rune finish their impromptu spelunking adventure.
 
It might be a good idea to get out of there. Since those caves are so far underwater, there's a good chance that someone tunneling in would release the air and cause the water to explosively flood the place. Momentum may even push it above the nominal waterline for a while, and sudden flows of water are quite dangerous (and even more so in a confined space). A good example would be all those videos of cars being carried away...

I also refuse to believe that the worm-thing is dead. Rule One of Creepy Horror Movie Plots, right there. And I don't know if it's something she'd be able (or want) to try to control, aside from the difficulty of trying to engulf a colossal, malevolent ... thingy.

Thank you for your mastery of thread necromancy. I thought for sure that this one was dead!
 
LostArchivist said:
It might be a good idea to get out of there. Since those caves are so far underwater, there's a good chance that someone tunneling in would release the air and cause the water to explosively flood the place. Momentum may even push it above the nominal waterline for a while, and sudden flows of water are quite dangerous (and even more so in a confined space). A good example would be all those videos of cars being carried away...

I also refuse to believe that the worm-thing is dead. Rule One of Creepy Horror Movie Plots, right there. And I don't know if it's something she'd be able (or want) to try to control, aside from the difficulty of trying to engulf a colossal, malevolent ... thingy.

Thank you for your mastery of thread necromancy. I thought for sure that this one was dead!
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Being that far underwater, that there is breathable air in the place is concerning. Air pockets happen in caves and tidal zones because the water drains out periodically. Deeper than the low tide mark you can still get pockets of volcanic gas or methane, but nothing you would want to be exposed to let alone inhale. To happen below that and be breathable implies either active conditioning or a connection to the surface somewhere and the water is actively being kept out against pressure. Or both. I'm a bit concerned about whatever turned on the lights, but I think there are bigger problems incoming. Mere tunnelling shouldn't be shaking the place like that. Even with blasting. Armsmaster is a dick but even he isn't that reckless, so unless Leet is having an extra-special malfunction today or Bakuda and/or Lung is rampaging topside, I'm thinking Endbringer.

Dead as Cthulhu, baby, and from the way it trashed the room, 'friendly' or 'controlling it' aren't in the cards. Whoever is knocking is in for a rude surprise. On the other hand, if it is friendly (to Taylor), or even if it isn't, can you imaging everyone's reaction when she tries to bring it home with her as a pet?

"But it's so cute!" Nomnomnom. "See? It's friendly!"
"Taylor, it just ate your tentacles."
"They grow back. Can we keep it?"
 
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spikethehobbit said:
Being that far underwater, that there is breathable air in the place is concerning. Air pockets happen in caves and tidal zones because the water drains out periodically. Deeper than the low tide mark you can still get pockets of volcanic gas or methane, but nothing you would want to be exposed to let alone inhale. To happen below that and be breathable implies either active conditioning or a connection to the surface somewhere and the water is actively being kept out against pressure. Or both. I'm a bit concerned about whatever turned on the lights, but I think there are bigger problems incoming. Mere tunnelling shouldn't be shaking the place like that. Even with blasting. Armsmaster is a dick but even he isn't that reckless, so unless Leet is having an extra-special malfunction today or Bakuda and/or Lung is rampaging topside, I'm thinking Endbringer.

Dead as Cthulhu, baby, and from the way it trashed the room, 'friendly' or 'controlling it' aren't in the cards. Whoever is knocking is in for a rude surprise. On the other hand, if it is friendly (to Taylor), or even if it isn't, can you imaging everyone's reaction when she tries to bring it home with her as a pet?

"But it's so cute!" Nomnomnom. "See? It's friendly!"
"Taylor, it just ate your tentacles."
"They grow back. Can we keep it?"
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That is really a good point, and one that I did not consider. I know that water will gradually dissolve and absorb air; it's why you need to repressurize water-hammer traps and well accumulator tanks, but I didn't follow that to its logical conclusion of there not being air in the caves. Or figure out how the air got into an underwater cave in the first place...

And yeah, the lights ARE a sign that something Eldritch is going on, so that's also a good argument for active containment of the air in said caves.
 
As long as Taylor doesn't run into Cthulhu Himself, she should be fine.

Minor eldritch horrors, she can "eat" by ripping herself open and having her Shoggoth drag them in. Even people-sized talking people-eating spiders. Which are a thing, because Atlach-Nacha. Because of course.

But Cthulhu? He's bigger than the Endbringers, his Awakening would consume the minds of humanity (possibly across All Earths, not just Earth Bet), and he can reform from disintegration. I don't think Taylor could hurt him, or eat him, and she certainly couldn't reason with him, much less beat him. Even if he's asleep, his true form is supposedly only represented by squid-head-dragon-wings; that's just the statues, which are made by mortal men. Just seeing him could break Taylor (or Rune), and any of these would end the story. Even 'mere" Great Old Ones such as the High Priest of Fallen R'lyeh outclass EB by a significant margin; obviously we won't see anything from Elder Gods or Outer Gods beyond a Cult or a Minor Avatar...

Anyways, any of the Really Big Things in the mythos would outclass Scion, and the "minor" horrors tend to fall slightly below Shoggoth or Night-Gaunt levels... and Taylor has those already, happy to work with her. Sure, it would be an interesting underdog story for her to work against Eldritch Gods who could overpower her in an instant... but they aren't supposed to have a comprehensible psychology, anyways, so eh.

Maybe later. But for now, conflict means "strong parahumans," "lots and lots of enemies," or "Endbringer." I very much doubt Taylor will run into anything she can't beat, and she can store Rune to keep her safe... which means conflict as well, if emotional at best.

Anyway, Brimstone, stop worrying! All is well! TRUST IN THE AVATAR OF ESCALATION!
 
boo600 said:
But Cthulhu? He's bigger than the Endbringers, his Awakening would consume the minds of humanity (possibly across All Earths, not just Earth Bet), and he can reform from disintegration. I don't think Taylor could hurt him, or eat him, and she certainly couldn't reason with him, much less beat him. Even if he's asleep, his true form is supposedly only represented by squid-head-dragon-wings; that's just the statues, which are made by mortal men. Just seeing him could break Taylor (or Rune), and any of these would end the story. Even 'mere" Great Old Ones such as the High Priest of Fallen R'lyeh outclass EB by a significant margin; obviously we won't see anything from Elder Gods or Outer Gods beyond a Cult or a Minor Avatar...
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Cthulhu got beaten by a steamship. I think you are overhyping him.
 
Wait, since when has WATER been Cthulhu's weakness?

Also, according to Lovecraft, Cthulhu was waking up (minor avatar), and yeah, his head got 'sploded by a steamship. That puts his endurance so many orders of magnitude below an Endbringer's that it's comical.

The resulting soup then reformed, and Cthulhu thought about killing the men who attacked him... before going back to sleep. It was the equivalent of a man being poked in his sleep, then rolling over instead of getting up.

While I refuse to hypothesize the presence of fanon-wanked hyperverse-Cthulhu, our memorable octo-head is generally a planetary-level threat, whose awakening ends human minds planet-wide immediately. He's also multidimensional, so he's kinda an endbringer in his own right- impossible to kill by mortals, and his "mountain-sized" true form should be able to pick endbringers up... even if they can shred straight through him.

What I'm saying, however, isn't a statement that an Entity could or couldn't win against ANY of Cthulhu's various incarnations... merely that, while a (insert Cthulhu here) vs (Insert Earth Bet Abomination here) battle royale could be interesting, a canonically-accurate Cthulhu waking up ends humanity's participation in this story, and Taylor running into him could break her brain. Thus, I very much doubt Taylor will run into him, OR ANYTHING LIKE HIM, in the caverns... at least directly. And while she may run into multiple hostile minions, powerful enough to be a danger to her, her current kit is at the top-tier of Mythos Minions, and she's clever. She might find challenges, but no serious "oh, SHI..." moments.

Basically, I was taking Brimstone's "SOMETHING is up" as a statement of worry, so I could contribute and keep this thread going, as I recall from my own meagre experience just how difficult it is to post something on a dead thread, and I really like this story.

Sorry about that. But, also- Seriously, when has WATER been CTHULHU'S WEAKNESS!?!? I know he can control fire, but SERIOUSLY?!?
 
boo600 said:
Sorry about that. But, also- Seriously, when has WATER been CTHULHU'S WEAKNESS!?!? I know he can control fire, but SERIOUSLY?!?
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Since his very first appearance where he was trapped underwater for an uncountable amount of time and after all that time could only manage to exert any influence over humanity through the dreams of crazy people? And that was a comparatively thing IIRC. He also hesitated for a bit to follow the steamboat and the narrator speculated that he might actually be nervous about getting in the water again. He may have a squiddly-diddly for a noggin but he's not actually a sea monster after all.

Also, I feel like it's been implied throughout the story that Taylor's not actually human and probably never was.
 
KindaLazy said:
Since his very first appearance where he was trapped underwater for an uncountable amount of time and after all that time could only manage to exert any influence over humanity through the dreams of crazy people? And that was a comparatively thing IIRC. He also hesitated for a bit to follow the steamboat and the narrator speculated that he might actually be nervous about getting in the water again. He may have a squiddly-diddly for a noggin but he's not actually a sea monster after all.

Also, I feel like it's been implied throughout the story that Taylor's not actually human and probably never was.
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Pretty sure that he wasn't trapped, he was legitimately asleep. Or unconscious. The point being, it was his state trapping him, not his surroundings.
 
Yeah, it's pretty clear in the Mythos that a lot of the big things went dormant after some period in the past when the stars changed, and that they are waiting until things set right, and then they will be back up and at them.
 
DestinyPlayer said:
Pretty sure that he wasn't trapped, he was legitimately asleep. Or unconscious. The point being, it was his state trapping him, not his surroundings.
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Hmm, been too long since I read it so it may not be a specific weakness of Cthulhu's, so much as it is some weird property of the ocean itself blocking his and maybe other old whatsits powers.

In the elder time chosen men had talked with the entombed Old Ones in dreams, but then something had happened. The great stone city R'lyeh, with its monoliths and sepulchres, had sunk beneath the waves; and the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse. But memory never died, and high-priests said that the city would rise again when the stars were right. Then came out of the earth the black spirits of earth, mouldy and shadowy, and full of dim rumours picked up in caverns beneath forgotten sea-bottoms.
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No idea what the one primal mystery thing is but, somehow water beats psychic in Cthulhumon. Although he was actually trapped behind a big door the sailors accidentally opened, unintentionally accomplishing his cult's goal of freeing him. And then he got steamboat'd in the face which apparently knocked him out and he got dragged back down by Ryleh sinking again. There's got to be something about water that kept him from just swimming back up, right? Dunno what else would've kept him down.
 
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