Got an interesting take on eldritch horror for all you writers out there. It's a bit of a roundabout schlep to reach the actual idea, but writers tend to be readers so I hold you'll stick with me til we get there.

So, consider a 2D creature. Little flat dude, living on the ground. No concept of "up" or "down." He's 2D, he just doesn't parse the concepts and can't perceive them anyways.

He sees you. What he actually sees is just the 2D cross section of you where you intersect with his 2D world, which is probably your footprints. So, as far as he can tell, you are a pair of footprints that are.... apparently one being? He doesn't get how it works exactly, but it's not too far out there, so he just kind of accepts that, yes, humans are The Two That Are One. Spooky. They always seem to use the singular to refer to the pair of themselves, and only differentiate between themselves as Left or Right. But other paired instances of The Two That Are One are, in fact, separate entities. So they're only in sets of two, unless accompanied by a companion called "Cane," which they are sometimes, or even a pair of companions called "Crutches." When Crutches are present, sometimes one of The Two That Are One will be missing entirely. It's a little confusing.

But wait, what now? They disappear and reappear in sequence, teleporting in turns. He never sees them just move like a 2D being, always the stop-start teleporting. Apparently this strange power is called "walking," and its accomplished by The Two That Are One moving through an unseen dimension called "Up," through a process called "lifting" themselves and re-entering the real world farther away in the direction they wanted to go. He can accept the idea of unseen dimensions, and he vaguely gets the idea that one of The Two That Are One must remain anchored in the real world to prevent something called "falling," which is some kind of uncontrolled movement through the unperceivable dimension of "Down." Which is the same dimension as "Up," but...... backwards? Reversed? He's not really clear, but "Falling Down" is presumably bad, so The Two That Are One keep one of themselves here in the real world to prevent it.

Except if they do something called "jumping." Which consists of gathering up their power to hurl themselves through the Up dimension together to reappear together somewhere else in the real world. He isn't sure why they Walk instead of Jump, since it seems better to take both of The Two That Are One together at the same time, but okay.

Okay, what the hell, they can Walk through impenetrable barriers like the great wall of Sidewalk Chalk? How do they go through that? What? They went "Over?" The hell is "Over?" Like 'around' but through the unseen dimension of Up? But they couldn't Walk through the barrier of Wall. Why could they go "Over" Sidewalk Chalk but not Wall?

And they can't go between the four small obstacles of Refrigerator Feet. The area between them is safe from The Two That Are One, for the four Refrigerator Feet are connected to each other in the strange and eldritch dimension of Up. The barriers are too powerful to be moved by The Two That Are One, and it (they?) cannot enter the real world where it is blocked by such powerful forces.

Got all that?

Okay, now consider a 4 dimensional elder god and how we 3D entities would perceive them.

Praise the Spider Queen 🙏✨🕸️🕷️🕸️✨🙏

Ok I’ve finally found the ultimate meme…

Nyarlathotep by  Álvaro Fernández González

things from children’s dreams (2023)

CONFRONTATION

by Artem Chebokha

Imagine you played with faries as a kid. You were close to them. They took care of you. You don't remember much about them, just them taking you places, and showing you magic, sometimes just for fun, sometimes things that would help you with your life. They would take you to the abandoned beach, to the underground, to temples nobody knew the name of anymore. They would tell you ancient secrets, and use their magic to help you because it amused you. It was freindly for awhile, at least under you grew up, and people got worried, you moved to a new apartment that was further inland, further from the shore, and slowly you drift away from them.

And now that you're an adult, you've been hearing about eldrich horrors in the same parts of the city. Dark things that must have taken over the places where the faries once lived. Things that are beyond time and space. Things people barely know about.

And because you knew the faries, because they protected you when you were small, you decide to go see the horrors. You know there are things out there protecting you.

And when you go to the abandoned beach, to the underground, to the forgotten temple, you see the same faries you always knew. You realize what the eldrich horrors are. You realize that those are the same things you played with as a child. The fungel being, the shimmering woman who almost looks human but doesn't, the massive insectoid creature with radiant wings, they're all the same creatures you always knew, faries to one eye, eldrich to another.

Adult eyes see things differently when they're not used to accepting things they don't yet know.

I like cosmic horror a normal amount. 😊

Marc C. Green  

Mom said it’s my turn to summon the Old Gods and bring about the destruction of the universe and mankind

Azathoth's Family Tree (According to a Howard Philips Lovecraft 1933 letter) - As illustrated in the Cosmopopicon. The Cosmopopicon: Cosmogony though Mythology, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Pop Culture and more, by Ghislain Barbe, is available on Amazon, Lulu and Barnes & Noble.

Cosmopopicon (lulu.com)

THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, and Other Short Novels by William Hope Hodgson. (Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1946) Cover art by Hannes Bok. 3014 copy edition.

‘The House on the Borderland is unique in several ways. The narrative itself is a double-frame narrative: the editor of the volume is presenting a manuscript he found under mysterious circumstances, describing the account of two fishermen who themselves discovered a hand-written account of the cosmic haunting of a recluse’s remote home.

Additionally, the novel is one of the earliest examples of the departure of horror fiction from the Gothic style of supernatural, psychological hauntings, to more realist, science-fiction/cosmic horror themes. The recluse is, among other events, transported to a mysterious supra-universal plane populated by monsters and elder gods; and his house withstands assaults from legions of monsters as he travels across time and the solar system.

The book was very influential on H. P. Lovecraft, who himself was famous for the cosmic horror themes in his work. The concept of an uncaring, and even evil, universe that Lovecraft found so disturbing is front and center in this supremely strange novel.’

source [a newer print edition]

source [radio play]

source [audio from Libre Vox]

The God is about to do a break dance, I swear

CRYPTIDS 

by Okro