Futility FYM-2021

Arkham, Massachusetts, October 13 1927, 6am on a Friday

"Little Darling it's been a long mild sunny Summer
Little Darling it feels like you since you've been near
Here comes Cthulhu Cthulhu
Here comes Cthulhu..."

That's not how that song goes!? Suddenly wide awake Agatha Crane sits up in her shabby, small bed, in her tiny packed up to the roof with newspapers and books 1 room appartment above the General Store in Rivertown.
How does she know? What is this weird small box besides her head playing music anyways?
Beatles are crawling through her head. Beatles?
Not the bugs of that she is certain, she remembers like a faint dream 4 young men in strange clothes with outrageous hairdo playing this song but not with those words!
She grabs the now silent small box made out of some strange light but solid material and turns it in her hands. An apparition of that she is certain, as para-psychologist this sort of occurrence is not exactly strange to her, but getting woken up by one is indeed new.
She shakes it a bit, touches it with ever so slight pressure on all edges and sides, nothing.
"Hallo?" she whispers with a voice still raspy from the long dark hours of sleep, her lips almost touching it. But no reaction whatsoever.
With a shrug she gets up and begins her morning routine, packing the box in her huge leather bag, in case it would come back to life, before scurrying down the hallway to the one kitchen all four tenants of Davy Schoffner's partly illegal side business share.
The smell and the dog Duke's panting announce the presence of Ashcan Pete while she is still a good few steps away from the door.
He had recently come to some money, selling trophies of his nightly hunts to the Miskatonic University. Not enough to buy soap though it would seem. Agatha kind of didn't mind most of the time as Ashcan had a neck to lead her to interesting fields of research and the one or other occassional investigation. He knows the whole town and the whole town knows him, being who he is people had less inhibitions to tell him all the things they'd never tell their neighbours.
"Good morning!" with a smile that shows all her teeth warbling like a lark Agatha throws the door open.
"Coffee is on the stove, give it a minute." He grunts not unfriendly but obviously distracted by a dark red, almost black scab on his foot. Duke looks up from his big bone pants a little louder in her direction before purposefully going back to business on his breakfast.
"Oh that doesn't look good!" She bends over the table to get a better look.
"It was one of those smart flying beasts. It got me bad with this. But we made it pay isn't that right boy? Yes we did." He pulls a heavy brass object out of the jacket hanging in the back of his chair and threw it on the table.
Almost as if singing a melody the object makes metallic noises while it swings a little from left to right like a strange pendulum approaching the balance in its center.
"Ashcan! That is wonderful!" Agathe fingers her occulus out of her bag, puts it over her right eye, adjusting it to the best setting with the hair-thin wire modifiers and lets out another long how of excitement as she now can see the details crystal clear.
"You're a weird lady. What's wonderful about this little metal man? Believe you me that wasn't so nice to get its head stuck in my foot."
"It's some sort of knight with an oddly shaped disc under its foot, there's an inscription? 'Joaquin Phoenix' it says?"
"Hm." Ashcan grunts. "Is that one of your little relics? What does that mean?"
"Well Joaquin is the Spanish word for the hebrew name 'lifted by Yahweh' and Phoenix is an originally Egyptian mythological bird most famous for rising from the ashes."
Ashcan Pete spits on the floor "You take it. I don't like the Spaniards, Jews or Egyptians." He gets up and limps to the stove where the coffee water is finally boiling.
While Pete prepares the cups Agathe cleans the little figurine with some water and a towel, as she rubs his head the box in her bag starts talking.

An evangelical minister and a politician arrived at Heaven’s gate one day together. And St. Peter, after doing all the necessary formalities, took them in hand to show them where their quarters would be. And he took them to a small, single room with a bed, a chair, and a table and said this was for the clergyman. And the politician was a little worried about what might be in store for him. And he couldn’t believe it then when St. Peter stopped in front of a beautiful mansion with lovely grounds… many servants, and told him that these would be his quarters.

And he couldn’t help but ask, he said, “But wait, how–there’s something wrong–how do I get this mansion while that good and holy man only gets a single room?” And St. Peter said, “You have to understand how things are up here. We’ve got thousands and thousands of clergy. You’re the first politician who ever made it.”
*1

"What is this?" As the box turns quiet again Ashcan falls heavy on his chair, making the cups he put on the table wobble.
"I have no idea. I found it besides my bed this morning." Agatha replies as the door opens and another tenant the lovely Lola Hayes almost seems to hover through the door.
Without as much as a greeting her eyes in an unblinking stare she whispers "The evil empire."
"What does it mean?" Agatha internally is getting ready for another round of battling the Elder Gods.
"All of them are here!" Lola, Ashcan, Duke, the room the world the house start changing shapes the ultimate chaos has arrived.
Not everything has meaning.
Most of the time the end is inevitable.
No matter what you do, evil always wins.
For the evil ones are Gods and we are only human.

T)hose daring to oppose the Elder Gods who ruled from Betelgueze, the Great Old Ones who fought against the Elder Gods...were instructed by Azathoth, who is the blind idiot god, and by Yog-Sothoth ... (Y)e blind idiot, ye noxious Azathoth shal arise from ye middle of ye World where all is Chaos & Destruction where He hath bubbl'd and blasphem'd at Ye centre which is of All Things, which is to say Infinity....
Lurker on the Treshold

ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn

The End

*1 Reagan

“You have to understand how things are up here. We’ve got thousands and thousands of clergy. You’re the first politician who ever made it.”
*1

hahahah probably true !!

a reply to: 727Sky

I was researching Reagan a bit, this story is not a serious entry to the contest it's more a mesh of what currently occupies me, Arkham Horror & Reagan.

Isn't that one happy looking horse?

originally posted by: Peeple

Isn't that one happy looking horse?

He has a wry smile. The horse.

How are you finding Reagan? I recently read his testimony before the House of UnAmerican Activity and I started expecting to be outraged (hit my teens in the Thatcher/Reagan capitalist love-fest) but ended up really admiring his principles (under those cicrumstance). I got why people followed.

I'm obviously getting old. I also think the last Bush seems like a laugh, I bet he's a riot to get pissed with.

Or possibly the bar has been so ridiculously low of late I'm getting nostalgic for the buffoons of my youth.

a reply to: KilgoreTrout

I wouldn't call it wry. More like he's telling a joke only he gets.

That's the Reagan-Magic incredible charming person, everybody liked him. Except probably Gorbachev. lol
Anyhoo also a puppet-president if there ever was one.

"Or possibly the bar has been so ridiculously low of late ..."
That is probably the truth.

a reply to: Peeple

Isn't that. sort of, what "wry" is? Maybe not. But we agree on the horse's expression even if I used the wrong word.

I think that given the way in which politics is run in the US, the lobbying, the campaign funding, it's hard to pick any president that doesn't come with at least some strings attached. You just can't get there any other way. Trump just demonstrates that those strings can be stretched to other continents now. It wasn't his charm that came across in the testimony it was willingness to just say "nope" and walk out when he was asked to name names based only on his opinion. He had a line. I had expected him to be currying favour, but he wasn't.

Charm is definately a factor of leadership but it's for the periphery. Those closest to you, who stand behind you and will watch your back, that requires respect (love) and you have to earn that usually but it depends much on who, to where and for what you are leading. Reagan led business men and entrepreneurs which by no means required him to be Alexander or Garibaldi.

a reply to: Peeple

What an engrossing story! Now I'm curious about that box, what happened before and how will the story end.

a reply to: Peeple

Very intriguing story!!

I will have to read it a few more times to gain additional clues to digest the nuances of it. More later.

a reply to: Peeple

Reagan introduced the American Silver Eagle dollar coin. In 2021 they were to switch the back side to a close up of an eagle in flight (and on the hunt). Then Covid hit and they have slid the introduction time to mid 2021. I.E., Reagan still lives!!

Ewwww!!

When Cthulhu looks like a better answer then we know that the end is neigh!

Jahbulon! Jahbulon!!

PS, I have the last of the Reagan Silver Eagles in my grubby (and until yesterday, broke) hands!! This means that I have a couple of months to save up for the next set of new coins (I am penciled in on the short list for the new coins)!

Which of course means that the world is ending!!