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On a whim last weekend I looked online for an old story to see if it had been updated and it had not--Toxic Stars's last post was in 2016--but it reminded me of other Lovecraftian fanfiction I've read and really enjoyed, like the classic Children of an Elder God that I read when it was coming out while I was a university student, or the Charles Stross story A Colder War.
I occasionally look around the net but "Lovecraftian sci-fi" seems to be pretty thin on the ground. There's Eldritch Skies and Cthulhutech in the RPG space, and Eclipse Phase is extremely Lovecraftian in outlook--you can't tell me that a big chunk of humanity aren't "free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy."
(This is of course because nearly all "humans" in Eclipse Phase are AIs with the memories of a human who believe they are that human and who most of society treats as that human, but I digress. The book explicitly says that they deal with the problem of individuality and mind uploading by not thinking about it!)
Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I really expected there to be more Lovecraft fanfiction out there. I'm constantly trying to find Stargate/Lovecraft crossovers because it works better than nearly everything. There's even already a gate buried in Antarctica in canon, just put it in the Old One city! Make the Ancients the Old Ones! But I've literally only found a single fic, and it was half about romance which I wasn't interested in. Maybe that's my problem, honestly--a lot of people write fanfic to write about relationships, in both the romantic and the human connection sense, but I really like reading fanfic that's about worldbuilding and exploration of a setting. "Toxic Stars" is half story chapters and half chapters about the history of future humanity, the colonization of the solar system, the awakening of TYRANT in the South Pacific and subsequent collapse of all Earth governments, and the history of the Martian colonies thereafter, all written from a point much further in the future, interspersed with warnings like:
I occasionally look around the net but "Lovecraftian sci-fi" seems to be pretty thin on the ground. There's Eldritch Skies and Cthulhutech in the RPG space, and Eclipse Phase is extremely Lovecraftian in outlook--you can't tell me that a big chunk of humanity aren't "free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy."
(This is of course because nearly all "humans" in Eclipse Phase are AIs with the memories of a human who believe they are that human and who most of society treats as that human, but I digress. The book explicitly says that they deal with the problem of individuality and mind uploading by not thinking about it!)
Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I really expected there to be more Lovecraft fanfiction out there. I'm constantly trying to find Stargate/Lovecraft crossovers because it works better than nearly everything. There's even already a gate buried in Antarctica in canon, just put it in the Old One city! Make the Ancients the Old Ones! But I've literally only found a single fic, and it was half about romance which I wasn't interested in. Maybe that's my problem, honestly--a lot of people write fanfic to write about relationships, in both the romantic and the human connection sense, but I really like reading fanfic that's about worldbuilding and exploration of a setting. "Toxic Stars" is half story chapters and half chapters about the history of future humanity, the colonization of the solar system, the awakening of TYRANT in the South Pacific and subsequent collapse of all Earth governments, and the history of the Martian colonies thereafter, all written from a point much further in the future, interspersed with warnings like:
Warning: The contents of this file past the dotted line are classified as Maximally Controlled Information, security phrase CRYSTAL TOWER. If you are not cleared for MaxConInfo with security phrase CRYSTAL TOWER, close this file immediately and contact your infocon officer for debriefing using the security phrase PANIC YELLOW.That's the kind of fanfiction I like, and it seems pretty thin on the ground. But I'm glad to be rereading this one.
Warning: Unauthorized access to this file is punishable by death followed by post-mortem interrogation, extinction of all Citizen Honors (if applicable), and listing as a Dishonorable (Second Class) on the Wall of Shame.
Reminder: [...] Visual imagery of TYRANT is a level one memetic hazard, causing catatonia, uncontrolled psychosis, or traitorous dissociation. If you believe visual imagery of TYRANT is present on Melanicus station, activate the emergency alert system with the security phrase FRENZY BLACK. Then, if you believe you may be exposed to visual imagery of TYRANT, shut down your nervous system immediately to prevent contamination. If you believe someone else has seen visual imagery of TYRANT, kill them immediately, then isolate their remains to prevent contamination and contact your infocon officer and/or station security for instructions. Remember, it is a Citizen Honor to risk your life and/or sanity to suppress level one memetic hazards, leading to listing on the Wall of Honor as a Defender of Mankind if you survive, and as a Martyr for Mankind (Second Class) if you do not. Death in defense of your species is the highest honor of all humankind. Maintain proper information hygiene at all times.
