Eldricth Abomination

[Wanara009]

So, a story of mine has an antagonist that is this. Basically, he is a man... thing with a constantly changing appearance, cannot be photographed/recorded, and 'page' through alternate realities to manipulate causality and event (e.g.: someone shot him in the face point blank, he could immediately copy a version of himself in an alternate reality that didn't have hole in his face, or a reality where the gun was a tequila gun) yet nobody could think of him as anything but 'normal, unremarkable human with heterochromia' and the event happening around him as 'perfectly normal'.

However, I have difficulties on how to incorporate him to the story without making him/it look silly. Could anyone share their trick on how to write eldritch abomination?

Thanks in advance.

 

[WooHooMan]

I had to google "eldritch abomination" to see what you mean.

I think the problem is that he's too overpowered. Whether hero or villain, no one likes an OP character. It doesn't make for a compelling conflict. My advice would be to de-power him or put some kind of limit on what he is capable of.
I have a group of similar characters (extra-dimensional aliens with reality altering powers) in my WIP but they're pretty limited to one power, one form and people notice them.

This is under the assumption this character is going to be directly involved in your story's action. Lovecraftian monsters work best when they're in the background.

 

[Wanara009]

I had to google "eldritch abomination" to see what you mean.

I think the problem is that he's too overpowered. Whether hero or villain, no one likes an OP character. It doesn't make for a compelling conflict. My advice would be to de-power him or put some kind of limit on what he is capable of.
I have a group of similar characters (extra-dimensional aliens with reality altering powers) in my WIP but they're pretty limited to one power, one form and people notice them.

That's the point. The story will be about how the protagonist find a way to hurt him. Though I agree with your advice on putting limit. Perhaps that power of his should be limited to himself/itself and to anything he has contact with.

 

[Snowpoint]

The fun of cosmic horrors such as Cthulhu is in not understanding, not knowing. So, perhaps tell the story from the human POV. He fires a bullet, then smells tequila on the monsters breath. He doesn't perceive this alternate reality stuff and it never come up. The monster simple does impossible things.

 

[Alexander]

In a similar manner to what Snowpoint said, what I think could be useful is doing everything from the point of view of this protagonist and make it so that we can't understand quite what is going on. Humanity fears nothing more than what they don't know, so make this creature seem impossible by what we know. Also, don't let them show up that much, otherwise the shock and dread that you may be trying to build up will die down. Just like how a villain will likely seem less impressive if they show up every episode of a TV show and are always beaten, the more times this figure arrives, the less of an impact it will have.

 

[ChasingSuns]

I would agree with what others have said. The less that the protagonist knows/understands about this being, the more tense and terrifying the situation will be, not just for him, but the readers. Lovecraft was all about the unknown, and that which can't truly be understood by humans. Not saying that you have to write it like Lovecraft, but such creatures really are best when there's that fear of the unknown.