Professor Forrest Macary

Professor Forrest Macary I like the uncomfortable position Forrest Macary ends up in during No Tomorrow. He's the person Patrick finds when he needs someone who knows the stories about Keres, but knowing a story doesn't mean you're prepared to believe it's happening to the man sitting across from you. Macary is an archaeologist at Sisyphus University and the curator connected to the death exhibit Patrick visits. Patrick tracks him down because the information at that exhibit is a little too close to what he's experiencing. He's seen Keres, survived something that should have killed him, and now his family is being targeted. He needs more than a museum explanation. At first, Macary seems like he's going to be a pain in the ass about it. He's busy, he's brusque, and Patrick's attempt at the old phrase gets a comment about his pronunciation. But when Patrick grabs him and begs him to listen, Macary notices how desperate he is. Instead of getting security, he takes the time to hear him out over lunch. That's what keeps me from reading him as just the dismissive professor. He does care. He gives Patrick the story he came for, including the warning that Keres can take the people you love even when she can't take you. Patrick hears enough to panic about his family and leaves before the conversation is finished. Later, Macary actually comes to Patrick's house. He hasn't simply forgotten about this stranger after lunch. He's looked into what Patrick told him and is trying to come up with an explanation. Unfortunately, the explanation he offers is that these experiences might be connected to an inherited mental disorder and the trauma Patrick has suffered. That's his theory, not a diagnosis the comic establishes. We can see Keres doing these things. Patrick isn't imagining the entire threat. But Macary doesn't have the reader's view of what's happening, and that difference makes the conversation frustrating in a way I think works. He also points out that a story like this usually gives its chosen person some special sign or extraordinary background. Patrick doesn't have an answer for him. As far as Patrick knows, he's just an ordinary man whose family is being torn apart. The comic then gives us a strange account of his birth that neither man is bringing into that conversation. Macary's usefulness and his limitations are right there together. He knows the mythology, takes a frightened stranger seriously enough to investigate, and still can't give Patrick the certainty he needs. I wouldn't want every supporting character in a supernatural story to instantly accept everything. Having someone genuinely try to help and still misunderstand the danger gives Patrick's situation a different kind of isolation. Source: Grimm Fairy Tales presents No Tomorrow #1–5.