Chapter Text
Three scenes can truly explain Avery’s life, the only three that Derek went back to after he’d ‘seen’ all the lives of humanity.
With all the knowledge of the world, Derek spent his time ignoring as much of it as possible; everything came to him at all times, even with his eyes closed so he never wanted to go back through each piece of knowledge. Why bother?
This was why it was so surprising he went back to those three memories. It was funny, they weren’t even his.
Tied to this chair however made his life so minding numbing, excluding the bursting of knowledge and constant migraines he got from said knowledge. Derek found himself bored for the first time in a week. Before, he found the Minecraft world the worst of adrenaline, fear and boredom; having spent weeks staring into a screen, he felt the nausea that was the unholy mix of anxiety and stress and panic, he was much happier with this new arrangement.
This new arrangement aforementioned, was strange. Even to Derek who knew all of everything.
It was this.
After Derek destroyed the King in Yellow, his gracious Hastur, he found himself in a mess of past and future with a new level of quantum tunnelling that should never have happened to him. Literally, Derek found his hands merging, or rather phasing, with his keyboard and disgustingly the little bits of pot noodle that he had spilt whilst blindly eating. His mind gave him a very very clear description of the process of which electron’s quantum tunnel as he had unfortunately compared the two.
God, Derek felt another migraine coming along.
The strange comparison aside, the horror he found himself submerged in wasn’t due to any of the previous events but rather one in the future for him. At the time, now that event has happened and all he tried to do against it was foiled by the remnants of the King in Yellow, Derek defeated him once but turned out his luck had run out.
So at 6:59am or 0659 on a Monday morning, their shift had started at 4am and there was a lot of tedious dragging of feet (Derek wondered why they even took the job if they hated mornings, he got the answer in a few forms which all equate to money) and dragging of Derek. He knew they were coming yet he still couldn’t move, after weeks of sitting Derek found his legs were dead. The previous strength of his legs, although never very strong, were unable to hold him up.
Derek spent his morning between the hours of 2:30 to 5:00 crawling towards the door of his small bedroom, it took him two and a half hours as he had to return to the screen of his laptop a total of 68 times almost every two minutes. After a while, he remembered he had an extension cable under his desk; knowledge where knowledge should hurry the fuck up.
The laptop, one that he’d later throw out of the window and hope it is irreparable even though not very deep down, actually very very surface level, he knows it will be found by a broke college student taking a course on computer science. Something about someone picking it up and forgetting it in a storage locker.
Derek spent the next thirty minutes implementing a certain bit of code into the Minecraft world, you can never be too careful.
Then he heard footsteps in the corridor outside, his heart picked up and the previously going headache coming back.
He was afraid, even if he knew the two outside, impersonally. He knew all of it.
Why was he scared?
Derek let the two men in and decided he didn’t want to recognise their faces, there was no reason to and he didn’t want to understand why they were shipping him off. He knew it was impersonal. He wanted to blame them, the physical act of taking him into an electrician’s working van and tying him to metal plating of the wall.
He let it happen in a defeated manner. They commented on how this was the easiest capture so far.
——————
The first memory was of Avery as a young boy, just turned 7, he was short and scrappy in a way boys who lived near a forest was like. He, in the memory, was wearing cargo shorts which showed bruised knees and a jacket too large for himself. Derek knew it was his older brother’s.
Avery’s older brother was 17, he was the sort who took great joy in trashing cars and egging houses and bullying younger kids. Except Avery. Avery was a strong minded kid who liked to fight back because he didn’t have the brains to get out of a situation.
Avery was out with his brother and his brother’s older friends. They’d gone up the hill behind their house and were making jumps for the bikes some of them had brought. Avery didn’t have a bike, his mum couldn’t afford one, but his older brother did. It was stolen but Avery didn’t know that.
Younger Derek didn’t either. He didn’t understand the whole situation when he landed on them.
Derek had been 9 for eleven months at that point and was ready for the responsibility of double digits, he and his parents were on holiday. He decided as part of his new responsibility was to run off and go into the woods. Much to his parent’s dismay.
“Hey Curtis!” A boy taller and broader than Derek hollered, “Found this runt, wanna hitch him?”
Curtis, Avery’s older brother’s nickname, it came from the lead in a film they all went to watch; the lead had tripped whilst proposing to the love interest and Curtis did the same with a coke all over a girl’s lap. She shrieked at it and all his friends started calling him Curtis.
Curtis agreed and Derek was lifted by the collar of his shirt. Humiliated and hanging, Derek froze at the big kids. He hated big kids, spent most of his time staying away from them.
Just before they could shove Derek in a tree and ‘hitch’ him, Avery pulled on the boy’s arm. “What are you doing!!” He asked, but at 7 he didn’t sound intimidating or commanding in any way.
“Wanna join him rat?” The boy sneered and before Avery knew it, he was joining Derek up on the branches of the tree, just opposite Derek. Avery stared dumbfounded as his brother snorted.
The teens laughed, but quickly got bored of the idea of two kids in a tree, they wandered back to their digging and propping of branches.
Avery didn’t look worried, he knew he could get down and if not his brother would begrudgingly help him down, so he grinned kindly at Derek.
Derek couldn’t climb trees, not the same way Avery could, he was an indoors person. The only reason he was outside was because… because why not. He was on holiday.
They didn’t say much, Avery had a happy face and he guided Derek down. Derek and Avery parted ways just as quickly as they crossed them.
Derek carried on left. Avery turned to take one last look at him before joining the teens.
In the memory, Derek likes to watch it from Avery’s eyes; he never knew how excited Avery was to see a boy his age, he never knew how nervous he was to speak to Derek, he never knew how disappointed Avery was for letting Derek walk away.
Derek only knew it was Avery because of his exact DNA sequence popping up in his memories, he followed it like a moth to a flame. He followed Avery like he was seeds to a chicken.
Avery didn’t have friends.
He couldn’t talk to boys or girls his age, he froze up and stumbled over his words. His mum had manhandled Curtis into letting Avery tag along and Avery knew it.
Still, in a brief moment Avery smiled at a boy and he smiled back. He didn’t feel lonely.
——————
The second memory, was one he wished he experienced first hand. It was one he acquired after three months of detainment. It was of him as D3rlord3 (uncapitalised “l” for a reason, one he hoped Avery would’ve noticed) and talking to Avery.
After his fight with the King in Yellow, it had turned November and Derek was rotting in his flat. His brain was physically leaking down the back of his neck and his nose was bleeding all over his keyboard, but even then he carried on the speedy typing.
With infinite knowledge came the ability to learn coding and “if statements” in seconds, something that would’ve taken the average Derek years of learning was ready to be utilised in his brain instantly.
Derek created D3rlord3, a coded character thats soul (not sole) purpose is to stop Avery from getting to the final platform and performing that spell. A spell that, if and only if, Avery thought too hard on it then he could activate all that Derek had destroyed. After Avery’s, originally Derek’s, user is killed only then would the whole world disconnect. Avery would never reach him and the King, no matter how much they all want it.
D3rlord3, not to be mistaken for D3rLord3, will then take all the footage and hopefully build the timeline as simply as possible. Just so Avery will have a peace of mind, and Derek won’t be forgotten. He didn’t want to be forgotten.
The memory was of D3rlord3 telling Avery to go to the tree and block each door with non-existent gold (an idea that Derek had thought through before getting to the platform however decided against due to its time consuming nature, a perfect distractant for Avery however). It was a few minutes later, when Avery had speedily traversed the bridges and dug into the tree up to the peak did he realise Derek had betrayed him. Lied to him.
Derek knew Avery screamed for a few seconds before rushing through the door.
Avery jumped around on the stone bridge between doors and instead of going to the next one, he used the excess wood from his climb to build a makeshift set of stairs down the centre of the bridge to the floor of the hall.
He bypassed all the door, right up to the centre one. The one Derek was insistently trying to stop him from getting to. Why was Avery so stubborn?
Avery towered and without any hesitation, went through the final door.
Derek liked this memory for one main reason: Avery had found a solution to a problem that Derek’s mind never considered, he thought of it sure, but Derek was an inherently curious person, he wanted to go through every door. Avery wasn’t.
Curiosity didn’t drive Avery in the way it drove Derek, instead Avery understood loyalty.
He wanted to remember Avery for his drive and not the fear that overpowered them both in the taint of the King in Yellow.
It was a short memory, however Derek liked it. It showed Avery in all his quick wit. It made him fall all the harder for the man.
———
The final memory, something that hasn’t happened yet, was at a crossroads.
Busy with people, people who never knew and never would know of the significance of the crossroads to him. It had details a game of Minecraft never held like the sounds of people and the wind, a light breeze on a warm July morning. Or the smell of fuels and flowers, ones that had blossomed on the balconies above him.
There he was.
Avery was something special, with his short sleeved green top that was embellished with “fragile, handle with care” in black and knee length cargo shorts stuffed with random, unnecessary items from the store Derek knew he went to every morning just so he had a reason to turn left at these crossroads. Avery hadn’t changed much since he was 7, similar liking for shorts all year round and a scruffiness that only brought out a boyish charm in him.
He only turned left in some naive hope that he may bump into Derek. However unrealistic that may seem, Derek had brushed his shoulder a total of six times before now. Always wimping out of actually talking to the man as he felt the electricity of potential cauterise his stomach.
The first time he brushed his fingertips against Avery’s arm, Derek had to find a bin to throw up in.
Today, Avery had turned left with his usual wired headphones (something about them not fitting his ear shape when they’re wireless, Derek acknowledged) in at such a loud volume that Derek could hear the thrum of bass from where he was behind the man. Avery.
He wasn’t looking, or listening. With his eyes ahead, only impatiently waiting for the lights to turn red and allowing him to cross the busy road onto the other side to turn left down the pavement did he not notice the speeding truck. Avery!
Derek knew this was when Avery’s death was most probable, at a whopping 83%.
Avery wasn’t watching, neither were some other people but at-least they were warned, Derek had to act. He reached out and took the collar of his shirt in the strongest grip he could muster. Avery didn’t budge, but the pressure caused him to pause and take out an earbud.
“Sorry man, did you want anything?” Avery asked politely, as if talking to a stranger. Derek let his heart drop and his always active mind blank on what to say. He was a stranger. To the man he loved. Loves.
Avery was acting patiently however, and smiled glowingly. This didn’t help Derek find his words, and he took a breath whilst everyone else bustled by with their busy lives.
“Hello?” Avery nudged, placing a hand languidly in his short’s pocket, “are you okay?”
“Yeah…” Derek breathed out and stared at him, “jus… just worried you were gonna get run over, that. That car looked quite close.” His voice was rough and he needed water.
Avery glanced towards where the car may have been if going the proper velocity and thanked Derek.
Then went about crossing the road. Derek watched him get across and instead of going left, he watched Avery go forward at the crossroads.
He breathed out. Letting the opportunity to truly talk to Avery slip from his grasp.
Avery was walking away.
Derek waited for the light to turn red, he waited impatiently. He ran across and didn’t take a left at the crossroads because he knew what he was searching for had finally gone forward.
He met up with Avery and…
He stopped.
He stopped, just before he could tap his shoulder. Derek decided Avery was better left without him. Derek turned to walk away from the closest he’s been to having true happiness, the one being he wants in life.
Instead.
Avery tapped him on the shoulder, he smiled, “if I didn’t know better I’d think you were stalking me.” He then added, “I saw you a few days ago, you keep brushing my shoulder or nudging me.”
Derek was speechless but Avery was speaking enough for the two of them, “do we live in the same building? Why do you look so familiar?”
Derek took a breath and said, “first time I’ve seen you go forward at the crossroads.”
Avery froze, as if ice had grasped his intestines in a sharp grasp. His breath was cold against Derek’s cheek, causing his own skin to prickle at the foreign feeling.
He took too long to respond, Derek doubted his own knowledge. Was this Avery? Avery.
Avery.
The only person who could make him doubt infinite knowledge.
“D3rLord3?” Avery whispered and Derek paused as he pronounced each three so fluently in his user tag, as if he’d been whispering it each night awaiting this moment.
Derek didn’t nod, he didn’t have to. Avery knew, he watched as each emotion flickered across his face: tension in his eyebrows - anger, tremble in his lip - grief, scrunching of his nose - denial, heavy blinking - disbelief, and finally the softening of his eyes.
Derek never understood that, nobody softened their eyes, it didn’t make any sense. Avery’s eyes however wavered. They glimmered with unshed tears and a shaky breath. His eyes softened.
The tremble of his lip was stopped by a slight bite. Avery’s voice came out as what was only described as a small whimper, a tone so animal in its need to finally finally see Derek. His eyes softened.
Avery’s hands scrunched into tight fists and he looked as if he was gonna rise one to deck Derek in the face. Derek wouldn’t blame him. He loosened his grip and let his fingers hang in defeat. His eyes softened.
Derek watched each tell of his emotions, all the minuscule things. Avery didn’t understand any of Derek’s.
“Say something.” Derek asked, in the same way young Avery would try to command.
Avery didn’t because Derek’s command wasn’t strong enough to break his stupor.
“Please.” Derek begged, infinite knowledge never made it easier to get to Avery.
Avery’s eyes were soft, green, and shiny. Derek could only focus on them, “What do you want me to say?” He asked back.
“Something.” Derek mumbled, a hair-breaths away from Avery. His fingers were hovering just above Avery’s wrists, Avery’s fingers were drifting closer as if under hypnosis or just a positive charge attracted to the negative that was Derek.
Avery sobbed out a laugh and said, “Something.”
Derek laughed at a joke he never would find funny, maybe it was Avery.
“You speak.” Derek said anyways, he watched as Avery blinked back tears.
Avery responded, “and you’re alive.” His fingers took the material of Derek’s hoodie, the sleeve feeling heavy and real. So very real. Avery didn’t look away from the gold of Derek’s eyes, still hypnotised; Avery was back in the church, he was drowning and it was all in a golden hue that only looked good in Derek’s eyes.
“I am.” Derek confirmed and he lifted his hand to cup Avery’s so delicately, as if Avery was the fragile one of the two of them.
Avery sobbed.
And soon after they were hugging like they’ve been friends since they were seven. All the years that had split them meant nothing because here they were. Here they are.
——————
Derek awoke from his daydream to the sound of metal banging on metal.
They were here.
That sounded ominous. ‘They’ were a group who had been formed of conspiracists and adrenaline-junkies who wanted to break into the D.M.S or department of metaphysical sciences just for the fun of it.
Some of them definitely had personal connections, one of them being the college student Avery. He had a nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe he could find some information of Derek and the horror that is the King in Yellow.
Footsteps ran down the corridor and Derek felt his heart beat spike, then the alarms blared.
Suddenly Derek was doused in red and flashing and nausea. The alarms and the lights and the adrenaline blurred his senses.
He needed to call out but his voice was unused and his throat was dry. Get up, get out of here.
He croaked, a sound he’d usually be embarrassed by however he didn’t care. The footsteps were slowing and the doors between him and the end of the hall were being broken down, Derek knew he had to be quick before they were caught.
This was his chance to be freed. To see Avery. To live. There was so much more out there and Derek hates how he’s spent his whole life cynical. He wants to be with Avery and understand what it is to live.
In the real world, not in Minecraft.
Derek is never touching the game ever again.
“Speed up man!” A voice shouted, not Avery.
“I’ll just skip a few doors, any money at the end of the corridor do you think?” Another replied, he had a crowbar to pull apart the circuit systems that hold the doors loved.
They were going to skip Derek.
“Hey…!” He murmured urgently, it wasn’t loud enough.
“How should I know?!” The other groaned over Derek’s weak call, exasperated. “I’m going ahead, meet up with the others further down!”
His footsteps rushed ahead, just past Derek as he whimpered out a “Stop.” He wasn’t heard.
The other broke the door next to him, nothing, then the door opposite him. Derek knew he was going to give up and follow the others. Without getting Derek, unless acted upon by enough curiosity.
“Hey!” Derek called louder. “Hey! Hey hey hey!”
Not loud enough. The man was leaving, tapping the crowbar on the walls of the corridor in the D.M.S building.
“PLEASE!” Derek yelled. Only the first few syllables sounded loud enough. The man would’ve heard it if not for his tapping.
He got further, and Derek was hopeless.
He screamed.
The man paused, “who’s there?” He asked hesitantly and relief drenched Derek.
“Here! In here, please!” Derek tore at his vocal cords, they hurt so much, he hurt so much.
“Where?” The man followed Derek’s voice as best he could, breaking into a room two doors away.
Derek called again, “further down!”
The man went one door down.
More footsteps came from the way they came and the man swore. The footsteps were some Derek recognised in a way that didn’t include infinite knowledge but rather repetition. These weren’t friendly and the commands they were yelling didn’t give Derek any confidence.
“I’m sorry!” The man called just at his door and ran away. Derek deflated. He wasn’t getting out, he was going to be tied to this chair until he dies. Which didn’t seem that far away.
Why isn’t he dead yet?
The answer to that question came in a very detailed report in his head. Knowledge where knowledge should shut the fuck up.
It all boiled down to a biological will of humanity’s want to survive. And a lot of surgery from D.M.S should Derek ever say anything good about them.
His last hope had run off.
Fuck.
Fuck!!
There was nothing he could do, no cool thing to understand or pickaxe to use or pattern to recognise. This was humanity and the real world.
It was a few minutes before the alarms became background noise to his migraine. A few more for the lights to do the same.
Maybe half an hour went by before any change came, Derek didn’t want to think or exist with such a headache. He wished he could take his brain out and put it in a cool basin of water.
More footsteps rushed around but Derek didn’t care anymore, he’s accepted his fate.
“Hello!” A familiar voice called out, Derek only slightly perked up.
“There’s nothing here, let’s join the others outside. We’re done or we’re gonna get caught.” An unfamiliar voice urged but it was too late as the other had smashed into the lock and was kicking down the door.
Derek felt another layer of relief but by this point his head was spinning from all the differing emotions.
The door slammed open and he was met by two people in balaclavas; instantly Derek knew every house they’d lived in and its history, their love lives, family, regrets, and potential deaths.
“Holy shit!” The unfamiliar one yelled, his name was Daniel. He was an adrenaline junkie who had to get back to work after this. He was a security guard at a venue just a city over.
The familiar one was called James, he was a bartender. The two had never met until the formation of the group online, they had a Snapchat group funnily enough. Derek knew they were going to be good friends. Daniel would go on to become the godfather to James’ kids.
They quickly untied him and removed any excess medical equipment such as the needle in his arm to keep him docile. Derek slummed forward and Daniel caught him.
They both took most of Derek’s weight as they took him back through to their exit. They were quick paced and Derek felt his nose bleeding once again at the lack of a screen, his cell had a screen just above eye height.
“Wait.” Derek mumbled, tightening his grips on their shoulders. They paused just before turning left down a corridor.
Three D.M.S guards ran past, completely missing them. James’ breath came out harshly at the close call.
“Go.” Derek said, they rushed as quickly as they could. Derek was extremely light at this point in time.
They got out through what looked like a hole in the wall. Derek felt himself fading, not fatally but certainly not consciously.
“Nearly there man, just hang in with us.” Daniel patted his chest, sending a worried glance to James.
It was dark out and Derek could only see details of objects due to the underlying knowledge he had of everything. It had its uses.
There were 15 other people, and Avery. He was in black jeans and a similar balaclava like the others, he looked deflated. As if hoping to find something about a certain Derek Hutchins.
Derek stared at him, he felt his nose stop bleeding and his head slow its pounding.
“Everyone back?” Their elected leader asked, counting every head, “wait..” he stared at Derek and the mess of his face and the exhaustion written into his bones.
“Who’s this?” Avery asked, he was wringing his hands and Derek knew it was because he got nervous in a group setting.
James tried to explain how he heard Derek earlier on but by that point some of the others were urging everyone to get a move on. They all still had a bus to catch.
Derek was supported on the quick walk through the woods. James spoke to the leader as they walked.
“The guy was yelling first time me and Ken went by and we couldn’t get to him so me and Danny went back to fetch him. What’s the harm?” He shrugged which jostled Derek and made him throw up a mix of water and blood.
The leader raised a brow but held a concerned gaze nonetheless, “let’s get him to a hospital.”
Avery turned so he was walking backwards on the path in front of Derek, “Do you know anything of a guy under the username D3rLord3?”
Daniel groaned and commented to Derek, “Avery’s been very VERY insistent about a guy called Derlaud who was taken by some eldritch horror. We don’t really believe him.”
“Shut up!” Avery yelled, he stared at Derek with no recognition. Not that Derek would expect any.
Derek nodded, “I… know…” he then passed out.
And a few months later they met again.