Chapter Text
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“Is this bad timing?”
Derek couldn’t even process what voice was in his ears, groaning and rubbing at his temples. Oh, it hurt. The center of his forehead must’ve landed on pure wood, and he could swear there was a bruise on it now he’d woken up. There weren't any fireworks going off anymore.
His document was still open, but there was something else alongside it. Discord. Derek couldn’t recall opening it, having never asked Avery for his before leaving and never using it for much. It was on his old laptop, but once he put it in that storage unit— he’d logged off on every device and tried to keep it uninstalled.
“Derek, hello?” That was a woman. Not only was it a woman, but she was beginning to sound frustrated.
He turned up his screen’s brightness, now able to more properly handle it and squinting blearily at the date. Gosh, his glasses had fallen onto the floor, and he couldn’t see.
It was the second of January. The time hardly mattered when he could try and make a guess off of his window.
The sun had hardly risen, only being out enough for him to tell that it wasn’t something like three in the morning. After letting out another groan, she spoke again, “Dude! I know you wanted help, but you have to hurry this up. Y’know, I got a server to run and all that.”
Oh, so excuse him for being a bit tired after dealing with an eldritch horror flooding his mind with all the knowledge in the world! He had an excuse to be lazy.
“I’m up.” His voice hardly came out, with how much his throat immediately reminded him that protein shakes and smoothies didn’t have enough water to be the most ‘hydrating’.
Especially with the sugar of commercial brands in it.
Well, there were the traces left of the King— he could hear that same nagging voice, the one that was still eager to tell him everything except what he’d wanted to hear. Yet, instead of the same flashes of knowledge like before, it was simply a muted comment.
He blinked at his screen just in time to see the green of someone speaking on call: Arronax. That was who’d been calling for him.
“Why’d I have to be the messenger," she was grumbling to herself, only pausing upon Derek saying another ‘I’m up.’
“You take a while, man.”
Then silence. He didn’t know what to make of this. As much as he understood why she had to contact him, something relating to Cthulu if that voice was still telling the truth— there was almost no reason for another deity to be thrown into his mess. The King in Yellow had been enough.
Right, he still needed to make conversational formalities. Even if she hadn’t put in the effort to.
“Who are you?” The question sounded more skeptical than he’d meant for it to, and she’d clearly caught on.
“You know who I am.”
Of course he did. That wasn’t the point.
“Might be irritating to hear, but I know you do and we have a chase to cut to.” Arronax being the one sent to fetch him was just unfortunate picking, even for a deity. No offense to the lord saving him, but really?
With a long sigh, he sat himself up. Being back to staring straight at a screen when he woke up was hell.
“Something, something, you’re a vessel.” She had a very clear accent to her, almost customer-service-like with the joy she feigned in it, “So it said keeping you alive as forever torture would be funnier.”
Isn’t that wonderful? He could feel another migraine kicking in, one that wasn’t as painful before; he could still feel it in every part of his brain. Practically biting at him when he tried to take in a breath.
“By forever, meaning?”
“You got a lot of time on your hands.”
That implied a lot without answering enough. Derek knew what she meant, had planned amounts for the Tylenol he’d need, and exact times of when his headaches would get the worst.
The information wasn’t random enough for him to have a headache about it, or worse, faint; this was only the beginning of what she’d described as eternal torture.
And from how much he could see, there didn’t look to be an end anytime soon. There was still something his memory was combing out, and he knew he had to look for—
“So, look, Derek. You’re gonna have a lot of time left on your hands to look at a screen, yeah?”
“Mhm.”
Derek was unemployed to start, positive one of two entities trying to mess with him would begin providing for the hell on Earth they’d both created for him. There was still a voice constantly blabbering on and on about things he didn’t want to know, only slightly muffled by the other’s interference in his life.
“With your knowledge in mind, would you want mod for one of my servers?” Arronax didn’t continue in that same unprofessional tone, suddenly sounding like an interviewer adjusting her tie, “It’s a museum for finding Leviathans, meaning the most you’d have to do is answer a few questions and ban trolls.”
He didn’t know it’d happen so quickly.
“I can give you money. Not a lot, but if you want it I’m fine with it. It’s been a hard time for you.”
She was taking advantage of the infinite knowledge. Not that he was surprised; most rational people would, and he knew of her reaction before she even did— but still, that was such a poor cover-up for how much she clearly wanted.
“That’s fine,” he mumbled, trying to find something else. “Just give me a bit, and I’ll figure it all out.”
Derek could still load up the world he last saw Avery in. His brain, with all that it knew, wasn’t giving him the knowledge on the one thing he’d cared about.
Having Avery’s full name didn’t work for anything, considering he’d already searched that up earlier. There were trolls under the other’s post, insisting they were him and likely killing the other’s mood. Oh, he couldn’t imagine how much he’d been through over that.
He’d have to draft up one long apology letter, wouldn’t he?
Arronax didn’t interrupt him for a minute, only letting out a hum and uttering something about, “You are so much quieter than I expected.” She’d been single-handedly carrying all of their interaction.
Derek tried seeing who’d clicked on his document for an email multiple times. That was an idiotic strategy, unfortunately.
“Like I sort of knew you’d be, but not this much. It’s cool.”
There were still people popping an occasional extra firework outside. He could see and hear them through what was clearly becoming a foggy morning.
It didn’t hurt as bad to look away.
He needed to live, or just do something else.
“Arronax, I’m sure you could understand why I need to go.”
“I guess, dude. Just shoot me a message when you join the server I sent you; you’re whitelisted and admin already.” She didn’t need to say that aloud. Still, she had bothered with the etiquette of adding it for him, and he wouldn’t complain about being treated nicely.
The hang-up sound didn’t bother him, nor did the flashes of pain afterwards. There were times when it was worse.
After he closed the laptop, the first thing he did was open his window and look.
Derek stared for a long time, not doing much in his first few days back with his body. He still clearly acted as a vessel, but he had more autonomy, just enough to plan for future events.
Like the other Leviathan planning to join Arronax’s server.