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He hadn’t always been Avery, the random human who was generally seen as nice, friendly and maybe a little annoying or dumb. He used to be Hastur- the king in yellow, the all-knowing ruler of Carcosa.
The all-knowing ruler of Carcosa that got himself partially stuck in the universe that would eventually shape said part into the previously mentioned random human.
It was embarrassing, it was awkward, and if Cthulhu ever heard of it he’d never let the king in yellow live it down. It wasn’t painful to exist in more than one piece (this was hardly the first time- there was still a bit of him out in another plane living its best life), but it was inconvenient- especially with how the entity could feel part of itself just get INFECTED with human feelings.
Maybe it was a cope (it most definitely was a cope) but maybe… Hastur could use this as a way to… get experience?
He already knew everything, but he had no experience with things, so… he could use this situation to get experience on what it’s like to be human? If he said it like that, Cthulhu would not be able to make fun of him for the situation he had gotten himself into.
Besides; how long do humans actually live? 100 years? Barely a blink of an eye!
Hastur and his human-like part got this.
Neither Hastur nor Avery had this, they accidentally gave a guy infinite knowledge- or at least something that the guy would experience as ‘infinite’ knowledge.
Which, of course, meant that Avery had to break and enter into the guy’s apartment to undo the damage.
At least the guy was smart and headed back to the gates to stay alive- the human part of the great old one did NOT want to cover up a death (which would still be fairly easy to do- just had to re-arrange the universe and the fabric of reality to make it seem like the guy never existed. Easy peasy).
(But the guy lived.)
(So there was no need for it.)
(Plus Avery felt pretty lazy after breaking into the apartment so he’d really rather just fix this mess.)
True infinite knowledge really came in handy when it came to finding this guy, though convincing him that no, he wasn’t hallucinating and no, the king in yellow did not send him, was harder.
“How about you take a picture of me?” Avery tried. “If I appear in a photo you took, that has to mean that I’m real, right?”
The man (Derek Hutchins. 24 years old dropout that is pretty darn great at coding) seemed to at least be receptive to the idea, taking his phone, snapping a picture of what was behind him (It was just Avery throwing up a peace sign) and holding it next to his screen so he could look at it without looking away from the device keeping him sane and pain to somewhat of a minimum.
Of course, Avery was in the picture, and after convincing the other that no, the king had nothing to do with this and yes, Avery was THAT Avery, the human side could finally get to work to fix his mistake.
“Okay, so this is not going to hurt as much as looking at that thing did.” Avery explained “But it’ll still be weird. This is going to be the most literal version of brainwashing- we gotta get the extra stuff out.”
“Oka-”
The sound that left the human as Avery got to work was somewhere between a yelp and a pained howl-
But it was over.
Knowledge was out, peaceful calm in.
…Which meant Avery had some explaining to do…
Human existence was suffering, but Derek made the suffering bearable.
“How are you HANDLING this!?” Avery whined. “This sucks. The body is definitely not meant for this- how are humans just okay with this existence?!”
“Avery. It’s a bruise not a death sentence.” Derek chuckled, taking the whole ‘being friends with someone definitely not human’ thing rather well. “You’ve had worse.”
“The wounds I sustained were different tho.” The human-like being whined. “Why are your bodies so fragile and squishy? Why are you guys LIKE THIS!?”
“Evolution”
“You don’t have to live like this tho”
“We literally don’t have a choice”
“Why is human medicine gatekeeping the good stuff from you? You can do so much but you all just…. agree to this!?”
“We haven’t progressed that far.”
Avery pouted.
“You’re no fun”
“Apparently that makes me human” Derek smirked, smiling at Avery. “But if you think this is bad, just wait until you hit your funny bone.”
Avery did not want to hit his funny bone.
Derek was fun.
He was human, he was flawed, he was curious, and one night, as he and Avery were hanging out, staring up at the skies, he asked questions.
Not about the universe, but about Avery.
About what he was, where he came from, how he had lived.
About being Hastur.
About Carcosa.
And Avery answered every single one, having learned the best ways to explain things no human should have a chance to comprehend in a way Derek could grasp.
(Maybe he had driven the other mad, or maybe Avery had simply become more human.)
It was weird. There was a hunger- or a desire, or a need to consume, but whenever Avery tried to eat or drink anything, it did very little to actually get rid of it. It was a need, he understood that, but a need he didn’t know how to fulfill.
But it was tied to Derek.
Sometimes, when Avery spend the night with the other, he’d just… watch him sleep. He’d watch the other in a state where he was completely defenseless and vulnerable and he just had the need to… consume.
But not in a way he could.
If he took Derek- took his very essence and made it his own, he wouldn’t be satisfied. It wouldn’t fill the need he had-
He needed Derek for that need, somehow, but not like that. He needed ALL of the human, and not just his essence.
Reddit had been a last resort- a desperate attempt to understand what he was going through. It hadn’t been helpful, because nobody could give a clear answer as to how to handle ‘love’ and what it meant to feel- just vague human ideas and concepts that were still a little too advanced for the great old one to grasp.
But at least he knew what it was, and as the feeling advanced, having just a part of himself in the world no longer felt enough-
Hastur wanted all of him to be with Derek.
“Hey can I borrow your bathtub? I need to cut my arm off”
It was… cute how Derek was immediately worried about him, how he followed Avery and stayed by his side- how despite knowing Avery was not human, he couldn’t help but want to be there when he knew Avery was going to get hurt-
Not because he thought Avery couldn’t handle it, but because he didn’t want Avery to be in pain and alone.
(Being alone and isolated is something humans do not like when they’re hurting. Derek was introverted by nature but he did not like being in pain and alone. Avery helped with enough migraines and family issues to learn about that.)
(Derek’s father may have mysteriously vanished from the planet, with nobody caring enough about him to investigate.)
(Even the cops did not care for the guy.)
(Avery was not involved with that and you have no proof to suggest he was.)
…it’s really funny that Derek chose to stay by his side, because he did not take what Avery was doing to himself well, throwing up a few times in the nearby toilet bowl, which had the human part concerned- Throwing up was very bad for humans and Avery would honestly prefer Derek left the room if the sounds and sights and smells made him do that to himself.
Human bodies were so inconvenient.
Avery was in the tub.
His arm was in the tub, separated from the human’s body.
There was a ton of blood in the tub.
Derek was horrified outside of the tub.
“Juuuuust give it a bit” Avery grinned, watching the severed arm, the fingers occasionally twitching.
Most of him was outside of this universe, so the form the rest of him would take would probably be a lot larger.
Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long, the hand turning into a fist as the blood began to leave the tub, flowing towards the severed limb.
Despite his concern and disgust, Derek was intrigued, watching closely as the body part began to change- growing a whole new body from just the part that was cut off.
A much larger body.
When it was done, the blood had completely vanished- not even leaving stains in Avery’s clothing, and all of him was now present in the world.
“So uhhh… I guess I’m fully in now.”The shorter part of the entity chuckled. “...Maybe we should refer to this part of me as ‘Hastur’, though.”
“Y…Yes I can do that…” Derek muttered, clearly a bit intimidated by ‘Hastur’.
Made sense.
Avery knew this part of him was much bigger- he himself was only a small part of a greater whole.
He wasn’t short- not by a long shot, but he certainly LOOKED short compared to the part of himself that went by his original name, who was about 7 foot 1.
Tall guy.
Having all of him in the world made stuff so much easier.
Avery could talk to people, Hastur could ‘convince’ people to listen (read: loom over them threateningly until they decided to cooperate and not cause issues) and Derek was just there, making life better just by virtue of being alive.
It was fun to be with him. It was even more fun to pick him up and carry him around, though after a few incidents Hastur was banned from doing so outside of their home.
Because of course Avery and Hastur moved in with Derek- they wanted as much time with him as possible.
…Not that humans had a whole lot of time to begin with. Human lives were so incredibly short- so painfully brief.
(And Hastur was not okay with that.)
(He did not HAVE to be okay with that.)
(He was the king in yellow, ruler of Carcosa and all-knowing GOD)
(He could fix this.)
(He could fix that issue for Derek)
(The human was big on consent and bodily autonomy, but what he wasn’t aware of certainty wouldn’t hurt him)
(He didn’t have to know about the ways the king broke reality- shaped it into something more suitable- something that was meant to last until the king itself perished. Derek didn’t have to know- he wouldn’t even be aware of the fact the world didn’t change- wasn’t altered in any way shape or form beyond what it would be like now. Day would turn to night and back to day again, but time would not progress. The human would be in his prime for eternity, unaware of the fact the passage of time had ceased entirely for the world, though it kept spinning. Of course, death was still a thing, but neither sickness or time would ever lead to Derek’s demise.)
(Same could not be said for certain other individuals.)
(Some people were not meant to live in Derek’s world.)
(Because that’s what it now was.)
(This realm was now Derek’s world- a place meant to house a very special human that made life better.)
(And Hastur would take great care to maintain it.)
(But for now the two parts of the king were cuddled up to their human, thinking really hard on what kind of gift to give their precious little guy.)
“...I feel like you guys are talking about me” Derek sighed, sipping his mug of hot cocoa. “Nope, just thinking about stuff” Avery chuckled, practically draped over the human, while Hastur held Derek close.
(This is how it was supposed to be.)
“Not our fault that we share thoughts- we’re literally a singular person with two bodies.”
“That still sounds confusing”
“Not nearly as madness-inducing as some of the other things you don’t know about us yet.” Hastur’s far deeper voice sounded.
“...I guess that’s true.”