Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He couldn’t sleep. Leroy turned to the left side of the bed, then the right, then he tried to cover his eyes with his arm. Nothing. He simply couldn’t sleep.

And the constant flood of memories and information in his brain was making him even more exhausted. He desperately needed to sleep, but his body wasn’t working with him. His brain was giving him alternatives to how he could end up sleeping but nothing worked. In the end, he just gave up and got out of bed.

Leroy walked in circles in his room. Every time he stopped and looked at where his laptop used to be, he felt his body trembling and backed away a few steps, only to repeat the process until he hit the wall. 

He simply gave up walking when he fell onto the floor. The only thing that lit up the room was the dull glow of the window. It was already morning, which meant that Leroy passed the whole night trying to sleep but not being successful.

He hated this. Hated everything about this brand new knowledge he received from encountering the King. It has been around two days (exactly two days, five hours, 20 minutes and, just now, 45 seconds) since he gazed at those doors. And he regretted every moment that he passed just to reach that place.

Still on the floor, Leroy turned his head to see himself in the mirror. His old plain black shirt and his usual sleep shorts with a stupid unicorn pattern in it. When did he receive that? His brain suddenly came with the exact moment he bought those shorts. Right, the texture. It was because he found the texture pleasing and knew it would be good to sleep with them.

Paying more attention now to his face, his eyes had deep dark circles around them and his hair was a total mess. It’s not like he took good care of his hair, but the way it was now made him look like he was imprisoned and being tortured… A bit exaggerated, but it was indeed looking terrible.

Then he suddenly remembered, he had work to attend to! Leroy immediately got up, almost falling again on how fast he did that, and searched for his uniform. He works at a McDonald’s close to his house. Not the best work but it paid enough for him to survive life. And sincerely? After everything, surviving was actually very important.

Dressed and tying his hair in a messy bun as quickly as possible, Leroy picked up his cellphone and ran towards the closest bus station he could find.

~~~

Work was definitely something. When Leroy looked at someone, his brain would flood with different conversations that could happen with the person. At the end of the order, he would have known exactly how the person behaved and exactly where they would sit, just by analyzing their behavior in the different conversations.

He simply doesn’t know how he is handling this. Most of the time he received this information, he felt like he was going to pass-out. Sometimes, he would put the order wrong and his brain would immediately correct him before he did it. It was useful but unnecessary. He always put the orders correctly, he wouldn’t be putting it wrong if he wasn’t paying attention to how that woman would’ve answered if he said that there was a fly on top of her head. Actually, the fly appeared after the woman left, so why was that even a topic of conversation? 

At the end of the shift, Leroy walked slowly to the exit. He didn’t even talk to his coworkers because, every time he gazed at one of them, he would receive a random memory of them.

Outside, Leroy was deciding on going home by walking. He was interrupted by Kyle, one of his coworkers.

“Hey, Leroy… You’re okay?” - The man asked, and Leroy couldn’t see him clearly because his vision was getting blurry. The sudden appearance of Kyle made Leroy’s brain see one of the man’s memories.

It was Kyle, around seven years old, he was playing with his dog. Nothing abnormal, but as Kyle continued talking, more and more memories came into Leroy’s mind to the point that he just… Fell to the ground.

~~~

Leroy woke up in a hospital room. As he tried to recover what happened, he received Kyle’s memories of bringing him to the hospital. Alright, for the first time, this constant knowledge was useful. It seemed that Kyle brought him to this place the moment he fell on the floor.

Leroy was discharged shortly afterwards. He had to walk back home, and just as he thought why Kyle wasn’t in the hospital when he woke up, he received the memory of what Kyle was doing in this exact moment. He seemed to be with his grandma..? Oh, she looked like she was passing through something… Leroy shook his head, trying to get the vision away. He didn’t want to know about Kyle’s personal life.

While walking, and receiving information when he gazed at any flower that he found or any structure or whatever he gazed at, he suddenly got a vision. It was Avery, walking closer and closer to the golden gates.

Leroy screamed to Avery to stop, but he wasn’t there. It was just a memory of the future, probably. Didn’t he warn him?... Wait, does this mean that Avery had bought his laptop like he knew he would?

Maybe it would’ve been better if Leroy hadn’t sold that laptop. But he simply couldn’t look at it, and even after he sold it, when he looked at the place where it used to be, his body trembled and he walked out of the room or just turned his head.

If just writing that book wasn’t enough, then maybe he would need to meet Avery himself. The idea made him tremble in fear. Leroy was never good with talking with other people, not because he’s shy but just because he never brought himself to actually talk with people in his life. He’s an introvert and even though he talks with his coworkers or other people he meets along the way, he prefers the quiet solitude of his house.

But he can’t let another person be gotten by the King.

~~~

Finding Avery’s house was actually quite easy to find when your brain just sends you the exact location as soon as you wake up.

Leroy knocked on the door and was immediately responded by Avery opening it. He never saw Avery in his visions, just his Minecraft skin, so seeing him was… A surprise, because Leroy imagined Avery to be younger, by the way he acted, but he seemed to be around his 20’s?

“Hello?” - The other man said, looking confused at the way Leroy was staring at him.

“Y-You’re Avery, right?” - He asked, just for confirmation. - “TheMostMayo, if I recall…”

“What? You came because of my channel? There’s like, two videos, bro. Oh, you came because of the weird book I posted? Wait… How do you even know my address?” - Avery kept blabbering words and Leroy didn’t know how he would answer all of them.

And he tried. - “It’s part of it, but last time I checked it had one video… And why I came it’s related to the book; for how I got your address… It’s complicated.”

Avery just looked at Leroy like was some out-world being. Leroy couldn’t blame him, because if he had a guy that he never met in his life knocking on his door and talking about a weird book he found in Minecraft, he wouldn’t trust him as well.

“Look, I know it’s weird but… Please just follow what that book says. Don’t turn left, okay?” - Leroy said, already planning to leave.

But Avery was too curious to let this strange man leave. - “Wait! If you didn’t see the video, how do you know about the book?”

“Because I wrote it.” - Leroy answered, already waiting for a loud “WHAT?!” coming from Avery. A few seconds later, there was the scream.

“Wait, wait… So you’re the owner of the laptop?! W-Wow, that’s…” - Avery started babbling again and Leroy was starting to get overwhelmed. He just wanted to save the guy, not keep talking with him.

But it seemed that they would be kept stuck with each other. After all, both were related to the King in their own ways.

“If you want to know more, I hid somewhere two videos about what I discovered. Just find it and… Don’t talk to me about it.” - Leroy said, eager to end this conversation. Every time Avery said something that triggered his brain to Avery’s fate if Leroy didn’t save him, the vision would repeat, and the knight was getting exhausted.

“Oh, right… Right. I’ll watch it…” - Avery answered, but he didn’t close the door. - “How do you know my address, anyways?”

“You wouldn’t understand but… I just know it.” - It was his answer, before walking away from the slime’s house.

~~~

Back at home, Leroy flopped to the floor. The vision didn’t change. It was always Avery going to the doors and seeing the King. Getting the same fate as him.

Leroy wondered what he had to do to get a different ending for Avery.

Chapter Text

Avery watched the two videos over and over again. He tried to solve every code that he found. He wasn’t successful with the poem that d3rlord3 mentioned in the video but he was successful with the code that the guy left for him in the book. For a moment, Avery found it funny that d3rlord3 assumed he would’ve guessed what the phrase meant without the videos.

Anyways, he was too curious about what he just saw. D3rlord3 had censored the face of the thing in those gates or whatever there was. The other book d3rlord3 read through the videos made Avery believe that he saw the King it mentioned. But who was the King? And that didn’t explain how d3rlord3 knew his name.

He remembered the strange guy telling him to not talk with him about the videos, but if d3rlord3’s plan was to let Avery watch the videos and get answers, then he was completely wrong, because Avery just got even more questions.

He would need to find where d3rlord3 lived.

~~~

After searching through old docs and images in his (or in this case, d3rlord3’s old computer), Avery not only found his address but also his name: Leroy.

And now, Avery was in front of Leroy’s house, his body trembling in anxiety. What would Leroy’s reaction be to him in front of his house? He already didn’t seem to be talkative, and he ended their conversation like he was in a hurry. Maybe he was in a hurry? Who knows.

Avery knocked on the door and it opened the moment he knocked. There he was, Leroy, with his tired face and still in his pajamas. Avery felt the urge to laugh, but swallowed it and waved his hand.

“Why are you here?” - Leroy asked, and Avery was sure he heard some disgust in the guy’s voice. He hoped the disgust wasn’t directed at him but on the fact that he came to Leroy’s house.

“I… This whole thing, with the King, it’s confusing. You told me to watch the videos but they didn’t explain anything!” - Avery said, gesturing with his hands while talking. He was too nervous.

“And what do you want to ask?” - Leroy answered, his face still showing how tired he was but, at the same time, showing that he just gave up and decided to listen to Avery. Which left the younger one pretty confused.

“I thought you didn’t want to discuss those videos?”

“And yet, you’re here, so I can only just accept, I guess.” - It was the older man's answer, and he opened the door for Avery to enter. - “Suit yourself.”

Avery gazed at the door before finally entering. Leroy’s house was a complete mess, with stuff thrown to the ground, the sink with dirty dishes, clothes discarded on the sofa. Avery remembered something he saw on the internet about the way a person organized their house showed their mind, or something stupid like that. If this was Leroy’s state of mind, maybe he shouldn’t be believing whatever this guy was talking about a “King.”

He sat on the sofa, waiting as Leroy put some water in a glass and sat by his side. - “You’re probably going to ask about the King, right?”

“Yeah… Am I really that predictable?” - Avery said, more joking than serious, but Leroy’s face showed some kind of surprise and sadness when he said it. - “D-Did I say something wrong?”

“N-No-!” - Leroy immediately responded, his eyes widening with Avery’s visible worry. God, how was he going to explain this whole thing about the King?

Leroy sighed, leaning against the sofa like a drunk dad after having too many beers (that’s how Avery interpreted it), and gazed at the roof.

“That thing, in the gates, it’s the King. He’s named as ‘the King in Yellow’, simply because he hides his true form behind a yellow cloak and uses a yellow mask.” - Leroy started, choosing the words carefully so it made sense for Avery. - “When I saw him, something happened and he decided to give me this ultimate knowledge about the universe.”

“What?” - Avery said, utterly confused. It seemed like Leroy would need to explain further.

“It’s difficult to explain, but now I know everything about everything. I know little things to bigger things about the past, present and future, and I simply don’t know how to deal with this knowledge. I recently learned that I can pass out if a lot of information comes to my mind in seconds.” - Leroy explained. His hands were shaking and he put the glass on a nearby table.

“That’s… H-How can you prove it?” - Avery said in disbelief. Everyone could learn his address, right? Principally hackers. Leroy looked like a hacker. At least that was what Avery was telling to himself.

“Well… You got for Christmas a Spiderman scooter when you were five. Next year, a kid in your class robbed it and destroyed it just because he was jealous that he didn’t have one. So now you’re saving money to pay for it to be repaired since your parents never repaired it.” - Leroy said, and the shock on Avery’s face made him hold back a chuckle. This was the first time that his knowledge was used to surprise another person, and Leroy found it very useful now. - “Sincerely, I don’t think you should save money for that but, you know, childhood memories are very dear, so I can’t judge you.”

“How… I… Oh God, you’re not lying…” - Avery gazed at the floor after that. Leroy really had the knowledge of the whole universe because his Minecraft game was haunted by an eldritch being. And Avery had that laptop in his house. - “B-But… Why-”

“Why am I telling you this? I guess you already understood but I’m going to explain anyway. I’m constantly having this vision where you’re walking to the King’s gates in that Minecraft world. I’m here to avoid you from doing that. But… This vision kept repeating and repeating and… I simply didn’t know what to do anymore, so I guessed I needed to warn you in person.” - Leroy said, getting up and picking the glass to put it in the pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

“But now the visions stopped, right?” - Avery asked, walking along with the older man just because he didn’t know what to do.

Leroy stopped for a minute, trying to see if the vision would come. He still had a lot to learn about this new “power” of his. He was about to say that he didn’t see when he looked at Avery and the vision came again.

Leroy felt his throat go dry and a sudden lack of air. No, he couldn’t pass out right now! He tried breathing but the air never came. His vision was becoming dizzy again.

The last thing he sees is Avery running to him.

~~~

This time, Leroy didn’t wake up on the hospital’s bed, instead, he woke up at his own bed, with Avery sitting on the floor humming a song he didn’t know. His brain informed that it was “Headlock” by Imogen Heap. It seemed that Avery was humming it because he just saw a tiktok with that song.

Leroy sat straight on the bed and gripped tight on the sheets. - “How long have I been out?”

Avery gasped, startled for a second with Leroy’s silence then sudden talking. He got on his knees and turned to the other. - “Around 20 minutes, I guess…You should take a bath, because I didn’t know what to do when you passed out so I tried throwing water on you. But you didn’t wake up so now you smell bad….. Sorry.” - The last statement was spoken softly.

Leroy laughed, because he also didn’t know how to deal with his constant faintings. He didn't use to pass out before the King, only when he broke his leg when he was a child, and now he had to deal with this.

“It’s no problem, I don’t know how to deal with that either.” - Leroy sighed, laying on the bed again, refusing to look at Avery. - “Are you okay though?”

“Why are you even asking me this, bro? You’re the one who fell to the floor! I should be the one asking this!...” - Avery cleared his throat, embarrassed. - “Are you okay?”

“I… I am, I guess.” - Leroy answered, turning to Avery but still laying on the bed. The position Avery was in made him look like some maiden checking on the prince, and Leroy felt the urge to laugh and cry at the same time. - “If I passed out at night, it would be better. At least I would have some rest.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.” - Avery said, uncomfortable with Leroy’s phrase. - “You haven’t been sleeping?”

“No. There is always something happening in my head and I can’t turn it off, so I just spend the whole night thinking instead of sleeping.” - Leroy grumbled, already knowing that his face looked far worse than it was yesterday.

A silence fell between the two of them. An uncomfortable silence that they knew someone needed to say something, but didn’t know what to say. Only for Avery to speak on impulse.

“If you want, I can spend the night here. I don’t live with anyone and it would be nice to spend some time with someone…” - Avery regretted saying it immediately. He didn’t even know the guy properly and he was offering to sleep in his house? He slapped his own face.

But when he looked back at Leroy, the guy looked like an orphan puppy who found out that it was going to be adopted. It was horrendously cute how tired and hopeful the knight looked right now.

“I… I would like it very much.” - Leroy answered, a stupid smile forming on his face.

“R-Right.” - Avery answered. Maybe it wasn’t too bad to spend the night with this guy.

~~~

They somehow decided to watch a movie before going to sleep. Avery insisted on watching “Back to the Future” with Leroy after he learned that the man never watched it. It was kind of disappointing for Leroy because in the middle of the movie his brain decided to spoil all of it, but seeing Avery’s reaction to the film made it worth it.

Leroy made a makeshift bed with Avery with the sofa’s seats and extra sheets that Leroy had. Then they laid on their respective beds with a sudden silence, but it was comfortable anyways.

But Leroy ended up speaking. - “Thanks Avery for… Whatever this was. I needed it.” - Leroy smiled even though it was dark for the other to see. - “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” - Avery answered, face flushed with sudden compliment. Maybe the guy wasn’t crazy as he thought. Leroy was actually kind of chill. He wondered where their relationship would go.

However, right now, he wanted to sleep.

Chapter Text

In his sleep, Leroy was back again at the King’s gates.

But he didn’t move. He felt like he could but preferred not to. He didn’t know it was a memory or the King was trying to talk with him. He feared it was the latter.

However, as he kept standing in the middle of the cavern, only gazing at the gates, nothing happened. Leroy knew that he probably wouldn’t wake up if he continued like this.

So slowly, he started walking towards the gates. Every time his feet stepped on the ground, he felt his breath becoming ragged.

He reached the giant yellow doors, deeply afraid of looking inside. He pushed one of them, and just like the last time, he saw the King on his throne. However, it didn’t come with an intense headache.

“It’s a pity. You wasted most of our time by standing there. I wish we could have more time to talk, my Knight, but we don’t… The next time I have enough energy to talk with you, don’t hesitate to enter the gates.” - The King said, his voice echoing inside the whole place.

Leroy didn't understand whatever the King said, only that they had limited time to talk. He wondered why they had limited time to do it. The King was one of the most powerful beings, wasn’t him? An eldritch horror. So why were his powers limited?

~~~

Leroy woke up feeling out of breath, noises coming from his throat as if he were choking on nothing. He recomposed himself by gripping hard on the bed sheets. What the actual fuck was this dream?

Just like he imagined, when he turned his head, he encountered a standing Avery gazing at him with a horrified look on his face. Leroy wasn’t in the best mood, but if he was feeling better, he would’ve laughed at Avery’s face.

“M-Man, are you okay? I thought you were going to die for a second there!” - The other man exclaimed, putting his hands on Leroy’s shoulders.

“I’m okay, it was just… A weird dream. That’s all.” - Leroy answered, gently removing Avery’s hands from his shoulder. - “Get up, let’s make something to eat.”

Avery wanted so much to ask about Leroy’s dream, but they weren’t that close for Avery to do that. But even so, their relationship felt so different from any other friends the slime guy had before. It was more deep, probably because it was formed by having connections to a god-like monster.

When Avery reached the kitchen, he saw Leroy trying to find the pots and pans in the mess in the sink. Avery felt like he was going to throw up.

He walked towards Leroy, pushing the man’s hand away from the dirty dishes. - “You won’t make breakfast by choosing the dishes you’re going to wash and use and then just leave the rest here.” 

Avery then picked up a plate in the mess and turned the water on, picking the sponge and putting detergent in it. - “How about we both clean this all up? Then we can make breakfast.”

Leroy only stared at Avery’s doing for a while, the dream and yesterday’s vision repeating in his mind, but he gave up and went to find another sponge.

~~~

Later, they made some bread and eggs to eat, since they were the only things Leroy had in his house. They kept silent while eating, with Avery thinking they should talk more than they’ve been since the start of the day.

Leroy finished his egg and looked directly at Avery. - “Sorry for… Scaring you earlier. I… It normally… That doesn’t happen… That never happened to me, actually.”

“Seriously?” - Avery said, his interest in Leroy's “weird dream” coming back with force. - “What happened in that dream to scare you so much?”

Leroy didn’t answer at first. Avery could see the engines in the other man’s mind running with possibilities to this conversation. The slime guy felt his own body shiver.

“It wasn’t a dream. The King wanted to talk with me.” - Leroy explained, his eyes losing that normal they had. Like it he had died right in front of Avery.

“What?” - Avery exclaimed, not hiding in any sort his surprise. - “What did he want to talk to you about?”

“I don’t know. He said we had limited time, and I wasted it by standing in front of the gates and doing nothing.” - Leroy continued. Avery could see the man’s body tremble and sweat forming on his forehead.

Avery stayed silent, thinking of his next question. Leroy was about to pick up another bread for him when Avery started speaking again. - “Why are you so afraid of the King?”

Leroy gazed at Avery intently, which made the slime guy think he was done for. He shouldn’t have asked that question! Leroy knows everything, right? So he probably knows what the King is capable of!

“… I know… I know how powerful he is. I know that, if I infuriate him, he could just kill me. I know things that he did that scare me, because of how nonsense they were.” - Leroy said, gazing at the bread on his hands. - “He’s a god with a power beyond our comprehension, but he’s also a king. I explained to you why he has ‘yellow’ in his name, right? But never explained the ‘king’.”

Avery didn’t speak, he just listened to what Leroy said.

“He had his own kingdom, Carcosa. I… I think I can’t explain to you what happened to that kingdom in detail, but I need to say that the kingdom no longer exists and the reason is related to him.” - Leroy continued, his hands shaking, making him leave the bread on the plate. - “That kingdom, what happened to it, what he did to it, terrifies me.”

Avery continued silent, processing the information. It seemed that the King destroyed his own kingdom in a way that made Leroy be deeply afraid of him. But a question still kept itself trapped in his mind…

“But has the King done anything to you?” - Avery finally asked, and he was expecting the loud gasp coming from Leroy.

“He gave me unlimited knowledge!” - Leroy immediately answered. - “And you’ve seen how bad it is!”

“But it isn’t for him, right?” - Even though Leroy was screaming, Avery tried to keep his own tone calm. - “I mean, he is a god, so maybe unlimited knowledge isn’t hurtful for him. Maybe he wanted to gift you? I don’t know! I-It doesn’t sound to me that he’s doing something bad to you…”

Leroy stayed silent at Avery’s last statement. The slime guy was right, the King didn’t do anything to hurt him directly. He passed his own infinite knowledge to Leroy probably without knowing the consequences, or maybe he did know the consequences.

“But we can’t prove that he didn’t know the effects!” - Leroy said, sitting back in his chair at the table. When did he get up? - “If he has unlimited knowledge, he should have known the effects it would have on me.”

“… Maybe. But we’re just guessing.” - Avery responded, not knowing how to have his own argument being refuted in such a comprehensible way. - “What if you talked to him? He didn’t try to kill you, right? And by the way you talked about that dream, it seems like he doesn’t have that much power he had before.”

With that phrase, something clicked inside Leroy’s brain. Avery was right, the King was talking about limited time. If he was as powerful as Leroy saw in his visions, the King could’ve kept him sleeping the time he wanted so he could talk to him. But he didn’t.

“But what should I talk to him about?” - Leroy asked, still a bit confused at Avery’s intentions.

“Talk about why he’s doing this to you, why he’s getting powerless, I don’t know! You’re the one who has questions!” - Avery answered.

Leroy chuckled at the man’s distress at him, but nodded. Even though it terrified him, he needed to know the truth behind why the King chose him.