Falling Into Too Deep a Sleep
"Wait, so you're telling me Father just... won't wake uuuup? What on earth does that meeean?"
Shub-Niggurath's face hardened as she posed the question to Nyarlathotep, who had reached out to her through telepathy.
"Well, it's... after Father went on a spree creating stars, He sort of... fell asleep?"
"...He didn't make them because of us two, did He?"
"...If we had made them, we'd have made only as many as we could properly manage."
A faint sting of betrayal coloring her thoughts, Shub-Niggurath asked once more.
"So what you're saying is, He hasn't gotten up since?"
"Mm. Last time He dozed off, Big Sister said He eventually woke up after a while, but..."
"Haaah..."
Faced with a genuinely troublesome situation, she let out a long, deep sigh.
"And just when I thought we'd finally found a home for our children, this has to happen..."
""Meeee—""
She stroked the fidgeting black-furred Dark Young beside her a few times to settle it down.
"Let's think this through. Father went and made planets and stars willy-nilly... and then He slipped into sleep, right?"
Pressing her crimson lips together in a tight pucker, she continued to mull it over.
"Something's gone wrong with Father's body... ...though that's probably not it."
This was the same Father who had shown no symptoms even when exposed to Nyarlathotep's pathogen.
True, He wore the appearance of an ordinary young child — but nothing about what lay beneath that shell was the least bit ordinary.
It was hard to imagine anything going wrong with such a body.
"Hmmm... then what in the world could be the probl— oh."
Her closed eyes snapped open, and she directed a question at Nyarlathotep.
"Hey, Big Sister... could it be that Father is..."
"Father is what?"
After a slight hesitation, she ventured the words carefully.
"Could He just... be sleeping it off because He's tiiiired?"
Shifting the perspective for a moment —
At those words, Nyarlathotep furrowed her brows as if the whole idea were absurd.
She knew better than anyone that Father had a childish streak.
He hated being alone and bored, and was forever chasing after anything fun.
She had witnessed plenty of situations undignified for a being of His stature, but still...
'Even if it is Father... surely it can't be something that petty?'
And yet, He was their 'Father.'
The One whose single roar had birthed the universe, whose breath gave light to stars.
The greatest being in existence, possessed of overwhelming, immeasurable rank.
'...Huh. Actually, when you put it that way, it does sound exactly like something too childish for Him to admit.'
Deciding her own reasoning had been a little too hasty, Shub-Niggurath retracted her theory.
Meanwhile —
"Father... why on earth won't You wake up..."
Yog-Sothoth, eldest of the three sisters, was still at their Father's side, trying to rouse Him.
She shook Him. She yanked away the blankets and the bed itself. She pried His eyelids open by force —
And still, He simply went on snoring away with the most blissfully comfortable face in the world.
"At this rate, I can't possibly fulfill my wish of finding Him a friend... wait."
Her expression stiffened, as though something had just dawned on her.
"Could this... actually be an opportunity?"
It was true.
Failing to show Him humanity was a regrettable thing — but if He were to wake only after the Plan had progressed considerably, and then...
"If, by any chance, He were to wake up after the Plan succeeds..."
Then she would be able to give Father a 'friend' of His very own.
"So, you're saying this might actually work in our favor?"
Nyarlat-hotep asked, once Yog-Sothoth had come to find her and laid out her idea.
"To be fair... it's not complooootely crazy..."
Shub-Niggurath, joining the conversation through telepathy, chimed in as well.
"Father has always lived in the grip of tedium and boredom...
Maybe we can buy time by letting Him watch over the creations..."
Nyarlathotep reasoned aloud, answering her own question as she came around to Yog-Sothoth's way of thinking.
"Right — which means we have to move fast. Father might wake up at any moment."
Yog-Sothoth's eyes sparkled as she laid out the tasks before them.
"Nyarlathotep, once their societies take shape, I need you to search out any creations showing real promise."
"Shub-Niggurath, you'll keep making Dark Youngs and steadily grow our forces."
"Then that leaves you, Big Sister, to build their societies for them," Shub-Niggurath concluded, and Yog-Sothoth nodded.
"Good. Then let's begin — before Father wakes up."
The moment Yog-Sothoth's words fell, the sisters leapt swift and sure into action.
What they did not know, however —
Was that the sleeping Father would not open His eyes again for a staggering thirteen point eight billion years.
That what was about to unfold would only happen after an unfathomable expanse of time had passed.