Go and Come Back!!
"..So it is true."
Shub-Niggurath gazed at her two sisters and her Father with a worried expression.
"I was a little worried about Father, but.. looking at that, I suppose I don't need to worry quite so much after all.."
It wasn't that she feared her Father might actually die.
That Azathoth would not perish was something all three sisters had long taken for granted, herself included.
"Still.. if so much as a scratch were to mar that delicate body of His, it would be a disaster.."
What she worried about was not her Father's life, but His well-being.
Even if the probability of her Father dying converged to zero, she had thought He might still suffer some minor injury, or perhaps come down with a slight chill.
But as though her concern had been entirely pointless, her Father looked perfectly, impossibly fine.
"..Perhaps a little too fine.."
She had at least expected some kind of reaction.
After all, it had been the pathogen of Nyarlathotep, His own second daughter, that He had faced.
Killing Him was, of course, absolutely out of the question — but she'd assumed He would at least show symptoms as mild as a common cold.
"Then I suppose.. it's time to begin the preparations for the Plan."
Now that even the last shred of worry clinging to the margins had vanished completely,
it was time to move — to fulfill the wish her Father had longed for so desperately.
She let out a long, drawn-out yawn and then approached her Father to speak with Him.
"Umm.. Father..?"
"Hm? What is it?"
Shub-Niggurath addressed her Father cautiously.
'I-I could vaguely tell even from far away, but.. up close, He's even more..'
Meeting those adorable eyes of His, she faltered for a moment before collecting herself and continuing.
"Ahem.. I have something I need to discuss with you for a moment, Father.."
"What is it? Something you need to tell me?"
As He tilted His head in puzzlement, she took a steadying breath and answered.
"I'm going.. to go make (Your) first friend."
"..(My) first friend?"
Neither of them had considered the misunderstanding that would spring from those words.
'O-ohh..!'
Hearing Shub-Niggurath's explanation of the Plan, Azathoth was quietly moved.
Her, of all people — going out to make a friend!
But that feeling was neither the emotion of a father nor that of a friend.
It was pity. And kinship.
'I figured a cute thing like her would have plenty of friends already..'
He could not currently see his own face.
The image of himself in his mind was a wriggling, repulsive, hideous thing.
He had changed his form, yes, but his confidence in his own appearance remained at rock bottom.
To someone like him, Shub-Niggurath's face seemed nothing short of beautiful,
and learning that even someone like her was in the same boat — friendless and forced to try anyway — stirred a profound sense of camaraderie in him.
'Honestly, I'm a little sorry to see her go..'
She was one of the three he had first laid eyes upon since opening them.
Sending her away now would leave him terribly lonely — and yet, he did not stop her.
'..I can't stand in the way of a comrade's path. Mm-hm.'
Nodding with apparent satisfaction at his own decision, he looked at her — no, at them.
'Phewww..'
The Father's three sisters wiped the cold sweat from their brows.
'What were we thinking, risking Father getting angry again?! I nearly coughed up my soul!!'
'That was far too close.. if Father had felt lonely again, it would have been a catastrophe..'
Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep sent telepathic messages to Shub-Niggurath, carefully out of their Father's earshot.
In essence, they were all drops of His blood; speech was merely one of many means of conversation among them.
Returning to the matter at hand — to their Father, they were the very first beings He had ever met, His first bonds.
The only beings with whom He could currently exchange words.
And they had just announced, straight to His face, that one of those precious few would be leaving His side.
Had He felt even a flicker of hurt over it, it would have been nothing short of a catastrophe.
'S-sorry.. I was so preoccupied with making (Father's) friend that I didn't think..'
Shub-Niggurath, apparently aware of this too, sent an apologetic signal to her two sisters.
"It's fine. If you're going off to make (your) friend, I can hardly hold you back."
""..Huh?""
The telepathy had reached a second listener as well — their Father.
"Y-you.. you heard all that..?"
"Yeah, really took me by surprise."
'Oh no — if He finds out we've been talking amongst ourselves, He'll feel left out..!'
Nyarlarhotep braced herself for the wrath that was surely about to come,
"To think you needed a friend too,"
"..Ah."
Her prediction missed the mark, spectacularly.
"I can't hold back a comrade who's trying her best to make friends. Go on, hurry!"
"Y-yes!! Right awayyy!! I'll be sure to come back with a friend!!"
Realizing the misunderstanding her Father had formed, Shub-Niggurath swiftly put distance between them.
"Good luck out there — make a friend, promise me!!"
With tears welling faintly in his eyes, he saw her off as she departed to make (his) friend,
and she answered with an awkward little wave.
"..."
And as for the two sisters who had watched the entire farce unfold,
'..That's our Father, all right.'
They were simply marveling at His intellect.