Chapter Text
"Hi guys, welcome to the stream, settle down, I haven't actually decided what I'm doing today," Avery tells his chat, humming as he sets up the stream, checks in on the people flooding in, and makes a post to let his audience know he's got a stream going. All routine by now, so as he boots up Minecraft and waits on the title screen, he starts talking, responding to his chat.
"Any ideas on what to do?" he asks, and watches his chat basically explode with suggestions. Avery tries not to laugh, until a certain username catches his attention, and he jolts forward, frowning at the scrolling chat, "Hold on, hold on, go back-"
No way. No fucking way.
d3rlord3: Anything that isn't Hypixel
He's messaged D3rlord a little more, since that fateful first interaction. They talk pretty often, now, which Avery delights in- Avery would very tentatively call them friends. Online friends. He's learnt a bit more about D3rlord since. The other creator is sarcastic, delightfully so, deadpan and witty in a way that doesn't come through as clearly when he's teaching Avery about ciphers and logic gates and whatever strange things he does on his channel. (Avery does not pretend to know how it works.)
"D3rlord! D3r's in the chat, everyone say hi!" Avery cheers, clapping his hands together before he pouts, "D3r, dude, if I don't play Hypixel, what do you expect me to play?"
The chat flies. How is Avery supposed to catch D3r's message in all of this? Actually, no, there's an easier way to do this.
"Don't use the stream chat, I can't catch the message," Avery adds, already reaching for his phone as the chat messages continue to fly in.
play hardcore minecraft
OMG THEY TEXT NOW?
dudeeee avery's the reason i got into d3rlord3's channel
We need a duo name for these two like ASAP
NO AVERY PLAY HYPIXEL
modded minecraft?
"I'm not doing mods, chat," Avery says, "At least not this stream. If you want me to play mods in another stream, though, let me know. D3r, what do you mean normal survival Minecraft-"
It's been so long since he's actually done a regular survival world, he's not even sure if he remembers how to. Avery tells his stream as much, glancing between his phone and his chat periodically. The familiar back-and-forth he's managed to establish with D3rlord is surreal for him, when he's actually live and on stream, but it's kind of nice. He kind of understands why other creators like collaborations, now, actually. There's a certain kind of charm that comes with the banter, even if his stream is only hearing Avery's part.
He frowns down at his phone. Thinks. Types out a message, instead of saying it aloud.
What if you joined my game for normal survival? No pressure of course I just think it might be fun
"Oh- thanks for the donation," Avery blinks as the chime comes through, grinning at his chat, "Give me a moment, okay? Let me think. At this point, I feel like I've stalled enough that I can't just go back to Hypixel, that's admitting defeat."
He makes a face at that last word, emphasising it as he speaks, and laughs as his chat starts speeding again, "No, give me some credit, I'm so good at Skywars, I wouldn't die to the first zombie that comes across my path in Hardcore-"
His phone buzzes, after another moment where Avery's anxiety threatens to catch back up to him, and when he glances down, he thinks he's seeing things for a moment.
I'll start up Minecraft. Do you have a server? Or should we use mine?
"You have a server?!" Avery blurts out, "Yes. Yours. Send me the IP."
WHAT
server???
WAIT IS HE TALKING TO D3RLORD
AVERY DERLORD COLLAB COMING TRUE???
"Okay, guys," Avery says, delivering the announcement with all the solemnity it deserves as he hides his Minecraft window in order to put in the server IP and get the setup all ready, "Stream title is getting an update. I'm playing survival mode, and- as some of you may have guessed- D3rlord is joining me! Be nice, don't scare him off, chat."
AVERY D3RLORD3 COLLAB
YOOOOOOO
power of friendship wins again
Once everything's setup, the stream title's changed, and the only thing he has left to do is click join, Avery restores the Minecraft window; checks that everything is okay for his watchers and that they can see the stream, checks to see D3rlord's simple message, telling him he can join, and- not without a little nervousness- clicks the button to join. The world loads in pretty quickly, and Avery can already tell it's been newly generated just for them.
He turns his character around, and there D3rlord is, his red-and-gold avatar standing in front of Avery, and Avery grins. D3rlord's avatar punches the air a couple of times, and Avery does the same.
"Hi, D3r! So! Survival Minecraft step one. Punch trees. Let's go! The stream goal is to find diamonds and make a nice, proper house. How are we feeling about this, chat?"
Avery you're overestimating this
Beat the game beat the game speedrunner era
LET'S GO
AVERY'S FIRST COLLAB STREAMMMM
D3rlord has said hello in the game chat, and has moved on while Avery's been talking to punch trees. Avery grins, heads over to join him, and as they start playing the game, collecting wood, Avery double-checks if D3rlord is fine with the stream goals.
d3rLord3 > Your stream, your rules
d3rLord3 > Do you still remember how survival works
"You always play in creative!" Avery shoots back playfully, "If anything, I'll be the one carrying us, D3rlord."
They punch some trees. Make a crafting table. Find a little cave in the side of a nearby mountain so they can gather cobblestone, and upgrade their tools. Make a furnace. Smelt some wood to make charcoal, so they can craft torches. Block up the little cave for their first night, and the next day, while D3rlord hunts for a cave, Avery tracks down some sheep so he can make them both beds.
"See," Avery says, "I'm doing pretty well for myself!"
d3rLord3 > Avery we are only on day 2
"That's mean," Avery informs D3rlord, mock-glaring at the camera, "Day 2 is a perfectly respectable day, and we have made impressive progress for day 2 in Minecraft."
Conversation flows easily. More easily than Avery would have expected, actually. It's a little stilted, because Avery has to wait for D3rlord to send him a message in-chat, but that's okay. They explore a cave, find some iron, and Avery manages to beat D3rlord to the iron pickaxe achievement. He grins, and proceeds to go on a long tangent to both D3lord and his chat about how he's actually the greatest ever at Minecraft. Neither one of them has died yet, thankfully, although D3rlord came close a few times and Avery had to swoop in with a sword to save him. Skywars skills for the win, Avery declares with a grin, and his audience is delighted.
avery the minecraft god
HELP d3rlord not being good at combat is so me
DIAMOND HUNT
go avery go
they should collab more this is so fun
Bets on how long itll take them to find diamond
Unfortunately, Avery's winning streak is quickly broken when they start searching for diamonds.
"Still no diamonds. We definitely should have come across some by now, what kind of terrible luck is this?" Avery groans, lighting up yet another section of cave. In front of him, the gold-and-red avatar turns around slowly, iron pickaxe in hand, and he gets the distinct feeling that D3rlord is... unimpressed.
d3rLord3 > Avery
d3rLord3 > We're at y = -27
d3rLord3 > Diamonds are most common from -53 to -59
"...I knew that."
D3rlord doesn't reply again, but Avery stares at the gladiator, and gets the distinct feeling that behind his screen somewhere, D3rlord is laughing at him. So is his chat, actually, and Avery pouts, glancing at the camera, "Chat, you're so mean to me, see if I ever stream again."
derlord is carrying today TvT
Avery what happened to our skywars god???
'i knew that' he says
d3rLord3 > Sure you did
Avery groans, and throws his hands up, and in front of him, the red-gold avatar continues on, deeper into the cave. Avery takes a bit of a break to reply to chat- he swears he knew that, he thanks some donors, and pretends to complain about getting bullied by both D3rlord and the chat. It's fun. He'd like to do more like this, actually, and Avery shelves it away to think about at a future point in time. To be considered, he thinks, before he blinks at his chat, which is absolutely speeding by.
"Guys, what's up-?"
There's a new message on the Minecraft screen.
d3rLord3 has just earned the advancement [Diamonds!]
"You're kidding me," Avery says, fixing the camera with a deadpan stare. There's no way.
After a moment, D3rlord returns from the cave to stare at Avery, his avatar holding diamonds instead of the pickaxe, and Avery sighs, throwing up his hands, "I can't believe it. This is terrible. I've been outplayed, and on my own stream, no less-"
TheMostMayo has just earned the advancement [Diamonds!]
Hold on. Pause. Rewind. What?
He opens his inventory, and sure enough, there's two diamonds in it. D3rlord's avatar has gone back to holding his pickaxe, and Avery blinks, at a loss for words as he processes... whatever just happened. He closes his inventory. In front of him, the knight has already turned around, moving further into the now-lit cave; before he turns a corner, D3rlord's avatar looks back at Avery's.
d3rLord3 > Earth to Avery
"Oh. Oh, okay, coming!" Avery yelps, hurrying his character forward to catch up with D3rlord, "Thanks! Just the house left, chat!"
bro's so nonchalant about it
EARTH TO AVERY HAHAHAHA
Derlord really carrying omg
clip that clip that
CRYING
The house comes easily. Avery pulls up a photo of an ‘easy starter base’, does his best to recreate it, and once he sends D3rlord the image, it gets a lot easier. D3rlord builds the foundations and lets Avery fill them in while he figures out how the reference photo should look in their world, and Avery grins and happily talks to both his chat and to D3rlord. The dynamic is one Avery delights in; he can easily back-and-forth with D3rlord, even if D3r is only talking in chat to him, and it’s the most fun he’s had on survival Minecraft in ages.
“Okay,” Avery says, when they have a small house setup and Avery’s happily waving a diamond sword around, “Stream, I think we’ve kept D3r here long enough, and it’s about getting to the time when I should be ending the stream. Everyone thank D3r for making an appearance, please.”
THANK YOU DERLORD
COME BACK AGAIN SOON
Thank you for putting up with our streamer lololol
DUO DYNAMIC ATE thank you!!!
In Minecraft, D3rlord’s avatar nods to Avery. Avery can’t help but grin, even as he waves to his camera and prepares to end the stream.
d3rLord3 > This was fun. we should do it again sometime.
d3rLord3 left the game