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Damian spent the entire day googling and researching. Mostly on how to fix his busted controller— Which was incredibly difficult since he still used a PS4— but also on how to connect to a world like Avery’s. He spent hours reading forums, browsing update logs, and even considered visiting Reddit for advice. But he was saving that as a last resort.
But so far, he’d found nothing.
Damian groaned, closing the tab on his phone and reopening Discord, checking his servers boredly before he came back to the GC. He had muted it right as he woke up, having seen several notifications and it was all just Tina and Dana arguing. Checking it once more now, however, it was dead.
Damian took the time to read the messages.
[T3rraH3ll:] you find anything on the server sitch yet
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] nada
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] i read some wikis on glitched servers but the solutions are all “turn off and on again” bullshit
[T3rraH3ll:] cant really do that without avery
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] yeah its annoying
[T3rraH3ll:] dont you do gamebreaking?? you could hack into aves laptop and get the server to open
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] did you forget that i need MY laptop for that? that piece of junk is in a repair shop 10 miles away and im not driving 20 minutes just for a gamebreak
[T3rraH3ll:] oh im sorry your laptop is more important than our fucking coworker
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] 🖕
Damian groaned, setting down his phone as he sat up from his bed and began to pace. He needed to get to Avery. He needed to fix his damn controller and get onto Minecraft and get to him. He needed to see that dumb slime avatar and ask him if everything was alright.
He wanted to hug him. He couldn’t really do that in Minecraft, but if he had a VR headset, he would hug him.
His phone suddenly pinged, and Damian snatched it up faster than he intended.
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] okay so i did drive out to get my laptop, repairs be damned. im omw to averys rn to see if i can gamebreak his ver of minecraft. Do either of you know what version he has?
Damian swiftly typed a reply.
[d3rlord3:] hes got Java. doesnt Dana have the spare key tho?
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] i talked to her at work today and got the key. dw ill update if i find anything neat
[d3rlord3:] okay. thank you tina
[JoJosBizarreCuck:] no problem man
Damian set down his phone with a sigh of relief. Tina had it covered. Now he just had to spend the rest of the day waiting for her updates.
He checked the clock. 3:30 PM. He had exactly 6 hours until he had to sleep.
What an eventful day.
JoJosBizarreCuck is calling.
The irritating ringtone blared in Damian’s ears as he burst up from his bed, hair tussled from his impromptu nap. He grumbled as he lifted his phone and joined the call with a ding, hearing Dana’s voice first.
“Tina? What the hell is going on, I’m trying to make food here!” Dana shouted from seemingly across the room, and Damian muttered, “The ringtone woke me up, what’s going on?”
“Look, sorry for the sudden interruption, but you have to see this.”
Tina’s camera turned on, and Damian’s eyes widened.
The video showed Avery’s laptop, open and turned on, with Tina’s laptop beside it, the two devices connected by a cord. Minecraft was open on Avery’s laptop, loading his world successfully. Tina started, “Minecraft was working perfectly on his laptop, and it took my laptop connecting to his to boot the server back to normal. Also his house is completely empty.”
“Empty?” Dana repeated. “He’s not, like, passed out in a closet or something?”
“Pardon?” Damian interrupted. Tina ignored him.
“I checked every closet, and believe me, he’s nowhere. It’s like he disappeared into thin air.”
Damian’s heart quickened. “That can’t be right. Did you find anything else, anything at all?” He asked frantically, and Tina turned the cam towards herself. She had a bright red bandana over her hair, holding the thick curls out of her freckled face while she tapped a finger on her lip. “Not really, sorry, D3r.”
Tina’s voice then shifted to excitement. “But! If this worked right, Avery’s world should be back up and running to be ready to join. Maybe we can see his last position too once it loads.”
“Is that a good idea?” Damian asked. “I mean— When I last saw him, he was standing right outside those gates. I don’t want you turning the camera around to see whatever it was he saw that made him scream so loud he broke my headphones.”
There was a brief silence. Dana then spoke.
“Tina, you should house sit for Avery for a while until we can figure out what happened to him. And also keep his server running so that we can join him.”
“What?! Why me?!” Tina protested, and Damian answered swiftly.
“Because you’re currently at his house, you managed to break open his minecraft enough to let us join his world, and you’ve been a big nuisance throughout this entire issue, so this is your chance to redeem yourself!”
Again, silence. Then, in a grumble, Tina finally replied, “Fine. I’ll make sure nothing here catches fire.”
“Thank you, Tina.” Dana sighed, and Damian heard the ding of a PS5 turning on. “Shit, I still need to fix my controller. It’s in pieces!”
“Oh, I can mail you one of mine!” Dana offered excitedly. “I inherited a bunch of generation 4 controllers from an old college friend, I can send them all over to you and you can see what works.”
Damian sighed with relief. “That would work. How many do you have? I only need one.”
“About 17.”
“WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET 17 PS4 CONTROLLERS?!” Tina yelled over the phone, and Damian quickly deafened her. It sounded like Dana did the same.
“Y-Yeah, alright, I can work with that. I can DM you my mailing address.”
“Alrighty. The tariff tax won’t be too high, right?”
“What do you think?”
Dana chuckled. “Yeah, alright, fair. I’ll scrounge up some cash for the mailing fee. See you later, D3r.” The ping of a person leaving the call sounded, and Damian unmuted Tina.
“Alright. I’ll keep the server running for you guys.” She sighed, scratching her hair under her bandana. “Hope you get that new controller soon, D3r. See ya!”
She then left the call. Damian ended it soon after.
He collapsed backwards onto his bed, letting out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. He lifted his phone again, opening his DMs with T3rraH3ll and typing in his address. After a moment, she replied.
[T3rraH3ll:] alright, noted. itll take me a bit to gather all the controllers since theyre scattered around my garage but ill get them all to you
[d3rlord3:] ok thank you
[T3rraH3ll:] np man
Damian set down his phone, occupying himself with gazing at the ceiling.
He found the fix to his controller problem. Now he just had to wait for them to come in.
Exhaustedly, Damian rolled onto his side, pulling up the covers over his chin while he shut his eyes. He needed sleep. He was going to sleep. He was passed out.