Work Text:
“There. All finished!” Avery exclaimed, stepping back from his newly finished cottage and placing his hands on his hips, admiring his work. It took several days, but he had managed to gather enough wood and cobblestone to finish his house. As he relaxed, slumping his shoulders, he caught a glimpse of a wolf lingering in the wood’s darkness. Teeth bared. Snout scrunched. Eyes red with anger.
Avery tensed. He took one step forward. The wolf copied. Avery took a step back. The wolf did the same.
Avery’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “I see you, you fucker.” He muttered, and he drew his sword and pointed it threateningly at the wolf. The wolf didn’t back down. Of course it didn’t.
Avery waved the sword. “Go away. Shoo. Begone.” He called, glaring at the wolf like it’d threatened his bloodline. The wolf growled, a low rumble that seemed to scare the fish. Avery made a warbling sound in reply.
Then the wolf attacked. It lunged out of the bushes, mouth wide open and spit pouring from its maw as Avery dodged, letting out a surprised yelp before he swung his sword, managing to slice the animal in the leg. The wolf yipped and splashed into the water, but managed to emerge without drowning. Avery braced his sword again. “Come at me, you furry piece of shit.” He glared, and the wolf paced around him, snarling, limping. Then it lunged again, and Avery drove his blade into its side. It let out another pained yelp before it fell to the ground. Its corpse glitched briefly, code rewriting itself before blood began to stain the sand below it red.
Avery slumped. He walked over and pulled his sword from the body, the shiny silver-colored iron now tinged and dripping crimson. He would clean that later.
Avery crouched before the wolf’s corpse. Its eyes were dead now, staring at nothing as the pupils closed and the irises fogged. Avery lamented the death, but also longed to have such a blissful experience.
“No. No, bad Avery.” Avery scolded himself, banging his palm against his forehead as he banished the thought from his mind. He quickly stood up, sheathed his sword, and started to kick the wolf’s body until it splashed into the water and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Avery walked back to his cottage, opening the door and closing it behind him as he set the sword down on his anvil and sighed. He walked to his bed, sitting down and laying back, staring at his newly built ceiling.
He let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He felt a thought wash over him before he could stop it.
Dana. T3rraH3ll.
He saw how her avatar glitched with every swing of his sword. The shriek she let out when he started attacking. He briefly heard her say “what the fuck” before the connection between them fizzled out. Furthermore, he remembered how the water of the lake rippled for a second longer than normal as he threw her body in.
He knew what he was doing to the world. Every interaction made it “real,” or as real as it could get. Square, unmoving trees suddenly became alive when he swung his axe. Cows let out more talkative moos when Avery laid his hand upon them to feel their leather. Wolves growled and snarled when they fought. Water rippled. Sand sifted. Everything was alive.
Avery was not used to it. But he would have to.
He raised a hand into his vision. The light of the torches turned green through his slimy skin, the viscous gel dripping down his arm like goo. He was slime. Mimicking the real mobs he hadn’t seen in… Days? Weeks? He’d forgotten the lapse of time between Minecraft and reality.
He didn’t want to forget.
Avery laid his hand over his eyes. It’d been about 3 days since he’d slept properly. If he had disabled Peaceful mode before seeing Him, his house would probably be surrounded by phantoms. Good for repairing an elytra he didn’t have, bad for keeping track of sleep without them.
Avery thought about D3rlord. The thought seemed to slam into his brain without warning, announcing itself like it was king of the hills.
D3rlord was stressed, he was sure. Avery wasn’t sure how long it’d been since he’d been beamed directly into the game— Again, he’d forgotten the lapse between the two— But he was sure he’d been missing long enough to cause some concern. His family was probably worried. His coworkers at Starbucks probably were too. His friends were definitely concerned.
He could already imagine how worried D3rlord was.
Avery shook his head before a vision could plant itself into his skull. He did not want to think about what he’d do to D3r when he showed up. Instead, he buried his head into his pillow, letting out a sleepy warble before passing the fuck out.