Chapter Text
Avery's hands were shaking. Actually, genuinely shaking. This didn't happen, never had, until now. His fingers vibrated as he clamped his hand back onto the mouse, staring at the death menu screen. His organs felt as if they were swimming inside him, tying themselves in knots inside his abdominal cavity.
TheMostMayo was doomed to fall by D3rlord3
It makes him sick. He could see them, the king's eyes, spat across the impossibly dark area. He could see D3rlord3- Derek's avatar, still on the platform.
He swallowed, moving his cursor to the respawn button.
The little slime avatar's hand popped up in the corner, the cross-hair in the center of his screen landed on the interior of his base.
It was a good base, one he'd spent a good amount of time on, but it was still incomplete. It would never be finished.
Avery felt like crying, looking at the screen, he felt pinpricks at the bases of his eyes, his throat was dry all the way down the back and blocked by a choked sob he didn't have the energy to let out.
He spun around the cursor, exiting the room as quickly as possible, but it didn't matter. He was hundreds of blocks away from the cave entrance- even that was thousands more blocks away from that dumb platform.
A sob clawed it's way from his throat. He would never see D3rlord again.
Fireworks lit up with defening explosions in the background. He could hear the cheering of crowds, crowds made up of large numbers, he could see the brief flashes of colour light up his room before shrinking away.
He totally forgot about new years.
The only thing that mattered right now was Derek.
The lord's name ate a hole in his stomach. He swallowed.
The mincraft world was... well, it wasn't. The chunks were melting off his screen, blocks were disappearing one by one, and his render distance suddenly became no distance at all.
TheMostMayo D3RLORD3!?
TheMostMayo WHERE ARE YOU
TheMostMayo whays hepening??
There was no answer. His messages hung in the chat box, fading one by one.
He felt a sick churning in his stomach, as though he might actually throw up, as the world continued to delete itself around him.
He didn't know this stuff, he wasn't smart like D3rlord3, he had no idea what to do, and the pressure of it all was suffocating.
He's been sat in this chair for over 15 hours. He's starving, dehydrated, exhausted and really needs to pee. His bodily functions don't go away, no matter how much of a crisis he's experiencing.
Still. He can't look away from the screen.
He manages to parkour around the decay for the most part, until he stands on the last block of the world, surrounded by nothing but the void.
The fireworks boom louder, closer together, and a chanting fills the air, drifting through his window.
"8... 7... 6..."
The block disappears under him and he falls through the void, slowy losing hearts to beats of damage. His fist lands on the desk, hard, the vibrations run up his arm, his knuckles immediately hurt, and he realises he's crying now.
"4... 3... 2..."
The chanting stops, so do the flashes of light, and suddenly it's too quiet, too dark.
Avery hits the ground with a thud, but it's a weird thud. He lands sitting up, legs outstretched, like he'd fallen out of bed. As he does, he's accompanied by a squelching noise, along with a light clatter of metal beside him.
It's dark. That's obvious, and he has no idea where he is. His head is fuzzy, like he just woke up from a long nap, and for a moment he thinks he did, that maybe he just fell out of bed, but as his senses come to him he realises he's sitting on grass.
Cold, dark, damp grass. And he's not alone, either.
His legs are laying on top of someone else's. They're cold, pressed against leather and metal, and he barely has the chance to register that they were probably the clunking he had heard before it dawns on him.
That's D3rlord3. He can see it now, as his eyes adjust to the dark, with moonlight casting ribbons on his armor, D3rlord3 is there. But.. that's his minecraft skin.
Avery gasps so fast he chokes on air, gagging and coughing, he can hardly move.
The sound of a tired, muddled groan sounds behind him somewhere, maybe near that distant clacking of bones.
Avery can't breath. He can't process anything that's happening. He hardly feels the wrist on his arm, nor does he acknowledge being pulled to his feet before dropping again. He lands on something hard this time, and it's darker than before.
He falls to his knees and gasps for breath, hand going to his chest. It smells like dirt.
He can't see anything anymore, it's pitch black, and, when he can move again, he shuffles to a sitting position, crossing his legs, still taking deep breaths that taste like soil.
Two hands land hard on his shoulders with a tense grip. The sudden feeling is terrifying, and he goes rigid, though it does help in grounding him, as his eyes aren't fogging over anymore.
"Avery."
Says a stern voive into the dark. He knows that voice.
"Avery, calm down. You need to breathe." The voice continues talking. Avery only hears part of it.
"D3rlord.?" He whispers. His voice is unsteady.
"Breathe." D3rlord urges.
He does. His lungs feel heavy in his chest- does he have lungs? It feels like he does. It feels like he has too-big lungs that can't fill up with air all the way because his ribcage is too tight.
Eventually his breathing levels out.
"Where are we?" He manages, swallowing. His body feels different, and he can guess that he's somehow morphed into his avatar, but to say it's an exact replica doesn't feel quite right.
D3rlord is quiet for a moment.
"I don't know." He says, his grip slacks on Avery's shoulders.
He wants to hug Derek and never let go. He's so confused, it feels like all his organs were turned to moosh, and now his nervous system is too fried to convey the agony.
He hiccups. A singular hiccup into the dark, and it feels weird to only hiccup once.
A breath escapes Derek, carried with light amusement. Neither of them can laugh, the thought feels impossible, but the air doesn't feel suffocating anymore.
"Derek?" Avery tries again. He has so many questions, part of him still refuses to believe this is real.
"Yes?" Derek responds. His hands had dropped from Avery's shoulders at some point, and he misses the contact. It makes him feel less like he's lost his mind when there's physical proof that Derek is with him.
"Where are we?" He asks again, but he means it differently this time. He hopes Derek picks up on that.
Derek answers, "Underground."
He's grateful he understood what Avery meant.
He takes a final, steadying breath, and extends his arms, trying to feel out the dark.
"Where are you?" He asks, his voice is less shaky. He feels less shaky. Like the panic attack part is over and now he's just in survival mode, willing to accept anything as long as he's still alive.
"Here." Derek says, like that's supposed to help. Avery is almost annoyed by it, at the very least unimpressed, until he feels Derek guide Avery's hand to his general direction. Avery shimmies to face him, like it matters.
But he still can't see him, and then he's scrambling towards D3rlord, the same D3rlord he couldn't save in the cave, he's here now, and Avery's falling into him.
He slides his arms under Derek's and rests his head in between his shoulder and chest.
Derek reciprocates, obviously, wrapping his arms over Avery's back.
He's so, so, relived that Derek's alive.
"I'm.. uh," Avery starts. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Yeah." Derek says, there's a tired kind of relief in his voice, and he holds Avery a little tighter. "Me too."
Avery doesn't really know what he's doing, or why it's helping, but he doesn't really care. He remembers something about how human contact is good for your nervous system or whatever, though maybe he's just starved for any kind of physical comfort.
It doesn't help that he literally thought Derek was dead.
They both pull away after a moment, sitting back down normally. Avery leans against one of the dirt walls, Derek sits next to him. It's going to drive him insane that he can't see.
He says, "So," unsure what to do, what to say.
"We're underground?" He asks Derek.
"Yeah." Derek answers. "I," he starts, pauses, then continues.
"I don't really understand what's happening." He continues.
"I think," another pause, "I think we're in the game."
Avery's had figured that, too, but it still makes no sense. There's a small spark of relief in him as Derek confirms it, though. It makes Avery feel like less of an idiot.
His voice is so level, always so level, it soothes Avery a little, listening to Derek talk. Even about a situation as bizarre as this, something about the way he anounciates, it makes it feel less utterly insane.
"I- I heard mob noises, so I just dug into the ground." Avery can feel the nervous buzz of confusion in the small pit as Derek talks.
"I guess the physics are the same because.. well, when I moved the dirt over the opening it just... stayed? It's the most bizarre thing I've ever felt." Derek says, his voice ends on a flabbergasted sounding chuckle, like the words floated on air out of his mouth.
All the adrenaline pumping through Avery has mellowed out, and now he's exhausted. Upon realising this, however, he discovers the rest of his needs are gone. His hand doesn't hurt, he's not hungry or thirsty, and he doesn't feel like pissing himself.
He just wants to sleep, needs to sleep, that much hasn't changed.
It's quiet for a moment. The silence is comfortable, almost welcome, but Avery craves some indication that Derek is still here.
It's a small but heavy weight in his stomach, at the base of his oesophagus.
"How do you think it works?" He asks. His questions are stupidly vague, and he's moderately impressed that Derek has understood him this far, as it must be annoying. He feels annoying.
"I don't know." Derek says. Avery's glad his voice is back.
"I want to say that the time is synced. It was night back in.." Derek trails off for a moment. It makes sense, what's he supposed to say? Earth? Real life? Back home?
"Because you can't spawn into a new world already halfway through the night cycle." He finishes.
Did he seriously look at the moon long enough to realise that it's midnight? Or did he just guess?
Avery wouldn't put it past him, after the videos on that google drive.
"Happy new years." Avery says quietly after a pause. It has no real emotion in it, except maybe tired.
Derek breathes another chuckle, which makes Avery smile. It reminds him of when they spoke during the whole 'thing' earlier, they always managed to enjoy something the other had said.
"I'm tired." Avery murmurs."So tired." He drags his fingers down his cheeks, pulling down his eye sockets breifly.
It feels so incredibly weird. His face is slime, and so are his hands, but they don't stick together or merge when they touch. It feels like skin, skin made of slime. Solid, and containing itself to a T.
"So am I." Says Derek.
Avery doesn't mean to complain, but it feels appropriate.
It goes quiet again, but Avery only lasts so long before reaching for Derek.
Something, anything to keep his existence from slipping through Avery's fingers again.
He finds his hand, it's a gloved hand, with metal, probably gold, plated at the back and leather coating his fingers and palm. He doesn't make a move to grab it, though.
"I.. uh." Avery says. He feels awkward. He's not exactly sure how to go about this.
"I need to make sure you're still here." He says, feeling a little stupid. His face heats up a bit, despite the coldish air in the hole, as he feels like he's a child who can't sleep without holding his mommy's hand.
"Yeah." Says Derek. Avery can hear him shift.
"So do I."
The silence settles again. Avery's not sure where to go from here, as they're still not even remotely touching, and he feels that nothing has been resolved. But he can't say it again.
He moves his hand again and wraps his pinkie around Derek's, and it goes quiet again.
Avery rests his head against the dirt, the quiet no longer unbearable.
Fog starts to hang over his head, and he can tell he'll probably fall asleep like this.
Avery yawns.
"So," he says, turning his head on the wall to look at where Derek is despite the dark.
"How's your head?" His voice holds some concern, but mostly honest concern. He is concerned, but heavied eyelids tend to come with lightened empathy.
Derek is slient for a while, and Avery almost forgot he'd asked.
"...Better." Derek finally answers quietly.
Avery opens his eyes when he hears his voice, like he forgot where he was, only to close them again soon after.
He asks, "Better?"
"Yeah."
Derek is quiet again.
"It's like.." he abandons that sentence.
"I guess because, I don't know anything about the minrcraft worlds, so all the... 'infinite knowledge' isn't there to make my head split open."
Avery's takes this in as best he can. He doesn't fully understand anything about the king in yellow or infinite knowledge or.. turning left.
"Like how you couldn't look away from your computer?" He asks. There's no energy left in his voice, but he's still curious.
"Yeah." Derek says. "Like that."
His hand moves away from Avery's, which makes him open his eyes once again so his senses come back.
He hears a clunk of metal on the floor, and realises Derek took off his helmet. It makes sense, that he wouldn't want to sleep in it.
Derek takes Avery's hand again, clasping them loosely.
Avery nods off quite quickly after that.