Work Text:
Dana set down her phone as she disconnected from the call, watching D3rlord’s username pop up into her DMs as she read the address he sent. As she pasted the address into her notes app for later, she typed out a reply.
[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
Setting down her phone again, she glanced over at her TV screen, watching Minecraft load up and greet her with the entry screen. As she opened up her worlds, sure enough, she was greeted with Avery’s world, online, hilariously named chug that milk like yo mama. Dana stifled a laugh as she joined it. As she stared at the loading screen, she took a deep breath, readying herself for… Whatever she may find.
Avery saw the system message first. T3rraH3ll has joined the world. His eyes widened.
“No. No no no… Fuck, how did she..?” He mumbled frantically, dropping his stack of cobblestone as he ran for the pond, for his house. As he ran, he saw a message pop up in front of him.
[T3rraH3ll:] Avery? You here, dude? Tina managed to get your world online since it was bugging out.
Avery frantically shouted something in reply.
[TheMostMayo:] what the hell are you doing here?! I thought ████ locked this world!!
His heart clenched with fear at the strange censorship in the chat that was meant to be the King’s title. T3rra’s user popped up again.
[T3rraH3ll:] what the fuck how did you do that
[T3rraH3ll:] also wdym locked the world??
Avery managed to make it to his house, slamming the door open so hard it cracked the wood. He scrambled for his chest, fishing through scraps of materials before he pulled out his sword. God forbid he didn’t want to do this, but he couldn’t let T3rra see Him. See the King.
[T3rraH3ll:] im gonna tp to you rq, i didnt spawn with a map
“DO NOT—”
Suddenly, T3rra’s avatar appeared right in front of Avery. She had the skin of an enderman wearing a suit, a legacy skin she managed to redeem when she used an XBox instead of a PlayStation. Avery stepped back from her, raising his sword with a shaking hand. Dana’s eyes widened as she stared at the fluidly moving slime avatar in front of her.
Swiftly, she pressed the mic button on her controller and spoke.
“Hey, Avery, calm down, it’s me! I ain’t a mob, silly.” She tried to say, but Avery was swinging before she could finish. Her hearts dropped drastically, and she shrieked as she picked up a stick and swung. It lodged directly into Avery’s skull instead of making his avatar jump back and flash red, and Dana’s eyes widened.
“What the fu…”
G̸̺̭̱̫̱͎͓̾̍͆̌̄̄̋̕̚E̷̳̤͔͕̤̫̓͌̆͗̓̽̅́̕ͅT̸̪̭̲̠̙̺̯͓̺̪̑̍̑̒͛̓͗̈̕ ̵̨̱͖̅Ó̴͈͈͒̆̓̑̋U̸̡̧͕̼̞̪̓̄͂̏͂̽̈͆̔̔T̴̛̰̯͚͓͎͇̼̟̟̙͛͗̌̀̊͐̇͋ ̶̨͈͇͓̠̖̮̊̓͋̍̔̈́̆̚͠͝O̵̳̳̪̣͆͗̾̈́͛̒͘F̷̱͖̫̝̫̪͎̹̜͒ ̵̰̗̌H̴̭͎̘͖͉̟̱̫̎͜Ę̴̢̻͚̣̳͊ͅŘ̴̢̫̩̤̲͎̼̗̗͊̌̓̽͛̓̆̚ͅE̸̛͈̣̳̼̮̻̔̈́̓̋!̶͔̲̹̯̆̐!̵̥̰̙̻̎̽̾̆̉̓͝͝
Another swing of the sword, and Dana was met with the game over screen. She stared at her TV in shock, watching Avery’s avatar move back, drop his sword, and then drop to his knees. The speaker on her controller let out glitched, stuttering sobs, as if Avery was crying.
Then her console shut off. Dana just stared in shock.
“... What the actual fuck.”
Avery stared at the glitching body on the floor of his house. Slimy tears rolled down his face and dripped onto the cobblestone floor as he gazed at T3rra’s body, or at least, at the body of her avatar. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he touched it. But he had to get it out of here.
He stepped forward. Reached for her arm and touched it. His finger felt a slight zap, as if he’d touched something metallic with static electricity, but every touch afterwards was fine. He carefully lifted her corpse and stood up, walking out of his house and standing on the edge of the shore of the pond. With a careful, deep breath, he threw her body forward, sending it splashing into the water and watching it sink.
Then he collapsed again, burying his face in his hands as he sobbed. A dark shadow loomed over him, and spindly fingers rested onto his shoulder, silencing him.
“You made the right choice, it seems. If she had seen me, I doubt she’d have been able to handle my… Presence.”
“Fuck you.” Avery sniffled, wiping his eyes and staring at his knees. The fingers squeezed.
“Must you be so disrespectful? You are lucky I did not banish her immediately.”
“You would banish D3rlord.” Avery grumbled. “When he inevitably shows up, you won’t give him a chance to find me.”
“He will ruin you, Avery.” The voice sharpened, and the fingers moved to Avery’s chin, threatening to turn his head to the shadow’s source. “You are perfect. You are clean. He will taint your image.”
“‘Taint my image’ my ass.” Avery huffed, smacking away the hand. The fingers tightened their grip for a brief moment, as if they were going to turn his head, but then retreated entirely.
“Do not test my patience, Avery. I can make everything so much worse for you.”
One long finger poked Avery in the back of the head and he winced, his shoulders tensing. Then the finger retreated, with the shadow receding shortly after. After he was sure that He was gone, Avery fell back into the sand, the crunchy grains seeping into his slime. He let out a shaky sigh.
“Oh god… Please don’t let them find me, I don’t want them to get hurt.”