Chapter Text
D3rlord3
“D3rlord?”
“Avery.” A pause. Then, panic. “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at the tree?”
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You lied to me! There was nothing on that tree, D3rlord! What are you doing here?” Avery’s voice is filled with… something. Fear? Dread? Desperation? Yes, he lied, but only to keep Avery safe. I need him to be safe. “What is this? What are you trying?”
“Avery, I need you to leave. Now.”
“I’m not leaving until you talk to me. Hell, I’m not leaving you at all!”
“I’m not talking. And you will leave. I’m nothing. I’m just a shell. You have to go. Now!”
“Why?!”
“I’m finishing the job, Avery.” D3rlord’s voice is calm and steady, nothing like the panic he’s feeling inside. Get out of here, Avery, He urges silently. Go. Leave, be safe. Safe from the King; safe from me. “You need to get out of here.”
“What do you mean ‘finishing the job’?” Stars, Avery is sometimes really clueless. “What is this?”
“Avery, I need you to leave this world, and then I’ll explain, okay?” Please, understand, Avery. Please. Listen to me. “Just- JUST LISTEN TO ME!” Avery instinctively steps back, and D3rlord is immediately guilty. He didn’t mean to scare- No. If this is what keeps him safe, then I’ll do it. Just… I wish… “Disconnect. Right now. And I’ll tell you after. Close Minecraft. Close your computer. I’ll tell you what’s going on soon. I promise.” Lies.
“NO! I. Won’t. Go. Tell me what’s going on NOW.”
“I will afterwards.”
“I DON’T BELIEVE YOU.”
“Avery, I need you to leave or this will all be ruined!”
“I’m not going until you tell me WHAT’S GOING ON! What is this place and WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Sacrificing yourself like a grand idiot? What are you even here for?”
Silence. Until- “Avery. I’m not exactly asking.” He says this with an intensity that he doesn’t feel. With anger he doesn’t feel. “If you don’t leave, I’ll… I’ll kill you.” No I won’t. Yes I will. No. No. Yes.
“WILL YOU? WELL, I’LL KILL YOU FIRST!” D3rlord is silent. “Tell me. What’s going on.”
Fine. “FINE.” He takes a deep breath. “The only way to stop this…” He feels a presence slithering up into his prefrontal cortex, the knowledge of how this will go creeping up on him, and he feels a thrill of fear. “The only way to stop this… this thing, is to have it merge with someone whose mind is already gone. If I force it to enter my mind, as it deteriorates, it’ll go down with me. It’ll be trapped. We will win.” You will win. I’ll be dead. You don’t know how these next few minutes will go. I do. Just let me do this for you. “But I need you to leave this area or it won’t work. If you stay here it all falls apart. I have it under control, just leave. Please.”
“And what’ll happen to you?” Comes Avery’s quiet whisper. It breaks him. It almost makes him want to run, to grab Avery by the hand and just run, run far away from his their problems that were his until he decided to involve Avery.
“I…” D3rlord has to pause to compose himself, to stay strong for Avery. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Avery’s voice is soft, soothing, comforting. He didn’t say the words but D3rlord can just hear the plead, silent but lethal, under the words: ‘Tell me the truth, D3rlord.’
D3rlord finally breaks. “I DON’T KNOW.” He lunges forward and swings at Avery with his axe, slashing his arm before the wood shatters, dissolving into pixels and nothingness. Avery stares at him, shock and hurt building in his deep, forest-green eyes. But not anger. Not rage. Not the feelings he should be feeling, because- “My mind is gone anyway, Avery. I can’t look away from this computer without horrible pain. Soon I probably won’t be able to think at all! If you stay here it will merge with you too. That’s exactly what it wants! It will be free in the physical world, DO YOU WANT THAT? DO YOU?” D3rlord grabs Avery by the shoulders and shakes him hard. And Avery lets him, maybe even leaning into the touch a little bit, and… oh-
Avery is hugging him. Derek can’t remember the last time he’s been hugged. “I don’t care.” What? Derek leans into the comfort, and even though it’s not in real life, he feels safe for the first time in ages. “I’m not letting you do this. There has to be another way. One that doesn’t involve you dying-” Avery has to stop talking for a second. He chokes. “This can’t be… you can’t be…” Derek’s heart breaks. All he wants to do is bury his face in Avery’s shoulder and cry, to let it all out in a friend’s someone’s arms, but he can’t.
“We don’t have time, Avery.” Derek D3rlord steps away from Avery, gently unwinding Avery’s hand from around his torso.
“Yes we do!” Avery takes two steps forward, and Derek can’t find the heart to step away. “There has to be another way, D3rlord. Please, there has to be another way.”
“Avery,” D3rlord begins, heart clenching, “you can’t stay here, you have so much life to live.”
“AND I OWE IT TO YOU!”
“NO YOU DO NOT! THAT IS AN INSANE THING TO SAY AVERY, I KNEW YOU WERE STUPID BUT NOT THAT-” Derek D3rlord doesn’t let himself look at the shocked and hurt expression on Avery’s face. “YOU DON’T KNOW ME.”
“YOU WARNED ME, DEREK!” Derek. Derek. Derek. That’s me. Not for long. “YOU’RE ONLY PART OF THIS BECAUSE IT WANTED ME! IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT-”
“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Derek D3rlord roars. “THERE’S NO POINT IF I’M BASICALLY DEAD ALREADY. JUST CALL ME D3RLORD. IT’S NOT- I CAN’T- DON’T-” D3rlord turns away from Avery, unwilling to let the man see him wipe the tears from his eyes. What he doesn’t expect is Avery resting a hesitant hand on his shoulder. Why is he- I hurt him, he’s supposed to be angry at me. Angry enough to storm off or log off or something, I can’t let him die!
“I’m not going to let you die for me, Derek.”
“Avery…” D3rlord lets out a sigh. “If you don’t go… we’ll both die.”
Avery just stands there, processing. And then he shakes his head.
D3rlord doesn’t let him speak. His heart is heavy, and there’s something stuck in his throat. “It’s okay. You might not even remember me when you’re out of here. Who knows how this place works?” His eyes start to burn again, but he has to stay strong for Avery, he has to do this for Avery, he would do anything for Avery.
“Even if I don’t… my recording will.”
“That’ll do” is all he says, all he can ask for, because at least maybe someone, somewhere, will figure out a way past all the encryptions, all the codes, and maybe, just maybe, one day someone will tell his and Avery’s story to the world. “Now leave, Avery.”
“No.”
“I’m staying with you, Derek.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“No matter what you say,” he takes out his wooden sword, “you warned me. You saved me.” Derek’s heart hurts.
“If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together.”
“I don’t care.”
“You’re staying…?” Derek can’t help but hope… but… if Avery won’t leave…
“Yes.”
“You won’t leave?” Someone cares for me, his mind whispers.
“No.”
This next part hurts to do. It hurts even though Derek knew it was fated to happen. “Avery, what’s in your inventory?”
“What?”
“What’s in your inventory?”
Avery’s eyes go into that glazed state when you’re seeing something no one else does. He punches. Once. That’s all it takes for Avery to go tumbling into the abyss.
{TheMostMayo} ?>wdaswadd
{TheMostMayo} WAIT
Avery
TheMostMayo was doomed to fall by d3rlord3
{d3rlord3} Until next time friend
Avery pounded on his desk, hard. “NO! NO, NO, NO!” He slammed his head into his hands and just cried.
Somewhere in the distance, the fireworks marking the beginning of the New Year went off. Avery didn’t care.
That red screen, the death screen, was so much more serious than he ever thought it could be. That red screen, the death screen, marked much more than an in-game death. That red screen, the death screen, was the symbol of the death of D3rlord3, not just a character, but a person. Derek Hutchins. A person. It was his fault Derek was dying now. His fault the King was entering Derek’s mind and slowly killing him, destroying him. This world was never supposed to exist.
His heart was numb.
His hands were numb.
His eyes were burning.
Better than whatever D3rlord Derek was probably feeling.
He got up from his chair. Or, he tried. His legs gave out and he crashed to the ground. He groaned. That turned into a sob. He grabbed hold of his bed (thank whoever was out there for his tiny New York apartment where you could reach any given point from anywhere), and pulled himself up. His arms were trembling. He flopped onto his mattress and stared up at the ceiling.
He just let the tears flow.
His shoulders were shaking.
His eyes were wet and burning.
He didn’t know what to do. And then he realized: he never clicked off the death screen on his computer. He dragged himself over and sat heavily in his chair. He clicked the ‘respawn’ button, hesitant as to what he would find. He opened chat. And saw so many messages. From D3rlord Derek.
{d3rlord3} As for you
{d3rlord3} You idiot
{d3rlord3} Isn’t it ironic
{d3rlord3} That a king loses to a lord
{d3rlord3} You lumping moron
And that was it. Those were the last words of Derek Hutchins. Avery assumed that Derek had been talking to The King in Yellow, not Avery himself. Poetic.
He disconnected.
Numbly.
He closed Minecraft.
Numbly.
He closed his computer.
Numbly.
…
It’s what Derek wanted.
…
His last request.
Avery could say he fulfilled it now, right?
He finally looked out the window at the fireworks; bright red, green, and yellow lighting up the sky. Green for him, yellow and red for Derek, he thought. Together in the sky. Maybe… could he still fulfill that?
Derek
You know, it’s weird writing a final letter.
I don’t want to die.
Almost as if I have to come to terms with… whatever this is.
I do. I don’t want to die.
Which is something I find quite displeasureable.
I’m dying.
But here I am. Why did I even record all this? I don’t know.
Maybe I want to be remembered. Maybe I’m a little selfish.
Well I do know. I just don’t wanna be forgotten.
I hate this.
God, my head hurts like hell.
I think I’m screaming.
I can feel myself slipping as we become one. And my mind becomes a prison.
For me or for him? For both.
What a true shame it is. All the knowledge in the world, and no way to use it.
I don’t care about this. Why am I writing this?
That’s how it should be I suppose.
I just want Avery someone to hold me.
We stumbled into a world we have no business in.
Don’t think about him. Don’t.
This is just the cost.
Avery,
Please don’t think you failed, Avery.
this isn’t the end.
When you read this, don’t think you let me down.
You’ll be okay without me.
You did it. And it’s thanks to you and all that you did, that millions live to see another day.
But not me.
And thanks to you, I got a chance to see all the beauty of the universe. Things I never even knew were in the world. Or could be. A chance no human will ever get again.
Thank you.
I’m grateful that I saw it all, even if it was just for a little.
Thank you.
You’re capable of great things.
You are.
You’ll do great things.
You will.
…
without me.
So believe in yourself. And I don’t just say that because I saw it. It doesn’t take a god for me to figure that out.
Looks like you’ll be okay without me after all. See you in another life, friend.
I know it because I know you. Goodbye my friend.
Whatever you do at the crossroads. Keep going forward.
Or something like that.
(I was never really good with endings)
Avery
You are real
You are special
Remember who you are
Derek told him that.
Snapped him out of that twelve-hour trance.
Who knows how long Avery would have spent there otherwise?
…
Derek would have known.
Derek was gone.
(I was never really good with endings)