Imagine that Avery started panicking the moment the 'You Died!' message hit his screen, spending time running through the mineshaft only to find the doors at the end of the Crossroads either shut or gone. Only an empty cave left behind. The clock on his computer reads 1:13 AM, January 1st, 2026. He spent his entire New Year's Eve searching for someone who risked their life to warn him of danger, went through probably the most traumatizing experiences of his life, and will now be grieving someone he barely knew for the rest of his lifetime. All from Minecraft. Somebody risked their real world life for him through a video game. And he never got the chance to even know them beyond 'he saved my life twice.'
Imagine after d3rlord3 was finished typing up the Google Document to Avery, staring at a blank Minecraft title screen for a few minutes of a small respite from the screaming headache. I wonder if, given he knew Everything by that point, he knew Avery's real name, considered trying to push through everything to send out an email or print out the document and put it on his desk in an envelope, for anyone to find after he dies and mail it off to Avery personally. But by that point the pain was getting to be far, far too much. The last moments are spent wrenching his face away from the glow of the computer screen, watching the fireworks one last time out his window, knowing he did everything possible to make sure Avery sees many more New Years to come. I wonder if he wondered if Avery was looking at the same fireworks that Derek was, in that final moment. If in another lifetime they could've feasibly met and made each others' lives a little less lonely.