Chapter Text
“Theo! We need more strength pots!” Parrot yells, turning his head to the side to let sound travel better up the latter. He transfers the current storage of strength pots into a shulker box and turns to the player who ordered the potions. “Your order will be finished in a bit, just give us a second to brew the rest.”
The player nods, and he starts rambling about things Parrot doesn’t bother answering as a drift of wind enters the shop. His feathers move with the wind as he enjoys the light breeze.
“Parrot, we’re going to need more glass bottles soon, we’re running out.” Theo shouts back, and Parrot can hear his footsteps upstairs as he fumbles around with the brewing stand. Parrot just sighs as that means they’ll need to make another shopping trip around Capital City.
It was a good day today. Nothing outrageous was happening, and the only thing Parrot has to stress over is whether someone would steal from their shop. All in all, he was happy.
He hears someone climbing down the ladder behind him, and a plumage of yellow feathers take over his vision as Theo jumps over the counter. Exasperated, Parrot ignores Theo as the cockatiel empties his inventory into a shulker.
“This will be 8 diamonds,” Parrot says, and the customer happily pays before taking the full shulker box.
Once the customer leaves, the sound of humming takes over the potion shop as they check their stock of already-made potions. It was never quiet in their potion shop. Not with two birds who only enable each other’s behaviour.
“So, we need more glass bottles?” Parrot asks once he finishes checking all the chests. Theo chirps back a confirmation, not wanting to open his mouth in fear of getting a mouthful of the blaze powder he was currently cleaning up. If you were curious, blaze powder does not taste good. You’d think it would be spicy, but it’s just bitter and sour. Don’t ask how they know.
Parrot chirps back a response just to show that he heard him. He hears the familiar sound of someone climbing down a ladder and he heads to the exit without turning, knowing Theo would be right beside him.
“I’ll never understand why we can’t just get our own bottles, we literally live near a lake! There’s sand right beside the city walls! And literally everywhere around the server!” Theo complains, but all Parrot can hear is a feather-shaped musclebrain wanting to instigate an argument. Nevertheless, he falls for it. As always.
“Bro, unless you want to start a battle with some random who’ll claim that we’re stealing part of their land, we can deal with negotiating for glass bottles,” Parrot replies, lightly nudging Theo’s wings with his own. Theo nudges back before opening his mouth to argue some more.
Before he could, a light breeze ripples across the street, and both birds slow down to feel their feathers flutter. There’s a comfortable moment of silence before Theo sprints ahead to see the city, regardless of the countless times he’s been on this exact street already. Parrot keeps his current pace and he takes in the view of everything.
Players were visible around the street; some in groups and some not. There was chatter wherever Parrot went, and he was happy to notice some of the players using the items he and Theo had distributed throughout their treasure hunts.
Parrot turned to the street that had the shop for glass bottles, and he heard Theo before he even had the chance to look for him.
“...used to be three diamonds per stack?! What happened?”
Parrot finally spots Theo at the shops that sell glass bottles and he hurries as he hears Theo continue to argue.
“Now they’re six diamonds each?! What happened to the numbers four and five?! You don’t need to prove that you can skip count by three bro, that isn’t a flex.”
“What’s the problem?” Parrot interrupts, bumping Theo with his wings to physically show that he was here.
“Parrot! He doubled his prices from last time! A stack of glass bottles now costs 6 diamonds!” Theo exclaims, his feathers puffing up in outrage. Parrot smoothes his hands over the yellow feathers and turns to face the shopkeeper.
He was a dog hybrid, one that seemed very annoyed.
“Sand transport has been taking longer and longer lately. Apparently some battle started out in the desert they were using to collect sand and now they need to relocate to a new desert that’s farther out.” he explained, his ears flat against his head in aggression.
“What about the guards of Capital City? Why don’t they stop the battle if it’s disrupting the city’s supply chain?” Parrot asks, focusing on the shopkeeper’s eyes.
The shopkeeper shakes his head at this. “Apparently the city began to work with some organisation and there’s a huge project that requires most of the guards’ attention.”
“So they don’t want to help because they don’t want to use up resources on whatever battle is happening…” Parrot summarises, his head whirling with this new information. What new project was so important that they couldn't stop for just a few hours to help with the battle? Who is this organisation they are working with?
“And now you’re selling these for 6 diamonds per stack?” Parrot asks, gesturing to the rows of glass bottles behind the shopkeeper.
“Yeah. There’s not much else I can do since I need a lot of diamonds to buy blocks for my friend’s build. With the resources coming in more slowly now, I need to raise prices to make sure I get enough.”
“But doubling your prices? You can’t even lie bro, that’s insane,” Theo butts in.
Parrot mentally did some math in his head. Since a stack of glass bottles makes 64 potions, they’d be able to sell two full shulkers with a bit leftover. Considering the potion ingredients are the most expensive part, along with the shulker box itself, if they buy a stack of glass bottles for 6 diamonds, and sell the shulkers at their regular price of 8 diamonds, they’d barely make a profit.
The dog hybrid bristles in indignation. “Well it doesn’t help that we keep getting attacked while building! We keep getting delayed and now I’m almost constantly low on healing!”
Parrot turns his head to make eye contact with Theo. Before he could say anything, Theo rolls his eyes and nods.
Seeing Theo’s immediate trust in whatever plan Parrot had in mind made him want to let out a soft trill, but one glance at the shopkeeper makes him hold it back. He wasn’t quite comfortable showing his bird side to a stranger.
“What if we do an exchange in discounts? We give you cheaper prices for potions such as turtle master and healing, and you give us discounts for glass bottles.” Parrot offers. The dog hybrid tilts his head at this, an ear leaning to one side.
Being familiar with this behaviour, Parrot knew he was winning the shopkeeper over.
“This can even be a regular thing, since I’m sure you’ll need a lot more potions in the future, and we’ll obviously need more bottles later on.”
The shopkeeper seems to make up his mind as he nods and pushes a stack of glass bottles towards the two birds.
“Three diamonds per stack.”
“Deal.”
“That shopkeeper literally scammed us.”
Theo was walking ahead of Parrot, leaving small scratches on the cobbled streets as he dragged his talons.
“He raised the prices and only reduced them after we gave him a discount,” Theo continues as he turns around to face Parrot. A flash of light catches Parrot’s attention as Theo’s sunglasses reflect the sun now beaming towards him.
“Well, I would feel kind of bad if we made him reduce the bottle prices even more. I mean, it’s not his fault his supplies are now delayed, and he does need diamonds to live,” Parrot explains as his eyes track the light on Theo’s sunglasses. Theo huffs before shaking his wings.
“Alright!” Theo turns back around, taking the shiny light away from Parrot’s vision. “We got our items, now let’s head back home!” He races ahead as he jumps around players on the street.
Parrot watches Theo dodge and weave between the small gaps of players with amusement.
It was a good day today. Nothing outrageous was happening, and the only thing Parrot has to stress over is whether Theo would get distracted by something in the crowd. All in all, he was happy.