Chapter Text
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There was something that had been bugging Parrot ever since he met the Invisible Knight.
His curious, inquisitive nature always sought to solve mysteries and puzzles, to find from the inside out and understand every single thing that came along in his way.
It started a couple of weeks after Wemmbu was officially declared dead. An invisible player in diamond armor with netherite trims (a little unhinged, in his opinion) appeared on Capitol City out of the blue,
joining the guard force and quickly becoming a popular figure among citizens. He was named the Invisible Knight, not only by Parrot himself but by most of the players there.
Parrot hadn’t questioned his identity at first, but he was curious. This player was insanely rich, given how the economy in Unstable was. Having netherite trims, paying with golden apples, or even giving them golden carrots.
It was not ordinary at all, but Parrot told himself it was none of his business, whoever it was.
He left his nagging questions archived in the very back of his mind.
However, around five days after their first meeting, he came back. He asked for another shulker of invisibility and paid with the same rich resources that left Parrot a bit speechless.
He tried asking who he was, but all he got was a very, very dry “someone.”
It made him a little wary, but the Invisible Knight didn’t seem to have bad intentions, so he gave him his potions and sent him on his merry way.
His first suspicions of who could the Invisible Knight be fell on Wemmbu, but that didn’t really make sense.
Wemmbu had been declared dead weeks ago. No more chaotic activity was reported from the allegedly dead criminal, and even if no one saw a death message or the death cause changed every time he heard someone talking about it, it just... didn’t line up.
Wemmbu would never help someone just because.
Wemmbu was a bad person.
The Invisible Knight was quite the opposite of that. He was deadpan, a little sarcastic, and a lot quieter than Wemmbu, but he helped Capitol City without really expecting anything in return more than invisibility potions.
He was quite an interesting person. His intentions weren’t something akin to a good person's, since he himself said that he was just looking for something interesting to do, but he wasn’t a bad person either, because he had chosen to help people when he was bored, and Parrot was pretty sure that doing something like that out of boredom did not put him in the bad person category.
Even if somehow Wemmbu was faking his identity, Parrot didn’t believe that boy capable of pulling something like that off. He wouldn’t have the patience not to ban someone as soon as they bothered him; he wouldn’t have the patience to wait until things simmered down to make his new identity public, and he just wouldn’t be able to maintain a mask so different from his original personality.
At least, that’s what he thought.
That’s why he’d started accepting “Invis” more and more every time he came to his potion shop. They chatted idly, Parrot would yap about his adventures, and Invis would respond in short, clipped sentences but then would warm up and ramble about how boring the guard force was before stopping himself.
It was almost like he wanted to remain private and not reveal anything.
Parrot always tried to be comprehensible with that, leaving it up to Invis himself whether to stop or not so trust would build naturally.
And build it did. Parrot would consider Invis a friend now.
They shared their days with each other, sometimes hung out, and did small favors for each other… Hell, Invis had even become spar buddies with Theo.
So, despite the nagging questions on the back of his mind, Invis was his friend.
It’s just that…
It truly was a mystery.
It had been just a few hours since the guy had come to restock on invisibility potions, and while that was happening, Theo and Invis had been having a conversation Parrot was actively not listening to, talking about something on the lines of…
“Bro, come on. WHO could you possibly be? I’m sure that at this point we wouldn’t even mind! There’s no reason to be paranoid, buddy.”
Despite being zoned out, the question went over his head and stayed there.
Something inside of him resurfaced, but before he could dwell on it, Theo spoke again.
“Who do you think our Invis guy really is?”
And, at that time, Parrot simply told him off because Invis was clearly uncomfortable with the topic. His body language alone said a lot, but he could even detect crumbs of it by his tone of voice, which was mostly concealed by that terrible, grating voice changer.
Yet, the question had never left his mind. It was stronger now.
Who could Invis really be? Could he really have any bad intentions? What even was his goal in hiding his identity?
Sure, Invis could trust them not to reveal his identity. They were friends… so why would he still be so adamant?
Nevertheless, it would be rude to pester him so much about it. If he didn’t want to be seen as his real self, how could Parrot have the right to disturb that when all he had done was help them? It would be disrespectful.
Invis was their friend.
He realized he had been actively not listening to the current conversation while on their trip to the end until they reached the stronghold.
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The trip to the Stronghold was luckily smooth. No bandits, no ambushes, nothing that could risk his identity being exposed.
Wemmbu had been talking with Theo about random things, and Parrot chimed in sometimes, but he answered with short, vague responses. He seemed kinda… out of it.
He knew ParrotX2 was the great thinker or something like that, but his silence was always unnerving because Wemmbu knew it meant he was analyzing something.
Still… whatever. It couldn’t be that bad.
They turned left at the portal room, and Wemmbu could already hear the familiar humming of the end portal. Before anything else, he took out an invisibility potion and repotted quickly.
Man, he was so glad the Invis thing left him a lot more time to spend with Egg.
“I can’t believe you never tried carting with your skills, Invis! Maybe I should teach you some time!”
He tuned back to Theo answering cheerfully after they’d been talking about combat styles.
“Nah, I don’t think I’m made for the cart strat.” He admitted honestly. His aim was pretty nice, yeah, but cart pvp seemed way too complicated to master. He was not patient like that.
“You can’t be that bad, bro. Maybe you even become the cart demon.” Theo jokingly said as they climbed up the stairs to the End portal.
Parrot chuckled at that.
“What are you guys even saying?” He asked, amused.
“Nothing, let’s just go.”
.
..
…
Egg didn’t seem to be in his usual hiding spot. He found him before the other two birds in the library, as always. He had told him to be safe and hide in case any griefers came, but he couldn’t completely restrict Egg from leaving once or twice.
“Yo, Egg!” He exclaimed, and he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit excited to see him.
“Sup W-” He was saying, but he was quickly shut up by a hit from the mentioned and looked at him point behind him.
Parrot and Theo.
Theo was… there, but Parrot seemed a bit more suspicious.
“Oh- uh, hey Invis. Sorry… I’m still not used to not seeing Wemmbu around…” He clutched, putting on the grieving friend mask.
Holy save.
Wemmbu was glad the invisibility covered his expression.
“Hey guys, uh, how’s it going?” He then asked.
“Good, bro, thanks.” Theo said.
“How are you, uh… handling this whole thing?” Parrot asked, a little bit afraid he’d be taken as insensitive.
“Well, you know. I’ve just been… writing and stuff. Not much to do now that Wemmbu’s… dead. Y’know?”
Parrot found his nonchalance a bit strange, but from the times he’d met Egg, he was just like that.
“Egg, can I talk to you for a second?” Wemmbu said. It was time for him to pull him away before they could question him too much.
So, as Parrot and Theo went to explore the place a bit while waiting, Egg was left alone with Wemmbu.
“So, how is it going?” Egg asked, now avoiding using any names, given that he almost just sold weeks of progress.
“I-… look, I gotta catch you up on like- a lot, but the main thing is right now is that they just invited me to one of their little side quests, but… they’re acting kinda… weird. Like, Parrot just…” Wemmbu started, a conflicted expression crossing his face despite the invis covering it.
“Bro, Parrot’s always been weird, what could be so different now?” Egg contributed absolutely nothing.
“Dude, it’s just like- it’s way too much trust put on me, and I feel like I can’t really… not accept their requests. I’ll feel kind of… bad if I don’t.” Wemmbu scratched the back of his neck, looking back every few seconds or so to make sure they weren’t there.
“I mean, bro, you said it yourself the last time that you had become kind of their friend, no? So, of course they’re gonna trust you, especially if the image you gave them is some sort of hero to Capitol City.” Egg reasoned, his calm a familiar contrast to Wemmbu himself.
Now that no one was there to stare at him, Wemmbu didn’t really have any reason to conceal his personality and body language, like his pacing.
“Parrot’s just been… staring at me, like he’s analyzing me or something, and Theo insists a lot when it comes to my identity… Do you think I should tell them?” Wemmbu stopped for a bit, searching for his best friend’s opinion.
“Do you think that’ll go well? I don’t really think this is the right moment, bro.” Egg looked at him. He knew Wemmbu better than anyone else, so he knew to discern what he was feeling just based on his body language, even if Egg was not the most observant person.
“No… yeah. You’re kinda right.”
“You don’t have any reason to right now. Sure, you can tell them after this if you want, but you gotta be prepared for things to go sideways.” Wemmbu seemed a lot more comfortable with that response.
“Yeah, speaking about that, do you have any invis pots? I wanna make sure I don’t run out.”
“I think I have a few remaining, lemme check.”
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“Yo, guys, what’s up.” Egg’s montone voice, instead of Invis’ grating voice changer made them turn back.
“Oh, yo, Egg!” Theo greeted him, adjusting his sunglasses.
“Hey, Egg, where’s Invis?” Parrot followed, looking around, searching for their friend.
“Don’t worry bro, he’s just restocking a bit on materials. He’ll be back soon.” Egg reassured them.
Parrot nodded at the response, but there was a question lingering on the tip of his tongue. He and Invis seemed awfully familiar with each other, just like how he was with a certain purple individual.
He swore he tried to hold it in, but it slipped before he could stop it.
“Egg, how did Wemmbu really die?”
Theo turned to look at him so fast his neck almost cracked, bewildered at the awfully invasive question. Egg didn’t seem to mind as much, but he seemed thrown off, because he frowned slightly with his singular big eye.
“I told you, man, it was like- crazy. He got hit by five mace attacks simul-”
“No. I know you’re lying. Tell me the truth. Is Wemmbu dead? If so, how did he really die?” Parrot pressed, a tad firmer this time.
“Parrot, bro- I don’t think this is really-” Theo put a hand on his shoulder, trying to stop him.
“No, bro. It’s way to suspicious.” Parrot shook his hand off, stepping further into Egg’s space, who shrunk a bit.
“What is Invis’ true identity?” He demanded.
“I don’t know, bro- why are you so obsessed with that?” Egg now seemed genuinely uncomfortable, and just as Parrot snapped back to reality, another voice spoke.
“Hey, so… what are we talking about?” Invis appeared from one of the hallways, looking between the three of them.
Parrot backed up, returning to his original position next to Theo.
“Sorry, Egg, I don’t know what came to me… I know it’s not a pleasant topic to talk about your… best friend.” He apologized sheepishly, looking away.
What was his deal? Why had he pressed Egg so intensely?
He knew what losing a best friend felt like.
Even if it was Wemmbu, Egg shouldn’t deal with people like Parrot adding insult to injury.
He needed to control himself better.
“I think it’s time we go raid the tomb.” Theo broke the awkward silence.
“How are we planning to get there? You guys don’t have two elytras, right?” Invis asked a good point, which left Parrot thinking.
Sure, they could use pigs and leashes, so Wemmbu could fly them as far as he could, but the problem with that plan was where they could possibly get pigs. Going on another side quest didn’t really seem like a great idea. Too much time wasted.
“Uh.. we’ll just travel on foot until we reach the end of the end rings. Then we can just use a flying machine.” The smarter bird answered.
“…sure.” Invis settled on saying. He couldn’t really change the plan despite his discomfort, and he had enough invisibility potions to go there and back anyway. He had to tone down the paranoia a bit.
“We’ll see you when we get back, Egg!” Theo yelled while already walking upstairs to reach an end gateway. Parrot followed behind him.
“Don’t let the void get y’all, bro.” Egg said back, and just as Wemmbu was about to do so, too, he was stopped by Egg, who grabbed his arm and pulled him closer for a bit.
“Be careful with Parrot, yo. He’s kind of onto you.” He warned him.
“Uh… sure.” Wemmbu said, then was pushed by Egg to get away. Parrot and Theo were already getting ahead of him.
He threw a wind charge back at him before going up the stairs too.
Both birds were waiting for him at the gateway.
“Yo, bro, I see you got here quite early.” Theo chuckled at his own sarcasm, effectively ripping two months off both Wemmbu's and Parrot’s lives with that awful joke.
“I had to update the Lorekeeper, buddy.” Invis responded dryly before they all threw their ender pearls into the gateway.
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Wemmbu REALLY underestimated how awkward the silence could get between them three. He was sure the other two were fine with it, but he was NOT.
Sure, they had started with conversation along the way, but topics died, and conversation eventually faded, too, so now, as they approached the end of the first ring, Wemmbu had already been trying for six minutes and a half not to throw himself into the void because of how awkward everything felt. He had been keeping it in check because the last thing they had talked about was him re-potting invis, and that had been… six minutes and a half ago.
They reached the end of the first ring, and all they saw ahead was an endless, starry void stretching itself infinitely.
“So… we should set up about here the flying machine.” Thank you, Parrot, thank you.
“I’ll take the materials out.” He continued, and as he passed some to Theo, they began setting it up, while Wemmbu was there for… support, because he wasn’t really doing anything, the other two had it handled.
Once it was done, Wemmbu had re-potted invis before hopping into one of the boats. Theo and Parrot were going together in the other.
. . .
One minute, two minutes…
This was going to be a long trip.
“Hey, Invis.” Theo took him out of his thoughts thankfully.
“What?” He answered.
“Why don’t we have any other nicknames for you rather than Invis? I feel like that’s pretty basic.”
“What do you suggest if not Invis?” Wemmbu inquired, playing along.
“Well, if you’re invisible and also mysterious… why don’t we call you Mystery or Myst?”
Nevermind. This was going to be a very, very long trip.
“No. Invis is okay.” Wemmbu said a little too quickly.
“Why?!” Of course, the dumber bird had to ask that.
“Because that one sucks.”
“D’alright, bro...” Parrot, the one with the great idea, then said.
Most of the time passed like that. Any of them had something to say, they’d fall into short conversations and mindless chatter, then would go quiet again.
Every eight minutes, Wemmbu would reapply his invisibility.
The noises of the flying machine were the only thing keeping him awake.
He wanted to take a nap really bad, but he had to keep his invisibility up so Parrot and Theo wouldn’t find his identity. He crossed his arms and leaned his back against a wooden block that was blocking
his boat from falling.
It wasn’t the most comfortable, yet it was enough to make his mind fuzzy with sleep.
Surely closing his eyes for a bit wouldn’t hurt… right?
He’d just rest his eyes.
He’d open them again, take his invis, and go back to resting them.
Yeah… surely….
Nothing bad would…
. . .
“Invis?” Parrot called out.
“Yo, Invis? You awake?” Theo did, too.
“Did he just fall asleep?” He asked after a few seconds.
“Oh my days, bro didn’t even last a second.” Parrot couldn’t hold in the snicker.
Theo chuckled too.
“Bro must’ve been really tired if he fell that easily.” He tried to keep it quiet, but truly, it was kind of funny.”
“I don’t think he’ll wake up to reapply. Didn’t he already did so like… seven minutes ago?” Parrot said after a few seconds of quiet.
“Oh, shoot- yeah, you’re right.”
“I feel kinda bad having to wake him up if he was tired.” Parrot admitted, yet… that wasn’t really the only reason he hesitated.
If his invisibility run out… who would be under that armour?
Would it really be that big of a deal if they saw who he was...?
An invisibility splash potion hit Invis square in the chest, who didn’t even stir.
Theo had beat him to it.
He hadn’t even hesitated, and those were the potions they were supposed to use to infiltrate the tomb.
“Just let him sleep a couple more minutes." He chuckled, just accepting that Invis wouldn’t like it if they saw his identity.
Parrot didn’t say anything. He just… looked.
Sure, yeah. He could sleep a bit more.
And Parrot could live a bit more with the fact that they didn’t have to see Invis’ real face to trust him.