Chapter Text
He'd never felt this way before. Not this often, at least.
He was Wemmbu. Confident, cocky... maybe sometimes a little bit annoying. It was just who he was - being the strongest and all... well, second strongest now... he had the right to be a little bit self-centered. And this was all in his head; if he just... ignored it, surely, the feeling would go away. At the start, it worked. He'd focus on something else; talking with Egg, pissing people off, fighting people. Now, it was getting worse. He couldn't ignore it any longer.
The feeling wasn't exactly... new, either. In fact, he'd felt it before; although always in passing moments. Being presented in front of the entire server as Lettuce's promise of justice. Being caught in Parrot's trap when he made that new identity. Every time Egg had been kidnapped by somebody who wanted Wemmbu dead or worse. They'd all been in short-coming moments, never frequent like it was now. He knew it well, maybe less than others would know it. It was anxiety.
Dread.
The feeling of something looming over you without knowing what that thing was.
That feeling was amplified tenfold as he stared down at the holes in the ground; where the Arachnid people had just stood, demanding his presence in the caves. He'd killed before. It was normal; and he'd surely been threatened before. So why did everything set him on edge?
Egg stood behind him, saying nothing the soldiers died. He'd known Wemmbu for ages. This wasn't anything new to him; not the sound of the explosion, not the red mist that came afterward. Wemmbu turned on his heel, rotating to look Egg in the eyes. He felt a lump forming in his throat as he spoke.
"I'm gonna go get fireworks."
Egg's attention shifting from his friend standing in front of him to the floor. Wemmbu knew he caught the lie immediately; they were still decently stocked on items, with no real need to find fireworks. Besides, Wemmbu wasn't the type to go alone anyway; with Egg being constantly kidnapped and held hostage, it was a risk just to leave him alone. Egg didn't comment on it further than a "good luck."
He didn't miss the shift of attitude lately. Wemmbu had seemed sort of distant, never letting Egg out of his sight for even a second, staying up later than usual and even taking walks. Wemmbu never took walks. Despite the worrying change, Egg had never asked what was going wrong. He wanted to; don't get him wrong, but every previous time Wemmbu had seemed off, he'd completely rejected help.
During his secret identity, both before and after it was ruined, he'd acted strange. Egg asked him why; why he was acting exactly like he was now then. Wemmbu didn't just completely ignore the question; he also got angry when he repeated it. After that incident, Egg had learned that he was fine with pretty much everything... except his feelings. Eventually, though, Wemmbu got over it and eventually went back to normal. Now, Egg just hoped he could get over it himself again.
Wemmbu wasn't exactly comfortable leaving Egg by himself, either. The angel always seemed to get in some sort of trouble, getting kidnapped or attacked or even robbed whenever he wasn't there to protect him; but he just needed to move. Like a shark had to keep moving, having a task to complete would surely make him feel better; and having Egg come along with him would just be extra responsibilities he couldn't handle right now.
He began to regret leaving immediately as he flew from the small base they'd begun to make, but he didn't turn around. He was only leaving for maybe thirty minutes at most; Egg would be fine. He'd continue to build the base, maybe even finish; work on whatever book or story he was doing at the time. He would be fine.
Right?
+..-
Wemmbu's heels landed with a clink on the concrete paving the bridge. The lights of Capital City shined bright in the dimness of night, brighter than any star could hope to compete with. The city was rich; much more so than many of the other civilizations you could find on this server. Of course, it definitely wasn't the most well off; Wemmbu could probably give that title to Merchant City. Still, it was up there.
And yet, despite the prosperity it held... the gates remained seriously under-guarded. Despite not being on the best terms with this place, he would not bother to go out of his way just to find somewhere else to get fireworks. It wasn't his first pick, yes, but it happened to be the closest to their base at the moment; and Wemmbu wanted to be as close as possible if he needed to return to Egg quickly.
The guards didn’t stop him as he passed the gate, just pointed and whispered to one another. He wasn’t new to being the center of attention; it barely bothered him. At least they didn’t try stopping him, and Wemmbu was already starting to feel better by now. The streets of Capital City weren’t as busy as they once were, but there was still a decent amount of people. Most didn’t bother him as he loitered, although he couldn’t help but notice how people kept glancing at him a little too long. From his other identity, he knew vaguely the direction of a fireworks shop near the back corner of the city, but not quite at the edge. He didn’t look twice when he saw Parrot’s potion shop pass by.
As he walked, his thoughts wandered back to Egg. Honestly, maybe Wemmbu should try training him in PvP. He’s already so ass at it, it couldn’t hurt to show him the basics. But could he even be taught? He was so long gone, Wemmbu laughed to himself momentarily while he recalled his fight with Manepear. Egg was good at some things; like writing… I guess.. Keeping track of server lore, sometimes holding Wemmbu back. Another part of him was grateful for never having to worry about betrayal with him; always having someone to return to when everybody else had gone behind his back by now. He’d never say that, though; not to Egg, and surely not to anybody else.
The garden he’d blown up was to his right now. It was repaired, almost fully so, but the flowers were still young; the trees now only saplings. That’s weird. The cannon had been fired a long time ago, surely, the trees would have grown by now; with how many people were constantly coming by here, the chunks would’ve been loaded long enough. Maybe they’d only recently planted it, though, the city having been busy with it’s new mayor and all. Spoke had helped with getting Parrot his new role, too. Didn’t Spoke try to blow this place up once? Wemmbu didn’t know why he tried and why he didn’t; he’d only heard of the incident through Egg. Still, though; Spoke was one of the few people Wemmbu just didn’t understand at all.
The fireworks shop was just ahead now. The green and black colored cloth hanging above the porch of the building had gathered dust on the top, likely to be washed away with the next rain. Still, Wemmbu entered, looking at the nametag above from the ground floor, watching as they climbed the ladder down and finally saw him. “Wemmbu?” The chung spoke first, surprise evident in his voice. Wemmbu was just about to respond when they dropped to their knees. “Yo, please, do not kill me, bro! I’ll give you anything! Fireworks? My soul? My girl – I’ll give you my girl! You can just have her!”
Wemmbu made a sound that was a thin line between a laugh and a scoff. “What? I’m just here to buy–” He began, but paused, his smile growing an inch wider as he spoke again. “Yo, give me four stacks of fireworks right now, or I’ll kill you. No – six.” He held his fishing rod for emphasis. It wasn’t even an orbital – just some half-broken item he must’ve picked up by accident while zoned out, but the shopkeeper nodded like their life was on the line. It … kind of wasn’t. Immediately, they began dropping fireworks to him; more than his inventory could carry. He picked up five stacks before he put away the fishing rod. “Good, good… you’ll live to see another day.”
Wemmbu turned on his heel, about to leave before the shopkeeper’s voice stopped him once again. “Um… Wemm…bu, I’m sorry, but you have… a message, near the dolphin thing…” their voice trailed off, as they slowly ascended the ladder again. Wemmbu didn’t respond, continuing on his merry way.
He could return to Egg now. He had a decent amount of fireworks; they’d probably last them a while, including with the amount they already had… but whatever. He wanted to leave, completely disregard the message he was apparently left; but curiosity killed the blob, and he flew up to the tower with his newly acquired fireworks.
He’d just grab that message quickly, then go back to egg, and everything would be fine and dandy. They could go back to building their base, and then find something to do like they always did. He twisted his body at the last moment to land perfectly; like he always did. Putting his chest plate back on, he stepped into the main building.
Wemmbu blended in perfectly with the swarm of people. He could see why so few people were in the streets now, as it appeared they’d all migrated into here. For… some reason. He looked around, only struggling for a moment before spotting the desk where some receptionist was giving people signed books. The postman, maybe?
Wemmbu got at the back of the line, waiting a grand total of ten seconds before pushing past everybody else and shoving himself to the front of the line.
“Hi.” He said to the person at the desk, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands; ignoring the sounds of discontent from the people he’d skipped. S00p3r_awesm, their name read. “I was told I had mail.”
S00p3r nodded and dropped a book. Wemmbu hardly managed to pick it up in time before the person behind him pushed him away and got their own book. Wemmbu scoffed, but decided it wasn’t worth making a big deal of. He didn’t have a PvP kit on him right now; it was mostly just building supplies and all the random shit he’d collected thus far. A fight probably would go too hot right now.
Before exiting the building, Wemmbu put his elytra back on and flew out. That probably would have raised a minor amount of attention; given the scarcity of elytra’s on the server, not very many had them. Except him. He used to have a whole shulker of them - back during the Zam kingdom - but he’d kind of… lost them. Not lost, actually; he knew exactly what he’d done with them, but he didn’t have them right now. That counts as lost, right?
Back to egg he returns.
+..-
“Egg?” Wemmbu called out, opening the door with a slight creak. They should really fix that. “Hello?” As he stepped in, the first thing he noticed was the lack of an Eggchan in the main room. Nerves started to brew in his chest again, the whole trip with the purpose of relaxing being thrown out the window.
“Yo,” he heard Egg respond. In an instant, his anxiety turned to confusion. He glanced around the room again, before spotting a block in the floor being broken. Egg built up, smiling up at Wemmbu as he remained a block below floor level.
“Oh.” Wemmbu said simply, falling to his knees and leaning back, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Eggchan. “Okay, so, I got like… five stacks of fireworks - well, more like four and a half by now. But then the shopkeeper… he like, told me I had a message, so - oh, I haven’t even read it yet.” He rambled on, pulling the book out of his inventory.
“Yeah, I know. I wrote the message.” Egg deadpanned.
“Wait, did you actually?” Wemmbu asked, looking up from the cover of the book. The username there wasn’t Eggchan’s - and besides, when would Egg have even written that? And why would he just.. tell him? They were together pretty much all the time, anyway.
“Brother… no, I didn’t. I was joking. What’s it say?” Egg responded, a small half-smile cracking at his lips. Wemmbu just sighed, eyes narrowing slightly. All he responded with was a quiet “d’alright…”
He opened the book, the pages opening perfectly in the middle. He began to read the message out loud.
“YOU - yes YOU - are invited to join US, the CAPITAL CITY GUARD, for a parade!
Within the next two hours, you are expected anywhere in the streets to watch the beautiful presentation! Preferably at the sides, otherwise you may get run over.
CAPITAL CITY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR INJURY, DEATH, OR DISMEMBERMENT DURING THIS EVENT.
The parade will be hosted in honor of our glorious…”
Wemmbu trailed off, the smile he’d barely registered previously beginning to fade as he read the next words.
Egg pushed himself up from his small crater in the ground, walking to sit next to Wemmbu, facing the opposite direction. He tilted his head slightly. “Why’d you stop?”
Wemmbu clenched his jaw, silent for a moment or two longer before he laughed; the sound drenched in disbelief. “In honor of our glorious lord and savior, Eggchan.”
“Yo!” Egg perked up, leaning closer slightly. “Eggchan, as in, me?” Wemmbu dropped the book to him, smiling ear-to-ear. He honestly hadn’t even fully processed this yet.
Eggchan - Wemmbu’s best friend, the one who couldn’t fight for his life and was always writing some bullshit - was being claimed as a God. And now, there was a parade in his name? This wasn’t… really… what Wemmbu had expected to happen when he left, but he wasn’t really complaining. This was peak entertainment.
“I’m finally getting the recognition I deserve,” Eggchan joked as he read the message for himself. “As the… erm, lord and savior, we must attend this parade!”
“D’alright, bro. We still need to finish the base…” Wemmbu began, before looking back to see the joy on his face. He chuckled, finishing with “…but I guess we can do that later.”
“Yo, I’m so excited. Do you think they’ll have a giant balloon of my face? My own theme song?” Egg began to ramble on about what he hoped to find in the parade, and how much aura he’d gain if he made an appearance. Wemmbu caught the jist of it, but he couldn’t help but zone out, staring at the wall behind Egg.
Eggchan had been kidnapped so often, held hostage and used as bait, Wemmbu couldn’t help but worry. Would this be another trap? Another method to abuse the power he held? He didn’t want to go, honestly. Nothing interesting would happen anyway.. and he’d much rather stay here, with Egg, and build together where they were safe. But this kind of thing never happened, and maybe they’d miss out and Egg would be disappointed if they couldn’t make it.
"Wemmbu?"
I mean, Egg had gotten kidnapped so often, it was what he was known for. Sure, it was funny, but not in the moment. Maybe he could try teaching Egg some PvP, learn how to defend himself, but recalling what had happened last time he'd sparred Manepear - yeah, maybe it was too late. Egg was hopeless, completely hopeless, without Wemmbu by his side.
"Wemmbu."
Wemmbu had the vague memory of somebody telling him that the only reason Egg hadn't been killed yet was because he was his friend. Who had told him that? Was it true? It was true, of course. Egg couldn't fight. He was decent with a bow and arrow, sure, but that was support and who would he support if nobody wanted to fight for him? Maybe Wemmbu could at least try to teach him the basics. Do what nobody else could. They... hopefully... had a lot of free time on their hands, now that the Law fights was over and Parrot was king. Maybe he could fit something into their schedule.
"Wemmbu!"
Wemmbu physically flinched, snapping out of his train of thought instantly. "Huh? What? Sorry, you uh..." Wemmbu trailed off, looking at the floor. He didn't know what to say; he hadn't zoned out in forever.
"Dawg, are you good?" Egg asked, tilting his head slightly. The book was closed now, discarded on the floor between them. Wemmbu read the name over and over again until the letters were engraved in his memory. "We don't have to go if you're not feeling well. I mean, it'll probably blow over by -"
"No!" Wemmbu interrupted, biting the inside of his cheeks hard when he caught his outburst. "I mean.. I know this means a lot to you. To some extent. I feel fine, I just... I don't want to hold you back if it's something you really want to do, alright? Let's just go. It'll be fine. It's not like you'll die."
Wemmbu regretted saying that the moment it left his lips. His hand balled into a fist, and he stared at it, still avoiding eye contact. He was half tempted to knock on the wooden floor beneath them. Eggchan was silent for a moment, and Wemmbu didn't really expect him to respond. He looked down himself. For a moment, they just sat in silence, so much so to the point that Wemmbu thought he could vaguely hear his own heartbeat. It unnerved him. He didn't like that sound.
He never liked the sound of anything that reminded him he was alive. Not the sound of his breathing, nor his heartbeat, not even the sound of chewing. That one was the worst. It's not like he was hardcore suicidal or anything; they just sounded unpleasant to him, like nails on chalkboard or.. eating something freeze-dried. God, that always made him shiver - even just thinking about it now made him wince.
"I think we should just skip it, it's fine. If it's bothering you that much, then it's not worth it anyway." Egg said, his voice quieter.
Wemmbu felt a small flash of irritation at that. He'd already covered this before, it was fine. Why did Egg insist on being difficult? "No, bro. We're going. Okay?" He snapped.
Egg stood up. "Yeah, alright." he muttered under his breath, but Wemmbu still caught it. His expression curled into a snarl as he watched Egg go over to his lectern. That thing was stupid, too. He was always at it, as if books were more entertaining than being near him. Maybe Wemmbu should just go die in a hole and then Egg would see how much he really needed him, now that he was gone.
What?
What the hell was he thinking?
Wemmbu stared in disbelief at the back of Egg's head for so long that he was sure the angel could feel it by now. Egg always seemed to be good at knowing when someone was watching, too, but Egg had a wide array of skills that wouldn't help anybody in this server. Because of that, aside from books and keeping track of lore and helping out Wemmbu whenever he fought; he never really entertained any passions. He was too busy being Wemmbu's friend.
Was Wemmbu that high maintenance? Should he ask? No, that would be weird... and kind of corny. Instead, Wemmbu settled for backing up until he hit the far wall, putting his head in his hands and letting out a breath. He didn't want to do this, not really, and now he worried he'd ruined the mood. Egg probably just... didn't even want to talk to him anymore. Maybe they despised each other now, and Wemmbu would go back to getting betrayed by everybody he knew for more than three days. Fine, then. Let it happen again.
It wasn't the first time, and it wouldn't be the last.
+..-
He had to give credit where credit was due. The parade wasn't even that bad.
It was colorful, with cold hues integrated into every place it would fit. Fireworks, floaters... there was even a band somewhere. He couldn't see the last part - they hadn't even gotten close enough to see much of the parade to begin with. They could see floaters solely due to how tall they were, and it should be obvious for the firework part.
They stood on one of the city walls, invisible and armorless. The parade seemed to be on the other side of the city now; contributing to the cause of being hard to see. Wemmbu looked around for a moment, having lost Egg's particles, before finding them and pulling out his sword. He pointed it in the direction of the tower, looking back multiple times before hitting Egg. Wemmbu couldn't tell if he was even paying attention.
"Ow!" Egg exclaimed.
"Shh!" Wemmbu shushed him quickly, putting his sword away and looking around. There were only a few guards on the walls; much lesser than there normally would be had there not been a server-wide event in the process. There hadn't been many of those lately... at least, not since Wemmbu almost got executed during that election. Had there been an event after that? His memory was hazy for some reason. It didn't surprise him too much; he had a pretty bad short-term memory, although a good long-term one. Hadn't it been long enough though?
"Dude, what are you pointing at?" Egg whispered. At least he was lowering his voice.
"The - dude, the tower." Wemmbu deadpanned, scowling slightly as he turned back to Egg. Not like he'd see it anyway.
"What tower?"
Wemmbu just stared for a moment, neither seeming too intent on breaking the silence. He did eventually. "The big tower ... in the middle? How low is your render distance, bro? You know what, nevermind. Just put your elytra on."
Egg did so, following Wemmbu as he flew off toward the tower.
He looked back, thankful that the guards that were supposed to be on-duty were either AFK or watching the parade. His heels landed on the concrete platform. It was small, but not exactly tiny. He'd been up here once or twice before, when he threatened the mayor of this city and blew up that garden. Wemmbu looked back, and didn't see Egg coming toward him anymore. The elytra wings showed him gliding in a circle. Wemmbu scoffed in disbelief and flew back toward him.
"Egg!" He called out once he got close enough.
"Wemmbu, I lost you, bro." Egg laughed. Wemmbu flew pretty much into Egg before flying off in the right direction again.
"It's - bro.. come on, this way. How did you lose me, dude?" he asked.
"Uh... don't worry about it. Oh, I see it!" Egg declared as he landed on the platform Wemmbu had just been on, stumbling moderately upon landing.
"I don't think anyone saw you..." Wemmbu thought out loud as he looked back to the castle walls. One guard seemed to be a bit riled up, but wasn't chasing or anything. It'd be fine. Wemmbu couldn't even kill him anyway; that'd make a death message, and then their anonymity would go down the drain. It would be fine.
"Where's my parade?" Egg said, peering down the edge of the ledge. His invisibility seemed to have ran out while Wemmbu was looking at the walls. Wemmbu nearly told him to re-apply it, but bit his tongue. He was being weird. He knew that, but he didn't even know why.
"It's... here, it's on this side." Wemmbu passed Egg, walking to the far side of the ledge. His own invis would run out soon, too. "Can you even see it from here? Should we move closer?"
"No, I can see it. Yo!" Egg pointed to a floater with his face on it. He laughed. Something about the sound made Wemmbu relax and tense up at the same time. "Dude, I thought this was a prank or something."
Or a trap, probably. Wemmbu knelt down on the ledge. "I see myself," He announced. His own was maybe three or four attractions behind Eggchan's leading the parade.
"Well, of course," Egg fell to sit, letting his legs dangle over the edge. "You're my, uh... right-hand man. Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal." he joked.
Wemmbu smiled. He didn't know if Egg continued speaking after that, because if he did, it was drowned out. Was he being over dramatic? This entire time, he'd worried that this was a trap or something. That Egg would die if left unattended for too long. It was stupid, and Wemmbu hadn't really felt this way before. He didn't like it.
Egg was the one he could rely on; the only person that wouldn't turn on Wemmbu if given the right incentive. What happens if Wemmbu's paranoia ruined everything? Would Egg get sick of it and just leave? Egg wouldn't even survive on his own. He couldn't fight or anything. The only reason he hadn't been executed from his captors yet was because Wemmbu was his friend, and to kill the companion of one of - if not the - strongest players on the entire server would be... well, possibly the biggest mistake you could make.
When Wemmbu snapped out of his trance, he was met with silence. Maybe Egg hadn't been talking after all. He glanced over to him, then back at the parade. It was closer; the band could be heard now. He didn't know what song they were playing, he was never one for music. Maybe Egg would like that stuff.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable by any means. Part of it made Wemmbu calmer, like he could finally relax. He smiled softly as he watched, the bright colors of the parade and the fireworks mixing together. He couldn't remember a time he'd felt this... free. The wind was blowing his hair to the side, out of his face. The music didn't even sound half bad, and the people below seemed like they were genuinely having fun.
Egg leaned in, resting his head against Wemmbu's shoulder. It took him a moment before he broke the silence. "Wemmbu?"
"Yeah?" Wemmbu said, not moving out from under Egg.
"...I love you, bro. No homo, though."
Wemmbu laughed, the absurdity of the statement catching him off guard. They'd never been ones for expression affection. It just wasn't in their dynamic.
"Come on!" Egg said, prodding Wemmbu with his elbow. "Say it back."
When Wemmbu finally quieted down, he rested his own head against Egg's.
"I love you too."