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This invisible player is so stubborn.
Parrot and Theo have given him multiple chances to take off that stupid batman-ahh voice changer and reveal himself to them, ending this whole thing peacefully. But no, this guy absolutely insists on getting his ass kicked… or, currently, kicking Theo’s. It’s a very unfortunate situation, but they’ve still got him trapped here in this giant obsidian box, and it’s still two versus one. Besides, Theo is excellent with explosions, and decent enough at combat in general to pair well with his carting. He’s a force to be reckoned with for sure, but the invis player has a mace, and he’s using an elytra-mace tactic like a certain purple fellow that’s disappeared as of late. A tactic that, unfortunately for the avians, works really damn well. They’ve both been popped a few times in this fight alone, and really all Parrot was doing was trying to stay out of Theo’s way and blow stuff up to help out as much as he can. He isn’t insane at PvP like Flamefrags, he probably isn’t even above average at head-on combat. But Parrot can still help in small ways, like getting in the player’s way when he tries to escape. Of course, that always makes him a target for the next few moments, but he knows Theo’s always got his back. Even with elytra-macing, this invisible player won’t be able to defeat them together.
Or at least… that’s what Parrot hopes. What can he say, he’s being optimistic. Theo keeps calling the invis player trash and various other insults about his fighting skill, though it’s most likely only for ragebaiting purposes, as even while insulting the player he’s getting his ass beat half the time. Parrot keeps calling warnings out to him and running in as a distraction nearly every time one of Theo’s totems pops, but the cockatiel hybrid just brushes him off, continuing the onslaught of insults directed at their invisible opponent. Parrot can see through that though. He’s known Theo long enough. He knows he’s getting nervous about this, too.
The more totems that pop, the closer they both get to permanent death. If they don’t manage to kill this guy, or at least make him stand down, it’ll be their own blood spilled today. Speaking of blood, Parrot sees Theo get thrown straight into a wall, trailing red dribbles across the ground from another wound until his next totem pops with the impact and the repairs to his body are made. Without thinking twice, the macaw hybrid runs straight into the invisible player, slashing at him quickly; another distraction. The invisible player doesn’t seem too terribly phased, whipping around to block easily and then hastily equipping his elytra and shooting up above Parrot with a firework. Parrot makes sure he’s holding a totem, instantly bolting from the spot to make it harder for the other to hit him with that mace. He sees Theo get up again, shaking dust from his feathers quickly before starting, equipping his own elytra and trying to get after the invis player before he can elytra-mace again. Parrot doesn’t realize he’s slowed down until the other avian is yelling at him, screaming “PARROT LOOK OUT!” Then, in the blink of an eye, the guy with the mace comes right down on him.
A direct hit.
~
Parrot snaps awake in a bed, not his own, one in a village of some sort, if he was to go off of the considerably close together spruce walls and lack of crafting table or furnace. A lone chest sits in the corner of the small room, probably empty considering he’s here. He doesn’t understand how he got here, exactly, or where the hell Theo is, but as he blinks sleep from his eyes and gets up, he supposes it doesn’t really matter as long as he can also get out. There’s a door leading to the outside right there, the sound of howling wind just outside it. When he pushes it open, he finds himself in a taiga village, which is unsurprising considering all the spruce he’s already encountered here just by waking up. He steps out, scanning the area around him cautiously, searching for Theo and anyone else who might be waiting around here, lurking in shadows or other villager homes to jump him. After all, on unstable, you never know what could happen or who to trust. He learned that lesson the hard way, with Wifies.
Parrot, after deeming it safe (and regrettably Theo-less) walks on, heading through the snowy village. Confusingly, there are no villagers roaming about their daily lives here, not even a zombie one. An iron golem doesn’t exist here either, having no one to protect in such a barren village. It’s just… completely abandoned.
An uneasy feeling washes over Parrot, and he wonders if he should even be here. He doesn’t know why he’s in this village, he doesn’t even remember ever hearing of it, let alone coming here. He turns in a circle slowly as he walks, trying to catch sight of something, anything, any source or even sign of life. But there’s nothing.
A larger gust of wind makes Parrot shiver and wrap his wings around himself, the feathers providing minimal insulation, though they do act as a good shield from the wind itself. He continues walking, trying to ignore the cold as it creeps up on him, seeping in through his skin and turning his very bones to ice. It’s freezing out here. It’s also only now that he realizes he isn’t equipped for this weather at all. He doesn’t even have armor on, a stupid thing to do on a server such as unstable, and he doesn’t have anything at all to help with the cold. Parrot stops his observations about all of this in a split second, the sound of something shifting somewhere behind him alerting him to another being’s presence. Parrot waits to see if it will move again, whatever it is, pretending to busy himself by looking through his inventory -which, he does take a second to notice, is strangely empty. But it doesn’t move again. He discreetly checks behind him then, doing another of those slow turns to scan the area all the way around him. But again, he finds nothing. He shrugs it off after that, but now he’s got a bad feeling he isn’t alone here. Still, it could just be Theo messing with him. So, Parrot starts trying to find him.
“Theo?” He calls, pausing just a moment as shivers once again wrack his body. Taigas really aren’t meant for tropical birds. In any case, there’s no answer, so Parrot keeps trying. “Theo!” He walks through the village more, starting to peek into villager houses and down alleys and essentially everywhere he can think of that his damn cockatiel friend could be hiding. Frustratingly, he finds nothing. Honestly, he’s starting to get a little worried. What if Theo’s hurt somewhere or something? He plays pranks and stuff, yeah, but nothing this elaborate and certainly not anything so hardcore. “Theo, you’re scaring me. Where the hell are you, bro!?” Parrot calls out again, but again, there’s no response. Until there is.
But it’s not Theo.
“There’s no reason to be scared, Parrot.” A voice all too familiar says from behind the avian. Parrot jumps, whirling around and punching the owner of the aforementioned voice in what he hopes is the face. “Ah-! Parrot, what the hell!?” Wifies complains, holding his nose. Well, at least he hit where he was aiming. Not that the knowledge helps the stun seeing his friend the director again causes. Parrot doesn’t even apologize, just staring blankly for a minute straight, his heart-rate already starting to quicken as his mind races just as fast. “What?” Wifies asks then, noticing him just staring.
“Who- where- h-how are you…” Parrot tries to speak, but his words are now refusing to work properly, his mouth not cooperating with his brain. Wifies just looks at him, seeming… confused. For some reason.
“Parrot, are you okay-“ he starts to ask, stepping closer. He stops moving and cuts off his own question when Parrot flinches back at the advancement, now pointedly trying not to make eye contact. He instead stares as Wifies’ feet, as if glaring at them would make them not move any closer. “Parrot?” Wifies says, and instantly Parrot’s eyes flick up to his face, though the avian immediately looks away again, trying his best not to freak out.
He takes as deep a breath as he can, staring at the ground instead of looking anywhere near Wifies. “How are you here.” He asks, though it doesn’t come out like a question. More like a plea. He doesn’t want to be here. He wants nothing to do with Wifies ever again, actually. But it looks like he won’t get that wish right now.
“What do you mean?” The other asks, and if Parrot had been looking at him, he’d have noticed Wifies’ puzzled expression.
“You… you’re dead. I watched you get blown up, how the FUCK are you here!?” Parrot all but screams at him, his gaze snapping up again as it’s Wifies’ turn to flinch backwards.
“What, Parrot are you okay? The hell are you on about-?”
“No! No I am NOT okay! You expect to just show up again after everything you pulled!?” Parrot yells, his wings fluffing with his rage.
“Calm down! What the hell has gotten into you, Parrot!?” Wifies responds, not answering the question in the slightest.
“‘Calm down’!? I have every right to be pissed at you! You can’t be playing dumb now, Wifies, I know you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about!”
“No, I don’t! Why are you acting like this!? I’m your friend!” Parrot starts to shake his head, but he stops in favor of moving backwards as Wifies tries to approach again. “What’s wrong, Parrot? Why are you moving away from me!?” He asks, his tone hurt. But it’s a trick. It’s a lie, it’s always been a lie. It’s always been, right?
Parrot’s back hits the wall of a house unexpectedly, causing him to stumble a little forward again, which he quickly remedies when Wifies manages to get close enough to touch him.
“Stop!” He yelps, throwing his hands up in front of him in a crude attempt to ward off his former friend. He unintentionally squeaks and tenses up as much as possible when Wifies doesn’t listen -because of course he doesn’t, he just has to make Parrot even more uncomfortable here- and gets close enough to grab Parrot easily if he tries to run.
“What’s going on, Parrot?” He asks, his heterochromic eyes burning holes into the avian’s brain.
Parrot doesn’t respond to him directly, barely even hears him ask with his heart pounding so loudly. “No no no no no no no…” he whispers, mostly to himself, but Wifies is so close to him he wouldn’t be surprised if the human heard it too. “This can’t be- this can’t be real, y-you’re dead, no… no this is a dream, it’s okay, it’s a dream, it can’t be…”
“This isn’t a dream, Parrot.” Wifies replies, even though he wasn’t actually being spoken to. “It’s okay! You’re okay, I’m here.” He says, but it’s not comforting to the macaw hybrid any more than the cold winds that still blows freezing cold air into his feathers. Parrot just keeps talking to himself, trying to ignore the human’s presence so close to him. He’s doing his absolute best not to full on panic right now, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working all that well. And then… Wifies actually touches him. He puts a hand to Parrot’s cheek gently, but his touch feels like needles anyway, the sensation of cold metal replacing something that should be warm.
“No! Get off-!” Parrot yelps, shoving weakly against the other as tears start to form in his eyes. He’s not doing this again, he’s not falling for all the manipulation and lies again, he’s not-
“Wake up.” Wifies says then, a sudden contrast to everything that had happened so far.
“What?” Parrot responds meekly, confused and honestly pretty shocked. Wifies was just denying this was a dream not even thirty seconds ago, and now he was telling him to wake up?
“Wake up, Parrot.” The voice of Wifies slowly melts into another familiar voice, this one full of warmth, and care, and… worry. “Parrot, please, wake up!” It says, and the reality around the macaw hybrid slowly fades.
“Wake up!”
He regains consciousness to the sound of Theo’s voice and a terribly throbbing headache. Parrot groans, slowly blinking his eyes open, extremely confused. What happened? Where did Wifies go? He thinks, and then mentally berates himself for even thinking of him longer after that whole experience. If it was even real. What’s real mean again?
“Parrot!” Theo brings him out of his own head with a relieved exclamation of his name and a tight hug, neither of which particularly help the pain in Parrot’s head.
“Wha? Theo?” The macaw hybrid asks, a bit absently, his brain slow to catch up, even with what it’s already processed. Yes, that’s Theo there. Not Wifies, not some enemy, just Theo. “Wha-what happened? Where are we?” He inquires then, starting to feel dizzy already, being sat up in Theo’s arms. When did that happen? Was he not laying down when he woke up?
“What do you mean what happened!? You don’t remember getting thrown at least thirteen fucking blocks!?” Theo responds with a question of his own, the blatant concern bleeding right back into his voice.
“No? When did I get thrown?” Parrot tries to say, but his words come slurred, harder to understand. Actually, it would make sense that he was thrown, his head isn’t the only thing that hurts right now. He circles back to an earlier question then, before Theo can even try to answer that last one. “Where… what is this place?” He asks, squinting up at what looks like really elaborate obsidian walls. Are they in some sort of prison? Is that why it hurts so much? Did they get captured by someone?
“Parrot, we made this. To trap the invisible player? Don’t you remember?” Yeah… Parrot does seem to remember something about finding the identity of an invisible guy. The prospect is too similar to Wifies. He stops trying to think about it.
“Sssort of…” he replies, trying to keep it simple so he doesn’t have to think. Thinking is hard. He doesn’t really wanna think right now. Thankfully, Theo seems to just take that answer as is, taking the time instead to turn Parrot’s face towards him, moving his head around slightly as if trying to see something. All the movement really accomplishes is making Parrot more dizzy. “Can you stop..?” He complains after a bit, lethargically batting at his friend’s hands.
“Fine. It looks like your totem fixed the outside damage anyway.” Theo comments, sounding almost… conflicted, for some reason.
“Damage?”
“Yeah.. you… kind of got maced in the head.” Theo explains quickly. Oh. So that’s why his head hurts so much.
The cockatiel hybrid sighs softly, it seems as though a weight has been added to his shoulders with how defeated it sounds, and Parrot wonders why. “Come on.” Theo says then, standing and pulling Parrot up with him. “We’d better get back home quickly, you might have a concussion or something…” he mutters, but Parrot doesn’t exactly pay attention. He doesn’t want to move, he’s too dizzy to move. In fact, he almost falls flat on his face as soon as Theo tries to pull him along, because everything’s spinning so much he can’t even tell up from down. He groans, feeling nauseous from all the swirling of his vision. “You okay?” Theo asks, even though he knows very well the answer to that question is no.
“Obv’sly not…” Parrot slurs, kept upright only because Theo is holding him on his feet. Speaking of being kept upright, the avian almost falls over again, just this time more into his friend’s arms.
“Okay we cannot have you doing this the whole time.” Theo says, to which Parrot only replies with a half-hearted mumble. He’s kind of tired. But he’s also a little scared of what’ll happen if he lets himself fall asleep again. So he forces his eyes -which have begun to grow heavy- to stay open, trying his best to focus on what he now realizes is his friend speaking again. “Hello? Is anyone in there?” Theo is currently teasing, having apparently noticed the other zoning out.
“What?” Parrot asks in response, genuinely a little confused. Theo just sighs again.
“Can you hold on?” He inquires, presumably repeating something he’d asked earlier when Parrot wasn’t paying attention.
“Hold onto what?”
“Me, dumbass!” Theo exclaims with an eye roll signaling it wasn’t a serious insult, though Parrot catches genuine worry at the response he’d given hidden underneath there. It takes a moment, but Theo then says something else entirely. “Damn, you must’ve really gotten knocked in the head hard by that guy.” He mutters, and Parrot doesn’t know if he was talking to himself or to the macaw hybrid. But either way is fine, he supposes. What was the question Theo asked him? He doesn’t want to make the other repeat it again for him. He really doesn’t like being a burden of any sort. Right, it was about hanging onto… something. To him? Whatever. It’s the same question either way.
“Uh.. I thhink I could hold on?” Parrot answers finally, though he isn’t exactly sure about that. “Why?” Theo looks at him with a typical mischievous grin. “Oh no. Forget I asked?” Parrot replies to that, but it’s too late now. Theo’s already got another of his brilliant ideas.
And by brilliant Parrot means a good way to get them both killed.
It isn’t long enough until they’re both soaring through the air, Theo the only one actually flying as he holds a clinging avian in his arms. “This is still a really bad idea!!” Parrot says over the rush of the wind. Usually he doesn’t mind flying, he loves it, actually. He’s a bird, it’s what they do. But when someone ELSE is the one doing the flying, and with the world spinning so much at the same time that he can’t see straight at all, it’s terrifying. He moans, nauseous beyond belief and just trying his best not to throw up while in the sky. That would not go over very well.
“This would go a lot better if you used your wings too!” Theo comments, huffing at him.
“Mmmgh, too spinning…” Parrot replies, messing up on his grammar. Honestly though, he couldn’t care any less about that at the moment. “And you told me not to!” The macaw hybrid groans again, squeezing his eyes shut and just focusing on holding on.
“I did say that, didn’t I?” Theo replies, sighing in defeat once again. Eventually they must land outside Capital City, as Theo tells him he can let go now and Parrot proceeds to do so, go over to the grass, and throw up. Twice.
“Ugh… we are never doing that again.” He tells Theo afterwards, wiping his mouth before the cockatiel hybrid just grabs him and starts leading him towards the gates of the city. While walking back to their potion shop (and home), Parrot’s eyes grow heavier and heavier. He feels exhausted, somehow, even though he didn’t really do much on the way over here except for throw up after the trip.
Theo definitely notices him slow, considering he’s still holding Parrot upright because of the spinning, though it’s thankfully gone down now that they aren’t actively in the air. “Parrot, you good?” He asks, continuing to walk and coaxing Parrot’s legs into working for a little while longer as they have this conversation.
“I’m fine, jus’… tired…” Parrot responds, “Oh, and, whatev’r’s going on with, uh…” he vaguely gestures to his head. Theo doesn’t say anything to that, just hums and continues to coax his friend’s exhausted body along.
“Oh, look, home sweet home.” Theo jokes when they reach the door to their shop. Parrot doesn’t have the energy to offer him much more than a small smile in return, and Theo leads him into the place and ensures to lock the door behind him this time -something he’s forgotten to do on more than one occasion in the past.
Unable to fight sleep any longer, Parrot mumbles something completely incomprehensible even to himself, and promptly passes out, barely caught by his friend before he gave himself more brain damage by hitting the floor. Theo just shakes his head, scooping Parrot up with a bit of effort considering the large wings and kind of awkward position, and carries him up to his bedroom so he can sleep properly. He sets himself a timer to wake up and check on Parrot every hour or so, and then heads to bed himself, having had a way longer day than he would’ve originally liked to have. But, at least they were both still okay. For the most part.