Chapter Text
Parrot would be the first to admit he was nervous. After all, it’s not every day he gets a random email with an apology, a server IP, and a time. He didn’t even know what the person was sorry for, as there was no name and no explanation.
But with a curiosity that might’ve gotten him killed on Unstable SMP, Parrot joined the server IP, ignoring the way his stomach lurched at the change. He was used to that, by now, when he had to leave Unstable for whatever reason.
Spawn hadn’t been touched much, from what he could tell. Trees still grew tall, and not a block had been broken nor placed. Birds were still singing in the trees, despite his abrupt arrival. Looking around for any leads, Parrot climbed up one of the trees, hoping to see something, or maybe someone.
Another email, from the same, strange person, startled him from his search.
“20,000, 20,000. You’ll see a mostly spruce house with smoking coming out of the chimney.”
There was no close to the email, not even a name from the address that he recognized. But without any other ideas and with a growing anxiety, Parrot started walking.
***
“-ow do you even know he’ll come?” Parrot froze. It wasn’t because he recognized the voice, but rather because he was still a good hundred or so blocks from the house the email described.
Parrot heard someone sigh. “Honestly, though, a part of me hopes he doesn’t. It’s been a year since we last spoke; I shouldn’t be able to predict him anymore.” He tried placing the voice, but no one was coming to mind—not from this far away, at least. He needed to get closer.
“If you didn’t want him to come, why ask?” The first person sounded confused, maybe even anxious himself. “You said you wanted-”
“Yeah, I did say that.” That voice was familiar in a way that made his stomach turn, but Parrot didn't know why. “Because I do.... But that probably shouldn’t come with the knowledge that he’s twenty blocks to our south with stone tools and a server-born fear of traps and plans.”
Parrot froze, and despite not having found them through the tree leaves, he could tell the other two did too, almost as if neither of them expected such specific knowledge.
Well, one of them did expect it, if the heavy sigh was any indicator.
“Parrot?” The player in question looked where he heard his name. The tone made his hands shake, and the word itself was quiet, almost gentle. Parrot moved the few blocks he needed to see for certain.
Two other players stood in that clearing of the forest. One had a TV head, the antennae almost like an anglerfish’s light. The other he recognized, doubt no longer clouding his mind.
“Wifies....” Parrot left his axe in his hot-bar, not trusting either of the players in front of him. “You sent that email....” It was hard to keep the slight fear from his voice, if he was being honest with himself. He wasn’t trying to make eye contact, eyes trained solely on the feather earring his former best friend still had.
The TV head glanced between the two of them, rubbing the back of his neck. Parrot looked at him but didn’t let Wifies leave his vision. Wifies grimaced, rubbing his elbow. “Yeah. You were the only one who answered.”
“Uh huh... and who’s this?”
The TV head turned his head quickly. “Oh- uh- I’m Hummer. Wifies and I were looking for Levi, and he suggested asking you for help too.”
Parrot was glaring—not that he noticed—and holing out his axe now. “Right, and how do I know that-”
“You don’t,” Wifies interrupted him. “I can’t prove I’ve changed, that I don’t have a plan or a trap. I can’t pretend like I don’t remember everything, like I can’t predict you still.” He looked at Parrot’s axe for a moment, quiet and contemplative. “Stone tools...,” he whispered.
The tension was palpable, but there was no world where it wouldn’t have been.
Parrot remembered the good. He’d promised he would. He and Wifies had been friends for so long, and Parrot remembered the weight of that spyglass in his hands and the expression Wifies had when he’d gifted him the earring.
But he also couldn’t forget the bad. Wifies had trapped him in an obsidian cage and called it their own world, and Parrot couldn’t forget how hurt he was nor how his friends and the people they cared about were put in danger.
“It’s getting dark,” Hummer interrupted. “There’s enough beds on the ship for all of us to sleep.”
Parrot and Wifies opened their mouths at the same time.
“I don’t want to go with you.”
“He doesn’t want to go with us.”
Parrot didn’t miss Wifies flinch, mirroring that of his own.
If his look of sympathy was any indicator, Hummer didn’t miss it either. “I might not understand everything that happened between you two, but I do know that the chances of mobs spawning and hunting us is much higher at night.” The player hesitated. “The ocean is the safest place to be.”
“Hummer, it’s fine.” Wifies sighed. Parrot gripped his axe tighter, his gut screaming at him to run or to at least warn Hummer about what Wifies was capable of. “We can’t force him to follow us. He needs to know he’ll have a way out.”
“I get that, especially when your home world’s a hardcore server, but isn’t it just safer with other-”
“I’m not going with you,” Parrot interrupted.
Wifies’ expression was unreadable. “And you don’t have to.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t need you to.”
“So then what do you need me for?”
“Parrot, have you heard of the Leviathan?” Hummer butted into the conversation before Wifies could reply with whatever lie he was preparing.
But the question itself made Parrot pause. “That old Minecraft myth? With the deep ocean?”
Hummer nodded. “Yeah. I believe it’s real, while Wifies....”
Parrot watched the two other players have a silent conversation that he was apparently not privy to. He took a step back.
“I don’t know if the Leviathan is real or not.” Wifies crossed his arms. “There’s evidence both ways.”
“So, Wifies wanted to get a third opinion.”
“And...” Parrot hesitated. “You chose me for that. Out of everyone you could’ve contacted.”
“Because I don’t know that just anyone can see Hummer.”
Parrot looked at the player, trying not to let his anxiety show any more than it already had. The TV head looked at the ground, hesitating. “This is my home world,” he started explaining. “But despite that, when you look on the tab list....”
Parrot blinked a few times. He hadn’t even considered looking at tab..., but only two names appeared—ParrotX2 and Wifies.
Hummer clearly had a player tag. Why he wasn’t showing up, Parrot didn’t know.
“It gets weirder,” Hummer explained. “I can’t see chat messages.”
“But this is your home world.”
“We know,” Wifies started pacing. Parrot remembered watching him do that a lot during the scavenger hunt Spoke had made for them. “Hummer and I have gone to other servers together, and it was the same way there, too. Other people have outright ignored him.”
Parrot was silent for a second. “You think us being able to see him has to do with Unstable?”
Wifies sighed, stopping right in between Parrot and Hummer. “Maybe. It’s not a bad theory, but it’s not easily testable.”
“And that has mattered when?”
“Right now, when you’ve been the only person to respond to me.”
“Does it even matter to whatever search you’re doing?”
“Yeah, because Hummer has-”
A soft hiss made Wifies pause, and despite the action requiring him to lose sight of his former best friend, Parrot spun, planning on cutting down the creeper before it could blow up.
Hummer sighed, pulling out his own iron sword. “I told you it was getting dark,” he mumbled before glancing at Parrot. “The cabin’s about 80 blocks from here. I understand you don’t want to come with us, but at least let us get you some resources.”
How he let himself get roped into something seemingly so... complicated, Parrot would wonder and regret... but he wasn’t sure if he even had a choice.