Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Paragon
Parrot opened his eyes blearily and looked around.
He was on an obsidian platform, high, high, above a pit of lava. Dark obsidian walls rose all around him and the only light was from the bubbling lava below.
Squinting, he could make out the edge of a platform. Pulling out his spyglass, Parrot gazed at the platform - the most obvious way out.
On the platform stood his former best friend, Wifies. The person who had trapped him.
Wifies flew toward him, and all Parrot could see was the feather - his feather - hanging from Wifies' neck, landing on an alcove underneath the one he sat on.
It felt as though Wifies' grey, ying - yang jumper and brown hair, and chocolate eyes, and void-like purple headband were imprinted on his brain.
Four slices of bread popped up from a dispenser.
"That's it?"
"Help to make the stay a little nicer."
Wifies' voice was almost amused. As though he was pleased that ParrotX2 was no longer flying free. Then again, it was him that had trapped Parrot there in the first place. A cake popped out and Parrot was left alone.
What did he have? A flint and steel, a boat, a fishing rod, six carpets, two fire res potions, ten rockets, fifteen wind charges, twenty-nine cobwebs, a stack of arrows, a shovel, his spyglass and three bread (he'd eaten one already).
Not much.
He knew the only way to escape was the flying machine Wifies used to cross the gap.
The heat from the bubbling lava clouded his thoughts, making him feel fuzzy and sleepy. But even so, he gritted his teeth, focusing on the escape plan he's decided on.
Wifies flew toward him.
"You know you can't keep me here forever right?"
One last chance. A chance for Wifies to make it right.
"I don't want to," Wifies responded, "but I'm doing what I have to."
He wasn't getting out by Wifies anytime soon, then.
So be it.
"Fighting it won't help."
Wifies voice had become cold, blocking Parrot from his mind. It only hardened Parrot's resolve further.
Equipping his fishing rod, Parrot crouched at the edge of his obsidian pillar, heartbeat thumping in his chest. Wifies came into view and Parrot hooked his fishing rod onto him, wind charging up and pulling before landing on the flying machine.
Parrot gasped, escape at his fingertips. He had a final glimpse of Wifies' widened eyes and shocked face, before the flying macing began to jerk forward. He was getting out.
The flying machine brought him jerkily to the platform. All he had to do was climb the never ending stairs up to the top of the prison and he would be out.
He would be out.
Everything tensed, not hope exactly, but the feeling of his heart in his throat, the daring to believe he'd gotten out.
He came out onto the top of a tower, the dome of his first prison sprawling out under.
He was greeted, not by freedom, but by another wall.
Of obsidian.
A little excitement, the hope he wouldn't allow himself to feel ever again drained out of him at the sight. Every biome surrounded the dome, spreading out like a mini world meant for just him. It really did look amazing.
But surrounding it all was a looming black wall of obsidian, reminding him he was trapped.
"What the…"
His voice trailed off, an entirely new prison. It was an entire world, but it was still a prison. A place to contain him.
He ran from each side of the tower, staring in horror at the prospect of this new, unfamiliar place.
It felt even more hopeless than the last. Yet Parrot new, in the core of his body, in every bone, that no matter what he was about to go through, no matter how difficult it would be to escape, someday, somehow he was going to break out.
"Whatever you're thinking Parrot, it's impossible." Wifies said from behind him. Parrot spun around, looking at the director.
"You- you lived that?"
"I know how you are, Parrot, if you have even a sliver of hope, you'll keep fighting until you have nothing left. You will spend weeks planning that, Parrot, you're gonna think there's a way, you're gonna search for an escape that doesn't exist. And then one day, you'll snap out of it and realise that you've tried everything that you could possibly try.
Then we can finally begin."
"Begin what?"
"Begin building a world just us. A world where you don't have to worry about me dying, a world where I don't have to worry about you dying ever again. It won't take any luck, any brains, it won't take anything.
You just have to stay here and survive, that's all it is.
Come on smile Parrot, you're safe."
He wouldn't. Parrot wouldn't, he'd find a way to escape.
"Now give me your items."
Parrot gave him everything. Everything except the thing that had followed him through everything, faithful and unyielding…
"The spyglass Parrot, drop it." Wifies said, his voice startling Parrot from the threads of memories he'd begun to hunt.
"Wifies…" Parrot said, heart hurting, but voice strong, "why would I ever want your stupid spyglass?"
And he hurled it onto the dome.
watching it fall down,
Down, to rest on the dome.
Something breaking with it.
So life in Paragon began.
There was no way Parrot was going to just give up. Like that. No, he wasn't any normal player.
He was going to kill Wifies.
"So what's the plan?" He asked as Wifies came into view
"Whatever you'd like it to be. All we have to do is… Well this is our world. We don't, we don't have to do anything."
"Yeah."
Parrot wasn't quite sure what he was agreeing with. Wasn't sure why he was even bothering to interact with the traitor. He followed Wifies up the hill, glancing at the wooden sword sitting innocently in his hotbar.
Now was the best time.
Switching to a wooden sword, he attacked Wifies.
Wifies didn't fight back, only turned around and equipped a totem of undying.
"Sorry." He said, yet it was short and clipped. He wasn't sure if he really was sorry.
Maybe he was sorry for who Wifies had become.
"Parrot-" Wifies said and then his totem popped.
He vanished.
"What?"
Parrot looked at where Wifies had just been standing.
There was so much about this prison, about Wifies he didn't know, didn't understand. He should have known it wouldn't be that easy.
Suddenly, he remembered the spyglass. The one he had dropped in his moment of frustration, hurt and anger at Wifies. If he wasn't quick, it would despawn.
He ran all the way up the stairs, up to the dome of Paragon.
There it was!
Parrot rushed over and picked it up.
Looked at it for multiple seconds.
He wasn't even supposed to have it, he didn't know why he had gone back for it.
Wifies was no longer the person who had given him the spyglass, what was even the point, after everything he had done?
If the director found out Parrot had this, what would he think? Maybe he had gone back for it because he had carried the spyglass everywhere and didn't want to lose it…
Or perhaps because it reminded Parrot of who Wifies used to be.
"It's all yours"
Wifies left the game
The memory came to him in a flash. Wifies was always saving Parrot, maybe that's what led him to becoming the director.
Maybe it was all Parrot's fault.
Wifies looked up at the director as his ender pearl was pulled.
"Report."
"What is there to report?" He replied, hearing the bitterness in his voice, "You're driving me and Parrot apart. Besides, you know everything."
"I suppose." The Director mused, looking at Wifies with a familiar face, hair the exact right shade of mottled brown falling down past his shoulders. Everything the same except for his eyes - a void-like black that consumed all in its path.
"Very well, but I expect an actual report next time. Or else you know what happens."
He smiled, cold and cruel. So unlike the smile Wifies knew. The Director turned away,
"Go, leave me."
Wifies quickly messaged Jumper, bracing himself for the teleport. A second later, the Paragon generated around him, Jumper standing invisible at the door of the stasis room.
She didn't speak, and Wifies wasn't even sure if it was Jumper, or if she'd gotten Derapchu or Leo to pull the stasis.