Chapter Text
Wifies’ face had pure horror on it. It was only for a moment, before going back to the cold gaze Parrot had gotten used to recently, but Parrot noticed it all the same. He always did. He noticed the small twitch in the other man’s fingers, how his body tensed like he wanted to step off the pressure plate. The cold metal of the spyglass had left his grasp.
“It’s all yours.”
The words came effortlessly from the avian’s mouth. Maybe he had already moved on. There was no more mourning left to do for someone unwilling to change. This man was a shell of the true Wifies Parrot had befriended. Or maybe this was the real Wifies, and he’d been lied to this entire time. It wouldn’t matter anymore.
As his left boot stepped off the pressure plate, and then his right, no noise emerged underneath. The Director stood there. He watched as the avian walked with an underlying precision, going up the spiral staircase. They both cast glances at each other they didn’t mention. They didn’t have to. This would be the last time they’d meet, so there was no use.
As Parrot exited the quartz staircase, he could hear the floor finally starting to erupt. He let out a small gasp for air, finally feeling free from this prison called Paragon. He hadn’t truly escaped yet, but it was over for now.
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Wifies could only stare. Did he regret any of it? Maybe. No, he didn’t. Parrot was safe. That was his only job here. The brunette got back to his senses as he heard the avian’s shuffling past him. He didn’t say anything as his boots left small imprints from dirt and sand. His eyes instinctively drifted to his wings. Wifies had broken them, but not enough to ruin his flight forever. It was enough to prevent flight for the time being, but everything would be able to heal. That was the story Wifies wrote after all, besides this part.
The spyglass. The fox looked back at the wooden pressure plate. The spyglass hadn’t moved. There was still an old feather and a yin-yang symbol charm hanging off it. They looked beat up from countless uses.
His legs moved without him asking them to. The brunette ran towards it. He let his body fall limp onto the ground next to the spyglass as he grabbed it. Of course the avian was right, as always. There was a small part of him that regretted it. But that part of him was weak. Parrot didn’t need someone weak. He needed someone to protect him. Wifies failed at that. And now, so did the Director. Both were soon to be dead.
The floor hissed under him. There was a faint tremble in the ground as he tightened his grip around the spyglass. If he couldn’t protect his best friend, then he would protect whatever the spyglass represented in their ‘friendship’.
‘Thank you for showing me the beauty of the universe, even if it’s the story he I wrote.’, was all Wifies could mutter to himself before feeling the burning heat and pain of the explosions ripping his body apart. It hurt like hell. At least it wasn’t Parrot exploding in his place.
The Director closed his eyes. Parrot finally opened his.
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A small clicking noise was the only constant in the room. There was the sound of small metals on metals and other mechanical contraptions, but they were random. A man with a lab coat and a purple bandana sat next to a large desk. The room was very bland, almost lifeless. It didn’t help him that there were faces everywhere in the room. Some looked older than others, and some seemed more advanced, but they were all the same face nonetheless.
Scraps littered the room, mainly consisting of motherboards and wires. Some pieces of copper also covered one corner, with some plastic in another, but it wasn’t enough to be useful. Usually, this room was pristine. Yet, there was a problem within the laboratory.
Wifies was exhausted. Yes, he didn’t engage in any combat at all, or had to manage people, but he had to manage clones. Clones might have been worse than real people. Each clone was him, but each clone was also slightly different from the last.
Within the first 100 clones, only one had managed to actually figure out a simple puzzle. The creator ended up scrapping all of those designs and rebuilding a new prototype from scratch using the data he collected from the failed attempts.
Data Entry 37
- Clone 1: It broke down instantly. There seems to be a failure in the motherboards. Luckily this prototype was only for structural integrity purposes. Using titanium will be better to keep it standing, as it fell almost instantly. Once the personality programming and the roaming has been situated, I can work on better prototypes that can be of use.
It was a short entry, but it had useful information for the brunette when it was made. Underneath the writing was a diagram of the structure of the clone. Below that was a small instruction manual on welding the pieces together correctly, wiring, and where important mechanical processes should be stored. It was excessive for a first entry, but necessary.
Luckily, by clone 248, Wifies had managed to find a way to replicate human movements better.
Data Entry 392
- Clone 248: The eyes have been finished, and look believable for now. I still have to find a way to get blood to pump through the body in case anyone suspects anything. The breathing animation has been completed. It contains an air pump that brings in air for a moment, then with enough force it causes it to ‘breathe’ the air out. Connected to the pump is a small clasp that forces the chest up and down slightly. I am planning to take my experiments and data to physically clone myself, instead of building myself from the ground up. My hypothesis is that if I add the mechanical engineering of the robots, but the consciousness and thinking of my own body, I can achieve the perfect clone.
All of his work was completed for the time being, but as soon as clones had started working without complaints or failed escape plans, something new had emerged. His first conscious clone, Clone #1108 had been decommissioned within Unstable.
Last he had seen of 1108, it had asked Wifies to help him gain power as the ‘Director’. Wifies didn’t exactly understand it, but it would give him content and entertainment, so he helped him. The armour that Wifies had kept after disappearing from all the servers quickly became the Director’s. The brunette may not have been understanding of what 1108 was planning to do, but he knew well enough he himself wouldn’t need the armour. He wouldn’t even dare to put himself in harm’s way.
Now, he was trying to find his blueprints for said clone, that he had to retrieve from whatever pit he died in. He wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but he could tell an explosion was the cause. He had to break into some weird obsidian wall just to find the corpse his compass led to. It was probably just a prison. How 1108 got stuck in it, he wouldn’t know.
[As the brunette grabbed the body and any scraps left behind, wiping all the dried blood off his hands, he swore he heard a small shuffling. He decided to ignore it. This clone had more valuable information to keep. It wasn’t worth his time to check out each noise he heard.
The body was heavy, which was unsurprising with how many mechanics Wifies had to pack into the clones. He wasn’t willing to leave it to rot or be found by another player. If others knew about cloning, it could easily destroy servers. But, he was the smartest player after all. It wasn’t just a cliché nickname. If anyone wanted to even figure out how half the gears and gadgets in the clones worked, they would of course have to talk to him as he created the designs and blueprints for each component.
He quickly left the prison, out of the quartz staircase, and the weird obsidian pillar in the middle. He didn’t have time to dawdle. The scientist quickly left through a pearl canon and another contraption that would bring him back to his lab that lay in between servers. He didn’t care to pay any attention to the small noises that followed him. It was Unstable, anyways, everything was off about this server.]
He glanced at the clone. It was still mostly dismantled, but at least he had been able to clean it up a bit. Most of the arms and legs had been completely destroyed from the explosion, and some of the back and face too, but luckily most of the inner workings in the chest cavity was fine. Those materials were the hardest to get after all. Arms and legs were easy to replace, which was nice.
He should stop getting distracted.
The brunette lets out a sigh of relief as he finally finds the manual he made for 1108. The first successful clone. That reminds him. This Wifies was the first conscious clone that could actually do anything. His creator wasn’t going to just let him die off so easily.
A hand clicked a button on the back of the clone’s neck. A small compartment that looked a bit burnt on the edges slid out of its bicep. Perfect. The disc inside of the small case was still in perfect condition. The scientist smiled slightly to himself, letting out a small hum of acknowledgment.
Wifies put the disc into a small video player. He had some catching up to do while he fixed the clone. A small click was heard as it was inserted, and he turned it on with sound so even if he wasn’t looking he could still understand things. He always preferred subtitles over sound, but he’d have to make do with it.
He could tell this was going to take awhile. He quickly made a new cup of coffee and brought it with him to the table as he laid the clone down flat. He would have to finish cleaning him up.
A small groan could be heard from the man as he noticed the structure bars of the endoskeleton that were bent in wrong ways. He hated making the endoskeletons but he didn’t have a choice.
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Parrot was ready to move on in life. He had finally started taking comfort in Theo more, which the cockatiel happily accepted. He couldn’t tell Theo about the Director and the whole incident with Wifies. It would only hurt himself more. He sighed. The avian decided to at least go back to Paragon to see if he had anything left worth saving there. It had only been a few weeks after all, but he couldn’t fully move on yet.
“Theo, I’ll be back. I’m gonna go, it won’t take long. Maybe a day or two at most.”
“Okay, have fun, little bird” The cockatiel replied, poking his head out from behind a wall, “Don’t forget an invis potion.”. He knew it was probably whatever impacted Parrot not too long ago, so he didn’t push. Parrot could take care of himself anyway.
“Thanks.”
The taller avian didn’t say anything else as he quietly left the small shop and unfurled his wings. The feathers had finally grown back and the bones had luckily healed correctly. It took a while, but he wasn’t rendered flightless forever. He was extremely lucky. Or maybe Wifies still truly cared for him in the end. Part of him hoped it was the latter. He allowed himself to soar into the brightness of the sky. He struggled a bit regaining his balance, but figured it out eventually.
He enjoyed the breeze, even if his flying was uneven. It allowed him to cool down easily. The flight felt shorter than it really was. He let himself zone out for most of it anyways. The scenery wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it was familiar. His boots hit the top of the rough obsidian wall that surrounded the biomes. He was regretting this idea every moment he stood there.
Parrot almost turned back to go back home, until he saw movement within the prison. Someone had broken through the wall and used an ender pearl to get closer to the middle. He was carrying an item. The avian decided to check it out. Who was this and what did he want from Paragon?
As the parrot glided down towards the ground, he noticed how the man was walking straight towards one point. It was like he knew the area already. Parrot hid behind a tree before following the man.
He was wearing a long white lab coat, with a purple bandana, and black pants and shoes. He surprisingly wasn’t wearing any armour. As Parrot looked closer, from what he could see the man was following a compass. What could possibly be in Paragon that a compass led to?
Parrot followed only out of curiosity. This man looked extremely familiar, but the avian didn’t want to even think of why. He swallowed down his anxiety as the scientist went into the pillar and down the quartz stairs. He quickly took off his armour and drank the invisibility potion Theo gave him. His curiosity absolutely took control of him, but he knew well enough than to be loud.
The brunette from earlier had been looking through the rubble from the explosion. He was grabbing… Copper? As the parrot looked closer, he noticed him grab Wifies’ body. It was covered in blood, but also scraps of metal. Parts like his arms and legs that had been completely destroyed had metals and cords sticking out from them.
“What a shame… Now I’ll have to waste my time fixing you. You better have good intel, #1108.”
The man seemed slightly annoyed, as he wiped off the dried blood and some dirt from parts of the body. #1108? What did he mean? How was he going to fix Wifies? Parrot would have to keep watching and following him to figure it out. None of this made sense.
The man let out a small hum, as his hands stilled on Wifies’ back. Why was he inspecting his body so carefully?
“I’m impressed you’ve kept your wiring fine with how badly the rest of you is damaged…”
Parrot couldn’t hear the rest of whatever he muttered to himself. He watched as the other man brushed himself off, and grabbed Wifies by the ear to pick him up. Wifies never let anyone touch his hair, let alone his ears. Who was this guy? He would have to follow after him to find out.
The avian stood there for a moment. The spyglass was broken in some spots, but it was still intact. The feather on it was mostly burned, and the yinyang symbol was broken. How utterly symbolic. The other man seemed to notice the spyglass on the ground, and he picked it up. Parrot would have to get it back.
So, he followed the man wearing glasses.
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Parrot wasn’t sure when he would finally stop. The man carrying Wifies’ corpse seemed perfectly content, as if he never had to face the consequences of simply living on the server. His lab coat was still pristine and white, and his glasses were never crooked. The bandana wasn’t tattered at all, and his posture never failed. He seemed too egotistical, or even perfect.
It took about a day of trailing behind the man for Parrot to finally see their destination. It was a pearl cannon. The man teleported using it, so Parrot waited for a moment before throwing a pearl through.
They were in the farlands. Parrot should’ve messaged Theo, telling him he wasn’t sure when he would be back, but he didn’t think to do it. He kept following the other man. He had to know how he knew Wifies and what he wanted from the fox, even after death. His legs hurt from walking but he ignored it.
He could feel the invisibility fading away, so the avian quickly glided down to a small ledge below them and placed an enderchest. Luckily he still had invisibility potions in there from having to ransack the Mafia. He quickly took a few and placed them in his inventory, before drinking one. He broke the enderchest and continued on. The scientist and the fox would have been much further off now.
He allowed himself to fly a bit, but didn’t risk it too much.
The man took out a communicator from his coat pocket, setting down the body. He pressed a button, before talking.
“Wifies, Lab 3 section 11.” It was a code. But how did he know Wifies? Why did the code involve Wifies? Wifies had never mentioned this man to Parrot. Were they twins? Perhaps related somehow. They looked identical, other than the much longer hair this one had, the lack of fox ears, the mole on his cheek, and the lifeless looking eyes. It was uncanny how similar they were. Yes, this one was slightly taller and more confident with how he walked, but if Parrot didn’t know better he would think they’re the same person.
A small door within the ground opened up. It was like a portal. The man put Wifies in first, then himself. Parrot just managed to fall through in time, as the portal closed right after him. He had to prevent himself from falling flat on his face from how odd the portal's position was.
The sight in front of him when Parrot looked up and got to his senses completely shocked him. There was a large laboratory around him. When he looked out the windows he could see the place was surrounded by nothing. The floors were bedrock, but outside was purely void. He almost didn’t notice how the scientist had laid Wifies down onto the table in the room.
Parrot quickly yet quietly went around a corner to watch. His eyes noticed a large collection of books and files with numbers on them in the room across. He decided to start at the file labeled “0001”. He ignored the hundreds of heads of Wifies’ that littered the area. It was disturbing. They all stared blankly. He quickly skimmed it, reading each file as much as he could. He wouldn’t admit he stole some of the papers and documents and put them into his inventory.
As he heard noise from the other room where Wifies was, he stopped and quickly closed the file he was reading. He went to investigate, not before drinking another invisibility potion. The lookalike had removed Wifies’ shirt, and was fixing whatever wires and metals were in his chest. Parrot tried to ignore how many compartments and components were ruined. Was the Wifies he knew always just a robot? What happened?
He looked at the screen where noise was coming from. He could see himself. Was this Wifies’ vision during their time together? Through the monitor Parrot could see himself dropping the spyglass to Wifies. This was the first time that the spyglass ever mattered between the two of them. Parrot almost gagged, before remembering he had to be quiet.
The scientist kept fixing the body that lay on the table. He replaced the arms and legs easily, putting his focus back onto the face to fix any hard drives that had been destroyed or whatever else there was. The eyes’ wiring seemed to have been damaged, so he had to reprogram that and replace the right eye that had been shattered. He didn’t do much to fix the skin, since he didn’t care for that as much as the actual programming and consciousness.
Parrot ignored how the scientist glanced at him for a quick moment without saying anything. There’s no way he saw the avian while invis, right?
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Wifies, or Evilfies as the clones called him, was still working on Clone 1108 for around a week. Yes, he had been pushing working on him aside, but it was because he was monitoring the person in his laboratory. He noticed when he had entered the “void” in between servers to reach the lab there was a small noise behind him. That could only mean something had followed him. He paid no attention to it, and instead pretended he didn’t notice as he dragged the corpse of The Director.
Evilfies assumed it was someone this clone had known, since what other reason would there be for this player to follow him all the way out here? He let out a small agitated sigh, having decided to clean off his glasses before confronting the player. He contemplated letting the person go on a wild goose chase trying to figure out how this place worked instead of just questioning him first. Maybe that would be much more entertaining for the scientist.
Possibly, if Evilfies got lucky, then he would be able to figure out what this player really meant to his clone without watching over a year of footage.
Evilfies decided to keep monitoring the lab. It wasn’t too hard to fix clones such as 1108, but it was certainly annoying. Now, he had to actually seem like he was paying attention to his work.
He had discreetly ordered a few of his clones to stay out of certain rooms, or even brew invisibility potions to store during certain times of the day. It would be easier to confront this player in his lab, but it was much more interesting to watch this guy scramble around trying to be secretive.
The scientist sighed as he grabbed a spare arm from his storage for the clump of conscious metal on his lab table. It would’ve been easier to get a braindead clone to do this, but atleast wanted to make this random player confused first.
Clearly, this player was smart. He had managed to follow Evilfies quietly, enter the lab itself, and bypass all the locked doors and surveillance bots. If Evilfies played his cards right, then he could figure out exactly how this player thought, acted, and viewed things.
But, it’s hard to outsmart someone who has already trapped you. This player would have to play his own cards just as well and better than Evilfies’.
Evilfies hesitated for a moment, before standing up in his usually tall and confident stance to go back to fix 1108. The Director. How amusing.
You can’t win in every story you write, apparently. How ironic is it, that one of the smartest clones to exist, dies from his own oversights.
Evilfies chuckled to himself quietly as he swiped his keycard to enter his lab room, and propped the door open. He was glad he built his storage room right next to his lab. He swiftly waved over a few clones.
“1372 - go grab more spare parts. 2300, watch the halls, but stay away from the filing room as per usual. 1893, watch the footage for me and note anything important down. Do you all understand?”, the Scientist commanded dully. He set down the robotic arm next to the corpse. The three clones nodded-in almost perfect sync- before walking towards their newfound jobs.
The scientist adjusted his glasses, and grabbed a wrench. Surprisingly, the broken arm was hard to take off. Clearly Evilfies’ engineering wasn’t as easy to destroy as one would expect. Maybe that’s how his body mostly survived the explosion.
The first clone-1372- came back after some time, carrying a box with mechanical eyes, legs, arms, and other supplies. Evilfies stayed quiet as the box was placed by his feet.
——————————
After hours of working on detaching and reattaching limbs, the scientist could finally move onto his favorite part. Adding in the biomechanics and testing the functionality of the clones was most fun.
It was almost four in the morning. Half of Evilfies’ bloodstream was probably coffee at this point. He had two clones with him at almost all times; one was making him coffee, and the other making potions to keep him energized(and occasionally waking him up by tapping his arm if Evilfies fell asleep). He had almost completely forgotten about the player in his lab facility.
He had been putting in a syringe into the clone’s arm to replenish the blood that was lost when he heard a small shuffle. It could’ve just been another clone or his imagination, but Evilfies was too worried about losing all the progress he had made. He blinked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
The scientist noticed a feather on the ground, groaning from annoyance before telling a clone to take care of it.
“1301, clean up the messes. If 1108 somehow wakes up, shut him down. Tell the night shift to take over so the other bots can recharge. I will continue working in my room. If any clone comes up to my area while I’m finishing up for tonight, make sure they go back to their station unless it’s something important. Turn on the night protocols until seven.”
Evilfies definitely wasn’t in the best mindset after not sleeping for three days straight, but the clones didn’t need to know that. He just needed 1108 to get finished to start his next job. 1108 was the most capable one of all the clones, so he didn’t have much of a choice.
The man with the lab coat got up once 1301 nodded quickly and left. He almost fell from being lightheaded, but quickly balanced himself with his hands on the table with a scowl on his face. He managed to shakily walk into the backroom-otherwise known as his room- that was covered in lab notes and chemical concoctions. He sat down in a regular black office chair, which was much more comfortable than the one in the other room. He allowed himself to dip his head slightly on his desk, as his eyes forced themselves closed. He fell asleep almost instantly with his head on a large leather bound book he made stained with unidentifiable potions and chemicals.
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Parrot kept watching from afar. It was strange no clones(or I guess guards) had found him yet. Hell, even the weird Wifies scientist guy hadn’t spotted him. The avian was starting to wonder if the guy ever slept after seeing him chug coffee after coffee and never even leaving his work to sleep once in a few days. He must be a major workaholic. It felt like Parrot was watching the human embodiment of the word ‘overworked’.
Everytime the avian ran out of invisibility, there was always some invis pots in the storage. These clones seemed to do their jobs quite well.
Parrot had been keeping a close track of Evilfies, as he heard the clones call him. The man seemed smart, and if the Wifies he knew was ‘just a bot’ then how smart was Evilfies? The avian hadn’t seen any technology like this before, with the most advanced things being maybe an orbital strike canon or the immortality machine Wifies made in Unstable while Parrot was in Paragon.
Whatever he did, he would have to be careful.
While Parrot watched, he almost kept falling asleep, so he decided to take a five minute nap each half an hour so he could replenish his invis. Although the room he was in wasn’t being checked, he still had to be safe.
He had just woken up when he heard the scientist talking to some clones.
“…unless it’s something important. Turn on the night protocols until seven.”
It was four in the morning. Parrot watched as two clones left the room with Wifies in it and turned left down the hall. Another clone left shortly after and went the opposite way as the last two. That clone closed the door behind himself. Once the avian was sure no one was in the halls, he drank an invisibility potion and quietly went into the other room across the hall. Wifies still seemed decommissioned, yet somehow looked more alive than ever. Maybe it was just because of how Parrot has seen him completely destroyed for the past however long.
Evilfies wasn’t in the room. Parrot had known he wouldn’t have been, after all he watched him get up and leave, albeit exhausted clearly. He wasn’t one to judge. The avian snooped around the room for a bit, avoiding going near Wifies. Curiosity got the better of him, and he crept into the backrooms Evilfies was in.
He was dead asleep. Parrot almost felt bad. He decided to look around while the other man slept. He would be in quite the pitiful state if he woke up Evilfies. This was the first time he had seen Evilfies off guard. It was almost strange.
By Evilfies’ head were textbooks and random papers. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the lab, especially the filing room Parrot had been hiding out in before. Nondescript potions and flasks were strewn around haphazardly. The bulletin boards had been covered by papers, although some were ripped or falling off. The entire room felt like it didn’t belong in the laboratory, but it seemed so accustomed to Evilfies that it felt just right.
The avian stepped over the various cords and scraps of metal in the room. His foot almost hit a cardboard box full of spare parts, motherboards, and disks. The room was a mess to traverse through. You could tell the clones meant to tidy up the entire lab weren’t allowed in this room.
After finding nothing but blueprints he had no clue on how to understand, Parrot decided to go back to the room with the Director.
Wifies still seemed the exact same, almost completely fixed. That was if you ignored the open chest cavity that exposed wires and different contraptions that were moving constantly inside the body. It was definitely strange, seeing your dead ex-bestfriend on a table with his chest wide open. Parrot sighed as quietly as he could, before going to the video tape recorder, which had kept playing. A clone was now watching the footage again and with almost perfectly precise writing was neatly jotting down anything important. When the avian peered over clone 1893(as it said on the back of his neck)’s shoulder, he could see all the notes were efficiently organized by day, time, place, and whom Wifies was talking to or with. Parrot watched a bit of the feed, losing focus with what he was originally doing.
“I can’t sit aside while you end yourself over nothing. I’m sorry.”
Wifies was typing to Parrot. The avian’s throat felt tight.
Parrot still remembers that day vividly. The two of them had been fighting while on their way to the farlands.
Gosh, Parrot regretted fighting with the fox. Yet, he couldn’t find himself to ever apologize for doing what was right. He wouldn’t ever forgive himself if he sat back when others needed his help. He couldn’t. He was lucky enough to be able to help others, so to waste that opportunity would be selfish.
“Be a little selfish and be a little sensible.”
Parrot didn’t want to remember that. The avian snapped back to reality, realizing his invis was about to run out, so he quickly left the lab room to go back to the filing room.
5
4
3
2
1
Parrot wasn’t fast enough. He hadn’t had any time to check if any clones were in the hallway, and his invis ran out. The clone assigned to guarding the room spotted him almost instantly.
“Sir, why were you in the lab? Evilfies has no tours scheduled today.”
The avian froze. He hadn’t talked in so long, and had barely had any water other than what was in the potions, so he hoped it came out more confident than he would’ve expected.
“I was… visiting from another day. He just wanted me to stay longer so I could have a safer trip back to my server with y’know.. the chunkbans and stuff.”
The clone stared blankly at Parrot. They could both tell it was a horrible excuse.
“Dr. Evilfies hasn’t had any guests in months. You have no accompanying tour guide and no user data or identification card. Who are you?” Parrot felt his mouth go dry. He wouldn’t be able to lie his way out of this. There was no excuse he could come up with to save himself. His best bet was to just play along. He hesitated slightly, before muttering something.
“ParrotX2. I’m a… friend of Wifies’.” He paused, before speaking again, “I’m here to check in on him.”
Before Parrot or even Clone 1301 could speak again, the door to the lab’s room reopened. An exhausted and irritated Evilfies stepped out. He looked between the clone and Parrot before sighing and pinching the brow of his nose under his glasses. A small click was all Parrot heard, before a small zapping sound was made from the clone. Looking down, the avian noticed Evilfies had clicked a button on some remote attached to his belt. The clone sped away, refusing to run, giving them space.
Evilfies stared blankly, almost the same as the bot. “I assume you’re the one who has been sneaking around.” His voice was almost monotone, but atleast had more variation in his tone compared to most of the clones Parrot had seen. The avian stayed silent, realizing the scientist always knew he was in the lab.
Evilfies sighed again, before muttering, "Of course you are.” He let his rest at his side. “1108- your little friend- is almost repaired. I wouldn’t suggest going in there until he’s been sent on his next mission.” He was only giving Parrot more questions.
“What do you mean ‘next mission’?” The avian didn’t understand what he meant at all, but he wasn’t sure he actually wanted to.
“Did he never tell you? He never cared for Unstable. He was only ever sent there to monitor everything, protect you, and gain intel for me. How else would you expect me to be so knowledgeable about so many servers? Almost every server has a clone, sentient or not. 1108 just so happened to escape me and stay out there longer than I accounted for.”, the scientist rolled his eyes, “And thanks to you, he had to be repaired. Although, it was in due time. I'm shocked he didn’t malfunction and overwork his wiring with some of the things he was doing there. It would’ve been easier to scrap him if he wasn’t the most successful clone.” Evilfies’ eyes drifted into the room for a moment, before looking back at Parrot.
“What do you mean it was in due time?” Parrot felt like he was going to puke. This man didn’t even care for the clones- the replicas of himself. All of them were just data to him.
Evilfies scoffed, almost amused. “Of course you don’t understand. The clones are only meant to last three to five months. After that, their disks are collected, and the bodies get scrapped. You are lucky Kenadian helped 1108, or else you wouldn’t have met a sentient clone- or even 1108.”
Parrot’s head was reeling. Wifies wasn’t even supposed to have been alive. He decided to stop asking questions that would only lead him to want to ask more. Kenadian knew about all of this?
Evilfies led him into the room slightly. “I’m not sure when he disassembled himself to change his anatomy from a dog to a fox; although I can presume it was something that that cat helped him with.” He spoke with disdain whenever he was talking about Kenadian. The scientist closed the door after letting Parrot get a quick look at his old best friend. The chest cavity was still slightly ajar.
Another click came from the button on Evilfies’ belt. Parrot looked down to see the man’s hand hovering over his remote, before allowing himself to cross his hands over his chest.
It didn’t take long for Parrot to see a clone walk down the hall and stand by the two of them. The avian stepped back slightly, fidgeting with the emerald on his belt. He wasn’t sure of what to say.
“Clone 972,” Evilfies commanded firmly, “Watch over… Parrot, make sure his needs are met, but do not allow him into the lab with 1108. He will leave sometime this week.” The clone nodded. Then, Parrot watched as Evilfies left him to go back to the room with 1108. The scientist closed the door behind himself.
“Let’s go.”, the clone, 972, stated. He started walking, without even looking back. Parrot assumed that if he disobeyed at all there were some precautions put in place or something. He followed behind from a distance. Theo would have to wait for a while. His fingers would keep inching towards the trinkets on his belt that helped him remember his past friends.
It took only about a minute of walking until they reached a door. The clone stopped and turned around. When Parrot had caught up, the clone muttered, “This room is the guest room. 1810 will clean it everyday and will organize your departure to your server. In order to go from room to room and explore, we need to make a temporary guest card.”
Parrot nodded as the bot took a photo of him, “…and by temporary you mean?” If he could find loopholes, he would be able to come back with possibly Theo or someone to learn more about this place. This could be a goldmine of information if he could conjure up a plan to return. It was a stupid idea, but Evilfies was clearly smarter than any other player Parrot had seen.
“When you leave this facility, the card is removed of all access to any rooms it may have, and will be returned to Dr. Evilfies.” The clone stated it as if it were normal procedure, and it most likely was. It was probably programmed into something the bot had to say, after all it wasn’t conscious like the Director.
“It is 4:30 A.M. Daytime roaming and protocols will begin at 7:00 A.M. Until then, your room will be unlocked for you to go to the necessary rooms such as the public bathrooms and cafeteria. Is that understood, ParrotX2?”
“Yes, bro, just let me sleep now or something.” Parrot was getting visibly annoyed. Evilfies was either extremely ignorant or just egotistical with how he’s created his clones to spell everything out for him. Half the time he’s been talking to himself or just asking rhetorical questions, yet they answer each one. Once the bot didn’t say anything else, Parrot opened the door to his room and entered.
Upon closing the door, he heard something hit the doorknob. It was most likely the same type of lanyard the clones had, with an I.D on it. He wasn’t oblivious enough to know that they probably already had a ton of photos of him from the cameras in the hallways and on doorways.
The room, looking fully at it now, wasn’t too shabby. The bed was neatly made with dark, greyish purplish comforters and white pillows. The walls were a similar grey color and the floor was a pristine marble tile. The lights were a soft warm color, placed in small strips across the room in just a way so they were hidden enough but still lit up the room.
It felt like a false sense of security. But Parrot had always been gullible.
Upon sitting on the bed, he realized it was quite comfortable, in fact more comfortable than he could’ve expected. By the door was a small desk with a marble top that had a purple and black office chair to match. On the left was what Parrot presumed was the closet.
Parrot, who was thoroughly exhausted from never getting quite enough proper sleep in this place, allowed himself under the covers. He didn’t care enough to change or go shower first. He could do that later after he woke up.
He fell asleep almost instantly, but most people seem to be morning people here.
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The clone must’ve done something. While Evilfies was fixing up the Director, he noticed any of the canine anatomy he put into 1108 as an experiment had all been replaced. Somehow, all of the dog features were replaced with fox features. How this Wifies managed to do it, Evilfies had no clue. But, in all of this he couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit proud of his creation for once.
Well, in all actuality, he did have a clue. Kenadian the cat hybrid that broke 1108 out. From what he knew, the cat also had a friend-who Evilfies wasn’t exactly sure what they were- Wato1876. He had commissioned her to build a few escape rooms before, but never explained what for. Whenever asked what they might’ve been used for, he would always tell the artists it was for content or for fun. Technically, he wasn’t lying, but he’d never mention it wasn’t him solving it.
Kenadian probably told Wato, hence why Wato refused to work for Evilfies anymore. What a shame. At least the scientist knew how to build them himself.
He came back to his senses, realizing he had already fixed up the Director’s chest cavity while zoned out. Evilfies sighed, closing up his chest before locking it tight. He quickly grabbed a cord connected to his computer and inserted it into the back of Wifies’ neck. Luckily, 1893 had already downloaded all the files from 1108’s disk yesterday, so he didn’t have to worry about doing that time wasting task.
Evilfies took the disk labeled ‘1108 MEMORY’ and inserted it back into its compartment in 1108’s shoulder. The small carrier clicked back into place with a small noise when closed. He began to walk to his computer again, sitting down in his office chair. The scientist’s hands effortlessly found the keyboard as he began to type a few strings of code to input into the Director’s hard drive.
Not long after, a small noise came from the clone that was plugged in. It was a subtle beeping sound. A few more whirling sounds made themselves known within the lab. It only took about a few minutes until the clone awoke. The noises suddenly stopped as the bot opened it’s eyes.
Evilfies looked over at the clone. The Director was clearly confused, taking in the situation he was in. After a moment, he spoke, “Evilfies?… Why am I here.”
Disdain coated his voice as he looked over at the scientist. He seemed more angry at Evilfies than wanting him to actually answer his question. Wifies loved asking rhetoricals.
“You know why you’re here. Did I not warn you? You died on Unstable. It’s a shame I didn’t get more intel. Although I am surprised you managed to survive that long on an anarchy hardcore server such as that.” He paused for a moment, observing 1108’s reaction, before continuing, “But, you’re lucky that I have another mission for you. You won’t have to be scrapped just yet. You understand how lenient I’ve been with you, even after you escaped.”
Evilfies grinned slightly as he said that last part, the thought of scrapping another clone seemed to bring him joy. The scientist threw the clone a new, untattered shirt at him. “You might want this. Your clothes weren’t exactly in the best shape when you were found.”
A pause of silence followed Evilfies’ voice, until 1108 muttered, “…We both understand that you won’t scrap me. Actually, you refuse to.”
The scientist narrowed his eyes.
“Would you care to elaborate?”
“You won’t scrap me. I’m the most successful clone you’ve had- and the only sentient one. You refuse to allow me to die that easily.” The director clearly hit a nerve, as Evilfies didn’t say anything else. ‘You actually care about me’ was left unsaid from 1108’s mouth.
“You aren’t as important to me as you believe, Director.” The scientist almost spat out the name to mock him. He grinned slightly, turning away to grab a syringe off his computer desk he had prepared earlier. Then, suddenly he turned back towards the clone, walking to and grabbing him by the chin.
The director obviously tried to resist, until Evilfies stated plainly, “Don’t move. I don’t want to have to make a whole new body for you instead of just fixing it.”
1108 was clearly uncomfortable with how harsh his creator was grabbing him, but didn’t mention anything.
Once Evilfies had pulled the needle out completely, the clone muttered, “…Couldn’t you have done that before waking me up?”
“Maybe. It’s much more entertaining to see the ‘oh so great Director’ struggle, though.”
1108 rolled his eyes. He should’ve known the scientist would say that. He always avoided saying what he actually thought when it would make him seem vulnerable. He hesitated, before asking, “Would you be able to get me back to Unstable? I had unfinished work.”
Evilfies almost laughed. “Get you back to Unstable of all places? You and I both know that’s impossible. You died. Get used to it.” For some reason, the scientist seemed much happier today than usual. He would never admit why.
The clone stayed silent, resorting to finally putting his shirt on as Evilfies decided to (unnecessarily) help him put his fresh bandana on. It had a freshly embroidered ‘1108’ on it, similar to all the other clones’ bandanas having their respective numbers. The Director felt like he was going to puke with how long he’s had to be in the same room as his creator.
His creator. The same creator who threatened to scrap any clone that even had a slightly loose bandana. The same creator who would force clones to do extra work if they did so much as to drop a screw. Why was Evilfies even favoriting him? Yeah, he had been the only conscious clone, but the doctor could easily make more if he copied his exact blueprints for 1108. Maybe it was because he was the only one who escaped and survived for so long? The clone doubted it.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t understand the scientist who he’s modeled after. It was like a disease you couldn’t name that was stuck with you for life. Unexplainable and unpredictable, but it almost felt natural, like home.
Evilfies, seemingly satisfied with tormenting the clone enough, allowed him to leave.
“Go to your room, 1108. You have a friend that would probably like to meet you tomorrow.”
The clone complied, confused as to who could be here though. He wasn’t exactly friends with any of the clones. Reaching up to scratch at his neck, he realized Evilfies had installed a shocking communication device, just like most the clones had. He sighed, annoyed, but left the room without saying anything nonetheless.
He went right, towards the dorms for the explorer clones. Each type of clone had their own section of the lab. If you go right from Evilfies’ office, you had the Explorer Clones, Necessity Worker Clones(Such as cooks and maintenance) and Escape Room Clones, along with the Guest Rooms. If you went left, it had the Cleaning, Building, and Security Clones.
Wifies had been originally categorized as an Escape Room Clone, but was switched to an Explorer after he escaped and Evilfies realized how useful he was as an explorer to gain intel. So, technically he could serve as both-or really any role-but he preferred to stay in the explorer room he had since it was much quieter and more fit to his standards. The explorers and escape room clones always got more recognition mainly since they were the most important for their creator.
The downside to being pretty much whatever role he pleased, was all the clones knew him specifically. Apparently while 1108 was gone, Evilfies would compare all the bots to him, and when clones passed by his room it was like they just saw a celebrity, even if he wasn’t in the lab at the time. He hadn’t even tried to do anything, just escape really. But alas, his creator wouldn’t ever admit he actually escaped and Evilfies didn’t ‘let him leave for a prolonged mission’.
Once the clone entered his room, he allowed himself to finally take a deep breath. He loved working in the lab, he really did, but it was so suffocating. That’s the biggest reason as to why he ran away(if you ignore the fact Evilfies was about to scrap him since he solved the escape room with Ken.).
His room was like any other room. It had the same purple, grey, black, and white theme. The only difference was he had… gold plating on some of his furniture.
He was clearly extremely inattentive. How obvious was it that he was Evilfies’ favorite? It almost seemed foreign to him.
Wifies sighed, before allowing himself to fall onto his bed and shut down for the night under the heated blankets that engulfed his mattress.
The room went silent, as did the rest of the lab, ignoring the clicks and taps of the night shift clones patrolling the building.
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