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Egg knows that something is wrong the moment Wemmbu touches down. He sees it in the stiffness of his shoulders, in the slight downturn of his usually ever-present grin. He sees it in his eyes, unfocused, not quite looking at him so much as through him.
He knows something is wrong when Wemmbu doesn't start talking right away, doesn't tell him about the battle, doesn't start laying out the next part of the plan. He just stands there, motionless. Like an actor waiting for his cue, waiting for someone to tell him his next line.
Egg knows something is wrong… but he chalks it up to a post-battle adrenaline crash. It's nothing he hasn't seen before, nothing a few deep breaths and a gapple can't fix. They'll find somewhere relatively safe to regroup and Wemmbu will perk back up, ready to lead the three of them to the Forge.
“Oh, there you are.” Egg says, keeping his tone neutral. Wemmbu doesn’t respond, but it’s okay. Egg can fill the silence on his own. “Bro- I lowkey owe Jaden a favor dude. He actually saved me and like highkey everyone in the civ… except for Emma, but… she was like the captain that wanted to sink with the ship so… she- she just… yeah.”
As Egg trails off, Wemmbu suddenly starts walking forward. Well, walking isn't exactly right. It's more like a half-run, stumbling and catching on every bump and dip in the earth, yet rushing forward nonetheless. Egg doesn't think he's ever seen Wemmbu this uncoordinated.
“Yeah we gotta… we gotta go.” Wemmbu mutters, finally saying something, though his voice, like his body, is stilted and stiff. He doesn't look back to see if Egg is following him.
“Wait- Jaden is coming though, right?” Egg frowns, glancing up at the sky. He doesn't quite know what he's expecting to see. Jaden spinning through the rain like a torpedo, probably. Or maybe a team of wraiths primed to kill them. But the sky is empty, and the rain is nowhere to be found.
“Uh…” Wemmbu starts, and it sounds like the start of an explanation, until it isn't. He doesn't finish the thought, doesn't stop moving, doesn't look back.
Egg frowns, struggling to keep up. “Uh- hello?”
Finally, Wemmbu stops. And it feels like the world stops with him.
“Yeah he got- he got banned.”
…
Oh.
For a half a moment, Egg thinks he must have heard wrong. But then he plays back the memory like an echo in his mind.
Banned.
Banned.
Banned.
Jaden got banned.
The second he's sure that he knows what he heard, he's sure it must be a lie.
“Nah- you're trolling bro- are you serious?” Egg asks, waiting for a laugh and a shove and for Jaden to jump out from behind him saying ‘bro, you actually thought I'd get banned?’
But Wemmbu doesn't laugh.
Wemmbu doesn't smile.
Wemmbu doesn't look at him.
“Yeah.” He says, utterly emotionless. Egg finds it hard to believe him. People get banned on Unstable all the time but not Jaden. Not like this. Not out in the Farlands, far from the sea. Jaden couldn't die like that.
Egg opens his mouth to ask again, to make sure this isn't some big misunderstanding-
And then he sees it. Him.
Jaden, just a few paces away. His form and features are hazy but the blue pirate hat and coat are unmistakable. He's standing right there, and Egg knows that Wemmbu is telling the truth.
---
He calls them Shades.
He's seen them for as long as he can recall, a side effect of seraphic blood.
At a glance, they're hardly noticeable, extra shadows in a room, a shiver of cold on a hot summer night. It's only when Egg focuses that he can make out distinct features, particular clothes, weapons, sometimes.
Eggchan was never fully certain what they were. At least, not until Rejoice died, and a brand new Shade carrying a sunflower started following Wemmbu everywhere he went. It was obvious, then, that the Shades are what's left behind when a player gets banned. A shadow. A memory.
A ghost.
Some hang around the person who killed them, which is what Egg suspects for the young girl he always sees lingering behind Spoke. Others stick with someone they were close to or admired in their life. God knows Parrot has a small army of ghosts following him around. (Egg even noticed a happy ghast last time.) Most Shades just wander the server, eternal spectators to the battles and betrayals and quiet moments that make life interesting.
Sometimes, Egg thinks of them as an audience. An ever-present sea of eyes and ears that cannot communicate nor change the outcome of any battle, but nonetheless they watch with rapt attention.
In that way, Egg can kind of relate.
And Jaden… Jaden is no different. It seems that, for better or worse, he's chosen to follow Wemmbu.
As the pair walks further into the mushroom-covered landscape, Jaden falls into step behind them, silent.
Right beside Rejoice.
Egg has never told Wemmbu about the ghost that follows him around, nor does he ever intend to tell him about Jaden, for the simple reason that it would do no good. Even if Wemmbu believed him, he would ask too many questions. He would want answers, assurance that Jaden is okay on… the other side. He would want assurance that Eggchan cannot give him.
How could he? The dead don't speak.
There are two things that all Shades have in common: that their eyes are obscured in shadow and that their voices are forever silent. For all that Egg thinks of them as an audience, he’s not actually sure if they can really see anything. They certainly don’t acknowledge him, though he has caught them speaking to each other on more than one occasion. Even now, as Egg glances back at the pair trailing behind them, he can see them whispering to each other, laughing about something. It looks like Rejoice didn’t hold a grudge at least.
Egg doesn’t know if the Shades can hear the voices of the living. He doesn’t know if they care. And yet…
“Bro,” Egg says, stopping beside a purple mushroom with some strange neon fuzz growing on it. Wemmbu doesn’t stop at first, only looking back when he can no longer hear Egg’s footsteps behind him. He looks frozen again, like his brain is still searching for the appropriate reaction, but his face quickly settles on impatience.
“Dude, we need to keep moving. Null is literally still after us.” Wemmbu snaps, clutching the compass in his palm as if it were his last totem. Egg makes no effort to move.
“Y’know bro… if Jaden were here… I’d thank him for saving me. And I’d tell him that the legend of the Pirate King will live on forever.” Egg says, loudly, forcing himself not to glance in the direction of the Shades. He can tell from his peripheral that they’re standing still, perhaps watching them curiously. Wemmbu, on the other hand, looks halfway between wanting to kill something or curl up and die.
“Okay, bro.” He finally sighs, turning on his heel. “Can- Can we keep moving now?”
Egg swallows. “If… If you could say one last thing to him… what uh- what would it be?”
This time, Wemmbu gives him a long look. It’s an exhausted, wretched thing, pleading and resigned all at once. He grips the compass tighter.
“It doesn’t matter. He's gone.”
“Yeah but- if he could hear you… wherever he is. What would you want to say?”
The Shades flicker, as if holding their nonexistent breaths. Eggchan does hold his breath. He doesn’t think Wemmbu will respond but then…
“I'd say… Say hi to Rejoice for me.”
With that, Wemmbu turns around again, barreling toward the compass, toward the Forge, toward salvation. And Eggchan can’t prove it, he can’t describe it, but somehow, he knows that Jaden heard them. He knows that Jaden is smiling. He knows that wherever he and Rejoice are… they’re happy. And that’s enough to keep going.
“I'm sure he did.”