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“Hello, Parrot.”
It didn’t take much effort, to force the avian’s wings flat again against his back, after he flared them out defensively. Clown had dealt with far, far worse, and Parrot was obedient, by his standards. It was always the privileged type that thought a little misbehaviour was the worst they could do.
And Parrot was privileged. Clown was inclined to think it must be something about him, or the world really did conform to how people thought of themselves because even now, Parrot had been being treated well. Better than most of anyone else they’d capture.
Parrot, of course, wouldn’t agree. Parrot probably thought he was being tortured.
“How- how much longer?”
“Not much. This is better than I would have expected. If you get to talk to Ferre again, feel free to ask him about how he didn’t think you’d stick through this at all.”
Under Clown’s gentle fingers, combing through Parrot’s unwashed hair and tugging at the blindfold leaving a dent in it, after so many days, Parrot flinched. He yanked forward, away, as far as the chains would allow, and hissed. His voice caught a little.
“When are you- you going to let me go? Is this- still entertaining for you?”
“Yes.”
One of the few things Clown would hold about himself with pride, he knew how to treat what type of people. And Parrot was worthy of respect. So he’d get nothing but the harsh truth, even as he tried, as he probably had been for countless hours, to find a comfortable way to sit on the blackstone floor. One which wouldn’t scorch his fathers on the magma cubes or radiant heat, or make his legs go numb, or wreak havoc on his lung capacity.
It was entirely Parrot’s choice. Clown hadn’t done anything to him, aside from chaining his hands and his wings, and blindfolding him. This cell had been his own, for as long as this challenge against his constitution lasted.
And he’d done it. He’d sat here, maybe not calm, maybe not wholly cooperative, but he’d stayed. All for his best friend.
Clown was impressed. He’d do the same, for Branzy. But something about Parrot just hadn’t struck him as the type.
“So- do I get Wifies back yet?” Parrot turned his head, searching for Clown’s voice, speaking with a tremble that belied the confident oration. “You can’t keep me here forever.”
“Hm.”
“You know that people would come looking for me, right?”
“Eventually.”
It was entertaining, despite Parrot’s apparent doubts, to watch him squirm. He handled internal conflict so poorly. Clown had discovered while Wifies seemed to swallow it more than easily.
So different. So interesting. Clown had entertaining plans of locking them in a room together, but first, he’d have to get Branzy to let go of Wifies for more than the time it took Ferre to dote on him and get him clean.
Among Clown’s people, there seemed to be a clear preference between their captive heroes.
Clown didn’t like to be so decisive. Wifies was sweet, certainly, but Clown had Branzy. He didn’t particularly need a second, and he had trustworthy people to leave Wifies’s vulnerabilities with.
Parrot, though. Parrot. A genius already gone errant, or perhaps sticking too close to the straight and narrow. Either way, he’d already lost it, and Clown was in a race against Parrot’s own self-awareness in who would work out what it was first.
Parrot, who would agree to let Clown take him captive. All for the freedom of a dog hybrid he hardly seemed to care for, yet ran to. Yet waited for him. Yet came back to him. Yet trusted him, when Parrot hardly seemed a safe option for it.
Clown could make something of himself in Parrot, if he had the mind to. In another world, he might keep the avian here, if Parrot had been younger or less certain. Clown could have made a king of him.
But Parrot was strong. He’d fight back, and he wouldn’t stop fighting, and he would do that after all, before he ever changed his mind about what he’d decided was right or wrong. Clown couldn’t sway him.
Even if it would be such a waste, for Parrot to live a life of quest and legend. He’d make a good king, but good kings rarely ended up the right side of a hero’s blade.
In another world, Clown could keep Parrot. He’d let Branzy have Wifies, it would do him good, to have another dog around. Excise some of his wasted energy, stop him picking fights he couldn’t win.
In this world, Parrot’s story had to go on. Clown was just an interruption, a deviation, a trial in the legend still being written. He would be a reoccuring villain, but not one Parrot would ever stop to listen to.
“Where are you?”
Parrot’s voice was short, and tight. His desperation reminded Clown that he’d fallen into a lull of silence for perhaps too long. The avian was probably scared.
“In front of you. Sit down.” Clown didn’t wait to be obeyed, he pushed Parrot’s shoulders down, forcing him back to the floor he’d been trying to crouch off of. “Your weaknesses are showing.”
“What’s the point of this?”
Even now he was sat, legs folded awkwardly in front of him, like he was ready to kick out if anything came at his face, Parrot still emanated anxious energy. Every word was breathless in a new way, every twitch of his shoulders, tugging on where his hands were trapped beneath his wings.
“Entertainment.”
“So- why are you still saying you’ll let us go? Why not just-“ Parrot cut himself off, clearly sensing it was a dangerous, destructive idea to give Clown more ideas. “What’s this meant to do to me?” “You seem to think this is about you.”
It was. Clown was testing himself, testing the feeling of what Parrot could be capable of. He wanted to see desperation, before the avian proved to him he deserved to return to his story. He’d need desperation, to fight for what he cared about, and he’d need to care, if he was ever going to survive.
“What else, bro? Don’t tell me this is- is someone paying ransom for me? Spoke?”
Parrot seemed to physically shiver, as Clown laughed, stilling his hands before they reached out to pet the avian. Birds seemed so malleable, to him. So easily reshaped, just a tug on the right feathers, a fresh puzzle, find how to use their loyalties against them. Just a fluffy bundle of feathers and sharp intelligence.
“No. Not Spoke.”
He wasn’t even considering Wifies. Why, Clown needed to know, why had he come here for him? When he didn’t seem to care, when he didn’t care about anyone.
If they’d taken Parrot, Clown had no doubts Wifies would have offered everything he had and some more he could tear from the world, tearing out his own insides as the best ransom he could claw together. If it had been Parrot, not Wifies, Wifies, who Parrot didn’t even look at, when they were in the presence of others.
Clown needed to know what Wifies saw in Parrot. Perhaps it was what he shared with the avian, the faint kinship that let him and Ash spar without drawing blood. Something about them all.
“Who? Leo? Or- not Flame, come on- is it Flame? How’d you even-“
“Parrot. It is not Leo.”
“Who is this for, then? You can be a pervert, bro, but this is a lot of effort-“
“Parrot. Who is this for?”
Clown could not have produced a better reaction than if he’d punched the avian. Parrot fell silent, calculations running across his lips as they moved silently, the blindfold moving as he frowned.
“Are you threatening Wifies?
There it was. An edge, unfamiliar, but still not what Clown would except. Parrot held some fondness, then, but the concept that Wifies had somehow been discounted from his life wasn’t one he seemed to recognise. Wifies was a constant, to him. Irrevocable. Meaningless, but vital.
“No.” Clown pulled out his comm, silently paging Ferre with a pre-written message. “But I do have an offer.”
“Do you seriously think I’ll let you hurt him?”
“No. He won’t be hurt.”
“What is it, then? Don’t leave me in suspense, bro.”
Clown could have laughed, could have made some witticism about how that was, actually, what they’d been doing to Parrot for days. But that would have gotten him punched, if he’d said it to Ferre, so he didn’t disrespect Parrot on the ground of his current helplessness.
“You’re free to go.”
“Is Wifies?”
Smart. Clown could appreciate it, hummed his appreciation, and heard Ferre’s footsteps in the hallway outside.
“No. You can leave now, without him. Or you two can both stay, and I’ll talk to Leo about your release.”
“You’re gonna have to find Leo, then.”
Not a flicker of hesitation. Parrot was shifting, his fingers raking through and tugging at his feathers, but his voice didn’t shake. Even as he pulled one clean out, and Clown flinched on his behalf.
Perhaps he’d misunderstood.
“Neither of you are going to be hurt. Or... actually, Parrot, you’re interesting. You can stay, instead. One or neither of you can go home, no strings attached.”
“Still no, bro. Who do you think I am?”
Truthfully, Clown had thought Parrot would have jumped at that. He’d been ready for it, perhaps too hopeful. The chance to have the avian of his own volition, to maybe make something of the occasion.
And, as Parrot didn’t even seem to have considered, without Wifies here, there was nothing stopping him escaping.
“Sure?”
Ah.
No.
Parrot didn’t reply, and Clown tilted his head. Behind him, he was sure Ferre was at the door, and he began to quietly get to his feet.
“I do have other commitments, so-“
“Wifies goes home? Nowhere else?”
“Wherever he wants. I’m not his keeper.”
“Can I see him?”
“Perhaps.”
Clown turned back, and ducked around the door to Ferre, who was leaning on the wall, and looked at him with a look Clown could feel through both of their masks.
“How’s it going?”
“Not badly. You have-“
“Yep.” Ferre gestured to Wifies, who’d sunk down the opposite wall and was hugging his knees, staring up with those expressionless eyes at Clown. “Puppy?”
Wifies hummed, tearing his gaze from one of them to the other without much care for either. His ears were relaxed, his expression empty. Clown admired it.
“See? Good.”
“Impressive, Ferre. Remind me to test your responsiveness to being called sometime.”
Rolling his eyes, Clown returned to Parrot, who was sitting very, very still. Smart bird, so focused, even without his eyes.
“What is this?”
Quiet. Terse. Soft. Perhaps Parrot did care, although he didn’t seem to show it.
“Up.” Clown got a hand on Parrot’s elbow, supporting him as he partially used his wings to get to his feet. “The cuffs can come off. The blindfold is not.”
Somewhere across the castle, Ferre should have made Wifies the same offer. Clown checked his comm, checking the answer.
FerreMC: he’s thinking about it
FerreMC: fucking hell I haven’t seen him think this hard about anything
FerreMC: clown he’s scary
FerreMC: yeah ignore that shit he said he’d stay
FerreMC: bringing him over to you
Thank you, Ferre. Clown would throw the comm and recommended communicator practice at him later.
When he looked up, Parrot was holding out the cuffs with just the barest hint of disgust. It was the kind of look he probably didn’t know he was wearing, which was what made Clown cock his head, with a smile.
“Very good.”
“You said you wouldn’t hurt him.”
“And I won’t.”
Among people like them, cuffs were little more than an illusion meant to elevate. A trick of the light, gone with a twist of the hand. They’d never held Parrot. They’d just been a symbol of his compliance.
Clown took them, humming. They were intact. All the ways he knew out involved breaking things.
“Straight forward.”
Parrot’s footsteps were aching with wary exhaustion. He was suspicious, he would never take Clown’s instruction at face value, but the impertinence had melted into paranoia in the ambient heat of the Nether. He could be worn down, same as anyone.
Outside the cell, Clown glanced back down at Wifies, who had one hand flat against the wall. Ready to get to his feet, but as yet unmoved. Ferre had trained him well.
“Release.” Ferre was grinning a little too much, but Wifies didn’t even flicker. “He was so excited, Clown.”
“You said he was scary.”
Wifies was ignoring both of them, scrambling to his feet at Ferre’s word and launching himself on Parrot, who stumbled in barely-restrained fear. Impressively, he didn’t punch back, although that might have been because Wifies’s claws were digging small welts into the fabric covering his shoulders, and to move would be to risk drawing blood.
“He fucking was.”
Clown would believe it.
“They said they’d let you go home, Parrot.” Wifies’s face was buried in the avian’s shoulder, his tail wagging short and sharp behind him, like it was lashing through the air with a stinger to warn off interruptions. “I- I can’t come with you, but-“
“No, Wifies,” Parrot’s voice caught, fearful his own heroics would fall through. “You. You’re leaving, bro, I’ll be fine-“
“No. No, no, Parrot, y- you need to-“
“You two are very sweet.” Stepping forward and glancing behind him, Clown tossed Ferre a semi-mocking look, safe in the knowledge Parrot still couldn’t see. “But. You do need to agree.”
“-Both of us, then, bro. We- we’ve done worse than this.”
“No, no, no, no- you need to- you have to- sorry, I’m sorry, I s- should- be able to go with you-“
Wifies sounded hysterical. Clown wasn’t sure Parrot had noticed, wasn’t sure quite where his perception lay. A blindfolded avian tended more docile, but also more erratic. Unpredictable, if lethargic. He might have latched onto an even more harebrained strategy than letting his best friend have a fit.
“This is fun.” Ferre’s hand ran down his spine, making Clown hiss, and swat him away. “Hey. They’re being cute, let me-“
“Later. They need to decide.”
Ferre snorted.
“They’re not going to. How’d your one get free?”
Clown held out the cuffs. There was a certain defeat to it, with them and Parrot’s hands still intact.
“When I asked. Less than a minute.”
“Huh. Puppy wouldn’t keep them on.”
Ferre took the cuffs, and made for Clown’s hand. He dodged, narrowing avoiding slamming into Parrot, who was still trapped in a hug with Wifies.
“Fucking- Ferre.”
“Ha.”
Ferre got a sharp looked, which promised equally sharp retribution later. As wary as Clown was to take his eyes off the silver gleam still spinning around his second-in-command’s finger, he did turn back to Parrot, trying to recover a little composure.
“Parrot.”
“I’m leaving. I’ll go get Leo, and- you won’t be here long, Wifies, alright?”
Wifies nodded, still resolutely mute. He was back to staring at Clown. His attention seemed to shift to whichever force of power he needed the most out of in the moment.
Clown shrugged.
“You’re leaving him here?”
Parrot nearly wavered. It was in his eyes, the shift of the chain tethering his wings. Not that there was anywhere to fly in the Nether, but again, symbology. Symbology upon symbology.
“No. You’re going to pay for this, bro.”
“I know.”
Clown would have preferred to keep Parrot. He was glad his eyes were hidden, because there was a risk they would have clung too tightly to the avian’s wings, and there was an instinctive discomfort enough as he stood under Wifies’s unwavering gaze. Like he’d gotten used to the endless staring.
“Can I go, then?”
“Of course. Ferre will escort you out.”
——————
“Wh- what did you tell him? To make him go without you?”
“…what he wanted to hear. Nothing interesting.”
“Hey, I- I mean, it’s just- Clown never figured it out, and- I’m pretty interested-“
“It wasn’t me. I… wasn’t the one who convinced him.”
“…ah.”
“He still didn’t realise. He was scared, but he… didn’t realise I…”
“Wasn’t you. E- except- it was you?”
“No. Not really. And it’s not now.”