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"Parrot."
The cold and emotionless voice of Wifies- of the Director pierced through the faint sound of lava popping. It was grating to his ears and Parrot would've brought his hands up to his ears if he could.
Sweat stuck to every bit of his body and sunk through his thin shirt, his usual jacket discarded so long ago. Parrot, so so tired and so so hot from all of the lava surrounding the obsidian pillar, had resorted to just lying still with his wings spread on the colder obsidian. The waves of heat were only beatable by doing so and moving around the cell would've only worsened his condition.
So Parrot laid and let the heat wash over him with every breath.
He learned that there was much time to do nothing.
Thinking about it, he realized just how extravagant Proton was: with chunk bans, transport tunnels, and the natural world in each cell. He had friends to talk with and guards to try and sympathize with too.
Paragon, so far, was lifeless. Desolate. A large obsidian room with a platform in the middle, flanked by all sides. He couldn't jump to safety or somehow pillar his way out, stuck with nothing but a spyglass and a void of a stomach.
Like on cue, his stomach growled. Parrot didn't even flinch.
He gave up on worrying about eating at the exact moment he gave up moving; even when Wifies' stopped by the last few days, Parrot let the food brought to him sit and rot.
Bringing himself back to the moment, the sound of food dispensing from somewhere beneath him was enough to make him salivate, but he didn't budge. He was so hungry but too tired to get up and move. The heat made him sluggish and his brain wasn't working at full capacity. Plus, if he did starve and die in Wifies' own prison, it would be a little funny.
To see the look on Wifies' face when he realized his precious prisoner starved to death in his prison? To watch all of his plans crumple and go limp just like Parrot would? It would be priceless to watch- well, that is if he could watch. Which he couldn't. Because he'd be dead.
Funny, if you thought about it-
"Parrot."
The voice cut through again, causing Parrot's eyes to deliriously squint open, face twisting into a frown.
Parrot, Parrot, Parrot- He was so tired of hearing his name come from that mouth. Every time Wifies came for food delivery and any other time than that: all he ever said was Parrot's name in that emotionless voice. If the heat wasn't causing him to slowly lose consciousness, Parrot would give him a piece of his mind.
"You have to eat, Parrot."
There it was again. His name, spoken in the same cold tenor that haunted what little dreams he had now.
"Parrot, you're on two hunger bars. I know you're hungry."
Hungry? Hungry didn't even start to describe how he felt. He was starved, so sure by now that his stomach must be eating itself for sustenance. Besides, if Wifies didn't want Parrot to starve, he should have brought more food last time or- Well. Technically he did and Parrot just didn't eat it. But it was still Wifies' fault he was here.
Fuck, it was hot on the obsidian.
Parrots eyes shut and rolled to the back of his skull, like they too were sheltering from the heat.
Forget the title of a 'perfect' prison, this prison was a glorified easy bake oven.
He huffed, laughing at his own joke. The old Wifies might have thought that was funny.
...
No use thinking about that, though. The old Wifies was gone. He was killed and replaced by a clone of his very good friend, and not a good clone at that. Even if the same man who stood before him was of the exact genetic makeup of the one before, it still didn't matter: this wasn't Wifies. It was easier and better to think that Wifies died.
Parrot felt a hand grab his leg and his eyes shot open, feverishly scrambling backward and toward the ledge with little-to-no coordination. It was a delirious shuffle, but it was probably the fastest he'd moved in... Well, he didn't know how long.
Wifies was standing in front of him, hand still outstretched from where he was before. He had the Director armor on and a passive face, but Parrot could see the worry in his eyes- Actually, that might be a hallucination of the heat. A- there was a word for that... It escaped him, like most other errant thoughts did.
Propped leaning backwards on his hands and elbows, one arm slipped and Parrot felt his wings hit the ground, his head banging on the obsidian with a dull thud. Fuck, that hurt.
Wifies was saying something. Probably. Parrot didn't know: his head was still ringing like a bell from where he hit it and he didn't really care enough to look up and read his captor's lips. Or look at his face. Or do anything.
"-arrot, look at me."
He heard that. Maybe Wifies wasn't talking before, then? Did it matter?
Mirage. That was the word before: a mirage. Parrot rolled the word over in his mouth to see what it tasted like.
He could take a nap like this, though- that was for certain. The heat enveloped him like a big, warm, hot blanket: it choked him and circled in his lungs where it sat heavy. One could imagine falling asleep and never getting up in heat like this.
That sounds nice. Peaceful. Sitting in his sweat had stopped being gross to him days (weeks?) ago.
Parrot felt a hand gingerly wrap around the collar of his shirt, softly grasping the material before violently pulling at it, tearing Parrot along too. Parrot's eyes shot open and his hands weakly grasped at Wifies, feeling himself be manhandled into a sitting position, his weak body resting on Wifies. His head flopped down onto Wifies’ shoulder and the unbearable heat from being next to someone was enough to rip a gasp from his throat.
Parrot wanted to push up, yell at Wifies, claw his throat out-
But, he laid limp: hands dangling as his chest rested on Wifies, a strong hand on his shirt and another at his back.
If there was a sign that Parrot was truly too weak to do anything, it was the fact that he was letting this happen.
Although, a small part of his bird brain thought about how nice it was to be close to someone. It had been so long-
"Parrot, look at me."
Why would he do that? Why would Parrot ever deign to make any movement or action from now on?
Wifies had other plans, though, and roughly grabbed Parrot’s face by the chin, tilting his body backwards as his other hand went for his inventory. He pulled out a potion, murky and magenta, and uncorked it between his teeth.
“Drink this,” Wifies directed, not receiving any response beyond Parrot clenching his teeth together. Wifies could feed him the elixir of life and Parrot still wouldn’t open his mouth, he decided. Even feverish, he would still rebel like this, even if the potion would help him.
Wifies just seemed to squeeze his face tighter, not relenting until Parrot let out a gasp of pain, taking the opportunity to pour it down his throat. Parrot tried to struggle for just a few moments, making the liquid splash down his chin and to his thin undershirt, but most went down.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Wifies asked, a small smile playing on his lips. “Just some regen and healing.”
Parrot’s face scrunched in anger, feeling the energy return slowly to his muscles. “G- get off of me.”
Wifies tilted his head, looking down at Parrot in contemplation. Both of his hands, the one clasping his jaw and the other holding him upright, dropped their grip, leading Parrot to fall back with a squawk. Eager to put as much distance between them as possible, the avian scrambled back again until his hands grasped the edge.
He could think again; the heat and haze of his brain was dissipating by the second and all of his emotions came back in full force, breath panting as he watched Wifies stand.
“That-” Wifies gestured to Parrot, “-is the problem. I would take you out of here, but you’re just still too… You.”
“W-What are you even saying?!” Parrot retorted, eyes widening in rage and slight fear. “This isn’t even my fault!”
Wifies shrugged, dusting off his pants. “If you were a little more open to staying, this wouldn’t be happening. I didn’t think the heat would be this bad; are avians more susceptible to heat?”
Parrot didn’t even bother to respond, indignation rising by the second.“-You put me in here! I'm not going to just- roll over and stay!"
Wifies rolled his eyes, walking closer to Parrot and stopping when his shoes tapped Parrot's outstretched legs. "The old you would never, Parrot. But... You're good at adapting."
Anger swept through his veins and turned his vision red.
Parrot–without thinking–flared his wings, staring defiantly at Wifies. The implication was there.
He could fly out, especially with the newfound energy of the potion and especially with the door now open from Wifies' arrival. All it would take is a drop and the opening of his wings.
"Parrot." His voice turned harsh, all humor lost from before. This time, Wifies looked furious as he stared down at Parrot. "We talked about this. Don't even think about it."
They did talk about it. Extensively.
Parrot remembered the harrowing conversation they had when Wifies first trapped him. The avian was dropping all of his items and desperately trying to keep the spyglass hidden when Wifies had mentioned it; brandishing a single unassuming pair of shears, looking at Parrot and then at his wings. Wifies told him that any attempt to fly around or out would be dealt with, and Parrot decided to explore other means of escape.
Eventually, by the time Parrot tried every way to dig through obsidian and mentally parkour through lava, he was far too weak to fly. Far too hot as well.
Now?
Parrot was more than ready to fly. He ached for it.
But Wifies is smart and quick, way quicker than Parrot. He had watched every decision and movement of Parrot’s for months, observing him as his friend and later as the Director. Wifies could tell the flighty twitch of his thighs and the ruffle of his wings before Parrot could even think he was going to fly.
As Parrot's hands pushed up from hot obsidian, Wifies shot out to grab him, dragging him back from the edge with brute strength. Parrot let out a distressed chirp as he was wrestled to the ground face down, feeling the familiar but unwelcome hands of someone carding through his wings.
He messed up. He messed up badly.
"Wifies, Wifies, Wifies, no please-" he wheezed his name like a mantra, the wind knocked out of his lungs "-please don't do this, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"
"Parrot."
"W-Wifies stop, I won't try again, just-" Parrot let out an inhuman chirp, feeling Wifies' deft fingers press along the sensitive ridges of his feathers. They trailed down to where the wings met his back and all the way up the edge of them again, stopping just short of the primary feathers.
A firm hand on his neck kept Parrot pinned down as the other hand disappeared, returning with a pair of shears.
"WIFIES-" Parrot screeched--halfway between a beg and a yell--as the first echoing sound of the shears clipping feathers sounded in the obsidian room. Snip. Parrot's heart dropped as he struggled tenfold, trying and failing to get up and away from his captor.
Wifies shushed him, hands clipping more feathers on his left wing.
His wings were his pride and joy. Wifies knew that. Everyone knew that.
Snip.
His wings meant the world to him. Wifies watched him preen his wings almost obsessively whenever they were adventuring, or after a fight, or even when Parrot first got stuck in Paragon.
Snip.
His wings were his freedom. They glided him out of Proton and away from the Mafia. They were his escape.
Snip. Snip. Snip.
Parrot went limp and sobbed, emotions finally having built up and explosively leaving his chest. He cried and wailed and sniveled, breaths racking his chest as he inhaled against the ground. The crushing weight kept him pinned as Wifies moved on to his right wing, not even keeping a hand on his neck anymore.
Wifies' free hand busied itself by soothingly moving through Parrot's wing, making patterns in the feathers in front of him. He was still shushing Parrot now through the sobs and quiet chirps.
"Oh, Parrot." Wifies sighed, punctuating his sentence with another snip of the shears. "I wish I didn't have to do this. I told you what would happen, didn't I?"
Parrot let out more distressed chirps, his eyes finding one of the snipped halves of his primaries that had fallen next to him.
"I was nice to you and made you better, but you still decided to hurt me," he could hear the frown in Wifies' voice. "You're self-destructive like that, you know? It's something you can't change and I know that, but at least let me stop you from doing it."
Tears clouded Parrot's vision.
"I'll lower the lava- 4-5 blocks should be a good amount." Wifies hummed, still clipping. "I didn't think it was that close to the obsidian, that's my fault."
Parrot closed his eyes.
"You know I hate doing this. I'll bring something soft to lay on for you tomorrow."
His sobs slowed until it was the occasional grieving chirp that crawled up from his throat.
"I'm almost done, Parrot."
Parrot felt nausea flow through him.
"Parrot, say something."
He was limp, face down on the obsidian. In startling contrast to before, Parrot felt cold down to his bones as he shivered.
He sniffled, not even bothering to keep the detection out of his voice. "Okay," he choked out, lying still even as Wifies got up from where he was pinning Parrot.