Chapter Text
The room cold, impossibly cold.
Wifies feels impossibly cold right now in particular. He should not be. The lava pouring from behind him should be enough to keep him warm, but it's just not. Combined with the sweater he has on, and how fast his heart is beating, he should feel impossibly warm. Despite all that, all he can feel is the cold and the pile of dread building up in his stomach as he listens to Spoke go back on his promise. He and Parrot tied, they both won. They both should be leaving this place with the secret. But no, Spoke is adamant that one of them has to get banned today.
Spoke standing on his right might be why Wifies is so cold right now. The void is known to be cold, so one could assume that a creature of the void would also naturally be that cold. The void partials falling off his body only adds to the effect. Whenever they hit the gound, Wifies swears the room’s temperature drops another degree.
His looming threat of a chunk ban is another factor to the coldness. So is the chunk ban itself. He swears the chunk ban on his left is causing air to slow down and feel still. After all, nothing living can exist in it, not while being alive anyways. The stillness of the air could also just be from Spoke though. Not that it matters what is causing it right now. What matters is that it only adds to the dread pooling into Wifies stomach as his whole body trembles. He lets out a sigh before looking Parrot in the eyes.
“Parrot, is the secret really worth it?” He exhales.
He hopes the answer is no. He hopes the past few weeks of him following Parrot around and helping him out would lead Parrot to the same answer as him. That their friendship is more important than the secret. Both men are quite smart, surely they could figure out the secret on their own. They were able to do the quest on their own, for the most part. The only assistance Spoke gave them was hints on where to go and making them give up all their items for some of them. Everything else, from understanding the clues to completing the puzzles was the work of both Wifies and Parrot, not Spoke. Never Spoke. Whatever he figured out, those two could too. If they figured it out on their own, no Spoke involved, they could both stay on the server. Hell, even if they can’t figure it out, then the blossoming friendship they now have should be enough reason in its own right to turn around and get out of here.
Parrot is not the one who is going to get chunk banned if they don’t leave anyways. He had less stakes in this than him. Plus, Spoke clearly wants Parrot to stay and Wifies to go, for some odd reason. And even if he was not talking to Parrot directly, it would just be logical for Wifies to be the one to go. The blue and gold macaw was here first—and is the reason Wifies is in this mess. He only joined this server because he decided he wanted to help a stranger out. That stranger, who is now his friend.
If he is being honest with himself, he fears being here without him. This is not the type of server he normally lives on. Here, it is dangerous, with it being an anarchy server. A hardcore one at that. Death lurks around every corner, from mobs and fall damage to the other Players. Wifies knows that just as much as anyone else here. Being alone would only add to the constant fear.
Being near Parrot does not just help out with the fear of death; it also helps him with the feeling of being watched constantly when he is on this server. The never-ending staring from Void knows where only adds to the fear, and the dread, and the coldness. Whenever he focuses on it for too long, his spine starts to tingle and the hair on his arms stands up. Unfortunately, it is hard to focus on anything else when he is alone nowadays. His main distraction from it is being near Parrot. Following the avian around on his quest helped him truly is an excellent distraction from whatever that horrific staring sensation was. (He only ever senses it around Parrot. He only ever sensed it while following those discs. He feels it now, more than ever.) He knows that logically, it was just Spoke watching them to see where they were, to “assist” them on their journey. That there is nothing to worry about. It does not stop it from being terrifying.
(Spoke’s eyes on him feels different than what he felt before. Wifies knows that. Those eyes are less …dreadful than what has been staring these past few weeks. Those eyes are still on him, staring intensely. That could be why he feels so cold right now. The staring did always leave him colder.)
That same journey, or scavenger hunt really, is what led the duo to now be standing on an obsidian platform, with their hearts racing and hands (or wings, in Parrot’s case) trembling. The same journey that probably, definitely, ends with one of them being chunk banned. He hopes and prays to the Void that Parrot will turn around and leave. He knows the answer is most likely no.
Spoke starts speaking to Parrot again, and the room gets colder. He listens quietly as Spoke tells Parrot that he spent too much time on the quest to turn back now. Spoke is right; it took them weeks, during which Wifies got close to Parrot. So, so close to him. Practically closer than he has ever gotten to anyone else. Parrot may even be Wifies best friend. He is definitely not Parrot’s. They only got close because of Spoke’s quest, but that has to count for something, right? Does he matter to Parrot, or was he just an assistant to him? Does Parrot care about him? Does he? The coldness seeps its way from that thought straight into Wifies's veins, making his blood run cold. His head pounds as he considers it. What if Parrot thinks the secret is more important than him? What if Wifies means nothing to him? Why shouldn’t Wifies just walk over that red line right now? He is too lost in his own thoughts to fully listen to the argument happening right in front of him. He tries his best too follow anyways, using what he already knows as a guide. One, he knows Parrot believes that the secret is important. Two, he knows he is not currently being told to step (or pushed) over the line. (Three, he knows the staring is back, stronger than ever. It wants him to make a decision soon.) He should start listening to the conversation in front of him again.
When he finally does listen in again, he hears Spoke say that “all that matters is the secret,” something Wifies knows that is wrong. He hopes knows its wrong Parrot does too. He is almost certain Parrot thinks he is right.
He thinks Parrot knows that Spoke is wrong when he here’s “but we tied” leaving the avian’s mouth. That breaks Wifies out of his spiral. Parrot has been trying to avoid both of them getting chunk banned. The chess game is proof of that. He wishes that Parrot would just let them leave already instead of continuing arguing. (He knows Parrot cares about the secret greatly. He is almost certain they wont be leaving here together.) Spoke, however, is not giving up on his deal. He is going to keep telling Parrot that the secret is more important than anything else till he gives in. Spoke has a clear goal here, and it’s not a good one. They should have never done the scavenger hunt. They should have never given Spoke the satisfaction of being in control.
He blinks, and Parrot and Spoke are now strutting around each other while arguing. He tries his best to follow them with his eyes. Wifies is somewhat distracted though by (what he thinks) is purple eyes surrounding them; all watching what is happening. Are these what have been staring him this entire time? He hopes not, because that would be terrifying. When he tries to stare back at them, his head pounds harder and his eyes feel lit on fire when he stares back at them. He is seriously starting to consider banning himself right now just to get away from them and this Void damn server. Clearly this place is making him go insane.
He is probably just overreacting. Realistically, he is just experiencing stress-based hallucinations due to everything going on.
The argument is still going on. The staring only gets worse.
“Parrot, is this secret worth it?” Wifies decides to remind his friend, “Is it actually? Is it genuinely? We can both leave, we can literally both leave. Is it worth it? We can both leave right now.”
He is starting to worry that Parrot may never make a choice, and that the staring will not go away. Parrot is not helping out with the staring issue much right now, considering all the avian is doing is joining in.The longer it goes on for the more Wifies breath is sped up and his heart starts beating out of his chest. Parrot just continues to stare at him and stutter incomprehensibly. He starts to speak again.
“Its—Its fine. It's fine to not know it. I just need you to tell me, is it worth—is it even worth it?”
“I mean I think you know what I am going to say.” Parrot mutters and all the air leaves Wifies lungs.
All he can do is stare at the avian while his world falls apart. He was right the first time around. (He was always right.) Parrot does not care about him as much as Wifies cares about him, or maybe even at all. (Parrot cares about him. He knows the parrot cares about him. It's just hard to admit when Parrot practically just abandoned him for a stupid little secret.)
The room feels the coldest it's ever been. He is the coldest he has ever been. He feels himself shaking as his heart rate continues to pick up. His breath suddenly comes back faster than ever before. His stomach twists in on itself. There are more eyes than ever before, and they are all watching him. They all feel impressively, impossibly cold. Their gaze being ones of simultaneous sorrow, pity, and delight. His stomach turns even more looking at them. Everything feels cold.
He averts his eyes back to Parrot’s as he tries to come up with a plan. Those eyes may make him feel like he is going to die, but at least he can keep the illusion of being sane.
Wifies wishes he could feel the warmth of the lava right now. He wishes the staring would stop. He wishes he could change Parrot’s mind. He wishes he was anywhere, anywhere, but here right now. He wishes he could travel back in time to those pillars and stop them from even beginning the quest. He would tell his past self that the secret does not matter, maybe that there is not even one. That Spoke is just one big liar who only wants to spread misery everywhere he goes. He would try to convince Parrot of the same, If that would not work, he would tell his past self to just leave . That this secret is not worth it. He would tell his past self to never take the spyglass.
The spyglass. The spyglass was the start of their friendship. Parrot trusted him with it. He said if Wifies goes, so will the spy glass. If Wifies gives Parrot the spy glass, Parrot will get him out of the chunk ban. He would remember what he said all those weeks ago. He can not avoid getting chunk banned at this point; Spoke looks seconds away from pushing him over the red line. There is only one thing left for Wifies to do.
Hands still shaky, he reaches for the spyglass. The eyes are now watching him intensely. Without even looking at them, he knows they are pleased. His stomach tightens even further at that thought. That can not be good thing at all. Once he steps over the line, they should be gone though. Hopefully for good. That way he would never have to worry about them ever again.
Wifies steps forwards and hands over the spyglass.
“It’s all yours,” he mutters.
Before Parrot could say anything, Wifies walks backwards, staring at Parrot as he crosses the line into the ban. The line feels impossibly cold, as cold as the void itself. All he can see when he looks forward is the purple eyes staring back at him as his vision turns to black.