Chapter Text
Leaves crunch below Parrot's feet as he makes his way through a vague pathway, trees sway with the wind, the sky no longer visible through the heavy layers of foliage, branches bend like stalks of wheat as the wind grows stronger.
A birds wings flutter; the sound of its takeoff contrasts the silence of the forest. Parrot flinches lightly, shifting his attention back to the path, it begins to narrow, the exposed dirt and clear pathway blurs with the endless forest.
Parrot’s steps quicken, wanting out of this place as soon as possible. It was his own doing, really — how he ended up here, blindly accepting to help a child find her lost stuffed toy, how that ended with him triversing through an earie forest was beyond him. He replays the child’s description of the toy —cute rainbow fur, eyes that sparkle like falling stars, and a bright pink nose— which seemed easy enough to spot, a sentiment he’d shared when he was on the outskirts of the forest, oblivious to how infinite it would really seem. He travels through the vast expanse of the forest, eyes darting between different corners of what his sight could reach until he spots it, the contrast of obnoxious colors with the dead leaves littering the ground.
He huries over to it, thrilled to finally be able to leave. He weaves through branches sticking out and bushes that have grown far too wild. He trips as he reaches it, face nearly planting on the ground as he catches himself. He has never been more happy to see the wretched abomination of colors, he looks up as he stuffs the toy into his bag and pauses at the sight that greets him. Just a few meters away from him stood a visibly worn and abandoned structure, its ruined white columns —now weathered and stained — have thick vines wrapping around them, and in the centre of it all laid…someone?
Wait.
What?
Parrot’s heartbeat quickened as he hurriedly made his way over to the figure, praying to every god he has not just found a dead body in the depths of the forest. As more of the figure filled his vision the closer he got, he saw it; the delicate porcelain finish of his skin, the visible line of the joints of his articulation, and deep ashy brown hair that almost looked too soft to be real, adorned in a gray sweater, his hands nearly covered by its sleeves. His heart starts beating at a normal rate, panic flushes out of his body as he exhales a deep breath —It was not a dead body, thank god, It was some sort of…doll? Parrot watches it- or him? intently, he didn’t know what he was looking for, surely dolls don't breathe right? much less have a pulse. Parrot crouches down as his eyes scan the figure, deep in his thoughts —what does one do when faced with such a predicament? Well if you’re none other than Parrotx2, of course it would be to take the thing home with you and try to fix it, he tries to justify his savior complex by thinking that maybe he can still sell some of the parts for a pretty penny, he was sure Ken or Wato would be up to giving him a few diamonds for some new parts to play with, surely, maybe.
Not wanting to stay in this damned forest any longer, Parrot positions the doll so he could haul him up and carry him on his back —He was lighter than expected, his skin cold to the touch as he lays limp on Parrot’s back. Parrot fixes himself as he got up, dusting off the dirt that clung to him as he sets his sights back to the town. He sets a quick and steady pace as he makes his way back, carrying a lot more than what he intended to leave with.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Parrot finally reaches the forest entrance, spotting the little girl chase around a poor chipmunk, despirate to get away from the vile giant wanting to steal his days worth of hard work. The girl finally spots parrot and visibly glows at the sight of him, the chipmunk uses the opportunity to sneak away from her grimy grasp. She runs up to him, steps bouncing excitedly. “Mr. Parrot! you’re back! Did you find Snuffles? give me, give me!” She tugs at the hem of his shirt, impatient and elated. Parrot huffs out with a smile. “Yep yep, I’ve got him no worries.”
He reaches for the bag hanging off his shoulder and fishes out the neon tragedy that is Snuffles, a bit of dirt on him but nothing that his bright color can’t pierce through and a good wash can get off. The girl squeals, overjoyed at the sight of her colorful friend. She reaches out and snatches Snuffles out of his grasp. “Thanks Mr. Parrot! Thank you!” She exclaims, jumping around in ecstasy. Parrot smiles at the sight, always happy to be of service to people.
The girl stops and stands still, she looks up, past Parrot’s shoulder. “Mr. Parrot, is your friend ok?” She asks, head tilting in curiosity—Oh yeah right, his ‘friend’ that is currently unconscious on his back, he forgot about that. “Yep! he’s just resting, he got tired on the way back.” He lies, ending it with an awkward empty laugh.
“Oh look at that the sun is about to set, you should go back, your parents are probably worried about you.” He lets out abruptly before the girl can press him any further. A half assed fake smile plastered on his face as he flees the scene, his pace speeds up with each step—only now did it dawn upon him how suspicious he seems, its not exactly everyday you see someone parading around town with an unconscious body on their back.
Once he was far enough from the girl, he spread out his wings, the wind curls around him as he slowly flutters them. Lifting off the ground, he adjusts his grip on the ‘boy’, making sure he wouldn’t fall off during the flight and took off.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
It took a while for Parrot to finally spot their quaint house, it was fortunate that the man didn’t weight much, perks of being synthetic he guessed. He landed softly and followed the steps leading up to the entrance, taking note of the charred grass that now decorated their once beautifully green lawn—he’d have to have another talk with Flame and Wemmbu about sparring in the yard, again. He could already hear faint screams through the door, god knows what they’ve decided to argue about now. He let’s out a tired sigh and opens the door, bracing himself to face the chaos of his brothers.
“Par- oh what the fuck Parrot is that a corpse?” Flame’s voice cuts through the house, pausing the screaming match he was having with Wemmbu. “Bro Parrot ewww why’d you bring it home” Wemmbu turns to him from the couch, making a face of disgust, judgement as clear as day on his face. Ah yes, you can always trust the two to be divided in everyway and united purely for the sake of shitting on Parrot.
Spoke, sensing the chaos brewing downstairs, descends from his room to get involved, just because he can. “Oh hey Parrot, what’s for dinner?”
Parrot let’s out a long suffering sigh. “No its not a corpse, he’s not dead.”
“Then why’d you bring him home? Dude who even is that” Wemmbu presses, face still contorted in judgement, now with a mix of curiosity.
“I don't know, I found him in the forest when I was helping out a child earlier”
“of course you were” Flame butts in, amusement clear in his voice.
Parrot shoots him a stern look, Flame avoids his eyes, feigning innocence.
“I don't think he’s human either, or at least ‘living’ in the first place. Thought I could take him back and repair him to sell for a few diamonds.”
“hm, neat.” Wemmbu says, tinkering with the figures arm —suddenly teleporting from the couch to Parrot’s side. Parrot shoos him away, swatting off his hand, away from its worn limbs.
Spoke shifts from one foot to another. “Helloo, are we just gonna ignore me?” He lets out with a pout, his brows knitting together in annoyance. “Parrot what’s for dinner.” stretching out the last syllable to be a bit more irritating, arms now crossed. The eldest pinches the bridge of his nose, a loud and intentional sigh escapes him. “I don't know, Flame go get us dinner.”
“Wait what, why me!” The other contests.
“Consider it punishment for burning the grass outside.”
“That’s because Wemmbu-” “Hey ok don't bring me into this, you-”
“Just go get us dinner! or everyone is going out. Now.” Parrot barks out, halting another argument from spiraling into a brawl. Flame grumbles and makes his way to the door, resigning to his fate while mumbling about how unfair it was.
Everyone goes back to minding their own business after that, The avian makes his way down to the basement to his work room—a messy chamber for all his endevours, where miscellaneous papers litter the space, and a messy cork board is plastered on the wall. Along with shelves full of an assortment of items, ranging from useless to utterly useless.
He sets the ‘boy’ down to a table in the center of the room, making sure to clear off the papers on it with one swipe of his wings. Parrot takes a step back, assessing the condition of the ‘boy’ in front of him. He looked…weathered to say the least, vines wrapped around his limbs, some nestling into his joints, marks of dirt scattered around his body. Although nothing looked particularly broken, everything seemed to be mostly intact, a few scratches and misplaced parts here and there, but still intact. Which was good he guesses, still a bit of work cut out for him but nothing too major. He pulls up his sleeves and with one last sigh, gets to work.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The loud crow of a rooster shatters the stillness of the morning, marking the beginning of a new day. Parrot got up from his bed, stretching out his limbs, along with his wings. He was in the midst of getting ready for the day when he remembered the ‘boy’ he left in his work room the previous night—It felt weird referring to him as that but it felt weirder to refer to him as anything else.
The avian mentally made a note to himself to visit local redstone mechanics so he could sell— ok maybe calling him ‘boy’ was weird…especially in this context. Parrot snaps himself out of his thoughts, he finishes getting himself ready and heads downstairs which was still vacant. His younger brothers probably still snoring away. Good.
He savors the moment of peace for a moment, thankful to be relieved of the headaches he calls his brothers, even for one sweet minute—He makes his way down to his work room, ready to assess what parts he thinks might sell well and garner a hand full of diamonds.
He opens the door and turns on the lights, as the room illuminates he could see the ‘boy’ laying just how he left him. That is until, well—his eyes flutter open and he cranes his head to look at the other in the door way. Parrot nearly jumps out of his skin as he watched the other come alive, his wings puff out in shock and slams the door shut. His breathing uneven as he tried to process what he just saw.
What .
the.
FUCK.
Parrot’s brain was running a thousand miles per hour—how does one cope when a supposedly inanimate boy moves? Particularly one that you intended to sell away parts from. He took a deep breath, readying himself to confront the boy inside, he couldn’t think of any other optimal move he could take. He could lock up his work room and surround it with tnt, but that would just be irrational and an extremely impractical use of tnt.
He accepts his fate and cracks the door open, peeking slightly before opening it fully. There, the boy stared back at him, his position not moving from when he slammed the door shut. His fists, which he didn’t notice where clenched in the first place, relaxed. He didn’t look all that intimidating, no quite the opposite really—His eyes were big and round, its dark color makes it look like the dark expanse of the void, accentuating his doll-like appearance. His mouth was drawn into a line, face not showing even an ounce of emotion. He didn’t look like the type to fight, Parrot guesses he could beat him if it really came down to it though.
Silence stretches over them, an unconscious staring competition forming between the two.
“So um, who are you?” Parrot is the first one to break, shutting the door behind him as he steps closer to the other.
The boy sits up and gives him a look. “I am…” he pauses for a bit, seemingly in thought. “Wifies, I am Wifies.”
Parrot nods, processing the information. “So Wifies…mind telling me what exactly you are and how you ended up in the forest?” He’s now only a step away from the other, the caution in his step gone.
“I am…a doll.” yeah, he could see that.
“I don't know how I got there, my memory files don't go that far. Where are we? What forest are you talking about?” Wifies’ head tilts as he ends his sentence with questions, looking as lost as Parrot was.
“Oh. Well we’re just a bit outside capital city, I found you near the forest a bit farther off from town.” Parrot steps closer, now just in front of Wifies
“I found you in some kind of ruins and decided to take you back, you seemed pretty beat up so I took liberty in cleaning you up and repairing some stuff” He explains, hoping to get a bit more context on everything.
“Oh. I see. Thank you.” Wifies looks down, hands folded in his lap, legs dangling off the edge of the table.
He’s about to open his mouth when Parrot beats him to it. “Well, since you seem functional now, uh, you can go back I guess.” Looking at Wifies awkwardly.
Wifies looks back up at him and hums, clearly confused with his head tilting once more.
‘I mean, your all fixed up so you should be good to go” The avian clarifies, looking back and forth from his eyes to any fixture in the room, a bit unsettled by the doll’s blank stare.
“Oh, yeah that makes sense, I see. Thank you again.” Wifies stands up from the table and bows to him lightly.
“No worries! It was nothing really”— lies, he stayed up until nearly 3 am to finish repairing him— “I’m just glad I could help, c’mon I’ll lead you to the door.”
Parrot ends up escorting him up until the entrance of the town, a seed of…something grows in his mind, as he feels a pit in his stomach. He didn’t know what it was, suspicion? Not likely, the other hasn’t done anything to be suspicious of, Doubt? but he couldn’t pin point from what exactly.
“Welp, guess I should leave you alone now, the town is located near pretty much everything so I don’t think you would have too much trouble trying to get wherever.” He watches Wifies look around, as if unfamiliar with the place.
“I see, thank you again, for everything.” Wifies bows lightly again before turning his back to him. And just, wanders off, to who knows where.
The pit in Parrot’s stomach grows as he watches him fade into the bustling town.
Parrot had half the mind to run and catch up to him and ask where he was off to, but he snaps out of his thoughts. He had a full day ahead of him, and that unfortunately included being around his brothers.
Sigh.