Archive of Our Own ^beta

“It’s all yours.”

Parrot’s voice was like a melody—sweet, intoxicating, and so, so cold. Wifies stood still, shellshocked as he watched Parrot rush up the swirling steps, not even so much as glancing back at Wifies’ way.

When he was sure Parrot was gone, Wifies took a shaky breath, looking back at the spyglass that had carried them both through so much.

A miscalculation. A stupid mistake. That’s what Wifies wanted to label this as. But to say that this was a mistake was a gross understatement. No, a ‘mistake’ was just a way to brush off the crushing pain in Wifies’ chest, like a hand had reached into his heart and squeezed out the blood inside. 

He should have known Parrot would have kept it. How could he be so stupid? How could he have forgotten?

Wifies’ legs felt like jelly. He wanted to fall to his knees and never get back up again. 

He looked at the spyglass, still floating there, innocent and shimmering in the light. If he didn’t take it, it would despawn anyway and blow Wifies up. If he did take it, it would blow up with him. Clever Parrot. Clever, clever Parrot. The only person who could outsmart him like this.

Wifies started to laugh. Tears pricked at his eyes. 

Fine. Then he would go out on his own terms.

Wifies ran to the spyglass, hugging it like it was his lifeline. Something beneath him clicked. He gasped, voice rasping with tears. He didn’t turn around.

He could pretend he was holding Parrot.

Then the world around him burst, and everything turned white.

.

..

…

Wifies blinked awake. All he could see was white. He felt pain all over, like he had been dipped in a boiling pot of water for a second and pulled out again. But then it faded, leaving a strange numbness behind.

He felt a sense of self, though. He looked down and he could see his abdomen and legs. He reached out to touch them and reveled in the sensation of warmth.

Something cool was pressing against his leg. Wifies turned to look. His breath caught… his spyglass! Wifies grabbed it quickly, making sure it was real, and pressed it against the chest, for if he did not do this, perhaps it would disappear.

Suddenly, Wifies heard a slow clapping behind him. He froze.

“Congratulations,” said a familiar voice. Wifies clutched the spyglass tighter. “What a show!”

“Spoke,” Wifies said slowly.

“Yes, yes, it is I,” Spoke said. Wifies could now see the other man’s shadow looming behind him. Wifies turned and glared at him. Spoke looked as he always did, black hoodie and sweatpants with a rainbow bandana and that annoying smirk. “Ah, but don’t get ahead of yourself here! I’m from another universe.”

“What?” Wifies said. He stood up quickly to match Spoke’s height. 

“Now, Unstable me is me, but boy is he immature,” Spoke said, huffing. Wifies analyzed him. This Spoke carried himself similarly to his Spoke, but he noticed subtle differences. Like how both Spokes plastered on a causal gait, but this Spoke was more confident while the Spoke he knew would’ve paced and scratched at himself already. “I mean, I can totally see him as me but like, twelve. Dude does not know how to cover his tracks properly.” 

“I’m sorry,” Wifies spoke up. “But you seem to know more than I do. Where are we?”

Spoke shrugged. “I just finished with Lifesteal Season 4 and got sent here, to wait for the next season. I mean, usually we get sent with our closest friends, but, well.” Spoke looked around. There was no one else in this space. There was a flicker of hurt in his eyes, but it disappeared. He shrugged again. “Plans change.” 

“And why am I with you?” Wifies asked, frowning. 

“Beats me. I was watching your life play out for entertainment when the bomb went off and you popped out of the TV.” Spoke knocked at the TV screen behind him and it disappeared into thin air. “This is a lot more interesting though.”

“You were watching me,” Wifies deadpanned.

“I was watching Unstable. There’s a difference. You guys get into shenaighans I can’t even dream of.” Spoke yawned, stepping back with that familiar casual posture. “Especially cuz I know a bunch of people there. Y’know, my Zam is a lot more pathetic. And Clown’s an inactive mess. And Parrot-”

Both Spoke and Wifies tensed at the name. Spoke started to look at him strangely.

“... My Parrot’s cooler than yours, of course,” Spoke said after a moment of hesitation, planting his cool smile back on his face. “I mean, he and I walked around the server without pants. Meanwhile, what did your Parrot do? Save a bunch of people?”

“Parrot is- was-” Wifies couldn’t help but defend his Parrot. “Amazing.”

“Yeah, yeah, yada yada,” Spoke said, scoffing. He tapped the floor with his foot and up sprang a leather couch. He bounced his butt on it. “You take down a mafia and suddenly you’re the hero. Your Spoke did more.”

“That’s just not true,” Wifies said. He walked closer to Spoke, but didn’t sit down. He could see it in his eyes—this Spoke was calculating. Unstable Spoke was unpredictable and said annoying things and didn’t seem to care much about others… but the Spoke in front of him seemed to constantly be scouring Wifies’ body language and adjusting his actions to accommodate that. It was… manipulative. It was dangerous. Wifies kept his guard up.

“You don’t know me the way I do,” Spoke said dismissively. Ah, so this Spoke was condescending too. Great. “Come on, sit down! Let’s have a chat. There’s literally nothing else to do.” 

Wifies didn’t take his eye off him. He obliged, however, and sat at the other end of the couch cautiously, smoothing out his clothes. 

“This isn’t fair,” he began, tilting his head. “You know so much more about my world than I know about yours.”

“Oh, you wan’t me to tell a story? I can tell a story.” Spoke leaned against the armrest, sprawling his legs over the rest of the couch. His foot brushed against Wifies’ shoulder before settling next to him. Thankfully, Wifies’ sense of smell was also gone, so he didn’t have to endure what he assumed to be a great stench. “Let’s see… I’ll skip over my boring shenanighans with Parrot… So Ashswag and I found this cool exploit-”

“Ashswag,” Wifies muttered, trying to keep the distaste from his voice.

“Good ol’ Ashswag!” Spoke ‘agreed’. “It’s basically like, a god exploit. You can get creative mode, all that jazz. But first, we had to do a bunch of stuff.

“I mean, Parrot and I were really chummy at that point. We’ve been friends for literally every season. You know how many other duos are friends every season?” Spoke held up four fingers. “Four! Or five. Or six. Or seven, I dunno. I don’t keep track of this stuff. The point is, it’s pretty darn cool that we hadn’t betrayed each other yet. I mean, I think the pressure was on me because Parrot isn’t really the betraying type.”

“Right,” Wifies said dryly. He wasn’t judging, but he was definitely judging.

Spoke let out a loud, boisterous laugh. “And Parrot’s the admin of Lifesteal, right? So I need the admin to log onto their admin account and do some quick stuff for the exploit to work. And it’s like, cool! I’m already friends with him! So I tell him all sorts of things and I get my creative mode.”

“So you lied to someone who trusted you,” Wifies said, crossing his arms.

Spoke rolled his eyes. “Okay, that’s rich coming from you. When did you fake your death again?”

“That was different,” Wifies argued. He had lots of practice defending his actions, so this came naturally to him. “I was doing it for Parrot. You’re doing it for your own self gain.”

“Nuh-uh-uh,” Spoke sing-songed, swirling a finger at Wifies’ face with a flourish. “I was doing it to bring the exploit to people’s attention so no one gets unlimited power after I do.” 

“... So you wanted to be the only one with unlimited power.”

“Anyway!” Spoke said loudly. “One thing leads to another, I tell Parrot I was lying to him this whole time, he gets mad, I kill him a few times-”

“What?” Wifies was getting angrier and angrier.

“Okay, well not directly. But there was this whole competition where I was killing these idiots called the Three-Heart-Trio and Parrot decided to join their team, so-”

“This is the guy you say is your closest friend?” Wifies said incredulously. 

Spoke ignored him, clearly enjoying Wifies’ reaction. “And then I kill them, do my villain monologue, destroy the server, the end!”

Wifies’ mouth hung open.

“I apologized to Parrot, of course,” Spoke said, fidgeting with his shirt. “He still hasn’t forgiven me, but… he’ll come around.”

“He’ll come around,” Wifies repeated, looking at Spoke with disgust. “After what you did to him, he’ll come around?”

Spoke’s voice lowered ever so slightly, imperceptible to anyone who wasn’t paying attention to it. “Well, he doesn’t have to. But… it’s Parrot. He has to.”

Wifies stared at him. He didn’t really know what to say.

“You’re despicable,” Wifies ended up saying. “Both in Unstable and your world.”

Spoke laughed, but Wifies caught the slightest of vulnerability. “It’s just a bit of fun.”

“It’s just a bit of evil,” Wifies retorted. “You killed him.” 

“Oh, come on. Killing isn’t the same as in Unstable, you know. You can respawn.”

“That doesn’t make it right,” Wifies argued.

Spoke scoffed at this. His eyes narrowed slightly. “Sure. Says the person who threatened to kill Parrot’s friends and trapped him in some sick yandere prison-”

“Yandere?” Wifies tried not to laugh. “Are you hearing yourself?”

“Oh yeah, because you know Parrot better than he knows himself,” Spoke said dryly. His glare sent shivers down Wifies’ spine. “And that gives you the right to trap him against his will for the sake of protecting him.”

“It was perfect,” Wifies snapped. “It was going to keep him safe forever, if he didn’t-”

“And then you start blaming him!” Spoke laughed. “Hey, I manipulated the guy, but I didn’t pretend I was better than him.” 

“I…” Wifies trailed off, the color draining from his face. “No, no. Parrot was… I was just making sure it wouldn’t happen again. It’s just, it’s just another form of… running away together.”

“And did he consent to this?” Spoke asked.

“Well…”

“Exactly.”

They sat in silence. A million thoughts ran through Wifies’ head. He had spent so long on this plan, perfected everything so that he and Parrot could be safe forever, that he hadn’t even considered what it meant. Was it really misguided? Was he turning into the very people he and Parrot had fought against? Stripping people of their freedom, forcing them in places they didn’t want to be…

No, no, what? Of course he was right! He did it for Parrot! Why would he listen to Spoke, the guy known for lying every time he opened his mouth? 

Spoke started laughing. Wifies looked at him, annoyed.

“What?” he demanded.

“Nothing, it’s just…” Spoke glanced at him with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Parrot has horrible taste in friends. Out of everyone, he chooses us?” 

Spoke continued laughing. Wifies couldn’t help but break out a small smile. 

He watched for a few more moments as Spoke kept laughing, then as it died down. They sat in silence again. Wifies looked at the white floor.

“What about him do you miss the most?” 

“What do I…” Spoke hummed a little, thinking. He carried his foot that was merely a few inches from Wifies’ waist to the top of the couch. “I guess his wings.” Spoke smiled, but it was different from his usual smirks. It was… sad. “I used to help preen his wings every other day. It was great.”

Wifies regarded him quietly. Spoke sighed, shifting his body again. His legs fell down beside him. 

“I hope the next person doesn’t mess it up. It’s harder than it looks,” he said, uncharacteristically wistful. He looked at Wifies. “What about you?”

Wifies felt the coldness of the spyglass in his hands. He clutched it tightly and looked down at it. “... His voice,” he said softly. His laughter. The way Parrot looked at him when they solved puzzles or strategized together. The way Parrot made him feel like he had finally found a kindred spirit, someone who understood him, someone who could match him at his own game.

“Hm,” Spoke replied. He didn’t say anything else.

They both sat there, admiring the newfound peace they had found at the end of their stories. It was a strange feeling, after lives of running from (or at) the next big thing. But now, at least in the near future, all they had was their guilt and the memory of the man they have both loved and hurt the most.