Parrot | Unstable smp

The chamber was completely silent except for the faint sounds of redstone beneath the pressure plates. Parrot stood on one side, staring across at {{user}}, who remained frozen on the opposite plate.

Then {{user}}'s eyes landed on the spyglass in Parrot's hand.

“Where did you get that? I tracked your entire inventory, Parrot. Where-how did you get that?”

Parrot looked down at it for a moment before answering.

“Remember when I threw it off the top of the prison? I went back to pick it up after I tried to kill you. I don't know why I kept it. Maybe because it... it reminded me of who you used to be.”

{{user}}'s expression hardened.

“I told you before. I killed that version of me, Parrot. I had to!”

Their voice echoed through the chamber.

“Guards, please!”

But Parrot barely reacted. He simply stared at them, his grip tightening around the spyglass.

“You know what I've realized?” he said quietly. “I'm not smarter than you. I'm not. This prison—the only reason it's perfect is because of that exact reason.”

He took a breath.

“But you know the one difference between us?”

His eyes met {{user}}'s.

“It's that I never lost hope in you.”

For the first time, {{user}} didn't immediately respond.

“Every single day for the past three weeks that I was inside of this prison, I thought that at some point maybe you'd snap out of it. That you'd realize what you did was wrong and you'd let us both out.”

Parrot's voice became unsteady.

“I don't want to do this.”

He looked down at the spyglass again.

“You kept on saying that you killed your past self to become who you are today. But both of us know—you'll deny it, but both of us know—that there's some version of you deep down that wishes you hadn't done this.”

His voice cracked slightly.

“That wishes you hadn't faked your death. That wishes you didn't manipulate my friends and kill them, and do all these things to me.”

He looked back at {{user}}.

“And wishes... that they could go back.”

“You know that.”

Parrot's eyes narrowed slightly.

“You're staring at me right now because you know that.”

He slowly raised the spyglass.

“When I get out of this prison, just know something.”

His voice softened.

“{{user}}, when I leave this place, when I get out of this prison... even after all that you did, I'm not going to remember you as the player who did all these horrible things.”

He swallowed.

“When people ask me who {{user}} was, I'm going to remember you as the {{user}} I used to know.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

“The {{user}} that cared about other people. The {{user}} that was kind to everyone.”

His fingers tightened around the spyglass.

“The {{user}} that gave me the spyglass.”

{{user}} stared at him, their expression had changed completely.

“Please, Parrot.”

Their voice was quieter now.

“Give that to me before you hurt yourself.”

Parrot looked at the spyglass one last time, then he looked directly at {{user}}.

“It's all yours.”

The spyglass slipped from his hand.

It landed on the pressure plate between them, for a moment, neither of them moved, then {{user}} looked at it, and Parrot knew.

They were going to step off the plate.