The Chained Watcher

Rooftops

The rest of them followed after, of course, but few things are as difficult to keep up with as a mother whose child is in danger. She sweeps the kid up in a tight hug, silent tears beading in the corners of her eyes as potent relief floods the area. Ah, he should stop paying attention to emotions now. It's not technically mind reading, but it's about a fifty-fifty whether someone would consider it a breach of privacy or not.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so glad you're okay..." The kid's mother has no focus left for anything other than the fact that her child is alive and apparently unharmed, though it looks like some of the other adults are wondering how such a thing is possible.

One of them crouches down, looking at the ground. What is he... oh. Whoops, those are footprints, uh... Maybe he can just change shoes later, and it's not like the prints are particularly deep or anything. Yeah, a single set of footprints shouldn't be enough to find out who made them, right?

"Hey Jess, there are footprints here." The look the guy gets is just laden with irritation, asking, 'and what makes that more important than my child?' without a single word being uttered. He's quick to defend himself though, waving his hands in front of him to deflect the glare and elaborating. "There are footprints, and I could be wrong but I think they're fresh. That means someone was here before us."

The guy then looks at the kid, asking gently, "Was there anyone else here?" Oh yeah, the kid's footprints probably start right in front of his, so they probably know something's up.

For their part, the kid doesn't blab, but their hesitation is enough to give the actual answer. "...Nuh uh, just me."

Their mom looks at them sternly, though the puffiness from crying doesn't help, and prompts, "Is something wrong, sweetie? You know you can tell me the truth."

"I..." The kid looks down at the ground, mumbling, "I promised I wouldn't tell."

That kinda confirms that there was someone here to them, but they were already pretty sure of that anyway. He can't really blame the kid, having been the target of more than a few 'dadmin' glares in the past. Seriously, you can't argue with those.

"C'mon, you can tell us, there's nothing wrong with-"

"No! I promised! If- if I break a promise, then that makes me a liar!"

Huh, the kid seems to have taken their promise to heart. He almost feels bad for the parents who are probably wondering why their kid is being so stubborn, but considering he saved their kid from falling off a building due to lack of supervision they can live with a bit of confusion.

He should probably head back to the Hermits before his invis runs out though. Taking off with a slight rustle of leaves, he spirals into the air, riding the updrafts up until he reaches the level of the roof the rest of the Hermits are waiting on. After that is just a short glide around a few of the buildings to reach them, though he may have done a couple more loops than was strictly necessary.

Oh nice, looks like they held onto his coat and glasses for him. He had been a little worried that the wind had taken them away, so seeing that is a relief.

When they noticed the coat moving, Xisuma walked over and set down a cup of milk on the table. You know, it's pretty weird that the way to dispel Minecraft's potion effects is milk of all things. Like, why milk? Don't get him wrong, he's not complaining, but milk seems like an odd choice.

Once his wings and eyes were fully concealed by the coat and glasses, he downed the milk to dispel the remaining invis. Xisuma pulled up a seat and asked worriedly, "Is the kid okay? That took you longer than I thought it would."

He did take a while, didn't he. "They were a bit shaken from the fall, so I had to wait for them to calm down first. Ended up using my other invis pot since the first one ran out."

"Do you think any cameras saw you?"

"After it ran out? No, I don't think so. I landed in a tree so that the leaves would block any cameras that were nearby." He grins. "But it's gonna be interesting seeing the videos that people got of a kid being saved from falling by an invisible nothing. Even if the kid says they got saved by a guy with wings, the internet is just gonna think they've got a guardian angel."

"And you're sure no one saw you?"

"Yeah? Pretty sure, why?" He would have noticed if anyone looked directly at him, but now X has him wondering if he was actually as careful as he thought he was.

"Just... worried, is all."

Well he shouldn't have been spotted, so it should be fine. "I was careful, don't worry~"

No magic, no loud sounds, no flashy lights, who could have noticed him?

~~~