"Patience, Fit, patience. I just met you today, I'm not giving you anything too secret until I know you better. You could join Leviathan if you wanted, I'd have to okay it with everyone else first but I don't see why not. Or you could join the NPPP, but, uh, disclaimer on that one, all the NPPP members except me left. Striking out on your own is a good idea no matter what team you end up with, I've got a couple bases that a few people know about and then one that no one knows about. Only way to be safe. Never know who might betray you."

"Never know who might betray you," Fit repeats, wisely. "No, that's smart."

Not like he's unused to striking it out alone. If he wasn't used to monologuing, his voice would surely be hoarse talking this much-- no, best course of action is nomad hut, stable source of food, spawnpoint. For the first day, anyways. A larger base might be in order, but the damn huts are iconic at this point.

"Leviathan? Those're the folks behind the lag merry-go-round, right? And Eclipse who removed the end. What are the NPPP about? Or, what were the NPPP about, I guess."

"Leviathan's the lag merry-go-round, yeah. Also called Team Awesome. Mapicc and Roshambo and Parrot and me. Eclipse is Subz, Vitalasy, Zam--Eclipse is on bad terms with us 'cause Zam used to be a member of Team Awesome before he betrayed. Well, mostly on bad terms with Mapicc, Parrot and I don't care as much. Bacon's part of the three heart trio--that's him and PlanetLord and Jaron--and the Shades are Pangi, Reddoons, Woogie, Mid, and Vortex, but they don't do as much. NPPP is the No Pants People Party. Only rule is you can't wear pants. Everyone else is unafilliated." (Spoke is, in fact, wearing pants, but they're a loose black fabric that blends in with his skin--there's no armor on his legs, not even leather. It's a little jarring contrasting with his helmet and chestplate and boots.)

Fit takes one look at his own netherite leggings.

"I'm gonna say no on the No Pants, I feel." He'd almost considered taking a grindstone to these ones, seeking out some blast protection instead-- but end crystals have been deemed illegal. But, on the other hand, once you break one rule, you get real cool with breaking more. Might be worth it in the long run. "But that's all good to know, for sure. I'll keep my options open... drift, a bit..."

His eyes drift upwards, again. Might actually be nice to set up somewhere near here-- at least, to the public eye. Set something here so no-one goes looking elsewhere. A lightbulb seems to pop up in his mind; "By any chance, do you have a bucket of lava?"

“Uhhhhh. Let me see…” Enderchest down. Which shulker is lava in, surely it’s in one of them… He checks one then puts it back, checks a second and—yeah, there it is. He puts the shulker back in his echest and tosses the lava bucket to Fit. “Catch.”

He catches-- he hooks the handle with his thumb, carefully gets his elbow out of the way as to not get burnt like a dumbass. He nods, a little, a nonverbal "thank you".

A base people know about will mean there will be less suspicion about Fit having a base nobody knows about-- if he's lucky, this will play off as "confident", and if he's unlucky this will play off as "stupid", but either way works. If he's here until he gets banned, he needs to start playing the long game.

"I think here's good to set up shop, isn't it?" Fit suggests. "For myself, I mean. And, y'know, I'm already feeling a little homesick. How about..." With a certain showman's delivery, he sweeps an open palm out at the unassuming plot of land before them. "...mind helpin' me make a lavacast?"

Spoke's eyes light up; he holds a block of stone, then his water bucket, then back to the stone. "I would love to. You know, Parrot and I used to have one by spawn, I don't actually know what happened to it. Think Roshambo might've removed it." Staircase time with the stone!

And Spoke's off to the races! Fit follows, leisurely. (Lavacasts are easy, if a little time-consuming, and tough if you're afraid of heights. They're classic, they're iconic, they're cheesy... but it's home.)

He wonders how far up Spoke's gonna build. "So, Parrot's the server owner and a participant?"

"Participant--like, does he play on the server? Yeah. Uh, he got banned for a while, even, after the dupe war. Technically he's got an alt for some of the server admin stuff but it's all still him. He was the founder of the NPPP." (Spoke is very much not afraid of heights! He will keep going until either he messes up the staircase and falls or he hits build limit.)

"The founder," Fit repeats, with gravitas. "The dupe war. Leviathan, Eclipse-- Y'all have got lots of history, don't you?"

(History is good. History is exciting. He wonders if it would be annoying to ask around further for first-hand account, start drafting up a script, set foot in the places where shit went down... but, judging by the type of person Spoke is, at least, it'd be more-so fun to have a chance to talk about themselves. This anthropology shit's easy.)

"We have a, I would say we have a decent amount." He is trying so hard to be cool about this but it is in fact a total rush to hear FitMC to describe Lifesteal as having a lot of history. He is very grateful he's staircasing, he would not be able to restrain himself from actually jumping about this if he weren't. "And that's all just this season! This is our fourth server, we, uh--tend to move on, start new, once it's destroyed past a certain point. Or if it's just getting too stale. New updates, new rules..."

"Well, I sure can't wait to see what I can find, right?"

He lets a moment pass.

"Uh." He peers over the edge. "Think we're high enough, Spoke?"

They are—not quite at build limit. Close enough. Fit’s the expert here. He builds out another couple blocks and then puts the lava down. It’ll take a bit for it to fall before it’s ready for the water. “There is lots of stuff to find, I can tell you that much. I can show you whatever’s already been moved or destroyed, that’s easy—but the current stuff, that you’ll have to find on your own. Good luck. I’ll give you a, a special prize, if you find my current project.”

(It is wonderfully nostalgic to watch the lava roll down and down and down. If it causes a forest fire... who gives a shit, really. He'll walk for some wood.)

He crosses his arms, shifts his weight a little on the set-up outcropping. It'll hold. He eyes Spoke, sidelong, in peripheral. "That's some dangerous bait to leave," he says with a smile. Base-hunting is something he'd never pass up, the wonderful hobby it is. "I'm assuming I don't get any hints for that? Where it is? What is it, negative-negative?"

"No hints. I actually talked to some 2b2t players, you know, got advice for hiding it. Good luck. Challenge is more fun if you don't x-ray but I won't complain too much about a little replay modding. Plus any x-raying is illegal, but we're a little past that."

Spoke didn't twitch in affirmative or negative. It's a real hunt, then. Wait, what the fuck is the replay mod?

"Eh. I'm always a fan of a good challenge. Game's on."

When the water rolls down, the hiss of the lava hardening into cobblestone sounds like relief. It's like a breath of old, smoggy air-- a little nod, to the place he came from. It is, of course, horribly cliche advertisement, but Fit's got a plan for that. If he makes a big statement of it, a real hey! Here's where FitMC of 2b2t lives!, people might not actually look much deeper. It might be a little hard, to keep up his activity in pretending this is the real thing, his actual base, a home, but... well, Fit's not even known for being at a home. It'll work out.

Kindly, cordially, he lets Spoke get back to whatever he was doing. (Read: Fit says he wants to feel, a little bit, like he's in the early-game, despite being in full netherite already.) He gathers materials from the forest that hasn't burnt down, dips below ground for coal and iron, comes back up and works at it until it looks like he lives there. It's like midcentury modern architecture, if someone made it out of oak and cobblestone-- reasonably-sized rooms suspended on the lavacast. While it doesn't look great, it does look characterizing. It does look like it's from 2b. ...Even if the wood might burn, eventually.

Alright! That's enough building for maybe forever. Now, what he could do is contact his contractor. Tell him he's settled safely, like landing on the other side of a plane trip. The option's open. But he doesn't really feel like it; what he feels like, instead, is getting the lay of the social land. Who's still online?

The tab list has been steadily filling up since he got on. Lots of people curious for the chance to meet FitMC. Currently: baconnwaffles0, ItzSubz_, Mapicc, ParrotX2, PlanetLord, PrinceZam, roshambogames, SpokeIsHere, Vitalasy, Yeah_Jaron.

Damn. Why don't they just set up a whole meet-and-greet table for him? ...Actually, maybe not, this server's entire thing is murder.

He dumps all his building materials and odd miscellaneous bits in a chest and starts the trek back to spawn. It's not a long trek-- it's honestly a little surprising Fit's decided to settle so close to spawn, were it not for the whole "decoy base" thing he's starting to plot. Granted, it's not close either. Maybe two thousand blocks out? Three? Either way, if he were on 2b, he'd still be wading through cobblestone and trying not to fall into the fucking underdark. Can you accurately invoke "the grass is greener" when there's no grass at all on your side of the fence?

He checks tab a couple of times. Looks like... Leviathan, Eclipse, and the three heart trio are all herein assembled; no Shades. Nobody unaffiliated, either. Alright. You only live once, after all. Fit breaches the threshold into what he considers "spawn". At least Poopies is contained. Maybe.

<FitMC> Free autographs at spawn
<FitMC> Not a trap! Unless you think a new guy can set up a trap in about 3 hours
<FitMC> Then it's a trap

If he offers first, he won't be hunted down for them, anyways.

There is actually some mostly-polite lining up for autographs! People spleef each other into spawn but aren't really trying to kill each other. Everyone shows up but Parrot and Spoke. ...Well, it's polite for a while. After a few minutes Mapicc gets bored and starts jumping Zam, who shrieks and runs away at first before realizing that he's got two teammates with him and Mapicc only has one. Mapicc and Roshambo are holding their own but they're also definitely losing.

Mapicc whispers to FitMC: vc
Mapicc whispers to FitMC: vc
Mapicc whispers to FitMC: vc

He's surprised it was going this well. But he's not surprised something falls apart. He's just glad it's not him getting jumped.

Uh, sure. He hops in the call, he's not ancient. He can sort of anticipate what's going to be asked of him before it happens; he's stepped back to watch from the top of a hill. "Hello?"

"Hey, Spoke said you're an ally, if you're willing to help I'll splash you. All your gear is sort of mine, by the way, sooo. It'd be really cool if you helped out. --Ro, I need help, I'm 2v1ing right now--target Vitalasy, he's got a shield instead of a totem--"

Hm. Debt's no good. He's not... the most confident, with this new style of combat. It looks almost rhythmic. But, on the other hand, keeping allyships healthy is quite important. Fuck it; he chomps down a gapple and starts hauling ass towards the fight. "Coming," he says. "We're all targeting-- uh, Vitalasy? Or--"

"Focus Vitalasy, yeah. But honestly if you could just get someone off me right now that'd be great." 

As soon as Fit's close enough, Mapicc splashes them both: speed, strength, fire res. He had needed to repot soon anyway. Zam takes the opportunity to repot as well. Mapicc checks his durability--not great, but he can go a bit longer before he needs to xp. 

Meanwhile, in Eclipse Federation VC:

"Oh God, oh no, they got Fit on their side--AAAA--"

"It's okay Zam, it's still a 3v3, we've got Mapicc and Ro low. I don't know how much gear they gave Fit, if he's got a full inventory or not, keep an eye on him. Right now we keep hard targeting Mapicc, he's gotta be getting low, that's why he pulled Fit in."

"Right, yes, okay, I can do this--I'm PrinceZam--"

"--Guuuuyyyys, I need help, Ro and Fit are both on me--"

"--I've got you, I'm getting Ro--"

"--I need to xp, my helmet's about to break, can you keep them off me for a minute--"

"--I mean, I can try--"

Oh, fuck, he's out of shape. They're all moving real fast; the potions help, but he's rusty-- hitting too quick, not hard enough. He tries to keep his focus on Vitalasy, like he's been told, is even able to knock his shield down with his axe a couple times.

...But he's also not really willing to die again. When it gets close, maybe he backpedals more than he has to.