Spawn is... actually kind of nice? For what he's used to, anyway. There's some random garbage--LIFESTEAL in huge obsidian letters, a pink wool parkour course, a crude cobblestone-and-mycelium penis--but there's also several undestroyed builds: a little Japanese-style village and tower with a nether portal inside it, a nine-spoked glass tower filled with water, a series of floating islands, a Technoblade memorial.

Well, except for the bedrock.

Some things never change.

(Some things do change, actually-- there's no queue system to get in. Granted, veterans skip the queue. Moot point.)

Fit spawns in with a body again, under gravity, in air. For what it's worth, there are actually several things that have changed: for one, he does not seem to be in immediate danger upon spawning. He looks up, as the world finishes loading, and sees entirely clear air-- breathes, a little, and smells no smoke or ash. He hears gentle breeze, hell, he hears animals, not wither-resulting explosives or lava bubbling. It's no Hypixel, all immaculate set-pieces and careful urban planning, but it's sure-as-hell not bad.

He dusts a bit of the 2b2t-special confetti (rubble) off of his pauldron, checks the communicator embedded in the flat of his mechanical arm with all the nonchalance you would give checking a watch-- oh, his hacks work. They're not active, but they're available... good to know, for sure. What are the priorities in early-game again? Punch tree. Get food. Set a spawn elsewhere, secret. This hill seems to be absent of trees, though-- there are some across the river, but the real player activity lies upwards. He does have a mission to do, here, a goal that needs be completed. What would be better?

Ah, shit. No overthinking this one, Fit. He heads up the hill, towards builds, towards life. Can't be too hard.

(He does hear the noise of a wither in the distance, when he heads up the hill.)

A creature of smoke in full enchanted netherite (well, full except for missing pants?) waves him down excitedly! "Fit, Fit! Fit, my friend, I brought you a little, uh, a little starter kit." And he places down a shulker of leftovers from the dupe war--illegal, yes, but not stuff from the vault. Not yet, anyway.

Inside:

A full set of maxed out netherite armor, named Print Helmet, Print Chestplate, Print Pants, and Print Boots
A maxed out netherite sword and axe
A stack of golden carrots
A stack of golden apples
A few logs
16 ender pearls
Two stacks of xp bottles
An unenchanted diamond pickaxe
An unenchanted diamond shovel

The creature looks--nervous, or maybe excited, or maybe both. He bounces from one foot to the other. If Fit were to guess, he'd guess that the creature was a teenager.

Ah! So we're not playing around, here. Not taking it slow, either.

Fit gives his warmest, friendliest I-haven't-lived-in-a-wasteland-for-a-decade smile to this... walking, armored figure of smoke-- he's seen weirder, anyways. "How's it going-- Spoke, right? Good to see you. I mean, you certainly didn't have to..." and then he opens the shulker, and wow, that's nice, so: "...but I appreciate it anyways, my friend! For sure."

(The armor all-but flies on.)

FitMC has made the advancement [Cover Me in Debris]

(His hotbar, likewise, fills-- sword enderpearls pickaxe axe, far end is for gapples and carrots. Shulker in his inventory. The world feels less scary, now.)

"Bein' off 1.12 is nice," Fit offers, conversationally. He looks up, again, around at the world. He'd say being off 2b is nice, too, but that's not in line with the image he's supposed to be giving off, right now. "Happy to be here, in any case."

"Happy to have you!" Spoke bounces a little. "Do you want to see--uh, actually, you should probably have some totems for this--" He drops Fit 3 totems. Not stacked, he is trying at least a little bit not to get banned again.

Oh, that is reassuring-- he'd considered asking, but any charity is already far past what he'd expect of anyone. Fit takes them with a deep nod, curls whirring mechanical fingers around one while the others ferry themselves away into his inventory. The world is even less scary. You love to see it.

"See what?" Even the new situation, it seems, cannot dampen the light of anthropological fascination behind his eyes.

"You will see. You will see." Does he have an invis on him? He does! He left Poopies--in Spepticle's computer? He mines a piece of skulk, throws an invis inside, and then starts running, holding a totem in both hands.

There are now invis particles chasing Fit!

Hm.

Unexpected.

Well, Fit doesn't truly parse the details-- Spoke gave him totems, Spoke is holding two, there is something coming after him that spells danger. Some things don't change, so to speak, but they do rhyme. He turns heel and runs, duh. It'd take a lot to kill someone in full netherite, tho--

FitMC has made the advancement [Postmortal]

--holy shit! Hotbar slot 2, pearls, throw. His aim is true; he lands atop the computer with a bit of a characteristic-of-enderpearls jolt, takes a moment to feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins like river rapids. It feels... good? Familiar. Same for the totem-- but that's so not Vanilla. He... decides to laugh, heartily, throw Spoke a "Is that what you wanted t'show me?" with enough projection to carry his voice pretty far.

Oh shit it's after him now--he switches his offhand to the stacked totems--he's pearling but he's pearling away, not up, and it's fast--his totems pop one after the other, showering green and gold. Fuck, there go his boots. Okay. Game plan. He could tower up, he's got stone, but it would be funnier to staircase up to Fit with it, so he starts doing that instead--

"Sure is. Strongest endermite in Minecraft. He's still hungry, he hasn't gotten a kill yet--"

--aaaand the rest of his armor breaks just as it knocks him off. Fuck, he's actually getting low, he can't die with his stacked totems right after getting banned for exploiting--he puts down an enderchest and stows them away--

SpokeIsHere was slain by poopies
<baconnwaffles0> did you let him out again
<SpokeIsHere> come to spawn if you want to meet FitMC!

...His bed is set at home, it's gonna take a minute or two for him to get back to spawn. Spoke gears back up from his enderchest and sets back out.

There aren't really...people...at spawn, probably for the obvious reason.

But it doesn't take too long for someone to come peeking out of a portal, head over just close enough to be within hearing distance, and immediately tower a few blocks up. (He's also in full netherite and holding two totems.) "Where's Poopies? Sorry, I, uh--I'm Baconwaffles, introductions are cool, I'm just trying not to die immediately--"

Fit, radio-smooth, says: "Oh. It's named Poopies."

He's swung his legs over the edge of the wooden computer, slipped a new totem into the offhand, broken a few of the logs down into planks in case he needs to build somewhere, fast.

"I don't know? It hits like a truck, though, that can't be normal." And then, his laugh flips presentory, amicable; "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Fit."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, I've, I've heard a lot about you. Poopies is--it's been here for like a month now, it's got, like, resistance one million strength one million? Spoke named it. And, uh, made it. It's like his weird child or something, I don't know. It gets contained sometimes, you can put it in a boat or a box or something." He eyes Spoke's pile of stuff suspiciously. He should probably cycle through it but also he is not risking that, no thank you.

Not to worry. Spoke is here now! He peeks his head out of the portal. "Is it still invis orrrrr--"

"It's invis?????"

...Spoke towers up two blocks before joining Bacon in eyeing his stuff. "I assume that's a yes." Stacked totems are back in his offhand, he can grab his stuff and (pop) run and (pop) tower up. Yep, it is definitely still invis. XP time, his armor is about to break again. He bridges over to Fit this time, rather than staircasing.

Okay. We're not exactly dealing with Vanilla, here. Should be obvious, what with the immortal endermite running around, but also... also, there should probably be some sort of delay when Spoke pops his totems? Spoke might be running hacks-- funneling totems into the offhand is one of the most popular hacks to use, when you cut down to brass tacks. But that's not something you bring up in polite company.

Instead, what Fit does is laugh. It's not that much of a culture shock, not yet, all things considered. Pretty childish, but not too out there. Uh, past the... immortal mob! Named Poopies. Still, affecting casual, Fit says: "That was quite the scare, Spoke. Do you do that to every guest 'round here?"

"Trust me, it is not just guests." Spoke laughs too, friendly. "It's like a rite of passage, I think everyone here's been killed by it at least once. Well. Except you." He probably can't get away with spleefing Fit, logs take too long to break. He's considering it, though. Or he could try completing the staircase. "Besides, I gave you more totems than you even used."

"Hey, y'don't live long if you don't think quick!" He knocks a knuckle against the side of his head. "Can't be too cautious, huh?"

Two totems left. Do they have dupe stashes, here? How non-Vanilla does this get? He considers asking for more, but that's not quite the right image to give off-- not now, anyways. "Poopies" doesn't even seem malicious. A dumb prank with too much power, but that's fine with the infinite respawn. No big deal.

"Can never get too cautious." He pulls out his axe, starts breaking a log, and then stops before it actually breaks, then repeats on another log, then remembers that he's teasing FitMC and puts the axe back away. "Does anyone have a boat? I guess I can make one." Axe is back out, he could grab wood from his enderchest but why would he when there's wood right here. Crafting table first, then a boat. "Now who wants to take one for the team and try leading it in."

"You're the one that let it out." He almost considers saying I assume, but then Spoke giggles. Yep.

Fit is schooled into careful neutrality, but that doesn't change the way he watches the blocks more than he does Spoke, for a good few moments there. Spoke stops. Fit settles. Who wants to take one for the team...

...well, can't be too hard. He gets up from the edge, rolls his wrists, squints at the grass to try and catch sight of the particles. Can't be too hard. "I can do it," offers Fit. "Pass me that boat, Spoke?" (It's showmanship, it's fun. If he does it, it's reputation, if he doesn't, it's entertainment.) This may, actually, be stupid. When in Rome!

Spoke grins and tosses over the boat. "Now that's what I like to hear! How's this, if it doesn't kill you I'll give you an extra totem, replace the one I popped at the start."

"You've got yourself a deal, my friend."

Alright, don't overthink this. It's an easy plan; put the boat down, play keepaway with his own body. Can't be too hard!

He drops. He takes nearly no damage, because netherite, you love to see it. He places the boat a bit in front of him, shifting his weight between his feet, feeling the adrenaline kick up again. He waits like he's baiting prey... which may be stupid, because whatever Poopies is, it's fast. Ah, well. He dug his grave.

FitMC was slain by poopies

When he respawns, he only has nine hearts.

Well, shit. That was fast-- and Poopies is probably still where he died, so it's not exactly safe to grab his stuff. He'll just... stay over here.

<FitMC> Had a good run, guys

Uh. Hang on. When he respawns, he only has nine hearts. As opposed to ten. What did-- is that something wrong with him? Maybe the hack clients caught up with him, jostled the player code. Either way, he grabs a couple dirt to tower up on, mimicking the greats before him. Nine hearts. Nine hearts?

When he grabs the dirt, he will notice that spawn is a hollow shell: a one-thick layer of dirt over a massive crater.

(In the background, Spoke pops another totem as he tries to lure Poopies away from Fit's stuff.)

And: yep. Nine hearts. No matter how much he checks or double-checks, it's nine hearts.

Yeah, he figured something weird was happening about spawn. Picturesque rolling hills were too good to be true, anyway.

Nine hearts.

He sees totem sparkles-- Spoke's popping them like candy. Nine hearts? Seriously?

<FitMC> Be honest
<FitMC> Did I have a chance?

Nine hearts.

Spoke runs far enough away, Poopies on his tail, that he feels good about yelling back: "YOU CAN GRAB YOUR STUFF NOW!"

Meanwhile, in chat:

<baconnwaffles0> I've gotten him in a boat before, it's definitely possible
<baconnwaffles0> then again I've also seen him run over a boat, so

Spoke gives the okay, and Fit drops off the stubby little pillar and makes a break for it. It's not far, and it's not like any 2b player's unused to dying within minutes near spawn-- y'know, it's normally just environmental hazards that drive the nail in the coffin. It's easy, once he's there, to gear up and pearl back up to the top of the model computer.

One totem, now. Poopies shredded his second and him like cheese. He's not too upset; Spoke must have a stash, somewhere, if he's this okay with using so many. No big deal. Save for, uh... Fit spreads the fingers of his normal hand over his heart like he's trying to push something back in there. It's not quite heartburn, what he's feeling, but it's weird. But he doesn't make a big deal of it-- he just watches Spoke.

Spoke loops back around to the boat now that Fit’s safe. He hasn’t actually popped yet, but—yep, there it is—wow, it’s hard to tell if it got in the boat, given the invis. He keeps running, does another loop just in case before stopping at a safe distance. Yep, there are particles coming from the boat. “There we go. Second time’s the charm, as they say.” Invis is probably running out soon—does he have another? Not on him, he’ll have to grab it from his enderchest if he wants. …His armor durability is almost gone; he starts throwing xp bottles on the ground.

"As they say," Fit repeats wisely. And-- oh, that's why they need the xp! There's no obsidian around, not at spawn, at least; all the big hits to durability are usually end crystals. When in Rome. He's quick to place his shulker box, territorial enough to pick it up as soon as he's got what he needs. He throws his bottles high, lets them crash on his armor. Seemed to need it, too. These guys are sort of on the ball with this.

All done. Good as new. You love to see it. Okay, the last pressing matter, right now, is the fact that he has nine fucking hearts. But how to ask? Maybe... "How are your health bars looking? Y'all need gapples?" (That's good; not anything wrong. Earn your keep, right?)

"I've got a stack, I'm good-- actually." Spoke grins again. "Put some in a chest for me?"

"Don't listen to him, he's trying to crash you."

"Hey!"

"Okay, I've got a stack, I'm good." (How do you crash someone from a chest? Bookbans are shulkers, Chunkbans are chests, and there's only one here.) "Good, good, that's good." (Their healthbars are full, which means Fit is the weird one, right?) "Now how's this crash work?" (Anthropological interest.)

"The plugin doesn't let you have more than a stack but there's a glitch with it that lets you dupe them. Great for lag machines." Meaningful look at the nine-spoked tower, then back at Fit. "Wait, Spoke, does he not know the rules--"

"....No."

"Right. Of course you didn't. Plugin limits you to 16 enderpearls and 64 golden apples, no riptide tridents, no elytra, no crossbow rockets. You can use end crystals to respawn the dragon--well, you could do that, before Eclipse Federation removed the End--and you can use respawn anchors in the nether but you can't use them for combat or Parrot'll ban you. You can't craft hearts past ten. No hack clients, not that that's enforced outside of fights. No combat logging. Uh, no raid farms."

"Aw, no raid farms?"

"It's not a raid farm, it's an efficient raid platform."

"Whatever you say."

He's good at information; he logs the rules away. Seems to favor fair* fights that don't last millennia, okay. A group removed the end, that's not new, though he doubts the "Eclipse Federation" own the server. At least these guys have their heads on straight, finding that plugin dupe. He knows people like these! Parrot, though, does Parrot own the server? Spoke whitelisted him though, right? Weird.

"Craft hearts?" He asks, interview-steady, not a little confused and desperate. Not on nine hearts.

"Did you not--Spoke."

"What!!! I just whitelisted him!!!!!!!"

Bacon glares at Spoke for a solid five seconds until Spoke sighs and gives in.

He straightens himself up again before speaking again.

"Lifesteal is a server where if you die, you lose a heart, but if you kill someone, you gain their heart. If you lose all your hearts, you are banned."

"--You didn't actually--answer his question--uh, redstone blocks around a totem crafts a heart fragment, hearts are four heart fragments and four diamond blocks around a netherite ingot. --Wait, you whitelisted him?"

Shit. Play it cool. "Yeah, it's--remember that time Zam whitelisted Bormetheus? It's not just Parrot that can whitelist people." He laughs a little. Casual. He's being casual, he's making fun of Bacon for not already knowing this. "Little bro didn't even know he could whitelist people."

"...Huh." He doesn't sound fully convinced, but he's considering it, not calling Spoke out. That's good enough for Spoke.

That's rehearsed. What a succinct pitch-- and a pretty reasonable mechanic, too. But if you don't die to a player, the heart's just lost? That's what the crafting's for. Okay. More rules than 2b, but that's true everywhere.

Ordinary players, though, cannot whitelist people. Bacon doesn't know this, and doesn't know Spoke is... op'd, or admin, or something. That's not something to bring up in polite company for sure, even less-so than the totem autofeed. Something is up, here. He turns to Spoke, claps his normal hand against the armor on his thigh, keeping friendly. "So, if you whitelisted me: how long am I staying? I'm your guest."

Thank you, Fit, for not calling him on that one.

"As long as you want to stay, my friend. Unless you get banned, but I assume you're not planning on that."

"Oh, not at all," he confirms, an edge of competitiveness sharpening itself with just the thought. "I'm sure a lotta people would love to have killin' me on their resume, though. Can I count on you?"

"Course you can." He means it, too, and only mostly because Fit could snitch on him to Parrot. "Bacon's on three hearts, by the way, you don't have to worry about him."

Sigh. "Five right now, actually." (He checks his inventory--he's got some fight supplies, if they decide to jump him about it, but definitely not enough to win a 2v1, even putting aside the heart disadvantage and the skill differential. Oh well, he knew when he came to spawn that he might die here. Worst comes to worst, he can let Poopies out and then try to escape in the chaos.)

Good to know. "Well, that makes me feel better." (For what it's worth, he doesn't feel like the killing type. Not right now, anyways.) "Alright! Now I've, uh, gotten the tutorial-- what's next?"

Hm. He could make a nomad hut, if he gets the obsidian. Fish, once the carrots run out, if they run out-- leeching on Spoke might be the most beneficial, even though that kindness is bound to run out eventually. Temporary alliances also mean he can't go out and kill indiscriminately. Bacon is spared.

"Whatever you want to do, really. It's your first day, after all."

Bacon checks his communicator. "Planet wants to talk, I should probably go." To Fit: "Feel free to whisper if you need anything."

"Will do, my friend. Take it easy."

(You always gotta hit 'em with the catchphrase.)

"Uh, Spoke. Let's check out..." He scans the skyline for a moment-- for the most part, the builds here seem pretty nice. Different design stylings, for sure. But that weird, nine-spoked water thing seems, at least, a little reasonable. "...Tell me about that one," Fit asks, a little mechanical point up at it. "How's it work?"

“That? Mapicc and Ro built it after they found the plugin glitch. The water streams keep pearls or gaps circulating through it. Like Bacon said—or, uh, implied—it’s a pretty good lag machine. It mostly doesn’t get used, though, just stands there and looks cool. They were being all—ohhh, look at us, we’re Leviathan, we control the server—and then they didn’t really do anything with it ‘cause Ro had some stuff to do off-server.”

"You hate to see it." A moment passes. "Stuff to do off-server, not the-- y'know. It looks fun. Wouldn't the items just despawn in five minutes, though? And then you'd just have to pump in more..."

Is Bacon gone?

“Five minutes is more than enough time to kill someone who’s lagged out. But also—okay, let me show you how it works.”

He puts down his enderchest and fiddles with his inventory and then he is spraying enderpearls, like a fountain, and the sun stutters on the horizon and Fit can’t move and everything is frozen, the sun and Fit and Spoke and even Poopies wiggling in the boat, a single moment preserved.

The world starts moving again a few seconds later; Spoke’s in a slightly different place, and there’s fire on the ground where there were once enderpearls. He picks his ender chest back up.  

“You just have someone doing that into it.”

Bacon is, indeed, gone; he left through the nether portal. 

Oh.

Oh.

Fit stands there, in awe fear awe, and also because he is stuck there. It's... uniquely terrifying, but it's not like he hasn't seen it before. Lag spikes are common, lag machines less-so (now that the ever-ephemeral Hause has cracked down, couple years back), but it's not novel. Just a little startling.

Anyways, Bacon is gone. It's just Fit and Spoke, now.

"So, you've for sure got op, right?"

Another grin. Fit's awesome. Admittedly, the whitelist was probably a bit of a giveaway. "Hey, you don't know that. I could be working with Parrot to make you think I do. Could be all sorts of things. Care for a walk?" Subtext: this isn't the sort of conversation to be having at spawn, even with everyone gone.

"Right, right." Can't have discussions about server security just at spawn, right? Any spawnpoint-less ol' schmuck could respawn in. "Lead the way, my friend!"

Spoke is absolutely not close enough to Fit to show him any hidden bases, known bases have some of the same problem as spawn, and he’s pretty sure Bacon’s on the nether roof right now. He picks a direction at random and starts walking.

When he deems they’re far enough out: “What did you want to ask me, again?”

Fit, while he's led, looks out more at the remnants of player activity than he does Spoke. Creeper hole here, chopped-down tree there-- some stuff from the early days, some stuff from the later days. (On 2b, this close, everything would still be wiped out. Odd juxtaposition, huh?)

Right. "You're op'd," Fit states, laid-back but not any less accusatory. "Bacon brought up... Parrot, right? Said he's the guy banning people when they break the rules. So you can't be the server owner if he is. You're an undercover admin, maybe?"

“Parrot’s the server owner, yeah. But you’re still not considering all the options. Even the console doesn’t say who whitelisted you—if you had console access to check, which you don’t. You know I’m the one who reached out to you, that I claimed credit for it, and that I lied to Bacon about how whitelisting works. No actual evidence it was me, just circumstantial. Could be teamed with Parrot in secret. Could be teamed with a different undercover admin who doesn’t want their name associated. Or, yeah, could be op’d. Who can say? The tell-all isn’t until the wormhole opens. Gotta keep some secrets until then.”

This is a mystery. A puzzle, an unfolding story. Usually, Fit gets to these after they happen-- after the smoke clears. Hell, sometimes he's asked to cover things after they've happened, because nobody can resist the notoriety. The mission gets more interesting by the second, huh?

But either way, thinking about things isn't gonna make them happen. He needs something more substantial; Spoke is right, anyone could've whitelisted him. How about... "Well, what about your totems? Didn't exactly see you passing them from mainhand to offhand, dealing with Poopies." (He hopes someone out there is getting a laugh about him saying Poopies with the amount of strength and gravitas he gives every word. It makes him feel silly as hell.)

Spoke does an exaggerated gasp and clutches his chest in mock offense. “Didn’t you hear Bacon, hacks are very illegal here.” He pauses, tilts his head. “Are you planning on telling Parrot? Be honest with me now.”

So it's funneling. Again, popular choice! And it's not flashy like flyhacks or anything like that, it's pure utility. A closer look reveals the cards at play, but if you do it right, if you do it smart, not many people notice.


Fit spreads his hands up and wide, like he's trying to assure Spoke, all "no weapons, officer"-- and, with a precise whir of the joints his mechanical arm's seated on, Spoke can see the communicator embedded right into Fit's prosthetic forearm, see the unopened dropdowns that, of course, betray the configuration windows of a hack client. "I might," he says, sarcasm thick. "I'm very straight-laced, Spoke. I would never do anything illegal."

Spoke claps once, clearly delighted. "That is exactly what I like to hear, Fit. Nothing illegal here, no sir."

"We're by the books, here on Lifesteal. I have never even heard of anarchy. I love rules."

He gives an assuring nod, drops his arms back down to his sides. Fit's still... pretty sure something is up with Spoke-- how'd he get the god potions, if not some sort of exploit, or backdoor, or administrative abuse-- but he's not going to get anywhere from asking Spoke directly. But then again, people love to brag about their accomplishments. We'll see if he bites at this one: "Care to give me a lead about the wormhole, then? Seems pretty important."

Another rehearsed-sounding line: "In two months, the wormhole will open. No one is ready for it." And then, less rehearsed: "You're actually the first person I've told about it. Well, arguably. You're definitely the first person not on my team who I've told. So you've already got more of a lead than the rest of them." He hums a little. "Actually, for what you gave me just now, I'll give you something that everyone else does already know: the bedrock at spawn, that was me. Well, me and Ash."

Alright. Spoke just seems to enjoy dramatics. Can't complain. The big reveal, that's sacred.

"So I'm not on your team?" No hard feelings, but it's fun to poke, anyways. "Suggest I strike out on my own, then?"

(To-do list grows. Talk to Parrot and Ash, for sure.)

"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.

"--I'm out of pearls, Subz is aggro pearling on me, it's over." His helmet's about to break; he tries to throw down some xp. Subz appears in front of him and, yep, there goes his totem. "Subz just popped me. Yeah, it's over. GG."

Mapicc was slain by ItzSubz_ using [Deliverance]

"Crap. Okay, Fit, we need to retreat--let's head to the nether, we can go back to Zam's old base to regear. We should be fine, I think we got them down enough that they won't want to keep going. Sorry for dragging you into this."

Mapicc's still on vc. "That's stupid, don't be sorry, if he hadn't joined you'd be dead too. It'll be fine, I'll meet you there. Castle or Eclipse base?"

"Castle."

(Mapicc and Roshambo are of Team Awesome, slash Leviathan, who dislike Zam because he betrayed them. Also, apparently relatedly, they use his base. Bases? They know where the Eclipse base is? His mental map gains a few new bullet points.)

Fit will let Ro lead to the castle, as if this was a choice he could have any other decision about. "Yeah, this isn't something to be sorry for," he says, siphoning more experience into his armor. He's getting low. He's glad he's being basically tutorialized on this. "Think about it this way. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. The fight was pretty fun, even though we lost, right?"

"Exactly. Fit gets it."

Mapicc traps the portal behind him when he comes through, just in case. The castle is partially but not mostly blown up; Mapicc makes a vague noise of disapproval while checking the chests. But it still has a fancy potion-brewing setup and some villagers, if not all of them.

Mapicc goes through his ender chest; he's got lots of spare pearls and golden apples, which he offers to Fit for a restock, but he doesn't even have enough potions to fully restock himself. Well, that's okay, that's why they came here. He isn't confident he can work the potion brewing setup Zam has but he can just open the brewing stand directly. Cool. While that's brewing he checks on the villagers--yep, there are still a couple clerics who he can buy out of xp. 

Eh. Fit mostly sits this one on the backseat. He replenishes his stacks of pearls and gapples; he didn't use a lot of them. Already, he's starting to consider rations, especially if this armor is technically Mapicc's... that Spoke gave to him. Hmm.

But what he's really lacking are exp bottles. So Fit posts himself up against a wall that keeps the villager trapped, waits his turn, and watches Mapicc until he's doing something not-that-delicate. "What happened here?" He asks. "What's the story?" With a little levity: "You guys ran a prince out of his castle, right?"

Snort. "Yeah, pretty much. And the base after that, and the base after that... I don't like it when people betray me."

Ding! New mental note added.

"What'd he do? To betray you two, I mean."

"Took all our dupe stashes and burned them. Well, most of the dupe stashes."

Hmm. He files away wait, you can dupe on this server for another conversation-- maybe with Spoke. But this seems like small potatoes, if it's just over duping; especially when Mapicc and Ro still have duped items. (This armor is Mapicc's. This armor is probably duped. Eh, whatever.) 

"Was this premeditated? Was he jealous?"

"No idea, I think it was impulsive but who knows. Uh, definitely not jealous, he was against duping. Thought it was, like, unfair. Which is fine but he didn't actually say this to us, I would've tried to figure something out with him if he didn't steal and burn all our stuff and then try to kill us."

Against duping. ...Okay, he can kind of see why. But not really.

"Sounds like a bad teammate," says Fit, and he even kind of believes it. "If people don't talk, the whole team falls apart. That's just-- what'd he think was gonna happen?" Wait. He looks up at a crater in the wall of the castle. Okay, maybe he thought that was going to happen. ...Could he talk to this Zam guy? He did just engage in a fight against him. He loves when the plot thickens. "He seems pretty resilient if he's able to bounce back after having three bases found and griefed."

"Yeah, it's like, kind of his whole thing. The bouncing back, not the being a bad teammate. Well. Sort of also the being a bad teammate."

Respect regained. "It happens, it happens."

...He pats at his pockets, a couple times, and finally realizes: he doesn't have any emeralds for even getting exp bottles in the first place. But logic follows; where there's villagers, there's ways to get emeralds. So he nods respectfully at Mapicc, excusing himself, and goes to rummage around.

It's very obvious this place is uninhabited, now. The pattern of items in the chest is patchwork, spotty, like someone's already been here and picked off carrion. Worst comes to worst, he can grab the rotten flesh and trade it back to the cleric, but judging by the rest of the villagers with professions, that's not how Zam made his emeralds. He traded... coal? Iron? Iron. There's an iron farm. Mystery solved. He loves investigating. He comes back to the villagers assembled with iron lining his metaphorical pockets, but swings over to Roshambo first, floating hands and everything.

"It's a pleasure to be here," he starts. "Is this a-- normal day for Lifesteal?"

Roshambo is brewing more potions since Mapicc got distracted by villager trading. "It's a pleasure to have you! Um, it's a bit more active than normal? It helps that it's Friday and there's a new person. But yeah, pretty much."

Duly noted! He nods. "Well, it's a thrill!" He can sort of even see why end crystals are banned, now. They're quick. Fights are not fun when they are quick. But god, there's such a spectacle to them. "Is Leviathan normally equally-matched with Eclipse?"

"It depends, honestly. When we can get there first and stop time, it's not equally matched. Or when not everyone's around and one of the teams outnumbers the other. ...Or when Spoke's there. In a fair fight, right now--I'd say we're pretty evenly matched. Most fights aren't fair."

Stop time. Right! Right. Feels sort of a pedestrian thing to forget. He lets his interest seep through in his face, just enough to look impressed, not jealous. Most fights aren't fair. Notes, notes, notes.

He's not going to ask why the fight even started. It just sort of happened, out of the corner of his eye, and when it started happening it wasn't going to stop. It wouldn't be wise to ask is Mapicc always like that, not with him in earshot. "Has this been going on for a while? Leviathan versus Eclipse?"

"I'd say so? Depends when you count it as starting. A few months, I think."

"Well, when would you count it starting?"

"Uh, Zam betrayed us... four months ago? More stuff started happening around probably a month or two after that, Zam started--rallying people, getting people on his side against us."

So Zam's a rallyer. He can respect the hustle. The mental map grows ever-onward, but something's bugging him. Let's see if we can just...

"And when did you build the, uh..." Fit wiggles his hand, as if looking for a word. "The tower? The time-stopper."

"Uhhhh. Early January? It's, um, early March now, Zam betrayed in, I think, late November?"

The lag merry-go-round early January, Zam betraying before that. Not connected, unless people hold grudges for that long here. ...Well, seeing how Mapicc is still acting, it's not out of scope with reality. Maybe Mapicc really is just like that.

"Do Eclipse have that sort of technology? Like the tower?"

"We're the only ones on the server with it."

Alright. It can be used by anyone, but nobody's really jumping on the chance save for Mapicc and Ro. ...And Spoke, he guesses. Good to have in the toolbox.

"That's good news, then," he says with an easy smile. "Thanks for your time, Ro. And for, uh, sort of taking me under your wing, so to speak. Really appreciate it."

"Of course. No matter what Zam thinks, I'm doing this because I want to make Lifesteal a better place." He sounds genuine, even. "If you ever need help, just give us a call, okay? I still owe you one from earlier."

Word's a valuable currency. He nods. "Thanks, man."

He slips away to trade iron for emeralds and emeralds for experience-- it's only a bonus when experience comes from the villagers, even though it's his armor that drinks it all up. After that, he's... not too sure. He excuses himself with polite firmness and slips back into the nether. Hmm. 

Zam splits from Leviathan because they were duping. Leviathan, in early January, figures out how to stop time. This is already shaping up to be incredibly interesting, and that's even sidelining whatever the hell is happening with Spoke. Eclipse has removed the end, Leviathan have a way to stop time. This server has the kind of pressure that breeds innovation. Same as 2b, but it all feels a little disparate right now. A second opinion is just what he needs.

...This is complicated, though, by literally fighting them just an hour ago. Sigh. It's always more difficult when he's in it, huh? Let's try this:

FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Pretty clean kill on Mapicc there
FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Do you and your team have time to chat?
FitMC whispers to ItzSubz_: Doesn't even have to be face-to-face

ItzSubz_ whispers to FitMC: sure

He could go for one of the Live VCs, but they're more active than usual right now, and he doesn't know what level of privacy Fit wants for this. New group chat it is; he lets Zam and Vitalasy know they're moving and why. Zam's nervous but agrees that Fit cannot kill him over vc, they just have to not leak anything they don't want other people to know.

"Hey."

Zam is SO NERVOUS!!! "Are you going to try to kill me again? --Hi. I'm PrinceZam." 

(He is not, actually, going to start wandering the nether like he usually does. He starts retracing his steps back to where he's set up, careful to avoid spawn and go for a closer portal. If anything's too open, he makes his own damn tunnel.)

Fit laughs. "Hey, pleasure to meet you guys. No, I'm not looking to try and kill anyone anytime soon. Preserving an allegiance, you understand." Maybe Zam doesn't. He's not saying that. "I'm just doing a bit of personal detective work, you know? Getting a lay of the server."

"Oh. Okay."

"Yeah." What? "Actually, uh, Zam. Mapicc back there, it all felt a little premeditated, you know? What happened there?"

"Uhhhh I dunno! He just likes killing me."

"Mapicc's been killing Zam for a while now. Well, and everyone else, but mostly Zam."

Hm. This is not exactly the same thing as Zam betraying Leviathan complete with tears and ruin and misery. Zam sounds downright sunny through the call.

"Just, for fun? Whenever he spots you guys?"

"Uh, sometimes. I mean, he's sort of got reasons now, I challenged him to a duel and stuff, but I only challenged him to a duel 'cause he kept killing me at spawn when I was just building. Guess that's normal for you, though. With Zam it's personal, Zam he searches out. But I told Zam I'd protect him, so."

Zam is instantly torn between staring at Subz adoringly and crawling into a hole and dying so that Subz will never be in danger because of him ever again.

He compromises by staring at Subz adoringly while saying, in a much more subdued voice: "...You don't have to, you know."

...Okay.

Well, either way, Zam isn't offering the fact that he betrayed Ro and Mapicc. Sore subject, maybe? He's torn between wanting to ask more about it and not wanting to press this early; while he does like digging, he needs a gentle hand if he's supposed to stick around for a while. (Overworld, now. Spawn's that way, so his base is about there-- he starts walking.) He clears his throat. "A little birdy told me that the End's cordoned off? That was you guys, right?"

"That was us."

Oh shit! A third voice has hit the conversation. Finally.

"Am I allowed to ask why? Not every day some friends decide to remove access to an entire dimension." Beat. "Or are you waiting for a big reveal?"

Vitalasy considers and discards a couple possible responses: the story about removing easy access to pearls and xp and obsidian, which is dubious at best; "admitting" to the "bedrock farm"; telling him something else entirely. Ultimately, the safest move is to say nothing. "I can't tell you that. I'm sorry."

"Hey, don't apologize. I respect it." He hopes the grin of his carries over the call. "Just makes me wanna stick around more, right? Everyone's got some big plans."

Is that true? He doesn't think so. But at least two people have big plans doesn't ring the same. Some things, we must make sacrifices for. "Can you tell me how you did it? I've got one idea, but it's a level I don't think anybody's got."

"Mushrooms. You grow them beneath the end portal, it breaks it. Took a lot of work to find every stronghold."

What! Mushrooms. Wait, the blocks from a mushroom would-- it replaces end portal frames. "That's genius," he says, and he means it. "How many eyes of ender were you all flinging around?"

"A lot. But not as many as you'd think--we did seedfinder for some of the inner ring ones, but then it didn't work for the outer ones so I had to, uh, do a bunch of math. I made a theorem! And then the server updated to 1.19.3 and I had to redo all the math for all the new strongholds and--it was a whole mess. But we did it eventually." He sounds kind of tired about the whole thing, except for the math, which he is clearly proud of himself for.

Okay. This guy is the one to watch out for. He doesn't know exactly how many strongholds a world generates, but he knows the number's big; nobody in their right mind is doing and then redoing their math. This is more impressive than Leviathan and their lag machine, to Fit. It's a little terrifying.

"I'll give you props." Leviathan and time, Eclipse and space-- what the hell is next? "Excited to see what comes next, if this is just the first step."

"Phase one of five."

Now that's a headline. "Phase one of five," he echoes. Yeah, this is the guy to watch out for. "Thanks for your time, guys. Really excited to be here."

"We're excited to have you!"

"So was that all you were calling about, orrrr..."

"...Eh. I've gotten all I wanted," or, maybe; I'm taking the blank spaces as its own set of information, "Though I am already trying to network. Meet people, learn faces, learn voices and names. Laying out roots."

"--Oh, I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Vitalasy. Nice to meet you."

"I was gonna ask!" He laughs. "Nice to meet you, Vitalasy. I'm Fit. Also nice to meet Subz and Zam-- I've actually heard a little about you, Zam, but not much of Subz." This, ladies and gentlemen, is maybe bait.

"I don't do that much, honestly. Uh, I used to be a pacifist but I was really bad at it. I built half of spawn, that was cool."

"Wait, you've heard about me?"

"Spawn does look good." Actually, maybe that's not much from the 2b guy. "I've heard a little," he says, and he's low-balling, but not by much. "After the fight, I'd asked Mapicc why he was fighting you. I was actually wondering if I could get your side of the story, on that?"

Smooth.

"Oh. I, um."

Wow, it is so awkward to talk about why he left Team Awesome with Vitalasy in the call. Vitalasy who has a bedrock farm. Vitalasy who showed him a shulker of bedrock and wanted to build a prison with it.

"I, um, I left their team? And Mapicc didn't like that very much. So they killed me a lot about that. And then they claimed spawn even though Subz built most of it and I built the rest, and Subz challenged them, and it was really awesome and inspiring so I challenged them too and then they almost banned me and I didn't have anyone and I was on one heart so I went to Subz and he took me in and helped me and gave me hearts and gear and a team and it was awesome and we started actually winning against them sometimes instead of just them doing whatever they wanted with me. I owe Eclipse Federation everything."

It's true. He just has to--remember that.

1) Left their team. Not betrayed. He guesses a betrayer wouldn't call it betraying, maybe.
2) Starting to get the feeling Zam likes Subz.
3) Getting down to one heart is real, and he imagines it's terrifying.

Overall: he's lightened his hand on his opinion of Zam. A betrayer's a betrayer, but... the dude just sounds young. Not a lot without his partners. His cards are so on-his-sleeve it's impressive.

But he still doesn't say betray. Ah, well. "Impressive you're still around," he says. Anyone on 2b would've ground this guy into dust, on one heart. "And that's basically what I heard." Fit is not going to be cruel to Zam, especially because his other two teammates are in call at the same time. There is a large part of him that wants to compliment Zam on the aesthetics of his castle. Thankfully, he has self-control. "Just trying to get all the sides of the story."

"Of course. Yeah. Um, if you have any more questions you can ask us? I think? You can ask me, anyway, I shouldn't speak for everyone else, but I don't see why not."

"I appreciate it." Because he does! Zam and Ro both seem pretty-confidently ask whenever. Maybe because they have something to pedal, but that's fine by him, he's worked off of less reliable sources. "I'll call again when something comes up. Thank you for this, really. Very enlightening!"

There's a chorus of "thank you"s from Eclipse Federation, and then "bye"s, and then the call ends.

Woof. Okay. Time to update his mental map.

It's, at least, Leviathan versus Eclipse. It's interpersonal, and interesting, something he can really sink his teeth into. Dupes, break-ups, betrayals-- it's got all the trappings of a good story, a good video. Fit's played this type of game. It's higher stakes, here, slower burn given the timescale Ro's given him. 

...Increasingly, though, Spoke being like that is bugging him. It's not quite bugging, actually, but it feels like it shouldn't be a thing to ignore at all, even if he's balancing everything else at the same time. Spoke has op. He's not calling it full-backdoor, not yet, but even with Eclipse removing every single end portal and Leviathan finding out how to stop time, those are realistic. Insane, granular, intimidating, but realistic. Whitelisting people is not. Making weird, immortal endermites is not. Having bedrock is not. He should really talk to Parrot. He'd like to talk to Ash, and he'd certainly like to talk to Spoke, but he'd love to talk to Parrot.

But what about? He doesn't feel like he has the full story yet. For everything he's gotten about Leviathan and Eclipse, all I want to make Lifesteal a better place and phase one of five, there's maddeningly little on the Wormhole. And he's not actually sure how much he can plumb out of Spoke, either, with these cards in his hands. As much as he'd like to talk to Spoke, it might just be retreading old ground.

Eh. He can message the guy, at least. He does have a burning question.

FitMC whispers to SpokeIsHere: Legend has it someone found a dupe glitch?

SpokeIsHere whispers to FitMC: vc?

These boys and their verbal communication.

FitMC whispers to SpokeIsHere: Sure

It's Fit who starts the call. As soon as Spoke picks up, he laughs. "Lifesteal's really got it all, huh?"

"We do, we do. The legends are true, my friend."

"Well, come on," he says. Doesn't tack on so is your WHOLE thing being ominous for future reveals. He's not desperate, for this information, just incredibly intrigued. "How'd Leviathan do it? How'd it work?"

"When you get banned, you drop your inventory. When you get revived, you come back with that same inventory. Or, did, before they patched it."

...Hm. He's not going to say that doesn't take the wind out of his sails. "That's dramatic," he notes. Being patched isn't so bad-- 2b's bounced back from that plenty of times. "How long was it around? How bad did all the item economy get?"

"Long enough to dupe a few million items. A few weeks, give or take. Most of the stuff got destroyed, but a lot is still floating around."

"Well, that's the thing with dupes, isn't it?" The item economy back on 2b feels like it's choked with kudzu, for Christ's sake.

"So, okay. Was this the first time anyone learned how to dupe on Lifesteal? What happened when people tried to deal with it-- I'm not a betting man, but I know PrinceZam had something to say about it." A breath. "You were already in on it, right? My armor's duped, and you're the one that gave it to me. It could be that you don't know, but with the rest of the stuff you've been tellin' me... you're more involved than you're letting on, Spoke. What's the whole of it?"

"First large-scale item dupe, yeah. There were heart dupes before then, not so much of items. PrinceZam--" Laugh. "That is his armor you're wearing, my friend. He helped us before he left. Main people actually against it at the time were Parrot and Leowook. And yeah, I was in on it. I was the one that got banned for it, actually. Took the fall. Literally. But hey, I'm back now! Two bans later."

He thumbs at the dent mark, dupe-embossed into this chestplate, and Mapicc's chestplate, and so many more. This is why common practice is to dupe at full durability, but he can forgive the Lifestealers on this.

Okay. Zam found the exploit, was unhappy with its use, but by then it was too late. (Why didn't Zam just not say anything? Whatever.) Then it escalated, as anything is want to do: Parrot and Leowook, at least, against Zam and Mapicc and Roshambo and Spoke. The video in his head is shaping up to have a plot, but would be beefed out by talking to the opposition. 

"Good to have you back," he says. Hell, if Spoke wasn't here, Fit wouldn't be here either. He's almost going to ask what getting banned feels like (nine hearts, nine hearts, nine hearts...) but holds off. "Is all of this, eh, old-hat by now? Already ran through the news cycle?" Hm. "No moving parts still in operation to this day?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Uh, I think Leo and Zam are still working on their videos, but me, Parrot, Mapicc, ours are out. I mean, it's patched now, not much left to do there. Mapicc and Ro were going to do more when they still had a bunch of stashes hidden but Zam destroyed enough of them that it wouldn't really be worth it. Obviously there's still some stuff floating around, you're wearing it, but it's distributed, lots of people have stuff, a few extra shulker boxes isn't really dramatic enough to really do something with. Especially next to stopping time. Closest thing to a moving part these days is just the fallout. I mean, apparently you already heard about Zam."