#also i really like mapiccs and spokes team up

[mellohiizz]

finally got around to sit down and watch unstable universe, so here's some sketches i did during it :3 wemmbu's design is inspired by a few others i saw on here, i love spider wemmbu...

[coffeegnomee]

I don't know if I'll ever recover from Spoke making the pitch of his life to Minute.

All Spoke knows how to do is use his words to manipulate players into doing whatever he wants them to do. It was his forte in s4. It fueled him with boundless ego.

But this time, especially after watching all povs, this time was different. Was it entirely truthful? no. But it was different.

Spoke has yet to really push Minute to his limit. He's never tried to see what this new owner of lifesteal will be like. Will he be like Parrot and be morally grey and embrace chaos and the occasional rule break and exploit for the sake of content? Spoke doesn't know. He hasn't had the opportunity to check.

But they made the team in order to be the villains. And in Spoke's eyes, how could that not mean being the world enders.

So when it came time to be who they were meant to be, Spoke pitched the idea and didn't hold back any stops. It's so fascinating to analyze the conversation and see the layers of persuasion and manipulation Spoke did.

He starts with some low balls. Drops the word "exploit" twice just to see Minute's reaction. Smoothly changes the word when Minute questions him on it.

It's like he wanted to be above the board with it. Or maybe see if Minute would find it an interesting challenge to catch Spoke in the act. Or maybe feel the thrill of pulling off the impossible under the nose two admins. Or maybe something entirely secret.

But both times Minute pushed back against exploits. And Spoke should've known that this was never going to work. But he continues anyway.

When I first heard him pitch the orbital I deadass thought it was the coverup, the distraction for Minute to feel like he was productive on the team, the moral justification to stay out of the exploits. Or better yet, the thing Spoke gives to lower Minute's guard. Get him accepting the small stuff before he gives him the big stuff. Get him in too deep.

Because for real. What is exploitive about the orbital? Nothing. It's entirely above the board. That couldn't actually be the plan. He said "there's legal ways to do this" as if the exploit would also produce a hole to bedrock. But the two cannot be related.

But given how Spoke crashed out to Zam about Minute being stupid, given how he mentioned it to Mapicc too, given how unbelievably unserious Ash and Squiddo were about the orbital, given how Squiddo told 4c that Spoke said he didn't want to do it:

I think the orbital was hand picked by Spoke so that Minute would have fun.

He wracked his brain for what world ending things Minutetech might be interested in. What previous video idea would work for his straight edge teammate.

And he came up with the orbital. Minute even said earlier this season that he wanted to build the mark 6.

But immediately Minute's voice wavered "you want to do this to spawn?" in that one word, it was over. Minute cares too much about spawn. He's not a world ender.

Spoke heard and pulled back immediately. This was just a possible future, not for sure. Spoke had a vision and he was going to inspire Minute. And for that you need a little delicacy, a little back and forth. Push on the mark then back down, stoke their ego then push it to greater heights.

He brings up morality, allows for the possibility of Minute to stay good. Admits it's a test of morals.

Minute is silent, Spoke pivots, this is about sending a statement, this will change lifesteal forever. Vision cast.

He brings up that it's basically ready to blow everything to bedrock. Minute sounds uncertain and Spoke goes quieter, softer, repeating that that's the thing.

Minute rallies, envisions himself making it, envisions the past when he made the other one, places himself in his old shoes and sees what it could feel like.

Spoke goes for jovial, excited. Make Minute see how good of a thing this is, how it will be fun. How much Spoke sees it as fun, as a way to play on the sympathies that even if I don't want to do it, I'll do it cause my teammate is excited to do it. He thinks a nice clean reset would be beautiful. oh my sweet sweet thinly veiled metaphors. The next season would be beautiful I agree.

Minute asks if they do this, would there even be anything left to love. Oh minute.

Spoke pivots to talk about the ego death, how many dumb plots have happened at spawn, how many pathetic tnt attempts. If you get rid of everything, you're free to just love again. Start fresh.

Oh how I love how Spoke will never say he's doing this to start the next season. Everything is about this season. He stays perfectly in rp. I wonder if that hinders people understanding why he does what he does.

But Minute brings up his moral journey, so Spoke takes the hands off the wheel, says what Minute is thinking before Minute can say it so Minute doesn't hear it from his own lips first: he can kill Spoke. He even validates how good that feeling will be. It's a risky play. But he's in the thick of it.

And the mircosecond Minute takes a step towards him he pivots again and plays to the ego, this would be the most insane project ever pulled off. It would completely change history. That that feeling would be better than any momentary hero feeling.

Minute says every time he's followed his dark impulses he's gotten the short end of the stick. And Spoke capitalizes on it, saying that was cause his vision was too low, he has the ultimate plan that will not give Minute any short stick.

But Minute chooses himself. Chooses the blocks on the ground. Over his teammate.

Minute thought he was banning Spoke. Like. okay. Win by absolute power, way to do that again Minute.

But to Minute's credit, and the cinema that is that stream, Minute proved his quality. Was put to the test and passed. He's not manipulatable. Not temptable. He's upright and will choose what is good when he's given the option with a lot of lead up and a very level head. Ok maybe he's not that proven. Because we do know when he's pushed through backhanded devastating situations he follows those dark impulses and wins at any cost. Which isn't moral goodness. But he passed the can-you-manipulate-the-owner test.

Which Spoke needed to experience. He needed to test it. Perhaps as the first of the experiments.

But it's just tragic. Cause we know Spoke's not doing the orbital. If he does I'll be shocked.

There's four players I could see that would make the orbital: Minute, Zam, Clown, and 4c if someone else had the idea. Well, or if Spoke told him to do it directly. Maybe it happens. Literally no idea.

But for how short that list is, that was something Spoke picked out specifically for Minute. A gift he made him. And Minute just threw it out.

I will never get over how decided that he had to test if Minute would be okay with exploits on the same day he tested Minute being okay with being evil.

Which is why I spent most of the day thinking it was never going to be an orbital and all Spoke wanted to know was about Minute's reaction to possible exploits.

Which, okay, maybe I do still think that.

Because he has an exploit. He wouldn't have mentioned it if he didn't. If it was Just the orbital, why scare Minute with talk of exploits. And we literally know he has the bugbombs. Love that he's convinced Squiddo he has nothing, and that she immediately showed him everything. Sure, did he ever figure out how to dupe successfully on the server? no, based on player activity. But he knows the theory.

And then there's Jumper. Oh how interesting this will be.

Wait actually I take that back. Jumper would be on the list. I can see her doing the orbital. It's just so fascinating for how Spoke is both teasing and saying it's not it, back and forth, is he or isn't he. Keep everyone guessing.

There's so many layers to how Spoke talks, what he does, how he does it. He's not dumb at all. Everything has a reason, but I think the bigger picture is that anything can be turned into a success if he just pivots a little.

Because, out of all of this, Spoke now has an enemy that know's he's coming. Which is very wormhole. He leaked things to Planet and Parrot in advance of the finale week so that the opposition would get ready for whatever was coming.

It's too easy to say that was his plan, cause if Minute said yes that would've been the best for Spoke. But this is still a win, in a way. Spoke always wins.

[myrmica]

some loose thoughts on The Full Story of WORMHOLE: Minecraft’s Deadliest Exploit...

largely building on thoughts i had while watching it with my partner, and conversations i had on discord (shoutout will 75hearts irrealisms). i started writing notes in the s4 directory and it got away from me so it's a post now. disclaimer also that while i am very critical here, i still found the video interesting. the problems with it are interesting problems. second disclaimer that everything is about vitalasy (and princezam) forever.

the video is presented as The Full Story, the Truth, things spoke didn’t want to show during season 4 or in the videos he released about it then, because it would make him look too bad. he says this about it in a youtube comment, before it's released:

the first hour or so of this video succeeds incredibly in being what he says it’s going to be; you get information we’ve never heard before about the dupe war and spoke’s thought processes therein. you get this, the best moment of the entire video:

[51:00 - 54:40] Spoke: I'm not kidding when I say this, but this was probably the angriest I've ever been while playing minecraft. Not only was I so dumbfounded that I really just sat there popping totems, but after I died I was dead silent for 15 minutes. Except for the few times I practiced the lies I would have to tell Mapicc and Zam, to somehow save this plan. [Video cuts to that recording of Spoke talking to himself after he respawns. He wanders around the post-dupe-war wasteland, no items in his inventory.] Spoke: What was the thought process? [cut] I just wanna ask, what—[cut] I'm really curious… about the thought process of this one. [cut] Come here for a second—[cut] So here's the first issue. [cut] Here's the problem I see with this thinking. [cut] I thought you were very well aware of the intentions. [cut] there's a difference between... and prolonging—[cut]—I need to keep going with the plan. I want to get back to the vault. [cut back to voiceover] Spoke: I needed a way to somehow gain their trust back and keep the vault safe, so I wouldn't be banned. At first I thought about telling them my plan to trick Parrot into doing the exploit, but I already had too much on the line to risk something like that. The second idea was telling them the lie I told Parrot, about doing this for the NPPP, but that would just confirm their beliefs and they would for sure pocket the duped items. The only idea I had left was to tell them... I scripted this. A couple months before these events, I ran a staged roleplay server called Unstable, and I would invite these guys on for the scripted recordings. So I already had that stigma with me, and I assumed if I just told them I was helping the enemy find the vault for content, that I learned my lesson or something, they would forgive me and let me back. I knew from there I just had to go on with the plan in a different way, so I joined a call with them. But I didn't realize how bad I truly messed up. [cut to that call] Spoke: So what's the plan? Mapicc: Spoke, you—[exhales]—you've given us so many reasons not to trust you. Spoke: Which is? Mapicc: You speak ominously, you have a bad record, you're—you were in contact with Parrot the entire time. Vortex called me and said there are at least three or four double agents that are on Team Awesome right now, that are actually on Parrot's side. Spoke: Christ. You guys—okay, okay, i'm just gonna be completely clean, bro. Parrot's a double agent on APO. Parrot is an obvious double agent on APO. But he's not a double agent in content, guys. He's a double agent to make the story better. I literally have not told them the base coords to make this more interesting. Mapicc: The base is gone, Spoke. Spoke: YOU BLEW IT UP? Mapicc: we took— Spoke: WHAT THE--WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Mapicc: We took a ridiculous amount of money and we're hiding far away, Spoke. Spoke: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? WHY. [cut to narration] Spoke: There was literally no point in me continuing this lie, since the vault was confirmed to be gone. But, what you're about to see is what no content creator should do on any SMP. And despite me using quote-unquote content and entertainment against them to get my way, all I really did was ruin their videos.

my whole point in the barrier blocks essay about season 4 was that lifesteal’s storytelling is competitive. and it is something weaponized on screen in season 4 plenty of times, but it’s never so blatant as this. It’s never admitted like this. Spoke outright saying, “i fucked everyone else over so i could get my video.” I never considered that the scripting thing might be a flat out lie like this. even though i knew spoke was ultimately doing all of that as part of the plan to get parrot in position for wormhole, and even though i came to the conclusion that dupe war couldn’t really have been “scripted” in a way that mattered even without knowing that spoke was lying about this, because WHY would you LIE ABOUT THIS?

It’s kind of beautiful. the perfect piece of information about season 4 to tie it all up in a bow.

and it’s incredible for being this albeit brief, raw glimpse into spoke’s mind. a completely off camera moment that nobody ever would have seen. something you never, ever get from spoke, who rarely streams, and refuses to let other players see inside of his head, or even have real conversations with him in season 4. whose power is predicated on maintaining that exact distance. because it all falls apart if you get to hear how he feels underneath it all, if you get to see the way everything he does in season 4 is nothing but madly improvising lie after lie, trying to keep the tower he’s built intact even as it is constantly at risk of falling out from under him. It’s spoke making himself for once truly vulnerable, truly seen.

but… AFTER this point, the video largely loses this undercurrent of emotional vulnerability that sells the whole thing’s premise. It doesn’t matter if spoke is lying about minutiae in that first part of the video, fudging dates and summarizing events, because the emotional honesty matters so much more. but a lot of the threads spoke presents to us in the beginning of the video never feel like they actually get delivered on, and this window into his mind is closed to us again. It feels like he falls back into the motions of just, making a lifesteal video, making a minecraft youtube video. this moment with the dupe war feels like something legitimately special and unique, precisely because of that element of vulnerability. It’s probably the closest a lifesteal video has ever come to capturing the parts of lifesteal that i love, the things you only really get on stream where it’s much harder to keep up the sort of powerplays spoke relies on.

unfortunately you are hardwired to make youtube videos and there is no saving you. I would wager there are two full hours of reused footage that adds basically nothing. and it’s the worst deflationary effect i’ve ever seen. the tension builds to this crazy height and then it’s just gone and you’re watching, dr. donut vip day. poopies the endermite nonsense. nothing against poopies the endermite nonsense, but you show me all of that and then you expect me to watch you fuck around with minecraft mobs for 40 minutes straight?

and just as a side note, it’s edited in the most confusing way possible. i think this was heightened for me because i watched it with my partner who isn’t quite as into lifesteal as i am, but this video is comprised of: 1) brand new footage and new voiceovers by spoke explaining his current feelings/reflections on what happened then, 2) old stream footage, and 3) footage from old videos that spoke previously uploaded, including the editing choices from those old videos. none of these things are ever flagged or indicated to the viewer, you have no real way of knowing which is which unless you’ve seen all of those old streams and videos. and this carries over into the way spoke presents information to you, because it’s still largely done in the rapid-fire information summary, telling instead of showing style that plagues these videos. i don’t know how you are expected to absorb any information from this narration style if you don’t already know the minute details of everything that happened in season 4. which i do, so it was fine, just stylistically puzzling on several levels.

which brings us to…. an elephant in the room. the thing left out of what is billed as the full truth. vitalasy is not part of this video. spoke’s relationship with the other exploiters at large is never really dwelled on or explored, even when ash does appear on screen relatively frequently, but there is not a single clip of vitalasy speaking in this video. we get a couple screenshots of his discord messages, only on screen for seconds, a few of which appear to be dated from a different day than spoke says they are. he’s mentioned about as infrequently as you could possibly manage to discuss season 4, let alone wormhole, without vitalasy. who we know spoke was working with in some capacity throughout the full duration of these events, who appears both in the beginning of this video as spoke establishes where the exploit came from, and in the end, when spoke jumps into the void and ops vitalasy in the same moment.

there are all of these scenes where the bedrock prison is there but never explained, or someone (parrot in one of the last pivotal conversations spoke has with him in the video) is holding an eclipse shield, and it all makes him so overwhelmingly present in his absence. spoke seems to realize how glaring it feels, because he addresses it:

[3:25:17 - 3:25:34] Spoke: I told Ash I would give him whatever item he wanted, except operator. Even though he was bummed out, he said it was fine. Vitalasy on the other hand wasn't too happy. There was some more stuff between us that I had to cut out since this video is already too long, but long story short Vitalasy felt entitled to it because he found the glitch, which does make sense. However, the risk of another player having admin was too much, and I declined.

every other time spoke mentions vitalasy, it’s with this same combination of avoidance and active dismissal. I keep coming back to that scene at the end; “i gave vitalasy op” and no further acknowledgement. what do you mean more happened between you but you’re not going to show us, and in everything we do get it feels like nothing at all has changed since season 4, you’re still portraying him in the exact same way he was portrayed then? framing it as the full truth, but there’s still this central point you’re taking great pains to talk around. the video is too long. the video is already four hours, how much worse could it get? what about all of that reused footage? that you could cut, and the pacing of the video would be better for it? am I really supposed to believe that’s why you made that decision?

and ultimately this plays into why the video doesn’t really work for me past that hour-or-so mark. because spoke isn’t actually being honest. past that point, things are glossed over or hidden the same way they would be in any lifesteal video.

maybe part of this is the fact that the dupe war stuff is new information to me where what was streamed at the end of season 4 isn't, even if it was cut out of the youtube videos, but i really don’t think it’s just that. It’s in the pacing of the video, what’s prioritized and what isn’t, the amount of time and dramatic attention given to these final moments.

In the scene towards the end where spoke monologues to parrot, after he tricks parrot into giving him admin, parrot doesn't say anything. It’s just spoke talking at him, and then the scene ends without parrot getting a word in edgewise. you get that little moment between them before spoke puts on pants and jumps into the void, but that's still parrot responding to spoke's lie, not to the truth. even if you don't get some sort of conclusion or elaboration on parrot's thoughts here, which is fair enough, you don't even get any real reflection on all of it from spoke in the end.

this is how the video ends:

[3:55:40 - 3:57:25] Spoke: After that I was left thinking, why in the world did I do this? I mean, I was so confused I ended up yelling "Ah, fuck this." then I put on some pants, gave Vitalasy op, and jumped in the void. No one understood why I did this, and I didn't either. Why did I let them win? Why did I follow the rules of the challenge in the first place? Why did it feel like I did all of this for nothing? I wouldn't find the answer until far later. For the next season Parrot didn't want to be the owner anymore, due to the stress and time it took, but he reached out to me and Ash to take his place. He did this, apparently, because we knew a lot about server stuff, but we were willing to give it a shot. I ended up hating that season. Since, no one trusted me, my only teammates on the server were Ash, and surprisingly Planetlord, who almost became the server villain himself, but the worst part was that there was no point in exploiting anymore. Why would I break the game to obtain something I could just get through console? Except, that's when it clicked. The following year, I brought back my Unstable series, this time with Parrot and Wemmbu. These videos would be scripted, but not scripted to save time or be efficient, but instead to push the boundaries of storytelling in minecraft. I've had so much fun this past year, creating things that have never been seen in the game, and that's when I realized it. My favorite moments from the wormhole were when I was making a plan destined to fail, or when I abused a new exploit, or literally any moment when i was doing something that had never been done before. I did the wormhole because it felt like I was doing the impossible. And that feeling was pretty cool.

the whole thing kind of defeats it’s own point doesn’t it? All of this weight on your self reflection, and the mistakes you made, and the way you prioritized your own Content/Story/Narrative/Career/Etc above the other people you were playing with, about chasing this feeling of power. and how, the power was only made real in the lie. you had to lie about how powerful the exploit was in order to trick someone into handing real power to you, and you had to keep that lie up so he wouldn’t stop you, because at every moment you worried that he could stop you. the wormhole is nothing, the exploit was nothing, in any of the ways that really mattered. at one point in this same video, spoke launches a hack client because he’s bored and it isn’t even remarked upon, because there’s no weight placed on launching a hack client. it’s not about what the wormhole can do, it’s about convincing everyone that what you’re doing is interesting enough, is powerful enough, that the power becomes real. it's a social game. If spoke is honest, spoke loses his power. If spoke is vulnerable, spoke loses his power. If spoke, at any moment, stops obfuscating and posturing and acting scary and obtuse and selling his power, spoke loses his power.

that’s what happens to vitalasy. vitalasy is vulnerable, and more importantly accessible, to both the audience and to the other players. because he will sit there and talk to you for hours, and argue with you, and consider your point. spoke makes himself unreachable, so vitalasy receives all of the social consequences that spoke is outrunning by keeping that careful distance. and you have to assume that vitalasy becoming the scapegoat was nothing but useful to him, even if it wasn’t something spoke did intentionally, or consciously.

at a certain point, the only explanation for why spoke won't just actually come clean to parrot instead of hanging onto all of these false pretenses, pivots everything he does on the nppp story in the end, instead of being honest about the conditions nppp was formed under in the first place, is because he doesn't want to deal with the consequences.

everything spoke does in s4 is both chasing that feeling of power in doing what should be impossible, and running away from the point where all of that crumbles and he has to face social repercussions for it. especially when it's obvious that in spite of the lie underpinning everything, and the fact that he was using parrot to achieve godhood, he still cares. it's not like there's this sense of glee in his villainy that will endure, it's just going to hurt if he stops digging himself into this pit, so he can't stop.

he still spent that time with parrot. it was still a real team, no matter why spoke did it in the first place. and the story spoke is telling about the nppp is so much more compelling, so much more meaningful, even when it can never add up right in the end. it's one thing to hurt someone by lying to them, and it's another thing to start wishing the story you were telling was the truth because you won yourself over. In the same way that vitalasy changes course during season 4 because of how much he cares about zam, only you never get to see it happen with spoke. If spoke does feel this, it doesn’t stop him. he doesn’t change his course.

what happens to vitalasy is maybe what spoke is afraid of. because vitalasy does receive those social consequences, on screen, and it’s worse by far than anything we ever see spoke receive. It all falls apart and vitalasy has to respond to it right then and there, taking center stage in a way that allows spoke to slip by under the radar.

despite this, it’s a strange kind of mutual parasitism that works out for both of them in the end: spoke remaining committed to his lie, keeping himself hidden and detached, is what allows vitalasy to avoid playing the villain role he realizes he hates, even when nobody but vitalasy seems to apprehend this as a victory for him. neither wants to be in the other’s shoes. it's easy to look at spoke doing all of this heavy lifting and think, vitalasy really didn't do anything, did he? he found the glitch and that was it, he got spoke involved. but in the end vitalasy says: this is exactly what i wanted.

and vitalasy is put in that position of social vulnerability largely through zam’s presence, acting on lifesteal as a force that (largely unconsciously, at this point) demands vulnerability on multiple levels; not only must you be visible to the audience, but you must be comfortable losing, you must open yourself to embarrassment and potential mockery. you must care. where spoke lets the audience in on nothing, zam lets us in on everything. If zam is going to portray vitalasy a certain way no matter what (and she is, because she refuses to do anything if the audience isn’t there with her), the only course of action is to attempt to control the narrative yourself. even though the more information the audience has, the more you're seen, the less control there is. (a second shoutout to will 75hearts irrealisms on this one)

i guess i don’t know what i want, really. you can’t expect more. It’s a youtube video. he’s not going to stop behaving like it’s a youtube video. but there’s something there, there’s really something there.

zam is my favorite lifesteal member for a reason, and part of it is in the pure lack of care for making videos. going back and watching a zam stream from season 3, the difference is immediately apparent; everything zam did then, she did for the sake of a video. and somewhere over the course of season 4 that changes. so much changes.

If we’re being honest, lifesteal isn’t what I want it to be a lot of the time. most of the players don’t approach it in the ways that interest me. but the thing I care about is real. it is there. and every once in a while, you get it from someone you aren’t expecting, at least for a moment. but whatever, that feeling was pretty cool, wasn’t it? the exploit was pretty cool.

[mapicccc]

Hi! I know I just sent you an ask a few hours ago but uhm. There's something on my mind.

So I've only been into lifesteal for like. 3 weeks? Maybe a bit more or less. Point being is that I don't know anything about the SMPs history other than the couple of videos I watch & what people live blog about season 6 LMAO. Anyway not important I'm just rambling LMAO sorry I get rambly in these.

ANYWAYS. My question is: When did Devotion Duo start? From what I gather it seems it was around season 4? but idk if that's right. All I know is that they'd had to have been together for a while for their relationship to be where it is now.

I just thought I'd asks since their dynamic seems to be fun & all the analytic posts I find about them seem very interesting (also all the art bangs. not a single miss that I've seen so far). So I'm interested in the very start of it and how it was.

Thought I'd ask you since you seem like the Devotion Expert around these parts /silly.

technicallyyyyy they go all the way to s2 when zam was added and have teamed at least partially Every Season since then, but due to s2 vods missing + a lot of current fandom members (including me) getting in during s4 + Their Arc happening then, s4 is veryyy popular with them.

short version, I have a list of vods going over one arc that revolves around them here

what i mean by Their Arc:

a small break down of s4 with them, zam first got back on ls about a month late so everyone else was already in teams, he kinda just gravitated towards mapicc and ro (teammate awesome) before officially joining them (vod here, around 3:38. zam works in a lot of their plans, he was a part of the prison (a short event where TA locked players in and offered a reward to get them out), medusa (lead by roshambo and helped by mapicc & zam, he worked to turn spawn building into obituary and covered his tracks by trying to seem like they were the ones searching for the culprit), and most notably, dupe war. dupe war was a project by spoke invloslving mass during of items and gear, claiming to use it to defeat another team (APO, not crazy important here) (in reality it was involved with wormhole stuff but fell through). as lot of dupe war wasn't streamed so we don't know exactly zams thought process through it all, but at the end of the war when all exploits were meant to be destroyed, mapicc revealed he and spoke hid away some stashes. zam was acting like this was fine while they were there but spent a Considerable amount of time after they had left debating taking these dupe stashes, ultimately deciding they would be best in his hands.

this was the catalyst for castle arc, an arc revolving around devotions and affecting them Heavily.

mapicc saw it as a betrayal, and did not take kindly. when they had their team awesome meeting (commonly referred to as Home sweet home, hsh for short) to confront zam, numerous times mapicc mentions wishing he could go with what zam said but no longer trusting him. I Highly recommend watching this vod if not any others, it is the single vod is have watched the most. I also have a transcript of it here (don't mind the typos, I still haven't gotten around to editing it)

and All of that is just lead up to castle arc, where mapicc hunts zam down again and again and again. while not part of castle arc, over the course of almost the whole season mapicc finds 4(mightve been 5?) of zams bases, it's a scene of hatred and carnage and violence.

and yet.

they still end the season together.

mapicc still choses zam over anyone else, over ro who had been by his side the entire time, over spoke who gave him power, he wanted to end the server with zam as the chaos of wormhole was concluding.

they really are a despite everything situation. anyone else would have refused to work together after what they had been through, but that wasn't even the first time they fought together after the betrayal. they have this constant yearning to be by each other's sides, whether that be for or against.

a very important quote for them, the source of their name, "and all of my devotion turns violent"

soooo that's s4!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna be honest I don't know s5 devotions that well (would recommend asking @derww about them if you want to know more) as for s6 there's just. so many small things. mapicc wanting zam to come back to fighting after refusing for so long, being so excited when he agrees. early empire streams he was wishing he was teaming with zam again. zam Constantly bringing up mapicc yesterday when thinking about teaming with derap. like he did Not need to do that. it's so amazing the way their devotion has evolved.

I've had issues in the past with links not embedding so also putting them down here in order just in case

[mcytegg]

woke up at 12 am and all i can think abt the empire and the sticklers like im sorry but i am so not normal abt their alliance it means the entire world to me.....

like especially the trust JUMPER has in the empire. ive been chewing through her s6 vods and the speed at which she went from fearing and wanting revenge bc they killed her and ro to her trusting them and wanting them to trust her was actually crazy

and this is all bc mapicc and minute chased clown away from her base bc he was hunting her down and she had no one else to protect her w her team offline. like yeah other people like zam and pangi were on but realistically how can they fight a clownpierce when zam was, at that point, a pacifist and pangi is pangi? /lh

them choosing to help jumper that day changed soooo much, it led to her warning the empire of her and reks silly end portal prank and warning them abt her trap,, and her taking direct action to build a bridge between their two teams which was both only possible bc yk. mapicc and minutes inherent bias for some people on the team ANDDDD their sense of honour when it comes to who they choose to fight

like as much as the empire WANTS to be the bad guys this season, its quite funny how they just ARENT (yet) bc they have actual honour and morals in comparison to the blindfold bandits (flame, mane, wemmbu, and pentar i believe) who have been terrorizing the server, especially low heart players, since the beginning.

bc like choosing to protect jumper from clown was just...THE most minute and mapicc thing ever like theyre both just like that; i dont think either of them see any purpose behind terrorizing and hunting players like jumper, pangi, squiddo, etc who both dont really involve themselves in pvp and who dont HAVE the capability to fight back if theyre jumped by someone w like 20 hearts

like dont get me wrong theyll attack players who are weaker than them, theyre not moral and faultless people, like minute killing sb for a heart, mapicc wanting to kill kab for a heart bc he thinks she has too many (before he hit 20 hearts), etc but those are players who have CHOSEN to involve themselves in pvp and to kill other players—

and im crying wait i hate devotion duo so fucking bad bc ive just now realized mapiccs standards for players he will kill vs ones he deems needing his protection if he knows theyre being hunted by like mane, clown, or wemmbu is literally identical to ZAMS own standards for players he will involve himself in conflict for vs those he wont (aka innocent players vs those who choose to involve themselves in Situations)

anyways! im just yapping atp but idc. yeah so mapicc and minutes inherent sense of honour in regards to fighting and pvp on top of hopperclock-duality friendship buff from previous season(s) has lead to one of the most interesting alliances ever like if u could not tell i love and adore this alliance so very much bc the foundation of it is trust and friendship rather than power or how they can benefit one another

they have common enemies for sure, but a lot of what they do doesnt even really involve fighting or conflict. its mostly just spending time together and being silly likeeee jumper and spokes silly4silly friendship, ro helping mapicc stalk zam, chief refusing to trap/kill rek after chat asks bc theyre buddies, etc etc

i really desperately want to see them interact and do more together bc i just wanna see both teams login more ngl but i'd also like to see them just have fun TOGETHER like they did during the pangi wipe out recording during that one session a few weeks ago yk,, i also hope the empire will involve the sticklers in whatever shit they have planned for january bc they allegedly have some evil, devious things planned when minute is more free / available for life steal

i actually just have no idea what im saying anymore ngl ive been typing for over an hr but tysm if u read me yapping abt the empire and the sticklers. it will happen again. /threat

[taiey]

Do we think Woogie talked to Manepear yet about maybe wanting him/them to team with Atlas? 'Cause like last time he streamed he wanted to talk to SB and Mane but only SB logged on, and obviously Woogie's been a TwitchCon and busy and all, which afaik Mane wasn't at tho he could've been very private about it ig, but either way it's possible that Woogie like DM'd him about it or anything.

Do I think he knew and was deliberately trying to make a good impression. Hmm. Like the "we both don't have teammates" is a weird framing if you're getting this idea.. from Zam's teammate.. but like not much weirder than claiming that Flame, who's been more active than you the last couple months, doesn't play on the server anymore.

Does seem like the only thing he wanted to do was, like, hang out with Zam. Talk to Zam. Be nice to Zam, whether that meant fighting Mapicc to protect him or not fighting Mapicc because she didn't want him to. Would Mane have even have a prompt to suddenly log on to Lifesteal and try really thoroughly to be nice to Zam if not... yes, the flower field. I completely forgot about that until I rewatched Mane's entrance from the vod, but okay yes Mane could in fact completely independently come to the conclusion "wait if Mapicc's turned on Zam now maybe Zam should turn to Someone Else" that Woogie also concluded, for the same reasons.

..yeah and if he logged on yesterday just because he saw people on and wanted to play Lifesteal with them, whereas Flame is not logging without a specific Thing To Do, and then showed up today and hasn't seen any of Zam's teammates on either day, then that's just exaggerating a bit for rhetorical effect, not like outright lying, I usually assume people other than Spoke aren't outright lying unless they have a pressing reason to

ok I have now posed a question and argued myself into both answers while writing about it, final conclusion probably Woogie didn't say anything the idea is just that objectively compelling. hope you enjoyed reading 👍

[aaasdgnklm]

watching wemmbus uu the war vid

PLS PLS PLS I WANT ZAM TO DIE SO BAD (ik he doesnt)

“is this really how you wanna go out wemmbu?” I could write a senior project on zams tone of voice when he talks to wemmbu.

UGH ZAM WHAT JS WRONG WITH YOU WHY IS HE SUCH A GOOD VILLAIN HES ACTUALLY SO PSYCHOTIC I LOVE HIM SM UUGGGGHHHHHH

kind of crazy that zam actually has some moral high ground in that he values peoples deaths much more than wemmbu does, wemmbu doesnt hesitate to kill people and the deaths of others dont effect him much. zam on the other hand is actively disgusted by the idea of killing anyone unless he has to, he’ll imprison and torture and manipulate whoever gets in his way but he wont kill unless thats the only way to keep them away- like with wemmbu, zam isnt hesitating to threaten wemmbu and his teams actual lives because he knows that killing wemmbu is the only way to keep him away. but even as he threatens wemmbus teams lives, wemmbu just laughs because hes never cared as much as zam.

oh I’m really not normal abt how close zam was standing to him in that sceneeee

“pangi!! pangi 🥺🥺 help meee!! thats what you sound like.”

the visual of zam and his three guards fully maxed out standing in front of wemmbu tangled in cobwebs in half broken armour I wish I could draw :(

“is your plan to wait for my elytra to break— cause that might work imma be honest with you—“

omg pangiiiii :3333 (was watching the colour the world vod bevofre this I’m really pangi hyped rn)

holy shit loppezz! shes important later! I didnt know she was on zams guard originally ngl i feel like so many important side characters started as zams guard and then turn into invis mafia and then became their own independent people once the mafia disbanded (side note finding some straggling invis mafia who no longer have ash but keep the beliefs would be really cool)

what would win in a fight: a massive work of engineering genius designed to commit horrible destruction and acts of terrorism, or blac rok in sky

egg actually trolling 💀

ooo not egg saying the lesson wemmbu is still trying to learn a season and a half later

wemmbu and egg taking turns being freaky about each other

wemmbu and eggs relationship where they’re both comfortable splitting up and doing their own thing and meeting back up later is so refreshing coming from spokes dependancy on mapicc and total crash out without him

YES! ! ! BECOME WHAT YOU MOST FEAR! ! ! ! ! ! ! YOU ARE THE VILLAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

“you say you wanna have fun but you wanna wipe half the people on the server- how do you have fun then?”

“BRO THAT IS FUN”

no way wemmbus gonna let ro die right???

the duel between flame and ro is kind of insane because basically this happened in flames pov recently and I bet uu!flame was thinking about this duel the whole time and half expecting wemmbu or someone to show up and interrupt the same way

NOT WEMMBU HAVING A SHRED OF HUMANITY WHAT IS THIS????

“and then theres pangi whos uh, whos lowkey trash but hes close with zam soo”

(why does mane sound like hes stretching the entire conversation)

see the way manes talking it so so sounds like hes bullshitting about being as good as flame but from ls I know flame is only slightly better than him so wtf is happening

“you seem awfully excited to betray your friends and family”

“well… theyre not my friends.”

flame and mane brothers confirmed he didnt deny the family part (ye ik theyre cousins irl and the whole blindfold brothers thing but I still think theyre sweet)

“zam empire was the strongest team mane, I dont get why youd betray.”

“bro it was only the strongest team because I was on it.”

oh shitttttttttt that was lowkey kinda colddd

also “I’m not scared of flame. maybe a year ago, but not anymore”

“ummm we’re basically gonna blackmail him into betraying his nation and getting his friends killed :3”

ok why was pentar and yungys reunion kind of adorable yungy hears pentars voice and theyre immediately both so excited + yungys complaint of not being able to even see pentar ugh theyre adorable

NO PLEASE DONT MAKE PENTAR KILL YUNGY HES JUST A BABY I LOVE HIM

this is like a murder mystery but we’re following the murder as he slowly picks everyone off starting with the weakest

EHEHEH FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

“you know youre nothing without me right?” the manipulation is crazyyyy

“yo mane is this winnable!?”

“hahaha I dont think so!”

bro where IS parrot actually I’m 2/3 of the way in and bro has still not shown up

why do all of zams guards glaze him so hard 💀

its so funny how zams guards are just being toxic basically and calling wemmbu weak and coward really generic insults but zams insults are so specific. so targeted. theyre meant for wemmbu and theyre meant to hurt him and him specifically.

wemmbu just pulling out more and more armour is actually so funny

zam literally like yeah but I like him :3

ONCE AGAIN THE VISION OF ZAM CROUCHING OVER WEMMBU TANGLED IN COBS I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DRAW

are these hearts 🤣🤣🤣

also once again the image of wemmbu standing weak and defenceless with no armour surrounded by zams fully kitted guards watching mane and flame fight on equal ground

is this the equivalent of mane and wemmbu breaking up over text 😭

this is weirdly calm like it just feels inevitable

does this count as one strike cause if I was parrot I would NOT let this pass

why is everyone on this server so ok with dying

THE FACT THAT THE MUSIC STARTED UP AGAIN WHEN ZAM SHOWED BACK UP BECAUSE HES THE ONLY ONE THAT WEMMBU ACTUALLY CARED ENOUGH ABOUT TO GET AN ADRENALINE SPIKE FROM HIM SHOWING UP

aww zam apologized OH MY GOD IS THAT CLOWN PIERCE

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WAHT WHATW DGWJDBDKF

[iron-sides]

sorry but i really cant stress enough how much the chungpires hatred of zam (like the group/team, not mapicc. he was still in the wrong for straight up killing her naked) is the direct reault of her intentionally making them her enemies. remember, minute and hannah BADLY wanted to be allies with her against spoke, and she intentionally jumped hannah in order to drive the rest of the chungpire away. (< now granted i inferred this however. why else would she do that i DONT buy that she thought hannah was gonna jump her sorry. it was clear that wasnt happening) she deliberately made them her enemies. so now when she complains about how they all want to kill her so bad and how theyre gonna 5v1 her im just kinda like. well, yeah. they are. that is what happens when you jump the nicest person on the team out of nowhere, especially when she has done everything short of LITERALLY DYING to help you at every possible opportunity. derap called his betrayal consequences for her actions, and i trust raini that that makes sense, but the real consequences are this: she deliberately made an enemy of the chungpire of her own free will and volition, and now they are treating her like an enemy. cause, effect. shes having the worst week of all time, which she could not have predicted when she madd that choice, but she has also done absolutely nothing to try to make amends. she hasn't even apologized! and they shouldn't expect one, but genuinely what does she expect 😭 shes given them every reason to hate her and none to help her 😭

[jumped-for-the-yaoi]

okay wair another brainrot thought w the s7 hell isekai thing. you know taxduos thing with not having permanent homes and constantly being in fear of betrayal.

when solarflare- zam mostly because she knows rhe symptoms of antsiness and paranoia that she sees in egg and wemmbu; its exactly how she felt back then in s6 and s5 and s4 and s3 before that and she wants to help them somehow- when they figure this bit out (after one really awkward conversation) zam ends up going on little bonding trips with egg to catch a bunch of fish she models his room in the base after, and she flame and wemmbu have little training matches like the ones he used to have w mane on unstable. flame takes it on himself to get the mace for wemmbu- zam teases him about it and even does actually threaten him seriously because of the spawn trapping with mapicc, but flame promises that he genuinely does just want to get it to help w the way wemmbu seems to twitch and flinch when he catches sight of either of them with a weapon out. zam agrees its probably the best course of action and they both work to get the mace as a present to wemmbu, and when he gets it he cries a little.

it takes a while for taxduo to warm up to solarflare but its the little things they do that really help cement their status

also id imagine. lswemm spoke mape and Technically parrot (technically mia)are all still part of ls so lswemm makes it his sole job in life to hunt down and torment his uuself which makes for a lot of looney toons shit and also worsens uuwemmbus paranoia because he has something good here, with egg and this kinder version of the prince he loved and her right hand man who had been the first in a line of many people to betray and harm him, and of all things its an alternative version of himself who threatens this tenative peace? anyway i just kinda wanna throw wemmbu at himself and see him go crazy. also really wanna see how uuwemm and egg adjust to ls i tink that would eb a funny concept fo sho....

okay thats it for now mostly i think i may conk out now ^_^ teehee

GOD yesssss yes yes yes yes everything sboutf this absolutely yes oh my god. Oughhh this is so sweet…. answering this now because im copinjg so hard

egg and wemm finally get the chance to settle down and just be able to live in peace,, it makes so much sense that zam would understand them the most . Definitely if anyone understands it would be her 💞💞💞 flame giving wemmbu the mace AWWWWW oh my godddddddddd i love that so much genuinely . i’d imagine wemm would be a bit reluctant to trust or work with flame because of all the stuff uuflame has done but . absolutely oh my god. And wemmfrags training is everything to me BTW . i love my imperial fire 💖 this is so so awesome i can genuinely see the four of them as a really chaotic but cozy team

this is making me think so so much because uuwemm would finally have a purpose and have so much to fight for ,, but also so much to lose,, lswemm being thrown into the equation too makes things so much more interesting to me, i just can’t put thoughts to words rn because its 12 in the morning 😭😭 also about how uuwemm would adjust to lifesteal… i feel like he’d overexert himself trying to grind and get both him and egg to 20 hearts as soon as possible because the faster they do, the more of a foothold they’d have in such an unfamiliar environment ^_^

im also wondering how their team would come into existence because i feel like that’d be very interesting to explore too

[coffeegnomee]

What counts as a lifesteal betrayal?

This question has been sitting in my ask box since May 3 and I have just looked at it flabbergasted because how do you even answer that.

But I suddenly had a revelation, it’s stupid, but whatever.

Betrayal on lifesteal is entirely defined by the person who has felt like they were betrayed.

Betrayal almost doesn’t count/exist outside the receiver’s opinion that they were betrayed.

And here’s the biggest example: Jumper never considered what she did to Abyss was a betrayal. Because she was “never really on their team”, she didn’t think it was betrayal. She literally ended the season saying she didn’t betray her teammates. She was loyal. "it didn't count". So did it count as a betrayal if the betrayer specifically didn't think they were betraying?

But Abyss was one of lifesteal’s largest betrayals.

So what counts as a betrayal?

Often it looks like secretly being on two teams, like Parrot with the Cleansing, or Leo with betraying Pangi and Zam end of s3, or Spoke in the wormhole, or Jumper, or Pentar in the Capt Sparklez day.

Sometimes it looks like revealing you didn’t have the same ideologies as your teammates, like Zam to eclipse, Poafa to Atlas (woogie counted poafa as being the betrayer).

It’s betraying the trust that is so delicately given on this server. 

If someone extends trust and then the other person did something behind their back, that’s betrayal. Even if you didn’t mean it. Even if it was miscommunication. But especially if you didn’t care about the trust that they had given. And especially if you didn't talk to them about it first.

Because then there's also those moments where who betrayed whom is unclear. Did Mapicc betray Ro over trapping the end? Or did Ro betray him first by doing something that was too far? The second is usually what is held as the betrayal. By both Mapicc and Bacon.

And didn't Ro himself apologize for it and be asked back on the team, but Mapicc didn't forgive him? And yet if you look at it objectively what would "count" as the betrayal is Mapicc's actions, not Ro's, does it not? because Mapicc was the aggressor, Mapicc was the one to say I don't agree with your ideals Ro, Mapicc was the one to kill Ro. All without really talking to him first.

It might be (i didn't think too hard about it) it might be the only time a team has kicked someone off for having different goals (and called their goals a betrayal to boot) instead of the one who has the different goals being the one who leaves the team.

And if you want more dumb commentary because I always have silly thoughts if the ask is too vague, there is a moral of the story here, and it fascinates me immensely.

If betrayal can be something that isn't easily defined by "you did x y or z", is it fair if someone says "you betrayed me" when the evidence is split? When maybe you did some things that hurt them, but you didn't mean it, and they're forgetting all the ways you didn't hurt them? *cough* devotions *cough*

It hits upon a greater truth, that you can, like I said, feel betrayed. Feeling. That subjective experience where all that matters is what you remember, not facts and statistics. The emotions matter more than anything else, because that's what's welling up, craving to be heard. Nobody can push down emotions forever.

And so the word betrayal is thrown out. To get the gravity of the situation across.

And the one who is called the betrayer has to face that they did something to hurt the other.

And, this is the moral, that in life we can hurt others without realizing it. And lifesteal is the piece of art, it stands more in testament of a warning of what happens without communication, rather than ending with sunshine and roses and the moral being communication solves everything.

And it leaves you with the question: will I let my own relationships end like this?

or you can just say murder yay!

[nitpick7]

SPOKEPICC KISS (YURI EDITION)

unfortunately i have Disease That Puts Minecraft Guys In Your Brain And You Can't Get Them Out. so i spent all day and also much of last night writing this. um spoke and mapicc but they're girls and they kiss. uu soulmates au but that isn't super relevant. takes place during invis mafia infiltration... yay yippee

words: 878

~ i don't have a fancy divider but other people use those so this is my low budget divider ~

Spoke, Mapicc, and Leo are sneaking around Mafia City at night, scouting out the area or something. Really, they were just bored and Spoke wanted something to do so she dragged her team out against their will. And really, though the others don't know this yet, Spoke just wanted an excuse to be alone with Mapicc. So, first chance she gets, she grabs Mapicc's hand (okay, fumbles around until she grabs Mapicc's hand instead of the gold chestplate she's holding, but who's checking?) and drags her into an alleyway.

"Wh- Spoke?" Mapicc asks, voice hushed. "What?"

Spoke holds up a finger to shh her before remembering that Mapicc can't see her hands, then shakes her head instead. Mapicc nods, and Spoke tightens her grip on her hand and leads her around some random shrubbery until they are appropriately out of sight and earshot from any potential onlookers.

"Hi," Spoke says, not quite a whisper but still carefully quiet. "It's been a while since we had time to talk."

Spoke can hear Mapicc's eyeroll through the invis. "We talk all the time, Spoke. Like, through comms directly in front of Ash. Constantly."

"Yeah, but Leo's always there, and I love that guy but he's not you," Spoke pouts. She reaches for Mapicc's other hand and finds it after a couple seconds of fumbling. "I want to talk to just you. And we can't even write since we have to be invis all the time..."

Mapicc is quiet for a second, and Spoke shuts up too so she can listen to Mapicc's breathing. Remember that she's there. "And what do you need me alone for?" She whispers.

Spoke can feel her face flush, and for once she's grateful for the invis keeping her girlfriend from seeing her face. "Honestly, I kind of just want to kiss you. Um, a lot, probably."

Mapicc tilts her head at Spoke and says, teasing, "Well, we can do that right now."

"Mapicc, I can't even see you-"

"Oh, shut up." She lets go of Spoke's hands and cups her own around Spoke's face. "I know where your lips are."

And with genuinely impressive accuracy, Mapicc's lips meet Spoke's.

Spoke is, justifiably, shocked for about half a second before the sensation of the kiss overpowers anything else and all she can do is melt into it. She closes her eyes and wraps her arms around Mapicc's body, and has just enough presence of mind to notice that their armor makes it slightly uncomfortable for her to be holding Mapicc this closely. Not that she cares - she hasn't gotten to kiss her soulmate in far too long and will not be letting anything interrupt this moment.

Mapicc moves her hands to the back of Spoke's neck, getting them all tangled up in her hair. Spoke's hands find the hood of Mapicc's sweatshirt and she holds on like it's an anchor, keeping her right there with her soulmate and nothing else exists anymore. It's just the two of them, finally just the two of them, in each other's arms.

Spoke really could not ask for anything else.

After a minute, Mapicc takes her mouth off of Spoke's, but she doesn't break away just yet; instead just moving a few inches to the right and kissing down the side of Spoke's neck. She stays on one spot for a while, and Spoke is sure she'll have the most atrocious hickey, but it's not like anyone will be able to see it. It's just for them.

Mapicc does pull away, eventually, and Spoke can't stop herself from letting out a little whine in protest as Mapicc's hands detangle themselves from her hair. "Spoke," She whispers, giggling, "Look at me."

So Spoke opens her eyes, and their invis has worn off and she's finally looking down at Mapicc. She smiles, and Mapicc smiles back, and she's so cute and Spoke wishes she could spend all night right here, looking at her.

Mapicc tucks a curl of Spoke's hair behind her ear. "I messed your hair up," She comments.

"I don't care," Spoke says. "You can do it again. If you want."

Mapicc laughs. She tilts her head to get a better look at Spoke's neck, like she's examining her work. "I really did a number on you there."

The blush already creeping across Spoke's face only grows deeper at that. "You did. I like it," She blurts.

"Oh, you are so down bad for me, it's embarrassing."

Spoke huffs. "Well, I have to make up for the months of not knowing you're my soulmate somehow." She can see Mapicc's eyes tracing patterns across her face and knows she's finding constellations in Spoke's freckles again. "And don't act like you aren't down bad for me either, stupid. I see what you're doing."

Mapicc's eyes dart away like she's embarrassed, as though Spoke hasn't caught her doing this a thousand times already. "Shut up, I don't know what you're talking about." Spoke snickers. "We should probably go find Leo again anyways. And resplash invis."

Reluctantly, Spoke takes an invis potion out of her inventory. "Okay." She grabs Mapicc's hand while she can still see it, plants another quick kiss on her cheek, and splashes the potion on the ground. "See you later!"

[arceoptryx]

arceoptryx_2: what about being the guy who betrayed everyone

hmm I should write out my mental list of everyone Zam betrayed in season 4:

Pangi (flying to Amsterdam to steal his hearts irl)

?poafa re: medusa? not sure what Zam was doing wrt that

the APO (Leowook, Pangi2, Woogie, Subz, but I'm not counting Parrot bc unclear if he was really on the APO side, nor Planet & Bacon because, like, they ended up siding with Team Awesome?)

Spoke (unstreamed during the dupe war)

Team Awesome (Mapicc, Roshambo; not, Terrain who'd already left, nor Spoke, bc, um, vibes. like spoke didn't even notice.)

The Shades/Pangi's kingship attempt (Pangi3, Redoons, Woogie2, ?Midmisticx,. Also Clownpierce apparently considered himself betrayed by Zam?that seems dubious? eh, i'll count it)

the lifsteal wiki list Vortex as one of the Shades; at one point [in O

Eclipse Federation (Subz2, Vitalasy)

I wanna say - not Solar Union, which i think dissolved ~with mutual consent, but like, the general cause of anti-exploiting? (Bacon, Planet, Jaron—Pangi escapes a Pangi4 by betraying Zam first, in my view where 'giving up' did not count)

[the context feels very synthetic but in his wormhole vid he certainly portrays himself as betraying] Spoke2, at the end, jumping through both portals

[countscountscounts] sixteenish? ...that is over half the server. i thought i was exaggerating. :V

now list of People Zam Teamed In Season 4 With Who I'm Pretty Sure Zam Did Not Betray:

Terrain. (shortly after Wallibear's day he does try to find and kill him during an outwardly amicable call, but he didn't manage it)

okay when you lay it out like this. thats absoultely brutal. one thing on the solar union is that planet definitely considered it a betrayal while bacon always considered it a temporary alliance. deffo a betrayal to the cause though

[mapicccc]

i think u had asked for something comforting abt devotions sleeping together idk idr its from wip abt s5 devotions stuck in s4

that's what hurts him much more than it should: when they return and they solve all the issues and spoke behaves as if nothing had happened, and his teammates fall asleep, passing out on various surfaces of the same room. he slowly drinks unsweetened coffee and thinks that very soon he and mapicc won't sleep next to each other anymore. 

the habit of sleeping next to someone had started in season two. at first, he and leo got used to sleeping only in turns, twitching with every rustle, facing attacks in the middle of the night, and being forced to defend themselves without clown. already at the time of peace inc., when he was still sleeping on the floor, mapicc just laid down right next to him, put his hand under the pillow, said that he would wake up in case of anything, and instantly passed out. 

sleeping next to him was not bad – not only actual protection from very real threats, but also the feeling of someone you trust next to, deep breathing, a steadily beating heart. in addition, mapicc was abnormally warm. it was kinda good.

the comfort of mapicc's company was something that was almost too easy to get used to, even take for granted. every time they found themselves in a team together, they ended up sleeping side by side, either just the two of them or the whole team, changing formats and positions, but keeping the meaning.

it is difficult to note a specific moment when mapicc began to go into the skull base like in his own home; at first it was only visits from time to time, and zam really had nothing to be indignant about; he himself had been to the guccigang base more than once or twice, and on business, and just to chill, and even slept there when couldn't or didn't want to return home. 

but over time everything turned to the fact that mapicc not only traded with his villagers and took from his stashes, but also slept in his bed, ate from his dishes, and took his clothes. and was either ironically or absolutely sincerely surprised at any questions. pangi continued to swear and demand to remove the evil dog from their house, but zam shrugged his shoulders and said that he had not invited him to expel. but pangi, of course, could try it himself...

zam, to be honest, was not concerned enough to do anything about it. it was mapicc, after all. mi casa es su casa and all that. and he wasn't too bad of a neighbor too! when zam will leave team awesome (again), mapicc will no longer be around him all the time, and that already is not a good thing. but it didn't mean that they would stop being partners. this time.

OUGHHHHH I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOUUUUU

its so normal for them. they fall back into old habbits so easliy. its just how they are.

this is so wonderful to read thank you i will treasure it forever omgggggggggg

[freakinator]

I just wanna say I betted on team mice break up first solely because they started the team for the mace.

My day 1 thoughts:

They gathered a bunch of people to do trial chambers and it felt like a mix of duos instead of a team. It was just an alliance to get the mace that turned into a team cause.. why not? They couldn't get the mace(squiddo, unknown at the time), so they might as well team up! (also cause other groups started fighting them as a team, so for the sole reason of numbers, they had no choice but to stick together)

And they all knew that if they ever got the mace in the first place, everyone on the team would want to take it for themselves. Now that the 'obtaining the mace' objective is gone, they don't really have a real common goal to work towards as they were just a hastily made day 1 alliance(it literally was 'join group vc!', then team made), so it was bound to break apart.

Later, they proved to be true:

Fundamentally they did not built up any trust at all especially they all had disagreements here and there, doubting each other's judgements:

-Trusting the empire in the end fight (oops, the empire betrayed! why did you trust them?)

-Who to fight and who to not (I dont think killing this person is a good idea...)

-Angering manepear (red had no opinion at the time, but it had been revealed to us that he tried to negotiate with mane but failed, so I guess he chose the betrayal option)

-People doing their individual projects (leo's flame void trap<-after this leo basically dipped, woogie's tower<-woogie just wanted to build his tower)

,etc.

(just my thoughts though, anyone can feel free to disagree)

(also didn't mean for it to be this long 😅)

honestly tthis ask made me realize just how doomed from the start they were and how leo never managed to grow an attachment to any of them lmao cause like at the time i really thought they had a chance despite all their strife and perhaps they could have but at the end of the day they never took that chance which ultimately lead to their incredibly messy breakup

i oon the other hand thought that the empire would break up cause of how volatile and willing to take action each individual members were, i knew that minute and mapicc were both incredibly loyal ppl ofc and that in the right circumstances spoke can also be really loyal himself but figured the drama between spoke, jepexx, and chief would cause them to splinter somehow even if nobody ended up betraying

maybe if several of the empire members didnt become inactive they could have broken up but i honestly have no idea cause in hindsight almost all the members have experience in some really messy teams amd deciding to stay despite that, chief i honestly thought would betray the empire to join the blindfold alliance but he hasnt done that at all despite having all the chances to do so so maybe hes a lot more loyal than i assumed he was

[cloneximio-877]

day 9: team

characters: Spoke, Mapicc, Minute

words: between 500 and 1000

They are free, but they aren't safe - never were and will never truly be. It is partly Spoke's fault - people still hate him, and, yes, maybe they do have a good reason for this, maybe he should bear the responsibility for his actions even after spending months trying to compensate for them, even after almost dying trying to save the server and - successfully doing it. (It makes Spoke feel equally as guilty as it makes him feel mad. He's not sure which feeling is right, which one is he supposed to feel, which one would a good person feel.) But mostly, that's just the nature of this server - it's never been truly peaceful, even before Mafia's existence. It's just a fact that they can't really do anything with. The only thing left is just to get used to it.

They don't really have a place to go. Yet again. They are still homeless, once again without a base, with their old houses destroyed. So, they fly far away and get in the depth of some forest. They built a simple small house out of wood from trees around them, and it should be comforting - this is normal Minecraft, they are doing normal peaceful activity, and he's with friends who stayed with him even after all he did and didn't, but he's so tired he can't really enjoy anything that requires wasting energy. It's really quick and really basic, but he isn't asking for anything more than that - the only thing he wants to do is to fall somewhere and let himself sleep. Fortunately, Minute and Mapicc send him to go wash himself first and finish building without him, which he really appreciates.

He walks through the trees to the nearest river and tosses his clothes aside - cut and ripped in a few places, dirty and soaked in sweat. There's no reason in trying to fix those, so he takes his flint and steel, tosses damaged fabric in fire, extinguishes it immediately and steps into the water.

It's evening already, and water is slowly getting cold, which makes Spoke a little more awake. He doesn't have shower gel or soap or anything with him, so efficiency of washing session leaves much to be desired. He'd like to do it civilized way, of course: in his house, in warm water, in comfort and privacy and soft light and nice smell of some fruits of flowers. It's still much better than what he had lately, thought, and there isn't really someone threatening or watching him around, so he can relax a little, rub his skin and ruffle his fur under water and feel the relief of ever-present itch finally dissipating. He gets back on the ground much more calm and much less uncomfortable in his body, looks through his shulkers in search for some spare clothes and goes back to their house.

He meets Minute and Mapicc inside, also in fresh clothes, probably after a taking a quick shower using water bucket. They set up a fire in something like a hand-made fireplace and sit close, drying wet clothes, hair and fur. Spoke leans on Mapicc, and Mapicc puts a hand on his shoulder, holding him close. It's comfortable - the only thing disturbing this comfort is the sensation of wet fabric clinging to his skin, but it slowly gets dry right on his body, and he slowly gets more warm, and his eyelids get heavier and heavier.

- Spoke. Spo-oke, - Minute shakes his shoulders, and he slowly opens his eyes. His entire body, chest and limbs and head feel so heavy, and it's so hard to lift them, and he doesn't want to. He makes some rumbling, protesting sound, and Minute scoffs.

- Yes, yes, I get it, you want to sleep. Just drag yourself up on a bed and you can do it as much as you want.

So, he does get into bed, slowly, leaning on Mapicc because he doesn't trust himself with controlling his movements at the moment. They get into beds, moved together so it's basically a one large bed. Spoke worms under the blankets - thank whoever created this feature that beds are crafted with a pillow and blanket in one set. It's a little cold here, for now, freshly crafted fabric still not warmed by body's heat, but he knows it'll get here. He turns to his side and moves closer to Mapicc, because he is warm, and Mapicc mutters something under his nose, but doesn't push him away. They find a pose that's comfortable for all three of them, with Minute on Mapicc's other side, and it feels nice and familiar: Mapicc right at his side, like at all this time they slept in caves and abandoned houses in villages and hiding from the chase deep underground in space of two free blocks, Minute's hand on his side, reaching across Mapicc's body, presence barely noticeable but making him feel safer, too. So, he closes his eyes and falls asleep peacefully.

[conhex]

i havent watched lifesteal in a while and i'm so confused how there's a world ending team and yet two other teams are beefing with each other while that is going on? and mapic and zam have chosen now to suddenly fully turn on each other? like yeah they def deserve to get taken out by squiddo lol

OK So, to be fully honest, I was also slightly behind on LS lore due to it really not matching up with my schedule (and my uni having twitch banned so I can't usually watch while in the campus) But uh basically, the whole thing started due to Zam giving the materials for hearts to Bacon during the whole warden arc he had to try understanding Subz... from what I get, this somehow got out to Zam's own team (which at the time included Mapicc and Poafa) and they were pretty mad about it, to the point they both left with Mapicc farming Zam down to 4 (i think?) and Poafa making a whole plan to blow up Zam's flower field This basically set this whole mess into motion where at first other members from the Cashmasons/Chungpire (Hannah, Bacon, Mapicc, Minute and now Clown + Jepexx) and Atlas (Derap, Pangi, Woogie, Zam and now Manepear) where trying to get Zam and Mapicc to make up in order to fight the common goal of the world enders while neither wanted to team, but this kinda went out the window when Zam jumped Hannah due to her kinda using the fact she didn't kill Woogie as leverage(?) or a show of goodwill SO! after that, they've just been constantly getting jumped in some outnumbered fights, there have been some really weird coincidences as to how/when they were getting jumped, Zam was paranoid, Derap was weird, Mane couldn't log on, Flame banned himself infront of Zam and left everything to him while Rek did basically the same to Woogie, and in general Atlas was NOT working well together (actually, yesterday as a joke Woogie gave out Zam's coords while a ton of the Chungpire were on) which kinda... boiled over today? as Zam accused Derap of betraying based on some shit he noticed, which was taken super poorly and ended up with Woogie banning himself and there being confirmation to Derap betraying.

During this whole time, the world enders (general terms to the role that Squiddo, Spoke, Cube, Ash and i think 4C are playing) have just generally threatened to turn spawn to a crater, made a threat to make an arrow cannon, plan to ban the owners and.... are just gonna be using exploits (but they're being honest about it ngl)

So that's like the most general rundown of what happened lately, hope this explains why even tho I'm lowkey siding with Zam, I'm also so down to see both of these teams lose