Chapter Text
Have him end up in a dead end of the maze then Jamato comes and confronts him with the conversation. After that, Spoke find the exit with flowers on it. Pick up the poppy which turns into a rose. Spoke goes into his void form while holding the rose. He starts mumbling apologies and all his regrets for attempting to make friends and everything that went wrong and that he should have simply stayed alone. Mapicc under the instruction of Jamato to break all of Spoke’s armor came to find Spoke. When Mapicc found Spoke he saw a fading voidling mumbling. Before Mapicc could make it to Spoke, Spoke’s form fully dissipated.
The rose remained alive. Mapicc picks up the rose which turned into a poppy in his hands. He goes through the exit where he knew Jamato was waiting for him then he exited and showed Jamato the poppy and explained how Spoke dissipated into void in front of him. Jamato tells Mapicc that voidlings die twice and that was the first death. Once the first death occurs the voidling appears in front of their parents (if they are alive) or if they don’t have parents they appear in front of a lover, guardian, or best friend. Considering the fact Spoke is aroace and that the voidling hadn’t appeared in front of Mapicc meant Spoke appeared in front of a guardian. Jamato asks Mapicc who Spoke would consider a guardian which causes them to go to the end to see the truth.
During that whole conversation in the end, Minute was repairing his armor and cleaning up the areas players visited often. Spoke appeared as a toddler and called out for him “Papa! Papa!” Minute didn’t need to be told twice to know what happened. He picked up Spoke and held them. “Hi buddy. How you feeling?” “Amazing! Can we play papa?” “Of course Spoke.” The elder took Spoke to his bedroom which still had a spot for Spoke. It had been years since Spoke called him papa or any form of fatherly name except during their calls. While they were playing, Jamato and Mapicc were in the entrance. Minute heard the alarm for new entries. He told Spoke to keep playing and that he’d be back soon.
When Minute opened the entrance area, he saw Mapicc and Jamato. He asked for Jamato’s name. Mapicc looked different. Jamato explained to Minute what had happened and that they needed to kill Spoke before anything happened. Before Jamato could finish, Spoke ran to Minute to show him what he found, which was an old sewn patch. He came to Minute saying “papa! Papa, I found something!” The pure childish excitement and lack of self preservation took Jamato and Mapicc by shock. Minute picked up the voidling and ruffled his hair letting the voidling be happy instead of smothering it.
Minute responded to Jamato, “Voidlings die twice. Void creatures die once. Voidlings are the children while void creatures are the adults. Spoke was still a child. He shouldn’t have died. He shouldn’t have even had a life to start with. He has no parents. I’m a guardian who took the place of his parents. I won’t let you kill him. He dies in 3 days anyway. If you have nothing else to say you can leave.”
Mapicc says that they were on the run from the null and that Spoke was the leader of null. Minute looks at Mapicc and flat out says Spoke leads chaos for fun not for a true goal. That random player army that Mapicc and Spoke led a year ago was more Spoke behavior than Null could ever be. Spoke fell asleep in Minute’s arms. The void creatures held him tighter.
“It’s been years since he started fading. His insanity was a byproduct of it. The void has been trying to reclaim him since he turned 5.”
Jamato, still eager to remove Spoke out of the equation, was about to speak up, but Minute spoke up first.
“You’re not going to kill him. He has 3 days. He’s going to spend the last three days living happily and deserving the love he should have been given years ago. If you need a place to stay for the time being you can go across from the exit portal and you’ll find guest rooms.”
The next day, Spoke was playing around the flower bushes as Minute was watching him. Spoke was in a long sleeve shirt and thick pants as 2nd death voidlings feel colder. Minute picked the voidling up and kissed the voidling’s head eliciting happy giggles. Mapicc and Jamato walked over to ask Minute if they could use the kitchen. Spoke saw them and without knowing why he stopped making noises and held onto Minute scared. Minute rubbed the voidling’s back. Jamato asked if Spoke remembered everything. Minute told him that after the first death they only remember the instincts as they mind is set to how old they were and that spoke is currently 5. The rest of the day was uneventful, but as it reached night spoke was clinging to Minute and refusing to leave the Void creature’s sight. Minute knew Spoke instinctively knew something was going to happen but the voidling didn’t know what it was.
Minute picked up Spoke and told him to sleep. He reassured the voidling that he wouldn’t let him go and that he’d be safe. As Spoke fell asleep in arms, Minute’s void presence took over the area and warmed the area as he could feel Spoke slipping away into the void. Mapicc was taking a walk around the island and saw Minute holding Spoke. When Mapicc walked over he felt the area being warmed unnaturally. He asked Minute what it was and Minute told him that he could control the temperature in the area since the end was surrounded by the void hence why voidlings and void creatures were stronger here. Then Mapicc asked by how Spoke was doing. Minute told him that Spoke was near the end of the void’s allowance and that the voidling would fade completely in a few hours. Mapicc responded frantically that Minute said Spoke had 3 days and it has only been one and a half. The void creature told Mapicc that since Spoke was a mistake created by the void, the voidling had less time than they were supposed to. Mapicc handed Minute the poppy he picked up from Spoke’s first death. When Minute touched it, it turned back into a rose. As if understanding the meaning, Minute broke off a sizeable area of the stem and tucked the rose in Spoke’s hair.
Mapicc had tears in his eyes, but didn’t say anything because there was nothing left to say. The person he considered his best friend for years was about to die. Minute didn’t reach out and comfort him as Spoke, his child, flitched when he saw Mapicc after the first death. Something had happened. He would find out, but Spoke deserved a peaceful passing. Minute excused himself and Spoke. He took Spoke to the voidling’s room where there were pictures of Planet, Minute and Spoke. Minute raised both Planet and Spoke together as Planet was his actual son, but he treated both of them the same because to him they were his children.
The end neared as Spoke woke up from his sleep and started to babble, “papa” over and over. Each time getting quieter and more scared. Minute held his baby, in his arms comforting the voidling until the voidling dissipated into the void. May his child be at peace at last.
Spoke (IsHere) lived a short, shallow life of pain and glory. Yet when it came to the end, the one person who stood with the voidling was the very person who gave them a chance.