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Minute blinked at the admin consoles, pulling up his Dm's with Mapicc, but hovering over the keyboard, indecisive.
He wasn't too worried that something would go wrong, but they had just started the new season two or three weeks earlier, and it was his first season being an admin for Lifesteal. Maybe he was paranoid, sure, constantly checking the pages to make sure everything was running as intended, and delegating specific pages to Mapicc because he couldn't handle looking at them just yet, but he thought it was just better to be safe than sorry.
The server's overall health was by far the most important thing. Second place went to all of the players on the server, third to the state of the server after everyone got used to it, and fourth to whatever glitches and exploits the players found throughout the duration of the season.
Everything about the server looked fine. That wasn't what had him worried.
What had him worried was the players. Or rather, one specific player, who he really needs to talk to seeing as his code seems to be fucked, but the one player he'd rather talk to almost everyone else before talking too.
All things considered, the grudge he had against Leowook didn't run nearly as deep as the chasm between him and Clown, but he still would rather not have to see him. Which was why he was debating messaging Mapicc. Mapicc could go talk to Leo, get confirmation that he's fine, or if it wasn't fix it nice and quickly, and then come back and report to Minute while sparring him any details about Leo that he didn't want to hear. Which was most of it.
His heart ached around the phantom sword in his chest. He made up his mind.
His fingers were fast as they hit the keys, sending the most casual message he could despite the worry gnawing away at the sore wound. It made the feeling so much worse.
Minute couldn't face his demons. Not yet. Not anytime soon.
Mapicc would handle it.
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Mapicc scoffed as he crossed the map to where the MICE team had been making their temporary base in a village. He wasn't even fully sure why he was being sent over here, since all Minute had said was 'talk to Leo, his health is weird'. Like what the fuck was that supposed to mean?
He was going to scold the shit out of Minute when he got back. Just because he was an admin now didn't mean he was going to spend every 15 minutes frantically checking for if something went wrong. It just wasn't healthy. They didn't need to be checked that often. And it was lowkey annoying to hear him rant about everything in the code when they gathered for the night, seeing as they were on the same team.
Besides, if Minute was worried, shouldn't he have gone himself? He was more familiar with the coding this time around than Mapicc was, seeing as Mapicc didn't care enough to look into it until it was absolutely necessary.
Hannah was the only person he saw off the bat. She pulled out her sword, and Mapicc shook his head.
"I'm here as an admin, not a player," and he admired the way Hannah's sword immediately dropped.
"Is it about Leo?" She asked, and Mapicc blinked.
"Yes? How did you know?"
"He's been acting off." She stated simply, shrugging her shoulders. "He keeps squinting around like he finds it hard to see, and i've seen him drop items or trip way too many times for it to be normal. I know his skill has kind of seen better days, but this isn't… like him."
Mapicc noted all of her observations down in his head. Apparently, Minute had noticed something. Mapicc still didn't think it was that big a deal, and looking back at the way Minute had worded the message, it seemed as though he didn't either.
"Do you know where he is?" Mapicc asked, looking back up at Hannah after sorting out all of his notes.
She shook her head, a complex kind of expression on her face. "He has a entrance to his own little base somewhere in the hill over there," She gestured to her left, "But I haven't been in it. It should be obvious, I think, but I don't know." Hannah looked at that hill where Leo supposedly was, and then back at Mapicc. "Do take him of him, please, Mapicc."
Mapicc smiled and nodded, completely genuine. Despite the rather toxic enviroment that a game like Lifesteal created, all of the players were still really close with each other. Hannah was a friend to him, and he couldn't see anything changing that anytime soon. Minute on the other hand-
If Minute didn't get his shit together Mapicc was going to get his shit together for him, and he knew for a facthis definition of 'getting shit together' was no where close to Minute's.
There was a clear discolored spot in the side of the hill, and Mapicc followed the area to the left until he found a narrow entrance in the side, and gingerly slide into a decently open area. He was honestly a little shocked that Leo had managed to make a decently sized base this early into the season, even if he clearly wasn't going to be staying in it for long.
It took him a second to find Leo, even though the mined out area only consisted of three rooms.
Leo was asleep in his bed, and while on another server maybe that would have been normal, Lifestealers almost never slept. There just wasn't a point in sleeping on a server that didn't require it, and taking the time to nap when there were enemies looking for them just wasn't a smart decision in any scenario.
He was careful in approaching Leo, worried that if he moved too fast or alerted him to his prescense then he would get a sword to his chest for his troubles before he could explain Minute's paranoia, which was very quickly seeming to be more founded then Mapicc had originally thought. Leo was shivering from where he was pratically curled into a ball, like he was cold despite the warmth in the room.
Was it a sickness, Mapicc wondered. There had been more than a few instances in the past of different players getting sick and being quarantined from the rest of the server to keep them from being farmed or getting others sick, but that was usually reserved for really concerning sicknesses.
Even when some of them got sick they didn't talk about it, preferring to suffer through the sickness and pretend nothing was wrong in the face of taking time away from the fight. Mapicc wandered closer to the bed, reaching out and resting a hand on the comforter, fully expecting for the sword to come swinging, except Leo didn't even acknowledge the feeling.
When Mapicc had originally seen Leo laying in his bed, a tiny sprout of worry had sprouted in his chest. By now, the stalk was fully blooming. How bad was the sickness that Leo, someone who was phenomenally hard to catch off guard typically, wasn't even registering when someone was less than three blocks away from him?
Mapicc needed Leo awake to be able to actually check up on him.
"Leo?" he muttered, scolding himself internally when the sound came out quiet. "Leo? Wake up dude."
Leo shifted a little in his bed, and Mapicc scoffed.
"Leo!" He borderline yelled, and Leo jolted awake from under him.
He glanced around rapidly for a bit, flinching when his hand came into contact with his own bed sheets— something that Mapicc very quickly took note of— before his eyes settled on Mapicc.
"Mapicc?" He blinked once, twice, before his eyes sharpened and he reached into his inventory. Mapicc opened his mouth to tell him what he had told Hannah, admin buiseness not player, but Leos hand froze where it had been pulling his sword from his inventory, and the sword clattered to the ground at Mapicc's feet.
There was no time to be confused because Mapicc could see the clear and unbridled panic seeping into Leo's eyes.
"Admin!" Mapicc said, a little louder than he intended, and Leo flinched. "I'm here as admin not- Not to kill you."
It was quiet, for far longer than Mapicc felt comfortable with, and then finally Leo moved, falling backwards so his head was laying on the plush pillow.
Leo sighed heavily, and then finally made eye contact with Mapicc. "What are you here for?"
Mapicc stuttered, about to begin explaining the whole story, except Leo wouldn't want the whole story. He was not going to have a good reaction to hearing that Minute had sent him to check up on him.
"I was told you were acting weird."
Leo blinked at him, not exactly offended but not far from it.
"Fuck, sorry," Mapicc backtracked, "I was told that you've been trouble with items. And with light." He hadn't noticed until he had said it, but in the entirety of the area Leo had made, there was only one singular torch, set in the middle room, just close enough to illuminate the room to be able to see.
He almost backtracked again as the angry look on Leo's face only deepened, but this time it was more like he was uncomfortable, like he was hiding something.
"I'm fine." Leo said simply, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, which caused Mapicc to take a few steps back, before Leo swung the rest of his body around to sit. "You don't need to be-" Leo shuddered, a hand instinctively flying to his own head, he tried to shake it off, but both of them knew he wasn't going to convince Mapicc anymore. "It's not that bad, I'll be fine."
Leo flinched as Mapicc moved closer, sitting down right next to Leo.
"What's wrong." He said plainly.
Leo sighed, resting his face in his hands and his elbows on his thighs, and groaning. Mapicc waited patiently for an answer, one minute, two minutes, and then he got fed up with waiting and tried again.
"Leo-"
"It's just- remnants from last season." He started, and then the rest of the words just started falling. "I thought everything would go to normal when we skipped from the season five server to this one, except all of the," he hesitated for a second, glancing at Mapicc as if to guage his reaction, "the cold didn't leave when the season started."
This was a lot more than just some glitch in the server.
"What do you mean 'the cold'?" Mapicc kept his voice as calm as he could, though maybe that was going to cause Leo to panic more than if Mapicc had accidently yelled.
Leo looked away again, and Mapicc knew damn well he was looking for some kind of distraction or something.
"Leo. As one of your current admins, tell me everything."
Leo flinched. Mapicc didn't feel bad for exercising his admin abilites when the situation called for it.
"From when I was in the void," Leo explained, clasping his hands together in front of him and attempting to flex the fingers, and Mapicc had been a little worried about the way that Leo's fingers twitched, but he was much more worred about the black tinting on his skin, "When they originally told me to jump in it, I wasn't thinking about what would happen, just. Maybe I could get rid of the guilt if I wasn't anywhere near Minute, and the server was going to end soon anyways.
"It was so cold." Leo whispered. "And at some point I guess I just, stopped paying attention, or disacoiated, or something, because I didn't notice how I couldn't feel my fingers anymore, and i guess my eyes got adjusted to the dark because when we all got pulled up for Branzy's goodbye, it was so bright.
"I wasn't worried about it because I figured it would go away when the season ended, and I could start again like normal, but- can you pull up my hearts?"
Mapicc opened the admin console with a flick of his wrist, quickly turning down the brightness when Leo covered his eyes, clicking through the folders fast and swiping open the players folder, before scrolling down the list until finding 'L'. He'd never noticed how Leo was the only member to start with an L, but he erased the thought as he pulled the page open and-
Oh.
That was not normal.
Where every other player on the server would have their heart count, neatly displayed in their rows with the typical lifesteal hardcore heart, Leo's were a bright blue. Mapicc squinted at the display trying to remember when he had ever seen heart's changed like that, and then the image of powdered snow in a bucket came to his head. It was the frozen effect, the cold that chipped away at health when standing in the extremely cold blocks. Leo wasn't in the snow, but the cold of the void and his prolonged contact had given him the effect, seemingly permanently.
It took him a little while to stop thinking about whether that was more concerning because the effect lasted across server, or whether it was because they hadn't noticed, and powdered snow could have many more effects than just that.
Mapicc pulled open Leo's code besides it, scanning it quickly since he could see the cold was actually making Leo weaker and he would occasionally take damage, but he couldn't tell what in Leo's code could be causing the disturbance.
"Leo this- I can't handle this, I don't know the code. We need to get Minute-"
Leo's hand shot out, grabbing Mapicc's where he had grabbed his communicator. Mapicc could've easily pulled his hand from his grasp seeing as it was so weak— A part of him felt sick seeing the way Leo couldn't perform one of the most basic functions code bestowed upon them— but he didn't, and let Leo speak.
"No." Leo spoke, his voice unwavering. "Not Minute." Mapicc tried to voice a retort but Leo wouldn't let him. "You will not bring Minute into this. I would rather the pain gets five times worse then bring Minute into this. Find someone else to do it, I don't care."
Mapicc thought for a second, and then flinched as Leo took another tick of damage next to him. "I'll be back," He said simply, and stood up, making his way as fast as he could through the rooms and out into the broad daylight. The light was refreshing, but it just made him feel sicker to know that Leo had built his base specifically to avoid the light and the damage the dark of the void had done to his eyes.
He needed to figure out what to do. In truth, his first thought had been to go and get Minute anyways, because he knew that Minute could deal with the code quickly and efficiently, except the more he thought about it the worse of an idea it became. Whatever guilt Leo felt was preventing him from going anywhere near Minute, and Minute refused to go anywhere near Clown or Leo because the pain of the betrayal still hurt him.
No matter whether this was beyond Minute's grudge, Mapicc could not go back to Minute with this.
He pulled up the admin console again. Bacon was also an admin, but he wasn't on the server at the time, and Mapicc wasn't sure he could wait. He scanned the list of online players almsot frantically, skipping over from 'M' to 'R', and then he stopped.
Spoke wasn't exactly an admin, but the only reason the rest of them were was because Spoke gave them it. Mapicc knew for a fact Spoke was capable of handling the code, probably better than any of the rest of them could.
Mapicc opened his communicator, practically hitting the keys for the command.
/teleport Mapicc SpokeIsHere
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Minute's communicator pinged as he was talking to Bacon. He didn't give it much more than a sideways glance, but he registered the command that had been inputted into the admin console in that glance. Apparently, Bacon did too.
"-Mapicc teleported to Spoke? You know whats up with that?" He asked. He continued before Minute could give him an answer. "Are we gonna have to worry about Mapicc colluding with Spoke for this finale?"
"Probably not," Minute answered, ingnoring Bacon's playful pout. "I sent Mapicc out to do something, he's probably just consulting with Spoke before he does something with his admin abilities."
Bacon nodded, and continuted his spiel about his plans for their team this season and everything they could do to prevent anyone from abusing the server again, despite them both knowing this was lifesteal and there was only so much that could be done.
He zoned out for a second, thinking about how he had been right in his choice to send Mapicc to deal with- his strange health glitch. Mapicc was handling it, so Minute didn't have to worry about it.
He zoned back in just in time for Bacon to ask him a question, and he stuttered as Bacon laughed at him for zoning out, before casually repeating the question again for Minute to actually hear this time.
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Spoke hummed as he stared at Leo's code and display, which Mapicc had pratically thrown in his face frantically.
He knew Mapicc was expecting an answer fast seeing as how he wasn't attempting to hide his fidgeting in the corner of Spoke's eye, but Spoke had never seen anything like this before. He'd seen similar things, like being able to erase half of a players health bar using a exploit, but Leo's situation wasn't caused by an exploit. It was just a glitch somewhere in his code between seasons.
"I think it probably has something to do with the extension, or the way that we usually get player information from one season to another." He finally answered Mapicc. "I can try and help, if you give me admin, but I've never seen a glitch like this one."
Mapicc hesitated. "Do you think Minute's going to think anything if I give you admin?"
Spoke looked towards the ceiling. Ah. That was why Mapicc hadn't gone to Minute. He wasn't sure exactly why he hadn't thought of that already. "Would it really be that bad to put Minute and Leo in the same room?" He asked, "They need to face their problems eventually."
"I needs to happen eventually, yeah," Mapicc agreed, "Just maybe after we get Leo's situation at least sorted and he's started healing right."
Spoke rolled his neck, eyeing Mapicc and enjoying the way he seemed to squirm a little under Spoke's gaze. He knew Mapicc found it disturbing when he twisted his own body in ways he hadn't be able to before the wormhole, but it was just so entertaining, and the power had felt nice.
"Are you going to abuse the admin if I give it to you?" Mapicc asked.
Spoke thought about it for a second.
"No," He said, genuine, "I'll only use my temporary time as admin to help fix Leo's code, and to hide all of the changes we make from Minute."
He smiled to himself as Mapicc sighed in relief.
"But I'll make no promises that I won't use this to ask you for a favor in the future."
Mapicc paled and Spokes smile spread across his face in a faux calming grin. "What? Did you think I would do this just for free Mapicc?" Mapicc stuttered, and Spoke waved his hand around, entranced by the way Mapicc eyes followed the movement the whole way. "It won't be anything extreme, and I won't ask for your help during whatever I decide to do this season. Deal?"
Mapicc stared at the hand that Spoke had extended out to him as though it was going to kill him at any second. "You won't do anything with the admin abilites while you have them, you won't force- ask me to help you with whatever end of the season plan you have- I don't believe you." Mapicc took a step back.
Spoke smiled at him, ever calm. "That's fine. You can always go and ask Bacon for help with Leo."
Mapicc whined quietly, and Spoke internally praised himself. He hadn't intended to use this situation as leverage, but it was going to helpful to have it in the future, so why not take the chance. He knew Mapicc wasn't going to say no.
He reached his arm out again, nodding to it, when Mapicc looked up at him, and ignored the way Mapicc's hand shook as it settled into his.
"Let's go pay Leo a visit shall we?" Spoke purred, and he revelled in the glare Mapicc shot his way. "I am actually worried about him- Your display says he's about to die, and I assume he's not going to eat because of the discomfort that comes with it."
Mapicc franticcally pulled the console displays from him and stared at Leo's profile.
"Fuck." He practically shouted, and Spoke laughed as the familiar feeling of teleporting overcame him.
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Mapicc didn't think Spoke was actually going to do anything, but he still kept careful watch on his movement out of the corner of his eye while he gave him the admin perms. It still shocked him, jsut how fast Spoke pulled up his own copy of the console with his new admin abilites, and the speed in which he managed to implement whatever code it was that prevented Minute and Bacon from seeing most of Spoke's changes in the changelog.
Of course, there was only so much that they could prevent them from seeing, such as Mapicc's teleport command when he had teleported the two of them back to Leo's temporary base, but it would at least keep the two other admins from interfering until they were at a point where it wouldn't have consequences on Leo's physical health.
Spoke nodded to himself when he finished inputting the command, and finally undid the copy and pasted command he had told Mapicc to input so that they could pause Leo's respawn until they were ready.
Leo popped into exist into the bed almost gracefully, if they ignored the way he flailed for a bit to try and get his surroundings together. It was interrupted helpfully by a tick of damage, and both Spoke and Mapicc flinched.
Mapicc rested a hand on Leo's shoulders as he breathed, which also happened to prevent him from curling into the same ball position Mapicc had found him curled in. "Hey. Are you okay?"
Leo glared at him.
"Right, not okay," Mapicc stuttered, and Spoke giggled a little behind him. "Does it hurt more or less than before?"
Leo tilted his head to the side, his eyes blurring a little as he gauged what he was feeling. "More."
Spoke hissed between his teeth, and Leo flinched when he looked at Spoke. Mapicc blinked in confusion for a few seconds before he realized the Void like nature of Spoke's skin.
"Sorry." Spoke breathed out and Mapicc turned to look at him in shock.
"It's fine," Leo stated blankly, eyes closed as he looked up at the ceiling. "It doesn't hurt that much worse. The limb cramps hurt more than anything else."
Leo opened his eyes and looked at them after they were silent for longer than he had expected. They were both looking at him.
"Whenever I try to use my hands they cramp, so I try to keep them still." He explained and rolled his eyes as the two of them nodded in sync. "It happens in my feet too, which was why Hannah said I trip a lot more than usual."
"You know what Hannah said?" Mapicc asked.
Leo shrugged lightly, flinched as it moved his arms. "She stopped by while you were gone to make sure that I was okay. She also told me that she was going to spend time with Minute, and that you were invited once you're done. I didn't want to tell her it was probably going to be a while."
Mapicc winced. Yeah, this absolutely was not going to be fast.
Spoke stepped forwards between them. "Where are your hearts, Leo?" Leo hesitated, before gesturing to his neck. Mapicc raised an eyebrow, knowing damn well that wasn't one of the normal spots, but Spoke ignored it completely, resting his hand on Leo's throat.
If Leo hadn't just said that was where his hearts were inlaid, Mapicc would be panicking a lot more, though he was still panicking since he had no clue if Spoke was just going to rip them all out or not.
Instead of killing Leo on the spot, Spoke pulled up his second console for coding. "It's easier to tell the effects that code has if I have some kind of direct connection to your code. Hearts give a direct connection to your code and also the code of the extension, so I can tell if the problem had something to do with the way it uses past season info." Spoke explained. "It'll probably feel better for you if you're asleep Leo."
Leo glanced at the rest of the bed, careful to not move his neck much. "Honestly, I don't think I'm going to fall asleep easily like this."
Spoke looked at him and Leo blinked at the white void that had once been Spoke's much brighter eyes.
"I can put you to sleep if you're fine with that? It's probably going to hurt to fix the endless cold problem, and it might kill you once or twice. If I put you to sleep using the code you won't feel it and we won't have to worry about death interrupting the process."
Leo took a deep breath, looking up again, and nodding.
Mapicc watched as Spoke input one singular line of simple looking code, and then Leo was out cold.
"Do you need me to do anything?" He offered, and Spoke shook his head.
"Not now, and probably not soon. You can go attend your date with Hannah and Minute."
Mapicc flushed. He tried to bury the annoyance and humilation that came with Spoke laughing at him.
"Whatever," He scowled, and then he was gone.
Spoke smiled at where Mapicc had been standing. He let his face return to a more neutral look as he turned back to Leo and started punching in the code. It was still a little strange to need to be consiously aware of his facial expressions at all times since they didn't change normally, but he wouldn't have traded everything the wormhole did to him for the world.
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Minute smiled as he sat back against the couch cushion. Hannah and Mapicc were curled up against each other on the other side of the couch, and were happily snoring away. At least Minute assumed they were happy. They seemed to be before they had both fallen asleep.
Date night had been great, perfect even, but now that Minute had no one else to talk to, the need to check up on everything was bothering him again. He could feel his hands twitching towards the console, itching to pull up everything, but Hannah had told him that tonight was specifically to avoid admin duties. It was for the three of them to spend time together outside of all the server stress.
Minute had tried to convince her that he wasn't stressed but she wouldn't hear it.
"Minute?"
Minute turned to Mapicc, who was eyeing the way his hands were moving. Mapicc wasn't going to hear it either.
He held out a hand to Minute. "Take a break for once." His arm faltered in the air, and Minute grabbed it before it fell. "Sleep."
Mapicc pulled him into the pill he and Hannah had already made, and Minute wiggled around for a few seconds to find a comfortable position. It was their night, for them to spend together. His admin abilities could wait until the next day.
And if they really couldn't wait until the next day, Minute trusted Bacon to handle it, or if he couldn't, he would come and wake Minute up. They didn't hold date night on the actual Lifesteal server, so the flow of the worlds code itself didn't flow through his veins as it normally did. He'd talked to Mapicc and Bacon about it once, about whether the tickling feeling of power it gave affected them or not.
They'd both been used to the feeling of power, far beyond anything Minute had felt in season five. They'd been playing for longer after all.
In some ways it felt weird to be an admin without the experience the others had. Like he had been given this role out of pity. Maybe they felt bad about the way Minute had been treated, about-
Minute didn't like thinking about them, especially not now surrounded by loved ones, but he was tired enough that the thoughts slipped in quietly and without fanfare. Surely Minute wasn't the only person wronged by Leo and Clown, even if the teams were vastly different in earlier seasons.
Thinking of Leo reminded him of when they'd been left alone during Clown's abscense. When he'd wake up in the mornings, cuddled against Leo and they would get ready together, When he would join the server and Leo would be watching a fight, and Minute would tell him to say the word. It was the only time he had really gotten with Leo alone, and right up until the election, he had regretted it so much.
Sometimes he thought about what their lives had been like before the betrayal, and he would wonder whether avoiding them really was for the best. 'This was lifesteal', or whatever their argument had been. It was never going to end with peace.
Minute thought back to the ending, long after he had lost his life.
They had been right.
It didn't mean that they had to be right. He wasn't as assured in his pursuit of peace as he had been before, but if Minute had a chance he would still choose it over any other option. He knew Hannah and Mapicc didn't share the mindset, but he didn't mind. He'd long since learned that almost no one truly agreed with him.
He sighed, careful to keep it quiet as to not wake up one of the other two again. They had betrayed him. He couldn't just let that go. He knew that whatever was going on between Mapicc and Zam had never been let go. Was this really all that different? He closed his eyes, willing himself to stop thinking about it and just live in without thinking of them.
It didn't work, not when trying to think of something else had him focusing on his admin responsibilites, and the image of Leo's weird heart fluxuations. Mapicc was here, so everything was fine. It was just a matter of convincing himself.
He had been sitting there for about five minutes before Hannah wrapped an arm around him in her sleep, and he finally managed to overwrite the thoughts with thoughts of Hannah and Mapicc and Bacon instead. He fell into sleep readily, eager to ignore the problems he refused to address by focusing on the well being of the server.
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Spoke took his hand away from Leo and glanced over the coding one last time. Everything looked right, or at least everything that he could fix looked right. Leo would have to readjust some of his adjustable settings to get everything back to how it was, but he was pretty sure he had gotten rid of the permanent freezing effect. All that was left to do now was to wake Leo up so that he could be sure.
He shook Leo's shoulder, not exactly gently but not enough to give him a headache. He'd learned the perfect way to do it from doing it to Zam because he knew Zam because Zam was prone to headaches. It had taken a considerable amount of time to prefect, but it was a good skill to have.
Leo yawned, stretching, and Spoke took that as a good sign. It still took a decent bit of time for him to sit up, and Spoke could tell he was still in some amount of pain judging from the routine flinches when his fingers or feet would come into contact with something.
"Does that feel better?" Spoke asked, tilting his head and brushing a stray strand of cloth from his headband out of his face.
Leo nodded. "Better." He looked around the small room. "Where's Mapicc?"
Spoke shrugged. "Probably with Minute and Hannah somewhere. I don't know, but I sent him away shortly after you woke up. There were a few things that i couldn't fix through the code and can't be affected by eating, so we're going to be spending a lot of time together!" Spoke laughed a little. The pinched face Leo made wasn't as entertaining as Mapicc's, but that was okay, because the facial expression had not been his intention.
"Is that a good thing for me?" Leo asked plainly.
"Yes." Spokes answer was just as plain.
Spoke opened the console again, inputting what appeared to Leo to be a command from a mod that he had seen once. After pressing enter, a pair of simple sunglasses formed in his hands and he held them out of Leo. Leo scrutinized them.
"You're going to need to go outside if you want to start getting better. Physically that is, because I don't think I can help you with the mental side effects that I knowyou have." Leo didn't even try to disagree with him. Spoke frowned to himself. He knew he was right but maybe it was worse than he thought. He'd plan for someway to adress that, but they were going outside first.
"Come on," Spoke gestured, standing up and making his way to the doorway, hanging onto the aperture. "If you don't come outside then I'm bringing Minute to deal with you."
Shortly after, which included Leo scrambling out of bed for the first time in a few days, and Spoke laughing at him, the two of them had made their way outside. The sunglasses he had spawned in resting neatly on the bridge of Leo's nose.
"You are going to have to take them off every once in a while," Spoke told him, "Having the sunglasses makes your eyes feel better, but you're never going to get better if you don't face the sun eventually."
Leo blinked around the world as if it was his first time seeing it without getting a migraine, and Spoke assumed that it was because it was.
"What are we out here for?" Leo turned to look at Spoke.
"Easy!" The once-god responded. "We're going on a walk, and then we're going to sit in the village, and you are going to try and get items out of your inventory." Spoke didn't think that Leo was going to ask why, but he was still happy that Leo didn't. He knew the extent of the damage to himself.
"Are you going to mock me everytime I fall or something?" he prompted quietly.
Spoke considered it.
"No."
And then he started his walk, careful not to move to fast to be ahead of Leo, but enough to convince him to start moving. They started off slow, the speed of some of the turtles beached on the sand near the oceans. Spoke would hold out his arms whenever Leo's feet stumbled below him, and he winced second hand a few different times as Leo's ankles would creak and sprain.
They managed to walk roughly 50 blocks, around the village a few times. Progress was slow, slow enough that Spoke had gotten a little more than frustrated a few times, but Leo was determined to not give up, even though he had fallen on his face more than a few times in the period they had been walking.
Spoke pushed Leo to sit on a wooden side of one of the village planters, and he pulled a bow and some arrows out of his inventory, handing it to Leo. He blinked at Spoke as it was absorbed into his inventory.
"Take it out." Spoke ordered, and Leo gingerly raised his hand to open his inventory menu. It took a few swipes in the air before his fingers finally made the right motion, and then his hand hovered in his ivnentory for a concerning long time, before he grabbed the bow and starting to withdraw it. Spoke watched, a little fascinated, as Leo's grip faltered a few seperate times. Dropping the tip here, trying to pull the bow out without messing it up,despite the movements being much harder.
Leo groaned, frustrated and pulled it out of his inventory in one fast pull, and both he and Spoke watched as it tumbled to the ground, clattering on the grass. Spoke reached forwards, grabbing Leo's wrist, and pulling his hand forwards so that he could look at it. Leo's hand was freezing, and if Spoke's body had any sense of temperature anymore he would've recoiled.
His fingers hadn't moved from the position since he had sucessfullly pulled out the bow, even if he couldn't out it on his hotbar, and his fingers twitched, a grimace on Leo's face, even as Spoke applied the smallest amount of pressure that he could.
A long time ago, Spoke would've been much more distressed seeing something like this. But a long time ago, Spoke had sacrificed his humanity for power.
No amount of the power he had gained would've given him the power to fix this. The healing of this wound was going to be left up to time, and Spoke knew that injuries like this could take years to fully heal if at all.
"is it cramping right now?" Spoke asked quietly. Leo nodded, looking towards the water sloshing against the soil of the farm. "We'll take a break before we do it again then."
By the time Mapicc popped into existence next to them, they had tried the same exercise 5 times, two of which Leo had succeeded in. It'd been about four hours since they had started, because one of the failed attempts at grabbing an item had taken thirty full minutes.
"Oh, we're outside." Mapicc chirped, double taking the sunglasses stll restng on Leo's face. Spoke understood the reacton. There had been a few tmes durng their walk when he had turned around the caught the image of the sunglasses and had to stop himself from laughing.
"Yep!" Spoke drawled. "I fixed the code that gave him the code effect, and now we're starting excersizes, to see how bad it is and start trying to fix it. How is-" Spoke glanced at Leo, and then back at Mapicc, refusing to finish his sentence.
Mapicc stood still for a few seconds, confused, and then he understood.
"He's fine. I told him to take a break today, and I'm hoping he actually listens to us for once. If I'm lucky he'll stop looking at the console for a few days. Do you need me to do anything, code wise?"
Leo interrupted them.
"You know you can just call him Minute around me, right?"
They glanced at each other and Leo rolled his eyes.
"it's not that important. I know you're on his team Mapicc, and I know Hannah is going to join his team too when ours inevitably falls apart. You don't have to keep tip-toeing mentioning him. You're not bringing him here, then it's fine."
Spoke tilted his head. He supposed that made sense, though he also knew that there was more to it then that.
"Okay." He said simply, forcing a happier tone into his voice. "We won't bring Minute here, and if he does find something out we'll distract him. Let's continue shall we?"
────𓆩❤︎𓆪────
A full week after their 'date night', Minute finally gave into to the admin console calling to him.
He was relieved at first aboutt he emptiness of everything, assuming that everything had been cleared up and that it was okay, except he couldn't find anything else in the logs. He knew just by glancing at the page once that Leo's code had been altered, but he couldn't find the log of the code being altered, and that shouldn't have been right.
It was after he scrolled up further that he noticed Spoke had been re-admined by Mapicc.
Minute had no problems wth Spoke beng an admin. Truly, he didn't, his first experience on Lifesteal had been when Spoke became the admin in Season four, except he couldn't think of a single reason why Mapicc would give spoke admin permissions unless something had happened that he didn't know about, or unless Bacon had been right about him teaming with Spoke again.
Minute refused to believe it was the second option. He had talked to Mapicc about Spoke enough to know that Mapicc would rather not team with him.
But then what other reason could there have been? Leo's code was fine now, so he assuming it wasn't that, except-
Except he hadn't seen whatever had fixed it. What if Mapicc couldn't fix whatever had happened to Leo so he got Spoke onto the server? What did that say about Minute, that Mapicc couldn't trust him enough to tell him what was wrong with one of the people who had meant the most to him?
He didn't move from where he was curled in front of his console for a long while, all of his thoughts spiralling out of control. It made sense, considerng he had sent Mapicc to deal with whatever the problem was. Mapicc must've inferred that Minute wanted nothing to do wth Leo at all, and while Minute had thought that it was true, he still cared.
He hated to admit it to himself, because it meant that the moment he had deemed the most important in his memory, the betrayal, didn't actually mean more to him than the people who had betrayed him. That moment had been the reasoning for joining PB&J. It had felt like his entire purpose towards the end of the season.
Mapicc had mentioned it once, and Minute had brushed it off, but aMapicc had been right. His obsession wth beng a new admin, the way he had vehemently avoided any mentions of the past season, the way he had attached himself to his team. He felt like he lacked a purpose and he'd been trying to fill that void with as much as he could.
He needed to have a conversation with Hannah, he decided. He was determined to heal himself through whatever means, and he knew she would understand. He debated talking to Spoke and Mapicc first, now that he was aware they were doing something, but he wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to go into that conversation without thinking about himself first.
He still couldn't think of facing Leo without getting a little naseous. He had no clue if that was because the idea of their having been something wrong and Minute had refused to attend to it, or if it was just the memory of Clown's sword buried in his chest, and the feeling of falling backwards into the rushing water of the river, his vision blurred with the churning blue slowly being tinted red.
Hannah first. The past later.
────𓆩❤︎𓆪────
It'd been a week, and Leo's grip on objects was not gettng better. n fact, Mapicc was pretty sure that it was actually getting worse.
They had left Leo alone for now, his glasses resting on the block they had set beside his bed. Mapicc had to squint to see them since Spoke had enchanted them with invisibility binded to Leo, so that Leo could still see wthout any other players questioning where the fuck he had gotten sunglasses.
Leo had yet to really take them off though, outside of when he took naps because his heart code was still coping with the constant damage he had been taking and the sudden lack of constant damage. Leo had gotten heart pains on day two, so they had to extend the breaks between time.
"We should get Minute involved."
Spoke was the one who had brought it up in the end.
"No-"
"Leo isn't getting better, at least not any time soon, and he can do his excersizes on his own." Spoke stated. "Minute still isn't over whatever happened between him and Leo last season, and if he doesn't want to get exploited he's going to need to figure it out and soon."
Mapicc didn't like that Spoke knew something had been off wth Minute, though a part of hm wasn't surprised that Spoke had been paying attention to everything even if he hadn't said anything. It was in Spoke's new-found nature to know.
"Your boy s going to need to face hs demons eventually, Mapicc."
Mapicc scowled at Spoke. "Do not talk about hm lke that. He's been talking to Hannah, I know, so I refuse to hound him for something that hurt him more than anyone else-"
"More than Leo?" Spoke argued back. "I know you've seen the guilt hes feels just as much as I have." Mapicc flinched. "You aren't stupid, Mapicc. They need to talk to each other. And I have outstayed my welcome as an admin and you know it. There's only so long I can be an admin before the temptation to control it takes over, y'know. Wonder what Minute would say if he learned my actions in the future were because of you."
Mapicc was staring at the floor. He refused to look at Spoke in front of him. Some part of him had thought that since Spoke hadn't said anything like this when they were around Leo that he had changed his mind, but he should've known better. They had all thought that Spoke had been genuinely regretful about season four, until he had reigned his control back in at the end of season five, and the cycle repeated again.
If Mapicc didn't let Minute near Leo, if he let the two of them avoid each other like they so clearly were going to do anyways, would that turn out to be a cycle too? Would Minute keep avoiding the server, drowning himself in his server duties because he couldn't face the monsters that made up the past? If Mapicc forced the two of them to reconcile, could he save Minute from trying to save everyone again?
Mapicc would never say it to Minute's face, but his saviour complex was pointless. They had all agreed to the enviroment when they joined the server. They had all joined the server to chase the adrenaline and the fights and the blood lust, and Minute hadn't been any different. There was nothing to protect themselves from. Mapicc was determined to convince Minute of that this season, though he had planned on doing that slowly but surely during the actual season.
In the end, he had already made up his mind.
"Fine. We tell Minute. But we leave out all of the extra details."
Spoke grinned at him, his white eyes glowing in the dim room.
"I knew you would agree."
────𓆩❤︎𓆪────
Leo woke up to the same dim room he had locked himself into for as long as he could the first week of the server.
His bones still ached, his heart stll burned, and even opening his eyes against the dm room was occasonally too much. He'd been fallng infnitely and sometimes he would wake up to that falling feeling, despte not havng moved from his spot in bed.
Hs hands were already cramping, and he groaned. If he felt as though he could move without hurting himself, he would have rolled over to cover his eyes.
"Goodmorning Leo." A hand rested itself in his hair, gently scratching at his head, and Leo sighed, nuzzling up into the hand. It was so reminiscent of season five, waking up wth Minute and refusing to get out of bed until an hour after they had originally meant to leave. It was like everything that he had sacrificed for some sense of normalcy in the face of intimacy.
He opened his eyes, seeing the visage of the past sitting on a slab next to his bed. He blinked, and then blinked a few more times. Minute was still in front of him.
Minute was actually here.
Leo scrambled to sit up, or at least tried to, and Minute reached over, pressing down on Leo's chest, careful to avoid where his actual heart was and also avoiding his arms as he pushed Leo back down.
"Don't move." Minute's tone lilted up, as though he was trying to corral a scared cat into a bed, and Leo really did not like the comparison.
"Why are you here." He shot back, and he flinched when Minute flinched. "Sorry, I-"
"No, no, I didn't-" Minute cut himself off, looking away from Leo though his hands were still firmly pressing him down into the sheets so that he didn't escape. Leo looked away too, wincing as the movement adjusted the position of his lifesteal hearts too.
"I'm sorry." For a second Leo thought that he was dreaming again, that all of the thoughts he had wanted to say had started coming flooding out in a recurring monologue, until he realized that Minute was the one who said it.
"What?"
"For not- clearly you didn't trust me, since Mapicc went to Spoke and not me, and I feel- It just kind of feels like I failed somehow, if you felt like you couldn't-" Minute sighed. closing his eyes and breathing deep, and then reopening them and looking back at down at Leo. Leo tried to look away, but Minute moved one of his hands up to keep Leo's head titled. "I wanted to leave last season in the past, but I couldn't stop thinking of you."
Leo didn't move, baffled.
"I talked to Hannah and Mapicc about it, which isn't why I'm here!" He rushed as though he thought saying the wrong thing would drive Leo off even though Leo couldn't move from under him, and not just because Minute was still holding him down. "But- what happened last season hasn't meant much to me this season, and I was being stupid in avoiding you, and maybe Clown."
Leo snorted, a genuine smile spreading across his face. "Just maybe."
Minute's eyes widened, and then he gradually smiled back. "Yeah. Maybe."
Leo rolled his eyes and gave in as he pressed his cheek into Minute's hand.
"I'm sorry too." He saw Minute jolt out of the corner of his eye and he continued before he could say anything. "For the betrayal. I didn't think you would… take it as hard as you did. Maybe it was just the way that Lifesteal went before you had joined, but season five was- It was something else entirely, and I was doing everything in my power to keep Lifesteal like how it had always been in my memory."
Minute leaned down, resting his head on Leo's shoulder still beng careful to avoid any of the spots he had been told would hurt him.
"I think it really just boils down to that. I didn't want how it had originally been to change, even if what we made of season five made me so much happier than seasons one or two did."
Minute didn't answer him, but that was okay. He was perfectly content just existing wth him.
"And also I think I just wanted to be on a team with Clown again. I'm sure you know what that feels like." Leo said, and he burst out laughing as Minute jerked back, glaring at Leo even as the barely seeable blush rose across his cheeks.
"Shut the fuck up."
Leo raised his hand, intending to run his fingers through Minute's hair, and flinched hard as the cramp got worse after his hand had moved roughly one third of a block. Before he could lower it again to a more comfortable position, Minute grabbed it, lacing their fingers together and bringing both of their hands to rest on his chest.
It still hurt a little bit, but the warmth of Minute against Leo's hand made it more bearable.
Minute used his other hand to gently roll Leo over, laying down beside him and pulling the other closer.
"Does it get better when you're asleep?" He whispered, and Leo wiggled closer to Minute, trying not to make the pain any worse.
"Yeah. Warmth helps to."
Minute smiled, leaning forward and kissing Leo's forehead gently. "Then how about we sleep, and we can deal with Mapicc in the morning?"
Leo was already out cold, and when Minute closed his eyes, he found that the sleep that had refused to claim him almost every single day of this season greeted him with open arms.