Spoke exhaled as quietly as he could, hissing breath through his teeth in fear. He gently stepped one foot though the vault doorway that had just slammed open, creating an infinitely loud sound in the quiet of the night. His sneaker barely made a noise against the stone floor, thankfully its sole was made of rubber, so it didn't wake anyone nearby. That is, if they hadn't already woken up from the door opening, Spoke cringed. He hadn't meant to make that loud of a noise, but the vault door seemed to have other ideas.
He just hoped the sound didn't wake anyone up. But awake people would be more interesting than asleep people, maybe it was time to try something new. Spoke considered the idea while sneaking deeper into the base, but ultimately decided that it didn't matter. The door opening loud enough to be heard clearly across the server had already practically given him a heart attack, and that was plenty interesting on its own.
Well, whatever happened, Spoke hoped it would make him scared. The past few nights had really been lacking in that department, Spoke had noticed earlier today. He needed something more, a bigger adrenaline rush. So he set his sights on a base that would provide him with more danger: Subz's.
Everyone knew where Subz's base was, even though he tried to hide it every season. He should really give up on that, Spoke mused. It's probably not possible to hide seventeen of the world's biggest farms on a server with a border. Not that Subz wasn't trying. Spoke had to admit he was using the laziness to travel that most members had against them, but he undermined their laziness to farm items themselves.
Every single time without fail, some way or another, one person finding Subz's base led to everyone knowing the general coords, and then it was basically free reign. And then his farms would get destroyed out of spite or anger, and then he would move, and then the process would repeat. Sometimes the whole cycle happened three or four times a season, Spoke was honestly impressed with Subz's dedication.
But that wasn't important now. Now, Spoke was creeping through the complicated layout of Subz's base, humming an epic mashup of the pink panther theme and sneaky snitch. He had to set the mood, okay?
Torches dimly lit the grid-like hallways, making every corner produce a shadow. Which Spoke was not a fan of, by the way.
Predictably, the next step Spoke took sent him stumbling down stairs that were definitely placed strategically to be hidden in shadow. Spoke really had to give it to Subz, he knew how to make his base not a fun place to be in. Hey, it's his final defense at this point. If people are constantly in the farms section of his base he has the right to booby trap the living space section of his base.
Speaking of the living space section though, Spoke wanted to find that. He already knew this was Subz's base, so he couldn't play his normal "whose base is this" game. Plus he'd been walking in on asleep people a lot recently so he might as well keep up the trend. Maybe Subz would chase him, that would be fun. Spoke's fingers twitched at his sides involuntarily. He started swinging his arms more to get the jitters out.
While he walked down the grid of chests and shulkers, Spoke peaked down each row to see if there were any secret surprises hidden at the end. To his satisfaction, there was. Halfway across the room, at the end of a suspiciously long row of chests, was a vault door similar to the one he came in before. As he walked towards it, Spoke hoped it didn't make the same loud scratchy noise as the entry one.
Lucky for him, it simply swung open with a click when he prompted the handle. Oh, so they could afford to take care of the hinges on this door but not the entry one, which is likely used less? Yeah, he saw how it was...
Spoke peaked his head through the doorway and yup, this was definitely a living space. His methods never failed him, people only ever use doors when it's to separate their work space from their living space. Maybe this was Spokes' new special talent.
To Spoke's surprise, the room was not overwhelmingly purple for once. Well, it still was purple, just not overwhelmingly so. The room was actually kind of nice, Spoke thought as he walked in. He could tell that real effort had been put into making it comfortable to be in. Wow, so this was what it was like when you never logged off.
On one wall of the room, there was a doorway covered by a curtain of beads, feathers, shards of gemstones and braided fabric. Not something Spoke expected Subz to have, but okay, to each their own. To Spokes right was a kitchen and maybe some other room, but he was much more interested in the room behind the curtain. Maybe he did have a problem. It was definitely weird to be actively trying to go into peoples bases and look at them while they were asleep. He was just so bored though, and he wasn't looking at them while they were asleep, was trying to wake them up and make them mad. Spoke needed some excitement here!
The feathers caught on Spoke's hair when he walked through the curtain. Which wasn't a foreign experience for him, just not from a curtain. Spoke left the beads and crystal shards clink behind him as he observed the space in front of him. It was the basic Lifesteal-esque bedroom set up. Armor stands and chests in one corner, a bathroom off to the other side, a couple shelves, the basic stuff. The difference was that instead of a normal bed there was a raised platform with a mess of blankets on it. A nest, Spoke guessed, which made sense considering the hybrids in it. Yeah, there were two of them. Spoke didn't know why he didn't consider this earlier, obviously Vitalasy would be here too, he and Subz lived together. Two for one, nice.
Taking a closer look, Spoke saw that he could just barely see Subz's face over Vitalasy's shoulder, but not Vitalasy's face at all since he was sprawled facedown on Subz. That was okay with Spoke, he would be able to see both of their faces contorted in anger when they chased him. As long as Spoke was the one in charge, was the one playing the game of chase, then he could handle this.
That was until one of Subz's eyes slowly slid open, exactly over Vitalasy's shoulder like Spoke expected. His green pupil practically glowed in the dark as a lazily drifted to Vitalasy still asleep on him, to Spoke standing frozen in the doorway. Despite the gesture being relatively unthreatening, the message was clear: make me move him to get up and you're getting twice as worse.
Spoke gulped involuntarily, then pushed down a laugh at the noise that it made. Slowly, he backed away from the center of the room, back towards the curtain. If he moved slowly enough, maybe they would take the bait.
Spoke's hair was twining around the beads of the curtain when Vitalasy rolled off of Subz, giving him a clear path to get up. Spoke froze, adrenaline pumping through his body. He didn't want to move too early and stop Subz from chasing him, but if he moved too late he could actually get caught.
Subz sat up, Spoke took one step back. Vitalasy curled into a ball. All three of their eyes cast soft glows into the room like lava lamps but with murderous intent. Spoke could barely breathe. Honestly, considering his earlier goals, this was great. But the anticipation of the chase was killing him.
Then finally, finally, Subz launched himself off the bed and at Spoke, claws outstretched like a wild animal. His claws barely brushed the edges of Spoke's hoodie as he took off running. Out of the living room, down the long hallway lined with chests, through the grid-like pattern of the main base, laughing the whole way like a madman.
As Spoke leaped out of the vault door it slammed closed behind him, canning his laugh inside the base like an echo. Spoke jogged off the excess energy and let his laughter dissolved into giggles. For legal reasons, he was not going to think about the mental implications of what he had just done. He was restless and this was his solution. Even if it made him feel insane. Maybe "insane" was okay.
