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Purpled sits on the edge of the L’manburg crater and thinks he understands, now.
Staring down at the ruins of it all, watching the red vines that twitch and slither across the stone, he considers the land before him. A country once stood here--one he was not affiliated with and did not care for, not really, but a country nonetheless. There were citizens. It meant something to people. And now it is razed down to bedrock. Nobody even cared to take down the obsidian grid that still stands above it, suspended mid-air by supports and the kind of earth-breaking magic this world grants them.
People lived here. They worked hard to build it. This was the place they returned to for refuge, for comfort, for peace.
It’s all gone.
He thinks of his UFO. He thinks of diamonds, netherite, gold sitting in a chest, waiting for him, still.
(Purpled does not cry, if any bystander asks. He is perfectly fine.)
There is no safe place for him to return to now. He swallows, hand resting over the hilt of his blade. He looks up at the sound of footsteps on wood, pauses at the sight of TommyInnit, stood across the crater from him.
They stare at each other for a moment.
Purpled can remember, back during their Hypixel days, the two of them teaming up every once in a while. Tommy was good to fight with--fun, really. He was a bit sloppy in his kills, but he was fun. His energy was infectious, and even if the kills were sloppy, he still came out on top. Purpled has trusted him with his life in battle before. Softer battle, where the threat of death is not so heavy, but still battle. Tommy always had his back.
Here, however, they are strangers to one another. Purpled has stayed… mostly out of the way, on this server. He’s seen what happens to people who get in the way--Schlatt died in disgrace, Wilbur died poetically, Purpled doesn’t quite want to die at all.
There is nowhere left for him to hide. Quackity was right, in a sense.
He has been staring for too long, he realizes. Tommy’s expression is unreadable, but there are bags under his eyes and the blue is duller than it used to be. They both look down at the crater. Purpled stands up to leave.
Tommy lifts a hand and waves--a small, timid thing.
Purpled hesitates. Then, he waves back.
They part ways. No words are spoken. But Purpled feels a little bit lighter than he did a few minutes ago.
He drifts through the days, really. Quackity has made a proposition, and Purpled is taking his time to think it over. Q’s words play on repeat, and Purpled… admittedly, he internalizes them a bit. Quackity is far from a morally upstanding man, but… he doesn’t lie. Or at least, he hasn’t for as long as Purpled has known him. Everything he says has hints of truth, at the very least, and… well, that’s better than some people.
Purpled values honesty. He also values money, and Quackity offers a lot of it.
The choice is simple, at the end of the day. Do Las Nevadas’ bidding, do Q’s dirty work, and take the payment. He’ll have a place to stay, and potentially some pretty powerful people allied with him. Not people he knows well, but he doesn’t really know anyone well already anyway. It should be an easy choice, and yet he stands under the ruins of his old home and cannot seem to figure out what he wants.
There isn’t much left for him here. DogChamp is safe in his house, just beyond the destruction of L’manburg. As long as Purpled doesn’t let people know he’s the one living there, that his things are in there, he should be fine. Nobody really pays much attention to him, except for Puffy or Niki, maybe. They seem to be the only trustworthy people on this server left, and the only ones he willingly talks to.
He passes by others, on occasion. He’ll wave to Tubbo, nod at Jack Manifold.
Mostly, though, he just wants to stay out of the way. Avoidance is the best defense, it seems.
Prime, he doesn’t know what the fuck to do. It should be so easy--every part of him says go, take the money, take the friendship, take the alliance. It seems like it ought to be worth it.
Purpled stares up at the remains of his UFO.
“Fuck it,” he says, loudly. “This place is a shithole, anyway.”
“Damn,” a voice says from behind him, “you didn’t have to say it like that, man.”
He jumps, sword drawn as he spins. Tommy regards the blade with tired eyes, though Purpled can see the anxiety, notices the way he steps back. Purpled pauses, awkwardly, before sliding the sword back into its sheath.
“Sorry.” He coughs. “You scared me.”
Tommy shrugs. “My bad. Walk with me?”
There is a moment of silence as Purpled considers it. He lets his hand slide off of the hilt of his sword, and steps onto the Prime path.
“Sure.”
It’s quiet and awkward for a few minutes. They walk along the path, a bit aimless, just taking in the sights. Finally, Tommy breaks it, and the tension begins to bleed from Purpled’s shoulders.
“Sorry about your UFO,” Tommy says, quietly. “That must’ve sucked.”
He shrugs. “I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner, honestly.”
“Still, it’s shit that that happened to you.” Tommy tucks his hands into his pockets. “Do you know who did it?”
“Quackity,” Purpled mutters, darkly.
There’s a beat of silence, Tommy pausing on the stairs. He looks down at Purpled with wide eyes, startled and soft in a way that Purpled has only ever seen TommyInnit be. It costs you, to be soft on this server. It seems Tommy’s run out of things to lose--he is the most openly soft of all of them. It’s surprising, considering his prickly exterior.
“Big Q?” He asks, finally. He can’t seem to believe it. “He did that?”
Purpled nods. “He was trying to get me to join his country.”
Tommy scrunches up his nose, squints at him. There is a moment of quiet as Tommy thinks.
“That,” he says, “seems kinda sus, if you ask me.”
A laugh is startled out of him, at that. Purpled snorts, covering his mouth with one hand. “Well, when you say it like that…”
Tommy smiles, but there’s something… strained, beneath it. A sort of recognition in his eyes that makes Purpled’s stomach twist. Tommy just shrugs, continuing up the stairs.
“Just…” Tommy hums, frowning, “remember you can make your own choices, big man.”
Purpled furrows his brow. “... right.”
“I’m just saying,” Tommy says, “you’re your own man. Don’t gotta follow people around if you don’t want to. You can stand up for yourself when people try to do bad shit to you.”
There is more to what he’s saying, Purpled knows. The specifics are lost on him, but the words come from personal experience, judging by the surprisingly open and honest look on Tommy’s face. He glances in the direction of L’manburg, and something clicks a bit in Purpled’s brain.
“Right,” he says. “I’ll remember that.”
Tommy pats his shoulder. “Good lad, Purpled. I’ll see you around?”
A pause. Then: “Yeah. Have a good night, Tommy.”
He salutes. Purpled salutes back, smiling a bit. They part ways.
He’ll approach Las Nevadas with caution, he decides. He supposes if things go south, he can always go to Tommy and Tubbo and Ranboo for help. He isn’t entirely without alliances--there are people he can go to, even if he’s not very close with them. He has places and people to fall back on, no matter what Quackity says.
One chance. That’s all he gets.
“Excelsior,” Purpled mutters to himself, and heads for the nether portal.