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Purpled had a job.
He had a job, and once he did the job, he’d get money, and he liked money. He really liked money, and jobs were easy to get done, for the most part, but this one…
It had felt a little dirty since the beginning.
When the group of red-stained egg-enthusiasts had stepped their nasty little feet into his cave, he’d been very clear. The deal would have to be a good one, or he wouldn’t do it.
He only spoke to Badboyhalo, because he tried everything he could to ignore the man in the white sweatshirt whose eyes burned as red as the sun as it went down. He’d made it very clear that he and his services were expensive, and yet, Bad had been willing to pay the price, which was curious. Purpled hadn’t been outside in a while, but from what he knew, Bad was peaceful, kind, the guy didn’t swear, for god sake.
And yet, Purpled had held a netherite ingot as a down payment, and his part of the deal was a life.
Which was the entire point of his operation, but this happened every time he was bought. He’d have a crisis, he’d wonder what the price of life was, then he’d get over it and let blades be his best friend again.
He tried not to dwell on the blood that stained his past. It just made the jobs more painful, and the less jobs he took, the less money he made.
And Purpled liked money.
So, he’d rolled his shoulders back in some faux form of relaxation, and accepted the deal.
The life he needed to take was Puffy’s, who he didn’t know much about, so the job began with gathering information. Who was she? Where did she go? Who checked up on her, and when? Who would be able to make the connection that she’d been assassinated? What were her plans for the next few days?
All the answers were… insanely boring, which led Purpled to wonder why she was such a high-priority target. In short, what made her life so valuable?
Captain Puffy, from the name, was clearly some sort of sea-dweller in the past, whether for some navy or for pirates. She seemed caring, which was dangerous on this server, and used to have affiliations with Dream, which Purpled found curious. She was friends with Eret, and perhaps on some level had been with Schlatt, and cared for the shiny new god-man that was roaming the server, like a son. How had her connections stayed valid in a land that was war-torn and hopeless? What secrets did she hide?
The results were frustratingly… bare.
Captain Puffy didn’t seek out revenge like so many others did. She sighed, she forgave, she used words when violence seemed like the only option. She hugged those that hurt her, she smiled at those who scowled her way, she laughed when the darkness seemed to press at her with the intention to break her.
Purpled frowned. There had to be more to this.
She built back the structures that had broken with- with Hannah, who Purpled so badly wanted to reach out to. He wanted to smile and laugh with her like they used to during Bedwars games with the rest of their group, but those times had passed and he shook them away.
How curious. Captain Puffy was against the egg, which was why Purped figured Bad wanted her gone.
But… Purpled listened to what she said, and… was she wrong? Were they not children? Did they not deserve a chance at life?
A job was a job.
Purpled knew from experience that everyone hid something, he just needed to figure out what Puffy was hiding. And, from what he’d seen, she was fairly busy except for her… Therapy sessions. He didn’t need one, but surely that was the best option? Or maybe it’d be too obvious.
He tried not to feel sad when he dropped a note in her mailbox with the extra words that asked her to keep it under wraps.
He tried not to feel sad when she messaged him with a time.
When Purpled stepped into her office, having made sure that no one saw him enter, he felt safe. He hadn’t felt safe in… years, but he tried to not let it cloud his mind. The safest environments often turned out to be the ones with the most secrets. He couldn’t drop his guard. Where were the exits? Could she escape? Could he? Where were emergency weapons stored? What armor did she have on?
Puffy laughed softly. “I can hear you thinking from all the way over here. You’re safe, Purpled. I’m glad you reached out, I really am. I was beginning to get worried, all that darkness can’t be good for you.”
And that just- what? Someone had remembered him? Someone who he’d never even spoken to cared about his well being? There had to be a catch. Did she have a target?
Purpled’s hands shook in his sweatshirt pockets and he picked at his cuticles. The weight of his knife was concealed, and he sat down shakily. What was he doing here?
Puffy looked at him, concerned. Oh, yeah. He should probably respond.
He cleared his throat. “I’m uh. Yeah, been getting out a little more.”
“That’s good!” Puffy beamed, and Purpled hated how contagious her happiness was. “What’ve you been doing?”
What had he been doing? “Well,” He started. “I’ve been going outside. I like to watch… the birds.”
“That’s great,” Puffy smiled, and Purpled knew she was genuine.
He loosened the grip on his knife. He was getting to know her, right? That was important to the job. It was necessary.
Purpled leaned back in the chair.
It was… it was nice, he found. Under the ruse of opening up, he did, and it felt good to let go of some of the emotions that had festered in his dark cage. Puffy was nice, and easy to talk to, and although he still kept a lot of things deep inside of his chest, he managed to smile a little.
With each session, with each meeting, he let go of his knife a little sooner. He didn’t want to kill Puffy. She was nice, and she didn’t have any secrets that would trigger her turning on all of the people she’d helped. She was one of the only people that Purpled had ever known to actually mean what they were saying, and if she stayed that way, she’d be the only one.
He called Badboyhalo to return the netherite ingot.
“I’m not killing Puffy.” He said simply, tossing the demon the payment. “Find a different assassin.”
Bad scoffed. “I don’t remember giving you a choice, Purpled. You kill Puffy, that’s it. There’s no backing out of it. If you need a little more convincing,” He shrugged, and tucked the ingot into one of his pockets, “well, kill Puffy, or we’ll kill you.”
Purpled knew he could beat any one of them in combat, but he wasn’t sure he liked his chances against two hunters with the person who’d taught him how to fight in the first place. He didn’t let his face show his fear, though. Years fending for himself had taught him how to hide everything behind an intricate mask. “Are you threatening me?” He asked instead, putting more confidence into his stance.
Bad turned to Punz, and motioned towards Purpled.
“Yeah,” Bad said, facing Purpled again. “Yeah, we’re threatening you. Consider this a warning.”
And then Punz raised his fist, and though this seemed so, so familiar, it hadn’t ever been this face and he’d hoped it would never be. Purpled didn’t have the courage to raise his arms against the man who used to be his brother, as much as he wanted to, so he let himself fall to the ground with force enough to lose his breath, and he let himself be hit.
-
Puffy looked at her communicator one last time, and was surprised to see that there was a message. It was late, and she’d been about to go to bed, but her therapy office was technically 24/7.
What surprised her even more was that the message was from Purpled. It simply read, “session tomorrow?” and who was she to deny the boy help? She was clearly all that he had, but that was okay.
She sent him a time and went to bed, content that she was making the server better.
-
The next day, Purpled woke up still on the ground where he’d sent the message to Puffy and promptly passed out. He squeezed his eyes shut again, and breathed slowly, willing the tears to go away.
They didn’t listen, and before he knew it, he was sobbing. He didn’t want to kill Puffy. He was an assassin, but he killed jerks and people who weren’t good. He killed abusive parents and people who deserved it, not people who made the world a better place. He wasn’t scared to kill anyone, but he’d been stupid enough to get attached.
But then again, he didn’t want to die, either.
Sure, he’d just respawn, but it hurt like hell to respawn and he’d rather not go through that. Respawning was worse than death in a lot of ways, but it seemed he had no choice. He didn’t want to die. He’d spent this long without going through the pains of respawning, and wanted to keep the streak up.
Purpled sat up and wiped the tears that were still falling as he checked his messages. Puffy had responded with a time to be at her office, and it was relatively soon, so he picked himself up and trudged down the street. He fiddled with his communicator a bit, getting the messages to glitch for a little bit. No one would know he killed Puffy unless they saw or she told them.
He could feel eyes on him. They weren’t friendly.
He knocked on the door, and could feel the telltale burn of an arrow’s aim on his back. Time was ticking, he had to move. Now.
Puffy opened up the door, and her face fell when she saw Purpled’s tears. “Oh, Purp, what’s wrong?”
He gripped the knife a little tighter in his hand. “I’m sorry,” He whispered, and she moved her arms around him in the first hug that he’d had in forever, saying he had nothing to be sorry for. He wanted nothing more than to melt into it, but-
Purpled shoved her forwards and plunged his knife into her chest before tearing it out and running away as fast as he could.
He had to stay away. She’d hate him, and rightfully so, which made her dangerous. All of the anger that she’d concealed behind smiles would come out, and he didn’t want to be around when it was directed at him.
He stayed in the darkness of his cavern, thinking that he was doomed to sit there until someone, maybe Ponk, dragged him out. He knew immediately when someone stepped foot into his cave. He didn’t know who, and he didn’t care. They were here for revenge, and he wouldn’t let them find it.
Instead of Puffy’s voice, Tommy’s rang out. “Purpled? What the fuck, man?”
Purpled knew that Tommy was yelling to an empty expanse. He was somewhere else. Hidden. Safe.
“Purpled, seriously, what the fuck? I just saw you kill Puffy, what was that for?”
He could hear softer footsteps approach Tommy, and then the two who were there spoke in hushed whispers. His name was said, it seemed to be an argument. Typical Tommy.
“Purpled?” It was Puffy’s voice, pain thinly veiled. It made Purpled start crying, because she didn’t deserve it, the eggpire did, but he couldn’t undo the past. “Purpled, I’m not mad-”
He pushed through the wall like he had before, stumbling before starting to speak. He knew he’d probably yell. He didn’t really care.
“Why aren’t you mad?” He started. “Why not? What’ll it take to break your little mask? No one’s that nice. No one’s good just for the fun of it, no one helps out unless they’re getting something out of it. The world is cruel and it makes people in its image, so why aren’t you mad? What’ll it take for you to realize that you're better off by yourself like everyone else?”
Puffy seemed taken aback. “What do you mean?”
“I mean why haven’t you given up on me yet? Punz did, the server did, hell even my parents did. The people I used to depend on have forgotten me, proven by the fact that Hannah hasn’t even bothered to say hi to me yet. I became a shadow because no one bothered to care, I became a mercenary because it was the only way to get people to acknowledge that I even existed. Knives and daggers stained in blood became my best friends because I gave up on me, so why haven’t you? What will it take for you to hate me? ”
Purpled was fuming. He didn’t understand.
“There's-” Puffy paused for a little bit, before looking at him with disgusting pity. “Not everything is a timebomb waiting to hit zero. There’s good in the world, Purpled.”
He laughed, loud and borderline hysterical. “No there isn’t! There’s only temporary truces that end in flames, so what’s the use of having them in the first place? There’s only friendships that end in backstabbing, there’s only family that always turns sour. There’s no use in pretending that this server will end in any way but a giant crater that’ll be left until there’s cobwebs over our corpses.”
Tommy tried to speak, but Purpled cut him off. “And Tommy, we used to be friends, but then everyone realized that you were so much better than me. You, willing to follow anybody until the end of time. You, who still needed leading, needed someone to look up to. You, who wasn’t broken yet and could be broken as they pleased. You, who was strong but still naive enough to not recognize the signs of corruption. You were the perfect protagonist, and all I was was a sad, mistrusting kid that was easily forgotten. I’m sick of it! I took up killing because it was fun, but now I can’t even do that! All I can do now is sit in my dark little cave and hope that somebody comes for my life, because then finally I’ll be able to cut something other than-”
“Why didn’t you come to us sooner?” Puffy asked. “I could’ve helped-”
“No you couldn’t!” Purpled screamed. “Don’t you get it? I’m past help and so is everyone else. This server was doomed the second that Dream created it, and now we’re stuck here.” Their faces seemed surprised. “Oh, didn't you try to leave yet? I have. Every day. Every hour. Every fucking time I try to leave this hellhole of a server that wouldn’t even notice my leaving, I can’t. We’re stuck here, until our admin decides to let us go. Which, if you haven’t noticed, our admin seems to be more concerned with killing us than letting us go.”
Purpled took a breath and tried to speak more calmly, but his voice wavered as tears gathered in his eyes again. “I just wanted a family. Instead I got tossed aside and taught that there wasn’t any such thing that lasted. I just wanted comfort. All I got was the cold. I just wanted someone to hold me and tell me that it’d be okay, and instead,” He took off his sweatshirt, a grey t-shirt underneath it that revealed his arms, “instead, I got scars.”
And scars there were. Longer ones, faded to a pale pink. Shorter ones in groups of three or four, distant memories of hybrids that had put a fight in. Small ones that gathered in a group, burned from the fire that he knew so well. Slashes along his wrists, some from the past, some red and recent. There even was the occasional cut that still oozed slightly, scabbed up and irritated.
“This is what life’s done to me,” Purpled said quietly. “So don’t try to tell me that it’s kind.”
Puffy’s voice started equally soft, her eyes glassy. “Purpled, please. Let me help you. I promise that I’m not offering out of self-interest. I promise I mean you no harm. Please, just let me show you that people can care.”
Purpled didn’t let the ache that he felt show on his face. He wanted to accept the offer, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. It was a ploy, it had to be.
But Puffy looked so genuine.
“I know you’re going through some rough times,” Tommy said, “but why? Why’d you kill Puffy? To take your sorrows out on her?”
Purpled scoffed. “I’m a mercenary.”
“So you did it for money?” Tommy asked, outraged.
He just shrugged. “It was a different sort of deal. They offered me my life in return. I kill Puffy, or they kill me.”
“Who threatened you?” Puffy asked, putting a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “Who made you kill me?”
Purpled scoffed. “Why would I tell you?”
“Because I can do something about it. Confront them. Whatever it takes so that they stop using child soldiers.”
“I was never a soldier.” Purpled said, voice muffled as he put his sweatshirt back on. “I was just a child. But it was Badboyhalo and his group.”
“Those bastards,” Puffy remarked, startling Purpled. “I fucking knew they were up to no good. Good-for-nothing egg-bitches. It’s been too quiet.”
“And there you see.” Purpled gestured. “Anger. Anger is always there, it just depends who it's towards. If you can feel it towards them, then what’s stopping you from feeling it towards me?”
Puffy stopped. “You’re a good kid, emphasis on the kid. They’re grown adults who should know better. I won’t kill them, because I know that the egg is the one controlling them for the most part, but they need to learn that they don’t kill or threaten fucking kids. They want to kill me? Fine, they can try, but they need to leave children out of it.”
Purpled sighed, but he shrugged. “Whatever makes you feel better about your violence. Just don’t try to claim that you’re free from it.”
He left through the entrance that everyone used, not bothering to look behind him.
Although he never made this trek often, the woods comforted him. Sure, he had the growing feeling that someone was following him, but he couldn’t find it in him to do much more than look around suspiciously.
His old cabin sat relatively unharmed, the only thing not dusty about it the dog door that he left on for DogChamp to leave by. He dusted off the key and unlocked the door, being greeted immediately by a happy dog.
“Hey doggy.” Purpled murmured softly, letting a smile formand digging his fingers into the dog’s fur. “Wanna go for a walk?”
Of course, DogChamp always wanted to go for a walk, so they left and crunched through the woods.
At one point the feeling of being followed increased and was accompanied by the slight crackle of leaves, but too late did Purpled realize he left his knife at home. DogChamp growled and pushed Purpled back, but it didn’t do much. An arrow flew from the trees and hit him, driving the breath from his lungs and making him tumble backwards.
He could barely hear anything over DogChamp’s barking, but he knew who’d tried to kill him. Only one other person knew about this cabin, only one other person was better than him at staying killed. His brother had tried to kill him, and although it burned and made him shudder, Purpled wasn’t killed so easily. He’d been through worse, not that his brother had bothered to learn.
DogChamp wasn’t there anymore. Purpled didn’t know where he’d gone. He hoped he was okay. He didn’t know what he’d do if his only comfort had been killed.
Air seemed to burn down his throat and he coughed violently, trying not to fall over. Wouldn’t it be easier to just push the arrow deeper? Force a respawn? Would a respawn really hurt more than this?
His breathing wheezed. Of course a respawn would hurt more than this. He needed to get home. He had emergency potions stored in his cabin, if he could just get back-
His eyes started slipping closed. He was tired, he wanted to just sleep, but he couldn’t. He had to get home. He couldn’t die.
Purpled could hear barking a while away. He knew that bark. DogChamp was getting someone to follow him. Who was near here? He couldn’t think. The pain was spreading.
Was that shouting? It seemed familiar. It wasn’t his brother. Who was it?
Whoever it was, was growing closer.
Purpled smiled weakly. DogChamp was a good dog, wasn’t he?
“Purpled?” he couldn’t tell who it was. It sounded like Puffy. But no, it wasn’t Puffy. Was it? “Purpled, oh no, Puffy had mentioned you ran off and she was trying to find you- here, I’ve got potions. I wondered who this dog belonged to, I’ve seen it around. He got me to follow him, so-”
He didn’t listen to the rambling. He didn’t have enough energy to.
Who was trying to give him potions? No, he didn’t want it. It hurt to move. He put his hand down, but it was wet underneath him. Blood? Tears?
His mind clicked too late that the person was Hannah, someone he could trust.
<Purpled was shot by Punz>
Purpled gasped as he sat up, whole body aching. Was it supposed to hurt so much?
His skin buzzed as it tried in vain to stitch together the scars that littered it, and he knew the feeling too well. His chest felt like something was crushing it, like he couldn’t breathe- and then with a gasp, he could. It hurt, so bad, but he could breathe.
The tears started before he could realize. It hurt so much more than he could have imagined. It burned, it hurt, and he could feel another scar on his chest being seared from where the arrow hit him.
He could hear someone next to him. They sounded nice. He wanted to trust them, but who were they? He was just focused on the tears that were falling- there was fur beneath his fingers and he clung to it like a lifeline. Maybe he’d fix up his cave and let DogChamp live with him, full time, now that Dream was gone.
Purpled focused on breathing. Just breathing. One inhale, one exhale at a time.
Eventually, he could recognize voices by his bed. Hannah, Puffy, Tommy. He wanted to trust them. He wanted to trust them, so bad. He wanted to be able to trust people again, to have faith that they wouldn’t fail him.
As the pain began to fade he registered a hand in his hair, but still he didn’t open his eyes. He leaned into the touch, because how long had it been since he’d had positive touch? Puffy’s hug, that he’d immediately ruined?
He wanted to give trusting another try.
He wanted to have another chance at leading a life he was happy with, and maybe the three people by his bedside was where he’d begin. A small beginning, but everything had to start somewhere.