Chapter Text
the moment he crests the hill, purpled knows he’s found it. below him is a valley, of sorts, a large field settled between the surrounding mountains and hills. the scenery’s nothing much, it’s what’s in the center that leaves him awestruck: the community house, the largest established settlement in the world.
even from as far as he is, he can tell it’s massive — the main build of the thing has to be a hundred blocks high, at least, lit up like a beacon in the night. through the darkness, he can’t make out any walls encircling the settlement; you would think with so many people to protect, you’d have some wood barricades up, at least, but maybe they’re just that confident in themselves.
the view of the place is spectacular, but if he wants to make it across this field with time to spare before sunrise, he’s going to have to start moving. he pulls his hood up over his hair and starts trekking down into the valley.
now, i’m sure you’re wondering, why is this purple-clad adventurer approaching this settlement in the dead of night? surely you’d want to approach when there is light to see you by. and here lies the answer: purpled does not want to be seen.
there’s a much smaller settlement on the other side of the mountains he’s just crossed over. nothing more than a few tents surrounded by cobblestone walls, but they were hospitable. there were some kids there around purpled’s age. one of them bet him 3 stacks of emeralds he couldn’t sneak into the community house, and, well. purpled likes having money. so here he is.
honestly, he hadn’t even known he was so close to it. he’s heard the name floating around more and more often the last couple of years, but never learned the community house’s location, despite his interest in it. a settlement that houses upwards of 300 people? only been raided once since its establishment? it sounds far too good to be true. surely that many people can’t live in harmony together, there has to be some sort of downside, right?
well, at any rate, he’s about to find out.
as purpled approaches the settlement, it really does appear to be wall-less. he steps from wild grassland into trimmed grass, and as he gets closer manmade pathways paved with pebbles and gravel crunch under his feet. he makes sure to step lightly as he cranes his neck upward, the community house rising more and more above him as he approaches. it seems like most of the settlement is truly comprised of this one, enormous build — in the gloom, purpled can make out smaller builds and sheds, and some sort of outdoor setup (a farm, maybe?), but aside from some strategically-placed lanterns and the wash of light emanating from the community house itself, there are no lights in any of the builds.
there doesn’t seem to be any people around, either. he’s been sticking to the darkest shadows, as he’s sure that there’s some sort of night watch in place. but whoever’s doing it, they’re probably up high and not patrolling down on the ground, based on the placement of the settlement.
his first order of business is to find the entrance. with the light level being what it is, it’s difficult to even figure out what side of the build he’s on, but after a bit of scouting he figures it out. the main entrance isn’t too far from him, composed of two sets of double glass doors with space between them. it reminds him of supermarket entrances. there’s light pouring through them, though, so he’s better off finding an alternate way in. purpled creeps a little way around the building and spots his ticket: a side door tucked into the shadows. excellent.
after that, infiltration is easy. try the handle, pick the lock, open the door, close the door. exceedingly easy, but these doors are meant to stop zombies, not random teenagers who make a habit of taking lucrative bets from their peers.
purpled finds himself at the emergency exit of a very large, dark room. there’s benches stacked up against the walls, and a podium fixed at the front of the room. luckily for him it’s currently void of other people. it’s definitely not the kind of room that would make for a good photo of proof, though, so purpled needs to head a little further inside. there’s a door slightly open on the other end of the room, so he sneaks his way over to it and pokes his head out.
outside of the meeting hall is a — well, he’s not entirely sure how to describe it in short. the community house seems to be a very open-plan building, and from his current vantage point he can see the main entryway, a large lounge area, the edge of what has to be a dining area, and stairs up to a second floor open hallway tucked against the back wall. there are dim overhead lights on, and a few people milling around despite the fact that it’s past midnight.
he doesn’t care about them, though; there’s more than enough of a view here for purpled to snap a photo and hightail it out of there. he pulls his communicator out and opens the camera, sticking his head a tiny bit more into the door frame to get a good angle, and pushes the button to take a photo.
a click echoes out into the open space of the community house.
shoot. purpled forgot to turn his communicator to silent. he watches a pair of people turn their heads immediately to the sound, and thus, him. rookie mistake, he thinks, slightly panicked, as he turns around and makes a mad dash for the other door.
he hears footsteps behind him as the door he left ajar slams open. this is fine. this is great.
it is less fine and great when he takes so long opening the stupid exit door that he gets grabbed by the back of the hoodie. he’s lifted off the ground with what seems to be very little effort. that’s great actually. that’s just absolutely wonderful.
the unknown giant who’s currently holding purpled up like a ragdoll makes a noise of confusion. “i don’t think this is a zombie.”
purpled’s mouth is moving before he can think about it. “no kidding i’m ‘not a zombie’,” he mimics their low quality of voice, “put me down, you maniac, i could asphyxiate up here. show a little courtesy.”
this immediate outburst seems to surprise the assailant, and he’s released. … and then immediately grabbed by the elbow and turned around, before he can make a break for it. darn.
the one who grabbed him is tall and broad-shouldered, a piglin hybrid, from the strength and the tusks protruding from his lower lip. the other, shorter one hasn’t spoken yet, and in the darkness of the meeting hall purpled can’t make any defining features out, but her hair is fluffy and she’s wearing a tricorne hat. they’re both looking at him with a mixture of surprise, panic and confusion, which, fair.
after a few moments of silence, during which purpled can feel his hands begin to share, the shorter one turns to the one with purpled’s elbow in a death grip. “well, what do we do with him?”
“i dunno. murder?”
“huh?”
“no, i was thinking more like an interrogation.” she turns back to purpled, who kind of feels like just dropping dead. that would be nice. “who are you and why are you here?”
unfortunately, prime does not strike him with lightning to free him from his predicament. he stumbles over his words as the gravity of this situation starts sinking in (he broke into the biggest settlement in the world and they caught him oh prime). “i — okay, hear me out, i’m not - i’m not here to kill anyone, or anything, i just took a stupid bet. he bet i couldn’t sneak in, i just wanted to prove i could. i swear.”
“you…” she closes her mouth, then opens it again. “you snuck into the community house on a bet?”
“it sounds incredibly stupid, i am painfully aware,” purpled assures quickly. “please just let me go, man, i won’t come back, i’m just a little guy.” the big one snorts out a laugh when he says this, which makes him feel a little better about himself.
the woman stares at him for a moment, and purpled feels very much like he’s being assessed and analyzed. “how old are you?” she asks. “you can’t be older than twenty if you’re willing to risk your life over some goods.”
he’s caught so off-guard by this that he just says, honestly, “i’m seventeen.” he’s unsure if he should regret it, but his mind is too busy swan-diving into distress to care.
the big guy turns to make eye contact with his friend, and they proceed to have some sort of unspoken conversation. purpled doesn’t catch any of it. he’s too busy trying to think of how he’s going to avoid their preferred method of killing him. do you think they’d let him get away with community service hours? did they ask for his age to decide whether or not to go through with the death penalty? can you even enforce the death penalty nowadays?
he’s so engrossed in this snowball of a thought process, in fact, that he barely catches it when the woman addresses him again. “okay, listen. calm down.”
“i am perfectly calm.”
“your voice just cracked. calm down. take a deep breath.”
purpled takes a deep breath and calms (slightly).
“thank you. i would call you an idiot for sneaking in here, but i’m more impressed that you were ballsy enough to do it.” she points to herself. “my name is puffy, could you tell me your name?”
“uh… gray.” (this isn’t his first rodeo — he’s not dumb enough to tell these guys his real name right off the bat. he’s got that much sense about him right now, at least.)
“hi, gray. oh, and this guy is technoblade. technoblade, you can let go of gray’s arm now.” technoblade lets go of his elbow. purpled hopes it doesn’t bruise. “are you part of a settlement already, gray?”
“no, i’m solo.”
she nods. she makes a face like she’s thinking carefully about something, and purpled just hopes it isn’t the most painless way to dispose of him. “okay. so, i’m one of the unofficial people in charge around here.”
oh no, purpled thinks idly.
“and that means that i have the authority to perform an intake interview.”
the look she’s giving him makes him feel like she knows purpled doesn’t know what that means. “sorry, what?”
“if you want to stay here, you have to be interviewed first to make sure you won’t disrupt the settlement by joining.”
he stares at her, mouth open slightly as he tries to figure out how on earth this information applies to him.
“listen, gray,” puffy says. “i can tell everything i need to know about you from how you got here. you’re a kid and you’re solo, and you’re obviously not enjoying it. and we’ve got a sort of winstreak with getting people to join us in really odd ways.” technoblade huffs in silent laughter, but purpled doesn’t get the joke. “i don’t think you’re a bad kid, so will you consider it?”
purpled is considering so hard right now. there are so many factors running through his brain at light speed, and while he’s a little hesitant, he knows the sort of reputation the community house has. he knows that deep down he’s been wondering what it would be like here for years, to have a group of people to call yours when everything else is an uncertainty.
he looks to technoblade for some sort of last-minute decision aid. “puffy does what puffy wants,” technoblade shrugs. purpled gets the impression he doesn’t necessarily approve of this but has no intention of stopping it. or maybe no power to.
“okay,” he says.
“okay,” puffy smiles.