Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Traces of guilt

           Gem had a lot of workshops where they could fix an elytra in, and she left the boys at one of them to fix it themselves. The princess of Dawn had to work on her daily chores. Jimmy was glad Scott was there; the colorful collector was very good with his hands, and he'd practically made his own elytra from scratch and scrap materials, so simply fixing one wasn't too much trouble.

           "Jimmy, are you silly enough to think you can lie to me?" Scott suddenly asked, making Jimmy jump. "Uh, what- what are you talking about?" "I asked you if everything was fine earlier, but you lied and said it was." Scott reminded him, and the sheriff sighed. Scott was too perceptive and shrewd to trick.

           "Okay, maybe I feel bad for yelling at False," Jimmy admitted. Scott looked intrigued. "Explain to me why you were yelling at that one empress that no one knows anything about, including herself." And Jimmy told him. He talked about taking Jimena back to Cogsmeade, and the dinner conversation that had gone awry with False's suggestion that he wasn't human.

           Scott listened, never interrupting once. "First," He said when Jimmy was done, "Who's Jimena?" "Oh, she's kind of like False. Woke up in Cogsmeade with amnesia and now she's a citizen there or something." Jimmy said. "That is not a thing that should happen more than once," Scott said. "And second," He added, "If you want my advice, you should find a way to make it up to False. I know you already apologized, but she seems like the person who considers actions more than words." The two of them fell silent for a little bit, working on Jimmy's elytra.

           "I think we fixed everything," The sheriff said, holding it up to the light. Scott meticulously inspected it. "Looks alright. We should test it with a short flight first, before you use it to fly all the way to Tumble Town." So they climbed into Gem's roof and Jimmy glided down, carefully flying around Dawn for a few minutes until Scott decided they'd done a good job at fixing his elytra. Jimmy said goodbye to him and Gem, and as he flew back to Tumble Town, he started planning how to make it up to False for yelling at her.

---

           False just sat on her bed, staring into space. Jimena's my friend. Why did I attack her like that? What is wrong with me? False felt really guilty. What kind of friend was she to do that? She didn't feel like she apologized enough. Even worse, for whatever reason, she couldn't muster up the energy to feel sorry for it. It didn't make the tinkerer feel any better at all.

           Jimena walked into her bedroom, unclipping the leash from Ginny's collar and petting her before the cat leapt into False's lap. False noticed she had an odd expression on her face. It was one she recognized. When she looked into the mirror, False found herself making that same exact face. "You think someone's following you?" She asked, and Jimena jumped in surprise. "I've hit the nail on the head, haven't I?" False said, reading her expression.

           "Yeah," Jimena brushed her hand through her dark, raven-black hair. "I feel like I'm either losing my mind or I'm being haunted." False nodded. "I can relate." She glanced out the window to spy on Pumpkin Jack, who was creepily spinning around in place. "Has Jack been bothering you?" "Pumpkin Jack? No, unless he's the one haunting me and whispering at me," Jimena said, scratching her ear.

           The two girls left the room and nearly passed by the signs without noticing them. But Ginny did, and tugged at False's ankle until she turned and saw them. Oh. More signs. They hung from the wall, planks of mangrove wood nailed to the plaster. A continuous message was written on them in white ink, one sentence on each. "Forgive the sheriff," Jimena read. "He didn't mean it." "He's not someone to worry about. He's a friend." False finished. They looked at each other.

           "So you were worried about him," Jimena said. "I thought maybe I was reading too much into your actions last night at dinner." False nodded soberly. "Well, I mean, he's the sheriff, and I thought he would be one of those people who would..." She trailed off. "Nevermind, I don't even know what I'm thinking." The truth was, authority and law figures scared her. She didn't know why, but she just had this feeling that she had to avoid them at all costs.

           Jimena turned back to the signs. "Well, this is really straightforward, isn't it?" False agreed. Her signs lately seems to be getting more clear and understandable, not like before when they were cryptic and eerie. The mechanic just hoped they stayed that way. She had enough mystery to deal with in her life already without strange signs complicating matters.

           "What's the sheriff like?" False asked Jimena, who raised an eyebrow. "You already asked." "I did?" False blinked. I think I remember something about that... But my memory is annoying... "Well, uh, I think I forgot." "I don't know him that well, but he seems to be nice. He's kind of funny and wants to be respected. I get the feeling that half the time he doesn't even know what he's supposed to be doing." That didn't sound like a dangerous person. False wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing much either.

           Then she remembered something that she definitely had to do. "Jimena, I feel the need to apologize to you again. I don't know why I just hit you like that, I don't even remember it much, but-" Jimena grabbed her shoulders and False was shocked into silence.

          "False, you don't have to apologize. You already did. I'm fine. In fact, I don't feel mad at your or anything. If anything, I kind of forgot you hit me, what with the possibility that I'm going crazy. So, you don't have to apologize to me for anything." False managed to smile. "Okay."

           Jimena turned back to the signs. "If you're going to forgive him, he needs to know about it." She looked at her watch, but she kind of didn't have to, what with the army of clocks False had all over her house. "He should be in Tumble Town by now. What do you say we go over there?" "One of us can go, not the other," False said. "I only had one extra elytra and it's down in the deep dark."

           Both girls recalled the disastrous mineshaft routine check. Jimena looked guilty. "Sorry for losing your stuff." "No, it's okay," False assured her. "Wardens are kind of a 'you see them, you're dead' thing. It's hard to help." She paused. "Hey, look. Now I'm the one telling you to not apologize." Jimena smiled.

           They took down the signs and put them in a chest that False reserved just for those mysterious messages. It was getting rather crammed now. She might have to upgrade to a double chest soon. "Hey, uh, is there anything the sheriff likes?" False asked Jimena. Maybe I can get him a gift. "He likes cats," Jimena said. The girls looked at Ginny, who hissed and walked away. "And respect," Jimena added. Okay, that's easier to give.