Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

A rocky start to friendship

           Great Witch Shelby, the resident witch of the area, didn't have many interactions with the princess, other than the one time she accidentally brought the rain with her to Dawn when she came looking for honey. Mayor Lizzie of Animalia was likewise the same, Gem even couldn't remember if they'd even traded at all.

          She met Pirate Joe riffling through her honey bottle stores, and he glossed over the sticky situation by becoming her first customer, but Gem learned to keep an eye on the tricky pirate after that. She had a neighbor, a bard named Oli who lived at the beach just over the mountain, who seemed nice and friendly, but she found him kind of annoying at times. Plus, he'd even stolen the horn Sausage had given her. Thankfully, Gem's other neighbor was nicer. 

           Scott of Chromia, despite being a thief who borrowed things and 'forgot' to return them, hadn't ever stolen things from Dawn, as far as Gem knew, and he'd never tried to scam her or anything. If it weren't for that incident where they both had to rescue Jimmy from the phantoms, their relationship would have probably fallen under the category that most of the other emperors fell into: not enough interactions, nothing substantial. But after everything that had happened that day, Gem felt like she could trust the colorful collector, and taking some chalk out of her pocket, she scribbled 'Scott' under the status of 'friends'. 

           Gem stepped back, pleased. There. That was put off long enough. She glanced at the list of names again and frowned. Isn't there thirteen empires? Who's missing? Gem racked her brain and remembered. Oh. Cogsmeade, and the empress there is named False, right? No one knew much about False, if anything at all. She was even more secluded than Gem, whose social tree proved that she barely had any interactions with the other emperors.

           Cogsmeade's mountain was kind of distant from the other empires, and False was like a hermit, keeping to herself, only coming out of her shell to trade. Gem decided that maybe she should try becoming an ally with her. It was the smart and practical decision. Who knew what False was capable of? I'll make friends with her someday. But I'll let her come to me first; don't want to intrude on her privacy. 

---

           As soon as Jimmy arrived in Tumble Town, he riffled through his chests, looking for things. What sort of things would False like? What can I do to make up to her? Maybe she'll like it if I help build stuff in her empire. Or fix some of those mechanical stuff she's got going on. No, wait, I'm terrible at building. And I'll probably cause a malfunction.

          Jimmy sighed. What am I supposed to do? He glanced at Norman and Flick; the cats had wandered up to him and looked concerned about his well-being. What was it about cats that always knew when you needed cheering up? "I made a mistake," Jimmy told them. "I'm trying to find a way to fix it." 

           He was slightly startled by the sound of elytras and rockets landing nearby. Jimmy walked outside. He wasn't expecting any visitors, but with his luck, it was probably Joel and fWhip come back to annoy him. Jimmy opened the door and came face to face with False of Cogsmeade.

           He blanched and nearly shut the door on her, but thankfully before he did so he realized that it would probably make things between them even worse. So he stepped aside to awkwardly let her in. "Um, hi," Jimmy said as she entered. Then he facepalmed. What am I even saying? What am I supposed to say?! "I'm really, really sorry about-" He started again, but False cut him off. "Um, no more apologies are necessary. Me and Jimena already had a sort of argument about saying 'sorry' too many times." 

           Jimmy didn't really get it, so he just nodded. The two of them stood there in the foyer, twiddling their thumbs, not knowing what to do. "So, uh, did you want your gunpowder payment in advance or something?" The sheriff asked. False shook her head. There was another awkward silence. "Maybe we should sit down?" Jimmy finally said, and they both did so, sitting down on stools on the opposite sides of the room.