Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Spreading news

           Most secluded empire? Jimena wondered, and then she realized Sausage was right. Despite Cogsmeade's location, right in the middle and surrounded by most of the other empires, it was rather hard to reach. False never really traded much and she didn't have that much relations to other kingdoms. Jimena suddenly noted how weird it was that an underground empire and an airborne empire was more reachable than a small one atop a mountain.

           "Anyway, I heard that there's a new hermit in town," Sausage said. False stared. "But the rift's closed." "I know! Isn't it weird?" Sausage said, sounding extraordinarily happy for some reason. Jimena tried feeding on that while waiting for her order of fish to arrive, and was glad that at least it tasted slightly better than excitement. "And you know what's even weirder? She's an elf version of Gem!" Sausage added with a flourish.

           "Princess Gem of Dawn?" False said in disbelief. "Yup, that Gem. Across the multiverse there's different versions of different people. Apparently there's a hermit Gem who is an elf that likes collecting heads." "Oh... okay..." False said faintly. "We should meet her," Jimena said thoughtfully. "Oh, you definitely will," Sausage said confidently. "I'm trying to get the L.O.R.E. team to go interrogate her about how she got here even though the rift's broken. Do you want to come too?"

           "Why not?" Jimena replied, shrugging. Sausage clapped his hands. "Great! Now I just need to spread the news about the new hermit." He walked briskly to another table and tapped the customer on his shoulder. "Hey, Andros, have you heard?" 

---

           Gem was feeling pretty tapped out by the end of the day. After her broken leg had healed up, the hermits dragged her around all the empires to introduce her to newfound friends and show her around. Gem suddenly found out how taxing it was to pretend to not know places and people she's known for a long time. It was even worse than pretending she didn't know the hermits. 

           Eventually the tour concluded at Hermitopia and Grian told her to find a clear spot and build a house for herself. The exhausted elf claimed a semi-empty area near the top and decided to build something sort of treehouse-esque over there when she was more awake and borrowed False's room to sleep in. At least False wasn't there to object; Gem knew for a fact that she was still at Cogsmeade spying on her other self. 

           The next morning when Gem was awake she grabbed someone else's diamond armor lying around in a chest monster to put on, along with someone else's elytra. No one could possibly miss these, right? After all, once an item's stuck in a chest monster, it's practically gone forever. Now fully equipped with adequate protection, Gem could now get to work on her house. 

           Navigating the maze of buildings that was Hermitopia was hard at first since she really hadn't been here that much, but soon the elf had gotten the hang of it. Eventually she got to her desired location with a shulker box full of items and started to build. Gem had to be careful to not use her Dawn building style. That would've made people suspicious for sure. But she didn't use the building style that she used back in the hermit world either. Instead she opted for this cute, wonky little treehouse jutting out the side of someone else's house. 

           The walls were made of cherry blossom wood and the roof out of blackstone tiles. She cut out round windows and didn't fill them in with glass, instead letting the breeze rush through freely. A crooked, red brick chimney poked out the top, spewing out smoke from a fireplace that she'd installed to compensate for the cold nights she would get from the open windows. Then Gem tied a rope ladder beneath her door and let it fall down to the ground. 

           Jumping off and flying around it with her elytra, Gem liked the way her little treehouse looked, even if it wasn't in a tree. Although for some reason there were trees growing out the other side of Hermitopia. Gem didn't even want to know who planted them there. Now all she needed to do was put in an interior and her new home would be finished. 

           She landed on the ground and decided to test the rope ladder that lead from the ground floor all the way up to her room and see if it held her weight. Thankfully it did. Satisfied, Gem was about to go and decorate her interior when she turned around to find Sausage standing right there looking like he was waiting for her to notice him. 

           "Wha- How long have you been standing there?!" Gem asked, startled and angry that she'd been snuck up on. She grabbed an ax that someone left lying around on a nearby table. "And who are you anyway?" She added, remembering that she was an elf who shouldn't know Sausage yet. "Hi, Gem. I'm Mythical J. Sausage, but the J is silent." He said pleasantly. "So I call you 'Mythical'?" Gem asked. 

           "No, he's Sausage," Oli said, coming out of nowhere. "And I'm Oli, I'm a bard." "Uh, okay," Gem said. "Who else is here?" She asked, thinking that Sausage probably brought the L.O.R.E. team with him. "Just Katherine, Pix, False, and Jimena," Sausage said. "Who?" Gem asked, making her voice sound confused. Then Katherine and False and Pix and Jimena came out and introduced themselves too. 

           "Why were you all sneaking up on me?" Gem asked, narrowing her eyes. "Because you're new and we don't know you yet?" False asked blankly. "False, what do you mean, you don't know me?" Gem asked, because if elf Gem had just gotten here then she wouldn't know about the other False yet. She had to remember what elf Gem knew and didn't know. 

           "Huh?" False blinked. "You're a new hermit, why should I know you?" "Because you're also a hermit?" Gem said. All the nearby hermits glanced at False in horror, to Gem's surprise. Wait, does False know about hermit False? Did I just let slip something important? I sure hope that wasn't very important. Ah well, probably not that important. Gem had always known that False was from another dimension, so she was pretty sure that the empress of Cogsmeade was just another version of her from across the multiverse. It didn't occur to her that False might not know that. 

           "I'm a hermit?" False asked, bewildered. "Wait, False, why are you taller than me?" Gem asked, looking up. For whatever reason, all the hermits were short. Gem was relieved that she remembered to shapeshift that way, although know she forfeited her tall person rights. "Oh, you're not the same False, are you?" Gem said. "Psst! Gem..." Gem glanced over in the direction of the voice and saw Cub anxiously shaking his head at her. 

           "What?" She asked him, in a normal voice. Cub froze and backed off. Gem frowned. Hm... weird. What did I miss? "What do you mean, not the same False?" False asked, and there was an edge to her voice that made the hairs on the back of Gem's neck prickle uncomfortably. "Oh, there's apparently a version of me here so I guess you're just a different version of my friend False." Gem said casually. "Anyway, can I just get back to building my interior now?"