Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Disguises

           Yawning, she got up to pace around the room and stretch a little. Just then, though, she heard an odd noise coming from downstairs. False panicked. She never turned on the security system when she was inside because she felt like she didn't need to, but now an intruder had gotten inside. She grabbed her sword and practically fell down the ladder.

           When she got downstairs, though, an odd sight met her eyes. She had large water pipes in her tower, for drinking and for the toilet, and False honestly had never thought to block those up. But she was now thinking that she should at least put a grate in, because now she was seeing someone attempting to crawl through it.

           "Oh, hi there!" He said jovially, trying to wave at her even though he seemed stuck in the water pipe. "Don't mind me, I'm just a sewage inspector doing my job!" A sewage inspector crawling through the drain pipe? False thought, surprised. Huh. Grian wasn't kidding when he said the empires were weird.

           "Sorry, I wasn't expecting you," False said. "Oh, we never come when expected," The sewage inspector said, finally managing to crawl out of the pipe. "By the way, these pipes of yours need cleaning. They're quite messy even for my standards." "Uh... Sure..." False said. She eyed the sewage inspector carefully. He looked kind of old and wore slightly weird clothes. He also looked kind of familiar for some reason.

           "I'm sorry, do I know you?" False asked. "Nope, you do not! This is my first inspection of this very suspicious tower!" The sewage inspector declared. His voice sounds familiar too... Just then, the inspector noticed the switches on the wall that activated the ladders. He skipped over to them and started to flick them rapidly.

            "Hey, no, no, don't do that!" False said, rushing over to him and grabbing his hand. "Just one more time!" The eccentric inspector said, and he hit the switch that activated the ladder to the basement.

           To her growing horror, False saw the inspector descend down into the depths of her basement. She had stuff down there she didn't need anyone to see." "No, don't go down there!" She yelped, coming down after him. But he was already hopping all over the place, inspecting everything.

           "Excuse me, but what kind of sewage inspector are you?" False asked. "There aren't any drain pipes down here." "Oh, but there could've been," The sewage inspector said nonchalantly. "Pipes are usually squirreled away in basements anyway. Most people don't like the smell or how ugly they look." "Oh." False said. She walked over to the ladder. "Come on, let's go back up."

           "Okeydoke!" The inspector said. "Now come on, ladies first!" False humored him and went up the ladder first. Once she was up, she immediately looked down to see if he was following her, and he was. Relieved, False was sure he didn't do any damage down there. "Now, uh, next time you inspect my sewage, can you knock out the door first?" She asked as she shooed him out the tower.

           "Aw, but where's the fun in that?" The inspector pouted comically. False hesitated for a second as she watched him walk away from her tower. How much did he see in here? I don't think I can trust him to not tell anyone. "Wait!" She called out, and the sewage inspector turned around. False fumbled in her pocket and came up with a few diamonds.

           She wordlessly passed them to the sewage inspector, who nodded in understanding and slipped the blue gems into his pocket. Then, whistling like nothing had happened, he trotted away. Relieved, False went back inside, locked the door, and then headed down to the basement. She glanced at her desk and then quickly realized that something was wrong. Her notebook was missing.

---

           Jimena waited with False inside their house for Sausage to come back. He soon did, flinging off his disguise and grinning happily. "It went well?" Jimena asked, pretty sure that his grinning face signified that but was also sure that Sausage smiled no matter the circumstance. "It went well!" Sausage said. 

           "And I even earned some diamonds out of it!" He added, turning out his pocket and letting the diamonds tumble out. "Where did you get those from?" Jimena asked. "Eh, the other False bribed me to keep things quiet, but I don't have a price." Sausage said. "And by the way, I found this too." 

           He slid a notebook out of his pocket and handed it to False, who started to flip through it. As she read, she acquired a strange look on her face. Jimena approached her. "Can I see too?" She asked. False shook her head. "Maybe later. Right now I want to read this by myself." "Okay," Jimena said. She thanked Sausage for helping them and then left the house. Stretching her wings, she took off and flew. 

          As she flew around, though, she spotted someone else in the sky with her. It wasn't Grian this time, although Jimena started to wonder why she kept on bumping into other winged people while she was just trying to fly. It was Princess Gem. She was trying to use her butterfly wings but seemed to have some slight trouble with them. On the ground, hermit Gem was shouting up some tips on how to fly with them. Neither had noticed her yet. 

           Why is hermit Gem giving Princess Gem flying lessons? Jimena wondered. I thought she knew how to fly already. And why would hermit Gem know how to use butterfly wings? Suspicious, she landed and stayed out of sight while still keeping in range to hear them. "You're doing well!" Hermit Gem called. "You make this look easier than it actually is!" Princess Gem said, just as she flapped one wing harder than the other and started to spiral out of control. "Woah!" 

           Hermit Gem stretched out her hand towards her other self. A green aura suddenly appeared around Princess Gem and she stopped moving midair. She was completely frozen up. Hermit Gem moved her hand and seemingly straightened out Princess Gem's stance and soon she was flying properly again. How did she do that? Jimena wondered. I guess elves are magic. But something about the display of power seemed... familiar. Too familiar to just forget about. 

           Just then, Princess Gem landed. "I think the potion's wearing off," She said. But as she spoke, her voice began to use an odd-sounding accent. And then her appearance changed. Soon, Jimena realized that she wasn't Princess Gem at all. Or even a girl, for that matter. It was Scott of Chromia. Wait... he's pretending to be Princess Gem? Why? Spying on the Gems had turned up more questions than answers, and Jimena flew away feeling confused. 

           As she flew away, she unsurprisingly bumped into Grian again. "Why do we keep meeting like this?" She asked dryly. "Hi, Jimena," Grian said. Then Jimena did a double take. Grian was wearing what appeared to be a funny-looking astronaut suit with a fishbowl on his head. "Why are you wearing a fishbowl?" Jimena asked. "It's an astronaut helmet, and I'm dressing up as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween." Grian explained. "Who's Buzz Lightyear?" Jimena asked.

            Grian stared at her for a moment like he couldn't believe she didn't know. Then he lit up like he had a very good idea. "Hey, do you want to go costume shopping with us?" "For Halloween?" Jimena asked. Grian nodded. "Yeah! We're going to throw a surprise party for Timmy at Halloween! So don't tell him." Jimena nodded excitedly. A surprise party sounded fun, and since Halloween was just around the corner and she didn't have a costume yet, she definitely needed to go shopping. 

           The two of them flew off and soon met up with some hermits and emperors, who were all part of the Halloween surprise party. Keralis, fWhip, Lizzie, Joel, Oli, Sausage, and Scar. Sausage showed them a costume shop that he said was definitely not run by a zombie and all the costumes purchased would be on the house. Soon everyone was busy looking for costumes. 

           Just as Jimena was considering a vampire outfit, Grian pulled her aside and shoved a piece of paper into her hand. "All costumes must be from this list," Grian said with a funny smile on his face. Jimena studied the list. It consisted of pictures of what looked like various different toys, like a cowgirl, a T-Rex, and a shepherdess doll. Some of the images were scratched off the list because someone had claimed them. Grian's name was on the image of the astronaut he was dressing up as, and Sausage's was on the T-Rex. 

           "Why do we have to only choose from these?" Jimena asked. "Because we uh... have a theme!" Grian said. "Oh, okay," Jimena said, and turned back to the list. A lot of the options were already taken, so Jimena picked a purplish bear that she thought had a nice color. It was almost her favorite shade even. "I got the rest of them!" Sausage's voice suddenly called from the entrance. Jimena assumed that Sausage had gone to get more people to attend the surprise party and turned to see who they were. It was Scott and Gem.