Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

The void tea party

           Jimena panicked for a second, remembering her dreams of falling and being unable to stop herself, before she remembered her wings and she and Grian flew back up the hole they'd made and emerged in Lizzie's kitchen. "We did it!" Jimena cheered, and Grian clapped his hand over her mouth, worrying someone had heard. But the screaming goat conveniently shrieked again, covering up the sound. 

           "We did it," Jimena said again, much quieter this time, her voice muffled by Grian's hand. He removed it, saying, "Now we just have to get Lizzie. Now, she'll be suspicious of me because of my hat but not of you." Jimena grinned eagerly. "I'll go get her and bring her here." "And I'll make this more fun for all of us," Grian said, rubbing his hands in anticipation as Jimena rushed out the room and went to find a certain mayor. 

           Jimena decided to walk rather than fly. Animalia's little themed districts were just so quaint and cozy. The buildings were all so close together than one could step out of one window and through another into someone else's house. All the neighbors also seemed close emotionally as well as physically; the girl could see all of them greeting each other a happy Halloween, exchanging small tokens of appreciation, offering to help with someone's laundry. 

           Animalia was also getting into the spooky mood of October. Jack 'o' lanterns lit up every windowsill, streamers strung between rooves had little witch minifigures dangling from them as well as Animalia's banner, plastic spiders and sheets cut up into ghosts roamed the streets as often as the regular anthropomorphic fox citizens, who had begun to dress up as mythical beings for the costumed holiday. 

           Jimena was distracted enough to not notice the mayor until she bumped into her. "Oh my!" Lizzie said, mildly alarmed, dropping her bag. Then her pink wig slipped slightly off of her head, revealing one furry ear, and she hastily readjusted it, shrieking in alarm like someone had stuck a pin in her.

           "Sorry!" Jimena apologized quickly. Lizzie frowned a bit at her, looking at the girl up and down. "I haven't seen you around here before," She said. "You must be Jimena, right?" Jimena blinked. "How do you know my name?" She asked. "Eh, the crystal ball told me I would meet someone important today," Lizzie shrugged. What does she mean? Why does she think I'm important? Jimena wondered. 

           "Anyway, I'll be off to decorate my town hall," Lizzie said, picking up her things again and rushing off. Her padded paws made almost no noise on the thickly paved road and her calico-spotted tail whacked Jimena in the knee. It was quite hilarious how the mayor seemed to think she was doing a good job at keeping her species a secret. 

           Jimena followed her without saying anything. Soon the two of them were inside the town hall again, and all the animals started to make a commotion at their entrance. Lizzie beamed at them, then sharply whirled around to face Jimena, who jumped back in alarm. "I know you were following me," Lizzie said, pointing at the girl with her claw. "Why are you doing that?"

           "There's something wrong with your kitchen," Jimena blurted without thinking. "My kitchen?" Lizzie blinked. "Well, we must check on that at once!" She took off at a brisk trot towards the kitchen and Jimena followed.

           "I don't see anything wrong in here," Lizzie frowned. "Under here," Jimena said, lifting up the floorboards to reveal the hole. Lizzie's eyes bulged. "Uh, I know absolutely nothing about that!" She said guiltily. "I did not dig that hole in my kitchen myself!" "Yeah, we deepened it a little," Jimena said, looking away as she pushed the cat in. 

           Lizzie let out a strangled meow as she descended into the pit, her claws scraping the sides as she failed to climb back up. Then there was a crash, like Lizzie had landed on something. "Cats always land on their feet!" She shouted triumphantly. "I mean, humans do that too!" Jimena, confused as to what there was for the mayor to land on, flew down to see what it was. 

           What she saw absolutely flummoxed her. There was a table and some chairs floating in the middle of the void, attached by thick string to the end of the hole that Jimena and Grian had spent the day digging. Grian himself sat on one of the chairs, Lizzie was seating herself in another, and there was a third left for Jimena to take. The girl awkwardly sat down. 

           It felt so unsafe to sit in. The strings kept it aloft above the dangerous void, yes, but it wobbled like a boat on a turbulent sea and Jimena felt herself forgetting she had wings several times. She tore her gaze away from the bottomless void and instead focused on the table, and found out that someone had set up a tea set on it for the three of them to use. 

           "Welcome to my tea party in the void!" Grian said heartily, gesturing at all of this. Jimena looked at Lizzie, who looked slightly confused but seemed to be regaining her composure. "Yes, what a nice tea party that is totally normal," The mayor said, pouring herself some tea out of a teapot and into a teacup that she drank from with her pinky finger pointing outward. 

           "Yeah, I decided to have some wacky fun before I tagged you," Grian said, pouring himself some tea. He offered the cup to Jimena. "No thanks; False says I'm too young for tea. Stunts growth," Jimena said. Grian shrugged. "Eh, your loss, my gain." He said, drinking it all up. 

           "Speaking of being tagged," Lizzie said, eying the tag hat that the cod-like hermit wore, "Is there any way I can get out of this? I have an empire to run." "Nope, sorry," Grian said. "Are you done with your tea?" "Yes, but-" The mayor protested. "Sorry, I'm going to tag you now," Grian said, pulling at the leg of the chair that Lizzie sat on. It flipped up and the cat, yowling, toppled out of it and downward into the dark void. 

           The rogue Watchers watched her fall for a little while. "She's probably dead now," Grian said after a few minutes. "Let's get out of here," Jimena said. She started to pack up the tea set. "No, let's leave that down here," Grian said with a grin. "Just in case Lizzie wants to have another tea party in the void." "After this experience, I don't think she'll want to have another one." Jimena said. 

           They flew back up to the surface and soon met up with an annoyed mayor, who began to shriek about all the stuff she lost. "And terrible tea party, by the way!" She huffed. Grian looked affronted. "My tea parties are marvelous!" He said. "And I'm a bit miffed that you don't think so!" He paused for a second. "But fine, here's some stuff I got to help you regain all the things you lost." 

           He gave her the box that he'd prepared, and Lizzie squealed with delight when she realized what was in it. "Thanks!" She beamed. She glanced at Grian's tag hat. "Do I have to wear that now?" She whined. "It looks awful." "That's the point," Grian said, taking it off and putting it on her head. "Fine," Lizzie grumbled, walking away with the box in her hands and the jester hat on her head. "Ha, ha, ha."