Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Candy

            "We are returning all this candy when we're done with the stupid competition." Jimmy said firmly. "Aw, come on!" Jimena grumbled. "You have literally been stealing from other people's baskets and that's not 'quickening trick or treating' anymore." Jimmy pointed out. "Fine, but let's go find Grian. I want to see the look on his face when I beat him," Jimena giggled.

           However, Grian's face was a lot different than what Jimena expected it to be when they showed off their candy to him. "You used Watcher magic to steal candy?" Grian asked disgustedly. "Yes, why?" Jimena asked sweetly. "Return all the candy. Now." Grian said with a hard time in his voice.

           "Say I've beaten you first," Jimena said, but Grian wasn't in the mood for bargaining. "Two things. One, I won, and two, no using Watcher powers to cheat." Grian growled. "Why can't I?" Jimena asked, annoyed that she wasn't allowed to win.

           "Because you're cheating and you shouldn't use those powers except in emergencies!" "You literally asked me to use it when we tagged Lizzie." Jimena pointed out, unimpressed." Well, that- that's different!" Grian protested, stammering and stumbling over his words. "Well, fine, I won't do it again, just say I won." Jimena grumbled, folding her arms.

           "Okay, okay, you won." Grian said, rolling his eyes. "Now return the candy!" Jimmy said. With a sigh, Jimena waved her hand and all the candy in her two buckets rose up and marched away to where they came from. Grian frowned at them for a second, then he said, "Did anyone see you using your powers?"

           "Um..." Jimena said, and after a moment's pause, she glanced at Jimmy. He was supposed to act reassuring but he looked as equally confused. They both realized that they didn't exactly check to see if no one was watching them. "Be more careful next time!" Grian hissed. "What if someone saw you?" "Yes, I'll be more careful," Jimena said, "And don't worry. I'm sure no one saw me." But she was unfortunately wrong.

---

           Gem and Scott roved through Animalia's Gotham District, their buckets slowly piling up with candy. "It's a nice night tonight," Scott commented, counting his candy. "Counting already? Aren't we going to keep doing this until midnight?" Gem asked. "Yes, but I'm making sure no one is pickpocketing." Scott pointed out, keeping his eyes on his prizes.

           Suddenly, a few of his candy glowed purple and started to float. Gem sharply shot a glance at her own bucket and realized the same was happening to some of her own candy. Then she looked closely at the purple aura that enveloped them and gasped. I recognize that magic.

           "Hey, my candy!" Scott tried to grab at them but they zoomed away. Gem checked to see if no one was watching and a millisecond later she held out her hand towards the runaway confections. Green light pulsed from her fingertips and tried to pull the candy away from the purple magic. The fight was short; soon the candies were back in their possession.

           "I guess she's not that good at it just yet," Gem said grimly. "Who?" Scott asked, already resuming taking inventory of his confections. "Jimena." Scott stopped counting and looked at her. "So she's openly using her magic?" He asked quietly. Gem nodded. The two of them quietly returned to trick or treating, but they couldn't look at the candy the same way that night.

---

           False sighed despondently to herself. It was Halloween, and the hermit should have been out trick or treating with her friends. But she couldn't. Not while she had a rogue clone to watch over.

           The other False was staying securely within her own house on that creepy night, and at first the inventor thought that meant she had an opportunity to leave and have a normal holiday. But then she realized that with all the emperors and hermits busy trick or treating, False was the only one available to keep her clone under check. So she stayed inside her lonely tower.