Gem looked at her social tree. It was a paperbark maple that had been growing in this land much longer than Dawn had been around. It was her social tree because whenever she made an ally or an enemy, she would take some chalk and scribble their names and their status on the paper-thin bark. And if an emperor that was once her ally became her enemy, or vice versa, she could peel off the thin bark that she had written on to change it, if the chalk wasn't behaving and wouldn't erase. Gem was sure the tree didn't mind her taking notes on it.
She had to update the social tree. It had been too long since the last time she'd written on it. She ran her hands over the bark, smiling. "Thank you for being a great notepad," Gem told the tree. The tree shook lightly in the wind, as if responding. Gem glanced at the names she had written under 'friends', smiling at the memories that were triggered as she did so.
Sausage was the first name. The chalk marks were nearly gone; she'd written it so long ago and never had to change it. They'd met after both of them had recently become emperors; Gem wasn't even in her princess outfit yet. Sausage had hatched four chickens from a single egg that day, and the two of them had decided, for whatever reason, to collect all the different types of wood and tree. Then they'd done a little raiding and Gem got a pair of frostwalker boots which she used to trap Sausage's boat in a ring of ice as a joke for a few minutes. After that, they decided to part ways and finally start their empires, but promised to stay friends.
Jimmy was the second name she'd written. Gem was planning to go on a mining trip that day, but she was playing the meek princess who couldn't handle herself in the real world. She hadn't even had a sword yet. Oh, if only she had a big strong man to protect her. As if on cue, Jimmy had conveniently showed up and became her bodyguard on their mining trip. He was secretly not as brave and fearless as he claimed to be; every time Gem sensed he wished to return to the surface, she would say something along the lines of, 'I have strong sheriff to protect me, we can stay longer!' and Jimmy was pressured to stay. This eventually resulted in the sheriff dying; thankfully he respawned, and Gem managed to save most of his stuff for him. And now she'd made up for his dying for her by protecting him from the phantoms.
Third on the list was Katherine. Gem was sorting through her honeycomb and beeswax when it occurred to her that those materials, combined with string, made candles, a very practical item that most people wanted. The problem was, string came from spiders, and Gem was a princess of insects, not arachnids, let alone monstrous arachnids that were as large as you. Thankfully, she'd heard that there was another princess around, and Gem travelled to Glimmer Grove to meet Princess Katherine, who was secretly a monster slayer and was a string supplier. The two of them made a princess candle shop in Dawn, and the quaint little place was bustling with activity; the candlemaker who worked there was earning a tidy profit off of the many sales.
There wasn't much on the list after that. Some of Gem's acquaintances were just that. Simply acquaintances, not friends, not allies. fWhip the goblin, who came by Dawn a lot, acted shady and suspicious most of the time, and Gem wasn't sure if she should be banning him from her empire or something.
She hadn't had many interactions with Pix the historian; they'd been on good terms for about forever, both having several fair trades with each other, but there were no tests of loyalty to prove anything between them yet.
Joel, the resident god who lived in Stratos, had a rocky relationship with the sun princess after he'd accidentally started selling her export of honey, and he'd even ended up under 'enemies' on her social tree. Once he realized his mistake, however, he'd apologized, and Gem forgave him, removing his name from the social tree.
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.
The silence was deafening, both emperors waiting for the other person to say something and not daring to break the ice themselves. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. Norman and Flick just sat there, staring at the two of them, wondering what was going on, then deciding that they had to take matters into their own paws.
Flick jumped into False's lap, and Norman started scratching Jimmy's ankle, making him yelp. "Norman! What was that for?!" Norman meowed innocently. False and Flick looked at each other in the eyes, Flick making himself look even cuter than he normally was, and False couldn't help but stroke him.
Flick started kneading her lap with his front paws, and it was so ticklish she started laughing. Jimmy stopped scolding Norman to see what she was laughing at. Huh. Flick's making biscuits. Guess he likes her. He knew from experience that when cats did that, it was a sign that they were comfortable. "What's his name?" False asked, patting the cat. "That's Flick. And this little devil," Jimmy said, picking up Norman, "Is Norman." Norman meowed at being called a little devil.
False beamed at the cats. "They're both so cute." Then a thought occurred to her. "Do they have fleas?" Both cats assumed annoyed expressions and stretched their claws. "No," Jimmy said indignantly. "Of course they don't." The cats went back to being innocent little angels receiving the best stroking they could ever hope for.
They grinned secretly to themselves. Their work was done; they'd lightened the mood, and they'd even gotten a treat from it. Then they both decided that they wanted to have a snack and hopped off the emperors' laps and trotted off to the kitchen without so much as a farewell. "Hey!" Jimmy protested. "Come back here! I wasn't done petting you yet!" False giggled. "Ginny does the same thing."
Jimmy and False ended up feeding the cats somehow, and the sheriff wondered, not for the first time, how in the world cats were so good at manipulating their owners. But he didn't mind, as long as they let him 'own' them and spend time with them.
And then he realized that Flick had pooped outside the litter box again and cursed the gods, or at least Joel if this was his fault and it most likely was, for making cute kittens such mischievous demons. False offered to clean it up for him and did so, and then while she did that, she noticed little bits of dirt lying around and cleaned that up too, and after that she somehow ended up tidying the living room for him.
Jimmy soon realized that he should be the one tidying up his own house, not her, and started doing just that. It didn't take too long, his house wasn't that big because he wasn't good at building megabases, and it was decorated sparsely. When you lived in a mesa, having a spartan home was practical.
There was no point in having too much decor that served no purpose. It made cleaning up easy too; the dry winds of the badlands blew in quite a few grains of loose dirt and red sand that would be painful to sweep up if the houses weren't so empty.
It still took a while, though, especially when they discovered Norman and Flick's secret supplies of dead mice and rabbits that they'd hidden away in several hidden nooks and crannies. The cats protested as one by one they threw the corpses out the house where they were buried in the sand.
When they finished, it was nearing night, and Jimmy decided that he should invite False to stay for dinner. He rummaged around for leftovers to eat, and found a surprisingly large bowl of yucca soup that he thought False would like. He brought it to the dining room and set it down, and to his surprise he found that False had already set the table. "Force of habit," She said, going red. Something about her worries me, Jimmy thought.
"No, don't be embarrassed, thanks," He said quickly, and sat down. He pushed the bowl of slightly cold soup to her. "Here, have some yucca soup." "Yucca's the poisonous plant, right?" False said, wrinkling her nose slightly. Jimmy nodded. "Only some parts of it is poisonous, though, so the rest is eatable."
The talk of yucca reminded him of the discussion he had with her and Jimena about the food from Tumble Town, and then that reminded him of his outburst. Jimmy sighed, looking away. "What's wrong?" False asked, concerned, and just then Jimmy realized what it was she was doing that worried him.
"Stop being so nice, it's scaring me," He muttered. False made an unreadable face. "Yeah, I can relate. I honestly thought you were one of those people who pretended to be nice just to further their diabolical schemes."
Jimmy nearly choked on his soup in surprise and started coughing. False, alarmed, got up to help him. Jimmy waved her away, drinking some water to clear his throat. "Sorry, but what? You thought, that me, the sheriff, was diabolical?" Jimmy asked in astonishment. False ducked her head.
"Uh, yeah. I don't know why I'm scared of people, but I am." She looked at him again. "Um, why exactly are you scared of me being nice?" The words tumbled out of Jimmy's mouth in a rush. "Because I was yelling at you for no reason and being mean and I'm so sorry and what can I do to make it up to you I'll do chores in your empire if you want me to and-"
False, alarmed again, patted him awkwardly. "Uh, there's no need to work for me. It makes me nervous, honestly." Jimmy nodded, feeling deflated. "And um, I'm forgiving you for yelling at me. It was just one singular outburst. No problem. Nothing much." False added. Jimmy blinked. "Really?" "Yeah, really. Um, I guess I should try the yucca soup now, before it gets cold." "Yeah, tastes better fresh." They finished dinner with polite conversations and nothing weird happening, and False stayed the night in the saloon.
The next morning, she wanted to return to Cogsmeade as soon as possible, and Jimmy asked if there was anything he could do for her. False shook her head. "No thanks. You don't have to feel bad at yelling at me. People snap all the time, it's no problem." As she left, Jimmy felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders and a great deal better in general.