#anyway convoluted AU where e2gem pix and joel are also e1gem pix and joel

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“Right,” Gem says, keeping her voice steady like a hand of cards to her chest. “What do you know, then?”

It’s not so much a question as it is a threat, and Pix answers in kind. “I think we’re both aware of what’s going on here.” 

It’s a bluff. Gem darts her eyes back at the group in the courtyard, then to Pix again, who gives her a bemused smirk. “Okay,” she says. “Just… don’t mess this up for me.”

“I certainly have no intention of the sort,” Pix says. A cloud passes over the sun, casting a long shadow.

==

This Scott smells very distinctly like llama. It’s not an unwelcome thing. Gem observes the way he talks sweetly to his herd and moves his hands through their coats. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen another Scott act like this. His clothes are garish and, by all standards, mismatched, and his hands are stained with an ever changing array of dyes. He very calmly and confidently attaches the saddle to the llama he’s working with, and it seems soothed by his presence.

“Sorry about that,” he says with a grin that reaches his eyes. “What colors were you looking for?”

==

The rift glows ominously, and pulses with a sick purple energy. Gem can’t keep her eyes off it.

“What’d’you reckon, then?” A voice pipes up from behind her. She bristles.

“No idea,” she says, smiling, then turning around. In that order.

“Bit weird, if you ask me,” Joel says. Gem can’t help but think of a bird puffing out its feathers to seem bigger.

“I don’t know anything about magic, really,” she lies. 

Joel gives her a blank look with those familiar glass eyes. To her credit, her smile doesn’t twitch. “Right then.” He shrugs. “Not much of a conversationalist.”

==

“I’m sure there’s nothing to be afraid of,” Gem says, running her fingers through her hair, watching the way the strands catch the moonlight.

False doesn’t turn to look at her, but her movements do slow. It’s enough of an answer.

“I’m not just saying it,” Gem insists, but something in the way False reaches up to her hair to mirror Gem’s movements makes her stomach flip.

“I think I need a haircut,” False says instead, voice no louder than a whisper. 

Gem moves to close the shutters, not looking at the moon. “That would be nice,” she whispers back.

==

Gem watches as Sausage orbits around Pearl. The Hermits, to their credit, have been very accommodating. They don’t ask too many questions. The dry heat of the Nether Roof is a good excuse for why her palms are sweating.

Pix, to her chagrin, seems bemused.

“Don’t say anything,” she says, hand resting on the hilt of her sword. Pix does a convincing approximation of a cough into his hand.

Gem watches as Sausage enters course for collision. It takes her every ounce of strength to turn away when he puts his hand on Pearl’s shoulder. She catches Joel’s eye instead.

==

“He’s a bit pants, isn’t he?” Jimmy whispers loudly. Oli was too loud in his crooning to notice the crowd ignoring him.

“Yeah,” she admits.

“I think it’s nice,” the Old Sheriff says. “He’s trying to recapture his glory years. Good reminder to us all that the past is left dead.” He spits a glob of something mysteriously dusty onto the floor.

“That’s nice?” Jimmy scoffs.

“You’ll get it one day, buddy,” Joel says, and pats Jimmy on the back.

“Darn tootin’,” the Old Sheriff agrees.

Gem feels the words stick in her throat. Someone throws a rock at Oli.

==

“I’m not sure I need something super new,” Katherine says, holding up two nearly identical pink dresses in the mirror. One is a bit shorter than the other, but they’re both lavishly embellished. It’s like playing dress-up. Spending time with Katherine is easy, if nothing else. She’s so very… Katherine. Watching her flutter around the room is a good comfortable feeling. “What do you think?”

“Left one?” Gem offers. “I like the matte fabric.”

“I’m going with this one. I like the shiny silk.”

“Good choice,” Gem says. “Go with what your heart says.”

Katherine laughs, and Gem laughs, too.

==

“Have you known?” Sausage says one night, sitting up on the roof of his tavern, watching the stars. “This whole time?”

Gem doesn’t answer right away. The cool night air feels so good on her face. There’s no need to say out loud what Sausage already knows.

“I just have one question,” he says next. It’s so quiet, so honest. Gem can hardly match the Sausage she knew with the one sitting next to her. “Why leave me there?”

It’s a question Gem has answered to herself a million times over in the mirror. Tonight she confesses. “I was scared.”

==

By the time Gem packs her bags, Pix and Joel have already gone.

“It’s just time,” she says to herself. She’s not sure who she’s justifying herself to. Sausage seems perfectly content to let her go. There’s nothing keeping her here. 

The flight to the Rift is shorter than she anticipated. The sun setting over the Great Bridge casts a long shadow over the land, and she watches as lights flicker on in homes dotted across the valley. The corpse of Grumbot is the only thing left to wave her goodbye.

Perhaps, she thinks, people don’t need the past anymore.

#empires smp #empiresfic #empires s2 #geminitay #ficpost.net #anyway convoluted AU where e2gem pix and joel are also e1gem pix and joel #also each section is exactly 100 words. ok. #do i tag everyone. it feels wrong to tag everyone. ill tag ppl who are in more than one scene #tag spam -> #pixlriffs #mythicalsausage #smallishbeans #drabble