A Lesson To Be Learnt// An Empires S1 AU

Day 0:: Ominous Sibling Time

Regardless of what others thought, Joel didn't consider himself to be a bad person.

Sure, he mocked people a lot, and yes, most of his humour consisted of insults, but at the end of the day, he was just joking, and if the other person took it to heart?

Well, that was just too bad.

Unfortunately, his sister thought different.

——

Joel glanced away from the chests he was attempting to organise at the sound of a floorboard creaking (he was failing miserably at organising them, but as far as Lizzie knew, he was doing a great job- an amazing job, in fact. She was the one making him sort his chests in the first place after all, despite the fact that she was hopeless with organisation herself, so really she shouldn't be telling him what to do, but whatever).

He let out a confused, "Huh?" before adding a dramatic sigh as a woman wearing a green and yellow dress made out of a very flowy (and uncomfortable-looking, in Joel's opinion) material walked through the door. "Oh. Hello, Pearl."

The Floran let out a snort of laughter. "You could sound a bit more excited to see me, you know, baby brother." Joel let out an irritated hiss.

"Oh my- you have not called me baby brother since I was like ten, please do not start it up again now." He whined. He straightened slightly, realising that he did, in fact, currently sound like a whiny ten year old and that he should change the subject before Pearl picked up on it. "What do you want?" The brunette demanded.

"Just checking up on you." Pearl took an appreciative look around the room, although her gaze did linger on the items strewn across the floor and she did wrinkle her nose slightly in what might have been amusement. "Running a whole empire is hard, and you're a quitter, so glad to see you haven't quit yet."

Joel rolled his eyes. "It's a whole empire, I'm not just gonna quit."

"Yeah, fair. Man, this place has changed a lot since I left." Pearl added.

"Oh, yeah- how are things going in your new... empire by the way? You know, since you ran off from Mezalea and left me to take charge." He cut off her protests as he continued with a mischievous grin. "What's your new place called again? Golden... Hellscape or something?"

"My empire is called Gilded Helianthia, although I do appreciate the fact that your brain tried and failed to understand big words." Pearl added with a smug smile as Joel glared at her fiercely. He loved his sister, but man she was annoying sometimes.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, loser. What do you want?" Joel added with a huff.

"Well... I don't want to sound like the big sister trying to parent, but you've been- kind of rude lately?" This is. So stupid.

"It's my sense of humour. So what?" Joel said with a shrug.

"So your sense of humour is- mocking Jimmy for hating salmon till he runs off and hides in his empire for three days?" Pearl said skeptically.

"Not my fault he can't handle a joke."

"What about insulting FWhip about how he clearly can't protect anyone because he let Sausage get corrupted by Xornoth? To the point where Gem and FWhip won't speak to you now?" His sister added sharply.

"Oh, come on, you don't believe that stupid demon stuff, do you?" Joel said with a snort of laughter. "That's just Scott and Joey making stuff up to mess with us. FWhip and Sausage are just playing along with the bit, so I did as well." Pearl let out an irritated hiss, producing an odd, spherical object out of seemingly nowhere.

"Baby brother-" Don't call me that- "-I love you dearly, but I think you need to learn to realise when you've gone too far." Pearl said scathingly. Joel simply shrugged, shooting a curious look at the object she was holding. It appeared to be a silver sphere with a golden sunflower carved into it.

How on earth she'd managed to find a relic so quickly for an empire that she had just started ruling (it had previously been a derelict farming village that Pearl had improved and built upon), Joel had no idea.

"Perc- Pearl, it's just my sense of humour." Joel added after correcting himself hastily, although he did notice how his sister's smile faltered slightly. "If the other emperors really don't understand my humour by now, it's probably best they don't talk to me anyway." He added with a laugh, trying to make a joke.

Pearl did not laugh.

"Joel, I'm being serious. You need to be nice. Also, you'd think that you'd want your brother-in-law to like you instead of mocking him for his fear of salmon. Doesn't Lizzie dislike them as well?" The blue-eyed woman added skeptically.

"Yeah, but she isn't bloody terrified of them like Jimmy is. It's hilarious!" The brown eyed man added with another laugh.

Yet again, Pearl did not laugh.

"Joel, I'm- not going to repeat myself. I don't see why you can't at least try to be nicer." The taller of the pair said quietly. She then smiled. "Have I told you about this, by the way? Gilded Helianthia relic. Apparently it's been with the villagers for generations, but they gifted it to me. It's like Gem's staff, but you can cast your own spells. Make up your own enchantments. Pretty cool, huh?"

Joel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Cool and irrelevant. Are you done with the older sister lecture?" He added sharply.

Pearl paused, still smiling as if she were figuring something out. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm done. Just... try and be nicer, okay? People might have- concerns or problems you don't know about."

"If they did, they'd tell me to stop. Nobody has." Joel said with a shrug. "Now if you don't mind, I'm being forced by my wife to organise chests, so..."

Pearl nodded, and Joel turned away as she left.

If he had continued to watch, he might have noticed her mouthing words quietly, or the metal sphere in her hands emitting a dim glow.

He would have noticed the whispered, "You'll see, baby brother. You'll see."

But of course, he didn't.

Woooo new AU

Basically- Joel is a not very cool person, takes 0 feelings into considering, Pearl decides to step in big sister mode and teach him a lesson

Also I like the idea of Pearl and Joel (the gods of the seasons) being siblings. Idk the sibling duo name but I love making up sibling dynamics

Also also, if you noticed Joel going to call Pearl something and correcting himself (specifically '"Perc- Pearl, it's just my sense of humour." Joel added after correcting himself hastily'), I saw someone on Tumblr headcannon Pearl as a trans girl and I was like 'yo cool headcannon, mine now', so that little bit was Joel slipping up and nearly deadnaming Pearl.

He didn't mean to, of course, but he barely speaks to her, so he still hasn't properly adjusted to now having a sister instead of a brother. (Again, he may be a jerk in this au, but it was a genuine slip up lol)

Anyways hope you enjoyed, comments and votes are appreciated <3 :]

Enjoy the chaos and lesson-learning (and bits of angst) that are to come <3 :]

Yes I'm uploading chapter one now, but I probably won't update again until I've at least finished three more chapters and vice versa

Think of this as a teaser, if you will, cause the first chapter prob won't be out till I'm done with like three chapters after it lol, Im trying to have chapters prepared when uploading so I can upload on slow days lol