Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

Two places at once

           How many times was Gem going to get interrogated by the L.O.R.E. team? She really needed to review her fake story before she slipped up. Or maybe she already had, based on the expressions of the hermits when she started talking to False about the other one. But at any rate, she probably needed to get out of there. 

           Using the slightest bit of her powers to make everyone not focus on her, she drank an invisibility potion and quietly slipped away. She couldn't risk teleporting, not with the rift possibly making her powers malfunction. Gem managed to make it a safe distance away when the potion wore off and she immediately shapeshifted to her Dawn persona and doubled back to Hermitopia. 

           She wasn't even entirely sure what her plan was, all she was trying to prove was that she could sort of be in two places at once. Because it would be disastrous if someone noticed that elf Gem and empress Gem were never at the same place. Because then they might figure out that elf Gem and empress Gem were the same person. 

           But now she had an interior to finish. Her treehouse looked good on the outside but it was pretty empty on the inside. Her idea was that her furniture would be handmade and rustic and looked like it was cobbled together. Gem figured that it would look good with her aesthetic. And she had a good idea who to ask for help. 

            "Scott?" Gem called out, landing by his megabase in Chromia. She looked around for the colorful collector. Maybe he was at the llama pen. "Scott? Are you around?" "Yes, just give me a minute," A voice replied, and Gem recognized the accent. It was definitely Scott. "Where are you?" Gem asked, walking around. "Look down," Scott said, and Gem did. 

           It turned out that a llama with an orange carpet had dug a hole and then had fallen into it and Scott jumped into the hole after it to rescue it. "How did a llama dig a hole?" Gem wondered aloud in disbelief. "You do not want to know," Scott said, shaking his head. He tied a rope around the llama's middle and tossed the other end up to Gem. "Help me pull." "Help you pull? You're not pulling-" Gem started, but Scott shimmied up the sides of the muddy hole and climbed out of it all by himself, none the worse for wear. 

           "Oh," Gem said. Scott grinned and grabbed the rope. "Are you helping me pull or not?" He asked jokingly. So the two of them hauled the llama back up onto firm ground. Once they did, the llama spat in Gem's face. "Ew! Scott, you need to teach your llamas manners!" Gem protested, wiping her face. "And why is the saliva green?!" "Llama saliva is green for some reason," Scott said. "And I tried teaching the llamas manners. It didn't go very well. See, spitting is a very integral part of their culture and-"

           "Okay, okay, you can stop now! I don't want to know," Gem said quickly. Scott grinned. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure of the visit of the princess of Dawn?" He asked, bowing extravagantly. Gem shapeshifted into her elf persona and Scott eyed her clothes in an interested manner. "Actually, this one needs your help." She said, and explained her furniture issue. Scott listened with an eager expression. "Okay, that sounds fun. And I've got experience in this kinds of things, so you came to the right place."

           Scott was telling the truth. He was very good with his hands and he probably didn't need Gem helping him at all. The two of them fashioned a table out of a chopped tree log that had been waxed so it wouldn't decay. Bamboo sticks were stripped and woven together to make intricate netlike chairs. Scraps of carpets and llama wool became patchwork blankets and curtains and comforters and rugs. Crooked iron bars and bent hangers were fixed together and candles were added to make a chandelier that was polished till it was gleaming. 

           "Thanks, Scott," Gem said gratefully. "Least I could do," Scott said, and Gem smiled. She was honestly pretty worried that Scott would be... less nice to her after he found out what she was. But apparently her species didn't phase him. "And I thought you were too pretty for manual labor," Gem teased him, and Scott laughed. "I'm not just a pretty face, you know," He said, waving a finger in her face. "I was the winner of Last Life and technically Double Life, remember?"