Second Best- An Empires S2 Applyfic

-War Breaks Out-

Artemis glanced at her father. "Uh... Dad? You okay? You look... distracted?" The man paused, clearly tired, before his daughter's question registered.

"What? Oh- it's nothing for you to worry about. Just- empires business... stuff." The god said, waving his hand in a slightly awkward, dismissive gesture. "Nothing for you to worry about." The brunette repeated. "Look, why don't you go find Hermes? They're your brother, I'm sure he'd love to speak to you. They haven't seen you in a while."

"I think he left to go visit Sanctuary like an hour ago, so..." Artemis trailed off with a shrug.

"Okay, well- uh- go... play in Lower Stratos or something." Play? I'm not seven years old, Dad. Artemis let out a somewhat reluctant sigh.

"Okay. Fine. Good luck with 'empires business stuff'." The demi-god said with a shrug, walking out of the room.

She could vaguely hear small parts of her father muttering to himself. "...Pix said he'd support me... might ask Jimmy... Sausage, maybe?"

Artemis had no idea what he was talking about, but she knew that whatever it was, it wasn't going to be good.

——

Val peeked out of her room at the sound of something falling to the floor. She took a few hesitant yet curious steps towards the room the noise had come from- her dads' room- and silently opened the door, just a tiny bit.

She was greeted by the sight of the sheriff leaning down to pick up his sheriff badge, glancing at her other dad with a somewhat exasperated expression. "Sorry, I just- Scott's being so stupid!" Jimmy protested loudly, sounding so upset that Val took a hesitant step backwards. Scott? That's Kay's dad, right? "Everyone he wants to involve in this has so much to lose, and he just- doesn't care! He couldn't care less."

FWhip shot him a somewhat sympathetic look. "I know, but now that he's declared war, we need to pick a side." Wait, what?! On who?! Us?!

"I mean... I feel like the logical option is Joel- he didn't want to fight in the first place, so he probably isn't as prepared as Scott, who's apparently been planning this for years." The dark blonde added wryly. War? What-

"Why are we going to war?" Val blurted, wincing as both of her fathers immediately turned to face her with horrified expressions.

"Val- sweetie- how long have you been there?" The sheriff asked, sounding absolutely mortified.

"Long enough to hear that we might be going to war with Kay's dad." Val said with a slight frown, and although she tried to say it in an unbothered way, she couldn't stop her voice from wobbling slightly.

FWhip sighed. "That... is true. Chromia has decided to declare war on Stratos for pretty much no reason, and we're quite good friends with the leader of Stratos." He added. "So it's a possibility."

"What- but I have friends in Chromia! Am I just not allowed to speak to them now?" The girl with dyed hair protested.

"Well, I don't really have a problem with it, but I think Scott might feel differently." Jimmy said quietly, shrugging.

Val paused.

Oh.

——

Bennett winced slightly as he heard his sister's sing song voice from behind him. "Bennetttt~ hey nerd, I have a history book for us." He glanced over his shoulder to see Ashley stumbling towards him, clutching a book that was far too big for her to be carrying by herself. "I found it in Dad's house!"

"Do you not think Dad will have a problem with you stealing his stuff?" The brunette asked warily as the blonde haired girl sat down next to him and dropped the book with a thud.

"Nope. He's always encouraging an 'interest in history'! I'm sure he won't mind." Ashley said with a dismissive hand gesture, yawning.

"I don't think I encouraged an interest in stealing though, Ashley." Bennett shot his sister a small smile as she turned around to face their father, who was leaning against the doorframe with one eyebrow raised.

"Uhhhh- Dad- it's not what it looks like- I- uh-" Ashley glanced at Bennett for help, and the boy shrugged. She got herself into this mess.

"I'm not mad, Ashley. Just... maybe try and steal less? I understand that stealing is something your papa does quite a lot, but I'm attempting to discourage it." Pix added wryly. "What part were you looking at anyway?" The brunette said curiously, walking over and sitting next to them.

"Well, I was gonna try and find the part about the old empires that nobody ever talks about, because... nobody but you ever talks about them." Bennett's sister finished lamely.

"You mean the ones that nobody is sure existed? Those ones?" Bennett said with a laugh.

"Yeah. Those. I don't think you've heard Dad talking about them before- Dad can you tell Bennett about the destroyed empires?" His sister added brightly, and Pix shot a questioning glance at Bennett, who shrugged with an indifferent expression.

"Well... why not?" The brunette said with a shrug. "While nobody is quite sure of the names of the old empires, what happened to them or where they went, we do have vague bits of information about their cultures and locations. For example, there was an empire in the snowy mountains who's culture largely revolved around a stag god of sorts, and they believed in the healing properties of glacial water and gold."

"How can gold have healing properties?" Bennett asked curiously.

"I believe it was more of a symbolic thing- gold was present a lot throughout their culture. There was also a desert empire, the religion of which revolved the symbolism of candles and light, linking to life and death, and they..." Bennett zoned out slightly, vaguely keeping track of his father's excited speech.

Although Pix looked happy enough, there was still a slight frown on his face, and his hands were trembling slightly, as if he'd just found out something alarming.

But that didn't matter right now.

Have Pix telling stories to his kids to make up for the angst I'm planning on throwing at you :) (I have a little headcannon that sometimes they just have little storytelling sessions)

Also I included a few headcannons for the current empires' knowledge of S1 and Rivendell there lol

Also also, here's who's allied with Stratos and Chromia respectively in the upcoming war:

Stratos:

•The Goblands
•Tumble Town
•Ancient Capital
•Sanctuary
•Eversea
•Olipeligo

Chromia:

•Glimmergrove
•The Evermoore
•Animalia
•Cogsmeade
•Dawn