A Lesson To Be Learnt// An Empires S1 AU

Day 1:: Jimmy

A/N: any text that's in bold italics (like this) is something that Joel didn't think, but somehow appeared in his head anyway, unless clarified otherwise :)

Joel blinked open his eyes, letting out a small yawn. He had fallen asleep pretty quickly after his encounter with Pearl (he felt really dizzy, although he had just put it down to it being extra hot that day).

He stared up at the wooden planks of the ceiling, sitting up and-

Wait, wooden planks? His roof wasn't wooden.

Joel glanced around with a mildly panicked expression, his gaze flicking around the unfamiliar surroundings as he practically fell out of bed.

The Floran scrambled to his feet. Okay, yes, he was panicking slightly, but he assumed it was just Jimmy playing a prank on him- after all, the room he was in did appear to be constructed out of the building palette that was commonly used in the Cod Empire.

That was what he assumed.

Until, that is, he caught a glance of himself in a cracked mirror hanging on the wall.

What. The. Hell?

Staring back at him in the mirror was the face of his stupid brother in law. Jimmy.

What the- this is- He blinked rapidly, as if that would change what he was seeing in the mirror. Huh?! Is this a weird dream or something?

Joel frowned slightly. This is ridiculous. What on- huh?! He turned to face the door- and noticed a note stuck to it (which, oddly enough, had his name written on it).

He reached for the folded up scrap of paper, pulling it off and tearing part of it off. Oops. Hope that- wasn't important. Joel added silently to himself as he unfolded the note and scanned it quickly.

Hi Joel!

Jimmy let me stick this to his door, I told him I was messing with you and he was really confused as to how it would mess with you, but he was all for it as long as you got messed with.

I'm teaching you a lesson (if what you said about the other emperors having no problems is true, then this should be easy :])

For the next... eleven or so days, you're going to spend a day as each of the other emperors. You're going to figure out what their problems are, and try to be a lot more sensitive and over all a better person :]

You won't try and improve yourself, or believe that anything you say genuinely upsets people, so I'm showing you you're wrong (petty and probably impulsive, I know, but someone needs to teach you a lesson).

Have fun!

~

The part of the note with the author's name on it had been ripped off, but Joel had a pretty good guess who it was. Pearl-fricking-escent Moon, I am going to kill you- this is so stupid! Yeah, Jimmy's a wimp who doesn't like salmon, but he doesn't have a genuine problem with them. I know Lizzie mentioned something about salmon and their old home- but still!

Joel let out an irritated yelp as he made his way to the door, tripping over his own- no, Jimmy's- tail, an unwelcome addition as he was absolutely not used to having one.

I cannot believe I'm stuck as this- blummin' idiot. Said with love. He added silently to himself, waving awkwardly as he noticed a villager staring at him while he tripped over his tail yet again, and he swore under his breath as the villager approached him. "Are you okay, Jim?"

Clearly this odd little cyan-haired woman (she appeared to be an axolotl hybrid like Lizzie) was someone Jimmy talked to a lot- perhaps she was one of the builders that assisted him in his larger projects.

"I'm, uh-" Joel blinked. Oh, okay, I have Jimmy's voice as well. Noted. Man, I could cause so much chaos with this. Pearl would kill me, but I could. "I'm fine. Thanks for asking though, uh..."

The woman laughed, helping him to his feet. "Man, with all due respect, Codfather, you are scatterbrained. My name's Delta. Remember?" Joel nodded with what he hoped was an understanding expression.

"Ah. Delta. Right. Well, I'm just gonna- go on a walk now. Bye. Thank you." Joel added swiftly, just in case. Well, that was awkward. Luckily that Delta girl didn't seem too smart or she would have caught on. Idiot. Joel paused. Wait, no, the whole point of this is being nice to people-

Oh well, too late now.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful- he went on a walk around the areas of Jimmy's empire he didn't normally get to explore, and it was quite peaceful.

The only relatively eventful thing was at... oh, twenty minutes before sunset?

He was debating heading back to the place where Jimmy slept, going to get up from his spot sat next to a small stream when he noticed a flash of red and silver scales in the water.

Joel squinted at the sudden burst of colour, leaning over the water and nearly falling in when he realised what it was.

He shrunk away from the water with an odd spike of panic, instinctively reaching for his sword. Kill it, kill it, kill it, get rid of it, it's awful, kill it, kill it, it needs to go-

This train of thought repeated in his head as vaguely stabbed at the water in an attempt to slay the salmon.

It took a few attempts before the blade met something other than the rocks at the bottom of the stream and a small amount of blood clouded part of the river.

Joel pulled the blade out of the water, attempting to catch his breath (his breathing had become somewhat irregular) as he simply dropped the sword in the water, not caring in the slightest and scrambling to his feet.

Yes, he'd felt panicked before, but certainly nothing like that. And to feel like that about a stupid fish? Ridiculous.

It only occurred to him while walking home that maybe that was Jimmy's fear, and maybe there was a reason for it.

He shrugged it off- he could always just ask Lizzie about it when he returned to his own body.

Woooo chapter two :>

Yeah, essentially Pearl's teaching Joel a lesson by making him figure out each emperor's fear/problem so he'll stop mocking them for their problems and/or fears, because now he'll have experienced them himself :>

Jimmy has a very severe fear (a phobia, even) of salmon (because in the canon of empires, Lizzie and Jimmy had to leave their old home because salmon invaded it, but he doesn't remember that bit, just that he hates salmon), so he that's why he tries to kill them whenever he sees themmm

And Joel just kind of randomly felt a bit of Jimmy's panic when seeing the salmon and did the same thing Jimmy does where he blindly tries to kill it :)

Joel experiencing other emperors fears will become a recurring theme :]