Watching and Listening - An Empires SMP AU

A rocky start to friendship

           Gem looked at her social tree. It was a paperbark maple that had been growing in this land much longer than Dawn had been around. It was her social tree because whenever she made an ally or an enemy, she would take some chalk and scribble their names and their status on the paper-thin bark. And if an emperor that was once her ally became her enemy, or vice versa, she could peel off the thin bark that she had written on to change it, if the chalk wasn't behaving and wouldn't erase. Gem was sure the tree didn't mind her taking notes on it.

           She had to update the social tree. It had been too long since the last time she'd written on it. She ran her hands over the bark, smiling. "Thank you for being a great notepad," Gem told the tree. The tree shook lightly in the wind, as if responding. Gem glanced at the names she had written under 'friends', smiling at the memories that were triggered as she did so. 

           Sausage was the first name. The chalk marks were nearly gone; she'd written it so long ago and never had to change it. They'd met after both of them had recently become emperors; Gem wasn't even in her princess outfit yet. Sausage had hatched four chickens from a single egg that day, and the two of them had decided, for whatever reason, to collect all the different types of wood and tree. Then they'd done a little raiding and Gem got a pair of frostwalker boots which she used to trap Sausage's boat in a ring of ice as a joke for a few minutes. After that, they decided to part ways and finally start their empires, but promised to stay friends. 

           Jimmy was the second name she'd written. Gem was planning to go on a mining trip that day, but she was playing the meek princess who couldn't handle herself in the real world. She hadn't even had a sword yet. Oh, if only she had a big strong man to protect her. As if on cue, Jimmy had conveniently showed up and became her bodyguard on their mining trip. He was secretly not as brave and fearless as he claimed to be; every time Gem sensed he wished to return to the surface, she would say something along the lines of, 'I have strong sheriff to protect me, we can stay longer!' and Jimmy was pressured to stay. This eventually resulted in the sheriff dying; thankfully he respawned, and Gem managed to save most of his stuff for him. And now she'd made up for his dying for her by protecting him from the phantoms. 

           Third on the list was Katherine. Gem was sorting through her honeycomb and beeswax when it occurred to her that those materials, combined with string, made candles, a very practical item that most people wanted. The problem was, string came from spiders, and Gem was a princess of insects, not arachnids, let alone monstrous arachnids that were as large as you. Thankfully, she'd heard that there was another princess around, and Gem travelled to Glimmer Grove to meet Princess Katherine, who was secretly a monster slayer and was a string supplier. The two of them made a princess candle shop in Dawn, and the quaint little place was bustling with activity; the candlemaker who worked there was earning a tidy profit off of the many sales. 

           There wasn't much on the list after that. Some of Gem's acquaintances were just that. Simply acquaintances, not friends, not allies. fWhip the goblin, who came by Dawn a lot, acted shady and suspicious most of the time, and Gem wasn't sure if she should be banning him from her empire or something.

           She hadn't had many interactions with Pix the historian; they'd been on good terms for about forever, both having several fair trades with each other, but there were no tests of loyalty to prove anything between them yet.

           Joel, the resident god who lived in Stratos, had a rocky relationship with the sun princess after he'd accidentally started selling her export of honey, and he'd even ended up under 'enemies' on her social tree. Once he realized his mistake, however, he'd apologized, and Gem forgave him, removing his name from the social tree.