When The Sun Sets on an Empire

by TheCustomCosplayed

Summary:

Sausage worries for his friend, GeminiTay. She may or may not be getting up to some worrying antics. But it's fine! No ones been hurt, even if Gem is starting to distance herself.

Everything will be okay. Right?

(Or in which I suck at summaries and Sausage checks on a kind of SkulkCorrupted!Gem)

Notes:

Hey everyone! Just a heads up, I started writing this before the Hermitcraft crossover, and I do not plan on adding any HC characters! This takes place before Gem gets Apollo.

This is going to be multi-chapetered, so there is more. I also have this posted up to part 4(?) on my Tumblr, thecustomcosplayed. It's under the name "When The Sun Sets", however this version will be a tiny bit different.

ALSO! This fic is about the characters only. If any of the cc's are uncomfortable with this fic, I will delete it.

Chapter 1: Changes in Behavior

As Sausage flew in to the sun Empire, he couldn’t help but pause as he landed near the lighthouse, on top the rocky coastline. The last time he had visited, it wasn’t there, and from his fly-over, he had seen some new farms and a small trade market area.

However, Sausage wasn’t here for trading. He came to visit his friend, the Princess of Dawn, GeminiTay.

Lately, she had been acting... off. While he knew Gem tended to keep to her Empire, he had gotten worried when her messages sent to him through chat had lessened, and the latest ones had been about the Princess transforming someplace she called Dusk.

Now, at first, the blue-eyed adventurer had brushed it off as another one of her buildings, sure, using the word ‘transform’ for a building wasn’t too common, but this was Gem. She was far from what somebody would call normal, or common. But then the messages had gotten more vague, less then, even. And then they had stopped altogether.

Not to mention the ginger had definitely been acting off the last time he saw her, when himself, Gem, and The Sheriff had met up to talk about things. She hadn’t had that usual warmth she carried with her, that seemed to seep from her, and instead of the light red- almost pink- dress she usually wore, she had on a dark red dress, a color that you most likely would see at a sunset.

He thought this through as he walked over to the bridge, and over it, all the meanwhile admiring the Empire itself. Dawn was a naturally nice place, with an ocean to watch the sunset, and a large mountain to have the sun rise and cast it’s light upon the Empire. Right now, the sun was about halfway through the sky, and he knew it was around noon, so Gem should be up.

Sausage walked through the strangely quiet Empire, heading towards the barn, where he was pretty sure he’d find the Princess, and he was right.

“Ah, Gem, hola mì amigo!” Sausage said, keeping his voice cheerful and light.

The redhead, who previously had been feeding the pigs, turned around. “Oh! Hi Sausage. I wasn’t expecting anyone to stop by,” she stated calmly as she stood.

Sausage chuckled. “What? Can’t an old friend drop by?”

Gem laughed softly, shaking her head in amusement, muttering something about Sausage not being old, which he didn’t quiet catch.

“I notice you’ve changed your style up a bit? It looks nice.” the adventurer nodded towards said dress, which was a deep purple, almost magenta color.

The princess glanced down, as if forgetting what she was wearing, before she looked back up with a smile. “Yeah, you think so? I thought I could use a bit of change from the pastel colors, heh,” she said this nonchalantly, as she moved to head out the barn.

Sausage noted that as her arm brushed his, even through his sleeve, he could feel how cold her skin ews, which immediately set off alarm bells in his head. Even in the snow, the princess was pratically a walking heater.

“Hey, you’re kind of cold, are you sick or something?” He asked, trying not to sound concerned, following her.

Gem raised an eyebrow slightly, turning so she was walking backwards and talking to him. “No..? I mean, not as far as I’m aware.”

Sausage 'hmmmm'ed quietly, his worry slightly growing. “Hey, uh, I know you’re kind of reserved when it comes to.. doing things outside of Dawn, but normally you message me. Any reason why you.. stopped?” He tried to soind noncommittal, but didn’t do a very good job.

Gem stopped, they were now by her house, as she looked at him, almost confused. “I told you, didn’t I? I’m transforming Dusk! It’s been kinda hard with just me, but I’m getting it done!”

“Ok, but uh, what’s Dusk?”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? It’s the Ancient City under Dawn! Hence, you know, Dusk.”

Sausage had- not literally- froze. He stared in genuine shock at how casually Gem had stated those words. Like she wasn't talking about transforming a whole ANCIENT CITY, WHICH HAD A WARDEN. UNDER HER EMPIRE.

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT??" He did not miss the subtle flinch at his yelling, but he kept going. "THE ANCIENT CITY? AS IN THE DEEP DARK, WITH A WARDEN IN THERE, WHO COULD KILL YOU?"

He was left breathing slightly heavy due to his volume, but he didn't care. Gem was being basically careless about this project, and sure, he knew she tended to leap before she looked, but this was a big leap.

Gem, whom has covered her ears at his yelling, finally spoke." You done yet?"

"WHA- Am I done yet??" I would like to yell a million things at how careless you are, but you need to answer some questions first!"

The redhead paused, looking amused at his response, before snickering. "Geez, what are you, my mother?" She seemed completely fine with everything that had just happened, despite getting yelled at not even 2 minute prior.

"Look, normally I'm all with big projects and pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, but Gem, you could die from this! I know we have infinite respawns, but you know how it is when you have to respawn. You can't be serious about this."

Gem shook her head, seemingly still amused, her red hair following with the movement.

"C'mon, follow me. There are ears everywhere here." She spoke after about 10 seconds, before grabbing Sausage's wrist and basically dragging him into her house- she was surprisingly strong.

"There's no need to worry Sausage, the wisps will protect me. They've already kind of helped me, actually, they showed me my banner." She said calmly, moving to sit on her bed, picking up her yellow glasses from the nightstand and put them on.

"What wisps? Gem, you're starting to worry me. First, your more and more reserved, and now with this whole City thing, and being physically cold. Are you okay?" The brunettes eyes shone with worry.

The princess tilted her head slightly as soon as he had asked what the so called 'wisps' were, and her eyes glazed over slightly as though tuning out the rest of what he had said.

"Do you not seem them?" She asked simply.

"What? The wisps? No, but you still haven't answered me, Gem. You're starting to scare me.."

"Oh."

That was all she said. She blinked a couple times, her eyes seemed to simultaneously clear up and fog up at the same time, if they was possible. Her eyebrows furrowed, eyes slowing moving across the room, before landing on Sausage's. She blinked again, as though just seeing him now. "Oh." She repeated, this time, clearer, and almost sounding more herself.

"Gem," he sat down, putting a hand on her shoulder, where he could feel how cold she was, and how she tensed at the contact. "You should get some rest. Where's the City you told me about?"

She nodded slowly. "Right.. the City.. it's, uh.." she paused, before reaching into a drawer in her nightstand, pulling out a map and handing it towards Sausage. "There. It's there.."

Sausage took it, opening it and scanning it over. "Okay. I'm gonna go check this place out, and you get some rest, alright?" He kept his voice low, as if he didn't want to disturb the princess.

Said princess nodded, before jumping up slightly. "Oh, wait! I have something that might help," she got up, heading across the room and opening a chest, pulling out a pair of enchanted diamond boots. "Here. They have the sneak shift enchantment added so it'll be quicker for you to move around. Keep them."

He checked the enchantments as she handed the boots to him, surprised as it was basically fully enchanted, along with sneaky feet 3.

He looked up. "Thank you so much, I'll pay you back, I promise, but right now I think it's best if you sleep."

The ginger nodded, sitting as the brunette stood. "Thanks, Sausage." She muttered softly, as she placed her glasses on the nightstand and slipped under the bed covers.

Sausage smiled softly as the princess almost instantly fell asleep. He quickly headed for the door with a quiet sigh.

"I'm going to figure out what's happening, Gem."

"I promise."

Chapter 2: Author's Note

Summary:

just a quick author's note, please read this!

Hello! Okay, so, right off the bat, I wanna say that I am not dropping or quitting this story- far from it, actually. I do already have 5/6 of the (planned) chapters written, however, this fic was the first fic I have ever written. So, I have plans for it!

Long story short, I've been thinking of trying to rewrite this fic because looking back on it, I am not as proud as it as I used to be. A lot of the concept will still be the same, of course, and I will still have it up on my Tumblr (TheCustomCosplayed), and I will be explaining over there as well.

I'm not sure how long it'll take me, but I do have plans for this story! So, please don't worry about it, I will probably post updates on my Tumblr. Thanks for reading this little tidbit!

Notes:

so yeah, uhhh, sorry? i kinda disappeared- apologies for that, life has been mad crazy. anyways yeah.