The dining room was cheerfully lit, with a fire and several lamps. In the center of the room was a long table, and at the head of the table, behind the chair, was a picture of a baby zombie riding a chicken. Weird taste in pictures, but hey, Jesse really couldn't judge.
"Here, let me introduce you all proper," Sparklez said, as the pink haired girl and the brown haired boy- wait, his hair was blue now. When did it change?- talked in the corner.
"You guys already met Cassie Rose and LDShadowLady," Sparklez introduced, the redhead smiling and nodding when her name was spoken, and the pink-haired girl spoke up, "but my friends call me 'Lizzie'."
"This is StacyPlays-" The brown-haired girl with the striped shirt waved a bit. "Stampy Cat-" the boy with the orange cat hoodie grinned nervously at them. "and that's Dan 'TheDiamondMinecart'."
"Wh-when did your hair change color?" Petra asked, looking befuddled. Okay, so it wasn't Jesse's imagination. "Wasn't it-"
Sparklez interrupted. "It's funny. Before you guys showed up... we all knew each other. Anyway, this is Jesse-" Jesse bowed, with much sarcastic waving of the hands- all of them. There were a few nervous chuckles from that.
"Petra-" Petra nodded with a small smile. "Lukas-" Lukas batted at his ears with a nervous smile, tail twitching again. "And Ivor," Sparklez finished, Ivor jerking his head in a nod at them.
"You said there was news?" Dan asked, walking over to Sparklez, "is it good? Good news?"
Jesse sucked in a slight breath with a wince, and Sparklez frowned. "Ah... yeah, it's, um... bad news, I'm afraid," he said, sheepishly. There was a short silence, before he said, "TorqueDawg... is dead."
"Good heavens," Stampy responded, Stacy shaking her head with wide eyes. "Oh no..."
"Wait, what?" Dan asked, frowning.
"But TorqueDawg was so tough!" Stacy blurted, "there was nothing that could take him down! What happened?!"
Jesse flicked out the 'tipped arrow' that she'd put away, careful not to cut her finger on it. "This is what got him."
"Potion of Poison," Ivor said shortly, "and while nowhere near as poisonous as Jesse's, which can cause death instantaneously if ingested and in less than five minutes if bitten..."
Jesse wished Ivor hadn't said that, it just made her even more nervous about biting her lip now, and probably didn't do anything to calm down everyone else in the room either. "... combined with the arrows itself, it's still quite lethal."
"Tipped arrows?" Lizzie asked, blinking disbelievingly.
"Does that mean someone set a TRAP for TorqueDawg? That's nasty!" Stacy said. Jesse had to agree with that there, as she carefully put the arrow away.
Dan sighed as he sat down in a chair, crossing his arms. "I can't believe TorqueDawg's gone. Just like that!"
A short silence, before Stacy asked, cautiously, "So... what happened to his stuff?"
"Whoa! How can you say that?!" Cassie blurted, looking wildly around at Stacy.
"What? It's a valid question!"
"Come on, come on, everyone, don't get greedy!" Stampy said loudly, quickly moving forward to block the glaring contest the two girls were now having.
Jesse frowned, crossing her arms. "His stuff just kinda... disappeared. Went down this weird hole in the floor."
"Are we just supposed to take your word for that?" Stampy asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
"Guys, I saw it too," Sparklez waved his arms around a bit, "Jesse was poking around in TorqueDawg's stuff right before it got sucked into a hopper."
Lukas suddenly spoke up, making them all jump; he hadn't said anything for several minutes now. "So, I'm looking at this situation here, and I'm trying to figure something out- is this just about TorqueDawg, or is there a bigger picture?"
"Yeah, why have OUR portraits?" Petra wondered, as Jesse put one hand on her chin, one of the lower ones on her hip, the middle ones crossing across her midriff, the other lower one hanging down lazily, and the other upper one crossed across her chest.
"I dunno, guys, knowing TorqueDawg, I think this might just be about him," Lizzie said, a slightly sour look coming across her face.
"Am I picking up some beef here?" Petra asked flatly, "because none of us really like eating meat."
"I only like fish," Lukas contributed.
Jesse looked at Lizzie, one eyebrow raising. "There something you not telling us, Lizz?" she asked, kindly enough.
"What? No," Lizzie said, shaking her head, "that- that came out wrong. You know what, forget I said anything."
Everyone shared a lot of glances, before Lizzie said, pulling out her invitation, "Well someone brought us all here for a reason, including TorqueDawg."
"What if we're all in danger?" Dan asked, frowning. Stacy's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh. Dan's right!"
Stampy waved his arms around. "Whoever's doing this, they could be hunting us!"
Jesse frowned again, red and green eyes narrowing. "Hm, that does seem likely... but why would they be hunting us...?"
There was only silence at her words. Dan and Lizzie went to go sit next to each other and started talking softly. Stacy and Stampy went off to stand next to the fire, and Cassie and Sparklez wandered towards the picture with the chicken on it.
"The more I think about it, the more I think there's something these people really don't want us to know," Ivor said, flatly enough. And though he was being blunt about the whole thing, Jesse was pretty sure that her d-mentor was right.
"Well, then, we're just going to have to figure it out," she said, putting one hand on her hip.
Lukas grinned slightly, blue-green eyes glowing slightly in the dark. "Well, let's get investigating, then."
A/N: Detective Jesse is on the case!
Toni42: Hmm, that's an idea (evil grin)
x.X. A.L. X.x
