Jesse trotted over to Dan and Lizzie, smiling slightly. "Um, hi there! Dan, Lizzie," she said, awkwardly.
Dan jumped several inches out of his chair and conked foreheads with Lizzie. Rubbing his forehead, he turned to look at her. "Oh, uh, hello."
"Hi there!" Lizzie said, giving Jesse a smile.
"If you don't mind, I have some questions about this whole... situation," Jesse said, sliding into the chair nearest to them.
Dan and Lizzie shared a look, before Dan shrugged. "Yeah? Go ahead."
"It seems like people were REALLY interested to see what was in TorqueDawg's inventory," Jesse started, lower arms pulling out some yarn and beginning to play around with it. "Any idea why?"
Lizzie shook her head with a shrug. "An adventurer like him? He could've had all sorts of cool stuff," she responded, casually.
"Cool, okay-" Jesse felt something fluffy poke into her hands, and she looked down to see Lukas eyeing the yarn. Rolling her eyes, she started petting the ocelot hybrid, who started purring happily as he batted lazily at the yarn. Looking back up at the two people with a sheepish smile, she continued, "Lizzie, seems like you're not much of a TorqueDawg fan. Why's that?"
"Oh come on," Lizzie said, after a second's hesitation, "you met him, right? Nobody liked that guy! I'm just the only one who'll actually admit it."
Dan gave Lizzie another look. "He, um... yeah, he definitely wasn't the nicest person."
"Understatement of the year," Jesse remarked drily, making the both of them snicker a bit. "Okay, so TorqueDawg was pretty clearly targeted with this trap... why?"
Dan frowned a bit, crossing his arms. "Well, he WAS bragging about having some kind of 'rare item'," he said, thoughtfully.
Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't show it to anyone, of course. Typical TorqueDawg."
"So this... rare item, that TorqueDawg claimed to have?" Jesse quickly asked, arching her eyebrow and managing with some difficulty to pay attention to the conversation- Lukas was now purring louder than a carburetor. "What can you tell me about it?"
"We don't know exactly," Lizzie responded hesitantly.
"Yeah, sorry," Dan apologized.
Jesse arched her eyebrow. "Uh huh... okay, that's it for now. Thanks."
And she got up, being careful not to knock Lukas off her lap. Blinking, Lukas looked up at Jesse, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. "So what's up?"
"It's a bit tangled up," Jesse said, dropping her voice to a soft whisper, "but it sounds like TorqueDawg was claiming that he had some... 'rare item'..."
"Didn't see anything like that in his inventory, though..." Lukas said thoughtfully, getting back up and following Jesse as she strolled towards Stacy and Stampy.
"Yeah, something's not really adding up..." Jesse raised her voice as she smiled at the two of them. "Hey! Uh, Stampy and Stacy, right?"
Stampy turned around, blinking. "Oh, um, uh, hello!"
"Hey, Jesse," Stacy said tentatively, "what's up?"
Jesse put her hands on her hips as Lukas sat down next to the fire, watching the two others as Jesse said, awkwardly, "I know things are a bit nuts right now, but I have a couple questions."
"Oh? Really? What?" Stampy asked, blinking again.
"Anyone you can think of that would want... something bad to happen to TorqueDawg?" Jesse asked, dropping her voice to a lower volume.
Stampy's lips twisted a little as he thought. "Well, I never had THAT big of a problem with him personally, but I do know other people did. Quite a few, actually. I don't know if you noticed, but... he was a bit of a griefer."
"Yeah, and a thief," Stacy said, sharply, arms crossed.
"Thief, hm? Interesting... okay, so, seems like Lizzie and TorqueDawg REALLY didn't like each other... know anything else about that?" Jesse questioned.
Stampy nodded. "Oh, that! Real shame, real shame."
"He broke into her house and stole a bunch of stuff from her," Stacy responded rather flatly, "she was super upset about it."
Jesse grimaced. "Oh, jeez, well, anyone would be pretty ticked off if THAT happened to them... anyway, Stacy, you seemed pretty curious about what was in TorqueDawg's inventory- what's up with that?"
"He WAS a pretty notorious thief," Stacy responded, "I was just curious about what kind of stuff he had. That's it."
"Fair enough, okay, catch you later," Jesse said, waving a little bit as she walked back over to her friends, Lukas in tow. "No problem!" Stampy said, smiling at her.
"Did you find anything out from Stacy or... uh, SturdyCat?" Petra asked, scratching her head.
"StampyCat," Jesse corrected, "and apparently TorqueDawg was a well known thief, which may have had something to do with it. I'm gonna keep asking around."
Petra nodded as Lukas batted at his ears again. "Hope you find some stuff out," she said.
"So do I," Jesse answered, before walking over to Sparklez and Cassie, Lukas trailing behind a bit. "Hey, Sparklez. And... Cassie Rose, yeah?"
"Yep! Hi, that's me," Cassie said, smiling brightly at Jesse.
"Hey there, Jesse," Sparklez said, sounding rather subdued.
"Winslow says hi, too, haha," and Cassie smiled fondly at her calico cat.
Lukas squinted at Winslow before responding, "Actually, I'm pretty sure he's saying something about wanting a fish."
Jesse stifled a laugh as she put her hands on her hips, smiling at them. "Well, you guys mind if I ask you some questions?"
"Nope! What are the questions?" Cassie asked, smiling.
"I feel like there was... drama, between Lizzie and TorqueDawg earlier?" Jesse started off, as Lukas and Winslow started quietly talking to each other, "got any insight on the whole thing?"
"Sorry, I'm not getting wrapped up in that," Sparklez said immediately, "especially now that TorqueDawg is... y'know."
Cassie put her hands on her hips. "But it's weird, right? Definitely seems like there's some beef. Not that- not that I want to get into rumors or anything like that," she said quickly.
"Any guesses as to why someone would kill TorqueDawg?" Jesse questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh gosh," Cassie said, putting her hands on her hips again, "gosh, he was... a little, uh... prickly around the edges, you know? You'd have to ask other people about that, I didn't... didn't really know him."
"I don't really wanna say anything bad about a guy that's not here to defend himself," Sparklez added, "but... well, you met him, right? Prickly is kind of an understatement."
"Mmm. Cassie, you seemed kinda upset about people wanting to poke around TorqueDawg's inventory..." Jesse trailed off, looking at the redhead with waiting eyes.
"Oh... was I?"
"Kinda were," Lukas said, from where he was talking with Lukas. "And no, Winslow. I do not have a girlfriend."
Winslow meowed, and Lukas's face turned pink as he looked at Jesse awkwardly. "... no comment."
"You just commented. Anyway, yeah, you kinda were," Jesse agreed, looking back to Cassie, "why's that?"
Cassie frowned, before spluttering slightly, "Well, it was just so- so insensitive, right? It just happened, and she was all curious about what was in his pockets. Just... made me mad, I guess."
"I asked Stacy about why she wanted to see TorqueDawg's inventory so bad," Jesse responded, "she said she was just curious."
"Huh, just like me. What a coincidence!"
Jesse smiled slightly, before saying calmly, "Sparklez. Cassie. Winslow. Thanks for your time."
"No problem," Cassie said, casually.
"Yeah, any time."
Jesse and Lukas walked back to Petra and Ivor, who were barely talking. "Anything?" Petra asked.
"Found out this group has a whole ton of secrets they're keeping from each other," Jesse responded.
"That's definitely something," Petra said encouragingly.
"So TorqueDawg was a thief, and he allegedly had this 'rare item'... but something's still missing. No one's telling me what the 'rare item' is," Jesse hummed, thoughtfully.
"I think I can shed some light on that situation, actually," and Jesse jumped a bit as Sparklez came up to them, rubbing his head awkwardly.
Petra grinned, her eyes gleaming. "Well, now my curiosity is piqued."
"Thank Notch SOMEONE'S being direct with me," Jesse said, a relieved smile coming across her face, "thanks, Sparklez."
Sparklez nodded, before starting, "There's a temple, way out in the middle of nowhere. No one knows who built it, but it's been there forever. People have been trying to track down the temple's location for ages, because they want this treasure that's supposedly deep in its basement. Now, it LOOKS just like an ordinary flint and steel-" Jesse's eyes widened- "but it's actually super rare. It has this enchantment on it and-"
"It can open portals to other worlds?" Jesse asked, flatly.
"Exactly! Wait- what? You know about the enchanted flint and steel?"
Jesse reached into her pocket and held up the glowing, blue flint and steel.
A/N: Woo, excitement!
And we have reached a milestone.
ONE HUNDRED CHAPTERS.
(grabs one of those cheap noisemakers and blows it. Confetti, yay :3)
MissyMattingly: Jesse is vegetarian because of Reuben, Lukas because he's trying not to insult Jesse by accident again, and Petra is because it's easier to get fruit and vegetables without dying and she's gotten used to it. :)
x.X. A.L. X.x
