The two of them soon returned to the living room, the screen having come back on a few minutes prior, although Harper refused to explain why she was so much more jumpy than before and Olivia just looked confused when the others tried to interrogate her about it. So, they decided to let it go until later.
When the episode resumed, Jesse was walking over in the direction of the head of the table, Lukas tagging along and trailing a bit behind the spider hybrid, coming to a stop next to Sparklez and Cassie, who looked up from their conversation when she came to a stop. "Hey, Sparklez. And... Cassie Rose, yeah?" Jesse checked, pointing a bit at Cassie with a raised eyebrow.
"Yep!" Cassie said, voice a mix of cheery anxiety. "Hi. That's me."
"Hey there, Jesse," Sparklez said softly, sounding a bit subdued.
Winslow let out a meow, and Cassie patted Winslow with a chuckle. "Oh- Winslow says hi, too." And she smiled fondly at the calico cat.
Lukas squinted at the cat for a few seconds before replying, "Actually, I'm pretty sure he's saying something about wanting a fish."
Half of the audience snorted at that, while the other half couldn't help it and started giggling. (Jesse and Jace were definitely members of the second half.)
Onscreen, Jesse put her hand over her mouth. She could've been concealing a yawn. But when she removed her hand, she was still smiling a bit. "Ah- well, you guys mind if I ask you some questions?" she asked.
"Nope! What are the questions?" Cassie asked, rather cheerfully.
Lukas started 'talking' to Winslow, nodding periodically and meowing back. Jesse regarded the two of them for a moment before turning back to Cassie and Sparklez. "Well- got any guesses as to why someone would kill TorqueDawg?" she questioned, slowly.
Cassie immediately frowned a bit, thoughtfully. "Oh gosh..." She crossed her arms. "Gosh, um... he was a little... prickly, around the edges, y'know? You'd have to ask someone else about that, I- I didn't really know him."
"That's true." Lizzie crossed her arms. "I mean, you'd only met him twice before. And each time he just kinda grabbed some food and then left."
Cassie nodded from where she was sitting next to Aiden. "Yeah, he never really tried to make any conversation with me..."
"I don't really wanna say anything bad about a guy that's not here to defend himself," Sparklez added, sounding slightly uncomfortable, "but, well, you met him, right? 'Prickly' is... kind of an understatement."
Jesse nodded to that, frowning slightly as she filed that information away. "Cassie, you seemed pretty upset about people wanting to poke around in TorqueDawg's inventory..." Jesse trailed off, looking at the redhead with expectant eyes.
Cassie blinked. "Oh. Was I?"
"Kinda were," Lukas said, from where he was talking to Winslow. "And no, Winslow, I do not have a girlfriend."
Most of the audience raised their eyebrows, before turning slowly to regard Lukas and Jesse snuggled up in a cocoon of blankets.
Both of them blinked at said audience members. "What?"
Onscreen, Winslow mewed, and Lukas's cheeks slowly flushed pink as he glanced at Jesse awkwardly. "... no comment."
Now most (if not all of the audience) were starting to titter.
"You just commented," Jesse pointed out, a smile twitching on her cheeks, before she became much more serious and looked back to Cassie. "But yeah, you kinda were. Why's that?"
Cassie frowned, looking down momentarily, before looking back up. "Well, it was just so- so insensitive, right? It had just happened, and she was all curious about what was in his pockets." She sighed a bit. "Just... made me mad, I guess."
Jesse nodded quietly, before mildly beginning, "There... seemed to be some drama between Lizzie and TorqueDawg, right? Got any insight on that?"
Sparklez shook his head immediately. "Sorry, I'm not getting wrapped up in that. Especially now that TorqueDawg is..." he paused, looking down at his lap. "Well, y'know."
"Wrapped up in what?" Em frowned.
All of the YouTubers glanced at each other, before Lizzie awkwardly reached up and scratched her head. "It's... er... kind of complicated."
Cassie shrugged a bit onscreen. "But it's weird, right? Definitely seems like there's some beef." She paused, before hastily adding, "Not- not that I, um, want to get into rumors or anything like that."
Jesse hummed thoughtfully, before politely inclining her head. "Sparklez. Cassie. Winslow," and she nodded at the calico cat, drawing Lukas's attention, "thanks for your time."
"No problem," Cassie said casually.
Sparklez nodded, a small smile on his face. "Yeah, any time."
Jesse and Lukas made their way back to Petra and Ivor, who were barely talking to each other. When Petra noticed Jesse's approach, she turned to face the spider hybrid. "Anything?"
"Found out this group has a whole ton of secrets they're keeping from each other," Jesse responded, glancing at the chatting YouTubers.
Stampy fidgeted a bit upon hearing that, but said nothing.
"That's definitely something," Petra said encouragingly.
Jesse nodded, before moving away again with Lukas over to where Stampy and Stacy were quietly talking to each other. "Hey! Uh, Stampy and Stacy, right?" she asked, in a friendly way.
Stampy turned around to see Jesse, blinking. "Oh, um, uh, hello!"
"Hey, Jesse," Stacy said, albeit in a rather tentative way, "what's up?"
Jesse put her lowest set of hands on her hips as Lukas batted at his ears absentmindedly. "So I know things are a bit nuts right now, but I've got a couple questions for you guys."
"Oh? Really?" Stampy asked, blinking. "What?"
When Jesse spoke again, she directed her inquiry at Stacy. "So, Stacy, you seemed pretty curious about what was in TorqueDawg's inventory. What's up with that?" she asked, mildly.
Stacy shrugged- she didn't seem at all bothered by the question. "Well, TorqueDawg was a pretty notorious thief."
"He was?" Maya wondered.
Stacy nodded. "Yeah, he stole a lot of stuff from people. Trophies, treasures, redstone, armor... you name it, he probably stole at least one thing."
Jesse frowned. "Well that's definitely rude."
"Yeah; like we said he's not the nicest guy."
"I was just curious about what he had. That's it," Stacy finished.
Jesse simply tilted her head back, making a noncommittal 'hm' sound. When it became clear that Stacy wasn't going to elaborate, she continued, "well, it seems like Lizzie and TorqueDawg really didn't like each other... know anything else about that?"
"Oh, that!" Stampy nodded, putting his hands on his hips. "Real shame, real shame."
"He broke into her house and stole a bunch of stuff from her," Stacy finished, scowling a bit. "She was super upset about it."
"In Lizzie's defense, if someone did that, I'd be pretty ticked off at them too," Aiden spoke up absentmindedly.
"Yeah... same here," Lukas said, albeit a lot more quietly.
Onscreen-Jesse winced. "You don't say. I know I'd be a bit pissed off if that happened to me."
"See?" Lizzie pointed at the screen.
Jesse continued, "Anyone you can think of that would want something... not-so-nice to happen to TorqueDawg?"
Stampy frowned thoughtfully. "Um... well, I never had that big of a problem with him personally..."
"Actually, yeah- Sparklez and Stampy are two of the only people who got along even the tiniest bit with TorqueDawg. Everyone else was kinda... ehhhh," Dan spoke up, tilting his hand from side to side to illustrate his point.
"But I know other people did?" Stampy continued. "Quite a few, actually. I don't know if you noticed, but... he was a bit of a griefer."
"Yes, and not the good kind," Ellegaard sighed. "I got that impression when he was speaking."
"There's a good kind of griefer?" Gabriel asked, innocently.
"Yes, at least Magnus knows when to-" Too late Ellegaard realized what she was saying, and her head snapped up and around to see Gabriel and Soren grinning smugly at her. Turning in the other direction, she could spot the ghost of a smile on Ivor's face as he hastily recomposed his features, and a broad grin on Magnus's.
"... stop grinning at me like that or I'll punch you all in the nose."
"Yeah... and a thief," Stacy added, crossing her arms and looking over at Stampy as if expecting him to confirm her point.
Real-Stampy's fidgeting got progressively worse.
"I see... alright, catch ya later," and Jesse waved a little bit as she, once again, trotted back over to her friends, Lukas in tow.
"No problem!" Stampy called after her, flailing his arm in a wave.
"Did you find anything out from Stacy or... uh... SturdyCat?" Petra asked, keeping her voice low.
"StampyCat!" Real-Stampy complained.
"It's StampyCat," Lukas automatically corrected.
Petra waved it off absentmindedly. "Yeah, him. So... did you find anything out?"
Jesse crossed all six of her arms, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "Apparently, TorqueDawg was a well-known thief. That might've had something to do with it, don't you think?" she asked, in a soft voice.
Ivor nodded. "Definitely," he replied.
Jesse jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "I'm gonna keep asking around," she said, still in a low voice.
"Ask away."
Jesse turned around, glancing around the dining room, before carefully walking over towards Dan and Lizzie. "Um, hi there! Dan, Lizzie," she said, politely.
Dan jumped several inches out of his chair and conked foreheads with Lizzie, yelping a bit as he did so.
Dan grumbled as his face turned as pink as his hair, crossing his arms and ignoring the giggling from the audience. Lizzie blushed a little bit, too.
Stampy pouted a bit.
Rubbing his forehead, onscreen-Dan swiveled to look at Jesse. "Oh, uh, hello."
"Hey there!" Lizzie greeted, giving Jesse and Lukas a cheerful smile.
"Well, if you don't mind," Jesse said coolly, sliding into the chair nearest to the duo, "I have some questions about this whole... 'TorqueDawg' situation."
Dan and Lizzie shared a look, before Dan shrugged nonchalantly and returned his gaze to Jesse's face. "Yeah? Go ahead."
"It seems like people were really interested in seeing TorqueDawg's inventory... any idea why?" the spider hybrid asked lightly, absentmindedly beginning to weave some string and play Cat's Cradle with it.
Lizzie shrugged. "An adventurer like him? He could've had all kinds of cool stuff," she replied, mildly.
"Wait- but Stacy just said he was a thief," and Real-Jesse frowned. "Why is he now an 'adventurer'?"
"Yeah... something's not quite lining up there," Olivia mumbled, squinting at the screen herself.
Lizzie and Stacy automatically exchanged a glance.
"I see-" Jesse suddenly cut herself off and looked down to see that Lukas had dropped to a sitting position and was eyeing the string. Rolling her red-and-green eyes a little bit, she reached down and started petting the ocelot hybrid, who started purring like a carburetor as he dreamily batted at the string himself.
Nell let out another squeal, although she kept her voice down this time. Lukas huffed, feeling his cheeks go pink.
Looking back up at the two brightly-colored-haired-people, Jesse gave a sheepish smile and continued, "TorqueDawg was clearly targeted with this trap... why him?"
Dan shrugged a bit. "Well, he was bragging about having some kind of 'rare item'."
"Oh- yeah, I remember that now," Cassie hummed, snapping her fingers a bit, as if just remembering this fact.
"Yeah, you bros mentioned it earlier," Nell said casually.
Onscreen, Lizzie rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Wouldn't show it to anyone, of course. Typical TorqueDawg."
Jesse frowned thoughtfully at the sound of that. "So... this 'rare item' that TorqueDawg claimed to have..." she said, slowly.
Lizzie shook her head and shrugged. "We don't know exactly."
Dan nodded from where he was glancing at Lizzie and turned back to Jesse. "Yeah. Sorry."
Jesse nodded absentmindedly at that, before shifting and directing her next question at Lizzie. "Lizzie, seems like you're not much of a TorqueDawg fan... what's the deal?"
Lizzie looked around, before her expression turned into a bit of a glare- although it seemed to be directed more at TorqueDawg and not Jesse. "Oh, c'mon- you met him, right? Nobody liked that guy. I'm just the only one who'll actually admit it."
"Well, that's true," Stacy mumbled, mostly under her breath, although the other YouTubers heard the comment clearly and nodded.
Dan rubbed his head awkwardly. "He, um... yeah, he definitely wasn't the nicest person."
"That seems to be a bit of an understatement," Soren mumbled to Gabriel, who happened to be the nearest to him. The warrior nodded in response.
Jesse nodded thoughtfully. "That... lines up with what I've heard of TorqueDawg so far... so, Lizzie. I heard something interesting about you and TorqueDawg," she continued, lightly.
Lizzie didn't look surprised or angry or anything- just kind of resigned. "Yeah? What'd you hear? I'm sure there's all sorts of rumors going around," she asked, mildly.
Jesse leaned back a bit, crossing her uppermost set of arms. "I heard he stole from you," she stated, simply but clearly.
Lizzie's eyes widened, and she glared at Jesse a bit. "Whoa! Would you keep it down?!" she hissed, glancing over her shoulder at Stampy and Stacy.
Everyone blinked a bit at the sudden change in demeanor.
"That's... uh..." Em blinked. "That was a bit sudden."
"Understatement of the day," Reginald murmured.
Turning back to Jesse, Lizzie sighed. "Okay. Yes. He did."
Jesse blinked, one eyebrow quirking slightly as Dan shifted his gaze to the table uncomfortably. Lizzie ranted, "He stole one of my Creeper Head trophies- my very first one! I just didn't mention it before because I didn't want to look guilty."
"I would've just mentioned it right off the bat. I feel like people would've just been more suspicious if it seemed like I was hiding something. Get everything off my chest, people might be suspicious but they know that at least I'm not hiding anything," Jesse stated mildly.
There was a pause as everyone absorbed this, before Harper said, quietly, "Well, she's not wrong."
"Yeah, it's a pretty smart idea," and Lukas ruffled Jesse's hair.
Dan blinked suddenly in surprise, looking back up, before over at Lizzie. "Wait. Creeper head? This isn't about the-" he began.
"Dan!" Lizzie hissed, shaking her head and cutting the blue-haired boy off. "No, not in front of-" She glanced at Jesse.
Real-Jesse crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. "And... now I'm suspicious."
Lizzie and Dan winced in sync.
Onscreen, Lizzie glanced back at Dan, frowning. "And no. I told you- I never had it."
"Well that's not suspicious at all," Em drawled sarcastically.
Jesse looked at Dan this time, and this time her mild, casual demeanor had faded- Jesse's hair had casually slid over her face to hide her green eye, and now with only the red eye showing and no visible smile on her face, the casual voice she was using took on a whole different sort of meaning. "Dan, you seemed surprised by Lizzie mentioning a stolen Creeper Head... what did you think TorqueDawg had stolen from her?"
"Note to self- Jesse can be... very intimidating when she really wishes to be," Hadrian murmured under his breath.
Otto heard that and glared at him. "You just realized this?"
Onscreen Dan shuddered a bit at the sudden change of personality, before he frowned. "Uhhh, remember that 'rare item' you were asking us about a minute ago? Yeah, it's that. And I'm still not going to talk about it." There was a short pause, before he added, a bit more apologetically, "Sorry."
Jesse stared at the two of them a moment- long enough to make them both glance at each other nervously- before she suddenly smiled, mildly. "Uh huh. Okay. That's it for now. Thanks."
And with that, she tapped Lukas on the head, interrupting the petting. Lukas blinked a few times, snapping himself out of it, before looking up at Jesse with a blush as he casually removed his head from her knee. "So what's up?"
Jesse's mild smile turned into a frown as she got up. "It's all tangled up, but it sounds like TorqueDawg was claiming to have some sort of 'rare item'. People thought it was something he stole from Lizzie, but all he stole from Lizzie was a Creeper Head trophy," she whispered to Lukas, gesticulating a bit with her hands.
"Why would Lizzie have had that 'rare item' though?" Olivia frowned.
Lukas frowned, eyes narrowing. "I... didn't see anything like that in his inventory, though."
"Yeah... something's not quite adding up," Jesse said softly as they drew level with Petra and Ivor, the two barely-speaking members turning to face the other two, forming a rough circle.
Jesse crossed all of her arms and looked down, thoughtfully. "So, TorqueDawg was a notorious thief, and he allegedly had this 'rare item'... but there's a piece of this puzzle still missing. No one's telling me what this 'rare item' is," she hummed, after a few seconds.
"Actually, I think I can shed some light on that situation."
Jesse jumped half out of her skin in shock as the screen shifted over to show Sparklez drawing level with the group, adjusting his sunglasses.
"Wait- you're going to tell her about it?" Stacy looked over at Sparklez, looking startled.
Sparklez shrugged at that. "I don't see any point in hiding it from her. Besides, it's not like it's a huge big secret- you guys are just trying to get it for yourselves."
"As I rightly should!" Dan argued back.
"What are you guys talking about? What is everyone trying to get for themselves?" Jesse asked, looking between Sparklez and the rest of the YouTubers innocently.
"Er, well, I never said I wanted it that badly," Stampy protested, weakly.
Onscreen, Petra grinned, gold eyes gleaming. "Well, now my curiosity is piqued."
Jesse slowly let a relieved grin spread over her face, and she turned to face him. "Well, thank Notch someone's being direct with me," she said, the relief evident in her voice. "Thanks, Sparklez."
Sparklez nodded, a friendly smile on his face, before it grew a bit more sober. "Well, there's a temple, way out in the middle of nowhere."
"Oh- this sounds a bit familiar," Mevia mumbled, loud enough so that only Hadrian and Otto could hear it. They nodded.
"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."
"Ah, I see where this is going," Lukas said quietly.
"Now, it LOOKS just like an ordinary flint and steel-" Onscreen-Jesse's eyes widened. "- but it's actually super rare. It has this enchantment on it and-"
"It opens portals to other worlds," Jesse finished abruptly, rather flatly.
"You are all after the flint and steel?" Milo asked the YouTubers, rather curiously.
"Yeah- it's pretty cool," Stacy replied, shrugging a bit.
Otto blinked a bit, before leaning over so that only Hadrian and Mevia could catch it. "I didn't realize that the flint and steel would become so important to people in the worlds we left them in..."
"Neither did I," Mevia whispered back.
"Exactly!" Sparklez continued, on a roll- then then came to a stop, blinking at Jesse in surprise. "Wait- what? You know about the enchanted flint and steel?"
In response, Jesse reached into her pockets, and held up the glowing cyan flint and steel.
A/N: Still a bit shorter... ah well. It'll get exciting soon enough :3
Two things: one, Phantasmagoria's ANIMATIC trailer is up! :3 it's on my YouTube under the same name. Or you can check out my dA or the website. It's there too :3
Two: I am so upset right now. Just... read the huge rant on DeviantArt that I posted earlier... I'm feeling way better now but still really upset about the whole thing.
Votes on the bloopers so far, btw:
Yes: 9
No: 1
[hIShEGENAhIhN]
Letters have been correctly guessed by LunarStarsMoons, BeliTheGhoti0304, and the indecisive bird.
Guys... people other than these guys can guess too, y'know.
RQTC: Y'all do know that the story's not taking place in the Phantasmagoria Hotel, right? I think I mentioned it last chapter or the chapter before...
S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: I see :3 / Lolol / Lolololol yep
LunarStarsMoons: No problem, fam :3 / Correct. :3 / Thanks! / Cool :3
sailor . mikuchan: (laughs) Ah, gotcha.
Emily The Avenger: (laughs) Glad ya liked it.
Raven: I see~ / Yeah, Jace is great. x3 / Thanks!
AquaK13: Lol yep x3 / Lolol :3 / That's cool :3 / No, not at all~ :3 / (laughs) True. / Gotcha. / :3
RapidSammi: (gets knocked down) Lololol
Kaos Ruin: Then use a cookie. xD
BeliTheGhoti0304: Technically already guessed, but correct :3 / (grins) / Alright :3
the indecisive bird: (laughs) Neither will I, tbh. / Gotcha. Every vote counts! / Correct. / The Stinger? Where'd that come from? xD
Jack638: x3 / Woohoo! / Same here.. :/
RavenBlaze4850: (laughs) / (laughing like a maniac) Wow, that... I did not even see that. / Cool, got it :3 / Incorrect, sorry.
SofiaTheWriter88: (grins) / Okay. :3
LegoGirl794: Okay :3
Bai!
x.X. A.L. X.x
