017: Tall Tales About Short Men

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Mossgrove Estate

The stairs creak under Lucya's and Brajan's feet as they ascend towards the second floor-- Aleksy doesn't seem to make a sound as he hops up the steps in an odd little pattern. The second floor of the farmhouse doesn't look quite as grand, but there's at least three rooms visible from the landing. Lucya disappears behind one door to fetch her bandages, but the boys have other plans.

BRAJAN: "Are ye ginnae spend the night? Our room's got more space..."

ALEKSY: "Hey. Hey. Come look at my snail."

Jagal personally stays close to the wall all the way up the stairs, but he takes note of Aleksy's technique.

JAGAL: "Oh, I was gonna head back to the scene in a little while, see if anybody tries to pull anything else overnight."

JAGAL: (raising an eyebrow at Aleksy) "Already saw the one. Or did you teach it some tricks?"

🎲 ...HAS he taught the snail tricks? The oracle says no lol.

BRAJAN: "Anything else?"

ALEKSY: "Snails don't do tricks!"

Aleksy laughs and trots inside, while Brajan holds the door for them. The boys' room is a little messy, but the bunk bed leaves plenty of floor space for a potential cot or sleeping bag. The snail's new home is a large leaf-filled jar, sitting on a bookshelf next to an assortment of art supplies.

ALEKSY: "Look.~"

The boy holds up a piece of paper in Jagal's face. It bears a surprisingly well-rendered charcoal drawing of the aforementioned snail.

Jagal nods at Brajan, but the snail fiasco seems more immediately interesting than rehashing his day, so he'll focus on that for now.

JAGAL: "And you let that stop you? For shame."

He follows Aleksy into the room, but Jagal's instinctual scan for valuables and alternate escape routes is interrupted by a piece of paper.

JAGAL: "That... is a snail, yes."

ALEKSY: "Uh huh!"

Aleksy seems quite pleased with himself as he turns back to the art corner and starts rifling through the shelves. Brajan sits on the floor and looks up at Jagal.

BRAJAN: "Auh, I'm glad it really wasnae him, but...! He still dinnae deserve such a thing!"

Jagal watches Aleksy for another moment, a bit baffled, before turning back to Brajan. He'll probably need to sit, too, once it's bandaging time, but he might as well stay poised and ready in case something else happens first.

JAGAL: "Well, that, or he did do it, and somebody faked extra clues just to make sure he'd get the blame... But I wouldn't call that our top theory."

Jagal eyes Brajan mildly at the 'deserve' remark, but he doesn't comment.

BRAJAN: "Fake clues! Auh, Lady Frigg forgive us..."

Lucya returns with the bandages and closes the door behind her.

LUCYA: "Eh-- dinnae start hollerin', wee boy, let's nae cause Ma more trouble afore supper."

BRAJAN: "I'm nae that wee..."

She laughs a little as she sits on the edge of the bed, motioning for Jagal to take his shirt off.

Jagal snorts at Brajan's objection. Same hat.

JAGAL: "Yeah, yeah."

With both hands free and a considerably better mental state, Jagal has much less trouble with his shirt this time. He still moves one arm a bit more carefully, wincing. Less blood has tried to soak through the bandage than one might expect when a visible indent runs underneath.

JAGAL: (sitting and glancing at Lucya as he inspects the current bandage) "Not sure if you heard, so—you're not injured, by the way."

LUCYA: "Auh... Th-thank ye, it's mostly healed up, but... well, ye met Ma!"

Lucya unwinds the bandage without much fuss. Brajan does a little better job of pretending to respect their privacy, but soon both wee boys are staring at the injury and Jagal generally.

BRAJAN: "What happened...?"

ALEKSY: "Did ye fight a monster?"

LUCYA: "Er... That's one word fer it!"

JAGAL: (on the verge of rolling his eyes at the thanks) "Sure did."

Jagal ensures no clotting is getting disturbed, then dabs on a little more herbalist sludge to be safe. He lets out a brief, blowing-bangs-out-of-your-face kind of breath at the burn, but his attention is quickly drawn to the topic at hand.

JAGAL: "Oh yeah, I've fought much more monstrous than that thing. Still nothing to sneeze at... What would you call it? Nightmare heron? Doesn't really do justice to the undead part. Or all the legs. Or the blood-thirst. Hmm."

His usual excessive gestures are confined to his uninjured side for the time being, at least.

LUCYA: "I'd prefer nae t'think of it! Should ye wee boys find yerselves in Lostmoor, aye, stay clear a that Mr. Tanvir..."

BRAJAN: "Auh! But ye did beat it, right?!"

ALEKSY: "...How many legs?"

LUCYA: "So many... E'en choppin' its head off, it didnae do anything..."

BRAJAN: "Auh!!"

ALEKSY: "Cool..."

JAGAL: "Oh c'mooon, you can't jump straight to the decapitation! You gotta build up to that kinda thing..."

Jagal shakes his head as he carefully wraps his jar o' stuff and replaces it in its pouch.

JAGAL: "Didn't exactly have time to stop and count between the breakneck beak stabs and the nightmare venom stingers, but my estimate's around twenty."

JAGAL: (gloomily) "But we don't have to talk about it if she doesn't want to..."

BRAJAN: "Twenty...! How does that even work?"

ALEKSY: "C'mooon Lulu I wannae hear the story!"

LUCYA: "Bah, he can tell it if he wants, I just willnae listen!"

Lucya turns her head away for a moment, but winding on the fresh bandages does require looking at what she's doing.

JAGAL: "But she already spoiled her big move from the outset, and there's no getting that moment back..."

Jagal snaps out of his sulking too quickly and completely to actually be disappointed. On some level he registers that someone's tending to him again, but considering he'd pretty much used this as an excuse, it's... probably acceptable. The best way to lie is to make as much of it true as possible, right?

JAGAL: (to Brajan) "Much better than you'd expect! Far as moving around without tripping goes. Of course, once the floor was covered with broken glass and spell-blood a good few inches deep, we couldn't help but have a little trouble."

BRAJAN: "Auh... I might be with Lucya on this one, actually."

ALEKSY: "How many times did ye stab it?"

JAGAL: "Fine, I can turn the volume down if you'd rather just plug your ears. Good luck finding out anything about the murder if you can't even handle this, though."

JAGAL: (sighing melodramatically) "Didn't have the luxury of counting those, either, I'm afraid."

Jagal goes back to some one-handed dagger flipping, not very elaborate but at a pretty good pace.

JAGAL: "Especially as fast as I can deal 'em. Not to mention the thing was still on the attack well after its head was off. Pretty tall order to take it down, and having one arm all but out of commission sure didn't help—but, well. I managed."

BRAJAN: "I-I can... It's nae like Mr. Pearce is a monster!"

BRAJAN: "Was..."

ALEKSY: "Uh huh."

Aleksy seems a bit disenchanted by the lack of specifics, and instead hands Jagal another drawing. This one depicts a rather large stickbug.

LUCYA: "Auh-- that's very good, Aleksy!"

JAGAL: (raising an eyebrow) "Wouldn't that make it harder to listen to?"

Jagal shrugs it off and suddenly finds himself in possession of another art piece. Weird kid.

JAGAL: "Ah? Yeah."

Jagal clearly isn't sure what to do with it, but at least he keeps the dagger away.

JAGAL: "So, you know what it took to finally finish that thing off?"

BRAJAN: "Well--"

Lucya seems to agree with Jagal for once, though.

LUCYA: "Aye, Brajan, yer a brave lad, but... there's definitely a reason Pa didnae want ye lookin' around."

Aleksy beams at Jagal again, then returns to sorting through his art collection. It's unclear if he's still listening or not.

BRAJAN: "...Is it really that bad?"

Jagal snorts at the question.

JAGAL: "I mean, I've seen worse. At least he didn't get any animals after him. Not lookin' too pretty, though."

LUCYA: (quietly) "There were some tools on the shelf what fell on him, y'see, and..."

Brajan grimaces.

BRAJAN: "...S-so... that's what they think Togan did? Pulled a shelf down on him?"

BRAJAN: "That dinnae sound like a very easy way tae kill someone..."

Jagal is still waiting for someone to guess how he heroically concluded the spider-bird situation, but he smirks at the grimace. Ah, these poor innocent naive what-have-yous.

JAGAL: "Oh, yeah. Would've been much easier to just grab, like, the sickle that was apparently right there—unless it was too high to reach, I guess. But the general point stands. Store's full of stuff, it's a weird weapon to resort to."

LUCYA: "And what's more, this wee man climbed the shelf right beside, and it didnae budge an inch!"

Brajan looks over Jagal again and nods solemnly.

BRAJAN: "Aye, them shelves are Mossgrove oak, sturdy as ye can get... And what's this about fake evidence?"

LUCYA: "Auh, lemme..."

Lucya fishes out the scrap of cloth again. Aleksy's next work is a small painting of three snails, stealthily placed into Jagal's hands during the lull in the conversation.

JAGAL: “Yeah, looked like that bit tore off on the shelf in question, and it’s a perfect match to Togan’s pants leg. Or at least what he’s been wearing the whole time—maybe he’s gotten to change by now.” (snorts)

Jagal gets his shirt back in order before his hands are once again occupied. He still has no idea what he’s intended to do about it, but they sure could afford a lot of art supplies and free time for a… livestock family? Was that what they did??

JAGAL: “You’re, uh, really the snail guy, huh.”

ALEKSY: "Uh huh.~"

Aleksy fades into the background again as Lucya wiggles the cloth at Brajan.

LUCYA: "Ach, but it was nae torn, it was cut with somethin' sharp! And, unless Ms. Adda would miss such a thing in plain sight-- and she wouldn't-- it was put there after she saw the body!"

BRAJAN: "After? Aye, we've got ourselves a case here, alright..."

Brajan scratches his chin thoughtfully.

BRAJAN: "Any idea about a motive? I guess if ye had a suspect, ye'd have said so already, aye?"

LUCYA: "Well..."

Jagal doesn't seem especially convinced by her faith in Adda, but the case is more interesting if she's right, so he'll accept it.

JAGAL: "Yeah, that's why it's worth keepin' an eye on the place, I think. Not much time left before the big shindig now, but they could still 'discover' something new before it starts."

Jagal looks between Brajan and his sister as he picks a dagger to polish.

JAGAL: "Well, either Veren is just grossly oblivious, or he's had a hand in something." (nodding at Lucya) "She doesn't seem convinced he's the killer, though."

LUCYA: "Well, I cannae prove one way or the other, but it just dinnae seem right, aye? E'en Togan has more a motive than he does..."

Brajan frowns.

BRAJAN: "Aye, Veren's nae fool, he wouldae had plenty a time t'set up somethin' more convincing if he'd planned it... And everyone seemed perfectly normal when I was there that mornin'. I reckon he dinnae know it was coming."

BRAJAN: "But what's this about Togan...?"

Lucya and Jagal fill Brajan in on the rest of what they've learned so far, and discuss theories as the night grows darker. Their impromptu meeting lasts for a little longer than intended, as evidenced by the faint sounds of Duncan returning home-- a door creaking shut, the chickens kicking up a fuss, Ada's worried chatter. Brajan hops up quickly to head downstairs, eager to hear the latest from his pa, but Aleksy has unfinished business.

ALEKSY: (tugging on Jagal's sleeve) "What happened next? With the monster."

Jagal is thankfully present enough to just blink at the contact. He still needs a minute to remember where he was and what he'd come up with.

JAGAL: (back to gesturing with the dagger) "Okay, so we've got this nightmare spider-heron zombie thing, with its head cut off, still putting up a real fight.”

JAGAL: “Now, the thing about nightmare spiders is—well, it's a little bit like bees, right? Die if they sting you? If you can actually get a nightmare spider to use up all the venom it's got on hand—on fang?—it'll start dying, too. And at this point, it sure seems like that’s gonna be my best shot. But we don’t exactly know how stingers on heron wings work, so I’ve just gotta goad it into stinging something normally.”

At this point, he's as interested in Lucya's reactions as much as anyone else's, though he’s being discreet about it.

LUCYA: "Eh?"

Lucya's eyebrow goes up, but she doesn't say anything just yet. Aleksy's staring at Jagal intensely.

JAGAL: "First, I manage to trick it into launching one stinger right here."

Jagal takes a second to locate the pouch that at least got scraped by a stinger and gives it a pat.

JAGAL: "But the beast's still got a second stinger to spare. Now, fending off these high-speed attacks, making openings, and baiting it into stinging something I can afford to have damaged—well, the stars aren't aligning for me a second time, and there's only so long I can hold out at full throttle. So I figure, you know what? I'll just tank some venom myself. Not like I can't handle it."

Jagal gestures to his sting wound, not that it is or was especially visible. But it's genuine!

JAGAL: "Little tricky to keep fighting when that kicks in and you can't quite trust your senses, but! The gamble worked. The beast is on its last legs—however many of 'em that should be, huh?—and the next hit I get in, the thing drops. No more movement, just slides on down the blood-covered stairs, and it is no longer a problem."

Jagal looks prepared to start taking bows.

LUCYA: "Uh huh, and the panic attack ye had, where'st I had t'carry ye out like a babby goat, that was yer master plan, aye?"

Aleksy looks a wee bit incredulous, but he enjoys a good story. He bursts out laughing at Lucya's commentary, though.

ALEKSY: "Ahahaha! That's pretty cool.~"

Jagal gives Lucya a sour look at that. But considering he's neither familiar with the phrase "panic attack" nor the management of baby goats, it's a little hard to make a clean, quick repartee for that one.

JAGAL: "I don't recall making you do anything of the sort, but if that's what you're going with, have at it."

But at least Aleksy isn't just laughing at him. Jagal flashes him a grin.

JAGAL: "Far from the most exciting fight I've been in, but sure—no walk in the park, either."

NEXT: 018: Soups Basket