Great Doll Hunt(Jakem)
Date: 2025-11-30 22:28
(Great Doll Hunt(Jakem):Jakem)
[Sun Nov 30 2025]
Moore Grounds
These grounds are immaculately kept, with a line of hedges that
gives some privacy to the mansion beyond. Various rare, but native
species of trees dot the grounds, some even baring fruit however tepidly.
It is night, about 50F(10C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Birch and Prospect
There is a waxing gibbous moon.
Mercy just stares at Obadiah. “She’s righ’ here.”
hmms as he watchs Teagan walk up “I think she might be safe, but it’s Teagan so stuff could still grab her.”
Teagan just slowly reaches up to steal Obadiah’s hat since he’s clearly not paying attention.
Obadiah stares back at Mercy, confused but then makes an Ah face. “No I was talking to the Orderites. Someone was being a dingus.”
Obadiah will not be apologizing for the hat pun
“Oh, them.” Mercy remarks flatly, leaving it at that while she watches the antics between Obadiah and Teagan. Something about it brings a slight frown to her otherwise blank expression, and she turns away from them to stare at the house instead.
coughs “So we ready to get started then?”
He continues without waiting for affirmation. “So as some of you may know there was a recent kerfuffle about whether or not some of the events of the last week at the University were strictly legal, or in any amount legal. One strapping gumshoe decided to investigate the matter.” he coughs, clearing his throat.
Jakem continues “And in reward for that gumption and initiative, me and the other Celebrants decided to reward him with a vacation to… Somewhere else for a while.”
Mercy says “M’sure he’s fine.“
Jakem tilts his head “Anyways, while we were in the process of cleaning his office for him while he was gone. bloke walked in saying he was a representative of the Moore estate; where we’re at now.”
Obadiah nods, thrusting his hands into the trench coats pockets nodding along as he hears the story and then looks around with arched eyebrows, not at all opinionated about the free vacation and house cleaning
Jakem continues “And he wanted to hire Mr. Johnson to investigate a doll that went missing not long ago. Apparently he was a bit poor in the eyes, cause he took me to be Mr. Johnson.” he grins “So here we are, Mr. Johnson and his team of sleuths on the hunt for a missing doll. That’s all I know so far. Let’s go in. Who’s taking lead on this case by the by?”
(OOCly: Who are we following?)
There’s an eyebrow raise as the events are detailed out. “What… events? The ritual?” Teagan is trying to follow the bouncing ball but it really is bouncing round everywhere. She adjusts the faedora and leans her shoulder lightly against Obadiah. But also for warmth. Because SOMEONE lost her coat.
Mercy jerks a thumb towards Obadiah to nominate him. “He the one in the trench coat, so.”
Jakem waves his hand dismissively “Ritual was last week. This is this week. We’re looking for a doll now.” he replies to Teagan . He nods to concur with Mercy, moving to follow Obadiah “A’right, everyone follow Obie. As the fourth highest ranking cult member here, he’s in charge. Perhaps he’ll get a taste of power and overthrow me.”
“Wait, why are we all following me?” Obadiah grumbles as he heads off muttering something about needing a Tommy gun next time
An old man, barely supported with a cane, a severe almost cruel expression permanently etched into his face stands here. He greets the group, Obadiah in particular being in the lead Mr. Johnson I presume. Welcome to my estate. I trust my servant Leumond has brought you up to speed on the situation?
The impossibly tall, middle aged man with a long face coughs I thought it best to maintain discretion sir.
An old man, barely supported with a cane, a severe almost cruel expression permanently etched into his face stands here. He greets the group, Obadiah in particular being in the lead “Mr. Johnson I presume. Welcome to my estate. I trust my servant Leumond has brought you up to speed on the situation?
The impossibly tall, middle aged man with a long face coughs I thought it best to maintain discretion sir.” (fix)
An old man, barely supported with a cane, a severe almost cruel expression permanently etched into his face stands here. He greets the group, Obadiah in particular being in the lead “Mr. Johnson I presume. Welcome to my estate. I trust my servant Leumond has brought you up to speed on the situation?”
The impossibly tall, middle aged man with a long face coughs “I thought it best to maintain discretion sir.” (fix again)
“Wish we had somethin’ I could use to try an’ find it with my no-” Mercy starts, but quiets down when they’re greeted by the old man. Posture straightens, and in spite of looking very much nothing like an investigator she attempts to keep a professional air.
Obadiah takes the lead but lets Teagan and Mercy do the talking, as he looks around and listens, watching for a few
“A tommy gun would be fun,” Teagan says sotto-voice to Obadiah as they make their way in. She looks over the old man, then to the named ‘Leumond.’ She raises her eyebrows a bit. “Discretion? I think… we need some details about what we’re looking for. To best… ah, serve you swiftly in getting the matter resolved.”
The old man looks irritated, but turns to the group “Very well then. I had hoped you would be at least a little prepared for the matter, but it appears Mr. Leumond thought keeping the people investigating my property in the dark would be better.” he says with a spiteful scoff. “What you seek is a priceless antique and heirloom of the Moore family. It had been missing for several days, but may still be in the vicinity. Call it a hunch. The police have yet to respond and probably wont be able to get to the matter for several days what with the typical Haven holiday crime waves.” he growls. He scowls “No firearms on the premisis young lady, you’ll scare the horses.” he says in a chiding tone to Teagan.
The old man scowls darkly “There is one thing the thief left behind. I left it in the guest bedroom upstairs. Please attend to it first, and then you’ll have free reign of the mansion to search for clues or dust for fingerprints or hack the computer mainframes or whatever you do.”
“Any signs of where they broke in from? Yer family got any known bad blood with anyone who coulda come lookin’ to cause y’all trouble?” Mercy asks once the gist is given.
The old man looks to Mercy and gives a faint nod “Yes. We have bad blood with some folks. I’d rather not disclose who unless it becomes important. For the time being, I just want the whereabouts of the doll discovered. If it comes to retribution, then my family and I will handle the matter.”
Mercy wilts just a little at having her investigation within an investigation stopped short, but she nods firmly and does not pry farther. “Understood, we’ll do a routine sweep an’ look fer anythin’ that might lead to its discovery.”
Ugh. Horses. But Teagan does her best to keep her features smoothed over. “Of course. I was just talking about another investigation where we need guns. Lots of guns.” She looks to the stairs as the guest bedroom is mentioned. “What does the doll look like?” She is starting toward the stairs while the others ask their questions.
After a moment’s consideration Leumond steps forward “I’m afraid we’ve been dealing with other matters and we haven’t had time to sweep the premisis yet, ma’am. Signs of forced entry would have had to have been subtle though, no broken windows or the maid staff would have reported it.”
The old man frowns at Teagan’s explanation, but comments no further “A small item, shaped as one would a child, made of perfectly white porcelain with ebony hair and blue eyes. Distended ears.”
“So someone with skill, a professional.” Mercy murmurs quietly to herself. “Or.. someone with access to the house.” Then comes another, slightly louder murmur as the gears click and she starts to get maybe a little too into this.
The old man scowls “That may be possible, though likely they would have been on the take from one of our… Associates if so. Additionally, most of the staff has been dismissed for the Holidays. We only had and have live in staff here during the robbery and currently.”
There is an amused glance over to Mercy from Teagan, but the redhead doesn’t interrupt. Instead she just starts rifling through her bag. Maybe she should have gotten a magnifying glass. Ah well! She does surface with a little keychain flashlight because people always use flashlights when looking for clues.
Mercy curls a finger beneath her chin thoughtfully while peering around the foyer. “An’ this doll, you know if it one of the kind that use real human hair?”
Teagan pipes up: “Or real human eyes?” Because you never know!
The old man scowls darkly “Of course it does, this is a priceless antique. Not a single shred of plastic in the object, that I assure you.” He growls a bit at Teagan “Your levity in this matter should be saved for the servants, young lady. I am in no mood.”
Jakem stops paying attention to a particular art piece as he hears Teagan being chided, perhaps with no actual awareness of what it’s over, he nonetheless chimes in “Yeah, Ms. Lawson, this is not a time for levity.” he says, hiding a suspiciously open sharpy.
“Ayeah, focus on the task madame assistant.” Mercy concurs with the old man and gently reprimands Teagan for her lack of manners. Afterwhich, she addresses the former once again. “Think I got everythin’ I need to get started, ain’ sure ’bout Mr.Johnson an’ the others.”
Obadiah snaps back to reality but then looks around and seems to have missed the last 15 minutes of conversation and Teagan’s joke. Oh well she will tell him later no doubt, and moves to head upstairs with her. She has his hat after all
There is a scowl for the old man and Teagan just pulls the faedora (thank god Obadiah hasn’t reclaimed it yet!) down over her eyes a bit. Especially since the scowl deepens just a little at Jakem and Mercy’s responses. She starts up the stairs, reflexively clicking her flashlight on and off on and off on and off. It’s like a clicky pen.
“I’ll show you *assistant*,” she mutters under her breath.
To save a bit of time, a map of the mansion can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZZ-hG7Bz0CnksL5yoJOsWV-HHIOYpa50mVvnlwAHalk/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZZ-hG7Bz0CnksL5yoJOsWV-HHIOYpa50mVvnlwAHalk/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZZ-hG7Bz0CnksL5yoJOsWV-HHIOYpa50mVvnlwAHalk/edit?gid=0#gid=0
OOC: Well, nevermind.
Mercy gives their hosts a dip of her head then follows Teagan to the stairs, keeping her eyes, ears and nose on alert.
Jakem moves to follow along as someone leads them somewhere towards the stairs, which appear to be both to the north east and south east.
Mercy glances over a shoulder to make sure they’re out of earshot, then informs the others with huddle-level volume. “Aigh’ so like it not the most ground breakin’ thing in a house full of people-smells but if it got human hair, it’ll at least maybe stand out a bit more than if it didn’t.”
Apparently still the leader, though, though in name only, Obadiah leads the crew up the stairs to the north east per intuition. “So uh, what was the reader’s digest version of what just happened?” he mutters to Teagan as they walk, trying to look cool in front of Jakem and Mercy.
Jakem nods to Mercy “Oh yeah, good point. Just need to like scent everyone else, then find the scent that doesn’t fit, right?”
Teagan is texting because she had A Thought and it distracted her from the clicky clicky clicky of the flashlight. She looks up once she realizes they’re at the stairs and blinks at Obadiah. “Uh. Doll. One of those creepy ones, sounds like, has real hair but not real eyes. Something left behind in the guest bedroom. Didn’t tell us what or which bedroom that is so I guess we get to snoop around everywhere upstairs.”
Mercy furrows her brow at Jakem and thumbs her septum in thought. “Thas’ a lotta scents to try an’ parse through, but it’s worth a shot. The thing’s pretty old so ain’ sure how much of its own scent it gonna put out, but m’gonna keep sniffin’.”
“Split the party!” Obadiah suggests over zealously to the other three with a broad grin. “I mean I have a super sniffer too and if we have a lot of rooms to process maybe it will go quicker?”
Jakem nods a bit, looking to Obadiah “Might as well get going and check it out. Doesn’t look like we got a chaperone.”
OOC: Only the room with Jakem in it logs.
Jakem looks up “Oh yeah, let’s split up. Mercy and me will go with Teagan. Teagan, you go with Obie. And Obie you go with Mercy.” he says distractedly.
Mercy has to stop and try to puzzle that one out with a furrowed brow. “Wait-”
Obadiah wonders if for Jakem’s sanity, if we should just use temp places for our investigation? or just all stay together I am cool with whatever works for everyone else
Teagan typey typey typey. “Sounds good,” she says to the plan for splitting up and who she’s going with. And she just starts angling off in a direction without really paying any mind.
Obadiah looks at Teagan, “now who isn’t paying attention?” he mutters as the whole team moves off
Jakem gestures south east “I think I see a bedroom looking place in there.”
Mercy says “Man this place fancy.. They sellin’?“
Someone mentions seeing a bedroom and Teagan looks up only briefly before starting toward the northeast. Who said she wasn’t paying attention? (She isn’t. At all. That is clearly the master bedroom.)
Jakem nods as he follows after Mercy “I mean I’m sure they’d give the place to you as a reward for finding the doll.”
Mercy tries not to look too hopeful when she turns to Jakem. She fails. “You think? Shit, hurry up an’ investigate Oobie Doo!” She starts to try and encourage Obadiah along with shooing motions.
Obadiah tries snooping on who Teagan is texting but when Mercy calls him to action ti investigate the crime he starts to look around, leaving the Lawson flavored redhead to do her thing.
As Mercy looks about, there’s not a lot of traces of anything too interesting. The scent of Leumond has been up here, along with someone else, heading into the southeast bedroom. The old man Moore has been to the north eastern bedroom. And then two other people have been going to and from all the rooms.
Mercy cranes her neck towards the southeastern bedroom, sniffing at the air. “Hmm.. might jus’ be the other live-in help people but there a few different scents leadin’ into that bedroom.”
Teagan seems like she’s destined to stumble into something important… But alas, even her destiny can’t seem to manage to find anything important on the Balcony.
Obadiah leads the fearsome foursome to the actual guest bedroom this time and starts his search again
At the center of this room is a cage. Clearly visible. It looks like an enormous bird cage, but it does not have a bird. Instead it has a very morose looking child with black hair and blue eyes. He looks up as the group enters.
The child calls out to the group “Hello, I promise I’ll be good. Please let me out? I want to go home.”
What Teagan stumbles upon is actually following the group (though it might be the Hat giving her nudges the right way) rather than going off on her lonesome into Smelly Old Man Master Suite. She looks up from her phone as they enter the room and just stares at the bird cage and it’s… “Mynah?”
Mercy darts right in after the others, limbs partially splayed like she’s on high alert for anything and everything. “Yo how much you think this paintin’ of a lady with restin’ disapproval face is wor-” Somehow the bird cage housing a child behind its bars isn’t the first thing she notices, but it is the second and she reels back from it with surprise. “What in the hell?!” It’s hard to tell if she’s actually shocked by this act of cruelty, or shocked by what might be the ugliest bird she’s ever seen.
The child cries out as Mercy draws near “They took me, they put me here. They said I was his replacement doll. I want to go home though, I don’t want to be a doll.” he screams.
“It’s just a kid in a baby cage. Didn’t you all have baby cages growing up?” Obadiah asks with a note of incredulity at Mercy before looking at the child properly. “You didn’t break anything? you didn’t punch your brother? you are just in there for being too doll like?”
The child sniffs at Obadiah’s question “I wasn’t too doll like, I was just doll like enough to be his new doll. That’s what they said when they…” *sniffle* “Put me here. Please let me go? I don’t like this cage.”
“I didn’t grow up,” Teagan says after slipping her phone back into her pocket. She’s paying attention now. Maybe. “What do you mean replacement doll? And who is they?” She does look over her shoulder, thoughtful. “Did they take the doll he’s all bent out of shape over?”
Jakem recieves a text and reads it aloud “The child is your responsibility; as part of your task, return him home. Or dump him on the street, I don’t care. Just get rid of him.”
Mercy gets up closer to the cage but it’s not empathy written on her face- no, it’s suspicion. She squints at the caged child and glances aside at her companions. “Wait a minute. What if someone turned the doll INTO this kid? You know like the whole Pinocchio thing?”
The Child answers Teagan while wiping at his eyes “I don’t know, I didn’t see them. They took me and brought me here.” He wails “I have school tomorrow.” then stops wailing “I mean you don’t have to take me home right away.”
The Child glares at Mercy, puffing out his lips “Not a doll!”
“You didn’t grow up you grew out.” Obadiah quips to Teagan. A short joke.
“If this kid is the doll that mean there weren’t no perfect crime to begin with, an’ that’s how it disappeared! Seems someone might be..” Here it comes, Mercy whirls around to face a different direction just for dramatic effect, flicking out her pair of aviator sunglasses and slapping them over her eyes with excessive flair. “.. Toyin’ with dark magics.”
Teagan punches Obadiah for the short joke. But she’s not much a fighter and she knows how sturdy he is… so she actually has to put some effort into it. It probably helps that she shoves his hat into his face after. Hmph! “You’re short too,” she mutters at him as she turns to the boy… just in time for Mercy’s CSI: Miami moment. Teagan gives a couple golf claps of appreciation. “Why don’t you want to go home right away, Mynah?”
“Ow!” Obadiah says with the blow to his arm from Teagan. “That hurt!” he rubs the bruise that totally isn’t forming because… reasons before looking to Mercy. A beat and then, almost on que, “YeeeeAAAAaaaaah!”
after a moment he collects himself from puns and domestic violence and just watches
The Child frowns at Teagan “It’s not fair, I can’t do my homework in here. I can’t go to school without my homework done.” he says piteously. “But, even if we don’t go right home, could you let me out of this cage?”
Mercy regards Obadiah with newfound respect for his contribution to the bit, a stiff upnod conveying such, then whisks the shades off- because it’s dark, and she might need to put them on for effect again later- and turns to the cage again. “How long you been in there? What’d yer abductors smell like?” She forgets not everyone has her sense of smell, but if he hadn’t seen them maybe something else stood out.
Mercy eyes Teagan a moment, then with a huff gets basically right up against the cage and takes a long, deep whiff of the kid.
The Child blinks at Mercy “Uh, they smelled really dirty, and like bad guys.” he responds helpfully if a little baffled. “They put me in here a few hours ago cause the tall guy said that the old man might get in trouble if he kept me in the last place when the investigators arrived.” he answers, as if recounting something he barely understands the implications of.
Teagan perks up a little at this. “Where did the old man keep you before?”
The painting pipes up calling out across the room “My fool son felt the boy should be brought up here instead of where he belongs in the vault.”
Mercy is also visibly intrigued by what the kid mentions so casually, though she still leans in to whisper to Teagan. “So he don’t smell like porcelain or nothin’ but there definitely an odd sorta scent about this kid that I ain’ tru- HOLY FUCK THE PAINTED LADY TALKIN!!”
The painting glowers at Mercy “Language young lady.”
Mercy snaps her gaze down to avoid that of the disapproving painting’s. “Ma’am..”
Obadiah snickers at the back and forth between the painting and the wolf and just looks around a moment, “Toymakers.”
Teagan is fumbling for her phone and getting it on to record. “So I’ve been thinking. Paranormal investigation channels are a big deal on YouTube. Ad revenue, yeah?” She turns the camera toward the painting. “So the old dude is your son, Mrs…? Madam? …Duuuuchess?” And under her breath, she mutters to the others: “Paranormal investigations are way more fun than private investigations.”
The painting turns her attention to Teagan, her features moving like a person’s, but the picture through the phone is more like a poorly shot video, blurred and messy, of a still painting. “Why in the blazes did my son let you hooligans up here? This room is for proper young ladies to spend a sweltering August evening in visitation to our manor, not a gaggle of ne’erdowells to go traipsing mud in all over my carpet.” She turns her attention to The Child and glowers even harder “And it certainly isn’t a place for messy, MESSY children.”
The Child lowers his gaze away from the painting with a guilty expression.
The Painting looks to Teagan and nods “Yes, he is my son. I am Madam Moore, esteemed matriarch of this family.”
“Ayeah well, we could certainly be removin’ this filthy child from yer sights an’ all that if you know a way we could do so uh, quietly.” Mercy offers to the painting, shooting a look to Teagan for her thoughts.
The Painting lifts her chin, but begrudges Mercy “You may use ONE pillow case to muffle the sounds of whatever you do to get rid of the child.”
“Why are you up here?” Teagan says to the Painting, frowning at her phone. She considers and turns it toward the Child, now, still talking to Madam Moore as she does. “In this room. I don’t see any… proper young ladies coming ’round here in November. Or, really, ever again. Your son is a little old for ladies of any sort.”
Obadiah looks around to try to push something off of the dresser with his hand, the desire to cause a mess of the painting’s sitting room too much to resist
The Painting seems about to answer Teagan’s question, but as Obadiah starts to push a vase off of one of the tables, she let’s out a piercing SCREEEEAAAAAAM that would put any banshee to shame.
The SREAAAAAAM continues, as The Child covers his ears, rattling the cage.
Mercy winces and both hands fly up to cover her ears. The other residents of the house were sure to hear that. “SHIT- GRAB A PILLOW CASE AN’ LES’ SKEDADDLE WITH THE DOLL-KID!”
The SREAAAAAAM continues.
The SREAAAAAAM continues. Glass begins to shake.
Mercy takes her own advice and grabs for a pillow on the bed, yanking the pillow itself out and moving to try and cover the painting with the fabric instead hoping it will shut her up.
Obadiah stops his attempt to cause damage but moves over towards the kid in the cage to grab said cage and take the whole thing with them
“Yeah, Obie’s stronk,” Teagan says, hands over her ears now as she looks left, looks right… and runs over to try to turn the painting around. “Shhhh, shhh, go to sleep.”
As Mercy approaches the picture, something starts to manifest from it, the woman emerging from the painting and growing in size…
Obadiah is able to secure the child’s cage, and heads to the door before the danger emerges…
Mercy whips out her knife and skitters back to try and avoid the thing’s claws, just barely. “GOD DANGIT!”
“FIREARMS WERE TOTALLY A VALID PLAN HERE,” Teagan shouts before scurrying away to try to find something to hide behind.
Mercy says “MA’AM PLEASE I JUS’ WORK HERE!“
During the scuffle the painting that once stood proudly upon the wall has been reduced the a heap of battered frame and ripped canvas. There might be a very upset woman upon that shredded canvas, but it’s hard to tell.
Obadiah shifts back and looks to everyone, out and proud. “I left my change of clothes in the car so… take a good look ladies.”
Teagan looks up from behind the bed. “I almost brought my sword,” she mutters, shoving her phone in her pocket. “Sorry we can’t sell the painting, Mercy.” There is a look to Obadiah and she grins, broadly: “Every time.”
The Child appears to have escaped the cage in the confusion, though he just stands in the doorway, gawking. Not at Obadiah, just generally.
Jakem nods to Teagan, gesturing to Obadiah “Looks like he gotcha a spare.”
Mercy heaves a sigh of relief, at first, then it’s a sigh of exasperation when she looks up to find Obadiah in his birthday suit. “Man what I literally say ’bout keepin’ what’s under the trench coat to yerself. We ain’ ever gettin’ invited back here.”
“I didn’t bring my shotgun! I wasn’t expecting to have to get all shifty!” Obadiah says with a sigh of exasperation. “You’re just jealous I shifted first.” With that he hefts cage boy and starts back the way they came.”
“So why do you belong in the vault?” Teagan asks The Child, walking behind Obadiah and acting like it’s totally normal to talk to someone being hauled around over the Fae man’s shoulder. It might be.
The Child blinks a bit, looking to Teagan as he’s carried out “Oh, uhm, uh that’s just where they stuck me when they found me.”
Mercy gives the room one last look over for anything else that seems valuable, portable, and less likely to scream. Finding nothing of note, she follows the others with quiet steps as if there’s any hope of stealth now.
With the comotion it appears that old man Moore and Leumond have retreated from the Foyer, leaving it empty for now.
Teagan scurries up alongside Obadiah and leans up and around to try to take a good look at The Child’s ears. “Uh huh. And why’d you go into the vault? Seems weird for a little boy to just… end up in a vault.”
Mercy peers around and listens for the sound of any incoming footsteps, keeping her voice hushed. “So do we put him back in there? Or like magic him back into a doll cause I still ain’ convinced he a real human boy.”
Obadiah stops at the foyer to slow for the women to continue their questioning. He doesn’t seem to have the capacity for thought right now, not with a baby cage over one shoulder
The Child shakes his head to Teagan “I was in a bag, and then when I came out of the bag I was in a vault. Then an hour ago they moved me upstairs with that very loud woman.” he says shakily.
The Child whimpers at Mercy “I’m real, I’m super real. I’m realer than… Than you are!”
“Ayeah she were real loud, ain’ like when people screech.” Mercy concurs with the child, though she soon shoots him a squinty look for his insistence. “Prove it.”
The Child bites his lip at Mercy, but stays silent in quiet acknowledgement of his called bluff.
“Kiddos the doll,” Teagan says somewhat (fairly, maybe, mostly) confidently as she reaches out to pinch at the tip of a pointed ear. “Dunno how he did it, but yep.”
The Child yelps “No no no, I’m not the doll! I promise!” he says, “I promise I promise I promise.”
Mercy does away with all the poorly attempted stealth to pivot towards Teagan with a finger held up for her anticipated “AH-HAH!” moment. “I knew it! I told you! This case was..” Yeah, she’s doing it again. The shades come out, and mid-stride they’re swept up over her eyes. “.. Child’s play.”
The Child does indeed, now that Teagan has pinched his ears, have pointed ears. Perhaps no one noticed as it was covered by an illusion?
“Ask Jakem, he has the dolls,” Obadiah says looking around for Jakem. “You have a Mercy and an Obie doll.” He looks over to Teagan, “We need a Teagan doll,” then back to Jakem, “Can you make a…” He pauses and takes a breath, “YeeeeeeAAAAAaaaah”
Jakem glances up to Obadiah “Huh, oh yeah. No sweat. Probably take a week or so, but I could probably make a random weird-kid doll. Dunno if it’d be a priceless antique though.”
“I don’t know that we NEED a Teagan doll,” Teagan says, but she does pinch at the ear again. “Your nose would be so big right now.” She considers the kid, the illusion (shoddy as it may be) and starts feeling him out. Sort of. Well, okay, literally. She starts patting him down, but also seeking out metaphysical feedback. Looking for any other signs of illusions or maybe a switch of sorts!
There are no background explosions to embellish the moment but Mercy indulges anyway, encouraged by Obadiah once again finishing things off with the ‘YEEAAAAHH!’. Then it’s back to business, and she scrunches her nose a bit while the others converse. “What if we make a copy of him an’ hand it to these people like ‘oh my goood we found it look’? An’ then this brat can keep.. existin’, I guess.”
The Child chews on his thumb as he looks at Mercy with big blue eyes.
If Teagan knew then what she does now, she probably wouldn’t have so unabashedly grabbed and groped at The Child to find out what lies beneath. But she is Officially an Apprentice Mage now and that does mean practice every chance she gets, but she’s also AN APPRENTICE MAGE so there’s no just hovering her hand out and doing some posturing and having all the answers. She’s gotta get her fingers all up in there. So she’s squishing The Child’s midsection when she goes: “I was wrong.” Boo. “Not a doll.” Squish. “Fleshforming, though.”
“We need a Teagan doll to fight the Esme doll for the remote control,” Obadiah asserts but offers no other opinion
The Child growls, voice changing, tone becoming more mature as he’s poked and prodded “You stupid ditz, shut up!”
“Wait WHAT?! Dangit!” Mercy whips the shades off, undeserving of them now, and huffs. She rounds back on the ‘kid’ and watches Teagan’s assessing skills hard at work, the change in the former’s voice easily detected by her keen ears. “Alright now explain what or who the fuck this is then. An’ where’s the doll?!”
The Child sneers at Mercy “I’m not explaining anything to you dummies. And that’s not Moore’s doll, it’s mine.”
Obadiah drops the cage for the fleshformed kid to clatter around in. “Bah! Ah well.”
Mercy frowns, visibly, and her whole demeanor seems to intensify in an aggressive sort of way as she stalks up closer to the caged kid after Obadiah drops him with her shoulders flared up like an animal raising its hackles. “You start talkin’ or I’m gonna start shreddin’, an’ if you do in fact bleed it ain’ gonna be pretty.”
“So who are you, then?” Teagan says, crouching down to squint at the Child. “I mean, pay up and we’ll do the job, but like. We need some actual information.”
Mercy lunges down suddenly to grab at the bars and loom over the cage for emphasis.
The Child glowers defiantly at Mercy as she advances “I told you, it’s my doll. Mom and Dad made me to match it so that everyone would know that it’s mine.” As Mercy jumps at the bars, his defiant manner breaks and he screams, stepping back. Not a little kids scream, but still terrified nontheless.
The Child smiles slyly “If you give me my doll, I’ll give you something you really want.” he says in a singong voice as the bars do keep Mercy at bay, or seem to at least. He looks directly at Mercy “Now that their matriarch is gone, I could make the whole Moore family dissapear…” he whispers to her “Then who would get their house?”
“He is fae,” Obadiah says licking his fingers after dropping the iron barred cage. “Probably trying to be tricky some some shit. Not with me mister! I am a Mercer!”
Mercy has practically mounted the cage, with just one outstretched leg and propped heel to keep her balanced while she stares down at the kid inside it, eyes narrowed but interest seemingly piqued. “.. Now when you ‘disappear’..” but some sense follows soon after, bottom lip caught between her teeth. “.. No, NOPE. No deals without more info. How’d they end up with yer doll, an’ why they wanna find it so bad?”
Mercy has practically mounted the cage, with just one outstretched leg and propped heel to keep her balanced while she stares down at the kid inside it, eyes narrowed but interest seemingly piqued. “.. Now when you say ‘disappear’..” but some sense follows soon after, bottom lip caught between her teeth. “.. No, NOPE. No deals without more info. How’d they end up with yer doll, an’ why they wanna find it so bad?” (FIX)
Teagan frowns as she steps back from the cage. She taps her foot a few times, chewing at her lower lip. “So the Moores are not mom and dad. Mom and dad made you to look like the doll. You were in a vault. Moore moved you to the bedroom.” She squints at the Child, but nods to Obadiah, “Yeah, I was getting that feeling, for sure. I think we gotta get him back in the vault.”
The Child is backed against the back end of the cage as he answers “I dunno, they’re like thieves or something. I didn’t even know they existed ‘fore they stole my doll.” he says with a glower. “I’m just here to get it back! I’m the hero!”
“Where is the vault anyway?” Obadiah says looking around suspiciously. “Maybe there is something we can sell in the vault to fund my Teagan doll project.”
“I assume in the basement, where any reasonable person puts a vault,” Teagan says to Obadiah. She kicks the cage. “You’re an ugly hero,” she tells the child.
Mercy gives the cage a good firm rattle before easing off and rising back to a stand. “I dunno ’bout this kid man, maybe we really should stick him back in the vault fer now an’ complete the job. We’re gettin’ paid yeah?”
Obadiah picks the cage back up and waits for the order from the others to go find the vault. “It’s getting late though… what is it we actually need?”
The Child snorts and nods “Yeah, the vaults downstairs but don’t bother. It’s sealed shut with a super security system. Course you could probably grab stuff if you owned the house cause you made a deal with a certain Bosco Mortinson.”
Teagan starts snickering. “Bosco Mortinson,” she says, incredulous, looking to the others.
The Child glowers “Fine. I will… Give you my doll. If you promise to let me go.”
“That even a real name?” Mercy asks Teagan while eyeing the kid warily, but still with some willingness to play ball. “Aigh’, an’ you won’t jus’ come right back here an’ take it again?”
The Child shrugs to Mercy “Why do you care, won’t they have paid you already?”
Mercy pauses to consider that. “.. Oh yeah. An’ then they’d need someone to find it again, an’..”
The Child nods and smirks to Mercy “Take me to the horse!”
“That… is true,” Teagan says with a glance to Mercy, looking back to the child. “Just don’t show up wanting any of us to like, take you in or anything.”
The Child shrugs at Teagan “I’m forty five, you guys are the kids here.”
Mercy says “But if you do need lodgin’ again I do recommend Tessa. That’s Tessa McWhatsherface an’ she live a- forty five?!“
The Child nods to Mercy “Yeah, dummy. Like the redheaded dame said, I was fleshformed.”
“No, no-” Teagan says to Mercy, holding out a hand. “That makes it even funnier. Totally give him Tessa’s address.”
Mercy says “Thanks fer tellin’ me, now I ain’ feel the least bit bad if I do gotta kill you.“
The Child glowers at Mercy “I dare you to open this cage and say that.”
“95 uh…. ” Obadiah thinks, “Over by the bay anyway.” He gives the cage a good shake to rattle the man-doll around, “Don’t make me throw you in the bay.”
Mercy seems to bristle at the challenge, but even she knows when the job comes first. Usually. “If this weren’t involvin’ other people.. Bet, little man.” She says with a jab of a finger, then jerks her head to the others. “Les’ finish this.”
The Child sighs and nods to Obadiah “I’ll be good, but remember, you promised to let me out after I give you my doll.”
Mercy says “Ayeah well ain’ try nothin’ funny when we do. “
Sucking at her teeth a bit, Teagan gestures at the Child. “Fine. Give me the doll, I’ll open the cage. That a good enough bargain for you?”
Jakem glances up towards the eastern rooms “Huh, I think folks might be stirring over the trouble we caused.” He looks northward “I think I heard horse noises from out there.”
The Child extends a hand through the bars to Teagan “Deal! But we gotta go to where I buried it.”
Mercy says “Think we got incomin’! Time to hustle!“
Obadiah nods and gets ready to leave the house out the front door unless there were other directions
Teagan quickly grabs the gross fleshformed Fae’s hand to shake it while going: “Deal but tell us quickly!”
Jakem says “There’s a door out to the yard up to the north, side door looks like.“
The Child nods to Teagan with a sly smirk “It’s with the horse. He’s kinda mean, just so you know.”
Mercy says “Ugh, horses..“
Obadiah looks between the women and Jakem, “Where am I going with the man doll?”
Mercy says “Stables m’guessin’.“
Teagan points to the north, after pointing to Jakem. “I bet the side door. North, lessgo.”
“I do like this house..” Mercy is back to murmuring to herself as they exit into the grounds.
Jakem says “Weren’t we just in the stable?“
The Child speaks up as you enter the stable, both horses winnying aggressivly at the group “It’s in the boy horse’s stable. I buried it with his hay!”
Mercy quite readily points out the stallion as opposed to the mare, there being two horses housed here, while wrinkling her nose. “That one.”
Obadiah nods in agreement to Mercy. There is no defense. He is, in fact, the naked dude.
“You didn’t tell us that,” Teagan says to Obadiah, sniffing. “Maybe you had to be Fred for once.” She heads on down toward the stallion’s stall. “So what’s this horse’s malfunction?”
Mercy says “It’s a horse, ’nuff said.“
Mercy joins Teagan as backup, reaching for the stall latch. “Keep this thing distracted so he ain’ kick or bite me. Or sneeze his nasty horse snot on me.”
Streamlining this to accommodate bedtimes, the group unearths the doll. When the group retrieves the doll, a perfect replica of the child, or rather perhaps the child has become a perfect replica of the doll. The doll is returned to the Moore thieves, the child is maybe released, and a big fat check is written to Mr. Johnson and his detective agency.
A week later, the Moore family mysteriously dissapears, the only trace of them that remains being a horribly mauled painting in the guest bedroom.
OOC: Sorry to hurry this along, but as I mentioned, we’ve two to three bedtimes on the horizon.