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Jasper Kaylock was a peaceful man. He didn’t like snooping or stealing or generally breaking the law (unless in the pursuit of science or in the name of saving an animal). However, someone has some sort of giant bird(?) hiding in the Society and he really wants to find it.
It first started with a normal day, on his way to get breakfast from Rachel after feeding all the animals. On the ground, off to the side and clearly gone unnoticed, was a feather. A very large feather, too. At first glance, he couldn’t tell what kind of feather it was, especially at such a size, but upon getting completely sidetracked and foregoing breakfast to investigate, he has a guess.
A magpie feather, or at least something that looks similar to one. He couldn’t really tell what kind of feather it was due to its size, but his guess was either secondary or primary. The question was: how did the feather get into the hallway? Was this giant bird being brought through the building, or did its owner accidentally get a feather on them and it fell off without their noticing?
How does one hide a bird of this size from a bunch of scientists, is his biggest question. Surely somebody knows of it. That’s how he got to where he is now, asking every Lodger he casually comes across if they know what kind of bird the feather belongs to.
His conclusion? No, nobody knows. Which is really irritating. None of them even gave him any hint of lying! That is until he finally got a chance to speak to Dr. Jekyll while he wasn’t working. He’d shown the feather and that moment of barely concealed shock and fear gave him his answer.
Newest biggest question: what is Dr. Jekyll doing with a bird this size? He didn’t strike Jasper as the animal lover kind of man, especially not one that would interfere with his work so much and take up so much room in the Society.
He’d briefly considered asking Dr. Jekyll himself, saying that he knows it’s his bird, but he doubted the older man would confess to anything.
Which is how he got to where he is now. Snooping around Dr. Jekylls office.So far he’d found nothing, no signs of a giant bird anywhere in the area. No secret rooms, no locked doors, nothing. The only thing he’d found was a collection of similarly sized feathers in a rubbish bin hidden in Dr. Jekylls attached bedroom.
Which is definitely weird, if the bird was stored in another room surely its discarded feathers would also be in that room, right?
Jasper’s investigation is interrupted by the sound of the door opening. He snapped up, rushing to hide somewhere (Closet? No, he might end up changing. Jump out the window? No, we’re too high up. Bed?). He slid under the bed easily, almost comfortably even.
As he lay there waiting for Henry to leave once again (for surely he had more to do today), he hear faint arguing. There was no second voice, just Dr. Jekyll talking with someone and sounding rather pissed off. Jasper couldn’t hear much he said though, so maybe whoever it was was just being particularly quiet.
Granted, he’d never heard Dr. Jekyll sound like this, so it was still unnerving. He felt back for whoever was on the other side of that.
Jasper has no clue how long he lay there before Dr. Jekyll came into the room. He caught sight of the society’s leader tugging off his vest (he must have left his coat in the office), eyes widening when he saw what was underneath.
A red corset binding a pair of large, feathered wings.
…
Well, at least now he knows there isn’t a bird being endangered in the Society’s small rooms?