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It was not out of the ordinary for cookies to appear around the shopping district.
But when heart-shaped cookies kept appearing, scattered around 221G Baker Street, Detective Grian got thinking. He assumed the Jangler merely wanted to make his baked gifts to the hermits special, given that Valentine’s Day was just around the corner. However, as Grian continued running his daily errands around the shopping district, he realized the cookies dotting the streets were just the usual circular ones – and contained noticeably fewer chocolate chips. “Surely it’s just the Jangler simply trying to get a reaction out of me.” Grian thought, shrugging it off. The Jangler was an interesting character. Over the last few weeks, he had conducted a series of pranks on the server, none of which were malicious. Yet many hermits were still interested in uncovering the Jangler’s true identity. Grian became ‘Sherlock Grian’, enthusiastically solving leads and clues. He had fallen into some sort of obsession with the jester-themed prankster, which did not go unnoticed by the hermits. Often, he was teased about how he seemed to be pursuing more than just a new clue. The Jangler himself was bound to notice the detective’s incessant chasing – of Jangler-related information. Definitely not the Jangler himself.
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The magical appearance of heart-shaped baked goods did not rouse the detective until Valentine's Day.
It was early morning as Grian sleepily stumbled into his office, tripping over an inconspicuous white box. He grumbled as he opened the box, realizing he had ruined the frosting of the cake in it.
“Dear Mr. Detective, come to the… 7 pm today…I’ll be…for you… From the Jangler.” Grian muttered as he tried to read the words the icing on the cake spelt. “Of course, the most important information smeared…” he lamented, pondering what he should do. He was curious about why the Jangler would ask to meet, on today of all days. Grian accepted the Jangler’s invitation, but he would have to figure out the meeting location before seven.
The detective had a daunting task in front of him. He had no clues on where or why the Jangler wanted to meet him. Grian slumped at his desk, unsure where to start. He glanced over a map of the server for potential locations the Jangler could have invited him to. From the corner of his eye, Grian spotted a small label on the corner of the cake box. He shot out of his seat and rushed to the box, excited over a possible clue.
“Delivered by Concorp. All customer service queries should be made to Cubfan135 or Goodtimeswithscar…” Grian murmured. “Delivered by Concorp? When did they start a courier service? For baked goods out of all things…” With many questions in his mind, Grian beelined to Concorp, searching for answers.
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Grian burst through the doors of Concorp’s office, startling Cub who was sipping a cup of coffee.
“Grian…?” Cub sputtered, trying to compose himself from nearly choking on his drink. “What’s with your sudden appearance?”
“I’d like to ask some questions about a parcel you delivered to my office,” Grian replied. He offered Cub a handkerchief to wipe off the coffee that split during his scare.
“The delivery of stationery supplies to your Sahara office? I’m pretty sure we cleansed your staplers of vex magic after that ritual…” Cub trailed off as he typed furiously on his keyboard, looking for the delivery logs.
“No, not that one, the one to my detec– wait why were you even using staplers in a vex ritual??” Grian exclaimed. Cub shrugged in response as Grian continued, “I meant my detective's office. I was delivered a cake and want to know who sent it.”
“It was sent by the Jangler. The instructions he left for delivery said to deliver with care and put it where Grian will definitely see it.’ Not quite sure why he felt the need to specify the first part, Concorp always carries out our deliveries with utmost care and diligence.” Cub commented and took another sip out of his cup.
“They put it right at my door. I tripped over the box and ruined the icing on the cake because it got squished. So they did get me to see the box, but I didn't see what was written on my cake.” Grian reported.
“I can’t do anything about that. Maybe ask the bakers what they wrote on the cake instead.” Cub turned away from Grian, absentmindedly shuffling some papers on the desk.
“Do you have the information on which bakery made the cake?” Grian inquired.
“No, sorry,” Cub apologized, before starting to wrestle with a strangely sentient stapler. “Looks like the cleansing spell didn’t work on this one…I should attend to it. Thanks for stopping by Concorp! Come again soon!” Cub replied hurriedly before dismissing Grian, who promptly rushed out at the strange sight.
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Grian returned to 221G Baker Street, once again slouched on his chair, dejected. He had not gotten any useful information about where to meet the jangler, but he did find out that Convex sometimes partook in peculiar stationery-related practices! The detective decided to search the shopping district for bakeries that could have been responsible for the cake he crashed into in the morning.
After stumbling around for a while, Grian discovered a small bakery in a discreet corner of the shopping district. It was closed and the doors were locked. Grian decided to search the bakery for any receipts that could provide more information about the Jangler. He flung a rock into the glass door of the bakery and precariously climbed through the hole it made. He rummaged through the stack of receipts on the counter and eventually found one with valuable information for Grian. Under the ‘requests’ section, the receipt read, “I’d like a message to be written with icing on the cake, please. :) ‘Dear Mr. Detective, come to the top of the Statue of Hermity at 7 pm today. I’ll be waiting for you with a special message. From the Jangler.’ Thank you!” Grian quickly pocketed the receipt, thrilled at getting the information he needed and made a mental note to repair the glass later. As he hurriedly clambered out, a confused voice called out to him.
“Grian? Did you rob that bakery?” Mumbo asked, completely perplexed.
Grian yelped in surprise, nearly falling onto glass shards scattered around the broken door. He quickly regained his composure, dusted himself off and replied hastily, “No! I was in there for investigative purposes, I promise!”
“Investigating what…investigating how much money there was in the cash register?” Mumbo teased.
“Why would I bother robbing a shop? It’s much easier to scour through your chests.” Grian smirked and playfully clapped Mumbo’s shoulder.
“Hey!” Mumbo exclaimed indignantly. “What are you investigating anyway? Are you still hung up on the Jangler?”
“Don’t phrase it like that. You make me sound like I'm madly in love with the Jangler.” Grian stared at Mumbo with a deadpan expression.
“Aren’t you? You spend most of your time digging through his case files, that poor man can’t ever catch a break from you.” Mumbo chuckled as Grian sputtered, “Hey! It’s merely detective work. Once I uncover his identity I’ll never think about the Jangler again.”
Mumbo nodded as Grian continued excitedly, “He’s asked me to meet him at the Statue of Hermity at 7 p.m. I’ll finally get to see the mystery man!” Mumbo raised his eyebrows and replied, “Today? You do realize what a special occasion it is, right?”
Grian groaned at what Mumbo was implying and sighed, “Well, it's not like I have anything else to attend to.” The moustached man chuckled and checked his watch. Mumbo exclaimed, “It’s a quarter to seven! You should get going, update me on how it goes!” Mumbo winked at the now frantic detective, who scowled at him before rushing off to the Statue of Hermity.
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Grian stood at the foot of the statue, out of breath from running across the shopping district. His watch read 6:59 p.m. He sighed with relief, knowing he made it in time. He looked around for any sign of the Jangler, pacing about for the man’s arrival. As his clock ticked to 7 p.m., a voice from the top of the Statue of Hermity called out to him.
“Mr Detective! Up here!”
The Jangler was using a voice modulator, but under the rough, deep tone of speech, Grian found the vocal inflexions familiar. So when the detective flew to the top of the statue, it was not entirely shocking to see the man donning the jester hat. Upon seeing Grian, he turned off the voice modulator and smiled.
“Well, if it isn’t GoodtimeswiththeJangler,” Grian said sarcastically, before breaking out into laughter. “Really Scar? You were the one terrorizing the server with baked goods for the past few weeks? Why cookies??? Why not anything else?”
Scar instantly became flustered and frantically defended himself, “Hey, wait now mister, I didn’t choose to lead this lifestyle! The evil forces of fate dragged me into this situation! I had no choice!”
Grian stared at him and responded with a monotone voice, “Right, yes, of course. An evil ghost dragged your hand across the keyboard from the 'I' key to the ‘A’ key to make you type ‘Jangler’ instead of ‘Jingler’. Thus the entire saga started. I can believe that.”
Scar crossed his arms and objected, “What if I said this was all Jellie’s fault hmm? Then what would you do?”
Grian crossed his arms as well, mimicking Scar. “I’d tell her to scatter her cat toys around instead. Those are less messy and don’t attract ants.”
“You know, I vaguely recall a certain Poultry Man chucking eggs around a while back. Raw eggs. Do you know how hard that is to clean up?” Scar pointed an accusing finger at Grian, who raised his arms in mock surrender. “Why are you asking me? It wasn’t me, it was the man in the chicken costume!”
The pair shared a laugh and then a moment of silence. Grian sat next to Scar, dangling his legs off the head of the statue. As they watched the sun slowly disappear on the horizon, Grian asked, “Why’d you ask to meet me here?”
Scar smirked, saying, “Well, I knew you had nothing else planned–HEY!” He rubbed his sore shoulder that Grian had just whacked before continuing, “...and I was sick of all the Jangler-ing, so I thought it was time to end the shenanigans and reveal my identity.”
Grian nodded, then asked, “Then was the heart-shaped cookies and cake necessary? You could’ve just left a note at my door.”
“I thought it would be pretty funny to mock you about your lack of a Valentine’s Day date by shoving the love-themed goodies in your face.” Scar shrugged.
“Oh really? So you just had to send me typical Valentine’s Day gifts and ask to meet me in a scenic place to watch the sunset because you thought it was a pretty good joke? ‘Hahaha, Grian doesn’t have a date so I’m going to fake ask him out! As a joke.’” Grian said mockingly.
Scar shrugged again, this time with a smile on his face. The pair continued silently watching the sunset, but their peaceful moment was interrupted by a shrill screech. Grian spotted the horde of phantoms approaching them and groaned as he pulled out his sword to fight them.
“Woah, G! How’d you get so many phantoms on your tail?” Scar asked, shocked.
In between swings of his sword, Grian called out, “It's because I’ve been staying up so much to read your stupid case files to close the Jangler case!” As Grian slayed the last phantom, Scar responded teasingly, “Aww! You couldn’t sleep because you were thinking of me! How cute!”
Grian glared at him and swiftly used his sword to swat Scar’s Jangler hat off his head. It plopped to the foot of the Statue of Hermity as Scar lamented, “Hey! My hat! You whacked to the ground!”
“Make another comment like that and you’re next,” Grian warned.
“Can you blame me? It's February 14 and I'm in the mood to get into the Valentine-y spirit!" Scar joked.
"So all this wasn't just to mock me for being dateless, it was to make me not dateless??" Grian asked.
"Maybe?" Scar said, turning to look at Grian.
"Mhm?" Grian hummed.
"Mhm," Scar replied.
Scar moved closer to Grian, and the pair watched the bright lights of the shopping district sparkle for the rest of the night.
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