Wrote the next part of my au centering around dr jackall and margherita vizzini out. Its not as broad this time and focuses on Jackall mostly, but voila
If you’re interested in reading this part and havent read the first part, I highly advise reading it because this wont make any sense otherwise.
Everyday I come on here and think about these stupid characters way too much, I should really be getting paid by kingsile for making them lore. Anyway
- I’m picking off right where I left off last time: Dr Jackall n Margherita are comfortable in their jobs doing jewels stuff in the shopping district and its all going fine and dandy til Sherlock Bones shows up. Somehow, their new bazar-bought clothes and new haircuts manage to fool Bones into not recognizing of the two escaped convicts in front of him, and he leaves just as soon as he came in.
- Margherita breathes a sigh of relief before considering if they want to flee wizard city in favor of somewhere else; if Bones finally gets a brain cell and recognizes them, they’re screwed. Jackall, however, in his infinite wisdom and not-at-all-flawed thought process, sees Bones’ interactions with them as a great sign.
- If the most famous detective this side of the spiral couldn’t see who they really were, maybe no one else would either! Perhaps they’d been worrying about their crappy disguises failing for nothing. Heck, maybe everyone had already forgotten about them anyhow. If the two were really still at the top of Marleybone’s most wanted list, nestled between Meowiarty and Jacques the Scratcher, wouldn’t Watson have given them more than just a hard stare when he and Bones saw them? Plus, there’s always some new crisis happening nightly in Marleybone anyhow, no doubt the kidnapping of the queen had become nothing more than a distant memory to the dimwitted people of the world. Surely, they could return to Marleybone (Valencia, in Margherita’s case), get their old jobs back, and go back to how things used to be.
- Jackall decides he’ll just casually make his way back to Marleybone to see if he can worm his way back into the palace, completely sold on the idea that no one cares about what went down there before. He’s sure that after a quick conversation with Chief Whip, an old coworker and work friend, he could get his name cleared and get his job back. He’s a changed man now! Getting his butt kicked by a 12 year old, followed by being sent to the most notorious jail this side of the spiral before escaping, and then working in retail has humbled him, trust him. Jackall’s positive Chief Whip will; nothing could possibly go wrong.
- Margherita thinks Jackall hit his head with a jewel wrench too hard and that he’s insane if he honestly thinks that they’ll be anything more than escaped felons who tried to kidnap the Queen in the eyes of the general public. But if Jackall wants to go jeopardize their stable and safe position in Wizard City by hauling himself all over Marleybone, go right ahead. She’ll stay home and relax while he’s out there risking his neck.
- And so Jackall made his way to Bartleby, making use of a Marleybone spiral key that he had miraculously found in a pants pocket. Speaking of clothes, he slipped into Marleybone wearing his jewelcrafter clothes in hopes of not getting caught for his old palace garb alone. This meant that for the upon returning to Marleybone for the first time in months, Jackall wore dirty slacks and an equally dirty shirt with rumbled sleeves, and a slightly singed apron. Great impression.
- Surprisingly to him, there aren’t any guards or cops in Wolfminster Abbey. Even as Jackall makes his way quickly through Regents Square, it seems like the amount of cops patrolling the streets seems less than he remembered. On the other hand, there sure are a lot of wanted posters lying around. Most for meowiarty, who seemed to have escaped newgate for the millionth time, but the others all for…Jackall. With a pretty big reward slapped at the bottom. Huh. That’s not exactly a warm invite back after being gone for months.
- Jackall just stuffs the posters in his pockets and slinks to the entrance of Barkingham Palace. Naturally, guards stood watch at the gate, so Jackall waited for them to all have their backs turn before slipping in through the open ajar gate doors. No wonder Marleybone still faced crises daily when its most reputable protection could be distracted by a wadded up newspaper floating by.
- If he’d been wondering where all the cops had gone from the streets, Barkingham Palace was his answer. The place was crawling with guards, positioned around every entrance into the palace and basically everywhere else, and each carrying a worryingly long sword. Thanking his lucky stars, Jackall managed to creep along the walls surrounding the palace and hoisted himself up by the windows.
- Jackall knew that Chief Whip wasn’t sent to Newgate like he himself was; Whip is too much of a vital aspect to Barkingham to be sent away, and the man really does have a heart of gold so it was not too hard for Jackall to imagine he kept his job after the Queen kidnapping fiasco. Indeed, Jackall was correct. Chief Whip was patrolling the otherwise empty second floor of the palace’s main hall, right where Jackall had hauled himself up to. Legs still dangling out of the window, Jackall yelled at Whip to get his attention, and waved to him excitedly when he whipped (no pun intended) around.
- Whip’s expression of shock mixed with rage said enough for him, but Jackall still began blabbering before the older bulldog could begin speaking. Jackall gives Whip the same spiel he’d given himself: he’s a changed jackal now, knows not to involve others in experiments, has no more repressed anger about getting his Mr Hound inspired idea rejected that one time or getting sent to prison, working for young wizards and getting kicked in the face by an ex-friend before rebonding with her humbled him, yadda yadda yadda. Clearly everyone else here in Marleybone has forgiven him as much as he’s forgiven himself, or at least they should. He’s such a great person now so can he have his old job back yet please and thank you higs and kisses
- Whip just stares at him. Jackall stares back before trying to make some small talk like nothing happened between them. Whip again doesn’t engage, prompting Jackall to spit out an awful excuse for an apology for hypnotizing him but that Whip totally would have done the same thing if he was in that situation.
- Finally Whip speaks. “You cant possibly be serious.” Jackall purses his lips and tries not to slip out of the window like he’s nearly done before. Whip keeps his voice low, but Jackall can feel the heat radiating off of him. He grabs Jackall by the collar, and makes it very clear that he doesn’t want to ever again see the person who put the queen’s life, the guard’s lives, and his life in danger just because he couldn’t get over an idea that proved to be as dangerous as everyone said it would be. No one’s forgotten the night of the queen kidnapping, and everyone’s waiting eagerly to throw Jackall back in jail the second he shows back up. Like tonight.
- Jackall tries to talk his way out of Whip’s grip but Whip speaks over him. Whip isn’t like Jackall; he didn’t take their friendship for granted like the ex-scientist did. He’s fiercely loyal and still cant bring himself to send an ex friend to rot in Newgate, even though he knows for certain Jackall would if he stood in his position. Jackall swears its not true, but Whip’s not listening and instead bellows at him to get out and never come back again lest he really wants to get chained up again, before pushing him out of the window. Jackall grabs hold to a tree as he falls and barely rights himself before splatting onto the floor.
- He can hear a rush of footsteps above him and mix of voices asking Whip what happened to cause him to bellow, and holds his breath tightly, expecting the bulldog to send the guards after him. Instead, Whip just says he was clearing his throat loudly and instructs them to patrol the inside of the palace more thoroughly tonight rather than the outside.
- Needless to say, Jackall high-tails it out of the palace and skedaddles back to wizard city as fast as possible. All the while, Whip’s words repeat in his head. He’s not as bad as Whip thinks he is, is he? No, no, definitely not. Sure he did double hypnotize his only palace friend, and engage in kidnapping and backstabbery, pull off one of the most potentially dangerous heists that Marleybone’s ever seen, and have the gal to come back and practically demand his previous job after all he escaped from jail. All of Marleybone is up in arms over him and rightfully so. Hm..not exactly looking like a picture perfect angel there. And even after all that Whip still couldn’t turn him in? It’s all mind boggling to the book smart dumbass jackal.
- Jackall eventually makes his way back to the jewel store and disrupts Margherita’s one peaceful night alone by kicking the door in and blubbering about what happened in Marleybone. Great time for everyone.
Thats it for now, whew that took like 2 hours to type bc im slow at writing. Sorry if theres spelling/grammar mistakes, thank you for reading through! It means a lot to me
