Hazebloom Investigation!

Hops leaves the garden in complete confusion. What the hell could be eating these plants? They’re not for consumption at the stage they’re in! She thinks to herself, making her way to everyone who had a garden she could think of. 

First up was Dan, she enters the shop looking around for the mochi master before peeping behind the desk. Well… there’s Shibani, but not who she’s looking for. Hops leans to the left and right, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dan before finally spotting him and making her way back. She taps him on the shoulder, “Dan, I hate to bother you again, I know I just asked about your order but…” She makes a motion with her hands, indicating she was unsure. He quickly holds a hand up, “Shibani should be upfront to help, is he not?” He asks, leaning forward to attempt to see. Hops peers back as well, looking at the still-peaceful bun. “Uhm… I mean he is upfront. Technically.” She shrugs, shaking her head. “That’s not what I’m here for though. I need to know whos eating my flowers and I was hoping you might know. I know you have a garden, maybe they ate yours too and you managed to catch them?” She tilts her head, putting on a small show with blinking eyelashes and a pouty face hoping he’d give her an answer. 

Instead of an answer, she just gets a look of surprise as he sets his hammer down. “Actually… yes I did have something come through my garden about a week ago. Came and ate all my flowers for my floral mochi. What a fuckin’ pain in the ass this is” He huffs a bit, and with a small sigh sets his hammer to lean against the wall while he talks and Hops watches as he does, relaxing a bit into her stance. “I was able to scare it off a bit though, used some wire mesh and a lamp overnight,” Dan explains, trying to remember the events of it all. “It tried coming back once but, it’s been fine since. I found some black fur, looked like what furdins shed but, they’ve never been an issue.” He shrugs a bit, putting his hands on his hips. “You could try that?” His head tilts as he finishes and Hops just sighs. “I could try it but… thanks anyways, at least fur color is better than nothing. And it has fur…” 

She pauses for a moment, “Wait… are you sure it was black? Not like… I don’t know.. Deer colored?” She squints her eyes. Dan just looks at her strangely, “I’m sure… very sure it was black.” He just nods and she gives up her interrogation. That was at least one clue in the bag, she’d have to go around and ask others. Maybe Mercy or Oleander had an idea, as the church has a large garden. Hell, maybe even Angora has a personal garden that got fucked. She’d have to go scout for more, making her way to each of them with determination in her eyes, if it was that damned fairy king… oh she was gonna give him a piece of her mind.

As she began walking, she passed the imporium and then stopped in her tracks, maybe just maybe Hutch might have something on it! I mean, she only had the fact it had black fur and went through the night eating all the plants but it could be something! She pushes her way into the shop, walking right up to his counter. He was sitting there already, watching as Hops came closer.

“Hi Hops, are you looking to adopt today? I’m sure you could use a little buddy or two. Maybe more if you’re not sated!” He smiles at her, but she shakes her head. “I’m not here to buy or adopt anything, I actually have a question for you.” She leans on the counter, watching the bun in front of her.

“Oh.. of course, I’m always happy to educate others about imps!” He smiles brightly at her, though she shakes her head again, “Well, I was curious about which imps might eat flowers?” Her head tilts as she rests it on her hand. Hutch however looks taken aback for a moment, “Flowers huh? I mean, if they’ve seen a succubun eat it, they might go for it too but, most go for sweets and other prepared foods.” He takes a moment to think before squinting at her, “You’re not going to try and feed any some flowers, are you?”

Hops quickly shakes her head, “I wouldn’t ever, mainly because the only flowers I have at the moment are haze blooms and I need them to stop being eaten by whatever it is! And if Imps aren’t the ones doing it!” She raises her hands in frustration, she just wanted these damn flowers to grow. Hutch however remains calm, “Well I’ve had some people ask about catching garden pests, so you aren’t the first.” He nods, and Hops just frowns, “I’m aware, I asked Dan already and he was having the same issue. He said he found black fur in the fence.” Hops shrugs a bit.

“Well, I’d gone to stake out those gardens and didn’t see much except a silhouette, then it was just gone. It had antlers, so black fur, and antlers! Oh man, I already have so many theories of what this could be. I’ve sketched some out but I might have to update it based on what you’ve given me. I thought it might be a freign but-” Hops tunes him out at this point waiting for him to finish, once he does she finally speaks up, “No, I’m okay, I really need to figure this out before the flowers are supposed to bloom, maybe some other time.” She smiles politely and takes a step to leave before Hutch is already speaking to her again. “Right of course, well, if you find more on it, please let me know, I have a page waiting in the encyclopedia already!” He smiles.

Hops turns, “Of course Hutch, thank you.” She smiles and heads out, to the next victim. Horns and fur. That could be anything, even another succubun. Man, this was about to be a really difficult issue. Oh well, she was going to get to the bottom of this. Her precious haze blooms… and job… mainly the job. Angora was going to kill her….anyways her precious haze blooms. This needed to be solved quickly, for now, she was just going to continue replanting. Maybe she could catch Oleander later and ask if he’d seen anything, just for good measure.