Case Study

October 20, 2023

In Cole and Luna's house, Spider walks into the living room as she yawns. Cole is leaning on a blank space on the wall by the hallway. Meanwhile Luna and a girl named Hinata are sitting on the sofa. Spider heads over to an armchair and flops onto it.

Cole looks over at Spider with a sigh. "Well, there's Spider."

Spider raises an eyebrow at him, "Well I'm not gonna be anyone else am I?"

Cole playfully rolls his eyes, "I suppose not, though next time you go to the non-feral world-" Cole folds his arms, "Please cover your face and skin, we don't need people getting loonism."

Spider sighs, "It was raining. I didn't think anyone would be out... besides I don't really need to cover these up." There's a slight edge to Spider's tone as she holds up one hand. It's a strange mix between a paw and a human hand. She lets her hand drop back down.

Luna's ears flatten as she listens in.

Cole sighs again, "Well then just your face I suppose, and always assume people are outside."

Spider nods, "Yeah I will, .. hopefully it's all died down by now."

Cole mumbles, "We can only hope."

Spider gives Cole a long look, "You ok?"

Cole hesitates then shakes his head, "No, there's something bothering me. I went exploring and found an abandoned town, there were storm cellars that were clearly used at some point or were prepared to be used but there wasn't any storm damage that was visible."

"...Right," Spider looks at Cole, expecting for him to continue.

Cole grumbles, "If there was a storm it would have been visible, the town hall was also spray painted to hell, and I have yet to try and restore the documents that I recovered. I fucking hate teenagers. I need to find some chemical that won't destroy the ink or the paper."

Spider frowns and tilts her head slightly, "I was thinking of heading back today, if the town is still crawling then I'll check that place out."

Luna remains quiet. Hinata speaks up, "Cole, you mean that Haze Borough place? Gambit was talking about it on Datrs, and said it's a shithole where criminals run from the law. But considering he also called it a fancy city in the hills, I have a feeling something's up with it."

Cole nods, "Got it, I'm gonna research some chemicals to strip this spray paint so I can read the documents I grabbed from the town hall." Cole closes one of his eyes as he stares forward.

Spider comments, "City in the hills? I saw that place, and it definitely wasn't what Coles was talking about."

Luna tilts her head and types something on her computer, "Strange... Oh wait, that was Trotston, not Haze Borough," She shakes her head a bit, "Sorry."

"For what?" Spider stretches and gets up, "I'll let you know if I find anything."

Luna adds, "Just be more careful Spider, last thing we need is one of our team getting arrested."

Spider chuckles, "Like they could hold me."

The group at Cole and Luna's house continue to discuss before Spider disappears. She reappears in the nonferal world.

Spider appears in the base of the lighthouse. She can hear more rain going from outside. The scent of rain covers the room. A few drops manage to run down the staircase.

"...Again?" She mutters her voice becoming slightly muffled as they slip on a customized motorbike helmet. Her ears fit comfortably through two holes. She sighs while zipping up her jacket and heads over to the door. This time she tries to see if she can open it.

The door jams slightly but opens after a small tug. It leads straight outside with a concrete slab to step out on. It's raining a decent amount with dark skies.

Spider gives a small smile and steps out. She begins heading in the direction of Cherrywood.

On reaching Cherrywood there's a slim amount of people out, either in their cars or running to their house. A few kids down the road are playing in the rain. Spider lets out a relieved sigh at the lack of cops. She starts walking and loosely follows the directions she got from the nonferal she had spoken to last time. She once again tries to find Lover Lane.

She makes it through town without drawing any attention and comes across a walking track. Beside the walking track is the Lover Lane street sign. Spider glances at the sign then continues past the walking track. She heads down the street and onto a dirt path with more secluded houses. She can spot a house with various statues of humans in the yard.

"... I'm gonna assume that that's it," Spider says with a small sigh. They start walking towards the loon decorated house.

She can see one of the windows is broken with glass shards on the porch.

"Yeah, definitely the right house." Spider pauses to stare at the house for a moment. After a while she sighs and goes to enter through the window "... Not like I've got any other ideas."

She enters the house to find it's covered in various items that liter the shelves and a strong scent of candles all over. There's a bit of rain making it in through the broken window.

Spider gags at the scent of the candles. "definitely ..his place" she repeats. After more hesitation she heads towards the living room. She keeps an eye out for anything that might tell her where the two have gone.

In the living room she sees a rattan chair next to a lounge chair. Sitting on the side table are a few papers and a pen.

Their eyes scan the room only for their head to tilt. She spots the side table and heads over to the papers.

The paper has messy handwriting that reads, "Case study." Under it are several more sheets.

She moves the case study page aside and picks up the next one.

The next page says, "Carol Mathews (Chester), male, hyena and bat hybrid. I plan to interrogate him more on his personal life after smelling alcohol on him for more than three days in a row. He boasts being a neat freak so I doubt the stench is carrying through several days from one outing."

She tilts her head more as she reads. She picks up the next page.

The next page says, "I've begun documenting the process to review later for early signs. Next time I approached him at the store I offered for him to visit my house which was promptly declined as he proceeded to ridicule me. He's defensive as I insist, being sure to clearly mention the address. Still claiming that he's not going to show, he still arrives at my house on time. There's something he wants."

Spider puts the page down and looks around for any drawers. There's a few under some shelves displaying some candles and crystals. She attempts to open the first one. The first drawer has a pair of barber scissors, a comb, and a random handful of assorted crystals. They let out a small chuckle before moving onto the next drawer. In the next one she finds small veils of essential oils.

They move on to the final drawer. In the last drawer she finds a few unlabeled veils. The veils themselves are solid black and not see through.

"...Hm." In curiosity she picks one up to examine it.

The veil feels like it's filled halfway with a liquid. There's no other identifying marks on the container. Spider rolls it around for a second before attempting to unscrew it. The lid screws off and a strong smell rises from the opening.

"...Oh God," against her better judgment, Spider lifts the visor and sniffs the vial while looking into it trying to identify both the smell and liquid inside.

On taking a smell the scent is overwhelming. Her vision blurs some. Spider gags the vial slipping from her grasp as a hand goes up to the helmet's visor. Everything starts to feel numb and she becomes extremely tired. They give a groan of discomfort. Her eyelids flutter as she fights the effects but it's no use. She sinks to the floor and falls unconscious.

Time passes as Spider is woken up by the sunlight from the window. Her limbs feel like pins and needles. They sit up and wince as the sensation of the pins and needles hits them. They rub a hand and glance around the room as the events of the previous day start to come back to them.

Slowly she gets up using the chest of drawers to steady herself. Spider grabs a single vial from the drawer before carefully making her way out the living room.

Outside of the living room is a hall connecting to a bathroom and three other doors. She grumbles tiredly running a hand over her face before trying the closest door. In the closet door she finds some cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaner, all covered in a thick layer of dust. They stare at it for a second before chuckling lightly and moving onto the next door.

It opens to a messy bedroom that somehow smells worse than the rest of the house. A large messy bed with a wooden footboard and headboard is centered on the wall. On one side is a small end table and on the other side is an open wooden dresser overflowing with jackets, pants, and shirts. A woven hamper sits beside it and near a window.

"...Christ Term," Spider mumbles and closes the door heading for the final room.

The final room is yet another bedroom. It's a bit less cluttered with a smaller bed. The footboard of the bed has been taken off and sits leaning on a wall by the window. The curtains are drawn, making the room a lot darker than most of the house. There's little to no candles in this room.

She tilts her head and walks into the room taking a more in depth look around it. The room has an empty wardrobe with a few metal hangers left while the bed only has one pillow and blanket.

"Fuck all ...great." They stifle a yawn and rub a hand over her face again. They head back through the hallway and into the first bedroom room. The room she reenters is the same as she left it.

She heads over to the end table. It has a single drawer and a lamp plugged into the wall. She sighs and reluctantly opens the drawer.

She finds a gun.

"Term what the fuck are you up to?" Spider picks it up. She debates whether to pocket it or not as she looks it over. The gun looks rather standard except for a scratched off serial number.

Spider sighs and puts the gun back before disappearing.