Watts Broken Now?

November 10, 2023

The gang are still all at the house. Luna, Hinata, Spider, Cole, and Lochlan are in the living room. Lochlan is still seated on the floor as she is looking down at her limp arms.

Spider glances over at them raising an eyebrow "everything ok?"

Lochlan stays looking at her arms, "Just not sure what all of me is even real if I believed my arm was real for so long."

Spider sighs, "I know the feeling and I'd say talk to Cole about it. he'll know more than me."

Lochlan looks over and stares at Cole as she speaks, "He's just staring. I'm not sure if he would." Cole is leaning on the wall while staring ahead in thought.

Spider glances over at him before looking back at Lochlan, "just wait until he gets going, and he's like you. so yeah he knows a lot about it."

Lochlan shakes her head, "He looks nothing like me. I doubt that."

Spider chuckles quietly "He's a cyborg like yourself"

Lochlan starts to look a bit upset, "I don't like the idea of that."

Spider tilts her head some, "Being a cyborg? or whatever you count as?"

Lochlan nods with an uncomfortable expression.

Spider sighs, "Just talk to him when you can yeah? It's hard, I get it. But that's life unfortunately." She starts to anxiously tap one claw against their leg.

Luna and Hinata walk through the front door. They both carry brooms that they put up on hooks near the door. They both head to the couch to sit together. Luna greets them, "Morning Spider, Lochlan," She has a slight smile on her face and Hinata waves.

Spider waves back, "Hey."

Luna sees Lochlan who is still staring down at her arms, "Something up?"

Lochlan mumbles some, "I'm worried as to how much of me is even real."

With a firm but friendly tone, Luna responds, "All of you is real. You're just as real as myself, Spider, Cole, Hinata, and the rest of the nonferals." Her ears perk up a little bit.

Spider mumbles, "Debatable."

Lochlan growls slightly as she speaks, "Real things can move their arms when they want. Real things don't hear words all the time. Real things don't have wires in them."

Spider growls slightly, "You're injured and just look at Cole mate, he's real enough. Though what words are you hearing?"

Luna reasons, "Yeah, Cole's electricity might have messed your arm muscles up, which is why your arms don't move."

Lochlan rolls her eyes while explaining. Her voice is generally flat but as she gets frustrated a bit more of her accent sneaking through, "Stuff like status update, stable, error, online, out of range, and then the other going on about put it on, cover your face, get it back, obscure it, enshroud. None of it makes a lick of sense and it's about got me over it all."

Spider narrows her eyes some, "...Weren't you wearing a mask when Cole found you?" They tilt their head in thought. Lochlan nods.

Luna asks "The kitsune mask? So it's not just some art project."

Lochlan groans, "I would go look for it and put it on but my arms still won't function."

Luna squints a bit while deep in thought then types something in her phone. Spider pauses while her mind goes a mile a minute "how about I go and find it for you?"

Lochlan scoffs, "Would be grand if my arms could work instead but sure! Go knock yourself out."

Luna puts her phone down. "I dunno, I just find it strange that your voices are requiring you to wear the mask."

Lochlan nods her head side to side, "Well it's less voices, and more my own voice." Lochlan mumbles under her breath, "Though I don't quite feel like myself at the moment..."

Luna questions, "Feel like yourself?"

Lochlan shifts a bit restlessly, "Yeah... I just don't feel quite right anymore."

Luna tilts her head and squints a little bit, "Explain? I'm not sure what you mean. Do you feel like you're not Lochlan? Feel like you're in the wrong body?"

Lochlan looks down at her arms again, "No, like my mind isn't the same. Like thinking isn't how it used to be."

Spider adds, "And how was it before?"

Lochlan explains, "It felt normal. Like I thought about things normally. Now It's all about insecurities and concealment but to a more intense degree."

Hinata had been listening to the conversation and typing up some notes. She finally speaks up, "Is it possible Cole missed something when he fixed your arm the first time? Mind if we take a look, Lochlan?"

Lochlan nods, "You can."

Hinata walks over to Lochlan and looks at the arm. "We'll see what we can do."

The arm has torn fabric revealing a carbon fiber casing. The casing looks to be held in place with two small screws.

Hinata calls out to Luna, "Hey Luna? Could you go get the toolbox in the garage?"

Luna nods and walks out. A few moments later, Luna returns with tools. She hands Hinata a screwdriver.

Hinata unscrews the casing. "Awwright."

The casing opens and they can see into the arm. Lochlan's ears fold back as she watches. The chaos of wires and devices looks overwhelming. A device at the top has a light that flashes red three times.

"Good gods, how the hell do we find the answer in this?" Hinata mutters while she looks for anything out of place. Luna watches. Her eyes are a dark purple instead of their usual bright blue.

Spider gets up from her arm chair and heads over to take a look, "...Jesus Christ."

Hinata speaks while continuing to examine it, "Not seeing anything off, there's like some kind of disc missing, but Cole said there was a tracker or something like that. All of the USB Ports are empty."

Luna points to a second device, "What's the other box over here? The light on this one is a steady green, but there's something red in it?" On closer inspection the device in question has a small foggy window on it. Inside is a small veil with a splash of red liquid. Under the small window is an unlabeled meter of some kind. The device at the top flashes red three times.

Hinata half chuckles, "How about buttons? Maybe Lochlan needs to be restarted somehow? You know how they talk back home, some generic bullcrap at a help desk. Did you turn it off and on again?"

Lochlan's eyes widen slightly more in fear of what being turned off would be like.

They aren't lights but small glass compartments with yellow liquids inside.

"Yellow liquid?" Luna mutters as she points to some small veils that wrap part of the arm.

Luna carefully selects and disconnects a wire between the devices. The wire is disconnected. Nothing seems to happen.

Luna hums in thought, "It's the two that aren't the same. All of the others are light green." Luna disconnects a light blue wire.

Nothing happens at first when the blue wire is disconnected. But then there's a small click. Lochlan flinches slightly, "Ow."

Luna looks up, "Wait you actually felt that? Sorry Lochlan. You okay?"

Lochlan blinks some, "Felt like my arm was scratched." She looks down at the wires

Luna tilts her head and looks back at the arm.

Hinata asks, "Is this the first thing you've felt on your arm since coming here?"

Lochlan mumbles a bit, "I mean... sort of? I'm not uh... uhm..." after trailing off, her eyes unfocus some and she goes quiet.

"The hell!? Lochlan???" Luna starts to shake some in worry. Hinata goes silent.

Lochlan, who was already sitting, slowly glances up at the room before she falls unconscious, backwards onto the floor.

A while later Lochlan blinks to find she is still laying down as she groans groggily.

Luna and Hinata are still over her arm as well as Spider now.

Spider speaks, "It would explain why she can't move her arm if it's knackered." Lochlan glances at the arm to see some wires and even a thin tube that has been disconnected.

Luna looks up at Lochlan, "Feeling okay Lochlan?"

Lochlan stays laying on the ground, "Why exactly am I laying on the ground and feel like I got kicked in the head?"

Luna takes a deep breath. "Do you know what sedatives are? Basically whoever did this mechanical arm thing added sleeping drugs to you for some unknown reason. You felt that small scratch and then you were knocked out. I'm pretty sure we disconnected the thing with the sedatives from you though." She gestures to the thin tube. "Past that, I'm really not sure what else is wrong. The three flashing red lights are the only actual thing strange here and they come from that box that acts like some kind of a wireless device? Like a processor."

Lochlan stares as she processes everything. She mumbles a thought under her breath, "...I don't wanna be a cyborg."

Spider looks over at her, "Lochlan, could you try moving your arm?"

Luna explains, "You really aren't much of a cyborg though Lochlan. It's just this one arm, unlike how Cole, Hinata, and I are basically full of wires and machines all over our bodies. If anything, this is closer to a prosthetic. Maybe you lost your arm at some point?"

Lochlan sticks her neck out slightly as she tries to watch without moving around too much, "Do we even know that for sure? Cuz I sure ain't able to move my other arm either."

Luna's tone is firm, but she still tries to show understanding, "Unfortunately, that's just an assumption. But considering how you can't remove the other arm, it's likely. Besides, this thing is awesome. I wish one of my arms was a computer. I will take a look though."

Luna shifts her focus to the other arm to see if there's any way to remove it. On just looking, it's hard to tell anything.

Luna feels around the other arm, trying to see if there's any kind of seams or something that could imply it's also mechanical. On feeling it she can tell there's something harder than skin underneath.

Luna gulps, "I uhhh hope that's the bone I'm feeling... "

Lochlan exhales, "...Oh boy." Lochlan lays her head back and stops watching. Luna finds a hidden seam in the fur.

Luna shakes her head, "Welllll, on the bright side, maybe the issue you're having is on this arm."

Luna speaks while getting out a small pocket knife from her bag, "Lochlan, I promise to never hurt you. But I do need to access this." Lochlan gives a small nod in response.

Then using the knife, Luna extremely carefully rips the seams to access the second arm. She tears away the fabric to find the other arm has the same carbon fiber casing as the other.

Luna sighs and puts the pocket knife away, trading it out for the small screwdriver. When she unscrews it and opens up the casing, she finds an exact mirror of the devices from the other arm. The only difference is it doesn't have the device with the red liquid.

Luna is looking at all of the devices like an overview, trying to see if all of the lights are the same. Obviously the one with the red liquid doesn't exist.

Luna stifles a yawn due to the time but she continues nonetheless, "Right... the exact same thing. Nothing different. What's stopping you from moving it then? Ugh. What the hell am I missing?"

Luna disconnects the tubing for the sedatives on the second arm.

"Okay, if the issue is the yellow liquid, is it possible to remove it all together?" Luna attempts to remove the little vials of yellow liquid from the arm if possible. She's able to snap all of them off except for the very last one on each arm, that is welded onto the metal.

Luna thinks outloud, "But... why? That makes no sense. Lochlan, are you able to move your arms yet? I removed the yellow stuff that seemingly knocked you out earlier."

Lochlan sighs after an attempt, "No."

Luna shakes her head out of frustration, "I'm... honestly lost on what the answer is."

Lochlan looks worried as she stares up at the ceiling.

Luna returns to the first arm again. She attempts to disconnect something else. "If my vague understanding of circuits is correct, this might be the answer?"

With another device disconnected, all of the lights turn red. There's a click and some liquid is poured out of the disconnected tube.

Luna looks at the tube, "Oops, that's probably the sedatives." Luna pulls out a paper napkin from her bag and wipes up the liquid.

Hinata glances at Luna's laptop, "...Luna I think you broke Datrs again."

Luna reconnects it as the lights all turn green again. "Okay, that's a good sign? Lochlan, how about now?" Luna looks extremely done. She yawns a bit and closes her eyes.

Lochlan sighs, "If I could I would. Trust me on that."

"Ugh... right. Spider, your turn..." Luna heads back to the couch to pass out from exhaustion.

Spider groans and starts to examine the arm again. After a minute she picks up the discarded blue wire and attempts to connect to an open space, the wire wasn't originally in.

There's a loud spark and Lochlan winces as she tenses up some. Spider gets a small shock. The light on the device turns off and all of the other lights turn red.

"What the fuck happened?" Luna asks from the couch while laying on Hinata. Her ears are flattened from the loud sounds. Hinata groans a little bit.

Cole, who had left at some point, suddenly appears next to the couch, "Did you just break something?"

Spider flinches as she jolts away from the arm, "I don't fucking know." The fur on her tail is bristling as they take a deep breath.

There's another click and the disconnected tube pours out some of the liquid onto the device that short circuited. At the same time there's another spark and Lochlan gets fully electrocuted. She jolts slightly and yelps. Spider growls and goes back in to remove the blue wire.

Cole is staring at them all like a disappointed father.

There's a slight smell of burnt sawdust. Lochlan groans in pain.

Spider glares at Cole, "Don't give me that fucking look."

Luna and Hinata are asleep at this point. Cole phases through the couch as he walks over to Lochlan, "I'm giving you that fuckin look." Cole looks over at the arm and attempts to assess the damage.

Spider grumbles and sits back.

Cole sighs and looks back at Spider, "Well it looks like it's been short circuited."

Lochlan tries to sit up but struggles a bit, "What does that mean? Am I going to die?!?! WIll I be ok?!?! Can I have chicken nuggets ever again!?!?!"

Spider grumbles, "Christ, you'll be fine." She starts rapidly tapping one claw against her leg.

Cole sighs, "You can have chicken nuggets, they have nothing to do with this."

Cole calmly looks over at Lochlan, "Do you know who gave you these arms? And if they have a way to contact them?"

Lochlan stops trying to sit up. She shrugs a bit, "Well I don't know their name but I can find them from the walking park."

Cole sighs heavily, "...So what you're saying is that there's a chance we might find this person?"

Lochlan responds, "I'm sayin I know where they live."

"Oh...cool," Cole looks over at Spider, "You wanna go on an adventure?"

Luna says while laying down, "Is this the same person that didn't protect you from the Gangsters?"

Lochlan looks away nervously.

Luna rolls back over, "Right. Just be careful out there y'all." She returns to sleep, snoring slightly.

Spider nods and starts to get up.

Cole nods to Luna as he cracks his neck, "We should get going then."

Hinata speaks while shifting slightly, "And don't forget to cover y'all's faces up before a bunch of people call the cops."

Cole playfully rolls his eyes, "I always cover my face, I'd hate to cause mass panic."

Spider stretches as the motorbike helmet appears in her hand, "If you fuck up one time..."

Lochlan mumbles to herself, "The sooner I can get my arms moving the sooner I can stop thinking about my arms being glorified chopsticks."

Cole nods as he snaps an M50 gas mask and gloves into his hands. He puts on the gas mask and gloves, "Ready, I'm assuming Spider can handle her own transportation?"

Spider grumbles, "I am in the sodding room you know" She then slips on the helmet and disappears.

Cole chuckles and places a hand on Lochlan's shoulder, "Ready?"

Lochlan flinches slightly, "Sure."

Cole and Lochlan disappear.