Meet Harper

November 11, 2023

Spider appears wearing the motorbike helmet, she leans against the stair railings while waiting for the others.

Cole appears wearing his M50 gas mask and gloves, with one of his hands on Lochlan's shoulder that he quickly moves to his pocket.

Lochlan rolls a bit to sit up and use the wall to stand. She huffs, "Ok uhhh...where is this?" She looks around at the lighthouse.

Cole sighs, "Your world, in a lighthouse." Cole starts heading up the stairs.

Spider rolls their eyes at Cole, "hey Lock, this way," she heads towards the light house door.

Lochlan follows Spider. Cole vaults the railing at the top and walks over to the door and leans next to it while he waits.

Spider opens the door and heads through. She shoots Cole a look despite her helmet hiding it, "You just enjoy throwing yourself off don't you?"

Lochlan follows.

Cole raises an eyebrow at Spider, "It's fun, are you telling me you also don't like vaulting the railing?"

Spider sighs, "...Yeah but I also don't want lo-" She catches herself this time, "-Lochlan doing it."

Lochlan raises an eyebrow at the stutter.

Cole shrugs, "I also wouldn't want that, but anyways." Cole looks over at Lochlan, "Do you mind leading the way?"

Lochlan nervously scoffs, "Like I have any idea where we are? This isn't a walking park."

"There's a walking track by-" Spider pauses tapping a finger against her leg, "Near Terms place, it could be that?"

Cole shrugs, "Sure, it's as good a place as any."

Spider nods and starts heading towards Cherrywood. Both Cole and Lochlan follow.

They reach Cherrywood with no issues. Lochlan glances at the house as she walks ahead of them, "I know where we are now." The sun is starting to set and it's gotten rather cold out. There's still a few nonferals roaming the streets as they head to the walking track. Spider grumbles lightly and pulls her jacket closer around herself as they follow.

They reach the walking track and they head down a road. Soon they find a street called Calvin Drive. It's somewhat of a suburb with two story homes lined up with decorated yards. Lochlan stops in front of a house with dry yellowed grass and a plastic pink flamingo. She stares ahead at the front door.

Cole's eyes turn a slight blue as he walks up to the front door and then looks back at Spider, "Should I knock?"

Spider is currently too busy staring at the flamingo, "I think this is the place that Chester was."

Cole sighs and knocks on the door.

On knocking on the door there's a bit of shuffling and they hear a woman's voice call out, "COMING!!!" Lochlan nervously stands slightly behind Cole and Spider.

Spider moves their attention to the door, her ears perk up. Cole folds his hands and waits.

The door opens. Standing in the door frame is an opossum nonferal with green snake eyes. She wears a short skirt, turtle neck, and old skeleton hoodie that's half tucked into the skirt. Her striped leggings lead down to combat boots and a long tail wrapped in cloth. She smiles at them from behind rose tinted glasses and fake freckles. She has small tears painted under both eyes, one on each side, "Why hello there! How can I help you?"

Cole offers a hand to shake, "I'm Cole, and I was just wondering if you knew anything about a pair of robotic prosthetics?"

Spider stares at the nonferal before clearing her throat, "Smooth Cole."

The opossum leans slightly to look at Lochlan, Lochlan leans further behind the others to hide some. Harper sighs and looks back at Cole, "I happen to know plenty." She steps aside and gestures for them to enter the house, "Come on in"

Cole steps inside as he puts his hands in his pockets. Spider takes a deep breath. She feels apprehensive for multiple reasons before heading inside.

The living room and kitchen are connected and decorated to be very cozy and traditional. Harper heads over to a small closet while gesturing to the floral print twin sofas, "Have a seat while I get some tools."

Spider heads in and sits down while keeping a close eye on Lochlan. Cole doesn't take a seat and instead stands next to the couch.

Lochlan walks in and is glancing around as if she's never been there before. She nervously sits on the sofa. Harper talks while bringing out a metal tool box, "So, care to explain anything?"

Cole slowly looks over at Spider. Spider shoots him a glare, "One arm got short circuited and both have been unfunctional since someone shocked her."

Harper smiles and sets the metal tool box down beside the coffee table. She flips the metal latches up on the box, "So how did you all meet Lochlan?"

Spider quickly responds, "How did you?"

Cole sighs, "I heard a scream in the woods and then she started attacking me, she jabbed a knife into my elbow and promptly got shocked with 120 volts then I knocked her out, then took her to my house to attempt repairs but nothing was labeled so that made it impossible."

Cole groans when he finishes talking and looks at the floor.

The opossum nods, "Hm. That does sound like a fucking trip in a half. Though I'm glad you got her here safely... mostly." The opossum pulls out a screw driver and grabs Lochlan's arm. Lochlan is pulled forward and seems a lot more nervous. The opossum starts opening the casing.

Cole watches them closely.

Spider tilts their head, "Yeah, though we didn't get your name."

The opossum gives a smile to Spider, "It's Harper." Harper opens the casing and inspects the burnt device. She uses the end of the screwdriver to pry it open.

Cole gives Spider another glare then resumes watching Harper work.

Spider rolls her eyes at Cole "I'm Spider, but you didn't answer how you know Lochlan."

Harper takes out a few of the circuit boards with burn marks and opens a compartment in the tool box. She takes out a few new circuit boards and begins installing them. Harper speaks as she works, "Lochlan here is my younger sister. Our mother and father are gone so I have to look after her."

Spider's ear flicks and she decides to play along for now, "Oh?"

Cole continues to watch, hoping for some clues as to what things do.

All Harper replaces are the burnt circuits and putting any wires or tubes back where they belong. It's fairly quick as she closes the arm up and starts sewing the fabric back into place. "I hope she hasn't been too much trouble."

"Nah not at all, just had to replace a servo," Cole mutters as he waves his hand dismissively.

Spider nods, "She's been fine, so which one of you's adopted?"

Harper replies, "Good, good, and we are both adopted. Long story but I'm sure Lochlan here is a bit too tired to stick around for it." Harper looks at Lochlan, "How about you head downstairs while we chat for a bit?" Lochlan glances over at Spider and Cole in a bit of worry.

Spider's tone becomes much colder, "She's fine here."

Cole folds his arms, "I agree with Spider."

Harper smiles at both of them, "She's had a long day, I'd imagine she needs some rest."

Lochlan looks to be getting more uncomfortable as Harper keeps one hand on Lochlan's arm.

Spider growls and goes to pull Harper's hand off of Lochlan, "She doesn't look tired to me."

Harper's hand lets go as Lochlan quickly pulls her own, now moving, arm towards herself. Harper looks to Spider as she puts her hand down, "She needs her rest. She's been out of range for her arms to work for days or even weeks. There's no telling what all she's had to do practically armless."

Cole notes what Harper said, "I think she'll be fine, I think we'll be leaving now." Cole starts to move in front of Lochlan.

Lochlan keeps her own arms close to herself and starts breathing a bit faster. Harper stands up and cocks her head to the side while looking up at Cole, "You mean you and Spider here?"

Cole's tone starts to sound sharper, "We includes Lochlan."

Spider turns their head towards Lochlan while speaking quietly, "Go on, we'll catch up."

Lochlan hesitates before scrambling off the sofa and to the door. She fumbles a bit at the door, trying to figure out how it works. Harper narrows her eyes at Cole, a faint rattling muffled by cloth comes from her tail. Harper gives a long crooked smile, "You sure you can't stay for a quick bite?"

"We are sure," Cole's tone has turned as sharp as possible while making sure Harper isn't going to draw a weapon. Spider gets to their feet and gives a low growl.

Lochlan goes to pull on the door to open it but it catches. A device attached to the top of the door frame flashes red as Lochlan steps back from the door. Harper's hands stay in sight. She doesn't appear to have anything on her. Harper sighs, "It's for the greater good."

"Greater good? You sound like a fucking villain right now," Cole groans as his eyes flicker to pink back to hazel as he backs up towards the door, continuing to eye Harper.

Spider grumbles, "Maybe try explaining why rather than kidnapping her?"

Harper snarls as she snaps to glare at Spider, "I'm not kidnapping anyone. This is our home and you are trying to take her from it." Lochlan is breathing a bit heavier.

Spider snarls back, "Pull the other one, she had no idea who you were."

Cole reaches up to the device attached to the door frame and snaps it off the frame with a good tug, while keeping his eyes on Harper.

Harper growls, "She has some issues that a bunch of strangers won't be able to understand or care for properly." She turns her attention to Cole as she hears the device be broken off. She lunges at Cole, aiming to bite onto his arm with razor sharp teeth.

Spider watches carefully one hand going to her knife sheath just in case.

Cole aims a quick punch at her face as he tries to slam the door open, "GET BACK."

Harper is punched in the face before getting a bite in, there's a small splash of venom that drips on the floor from her teeth. She stumbles back some from the hit. The door frame is broken as it swings open. Lochlan instantly rushes out the door.

Cole throws the device at Harper's face as he starts rushing out the door. Spider bolts out after him.

Harper shakes her head after being hit in the face again as she huffs. She stomps towards the open door, "I TRY TO PROTECT MY FAMILY AND ALL I GET IN RETUR-" Lochlan slams the door in her face as she begins sprinting down the road.

Spider and Cole follow after Lochlan. As they get further away, Spider and Cole slow to a jog. Spider is silent as she processes what happened. Cole exclaims, "What the FUCK was that?!"

Lochlan is still running towards the walking track and is far ahead of them.

Spider sounds confused, "Fuck knows, she was weird from the start though."

Lochlan reaches the walking track first and slows to a stop by one of the trees. She puts her hands on her knees while catching her breath.

Spider and Cole make their way up to Lochlan. Spider asks Lochlan, "You alright?"

Lochlan scoffs with a slight eye roll. She sounds very out of breath, "No."

Cole stops next to Lochlan as he puts his head on a swivel, "That bitch is fucking crazy, holyshit."

Spider jokes, "It must run in the family."

Lochlan stands upright and holds her arms in front of herself, flipping them over a few times as she examines them, "Good news, I'm no longer useless." She smirks slightly at seeing her arms moving again. Her breathing is slowly calming down.

Spider looks over at Lochlan's arms, "How long have they been working?"

Lochlan shrugs and puts her arms down, "After she got done fixing them?"

Spider nods, "At least one thing got fixed."

Cole groans as he sighs, "There's a fucking geofence on her arms."

Spider grumbles, "Of course there is,"

Lochlan fidgets, "A geocache?" She is unsure where to put her arms.

Cole shakes his head, "No, it's like an invisible fence that once you cross it either sends an alert or disables something."

Spider speaks, "So we either go back in or fuck with the arms again right?"

Lochlan settles with folding her arms with a slight shiver. She only wears the old shirt and shorts she met them in.

"Well, there was a tracker inside the arms and if I'm guessing correctly we only need the tracker to stay in the geofence," Cole's jacket rips as a couple metal strips fly out and combine together to make a screwdriver, "So in theory, I remove the tracker and leave it here and your arms keep working."

Lochlan is only half listening now as she shivers more.

"Thank Christ," Spider sighs, "I wasn't looking forward to either of those options."

Cole unsheathes his knife and starts slowly and carefully cutting the fabric on the arm that has the tracker. Then Cole unscrews the panel and looks for the tracker. He pulls the tracker out and tosses it into the grass.

The delicate tracker is tossed into the grass of a walking track that is kept clean with dangerous lawn mowers and often trampled with heavy feet.

Spider sarcastically mutters and goes to pick the tracker up, "...Yeah that's not gonna get damaged."

Cole rolls his eyes, "Okay well, do you have a better spot?" Cole starts screwing the panel back on.

Spider grumbles lightly and scans the area for any bushes or tree hollows. There's plenty of spots along with benches, trash cans, light posts, and signs. Lochlan's shoulders are folding in slightly as she tries to keep warm.

Cole puts the fabric in his pocket and looks over at Lochlan, "Maybe we should get you a jacket or something..."

Lochlan tilts her head. Her tone seems to be relaxing more, "What's a jacket for? Can it keep my arms fixed?"

Cole sighs, "It's something to keep you warm, it has nothing to do with the function of your arms."

One ear twitches as Spider heads into the bushes to bury the tracker. The tracker is buried. Lochlan glances around at the track and sees a nonferal wolf casually walking alone in the distance. He wears a green bomber style jacket. Lochlan points at him and looks back at both of them, "So one like that?"

Cole looks over at them, "Yeah? I guess?" Cole looks back at Lochlan.

Spider heads back over to Cole and Lochlan. She wipes one hand on her jeans and glances over at the wolf, "If you must."

Lochlan looks between both of them before shrugging and casually heading in the direction of the stranger. Her voice is a lot less monotone and more sassy as she mutters, "Finders keepers~"

Cole thinks for a couple seconds, looks at Spider, then at the wolf, "...It's free." Cole breaks into a sprint towards the wolf. Spider groans starting to walk after them.

Cole tackles the wolf as Lochlan trots over to them. The wolf yelps and tries to yell, "PHONE CALL 911-" Lochlan quickly grabs his muzzle to hold it shut.

Cole plunges his hand into the wolf's chest and fishes around for their soul. Spider leans against a lamp post and watches. She shoves her hands into her pockets. Cole finds a soul, the wolf is squirming as he tries to kick at Cole and Lochlan keeps his head down.

Cole yanks the wolf's soul out and chuckles slightly manically, "Free jacket!"

The wolf goes limp and Cole holds what seems like a normal and simple soul, however it seems to be on fire, yet gives off no heat.

Spider chuckles lightly, "You're incorrigible the lot of you." She flinches slightly at the sight of the soul. Cole takes a large bite out of the soul as he stands up.

Lochlan lets go of the dead wolf's face, "Corgis?"

Spider's head tilts, "Sorry?"

Cole starts devouring the soul quickly as he tastes it, "YUMMY!"

Lochlan starts rolling the body onto its back to take the jacket off.

Spider comments towards Lochlan, "You know you could have just bought one?"

Cole finishes eating the soul, "I don't have any non-feral money, so..." Cole dusts his hands off.

Lochlan gets up and puts the green jacket on. It has some patches, one with a red rabbit and mortar and pestle. On the other side is a blue sun and the text VIXX. She dusts it off and takes out a wallet from her pocket, "Oh I have some." She takes the cash out and hands it to Cole.

Cole takes the cash and puts it in his jacket, "Thank you."

Spider scoffs, "And where's mine?"

Cole looks over at Spider, "Did you beat up a random unsuspecting person and eat the soul?" he pauses, "...you know now that I say it outloud..." Cole looks towards the ground as he thinks.

Lochlan digs in the wallet again and hands Spider the rest, including credit cards and an ID.

Spider looks over the cards, "Ta, it's a good job, he was a wolf."

The ID for the wolf says his name was Creek.

Cole looks over at Spider, "Sooo....you wanna hide the body?"

Spider shrugs and shoves the ID into her pocket, "Not particularly."

Lochlan sounds confused, "Why do we need to hide it? He's still clothed."

Spider explains, "Because killing people is usually frowned upon, Lochlan."

Cole sighs, "I'll do it, I guess." Cole picks the body up and slings it over his shoulder.

Lochlan is no longer shivering and is more relaxed. She has a generally sassy yet laid back demeanor about her, "That does explain all the screaming and running those guys at that campsite did the other week. At Least I know it wasn't my hair."

Spider raises an eyebrow, "And why were you at a campsite?"

Cole cracks his neck, "Alright soooo, we should head home before someone sees me with a dead guy on my shoulder."

Spider briefly glances at Cole, "Just make sure you ditch it before Luna sees you."

Lochlan nods as she pushes her sleeves part way up her arms.

Cole playfully rolls his eyes, "Like I'd let Luna see that I have a dead guy on my shoulder. Can you handle teleporting Lochlan?"

Spider moves towards Lochlan, "Yeah" She places hand on Lochlan's shoulder. Lochlan flinches slightly but says nothing. Each of them disappear along with the corpse.

At some point in the night, they all reappear in the living room of Luna and Cole's house.

Cole has the random dead wolf nonferal on his shoulder and instantly mutters as he realizes he teleported into the living room rather than the front yard, "Oh... I missed..."

Lochlan gazes at the room from the sudden change in her surroundings.

Spider heads over to their usual armchair. They flop into it with a yawn and pull their helmet off.

Luna and Hinata were asleep on the sofa but instantly woke up when they all appeared. Luna looks over to see a dead nonferal slung over Cole's shoulder, "The fuck?"

Hinata shakes her head while chuckling a bit, "Man oh man this is nostalgic. Nice to see we still attract utter chaos."

Cole slowly looks over at Luna, "...I can explain."

Luna smiles, "Okay, I'm listening. What the heck happened out there?" Hinata goes through her purse for a moment before putting something on her laptop.

Cole smiles slightly as he explains, "So we got Lochlan's arms repaired, and then she got cold so... I tackled someone and ate their soul and Lochlan stole the jacket."

The first part, Luna listens attentively. This goes on until the soul eating, which turns her smile to a slight frown. She turns her head slowly to Cole, "Wait hang on hang on. What?"

Cole starts swiftly walking to the backyard, "...moving on."

Lochlan goes to sit on the floor with a sly smile, "It's ok, the jacket's still warm!"

Luna goes to say something to Cole but she stops herself dead in her tracks. Then she shifts her attention to Lochlan, "I... can't argue against that? Uhm, Lochlan, want chicken nuggets?"

Spider pulls a face.

Lochlan nods, "That sounds mighty fine."

Luna blinks, feeling something's heavily off about all of this. She heads to the kitchen.