The Mask Slips

November 13, 2023

Someone fumbles with the front door from outside but it's locked.

Luna grumbles as she gets up, "Ugh.. my fucking head, hang on hang on, I'm coming!" She opens the door.

Lochlan steps in, her hair looks a bit more messed up and she seems exhausted. A few grass blades are still stuck in her fur.

Luna tilts her head, "Uhhh... hello Lochlan? Didn't even know you left. What happened?"

Lochlan explains while walking in, "I felt a bit awkward about that conversation last night so I thought running away would help calm things down... yeah uh... people don't take as kindly to quote animal freaks around here."

Luna closes the door and heads back to the couch, "Tell me about it. A lot of the folks out here stare at me whenever I head into town. Turns out having cat ears and a tail makes them think I'm wearing a costume or whatever a weeaboo is."

Spider shifts a bit in her sleep mumbling something. She rests in the same arm chair as usual.

"So I'm stuck here." Lochlan grumbles as she puts her hands in her pockets, "I still feel wrong."

Luna shrugs, "Welcome to the club Lochlan. We have a British werewolf, a 295 year old cyborg, a dog girl bard, a cat girl witch, and now a really really nice Fox. That's you." She smiles. "None of us are exactly normal, but we continue to exist.'

Lochlan squints at Luna, "I'd hold your horses on that nice comment there buckaroo."

Luna turns her head and raises an eyebrow, "You're not a nice person? So far you've been okay."

Lochlan rolls her eyes, "To be fair, so far all I've done is be in a state of environmental and physical shock. You don't exactly get a great picture of someone during a crisis."

Luna sighs, "right. My bad Lochlan. You're right, I've barely gotten to know you."

Lochlan nods and goes to idly look at a side of the room. After a while she begins to walk, "I'm gonna get something to eat." Lochlan heads to the kitchen.

The kitchen is just as it was before including Cole leaning on the counter. This time however Cole is sleeping while he's upright. Lochlan walks through to the fridge with her hands still in her pockets. She casually walks over Cole's feet without a second thought.

Cole jolts awake and groans as he mutters, "My fucking feet..."

Lochlan opens the fridge and starts digging around. She speaks up over the shuffling, "Walk it off."

Cole narrows his eyes at Lochlan, "...Uh huh."

Lochlan gets out various ingredients and tosses them onto the counter. She grumbles some to herself, "Really? No turkey? You gotta be kidding me."

"...Why do you want turkey?" Cole looks confused.

"Turkey food thing, ya know," She tosses a few more ingredients on the counter. All of the items suggest she's making a familiar food.

Cole notices and stares at Lochlan, "...Are you trying to make a sandwich?"

"Is a sandwich like a chicken nugget?" She closes the fridge and gets out the loaf of bread.

"You are making a sandwich you HAVE to know what a sandwich is," Cole groans.

"No, I just feel like these things would taste really good together. Maybe I'm just a natural!" She smiles while getting out two slices of bread.

"Are you trolling us? I highly doubt you just 'think' these things would taste good together," Cole folds his arms.

"You're just mad I have good taste and you're just a cyborg." She starts making a sandwich.

"I think you understand what things are and you're just pulling our leg."

Lochlan lowers her volume a smidge, "Ok so maybe I had a little fun back there cuz I didn't think I would be around you guys for long, but there's still some things I didn't actually know." She puts the ingredients away and leans on the counter with the sandwich in hand.

"So you do actually understand a majority of things?" Cole sighs as he shakes his head.

She winces and nods her head side to side, "Ehhh I wouldn't go as far as saying majority. I do pick up a thing or two quickly though."

Cole sighs and mutters quietly, "Some things never change, do they?"

She tilts her head some and the smile lowers slightly, "What do you mean?"

Cole shakes his head as he speaks up, "Nothing, nothing."

Lochlan snickers some, "Like I said I pick up on things quickly and I've already picked up that you don't say things unless you mean it."

Cole stares at Lochlan, "You like reading people like a book don't you?"

She shrugs, "I don't know man, I can't read."

Cole glares at Lochlan as he repeats, "Are you pulling my leg?"

"Does it look like I am?" She gestures to his legs before eating some more of her sandwich.

"It's a figure of speech, it means like lying to me or trying to mislead me," Cole sighs.

She raises both eyebrows, "Then call me an ankle biter cuz I got that leg." After speaking she realizes how weird it sounded and makes a confused face.

"...Never say that again," Cole groans as he face palms.

"Right. Anyways uhm... since I'm going to be here a lot longer than I expected," She holds out her free hand to shake, "Might as well give a proper introduction. I'm Lochlan Charlie Whim"

Cole hesitantly shakes her hand, "Cole Ernesh Genesone."

She stiffles a snicker while quickly pulling her hand away after a moment, "Ernesh? Really?"

"Yeah, yeah get all the laughing out," Cole sighs as he folds his arms.

She lets the snickers out between bites of the sandwich, "Son of death himself. And death decided the scariest middle name is Ernesh. You sure it wasn't like the destroyer or something edgy like that?"

"My name isn't supposed to be scary," Cole sighs, "The scary part of me is supposed to be my powers."

"Ernesh! Use death snare!" Lochlan snickers more, hiding her face some with the sandwich

Black smoke pours out of Cole's hands as small wisps form into a massive dragon skull that stares down at Lochlan while being inches from her face.

Lochlan's eyes widen and her fur stands. She speaks quickly, "I take that back- Erny is a very scary name-" She then scrambles to the living room.

Cole chuckles as the smoke dissipates, "Didn't even say it right but alright.".

Lochlan scrambles into the living room and to the farthest wall from the kitchen.

Luna watches from the sofa as she asks, "Oh hey, welcome back Lochlan. What happened?"

Lochlan folds her arms with a grumble, "Cole didn't like that I was making something to eat and spooked me off with a demon thingy."

Luna shakes her head, "Really? That's awful. You didn't do anything to cause the smoke demon?"

Lochlan barely whispers, "...Depends what you consider edgy."

Luna takes a few moments to think that over, "How about the manifestation of an old enemy of mine trying to kill me? That's pretty edgy."

Lochlan huffs, "Ok so yeah you could hear me whisper. So you already listened in on all that in the kitchen. Did you already know his middle name is flippin Ernesh."

Luna nods, "Indeed it is Lochlan. Not exactly one that strikes fear into people, unless they actually look it up. Then it makes sense."

Lochlan adds, "Still sounds like the name of an old man."

Luna still has her laptop out as she speaks, "I mean he is an old man to be fair. Nearly 300 years old if my notes are correct." Luna checks the screen for a moment before responding, "Yes, 294 as of Saturday."

Lochlan sounds confused, "How the heck is he still alive???"

They can faintly hear Cole chuckling from the kitchen.

Luna smiles, "Being a cyborg certainly helps, plus he's the son of Death. Makes sense he has some casual immortality."

"Figures..." Lochlan's ear flicks and she glares towards the kitchen. She raises her voice, "I can hear you laughing! It's not funny!"

Luna's ears immediately flatten as she groans, "Owww- loud..."

Lochlan looks over at Luna, "I barely raised my voice."

Cole strolls in with a grin on his face, "It's kinda funny, you gotta be honest."

Luna grumbles, "My ears are sensitive, sorry. And yeah, it's pretty funny."

Lochlan folds her arms and looks away, "It's not funny! You scared me."

Cole chuckles as he waves his hand dismissively, "Come on, it was just a little smoke"

Luna comments, "I mean yeah it's just some smoke, but at the same time, I understand where Lochlan's coming from. That's scary to see for your first exposure to abilities and magic."

Lochlan huffs, "Well I didn't know it was just smoke... What's smoke?"

Cole stares at Lochlan, "I highly doubt you don't know what smoke is."

Luna continues, "And if you actually don't, it's residue that comes from burning stuff. Like cigarettes, wood, or lightbulbs sometimes."

Lochlan gives Cole a wide smile, "At least someone's nice enough to give me an answer."

Luna smiles at Cole, there's just a smidge of smugness in it.

Grumbles heard from Spider who starts to stir in their sleep. Soon enough they slowly sit up and stretch.

Cole rolls his eyes at Lochlan, "Right." Cole looks over at Spider, "Well look who's awake after being an accessory to murder."

Spider yawns, "Says the guy that killed the lad." They run a hand over their face then sink back down into the armchair.

Luna mutters, "I'm still totally in the dark about what happened. Datrs hasn't updated yet. Like how did Lochlan being cold lead to y'all killing a dude? Did she want his jacket or something? I assume so."

Lochlan shrugs, "It's a good jacket... that and I was curious how easy it would be to lead you all into commiting a crime."

Cole shrugs as well, "It's pretty easy, I was kinda hungry."

Luna mumbles under her breath, "Luckily I wasn't there." She clears her throat before returning to the notes on her laptop, "Okay, lemme see here. I will say the jacket is really cool, Lochlan. Do we know who the person was? Cole? Other than just some nonferal wolf I mean." Luna then picks up her beverage from the side table to take a sip.

Cole shakes his head, "No idea, he just had a jacket that Lochlan wanted."

Lochlan nods again as she casually asks out of nowhere, "Cool, so Cole why do you like that Icarus guy?"

Luna does an over exaggerated spit take on the sudden question. "-Ugh, excuse me." She sets the laptop down and briskly leaves the room.

Spider's ear twitches at Lochlan's words though she's staying quiet for now.

Cole slowly looks over at Lochlan, "I just like him as a friend, nothing more."

Lochlan leans on the wall, "You seemed a lot more embarrassed than just liking someone as a friend."

Cole rolls his eyes, "Right, I'm telling you he's just a friend."

Spider comments, "...Is he though?"

"Like you have much room to talk," Lochlan looks over at Spider with a smug smile, "I saw how you were looking at Harper."

Spider tenses up as if expecting Lochlan to say a different name. As Harper is mentioned she sighs, "That's different and she's too much even for me."

Lochlan scoffs,"Oh yeah? And what about instantly trying to figure out where She lives the moment Chester was in a house with them?"

Spider shoots her a disbelieving look, "You're aware that they kidnapped him yeah?"

Cole snickers quietly as he folds his arms.

Lochlan nods, "I know but you also kept going on about the address after he was already out."

Spider doesn't respond, instead turning themselves away from Lochlan. Her ears briefly flatten.

Lochlan rolls her eyes while shifting her attention towards Cole again, "Anyways, back on the topic cuz I'd hate for the topic to be changed when there's still plenty of pokin around to do." Lochlan grins, "So why weren't you gay for any of the other guys? Why him in particular?"

Cole stops snickering and groans, "I'm not gay for him, he's just a friend."

Lochlan folds her arms, "Oh yeah? And why didn't you act like that to that elk guy?"

"Because he wasn't my friend?" Cole raises an eyebrow.

Lochlan's mischievous grin only widens, "And why is Icarus more of a friend if you knew him the same amount of time you knew that elk guy? The elk was even nicer to you than he was at first."

"..." Cole stares at Lochlan, "Maybe I like my friends to be somewhat mean to me? Have you ever considered that?"

Lochlan raises an eyebrow at him as the smile drops.

"What?" Cole shrugs.

Lochlan continues, "You got salty at me for making fun of your name and proceeded to scare me. You don't like being made fun of."

"...This isn't proving your point."

"Icarus said his friends call him Isaac."

"Okay well I just met him so," Cole puts his hands on his hips.

"And you also just bought him a house."

Spider comments, "She's got you there."

Cole shoots Spider a look, "...Okay well his house wasn't that good so he kinda needed it."

Lochlan puts a hand to her chin and nods, "Mhm sure surrrre." She looks up in thought as the sly grin returns, "Riddle me this corn knocker. Where is my house? Huh?"

"You don't need a house?" Cole looks confused.

Lochlan raises an eyebrow, "I'm homeless, am I not?"

Cole answers as he sighs heavily, "No you're not. You are living in this house, you aren't homeless."

Luna and Hinata walk in and sit on the couch together. Luna speaks up first, "Lochlan, you're allowed to live with us. Cole and I are apparently the owners of this house."

Lochlan nods, "Ok. New question. Then why are you letting me live here?"

Spider looks at Lochlan, "Do you want to go back to Harper's?"

Cole mutters, "...That's a complicated question for me to answer."

Hinata asks, "I mean where else would you go? You want to live with Terminal?"

Luna mumbles, "Not to mention, you saw how people in town are. They're not exactly accustomed to magical bipedal animals running around. At least with us, you have something in common."

Lochlan scoffs, some of her accent shows through, "I'm a lot of things but magical ain't one of em."

Luna shrugs, "To us, sure, but to the rest of the normies out in town? You may as well be an alien."

Cole seems to frown slightly when Luna says alien but resumes somewhat smiling afterwards.

Hinata giggles, "Gods, it's like this house is a club for strange people. The immortal cyborg, the magical catgirl, the literal werewolf, and the bipedal fox. Oh and whatever the hell I am."

Spider grumbles at Hinata. Spider is quiet for a minute "..I don't think I am, not yet at least."

Lochlan asks, "Sooo... why me and no other nonferal?"

Luna shrugs and notices Cole's expression change, "I'd be okay with other nonferals living here. And you know what I mean Cole. I didn't mean like that. I'm just comparing us to the regular people living in the city."

Cole sighs, "It's fine, not your fault."

Lochlan folds her arms again with a huff, "None of this sets right and I know it."

Hinata asks a bit nervously, "I don't understand. Are you getting a bad feeling from all of this?"

Luna adds, "I mean... it's nostalgic in the worst way possible at the very least."

Cole lies, "It's probably just because you're in a new place."

Lochlan tilts her head, "Why would a new place do that to someone? It's just another location"

Cole explains, "It's just because your brain doesn't recognize your surroundings and makes you feel slightly strange or on edge. Eventually, your brain will recognize your surroundings and you'll stop feeling strange or on edge."

Luna grumbles about something under her breath and types something into her laptop. She then shakes her head and puts the laptop away.

Lochlan gazes at the floor while processing "Oh... does it also cause the inner monologue about covering your face all the time?"

Cole continues to run with the lie, "Yup..."

Hinata asks in confusion, "...the-the what? Wh-- inner monologue about covering your face, the hell does that mean?"

Lochlan explains, "Like I can hear myself telling myself to get my face obscured like constantly. It's annoying- by the way where did that mask go?"

Cole closes his right eye, "No idea, probably got lost in the woods." Cole shifts how he's standing. A small part of Lochlan's mask peeks out from the opening of the jacket by mistake.

Lochlan's eyes glances up and locks onto the mask the instant it's in sight. In a split second she dashes at Cole.

Cole's right eye snaps open with a bright purple glow, as his other eye starts glowing purple a second later but he doesn't react in time to do anything about the dash.

Lochlan puts a hand out to snatch the mask and pulls it towards herself.

Luna watches, unsure what to do. Cole notices her grabbing the mask and aims a deterring chop to her throat with his hand.

Lochlan stumbles some as her free hand goes to her throat. She starts coughing

"Ugh whatever," Luna puts her laptop down and grabs the mask from Lochlan while she coughs. "Yoink."

Cole sighs as he shakes his head, "I really did not wanna chop her in the throat, probably best that you take it." The purple glow in Cole's eyes dim.

Lochlan puts both hands to her own throat as she drops to her knees, still coughing and gasping for air.

With the mask in Luna's hands, she puts it into a simple messenger bag with a space themed logo, "There we go, that should be secure."

Lochlan continues coughing.

Cole sighs, "She'll be fine, I didn't do it hard enough to destroy her windpipe or anything."

Luna nods and returns to the couch. She snaps a finger as the messenger bag disappears.

Lochlan is still struggling to breathe while holding her throat.

Luna looks worried, "Uhhhh Cole? Are you sure you watched your strength levels?"

Cole looks over at Luna, "Yeah, she's not gonna pass out or anything," Cole looks back over at Lochlan, "Should be recovering soonish."

Various breathing issue sounds come from Lochlan.

Luna waits while keeping an eye on the situation.

Cole taps his foot, waiting

Lochlan collapses on the ground.

Luna looks down and then back to Cole. "So much for she's not gonna pass out or anything."

"...Okay maybe I hit her a little tooo hard,"

Cole quickly crouches down and checks if her windpipe is still intact.

Luna adds, "A little..."

The moment Cole's hand is close Lochlan she bites into his hand.

"...or that was bait. God damn it Lochlan," Luna facepalms.

Cole winces as he slowly looks over at Lochlan, "Are you being fucking serious?"

Lochlan stays latched on and violently shakes her head.

Cole rips his hand out of her mouth without much care as he clenches his jaw and grits his teeth.

Lochlan goes to dash towards Luna.

Luna speaks as she stays in place, "Something up? I don't have the mask."

Cole watches Lochlan as he stands up. His hand is dripping blood from the wound.

Lochlan tries to grab Luna's wrist.

Luna lets it happen, "Dunno what you expect to accomplish with this move Lochlan." Luna even yawns. Cole is staring Lochlan down. Hinata watches in confusion.

Lochlan's grip is tight, "WHERE IS IT?!? WHERE DID YOU PUT IT?!?"

Luna smiles, "Don't worry about it."

Lochlan growls and yanks rather hard on Luna's arm, throwing her aside and off the sofa before letting go.

Luna groans in pain, "Fucking, I'm not giving you the mask Lochlan. You're never gonna find it."

Cole's eyes flicker to pink as he stares Lochlan down, "I highly suggest giving up, you wouldn't wanna fight Luna and if you continue this path you'll likely have to fight her."

Lochlan's pupils are slowly sharpening to slits as she's getting more outraged. She now shows more of her teeth as she growls back, "I DON'T BONKING CARE. I WANT THAT MASK BACK!!!"

Luna grumbles, "Bonkin? Really Lochlan? Also fucking hell you're a loud woman."

Lochlan snaps to glaring at Luna, "Give me. The mask." Lochlan draws a small pocket knife as she flicks open the blade.

Luna glares back, "Nah. Also that's a puny fuckin knife girlie. You wanna see a real blade?" Luna snaps her fingers as a broadsword appears in her hands. Its blade is made of amethyst and the hilt is made of silver, "Crystal construct."

Cole steps back as he sighs, "I told you so, Lochlan."

Lochlan snarls and runs towards Luna, she tries to swing the knife at her arm with a lot of speed.

Luna quickly steps back and away from the knife strikes, choosing not even to swing her sword. "Lochlan, I don't want to fight you. It's not worth the bloodshed. Or the fact that Cole is literally right there judging me."

Cole is doing anything but watching, he's too busy inspecting his hand wound and making sure no blood got on his clothes.

Lochlan hunches over slightly as she stifles a bit of uncontrolled laughter, "If you can't get me that mask I'll be shrouding my eyes with the skin of your face."

Luna cannot help but chuckle, "You're definitely gonna need some work on your one-liners." Luna does not pursue it yet.

Lochlan lunges at Luna but recklessly swings the blade at her.

"Oh for goodness sake Lochlan. No more." Luna attempts to knock the knife out of Lochlan's hands using the blunt edge of the broadsword.

The knife is knocked out of her hands but Lochlan immediately goes to bite the hand holding the sword.

The moment the bite lands, Luna pulls her hand back and goes to punch Lochlan's temple intending to knock her out, "Bitch."

Lochlan is hit but is not knocked out as she stumbles back. She leaps forward to tackle Luna in the gut.

Luna is caught off guard as she drops the sword, "Oh for fucks sake, why does it always work for Cole???"

Lochlan aims the same punch to Luna's head. Luna doesn't pass out from the hit either. Fun fact! It's not that easy to knock someone out in one hit without any severe damage beforehand unless you're not quite human.

Luna groans in pain, "Sucks to suck Lochlan." Lochlan puts her hands around Luna's throat. Luna guards her neck using her hands from Lochlan. "C-Cole?? Little help please?"

Cole looks up from staring at his hand, "Hm?" Cole's eyes lock onto Lochlan as he walks behind Lochlan and tries to put her into a headlock.

Lochlan is grabbed and Luna is freed. Lochlan starts trying to pull Cole's arm off of herself. She uses her back legs to kick up and claw at his arm.

Luna manages to get up from the ground and retrieves her sword, catching her breath in the process.

Cole only tightens his headlock as his arm is scratched and starts leaking a mixture of blood and coolant, "That stings you little fucker." Cole stumbles backwards slightly from the kicks.

Lochlan uses one arm to flail as if trying to grab at Luna who is out of reach. She growls with some difficulty as she's losing air for real this time, "S-everal feedba-ck loops-"

Lona calls out a command, "Dash run pylon loop!"

Cole maintains the headlock while making sure he isn't damaging her windpipe.

"Command- promp-ted, in range true-" Lochlan trails off as she loses consciousness.

Luna comments, "In range... true? That's different." Luna notes. Luna heads over to Cole, "Need any first aid?" The first aid kit appears in her hands.

Cole slowly puts Lochlan down and sighs, "I could just heal myself, i'd save it for when someone actually needs it." As Cole speaks his wound regenerates and closes up, leaving yet another scar on his hand.

Luna does first aid on herself. Her hand and forehead have bandages and plaster,

"Right..." She goes silent while sitting on the couch.

Cole leans on a wall near Lochlan, "....So now we wait." Cole then mutters to himself, "How the hell does this bitch know I'm gay..."

Luna looks upset about everything that happened. Cole remains leaning against a wall.

Luna speaks up, "By the way, you asked how Lochlan knew you were gay? She's connected to Datrs. You said you were slightly gay to Icarus like 4 days ago."

Cole groans, "Fuck."

Luna continues, "Yeah... and adding onto that, I fully believe she can read Datrs logs, hence how she knew about the elk."

Luna takes a deep breath, "She's not dumb. In fact, despite not knowing certain things, she's a lot smarter than we give her credit for. Definitely good at reasoning. Anyways, thanks for the assist Cole. Probably would've been strangled had you not stepped in. I'd rather not die again," She growls.

Cole smiles, "Not a problem, I'd rather not watch one of my friends get strangled in front of me."

Hinata now has a kettle corn bag as she speaks, "Aww I wanted to see Luna use elemental magic. Glad she's knocked out though!"

Lochlan groans some as she puts a hand to her face. Hinata glances at Lochlan as she groans.

Cole sighs as he mutters, "I hope she goes back to sleep."

Lochlan barely squints at the room. Her pupils are back to being rounded. She covers her face with both of her hands and sounds exhausted, "-Why does everything huurrtt."

Cole slowly looks over at Luna for an answer.

Luna groans in pain, "You went slightly berserk on Cole and I."

From sitting up, Lochlan slides onto her side, putting herself halfway behind the sofa as she grumbles.

Cole watches as he raises an eyebrow, "You going to sleep?"

Lochlan sounds muffled by her arms, "Yes."

Luna asks, "Want a blanket or a pillow? We have extra."

Lochlan responds, "No."

"Okay." Luna shrugs. "At least the feedback loop is done for now."

Cole leans his head back on the wall, "I should also sleep, lost a small amount of blood... and flesh."

"Same here. Night Cole, Lochlan." Luna walks out of the living room with Hinata.

Lochlan only replies with a short annoyed grunt.