Rowan enters

Cole's room is a pretty standard bedroom with a king size bed and a oak desk to do various activities at, it's pretty fucking boring

Cole wakes up from being collapsed on his floor and puts the carpet on his desk and pours water on it 

the brown substance seems to soak in a tiny bit of the water but not much of it

Cole adds more water with a heavy sigh

It doesn't seem to be soaking up anymore

Cole sighs as he tries to squeeze some out of the carpet

He gets a few drops out that are a dull red

Cole tries to waft some of the smell towards him

He gets the slightest sent of fruits but its very hard to detect

Cole seems to get frustrated as he snaps a glass of vingear into his hand and dumps it on the carpet as he mutters, "Fuck this, i'll just grab some in liquid form"

On dumping vinear on it, nothing seems to happen

Cole raises an eyebrow at it as his frustration turns to confusion as he tries to wring more out

He can only barely get a drop this time

Cole snaps another glass of vinegar as he adds a drop to one of the dull red drops

The drop mixes with the vinagear and dilutes it

Cole raises an eyebrow as he snaps a dropper into his hand and sucks the drop into it as he inspects the carpet closely

a few miniscule peices of the dried up parts are suspended in the vinagear but its nowhere near enough to matter.

Cole sighs as he shakes his head, "Completely worthless, i have no way of rehydrating this" Cole groans as he stuffs the dropper into his jacket while he stares at the carpet out of shear annoyance

Cole clambers out of his room

Theres a knock on the door

Luna zones back in with a grumble. "Oh for goodness sake." And then she gets up and answers the door. The door is open. "Hello!"

Rowan is standing on the porch and greets her with a smile, "Why hello! Mind if I step in? It's bitter cold out there."

"Yeah come on in!" Luna walks back to her laptop on the couch. "Please make yourself at home Rowan"

Cole regains his composure as he walks into the room, "Oh, didn't expect to see Rowan with this kind of weather outside"

Rowan shakes the snow off before steping inside. He glances over at Lochlan and Cole, "I take it those two showed up in one peice?

"Yeah, apparently Cole had some bullet wounds, but he's able to heal pretty well." Luna nods.

Cole nods as he sighs, "Other then the holes punched into me, both of us arrived in mint condition"

Rowan goes to sit on the sofa, "Man that walk was rough... So how'd you heal up so easily? I take it, it was all shots to the face then?"

Lochlan is remaining quiet while somewhat staring Rowan down

Luna shrugs, "something with his cyborgness. I'm not entirely sure myself."

Cole sighs somewhat disappointedly, "It wasn't either of those, i can heal myself based off of my relation to death and time but whatever" Cole pauses as he speaks again, "Not important though"

Rowan nods, "In the face. Got it. So how are you doing Lochlan?" Rowan looks over at Lochlan who stays dead quiet. Rowan nods again while looking away, "Yup. That hasn't changed."

Luna blinks at Rowan's response, then she says, "Changed? Like I'm still confused about how a lot of that works." She does a hand gesture to refer to their relationship

Cole looks at Rowan as he asks, "I'm more confused on what she meant by activities"

Rowan explains, "Me and Lochlan have known eachother forawhile now. And I'm guessing you mean the activities Lochlan was referring to last night?"

Cole nods as he folds his arms, waiting for the explanation

"Ah okay, but now I'm curious myself." Luna smiles

Rowan begins to explain, "Right so Lo-" Lochlan inturupts, "Objectives."

Rowan clears his throat and nods towards Lochlan, "Objectives. So Lochlan performed objectives for the cult back when me and her met."

"Objectives, like what?" asks Luna with genuine curiosity in her voice.

Cole gestures to Luna as he nods in agreement

Rowan continues, "Things like cleaning, fixing up software, food, or exercising."

Luna tilts her head to the side, "cleaning? exercising? Honestly some of these 'Objectives' sound rather ordinary, software fixing aside. What kind of cult is this?"

Cole glances at Lochlan to see if it's true

Lochlan is still blankly watching Rowan. Rowan continues, "Manipulative mainly. Though it does make things a bit more comfortable to persuade us all."

Cole nods along as he asks, "Anything else that you two might know about?"

"Like a name of this cult for example? Or whatever that fruity stuff is?" Luna adds

Rowan gets up and stretches, "ANNNYWAYS I better head out before the sun starts goin down. Wouldn't wanna catch any frost bite."

"Of fucking course." Luna grumbles

Cole groans as he shakes his head, "And what if i could give you incentive to say what that is"

Rowan walks towards the door, "I should really get goin. I'm glad you two made it home safely."

Cole sighs as he remarks, "Fine, i won't give you acess to my chemical research that could launch your world into a new age"

"Wait what? I was just gonna offer Rowan $100." Luna's offer feels a lot less powerful.

Rowan scoffs, "Nice attempt." Rowan goes to open the door

"You underestimate Cole's ingenuity. Plus the man has so many cool weapons that would make your head spin. You could probably take down that cult honestly." l

The door locks on it's own as Cole says again, "Look, if you don't wanna take my offer that's fine but that just means someone else will end up getting access to knowledge that most people would kill for" Cole folds his arms as he continues, "And that might just go to the government, i mean who else would pay top dollar for chemical research that could rival Fritz Haber"

"And he's offering all of that for free. Just need some information ya know? We want to try and understand what's going on in your neck of the woods." Luna pleads.

Rowan shakes the handle a bit and sighs, "You guys are basically offering money to a dog and expecting it to be happy. Power isn't exactly my poison."

Cole rolls his eyes as he remarks, "Then what? Connections? Wealth? I don't have much to offer in either of those fields but i could make something work"

"Okay, then what would you trade us for? All I personally want is knowledge. Knowing stuff is super important to me." Luna smiles.

"My wants aren't exactly acheivable either..." Rowan grumbles some under his breath as he folds his arms.

Cole's head tilts slightly as he asks, "Well would you want to tell us? I may be morally grey but i'm not gonna keep you here if you don't wanna talk"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna let Cole entrap you here. But for shits and giggles, what exactly would you want? Just color me curious?" Luna's watching over the scene as a whole, glancing over at Lochlan at points while keeping attention on Rowan.

"You're colored a little more nosey than curious if you ask me. And it's personal to begin with." Rowan tries the door again before huffing and refolding his arms. 

Luna rolls her eyes and huffs.

Cole shrugs, "You wanna leave then?" The door unlocks as he gestures to the door, "Be my guest"

Luna sighs, "it's whatever dude, safe travels out there Rowan."

Rowan gives a wave, "Just don't kidnap me this time." Rowan opens the door and walks out. He closes the door behind himself

Luna groans and closes her eyes. "This shit's hopeless. I dunno how you can keep going Cole."

Cole shrugs as he remarks, "It's actually simple, you just gott-"

Suddenly there's a loud and sharp pop from the hall. Lochlan flinches, ducks, and covers her ears.

"What the FUCK was that???" Luna's ears are flattened against her skull and she seems to be grunting in pain from the loud noise. "Owwwwwww the one time I don't muffle my hearing."

Cole blinks as he looks towards the hallway, "Good question"

Lochlan stays quiet

Luna gets up. "Let's go investigate I guess. Definitely a bit more nostalgic for these kinds of happenings." Her ears are still flattened, but she looks prepared anyway.

There's anpther loud noise of something falling over and hitting the ground.

Lochlan sneaks behind the sofa

Cole walks into the hallway as he groans, "Always with the loud noises god damn bitch"

Luna grunts once more as a blob of purple sparkly energy covers her cat ears. "Fucking hell, I'm not used to this." Then she follows Cole.

On entering his room he sees the simple oak desk is now a few feet up in the air. From under the desk a large tree limb as grown out of it and pushed it up off its own legs. The tree limb looks natural with no leaves and a few patches of bark. Since it's lefted the rest of the desk up unevenly, anything on the desk as been sliding off and falling on the ground. Other than this strange extra limb, the desk looks normal.

Cole stares at his "desk" as he remarks, "it appears to have done something to my desk"

Luna doesn't really have a response for this other than a simple, "yeah"

The peice of carpet slides off the desk and hits the ground. It looks bright red and damp.

Cole tries to sneakily grab the piece of carpet

Luna looks over at Cole, realizing he never responded. "Uhhhh Cole? What are you doing?"

The desk looks to not be moving. Theres a strong scent of fruits coming from the carpet

Luna sniffs the air, "why does it smell like a gay nightclub in here. Sooooooo fruity. Too fruity."

Luna sniffs once more and pauses to think something over, "Fruit punch? No wonder Icarus liked it. Smells pretty good. But wait, why would it be fruit punch? Cole, what did you use to moisten the carpet?"

Cole shrugs as he responds, "A nice smelling carpet shampoo?"

Luna groans, "oh come on, just be honest. I want to help but my knowledge on current timeline nonferals is really limited. Not to mention, carpet shampoo usually cleans carpet yet that's blood red. I could make some assumptions on what you used, but I don't wanna make an ass out of myself."

Lochlan sneaks in and looks around, "Everything good?"

Luna looks at the desk and back to Lochlan and then back to the desk. "Yeah totally. Just a tree sprouting from an ordinary wooden desk. I would call this abnormal, but with how we attract chaos, I'm unsurprised." 

Cole unsheathes his knife as the blade changes into a machete and starts hacking at the tree limb

It's just as easy to chop away at as a regular tree limb

"So yeah, that's a thing happening right now. Now i'm questioning why the sedatives are fruit punch?" Luna points at the seemingly bloody carpet tile, "And also why it's blood."

Cole shrugs as he continues chopping at it, "No idea, if i had an answer i'd give one"

"I mean, Icarus did mention that the fruit punch flavor was long lasting, something he could taste still. That could mean whatever it was stuck to his mouth, like a residue of some kind." Luna reasons out. "Also want some help cutting that down?"

the branch is cut from the desk as the desk falls on Cole

Cole groans as as he snaps the piece of carpet into a zip lock bag then pushes the desk off of him, "Got it, i chopped it down...."

Luna grimaces when the desk falls, "Oof, you okay Cole?"

Cole nods as he stands up and dusts himself off, "Yeah, i'm good" Cole pushes the desk into being upright again with a huff 

"That's good. Though," Luna takes a few moments to think some things over, "the fact that your natural wooden desk sprouted a tree is making my brain itch in a good way. I assume it's natural wood anyway. Looks like it. Anyway, I'm headed to bed." Luna walks out.