November 4, 2022

Lock walks into the living room somewhat hesitantly.

"Oh hey Lock." Luna waves.

Cole groggily wakes up and looks over at Lock. She is looking down with her hands in her hoodie pockets, "So uh...I'm sorry about all that."

"It's fine, do you need me to repair your arm?" Cole sits up as he cracks his neck.

"If you can, that would be great," Lock takes her hands out of her pockets. She turns her right arm unnaturally before taking her arm off and pulling it out through the sleeve.

Cole extends a hand for the arm, "I'm sure I can, I doubt it's as hard as working on myself,"

Cole chuckles.

Lock hands over the arm. Cole inspects it for an access panel as he snaps a small bag of tools into his lap. There is a panel on the part of the arm that rests where Lock's real arm would start. Cole looks for screws on the panel before trying to remove it. The panel is removed with 4 screws and the arm can be pried open. Cole takes a small prying tool out of the bag and starts prying it open. The whole arm divides in half. One half is just a shell with the dent while the other half has all of the mechanisms for moving the arm and a small device for programming. Cole puts the prying tool back and grabs a small hammer and starts hammering out the dent while inspecting the mechanisms for damage. One of the metal beams for Lock's knuckles is knocked out of socket and the wires connected to it are somewhat tangled. Cole finishes knocking out the dent and puts the small hammer in the bag and disconnects the wires. Cole untangles the wires and tries to move the knuckle back into its socket, gently. It pops into place. 

Cole reconnects the wires and puppets the mechanisms to flip Lock off with a giggle. As soon as the hand makes the gesture the entire arm makes a controlled shock. Cole is caught off guard and drops the arm as he makes a small shriek then quickly covers his mouth with his hand. Luna chuckles.

"-don't flip o...nevermind,” Lock doesn’t respond in time.

"we are not talking about that," Cole checks for any more damage on the arm. On further inspection some of the arm is faintly blood stained.

"...." Cole says nothing and grabs an alcohol wipe and cleans the blood stain off. It's a bit tough to get out but it is cleaned. Cole snaps the wipe away and puts the arm back together and extends the arm to Lock, "all fixed."

"Thank you" Lock takes the arm. She moves the hoodie off her shoulder and twists the arm back on. She wiggles her fingers and rolls her wrist before putting the hoodie fully back on.

"not a problem, do you need anything else?" Cole snaps the bag away and smiles.

"Oh good, she's back and looking better than ever," Luna smiles as well, still sitting on the couch.

"I want to chug your jugular," Lock sits down by the wall.

"Please don't," Cole sighs.

Lock does finger guns as she winks "Chugular jugular~"

"Pretty sure 'chug jug' refers to something in fork night, not being a vampire," Luna sighs.

"....i...don't know how to respond to that," Cole points at Lock.

"The word chug isn't trademarked by fork night," Lock adds.

"Um..." Luna blinks slowly. She tries to find a way to refute that but fails, "Yeah."

Cole giggles as he mutters, "luna has been bested by a child."

"Hey now, I'm an adult by golly," Lock speaks up.

"....why did you sa- never mind," Cole shakes his head.

"Wait you're 18 now?" Luna asks.

Spider who has been sitting nearby zones back in and looks over at Lock "Yeah pull the other one kid."

Cole looks over spider with a fucking puzzled look, "What?"

Luna just stares at Spider. She doesn't understand British...

"Yea- huh?" Lock stares at Spider as well.

Spider sighs, "Translation, I don't believe you."

"....then just say that?!" Cole shakes her head slightly.

"Well it's November meaning I'm 18 now so-" Lock sticks out her tongue at Spider.

"Aww shit, you can say slurs now!" Luna mentions.

"God I hate this place sometimes," Spider mutters only half joking, "Luna can we not teach her slurs just yet?"

Cole looks over at Lock "that is a horri-" Cole's eyes fill with tears slightly then quickly wipes them away.

Lock snickers some before watching Cole "..heh...you ok?"

"i'm good, i'm good," Cole nods and waves his hand dismissively. Lock tilts her head some.

"Everything alright Cole?" Luna asks.

"I'm fine, it's nothing," Cole chuckles as he sighs and leans his head against the wall.

"Sure," Spider shrugs. Lock squints at Cole.

"Right. So erm, I guess I-- we should say..." Luna turns to Lock, "Happy birthday Lock!"

"Should we?" Spider chuckles.

Lock nearly jumps out of her skin as she falls over on her side in overdone sudden surprise.

"are you good?" Cole chuckles as he looks over at Lock with a smile.

"Uhhh..." Luna pauses.

Lock stays laying on the ground as she puts a hand to her heart, "Surprise birthday party setting-" She says a bit out of breath.

Luna raises an eyebrow, "Man, Blair had plans for everything..."

"I really hate Blair," Cole grumbles as he makes the angry grabbing hands, "I wanna crush them into a small ball and play dodgeball with it."

"I know right! Just like-" Lock copies the angry hands.

Cole starts making angry vocal stimming sounds while doing the angry hands. Lock is trying to make a small metaphorical ball of hatred with angry hands as she copies the sounds as well. Cole starts making tearing motions while making the noises.

Spider sighs before saying sarcastically, "Well this is riveting."

Cole turns to Spider and makes a loud angry noise while doing the angry hands. Lock makes tiny snarls as she continues the sphere of hate. Spider winces slightly and flips him off. Cole giggles and turns back to Lock and points at Lock, "Autism."

Lock stops "What? No, I don't have that."

Spider chuckles.

"Bullshit you don't!" Cole chuckles.

"Join the club Lock, though I do agree with Cole," Spider nods.

"wow, you finally agreeing with me on something," Cole chuckles as he turns back to Spider.

"I know, Really a day for the history books eh?" Spider jokes.

"Kaz said the Pete company made autism by drinking milk. I don't drink milk," Lock mentions.

"And that is a load of bollocks," Spider corrects.

Luna just slowly turns her head to Lock out of whatever the hell she just said.

Cole looks over at Lock and blinks, "What?"

"Kaz saw it on a billboard,” Lock shrugs, "Told me to stop drinking milk."

"I wouldn't worry about Pete. They're a bunch of twats that don't know what they're talking about," Luna is correct.

"...Wait...wait...I've never drank milk," Cole is genuinely thinking while looking at the floor.

"Seriously Cole?" Spider raises an eyebrow.

"What about nut milk?" Lock asks. Spider chuckles at Lock.

"I like almond milk," Luna mentions before second guessing what Lock meant, "Oh wait…"

Cole stops thinking, "how am I autistic if I've never drank milk..."

"because it's bullshit mate" Spider shakes her head.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?!" Cole huffs and crosses his arms.

"I'm still not drinking milk," Lock adds.

"it's called common sense," Spider says.

"I mean Pete is notorious for making baseless claims about things to stop people from eating meat," Luna mentions.

"Yeah? well I have something called a gun and no self preservation!" Cole turns to look at Spider and smiles.

"What's preservation?" Lock asks.

"You clearly have no brains either," Spider chuckles.

"I have a computer chip in my brain so it's better than yours," Cole snickers at Spider.

"I Have one of those!!!" Lock looks over at Cole.

Cole turns to look at Lock with a wide smile "Oh my god! Bestie!" Lock grins back.

"Alright Ari," Spider grins.

"I wish my brain was a computer," Luna sighs.

"I'm not a whore!" Cole turns to Spider, "I'm also not a snake but! you know what I mean!"

"You have two partners, so are you really sure about not being a whore part?" Spider asks.

"Well Isaac is a.....one of those" Cole whispers the last part.

"Isaac is autistic?" Lock asks.

"Isaac's a-" Luna pauses.

Cole turns to Lock and shrugs, "well maybe, I mean he's able to deal with my rambling about ww2 ships."

"that poor bloke,” Spider mutters.

"What's wha wha 2?" Lock asks.

"World war two," Cole responds.

"Silly, wars don't exist," Lock snickers as she shakes her head.

"....." Cole stares at Lock with the face of "are you sure about that?"

Lock looks back with a face of "Yes I am sure about that."

"I swear I've heard that phrase before,” Luna thinks out loud, "Do wars just not exist on Nonferal Earth?"

Lock shrugs, "Wars just don't exist."

"...what do you mean by 'wars don't exist'?" Luna asks.

"Exactly that, they don't exist," Lock nods.

Cole rolls his sleeves up to reveal a pretty abnormal amount of scars for a normal human, "Then explain these, Lock"

"The fact that she's from a different world should explain it," Spider sighs.

"I swear I've heard that phrase a few times," Luna is stuck thinking about it as she checks her notes, "Oh right, Thingtaker claimed that in a conversation with Barrett."

Lock giggles some as she looks over at the floor in thought.

Cole rolls his sleeves back down, "I don't find that funny but alright I guess," Cole mutters.

"What's so funny Lock?" Luna asks kinda sweetly, but the tone still has a little concern.

Lock snaps out of it and looks over "Hm? What?"

"Uhh nothing I guess. We were on the topic of wars not existing and it seemed to trigger something," Luna explains.

"Pffft I don't have triggers," Lock swats dismissively.

Cole grumbles and crosses his arms, "Lucky."

"Could be worse, you could be hilariously weak to anything regarding hypnosis or really really obnoxiously loud sounds. Why am I saying this out loud?" Luna says.

"Weak to hypnosis? You mean gullible?" Lock asks.

"the intrusive thoughts..." Cole mumbles.

Luna takes a deep breath, "It's a bit more innate than that. I don't really have the details, but it's like I was--" She puts her hands on her hand and grunts in pain, "Nevermind, I won't talk about it sorry"

"Either you have a chip bag in your brain too or you're gullible to headaches," Lock nods.

Luna has a couple tears in her eyes and she shakes her head, "Don't worry about it," Lunasays flatly.

"Lock is the chip in your brain also an intel core i7," Cole looks over at Lock.

"My chip bag is 90 percent air," Lock smiles at Cole.

"...do you have a graphics card?" Cole asks.

"You mean the rainbow shiny monster cards?" Lock tilts her head.

"ooo monster cards? I got those," Luna mentions.

"That's not what I'm talking about but alright go off pussy boss queen," Cole shrugs.

Spider disappears.

"I guess the word pussy is Spider's trigger," Luna giggles.

"Welp Spider is dead," Lock stares where Spider was. Luna nods.

"Lock, can you download avast antivirus and run it?" Cole looks over at Lock.

"Avast ye mateys?" Lock’s eyes light up some.

"...just download it," Cole sighs.

"Please Lock," Luna adds.

"I love pirates" Lock smiles as she stares into nothing.

"Speaking of that, let me just..." Cole stares forward.

"Um. I'm guessing this is normal?" Luna looks at both of them.

"I'm thinking about pirates," Lock smiles.

"Ah," Luna said quietly.

"Hmm?" Cole stops staring forward.

"Used to know this jolly group of pirates some time ago. They were really chill until the guy's girlfriend or something came back to run the ship and then everything went to hell,” Luna rambles, "Who knew female leadership was problematic?"

"what the fuck are we talking about?" Cole shakes his head.

"Yar har," Lock giggles some.

"Pirates that say "arg" and whatnot," Luna shrugs.

"...interesting," Cole looks down at Isaac who is sleeping, "I wonder if he thinks about the power of a 105 millimeter howitzer cannon."

"I have no idea. Anyway, I'm heading out. Good night you three,” Luna walks out.

"Goodnight," Lock waves.

"I'm gonna go to sleep too, night Lock," Cole waves to Lock as he lays down on the floor next to Lock.

"Ok goodnight" Lock stares at his jugular vein when he's laying down. Cole has his eyes open and stares at Lock. He seems to fall asleep but Lock can't tell for sure. Lock mutters her breath "That jugular be lookin mighty tubular..." Lock takes a deep breath as she looks away.

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