Cole appears and snaps! A gas mask appears in his hands and he puts it on. He's outside Jovian Hall, in the distance he see the glow from a carnival on the shore and some boat docks. Cole looks at them, confused, and walks over. Eventually he comes up to a line of nonferals in front of a ticket booth. Cole shrugs and trys to look at the tickets, and it looks like this ticket booth is for paying an entry fee or giving money for more tickets. Cole gets in line with a 50 dollar bill in hand. Eventually he makes it to the front of the line, entry fee is 20 bucks. Cole hands them the 50 dollar bill, not caring. They hand back 30 bucks and let Cole enter. He does so, walking with slight fear. On entering, no one seems to be alone, always in groups of 2 or more. He only gets a few weird looks for the mask but not much else.
Cole shrugs and looks around for any loose tickets or games. He sees a few lost tickets on the ground near the edge of the docks. Cole picks them up and puts them in his jacket pocket.
"Finders keepers, losers weepers," Cole laughs.
"Hey, I saw those first," he hears a small voice behind him. Cole turns around to see who it is. It's a short red panda who barely comes up past Cole's knees, she wears a wrapping around her right arm and holds some tickets in her other hand, she has blue eyes that glare up at Cole. Cole looks very confused and looks at the tickets. Part of him wants to give them the tickets and part of him doesn't. She holds out a hand, expecting him to just hand them over, "Give!"
"Before I do that, what is your name?" Cole's voice is muffled from the mask.
"Whatsittoya!"
"What? I just wanna know your name," Cole crouches down, still very confused.
"Give me the tickets or get fucked! Please and thank you!"
Cole is shocked, "Such fucking languge!"
"You going to give the tickets or not?"
"Eh sure, do you need healing? You look hurt," Cole extends his hand and looks at the wrapping.
Lock pulls her hand away, "Excuse me Mr. Assumptions, I'm just fine, don't touch me!"
"Just take the fucking tickets you rapscallion," Cole is still looking at the wrapping.
"What's a rapscallion?" the wrappings seem neatly wrapped as if they've been there a long time and perfectly clean, she pauses looking at the ground.
"It's a person who causes mischief, and are you sure you're not hurt? I don't need to touch you to heal you?"
"I'm not hurt...wait, not have to touch me to heal me?...Are you...no can't be," she shakes her head.
"Shit I shouldn't have said that," Cole says.
"No, I can keep secrets well, um...are you Hadal?"
"No, I'm not Hadal"
"Then what are you if you can heal?" She examines Cole and leans slightly, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary.
"I'm, uh,, an SCP, for one," he says. She can notice a scar on both sides of his neck.
"What's an SCP?" she pauses again, looking down.
"It's an anomalous object or person that isn't from this reality or is abnormal in a dangerous way."
"What's an SCP Foundation?" she stays looking down.
"It's a foundation that supposedly 'secure contain protects' things."
She blinks and refocuses, looking up at Cole's mask, "What's your SCP number?"
"7454"
She squints at him in thought.
"I think it's fair I know your name now, if you wanna tell me, that is."
"Ok then, I'm Hemlock"
"I'm cole, are you sure you're not hurt? It would only take a moment"
"I'm not hurt"
Cole shrugs points his palm at Lock's arm, attempting to heal it. He receives a signal sending a message prompt, 'Property of Blair Whim, return immediately if lost'
Lock's eyes widen as she takes a step back and grabs her arm, "Ok, what are you really?"
"I'm really an SCP, why, what do you think I am?" Cole reads the prompt and notes it, remembering it just in case.
"You got a signal, I don't think any normal person can do that," Lock squints, still trying to look at his mask more.
Cole sighs, "Fine, I have a chip that enhances my... me. I guess you could call me a cyborg?"
"Wait really?!?" locks eyes light up as she walks a circle around him looking for anything abnormal.
Cole looks fairly normal, except for a scar on his left temple and cuts on the front of his knuckles, "I'm assuming I'm the first cyborg you've met?"
"I guess you could say the second," Lock tilts her head looking at his mask again, "So whats with the mask?"
"I'm still human, I don't wanna give people a loon episode."
"Oh...OH, you know Luna?"
"Yea, I do, I'm friends with them"
"That explains a lot then, so do you glitch often? Do you have internet access?" She tilts her head the other way.
"I do have internet access and the glitches don't happen unless they are forced."
"Can we friend eachother? Is that a thing? I dont know if thats a thing, it might be a thing?.." she trails off as she removes the wrapping from her arm. Underneath, there is what looks like a painfully tight watch with a small screen that she types on.
"I could add you to my messaging system!" Cole says.
"That would be great!...but I dont know if I could even do that. Can I do that? I can call police..No, that's not it..huh"
"Oh I can just type it in for you," Cole goes to grab their arm, and it falls off at the shoulder. It is extremely heavy.
"Really? I said don't fucking touch!"
Cole looks confused and shocked, "I, uh, can reattach it? I'm sorry I was just trying to help"
"Give me that!" Lock snatches the arm back as it sticks back in place, the fur making it seamless, "So is your face robotic? that would be cool," she squints, trying to see into the mask.
"No it's not robotic, sadly, the rest of my bones are metal. Also, do you mind if i take this mask off?"
Lock looks around to ensure no one is looking, "Uhhhh, you can take the mask off if we go below the deck, I go down there all the time," she walks to the edge of the deck and hops off, Cole can hear her landing in sand below. Cole shrugs and follows.
Under the deck is no one else and free from nonferal eyes. Lock says, "Ok, it's safe." Cole takes the mask off and Lock notices his eyes are a little off.
"Thank god, it was getting hard to breath," Cole says as Lock squints, looking at his eyes. She notices his eyes are like camera lenses!
"Your eyes are a bit uhhhh different?" She says, awkwardly.
"Hmm in what way?" Cole asks. Lock suddenly smiles.
"Huh," Lock shakes her head and stops smiling, "Are your eyes cameras?"
"Uhm, I guess? I never really thought of it like that."
"Hmm.." she pauses looking down, "Yeah looked close enough to a camera, made me smile"
"Sorry about that....do you wanna be added to my message system?"
"If you can, I don't know if I'm programmed to be able to do that but its worth a shot!"
"Alright, let me try one moment," Cole's eyes dart around Lock's face. Lock stays still, watching. Cole stops and smiles, "Done. You should have a private channel to message me in!"
She looks down in thought, and then looks back up with a smile!
"Well it works," Cole says.
"So what all isn't organic about you?" Lock asks.
"Well the chip for one, my metal bones second, and I can kinda control my organs I guess," Cole explains.
"That's interesting, well as far as I know it's just my arm and something in my nervous system, my personality is organic but not my current emotions. So why are you like this?"
"I'm this way as the result of my worlds government wanting me for wars and stuff."
"What is war?" she asks, looking down in thought.
"It's when people fight because they disagree politically and it results usually in the deaths of thousands," Cole sighs.
"Well that's uh...that's alot of images.." she nervously laughs, still looking down.
"Oh I wouldn't look at images of war."
She shakes her head and looks back up, "I hope you don't condone doing something like that."
"I don't, I was in one, it's horrible"
"Well I hope you can move on from it, well-" she glances down, "it's already 7:57 pm. Huh."
"Huh, time really flies doesn't it."
"How?"
"It's a metaphor," Cole smiles.
"Oh, my fault. I better get going before I get chewed out for being out this late," Lock says.
"Alright, I better get going too. Before someone gets worried," Cole laughs.
"See ya later," she climbs up the side of the dock back to the carnival. Cole waves and disappears.