“Alright, Hawke, go look in my desk, I need to find blueprints for the grabby arm we need,” Harley said. Botley would need a specialized limb to prevent today’s particularly hard-to-reach apocalypse, and Harley had to build one fast. While the other loopers gathered supplies and tools from around Harley’s disorganized room, Hawke searched the equally disorganized drawers. He found what he was looking for, and something else too.

“Harley, what is this?”

He held the blueprint in one hand and a conspicuously well-drawn cartoon of Harley as some kind of dog-human hybrid in the other. Harley snatched the blueprints away and barely noticed the cartoon as she headed for her workshop desk.

“Is this like a memento? Did you get turned into a weird dog person on some other loop?”

“I actually did, but it was not that cute,” Harley said. “It was honestly kind of horrific, would not recommend.”

“Okay, so what is this, then?”

“That’s my fursona.”

“I am probably going to regret this, but what is a fursona?’

“It’s just a cute drawing of me as a Shih Tzu,” Harley said. “Do you not know what a furry is?”

“I definitely don’t,” Hawke said.

“Oh good, we get to sit through this again,” Vell said, glancing sidelong at Lee.

“I’ve streamlined my explanation since last year, Vell, it’s not going to take thirty minutes this time,” Harley said. “Basically it’s just people who enjoy anthropomorphized animal artwork of various kinds. For some people it’s a lifestyle, for some people it’s a sex thing, and for some people, like me, it’s just a bunch of cute art.”

“What?”

Harley stopped assembling the robotic limb long enough to point a soldering iron in Hawke’s direction.

“Look, I don’t have time to sum up decades of internet subculture for you,” Harley said. “Just google it. With safesearch on. There’s a very small percentage who get weird about it, but they get really fucking weird.”

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Kim stopped herself from doing a brain search just in time to avoid seeing some really weird shit. Harley returned to her work, talking as she did so. Ranting actually helped her focus.

“Anyway, I’m a Shih Tzu because I’m small yet adorable, playful, and friendly. Easy.”

“Oh. Okay. So hypothetically, I’d be like a squirrel, or something, because I’m skittish,” Hawke said.

“I was going to say a horse, because you’re also big and sturdy, but squirrels are cute,” Harley said. “We can go with a squirrel.”

“You were ‘going to say’?” Kim said, raising an eyebrow. “Do you have one of those ready to go for everyone?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Harley said. “Vell’s a maned wolf.”

“Awkwardly long-legged, yet focused, skilled, and fluffy,” Vell said flatly.

“I am apparently a snowy owl,” Lee said, with much more enthusiasm. “Dignified and wise, with sharp talons, yet fluffy.”

“Being fluffy is a defining trait for both of you?” Kim said.

“I have very huggable friends,” Harley snapped. “Anyway, Kim, do you want a fursona? We gave Hawke one, I don’t want you to be left out.”

“I’ll get back to you on that,” Kim said. “I’m not even sure how well I identify with humans yet, I don’t need to start trying to identify with animals.”

“Understandable, let me know if you change your mind!”

----------------------------------------

“Harley! I changed my mind!”

Harley didn’t mind her door being knocked open -that seemed to happen quite frequently- but she had no clue what Kim was talking about.

“Changed your mind about what, Kim?”

“The furry thing.”

“The what- oh, that,” Harley said. “Sorry, it’s been a whole week.”

“Oh, right, sorry,” Kim said. “I remember literally everything in perfect detail at all times so sometimes I access a memory and it feels like it happened more recently than it did.”

“That’s deeply concerning, but let’s focus on the solvable problem,” Harley said. “What’s this about a fursona?”

“I’m a pallas cat,” Kim said confidently. “Solitary, isolated, rarely seen, but very fluffy.”

“Is being fluffy important to you?”

“Yes.”

“Is this your way of telling me you want a hug?”

Kim calculated that in her head for a few seconds.

“Probably not,” Kim said. “I still don't like to be touched.”

“When was the last time you tried?”

“I have no idea,” Kim said. She’d replayed the memories enough times to be slightly confused. Harley held her arms wide.

“Want to give it a go? Just for the sake of science?”

After eight seconds of deliberation, which was a long time for someone with a supercomputer for a brain, Kim stepped forward and awkwardly grabbed Harley, then immediately let her go and stepped back.

“Nope, no, still bad,” Kim said. Harley nodded in understanding.

“Well, at least we made some kind of progress,” Harley said. “You want some art of your new catgirl? There’s always furries open for commission somewhere.”

“I’m good, thank you,” Kim said. “This was just...a fun thought experiment.”

“Don’t do dramatic pauses around me, please.”

“Sorry.”