Harlan Perkins

**Harlan Perkins** is a character in The Smoke Room. He is the bartender at Saguaro's Hip and a longtime friend of its proprietor Madam Dora. He is a fixture in the Hip's bar and is a familiar face to Samuel, Cynthia, and the other workers at the brothel.

## Appearance

Harlan is an old hare with a coat of gray fur and dark brown eyes. He wears a button-up shirt and a blue bowtie-like accessory on his neck. He also wears a beige apron over his uniform and a pair of round glasses.

According to Samuel, he speaks in a flat manner and always looks angry.

## Personality

Despite his severe nature, Harlan is cordial with customers. His left ear flicks whenever he senses trouble in the Hip's lounge, and he is committed to keeping things orderly and civil.

Revelations about Harlan that gradually come to light in William and Murdoch's routes indicate he may be hiding a dark fascination with the occult, and that he may know much more about the strange events unfolding in Echo than he lets on.

## Story

### Before The Smoke Room

Not much is known about Harlan's early life, except that for many years he traveled with Madam Dora and performed magic tricks on stage as a mentalist. At some point, he became a capable bartender.

### Prologue

After Dora orders Samuel to socialize more while recovering from his head wound, he ventures into the Saguaro's Hip saloon. Harlan serves him a drink and complains that the Hip is over peak capacity. Clifford Tibbits then arrives, causing Harlan's ear to begin twitching, and Harlan serves him a beer. After Cliff lets slip his reasons for coming to the Hip, Harlan sharply discourages further talk of the topic in broad daylight by saying the saloon doesn't offer male options for prostitutes.

Cliff fails to take the hint, which results in two patrons, Reed and Huxley, taking offense at his words and asking to "talk" with him outside. Harlan encourages this, not wanting any trouble inside the building. Sam follows them to make sure Cliff isn't beaten too badly, although Harlan advises him not to risk any more injuries.

Shortly after, William arrives at the Hip to question Dora and the prostitutes, and Harlan instructs Cynthia to escort him to the powder room.

### William's Route

Harlan makes a brief appearance stoically serving tea to Gretchen Byrnes in the powder room while she interrogates Sam about an incident the previous night that left her son Murdoch with a gunshot wound.

When Sam comes to the Hip in search of William, who is upstairs arguing with his ex-wife Hattie, Harlan lies and says he hasn't seen the sheriff come through the saloon. Sam hears Will shouting and realizes this is a lie, but Harlan warns him not to interrupt them. Will comes downstairs and leaves in a huff moments later, and Harlan watches as he goes.

Later in the route, Cynthia and several of the other prostitutes find a large trunk full of parlor tricks and decide to perform one, a levitation game, in the powder room. During the ritual, Sam witnesses a skeletal bull descend from the ceiling and loses consciousness. He awakens to Harlan demanding to know what was going on and where the trunk came from. Harlan offers to examine the contents of the trunk, which Dora claims to have never seen before, but Cynthia looks through it first at Dora's suggestion. She finds a hidden compartment containing a braid of kit fox fur and several of her deceased mother's necklaces, and leaves the room shocked and upset.

After Sam stands up and nearly collapses again, Harlan catches him and escorts him back to his room. Sam gets up in the middle of the night and wanders back into the powder room, where he overhears Harlan talking with Dora in her office; Dora notices him but Harlan does not. Harlan seems to be urging Dora to reconsider her life in Echo as they both grow older, and to move with him instead to a more glamorous city where he believes her talent belongs. He is deeply nostalgic for their adventurous younger years spent as traveling performers, but Dora feels differently and is happy at the Hip.

Dora takes out a small "twenty year old" picture that was discovered in the trunk, and when Harlan sees it he becomes immediately frantic and possessive, grabbing it from her and holding it to his chest. Dora accuses him of being the chest's owner, and Harlan confesses. He resists when Dora orders him to get rid of the trunk and its contents, but is made to comply under the threat of being fired from the Hip.

If Harlan subsequently catches Sam listening he is infuriated, both by Sam's presence and Dora's nonchalance about his eavesdropping, and he storms off after Dora calls him untrustworthy. Afterward, Sam asks why Dora doesn't simply fire Harlan outright, and she says he is an old friend with a useful skill at bartending who likely needs money, and she cannot bear to make him homeless at his age.

If William later interviews him during the investigation, Harlan is initially indignant and evasive, but readily takes the opportunity to speak ill of James Hendricks. Depending on whether Will has already learned about James and Harlan's disagreements from Dimitri, the sheriff may find it very compelling that Harlan has both a simmering grudge against James and easy access to all the information that flows through the Hip.

As Will's investigation progresses, a series of notes possibly penned by Harlan become important. The first of these is found in the wastebasket of James Hendricks' office, and may implicate Harlan to some degree in the recent relocation of William's ex-wife Hattie to Echo. The note includes reference to Hattie's address and says she is in need of employment, and asks James to consider hiring her as "a favor."

Depending on the choices Will has made throughout the route, Cynthia may then provide one of two additional notes with matching handwriting. If Will spoke to Porter and then Ethel, thus confirming that Ethel is a mole for James, then Cynthia will share a note asking Ethel for help fetching scotch that evening because her board is overdue. If Will learned about the quarrel between Harlan and James from Dimitri and then Harlan himself, then Cynthia will share a note that Harlan has written for Dora in a more ornate script, in which he promises her that he has wonderful things to show her if she would only let him do so again. This note is currently the only one explicitly attributed to Harlan, but its appearance may indicate that the others are connected to him as well.

### Nikolai's Route

Sam runs into Harlan and Dora at the Hip just after Dora has finished performing in honor of her 60th birthday. Harlan calls Dora's singing magnificent and seems thrilled that she is onstage again, and Sam observes that he looks at her like she is his world.

Dora dispatches Harlan to the bar so he can capitalize on the crowd her recital has drawn. Afterward, when Sam mentions to Cordelia that he is interested in learning more about the paranormal, Dora remarks that Harlan 'takes stock in such things.'

### Murdoch's Route

At one point, Cynthia mentions that Dora is looking for a replacement mixologist because Harlan has recently been taking too many days off.

Harlan is mentioned working the bar on the night of Jim's bachelor party, which is held at the Hip. The place is packed, and Harlan skillfully manages drink orders from the large crowd.

## Relationships

### Madam Dora

Harlan and Dora are old friends, and spent many years together touring the country as performers in a traveling troupe. Whether the two had a romantic past is unclear, but Harlan appears to idolize Dora. He thinks Dora is beautiful despite her age, and considers her too glamorous for a town like Echo. Harlan also misses their life before the two settled down and longs to return to a big city. During William's route, Dora informs Harlan she doesn't share this sentiment and is fulfilled taking care of the Hip, much to his disappointment.

After Harlan's trunk is discovered, his relationship with Dora becomes much more strained.

### Samuel Ayers

Sam mentions that Harlan's 'trouble-sensing' ear only stopped flicking around him a few months prior to the events of the story, indicating that Harlan took some time to warm up to Sam's presence, but the two seem to be on good professional terms.

Harlan discourages Sam from working shifts as a server in the Hip's saloon like many of the other prostitutes do, considering him 'too big' to be running in and out of the kitchen.

### James Hendricks III

James Hendricks is a frequent patron of the Hip but he and Harlan dislike each other, and the two routinely get into disagreements.

During Will's route, Harlan may reveal that he considers James someone who 'makes problems for better men' by encouraging too many impractical people to move to Echo.

## Trivia

* While extolling Dora's singing during Nikolai's route, Harlan mentions W. C. Handy, presumably as a reference to the company he and Dora used to keep when they were performers. W. C. Handy was a real-life composer and musician who is credited with bringing regional American blues music to the cultural mainstream during the early 20th century.