Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The human, Reggie was running out of time. The Nekomata, Claire glared at him, for getting them into this mess. It felt like the whole universe stared at him, and the giant Draconis know only as RATTLESCALE stared him down. The dragon was bright green, almost four blocks tall, not even counting the horns. He had tried, failed, tried again and failed again, but he accepted his doom and lowered his head, even as it seemed even his best of friends Claire was going to turn on him. The Draconis took one last, doombringing breath, and spoke.
"Are you certain. Absolutely CERTAIN. That you have achieved NOTHING of value for your science project?" Rattlescale asked, looking a mix of mad and disappointed.
"I just- I can't focus, I try to work on it, and-"
Rattlescale sighed, and raised his hand. "I don't want to be mean about this, Rolander, I really don't- I gave you and Claire this project together hoping you could HELP each other focus, complete a better project than separate! Why haven't you done any work?"
Reggie groaned. "I- I have homework for other classes, family dinner, homework for my OTHER classes- It just got lost in the mix!"
Claire growled. "You said you'd handle it man! I've been sitting here waiting for something from you to build on!"
Rattlescale cleared his throat. "Ahem! Snapping at eachother accomplishes nothing. Now, look- I don't want to see some rushed baking-soda volcano, not unless you have something quite impressive to go along with it. But, if you can turn in SOMETHING, show you're at least putting in some effort, then- Well, I fully understand that the both of you do have difficulties with your focus, you have my sympathies. I am willing to be more forgiving with my grading, as long as you turn in something."
"Yes, professor Rattlescale..." The two children said, leaving the office. Reggie groaned, pulling his hoodie tighter around himself. "Ugh... I hate having to go into that office, he always just LOOMS over us..."
Claire hissed a bit, glaring at him. "We need to work on this! WE! NEED! IDEAS! I am GOING to come to your house after school today and we ARE NOT SLEEPING until we have got an idea down!"
The Nekomata stormed off, grumbling under her breath. Reggie groaned- The school day wasn't even halfway over and he just- Had THIS dropped on him! Augh! His life was over, Claire was going to hate him forever. He groaned, heading to biology class. The teacher, doctor Vigostien, was rapidly rattling off about Construct shell... Something- God, he was here LATE. He started taking notes, as fast as he could. "And so you see, It's not just some magic process that moves the consumed materials to form the outer shell- Well, it is magic, but- Still, the molten channels lead all across the body, criss-crossing it like an entire secondary circulatory system! One system moving vital fluids to keep the body alive, the other moving materials to protect it from threats!"
Vigostien was nice. Reggies main actual favorite teacher, although that might be the subject? But still, the guy could rattle away at any topic and it was just the right speed for Reggie to soak it up like a SPONGE. By the end of class, he'd gotten at least three pages worth of notes down- Plenty of ideas, even a few sketches of designs. He nodded. He. Was. Ready. He put it gently in his backpack, got his hoodie on nice and tight, and left right when the bell rang.
Claire met up with him about a second into the walk to the schools exit for the day. "I swear- Three weeks! Three weeks in advance to make this, and you just, DON'T!"
Reggie groaned. "Rattlescale literally said you were supposed to help keep me on task!"
Claire shook her head. "Fine-whatever- Just- Augh! This is big! We could use this to get into a fancy college!"
Reggie paused. "... Right, RIGHT, OH GODS THE SCALECLAW GRANT!" That was why the whole science fair was so important at all! The three biggest Draconis families in the region, Rattlescale, Flameclaw, and Icefang, they were all pooling their funds for some big grant!
"I- Uh- Come on let's just run to my house!" He said, grabbing Claire and just running. It was raining outside, pouring even, Claire hissing and half trying to hide under Reggies backpack.
"SURPRISE WATER IS NOT FUN!" She yelped. Reggie reached for his backpack, rifling through it.
"I- Uh- Umbrella, umbrella-" And then he tripped. And his entire backpack spilled open. Including his notebook, into a creek. "... that had all of my project ideas in it." Reggie said, as Claire just pulled out the umbrella, finally, and flicked it on.
"I- What?"
"I had... So many ideas, from Doctor Vigostiens class, for like, something on construct biology, and all those plans are literally in the creek now!"
Claire just stared. "... So what do we do?"
"Pray? There's probably at least one god that might help, maybe."
Reggie was holding a lightbulb. He wasn't sure why, but apparently, one of the local-ish gods was properly contacted this way? Reggie sighed. "Are you sure this will work? It feels more like some weird ritual to summon a Feond than anything holy."
Claire shook her head. "Trust me, It'll work! My cousin's mom is a follower of the guy."
Reggie shrugged. Gods will be gods, he supposed. "Oh, inspired light of the many-grasp, please, grant me inspiration, for my... School science fair project." He said. He slowly lowered the lightbulb into the weird, bubbling mix that Claire had made for this, watching as the lightbulb dissolved.
Reggie realized just a second too late that if this failed then he was, more or less, dunking his hand in acid. Like, burning-through-literal-glass, acid. He shuddered a bit, but the solution stopped bubbling, harshly stopped, and slowly oozed into the shape of the lightbulb he'd dunked, turning into some sort of gelatinous bulb. "... What now?" He asked, looking to Claire.
She shrugged. "I... Didn't ask about this part." And Reggie... Did what might have been his greatest mistake. He bit down on the jell bulb and-
The cracks are leaking from the wounds are grasping him, pulling him down, down, down, into the ceaseless babble, the deepest secrecies of flesh, the twinning of souls, and it hurts, it hurts his very BEING, they're holding him too tight pulling him too fast, the fingernails are drawing blood and-
He startles, looking around. He doesn't remember it. He was planning to take a bite, and the jell bulb was popped and darkened, spoiled, almost? And Claire was looking expectantly. And his mind was on fire. That too. "I, uh- Write this down, *write this down now*, we need like a stack of prismarine, two stacks of pibo, some chlorine, some silver, glass, iron, circuit making stuff? Uh, uh-" He had THE big idea in his head, just rattling off alloys and chemicals and materials, fast enough that Claire was barely keeping up. He had it, he knew he had it. They just needed to get to the hardware store. And the, uh, alchemists store. And the artificers shop. Okay so they may need to ask Claires parents to borrow the credit card (Reggies family was pretty strict with their budgets, and 'The literal god of knowledge gave me an idea for a science fair project' was more likely to earn him a scolding for involving gods in his science fair, than for them to hand over the emerald shulker)
It was a bit of a long shopping trip, needing esoteric supplies that Reggie could only barely pronounce the names of (and only so many of the shopkeepers were willing to take "It's for the science fair" as an excuse), but eventually, they got the supplies. They may have pissed off the local alchemist, just a tiny bit, but they did it. And they got to work. Slowly mixing chemicals, inscribing sigils on prismarine and seashell and sea-heart, ender-pearl ichor mixed with juice-of-pibo, and the hardest part to get, an Orb-of-trans-your-origin. They were usually kept either in the forest of pando, or in specialized medical facilities (since, y'know, normally changing ones origin is a very involved medical procedure.) Eventually, they headed into their usual hangout cave (as one does), and got to work.
Slowly, steadily, Reggie clicked the pieces into place, until the glittering orb was interfaced with the rest of the device. It had taken the two *all night long* to assemble the contraption, a small, silver-and-blue wristwatch, with a faceted top. He stared at it. This was- Gods, what was he even thinking? This was for all intents and purposes, a holy artifact. Like- It didn't feel like it, not really? It didn't have that weird polar-opposite-of-a-taotie vibe to it that most holy things did, but a literal god told him how to make this.
"I- Are we sure we should be doing this? It feels... Like cheating."
Claire shook her head. "It's, probably fine? We did put a lot of work into this, and we're allowed to ask an adult for help!"
Reggie shrugged. "I guess, maybe? But I think there's a difference between asking an adult for help and asking a god!"
She smirked. "And that's because you aren't clever."
Reggie groaned. "You're so gonna get yeeted into a creeper by professor Rattlescale if this isn't actually allowed." He said, as he flipped the watch open. "Still, it's ready, so... I guess we test it? What's something safe and not-very-eye-catching to turn into?" He asked, flipping through options.
Claire hummed, and hawwed... "Well we're in a cave, nothing to burn by accident, so what about a lampade?"
Reggie just stared at her. "That seems the opposite of safe." He shrugged. "But I do wanna put it through it's paces, see if it's gonna last." He slowly flipped through- Imp, draconis, construct, taotie- Ah! Lampade, there it is. He looked down. The Transorigin orb, the power core of the device- It also was kinda the control panel? Like a trackball. It was funny looking like that. He pressed it down, and then.
And then pain. A burning from the inside out, his whole body glowing amber, hard enough that even Claire yelped and took cover. He slowly... Dissolved? Dissolved, into hot, burning flames, feeling his bones turn to ash as his form wrestled into that of a Lampade. Fiery, bright, amazing. Once the aching stopped, he looked around. "Right. That... Seems to have worked. Stung a bit, transforming? And my voice is... Weird. Claire?" He was looking Claire in the eyes. Everything looked a bit... Off. Weird, new eyes.
"P-please. Look away. I forgot Lampades could do that." She said, tersely. Reggie nodded, and transformed back to regular old Human.
"I was half expecting you to say Nekomata so we could be cat buddies for a bit, but that was... Invigorating. Felt weird, but good." He said, watching his device whirr and hum, recalibrating from the change. "I think that's about it for the day, meet up at the science fair tomorrow?" Claire nodded up a storm, and just ran off. Maybe she was still panicked from the lampade stare.
Reggie nodded. He was SO getting an A.
