Chapter Text
They were sitting in the café. Where else would they be? There was an issue in the ritual, and they needed fresh sounds, fresh sights, fresh air, and fresh food to solve it. Plus, the cats were scratching at the door, and they would want a walk anyway.
Ankh was curled up on the table next to them, they had smushed together two tables for all of their notebooks, idly watching his owner have a slight mental breakdown over a mistake they could feel, resting his head on his front paws. He chirped quietly as the waitress approached, giving him a pat on the head, scratching at the bone between his soft, cartilage ears.
“Beck?” She set down a glass of water in front of them and a bowl of chicken in front of Ankh. Ankh happily started eating, skeletal jaws snapping shut on non-skeletal chicken. “Everything okay?”
Beck looked up at the waitress, tired out of their mind. “What?”
“Have… have you slept recently?” She glanced at the empty coffee cups that surrounded Beck.
“This week? Yeah. There’s a mistake in the formula.” Beck looked haggard, hair messy from hands being run through it idly, large dark circles under their eyes. “You know you can call me Lies, right? It’s not, like, an overstep of boundaries or anything, we’re friends.”
“Okay, Be-Lies, okay. Promise me you’ll get some sleep?”
"Sure thing, Symph. Once I figure this out.” Beck looked down, attention summoned by another skeleton cat, pressing its paws into their thigh. It meowed quietly. Beck smiled, giving it a scritch on the chin. “Want some chicken, huh Nebby? Want a snack?”
Nebby meowed again, jumping into Beck’s lap. Beck took some chicken from the bowl and offered it to the cat. Nebby’s tail stood up happily as it ate. Symph smiled.
“Nebuchadnezzar is coming along nicely.” She petted the happy skeleton kitty. “You think you’ll go for something other than cats next time?”
“I like cats!”
“I’m not saying cats are bad, maybe just a change of pace?”
"I know how to take care of cats, though.”
Symph paused, a thought coming into her mind. “What if you put something else into a cat’s body?”
"Species swapping?”
“Yeah!”
Beck smiled. “That’s actually what I’m doing now. Well. Kinda. I’m trying to figure out which incense brings which animals into certain bodies. I’ve got the formula for cats. I’m trying to put a dog in a rat.”
“Sounds… unorthodox? Have you had any success?”
Beck took a sip of water. “Kind of. It’s weird and messy, but, if I can figure out what the shit went wrong, then I’ve got some real promise. Hey, could I have another coffee?”
“I’m cutting you off.”
Beck looked genuinely upset. “Aw, Symphony! Please? Just one more? And then I’ll go to bed. Promise.”
Symph rolled her eyes. “Fine. One. And then you go back to your skull cave and sleep.”
Beck gave her a wide smile. “Thank you!”
Symph smiled back, giving the kitties one last pet before going back to fulfill Beck’s mission of caffeine. Nebby jumped out of their lap, following Symph, leaping onto the counter and loudly meowing for attention. Symph obliged it, giving it a scratch on its vertebrae.
Beck turned back to their books, resisting Ankh’s attempts to distract them as he crawled into their lap, studying their papers. Beck barely noticed the man who entered, his nice, clean blue robes, or his steady, clever eyes. He did, however, see Beck, and the cacophony of scribblings and papers they had caged themselves in. He approached, knocking on the table. Beck flinched, looking up at his bright, too-blue eyes.
“What?” Beck’s tone had no love lost.
He was all charm as he replied. “Curiosity got the better of me, my apologies. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Adamantine, and I am an illusion mage.” His voice was smooth, perfect in all the right ways.
Beck was not amused. “Beck Lyza. Beck to strangers. And family sometimes.”
“Enchanted to make your acquaintance, may I take a seat?” He was already pulling up a chair.
Ankh looked up, fixing his eye sockets onto Adamantine. Adamantine stared back, slightly unnerved by the hairless, skinless, fleshless thing looking at him. He cleared is throat as Beck’s hand calmly stroked the vertebrae of Ankh’s back.
“Nice, uh, cat?” Adamantine smiled at Ankh, offering a hand.
Ankh climbed out of Beck’s lap, paws crinkling on the notebooks, and sniffed Adamantine’s hand. Adamantine reached over to pet Ankh’s ears, and Ankh allowed it, tilting his head to get a better angle.
“His name’s Ankh.” Beck gently lifted one of his paws to get the notebook under it. “Surprised he likes you. Not big on strangers, aren’t you, huh? Aren’t you!” The last bit was cooed as Beck ran their hand along Ankh’s tail.
Ankh pulled away from Adamantine’s hand and turned to face them, putting a front paw on their shoulder, looking as much a disappointed father as a skeleton cat could.
Beck gave his chin a kiss. “Yeah, yeah. I got it. Love you too, little demon baby.”
Ankh meowed, climbing across Beck’s shoulders to get at his favorite napping spot. He laid down, curling up and settling himself. He reached out with a paw to grab at Beck’s papers before being distracted by Symph, arriving with Beck’s coffee, knowing smile on her face. She gave Ankh’s skull a ruffle.
“Time out then, go ahead, sweetie.” Beck reached a hand to stroke Ankh’s ears, teasing a satisfied purr out of the cat, taking the coffee from Symph. “Thank you sooooo much!”
“Last one.” Symph warned, going back to her counter, making sure Nebby didn’t mess anything up in the time she was gone.
Beck turned to Adamantine. “Ankh isn’t partial to strangers.”
“Oh, uh, okay.” Adamantine hadn’t expected his day to take this turn. “What are you working on?” He looked down at the notebooks, paling when he realized what he was seeing.
“Nothing you can help me with.” Beck closed the notebook in their hand, dropping it back into their bag.
“You’re…” Adamantine looked harder at the page in front of him.
“A necro, yep. These are my cats. Woo hoo. You finally met one.” They looked supremely unamused as Nebuchadnezzar approached, carrying his leash in his mouth.
“No, no, it’s not that. Cute kitties, though. Your numbers are wrong. You did the conversion weird here.” Adamantine pointed at some numbers scratched into the margins. “You should’ve divided by seven, not eight.”
Beck looked at the sheet themselves, and their eyes widened. “Wait, fuck. You’re right.” They grabbed a pencil and did the new math. “Wait, wait. Fucking shit. Yes. I think that was the fuck up.” Beck looks up at Adamantine, eyes wild. Adamantine looks back, just as excited.
Beck grabbed their books, shoving them into their bag. “Gotta run, new experiment.”
“You mean sleep?” Symph called, folding her arms.
“That too. Adamantine the Illusion Mage, swing by the grad student tower in oh, say, 5 hours? I’m doing a little thing and need an extra set of hands.” Beck took Nebuchadnezzar’s leash in their hand.
“Wait, you’re a grad student?”
“Yeah? What, are you not in?”
“Can I use you as a reference for future jobs and shit?”
“Sure, why the fuck not.”
“Then ok, sure.”
“Great.” Beck slung their bag over their shoulder and started out the door. “By Symph! See you soon!”
“Better be rested.”
“You know I won’t! Oh! Adamantine. Ask for Lies when you get there. They’ll know what you mean. See ya!”
And with that, Beck was gone in a flurry of rattling bones, papers, and excitement. Adamantine turned to look at Symph, placing his books down on the newly vacated table.
“Are they usually that…” Adamantine strummed his fingers through the air, looking for the right word.
“Excitable? Yeah. They like their work.” The chimera hopped into the counter, seeking affection under Symph’s hand. She humored it, giving it a scratch behind its ears. “I’m Symphony, by the way, and you might want to read up on necromancy if Lies takes such a shining to you.”