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“Sucrose!” Aether called, approaching the small alchemist who was busy tending to something on the alchemy table in the centre of Mondstadt.
Sucrose turned with a small jolt of surprise, just barely being able to stop a glass beaker of a strange bubbling fluid from spilling as she spun. She watched as the traveller approached her, a warm smile wrapped on his gentle features.
“Have you seen Albedo recently?” He asked casually, stopping beside her. “I couldn’t find him in Dragonspine, so I’m assuming he’s in Mond?”
She adjusted her glasses a little, turning back to sort her experiment on the alchemy table before giving a response. “Mr.Albedo is here, but he’s a little busy right now. He’s been locked up in the Favonius laboratory for the last two or three days, not letting anyone in for anything. H-he does that sometimes, so I think it’s best to just wait for him to come out.” She paused for a moment. “Although, usually he would let me in at the very least to pick up materials, but he’s been extremely secretive about what he’s working on recently.”
Aether watched Sucrose as she continued to busy herself as she spoke. “He’s not been out at all? Not even for food or sleep?”
The green haired alchemist shook her head lightly. “He usually doesn’t sleep or eat much when he’s focused on an experiment like this. It’s almost unnatural how he still has the energy to work after so long of pure alchemy work without any breaks…”
That sounded about right to Aether. Albedo was the type to lose himself in an experiment, forgetting everything around him aside from the project itself. The traveller knew he didn’t need as much sleep or food as a regular human, but it was still unhealthy of him to disregard all that for the sake of an alchemical experiment.
“I’ll bring him some food.” Aether concluded aloud. “Maybe then I can convince him to let me in, or get him to take a break.”
Sucrose hummed doubtfully. “Good luck with that” she muttered, not turning to face Aether as she mixed one strange chemical with another in her experiment.
Aether watched her for a moment, before turning away. Sucrose didn’t seem like she wanted to be disturbed, so the traveller wasn’t going to try and take up any more of her time. Conveniently, Good Hunter was just on the other side of the street, so he headed straight there. He took his time mulling over the menu silently before he ordered.
Aether finally made an order for a large slice of cake, before standing back whilst he waited for the order to be prepared. He knew Albedo liked desserts in general, but he was sure his favourite was cake. If anything could get that alchemist away from an experiment, it was the allure of sweet food that he enjoyed.
It didn’t take long for the waitress to have his order ready in a box, and Aether wasted no time in taking it and heading to the Knights of Favonius Headquarters to find Albedo.
The laboratory was on the upper floors of the headquarters, and the traveller was quick to ascend the stairs to get to the lab. The door was marked by a red sign as it almost always was when Albedo was inside; ‘Experiment in Progress, Do Not Disturb.’
Aether paused at the door for a moment, listening in for any sounds of movement. He couldn’t hear anything, but knocked lightly anyway so as to not disturb Albedo if he were focused on something specific.
“Albedooo? Are you in there?” The traveller called, knocking slightly louder.
A small rustle, followed by a loud thump, then another rustling sound. “Wait!” A voice yelled in a slight panic on the other side of the door. “Don’t come in!”
Aether sounded slightly concerned. “It’s only me — Aether. I’ve brought you some lunch.”
“No — Thank you, Aether, but I’m in the middle of something. Please come back later.” Came a muffled reply.
“Can I wait in there with you?” The traveller asked, trying the handle of the door. It was unlocked.
“No, I’m—!“
Aether pushed on the door lightly, and it opened with a heavy creak. “I brought cake— uh… where are you?” He asked, seeing that the room was entirely empty of any people.
“You need to leave!” Albedo’s panicked voice came from somewhere in the room, even if Aether couldn’t see him. “There’s a… chemical gas leak, it could be dangerous. And please close the door on your way out, so it doesn’t get into the corridor.”
Silently, Aether let himself into the room. He didn’t entirely believe Albedo’s gas leak excuse, since when something like this happened usually the alchemist would be stood outside the laboratory with all windows open, not hiding within it.
Aether clicked the door shut behind him. “I don’t think there’s a gas leak.. wouldn’t you have opened some windows by now if there were any? Besides, I’m pretty hardy, if you can handle it then so can I.”
The traveller set the cake down on a nearby countertop, scanning the room for Albedo. The alchemist had fallen silent, seemingly hiding from Aether. The windows were all covered by closed translucent shutters, but they were all obviously closed aside from a small one in the corner.
His sight dragged across the laboratory. All Aether could see on the countertops were strange glass tubes, chemicals, metal bowls, and other alien equipment. Eventually, his search landed on something he could recognise; Albedo’s boots, coat, gloves, and belt were haphazardly strewn across the otherwise spotless laboratory floor. Aether found this strange, since it wasn’t particularly hot in the laboratory, and Albedo always wore his boots, coat, and gloves in the lab at the very least. Further along the wall, he noted something even stranger; a small pile of cat toys, with an oversized cat bed in the corner.
“Uh… I didn’t know you had a pet cat?” Aether called to the unseen alchemist, going over to inspect the cat bed and toys curiously.
The bed had clearly been used recently, and was slightly covered in dark gray and pale ashen cat fur. Most of the toys were in a relatively neat pile beside the bed, with a small feathered mouse toy on the bed itself and a laser pointer on the floor beside it. Aether picked up the laser pointed curiously, flashing it’s light at the floor a few times idly.
“So, where is it?” He asked the silent room casually. “Here, kitty kitty kitty, pspspspsps” he pitched his voice, clicking the hand that wasn’t holding the laser pointer in an attempt to attract Albedo’s mysterious cat out of it’s hiding spot.
“Please leave, Aether!” Albedo’s voice came again, sounding both panicked and uncomfortable. “I can’t be distracted right now, I’ll come find you when I’ve sorted this.”
Aether followed his voice to be on the other side of the laboratory. He considered that perhaps Albedo was purposefully hiding, for whatever reason. “Let me help you..” He murmured, before rounding the counter to look for Albedo where he heard his voice coming from. “RAAH!— oh?”
Aether immediately fell silent once he had found Albedo. He was hiding within an empty shelving gap beneath the countertop, with his legs curled up to his chest to fully get himself to fit in the space. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and he shifted to push himself further back once he realised Aether had found him.
But his awkward position wasn’t what had confused Aether; through the shadows of the countertop, the traveller could clearly see a bristling pile of pale fur covered by darker blotches curled around the alchemist’s feet. At first, Aether assumed it was the cat that Albedo had been hiding in the laboratory; but on further inspection, he realised it was a large tail, and the end of it was twitching irritably.
“Albedo, what’re you doing down there? And what’s that?” He pointed to the pile of fur at the alchemist’s feet. He crouched and reached out to touch it, but Albedo was quick to snatch it out of his reach and wrap it into his lap.
Albedo tried to push himself further beneath the counter, covering his head with his hands. “Please leave..” he muttered quietly, giving up hope that Aether would actually listen to him.
Aether leaned toward Albedo, who only stiffened further. He grabbed one of the alchemist’s hands, gently prying it away from his face before pushing himself up to help the alchemist out from his hiding spot.
“Why are you hiding?” The traveller chuckled lightly, but fell silent when the alchemist eventually pulled himself out from under the countertop and stood up.
The most noticeable feature were two small round ears that were flicked back on top of the alchemist’s head. They were fluffy, a blonde-silver colour tipped with black fur. One of them twitched uncomfortably under Aether’s curious gaze. There were also faint markings around Albedo’s cheeks, resembling that of a snow leopards; which he still feebly tried to hide behind a clawed hand. His long thick tail had curled around his feet, almost in embarrassment.
Aether couldn’t help but stifle a small laugh. “What happened here? Did you try to turn yourself into a cat..?“
“Uh—“ Albedo took a moment to find his words, his eyes flicking from the closed door to the drawn shutters before continuing. “This may look strange out of context, but it’s just the side effects of a miscalculation…” he began. “I hope you won’t tell anyone about this; it is a little embarrassing.”
Aether nodded, his curiosity only growing.
“I was attempting to create a chemical compound that could achieve the rearranging of organisms at an atomic and molecular scale, to alter their morph to that of a different creature entirely. I have been able to do this by hand before, but I wanted to put the process itself into a physical form.” He paused. “I had assumed it would be a liquid; yet it somehow became a gas, and I inadvertently inhaled it, leading to this…”
The traveler paused, trying to understand the words Albedo had just said. Most of it made very little sense to him anyway. “So you almost rearranged yourself into a cat? Is it permanent?”
“I hope not..” Albedo responded, sounding less than confident in his own words. “I’m only glad that the sample I was working with was heavily diluted; I’m not sure how I could have explained the situation if I had fully turned myself into a cat.”
“You ‘hope not’? You mean it could be permanent..?” Aether couldn’t help but sound excited about the idea. “Is that why you’ve been locked up in here for the past few days, to hide this?”
Albedo nodded. “I was hoping I could find a way to revert the effects before anyone found out; since it would be hard to answer most questions about it directly. But…” he gestured at Aether vaguely. “That seems to have been an inevitability.”
“So what’s with the cat toys? And the bed?”
The alchemist turned away slightly to hide his flustered expression, his tail brushing against the floor gently as his did so. “They’re to assist with the side effects of this experiment. I guess I can count it as a positive, since this means that the experiment also changes a beings instincts as well as just their physical form, although it’s…”
Albedo trailed off, his eyes catching on the small red bead of light that Aether had projected onto the countertop beside him using the laser pointer. His brow furrowed as he watched it intently, and Aether could see him slowly shifting his stance as if he were about to attack it. The tip of his tail was twitching excitedly, but other than that, the rest of his body was entirely focused. Curiously, Aether moved the point of light to be closer to Albedo’s location; and in one swift motion, the alchemist slammed a hand down onto the counter where the beam of light was.
Aether burst out laughing, turning off the laser pointer as he leant against the counter in his laughter.
Albedo froze, before his tail lashed frustratedly behind him. “Aether!” He scowled indignantly, his rounded cat-like ears pressing against his head. “Please don’t take advantage of this, it’s humiliating.”
“I’m sorry— it’s just—“ Aether spoke between his laughs, before eventually calming down as he flopped onto the cat bed in the corner of the room. “You really have turned yourself into a cat.”
“It wasn’t intentional!” The alchemist reiterated, straightening himself up and glaring at the traveller. “It was simply a miscalculation, and I’ll find a way to revert the effects soon.”
Aether nodded lightly. “Mhmm, sure. But I bet it’s fun being like that.” He joked, patting the bed next to him for Albedo to sit on.
“Not when you’re joking about it like you were with that laser pointer.” He huffed, sitting on the bed besides Aether.
“I dunno, you seemed to be enjoying it.” The traveller commented, picking up a cat toy that looked like a ball of feathers on a string from the pile of toys beside him.
“I wouldn’t say it’s better than not having these features, but it’s definitely a strange experience.”
Aether waved the toy at Albedo, to which he began idly batting at the ball of feathers seemingly without realising he was doing it. “How so?”
“Well, the tail is definitely something to get used to. I’ve accidentally hit things with it that I usually wouldn’t be able to touch from my range, and will panic at the sudden and strange sensation it causes if I’m not expecting it. It’s also a lot of maintenance to keep such thick fur clean.” Albedo’s eyes finally trailed down to the ball of feathers he was batting at, but he didn’t seem to mind it as he continued. “On top of that, there are also the strange impulsive behaviours I’ve been having; I’ve become more jittery at times, especially to loud noises — and for a lack of better way of putting it, I’ve been craving leisure time more than usual, hence the toys and bed.”
Aether hummed. “So you can’t just use alchemy to get rid of these features?”
Albedo shook his head. “I’ve tried; I can temporarily remove the tail and ears, although the instinctive behaviours and urges still remain and it becomes quite frustrating to handle without these physical features alongside them. I’ll need to find a proper reversal technique if I want to continue with normalcy.”
“Do you lick your tail to clean it, like a cat?” Aether’s tone was teasing.
Albedo’s tail flicked indignantly as he swatted at the toy Aether was holding a little rougher than intended. “Of course not. My tongue wasn’t altered by the experiment, and I don’t have any desire to try that; so I use a comb to brush out any loose fur instead.”
Aether watched Albedo’s tail sway as the alchemist untangled the feathered toy from one of his claws. “Can i pet your tail?” He asked suddenly.
Albedo paused, losing interest in the toy. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment. “I suppose it could help for further researching the effects of this experiment.” He nodded, his tail flicking around to lay gingerly on the traveller’s lap.
Aether slowly rested a hand on it, letting it sink into the fur. It twitched as he touched it, and the traveller lifted his hand up in slight alarm as his gaze turned curiously to Albedo. The alchemist was staring back at him with a similar curious expression, nodding at him to continue. Aether’s face lit up excitedly.
“So soft…” the traveller muttered to himself in slight awe as he brushed the tail with both hands.
Albedo shivered slightly. “It feels different when it’s someone else stroking it. That’s something to note..” he spoke to himself, as if writing his observations aloud. “Perhaps if we… oh.”
He trailed off as Aether moved one hand to stroke at his cat-like ears. The traveller pulled away again as the ear he had stroked flicked in response. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t ask, I just kinda—“
Albedo had taken ahold of Aether’s hand again, placing it back onto the ear he was just stroking. Aether gave the alchemist a quizzical look, but Albedo was sat contently, his eyes closed and head leant slightly to one side toward Aether as he waited for the traveller to resume.
He obliged, returning to rubbing his hand along the ear’s fluffy surface. The traveller watched as Albedo seemed to relax, his shoulders lowering and his tail curling. And then — Aether blinked in surprise — Albedo began to purr.
He continued to stroke his ear, curious about Albedo’s reaction. The sound wasn’t entirely like a perfect cat’s purring, but it was a deep rumbling that a human probably couldn’t make — it still sounded more cat than human.
Soon, Albedo’s strange purring slowed, and he rested his head on Aether’s shoulder drowsily.
“Finally tired from your experimenting?” Aether chuckled quietly, guiding Albedo to rest on his lap for more comfort.
Albedo hummed quietly in response, making himself comfortable against Aether’s legs. His tail moved to wrap around him, and Aether switched to brushing his hand through it’s thick fur again as Albedo fell asleep on his lap.
Whether Albedo found a way to remove his new cat-like features or not didn’t bother Aether; at least he could get used to them being around for a while.