Kevin Ramos's page

"Well, it's mostly just interpreting DNA sequences and- I- oh, hehe..."
Kevin's cheek area turns a slightly different shade of blue in his equivalent of a blush when he realizes Jeran had complemented him, intentional or not.

Kevin laughs a little.

"You can fix anything I'd have any idea how to run and more, so I'm not gonna complain. Genetic science is a lot easier on that front. Everything runs on the same basic system. Four basic components to DNA in non magical creatures and anywhere from 6 to like 28 in magical ones. You never really invent anything new, just figure out why something is the way it is, and sometimes use that to make something new if you're into the more creative parts of it."

Kevin raises an eyebrow, or the slightly darker marking he has on his brow to indicate emotions.

"Whatever you seemed to have considered sounds much more interesting."

The dragon chuckles as he stacks things on his plate, leaning back in the chair, hopefully not enough to break it.

"Ah, yeah. I just figured that you might have more specialization towards the mechanical stuff like the tank than smaller devices and stuff since you knew the mechincal parts so well. Cool that you've got it all down, though. You could fix pretty much anything, then huh?"

Kevin nods, considering some things.

"Yeah, mom could probably figure out how to play it. Maybe if I just start out with an alter self potion and dispell it after I kind of explain things a bit... Getting it there would still take a while. You know much about stuff like that or are you mostly into heavier mechanics like engines and stuff?"

"Still trying to figure out how to tell them? Or trying to figure out how to never ever tell them?" he asked mildly, keeping any personal opinion on the matter to himself. He doesn't even fidget. He is remarkably good at being still, to the point that it's almost eerie.

"I just... I don't think this is the kind of thing I can explain in a letter. But just showing up at home like this would be kinda bad too. It's not that I don't want them to know. I guess I'm kind of afraid of what would happen, yeah, but it's not that I want to hide it from them. I'm still kind of getting used to it, I can't even imagine what it would be like for them. I just thought I'd only ever have to come out to them once."

Kevin on the other hand fidgets quite a lot. It's not to the point of being detrimental or annoying, he just needs to keep something in his hands.

"Definitely not immune to poison. I don't eat much when I'm in my wolf form. I did when I was a kid, but I was on my own in the wilderness then. Not a whole lot of options."

He nodded when Kevin described his past. "So caught in the middle, not belonging anywhere in particular. I can understand that. Do your parents know about the whole goo dragon thing?"

"Guess we both kinda grew up in the woods in the middle of nowhere, huh? Not that it really compares. Just... Similar. In some ways."

He circles his finger on the table in an embarrassed sort of way at the last question.
"Yeah, not really. It kinda takes a month or two to get a letter back home. But I also haven't exactly written one yet..."

"Sounds good to me. I kinda assumed you wouldn't be since it seems like Lycans developed as a humanoid race and diverged into different groups. Would chocolate still hurt you if you ate it in your wolf form, do you think? Or are you just immune to poisons in general, and that's why it's fine in either?"

He leans back after destroying his meal likewise. He'd at least gotten used to doing that in front of judgy teenagers, so in outer public didn't bother him too much.

"Not really much to talk about there for me. We lived way out in the middle of nowhere on our own. Dad hunts game and sells pelts to buy the stuff we needed, mom tended house and gardened. No siblings, so I guess I just got used to being on my own. We weren't like isolationists or anything, but they didn't really like that mom was elvish and dad wasn't. Always had to wear a hat when I went into town to cover my ears. It wasn't like pitchfork and torch bad, but it was just easier to stay on our own."

"I can definitely sympathize there."

He accepts the bite, popping it into his mouth, followed by a pleased nod.

"That coupled with the fact that I kind of sort of evaporate just a bit means I have to eat pretty much constantly. Good news is that I'll never get fat though. Not that I'm exactly thin like this. Calories don't matter so much as general mass does now, so I can eat whatever and it works out. Been able to try lots of new stuff too. Thankfully it didn't take too long to work out only ingesting stuff with my mouth. Accidentally absorbed a couple of my shirts before I gave up on cloth- I've probably said way to much, sorry."

He awkwardly looks away, saved by his own platter of grilled fish and thick cut fries arriving with polite thanks from him to the waitress.

As the platter arrives, the little bump under the napkin sinks as the ferret vanishes like a stage magician's trick.

Kevin's eyes go a little wide at the size of the platter.
"Woah. I know what I'm getting next time..."

"Well, there are some lizards that are really good at gripping things, yeah? You could try that. And some types of monkeys are really, really small, so you might be able to make that work. Or even a snake. I mean, that kind of tail can probably do a lot, so if reptiles are easier, you just need to get creative about how you use them, right?" Jeran asked, absently continuing to play with the ferret as he spoke.

The ferret has decided to make a small tunnel system under Jeran's linen napkin, burrowing under and poking his head out of one side with a little bark before going to another, thinking Jeran couldn't seem him moving under the napkin in between appearances.

"Yeah, I didn't think about that. Chameleons hold onto stuff pretty well, now that I think about it."

It seems that without orders being given, it falls back into an animal's level of intelligence, making the small "dook" sound ferrets do as Jeran gives it scritches.

"Yeah, I'm still working on things with thumbs. Seems that the bigger the creature, the harder it is to do. Though things like me are a bit easier. Reptiles, that is."

"Wow! That is cool! So by a while do you mean like minutes or hours? It's one of those vague terms that can mean anything at all really," he said, smiling as he watched the blue ferret prance around the table.

"They remain for either 16 minutes or until I decide to dismiss them. Though it seems like the mix of cells and magical energy I use to make these guys is the same that I use for developing modifications on myself, so I can't do both at once."

The little ferret perches in front of Jeran and makes tiny barking noises at him before rolling over.

Kevin smiles and clears some space on the table.

"Ok, stop me if you've had this biology lesson before, but if not: All the cells in a living creature have a purpose. Skin cells are different from brain cells and other organ cells and so on. But when a creature is young, it has something called Stem Cells, which are cells that don't have a purpose yet, they turn into other cells as needed. Now, I haven't done a whole lot of research on what exactly I am now, but I have figured out that I'm mostly made of stem cells and magic now, so I can shift things into new limbs and organs if I concentrate on it, but I've worked out how to do this too."

He holds his hands together and forms a little blob of blue jelly between them before setting it on the table. It grows a little on its own and turns a bit longer, developing limbs and some definition of form over the course of a few seconds until a little, blue jelly ferret is sitting on the table between them.

"I can kinda program a group of cells to take a certain shape. It lasts for a while and then evaporates kinda like hand sanitizer. They act more or less like summoned creatures."

He leads the ferret around in a circle with his finger to demonstrate that it takes commands.

This is his Summon Monster equivalent.

"Yeah, I'm not really the best at it either. We've talked a lot more than most of my science projects tend to. I guess it was the long walk."

He shuffles some stuff on the table.

"You wanna see something cool?"

Kevin smiles a bit and nods. "Thanks. Well, I can't really think of anything better than the Mackerel, so I'll try that. Could I get two, actually? And a sweet tea with a lot of lemon, please."
He hands the menu over as well.

The dragon nods in understanding of what Jeran was positing.
"To be honest, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything I couldn't eat at this point. I still taste things though, so survival and benefit are two separate outcomes there."
He raises his eyebrow ridges in polite regard to the new waitress approaching.
"Nice to meet you. I'm sure that part of the job will be a bit easier for me in particular. I've recently acquired a face that's hard to forget, not to mention the rest of me."
He chuckles a bit, thumbing the menu one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything.

Yep, she's a mermaid.

"You're gonna love it here!" she said with a flirtatious wink, swimming through the air to lead them to a table. "Your server will be here in just a moment. Have a nice meal. I especially recommend the mackerel today," she added with a warm smile before swimming away.

Jeran sat down. "Don't mind Tasha," he said dryly. "She flirts with everyone. It's just how she talks. I guess it encourages customers? I don't know. But she's actually really nice," he added, picking up his menu. "And she gives really good recommendations if she likes you. But if she doesn't...there's this one businessman who comes in and gets all inappropriate with the staff and I'm pretty sure they've been feeding...

He smiles and thanks her politely before she goes.

Once she's away, Kevin chuckles a little bit. "Yeah, I appreciate the effort, but I'm generally more interested in someone with at least one Y chromosome."

He glances at his menu, looking it over probably a bit more than Jeran is given he's never seen it before. "If only the cafeteria at school worked that way."

Kevin keeps his claws in his coat pockets as he passes folks, hopefully not inciting too much ire from the folks of the town. He seemed to be in the clear for now. He looks up from the slightly head down position he'd walked with to the front of the restaurant.
"This is kinda cool." He smiles a bit as they enter the place. Some gay men had a good eye for decor, but Kevin only seemed pleased by the edging-on-tacky interior of the place. Oozes didn't spend much time underwater, so it hadn't been much of an interest for him, but seeing the place done up like this was definitely exotic. Being a liquidy blue himself, he almost blends against the walls.
He regards the hostess who is a mermaid? with a slight smile.
"Uh, yes. First time," is all he manages. He notices the bit of hair flipping, possibly being ever so slightly more aware of these things than Jeran, of not by much. It was likely that one of either her or his own attempts to flirt with Jeran wouldn't be terribly successful, but possible both or neither would be. He'd thought he'd read the Lycan batting for his team, but he'd never been good at people. He'd also been blown up into a squishy reptile this week, so luck didn't exactly feel like it was on his side.

"Pretty sure Professor Vakkler brought at least some of them in. But it didn't seem to be a problem. I mean, other than when they tried to eat Vakkler and Michael. That was a problem."

"Hmm. Yeah, targeted cleanup would be good. I'll ask." He nodded at someone as they passed on the street. The person did a double take at Kevin and then shrugged and walked on. "I told you, you know. They're used to weird here. They adjust quickly. You're fine."

"Yeah, oozes don't tend to have any facial recognition ability. Or allegiances at all. I have to make sure to toss my temporary guys far enough away or else they'll attack me. Not so much now that I can kinda communicate with them, but it used to be a problem. This coat is acid proofed for a reason."

"Huh. I wonder if they were placed there or if they just moved in when they found all the weird stuff that must come from the school's waste disposal system."
The two of them reach the edge of the city from the forest after such a long walk. Kevin seems to take a moment to steel himself for the looks he was still expecting, even with Jeran's assurance.
"I think I might even be able to help with recycling stuff. There are certain kinds of oozes that only digest some things like only metal or only plants or only organics. So they'd be good for dividing and cleaning stuff up."

"A great quality for waste disposal and not necessarily one that makes people think hey, I want that for a pet," he agreed sympathetically. "Well, most people I guess," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I think that Mr Jigglypuff is pretty cute. And the right kind of pet for someone who can't really take a lot of time to take care of one," he said with a shrug.

He smiles genuinely for a moment, maybe even with a slight blush. If Jeran thought the cube jelly was cute, maybe his current form wouldn't be a total turn off either.

Jeran raised an eyebrow. "Guessing that ended up with a lot of detention." He shook his head. "Yeah, I can definitely see why that would be unsettling. Well....lesson learned....not sure exactly what lesson...probably that you should keep in mind the logical outcomes of your oozes' abilities before using them for pranks," he teased a little.

"See, I thought it would just startle him and maybe chase him around for a while. They're usually really slow, and it was a bottled one so it would evaporate after a couple minutes, but I guess he didn't notice it soon enough. Aaaand yeah. I had like a week and a half. It probably would've been longer if he hadn't instigated stuff to begin with."

"A Diger is a kind of ooze with a clear body save for a crystalized core. Picture a big puddle with a red crystal pool ball at the bottom. But instead of water it's acid. Like I said, I really regret that one, but they didn't mess with me any more after that..."

Kevin frowns a little and looks away. "Ah, sorry man. That really sucks, but it sounds like you handled it pretty well. Revenge isn't ever as good as it feels like it would be. Some guys from my alchemy class tripped me while I was holding a bunch of the glassware from my lab, so I snuck a Diger into his bathroom and glued his door shut. It was much more unsettling than satisfying... Not that that really compares or anything. Just... related to the topic? I guess?"

Kevin will have a new ooze to label and identify after the tangible awkwardness between them precipitates into a physical form as it may do at any moment.

"Uh...." he rubbed the back of his neck, blushing. "Um...well, it's pretty rare for lycans of different types to umm......breed. It's been pretty rare for lycans of different types to have anything to do with each other. But obviously that's changing, so er....I guess we'll find out? Eventually...."

Kevin does a bit of the same motion as he realizes what an awkward question it was. "Yeah, uh... Sorry. That was a little far of me. So you guys live in smaller same species packs usually instead of larger mixed communities? I guess coming to the school was a pretty big adjustment then. You mind if I ask what brought you here, or is it part of the thing that happened before? You don't have to say if you don't wanna."

"I don't know. But I bet there's some overlap there that makes it a smaller number. I'm sure you could find that info in the medical database. If you can convince them to let you have access. Anyways, I'm happy to let you take samples for study if you want. I might be able to convince some others to participate too. I mean, medical research shouldn't be that hard to find volunteers for."

"That's true, DNA overlap is weird and interesting. Humans are 99.9% similar to each other, and 50% similar to bananas, so there's not much of a way to be sure until it's counted."

Jeran took a deep breath and tried to put words together a little more sensibly than he had been. "Well....I don't think it's about becoming more human. That's...not really the way it works. I don't know. I guess it makes a difference what kind of stuff made you the way you are. I mean, yeah obviously ooze was involved, but you also have a pretty dragonish shape, and dragons are natural shapeshifters, so you might actually have more shape changing ability than you realize if you just know how to unlock it. Whether it's lycans, firebirds, or dragons, the one thing is that none of us are human no matter how human we might look walking around. I don't know if that helps at all, and seriously, you should look however you feel comfortable looking. I really mean that. But if you do actually want to be able to shift at will, then you should probably study species that do. Maybe that will give you some clues as to what makes it happen. It might actually be really helpful research medically speaking too, since most of us don't really understand exactly what makes us able to change either. We just do and it's so normal nobody really bothers...

Kevin thinks for a minute "hm... I'm not really sure it's not about being human. I mean, think about it, dragons, Firebirds, lycans, vampires, kitsunes, doppelgangers. All of these races evolved individually but with the ability to turn, many of them solely, into a human form. There has to be something about it that makes it desirable evolutionarily." He slips his data pad out and takes some notes on things to research later.

So in looking this up, I found out randomly that Hermit crabs (the only creature he's isolated a gene I'm so far) have 254, the most in the animal kingdom.

"You should be however you feel more comfortable. I'm sure that you won't get much if any grief in town. Seriously, they're used to weird there. They kinda have to be. That wasn't what I meant....I'm not even sure what I meant exactly...I really wasn't trying to make you feel bad about the way you look. It's....you have to remember that I'm from a race of shapeshifters. We all have two if not three forms and that's normal. So it's not exactly an either/or kind of situation. It's about what form you wear when. I don't spend a lot of time as a humanoid if I'm out in the wild, and I don't spend a lot of time as a wolf in the city, but they're both equally me. So I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea of having only one form. Seriously I don't know how humans stand it. I guess it's a question of not missing what you've never had or something. Anyhow, I was kinda subconsciously applying the same standard to you, thinking of both forms as equally you. I...guess that's not really how it works for you. I probably should...

"Nonono, I understand. I'm sorry, I should've understood that. I don't feel like I'm weird, er, I mean, I know I am, but it's ok because it's cool, but it's still weird in other ways. And it's not always cool. But it's not always weird. It's just that other people don't. And I uh. It..."

"Oh. Umm.... I think you were really cute before," he said, blushing and looking away. "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with how you look now. Nothing wrong with being a goo dragon at all. That's very much not how I meant that. I'm just going to stop talking now before I make this any worse," he added with a face palm.

"I, uh, thanks. Never really got that much at all before. And uh, definitely not now." He laughs a little, rubbing the back of his neck. "And it's ok. I totally realize that I look really weird now. I have another potion of alter self if it would be more comfortable. I actually have a system where I can keep a potion affect running indefinitely, so I guess in a way I could just go back to how I was, but... I kinda enjoy this. I'm so much stronger than I was, and I can see so much stuff now. I'm still not sure how the folks in town would react to this though. So it's... Complicated I guess."

"Yeah, I can see where that would be quite a bit of a learning curve there. Umm....before when you made yourself look human...was that how you looked before the transformation? Sorry if that's an insensitive question. I was just curious. Just tell me if I'm accidentally being a jerk," he said with an apologetic shrug.

"I like to think there's no bad questions. If we can't ask questions, we never learn anything. But, uh, yeah. It's what I used to look like. So, I guess I still have some of my original genes floating around in here. Oh, but I used to wear glasses, and I stopped when the human form became like a uh... What's the word... Persona? No, that implies a different personality... Costume? I guess costume works. Something to keep Cho from freaking out. It just didn't matter if I had glasses since I didn't have to need them. But uh... Unintentionally long explanation short, yes. It was."

"After....the incident with the witch, and also after all of my attempts at reining in that group failed, well, I was sort of at loose ends. And since I was also persona non grata everywhere I went, I threw myself into classes, trying as many new things as I could. It turned out I had kind of a knack for mechanics. And then the boss needed pilots to test his new prototypes. But it was really specific because they have to be piloted by someone who can control their ki. I had the right training and interests, and a lot of time on my hands. And that's how I ended up becoming a pilot. And working for Jiminy Sunwake is an education all on its own. It definitely accelerated my understanding of how machines work. In the early days we had to help make repairs when things went wrong. Okay, I had to help. Mithros was still trying to figure out which end of a wrench was which. He's much better with that stuff now, though. And it's not like pilots have to know how to build machines. I just happen to like it."

"That's as good a way as any to get into something. You found something you like and stuck to it. And I guess you're pretty set as far as after graduation goes being a defender of the planet and everything. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make ooze crafting pay off after I graduate. Regular folks are usually only interested in oozes when they want them exterminated from their cellars."

"Well, I think it's cool," he said laughing. "But I'm actually a terrible judge off coolness, and any points at which I was perceived as cool were totally accidental."

Once they were out of the building Jeran led the way towards the road into town, a path he was very familiar with by this point. "So how did you end up getting interested in studying oozes in the first place?" he asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a direction that Kevin would feel comfortable.

"Hey, piloting a giant space robot to protect the planet is pretty cool if you ask me. You're like a hero."

Kevin sticks next to him, being a good bit less familiar with the path and definitely not having been down since he became the way he is now.
"Well, when I was little, my family lived way out in the sticks. Not many people, and none my age, so I'd go out exploring a lot. And one day I found this cave, and down in this put was an emerald ooze, just living there. And I decided he'd be my friend. Even though he didn't have a brain or other stuff, I'd go and sit above the pit and watch him jump around. Eventually I started trapping squirrels and to feed him. Once my parents figured out my friend was a blob of acid, they decided to let me go to the school and learn about them. I'm starting my third year at the high school this semester, so it's gone well so far. How bout you, though. When did you get into machines?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure if I could take enough temperature change to help. I'm exothermic now, but I'm still just as vulnerable to hot and cold as a human. Acids don't hurt which is a big plus with my work, but makes things taste different. Lemons kinda taste like air freshener smells now, sorta fresh, but not good. And as far as size changing magic goes, I'm still trying to determine what will work on me. I've had to adjust all of my alchemy formulas for my new biometrics, which took a while, but wasn't too hard given that I've adapted them to work for other people already."

He shuffles around through his desk drawer as he talks, now finding his wallet and heading back out. He must not get out much if he doesn't have it in a place he can get to it easily.

"Nah, you're fine, I don't think I've mentioned it before. And if I have, eh. I'm not entirely sure where my brain is in all this goop at any given moment, so we're both just as likely to forget stuff right now. Anyways, I started playing to take me focus on my work and it kinda just went from there. I'm decent enough, but it's still the cello, so it's not exactly getting me any cool points if I'm good or bad, right?"
He sets his elbow to the wall to get them out of the building, using his sleeve to keep from leaving a trail on the wall. There's a lot of awkward things to avoid when being a goo dragon.

Kevin double checks the space between the top of the terrarium and the ooze's height. It would be a pretty bad impression for the pet he gave Jeran to get out on the first day and eat the homework he seemed to put a lot of time into.

"I don't mind waking, it'll give some more time to talk."

As Jeran gets his jacket, Kevin adjusts his own lab coat out of a sympathetic habit, ready to head out.

"Hoverbike sounds like it'd be fun. I'd volunteer to help you guys test a heavier duty one. I can get bigger pretty easily, smaller is what I have trouble with. You'd think with shape shifting powers I could at least make myself fit, but noooo."
He laughs a little as well. Seems his nervous conversation is self depreciation.
"Hey, don't worry about it. I like it when you're excited about stuff. And if we couldn't geek out about stuff we're into, we'd pretty much just be silent, ya know?"

As they stop by his room, he leaves the door open, though given the short amount of time it takes him to get the small satchel of coins from his nightstand, there's not so much of a need to get as acquainted with the space.

Kevin's room is slightly more furnished than Jeran's and with the same caveish wall and floors and no windows, though likely for different reasons than Jeran chose them and feelings somewhat more artificial. His desk is covered in formulas and papers with a chalk board mounted to the wall behind it. There are more than a few beakers and vials among the desk with various mixes and chemicals.
In one corner of the room a cello stands upright with a bow and music stand near it.
Across the room is a large display case with what seems like the start of some sort of antique or art collection including a porcelain tea set, some glass sculptures, and a few nicer glasses, beakers, and vials, all made exclusively from glass.
In the place a bed would normally be is instead a large ceramic bathtub sort of thing, sans faucet, drain or plumbing.

Kevin nods as he taps a few of the paper balls closer to the bin with his foot, just needing something to do with himself for a moment.

"I'm kinda the other way around. Grammar and spelling are fine, but my Common teachers say I write everything like a research paper, which is actually all I'm interested in writing, really. Maybe I could spell check for you."

He crouches down next to the shelf and checks the tank once more to be safe.
"This tank is one and half times his species average hopping height, so unless Mr. Jigglypuff here is a slime olympics contender, he shouldn't be getting out of there."

He stands back up and puts his claws to his hips as he looks down at the little aquarium. "I'm gonna need to stop by my room real quick to grab my wallet before we go."

I actually have no idea how same sex dates decide who pays for things...

Kevin enters the room and stands by the desk, not taking the seat.
"Thanks, but I'm gonna pass. I'm like three times as heavy as I used be and I don't think it would be a good early impression to blow the hydraulic on your chair like I did to mine."

He chuckles and puts his hand on the back of his neck, looking to the green cube in the tank.

"Good news is you have a little green garbage disposal now. He'll eat paper, but it doesn't have enough nutrition in it to make him any bigger. Just make sure you're really done with something before you give it to him. And don't give him anything magic like scrolls and stuff. You don't strike me as the wizarding type, but just in case."

He shuffles some of the paper balls on the floor with his foot.
"So are you a writer or a musician? Blue prints maybe?"

He nods along with the explanation. "Ah, ok. Guess we're both learning a lot today. I didn't know there were more kinds of animal people either, since cat guy isn't a Lycan then." He laughs a little, pleased at the mental image of Jeran with fluffy ears and a tail. "I think you'd be cute with ears. I mean, er. I mean, not that you're not. Just. Different cute. I mean..." He closes his eyes and takes a breath, trying to stop with just his foot in his mouth instead of his whole leg.

He nods and opens the door for him, waiting to be invited in.
"Uh, if you have any space under your desk or a bottom shelf of a book case or something like that, oozes like darker places." Quick subject change makes everything better...

"Oh, sorry. I guess I kinda assumed you guys could stop in the middle as like an anthropomorphic animal since I saw that cat guy and some of the lycan students staying with ears and tail."

It's his turn to grimace as he imagines the awkward situations that could occur with shifting clothing malfunctions. "Well, at least it's an easy fix if you get your clothes stolen like at the pool. Just go wolf until you get some new ones. I actually wonder what would happen if we scryed for the clothes you were wearing after you shifted."

"It's a pretty casual kind of place. I think you'll be fine like that. That's...kind of odd. About the clothes. I mean, I've never really thought of it before. When I shift I'm not wearing clothes in my wolf form. But I'm wearing them in human form. Well, unless I wasn't when I shifted. I never really stopped to consider before what happens to my clothes when I shift....that's kind of a mind-boggling question now," he said, picking up the tank with his new pet and heading towards the door, frowning as he considered the deep philosophical question of what happens to his clothes when he shape shifts.

Kevin goes to hold the door open for him.

"See, I just kinda tore out of the regular clothes I was wearing that day when I turned into this, and nothing will fit or stay on any more besides the coat. I mean, it didn't help that the experiment kinda exploded first, but that's neither here nor there."

He stays quiet for a moment, thinking deeply.

"What if there's a plane somewhere where all of the clothes and armor and stuff people are wearing when they shape shift is just kinda floating around. And if I put a t-shirt on you while you were a wolf, would it disappear when you turned back into human form? If you had an outfit on while you were human and one on when you were a wolf, which would you be wearing if you stopped half way? Or is the even half way point another point at which another outfit could be introduced?"

"Glad to see that it works," Jeran said with a smile. "I had no idea there were so many kinds of oozes before....well, I never really bothered to learn about them before either, so there's that."

"Is there anything else we need to do to clean up, or should we just drop Mr. Jigglypuff off at my room and go get some lunch?"

"Oh, yeah, there's tons. Natural ones, alchemically created ones, even deifically powerful ones. Most people just think about green jelly cubes with skeletons inside, but they're actually really interesting. At least, I think so."

He goes about switching things off and powering the vat down, making sure the forcefield was off so it wasn't wasting power.
"That's all I can think of. Do I need to like, dress up for this place? Clothes are kind complicated with the current body situation. Lab coat is magic and resizes to whatever current body needs are, but other stuff not so much. The new 'form shifting things instead of clothes' version of modesty was something I had to get used to pretty quick..."
He's actually wearing more clothes than the average dragon or ooze, which is to say, just his lab coat.

Jeran nods "Yes, absolutely. Always test to make sure things are working. The last thing you want is to find out they're not when you're in the middle of something important."

He starts turning things on to make sure that things are working, then turns them off again because there's a problem with the forcefield. He stops and adjusts some of the wiring and starts turning things on again. This time everything seems to be in order. "Heh. Case in point. That would have been inconvenient later on. Okay so here are the switches you need in order to turn the forcefield on and off. Just make sure it's off before you try to make repairs or you'll end up in the infirmary."

"And I think that's it. Looks like your tank is up and running and you shouldn't have any problems going forward with oozes breaking the filters."

He nods and watches with interest, waiting until he gives the all clear. In leiu of crafting up a full on ooze from scratch, he tosses one of his bottled oozes into it and has Jeran hit the forcefield before it hits bottom. The capsule dissolves quickly and a slate grey blob pours out, turning into a tall almost snake like creature that whips around the field at high speed, knocking on the semi invisible walls.

"Oh, yeah, this isn't part of the normal repairs at all. This is what I was talking about before. I'm adding an extra containment field around the inside of the tank so you won't have a repeat of the same problem. It's easier to explain it once it's all done since this is really complex. And I'll have to show you how to turn it off as well since once it's operational, you'll need to switch it off any time you need to do maintenance on the tank. This part is really just a lot of electrical work. If it breaks, you probably won't be able to fix it yourself. That's why I said it would make the tank harder to repair. But you can ask me for help if you ever need it, and given time you can probably learn how to fix it yourself, too," he said, looking up from where he was threading wire through the grid.

"Ooooh. That makes more sense. I mean, I know circuits and stuff, but nothing too advance."

He works pretty competently, taking instructions well. Once he's done with the parts he needs to know how to repair, he helps out with what he can, handing over tools and holding things until Jeran is finished installing things.

"Do we need to test it?"

Kevin follows along, pretty competently, making a few notes on basic repairs. He crooks his head a little as Jeran starts to repair things that didn't come up earlier.
"What are you putting in there? I thought it was only these two parts that needed replaced."

After double checking to make sure they had everything they needed, Jeran closed the log book and put it away before picking up a pile of parts to carry back to the lab. "Kuros is a good place for getting used to being around people. They're used to strange there too what with the school being here and the factories and everything. It'll be fun," he said, encouragingly.

"Yeah. I don't really get out of the lab enough, let alone into town."

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," he said cheerfully, gathering the last few parts he needed. "Cafeteria or do you want to head into town? There's a really good seafood place there. But I understand if you'd rather stay here."

"Well, I haven't really been into town since this happened." He does a full body wiggle to demonstrate his goo dragonness being 'this.' "But if I'm gonna start getting used to this, it's gonna have to happen sometime, right? Seafood sounds great." He smiles and double checks the parts he signed out, making sure he didn't miss anything. That would be embarrassing on his first time there.

"heh, strong."

Kevin blushes and looks back to the drawers they were pulling things from, taking the filter this had started over out.

"Yeah, that's pretty much me too, minus the being good in a crisis part." He laughs a little, stacking the parts he was holding.
"Speaking of, uh, every day stuff, do you maybe wanna get lunch after we get the tank fixed up?"

"I get that. I really do," he said quietly. "I'm maybe not the best person to give advice here. I'm not exactly high in the social hierarchy these days. I...when I came here I wanted to distance myself from my kind. I didn't want anything to do with them or how they do things. It's kind of a long story. I thought I could do it because I at least look human when I want to. It's not like I had to advertise the wolf part. But things didn't go the way I planned. I got caught in an enchantment....there's a fey witch here who dealt with her past trauma by taking over people around her and using them. I got stuck in the role of chief enforcer. Because I'm strong....no, because I'm the strongest," he said with a shrug. "I mastered all the fighting styles that lycans use. It's pretty rare. It...was what I had to do. For vengeance. Like I said, long story. By the time all of us were freed from the witch's control, the damage was done. I was the head lycan, whether I wanted to be or not. I did my best. I tried to keep some kind of control over the worst of it, to mitigate the damage. But then Ssrena's rebellion happened and....well, the whole group was broken up. The ringleaders of that were expelled, and the rest of us....well, I finally got my wish to be free of it. But I still had the reputation whether I'd earned it or not of being the head bully. I've been on the receiving end of a lot of retaliatory attacks since then, so I'm well aware of just how bad it can get. I'm still trying to figure things out. I don't have a lot of friends. But it's getting better. Slowly, but still. It's getting better. The looks don't last. They'll find something else to point and whisper about. You'll figure things out. And if it gets worse than pointing and whispering, tell me. I'm really good at being intimidating and I don't mind using that for my friends. Don't hide. Just keep walking around the way you are. Be proud of it. There's nothing wrong with you. And I know this is not how it feels from inside, but some of the pointing and whispering might not be negative. You never know. They might just think you look cool."

Kevin smiles softly, still not completely sure of himself, but much better than he was before.

"Whoa! Calm down, there! Unless you're acidic, which I think I would have noticed by now, you don't have to worry about it. I'm not gonna freak out. Okay, you're weird. Most kids are weird here. It doesn't mean you have to isolate yourself. Have kids been giving you a hard time about it?" he asked, concerned. He knew how quickly the bullying could get out of hand.

He sighs and looks down, his shoulders sagging. "I've always kinda been on the outside of the social circles around here, but that never really bother me before. But now I'm new and different, and kinda gross to some people. Most kids here are weird in a good way, like they're psychic or have some cool better ability. And I like the stuff I can do now, I can fly, and make animals and stuff, but I'm just... Tired of getting looked at like a freak. I could ignore it before when I was just the weird kid that made oozes, but I can't ignore it any more. Like, I literally can't. People think I don't notice the pointing and whispering to their friends when I have my back turned, but now I can sense everything around me. I can feel people making fun of me."

"Ah, well, between your nose and my... Not really ears, but it feels weird to say I hear with my body. Between us both, we've pretty much got everything covered. And geeze. I like mint, but definitely not that much. Also, I guess I don't need that mint shampoo any more..."

Kevin nods and trails off of his rambling as he signs the pad, taking out his own. He starts to help find part, referencing the sheet to his pad.
The two of them both go for the same drawer handle while he's distracted looking at the serial numbers. He quickly notices and pulls his hand back with a deep blush as he looks away. "S-sorry, I know th-that my hands feel weird... And the rest of me. It's weird. I'm weird."

"We can find all the parts we need in the Mechanics classroom. As long as you sign out what you take so they can keep an accurate inventory, then it's alright. I can show you where everything is so you can do it yourself next time as long as it's something simple. And I think I need to pick up a few extra parts. If it's that easy to break the system, then the shielding is inadequate. Pretty sure I can fix it without too much trouble, but it will add some complexity to the system that might make it a little bit harder to fix in the future."

"It usually isn't, I don't think. If I had to guess, the crack happened the last time I made a Doppeldrek. Oozes usually aren't solid enough to harm the inside of the tank, but Doppeldreks mimic a solid form. It probably punched the crack in the side while it was copying me. If you can help improve it, I'm all ears. Literally, kind of, in a way. I can kinda see with sound. It's ​weird. Anyways. The mechanics lab, shall we?" He marks the serial number for the filter and sensors they needed on a note pad before stowing it, ready to follow.