Luminary Institute

9: A Childhood Obsession With Heads

With everyone’s so-called power ‘check-ups’ not taking too long, Nyssa was the last to go. She had watched Celeste go and knew what to expect, but it was... still a little nerve-wracking. After all, everyone decided to stay and watch—they wanted to, in their own words, “to know what the newest member of the f’ around and find out club was capable of.” 

Standing in the center of the expansive training room, she dragged her foot against the dusty floor. Feeling, and hearing, bits of dust crack and break apart under her foot, Nyssa looked up to see everyone had settled down in a seat. 

As far as Nyssa could tell, they were in a slight semi-circle formation, but it was so far it might as well have just been a line of chairs. 

“You can start whenever!” Ryker shouted out while pumping his arm. “We’re looking forward to the show!” 

“What am I supposed to do?” Nyssa shouted back while hoping her voice could reach them. “Like, you already saw my most used transformation!” 

“Could you actually come back for now?” Angelica apologized while looking down at her clipboard. “Sorry for making you run out there! I’ll ask some questions first. Plus, most of your demonstrations can probably be done here, right? They’re not immediately dangerous.” 

Jogging back while shaking her head to try and shake off the awkwardness, Nyssa came to a stop in front of the entire panel. “Uhm... well, ask away.” 

“Any limitations in what you can transform into?” Angelica started off while crossing her legs. “You mentioned fictional and real, yeah? But are there limits to how fictional? And, or other metrics? Such as size and such?” 

“Well, I don’t know, I can usually transform into whatever I feel like. I guess the more out there it is, the more energy it consumes. Especially if I have to supplement energy to uh... survive as the creature. Bigger takes more energy, which I think is obvious. It’s not a debilitating limitation though,” Nyssa shrugged before turning to her favorite cat form. “I can also talk in these various forms too.” 

Getting hoisted up by Angelica, Nyssa batted at her with her paws until Angelica murmured a “Hold still. I just want to memorize all the various features you have. Healthy fur. Healthy weight. Very active with the paws.” 

“Haven’t you seen it enough...” Nyssa complained from her suspended position in the air. “You’ve come by a few times...” 

“Well, not in this context, I should pay attention to a couple more things now that I’m your teacher.” Angelica clarified while setting Nyssa down, “Okay, you’re free to go.” 

Scampering off, Nyssa transformed back into a human as everyone else began clapping. 

“What a transformation.” 

“Never seen such a cute cat before!” 

“Truly a transformation for the ages.” 

“My STEED!” 

“Shut the hell up, Conrad, don’t make jokes like that.” 

Giving Electra a thankful nod for her chastisement, Nyssa spread her arms to open the floor to everyone to ask questions. 

Ryker, with his hand shooting into the air, grinned as he was almost hopping out of his seat. Getting permission to talk, he couldn’t help but begin to laugh. “Can you, uh... transform into a goat?” 

“Baaa,” Nyssa replied in a normal voice while transforming into a goat. “Satisfied?” 

“That’s why she’s the GOAT!” Ryker burst out laughing before falling off his chair. “Sorry, yeah, I’m satisfied.” 

“What are some other go to transformations you have?” Titus asked with a curious smile. “Or is it the cat only?” 

“I mean... some of them are kind of weird...” Nyssa coughed into her hand. “Let me think of some of the more normal ones.” 

Doing a quick demonstration, Nyssa paused on each of them long enough for Angelica to take notes on whatever she wanted to write down before shifting to the next. 

First was a phoenix, then a unicorn, then a moose, then a bear, and so on it went. As the transformations went on, Nyssa noticed how they became more and more mundane—especially as she mixed in a few requests from the audience. 

“What are some completely fictional ones then?” Angelica asked as she checked the time. 

“Well, the first one that really clued in my dad was uh... this one,” Nyssa explained before transforming into a five headed chicken. “I called it the Hydra chicken and he... erm... didn’t like it as much as I did back then.” 

“I can see why...” Albion trailed off as his seat iced over. “It’s a little unsettling to have five chicken heads speaking at once.” 

“I... see, I think I remember hearing about this,” Angelica got out of her seat. Crouching down to take a closer look, she scrutinized the hydra-chicken from all sides. “Nothing too out of the ordinary though, especially since this chicken is so small.” 

“I mean, yeah, what made him sit down and talk to me was a different one...” Nyssa transformed back into a human while tapping her chin. “I don’t like using it though nowadays since I find it disorienting. It’s just so far from humans.” 

“Can you show it to us for a second? Or would you rather not?” Angelica asked while patting Nyssa on the shoulder. “It’s definitely fine either way, since he mentioned you don’t need explicit training from me.” 

“I might as well,” Nyssa shrugged, “I’ll go a little farther since this one’s a little dangerous. Do you have any uh... protection you all can hide behind?” 

“... No?” Celeste piped up for the first time in a while, “What type of animal are you transforming into...? We can get up and be alert on our feet though? Unless it's really serious, then we’ll use the observing room instead.” 

“You’ll see for the animal, I don’t think it’s that dangerous, I’ll just adjust the energy beams to be weaker, I’d still recommend getting on your feet though,” Nyssa looked away before transforming into a raven and flying to the center of the room. 

“Energy beams...?” Conrad asked as he, along with the others, got up out of their seats. “Any ideas, Celeste?

“Don’t ask me, I’m not the ‘energy beam expert,’” Celeste raised her hands. “I’m just as confused as you are.” 

“You literally are the energy beam expert though.” Albion mused while moving past them two to get to a more secluded area. “I’m going to stand farther so I don’t die or something from a stray beam.” 

“Alright, whenever you’re ready!” Angelica shouted out to Nyssa.

“Okay! So, uhm... for some context!” Nyssa shouted back while doing some stretches. “I had a weird obsession with heads and unicorns at that time!” 

Ignoring everyone’s confused murmurs, Nyssa took the moment to transform into a huge, floating ball of unicorn heads pointing in every direction. With the plethora of heads facing in every direction, each head blinked and looked around on its own before all the heads opened their mouths at once. 

An instant later, high—well, now adjusted to be low—powered energy lasers came shooting out from each unicorn’s mouth. 

With everyone scrambling to dodge the lasers, a collective sigh of relief filled the room as Nyssa stopped as soon as she began. 

“What the hell was that...?” 

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