Radiation

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Outside it is hot and dreary and dry. Inside it is cool and dark, just the way he likes it. Outside, a child shrieks and startles the chemist turned necromancer. Glass shatters, sending shards across the blackened floor of his den lab. He hisses and kicks the shards away from him, ignoring the sizzling chemical splattered across one wing.

Radiation snarled in annoyance, picking up the largest pieces of the broken beaker. His plague goblin shambles forward, offering him a clean cloth. The chemist snatches it up and mops up the spill of acidic liquid. The goblin checks the ridgeback's wings for any damage - there is none - and then steps back underneath the table.

From there, her watchful eyes follow Radiation as he moves through the den, shimmering black wings tucked up against his back. He fishes out a new beaker and returns to his experiments. She taps on one bony knee and waits patiently.

The Ridgeback rolls his eyes, pausing for only a moment to give his familiar a pat on the head and a scrap of meat.

---

They had described it as an accident, a tragic mistake. He knew different. It was his lab, his chemicals, his own damned experiment - he knew that there had been nothing wrong. It hadn't been an accident. It had been sabotage.

He'd thought, maybe, that it had been a jealous colleague, a malicious clanmate, or the other resident chemist had switched out one chemical for another. He'd never thought to suspect his own mate.

The explosion caused by the experiment - a tiny little gadget meant to regulate the effect of radiated material - had heavily scarred his face and body, turned his scales an overly bright green and shimmery black, and bled his once arcane eyes to a bloody red. The damage hadn't stopped there.

New growths ripped from his back, wings and spikes and even frills. He himself now gave off small amounts of radiation, causing dragons around him to fall sick and, if around him too much, die. To top it off, as if everything else wasn't bad enough, his nerve endings were completely shot.

He no longer felt pain. He could hold his hand to a burning candle and feel no pain, though his heart still beat and his skin still burned. He healed faster as well, walked quieter, spoke in a deeper voice than before.

His name was forcibly changed to what he was now, to Radiation, to warn others of the disease he carried with him. He said nothing to his mate, to the one who had done this to him...for his rage no longer burned inside, as if even his emotions had been damaged.

Radiation left his clan behind and traveled to the scarred wasteland, hoping for an answer to his new and unstable body. Instead he came across a young enduring goblin with a crippled leg. He'd taken her with him, as she didn't mind the poison he gave off or the fact that he had too many limbs to be natural.

Other dragons avoided him in the markets, whispered about him and expressed their pity in many ways. He didn't mind much, as it made them stay away from his small goblin companion. When he met Mercier and Machine he was tired of wandering, tired of having no home and no lab.

Know he could look out the little window of his den and see the Cove and his new clan. His new clanmates would wave to him, always mindful of the radiated air around him. It made him smile when they braved it to give him gifts and played with his small companion.

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Sexuality: pansexual
Gender: male
Mate/romantic partner: none

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Familiar's name: Katarina
Familiar's gender: female she/her
More about her:

· Has a permanent limp on her left side.

· Loves getting treats from Radiation.

· Loves food in general.

· Likes being petted and held.

· Doesn't mind getting messy but hates staying messy.

· She loves it when she's given a bath, especially if there's bubbles involved (she enjoys hunting them).

· Was very young when picked up by Radiation and is very attached to him.