The Lost City

Nothing notable happened during the short walk to the library. They talked a bit, but nothing they discussed was extraordinary - it was just small talk. By the time they had reached the library, Maahes was glad that they had arrived; he desperately wanted to get the weight of Aegeas's sleeping body out of his hands.

He made a beeline for the nearest couch and placed him gently down on it, Nadira following suit with Boris a minute later.

Bo followed Nadira and Maahes's lead and walked over to the couches, laying Kartiel on the end of the long couch gently. For a moment, he paused to look down at the three passed out drunk guys with pursed lips. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head before sighing and shaking his head.

"Welp," he said quietly as not to wake them. "I'll sit here for when they wake up. Ya'll can go do all the readin' you want."

And with that said, he carefully and slowly sat down on the couch between Boris and Kartiel. If he didn't have to stay awake for their sakes he would've wanted to take a nap too.

Raiden walked into the library a little later than the others, wearing a different t-shirt. He flopped on the floor in front of Bo and laid there, staring up at the ceiling.
"Man...I'm heckin' tired," he mumbled.

“Mood,” Bo said in a quiet echo, leaning back into the couch. “I can’t tell how long of a day its been, or if day ever came and went.”

Nadira walked over to the console that had been used by Kartiel during the last excursion to the library. Codix looked away when she started trying to connect to the device; even though he had created her and had seen in many different situations, it was still bizarre seeing her pull out a cord from within her and find an outlet to plug it into so she could directly go through the data.

Maahes, meanwhile, had wandered off into the aisles. He had returned to the technology section, and Codix went hurrying on after him when he realized where he had gone. By the time that he caught up, Maahes had already pulled a book off of the shelves and was in the middle of flipping through it.

Liquor led easily into sleep, but the sleep it led to was normally unsound.
In this state, I'd often drift in and out, and upon occasion, mutter barely conscious nonsense.

"The bears... they're after us, I tell you, there's bears..." I mumbled through the haze, before fully drifting off again, resuming drunken snores that I could deny later.

The sleeping Aegeas responded to the noise by waving a hand in Boris's general direction. Since that hand was keeping him propped on the couch, he slumped forward, head falling on the ground. His snoring went on uninterrupted.

Bo looked down at Boris with his eyebrows raised. He looked over to Raiden as if to share the moment, witnessing Boris's sleep-talking about bears.

"Roar," he said quietly above him, mildly amused.

Boris twitched, and rolled over, his mouth crumpling into a quivering frown.

"You, you think this is a game?" he growled softly. "The beaarrs....they have the high ground...and supererior firepowerrrr..."

He rolled over twice more before he calmed down, easing back into rhythmic snores.

Codix had overheard the entirety of the conversation from the bookcase he was standing next to, and started heading back over to the sleeping group as an idea came to mind. Maahes was too engrossed in his book to notice, and Nadira's sole focus was on the data before her.

He came to a stop next to the couch and put a finger to his lips as he looked at Bo and Raiden with a downright mischievous expression on his face. He let the change overcome him in an instant, his small gray body being quickly transformed into a gigantic, furry bear.

He let out the loudest roar he could possibly muster as he stood right next to Boris.

Nadira knocked over the console in her surprise, and there was a startled, alarmed cry from where Maahes was standing.

Before he was remotely conscious of anything, Boris leaped back, knocking into Bo and Kartiel, who knocked Aegeas onto the floor, uttering blasphemous curses in German in an unceasing stream the whole way.

He fell off the couch, bumped into Aegeas, then scrambled away in another direction, wincing from the knock.


"SWEETGODDAMNBLOODYF*CKINGCHRIST!" he shouted, not sure wether he was furious or terrified.

Aegeas awoke with a start. He'd just been crushed by something heavy, there was a lot of screaming, and he couldn't quite see in front of him (though he quickly realized his eyes were closed). Great. They'd been ambushed again.

He rose onto his feet, swaying side to side as he pulled out a scimitar and scanned the various blurs and blobs. "Who's it?" he said. "Who wants ta pick a fight with me?"

Kartiel woke up the moment his body slammed into the ground. Everything hurt, something he was sure he could blame the hangover on. Part of him was convinced he was still drunk when he saw the scene laid out before him. Boris was cowering a short distance away, while Aegeas was preparing for a fight. And the reason for all of this seemed to be a bear standing in the middle of the library.

He let out a groan and rested his head back on the floor. Hangovers as a wraith sucked, and it didn't help that one of the shapeshifters was probably the bear for some stupid reason he couldn't be bothered to try comprehending. He turned his head to the side and looked at where the bear's soul would be.

It was Codix.

He went back to staring up at the ceiling. He really should have guessed that.

Codix, meanwhile was trying his very best not to get attacked by Aegeas. "No wants to pick a fight with you!" he hurriedly said, but he had forgotten that he needed to change some parts of this form so the words would come out understandable - all that came out as was one very frantic, loud roar.

Nadira snickered from nearby. He sent an angry glance in her direction, and a roar that was meant to be her name for good measure, but he was too worried about the whole situation to even think of changing his appearance so he looked like himself again or making the necessary changes so he didn't roar every time he tried to speak.

Raiden had fallen asleep, sometime between his last statement with Bo and the beginning of the bear prank. Now, with all the noise, he lazily woke up, and looked at the bear standing in front of him.
"Hey...hey bear, c'mere," he whispered, lazily gesturing to come closer

Codix scooted a little closer to Raiden, though it was mainly because he wanted to avoid being attacked by Aegeas.