The Interdimensional Spaceship

Event 1: Start!
After a bright flash of light and sudden warmth, everyone becomes something they're not.

Anything goes.

Maahes stared at the dancing man that had suddenly appeared only a short distance away from him. Though the last time they had met had been at the masquerade, it only took him a short time to recognize who he was. "R-Raiden?" he managed to get out, staring with confusion at him. He glanced wildly around the room. Had he just appeared out of nowhere, or had he walked into the library-

A sudden wave of warmth washed over him. A change began to overtake his body, and it didn't feel good in the slightest - it felt restrictive and tight and every way that he was never supposed to feel like away from the Other Place. He stared down at himself. His clothes didn't look right. His hair was shorter than his guise's hair should have been, the stubble on his chin was now a goatee, and he had a hat on his head. And that wasn't the only problem - the proportions were all wrong. He frowned and instinctively went to run his fingers through his hair, only to stop when he realized there was barely anything to run it through.

He nervously looked around the library. "Ja-" he started to say, only to give a startled cry and frantically cover his mouth with his hands.

Or, rather, James's mouth with James's hands.

He wildly touched his fair, horror clearly written across his pale features. Whatever that warmth and light had been, it had somehow made him switch bodies with his friend. He resumed his search for James. He wasn't looking for his normal self; he was looking for the guise Maahes had been using last.

But all he could find was a cute little black cat near him.

"H-Hey, little guy," he managed to get out, his voice shaking as he leaned down beside the feline. He reached a trembling hand out to pet it. Even if he was still terrified, he couldn't ignore a cute cat. "I'm looking for my friend, but you probably can't help me with that."


He was only a short distance away from the library when two strange things happened: a dancing man appeared, and the world suddenly became far larger after a bright flash of light and warmth. He knew that they were probably connected, but all he could think about was how tight and restrictive and familiar his body felt - it reminded him of when he had shared a body with Arin, but that couldn't be right.

He looked down at himself.

And almost immediately afterwards, a startled, terrified scream of a little girl left his mouth because that was what he had somehow become. And not just any little girl - it was Arin's voice, and Arin's little tiny pigtails bouncing on his back as he wildly spun around in search of an answer. In the process of doing so, he managed to trip over his now too large clothes and fall flat on his face.


Runi did the polite thing after the man had suddenly shown up and started dancing - she clapped and gave a cheer to show she was impressed. That was right when she was blinded by a bright, weirdly warm light, and suddenly she didn't feel much of anything at all.

"Oh no," a voice said. Runi would say it was whispered into her ear, but it was more like the person was talking right into her head.

She spun around wildly to see who had spoken, but eerily couldn’t see anyone. "Who said that?" she asked, terrified. At least, her voice should have come out as terrified. Instead it was monotone and choppy, and she was hit with a horrible feeling of recognition. She sounded like one of the Galran robot sentries, and a glance down only confirmed her suspicions.

"I did," the voice said. "Don't freak out, Runi. It's me, Magic."

Runi let out a robotic sigh of relief.

"Uh, remember how I said that weird things would happen?" Runi nodded. "This is one of them."

"Everyone got turned into a Galran sentry?" she asked, bewildered, and stared down at her robotic hands.

Magic gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, not technically? It's only you, as far as I know. I just checked the library before I realized you were connected to the ship, and it looks like James got turned into a cat and Maahes got turned into James." There was an awkward moment of silence, and then Magic added, "It's probably a good idea to see how everyone else is doing. I'm still here, but I really need to get back to work on figuring out how to get out of the ship."

Runi nodded again. "Okay. Lead the way, Magic!"

Spoiler

This is what Runi looks like right now!

Dante scowled at the strange fool who appeared, only to dance, and then dissapeared.

"What kind of entertainment was that?" She mumbled crossly, going back to clomping down the hallways.

A sudden invasive feeling took over her, and she gasped, falling unsteadily to her knees. Something inside her began to twist and morph painfully. Finally, it was over, and she gasped, steadying her hands on the floor.

"W- what in.." she cut off abruptly as a young, childish voice left her mouth.

Looking down at herself in horror, she realized that she was now in a child's body- no more than six or seven years old, at most. And if the ragged, torn clothes and unassuming ribbon tied to her wrist were any indication, she had become a younger version of herself.

Bringing a hand up to cover her mouth, she let out a little shriek.

Jaron decided that today would not be a good day when he saw the dancing man. He tried to scream, but the feeling that washed over him next stifled him. It felt like one of his explosives had prematurely detonated again - a crushing feeling settled over his chest, his ears popped, and warmth spread throughout his body. However, weirdly enough, he felt like he was taller. As the feeling dissipated, he realized that his ears and snout had gotten just a bit bigger, he could stand up straight, his tool-laden belts and pockets had dissipated, and his vision had gotten a lot worse. It was almost like he was in an entirely different body.

He looked down. Oh, this was Kendrik's. He could deal with that.

What Jaron couldn't deal with was the angry bobcat that was now trying to claw at his ankles. Screaming, he punted the bobcat and bolted in the other direction. He looked back just in time to see the bobcat hit a wall, stagger onto its feet, and sprint after him, hissing.

Uh-oh. Jaron doubled his pace.



Well, that was odd. At least the dancing man was pretty good at it; Taber clapped as the man stood still and slowly disappeared.

That is, until he felt like somebody had stuffed him into a rug and waved a candle in front of his face.

He leaned forward when the feeling went away, hitting the ground. Taber wasn't sure why he hadn't been able to stretch his arms out, but he now realized that his arms were a lot thicker and shorter. And covered in tawny fur. Also, they weren't exactly arms anyone, as he quickly found out when he almost toppled over from lifting one.

Taber couldn't look down any farther than those paws, but what he did notice suggested that he was in the body of a lion, and not even the bipedal kind. How he could still think clearly was beyond him, but he realized he couldn't change out of that form.

So he couldn't offer any consolation to the kid with the oversized clothes walking in front of him. Sune? It was probably Sune; there hadn't been anyone else in the room. Taber tried a greeting, but it came out as a roar. Darn it, he'd forgotten about this new body already.

Dante was aware of a commotion behind her- something involving hissing and a scuffle. She assumed that the other two members of the group had run into a similar problem as her, but was too preoccupied to turn and survey their situation.

That is, until the screams faded and she was left in silence. Turning around, she gazed at the empty hallway with wide eyes.

"H- hello?" She called, hesitantly. "Jaron? Denebola?" The desperation in her small voice made her a bit angry and embarrassed, but she pressed on, too overwhelmed to remain stoic.

Stumbling with her shorter limbs, she desperately wandered the hall. If she still had her database, she could simply follow an internal map to the library, but now that was impossible.

For the first time, she cursed her old body as she picked up her pace up into a run. Despite her anger and annoyance, fear overwhelmed any other emotion. She cursed softly again as her eyes started to well with tears.

Spoiler

Before I forget, only Runi can hear Magic right now. So if anyone overheard their conversations, it would sound like she was a robot talking to itself.

The moment Runi stepped out of the holodeck, she crashed into man running from the other direction. It didn’t feel like what she usually associated with pain, but she could definitely tell that someone had just crashed into her hard enough for her to stagger back from the impact.

"Who's that?" she asked, quickly regaining her balance.

That's Jaron. He's a little skittish, so you'll probably want to avoid scaring him, Magic answered. He was over in the garden.

Runi nodded, then turned her attention to the other people in the area. There was a the Galra-like creature that was trying to chase Jaron. When Magic didn't say who they were - if they were even a person - Runi decided the best thing to do was ask. (Though the only people she could think of were Horny Man, Dante and James.)

"So who's trying to catch Jaron?" she questioned. "They don't seem in a good mood right now."

That's Denebola, Magic said. I'm 99.99% sure she's always in a bad mood, so you'll probably want to avoid her if you can.

Runi's reactions were notably limited, so she had to rely on her voice to get her reaction across. "And since she's coming after Jaron right now, I won't be able to avoid her."

Yup, Magic confirmed. You could try going over to Dante, though - she'd probably appreciate it. She's just down the hallway, and, if the ship's camera are anything to go off of, she's crying. She got stuck as a kid version of herself.

"That sucks. I'd hate to be stuck that small."

I agree. I'd take adult forms over a kid's form any day.

Runi did as suggested, stepping around Jaron and past Denebola, only slowing her pace when she turned down the hallway Magic pointed her in the direction of.

"Hey, Dante," Runi said. She gave the crying girl a wave, not quite sure what she was supposed to do next.


Sune scrambled to his feet, clothes dragging, and spun around to see what had roared. He instinctively tried to summon a flame when he saw that a gigantic beast was staring him down, but Arin had always had more trouble tapping into her magic, and this little body had nothing compared to what she had accomplished through training over the years.

He stared at the thing, skin going pale as he found himself too terrified to move. He knew he should try running, but, even if he did, he'd just fall flat on his face again.

And that was when his little body decided that it wanted to cry because of how terrified he was, and he couldn't stop the tears that soon followed as he waited for it to try attacking him.

Dante spun around at the robotic voice, jumping a bit. And, whoever had found her was... none other than a robot. She sniffed and scrubbed her eyes aggressively, trying to figure out how the said robot knew her by name.

"Hello. Um... have we met?" It came out as a squeak, and she cleared her throat. Though normally she would have been more concerned about a complete stranger coming out of nowhere and knowing her identity, she was more relieved than anything.

"S- sorry- I don't recall your name."

"We have met," Runi confirmed with a nod. She tried her best to smile, but there wasn't really anything that could simulate it on the sentry's face. This resulted in her giving a frown - which was also impossible for Dante to see. She rested the blaster she had been sparring with on one shoulder; it was one of hers, not something conjured by the holodeck.

I know that I'm supposed to be doing other things right now, Magic said, but you might frighten her with your gun. She's stuck as a kid. She already feels helpless.

"Oh," Runi said, glancing at the blaster and then at Dante. "You're right." She tried to readjust into another less threatening position, but she had no holster to put it in. She had to settle for leaving it leaning up against her leg, but even that wasn't all that much better. "Should I put it somewhere else?"

Magic was silent for a moment.

No, they decided. I think that's the best you're going to get.

Runi nodded in agreement. "That's what I was thinking - they really should wear holsters, but I think they think it looks more impressive with the guns just being carried on the shoulder."

Panic set into the lion's face as Taber took a few awkward steps back. His attempts to calm Sune down had had the opposite effect. He was tempted to give a hug, but he had to remind himself that he wasn't in a body that hugged people easily, especially not children. He had to stop and think. That was something Eremia would do.

He ultimately opted to move next to Sune and stretch out. Beyond feeling good, it'd also give off the impression that he was comfortable and nonthreatening. A long, low purr would help too.

Dante opened her mouth to question the robot further, only to stop short when it started talking to itself and fidgeting with its gun.

With a cold chill, she realized what was happening. The robot had probably pulled up her profile on its database and was either fabricating an aquintaince for a malicious reason, or... because it was insane. With the robot talking to itself, she decided it was probably the later.

If it wasn't for the fact of the robot being armed, she would have turned and ran. Instead, she decided to keep it calm and get out of there as soon as possible.

"Oh yes... weapons. They sure can be pesky." She commented, a faux cheery tone in her voice. "I'm afraid 'coolness' and functionality don't always agree."

The moment Raiden appeared, James felt an unwelcome wave of heat pass over him, and he wasn't sure if the two occurrences were connected. But in an instant, everything felt very wrong.

He felt small, and oh so very close to the ground. Everything around him had grown considerably larger and out of reach and something about his body just felt off. It only took one quick glance down at himself to realize that he was in the body of a small, black cat, and the moment he did, he froze.

What? No, no, no, no. Magic had said trouble would come and chaotic things would happen but he hadn't thought something like this would happen. Being turned into a cat was not something he'd prepared for.

As he stared down at his paws with wide eyes, his heart feeling like it could thump out of his chest, he heard a voice from above. His own voice. When he looked up, he was looking into his face.

"What the hell," he said - or at least, he meant to say. All that came out was a long, soft meow that sounded worlds timider and cute than his intended tone or his original voice. He stared up at himself in bewilderment, watching as his own hand reached out slowly to touch him.

"I'm looking for my friend, but you probably can't help me with that." He heard himself say.

Wait. Was he... Maahes? Had Maahes somehow been switched into his body? But if they were switched, wouldn't that've meant he would be stuck in Maahes's body instead of the useless, tiny body of a cat? Or maybe there was no reason to the chaos, and Maahes just looked like how he was supposed to look, and he was stuck as a cat? For how long this would last, he couldn't say, but he desperately hoped to change soon, so he could have a voice. How was he supposed to communicate who he was if he was a feline? He inched forward towards Maahes's hand, looking up at him as his panicked mind searched for a way to tell Maahes who he was.

Oh! The hand signal!

He looked down at his paws. He didn't have hands, but it would have to do. He sat down beneath Maahes's hand and lifted a paw to his mouth. Any attempt to lift his toes as if they were fingers was minuscule, but he hoped the message would get across.

Sune gave a startled cry and stumbled back from the creature as it suddenly laid down next to him, but he once again tripped over his clothes. But instead of him falling safely away from it, he landed right into the surprisingly soft of the creature. His eyes widened in alarm. He tried to get up, but his clothes had gotten all tangled together in the fall and he couldn't easily sit up when they hung so loosely.

He started sobbing even louder than before.

But then the long, low purr registered, and he stared at the creature he was laying against. It wasn't going to harm him? It had sounded like it was with that roar, but maybe he had just jumped to the wrong conclusion. (Though he thought it was a good one, seeing how sharp its teeth were! It had to be a carnivore, and what was to say that it didn't want to munch on a helpless little human?)

Wait.

Where was Taber?

He popped his head up and glanced wildly around the hallway, his last sob catching in his throat when he realized it was just him and the creature there. Furiously wiping his tears away with a too large sleeve, he looked over at the creature once more. "T-Taber?" he managed to get out. He wiped away the tears a little more furiously than before, and tried his best not to sniffle. "I'm sorry for being afraid of you."

He hadn't said anything like this yet, and it made a chill run up his spine when he heard the voice he remembered Arin using when they were kids leaving his mouth. "I'm still me," he hesitantly added, readjusting himself so he could get a better look at Taber's face. "I just look like a little kid, and my body wants me to respond like one. But I'm still Sune."


"Thank you!" Runi said. "I'm glad that she gets me."

Magic paused for a second, and Runi awkwardly waited for something to continue the conversation. It took a good few moments before that happened, and in that short time Runi had shifted the gun so it leaned up against her other leg instead. Did you notice? She's acting weird. Something must be up.

"Oh, yeah," Runi said. "I definitely did. She's acting cheerful, and I would not be cheerful if I was in her shoes. Not that I've ever been, really. But you'd get that, right?"

Magic laughed a little. I do! I've only ever taken on a child's form if I wanted to get into some place that an adult couldn't easily get into.

"Like playgrounds," Runi added.

Darunia Vain, you get me perfectly. There was another pause. Once I get out of my ship, I'm going to stop by your reality and we're going on an adventure.

She grinned - or, at least, would have if she could. "If you can deal with Haggar, then I'm one hundred percent down for that. Meet up at the space mall?"

Duh! Where else? I've been wanting to go there for ages, but I keep getting distracted.

She would have grinned even larger. "Me too!"


Maahes's now very existent heart melted when the cat gave an absolutely adorable meow, but then skipped a beat a moment later when the cat raised its paw up to its little mouth.

It had to be a trick of the light, right? He wasn't sure how something like that could explain a cat looking at him so intelligently while doing something mimicked their signal so perfectly, but, then again...Maahes looked around. He hadn't moved, despite suddenly looking like his friend. And James would have been standing right where the cat was.

His eyes widened.

"James?" he whispered. He must have known that his other self was actually Maahes; otherwise he wouldn't have done the signal. He promptly sat down next to the black cat and looked James right in the eye. "That's you, right? You're-You're a cat? And I'm somehow you?"

James nodded his head with insistence, even though doing so as a cat felt slightly unnatural. He ended up meowing again in earnest reassurance in an attempt to say "yes," only to be frustrated once again when no words were actually said.

In frustration, his tail flicked, and he tried to figure out something else he could do just to make sure Maahes knew it was him. With one more glance up at Maahes, who wore his own face, he stretched out his neck and pressed his head up into Maahes's hand, rubbing it a little.

In retrospect, it was a very cat-like gesture, but it seemed a positive and peaceful one.

Ardeshir Ellonhav had gotten lost. At first, he'd been following James and Maahes, but then he'd seen a really cool looking book and then some fun little gilded pages and now he was somewhere he was very confused about. All the shelves looked the same and now he was concerned. What if James was mad that he'd been stupid and wandered off again? What if he ruined a plan? What if he wasn't able to find them?

Ari gulped and started through the shelves. "Philip-Tiberius-James?" he said, his voice coming out more thinly than he meant it to. He probably should've been looking where he was going, because that was the moment when he tripped over his own feet and when he stood up he found himself on all fours and everything was lacking in color.

Uh-oh. He must've hit his head. He sat down and rubbed his face with his paw.

His paw?!

He looked down at himself to see disproportionately large paws, canine legs, and a tail. He was a dog. More accurately, he was a puppy.

"OH MY GOD JAMES I'M A DOG NOW!" he yelled, but it came out as barking. Whoa. He leapt to his feet and bounded through the shelves, catching the whiff of what he instinctively knew was James. A moment later he turned a corner and saw the bearded man. With typical puppy enthusiasm, he leapt on James, who was standing next to a cat, and started licking his face.

Spoiler

He's a fawn-colored Great Dane puppy :)

Maahes wasn't normally terrified of dogs - and especially not puppies - but suddenly getting tackled by one without even knowing that a puppy was present in the library made him give him feel a jolt of terror as the puppy started eagerly licking its face. He had always preferred cats over dogs, but he knew that it was a Great Dane. Thank God it wasn't an adult one!

It took a little bit of pushing, but he managed to get the energetic puppy away from him. He looked down at James, suddenly remembering that cats and dogs didn't usually mix, and instinctively scooped his friend up into his arms as he slowly backed away from the dog. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know this must feel weird, but I don't want the dog to hurt you."

James felt a strange apprehensiveness come over him as the puppy suddenly rushed past him and tackled Maahes. He could feel his hairs raising up on his back ever so slightly as if the cat's instincts were betraying the usual outward coolness that he worked so hard to maintain. And even though it felt very strange to be picked up by Maahes and cradled like a child, it was almost relieving to be out of the reach of the overexcited pup.

Except that he knew the dog was Ari, because he, without question, understood the dog's woof's to mean what Ari was actually saying.

It was odd, but so was everything else, and he wasn't going to question it.

"Ari," he said calmly, though with the sternness of a parent chiding a child. "Calm down. I somehow got stuck as a cat and now you're a dog. Maahes looks like me, but he's not me."

Of course, to Maahes, he knew it only sounded like another string of soft meows. He looked up at Maahes and pawed at his shirt, then nodded his head towards Ari, trying to indicate that Ari was a friend. It was, however, oddly fitting that Ari was a puppy of all things. It just... seemed to fit.