Cuckoos and Chalk Marks

"That looks like a door in a house I would have been kicked out of," I said, a smirk on my lips. "I was too much of a street urchin to be let in most of the time."

Maybe I wasn't going to get kicked out of my body after all.

Sorenson rested a hand on the imp-shaped knob and opened the door.
Inside was a sprawling gallery of every suit of armor known to Faerun and Earth. Dwarven armor with the gauntlets clutching a heft axe stood in one corner beside the elegant leaf-patterned armor of an elven sentinel. Not far from there was Ming Dynasty armor. Medieval European armor was far off on the other side, and a Zulu headdress and war-clothing hung from a stand near the entrance. The door was a long, long walk from here.
"This doesn't seem too bad!" Sorenson said with a smile. "The ceiling is high, at least. And are those paintings up there?"

I followed Sorenson inside.

When I glanced up to check if there really were paintings on there, the world started to spin. I staggered backwards towards the door that was no longer there. It had unsurprisingly closed and disappeared behind us.

"I'm-" I started to say, but didn't get a chance to finish. One moment, I was in my body. The next, I was watching it slid to the ground. My vision wasn't exactly the same now. It was more like I was seeing sources of light than anything else. I could make out everything, but my body and Sorenson were the things that were easiest to notice.

Staring at my body, I groaned and uttered a Victorian swear. My body didn't look dead, but it was close to it. Its breathing was quiet and hard to notice. I had to squint to see the falling and rising of my chest.

Sorenson didn't notice for a moment, squinting up at what appeared to be paintings of cherubs. He turned as Skull's body hit the ground. "Hello, what happened there?" He crouched down, plucking at the body's hand. "Skull?" Had he died again? Somehow? Or was this some sort of ploy?

"I'm right here," I said, even though I knew he couldn't hear me. I eyed the rest of the room and groaned again. There was nothing I could use to write a message—assuming Sorenson could even read the very few words I knew how to write. I could have tried the trustworthy writing a message in my own blood, but I didn't want to cut my arm too much this time around. Nikko had panicked that one time I tried doing that.

In my defense, she had been panicking before then, too.

"Skull." Sorenson poked at Skull again, then rose, looking around. "Well, crumbs." He couldn't carry a body. He could levitate it, perhaps? He gestured with his hands, and the body rose up about half a foot off the floor. "If you're dead, I'm leaving you in the next room," he told it, and started down the hall.

My eyes widened in alarm.

"I'm right here," I repeated, frustrated. If I hadn't been so busy worrying about getting left behind, I would have wondered why he didn't levitate me across the chasm in the other room. "Don't you dare leave me behind."

Sorenson, of course, couldn't hear me. He also couldn't see me when I started walking alongside him. I was stuck hoping I'd end up back in my body soon when I very well knew I wouldn't.

I eyed a nearby suit of armor.

Maybe I couldn't write right now, but I could grab a gauntlet and chuck it at Sorenson to catch his attention. This suit of armor was black and medieval. It looked like something that could have belonged to a knight.

I grabbed onto the gauntlet, focusing very hard on making myself present enough to grab it. I didn't want to use my ghostly abilities to throw it at him. That would make it take even longer to get back to normal.

Then the world shifted again.

It was like I was looking at the world as a living person, but the way my weight was distributed felt...weird. I glanced down and saw metal instead of actual feet.

I looked back up. I was possessing the suit of armor I had been grabbing just seconds ago. I didn't know how that had happened; this was my first time possessing something when I was kicked out of my body.

...That worked.

I marched over to my body and grabbed it from where Sorenson was levitating it.

"I'll be taking this back now," I said. My voice was metallic and hard to put a gender to. It honestly reminded me of the time I had possessed a mannequin on Nikko's world.

I focused, ready to switch back to my body-

-but the switch never came.

I tried again.

Nothing happened.

Sorenson jumped as the armor stumped over to him, and electricity crackled at his fingertips. Then it spoke. He blinked rapidly, frowning. "Skull? Is that you in there?" He squinted into the helmet. "What are you doing?"

(There's another presence in there by the way. I'll have autonomy over that one)

Spoiler

Ooh, fun! Skull's in for a treat, then.

"It's me," I confirmed. I doubted getting shocked would hurt much, but I still didn't want to risk it.

Knowing there was no way to get around explaining this now, I finally relented. "I can't use most of my powers for too long without getting kicked from my body. Usually I just hang around until my body lets me back in, but today I can apparently possess things like usual."

"Well...er, do you mind carrying it? It takes concentration to maintain a concentration spell?"
Something in the suit shifted near him, through him. Began to move the left hand to the sword at its side.

"That's what I was trying to do," I said, but then I felt something stir within the armor. I was usually better about detecting things like that. It wasn't exactly my first time possessing things. But I wasn't used to feeling that in a supposedly inanimate object, and had admittedly been more focused on actually possessing something right now.

I tried to keep my left hand stiff. What was it even moving towards? I glanced down. Whatever—or whoever—was also in here apparently wanted a fight.

"I don't think I'm the only one in here," I said. "If someone tries stabbing you in a second, it's not me."

Sorenson's brow furrowed. "Who is it, then?"
The armor began to tremble, fingers clenching toward the hilt of the sword. Other suits of armor began to shift and move around them, reaching for their weapons.

I fought against the armor's will, which was a sentence I never thought I'd think. Inanimate objects didn't have wills. That was what made them so useful. Mannequins, dolls, corpses—when possessing them, I didn't have to worry about fighting someone for control.

"I'm not sure," I said, "but I don't think they're friendly."

I started to reach for my body again, but suddenly thought better of it when I realized I wasn't really able to hold it right now.

The moment the other armor began to move, Sorenson brought up his hands and Skull's body plunked to the ground. His fingers sparked, and the air crackled. "What are they doing?" he demanded. "Can you fight them? Is that one going to hurt us?"
Skull's armor was scraping one foot forward, slowly, as it fought against Skull. The thing inside was struggling, pushing at Skull's essence now in an attempt to force him out.

Luckily for me, I didn't get kicked out of bodies other than my own. I could voluntarily choose to leave if I lost and had another person or thing to hop into nearby, but I wasn't going to be giving up on this body anytime soon.

I eyed my sword, then eyed the others. "I can try."

I withdrew the sword. I hadn't ever used one before, but it couldn't be that hard, right? All I had to do was swing it. These guys were slow, too. I turned my back to Sorenson, feeling like I was pushing against a heavy weight.

"And as long as I have control," I clarified, "this one won't be hurting us."