Young Writers Society

James stared as Maahes suddenly fled behind the bookcases. The whispers fluttered over to him in incoherent sounds, but he knew that Maahes was talking to Sune about him. The only logical conclusion was that Maahes had figured it out on his own. James wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried.

He remained where he was, sending furtive glances towards Tasha. The real Tasha. The Tasha that was stuck in Maahes's body.

Tasha's face was in a decided frown as she leaned agains the wall and glared intensely at the floor. She was somewhere between dumbfounded and utterly pissed. This felt wrong. Entirely, wholly wrong. Hearing her voice make words that weren't her own and looking down at herself to see a man's body was beyond disconcerting.

She was silent as a rock, not wanting to hear Maahes' body come through her - his? - mouth. Soon, this would pass, too, and maybe she'd be back to her own body. It was even more disconcerting for James to be in Runi's body, and Runi to be in James'. This entire thing was just unnatural and it made everything in her twist itself into knots of frustration, confusion, and fear rooted in a lack of understanding.

Runi watched with confusion as Maahes and Sune darted behind a bookcase together, but she decided not to focus too much on it. It would be nice getting to know the woman Maahes had swapped bodies with, even though it was going to take a little bit to get used to seeing Maahes's face and knowing that it wasn't him behind it.

She bridged the small distance between herself and the unnamed woman.

"Hi," she said, giving her a big grin and a wave. "We never got a chance to have an actual introduction, thanks to the whole body changing things." She thrust her hand out. "I'm Darunia Vain, but you can call me Runi for short! I work for Haggar, though I'm guessing you've never heard of her before. No here really has."

Oh. Oh no.

Runi, in the appearance of himself, was walking over to Tasha, who still looked like Maahes. Hearing his own voice coming out of his own mouth but knowing it was not himself at all was probably one of the weirdest things he’d experienced to date, and he had experienced a lot of weird things.

He knew that Runi was rolling with the punches far better than he or the others were (most of the time), but this was uncomfortable on a different level.

As much as he wanted to hide and pretend like none of this was happening, he found himself inching towards Tasha’s side, still having to actively remind himself in his mind that it was her and not Maahes standing there, being talked to by someone with what should have been his face.

Now, he wasn’t about to answer Runi’s questions for her, but he hoped that standing beside her would offer some kind of support.

Runi faltered for a second when James appeared.

"...Okay, this is definitely weird," she admitted. "It's easy not looking like me, but it's weird seeing another person look like me."