"Well, next time you get a chance, look in the mirror," she advised, plopping her head down once more.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Maahes hesitated, realizing that Jaron had no way of knowing that it was him and not James. His mind flashed back to the sole time the three of them had been together; that had been after the Grangor. James had been a mess. He had been almost continuously grumpy, and he had been so broken. No wonder Jaron seemed so confused.
"I'm Maahes," he said. "You, uh, might remember me better as Leo?"
In the background, Runi decided that it was best to just let Denebola do her worse and stood still as the now bobcat continued to go for her face.
Jaron reached out a claw and gently poked Maahes's cheek. "That's who you are?" Jaron said. He shied back. "Sorry, I thought you were the grumpy man, and that cave is not a place I want to remember a lot."
Fortunately for Runi, Denebola had just about run out of energy, having run and clawed her way through the library. She leaped off of Runi's face and landed gracefully on the floor, just in time to be pinned down by a paw from Taber. Denebola hissed, but Taber refused to move.
"Don't be mean," he said, though it came out as a grumble to anyone who couldn't understand him.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Tasha snorted in laughter as Jaron referred to James as 'the grumpy man.' "You need to work on your people skills, I think," she told him with a chuckle.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
Dante slid to the floor in the corner as things seemed to be settling down (as much as they would, anyway). All of the crying from earlier had left her drained, and it wasn't long before she found her eyelids growing heavy.
She cursed softly and changed positions, knowing that if she were to fall asleep at the moment, there was no telling what could happen. Her body, however, had other ideas, and after determined resistance, she curled up into a tiny ball and was sleeping soundly.
Event 2: Start! After a bright flash of light and sudden warmth, everyone becomes something they're not.
Again.
Anything goes.
Maahes was about to say something in response to Jaron's comment about James--namely to the say that James was actually in the room with them as the cat--but then the lights went out. There was a sudden, brilliant flash of light that punctuated the darkness, simultaneously accompanied by a burst of warmth. Maahes unfortunately remembered the sensation; it was what he had felt before ending up like James.
Hopefully he'd be back to normal-
Wait, that wasn't right. He still felt human, but everything felt off. He went to take a step backward and nearly fell on his place in the process; he certainly was no longer James. But if he wasn't James and wasn't one of his usual guises, who was he?
The lights flickered back on.
He stared down at his outfit in the desperate hope that it would provide some clues on who he had become. To his surprise, he found himself wearing one of the Atlantis team's uniforms. He raised his head and almost immediately felt his breath catch in his throat: there was a very familiar girl standing on the other side of the room, two light brown braids trailing down her back and over the instrument case she had. She was dressed in a tunic, leggings and her usual shawl.
"Arin?" he managed to get out. Then he froze, Arin following suit a second later. Was he who he-
"Colonel Sheppard?"
They stared, their gazes slowly beginning to travel around the room before landing back on each other. Maahes tried placing where Sune had been standing last; he would have been the only one who could have possibly known John, and one of the few people who called him by his title and not his first name.
"Arin" rushed over to his side.
"Sune?" Maahes guessed.
"Maahes?" Sune asked.
They looked at each other, then each let out a laugh of relief. Maahes had been terrified of having to explain things to Arin, and Sune likely had been feeling the same way about having to explain things to his commanding officer. But their laughter was cut short by hearing a downright evil laugh coming from nearby.
They turned.
There was a wraith--or something that looked incredibly similar to them--standing only a few feet away, an absolutely malevolent expression on their face. They met the other's gaze, then let out terrified cries that bordered on screams and threw their arms around the djinni-turned-human standing beside them. Because while both had dealt with the wraith on numerous occasions, they had never been stuck as humans during those encounters.
Spoiler! :
This is the "wraith".
And this is what Lt. Colonel John Sheppard looks like!
James felt the same strange feeling of warmth wash over him, and he closed his eyes, hoping desperately to return to his normal frame, or at the very least, one that could speak.
The few seconds the lights were out, he could feel something was different already. He was taller. He filled up more space. He felt as if he were the correct height again, and that in itself was a relief. But when the lights turned on and he eagerly looked down at himself, expecting to see his normal body, he was only met with more confusion.
Where there should have been body hair, on his arms and hands, there were layers of little feathers, all making a gradient of browns a similar color to his hair. Even his chest was all feathery. His heart began to beat rapidly as he looked down at his feet. He was barefoot, and even his feet had a layer of bird-like feathers on the top. He lifted a foot, looking at the thick, calloused skin around his heel and the ball of his foot.
No, there was no way. The crazy ongoings of the universe really decided to make him a harpy? That meant -
He turned his head around, looking over his shoulder. The moment he was aware of their presence, he could feel the extra appendages on his back as a very present addition to what he was used to. But his eyes widened when he saw how large his wings were. Though they were folded up, they probably spanned thrice his height when fully extended. A shudder went down his spine. It was one thing to be turned into an animal, but another to take the form of a harpy. Mostly, because he'd never truly seen one in person, or even met one.
His awe, however, was quickly interrupted by manic laughter and a pair of screams. He looked up to see two people hugging each other in terror at the sight of a purple-skinned man, who had strange armor and long sweeping white hair. He couldn't tell who had turned into whom. He tried to remember who was over there.
"Runi?" was all he could think of.
Spoiler! :
Basically, James looks like himself, but with big bird wings and covered in more feathers!! He's probably wearing a really loose top with an open back for the big wings and just!! Normal jean pants or something! For fun I'm giving him long hair again that's done up in braids because I CAN. He's also clean shaven tho. Harpies can't often grow beards. But he has some feathers on his cheeks and forehead around his hairline!
When the light and warmth washed over him again, Taber was almost disappointed. He was just getting cozy, and it turned out being a lion wasn't the worst thing that could've happen to him. At least he'd be able to get back to his old body and hopefully talk down Denebola.
...Huh.
He knew it was his body; he could feel the fur on his arms and the canines in the back of his mouth. But Taber felt a little more brittle. Opening his eyes, he started to piece together why. His fur was gray, he was distinctly sure that he'd once been taller than some of the other people here, and all of his joints felt like they were burning.
Oh. He was old. For some reason.
Still, it didn't look like the others had it any better. Jaron had gone back to normal, except he'd grown; the fox was now hiding behind a bookcase that was almost as tall as he was. And Denebola had also gone back to normal, but she was staring down at her arm in confusion.
"It's not there?" she said, before looking to the right. Eyes wide, she tried to run out of the library, but smacked right into one of the walls.
Taber instinctively winced. He tried to walk over and help her up, but found he could only shuffle instead. Not wonderful.
"What's going on? Why am I not in my body?" Denebola said in a higher-pitched voice, getting up and walking into the same wall.
Spoiler! :
Taber's old, Jaron's big, Denebola's perspective changed to a spot a couple feet to her right.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Dante was awoken with a start with a warm, evasive feeling, along with a wrongness that she couldn't place. When she sat up from the floor, groggier than she wanted to admit, she noted that at least she had returned to full size, if not slightly bigger.
"What is..." She cut herself off, frowning. Why did her voice sound so deep?
Momentarily thinking nothing of it, she climbed to her feet and surveyed the rest of the group, which seemed to be once again devolving into chaos. Aaaaand she couldn't tell who anyone was, once again.
Spoiler! :
Dante is now a young man who appears to be no older than twenty. Her new self has long, black, mangy hair that hits somewhere right below the shoulders, one blue eye, and in place of the other a glowing mechanized circle of red. Her clothes are in a ragged disarray and she is barefoot.
The moment that Runi heard screams ring out and heard a strangely-feathered James speak, she guiltily ceased her laughter. She couldn't help it! It was the opportunity of a lifetime; it wasn't like she could imitate and mock Prince Lotor around Haggar. The witch would have punished her in an instant. Besides, how many times would she actually be Prince Lotor? Sure, she could take his guise, but that was never going to be quite the same as suddenly being half Galran and half Altean.
(Which was a really weird feeling, if she had to be honest. She almost preferred being a robot instead.)
"You're Runi...?" the girl (Sune, maybe?) asked, casting a sheepish look over at the military man (probably Maahes) before quickly letting go of said man. Yup, definitely Sune and Maahes--they were the only two that seemed to be close like that.
"I am," she confirmed. Ooh, hearing the prince's voice instead of her usual one was weird. She stretched (it felt oddly good) then ran her fingers through her now very long hair. No wonder he liked keeping it like that. "I'm sorry for scaring you. I just had to try doing an evil laugh. I knew Prince Lotor would be great at it! I'd say he gets it from his dad, but honestly I think it's from both sides of the family tree."
Raiden couldn't see a thing. But he could hear voices. Which he ignored, because HE COULDN'T SEE A THING and that was the more pressing issue. He tried taking a few steps. Slowly, carefully. "Ouch!" He rubbed his head. He didn't feel that when he was waving his hands out in front of him. He grabbed at his face. Fabric? He pulled with more effort. It didn't want to come off, for some reason, so he sighed. He plopped himself on the floor, crossed his legs and arms to try and figure this out.
If anyone were looking at him, they'd see he was wearing a black Spider-Man suit with the mask on backwards.
I'm cool as a cucumber Even if I'm in a pickle
Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
Maahes wildly glanced at the chaos unfolding, trying his best to figure out who was who. Runi was the Wraith-like man, and Sune looked like Arin. Taber was himself but old. Jaron was just incredibly big. There was a man standing where Dante had been sleeping; that had to be her. There was someone in a Spider-Man costume with the mask on backwards. For some reason, he guessed that might have been Raiden. And then there was the winged man a short distance away, the one who had asked if it was Runi-
"James?" he managed to get out, staring at his friend. Upon closer inspection, it looked like James had been turned into a harpy. He couldn't help but stare. It was one thing for him to be changed into something completely different; it was another for distinctively James-esque features to remain.
"Maybe we should try saying who we all are?" Sune suggested, seeming to absentmindedly run his fingers through his hair. Maahes was still struggling to remember that he was looking at Sune right now and not Arin. "That way we can avoid the confusion. I'm Sune."
"I'm Maahes," Maahes added, gaze still remaining on James.
"Runi!" the other djinni in the room chimed in. "Currently stuck looking like Prince Lotor, though I'm guessing none of you know who he is."
"I'm Taber!" Taber said, raising up his hands before he pulled something in his back and had to lower them.
"Jaron," the oversized fox stammered from behind the bookcase. He quickly grabbed onto the sides of the bookcase when it startled to topple.
"I'm stuck in a wall!" Denebola growled, caught at the corner between a bookcase and one of the library's many walls. Thanks to her skewed perspective, she could only see wood all around her. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Gender:
Points: 481
Reviews: 117