Young Writers Society

"Okay, let's stop insulting each others' uniquely beautiful-in-their-own-way bodies and just chill for a second. I mean, if you think about it, we weren't even in our original bodies anyway. We were in clones of our bodies. Our real bodies are still back home, wherever that is for you," Bo said, still not used to hearing Nadira's voice coming out of him. It was weird. It didn't feel like talking when he was a human person. It was completely foreign to be in a robotic frame, and he had no words to describe it.

But if there was anything that gave him peace of mind, it was that at least it was Nadira inside of him and not one of the others... especially considering their responses soon after being switched around.

He looked over at Aegeas, who was obviously Kartiel, and wondered why Kartiel was so surprised at being in a new body too. It was as if Kartiel didn't expect it... which was odd.

"Kartiel, did you do something that made us all... switch around like this?" He tried to remember what it was like when Kartiel switched bodies before. Usually there was a weird warmth in the room, and he hadn't felt that. So maybe it was something different.

"Does it look like I know what's going on?" Kartiel said, an almost angry look briefly flickering in his eyes. Instead, he seemed to settle for just looking overall upset with what was going on, giving Bo a deadpan look after hearing the question. "There wouldn't be any reason for it, and my magic doesn't work that way. I can't take a soul and switch it with a soul in another body - I would need a place to put the first soul before I made the switch. And even then it would be questionable if it would work. My switches only work as well as they do because I'm the god of souls."

Leo - Maahes, Nadira reminded herself - let out a strangled cry from the bed he had returned to sitting on. "So we're stuck in each other's bodies?" he said, eyes wide. "Or, at least, I am? Because all of you aren't using your actual bodies, but Codix is in my body. You could all just return to your originals."

Codix and Nadira looked expectantly over at Kartiel, who was in the middle of pushing the bed back to its original position. "You have to send us back now," Codix pointed out. "And then maybe take Maahes' soul and put it back in its original body-"

"No."

"No?" Nadira questioned.

"No," Kartiel confirmed. "I can't. The experiment hasn't been concluded yet, and I need those results."

"But we could be stuck like this!" she protested, trying to get up so she could go storm over to him, only to remember that her legs were still paralyzed when she almost fell off the bed again. "Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Kartiel was silent.

"Oh no," Maahes whispered, tears already starting to slide down his cheeks. "What will-what will Vala think? I'm not me anymore, and I always looked human around her so...so...."

Nadira got the feeling he was talking more to himself than anyone else.

He frantically wiped away his tears with arm, getting back to his feet with a wavering smile on his face. "I'm sure there has to be some explanation for this," he said. "We just have to figure out what happened, right? If we go through everything that's happened recently, we should be able to pinpoint what went wrong."

Bo sighed. "Okay. Well, can anyone think of anything they did just before the switch? Like... did you... I dunno, press a button? Flip a switch? Bump into some mysterious piece of technology that might've triggered something?"

Codix looked around the room, trying to recall what had happened right before the switch. He still felt absolutely terrified of what he had become - and, by extension, what Maahes truly was. The others just didn't get it. They probably thought that he was exaggerating or even just delusional, but this body wasn't normal in the slightest. He just could feel that Leo - Maahes - didn't really looked as human as he appeared - or had appeared, or whatever way he was supposed to talk about everyone's bodies after the switch.

"Nadira and I were sitting on that bed over there," he said, pointing to the bed in question. B-Nadira nodded in confirmation. "Maahes was leaning up against the bed that Aegeas was on, and he moved it a little. But I don't think that would be the reason for what happened. Raiden was off in the corner. Bo was helping Boris with his injuries. And Kartiel was taking care of his own...so how could-"

"Wait," Nadira interrupted, once again attempting to get to her feet and ultimately failing. She raised a finger and pointed at the platform with the eight blue stones on it. "I saw Kartiel plugging that in right before the switch."

Maahes slowly approached the stones and peered down at them. Codix hated seeing his body getting controlled, hated knowing what was inside his body, hated dealing with this entire situation in the first place. "I think I recognize these," Maahes said, leaning down and staring at them more closely. He didn't touch any of them. "I-I remember Odris using them when I was a kid."

"Odris?" Nadira helpfully asked.

Maahes kept his gaze on the stones. "He was kind of like a parent to me? It's a bit complicated..." He gestured at the room they were in. "But he was like the people who lived here, and he definitely used the stones. I think he called them communication stones. And, now that I think about, I don't think he ever acted the same right after he used them."

He turned back to face the others. "He must have switched bodies with someone else using them."

"I would suspect Kartiel hath had something to do with it," I said, even changing my narrative structure to better fit who's body I now was in. While it pained me to do so, I lifted myself up and off the bed.
"You all may have...switchedeth bodies, yet I still exist in my own body," I said, keeping a straight face. I had to look serious about this. They would not believe me otherwise.
"I doth thinketh that thine might all haveth some problem, and I do hopeth that thou canst figureth out some solution to this chaos." I gave a small bow to everyone before slowly stepping towards the door - rather, more importantly, away from Boris in my own carbon-copy body.

"Of course it's his fault," Aegeas spat, pushing himself towards the back of the bedframe, where it met the wall. "He didn't want this gross body, so he decided to use those stones to get something better." He didn't like the idea of disagreeing with Bo, who was usually the voice of reason and stability, but he hated the feeding organs on his hands, not to mention that some people were freaking out. Besides, Kartiel was generally responsible for anything terrible that happened here.

"If you know about them," he said to Maahes, who'd apparently been lying about his identity - Aegeas didn't quite trust him because of that, so the otter spoke slowly and hesitantly - "Do you know how to fix this?"

"No, you are not going out in that unsupervised."

I strode over to Raiden, and poked him in the chest, then reached up and pulled him back inside by the ear. He had to bend over just a little to make up the difference.

"And would you cease your Shakespearean bastardizations? Even my great-grandfather did not speak like that."
My great grandfather did not speak English, but Raiden did not know that, and it was beside the point.

Maahes shook his head; he had been trying to remember that for the past few minutes. "Odris never let me in the room while he was using them, probably because he was afraid something like this would happen. And I don't think it would be a good idea to remove them from the stand until we actually understand how they're meant to be used."

At the comment, the man with the one eye - Bo first, now Nadira, right? - perked up. It seemed like h-she had an idea. Which was a good thing, considering he was pulling a blank and still freaking out about the limitations of this body. "Boris and I checked out a library earlier," Nadira piped up. "Maybe it has something there on how to use them?"

As the conversation had been going on, Kartiel had stormed over to Aegeas and was currently glaring at the new occupant of his body. "In case you didn't notice, Aegeas, I never use a body that doesn't look somewhat like my own. The last time I checked, a bipedal otter isn't. Now, if you can give me one good reason why I'd want to be stuck in a body I didn't even make, you might have a point. But seeing that your only claim is 'my body is better', I'm going to have to say that I'm the one currently winning this argument."

Kartiel turned back to the others and gave them a strained smile, which was a really weird thing to see an otter do. "What are you all waiting for? Let's go to the library." He started to march over to the door, hand pressed against his forehead, only to turn around and get a good look at Raiden and Boris.

"And, Raiden? No one's buying your act right now, so I suggest you drop it before Boris slugs you in the face."

And then he was gone, having stormed out into the hallway.

"First of all, it is better, so there," Aegeas called out, watching Kartiel leave the room. "And, even if it isn't, you know that body has a human form. You did make that one, after all." He was terrified at the idea of everyone running off to the library, and even more so when they started to leave. Sure, they'd figure out what had happened, and could then try to fix it, but it also meant that he had to get out from under the bed and use his awful body. He needed to come up with an excuse.

"I can't walk," Aegeas said, "And we'll need someone to keep an eye on the stones, so I volunteer to stay here. Everyone, go ahead without me."

"Nadira's stuck in my body, so she won't be able to walk for a hot minute either," Bo said, trying to quickly figure out how to best split the group so that they could get to a quick solution without more people's heads butting against one another.

"Boris and Raiden, you two ought to stay as well, since one of your bodies is still recovering. You four look after one another and keep an eye on the little rocks, while I'll go with the other three to check out the library." He looked to Nadira, giving her a pat on the shoulder. "Does that sound okay?" he asked.

"Unhand me you heathen!" I yelped, being pulled by Raiden. They may not believe me, but that didn't mean I was going to stop.
"Your grandfather would obviously not have used Shakespearean English you lout! You're from the twenty-first century, thou droning unchin-snouted coxcomb!" I listened to my companions with half an ear, deciding it would probably be best if I were to stay here. My chest would not be able to handle it if I had to strain myself further. I slapped Raiden's arm away, straightening myself.

"That sounds good with me," Nadira said, glancing over at Codix. He looked far from thrilled with the suggestion of being with Maahes for a longer period of time than necessary. But he didn't protest the decision - he just quickly bridged the distance between her and him, and pulled her into a hug.

Which took her by surprise, since he rarely did that around other people. Everyone always loved to guess that they were in some sort of relationship from how close they were. A show of affection like that certainly wouldn't have helped. Then again, things were different here. They had been through challenge after challenge, and it wasn't like one of the people here would assume the worst.

So she returned the hug. She might have overestimated just how strong of a hugger Bo was from the startled little squeak that Codix made, but she knew it still helped. "I don't like how we have to keep leaving each other," Codix said, his grip on her tightening. "And I don't feel safe leaving you alone here, but I also want to find out what's going on."

Nadira looked at the other occupants of the room. Aegeas was hiding under the table. Raiden had a giant gash on his chest, and Boris would likely be preoccupied with getting Raiden to stop pretending to be him. She could see the concern. "Don't worry about me, Codix. The shields are up. We're not going to be attacked by anymore wraith, and I should be able to move my legs soon."

He nodded. His voice quiet, he said, "Okay."

They pulled apart, and Codix went out into the hallway. Maahes quickly followed after him - it wasn't like he had anyone he could talk to there.

''Urchin. That would be urchin. But it was a commendable effort.''

It was indeed. A few of the words he had chosen were actually authentic.
Raiden's clumsy charade had irritated me at first, but now I found it beginning to amuse me. As long as he did not overexert my body while he borrowed it, the act was almost endearing, even.
I elected to take the opportunity to tease him.

''Tell me then. Tell me of your eighteenth century. Recount your history. I, for one, would love to hear it.''

On one hand, Aegeas was happy to stay underneath the hospital bed. Better yet, he wasn't alone in this sterile room. Best of all, Kartiel wasn't around.

On the other hand, Raiden's game got on his nerves. The otter - or, rather, the wraith - gritted his teeth as Boris jokingly asked that Raiden recount something he clearly had no ability to. But Aegeas didn't say anything, mostly out of the fear that he'd cross a line. Better to hide until he could trust himself again.

Bo, seeing that no one had any issue with his suggestion, nodded. "Okay. Well, we'll be off then. Everybody, stay safe." He gave a pound to his robot chest with a fist and then pointed it out with a peace-sign. "Stay cool," he said with finality before waving Codix and Maahes over to follow after Kartiel, who'd already hurried away from them all.