-Brandon-
I remember that night as if it was just yesterday. It was 10:30 PM, and Gina was driving Josh's parents Toyota Highlander to my house. I was in shotgun telling Gina where to go if she was ever to forget. I didn't worry too much though, she was the only one of us who was a semi-safe driver. Personally, I had been pulled over 2 or 3 times within the first 6 months of me getting my license, whereas Gina had never been pulled over in her full year of driving so far. The only thing I didn't like about her driving is that she always kept the windows rolled down and the AC turned off. It was practically torture on hotter days, but thankfully it was nighttime and instead of the almost unbearable heat with the occasional breeze, it was very cool the whole ride there, and I was thankful for that at least.
Hank and Amber were seated directly behind us in the second row. Amber was on her phone, her face covered in the bright, artificial light radiating from her screen. She swiped up with her finger, giggled, swiped once more, watched for a few seconds, and chortled once more before showing Hank, who laughed as well. This cycle would continue throughout the rest of the car ride.
Josh was passed out in the back row, snoring way too loud for a normal human being. Thankfully, Take 5 was playing loudly on the speaker, so his obnoxiously loud noises were being drowned out by the steady 5/4 beat and entrancing saxophone solo. Thomas sat directly opposite of him, and stared blankly out the window, his face occasionally being brightened by the passing street lights outside. He was obviously tired, and every once in a while his eyes would start to close, but he would jolt himself back up a few seconds later.
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10:37
I had a habit of checking my phone for the time every five minutes. It drastically drained my battery life, but I didn't care. Time was my oyster, I told myself, and as long as I could keep it in check, I would always get where I wanted to go on time. I remember that I wanted to get home by 10:45. There was no logical reason, I just had a feeling that was the right time. I looked out the window and noticed that we just passed our school, which was about 7 minutes away from my house. Good. Even if we only have a minute to spare, as long as we got there before 10:45 we would be good.
My mind was blank at that point, and I noticed that there was something resting on my lap. I looked down and instantly remembered what I had done just 15 minutes ago.
*I Stole Something*
I squinted my eyes and read the dimly lit golden text on the dusty lid once more: "A Game of Change". A game, huh? If that was the case, certainly this wouldn't have even sold for very much money in the first place, right?
*Thief*
*Scum*
*Worthless*
Shit. I had to get my mind off of the box as soon as possible.
"What did you buy, Brandon? I don't remember you carrying that big old box around the mall." Shit. Gina had just initiated a conversation with me. The laws of friendship state that if you don't want to lose your friend, reply to them, especially in real life, (but ghosting is unacceptable as well).
"Uhhhhh... I got a...." I looked at the box again for a few seconds before answering. "....board game. Yeah, I got a board game. Why are you asking?"
Before Gina could respond, Amber scarred everyone in the car with her incredibly loud voice.
"YOU GOT A BOARD GAME?!?!!" I turned my head behind my shoulder to see a bright eyed Amber staring straight back at me, as well as a startled Josh who had apparently just woken up.
"Uh..huh.." I replied, still shocked at the intensity of the sound.
"Guys, let's play Brandon's game when we get to his house!!! I love board games!" Oh no.
*Don't Open The Box*
"Sure, I'm down for it." Hank replied, probably just as an excuse for hanging out with Amber some more before we went to bed.
*Return It*
"What game is it?" Asked Thomas. Amber leaned over my shoulder and read out, "A Game of Change". "Huh, sounds neat!" God damn it, Thomas. "What about you, Josh?"
*Put It Back From Where You Got It*
"Hell yeah I want to play your game! We can have a mini party tonight! Chips, soda, pajamas, it'll be great!!!" Glad to see you're finally back to your old self, Josh....
*Turn Back*
Gina, completely forgetting what she was going to say to me before she was interrupted, gave a solid nod and said, "Yeah, sounds fun! What do think Brandon, you want to test out your new game?"
*Don't Do It*
*Tell Them*
*Don't Make A Fool Of Yourself*
*What Will Happen When They Find Out?*
*What Are You Going To-*
"Yeah. Let's do it. Let's play the game"
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11:03
We got to my house on time, thank god, and we all started getting ready for the night. I took everything off except for my underwear and put on some long grey pajama pants and a white t-shirt. As soon as I was ready, I departed for the living room, and noticed that the coffee table in between the couch and TV was completely clear except for the game. I heard a noise and looked behind me to see that Josh, dressed in a black and white stripped pajama shirt and pants, pulled the dining room table, which was full of snacks, into the living room. Soon, Amber and Hank came in with matching yellow pajamas, (and to no surprise, Amber's was super revealing), Gina with a button up navy blue set with a cute little pocket on the front, (not as revealing), and Thomas with an otter onesie. We all sat down by the coffee table with snacks in hand, and with bating breath, I opened the box and read the instructions:
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A Game of Change
Box Includes:
Looping Game Board (110 Action Spaces!!!!)
Action Cards
2 Die
Character Sheets
Character Tokens
Types of Spaces:
White - Null: Does nothing to your character, free parking (20)
Tan - Physical Change: Human changes to your character (15)
Orange - Animal Change: Animalistic changes to your character (15)
Red - Age Change: Character changes age (10)
Blue - Mental Change: Mental changes to your character (10)
Yellow - Inanimate Change: Inanimate changes to your character (5)
Purple - Mythical Change: Mythical changes to your character (5)
Green - Resistance: Resist your transformation (10)
Question Mark - Activity: Randomly selects one of five events. -Quiz Wiz- -Isekai Adventure- -Mutation Mayhem- -Wheel of Luck and Losers- -Coffee Break- (5)
Swords - Battle: Two characters have a short transformation battle (5)
Rainbow - Random: Random card is chosen (10)
Rules:
1. Game is played clockwise.
2. Each character has a resistance bar. If it reaches zero, that character is stuck in whatever form they are currently in until the game is over.
3. If a character's HP reaches zero, they will re spawn after three turns, after which their resistance will drastically be reduced.
4. If a character cannot play, they will be skipped and their form will be reset after three turns, with each turn decreasing their resistance as time goes on.
5. If a character becomes pregnant in some way, they will go into labor after three turns, and will be unable to transform until then. After the birth, their resistance will be drastically lowered.
6. If a character attempts to leave after the game starts, they will be transformed into something drastic, and their resistance will go down.
7. Players may choose to skip any one of their turns if they wish to do so, at the cost of a small amount of resistance.
8. New players may choose to join the game at any time, but they will be given a negative effect depending on when in the game they join.
9. The last character standing wins. The winner will be given complete and total transformative control over themselves and the other characters for a month. Any changes made in said month will result in reality changes. WARNING!!! At the end of the month, losing players will not change back unless the winner changes them. After that, they will be stuck in whatever form they are in until another game is played.
10. Have Fun!!!
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We all just looked at the rule book in both awe and utter confusion. For the most part, we all understood the rules pretty well, but we were incredibly confused as to what it meant by "transform".
The silence was broken by Thomas. "Sounds fun! Let's get started!!!" Despite everyone being slightly confused, we decided to play the game anyways.
First, we grabbed our character sheets. Ours were filled out as so:
Name: Brandon
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Caucasian
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 158 Lb
Attributes: N/A (This was already filled out for some reason, so I couldn't write on there.)
Resistance: 100%
Name: Gina
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Hispanic
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 127 Lb
Attributes: N/A
Resistance: 100%
Name: Amber
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Caucasian
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 129 Lb
Attributes: N/A
Resistance: 100%
Name: Hank
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Caucasian
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 179
Attributes: N/A
Resistance: 100%
Name: Josh
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Black
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 160
Attributes: N/A
Resistance: 100%
Name: Thomas
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Human/Asian
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 138 Lb
Attributes: N/A
Resistance: 100%
Next, we grabbed our tokens. I grabbed the hourglass, Gina had the glasses, Amber got the megaphone, Hank got the football, Josh got the car, and Thomas grabbed the sunglasses. We put our tokens at the starting spot and decided that the first one to roll the die would be....