The clock had just ticked over to eight o’clock. The group had spent around 40 minutes trying to figure out what to do.
Inez had stayed with Maya and Mark, while Nathanial had stayed with Olivia.
Eventually, they had to reunite. Maya brought them all together.
“Here.” She said, placing the box in the centre of the meeting room’s large rectangular table, “the game only ends if we see it through, and even though we could all just go back home and live like none of this ever happened… Olivia can’t live the rest of her life with a cat’s tail.”
“And I can’t go around looking like this.” Nathanial complained, addressing his still bloated face,
“The box can answer our questions.” Mark stated, “and according to it, at the end of the game all the changes are reversed… and the winner gets a ‘wish’.” He finished with air-quotes,
“Like a real wish?” Olivia asked,
“We guess. I mean this game clearly can change us… it’s a pretty honest prize.” Mark replied, shrugging.
“So who goes first?” Olivia asked,
“It should go in order of ‘who picked up first’, which means it starts with me.” Maya said, “then Olivia, Nathanial, Mark, and Inez.”
Maya took a breath. She reached over to open up the box, but before she could do so the box opened, and four separate piles of cards shot out of either side of the table, four in total. Two of them said ‘Action’, the other two said ‘Change’.
The box shifted to read ‘Players Must Take at least an ‘Action Card’ & a ‘Change Card’ Per Turn.”
“Jeez.” Nathanial said. He moved around the table, standing on the other side of the table from Inez, Maya, and Mark. Olivia followed him. They now all stood around the table, not in any particular order.
“Guess I’ll start.” Maya said with an awkward chuckle. She leaned over and picked up an Action Card and a Change Card, “the action card says… Card Applies to Player on Right?” She said. She looked to her right, seeing Mark,
“So… me?” He asked,
“I guess.” Maya said. She turned over her Change Card, “Elongated Nails.”
Mark slowly raised his hands up to look at them. Everyone inadvertently leaned in to watch. And as predicted, his nails slowly grew a little longer. They even appeared manicured,
“I’m almost jealous.” Olivia joked, they all sort of giggled. She sat there silently for a few moments, then realised, “o-oh it’s me… right.”
She leaned over and picked up an Action and Change card. She turned over the Action Card, “‘Pick Up an Extra Change Card’, okayyy.” She smiled awkwardly.
With two cards in her hands, she turned the first over, “Butt Lift?”
She looked over her shoulder at her ass in her skirt, still looking at her large cat’s tail. But slowly she saw it rising as her butt seemed to sweet bigger and rounder! “Whoah!” She said, watching as her ass grew, “t-this is awesome!” She cheered. Nathanial was in awe as well,
“That’s amazing…” he said. Now intrigued, “what’s the next card say?”
“I don’t know, but can’t be better than this!” She said. She enthusiastically turned over the next card. Her face dropped a little, “Hairy Arms”
She lifted her arms, and rather undramatically they grew a little hairier. Nothing insane, just like she hadn’t shaved her arms in several months.
Her hair was thin enough for it to not really be noticeable. She didn’t really care.
Nathanial looked especially disinterested, he had his arms crossed.
He looked around, seeing everyone’s staring at him. He rolled his eyes, “whatever.”
He grabbed his two cards, “Last Change Reversed…” he looked confused, then delighted, “d-does that mean that my face is gonna be back to normal!” He yelled obnoxiously loudly within the reasonably small room.
His hands shot to his face, feeling his cheeks slowly get less puffy. His smile grew wider and wider.
After just a few seconds, his face was finally back to how it was before. Maybe a little extra swelling that was slowly going down. But he was content, “thank god.” He said, “now just need my hair back.” He said, turning over his Change Card, “Mute Mouth?”
He looked around, “fuck.” He said. Then suddenly his lips stuck themselves together. He was at least expecting his voice to go, but his mouth was literally stuck shut!
“MMMH!” He tried to scream, the feeling of not being able to open his mouth was awful. He could only really make noises out of his nose. Olivia took the initiative,
“Nathania, let’s go out there and talk.” She said. Tears were starting to stream from Nathanial’s face. He was notoriously a drama-queen, regardless of the situation. But this one everyone could at least sympathise with. “Mark and Inez can finish their turns, just knock when you’re done.” Olivia said. She walked Nathanial out of the room; he was still trying to talk about how much he hated this game… but obviously nobody knew that.
“Your turn, Mark.” Maya said. He nodded, looking at Nathanial as he left,
“That’s real unfortunate, huh.” Mark said,
“All of this is reversible, I’m sure there’ll be a card that lets him talk again.”
“I expect so.” Mark said. He took his two cards, “the game can’t be that cruel…”
“Of course not!” Maya said. She turned to see Inez, who was zoning out. Most likely with guilt. Maya nudged her, she looked dazed but came back to her senses,
“S-sure.” Inez said,
“Well, my ‘Action Card’ says No Action Applies, which is always good; and my ‘Change Card’ says Pudgy Pocket…” he said, a little confused.
Inez had already clocked what the change was. She was staring at his belly, over his shirt and sweater combo. His belly rose a little, growing more and more fat. If anything, it was cute. Nothing unattractive about it, just a little strange. Mark looked down. He was half tempted to lift up his sweater to look at it, but in the presence of two coworkers, he decided not to. Instead, he poked at it. He put his hand below it and dug his fingers into it. It was just fat.
“Weird feeling.” He chuckled. Inez looked more afraid about her next turn, while Maya was a little… distracted. She found his belly to just add onto Mark’s inherent cuteness. She felt the odd butterfly in her belly,
“Inez!” She said, turning away from Mark, “your turn, right. Then back to me.” She joked.
Inez felt almost sick with anxiety. She hated the risk of changing. It made her uncomfortable in the anticipation. But everyone else had done their turn, and they couldn’t keep playing to end the game without her just biting the bullet and taking her cards.
She quickly reached over and grabbed her cards,
“No Action Applies.” She sighed in relief. She turned her next card over, “Horny Tail…”
“What the Hell does that mean?” Maya asked.
But Inez could already feel the change. Within a few seconds, a sharp stabbing sensation came right out of her tailbone, and quickly erupted a tail no thicker than her thumb, growing longer and longer, with the same texture and skin-tone as her skin. And out of the end grew an arrow-head like barb.
“My god…” Maya said,
“It’s not that bad,” Mark started, “in fact it’s kinda cool!”
“It’s okay…” Inez said, “Maya, just take your turn.”
“Ehm…” Maya said, looking awkward, aware that now she had to take her gamble at yet another weird change, “let’s let the others back in first, right?”