Dalton gave in and decided to go with Landry. He'd come on his own, anyway. Perhaps it would be nice to travel the fair with somebody else, especially if Landry could help him out.
The pair left the room and followed a series of EXIT signs to leave the building. Along the way, they joined up with several other people who were also leaving the Transformational Super-Quiz. Dalton did his best to ignore the other participants, hoping to avoid drawing attention to himself, but a few of the others stood out to him. He saw a clean shaven man in his twenties with a large pair of breasts, along with a woman with an extraordinarily flat chest sporting an impressive pair of muttonchops. There was one man Dalton almost tripped over. He took him for a child at first do to his short stature, but saw by his face he was nearer to Dalton's current age. He also couldn't help but notice an incredibly tall person who had to be scraping close to 8 feet, but was supremely skinny. It was as if he'd been stretched like taffy. Dalton couldn't be sure if these were other changes found around the Fair, or if they'd exchanged traits with one another during their quiz-taking.
Soon enough, Dalton and Landry exited the dark halls of the Events Pavilion and into the bright, afternoon sun. Landry shaded his eyes and began looking among the other body-suited people. Dalton took a deep breath, taking in the sights and smells of the Fair. A nearby stall was selling deep fried funnel cakes, coated in powdered sugar. Dalton did his best to ignore his watering mouth. The last thing he needed was more food.
Landry nudged Dalton in his voluminous gut. "Hey, would ya kindly keep an eye out for a guy in a yellow and black tiger stripe suit?"
Before Dalton could begin to look around at the dozens of highly varied body suits, he heard a voice call out from the crowd.
"Hey! Landry! We're over here!"
Glancing over, he saw a man in his mid-twenties wearing a yellow and black tiger stripe body suit waving his arms. He had his hood down, giving Dalton a good view of his tousled, brown hair, and big bushy beard that would make a lumberjack envious. He also seemed to be in fairly good shape, much like Landry.
Standing next to the man were two other people. Dalton saw a petite girl with blonde hair escaping from the hood of her solid green suit. She wasn't watching Landry, but was looking distractedly over at the other people walking by. The other person was a young man, about the same age as the first. He was shorter and sported hints of stubble on his chin and upper lip, but was otherwise clean shaven. His hood was up and his dark eyebrows were the only hints of his hair's true color. He was glancing through the crowd, as if looking to spot Landry himself.
Landry heard his name called, and he grinned and waved back at the trio. He looked over at Dalton, grabbing one of his thick arms. "Come on. I'll introduce you to my friends."
Landry led Dalton over to the other three, much to Dalton's dismay. He was middle-aged, fat, and balding, as well as starting to sweat. The last thing he wanted to do was meet other people. He was tempted to pull away there and then, but decided to stick with it. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
Landry grinned as he firmly slapped the bearded man in the shoulder. "Jake! There you are! How did you know it was me?"
The bearded man in the tiger stripe suit, who was named Jake, merely grinned back. "The bright pink and green gave you away. You're looking younger. What, you didn't like being more mature?" He glanced over at Dalton. "Who's your friend?"
Landry nodded. "Right, right. How rude of me." He cleared his throat. "Dalton, these are my friends," he pointed to the bearded man, "Jake," he pointed to the girl, "Linda," lastly, he pointed to the shorter man, "and Steve. Guys, this is Dalton."
Jake, still grinning, firmly grasped Dalton's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. You a friend of Landry's?"
It was then that Dalton noticed that Jake had a similar, if more subtle, country twang to Landry. They also seemed to share the same suffocating politeness. Dalton resisted the urge to take out his frustrations on the grinning, bearded man and deck him in the face.
Landry chuckled when Dalton failed to answer. "I'm afraid I may have had a bit too much luck at the quiz show. This poor fella got all that extra age you guys put on me." He nudged Dalton. "We were all at another thing earlier. It's kind of like drawing straws. The one who draws the shortest straw is given something by all the other players. They all gave me five years of age."
Jake chuckled and stroked his beard. "And it looked good on you, too. My daddy didn't look half as good as you did at that age."
Landry suddenly reached out and grabbed a tuft of Jake's beard. "Speaking of things, where did this come from? You did not have this before I went in there."
Linda, done being distracted by the other fair goers, turned her attention back to the group. "Oh, we stopped by a booth while we were waiting for you. They were selling beards, mustaches, chest hair, and all kinds of stuff." She grinned and stroked her hand through Jake's beard. "I like it. It's really soft."
Jake chuckled and leaned into her touch. "They even had some hair in a bag which you could sprinkle on wherever you want. The stuff takes root, too. Once you put it on, it's part of you. Well, until you leave the fair that is."
Landry reached out again, plucking a single hair from Jake's chin. Jake's hand flew up as he scowled in pain. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Just had to check." Landry rubbed his own stubble. "Maybe we could stop by there later and I could pick up something more substantial."
Steve eyed Dalton as the others talked. He looked uncomfortable and nervous, though Dalton couldn't really place why. Steve cleared his throat, getting the attention of the others. "Not to be rude or nothing, but, uh, what did you guys want to do next, exactly?"
Jake gestured back with his thumb. "We could stop by that beard place for Landry real quick."
Landry shook his head. "Actually, I promised Dalton here that we'd help him undo the damage I did to him, and maybe even help him to lose a few pounds." Landry grinned at Dalton. "You still want us to show you around, right?"
Dalton sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, that would be good. The sooner I can be...” he thumped his stomach, "less like this, the better.
Jake crossed his arms, nodding. "Alright, sure. We can help. Right, guys?"
Linda smiled and nodded, only half paying attention as she leaned on Jake's shoulder. Steve scowled and looked away, saying nothing.
"We've only got one rule, though. It has to be somewhere fun. No walking into a booth and getting poofed. It has to be something you can have fun with, like a game or contest or something."
Dalton grimaced. It was a game that got him like this in the first place. "I don't know..."
Landry nudged Dalton again. "Oh, come on. It will be fun. I promise. You can always leave if you want."
Dalton sighed. "Alright. I'm in. For now."
Landry grinned and playfully punched Dalton in the arm. "That's the spirit!" He turned to the others. "Hey, remember that one place we saw? You know, the one that's like the teacup ride at Disneyland?"
Linda nodded. "Oh, right, I know what you're talking about. There's these round things you sit in that spin, and as you spin it mixes all your traits around with the people sitting next to you."
Jake nodded. "Yeah, those were cool. Do you guys remember the Wonder Trade building? You go in and donate any one aspect of yourself, but you have to also randomly accept somebody else's donated aspect."
Landry's eyes widened with excitement. "Oh, yeah! We have to try that one! Oh, but there was this one other thing. If you don't mind another game, Dalton, I saw this one gambling area earlier. Instead of betting money, you bet other things, like age or weight, or stuff like that. I think it'd be fun if we all played a round of poker like that."
All the while they were discussing, Steve merely looked down at his feet and frowned. Dalton couldn't help but wonder why Steve wasn't as excited as his friends were. Maybe he'd been drug along against his will.
Dalton's thoughts were interrupted by another jab in his belly from Landry. "Any of those sound good to you, Dalton? Or did you have somewhere else in mind."