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"Changing the Game"

The room was dark, lights that shined up through the flat top desk illuminated the rows of vials, the different colored fluids within them swirled around as if reacting to the bright light as Cameron moved from one end to the other, carefully applying the precise measurements of chemicals to the liquids as he could. He had to make them just right; they would be suspicious if his calculations were even slightly off.

His eye glanced to the clock on the wall, it was almost five o'clock now. He had until six to prepare. But this was incredibly tedious and time consuming. The slightest problem and he would have to scrap this idea for two weeks until they were ready again. A few droplets of the yellow liquid struck the clear liquid in the beaker he was focusing on and he watched as it swirled to life and suddenly the liquid became teal, filling the container in its incredibly eerie glow. Cameron smiled widely, pushing his bottle-rim glasses up his nose a bit. "Perfect." He said. "We're almost there..." He wiped a bead of sweat from his eyebrow and stared at the clock. "Just about there... I just need to get this perfect." He twitched his eyebrow a bit and wiped another bit of sweat from it as he took the contents from another beaker and put it into the teal liquid, making it gain a cloudy yellow shape. He just had to get it right this time, he just had to.

The late afternoon was filling very nicely into the evening as Lisa wandered down Main street toward third avenue. She and her brother Ian lived less than a mile from Cameron's house, and every two weeks they uprooted what little social lives they had to play Dungeons and Dragons over at his place. She rested her guitar case over her shoulder and began to walk a little faster. "C'mon Ian. We're going to be late again."

Lisa was five six, and not the shortest player of their group. She played the eloquent Shi'a Liz'ad, an elf bard wandering the trails in search of adventure. She swept her purple-tipped dark hair behind her ear as she turned around to look for her brother. For a moment, she had forgotten Cameron's rule about cosplaying for every game and briefly panicked when she felt her elongated elf ear prosthetic that had swiveled down ever so slightly when her hand ran across it. She pushed up in her long pasted eyebrows and continued on down the street.

"HA!" Ian looked partly ridiculous to his sister in his leotard costume. His feline ears pointed straight up, it was like he had just stepped off a Broadway musical. His dark hair was tucked under the hood that held his ears, and it was hard to ignore the silver-thread whiskers dangling off his nose. His fur was supposed to be a calico color, but instead he had to settle for white which didn't really do much for the imagination. He snickered lightly as his sister rolled her eyes. "Did I get ya?"

"Quiet as a cat you are." She answered sarcastically. "Can we go? Why is it you're always the one to make me late to these things?"

"Hey, Cameron's my friend. Remember?" Ian asked as he sidled alongside his sister. "You just got interested because of the game."

"Right, exactly which we're always late for."

"Well at least you make a good elf." Ian shrugged indifferently. "Better than the last girl... who... was played by a guy."

"Yeah. You don't have to remind me there; eww."

"Hey guys." The big, burly, painted member of their team made an appearance as Ian and Lisa turned the corner.

Sam wasn't as big and gruesome as he was dressed up as. Normally he wore a pair of glasses and was just barely on the wrong side of pudgy. But he dressed up nicely. He wore what looked like a thick leather hide and worn silver plates on his shoulders and hands. The padding under his clothes made him look more muscular and just big, and the tusks didn't protrude as far as a normal orc's because he only played a half-orc. The contacts he used in place of his glasses gave his eyes a gold glimmer.

"Looking good, Sam." Lisa complimented.

"Please, milady Shi'a, the name is Bogan." He bowed toward her. "I see your brother Quick has decided to join us too."

"Yes. It is hard to believe a brutish creature such as yourself can lay his eyes so easily upon one of the catfolk. The don't tend to reveal themselves to just anyone."

"Just the occasional dryad girl or two... maybe a few nymphs." Ian cackled as all three of them laughed.

"This is going to be a good game tonight." Lisa said. "I can feel it."

"Oh, yes." Sam chuckled.

The three of them approached the small house near the corner of third and Elm. It was easily recognizable by the ivy green pinstriping on the front window shades and the blatantly oddly colored red door. They knew the routine by now, slipping down the long rocky driveway, they made their way to the back door. Sam, then Ian, then Lisa knocked three times in quick succession, then all three knocked at once. The door opened, and Cameron appeared in the doorway. He smiled as he looked at his friends and bowed respectfully.

"Bogan. Quick." He grinned widely as he took Lisa's hand. "And the lovely Shi'a." He said as he kissed it lightly, making her smile. "Please, come in. Your dungeon awaits!"

As they stepped inside, they noticed the other players had arrived already; Lakana, played by Margot Walsh was dressed in a long sleeved, slimming red shirt and pants. Her jacket was made out of crocodile leather, giving it a rough scaly look and her reptilian contacts made her the perfect casting choice for the half-dragon sorceress she played. And Eddie sat at the table next to her. He was dressed in little more than a kilt with fuzzy formed boots that climbed almost up to his knees. A pair of white horns were affixed to his head and they wobbled as he turned to greet the other players as Gobah the Minotaur.

"Well then, you guys made it on time it seems." Cameron said, fixing his glasses a bit as he let the other three in. "Three minutes till game time and..." There was a ringing noise that filled the room, it took him a moment to realize it was the house phone ringing. "Oh, hold that thought you guys." He said as he took the phone and stepped out of the room.

"So, any ideas what he's got planned for the game tonight?" Lisa asked as she seated herself at the table next to Margot, who shrugged a bit.

"Who knows? When does he ever tell us what he's got planned?" She asked.

"That's true. I'm still trying to figure out exactly how we ended up in the middle of an ocean for that last one." Sam said. "And how exactly Bogan got the terrible, crippling fear of water that he had too."

"You wrote that in, didn't you?" Ian asked.

"Yeah. But, I mean before that I hadn't even thought about it. I just thought the dramatic flare would've won it for me."

"It did." All four of them said to him at once before laughing.

"Hey guys, sorry about that." Cameron said walking back into the dining room. "Look, I have to run out for a few minutes, gotta take my mom to her doctor's appointment."

"But you're our DM." Sam complained. "Who's going to tell us what adventures we're going to have this game?"

"I promise I won't be gone long." Cameron said. "You guys can handle your own adventure for a little bit right? I made you guys a tray of drinks and labeled them for you according to what you like. They're in the fridge and should last as long as it takes for me to go and come back okay?"

"But..." Margot started to object but was cut off by Cam's frantic plea for leaving.

"Great. Thanks guys. The house is yours for the moment, I'll be back soon. Just try not to make a huge mess and we'll continue here in a little bit. Okay?" He said as he moved to the key hook by the door and lifted a set from it. "Be back soon!" He said as he rushed out the door. The house fell quiet.

Eddie groaned as he fell back in his chair and sighed. "So. Now what do we do?"

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm thirsty." Bogan said standing up and making his way toward the fridge.

Opening the fridge let in a cool breeze that all the others felt. They hadn't realized how hot it had gotten, all of a sudden a cold drink sounded really good to them too. An assortment of colored drinks waited for them on a tray in the center shelf of the box. Bogan pulled his out which was conveniently enough a lime green color. He took a sip from it as he sat down. "Hey Eddie you'll have to explain to me again how a minotaur becomes a cleric by the way." He paused and took in the flavor of his drink. "Ooh! Damn, that's good. Kind of a watermelon flavor. That's definitely a favorite of mine."

Margot took a sip of hers and let off a squeak of surprise. "Wow! That's so cool, it starts off like Strawberry, then has a pretty cinnamon aftertaste to it!

Soon all of them had taken long drinks from their cups; Ian's had a distinctive taste of vanilla and pineapple while Lisa's drink tasted like grape soda. Lastly, Sam's drink was described as something like cherry coke with a hint of lemon in it. By far these had been the best drinks any of them had, and they were done with them quickly Still, Cameron hadn't returned by the time they finished off and they were bored once again.

"So, now what do we do?" Lisa asked. "Should we come up with a game ourselves?"

"I'll do it!" Sam exclaimed reaching forward and swiping the storyteller board off the table. "And of course I'm going to set this one far away from any oceans, rivers, fjords, anything that contains water in it. Bogan's got to be the most masculine--" He paused as he held up the screen and he looked at his thumb; the digit had engorged somehow, his fingernail had grown some and ended at a fine point. "Huh... I didn't think I'd put any fake nails on tonight. My sister wouldn't let me into her--ow!" He exclaimed as he poked himself with the nail. "Holy shit, it's almost real."

"What's almost real?"

Sam lowered the screen. My nail. It somehow grew like three inches and looks like an orc's claw--what?" He stopped at the horrified stares from the other members around the table. He couldn't see what they saw; a streaking trail of black that was winding its way through Sam's eyes. His skin was rippling out from his face down his neck and a sudden pulsing of his flesh made him realize something was wrong.

"AHHHHH!" He screamed loudly as he threw his hands back and covered his eyes with his palms. "What the hell is this?" He asked as he leaned back against the wall and then slid and fell to the floor. His body was writhing now, pulsating and increasing in muscle. The gaps in his green paint started to disappear, the areas he was wiping clean with his fingers were quickly returning and not wiping off. He pulled his hands from his eyes, the irises were the same contacts he'd had before, but the whites of his eyes had become black pools and the irises were beginning to illuminate somehow. Tugging at his fake tusks, he began to feel the pain shoot through his mouth now as his tusks affixed to his teeth and became immobile. "Wha-what is happening to me?" He asked as he slammed his hands onto the floor and he began to dig into the wood paneled flooring under him as his growls and grunts began to become more feral and beastial.

"Oh my god, Sam what'sssss happening to you?" Margot gasped and screamed as a very dragon-like tongue slithered from her mouth and she pulled it back in. "OH MY GOD! What'ssssss happening to me!?! She hissed and grabbed her stomach, doubling over in pain as she too grabbed her eyes, the contacts within them looking like they were stretching to every corner of her eye. The leather on her jacket was somehow beginning to spread across her red shirt, and as a result the leather in the area was beginning to change red as well. She tried to get up and run, but gasped as she felt her leg bend backwards into a very animal-like digitgrade shape and she stumbled forward. "Ohhhhhhh.... AHHH!" She cried out gasping and gagging a bit. She felt her teeth sharpening, she opened her mouth and it opened wider than she thought possible. Her whiplike tongue fell out as she tried to regain herself. Slowly, her legs worked back to normal, though thick claws then protruded through her feet and her hands as her arms extended a couple of inches down and her stomach sucked in as her form grew taller.

Ian saw what was happening and immediately tried to rip off his costume, but to his shock and surprise, he couldn't find the zipper in the leotard. He gasped a bit as he brought his hands down and realized that something had grown down between his legs that had previously been underneath his costume. His ears began to flick back and forth and the sound of Sam thrashing about on the floor made him leap rather high into the air. He settled in a crouch on top of the refrigerator, hissing and crying out as he couldn't stand upright due to how little room there was for him between the top of the fridge and the ceiling. The cat's white body popped and grew rigid, he screamed, but his voice had grown deeper and sounded now like it was a deep cat growl than a human's cry. His white body had grown fur and was now sheen against the light in the room, a long, thick, swaying tail ejected from his spine, making him cry out in shock as he watched his own tail dangle down below them.

"We are becoming our characters!" Lisa surmised all of a sudden before she cried out and her back arched upward as she grew rigid. Her breasts swelled under her jacket, which began to tatter away near the ends, growing leaf-like fringes at the ends of her sleeves. Her eyebrow ridges curved up a few inches now and she covered her ears, the sounds becoming stronger by ten fold suddenly invading her hearing as she cried out in pain. The prosthetics were no longer prosthetic and she could feel her fingers along them even as they stretched another two or three inches in length. "Oh my god! Why is this happening to us?"

"It wassss the drinks! Our drinks were spiked!" Margot hissed, now becoming Lakana.

"MMMRROOOOO!" Eddie threw his body back, suddenly his bare chest had exploded into a thick palate of muscle and hair that swept down across his torso. His head and neck had almost become one slab of meat, but the top of his skull popped and his head extended forward, his face turning into a full blown bovine muzzle. The painful part of his change past the thick and rapidly expanding muscle was the explosive expansion of his horns that looked like they'd stabbed into his skull. He cried out and threw his hands. "Hurts! PAAAAIN!" He wailed, half sobbinng as he became Gobdah. He threw himself to the floor as his back forced itself into a more hunched shape. He angrily thrust his head into the table, catching it with his horns as he threw it across the room toward Lakana. She quickly threw her hands into the air and caught the table, spinning midair and flung it with a swing of her arms into the wall.

"Our... powers are in tact..." She exclaimed. "I am truly a sorceresssss now!"

"Oh, and it was my fault that I became a bard?" Shi'a scoffed. "My dear, I think we have far greater problems than that."

"Please! Just someone stop this headache! My face... my mouth! It hurts!" Bogan complained, grabbing his jaw and crumbling to the ground.

"I hear something." Quick said as his ears angled in the direction of the front door. "I'll be back." he said as he quickly leaped from the fridge and into the living room.

"Ohhh man... just stop this room from spinning." Shi'a groaned, covering her head. "I wish to return to my home, my nature is calling me!"

"Well, well." The familiar voice caused everyone to look up to see Cameron standing in the doorway. Quick standing not far behind him. "This is what I call a cos play."

"The-these aren't costumes." Bogan complained. "What have you done to us?"

"I've only made the game more immersive." He answered. "I've taken every aspect you loved and hated about your characters and turned it into a serum to make you become them. In essence you are Quick, Shi'a, Bogan, Lakana and Gobdah. How do you like it?" He heard groans and the light laughter as everyone began to grasp that they had become such inhuman characters. Cameron grinned. "Then... as your dungeon master, it is my pleasure to say "Let the game begin"."

THE END