Character Select

"Hand me the chips," Elliot said from the other end of the couch. Mark grabbed the bag in his palm and tossed it over to this friend.

The two young men were sitting on a couch in a dimly lit room. Bright streams of sunlight peeked through the blinds providing the only light other than the bluish glow from the television. The room smelled of stale food and beer. Neither of the young men noticed.

"You gotta jump and then use the dash ability," Elliot said. On the screen, his character leapt from one platform to another as a second avatar watched on. Mark bit his lip as he tried the maneuver, falling instantly to his death.

"Fucking platforming nonsense," he muttered. "People need to make more single screen co-op."

Elliot agreed, "They have that new shooter game coming out. They put split screen in and local network stuff. Changers I think it's called."

Mark's look of determination increased as he attempted the jump again. "I watched a video about that one, I think. Looks like a Borderlands knock off."

"They do look similar. Ok, so wait like half a second before you dash. You need to be on a downward slope from the jump," Elliot coached. Mark attempted the jump for a third time finally reaching the far platform.

"Oh yeah! Suck it weird rules of video games."

The pair continued playing, their eyes slightly glazed over. After a while, they reached a save point and Elliot tossed his controller on the coffee table. "The fuck time is it?"

Mark leaned back in a stretch. "Uh, one-ish? Feels like about lunch time. Possibly breakfast."

"Shit," Elliot said. "We're going to be late."

Mark chuckled, "Yeah, we're way behind schedule for getting drunk on the couch again."

Elliot stood up, his body rebelling against the sudden burst in minor physical activity. "Gonna head over to my apartment, take a shower that kind of thing. I'll be back around 8 or so."

Mark nodded. "I'll put myself together, go out for booze. I might swing by Gamestop and see Kevin, pick up something else for us to play. This puzzle solving stuff is getting a little tedious."

With a decent plan established, the two of them gave a non committal wave as Elliot left. Mark turned his attention back to the game. Backing out to the character select screen, he started to modify his avatar. He frowned at the lack of options as he changed tints on the tiny woman's shirt and pants. Finally bored, he clicked off the game and started about his tasks.

As he cleaned up the small apartment, he avoided looking at his work schedule held to the fridge by a magnet. His short vacation time was incredibly precious, and he didn't want his job intruding upon his thoughts. Originally, he had intended to go on a road trip with Elliot, but neither of them really had much money or the desire to go anywhere in particular.

They'd known each other since their first day of college. Mark had been assigned to the room across the hall from Elliot. They both hated their original roommates and eventually negotiated a deal to move into the same dorm room. Since then, they'd been as thick as thieves. The best way to find Mark was to find Elliot and vice versa. They had a large group of friends, but rarely did anything without each other. Mark attributed this to symbiotic personalities. Elliot was outgoing, but hardly personable. Mark was introverted, but somehow fairly charming. This created one functional human being in that Elliot would drag Mark out to a party, and Mark would then carry the burden of being worth having at the party.

Their close friendship caused a few abrasive moments as well. In their third year, Elliot had managed to secure an actual girlfriend. They lasted an impressive three months before she dumped him for making her constantly feel like a third wheel. Mark was disappointed because he too had liked the girl's company, despite the fact that she was pretty open with her disdain of his constant presence. The two young guys got drunk, convinced themselves that Elliot was better off without her, and quickly returned to their normal dynamic.

Mark grumbled as he dragged two bins of trash down to the curb. The sun glared down on him, making him feel dirty as he quickly slipped back into the dark apartment. Resigned that it was purely unhealthy to maintain the miasma inside the apartment, he turned on ceiling fans and opened the windows, ushering out the smell of stale food. For a brief moment, he considered vacuuming, but was able to suppress that desire until it passed. He did manage to clean the dishes and return some order to the den.

Despite the mundanity of it, he was quite enjoying his vacation. He and Elliot had been planning on clearing out a few video games that they'd wanted to play for months. After three days, they had achieved the majority of their goal, which meant the remaining three days would be very sparse of entertainment. Still, he was confident the pair could find something to distract them, but he was uncertain of whether or not his liver would survive it.

Once he had composed himself to conform to societal decency, he set out into the world for more provisions. Stopping first by the grocery store, he bought the types of food that sustained him ever since moving out of his parents house. None of it remotely resembled actual food, and he was sure it was the reason he constantly felt a slight malaise. Frozen pizza, microwavable chicken, a variety of chips, crackers, and other snacks all filled his cart as he shambled through the market. Lastly, he chose two six packs of respectable beer and two cases of what he affectionately termed, "pisswater." The decent stuff was used to make the latter palatable.

Once the shopping was loaded into his car, he drove the short distance across the shopping complex to the Gamestop where his friend Kevin worked. Mark considered calling Kevin a friend fairly generous, but the term "amiable acquaintance maintained for access to entertainment in exchange for cordial conversation" had not caught on. The game shop was off the beaten path a bit, located on the side of one of the strips of shops. It was small and charmingly claustrophobic with games and game merchandise occupying every square inch of space in a desperate attempt to remain relevant. Through this and what Mark assumed to be good management, the chain store had retained an almost local personality.

The door chimed as he walked in. He looked around for Kevin, but instead found a petite, pretty girl with a name tag on that said "Kairi."

"Welcome to Gamestop! Can I help you with something today?" Kairi said as she spotted him. Mark had a hard time hiding the look of surprise on his face. He racked his brain for the last time he'd seen anyone in the store other than Kevin. "Oh, hey Mark!" the young woman said, cheerfully.

Mark sputtered out, "Hello. Um, do we know each other?"

Kairi's brow furrowed for a moment, then as if remembering something incredibly obvious, she said, "Oh, um, no. But you know Kevin right? He was talking about you. Told me a funny story and you just match the description."

Mark nodded. He didn't remember any funny story that Kevin could tell. For that matter, he didn't remember any time that Kevin and he had an interaction more involved than customer and shopkeeper. "Yeah, where is Kevin?"

Kairi smiled at him. She was very pretty, Mark realized. Though she was dressed in the store uniform, he could discern that her figure was quite fit. The blue polo tapered to her slim torso without diminishing the rise and fall of her breasts. As she turned to walk back behind the register, Mark saw that her butt was barely contained by the jeans. Yet something about her felt oddly familiar, as if he were missing something very obvious. "He's out on vacation for a week or two. I'm filling in."

Mark smiled politely at her and moved to the back of the store to start browsing through the recently released games. After only a few moments had passed, he was startled by Kairi's sudden appearance beside him. "Just browsing, thanks," he muttered, hoping to get the strange girl away from him.

Kairi ignored the dismissal. "Looking at Changers, I see. My friend and I have been playing that all week. It's crazy fun. The reviews don't do it justice."

Mark cursed himself for obeying social niceties as he picked up a copy of the game to feign interest. "So, you like run around and kill aliens or something right?"

Kairi rolled her eyes. "No, it's not that simple. The whole game is about these creatures that change depending on what you do. They've invaded earth and start off looking like regular humans, but then you get these special goggles that let you recognize their heat signatures. Anyway, every one of them you fight causes the next wave to adapt to the strategy you use. Get's crazy hard after a while."

Mark nodded thoughtfully. He admitted to himself that the game did sound intriguing, but he'd been fooled by the promise of rapidly adapting AI before. Tapping the case lightly, he started to let his gaze wander to some of the other titles on the shelf.

"Oh, and the customization options are super involved," Kairi said. "You can change pretty much anything about your character that you want."

Mark let out a quick snort of air from his nose. "Weird, I was just thinking about that this morning. I always like to make my characters super specific. Like, I'll waste hours on that."

Kairi smiled, "Then you should definitely check out this one. You're not going to believe how much fun all the options are." She looked mischievously around at no one. "Tell ya what, we have a returned copy that I can give you for like $5. I'll put down that it was used and had major damage, but it's brand new. Used only once, I think." Then, as if to add some credence to her generosity, "You know, since you're a friend of Kevin's and all."

Doubtful of the situation, but never one to turn down a good deal, Mark agreed. After a few more awkward minutes with Kairi, during which Mark couldn't help but notice her nipples poking through the polo shirt, he left the store and headed home with a slightly used copy of Changers.

Once he was back at his apartment, Mark unloaded his car, tucking away all the groceries. He tossed the game on the coffee table and went about a few other chores. A sudden urge for cleanliness had seized him, and he spent a few hours clearing away the rest of the house and doing laundry. Expecting Elliot to show up sooner rather than later, he opened his first beer and sat down in front of the television. He flipped through the channels until he remembered the new game. I'll go ahead and make my character so that Elliot doesn't have to wait on me, he thought. He put in the game and it loaded up.

A variety of publisher logos flashed on the screen and then it proceeded to a start screen. The graphics impressed Mark immediately. A female character did several back flips into the center of the landing page before aiming a gun towards the screen James Bond style. Only one word could describe the animated figure, hot. She was dressed in a skin tight suit that showed every curve of her body. Mark even thought he saw the outline of pussy lips between her legs. As she shifted slightly on the screen, he watched her D cups jiggle from side to side. He proceeded to the next menu and selected a new game.

The next menu provided several stock characters including the one on the starting screen. At the end of the row was one custom character that must have been made by the previous owner. Mark looked at the small avatar and was sure he'd seen someone who looked very similar before. He moved to the last slot and selected "create new character."

Kairi had not misled him. As the next menu came onto the screen, a rather plain looking character appeared beside a vast list of customization options. The top tier was comprised of categories such as body type, hair, and clothing. Mark selected body type and a variety of sliders appeared on the screen, each of which modified a part of the animated character's body. Once he was familiar with the menus, he started to work crafting a character. After a brief consideration, he chose to play a female avatar rather than male. He'd always liked playing as women when he could, and he figured if the gameplay was even remotely representative of the loading screens, he'd have a cartoon hotty to ogle while he played.

To that end, he set about making the most attractive woman he could. He named her Trixie and gave her hot pink hair. For height, he set her a little below average, remembering how he liked women who were a little on the petite side. He gave her a toned body type, but made certain to expand her ass to the widest option available. The little character spun around as he selected the option and as he moved the slider, the girl's butt wobbled out bigger and bigger. Whoever designed this game was having their own kind of fun, he thought. On the whole, he didn't spend that much time on her face, but did give her green eyes like his own and made her nose a little more appealing than the default setting. Moving to her breasts, he again slid the option to its maximum, but found the result a little unappealing. The massive jugs hung off the toon in a comical way more than sexy. He dialed it back a bit to a more moderate setting. Next, he changed the outfit around for a while until he realized that he'd entirely lost track of time.

He was snapped from his reverie by the door opening and closing as Elliot returned. Mark put some finishing touches on his new avatar while Elliot retrieved a beer from the fridge. "Wow," Elliot mused as he saw the screen. "Tell me you haven't been jerking off to that."

"It's crazy right? Have you ever seen such realistic graphics? I haven't actually played the game yet, so it's probably all a waste of time. The in game stuff probably looks way worse." He clicked finished on his character and she appeared on one side of the screen while the other side prompted "Player Two select."

Elliot took a long swig of his beer and grabbed the other controller. He went to the character select screen and selected a default character. Mark frowned, not only had he chosen a default character, but the most generic one. Mark wondered why such a bland avatar was even in the game. The screen flashed black and white rapidly for a few moments before a loading bar appeared. Must be buggy, he thought.

"Dude, what the fuck?" Elliot yelped suddenly. Mark wondered why his friend was staring in shock at back at him. "Your hair. When did you dye it?"

That doesn't make sense. My hair hasn't been dyed. It's always been pink. Something was wrong. Mark's head was fuzzy for a moment. His hair hadn't been pink, that made no sense. Grabbing a game disk, he flipped it over to the reflective side and looked at himself. Sure enough, his hair was a pixie cut length shock of pink. What's more, his stubble had receded. Running his hand across his face, he felt smooth skin. The face peering back at him wasn't masculine at all.

"Um, something's happening," Mark said, but his voice came out wrong. It was higher and sort of lilting. A intense burning sensation was radiating throughout Mark's body. Dropping the disc, he looked down at himself to see that his loose fitting basketball shorts were now snugly clinging to his rounding thighs. His t-shirt was swelling forward as new breasts expanded outward from his chest. Elliot continued to watch in confusion, sometimes looking around as if expecting to find cameras or a smoke machine. "Do something!" Mark squeaked at his friend.

"Like what?" Elliot replied. "Is this real? How is this even...you're turning into a girl?"

Mark looked at him intending to be furious, but his friend looked different as well. At first, Mark thought that something was changing about Elliot, but then realized that he was just looking at the other man differently. Elliot had taken decent care of himself and was a fairly attractive man. A new urge filled Mark's body as the radiating heat moved to between his legs. Realizing what was about to happen, he stood up and pulled down his shorts, struggling to get his boxers down over his new, plump feminine ass.

Between his legs, he could see his cock rapidly shrinking. In some mad effort to stop it, he grabbed hold of the shrinking phallus and a wave of electricity jolted through his body. Elliot's face was no longer one of confusion or amusement, but of stern concentration. Both of them watched as Mark's cock shrank further and further. At the same time, his balls had pulled up to his body and withered away. He felt a strange pulling sensation coming from inside of him for a while until a wet pop resounded loudly in the room. Reaching down between his legs, he ran his fingers on the full lips of his new pussy.

"Jesus Christ," Elliot said in a whisper as he looked at what his friend had become. Mark, or at least a female version of Mark, was standing a few feet away, naked from the waist down. "Should I call...I dunno, an ambulance?"

Mark was snapped out of a short trance by the sound of his friend's voice. Elliot seemed rooted to the spot and Mark soon understood why. Elliot's erection bulged out from his crotch. Mark's pussy was wet. So this is what it feels like to be horny as a girl. Kind of empty and...hungry? Mark turned towards his friend and a sudden shift in weight almost made him topple over. For the first time, he took account of his new breasts. Tits. I have huge fucking tits. Wanting to understand exactly what they looked like, he pulled his shirt over his head and bared himself to Elliot, who continued to squirm uncomfortably.

"Mark, dude," Elliot yelped. "What the fuck, you can't just...be naked."

"Mark...that's wrong," he replied. "Call me, Trixie. Trixie is my name. That makes more sense right. I'm a girl now so I need a girl's name."

Concern once again cut through Elliot's growing lust, "Whoa, are you ok? Did this have some kind of head injury thing go with it? Do you know where you are?"

Trixie replied in paced tones, "Yes, I'm in my apartment. You're Elliot, my best friend. I am or was Mark. I remember everything about who I was, but I don't think I am him any more. I'm me now. I do need your help though."

Elliot swallowed. "Yeah, ok, what do I need to do. There's got to be someone to call in a situation like this. Whatever the fuck this situation is."

Trixie ran her hands over her new breasts. The soft flesh yielded to her touch and she enjoyed the sensation. As a man, she'd touched other girl's breasts on occasion, but this wasn't quite the same. Somehow this was better and worse. The disappearing male portion of her mind knew that this should feel amazing, but instead she was thinking more about reaching in Elliot's shorts and squeezing his cock.

She moved over towards him and Elliot held up his hands, "Wait what are you doing?"

"Like I said," she whispered. "I want you to help me. I need you to help me." As she spoke, she reached out and placed her hand on her friend's thigh, sliding it slowly up towards his crotch.

"But...that's very weird," Elliot said, trying to maintain his concentration. "You're my friend. Who's a dude."

"Do I look like a 'dude' to you," she replied. Grabbing his hand, she pulled it up to her breasts and pushed his palm against her. He instinctively squeezed and let out a short groan. "This makes sense doesn't it. We've always been perfect for one another. Now we can do all the things we couldn't before."

Elliot began to object again, but Trixie put her mouth over his, drowning out his concerns with a kiss. In moments, Elliot's arms wrapped around his friend, pulling her new form closer to him. Trixie's heart beat faster and faster. The feeling of a man's hands running up and down her body, squeezing her breasts, pulling at her ass - all of it filled her with a pleasant tension that built on itself more and more. She pulled Elliot's shirt off and ran her hands over his chest. She'd never noticed before, but he was very in shape. His chest rose and fell quickly with haggard breath as he tried to control his excitement. Trixie climbed on top of him, straddling him on the couch. Her pussy pushed against the bulge in his shorts as she leaned against him, "You know, I think that technically this makes me a virgin. Has your cock ever fucked a virgin pussy before, Elliot?"