This story is a follow on from the first of this title and is in response to a request from a reader. What happens when you try to cheat at a game that is designed to punish the arrogant and selfish? Hope you enjoy it.

 

The New Game: A New Player                     by: Patricia Pendragon

 

Melanie was a stunning young woman. Her raven hair, fine boned face and classical figure turned all the young men she encountered into glassy-eyed slaves as soon as they saw her. She was very intelligent, athletic and competitive – and she took no prisoners in her drive to be number one in everything. An only child she had been indulged by her father from babyhood and largely allowed her own willful way in everything else by her rather indolent and self centered mother who found it easier just to give her everything she wanted than to argue. As a result, Melanie had gone from precocious to spoiled brat to super brat.

When her father had walked out on her mother (and Melanie!) after a lengthy period of growing estrangement, Melanie took against men in general, her father in particular, and adopted the view that it was all a very personal affront to her. Boys found her even more difficult to please and ever more willing to inflict a crushing humiliation on them than before. Even her few girlfriends trod very wearily around her, taking very good care never to outshine her or to do anything better than she could. In short, she was the sort of girl that gives perfectly good female dogs a very bad name. As one bitter young man remarked to his sympathetic cronies after a particularly humiliating encounter with her, "she can go from nice to super bitch, in nothing flat!"

At a loose end one day she did a surf of the net, looking in on several chat sites and on the entertainment scene. The fashion sites she visited didn’t have anything she considered worthy of her attention and she continued to surf looking for something she might find challenging or amusing. She found one; a freeware game site that offered a number of different action games. Reading through the menu and the blurb attached to each she was on the point of moving to a new site when she found a game she had never seen before. It appeared to be a variant of Tomb Raider, something she was extremely good at, and she liked some of the features she was reading about. There was a warning in the opening statements, which read: "This game has built in penalties – let the loser beware! Accumulated demerits will result in the players paying the penalty selected!" A list followed, all of it making no sense to her as it included references to ‘morphological changes’ of being. Impossible drivel she sniffed, still it gave the game a certain edge.

After some thought she downloaded it.

When she opened the file it surprised her by requiring her to enter her personal details. A further surprise was that some of these were already entered – her name, address and age were all filled in, and try as she liked she could not alter them. Annoyed and on her mettle over this she moved on completing the form and was rewarded by the game graphics loading. Now she was asked to select her ‘character’ from a list of female heroines – each having a different set of martial arts skills, weapons and special abilities. Scanning the list she chose a particularly versatile character named Demolition Dee and found herself at the first portal.

After a few minutes of grappling with the fact that she was viewing the scene ahead as if she was seeing it through the characters eyes, she began to make good progress. However, in that first few minutes she had suffered an ‘injury’ which was to prove crucial later. Even so, her points score mounted impressively as she negotiated the various dungeons and caverns in her quest to acquire the ‘immortality’ key which was the ultimate prize. Her ‘injuries’ mounted however, and she found the character slowing and less responsive as she drove forward reaching, eventually a portal which carried a warning; The portal was ominously labeled "The Gender Translator – Passing this point will heal the wounded, but reduce your strength if male; increase it if female. Those who pass it must accept that they must remain what they have become!" With a snort of contempt, she moved through it.

Immediately she became aware that her character had become taller, her point of vision had been raised slightly and she was still considering this when a Portal Guardian attacked the character. Now she became aware of another difference; the character was stronger, but less agile and marginally slower in reaction. Off balance, she did her best and succeeded in beating off the attacker. Soon enough, however she was knee deep in trouble and getting into more by the second! In her eagerness to win she had forgotten to check her ‘injuries’ demerits. Now it proved fatal. Her character, changed in the portal from female to male had carried with him a number of injuries which she had not had the sense to have healed in an exchange of ‘jewels’ before proceeding. The character was overwhelmed.

Her last sight of the Realm was of her character being chained to the wall of a cell and then a notice replaced the view. It said simply: "You lose. Prepare to pay the penalty."

A form to be completed followed this. Again, her name, address, sex and age had all been filled in for her. Below it was a list of options for her penalty, with the chilling message; "Choose carefully, you will be transgendered automatically since you crossed the Gender Translator in your quest."

Melanie looked at the list. It offered her:

Super hero

Gay leatherman

Hell’s Angel

Porn Star

Sorcerers Assistant,

Artists model

Boy next door

Transsexual/Transvestite/Fetishist

Alien

Creature of myth.

None of it made sense, so, angry that the computer would not let her play again or simply bomb out of the programme, she checked ‘Boy next door’ and was rewarded by the screen going blank then; a new screen, which advised her that she would be transgendered shortly, followed this. She started to laugh as the screen faded again and was then surprised to see a numeral appear counting down, as the Zero appeared there was a brilliant flash and a taste of tin in the air.

When she regained consciousness she was surprised to find that she felt totally different! It took a few minutes to work out what it was, and at first her mind refused to accept what her brain was registering. Her clothes had changed, she was now clad in a T-shirt, jeans and trainers, but, more than this, her chest was devoid of breasts! She shot to her feet and gasped as an unfamiliar appendage shifted in her(?) boxers! She rushed to the mirror and gasped in horror at the image reflected back at her. The image was clearly and unmistakably that of a boy! Panic seized control for a few minutes as she tried desperately to think of a way out of this – then it hit her. Play the game again! Get to that damned portal and lose!

The computer had mysteriously shut down, but she rebooted and immediately did a file search to find the game. It was with a huge sense of relief that she found it and managed to reload it. To her alarm however, it now showed, in the opening forms that her name was now Marcus, her age 18 (She’d previously been 17!) and all other details seemed to have changed slightly to reflect a ‘male’ biography. She raced through them and selected a suitable character from the menu, eager to get started.

As in her first attempt it started well. The experience of the first attempt helped her to negotiate some of the dungeons or caverns more easily, but others seemed to have adapted to her style or changed subtly to make them more difficult. Again her ‘injuries’ demerits mounted steadily, while her collection of jewels, keys and treasures built up nicely. Even so, the monsters and guardians she was now facing seemed that much quicker, and that much more deadly than before. The game seemed in some places to be changing and adapting to her style as well and the level of difficulty seemed to be increasing all the time. Nettled, she played on with a determination born of anger – not, in the circumstances, the most intelligent move.

‘Marcus’ reached the Transgender Portal with an impressive haul of treasure, and a full trauma teams worth of ‘injuries’. In desperation she slammed her electronic persona through the portal and let the transgendered character be defeated. In relief she watched as the character went through the ritual of being dragged to a cell and chained to the wall, then waited while the screen faded and the expected message could appear. A message did appear, it wasn’t what she wanted or expected. It said;

 

"You cannot beat the game. You will remain a male, even though you have chosen to attempt a transfer! Cheating is not a way to win, choose your fate."

The list was short:

Transvestite,

She-male,

Fetish/bondage artist

Slave.

Tears stung her eyes as she read the list. In despair she checked Transvestite, at least she could look like a girl, even if she couldn’t be one!

She regained consciousness slowly. Her eyes focused on her chest, now adorned by a pair of prosthetic breast forms barely contained in a quarter cup bra, a low cut blouse and a pair of hot pants so tight they could have been painted on. Long boots with impossible heels covered her legs to mid-thigh and fish net tights covered the rest. She could feel, without looking that her male genitalia were now confined – imprisoned might be a better description – in some sort of tight moulding brief. A glance in the mirror showed the rest, over made up face, wig and false eyelashes all screaming ‘tart’!

The door opened silently behind her and her mother entered the room with a stranger. "Marcus!" she said, in a tired voice, "I really wish you would learn to be more considerate! Doctor Spock really has a lot to answer for!"

"Oh, I’m not sure we can really blame this on the good Doctor," purred the second woman, "It seems to me that Marcus here has only himself to blame. Well, we’ll not take up any more of your time my dear! Come Marcus, you have a lot to learn and I am an impatient Mistress." She snapped her fingers at the bewildered ex-girl transvestite, "Come along young man, you and I have much to discuss and you do not want to annoy me now do you!"

Unsure of why, or indeed, what his/her future now held, Marcus/Melanie teetered out of the room in the wake of her Mistress. At the front door he/she meekly pecked his/her mother good bye and left for his/her new life. Behind her reality changed to erase her from the memories of those she had hurt, terrorized or maligned.

Marcus, the transvestite housemaid, settled well and his Mistress was well pleased by him in due course.

 

© 2001
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