Harry's turn

As Barbara came trotting back into the living room, clearly vivid from her newfound youth, she could see Harry making a little cheer as he saw the results of his throw. Following Barbara's good luck, the young stud was sure that similar fortune would befall him when he matched her roll.
With a newfound eagerness, Harry went ahead and read that fateful card.

Used to being the alpha, the one in control.
Built like a mountain, a dude so swole.
Your reign of terror comes to an end,
as lower on the food-chain you descend.

Do you continue or chicken out?

Harry wasn't exactly one to pay a lot of attention in English class. The raven what? He wouldn't know, analyzing poems was by far the most boring part of school to him. But there were some flashy words in there which he liked, like alpha, swole and in control. Too proud to ask anyone for an interpretation, the positive words were enough for him to continue with the game.

"I'll continue"

To Caitlyn's and Troy's amusement, Harry did the stupid thing and went into it blindly, not aware of the catastrophic consequences that awaited him. Of course, the two brighter ones of the group knew where this was headed. Maybe, if Harry hadn't been so quick to commit, Troy would've lent him a helping hand and advised him against continuing. In spite of the continuous **** he'd endured over the years thanks to Harry and Sam, Troy didn't harbor much malice towards the two.

As the changes began to reveal themselves, contrary to Harry's belief, his frame didn't fill out at all, rather, it shrunk quite dramatically. Remaining the same height, his much reduced mass made him look all the more lanky and fragile.

With his diminished frame, the sweater which had previously wrapped tightly around his impressive muscles, now looked ridiculously oversized on him.

His initial reaction was utter silence, shock, then rage.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!"

Clearly not satisfied with the results, Harry couldn't fathom how a card with so many positives landed him a net loss in terms of effect.

"It was supposed to make me an ALPHA! Now I look like.. like -LIKE TROY USED TO!"

"If you'd bothered to actually analyze the text and not just looked at the pretty words, you would've realized that this is what it meant."

Caitlyn said the words that Troy didn't dare utter. Not sure what he would be afraid of, at this rate, there wasn't much Harry could do in retaliation if Troy where to be a bit snarky.

"Well, fuck. Seems like there's even more of us that need fixin'. At least we're in it together.."

Sam once again trying to alleviate the tension to no avail.

"In it together?? You, what? Get to look like a fucking fairy? I'm sorry, but this is ten times worth. I won't be able to ever play ball again, let alone work out. I'll probably break every bone in my body if I try to lift anything heavier than a carton of milk."

"..Uncalled for."

Besides the degrading homophobic slur Harry just blurted out, it wasn't like they could choose their changes. Either they play or they don't, not to mention the cryptic nature of the cards. It was entirely pointless to discuss who had it worse in a scenario where most of them were suffering, except for Barbara of course. The only person yet to have their life altered was Caitlyn, who was up next. With her being the last to play, she incidentally also remained the last hope for anyone to pick up the crimson die, which demanded a bad roll on the very first round of the game. A double edged sword of a die, being optional it wasn't necessarily all good, but could certainly speed up the rate at which anyone could traverse the board.

Either way, they were all about to find out whether the bloodred die would be making an appearance or not..