As Jon watched, Karyn seemed to undergo an opposite transformation from his own. Her hair became short and darkened until it was black, her face becoming more masculine as her nose and jaw became more prominent. Karyn gasped as the sensations of the change became stronger, which seemed to be a prelude to her own increase in strength as shortly there after her shoulders, arms, and indeed entire body bulked up into ridiculous comic book superhero proportions. Her breasts shrank as she rapidly gained muscle, and her skin itched all over as she became more hairy. When she felt an odd pressure in her groin, she realized that she was now technically a he.
Finally, she felt her clothes begin to weigh her down as they transformed into a shining, silvery suit of armor.
"Who are you?" Jon asked in surprise. He had to look up quite a bit, since she was now more than a head taller than him.
"I am Haldrid, the human prince." She responded in a deep, strong voice. "This is...a little weird."
"Why did you choose that, then?"
Karyn, now Haldrid, shrugged. "I was curious. Besides, women in these kind of books are always either amazon warrior queens or damsels in distress that exist solely to fall for the hero."
Jon irked a little at that, but said nothing.
"So what next? We choose story theme and location, right?" Karyn asked.
"Yes."
"Ok." Karyn said, retrieving the bookmark. She noticed that in addition to the image of Princess Allaria smiling and posing provocatively that the bookmark now sported the handsome Prince Haldrid standing besider her, fingering his sword hilt. The background and title, however, were still blank.
"So, do you want to mix things up a bit or just stick with this book and get it over wi-" Karyn stopped in mid sentence, staring at the book. "Uh, Allaria, I think there is something you should know." (As predicted, she could no longer call Jon by any name other than his character's.)
"What is it now?" Jon asked, annoyed. This just keeps getting better and better He thought.
Karyn hesitated for a moment, causing Jon to sigh again.
"Look, it cannot possibly be much worse than my little accident. You might as well say it." He told her in a softer tone.
"Well, you see, I did not know this when I chose the character but, Prince Haldrid he is Princess Allaria's, well,your fiance." Karyn grinned sheepishly.
