Jon felt a chill go up his spine. Nothing seemed different, but he had a strange feeling that something was happening. He also had an intuition that it had something to do with Karyn.
Jon went over to his computer and opened up a video chat. He pinged Karyn, and after a few seconds, she appeared on his screen.
"Hey Jon, what's up?" she asked, brushing her long blonde hair out of her face.
"Hi Karyn, I think I messed up..." said Jon.
"What? Did you transform yourself by accident?" Karyn squinted at Jon, looking at his image on her screen. "You don't look different, but I guess I wouldn't notice any changes. Were you always a guy?"
Jon shook his head. "No, that's not it," he said, "I just wished that something interesting would happen, that's all."
"And what happened?" asked Karyn, "Anything interesting yet?"
"No," Jon replied, "That's what has me worried."
"Something interesting doesn't sound so bad," said Karyn cheerfully.
"Haven't you hear that ancient Chinese curse," said Jon, "May you live in interesting times?"
Karyn shrugged. "That doesn't sound like much of a curse to me."
At that moment, Jon's computer beeped, and a message appeared on his screen.
Hello Jon. read the message. It didn't seem to be part of any program; the green letters were just floating on his screen on top of a black rectangle.
"That's weird," said Karyn.
"What's weird?" asked Jon.
"A message just popped up on my screen... it says Hello Karyn"
"Huh," said Jon, "The same thing just happened to me."
I'm glad I have your attention then.
"Weird," said Karyn again.
You can stop saying that, Karyn, read the message, this is appearing on both your screens.
"You can hear us?" asked Karyn.
Duh.
"Oh," said Karyn.
Something interesting is about to happen. read the message.
"This is already kind of interesting," said Jon.
It's about to get more interesting. We're going to play a little game.
"What kind of game?" asked Karyn, "I like games!"
You might not like this one, read the message, but you'll play anyway.
The game is called "Would You Rather". You may think you know it, but you don't. I am going to give each of you a choice. You must choose one or the other. You will suffer the consequences of your choice for up to 24 hours.
"That doesn't sound like much of a game," said Jon, "Usually a game has some kind of contest in it."
I'm not finished, read the message. You can end the changes at any time by saying "Uncle, Uncle, I Give Up!" out loud. However, whoever tolerates his or her choice the longest is the winner.
"What does the winner get?" asked Karyn.
I'm glad you asked. The winner gets to choose two other people, and ask them each a "Would You Rather" question. The same rules apply to the new game.
"What if we both make it the full 24 hours?" asked Jon.
If you both tolerate the consequences of your choice for 24 hours, the questioner gets to give you another choice. You will suffer the consequences of both choices for 24 hours, or until one of you gives up. And so on, and so forth.
"That's easy, I'll just refuse to choose," said Karyn smugly.
If you refuse to make a choice, you will suffer the consequences of both. I warn you, you don't want to do this - if the choices are mutually contradictory, very strange and upsetting things may happen.
"Who are you, anyway?" Jon demanded.
Different messages now appeared on each of their screens. On Jon's screen, the message read:
Jon, here is your choice. Please click on your selection. Would you rather...
