John considered himself many things, but an conoissieur of alcohol and other fine beverages was not one of them. This probably had something to do with his limited budget meaning that he had to go with what he could get his hands on, rather than what was neccesarily of the best quality. This applied to food as well, but he was lucky that living in Cardiff wasn't massively expensive. Tom had, on occasion, sent him stuff from Nottingham, ranging from Bugman's Hellfire (on sale at Warhammer World), to Nottinghamshire Stout (and not Stoat. That'd be cruel), and even the exclusive brews from Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (well worth a visit, in my opinion). Alas, these were merely luxuries. John had his job as a gamer and YouTuber to focus on, as well as taking on other lines of employment as his channel either couldn't get enough views whilst idiots like Morgz got millions of them, or YouTube kept demonitizing his channel for 'copyright violations', rather like how Sheet Music Boss had nearly got screwed over by those rules.
Much like on the second day in the park, Steph and John followed part of the same route to get to their next rides. John spent most of it soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying himself.
Suddenly, Steph speaking shook him out of his own thoughts. "I wonder how those three cope with it?"
"With what?" John asked, confused.
"You know, endlessly changing into fictional characters." Steph was pretty to the point on that one. "Jimmy goes through it at least once a week, and Tom and Kat usually experience it in bursts or at random. It must make a real mess of your identity the longer it goes on."
"It wasn't fun for me at first, losing my junk and all that," John grunted. "It could hardly have been fun for them, although at least we've remained human for these ones. Tom told me Jimmy's first was a pony, of all things. Swapping genders AND changing species? That has to be rough."
"Being mind controlled by an evil bug queen and having your body hijacked isn't fun either," Steph sighed. "Heaven knows how I fought it off."
"That's a fairly simple one," John replied. "Your strength of character, and bravery, saw you through. Even if ending up as her Equestria Girls counterpart did attract the attention of the guys somewhat."
Steph smiled at that. "I have to admit, Chrysalis is pretty sexy." Up ahead, the paths changed. "Well, we're in Seuss Landing. I've got a ride here, so I'll see you later!"
"See you!" John replied, and headed onwards into the park, heading for another land entirely.
The back of Islands of Adventure can be quickly divided into two areas; The Lost Continent (aka not Harry Potter) and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (aka 'Oh God, massive queues' and 'why not just go to Leavesden, it's cheaper'). Originally, the area had also had a land called Merlinwood, themed around the Legend of King Arthur, but that had been flattened when Hogwarts and the surrounding area had been dropped on it and the old rides rethemed or demolished (RIP Duelling Dragons). The Lost Continent was themed around the epic adventures and sagas of old, more than heavily drawing upon Greek and Roman myths, and today's ride had plenty of that.
Poseidon's Fury had opened with the rest of the park in 1999, and was one of the few opening day attractions to actually work properly. Themed around the Lost City of Atlantis, this ride saw visitors travel deep underwater, by foot, and not on a ride vehicle, to witness an epic battle for the future of the undersea city. Whilst an all new story, apparently all the old effects had remained, and that was really why people rode it. That, and to get away from that all pervasive heat. Heat that was very annoying indeed. John reached the entrance of the ride, and before going in, he decided to sit down and rest his feet a bit. The thing about theme parks is that you do a lot of walking about, and that was certainly true here. So there sat he, soaking up the sun like a lizard. There he sat for a few minutes, as the queue for Poseidon's Fury was rarely very long, and so he had plenty of time to rest and sit. And sit and rest. Whichever sounds better, to be honest.
Eventually, he had had enough of sitting where he was, and got up to head forth to his next destination when he suddenly noticed his foot felt off. He stopped, and looked down, and rapidly ascertained the cause of the problem.
His shoe was now a boot. Not only was it suddenly a boot, it was a purple boot, rather the colour of a grape (but not grape juice, which is a different colour entirely). It was also a very long boot indeed, running nearly to his knees.
As he observed this most peculiar phenomenon, the other shoe he had on began to change as well. It, too, began to grow taller and taller until it reached his knee (his other knee, not the first one), and the laces unthreaded themselves and flew into the air, never to be seen again. Not long after that, his shoe filled over into a boot, and heels pushed out of the bottom of both as the second one turned purple.
He had made the decision to wear pants that day, but he saw them begin to get shorter and shorter, growing backwards to his knees, and suddenly merging with both his shirt and both legs, creating a skirt, which also turned purple. Now connected to the shirt and creating a dress, it led to the shirt sleeves shrinking back until they formed straps over his shoulders. A grey belt with red dots appeared around his waist, and the straps and upper bodice turned grey. He also gained two bracelets that were pink, and had red dots set into them.
"Now who could this be?" John was now a lot more comfortable with the concept of endlessly TFing, and so reacted to it a lot more calmly than you might expect. Still, changing gender was never much fun. Purple hair flowed down his back and shoulders, and fell into his eyes as a fringe. His skin turned pink, his eyes went a deeper mulberry, and his arms, shoulders, and hands all began to compress as they shrank to smaller sizes. In contrast, his chest grew into two breasts whilst his hips widened. He grimaced as his manhood vanished, becoming she for the second time that trip. Her legs got shorter and her feet shrank, but after that incredibly quick change, it was over. It didn't hurt as much as the first time either, which was saying something.
"I'd better make the most of this," she said, walking away and wobbling slightly, being shure not to shlure her wordsh.
Poseidon's fury was a walkthrough attraction. Berry Punch arrived in the main chamber to be greeted by an archeologist, explaining the long history of the structure. Essentially, Poseidon was a Greek God who was betrayed by his High Priest, Lord Darkenon (no, really). After the lights went out, a mysterious message warned them of an ancient evil behind the door, and that the trident was needed to defeat it. No sooner had the lights come on, then a Professor Baxter came on the radio, warning them to escape, only to get seemingly killed.
Then it got ultra weird. A voice, later revealed to be Lord Darkenon, spoke in the chamber, goading them to follow into the tomb. So they did, only for the doors to shut behind them.
"You should have heeded your master and left while you still could!" Darkenon laughed. "Now you will NEVER leave!"
"Anybody questioning how a Greek madman from antiquity can speak perfect English?" Berry Punch asked rhetorically.
After finding a golden trident, a kindly goddess opened a door, taking them deeper into the tomb. In they went, walking through a tunnel made of water (luckily, nobody got wet). After roaming through some more tunnels, Darkenon returned, throwing fireballs and generally making a mess of an ancient temple, until the archeologist put the trident on a statue. An epic battle between Darkenon and Poseidon erupted, and, this being Hollywood, Poseidon emerged victorious and the riders escaped.
Berry needed a drink after that. Preferably a non alcoholic one as alcohol wasn't served in the park. So, she headed back towards the plaza to try and find the others. She arrived in Seuss Landing.
"Well, that ride was boring!" said a voice. Walking towards her was a girl with lopsided eyes.
"I SO would not have queued long for that!" added Marigold from nearby.