Alexandra Vs Tiana part 4 (round 5)

“As our beautiful participants have enough rest and feel better, we will resume our game, and start the final round that many of you, the audience, have been waiting for! The Faustian Deal!”

“You stake your life in this round! One of the choices will be able to make up for the bad changes inflicted on you in the previous rounds, but by no means is it always the best choice, the best choice is still what your heart finds most comfortable to pick.”

“Without further ado, let’s meet our dealer of the night who is also our show producer, Sir Mephisto!” Mike did a respectful bow toward the monitor.

The big monitor in the center lit up and showed a video of an office. In the center of the said office, sitting behind his desk was a masked man, Mr. Mephisto.

"As the host introduced, I am your dealer and the host for this round, the great Mephisto, or you can call me Mr. Mephisto. You may not be a stranger to me if you are a regular watcher of our show.”

"That's for my introduction, I don't want to bore you and the audience with a longer one as I keep repeating it every episode. Now, let's move to the game rules next. The rules of this round are relatively simple, I will give you some sets of deals and you decide whether you want to take the deal or move on to the next deal, once you choose to accept the deal, the collar of change will send you to your new lives, and the game end.”

The man on the monitor still continuing his monologue, “I usually will give the chance for you two to choose who goes first, but today, as our sponsor requested, the one who will be the first is you, Ms. Walters.”

Tiana nodded. Going first or second was nothing different for her.

“I’m ready,” Tiana replied.

"Let's begin then, my first offer for you; you will be Tiana Walters as you are, you will keep your job as a lawyer, basically almost nothing changes except for the additional change you will get as part of this deal, so the price you need to pay is that you will be unable to express your ideology as feminist in front of the public. Even on the web, you can only express your stance on feminism if you are anonymous. You will go to **** lengths to hide the fact that you are a feminist. The same applied to your Hierophilia fetish."

"How can that be a fair trade?" Tiana was stupefied, for her, the offer was a pretty bad one without any upside.

"Fairness is a subjective matter, I don't think this one is that bad, but if you think its bad, you can move to the second deal," Mephisto replied.

Tiana knew that it was useless to argue further, what Mephisto said was logical and she got what he means; she still had other options, so, to argue about whether the first deal was fair or not was a waste of energy. "Give me your second deal then," the purple-haired girl said.

"My second offer for you is you will be a successful Hollywood actress and feminist activist called Tania Waltson. You have a lot of diehard fans that look at you as their role model. You are also wealthy enough. But of course, there is a price to pay for this, you will be secretly a **** junkies that at least a day a week you will waste yourself until you are no longer conscious of what you are doing that day, in short, you have 6 days of you fully in control of yourself, and 1 day of not being yourself and unable to control any of your action. Don’t sound so bad of a deal, right?”

A day of not being myself in exchange for influence and quality of life. Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, but a whole day of being unable to control all my actions opens all kinds of possibilities and mess.

“You don’t need to be worried that you will ruin your career, I assure you that you will always have a place in the film-making scene no matter the mess you did when you aren’t in control,” Mephisto said as if the man knew what Tiana thinking.

Well, with that guarantee, this second offer finally sounds safe to pick. Should I choose this one? Tiana contemplated.

“Do you want to choose this one?” Mephisto asked.

“Can I hear about the next deal first?”

“You can, but I need to warn you that after we move to the third deal, you can no longer able to pick the first deal, so, are you sure you don't want to pick the first deal?"

Tiana nodded. She didn't have any thought of picking the first deal anyway because it was such a bad deal.

"Alright, now, my third deal; you will be Titania, a big cult leader worshipped by many of your cult members as their goddess. You have a way with your words to make people easily believe and obey you, almost in a level of mind control. Your wealth is the sum of all your followers' wealth because you can trick them to give you their wealth. What you need to pay for this kind of life is that you will find yourself well…a ‘schizophrenic’, it will be hard for you to differentiate what is real and what is only your delusional imagination.”

“Basically, the third deal makes me crazy, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t think that you need to make a big deal about this price, after all, a lot of cult leaders in this world have this kind of mental illness. A small price to pay for great power,” the masked man replied lightly in a joking tone.

“So, Tiana, between the second and the third deal, which one will you choose? Will you choose the celebrity life or will you choose the cult leader’s life?”

Tiana silently contemplated her choice. The second offer has me waste a day unable to control my actions, meanwhile, the third one makes me not be able to think clearly in my waking moments, but Mephisto never said that I will unable to control my actions, unlike the second offer. But being unable to differentiate which one is real and only my hallucinations will surely affect my judgment from time to time. Did the merit I gain from the power of influence of a cult leader outweigh the demerit of being a little not straight in the head?

“I need you to choose right now, Ms. Walter, the clock is ticking,” Mephisto reminded Tiana.

Tiana nodded to tell him that she had her answer. “I choose the third deal, make me Titania, the cult leader.”

She had thought it seriously, having the power to persuade and make people believe her would make her interest, agenda, and cause could be pushed further rather than trying hard as an activist. She had seen a lot of feminist activists and celebrities, they often hauled as the symbol of the movement, but even with their actions, the impact was not as big as what they said. Their power of influence was lacking. Not her, if she got the power to make people easily believe her as Mephisto said, she was confident that she could bring significant changes to the movement. Yes, she would be half crazy all the time, but Tiana believe she was capable of still making the best choice even in such circumstances as long as she was in control.

“I wish you success in your endeavor, Tiana, I wish you will be happy in your new life,” Mephisto said.

Tiana’s Collar of Change lit up a blinding light and swallowed Tiana’s body in a swarm of light particles. When the light dimmed, there was no longer a trace of Tiana standing there, only her Collar of Change which had fallen to the floor.

“You are the last one standing on the stage, Alexa, hope that doesn't make you feel left out," Mephisto humored.

"No, I'm fine," the police officer replied.

"Before we start, do you remember the content of the bet between you and Vince?” Mephisto asked.

“Yes, as long as I managed to keep a job related to law enforcement, I win the bet and Vince needs to send himself to prison and submit all evidence of his crime with his own hands.”

“Good, and thus my first offer to you is that you will keep your job as a police officer, you will work in the vice department, and unable to get promoted for the rest of your life, you will spend your working days undercover as streethooker to the point that you can’t tell whether you are a police officer or a whore. Picking this offer will make you win the bet against Vince, I will make sure that Vince will uphold the bet to do as he agreed,” Mephisto offered.

Alexa was quite conflicted about the offer. Accepting the offer meant that she would win the bet, but the price she needed to pay for it contradicted what she wanted to prove to others. She didn't want to be reduced to a sexual object for men. She wanted to show that she was capable, but accepting the offer would doom her to a life of being a sex worker even if she was just undercover.

"I see that you are unsure and in doubt, how about hearing the second deal first so you can consider which one is best.”

Alexa agreed to the dealer’s suggestion.

“My second offer for you; You will be Lexi Mars, a trophy wife of a wealthy businessman, but while you are called a trophy, he loved you sincerely, and spoilt you. You will rarely lack material luxury and never need to work for it. And that is exactly what you need to pay for this deal, you will lose any drive to seriously work in any respectable field. You don’t have any motivation to achieve anything, and you are only able to live in a hedonistic way. This is a generous offer from me because I don’t think there a big cons for you in this one.”

Never lacking in luxury. Have a loving husband. Never need to waste time from 9 to 5 interacting with dumbasses and jerks. It was a very good deal. With just a nod of her head, she would get that life. Any others person in their right mind probably would jump at the opportunity to lead a hedonistic life without any worry of working their ass to get it. The offer was far better than the first one she got, but she would lose the bet against Vince if she chose this one. In the first place, she participated in this show to defeat Vince and sent him to jail. Would she choose to waste her effort to get this close to catching the crime lord for a better life for herself?

Additionally, even if never having the need to work sounds like good stuff, she was never a lazy ass, what she did so far was to gain recognition that women like her could achieve a lot. The second deal took out the possibility for her to achieve anything.

“Do you want to choose the second deal, Alexa?”

In the end, she shook her head weakly to refuse the offer, but from her gesture, she was clearly still conflicted about her choice.

“So, will you choose the first deal? Or do you want to hear my third offer before deciding? But I need to remind you that if you choose to hear my third offer, you are unable to pick the first deal any longer.”

“I…”

“You look still unsure about your decision, so I will give you some push; you know that there will be still others who will go after Vince even if you aren’t winning the bets this time, but let’s say you win the bet and sent Vince to jail, have you ever think of what next? I hope you consider this point,” Mephisto said.

What the masked man said was like a devil whisper in Alexa’s ear. He was the one who gave her such a bad deal in the first place. Yes, she could send Vince to jail, but what waited for her after that was a life of mediocrity where she would act as a whore herself her entire life, could it even be said she win and that she had proven herself? If only she got a better offer for the first deal, she wouldn’t be this conflicted.

“I…want to hear your third offer,” selfish desire triumphed over her conviction as a police officer.

“I’m happy that you want to hear my third offer, so here it is, for the third deal, you will be Ana Miranova, a federal judge. You will get some adjustment for your previous change so you can do your job as a judge at the bare minimum, but of course, this comes with a quite hefty price to pay to make up for the adjustment. One of the prices you need to pay is that you will be repulsed by women, so it isn’t possible for you to have a close woman friend. The second price is hidden and will only be revealed if you choose this offer.”

“What? Hidden? That’s unfair!” Alexa protested

“Well, you can already see that this one at least gives you a much better offer than the first deal. A federal judge is also a law enforcement-related job, so choosing this one will win you the bet against Vince, additionally, you get your previous change adjusted to make you could keep your job as a judge, and you know yourself better about how you behave, so, compared to what you will get, whatever the price is hidden shall be a small matter. Nothing unfair about this,” Mephisto replied, shutting down Alexa’s protest.

Alexa admitted that the third deal was a better offer than what she got as her first offer. She would be still in a law enforcement-related field, and didn’t get stuck acting undercover as a whore for the rest of her life, while at the same time, she would able to send Vince to jail. From this part alone, she already got a big win compared to the first.

She didn’t know the extent of the adjustment of her change, but Mephisto implied that it would make her able to do her job as a judge at a minimum. So, she guessed that her sluttiness would be toned down. This made her have a weird funny feeling, she could remember that she was always acting this slutty, but there was still some weak whispering voice in her head that told her that she was not always this slutty and it was only because the game show did it. And if the game show could make her a slut, it was easy to make her less slutty. Alexa always wondered how it would feel as a bit conservative lady.

And the last thing she needed to consider was the prices she needed to pay. One of the prices was that she going to be repulsed by other women. It was not a big con for her because she didn’t have any female friends in the police department in the first place, and instead of friends, she had a lot of women as enemies. So, she has already gotten used to disliking other women.

Now, for the hidden prices, after a quick analysis, Alexa believed it would not be a price that makes her unable to work as a federal judge. It probably made her have some inconveniences but not too big a change that mess with her job.

“Do you already making up your mind about what you will pick, Alexa?” the masked host asked.

“Yes,” She answered. “I choose the third offer, now can you tell me the hidden price I need to pay?”

“Of course, the hidden price you need to pay is that you have a double personality that you didn’t know the existence of, and no matter what your other personality does, you will never suspect and believe yourself that you have a double personality disorder. Worry not, your other personality would rarely come out when you are at work.”

“Double personality disorder?” It was a price that caught her off guard even if she already guessed that the hidden price would cause inconveniences in her daily life.

What kind of double personalities would she have? She didn’t have the chance to ask Mephisto before the Collar of Change on her neck lit up blindingly and sent her toward her new life as Ana Miranova.

“And that's folk. That settles our game for this episode, thank you for watching us, but as always, don’t move your channel yet because there’s more than the game show! We got an after-credit where you can watch a short sneak peek at what happened to our contestant. Please enjoy!”

Mike bowed respectfully; the stage light turned off one by one until the only source of light was the monitor in the center of the room which started to play some scenes.