Second round... and a wrong answer.

Phuong bit her lip.

Schumann, not Schubert. Schumann, born 1810, died 1856, while Schubert was born 1797 and had died much earlier. Both componists of Romantic music, but both actually rather different. She had played both on the piano, and she shouldn't have confused them.

And yet, she had.

Why? The question raged through her head. A slip of overconfidence? The result of the quips and the teasing of Frank?

"Impressive, Phuong!" the moderator said in his sonore and loud voice. Almost flawless again. Almost! Well, you know the rules of the game - draw a card! The audience is eager to know what transformation awaits you!"

Phuongs fingers felt icy cold as she picked one of the cards...

Submissiveness

Fuck. Never ever, Phuong thought. And so much for... coincidence. This "random algorithm" did not pick one of the most popular Asian clichees by accident, didn't it? Then again... most of those "Bimbo features" actually played into the hand of racial Asian clichees. Phuong bit her lip once more and sighed.

"So? Are you taking this transformation Phuong? Will I finally be able to see you chained up tonight?" He chuckled.

She had made a plan before coming on to the show. She had studied dozens of earlier shows and had learned one thing: The generous offer to reject a transformation was a poisoned one. You changed one card into two, doubling the transformations - with no chance to refuse either one. A lot of contestants made that mistake, basically heaping up possibly dangerous and distracting transformations early on, which derailed them completely for the last rounds. Getting through the first two, three rounds wasn't that difficult. But getting through all six rounds was a challenge. Especially if you were distracted by your altered body, or, even worse, by an altered mind. Not to mention the pressure. Everyone could probably cope with having one or two transformations. But the more you got, the more you were set on a slippery slope. The more you had to concentrate and focus. Phuong found there was a tipping point in most of the shows. A point of no return where "normal" people were turned into sex-crazed, ditzy bimbos.

There were a lot of reasons not to change this card. Not this or any other.

And yet...