Anything can happen with a deck of cards

For a long while the vote was going on Emma was genuinely smiling. Not just on the outside but the inside. It looked like she would actually get her school. That vote was doing well in the polls for a good amount of time. She tried to not let hope get to her but it was difficult. Maybe once this game wouldn't ruin her life. But alas, it wasn't forever. Eventually the option to add a new player came up from the rear. It got a small lead and that was that. Her new Massachusetts Academy got no further votes. It had stagnated. She had lost. Again.

"Well Emma, Nine of Spades won with 42.9% of the vote," Spiral said. "How does that make you feel?"

"If the audience is happy, I'm happy," Emma lied. On the inside she was crying. She was so close to having anything good happened to her today.

"Well let's hope your new partner is just as excited!" Spiral said. "Everyone give a warm welcome to fabulous, the fiery, the unkillable: Jean Grey!"

The crowd went wild as a woman was pushed on stage from the side by some PAs. It was a woman about as tall as Emma, red-headed in a green dress. She was gorgeous and in a much more natural way than Emma could ever compare. From her head to her toes she looked like she was sculpted out of marble.

Art by R-EL88RP

"Let go of me!" She shouted. "I can walk over by myself!"

"Hello Jean!" Spiral said.

"Hello... Spiral." Jean spat the words out like venom.

"I trust you've been explained the stakes?" Spiral asked.

"I'll just have you know that I may not be able to do it now, but once the coast is clear? I'm ripping you limb from ridiculous limb," Jean said. Her eyes glowed with powerful pink energy.

"Yeah yeah, it's not like I can put them back or anything," Spiral waved her off. "Now let me explain the rules of our doubles situation. Now I know many of you might have wanted to vote on your own special Jean changes, but our poor kidnapped riders could not come up with a whole new list of them in time. Sad." Spiral shook her head. "Instead, Gene will just be getting the second place of each of Emma's changes. Now, Jean WILL be getting just as many changes as Emma, but we feel if we bombarded her with them right now we wouldn't be able to savor her reaction. We wouldn't know what caused what or how they intermingle. To solve this problem, every time Emma opens a box, whether cash, reward, or punishment, we will reveal the second place of a different change and give it to Jean. We're going to go in reverse chronological order."

"What changes?" Jean interjected.

"Oh ho ho," Spiral laughed. "Just you see. Now, I know I just said we're not giving you customized changes, but it's a special situation with the playing cards. Those are chosen by the cards so we kind of need you to draw some of your own." Spiral pulled out the deck again and shuffled it with all six of her arms. "Now choose four. Love is better, yadda yadda, we'll fill you in off camera."

Jean took the top four cards of the pack and showed them to the audience. Spiral looked and just started laughing.

"Can't believe that just happened," She wheezed.

"What?" Jean asked.

"Well, let's show what you got!" Spiral before regained her composure. "You got seven of spades, nine of diamonds, five of hearts, and—the big one—nine of spades."

"Ummmm," Emma said.

"Oh yes!" Spiral said. She went over, took her helmet off of Emma's head, and put it back on hers. "Jeany-poo, you weren't here last round but the nine of spades means a new player joins the game. That's how you got here. So if the audience wants they can do a little immediate do over. Personally, I would love another bimbo to torment."

"I'm not a bimbo!" Jean shouted. "And neither is Emma!"

"Maybe not right now," Spiral said. "Now, let's see those other options!"

1. Seven of spades. Instead of spinning once, Emma will spin twice and choose what game she wants to play.

2. Nine of diamonds. A random male member of the X-Men will have their gender and sex swapped to female. No gender dysphoria involved but also no way to undo it.

3. Five of hearts. Jean will get a brand spanking new superpower! What it is is totally up to producer discretion but we promise you it'll be something beefy.

4. Nine of spades. The one you already know. A third player will enter! Hopefully this doesn't happen again because we only have so many choices for each box.

"Now, while we revealed these now, they won't actually be voted on until you open your next voting case," Spiral clarified. "It's just easier that way for everyone involved. Speaking of that, Emma, you have a wheel to spin."

"Oh, yipee!" Emma tried to say that sarcastically but it came out genuine. She leaned over to the wheel and spun it.

Author's Note: I am not shitting you I got nine of spades again. I'd show you the generator because I took a photo of it but I feel like I could have easily faked that. You'll just have to trust me.

I wanted to post the results for the vote here but if there's a possibility of nine of spades winning again I don't want that to influence the votes by people knowing who is next up. Once that poll is up I'm going to start explaining not just first place but second and third. I think that is interesting. For example, adding a new player got 12 votes, reopening the Massachusetts Academy got 10 votes (very surprising to me, I was worried it would win all night), the respect aura thing got 4 votes, and the lifelines got 2 votes. Overall I got way fewer votes for this one than I usually get. I average around 48 votes per pole and this time I only got 28. That's less than the time I accidentally closed the form early and had to reopen it. I assume that's because I added multiple questions.

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