Rule Changes

Jack turned towards the board looming over the set, the dreaded boxes laid out in a horseshoe shape beneath it. Pixie gripped the podium anxiously, she knew nothing about who this ‘Jury’ was other than they were other writers on CHYOA… and apparently they were people that she knew?

“Let’s see what customisations Pixie’s jury have submitted for todays game!” Jack announced.

Chrissi hit a button on the side of the board and the graphic zoomed in on the first silhouette, before their rule change appeared in a graphic of pink smoke and confetti. Pixie read the words frantically, her sense of dread growing as any hope she had that her Jury might help her was instantly extinguished...

“In no particular order, our first Juror has decided to change rule 11!” Jack announced to another 'ooh' from the audience.

11. Pixie only has three ways to get out of the game, the first is to collect all 5 cash boxes, the second is to collect all 10 punishment boxes. For the third, Pixie starts at a 100% 'locked-in' score. Every case she opens drops that by 5%. Pixie can call for a viewer vote to let her out of the game: It is a Yes/No vote only, and she has to get more "Yes, she can stop" votes than the current 'locked-in' score. So if she's opened 6 cases, she's at 70%. If she calls for a vote, she'd need more than 70% to end the game. But she can only call the vote once. If the vote fails, she's stuck until she satisfies one of the other two conditions or uses the Wish case to call another vote.

Pixie read and re-read the words, their implication immediately clear. She wouldn't be able to just take an offer and stop after 5 boxes anymore like she'd hoped - she was going to have to convince the audience to let her stop. She had to find all the cash, or all the punishments, otherwise she was completely at the mercy of the whims of the viewers. And she could only call for a vote once? Any hope she had of being able to get out of this quickly felt lost - what chance would she possibly have of trying to convince 80% of the audience to let her go after 4 boxes? What chance would she have of convincing even 20% of them to let her go after 16?! She shot the cameras a **** smile - she really needed them to like her - Hi everyone, I'm your hostage!

“Ok Chrissi - let's see a rule from the next Juror!” Jack called, and the blonde bimbo obediently hit the button on the side of the display again. The silhouette on the board retreated and was replaced by the next Juror, their rule change appearing on the screen next to them. “Juror number 2 has decided to add a new rule... let's take a look!”

He continued to read it out for the audience, but Pixie couldn't hear him over the sound of her own racing heartbeat.

13. Commercial Breaks - After every change, Pixie will find herself living her life with her changes. Unfortunately, due to the non-linearity of time between the two spaces, she will find that the time between breaks changes. It might be 1 minute or four days that she skips of her own life. Everyone around her will think that she has not been missing for the span of the show. During these intervals, if she tries to talk about the show, she will instead tell one of her darkest secrets.

Pixie's mouth hung open, that wasn't fair... they couldn't do that! ... Could they do that...?!

An illusion of safety that she didn't even know she had was gone. She couldn't hope to play this stupid game and then get out of here, changed or unchanged, all in one go... no... she was going to be **** to keep jumping back home... to experience what? How the dizzying and humiliating changes would affect her life? So that her embarrassment could be drawn out and the audience could savour her changes for their own enjoyment? She cringed... would cameras follow her? Was she going to remain 'on screen' during her time at home? Watched?

The non-linearity part also horrified her - Skip parts of her own life. That was terrifying... was she going to be teleported back to her life years later? How much time would she lose? How much of her life would get skipped?! Pixie suddenly felt a crushing sense of mortality... that her life wasn't very long and this game was going to take bits of it from her...

“I'm sure our corporate sponsors will be happy with the extra air time...” Jack joked, “Chrissi - let's see a rule from Juror number 3!”

Pixie prayed, desperately, that there would be some light at the end of this tunnel - maybe Juror number 3 would do something to the rules to make things easier for her?

No, of course not... The third silhouette moved onto the screen, and another new rule popped up beside them.

14. If the game ends for Pixie by any means besides opening all 5 cash boxes, the juror whose changes were most popularly picked by the audience vote gets to make a final change to Pixie (in the case of a tie, each tying juror gets to make their own change). These changes cannot contradict any other change, positive or negative, inflicted on her by the game, but otherwise can be any kind of change they desire. Alternatively, the juror may instead reverse an existing change of their choice, as if they used the Reverse Change prize on Pixie's behalf.

NO! -Pixie stamped her bare feet petulantly. Not only was she stuck here until she convinced the audience to let her out, she was guaranteed at least 1 extra change at the end of it anyway!

Her face paled further when she realised what this rule had also done - there would now be competition between the jurors. There was now a prize as an incentive for them to make their changes as appealing for the audience as possible...

Her only hope was that she could tip the odds somehow and find all of the cash prizes before the game ended by any other means. It also meant that, taking the audience vote option as a way to end the game would still guarantee that she'd be stuck with one final unspecified transformation - OR she'd have to convince the Audience and the winning member of the Jury that she deserved to be allowed to stop, and to have a change reversed...

She whimpered helplessly... God, this would be hot if I wasn't living it...

Jack grinned, “Who doesn't love some friendly competition! Alright, let's see that change from Juror number 4!”

15. There is a 50/50 chance of each non-cash reward box 'backfiring' when Pixie uses it. If this happens, its effect is reversed in the following ways:
'Wish' becomes 'Demand' - The Jury, by consensus, gets to decide how Pixies wish is granted.
'Abilities & Powers' becomes 'Curses & Limitations' - A category that sets rules for things Pixie can't do.
'Veto' becomes 'Overruled' - Rather than Pixie picking a category, the Jury, by consensus, does instead.
'Harmony' becomes 'Chaos' - A category for changes that make Pixies life more difficult, instead of easier.
'Reverse Change' becomes 'Double-Up' - Pixie takes the two highest voted results of the next punishment category (in case of a tie, she takes all tied results + 1)

“That’s not fair!” Pixie yelped with a horrified gasp, unable to stop herself as she grabbed the podium for support. I’m going to pass out…

“Fair?” Jack teased before he made a show of shielding his mouth from Pixie and leant towards the audience, “Don’t tell her about Casinos!”

The already rigged game was being rigged further and further against her… there was no way she was going to get out of this unscathed, no way she was going to find freedom any time soon. Combined with the change that meant she needed an audience vote to escape and the change that meant she was going to take a change at the end regardless – Pixie felt the noose tightening impossibly around her throat.

Hadn’t Jack said that the Jury was made up of people she knew… that she trusted…? Were they really so ready to betray her like this? To **** her? For what?!

I’m fucked…

Pixie had never been good at Maths but she now desperately wanted a calculator to try to figure out what chance she actually had of escaping while still keeping some sense of herself intact. She had to find all 5 cash boxes, or find the Wish and hope that it wouldn’t backfire when she used it.

Fuck fuck fuck!

There were 5 cash boxes… and now, what, potentially 15 punishment boxes? Opening a reward box was going to be an anxious, humiliating moment of hope that could be snatched from her every time… and the replacement effects were shocking… she especially didn’t want to find out what ‘Discord’ would do to her during the newly imposed ‘commercial breaks’. Worse, did the a reward box that mis-fired still count as a reward box?!

Jack clapped his hands, “And finally - let's hear that rule change from our last Juror!”

16. Once the game begins, instead of standing, Pixie is to go to her knees, straighten nice and tall, and cross her arms behind her back, head looking down. Moreso, this position will feel right and comfortable for her. She can still talk, emote, change position, and move around as needed, but every time she stops or waits, this is the position her body will naturally fall to.

Pixie flinched, her eyes flicking over the words of the ‘rule’ in quick disbelieving passes. Just when this nightmare couldn’t get any worse, one of the ‘jury’ wanted her to have to kneel submissively on the ground for the whole show? Why are you doing this to me?!

She felt it come on suddenly, like a sudden wave of vertigo that spread in a tingling wave across her whole body. Where a moment ago Pixie had been standing relatively comfortably, she now felt a disconcerting ache… It was most obvious in her arms and legs, but it was getting worse by the second. Like the sensation you get from holding your arms up high above your head for several minutes… to begin with it feels effortless, but as the seconds tick by it gets harder and harder to keep them there...

She clutched the podium and desperately looked between Jack and the audience, gritting her teeth.

“You holding up ok Pixie?”

“Uh… nuh…uh huh… I’m fine!” She panted defensively, feeling like her entire body was about to snap from the effort she was putting in to just standing still. It made no sense, but suddenly it was like her body wanted to relax in the wrong direction. It took effort to keep her back straight, if she relaxed, even a little, her body now naturally arched her back with perfect posture, pushing her bra-less breasts forward, thrusting them towards the cameras.

Suddenly the podium she'd been using for support disappeared in a puff of pink smoke, sending Pixie wildly off-balance as it was replaced with a thickly padded mat beneath her feet.

“I can’t…” Pixie gasped with a defeated whimper. Her arms and legs were cramping, and she sobbed, collapsing with a squeak to her knees, sitting back on her feet on the mat.

The audience cheered.

She didn’t have the strength to stop herself; her arms drifted behind her back on their own, interlocking at the forearms so her hands held the opposite elbow. Her back ‘relaxed’ into a humiliating posed arch, thrusting her breasts forwards towards the cameras, shoulders back, neck held high. She kept her knees clamped tightly together, trying to maintain some level of modesty, even as she felt her toes point out beneath her ass, and her head dropped, her chin sitting comfortably low against her neck.

The most humiliating part was how effortless it felt to maintain this position – her muscles, that a moment ago had been screaming out on the edge of cramping now felt perfectly relaxed. It was like her body was sprung loaded to snap back into this position if she didn’t put effort into fighting it.

“Well, it looks like those changes to the rules have really floored our contestant… Sitting comfortably Pixie?”

More laughter rippled through the audience. More humiliation – the girl trembled meekly on her knees, wanting desperately to just disappear. She was meant to be in bed… enjoying her quiet normal life… not… not this!

“Yes…” She managed to snap back, biting her tongue – that this position was disturbingly and incomprehensibly comfortable only made the shame of sitting like this even worse.

“Well, alright then! Pixie – You know the rules. You know how to play. Are you ready to pick your first box?”

She wasn't. Pixie's heart leapt into her throat as she started imagining what might happen to her before this experience was over. There were, she knew, no limits - and that both terrified and, to her self-loathing and shame excited her in equal measure. She assumed the Jury were people her 'author' self would've picked... people she trusted and knew... and they'd already betrayed her? What else would they do?!

She knew there was no way out of this - she had to play. Worse, with Rule 11 changed she had to play to win, or play to impress the audience. She was going to need their sympathy before she called a vote... and how many could she hope to convince to let her stop?

“Let’s… fine...” she moaned, lifting her head to a 'normal' position to look over at Jack despite the weird sensation of effort that it now took, “I… I guess…”

From her new embarrassing vantage point on her knees the boxes now loomed high above her, looking even larger and more menacing, their numbers seeming to grow in size in her psyche. Lucky numbers… lucky numbers… lucky numbers… 7 is lucky right? ... please…

“Um… box number 7?”

“Alright, Chrissi, let’s see what’s inside box number 7!”

Pixie let her head drop, watching anxiously from the corner of her eye as Chrissi strutted down the line of boxes. The bimbo's face was a picture of serene vacant sexuality and her breasts seemed to bounce impossibly with every step she took in her sparkling silver dress and heels. Pixie desperately desperately didn’t want to end up like that, and yet, there was a part of her that felt painfully inadequate being anywhere near someone that looked that gorgeous…

Chrissi was made-up, dressed-up… glammed up, in every way – there was no way anyone could ever take her seriously, and yet Pixie still stared at her breasts and wished her own were comparable… felt envy at the sight of Chrissi’s curvaceous hips and perfect legs as she strutted glamorously across the set... while she knelt on the ground like a ****…

“Oooh! Box number 7 has… like…” Chrissi babbled before she reached down, broke the seal, and opened the box to reveal... “It’s the puppet one!”

Puppet on Strings: Compulsion

Chrissi clapped her hands excitedly as Pixie stared at a point on the floor with dread - I never liked the number 7 anyway...

“Alright, our first category tonight is ‘Compulsions’ – that’s things Pixie must do, finds herself doing without thinking or that happen when triggered by something!” Jack wheeled around to look up at the silhouettes on the board, “Ok Jurors, show me some ‘Compulsions’…”