Chapter 1 - Drunken Antics
Evelyn still winced every time she thought of that night with the girls, the splitting headache the next day had been epic and they'd all sworn off drinking for weeks afterwards. Of course that had only lasted until the next Friday night when they headed out once more.
The problem was that while she could remember the pain of that night clearly, the rest of the details had been a drunken blur afterwards and it was only weeks later that the details had come to light.
They'd all seen the show of course and they'd even seen it playing in clubs before on the big screen, a loop of the "best of" moments in the show's history was a common sight at night spots. In this case "best of" meant the stupidest, sexist changes in the shows history with many of them having near pornographic endings.
None of her friends could remember seeing it that night, but it must have triggered off something in one of them as they had, apparently, submitted their names through the show's website to be contestants they crashed for the night at Mandy's place.
Of course contestants had 2 weeks after submitting their names for consideration to withdraw from the selection process, but in her drunken stupor she must have put in her old e-mail address and it wasn't until after the phone call that she'd realized her mistake.
Apparently none of her friends had thought to mention it as they had all retracted their entries and so she was the only one to get selected to come in for an interview.
Unfortunately for her, once the two-week grace period was over, the show was very adamant that potential contestant follow through with the process.
That didn't mean people went willingly and some tried and fight it, but while a few managed to succeed, there were two downsides to trying to get out of your commitment. The first was the financial impact, to say that the show employed some of the most vile, flesh eating lawyers on the planet was an understatement and fighting the contract in court could cost millions, money she clearly didn't have being just out of college and having just gotten her first job a few months ago.
The second was more... insidious. If you failed to get out of the contract, the show made sure that the audience knew full well you didn't want to be on the show and that often turned the crowd ugly.
And an ugly audience on the show could definitely make for some extreme changes if the right options came up, which the always seemed to for such contestants.
In the end she'd resigned herself to head in for the interview and see if she could sabotage it somehow, maybe act dumb and flirt a lot, then they wouldn't want her. But she knew that wasn't likely to be the case, she was the perfect kind of contestant for the show. Smart, well educated, pretty but not drop dead gorgeous. She took care of her body, but wasn't a supermodel, or even a regular model for that matter.
Their research department was top notch of course and they'd quickly seen through her thinly veiled attempt and before she knew it she was with the technical team; the Collar of Fate being sealed around her neck.
Of course it wasn't all bad news really, it wasn't like she was setting the financial world ablaze working as a junior account rep for the bank. Maybe in 10 or 15 years she'd get promoted to a management position and then ride it out until retirement. On the other hand, with a billion dollars she could start her own bank!
So it seemed like, since she had to go through with it anyway, she might as well make the most of it.
Chapter 2 - Opening Credits
The studio curtain raised as the theme music blared from the speakers with the applause of the live studio audience. Evelyn was nervous and a little embarrassed as well, the tiny white strips of "clothing" that barely covered her modesty were less than she'd ever worn to the beach, let alone on to national TV.
She felt the Collar of Fate's cold steel against her neck, hoping to get through the first round and be done with it, but something was nagging in the back of her mind, something her friend Mandy had said, "Your lucky you got picked, you could win a billion dollars!".
It seemed silly of course, there had only been one winner over the life of the show and from what the papers had said afterwards, "winner", might be too strong of word.
"Yes folks it's time to answer the question that is on all of our minds... Is she a... Bimbo or Billionaire!" the announcer's voice came across the PA system and the audience roared in response.
The applause brought Evelyn back to the moment and she lifted her head up to see Jack waving his hands around in the air as he spoke, "Thanks Dan, as you know, today is a very special show, it's our annual Halloween episode!"
Jack was wearing a different suit, black with long tails and he held a cane and over half of his face a white mask, he was obviously the Phantom of the Opera for the Halloween episode.
The audience roared again and Evelyn perked up, the Halloween show often brought out the best in the audience, they often went with the sexy nurse or cheerleader, something that wasn't over the top, but fun to go with the spirit of the holiday. Perhaps this was her lucky break after all!
"Ok, well it's that time, let's get today's contestant out on stage... Evelyn!" she walked on to the set at her queue, smiling but a bit hesitant at the bright lights of the show.
"Hi Evelyn, welcome to the show!"
"Th... thanks Jack, I'm happy to be here!" she stuttered a bit and then found her courage and waved to the crowd.
"That's great Evelyn, we have a full show today so I have just one question for you... are you ready to play?"
"Yes Jack, I'm ready!" she replied, almost convincing herself she really was.
"Ok Evelyn, let's get a few housekeeping items out of the way and we can get going. First off I'd like to bring everyone's attention to our case girl Chrissi!"
As always the spotlight highlighted Chrissi and the buxom blonde bimbo wiggled and jiggled as the crowd cheered and whistled. Being the Halloween special though, her regular glittery dress was replaced with... a slightly shorter glittery dress.
"Chrissi was the unluckiest contestant to ever play our game here and opened twelve bimbo cases in a row. But we just couldn't let her leave with nothing so instead we didn't let her leave at all and she's been with us ever since!
Ah... Chrissi, aren't you supposed to be wearing a Halloween costume today?"
Chrissi blinked several times and scrunched her mouth in to a question of some kind before answering, "Like I am Jack!" she replied, pouting and stomping a foot as she did so.
"Really, so what are you dressed up as today then Chrissi?"
"Like, I'm a stripper! Wanna see?" Chrissi replied and started to wiggle around as she hooked her thumbs over the top of her dress and started to pull down.
"No... No Chrissi that's fine, I believe you and this is a family show after all!"
The crowd laughed, while the show was rated as PG, no one really considered it a family show even if the ratings board said otherwise. There were rumors of course the board received "personal" tours of the show each year when the show was reviewed and there had never been a fine or punishment meaded out when there was a slip of the wardrobe or other similar accidents on set.
"Ok, well in that case we also have in the back of the studio the fine technical folks who are operating the Collar of Fate tonight, we won't get a chance to see them but we'll certainly see their work on stage!
And of course we cannot forget our generous benefactor, who has put up the billion dollar prize! Our mystery man that we simply call 'The Accountant'". As always the pitch-black area above the columns of monitors was backlit revealing a person sitting at a desk but obscured in darkness like each show, but this time in his hand was the outline of a pitchfork.
Of course you all know our board, two sides with twelve steps each, revealed one at a time as the cases are opened. As always the cash side starts at a penny and works its way up to one billion dollars!
The Bimbo side is divided in to two halves, the first six are physical changes that the 'Collar of Fate' will make and the second half are mental changes. Each of the changes will be selected by an audience vote from a list of four random selections from our database!"
Chapter 3 - Round 1
