Ladies

Amber looked at the young girl checking her surroundings. She greeted her in the hallways, but she just went into the room without saying a word. She pulled up her name on her watch. Akemi Mizuno. Same initials. Neat.

"Hey, how's it going?"

The girl turned around, same blank look on her face as when they met.

"Okay." She replied, shrugging as she turned around to go back to inspecting a drawer.

"Ah, good to know." Amber nodded. She knew what criminals looked like, and she wasn't one of them. Long, unkempt brown hair and beige t-shirts didn't exactly scream hardened convict.

"Well…I like your hair. Very…practical. Good job."

Akemi looked at her hair. "And yours is the most purple I've seen hair be."

Amber checked the mirror next to her. Deep purple short hair with a black stripe in the middle, alongside her shoulderless top which exposed one of her shoulders, also purple, with black velvet straps connecting it to her jeans.

"Yeah, purple hair is nice. Maybe I could win some hair dye in the challenges, help you out."

"Nah, brown's a nice colour."

Amber nodded in agreement, looking around the room for another conversation starter.

"I'm going to sleep. You okay with having the lights off?" Akemi asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine with that. I gotta take a shower anyway."

Akemi added to the growing list of nods within the room, and turned the light off, making the room pitch black. Amber went into the bathroom, looking around for any of the hidden perv-cameras she heard about. Unfortunately, they were extremely well hidden. She'd find them next time, but until then she just had to cover the entire room. She moved her hands, collecting the shadows of the toilet, washing machine, towel rack, and bathtub, spreading the shadows all over the wall. They looked like…shadows, instead of looking like ink like she wanted them too. The audience at home would still be getting an eyeful, even if it was in silhouette, so it seemed like it was time for a bath.

"Gemma!? You ended up here?"

Gemma looked at her roommate. Aurora Lundgreen herself. Wild. And she wasn't even involved with what happened.

"Uh…yep." Gemma replied meekly.

"Oh my god. How long has it been since we've seen each other? Like, the set for Steven Bradley's school of life?"

"Probably?"

"Well then, we got so much catching up to do! Actually, how'd Lloyd doing?"

Gemma tensed up a little when that name was heard. Those two were on pretty good terms, so her knowing about why she was in here wasn't exactly unlikely. She looked at her. Her sparkly blonde hair, her sparking gray miniskirt with fur at the bottom. and her black bra. Actually, not even a bra. Just two circular pieces of black wood attached to her boobs.

"He's…doing fine."

"Oh, great." Aurora sighed. "He was destroyed when you called it off with him."

"Oh…really?"

"Yeah, all this shit about missing your sweet voice, your touch, tons of romantic crap."

"Right." Gemma sighed. "That's...unusual."

"You ever work with him after that, or…"

"Some ad for Murphy's Dropkick Dojo, nothing major."

"Gotcha, gotcha. Any idea what he did to wind up here?"

"None, sorry."

"Sooooooo." Aurora rolled off her bed and walked straight up to Gemma. Her exited blue eyes seeming to house a twisted excitement.

"You interested in teaming up?"

"Excuse me?" Gemma asked, stepping away from her.

"Come on, you know what I said. You've always been good at hearing."

She put a hand on Gemma's dark face. Still as cold as last time.

"N-N…No."

"Excuse me?" Aurora asked, making a kissy face. "Is that what you think?"

"Yes!" Gemma screamed, batting away her hand. She was panting and her legs were failing to do leg things, like standing. She fell onto her bed, and Aurora opened the door to the bathroom.

"Well, I'm going for a shower. Feel free to reconsider."

Aurora removed her bra as she went into the room, and the door closed behind her, leaving the strap in the doorway, preventing it from closing slightly. Gemma lay in her bed, covering her body in her blanket.

She was a dead girl already.

"Ay, Seeta."

So, this was the woman Seeta was stuck with. Some girl in ripped clothes, a bandage over her nose and a ridiculous trapper hat. And slouching. Generally unremarkable.

"How ya doin, lass? Name's Silvia."

Seeta glanced over at her. "Fine. She asked."

"Ah, come on, lady. If we're gonna be roommates, we should at least be chatting or something."

"Really?"

"Yes? Are you not aware of how making friends works?"

"We're supposed to kill each other." Seeta reminded.

"We're supposed to outlive each other." Silvia reminded back. "Five survivors. You, me, my boyfriend, and another two lads."

"I have my brother."

"Cool, that makes four of us." Silvia gave a wide smile and a thumbs up, and Seeta noticed her mouth.

"What happened to your tooth?"

"Oh, that? Lost it in a fight a while back, nothing important." Silvia replied, running her tongue through the gap.

"Well, you should keep it in check. Infections can come in easily through those."

"Ya think? I'll keep it in mind."

"Good." Seeta replied, going back to inspecting the shelves.

Silvia looked at this girl. Brown skin with black hair tied into a simple ponytail, and a basic light blue t-shirt combined with basic deep blue jeans. A proper stance too, with one hand behind her back as she opened the cabinet doors with the other.

"You ever notice how tense you look?"

"I don't give it much thought."

"Eh, relaxing before a challenge is always important." Silvia responded, taking off her hat and revealing surprisingly clean brown hair.

"Now, do we have paper?" She whispered to herself, checking the drawers. She found a simple sheet of white paper with some words on it, as paper is known to have. She rolled it into a cylinder.

"Sweet." She whispered, reaching into her pocket. Then her other pocket.

"Balls, they took the lighter. Yo, Seeta. You wouldn't happen to have a lighter, would you."

"For smoking something?"

"Nah, for setting that wedding lady's hair on fire later. Yeah, smoking something."

"I see. I'll decline, thanks."

"Ah, doing the whole body is a temple thing, huh? Well, you ever think that if everyone was a temple, then temples would be lamer?"

"I'm interested in survival, not smoking."

"Yeah, clearly." Silvia sighed, cracking her neck. "Whatever, I'm going to bed. See ya tomorrow."

Seeta nodded, turning off the light and crawling into her bed herself.

"Are you okay?" Valentina asked.

Valentina looked at the shivering wreck on the other end of the room, snacking on a packet of gummy bears. Looked to be the premium stuff, too. Actually, she looked way too dolled up to be here, what with the mint coloured dress with purple frills on the bottom with a denim jacket over it, and her neat black long hair on her porcelain face.

"Yeah? Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah." The girl replied, nodding intensely.

"Well…that's good. Can I have your name?"

"Vanessa. Vanessa Rains." She yelled back.

"Got it. Pleasant name." Valentina nodded.

"Thank you, thank you." She sighed. "So…are you a spy?"

"No? What makes you think I'm a spy?"

"Well, your name is listed as Valentina Nova-Vico. Y'know, royalty? Like, how does someone like you end up getting killed here, right?"

"There's a lot to learn about the Novas, kid. Lots of fighting between them which has it's causes. Such as…"

She watched Vanessas face contort in confused shock as her right arm melted, dripping out to the floor as a grey liquid. Vanessa shrieked, jumping onto her bed and dropping her pack of gummies. Valentina retracted the grey goo back into her arm, feeling something crawling up it as it happened. She rolled up the sleeves of her jacket, noticing a small insect creature with around six legs, and the colour of toxic waste. She slapped it away, and two of it's legs twitched for a few seconds, before it finally disintegrated.

"What the hell was that?" She whispered to herself.

"What, a small green bug thing?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Oh my god. I'm so sorry about this, it just happens when I'm stressed, and…"

"It's…fine."

"No it isn't!"

Valentina traded gazes with Vanessa, standing on her bed with tears in her eyes, sliding on the wall back to sitting on her bed.

"It's not just something I can control. Sometimes I get angry or sad or something a bunch of those things pour out of me. I'm getting voted out first, I just know that's happening."

Valentina sat on her bed next to her, patting her back with her fake hand.

"You may think that your power is a curse. But if you stick through this game, You may be able to find a use for it."

"Like what?" Vanessa snapped, with Valentina allowing her arm to melt away before any creatures got onto it.

"I'll find something." Valentina replied, hopping off her bed. "After all, finding a role for everyone is my job, and I didn't resign when I entered this game."

"Whatever you say, lady." Vanessa replied through sobs. "You need to use the bathroom or anything?"

"I don't, why?" Valentina replied.

"Cool. I'm going to sleep." And with that, she carried her blanket and pillow into the bathroom, shutting the door.

"Any reason you did that?"

Yun-Yeong looked at the terrified child who just zapped her with a blank stare. The child, meanwhile, looked terrified in her presence.

"Sorry." She squeaked out, her head shaking, causing her to release another jolt of blue electricity at the wall. Didn't leave a mark, so plus one for the architects.

"What's with the head shaking? That a side effect of your powers?"

"No." The child replied, shaking her head again. "It's just a condition."

"No condition I've come across. Where you from, kid?"

"The Outfarms."

"The…okay, how did you even end up here?" It did explain a few things, such as her outdoorsy sounding accent and the torn grey hoodie and navy jeans.

"Family business."

"O…kay. Anyway, you know how to like…stop the lightning bolts from going everywhere?"

"Uh…Oh, I think this'll work." The girl put a pillow over her head, and a muffled crackle was heard through it. She gave a thumbs up, and Yun-Yeong checked her watch. Wendy Moon. Age fifteen. No other information.

"So, how did you keep yourself so clean, anyway?" Wendy piped up.

"Hm?" Yun-Yeong looked at her pristine white top. Considering what happened, it was actually a pretty valid question.

"It's just something I got good at." She shrugged.

"How?" Wendy asked.

Yun-Yeong briefly glanced at the door, hoping those hosts would do something. The door, however, kept it's status as a closed door.

"My….old job. Power plant. Who knows what fatal gunk gets spit at you over there, you know? So, I just got really good at dodging things."

"So, could you teach me to dodge things?"

Another stifled shock came from her pillow, and aside from that, there was silence.

"If…I get the time, maybe."

"Cool." Wendy looked with her in wide eyed amazement, and Yun-Yeong went over to the light switch with an attempt at a smile on her face. It seemed to work, as Wendy still looked impressed.

"If the first challenge isn't too tiring, we'll start training tomorrow. Sound good?"

Wendy nodded enthusiastically, and Yun-Yeong turned off the light, taking off her white shirt and going to bed. She faced the wall, and she could see a few sparks from the corner of her eye. Eventually she drifted off to sleep, with the thought of how to get out of this lingering in her mind.