*ding dong, bing bong*

"Attention! It is now 7 am. Rise and shine participants. It's a lovely day to get your talent back."

They really are drilling the talentless thing into our heads, huh?

I awoke in my room of the mansion, blinded by all the green everywhere.

I don't even like green.

I slipped on the same green hoodie I wore yesterday, too tired to take another out of the dresser.

Once I'm ready, I wait for my sister outside her room. It's conveniently across from mine, so I don't have to walk far. While I'm waiting, a familiar ginger in a cowboy hat greets me.

"Good mornin', Felix," Hunter greeted me. "How'd ya sleep last night?"

"Pretty good, actually." Answered me. "You?"

"Amazin'." He happily told me. "Though, I suppose that's because I have plenty a practice."

"Practice? How so?" I questioned Hunter.

"You remember how I said I injured my arm?" The ginger refreshed my memory. "Well, I spent a lotta time in the hospital sleepin'. That habit never really went away when I got discharged."

That definitely explained his tendency to dose off mid conversation yesterday.

"Watcha waitn' out here for, Felix?" He asked me.

"My sister." I glanced to Fawn's room than back at him. "We're going to get breakfast together."

"That's sweet," Hunter commented. "It's nice that you have someone you know here."

"Yeah." I agreed without much thought. "Do you wanna join us? I don't think Fawn will mind too much."

That's a lie... She will. She doesn't do well around strangers.

"Of course!" He agreed.

Fawn finally opened her door. Her eyes widened when she saw Hunter, anxiously gulping before approaching us.

"What are you doing here?" She asked rather bluntly, though it was mostly because she was in shock.

"He's eating breakfast with us." I gave her a tiny smile.

"What..." She blinked, before leaning over to whisper to me. "Why is he coming with us to breakfast?"

"I invited him." I whispered back. "It'll be fine. One person isn't so bad, right?"

"I guess so." She sighed, stepping away.

"Alright, let's go," I turned to Hunter. "Today's gonna be my— our lucky day."

Upon stepping into the dinning room we were greeted by a strong smell seeping out from the kitchen. The three of us decided to investigate, discovering that Rory and Zenith were cooking. Tabitha was also there, though she wasn't doing any work. The influencer was too busy taking selfies with various kitchenware.

"What's goin' on in here?" Questioned a surprised equestrian.

"Isn't it pretty obvious?" Rory raised an eyebrow. "We're making breakfast."

I would've never guessed.

"I assume you three will eat pancakes?" Zenith questioned.

"Yeah, of course." I nodded. "Do you two need any help?"

"Three." Tabitha butted it.

"Nope!" Rory declined my offer. "We're practically almost done."

"We're very grateful for your offer, though." The chauffeur politely said.

Fawn, Hunter, and I returned to the dining room. Nikolas had just arrived, presumably noticing the smell of food just like we did.

"What's that smell?" Asked Nikolas.

"Rory and Zenith are cookin' pancakes for all of us." Hunter explained.

"They don't need to do that," The ice skater said. "But I guess it's better than if I were to try and make something on my own."

"Can you not cook?" I inquired.

"I wouldn't say that..." He shook his head. "I just don't do well with heat. Or fire for that matter."

"How do you cook without fire then?" I asked.

"Usually I make frozen foods or I just don't cook at all." He explained. "I can afford to eat out, so that's what I do most of the time."

"That makes sense." I said, failing to pay attention to whatever was said afterwards.

I wish I could eat out a lot. Usually when I do, it's to celebrate and Fawn ends up paying. ...and that doesn't happen a whole lot.

Hunter and Nikolas began to change the topic, though I couldn't help but think about what the skater had said.

"What about ya'll?" Hunter turned to Fawn and I.

"What was the question again?" I awkwardly laughed, to brush how I stopped paying attention.

"What's your favorite food?" Nikolas repeated the question. "That's up there with the icebreakers you do with strangers... I think."

"Probably cheese." I blurted.

"Peanut butter." My sister answered.

"What about you two?" I asked. "I spaced out and didn't hear your answers."

"I said deep fried Oreos." Hunter recapped.

"Ice cream for me." Said Nikolas.

The pancakes were brought out before another conversation could truly start. Within the next hour, the others appeared in the cafeteria. Most people didn't stay long enough to talk, but there was a few out of the group who stuck around.

"Let's see, there are," Tabitha mutter aloud. "One, two..."

"Eight." Quartz answered.

"Eight!" The influencer jumped out of her seat. "I think the eight of us should spilt into groups of 2 and explore the mansion."

"Th-That's a really good idea." Blane told her.

"Shouldn't we explore with everyone, though?" Zenith questioned the group. "I believe all of us should know our surroundings, no?"

"Well, yeah, but they can explore in their own time." Tabitha replied. "But this group gets to explore with a partner!"

The eight of us began to group of and Fawn immediately turned to me as if this were a partner project for school. I glanced around, noticing that Isaiah had yet to find a partner.

"Felix, can we be partners?" Fawn whispered to me.

"You should try to meet someone new," I told Fawn. "We're trapped here with 14 strangers, so we should probably try making some friends."

"I don't think I can." The graynette shook her head. "People are scary."

"Yeah, but not all of them are." I glanced towards the romance novelist. "Why don't you join him? You two got along pretty well yesterday."

Fawn took a few steps towards him, before shakingly turning back to me. She was clenching the ends of her sleeves in her hands, stretching out the fabric ever so slightly.

"You got this." I gave her a double thumbs up. "He doesn't bite."

I watched as Fawn slowly made her way over to Isaiah. She was shaking for a few sentences, but she steadily adjusted to speaking with him. She turned back to me, before walling off to explore with Isaiah.

Now I just need a partner.

"Heya, Alex!" A familiar blonde greeted me.

"It's Felix." I corrected her.

"Pfft, yeah, I know." Tabitha brushed off her mistake. "I was just testing you to see if you had a spine."

Okay...?

"And you passed! Congratulations!" She smiled. "You get to be my partner because I think you're cool—totally not because you were the last one left and Zenith already agreed to explore with boring ol' Rory."

"Heh, alright." I agreed, not wanting to question her. "Where first?"

"Uh, I dunno," Tabitha shrugged, before pulling out her PetalPad. "We could start with the dinning room and kitchen since we're already here. That would save me so much walking."

Tabitha and I began to search the dinning room, but we quickly moved onto the kitchen when we found nothing. After a couple minutes, she pulled out her phone and began posing to take selfies. I didn't mind, since I was used to doing things alone anyways.

It's just the average kitchen tools and food. ...and some concerning sharp kitchen knives.

The pantry doesn't have anything of note either.

"Hey, Felix!" She shouted at me, despite being only a couple feet away. "Wanna take a quick break to look at these cute pics I have saved on my phone?"

"Sure." I agreed.

Tabitha proceeded to show me a folder in her camera roll filled with pictures of various models and pictures of attractive people. I noticed many of the poses they made were the ones she had made when taking selfies.

"I wish I could be this photogenic." She sighed. "I just wanna wake up and look flawless like them."

"They probably don't wake up like that." I pointed out. "They probably spend time doing their hair, makeup, and picking out an outfit."

"But they're do it so perfectly!" Tabitha complained with jealousy. "No wonder I got beat and lost my talent..."

At least you can say that someone else was better than you. I can't even do that.

"Nobody's perfect, Tabitha." I snapped at her.

"Except for me." Tabitha cheerfully argued. "Well, until I lost my talent I was perfect."

That's not what I meant, but she sounds a little happier so I guess it worked.

"How did you even lose your talent, Tabitha?" I questioned her. "From what I can tell, you seem pretty devoted."

"Hehe, well, it's a funny story," She giggled, before stopping herself. "I'll tell you if you my story if you tell me yours."

"Wh-What?" I panicked.

"I'm not like embarrassed or anything, I just don't want to share if you aren't going to share yours too." Tabitha explained.

"Maybe I'll tell you another time," I said, pretending to check the time in my PetalPad. "Let's go back to exploring for now."

Tabitha and I made our way around to the storage closet. I hesitated to go in knowing we didn't have a light source.

"Ack!" Tabitha squeaked, as she ran into me. "Why did you stop walking? I could've broken my nose on the impact of your giant head!"

"We can't go in there." I told her, turning around.

"Why not?" She squinted her eyes at the door.

"It's dark in there and we don't have a light." I pointed out to her.

She stood there like a computer buffering with a bad internet connection. It went on for much longer than I expected and when she finally moved, she started laughing.

"Pfft." She softly snorted, before pulling out her phone. "Did you forget that I'm super famous?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" I sighed.

"Because I'm only as famous as the amount of time I spend on my phone." She replied, pulling out her sparkling pink phone.

It shouldn't have take me this long for me to put that together...

"Oh right!" I remembered, lightly laughing. "I guess I forgot."

"LOL." She smiled, opening the door.

Tabitha shined her phone's flashlight inside the storage room. I kept to close her, but not too close. Everyone was in boxes labeled according to its contents.

"Weapons..." I muttered aloud. "I wonder what's in there."

"Weapons, prolly," The blonde girl answered.

"Sorry. That was rhetorical." I said.

Tabitha didn't reply, she just continued to look around the storage room. There were ropes lying around on the ground, however none of them seemed long enough or thick enough to be useful. Most of the boxes were sealed closed, and aside from the one labeled ''Weapons'' there wasn't much of note in there.

Once we left, the influencer let out a horrific cough.

"Are you okay, Tabitha?" I questioned her, bracing myself just in case.

"I'm great, bestie," She replied, bouncing back upright. "It was like super dusty in there."

It was? I hardly noticed.

"Breaktime!" She announced, shoving her phone in my face. "All the models I showed you earlier were cute, but not the ultimate kinda cute."

"So these people are Ultimates?" I made an inference.

"Yup." She nodded, leaning in close to show me. "These are mostly models, the Ultimate Influencer—influencers before and after me, and just other Ultimates I find attractive."

"Ah." I nodded.

Tabitha kept a steady pace of scrolling through her camera roll. At one point she stopped on a blonde boy with green eyes. He was dressed in a cutesy devil costume with a caption saying ''Happy Halloween''.

"If it were anyone else, I would be hecka salty about whoever managed to become more popular than me." Tabitha stated, starring at the image. "But Logan is such a cutie and I'm A-okay with him with taking my talent."

"So he's the Ultimate Influencer now?" I asked her.

"Yeah." Tabitha nodded in agreement. She scrolled to the next photo. "Oh my gosh! I forgot I had these Roxie pics on my phone!"

"Uh, who's Roxie?" I questioned.

The photo was of a lavender haired woman who wore a black bunny onesie. She sat lying along a bed, the camera was angled oddly, almost as if she had just woken up. The bed however, told a different story as it looked to have never been slept in before; pillows and plushies were neatly arranged, unlike bow it should look when you first wake up.

"This is Roxie." Tabitha stated enthusiastically. "You don't know who Roxie is? RoxieRocks?"

"Sorry, that doesn't ring any bells." I shook my head.

"I must convert you." She mumbled. "But first, let's finish our investigation, shall we?"

"We shall." I replied.

The others are probably done by now.

Tabitha and I made our to the laundry room, where we saw Gabriel just standing around. He eyes widened upon seeing me and Tabitha.

"Your sister isn't exploring with you?" The tennis pro raised an eyebrow.

"I figured it would be good for us to branch out and meet some new people." I explained. "Well, mostly Fawn."

"How'd you know we were exploring, Gavin?" Tabitha questioned him.

"My name isn't Gavin." Grumbled the tennis pro. "And I know because the food tester and the chauffeur were in here a couple minutes ago."

"Silly, Rory," The influencer awkwardly giggled. "Always running their mouth."

"Zenith was the one that told me." Gabriel clarified.

"Oh." Tabitha blinked, seeming to start buffering again.

As Tabitha stood there awkwardly, Gabriel took this opportunity to have a more private conversation with me. Well, as private as a conversation could get in a laundry room.

"You know, you're wearing the same hoodie you wore yesterday." The tennis played pointed out. "Do you not have other outfits?"

Why is that the first thing you notice about me?

"I do, but the other two are just shirts with no hoodie." I explained. "I decided to just rewear it."

"Hm. Okay." Gabriel shrugged.

"Plus, it doesn't really matter that much." I tried to explain myself. "With three outfits to cycle through, you'll pretty much have to do laundry every other day."

"Yeah. I guess so." He glanced towards the washing machines. "Have you ever done laundry before?"

"Uh, yes?" I answered. "Have you not?"

"Only towels." He admitted. "Even when I was old enough, my parents always insisted that my sister and I focus on our sports."

"You have a sister?" I inquired.

"Uh..." He choked up once he realized what he had said. "She's important now so we don't talk alot."

What's that supposed to mean?

Before I could press Gabriel with any further questions, Tabitha pulled me away from the conversation. Literally.

"What are you doing?" I asked as she weakly tugged on my arm.

"There's literally nothing in here worth our time." Explained the blonde. "I doubt anyone is gonna die from laundry soap."

I didn't feel like arguing with her, starting conflict never goes well for me, so I stayed silent. We moved onto the final room, the game room. That room was pretty self explanatory—the other five of the explorers were relaxing by a card game together.

Wait, five?

"Where did Fawn go?" I asked the group, not seeing my sister.

"She said she was going to her room instead of joining us," Isaiah recalled for me.

Of course. I should have expected that.

"Thanks for letting me know." I thanked him.

"Will you being joining us?" Quartz questioned me. "Blane is in the lead."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Rory dramatically drew a card. "Damnit! Why do I always draw blues?!"

"Not right now." I sadly denied. "Sometime, soon though."

"We'll see you then." Zenith smiled at me.

"Will you be joining us, Tabi?" I heard Quartz ask as I walked out.

"Naturally." The influencer replied.

Leaving the group, I ventured down the hallway. On my way to my sister's room I ran into a familiar bluenette with a fluffy microphone.

"Why do I always run into you outside of my sister's room?" I asked, trying to get past. However, Nora mirrored my movements and blocked me from passing.

"It's only second time it's happened." Nora echoed, before sticking her microphone in my face. "What would you say is the most common reason the other participants have lost their talents?"

"Wh-What?" I blinked. "Why do you need an answer from me?"

"I need an answer from everyone." The bluenette replied. "If you get it right, I'll move out of your way."

I guess I have no choice but to play her little guessing game.

What is the most common reason participants have lost their talents?

a). Authoritative punishment.

b). Injuries or medical conditions.

c). Lack of skill.

"Injury and conditions prevent them from doing their talent, allowing someone else to surpass them." I answered, getting an odd excitement boost from how intelligent my answer sounded.

"Ding ding ding!" The former game show host cheered, stepping aside. "Based on the people you've talked too, that's the correct answer."

Correct Answer: b). Injuries or medical conditions.

"So the answer changes depending on who has talked to who so far?" I inquired. "How the hell do you even know that stuff?!"

"I'm your host." She simply answered. "If I wasn't omniscient and all knowing that would humanize me way too much."

She dodged the question.

"Everyone knows that game show hosts aren't human." Nora's voice echoed in her microphone as she slowly backwards walked away.

Game show hosts are kinda... off. But does that doesn't literally dehumanize them, does it?

Putting my interaction with Nora in the back of my mind, I knocked on Fawn's door. The door opened instantly.

"How did it go with Isaiah?" I asked her.

"We didn't find much," My sister responded.

"Was he nice?" I curiously questioned. "What did you two talk about? Do you wanna hang out again with again tomorrow?"

"I guess?" Fawn shrugged. "We mostly talked about how we channel our creativity."

"And? Are you two gonna hang out again tomorrow?" I repeated myself, sounding like an excited parent.

"No, why would we?" She shook her head.

"Aww, come on," I frowned. "You need to make some friends. Everyone here is relatively nice."

"I don't need to make friends." She argued. "I can just hang out with you."

She isn't picking up on my hint.

"Listen, Fawn," I said. "We're probably going to be here for a while before we get rescued. We need to make the most of our time here."

"How?" The gray haired girl asked.

"You should try talking to people. There are a few people here I think you'd get along with." I recommend to my sister.