Risa was still sitting down on the ground, clutching the finger where she plucked her nail from to let the pain subside from even a little. On second thought, she really would've just used the nail on her coffin as an alternative for the King's order, but she was still unsure about everything that's going on that she decided to play it safe. Since this game was all about pain and suffering, she might as well go with the flow to win. However, it might not be that worth it when all her limbs were cut off so she had to think of a way to outsmart the King. Risa also observed the looks on everyone's faces when she acted and pried her nail off. From her perspective, it seemed that they did believe her to be nothing but a weak-hearted little girl, which meant everything was going to plan.

No matter how much fun Risa was having, her focus was still blurry from the pain brought by her finger. She saw something land next to her and realize it was a necktie. She looked up to the blond who motioned her to use it as a bandage, at which Risa replied with a grateful smile and nod. The blood stained through her red coat and she replaced it with Seven's necktie. Was this an alliance brewing or did he just feel pity for her? In any case, it definitely got her blushing a bit.

What she didn't realize was how One was so calm and collected throughout the entire process. Was she giving out an act like what Risa was doing? It definitely worked, and Risa thought of One as one bad-ass girl. Risa can't help but be excited to hear out how One will cry out in pain and agony as the game continued.

She turned her attention to Four, and Risa thought: Oh yay, looks like we have another scaredy-cat in our midst; of course, she didn't say that out loud. Then again, she doesn't blame him. Some of her 'playmates' back at her mansion were just like him: desperately trying to think of a way out, only to be met with the most excruciating way to die brought upon them by yours truly. Whoever's giving out these orders were definitely human, which meant they were kill-able.

What Seven said could also be true. If there was someone upstairs, no way would they be unarmed in any way. She looked up at the ceiling. It looked like it was so rundown and would collapse at anytime, but that might happen in a few years or so. Time was not something the group had.

She heard Seven sharing the idea of unlocking one of the doors using the key he had, which was quite questionable. "I-I want to go explore too", Risa said as she stood up and followed Seven. While he was walking towards the door, a girl with long black hair spoke up, suggesting that we try not to follow an order and that the punishment was just a bluff. Another interesting thought, but Risa didn't want to go beyond the line. After all, that's why she chose to pry her own nail off instead of getting the one on her coffin. She couldn't risk agitating the King and ordering her to take all of her fingernails out. However fun that may sound, the pain was still not worth it.

Just as Seven was inserting the key into the hole, the familiar sound of the dumbwaiter could be heard, descending from the second floor as it brought about another set of orders. The girl who spoke up was the one who approached the dumbwaiter to read the orders. Hope drained from her face while she was reading the card before she held it for everyone to see. Risa approached the girl and read the card aloud for everyone:

"Player #3, rip out all of Player #4's eyelashes. Player #6, consume the blood, tooth, nail, and lashes."

Risa's eyes lowered to look at the girl's bloodied hand and gasped, looking at her with pity. On the inside, she was bursting with laughter.

Riley tapped her tongue around within their maw, the red-stained aftertaste not going away anytime soon but it distracted her from the chaos that ensued around them. We had a few paranoid folk within her midst, which was an entertaining spectacle in itself for Riley - and they would seemingly glance around even as new information wrought itself upon their minds and brought new questions. Not that Riley didn't have questions themselves, but questions were deeply internalized and being in danger wasn't exactly a new situation to them. In their youth, Riley had been kidnapped once before and held for ransom - though it was quickly resolved as the company hired some mercenaries to track the kidnappers down and dealt with them. Father was not entirely useless, just a slimy good-for-nothing and the company was in a much better handle now that he was dead.



But it was when the King's new order was not so gracefully delivered upon them that Riley would speak out once again, in the same eccentric and bemused tone as before. Though, it would be difficult to discern if their response was more-so to garner attention or this was genuinely how they reacted to such grim and dangerous circumstances. "Oh how fun, eyelashes aren't that painful to remove. Hell, some people even do that for stylistic purposes. Number Four, Number Four, Number Four~ lets bust this out so we can clear this stage and move on to the next one 'eh?" They chimed nonchalantly, canting their back and forth as they spoke.

As they paced around the newly lit room, Riley made their way to the kitchen as they awaited response from the titular figure of their request. The assumption was, they would likely not react well to the calling. Perhaps some hostility, or perhaps just disgust, the matter didn't really affect them directly as stated before - Riley was honestly just enjoying the ride. Perhaps even they would win and come face-to-face with this person who knew a little too much about the circumstances with their father. We would have to wait and see! Hands slid down countertops brushing the gray residue off and onto the ground, then they'd make to the drawers as they opened up to reveal the utensils that were so-obviously left for these people to turn on eachother. This was so well prepared, Riley was quite impressed, beaming a smile and huffing out in amorous sighs as puzzle pieces slid into place within their mind.

The situation was dire - but all things considered, it could be a hell of a lot worse. Luckily, Ryan could rely on one major thing, which was the fact that they had time to complete their orders.

"We have about seventy two hours before we die of thirst - probably even less for those already injured, unless we decide to start drinking blood, or unless the King decides to send us some supplies, which I find highly unlikely."

"It might also be true that someone... maybe even another player... is up the stairs, but it would mean sending one smaller person up there to check. If there is someone up there, they are likely to be armed. Let me know if any volunteers are willing to put their neck on the line for a shot in the dark."

Ryan didn't agree with the blond man, Number 7's first statement. How many orders was he expecting? Ryan honestly doubted that the king would give them more than a day to live - the place they found themselves in seemed pretty decrepit, and Ryan felt that by the time 3 days went by, they might be able to find an exit or make one. The King, if he had enough resources to kidnap them without notice, probably wouldn't give them the chance to live long enough to find an escape. A very chilling thought, that Ryan was eager to abandon in favor of the man's second statement.

The possibility of a weapon was there, and honestly, going up the stairs would almost certainly kill them. But the king had to have been up there - why would he be down here where he could be killed by the other participants? The girl that tore out her teeth said as much - they could simply draw ballots to decide who lives and dies, so that was a massive risk to take...

Then again, kidnapping 7 people was also a huge risk. He might just be crazy? Whatever the case, Ryan didn't feel like being paranoid and suspecting the other victims was a wise choice, considering they might just turn on him and kill him. Besides, he'd need them if he wanted any chance of even making it to the top of the stairs, let alone fighting the King if he was up there.

The blond opened a door with a key that he had - where did he get that? One conclusion would be that he was the king, but there was no way he would do something so obvious as opening a door that was locked with a key. No, it was more likely that he saw it in the coffin when he woke up, like the teeth that Ryan could have used to spare the girl with the #1 carved in her hand. The others probably had similar items, but Ryan didn't feel like suggesting something like that - he already seemed suspicious for trying to dissuade the others from killing each other.

A few of the others, notably the girl who tore her fingernail off and the blond who opened the door, entered into what appeared to be a decaying kitchen. Ryan thought of following, but decided against it - the blond seemed a bit too eager to try and dismiss Ryan's idea of waiting before doing orders, and no matter how much Ryan rationalized it, he didn't feel comfortable about the whole key situation. Or the fact that he still held onto the glass shard... Instead, Ryan stayed in the Lobby they awoke in a few minutes ago.

That's when the dumbwaiter started again. Ryan chose to stay away, nervous - so far it had been different people each order, so he was probably going to be within the next 2 orders... and reading out his own fate was a little difficult. The messy haired girl was the one who chose to go for the cards when the dumbwaiter finally arrived - Ryan knew from her reaction that she was a part of it, but moved closer to read the card she held out for them.

He was part of it, but it would be a lie to say that Ryan didn't sigh in relief. He got off easy compared to the girls who self-mutilated themselves, and the messy haired girl might vomit the human parts up. Ryan was slightly envious of the girl who actually introtuced themselves, Riley, since they only had to inflict the harm, but he felt bad for the girl that was about to eat his eyelashes. Ryan would have dealt with that far better, since he was... you know, a cannibal - but still, eating hard parts like nails and teeth was quite unpleasant, and Ryan could only imagine the struggle if the one eating was a normal person.

"Oh how fun, eyelashes aren't that painful to remove. Hell, some people even do that for stylistic purposes. Number Four, Number Four, Number Four~ lets bust this out so we can clear this stage and move on to the next one 'eh?"

Riley walked into the kitchen as they said this, and Ryan found himself quickly appreciating the yeares of exercise he went through. He obviously couldn't handle Riley if she found some kind of weapon in the kitchen, but unarmed, Ryan felt confident he could keep them off of him. Unless Riley grouped up with the others to manhandle him, in which case he would lose instantly.

"J-Jesus Christ, no! We have three hours, right? Why would we rush an order then? W-we could use this time to find a way out, or find the King if he is... one of us. Losing track of time wouldn't even be a problem, right? One of us has a watch! I mean, I only know one person's name here!"

It was suprising that thought had just occured to Ryan. It was expected, considering the cirsumstances - why would they want to make buddies when they were tearing off bodyparts? Still, Ryan felt he was in hot water, so trying to humanize himself to the others might save his skin if they try and lynch someone. And he did mean what he said - there would be no chance of finding the King if they didn't even know each other's names - well, unless they did go through with the plan the girl who ripped out her tooth made.

"My name's Ryan Watts. I, uh, work as a Mortician - like, funerals and stuff. I'm pretty stresed right now so that's all I can really think to say right now, but I'll try and answer questiosn if anyone has any."

Ryan gulped. Losing track, stammering, he was getting nervous because of the situation. He had to keep focused on the Order, and delaying it for a while before these guys forcibly ripped his eyelashes out...

"O-oh, and I'd prefer it if we could cut my eyelashes off instead of pulling them, Riley."

There - hopefully now everyone knew he was going to go through with things, and his appeal for more time wasn't just to prolong his time before being injured. Hopefully, they could find a blade, or the Blond guy would be willing to part with the glass for a few minutes.

"Six? I don't know when we decided to label one another--"

While he took note of her name, Orwell didn't much care whatever she called herself. The less everyone knew, the better, and she was giving information away for free. Then again, she was just a teenager. Two more of them were, and both of them looked just as - if not more - unstable than Somi did. Whatever the case, Orwell had already walked away as she continued her tirade. Did she really want to risk being the first one to experience the King's punishment? By all means, she was welcome to. At least that would answer a few questions.

The door did open to the key he was given, and as he activated the light switch, it revealed something like a kitchen. The sound of the dumbwaiter made him look back, and doing so, he realized that Five had decided to follow him, but then went back to read whatever it was on the card that Somi had just taken from the dumbwaiter.

"Player #3, rip out all of Player #4's eyelashes. Player #6, consume the blood, tooth, nail, and lashes."

Whoever the King was, he had a sick mind, Orwell decided. The order was almost surreal in its violence - who in their right minds would get a kick out of watching someone eat eyelashes? He thought of people like Corvus and wondered if this was all a part of their plan to get back at him. It wasn't impossible. Money could buy anything, even amusement like this. Perhaps they were being filmed for a snuff production, commissioned by rich bastards. Nothing was out of the question.

He stepped into the room, quickly followed by Three and Four. Three's presence irked Orwell and he wished the King would order someone to shut him - he was about eighty percent certain that Three was a him - up. He listened as his eyes roved around the room, looking for answers, or at least clues to answers. The dining table was covered with several sheets of paper - receipts, upon closer inspection, and he went over to read them silently as both Three and Four -who now identified as Ryan Watts- bickered about the details on how to fulfill the newest order. His head started to ache given the fumes from whatever was in the sink, and he started breathing slowly in an attept to take in less of the fumes.

Several details in each receipt were blacked out with a marker, and try as he might, Orwell could not read any of the hidden information even as he held them up against the light. Giving up on that attempt, he continued to read the information that remained unhidden.

There was a veterinary bill, a receipt for repairs done to a funeral home - Four identified himself as a mortician, clearly a link to him -, a medical bill for a boy with the surname Cruz - his eyes narrowed upon seeing this, but he set it aside for now -, a receipt for industrial strength cleaning supplies - a highly suspicious purchase, given the bleak context they were in -, a college tuition bill - not surprising, given the age of the people involved -, as well as two payments. One payment was addressed to Somi Baek - Six, apparently did use her real first name and now her identity was fully revealed -, and the other payment involved Three - apparently the Velskaya family was an affluent one.

Here were some clues, but they only led to more questions than answers. There were exactly seven receipts, and it would be a fair guess to say that each receipt had something to do with each player. Six and Three, Somi and Riley, were possibly linked to something shady involving an exchange of money, while Four, Ryan, was linked to a funeral home, perhaps as someone linked to the mob to hide bodies. Strangely enough, Orwell did not have the same receipt of payments - a testament to how careful Corvus was, perhaps, only paying him in cold, hard, untraceable cash.

The only receipt that could possibly be linked to him was the medical bill, and then again, perhaps it was a bluff. Iris wouldn't be stupid enough to keep their kid, would she? After all, she wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility - hell, she couldn't even take care of herself after ladies' night. As far as Orwell was concerned, that kid didn't exist, and if he did, he was on his own. He took the medical bill, folded it, and kept it in his pocket, leaving the rest of the receipts on the table. Then he turned to Riley and Ryan, who were still undecided about the order.

"The order said to rip your lashes out, Ryan. That's what the order said, and it's not as bad as losing a tooth or a nail. It's your call to make. I think you're risking your neck for nothing. And maybe you're not the only one who gets punished by your mistake - what about Thr- ah, Riley and Somi?"

Orwell picked out two receipts and held it towards them.

"Funeral home maintenance bills and some kind of big transfer to the Velskaya Corporation. Sounds like you two might know something about this. I found mine too, and Somi's. This King sure did some research before he went after us, didn't he."

"We have to follow the rules, darling, please don't be so fussy." Riley flashed a smile once again, their eyelashes batted at the young mortician - what an interesting occupation he had.

This other voice though was incredibly perceptive, and had enough common sense to take cues from the environment they were in when they made decisions. Riley would have to watch out for them, maybe befriending them, perhaps making an enemy out of them, whatever benefits them in this lovely devil's game. Her eyes opened as they fixated on the two who spoke, her golden sights absorbing every detail of their physicality with expertise - Riley's job title would not be detective like some of the others. No, predator would suit them quite a deal better, so much so that to those that were perceptive could easily see the signs of someone taking advantage of the situation they now found themselves in.

"But yes, I'm Riley Velskaya, that's my name and if any of you survive this I promise a well-paying lawsuit will follow." Their smile beamed innocently, pristine ivories sparkling in the dusty jail cell of an environment they currently occupied. These words were aimed at our detective over here. Speaking of -

"While everyone is shitting bricks and I'm giving cute Mortician boy a makeover. Somebody should start making rounds at a wall, I'm sure with our numbers we could break a hole into one! I don't think Sherlocke Holmes over here is making any progress with his detective work." Riley's words turned to venom, seeking to dissuade any interruptions that may interfere them from their fun. What a twisted psyche they had - finding this game fun, nonetheless, Riley continued her adventure through the kitchen until she found the cutlery drawer and revealed it to the mortician.

"So, shall we now begin the game?" They doted at him, canting their head and pointing the six-inch chef's knife out at the man.

"The order said to rip your lashes out, Ryan. That's what the order said, and it's not as bad as losing a tooth or a nail. It's your call to make. I think you're risking your neck for nothing. And maybe you're not the only one who gets punished by your mistake - what about Thr- ah, Riley and Somi? Funeral home maintenance bills and some kind of big transfer to the Velskaya Corporation. Sounds like you two might know something about this. I found mine too, and Somi's. This King sure did some research before he went after us, didn't he."

Ryan hated to admit it, but the blond man was right - he'd have to let these guys rip his eyelashes out, and while it sucked he couldn't have them cut instead, it was indeed better than losing a tooth or nail. Still, Ryan was quick to notice that the blond man still refrained from giving out his name, and still had possession of the blade of glass. Ryan didn't feel comfortable pushing the issue of names when he didn't have a weapon, so he'd settle for simply using the blond man moniker. Still, Ryan wasn't sure why the blond felt the need to conceal his identity. It wasn't like the King didn't know everything about them already...

Why was Ryan humoring this? He had been calling the Kidnapper a King when in reality he was just a kidnapper. Did they call themself that in orer to appear more intimidating, or to try and elicit a specific emotion from his victims?

It didn't really matter. Ryan was going to have his eyelashes plucked, and that was going to sting like a bitch. Even if it's better than a tooth or nail, it still wasn't something to be happy about. Riley at least was willing to reintroduce themselves - she was pretty creepy, but all things considered, Ryan had some habits others would call psychotic, so he had no place saying that about someone else.

At least, that's how he felt until Riley pulled a knife on him.

"So, shall we now begin the game?"

Ryan took a step back and had to restrain himself from cursing out the kid in front of him. He understood being nervous in a situation like this, but this kid almost seemed like they were threatening him. This was the first time Ryan had been held at knifepoint, even if this wasn't really direct and more implicating than anything else. He chose to handle the situation calmly, and diffuse Riley before she stabbed him in the throat.

"Sure thing, but you should probably put the knife down first - you guys are right, my eyebrows need to be plucked, not cut."

Ryan walked forwards and gingerly kneeled on the disgusting floor, allowing Riley to have a much better vantage point for ripping out his follicles.

"Please try to be quick - the less time we spend doing this, the more time we have to find the 'King.'"

Ryan wanted to finish as fast as possible - this was going to hurt no matter what, so finishing fast and giving him time to nurse his wounds would be the best. He had tried to buy time at first, but he had to settle for having Somi wait for a while to eat the various parts. They needed time to investigate the situation on the Kidnapper and introduce each other, so this was probably for the best. Whatever happened, Ryan was hoping to get out of here as fast as possible.