"Welcome to Pulchritude's Paradise!" The host threw their arms wide open as he looked at the sixteen contestants, eight males and eight females.
Now, Skylar had seen a few game shows and reality tv show hosts and this one wasn't like the others. He was a portly man with a long, curly, wild beard and longer curly frizzy hair, he looked like he just stepped out of the island jungles behind him after years of being shipwrecked. His shirt was too loose and his pants were too tight, and his shoes had holes with frayed laces. To really drive the contrast home, this host had acne scars and a mouth full of yellow crooked teeth the camera did a close up on as he continued talking.
"So, you think you're beautiful? Pageant people, models, film stars, or wannabe ones at any rate?" The camera panned to the contestants, people who were the exact opposite the host in many ways, thin, white straight teeth, perfectly positioned hair and makeup, and dressed to the nines in clothes accentuating their best assets.
While Skylar had studied the host with a curious gaze, the people on the show were doing a poor job of hiding shock, horror, and downright disgust.
"Conventionally beautiful and or handsome you all may be," the host continues when it was clear no one was going to answer him. "But here in Pulchritude's Paradise, it's not the outer beauty we're looking for." He slapped his chest. "I'm your host Dean Green and now’s the time to see if you’ve got the willingness to mold your inner beauty to match your beautifully symmetrical faces.” He grinned and Skylar grinned too.
The music changed, adding a layer of dread with flats and a crescendo as Dean held his arms out, smirking for the cameras.
“You will learn such things as humility, empathy, sympathy, compassion, and altruism. Or…” Dean spun, flicking open his trench coat to reveal the red stitching on the inside. “Pulchritude’s Paradise will start to feel more like a personal purgatory for a pulchritude.”
Skylar groaned as the daily knock on their cell door interrupted the stream on the back of their eyelids.
“Time for questioning!”
“Coming!” Skylar grumbled as they slid out of bed.
This time as Robert asked the same questions over and over, Skylar buried their head in their arms with eyes closed. Watching bad people get their luxury goods taken away for any sort of negative interactions was way better than an endless streams of questions.
Word count: 421
