DISCLAIMER:

Greeting Ladies and Gentlemen, chapter 17 released, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing them.

Thanks for reading, as always that what makes me continue writing, if you want to motivate me more, mark the story as a favorite or write a review, I will answer them all in the next chapter,

M: When I was still planning to write this fanfic, the force-feeding in Alberta was one of my first ideas, I'm glad you like it, that you watched Brunch of Disgustingness the same day was only a happy coincidence :D

Total Drama belongs to Fresh TV and his creators. I don't own anything from the properties used in this fic


Lord of the Ring Toss

Last time on The Ridonculous Race our teams were full of beans, who knew so many people hated beans, Emma told Noah they could get back together once the race was over.

Total bull, is what happened next, Dwayne and Junior really connected, and then caught several connecting flights home after being eliminated.

Only eight teams remain, so things are bound to get fierce starting right now on the Ridonculous Race.

Yesterday Chill Zone is today Starting Point, and the teams are waiting to start the race in the order they finished yesterday, Gwen and Trent are coming from the 3rd place in the queue.

"After seeing Junior being eliminated, Trent, it hit me, we are now less than half of the teams that started the race, the competition will be harder for now on, we need to improve our game," says Gwen looking at the musician.

"Don't worry, Gwen, yesterday challenge was a bad match for us," says Trent smiling, with a more natural expression than yesterday, "we can beat anything they throw at us, even food challenges, so don't worry, believe in yourself."

Gwen playfully hit Trent's arm. "What with the motivational speech?" She smirks. "If that music business doesn't work, you can always turn into a politician or a speechmaker."

"Please don't jinx me," replies Trent with wide eyes.

"I thought you didn't believe in jinxes," Gwen stare at him, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't, but it's better to be on the safe side," he answers, looking toward the sky and scratching his cheek.

While they talk, Don signals the beginning of the stage, and all teams start to advance and take their travel tips from the Don Box.

"You must fly to the arctic circle using a Cessna, two teams per plane, once there you will find the next travel tip, Brrr! Sounds cold!" says Gwen, smirking. "I hope at least they will give us jackets, not like in other shows."

"Smartass," replies Trent remembering the reference, "I hope they put us with a friendly team."

But Trent was right and wrong at the same time, the team they would be sharing the aircraft was the Goths.


Group confessional: Goths

(Trent is sitting on the left side, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes. Gwen is sitting on the right side, smirking with her hands resting on her legs.)

"After all that happened in the last days, we forgot about forming alliances, Owen and Kitty's team are already a de facto alliance, maybe we should talk with the Goths and work together," says Gwen with half-closed eyes, leaning toward Trent.

"I'm not sure," replies Trent, "they don't seem reliable, and honestly, I can't figure what is on their minds most of the time."

"What are you saying," complains Gwen in a higher voice, looking at him in disbelief, "yes Ennui sometimes it's a little too expressive and naive, but he is still trustworthy, and Crimson is so funny and sarcastic, I think we would be a great alliance."

She ponders for a moment as if forgetting something, then adds "Ah! Also, Loki it's the coolest bunny I ever meet, and bunnies are not exactly my favorite animals."

"Sorry, Gwen, I'm not sure. Let's talk with them a little before making a decision," said Trent frowning, "and their bunny must be the first time a small mammal gives me the chills."

"His name is Loki, and that's only because you never went to the forest during a blue harvest moon," answers Gwen with a smirk.


Group confessional: The Drama Team.

(At the right side is Ennui sitting with his usual serious expression and his arms resting at his side, sitting on his legs it's Loki, the Goth bunny, frowning, at the left side is Crimson sitting, also with a serious expression and her arms resting at her sides).

"You were so friendly with Gwen's team," said Crimson in her low voice "you practically smiled at them."

"They are survivors, like us," replies Ennui with his deep and calm voice, "I felt a kinship."

"Do we try to form an alliance?" asks Crimson in the same monotone voice.

"Maybe, I don't know, Gwen is fine, but her friend it's so…" Ennui stops for a moment, "normal, normal people scare me."

"Don't get nervous, we can decide later," tell Crimson nodding.


The travel on the Cessna is a quiet one, Gwen speaks almost all the time, with Crimson and Ennui answering in short sentences, so Trent tries to join the conversation.

"So what kind of music do you like to hear?" asked Trent trying to break the ice.

"Goth Rock and metal," answer Ennui in his usual bored tone.

"Oh, I also like to hear rock, pop-rock, but also love to listen to blues and jazz, My favorites must be Maroon-5 and Jeff Healey, do you like some groups in particular?" asked Trent smiling, music always joined the people.

"European metal," said Ennui.

"And European Goth Rock," said Crimson in the same tone.

"Ok, but some songs in particular, or bands you prefer?" said Trent, trying to let them talk about their preferences.

"Kukl, HAM, or For my pain," said Ennui.

"Oh, Kukl was the first group of Björk, I have never heard any song from them, can you tell me your favorites?" said Trent, getting tired of the short answers.

"C'mon Trent, let the music interrogation for later," said Gwen, looking at the Goths.

Trent decides to leave it at that. He tries again to establish a conversation with them but their answers were always short and he made almost all the talking.


The Cessna arrive at an airbase in the arctic circle, the teams go down the plane, both now wearing black thermal bodysuits under their clothes, with thermal mittens and snow boots. The three goths also had black earmuffs, while Trent uses a black winter cap.

"Why am I also dressed in black thermal clothing," asks Trent, seeing that except for them, all the teams were dressed in white thermal clothes.

"I didn't know you hated black," answers Gwen smirking "don't worry, it looks good on you," she said, and then walks toward the Don Box.

"I don't… It was…" Trent is flustered and confused by the answer, "forget what I said," He then sighs, recognizing his defeat.

Gwen rolls her eyes when she sees the Don box dressed in red clothes, pushes the button at the top of the machine and reads the next Travel Tip "Botch or Watch: Living Ring toss: Whoever not rode the bull in Alberta must find a ring somewhere hidden in the snow and successfully toss it on to the tusks of a narwhal, once you finish ride one of these snowmobiles east until you find the next Don box, Ok it's my turn," the goth says, flexing an arm.

Gwen looks pretty confident, as a painter she had an eye for the fine details, so in a moment, she distinguished which piles of snow contain rings, in a second she had a golden ring in her hand.

"Way to go, Gwen," Trent cheered, "Now toss it into the narwhal."

The narwhal is a medium-sized whale (their body can range from 4 to 5.5 meters) the male has a large tusk that projects from the upper jaw, reaching a length of about 1.5 to 3.1 meters, this tusk is in where the teams must toss the ring, and the reason they are called unicorn whale.

Some narwhals were playing in the water, surfacing with the horn upward and after moments going back under the surface. Gwen waits for a moment and just as one of the whales show its head, she throws the ring than flies directly toward the narwhal, passing it and hitting the water.

"Darn it," exclaim the goth in frustration.

"Don't mind, you almost got it," shouts Trent trying to comfort her.

Gwen quickly finds another ring, toss it, and fail, "Third time is the charm," said Trent.

Gwen faster than before finds another ring, toss it, and fail, "don't worry," Trent encourages her.

The cycle of finds, toss, fail, cheer, repeat, find, toss, fail, cheer repeat, continue some more times, she was the quickest to find the rings, but her aim was not the best, especially in narwhal horns.

The other teams began to end the challenge and take the snowmobile to the next Don Box, they were still stuck, but she was not the only one that cannot do it, Geoff, of the Surfers Dudes, was also failing all his tosses, and like Gwen, he seemed pretty anxious.

"You can do it, Gwen," repeat Trent one more time.

"Trent, please stop, if you say one more positive message, I will toss the next ring to your head," Gwen threatens the musician, desperate after uncountable ring tosses.

"Keep calm, try collecting many rings and toss them one after another," tells Trent ignoring what Gwen said.

"AAAAAWWWW!", scream Gwen in frustration, with an angry expression, she looks and finds a dozen of rings, take all of them to the coast and began to toss them one after another, failing, failing, failing, just as she is throwing the eight ring and fails, she sees a Narwhal emerging in the perfect spot.

She bit her lower lip, take the ninth ring and throw it, just as it flies, another ring connects in the tusk of her narwhal. Fortunately, her own ring also falls directly on the whale's tusk, successfully ending the challenge.

Geoff looks at Gwen, both just ended the challenge in the same narwhal, and hugs her excited, all the frustration of the event evaporating from inside them. Gwen also hugs Geoff and jump some seconds happily, before realizing they were still on the race.

"I knew you could do it," says Trent taking the handlebars of the snowmobile.

"Thanks, Trent, and sorry for yelling, you were only trying to help," Gwen replies, sitting behind and hugging him, he only nods accepting her apology, and then starts the snowmobile, speeding up toward the east, they leave behind Geoff and Brody and after a while, find the next Don box.


As they leave the snowmobile, Gwen quickly run toward the Don Box and take the next travel tip "All-in: Home freeze home: You need to work together to saw blocks of snow and assemble them into an igloo, once you get a thumbs up from the local judge it's a foot race due east until you reach the Chill Zone. Ok, do you have any idea of how to make an Igloo?"

"No, only that they are dome-shaped, but the other teams don't seem to know either," Trent says, seeing that the Goths and the Ice Dancers weren't doing a quick work building their Igloos.

Trent and Gwen began cutting the snow in blocks, and then ensemble in a circle to create the base, but as they start to pile the second line, it looked more like a chimney than an Igloo.

"Trent, you keep cutting the blocks, I will shape them to make the dome," tells Gwen, as she smooths the corner of the blocks with her saw, that cause that the second line slope a little inward. After that Gwen did the same with the next line, dividing the work Trent making the blocks and Gwen assembling.

They were doing a good job, but not great, as the first teams were finishing the race before them.

"I think we have enough blocks," Trent says, "Do you need help with something?" he was heavy breathing after cutting and carrying lots of snow bricks.

"Yes, cut the door at that side, please," Gwen was now assembling the top part of the igloo, as she was finishing, the construction becomes trickier. Finally, she had to leave a hole in the top of the igloo.

As the goth finished, she examines Trent's door, and it was not only well done, he added some of the remaining bricks to make the entrance, and was big enough to exit comfortably (well as comfortably as crawling over snow in a tunnel could be). As she exits, Trent was waiting to help her cross the last stretch of the entrance.

The local judge was a young Inuit woman, with black eyes and black hair, dressed in the traditional parka made of fur, and mukluk boots. She inspects the exterior of the Igloo and gives them a thumb up, with that they start running to the Chill Zone.

As Gwen and Trent step in the carpet of completion, Don announces their official placement "Drama Team you are 5th," Gwen sense a feeling of dread as hearing the name of her team didn't annoy her as much as before.


The Drama Team went into the resting zone and began to lunch, but when the Goths end the challenge (as the 6th place), Gwen excuses herself and goes to talk with them.

"Crimson, Ennui do you have a minute?" asks Gwen.

The Goths stop a moment, and the trio looked at her (trio because it includes Loki, who was carried on Ennui shirt).

"How about forming an alliance with us?" Gwen proposes, "We are already in the top 8, and it may be of help for both of our teams in the future."

Crimson and Ennui look at each other, and after a moment, responds.

"Tempting," says Ennui in his deep voice, "but we don't make alliances."

"Don't worry," answers Gwen, "but if you change your mind, talk to me, it would be a dreadful alliance of darkness," for some reason, Gwen black eyes look sinister when she said that.

"We will consider it," replies Crimson, then Gwen and them part ways.


Gwen goes back to Trent, who now was eating again with Owen and Noah.

"Gwen, we miss you, do you want some fries?" Owen offers the goth some food as she came back.

"Thanks, Owen, but I am not hungry," she declines politely.

"Maybe scheming and forming alliances ruin your appetite," adds Noah snarky.

"Noah! that was not something nice to say," Owen tries to defuse the situation.

"I am not scheming, and it's truly rich hear that form you, with your lover's alliance," replies Gwen, annoyed by Noah's attitude.

"Gwen, he didn't mean any harm, was only a bad joke," Trent intervene, also trying to mediate.

"For your information, Miss goth, there is no lovers alliance, and we were trying to form an alliance with Trent and you," says Noah in a calm but arrogant tone, "but maybe you think you are too good for us and decide against it."

Gwen's eyes went wide, she was a little disappointed about the fiasco with the Goths and didn't like Noah's attitude (well, she never liked Noah's attitude), but there was merit in his words.

"I think we could work well together, at least we can think about it," says Trent.

Gwen sighs, "we will talk about it, only one question, why you are not in an alliance with the Sisters?"

"Remember curiosity killed the cat," Noah smile and continues "Emma and I can't focus on the race when we are together, so if we want to win is for the best to work each one in their own team, but that doesn't mean we cannot form alliances with other teams on our own."

"Fine, We will tell you our answer after the next stage," Gwen answers frowning.

"AWESOME" yells Owen, "Let's celebrate our still-not, but maybe Gopher's alliance pre-party," Trent laugh and even Noah and Gwen snicker at Owen's occurrence.

The four of them again stay until late, talking about the new season of Total Drama, the Drama Brothers and other reality shows, after a while, Gwen decided she had too much fun for the day and retire to her room.

Once inside, Gwen takes out her sketchbook, and one more time her hand freezes, her mind goes blank as she tries to draw something, anything. She doesn't understand the reason, maybe something about her mindset, her goal for entering the race was now accomplished, and of course, the idea of half-million dollars was tempting, but she doesn't really believe they could pull it.

She then began to see her old sketches, not the really old ones, because this was her 4th travel sketchbook, it had overall sketches of her time in All-stars, the worst waste of time of her short lifetime. Probably was there where she started to lose her artistic touch, Gwen made a sad smile while turning the pages and looking through the eyes her younger self, perhaps, she knew something then than the actual Gwen forgot, after a while, she gives up on finding it.

Whatever is tormenting her, it will not be resolved tonight. So she goes to sleep, tomorrow will be a hard day, with the competition and Owen's alliance decision. Maybe if they decided to form the alliance today, all the hardships to come would play differently, but there was no way for Gwen to know that at this moment.


The antarctic circle is over and now our team is thinking on the future, what will happen with the Gopher's alliance? only time will tell.

When I was watching the episode to script this chapter, I think how awesome was that the best friends went with the goths in the same Cessna, so it played well, I like the goths but is quite hard make them interact with Gwen and stay on character, I hope you like the result.

Teams eliminated: the Larpers, Tennis rivals, Geniuses, Vegetarians, fashion bloggers, Mother and daughter, Adversity twins, Step Brothers, Rockers, Father and Son.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you like it.