A/N: So, what is this story about you may ask?
It's uh, complicated. Recently I had seen a film called 'Daisy Quokka: World's Scariest Animal', and was intrigued enough to give it a watch. While I actually found the film rather enjoyable, it was not without some flaws. Mainly, the film spends way too much investment on the whole "You're this so you can't possibly achieve that" scenario. This level of predicament towards the protagonist can actually be solved in a simple manner; by shifting the eyes of the city from the main protagonist to the deuteragonist, but more on that later. As such, this story is essentially that; a rewrite on the film.
This is not intended to be some "better" version, the film itself is rather good to watch, as are the other movies in the franchise (Yes there's 3 in total so far, I hear there's around 7 more in the works). Rather, it's my thoughts on what could be done to make it avoid rather popular clichés and make it overall a but more fresh, in the form of writing out an edited version. Some issues with doing this is that some parts are practically carbon copies of what happens in the film, and this is especially true near the beginning compared to the end. That being said, this version does take a detour due to the aforementioned 'solution'.
To avoid repeating myself in the other chapters I'll put the disclaimer here; Daisy Quokka and it's characters are owned by Like A Photon Creative.
It was all coming together for her, at long last she was now finally achieving her goal. With the platform she was standing on shaking as it steadily rose upwards, she could hear the distant cheering all around from above slowly getting louder and more endearing. A single spotlight had been pointed directly downwards in her direction, providing the only light within her view for now. There was a new kind of adrenaline that she hadn't experienced before - this time, she was actually doing it - not simply pretending to train or pretending in the playgrounds, this was real, and it was happening right before her eyes.
Needing to pull herself together, she contemplated what was to happen next. The finals were to start not long after her platform was fully raised up to meet the main stadium floor. She had faced the other athletes in earlier games, slowly lowering the remaining competitors until it was just her and the current champion. Now it was all or nothing, she would either win this game, or be in second place. A daunting pressure from the city's expectations were on her shoulders, but she already had that from the very first game.
"Okay, Daisy... here we go." Truth be told, it was hollow confidence. She may have sounded experienced, but she was nervous to the bone. Still, this was to be broadcasted across the globe, how could it not?
Building up her inner confidence more, she repeated to herself both verbally and mentally "You. Are. Ready." and almost on queue did the rest of the stadium's lights come to fruition, revealing the sheer enormity of it all. Breathing deeply at a calm rate, she geared up for the announcement to be made.
"Ladies and gentlemammels, Sanctuary City's favourite champion: Daisy Quokka!" An eruption of applause sounded from the crowd all around her, further building her hopes as she too jumped in the air cheering. With even more praises from the announcer, she was now full to the brim with belief in her ability to win these games.
Full excitement came from her has she yelled proudly "This... is a dream come true!" as the crowd continued to cheer she was fully accepting all the praise and glory that, until the rival was soon to appear, was solely focused on her.
Despite such glory, the sudden removal of almost all lighting in the stadium was a new surprise. No cheering could be heard from the surroundings either, no sign of anything, as if the stadium was suddenly closed and everyone had already left. It was only natural she would give a confused "Huh?" as nothing gave her any indication of whether or not the games were still happening. Perhaps she had just vividly imagined the former praise and had just stayed there all the way though to night time. The only ounce of doubt for that theory was that despite almost all signs of nothing going on, three spotlights were now directed at her.
"I said, this is a dream come true!" Perhaps this was just a new part of the games she had forgotten was mentioned to her, and that there was a line she had to say for things to continue. Things didn't help when one by one the remaining spotlights turned off, the last of which gave way to an eerily green glow from underneath the platform. Now paying full attention, she couldn't even see the building that made up the stadium, instead masked by a blackened void. For the life of her she could almost see mist forming from around her, as if this was just a very glorified way of revealing her rival. But the green glow didn't match the aesthetic of her rival, it would've been a red, blue, or orange colour were it so.
That was before she heard the growling from behind.
In a timid posture, she nervously looked around hoping that things were still normal. By tempting fate, she instead faced a crocodile that towered her height by twenty times easily, raising a fist that was about to strike. She could only utter the word "Frankie?" before running, and just in the nick of time did she avoid the attack, but it was a clear sign this was beyond her control. Still running as fast as she could, she quickly asked aloud "What's going on?!" with sheer desperation in her words. Beyond the platform, a series of glass-like pillars came forth, aiding her evasion from the ever-familiar croc. Jumping between pillars, she heard the sounds of things getting broken hard as she assumed he had already begun to swipe away the pillars behind her.
Finally finding another platform, this one was longer than the more rounded one she was standing on mere moments prior, however to her utter disbelief, she started to float upwards, eventually landing on another platform that she hadn't seen was right above her. Reaching the end, the crocodile had seemingly caught up, ready to grab her were it not for her evasive action to run back the other way. However, this too pleaded little hope as the ground proved to not be as long has she wanted. Only then did she get a grasp of what was happening, now hyperventilating beyond control as slowly, one more pillar rose upwards beyond her level. This pillar unlike the others was made of pure rock, much like the ground she was on, and on the top rested a big red button - one that would mark the end of this forsaken scenario.
"I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it." She repeated over and over until the pillar stopped rising, pausing to get one look at the large gap between her and the end of this ordeal, before once more repeating those four words. The same growl came from behind again, and she turned to face her opponent. All she could do was scream as the crocodile opened his jaws at her, before all she could see was black.
Erupting awake, she yelled wide awake as she saw in front of her eyes that same crocodile, albeit in a hand-sized plushy form. Still recovering from her nightmare, she attempted to kick the crocodile away, only to instead strike upon the snout of her father.
Now fully aware of her bedroom, she offered to help her dad, who had now lain on the floor thanks to her. "Ow, right in the snout. You really hit me hard kiddo."
"Sorry dad-"
"Ah- ah- ah," Her dad immediately interrupted. "It was my fault for messing with 'ya. Thought it would be fun to wake you up a little earlier than usual. Besides, not like the first time this has happened." How could she forget, though it really had only happened once or twice in the past few years. She at least could be thankful her father knew why it was a little rude to spook her, though she evidently assumed he hadn't known about the nightmare she had experienced.
No sooner did that situation pass however, the door swiftly opened to reveal her mother coming in with a good few slices of honey toast. "Morning sweetie! Goodness, did you wake her up with that toy of hers again?" It seemed her mom had also remembered the other times. Setting the honey toast aside on the nearest desk, her mother began to brush her hair. "You know you should always brush your hair every day, right sweetie?"
"I do mom, I've just woken up." Daisy protested, which apparently was all it took for her mother to stop brushing, allowing her to brush it how she wanted it to look. While continuing to brush, she saw her dad carefully place the plushy back on the table beside her bed. Looking slightly up, she stared at all the posters of her idol in pure awe, studying each poster on the wall she could almost faintly hear the crowd cheering for him.
"Ah Frankie Scales, you always seemed to admire him." Admire was probably the wrong word to describe how much she appreciated the crocodile that would giver her daily strength, not that she had actually met him though. The way her dad had spoke however, was a good reminder of what they knew. She accepted the fact that her parents didn't know that much about the World's Scariest Games - more commonly called the WSG for short - but they did know about Frankie, at least from both what she told them and... what they heard about him from others.
Before she could think about it further, her mom went away from the topic "You should eat up before the day starts, helps keep those smiling cheeks nice and toned. Besides, the beach outside is just lovely 'ain't it darling?" Almost like clockwork, her dad opened up the outside doors to reveal the beach, as well as the usual sunny day. Busy as well with how warm things were as well. This was actually quite the day to wake up to, a glorious time for tourists to visit the island.
"By golly look at those waves, the third degree sunburn, and that sand- so grainy. We're really living the dream!" Yeah, her parents always loved the beach, that was something that was practically daily for Daisy. She managed to hear her dad going out to have a nice surf for the hour, and she couldn't really blame him for doing so, it really was a good day given the usual standards. So then, were they really living the dream? In all fairness it really did depend, at least in her opinion, how one looked at it. They were living on a beautiful island known as Quokka Rocks, about ten kilometers offshore from Sanctuary City. They had it all when it came to good beaches, it was at least the best thing for all the quokkas that lived there.
Speaking of Quokkas, she could admit they were a strange species. The best way she could describe it was like a half-kangaroo, half-rat mixed with a teddy bear. Though knowing what that image would entail, she dared not to think of what something literally along those lines looked like. She also knew how things used to be, a quiet and peaceful life on' ye olde Quokka Rocks' as she would put it. That all changed with a single photo, or selfie to be more specific. Soon, everyone wanted a selfie with a quokka, making them a hit. Not just any hit though, a really big hit! She thought it was totally wild, since they were on all kinds of merchandise. To name a few; there were t-shirts, beach towels, breakfast cereals, toilet rolls, last-minute wishmas gifts, mugs, calendars, motivational posters, unmotivational posters, and even ice-blocks.
Alongside this she agreed that they were really damn cute. So cute in fact, that practically all quokkas worked in tourism- taking selfies. She couldn't ignore that fact, given her parents ran the entire industry. There was little to protest about that, she loved to smile as much as any other quokka, and with a job that allows you to live in a place like Quokka Rocks, how could one not be living the dream...? But, it was far too easy to know of her dreams as well.
Recounting her young days, she remembered the first night she saw it on TV. It was just the tail-end of the games, but that was enough for her back then. All she needed to see was him pressing that button, marking the finish of another set of games - the World's Scariest Games to be exact - and she recalled being glued to the screen as the announcement was made of her new hero winning the fourth game in a row. From that moment on, she spent her free time training to become a WSG athlete, or better yet, win the games entirely.
It didn't stop her from injuring herself, multiple times throughout the years even. But she would always recite the motto that Frankie would say: 'Never give up on your dreams', and so she didn't. Whether she got pretty good was up to her own bias, but she was confident she was much better than before. Things felt like fate had good things in store for her and her dreams. If that wasn't enough, Daisy was ecstatic over the amount of times her parents had given her a new piece of merchandise relating to Frankie, a reminder that they still cared about her dreams.
At the same time... it wasn't that her parents didn't support her. They did, much more than she thought they would at least. However they were always consistent in reminding her about what all quokkas do. She couldn't blame them for that, little to no quokka had done anything outside tourism, yet alone set their goals to become the World's Scariest Animal. But it was a major stunt in her hopes of becoming an athlete, if her parents were skeptical, then she could only imagine how those actually operating the games would think.
Maybe this time would be different. The WSG was being hosted in this city this time around, after all.
A/N: While this chapter is mostly equivalent to the film, one notable difference is the way in which Daisy's parents behave. In the film they're less dynamic and caring of her actual dreams, instead pushing her to become their successor. While this overall aspect remains in this story, it won't be carried out to the same extent.