Four more to go, but one reply first.
lordgemini- I'm so sorry I had to do Ben like that. He was always going to be first out at the merge, simply because he was so much more prominent in the first half of the season, I didn't want to just make such an obvious winner. But, Ben isn't just an afterthought, he'll keep being mentioned over and over again, and it'll be one of Peter's main bargaining chips. If you hated last elimination though, you're probably really gonna hate this one.
With that out of the way, here's the second merge episode!
Episode 13: Duet With It
The episode opened up as it normally did, with Susan and Chef watching over footage from the previous episode. "What a busy first merge day," Susan said with an exhausted sigh. "Good thing we only have three more challenges before the finale. I'm getting tired of this whole thing."
"Yet you agreed to start searching instantly for the next location," Chef countered. "You gotta think everything through before you do things, but also before you complain, it makes my head hurt." He let out a grunt as the cameras came in to open the episode.
Susan popped up and faced the camera to get started. "Last time, on Total Drama Cultivated Will," she opened, "we said goodbye to the teams, meaning that from here on out, everyone had to play for themselves, or that's what we thought at least." The first clips were of Peter standing outside of 2A to arrange the blackmail with Celine, while Abigail annoyed Carter over breakfast. "Things were tense as the sports festival moved along, and each challenge got more intense than the next." The next clips were of Peter basically dropping the shot put, and Carter going overboard in the dodgeball challenge. "In the end, Ben made the mistake of being nice in the merge, and it cost him not only immunity, but also the game, sending another fan favorite home instead of Peter, who is running the game." The final clips were of everyone watching the voting confessionals, and Ben walking out with a smile on his face.
Susan held up four of her fingers. "We're in the home stretch, there's only four more episodes to go! How will we get down to two? What's in store today? Well, you'll just have to find out right now, on Total! Drama! Cultivated Will!" She beamed with pride. "Chef, I'm getting really good at this," she said.
Chef simply rolled his eyes and sighed. "You're good at something, I'm not sure if that's what you'll be remembered for though." Susan frowned for only a second, realizing he was probably right.
Intro
[An instrumental began, and cameras began popping out in different places, the first being out of a painting in one of the school's hallways. Another camera emerged through a dormitory dresser, bringing some random articles of clothing along with it. A third camera popped out of the top of the school, where a bell would normally exist. The camera began flying around, and eventually entered the school itself through the front doors.]
Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine
[In the main lobby of the school, Susan was seen frantically walking around the area, clipboard in hand, talking into a communication piece on her ear. She was barking orders loudly as she walked.]
You guys are on my mind
[The camera moved over to the art room, where Nala was seen designing a dress that was suspended from a hanger. She seemed very satisfied with her work, until Nathan had walked in the room. The boy scoffed at it before laughing violently and walking away, causing Nala to feel discouraged.]
You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see
[In a classroom, Peter had taken up almost the entire white board doing a math problem, and he was trying to explain it to Claire, who was evidently not paying attention. Instead, she focused exclusively on him, giving him a look of infatuation. Peter didn't notice this at all and continued explaining the math problem.]
I wanna be famous
[Carter was in the gym, using various punching bags, and as the camera settled on him, he gave out a good punch that launched the bag off of the chain. Carter only celebrated for a second, until an arrow whizzed by him, causing him to turn back and see Sharron, who was smirking at him. The two broke into a sprint after the arrow, and they were very close together as they did that.]
I wanna live close to the sun
[In a dark location. Brenna was conducting tests on some large contraption. She had notes littered all over the table. She appeared very worn out, until Ben ran up to her, out of breath, holding out a cupcake. Brenna accepted the gift and smiled at the boy.]
Go pack your bags, 'cause I've already won
[In the dormitories, Leo was on top of Nolan's bunk trying desperately to wake him up. There were tons of different pots and pans around him, and as Leo reached down to grab an even bigger pot, it proved to by too heavy and caused him to fall.]
Everything to prove, nothing in my way
[In the kitchen, Chef and Celine were in the middle of a cook-off, with Celine looking extremely composed as Chef scrambled around for things on his table. Kris watched the two from afar, and while it looked like she wasn't interested her eyes gave off something else.]
I'll get there one day, 'cause I wanna be famous
[Gianna was seen in the hallway talking on a tricked-out phone with someone, until the phone shocked her. She began tweaking it around a lot until it started working again, and continued talking with the person on the other line. As she walked through the halls, George had tried to stop her, but she ran right into him, and didn't stop walking even after he fell over.]
Na na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na na na na
[In the band room, Abigail was messing around on a piano, with a trombone out next to her. Jacob approached her to try and say something, but was stopped by a bucket of water falling on his head, drenching him. Jacob flicked some water off of his head, visibly mad, as Abigail cackled to herself. The two then began fighting with each other.]
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous
[The camera flew down a set of stairs, and an apple flew through various different doorways. Brenna caught the apple, bit out of it, and threw it back in. The bite mark showed that it was the same apple as it flew through many different locations. A small, worn-out sign behind her read 'Ingress Academy']
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! *whistling*
[In the auditorium, Celine and Kris leaned close to each other, until one of Peter's markers dropped on top of Kris. The two swiftly turned back, Celine looking angry while Kris remained calm. The camera zoomed out to everyone, whistling the theme as Susan snapped her fingers, causing the lights to go out.]
The episode opened in room 2A, which was now the official girls' merge room. Abigail woke up in a hurry, and quickly took a look around. She had remembered that there were other people in the room now, something she wasn't used to. Celine and Kris were both still asleep, but Celine in particular looked restless. Kris, meanwhile was absolutely still while sleeping, almost like she was dead. "That's creepy," the prankster noted, jumping down from the top bunk.
Her fall from the top bunk seemed to wake up Celine. "Oh, you're here now," Celine noted, "I forgot that they'd move you over here, since we're merged and all." The master chef was simply relived that Abigail didn't catch her and Kris together.
"Yeah, I like your room better," Abigail said as she bounced up and down on her feet. "For some reason, my room was super cold the night before, so I'm glad I got to get out of there." She opened the door and waved as she began to leave. "Well, I'll leave you to it," Abigail said with a smile, "see you at the challenge!"
Kris mumbled awake once the door shut. "She has way too much energy in the morning," the deadpan said with half-open eyes. "For someone who has to deal with that other boy on the daily, she is far too happy."
"You're one to point out other people's emotions," Celine teased. "Hey, I'm going to head up to the computer lab to go research something, wanna come with?" Kris, still exhausted, simply shook her head. "That's okay, I'll leave you be then." Celine got up and left Kris alone in the room.
The solace the deadpan had was short-lived. "Thank goodness you two finally separated," another voice said condescendingly as they entered. Kris looked up to see Peter sitting across from her on the other bed. "First of all, excellent work yesterday, you two did great, and did you see those results? I wasn't even in the bottom two. Talk about a wild success."
"You talk too much," Kris sneered, "I liked you better when you were an eccentric loser." She sat up and stared him down with her soulless blank stare. "Do you need something or are you just here to gloat in the fact that you forced us to vote out our best friend on the show?"
Peter chuckled. "First of all, I am still an eccentric loser, I'm just one who's smarter than all of you." He ironically adjusted his glasses at that very moment. "Second, you didn't have to vote for Ben if you just let your relationship be public." He smirked. "I believe that's your idea, correct? Celine wasn't actually on board with it?"
Kris huffed. "Well, seeing that we're already being blackmailed, aren't my reasons sound? People will take advantage of us, and use us, or try and turn us against each other, which is nothing I want. You're a spitting example of those reasons." She narrowed her eyes at him. "And if you think you're going to keep getting away with it, you're wrong, and if you think you're safe, they're all coming for you."
The mathematician let out a gulp and stumbled back a bit. "I liked it better when you were an unemotional freak. Don't do that angry thing anymore, okay?" He sighed. "Well, while I have you, here's your job for today. All you have to do, is not vote for me." Kris tilted her head. "If you do that, I'll maintain the secret. After all, I don't want anyone else to have your votes, and one more day of winning means that we'll have a majority."
"Too good to be true," Kris countered. "You're clearly not letting on something, probably that upon hitting the final five, you'll switch allegiances and vote against Celine and me." Peter widened his eyes. "Well, I wasn't sure, but now I am."
"Well done," Peter said with a frown, "you certainly frighten me much more than that nervous cook you're so attracted to. Well, I think I'll be going then. Be sure to tell Celine the goal for today, and I will see you at the challenge." Peter got up and hurried away, not wanting to spend any more time with Kris.
Peter: "Okay, I really did not like how Kris was treating me or assuming things about me," he admitted, "only because she pretty much guessed my strategy. But, when Carter inevitably wins again today, especially without Ben to be competition, that means I'm the target. Getting three of the votes away from me is the safest thing I can do. Today is about laying low, especially after that blow to my plan last night."
Up in the computer lab, Celine sat in front of a computer, thinking about what to search. "Surely there has to be something on Peter that I can use against him. What would be the point in this place if that's not what this was for?" She sighed. "Voting him out shouldn't actually be hard, so what's the point?" She sighed again. "I hate that kid, but Peter was right, this would be so much easier if things were just out in the open. I'm sick of hiding these secrets."
"I don't even know his last name," she muttered. Then, she got an idea. "I can look up the contestants this season. That would give me a way to defeat him, maybe." She found a site that had all the contestants, with small bios for each one. "Let's start with me. I wonder what they say about me anyway."
Celine Hanza is an ace of the kitchen, but also an ace of reality TV in general. The winner of season five of Young Chef Championship, Celine is no stranger to the spotlight and is definitely a force to be reckoned with this season. But, with so many hopefuls, does she stand a chance?
Celine let out a sigh. "Well, that's not me at all, but that does mean Peter's bio should at least have basic enough information to get me started on a search." She shook her head. "But, maybe there's not a ton of lies in that. I have won a reality show before, which means I'm the most experienced. If I want to win for Kris and myself, maybe that's what I need to do." Her eyes lit up. "There he is."
Peter Grammage is by far the smartest contestant on this season, and what he lacks in physical strength, he makes up for with his extremely tactical mind that calculates just like a chess board. Anyone who tries to outsmart him will easily be outdone, does anyone have a shot at taking down this mastermind?
"Lame," she said with a groan. "But, his bio is in a way inaccurate and perfect at the same time. If my bio showed me that I have to embrace my experiences, then Peter's would show that..." She smirked. "I think I just figured this website out, and it is by far the biggest tool this game has to offer." She stopped to think about what she said. "Wow, maybe I am better at this than I thought. Well, let's check the other four just to be certain that my hunch is right."
Kris Dowman is definitely one of the more normal contestants appearing this season, but she comes with one special ability- her level-headedness is at a creepy level of mastery and she is pretty much unable to be deterred by anything, making her one of the tougher contestants for the season. Will the others be able to handle her?
"Just as I thought," Celine said, "these bios are accurate on a surface level, but they ignore everything about the person past their initial impression. So if Peter's is all about someone who's cold and calculating, there must be more to him that we don't know." She paused. "Peter didn't bring up that blackmail until two days after Kris and I got together, which means that he's got some level of emotion and empathy to him." She sighed. "Now I have to toss mine aside to make him pay for that."
Celine: "Finding those bios is a godsend," Celine said with a sigh of relief. "I just wish we could have found them earlier and stopped Peter before we lost Brenna or Ben." She shook her head. "I know Kris and I feel terrible about that, so maybe it'd help our guilt if we just told everyone. Abigail and Carter don't seem to be too concerned about what's going on with others, but Jacob is another story. I think he's going to be a problem."
Despite her claims to go to breakfast, Abigail was wandering the woods in the morning, hoping to find some amount of peace and quiet. "Everything's been so busy recently," she said aloud. "I just hope he's not out here. That boy never leaves the lounge during his spare time, but even so, I'm worried he'll come out here and interrupt my thoughts."
"If you don't want people to hear you, then you shouldn't talk so loud." Abigail gasped and nearly tripped over a rock when she heard the other voice. After stumbling for a second, she realized that the person who said that stopped talking instantly. It couldn't have been Jacob.
Abigail searched around for a bit longer before finding Carter sitting on the edge of the giant rock in the woods, staring at the river. "Oh, it's you," she said in a quieter voice. "Sorry, I didn't know this is where you hung out in the mornings, I can leave if you want."
"That's not it," Carter countered, "I simply didn't want you to think no one was listening. I didn't see you since you just got out here, but I always sweep the area before I sit down. Unless Jacob showed up in the past few minutes, he isn't here." He saw as Abigail seemed to try and look away from him while he spoke. "Look, is still about yesterday?"
"No," Abigail responded solemnly, "I'm over that, but, well, you were there, you saw me kinda freak out while voting." She shuddered a bit. "It's not like that's something that rarely happens, that's the first time that's happened ever." She looked at the skeptic. "Do you think that it's a mental thing or am I just losing it?"
Carter shook his head. "You seem to be fine in every other department," he pointed out. "I'd wager against it being something you can't control. But, you were very vague. I could help you if you were willing to share a bit more about what you're stressed about."
Abigail's face turned a bit red for a second, but she quickly snapped up her head. "Hold on a second, aren't you supposed to be the guy who hates and doesn't trust anyone? Why on Earth are you offering to help?" She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to read his thoughts.
"You've got the wrong idea," Carter explained. "I figured I'm still indebted to you, since me voting with you the day before didn't really help out that much in the long run. We were close, but they took out Ben..." Carter looked down for a second. "Anyway, that's probably who this is about, right? Jacob?"
"Something like that," Abigail said quietly. "I don't get it. You've seen how he acts. He has that condescending and overly-nice attitude only for him to step on you, use you for his advantage, then throw you away. It's not even just the game, that's how he acts at home too. He's just this giant, conniving loser, and every time he speaks it makes me want to punt myself off of the top of the dorms." Carter sat in silence, waiting for the problem. "And...I think I like him."
Carter waited for a few extra moments, just to see whether or not this was some elaborate prank. If it was, she surely would have burst out laughing by now. But, Carter watched as Abigail's face simply reddened and she turned away from him. "So, you think you're distracted then?" he asked. "If you just want my help eliminating him, I can manage that. I mean, I can't see any challenge where he wins immunity, most of them will probably go to Peter or myself."
Abigail tilted her head. "You're really willing to go against voting Peter out, who was definitely the one behind Ben going, just to make up for hitting me with a dodgeball a little too hard?" Carter nodded. "Well, if you're so willing to help, I'm not going to stop you."
"My reasoning is sound," Carter explained. "Peter simply can't beat me, and I have confidence that no one else poses a serious threat to me. That being said, I also have a general idea of how the votes are going to go, but Peter somehow convinced Jacob to vote for Ben, a move that has thrown me for a loop. He's a wild card." He let out a huff. "Since he's the most unpredictable, I need to get rid of him to have a confident victory."
The prankster sighed. "Hopefully he'll be less of a wild card. I don't know if I told you this, but Sharron and I were pretty close too." Carter turned his head in interest. "She wanted me to try and make Jacob a better person, and I think I still want to do that. Maybe that's why I'm so stressed, I'm supposed to be helping him become better but I'm just sitting here pretending like there's nothing to fix." She stood up with a smile. "Thanks. You're not great at talking, but since you're like a giant brick wall it makes it easy to bounce off ideas." She skipped away. "See ya!"
Carter flinched for a second as he saw the girl who looked so stressed a minute ago bounce away like nothing had happened. He sat there dumbfounded. "What did I even do? Oh well, I guess I just need to win today."
Abigail: "Today I'm going to go all out!" she said confidently. "Jacob will at least admit he's a horrible person by the end of today, and that's how I'll get things started. I'm not allowed to like him until he's nice, that's my new rule, so I'm gonna make him nice by any means necessary."
Up on the third floor lounge, Jacob sat in idle thought, trumpet in hand. "This is so vexing!" he complained to no one in particular. "I was making decent progress up until yesterday morning on this piece, and now any improvements have come to a screeching halt." He stared at the piece of music again that he was playing as Abigail barged in the other day. "I have to get to the bottom of it or I'm going to be in danger. This could directly affect my gameplay."
Just then, the door opened, and Jacob turned to see who it was. His contemplative face quickly turned into a scowl. "Well, look who it is," he taunted the small boy that had entered. "You do realize how much of a service you did for me yesterday."
Peter smirked. "Service? I blackmailed you. And, if you would like, I'll even let you pick today's target. Wouldn't that be fun?" Jacob shook his head. "So be it. I control half the votes anyway, so you're simply out of luck. But, I don't plan on eliminating you today. Today, Carter exits the game for good, leaving no physical threats, and making me the strongest player."
"You cocky attitude will be your own downfall," Jacob commented ironically. "You cannot possibly hope that you can keep getting your way this many times. This game quite simply does not work that way." He smirked at the smaller boy. "Your realm of academics is over now that we've hit the merge. Now we go to a realm where people such as Carter and I reign supreme over you."
The mathematician frowned. "I suppose you're right. Carter and you are matches far beyond my compare." He narrowed his eyes and shot Jacob back a very similar condescending smile. "I will shift targets to Abigail instead." Jacob gaped at the notion Peter made. "You look upset about that. Do you have a problem with that?"
Jacob's face appeared agitated for quite a while, before he took a deep breath and regained his composure. He picked up the trumpet and played a few lines of the piece. "That's much better," he said. "Thanks. I just figured out what has been hindering me. I'm unstoppable now, so you can save your taunts for someone who will be blinded by them."
"Suit yourself," Peter said with a shrug. He turned around and left the lounge. As he shut the door, he shook his head and sighed. "What a nuisance," he complained, before screeching of the speakers interrupted him.
Susan's voice echoed throughout the building. "Good morning, final six," she told them, "it's time for everyone to meet at the buses. We'll be in the school today for our challenge, so head down to the lobby as soon as possible for transport."
The bus ride to the school was the tensest it had ever been. Everyone with the exception of Celine and Kris seemed to be sitting as far away from each other as possible. Peter was up front near the two hosts, Carter was a few seats back, staring him down, and trying to watch his every move. Peter seemed to have noticed this, and remained as still as possible.
Abigail sat as far back as she could, trying to keep a low profile from everyone else. But, she could feel the scrutinizing eyes of her schoolmate on her back, trying to detect something from her. The prankster wanted to say or do something, but she seemed more worried about the intense silence that was going on. "Whatever it takes," she whispered to herself.
Once the six made it to the school, Susan and Chef took them down a wing of the school they had not gone down before. "I don't recognize this place," Carter said bluntly. "Is there a reason you seem to have no told us about this section of the school until now?"
Susan ignored the skeptic's question and simply stopped at a set of double doors. She opened the doors up, and gestured for everyone to go inside. When they got it, they were greeted to a ginormous auditorium, with a stage to match it. "This place is incredible," Jacob pointed out. "The sound would carry through such a room with only the utmost grace. I'm actually quite impressed."
The host smirked. "I'm glad you enjoy it, Jacob," Susan told him, "because today you will all be performing on this stage." Jacob and Abigail's eyes lit up while the likes of Carter only grumbled. "Music and theatre are crucial parts of both curriculum and extracurricular activities. But, if you are involved with the music world at your school, you are probably aware of the harsh divides between the groups."
"That's an illusion created by the higher-ups," Abigail pointed out, flinging her eyes to Jacob. "Most of us have friends that overlap in all departments, but the elite purists will tell you otherwise." She giggled a bit as Jacob squirmed for a retort, unable to find one.
Susan regained their attention. "Regardless of the situation, you all will be performing some art form today. It will be your choice whether you derive something from band, from a choral background, or even a monologue." She paused for a second. "Actually, monologues are off the table, because they'll be impossible. For this challenge, you will compete in groups of two."
Everyone gasped at the notion. "And, you better bring your best today, because as you compete in pairs, both members of the pair will earn immunity for a win, and, when you vote, you will vote individually for a pair to be eliminated, which means two people will leave at the end of today's challenge." Everyone gasped again. "Oh, and since you all are so tense, we decided to ease up the tension by letting you pick your partners."
Jacob: He looked genuinely excited, but still had a frown on his face. "This challenge was nearly perfect," he said, "until of course, she said it must be done in pairs. I guess I have no choice but to pick Abigail. At least she knows what she's doing."
Peter: "Everyone is deciding the fate of two today," Peter mentioned with a dark grin on his face. "That makes it the perfect opportunity to drop both members of my main blackmail. With Jacob still at my beck and call, I have no reason to not drop them. That means I need a nice, big shield to make it through the day."
"We'll go by the two worst members of the sports challenge," Chef told them, "so that means scrawny and mean, you're up first, then scrawny and annoying will go after him, and whoever's left, you're stuck."
Peter scoped around the room. "While Jacob is clearly the smartest pick to have on a team, I can't run the risk of an easy vote out should we fail. I need someone who won't throw the game just to get rid of me." He smirked. "I pick Carter." Carter grunted as he loomed over the side of the mathematician. Unlike before Peter didn't flinch at all.
Jacob was up next. "Planning to fail is a disgrace to this art form," he said. "I will be selecting the only one among you who has a chance of catching up to my level in our inevitably short preparation time. Abigail." The prankster tried to hide a blush as she walked past him, not knowing that the band president did the same behind he back.
"I guess that leaves us," Celine said to Kris, who were the only ones who hadn't been selected. Kris didn't move or respond at all. "We'll have to work together, I'm sure it'll be fine." Kris raised an eyebrow at that line. She didn't remember Celine being so on board with hiding the relationship.
Chef grunted. "Alright, that settles the pairs for today. Y'all can pick whatever you wanna do, but you've only got a couple hours to get it ready. Music brats, take the band room." Abigail and Jacob walked out of the auditorium and headed to the band room. "Math and mean, you'll be in the theatre dressing room, it's down the hall." Peter and Carter walked out of the auditorium, leaving just the hosts and the other two. "And, definitely not a couple, you two will be going to the choir room. Have fun." The two girls blushed before walking out to the choir room.
Susan sighed. "It'll be boring waiting for them to prepare," she told Chef once everyone was gone. "Have you figured out a way we're actually gonna judge them with only two of us."
"I sure did," Chef said confidently, "and while you might not be enjoying yourself, I may have also covered the boredom issue as well." Susan tilted her head, unaware of what Chef meant by that. "I said, I also covered that issue as well!"
"Oh! Sorry!" a voice sang as they ran over to the two hosts. Susan instantly put a hand to her face. "What's wrong, did ya miss me? It's been so long since I was here, oh, and thanks for the recommendation for next round, you won't regret it!"
Susan hung her head. "Why did it have to be her?"
Chef: "I knew she was gonna complain too," he said with an annoyed tone in the confessional. "I mean, we needed a third judge, there's no one better for the job, I just hope she doesn't run us into the ground before the brats come back."
In the theatre dressing room, Carter and Peter sat in a very awkward silence for a while. The two simply looked around the room and sat in chairs facing each other, waiting for the other to do something. Carter occasionally glared at the smaller boy, while Peter kept a confident smirk on his face the entire time. Eventually, Carter broke the silence. "What are you so smug about? I'm definitely the strongest here, but performing is my weakest aspect."
Peter simply laughed. "Well, you really don't want to work with me, and I'm not going to stop you. If we lose, you're their only hope of stopping me, so they won't vote us off." Carter glared at him. "You think I didn't think this through? I'm not planning on getting immunity today, I'm planning on surviving. Because then, you'll have to vote with me in the final four. Otherwise, whichever pair we decide to spare today will team up against us, meaning they'll target you even if you get rid of me."
"That won't happen," Carter said confidently, standing up. "Abigail and Jacob do not work well together, so we simply need to do decent today and we can snatch immunity. I'm sure that safety would be something you appreciate." Peter sat quietly, trying to not react to that. "That's what I thought." He began digging through a box of files on a shelf. "If we're going to have a chance, we do a monologue. I can't sing or dance, and odds are you can't either."
The mathematician sighed. "That's no fun. Don't you want to challenge yourself? You look the type of person who would sign up for a musical season of this show, even if you stink as much as you do." Carter maintained the death stare. "So be it." He began rummaging through, trying to find something. "All of the things in here are useless, tacky, theatre play things. At least that we can probably agree on."
Carter grumbled as he looked through another pile. "Well, I'm not going to deny that I don't really respect any aspect of the challenge today." He put down the box he was sorting through and walked around the room a bit. He eventually stopped when he came across a box of wooden staves and swords. "Peter," Carter said slowly, "how good is your movie knowledge?"
"I've seen all the big ones," he said firmly, "why do you ask?" He watched as Carter carried over the giant box of props and placed it down in front of him. "Well, if we're going to win this reluctantly, we might as well have a bit of fun with it."
The band room was already filled with music, and the two musicians were already far into rehearsal on their piece. After a few seconds, Jacob stopped playing. "What are you doing?" he snapped at Abigail, who was struggling to catch up on piano. "I thought you played piano!"
"I do," Abigail responded calmly, "but I don't just play stuff perfectly after seeing it for the first time. This is my first time accompanying someone in a sonata like this, it didn't help that you made this an extremely difficult piece."
Jacob waited for a second before letting out a sigh. "Well, I didn't want it to come to this, but so be it." He pulled the music away from the piano Abigail was at and placed down a different. "It's the same sonata, but the piano part is simplified. All the chords still exist, you simply are deleting some of the musicality that would come from your part."
The prankster sighed. "Then we can do that," she agreed, "but you don't have to be such an obnoxious brat about it. Why do you think I've never agreed to do this for you before?" She began fumbling with the new part. "Well, it is easier."
"I am not being obnoxious with this," Jacob insisted. "You do not understand the amount that my reputation is on the line here. To lose this challenge would be a stain on everything I stand for. I'm sorry that you cannot live to my high ideals."
Abigail rolled her eyes. "Your 'high ideals' are from like, thirty centuries ago. Welcome to modern day, people care about each other, and it's okay when people mess up. Please get with the times!" She hid behind the top of the upright piano so he couldn't see her face as she said that.
Jacob scoffed. "That's simply not true. The way I carry myself brings me nothing but success." He shrugged. "If I keep encountering success everywhere I go, then what use is there in listening to the advice of others? I'll stay winning anyway."
"Because you lose people that way!" Abigail shouted out. "You keep deluding yourself that everyone's your friend! Your board tells you that to stay in your good graces, they're more fearful than fond of you, and I can assure you that most of the people in band dislike you!"
Jacob stared at the piano Abigail was hiding behind for a minute. "What about you?" he asked in a calmer voice. "Are you my friend?" Abigail didn't respond, but he could hear her heavy breathing behind the piano. He waited another minute before sighing. "Well, if we're done wasting time, we can get moving again. We will probably need to stop less."
They kept rehearsing, and Jacob's simplified arrangement was going very smoothly. Neither of the two were making mistakes, but Jacob would still stop them every once in a while to complain about musicality or another aspect of performance. "Whatever it takes," the prankster kept telling herself.
Celine put down her third box of stuff. "We've sorted through about a hundred songs already," she said with a groan. "Are our tastes that different or are we just being limited by something?"
"We're definitely being limited by something," Kris stated. "We can't pick a single song about love or people will start to be even more suspicious than they already are." She put down another box. "Unfortunately, every song is about love."
Celine looked through a few more songs, before pausing. "What if we didn't rule those out instantly?" she offered, "Think about it, Peter can't keep us longer than the final five together, which no longer exists. So, he's definitely planning on shifting the vote to us tonight, since he already knows. That means that by the end of the day today, the jig will probably already be up, likely before the vote."
Kris stared at her for a second. "When did you become all strategic? Plus, how are we certain Peter won't pull out some crazy trick that we didn't see coming? He's done it before."
Celine shook her head. "I learned a lot this morning in the computer lab. I found a bunch of bios about us from before the season, but they were all surface level. Peter's mentioned he was a top-tier strategist, but I think he's got a moral compass. He got rid of Claire, who as we found out actually was manipulating the guys on the team. You heard her ask me day two about Carter, like that was who she was going to target. Nolan, let's be honest, was not a giant help to the team."
"But what about Ben?" Kris countered. "Peter forced us to vote out our only friend left on the show, and we...we did nothing to defy him." She sighed. "That's our fault, actually, it's mine." She stood up. "I think we need to tell everyone. I don't want Peter holding us down any longer than he already has. He's gotten us once, but I don't want that happening again."
The master chef smiled. "Okay, so that just opened up a whole list of songs then." She put her arm around Kris. "This is what we needed to do. If we lose for it, so be it, I wouldn't want to lose with anyone else."
Kris sighed. "We still don't want to lose," she pointed out. "Winning immunity is the easiest way to do that. That basically guarantees that we get out the strongest physical and mental threats in the game."
"Then we'll be a threat too," Celine said confidently. "That bio called me a reality show master, and I'm going to show them that's exactly what I am." She pulled out a song and showed it to the deadpan. "How about this one?"
Kris: "Things are somehow looking up," she admitted. "I didn't want to say it, but I'm glad Celine's finally getting invested in the game. For so long she seemed like she didn't want to be here, but now there's finally fire in her eyes."
After another hour and a half, an announcement came over the speakers. "Attention, everyone," Susan said, "time is up, so we need you to come back to the auditorium for your performances. Please make sure you tie up any lose ends as quickly as possible."
After another few minutes, the final six had come back. "You look like you've all had eventful evenings," Susan said confidently. "Well, time to show off what you've prepared. We left this very open, so judging them all in relation to each other will be quite difficult."
"Judging?" Carter asked with a snappy tone, "There's only two of you, and I'm not sure if that's really how you should be running a final six challenge." He narrowed his eyes at the two hosts.
"Calm your camos," Chef responded. "We've brought in a past contestant from this season to help judge. She doesn't know who's in the final six right now, so she's probably gonna have some stuff to say."
Everyone waited for a few seconds, before Chef cleared his throat again, this time loud enough to echo across the auditorium. "Oh, sorry!" the girl said, popping out from behind the curtain on stage. When she came out, the room instantly became a bit brighter, her neon orange top and headband lighting up the room. Claire waved at them. "Hiya, everyone!"
Susan held up her hands. "Coming in as a judge for today, please welcome back Claire." Claire popped down and took a seat in between the two hosts. "Anything you'd like to say before they get going?" Claire looked like she was about to pounce on someone, so Susan also added. "They know about Peter by the way."
"Good, except he's still here, that dumb jerk!" she complained. "Honestly, this is probably who I expected, except you." She pointed at Kris. "You're a surprise, I didn't think you'd make it this far." She then pointed at Jacob. "I'm not surprised you and Peter are still here, I'm just disappointed. Anyway, these better be good, because if I think I can do better, I'm gonna scream or something." Her demeanor was very different than when she was still on the show.
"That's enough of that," Chef cut in, "we gotta get started with these acts." He looked at the three pairs. "Uh, anyone wanna take the lead on this?" Both Carter and Peter's group and Celine and Kris's groups stayed as quiet as possible.
Jacob shot his hand up instantly. "Naturally we can handle going first," he boasted. "After all, the only way to intimidate your enemies in a battle of music is to go before them. There's nothing you can do if they've already gone." He smirked as he walked up to the stage. "Has anyone tuned this piano in the past week?" he asked.
Susan groaned. "Jacob, the piano was recently tuned, but because of our incident with the portals, there might be some issues, we aren't sure." She looked up at the two of them. "Please state what you'll be performing for us today."
Abigail stood up from the piano. "We'll be performing Sonata for Trumpet by Paul Hindemith," she said. "Jacob wrote out a long description about the musical aspects of it, but I'm not going to read it." She sat down. "Let's do this, jerk-face."
The first movement of the piece was bouncy and very broad, with rapid dynamic changes and short rhythms. Abigail had nailed her simplified accompaniment, while Jacob had finally proved that this was in fact his talent. The two of them seemed to be in perfect sync throughout the whole movement, and as Jacob held out the final long note, he smirked, closing out the first movement. "That will be all we need to hear," Susan instructed.
"Impossible!" Jacob said with a gasp. "There are nine more minutes left in this piece! We've prepared them just as rigorously as we had that first movement!" He looked at Susan with pleading eyes. "Please allow us to continue." Susan simply shook her head. "You'll regret that decision, those joyous sounds will never fall onto your ears!"
"Of course they won't," Susan with with a groan. "Well, we are supposed to be impartial, so as much as I did not like the performer, he had one of the best sounds I have heard in quite some time." She spoke as if she had heard the piece before. "Abigail, I noticed your part was a bit simpler than the original composition." The prankster quietly nodded. "Excellent move, it would have been unrealistic to go for such trouble in such little time." She pondered her score. "Nine from me."
Claire shrugged. "I don't know, band people aren't really my thing, and while it was probably really hard and stuff, it just didn't make sense to the average person, so there's not a ton of relatability. Eight." Jacob sneered at the score. "I would have said like, four or something, but if you could not feel the romantic tension on that stage, you've gotta be asleep or something. Wow." The two musicians turned away from each other with red faces.
Chef nodded. "I'm willing to give it an eight. Quite frankly, you sound like you put effort into this, and you definitely worked hard to sync up that well. I don't know if it was a natural thing, but you did something and it worked." Abigail looked satisfied with the three scores, while Jacob did not. "That brings your total to 25, that'll be hard to beat. Up next, Carter and Peter, let's see what you've got."
Abigail: "Well, that wasn't awful," she admitted, "except for Claire's comment. What was she thinking, saying that? Well, we really need to win immunity. I'm hoping to pull off one last big trick, and it's going to need all the safety on my side that I can get."
Jacob: "Absurd!" he complained. "Susan stopping us, Claire's baseless comments, and those abysmal scores!" He scoffed. "The other groups are sure to fail, but I won't forget the mistreatment I had today!"
Carter and Peter stood on opposite sides of the stage. "Please tell us what you're performing," Chef reminded them, clearly already bored with the performance, despite it not having started yet.
Peter pulled out one of the wooden swords, which was now styled to have red paper around it. "We will be doing one of the big scenes, not from a musical, but from a movie, Cosmo Combat." He tossed Carter the red-papered sword, while he pulled out a blue one for himself.
The two fake fought on the stage for a bit, before Carter pinned Peter to a corner. "It's useless to resist," he said confidently. His acting was very much subpar. "Don't get yourself destroyed as Cannoli Juan did."
The two clashed a bit more with Peter on the ground, and in one swing, Carter landed right on Peter's wrist, Peter tossing his sword to the side and putting his one hand in his sweater, to mimic the hand being chopped off. "There's no escape," Carter continued, "don't make me destroy you. Bruce, you do not yet realize your importance. You've only begun to discover your power. Join me, and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy."
"I'll never join you!" Peter shouted back, clinging onto a pole. "Cannoli Juan told me enough! He told me you killed my father!" Peter's acting was miles ahead of Carter's but it was in no means good.
"No," Carter corrected him, "I am your father." The monumental line did a lot less than it normally did, considering Carter's horrible acting. Peter squirmed on the pole for a bit longer. After some time, he dropped to the ground and exited the stage. "Okay, we're done," he said, tossing down the fake light sword.
Susan blankly stared at what she had just seen. "I know you two have been plotting all day probably to get rid of each other, and that means you need to lose this challenge, but wow. I really hope you were not acting your heart out, because...wow. Um, I can give you a six at best, at least the concept was original."
Claire groaned. "Can someone not do some dumb nerd thing that I don't know? I have no idea how to judge this, because I steered way clear of Cosmo Combat. Not really my thing. Acting was lame, the fight was lame, the twist was lame, and I can't even offer up the romantic tension pity card. You can have a three, because I'd feel bad giving anything lower."
Chef nodded. "I kinda agree with the other two," the co-host said. "You got miles to go in the acting department, but I will give you that reenacting a movie scene was not something we had considered for today. I'll give ya a four." The two boys looked upset at the scores. "That puts you at a total of thirteen, so you're definitely not winning immunity. It's up to the final two. Celine and Kris, give us something, anything better than that."
Carter: "We didn't get immunity, oh well." He grumbled. "That was too hard, but luckily I won't have to deal with it anymore. Hold on...Peter's logic is flawed. It doesn't matter if no one else can stop him if he's off the show. Man, I might have just done my last thing on this show."
Peter: "To be honest, I didn't think we would win," he admitted, "which means I need to drop my blackmail now. I wanted to use their votes tonight, but that likely won't get to happen. I need to out those two lovebirds now, or I'm in big trouble. Eh, I'll at least let them perform first."
Kris and Celine were now on the stage. "We're going to be performing 'Rewrite the Stars' from The Greatest Showman," Kris said. "Um, yeah, I don't really have much else to say on that."
As the two performed, Kris took the lower voice and Celine took the higher one. Unlike the first performances, the judges didn't say anything, so they ended up doing the whole performance. The singing was there, but unlike in the actual thing, they had no choreography to go along with it. When they had finished up, Celine sighed. "We didn't have enough time for a dance, but we sung it, that's what matters."
Susan went first, trying to cut in before any of the other judges could. "To be honest, that was some solid singing." Jacob scoffed at that comment on the side. "You doled out those parts well, and believe it or not, I could feel emotion coming from both of you, which is very impressive. You get a six, simply because there was nothing else, just singing."
Claire meanwhile, was bawling her eyes out. "That was so pretty!" she said as she cried. My heart was throbbing thinking about the two of you singing that together, it made me so happy!" She wiped off her tears. "You guys get a ten, that warmed my heart! How did you guys get to make it so wonderful?"
The two girls on stage stared at each other, blushing. "I guess...we just sang how we felt," Kris said bluntly. Peter snapped his fingers. "Yeah, you don't get to tell them, you little brat, we are." She let out a sigh. "Celine and I have been dating since the portal challenge." A few gasps were heard. "Peter had blackmailed us into exposing it sooner, which is why we voted out Ben. Sorry about that."
Chef cleared his throat. "Okay wonderful, but now I gotta be the big deciding score." He shrugged. "I'll give you that, you put your hearts into that one, more than anyone else tonight. But, compared to the others, this one was a little...stiff. You kinda just sang, which is good, but I wanted more. I'll double up Susan's six. That puts you at 22."
Susan stood up. "That means Abigail and Jacob have won immunity for tonight." She pulled Claire's chair out from behind her. "You'll need to head back now, you've done your job today." Claire frowned and left the auditorium.
"Hold on," Abigail said, standing up. "Before we vote, we have decided to give our immunity to Kris and Celine." Everyone looked shocked at that decision. "I know that's a surprise, but those two earned it. Showmances are hard, we get it."
Susan looked the most surprised. "Is Jacob in agreement with that? They looked around to see Jacob was no longer in sight. "Well, that's his issue that he isn't here. But, Abigail, I like you, and you have to realize what this means if you do that, so is that really the decision you want to make?"
Abigail nodded. "I'm certain. See you all tonight." Everyone else had left the auditorium to head to the bus, as Abigail stayed behind. She bent down behind the auditorium seat and pulled Jacob out. He was duct taped all over, including his mouth. "Sorry, I needed you to be quiet for that."
"What on Earth did you just do?" he called out in a rage. "I'll destroy you for that! That was our safety ticket to the final four and you threw it away! Are you that confident that Peter and Carter will be eliminated? If either of those girls turn on us, we're dead!"
Abigail simply continued to unwrap him. "Maybe this will teach you something," she told him. "This morning I said it'd do whatever it takes to make you realize how terrible of a person you are. Maybe after you see the lengths I'm going to make sure you don't win out in the end, you'll take a long look at how you managed to be in the bottom two every single vote this season." She skipped away to the bus, forcing Jacob to run after her.
Celine: "It feels good to finally have that out in the air, and now we're free from Peter." She smiled. "If we managed to make a manipulative person like Claire cry, maybe we did a great job after all. I'll have to repay Abigail for this later."
Kris: "Immunity is nice, I suppose," she said dully. "But, I'm certain Claire is just a fussy person, we didn't actually make her cry for real. Although, it was nice to hear that I did something with emotion in it, I guess."
Everyone had gathered back in the dorm lobby, and things felt much less tense than this morning. "Well, I was expecting worse performances today, so thanks for making my day a bit more bearable," Susan said. She pulled out four erasers. "Remember, failing to get an eraser means you're out of the game, for good. You'll go straight to the Bus of Shame and will be sent home. How confident is everyone?"
"Things could go either way," Carter said, speaking for the group. "There's only two pairs that could be going, but for some reason I feel like that won't be as simple as it sounds."
Susan nodded. "I guess you could put it like that. Well, to start this off, Celine and Kris, here is your immunity." She tossed them the first two erasers. "I would normally say something along the lines of 'you earned it', but I can't really say that today." The two girls smiled that they would be in the final four now.
Peter was still analyzing the room, trying to figure out what would happen. Carter looked upset with his decision, Abigail held a smirk on her face, and Jacob simply continued to fume. "This is quite the situation, I'll admit," Susan claimed, "but we have to lose two of you tonight. The losing pair is...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...Abigail and Jacob." She tossed the final two erasers to Carter and Peter. Jacob looked extremely upset at the result. "It was initially a tie, but we took into account that one of the members of the losing pair had voted for themselves."
Jacob gasped. "You defied the game so you could teach me some foolish lesson!" Abigail nodded smugly. "I hope you don't expect me to learn anything from this, because I won't!"
"Fine by me!" Abigail countered. "I just threw away a million bucks for you, but sure, let's think about how you'll never change ever, because all you do is use others to get to the top and trample over anyone who you can manipulate!" She looked like she was about to cry. "I'm done here, I'm leaving." She began to walk out to the bus. "Thanks for the fun times, I hope we all get to see each other again."
Jacob huffed as he walked out. "This isn't over," he said with a contorted look. "I don't plan on being trampled so easily. This was my challenge to win! Mine!" He stormed out and joined Abigail on the bus.
"So much for that romantic tension Claire talked about," Susan said as everyone left. "Actually, I sort of felt it there too. I hope they figure it out." She turned to Chef. "We oughta get to closing this thing out."
Chef grumbled as he began clearing out a few things. "That's your job, not mine."
Susan sighed. "Right, right. All Parrots are now out of the game! And, with a double elimination, we're down to four. Who will win it? Will it be Peter, Carter, Celine, or Kris? Find out soon on Total! Drama! Cultivated Will!" She sighed in relief. "We did it, three more to go."
Teams:
Merge: Carter, Celine, Kris, Peter
Eliminated: Gianna, George, Leo, Claire, Nala, Nolan, Nathan, Brenna, Sharron, Ben, Abigail, Jacob
Alright, alright, I know I've done something nasty here. Their plotline kinda feels incomplete still, and after everything that we had seen building up to their big downfall, Abigail took herself out of the game to try and show Jacob how much she wants him to improve. Bear with me on this one.
Abigail is currently on Total Drama Reloaded: Expanded by SkyFan2077, so you can always check her out there. Jacob is around on some other fics not on this site, most notably Total Drama: LV on Ao3, with Quaoar and Luna.
We're now down to three chapters, and yeah, if you've been with me a while, you know I tend to pump out chapters faster when I near the end, but this one in particular I put out even faster, as it is the 1-year anniversary of the completion of Fiery Passion. I thought that would end up being the last thing I wrote, but after Amy-zing I had created enough OC's to essentially make a new cast, so this came about, and the season afterward, which will absolutely be the last season, probably.
Now that we are over halfway done the season, I want to announce two characters per update that will be competing in next season, Total Drama Power Peak. The two I'm confirming for this week are Abigail and Jacob. See, I told you to bear with me. They're coming back to finish their plot line.
Anyway, let me know who you think will win in the reviews! I made the double elimination not as surprising since the elimination itself was already going to be a messy one. So, let me know what you thought, and I will see you next time!