The alien looks around at the contestants again and knows exactly what matchup they want next.
"The overgrown child," the alien says pointing at Soos, "and the one next to the dog," beckoning Shaggy up.
"The men in green, you will be competing in an eating contest!" the alien announces.
"Woohoo!" Shaggy cheers because that's certainly the best news he has heard all day, quite possibly the whole year.
"I'm ready," Soos assures himself.
"The winner will be whoever finishes first or whoever eats more within the next 15 minutes," the alien explains, "so… Ready, set, eat!" with a snap of the alien's fingers a buffet table of food appears in front of the two contestants.
Shaggy's eyes widened in excitement and anticipation for all the delectable food in front of him. Soos's eyes widen in fear, maybe even panic.
Both know what they have to do. They both know the goal and the only way to get out of whatever this place was.
The food feels endless but with only fifteen minutes on the clock, closer to ten now neither can stop. Shaggy doesn't want to. Similar to a garbage disposal or a vacuum, food isn't chewed, the taste isn't savored, both just pushing as much as they can down their throats.
They ignore any signals that may tell them to stop. Keep eating, keep going, don't stop, the mantras play in their heads, trying to convince themselves that their lives depend on this, they might.
A bell rings and Shaggy raises his arm victoriously. With two and a half minutes still on the clock, he had finished all the food. Soos signs in defeat. He still had over half the table full of the food.
"I'm sorry, dudes," Soos apologizes.
"It's fine, Soos," Dipper tells him.
"Yeah, you tried your best!" Mabel says with her bright smile.
"That's what important," Pacifica tries, "that you tried," she says through gritted teeth.
Everyone turns to her and blinks, they never expected Pacifica to catch onto the cycle of encouraging your team no matter how they just performed.
"What now?" Pacifica groans, "was I not supposed to encourage him this time?"
"No, we're just surprised, that's all," Wendy says, speaking for the group.
"I knew you had it in you!" Mabel squeals and hugs the girl in purple.
"Yeah, yeah," Pacifica says, pushing the giddy girl away from her, "whatever."
"Good job, Shaggy!" The girls from his team say as the score flips from tied, to 2-1.
Scooby jumps up and licks Shaggy's face, just to get some of the sauce off of it. Though it is just as much in congratulations too.
Fred, while still disappointed, manages to congratulate Shaggy as well. He feels awful, they could have already won by now.