"Boohoohoo…oh, woe is me, woe is me, dreamers!" C.K. was hunched over in his usual chair, sobbing over-the-top tears onto his little table, which only had a box of tissues on it. "S-sorry you have to catch me like this, but I'm still stuck on that l-l-layust episode of Total Drama: Neon City– with the saddest elimination ever! I ain't playin' 'round, babes! How come you gotta go and get Giselle out when she up and carried Team B-Side through the whole challenge? Y'all need to think better on your eliminations, I swear. Sigh…well…let's see…what else happened? Oh, right…so Jhin had to go hang out in Gwendolyn's office for a check-up…doctor lady thinks she's found something that might be causing her odd personality. I just chalk it up to being quirky and fun, but I guess I don't know nothin' 'bout all that. Garfield discovered that Leo might be a better asset to Team A-Side than he initially thought, and started formulating a plan to get him to work with him. Dunno if it's really gonna work out for him…our favorite femboy didn't seem too much interested when he was gettin' talked to by Morgan during the challenge. Suzie put in a lot of work during the challenge, but it was all in vain, since Marshmallow absolutely brutalized her at the way end of the challenge. As I said, Giselle carried…hard. She got five of the members of Team A-Side out– and in quick succession! She only ended up failing because she went to 3V's aid when that alcohol abuser got nailed in the face by a paintball from Garfield! Man, I really wish I could've seen what happened to him to make him scream like that! Alas, our MILF is no more, and I am just heartbroken over it. But the show must go on…let's just hope that someone less exciting get's the boot this time…wicki-wiyeah…"
The neon moon started scratching itself like a record, eventually spinning wildly out of control while the sound meter around it went wild. A beam of neon light shot down into the ground below, bringing the view past a rooftop that had Chris and Chef standing atop it, as well as the cloaked figure of C.K.. The trio were laughing to themselves as the beam passed them by, and they soon disappeared from sight.
"B-b-break it down, dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," a car burst from where the beam of light had landed, revealing Atlas driving while Bec was in the passenger seat with him. The duo grinned the same grin at the camera as they passed it by, with another car following behind in their wake.
"The highlife's been on my mind," the second car was veering off the road wildly, being that of Jhin, who was too busy eating a tree branch that she had found to be focused on the road she was driving on. She ended up crashing through the wall of a building, revealing a nightclub full of people.
"You asked me where I wanted to be, and now I'm right here, can't you see?" Leo stood near the now open hole in the wall, his jaw practically dropped to the floor, but he was soon shoved aside to safety as Jhin drove right back through it. He looked to see that Gwendolyn had saved him, and looked about ready to tear him a new one.
"I wanna be famous!" Over at the bar, Cherry was downing a shot of liquor and proudly heading off to the dance floor while Amanda just stared at her own shot glass, turning her nose up at the very scent of it.
"I wanna live away from the sun," the camera panned up from the nightclub to the next floor, which was much more of a lounge that had a couple contestants sitting on couches. Eli had himself posted on one of them, sitting back and covering his ears while Suzie started explaining the entire lore of Among Us to him.
"So pack your bags, 'cause the party's begun!" On one of the other couches, 3V was downing an entire flask of some sort of liquor while Elward watched her in some sort of dumbfounded trance, eventually pulling out his own futuristic looking flask but accidentally pouring his drink all over his one working eye.
"Daylife's no way to live with nothing to gain, it ain't no claim to fame," far back in the corner of the room, Henry and Heath were hiding themselves from everybody else, but Heath's hand slowly raised up with Jean-Paul rattling his wooden jaw, startling the two of them so much so that they got up and ran right into each other, falling to the ground with a joint thud.
"I wanna be famous!" Giselle popped out of a closet from the same corner of the room, wearing a playboy bunny suit and putting on a flashy display, but when she saw that the two boys were unconscious, she fell to her knees and started screaming at the sky.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na!" The next floor up from the lounge seemed to look like a sort of laser tag arena, where Gerald was frantically running away from Morgan, who was firing her laser gun at him. Her shots entirely missed, but one must've struck Allan, as Gerald stopped running and started to cry, holding the invisible friend's body in his arms.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Marshmallow ecstatically ran right through where the two of them were, flailing her arms and screaming in delight while a confused Edward followed after her, shrugging his shoulders when he looked at the camera.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" At the upper ground of the laser tag arena, Bailey and Eliza were firing at each other, but the lasers stopped coming at Bailey after some time, and she looked up to notice that Eliza had completely passed out on the floor. The cold girl looked at the camera helplessly before tossing her laser gun up into the air. As it came sinking back down, it fell into the neon fire on top of the tallest skyscraper, directly in between Garfield and Zayden, who were having a stand-off while the other contestants sat around them and whistled. Chris, Chef, and C.K. stood over at a podium near the hyperspace tube and snapped in unison for a neon sign to flash on the screen with the words "Total Drama: Neon City."
"Mm…mmf…" Leo was just finally waking up from his delicate slumber, with the light from the sun having fully disappeared and being replaced by only moonlight. He smacked his lips a little bit before pulling himself out from under his covers, revealing his pajamas, which he had likely stitched up himself. The top was a satin sleep shirt that was a full forest green color with some golden buttons holding it together. The sleeves went down past his hands a bit, billowing out and making it look even more elegant. The rest of the pajamas were a much lighter shade of green, but still satin in sheen with his sleep pants. His regularly spiky hair was just being worn down, since he had just awoken. It…really made him look even more like a femboy than the usual.
"O-oh…it's already seven at night…I slept in today…" Leo frowned as he noticed the clock reading the time on the little nightstand next to his bed. He reached out towards it, his fingers just grabbing behind the clock to snatch up his leaf earrings, which he had taken out while he slept. He popped them back into his earlobes, giving them a little flick with his fingers and giggling as he felt them jiggling around.
"What day is it…T…Tuesday? I think it's Tuesday." The seamstar tapped his chin as he tried to remember, eventually shrugging and rummaging around in the little drawer in his nightstand, pulling a tiny orange bottle out of it. He twisted the white cap off and dropped two little pills into the palm of his hand, tossing them right into his mouth and swallowing without any water or anything. Most would be impressed that someone could do this, but all sense of him accomplishing something vanished as he gagged horrendously after.
"Blech! O-okay, definitely not ready for that yet!" Leo blushed a bit as he twisted the bottle shut again, tossing it back into his night stand and toddling off towards his closet. He pulled out his usual outfit, smiling as he saw the lack of wrinkles in it. He laid it gently against his bed, taking his pajamas off in just as gentle a manner just before putting his everyday clothes on. "And that just leaves…the hair. Now, where did I put my gel?" He started scanning the room in search of his hair gel, only to hear a knock coming at his door. "O-oh! I wonder who that could be!" Still with his hair down, Leo moved towards his door, pulling it open to see Garfield standing out there. "Oh, hey, Garfield!"
"Eh? Uh…'scuse me, lady. You seen Leo anywhere? Gotta talk to that guy." Garfield had a nasty bruise on his left cheek, likely from the Giselle onslaught that came his way the other day. As he stared down at Leo, who was staring back at him with puzzled eyes, the pieces slowly started to come together. "Oh! Man, hardly recognized ya with your hair down like that! Heh, thought you had a hot sister or something."
"H-hot?" Leo's face flushed with red when Garfield realized what he had said.
"Ah! I didn't mean that you were…alright, moving on! I'm not here to flirt with you or whatever. Can I come in?" Leo slowly nodded, opening the door more so Garfield could enter the room. The politician wannabe looked around a bit, seeing how neat the room was and smirking before plopping himself down on the bed. "Nice place you got here…been meaning to come chit chat with you a bit. You know, get to know you better."
"O-oh...you want to talk about...me? I-I can promise you, I'm really not that interesting! My brother is definitely way more interesting than I am!" Garfield just smiled at Leo, getting him far redder than before. "R-really…I just kinda…stitch things…and design clothes and stuff! That's all there is to know about me!"
"Meh, I feel like there's more that you're leaving out. Come on, I'm basically the team captain! I gotta get to know my mates good and well!" Garfield patted the bed, convincing Leo to slowly climb onto and sit next to him. He gave him a gentle pat on the back, which sent a tingle down Leo's spine. "Er…you good?"
"Y-yes! Really good, so good!" Leo's voice cracked several times during those few words– Garfield had a hard time not just laughing at him. "Well…okay, maybe not good, but I'm okay."
"Okay? Sounds like you got something weighing down on your mind. You can tell me all 'bout it, of course! I want you to feel like you've got a shoulder to cry on and all that!" Garfield's smile got a bit wider and friendly, but then, suddenly, he started hearing a soft beat playing around him, and the smile was immediately replaced with a frown. "Oh, for fuck's sake, not again…"
"That's right, baby! I just love tormenting you and only you with all my little interludes!" C.K.'s voice rang throughout the room, with Garfield deadpanning while Leo just twiddled his fingers. "Don't you worry, big guy! I think the femboy's gonna take this one over…hey, maybe you'll be lucky and get to see more beach babes, yeah?"
"Beach babes…? Oh! I was there for that one!" Leo smiled and clapped his hands a few times while Garfield sighed and slumped down in his own lap. "N-now…you wanna know what's been weighing down on me? Well…if I'm being honest…" The femboy pulled himself up from his bed, but when he landed on the floor, the floor had been replaced with a dark void. The whole area only had a single spotlight, which was shining over the two of them amidst the dark. Garfield slowly glanced up from his lap and sighed when he saw the change of scenery, just being glad that his teammate wasn't half naked.
"I've been going nowhere as the nights turn into days…I'm moving slowly, I, I'm caught up in a haze. And now I'm stuck in this headspace…can someone pull me out?" Leo snapped his fingers, lighting up the area a bit more to show that he had his own backup dancers, just like Morgan had not too long ago. Zayden was the only one who seemed generally happy to be included, while Eli and Edward looked just as annoyed as Garfield was.
"Please, can't you just tell me this without doing a musical num-"
"Wake me up! Wishing I could rewind, pretend everything's fine. Dreaming in the daytime, I'm in a daze!" Leo did a little twirl as the ground beneath him started raising up into the air with the word "Expectations" written around it.
"Is this supposed to be like a political cartoon? I could do so much better than this, my gu-"
"Wake me up! I'm feeling sedated– can't stop, now I'm jaded. Mindset I created, can't find my place!" The seamster jumped down from the podium to be caught by his backup dancers and quickly tossed towards Garfield, who ended up catching him as well. "Everyday's the same and there's no breaking out! It's like I'm stuck here, going through the motions, now." Leo rolled out of Garfield's arms and back towards his dancers, each of which struck a similar pose, holding a peace sign in front of their faces.
"I expect this buffoonery from Leo and Zayden, but Eli, Edward, I thought you guys were better than-"
"This feeling's weighing me down…can't take it, I think I'm sinking. Spiraling, feet can't find the ground. No way out…I'm falling now!" Leo snapped once more, and the floor beneath the five caved and dumped them off into the open sky. Garfield flailed his arms and screamed as he fell, while Zayden, Eli, Edward, and Leo all just kept dancing like nothing was wrong about this whatsoever. "Wake me up! Keep wishing I could rewind…and pretend everything's fine. Dreaming in the daytime, I'm in a daze!" They all ended up landing on a cloud, except for Garfield, who fell right through it and kept falling through the sky.
"Wake me up! Been feelin' sedated– it won't stop, now I'm jaded! Mindset I created, can't find my place!" With one final snap, it was just Leo and Garfield back in the seamster's room, with Leo taking a bow while Garfield was hyperventilating on his bed.
"Y-you…could have…just said…you were depressed…"
Confessional - Garfield
"How does this shit keep happening to me!? Morgan first, now Leo! I'm out here, trying to make big plays for my alliance, and I just keep getting tormented for it!" Garfield gritted his teeth and slammed his fist down on his dashboard, which caused the radio in his car to start playing the song that Leo was just singing. "SHUT UP!"
Confessional - Leo
"Mmm…my brother has always sort of been the more important of the two of us…not just in the real world, but in our own family, too. No one ever really asked about me at gatherings or anything, since they knew Marty was always doing something more interesting. I kinda just faded into the background, b-but it's okay, really! I'm fine!" Leo had the fakest smile imaginable on his face as he lied straight through his teeth.
"Yikes! Looks like our favorite femboy's got family issues! Getting compared to your sibling's always sucks, but who knows? Maybe this Marty fella is really just better than Leo, yeah?"
"Another one…please…" 3V slouched over the counter of a bar with six empty beer bottles around her. Of course, that was hardly enough alcohol to get her even buzzing, so the bartender didn't see any reason not to serve her. She just seemed…completely miserable, at best. She reached one of her prosthetic hands down to her pocket, retrieving Giselle's room key and staring at it with sadness abundant in her eye. When she pulled the card back down, she saw that Bec was sitting in the seat next to her, smiling at her. "Eh…?"
"Ah, toasty friend! Still lamenting the loss of that pervert, yes?" Bec's question just seemed to annoy 3V, who turned her head away from him while his smile got even wider. "Of course, I don't mean to offend or anything, but I do forget her name, yes! She's gone, so what's the point in clogging my brain with information I no longer need?"
"Can you just shut up, dude? Shouldn't you be hanging out with Atlas or whatever it is you two do all the time? I've never seen you leave his side before." 3V refused to turn back to look at Bec again, but the clay shaper didn't seem to care, as he just moved so that he was sitting in the seat on the opposite side of her. She, once again, saw him smiling at her, which just annoyed her even more.
"Yes, yes! Atlas…he ran off to the bathroom and let me pick the seats! I'm not so good at that sort of decision making, not yet! But practice makes perfect, as they say! You seemed sad, and Atlas would naturally pick the seat next to a sad person so he could cheer them up, so I did what he would do!" Bec suddenly saluted with a much more serious look on his face, "It is now my sworn duty to cheer you up! It is what my friend would do, after all!"
"Yeah, well, no thanks. I don't want you to try and cheer me up, I'd rather just be miserable in peace. Go scurry off and find a different seat or something." 3V turned away again, only this time, Bec seemed to jump back to the other seat before she even finished moving her head. "W-what the!? Hey, stop doing that, it's giving me a headache?"
"No, no, friend! One of the most admirable traits of my dear friend, Atlas, is that he is incredibly persistent! He would be completely heartbroken if he left one of his teammates feeling this way all by themself!" Bec reached out towards 3V, giving her a pat on the back, which agitated her. She was quick to slap his hand away, which he shook off. "Aye, aye! Those prosthetics hurt when you slap like that, toasty friend!"
"Oh, fuck off." 3V slammed some cash down on the counter and stormed off just as the bartender was returning with her next beer. He looked around for her, but didn't seem to see her, as she was completely gone by now. Atlas, on the other hand, was finally coming back from the bathroom, walking up to the counter.
"Hey, wasn't 3V over here just a minute ago? Did I miss something while I was in there?" Atlas scanned the area, frowning a bit when he saw the lack of his teammate.
"Oh…nothing at all, my dear friend. I just comforted her a bit, is all. Here, she bought you a drink." Bec snatched up the freshly cracked beer and handed it over to Atlas with a smile.
Confessional - Bec
"I look up to Atlas like he is a superhero, of course! Everybody loves him…they love everything about him! So, it would make sense for me to try my best to be like him, yes?" Bec was molding some clay in his hands, seeming to make some sort of mask with it. "I think I've been doing pretty well so far…3V definitely appreciated my help just now. I'm still not sure why she cares so much about…ah…her name was…well, like I said, I don't bother to remember that! All I remember is that she was a pervert!"
Confessional - 3V
"Fuck that guy…Giselle isn't a-...okay, maybe she is a pervert, but she's the best pervert ever! The least he could do is remember her name." 3V crossed her arms before spitting at the camera and horribly dirtying the lens. "O-oops…didn't mean to actually get the camera with that."
"Nyah…I knocked, like, forever ago…it sure is taking them a long time to answer…" Marshmallow stood outside of Eli's room, holding a big bag of hard candies in one of her hands while she used the other hand to knock against his door as loud as she could. "Yeah, maybe they just didn't hear me the first time…nyah, that must be it!" Meanwhile, in the room, Edward and Eli were chilling on the edge of the bed, playing video games and ignoring the knocking as best as they could.
"Huh…didn't really figure you for someone that would be so good at these strategy games. You've almost got the whole outer ring of the board for our side, now." Eli smirked as he glanced at Edward, who was hardly really paying any attention to what he was doing, just fiddling around with the buttons in a sort of random order.
"This game is…mildly entertaining. I think I'm quite fond of this claiming land feature that it's got in it." Edward didn't really smile or anything, but he looked somewhat less miserable than his usual, which got a teasing eye roll sent his way from his teammate. "Sort of makes me think of our own team, wouldn't you say? That Garfield bloke is trying to get more people claimed for his alliance so he can sail through the competition…suppose you could consider the enemy team the other army, but to me, it seems more like it's his on ours."
"Garfield's trying to get an alliance? Huh…didn't even know about that. How'd you figure that one out?" Eli paused the game and set the controller down, snickering a bit when he saw that Edwards was still fiddling with the controls, wondering why nothing was happening. "You know you can't unpause the game when I paused it, right? You're really helpless sometimes, I swear."
"Oh…I didn't know that…" Edward reached down into his pocket to fetch his pen, scribbling something down on his arms, which Eli just assumed was something about pausing the game and all that. "The alliance…oh, right. I took your advice from the other day, yes. I learned to use my ears a bit better, I'd say. I could hear Morgan and that bloke talking about it last night when I was in my abode. Something about trying to get Leo on their side, I believe."
"Y-you heard that from your room? Y-you're room eleven…Garfield and Morgan are rooms six and seven!" Eli was astounded by the feat of Edward's hearing, but the short guy didn't understand what was so odd about this. "Damn…that's pretty impressive. But yeah, that might be an issue for us. Garfield falls into the category of guys that have it out for people like us. They just refer to us as 'the nerds.' Morgan's pretty hot, but she's in the exact same category as him. Could be rough for us if they get the whole team under their alliance."
"Noted…so, then…we should try to get Leo on our side, right?" Edward glanced up at Eli in wonder, but before his teammate could answer, the knocking came upon the door again. The larger guy groaned and pulled himself off of his bed, marching towards the door and opening it to find Marshmallow there. She was smiling up at him as she held out her bag of candies, which was significantly lighter than when she first started standing outside of his door. There were also plenty of wrappers on the floor around her.
"Eli! I know Edward is in there, too! I was gonna ask if you guys wanted to have some of my candies! I just restocked, so I got a whole bunch of them, nyah!" Marshmallow smiled sweetly while Eli just rubbed the back of his head and sighed.
"You're not just offering me that cause you think a fatso like me would like that, right?" The boy seemed pretty skeptical of Marshmallow, who looked utterly heartbroken to be accused of such a thing.
"I-I wouldn't ever do something like that…I just wanted to try making some more friends!" Marshmallow tried to keep smiling, but she suddenly lowered her bag of candies and got this really miserable look in her eyes. "Oh…I just don't get it. I tried sharing my candies with the others, but nobody seems to like me…they all just tell me to go away or say I'm being annoying. D-do you want me to go away, too?"
"Geez, do you have to look that sad about it?" Eli sighed again, glancing back at Edward, who was staring at the two of them from the bed. He slowly turned back to see Marshmallow slowly trudging away and spilling candy all over the floor as she walked. "Ugh…Marshmallow, would you knock it off with that?" The catgirl looked back to show that she was sniffling and sobbing, making Eli just feel uncomfortable. "Yeesh, do you wanna come play video games with us or something? That face of yours is really making me feel-"
"OKAY!" Eli hardly blinked, but when his eyes reopened, Marshmallow was no longer in the hallway. He turned around to see that she was sitting on his bed with Edward, bouncing up and down like a maniac while shoveling more handfuls of candy into her mouth. "What game are we gonna play? Oh, I like that one where you have to bake cakes and decorate them! Can we play that one? Can we?"
Confessional - Eli
"Am I just a magnet for people that can't ride roller coasters at theme parks? Next thing you know, I'm gonna have Leo and Cherry in my room, too." Eli paused for a moment before getting a smirk on his face, "I actually don't think I would mind getting to spend some more time with Cherry. But anyways…this might be a good thing. If what Edward said is true, having Marshmallow around would help us out. We at least got another vote on our side, right?"
Confessional - Marshmallow
"Everybody, hold your cameras, no flash photography!" Marshmallow waved her hands around as she had a really fancy pair of sunglasses on her face, "I know, I know, I'm super popular and all, I have two whole friends! Doesn't mean you can just take a bunch of pictures of– BWAH!" Marshmallow suddenly squealed out of fear when a big directional arrow showed up right on the hood of her vehicle. "O-oh! I didn't think it would be time for a challenge already! Well, this should be fun!"
The remaining eighteen vehicles roamed the streets, essentially all clumped together in one massive unit while they searched about for the next challenge destination. It was a bit odd, the arrow seemed to keep spinning around, changing which direction it was pointing at everytime they passed this one specific bend in the main road. Jhin gritted her teeth around the third time she had her arrow spin around, stomping her foot down on her break, which caused her car to screech to a halt. Of course, the others all stopped with her, but it was pretty darn close to an eighteen car pileup. Several others were honking at her as she got out of her car, steam lifting off from her forehead.
"J-J-Jhin, you could've killed us all just now!" Bailey climbed out of her vehicle, glaring at Jhin, who was stomping towards her general direction. The crazy girl, however, passed right by her, continuing to stomp around and seethe. "A-a-aaaaaaaaaand you're ignoring me…great. You can really b-b-be so inconsiderate someti-" Having enough of Bailey's yapping, Jhin grabbed her by the scarf, pulling her towards her with ease. The scrawny maniac was a lot stronger than she looked, for sure. Bailey prepared for the complete worst of physical violence to be inflicted on her when Jhin suddenly tugged her in close, smacked her lips against hers, and stuck her tongue right into her mouth. The ice pop had wide eyes as the rest of the contestants watched them, with Jhin finally pulling back from her.
"Now shut up and let me think, dammit!" Jhin tossed Bailey aside, wiping her lips off with the back of her hand before walking up to a lamppost. Everyone was still watching her, waiting to see her next move, which happened to be her tearing the post out of the ground and slamming it against the pavement. "CHRIS! CHALLENGE! NOW! NO MORE DRIVING!" With each blurt came another slam of that post until it was bent and shattered beyond recognition. She dropped it on the ground next to her when she was done, panting and awaiting something to happen, or for someone to say something.
"...U-uh…hey, dreamers!" The contestants perked up when the heard the familiar, yet mildly terrified sounding voice of Chris McLean. They had to look around a bit, but they ended up seeing him standing off to the side of the road, with Chef right next to him. Both of the fully grown men looked completely fearful of Jhin, who was smiling from ear to ear as she smiled right at them.
"T-that girl is some messed up kinda freaky, man!" Chef's teeth chattered and he hid behind Chris…who really wasn't a great hiding spot for the bulky co-host.
Confessional - Bailey
"...T-t-that was kinda hot." Bailey refused to look at the camera, but from the looks of things, she seemed to have her mittened hands pressed against her own cheeks, using them to hide a faint redness that was clashing against her vaguely blue skin.
Confessional - Jhin
"Can't believe I wasted my saliva throat-fucking that Finnish girl! That's like, the worst European country!" Jhin crossed her arms before starting to curse in Japanese.
"So! Now that Chef's cleaned up all that mess that Jhin just made…we should probably get right into the challenge, yeah?" Chris grinned as Chef just finished cleaning up the shattered glass and metal pieces off of the road. The co-host grumbled in his annoyance as he passed by the contestants, all of them watching him in silence, except for Jhin, who was glaring at him for ruining her art project. "Sports are cool and all, but you know what's really cool? Extreme sports! And you know what's even cooler than extreme sports? Extreme sports that make you feel like you're in the world of Tron! Ladies and gents, buckle up, cause this is gonna be one extreme challenge!"
"Sports? Oh, hell yeah!" Atlas cheered before he and Bec gave each other a headbutt, an odd ritual that they seemed to do pretty consistently. Morgan saw them doing this and rolled her eyes, clearly not amused with the ritual.
"You maggots better pay attention, cause we've got three events to go through today!" Chef whistled to get everyone's eyes back on him, and they were greeted to the sight of him holding these odd disc things. They sort of looked like frisbees, only they had a huge circle cut out in the center of them. Of course, the outer ring of each disc was lit up in neon light, either a deep blue or a cyan, matching the colors for the teams. "There are nine members of each team! Three members will compete in each event! Best of three wins, so technically, this challenge could be over after our second event! The first event…" The contestants only seemed to just blink, but when their eyes reopened, they found themselves at the top of a very tall ramp, a ramp that went down and turned into an odd obstacle course. There were plenty of walls in the middle of the course, each wall with a target lit up on both sides of it.
"The rules of this one are simple enough! Your three competitors have been given a neon boomerang and a set of roller blades! They'll have to skate through this obstacle course, hitting targets with the boomerang to open the gates so they can get through! It runs like a relay, with three legs! At the start…Marshmallow and Elward!" Chef turned to gesture to the duo, who were at the edge of the ramp. Elward was inspecting his boomerang closely, with HAILEY floating in the air behind him. It almost seemed like she was analyzing its structure to its very core, leaving Marshmallow to nibble on hers like some sort of snack.
"The second leg starts a third of the way into the course! The first leg's skater will pass the boomerang off to the second leg's to keep it going! Racing the second leg will be…Zayden and 3V!" Quite a ways down the course, Zayden and 3V were huddled together. Zayden seemed to be listening to 3V as she showed him some pictures of her buddies back home. "After they reach the third leg's skaters, it'll be up to them to finish off the course! The anchors will be…Eli and Atlas!" Way down near the end of the course, Atlas was doing some stretches while Eli deadpanned at the camera.
"Now, this just doesn't seem fair at all…" The couch potato continued to grumble while he started glaring at Atlas, who was getting himself pumped up for the event.
Confessional - Atlas
"I was never really into skating, or track for that matter, but I'd say I've got a pretty good shot at acing this thing! Sure, Elward isn't…too…physically capable…and 3V might be drunk already…but so long as that boomerang makes it my way, I'll be stampeding to the end!" Atlas cracked his knuckles as he grinned at the camera, "I'm interested to see what kind of opponent Eli's gonna be…I'm always game for a challenge!"
Confessional - Eli
"I'm fucked." Eli kept it short, sweet, and to the point.
"Alright, enough chit chat, maggots! Let's get this show on the road…we have three whole events to get through, after all!" Chef moved to stand between the starting racers while the rest of the teammates were seated in risers off to the side. There was a drone with a camera that followed the track, and its feed traced back to a television that was set up near the risers. While they all sat there and watched the screen, Jhin suddenly poked Bailey in the forehead.
"If we lose, I'm not letting you cuddle with me later." Bailey just seemed confused by Jhin's…'threat,' but chose not to say anything about it in fear of what she would do as a response to that. Chef glanced between Elward and Marshmallow, each of them looking back at him in complete silence.
"On your marks…" Chef raised his arms up into the air, his hands pointed up to the sky, "Get set…" Elward got himself bent down into a good racing position, while Marshmallow didn't seem to quite understand what she was supposed to do. Her stance just made her look a little silly, but it was alright, since only a few people laughed at her. "...GO!" Chef swung his arms down suddenly, and the two racers started skating past the starting line. Both of them were fairly even in terms of how fast they were, which…was pretty slow. Nonetheless, they kept on skating along the path, coming up on the first wall.
"Alright, it's my time to shine! …HAILEY! Calculate the proper arc for me to toss this thing in so I hit that target on my first try!" Upon Elward's command, HAILEY's screen started to buffer, eventually spinning around to be in front of his face, showing him the exact angle he needed to hit the target. He grinned to himself, chucking the boomerang out in that very path and, to no surprise, hitting the target. The disc flew back to him as the gate in front of him opened up, allowing him to skate through. Meanwhile, Marshmallow had to skid to a halt in front of her first gate, tossing the boomerang rapidly and without much thought.
"Oh, nyah…just hit the target already, dangit!" Marshmallow seemed to be getting pretty stressed out by her tenth miss, but on the next toss, she managed to hit it and open up her gate. She had to start going to be able to pick up her momentum again, but she could see that Elward was a good distance ahead of her at this point. "Nyah, nyah! I-I can't lose to that guy! I just became the popular girl today! My reputation would tank if I lost here!" The catgirl frowned before an idea came to mind. As she skated, she dug around in her jacket pocket, retrieving a baggie full of sugar cubes. She happily opened the bag up, pouring its contents straight into her mouth.
"HAILEY! How many gates do we have before we reach 3V, eh? My legs are getting tired from all this skating!" Elward whined while HAILEY started to calculate something again.
"Ah, master! It looks like there's only this next gate! It leads straight to the clearing that's got 3V in it!" HAILEY chirped happily before showing Elward the instructions for the next toss he'd have to make. He smirked and started getting ready to throw his boomerang, when something suddenly whirred past him loudly on the side, leaving a trail of flames in its wake. It distracted him phenomenally, and he ended up slamming right into the gate. "Master! Are you okay?" While HAILEY checked on Elward, the gate on the other side of the course opened right up, with the cyan boomerang of Team A-Side flying back to the blurry object that blazed through the course.
"Nyah, nyah, nyah! That's right, I deserve my popularity! Heck, maybe I should even get a third friend after this!" Marshmallow finally slowed down once she passed through the gate. She skated on over to Zayden, holding the boomerang out towards him.
"O-oh! You got here a lot faster than I anticipated…well, good job, Marshmallow!" Zayden smiled at his teammate, taking the boomerang from her right before she ended up crashing on the ground. She snored horrendously loud, with the contestants at the top of the course even hearing her from where they were. "Oh…well, I guess she does deserve a nap. Ah! Good luck to you, 3V, I gotta get going!" The horribly dressed boy nodded to the enemy teammate before he started skating on ahead, with Elward's final gate just now opening.
"Ugh…" The tinkerer looked worse for wear as he passed through the gate, flopping onto the ground before he even had the chance to pass the boomerang to 3V.
"Yeesh! Looks like you can't handle your booze, huh?" 3V laughed uproariously as she snatched the boomerang up from Elward's grasp, sticking her tongue out and blowing a raspberry at him before skating off after Zayden, leaving the two unconscious contestants laying next to each other. Elward's hand seemed to land on top of Marshmallow's when he passed out.
Confessional - HAILEY
"I AM GOING TO DELETE THAT CATGIRL FROM EXIST-..." HAILEY got this blank stare on her face that lasted a brief moment before she just looked really embarrassed. "A-ah! I apologize for my little outburst, there…I would never do anything to harm anyone…e-even if they're a dirty whore that thinks they can just touch my master like that."
Confessional - Elward
"Alright, I think I've had enough of me getting hurt almost every single challenge…even though this time it might've been my fault." Elward scratched his chin in thought before grinning and shrugging his shoulders. "Heh, who am I kidding? I can't be at fault when everything I do is perfect!"
"Nah, nah, little dude, I don't care what you gotta say, I wanna go back to what your was talkin' 'bout before you showed up! That is one spicy robot, yowza!"
"These skates really don't seem like they were made for me…" Zayden looked down at his own feet, showing that the skates that he was given were phenomenally too large for his feet. They jittered around as he skated about, making it really difficult for him to actually move properly. He was just coming up on his first gate, and he took aim with his boomerang to throw it out towards the target, just barely swiping it. It flew back to him with the gate opening, and a smile lit right up on his face. "Oh! I got it!"
"I have to wonder, do your nuts ever dangle out of that skirt you're wearing?" Zayden blushed as he glanced off to the side, noticing 3V skating backwards while aimlessly chucking her boomerang at her first target. She hit it pretty easily, swiftly gliding right through the gate as she grinned smugly at the horribly dressed boy. "Oh, don't look so embarrassed, it was a serious question!"
"I-I don't ever have that issue, no. Don't you think you should maybe be focusing on where you're going? You might accidentally skate off the side of the course." Zayden seemed genuinely worried for 3V, who just shrugged before throwing her boomerang again, hitting the target for the next gate in line.
"I probably could do that, but this is way more fun! Plus, I've been drunk driving forever, it's not like this is much different than that!" 3V snickered, flying past Zayden, who was just now opening up his second gate.
Confessional - Zayden
"I get pretty worried when I see other people doing stuff like…that. I'm sure 3V will be fine, yeah, but on the off chance that something bad happens to her…" Zayden shuddered at the very thought of something like that. "...No, no, she'll be fine, for sure."
"Annnnnnd…yup, here we go!" Atlas smiled as 3V finally passed through her final gate, doing a drunken twirl before passing the boomerang off to his hands. He looked back at Eli, who was still waiting for Zayden at this point. "Say, Eli? How about we make this nice and fair for the both of us…I won't start until you get your boomerang."
"So I only get sort of crushed by you? You're so thoughtful," Eli deadpanned once again while Atlas started booming with laughter, which just seemed to annoy the couch potato. It took about half a minute, but Zayden eventually came through to that last clearing, panting heavily and holding the boomerang out towards Eli. "Gee, thanks for only sweating all over most of it."
"Y-yup, no probl- wait a minute…hey!" Zayden crossed his arms as Eli snickered at him.
"Alright, you got your boomerang, so I hope you're ready! This is gonna be a fun little race!" Atlas cracked his neck before getting down into a readied position. "Alright, what are we doing this like…on three or something?" The football player glanced off to the side to see Eli's stance, only to find that the boy had already started skating off past where they started. "Eh? Oh, I see, I see! Not everyone likes a countdown, I guess!" With some more uproarious laughter, Atlas burst off down the course, going significantly faster than the rest of the contestants before him.
"Aaaaand…that's one." Eli smirked as his boomerang flew back to his hands, having just knocked the first gate's target. As he got ready to skate again, he heard the zooming behind him, knowing full well that Atlas was catching up quickly. "Welp, it was nice having a lead for a grand total of…five seconds…un…less…" That smirk slowly grew to be larger as he turned to face the other side of the course. He watched Atlas throw his boomerang in a perfect arc, hitting the target on the first try, but before the football player could get through the gate, Eli threw his own boomerang at the same target, shutting the gate right back up before skating off.
"Huh? I didn't know you could double tap those targets…oh, he's playing so dirty!" Atlas only seemed to take this as a greater challenge, as he threw his boomerang again and finally re-opened the gate before him.
Confessional - Eli
"Sports…not really my forté. But what is my forté is flexing my brain muscles! Atlas is one of those typical meatheaded jocks, it seems…so being able to trick him like that was actually pretty easy. Anything to save my own butt, after all." Eli seemed pretty proud of himself for figuring out that sneaky trick.
Confessional - Atlas
"Eli's a real different type of player than I am, that's for sure! I've got nothing wrong with people who play dirty…might've actually been pretty neat to have a guy like that on our own team, but I still love my team as is!" Atlas beamed, somehow entirely unbothered by the fact that he was being cheated out of his own element. "Maybe when we reach the merge, I can learn a thing or two from him!"
The race was still going pretty intensely, with the dormant teammates still watching the screen at the start of the race. This routine kept going back and forth, with Eli shutting each gate that Atlas opened, holding him off just enough to give himself a little edge before having to go through it again. Of course, they were getting close to the end at this point, with only one gate left before the end of the course, where Chef was waiting for them. The co-host narrowed his eyes in wait, suddenly hearing the clashing of a boomerang against a target. He watched as one of the gates slowly creaked open.
"And the team taking the first of the three events today is…" Chef suddenly swung one of his arms out to grab Eli by the collar and hold him up like some sort of trophy. "Team A-Side!" The teammates that were watching the event from the starting line were either cheering in the case of Team A-Side…especially Morgan. Or in the case of Team B-Side, they were confused that Atlas could've lost to Eli. The football player made it through the final gate, grinning as Eli was set back down on the ground.
"Nice job, Eli! I knew this was gonna be an interesting race from the get-go! Dap me up, man!" Atlas raised his hand up, with Eli just staring at him in confusion before silently skating away from him. "A-ah! Maybe next time, yeah?"
Confessional - Atlas
"Well, Eli doesn't seem all too interested in being tight like that, but that's alright! Maybe he'll come around to the idea someday!" Atlas just laughed the whole thing off, still not seeming to care that he lost the first event for his team.
"No need to get too excited so quickly, maggots!" Chef snapped at the cheering of Team A-Side, with him and each of the racers being back at the starting line of the course this time. "Team A-Side has one of the two wins they need to take the challenge, but that still leaves two chances for Team B-Side to take it back! This leads us to our second event…" Again, the contestants only seemed to blink, but when their eyes opened again, they found themselves at the base of a really tall building somewhere in the Heart District. A glance up at the building showed that there were neon beams jutting out of the outer walls of the building, seeming to lead all the way up to the top of it.
"For this event, it'll be more about working together as a unit than each pulling your own weight! Three members of your team have been given a neon grappling hook! They'll have to use it together to swing it around those beams and pull themselves to the top of the building! There's a bell at the top, so whichever team happens to ring that first will get the win for the event! For this event, it'll be Garfield, Edward, and Morgan going up against Bailey, Jhin, and Gerald!" Chef gestured towards the two groups of three, both of which seemed pretty confused by the grappling hook. It just looked like a weird, curled up rope that was lit up in either cyan or blue.
"You know, Allan says he's pretty good with stuff like this! We should give him the hook, it'll be the best!" Bailey and Jhin managed to come together for once just to glare at Gerald, who looked like he was about to cry when he noticed how harsh their looks were. "O-or someone else can hold onto it…yeah…"
"Teams, you need to have each of your three members at the top to win this round, so don't go forgetting anybody or it won't count!" Gerald winced again when he heard Chef say "three" instead of "four." "Oh, and don't worry about falling…we've got a trampoline at the bottom for that." The co-host grinned and stepped to the side, showing a kid-sized trampoline on the ground next to him. He tapped his foot against it, and it immediately crumbled to pieces. "...We had a trampoline at the bottom!"
Confessional - Jhin
"What is this supposed to be, some kind of joke? I jump off of rooftops, I don't climb up to them! That's…the opposite of a fun time!" Jhin grumbled as she toyed with the grappling hook, cracking it in her hands like some sort of riding crop. "Bailey better pray that we win this bit, or else!"
Confessional - Bailey
"J-J-Jhin keeps threatening to marry me and start a family together, I-I don't even know what I'm supposed to say about that…" Bailey just looked confused again when suddenly, something slammed against the window of her truck. She looked behind her to see that it was Jhin, scowling at her and pointing at an engagement ring in her hand. "...O-o-oh geez…"
Confessional - Edward
"I'm in the same unit as Garfield and Morgan…the very two people that we're starting a 'skirmish' with, so to speak. I'm interested to see how this goes…I'm not much of a presence, maybe they'll forget I'm there and say something that they shouldn't in front of me." Edward tapped his chin with one hand while using the other to scribble something down on his forearm.
"Alright, folks, let's get ourselves into position!" Chef hollered his orders as the two groups of three. Jhin was carrying Gerald in her left arm, while Bailey was being scooped up in her right. The grappling hook for their side was being held in her teeth, and she had this determined look about her that she shot towards the other three competitors. Garfield just smirked back at Jhin, with Morgan clinging onto his back while Edward stood at his side. "And…go!" With Chef's shout, the two teams started off, each swinging their hooks up at the closest beam to the ground.
"W-wait, you guys are forgetting Allan!" Gerald whined as he was lifted up into the air, flailing his arms wildly in protest. "C-Chef said we can't win unless we have all of our teammates at the top of the building!"
"Mm mm mm mmmm mmf!" Jhin tried to speak with the grappling hook in her mouth, but it didn't really work, as all that anyone could hear were muffled noises. Her strength was proving to be quite something for them, as she seemed easily able to swing from beam to beam, simply by tilting her jaw in a certain direction. Nonetheless, Garfield was pulling his side up a lot quicker than them, considering he was actually using his arm to do it.
"This is just going to be too easy! Looks like we won't even have to go to event three to win this one, eh?" Garfield grinned, while Morgan was burying her face against his shoulder. He could hear her whimpering horribly from where she was, and even felt her hands grabbing onto him a lot tighter than before. "H-hey! Easy with the claws, Morgan! I don't wanna slip and have us all fall to our death!"
"D-d-don't say that, bitch!" Morgan slowly pulled her face up from his shoulder, showing that tears were streaming down her face, even though she was trying to put on her typical fierce gaze to make it look like nothing was wrong.
"...You scared of heights or something?" Morgan just got really quiet when Garfield asked her, bringing a sigh out of his mouth. "Hey, I'm not gonna drop us, or…whatever. We'll get to the top soon and then it'll be all over." The cheerleader remained quiet, sniffling every so often while she went back to hiding her miserable face against his shoulder. He sighed again, only thinking to himself, "Yeesh, my team sure is full of crybabies…first Leo, now Morgan, what is this, a therapy session?"
Confessional - Morgan
"...I-I don't like heights normally, but I'm not afraid of them. Otherwise I woulda been panicking during the dancing challenge a little while ago." Morgan swallowed a lump in her throat, wiping some tears from her cheeks. "I-I'm afraid of…hey! I ain't tellin' you random ass hoes what I'm afraid of! Sneaky bitches, tryna get a confession out of me, I'm onto you!"
"Look, you see that? We're already almost to the top…only a few more beams left! And Team B-Side…heh, looks like one of them might just be dropping out of this race!" Garfield grinned as he looked back at the other team, which was still drifting quite below them. About ten beams were between the two teams, with Team A-Side only having four more beams til they would reach the top of the building.
"J-J-Jhin, they're way ahead of us, how are we gonna catch up in time?" Bailey spoke up, but her question was definitely unwanted, as Jhin just glared at her before swinging up to the next beam in the array. Meanwhile, Gerald was still looking completely miserable, staring back down at the ground the entire time. "G-Gerald?"
"It won't matter if we even get to the top before them or not, since we left Allan at the bottom of the tower…" Gerald sighed, wishing that his friend was up there with them. Bailey did try to be comforting, but dealing with two crazy people was just seeming to annoy her, and she hushed right up. Of course, Garfield was just reaching the tippy top of the building at this point, pulling himself to his feet once he got up.
"Finally! See, that wasn't so bad! And now, it's just ringing that bell!" Garfield snickered as he started walking towards the center of the rooftop, which had a giant bell in the center of it. Of course, Chef was waiting right next to it, staring back at the politician wannabe in wait. "And…here we go!" Garfield knocked his fist against the bell, letting out this huge ringing noise and grinning at his own work, but Chef just stayed silent. "Hey, aren't you gonna say the challenge is over? We won, yeah?"
"You ain't got all your teammates with you, maggot!" Chef pointed past Garfield, showing that Morgan was standing there, but there was no sign of Edward. The politician wannabe rushed to the edge of the building, looking down all the way to the bottom to see that Edward was just standing there, staring up at the top. He slapped his palm against his face, "You have got to be kidding me…"
"G-g-go!" Garfield and Morgan could hear Bailey as her, Jhin, and Gerald came over the ledge, pulling themselves up from the ground after having flopped down on it. Jhin spat the grappling hook out of her mouth, running right for the bell and headbutting it like a ram.
"And that's that! Team B-Side got to the top with all three of their teammates, which means that they get the point for this event!" Chef held a thumbs up to the members of Team B-Side. Jhin grinned at her own achievement, with Bailey sighing out of relief. Meanwhile, Gerald still just seemed pretty upset. That was, until he looked up from his feet to see something right in front of him.
"A-Allan! You ran all the way up the stairs to meet us at the top? Oh, you're so clever!" He "hugged" his friend to celebrate, with pretty much all of the others just staring at him, entirely confused by what was going on.
Confessional - Garfield
"Well, looks like we've got ourselves a pretty obvious candidate for elimination if we lose the third event. I'm not sure what that twerp was thinking, just staying at the bottom, but it cost us an easy win!" Garfield huffed, already stamping a picture of Edward, even though they hadn't gotten to any elimination ceremony just yet.
Confessional - Edward
"...As I said, I'm not much of a presence. I did tell Garfield to wait a second so I could grab onto him, but the bloke right ignored me and went on ahead. I'm sure he's going to pin this on me…hm…" Edward sat in silent thought before starting to write something on his stomach, but he stopped halfway through, giggling like a child. "O-okay, maybe I'll just keep to the arms."
"It's neck and neck, which means that we'll need to pull into our third event, after all!" Chef and the competitors were back at the base of the building at this point, with Garfield still glaring at Edward out of his own annoyance. "So, for this third and final event…" Most of them knew what was coming, but Jhin did try to hold her eyes open to see what exactly was happening. Unfortunately for her, some bug flew into her eye, forcing her to shut them. She re-opened them, and everyone was suddenly in a massive, indoor soccer field. There was a giant ball in the middle of the field with an even more massive goal on each far side of the stadium. One goal was lit up with cyan, and one with blue.
"Again, the rules are simple! It's an oversized game of soccer, with a few twists! Each competing teammate's been given a pair of boots with loaded springs on the bottoms! They'll be able to jump incredibly high and kick really hard with those suckers on! All a team needs to do to win this one is score three goals…gives a fair chance for each team! Team A-Side has to score in the blue goal, while Team B-Side has to score in the cyan goal! Competing for A-Side, we have Amanda, Cherry, and Leo! Competing for B-Side, Eliza, Bec, and Suzie!" Chef was somehow now in a referee's outfit, standing right near the middle of the field, while the three teammates on each side stood around the ball. Amanda seemed mildly overwhelmed by the size of the ball, but didn't say anything about it.
"This…seems familiar…" Eliza narrowed her eyes at the ball before a vague idea of what it was came to mind. "Oh…I've played this one before."
"You have, too? Well, this shouldn't be that difficult, then!" Suzie grinned while she rubbed her hands together, though Bec just seemed a bit confused by what they were thinking about. On the other end of things, Cherry was flicking her tongue against her teeth as she stared at the ball.
"Is this thing going to light up or something, love? I'd go crazy for a good mosh in the middle of this field." Chef shook his head at Cherry's question, getting a defeated sigh out of her in return. "Well, I guess not everything can be fun."
"I don't think the ball lighting up would be very fun…it's already too much to handle." Amanda had her typical blank stare about her, her eyes looking about the field and taking in things of note while Cherry just giggled at her. This left Leo to quiver as he took note that the ball was pretty much four times his size, with how tiny he was.
Confessional - Leo
"I-I'm really not sure how this challenge is going to go…Suzie and Eliza seem pretty confident on the other side, but if that ball even came near me, I'm sure it would just squish me like a little bug!" Leo whimpered lightly as he tapped his fingers against his thighs, "A-Amanda doesn't seem all too thrilled for this one, either…so I think we're mostly banking on Cherry to carry us. S-she's pretty good at everything, so maybe we'll be good…"
Confessional - Eliza
"I…play a lot of video games to help me try and not…think about traumatic things from the past. I've been told that I'm pretty good at them, so…this challenge being so closely related to a game that I've clocked quite a few hours in…it should work out pretty well." Eliza had a faint smile on her face for the first time since she showed up to the show. "Well, we'll see…"
Confessional - Suzie
"This isn't the hit game, Among Us, or anything, but Rocket League is…pretty okay, I guess. I mean, I've played a few tournaments for it before, so, you know. I kinda know what I'm doing and all that." Suzie cracked her knuckles, smiling widely, "I wish we could've brought our cars in to make this even more accurate to the game, but it's not the end of the world. We're still gonna sweep!"
"Alright, teams! Better be ready! No pressure or anything, but your team's safety is banking on you winning this event!" Chef grinned, noticing that a few of the competing team members were unnerved by his comment. As for the rest of the teammates, each of them were seated in the risers of the stadium, watching closely as they waited for the game to start. Chef slowly raised a whistle to his lips, holding it there as the six competing players got ready before finally blowing it as loud as he could. Immediately, Eliza jumped up into the air, stomping down on the ball and causing it to bounce up into the air with her on top of it.
"S-Suzie, give me a hand with this!" Eliza called out to her teammate, who leapt towards the wall of the stadium, bounding off of it with the help of her moon boots and kicking the ball as hard as she could when she flew past it. It started heading right for Team A-Side's goal at intense speeds, when Amanda suddenly sprinted towards it, though she was wobbling all over the place with the weird boots on her feet. Luckily, she made it just in time, kicking the ball away from her goal and towards Leo, who was near the middle of the stadium.
"Oh gosh, oh gosh, here it comes!" Leo gulped and got into a ready position to kick the ball, but he wasn't given the chance, as Bec suddenly dashed in between him and the ball.
"Sorry, leafy friend! I'll be needing this ball for my team's win!" Bec laughed in a manner quite similar to Atlas's laugh as he kicked the ball back up into the air. Suzie and Eliza bounced up together this time, each of them kicking it at full force towards the goal again. This time, Amanda saw how fast it was coming, and ducked right under it, trembling in fear as it sailed past her and into the goal.
"And that's a point for Team B-Side!" Chef blew his whistle before running to go collect the massive ball and bring it back to the center of the field. Suzie and Eliza both dropped back down to the ground, landing near Bec. The three of them cheered for their grab of the first point, giving each other a few high fives while Leo and Amanda slowly moved themselves back towards Cherry, who was thinking to herself.
"Well, that didn't much work…let's see…Amanda, love, I don't think you should be playing goalie if you're going to hide from the ball when it comes your way." Amanda seemed a little defeated when she was told this, looking down at her feet sadly. "Leo, you're definitely not the type that should play offense, either. You stood still and waited for the ball to come to you…that's much more like a goalie in a game like this. On this break into the round, I think it'd best fit for Amanda and myself to handle the offense while you protect our goal. Since each of them seems to be leaving their own goal unguarded."
"O-oh…yeah, I can stand by the goal…but what happens if the ball crushes me?" Leo sheepishly raised his question to Cherry, who just laughed at him.
"Love, that ball is full of air…so long as you kick it, I don't think you'll have to worry a lick about getting crushed. You're a strong chap like the rest of us, aren't you?" Leo softly nodded his head before getting an encouraging pat on the shoulder from Cherry, which just made him blush like an idiot. "Seems we're all clear on the plan, then. Let's stick to it and keep them from scoring another goal on us!"
Confessional - Amanda
"I like being on Cherry's team, she's a good leader. Garfield insists on being the leader, and sometimes Morgan does, too…but they're kind of terrible at it." Amanda had no hint of emotion in her expression as she mentioned how two of her teammates were failing as leaders. "Besides, this season is all about…partying and going crazy…I think. That's Cherry's expertise, not theirs. Just like how I'm the expert at investing. Oh, I made a really good profit tod-"
Confessional - Cherry
"I've no clue what sort of game this is supposed to be like, but football isn't much a tricky thing to understand. You just kick a ball into a large net…that's a simple enough task." Cherry smirked before kicking her feet up onto her dashboard and frowning at her boots. "Though, I do wish we wouldn't have to wear such gaudy footwear for this."
"Teams, get ready for the second kick off, we don't have all this time to be wasting on a huddle!" Chef hollered, per the usual, and the six competitors made their way around the ball again…or the five did, as Leo went over towards his own team's goal and stood in front of it, still nervous about this whole challenge. Cherry and Amanda glanced between each other, the party gal nodding at the investor with a grin. As for the other team, Eliza and Suzie were right next to each other on the frontline, while Bec stood more off to the side. Chef lifted his whistle back up and blew it for the second time, ushering the competitors to start the kick off.
"Suzie, again!" Eliza started the kick the same way as the last time, jumping and stomping onto the ball to get it into the air, but this time around, before Suzie had the chance to kick it towards the A-Side goal, Cherry bounced straight up into the air, doing a backflip midair and kicking the ball straight down in the process. "H-huh?"
"Oh, sorry love! I thought it might be fair if my team got a turn with the ball! Tata!" Cherry laughed as she started falling back down towards the ground. Amanda awkwardly rushed towards the sinking ball in the meantime, giving it a good, hard kick and sending it cascading towards B-Side's half of the field. With Suzie and Eliza still coming back down from the air, this left Bec to play defense.
"Oho, no no, friends! I'm not going to let you score that easily!" The clay shaper rushed towards the ball, kicking it at an angle that made it spiral rapidly. It rolled along the wall of the stadium, moving past the contestants that were watching from the risers and heading straight for Leo.
"H-here it comes! Remember, it's just full of air, it won't crush you!" Leo took a deep breath, the ball barreling towards him at high speeds. With a swift kick from his left foot, he sent it tumbling back towards Cherry, who'd just landed on the ground of the field. She used all her force to kick it as hard as she could, sending it whirring past Bec much faster than before. Suzie and Eliza each attempted to run towards the ball to stop it, but weren't quite quick enough, as it went right into their goal.
"And that's a point for Team A-Side, tying things up!" Chef, once again, ran to go collect the ball, while Leo and Amanda ran back up to Cherry. The impromptu team captain gave them each a pat on the back, seeming to make Leo pretty happy while disorienting Amanda a little bit. As far as B-Side, they were getting in their own huddle this time.
"Hm…I guess this sort of game isn't that tricky to pick up the basics of…we'll probably have to change up our strategy a bit to stay on top." Eliza thought to herself, but when she opened her mouth to say something, Suzie interrupted her.
"I agree! We don't need two of us playing the high ground tactics, we could easily do with you staying on the ground, Eliza!" Suzie smiled while Eliza just seemed confused, "You know, since video games are sort of my thing, so…nothing against you, I'm just…better at it."
"...T-that's a bit rude to just say…my tactic worked just fine on the first kick, if you didn't notice…" Eliza was getting a little bit annoyed, but trying to stay calm. Meanwhile, Bec was just watching the two women in silence with a little grin on his face.
Confessional - Bec
"I don't know much about these games, nor do I really care about them, but I do like to watch how heated people get over them. It's just a bit silly to see, it's just a game after all! And, you know, it does pretty much guarantee my safety if something bad happens that causes us to lose." Bec whistled happily as he worked on shaping a little diorama of Suzie and Eliza arguing with each other.
"Alright, time for the third kick off! Get yourselves ready, maggots!" Chef called everyone back to centerfield, just as he had done before. Leo still stood near his own team's goal, and Amanda and Cherry were positioned pretty much the same as before. Things on B-Side were similar, as well, though this time around, Suzie and Eliza didn't look too pleased with each other, to no one's shock. Bec, however, was just loving the drama, as he kept to the sidelines. Chef blew his whistle loudly for the teams to get started yet again. Eliza went right at it, trying her jumping tactic for the third time, only for Suzie to kick it out from underneath her, towards the air.
"H-hey! I had that!" Eliza grumbled as Suzie ran under her and jumped up towards the ball, kicking it with great force right towards Leo. The seamster let out a little squeak before he kicked it back, but it only flew back towards Suzie, who just kicked it back his way again. They continued this back and forth while the other four players watched in silence, until Leo finally kicked it out at an angle, sending it over to Cherry.
"Thanks for the pass, love!" Cherry delivered a powerful side kick to the ball as she noticed Eliza and Bec running her way, passing it over to Amanda.
"E-er…I don't…okay." Amanda gulped and gave the ball a good kick, sending it rolling down towards B-Side's goal. Suzie was just landing from her air time, but even with Eliza and Bec gunning it for the ball, it was just like last time, where they couldn't keep up with its speed. It flew into their goal with ease, leaving the three of them to groan.
"Two to one, A-Side is in the lead!" Chef went after the ball again, clearly getting exhausted from all the running around he was doing while Team B-Side got all huddled up again.
"Y-you kinda just cost us that point, Suzie…" Eliza grumbled quietly, trying to not be too aggressive, though her attitude wasn't that difficult to notice.
"I cost us that point? You were the one that tried to go through with your initial plan after I told you not to! If you just played the ground, you would've been able to block that shot from going in!" The two girls continued to glare at each other, with Bec looking like a kid in a candy store, drool even dribbling from his lips. Meanwhile, Team A-Side was huddled up again, Cherry looking pretty pleased with her teammates.
"You've certainly found the plot, you two! Two points in a row…that's only one more we need to win the challenge. Let's keep things up and win this thing, yeah? Break!" The three split off, Amanda and Cherry returning to center field while Leo ran back to his position as goalie. The intensity between Eliza and Suzie this time around was definitely worse than before, with Bec just too excited for all the drama. He was hardly able to contain the massive grin on his face.
"It's match point for A-Side, so keep your head in the game, B-Side!" Chef shot a look to Team B-Side before he blew his whistle. This time around, Eliza didn't jump, but she ran for the ball, kicking it off to the left of the field, right towards Amanda. The investor was stunned to see it suddenly coming her way, and ducked under it, just like the last time, allowing the ball to coast along the edge of the stadium and head for Leo. Luckily, he was quick on his guard, giving the ball a kick back and sending it up towards the roof.
"I got this!" Suzie grinned and bounced up to hit the ball, only for Cherry to jump up with her. The party gal reached it a bit quicker, giving it a kick that knocked the ball right into Suzie. Both her and the ball started slowly descending to the ground, with her just a tad dazed from having just been hit by it. Her ears were ringing something fierce, and her vision was a bit blurry. "Whaaaaa? Oh…look…the goal's not guarded!" The girl grinned before giving the ball a hefty kick.
"S-Suzie, not that way!" Eliza shouted out and started running, but her position on the field was way too far away from the ball, which Suzie had kicked towards her own goal in her daze. It seemed to roll in slow motion, bouncing into their goal in a painstaking motion. Chef blew his whistle for the final time, but instead of going to collect the ball, he just swung his arm out towards Team A-Side's half of the field.
"Team A-Side wins, three to one! That means no elimination for them!" Not only did Cherry and Leo cheer loudly, with Amanda clapping slowly, but the members of Team A-Side in the risers were screaming for their victory. "As for Team B-Side…you maggots have an elimination ceremony to attend to!" Eliza sighed and slumped over in defeat while Suzie shook off her daze and blushed out of embarrassment.
Confessional - Suzie
"O-obviously I have to vote for Eliza…the only reason we missed our second point was because she didn't wanna let me take the reigns of that game." Suzie nervously stamped Eliza's face, feeling horribly guilty of her screw up. "I-I wasn't expecting Cherry to kick the ball at my face like that…"
Confessional - Eliza
"I-I feel a little bad about arguing with Suzie in the challenge over some silly game, but…she still scored against us for the final point. S-sorry, Suzie…" Eliza slowly stamped a picture of Suzie, seeming just as upset as the reference maker was.
Confessional - Bec
"Hmm…" Bec tossed his stamp from hand to hand, humming a sweet tune before stamping it down on a picture that…wasn't of either of the girls. "Ah…what can I say, friends? I love the drama! I'd hate to see it fizzle out so soon if I can do anything to help it!"
"Huh? Couldn't see who that little dude voted for in there…well, I guess we'll be finding out pretty soon, huh?"
Team B-Side was on top of the hotel for the third time in a row, some seeming pretty miserable, others indifferent…and then there was Bec, who was smiling as if he had won, even though that wasn't nearly the case. Suzie and Eliza sat next to each other, both of them staring down at their own feet in silence. Gerald seemed to be playing rock, paper, scissors with Allan…and somehow losing. Atlas had himself next to Bec, per the usual, grinning as he poured a sports drink all over himself. 3V, on the other hand, was just chugging a huge stein full of beer…no one was really sure where she got it from. Jhin and Bailey were next to each other, of course, with Bailey wincing while Jhin glared at her and gave her a shoulder rub. All that this left was Elward, who had a bump on the top of his head from when he rammed into the gate. HAILEY seemed to be trying to kiss it to make it better, but that obviously wasn't doing anything.
"Alright, dreamers! I was honestly expecting you guys to win that challenge, but I guess Team A-Side's got their fair share of surprises, yeah?" Chris snickered to himself, holding the drink tickets for the ceremony while Chef disappointedly shook his head at the losing team. "You know the dealio! You voted for someone to get rid of, so we're gonna be calling out the names of everyone that isn't that person! You get your name called, you get a drink ticket! You don't get a ticket, you don't get to stay! Means you're gonna have to get sucked up in the Hyperspace Tube of Losers! Safe tonight, we've got…Gerald, Bailey, Jhin. No shock, you guys actually won your part of the challenge!"
"You are so lucky that we're in the clear, you frosty bitch!" Jhin hissed at Bailey as she snatched her ticket from Chris's hand, leaving the ice cube to whimper and slowly accept hers.
"I-it's okay, Allan! We can just share mine, since someone doesn't wanna give you one!" Gerald glared at Chris before swiping the ticket from him and immediately handing it to Allan, though it just fell down to the ground. "O-oh, Allan! You dropped it! That's okay, I'll hold onto it!"
"Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight," Chris rolled his eyes and walked away from Gerald to look at the rest of the team, examining each of them with a smirk on his face. "Also safe, we have…3V…Elward…aaaaaaaand…Bec!" The host passed out the next three drink tickets, leaving Bec's smile to get even more excitable as he took note of the bottom three. "That just leaves Atlas, Eliza, and Suzie!"
"Huh?" Atlas looked a bit confused to see that he was so low in the rankings. He looked over at Bec, who wiped his smile away before he could even see it, replacing it with a more concerned, worried look.
"Atlas, you could've easily taken the first game, but you let your good sportsmanship get in between you and an easy win! Suzie, you got way too competitive and insisted you were better at something than Eliza…plus, you scored against your own team. And Eliza…well…ah, I don't know, you're in the clear!" Chris passed the second to last drink ticket to Eliza, who sighed in relief, while Atlas just seemed to get more startled than before. Suzie was, of course, pretty miserable about this still. "Our final drink ticket of the night goes to…"
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"...Atlas! Was a pretty close one, though!" Chris passed the final ticket to the football player, getting this enormous sigh of relief out of him.
"Man, I was really getting worried, there! I'll do better next time, team!" Atlas chuckled awkwardly and turned to Bec, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "What do you say we go out for drinks when we're done here, yeah? That was a little stressful!"
"Right…of course…we can do that…" Something was off about the look on Bec's face, as he got up from his seat and suddenly left the rooftop before anybody else, leaving Atlas just more confused than before.
"O-oh…I really messed this one up…" Suzie got up from her seat, still staring at her feet while she slowly started to shuffle towards the tube, trying to ignore the look that Chris was giving her. "S-Suzie was not the imposter…one imposter remains…" The reference queen whimpered and took her step into the tube, which yoinked her away from the roof faster than the eye could see.
Confessional - Bec
"..." Bec stared out through the windshield of his car, this horribly jaded look in his eyes before he slowly raised his hands up to show a clay figurine of Atlas. It was just a bit different than the regular Atlas, though…his hair was a lot longer, and more wavy. He wasn't nearly as buff as he normally was, either. His skin tone didn't seem entirely accurate either. In fact, the color pallette of the figurine matched a lot closer to Bec than it did to Atlas. "...So our game continues."
"Oh…didn't know I had a delivery scheduled today." Gwendolyn was standing in front of her office, looking down at the carpeted hallway floor to see that there was a package with her name on it. She pulled it up and popped it open, finding a great deal of those hand warming pads that she had given to Bailey the other day. "Oh, right. Forgot that I ordered more of them. Well…I guess she probably won't mind if I bring them over to her room."
The doctor slowly started walking towards the elevator with the box in her hands, pressing the button for floor eleven once she had gotten fully inside it. She tried her best to ignore the droning noise of the elevator music that was playing, but it was still mildly agitating to her. She sighed to herself, the door suddenly opening up and granting her access to the eleventh floor. She headed straight for Bailey's room of course, using her knee to knock at the door once she got there.
"...Taking a bit to answer the door…" Gwendolyn just stayed waiting before the door, eventually knocking again, but still getting no response. Out of her own curiosity, she tried for the doorknob, finding that it was entirely unlocked. She poked her head into the darkened room slowly, looking around but not seeing much. "Hello? Bailey? It's Gwendolyn…I got more of those hand warmers in." Again, there was no response, just silence in the dark room.
"...Maybe she's not in right now?" Gwendolyn shrugged lightly, but before she was about to leave the room, she noticed a very faint light coming from the depths of it. Of course, she was already in the thick of it at this point, so she figured she should just see what it was while she was still there. She went all the way in, noticing that the light came from a lamp on one of the end tables near Bailey's bed. The room was ridiculously hot, but Gwendolyn couldn't complain, knowing that the ice cube was doing it for her own safety after all.
"...Well, well…definitely wasn't expecting to see that…" A small smile popped up on Gwendolyn's face as she set her box down on the end table that had the lamp lit on it. Without another peep, she headed back to the door to the room, carefully and quietly shutting it behind her before starting to head back to her room. In the room, it was still fairly silent…yet on the bed, there Bailey was laying, in more casual clothing. A blue sweater and some black pajama pants. And then, right next to her, there was Jhin, who was sleeping like a baby while her head was nestled against her hostess' shoulder.
C.K. Swing Songs: ice water by shallow pools
Votes: Suzie - Eliza, 3V, Jhin, Bailey, Atlas; Atlas - Gerald, Bec, Elward; Eliza - Suzie
22nd: Henry Yates, the Socially Awkward Kid
21st: Gwendolyn Linelife, the Harsh Doctor
20th: Heath Alghieri, the Puppet Master
19th: Giselle Gingersnap, the Wannabe MILF
18th: Suzie Venta, the Reference Queen
Team A-Side: Amanda, Cherry, Edward, Eli, Garfield, Leo, Marshmallow, Morgan, Zayden
Team B-Side: Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eliza, Elward, Gerald and Allan, Jhin, 3V