"I am back from my depressive slump, dreamers! Sure, I still miss Giselle dearly, oh, bless that MILF, wherever she might be, but now that someone not as hot is gone it evens things out!" C.K. was standing on top of the table in front of his little fireplace, doing a little celebratory dance. A look further in the depths of the room showed that there was a portrait with Giselle in it that had the word "Mommy" painted under it. "Y'all already know that we gotta get right into this recap so we can hop back into the action, y'know what I'm saying? L-l-layust time on Total Drama: Neon City– Garfield was still being pretty persistent on figuring out what in the hell was up with lil' Leo so he could get that boy in on his alliance, but it just ended up with another musical number that tormented our politician wannabe! Man, I sure do love watchin' him suffer! Marshmallow made…'friends' with Eli and Edward, Bec annoyed the piss out of 3V, and then it was time for our challenge! Oh, but of course, Jhin took it upon herself to make out with Bailey in front of everybody before anything really started. Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do1 Challenge was easy 'nough, being three different extreme sports in our lovely city! Atlas cost his team round one by trying to play fair against Eli, who used that to his advantage all too well! Second round went to B-Side, when Garfield forgot Edward at the bottom of a building! But the clutch round ended up going to A-Side, when an argument between Suzie and Eliza escalated until our little mobile gaming gremlin tried to play all by herself and lost hard. Bec did his best to avoid the Suzie elimination, but man, there was no way she was surviving that vote. He voted for Atlas, though, so that's somethin' to be thinkin' 'bout! Oh yeah, and Bailey and Jhin were caught snugglin' up by Gwendolyn! Whole lotta nonsense and hoohah going on last time around! But this party's gotta get on the roll, dreamers! I'll catch ya next time we have a little rendezvous!"
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."
It was pretty early in the…night, with the sun just having finally gone down all the way. A few people were out and about, to no shock or surprise, but for Cherry and Amanda, well, they were just hanging out in the hotel bar in the lobby, getting themselves the closest thing to breakfast that they could get at this time of the day. Cherry had a platter of sausages, fried eggs, and toast delivered to her from one of the servers, who she gave a teasing wink to as he was backing away. Her drink of choice was a mimosa, which didn't seem all too surprising, considering the type of party animal she was. As for Amanda, her plate looked…well, just sad in comparison. There were two hotcakes on it, but no syrup, no butter, nothing. Just the two plain hotcakes…and a glass of water that had a straw in it.
"That's all you're going to eat, doll? That's hardly a way to start the day, especially in a city like this. You'll be out like a light before anybody's even hit the dance floor." Cherry snickered at Amanda, who just blankly stared at her and then back to her plate. She grabbed a fork and started prodding at her hotcakes, looking a bit puzzled. "What's the matter now?"
"Am I…supposed to be eating more than this? I'm not that hungry." Amanda looked back at Cherry, it was clear that she was starting to get a little flustered, as if she had been caught doing some nefarious act of sorts.
"Well, you can eat whatever you'd like…I'm just saying that you might not make it through the day if you eat that little. Not to mention you are primarily skin and bones, aren't you?" Amanda started looking upset at this point, looking back down at her plate and just poking at her food. "N-not that you don't look just lovely, it's just that…ah, nevermind! Changing topic! Hm…ah! Say, love…we've been hanging around quite a bit as of late. I feel like I'm supposed to give you a nickname at this point."
"A nickname? I've never had a nickname." Amanda looked a little less upset when the topic was changed, even turning her attention back to Cherry with curious eyes.
"Well, mates do that all the time. 'Specially when your full name's just a bit long on the tongue. Amanda…it could be shortened to something else." Amanda just continued to stare at Cherry, who awkwardly smiled back at her. "For example, I could take to calling you Mandy. It fits the bill."
"Woah…" Amanda looked absolutely astounded as she heard what Cherry had called her, her eyes twinkling the faintest bit. "...That sounds awful." The party gal's smile immediately sunk into a frown, which only confused the investor even more than she already was. "What's wrong? Did I do something bad? Was I not supposed to say that?"
"No, love, you're welcome to think whatever you'd like about any nickname that I try to give you. I will admit, I hadn't expected you to be so blunt about it…but I suppose I've been around you enough to know that that's sort of how you talk." Cherry took a sip from her mimosa, but the sip eventually turned into her just full-on downing the drink. Like most drinks in the city, it was a lot better than the stuff you'd get at your average bar. "You're not the brightest when it comes to small talk, are you?"
"I'm not stupid…" Amanda whimpered a bit, immediately making Cherry feel like she had said the wrong thing.
"No, no! I wasn't saying that you were stupid, you're not stupid! You just don't know how to make proper small talk– I mean…bollocks, love, what am I supposed to say here? It looks like I'm the one that can't hold a conversation, this time." Cherry facepalmed while Amanda stared at her. The investor looked around nervously before taking a deep breath and reaching out towards Cherry, giving her a quick pat on the head.
"Please don't be upset. I don't know what I did, but I don't think I like seeing you upset." Cherry slowly looked back up at Amanda to see her doing her best to give her a warming smile, but it still looked a bit awkward. The party gal giggled a bit when she saw her face like that. "Did I do something funny?"
"No…just mildly cute." Cherry returned her full attention to her breakfast while Amanda slowly got red in the face.
Confessional - Amanda
"...Cherry thinks I'm cute. No one's ever said something like that to me before…I don't really know what it means." Amanda had her coin out, but wasn't flipping it, just calmly toying with it between her fingers. She was still blushing a fair bit from what Cherry said to her before. "...Does this mean that she's attracted to me? Am I supposed to ask her out? But what happens if she says no? I've never done any of this romance stuff before." Thinking about all of this got Amanda's mind running to uncomfortable places, and that was when she finally started flipping her coin.
Confessional - Cherry
"Amanda's…not the best for any sort of conversation, but she's still a fun gal to be around. I'm usually a bit more for the adventurous type, which she…can be. She just seems to get really anxious when she's trying to do, well, anything new." Cherry whistled before sticking a rosy red lollipop into her mouth. "But yes, it is pretty cute to see her getting flustered so easily."
"The romantic tension in this place is off the charts, ladies and gents! We got Bailey and Jhin makin' out and cuddlin', Cherry flustering Amanda by doing literally anything, Leo simpin' every single person that talks to him ever– it's too much!"
But while some were well awake already, there were those that hadn't yet awoken for the night. One such member of the still dreaming dreamers was little Gerald, who was snoozing pleasantly in his bed. His one arm was draped over something, which just seemed to be pillows that had been stuffed under the blankets of his bed. He continued to snore and snore until he started slowly waking up, smacking his lips like a toddler. His eyes worked on prying themselves open, but the process was slow, so only little slits were formed between his eyelids for the time being.
"Mmm…good morning Allan…" Gerald happily patted the pillows under the blankets next to him, his eyes slowly shutting themselves again…before out of nowhere, they shot wide open. He had this horrified stare in his pupils as he continued to pat the pillows, seeming to be looking for something that he just couldn't find, no matter how hard he attempted. He pulled himself up to his knees, chucking his blankets right off the bed while he continued to frantically search the bed.
"A-Allan? Where'd you go?" Gerald gulped nervously, crawling out of his bed and scanning his room. He looked all over it, up and down, even out the windows and at the ceiling, but there was no sign of where his friend was. "Allan, this isn't funny! Mm…mmf…" He gritted his teeth before jumping straight out of bed and booking it for the door, not even bothering to change out of his striped, red pajamas. He flung the door open like a madman, barreling down the hallway of the eleventh floor before crashing right into one of his teammates and falling onto the ground.
"W-woah there, Gerald! Didn't you ever hear about not running in the halls?" Of course, it had to be Atlas, who Gerald didn't have the fondest recollection of. The football player extended a hand to his teammate to help him up, but it was entirely ignored, as the boy with the imaginary friend got up on his own and bolted past him. "Huh? Guess he's got something really buggin' him right now…wonder what that might be?"
"Gotta find Allan…g-gotta find Allan!" Gerald was practically panting at this point, all the sprinting doing a number on his scrawny figure. He ran and ran, eventually running past Bec, who was also walking through the halls. The clay maker had to double take when he saw his teammate, but eventually just smiled at him and continued about his business down the hallway. Gerald went all the way to the elevator and, not knowing where to even start looking, pressed every single button that he noticed in it, hyperventilating now.
"Woah, woah, woah! Geraldowski, what's the matter, what's the rush?" C.K.'s voice boomed throughout the elevator, though Gerald was clearly trying to ignore it. The elevator stopped at the next floor in line, opening its doors and allowing the boy to run out of it. As the doors started to close back up, he just managed to squeeze back through. "You can't find your buddy, huh? Dang shame when something like that happens…'specially in such a big city. Hell, who knows how long it'll take to find him? An hour? A day? Two, three, four, five? Could be never!"
"S-stop saying that! I'll find him, I know I'll find him!" Gerald snapped at the man, who could only chuckle to himself, presumably shaking his head wherever he was. The frantic boy started to hear some whistling in the elevator, which only seemed to add to his stress. "W-what is this? What are you doing?"
"Me? Oh, you know, just spicing this montage up a little bit! Sure, we could just watch you scour every floor in the building for the next twenty minutes, but what's the fun in that when I could make it my own little musical adventure? Definitely gonna add to the entertainment value for me, myself, and I!" The whistling started to pick up on C.K.'s cue, with a somewhat soft beat playing along with it. "Come on, Gerald! Really wow me with this one! Show me what you got!"
"S-shut up!" Gerald shouted before running out of the elevator when it opened on the next floor, but this hardly seemed to stop the music from assailing his ears. He just looked frantic, and, to be blunt, scared. "L-lately I've been wishin' that the fire in the kitchen would grow higher! Feels like I've been looking for at least two days, runaway!" He circled the whole floor, making it back to the elevator in time while the door slowly shut. When it reopened, Gerald was nowhere to be seen, nor was the actual elevator chamber. Instead, it was a view of Atlas in his bedroom, hunched over as he sat on the edge of his bed, clutching something in his beefy hand.
"I feel alone when I want to…I could sleep, but I can't find time." Atlas raised one of his hands up to his face, tugging down on his lower eyelids, specifically at these bags that were forming under them. "My fatigue makes a debut, but I'll get through. Is there anybody else here?" He suddenly jumped up to his feet, but when he landed, he was shown skating on the course from the previous challenge, only to get beaten by Eli once again.
"Second place in the relay…souvenir from my darkest day." Atlas shuddered as he looked down at the drink ticket from the most recent elimination ceremony, which he had in his hand this whole time. He shook his head and turned around to start skating back towards the start of the course. "All I need is a rewind– not a remind. Is there anybody else here!?" As he skated, elevator doors seemed to close around him, slowly opening back up to show Gerald again, who ran out onto the next floor that he got to.
"And lately I've been wishing that the fire in the kitchen would grow higher! Feels like I've been looking for at least three days!" Gerald noticed that some room service employee was walking right in his path, and he shoved them right out of the way to keep on going in his endless search for Allan. "And if we suddenly expired would we get some peace and quiet? Would streets just fill with tigers like some big cat judgement day, runaway!" This floor was another dud, and Gerald had no choice but to return to the elevator. "Runaway!" The door closed up once again, but this time, when it reopened, it showed Bec standing in the men's bathroom on his team's floor.
"Chandeliers in the bathroom! Forgot my name, I forgot my…" Bec slowly turned around to see his own reflection in the mirror, and the music seemed to come to an abrupt stop. The oddest thing was that there was no noise whatsoever while he stared at himself, at least outside of the occasional droplet of water falling into the sink below him. His expression was foul, as if he was seeing something he couldn't stand the sight of, but when he suddenly smiled, the glass in the mirror cracked. He spun around again, no longer looking at the mirror as he began to bust out some wacky dance moves.
"All I need is a read through– not a redo. Is there anybody else here?" Bec stomped his foot down on the tiled floor below him, cracking it with his very footsteps. "I've been building an appetite, but the floor underneath me, it feels so thin! Overflowing with reasons why I'd hit the rewind! Is there anybody else here? ANY!" He swung back around again, slamming his forehead against the mirror and cracking it even more. "BODY! ELSE! HERE!?" With the last slam of his head, the mirror shattered, and those same elevator doors closed up again, re-opening to show Gerald finally reaching the lobby of the hotel.
"And lately I've been wishing that the fire in the kitchen would grow higher! Feels like I've been looking for at least four days!" Gerald fled from the elevator as quickly as he could, heading for the bar/restaurant and passing by Cherry and Amanda, who were both leaving it finally. He practically turned tables upside down in there, just searching for some sign of Allan. "And if we suddenly expired would we get some peace and quiet? Would streets just fill with tigers like some big cat judgement day? Runaway!" Much like the rest of the areas that he had looked before, the restaurant was a bust, with no Allan. He had no choice but to head outside, looking around before hopping into his yacht and driving off. Meanwhile, the camera slowly started panning up to the top of the hotel. Nobody could be seen, but it certainly felt like somebody was up there.
"And lately I've been wishing that the fire in the kitchen would grow higher. Feels like I've been missing for at least five days!" The bodiless voice sang until the camera cut to show three separate views, one of Gerald driving around in his yacht, one of Atlas still skating as fast as he could, and one of Bec with shards of glass in his hair while he danced in the bathroom.
"And if we suddenly expired would we get some peace and quiet? Would streets just fill with tigers like some big cat judgement day?" The three choraled together before their song came to an abrupt end with the single sound of a tiger growling.
Confessional - Gerald
"I…I don't know where Allan went off to…I searched the whole hotel, I've been to bars all over the place, I just have no clue at this point! I…I have to find him! Or…or else…" Gerald gulped slowly before looking at the camera with this empty expression that struck fear into anyone that might've happened to see it.
Confessional - Atlas
"I've been…well, a little bit down since the last challenge happened and all. Don't get me wrong, it was entirely my fault and all…but I just can't believe I let myself be that silly. I should've really just gone for it…guess wanting a fair match isn't really an option in a contest like this." Atlas chuckled to himself, but he did sound a bit nervous. "I'll just…do better. Yeah, I can definitely do better."
"Hm…" Zayden was standing in front of the door to one of his teammate's rooms, although whose room it was wasn't quite clear. It was room four on the tenth floor, but the door was shut tight and there was no indication that anyone was even in it. "Guess he's not in there right now…well, I could always come back later, I guess." The cone-wearing boy shrugged his shoulders and started to move down the hall, whistling a tune to himself. It was a jovial tune, to match his decent mood, but the rhythm was thrown all out of whack when he heard something thud on the ground behind him. "Eh?"
"Ow…" Zayden spun around to see Leo now laying on the floor in front of the door that he was just standing at. The seamster was groaning in pain and reaching his arms around his stomach. "I think my spleen just got absorbed into my lungs…" The horribly dressed boy waltzed right back over to his teammate, pulling him right up off the ground and giving him a pat on the shoulder.
"Were you on the ceiling or something? Doesn't really seem like the best place to be hanging out, if you ask me." Zayden snickered to himself, looking up at the ceiling to see a bunch of duct tape that had been torn through. He was astounded at the very sight of it, and he looked back down at Leo with a worried stare. "Did…Jhin attack you again like when we were doing the blogging challenge?"
"No…no, it wasn't Jhin. I didn't really see who it was, but it felt like it was a guy that grabbed me. Really tough arms and all…" Leo faintly blushed while Zayden just frowned at him, "A-ah! Sorry, sorry! I know I shouldn't romanticize the people that are taping me to the ceiling…b-but…muscles…"
"Leo, come on…you could do way better than a guy that randomly attacks you and tapes you to a ceiling. You're out here complementing these people, when you're really the one that deserves a compliment…or three. Something for that self esteem issue of yours." Leo twiddled his fingers nervously while puffing his lip out, looking guilty like he just committed a crime. Zayden shook his head and chuckled, "Like…ah! Did anyone ever tell you that you have really pretty eyes? They're such a unique color!"
"M-my eyes are pretty?" Leo gasped and raised his hands up to his cheeks, trying to cover up how red they were getting…and failing pretty miserably.
"Oh yeah, for sure. You've got the best sense of style of anyone in this whole hotel, your hair is really cool, need I go on? You just need to take a second to see all the unique, wonderful things about yourself!" Zayden smiled as he gave Leo another pat on the shoulder.
"I…I see. W-would you excuse me for just…one moment?" Leo gulped nervously while Zayden nodded at him, and he soon hurried into his room and shut the door behind him. He jumped right into his bed, burying his face in his pillows and squealing excitedly. He kicked his legs against the mattress before leaping back up and wrapping his arms around his stomach to hug himself. "I feel like my heart is melting! F-first Garfield comes to my room to make me feel better when I'm down, now Zayden's complimenting me! Oh, I think I'm gonna have a heart attack!"
"You…know I can hear you, right? You're kinda being really loud in there." Zayden awkwardly mumbled through the door, and Leo's eyes shot wide open.
"Oh…maybe I really am going to have a heart attack."
Confessional - Leo
"...I…I'm not used to having any guys being really nice to me like this. It's usually the opposite…my brother told me I'm a pretty big simp." Leo pouted slightly as he stared down at his lap, where his hands were residing. His fingers cutely tapped against each other and he slowly looked back at the camera. "I-I can't help it! The thought of being wrapped up in some guys arms…w-watching movies on a really rainy day…sitting in front of a fireplace in the dead of winter…oh, it's too much!"
Confessional - Zayden
"Didn't know Garfield was hangin' out with Leo the other day…" Zayden tapped his fingers on the dashboard of his clown car, scowling ever-so-slightly. "...Not that that matters at all! I'm glad he's hanging out with some of the others, good on him! …But Garfield? I don't like the feeling I get from him…"
"Well, you're gonna have to think about that in the car, because the next challenge is callin' you, conehead! Ch-ch-check it!" C.K.'s voice ushered in the directions to the next challenge location, but Zayden was still just scowling to himself. "Brooding ain't gon' do you no good, nosiree! Best get your bottom dollar over there if you really wanna make sure you can hog Leo all to yourself."
"H-hog him!? I'm not…shut up!"
As the contestants all got into their vehicles and went ahead with their driving towards the next destination, they quickly found themselves leaving the Heart District, something that hadn't happened since the very first challenge of the season. The neon lights were quickly replaced with warmer red and orange lanterns, and they were officially back in the Chinatown District. It was as bustling as it was the first time they visited it, with street stands overflowing with lines of citizens buying produce for their restaurants. That street market seemed to be exactly where the directions were taking the contestants, as they came to a halt and parked on the sides of the streets, looking around for Chris.
"Nyah…this stuff doesn't look like it would taste really good at all." Marshmallow whined as she looked at all the food stands, particularly at each one that had any sort of vegetables on them. She looked awfully sad, being forced to look at the foods that she could only imagine were bitter and distasteful. "I think I'd probably throw up if I had to eat any of that…"
"Maybe that's why you haven't grown big and strong yet…you aren't eating your vegetables." Eli patted Marshmallow on the head to tease her, which only succeeded in getting her to pout back at him. "Oh, relax, it's just a joke. I'm sure they've probably got some sort of candy or pocky or whatever around here."
"You're right, they do!" Chris suddenly appeared behind the duo, placing a hand on each of their shoulders and effectively startling them to the point of screaming. "We aren't even doing a fear challenge, but I love hearing the screams! Thanks for the entertainment, you two!" The host snickered as he pushed through them to stand at the head of the group, where he was met by Chef. "Our destination isn't this market, though…it's in there!" He pointed behind the contestants, and they slowly turned around to find an extravagant, and massive, restaurant with a huge sign on it. Of course, they couldn't really read the words, as it was all in Chinese, but it was rather pretty to look at.
"Welcome back to the Chinatown District, but more specifically, welcome to the best hotpot spot in the entire city! You folks should all tie your hair back and get in the kitchen, because you're not eating in this challenge!" Chris snapped his fingers, and Chef grumbled before throwing a burlap sack full of assorted things over to each of the teams. "Hotpot's sort of…well, one of the best social meals you can have! Everybody sits together and shares a meal that they all put together! Of course, in this place, you're served the hotpot rather than putting it together yourself. Lotta hungry people out tonight that are really gonna want a good meal."
"Maggots, follow me!" Chef snapped at the contestants as he walked right into the restaurant. They were hesitant to follow, but when they saw Chris waving them along, they accepted that they really didn't have much of a say in the matter. They went along with the co-host, only to discover that the restaurant wasn't even opened yet. No tables were seated, even the employees were nowhere to be seen. Chef took them through the main dining area, where they were greeted to the sight of two particularly massive tables with plenty of cushions around them on the floor. But the little trek didn't stop until they made it all the way to the kitchen, which was full of different pieces of cooking equipment, utensils, and the like.
"Here we are! The kitchen's the heart of any restaurant, as you all should know…and the chefs in it are the blood that keeps that heart beating! Rules of the challenge are as follows: the restaurant is opening up in two hours! You have those two hours using only what's in your ingredient sacks that I have given you and the equipment in this kitchen to put together the best sort of stock and assortment you can muster for your hotpot! Once doors open, you're done cooking! Done!" Chef stomped his foot down hard on the floor, causing it to quake, startling some of the contestants even more. "The team that's winnin' the challenge is gonna be whichever team has their whole hotpot devoured and loved! Makin' less doesn't give you a shoe-in to win if the customers ain't full when they leave! Do I make myself clear!?" Some of the contestants nodded back at Chef.
"Good! Then Chris and myself is gon' be waiting out in the restaurant's lobby, waiting to open the doors when time's up! Get a move on!" The co-host whistled, and the teams immediately split off with their burlap sacks and headed for the cooking equipment. Chef just left the room through the door, kickin' back in the lobby with Chris where they were, once again, drinking margaritas together.
Confessional - Marshmallow
"Nyah…I don't really know how anyone's going to be able to stomach this food when we put it all together. I looked at all the ingredients…there…was a lot of…green things…it's so…yucky!" Marshmallow slammed her fists down on her thighs as she started getting red in the face, presumably from anger. "I don't wanna eat vegetables, they're gonna make my stomach tie itself in a knot!"
Confessional - Morgan
"Bitch, do I look like I know a damn thing about cooking for a hotpot? Please, I'm the one that should be getting catered to!" Morgan reclined her seat to lounge while kicking her feet up on the dash. "Oh, servant bitch! Bring me some nourishment, or whatevah."
Confessional - Elward
"This challenge…it's almost too easy for someone like me! HAILEY can scan the internet and pull up a list of all the food items we can make with our ingredients within that two hour time slot! I'm a bit shocked that they haven't docked me for cheating at this point!" Elward crossed her arms and grinned, fully proud of himself, at least until he started to recall all the challenges that he had injured himself in beforehand. "...Okay, maybe I can see why, but this is different! It's just dealing with…"
"...Fire…" Elward, Eliza, and 3V all spoke in unison as they watched Bailey light a stovetop up. The freezy pop seemed all too pleased with how warm the fire was, even rubbing her hands together over it while the trio watched her in utter terror. They each took turns hiding behind each other's backs so they wouldn't have to look at the flames, but of course, that really didn't end up working for them.
"I…I don't think this is gonna go too well for us…" Eliza gulped nervously and looked around at the rest of the kitchen, eventually turning her attention to a cutting board. Bec was whistling over there, setting down several assorted vegetables to get chopping at, but the delivery girl suddenly shoved him aside and took his place, a loud crash ringing out from where she had shoved him. The rest of the team looked over to see Bec currently lodged in a mop bucket, glaring back at Eliza.
"Sleepy friend, you realize you could have asked me and I would have let you take the chopping duties. No need to get so excited about it." Bec grumbled and pulled himself out of the bucket, mop water having completely soaked his behind. He groaned in annoyance as he took his pants off and started shaking them dry while mumbling under his breath, "I hope you cut your fingers right off."
"Okay, team! Looks like we're at a bit of a disagreement on who should play what role in this challenge! We've lost the past three, so we really need to make sure we're on our A-Game for this one, eh? Come on, let's huddle!" Atlas clapped his hands together, and the other members of his team slowly came closer. They all huddled near the cutting board, with the football player taking charge of things, per the usual. "Now, it looks like we have a few people that are a bit afraid of fire, not naming names…but we can have the three of them split off into chopping ingredients, washing the dishes, and…plating?"
"You stupid or something? You don't need to plate for hotpot, you just plop the dishes on the table and call it a day!" Jhin rolled her eyes at Atlas before delivering a swift slap to Bailey's behind, getting the girl to blush profusely. "If you really want them to do things that don't involve fire, you can always have someone make cold dishes. It's more of a potluck thing, but it's whatever."
"O…kay…then we can do that." Atlas was mostly just confused that she spanked Bailey over something that he had said. "Either way…that leaves five of us to handle everything else. I found some hunks of steak in our sack, so I'm thinking I'll get going on that. I eat a lot of steak, so I know what I'm doing when it comes to cooking up something good!"
"But you don't want to cook a single steak for hotpot! You cook it into strips and separate it so people can eat it on their own! The customers will nag if you just plop down a whole steak in front of them. Community meal, idiot!" Jhin growled and spanked Bailey again.
"P-please…stop doing that…" Bailey whimpered at Jhin, who sighed and pulled her hand back from her.
Confessional - Jhin
"My family's pretty huge…there's me and my sister, Sion…we've got three brothers, Mari, Thio, and Yas…my mom and pop…my aunt and her husband…and then my uncle! Oh, he's got his daughters, my cousins, Veronica and Phoebe, too." Jhin deadpanned at the camera, "Phoebe, if you're watching, I'm going to gnaw your leg off for what you did last time we had hotpot at our place. BESIDE THE POINT! We do hotpot a lot, so I know a thing or two about how to do it right! Atlas, on the other hand, is going to make us lose if we do it his way."
Confessional - Atlas
"I didn't expect Jhin of all people to know anything about putting together a big meal like this…then again, I really don't know what to expect from her!" Atlas laughed to himself, even slapping his own knee in the process. "She's definitely the biggest wildcard on our team by a county mile! But hey, I'm not gonna complain about one of the other teammates taking charge in this one!"
"Mixing…stirring…bubbling…oh, this is really just so fascinating." Edward sighed while he stood on top of a stool near one of the open stoves. He had a huge pot over an open flame, which was completely full of different ingredients for some sort of soup. He stirred it around and around, just sighing more and more as he slowly started getting bored of what he was doing. "They could've given me anything else to do, but no, I get stuck with this end of the stick."
"Hey, I don't see why you're complaining. Morgan told me I'm not allowed near the food because I might 'eat it all.'" Eli shook his head while he aimlessly mopped over the floor for the fifteenth time in one spot. "Really starting to get sick of that attitude of hers, but, you know, pecking order and all that."
"I'd much rather be mopping than stirring the cauldron over here…at least then I could focus on what she and Garfield are talking about." Edward pointed off to the side, and Eli looked to see Morgan and Garfield huddled together, clearly talking about something, but no one could really hear what it was over all the sounds of things being cooked. "Too much noise in this general area…bloody hell, a bloke can hardly hear his own thoughts."
"Like I said, I'd love to switch spots with you, but knowing her, she's gonna throw something at me the minute I set my hand on the ladle." To prove his point, Eli grabbed a hold of the ladle from Edward, and was almost immediately hit in the head by an onion, which left a bump to quickly form on his head. He let go of the utensil as fast as he had grabbed it, rubbing the sore spot on his cranium. "See?"
"I guess…it could be worse. They put Marshmallow on taste-testing." Edward watched as Marshmallow slowly, and sadly, made her way over to where the two were. She dipped her finger into the soup, pulling it out and licking it, only to immediately convulse.
"So…bitter…my insides are bleeding…the pain…" Marshmallow let out a grunt before falling down to the floor, and Eli snickered and pushed her around with his mop. This seemed to cheer her up slightly, as she started giggling to herself. "I'm like the sweetest kind of floor soap, nyah! Floors so sweet you can eat ice cream right off of 'em!"
"See, she's good at being mop water, so things ain't all bad for her!" Eli, Edward, and Marshmallow all laughed together. Meanwhile, Garfield and Morgan were watching them and scowling.
"What do you make of that, Morgan? Those three have been all buddy buddy as of late. Definitely getting a little too close to each other for me to feel comfortable, I'd say." Garfield reached his hand up to stroke his soul patch, while Morgan, on the other hand, was grumbling and putting on a hair net. "I'm not entirely worried about losing…but in the event that we do lose this challenge, they've got three votes all together. You and I are just two…not sure if Leo's been really receptive to me trying to get him in the alliance or not."
"That leafy hair havin' ass bitch is more worried about getting you in him than he is about getting himself in our alliance." Morgan snickered while Garfield glared at her, "Don't be lookin' at me like that! I been seeing the way he looks at you! If those ain't bedroom eyes, I don't know what would be! Don't matter if we got him or not, though. I got us something better than him, anyhow."
"You did?" Garfield raised an eyebrow at Morgan when someone suddenly tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see Cherry standing there, holding a bowl in one hand while whisking whatever was in it furiously.
"Don't get the wrong idea, loves…I can't much stand either of you…but safety in numbers is something that I'd like to have. I'd hate to be the odd one out without an alliance." Cherry shook her head before pointing over at one of the cutting board stations, where Amanda was slowly working at. "And lucky for you two, I come with two votes rather than one."
"See? Told you I did you one better than the leaf boy." Morgan smirked as she passed by Garfield and Cherry, heading over towards another open stovetop to get to work.
Confessional - Garfield
"Didn't expect Morgan to actually pull through for something like this…I figured I was gonna be the one doing all the work, but I'm definitely not complaining. Amanda? She's basically chopped liver…but I'll take the fourth vote. Basically gives us an easy scapegoat to save our own hides if we've got her around, too." Garfield grinned at the camera, "Cherry's something special, though. She knows what she's doing in these challenges…having one of our team's best players on our side definitely bodes well."
Confessional - Cherry
"As I said…I can't stand Garfield or Morgan. They're always on about alliances, staying on top of things, hardly much of a party talkin' to either of 'em, innit?" Cherry seemed a bit too pleased with something, the smile on her face wasn't doing a wonderful job of hiding it. "I've got my plans for them, of course. The second things go south, I'll just secure the votes from Leo and Zayden. I stay one drink ahead of the rest of the party…you'd all do well to remember that."
"HAILEY! I need you to filter out the results of that search so it only shows the cold dishes that we can put together." Elward tapped his foot and waited while HAILEY's screen popped up in front of him with a loading symbol on it. It was taking her quite some time to compile the results, and all the while, Eliza was nervously staring at the two of them, chopping her vegetables up at a dangerously fast pace. "Come on, HAILEY! I don't have all this time to spend waiting for you to load!"
"A-are you going to punish me for doing a bad job, master? Like a bad, bad girl?" HAILEY's loading symbol was replaced with her face, but it looked…different than usual. Usually, her hair was tied up in a bun, but it had been let down in programming…she also seemed to have makeup all over her face somehow. Not only that, but her expression was lewd, to say the least. "I'll take whatever punishment you decide to-"
"HAILEY! RECIPES! PRONTO!" HAILEY whimpered after getting yelled at and pulled up a list with all of the recipes he was able to work with on it. "See, was that really so difficult? I don't know why you're acting all weird when we're in the middle of a challenge, but we need to make sure we've got this all worked out the right way so we don't get eliminated!"
"Y-you sure talk to your…r…obot…a lot, Elward." Eliza started looking more and more nervous when she saw HAILEY slowly turning to look at her. The AI just looked sad at this point, but the delivery girl hardly cared about that. Just seeing her in general was enough to make her feel threatened. "C-could you put her back in your head, if you don't mind? She's kinda freaking me out…"
"Not a bad idea, since she's acting up right now. Probably gonna have to work out some more kinks later." Elward tapped the device on his ear, and HAILEY was promptly retracted, giving Eliza a breath of relief. "Seriously, not sure what's been up with her lately! She's been acting all…gross."
"I think she just likes you…in whatever weird way that…" Eliza slowly stretched out her arms and yawned loudly, "...Whatever weird way that robot ladies can like human guys. Assuming you are a human…k-kinda hard to tell." She loosely pointed at Elward's ear devices, as well as his arm braces.
"Eh? Well, I guess some people would say I'm a cyborg, but the devices technically aren't parts of me. I could take them off easily," Elward reached his hands up to his ear devices, pulling them off to reveal his real ears…or lack thereof. It was primarily just burnt scar tissue, each spot with a little ear hole in it. He could easily see that seeing him like that was making Eliza uneasy, and he just chuckled before putting them back on. "Explosions kinda deform you and all. It's definitely worse for me than it is for you to look at."
"I don't mean to offend or anything, it's just that…it makes me think about…unpleasant things." Eliza gulped and returned her attention to her chopping, only to find that she had effectively run out of things to chop. "Oh…didn't realize I was getting through this that quickly."
"You could always go help 3V out if you're looking for things to do." Elward pointed over towards the sink, but his jaw dropped when he saw what was happening over there. "3-3V, what are you doing!?"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? It's basically a hot tub, I had to test it out!" 3V was sitting in the sink, which was full of hot, bubbly water. Her arms were covered in her moisture barriers, just like the ones she used when she went to shower. She didn't take her clothes off, though, and was just soaking in the water while fully dressed. She reached around in there and pulled out a small, glass bottle, which she cracked open and started drinking from. "Only downside is that I can't enjoy the hot tub and have a drink cooler at the same time."
"...Technically speaking, there's two sides to that sink. You could fill one of them with cold water." Eliza pointed out the option to 3V, who glanced at the open half of the sink and gasped.
"Eliza, you're a damn genius!" The drunkard giggled excitedly as she pushed the faucet over and turned the cold water on to fill it up, quickly gathering up all of the many bottles she had in the sink with her and moving them over.
"I don't see how this is at all helping with getting the dishes clean!" Elward threw his arms up in exasperation while 3V just rolled her eye, reaching off to the counter nearby and grabbing a dirty plate, which she dunked in the water a few times before tossing aside. It ended up flying like a frisbee until it hit Bec right in the head, knocking him out cold.
"See? That dish was clean, it's just broken now!" 3V laughed to herself, while Elward and Eliza just glanced between each other and sighed.
Confessional - Elward
"Now…I don't necessarily want to vote for 3V if we lose…but she hasn't been an incredible help in any of these challenges. N-not that I've done any better than her! Buuuuuut having someone else failing just as bad as I am bodes well for me!" Elward smiled, but clearly wasn't too happy with having to admit that he wasn't doing good in the challenges.
Confessional - Eliza
"...I don't really know what the next move is. Sure, I could help 3V out, like Elward said…but she's the weak link of our team, right? Do I…gain anything from helping her out?" Eliza yawned and started rubbing her tired eyes. "...She's expendable, that's all. I want to win this competition…and being caught focusing on helping our worst players won't do me any good."
"Elward and Eliza talking about saving their own hides at the expense of someone else? Guess it does make sense…if you think about it, everybody else on their team is doin' much better. 'Cept maybe Gerald."
"All these idiots wouldn't know how to do hotpot if I whacked them upside the head with this thing!" Jhin snarled as she grabbed a metal pot right by its handles from the stovetop she was near, ignoring the fact that it had been over an open flame, and was intensely hot at this point. She contemplated throwing it at Bec, who was just finally getting up after having been knocked out cold by 3V, but ended up sighing and setting it back down. Bailey was standing next to her, working on making some Finnish dish that didn't really make sense with anything else that the team was making. "...What are you doing?"
"I-I-I'm making paisti. It's a stew…I just had to really c-c-cut down on the ingredients and turn up the heat so it would be ready in time for open. W-w-we don't really do hotpot in Finland, but the dish translates to 'hot pot' so…it's similar enough, right?" Bailey looked up at Jhin, who was just staring at the stew and contemplating something to herself. "...I-i-if it isn't going to work I can try makin-"
"Don't even start with that, you frigid bitch. We can use your stew or whatever, I don't care." Jhin waved Bailey along, and the freezy pop slowly nodded before returning her attention to her stew. Meanwhile, the crazy girl walked away from the stove to find Atlas still trying to cook up a whole steak. He was just about to put it in his pan to sear, but she snatched it right from his hands and slapped him across the face with it. "Didn't I tell you that we don't do things like this for hotpot? It doesn't fit the theme at all!"
"Ah! But, all due respect, didn't you just say it was okay for Bailey to make her stew, even if it doesn't fit?" Jhin blushed pretty intensely, but still looked pretty annoyed as she slapped the steak right across the cheek that she had spared the last time. "Ow! Please, stop hitting me with the steak already!"
"The ice queen's stew is at least a dish that can be shared easily! You're just thinking of things that you would want to eat!" Jhin used her own nails to shred the steak up into strips, dumping them back into Atlas' pan as she glared at him. "Besides, she's one of my wives! She can do whatever she wants! And before you ask– yes, I am biased! No, I don't care how that makes you feel!"
"O-one of your…you have more than one wife? You have one wife to begin with? When did you get married!?" Atlas' confusion was reaching new heights as Jhin did a little spin and grinned at him.
"In my dream, of course! It was me and Bailey and Gwendolyn! We all got married and lived happily ever after until a big rock fell on our house and made our insides fly out of our mouths like toothpaste tubes! The end!" Jhin gave Atlas a little pat on the head before continuing to dance off towards the team's troublemaker– 3V. The football player watched helplessly as she practically dragged the drunkard out of the sink…and threw her at Bec.
Confessional - Atlas
"This is like one of those alliances, right? Bailey and Jhin are working together to help increase their chances…I guess if you think about it, I sort of have a similar thing with Bec! Heh, the guy's been my friend for so long, so us being on the same team is a blessing!" Atlas beamed, blissfully ignorant about the votes from the prior elimination ceremony.
Confessional - Jhin
"Atlas is definitely getting chopped if we lose this challenge. 3V might be an idiot, but she's an idiot that listens to what I tell her to do. Meanwhile, Atlas is trying to usurp my throne in the lollipop kingdom!" Jhin stomped her feet annoyedly, wearing some sort of princess tiara. "They're my lollipops, not his! By lollipops, I mean servants, of course. I'm the boss this time!"
Confessional - Bec
"This…is the only place…I can find safety in…" Bec was practically panting as he sat in his front seat, looking around in hopes that nobody from his team had followed him out there. "They're all lunatics in there!"
"J-just…fold them over…and pinch the edges…" Leo gulped nervously as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, staring down at a countertop where he had set out many small bits of dough. He filled them up with a mix of meat, sauce, and veggies– one could only assume that these were supposed to be dumplings. As he reached down to fold the first one over, he felt like somebody was watching him, and looked to the side to see Amanda staring at all the dumplings. "O-oh! H-h-hi…Amanda…"
"...Is you sweating all over the dumplings supposed to be part of the process? I really don't see how that's going to add to the flavor." Amanda frowned at Leo and slid a towel over to him. "Your forehead is dripping all over everything. I understand, though. I get like that sometimes. Sometimes I get nervous because I don't know if my new coins are going to fit on one page or another. Or sometimes I worry that I might be investing into a stock that'll experience a plummet in value. I usually don't do that, but it has happened once."
"W-well…I'm not nervous about any of that…I'm nervous because…a-all the…boys…" Leo bit his lip as he looked over his shoulder, particularly at Zayden and Garfield. Oddly enough, neither of them were paying attention to him, with Zayden being too busy putting together some rice noodles that he had just cooked while Garfield was busy with handling the dishes that were already done. "Just thinking about them…w-working in the kitchen…a-and…getting all hot and…oh, it's too much! Y-you know what I'm talking about, right?"
"Ehhhhh…" Amanda paused, but her eyes slowly trailed over to Cherry, who was still combating with that whisk from before. Almost immediately, she started smiling. "...Yes, I think I know what you're talking about." However, her smile faded away in a millisecond, as she looked back down at Leo with her typical stare. "But we are in the middle of a challenge, so we have to focus. If you get too distracted, the team might eliminate you. I don't want to get eliminated, and I'm sure you don't want to get eliminated. You'll just have to look at all those guys' butts later."
"I-I wasn't looking at their-"
"Oh…then I don't think I know what you were getting at before, sorry." Amanda awkwardly stumbled away from Leo, who was left blushing as he went back to folding up his dumplings.
Confessional - Amanda
"I have a really hard time relating with the other people here. Most of the time, when I try, I just end up looking…well, kind of weird, I think. They always look at me like I'm wearing a basket on my head…they look at me like I'm wearing a basket on my head…" Amanda was starting to get really uneasy as she reached for her coin, but she suddenly stopped. "...Cherry doesn't do that. I like Cherry."
Confessional - Leo
"I wasn't looking at their butts, honest!" Leo pleaded to the camera, but with how intensely he was going at trying to appear innocent, it sure did make him come off as guilty.
"We're running out of time here, people! How are we supposed to win the challenge if you can't just get the stock ready and put the dippers out? It's the easiest thing!" Jhin was getting worked up again, as she snatched up a ladle from Bec, hitting him on the back of the head with it before rushing over to their pot of soup stock and stirring at it, trying to mix everything up properly. "How have you guys not even put any of the vegetables out yet!?"
"L-look, I wasn't paying attention when I was chopping, I was a bit distracted by something!" Eliza didn't much care for being yelled at by Jhin, but it was true that everything she had chopped had just been put together in one big pile rather than being put on a plate at all. She started to gather things up onto plates, but picking all of the ingredients apart and separating them properly was a whole nother story.
"...Huh…?" Gerald slowly looked up at his team, who had primarily forgotten his existence during the entire challenge thus far. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion to him, even his blinks took far longer to fully go through. "All that arguing…I hate it…" He started slowly shuffling towards his team, his body awkwardly wobbling back and forth with each step he took. His eyes looked off towards a whole dish rack full of knives at first, but he managed to pry his gaze away from them.
"G-G-Gerald…? You don't look so good…" Bailey spoke up from the stove that she was still standing by, but Gerald didn't even look at her, he just focused on moving himself towards that massive pile of chopped up ingredients.
"...This challenge…it's preventing me from finding Allan…" Gerald knew what he had said, but everyone else from his team was looking at him like he was an alien. He reached his hands up towards the pile and, in a swift motion that made his arms look like a blur, separated things into their proper piles, setting them all aside on different plates. To say his team was shocked was a bit of an understatement, but when they tried speaking to him, all he could hear were indistinguishable mumbles.
"H-hey, Gerald, man! Maybe just go take a seat." Atlas started to move towards Gerald to help him, but he was effectively ignored, as his jaded teammate just grabbed all the plates like a professional server and started to carry them out of the kitchen. "Yo, guys…he definitely didn't look like he was right in the head just now, right?"
"Pfft, I thought he looked fine." Jhin waved Atlas off and just got back to her stock, which she finally seemed pleased with. She lifted the ladle up to her lips and took a sip from it.
"I-is it good?" Bailey murmured her question, which was definitely a mistake, as Jhin took this as another excuse to kiss her. The other teammates awkwardly looked away until the crazy girl finally pulled back from Bailey, who blinked a few times. "...O-oh…yeah…it did taste pretty good."
"And now we're ready! I'd like to see wimpy dimpy Team A-Side beat us this time!" Jhin cackled and grabbed the pot of soup stock, bringing it out to the dining room while the rest of the team followed. As for Team A-Side, most of them were working together to gather up their plates and bring them out. Edward and Marshmallow were the only two left standing by the stove while everyone else was too busy heading to the dining room, with Edward finally finishing up the soup stock that he had put together.
"Well…that was a full waste of a challenge, wasn't it? Marshmallow, you wouldn't mind carrying it out there for me, would you? My arms are quite tired after all that stirring." Edward jumped down from his stool, only for Marshmallow to salute him proudly.
"Nyah, nyah, you got it! I can bring that out in no time! We're gonna win our fourth challenge in a row with how good you made it!" Edward faintly blushed at the compliment, but just nodded back at the catgirl and went out to join the others, leaving her in the kitchen alone. She dipped her finger into the pot again, like before, giving it a lick and immediately creasing from the "awful" taste. "Nyah…why do the people in this city like things that taste this bad? It's so yucky!" She shuddered to herself, having to take a deep breath to keep herself from actually vomiting all over the floor.
"Well…" Marshmallow slowly looked around the room, making sure that nobody else was in there with her. A smile crawled onto her face, as she ran over to a cupboard in the room and grabbed a big bag. She hobbled over to the pot again, taking her sweet time with how heavy the bag was, but ended up dumping all of its granulated contents out into the stock. "Phew! That was really heavy!" She chucked the now empty bag into the nearest garbage can, heading back over to stir up the pot, now that she had changed what was in it. When she finished stirring, she took another dip of it and tasted it. "Mmmmm! Soooooo sweet!"
"Marshmallow, are you coming out here or not?" Eli poked his head back through the door to the kitchen, seeing Marshmallow smiling as she picked up the pot.
"Nyah, yeah! I'm coming, I'm coming!" Humming a happy tune, she strutted over to Eli with the pot in her hands, and he held the door open for her so she could bring it out to the table.
Confessional - Gerald
"Is it…over yet?" Gerald looked directly at the camera, slowly blinking at it while breathing through his mouth rather than his nostrils. "...I need…to look…for Allan."
Confessional - Marshmallow
"I could not, in my right mind, let anybody eat that yucky stuff! A little bit of sweetness never hurt anybody anyways, so it should be completely fine!" Marshmallow crossed her arms proudly while she swirled a lollipop around in her mouth. "I mean, I loved it!"
While the teams gathered to the side of the dining room, flames were lit underneath the soup stocks on each table. The amount of plates there were was practically identical between each team, so there wasn't much of a buffer for either one when it came to worrying about how much food there was. Chris and Chef, still at the head of the restaurant, checked their watches and, sure enough, it was time for them to open their doors. They nodded at each other, each grinning before they finally opened up the doors, only to get stampeded by the dozens of hungry customers that were lined up outside.
"Ahhhh…just like back home…" Jhin smiled warmly when she heard the blood curdling screams that came from the hosts getting trampled, though the bulk of her team was just looking at her all confused. The customers booked it straight for the tables, all of them either sitting down at A-Side's or B-Side's and digging in as fast as they could.
"It looks like they're loving it!" Atlas reached over to Jhin to get a fist bump, but she ended up just biting his hand when it got too close. "Ow! T-that's a party foul!"
"I don't get it…what's wrong with all of them?" Edward scratched his chin while he watched the customers that were sitting at A-Side's table just sneer at the soup stock. "I don't think I put anything too offensive in there…" Everybody at that table had taken at least one dip into the stock, and sure enough, they all immediately started to vomit all over the table. Pretty much everyone on Team A-Side felt their jaws dropping as they watched it happen.
"Edward, what the hell did you do in there?" Garfield gritted his teeth and picked Edward up by the collar of his shirt, holding him in the air as if he weighed nothing. Just seeing this pissed Eli off, and he grabbed his "friend" away from the politician wannabe. "There's no reason anybody's gonna be puking from one taste of that stock unless you messed with it!"
"You didn't even give me the chance to say that I didn't do anything…always the charming bloke, you are." Edward dusted himself off after Eli set him back down on the ground. Of course, at the same time, B-Side was finishing off all of what they had out, and their customers were leaving with full stomachs and smiles on their faces. "I only put in the ingredients that were offered to me for the stock…nothing more, nothing less."
"Then why do we got bitches puking all over the damn restaurant? Boy, you better count your days, because this loss is all on you!" Edward looked out while Morgan and Garfield glared at him, but his attention wasn't really caught by them, but rather something else. He watched as the sleeve of Garfield's jacket was tugged on by a dainty, little hand.
"P-please stop yelling at him…" Marshmallow sniffled while she continued tugging at that sleeve, with both Garfield and Morgan looking at her in their mix of annoyance and confusion. "I just wanted to make it taste better."
"Wait, you did what?" Eli's eyes bugged out, but no one was really given time to question what had happened, as Chris finally came to the dining room from the entrance, dusty shoe prints left all over his body from having been trampled.
"B-Side! B-Side wins! As far as my hazy vision can tell, they've got nothing left to serve…and I heard no complaints from anyone on the way out! Though maybe that's just because my ears are ringing so much!" Chris tried to chuckle, but this only gave him a pain in his side. He took one look at A-Side's table and immediately saw the mess that had been made with all the sickly customers holding their stomachs. "Yeah, wasn't much of a contest from what I'm seeing! A-Side! We'll be seeing you at the elimination ceremony tonight!"
"Great…just great…" Garfield grumbled and shook Marshmallow off of his sleeve, causing her to stumble and fall to the ground. Most of the contestants, as well as the hosts, headed out of the restaurant as quickly as they could, only leaving Eli, Edward, and Marshmallow behind. The two boys looked down at the catgirl, who just looked back at them with an apologetic expression.
Confessional - Marshmallow
"...I-I really just wanted to make it taste better, I didn't know that it was going to make them all get sick…" Marshmallow was basically cradling herself and rocking back and forth in her seat. "B-but…even worse than making people sick…people were yelling at one of my two friends…n-now I'm gonna have no friends…"
Confessional - Eli
"...Well, shit." Eli grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Look, you know that I wouldn't be coming to you to ask for something like this if it wasn't important. I'm just…I guess desperate at this point." Eli stood in front of a doorway, still rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding eye contact. "She was just trying to help out or whatever, I don't think we need to eliminate her for that. Can't you just help me out and vote for Morgan instead? I know it's a lot, I know."
"...I-I…I don't…" Leo looked around awkwardly, almost like he was looking for some sort of escape route from this conversation. "I-I feel bad voting for Marshmallow, b-but…she did kinda cost us the challenge, didn't she…?" Hearing the seamster say that only seemed to upset Eli even more. "O-oh dear…I really don't know-"
"Just forget about it. Should've figured it would be a moot point…got the same answer from everyone I asked, either way." Eli grumbled and turned away from the door to head back to his room, with Leo slowly and nervously closing the door to his own room.
Confessional - Eli
"Don't get the wrong idea, the only reason I was even bothering asking people not to vote for Marshmallow is because I want the extra vote on my side." Eli didn't look like he was all too sure of that answer, "I mean…because of her, there's crumbs from cupcakes all over my room. Not to mention how sticky all my controllers are after she touches them. Do you know how hard it is to disinfect them after they've been covered in donut glaze? It's the worst. …Yeah…won't miss her at all."
Team A-Side's remaining nine members made their journey to the roof of the hotel, a lot of mixed emotions coming from the lot of them. Zayden, for instance, was annoyedly staring at Garfield, who was sending the same expression to Marshmallow. The sweets lover was trying to hide herself inside her jacket so she wouldn't have to worry about anybody looking at her like that, but she could still feel the stairs. Edward seemed to be writing on his arms a lot more aggressively than usual and Eli, who was sitting next to him, was just grumbling to himself. Amanda sat next to Cherry, showing off her collection of coins in a binder to her while the party gal just nodded and tried to pretend that it was somewhat interesting. Morgan just whistled to herself while he filed her nails…and Leo did whatever he could to hide, just like Marshmallow.
"Alright, dipshits…I don't know what the challenge was, but you all lost. Not only that, but I've got the hosts in my office because they got trampled. Of all the obnoxious things that could've happened…ugh." Gwendolyn was the only one at the podium this time, holding eight drink tickets in her hand while she glared at her former teammates. "I don't really know what they expected me to do with this whole ceremony, they didn't explain it too well. So fucking useless, I swear. Whatever, the ones that got no votes…Cherry, Amanda, Eli, Edward, Zayden, Leo. You five probably didn't do anything stupid enough to get any votes sent your way."
"It only makes sense, love. So wonderful to be seeing you again." Cherry lied through her teeth as she took her drink ticket from Gwendolyn, who just rolled her eyes at her while she passed out the other four tickets.
"Garfield, again, I don't know what the fuck you did…but you only got one vote during the ceremony, so you're in the clear. Here's your stupid ticket." Gwendolyn gave the ticket to the startled Garfield, who shrugged and accepted it with a smirk before looking back at Marshmallow to glare again. "Marshmallow, I can only imagine that you did something idiotic involving sugar. Morgan, if I were to guess…you're just a bitch."
"Bitch, only I'm allowed to call myself a bitch! Imma fuck you up for that one!" Morgan looked just about ready to throw hands with Gwendolyn, who didn't seem interested in her little tantrum whatsoever.
"Would you just relax? You two both got four votes, so we have to do something that Chris called a tiebreaker challenge." Eli seemed particularly shocked by this result, and he looked over to Leo to see that he was still trying to make himself look small and insignificant. As far as things went for Marshmallow and Morgan, Gwendolyn walked right up to them, holding a bowl in each of her hands. "Chris said that one of these is a bowl of regular soup…and one is a bowl of Marshmallow's stock from the challenge earlier. Really not sure what happened, but still wary of it. Morgan, you have to eat the whole bowl of Marshmallow's. Marshmallow, you have to eat the whole bowl of regular soup."
"B-but…my stomach…it can't…" Marshmallow whimpered as the bowl of soup was aggressively thrust into her hands, leaving her with no choice but to accept it. Morgan rolled her eyes and took the other bowl from Gwendolyn, looking down at it to see that it practically resembled melted ice cream with how much sugar had been put in it.
"Blech! Dumbass catgirl, this shit ain't safe to be put in anybody's body!" Morgan glared at Marshmallow, only succeeding in making her feel worse than she already did. It really annoyed Eli, hearing her call her a dumbass.
"The one that'll still be in the game is whoever finishes their bowl first. I don't care if you puke at the end, just down it faster than the other. If you're feeling so terrible afterwards, then you can come to my office. But for now…" Gwendolyn looked between the two girls, each of which just looked disgusted by their respective bowls of soup. "...Eat up!"
The second that Gwendolyn called out for the girls to start, they each lifted their bowls up to their lips and started to sip from them. Marshmallow gagged before Morgan did, but the cheerleader sure looked like she was about to be just like the customers from earlier. Their team watched them as they slowly swallowed, trying to hold it in as best as they could. Eli and Edward crossed their fingers while watching Marshmallow, but Garfield merely rolled his eyes, seeming to expect one outcome over the other. Eventually, in that final stretch, Marshmallow gagged again, and she was turning green in the face.
"I…I can't do it…" Marshmallow slumped over and set her bowl down in her lap as her stomach bubbled, leaving Morgan to finish off her sugary soup. When she was done, she gasped for air, immediately falling over on the ground. Eli sighed disappointedly, and Edward mumbled something to himself before scribbling down on his arms again.
"I think I've got diabetes after eating that…" Morgan groaned and rolled around in pain while Marshmallow slowly got up from her seat, clutching her stomach in pain.
"Well, expected as much after seeing how you reacted to normal food before. Marshmallow, do yourself a favor…start training your stomach so you can eat more than just sweets." Gwendolyn glared at Marshmallow, who just whimpered and started walking past her to head over to the glowing tube.
"Well…" Marshmallow turned around to look at Edward and Eli, looking far more miserable than ever before. "I was hoping we could spend more time together before we got split up…I've never really had that many friends before. Oh! But…I left you guys little goody bags in your rooms! T-they're not much, but I tried to make cupcakes that look like you! That, and some mixed candies! S-so…if you miss me, you at least have something sweet to hold you off until we get to hang out again! You…do wanna hang out again, right?"
"...Yeah…we'll hang out again. Just wash your hands before you think about touching my controllers." Eli smirked at Marshmallow, and even Edward started to smile at her. This was enough to wipe that miserable look off of her face, and she was able to head into the tube with a smile. It lit up brightly, and just like that, she was gone.
C.K. Swing Songs: Big Cat Judgement Day by With Confidence
Votes: Marshmallow - Garfield, Cherry, Amanda, Morgan; Morgan - Marshmallow, Eli, Edward, Leo; Garfield - Zayden
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
17th: Marshmallow Fulloff, the Connoisseur of Sweets
Team A-Side: Amanda, Cherry, Edward, Eli, Garfield, Leo, Morgan, Zayden
Team B-Side: Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eliza, Elward, Gerald and Allan, Jhin, 3V