Hi again, everyone! Ok, I got some good reviews, so I couldn't wait anymore: I'm releasing the next 5 chapters ahead of schedule! I already have them and most of week 7 done and was planning on releasing them on a weekly basis so I'd have more time to finish, but I just can't wait anymore. So, here they are! Prepare for more insanity, more carnage, and more psychotic antics!
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Big Brother
Week 2 Day 1
The votes have been counted and it is Adray who must leave. He has thirty minutes to pack his bags and get his sorry, wasted ass out of this house. Being the drunken slob he is, he's not able to get his things together and leave in time so, being the super mean, heartless bitches that we are, we release the hounds.
A pack of half-starved rottweilers comes tearing around the corner, led by Albel, who, with his personality and the iron collar-like thing around his neck, fits in perfectly. Adray sees them coming, screams, and runs down the stairs, tripping halfway down and rolling to the floor. He gets up and runs out the door, with Albel and the rottweilers in hot pursuit. They disappear down the street.
The Glyphian and the dogs return about an hour later; some of the dogs have pieces of cloth in their mouths. We throw steaks to the dogs to reward them for their services, though while we weren't looking, Roger climbed into the box of steaks. He is thrown clinging to a steak and is immediately shredded by the vicious dogs, who have a great time throwing him around like a rag doll until his paramedics don padded suits and come to his aid, carrying him away covered in blood and dog drool.
Unfortunately, running with the hounds has had an adverse effect on the good general, who is now fighting the dogs over steaks, growling and salivating like the furry beasts. One of the rottweilers gets too close to his 'prey', and he launches at it; the dog runs away whimpering, its tail between its legs and its ears flattened against its skull in submission. We send in security guards to retrieve the psychotic Albel, but he bites them and they flee like little pansies from the homicidal maniac, who is now foaming at the mouth and barking. Luckily, we have tranquilizer guns on hand. The remaining security guards fire several darts into Albel's backside. He starts running around on all fours in circles, looking for something to kill and barking until the drugs start to take effect. He starts to wobble and stagger, then falls over on his side and goes to sleep. The security guards drag the drugged wacko away. We'll have him wearing a straitjacket in a padded room the rest of the day for observation purposes. We will also be supplying him with a steady flow of meds.
The spectacle over, the other residents go on about their business. Cliff is very upset, having lost his favorite drinking buddy.
"Maaaan," Cliff drawls drunkenly, "why'd Adray haav ta' go? He wuz my beeessst pal!"
"Like what am I, dude?" the stoned Fayt asks, "Am I like...ya' know...chopped liver er sumthin'?"
"Aw, shaaaadup!" Cliff yells, throwing the bottle of beer in his hand at Fayt. Drunk as he is, Cliff's aim sucks and he misses Fayt's head by a long shot, hitting Roger and sending him back to surgery with shards of glass stuck in his head.
We've decided to spend what's left of the day following Sophia with our cameras. Perhaps she's more interesting than we give her credit for. Who knows?
Never mind; she's boring as hell! Sophia spends the rest of the morning until lunch on her exercise equipment; running like a hamster. We'll get back to her later.
We turn the cameras to Albel in the padded room. He has just awakened and is looking around in a daze. He tries to get up, but then realizes that he is back in his straitjacket, which is even monogrammed with his initials. He seems agitated; VERY agitated. He starts chewing on the sleeves, trying to free himself, but as he has done that before, his sleeves have been reinforced with a much thicker and more durable layer of fabric. After fifteen minutes of nonstop chewing, he yells his frustration and starts kicking the air. Big, tantrum throwing baby.
It is now time for lunch and Sophia runs down stairs to the table. She sits down in her seat and starts chowing down on her tofu. Cliff and Fayt, drunk off their asses, are sloshing beer around while singing stupid bar songs. As they sing the big finale, they give their mugs one last big swing, sloshing beer around the table.
Fayt's mug slips out of his hand and goes flying at Roger's head, missing him by only inches. "Ha!" Roger laughs, "It missed me!" Just then, it bounces off the wall and comes flying back at him, shattering upon impact with his tiny cranium. He is rushed away by his paramedics for more surgery.
On the other side of the table, Sophia sits stone still, dripping beer. Slowly she raises her head; the murderous look in her eyes is plainly visible. Everyone's gaze shifts to her, but she sees only the source from whence the dousing came: Cliff. She stands slowly and picks up the nearby bottle of soy sauce by its neck, squeezing till her knuckles turn white. She slams it down on the edge of the table, breaking off the bottom. She then launches across the table, broken bottle in hand, murder in eyes. Cliff turns and tries to run, but trips over a chair, falling flat on his drunken face. She comes down hard on his backside, raising the bottle over her head to strike. Luckily, our security guards are ready for any emergency and rush to Cliff's aid before he can go the way of Roger. They pull Sophia off Cliff, careful to avoid the flailing broken bottle, and carry her back to her room to cool off. We think we may get her a monogrammed straitjacket too...
In her room, Sophia paces like a caged animal. She decides to run on her treadmill to relieve the stress and burn off the calories from her meal (what the hell kind of calories do you get in tofu!). Anyway, she's gone back to being boring, so lets check on the others.
Cliff is cowering in a corner, trembling with fear; this brush with death has left him badly shaken. "Maybe I shood give ups drinkin'," he says, starting to sound just a little more sober. Like hell he'll sober up; he'll be drunk as a skunk again by nightfall.
Fayt is up in his new room (we gave him Adray's old one in order to avoid a fatality), sitting in a new beanbag chair, getting high as a kite. He takes drag after drag of weed, enjoying every minute of it and jabbering retarded'peace and harmony'crap (good thing Albel is locked away right now).
Nel is down in the basement keeping an eye on the monitor showing Albel's padded room, as we have requested that she help us monitor him. She reaches into a bag of chips and pulls out a fist full, her eyes never leaving the monitor as she eats.
Albel is alternately pacing in circles and banging his head on the walls, screaming in fury. He should be fine by next morning, but under surveillance indefinitely. We will be spiking his food with a special mixture of meds from now on as well, just to keep him from getting too out of hand.
Roger and Peppita are playing with her stuffed animals in the living room again. They seem to be enjoying themselves. Roger throws a stuffed seel at Peppita playfully and she throws a tiger at him. The stuffed animal fight goes on innocently for several minutes until Peppita throws a little stuffed dragon at Roger; it collides with his face and just hangs there. Blood starts to run down Roger's front and he falls over backward. His paramedics rush to his side to find that there was a knife in the dragon (hmm, I wonder how THAT got there). They rush the little Menodix to surgery as our security guards try to confirm the origin of the knife (hello! is there anyone here who can't figure out where it came from! if so, they need to get their fucking head checked by a bloody professional IMMEDIATELY! then sign up for BRAIN SURGERY!). The guards quickly point out the obvious; it's a Glyphian knife with Albel's prints all over it (no shit, Sherlocks). This was obviously yet another 'Roger Trap' by our resident 'Master of Disaster'. We should punish him, we should, but frankly, we find it hilarious.
Mirage is watching tv in her room. She flips the channel and finds an anime expo. She seems very interested in what she sees, considering she's quite the avid anime fan. Some people walk by dressed as their favorite anime characters; cosplay. Mirage is even more interested now. Uh-oh.
Maria is out in the yard again, shooting at targets and trying to learn some new gun tricks. She sees something dart past quickly and fires at it, thinking it nothing more than a large squirrel. It was Roger. Time to have a bullet removed from his brain.
Dare we check to see what Sophia is doing? We turn the cameras back to her room. Our camera is covered, so we switch to Nel's hidden one to find the shades of Sophia's windows drawn tightly closed. She is sitting on the edge of her bed with her back turned to the camera. The sound of something crunching can be heard loudly as her arm moves up and down swiftly between her mouth and something in her lap. She suddenly throws aside an empty box of cookies, reaching under her bed for a huge chocolate bar! Looks like someone's diet is a sham...
Dinnertime approaches quickly and before long, everyone is at the table again. Cliff is, as predicted, plastered again, Fayt is high, Roger is wrapped in bandages like a mummy, and Mirage is dressed as Aya from "Ceres: Celestial Legend". The others are more or less their usual selves. Sophia once again eats tofu; the scam continues. It's dinner as usual, including an injury for Roger in the form of a steak knife in his foot (how does he DO that!)
Everyone goes to sleep and nothing too unexpected happens. Sophia is up late, snacking from her private stash and a spring in Roger's mattress pops out, stabbing him in the back.
Day 2
It's breakfast time and we've released Albel, as he showed about as much improvement as we could ever expect of him. We have ,however spiked his breakfast with some very strong happy pills and shall wait to see the effects, which we assume will be quite entertaining. Today, the cameras will follow Nel's day.
They all sit at the table, shoveling their breakfasts into their mouths at blistering speed. Roger starts to choke on his, turning purple and requiring a quick heimlich; unfortunately, the paramedic squeezes him too hard, squeezing his stomach out onto the table in front of him. Needless to say, everyone has lost their appetites, except Albel, who is desensitized to all gore and violence. He just laughs and continues to eat, for which we are glad; we wouldn't want him to miss his first dose of medicine. The paramedics carry Roger away for restuffing.
Nel, once back in her room, sits in front of the stacks of monitors from which she can view the entire house and the goings on therein. She looks to her Cliff monitor and sees him chugging beer by the case. Looking at the Fayt monitor, she watches him snort large quantities of white powder through a straw (geez, I wonder what THAT is). Through her Mirage monitor, she sees Mirage going through her wardrobe, altering her outfits to look like those of the anime characters on her posters. She glances at the Sophia monitor and catches Sophia in the middle of yet another chocolate binge. On the Maria monitor, she watches as Maria injects melted lard into tofu blocks, laughing maniacally as she does so. The Albel monitor shows him darting back and forth between his many weapons, like a humming bird with murderous intentions. She glances at the Roger monitor, but quickly averts her gaze, as his paramedics are still working to put his stomach back in. On the Peppita monitor, she sees the little Velbaysian practicing some kind of circus routine with her stuffed animals.
Nel reaches into the bag of potato chips she's been eating from and finds it empty. It is time once again for a brief foray to the surface world. Nel pulls her chair beneath the vent in the ceiling and stands on it to remove the grating. She climbs up into the vent and travels up through the air ducts, crawling stealthily so as not to make a sound. She finds herself above the kitchen and removes the grating from the vent, jumping down through the open hole in the ceiling and falling silently as a cat to the kitchen floor. She quickly runs to the fridge, opening it as quietly as possible and grabbing an armload of snacks, then she goes to the pantry and does the same. Her mission completed, she jumps back into the vent, pulling the grating back into place and crawling back to her room.
Back in her chair in front of the monitors, she resumes eating her snacks and viewing her house mates. Slowly, she drifts off to sleep, still sitting up in her chair with her feet propped up on her desk and a bag of chips in her lap.
Meanwhile, the drugs from breakfast are starting to take effect on Albel. We got some super powered, fast working, experimental pills for him; promised to work within hours instead of weeks. He's not playing with his weapons anymore, but looking silently out the window with a strange expression on his face. Slowly he turns and leaves the room, walking downstairs to where the two children are now playing with Peppita's stuffed animals again. He plops down on the floor next to them, surprising and scaring them. He grabs a stuffed horse and starts to play with it, making it run along the floor. Roger and Peppita exchange confused glances, look at him again, shrug, and start to play. The three of them appear to be having a lot of fun.
It's not long before the children have the drugged Albel outside playing with little fluffy kittens and bunnies. They run around the yard playing tag, rolling in the flowers, and petting and cuddling the fuzzy little animals. Nel, who has awakened again, is watching the outside monitor in pure shock as Albel starts singing "I Feel Pretty", dancing in the flowers with little kitties prancing around his feet. Quite frankly: we are disturbed, VERY disturbed.
"Wow," Peppita says, obviously amazed at Albel's drug induced change of heart, "what happened to you? You're so nice now. And you haven't even tried to hurt Roger once!"
"I don't know," he answers, a slight smile on his face. He pats Roger on the head, "I just feel so happy suddenly."
"I like the new you much better!" Roger exclaims. The three of them laugh and walk back inside.
Nel sits in front of her monitors in stunned silence, her jaw practically down to her feet. To see Albel the Wicked behaving in this manner has deeply disturbed us all. She continues to follow him on the monitors.
Albel, Roger, and Peppita go up to Fayt's room to visit. They sit down with him and Albel even starts to sound like him, talking about peace, friendship, and every other un-Albellike topic in the book. The three visitors soon become high off the abundant fumes in the room and start acting really stupid. Fayt joins them as they wander downstairs for lunch.
Everyone is soon at the table and gawking at Albel, who is being exceedingly nice. He makes polite small talk, passes things around the table when asked, and even assists Roger when he gets a spoon lodged in his tail (!). Albel takes his second dose of happy pills, which is dissolved in his bowl of soup. We are, however, starting to question what this will do to our ratings.
The rest of the day goes on in the same manner; Albel playing with Roger and Peppita, Nel watching in stunned silence. Checking our ratings, we see that our wonderful viewers like this change in Albel...about as much as we do. Many have stopped watching, as the kinder, gentler Albel isn't half as funny as the old psychotic one. In order to save our sorry butts, we've decided to cut off Albel's supply of meds. And, to make it up to our beloved viewers, we're going to let him go cold turkey! Lets watch!
The hours wear on and dinnertime comes and goes unspiked. It's getting late and Albel is not looking well. It seems he is starting to go into withdrawal. He is beginning to sweat, and looks like he may hurl at any moment. Roger offers him a cookie and, upon sight of food, Albel barfs all over the little Menodix. Blinded by vomit, Roger runs into another glass cabinet and cuts himself to shreds. A clean and stitch operation for him!
Albel, shivering in a corner of the living room, is slowly starting to come to his senses; the gleam of evil returning to his eyes. Fayt walks over to him and tries to help him up, but Albel scratches at him with the talons of his gauntlet, hissing like an angry ally cat.
Roger returns to check on his 'friend', walking up to him and asking what's wrong. Albel raises his gauntlet over his head and brings it down on Roger, cutting him into six pieces. The paramedics carry the Roger ribbons away to be reassembled. Now far too dangerous to approach, we must tranquilize the Glyphian again and have our security guards carry him off to his room to sleep off the effects of the abrupt loss of his medication. Let us pray that he never finds out that we medicated him.
The night ends more or less in the normal fashion; Roger being sewn back together and bandaged like a mummy (I suppose we could consider the bandages his pajamas or something), Nel making trips to the kitchen and bathroom through the air ducts, Sophia going on a chocolate binge, Cliff passed out on the floor of his room, Mirage dreaming up which anime character to dress up as next, Maria injecting lard into every rice cake and piece of tofu in the house, Peppita sleeping under a pile of stuffed animals, and Fayt smoking one last joint before going to bed. The only difference tonight, is Albel shivering feverishly under the effects of the withdrawal from his happy pills. Perhaps it was mean of us to let him go cold turkey, but boy was it funny!
Day 3
Everyone rushes downstairs for breakfast, except Albel, who is still suffering somewhat from withdrawal symptoms; he eats only a plain piece of toast this morning. The others wolf down everything on their plates, going back for seconds and even thirds in some cases. Today, we will follow the only member of the cast we haven't already watched: Mirage. This morning, she has chosen to dress as Yui from "Fushigi Yugi".
So what does Mirage do all day? She starts by burning off the calories from breakfast with a little martial arts practice, beating the crap out of the punching bag in her room. After an hour of whaling on the punching bag, she sits down for an hour of anime and a half hour of video games after that. She wanders aimlessly downstairs, finds Maria, and the two of them sit on the couch to talk for a while.
After a lengthy conversation, it's time for lunch and they go to the dining room. They walk in to find Albel, who is looking a little better than he was this morning, holding Roger by the tail and shaking him up and down. He then proceeds to beat the bratty little Menodix against the nearby wall repeatedly, and then throw him through the window. Roger's paramedics quickly rush out onto the lawn to retrieve him as Albel takes his seat at the table and resumes eating his soup. Everyone is staring at Mirage again, as they find her outfit a bit odd.
After lunch, Mirage returns to her room to alter more outfits for the next days' cosplay. She decides to dress as Kagome from "Inuyasha", Noriko from "From Far Away", Nuriko from "Fushigi Yugi", and Twilight Suzuka from "Outlaw Star" for the rest of the week. She sits in her room, snipping and sewing for most of the afternoon. Lets find something more interesting to watch.
Fayt, playing a prank, has gone to Albel's room to get high. He has locked the door and now sits in the middle of the room, smoking several joints at once in an effort to fill the room with fumes quickly. He laughs stupidly as he does this, enjoying the thought of Albel walking into a room full of weed smoke and getting high. He continues to smoke for a very long time.
Roger hears the doorbell wring and answers it; outside is a delivery man with a large, heavy box for him. He signs for it and drags it inside quickly. He starts tearing through the cardboard, but slices one of his fingers off on the edge of a piece of tape (what the hell!). after having it stitched back into place, he dons protective leather work gloves to finish tearing into the box.
Several paper cuts to major arteries and a slipped disk later, Roger has opened the box to find a Menodix-size suit of steel plate armor. He doesn't know who this wonderful gift is from, but appears to greatly appreciate it. He puts it on and runs outside, reveling in the freedom that this wonderful armor gives him from harm. He is very, very happy. Little does he know, that nearby lurks a sinister figure with malicious intentions.
Albel, who has now fully recovered, is back to his old self and trying to make up for lost time. He stands on the roof beside a large box, watching the little Menodix prance happily on the lawn. A wicked smile spreads across his face. He reaches for the box, grabbing it by the edges and upends it over the edge of the roof, laughing maniacally as he does so. From the box flows forth a multitude of various weapons, which are drawn to the magnetized suit of armor he sent to Roger. The little brat turns just in time to see the weapons coming before they hit, piercing through the armor and sticking into him until he looks like a porcupine. As the paramedics carry the brat away, Albel laughs hysterically, falling and rolling around on the roof. Unfortunately, he laughs so hard that he doesn't realize how close he is getting to the edge of the roof and falls off, crashing into the rose bushes below. That's gonna' leave a mark.
After having his sprained right arm put in a sling and his wounds from the rose bushes bandaged, Albel goes back to his room in a very foul mood. He is too mad to notice all the smoke and flops down on the bed, determined to try to sleep off his embarrassment. Only then does he smell the smoke. His eyes snap open and he looks up at the smoke enshrouded ceiling. "MAGGOT!" he yells, jumping to his feet and rushing to the door. He can't get out however, as the claws of his gauntlet are too smooth to hold onto the doorknob, and his right arm is out of commission. He is forced to stay in the room, breathing in the weed-laden air.
A couple of hours later, Fayt opens the door to Albel's room to find him thoroughly stoned, sitting on the floor and watching the fan blades turn with an absolutely stupid look of wide-eyed wonder on his face. Fayt laughs as Albel walks out of the now open door and wanders down the stairs, looking something like a zombie.
Mirage has returned to the living room and is watching tv when Albel comes down the stairs and walks into the kitchen. She notices the odd look on his face and follows him. In the kitchen, she finds him chowing down on every snack he can find in an effort to relieve a monstrous case of the munchies. He then finds a particularly hilarious eggbeater and starts arguing with a mop about war tactics. Mirage easily figures out what's wrong with him and rolls her eyes. "Fayt", she calls, knowing that the blue-haired pot-head can't be far away. He pops out from around a corner, stifling laughter as he watches Albel scream at the mop and then swat it with his gauntlet, calling it a 'mangy looking fool'. "What did you do?" she asks Fayt.
"Smoked in his room and left him in there for a couple of hours," he laughs, "funny isn't it?"
Mirage shakes her head as Albel walks outside and starts arguing with the mailbox. He smacks it and moves on to a small tree. He seems to be getting along well with the tree for some strange reason and hugs it. Fayt is rolling around on the floor laughing and even Mirage starts to chuckle. In Nel's room, she is watching all of this on her monitors and is laughing as well.
At dinner, everyone is scarfing down their food as fast as they can. Nel rushes back to the basement, Sophia runs up and down the stairs to work off the extra pounds she keeps mysteriously gaining, Roger has the butter knife removed from his left eye, Peppita grabs her stuffed animals to play with, Cliff gets a six-pack out of the fridge to take to his room, Mirage goes back to her room to play video games, Fayt lights up and saunters out of the dining room, Maria grabs up all the health food she can find and carries it off to her room for contamination, and Albel wanders off to find a fence post to argue with.
"You stupid fool!" Albel screams at the fence post, "Of coarse I'm right!" Silence from the post. "That's right!" he yells at it, "I called you a stupid fool! What are you gonna' do about it!" He ducks as if dodging a punch and then comes back up with a powerful swing from his gauntlet, shattering the post. Roger just happens to be walking along a little ways behind the post and is caught in the rain of nails and splintered wood. His paramedics take him away.
The night drags on and everyone goes to bed with the only interesting things happening being that Albel decided to argue with a mace in his room and Roger's new bed with an adjustable mattress squished him.
Day 4
The day begins in the usual manner, everyone making pigs of themselves and scurrying off to start their daily routines. Mirage is dressed as Kagome today, even down to the bow and arrows and a fake sacred jewel, Roger is having his fork removed from the back of his throat, Cliff is getting drunk already, Maria is practicing with her gun outside and accidentally fires through a window, shooting Roger in the back, Peppita is dancing from room to room, Albel is thinking up something devious, Fayt is smoking pot in his bedroom, Sophia is exercising, and Nel is watching it all on the monitors in her room.
Once Roger has had his wounds treated, he finds Peppita and starts whispering in her ear. She listens intently, then laughs hysterically and whispers something back to him. The two children continue to whisper back and forth, laughing occasionally, and then disappear into the shadows to collect some supplies.
Albel sits on the couch in the living room watching a violent movie on tv and sipping his morning cup of coffee. Peppita sneaks stealthily around the couch, crawling on the floor until she gets to the coffee table. Once in position, she drops several small pills into Albel's coffee mug, which he had set back on the coffee table, and slinks away to the waiting Roger. The two of them watch and stifle laughter as their target continues to drink his drugged coffee.
The two children follow him around for about another half hour, watching as he gets drowsier and drowsier from the sleeping pills. Suddenly, he collapses in the middle of the hallway, snoring loudly. They grab his ankles and drag him into Peppita's room.
"This is gonna' be great!" Roger exclaims, laughing hysterically. Peppita just laughs and the two children continue their devious scheme. When they finish, they drag the drugged bully back to his room and shut the door, running down the hall laughing.
The day wears on in usual fashion; many injuries for Roger, a lot of pot for Fayt, Cliff passing out on the lawn, etc. Finally, around sundown, the effects of the sleeping pills wear off and Albel wakes up. Unsure of how he got back to his room, he wanders out into the hallway and down the stairs to the dining room for dinner. He walks in and sits down in his usual place and starts to eat. He gets a weird feeling and looks up to find everyone staring at him in shock. "What's the matter, fools?" he asks. He notices Roger and Peppita laughing and throws a knife at the Menodix.
Everyone seems to be stifling laughter, except for Cliff, who starts laughing hysterically. "What are you laughing at, you drunken worm!" Albel yells. Cliff continues to laugh and falls out of his chair, making everyone else laugh out loud. "What's so damn funny, you bunch of worthless maggots!" Albel screams at the top of his lungs.
"Nice...outfit!" Cliff manages to say between laughs, "It...really...brings out your...eyes!"
"What are you babbling about, you maggot!" Albel yells at him.
"Go look in...a mirror!" Sophia laughs.
Albel gets up in a huff and stomps off to the nearby bathroom to find a mirror. Moments later, a loud scream is heard and he comes running back out in fury. He has just discovered that he is the victim of an extreme makeover: geisha style. He is wearing a kimono, his hair is tied up in elaborate Japanese fashion, and his face is covered with makeup. He is screaming at an inaudible pitch and flailing around furiously. "YOU!" he screams at Roger and Peppita, realizing who has done this to him. The rest of the day consists of Albel chasing the two children around the house, Roger finding every sharp, pointed object in the house, and Cliff making all kinds of drag queen jokes about Albel.
Day 5
The next morning, Albel is bound and determined to get revenge. After breakfast, he sneaks into Peppita's room and rips the heads off all of her stuffed animals, laughing maniacally as he does so. Now it's Roger's turn, and everyone's favorite psycho has something very special in mind for the little dweeb.
Roger goes out to get the mail this morning and, after cutting himslef on several very sharp blades of grass on the way, reaches the mailbox and finds a letter in it for him. He opens it and reads that it is from a huge fan of his. There is an address where the fan says they want to meet him and give him a present. Excitedly, he gets on his bike and rides that way.
Several quite serious bike accidents later, a bruised and bloodied Roger reaches an abandoned warehouse. He is skeptical, but the thought of a present from a fan motivates him to enter. He opens the door and walks in cautiously. "Hello?" he calls, "Is anyone in here?" Just then, he is clubbed over the head from behind. He falls to the floor unconscious and a tall, sinister figure steps out from the shadows, a malevolent gleam in his red eyes.
Roger slowly starts to regain consciousness and finds himslef tied to the blades of an industrial-size fan in the warehouse. The floor is covered with broken glass and he discovers that his shoes are missing. "What's going on!" he yells, looking around for the perpetrator, "Who did this!" He hears sinister laughter and looks to the side in time to see a figure emerge from the shadows. "Albel!" he screams in fear, "What are you doing!"
Albel looks up at his hapless prey, chuckling evilly, "Why, I believe it is called 'revenge'."
"Revenge for what!" Roger asks him.
"FOR WHAT!" screams Albel, "FOR MAKING ME LOOK LIKE A FOOL YESTERDAY, YOU FURRY MAGGOT, THAT'S WHAT!" With that, Albel flips a nearby switch. Slowly the fan blades start to turn, gradually picking up speed until the fan is going full blast, spinning the helpless little Menodix relentlessly. Albel looks down at his watch and decides that Roger has had enough, flipping the switch back into the 'off' position. The fan starts to lose speed and then to stop. He goes behind it and unties his victim, who staggers off dizzily into Albel's obstacle coarse of horror. The dizzy Roger walks over broken glass, upturned nails, and small metal spikes. Albel turns the fan back on and walks behind it again, this time carrying a large, burlap sack. He tosses the sack into the fan, which shreds it, flinging the knives it contained toward the staggering Menodix. He is run through by about a hundred knives and falls forward onto the sharp, pointy thing infested floor. His paramedics run in to the rescue and Albel laughs maniacally as they carry the little brat away for more surgery. He's not laughing long when he returns to the house however. Peppita attacks him the moment he walks in the door, screaming and biting.
At lunch, Maria makes an announcement. "We've received our second immunity challenge," she tells them.
"What kind of idiocy do those fools demand of us now," Albel asks, still shoveling food into his mouth.
"This one was inspired by Mirage's recent discovery of cosplay and yesterday's shenanigans," she continues, "we each choose a different member of the cast to dress as tomorrow. The person who most resembles their chosen cast member wins immunity. "
"That doesn't sound too hard," Sophia says, trying to think of who she should dress as.
"Oh, and I almost forgot," Maria continues, "it has to be someone of the opposite sex." Around the table, everyone spits out their drinks and starts making a fuss.
After screaming their fury for the next two hours, everyone makes their way to their rooms to try to come up with their costumes. They work late into the night, the hope for immunity driving them to work hard.
Day 6
Everyone wanders down to breakfast grumpily, furious about having to dress as a cast member of the opposite sex. Peppita has dressed as Roger, who in turn dressed as her. Cliff and Mirage have dressed as each other, not a very difficult switch. Sophia has dressed as Fayt, even going so far as to have a fake joint in her mouth, and Fayt has dressed as her. Maria has dressed as Adray, but with a vest. And, last but not least, Nel and Albel have dressed as each other. They sit around the table, trying to look and act like the people they're dressed as.
Peppita as Roger pretends to fall out of her chair and severely injure herself. Roger as Peppita has brought a stuffed animal to the table, not realizing that it is actually a real stray cat, which attacks him. Mirage as Cliff pretends to be drunk, slurring her words and acting stupid. Cliff as Mirage tries to act calm and collected, but can't resist the calling of the beer in the fridge and is soon plastered again. Sophia as Fayt acts like she is smoking the fake joint and talks funny, as if she is really high. Fayt as Sophia painstakingly slices a minuscule helping of tofu into tiny little bites and makes a show of using proper manners. Maria as Adray pretends to be drunk, singing stupid bar songs and making a huge mess. Albel as Nel looks around nervously as he eats rapidly, then, finished with his breakfast, tries to escape into the air ducts, but is too large and gets stuck; we'll wait a little while and then call someone to get him out. Nel as Albel is rude and violent, calling the others 'fools' and 'maggots' and even throwing a knife at Roger. After breakfast, everyone wanders off to try to do what the subject of their costume would usually do.
Roger goes to play with the mound of repaired stuffed animals in the living room, little does he know that during the night, a king cobra snuck into them. He is bitten and must be rushed quickly away by his paramedics to get the antidote.
Peppita runs around and pretends to hurt herself on everything, covering herself with ketchup to look like she's bleeding. She calls people morons and generally behaves like a brat.
Mirage wanders around the house, pretending to drink from an empty beer can and acting drunk. She walks outside onto the lawn and pretends to pass out.
Cliff sits in Mirage's room, drunkenly watching anime and whaling on her punching bag. His vision doubled by booze, he misses the bag and goes crashing through the drywall. He passes out with everything from his waist up sticking out of the side of the house.
Sophia walks around pretending to smoke and giggling like an idiot. She starts talking like a hippy and pretending to hallucinate.
Fayt runs on Sophia's exercise equipment, pretending to be very concerned about his weight. He gets his shoelace caught in the treadmill and nearly gets his foot sucked into the machine though. Frustrated, he decides to have a little smoke.
Maria finds Mirage and together, they act like the drunken slobs they're dressed as. They run around acting stupid and singing bar songs, playing drinking games, and generally making asses of themselves. Sophia joins in their drunken stupidity and together, the three of them continue to make fun of Cliff, Adray, and Fayt.
Nel sits on the couch, watching violent movies and throwing the occasional knife Roger's way. After the movie, she gets up and starts polishing weapons, laughing deviously as she does so. She proceeds to ambush the little Menodix repeatedly throughout the day.
Once free from the vent, Albel sneaks off to the basement to do what Nel does everyday. He sits in her chair, eating snacks and watching the others through the monitors in front of him. He seems to enjoy getting to see everything that happens to Roger throughout the day, though he obviously misses being the source of the injuries.
After a full day of acting like each other, the cast assembles for the results of the contest. We have decided that Albel wins this one, as he was able to stay in character for most of the day. This however, worked to his disadvantage somewhat, because Cliff spent the rest of the day making fun of him for being good at acting like a girl. Albel threw multiple weapons at Cliff, all of which managed to find their way to Roger.
Day 7
The next morning, everyone once again runs downstairs for breakfast. They pig out and hurry to get to their daily routines. Cliff makes another drag queen joke about Albel, who throws his plate at him. The plate flies through the air like a frisbee, does a u-turn, and crashes into the back of Roger's head. More stitches!
After having his head wound tended to, Roger goes to his room to play with his favorite action figures. He upends the box and a note falls out, which he snatches up and reads.
"Dear Rodent Fool,
In retaliation for your little prank the other day, I have thrown away all of your stupid dolls. Who's laughing now, maggot! Bwah ha ha ha ha!
Your arch-nemesis,
Albel Nox"
Roger screams and runs around the house to check all the garbage cans. He finds that the trash has already been taken out and runs outside to the trash cans on the curb and starts digging through them. The wind picks up and he falls in, but he is happy because he has found his action figures. Just then, he hears the sound of an engine coming and then the can being lifted. It is upended and he falls into the back of a large garbage truck. He lands in a huge pile of dirty diapers and emerges from the pile covered in, well, you can guess. He screams and quickly jumps out of the pile, right onto a pile of broken bottles. Getting off the broken bottles, he finds a spot of relatively harmless garbage and starts screaming for help, but no one can hear him over the noise of the engine and the truck drives on.
Roger gives up on screaming for help and occupies his time by trying to avoid the garbage falling from other cans on the truck's route. Looking to the side, he sees a lump in the garbage move, making a trail toward him. It stops a few feet away from him and he can see two beady yellow eyes glaring out at him. Suddenly, a huge, rabid possum flies out of the garbage and jumps on him, mauling the little Menodix until he is finally able to kick it over the side of the truck. Good thing the little guy already had his rabies shots, courtesy of Albel.
A few hours later, the truck stops and Roger feels the back of it start to move. He is dumped along with the trash onto a garbage barge, which sets out to sea, carrying the little Menodix with it. Seagulls flock around and start pecking at Roger, who is helpless to stop them. With nothing else to do, he escapes the seagulls by burrowing into the abundant garbage, snagging himself on nails, broken bottles, and sharp pieces of scrap metal.
A few more hours and he is dumped onto a small island landfill in the middle of the ocean. Roger looks around himself and sees nothing but garbage and ocean, then he is once again assailed by seagulls. We'll leave him for now and see what's going on at the house.
Nel is searching her monitors for any sign of Roger, as she wasn't watching when he fell into the garbage can and is clueless as to where he is right now. Sophia is destroying a scale in her room with a sledgehammer after receiving an unfavorable report on her weight. Maria is dipping celery and carrots in bacon grease in her room. Mirage is walking around dressed as Noriko from "From Far Away". Cliff and Fayt are drinking as usual. Peppita is practicing some kind of dance routine for a circus act. Albel is laughing evilly, as he saw Roger fall into the trash can and get picked up by the garbage truck.
The day wears on and soon it is dinner time. Everyone runs to the table and starts eating. "Hey," Peppita asks, "where's Roger?"
"I dunno'," Maria says, "come to think of it, I can't recall seeing him all day."
"Nel?" Mirage asks.
"I lost sight of him early this morning," Nel answers, "I've been trying to track him down, but no luck."
Everyone looks at Albel, who hasn't stopped eating. He looks up at them angrily, "What are you fools looking at? I haven't touched the little maggot all day." He then resumes eating.
The others exchange looks. "Like hell he didn't touch him," Cliff says, in one of his rare, sober moments.
"I believe him," Sophia says, "if he'd done it, he wouldn't deny it; in fact, he'd be proud." Across the table, the eating psycho nods without looking up.
"Then where is Roger!" Peppita asks again, quite worried now. About that time, the kitchen door swings open and in steps Roger, covered in seaweed, dangling a few lobsters, and missing a few shark mouth shaped chunks. "Roger!" everyone but Albel exclaims, rushing over to the little Menodix.
"What happened to you, Roger!" Peppita asks him. Roger doesn't say anything, just points angrily to the still eating Glyphian.
"You said you didn't do anything to him, Albel!" Sophia yells at him, "You lied to us!"
"That's not what I said," he answers, laughing, "I only said that I didn't touch the little maggot." Sophia and Peppita tackle him and start pummeling him.
And they spend the rest of the evening chasing Albel around the house, trying to beat him with anything they can get their hands on. Elsewhere, Roger is having his wounds tended to. After surgery, he is lying in bed, relaxing and trying to recover. He looks out the window at the night sky and feels even more relaxed. Suddenly, he sees something move in the tree outside his window, something with beady yellow eyes. The rabid possum from earlier jumps through his window and lands on the bed, mauling the little Menodix for the second time today. Looks like Roger made a friend!
RESULTS: Mirage has been voted out.
