Okay, so maybe this took a little longer to finish than I had hoped. 3 months between updates is better than 6 though. More on this later. Also, there's a poll up for you to vote on who you want to win out of the final four (Assuming it works, I know there were some problems with it recently).
Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama or it's characters.
The camera opens on the waiting room/lounge that is normally seen before every aftermath. Everyone who wasn't competing or had already been eliminated, with the exceptions being the four most recently eliminated, were scattered around the room, talking, having a pre-show snack or just hanging out.
The camera panned over to Duncan, Geoff, DJ and Owen, the four talking to each other in a way reminiscent of the all guys alliance from Total Drama Island. "Man, just like old times isn't it? I don't even remember the last time we all just sat around and hung out," Duncan remarked.
Geoff nodded, a soda in his hand, and said, "Oh I hear that bro. We've all been so busy with this show that we haven't been able to chill, you know?"
"So what are you guys gonna do before next season starts," Owen asked as he lowered a turkey leg from his mouth.
"I'm probably gonna hang with Bridge. Especially 'cause she's gonna be on the next season and I'm not," Geoff said with a sigh at the end, as he slightly tipped his hat down.
DJ put a hand on the party boy's shoulder and said, "Sorry man. I know that must be tough for you. But at least she'll be among friends."
Geoff nodded and said, "Yeah, I guess that's true. Still, it would be pretty rockin' to have a global vacay with my girl."
"I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than it is," Duncan bluntly remarked.
Owen gasped and said, "Duncan! How could you say that!"
The punk shook his head and said, "Look, I looked at Chris' files. If they're to be believed, next season's only gonna last like a month and a half. Not surprising, considering it doesn't take that long to fly around the world."
"So what, me and Bridge are only gonna be apart for like a month," Geoff asked.
"A month? Man, momma's not gonna like me going all over the world for a whole month," DJ muttered.
"Well that's assuming that someone would make it to the end of the season. If they get eliminated, it's not going to be that long," Duncan said with a shrug.
Geoff looked to be contemplating something and said, "Alright, I guess I'll survive. I could always hang out with my bro Brody."
Meanwhile, across the room, Nicholas sat with Jessie. "You know," the mechanic said as he embraced his girlfriend, "As much as it sucks that I've been eliminated and can't win the half a million, if it means spending more time with you, I don't mind."
"Aww, I'm glad I can spend more time with you too. Especially because I don't know how much time we'll get after the season ends," Jessie said with a happy sigh.
Nicholas' eyes widened and said, "What!? Why would you say that? Should I be worried?"
The quiet girl calmly placed a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek as she said, "It's nothing to worry about. I'm just really busy back home and I don't live that close to you, remember?"
"Oh yeah, right. Sorry about freaking out back there," Nicholas said with a sigh.
The two sat in silence for a moment, just enjoying each other's company. After a few moments, Ezekiel walked up and awkwardly waved at Nicholas and said, "Um, hey Nicholas."
The mechanic looked up and said, "Oh, hey Zeke. What's up?"
"Um, I just wanted to apologize for kicking you in the crotch yesterday, eh," the homeschooled teen nervously said.
To Ezekiel's surprise, Nicholas merely shrugged and said, "Don't worry about it. You were just trying to win the challenge by any means necessary. I can respect that. Besides, I've taken way worse hits when playing sports."
"Oh. I thought yoo would be mad at me, eh," Ezekiel admitted.
"Nah, don't worry about it," the mechanic said with a shrug.
Ezekiel walked off, saying, "Well thanks fur furgiving me, eh."
"That was sweet of you," Jessie said as she kissed her boyfriend.
"It's as I said, it wasn't a big deal. And I have been hit pretty hard when playing sports," Nicholas said with a shrug.
The quiet girl gave her boyfriend another kiss and said, "It was still sweet."
Across the room a battle of epic proportions was going down. Two titans were locked in glorious combat, neither relenting in their quest to vanquish the other. To put it in layman's terms, William and Rebecca were having a staring contest.
"You might as well give up now, I'm pretty much a black belt when it comes to staring contests," William bragged.
Rebecca shot back, "Ha! If anyone's a black belt, it's me! I've trained myself to not need to blink for hours at a time when marathoning anime!"
As the two tossed friendly taunts back and forth, a few of the other former contestants were watching with interest. Namely, Harold, Alexander, Tyler, Lindsay, Beth and Julie. Harold rubbed his hands in excitement and said, "Gosh, this is exciting! I haven't witnessed a staring contest so heated since my time in the possum scouts!"
"This is really something. It's certainly not something I'm used to seeing back home," Julie admitted.
"Seriously? What, are you from one of those preppy high schools or something? Because this happens all the time back where I'm from," Alexander noted before adding, "Well, with one exception."
Harold raised an eyebrow and said, "You've piqued my curiosity. Do tell."
"Well, back home, we usually take bets on who will win," Alexander explained, a slight twinkle in his eye.
"Are you suggesting what I think you are," Tyler asked, his eyebrows raised.
Alexander smirked and replied, "I got 10 bucks on William winning."
"Oh, you're on! I got 10 bucks on Rebecca," Tyler exclaimed, his competitive nature going into overdrive.
"I think I'll get in on this as well. I'll put 5 dollars on Rebecca. Would anyone care to match my bet on William," Harold asked those around him.
Julie sighed and said, "This is probably a bad idea, but sure, why not."
Beth turned to Lindsay and said, "What about you Lindsay? Wanna make a friendly wager?"
Lindsay turned away from the two in the staring contest, almost as if she were in a trance and said, "Huh? What? I thought we were all staring at each other like we do back home."
"Nope, we're making bets on who's gonna lose the staring contest. Care to make a wager? Starting bet is 5 dollars," Alexander explained, a grin on his face.
Lindsay nodded as if she understood and said, "Oh, okay. Then I bet 5 dollars that the girl with the pretty hair is going to win. Am I doing it right?"
Alexander nodded and said, "You sure are. Beth, would you like to match her bet, but for William?"
"Oh I guess. What's the worst that can happen, right," the wannabe replied with a shrug.
As Alexander crossed his arms and admired his handiwork, Harold approached the slacker and said, "So is this going the way you planned it?"
"Oh you saw through my ruse, eh? Yeah, I would say I made things more exciting, which is just what I wanted," Alexander admitted, "You need to shake things up every now and then, you know? Otherwise it just gets boring."
"Hey guys," William called out to the group, not breaking his eye contact with Rebecca, "What's the rule regarding bathroom breaks?"
"I hate to admit it, but I could use the answer to that question too," Rebecca chimed in.
In a different part of the room, Courtney nervously fidgeted in her seat. She was going to sit down and try and talk things out with Gwen, but was understandably nervous about the whole thing.
"What got into you," Heather asked as she walked past.
"You actually care," Courtney asked, a suspicious eyebrow raised.
The queen bee shrugged and said, "Surprisingly yes. The more people focus on what you did, the less they'll focus on me. So if you're out of it, that puts the target back into my back."
"Glad to see you care about my well being," Courtney deadpanned.
"Since when have I ever cared for my enemies," Heather scoffed as she walked away.
Courtney shook her head in annoyance for a moment before she heard her name being called from behind her. She nervously turned around to face Gwen, Leshawna and Trent, the last two present to mediate the discussion. "You aren't gonna be making any trouble for Gwen are you? Because if you are, then you'll have hell to pay," Leshawna stated, none too happy with the way Courtney had, for lack of a better term, insulted Gwen during the competition.
"Y-yes, I promise I'll behave. I'm the one who asked to meet with her, remember," Courtney replied.
"Guys, relax. This was supposed to be a friendly sort of thing, remember," Trent asked, trying to defuse the situation before it got any worse.
"Yeah, I appreciate the concern Leshawna, but if she wants to try and put this past us, I say we let her try," Gwen added.
Leshawna seemed to accept this and nodded and said, "All right, if you say so. But I'm watching you Courtney."
"Duly noted," Courtney said with a nod before turning to Gwen and saying, "All right, I'll admit I wasn't the best person this season. So what can I do to make it up to you?"
"I just want you to drop your insistence that I'm trying to steal Duncan from you. I really don't care about him. As long as I'm on this show I'm not really looking to date anyone," Gwen stated, "Not after it ruined the good thing I had going with Trent."
"Glad to know it wasn't entirely my fault," Trent muttered.
"I think we can make that work," Courtney confirmed with a nod before adding, "You realize I'll still have my doubts at times though, right?"
Gwen gave a bittersweet smile and said, "Yeah, I get it. I mean, you care for him, so I can see why you would be concerned. Just try not to worry about it too much, alright?"
"Sounds good. Thanks for talking with me," Courtney said as she got up and walked away.
"You really think she'll stay to her word," Leshawna asked Trent.
The musician smiled and put on hand on Leshawna's shoulder, and said, "I think she will. Have a little faith."
Meanwhile, Danny and Eva were talking. "So you really think that meditation crap will help me with my anger problems," Eva asked.
Danny nodded, "With complete certainty. Not only that, but meditating will allow you to better harness your strength. I often find that shortly after meditating, I am stronger than normal, if only for a little while."
Eva smirked and said, "No kidding? Huh, guess I'll have to try it out."
"Try what out," Justin asked as he walked up, intrigued.
"Karate Kid here tells me meditating will let me be stronger," Eva said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to point at Danny.
The honorable teen raised an eyebrow as he explained, "Technically speaking, the way I meditate allows me to harness a small part of my body's natural chi to augment some natural abilities."
"Isn't that cheating though? Doesn't that go against your moral code or whatever," Justin asked.
Danny chuckled and said, "One would think that, wouldn't they? But with the proper technique and a little bit of training, it's something anyone can do. Kind of like riding a bike if I were to give a comparison. And the boost to one's abilities is kind of minute. To be honest I rarely used this technique myself during the competition. Maybe only once or twice at most." "Will it enhance my own natural beauty? I don't really need a boost, but when I'm doing a job, every little bit helps," Justin asked.
"That's a good question honestly. I've never tried it from an aesthetical prospective. I know it enhances strength and thought processing, but beyond that I'm not sure," Danny said, tapping his chin while thinking it over.
"I get you're supposed to be a pretty face and all, but you really think that'll serve you in the long run? Why not get strong or smart or something," Eva bluntly questioned.
"Ha, just as I would expect from a non-beautiful. Beautiful people can rely on our looks to get through life, so why would we need anything else," Justin laughed.
Eva's eye twitched and she shouted, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"
Justin's face dropped and he quickly said while running away, "WellGoodTalkGottaGo!"
"WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING," Eva shouted as she chased after the model, leaving Danny behind who merely chuckled.
Alexander approached and said, "Glad she's not angry at me for a change. Anyway, Danny, would you be interested in making a bet? William vs Rebecca in a staring contest. What do you say?"
The camera panned past Danny's less than amused expression and rested on Emily, Katie and Sadie. The dancer's expression was hard to read, as she appeared to be both happy and sad. "So what's the matter? Really tell us this time. We can tell something's up," Sadie confronted Emily, with Katie nodding behind them.
"I'm just still bummed about what happened with Cody," Emily sighed, "It's my fault he got eliminated."
"Come on, don't beat yourself up over it. It could have been anyone going home," Katie said in an attempt to comfort the dancer.
Emily sighed again and said, "I know. But I was leading the team. I still feel like I'm responsible."
Sadie pat the sad girl on the shoulder and said, "Hey, you did your best, right? And didn't Cody say as long as you did your best, he wouldn't be upset?"
Emily's expression brightened and she said, "Yeah, you're right."
"Plus I have a feeling he would rather be with you than stay in the competition," Katie added.
The three girls were going to continue their conversation, but the door that led to the stage opened and Carl the intern walked into the room, wearing the same black jeans that he always did, but it seems that he had traded in his navy blue t-shirt for a navy blue polo shirt. The intern cleared his throat to catch the attention of those in the room and said, "Alright everyone, you all know the deal. Show's starting in a couple of minutes so wait for my cue to walk onstage. If you could all head backstage now and wait, that would be great. Duncan, Owen, wait for the announcer to welcome you."
The teens started to file out of the room, past Carl who stood by the door, taking a count to make sure everyone left. Justin was first out the room and kept looking over his shoulder, Nicholas and Jessie were holding hands and Alexander was grinning as he counted some bills.
Soon the only one left was Harold, who asked, "So any reason for the change in wardrobe?"
"Part of me is surprised you noticed, but then I remember you're really the only one to talk to me," Carl muttered.
"That's because you're my friend," Harold replied.
The intern gave a short laugh and said, "Thanks Harold, it means a lot. And yeah, as of today I've been promoted. They gave it some fancy name but it's kind of like being a director."
Harold raised an eyebrow and asked, "So it's basically the same job you had before?"
"More or less. But this one pays better," Carl said with a laugh before adding, "It's almost showtime. If you want I'll be happy to chat after the show, but for now I need you to wait backstage."
Harold exited the room and as he walked off, he said, "I'll have to take you up on that offer."
The camera panned over the seating for wherever the aftermaths took place, the seating absolutely packed with fans waiting for the show to begin. As some music began to play, those who would be sitting in the peanut gallery started to filter in and took their seats on either side of the interview couch.
On the first row of the left side sat Katie, Sadie, Alexander, Harold, Leshawna and Gwen. Behind and slightly above them in the second row sat Nicholas, Jessie, Tyler, Lindsay, Courtney and Trent. And behind and slightly above them in the third row sat Ezekiel, William, Rebecca, Justin, Beth and DJ.
On the right side of the couch in the first row sat Eva, Geoff, Julie, Danny and Heather. In the second row of the right side sat Emily by herself. As the opening music started to settle down, the announcer said, "Welcome, one and all to the fifth Total Drama High School Aftermath special! Please give a warm welcome to your hosts, Duncan and Owen!"
The audience erupted into near-deafening cheers as the two former winners and obvious crowd favorites took to the stage, Owen enthusiastically waving while Duncan had his hands in his pockets, the punk much less enthused. The duo took their seats and Owen said, "Welcome to the fifth Total Drama High School Aftermath! I'm Owen!"
"And I'm Duncan," Duncan forced out, not really caring.
"Aw what's the matter Duncan, I though you liked not competing," Owen asked his co-host.
"I do, doesn't mean I have to like being forced to do this," Duncan grunted. Duncan put a hand to a headpiece by his ear and he listened for a few seconds before sighing and saying, "Well never mind. Apparently I have to pretend to like this. So let's get this over with."
"That's the spirit," Owen cheered before he faced the camera and said, "We've got four guests today, including what is possibly our most, let's say anticipated guest, of the season. Plus the usual stuff you expect from this show, as well as a couple of surprises."
Duncan sighed before putting on a forced expression of amusement and said, "But before we get to that, let's recap what happened since the last aftermath. We had four challenges, based around some really odd stuff. Like card games and virtual reality. Seriously, Chris must be running out of ideas at this point. Sure there was some normal stuff like a talent show and "Detention" but it was still lame if you ask me."
"Plus let's not forget the major events of the past couple episodes. Noah finally confronted the others and told them the truth about Joseph, stabbing his former ally in the back. Cody, feeling betrayed that his friends would eliminate his girlfriend, became very vengeful, and well, a bit of an asshole. Plus Mikey, Bridgette and Jennifer have some sort of super alliance or deal or something, which could end Noah's run," Owen added.
Duncan crossed his arms and said, "But we're wasting time. Let's get on with interviewing our first guest. She's one of the nicer girls to compete, she's dating Mikey and she got eliminated due to unknown but probably suspect circumstances, its Megan."
The normal girl walked onstage to a variety of cheers, waving despite looking a little embarrassed. She sat down on the couch and Owen greeted her, "Hi Megan! How are you doing?"
Megan smiled ever so slightly and said, "Well ever since I got to see Mikey yesterday, not too bad."
A number of girls in the audience as well as some in the peanut gallery let out a chorus of "Awws" as Megan began to blush. Megan looked to the two hosts and she asked, "Can we start my interview now?"
Duncan smirked and said, "You sure? You never know what kind of questions we've got for you."
"Duncan, stop teasing her," Owen said, prodding his co-host with his elbow.
"Fine," the punk sighed before saying in a forced tone, "Well for starters, tell us about your time in the game."
Megan closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to compose herself before she said, "Well, I had a lot of fun. The challenges were all pretty exciting and I made a lot of great friends too. With how close I got to Bridgette and Geoff, it's almost as if we were friends for years. Not to mention I met Mikey. I'll be honest, when I found out I got accepted for this show, I imagined I would focus on winning the prize. In the back of my mind I kind of wanted to start a relationship, but it wasn't my top priority. But when I met Mikey, and saw how kind and smart and willing to help others he was, there was something that just resonated with me. It didn't hurt that he's pretty cute and I kind of have a thing for nerdy guys."
Owen looked at the teleprompter located just off the side of the stage and he said, "Uh, so you kind of just answered our next question since we were gonna ask you about Mikey. So, uh, I guess we'll skip to the last question. What do you think about the secret alliance Joseph had, and do you think he had anything to do with your elimination?"
"To be honest, I thought something was up when a bunch of people in relationships kept getting eliminated. I should have voiced my concerns more but at the time I thought it was just luck of the draw," Megan sighed, "I mean, I figured Joseph and Noah had an alliance of sorts, as they hung out all the time, but I figured they just watched each other's backs, like what Bridgette, Geoff, Mikey and I did. I can't say I'm not mad, but at the same time I'm a bit disappointed in myself that I didn't notice anything was up."
Duncan smirked and said, "You're not the only one who was fooled by them, so don't feel too bad. But what about your elimination?"
Megan blinked and said, "Well yeah, I think they had something to do with it. I'm not sure how they did it, considering Mikey, Bridgette, Jennifer and I were voting together and so there should have been a tie. But I just know they had something to do with it."
Owen nervously chuckled and tapped his fingers together as he said, "Yeah about your elimination, not even Chris is really sure what happened. They lost some of the footage from when votes were being taken and they just assumed those who didn't have a vote recorded weren't voting."
"What? How could Chris possibly think we wouldn't vote? And how would the footage just randomly stop," Megan asked, taken aback at what she was told.
"I couldn't tell ya. But maybe our next "guest" can. I'm gonna need you to sit elsewhere Megan," Duncan said with a shrug.
The normal girl got up and took a seat between Geoff and Julie in the first row. Owen looked a bit nervous as he announced, "Our next guest manipulated many of the other contestants to get who he wanted eliminated. His reasons for doing so are still currently unknown. And he got backstabbed by his ally and alliance-mate, it's Joseph."
The crowd started to boo as the overachiever took the stage. Joseph scowled for a moment as he walked the short distance to the couch and sat down and muttered, "And even more people can't get past the fact that it was just a game. Wonderful."
Duncan crossed his arms and said, "So the bastard that manipulated my girlfriend has finally graced us with his presence."
Joseph wasn't fazed by the insult and said, "And if I hadn't someone else would have. She had an almost unnaturally strong desire to eliminate Gwen. Such a pure emotion is easy to take advantage of."
In her seat, Courtney grit her teeth in anger, but Trent, who was sitting next to the CIT, put a hand on her shoulder, as if to say, "It's not worth it."
Owen nervously looked back and forth, not sure if things were going to devolve into chaos and said, "Uh, how about we get started with your interview? Can you tell us about what you thought about your time in the game?"
Joseph leaned back and said, "Well I know I'm probably alone in thinking this, but I played one hell of a game. Like it or not, I knew what I was doing for the most part and had plans in place to win. Had it not been for Noah, I'm fairly confident I could have won the whole thing. As for the people, well they were a mixed bag. Some of them I consider to be rivals and respect them, others were little more than an annoyance."
"You would think you played a good game. You didn't have any remorse for what your scheming would do," Nicholas spat from his seat in the peanut gallery.
"And yet again people treat me like I'm the salt of the Earth, why am I not surprised," the overachiever remarked with a roll of the eyes before he looked around at his fellow competitors before looking at the audience and asked, "Tell me, in the grand scheme of things, was I really that bad? Okay, yeah, maybe I lied to more than a few people and manipulated you all into voting for each other. But that's all I did. I didn't resort to blackmail or physical violence or anything."
"That may be true, but do you have any idea how much heartache you caused? How eliminating someone's boyfriend or girlfriend would lead them to act," Emily shouted out, upset that her boyfriend's change in mood was due to the current guest on the show.
Joseph's cocky grin left his face and he adopted a more serious, somewhat empathetic one as he said, "Yeah, I knew full well what my actions would do to the others. I didn't like what I was doing. Contrary to popular belief I actually have a conscious. But I had to do what I did for my strategy to work."
Duncan snorted and said, "Strategy. Right. Well then let's talk about your so-called "Strategy". How exactly did you think manipulating people would work?"
"Well if you recall, until Noah decided to rat me out, it was working. I'm sure a couple of the others might have had doubts, but for the most part, nobody was truly suspicious of me. But I digress. The plan itself was to make people a little emotionally unstable. Just enough that if I happened to know who may have voted for someone they care about, then they would vote my way. That way, I would basically be able to turn them all against each other and breeze my way through while they fought each other," Joseph said, a slight smirk on his face.
"I've got a question about that. How did you manage to get me out? We were certain that at worst there would be a tie vote," Megan asked from her seat.
The overachiever turned to face the average girl and said, "Ah yes, yours was an interesting one. It was the only time I had to bend the rules slightly to get my way as well. I had a feeling you would have an alliance of sorts with your friends so I knew trying to manipulate them would be tough. So I voted early and right before the votes were tallied, I went to the confessional and erased some of the footage so only a few votes counted."
Many people in the audience and peanut gallery gasped and Courtney sputtered out, "But that's cheating!"
"One would think so, but it doesn't violate any of the rules in the contract. And while I didn't read the whole thing, I looked into the section on voting rules and stuff. It only specified cheating if we replaced the current votes with ones for someone else. What I did didn't break any rules. Immoral, sure, but not illegal. It was merely means to an end for my plan," Joseph shrugged.
Owen nervously tapped his fingers together and said, "Well that ties into our last question, I guess. Why exactly did you do what you did? Like what reason could you have to lie to everyone and manipulate them?"
The overachiever chuckled and said, "I'm afraid everyone must keep their secrets and I am no different."
Eva got up and cracked her knuckles and said, "Oh you think so, huh? Well beating secrets out of people is my specialty."
"You don't scare me. Look, I'm entitled to my secret and no matter what type of torture you try and subject me to, you won't pry my lips. My reasons for playing the game the way I did are my reasons alone," Joseph crossly replied, his eyes narrowed.
Duncan's glare at the overachiever intensified before an almost evil smirk developed on his face and he said, "Oh is that so? That's very interesting because we talked to some people from your hometown. And they said they know what's going on and why you played the way we did. We even filmed official interviews with them. So would you rather tell us yourself or let them tell us in their words?"
Joseph's eyes widened in shock and he said, "You wouldn't."
"Try me," Duncan said, holding his finger above a button on a TV remote.
The overachiever's eyes narrowed before he shrugged and said, "Fine. You've forced my hand. I'll talk. You all want to know why I did what I did?"
"Get on with it," Alexander drawled.
"Quiet you. I didn't even have anything to do with your elimination," Joseph growled, pointing an accusatory finger at the slacker, who merely shrugged. The overachiever took a deep breath and said, "Let me answer your question with a question. What is the one thing that overachievers love above all else?"
Those in the peanut gallery looked between each other in confusion for a few seconds before Ezekiel guessed, "Uh, being the best, eh?"
Joseph clapped his hands and said, "Exactly. Now picture the one thing you desire most and having it be just outside your grasp. I imagine it would hurt, wouldn't it?"
Those in the peanut gallery had various expressions on their faces, ranging from uninterested to concerned. Nodding in somewhat approval, Joseph said, "Good, I see at least some of you understand. Now this is where it all comes together. For you see, back home I'm one of the most gifted students in my school. High grades, I'm a star athlete, fairly popular. The whole nine yards. And yet there is someone else at my school, his name is Dwight, who, no matter what, is able to outperform me. I got a 99 on a test that most of the class failed? He got a hundred. I just made a new record time for one of the swimming races? He made two new ones. Anything I try to be the best at, he manages to outperform me, even if it's just by a hair. Sure he's my friend I guess but there are times when I absolutely hate him. I figured this was my best chance to finally be the best at something so I would use any means to do so. It might be a weak reason, but it was one all the same."
The entire audience was silent at this revelation. "You mean to tell me," Courtney said, her anger rising, "That you manipulated all of us just so you could stroke your ego?"
"I suppose that is one way of looking at things, yes. But, as I've stated a number of times by now, aside from telling a few lies and leading some people on, I've not done much wrong. The ends justify the means, as it were. And unlike Heather, who was nasty in order to win the money, I was in it for the glory of winning," Joseph replied.
Danny raised an eyebrow and said, "Even so, you think you can justify your actions? Even when you admit it was no more than an attempt to stroke your ego?"
"Just as I thought, I knew you wouldn't understand! I figured we could let the past be the past once you all realized I was relatively harmless. I could get if you were still mad but I was hoping you all would be open to the idea of moving on. Maybe not now, but eventually. I can see I was sorely mistaken. If you all won't listen to me, then there's no point in me talking. This interview's over," Joseph barked as he got off the couch and started to storm off set.
"Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you have to remain in the audience until the show's over," Duncan said with a grin that implied he enjoyed watching the overachiever suffer.
Joseph glared at the punk before taking a seat in the top row of the right side of the bleachers. "Before we move on to our next guest, I just want to say that I lied about having footage from your hometown Joseph. You totally fell for my bluff and it was awesome," Duncan exclaimed as he burst into laughter.
Joseph grit his teeth and glared daggers at Duncan as he said so quietly it was nearly a whisper, "Laugh it up jackass, you'll get yours soon enough."
After taking a second to calm down, the punk said, "I gotta say, I'm in a way better mood now than when we started this show. So let's bring out our next guest before this good mood leaves me. She's returned after being eliminated more times than anyone else, was responsible for more than one injury this season and is the girlfriend of the big lug sitting next to me, please welcome Izzy!"
"OWEN," a voice shouted very loudly as a blur of green and orange fell from the rafters and landed on top of Own.
"Izzy," the happy go lucky teen happily shouted as his girlfriend started to shower him with kisses.
This continued on for a few moments before Duncan said, "Not to interrupt your happy reunion, but we do have to interview you."
Izzy pulled herself off of Owen and said, "Oh all right, if you insist."
"So what did you think about the game," Duncan asked, his good mood still with him.
"It was a ton of fun! I got to do a whole lot of challenges and I didn't even have to come back this time. Plus I got to hang out with some of my friends and make some new ones," Izzy excitedly said.
"What about Joseph's alliance? I mean, you did kind of help them from time to time," Owen nervously asked.
Izzy bit her lip and said, "Yeah, I kind of messed up there. But to be honest, I was kind of afraid. I mean, I can tell some people don't like me, so when Joseph said he thought someone was out to get me, I just kind of reacted. But I never meant to emotionally hurt anyone."
Duncan raised an eyebrow and asked, "What about physically? You've injured more than a couple of people during the season. Mikey in particular you've injured twice. Did you mean to do that?"
"No, I wouldn't intentionally hurt anyone unless I didn't like them. Like, really didn't like them. But those times I hurt Mikey were an accident, honest. You believe me, right Megan," the crazy girl said.
Megan wasn't expecting this question and stammered, "Um. I kind of have my doubts, but I think you're telling the truth."
Izzy sighed in relief while Owen asked, "So uh, did you have any regrets about this season?"
"Oh totally. I regret helping Joseph for the most part. I don't know who would have gone home if I hadn't helped him, but I did want to help both myself and my friends. Plus I never got to have a bizarre adventure this season! I mean, first season I got to hide out on the island after my elimination and learn all of its secrets. And last season I let myself really get into acting. But I didn't do anything really exciting this season," Izzy said with a nod.
Duncan raised an eyebrow and said, "You sure? That transitions to our next question a bit. What did you think of the challenges? Especially ones like the virtual reality one, the go kart race, the sports challenges. The really over the top ones, you know?"
Izzy shrugged and said, "Well sure, those were exciting, but everyone did them so it wasn't as exciting as it could be, you know? I mean, it wasn't like the time I raided an RCMP recon post for supplies in the middle of winter or the time I went to the movies and they were out of butter for the popcorn so I had to improvise."
"Oh oh, what about those adventures we had together, those were pretty fun right," Owen asked.
"Oh yeah, those are really fun too! Like that time we went camping in the woods and we had to fight off that bear, except he was actually a guy in a bear suit," the crazy girl confirmed with a nod before adding, "But I like to have solo adventures from time to time too!"
"I don't want to even imagine what you might be thinking," Duncan muttered before adding, "Well in any event, we have one more question for you. We get why you went along with Joseph for the vote on a couple of occasions, but why didn't you tell the others about Joseph? I mean, you clearly knew about his alliance."
"I don't really know. I thought Joseph's alliance with Noah was just like a protection pact or something, at least at first. Part of me wanted to think that since they kept saving me, they planned on adding me to their alliance since I knew I could have used a little extra protection," Izzy said with a sigh, "I didn't like splitting the relationships up, but I also wanted to win and the part of me that said 'It's you or them' won out in the end. And by the time I realized what Joseph was doing and figured I should have told the others, I knew of Noah's plan since I listened to some of the confessionals and didn't want to mess him up."
"Interesting. So as much as you hate to admit it, your hands are bloodied, so to speak," Duncan noted.
Owen looked hurt and said, "Hey that's not nice. I want to talk to you more Izzy, but we need to move on to our next guest. Do you mind moving to the side?"
"Only if you promise to spend time with me after the show," Izzy purred, batting her eyelashes as she did so.
"It's a date," Owen cheered, a smile on his face. Izzy gave Owen a quick kiss and moved to the middle row of seats on the right side of the stage, sitting a couple of seats over from Emily. Owen giggled like a schoolgirl before composing himself and saying, "Alright, time for our last guest! He was eliminated from Total Drama Island due to an injury, got eliminated due to an auto elimination this season and got a girlfriend this season, it's Cody!"
The tech geek walked onstage, to the roaring applause of his many fans, something that took him by surprise. He sat down on the couch and Duncan said, "What's the matter Cody? Surprised at how many fans you have?"
"A little bit, yeah," Cody said with a nervous chuckle.
"Aw, lighten up! Nothing wrong with having some fans," Owen cheerfully said before adding, "So ready to get started with your interview?"
Cody nodded and said, "Yeah, let's do it."
"That's the spirit," Owen said with a cheer, "All right then, let's start with this: What did you think about your time in the game?"
"For the most part, I had a lot of fun. I mean, I didn't leave in a full body cast this time, so that's a plus already. I liked the challenges a lot more this time around, maybe because they were less dangerous? Either way, I liked them better when there was a theme to them, even if it was a loose theme. The new guys were, with a couple of exceptions, a nice group of people. Plus I got a girlfriend, so I can't really complain," Cody answered.
Duncan smirked and said, "Nice job there, by the way. I didn't think you had it in you, to be honest."
"Um thanks? I think," Cody awkwardly responded.
"Our next question actually plays off of that," Duncan noted, looking at a cue card in his hand, "Tell us about your relationship with Emily."
"Well to be honest, I was surprised when I first learned she was a fan of me. I mean, there's not a whole lot of them back home, so it's weird to think that of all the people to join this show, one of them was one of my fangirls. It's not something I'm used to seeing. But Emily being my fan didn't really factor in at all to my attraction to her. It was her mainly her personality that I fell in love with, though I won't be afraid to admit that she's really hot and that helped. But in all seriousness, she's really nice, sweet and cute. It's all I could want from a girlfriend," Cody admitted. Up in her seat, the dancer blushed and tried to hide it out of embarrassment.
"Way to go man, I'm glad you were able to finally get a girlfriend, especially since it never worked out with Gwen," Owen said, oblivious to the somewhat embarrassed yet unamused look Gwen had on her face.
The tech geek smiled and said, "Thanks Owen. And while a very small part of me is still sad about Gwen, I like to think I've moved on. I mean, Emily and I click so well, I find myself looking back and questioning if I had been with Gwen, would we both be as happy? And to be honest, I don't think we would be, so I'm glad things turned out the way they did."
"Well one last question before we can let you go. Tell us about your endgame. Specifically your attitude change after Emily's elimination and then your instant one," Owen asked.
Cody scratched the back of his head and said, "Yeah, my mood after Emily was eliminated wasn't my finest moment. I was just frustrated, you know? I mean, I had no reason to believe that people would actually target her. So I felt a bit betrayed and figured that revenge was justified. Now that I know what really happened I feel kind of stupid and regret the way I acted. As for the elimination, yeah it kind of sucked, but it was basically chance. What could I have done? At least I can take comfort in knowing that I wasn't eliminated due to the others voting me out. Yeah, it sucks losing so close to the end, but hey, I made it a lot farther than I thought I would. And I got a girlfriend. If I have choose between winning and Emily, I would pick Emily ten times out of ten."
"Awwwww," a large number of females in the audience cooed while the dancer went slightly red in the face.
Owen smiled and said, "That's really sweet Cody. Not many people would be willing to say the same thing."
"What can I say? I'm an honest guy," the tech geek said with a shrug.
"Alright Casanova, that's all the questions we've got for you. Move on over to the side, we got something to do before the show ends," Duncan said, an amused smirk on his face. Cody nodded and moved to the second row of bleachers on the right, sitting next to Emily, who wrapped her arms around his arm and snuggled up to him.
"Alright now is where-," Duncan started to say before he was cut off by a voice shouting, "AHHHH!" A body flew across the stage behind the couch and crashed into a pile of crates behind the bleacher seats on the left side of the couch.
It was Alejandro, who groaned and held a hand to his head for a moment, dazed from the impact. After a moment, he got up and shouted, "SECURITY! We have a code S situation!"
Almost instantly, a white overweight female with her brown hair in a ponytail and in a police uniform ran out from behind the left side of the stage and starting running to the right side. As she was doing so, she pulled out a Taser and shouted, "Stand back everyone! This is official police business!"
As she ran off, a black skinny female with short brown hair and also in a police uniform ran across the stage, shouting, "MacArthur, we're just cadets! And where did you get a Taser?"
Many of those seated on the stage as well as in the audience looked confused as Alejandro pulled out a walkie-talkie and said into it, "Carl, we've had a code S. That security team you hired is handling it. Yeah. Yes, that one. Got it."
Putting away the walkie-talkie, Alejandro noticed the audience staring at him and he said, "Sorry about that. We had a more, lets say rambunctious, fan make their way backstage in an attempt to do who knows what. We're taking care of it." The Hispanic flirt then walked back the way he was thrown from, muttering, "I can't believe the crazy chicas they'll add to a season."
"All right, with that out of the way I guess, it's time for the surprise we've been waiting for," Owen excitedly said before adding, "Can everyone in the peanut gallery please move to the front of the stage so we can begin?"
The eliminated and non-competing contestants all did as the hosts directed, getting off the bleachers and going to the front of the stage. "Let's do this," Duncan remarked as he pushed a button and the seats themselves began to shudder with movement. Each set of bleachers started to split apart as gears groaned, separating the seats into four distinct segments.
Once they stopped moving, four banners unfurled from the ceiling, one for each section of seats. Each banner had one of the final four's faces on them and were, from left to right, Jennifer, Bridgette, Noah and Mikey. Owen looked at the crowd in front of him on the stage and said, "Alright, we want to know who you want to win. So go to the section of the person you want to win and we'll ask a few questions to the group."
"Big thanks to Nicholas for getting a lot of this set up," Duncan noted.
Harold spoke up, "I helped too."
The punk shot back, "I didn't ask you Doris."
"I just want a little credit for my hard work. Idiot," the dweeb muttered.
As the peanut gallery moved to the seats that represented who they wanted to win, it became clear how many people didn't want Noah to win.
Sitting in Jennifer's section was Trent, Cody, Emily, William, Julie, Danny, Lindsay and Justin.
Sitting in Bridgette's section was Geoff, Gwen, Leshawna, DJ, Courtney, Ezekiel, Beth, Katie and Sadie.
Sitting in Noah's section was Joseph, Izzy, Eva and Heather.
Sitting in Mikey's section was Megan, Nicholas, Alexander, Jessie, Rebecca, Tyler and Harold.
Duncan and Owen observed who sat where for a moment before the punk said, "Alright, now we don't have time to talk to all of you, but we have time to ask a few questions to some of you who surprised us. Like Eva, why the Noah support?"
"We made a pretty good team during the hunt for the briefcase after season 1 ended, with his brain and my brawn. And surprisingly enough he doesn't annoy me," Eva grunted.
"All right, that was a bit shorter of an answer than what we were looking for, but it works. What about you Tyler? Any reason you're supporting Mikey," Owen asked.
Tyler shrugged and said, "I'm not entirely sure. There's just something about him I like. He feels kind of like an underdog I guess."
Duncan turned his attention to Alexander and said, "What about you Alexander? Why are you rooting for Mikey?"
"It may not look it, but I happen to be quite the video game player. So naturally I would root for one of my brothers-in-arms, so to speak. Sucks that I didn't stick around longer, we probably would have been a good team," the slacker noted.
Owen shrugged and said, "Fair enough. I hate that we can't spend more time talking to you all, but we're low on time right now as it is. Anyway, uh, Courtney, how come you're hoping Bridgette wins, instead of Noah?"
"Well while I wouldn't mind either of them winning, I feel like Bridgette deserves the win more. Yes Noah may have atoned for his mistakes and I commend him for it, but Bridgette played a more honest game," Courtney replied matter-of-factly.
Duncan surveyed the peanut gallery and asked, "Any reason you hope Noah wins Heather?"
"I only picked him because he was the only person smart enough, other than myself, to catch on to Joseph's true nature," Heather scoffed.
"Yes, because it worked out so well for you when you figured it out," Joseph drawled from next to her.
Heather rolled her eyes and said, "I bet if anyone else figured it out, they would have believed them."
The overachiever smirked, "Ah, but nobody else did figure it out, did they?"
"Oh my god, will you two just start making out already," Eva grunted from behind the two.
"Pardon," Joseph asked.
"With him? Ugh, gag me," Heather spat.
Owen looked for another person to question and said, "Oh, William, why are you hoping Jennifer wins?"
"Hmm," William looked up from his shoes and said, "Why am I rooting for Jennifer? She reminds me of my sister in a couple of ways. I don't really know the final four all that much, so that's all I got."
Duncan glanced at something off screen and said, "Well, it looks like we're out of time, so we have to stop now."
"Well there you have it," Owen said, gesturing at the peanut gallery, "We know which of the final four have the most and least support."
"Make sure to watch the next episode of Total Drama High School, to see which person loses next. Only two more episodes until the finale," Duncan added.
"Sadly, this is the last aftermath of the season, unless the special after the finale happens, but we're not sure if it is yet," Owen sadly added.
His co-host facepalmed and said, "Dammit Owen, that was supposed to be classified for the interns. It was going to be a surprise if the producers gave the approval."
Owen sheepishly chuckled and said, "Oh, uh oops?"
"Let's just wrap this show. I'm Duncan," the punk grunted.
"And I'm Owen! Thanks for watching," the happy-go-lucky teen added.
"And cut," the cameraman said as the footage stopped, lighting returned to normal and the audience started to be filed out by the orders of the auditorium workers.
"Alright everyone," Duncan said as he turned to the peanut gallery, "We've got to get some stuff ready before the finale. So let's get started."
Author's Note: So there was the 5th Aftermath (not the last though, as there will be a Finale Aftershow type of thing, with the hosts to be announced. I've already decided but I don't want to spoil the surprise). There was more of the same fare as usual here, with appearances from the eliminated characters and non competing ones. It's going up a bit later than I had hoped, but I blame school for that.
Now let's talk about the elephant in the room: Joseph's reason for playing the game the way he did. You might be thinking, 'Wow, that's a really lame reason'. Well that was intentional. In the canon TD seasons, the antagonists haven't had real reasons for their actions other than "Just Because", and this was meant to sort of emulate that. That and not every villain is going to be like a James Bond villain, with some master plan to conquer the world or something. So yes, his reasoning might have been lame, but it was also realistic. And what's more realistic than an overachiever wanting to be the best at something, right? I will note that while it sounds like he's a bit bipolar, going from cordial to angry at the drop of a hat, he's not meant to appear that way. Given his backstory, where he's always been the best (or rather, second best), he's used to being right. So he assumed that the others would see things the way that he did, given that he's normally right. They don't have to agree with his methods, but he hoped that they would agree with him not being as bad as he's being made out to be. But he got easily frustrated when they didn't agree with his logic.
As for non-Joseph related developments, there was one big thing I wanted to work on this chapter. You see, when writing both the last chapter and this one, I read the entire story to refresh myself and I realized two things. First is a lot of early dialogue was absolutely cringe-inducing. I found myself reading early chapters and saying to myself "How could I think that's how people talked?"
The second thing is that a lot of characters didn't have much of a personality. I mean, that could have been excused for early boots, as they were basically cannon fodder, but even later ones were bland or too similar to others. Jennifer, Megan, Emily and Jessie (and even Julie to an extent) in particular all felt very similar to each other early on, and even in later parts of the story. Jennifer's not as bad, IMO, since she had her depressed arc for a few chapters, but she's still guilty of being too similar. I'm working on trying to fix that at least a little bit towards the end now, but when I get around to the sequel, I will try to make all the characters a bit more distinct (You can see this starting with Megan last chapter and her panicking under pressure). That's really only a problem with the female OC's for some reason, as I feel like most of my male ones are varied. Mikey's a bit bland, but at least I personally don't think he's too similar to any of the others.
As I said, I'm working on buffing up character's personalities. You may have noticed this chapter that Alexander got a bit of focus. Instead of just being lazy, we see that he's a bit of a schemer with setting up the betting, not to mention he's a tad sarcastic (though the sarcasm may not have translated real well). This is the first step in making some of my characters a bit more unique, and something that I look to continue in the last leg of this story.
That's all that has to be said about this chapter I think. The cameo from Sanders and MacArthur was a fun little thing I decided to throw in there when watching The Ridonculous Race. Same goes for the Brody shout out. Who knows, maybe we'll see more of the RR cast show up? It's home stretch time, and hopefully the next chapter won't be another 3 month wait (but knowing me, it probably will be). Review if you'd like and thanks for reading!
Until Next Time!
Next Time!: Hopefully the final four haven't made many enemies, as they face a gauntlet of challenges created by the eliminated contestants.