"Previously on Total Drama Battle of the Generations," Chris began narrating in the by now standard intro. "Our teams headed down south for a good old fashioned country fair. We pitted them in everything ranging from eating contests, to pig racing, to wood carving. But in the end it all came down to a banjo duel to break our three way tie. Rodney and his clumsy crushy hands cemented Team Explosive's first loss of the season, while Beth used some quick thinking to beat Scott and win her team a spot in first class. At the elimination ceremony, Rodney despaired over losing his team the challenge, but was shocked to find out he was safe. Things came down to Amy and Samey, but just before one of the wonder twins could take the drop, Rodney stepped in to sacrifice himself for their sake. Dang dude, throwing away a shot at a million bucks for some chicks who aren't even into you? I think the kids these days have a word for that. He be mad simping."
From the cockpit Chef looked over at Chris, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Hey, I ain't the one who makes these words up." Chris chuckled, going back to his narrating. "20 contestants remain, and momentum has changed drastically now that Team Explosive's winning streak has been broken. Can they hope to bounce back? Will Team Old School start a new winning streak of their own? Maybe Team Radioactive could steal the win out from under their nose? We'll have to tune in to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"
*** Opening Credits ***
Things were tense as business picked right back up immediately following Rodney's strange elimination. Team Explosive had still yet to leave the elimination area, and three pairs of eyes were glaring Amy's direction.
"What's with the looks?" the mean twin asked, more than a hint of condescending smugness in her tone. "I mean it's not like any of you got eliminated so I don't get why you're getting so worked up over it."
"Oh no, you don't get to act all high and mighty after all of that," her sister shot back, pointing towards the exit hatch. "You'd be the one pushed out of there if Rodney hadn't quit. You just got lucky, but he won't be here to bail you out if we have to vote someone out next time."
Amy was preparing her own snappy comeback, but was shot down before it could start when Jasmine stepped up to tower over her. "You'd be wise to just zip it. You're on thin enough ice as it is. For your sake, you better be hoping we can start back up our winning streak. You just lost the one bloke daft enough to blindly follow you no matter what. You're not safe by any means of the word."
"Aaaand, that there is what they call a mic drop." Shawn mimed the dropping of a microphone, chuckling as his girlfriend and Sammy took their leave to head towards the cargo hold. "Dang, I love that woman."
The zombie nut took his leave to follow after the girls, leaving the rest of the team in an awkward silence. Having no business in the drama, Dave and Beardo silently left for economy class to join those from Team Radioactive not active in the zombie search. Amy was doing a poor job trying to remain composed as she shook from embarrassed rage.
"Look, I don't wanna agree with them losers, but ya gotta admit this still ain't great fer us," Sugar eventually said, arms folded. "There's three of em, and now only two of us. I ain't much for trigonometry, but even I can do that math."
"And what's your bright idea of what we should do about that?"
"Oh, that's easy." Sugar laughed, waving her hand dismissively. "We just need to replace Rodney with twiggy boy or the big guy."
Amy grunted in frustration. Rodney wasn't exactly the definition of cool himself, but at least he was strong and had his own sort of rustic cuteness to him. She could stand having him around. But Dave and Beardo? Not exactly the types she'd usually associate with. But then again, neither was Sugar. Yet now she was the closest ally Amy had.
"Fine," she eventually conceded. "So which one do we go for?"
"Well ol' Dave is darn near the biggest stick in the mud I ever met, last time around he wouldn't even let the wizard stay on our team! Beardo seems mighty fun, and anyone that can make pig noises as good as he did in the last challenge is ok in my book. Plus ain't he kinda shy and stuff? He'd probably be on board with us lickety split if we say we'll be his friend."
"I'll let you handle that part, then," Amy said, shivering at the thought of actually asking the beatboxer to be her friend.
*** Confessional: Amy ***
"Uuuugh, this sucks so much. Here I was, looking forward to dragging that big dumb hick to the finale with me so he'd hand me the million dollars. Now I have to bring Sugar with me. Can you say ew much? I'd say I was happy that him quitting kept me safe, but if he had just voted for Samey like I told him to then I could have just beat her in the tie breaker! So yeah, farm boy is dreaming if he thinks I'll ever call him back."
*** In First Class ***
Team Old School were already living it up large for their first stay in the winner's class. Courtney and Beth both relaxed with a facial mask, while DJ was having himself treated to a pedicure. Leshawna, Trent, and Cody were at the bar enjoying various treats and drinks. Though the lot of them were of drinking age, Leshawna was disappointed to see that no alcohol was stocked since some members of Team Explosive were still below the legal limit. As a result, she and Trent settled on some soda while Cody scarfed down as much sweets as the plane had stocked.
"Seriously dude, I'll never understand how you stay so skinny when you tear through candy like it's nothing," Trent observed as he watched his friend make short work of some chocolate bars. "You don't even work out that much, it's an anomaly."
"For real, you gotta teach a sister your secret," Leshawna added. "If I could eat whatever crap I wanted like you without worrying about packing on the pounds I'd be set."
Cody smirked, but his mouth was too full to respond otherwise. It was then that the trio heard Courtney speaking up from nearby.
"Ok, seriously Scott, it's bad enough that you're bugging me out in economy, but can't I at least enjoy first class in peace?"
They turned to see a group made up of both Radioactive and Explosive team members walking their way through first class. The aforementioned farmer was bringing up the rear, frowning at hearing his short lived ex's annoyance.
"Relax, toots, we're just going to the cargo hold. We kinda gotta go through here to get there."
Noticing Sammy in the group, Cody quickly gulped down his mouthful of candy. "What are you heading there for?"
"Zombie check," the cheerleader answered. "It's a long story."
"Another set of hands never hurts if you wanna join us," Shawn added, sensing an opportunity to help the two out. "It helped speed things along when Scott joined in, so having you along would be even better."
"Sounds fun, count me in." He jumped up from his seat, quickly joining Sammy near the front of the group. "I did offer to tell you more about that restraining order story after all."
Catching Trent giving him a sly grin, Cody winked and followed the rest of the group into the cargo hold. Once they were gone, Leshawna looked on in amused confusion.
"How long has this been a thing?"
"Just recently, he mentioned that they kinda hit it off talking during the last challenge." Trent answered. "He thinks there could be something there, so I guess he's just going for it."
"Huh, guess stringbean found himself some game." Leshawna chuckled, downing another soda. "Seems like just yesterday he was still striking out with Gwen over and over. Good for him finally getting over that oneitis of his."
*** Confessional: Trent ***
"As much as I'm rooting for my dude to find him someone special, it's kinda funny. Justin has been constantly between girlfriends over the last few months, and now Harold and Leshawna are together again. If Cody and Sammy become a thing, that leaves me as the only single dude in the band. I guess being seen as the loner bachelor of the group has its benefits, but it's still kinda weird considering how I was the only one in a relationship back when we started out in season 1."
*** In the Cargo Hold ***
Sometime later Sammy had already given Cody the rundown of how the zombie hunt's purpose was to keep Shawn at ease, though it had also helped them bond a bit with the helping members from Team Radioactive. Once that was done, Cody went into more detail on how his parents had placed a restraining order against Sierra.
"Geez, you guys actually had to get the cops involved?"
"Well she did end up breaking my bedroom window since the security in the backyard was upped. I guess she thought it wouldn't have been as noisy as it was." He took notice of her confused look. "Yes, I know that should be common sense, but Sierra was never the best at picking up on that. Honestly, she should be happy my folks aren't the gun buying types, most parents may have gone into full on attack mode after hearing that."
"And you haven't talked to her since then? Not even like online or anything?"
"She kinda dropped off the radar not long afterwards." Cody shivered. "Honestly, I was afraid of the worst. As much as she would bug me and cross the line, I still didn't want anything bad happening to her. But then she suddenly got back into blogging a few months later, so maybe she finally got some help."
While that duo continued chattering on, a bored Scott went through the motions of his own check. As he tried to move out of ear shot from those two, he noticed Dawn nearby checking in on a family of rats. That gave him an idea.
"Say, Dawn, you got a second?" His presence seemed to startle the rats, sending them skittering away. She shot him an annoyed look for his trouble. "My bad. It's just, you know, kind of important."
"It's about you and Courtney, correct?"
"Alright, seriously, are you psychic or what?"
"No, it was just rather obvious." She smiled. "Continue."
"That pipsqueak in the banjo duel told me that Courtney's still in to me. After I got kicked off I went home and watched back All Stars, and it LOOKED like she liked me before that last episode. But anytime I try talking to her this season she treats me like I punted her dog down an elevator shaft." He shrugged. "So what's your aura reading thingy make of it? Was Beth lying or what?"
Dawn tapped her fingers together, humming in thought. "It's hard to say. As far as auras go, Courtney's is all over the place. It basically looks like a Jackson Pollock painting." Noticing Scott's confused look, she realized he didn't know who that was. "It's incomprehensible." Nope, still confusion. "It's really really really messy looking."
"Oooooh," he finally said in realization.
"So essentially it's hard to read," she continued. "However, as far as I can tell I do sense that she has an affinity for you. With that said, I don't believe Beth was lying. It's just hard to say why she's giving you such a cold shoulder. Her aura tells of a love life that's been... complicated to say the least, so that's likely playing a factor."
"Guess that's more to work with than what I had." He scratched his head, thinking over how to go about his next move. "Thanks."
*** Confessional: Dawn ***
"Scott coming to me for advice and then giving a genuine thanks afterwards?" She giggled, shaking her head in disbelief. "The universe truly does work in mysterious ways."
*** In the Common Area ***
Breakfast was going as peacefully as it could for the 20 remaining contestants. The food wasn't great, the seats weren't comfy, but compared to the worse food they had on the islands it was manageable. Chris and Chef emerged from the cockpit, immediately creating an air of tension.
"Now why is it that whenever I walk in here everybody gets on edge like I'm about to toss them out of a plane or something?"
"Is that a joke?" DJ asked, genuinely unsure.
"Come on, I haven't done that to you guys this season. Yet, anyways." He paused, grabbing hold of a latch handle nearby and opening it with glee. "So it's time to change that!"
Everyone screamed as the high wind forced them to hold on to the tables in an attempt to not get sucked out of the open door. But it was futile, as one by one each contestant was sent flying outside, with Chef and Chris miraculously staying inside with no issue somehow. Jasmine was the last to be sucked into the air, flailing her arms in a panic.
Thankfully for the screaming players, they had been over water and splashed down with relative safety. A large island was nearby, and by the time everyone had swam to safety Chris and Chef had successfully landed the jet on the beach.
"Hope you kids enjoyed your swim!" He soaked in the various glares and curses flung his way, smiling all the while. "Now that you're bright eyed and bushy tailed, we can turn our attention to today's locale. Madagascar! Technically part of Africa, but nestled on this neat little island off the mainland of the continent. Somewhere around 90 percent of the wildlife here can't be found anywhere else in the world. Unless it's in a zoo or something, at least. You guys will get a good chance to meet a lot of those animals, since today's challenge will put your tracking skills to the test."
Chef arrived on the scene with a medallion that had an image of Chris' face on it. He then effortlessly broke it into three pieces while Chris narrated. "We'll keep this one short and sweet. Somewhere on the island we've hidden three pieces to a medallion with your team logo on it. All you guys have to do is find all pieces of your medallion and return here to me with them to assemble the full thing. First team that does it nets themselves first class. Last team to do it? Well, it should be obvious by this point."
"And what's stopping us from just chucking the other guy's pieces into the ocean if we find one before they do?" Anne Maria asked.
"Normally I'd allow it but we do have a schedule to keep up with and I'd rather avoid making this challenge take too long due to sabotage. So no interfering with other team's pieces, otherwise you'll get disqualified." Chris reached into a bag, pulling out a walkie talkie and tossing one to the Jersey Girl. "But while we're on the subject I will be giving each team one of these so you all can check in on your progress. Feel free to gloat when you find one of your own pieces to put the fire under the other dude's butts."
"Do we get a map or something to get a feel for where our stuff is?" Dave asked after catching his team's device.
"Honestly, you'd think after this long they would know better than asking things like that," Chris said to Chef, who shook his head. "Keep those walkie talkies on, I'll check in on you guys from time to time and I need to let you know when it's time to sing. With that all out of the way, get to hunting!"
The teams went their separate ways, with Dave, Anne Maria, and Leshawna all covering walkie talkie duty. Shawn and Jasmine were looking particularly confident as they carefully made their way through the rain forest of the island.
"This is perfect, all we have to do is look for signs of where Chris' interns might have been through, then track them to where the medallion pieces were hid," Jasmine went over. "It's right up our alley! We'll be back in first class in no time."
"I'd say that you shouldn't jinx us, but between you and me our team really does have the best shot here," Shawn added with a nod. "Neither of the others have anyone with our skillset, so somehow I doubt they're hanging in as good as us."
Indeed, a flash forward showed that this was the case for Team Radioactive.
"Dude, how the heck did this even happen?"
Scott's tone was a mix of annoyance and slight concern as the team crowded around to see Brick caught in a particularly large spider web.
"I told you! I noticed that my shoe was untied but ended up tripping on it before I could bend down to fix it. I landed in this thing." He shook a bit, trying to break free to no avail. "And this web is oddly tough, by the way."
"That makes sense, after all it appears to be a web made by the Darwin bark spider," Dawn explained, looking over the web in awe. "Not only are they the longest recorded webs, the silk itself is remarkably strong. Even stronger than Kevlar."
"The crap they make bullet proof vests out of?" Anne Maria went wide eyed. "How big are these things?"
By now Brick was in full freakout mode, but the others were too interested in Dawn's explanation to notice. "Not too large, actually. Even the larger females don't tend to even be an inch big."
On cue, a black bark spider crawled its way on to the web, most likely curious about the whole ass human now caught in it. While it was still creepy looking enough to get a yelp out of Brick, it was indeed rather small. Nothing to worry about... but then another spider joined it. And another. And then another. Suddenly a whole swarm of bark spiders dropped down on to the web. The cadet was petrified in fear, while the others watched on in shock. In one swift flash, the horde of spiders swarmed towards Brick, who screamed as loud as he could behind his closed mouth since he did NOT want those things going down his throat.
"I... better distract those spiders while you all get him free." Dawn moved to try and talk the arachnids away, while the others exchanged various wide eyed looks of concern.
Things weren't going much better for Team Old School, who had found themselves in a different area of the forest. At first things were looking good when they saw a piece of their medallion laying on a random tree branch. But upon reaching out to grab it, DJ was met with the scaly feel of a chameleon. Everyone on the team looked around to see more and more chameleons, all camouflaging as parts of the tree holding the chunk of medallion.
"Ok, well, surely if these things are trying to blend in as the medallion piece that means the real deal has to be nearby, right?" Trent reasoned, gently poking at one of the images of the medallion, only to be met with another chameleon.
"Well they sure aren't making it any easier for us," Courtney replied, frustrated after poking her third reptile in a row.
*** Confessional: Courtney ***
"We did pretty good for ourselves in the last challenge, but we can't get complacent. Until we've for sure swayed Leshawna's vote away from Trent and Cody's, we need to keep avoiding elimination. I'm self aware enough to know it'll probably be me in danger before Beth and DJ unless one of them royally screws up a challenge." It was right before she crossed her arms that she realized a chameleon had latched itself on to her sleeve and blended in. It only revealed itself to grab one of the bathroom flies with its tongue for a quick snack. "Ok, seriously? When did that even have time to latch on to me?"
*** In the Forest ***
Team Explosive had successfully tracked their way to the location of their own first medallion piece. Unfortunately for them, it was smack dab in the middle of a clearing filled with large sleeping feline-like creatures.
"The heck are those things?" Sugar whispered. "Pumas?"
"Nah, that there's a fossa," Jasmine answered, keeping her voice low and signalling for the others to stop. "They're basically top of the food chain here in Madagascar. Guess we shouldn't be surprised they'd hide one of our pieces in the middle of a bunch of em."
"Well at least they're sleeping," Sammy pointed out. "If we're stealthy we should be able to-"
"ATTENTION, CONTESTANTS!" Chris' voice blared loudly through the walkie talkies. "THIS IS YOUR KIND HOST CHECKING IN ON EVERYONE SINCE NO ONE HAS REPORTED FINDING A PIECE YET."
The heard of fossa growled as the host's yelling stirred them from their slumber. Once they could see the source of the noise coming from Team Explosive, they started to show their teeth and approach the now terrified contestants.
"You did that on purpose," Dave scolded through the device, with Chris' laughter on the other end confirming as much.
"Yeeeeah, I did. But hey, I know what might help you kids out!"
*DING DING DING*
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," said various people from all three teams in unison, a split screen showing them all dealing with their respective problems be it spider, chameleon, or fossa related.
"It's called a mandatory song, not a mandatory complain session. Chop chop!"
In the music video the world around the contestants turned to shades of green, red, yellow, and white. Various shots of the Madagascan terrain cycled through, as a synth melody began accompanied by a marimba. As the song went on more percussion would be added in, everything from congas, to a cowbell, to snare drums. Dawn was working diligently to herd the bark spiders off of Brick's terrified self. Dakota and Lightning leaned forward, looking down at the cadet in pity.
"I sure hope those things do not bite," the heiress sang.
"It'd suck for our teammate to become their early diiiiinner," Lightning added.
Meanwhile Team Old School were still searching under the chameleons, growing increasingly frustrated as they seemed to be now drowning in a sea of them in the music video.
"Which one of these dumb things is right?" Courtney asked desperately.
"Why does it feel like the group of them are getting biiiger?" Beth noted as the search seemingly never ended.
Team Explosive were hiding behind trees and bushes over on their end, some peeking out carefully as they watched the group of fossa run by. Jasmine lead the way as they tried to tip toe over to their medallion piece.
"Are we sure the coast is really clear?" Dave sang nervously.
"I'm thinking those kitties were looking real mad and huuungry," Beardo added.
"Come on guys, there's nothing to fear." Jasmine leaned down to pick up the medallion piece, only to then stand up and come face to face with a very angry fossa barring its teeth. Her eyes went wide. "Well except for us becoming food."
The percussion picked up as a montage played of the contestants having to deal with various animals throughout the island. A herd of ring tailed lemurs would run across the screen for each scene transition, first showing Team Old School now trying to fish out a medallion piece. DJ was struggling to reel up something on the beach, while Trent was fruitlessly only getting various fish at a river.
"There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude," the musician sang as he went through a rainbowfish, then a killifish, and finally a herring.
"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," DJ added, his catch finally revealing itself to be a massive coelacanth that flattened the brickhouse underneath it when it rose from the water.
"I dread these pains down in Africa," sang Amy, her team now up in trees to avoid the fossa only to now have a swarm of bats flying into their face.
Shawn covered his head, peeking with one eye to wait and see when the barrage would end. "And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaaad."
A few more scenic shots passed by of the Madagascan landscape, at one point even showing Chris and Chef sipping coffee on some lounge chairs on the beach while a family of asities flew above them. After that, we saw that Team Old School's fishing escapades had somehow led them to being stuck riding atop a humpback whale. Apparently they thought they potentially saw a medallion piece in one of its blowholes.
"It's looking like this wasn't smart," Cody observed as they inched closer to the blowhole and realized it was merely a piece of algae and not what they were looking for. He was miraculously able to sing clearly while underwater.
"This stupid challenge has us going round and round in circles," Leshawna added before the whale suddenly shot water out of the blowhole, sending the team rocketing away.
"I know we'll get through this in my heart," Sammy sang as we now saw her team trekking through a section of the island heavily populated by bugs. Madagascan sunset moths flew by and various beetles crawled along the trees.
"That's assuming that none of these here critters make one of them lose their dang marbles," Sugar pointed out, jutting a thumb backwards. Dave currently had a group of Madagascar hissing cockroaches climbing up his leg, and the running and screaming it caused him to do looked like some sort of interpretive dance.
Over with Team Radioactive, they had finally located their first medallion piece. Unfortunately for them it was underneath a leatherback sea turtle. Dawn was kneeling in front of it, seemingly trying to help urge it away from the part they needed. "Please poor creatures, pay us no mind."
"We just want to get this challenge done," Scott sang painfully as he was meanwhile trying to life up the turtle's side for someone to grab the medallion piece. That obviously wasn't happening, since the thing weighed hundreds of pounds.
As the chorus started up again, the percussion once more picked up while Brick was swatting away some thirsty mosquitoes.
"There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude," sang the cadet.
"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," Anne Maria added as she sprayed the mosquitoes with her hair spray to get rid of them, not noticing that she was suffocating Brick in the process.
"I dread these pains down in Africa," Trent sang from the shore Team Old School had washed up on, detaching a crayfish that had attached itself to his ass.
Next to his bandmate, Cody coughed up a wad of seaweed. "And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaaad."
There was then a pretty sweet solo on the synthesizer. The camera panned up to reveal none other than B as the one playing on the keyboard, only finally stopping to whip out his singing device. "LET'S ALL TRY NOT TO BECOME FOOD!"
Now we went back and forth shots of the teams all working instruments of their own. Cody, B, and Beardo worked their respective synthesizers. Scott, DJ, and Shawn were on bongo duty, so on and so forth. Team Explosive all sung in unison. "There's a bunch of stuff here that could kill a dude."
"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," now sung the entirety of Team Old School.
"I dread these pains down in Africa," sang Team Radioactive, though then the line was repeated by Team Explosive. Then by Team Old School. It was sung a few more times by one team after another until it came back to Team Radioactive singing together.
"And we know from here it just gets more ba-aaaad!"
With the song finally over, everyone took a moment to collect themselves and get their barrings. Jasmine looked at the medallion piece she had grabbed before they were chased off by the fossa, pocketing it to ensure it wouldn't be dropped. That done, Dave then whipped out the walkie talkie. "Alright, status report. We got our first piece during all the singing."
"Same here," Anne Maria confirmed while B tucked away their medallion third. "It was easy peazy."
"Took us forever to find the right chameleon it was under, but yeah, we got our's too," Leshawna confirmed.
"Sounds like we're all tied up," Chris observed from his end. "Which is boring. Let's get a move on, people! First class is gonna have an all you can eat surf and turf platter waiting for them tonight."
While a lot of the contestants cheered and started to pick up the pace at the announcement, Dawn couldn't help but frown. She moved to try and use the radio since Anne Maria was currently done with it, only to be surprised by a voice speaking up before her.
"Ya know, that really ain't the best incentive for some of us if we're vegan," DJ said over the airwaves. "The good night's sleep is good enough motivation for me."
The moonchild smiled, pleasantly surprised at getting beat to the punch. She motioned an offer to take the walkie off of Anne Maria's hands. "Agreed. It's bad enough you interfered with these creature's habitat to set up your challenge, it's just cruel to be serving animals afterwards."
Lightning rolled his eyes nearby. "Sha-please. If you ain't gonna eat up, then that's more protein for Lightning once we win!"
Unbeknownst to the athlete, his comment earned him a stink eye from Dawn. Brick took notice of the exchange, shaking his head.
*** Confessional: Brick ***
"I'm really glad to see that Scott has been doing so well proving himself as a changed man. So I've started to think, if he can end up reforming himself, why not Lightning too while we're at it? I think with a bit of help, Lightning could be a stand up guy! His main problem is he just needs to learn the value of teamwork. In this case, that includes practicing some restraint before offending one of your squadmates."
*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***
Team Explosive trudged through the wilderness, Shawn having spotted some footprints to track that looked similar enough to the ones that led to their first medallion piece. Echoing around them were the squawks of various wild birds, the buzzing of insects, the ribbits of frogs. Or at least realistic recreations of the sounds as Beardo tried to pass the time with his noises.
"Sorry, but this really isn't the best time for ambient noises," Sammy pointed out, having a hard time keeping a lookout around them for anything dangerous with the sounds distracting her.
"Oh. Yeah, you're probably right." Beardo shrunk back sheepishly with an awkward chuckle. "My bad."
While the rest of the team continued on ahead of them, Sugar nonchalantly met the beatboxer at the back of the pack. "Well if you ask me, them noises are just plum cool. I think she may just be jealous."
"Nah, I get that it's probably pretty distracting right now." Still, he chuckled at the compliment. "But you like the sound effects?"
"Fer sure, buddy!" She patted him hard on the back. "Yer like a walking talking zoo! Ya know, except without any actual animals and all. Think you could even pull off a raccoon sound?"
Beardo was a bit taken back by the buddy comment, smirking. "For sure, I can pretty much do any sound effect as long as I've heard what it sounds like once before." To prove his point he pulled off an uncanny impression of a raccoon chattering.
*** Confessional: Beardo ***
"Wow, first Harold and now Sugar? I always thought people found the sound effects annoying, especially after I got booted off first last time." He folded his arms proudly. "Guess I was wrong! Feels nice to be complimented."
*** Confessional: Sugar ***
"Well that was easy." She chuckled mischievously. "Sucker."
*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***
"Get a load of that beauty," Jasmine said in awe, though the rest of the team was standing vary cautiously behind her. Before them was a large bronze colored crocodile, which sure enough had a necklace around its neck with a medallion piece attached. Nearby were some bones that may or may not have implied an unfortunate fate for the intern that had been tasked with putting it there.
"You got a weird definition of what's beautiful," Dave commented.
"That there's a Nile crocodile! I've tussled with a bunch of crocs in my day, but I've never had the chance to see one of those in person." Looking absolutely giddy like a kid on Christmas morning, she began to limber up. "Fun fact, they're considered to be one of the most dangerous species of crocs on the planet!"
"How is that a fun fact at all?" An increasingly distressed Shawn whispered. "Babe, you sure you can just swoop in and grab that thing around its neck without getting hurt? They're basically the zombies of the reptile world!"
"Ah yeah, I've been wrestling crocs back home since I was a little ankle-bitter." She gave her boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek for reassurance. "Just sit back and watch a pro do her stuff."
With no time to waste, Jasmine carefully jumped right into the fray. Once she was well positioned, she hopped atop the crocodile's back. The critter was startled to say the least, and began rolling in an attempt to shake off the Aussie. But Jasmine held strong, and worked towards retrieving its necklace while her team watched in nervous shock. All except Shawn, who sighed dreamily.
*** Confessional: Shawn ***
"Yeah, I'm pretty much the luckiest dude alive."
*** In the Madagascan Highlands ***
Somehow Team Old School's search had led them away from the rainforest and into a highland area of the island. Thankfully the choice proved a wise one when they spotted a piece of their medallion at the top of baobab tree. However, it was a really tall tree that was relatively smooth with no footholds, so DJ was having a slow progress climbing up the thing.
"And now we have our second piece," announced Dave's voice suddenly through the walkie. "Also, Chris, you may wanna check to make sure the intern you put on crocodile duty made it back alright."
"Yeah, well, we're about to get our second piece too so don't get yourselves too comfy just yet," Leshawna shot back through the device. Though it wasn't too reassuring when she heard a sudden scream from DJ, followed by him sliding down the tree.
"I'm telling y'all, this thing wasn't made for climbing!" He groaned into the dirt, trying to catch his breath.
"Somehow I feel like Izzy would have been good at this," Beth commented, Courtney only acknowledging with an annoyed grunt. "Maybe we can just knock it out of the tree? Throw rocks at it until it falls down?"
The CIT opened her mouth to object, only to pause in realization. "Actually... that's not a bad idea. Everyone pick up some rocks and get to pelting!"
Using some pebbles that were lining the ground around the trees, the contestants started throwing towards the medallion piece as hard as they could manage. All except DJ for the time being, who was still recovering from his rough fall.
Elsewhere, Team Radioactive had also finally managed to locate their next piece. Their searching had brought them towards a plateau grassland area of the island, where Dawn insisted a friendly tomato frog had seen an intern dispersing the medallion parts had set off to. While there may have been some secret doubts as to this frog's advice, it proved to be a useful tip. Though because nothing could be easy, the medallion piece happened to be tied up and dangling from a rope off the side of a rocky massif in the grassy plains. Thanks to the jagged and steep nature of it, there was no easy way to reach it. So for now they were at a stop, figuring out how to actually grab the thing.
"How the heck did they even put the thing there, did they use a jetpack or something?" Scott looked to the side, noticing B looking over the situation in deep thought. "B, you got any idea how to tackle this?"
He tapped his chin, eventually nodding. The silent genius reached into his jacket, finally pulling out a fishhook of all things. He then retrieved a spool of fishing line, miming an indication of what he had planned.
"Yo, we don't all speak sign language, can't you just use that talk box thingy to tell us what's up?" Anne Maria asked. By now the exhaustion was making her increasingly frustrated. "Like come on, you're a smart guy, that hunk of metal surely can't be put together bad."
"It's not that it's put together poorly, it's more the fact that he had such little to work with in the way of supplies on the jet," Dawn answered calmly while B tied the hook to the line. "So because the materials are so low quality, he merely doesn't want to risk overloading the device more than it needs to be used. There's no guarantee he'd have enough scrap to build another in time for the next singing episode."
"Pretty sure he just tried to show that he's gonna try hooking the rope so he can pull it up," Scott added. B looked over at the farmer, eyebrows raised in surprise. He flashed a finger pistol to confirm that it was indeed the plan.
So with that, the team could only stand and wait. It was going to take B a few times to properly hook the rope since it was at such an awkward angle and they had little room to stand properly on the massif. The sun was coming down hard, so most of the team were sweating up a storm as they fanned themselves and tried in vain to cool off.
"Ugh, our last piece better be back where it's cooler," Dakota groaned. "It's so dang hot."
"Sha-no duh. We can all feel the dang heat, girl." Lightning wiped a heap of sweat from his brow in annoyance.
"Well obviously, can't a girl vent?" The heiress huffed, feeling that her makeup was started to run quite a bit thanks to all the sweat. It didn't help that Anne Maria was passing the time next to her by unloading a fresh coat of suffocating hair spray. A rumble from her stomach signaled further distress. "Oh, I really hope we can finally win. That surf and turf would really help right now."
"Again with the talking about defenseless animals as food for our reward?" Dawn sighed, turning away in disappointment.
"I'm just trying to be optimistic since this challenge sucks so much." Another spray from Anne Maria. Scott had taken to sniffing his armpit for some reason, and that gross sight wasn't helping her feel any better. B still hadn't hooked the rope yet, and the lack of update from him thanks to his silence wasn't helping her keep any more calm.
Then it happened. From out of nowhere a flock of herons flew by right where Team Radioactive was at. It wasn't mere coincidence, as one of the birds had miraculously held yet another medallion piece in its talons, perhaps coming to deliver it to Dawn after hearing good things from the tomato frog. But they were coming in way too fast. Only thanks to their loud squawking were most of the contestants alerted to their presence in time to duck out of the way. This wasn't the case for Dakota, who had many of the birds bash into her. Not only was it painful, but it royally ruffled up her hair and scratched up her face in the process. The cherry on top was when she noticed a splotch of white fall from her hair, as apparently one of the herons had been startled enough to go to the bathroom. For what it was worth, the medallion piece was also attached to the white glob, but that wasn't going to help her mood.
Immediately the others sensed danger as Dakota stood there in a stewing rage. The sum of everything had practically made her shake from anger, with only B none the wiser to the growing danger as he had finally managed to hook the rope and was carefully pulling up the medallion piece.
"Now let's just breathe for a minute here," Brick said carefully, arms up defensively as the others began inching away. "We don't want to get angry right now."
"This... challenge... SUCKS!"
It was too late. There wasn't enough room to safely run away, so the others could only watch in terror as their teammate's skin began to turn a deeper shade of orange and she grew in size. B had finished pulling up the rope and had just managed to untie and pocket his team's final piece when he heard the commotion and looked back. Now fully formed into Dakotazoid, the mutant punched the ground to vent her frustration. Unsurprisingly, this was a very very bad idea to do when you were nearly on the side of a high up massif. Sure enough, a chunk of the ground crumbled away, and Team Radioactive was sent hurtling over the side of the massif as a result.
On the bright side, the horrified screams of her teammates finally got Dakotazoid to snap out of her rage.
"OH CRAP!"
Thinking quickly, Dakotazoid used her massive reach to grab each of her teammates and pull them towards her as they plummeted to the ground below. Once she had them all, she held them close to her stomach and turned so that her back was facing down. After a few more seconds they finally hit the bottom, her massive frame causing a small crater to form around them.
"There... friends are... safe," Dakotazoid meekly said with a chuckle before finally passing out from the shock. While they were all uninjured save from some cuts and bruises from the fall, the entirety of the team had also passed out after the impact.
*** Confessional: Dakota ***
"Well... that definitely wasn't one of my better moments."
*** In the Madagascan Rainforest ***
Once they had finally managed to knock their second piece from the baobab tree, Team Old School had decided to double back towards the starting point in a hope to find their third piece along the way. Luck was on their side, as they eventually happened to stumble across a group of ring tailed lemurs. They seemed to have been in the middle of a dancing session, perhaps they liked to move it move it. But more relevant to the contestants, the tallest of the lemurs was holding on to their third medallion piece as a trophy. Now they were in the middle of a chase to get their final part from the mammal.
"I'm about ready to use a rock to solve this part of the challenge too," Courtney said in a huff as the lemur jumped out of the way when she dived towards it.
"We are NOT hurting the animals, this one isn't even violent," DJ loudly protested, though his attempt to run at the medallion piece caused a tree branch to whack him in the face. "Well not on his own at least."
"Corner it so he can't get away," Beth yelled, with the others joining her to run at the lemur from all angles.
They were eventually able to back the critter up against a rock. It clutched the medallion piece protectively, glaring as it watched DJ, Courtney, Trent, Leshawna, and Beth close in. Feeling out of options, it was almost ready to try eating its treasure before a hand swooped down from above and plucked it out of its grasp.
"I'll be taking that, thank you!" The lemur looked up in shock to see Cody perched on top of the rock, having stealthily got into the perfect swiping position while it was distracted by the others. "Pleasure doing business with you, little guy."
Impressed at being outsmarted by humans he had assumed were mindless, the lemur nodded in approval. It then dabbed at them, flossed, and scurried off back into the forest.
Beth blinked in confused shock. "Did that lemur just-"
"Don't acknowledge it, let's just go." Leshawna commanded, everyone nodding in agreement and proceeding to never speak of that again. She pulled out the walkie talkie. "We got our third piece, y'all! Try not to be last while we go enjoy first class again."
Many high fives and whoops of cheer were exchanged while the OGs ran their way back to the starting point. Courtney had even taken the time to put the three pieces together to form the completed medallion. Since neither of the other two teams had called in about finding their third piece, victory seemed inevitable. With a skip in their step and a song in their hearts, Team Old School finally made it back to the beach where Chris and Chef were... and where they were also joined by Team Explosive.
"What the... how the heck are they here?" A flabbergasted Trent blurted out.
"Oh, we found our third piece about an hour ago," Sammy said, giving the enemies an apologetic smile. "We tracked it to some mud where it was hid under a pile of worms."
"Which was totally gross, by the way," Dave added with a shiver.
"And totally yummy!" Sugared belched in satisfaction, even rubbing her tummy for added affect. "Always did love me some gummy worms!"
"We already told you that they weren't... ah never mind." Jasmine shook her head, focusing on the other team. "Anyway, we didn't ring in about finding it since we figured it would have lit a serious fire under the other teams and we really wanted to win. Sorry, mates. But on the bright side you're not the last team to arrive, so you aren't going to elimination."
Chris and Chef looked at each other, the host lowering his sunglasses in what could almost be mistaken as concern. "Where IS Team Radioactive anyway? We haven't heard an update from them in a while."
Seeing that his comrade was giving him an expecting stare, Chef sighed and got up from his comfy chair. "I'll go check the gosh darn cameras."
Elsewhere in the Madagascan grasslands, the various members of Team Radioactive began to wake up and groan in pain.
*** Confessional: Courtney ***
"Ugh, just when we got a taste of first class of course Team Explosive wins it back again. Oh well, I guess not being the losing team is better than nothing." She sighed, looking out the window in thought. "I wonder who Team Radioactive is gonna vote off. Probably... wait a minute."
*** On the Jumbo Jet ***
Courtney peaked around the corner, looking into the common area. Scott was sitting there alongside Dawn, B, and Brick. She took a deep breath, stepping forward to say something... only to immediately change her mind and quickly walk away to economy class instead. The dirt farmer looked back after thinking he had heard a noise, but shrugged when he saw nothing there.
"Everyone doing alright?" Brick asked as he handed out ice packs to the others. He was applying one to the back of his own neck, and all were still showing a fair amount of bruises. "Heck of a nasty fall we took."
B gave a thumbs up to signify his lack of injury, though Scott was looking much more spiteful. "That's an understatement, she almost got us killed! Between what happened today and Japan, she's gotta go. It ain't worth keeping her around when we gotta worry about Dakotazoid coming out at any moment."
"We should take into account that Dakota isn't able to help her condition, and while it doesn't lead to the most peaceful solutions she HAS saved us before in Antarctica thanks to Dakotazoid," Dawn pointed out, icing an ankle she propped up on another stool. "Personally, I haven't appreciated Lightning's attitude as of late. I'm not sure he has any respect for animals. He was even feeding his own protein powder irresponsibly to the pig in the last challenge!"
Brick raised his eyebrows in concern. "Well, I don't know if he really knew any better. I think it'd be safe to say Lightning isn't the most aware member of the team, so he just needs to be educated is all. Plus, his strength is definitely an asset to the team." He winced as he felt a small bit of soreness from his neck. "As for Dakota, I've gotta agree with Scott. I don't mean to think less of her because of the condition she can't control, but it can't be ignored if she's going to be a danger to not only us but herself."
Dawn seemed ready to protest, but was surprised to see even B nod in agreement, pointing a thumb at the dirt farmer and giving a thumbs up to signal his approval. Sighing, the pale girl relented. "I suppose you're right."
*** Confessional: Scott ***
"Dawn and Beverly actually agreeing with what I have to say?" He chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. "Man, what a world."
*** At the Elimination Ceremony ***
With the votes placed and someone's fate locked, the seven members of Team Radioactive shuffled into the elimination area. Chris was looking smug as always while he retrieved the plate of peanut filled barf bags.
"Ah, welcome back guys! I knew you couldn't stay away from me long when we started out the season with you all here." He chuckled ominously, obviously none of the others looking happy to be there. "Well let's get right into it, shall we? Anne Maria, Dawn, B, all of you get some peanuts."
All three of them caught their bags with nothing to say on the matter, as if that would be a shock for one in particular.
"Brick, you're also safe even after you decided to stop for a date with the spiders."
The cadet shivered from the creepy crawly memory, nearly missing his bag as it was tossed his way.
"Aaaaand... Lightning. You might be a cocky jerk, but you're a strong cocky jerk." He threw the athlete his bag. "You're also safe."
"Sha-duh," he replied, catching his immunity symbol all the same.
"Oh come on, I didn't even do anything wrong this time," Scott protested, only receiving a sharp glare from Dakota for the outburst.
Chris cleared his throat, getting the attention back on himself. "As I was saying. Dakota, you're on the block because your mutant rage almost got your teammates killed." She looked down in shame. "And Scott, you're on the chopping block because you are, indeed, still Scott."
He merely growled in frustration, mumbling obscenities under his breath while Chef opened the hatch. There was then gasps as the co-host brandished TWO parachutes and threw one to each of the contestants in trouble.
"Oh no, is it a double elimination?" Dakota asked in shock.
"Nah, just a single," Chris answered while Chef wheeled out a strange platform type thing. It had two spots to stand on and was on wheels. It also had a handle that Chef could keep a hold of. "We're just doing something a bit different for my patented dramatic pause of this elimination."
Seeing that everyone was properly confused, Chris continued. "Because you two are in unique situations, I thought it would be a fun dramatic twist for our loser to get the boot without any time to react and say their goodbyes."
"How does that make any sense?" Scott asked, his voice rising in a mix of panic and anger.
"Simple, if Dakota is eliminated it saves us the trouble of her potentially getting mad and wrecking the plane while we're all on it," Chris answered. "And if YOU get eliminated, it means you'll be denied a chance to go and finally make up with Courtney. It's the kinda juicy cliffhanger that leaves viewers wanting more, you'd have no chance to give her some parting words!"
"Actually, I did write her down a note on some toilet paper to give in case I get the axe." He dug into his pants, handing a wad of toilet paper to a very grossed out Brick. "Speaking of, give this to Courtney if I'm voted off, will ya?"
"That's... incredibly gross." Shaking his head in disappointment, Chris motioned towards the movable platforms. "Just strap on your parachutes and get on the dang things."
The dirt farmer and rich girl locked eyes, both trying to remain confident as they got into position with the parachutes on. Once they were in place, Chef began pushing and pulling the device back and forth. With each push it would be Scott standing in front of the open hatch, and with each pull it was Dakota in front of it. He continued to push and pull with sadistic glee as the two's confidence quickly melted away into nervous panic.
"Scott... Dakota... the one getting the boot tonight is..."
Both closed their eyes, anticipating the worst while Chef continued to move them back and forth. The rest of the team watched on nervously, while Chris smirked at the rising tension. But eventually the Boot of Shame did come swinging down, kicking square into the face of...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
... Dakota.
"Dakota is out," Chris confirmed, the heiress' scream echoing as she fell to the Earth below. "Scott, you live to see another day. But, uh, pro tip my guy? Please don't give Courtney that nasty ass toilet paper. That's just a bad idea."
Chris tossed the safe boy his barf bag, Scott completely ignoring it hitting him in the head as he stepped off the platform and heaved a heavy sigh. "Holy crap, never do that thing for an elimination again."
*** In Economy Class ***
Most of Team Old School were settling into their seats, obviously not too happy about the downgrade in living arrangements after enjoying first class. Cody was the lone missing member, having already excused himself to go join Sammy and the others in the cargo hold. Beth noticed that Courtney was looking particularly conflicted, nudging her to get her attention.
"Something on your mind?"
"No," she lied. "Just disappointed we couldn't get first class again, that's all."
The farm girl wasn't convinced. It didn't make matters any more convincing when Team Radioactive finally filled in after their elimination. Dawn, B, Brick, and Scott immediately branched off to to the cargo hold as well, but their passing through was at least able to confirm who got the axe.
"Dakota, huh?" Leshawna commented, shaking her head. "Dang. Maybe I should have apologized to white girl for going off on her so hard. Ah well, guess her and Harold can hash it out on the Aftermath."
Once things quieted back now, Beth could see Courtney looking much more relaxed. She chuckled. "Guess you're glad it wasn't Scott that got voted off, huh?"
"Oh shut up," the CIT answered. "I'm just glad that Dakota is out of the game. As Dakotazoid she was objectively the physically strongest and fastest of us by far, so it's good to have that threat out of the way early."
"Uh huh," DJ said flatly. "Sure."
*** Cockpit Confessional: DJ ***
"Who does she think she's fooling? Like come on, how long do we gotta drag this out before she just admits that she still likes the guy and does something about it?" He folded his arms and shook his head. "Relationship drama, man. Sure am glad I've never got caught up in that junk."
"Well there's a first time for everything, DJ my man," Chris practically yelled, startling the brickhouse who seemed to forget there were indeed two other people in the cockpit with him. "Who knows, maybe this will be the season some fine honey has her eyes on you."
"Me personally, I've always shipped him with Katie, but you said bringing her and Sadie back wouldn't do anything for ratings," Chef added, sounding disappointed. "Oh, maybe him and Ella would vibe pretty well?"
"She isn't on this season, and I don't intend on ever letting her back anytime for the foreseeable future," Chris said in a huff. "She should be happy the network asked her to help host the aftermath."
DJ watched the back and forth as confused as could be. "Uuuuh, I think I'll be going no-"
"Will DJ get his hook up on and finally find his OTP?" Chris interrupted, throwing an arm around his shoulder.
"OT what?"
"Which girl would fall for our beloved brickhouse?" Chris continued to ignore the contestant, though DJ looked at the camera in confused fear. "Will Team Radioactive ever get to win first class for once? Will Rodney go down in Total Drama history as its biggest simp now that Cody is un-simping himself?"
"What he heck is a-" DJ began to ask before Chris released his grip, causing him to fall to the floor.
"You may find out the answer to these questions next time, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"
Voting Confessionals:
Anne Maria gives Scott's passport a stamp, wincing a bit at the soreness in her arm. "Sure, Dakota may have got me a bit scratched up, but at least the poof is in tact. The way I see it, she's probably the closest thing I got to an ally right now, so I'd still rather kick off Scotty."
Silent as ever, B gave Dakota's passport a stamp and nodded for emphasis.
"I don't think it would reflect poorly on me at this point to say Dakotazoid is pretty darn scary. With what happened today, and what happened to Harold, I'm sorry but this is the right thing to do." Brick stamped Dakota's passport.
Dakota was looking nervous, to say the least. Dread was creeping into her eyes. "This is sooo bad. I really hope I can work past this Dakotazoid nastiness. Please let me stay for a bit longer." She stamped Scott's passport.
"The more I thought it over, the more I realized the others are correct. This game is simply not the environment for Dakota to be in with her condition. It'll bring nothing but harm in the future if she stays. Both for us, and herself." Dawn gave Dakota's passport a gentle stamp. "Once she returns home, I'm confident that being surrounded by loved ones will help her better than this game ever would."
Lightning took a look at Dakota's passport, but eventually tossed it to the side to stamp Scott's. "Sure, mutant girl messed up today almost getting people killed. Not cool. But did ya see that punch? Sha-bam! Lightning respects strength like that, it's good for the team. And since Lightning overheard her and Annie wanting to vote off Scott, that's good enough for him."
Scott glared a bit as he gave Dakota's passport a stamp. "This is twice now I've been banged up thanks to Dakotazoid's mutant strength. What is she trying to do, pass up Fang's record? Call me crazy, but I ain't waiting around to be put in a wheelchair like she did to Harold."
Votes for Dakota: 4 (B, Brick, Dawn, Scott)
Votes for Scott: 3 (Anne Maria, Dakota, Lightning)
After the Boot of Shame:
The suddenness of the elimination method had Dakota screaming for a good while, though she was finally able to adjust and safely deploy her parachute. Once she was finally able to regain her breath and composure, she sighed at the camera. "This sucks on so many levels. I wanted to come back to Total Drama to make new friends and work past this stupid Dakotazoid condition. But after a bunch of bruises and putting someone in a wheelchair, what do I have to show for it? Squat."
She grunted in frustration, kicking at the wind. "I mean, I get it. I really lost my cool today. Dakotazoid almost got my friends killed, between that and injuring Harold OF COURSE they would be afraid to keep me. Still, it's all just so frustrating! I didn't even get a fair chance to prove myself. And that jerk Scott not only stole Sam's spot on the cast but gets to stay longer than me?"
It was just as she was about to land that the frustration was reaching a climax. Below, in the middle of the Madagascan rainforest, a fossa began lurking towards its prey. A cowering family of lemurs were backed against a tree, awaiting their demise. But suddenly, what seemed like a comet struck the ground behind them. The fossa looked back, trying to see through the cloud of dirt. Suddenly, a deafening roar was heard, and Dakotazoid emerged from the rubble. The fossa ran off in fear, though so did the lemurs while the mutant girl ran by. She punched at trees to vent out her frustration.
"THIS SUCKS SO MUCH!"
Remaining Contestants:
Team Old School: Beth, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Leshawna, Trent
Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, B, Brick, Dawn, Lightning, Scott
Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Shawn, Sugar
Elimination Order:
20th: Dakota
21st: Rodney
22nd: Harold
23rd: Izzy
24th: Staci
Author's Note:
Hello again, has anything changed in the world since my last update? Oh, everything is on fire? Cool, well hopefully this provided a brief distraction from it all. I did try to get this chapter out earlier, with my goal being the beginning of the month, but a combo of my dog chewing up my charger and requiring me to get a new one, coupled with a minor finger injury made things take longer than I wanted. I didn't even get to update on 4/20 like I wanted to. Guess I'll have to ensure I make an update on June 9th to make up for it. Ideally with other updates that come earlier than that one.
On to the notes for the chapter itself, as always the main thing to touch on is the elimination. Dakota might be a more surprising elimination since I gave her a fair amount of focus in previous chapters, plus she's the only character with a significant design change. Unfortunately, I just really didn't have anything for her to do planned. It was fun having a character that has to deal with a Hulk situation, but keeping Dakotazoid was tricky since it gives Dakota the potential to out perform any other character if the situation demands it if I can believably make her mad. But at the same time it made her intimidating and potentially dangerous to the rest of her team. You could say I could try to have her go through an arc trying to control Dakotazoid so it can only be used for good, but I don't feel like Total Drama is the kind of environment where Dakota could believably control her inner beast. So an early boot was her fate. Sorry to anyone who was wanting more of her, I like her well enough but this really wasn't the season for her. With her gone, we only have one episode and elimination left before the first Aftermath! I'm hoping to get the next two chapters out rather quickly, since we're all stuck inside from Sam Adams Sickness I may as well be productive as a result. I've seen some friends on here being pretty productive lately, so hopefully I can follow suite.
Also of note this chapter was our location and song. Big ups to Mahboi124 for correctly predicting that Madagascar would be the location. Something tells me it won't be their last correct prediction. Yeah, Madagascar seemed like a no brainer when considering African countries to potentially visit. It's unique, pretty well known and recognizable, has some interesting animals to include in the chapter. I'm actually second guessing my location for the next time we visit Africa, so I very well may use one of the ideas that's been left in reviews. This chapter's song, "Dread the Pains," was a reference to the meme favorite song Africa by Toto. Funny story, you'll notice that the title of the chapter is "I See Eyes of Black, Broke Noses Too." That's a reference to the song What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Originally, that was actually going to be the basis for this chapter's song as it's pretty well known and was actually used in the Madagascar Dreamworks movie for the double reference. So instead the Toto song was only going to be referenced in the chapter title. But then the more I thought it over, the more I wanted to use the Toto song for the parody. Ultimately I just switched their roles. Since the Toto song became the basis for this chapter's song parody, the Louis Armstrong one became the chapter title. So there's the backstory for that. As I said earlier, the next chapter will be the last one before the first Aftermath, and we're heading back to Europe!
While I'm actually on the topic of the songs, I actually do have another reader feedback question. Sure, the last chapter's only got one bit of feedback (shoutout to my boy Knifez), but maybe we'll get a bit more this time. This is about the formatting of the song portions of each singing chapter. As you know, right now I just write it normally like the rest of the chapter, while just using italics for the dialogue to show that they're singing. But I'm worrying that maybe that doesn't flow too well, especially if people were to read back the song portion after confirming what song it's based on and reading along to the melody of the original. So I'm thinking of formatting it in a way where the lyrics are totally on their own, while the details about what's going on in the music video are bracketed off above or below them. This way if you just want to see the lyrics, you can read along that way. For example, here's a line from this chapter's song:
"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do," Anne Maria added as she sprayed the mosquitoes with her hair spray to get rid of them, not noticing that she was suffocating Brick in the process.
And here's how it would look in the new way I'm considering:
"This game's something only a million bucks could make us do."
[Anne Maria sprayed the mosquitoes swarming Brick with her hair spray to get rid of them, not noticing that she was suffocating the cadet in the process.]
Yes, anyone that read Total Shuffled World Tour, I shamelessly got the idea of formatting the songs like this from that. So what do you guys think? Keep it as is, or would it look cleaner in the Shuffled World Tour formatting? I'll obviously go back and re-format "This Frickin Blows" and "A Cruel Host's Thesis" if I go through with this. Hell, I think the later would probably benefit from doing as much since it separates the wacky visuals described, potentially making them more apparent.
As for the feedback stuff mentioned last chapter, I'll give until the first Aftermath chapter has been uploaded to let people continue voting on my poll to determine who the Aftermath 3 guests will be. I don't have too terribly many votes in it thus far, unfortunately, and not everyone that's voted in it voted for a full five characters. But on that note, the current top 5 is Heather, Lindsay, Gwen, Tyler, and Scarlett. An interesting group, to say the least. But what surprised me more is there's only two characters who currently have zero votes. That would be Duncan and Sierra. I'll be honest, I thought those two were locks to place high for sure, I had already planned things to do with them in anticipation in the event of them placing high. Guess I was way off mark. Also in regards to the feedback I got for Revenge of the Rejects (see also: Knifez's review), I do feel like I'll be dropping Sadie from the cast as a result. I still want the BFFFLs represented, hence keeping Katie, but it'd be better not to have both taking up spots on the cast and doing the predictable run the two usually get in fan fic. As for Sadie's replacement my early pick is Dakota, but it's a long way's off so I'll continue to think it over.
Well, that's all from me. Did Dakota's elimination surprise you? Who do you think is getting the axe last before we head into the Aftermath? Do you enjoy the confirmation that Cody/Sammy is indeed a thing? Tell me all in review form. Please. I need to eat. Hope you're all staying safe in these crazy times, and I'll try to have another update out sooner rather than later.