"You tour hundreds of small islands, yet can't find one, not one, that actually sticks out! Give for that dreaded island that that pre-teen was in charge of. This is just…preposterous!" A man sat in a little speedboat, coasting through the open waters on auto pilot. He didn't seem to be paying attention to where he was going, but a lot more to what was in his hands, that being a scrapbook full of pictures of all sorts of islands, varying in location, size, and geography. Most, if not all, of the islands had been crossed out with permanent marker, varying reasonings for the cross outs scribbled down next to them. He had that very marker in one of his hands and used it to cross out another island, writing down "already inhabited" on it.
"How will I ever get to host my own season under conditions such as these? This blaspheme will certainly not go unpunished, I can assure the world of that much! Far too long it has been since I had the camera focused on my kingly guise…" The man sighed, setting the scrapbook down on the floor of the boat as well as the marker. He was right about looking like a king, mainly thanks to his regal attire. A black, cotton shirt with billowy sleeves, silky white gloves, a red cape with gold trim draping over his shoulders, similarly red pants with gold trim, and perfectly shiny black boots. To top it all off, there was a bejeweled golden crown that laid in rest on top of his head.
"Chris McLean…Starshine Industries…even the accursed Olympus TV! They've all had their spotlight, why must it be such a trial to obtain mine!?" He let out an annoyed grunt and kicked the side of the boat, hard enough to shake it a bit, though getting splashed by the seawater hardly seemed to bother him. His olive-toned skin glistened in the sunlight, which was extraordinarily bright and hot for the day. He stared out towards the open sea with his hazel eyes, sighing to relieve some of his annoyance. He lifted his crown up off of his sleek, black hair, running a hand through it before setting it back down. "This is hardly a proper life for the king of the Agostian Empire…when will things start going my way?"
As he began to sigh again, his boat suddenly crashed into something, bringing all of its movement to a halt. He shook a bit in the boat just from the quaking of hitting whatever it was. He took a glance to see what it was, only to find that the front end of the boat had lodged itself into some beach sands. This only brought him confusion, as he reached down for his scrapbook and scoured the pages in search of something, likely for whatever island this was. The amount of pages he flipped seemed to be endless, but his expression showed he wasn't finding what he was looking for.
"What in the world? This island…I don't have it listed anywhere in my book. I checked the longitude and latitude, but nothing…nothing at all." The man frowned and set his book back down in the boat, grabbing a fancy looking cane with a diamond at the very top of it. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to look around…I'll humor this island with my regal presence." He rose from the boat and stepped out onto the sands of the beach, using his cane as he walked around. He didn't seem too fond of the feeling of his fancy shoes sinking into the sand, but he tried to ignore it…the attempt was mostly pitiful.
"Seems a decent bit larger than those that I've scoured already…not off to a horrendous start, I suppose." It was as if he couldn't bring himself to actually say anything good about the island without adding something to diminish his compliment right after. The beach came to pass rather quickly, and he found himself passing into this heavily wooded area, which seemed to resemble some sort of jungle. Lush trees, vibrant flowers, a full abundance of wildlife– though the chirping and chattering of the creatures really just seemed to annoy him, as his eye twitched.
"Of course…it's just like all the other god awful islands that I've looked at…drab and full of pitiful-" As he continued to move forward, he ended up walking onto some marked stone platform, which lit up with a bright blue light. The ground started to quake below him, but before he even had the chance to react, the platform ascended from the ground, carrying him up into the sky. He screamed out of pure fright as he stumbled and fell onto the platform, just trying his best not to fall all the way off. It wasn't long before he was hundreds of feet in the air, soaring over the island.
"Good heavens, what is this!? Let me down, let me-...down?" The man managed to get back up to his feet, only to be given the immaculate view of the full island in its resplendent glory. The outer edge was all beach, with there being a fine circle of the jungle are that he had just been in before this massive open space in the center, though it wasn't entirely open. There was a plethora of buildings scattered about, each of them appearing to be older in build, some looking more like huts than anything else. He could see people working the fields, farming, performing other odd jobs…it really looked like a village out of the age of knights and kings.
"My word…that's…glorious. But there…what is that!?" The man gasped as he eyes finally fell upon the grand finale of the village, a large, stone castle that loomed over everything. It was complete with a drawbridge that was dropped over a moat. He hardly knew what to say as his jaw simply dropped. The platform he was on slowly carried him over to the castle, eventually landing in this opening on the roof of one of its towers. It shone with red light this time, and finally, it stopped moving. He had to take a moment to collect himself before he began his walk towards the edge of the tower, peering over at the village below. "It's…absolutely incredible."
"It is? And here I was thinking that this place was booooooooooooooooooring! It needs more color, more fun! A bit of pop, a bit of wow!" The kingly man spun around as he heard the voice of a young boy, only to see two children standing just past the platform, near a trap door that led down into the castle. The one that had spoken was full of bright colors, wearing a jester costume that was red, yellow, and pink. He was maybe four feet tall, if that, just generally a short chap. His skin was incredibly pale, though maybe in part to the white makeup that he had on his face. His hair was a bright red as well, but since he had a jester's cap on, it was hard to see it other than the little tufts of bangs.
"I dunno, I thought it looked just drab enough to be fine…" The second member of the duo let out a little sigh after she spoke. She was the very same height as the boy, and pretty much the same build, although the key difference was the lack of the bright and colorful in favor of the solemn and depressing. Her entire jester outfit was dark blue and black in color, and her white makeup was paired with blue tears that were on her cheeks. She had a hat covering a good deal of her hair as well, but it was light blue in color, and a good deal longer than the boy's. "You came down from the sky…are you an angel? I always thought angels would look more…sigh…sad…"
"What!? An angel would definitely be cheerful and jolly, that's how they deliver their messages! Otherwise everyone they talked to would just be depressed and miserable! Those are the worst kings of people!" The boy let out a chortle, holding his hands over his stomach while the girl looked at him and sighed miserably. "I didn't actually expect someone to use our Angel's Elevator, though! Who are you really, mister?"
"Me? Perhaps you two live under a rock…I'm the glorious king of the famed Agostian Empire, Osvaldo Agosti himself! My blood is liquid gold and my eyes are made entirely of crystal! I'm, in essence, what it truly means to be a king!" Osvaldo was his name, and his arrogance definitely shone brighter than any sort of crystal that might've been in his eyes. The two jesters sat there and stared at him, both seeming wholly unimpressed by his introduction. "What? Are you waiting for an encore? I'm here, just start bowing down and kissing my feet already!"
"You definitely aren't the ruler of legend…the prophecy has told us that someone will come to claim our empire…but it definitely isn't you. It tells that the true ruler has to fend off many others before being able to claim our throne…there is no one to fend off around you. You're a…sigh…phony." The miserable jester shook her head and sat down on the ground, watching as the happy jester just danced and laughed. "What do you think of this guy, Zachary?"
"Oh, Zoey, you're just forgetting all about a really important part of the prophecy! Remember, the ruler of another kingdom comes along to oversee the battle for the throne! This must be him! Mister King Man, where's all the others that are gonna fight for the throne? I wanna meat 'em, I wanna!" Zachary rushed over to Osvaldo, dancing around him while the king simply stared towards Zoey for answer, only for her to sigh and look away from him. "Come now, don't tell us you didn't bring them! My sister and I have been waiting forever for this!"
"The others…the ones that come to fight for the throne…?" Osvaldo paused for a moment, only to think to himself in silence. "I'm due to host my own show…the reward was going to be something monetary…but having twenty-five imbeciles duel over a whole kingdom…now that might be something interesting!" A smile crept along his face as he patted Zachary on the head, "Oh, dear boy…I haven't forgotten to bring them, not at all! They simply haven't made it yet! They'll be here soon, that I can promise you! But while we wait, I wouldn't be much of a king if I didn't offer to take care of the kingly duties! Run this palace and the village until its proper ruler is assigned!"
"Being in charge while we wait for our real ruler to show up? That seems…like not a very good…sigh…idea." Zoey grabbed a little stick from the ground, using it to scratch at the stone base of the tower. "We haven't had a ruler in so long…we want the first one to be the real deal."
"Now just wait a minute on that, Zoey! It would help to have someone in charge while we wait, this much is true! And Mister King Man here has experience as a king, so it's a lot better than nothing! Look, he even has a crown!" Zachary grinned as he pointed up towards Osvaldo's crown, which glistened in the sunlight. "You got a deal, mister! Just don't take too long getting them here, we're dying to meet them all!"
"Oh, no worries at all, dear boy…I would never shirk such a responsibility. I think we'll all come to enjoy this time very much so, actually…very much so." Osvaldo started to laugh to himself, eventually convincing Zachary to laugh with him while Zoey simply sighed and headed down into the castle through the trapdoor.
Anyone who read Scrap Island might have remembered Osvaldo appearing there and insisting that he would be hosting his own season, well, here it is. Most people who have submitted to me before know that I love to gather up the casts for my stories relatively early for planning purposes, so for those that are new, just know it will take some time before this is fully started. It will be twenty-five contestants that have to face off for a shot at the throne of this island rather than money, so send me anyone you think might be a good match for this kind of season! Apps will be open until January 24th, 2023, so you will have some time to submit. I will post the application on my profile for all to see and use to their liking. That's all from me for now, see you guys later!