I've been making slow and steady progress on Stormbound, but in the meantime, I also wanted to kick off something new. This will serve as my secondary project when I need a break from the goons over in Camp Ventallan, and I've been planning it for a while so I'm super excited to share!
The world's introduction to Total Drama Unleashed was in many ways similar to other reality shows. The setting was unexpected, the establishing shot showing a wooden bench at a local park instead of a more professional background, but the formula it followed was very familiar: the camera was focused on the host, ready to introduce themself and describe the premise of the show. However, it was not a person that appeared on the screen, but a cat. And not a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood cat, but a stuffed cat.
A pair of hands belonging to a person offscreen were shaking the brown tabby plush, making it look like the toy cat was dancing on its hind legs. "Hi, everyone, and welcome to Livi and Mistral's big show, meow!" a silly voice called out. "I'm Wiley Junior the bush pussy!" Said "bush pussy" appeared very tattered and "well-loved," with a torn ear and a few loose threads poking out.
The camera zoomed out, revealing that the one holding the stuffed cat was a young teenage girl, maybe about fifteen years old. "Thank you mister bush pussy," she said in her normal voice. Olivine Gato, or Livi, gave a bright smile to the camera as she hugged Wiley Junior to her chest. She had round glasses framing her brown eyes, which sparkled with childlike excitement, and her young appearance was augmented by the fact that she stood at barely even five feet tall. Her black hair was straight but unkempt and fell to her chin, save for a small cowlick, and her skin was ivory toned, but she had a few scrapes and bruises on her arms from her various excursions running through the shrubbery. She was wearing a red t-shirt with a cat face, navy blue leggings, and bright blue sneakers.
"You know you can't call him that," another voice interjected, this one sounding more nasally and androgynous, but not much older than Livi—seventeen or eighteen. The other teen stepped into the frame. Mistral Rivera-Hwang was a little taller than Livi, at 5'3", but her frame was gaunt and wiry. Their short black hair was spiked up and their brown eyes were narrowed in a perpetual glare. She was of some ambiguous mix of white and Asian descent, but she had a darker tan than Livi. They were wearing a blue and black plaid flannel, ripped black leggings, and purple sneakers. But though their grungy clothes and tough expression hinted at an edgier style, some of their accessories seemed downright silly: a twine necklace with a charm fashioned from a bottle cap, bracelets threaded with multicolored baubles on both wrists, and most unusually, a ragged purple backpack slung over one shoulder that looked far too small for her, and was overstuffed with all manner of junk. Mistral looked disapprovingly at Livi.
"But I found him right here in this bush, so he must be a bush pussy!" Livi protested, manipulating Wiley Junior so he put his front paws on his hips.
"I guess I do like to find things in bushes," Mistral conceded with a shrug, before they turned back to the camera. "Anyways, what's up, losers? I'm Mistral, this is Livi, the stuffed cat is Wiley Junior…" she listed out boredly. "And this is our show. Livi, wanna tell them how this is going to work?"
Livi grinned excitedly, unaffected by her partner's sarcastic tone and lack of enthusiasm. "My uncle owns the Unleashed Emporium, the biggest pet store in San Diego… or California, maybe even the whole entire world!"
Livi waved Wiley Junior's front paws around and started speaking in a weird voice. "And this year, I'm the host of the annual Unleashed Pet Show, and we have something big planned for you, meow!"
Livi changed back to her normal voice. "Thanks, Wiley Junior! We have invited twelve of the best animal trainers here to compete with their pets, and we'll see which of them will 'fetch' the grand prize: a hundred thousand dollars and a year's supply of pet food and supplies sponsored by the Unleashed Emporium!"
"But with such a big treasure at stake, we're gonna make them fight for the prize nyehehe." Mistral smirked. "There will be a lot of twists and turns." They rummaged around in their backpack and produced a strange tool that looked like it was handmade: a metal pole with a string attached to it, like a miniature fishing rod. On the end of the string, where a fishhook would normally be, there was a feather cat toy. "And these trainers and their pets will need to overcome all sorts of challenges together, with the worst performing pets being sent back home with their tails between their legs." She waved the feather around with a mischievous smirk.
Almost as soon as Mistral held out the feather toy, a loud yowl pierced the air. All of a sudden, a mangy brown tabby cat, with orange stripes that made him look strikingly similar to Livi's plush toy, pounced on the feather. He slashed the string with his sharp claws and caused Mistral to scream.
"Wiley no!" Livi yelled.
The original Wiley responded by jumping up onto the back of the park bench, yanking Wiley Junior away from Livi, and beginning to drag the plush toy off. He moved surprisingly quickly even though the stuffie in his mouth was almost as large as he was. Livi leaped to grab him, but fell into the dirt as the tabby disappeared into the bushes.
"Stupid cat," Mistral muttered, but she snickered to herself.
"No, not Wiley Junior!" Livi groaned, still lying in the dirt. "Who's gonna host the show now?"
"Calm down Livi, do you really need that toy- uh, I mean pet for this show?"
"But I miss him already…" Livi looked just about to cry, and Mistral's expression softened ever so slightly.
The hoarder finally rolled her eyes and gave a heavy sigh, before sitting down on the bench. She gestured for Livi to come over. "I guess we can do what we always do when things go wrong for us, nyehehe." She quickly took her backpack off and set it down next to her. Despite how overstuffed it was with all manner of random objects, it seemed that she had her own organizational system, because she knew exactly where to look. "And that's bringing out the Deus Ex Machina!"
Mistral finally retrieved a battered old tennis ball from their bag and held it out in front of them. "He goes by Dewie for short," she explained to the camera.
A shaggy brown and white collie bounded into the frame, tongue lolling out as he ran and leaped into the air. He opened his mouth and grabbed the tennis ball straight from Mistral's hand before she was even able to throw it.
"Good boy, Dewie." Mistral gave a rare smile.
Dewie deposited the ball at Mistral's feet, then rolled onto his belly and thumped his tail on the ground. Livi sat on the ground next to him and started to give him a belly rub.
"Alright, Deus Ex Machina, go get 'em!" Mistral jumped up onto the park bench and pointed dramatically, and Dewie took off across the grass at full tilt, nearly tripping over his own paws as he barked loudly.
"Wait up, Dewie!" Livi shouted and ran after the collie, followed closely by Mistral. After a moment, Mistral skidded to a stop, realizing they had forgotten about the camera, and ran back to grab it and bring it with them.
Soon, the two of them came across a tree. Dewie put his front paws up against the tree trunk and started barking.
"There he is!" Mistral pointed at Wiley, who had carried Wiley Junior up into the tree. The tabby hissed at the collie, and he whimpered and tried to hide behind an annoyed Mistral.
"C'mon Wiley…" Livi coaxed her cat, and held up her arms.
Wiley reluctantly dropped Wiley Junior into Livi's arms, but stayed perched in the tree and started to groom himself.
"Stupid cat," Mistral reiterated, but Livi seemed content.
"Whew, that was an adventure," the young host said in Wiley Junior's voice as she picked up the stuffed cat again and had it use a paw to wipe an imaginary drop of sweat off its forehead. "But it looks like Total Drama Unleashed is back in business, meow. We'll see you there!"
"Livi, wait a second, I think-"
Just then, Wiley dropped out of the tree and jumped at the camera, and the screen went black.
I've never seen a story with this premise before, probably because it's just downright silly. Quite honestly, this story also feels very experimental because of this. I also have some fun ideas so I hope it will be fun to write and read, as well as tonally different enough from Stormbound that I won't get burnt out.
Staff:
"Host": Wiley Junior, The Bush Pussy
Host: Olivine "Livi" Gato, The Oblivious Tinkerer
-Pet: Wiley the tabby cat
Mistral Rivera-Hwang, The Contrary Hoarder
-Pet: Deus Ex Machina "Dewie" the border collie
As for the contestants, the cast is still being finalized, but I thought I'd give a little teaser and introduction to the staff. Thanks for reading and I hope to welcome you to the Unleashed Emporium soon!