"Last time on Total Drama: Island," Blaineley spoke out through a megaphone while standing at the edge of the dock. Near the bonfire area, both Anne and Mallary were working on pulling along a lot of supplies of sorts. It looked pretty heavy, but Mallary endured it while Anne looked like she was just about to keel over right there. "Our campers barely had a chance to go and eat their breakfast before we pulled them right into their next challenge, and a camp classic: dodgeball! Rules were simple as dodgeball can get: hit someone, they're out, get hit, you're out! Okay, yeah, there were a few other tidbits in the rules, but following rules is for ugly people, so you should all see why I don't have to bother with that! Dana and Florencia each took the reins of their teams to try and lead them to victory, although with far different methods from the other! Florencia's goal was to send out all of her team's heavy hitters in every round, which helped her net the first two rounds, as Dana wanted to more evenly spread out the good players and the bad players! People got pelted, faces got welted, and plenty of screams were belted, but in the end, the challenge ultimately came down to the final tiebreaker round. Powerhouse Uliana was against the one and only member of the Gophers that was still standing at the end of the game: Petra! Uliana threw that ball with all her might, but seeing it as a cat toy, Petra just couldn't help herself and had to play with it, catching it in doing so! The blame of the loss fell onto lack of leadership, casting plenty of eyes towards Dana's way, but Lady Belle being impossibly to work with wasn't really helping anyone either. In the end…the vote…really wasn't close at all! Dana was made the second boot of the show, and Lady Belle is thriving! Hey, but what can you say? It's just like a high school where the nerds are always getting picked on by the beauties and the jocks! But we're all done with fun games like dodgeball for this episode, viewing audience! This time, we're going to be testing the ultimate survival skills of our campers to see if they can, well, survive! Let's all find that out together right now on Total…Drama…Island!"
After the recap was all said and done, the intro started to kick off, with a camera zipping past the dock of Camp Wawanakwa, where Blaineley was standing and shoving Anne into the water to a shark that started chasing her around through the lake. Past that, there were the campgrounds, where Mallary was wearing a gas mask while she ran rampant with a flamethrower and torched every little cockroach she found around the place. It finally zoomed through the woods, passing by some wildlife on its way up the cliff, which it dove off of and landed in the water below.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," it turned out that Dana was the one that dived underneath the water, and was currently baring her fangs while holding up her massive club and paddling after a full troop of large crustaceans, which were scurrying away while carrying Colin, their leader, to safety from the dangerous cavewoman.
"You guys are on my mind," just above the water, Braxton was currently on a surfboard with Lady Belle, playing a tune for her on his guitar…until Herman surfaced from under the water, snapping down on his nose with his claw, forcing him to scream and dive into the water while Lady Belle rolled her eyes disappointedly.
"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," away from the lake and deep in the woods, Ollie was balancing himself on top of his ball while balancing a smaller ball on his nose, though something was thrown at the big ball and popped it, causing him to fall flat on his face. Sion was standing nearby and saw it happen, which caused her face to light up red and steam to practically come off of her skin while she fanned herself off.
"I wanna be famous!" Hidden in the bushes, there was Darla, who was standing next to a giant slingshot and a pile of sharp rocks, which she had used to pop Ollie's ball. She held a thumbs up to the camera while grinning, but Courtney, who was standing not too far from her, was shaking his head in annoyance.
"I wanna live close to the sun," further into the forest and up a creek, Artorias and Napoleon were on a raft together, playing rock, paper, scissors while not paying attention to the fact that they were about to go over a waterfall…which they did, causing Artorias to cling onto an agitated Napoleon for dear life.
"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," the duo fell all the way down the waterfall, passing by a log bridge where Hope was sitting and sighing…until Anthony ran across the bridge, carrying a whole heap of science supplies so he couldn't see where he was going. He bumped into Hope, knocking her off the bridge and sending her down the rest of the waterfall while he ran all the way across.
"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," Anthony brought the supplies to Maggie, who was standing outside of the confessional and waiting. She grinned and fashioned a bomb out of the supplies, setting it off under the confessional and causing it to blow up, revealing a blushing Anisa who was sitting on the toilet with her headphones on.
"I wanna be famous!" Just past the confessional booth was the main lodge, where Chef was grinning while stirring up a pot of some awful looking goop. He glanced over at a table nearby, which had Charlie and Uliana both tied up and fearing for their lives. At the table right next to them, though, Clover was smiling and clicking her nails against the back of a magazine while Umber was listening carefully with a little smile of their own.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," out of the main lodge and on the stairs to the beach, Jaime was sitting with a tired look on his face, just nodding as he watched Esprit dancing around gleefully on the beach around a massive pile of starfish that he had gotten from…somewhere. In the lake, there was a seagull sitting and minding its business, but it was suddenly dragged underwater by an octopus tentacle.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Rowan was on the dock with a big smile on his face as a bunch of the tired, sad, and beaten down contestants from earlier were all coming to him to vent. He just smiled and nodded as every person rattled off to him, until the octopus tentacle from before grabbed him and launched him high into the sky while he screamed for dear life.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" The day turned to night, revealing the bonfire ceremony, where Penelope was sitting with a grin on her face while Petra was fully asleep with her head in her lap and Florencia was leaning against her with her rear pressing right against the side of her face. The camera panned out from them to show that everyone was at the campfire, whistling the tune of the theme song together while a sign was displayed that read "Total Drama: Island."
Ahhh…a beautiful morning on Camp Wawanakwa…well, at least as beautiful as a Camp Wawanakwa morning could be. The sun was just coming over the horizon and starting to illuminate the island and its wilds. The dew drops were present on the blades of grass, and birds were plucking worms up from the dirt. That, and Charlie was roaming about, already getting off to a good start for his day. He hummed to himself while he walked out of the Bass boys' cabin; he wasn't much for the wilderness or anything, but he sure did like starting his days nice and early. He took a big inhale of the air, expecting it to smell clean and fresh, but it just ended up making him gag.
"Eugh…I've done this every day since I got to the island, yet I somehow haven't ever gotten used to that…foul afterscent the air leaves in your nostrils." Charlie reached into his pocket, pulling out an air freshener and raising it to his nose so he could take a good sniff of that. The pleasant scent made him sigh in relief, and he started to trot along again, already back to his humming. He didn't realize, though, that there was a hole in the ground near him where a rabbit had burrowed. He stepped his foot right into it and, without any resistance from his body at all, he fell down into it like a sack of potatoes. His eyes went wide as he started trying to wriggle himself free.
Confessional - Charlie
"Alright, so, I do like a good morning jog to get myself awake and off to a good start, but typically my morning jog is just down the sidewalk outside at home. When I'm jogging towards the woods on a filthy island, well, it's a bit different." Charlie's entire outfit was covered in dirt from the hole, and he started to brush it off with a little cleaning brush. The whole time, he was wearing a pair of rubber gloves as well as a face mask. "It just goes to show that me and the great outdoors don't really mix so well…"
"Help me! Someone! Mommy, I know you're not here right now, but your little man needs help!" Charlie whined as he continued trying to free himself. The way he was stuck was so tight that he couldn't really turn around or anything, so he didn't see anyone coming up behind him, at least until there was a shadow blocking out all his sunlight. He turned his head up to look and see who it was, only to find that it was none other than… "S-Sion! Oh, it's so great that you're here! You see, I fell into this hole, and now-"
"It's only seven in the morning, but you're out here screaming at the top of your lungs for help from your mommy again…" Sion glared down at Charlie, causing him to gulp nervously from fear that he was about to be ripped in half…only for her to start blushing and cupping her cheeks. She swayed her body from side to side while avoiding eye contact with him as much as she possibly could. "Y-You really are a wreck, you know that? O-oh, it's so embarrassing, I could just melt where I'm standing! You gotta really get a grip, y-you understand?"
"It's not my fault! I'm not the one that put this Charlie-sized hole in the ground! I'm just the Charlie that fell into the Charlie-sized hole in the ground!" Charlie sighed miserably, he could easily see that Sion wasn't really listening to him while she was in her trance-like state of second-hand embarrassment. "...Could you please help me out of here? I'm gonna have to get myself all cleaned up before Blaineley-"
"Yoooooohooooo, campers! Time for you all to get up and at 'em! We've got a big challenge ahead of us, which means you all have to meet up at the bonfire pit! You've got five minutes!" Blaineley's voice hollered throughout Camp Wawanakwa, thanks to the plethora of speakers that were set up all over the place. Charlie sighed again, pouting like a toddler that wasn't getting his way.
"Now I won't even have time to get changed and take a shower before the challenge…" The boy was ready to accept his defeat just as Sion reached down towards him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him up out of the hole. "...Thanks."
"Y-yeah, don't mention it…j-just try not to be so obnoxiously embarrassing all the time, got it? Unless…that was on purpose and you're trying to make a fool out of me?" Sion was back to glaring like before, but she was still blushing bright red on her cheeks. Charlie shook his head from side to side, shaking it so fast that it looked to be a blur. "Alright, alright, you could've just said no, you don't have to shake your own head off, yeesh." The tomboy set the clean freak down on his feet before starting to walk off towards the bonfire pit.
Confessional - Sion
"Charlie is like the neverending fountain of embarrassment. He does one thing, and you're pretty sure it can't get any worse, but lo and behold, it gets significantly worse within an hour or two." Sion lifted a dumbbell in her left hand, curling it over and over again to get a good workout going while she stared at the camera. "It could be worse, though…back in school, I had this one kid that was obsessed with me and always embarrassing himself on purpose to get a reaction out of me. Got real old, real fast…so I shoved him into a locker and called it a day!"
Before too long, the campers were all finding their way to the bonfire pit, just as Blaineley had requested. Some of them appeared a bit more tired than others, namely Petra, whose eyes were drooping from the lack of her full beauty sleep, though this didn't discourage Penelope from staring intently at her while drawing something on her tablet. The perverted artist snickered while she drew, at least until the tablet was suddenly snatched right from her hands by Florencia, who insisted on looking at the art in question.
"Hey! That's not finished yet, I only show in-progress sketches to my patrons, thank you very much!" Penelope quickly grabbed for her tablet back, but Florencia was already walking away with it. "Oooooh, you're lucky that you've got the most trunk space out of everyone here, otherwise I really wouldn't like a thing about you!"
"Your tablet is taking away your focus from the competition, so the obvious route for me to go down is take it into my hands until the challenge is over! You can have it back after! Though, I would highly encourage you from not drawing such pictures of Petra! It's indecent!" Florencia grinned her signature grin as she stuck the tablet down into her surprisingly large back pocket. Penelope raised her hand to say something, but stopped before any words came out.
Confessional - Penelope
"I could complain more…but my table is gonna be sitting face-to-ass with Miss President for a while, so maybe I should just let it be. I mean, if I'm lucky, there'll be an imprint on it later or something." Penelope smirked proudly until a fly suddenly flew into her ear. "AH!" She screamed as she slapped the side of her head over and over again until the fly flew out of her other ear. "That fly…he's going to have seen some things in there that will leave him pondering his little fly existence for the rest of his life!"
"Gooooood morning campers! Glad to see you all made it on time, I would've hated to have to eliminate someone for not showing up!" Blaineley cackled to herself as she stood by her podium at the bonfire pit. She started to laugh much harder and pound her fist on the top of the podium, with some of the contestants looking between each other with nothing but confusion in their eyes. Quickly, she cleared her throat and tried to pretend like that hadn't ever happened in the first place. "This next challenge is going to be all about surviving the wilderness in its…uh…truest, wildest form!" Napoleon and Artorias glanced between each other, both of them smirking.
Confessional - Artorias
"Okay, so the wilderness isn't exactly the best thing when you're thinking about how a full-sized bear could come up and gobble you down for breakfast, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I did learn this one trick that mama used to use on mom all the time!" Artorias held up his one hand, showing a sock puppet on it while his other hand had a stick in it. "She would use her friend to dress up as some beast or something, and then she could scare it off to 'save' mom! The people are gonna be all over me when I do that!"
Confessional - Napoleon
"The wilderness, huh? Hey, camping's a good way to show off some skill to your team…I'll build up the reputation of being the man everyone can rely on and this game will come quite easy to me." Napoleon tapped his temple with his finger while he grinned at the camera, "It's never too early to start thinking of the best strategies for a team game. Besides, the team would never vote out someone that they can rely on…it just wouldn't make any sense! Although, some of my teammates are a few boards short of a court."
"It's not going to be tooooooo chaotic, well, at least it won't be too chaotic for me and Chef, who get to stay back here and watch everything go down on the cameras! As for you guys, just be prepared for bugs crawling into your shoes and owls keeping you up at night, cause you're all going into the woods!" Blaineley started to cheer for her own challenge, only to realize that everyone was just looking at her like she was crazy. "Well, forgive me for being the only one to show a little enthusiasm here!" She sighed as she reached underneath her podium to grab two maps and two compasses.
"All the survival equipment you could possibly need for a stay in the woods is going to be at your campsites, but there is the added challenge of navigating your way to the campsites as well!" Blaineley tossed out the maps and compasses, one set going to Florencia, who happily accepted it with her signature grin, while the other set landed in Lady Belle's lap, although she gave the map to Anthony and the compass to Braxton.
"Oh, before I forget, I should also probably mention that you should keep an eye out for bears! I had Anne head into the woods to set out the supplies for you, and she insists that she was chased away by one of them! Though, this might just be another one of her stupid pranks…oh well!" Blaineley shrugged to herself, "Now, once you get to your campsites, you'll also find some fun tools and gadgets! You'll pick four of your teammates to take those tools…and use them to try and scare the other team's campers out of their campsite! The team with the last camper still…camping will win immunity! Now, get a move on!" She grabbed another item from under the podium, this time an air horn, which she blew loudly, signaling the two teams to start getting up from their seats.
"I wonder where bears relate to crabs on the food chain…" Colin scratched his chin while Herman sat on top of his head. He thought for a moment before scooping the hermit crab up in his hand and lowering him down into his terrarium. "Yeah, not gonna take any chances with that, Herman! You're gonna stay safe inside!"
"As if your little plastic box is gonna stop a bear from makin' a snack out of your lil' friend there," Braxton joked at Colin, getting a snicker out of Lady Belle while the crab lover himself gripped onto the terrarium tightly to try and add another layer of protection. "If you were any smart, you'd leave 'im back in the cabin for the night."
"Ah, right, but, see, the thing is that we're sort of inseparable, so we can't really fall asleep unless we know that the other is around. You know how it goes!" Colin hardly noticed that Braxton wasn't paying any attention to him at all, as he just started to walk ahead while looking at the compass. The crab fanatic sighed just as Clover placed her hand gently on his shoulder.
"Chin up, Colin. I love hearing all about you and Herman both, so if Braxton wants to be a stick in the mud, I'll be glad to listen to all you have to say in his place." Colin smiled at the sentiment, and the two of them started to walk along together, with Umber sheepishly following along.
Confessional - Colin
"I'm used to some people being a bit weirded out by crabs, or Herman specifically, but I do wish more people would be a bit more eager to hear about them. I've had Herman for quite some time now, so I have plenty of stories to share!" Colin smiled as he let Herman crawl back and forth between his hands. "Like, there was this one time that he crawled into my friend's pocket, and he went to reach for his wallet, and grabbed Herman instead! Haha…ha…was probably a good thing that that friend wasn't scared of crabs or anything."
As the teams started off into the woods, they both ended up going separate ways. The Gophers were pointed more towards the east, while the Bass were pointed more towards the west. Despite no one being quite fond of the idea, the Gophers were all split off into the pairs that Florencia had selected for them. One of the pairs was Maggie and Petra, who were the furthest back in the group of all. Petra was staring up at the sky with her lips slightly open, her usual dull stare, while Maggie was simply smiling at her.
"Also, Tagträumer...was hast du vor?" Maggie speaking German immediately brought Petra back from her daydream. She looked a bit worried as she glanced back at the scientist, who seemed all the more thrilled to have gotten her attention. "Du achtest einfach nie darauf, was um dich herum passiert, und warum? Warum entscheidest du dich, alles zu verbergen? Kukuku, du bist ein ziemlich interessantes exemplar...Ich bin froh, dass Florencia uns zusammengebracht hat!"
"Es geht dich nichts an, warum ich tue, was ich tue!" Petra flushed red as she started to walk a bit faster, although Maggie was quick to pick up her own pace so that they wouldn't separate. "Vielleicht...vielleicht mag ich einfach keine menschen. Haben sie jemals darüber nachgedacht, dass dies der grund ist?" Petra seemed to be pretty confident in her answer, but Maggie looked far from pleased with that.
"Oh nein, nein, ich lasse dich nicht so einfach aus meiner frage herauskommen! Ich bin einfach so neugierig...sie müssen mir den eigentlichen grund nennen, ich bestehe darauf!" Petra gulped nervously as she and Maggie continued to walk along together. Meanwhile, a few pairs ahead, Napoleon and Anisa were walking side by side, with the music lover listening to something with an obnoxiously large pair of headphones. The jock looked down at her, seeming confused by the headphones.
Confessional - Napoleon
"As per Florencia's request, I've paired myself up with Anisa…it's not the worst situation for either of us, considering she's the closest thing I have to a first ally right now. Just got one teeny tiny problem with her…the charm I've got just doesn't work!" Napoleon flexed his left bicep, staring at it while he spun a basketball on top of his right hand's index finger. "Can't blame her for seeing the beauty in other women, though! So I've come up with an alternative plan on how to keep her on good terms with me! …By getting to know her!"
"Say, Anisa?" Anisa jolted a bit from hearing Napoleon talking to her out of nowhere. She was so lost in her own little musical world, that it legitimately confused her to hear someone actually speaking to her. She lowered her headphones off of her ears, letting them rest around her neck while she looked up at Napoleon with a faint smile. "I couldn't help but notice you've been listening to music while we were walking…whatcha listenin' to? Anything good?"
"...Oh…oh! People don't ever really ask m-me about the music I listen to, so I'm actually a little shocked that you want to know!" Anisa laughed awkwardly as she reached down for her phone, which was connected to her headphones. Napoleon could already feel himself cringing on the inside from how dorky she talked, even when she was just providing a simple answer to something. She turned her phone screen around to show him what was playing. "I'm listening to some old Disturbed songs…they really, um, g-get me pumped up."
"Disturbed? Is that some weird sort of pop band or something?" Anisa slowly shook her head before lifting her headphones up to Napoleon, who just seemed shocked that she was offering. "Er…"
"Y-you can listen for a bit, I, I um, I don't mind and all…you might like it, you know?" Napoleon shrugged and took the headphones from her. He plopped them onto his ears, and she pressed play on the song again. He was shocked to hear that it wasn't pop at all, but what seemed to be some very intense rock music. He looked down at her, his astonishment quite clear in his eyes while she just smiled. "S-see why it, uh, gets me all pumped up? The rhythm of the snare matches perfectly with the unique grungy tone in the lead singer's voice, providing an intense, yet still appealing auditory pairing!"
"Annnnnnnnnnnd you lost me," Napoleon pulled the headphones off of his ears, with Anisa frowning slightly as they were handed back to her. Still, she took them without a complaint, and went back to letting them sit around their neck. "No offense, but when you start getting into the logistics of the music and why it sounds good, it just doesn't seem as fun to listen to. Maybe just say, 'I think it sounds cool,' or something like that. Makes you sound like less of a nerd."
Confessional - Anisa
"...N-Napoleon…he was…" Anisa was staring down at her lap while she sat before raising her head up to show she was actually smiling, and had some tears in her eyes. "H-he was giving me tips on how to get people more interested in music! O-or maybe it was a tip on how to not get bullied as much…I'm really not sure! It's good criticism, though, and everybody knows that criticism just helps to further yourself as a person!"
Confessional - Napoleon
"Anisa's such a dork, man…" Napoleon smacked his head against the confessional wall over and over again while groaning.
Meanwhile, the Bass were all walking in more of a cluster than anything. There were definitely some stragglers falling somewhat behind the rest of the group, which Uliana was quick to notice. She slowed down her own walking pace so that she was alongside Hope, who was the furthest back in the bunch. The miserable woman glanced at the florist, who smiled her friendliest smile at her, though the smile wasn't really returned.
"Oh, Hope, you always look so sad…you know, plenty of us would love to talk to you about whatever's troubling you, if you want to talk about it that is!" Uliana smiled after she suggested this, but Hope just sighed and slouched a bit while she continued to walk. "...That bad, hm? Well, I won't be one to prod when it's not wanted, but the offer is always open!"
"Yeah, sure, right…I'll keep it in mind…" Hope nodded slightly, but she didn't seem any more interested in the offer than before. Uliana frowned, but continued along to give her the space that she seemed to want. "Man…I'm definitely bringing all these people down…they'd definitely be better off if they didn't have to deal with someone as lousy as myself." At that moment, she got a text on her phone, and pulled it from her pocket to see who it was. When she opened the message, she saw that it was from Anne, who sent her a selfie of her hiding a glitter bomb in Mallary's underpants drawer. "P-pfft…that glitter is gonna get everywhere…"
"And Mallary is going to hit Anne over the head with a stick!" Hope gasped when she heard the voice of one of her teammates. She was worried that she had someone looking over her shoulder, but that wasn't the case at all. The voice came from Jaime, who was standing a good few feet in front of Hope. He was covering his mouth with both of his hands after he said that, like he wasn't supposed to say something like that. "U-uh…I meant that…the gallery is going to hit a banana over a bed with a stick! The gallery near where I'm from!"
"...Man, what are you even talking about?" Hope just looked annoyed at this point, which was pretty unique compared to her signature miserable look. Jaime took the hint and started to scramble away from her.
Confessional - Jaime
"Sometimes, I just…feel the urge to say a bit more than I probably should. I mean, I do love being a part of some things and being able to be noticed by people, but then I remember that if I say certain things, people will…learn too much about me! And I definitely don't want certain people learning too much about me, no sir!" Jaime awkwardly tapped his fingers together, "By the way, I was hit over the head with a stick by Mallary a few days ago when I accidentally knocked her vacuum over. I think I still have a bump on my head from that."
Confessional - Hope
"My team really doesn't need to know all that much about me…I don't wanna drag everyone down with me constantly being miserable. And if they knew what I was miserable about, it would definitely make them feel even worse…" Hope sighed, looking depressed as usual until she got another text message. She opened her phone to see it was from Anne, a message saying, "SHE HIT ME OVER THE HEAD WITH A STICK!" "H-heh…that intern is so silly…"
Back with the Gophers, Penelope was effectively dragging her head on the ground as she walked alongside Rowan, who was whistling to himself with a little skip in his step. He seemed like he hadn't yet noticed his partner's misery, at least until she bumped into him because of the little amount of attention she was paying to where she was going. He ended up falling over onto his face from the bump between them.
"Ugh…" Rowan groaned as he slowly pulled himself back up from the ground. He looked behind him to see that Penelope was still barely dragging herself along. "...Penelope? Is something the matter? Usually you seem…well…a bit more excitable than you are right now."
"Is something the matter- that's a dumb question, obviously something is the matter! I'm out here on an island full of hot babes, but Miss Dumptruck that's leading us won't let me hang out with any of them! She also took my tablet, so I can't even get any work done!" Penelope pulled her head up from the ground, revealing that she had a bunch of twigs and leaves in her afro. Rowan had to try pretty hard to not laugh at how silly she looked. "I should be with Petra Mondoboobies, but I'm stuck with you…no offense."
"Ah, none taken!" Rowan just waved off the insult, not seeming bothered by it at all. "Maybe…oh, if it helps, we could talk about girls and stuff!" Penelope raised her eyebrow at the short man, clearly doubting how fun that conversation would be. "Y-you know, I'm not exactly an expert, but you know us guys can't help ourselves from admiring the beauty of the women around us! …Sometimes the men around us, too!"
"Men can be alright, yeah…that Artorias, oh, I would just eat him up if he was around me…but man, I'm all about Petra! It's just something about her, something beyond the massive ass and tits combo that she's packing! Maybe it's the mystery she's hiding behind the language barrier? Gah, I have no idea! And Florencia…man, I would love to just knock her down a peg! Maybe then, she'd be tolerable enough for me to have some interest in…" Penelope sighed as she leaned back, resting her head against her arms while she walked. "Well, what girls do you think are hot on the island?"
"Oh, you know…just uh…t-the same ones that you were talking about, yeah." Rowan nodded with a faint blush as he started to walk ahead a bit faster so that he couldn't look at Penelope. The artist just looked confused by this, but shrugged her shoulders and tried to ignore it to walk after him.
Confessional - Rowan
"...Well, what can I say? People as confident as Penelope have a certain charm about them, even if they're really dirty-minded." Rowan smiled gently while he twirled his fingers around each other. "I'm not the type to pursue anything, though! I much prefer to just let life take me where it takes me, and all that!"
"Oh, this is gonna be a whole lot of fun, don't you think, Courtney? We'll be roughing it, just like our ancestors! Hey, do you think they've got any good branches to swing on? I'd like to practice a bit, if I could!" Ollie seemed as excited as one could possibly be about the challenge at hand, as he was looking up at all the trees, trying to identify which ones would be the best for him to swing off of like trapeze bars.
"Swinging off of a tree branch? You're a human, not a monkey…not to mention just how filthy those branches are. Think about all the bugs and squirrels that've defecated up there." Courtney took one look at the branches and shuddered as he saw a squirrel up there that looked like it was about to…you know. He and his shorter partner kept on walking along, though. "I would've preferred to have just stayed back in the cabins, but alas, challenges are challenges for a reason."
"What's the matter with getting a bit dirty? It's a lot more fun when you just don't think about anything like that and go about your day without a care in the world! I've always been the type to yearn for more excitement, and staying inside all the time would be anything but that!" Ollie giggled, but Courtney still didn't seem convinced at all. "You know…you're kind of a stick in the mud, Courtney! Lot's a people are, but you're stuck real good in that mud!"
"I'd rather think of it as 'my tastes are more refined,' but whatever you want to think of it as is fine by me." Courtney looked around ahead to see that Florencia had suddenly stopped in a large area that had some camping supplies set out for them. He sighed at the sight, looking back down at Ollie. "Looks like they're only one tent up ahead…how exciting is that?"
"...Well…it'll…be good for getting to know each other better, won't it? We can all tell stories about the things we like to do!" Ollie grinned and ran on ahead, not a care in the world while Courtney rolled his eyes.
Confessional - Ollie
"I've met a whole bunch of people like Courtney back in the day, and more often than not, those kinds of people will learn to love the fun, exciting things of life after they just give them a shot!" Ollie clapped his hands together before rubbing some mud between them, "Having fun and getting messy go hand in hand, and you always get to clean up the mess later so you won't have it there forever!"
Confessional - Courtney
"Ollie has…a rather simple mind, just from a quick study of his character. He isn't the worst person to chat with, no, that'd have to be that mongrel, Penelope. But still, I find myself rather unamused with his antics…Florencia wasn't exactly thinking her best when she assigned us as partners. I can only imagine one will grow a distaste for the other…or for her. More likely for her." Courtney whistled while he lightly tapped his foot against the confessional floor.
"Alright, team! As the leader of all of us, I reckon that I oughta be in charge of saying who gets to stay camping and who gets to go an' scare off the other team!" Lady Belle was perusing the Bass' campsite while her team watched her. In one pile on the ground, there was plenty of camping equipment that would serve the campers well. In another, similar pile, there were "scare tools" all over the ground. Taking a look at them, she could see things like a bear costume, a wolf call, a slingshot, and assorted other things. "Now…it's just finding four people that are actually scary enough to get the job done…"
"I don't mean to brag or anything, sheila, but I'm big enough to be quite imposing." Anthony stepped forward and tugged on his suspenders, only for Braxton to smack him across the back of his head. "Ah! Mate, what is it with you and always trying to start a scrap with me?"
"Man, don't go acting like I'm the only problem between us." Braxton rolled his eyes while Anthony was rubbing the back of his head. "It would be ridiculous to want to abandon Lady back here at the campsite…just shows that you aren't actually deserving of any of her affection." The two men got up in each other's faces, looking like they were about to start growling at each other until Lady Belle whistled and snapped her fingers.
"Boys, boys, no need to go fighting over lil' ol' me~. I'm not gonna be sending either of you two off to do the scaring…you're gonna stay back here with us and make sure none of those Gophers can get close to me with their schemes. I'm going to send people that are more…oh…expendable." Lady Belle glanced over the rest of her team as Braxton and Anthony ran back over to her side. "Let's see…Sion…Hope…Umber…and…considering Charlie will likely soil his trousers if we keep 'im here with us, he can go, too."
"N-now I haven't gone and had an accident like that for many years now! The last time was when I was still in middle school, actually!" Charlie was quick to defend himself, though after he finished his statement, he could hear Sion behind him practically panting as she tugged on the collar of her shirt. He blushed, knowing that he was just making an even bigger fool of himself. "...Right…I'll just keep my mouth shut about that."
"...You're…including me in the scare squad? I don't know how effective that will be, but I'll try my best…" Umber nodded their head as they went with the other three over to the pile of tools. They each picked around the pile until they had a fair amount of tools each, and then, they all went off together, with Sion leading the pack.
"Looks like they've got a map of the route to their campsite…should be plenty easy to smoke 'em out once we get there…" Sion grinned while she held up a smoke ball that she found in the pile. "...literally." As the four of them left the campsite, Lady Belle turned back to the remaining campers on the team.
"Alright then, chop chop! We need to get this campsite together before the other team comes out here and tries anything funny! I'll be restin' my pretty head up over by that tree, so if ya need me, don't need me!" Lady Belle grinned as she walked over to the largest tree in the area so she could sit herself down by it. Colin and Clover looked between each other, both sighing in annoyance from Lady Belle and her iron fist.
Confessional - Lady Belle
"Lookie here, it ain't my problem for everyone to like me or not…it's my problem for the team to be workin' in an orderly fashion. It's sort of like dealing with a herd of sheep…the best way to keep 'em in line is by using fear." Lady Belle was reading through a magazine that showcased plenty of muscular men in it, with some of the outfits they were in being more revealing than others. "I know that plenty of them fear me nice and good, too, so I'm in a good spot."
"Wow, this campsite…it's quite pathetic! The camping equipment they've given us is entirely raggedy! I presume our tent will fall to pieces only two hours after we've got it set up! You'd think a fancy TV show would be able to afford some nicer camping equipment!" Florencia grinned as she shook her head in disappointment. She turned towards the pile of spooky stuff for her team and tapped her chin. "Now…Penelope, Rowan, Maggie, Petra! You four will be in charge of scaring off the other team, I'm certain you'll be the best at it!"
"Scaring people? Wait, but I'm not good at scaring people…I'm not even good at telling people that they got my order wrong when I go out and get food." Rowan chuckled awkwardly while Florencia turned towards him, showing that toothy grin of hers. Immediately, he stood tall and saluted like she was his drill sergeant. "I-I mean, I'll do everything I can to make sure they're quivering in their boots!"
"Wuss…" Penelope shook her head at Rowan and his pathetic demeanor before she walked over to the pile, bending down to pick up some random things that she found. Each item she got she just wedged into her afro, with the dense hair covering everything so none of it could be seen. "Yup, that'll do pretty well I think. Kinda bummed out that they didn't have any spy cams in this pile…I wouldn't mind seeing Lady Belle bathing later." The pervert got a smirk on her face, and instinctively grabbed for her tablet before remembering that it was confiscated. "Ugh…"
"You guys are probably gonna scare them all half to death, but make sure you don't scare them all the way to death or anything! If you do that, then they can't enjoy the beautiful sunset and stars coming out later!" Esprit smiled and waved at his four teammates, who all started to head off into the woods again, with Maggie using the map to lead them. "Also, I know you said the tent was bad, Florencia, but I'm sure we could still make good use of it!"
"Your optimism is pretty adorable, Esprit," Artorias grinned at his pair partner while giving him a one-handed shoulder rub. The stargazer looked up at the football player, entirely confused by this action of his. "Not into the contact before the first date? Or are you just worried that you're gonna wanna make out if I keep this up?"
"Um…none of that stuff, but you do have a bee on your nose!" Esprit smiled and pointed out the insect. It took everything in Artorias' power to stop himself from screaming like a little baby, but he held it in just long enough for the bug to fly away. He sighed in relief as the rest of his team got to work putting together the tent for the campsite.
Confessional - Artorias
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Artorias finally let out that little scream of his, wiping his nose frantically with a kleenex for some reason. "B-bees are the worst! That bee could've left its smelly bee pheromones on my nose and- and then more bees would come and sting me in the nose! I can't take a bunch of stings to the face, you know how bad that would be for my image!?"
Confessional - Maggie
"Ohoho…kukuku…kukukuku…" Maggie deviously rubbed her hands together while she stared at the different pieces of scare equipment that she had picked up. One of them looked like some sort of megaphone, but it had bat wings and ears on it. "Oh, this is going to be quite good for my research…I always love seeing what makes people tick in all different ways…it's just quite amusing to me. I just have to decide how I'm going to get started…" She grabbed the megaphone and pressed the button, causing a sonic screech noise to come out of it and the glass of the camera to break.
"I don't really see why she chose me to be one of the scarers…I'm not scary…I'm not even good enough to be scary…" Hope sighed pitifully while she trudged along through the woods. She was just behind Sion, with Charlie and Umber both around her as well. She looked down into her hands at the items that she picked, one being a slingshot and the other being a large, cardboard box that was closed so no one could see what was inside of it.
"Well, I've sort of got to agree with you there…minus the, er, pessimism." Umber awkwardly entered the conversation just out of nowhere, causing Hope to gasp slightly at the intrusion. They held up their hands, trying to show they weren't a threat, but since they had an electric fly swatter in one hand and a hammer in the other…that didn't help much. "A-ah…I just mean that I don't understand how I'm supposed to scare anyone. Seems a bit too momentous of a task."
"W-what are you so worried about? You just scared the life out of me just by walking up to me…granted, I thought you were a badger at first…" Hope weakly admitted, with Umber deadpanning silently at the nearest camera. "I-I don't mean that your face looks like a badger or anything, I just mean that your outfit…it's very badgery. And your hair is pretty badgery, too…just it's all black and no white. …I guess a badger is better than a skunk, though."
"And I thought I was awkward in conversation…" Umber rolled their eyes until both they and Hope suddenly bumped into something that was in front of them. When they looked, they could both see that it was Sion, who seemed to have her eyes fixed on something in the distance. The other three members of the group looked on with her, finding that she was looking off towards Penelope, Rowan, Maggie, and Petra, who were taking their own path to head towards the Bass campsite. "Oh…the other scarers, I presume?"
"Certainly looks like it to me! Though, the path they're taking is going to take them longer to get to our campsite…they really should be moving a bit more northbound than they are." Charlie added in like the absolute dweeb he was before he noticed that Sion had a grin on her face. "Sion? What's got you so excited?"
Confessional - Sion
"Blaineley said that we've gotta scare the Gophers, right? Well, the way I see it, those four are Gophers…and if we scare them…then we'll get a super advantage in this challenge!" Sion gave herself a little pat on the back after she came up with the plan. "I have to say, my own genius can startle me sometimes!"
"Oh, this is gonna be good!" Sion just started changing her course so that she was headed more towards the scarers from the Gophers, with Charlie gasping once he realized what she was trying to do.
"H-hey! We're supposed to go to their campsite to scare them! Rules are the very foundation of a fair and enjoyable challenge! Sioooooon!" Charlie couldn't help but run after the tomboy, leaving Hope and Umber behind, still on the main path. They looked between each other before sighing at the same time and continuing on ahead without the two of their teammates. Meanwhile, Penelope was leading the pack of scarers for the Gophers, though she quite wished she was in the back of the line. Being behind Maggie and Petra? Yes please!
"Heheh…ass…" The pervert drooled to herself a bit before glancing behind herself, only to be met face-to-face with a grinning Maggie. She full on squeaked from the fear, and went to bonk the scientist on the head with her hand. Though it seemed Maggie's reflexes were a lot more impressive than one would imagine, as she simply slid to the side and avoided the blow. "Maggie, don't startle me like that! Don't you know it's dangerous to sneak up behind any South American? We'll get ya really good for that kinda thing!"
"My apologies, kuku…I just couldn't help but notice that you were drooling, annnnnnnd…" Maggie suddenly reached up towards Penelope's lips with a test tube, scooping up her drool before corking it and tucking it away into her lab coat. "I'm always interested in getting as many DNA samples as I can get! I do need to be conducting my research at all times, as you can probably imagine!"
"Oh, yeah? Well, you can feel free to research my DNA samples all night long." Penelope grinned while giving a little eyebrow wiggle, but this got…a much different reaction out of Maggie than she had expected. Most of the time, her perverted flirting was met with either anger, disgust, or sometimes interest, but this was different. The scientist's face went completely pale at the suggestion, she looked like she was going to faint. "...Uh…I mean, I can be gentle if that's what you-"
"You can have your DNA back! I-I don't need it! Just leave my body alone, please and thank you!" Maggie quickly thrust the test tube back into Penelope's hands before diving back and hiding behind Petra like a child behind her mother. Even Petra was confused about what was going on, and the whole thing just seemed to irritate Penelope.
Confessional - Penelope
"Come on, I'm not that terrifying." Penelope crossed her arms in annoyance and gave a little kick to the confessional wall, which knocked a nail out of it.
Confessional - Petra and Maggie
"Ich verstehe Maggie überhaupt nicht. In einem moment verhält sie sich noch gruselig und kryptisch, aber im nächsten? Sie hat plötzlich angst vor einem widerlichen flirt! Das macht keinen sinn!" Petra threw up her arms in confusion before leaning slightly to the side to reveal that Maggie was still right behind her, sucking on her thumb like a big baby.
"Don't you judge me, Petra! I won't sit here and take any judgment from a woman who doesn't even know what room she's in half the time!" Maggie hissed back at Petra, who simply groaned and tried her best to ignore her.
Back at the Bass campsite, pretty much everyone outside of Lady Belle was hard at work trying to get the tent and everything set up. Colin and Clover were working together to put together the campfire when Clover quietly glanced at the southerner and shook her head. Colin could tell that she was quite annoyed about something, but this was one of the rare times when Lady Belle actually had her mouth shut, so he had no idea what it was.
"Gee, Clover…you look pretty miffed about something. If you want, I can let Herman crawl around in your hands! That always makes me feel better whenever I'm upset about anything!" Colin quickly reached for his terrarium with Herman in it, popping the lid up so that he could get Herman out, but Clover simply raised her hand and waved him off a bit.
"It's nothing too bad or anything…I simply can't stand the high and mighty attitude of some of the campers that we're currently taking residence with. I could never understand showing up and just electing two people to be your servants, either." Clover gestured to Anthony and Braxton, who were both fanning Lady Belle off with some giant leaves that they found. "This is supposed to be a team game, so it's senseless for us to act all in it for ourselves."
"Yeah, I get what you mean…between Lady Belle yelling at me if I accidentally step in her way and Sion giving me a wedgie if she catches me bent over anywhere, it's not exactly the best camp I can say I've been to." Colin tapped his chin for a second, "Actually, even if those things weren't happening I don't think I'd say this is the best camp I've been to. It's not exactly hermit crab friendly in any way at all."
"Oh, Colin, you are just such a joy to be around with your love for those crustaceans…I sincerely wish some of our teammates would take a lesson from you and learn to enjoy life and be kind." Clover smacked some rocks together, getting some sparks to fly from them, which landed in the pile of sticks and logs that they had put together. The leaves at the bottom of the pile quickly caught on fire, which soon spread to the rest of the pile. She wiped some sweat from her brow before nodding with a satisfied look on her face. "That ought to work out just fine for the night. Let's just hope that whoever is scaring on the other team doesn't know what they're doing."
"Right!" Colin and Clover both started to walk off to join the other members of their team at the tent. At that point, the camera panned in for a closer view of Colin's backpack, which he had put Herman's terrarium back in. A close look could show that the lid wasn't properly latched at all, and not only that, but the hermit crab in question wasn't even in the terrarium.
Confessional - Clover
"I hate to be the type to just decide that I have an enemy in a game where we're all supposed to work together, but I can't help but feel that our team would work much more fluidly if Lady Belle wasn't on it. Granted, Braxton and Sion aren't per se the best teammates either, but at least they don't order us around to do their bidding." Clover crossed her arms, furrowing her brow before she looked at the side of the confessional and gasped. "...I need to find out what material this is made out of, this looks like excellent scraping wood."
"Man, did we have to be the ones to go out and get the food? It would've been much better if we were back at the tent…you know. Just you…me…a tent…nobody to bother us because they'll all be too preoccupied setting up." Artorias threw his arm over Esprit's shoulder as the two were walking off on a path that led from their campsite to the rest of the woods. Esprit really just looked confused about all the attention, but didn't really say anything at all to tell him to stop. "You know, Esprit, your hair is just so erotic…lavender really is a color of love."
"Lavender is a plant that is often used in soap, I think. It's that one that's got the really tall stem and all the little flowers on it! I think it smells like old people, or old people smell like it, I dunno!" Esprit giggled innocently, Artorias and his flirts were clearly failing to get through to the stargazer. As the two walked along, the camera showed a pov view from a nearby tree, as if something was watching the two of them while they were walking…something like a predator.
"Well, yeah, I guess lavender is a plant too, but I was just saying that you've got amazing hair. Just like how those purple eyes of yours are so enchanting, I could really stare into them for hours without having to look away." Artorias grinned, but Esprit just looked at him with an innocent smile, still not getting the point. Some rustling could be heard around where they were, and the football player quickly jumped over into Esprit's arms, clinging onto him with his teeth chattering the whole time. The stargazer frowned a bit at all the weight he was now carrying, but didn't say anything. "W-what was that?"
"Uh, I would probably guess a squirrel or something, but that's just my intuition with animals and rustling noises." The two looked around a bit, trying to see where the rustling was coming from, but their little investigation came up empty. Just as Artorias was starting to climb down from his partner's arms, something flew at them, landing right near their feet. They both looked down at it at the same time, seeing that it was a large, hairy tarantula. Naturally, Artorias ran off screaming and flailing his arms around, leaving the startled Esprit behind. "Wait, Florencia's gonna be mad if we split up!" He called out before running after the football player.
"Wow…I actually managed to get two of them…that's cool, I guess…" Hope murmured to herself from within one of the nearby trees. In the mysterious box of ammo for her slingshot, she had all sorts of rubber creepy crawlies, tarantulas, bats, snakes, all sorts of things that looked incredibly realistic. She hopped down from the tree, landing on the ground below with Umber, who held a thumbs up to her.
Confessional - Umber
"I'm not exactly the best at encouraging people in any situation, but if I can help out in any way at all, well, I'll be sure that I'm helping out as best as I can!" Umber went to hold a thumbs up to the camera, but in doing so, they somehow just shoved their thumb right into their eye, letting out a loud screech before getting up from their seat and trying to run…which ended with them slamming into the outhouse door and falling back into the confessional toilet with a groan.
"It's been ages since those two went off to go get food…the sun's already starting to set at this rate." Courtney sighed while he paced back and forth near Ollie, who had seated himself atop a log and was eating out of a bag of popcorn that he just happened to have with him. "I quite think that they probably got eaten by bears…or it's more likely that the scarers from the other team found them and they've run along home. Do you have any input, or are you just gonna keep nodding your head and shoveling popcorn into your mouth like it's your last meal."
"Hey! It's really good popcorn, okay?" Ollie held up the bag above his head, tipped his head back, and unhinged his jaw so that he could just dump the popcorn straight into his mouth, with Courtney cringing due to the lack of table manners, despite not being at a table at all. The two of them were a good distance between the rest of their team, so no one really knew what they were up to at that point. Again, the camera was showing that predator view of the two of them, only this time it was from a bush that was nearby. Like before, the bush started to rustle about, with both Ollie and Courtney looking at it.
"What do you make of that? I mean, it's obviously not a bear, the bush is too small. Maybe something more like a badger would fit in there." Courtney joked, with Ollie snickering along with him a bit, only for their laughing to be cut short when the bush lit up and started sparking with many volts of electricity. It looked like there was a loud lightning storm coming directly from that bush, and honestly, it was so sudden that it did freak out both of the men that saw it. They didn't scream like Artorias, but they did both jump and start running regardless. The camera panned into the bush when the sparks stopped flying, revealing a soot-covered Umber with messed up hair from being electrocuted by their own fly swatter.
Confessional - Courtney
"Alright, perhaps I overreacted when I saw that bush, but you can't say that that's not just something incredibly odd, can you? It was startling, and the natural instinct was to run…though I did get some mud on my shoes as I was running along back to the campgrounds." Courtney groaned as he was wiping off the mud on his shoes with some of the toilet paper from the outhouse, though it wasn't working so amazingly for him. "Now the problem is that we're all dropping like flies…four of us are already out, which just leaves three back at the campsite: Anisa, Florencia, and Napoleon. For our team's sake, or more importantly, for Florencia's sake, I sincerely hope that they don't run off…as I haven't seen a single Bass here yet."
"This walk sure is a long one…I would've thought that we'd reach the Bass' campsite by now," Rowan rubbed the back of his neck as he and the other three scarers for the Gophers were still looking out in search of the Bass' campsite. They hadn't gotten to it quite yet, and it was already starting to get pretty dark at that point. While they walked, Sion and Charlie were keeping close by, watching them from the trees and bushes that they were using as cover. Sion had a huge grin plastered on her face while she rubbed her hands together deviously.
"Alright, here's the plan: I got this smoke bomb here, yeah?" Sion held up the smoke bomb that she had picked earlier, waving it around a little bit like she was showing it off to the rather unimpressed Charlie. "I'm not gonna use this to scare them or anything, but I am going to use it to set down some nice cover. The smoke will spread all over the area, and I can get up nice and close without being seen so I can spook the crap out of them! And then you, you get to sit back like the little shrimp you are while I finish everything up, got it?"
"That doesn't really seem like the most sound plan of action…wouldn't it be better if I were to assist in the scaring? One person moving around under the cover of smoke is one thing, but if two are doing it, well, I think I might just pee myself!" Sion immediately blushed from Charlie's comment, which got a blush out of him as well. "I…really have to learn to watch how I talk around you, I don't want you getting overwhelmed every time I open my mouth."
"M-maybe if your life wasn't so pitiful and embarrassing, we wouldn't have to worry about me reacting poorly to everything you do." Charlie just frowned, with Sion pulling the cord for her smoke bomb and rolling it out to the path that the other scarers were walking on. Quickly enough, the air started to fill with a thick smoke that Penelope and Rowan couldn't really see through, no matter how hard they squinted or tried to focus.
"Ugh, are we for real right now? How are we supposed to find that lame camp if it's gonna be one of those stereotypical foggy nights in every horror movie?" Penelope cupped her hands around her eyes while peering about, trying so hard to get some insight on what was going on, but it didn't help at all. Petra, on the other hand, didn't seem to be frazzled by the smoke at all. It was like her eyes could just see right past it, as she kept walking like nothing happened. And then there was Maggie, who adjusted something on her glasses, only to then continue like all was normal. "Nightvision and Fog Glasses over here acting like the new avengers…guess me and the other civilian better follow behind. Oh, that would make for a great comic!"
"It is a good thing my glasses are equipped to see through any instance of low visibility, yes…and an even better thing that the fog will be obscuring your vision of my posterior, Penelope." Maggie smirked a bit, with Penelope pouting as the four trudged along. The scientist glanced at Petra, looking at her suspiciously as she walked. "Fascinating...despite the intense deposition of fog in the area, her vision seems wholly unaffected. That's an attribute uncommon to humans, but quite common in other animals. I think I'm gonna have to study her a bit closer…kukuku…"
"Welp, looks like that's enough smoke for me!" Sion cheered as she started to stretch her arms and legs like she was really getting ready for a fight or something. Charlie kept trying to look around, but he couldn't really see anything, much less could he see where on Earth he was walking. He took a few steps forward and bumped into Sion, almost falling down but managing to catch himself soon enough. "You mind maybe not wandering around aimlessly? You're gonna mess up the whole plan if they see your nerdy behind wandering out there."
"It's just my natural instinct to start walking around with my arms reaching out in front of me when I can't see well, I don't like not knowing where I am at all!" Sion rolled her eyes as she watched Charlie amble around some more. He wasn't walking towards her anymore, but he was walking towards one of the trees nearby, one with jagged branches and roots. Naturally, his foot caught on one of the roots from the tree, and he started to wobble. "W-woah!"
"Hey, be careful, dork!" Sion snapped out at him. She tried to run over in time to catch him, but she ended up tripping on some rock that she couldn't see. Since she was bigger and heavier, she fell faster, with a bit of a thud. She looked up as Charlie finally fell forward, but he didn't hit the ground at all. No, instead, one of the jagged branches from above caught him right by the belt loop on his pants…pulling him up in such a way that the tree was basically giving him a wedgie, and showing his tighty whities underneath his pants.
"Ugh…" Charlie groaned while he spun around slowly on the branch. It was an embarrassing situation that he was stuck in, that much was true. He thought about that for a moment…it was embarrassing…that situation he was in… "...Oh no…" He slowly looked back over at Sion to see that her face was dark red with a blush that completely overtook her. Not only that, but her whole body seemed to be twitching every few seconds, especially her lip, which was more so quivering. "S-Sion, I know this is pretty bad, but-"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHN~!" Sion's cry of a moan echoed throughout the entire woods, seeming to be louder than an explosion with how far it boomed out. Charlie quickly covered his ears in his own embarrassment. Back at the campsites, most contestants were just confused by what was happening, but on the path with all the smoke…Penelope, Petra, and Rowan all had the color leaving their bodies. They thought that a ghost was coming out to haunt them or something, and they all took off running and screaming. This left Maggie back behind, but seeing as the other four already left, she simply shrugged and followed after them. Once Sion's moan finally silenced, Charlie uncovered his ears, only to find that the jockette was completely asleep on the cold hard ground, leaving him dangling in the tree.
Confessional - Charlie
"I usually don't much care for Sion's reactions to me embarrassing myself, but it at least seems like this time it ended up working out well for us…it's hard to say." Charlie rubbed the back of his neck, still blushing a bit from the whole moaning thing before. "We scared all the scarers from the other team off, but I dunno, maybe we accidentally scared some of the people from our own team off, too. She was pretty loud, so I'm sure everybody in the woods heard it…Blaineley probably heard it, too."
"Well, this totally sucks," Napoleon groaned while he tossed a large rock up and down in his hand. He and Anisa were both sitting outside of the tent, which had Florencia inside of it. She didn't per se ask for privacy or anything, but like most of the team, they didn't really enjoy spending their time so close to her. Napoleon was just keeping his eyes peeled so he could see if the scarers from the Bass were coming, since the rest of his team was already down and out.
"It's getting really late…I'm pretty tired…" Anisa rubbed her eyes under her glasses while Napoleon glanced over at her. She had little bags under her eyes starting to form from how sleepy she was, and her whole body was drooping a bit. He sighed as he looked at her, grabbing his jacket from his body to hand it over to her. She just looked a bit puzzled at the gesture above all else. "...What's this for?"
"You said you were tired…it's gonna get pretty cold out here soon enough, so you should at least cover yourself up with the jacket like it's a blanket or something. Can't have my forced partner catching a cold out here." Anisa smiled weakly from the sentiment, and took the jacket from him to toss it over as much of her body as she could cover. Napoleon didn't seem all too bothered by just being there in his tee and pants, even if it was a little chilly. Soon enough, though, he could hear some rustling coming from bushes and trees nearby. He narrowed his eyes just as a rubber snake was fired at them. Immediately, Anisa screamed and tried to make a run for it, but he grabbed her and pulled her over to his side.
"T-there's flying snakes coming at us! We gotta make a run for it now before they end up on our faces, or anywhere else! I-I don't wanna get bit by a flying snake!" Anisa whined while she tried to break free of Napoleon's grasp, but he wasn't letting her get away from him that easily. He wanted his team to win more than anything, naturally.
"Anisa, those snakes aren't real…just look, you can really tell that this one is made of rubber. It's obviously just someone from the Bass trying to freak us out." Anisa looked at the snake, leaning down towards it and squinting like she was really trying to confirm this, but once she realized that Napoleon was telling the truth, she sighed a deep sigh of relief…at least until a bush nearby lit up with more electricity. She tried running again, but Napoleon had a good grip on her. "...Come on, Anisa, that's even more obvious than the last attempt. Bushes don't just get electrocuted like that."
"You're…right…they don't." Anisa blushed out of her own embarrassment just as Umber suddenly flopped forward, a complete burnt out mess from how many times they accidentally electrocuted themself. At the same time, One of the trees nearby was rustling even louder, and Hope suddenly fell out, landing on her bottom when she came to the ground.
"Oh…I've failed…I'm a miserable, pathetic failure…" Hope lamented while laying down on the grass with her face down so no one could see her shame. Napoleon smirked at Anisa, pretty proud of himself for keeping his cool, and the music lover just smiled back at him. Meanwhile, inside of the tent, Florencia was sitting by herself and scrolling through Penelope's tablet. She seemed to be taking her time looking at specific images in the storage, but it was hard to tell what thoughts were going through her mind while she took the sights in.
Confessional - Florencia
"I've never seen the in-progress sketches of these works before…she hasn't even posted them on her …" Florencia mumbled to herself, still scrolling through the tablet and looking at each individual image she saw. She saw a few drawings of herself, and her grin somehow got wider than it ever was before. "I've never been drawn like this before…she makes me look amazing! And I didn't even have to commission her!" She sounded quite excited, but soon cleared her throat to look at the camera. "It's shameful…but I'm quite the fan of Miss Plum's art. I have been for quite some time…naturally, I won't let anybody know that I'm indulging in such dirty art…but in private, I'm free to admire it as much as I please."
"Okay, this is seriously gettin' real darn annoyin' now." Lady Belle grumbled while she looked around the campsite. The scarers from the Gophers hadn't shown up at all, and all seven of the campers for the Bass were still around. Colin looked a bit frantic while he was looking all around at the campsite, like he was searching for something, but other than that, everybody seemed just fine. "What is this supposed to be, some kind of suspense fest? I'd much rather them pesky scarers just show up and get it all over with!"
"I gotta agree, it ain't no fun just sitting around and waiting like flies in a spider's web." Braxton sighed while he leaned up against a nearby tree. As he stood there, he could feel something starting to crawl on his shoulder…something with lots of little, pointy legs. His face froze as he came to the realization that it was some living creature, and he slowly glanced over to find that Herman the hermit crab was right there. He shouted out in fear, flailing around until the crab fell off of him so he could run away.
"Oy, mate? You're just gonna go and run off that easily, are you?" Anthony chuckled a bit as he watched Braxton running away, but he hadn't really seen what had happened to the country boy at all. He and Lady Belle stood next to each other, both shaking their heads in disappointment, but at that point, Anthony felt something crawling up his leg. That sensation was more than enough to make him panic just as bad, and he sprinted off, screaming for his life. Lady Belle went to open her mouth to say something, but when Anthony ran, Herman was knocked off of his body and landed on Lady Belle's face. She saw the creature and screamed out even louder than anyone before her.
"Oh? It's already happening?" Jaime suddenly raised his head from where he was standing, looking like he completely expected something like this to happen. Lady Belle was now running throughout the campsite, screaming in agony while running towards her other teammates, all four of which screamed at the sight of her barrelling towards them like that. Quickly, they all took off running.
"Oh no, no no, this is no good! W-why is she chasing after us like that? We didn't make her upset, did we?" Uliana asked the others in a terrified voice while they all kept on running. No one could really even see why Lady Belle was running in the first place, but it was just horrifying with how massive she was. "No no, no! Lady! Please, calm down just a little, yes? You're scaring all of us!"
"Y'all ain't the ones that got this critter crawling around on yer faces, are you!?" Lady Belle hollered out, pointing at her own face to reveal that Herman was there. Colin skidded to a halt when he realized what was going on, and he honestly just looked more relieved than anything. He ran right up to Lady Belle, holding his hands up towards her face. She whimpered nervously until Herman crawled off of her face and back onto his hands
"Herman, buddy! I was really worried when I couldn't see you in your terrarium…I really thought I pressed the lid shut enough, but I guess I didn't. Thank you for bringing him back to me, Lady Belle!" Colin smiled innocently at Lady Belle, who was panting as she glared down at him.
"B-bringin' him back to ya!? T-that lil' demon critter of yours was crawling all over me! S-scared me half to death over here!" In the midst of her yelling at the crustacean lover, none of the members of the Killer Bass realized just how far away from their campsite they were. Every last one of them was off the site…and by relation…out of the challenge. They soon heard the crackle of a speaker nearby.
"Well, well! The Bass had a really strong start and managed to get the Gophers down to their last three teammates at the campsite, but it looks like they forgot to account for being scared by themselves! The Killer Bass have all fled their campsite, which means…" Blaineley took a big pause in her words for the realization to set in for both of the teams. "...The Screaming Gophers have won the challenge and are immune for the night! Killer Bass! Make your way right back to the bonfire ceremony and prepare to eliminate somebody!"
Confessional - Colin
"Hey, I'm just happy that Herman is safe…but I'm sure upset with myself for not making sure that his enclosure was shut all the way. Probably one of my dumbest mistakes yet…" Colin awkwardly patted his lap while looking away from the camera.
Confessional - Hope
"I screwed up really badly when I fell out of the tree…maybe I could've at least gotten one more out if I just played my cards right, but I really messed up a whole bunch." Hope was holding her arms around her legs and burying her face in her knees in shame. "I wouldn't be surprised if my team ends up voting me out for being a big failure…"
Confessional - Charlie
"I'm…just glad that we ended up scaring some people away, but I have to be honest…I have no idea who to vote for. Sion didn't wanna help scare the people we actually needed to scare, and scaring away the other scarers didn't end up really helping at all. But Lady Belle and Colin were causing a huge scene back at the campsite…oh, I'm so conflicted…" Charlie knocked his fist against his head while he tried to figure out what to do.
Back at the bonfire ceremony, all of the Bass had just managed to get back there. Charlie was sitting in the back row along with the rest of the scarers. He actually looked to be in the best shape out of the four of them, as there wasn't a speck of dust or negative emotion on him. Sion looked incredibly tired, with her eyes drooping down and her body wobbling slowly back and forth. Hope, well, she looked as miserable as always, maybe even a little more miserable than usual. Umber was still covered in soot and scratches from accidentally electrocuting themselves so many times. In the front row, there was the rest of the team…Braxton and Anthony were around Lady Belle, with all three glaring right at Colin, who was simply holding Herman and smiling to himself. Clover was gently rubbing Colin's back while she glared back at the three that glared at him. Jaime and Uliana sat together, both of them looking at the rest of their team and wondering what happened to them. At that point, Blaineley and Chef stepped up to the podium, with Blaineley holding a platter with ten marshmallows.
"Campers, campers, campers…you really have to work better on your coordination as a team. I'm pretty displeased with how this challenge turned out for you…but I bet the viewing world is gonna love it! They'll probably just wish it had more shots of me in it!" Blaineley struck a few poses for the cameras, with most of the contestants and Chef rolling their eyes at her. "But onto the elimination stuff, right? Yeah…you guys fumbled this one up bad, and because of that, well, one of you has gotta go! I've got some tasty marshmallows here, which I'll call names for you to come and collect them! The camper that doesn't get a marshmallow gets to walk the Dock of Shame, catch the Boat of Losers and skedaddly doo on out of here! For our first safe contestant of the night we have…Charlie!"
"Oh…oh!" Charlie's face lit up with the realization that he was called first. He happily got up from his seat and ran up to go collect his marshmallow.
"Also safe are…Jaime and Uliana, no shock there, considering you narrowly avoided alllllll the drama. Not so great for ratings, though." Blaineley shook her head at the two contestants, who both sighed and got up from their seats to claim their immunity. "Anthony…Hope…Umber…Braxton…annnnnnd…Clover! All of you are the rest who didn't receive a single vote tonight!" The five of them got up as well, leaving behind Sion, Colin, and Lady Belle. Lady Belle looked pretty annoyed by still being sat, Colin seemed a tad worried, but Sion, she was just completely out of it.
"Alright, maggots! I'm gonna tell you exactly where you all went wrong, and I don't want any interruptions, understood!?" The three just nodded at Chef as he stepped forth, not wanting to deal with too much of his yelling. "Lady Belle! You were bossing your team around during the entire challenge, but it was also you running around like a maniac that managed to get everyone running away from the campsite! Regardless of this…you're safe!"
"But of course I am," Lady Belle smirked, getting up from her seat and walking past her other two teammates to get her marshmallow next.
"Colin! You let your dang hermit crab out of his enclosure, and he scared three of your own teammates, and led Lady Belle on her rampage!" Colin shrunk a little in his seat, holding Herman's terrarium closer to himself as he was being scolded. "Sion! You made the mistake of not going to the other team's campsite at all, and you went off to scare people that didn't even end up mattering anyways!" Sion smiled a bit, tugging down on one of her eyelids while sticking her tongue out to taunt Chef. "For that…the final marshmallow goes to…"
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"...Sion! Colin, you and Herman are no more on this island!" Sion smirked ever so slightly as she got up, but she immediately fell down, completely asleep on the ground below her. Clover frowned from where she was standing, and walked over to Colin, kneeling down towards him. He had a frown on his face while he just gently petted the sides of the terrarium.
"Oh, Colin…I'm really sorry that you had to go so soon. I was quite fond of all the time we spent talking about your love for crustaceans and the like." Clover gave Colin a gentle pat on the shoulder, and the crab lover smiled a bit before standing up from his seat.
"Yeah…well…it's what I get for making sure his lid wasn't shut right. I'm just glad he didn't end up getting hurt, honestly." Colin kept Herman held close to him while he started to walk along, heading right for the Dock of Shame while smiling at his former teammates. "See you guys around…sorry that I really screwed up the challenge." No one responded, but a few of them waved at him as he was going along. He hopped up onto the Boat of Losers with Herman, and Chef hopped on after them, soon taking him off and away from the island.
Elimination Table:
24. Darla Morgan, the Devil's Advocate
23. Dana Starshine, the Phase-Changing Nerd
22. Colin Turner, the Crab Fanatic
Votes: Colin - Sion, Lady Belle, Uliana, Anthony, Braxton; Sion - Hope, Umber, Jaime, Charlie; Lady Belle - Colin, Clover
Killer Bass: Anthony, Braxton, Charlie, Clover, Hope, Jaime, Lady Belle, Sion, Uliana, Umber
Screaming Gophers: Anisa, Artorias, Courtney, Esprit, Florencia, Maggie, Napoleon, Ollie, Penelope, Petra, Rowan