Okay, let's rumble! I know we had some new reviews from the prologue, but we'll start replies next time. Get ready for a frosty season!

Episode 1: Avalanches Aweigh, Part I

Down in Crevice, motion was slow. Things were always slow, with the dwindling numbers. Zenthus paced around in the main meeting hall, which had various parts of it damaged and snow was covering parts of the inside because of it. The inside furniture consisted of a set of tables and benches, as well as a small furnace that did not seem to be operational. The clack of Zenthus's cane could be heard as it smacked to wooden floors. A knock was heard on the door. "Come in, Thea," the older man had called out.

Thea entered, her brown fur cloak on her to keep warm from the elements. "Leader Zenthus, I have returned from my hunt," she reported in a stately manner. "There will be sufficient food for seven suns at least, so long as Croshia's furnace does not go out." Zenthus seemed content with her report. The huntress glanced up at her leader. "...How did you know it was me?"

"The three of you all knock differently," Zenthus pointed out. "Yours is hastier than the other two. Rodin's is the slowest, while Croshia's, while somewhere in the middle in terms of speed, is the loudest." Thea looked surprised to see Zenthus pick up on such a small detail. The leader let out a dejected sigh. "There is not much more to notice now that we have fallen to so few."

Thea nodded silently, the same dejection appearing on her face as Zenthus brought up how little of their village was left. "I...I was hoping to talk to you about something," the huntress mentioned. "In three suns, we should be expecting that man to return. Are we certain that is the best course of action? I, for one, do not trust anyone he would bring."

Zenthus tapped his finger against his can a few times. "Thea, you have never really trusted anyone. Perhaps that is why you survived this far, because you did not trust anyone. I am hoping that has a chance to change with these newcomers." He sighed. "I am well aware that these people could appear with ulterior motives. But, they offer their help. For now, that is more than what we currently have." He glanced outside. Stepping over to the window, he checked the sundial that was present outside the building they were in. "Fetch Rodin and Croshia for me," Zenthus requested. "It is time to prepare for our guests' arrival."

The huntress nodded, throwing the hood over her head again as she exited the main building. The sun was beginning to set over Crevice, and Thea noticed a bit of snow flurrying down. As she looked up, she shuddered at the weather. "It is just a bit," she said to herself as she quickened her pace to the blacksmith building, which was mainly in good condition, with the exception of a small break where the furnace was, covered up by a patch of dirt. She knocked on the door with the same hastiness that Zenthus had pointed out to her.

Eventually, someone opened the door. The woman who opened it appeared to be about ten years older than Thea, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Despite Thea's athletic nature, this woman seemed stronger and had much more muscle than Thea. She had slightly tanned skin that appeared to be from heat exposure. The woman wore long black pants constructed from leather and a matching leather tunic and a woolen apron. Her face seemed to be covered in black dust. "Thea, what a surprise," the woman said. "What do you need from me at such a late hour?"

Thea waved as she lowered her weapon. "Croshia, glad to see you. Leader Zenthus has requested we meet about the visitors we have coming to Crevice in a few suns." Croshia nodded understandingly as she put down the piece of metal she had been working with. The clang it made upon impact implied that it had been very heavy. The blacksmith began to walk out as Thea stopped her again briefly. "Oh, Croshia," the huntress added. "I hope you do okay...in the weather."

Croshia looked mournfully at Thea's apprehension about even being outside. She put a hand on the huntress's shoulder. "How about you go tell Zenthus inside that I am fetching Rodin and that we will be there shortly?" Thea looked happier with that outcome. "I can help you get over that fear soon," she told her. "I suppose all of us have some of that fear that we need to remove." Thea nodded slowly, returning to the meeting building, and letting Croshia walk through the light snow to find Rodin.

Eventually, the blacksmith arrived at the edge of the village. There was a small hut nearby that appeared to have been recently built. "Rodin?" Croshia asked as she peered inside the hut. No one was in there at the moment. "He cannot possibly be still out there," she said with a groan. The blacksmith walked through the hut, which had a connection to a dock in the back. Sure enough, Rodin was sitting at the edge of the dock, a spear nearby and a fishing rod in his hand. "You know the snow means that the water is too cold, right?"

Rodin sighed loudly as he turned to the blacksmith and spoke cynically. "Croshia, you're outside. I figured you would be in your building all night due to the weather. What brings out out here?" Rodin as a rather large man, aged somewhere in between Zenthus and Croshia with dark skin. He had short black hair and wore a sleeveless brown fur top, paired with green pants made from leather. He had matching dark green waterproof boots.

Croshia sighed. "Rodin, those people who are coming to help us out are going to be here in three suns." Rodin didn't seem to understand why she was here yet. Croshia groaned. "Zenthus wants us to meet about it. I know you truly do not care about this whole situation, but could you at least participate so I am not the only one in a room with Thea? She is great her job, but her socializing in our meetings needs help still."

The fisherman groaned and stood up. "Fine, I guess I can go with you. I am only doing this because I know just because you let Thea go back, it does not mean you are any less frightened by the weather." He reeled in his line, which had a fish on it. Rodin tossed the fish in a bucket and closed the lid off on it. "We need to go discuss how much they actually will be doing here, at least, you all do."

Sometime later, all four villagers of Crevice were gathered in the meeting hall. They all sat at the middle table, each of them at a different side of it. Thea sat closest to the exit, her spear tightly gripped in her hand still, but her cloak was currently to the side as the door was closed for now. Rodin sat on the left of Zenthus, with his head on his hand, leaning on the table in boredom. Croshia was on the right of Zenthus, patiently waiting for the meeting to start, while Zenthus sat straight up, clearing his throat to start. "As you are all aware, Chris McLean and Chef Hatchet are coming here with sixteen other people to assist with the restoration of our village. I would like to open up to any logistical questions only to start."

Thea's hand shot up instantly, but Croshia interrupted any chance she had of being called on. "I have one," the blacksmith stated. "I do not believe we were ever clarified on how they would be arriving. Clearly, they had been able to reach us before, but do we think with their increase in numbers it will be feasible? We are not exactly easy to reach."

Zenthus shook his head. "That has not been disclosed to me. As our communication with them is cut off for the remaining suns until their arrival, we will have to let them figure that method out for themselves." He turned to Thea. "Thea, you have done an excellent job maintaining our food supply. How has your secondary assignment been going?"

The huntress narrowed her eyes. "The modern world appears to be expanding at a pace that is rapid and concerning. While I found nothing but the dangers that lurked in the woods when we first moved to Crevice, there appears to be a staircase that leads to our establishment. I also located an enemy fortress at the top of the cliff. It appears to be uninhabited, and if I can be bold to suggest, too dangerous to be a point of breaching our security."

Rodin yawned at Thea's exuberant report. "Everything is about us being attacked or killed with you," the fisherman complained. Croshia shot him a dirty look across the table. "Look, what I am hearing from the three of you is we have no way we can prepare for their arrival. They are coming to help, and if they are not, which I think is a poor assumption to make, we would be no worse off than we are now." He stood up and pushed his chair in. "You know my stance on this already. If either of you two would like an escort back through the snow, you should leave with me now."

Rodin looked at Croshia and Thea, mainly Thea, who looked like she wanted to take the offer, but could not bring herself to accept the help. Rodin sighed and walked out of the meeting hall, shutting the door behind him. Zenthus sighed. "We are in desperate need of help," he admitted to the two remaining villagers. "I am worried Rodin sees Crevice as a lost cause, and if we were to relocate, he would be happier. I pray that we will find a way to change his mind when our help arrives." He gave a hopeful smile. "It would please me immensely to see us back in a successful position where we can stand on our own feet again."

Croshia nodded. "Sure, but we need to find a way to motivate Rodin. As of right now, I am the only one who can even convince him to do anything. Maybe this help can be the shock he needs to be lifted from his funk." Thea looked nervous at the way Croshia phrased that. "Do not look so frightened, Thea," the blacksmith assured her. "While I have my concerns about these visitors too, I believe that by chance we encountered some good people."

Chris had a devilish smirk as he sat in the cockpit of a blimp, with Chef next to him, driving it quietly. The host gleefully hummed to himself as Chef silently drove the blimp, an agitated look on his face the entire time. Eventually, Chris got bored of Chef's sorrowful attitude. "Come on, Chef, lighten up!" the host said playfully. "We're on our way to literally meet a piece of history. We've been given a great opportunity!"

The cook let out a huff, finally breaking the silence he had kept the entire trip. "Still, lying to them feels wrong. Sure, while we're here, we're gonna be helpin' them. But we ain't tellin' them why we're actually here!" He glanced down at the navigation, which had indicated they were already in Alaska. "We're just about there," Chef added on a different note. "Probably another half an hour."

The host grinned. "Good. He peered out the window to already see the characters interacting. He enjoyed what he saw a lot. "I don't want to disturb whatever chaos they are causing themselves out there," the host said cynically. "Land normally at the cabin. I have a good idea for the first challenge that'll beat blowing up another blimp." He continued to watch the chaos unfold as Chef rolled his eyes, clearly upset with the whole endeavor.

Chris finally acknowledged the camera and waved excitedly. "Welcome back!" he said with a wide grin. "Chef and I spent months looking for the perfect season, and we eventually did! Despite our initial thoughts, the Alaskan wilderness has a lot to offer! This season, our contestants will be bringing the chill, embracing the cold, and fighting out others for a million bucks!"

The host walked over to a monitor in the cockpit and switched it on, where blurry images of the woods appeared. "Where we're staying is a mystery to yourselves, and our sixteen new friends, but they will have to work their hardest to stay there, because who knows what will happen after that? We're gonna just be sending them down the river where who knows what will find them and they'll probably be out of out hair." He chuckled evilly. "Hope they don't leave in the wrong direction, I've heard the woods are pretty nasty around here." He shut off the monitor. "What kinds of challenges will our losers face? What is waiting for them in the woods around the wilderness? Find out right here, right now, on Total! Drama! Ancient Abodes!"

Out in the main area of the blimp, the camera first focuses on a boy with a purple hoodie decorated with black x marks and dots. The inside of the hoodie was visibly rainbow-colored, with some of it hanging off his right shoulder. He was also wearing a grey tank-top with a similar design to the hoodie with grey joggers and purple and black sneakers. As he ran through the blimp playfully, his gold necklace and black bracelet bounced around, as did his hair, which was blonde for the most part, but had cobalt and violet highlights. The violet highlight went all the way down past his left eye, covering it up all the way.

The boy spotted someone else who was calmly listening to music on his own in the corner of the blimp. This boy had dark skin and long bright red hair styled in a mohawk. He had the words 'Rock and Roll!' written on a green T-shirt, some of it covered up by his purple vest he wore over it. He was also wearing ripped-up jeans and purple boots. It was hard to tell through the boy's yellow shades whether or not he had taken notice of the first boy. Eventually, the first boy tapped him on the shoulder, grabbing his attention. The second boy removed his headphones, clearly a bit agitated already from being interrupted. "Something you need?" he asked the first boy, who noticed the hint of a Cajun accent that the second boy spoke in.

"Oh, it's nothing," the first boy responded. "I was just interested! You're listening to music, so I just wanted to know what type of music you were listening to!" He got a bit closer, much to the second boy's discomfort. "So...don't leave me hanging like that, tell me what you were listening to!" The second boy still looked a bit unnerved. "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Shion."

The second boy decided to humor Shion anyway. "Just listening to some rock music," the second boy said back bluntly. "You don't really look like you would be into that, no offense." Shion shrugged, indicating that he was probably indifferent on it. "And, I guess since we'll do introductions eventually, you can call me Monty."

Shion laughed. "Well, it's certainly a pleasure to meet you Monty, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you and everyone else really well." He sat down right next to Monty, which was not what he was expecting at all. "I really don't care about what music I listen to, so we could listen together if you wanted to!"

Monty looked agitated that he had to share his music with others, but luckily for him, someone else swooped in to save him. "Oh, wow, people are hanging out!" someone else shouted as they ran over excitedly. This next contestant had a very small build, probably not even reaching five feet tall. She had dark skin and slightly messy blue dyed hair that went to her shoulders. They were wearing a blue hoodie jeans and blue sneakers. "What are we listening to?"

Shion and Monty both glanced at the new person that had joined the two of them. They had been clearly waiting for someone to start talking to someone else and join as soon as possible. "Well, this is getting out of hand," Monty admitted. "To be honest I was hoping I could just listen to music in peace before we get sent to...the middle of Alaska, I think."

"That's not a problem," the new member commented. "Maybe next time...we can all listen to music in a group? That way, that'll be like, the thing that's happening." She noticed the two boys still giving them blank stares. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Winter. I'm hoping to get to know everyone here a bit better." Winter had noticed Monty's bass case sitting behind him and they gasped. "Oh, a bass! I play the flute, so that means we're both in on this whole music thing. How many others do you think there are?"

As even Shion struggled to keep up with Winter's oddly chaotic energy, someone else watched conversation from a bit further away. They passively observed their musical conversation, but opted not to join in. This person was a bit under average height, wearing a lavender cardigan over a light blue button down with a silver tie that nearly matched his hair color. His hair dipped down past his nose in between his purple eyes. He also was wearing grey pants and grey slip-on shoes. He continued to watch Shion and the other two much less energetic people.

Eventually, someone tapped the observer on the shoulder, startling him. He looked back to see a girl around his height with long straight brown hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a faded V-neck T-shirt with denim booty shorts and stockings that went to the middle of her thigh. "Hello," she greeted the boy, who passively glanced over at her. "You looked lonely, so I figured I would go and check up on you." The girl promptly greeted herself. "I'm Nicolette," she said in a calming voice. "How about you?"

The boy did not seem intimidated too much by Nicolette's sociability, but rather put off that someone approached him in the first place. "Oh, right..." he said bluntly. "I'm Klase. I play piano. There's not much else very interesting about me." He had a rather despondent look on his face as he said that, which seemed to make Nicolette a bit upset.

The girl frowned as she saw that Klase was not reacting much to her greeting. "I'm sure there's something else interesting about you," she pointed out. "Maybe if you don't know what it is yet, you'll find it here. Although, I am not certain if the middle of Alaska is going to be where anyone finds anything." She peered out the window for a second, trying to see if she could notice anything yet. "Well, it's still nice to meet you, Klase. I hope we can become better friends as the game goes on."

"I guess," Klase responded, his ears still going over to the conversation about the music Monty was playing, the bassist still a bit peeved about other people being in his personal space. "We will be forced to play against each other at some point," he reminded Nicolette. "That means making friends could end up being dangerous." Nicolette seemed sad at Klase's outlook on their situation. She walked away to go find someone else to talk to as Klase silently huffed, looking upset at how that conversation went.

Nearby, a girl scoffed at all the boring conversation that seemed to be happening. The girl had a rather curvy build with dyed pink hair that went into a ponytail. She wore a black sports bra and yoga shorts that contrasted a lot with her eyes, clearly with pink contacts in them. She groaned at how boring everyone was being, and decided to look around for someone who appeared more interesting. She eventually settled on a very tall person standing off to the side and glancing out the window. "Hiii," she said playfully to him to get his attention. "You look lost in thought. Wanna talk?"

The tall boy turned back to face the girl. He was dark-skinned with dreadlocks that went back into a ponytail. He had silver eyes and wore a teal long-sleeved shirt with black cargo pants and a leather jacket. "Hm?" he asked stoically as he locked eyes with her. "Sure, I guess I can pass the time before we get to where we're going." Despite the stoic look on his face and anything else that would deem otherwise, his tone had a calming demeanor to it.

"Aww, you're so sweet!" the girl said back playfully with a very bubbly tone. "It's kinda boring here...I was wondering if there was anything you wanted to talk about to pass the time." She giggled. "We can talk about our home lives! I'll go first!" The boy raised an eyebrow as she leaned her head against his shoulder instantly. "I'm a Twitch streamer, so maybe you've heard of me. I love playing video games with others, and I am so, so excited to be here and be on Total Drama! Nothing is as rewarding as international popularity!" The boy still had the stoic look on his face. "Sorry, I totally forgot! I'm Alessia! It's nice to meet you!"

The boy took a deep sigh, using the arm Alessia was not leaning on to push her head off of him. "Nice to meet you, Alessia." Alessia frowned as she was ushered off of the tall boy's arm. "I spend a lot of time watching after my siblings, but my favorite thing to do is hang out with my girlfriend." Alessia's face fell instantly as she heard that news. "I'm Zevadiah, but you can call me Zev if you want." He stared her in the eyes. "If you want to pass the time while we wait to get to wherever we're going, I'm happy to do so, but you need to do it without leaning on me the whole time." Alessia sighed, realizing that leaving now would probably look bad.

Meanwhile, someone looked on at that conversation and gave an exaggerated sigh. "So close to love for her," they said playfully as they watched Alessia fail. "Maybe she should have tried that on me..." The boy had combed back hair that covered his eyes a bit, colored lavender and ash purple. His outfit matched his hair, wearing an open lavender vest with the same color shorts and sandals. He glanced around the blimp before catching someone. "Oh, maybe them!"

The boy sauntered over to a girl who was reading silently, trying to ignore everyone else. "Hiii," he tried, using the exact same line Alessia opened up with, hoping he could find some success with it. The girl peered up from her book. She was relatively tall and curvy, with blonde hair that went to her shoulders. She wore a button-up purple shirt that had a cherry blossom on it and tan pants. "I'm Kaif. Did you want to talk? I'm sure I could be way more interesting than that book!"

The girl stared at Kaif for a second, an eyebrow raised at his brash opening line. Eventually, she put the book away, much to Kaif's surprise. "Sure thing," she agreed as she stared right into Kaif's eyes. "What did you want to talk about? I'm sure there are tons of fascinating things someone like you has on your mind." She winked. "I'm Sasha by the way. It's so nice to meet you. I'm glad you approached me."

Kaif looked very surprised that Sasha had answered him like that. "Um, right!" he said nervously. Sasha carefully watched him, noticing that he was tensing up and turning red, but not in the way that she was expecting him to. "Well...how about what book you were reading?" he asked her. "You could tell me what it was about. Was it a romance novel?"

Sasha shook her head. "No, that's not a particular genre that interests me." Kaif frowned a bit upon hearing that. He was realizing that his luck was just about as good as Alessia's, maybe even worse. "It's a science fiction novel. A group of teenagers break into some crazy scientist's lab every night to fix the scientist's inventions. Right now, they're on the way to a breakthrough, I suspect that it will happen soon."

Kaif grinned as he heard Sasha continue to explain away about her book. "That sounds like an interesting read," he said playfully. "But, I bet a group of teenagers going to this thing every night...surely there's some romance in there, right?" He laughed. "Sorry, I'm just a big fan of romance and soap operas, I always feel like love could be around any corner..." he looked right into Sasha's eyes. "Don't you?"

Sasha shrugged as she glanced at the book. "I suppose there are two of the girls in the story who are nearing a relationship," she admitted, "but I don't think that's the most important part of the story. I am more interested in the one character's ability to perfectly mask their emotions. There's so much internal dialogue she goes through without every displaying it. I consider it impressive, and I am definitely more interested in that than some sub-plot." Sasha grinned slightly as she saw Kaif was able to keep up with the conversation, but was still struggling to emotionally be all there. "We should keep talking," Sasha said to him definitively. Without another option, Kaif was left to endure the conversation that he knew was going nowhere.

On the other side of the blimp, things were still very exciting. Someone sat eerily, gazing out the window mysteriously as they stared out into the sky. Interestingly, they appeared to not have awareness of the surroundings around them, but it was quite the opposite. This person had jet black hair slicked back and brown eyes, the only part of their face visible as the rest was covered up by a white owl mask. They wore a blue-grey coat over a white shirt with black dress pants and brown boots, all accompanied by a slightly tattered blue cape. Everything around them gave off a mysterious aura.

Suddenly, in an instant, someone appeared before them in a ball of fire. The mysterious person glanced over nonchalantly and observed the fireball, eventually deeming it to not be real danger, as someone had appeared out of it. They had dyed white hair that was styled into a fluffy style and yellow contacts. They wore a white dress shirt with a black suit vest overtop of it and black jeans. He had several pieces of jewelry attached to him and deep purple boots. "Ta-da!" the new person said excitedly. "You looked bored, so I figured you would want to be entertained."

The mysterious person glanced at the performer with an eerie look. "Does viewing our outer landscape appear dull? We have been given a grand opportunity here. I wonder what will become of all of us in the wilderness. I do not believe everyone here is very fit for the occasion." Both contestants knowingly glanced over at either Alessia or Kaif, who definitely were not dressed well for the cold. The mysterious person stared right at the boy. "I am called Winslow. It is a pleasure to meet you."

The boy nodded apprehensively. "Um...right. Well, nice to meet you Winslow. I'm Chander. I'm from a circus, so I love performing. I hope I can spread some joy to wherever we're going. I haven't actually heard much about it." He looked to Winslow for potential answers. "Did you see anything when you were looking out there?"

Winslow turned their gaze back to the window. "Nothing as of yet," they responded. "But perhaps we will have not seen it even upon being located there. Don't you think that what we initially encounter will be far more than meets the eye?" Chander hesitated. He wasn't really sure how to respond to that, or even if he was supposed to at all.

Chander sighed before returning to a happy smile. "Well, hopefully the two of us can get to know each other better. If you encounter any weird tools or like, a freaky frozen village person, let me know, I'd be down to check that out." Winslow did not turn back to Chander, keeping their gaze on the window. "Okay..." the aerobic mischief said slowly as he left Winslow's vicinity. As Chander walked further, he ended up running into someone else, who knocked him right onto the ground. "Oh, sorry!" he said to the person he had run into.

This person had a sinister look on their face, a face which already looked odd. He was relatively rotund with buzzed blonde hair and mismatched eyes, one brown and one blue, with the blue one being slightly larger. He wore a tattered brown vest over a faded black graphic T-shirt, baggy ripped jeans, and worn out sneakers. Compared to Chander this person hadn't much care for his appearance at all. The boy grinned sadistically at Chander. "You look fun," he said with a smirk. Chander backed away slowly as the boy continued looking around the blimp, where he saw someone else who looked busy.

The person the boy had found was gazing out the window, but unlike the others who had been looking down at potential landing spots, this girl was staring up at the sky. She had wavy ginger colored hair with blue eyes, and was wearing a white blouse underneath a navy blue jacket. The blouse was tucked into a black pleated skirt that was around thigh-length, all accompanied by a pink scarf around her neck. They boy merely stood behind this girl, breathing heavily while he waited for her to turn around, and eventually, she did. "Gah!" she cried out as she jumped back, accidentally slamming herself into the wall. "What was that for?"

"What wasn't it for?" the boy shot back. "You better get your head out of the sky. We're about to fight each other down there. If you can't cause chaos, then you're going to be in for a rude awakening!" He gave a haughty laugh. "Name's Harvey. I'll be your worst nightmare for an in-the-clouds little girly like you." He lunged forward, causing the girl to jump back a bit more.

This time, the girl stopped herself from crashing into the blimp wall. She stared Harvey right in the face with limited remorse. "Harvey, was it?" she asked sternly. "You better get this through your head right now. I am not going to be taking this garbage from you, and as you can look around, neither is anyone else. And, for your information, I am not just staring into the sky, I am looking higher. Maybe that is not something you are capable of." She dropped her aggressive look rather quickly. "Let's get off on a better foot okay? I'm Faye. Maybe we'll see each other around." She got up and walked away from him. "Just, not right now."

As Faye skipped away, someone else sat on a set of boxes above everyone else, looking down on them. Her bright green eyes contrasted her dark black hair that was in pigtails on either end, each one being tied in with a green flower-like ball. She wore a long single-piece black dress with black shoes. "How unsightly," she scoffed to herself as she glanced around at her alleged competition. "Three days in and half of them will be desperate to leave once they've seen me."

The girl refused to move off of her set of boxes that almost resembled a throne. "Half of these people will be lucky to be on my team. After all, they will have me." She then watched as someone was messing around with something on their watch. "What on Earth is going on there?" The girl watched as someone even shorter than Winter continued to silently play with their watch. "You!" the girl said to them. "Tell me who you are this instant!"

The other girl turned around to face the first one. The short girl was a bit plus-sized, with blue hair that was put into pigtails and brown eyes. She wore an orange parka with a blue scarf over the top of it that covered her mouth. She also had on orange-green tights and boots. The girl cocked her head at the other girl, and began tinkering with her watch a bit more. "Hey!" the first girl shouted impatiently. "I thought I said to identify yourself!"

The shorter girl finally finished messing with her watch, and once she hit a button, a small hologram displayed some text, reading, Hi, I am Syd, it is good to meet you. What is your name? The first girl was a bit confused at the way Syd was communicating to her, as it was clearly something that she had never seen before.

"Not much for talking, huh?" the girl in black asked. Syd shrugged. "Well, that doesn't matter too much to me. I'm Persephone, and not only am I queen of everything, but I am also queen of this show, so I hope we're on the same team. I would love for you to help me out, and then naturally, I can carry you to victory whenever you need it." She had a very smug expression on her face that Syd did not seem to like.

"Well, aren't you a bit cocky?" the final contestant said to Persephone, this girl sitting on the set of boxes that the arrogant princess had been sitting on just a second ago. That action alone seemed to anger Persephone a bit. This final girl was slightly muscular with long wavy black hair that went to her shoulders, but also had some green highlights in it. She wore a ruffled black blouse with a brown jacket overtop it, faded jeans, and combat boots. "Don't underestimate someone just because of how they're communicating. She definitely looks like she has quite the brain on her."

Persephone scoffed at this girl's attitude instantly. "And you think that you're just as good, is that why you chose to sit right on my throne?" The final girl shrugged nonchalantly as she continued to be in Persephone's way. "Then you tell me who you are, if you really think you're all that great."

"I'm so glad you asked," the final girl said playfully. "I'm Setsuna. Lover of all things ancient and also a lover of fun, which is clearly something you could use some help on." It was tough to tell through the scarf, but Setsuna caught on that Syd found that comment amusing, but she did not laugh at all. "Maybe I won't get off of your throne," Setsuna decided. "This seems way more fun up here. I can tell why you picked it."

Persephone furrowed her brow at Setsuna, who maintained her playful smirk atop the fake throne. Suddenly, both of them were thrown onto the floor by a stop in movement in the sky. Persephone seemed much more upset between the two that they were on the floor. "How disgusting!" the princess complained as everyone else was put off by the movement. Alessia flew into Zev's arms, possibly by accident, possibly on purpose, much to the larger boy's dismay.

Winslow continued to stare out the window eerily, not even moving a muscle when the blimp changed course. They glanced outside to see that the blimp was not going in a different horizontal direction, but descending. "And so, the beginning of this gambit begins," they said to themselves as they watched the blimp descend upon a regular-looking cabin.

"How odd," Faye pointed out as she still watched the clouds above them, even as they approached the landing point. "I could have thought that we wouldn't be landing at all, and we'd have to fall and survive an impossible drop, but I guess they're going easy on us." The astronomer grabbed her bags and filed in with everyone else to exit the blimp in a semi-orderly fashion, everyone except for Harvey, who threw the others out of the way to get off first. "Ugh, that kid..." Faye muttered as she joined the others.

Upon stepping off of the blimp, the cast was greeted to a rather exquisite looking cabin. It was three stories tall, with a deck on every side, and lounges and hammocks scattered across the deck. A pool was even visible from one of the first floor windows. "I'm not trusting that just yet," Monty said skeptically as he looked at everyone else's excitement. "There's something those two haven't told us yet."

Right on cue, Chris McLean appeared before the sixteen contestants. "Greetings, contestants!" Chris said excitedly as he gestured to everyone. "Welcome to Total Drama Ancient Abodes, a chilling season that will take place deep in the Alaskan wilderness." Everyone looked excited by the prospect of finally being here. "This is the place where one of you walks away with a million bucks! The rest of you?" Chris shrugged and chuckled at them all. "Well, thanks for coming."

The host walked around everyone, eventually stepping up to in front of the cabin. "Obviously, the woods on their own are pretty boring, and that means we had to stockpile it ourselves with danger!" That seemed to concern some people right off the bat. "But, since I am a nice host, I will give you all an hour to regroup and meet me right at the cliff just over there. While you are waiting, one of the rooms in this cabin also has a confessional in it." Chris pointed in the direction that he and Chef went before, revealing a large cliff, then back to the cabin to remind them of the confessional. "See you soon!" The host and Chef then walked off, leaving the sixteen campers to their own devices.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Monty. He picked up his bass case and walked right into the cabin without thinking about anything else. "Well, I'm certainly not just standing out here in the cold, I will leave you all to it." Monty went right through the front door of the cabin. After some time, when he had not come running back out, Shion promptly followed, which caused Winter to start moving too. One by one, everyone went inside." Most people went to the confessional, which was in a separate room with a very comfy seat.

Setsuna: "Well, this is certainly exciting!" she said giddily. "I mean, a place this remote probably hasn't been explored in quite some time, even ever! Who knows what we're going to find here? Maybe some neat fossils, or something like that, maybe just some cute boys too. I guess I wouldn't mind either option. Hopefully both!"

Persephone: "That Setsuna girl really gets on my nerves, but no matter. She can keep the boxes. I'd rather stay here the whole time. This cabin is actually nice, and deserving of someone like me inside it. Can't say the same about the others who decided to show their face here." She let out a huff in frustration.

Syd: The girl said nothing, but rather waved and tinkered with a small metal dinosaur she had with her, making it walk around with a remote she had in one hand as she waved to the confessional camera with the other.

Faye: "A place this secluded is bound to have an amazing view of the stars at night!" she said with a bubbly demeanor. "I wonder if it will be good enough to see things I can't catch with my telescope." She grinned. "But, this is still super exciting. I'm definitely in it to win it!"

Harvey: The boy burst out laughing as he stabbed a sharp stick through the nice seat. "Can you believe the people here? Some of them might actually be three feet tall! Maybe even two!" He laughed again. "Whatever. I'm gonna beat them all to a pulp, they'll see what I can do."

Chander: "Well, this place doesn't seem so bad," he said, before jumping up in the air, pulling out the stick from the chair that Harvey had left. "Huh, maybe not. But, I guess this could be way worse. We could be underwater or something."

Winslow: "I don't recall Chris reciting anything about us staying in this location," they pondered. "What terrors does the host speak of? What can be encountered in this place? Not this place, however. We should not plan on being here very long."

Sasha: "What an interesting cast of people," she said analytically. "I spent so much time feigning reading that book that I watched so much already. I have read it already, and it is quite the interesting one." She shrugged. "Kaif is an interesting one, I suppose, but something was very off about him. I dislike him, but I do wish to speak with him again."

Kaif: "Have you seen some of the lovely ladies here?" he said with a swoon. "That girl with the whip was really something, and that other girl seemed like a real sweetheart too. There's just so much love in the air, and I can't wait for it to reach me too!"

Alessia: "Are you kidding me?" she complained instantly. "The first guy I go after, he's taken? Not just taken, he seems committed too!" She shrugged. "Well, for now at least. I'll work on someone else next, maybe either that dorky piano player or the short girl who follows people around. She looks like she can be convinced to do just about anything!"

Zev: He had a stoic look on his face that did not match how he spoke. "I guess this will be quite the season," he said with a laugh. "A lot of people look like they are tough competition, but I can hold my own. I'm just interested in what else this place offers."

Klase: "This is concerning already," he admitted as he stared down at his feet. "My music is my greatest attribute, but there are so many musicians here too. From what I heard, Winter, Monty, Shion, Nicolette, and probably more are musically inclined. This won't go well..."

Nicolette: "I feel bad for Klase," she said with a sad shrug. "Hopefully we'll be on the same team so he'll have a friend. Maybe Monty too. I think he could be a friend, even though we haven't spoken a lot yet."

Winter: "This is cool," they said as she sat in the chair. "I hope everyone else has just been sitting in the chair and not doing anything else in here. I'll make sure to check that later. I hope there are a lot of trendy people on my team, that's my best hope."

Monty: "I'm getting a lot of weird vibes from some of these guys already," he said with an angry look. "They better not try anything with me! I'm not trying to be the center of anyone's game. I'm just here to play my own!" He took a deep breath. "And...admittedly, to work on, well, that."

Shion: "Hiii, all my fans back home!" he said with a cheerful wave. "That's right, I'm finally here, and the cabin is so nice! I'm super excited to get to meet some of these people today! Monty seems fun already, and that Chander person looked like quite the showman too! Oh, there's too many people to pick from!"

Once some time had passed, people finally began talking with each other and getting to know some of the other people they had not met yet. Alessia walked around for a bit before watching as Harvey was about to unload a spitball onto Nicolette, who had been talking with Shion about something. "What are you up to?" she asked playfully to the unhinged man-child, who turned around menacingly at the fake gamer girl.

"What's it to ya?" he asked belligerently. At that moment, he finally got a good look at Alessia for the first time. "Although, if you're actually asking me because you want to learn how to do this too, I can teach you." His hostility toward Alessia had vanished within an instant. "See? That idiot's distracted by the girl with the tiny shorts. I'm gonna beam her in the head."

Alessia batted her eyes playfully to keep Harvey's interest. "Wow, that's so smart," she said, playing along. "But I think that person you're trying to hit's name is Shion...and they're a guy." Harvey paused for a second, trying to process that mistake he had made. Alessia giggled, which brought him back into focus. "Can...can I try? Would that be okay?"

Harvey still looked a bit upset by the small error of his. He handed the straw over to Alessia. "Yeah, if you want." Alessia promptly wiped off any germs that might have been on that straw beforehand before taking aim right at the two people. "Just make sure you aim a big higher than you think, it's not gonna go in a straight line. Learned that from years of this." Harvey looked very proud at that statement.

Over with the two targets, Shion and Nicolette were speaking rather normally. "So, you're a music person too?" Shion asked excitedly. "That's amazing! I think there's a ton of people here who are big music people. Monty is one, he even brought his instrument. Then there's Winter too, I think they're pretty big on the music thing, at least I hope. What about you?"

Nicolette shrugged. "Well, I like to sing, and if other people are performing, I like dancing sometimes, but I'm sure everyone else here is way more talented than me." She looked over in one direction where she saw Klase walking around by himself, going upstairs almost as to look for something. "Oh, that's right, Klase plays the piano too, I think he's really good too." Suddenly, the spitball whizzed by Nicolette's head and landed in the wall right in front of them. The kindhearted saint glanced back as something flew by, she she couldn't figure out what it was. "Did you hear something?" Shion shrugged, since he hadn't heard anything either.

Alessia pouted as she saw that she missed both Nicolette and Shion. "Well, darn," she said with a clearly fake sadness to her tone. "I guess I'm not very good at this." She batted her eyelashes at Harvey. "Maybe I'll need some more practice." Harvey smirked and walked away, and once he was out of sight, the streamer gagged at her interactions with the boy.

Chander followed Klase upstairs, upon noticing how the boy had solemnly walked up there on his own. Eventually, Chander caught up to him. "Hey!" he said enthusiastically. "I don't think we've met yet. I'm Chander, I love performing and-" he stopped his rambling as he saw Klase glance over at the piano nearby. "Oh, not music," he added on. "I was raised in a circus, I'm more of an...in the air kind of performer."

"Guess that's at least one person who isn't," Klase told the boy. He looked up to see Chander with a warm smile. Maybe it was enough to trust for now. "I'm Klase," he said to Chander in a very similar way to how he introduced himself to Nicolette. "I play piano. That's...that's all I really know how to do. Maybe I'll learn something here, but that's not entirely why I signed up."

The aerobic mischief seemed interested in what Klase had to say. "Well, you seem like an interesting person. Honestly, I'm here to make some friends and get some money for my little sister, Lenti, but it looks like I'm already starting the first goal. You seem like a good friend to have." Klase looked almost excited to hear that from Chander, and while his reaction conveyed that, it was still hard to tell.

Meanwhile, Monty sat in the corner of the first floor by himself, playing on his bass, which was not very loud on account of not being plugged in. Still, he seemed to attract some company. Shion had followed him over, with Nicolette trailing in tow. "Hey, it's you again!" Shion said playfully as he sat by the bassist, who let out a small grunt as he continued messing around on his bass. "What are you doing in the corner? We're about to start a game! Don't you think you should make some friends?"

Monty sighed heavily upon hearing that, trying to think of a response that would be tame enough. Eventually, Nicolette grabbed Shion's arm. "You know? Why don't we leave him be?" she suggested to Shion. The blonde boy sighed as he let Nicolette pull him away. Once she did, she quickly went back over to Monty. "Sorry about that," she said with a very passive tone. "I can tell you don't want to be bothered. Excuse me..." Monty raised an eyebrow as he watched Nicolette leave.

Once she did, someone else appeared in front of Monty. "You again?" he said to Winter, who had just made it over to them. "All the other friends you made went that way, there's a new girl with 'em too." Winter nodded, and once she saw Shion and Nicolette, they bolted off in their direction. "These people are unreal today," Monty muttered to himself as he kept playing his bass quietly.

Out on the front porch, Sasha continued to read the book she was reading on the blimp as Kaif walked out to see her again. The temptress glanced over to see Kaif waiting there. Sasha sighed and closed the book, which the cover now read: Portal's Peak. "Well, Kaif, it seems you know your teen romance tropes after all," she admitted with a heavy sigh. "All four of the main characters are involved in romance plotlines now. Even the pushy one, he has feelings for the main brains of the group, who is dealing with her own anxiety problems."

Kaif laughed. "Well, I'm certainly not a novice to all things love. I could smell something like that from a mile away." He glanced right into Sasha's eyes. "Isn't it amazing?" he asked her with a flirtatious tone. "Love just comes out of nowhere. Even someone as smart as you didn't see it coming. I wonder if you'll run into something similar here too." He winked at Sasha to finish that whole exchange off.

Sasha groaned as someone else approached the two of them. Setsuna waved to the pair as she walked out of the cabin. "Hey, did either of you notice that there's no food here?" she asked them both. "I know that normally happens at a different location, but, like, there's nothing even nearby. You don't think we'd have to hunt for our-" Setsuna stopped right in her tracks as she saw Kaif for the first time. "Well...I don't believe we've met yet." She winked. "I'm Setsuna."

The lover gasped. "Me? I'm Kaif, it's so enchanting to meet you." Sasha rolled her eyes at the two of them, going back to her book to ignore whatever was about to happen there. "You seem like you're ready to go for this colder climate. Maybe you can help me stay warm?" Setsuna watched as he did the same tensing up thing that he did around Sasha.

Setsuna winked back. "Well, hopefully the cabin is going to stay as warm as it is now at night...assuming we're even living there." She grumbled. "I have a sneaking suspicion that we're not going to be here very long, so I brought some of my stuff outside." She yawned. "But, we do have thirty minutes, and that blimp ride wrecked my back, so I might go lay down for a bit." She gave a playful wave to Kaif. "See you around, Kaif, I can't wait to get to meet you more." Sasha let out a sigh as she continued to read.

Meanwhile, Faye had made her way up to the top of the cabin, where there was enough roof room to sit regularly. She glanced up at the sky with a sigh. "Well, bright side, once the stars come out, it'll be great. Down side, the sun is out way more here than I am used to." She looked at the sun. It was right at the middle point in the sky, meaning it would be quite some time until night.

After some time, someone else came up to meet her. Zev announced himself as to not alert the astronomer. "I came up here to say hi," he said as he sat at a reasonable distance from Faye. "Everyone down there is either very rowdy, very reserved, and some of them, maybe both." He shook his head. "It's actually insane that some of these people are here in Alaska dressed the way they are."

Faye nodded. "Oh, trust me, I agree, and I'm with you on the whole, 'rowdy' thing too. Some of those people down there are a handful. I saw that one girl on the blimp talking to you," she pointed out, forcing Zev to roll his eyes. "She looked like she had a whole assortment of things going on, so what did you two end up talking about? She didn't move off of you the whole time."

Zev groaned. "Her name's Alessia," the stone said stoically. "She is definitely...a person, just as much as everyone else is here. I just hope she doesn't think she'll run the game with that attitude of hers." He laughed. "I don't even want to ask about that guy you saw, but apparently he was talking to Alessia a bit down in the cabin. I can't imagine how he thinks that's going."

Faye laughed. "Yeah, he was something, I'm really just hoping I don't get put on his team." She suddenly paused once she realized that someone else had been up there with them the whole time. They were merely sitting on the edge of the roof, gazing off into the distance. "Hello?" Faye called out. "You were...Winslow, right? Are you doing okay over there?"

The wanderer turned their head back to face Faye and Zev. "I suppose in a manner, I am. But, I still wish to ponder just what exactly we will be subjected to. Even our starting location feels...suspect. Do you not agree?" The other two seemed a bit confused at Winslow's question. But, just then, a helicopter carrying a large crate flew over the cabin, eventually opening up right as it reached the cliff's edge. The three on the rood caught a glimpse of Chef in the helicopter. "My suspicions were clearly correct."

The crate opened up to dump a large pile of junk onto the ground, causing a giant noise that shocked everyone in the cabin. Very quickly, everyone ran out to see what all of the commotion was. Even Persephone seemed interested in the big noise that was made outside the cabin. Once everyone had made it down, they were greeted by Chris, who was standing atop the junk pile. "Hello...campers? That doesn't feel right for this one. How about contestants for now? Anyway, are you all ready to start your first challenge?"

Everyone looked pretty apprehensive about the challenge, except for Syd, who was already checking out the junk pile with extreme interest. "To put things bluntly," Chris pointed out, "we gotta get you down to our location for the season, so we decided that your first challenge will be getting there safely by finding the bottom of the cliff however you see fit."

A few people then began checking out the pile as well, just to see what they might be using, but some people were much more concerned about other things. "Hold on just a second," Persephone called out with an angered look on her face. "You said that we'd be staying in this cabin an hour ago, what do you mean we aren't staying here? Excellence demands proper living conditions."

Chris raised an eyebrow at the arrogant princess's words. "Did I ever say we were staying here?" He laughed as all of them were giving the host odd looks. "I said, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I said that I would give you an hour before we regrouped, and that there was a confessional inside the cabin. How so many of you got that we would all be living in that little thing is beyond me. That's where Chef and I are staying, not you."

A lot of people looked disappointed to hear that they would not be staying in the cabins, while it only caused a bunch more questions for everyone else. "Okay," Chander said as he glanced at the cliff. "So...if we're not staying here, then where are we going to be staying?" A lot of the others looked like they now had a similar question.

Chris smirked as he turned away from Chander and right to the camera. "I guess we'll have to wait until next time!" The contestants all groaned at that statement, even though they'd be hearing about it in a few minutes. "Where are we off to? What dangers await our contestants? Find out what happens in our first challenge next time, on Total! Drama! Ancient Abodes!"

Welcome to the end of the first episode of Ancient Abodes! My last SYOC was years ago with Submerged, and I can admit my intros were not as good as they are now. This required a lot of thinking and plot adjustments as I studied the apps from our accepted crew more and more, creating their plots and their main interactions. But, this was definitely the hardest chapter to do, and I'm excited to start writing these characters in action.

Speaking of the cast, I have been updating the cast on my Discord server, but I can finally put it here too! We had a ton of apps and a lot of characters from a bunch of different creators. My initial plan was only 14 but as apps started rolling in, I decided that wouldn't be feasible. So, here is our 16 character cast:

Males:

Chander Wicker- The Aerobic Mischief (Space Zodiac)
Klase Svoboda- The Reserved Pianist (MorbidGinger)
Montgomery "Monty" Miller- The Hot-Tempered Bassist (Tech-Star 2.0)
Zevadiah "Zev" Dimmond- The "Cold" Stone (Sephiria Arks)
Shion- The Self-Indulgent Utaite (Epifanio Therion)
Kaif Nishida- The Lover First, Normal Person Second (FreshmEn)
Harvey Wilder- The Unhinged Man-Child (W. G. Fentner)

Females*:

Winter Washille- The Bandwagoner (KadachiNova)
Setsuna Yuki- The Flirty Archeologist (ThunderStrike16)
Sasha Conroy- The Temptress (DaringDF1827)
Persephone D'Amours- The Arrogant Princess (lordgemini)
Faye DeReux- The Soi-Disant Astronomer (minjiuu)
Alessia Montalvo- The (Fake) Gamer Girl (AZW330)
Nicolette Delany- The Kind-Hearted Saint (thedragonrooster)
Sydney "Syd" Waller- The Silent Whiz With Machines (Zoryan El Muerto)

*Winter uses she/they pronouns, identifying as a demigirl.

Non-Binary:

Winslow Strix- The Cryptic Wanderer (The Feline Overlord)

Overall, this was a very tough cast selection that was based off of how well they would interact with the other accepted characters, the villagers, and how well they vibe with the overall plots and themes with the season. I'm super excited with how this cast turned out, and I can assure you that I am prepared to use all these characters to their best potential, and we'll see at the end of next chapter what I mean by that.

Anyway, we finally also met Rodin and Croshia. Rodin, our lazy fisherman, is clearly uncaring about anything that goes on, and Croshia seems to be one of the only people with a head on straight. We'll see more of them, along with Zenthus and Thea throughout the season, and I'm excited to see these characters interact with yours!

So, with that, I have a few questions for the readers, which is not something I've done with Karonverse stuff, but the feedback here is super important to me:

1. How did you think your character was portrayed? Obviously the first challenge will be more telling than some opening interactions, but I'd love an interim check before I dive too deep into that episode.

2. Other than your own (or maybe including them), who is your favorite character so far?

3. How do you think your character will do? Who do you think is going to be eliminated first?

Thank you for reading! I'm super excited to hear feedback on this! SYOC's are essentially new to me, so I'm really hoping this one goes well. Let me know what you thought in the reviews, especially how I did with your character! I'll see you next update!