Replies, bundled up and sold:

Zoryan El Muerto- Thank you, Syd has been one of the more unique characters I've had the opportunity to write, so thank you for sending her. We'll have to see if Kaif makes it back!

Space Zodiac- Thank you for your review! It's nice seeing all your thoughts, and seeing you you've considered underutilized is helpful for me too, since it'll let me use them more. Faye definitely became a lot more popular in the past episode, and I'm glad, since she's such a neat character.

PROJECT-DRAMA- Glad to see you've caught up all the way! There were definitely some surprising early boots I've put in at the start, and quite honestly it's because there's so many good characters in this mix that I can't really keep all the ones I want to around, so they take the fall. Looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts!

lordgemini- I think the more unique part of the villagers being here is that not all challenges can go exactly as planned, and sometimes advantages can't be given out or something like that because Chris never has an opportunity to announce it. We'll see a bit more of that in the future too, I'm sure. We'll definitely be seeing how Sasha handles Kaif's departure today.

The Feline Overlord- They're pretty much fending for themselves over on Loser Island right now, and we'll get a lot more detail on that as the Loser Island plot really activates. It's sort of on the backburner right now, and I'm not giving it a lot of focus so whatever I do there will sort of be a big reveal. Is that cheating? Probably, but I'm doing it.

Episode 6 today! We'll be 1/3 through now!

Episode 6: Time to Piece it Together

Up in the cabin above Crevice, Chris and Chef were sitting in the main living area, while Chris strategically marked out places on a map with red X marks. "This is so annoying," Chris complained. "They keep just...being around all over the place!"

Chef was relaxing in a bit more calm fashion, slightly enjoying himself as Chris floundered around the map. "Well, you're the one who wanted to just offer help. I think Zenthus would have agreed to what we're currently doing, but now that we've lied, we're in over our heads." He shrugged. "But when that collapses on itself, it'll be you who takes the hit, not me."

Chris laughed. "Oh, Chef, I won't get caught with this, I'm too skilled." He smirked and then turned to the camera. "Last time on Total Drama Ancient Abodes, we took a relaxing break from the horrors of war and went fishing!" Clips played as Rodin demonstrated proper fishing techniques for the cast. "Our grouchiest villager showed the kids how to fish, and even fished up some extra talent he was not expecting!" More clips played of Klase perfectly reeling in his fish, and Sasha catching Rodin's attention on her catch as well. "Since Rodin was sitting around, Team Gorgeous got no extra help for the second half of our challenge, cooking the fish! Teams had to deal with the very different palettes of today and two thousand years ago." The next clips that played were of Sasha and Kaif agreeing on a strategy for cooking, as well as Winslow walking out to find some extra herbs for the fish.

"But, all that time stewing on the dock and in the kitchen allowed for much strategy to be had," Chris continued, as the scenes went back to the dock. "Alessia got right to work on catching the next target on her team, the puppet leader she's put in, all while Winslow gets the trust of Syd, and is planning on taking Chander too. That will be quite the battle of the minds! On Team Gorgeous, Setsuna finally started putting her plans in motion too." Clips then played of Alessia's dock meeting, and Setsuna speaking to Faye and Nicolette in the morning. "Due to some friendship turbulence that got back on track pretty quick, Setsuna was able to claim the two votes of her newly-appointed wing-women, and sent Kaif packing, which Sasha seemed pretty neutral about." The final clips were of Faye spilling everything to Nicolette, Setsuna flirting with Monty, and Kaif's elimination. "How will Kaif fare on Loser Island with our more eccentric cast members? Who's going to join him today? Find out now, on Total! Drama! Ancient Abodes!"

Opening Sequence

[Various cameras and other director equipment came popping out of various points of Crevice. The first camera appeared as it popped out of the window to the blacksmith's workshop. The next one popped out of the ground in the training arena, where the spear promptly severed it from its wires. Finally, a camera emerged from the dock that was connected to a small hut, this camera falling right into the water.]

Dear Mom and Dad, I'm doing fine,

[The camera zoomed from the top of the cliff all the way down into Crevice, where Chef was seen lifting a heavy piece of stone into place on a house, putting it into place, only for it to be knocked out by a rogue explosion from one of Chander's pranks. Chef sighed heavily as Chander laughed nervously at the result. Nearby, Klase watched this all unfold apprehensively.]

You guys are on my mind,

[The camera turned to the blacksmith, where Harvey could be seen wielding a giant sword he had crafted. He performed a pretty terrible swing at a target, and turned to look at a confused-looking Alessia, who merely sighed in frustration.]

You asked me what I wanted to be, and I think the answer is plain to see,

[The camera switched to the middle firepit, which Nicolette was assisting with the cleanup of. Nearby, Setsuna was pitching in on a rock move with Monty, the archeologist clearly saying some things that made Nicolette nervous and Monty angry. The bassist lost his temper, punching a hole into the rock which startled all three of them.]

I wanna be famous!

[The camera moved from the firepit to the meeting hall behind it, where Syd was tampering with a machine she had created. Meanwhile, Persephone watched her to the side, grinning excitedly as the machine began whirring and lighting up some of the lights that had been placed in there.]

I wanna live close to the sun,

[At the bridge connecting the village to the forest, Shion stood proudly, and acknowledging the camera, gave a wink. He then stared out into the forest, where a pair of eyes could be seen in the shadows.]

Go pack your bags cause I've already won,

[The eyes startled Shion, causing him to quickly turn around, and he ran into Winter, who had followed Shion out to the bridge. Shion sighed and helped Winter back to the village, the bandwagoner confused as to why they needed help.]

Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day,

[The camera flipped to the abandoned shaman temple, where Winslow was digging around in search of something. They encountered an odd staff that was still glowing, which only intrigued them further on what was going on with it.]

Cause I wanna be famous!

[Back in the meeting hall, Chris was having a discussion with Zenthus inside the leader's quarters. Zenthus was accompanied by the other three villagers. The room itself had a dark shadow inside it.]

Na na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na na na na!

[Out by the dock near the hut, Zev was fishing with a very old rod as Sasha poked her head out of the hut, looking around for something, and then sitting down to relax. As soon as she did, Kaif appeared out of the water with a makeshift heart, which Sasha took. As soon as she did, Kaif went from flirty to confused.]

I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous! I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!

[The camera transitioned to night, where Faye was gazing up at the stars. At one point, the camera zoomed in on one of the stars, which turned into a ball of fire. As the camera zoomed out, it revealed the firepit at night.]

I wanna be famous *whistling*

[The camera panned out further to show everyone circled around the campfire, where the villagers were present for as well, all very confused at the whole situation. Everyone whistled the theme song as Chris stood on the side, holding up a sign that the villagers could not see, which was entitled: Total Drama Ancient Abodes.]

TEAM PERSEPHONE

Chander stepped out of his shack in the morning by himself, where he walked around for a bit, and then started walking in the direction of the meeting hall. The acrobat went past the spot to the shack furthest west, where Winslow was waiting for him. "Morning, Winslow!" Chander greeted the wanderer amicably, but in return, he received not much more than a wave.

"Greetings, Chander," Winslow finally said after they had walked past the meeting hall to the very western edge of Crevice. "I do not believe we have spoken much since our meeting in the blimp." Chander nodded nervously, still unsure how to make out what Winslow was saying. "I found this location early in the season, and I wished to share it with someone if that was okay."

The two walked to the shaman temple that Winslow had discovered early on. "Zenthus said that this was an important piece of Crevice history," they explained further. "I am hoping our culture swap today allows us to learn more about what exactly their religious practices were." After some more silence, Winslow continued. "Chander, I did not drag you out of the shacks this early to discuss shaman practices, there are other people here I would rather do that with."

"I sort of figured that, honestly," Chander admitted. "I assume this has to do with me taking on that new leader role? Look, I'm still figuring it out too, but I know you're helping out the team in your way. I mean, you won us the challenge yesterday, that alone has to stand for something."

Winslow nodded. "Indeed it does. It stands for the fact that one is never truly safe. Take my current situation for example. I fear that should we lose again, I am in danger. However, I also believe you are in a precarious position as well." Chander turned to Winslow in shock. "While your short-term survival is essentially ensured, I think that on your current path, there is zero chance of you winning this game."

The acrobat looked surprised to hear that. "I...I honestly don't know what you mean by that," he said fearfully. "But I'm sorry to hear you don't think you're safe. I think you're a useful member of this team, and not one that we would send home anytime soon. If I'm the leader, and I have your support, that means if I want to keep you around, I should be able to." He smiled. "You have unique skills, Winslow, keep that in mind!"

Chander's words seemed to resonate slightly with the wanderer. "I suppose that is all there is for it," they said quietly. "Very well. I will continue to explore this temple. You may do as you please." Winslow returned to silence, and after a bit more time, Chander made his way back to the shacks.

Winslow: "In order to survive more than a day, I require the trust of Chander," they spoke plainly. "More specifically, I need to tear that trust from the clutches of Alessia and move it to myself, and I have until our next loss to do so."

Once Chander returned to the shack, he noticed that Klase was not the only one in there. "There you are!" Shion said excitedly, already hanging out in the room, seeming to have invited himself. "I was wondering when you were going to show up!" He tilted his head as he checked the empty bed. "Out of curiosity, where were you at?"

Chander sighed. "I was out for an errand. Winslow wanted to discuss something with me so I went to the village's abandoned shaman temple. It's a pretty neat spot, but Winslow actually sounded like they don't think either of us could win in the current state of things."

Before Shion could even interject, Klase spoke up in a very plain tone. "I mean...they're right," he stated bluntly. Chander looked surprised to hear that. "Despite the fact that she's been nothing but nice, Alessia is going to end up usurping you at some point. That's just what it feels like to me. I think on this current path we'll all lose."

Shion raised an eyebrow at the information he was getting. "Oh? Alessia's making a power grab? That is news to Team Gorgeous. I can spill the beans over there if you want me to cause some trouble." He giggled flirtatiously at the acrobat. "That's not something I'd do for just anyone, I trust you all more than my own team."

Chander laughed nervously at Shion's suggestion. "Let's hold off on that for now...I'd rather stir up any trouble with the opposing team, especially if you of all people don't trust them very much." He took a second to think more about what the performer had said. "What do you mean by that, anyway?"

Shion let out a slightly ingenuine sigh. "I mean, we were all set to vote out Setsuna last night, but Nicolette and Faye turned on us and voted with her and Sasha. Kaif was like, the most trustworthy person on the team, and they got rid of him without a second thought." He shrugged. "Honestly, I'm hoping we merge sooner than later."

Klase shook his head. "That won't be happening," he spoke up. "If Chris wants this secret kept, we need to merge when there's just about half of us, or else the combining of the groups doesn't make sense. If you ask me, it's going to be a long time before anyone merges."

"That's a shame," Shion lamented. "But, that means we need to keep in touch. I help you, you help me, and we'll all get to the merge together and be a giant team! Maybe even Monty could join in too. We're cool now after he exploded on day one. He hasn't lost it since!"

Chander merely nodded along with a smile on his face. "That sounds like something that could be good," he admitted. "I have to figure out this whole Alessia thing sooner rather than later. I know everyone's suspicious, but she claims to not have her reasons for wanting to be the leader, and she's been supporting me through it anyway. Fake or not, support is support."

Shion laughed. "Aren't you the optimist? Well, I'll wish you all good luck today in the challenge against us. Winslow will be a real threat to us if it's really a culture thing, they've been exploring the crap out of this place!" He gave Chander a final wink before leaving. "See you boys around!"

Shion: "I mean it, even with Alessia apparently being a problem, their team is way more lined up compared to ours. We can't afford to lose again or else I think another one of the guys will get picked off, and I think it'll be me." He sighed and shook his head. "If I can merge, I'll be way ahead of all of them in befriending the other team, that's my gambit right now."

Chander: "I know Shion's basically there to spy on us and get information, but sometimes it just feels comfortable having him there. I was much less surprised to see him compared to his last appearance."

Out in Alessia's shack, Winter and Alessia were waiting around, and the streamer was passing the time with her friend. "Anyway, that's how I gained a hundred subscribers in under ten minutes. You're right to be interested in trends, they're really useful."

"Wow," Winter said in awe, staring right into Alessia's confident eyes. "Anyway, now that it's been a few days, I wanted to know how your time was here so far." She took some time to think about what Winslow had said to them the other day. "And...I wanted to know your reasoning for coming onto the show."

Alessia paused. That was not the question that she was expecting to get from the bandwagoner. "Oh, my reasoning?" she asked, calculating a response quietly to herself. "I guess the money. I mean, that's why everyone else is here right? That's gotta be like, the most trending reason. That's why you're here right?"

Winter nodded enthusiastically. "Y-yeah! I knew you'd see it that way! Wow, you really are like, the queen of trends!" She gushed for a little longer, while Alessia smirked and took in all the praise with a grateful look on her face. "But...are you enjoying yourself here? I know this isn't really your type of climate."

The streamer smiled warmly at Winter. "You're such a little detective," she said to them with a giggle, making Winter blush a bit. "But, you're right, this is not my ideal weather. It's honestly been really tough, and at night things are really boring, since my roommate left on day one. But, ever since you got here, it's been way easier. I'm so glad I can talk to you whenever I'm bored or lonely."

"M-me too," Winter responded. "I'm glad that we can talk. Even though I want to hear about how the queen of trends does her business, I also enjoy talking to you too. It's always nice to relax and actually have someone I can call a friend." Suddenly, a knock on the door paused that conversation any further. "Oh, she's here!"

Syd was waiting at the door, her eyes with a very deadpan expression that implied she did not want to be there. "Oh, Syd, you made it," Alessia said with a smile. "Glad you could get here. Come on in and have a seat!" Syd begrudgingly walked in and sat on the floor, as far away from Alessia as she could. "Anyway, I won't waste your time, you probably have a machine or two to work on and get us a win today."

Syd looked surprised at the flattery, but quickly shook it off. She pulled out the watch she used to communicate on the first day, and typed in a message. What do you want from me? the watch asked with the same type of plain text-to-speech that probably would have come from Syd in the scenario anyway.

"Quick to the point, I love that," the streamer complimented. "Look, it's no surprise that with the Monty's and Zev's on the other team, we are sort of done for soon. We need a contingency plan for when that happens, and I want to know if your vote can be used on Winslow tonight!" Syd listened to Alessia's words, but quickly shook her head, rejecting the offer. "You should think about it," she advised. "Winslow is really capable, and that competency could be dangerous down the road."

Syd rolled her eyes, shaking her head again. "That's no fun," Alessia admitted in defeat. "Okay, well, I appreciate your honesty! I guess we'll have to try our best today and hope we don't lose in a probably physical challenge." Syd nodded and walked out of the shack, where Alessia promptly adopted a frown. "She...said 'no'."

Winter put her hand on Alessia's shoulder to comfort her, and in a smooth move, Alessia leaned her head on that hand and grabbed it with hers. "It'll be fine," Winter said to the streamer with a warm voice. "I can make sure this trend happens, you just tell me what to do!" Alessia's worries suddenly dissipated.

Alessia: "And...I've accomplished what I wanted," she said with a laugh. "I knew Syd would turn that down. I needed to confirm that Winter was still loyal. I mean, they room with Winslow, who I know does not like me. She sounded like she was interrogating me at first, but I won her over." She sighed in relief. "I'm too good."

TEAM GORGEOUS

Shion returned to the shack, where Monty and Zev were waiting for him. "There he is," Zev joked. "As interested as we are for you to tell us where you were, you need to actually tell us. After what happened last night, we seriously need to be on our toes. I know Kaif wasn't voting with us, but assuming none of us were lying, all four girls teamed up against us."

Shion sighed. "I guess that's true. I voted Setsuna with all of you, so that means that we're getting outnumbered until we lose." He put his hand to his chin as he tried to find a good solution. "Well, I guess that will have to wait. Anyway, I was out at Chander and Klase's shack getting some info. It sounds like they're having some inter-team problems today. We might be able to just take the win today and work our way in on some other way."

Monty groaned. "You realize that we'd just be putting off our loss for a day, right? We need a crazy good solution to get out of this. I'm so annoyed with Sasha and Setsuna trying to run our team." His face began to tense up a bit. "I mean, what's the point in roping this whole team into this thing?"

Shion's face lit up and he began to smirk right at the bassist. "Well, what if you weren't getting annoyed?" Monty and Zev turned to Shion in confusion. "I mean, Setsuna clearly is trying to make a move on you now that big, strong, Zev is out." Zev looked a bit offended by that. "All I'm saying is we could be on the up if you spent some time trying to flirt back."

The bassist listened to Shion's suggestion with a frown. "Yeah, that's not really my style," he admitted. "If you want to try and do it yourself, that's something I won't stand in your way for." He crossed his arms and sat on his bed. "I'm going to hold off on that for now, we can find something else to do instead."

Shion sighed. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd totally win her over," he said playfully, "but that'd sort of mess up a thing I'm doing somewhere else right now, lotta details, can't go into it, so I'll have to pass on it." He sighed. "So...are we stuck? Maybe we just have to hope for some sort of miracle instead."

Zev clapped his hands together to grab the attention of the other two boys. "Let's not assume Faye and Nicolette are blindly following Sasha and Setsuna," he pointed out. "Worst case scenario, they have a girl alliance and we're totally done for. But, the most likely case is that either Kaif flirted with one of them and made them upset or they just saw that as the more favorable side. We can win this being favorable too." He smirked. "And, I know exactly how I can do that too."

Monty nodded with a grin. "I like the sound of that. Leave the stupid flirting to Shion and his dumb project." Shion gasped playfully at Monty's comment. "Besides, I feel we're way overthinking this. I mean, can we honestly expect those two brainiacs to be scheming as early in the morning as us?"

Just as early in the morning as them, only two shacks down, Sasha was sitting impatiently in her now empty shack when Setsuna finally arrived, knocking on the door with a wide grin. It was exactly what Monty was hoping would not happen. "Morning, Sasha," she said as she plopped herself onto Kaif's old bed, which was still pristine from the night before when it had gone unused. "Looks like my gambit worked out."

"For now," Sasha mentioned. "You got lucky with your play last night, and it kept you in the game, but I doubt Faye and Nicolette will be so quick to keep you on board every single time." Setsuna rolled her eyes at that comment. "That being said, I think for your well-being, you should avoid any further confrontations with Monty."

Setsuna waited for Sasha to reply with anything indicating she was joking, but that never came. "Are...you serious?" Sasha nodded. "Sash, this is like the easiest win of our lives. If we can get him, or my plan B with the girls, then Zev and Shion are done for, both players that I personally think are giant threats to our survival here."

The temptress sat quiet for a second. "Setsuna, I have done some reflecting," she admitted. "I decided that using Kaif the way I did- just to purely study him and not really treat him like a real person- that was not my best moment." She sighed. "That being said, because I have reflected on that, and for privacy purposes, I am neglecting to say why you should stop attempting anything with Monty, but know it will ruin both of your current avenues."

Setsuna frowned. "Well, that's no fun," she told Sasha bluntly. "Look, you seem down about this for some reason, so I'll take your word for it, but just know that I'm not totally ruling this plan out, because it could be big if it works." She suddenly sat up excitedly in the bed. "Oh! Chris said there's some sort of culture exchange going on today too! What do you think is going to be going on there?"

Sasha suddenly seemed less upset as well. "I suppose there could be some sort of artifact exchange," she mused. "That would certainly be interesting." She shrugged. "Perhaps we don't need to worry about strategy at the moment. We could just win today, and I, for one, am interested in the past of these villagers. I wonder how they all were prior to their avalanche."

Down in the shack furthest west, Faye was lying on the bed, bored out of her mind. "You know, this beats any sort of foster care home," she said jokingly. "I mean, those beds were not comfy at all." The astronomer glanced outside to see the sun a bit above the eastern horizon. "We should probably start getting ready for a challenge soon." She glanced over to see Nicolette slouching against the wall her bed was on. "Hey, are you good?"

Nicolette instantly perked up. "Oh, me?" she asked nervously. The saint jumped out of bed. "I'm totally okay," she insisted. "There's no need to worry about me."

Faye sighed as she watched Nicolette struggle with an excuse. "Nicolette, look, I'm really sorry I dumped all my issues on you last night, I was just worried you were gonna quit and I didn't want you too. I hope that I-"

The astronomer was cut off by Nicolette. "It's not that," she insisted. "Faye, I promise that last night is not the reason I'm distracted right now," she said firmly. "I'm just...not ready to say why right now, so I think I'm going to keep it to myself for now if that's okay. Sorry to make you worry."

"Okay," Faye replied with a small nod. "As long as you're certain that last night had nothing to do with any of this." Nicolette nodded again. "Okay, then let's just get ready for-" Everything was cut off by the blaring of an air horn. "What the- did Chris actually install an air horn in Crevice? What was he thinking?"

Nicolette: "I swear I'm telling the truth. Honestly, things have been weird since Setsuna barged in yesterday and made her big announcement about her plans. I wonder if voting with her was the right move, or if I would have gone home if I didn't? I guess I'm glad to be here still."

CREVICE MEETING HALL

The blaring of the air horn was abruptly stopped when Thea speared the new speaker right off of the post it had been installed on. "Under no circumstances will your magic sound box be permitted to remain here!" she said with venom in her voice. "Leader Zenthus, I demand that Chris McLean be reprimanded in a trial of-"

Zenthus raised his hand in front of Thea, to which the huntress obediently stopped talking as soon as he raised the hand. "Perhaps your magic sound box, as Thea so eloquently put it, is something you could share today as part of our culture exchange," Zenthus suggested to the host. "How kind of Thea to take it down from that post for you."

Chris grumbled as he went to pick up the speaker, but to his delight, it had worked, summoning the thirteen remaining contestants. "Ah, you all made it," Chris said in a pleasant tone that unnerved some of the cast. "Zenthus has decided you all have worked exceptionally hard to get food and provisions, and we are honestly set for some time. So, we wanted today to be a special sort of day, a cultural exchange. We show them what we do, they show us what they do, and somehow I'm sure we can make a fun activity out of it."

Zenthus nodded graciously as the other three stood behind him. "We would like to start the cultural exchange by having today be a day where you experience the culture of Crevice, not only how we are now, but our own personal history as well. Tomorrow, you should expect that you should do the same for us, and enlighten us on the culture of your modern world." A few people, mainly Setsuna and Winslow, were very interested in what Zenthus had to say.

The older man leaned his cane against the table for a second and presented a green sundial that rested in his hand. "One of the most unique aspects of growing up in Crevice is the creation of a timepiece. Upon adulthood, all members of Crevice are presented with or create their own timepiece, depending on what the family wants. Mine, in quite the literal sense, is a timepiece that tells time itself. As the one for the highest potential to lead our people next, I was presented with the green sundial." He sighed. "The thought was to present that to whoever should lead after me, but the avalanche hit, and ended this tradition."

Zenthus sat quietly for a moment, while everyone watched him in silence. Eventually, he put his sundial down and picked up his cane again for support. He glanced back at the other three villagers. "I suppose I can go next," Thea said with a scowl. She picked up a rather large weapon, a spear unlike the one she had been wielding up until now. "This is the timepiece of my family, presented to me as the only child. The wood of the spear has interwoven hairs from all generations of my family, and before we lost our seamstress in the avalanche, it was set to be soon imbued with mine." Thea looked forlornly at the spear before setting it down.

"Well, that was sentimental," Rodin snarked sarcastically. He pulled out a fishing rod that looked old and rickety, with many different colored parts on it. "I was one of the people to create my own timepiece. My family before me were hunters, but I defied my own path and took my own. That was always an option for Crevice members upon adulthood. I used metal I stole from the blacksmith shop to create this, which shows. It is not very stable. How it survived the avalanche is a mystery to me."

Croshia sighed. "As Rodin mentioned, not all timepieces survived the avalanche, and not all our members did either." She showed everyone her giant hammer she typically wielded. "Most timepieces are sentimental only, and do not see the light of day outside ceremonies. Mine was similar. My mother was in charge of all types of ceremonies, and my ceremonial staff timepiece reflected that. Unfortunately, it was lost to the damage Crevice suffered. When I was thawed out, we needed someone to cook and provide tools and weapons. I took up that mantle, and in becoming the new blacksmith of Crevice, I first created my hammer, a new timepiece to show my new transition to a new role."

As she set it down, everyone was watching very intently. Winslow continued to stare at the four timepieces that now lay on the table, Sasha looked particularly interested in Rodin's fishing rod, and Chander looked interested in the hammer. "Of course, we have the occasional timepiece remnant that we find leftover as well," Zenthus added, showing everyone a staff with a neon green rock on it. "This staff was the staff of our shaman, a family timepiece. We know not much about it, and will continue to be in the dark, as there is no way to get answers." He shook his head as he placed it with the others. "As part of our cultural exchange, we would like you all to create your own timepieces."

"Woah, we're making something like that out here in the middle of nowhere?" Winter asked with a shocked look. "Well, I mean, I guess if you four did it we can totally be in on this too. That sounds awesome!"

"There you have it, the small child speaks for you all," Rodin decided, making Winter laugh nervously. "We will observe what you do today at dinner. Remember, your timepiece should be something that shows a part of your life, no matter what that may be. It should tell a story, but only if you are there to tell it."

Chef nodded. "That sounds like a plan. Chris and I will watch over them around Crevice to make sure they aren't dying in the woods." He stood up. "Okay, see you all at dinner."

Sasha: "What a day to pick to take a break from strategy," she said with a shocked look. "I assumed this place would be rich with history, but I guess it is much more substantial when the history is telling it to you."

Klase: "That was a neat presentation," he said plainly. "But...I sort of just play piano. How am I supposed to do something like that out here? How do I even explain to them what a piano is?"

Zev: "Okay, is...is anyone else gonna say something about the staff?" he asked. "I mean, it was glowing from what I saw. Maybe the lighting in the room was weird." He shook his head. "No time to think on that. I have a plan to enact today."

TEAM GORGEOUS

Out in the woods, things were silent between the seven Team Gorgeous members for a second, and right as Sasha was about to speak up, Zev jumped ahead and spoke first. "So...I was hoping I could take charge today," he asked kindly. "My parents were photographers, so I learned a lot about telling stories with just a few pictures or words."

Sasha hesitated as she heard Zev's request. "Um...I suppose that could be okay." She clearly did not look too thrilled about that, but had no reason to reject his request for now. "Well then, what do you think we should do to get materials for a timepiece with the same level of the others we just saw?"

"Not everything has to be a specific new object," Zev mentioned. "Thea's timepiece was just a spear that had hairs woven into the wood. Something like Monty's bass works just fine. It represents him, and it tells about his life story with the right type of inflections," he explained. "We could also go find some materials out in the woods for some of ours. I would assume Setsuna would want to look outside."

"Right you are," the archeologist agreed. "I mean, I could also just use my whip. But they probably want us to put some work into it. By them, I mean Chris and Chef." She watched as the two hosts were discussing something with each other. She snickered upon seeing Chris's stressed face. "You know...for a challenge like this, Chris probably has to make one of these too to keep the ruse up."

Shion giggled. "Well, that's comedic. I can't wait to see what he and Chef end up making to hold appearances. Anyway, I'll be off looking for stuff if anyone wants to join me." As Shion walked off, he mumbled to himself. "How annoying, I really don't wanna share anything about my past."

Faye shrugged as she stated around the forest of Crevice. "So...what on earth do I make? All of my connections are to space. Do they even know about anything up there?" She sighed. "This is gonna be difficult for me.

"Do you think I could make a cat? I have a cat," Nicolette offered, struggling to think of something for herself. "Faye, you know how to draw, maybe you could use one of the things you've drawn to be your timepiece. They don't have to know about the space part."

Monty grinned. "Look at us, all working together," he said. "Zev and Nicolette, you two are going to be a big help for us today." Zev gave him a goofy thumbs-up, and Nicolette sort of froze up for a second before shaking off the comment. "I appreciate all your helpful thoughts, I think I'm just gonna use my bass instead of having to make something. See you all later." Monty walked out of the meeting hall and headed toward the shacks.

"Okay, that means some of us have easy stuff to use," Zev decided. "Faye, if you like drawing, maybe you could make something for this challenge." Faye nodded confidently. "That covers you two. I brought a polaroid camera with me that I was going to use to take a good snapshot of the landscape. That means we still need something for Sasha, Setsuna, Shion, and Nicolette. How about we split into two groups and help out everyone?"

Setsuna clapped her hands enthusiastically. "That sounds wonderful! I can go find Monty and-" the archeologist paused as she caught a glimpse of Sasha's disproving look behind her. "Actually, he left already. How about I just go with the other girls to make that happen?"

Shion snickered. "How clever of you," he said with a wink. "You obviously know your stuff in this game. I'm afraid we can't let that happen. I wanna hang out with Sasha today, so we'll go with Faye and Zev since they're all finished. So that means you, Nicolette, and Monty are left. If he gives you any trouble, tell him I sent you to help, he'll flip the switch instantly because he's soft on me." He giggled at that last part.

Nicolette jumped up at the suggestion Shion gave, but was too slow to reject the idea. "That sounds awesome," Zev said with a thumbs-up to Shion. The musician responded with a wink. With that, everyone departed to different parts of Crevice.

Shion: "Like clockwork," he said with a smug grin. "Obviously Setsuna was trying to pick groups and let her earn the trust of the girls, so it was up to me to make sure we start steering Nicolette onto our side. No offense, but she just feels the easiest, and Monty's been nicer with her compared to the others."

Nicolette: "I really need to get my head in the game," she admitted. "I normally don't have this much trouble speaking up for myself. Maybe I do need to talk to someone, but my problems aren't really that important."

TEAM PERSEPHONE

"This is so cool," Winter said with an awe-filled gaze, completely disassociated with everything else and staring at the timepieces on the meeting hall table. "We get to actually take part in a real Crevice trend...what do I make?" Her head started to flip back to reality as they realized they would barely have anything to present for themselves.

Chander sighed. "This challenge looks easy at first," he analyzed, "but finding modern things to represent us in a village this old is actually going to be rather hard." He turned to the rest of the team. "What do we think we should do?" he asked. "Should we all help each other one at a time or try and split up like Team Gorgeous did?"

Winslow was the first to raise their hand, much to Alessia's dismay. "Perhaps we are closing in on the inability to split into groups. Maybe that is a privilege we should utilize while it is still available to us." Then, as upfront as they could be about it, they stated, "I would like to work with Chander and Klase today, if that is okay."

Chander was about to say something, but Alessia cleared her throat with a loud volume. Let's consider all of our avenues on this," she replied. "I think that pairing might not work out as well as we think. How about I take Chander and Klase, and you go off and do your own thing wherever without us?" Her voice had a bit more venom in it than normal, and Syd noticed it instantly.

Winslow shook their head. "That sounds like a horrific idea. What good to team unity does that offer? My proposal is superior because it helps us focus on our weak points as a team, does it not? You have been concerned about our unity, am I wrong?" Their glare was tougher to see through the owl mask, but Alessia could feel it in her skin nonetheless, the creepy aura causing her to shudder a bit.

Before any more fighting could happen, Chander put his hands up and stepped between the two. "Winslow, Alessia, I totally see both your points, and I think team unity is super important too. That's why I think...both of you should come with me!" Winslow's stance grew more tense, but again, the mask aided with their emotions being covered. Meanwhile, Alessia was taken aback completely. "It's a way to do both suggestions and help the team with some unusual combinations!"

Alessia was the first to reject this idea. "Hold on, but that would mean I'd be away from Winter for-" her gaze found Winter's, which was still staring at the stuff on the table. She cleared her throat. "On second thought. I think that's a lovely idea, Chander. You're such a wonderful leader."

Chander grinned. "Aww, thank you, I'm trying my best. Klase, Syd, Winter, that means you three are on your own today, will you be okay?" Syd nodded confidently, while Klase looked much more uneasy, but eventually nodded. "Awesome, counting on you, Klase. Winslow?" Winslow was silent for a bit, but they eventually let out a sigh and nodded. "Great, let's do this!"

Klase: "Did...Chander just make me in charge of Syd and Winter? Can I do that? I just play piano..."

Alessia: "So...Chander separated me from Winter, which means I can be unrestrained in my attempts to get Chander on my side. Perfect, Winslow can't hate me more, so I think I'll be just fine today." Her excitement was visible.

TEAM GORGEOUS

Setsuna knocked on the door for Shion and Monty's shack, where they saw Monty strumming on his bass, the sound not very loud since the lack of electricity made it impossible to use at full volume. "Monty?" Setsuna asked with Nicolette in tow, "Shion sent us, he and Zev said you have to help us with making timepieces."

Monty shrugged. "Nope, I need some peace and quiet right now, today is stressful enough and I did my contribution already, so I'm out." Without even looking up, he shut down the archeologist completely.

"Shion sent us," Setsuna said again. "Something about you being soft on him so you have to help us out." Monty took a deep inhale, and audibly exhaled, clearly a look of anger starting to contort on his face.

Setsuna took a slight step back, pointing to Nicolette. The saint hesitated for a second, but upon seeing Setsuna's slight glare, she walked right over to Monty. "Um...honestly, neither of us really know what to do, and Zev went over with the others, so we're really out of ideas, and you know us better than Setsuna and I know each other. Would you be able to help, please?"

The bassist sat in silence for a bit longer, Nicolette and Setsuna giving each other confused looks. "Okay, fine," Monty finally agreed. "But you both owe me big time for sacrificing my peace and quiet time." He put the bass down. "How do you think we go about this? I don't really know as much as you think. I know Nicolette is big on helping others, and Setsuna, you like...rocks?"

Setsuna sighed. "More like dinosaurs, but close enough. Anyway, if we think the whip is too low effort, there's some leftover pieces of rocks from the giant one Zev brought in on the first day, so maybe just for the challenge, I like rocks."

"That settles that," Monty said bluntly. "Nicolette, tell me some of your interests. If we can't think of anything, then we can have you like rocks too. Is that too lazy? Like, do you think that Zev or even Chris will say something?"

"As long as it can tell a story, I do not think the object matters that much," Nicolette mentioned. "As for me...I grew up watching a lot of reality TV with my family, but we probably can't do that one. I like to sing too. Singing and dancing are some of my hobbies, but that's sort of hard to put into a physical form."

Monty raised a surprised eyebrow. "Huh. Didn't know you were that musical," he admitted. "That's kinda cool." He grabbed a piece of sheet music from his bass case. "Why don't you use this for today? It's an old song my friend wrote a while back, but for today you can say your friend wrote it for you. You can present that however you want, since I don't think this method of notation's been around as long as them."

Nicolette took the music from Monty's hands, a grateful smile appearing on her face. "That's...thank you so much for this, Monty," she said with a positive tone. "I'll make sure you get this back as soon as the challenge is over." Monty nodded with a neutral expression. He was happy to help out, but he really did want that music back.

Over on the other side of Crevice, in the woods, Faye had finished sketching out a drawing of a night sky. "A little annoying that I can't use the night sky here as a reference since it's not dark out right now, but I'm done. That just leaves Sasha and you to go, Shion." The musician was staring aimlessly into the sky. "Shion? You good?"

"Yeah," Shion mumbled. "Just need to find some way that I can make something that represents me. This is hard, ya know?" He shrugged. "Or...can I lie? Is that an okay thing to do? What if I just...tell them something different?"

Faye shrugged. "That is totally up to you. You mentioned you do like, cover songs, right? Did you bring anything with you to make something?" Shion shook his head in disappointment. "Well, in the interest of not prying into your past too much, how about you think about finding something out here to make something? You seem crafty."

Shion gasped. "Wait, my necklace!" He pulled off his necklace, which was in the shape of a gold star. "I can spin this into a heart-wrenching story if I just cry a little! They won't know what hit them!"

Nearby in Sasha's shack, Zev was processing the polaroid image he had taken of the landscape. "So...not to pry," Zev offered, "but I take it your conversation with Kaif did not go so well, because you voted him off."

Sasha was in the process of sorting through the books she had brought with her. "To be honest..." she said sheepishly. "I never had the conversation," she replied. "I recognize that isn't what you advised, and I also recognize that voting Kaif off is exactly the same as running from my problems. I don't know why I even did what I did with that."

Zev was getting more confused. "This isn't anything like you had said the other day. Obviously it isn't my place to ask you about specifics, but reasonably, if there is anything you are concerned about, I'm willing to listen."

"I appreciate that offer," Sasha said graciously as she finally decided on a book. "But, you are a teammate, at least for now. I don't plan on sharing that sort of information with someone who will inevitably be my enemy." Zev nodded understandingly. "I am finished. We can go."

Sasha: "I need someone I can talk to," she said plainly. "Normally, back home, it's this guy that runs the ice cream place I go to a lot. Zev is similar in some ways, but the main thing that stops him from being Rico is that he is competing against me. I need someone who isn't."

Zev: "Hopefully Kaif gets to see what Sasha's going through," he said. "If he can watch us now...I don't really know what'd he think." He laughed. "I don't actually know much about what those two spoke about. But, the bottom line is, I'm being helpful, Monty is helping, and that means we can not be as divided anymore."

TEAM PERSEPHONE

Klase, Syd, and Winter all sat inside Klase and Chander's shack, and stared at each other in relative silence. "So...I think I have something I'm going to use," he said quietly. The pianist grabbed a bracelet from one of his bags with some music note charms on it. "It's not too big like some of the things they've all made, but I'm sure it will work. I can talk about it long enough, at least."

Winter still looked lost. "I still have no clue what I'm doing," they admitted. "Syd, what about you?" Syd nodded confidently, implying she had something figured out already. "Oh, that means I still need to be in on this trend, you know?" Neither person really responded back, and the awkward silence filled the room again. "Oh, man, I wish Alessia was here, she'd know what to say to help me find something."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Klase mentioned. "I mean, all you have to do is find something unique to you and make it seem important." Syd nodded in agreement as she dug through her backpack.

The bandwagoner looked terrified at that statement. "Unique to me? There's not really any of that. I love blending in with the crowd, so I don't know if there's anything that I could do to make it all about me, I just conform all the time..." Syd's eyes lit up upon hearing that, and stepped outside without checking with the other two at first. "Oh, bye, Syd."

The two sat in even worse silence than before. Neither of the two really had anything else to say. They both looked like they wanted to speak, but nothing was coming out for either. Eventually, Syd returned with a pile of clay that was clearly just scooped out of the ground. She tossed it to Winter, and sat back down to clean off of a shovel she had used.

"Oh, thank you," Winter said hesitantly, not really sure what it was at first. "Is it...a rock? It's sort of squishy." She played with it a little longer. "It's sort of fun, but I don't get how it's useful for me at all."

"Winter, that's supposed to be your timepiece," Klase mentioned. "You said that you conform all the time, so Syd got you clay, something that also conforms all the time. It isn't...the nicest way of doing it, but you do your timepiece, and it represents you. That's unique to you." Winter grinned at the thought of having that now. "Now you're in on the trend."

The bandwagoner grinned excitedly as they held onto their clay. "You know? It's perfect, thank you so much!" Klase smiled, seeing the progress he was able to make on his own.

Nearby, Chander and Winslow made their way to the shaman temple again. "It is a shame to desecrate this location," Winslow pointed out, "but the fact of the matter is both of us require timepieces that could be useful from this location." They gestured up to the torches on the side walls of the temple. "One of those would work just fine for you, would it not? I have heard you are fond of fire."

"I am," Chander pointed out, "but I don't know...I really liked Croshia's item. It was something she didn't want to become, but she did it anyway for the people she cared about. Isn't that...not to sound braggy, but I feel like that is similar to what I'm doing. I'm really only the leader because no one else is doing it. Someone needed to bring order to us, which is a shame it's me. I haven't been able to prank nearly as much as I wanted to."

Winslow grabbed one of the glowing rocks that was sitting on the altar. "...On second thought," they admitted, "I would rather leave these here. I have a second owl mask that I will use instead." They set the rocks back on the ground. "How about Alessia comes in my stead to help you out?" Chander nodded. "Wonderful. I will send for her. I trust you will find something that brings our team victory."

Chander stared at the torches for a while, unable to really make a decision. "Can...I just take one?" he asked to the empty room. "Even Winslow looked conflicted on whether or not this temple fire should be...plundered, for lack of a better word."

"Maybe I'll just plunder your fire," Alessia quietly replied as she wandered in the temple. As she walked in, a spider web caught her face, forcing her to stop for a second. "Oh, gross, gross, gross!" she squeaked to herself as she threw it off. Regaining her composure almost instantly, she walked right up to Chander, forcing the boy to back up against one of the walls.

"Chander, I haven't been totally honest with the team," she admitted right off the bat. "I probably could have led, but I was too nervous to say anything, but as soon as you wanted to do it, I was all in, because you're easily the most attractive person in this village."

Chander paused his fear for a second, changing to disbelief. "Me? I don't know, the other team's got Sasha and Shion, and-" as his mind drifted from what was happening right in front of him, another realization came to mind. "Wait, what about Winter? Aren't you two-"

"We came to an understanding," Alessia lied. "You know she's big on trends, so I'm just telling her all about my streaming life, since that's a job that's gonna be in for a long time." She laughed. "Truthfully, I'm so thankful Winslow's not here, they'd be in the way. I don't think I'd be able to tell you that I'd been crushing on you since the first day if they were still around." She gasped and put her hands up to her mouth. "Oh my gosh, I didn't mean to say that. I-"

As Alessia began to panic, Chander was getting his head on straight again. "Hold on, Alessia, don't panic, things slip out." He put his hand on her shoulder, letting her breathe. "You'll be okay. Don't worry, you didn't creep me out, that's normally my thing, with all the fire and pranking and-" he shook his head. "Look, that's not important. You're okay. I'm not gonna vote you out for saying something like that, but maybe we can talk tomorrow about it."

The streamer took deep breaths to calm her mood down. "Okay, but you promised me you won't vote me out. What if someone else tries to? I think there's still one or two people on the team mad at us for taking down Persephone, and they're not going to vote off the leader!"

Chander continued to stay right with Alessia, allowing her all the time she needed to calm herself. "We haven't lost yet," Chander reminded her. "I'm sure Klase and the others have some good stuff to talk about, and I'll make sure I do too." He grabbed a torch off of the temple wall. "Zenthus did say we could use our environment. I wonder if this is still allowed."

Chander: "I had no idea Alessia felt all those things," he said with a surprised look. "I guess it shows you never know how people are really feeling. I hope she'll be okay to present her timepiece during the challenge."

Alessia: She started off by laughing hysterically in the confessional. "And then- and then I told him...oh my gosh, I can't even say it with a straight face again!" She took a breath to regain herself. "Anyway, that worked great, except for the fact he mentioned Sasha and Shion before me. I dislike them already, and they're not even on my team!"

CREVICE, MEETING HALL

Everyone was gathered back at the meeting hall to present their timepieces. The four villagers were all at one table to the side, while Chris and Chef were in the corner, next to them. "Okay, everyone," Chris applauded. "I saw a lot of great work on joining in on Crevice culture today. Excellent work!" He held up the necklace that was typically around his neck. "This is my timepiece, of course, the first thing I bought myself when I started to...do charity work." He turned to Team Gorgeous. "South group, you're up first."

Sasha was the first to step forward. "Modern literature has always been an interest of mine," she explained calmly. "I wish to pursue some sort of psychological study in the future, studying the way humans function. I have presented a book, something that represents the struggle of people who are reaching adulthood." She showed off the cover of the book, revealing it was the one that she was reading on the first day.

Setsuna was next to go. "My family have done a lot of things, but both my parents love history, which is one of the reasons I came out here. I wanted to learn all about this place, which is why I have brought a rock." She held up one of the rocks. Most of her team looked rather unimpressed by that, but the villagers appeared interested. "This is from our second day here, and it led to us fixing some of the broken pieces of Crevice. I am excited to take a piece of history home with me."

Faye was next, and she presented a picture of a starry sky. "While daylight is hard to come by at this time," she explained, "I know you have much darker winters than us. This is what I imagine it would look like. This is a timepiece I created on my own today, and it resembles my family who are always supporting me to follow in their footsteps to become astronomers." Only Nicolette knew that the last line was a complete lie.

Zev followed up with his picture. "Pictures are things we create now using a lot of new technology, so I brought a picture with me today. It is a still image of the landscape that is here. My parents were both photographers, so I learned a lot from them, and I'm hoping that one day I can carry on their legacy." The villagers looked extremely interested in the polaroid photo that Zev had brought.

Monty went next, presenting his bass. "This is a modern instrument," he explained. "It plays low notes that are really important to a band, and it's who I am now, because honestly, I can't afford to quit this. There's too much at stake for that." He let out a huff and walked off.

Shion was sixth for their team, holding the necklace that he wore all the time. "This is something that someone really important gave to me," he said. "It was also along with a lot of other things, but my music manager gave this to me, and sometimes, if I look at it, I feel like I can do anything. That's why I wear it all the time, because now that I can really do anything, I just use it to remind others." Despite his sentimental beginning, Shion's tone quickly switched to his usual boastful one by the end of it.

Finally was Nicolette, holding Monty's sheet music, which only him and Setsuna knew belonged to someone else that was not her. "My life is not very interesting," she said apologetically, "so much so that I struggled finding something for today. I ended up having to borrow this from Monty today, and I guess that means that this is a gift from a friend, and I really appreciate that." Monty looked genuinely shocked that she talked about it like that, leaving the bassist also sort of conflicted.

Zenthus looked very grateful to Team Gorgeous. "Well, I can tell that even though not all of those timepieces are our traditional methods to obtain one, you all put a lot of thought into what to say. I appreciate the response that you have all put in for us." He turned to Team Persephone. "Okay, it is time to hear from our Northern group."

Winslow was the first to step forward. They showed off their mask that resembled an owl, the exact same one as the mask they were currently wearing. "This is a relatively important artifact of mine," they spoke eerily. "I have an animal companion I was unfortunately forced to leave behind on my excursion to Crevice, a barn owl by the name of Hootcifer. While I possess other reasons for this timepiece, should this not suffice?" Thea looked rather creeped out by this one.

Up next for Team Persephone was Alessia, who presented a small hair clip of a pink game controller. "This is my time thingy," she said with complete ignorance. "It's a hair clip my brother gave me for my eighteenth birthday, so honestly, it's about as close to one of these time things as we're gonna get." She had a confident smirk as she stepped back to her team.

Winter was eager to go next. She held up the clay that Syd had given them earlier in the day. "This is clay," she said, "and since I really wanted to be part of the Crevice trend, Syd got me clay." Syd smacked her own head in disbelief at Winter's terrible explanation. The other villagers looked just as unimpressed.

Syd opted to save everyone with her decision. "Quiet one," Rodin asked boldly. "What did you bring to show us?" To everyone's surprise, the mechanic pulled down the scarf around her neck to reveal a piece of metal lodged in her throat. "Ah, I suppose that could be quite the item," Rodin mentioned. Syd quietly nodded, and walked back to the team, leaving everyone in total shock.

Faye: "I'll be honest, I thought she could talk and just wasn't talking to try and trick us. Nice to know she isn't."

Syd: She quickly typed out on her watch and showed it to the camera. Someone had to help the team survive, it read.

That left Chander, who went next. He held up the torch he got from the shaman temple. Winslow was interested in the fact he had taken it. "I love fire and performing, so a torch of some kind is normally something I take with me everywhere, just...not here in the woods." To his relief, the villagers looked more impressed than anything with Chander's timepiece.

Finally, Klase was up. He took a deep breath before showing everyone the bracelet. "This is mine," he said plainly. "My mother gave it to me a long time ago. It reminds me of happier times that I had with her, times where we felt like a family still." With a quiet nod, Klase returned to the team.

"That concludes today's activity," Zenthus announced. "You all did a wonderful job. I was impressed with your dedication to this activity, and I believe Chris and Chef have a splendid idea for tomorrow that will give us some perspective on your side of things, and what life is like for you." He cleared his throat. "That being said. Chris asked me to decide which of the groups I thought had more elaborate timepieces."

Everyone was eager to hear the challenge results, but Zenthus shook his head. "Unfortunately, I cannot make that decision. Timepieces in Crevice can be as elaborate or as simple as they need to be, so long as their story is conveyed. Apologies if that is not the response you were expecting." With that, the four villagers took their leave, bringing the other timepieces with them.

That left the cast in the meeting hall, where Chef and Chris stood there awkwardly. "This is not what we thought would happen." He turned to Chef. "Chef, the choice is yours. Since you were the only one who did not make a timepiece, you get to pick which of the two teams had a stronger showing today."

Things were back on track as Chef came to a conclusion. "This was a hard call, but Team Gorgeous's, specifically Nicolette's honesty, and overall preparedness with creating things makes me want to give them the win for the day." Team Gorgeous cheered, high-fiving each other. Zev smiled at the team's unity that he had brought back. "So...Team Persephone, it was a nice break from you last night, but it's time to make a choice." Team Persephone did not look happy by that.

As teams returned to the shacks to either celebrate or dread an incoming vote, Sasha departed from the group and walked all the way down to Rodin's hut. She knocked on the door, and within a minute, Rodin answered with an annoyed look on his face. "Can I help you with something?" the fisherman asked.

Sasha shrugged. "After some careful consideration," she said, "I would like to actually take you up on these fishing lessons you are offering. I think you and I can actually have a rather pleasant working relationship."

Rodin almost appeared surprised to hear that come from Sasha. "They always come back," he said with a huff. "So be it. We will start tomorrow morning. Do not be late." With that, Rodin promptly shut the door, and relaxed for a second on his chair. "So it begins," he said to the other person in the hut. "Do you want me to do anything specific there?"

Croshia shook her head. "No, that will get us nothing new. Even this timepiece activity showed us all of them are competition driven, and Zenthus shutting that down seemed like a real problem to them. Perhaps they will show us that ceremony tomorrow."

"Unlikely," Rodin replied with a scoff. "If you insist that I have nothing additional to work on with the fishing lessons, I will choose to take my time enjoying teaching someone how the ace of food acquisition fishes." Croshia rolled her eyes at Rodin's arrogant attitude.

TEAM PERSEPHONE

Winslow returned the torch Chander used to the temple, placing it back exactly where they had taken it from. "Apologies for desecrating the temple, Zenthus," Winslow spoke up as they heard a set of footsteps coming in. "We decided you may appreciate our resourcefulness. Hopefully you are not-" after finally turning around, they realized this was not Zenthus, but quite the opposite. "Oh, it's you."

Alessia looked extremely offended by that comment. "Do...do my footsteps sound like that old man's cane? Like, for real?" Winslow nodded. "You're so messing with me." She huffed. "But, I did not wander all the way into this gross pit of rocks for the second time today to talk about Zenthus." She smirked. "Winslow, tonight you are going to vote with me."

The wanderer stared at Alessia for up to a whole minute, to the point where the streamer was getting extremely concerned about the eerie silence. "Apologies," Winslow finally spoke up. "I was under the impression that you have been deceiving me." They shook their head. "You must be insane if you think I will be joining you in a vote of any kind."

Alessia shrugged. "You're right, that seems wrong, we absolutely hate each other. But, on this team of six, if I run in with four votes, even three, I win. No amount of loyalty can earn you what I get." Her grin got darker and darker. "Let's settle this here and now. You will agree to vote with me tonight, before I walk out of this temple, or I will turn the votes right onto you. My loyal babies need me to only say the word, and their vote is flipped. And, even if I get what I want without your help, that'll just make you next, so you need to obey me now. Be just as clueless as the others."

Winslow looked truly confused for quite some time. They completely lacked a response. "So," Alessia continued, looking right into Winslow's eyes. "What's it gonna be?"

ELIMINATION V, TEAM PERSEPHONE

Dwindling in numbers, Team Persephone was left with not many people to speak for. The six remaining people approached the fire circle, sitting on various logs. The first log held Chander, Klase, Alessia, and Winter, while Winslow and Syd sat alone on the other side of the fire. "Can I tell you all a secret?" Chris asked as he approached them with only five rocks in his hand. "You all stink. Like, seriously, you stink. Team Gorgeous is truly way more put together than all of you. Could you be a bit better? This isn't even good television anymore."

Chander sighed. "I'm sorry I keep failing you all," he said with remorse. "I can hopefully make it up to all of you soon. It makes me upset every time I'm the reason that we come back here to vote each other off."

Chris shrugged. "Chander? Yeah, not sure what you're really talking about. The team didn't blame you. You're safe." Chander looked surprised as he received the first rock of the night. "Also safe, is Klase." The pianist looked less surprised than normal to be getting a rock, but still relieved that he was in the game. And, just like that, only three rocks remained.

"Winter, you're safe too!" The bandwagoner was excited to get a rock, but even she looked really concerned seeing the three people who had not gotten one yet. Alessia looked extremely confident in her position, Winslow's expression was as stoic as ever, and Syd seemed not so concerned yet. "Winslow." The wanderer let out a quiet sigh as they caught their rock.

That left Alessia and Syd sitting without a rock. "Alessia, Syd, this is the final rock of the night. Alessia, you have been the talk of the town with a few people already, and your timepiece sort of came out of nowhere today." The streamers still held a confident expression. "Syd, you gave Winter clay, and then didn't share enough on why it was important to her." Klase also seemed to have some guilt on his face from that.

Chris held up the last rock. "Tonight, the final rock is going to...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...Alessia." The streamer, confident as ever, took the rock with a smirk. Off to the side, Winslow had a disappointed look on their face. "Syd, that means you need to go." The mechanic turned to Winslow to see the dejected look that showed even through the mask, and without anything else to say, simply walked over to the boat and was taken away by Chef.

Alessia: "Just like I said, Winslow had to vote with me," she explained. "Otherwise, they'd be the only one opposed to me. I officially have the entire team under my control, and it's like what, day five? I'm awesome."

TEAM GORGEOUS

Back in the shacks, no cards were happening on the winning team. Nicolette knocked on the door to Monty and Shion's shack, the two boys just laying down on their beds. "Hi, Monty" Nicolette greeted the bassist with the music in her hands. "I wanted to give this back to you. Thank you so much again for letting me use it today for the challenge."

Monty let out a huff. "It was nothing," he said with a nonchalant look. On the other side of the room, Shion's eyes were lighting up. "Anyway, thanks for bringing this back to me. It's really important to me, so I was a bit concerned at first that you were planning on keeping it."

"Oh, of course not," Nicolette defended with her arms up. "It clearly sounded important to you from the way you were talking about it earlier. That was really nice of you to do that still. You've definitely gotten much better at working with the team since the first day."

The bassist snickered. "Well, that means a lot, I'm sick of hearing it just from Shion." Shion giggled at the comment. "But, if you like singing, you should stop by here more often. Shion sings too, so sometimes we do some quiet rock-outs in here."

"I'd like that," Nicolette responded kindly. "See you both tomorrow." The saint walked back to the shacks with a furious blush on her face. Once she made it back to hers, she composed herself and walked inside to see Faye staring aimlessly at the drawing she had made earlier in the day. "It can't be me," she said with a dejected sigh. "I don't deserve that when others' problems are much worse."

The camera went back to Chris and Chef in the cabin above the cliff, who watched the drama ensue with a grin on his face. "Finally, the drama is happening!" he said with a loud yell. "Will Nicolette actually do something about her little crush? Can Winslow get out of their situation? Who'll be the next one to go down? Find out next time on Total! Drama! Ancient Abodes!"

LOSER ISLAND

Syd's boat dropped off the mechanic and sped off promptly. "Wow, they got rid of you?" Kaif asked in shock. "You're so smart and talented though, why would- ohhh." He shook his head. "Maybe it's for the better that you're here now." A rock flew at the two of them, which Syd blocked with a mechanical arm. "Yeah, that's been happening for days, I don't know where he gets them all." He pointed to the sign. "Anyway, that's a thing here."

Welcome to Loser Island. This is not your end. There may be another chance to redeem yourself.

Syd looked rather interested in that, but was mainly looking around for anyone else. "If you're looking for Persephone," Kaif offered, "she's out in the woods training. I found her once to make sure she was okay, then she yelled at me after I tried to make a move on her, so I'm back on the beach with the rocks." Harvey threw another rock, which Kaif dodged this time. "Stop that!'

"Not a shot!" Harvey said with a laugh. "Every time fresh meat shows up, I wanna take them out, especially one like her who voted for me!" He threw another rock, which Syd dodged regularly this time.

Kaif escorted Syd a bit further from Harvey's danger zone. "Well, I guess you better get comfortable, because there's no telling how long we're waiting to try and get back in the game."

Vote Confessionals:

Alessia: "I could easily vote for Winslow to keep them on their toes, but in case these votes come out, I need the unity. Bye, Syd!"

Chander: "I trust Alessia, and I don't want to hurt her after she was so vulnerable. It stinks, but I have to vote for Syd."

Klase: "I know it was mainly my fault that Winter didn't know what the clay meant, but I tried. Syd could have helped too."

Syd: Once again, she held up her paper that had 'Alessia' written on it, this time with an angry expression in her eyes.

Winslow: "This is a difficult situation, but Alessia is correct. If I become the odd one out, I go down. Syd is my vote."

Winter: "Alessia wants Syd gone, which is sad, she helped me. But, if everyone else is doing it..."

Current Teams:

Team Gorgeous: Faye, Monty, Nicolette, Sasha, Setsuna, Shion, Zev

Team Persephone: Alessia, Chander, Klase, Winslow, Winter

Eliminated: Harvey, Persephone, Kaif, Syd

This was one of the eliminations I was most excited for. Not because it eliminated Syd, it actually pained me to get rid of her at this point. The reason was because it gave Alessia total control over her team, in various ways. The way Alessia works, both her and Sasha have had their strategies significantly altered due to the environment and the cast's preferences.

Let's talk Sasha some more for a second. I know a lot of people didn't like the kiss scene, and I agree, it was not my best moment as a writer. This hopefully wraps up a lot of stuff with that and ends it a bit less problematically. The plan at this part of the story was always for Sasha to take a step back and take the lessons from Rodin, but I added her being remorseful because I felt like that is an important part of her character too. She's been one of the hardest characters to handle for me, and I hope I can do her justice with the rest of the time she's got, and I'm sorry to anyone who was offended or upset by that.

Anyway, this is also the longest chapter so far in Ancient Abodes, and also beats and other chapter I've written with the exception of the final reunion special in Power Peak where I had to write like, 60 different characters all at once.

Syd is gone, for now or for good? We'll have to see. But, writing a mute character was very unique to me, and from what I gathered, I did okay with her on that. We also basically start Arc II of this season starting next episode, and that will go on for a while. What new plots will go down? Let me know what you think might happen next in the reviews! Thank you all, and I'll see you next time!