Right. Okay. Elimination evening, pre-elimination stuff.

Before I went to talk to my team and gauged who to vote for (I was leaning towards Nichelle for the moment as she'd even made Wayne piggyback her and I didn't like her much anyway), I decided to finish a conversation I'd never managed to get to. Before the Trout went to their reward dinner (they'd been promised pizza and wings, and I knew Chef made good food for himself and Chris so it was possible it was true), I knocked on the guys' side of the cabin.

Zee answered the door, an orange soda in hand. "Hey, whassup?" he said, giving me a friendly smile.

I smiled back. "Hey, Zee. Is Damien still in here? I wanted to speak to him."

Damien, hearing his name, appeared in the doorway. He smiled uncertainly. "Hey, Tansy, isn't it? I remember you were saying something to me back at the dock, but then Chris-"

"Said I was trying to make an alliance when all I was going to do was give you a rundown on the rules of Total Drama so you know what to expect," I finished. "Since there's a chance I might be going home tonight, I might as well get through what I was going to say now . I've only seen a few episodes, but that gave me a good idea of the formula and what kind of things we might have to do. Then if I do go tonight," I added, laughing, "At least I've had an effect on the game, even if it's your gameplay."

So we sat on the cabin steps while I went through a summary of the episodes I'd seen and added what I knew about the overall formula of an episode. In all honesty, I had to choke back laughter at the growing look of horror on Damien's face.

"You can't be serious, right?" he exclaimed when I got to an episode of the All-Stars season. "You're just messing with me, aren't you?"

I gave a sigh. "Remember your question on the dock? Something about how we're getting hurt? That's what this show is like. Look at that obstacle course today. You were safe up on the tower. I once saw someone leave the show with three casts and a sling. To be fair, one of the girls pushed him off a tower after he refused to fight her because she'd been flirting with him all episode. But no one has died, as far as I know." I sighed at his terrified expression. "I'm sorry to scare you, but you had to know before you had to face anything scarier. And…if I don't go home tonight, no alliance or friendship required, okay? I mean, I'd be happy to be friends, but we don't have to be. I'm just trying to be a decent person here."

Damien took a deep breath, and managed to smile weakly at me. "No alliance," he agreed. "But if you wanna be friends, I can work with that."

I grinned back. 'I do wanna. But I better stick to my team most of the time – we can chat more at the merge, and we can also talk between challenges. For the moment, I'll let you get to the pizza. See you!" And I went back to my team.

It was a good thing, because I got back to my cabin just as Bowie was coming out of one of the cabins. "Oh, hey," he said with a smile. "I was just about to come find you. I was wondering, have you thought about tonight's vote?"

I shrugged. "A little. I hadn't decided yet. It's hard to know – today went pretty fast. I was half-expecting it to be me tonight."

"Yeah, it was hard for me, too," Bowie admitted. "I mean, half our teammates didn't even get to do anything, but that's not their fault. It's hard to decide. I mean, especially since we have so many strong players. Caleb looks unbeatable to me. In fact, he even intimidates me a bit."

I shrugged, but I was a little surprised. Bowie didn't seem like someone who would be intimidated at all, by anyone. Maybe he was just good at hiding it. "Good for the team, right?"

"I guess," Bowie said with a shrug to match my own, "Except, we might not get another chance if we don't vote him off now. I'd be really worried for my game if he got into the merge."

Huh. That was something I hadn't thought about. We wanted strong players on our team, but we'd only be a team for half the show. Merge threats got singular immunity and it wouldn't be easy to get rid of them. What if we had a winning streak after this challenge? Bowie had a good point.

"Have you spoken to Emma yet?" I asked straight out. "I was going to talk to her as well."

"Yeah, she's on board," Bowie told me. "I talked to Nichelle and Julia, too. Nichelle seemed open to it, and Julia said she wasn't getting any negative vibes from me, and I think that means she'll consider it. MK was there, but she said being told to vote someone off made her want to vote for someone else."

If so many people were going to vote for Caleb, I would do the same. It was better than worrying that people would vote for me. Besides, I couldn't think of anyone I disliked on the team so far, so having the decision made for me was just what I wanted.

"Well, I'm not like MK. I will, too," I said instantly. "Promise."

Bowie grinned at me. "Thanks, Tansy. That's why I was asking. I knew I could count on you."

I talked to Emma before I did anything, just to double-check the facts. By this point, we were sort of an unofficial trio already. In fact, Emma admitted to me that "I didn't expect to make friends the second I got on the island, but I already feel like I can trust you and Bowie."
I grinned at her. "I feel the same way, actually. It's like all three of us just get each other." We didn't really need to talk about whether it was a friendship or an alliance. They seemed to total the same thing in the end, and as far as I was concerned, I wanted any alliances I had to be with people who I considered friends.

As it was, at the elimination ceremony, there was a change that I hadn't seen in any other seasons. Chef came to all of them, not to pass out marshmallows, but to list potential elimination candidates and why they were up for elimination. We'd all voted beforehand, and I'd done what I'd said – voted Caleb. However, Chef still gave a few options. He hadn't done this in earlier seasons, but this time, he just listed people who had good reason to go home. "Emma," he began, "You let your emotions get in the way and it cost your team the lead."

Emma looked anxious. I shot her a reassuring smile, but she didn't see it.

"Nichelle," Chef went on, "Wayne risked everything to try and win it but you slowed him down because you were concerned about your looks." Then he passed the marshmallows to Chris. There were the usual eight, enough for everyone who was staying. It was time to find out who was going.

"Who'd you vote for?" Wayne asked Raj before Chris could start calling our names.

"You, brah!" Raj answered. "How about you?"

"You, dog!" They bumped fists. "Hope we win!" Okay. So that was two votes wasted. Hopefully Bowie and all the girls had banded together, since clearly none of the other guys had. But did they seriously think voting was to keep them in the game?

Chris had the same reaction as me. "You're supposed to vote for the person you want to eliminate."

Oh well. They both stayed, probably only having each other's vote. So did I. My name was called third, just after MK and before Bowie. A rush of relief swept through me, all the tension leaving at once. I literally felt everything relax.

Emma wasn't so lucky. She had to wait for the last marshmallow. Still, at least her name was called.

"What?!" Poor Caleb. He looked absolutely gobsmacked. I felt a little guilty, but I'd expected that. I had to vote for someone, and this wouldn't be the last time – unless I went home next time my team lost or at the start of the merge.

"Yes!" Emma cheered. "In your face!" Then she frowned and started apologizing, patting Caleb's arm, then commenting on his muscles, getting a bit flirty and saying "If I gave you my phone number…"

Luckily, Chris cut her off.

We didn't get to see Caleb being taken home by the drone, but I think the whole campsite heard his yell as the drone first took him.

I walked back to the cabins with Emma. "I guess at least we're not the first ones going home," I said, trying to sound happier than I felt. "I feel a bit bad for Caleb, though."

Emma nodded. "Me too. Maybe we should have kept him around."

I shrugged. "I had a vague idea of voting off…" I glanced around. Nichelle was quite close by, so I just said "…someone else. But I figured if other people were voting for him, so would I."

Emma smiled at that point. "So, basically, you vote for people as long as they seem like the majority? Does that mean we could make voting together a thing?"

I shrugged. "We might have an easier time if we stick together. I figured you, me and Bowie could all vote as a unit, like we did today. We could even control the team's vote if we just get one or two other people to vote with us next time, then we'd all get to the merge easily." Bowie seemed to have completely disappeared for the moment, otherwise I would have directed the comment at him properly.

Emma's smile widened. "I like him, too. I mean, I wouldn't team up with anyone I didn't like. We can talk to Bowie tomorrow about the three of us working together, but I'm sure he'll be on board."

"Then we might even get to the final three…" I said thoughtfully. "In that case, we'll just have to dissolve the alliance at the end, but that's okay. For now, we'll just have strength in numbers."

Needless to say, I went to bed that night feeling a lot safer.

Even though Bowie didn't really show an interest in having anyone else in the alliance between him and Emma in canon (and we know he took an interest in Emma as an ally within a minute of meeting), I feel like if someone he was friendly with approached him and asked to join at this early stage, he'd let them in. Three is stronger than two. As for why I kept the elimination the same…Tansy's personality. She doesn't want to go home, and so she'd happily vote if she knew someone else would vote with her. However, that doesn't mean she won't get to choose who to go for another time.