Ahoy all, welcome aboard and thank you for clicking on the first chapter of my fanfiction! As hinted by the title, this story takes the popular animated reality TV show Total Drama Island, and puts a number of twists on it.
For those who aren't familiar with the format, players from the entire mainline series (plus one from the show's spinoff, The Ridonculous Race) were put into a randomizer and, with admittedly complicated criteria, 22 were chosen to make up the first generation in this alternate timeline. But not only is the cast shuffled, the order in which challenges took place on the show has also been altered. So for example (minor spoiler incoming), the first challenge will be something other than cliff diving and tub building, while said challenge will appear later in this season. When? Stay tuned to find out.
I don't know if I should be clarifying this but, all 22 players revealed in the fic are meant to be the same age (16) in this AU.
More information about the stretched-out process of planning this story can be found at the bottom of this chapter.
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Total Drama Island Recasted and Reordered Episode 1: Not-So-Happy Campers
The scene opened up to a wide area of dense forestry, hills, and rocks surrounding a body of water and in front of it stood a wooden dock. Hardly one second later, a man with stylish black hair, wearing a black double-pocket shirt overtop of a white shirt, and showing a wide grin, jumped in front of the camera from below. The man started talking with excitedness in his voice. "Yo, we're coming at you live from Camp Wawanakwa, somewhere in Muskoka, Ontario. I'm your host, Chris Mclean. Dropping season one of the hottest new reality shows on television right now!"
The scene changed to show Chris walking along a dock that connected to an island filled with vast forestry and cliffs. "Here's the deal. Twenty-two campers have signed up to spend eight weeks, right here, at this crummy old summer camp." The enthusiastic host stopped just past where the dock intersects three ways. "They'll compete in challenges against each other, then have to face the judgement of their fellow campers. Every three days, every team will either win a reward, or watch one of their team members walk down the dock of shame, take a ride on the loser boat, haha." As Chris elaborated the game rules, a wooden sign of a middle-sized, red steam boat appeared for a moment before he continued. "And leave Total Drama Island for good!" Chris ended the scene by swinging his hands like he was holding a golf club.
The following scene showed an empty campfire with an empty oil barrel, a wooden sign being held by two tall sticks, and eleven wooden log seats lined up in two rows. Surrounding the area on one side was a tall, rocky cliff, and on the other was the dense forestry of the island. "They're fate will be decided here, at the dramatic campfire ceremonies, where each week, all but one camper will receive a marshmallow. In the end, only one will be left standing, and will be rewarded with cheesy tabloid fame and a small fortune which, let's face it, they'll probably blow in a week." Chris explained, as he took a marshmallow off a stick and swiftly ate it.
The scene cut to footage of a brown bear swatting away a swarm of flies, before standing on its two hind legs and emitting a roar. "To survive, they'll have to battle black flies, grizzly bears, disgusting camp food, and each other." A bowl of small maggots with one giant maggot resting on top could be seen.
"Every moment will be caught on one of the hundreds of cameras situated all over the camp." More footage of cameras were shown in a bird's nest and tied to a totem pole, before returning to Chris on the dock. "Who will crumble under the pressure? Find out here, on…
Total…
Drama…
Island!"
Intro
The scene showed Chris standing at the dock once again as he continued, "Welcome back to Total Drama Island. Alright, it's time to meet our campers. We told them they'd all be staying at this five-star resort, so, if they seem a little t-owed, that's probably why." The camera panned over to its right in a flash, showing a yacht in front of the dock just as it sped away. There stood a tall, young man with dark skin, a yellow shirt, pink jeans, a green cap, and black hair tied into a ponytail that extended to his back. He also brought a yellow luggage bag with him.
Chris greeted the first camper as he looked down at a piece of paper. "Welcome… Heza- ki?... Kius, is it?" he said while looking back up at the teen with confusion.
"That's right. Even though peeps just call me Zee. Feel free to do the same, man." Zee spoke with a calm and friendly tone.
"Right… anyway, welcome to the island Zee. You can stand over there and-" As Chris gestured for Zee to move to the opposing end of the dock, he felt two arms wrap around him suddenly. A second later, he rejected the hug and pushed the teen away.
"Woah, okay. Go stand at the other end and wait for my instruction, alright?" Chris got a little more stern with his introductory camper.
"Whatever you say, dude." Zee's smile did not fade as he pulled an orange can of soda out of his pocket and made his way to the left.
"Our next camper… Sugar." The yacht came and went once again as a chubby girl with thick, curly blonde hair, a thin pink shirt, and blue jeans stepped out with her pink luggage.
"Howdy, how y'all holdin' up?" Sugar greeted with an upbeat southern tone.
"Excited to be here, I see?" Chris deflected a question back onto the country girl.
"As excited as you should be. This pageant girl is getting famous already just by bein' here." Sugar replied.
"Well uh, that's good to know. Over there please." Chris pointed to where Zee was standing.
"Hmph, okay, but don't go thinkin' you're gonna get all the spotlight." The girl retaliated in a slightly harsher tone as she went to greet the other person on the dock.
The camera cut to focus on the first two campers as Zee extended his hand to Sugar, "Sup, brah? I'm Zee." he introduced.
Sugar slowly returned the handshake. "I wouldn't call myself a 'brah', but good meetin' you, I suppose." she replied with awkward hesitancy.
The next the yacht came and left to drop off its third camper: A teen with a white vest, blue, torn pants, a belt, and orange, spiky hair.
"Welcome to the island, Scott! Good to be away from the pig pen?" Chris remarked with a small chuckle.
"Not as clean as you said our time away would be," Scott spoke and tilted his head to the island, "Why are we here? Where's the resort?" he asked, slightly agitated.
Chris laughed for a moment. "Oh, silly Scott. This is the resort. Like it?"
Scott brushed off The Host's response and made his way to Sugar and Zee. "Just perfect…" he said.
The next camper was an Asian girl with straight black hair, black short pants, and a loose red short-sleeve shirt, overtop another shirt of the same colour.
"I thought you said we were staying at a five-star resort." the girl spoke adamantly.
"Yeah… I've heard that question before. Please, make yourself at home, that way, Emma." Chris directed her as he pointed to the other three campers.
Emma looked around. "No thanks, this isn't what I signed up for." she turned her head away from the island to see the yacht leaving, before turning back and emitting a sigh.
"Know how to swim?" Chris asked almost curiously.
"Fine." Emma replied as she strode to the other end of the dock, annoyed expression clearly showing.
"C'mon guys, it'll be fun. Like an experience to never forget." Zee tried to encourage his new fellow campers.
Sugar chimed in, "Who knows, maybe we'll even get to show off our talents. Y'all will be amazed by what I got to offer."
"Eh, don't think I'll stick around to notice." Scott said, arms crossed.
"Me neither." Emma agreed.
"Okay, what, c'mon now. We just got here…" Zee stopped in confusion and three seconds later, looked around, "Where was I again?" Emma and Scott stared at him awkwardly.
The focus changed to show the next camper stepping off the yacht, seemingly with a tough and confident expression. He had short, dark hair, a green short-sleeved shirt, blue cargo shorts, tall, sturdy, black work boots and a thick unibrow on his forehead.
"Brick McArthur, reporting for duty.. SIR!" Brick told the host as he gave a salute.
"Pleasure having you here, soldier. Your comrades are over there." Chris gestured to the other campers.
Brick proceeded to the other side of the dock and extended his hand to the only other camper openly willing to return the gesture: Zee.
"Brick McArthur, but you can just call me Brick" The Soldier gave a confident look and saluted.
"Hezekiah, short for Zee." the other teen replied, giving a finger pistol.
"I don't think that's how nicknames work." Emma told him, crossing her arms.
The camera panned back over to the right, where the yacht dropped off camper number six. A large green bag was thrown out onto the dock, followed by a brown, long-haired girl who wore a dark vest, and green work pants with a belt.
"Say hello to Axel everybody!" Chris announced.
"Ha, amateurs." the girl said confidently after landing on the dock.
"What? Who are you calling an amateur?" Brick asked with mild confusion and annoyance, putting his hands on his hips.
"Oh… my mistake. I was talking to the zombies." Axel replied, causing Brick and some others to be even more bewildered.
"Yep, more weirdos." Emma said quietly so that the apparent zombie enthusiast wouldn't hear.
Axel made her way over to the group of teens and positioned herself next to Scott, before releasing her grip on the hard, heavy luggage she carried. Not even two seconds later, a yelp could be heard. The camera tilted down to show that Axel's bag landed on Scott's right foot. The farm boy regained composure after a moment, removing his foot and glaring at the tough girl.
"Argh, what the hell could you possibly have in there that's so important?!" he asked in an equal mix of pain and anger.
The girl showed no reaction or emotion to Scott's pain, and plainly responded, "Survival equipment. Can't go without being prepared for the-"
"Zombie apocalypse, we get it." Emma interrupted Axel, both girls sharing annoyed looks with each other.
Once Axel was seemingly acquainted with the group, the camera cut to Chris again as he continued, "Time for camper numero seven. Here's Sam!"
A slightly large, chunky young man with brown hair, glasses, and a yellow, striped shirt overtop another white, button-up shirt was thrown out of the yacht. The newly announced camper seemed too occupied for introductions with the small game device in his hands, though.
Chris sighed and asked the gamer guy to join the others, to which he complied, not taking his eyes off the game, until…
"Darn, game over. Another one bites the dust eh… oh right, my name is-" Sam just begun to introduce himself before being cut off.
"Sam. Yeah, anyway, we gotta get rolling. Next player, ready." Chris said hastily.
"Ooh, a player, as in another gamer?" Sam asked excitedly.
"No..." Responded the host, much to Sam's dismay, "Please welcome the next player, individual, person, camper, however you wish to address them, Sadie."
A chubby girl with black hair tied into two small ponytails, a short black and white striped shirt, and pink denim shorts stepped off the boat with a pink, spotted luggage bag in tow.
"OMG, this place is so exciting, yay! I can't wait to do so much fun stuff, like swim, relax, and eat five-star food!" the girl said enthusiastically.
"Yeah… about that…" Chris responded hesitantly, before being followed up by Emma in a blunt tone.
"None of that here. They duped us." she told the new arrival.
Axel added onto Emma's statement with another blank tone in her voice, "And if you want to stay, you have to fight for it."
Sadie gave a worried look, before Brick assured her that Axel didn't mean it in such a dark manner, saying, "By doing fun challenges for 100, 000 dollars. We can't forget that, right guys?"
Sadie's confidence shot up again with a smile and responded, "Oh yay!" as she moved to the other side of the dock, and off screen.
The yacht came back with another player, a young man with a long-sleeved green shirt, black pants, and dark hair.
Chris introduced the next camper. "Contestant number nine is Trent."
"Hey, good to meet you, man. I saw you on that figure skating show, nice work." Trent complimented as he gave a fist bump to the host.
"Hey thanks man, I knew I rocked that show!" Chris boasted in reply.
As Trent made his way to the other eight campers, a harmonious tune could be heard in the background. Chris looked left and right across the vast waters for any sign of a yacht, or even person lost at sea. That was, until a soft voice sung to him from above.
"Up heeeeeeeeeere!", the camera jolted up to show a young lady wearing a pink hair bow with dark hair, elbow-length pink gloves, and a pink dress being carried down slowly by a small flock of hummingbirds. As soon as she touched the ground, she thanked the birds as they flew off in various directions. Chris and most of the other players were left stunned.
Chris shook his head rapidly a few seconds later and began to introduce the bird whisperer, "Ooooookay. That's not how I expected to greet anyone, but welcome to the island, Ella."
"Thank you, kind host man." Ella replied, "Erm, can I ask you what your name is?"
"Chris, and I can assure you just by looking, he's far from kind" Emma chimed in as the camera briefly cut to her talking before returning to the host and Trent, the former giving an annoyed look to the left.
Trent immediately disagreed, "Hey now, we shouldn't make any assumptions. It's hardly day one."
"Ummmm" Ella struggled to come up with a response to Emma's claim as Chris sighed and nonchalantly said, "Some people are just cold. You can… go stand with them."
Ella obliged, walking out of the scene's view and Chris continued, his tone becoming slightly more upbeat with each word.
"Moving on, our next camper had a farm. E-I-E-I-O! Please welcome… Rodney!" Chris stated.
Sugar cringed and pouted, "That joke is older than my great Gran'ma. Yuck."
A giant boy with orange hair wearing blue overalls, and a white t-shirt stepped off the boat, boasting a fairly wide grin and stared at the group behind Chris.
The young man stayed silent however as The Host tried to earn his attention after several seconds of awkward silence, "Hey, so uh, welcome again Rodney."
"Ooh s-sorry, yeah, this is gonna be.. fun." the young man stuttered, half-heartedly replying to Chris. His gaze stood fixated on half of his fellow campers as he walked toward them. He eventually aimed his eyes on Sugar, who gave him a very confused look, that was until someone stepped between them. That person was Brick, who then turned to face Rodney.
"You good, big guy?" Brick asked curiously, putting a hand on the other's shoulder.
Rodney snapped out of his small trance, "h-h-h-h-i… oh, huh? Yeah, yeah I'm all excited and ready to g-go."
"Good man. Focus helps you get stronger." Brick advised, turning to the host without seemingly any more concern about the giant farm boy. "So who's up next?"
Chris only looked away upon hearing Brick's question as the next camper arrived: A blonde girl dressed in mostly pink summer clothing and wearing shades. She took them off and introduced herself to the camera. "Hey hey, Dakota here. It is so nice to be here!"
Chris gave a slightly confused look at the girl and said, "Hi Dakota. You know we're over here, right?"
Dakota turned herself to face Chris and responded as she walked past him, not making direct eye contact. "Well yeah, where else would you be? Say, isn't this supposed to be a five-star resort?"
Chris gestured toward the island and corrected her, saying with a proud tone in his voice, "Well, that's where I'm gonna be staying. You're gonna be stuck in those crummy, old cabins while I chill with AC and a bathtub."
"Wha- excuse me? Why?" she asked bewildered.
"Contract, remember? Read before you act." Chris responded joyfully as he briefly pulled out a stack of documented papers before shoving them back into his pocket. Dakota grumbled as she joined the other players.
After a moment of silence, Chris turned around upon hearing an *ahem* sound while the camera zoomed out to show a teen with dark hair, dark skin, and a red vest.
"Oh, hello Noah!" Chris greeted.
"You got my memo about my life-threatening allergies?" Noah asked in an unenthusiastic tone.
"I'm sure someone did." the man told him.
"Good." The teen said.
The young man continued with a follow-up question, "Is this where we'll be staying?"
"Sadly yes. Where else would we stay?" Responded Emma as she rolled her eyes.
"Fair enough. Guess all of the budget for this show went toward the prize money."
"Oh, there's a lot you don't know about, haha." Chris chuckled as he turned to introduce the next camper. "Next camper… Jasmine!"
A tall woman with black hair and dark skin wearing a green short-sleeved jacket and green shorts leaped out of the yacht. "Thanks for the ride mate." She also boasted an Australian accent as she thanked the yacht driver before turning to face everyone else. "Hey guys, it's so exciting to meet you all. I'm Jasmine."
"Woah… she's huge." Rodney responded, forming a wide grin.
Jasmine gave a look of confusion in return and said… "Yeah… anyway, I hope we can all get along." her positive exterior returned rather quickly as she shook off Rodney's words.
Chris put his hand over his eyes and looked into the distant waters. Hardly a second later, he put both hands on the sides of his head and shouted, "Camper fifteen incoming!"
The camera shifted over to show the next yacht, which was not only fast approaching, but carrying its next camper behind it, who was enjoying himself as he rode on jet skis.
"HOOT HOOT!" the boy shouted with a fist in the air.
Another moment later, the yacht strode past the dock. That's when its passenger took his chance to show off and leaped from his jet skis, landing on the dock… back-first. A small crack and moan could be heard. The audience of players cringed and Chris followed up by saying, "Ooh, that's gotta hurt."
Just then, the boy gave a thumbs up and got back on his feet, a smile showing the whole time. Brick and Trent looked at each other with a grin and thumbs-up.
"I'm.. okay. Just a few bruises." The Hockey Player said.
"Okay then. In any case, welcome to the island, Raj." Chris greeted.
Raj's appearance was just that of a young hockey player: White jersey with blue at the end of the sleeves and collar, yellow and navy blue stripes circling around the sleeves, the number eight and capital letter A stamped onto the upper left of the jersey. It also had a detailed logo in the centre featuring a grey owl head with two hockey sticks below it. He also wore blue shorts and had dark, scruffy hair and brown skin.
As the hockey boy was about to start walking, another crack could be heard and he held his back in brief pain as he emitted a soft "oof, ow." Zee came and gently wrapped his left arm with Raj's right, helping guide him to the group.
"That was some sick landing yo. You should practise that more often." Zee commented.
"Thanks, dude." Raj replied, "I could stay on those jet skis all week long if I wanted to."
A second later, the next yacht arrived and yet another teen stepped out, luggage in tow. She had dark brown skin, black hair with a ponytail, was fairly large in size, and wore a beige shirt depicting four peaches roughly lined in the centre, along with blue denim pants partially rolled up.
"What's up y'all, Leshawna in the house!" The girl introduced herself in an enthusiastic manner and continued to talk as she walked past Chris.
"Yo baby hey how you doing how's it going?"
"Feel free to quit now and save yourselves of trouble cause I came to win!"
Rodney stepped forward as Leshawna paused in front of the group of fifteen, "Wow, t-that confidence is… is…"
"Hm? What's up?" Leshawna asked as her smile slightly faltered in the moment.
"...Big." Rodney finished his sentence as he started to drool and stare at Leshawna with a wide open mouth.
Leshawna gave the bigger guy an annoyed look, "Well, of course I'm confident, boy. That's what it takes to win this thing!"
Rodney did not stop giving her the same look as she looked away, slightly frowning, and strode past him, making herself one with the group.
Chris was shown again, before the view zoomed out to show the seventeenth contestant. A short boy with dark hair, brown skin, wearing a yellow shirt underneath a cyan vest, along with greenish-brown pants and a belt.
The host turned his body to face the boy. "Welcome, uh." Chris checked a slip of paper before looking back up, "Dave. How does it feel to be here?"
Dave took a look upward and tilted his head left and right, before responding, "Oh, um, cool I guess. Is this the place they said we'd be staying?"
"Yes… anyway, your peers are over there. Go join 'em" Chris gestured, as Dave complied without hesitancy.
The young man put up a hand and spoke in a rather low volume, "Hi, I'm Dave. Good to meet you guys."
Other than Brick giving the boy a nod, everyone else stayed silent in return as Dave dropped his light smile and joined them.
Another camper arrived in their yacht. She had dark, tan skin, long, dark, thick styled hair with large, white ringed earrings and wore a short maroon midriff baring top, teal pants, and purple sandals.
As the young lady stepped off the boat, something in her hand came loose and rolled down the dock to where Sadie was standing: A can of hairspray. The scene briefly zoomed in on her picking up the can and examining it.
"Hair-Care? Oh, hair spray, I see." the girl read from the container as she looked up, "Here, you dropped thi-."
"Ayo, gimme that before you waste it." the new arrival quickly paced over and snatched her can from Sadie's grip.
"Gotta stay in tip-top shape if I wanna survive out here." she continued while actively spraying the product in her hair.
Sadie frowned, though kept her attention on the beauty enthusiast, "So… what's your name?" she asked.
"The name? Oh…" The newcomer stopped spraying her can, "It's Anne Maria." she responded before walking past Sadie to the left and continuing with her spray bottle.
As Anne Maria walked further down, a few clouds of hair freshener made way into a portion of the group, namely Dave, Zee, and Trent. They all cringed and started coughing together.
Chris observed the growing cast of teens with a smile. A second later, that smile was removed as the host almost got knocked over by a shout coming from the other direction.
"WOO-HOOOOOOO" came an upbeat voice. Not even a second later, a big, chubby boy with blonde hair, light skin, a white shirt with a blue leaf logo in the centre, and green shorts was shown along with his blue vacation bag.
"Chris, what's happening? This is awesome!" As the boy spoke, he pumped his fist in the air.
"Owen!" Chris shouted excitedly as he pointed both hands to the newest arrival, "Welcome!"
Owen immediately grabbed the host and brought him in for a near bone-crushing hug, "Awesome to be here man. Yeah! Man, this is just so…"
"Is awesome the word yer lookin' for?" Sugar asked?
"Yes, awesome!" Owen replied, bring his attention to the farm girl, "Whoa, are you gonna be on my team?"
"Well let's hope so, maybe… or maybe not." Sugar said as her smile disappeared for a brief pause.
Owen continued to cheer as he put on a goofy face, before Chris asked, "You about finished?"
The big guy let go of his hug recipient, "Sorry dude, I'm just so psyched!" He apologised as he put his hands on his head.
"Cool, and here comes Courtney!" Chris announced as the next camper, who was waving from the yacht, was shown.
Chris extended his hand to help Courtney off the yacht as she took it and replied, "Thank you." She had brown skin, brown hair, and wore a grey sweatshirt with rolled-up sleeves, a white collar shirt underneath, and dark green pants.
The girl walked across the dock to join the group, smiled, and stopped to introduce herself. "Hi, you must be the other contestants. It's really nice to meet you all."
Owen quickly jumped at the chance to shake Courtney's hand, "How's it going? I'm Owen." He said.
"Nice to meet you Oh…. Wen..." Courtney faltered in her words as she turned her head to look right. A basketball came bouncing seemingly out of nowhere on to the dock, passing by Chris. As the ball made way its way towards the group, Courtney ducked to avoid it before Raj jumped and caught the ball airborne.
"Score!" he yelled while pumping a fist in the air. He threw the ball back where it came from, only bouncing once this time and being caught with a new pair of hands. The camera zoomed out to show the newest camper that caught it. A tall, thin boy with short, lumpy, dyed blonde hair, dark skin, who was wearing a dark purple vest overtop of a lighter purple short shirt, a white bead necklace, two green bracelets on each arm, and green sweatpants.
"Hey hey, how's it going y'all?" The boy asked enthusiastically.
"Welcome to the island Bowie." Chris said.
"Not too shabby myself, Mr. Mclean." Bowie responded as he walked past the host. "Your hair is looking fabulous."
"Thanks, but you can just call me Chris." The man corrected while maintaining his smile.
Bowie stopped in front of them. "Nice catch, hockey man." He congratulated Raj.
"Thanks," Raj said cheerfully, "you know, we should uh… practise sports together sometime."
Bowie put one hand to his chin in thought and replied with an optimistic tone of voice. "Hmmm, maybe. We'll see."
The next yacht stopped in front of the dock. Strangely however, no one appeared on board. The host glanced from left to right in confusion.
"Huh, I could've sworn we had one more coming."
Two seconds of silence passed.
"Well, I guess there's only-"
Chris was cut off by the abrupt sound of a girl's laughter and water splashing as he forced himself to close his eyes and cover his head. The scene then switched to show the host's perspective as he opened his eyes and saw the wide gaze of a girl smiling at him, teeth showing. It appeared she jumped out from the water.
She had pale skin, hair in the form of two large, sharp L-shaped ponytails that were dyed purple with streaks of magenta, and wore a dark blue doll dress, long socks that matched her hair pattern, and purple shoes.
The scene cut out of Chris' view as he screamed and took several steps back, not paying attention to the fact that he was soaking wet from the wave that came seemingly out of nowhere.
"Wo-o-o-ah, how did she do that?" Zee asked, eyes wide open.
"Oops, did I get too much water on you?" The girl asked curiously, not blinking at all.
"Forget that, where did you come from?!" Chris asked frantically.
"I jumped into the water and when you weren't paying attention, I-" She confessed calmly before being cut off.
"Yeaaaah I don't want to know, really." The host said as he gestured to the left of the dock, "Over there, Lauren."
Maintaining her wide grin, the scary girl made her way over to the group and stopped around where Courtney, Scott, Owen, and Zee were standing, as all but the latter one, sipping on a can of soda and relaxed, took a step away from her.
The view moved back to Chris as he turned his attention toward the newly formed group of twenty-two teens and spoke, "Aaaaaaanyway, first things first. We need a group photo for the promos. Everyone, on the end of the dock." The twenty-two teens were then shown walking to the right in a single file line as Chris leaped onto the yacht parked in front of the dock, now holding a camera.
"Okay." He began, "One…"
The next scene showed everyone in various positions on the dock.
In the bottom row from left to right: Lauren, who was sitting to the left with both hands up and fingers visible, Ella, facing left, knees forward and holding her hands together, Courtney, facing right with her knees forward and hands on them, Dakota, facing left, sitting with her legs crossed, Sadie, facing right with her back against Dakota and knees facing up, Dave, facing left with his knees facing up, and Raj, who was kneeling to the right.
In the middle row from left to right: Sugar, leaning left with her right arm sticking up and hand open, Leshawna, leaning left with her hands on her hips, Axel, facing right and hands on her hips, Zee, facing right with a soda in his left hand, Owen, in his left hand holding Noah who was heavily slumped forward to the left, Trent, heavily leaning to the left, Emma, also titled leftward, and Rodney, arms crossed and facing right.
In the top row from left to right: Jasmine, facing forward, Bowie, right hand up holding two fingers out, Sam, one hand on Owen's shoulder and other holding a small game device, Scott, looking left, Brick, facing forward with a salute, and Anne Maria, arms crossed and head tilted right.
"Two… Three…" A soft snip sound could be heard. "Oops." As soon as the host said that, most of the campers frowned in disappointment.
"Forgot the lens cap." Chris clarified, pointing to his camera before continuing. "Okay, hold that pose. One… Two- oh" He looked at his camera again, "No wait. Cards' full. Hang on."
"Come on man, my face is starting to freeze." Leshawna voiced in annoyance.
The view was on Chris again as he spoke, "Okay. Got it. Everyone say… Wawanakwa!"
The cast was shown once more as they all complied with Chris' request. "WAWANAKWA!" Twenty-two voices could be heard alongside a strange crackling sound. Not even a moment later, the dock gave out to the teens combined weight and thus collapsed, sending everyone dropping into the water at once. The scene went white.
After a brief pause, footage showed a pile of photos sitting on the dock soaked, the front one showing the water filled with broken planks of wood, the faces of Leshawna, Sadie, Raj, and Anne Maria looking up with shocked expressions. Alongside them was Owen holding onto a floating plank of wood, and sticking out of the water were Zee's hat, Brick's arm, and Bowie's leg.
The scene was back on Chris again. "Okay guys, dry off and meet at the campfire pit in ten." The host instructed as the footage went black.
/COMMERCIAL BREAK/
The next scene opened up to show Chris' back turned to the left and as he spoke, zoomed out to show all twenty-two cast members looking in his direction from the campfire ceremony introduced in the beginning. Some were occupying the circular wooden seats, while others were standing around them. "This is Camp Wawanakwa. Your home for the next eight weeks. The campers sitting around you will be your cabin mates. Your competition. And maybe even your friends, ya dig." As the man oriented the teens, footage changed to show a few campers at a time. First, Trent, Brick, Rodney, Sadie, and Emma. Then, Courtney, Noah, and Zee. Finally, Axel and Dave, who briefly smiled at the former, only to receive a glare in return that made Dave lean back and show a hint of fear in his face.
The instruction continued. "The camper who manages to stay on Total Drama Island the longest without getting voted off will win.." Excitement built up in the host's voice, "One hundred thousand dollars!"
Dakota took a step forward, "Um, excuse me. Will there be sleeping accommodations?" She asked.
Rodney also stepped closer, "Yeah. Would it be okay if I, well, slept with… er, we get to choose who we bunk with?" He stuttered.
"No and no respectively." Chris clarified, "Girls get one side of each cabin and dudes get the other."
"What? No fair! I'm the prettiest though." Dakota complained.
"Uh no, last I checked, that title belongs to me." Anne Maria objected.
"Uh-huh sure, but that's not how things work around here." Said Chris.
Jasmine took a step forward as she briefly raised her hand. "Chris," She spoke, "Do we get to choose the teams then?"
Emma responded quietly so only the two people next to her, Owen and Noah, could hear. "Looking at this man, probably not. Figures."
Owen then went behind her and Noah before wrapping his arms around their necks and bringing them close. Both faces showed discomfort.
"Oh come on guys, it'll be fun. It's like a big sleepover."
"Well, at least you're not bunking with him." Noah told Emma, gesturing up to the big guy hugging them both.
"No, your two teams have already been long decided." Chris responded to Jasmine's question as he held up a sheet of paper with writing on it. "If I call your name out, go stand over there." The Host gestured as he finished the last sentence, and then the scene cut to a close up of every camper as their name was called.
"Jasmine"
"Zee"
"Anne Maria"
"Ella"
"Brick"
"Trent"
"Leshawna"
"Owen"
"Lauren"
"Rodney"
"Annnnd… Axel"
A green banner was shown, in the middle was a circular logo which depicted a gopher with its mouth open and fists up in a 'ready to fight' formation. "From this moment on you are officially known as… The Screaming Gophers!"
The camera then moved up to show that Owen was holding the banner all along. "Yeah, I'm a gopher! WOOOOOOO!" he cheered.
The scene returned to Chris as he continued. "The rest of you over here." he ordered, gesturing to the opposite direction of the Gophers.
"Dakota"
"Sam"
"Scott"
"Sadie"
"Raj"
"Emma"
"Bowie"
"Courtney"
"Noah"
"Sugar"
"Annnnd Dave. Move move move move!" Chris barked as the last camper ran to the right.
"You guys will officially be known as…" Chris stated as he threw a red banner to the team, rolled up, Dave catching it, "The Killer Bass." As he finished, said banner unrolled itself to reveal their logo that showed a fish looking sideways and with an angry eye.
"Ooh, can I switch to the team that has killer in the name?" Lauren asked gleefully, earning odd looks from Brick and Leshawna next to her.
"Alright campers, you and your team will be on camera in all public areas during this competition." The Host instructed.
The camera cut to static for a second before the scene shifted to the interior of a small, wooden outhouse. It had glass windows lined up below the ceiling with a diagonal, lined pattern. In the back was a shelf with toilet paper on the left, to the right was a fly ribbon hanging from the outhouse's top. On the centre floor lay an open toilet, and next to it was another roll of toilet paper. The host sat comfortably, cross-legged on the toilet as he narrated.
"You will also be able to share your innermost thoughts on tape with video diaries anytime you want. Let the audience at home know what you're really thinking, or, just get something off your chest."
/Confessional: Scott/
"Well, I'm here now." Scott said, sitting with his arms crossed and frowning. "Might as well play..." The Farm Boy put a hand to his chin in thought, before grinning. "And maybe play dirty, hehehehehe."
/Confessional: Raj/
"Check it out!" Raj eagerly stated to the camera, before sitting down. "I'm on TV. Hi Wayner! I hope you and The Snow Owls are kicking butt out there."
/Confessional: ?/
A loon was applying lipstick to its buck at the lower right of the screen, refraining to talk or even make noise.
/Confessional: Ella/
Ella was seen with one arm half-raised and hand extended out, on the end of it stood a blue bird chirping. Ella looked at it with a smile and softly spoke. "Awww, I know little one." The Princess assured as she pulled out what appeared to be a small crumb the size of her thumb. She then flicked it into the air and the bird opened its mouth and caught it in one fell swoop.
/
The view went back to showing Chris. "Alright, any questions? Cool." The Host said as he bypassed any chance for the players to ask. "Let's find your cabins."
Chris walked on screen in front of two cabins that rested further into the island's forest, one on the far right, the other on the near left. "Gophers, you're in the east cabin." he extended his hand toward the far right cabin. "Bass, you're in the west." he pointed to the closer cabin.
The camera cut to show wood covering the entire screen, though a second later, it swung to the right to reveal that it was just a door, as well as a view of the cabin's interior. Against the left wall was a bunk bed, a small, circular stove, and a drawer. On the right side of the room stood two bunk beds lined against the wall. And in the centre, a yellow, circular rug covered the wooded floor and a window with old, scrappy yellow curtains with a stool could be seen at the back.
"Really? Bunk beds? How hard are they?" came the voice of Anne Maria as she entered the room. "It won't do any bad for my hair will it?" Just then, Axel stepped in carrying her luggage on her shoulder.
"There's no use in complaining. You'll get over it." Axel told her as she bumped into her while walking by, earning a scowl from the latter.
The next scene showed the outside of the Gophers cabin as Leshawna walked toward the open door on the right, with Rodney blindly following her. She stopped just before disappearing into the residence and turned around to look at the big guy with a confused expression.
"Uhm, you're supposed to be over there, honey." Leshawna corrected him as she pointed a finger to the cabin's left side.
"Oh…" Rodney dropped his smile and got nervous. "R-right, sorry. I go help with cabin and.. Guys side." he blurted out, barely coherent, and dashed out of view to the left. Just then, Anne Maria stormed out angrily and asked the host another question. "Hey, where's the bathroom, Mclean?"
"Communal bathrooms?" The Host responded. "Over that way." As he tilted his head to the left, the scene moved to the left to show a small, pale green building covered in stains with three windows at the top, a brown, wooden door, and tiles surrounding it.
Rodney rushed into the boy's side of their cabin as Owen, Brick, Trent, and Zee followed right behind him. "Well, talk about cheap." came a voice offscreen, that being Anne Maria's, who was clearly complaining about the quality of life. This did not go unnoticed by Owen as he chuckled.
"I'm glad we're in our own cabin with just guys, know what I mean?" he giggled. The three boys around him gave an unimpressed look as Owen stopped smiling.
"I mean no." The blonde big guy attempted to correct his words. "I didn't mean it like that. I looooove chicks! Hahaha. I just don't wanna sleep near- aaaah…" Realising the guys ignored his comments and went inside, he ran in after them.
The Bass' cabin was shown next, with Courtney entering through the door on the right and Dave facing left on the porch with Bowie right on his tail.
"Do you think we're gonna have chaperones?" Dave asked the young man behind him.
"Eh, we're all sixteen." Bowie replied. "I'm pretty confident we can handle ourselves."
Just as he finished speaking, Raj tripped over the steps and landed face first behind Bowie. The latter turned around and continued with his response, "Orrrrrrr at least I hope," as he helped the hockey boy get on his feet.
"Thanks, bro." Raj told him gratefully as he ran into their side of the cabin. Bowie's initial lack of an expression turned into a light smile.
Chris spoke, "Glad to see you're all getting settled in so fast." He complimented. "You've got a half hour to unpack and meet me back at the main lodge. Starting…" he held his arm up to show his watch, "Now!" he pointed leftward and walked away rightward.
Just then, a high-pitched scream could be heard from the Bass' cabin in the girl's room by everyone around. A handful of campers leaned to look inside, one of which being Leshawna.
"Man that white girl can scream..." she commented.
The next scene showed Dakota, hands clinging to the back window, legs pressed against the window sill, looking down at a cockroach who was crawling on the carpet.
"Kill that thing, whatever it is… just kill it." she begged in a panicked voice.
A few screams started to erupt and Dave gasped in shock and jumped into the cabin, landing on Axel's half-opened bag. The moment he landed, a clunking sound happened and he stood up to reveal that a bear trap had locked its sharp teeth with his butt. The young man looked down at it and joined the crowd in screaming.
Brick ran into the room with a confident expression on his face. "Step aside everyone. It's just a bug." As he tried to stomp on the roach, it crawled from left to right in an unpredictable fashion that no one could seem to get to it. But before it could escape out the front door, Lauren, wielding an axe in both hands with a notable grin on her face, stood in front of the creature and held her weapon above her head as the scene cut to a close-up of the cockroach begging "Help me." in a high-pitched, soft voice. As a cracking sound was made, the view went pitch black.
The camera turned back on to show Sugar and Sam standing by the doorway in curiosity. "Well I'll be damned. That roach is done like dinner." Sugar commented.
Sam then stepped in as he added on. "Wow, hehe. That's one cool weapon." He said, before turning to face Dakota. "If you ever run into those things again, let me know. I can stomp them out in one go."
The camera then moved to show a close-up shot of Dakota looking at Sam with a curious look that turned into a soft smile. A second later, the scene changed to show Sam smiling in return, before going back and forth a couple more times.
"Yeah, sure you would." Scott told the gamer in a sarcastic tone.
The next scene showed another never-before-seen building sitting in the woods. This one was made of similar wooden material to that of the cabins, except notably bigger with extra windows and only one door at the front. There also appeared to be a small back compartment behind the building of similar structure.
A sharp, shouting voice started off the scene. "Listen up!"
The next view was on the interior, where all of the campers were in a single file line against the back wall. The room had two wooden tables with logs lined up next to them, a large fireplace in the middle wall with what appeared to be a moose carving hanging above it, the entrance could be seen at the left, and on the right was a booth that showed another room on the other side. Also on the right came the source of the voice speaking: A middle-aged black man who was huge in size, with a small moustache, and his neck leaning over and stretched out, wearing a pale green shirt overtop of a white apron and chef's hat.
"I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day!" the man barked at the teens, holding a kitchen cup with a mysterious yellow substance.
"Grab your tray, get your food, and sit your butts down!" he ordered.
Ella and Brick were shown to be the first people in line to the counter that the cook was standing behind. Two trays of food were shown as the cook inserted some kind of red slop onto both trays' rice bowls. The first two lucky candidates swiftly took the trays from his countertop.
Brick nodded as he turned and walked away. The Princess however, had a few words for the man. "I wonder if this is nutritious, but um, thank you sir." she smiled politely.
This politeness was not reciprocated by the Chef however. "What did I tell ya?! Sit down, and EAT" he yelled, making Ella lean back in shock.
Owen and Noah were side by side as the bigger guy whispered to the less-than-optimistic of the two. "Have a Cow."
"What was that?!" The Chef asked as he turned his attention to Owen. "Come closer boy, I didn't hear you." he gestured to the boy to walk over with his finger.
"Oh I didn't really say anything important." Owen tried to convince the Chef as he took his tray and walked away, slightly worried.
The man's tone suddenly went mellow. "I'm sure you didn't" he said.
"You, scrawny kid. Give me your plate." The chef grabbed Noah's attention as well as he added slop to his tray. Somehow, the slop jumped out of his bowl and onto the spoon it came from, before it fell back onto the food a second later.
As Noah walked away, Axel and Leshawna were seen next in line, the latter attempting to make conversation.
"Yo, what's up girl?" Leshawna asked.
Axel immediately turned around and gave her a cold stare before responding with an eyebrow raised and no emotion in her voice. "What?"
Leshawna gave her a bewildered look before resorting to an eye roll. "Whoa, just makin' conversation is all." she replied.
The Zombie Enthusiast walked away with her tray as Leshawna turned to face her back. "Oh, it's gonna be like that is it?"
She was interrupted into shock by the Chef shouting. "NEXT!!"
The next scene focused on Trent and Jasmine sitting at the tables among everyone else.
"I don't think I'm gonna be able to digest their food either." Jasmine said with a look of mild disgust.
"Either?" Trent asked curiously.
"Yeah, I…" the girl paused, "Didn't want to say this so soon but, I'm not sleeping in the cabins either." she responded.
"Well, where else could you sleep?" the boy asked in confusion.
"In the woods, it's complicated and I'll explain later if I need to." Jasmine said, putting a hand on her forehead.
Trent gave her a look of mild worry. "Oh no, I'm sorry. I don't want to push you or anything, hehe." he apologised, but couldn't hide a chuckle as he put a hand on his back.
Chris entered the cafeteria where everyone was seated and eating, or at least trying to eat. "Welcome to the main lodge." he introduced.
"Hey Chris, can we order a pizza or something?" Sam stood up and asked. "I'm kinda starving."
Just as The Gamer finished his request, a kitchen butcher knife came flying out from where The Chef had been standing and landed in the doorframe just next to Chris' head as he looked over.
Sam gasped in shock and turned to the right. "It's all good. White rice and slop is good, c-chef." he corrected in a panicked smile as The Chef glared at him with his knife facing up, which in turn scared some of the other teens.
"Your first challenge begins in one hour!" Chris stated, holding up a finger and walked back out.
Sadie looked at Bowie and asked, "What do you think they'll make us do?"
"It's our first of many challenges." Bowie replied, eyes closed and both arms up in a shrug. "Probably some childhood game like tag."
The next scene showed the twenty-two players standing in front of a large, wooden show stage. On it stood three rows of tables and chairs made of various materials, with a gap in the middle and two groups of them. To the left was a wheel with varying symbols.
A moment later, Bowie spoke again. "Maaaaaybe that was an understatement."
=
And that's a wrap for the introduction of TDI: Recasted and Reordered. I'll admit there were some spots that I had difficulty writing, such as the cockroach scene and figuring out who was gonna take who's place in canon/how different they would react, etc. But overall, I'm fairly happy with how this turned out.
Choosing the cast was a bit complicated as I said at the top of this page so I'll explain: I wanted there to be a fair balance from each generation so I spun 4 different wheels (1 for each gen) and took 6 from the OG group, 5 from ROTI, 5 from PI, and 5 from the Reboot (max 3 of each gender per wheel).
I will confess that one person wasn't chosen by complete random. Emma's spot was originally going to be another Reboot person, specifically an intern because I wanted the combined total of players (68) to be even and Blainley was excluded for obvious reasons. But the problem is the intern is just… an intern. So my decision was to pick Kitty or Emma from RR since I felt either could work well independently, randomised between them, and voila.
Killer Bass: Noah, Sadie, Courtney, Sam, Scott, Dakota, Dave, Sugar, Emma, Bowie, Raj
Screaming Gophers: Owen, Trent, Leshawna, Brick, Anne Maria, Rodney, Jasmine, Ella, Zee, Axel, Lauren
I decided to have chapter 2 ready before I post this so that I could show off one of the main attractions of my fic (that being the altered challenge order). That will be posted a day from this chapters release date.
All things considered, if you enjoyed this introduction to my series, please read onward! If not, I understand, these stories aren't quite for everyone.