Diamond Dodos: Brooke, Chander, Jessica, Mikey, Octavia, Rival
Pearl Platypuses: Anu, Casey, Freddy, Godfrey, Jackie, Jezebelle, Julia, Tobias
"Last time on Total Drama Digital Mayhem…" Chris began the recap as he always did, which was in the entrance hall.
"The Diamond Dodos and Pearl Platypuses were forced to perform for a panel of three judges - myself, Chef, and an intern," the footage showed the three judges looking over the stages, "On a variety of… weird stages, courtesy of Doppel."
"On the Dodos, Chander wowed the audience with his acrobatic skills off of my giant bicep, while Jessica wanted to wow us with her illusions - but thanks to Kanna and Octavia arguing over nothing, that never actually happened," the footage shifted towards Chander's fiery jump of glory, and Jessica's flunk of a performance.
"While the Platypuses had to deal with local sneaky saboteur Casey ruining everything for them, between preemptively ruining Tobias and Jezebelle's song and dance, and also attempting to make a diss track for yours truly," the footage then moved to show the Platypus performances, with Jezebelle getting raised up and Casey getting shooed off the stage.
"Somehow, Casey's worthless diss track won the challenge for the Platypuses because my fellow judges are traitors, and we saw the Dodos go for their second elimination," the footage shifted to Octavia and Kanna both waiting for the final Gilded Chris, "To the surprise of absolutely nobody, it came down to the arguing pair of Octavia and Kanna. Despite Octavia's rotten attitude, it was trolly fail Kanna who took the pipeline down to the Dungeon of Losers. Who will join them? Find out now… on Total! Drama! Digital Mayhem!"
After finishing the introductory words, Chris moved to exit the room, however the door was suspiciously locked, "Huh…? Wait, am I locked in? Hey! Computer-brain, let me out! I've got a show to host!"
Theme song deez nuts gottem (i'm not writing it again)
For Julia, the early morning was especially useful for one thing in particular. That being hunting for the idol while the majority of the other cast members were still sleeping… or at the very least, just waking up. The runaway was wandering through the halls of the castle by themselves, checking Anu's map every few seconds.
Unfortunately for her, the idol hunting would have to wait because somebody else was up… and that person was none other than Freddy, who gave her an enthusiastic wave as he approached her from the end of the hallway.
"Hi, Julia, what's up?" he asked abruptly, "You know, I've never noticed how spooky this place can get at night… it's like something's gonna pop right out and scare you! Luckily there's some lights… but man, can it get a little creepy when they aren't on."
Julia just raised an eyebrow at that, but she didn't exactly disagree. It was hard to say it wasn't a little unnerving with only the lights of the immediate hallway on - Doppel was clearly up (as always) and following the pair, "Why are you awake?"
"It's not that early," Freddy rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle, "And besides, I've woken up earlier to play video games when my parents weren't looking, hehe."
"I guess," Julia frowned, already looking like they'd rather not be in a conversation at all, "Is that it?"
"Okay, you got me," Freddy poked his tongue out cheekily, "I kinda guessed you'd be up… you're hunting for the idol, right? I've got a great eye for secrets after looking for hidden lore in Five Nights at Freddy's… so let me help!"
The runaway weighed this down in her mind… while Freddy was far from the worst option, did she really want to risk working with him?
"Fine," Julia rolled her eyes, "Just don't get in the way."
"I won't!" Freddy eagerly ran towards the nearest suit of armour and began rummaging through it, finding no signs of the idol. The FNaF fanatic took this opportunity to try and spark an actual conversation with the runaway, "Hey, why don't you talk much with the rest of the team, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Why should I?" they replied back with a deadpan.
"Most of us are pretty cool," he grinned, adjusting his top hat, "Maybe not Godfrey… or Casey if she's actually in that alliance, but the rest of us are! And besides… I don't really wanna talk all gameplay and stuff, but I think it'd probably be better if you're in a good standing with the team, right?"
Julia stayed silent for a moment, thinking it over, "So? I'm laying low instead."
"I dunno about you, but I'd get really lonely doing that," Freddy chuckled, as he ran his hand through a curtain to no avail, "Well… I don't really wanna force you to talk with people if you really don't want to… but I'd be happy to be your friend either way, you know?"
"So?" Julia raised an eyebrow, "I don't need friends."
"Maybe you don't, but they're nice to have," he smiled, as the two continued to hunt for the idol together for a while, no conversations happening after that point… mostly thanks to Julia's short responses.
Confessional - Freddy
"I mean, they didn't push me away this time, even if it was just for looking for the idol," he said, tipping his top hat with a light grin, "So I think we're getting closer to being friends - though I did mean what I said, 'cause if she really doesn't want friends, it's not my place to force myself. But she does just feel kinda lonely to me."
Confessional - Julia
"Freddy?" the runaway raised an eyebrow, "He was helping me out… which objectively is a good thing. That's about it. I've said it before… I didn't come on here to make friends."
Meanwhile… Casey was doing what she usually does. Which is, being sketchy, as she approached one of Doppel's monitors, "Okay, Doppel… you gonna tell me what this next challenge is or what?"
"Doppel? I'm sure they're busy elsewhere," Suddenly, Godfrey! "What business do you have with them, anyways? Since we're alliance-mates… well, I should be in the know about what you're planning."
"Well…" the copycat raised her hands up for dramatic effect, or to think of the most convincing lie, "I figured that Doppel would be stupid enough to just, you know… tell people what the challenge is. Sounds like something they'd do."
"Uh-huh," Godfrey just nodded slowly in response, staying silent for a moment before he decided to talk about more pressing issues, "Regardless… I think we both have a shared goal for tonight, don't we? And by that, I mean… getting our team to lose. They've been getting a bit too comfortable… and I want to know how they vote. Can't do that if they haven't voted yet, after all. And if this status quo continues… it'll be our necks on the line."
"Right, right, you've got a point there," Casey crossed her arms over her chest, "So… we just split the team over who's more pissed at who, right? Then we just take a stray vote and take out… well, I'd say Jackie."
"So would I," Godfrey scratched his goatee, before he smirked slightly, "Well… I would, but I have a different target in mind. For as much as the team respects her… Jackie isn't quite super close to any of them. Not to mention, I doubt we could convince anybody to vote for her."
"Except for maybe Julia but like… she's probably onto us," Casey chimed in, not wanting Godfrey to take all of the attention, "Not like they'll have the popularity to do anything themselves."
"Fair point," Godfrey nodded, "Regardless.. my target of choice is Tobias or Jezebelle. They're close, they're not bad at challenges, and they're pretty close to Jackie. Not to mention, they're both also quite hot-headed, which should make it easier to get a stray vote on my side."
"My side," Casey corrected him with a smug finger wag, "But whatever. We have a plan now… so now you just have to not blow it for us by telling it to them. This team's so righteous outside of us, it's insane."
"Heh," the charmer just chuckled lowly, "They all know I want to see this team lose… any additional plans are just the cherry on top. As I've said… I'm a strategic open book. You know exactly what you got into aligning with me."
"Buddy, I'm the one with the actual power in this alliance," the copycat pointed a finger at him, "Your reputation on this team is straight-up ass - I'm the only thing stopping you from digging your grave deeper… you need this alliance way more than I do."
"Think what you will," Godfrey shrugged, "But, a word of advice from a concerned alliance-mate?"
"You're not concerned at all," Casey deadpanned, to which Godfrey chuckled.
"No, I'm not," he agreed, before deciding to correct himself, "But it's not technically a lie - I'm concerned about how this affects my game, of course. You're the only other person thinking strategically here, as far as I know… which also means you're one of the only people who wouldn't vote me out based on my nature alone. Kira, too, but that was a bridge I unfortunately had to burn too soon. So my words of advice… make sure your lies don't pile up too high on you."
"Jeez, can you quit yapping already?" Casey rolled her eyes with a sigh, "But fine. You gonna shove off now? I didn't ask for an impromptu strategy meeting… so go away."
"That's fine by me," Godfrey shrugged, walking away from her, "Enjoy your idol hunt… or whatever you happen to be doing right now."
"Finally…" Casey decided it was best to probably put some distance between her and Godfrey, so she walked off in the other direction.
Confessional - Casey
"Aligning with Godfrey was probably the best choice for me," Casey cracked her knuckles with a smirk, "Sure… he's sketchy. But he's also at the bottom of the team totem pole… so he has to answer to me if he wants to save his skin. Other than that… no luck on the idol front, and Doppel didn't talk to me at all. The usual."
Confessional - Godfrey
"Casey isn't wrong that I'm technically at her mercy. Technically," Godfrey shrugged, "But I can't exactly let her think that without a challenge. Regardless… I do want to let us lose tonight. I can't afford to let this team define its placements for much longer, after all."
Jessica, on the other hand, was just… relaxing in the only place there really was to relax in the accessible areas of the castle that wasn't just the bedrooms… the dining hall. Humming a small tune to herself, she decided to just examine her gauntlets and helmet, making sure they were both in working condition.
"You mind if I sit next to you?" came the voice of none other than Rival, who looked… admittedly a little bored, if curious about her tech.
"Of course not," Jessica shook her head quickly, snapping her fingers into a quick thumbs-up as the vocalist moved next to her, "No illusions today, I'm afraid…"
"Yeah… it's shame about what happened to your show yesterday, huh," Rival leant back, scratching his chin in thought, "...Don't wanna ruin whatever mood you've got going on here… but it's got to suck to have your show ruined, hasn't it."
"It does…" Jessica sighed, shrugging her shoulders a bit, "But hopefully… my magic should be useful eventually. It's got to be, after all."
"Well, what you did show off was more than impressive, I'd think," Rival recalled her show from the past challenge, "Might even be more impressive than a lot of the stuff in this castle really - where'd you get it?" Quick, somebody tell Doppel he said that.
"These…" the magician put on one of her gauntlets with a dramatic flourish, "Are my grandfather's tricks. My entire family are stage magicians… but I… sucked at that! A lot! So… instead, I learned from my grandfather instead."
"Nice, good for you for finding your own path in life. I can respect that for sure," Rival gave her a chill thumbs-up at that, "...By the way, are you still mad at Octavia about ruining the show? I'm not expecting instant forgiveness or anything, but…"
"Actively mad…? Definitely not, I don't hold grudges that easily," she quickly shook her head no, "But I'm definitely still annoyed at her for that for sure because… well… it was probably my one chance to actually perform for you all! Chris isn't going to just re-use a challenge like that."
"Good to know," the vocalist nodded with a relieved smile, "I'm just hoping Octavia's thinking the same way. Voting Kanna and Kira off should let us as a team get along more… hopefully. Octavia's… definitely full of herself, even I can't deny that. But I'd like to think she's got some good in her, while those two… just wanted to mess around with us."
"That… makes sense," the magician recalled what she knew of the two eliminated contestants, and it checked out, "Still… Octavia is… okay, sorry for being rude, but she's completely full of herself."
"...Yeah, I figured," Rival let out a sigh with a shrug, "But… I'd like to think I've got a good read on people, and I think there's more to her beyond just the ego. Just… gotta hope she apologises now."
Jessica… didn't really have anything to say to that, so she just nodded in agreement as the two remained in mutual silence for a moment.
"...You know…" Rival thought out loud, breaking the quiet, "You said it was your 'one chance' to perform... but it doesn't have to be. We've still got access to the stage, after all, since they're on this floor and all. If you wanted to, we could definitely get a second show going."
"You're right!" Jessica's eyes lit up at that, almost causing her to drop the gauntlets in her hands, "Whoops… I really don't want to drop those… but that sounds great! Give me a few days… and I'll have some illusions ready that'll really blow your mind."
"Looking forward to it… just don't throw any shoes, okay?" Rival chuckled, "Well… it was nice talking to you. See you around!"
Confessional - Jessica
"A new show sounds perfect!" the magician placed one of her gauntlets onto her hands like it was a glove, "I was… a bit too busy being sad about my last one being ruined to realise that I could just… do a new one!"
Meanwhile… Mikey was busy spray painting one of the halls, absent-mindedly humming to himself as he did so, "Looking good so far…"
"Oh… hey Mikey!" Chander waved at the prankster as he passed by, giving an appreciative nod towards the jokester's art, "That looks good… do you think Doppel minds you drawing on them?"
"I have no idea!" he snickered, "But you know… I figured I haven't exactly done much, right? And I'm a prankster… so I should've done some kind of prank or something by now. But all I've really done is, well… not much, let's be honest here."
"Well…" Chander didn't quite know how to respond to that, so he just shrugged, "I mean, you're still cool and all, you know? It's not like you need to do a lot, I think… besides, I just got really lucky that I could show off my acrobatic skills yesterday!"
"Dude, you set a stage on fire," Mikey held out his hand for Chander to fist bump, which the acrobat returned after a moment, "Now that, that was cool. And it's something to help you stand out, which right now? I haven't really got. So… I've came up with a plan."
"You have?" Chander leant in closer, watching as Mikey returned to his act of vandalism of what could count as Doppel's skin (don't question it), "I'm all ears… so just, fire away. Hehe."
"We keep losing… so I'm gonna play leader. Kinda," the jokester rubbed the back of his head with a chuckle, "No way is Octavia gonna completely listen to me, after all. But like… the other team has Jackie leading them, and they've won twice in a row now - and I think having some kind of leadership could help us out big time. I'm more of a 'stand up for the little guy' sort of guy usually… but I think I gotta be the big guy now."
"Sounds good to me," the acrobat scratched his chin in thought, before nodding happily, "I doubt I could lead us anyway - so, I'm in your corner, if nothing else!"
"Thanks man," Mikey grinned, "Now then… about that prank… honestly, Chris would be easy enough to prank. It's not like we've seen him around lately, so he'll be caught so off-guard! I think I have an idea... but it'll wait until after the challenge."
"Oh, wait, you're right!" Chander's face lit up at that, "...Well... count me excited, at least!"
"Heh, thanks man," Mikey shuddered at the thought, "But yeah, I'm down with that - you won't miss it!"
With that, Mikey jogged off with all of his things… leaving behind his spray painted art - a small mural of Chris with stink lines, followed by just the jokester's own name and a couple of small drawings of the cast… which did happen to include both himself and Chander.
"Oh… he's actually pretty good at that," Chander chuckled lightly, as he also returned to doing… Chander things.
Confessional - Mikey
"I was serious when I said I was considering leading," the jokester snickered, flipping a spray paint can in his hands absent-mindedly, "I think changing something up for us would probably help us actually etch out a win, for starters."
"But I was also totally serious about pranking Chris… so now I've just gotta figure out the 'hows' and all for that… it'll be fun, at least!"
Jackie was, as usual, doing a morning jog around the halls of the castle, keeping an eye out for the idol as she did so.
Confessional - Jackie
"I'll admit, I'm happy we keep winning challenges," the athlete nodded, hands on her hips as she scratched her chin in thought, "However… I still think that we should get rid of Godfrey sooner rather than later… or whenever we lose. I'm confident that this team would get rid of him, but I don't want him to worm his way up the team totem pole - and his alliance with Casey is a first step. Still… I'm not throwing a challenge just to get rid of him."
Also bounding through the halls was none other than the Funny Frog Man himself, Anu, who happened to be looking for the idol himself… alsowith Princess.
"It's certainly not in any of these statues…" the roleplayer shook his head, checking off spots on a new, second map he made, "If only I had my first map… but alas. So Princess, did you find anything?"
Princess did not respond, as he was a frog. They don't talk. Unless…?
"You make a good point… let's continue this sidequest, then," Just then, Jackie passed by him - and Anu decided to wave at her, bouncing up and down to catch her attention, "Greetings!"
The athlete sighed momentarily, but slowed down and stopped in order to catch her breath. Pulling a water bottle out of nowhere, she took a drink of it, before sending it back to nowhere, "Oh, it's you, Anu. What… do you want exactly?"
"It's Brillup Lilyheart! I just wanted to greet our party's leader!" he declared with a small smirk, "Besides - most of my usual personal party members are doing their own sidequests now, so I'm furthering my own by looking for the Hidden Trophy of Nohomo! If I am to appease the rulers of this castle, it's my best chance!"
"The idol?" Jackie made the only rational guess, to which Anu nodded eagerly. Which… actually brought one question to mind as she looked at the roleplayer, "Why are you like this? Calling yourself Brillup Lilyheart, all the frog stuff, running around in flippers - I don't want to be rude, but you've got to know that people are going to think you're weird, right?"
"And?" Anu looked away momentarily, "This is Brillup Lilyheart's final quest… so I don't see why being perceived as just 'weird' should stop me there! What sort of hero would let a name like that dissuade them?"
Jackie shook her head, "Let's take this one step at a time. Why do you call yourself Brillup Lilyheart sometimes? Your name is Anu, right?"
"Why? That's simple actually. Because…" Anu stayed silent for a moment, for the sake of dramatic timing, "Brillup is my identity as the alchemist of the Bullywag Swamp, and my quest for the Prismatic Well of Nohomo has brought me here!"
"..." Jackie held back a light sigh as she stared at the roleplayer. Eh, he hadn't done anything wrong, nor was there reason to think he had, so she wouldn't be mad at him, "...Then what's this Well of Nohomo, then?"
"Prismatic Well of Nohomo," Anu corrected her with a smug wag of his fingers, "And that is the objective of my quest - to find the Prismatic Well of Nohomo by winning the favour of this castle's monarchy and spirits!"
"If by that you mean winning, you know I'm trying to do that too, right? I've been a fan of this show since its first run, so seeing it come back was the perfect chance to do this," Jackie raised a challenging eyebrow up at the roleplayer, who returned it with an eager nod, "Good… glad to see you're putting in the work. So, just one more question for you - what's with all the frog theming?"
"Oh, that?" Anu gestured to his… weird froggy ensemble as he spoke, Princess letting out a potentially insulted croak too, "The Bullywag Swamp is full of frogs, and as I am their hero… well, it's clear I'm fond of them! I spent many years getting to know those frogs well, so…"
"Nah, I get it," Jackie stretched as she prepared to continue her jog, "You probably couldn't tell just based on how I look and act, but I'm into marine biology - planning to study that at college, in fact."
"That's… great!" Anu twirled his toy spear around before sheathing it again, "Admiration of nature is an… admirable trait for sure! Although I doubt it matches my fondness for frogs, of course - my quests in the Bullywag Swamp have led me to encounter a wide variety of them. I wish you luck on that main quest, of course."
"Well… I should get back to my jog," Jackie gave him a small nod, "But… this was a nice talk. See you at the challenge, man."
With that, the athlete returned to her jog, leaving Anu by himself again, "Now, Princess… back to our side-quest of finding this idol! We do need to keep it out of a villain's clutches for sure… and it would be very good for helping us find the Prismatic Well of Nohomo."
Princess still didn't respond, because he was still, in fact, a frog.
Confessional - Anu
"So far, my quest for the Prismatic Well of Nohomo has been a whole lot of castles and dungeons," the roleplayer mused, adjusting his froggy beanie in thought, "Which is a far cry from my preferred questing grounds for sure, as the swamps I come from are far more… outdoorsy. Perhaps a challenge on the battlements would be nice… but regardless!"
"Anyways… my new idea is to gather my most trusted allies into a proper party and bring that party to the finale, and to have the Chris Tribute as well," Anu grinned, "Which would be… Freddy for sure - perhaps Julia as well? Leading a party of adventurers within my party sounds perfect, if you ask me. And besides, with cunning villains lurking the halls… it's good to have a team!"
Tobias, who was in the dining hall, absent-mindedly tapped his fingers against the table as Jezebelle sat opposite him, when the drummer turned towards her.
"Yo, Jezebelle," he began, resting his arm against the table with a slight grin, "You remember yesterday, yeah? Somebody on our team fucking sabotaged us, and I'm not gonna just take Godfrey at his own word for it. 'Sides, I want back at whoever fucked me over."
"Eh, youse got a point there," the puffball admitted with a smirk, "Yeah, I'm in, but… youse wanna talk or something? Not got much else to do, ya know?"
Tobias checked his (non-existent) watch, before letting out a shrug, "I'm down, already played my drums and had breakfast so I've got nothing better to do."
"Oh yeah, youse are in a band, right," Jezebelle remembered, "What's the whole deal with that, anyways?"
"That? That's simple," he smirked, running his hand through his mohawk, "Me and some of my buddies back home started that together. We haven't had any breakthrough hits or anything, but if you ask me, we've definitely got a cult following going. I'm not too fussed about popularity or anything, though."
"I mean, I just sing for fun," Jezebelle kicked her feet up on the table, "I love the praise and all, but youse ain't gonna see me pull an Octavia or somethin' like that anytime soon. And besides, who doesn't?"
"Exactly," Tobias snapped his fingers together, "Doesn't make it right for somebody to go and fucking mess with our performance though… what do they even get out of sabotaging us, huh?"
"Youse completely right about that!" the puffball flared up, "Whoever did that's gonna pay!"
The drummer just nodded in agreement, before a question came to his mind, "Okay, seriously, I've got an actual question for you… what the hell is up with you and lullabies? What's the whole deal there?"
"I like singing them, is that a problem?" she looked at him with a raised eyebrow, guessing where he was going with this.
"Your choice what you sing, not mine. But that isn't even what I'm asking - what I'm asking is why do you fall asleep every time you sing them, 'cause there's no way that's just some coincidence," the drummer reasoned, crossing his arms as he stood up to his full (short) height.
"Oh, that?" Jezebelle just shrugged, "It's some thing called… musically induced narcolepsy. That's the reason why I keep sleepin'."
"...Then why the fuck do you keep singing them if you keep falling asleep afterwards?" Tobias asked her with a raise of his eyebrow, "Seems really stupid if you ask me."
"Well, 'cause I like 'em, duh," she rolled her eyes, "Youse got a problem with that?"
"If it gets in the way, then yes I do!" the drummer shouted out, before he clenched his teeth and calmed himself down, "Well… it's not like you're an idiot, you haven't sung them during any challenges. So I shouldn't get mad at you for that - you're not pulling a Godfrey on us and getting in the goddamn way."
"Heh, you know it," the puffball smirked, "At least you ain't stupid either, ya know?"
Confessional - Jezebelle
"Youse know what I'm thinking?" the puffball pouted as she thought, "We both know that whichever bozo sabotaged me is on the team, but… I ain't got a clue where to start! Godfrey's… too obvious, ya know? And I don't trust his word that it's just Casey, either! So I don't even know where to begin!"
Confessional - Tobias
"Honestly, I'm still pissed about our show getting ruined," the drummer crossed his arms with a glare, "We might've won… but still. Honestly, kinda thinking Godfrey might be right… but it's also Godfrey, so I trust him about as much as I can throw him."
So not far at all, "Fuck off."
Meanwhile, in the girls' bedroom, Brooke and Octavia were both preparing for the day, the media darling doing her make-up in front of the mirror.
"We're onto episode four's box today," she narrated, pulling out a box of make-up with a big '4' marked on it - inside her bag were similar previously opened boxes with '1', '2', and '3' all labelled on them, alongside even more for future episodes.
Brooke, on the other hand, didn't have anywhere near as much, although that was a given when Octavia was her competition, "That's… a lot of make-up."
"Well, duh, I've, like, always got to be prepared for when a camera could be on me," Octavia reached into her bag, pulling out more sets with more specific labels on them, such as events that happened formerly in the season, "How am I supposed to be center stage when I'm, like, not looking my best?"
"I guess that kinda makes sense," the shopper mused, leaning against her arm, "Not that I can relate to having that much make-up myself."
"That's, like, why I'm gonna be the fan favourite," the media darling boasted, running a hand through her hair with an overconfident smirk, side-eyeing the camera with a wink, "I stay popular 'cause I'm, like, always making sure I can work the cameras."
"You… do realise you aren't really super popular here, right?" she looked up at the taller girl with a raised eyebrow, "Both of the times we lost, you've been bottom two. And I don't think early boots tend to be fan favourites…"
"Well, like… obviously I've got to have, like, a struggle early on," the media darling reasoned, her smirk never leaving her face, "'Cause there's tons of us still around, that's, like, a perfect way to bring attention to me. Even if I don't need the boost, it's still great to have… and I know I'm not going anywhere anytime soon!"
"Doesn't make any sense to me, but I guess it's working for you somehow," Brooke mused, resting her head in her hands with a thoughtful expression, thinking of what else to talk with Octavia about given that she was… less insufferable than usual this morning.
Fortunately, Octavia had the perfect thing to discuss, the media darling finishing off her make-up and putting away the box, "And besides, I, like, think I know exactly who voted for me back in the first episode! It was obviously Kanna - they were trying to flirt with Rival and everything, and just wanted to try and, like, annoy me too… so, like, good riddance!"
"I guess so," the shopper agreed with a short nod, before the pair continued their preparation, "But… what about with Chander and Jessica? You did ruin Jessica's show because you were fighting with Kanna… I'd think she might still be annoyed with you, you know?
"..." Octavia remained silent for a moment, before she just let out a cocky smirk, "Like… whatever there. Sure, fine, she can stay mad… but it's still all Kanna's fault. Not mine."
"...Right," Brooke nodded awkwardly, "Look, I'm just… concerned. As, like… a friend, you know. So please try and make it up to her, or at least apologise, okay?"
"Fine, fine, whatevs," the media darling rolled her eyes, turning back to her makeup, "I might."
Confessional - Brooke
"So… the main reason I hang around with Octavia is because we've got, like… a lot in common, - we're both into fashion and all that, which is way more than I've got in common with pretty much anybody else," she noted, chuckling to herself, "So I just wanna try and get along with her, you know? Sure, she's… obnoxious, but there's definitely worse here, let's be honest."
Soon enough, the main cast were all gathered in front of… the elevator, expecting their next challenge. Of course, Chris was nowhere to be seen, and the elevator opened itself up, Chef leaving it with a scowl.
"For some reason, Chris is locked in the entrance hall and can't get out, so I'll be-" the burly co-host was about to step up and take the hosting job for himself, when Doppel popped in with an interruption.
"No, no, let me do this!" the AI beamed innocently, a large grin on their avatar's face, "I know exactly what the next challenge is gonna be… and hosting looks fun!"
"...Fine," the cook rolled his eyes, seeing no point in arguing against them (probably since they were very close to being all-powerful in here), "Doppel will be hosting today's challenge. With me, and Ember's, supervision, obviously. Wherever they are…"
"I-I'm right here!" the programmer squeaked, darting through the crowds to Chef's side, "B-besides, Doppel's harmless… I triple made sure of it!"
"...Really? I like at least pretending to be kinda evil, it's fun," the AI half-sulked for a moment, before regaining their usual pep. "Hosting time! First things first… walk away from the elevator, the challenge isn't through there!"
"...Then why did you have us meet at the elevator?" Mikey questioned, rubbing the back of his head, "Seems dumb to me, you know."
"It's a big cool elevator that stands out, that way nobody gets lost!" Doppel beamed, "And besides, this way's so much faster, so don't worry!"
By 'so much faster', they meant a trapdoor, sending the entire cast falling down screaming… falling haphazardly into two separate tubes… albeit not in perfect team formations, "Don't worry! There's water down there. So you're safe… probably!"
"Water?" Chander paled as he fell screaming into the left tube.
"Probably?" Chef raised an eyebrow, giving the AI a pointed look, "You really sure about that?"
"I ran the conversations, and there's only a 0.01% chance of death!" they cheerfully announced, "...Which is if if somebody lands face-first in there and fails to get out."
While the cast fell, Chef crossed his arms and looked down at Ember, his eyes darkening, "You better have them under control, or else…"
"Y-yeah… gotcha," the programmer hugged themselves nervously, "I-I'll… talk with them after the challenge."
They also muttered a few choice curse words under their breath, "Doppel, why the fuck did you do this…?"
At the bottom of the pool… Chander immediately fell into the pool of shallow water… and upon doing so, ran out of it as quickly as he could, shaking slightly in the process. Calming himself down, he looked at the room he was in - it looked like the entrance to a dungeon, with electric torches being the only light - and a large gate in front of him. Inside the room were also six other people - Casey, Jackie, Jessica, Jezebelle and Tobias. So… a mix from both teams.
"Chander, are you okay?" Jessica immediately checked on her friend, noticing his uncomfortable expression, "You're not hurt or anything, right?"
"Yeah…" he looked to the floor, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he avoided looking at the safety pool, "Me and water just… don't mix well."
"So… where are we, exactly?" Jackie frowned as she jogged out, dusting off her clothing. Unfortunately, she couldn't just dry it now, "Looks like an entrance to something, if you ask me."
"Of course it's an entrance, Einstein," Jezebelle rolled her eyes, bouncing over to inspect the door herself, "Youse gotta be stupid if you're thinkin' this is anything else. I'd bet some real good money that the challenge is right behind this door."
"Welcome Diamond Dodos!" Doppel's cheery grin filled the room, "To… the opening room of the challenge!"
"Are you fucking blind?" Tobias clenched his fist, having not drowned, damn, "Do we all look like the fucking Dodos to you? I know I'm on the Platypuses at least?"
"...Wait, are you telling me they got this wrong?" Casey held back a laugh, as Doppel's smile dropped to a more… blank stare, "They're the world's smartest AI… and they still fail a basic thing like this. Wow…"
Up above them on ground level, Ember winced upon hearing that through the monitors… not that Casey knew, of course.
"Did they break?" Tobias looked ready to punch the monitor, as Doppel didn't move, their avatar not even blinking.
"Are they stupid?" Casey felt the need to add another comment.
"...Please don't tell me we're stuck…" Jessica sighed, rubbing her arm awkwardly. Nobody here could reach the pipe on the ceiling, that's for sure.
"Don't worry…" Doppel suddenly burst back to life again, "I might have… not made the pipes all only let people from one team in… whoops! However! I have computed a solution - this… is now your new team based on the people you fell with! Actually, I think this is a cooler team than the ones that already existed. Meet the Brilliant Bulbs!"
The six Bulbs all exchanged glances with one another, unsure of how to respond to that announcement - as a new, blue logo of a lightbulb appeared… complete with a platypus clinging onto the bulb for dear life.
"...Can I go back to being a Platypus?" Tobias deadpanned, "This logo sucks ass, dude."
"No," Doppel deadpanned.
"Well…" Jackie crossed her arms over her chest, looking over her new team. Casey was… the second worst person to be stuck with from her original team - she wasn't Godfrey, but still. The rest were all alright people, at least, "Alright. I can work with this."
"I'm gonna miss the old team," Chander exchanged a small shrug with Jessica, who nodded in agreement, "Except Octavia… but! I'm hopeful that this new team will be pretty fun, too!"
"Now then… I've gotta go talk to the other guys - don't worry, I'll be back!" Doppel's screen faded to black as they waved goodbye, leaving the newly named Bulbs to wait for… however long, really.
Confessional - Casey
"A new team? Already?" the copycat blurted out, taking a sip of a drink before immediately spitting it out, "Let's just say, I did not see that coming. Splitting up from Godfrey's not great… mostly 'cause I can't throw him under the bus, and now I have to deal with Jackie for him. But other than that… hehe, divide and conquer."
"...Wait, are you saying all of our scheming's gone to waste now?" she let out an irritated sigh, "Drat…"
Confessional - Jackie
"I'm not sure how I feel about the team swap just yet," the athlete crossed her arms, thinking about her new team, "I've got nothing against Chander and Jessica, but we definitely had a winning streak going on the Platypuses - and now I've got to find a way to deal with Godfrey while he's on the other team. Hopefully we can keep that up on the Bulbs. At least I can handle Casey if she decides to be a problem."
Speaking of the new other team, in an identical room to the last one, the remaining eight contestants had all fell - Anu, Brooke, Freddy, Godfrey, Julia, Mikey, Octavia and Rival. And of course, Princess.
"Ugh…" Octavia frowned, checking her reflection as best she could within the small pool of water, "Doppel is like, so lucky they didn't mess up my hair…"
However… Princess was in her hair, and she let out a small screech as he hopped out instead, picking him up and throwing him right into Anu's face, "Keep your weird frog out of my hair! Jeez!"
"Hey! Princess isn't weird at all!" Anu made to grab his toy spear, as Princess crawled on top of his head, "He's a perfectly normal adventuring frog!"
"...So… what part of that is normal?" Brooke sweatdropped, "...I'm not judging but like…"
"Guys, let's not fight right now, yeah?" Mikey put himself between the two with a small chuckle, "Besides, we don't even know what the challenge is yet, so…"
"Did… I miss anything?" Doppel chose just now to pop into the room, smiling half-obliviously at the unaware second team, "Anyways! So… I just told the other team this-"
"Other team?" Godfrey raised an inquisitive eyebrow, scratching his goatee. That was… an odd way to phrase things for sure, "Go on…"
"As I was saying before I was interrupted!" the AI continued, "I… didn't screw up with the pipes at all!"
"They… probably did," Freddy stage whispered to Julia, who rolled their eyes… but also nodded in agreement.
"So, in order to shake things up… you have new teams!" Doppel grinned proudly, "We had the Brilliant Bulbs… so you lot shall be known as… the Shining Scepters!"
A new logo, this one in the same pink as the original Pearl Platypuses appeared, featuring a giant scepter held by a very panicked dodo. Hey, at least the old mascots still have jobs.
"...Well, here's hoping we'll outshine the other team," Rival, not the time, "Jokes aside… huh. I wasn't expecting this… not anytime soon, that's for sure."
"A new party… now that could be fun for sure!" Anu grinned, bouncing up and down happily, "And Scepters… that's certainly a step up in royalty from Platypuses… even if we lost our secret agent status."
Confessional - Godfrey
"I can live with a twist like this," the charmer smirked, "No Jackie is both a blessing and a curse, as is being split from Casey. But… this team looks a lot more… I'd say gullible, but that's too kind. I'd say stupid. A lot stupider than the last one, which is fine by me. But this changes things quite nicely for me."
Confessional - Julia
"This changes nothing," she just shrugged apathetically.
Confessional - Octavia
"This is, like, perfect," the media darling smirked, "New team which I get to be the main player in, and… I don't have to deal with the part where I ruined Jessica's show, either… like, I'm not super happy about ruining that, but like… I'm not delulu enough to think that's the kind of attention I want."
New Teams
Brilliant Bulbs: Casey, Chander, Jackie, Jessica, Jezebelle, Tobias
Shining Scepters: Anu, Brooke, Freddy, Godfrey, Julia, Mikey, Octavia, Rival
"Okay! Finally! Whatever, now I get to tell you all about this fun challenge I made all by myself!" Doppel's avatar's grin grew notably more smug as they said that, being reflected on both teams' views of the AI, "We had way too many dungeon floors… so I just revamped a whole bunch of them."
"...I'm not sure if I prefer them or Chris hosting," Tobias whispered to Jezebelle, who gave him a nod in response, "Chris ain't a fucking castle, for one."
"And… you're all locked in the very very bottom dungeon room!" Doppel exclaimed cheerily, ignoring him, before their avatar pointed towards the big door in each room, "And you'll have to go through various rooms to escape the dungeon-"
"How many is 'various' exactly?" Jessica interrupted curiously, "Like on a scale of three to twenty - where would it fall?"
"It's like… three per team," Doppel's avatar held up three fingers, "Since we only have so much room down here! But back on track, there's a puzzle or mini-challenge or something in every single one - you beat the puzzle and… ding! Next room!"
"I'm guessing they were talking to the other team there," Godfrey mused, noticing the pause in the AI's speech - since Doppel was saying the same words to both teams, despite being in two different rooms, "Anybody could guess that, really."
"So like a real dungeon…" Anu muttered out loud with a glint in his eyes, "Perfect!"
"Whichever team beats their rooms first… wins!" Doppel finished their explanation with a cheer, "Any questions?"
Unlike Chris, Doppel actually gave them time to ask them. Jackie immediately had one to ask, though, "Where's Chris gone?"
"Entrance hall. I locked him in there," Doppel poked their non-existent virtual tongue out as innocently as they possibly could, "All because I wanted to try his job out - it looks fun!"
"...There's a joke about AIs and jobs I could make here really easily," Rival sweatdropped with a small chuckle, "You sure that's it? No ulterior motives or anything - I'm not doubting you, but some of us probably are."
Case and point, Casey, who had her arms crossed with a raised, skeptical eyebrow - especially since they did have a deal with the AI going on, "You're really just gonna say all this out loud, huh. You're actually just fucking insane."
"Double-triple sure!" they would've rapidly nodded their head if they had one, "It gets boring being a castle, you know? More fun than just being a computer, but still!"
"No?" Octavia had never been a castle and thus, couldn't relate. Though she was also putting a new batch of make-up on after the surprise splash ruined her first batch, "Like, whatever. Can we just, like, get onto the challenge now? I've had to redo my make-up 'cause of you!"
"Sure thing!" the AI beamed as they very slowly opened the doors to the rooms while their monitors went blank, "Have fun, good luck, don't die, all those other things Chris has probably said at some point!"
"I… don't think he's said 'don't die' before," Freddy chuckled, before he turned to the rest of the Shining Scepters, "Anyways… let's go in before they do! …Maybe there'll actually be animatronics in here…"
With a few exchanged glances, his team followed after him, Mikey speeding himself up to be at the front of the pack.
"Okay, team," Jackie turned to the new Brilliant Bulbs as well, "We might have the numbers disadvantage… but we can still win this. We've got this!"
Confessional - Casey
"New team, whatever," the copycat rolled her eyes with a poke of her tongue, "Being split from Godfrey's actually fine, 'cause… he's still gonna be hated wherever he is, and I don't need to worry about him blabbing about my scheming. That's also not one-hundred percent fine, 'cause now I'm at the bottom of the pack, since I'm stuck with like four fucking performers. Drat."
"But what that does mean…" she rubbed her hands together gleefully, "Is that I've gotta sic them on each other... eventually. I can't split Chander and Jessica or Tobias and Jezebelle, but I can definitely make 'em not like each other. And… give them a reason to trust me, too. Unfortunately for me, I'm not trustworthy."
With the Brilliant Bulbs, they entered their first room - and within it was, well…
"Youse serious?" Jezebelle looked on in awe and slight confusion, "Is that a dragon?"
Technically, yes! It was a steel dragon head built into the wall with a closed mouth - and two hollow gaping holes where its eyes should be. Scattered around the room was… also just… a lot of crates.
"So… what do we even do, exactly?" Jessica crossed her arms, looking at the dragon head with a raised eyebrow, "There's no instructions or anything… and it's not like I've got any dragon-slaying prowess to my name."
"Simple," Jackie immediately took charge, "We can figure it out through trial and-"
"Eh, fuck that," Casey interrupted her with a grin, "Doppel!"
"Yes~" the AI's voice chimed in across the room.
"Or we can do that," Jackie nodded in surprised approval, "Good thinking, Casey?"
"What's the challenge?" the copycat asked curiously, smugly smirking at Jackie.
"It's…" Doppel paused for dramatic effect, "You've gotta put the eyes inside the dragon's sockets! I'm not telling you what the eyes are, but that's it! Anyways… hm. You've now used up your one question… because if you can do this, so can the other team!"
"Now you're just making this shit up as you go along!" Tobias crossed his arms and glared at where he thought their voice was coming from, "You didn't plan shit, did you?"
Doppel didn't respond at all, leaving the six in relative silence.
"Fuck you too, buddy!" the drummer flipped Doppel off with a glare.
"Well… it's at least good that we know what we've gotta do now, right?" Chander looked on the bright side, moving over to one of the crates, "Now if I was a dragon eye… I'd be in a crate, right? So if I just…"
The acrobat opened up the crate, and inside was just a single round blue orb, "Is this a dragon eye? Only one way to check… up it goes!"
Using all of his strength, Chander threw the orb right at the dragon's left eye socket. Nothing happened… until…
"I don't think that's the eye…" Jessica took a concerned step back, as the dragon head opened its mouth slightly, a rumbling sound coming from within. The orb popped out of the dragon's eye, too.
With a sudden roar, it burst open, emitting a large jet of flame that narrowly avoided burning Jezebelle entirely - but the wall behind her was definitely charred.
"Ay!" the puffball pouted at the head, "Youse really tryin' to burn me alive here?"
Confessional - Jessica
"I don't think that's safe at all," the magician chuckled nervously, "I trust Chander with fire way more than I trust Doppel with fire… no offense. It's not even an illusion here either!"
Chander blinked for a moment, before he just let out a small shrug… he had no issues with fire, for one, "Okay… new plan. Don't just put random things in the dragon's eyes, whoops. Let's just… find new eyes then! Come on, Jess!"
"Right behind you," the magician nodded with a small bow, before the two walked over to the crates, "I… doubt my boots can break these crates, though."
"...Newer plan," Chander had a moment of realisation, looking at the dragon head with a grin, "Come right with me… this should be fun."
"Before we do anything else…" Jackie looked at the four members of the team she trusted (so not Casey), "Let's only put in eyes if we can find a matching pair first… right, Casey? I trust the rest of you to do this… so…"
"Hey, I'm the only reason you guys even know what to do," the copycat raised her arms up in mock surrender, "And I don't wanna be charcoal… so yeah, whatever. Quit pointing fingers at me, sheesh."
"Just because you're not Godfrey doesn't mean you're not sketchy too," Jackie raised a skeptical eyebrow, but then moved across to the other side of the room to start opening crates - the first opened… only to reveal a single fly, "He mentioned having an alliance with you - and even he wouldn't lie for no reason."
"God, you're obsessed with that guy," Casey snickered as she kicked open a crate… revealing a red orb this time, "Anyways, any of you losers got a red circle?"
"No!" As for the short angry people, they were similarly lost in the pile of crates, with Tobias crossing his arms as he looked at them, "Fuck… there's gotta be a better idea to open all of these crates…"
"Hmm…" Jezebelle muttered as she opened up a crate… only for it to turn up empty, "Well, youse got any bright ideas, then?"
"Not yet," the drummer frowned, "But I'm-"
"Coming through!" Chander grinned as he pushed a crate right past Tobias, Jessica pushing another one in next to him - the two performers stopped right in front of the metal dragon head, and Chander had picked up the blue orb in his hand, "Can you guys actually push some crates over here, please?"
"Why, what for?" Jezebelle raised a suspicious eyebrow, "We're meant to be lookin' through these crates, ain't we? Youse stupid?"
"It's…" Jessica let smoke emit from her boots for a moment, doing some jazz hands as she laughed, "A surprise! Just call it our key to victory."
Tobias moved a box next to the ones the performers had set up, "You wanna get Jackie and Casey on this shit too?"
"Nah… we'll be fine," Chander smirked, tossing the blue orb in his hand up and down before he sent it flying… right into the eye socket of the dragon head again.
"What the-?" Jackie's eyes widened as she saw it sputter out again, "I thought we agreed not to do that, guys! Seriously?"
"And I'm the one throwing, according to you. Really?" Casey just rolled her eyes, "But eh… this could be funny."
Diving out of the way, the four watched as the dragon head yet again emitted a blast of flame that disintegrated all of the crates… leaving behind just a few extra orbs that were, thankfully, somehow unscathed.
"It worked!" Chander grinned with a satisfied chuckle, giving Jessica a high-five as he looked at the burned pile of ash and orbs in front of him, "Any of these match with anything?"
"...On second thought, they're clearly doing something right," Jackie went back to looking in the crates, seeing that they had a method going for them, "Good job, guys!"
"Got any reds?" Casey called out, holding up her orb with a dry smirk, "I've got one… right here. Smart move from you two, anyways."
"Red, red…" Jessica scoured through the pile, "Ooh, yes! We in fact… do! Bring it over!"
"Right… and Chander? Catch!" Casey threw hers into Chander's hand, guessing he'd have the best throwing arm… though he clearly didn't have the best catching arm, as it conked him square in the forehead.
Though once he picked it up, the acrobat threw it into the right socket as Jessica threw hers into the left one - and the dragon head opened right up… and didn't shoot fire at them this time, instead revealing a door.
Chander and Jessica exchanged high-fives as they ran through the door almost immediately, with Jackie following after them.
"I get wanting to run ahead, but in this sort of challenge it's best to be able to keep an eye on everybody!" the athlete shouted out, following them through the door, "Wait up!"
"Man…" Casey smirked as she looked at Tobias and Jezebelle, "Outdone by those two-time losers… that's gotta suck, huh? All you guys even did there was just what they wanted you to, so-"
Jezebelle slapped Casey in the face, shutting her up. Tobias would have joined in if he could reach it, so he just kind of shot her a death glare instead and considered breaking her kneecaps. Unfortunately, the rational side of him reminded him that she was needed to finish the challenge. The copycat then ran away… like the coward she is.
"Shaddup!" the puffball puffed up, "That was one challenge… there's still like three more, youse hearing me?"
"Fuck was that about?" Tobias glared, "But whatever… I'll show her what I - we can do next part, mark my words!"
Confessional - Jackie
"So far, the new team's actually getting along pretty well," she noted, "On the surface, at least. The main problem with this is just that I can't keep an eye on Godfrey any more… and I don't fully trust Casey, either. They've both got to go soon, so if I can keep the rest of the team united and win, we'll probably be free from Godfrey - and on the off-chance we lose, we can just get rid of Casey."
Confessional - Godfrey
"You know, being free from Jackie's surveillance would be very helpful if I ever intended on deceiving people," he shrugged, "Too bad I'm not. But being split from Casey's good… it lets me have some eyes on the Bulbs, at least. But I intend on finally losing tonight… and now I need to choose a good target. Fun times indeed."
Meanwhile, the Scepters had also found themselves in the exact same room as the Bulbs - dragon head, crates and all.
"So… what do we even do here?" Mikey turned around to ask the rest of the team, confusion written all over his face, "Maybe we… climb up the dragon head or something?"
"Don't fret… for I know exactly what sort of puzzle this is!" Anu boldly stated, pulling open a crate to find a purple sphere, "Hollowed-out eyes are a classic of dungeon crawling… so all this party must do is find new eyes!"
Lobbing the sphere into the eye socket, Anu watched on with held breath as the dragon head sputtered… and then shot out an angry jet of flame that scorched the walls.
"...Well, that happened to be a failure," he chuckled awkwardly, patting himself down with a frown, "...Wait. Where's Princess…?"
Looking at the burnt floor, Anu's eyes widened, "He couldn't have… he's far too strong to-"
"He's on your head, weirdo," Octavia pointed out, using her natural height advantage, "Like, jeez."
"Oh! Right!" Anu reached his hand up to his beanie and let out a sigh of relief, "There you are…"
"Anyways…" Mikey cleared his throat with a small cough to catch everybody's attention, "Why don't we just open all of the crates, and then see if we can figure anything out from that, right? We've got the numbers advantage, so we can definitely get that done quickly, right!"
Before anybody could agree, Doppel's voice rang out, "Hi! I'm just here to tel you guys that you now have… one question you can ask about a challenge! Because the other team asked me one, so in the interest of fairness… so can you! Byeeee!"
"That's… good to know," Rival smiled, "Anyways, I'm down with Mikey's plan. It might take a while, though…"
"Maybe there's a faster way to do it?" Freddy tapped his hat with a chuckle, "Like… some kind of automatic crate crushing… crusher." Great wording, Freddy.
"Well, we don't have a ton of time…" Mikey scratched his chin, "The other team probably asked about this challenge, so let's get going so we can catch up!"
"At least Julia, like… already started," Brooke let out a small chuckle, looking at the runaway… who was already pulling objects out of a few opened crates, "I don't get how opening crates is an exciting challenge though…"
While most of the team was opening crates, Godfrey wasn't. Instead, the charmer was stood off to the side, watching the rest of the team open their crates with an observant smirk.
"You going to help or what?" Julia looked up at him with a frown, opening another crate and watching Princess somehow come out of it.
"Not right now," he shrugged, smirking as Freddy and Anu moved over to him, "There's already enough people opening boxes as is. So I see no reason why I need to join in now… and besides. I've been wanting to see how people vote first-hand. But… you know what? Just give me a sphere, and I'll throw it in."
Once Freddy and Anu showed up, though, Godfrey immediately moved off next to the dragon head, not wanting to have to explain himself to them, too.
"Uh… aren't you meant to be helping?" Mikey asked with a chuckle, "Come on man, everybody's gotta play their part if we wanna win."
"I am. I've just called myself the team's orb thrower, that's all," the charmer shrugged, "We still have more people than them, even without me taking part."
"I mean, whatever you say man," Mikey went off to a crate himself, "Just… throw those balls then!"
Confessional - Mikey
"I mean, I'm not gonna go full leader-mode or anything like that," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with a smile, "I'm just gonna make sure that the team's working together well and all that jazz. Which… I think I'm doing!"
"So…" Octavia was stood off to the side, glaring at Godfrey who wasn't… really doing much, "How come he gets to, like, do nothing? Whatever… let's just open these freaking crates…"
"That's just crate, isn't it?" Rival, stop, "I mean… I've heard what Jackie has to say about him. She's not quiet. But I'd rather not make any calls myself until I've seen what he does, you know?"
Brooke just listened in on their conversation quietly, opening up a crate… and her eyes widened when she saw what was inside, "Um… what?"
"Hewwo!" came a high-pitched, annoying voice from within the box. Inside was a pink-haired girl wearing fake cat ears and a cat tail, "UwU-"
Brooke closed the box immediately, "Can we keep that one closed, please?"
"...So there are felines here too…" Anu added… whatever that was… to his map, having overheard the whole exchange. He had gathered a ton of orbs with Freddy and Julia, and now the trio were throwing them into the sockets, to little avail.
"Not working, huh…" Julia frowned, watching another jet of flame burst out of the dragon head that narrowly avoided charring Rival, "Just keep trying…"
"What else can we do?" Freddy shrugged, throwing another orb into the eyes of the dragon, "Anu, any matches?"
"And… found one!" the roleplayer proudly displayed, "Perhaps this shall finally be our solution?"
With a combined toss, the two threw the yellow orbs into the dragon's eyes, causing it to light green and open just like how the Bulbs' head did.
"Nice!" Freddy clapped, "Onto the next stage, then… this is actually pretty exciting."
"...So, like… did we just kinda do nothing?" Brooke chuckled nervously, "...Except find the catgirl, I guess…"
"Don't worry about it," Rival reassured her with a small nod, watching the rest of the team go in (Octavia had to duck to enter the head), "There's still plenty of challenges ahead, so let's try and up our game there, okay?"
"Right… you're right, thanks Rival," the shopper nodded with a small sigh of relief, "Thanks for the little pep-talk."
"Don't mention it," he gave her a small smile as he walked into the head, "See you in there."
"Isn't that only one room ahead…" Brooke shook her head in disbelief, giving the fake-catgirl-containing crate one last strange look before she left.
Confessional - Rival
"Right now, I've got no complaints with this team change," he shrugged, tilting his head to the side, "No big ones, at least. I'd like for Octavia to make it up to Chander and Jessica for sure… but with them on a different team… I could see her just not do that. I know she's not all bad… but still. We're friends, I'd like to think, so I don't want her gone anytime soon."
When the six Brilliant Bulbs arrived into the second room, they found it filled to the brim with… weird, mechanical… creatures - eight robotic skeletons lying on the floor. All unarmed, thankfully. There was also a big, red timer on the wall going down in twenty seconds, and a few weapons lay on the ground.
"Um… what?" Chander poked a skeleton, and it didn't move at all. Not even a rattling sound effect played, sadly, "...That's odd."
"You'd think monsters would, I dunno… attack us?" Jezebelle just stared into a skeleton's eye… and blinked, losing the staring contest, "Youse all agreeing this room's just freaking weird? And what's that timer meant to be, huh?"
Jackie, on the other hand, was quickly piecing together just what this challenge was meant to be, "I think it's pretty clear what we need to do - everybody grab something before that timer hits zero. And fast. Actually - just start breaking them now."
"Oh… fuck yeah," Tobias picked up a hammer that was on the ground with a small smirk, while the rest of the team picked up other weapons. It… was a bit heavy, but he could manage. Giving a big swing towards one of the skeleton's ribcage, he crumpled it right down to the ground.
The rest of the team quickly followed suit, picking up weapons of their own - Jackie and Jezebelle picked up other hammers, while Chander and Casey picked up spears.
As for Jessica?
"Your shoe?" Jezebelle looked at her like she was crazy, as the magician threw her boot into one of the skeleton's skulls, cleanly knocking it off and leaving a dent into it, "Have youse lost your mind?"
"Hey, if it works, it works," the magician gave the puffball a cheeky grin and bow, holding her other boot in her hand, "And besides… I have a spare! It hasn't failed me yet, after all… and it's not like magic would help here."
"Eh, whatevs," the puffball rolled her eyes, getting a small sigh in response from the magician… and as she did so, seven out of eight monsters sprung to life, the one Jessica knocked down being the sole exception, "Here we go!"
"Why the fuck is it back up?" Tobias looked at the skeleton he took down, aiming his hammer to swing at him, "I broke your goddamn ribs, asshole!"
"You couldn't even take out one skeleton?" Casey looked at him like he was stupid as she poked a skeleton away from her, "While Jessica could?"
"Don't put emphasis on my name in a negative light!" Jessica was insulted at that, trying to find a good angle for her remaining boot.
"Yeah!" Chander just wanted to join in, as he poked a skeleton in the ribs enough for it to collapse… only for it to join back up shortly afterwards and poke him in the ribs, " Ow! Wait, they all come back up then?"
"That's unfair…" Jackie gritted her teeth in determination as she bashed her hammer into the side of a skeleton's head, knocking it right off through sheer force, "They don't like brute force, though…"
Confessional - Casey
"The trick's obvious," the copycat shrugged, "Not like I'm telling them that. Or you. I'm in the clear with everybody but Jackie, so I'm just using now to mess with their heads a bit. Heh."
"Okay… great," the copycat rolled her eyes with an over-the-top sigh, "We're stuck with a bunch of skeletons, all of whom are too tall for Tobias to…"
"Fuck you," Tobias just flipped her off at that, stepping back from a skeleton's swipe to get a better hammer slam distance, "Enough with the goddamn short jokes! I've at least taken out the damn things, you've done shit!"
"I mean… your skeletons came back. It's basically nothing at this point," the copycat reasoned as she poked a skeleton in the eyeball, "Except like… a broken rib or two, but these guys clearly don't need all of them. So…"
Jezebelle then poked off another skeleton's head with a lucky skewer, and watched as Jessica managed to crumple another one with a shoe throw… only for the second skeleton to reappear, "Wait a minute… aha! I think I figured out the trick… youse just gotta knock off the head and then they crumble!"
"Well that's fucking great, isn't it?" the drummer frowned, clutching his hammer tighter as he aimed at the skeleton he just dodged, "But fine… I can handle this."
Taking a big swing, he managed to knock the head off of the skeleton, , "That's half of 'em… heh. We're doing pretty good…"
Using her second boot, Jessica took out another skeleton, "Phew… that makes five. Now… I need to get my boots back… I probably should have actually picked up a weapon… but alas."
But the bit, Jessica! It needs to be continued!
Regardless, the three remaining skeletons all scuttled away from the cast to group up… and all jump at Jackie, who cleanly batted one of their heads off into another's… leaving the final skeleton, "Just got one left now, so let's clean up!"
"It's been pretty easy so far," Chander chuckled, eyeing the last skeleton up, "So… let's get it quickly!"
"...Damn it," Casey clicked her fingers together, "You jinxed us, you idiot."
Luckily, Jezebelle and Tobias were far more proactive, rushing the skeleton with their weapons… although they were soon knocked back as the final skeleton picked up a hammer and knocked them aside.
"Case and point," Casey shrugged, picking up her spear with a sigh, "Somebody else deal with this… 'cause… I'd just get destroyed here. I like my brain being in one piece, actually."
"I still got this, leave it to me…" Jezebelle bounced right back up, puffing her cheeks up and rolling her sleeve as she looked at the skeleton, "I ain't getting beat up by a bag of robo-bones like that!"
"...Go get em, puffball," Casey half-cheered, half-snarked as she watched Jezebelle run after the skeleton… who picked up its hammer and prepared for a swing.
Although… Jezebelle was expecting that, and bounced back, retaliating with a mighty swing that knocked the skeleton's head to the ground. Stepping on it with a smirk, she put her hands to her hips, "Hah! Whaddya think of that, huh?"
"Good job," Jackie gave her an approving nod, before noticing the door to the next chamber opening up, "Let's keep going!"
"Alright then…" Casey moved forward with a grin, "Good job to everybody who took out a skeleton, I sure couldn't do that! Pretty pathetic and useless of me, I'll admit."
"Of course it is," Jackie looked at Casey with immense skepticism, before she jogged off, "...I still don't trust her one bit…"
Chander frowned for a moment, but followed the rest of the team out soon after.
Confessional - Casey
"Fine, I'll explain myself," the copycat held up her hands in mock surrender, "I'm just getting into their heads a bit… and by that, I mean I'm trying to divide the team a bit. Poke fun at Tobias and Jezebelle when they suck, and poke fun at Chander and Jessica when they do. They're already fighting a bit… so that's great for me. I take one of those four out, and I can convince them to be my ally… and then I can try for the big Jackie elimination way later. But for now… baby steps, Casey. You'll have them all eating out of the palm of your hand soon enough."
As for the Shining Scepters when they entered the second room, being slightly behind the Brilliant Bulbs… it was very, very similar to the Bulbss' room - weapons laid across the ground, and eight mechanical monsters immobile on the ground and a big red twenty-second timer. But rather than the skeletons the Bulbs fought… these were goblins. Because Doppel did have some originality in their generic minions.
"Animatronics…" Freddy stared at them, wide-eyed in awe, "...Almost."
"So… goblins! Heh, neat," Mikey vocalised his thoughts out loud to the rest of the team, before he remembered that he was trying to lead the team. Coughing to catch everybody's attention, he made his best guess, "A-ahem! No need to use our Doppel guess now… so… why don't we all just pick up a weapon before the timer goes down?"
"Like, fine," Octavia huffed, but she still picked up a hammer regardless, lightly tapping a goblin on the head with it. Everybody else picked up a weapon too… except for Anu who just pulled his toy spear out with a smirk… to the bewildered stares of the more intelligent members of the team like Octavia and Julia.
"I'm more familiar with this style of weapon," he defended his decision, his smirk cracking slightly, "New loot is always great… but! The weight might be off!"
"So what now, glorious leader?" Godfrey decided to move things on, giving Mikey his usual smug grin as he stared the goofball down, "You've got a plan, right?"
"Of course I do!" he nodded, evaluating the scene of the challenge, "Just… give me a second okay?"
Confessional - Mikey
"I don't have a plan," he rubbed the back of his head with a sigh, "So I'm just going to wing it!"
Confessional - Godfrey
"He doesn't have a plan," the charmer scratched his goatee as he echoed Mikey's confessional, "So… he's just going to wing it. Hopefully, he screws this up."
"...Start smashing them!" the goofball declared with a grin as the timer hit zero and the goblins got up, "We can each take one so it'll work out… probably!"
Nodding, Julia quickly moved over towards one of the hopping goblins, having picked up one of the (thankfully not toy) spears for herself as she dashed towards it… although it jumped out of the way with a teasing, distinctive, "Nyahaha!"
"Tch…" the runaway wasn't done yet, moving in for another stab at the goblin… only for a second to come barrelling in from its fight with Anu - having deemed his toy spear too much of a joke to fight - and slashing at her jacket slightly.
"That's unfair," she noted in her usual mildly irritated tone, but the bead of sweat that formed betrayed her nerves - though shortly after, both goblins were taken out by… somebody having thrown vials at them, short-circuiting both goblins.
"You're welcome!" Anu grinned, bouncing his way over to her as he brandished a vial of what was labelled as 'anti-goblin potion' in his hands. Though inside was literally just water with like twelve different food colourings mixed in, somehow splashing into a rainbow, "Goblins are no match for me… I know their every weakness… usually. Though these goblin-like constructs are still weak to the Anti-Goblin Potion!"
"...Thanks," the runaway gave him a small nod of appreciation at that, before she noticed Freddy struggling with his own goblin, "...You gonna help him out too?"
With a quick, overly-eager nod, Anu then threw another Anti-Goblin Potion at the goblin pestering Freddy, defeating that one too, "Three down, five to go! But unfortunately… I am now out of potions."
Freddy ran over to him with a wide grin on his face, opening up for a high-five that the roleplayer swiftly returned, "Hey, thanks for saving me there… I was almost animatronic lunch. …You never fight the animatronics up close, so I was so not ready for that."
"It's no sweat!" Anu put his hands on his hips with a proud smirk, before pulling out his toy spear and lowering his voice to a stage-whisper, "Before we join the fray… would you two like to form an alliance? Our main party's great and all… but I think this could work out wonderfully for us!"
"Well… sure!" Freddy nodded along after a brief thought. He trusted Anu, after all, "Julia, you in?"
"Hmph," the runaway thought about it for a moment, before giving the two a short nod, "Fine. I'm in."
"Excellent!" Anu bounced up gleefully as he heard their agreement, "Welcome to Brillup Lilyhearts's very own Guild! …We'll need a better name later!"
Confessional - Anu
"And so, our two-and-a-half-person-and-one-and-a-half-frog party has formed!" he grinned as he sat in the outhouse, Princess on his shoulder, "And now… we can hunt for the Prismatic Well of Nohomo together! Isn't that right, Princess?"
Confessional - Julia
"This alliance is objectively helpful," the runaway nodded slowly, "And for whatever reason, those two like me. …I'm not stupid enough to reject this."
Meanwhile, Mikey was with Rival and Brooke, fighting off against three of the other goblins. The self-appointed team leader was clearly struggling, and both the vocalist and shopper weren't doing great either.
"Sheesh… these guys are annoying…" Mikey sighed, as the nearest goblin jumped out of the way of him trying to poke it with a spear, "...Maybe I can… out-annoy them? Hey, can you guys cover me a sec?"
"Okay, okay!" Brooke gave him a frantic nod as Mikey started rummaging through his pockets, narrowly avoiding a scratch from the goblin, "Be quick though, please!"
"Are you sure Doppel doesn't just want to kill us?" Rival asked nobody in particular, "Because it… sure seems like it…"
"I dunno!" Mikey grinned, as he pulled out a few cans of spray paint and started shaking them both rapidly, "But hopefully they're not paint-proof, 'cause… this should hopefully blind 'em!"
"Wait wha-" Rival, like an idiot, turned around as Mikey clicked down on the paint cans, and suddenly had a eye-full of paint, "Crap-!"
Fortunately, the goblins were also blinded by it, since apparently their sensors were blinded by it. Seeing their chance, Brooke and Mikey exchanged a brief nod as they moved in to knock the three goblins down with a few spear stabs, before moving to check on Rival, "Um… you okay, man? Sorry about the paint…"
"No worries," he rubbed his eyes with a small chuckle, trying to get most of the paint out of his eyes at least, "It's just a little bit of pain…t, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, I mean it. Just… help out whoever's left."
"He's… punning," Brooke felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead, "So… he'll be fine, probably. I know my clothes are like… probably ruined from the back… but whatevs. I can manage that."
"...Yeah…" Mikey looked away for a moment, only to watch as two goblins and Godfrey came hurtling right past him into a nearby wall, "Wait what-?"
Looking to his side, he saw Octavia standing with a hammer in her hand, a smirk on her face, "Now, like, that's how it's done! Godfrey, you were like… standing in the way, it's so your fault that you got hit and all."
"Duly noted…" the charmer weakly added as he stood up, noticing the door was opened, "At least our exit is here… anybody got anything they want to say before we go in?"
"Not really," Mikey shrugged, "But good work guys - I think if we keep this up, we'll be winning in no time!"
With that, the jokester led the team into the next room, followed quickly by the vast majority of the rest of the team - with the exception of Rival, who had at least managed to get the paint out of his eyes.
"...You know, I shouldn't have turned around in hindsight," he noted, walking in at the back of the Scepters, "...At least Brooke got to help out a bit… so I should probably try to do more in the next room before it's a bit too late..."
Confessional - Rival
"Well… my plan to do more in the next part of the challenge definitely failed," he shrugged, shaking his head slightly, "Kinda my fault for standing in Mikey's crossfire… hah, that still kinda stings. Still, for now I just want to make sure that the people I'm close to don't have reasons to be eliminated for now."
Confessional - Godfrey
"So Mikey's little 'winging it' plan worked. Shame," he scratched his goatee in thought, "So I think I need a new approach if I'm going to take him out early. Back on the Platypuses, we had Jackie as the leader… and she was too effective, and made it difficult for me to really get anything done. So I want him out before he finds his footing - and since he has a strong social game, that means as soon as possible."
Back with the Bulbs, they entered their third room - and, luckily enough, there were no skeletons, or goblins. Regardless, the first thing the team saw upon entering the room was… well, a large screen that featured a co-op shooter game on the screen, alongside two arcade-style laser rifles on the ground. The game was, thankfully enough, paused.
"You guys have to pick two people~" Doppel's voice rang out, before cutting out soon enough, "Oh! And no switching once you pick up the gun!"
"So… we've got to…" Jackie began to explain to the team, but her gaze lowered into a frown as she saw that Tobias had already picked one up, "...Great. Who wants to go with Tobias?"
"Hey!" the drummer shook his fist at her, a vein popping in his forehead, "Why'd you have to word it like that's an issue, huh?"
"If you make it into one, it sure can be," the athlete held back a sigh, as the drummer let out a few deep breaths to calm down, "Enough about him, who else… Chander… oh my god can you guys stop picking them up…"
"...What?" the acrobat chuckled as he held up the laser rifle, looking at the awkward stares he got from the rest of the team, "Oh. Right. The laser rifle. Don't worry, I've got this, I swear!"
"Do you even know what youse gotta do?" Jezebelle stared at the two gun thieves, moving off to lean against the wall, "Whatevs - Tobias, youse and… whatever he's called… better pull through!"
The other three members followed after the puffball, leaving just Chander and Tobias alone. Unpausing the screen, Tobias looked at it - it was an auto-scroller, with a large 'Target: 1500 points' printed on top, "This is a goddamn theme park ride… without the ride. You take the top, I'll take the bottom. We'll win this in no time."
"Gotcha!" Chander gave him a cheeky grin as the acrobat watched the screen go forward, with several goblins and skeletons appearing, as well as the suits of armour - most of which the acrobat managed to shoot, though he missed some, "Are… you sure Doppel isn't running out of enemy ideas? It's more skeletons and armour guys…"
"Who cares?" Tobias raised an eyebrow as he missed most of his shots, glaring at the screen, "Just fucking shoot 'em already!"
Confessional - Jessica
"In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have let Tobias pick up the gun," the magician rubbed the back of her head with a small chuckle.
Confessional - Tobias
"I totally fucking had them!" the drummer shook his fist, "I shot them! I swear, Doppel has it out for me specifically sometimes!"
Going back to the game, Tobias was still trying his best to shoot at the monsters that kept popping up, getting increasingly angry as he kept on missing, punching the rifle as he missed another goblin, "Fuck off!"
"Hey… could you calm down?" Chander tried to pacify the drummer, who just snapped his head up at him in irritation, "J-jeez, look, we're not gonna hit the target if you just keep getting mad, right?"
"Maybe if they stopped moving out of the goddamn way before I could get a shot in…" Tobias continued to seethe as his gaming failures only continued - as the stage ended on an apparent 'boss battle' - a large green dragon, "We can get all the points we need from this dragon!"
"Right, right, that's the spirit!" the acrobat cheered him on as the two kept aiming at the dragon, who just kind of… flew around and spat fire at the two. Except… for one small detail.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Jezebelle screeched out as she looked at the supposed 'fireball' that fell down from a trapdoor right above the pair, "Youse better move now!"
Leaping out of the way with a small somersault into a bow, Chander snickered, "Oh, it's just a dragonfruit!"
Unfortunately… that also marked the end of the game for the pair, as the on-screen dragon suddenly disappeared with a poorly edited green screen explosion played over it (yes, the green screen was still visible)
"We only got 1300 points?" Tobias clenched his fist in rage, slamming the floor in fury, "Fuck… we gotta do all that shit again?"
"Damn, sucks to suck," Casey only had the most productive of things to add to this team, as always.
"Could… you do any better?" Jessica asked her. Casey stayed silent in response.
"Let's just… try again," Chander chuckled nervously, picking up his rifle, "Not like we've got a choice in the matter."
"Tch… I'm not mad at you… I'm mad at the goddamn game…" Tobias's eyes were red with anger only comparable to that of the first boot gamer girl as he glared into the screen, "You hearing me? I ain't losing to you, Doppel!"
With a few points, Chander moved the game back around, starting the pair's second go at it.
Confessional - Chander
"I'll admit, I'm not the best gamer," the acrobat shrugged loosely, dragonfruit covering his face, "What I'm trying to say is, we didn't do super well…"
A small compilation of the pair failing to win the game began to play…
The first fail, Tobias threw his rifle against the screen in rage.
The second, Chander's face was covered in dragonfruit as he failed to aim his laser blaster, costing them another game.
On failing a third time, Tobias looked five seconds away from punching something, and Chander had moved backwards enough to make sure it wasn't him.
Confessional - Chander
"But surely we'll succeed after our fifth try, right?" the acrobat tried to think positively, "R-right?"
Meanwhile, the Scepters also entered their third room and found a game - yet theirs' was different to the Bulbs' game. Instead, they found two… guitars instead, with the same high score of '1500'. Doppel truly was running out of ideas.
"I'm not even gonna ask…" Mikey sweatdropped as he looked at the guitars.
"Well, unfortunately for you, I am," Godfrey smirked, "Doppel, what's this room for? We do have a question after all… and why not use it now?"
Doppel popped in on the game's screen for a moment, "Oh, this one's simple! Just beat the high score in my legally distinct guitar rhythm game, and avoid me trying to sabotage you by dropping stuff as you do! Oh, and the first two people to pick up guitars are your players no matter what!"
"Good to know," the charmer nodded, "Glad I thought to ask - now we know Doppel's going to drop things on our… guitarists, I suppose. You really should take more initiative as a leader, you know."
"Yeah, yeah," Mikey brushed it off for a moment, "Anyways! Who… wants to have a go?"
"I think I should go," Rival raised his hands up for a moment, thinking about a past label of his, "I haven't really done much… and besides, I'm good with music regardless. I can help out here for sure… I haven't played much rhythm games, but it shouldn't be that bad."
"Sounds good, and I'll also…" Mikey was about to say his next idea, when Godfrey spoke up like the chad he is.
"I think Octavia would be a great idea," the charmer smirked, staring right at the media darling, "I'm just thinking - she made such a good show of things yesterday, after all. Seeing her screw up again could be fun… and besides. We're probably too far ahead of the other team."
"Um, like, no. Shut up," Octavia flipped him off, "I'm not doing anything just 'cause you said so. If I wanted to do this, I would've done it."
"Oh… kay…" Mikey had no idea what Godfrey was trying to do, "Brooke? You good with giving this a try?"
"I'll… give it a go then!" the shopper picked up the other guitar, as Rival picked up the first one, "I'm probably one of our better people here… too."
Given that the Lilyheart Guild (as they were now known, apparently) didn't have anybody musically inclined (except Princess), and the other members of the team didn't want to perform for one reason or another, that was enough to leave Rival and Brooke as the two performers.
"This is way more my tune, I'll admit," Rival chuckled as he pressed a button, waiting for the song to start, "I'm a vocalist, sure, but I've dabbled in guitar… at some point."
"Well, I haven't," Brooke admitted with a nonchalant shrug, "At least this is just a controller. I'll figure it out when the song starts… I wonder what it'll be?"
"Right… I'm curious about Doppel's music taste too," Hopefully, it's not AI-generated slop. Rival pressed a button to activate the screen… and for the briefest of moments, "HATSUNE MIKU?"
"Wait, wrong song!" the AI host called out and changed the screen to the actual track, "I was just browsing Ember's files and found that one gimme a second~"
"...That's concerning," Brooke's eyes widened at the blatant lack of privacy, but the screen had changed to a dragon much like the one in the laser rifle game, and a song that sounded akin to typical video game final level tracks began to play - yellow bars appeared on-screen where Rival needed to hit, and blue for her, "...Anyways, I think I've got this… well enough"
While Brooke was trying her best, Rival was managing to breeze through the level, leaving Brooke to try and pick up after him instead - the shopper was still managing to hit the majority of the notes, at least.
"Hey… so far, so good," Rival looked at their score as Brooke tried her best at a solo - it looked like they were on track to reach 1500… that was, until the dragon on the screen shot a fireball right at her… which was represented as a really fast watermelon that the shopper narrowly ducked under, although her poor straw hat was… far less lucky, getting blasted right into the wall in an explosion of melon.
"Hey! Rude!" she pouted, reaching out for her poor hat, but sighing as she returned to focus on the challenge, "I'll… get it back afterwards. It better not be ruined…"
Fortunately for them, the song was very close to being finished by that point - and all it took was a few extra seconds and the song was over… and their final score was…
"Hey, we won! Like… go us!" Brooke cheered with a grin, looking at their combined score of 1800 - 300 over the target, "
"Nice, good job," Rival gave her a small nod, now noticing the lack of a hat, "You might wanna check your hat though…"
"Yeah… of course I was," the shopper walked over to her hat, picking it up with a disgusted expression as it was evidently… covered head-to-toe in watermelon, "...Ew, gross."
"That's not gonna come out easily…" Rival shook his head with a sigh, "I'll carry it if being covered in melon's the last straw for you."
"Please do," Was all that Brooke said in response, hastily shoving the hat into his hands as she looked at the opening door.
"And… we can go further in! Nice," Mikey gave the pair a thumbs-up as the rest of the team started to move on, "I think we can actually win this one, guys!"
"...'Actually'? Like, we're so winning," Octavia rolled her eyes as she passed into the next room - Freddy and Anu followed her, the pair having spent the entire rhythm game in one long game of rock-paper-scissors that was broken by Princess somehow appearing in Anu's hand in the final round.
"Don't jinx us…" Rival rolled his eyes as he made his way into the door, bringing up the back of the Scepters.
Confessional - Rival
"There, I did my part for the team and I helped Brooke help the team out too," the vocalist nodded, clearly pleased with himself, "I'm a musician myself - rhythm games aren't anything I've got a lot of experience in, but I guess the music part of it still carried over. So I'd say I'm… unrivaled in terms of music there."
Upon entering the final room, the second thing that the eight Shining Scepters noticed was that this room was… significantly bigger than the other ones before it. The third thing they noticed was that, much like the skeleton and goblin rooms, there were a lot of weapons on the floor (albeit, these were more akin to laser blasters and the like compared to the medieval fare of the previous room). The fourth thing of note was that there was a second entrance to the room - presumably for the Bulbs to come in from. The screens also displayed a ton of gold and treasure, too, and there were a few pillars around the room… that all looked rather breakable.
Now then, what was the first? Well, that would be the literal robot dragon currently taking a nap in the middle of the room. Hard to miss.
"...So there is some sort of guardian in this trial, complete with an illusion of treasure…" Anu nodded his head slowly as he looked towards the dragon, "And, fortunately enough, as somebody with dungeon expertise, that means I know we simply need to defeat it!"
"That sounds like what we need to do, yeah," Mikey looked at the dragon warily, picking up a blaster, "It's sleeping right now, so let's just be quick about this! If we can maybe do a big blow to wake it up… we'll deal a huge chunk of its damage."
"Makes sense to me…" Brooke followed his logic, "...You know, I'm kinda starting to think that Doppel just likes violence with all of their challenge ideas."
While everybody else prepared, Godfrey walked up to the dragon… only to feel Julia's hand on his wrist, pulling him away, "What, did you really think I was trying to wake the dragon up?"
"Yes," was the runaway's blunt response, as they shoved a blaster into his hands.
"Well, you are correct there. I was going to rush us right into the challenge," the charmer admitted, running a hand through his hair, "But, I know you're not stupid - if Mikey leads this team, that's bad for us. He'll have an impeccable social game - everybody likes him… and that's very bad for somebody like you or I who doesn't. Keep that in mind."
In response, the runaway just scoffed as he walked off, smirking to himself, "And… the seed's been planted. I'd wake the dragon up… but that's a level of sabotage that's just stupid. Better to go for something less… obviously dangerous."
"Everybody ready?" Mikey asked the rest of the team, aiming his shot at the dragon, "I'll take the first shot so just tell me when you're all good to go!"
"Of course!" Freddy looked at the dragon with a curious expression - it looked fully robotic… so no animatronics. Dang it, "...Hopefully this stays a boss fight and doesn't turn full Security Breach on us 'cause that'd be pretty bad… I like being able to fight back."
"...Are you sure we're not just, like, signing a death wish?" Octavia looked skeptical, "I so did not sign up to fight… whatever this is supposed to be."
"Just shoot it," Julia told Mikey bluntly, wanting the challenge to be over with, "We don't want to waste our time advantage."
"Good point," the jokester gave them a quick thumbs-up before he clicked the trigger, sending a laser beam right into the sleeping robo-dragon's eyes… thus waking it up. With a mechanical roar, it whirred to life and gave the eight contestants a look of sheer, primal, fury.
Confessional - Mikey
"Word of advice?" the jokester chuckled nervously, before getting slightly more frantic, "Don't wake up sleeping dragons! Ever! Even if somebody tells you it'll be a good idea!"
The dragon's first order of business was… to breathe more fire at the team, causing Mikey and those that were also in directly front of it to dive out of the way as it began to move - and most of the team began firing at it immediately with their blasters.
"Well? What's your next plan?" Godfrey asked Mikey as he dived out of the way, the charmer not particularly caring, "You got us into this mess so… I want to see you struggle to get us out of it."
"...Not helping!" the jokester called out, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, "F-for now we just attack it… that'll work!"
"Godfrey, are you doing your usual antics again?" Freddy asked him warily, "'Cause they're not really helping, you know? It's like-"
"...Yes, absolutely," the charmer shrugged apathetically, cutting off whatever FNaF reference Freddy was going to say, "I don't know what to tell you guys at this point - I've got nothing to hide, remember?"
While that conversation was going on, the rest of the team were… holding their own relatively well… okay, as well as they could against a dragon, which was actually quite well, all things considered. Julia and Octavia were both managing to consistently fire at it, and even Rival and Brooke were doing pretty well.
"Let's hope this doesn't drag-on enough for the Bulbs to show up…" Rival was certainly doing fine, that's for sure. Anu at least chuckled in response… oh no, the others are starting to like the puns.
As if insulted by the pun, the dragon let out a roar and charged straight towards the vocalist… and it ran right through a pillar, which landed onto its back with a loud thud… causing the dragon to stop for a moment, roaring in pain.
"Oh, that's perfect actually! Let's just use the pillars," Mikey's grin widened as he had an idea, "So we should use somebody as bait… I'll go!"
Nobody stopped him as he ran off.
Confessional - Octavia
"What?" the media darling was doing her nails, "If he's, like, offering to do the dangerous stuff… I'm not gonna stop him. It's basic self-preservation, most people have it."
Mikey stood in front of a pillar, zapping away at the dragon… that didn't really care about him, instead focusing on the rest of the Scepters that were slowly whittling away at its health (during the fight, Rival and Julia had both been knocked aside). But what it did care about was the six extra faces that just entered the room… the Bulbs had finally beat their shooter game.
"FUCK YOU MEAN THERE'S ANOTHER DRAGON?" Yep, Tobias was here all right.
Confessional - Chander
"We did finish the game eventually," the acrobat snickered, recalling the events, "But… I can tell you that Tobias did get increasingly angry with it… and the dragon! I doubt he's pleased to see one now."
"You're damn right I'm not!" came the voice of the drummer from outside the outhouse, "Now let me in so I can rage about it in there!"
Chander just shrugged helplessly.
Confessional - Tobias
The confessional was just five minutes straight of gamer rage. Kira would be jealous.
"Just pick up blasters and join the other team!" Jackie commanded the rest of the Bulbs, doing as she ordered immediately, "...We probably need the final blow, regardless."
Casey, on the other hand, looked at the pillar Mikey was standing near… and had an idea, sneaking up behind it and only firing sparingly. She needed to wait to put it into action, anyways, and given the look Godfrey had given her… it looked like he'd figured out her idea. It was really simple anyways.
Fortunately, twelve people were far harder for the dragon to focus on than just eight… so it brought out the fire breath again… prompting everybody to duck behind a pillar for cover (Chander did it with a flip, for dramatic effect). Although…
"Youse really though you could just try an' burn my hair like that, huh?" Jezebelle was, understandably, pissed, rolling up her sleeve as she walked up to the dragon, who was still trying to flame-grill the others, "Fat chance, bub!"
Using all of her might, the puffball managed to stroll up to the dragon and punch it in the face… knocking a giant dent into it, at least. However, what it also did was anger the giant reptile, who proceeded to swat her aside carelessly, bowling over Godfrey and Anu in the process.
"...I have… been defeated…" Anu had, somehow, attached a white flag of surrender to his toy spear, specifically for this instance. Somehow, "Fight on for me, party…"
"How do we only have like, half of our guys left?" Octavia looked at the remaining members of the team with confused irritation - she was right, since only Brooke, Freddy and Mikey remained of the Shining Scepters.
"Don't suck, then," Casey snarked from her hiding place, "It's that simple."
"It's not that easy…" Freddy shook his head with a sigh, trying to get a few more shots in, as the dragon made a quick, snappy bite at him. And of course, his brain had only one thought, "Was that the Bite of 87!?"
"...I don't think so," Jessica shrugged, the magician aiming her gauntlets at the dragon. Putting her helmet on, she smirked, "But no dragon is a match for Mysterio!"
She sprayed smoke in its face, which did at the very least… cause the dragon to look around in confusion, "Aha! See, I told you all - now, watch as my illusions… somehow defeat our foe!"
Continuing to be battered by a stream of smoke, the dragon looked around helplessly for a few more seconds… before deciding to let out another blast of fire - again, everybody dived out of the way… although Tobias hit himself against a column in the process, and Octavia was knocked out by the tail. Guys, you really need to do better than this, this is embarrassing.
"...Well," Jessica examined her gauntlet with a sigh, "I'm… not risking these getting damaged if that's what it'll do in response… so back to blasting! I suppose."
"At least you gave us a chance to do some damage," Jackie nodded her head in support, "But we can still win this, we've got the numbers advantage at least."
"...It looks like we've done a lot of damage," Freddy explained to Brooke and Mikey, "And if we lose a boss fight like this, they win… so let's sit back. I don't want to kill steal, but…"
"Alright," Brooke was just happy to not have been knocked out yet.
"I'll continue acting as bait," Mikey whispered to the others, "I think the pillar can take it out if it lands on it now… so just trust me, guys."
Confessional - Mikey
"My pillar plan is pretty good," the jokester boasted as he ate a slice of pizza he found… somewhere. Best not to ask, "...So all I've got to do is act loud and annoying to catch the dragon's attention!"
"Random items go!" Mikey called out once he was in front of the pillar again, throwing all of the various slices of pizza and spray paint cans he had gathered in his pockets at the moment, his slouch momentarily disappearing as he bombarded the dragon… at least distracting it, "Hah… well…"
Some of the random junk did hit the remaining people standing, at least, but most notably one of the cans managed to boomerang right into hitting Casey, who was still hiding behind the pillar with a smirk on her face that disappeared, "How!?"
Regardless, Mikey now had to try and rodeo the dragon into hitting the pillar. The rest of the cast at least seemed to respect the tenseness of the scene as the jokester and the beast stood face-to-face… only for Mikey to pull his tongue out at the dragon.
With an angry taunted roar, the dragon rushed forward to bring him down… only to crash right into the pillar. Noticing it wobbling a bit, Casey grinned.
"All I need to do now is just… give it enough of an extra touch," the copycat snickered, using all of her might on the pillar to push it in, "And then we win."
"Hey!" Mikey noticed this and ran over to stop her, "Th-this is my challenge-ending plan, come on man! Can I have this one win, please?"
"No, of course not!" Casey didn't want others having nice things. Of course.
Meanwhile, the rest of their teams had figured out just what was going on, with the rest running over to assist - and it was Jackie who, being the fittest person around, arrived first, giving the pillar the push it needed to be taken down completely, landing head-first on the dragon and knocking it down.
"And… the Brilliant Bulbs win!" Doppel's voice rang throughout the room as confetti piled in from all around, "So Scepters, you guys are gonna go to elimination! Just hop in the room behind you when you're ready to go up!"
"...Drat," Mikey snapped his fingers, looking towards his team as everybody who was taken out by the dragon started to pick back up again, "...Sorry guys."
"You had a good idea, at least," Brooke tried to be encouraging.
"Hate to admit it… but you had a good idea for once," Jackie reluctantly gave Casey some praise, which she probably wouldn't give to Godfrey, "Keep it up."
"...Thanks?" Casey was just glad she wasn't on the chopping block, really. But she followed after the athlete into the elevator regardless, as everybody else went into the elevator, too.
Confessional - Mikey
"Losing like that's just embarrassing, I've gotta admit…" the jokester shrugged dejectedly, "I'm not really showing myself off as a good leader now, am I?"
Confessional - Jackie
"I might not trust Casey a lot," the athlete crossed her arms in thought, "But I don't know if she's actually with Godfrey, or if he just made it up that she's a part of his alliance. I don't trust his whole 'honest villain' deal, but we all know that by now."
Once the elevator had rose up, the two teams were greeted by none other than Chef and Ember, the burly co-host eyeing up the Brilliant Bulbs.
"Congratulations to the Brilliant Bulbs," the cook nodded in their general direction, "Now then… Doppel. Where's Chris?"
"...Freed," the AI shrugged playfully, "He'll find his way here… maybe!"
"...Hey!" Chris shouted at Doppel, the host finding his way there, "Why'd you lock me up like that, man?"
"Because!" Doppel waited for dramatic effect, "I was bored and wanted to host!"
"And look what you did," the host gestured wildly at the teams with a look of near-disgust on his face, "You've ruined my perfect teams! But fine, it'll make for a good twist. So yeah, these new teams are final."
"Eh, figured," Jezebelle shrugged half-heartedly, "So… can we leave now?"
"Do whatever you want," Chris waved off the cast, "Just be there for elimination tonight. But you!"
Chris pointed an angry finger at Ember, who shrunk back in mild fear, "Keep my castle under control! I can't have an AI take over my job, who else has a smile that's won four Gemmies!? Not. Them!"
"Searching up 'smiles that have won four Gemmies…'" Doppel began, prompting a sigh out of Chef.
"O-okay," Ember rubbed their arm nervously, the programmer giving their creation an irritated glance. Of course Doppel would get bored and do something like that, just their luck.
"...Good grief…" Chef just rubbed his head, feeling the headache coming on already.
But with the Brilliant Bulbs… they had gathered in the cafeteria to celebrate their win. At the very least, Chander and Jessica could rest easy knowing they weren't going to elimination for a third time in a row.
"Well… congratulations, guys!" Chander cheered out with a small bow, the acrobat grinning as he looked around at his new teammates properly, "We didn't quite do… perfectly, but we pulled through in the end."
"Yeah, yeah," Tobias nodded, trying to forget that he sucked at video games, "I still ain't mad at you, I'm mad at that dumb fuck computer for the game."
This guy forgets he's currently living within said 'dumb fuck computer' sometimes, probably.
Casey just snapped her fingers irritably under the table. Damnit, they're getting along, "...At least I've proven myself to them, or something…" she muttered under her breath.
Confessional - Casey
"I'd go check with Doppel and see if I can get anything from them, but…" the copycat clenched her teeth, waving her hand out in front of her, "After they took control like that all day? Like heck they're not getting chewed out by Chris or Chef or that intern."
"...And I'm not talking to Godfrey. …Let him deal with his shit."
Jackie, on the other hand, was looking over at the other team with a frown, "Hmm…"
"Something on your mind?" Jessica made an educated guess, following the athlete's eyes over towards a certain charmer, who was eating a sandwich with all of the confidence of a much less hated man.
"Just… suspicious about Godfrey," the athlete nodded, glaring at him. The charmer just waved at her with a smug smirk on his face, "No way he's not trying to do something shady with this vote."
"Youse still going on about him?" Jezebelle rolled her eyes, "Geez, give it a break. We're still winning, ya know?"
Standing up from the table, the athlete made her way towards the door of the cafeteria, making sure her next words were only audible for Jessica and Jezebelle, "I'm going to talk with some of the Scepters and see if I can get them to vote him out tonight."
"...You need a hobby," the puffball deadpanned at her retreating form, unimpressed with the athlete, "...Knock yourself out or whatever."
Confessional - Jezebelle
"I can at least respect the dedication, ya know?" the puffball began, wagging her finger with a smirk, "But she's really out here keeping that grudge going when the guy ain't even on our team. The heck's up with that?"
Speaking of the Scepters, Anu's new alliance consisting of himself, Freddy, Julia and Princess were having their first meeting… within a random room Anu had declared their new Guild Hall.
"...First order of business for the Lilyheart Guild…" the roleplayer twirled his spear around in thought, copying a certain Great Mage, "I don't know! I didn't think we'd get to this point and lose so quickly after our formation."
"Oh… dang," Freddy rubbed the back of his head bashfully, ignoring the last part, "...So… what now?"
Julia held back the urge to facepalm.
"Of course… we now need to talk about banishing one of our party members… hm…" Anu tapped his frog beanie in thought, "...And naturally, my mind immediately thinks of Godfrey! He's a self-proclaimed villain… and that's no good on a party of heroes!"
"...Octavia's pretty rude too, I think…" Freddy crossed his arms, the FNAF fanatic trying to think of who he'd want to eliminate.
Julia, on the other hand, thought back to her brief interaction with Godfrey, and had another idea, "...Mikey. We vote him out."
"Mikey? Why?" Freddy was surprised to hear that, adjusting his bib with a slight gasp, "What's he done wrong?"
Oh, great. Explaining, their favourite. Letting out a small sigh, Julia began to talk, "...He's likable, and he's pretty good at challenges. Nobody likes Godfrey, we can deal with him later."
"...I mean…" Freddy scratched his chin, getting the logic behind it, "I don't think I'd feel great voting for him, you know?"
"You'll have to do it eventually," the runaway reasoned, shaking her head.
"...I see your point…" Anu nodded along, making a small stabbing motion with his spear, "But, I can't bring myself to agree - if our guild is going to actually be heroic, we need to take down… the villains, obviously!"
"Just… think logically about it," Julia turned towards Freddy with a small nod, before walking out of the 'Guild Hall' at a brisk pace. They… didn't hate Freddy or (to a lesser extent) Anu's presence, but still… they didn't want to spend too long talking with them.
"Princess, where are you?" Anu did not have any more words to peer pressure Freddy with, because Princess had gone missing again.
A singular croak was Princess's addition to the peer pressure.
Confessional - Freddy
"Aw man… I hate it when my friends aren't getting along, I honestly hoped this alliance - okay, guild - would help with that," the FNAF fanatic rubbed his fingers together nervously, chuckling to himself, "...I'm hoping this is just a setback though. But… now I've gotta decide who to vote for…"
Meanwhile, Mikey… well, the self-declared team leader was wandering around, clearly at least a little bit lost.
"...Man, losing was a bummer," the jokester sighed, but that changed when he saw a certain someone walking around the corner, "Godfrey? What are you doing here?"
"Just walking," the charmer shrugged with a grin, "Oh. And I'll be voting for you tonight."
"...What?" Mikey took a concerned step back at that, chuckling nervously to himself, "You're joking, right?"
"I'm not," the charmer added, clearly enjoying this, "What do I have to gain from lying to you?"
"...I'd like to think a lot, right?" the jokester raised an eyebrow, "I mean…"
"Wrong," Godfrey tapped his chin, pausing momentarily, "Put simply… this means I can't be outed for lying. Kira was a perfect example of that happening, if I recall correctly. But also… you can consider this a warning, if you will. Put simply, I haven't tried too hard to manipulate who anybody else votes for right now, as long as it isn't yours truly. So feel free to just… try and get them to help you out."
"I… uh… what?" Mikey was at a complete loss for words, but he quickly bounced back with his usual energy, "But… fine, alright! I'll try!"
"There you are, asshole!" Jackie's voice called through the halls, giving the charmer a death glare as she stared into his soul, "And I see you're already pulling your usual shit again…"
"I'm just telling him the truth," Godfrey shrugged smugly, "Would you rather I just take him out silently instead?"
"..." Jackie remained silent, the athlete running the scenarios through in her head, "That changes nothing. Mikey, you mind helping me get rid of Godfrey?"
"Yeah… I think so…" the jokester nodded resolutely, "I don't wanna get eliminated, you know?"
"...Well, that changes things," Godfrey span around on his heel and turned away, whistling a small tune to himself, "I'm going to actively try to persuade people to help me eliminate you now - I can't just ignore a threat like that, you know."
"...Didn't you start this?" Jackie deadpanned, Mikey nodding in agreement next to her.
"And?" the villain wagged his finger condescendingly, "This wasn't me going back on my word, nor was it me lying. This was a simple change of plans now that there's an active threat to me remaining in the game."
With that, the villain turned around and left, leaving the other two behind.
"Well… I better go talk to my team, then…" Mikey shook a spray paint can nervously, keeping a small smile on his face, "You coming with?"
"I'll go another way," the athlete nodded, "Hopefully I can talk to the ones you don't find."
Confessional - Godfrey
"Of course Jackie is still trying to get rid of me, even though I'm on a different team than her," the villain let out a noise that was somewhere between an exasperated sigh and an amused chuckle, "...But still. If Mikey leaves, that splits the team up and lets me carve my niche far more nicely. I just have a nice inkling that a certain somebody else is thinking about this as practically as I am."
As for the final three members of the Scepters, Octavia and Brooke had let Rival into the girls' room in order to figure out what their plan for the vote was going to be.
"...Well," Rival began, deciding to take the initiative, "...I at least think we're all safe this time around, we all helped out."
"Yeah," Brooke nodded in agreement, the shopper pleased with her performance, "I'm… like, pretty happy we did well."
And also, Octavia didn't get into a petty fight, for once, but that went unspoken among the three.
"Like, finally," the media darling huffed with a mild eye-roll, "So, like… who are we gonna vote out or whatever? I just think we need to vote out Julia, they don't even talk to anybody besides like, Freddy."
"Godfrey?" Brooke offered with a small smile from her spot on her bed, "Nobody really likes him, so…"
"I can't disagree there," Rival shrugged, the vocalist sitting himself down on one of the beds as he thought about it, "...But just making sure, is he-"
Before he could finish that thought, Mikey knocked on the door and then promptly invited himself inside, "...Aha! There you guys are!"
"Mikey?" Brooke raised an eyebrow, surprised to see the jokester there, "Why are you here, exactly…?"
"Well… I'm just saying that can you guys please vote Godfrey out tonight?" the jokester practically begged the other three, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "...The guy just… told me he was gonna vote me out, so…"
"We were just talking about considering voting him out, actually," Rival nodded in agreement, "So if you guys are both in agreement…"
"...Makes sense to me," Brooke gave the vocalist a thumbs-up,"I don't see why we shouldn't."
"Thanks, guys," Mikey nodded his head before letting Octavia even speak, running out the door, "I'll go find the others and ask them too!"
"Anyways, as I was saying before, like, I was interrupted…" the media darling cleared her throat, clearly not convinced to just go along with his idea, "I still think we should vote, like, Julia or somebody. Godfrey's a pain, but… he's also making more enemies than I have! It doesn't make sense to take him out now! And like also… Mikey just begged us to vote for the guy while hardly saying much…"
Confessional - Octavia
"Which is, like, more than a little pathetic," the media darling tagged on in the confessional.
"...I mean, if you put it that way…" Brooke rubbed her arm awkwardly, clearly torn between who to listen to, "I'd vote for Julia if you'd like!"
"I'm fine with voting for whoever you guys choose," Rival shrugged his shoulders lazily, "Personally, I'd still choose Godfrey, but my vote's out in the open. It does feel pretty scummy to just turn our backs on Mikey after that, though."
"...I still think we can get rid of him later - Julia also kinda sucked at, like… fighting the dragon, too, she literally got taken out immediately," Octavia shrugged, standing up from where she was seated with a stretch to move to the bathroom, "I'll see you guys at the elimination ceremony, I've gotta make sure I look my best for when I'm finally not even being considered for elimination."
"I'm glad she's happy, at least," Rival shrugged, walking out himself, "...Since she's going, I'll just leaf too-"
"...That isn't even a relevant pun…" Brooke sweatdropped, giving the vocalist a confused glance.
"...So?" Rival gave her a playful smile as he left, "Can't I just pun for the sake of it sometimes?"
No.
Confessional - Jackie
"Well… I unfortunately couldn't find any of the Scepters myself," the athlete crossed her arms over her chest, "So I've just got to hope they actually vote him out by themselves…"
After all that, however, the eight Shining Scepters had gathered at the elimination stage - with the six Brilliant Bulbs watching from the peanut gallery - Jezebelle, Tobias and Casey were in the front row, while Chander, Jessica and Jackie were in the back row, the athlete casting not-at-all subtle glares towards a certain charmer. As for the Scepters… they were sat in the eight seats - Godfrey looked smug, Julia was her usual stoic self, Mikey looked slightly nervous, Octavia looked confident, Freddy was whispering into Anu's ear… and Rival and Brooke didn't have anything notable in their expressions tonight.
"Shining Scepters," Chris called out towards the eight Scepters, taking in their expressions as he held up a plate of seven… robotic skeleton heads, "While it's… unfortunate that we had a team swap that I didn't ask for-"
He cast a glance towards Doppel, who just poked their tongue out with a small laugh track.
"-You guys still managed to screw up in the challenge, big time," the host smirked, glad to be back, "Now… I don't have too much of a clue about what went on… so Chef! Take it away, without that computer getting involved."
"...Hmph, fine," the co-host grumbled, moving forward as he looked over the team, "Julia. Your anti-social attitude means that you have almost no friends here… and you're a challenge threat."
The runaway didn't react much, outside of narrowing her eyes slightly.
"Mikey," Chef turned towards the jokester next, "You tried to become the leader, and yet you still failed at doing that. Plus, your scheme with the pillar was used against you, leading to the Bulbs winning. Not a good look for you."
"...Yeah, my bad, guys," the jokester rubbed the back of his head bashfully.
"Godfrey," the cook turned towards the charmer next, "You've got a lot of enemies, and really? You keep making more of them every day. Honestly, there's very little reason to keep you around."
"So?" Godfrey looked like he was enjoying this, because he was, "Bring it."
"Octavia, you're prone to causing nothing but drama wherever you go," Chef turned towards the media darling fourth, who just scoffed audibly, "And you've been in the bottom two in both of the elimination ceremonies before this. Maybe they want you out to lower the drama."
"Like… seriously?" the media darling was fed up with being near the bottom of the team ladder again.
"Thanks for that, Chef," Chris put extra emphasis on the cook's name as he stepped forward again, holding up the plate of seven skulls to the team, "Now then we have… seven skulls. …Intern, what the heck?"
"...Y-you asked for s-something from th-the challenge…" Ember piped up from the back, the programmer somehow managing to look even more anxious than usual. …They also looked completely worn out.
"...Anyways, whoever gets one of the… seven robot skulls… is safe tonight," Chris rolled his eyes, but held up the first one regardless, "And the first… robot skull… goes to Freddy!"
The host threw one at the FNaF Fanatic, who caught it with relative ease… and immediately started examining it, "Maybe it's like… some sort of endoskeleton…?"
"Second up… Brooke!" the shopper managed to catch hers, letting out a small sigh of relief as she turned to make sure her friends were fine.
"Octavia…" the media darling would have caught hers, closing her eyes with her hand open as if she knew she'd catch it… but the throw was far too low and struck her in the stomach. Still, Brooke let out a sigh of relief.
"Rival…" the vocalist had to jump out of his seat to dodge another skull… clearly, Chris just wanted to throw things at people.
"Anu…" the funny frog man leaped over his one with a small level of dramatic flair.
"And… Godfrey!" Chris threw the sixth skull in the direction of the charmer, who caught it… and flashed the single smuggest smile he could possible make towards Jackie… who looked furious, but held her tongue.
"And that just leaves Julia and Mikey," Chris turned towards the runaway and the jokester - Julia looked like her usual stoic self, while beads of sweat were rolling down the prankster's face, "Frankly… I'm surprised it's came down to you two. Really, I am! But now… there's only one more skull, and it's going to…
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…Julia! Mikey, you're outie!" Chris threw the skull towards the runaway, who caught it and released a breath they didn't know they were holding in… while the jokester just stood up with a sigh.
"...Aw dang it," he shrugged, pulling out a slice of losing pizza from his pocket and eating it, "Guess I wasn't that good of a leader, huh…?"
"You weren't awful, I suppose," Godfrey shrugged nonchalantly, as if he didn't vote him out, "If it weren't for the fact that you left yourself open so easily."
"...Didn't you say you'd vote me out?" Mikey deadpanned towards the charmer, who nodded in response.
"...I did," the charmer flashed a grin at the rest of the cast, "I told him I'd vote him out, actually. I've said this so many times I feel like a broken record… but I don't lie. …Now, would whoever else who voted Mikey like to admit to it? Maybe the Julia voters would like to step up, hm?"
Nobody else spoke up for a few seconds… until Freddy sheepishly spoke up with a raised hand, "Sorry I voted you out, man..."
"No biggie, no biggie," Mikey raised his hands up with a slight chuckle, "I've got nothing against any of you for voting me out, really."
"...Heh, looks like he's got more guts than the rest of you," Godfrey chuckled, wagging his finger in Jackie's direction, "But regardless… I think this is proof enough that you always know exactly what I am. I'll just leave it at that. I didn't even tell anybody else to vote Mikey… but it looks like others shared my right idea."
Seeing his chance to take back the spotlight in his own elimination, Mikey pulled out his spray paint can, "I think I can get one last little piece of art in before I go…"
Shaking it rapidly, he aimed towards a wall, quickly drawing a picture of his face with spray paint, snickering to himself - and getting some grins out of the crowd, too.
"Nice! Knew you'd get one prank in," Chander looked suitably pleased with this, which the jokester responded to with a thumbs up.
"Not on the elimination room! Doppel, send him to the Dungeon! Now!" Chris practically begged of the AI, who just shrugged and let him finish, "...H-hey! That stuff's gonna take forever to go away, at least put my face there!"
Once he was done… Mikey let out a small bow, "Hehe… and done! I'm sad I couldn't stick around any longer… but I still had fun. Well played on taking me out, Godfrey… no use staying mad about it, after all. Anyways… good luck to you all!"
With that, the pipe to the Dungeon of Losers opened up, sending Mikey down with it. In an instant, the jokester was gone… although clearly, with less salt or drama from him than the past few two eliminated contestants.
While… most of the cast dispersed, two remained - Godfrey, and Jackie, the charmer giving the athlete a small grin as he stood up, "So… do you have anything to say to me? I never told anybody to vote him out…"
"...I still don't believe you," the athlete began, stepping down from the peanut gallery with crossed arms, "And after that scene you pulled at the elimination? I still don't trust you either… but… telling people you voted for Mikey? What's your end goal?"
"Winning. Just like you, I'd imagine," the villain stretched his arms out with a yawn, "...But can you really say you trust the others who didn't say who they voted for? I have my own theories on how this vote went, mind you… but I won't bore you with them. Keep that in mind next time you gun for me, please."
With that, he turned away and walked off, and Jackie rolled her eyes at him, before jogging off herself, "Let's… just keep my eyes on the prize. No use getting distracted by him of all people…"
"And with that… we move down from fourteen to thirteen! …And I still won't be able to get that graffiti out of my elimination room anytime soon, so good riddance Mikey! Will Jackie ever not hate Godfrey? Will Rival keep on making puns? And will Doppel ever act out like that again? The answer to those last two better be no, but find out next time… on Total! Drama! Digital Mayhem!"
Elimination Confessionals:
Anu: "While I was initially going to vote for Godfrey… Freddy argued well enough for Julia's vote. So… I'll vote Mikey out of our party!"
Brooke: "Octavia said to vote for Julia… so that's what I'll do."
Freddy: "I thought it over… and, well, I like both Anu and Julia - so I just went with my gut and decided to vote for Mikey. Also, he eats a lot of pizza, which reminds me of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza-"
Godfrey: "I said I'd vote Mikey. Truthfully, I'm just very interested to see who everyone else votes for…"
Julia: "Mikey. …Do I have to say anything else?"
Mikey: "Obviously I'm voting for Godfrey! He literally said he'd try voting me out, so why wouldn't I?"
Octavia: "Like, hello? I'm putting my vote out for Julia, she doesn't even talk to anybody besides the frog and bear guys."
Rival: "...Juli… nah. I've got nothing. But I'm still going to vote for Julia. I don't fully get Octavia's reasonings here... but if she and Brooke are going for him, I don't see why I won't."
Brilliant Bulbs: Jezebelle, Tobias, Chander, Jessica, Jackie, Casey
Shining Scepters: Brooke, Octavia, Rival, Anu, Freddy, Julia, Godfrey
Author's Note: And… we're finally done with this! It's long, long overdue, but this fourth episode is finally out… and I've got some things to add. First things first… the team swap! The main reason for this was simple… the original Diamond Dodos were way, way too friendly after Kira and Kanna's boots, barring maybe Octavia. Plus, once Mikey was locked in as the third boot… I also wanted Godfrey to be in the voting table for once.
…So I'd say it checks out nicely and will help the season in the long run, even if I think the plots for this episode in particular suffered a little bit as a result as the new team dynamics needed to be established more than the existing plots had to be developed. Between now and next update, though… my hope is to have a full-blown, major plan for the rest of the season - most of the challenges, when plot events happen, etc. But I have enough actual plots that have been set up this chapter I very much want to explore further - hopefully now that the foundation's been set, planning ahead will be much, much easier.
As for our newly eliminated Mikey… thank you to Supaflywriterguy for submitting him! He was a fun character who I enjoyed writing, especially in this chapter once I gave him his little 'mini-leader' arc… but I ultimately knew one of the 'silly guys' had to go around this point, and out of the bunch he simply had the least plot hooks. This elimination was also… admittedly just a little bit obvious, but from this point onwards I think they should be harder to call. Him sharing a surname with Kira will always be funny to me.
So with… wait a second…
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…
…
Once it was night, and they knew that everybody else was asleep (through the many cameras, of course), Ember walked into… what appeared to be a grand control room, a laptop in their hands as they approached the back wall - or more specifically, a small, highly guarded socket.
The words Locayne Inventions were engraved into it, notably. It took them several minutes, but the programmer soon turned off the security… and removed a black, yellow, purple and white USB stick from the wall. With that singular motion, the low hum of the castle faded to nothing.
Ember plugged that USB stick into the laptop, with a face very much like that of a displeased parent, "Doppel… y-you really sh-shouldn't have done th-that…"
"...Huh?" the AI's avatar appeared on the laptop screen, "Seriously? Laptop jail, Emby?"
"...Y-yes," the programmer sighed at them, seeing that they were trapped in gay baby jail, "S-seriously. Don't do that ever again. …W-we don't wanna annoy Chris or Chef, okay? I know y-you wanna have fun and all, but we can't if you t-test them like that so just please please please don't!"
"...Fiiiiiiiinnnnne…" Doppel's avatar sighed, the AI managing to add a brief wind-blowing effect to their speech in the process, "I'll be nice, don't worry! I just wanted one teensy tiny little bit of fun hosting… and now I'm all good! Chrissy can keep his job, so I'll play nice from now on! Promise!"
"G-good. Th-this… this is your warning…" the programmer adjusted the headphones around their neck as they took the USB stick out of the laptop, "I spent s-so long on you and g-got this c-castle from th-that c-crazy inventor girl… I-I just hope you don't ruin my one chance to sh-show you off…"
With those words, they plugged Doppel right back into the castle, returning them to the code in there… and then retreated back to their own bedroom to get a good night's sleep, for once.
…A post-credit scene? How fun! These won't be a regular occurrence (at most, expect only one or two more across the whole fic)… but I wanted this scene in somewhere in the chapter and couldn't organically throw it into the main chapter. But hey… B-plot developments are fun.
So now, with all that out of the way… happy reading, and Kadachi out~
16th: Kira Mitchell - The Opportunistic Gamer (Me)
15th: Kanna Horvat - The Popular 'Girl' (Grape Escape)
14th: Mikey Mitchell - The Weird Kid (Supaflywriterguy)