"Last time on Total Drama Action," Chris began the recap while sitting at a desk drawing something. "The dry desert heat baked our favorite partners like roadkill on black tar, all except for the heat resistant Australian Jasmine and the seemingly temperature immune Dawn. We got to see a massive shoot down as our contestants proved what good shots they were with some getting a bit too into it…IZZY! And then we had the train heist of the century where all Tyler did to defend the precious cargo was shoot himself in the head. Yeah that'll win you a fight bro. In the end the Grips found themselves taking the train right back to Loserville while the Gaffers feasted on the finest beer of the root variety. Mike finally revealed his condition to his team, and Tyler finally got back on Lindsay's good graces right before hitching a ride on the 3:10 to Elimination town population 6. 14 remain, will the Gaffers earn themselves another winning streak? Will the Grips finally start working as a team? Gah!" Chris winced in pain as he dropped his pencil and began rubbing his hand. "Who will deal with hand cramps all episode?! Ow! How did they do this back then? Yeesh, find out the answers to all this and more right now on Total. Drama. Action!"
Thankfully the heatwave that attacked them during the cowboy challenge was now gone allowing everyone to enjoy a rather temperate day outside the trailers after breakfast was done. Everyone was mostly relaxing in silence and enjoying the time they had before Chris put them through who knows what today. Most were either lounging around doing a whole lot of nothing, with some snacking on food they took from the mess hall, but there was one in particular that was using the time they had to push themselves a little. "Uuuuugh…" Lindsay grunted as she laid on a yoga mat she laid out outside and was attempting to do some poses while wearing a proper top and shorts. "I'm…doing it…I'm doing it!"
"Well done Lindsay, I didn't know you did yoga," Dawn complimented while hanging upside down on her tree in meditation, but she briefly broke her concentration to look at Lindsay and take note of the ditzy blond's aura. "Your aura is looking rather bright today!"
"Aw thanks!" Lindsay smiled at the compliment as she started to change position. She struggled but she was still determined to do it despite how hard it was. "I'm just…trying to be...at my best…for the competition!"
"It's quite nice to see you like this," Dawn told her as Lindsay smiled, and also winced, at successfully striking another pose. "I thought you'd be really upset about Tyler being eliminated."
CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay
"Don't get me wrong, it does suck that Tyler's gone now but I can't let it get to me!" Lindsay told the camera, a fire of determination lit in her eye. This entire competition throughout both seasons she's been used, tricked, and made fun of. But she wasn't gonna take all of that anymore, from now on she was in it to win it and was gonna do her best and be nice doing it. "I know I can do this! I've been doing so good at the challenges so far and I plan on keeping that up! Tyler, Beth, if you're watching this you better be prepared for one heck of a trip to Paris when I win!"
CONFESSIONAL – Heather
"Ugh, seriously we kicked off her boyfriend and she's not even depressed?!" Heather growled out in frustration. "I've had it with her! Next time we lose during an elimination round we are getting rid of her and I refuse to take no for an answer!"
"Hmmmmm…" Izzy looked at the cards in her hands and considered her options. Currently the psycho hose beast was in an intense game of low stakes poker with none other than Edward with a large pot of chips in between the two of them.
"…" Edward was silent as he narrowed his eyes at Izzy.
"Hmmmmm…"
"…"
"Hmmmmm…"
"…"
"…Raise," Izzy finally made her decision as she put more chips into the pot.
"Brbrbr…" Edward let out in response.
"I was wondering where my poker set went," Trent commented as he and Mike watched from one of the picnic tables. Trent shrugged and decided to just let them play, as long as they didn't mess anything up or lose any cards or chips he was totally fine with them or the others having some fun with it. "So hey can't help but notice you've been happy the last couple of days man,"
"Heh, I guess coming out to everyone about my DID just makes things a lot easier ya know," Mike explained to Trent with a smile and shrug. Ever since he told the rest of the team life on the set has just become so much easier for Mike. Whenever his personalities popped up there weren't any awkward explanations or excuses for going into 'character' or his actions during them. Everyone just understood and rolled with it…ok, Vito could definitely get under the girls skin a bit but overall there was no real trouble thankfully. "Thanks again for convincing me to tell everyone, you were right about them all understanding it."
"Hey like I said you're on a team full of cool people, couldn't be in a better position to tell everyone about it," Trent told Mike with a confident smile before holding his fist to Mike with the tanned teen happily returning the fist bump. "So from now on we can just focus on kicking butt in the game!"
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Mike cheered with a grin.
CONFESSIONAL – Mike
"I really do owe a lot to Trent, he's honestly my first real friend and now thanks to him I can say I have a group of people I can count on for friendship and support and hey should the time come I'll definitely pay back the favor," Mike said with a genuine smile. To think not so long ago he was a socially awkward guy without friends. And now…well he was still kind of awkward but now he has quite a number of good friends. "Honestly I never thought I'd have a group of friends like this before and hey I'm gonna do my best to help us win as thanks! And if I actually were to win the whole thing, well, I'd love to use some of the money to do something really nice for all the Gaffers."
Currently sitting on the steps of the boys' trailer was Lincoln who was doing his favorite thing to do during the off time between challenges, well two of his favorite things. Drawing and admiring Dawn. The white head boy was watching his girlfriend hang upside down from the tree she's been calling home during the season before looking down and continued to sketch in his journal. "Sup Linc," Greeting Lincoln as she passed by was Jasmine who couldn't help but notice what Lincoln was doing and grew a little curious. "Whatcha doing there mate?"
"O-Oh, nothing much, just doing some drawing is all," Lincoln stuttered a bit as Jasmine took him off guard while he was in the zone. "Check it out,"
"Is that Dawn?" Jasmine asked as she looked at the drawing and couldn't help but gush a bit. It wasn't just Dawn, it was Dawn in her cowgirl outfit from the last challenge riding on top of a horse. "Aaaww, she's cute!"
"Hehe, thanks. She makes a really good model." Lincoln then began flipping through the pages and showing off more drawings he made of Dawn with them being in the various costumes she's been in during the show. Her as a vampire from the Classic Monster Movie challenge, her in the prison jumpsuit during the Prison Movie challenge, and her as a druid during the Fantasy Movie challenge. "Just really love drawing her,"
"Well that's really sweet Lincoln," Jasmine told the white haired boy as she admired the drawings she showed him. "I saw you sketching a few times. You must really like drawing."
"Yeah you could say that," Lincoln nodded without a shadow of a doubt. He's liked drawing his whole life ever since he was just a kid, and he likes to think he's gotten really good over the years. "It makes me happy, and I'd love to go to art school."
"Oh neat," Jasmine nodded at that and ruffled Lincoln's hair a bit. "It's good ya got a goal like that,"
"Hehe, thanks," Lincoln laughed a bit as he fixed up his hair. "I like drawings a bunch so hey why not make a career out of it?"
"Fair enough," Jasmine then flipped the pages of Lincoln's journal again and saw a drawing of Ronnie Anne dressed like the devil with fire behind her. "Hehe…what's this one?"
"Heheh, I had to," Lincoln told the Australian Amazon with a snicker.
"Pfft, good one mate," Jasmine joined in on the snickering. From nearby Ronnie Anne raised her head and gave them the stink eye. She didn't know what they were laughing about but she was confident that it involved her in some way.
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"Ugh, I can't stand that Lame-O's team constantly has the numbers advantage against us." Ronnie Anne slammed her fist down on the vanity table. Despite playing nice with her team and actually trying to think of plans for stuff and playing dirty against the other team, she still comes 2nd to that team of freaking goody-goodies! "I swear if we keep losing I'm not gonna be able to keep up this whole nice girl shtick with these freaking losers…"
Currently in the Craft's Services Tent, DJ was helping Chef clean up the kitchen after today's breakfast. DJ took pride in yet another breakfast that everyone on set loved and couldn't get enough of. And of course during the whole time Chef kept up with DJ's tough lessons during off time and kept their secret alliance nice and strong.
So far the buff cook has to admit that he's proud of what DJ has accomplished so far in the competition. He went from a brickhouse with a noodle spine to actually toughening up a bit like Chef wanted him to. Doing well in most of the challenges and really pushing it in some like how he did during the Disaster Movie challenge and even winning the Horror Movie challenge for his team. Plus well…Chef would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy having DJ help him out in the kitchen.
It was usually such a grueling task slaving over the hot stove cooking for those snot nosed teenagers. So having someone with him to share the labor and just to talk to was…rather pleasant. "Gotta say DJ," Chef spoke up after emptying the last of the dirty pots and pans in the sink for DJ to clean off. "I've been impressed with you so far,"
"Y-You have," DJ blinked a bit in surprise before smiling at the praise Chef gave him. "Really?"
"Yes really, you've been performing really well for your team so far. Good job out there DJ," Chef gave DJ an approving pat on the shoulder. Suddenly DJ felt a feeling of pride swelling up in his chest that made him smile widely. Something about getting Chef's approval just made the brickhouse well…really proud of himself. "Keep up the good work, you'll make it to the finale in no time son."
"Gee thanks Chef," DJ told the buff cook as he got to work on washing the dishes, had to clean them up fast before his teammates started wondering where the heck he was. Had a few close calls here and there. "I'll keep doing my best! Promise!"
"You better son, because now I'm gonna have to go even tougher with the lessons so you keep improving," Chef informed DJ, forming a fist for emphasis. DJ was getting better but he was still a big marshmallow at the end of the day, so it was time to get more intense with the lessons in toughness. They had a million to win after all. And for DJ in particular he might have something else he wants to win. "And you might be able to win over that Jasmine girl,"
"Yeah maybe if I just try hard eno-" DJ was saying but he soon cut himself off as he actually realized what Chef said. Win over Jasmine…like in a…romantic sense? Soon DJ found himself going red in the face as the idea was planted in his head. "W-W-What do-do you mean by t-that Chef?"
"Heheh, oh don't play dumb son," Chef chuckles as he patted DJ on the shoulder, an amused grin on the buff cook's face. "I've seen the way you look at her. It's the same way Lincoln looks at Dawn, or the way Owen looks at bacon."
"W-What, but that's…n-no that can't be," DJ nervously smiled and chuckled as he tried to dismiss the idea. Sure Jasmine was certainly a really nice and sweet girl despite her practically being a giantess, not to mention she was beautiful too. That dark skin, amazing muscles, chocolate brown eyes, the pure natural look free of any make-up, and the outdoor adventurer look she had. Suddenly DJ found himself going even more red. "Jasmine she's…s-she's just a friend is all!"
"That's the way it always starts DJ," Chef said as he shook his head in amusement. "If you ever need help in the ladies department I might just give ya lessons in that as well for when you finally decide to tell her how ya feel, hahaha,"
And with that DJ was left to do the dishes with a bright red face, unable to get all that out of his head now.
As soon as the brickhouse finished the dishes he met up with the rest of his team who were hanging out outside the trailers, the Grips also being there with Lindsay continuing her yoga. "Hey DJ," Lincoln greeted him as soon as DJ entered his field of vision. "Where were you? Kinda went missing after breakfast,"
"Oh, um, I was…just taking a walk around the film lot is all," DJ gave a quick excuse to his team's leader. While he hated lying DJ had to admit that after doing this for a while he was getting better at thinking of excuses for his disappearances. "It's a really nice day out so I thought I'd go enjoy it and have some me time,"
"Ah ok, that makes sense," Lincoln nodded, not even thinking about it much and buying the excuse as he went back to drawing in his journal. "Definitely better than how it was a few days ago,"
"Heh, yeah no kidding," DJ laughed as he and Lincoln shared a small chuckle together. All the while Dawn briefly glanced at DJ before closing her eyes in mediation again.
CONFESSIONAL – Dawn
"Before anyone asks, yes I know about Chef and DJ's secret alliance," Dawn admitted with her usual calm expression and tone. She basically knew about it the day it happened but decided not to say anything about it to DJ or the rest of her team. She had her reasons for it too. "Honestly I think this is something DJ needs, sure he's really sweet but he's been growing more courageous since Chef took him under his wing and it's been a good positive change to his aura. Not just him but Chef as well, between you and me he's really grown a soft spot for DJ recently. I think this is a good thing for both of them! And, hehe, the good food certainly doesn't hurt either."
"Now what's with all the hullaboola happening here!" The voice that always came in to ruin their down time was finally heard by everyone as Chris walked up to their trailers. The host with the most was dressed in what could only be considered an old timey 1930's business suit consisting of a brown suit and pants made of tweed with a white undershirt, a red tie with a white diamond pattern, and a pocket on the right breast of the suit. Chris was also holding a cane and had a black bowler hat on his head…his right hand also had bandages around it for some reason. And to top it all off he was speaking with an old timey accent. "Sounds like you're all having a real gas right here but it's time to cut off the gobbledygook and head off in a jiffy, don't wanna miss the talkies do we?"
"…" Everyone present ended up giving Chris an odd look, obviously not having understood anything he had said.
"Was that English?" Mike was finally the one to break the silence and voice his confusion.
"More like gibberish," Heather stated with an eyeroll.
"Nah can't be," Izzy shook her head and pointed a finger to herself. "I speak fluent gibberish!"
"Just follow him to the set," Dawn said dryly.
Deciding to just go along with Chris' crazy antics, all the contestants began following Chris as he led them through the film lot. The location of today's challenge was a bit further away today but eventually Chris led them to what appeared to be a four story building with a big sign on it that said "McLain Animation Studios" in black and white letters. "Now as you all know movies have been around for over a century and have dominated the entertainment industry ever since then." Chris began the little history lesson he was putting on with some of the contestants looking interested, others looking neutral about it, and others looking bored and impatient. "But there's one particular form of motion picture that when it was created, completely took the industry by storm and has stood on an untouchable podium since then with how beloved it is…except by the actual companies, hehe. Today's genre…animation!"
Immediately both Lincoln and Harold rose brows at that.
CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln & Harold
"Chris clearly doesn't know anything!" Harold claimed as he and Lincoln looked at the camera with crossed arms and not-so-happy looks. "Animation isn't a genre, it's a medium! Gosh!"
"Hey, hey, it's ok pal," Lincoln reassured Harold as he put a hand on the ginger's shoulder. "We know better at least,"
After that announcement Chris began taking them on a tour throughout the building which was designed like an old fashioned animation studio with the first floor being filled with all sorts of drawing desks along with a maze of hallways leading into various rooms that they would only guess what was inside. "Now back in ye olden days of animation, cartoons were a lot harder to make," Chris explained as he reached towards one of the desks and picked up a blank animation cell. "Cartoons were made one frame at a time, artists would spend countless hours slumped away at a desk drawing individual frames of a cartoon. In case it wasn't obvious hand and back pains were heck of a lot more common back then,"
For emphasis Chris raised his hand to show off the bandages on them. "Even after weeks of work and countless drawings only enough was made for a couple of minutes of film, if even that much," Chris' fun facts actually did surprise those who didn't know already as Chris continued the tour onto the next floor. "But of course animators weren't the only ones hard at work, musicians were also working around the clock to provide both background music and sound effects to go along with those kooky cartoons."
The next floor consisted of a music studio that had instruments of all kinds set up in it, along with more hallways leading into other sorts of rooms. Despite none of them being played Chris had a radio going on that played some old timey music that utilized all the music seen. "Music and effects were added to the cartoons separately using something called the Cinephone system to record everything which was then synchronized with the animation frames." Chris further explained as he brought up a keyboard and played a few notes on it which each one producing a sound effect. "However there is one key part of animation that hasn't changed since the 30's."
On the third floor was what looked like a boardroom with various animation frames over the walls and a big meeting table in the middle of the room. On both ends of the table were projectors that were aimed at screens on the wall. "The classic storyboarding room," Chris announced to everyone as he took a seat at the end of the table. "Where people would discuss ideas of cartoons to make to keep the masses happy, only it was a lot more stressful back then as shows took more work to make so they had to constantly be at work in order to push stuff out to the masses and actually able to make a decent quarter, which was actually worth quite a lot in that time."
"Holy crap," DJ finally let out once their little tour was over. "Sounds like making cartoons back then was a nightmare,"
"You don't even know the half of it, I only gave you lot the basic summary. They even earned my respect," Chris stated, surprising a number of the contestants. Earning Chris' respect was far from the easiest thing in the world. "But back then they were the real heroes of the world. During a time where the world kind of sucked, with an economic disaster going on and a certain German dude beginning to rise to power, those cute little black and white cartoons were one of the few things providing joy back then."
"Guess they didn't have much to do back then, hehe," Justin joked with a chuckle.
"Besides get drunk and gamble what little money they had, not really haha," Chris laughed as he pointed and nodded at the handsome teen. "Like I said the world was kind of a sucky place to live in those days."
CONFESSIONAL – Geoff
"Not as crazy as some of the parties I've been to, hehe," Geoff chuckled as he remembered some of the wild times he and his buds had with some of their parties.
"Now then, for your challenge today," Chris began as he put his feet up onto the table with everyone leaning forward to hear what they would be having to do today. "Hidden all over the first two floors of this film studio are 400 animation cells, 200 for each team. Your challenge is to search all over the place for them and bring them back here to these projectors. Once you find all of them, get them into the correct order and put them in the projector to play the cartoon. First team to finish gets an advantage in the second half of the challenge."
"Doesn't sound too hard," Trent said with a shrug. But Trent fully realized what he said and flinched as everyone on both teams sent him a nasty look. "Crap…"
CONFESSIONAL – Trent
"Ok, I take full responsibility for whatever pain is waiting for us this challenge," Trent said with a sigh. If he jinxed the team it was all on him. "I just hope this doesn't cause us to lose…"
"Well Trent now that you say that it does remind me of something else old school studios did back then when it came to making cartoons," Chris began with a grin as Trent lowered his head. "As I'm sure all of you know, most old school cartoon characters are based around animals. To properly draw them, animals were brought into the studios to act as a reference to the artists. So…" Chris then reached into his suit's pocket and took out a walkie talkie. "Chef! Release the beasts!"
Outside the building, Chef grinned as he pulled out a remote and pressed a button on it. All over the studio various cages were opened up and released animals of all shapes and sizes throughout the studio.
"Now you'll be having to find all the animation sheets while dealing with whatever critters are in here. Some more harmless than others," As Chris said this a loud roar was heard that immediately got everyone unnerved. "And so for each team to know what frames are theirs, their team's logo will be in the corner of the frame! Everyone ready…and…animate!"
Immediately the Gaffers all grouped up together to discuss a plan to take on the challenge as they usually did. "Ok so 200 frames of animation means there are probably 100 on each floor," Lincoln immediately began brainstorming ideas of how to go about the challenge. "So I'm thinking we split into groups of two, two groups on both floors and each take a different side to get the most out of each area? Sounds good?"
"Probably the fastest way to find everything," Harold agreed with everyone nodding in agreement.
"Alright then, I'll go with Dawn of course and Trent you and Mike can be a group and we can search the first floor," Lincoln began making the groups with neither Mike or Trent having a problem with that as they nodded in agreement. "Then DJ and Jasmine can take the second floor with Bridgette and Harold. Are you all cool with that?"
"You got it mate," Jasmine grinned as she wrapped an arm around DJ and pulled him in close. "We'll find those sheets no problem!"
"U-Uh yeah, w-what she said…" Once DJ was in such close proximity to Jasmine he found himself going a bit red in the face and began stuttering. He didn't understand, he interacted with Jasmine just fine in the past but now…he quickly shook his head to hopefully get himself back on track. "Yeah! Yeah! W-We got this!"
"You good pairing up with me Bridgette?" Harold asked the blond surfer girl. Harold and Bridgette never really hung out before but the ginger didn't have any reason to be against this plan. Bridgette was nice and he understood Lincoln wanting to pair up with his girlfriend. Thankfully for him Bridgette shrugged and simply nodded. "Alright team! Break!"
And the Gaffers quickly went off and began heading down to the lower floors to begin looking for the animation sheets. And listening in on their plan was the Grips with Ronnie Anne being quick to copy Lincoln's idea. "Ok the Gaffers have the right idea, we got to spread out and cover the most ground we can to find the sheets!" Ronnie Anne told everyone firmly. She was done losing to her ex-boyfriend's team and was determined to finally start taking them down and whittle away their numbers. "We split into groups of two, two groups will take the first floor and one the second floor. Once all the sheets are found on the first floor both groups come up to help that group find everything on the second floor. Justin and Lindsay you take the first floor with Heather and Izzy, me and Geoff will take the second floor."
"Excuse me," Heather shot Ronnie Anne a look of disbelief at who she was being forced to pair up with. "You want me to pair up with crazy girl?!"
"Would you rather be paired with Lindsay?" Ronnie Anne threatened to make that happen. After sending Ronnie Anne another glare, Heather scoffed and crossed her arms and reluctantly decided to agree to it. "Then everyone get moving! We can't afford to slow down!"
And soon all groups of both teams were off on the hunt for all the animation cells leaving Chris by himself in the story board room. "Hmmmm…" Chris let out as he took out a hand mirror and observed himself in it. "Ya know…I should wear tweed more often,"
LINCOLN AND DAWN
Lincoln and Dawn decided to take the left half of the first floor while Mike and Trent took the right half. After looking around the desks a bit in the main room they managed to find several frames before they began exploring the various hallways and rooms in the building. So far they managed to not have to deal with any dangerous animals and only saw some birds and small mammals around the studio.
So while they were alone the two decided to make some small talk now that they had some time alone together. "So hey random question," Lincoln spoke up after looking inside a closet in one of the rooms and picking up two frames that were inside. "You ever watched any cartoons when you were a kid?"
"Yeah of course," Dawn told him with a grin as they exited the room they looked around in and were thinking of where to search next. Given the location they were in, finding times to be alone together was a lot harder than when they were on the island. So moments like these Dawn truly treasured. "Sure I was obviously more of the outdoorsy type but there were definitely some Saturday morning cartoons I was a fan of,"
"Nice, man those were the days weren't they," Lincoln shook his head fondly as a wave of nostalgia flowed over him. "Waking up on Saturday mornings in the PJ's to watch your favorite cartoons while eating a bowl of cereal. Can't really get that any more these days. What with streaming services taking over and big companies treating animation like complete (BLEEP) even though it's what put them on the map in the first place."
"Gonna miss those days huh?" Dawn wrapped an arm around Lincoln to pull him close, giggling a little bit at his passion for animation. "Used to watch Yogi Bear with my dad all the time when I was a kid,"
"Hey, a picnic date sounds pretty nice," Lincoln said with a grin before clearing his throat and speaking with his best Yogi Bear voice. "Let's just hope no bears steal our pic-a-nic basket!"
"Pfft, haha!" Dawn laughed as she playfully shoved Lincoln causing him to laugh. "You're such a goof,"
"Oh come on you love it," Lincoln grinned down at her.
"You're right, I do~" Dawn told him in a flirty voice before giving him a kiss on the lips.
"Heheh, you're acting rather clingy lately~" Lincoln commented as he held Dawn close. He's definitely noticed Dawn being more affectionate with him the last couple of challenges. "Not that I mind of course~"
"Mmmmmm~ Can't help it~" Dawn said as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "We haven't had much alone time lately~"
"Heheh, too true huh~?" Lincoln grabbed Dawn's hand and squeezed it softly. "But watch yourself now, gotta keep it PG~"
"Oh fiiiine~" Dawn playfully let out before booping Lincoln on the nose.
"Little minx~" Lincoln teased as Dawn giggled before they continued their search.
LINDSAY AND JUSTIN
"Zzzzzzz…" Lindsay and Justin froze in fear as they entered a room on the first floor that contained a sleeping bear that had its paw on some animation cells. And unfortunately, they had the Grip logo on them.
"Bears…" Lindsay whispered before gulping as the big furry creature let out a loud yawn. "Why'd it have to be bears…"
"Pretty sure they're Chris' favorite animal…" Justin let out as he took a step back. No way he wanted to risk waking the beast and have it maul him. His good looks would never recover from a bear attack. Luckily for him, Ronnie Anne gave him the perfect partner to where he didn't have to risk that. "Lindsay, would you be a dear and get those sheets for us~?"
"What?!" Lindsay quietly yelled out as she looked at Justin in disbelief.
"It's just, can you imagine what would happen if that bear were to sink its claws into my skin? It would ruin my complexion completely!" Justin explained to Lindsay as the normally ditzy blond continued to look at him with a shocked look. Did he seriously expect her to go in and risk waking up a bear by herself?! "And I know you wouldn't want that now would you~? And if you do, I might just reward you later~?"
At that Justin flipped his hair and shot Lindsay one of his flawless grins. At this Lindsay actually felt herself begin to be charmed a bit as her cheeks went pink. "W-Well I…I…" After blinking a few times Lindsay clenched her eyes shut. Justin then watched in surprise as Lindsay slapped herself across the face before giving Justin a rather stern look that he wasn't used to seeing on her. "Now you listen here mister, if you think I'm going in there to face a bear by myself then you're insane! You're helping me whether you like it or not!"
"But-But-But..." Justin stuttered out as Lindsay dragged him into the room.
CONFESSIONAL – Lindsay
"I can't spend time oogling Justin! I said I was gonna try to win and I meant it!" Lindsay claimed with a serious look as she pounded a fist into an open palm. "Besides, I already have a boyfriend. I couldn't even imagine cheating on Tyler!"
CONFESSIONAL – Justin
"Wha…What just happened?" Justin asked in complete disbelief. Did Lindsay seriously just…resist his good looks? How!? "That had to be a fluke…right?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Lindsay and Justin screamed as they ran away from an awake and angry bear.
DJ AND JASMINE
"Alright, that makes 30," Jasmine grinned as she found some more of her team's frames after opening up a piano. "Making good progress mate!"
"Y-Yeah," DJ smiled, his cheeks still dusted pink from being alone with Jasmine. After his conversation with Chef he just…couldn't stop viewing Jasmine in a different light. A light that just seemed to make all her positive traits highlighted to him and made them impossible to not notice. From her kind heart to just her flat out natural beauty. "We-We're really…doing well together huh?"
"Yeah we really are ain't we?" Jasmine turned to flash a smile at DJ that just seemed to make his face light up even more. But unfortunately for him Jasmine seemed to notice this as she rose a brow at him. "Hey everything ok DJ?"
"Y-Yep! No problems here!" DJ instantly answered as he turned his head away from Jasmine so she wouldn't get such a clear look at his face. "Perfectly fine! Why wouldn't I be hahaha!"
"Are you sure?" Jasmine only seemed to grow concerned for DJ as she looked him over with a worried look. "Just seem a bit…off is all. Plus your face is all red. You runnin' a fever or something?"
"N-No! Nope! No fever!" DJ nervously chuckled as he tried to wave off Jasmine's concerns. "Office is just stuffy is all hehe…"
"Hmmmm…well…alright," It was clear Jasmine wasn't fully convinced but she'd go along with it for now as long as it was nothing too serious. "Just let me know if you need to take a minute, ok big guy?"
"Y-Yeah, I will. Thanks," DJ nodded his head with Jasmine sending him a smile and a nod. Once she turned away from him the brickhouse was able to breathe a sigh of relief. "Phew…"
CONFESSIONAL – DJ
"I wish Chef never said anything…" DJ groaned out as he wiped his hand over his face, trying his best to get Jasmine out of his mind. But it was clear by the fact that he was so nervous around her that he wasn't exactly succeeding all too well. "Now that's the only thing that's been on my mind! I gotta get my head in the game!"
HEATHER AND IZZY
"Grrrrrr…" Heather flinched and quickly hid behind a desk. Of all the animals she had to run into while looking for animation panels she ended up finding a freaking lion of all things prowling around and guarding a small stack of sheets. And considering the universe just loved her so much she could make out Grip logos on the sheets so she and the crazy girl were going to have to try and get past the lion to get them. "Growl!"
"Great…just great…Chris is seriously going overboard with the animals here…" Heather whispered as she stayed firmly in her hiding place. No way was she going to go charging at a lion. "How the heck are we supposed to get those Izzy?" Heather received no response which greatly concerned her. "Izzy?"
Daring to peek past her hiding place, Heather's eyes widened as she looked up and watched Izzy swing from light to light on the ceiling making her way to the unsuspecting lion. "Izzy?! What are you doing?!" Heather tried loudly whispering to the psycho hose beast. "You're gonna get us on that thing's menu?!"
If Izzy did hear Heather she didn't register it and simply continued doing what she was doing. Once Izzy was right above the lion the red haired girl grinned widely as the lion sniffed the air a few times and seemed to catch a whiff of something. Eventually the king of the jungle looked up and spotted Izzy meaning it was her time to strike. "BONZAI!!!" The crazy girl yelled as she dropped down onto the lion causing it to roar and try to shake Izzy off. "Woah slow your roll there Tom! I'm a taken lady! Woohoo!"
The lion roared again and began running around as fast as it can to get Izzy off it, but the psycho hose beast held on tightly to the large cat's mane and stayed on as the lion ran away from the scene. "Huh…" Heather let out before smirking and made her way to the sheets. "I guess that works too,"
But as Heather went to go grab them…
"Brbrbrb!" Suddenly an all too familiar platypus scurried by and grabbed the sheets into his bill before looking back and giving Heather a mocking look while shaking his butt at the bald queen bee. "Brbrbr~ Brbrbr~ Brb~ Brbr~ Brbrbrbrb~"
"Hey!" Heather yelled out as she quickly ran after the platypus. "I swear one of these days I'm gonna make a purse out of you!"
MIKE AND TRENT
Chomp…Chomp...Chomp…
With Mike and Trent, the two thankfully weren't having to deal with an animal like a lion but their situation was still plenty annoying. In their search for frames Mike and Trent ended up finding a good amount of them, by their count about 35 so far meaning they were nearly done with their half of the search.
Good news, they managed to find 5 more of their team's frames. Bad news…they were inside a horse's mouth. Trent and Mike just watched as the horse chewed away on them with seemingly no intention of swallowing them. The stallion just had a rather dull look on its face as if it wasn't even registering reality. "You think he's gonna eat it…" Mike asked Trent as they simply watched the horse to see if it was gonna try anything.
"I'd rather not find out," Trent shook his head as he grabbed the half of the sheets that were outside the horse's mouth and attempted to pull it out. "Come on big guy…lunch is over…give…them…here!"
"Chew…Chew…Chew…" The horse continued to mindlessly chomp away, not even putting up a struggle yet Trent continued to struggle to pull the sheets away from it.
"Come on, just give them back already!" Mike yelled out as he joined Trent in trying to pull the sheets away from the horse. Despite the combined strength of both Mike and Trent pulling on the sheets they failed to get them away from the horse. "Come on…just…give them…up!"
In Mike's frustration he ended up letting out a deep gasp before slouching down and glaring at the horse. "Oh dagnabbit, ding dang horse!" Chester yelled out as he glared up at the stallion as it continued to just chew. "Back in my days animals knew to respect us old folk and do what we commanded them!"
"Oh…hey Chester," Trent let out with a sigh. While Trent fully accepted Mike and his DID and actually grew to like his alternate personalities during their time on the lot together, Chester was always a…difficult one to get along with and certainly wasn't useful at all during challenges. "Yeah this, uh, horse is kinda giving us some trouble."
"Well we knew how to handle a misbehaving horse in the old days! Move aside!" Chester waved Trent away with the guitarist taking a few steps back as the alternate personality got behind the horse. "It only takes a good smack and they'll be nice and obedient like!"
"Uh I don't think that's-" Trent tried to warn only for-
SMACK!
"NEEEEEEIGH!!!" The horse's eyes widened as it let out a loud neigh, opening its mouth and releasing the sheets in the process before it bucked Chester right in the face and sent him crashing into the wall before it ran off.
"Oh hey it worked," Trent smiled as he picked up the fallen sheets and added them to their pile before going to check on Chester. "You ok there man?"
"Uuuugh…my aching bones…" Chester managed to groan out with Trent simply shrugging. He was fine.
RONNIE ANNE AND GEOFF
"I think there might be some down here," Ronnie Anne and Geoff were searching the entire second floor by themselves for their team so the two were trying to double time it to find the sheets they needed for the challenge. Entering another room full of instruments Ronnie Anne stuck her hand inside a tuba only to be met with quite the nasty surprise. "OW!"
Removing her hand from the tuba Ronnie Anne did manage to pull out a bundle of sheets, but in the process a bunch of mice that were making their room in the tuba all bit her hand. "Grrrr!" Ronnie Anne let out before shaking her hand around to try and get them off. Once she shook them all off the mice all squeaked angrily at her before they scurried away. "Weirdly reminds me of home…"
"You got a mice problem or something?" Geoff asked as Ronnie Anne handed him the sheets.
"Nope, cat problem," Ronnie Anne corrected as she rubbed her hand a bit. Hopefully none of them were carrying any diseases but considering it was Chris she wouldn't put it past him to do something like that. "Honestly not much different from this…"
av
"Uh, ok then," Geoff shrugged before quickly looking over all the sheets they had. "Ok that's 45, we nearly have half the sheets that are up here,"
"Well keep looking, odds are the Gaffers already have most of theirs now," Ronnie Anne stated as they quickly went back to looking in any nook and corner they could see for these stupid little sheets. The thought of Lincoln's team pulling ahead really pissed her off, but she decided to use that anger to something resourceful as a mischievous grin came to her face. "So hey Geoff, wanna hear something else that went down between me and Lincoln?"
"Oh, yeah sure thing dude," Geoff nodded his head. He was rather proud of himself for getting Ronnie Anne to open up and getting her half of the story between her and Lincoln. Like he said break ups have two sides to them and he was always keen to learn more about Ronnie Anne's side and hopefully get the full story between the two of them. "Let it out."
"So one time in the 5th grade there was this Sadie Hawkins dance going on in our school when I still lived in Royal Woods with Lincoln," Ronnie Anne began explaining with a straight face, though inside she was smirking at how easily he was falling for her little trick. Not like she was lying about this after all. She was just gonna leave out some context here and there, that's all. "I didn't want to go, I mean who wants to go and hang out at some lame school dance right?"
"Hah, truth," Geoff agreed with a smirk. "Me and my pals back home always rather throw our own shindig during those and it was definitely way wilder!"
"Heh, you'll have to invite me sometime I'd like to see what it's like," Ronnie Anne said with Geoff shooting her a grin and thumbs up. Geez this was almost too easy. She almost felt bad about this…almost that is. "So during this dance there was a special two for one deal going on at the arcade and I wanted to invite Lincoln to hang out there since that was our favorite spot when we were kids. But every time I tried to ask him he ran away, he thought I was going to ask him to that stupid dance so he kept avoiding me."
"Oh…well…that's kind of harsh." Geoff rubbed the back of his head at that. Sure school dances tended to be a drag but you shouldn't avoid a person over one. "Did you two ever get to talk about it?"
"Oh we did…after I confronted him about it at the dance," Ronnie Anne began the finisher of her story, knowing she had Geoff fully believing it. "After he took four different girls to the dance."
"Woah, woah, woah, hold up," Geoff was taken aback by that and definitely needed to make sure he heard that correctly because…it just didn't sound right. "Did you say he took four girls to the dance?"
"Yeah, I'm not even kidding," Ronnie Anne turned away from Geoff in order to hide the amused smirk coming to her face. "Instead of coming to me about it and risking me asking him to the dance, he went out and got four different dates to take instead just to avoid me. And he was getting away with it too, it wasn't until I confronted him at the dance that all the girls learned about it. Worked out in the end I guess, we still went to the arcade and Linc set them up with his friends but still. Way to be honest to a girl right?"
"That's…woah man…" Geoff just had trouble processing that. That just…didn't sound like the Lincoln Loud he knew. "That's pretty messed up…"
Ronnie Anne bit her lip to keep herself from snickering.
CONFESSIONAL – Geoff
"I just…can't believe Lincoln would do something like that man…" Geoff said, a whole mix of emotions flowing through his head and his view over the white haired boy definitely beginning to be a little muddied. "I mean I get that he was only at 5th grade but come on just talk to the girl dude,"
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"Everything is going according to plan~" Ronnie Anne bragged as she kicked her feet up on the vanity, a cocky grin on her face. "Geoff might be a useful asset in taking Lame-O down later down the line, just gotta keep stirring the party boy in the right direction."
BRIDGETTE AND HAROLD
"See a lot of people consider animation a genre, but they couldn't be more wrong and quite frankly it's just disrespectful to all the people who work on them." Bridgette had a bored look on her face as she and Harold walked beside each other. They had currently 45 frames with them meaning they were nearly done with the search, but throughout the entire time they were looking for them Harold was spitting out facts about animation and unfortunately for Bridgette she was too polite to shut him up. "Animation is a form of art used to express a wide range of feelings and emotions and genres from fantasy, to tragedy, and horror."
"Uh-huh…" Bridgette let out with a sigh as all the new information entered her brain.
"And ya know what always ticks me off? How everyone thinks Walt Disney is the one who was the pioneer for animation but it couldn't be any more wrong!" Harold claimed as he held a fist up in the air to show his frustration. "The real pioneer of black and white cartoons was Max Fleischer, his studio existed years before Walt Disney's and his creations like Bimbo, Betty Poop, and Koko the Clown are what put animation on the map but Walt Disney used underhanded marketing tactics to make it seem like he was the big pioneer of animation and left Max's name in the dust! They don't even teach about him in history or animation classes that much, it's just…gosh!"
"Yeah Harold," Bridgette let out rather dryly. "That's really…fascinating…"
CONFESSIONAL – Bridgette
"Harold really isn't horrible…" Bridgette tried to say with a smile that soon turned into a frown. "But there's a reason we don't hang out."
"47, 48, 49…50!" Bridgette smiled as she counted out the last frames of animation Harold managed to wrestle out of a goose's beak. "That's all of them! For this half!"
"Let's go meet up with the team!" Harold said before a loud quacking sound got their attention, prompting the two to run as they were chased down by the goose.
"Ugh, none of these make sense!" In the meeting room, Chris was currently drinking a mug of coffee as he watched both teams get to work on putting together their animation frames with everyone but Lincoln and Dawn in the room for the Gaffers with them having 150 frames and Lindsay and Justin there for the Grips with only 100 frames of animation. The Gaffers were trying to put together their frames but they, especially Jasmine, were having trouble getting everything together. "What order are we supposed to put these in?!"
"It would help if we had all the frames," Harold said as he looked over the frames. "Where are Lincoln and Dawn?"
"We're here!" Speak their name and they may come, Lincoln and Dawn came into the room at just the right time with their animation frames. "Sorry it took us so long, there was a really angry rat that refused to give up the sheets he had."
"And he certainly had a dirty mouth," Dawn said with crossed arms.
"Thank goodness you're here," Bridgette said with relief as she held up some of the frames to Lincoln. "We can't make heads or tails of these, like, what the heck are these lines even supposed to be?"
"Oh that's easy they're…" Lincoln was about to speak up but then noticed Justin and Lindsay glanced at them ready to listen. Not wanting to give the other team the advantage, Lincoln gestured his team to go to the end of the room and whispered to them. "Ok, here's the thing. In old school animation there are things called keyframes and in between frames, the key frames are the base pose for a character and the in between frames are for helping giving the character movement it's why cartoons back then were so fluid. They keyframes act as a base and then once you add the in between frames, you got a moving character!"
"Right! I can't believe I forgot that!" Harold facepalmed for forgetting such a crucial detail. He guessed even his massive brain had a limit. "So we need to find the key frames first and then add the in between frames first!"
"How do we find the keyframes? Some of these drawings have random numbers on them," DJ stated as he held up a sheet
"Those numbers on the line shows the keyframes in the sequence of animation. The top number is the current page and the bottom number is the next keyframe in the sequence," Harold said, putting his animation facts to good use
"Ok let's separate the frames into two piles." Lincoln told everyone as they all nodded and listened. "One pile for key frames, the other for the in between. The ones that go first stay on the higher part of the pile and then we can add each frame to the machine."
"Break!" The Gaffers all said at once before getting to work.
"Crap, I didn't get any of that. Did you?" Justin asked Lindsay only for the blond to shrug. At that moment the remaining four Grips returned with the remaining 100 frames. "I really hope one of you knows how to put these things together because the Gaffers were more sneaky with their planning this time."
"Tch…" Ronnie Anne let out in irritation.
"What the heck are these lines for?" Geoff asked as he held up one of the frames.
"Maybe it's to show how tall the character in it is?" Lindsay suggested only to be met with multiple facepalms.
For the Grips, getting the frames together was an uphill battle, but one that proved fruitless as the Gaffers were able to quickly get all there's together. "Done!" Lincoln announced once they got their final frame in the projector.
"NO!" Ronnie Anne shouted out. But it was too late as Lincoln turned the projector on.
Appearing on the Gaffers' side of the wall was an animation of Chris himself starring in a very familiar cartoon as he turned a ship wheel while tapping his toe and whistling. "…Really?" Lincoln let out to the host who merely laughed and looked very proud of himself.
CONFESSIONAL – Chris
"It's public domain now~" Chris said in a mocking voice before holding up two middle fingers that were blurred out. "Suck it ya stupid mouse!"
Everyone watched the animation play out only for it to last about 10 seconds before stopping. "All those drawings and that's it?" Trent asked with a raised brow. "You said that was like 200 pictures right?"
"Like I said," Chris stated as he got up from his chair. "Animation is a lot harder than ya think."
"He's not wrong," Lincoln pointed out as all eyes went to him. "The original Steam Point Willie is only eight minutes long and took three whole months to make."
"Nerd!" Ronnie Anne shouted at him in a mocking tone.
"Uneducated Swine!" Lincoln responded back causing not only Ronnie Anne but also Geoff to narrow their eyes at the white headed boy.
"Aww, it's so nice to see you two getting along," Chris joked, getting eye rolls from Ronnie Anne as Chris gestured to another door in the meeting room that led to stairs that went to the last floor of the building. "Now if you'll follow me to the fourth floor we can continue onto the second part of the challenge."
Arriving at the fourth floor, everyone saw two identical obstacle courses set up on both sides of the room and at the end of it were two giant animation frames showing Chris in the pose of his Gilded Chris awards with both being completely colorless.
"For the second part of the challenge, you need to draw on one of those animation frames you spent the first half of the challenge collecting." Chris began explaining the second part of the challenge with the Grips and Gaffers in front of their respective courses. "Now for this challenge you'll have to take buckets of ink and these oversized brushes past the obstacle course and use them to fill out the frame. First one to fill out their frame wins."
Chris then gestured to Chef as he brought in a bunch of giant ink brushes into the room and set them in front of a giant bucket filled with ink with both sides having smaller buckets next to next with the ones on the Gaffers side having lids. "Gaffers, since you won the last challenge you get to have lids for your ink buckets." Chris announced as he lifted up the bucket and held it upside down and patted the lid. "This should keep anything from spilling for the Gaffers."
The Gaffers all smiled and cheered at this as the Grips all slumped down. "What about us?!" Heather yelled out obviously unhappy about the situation.
"For you Grips, advice," Chris said with a grin. "Try not to spill it."
The Grips all looked unamused about that piece of 'advice' as Chris gestured to the obstacle course. "Now for this obstacle course you'll have plenty of animation based things trying to slow you down." Chris gestured to the first part of the course. "Spinning film wheels," Then he gestured to the second part. "Fresh ink brushed, threatening to paint you." Justin flinched at that as Chris gestured to the third part. "Hanging musical instruments," The third part had instruments swaying from side to side hanging from a rope on the ceiling consisting of cellos swinging around like pendulums, symbols crashing against each other, drums raising up and down, and of course a giant piano on a rope. "And finally, the network executives threatening to fire you for tax reasons." The final part of the obstacle course consisted of dummies of people in suits throwing stacks of paper back and forth.
"…So Netflix?" Lincoln asked Chris.
"Or Warner Bros, hehe," Chris nodded.
CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln
"Sad but true…" Lincoln let out with a sigh.
"Oh and one more thing," Chris grinned in amusement as he pulled out some rope. "You'll all be tied together!"
"What?!" Everyone let out in unison.
"In the animation biz if you fail as a team, you lose as a team." Chris explained to them as he tossed a long bundle of rope to Ronnie Anne and Lincoln. "So the same goes for you lot,"
"Oh this is gonna suck…" Ronnie Anne sighed out.
Soon enough both teams were tied to each other with the rope with it tied around their waists and each one had one of the oversized brushes in one hand and a bucket of ink in the other. Of course only the Gaffers had lids keeping their ink safe from being spilled. "Ok are both teams ready?" Chris asked as he sat down in a director chair. "I'd recommend doing this fast because animation companies don't like to wait for the product to finish! Just ask our animation supervisor here!"
Stepping in between both teams frames was Lily wearing a business suit with her hair up in a bun. "Alright everyone hurry up on the double!" Lily yelled to everyone while clapping her hands. "If this ends up late you're all fired!"
CONFESSIONAL – Lincoln
"Oh no the power is going to her head…" Lincoln let out in a worried tone.
"Animators ready…" Chris began as he held up his signature clipboard. "And…action!"
"Ok everyone! Listen to me!" Jasmine called out to her team. "Get into a rhythm! Start moving with each other! One leg up and then the other! Just like me!" Jasmine then began moving up her legs one at a time like she was running in place. Everyone raised a brow at this but soon joined in on her and tried to get in rhythm with each other. And soon enough they were all moving together. "Yeah that's it! Keep it up mates! Keep moving together and this'll be a breeze!"
The Gaffers all grinned as they progressed through the obstacle course and began jumping from spinning wheel to spinning wheel all in unison to keep all their supplies on them.
For the Grips…things were a lot more…clumsy. "I said everyone should follow my lead!" Ronnie Anne yelled at everyone as she and the rest of her team struggled to keep balance on one of the wheels, some of their ink already spilled out on the floor. "Everyone stop moving around so much!"
"We're trying!" Lindsay said as she struggled to stay balanced on the wheel. Drops of ink were seen falling out of her bucket. "I'm getting dizzy…"
"Look dudes we can do this! We all jump off on three!" Geoff began as he kept an eye on the wheel to see when it was safe to progress. "One…two…three!"
Luckily everyone went along with it and jumped off and managed to get to the next part of the course, but in jumping their buckets ended up spilling out more ink onto the floor much to Ronnie Anne's irritation. "Crap!" The Latina let out before looking to the Gaffers side and saw they were already making their way through the second part of the course, dodging the brushes that were coming out at them. "Everyone move! We can't let them beat us!"
"But what about the in-AH!" Lindsay let out, her pleads going unheard.
"Good job mates keep it up!" Jasmine encouraged everyone as they got to the third part of the obstacle course. "Just listen to me and move accordingly! I'll get us through this!" Everyone nodded as Jasmine looked forward, at the incoming instruments starting with the swinging cellos. "Jump!" Jasmine yelled out at everyone as they all jumped forward. "Jump!" Everyone jumped forward again. "Jump!" With that they passed all the cellos and made their way to the symbol. "Right! Just keep it up!"
"NO! My skin!" Justin let out in alarm as he tried desperately to avoid the ink brushes that popped out at him. "My flawless skin! Don't let it ruin my complexion!"
"Oh suck it up you big baby!" Ronnie Anne yelled out…only for karma to immediately strike as a brush came up and hit her in the face, covering it with ink. "Ack!"
"Wouldn't recommend swallowing that!" Chris called out with an amused grin. "Ink doesn't digest too well!"
"Here comes the executives!" Harold yelled out as they approached the final part of the obstacle course. "I'm too valuable to be a tax write off!"
"Don't flatter yourself Harold!" Chris yelled out to him.
"Quick, someone give me their brush!" Jasmine yelled out with DJ being quick to hand Jasmine his brush. Holding the handle of her bucket with her teeth, Jasmine took a brush in each hand and began twirling them around while progressing forward with everyone following. With the large stacks of paper coming at them, Jasmine was able to knock the papers out of the air and clear the way for the rest of her team and ensure that they had a clear path forward. "Yeah! How do ya like me now?!"
Soon enough they all reached the end and were able to set down their ink buckets with Jasmine handing DJ his brush back. "Ok everyone, we gotta be as efficient as possible to make sure we can get this done fast without using too much ink." Lincoln immediately told everyone as he gestured to the bucket he opened up. "Everyone uses one bucket, don't start a new one till everything is finished. Then carefully start drawing along the edges first, once those are filled out it'll be child's play filling out the rest."
No one had any complaints about Lincoln's plan as they all got to work, dipping their brushes in Lincoln's bucket of ink before they started drawing along the edges. "You're gonna do great in art school," Dawn told Lincoln with a supportive smile.
"Heh, thanks. Would be killer to make my own comic book or cartoon one day," Lincoln said fondly, stating his dream out for all to hear. That was definitely his goal in life but now he had something else to focus on. "But first we gotta draw this out, let's get to work."
"Ow…" Lindsay let out as the Grips finally got through the obstacle course, all of them stained with ink with Justin shedding a few tears over it. And currently Lindsay had one of the stacks of tax papers attached to her head after being hit by some on the final leg of the obstacle course. "I don't get why my parents like doing taxes so much in their car, they're painful…"
"Enough dillydallying! We got work to do!" Ronnie Anne immediately snapped as they set their buckets on the ground with most of them being half full, if even that. And to make matters worse the Gaffers were already making good progress on filling in their sheet with having nearly all the edges filled out and beginning to ink in the rest. "We gotta work fast! Everyone cover it with ink as fast as you can! Try your best to stay in the lines we have to catch up!"
Thankfully not wasting time to argue, the Grips began doing just that as they filled out their animation sheet in a…less than coordinated way. "Whoops!" Geoff let out as his brush slipped and went onto Justin's arm, covering it more with ink. "Sorry dude!"
"…" Justin was silent as a single tear fell from his eye.
CONFESSIONAL – Justin
"Oh what am I gonna do…" Justin cried out in despair as he raised his arms and showed his ink stained body to the camera. "First my charms not working on Lindsay and now this?! This show is aiming to ruin my good looks!"
"Stroke up! Stroke down!" Lincoln shouted out as his team all worked together to fill in the sheet which was getting nearer and nearer to completion. "That's it, keep it up everyone!"
"Can't lose, can't lose, can't lose…" Ronnie Anne constantly muttered only to look around and see that, while the rest of her team was working on it, Izzy was drawing completely outside the line. "Izzy…what the hell are you doing?"
"Oh guys! Look what I made!" Izzy told her team as she pointed to a little ink drawing she made of her fighting Chef. "I just need some red ink."
"Izzy. Focus. Please!" Ronnie Anne snapped as she began going red in the face.
"You know those words don't get well together," Heather informed the team leader before face palming.
"Done!" And like that it was all over for the Grips as Lincoln shouted that out. Looking over to the Gaffers side of things, the Grips all saw that they had completely filled out the sheet with it all being in the lines.
"Hmmmmm…" Lily hummed out as she approached the Gaffers and examined the Gaffers sheet for a second before giving it a thumbs up. "This is acceptable!"
"And there you have it!" Chris announced as he got up from his chair and walked over to the Gaffers. "The winners of the challenge are the Screaming Gaffers!" The Gaffers all cheered for their victory as the Grips all slumped down with Ronnie Anne visibly vibrating with rage. "And because of that, they'll be enjoying today's reward! Good news Grips, you won't be sending anyone else home. Yet."
"So what do we get?" DJ asked with an eager smile.
"Gaffers, for the next three days the Gilded Chris stage will be Gaffer only territory," Chris told the Gaffers what their sweet reward would be. "All of you can use it to binge all the old classic cartoons and movies while gorging yourselves on all the movie snacks and drinks you can eat!"
"Woohoo!" The Gaffers all cheered, now looking forward to three days of fun filled with cartoons and movie snacks.
"And what's to stop us from invading their little party?" Heather threatened.
"The fact the lion still has a week on its contract," Chris told Heather who immediately flinched and backed off. "Try and sneak in, I dare you,"
CONFESSIONAL – Ronnie Anne
"I tried acting nice…didn't work. I tried manipulating the people on my team. Didn't work." Ronnie Anne listed, her face completely red with rage from losing yet again. "Our only real win was the damn beach challenge! We only won fantasy because one of Lincoln's teammates screwed up, and we won the space challenge because Lindsay pulled a fast one on me and Heather's expense! I'm done! No more Miss Nice Girl. I. Am. Sick. Of. LOSING!!!"
THAT NIGHT
The lion slept soundly outside the Gilded Chris stadium as the Gaffers all sat down in the VIP seats watching cartoons on the giant theater that was set up. With all of them having various snacks and drinks in their hands ranging from candy, sodas, slushies, and of course popcorn.Lily was sitting on Lincoln's lap, and Edward was comfortably sitting in one of the popcorn buckets.
"Abracadabra! Now I'm a bat!"
"Well abracadabra! I'm a bat too!"
".... you wouldn't hit a bat with glasses now would you?"
BAM!!!
"Ahahahaha!" All the Gaffers laughed as they sat back in their seats to enjoy themselves, Lincoln wrapping his arm around Dawn and pulling her close as the two of them snuggled in together. It wasn't quite alone time but this wasn't too bad at all.
"Don't you just love the classics?" Chris asked as he also watched from his own private seat away from the Gaffers. Popping a piece of popcorn into his mouth, Chris looked towards the camera and began the outro. " What sort of old timey fun will we see next time? Will Ronnie Anne keep her promise about not losing again? And will I find yet another suit that I completely rock? Find out all this and more next time on Total. Drama. Action!"