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Nov 13, 2015

A Little Less Sixteen Teams, a Lot More "Paint Me" Part 2

Due to the episode being a tremendous size, we’re placing it under a read more for convenience!

Admin Singa

The scene faded back into the bus stopping at a bus stop a further distance away than was really necessary, leaving the contestants to find their own way to the Vancouver Art Gallery. The Bus door slowly slid open and out from the inside came the Greasers, bursting through the doors without even glancing back.

“Get ya heels on fire, Babe!” Hoss yelled back over his shoulder to his sister, who was keeping up with him perfectly. “We’s got a long way ta go!”

Don’s disembodied voice suddenly voiced over the scene as more teams busted from the bus like school children after the final bell rings. Some used the sidewalks, like the Greasers, to rush in the direction the bus came from. Others—actually, just Midori and an unwilling Mia—pushed a couple of kids off their bikes to use it to gain an advantage. The Superheroes ended up using the available apartment fire escape to climb to the roofs for a shortcut, while of the more logical teams grabbed taxi cabs.

“As the teams exit the bus, they find themselves needing to use their surroundings to find their ways to the second Don Box.”

The camera flashed white to reveal the Vancouver Art Gallery, where the first to arrive was Midori and Mia. “W...We made it!” Mia sang out, placing her hands on her knees in an attempt to catch her breath, and eventually pushing the the bike against the wall next to her. Scanning her surroundings, she almost immediately found both a piece of paper on the road and a pen from the ground. Daintily grabbing the two items, she quickly began to write an apology letter. “I’m...so….sor….ry…” She wrote out, not noticing the way that Midori was impatiently tapping her foot.

“We need to hurry, Mia!” She chastised her, pushing her own bike up against the wall. “Do you want to lose the lead??”

“No, but I think it’s important that we don’t get charged with stealing~!” Mia cheerfully replied. She placed the note atop the bikes and then rushed to join her teammate next to the Don Box. Pressing hard on the top of the machine, she happily watched the ticket be snagged by her pink and black haired friend.

The gloomier girl glanced at the travel tip, her eyebrows scrunching as to say ‘is this thing serious?’ Turning to her friend, Midori exclaimed, “It’s an Either/Or!” Midori paused for a moment, letting her teammate read over the ticket as well. “Puzzle or Portrait: teams must either solve a puzzle…” The bi-haired girl began to explain.

“...Or paint a portrait of a certain famous celebrity in order to earn their next travel tip.” Mia continued from where Midori left off.

The camera, with a quick transition to white, changed to a scene of Don standing in a room with high, vaulted ceilings supported by black metallic beams with lights hanging from them, pristine white walls, and a beige carpet. Across the floor stood different exhibits of modern art, and on the walls, multiple portraits of varying sizes, colors, and styles were hung.

“An Either/Or--” Our host began to introduce the challenge as, walking down the hallway of the building. “--like last season, gives our teams a choice between two different challenges. They can either--” The camera flashed out again, revealing a large open atrium room with life-sized sliding puzzles covering the floor. “--Solve one of these sliding puzzles in order to reveal the location they’re going to visit next.”

The camera, with a fade to white, changed the scene once again, this time revealing Don standing in a room of the building where many easels covered in canvases stood, all of which were longing for an artist. Most notably, however, was that on the wall the canvases were looking away from, stood a banner with a photograph of Don charming the camera, all the while standing tall and proud. “Or portrait, where they will paint an elegant and extravagant painting of - yours truly - to receive their next travel tip.” As he stated this, he began to walk out of the room, revealing two curators of this museum—a young woman with stern features about her face, and an elderly gentleman with a pleasant smile.

“Teams must complete either of these tasks and report back to one of our two travel tip givers to actually receive their needed tips.”

The camera soon returned to The Odd Girls, where Midori scrunched up her nose at the tip and then turned to Mia. “Hm… I don’t know, what do you think we should do?” She asked as Masquerade came hopping down behind her to claim the tip next.

As soon as Masquerade picked up the tip, Encore descended down next to him with just as much grace. “Phew! I never thought we’d reach this point,” she smiled, placing her hands on her hips confidently. “But you had me to guide you through the city, so it’s not like we’d ever get lost!” She brought one hand up and gently slid it through her perfectly set hair, allowing the sun to shimmer off the strands.

“Yeah, yeah, you could say something like that, ya old bat,” Masquerade joked, shoving the tip into his jean’s pocket. “It’s an either or,” he went on to explain, trying his best to focus on the challenge at hand instead of his surroundings. This was off from an average day in the life of these two, and he couldn’t help but stay vigilant despite it all. “Gotta paint something or solve a puzzle.”

“Easy! We’ll go ahead and paint! If it’s anything to do with fashion, I could whip us up something am-az-ing~!” Encore all but boasted.

Masquerade, not exactly keen on either option, shrugged with indifference. Even if he had wanted to dispute it with her, nothing could change her mind once it was set on something; he wasn’t going to shoot it down. Why would he bother when it went against their morals?

“Well, since they’re doing the portrait, why don’t we?” Mia asked, smiling toward her other competitors, a small wave flittering off her fingers. In return, Masquerade and Encore sent a wave back before hustling inside the building.

“No, that’s too risky.” Midori stated, crossing her arms. “If we don’t get whatever it is exactly right, we’ll end up losing too much time.”

“Yeah, but what if the puzzle’s really hard??”

Midori rolled her eyes. “That’s not an issue! With my brain, that thing will be like snatching candy from a baby!”

“....You promise not to actually do that again, right?” Mia suddenly asked, receiving an another eyeroll from her friend. That happened years ago, and she didn’t necessarily care much to admit how much joy she’d gotten from it. Instead of giving an answer, she grabbed her teammate by the wrist and rushed inside.

Don’s voice suddenly came on once more to narrate the events happening now on screen--the camera flashed to show a line of taxis rolling up outside of the museum. The first few teams out of the taxis were: The Paranormal Specials, Husband and Wife, Internet Junkies and Father and Daughter. “As the first few teams race to keep their lead, more teams arrive on the scene, clearly determined not to fall behind.”

Eli and Kennedy rushed forward and both ended up slapping the Don box at the same time. Even though Eli jumped back and howled in pain, Kennedy merely grabbed the tip and began to read it in silence. “SWEET TAMALES! THAT HURT!” He yelled, blowing a steady stream of air on his hand.

“Puzzle or Portrait…” Kennedy read aloud. They glanced over at their hopping teammate and shook their head, stepping aside after to allow the Husband and Wife to find the tip. “Let’s go do puzzle, because I have a feeling whoever we’re painting will be a critic.”

“Oh, then we’ll join you!” Helen offered merrily. Frank simply grunted in response, as he detested the idea wholeheartedly. “We can work together to find out how to solve it, and I’m sure we can tell each other stories!” She offered to the Paranormal crew with a slight gasp.

Eli, whose face had less enthusiasm about the idea than even FRANK, slowly nodded his head despite not wishing to go through with the idea. “Yeah, I don’t see why we can’t go helpin’ each other.”

“Then it’s a deal~!” Helen happily concluded, rushing inside with a sing-songy, “Come along, Frank!” being the last trace of her.

“Coming, Helen.” Frank called after his wife calmly. Sure, Helen’s friendly nature could land them in a bad spot with these two fellows, but who was he to deny her the idea that people weren’t all they seemed now? Later, he’d discuss how to keep her from falling into the wrong hands to avoid saying, “I told you so, Helen…” Through Eli’s handheld camera, Frank turned his head to send a distrustful glance—much creepier through the night vision effect the editors thought necessary—at the two of them before following his wife.

The camera switched back to normal with the two Paranormal Specialists casting wary glances at eachother before, albeit slowly, following the happily married couple.

As the two went inside, the camera panned over to the Don Box, where Starr was seen rushing ahead of her father, who came trailing behind her a few seconds later. “See daddy, I told you a taxi would be way faster than running!” She conversed with her dad, pressing the button atop the device. Her dad simply grabbed the ticket and slowly looked over it, pausing a moment before glancing up at her.

“It’s an Either/Or; we can either solve a puzzle or paint a portrait… ” He spoke in a tone as dull as a butter knife. She simply shrugged at the revelation of this as Dylan and Ulyssa pulled up beside them, Ulyssa slamming down on the button of the Don Box.

“I think we’d have a funkier time just doin’ the puzzle; we might have to redo the painting if we get it wrong the first time.” The teenagerl uttered aloud, her father nodding his head in agreement. The two of them quickly rushed into the Art Gallery as Dylan and Ulyssa finished reading their travel tip.

Glancing over towards Starr, Dylan tipped his socially deplorable hat and started to follow her. “I’ll be doing whatever you do, m’lady!” He should be very, very thankful neither she or Gary had heard him; chances are, he would have gotten a go-go boot where the sun don’t shine if they had. Instead, Ulyssa—rather violently—grabbed his arm, yanking him back. “Uh, I don’t think so! That was so f*****g gross Dylan, I can’t even believe you said that AGAIN!”

Dylan groaned as he was scolded by his friend, obviously not wanting to put up with that. “Ughhh, but Ulyssaaaaaaaaaa--” He whined before the other girl tightened her grip on his arm. Obviously, friend or not, she was NOT going to put up with that sort of behavior.

“You are going to apologize to both her and the other person who you dare insult by calling them m’lady--” She gagged with disgust as she muttered that phrase. Evidently, she hated saying it. “--Dylan, or so help me I will write an angry vent post on my blog and tag you in it for all your friends and my millions of fans to see!”

“Gosh Ulyssa, fine, I’ll say I’m sorry to them later! Can we just get started on the challenge already!?” The neckbeard groaned again before the other let her grip go. “Good, now we’re going to do the puzzle challenge, it’ll be quick, easy, and we’ll get out of there first!” The young woman bragged, walking ahead of Dylan and leading him like he was a little kid.

The camera panned over to another pair of taxis pulling up on the scene, Erin and Irene jumping into action, giddily rushing to the Don Box. “Can you believe we’re going to an art museum?” Erin asked, arm looping with Irene’s.

“Right? They have some of the best displays of how hair and makeup changed over the years!” Irene added. Her eyes sparkled like firecrackers at the idea of actually going through a history of hair. “I bet we’ll learn something great for the next time our theater does a production of Hamlet!”

“Oh, you’re so right! I can’t wait for that! Hamlet is a time for Ophelia’s hair to go from fab to drab! You think they’ll have a stop on how the Aristocrats did their makeup in Medieval Denmark!?”

“Oh, I sure hope so!”

As the two conversed onward like the birds from Finding Nemo, the other taxi revealed the other married couple this season, Alan and Candi, hurriedly folding up their wallet full of their son’s pictures. “If I had a dime for every time you had to pull that out…” Candi began, hopping on to the sidewalk.

“Yes, dear, you’d have enough to pay for Eddy’s college funds already,” Alan begrudgingly recited word-for-word. It was times like these that Candi could wear him down to the bone, but they had to focus on the challenge at hand, rather than their slight marital disputes; their son had to go to college, and it wasn’t like they were made of money to send him there!

“—the best part of history is how big hair used to be!” Irene’s voice carried over, distracting the two from their slight annoyances. “I mean, today it’s like ‘small and thin is the way to win,’ but I don’t like that logic! I think big and tall is…” Irene paused, trying to find the right words to rhyme.

“The way to go to the ball!” Candi suddenly cut in, her goofy grin escaping her.

Irene paused and nodded in agreement as her hand slapped the big red button for her tip. “I like how you think!”

“Thank you, sweetie!” Candi smiled, letting Alan go past her to grab a tip. When he successfully grabbed his tip, she kissed his cheek and caused a slight blush to go on his face.

“Aww, you two are a cute couple!” Erin happily told them, smile growing wide.

Alan’s blush only grew at this and he could only say the first thing that sprung forth in his head, “Thanks! You two do, too!” However he was completely unaware of how wrong this assumption was to the two people they’d just gotten on the right foot with.

As Erin and Irene exchanged complete flabbergasted expressions with each other, Candi and Alan rushed inside to attempt the portrait side of the challenge. “Well, we’ll see you inside!” Their voices simultaneously called back to them, blissfully unaware of how the Stylists actually felt.

The camera soon faded out, revealing that, in the interview room, Erin and Irene were laughing so hard their sides hurt, and Erin even swiped a tear off his face.

“I swear, people always assume we’re dating!” Irene choked out. “Literally everyone!” “But they don’t know-”“No one ever assumes-”“We-” The two started saying, motioning to each other, then dissolved into laughter again. The camera cut away before they could finish their sentence.

The scene shifted to the large open atrium of sliding puzzles that were just waiting to frustrate the competitors to no end. The stern looking woman from before simply wandered around the room, awaiting whoever dared to attempt the puzzle. At the entrance, the camera could see Mia and Midori walking into the room, eyes widening in realization of the struggle they just decided to go through.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just go try the portrait?” Mia asked, hands placed delicately on her hips. As much as she trusted her friend on ideas, she just didn’t know if they could pull this one off.

“Of course!” Midori shot back. Rushing to the nearest puzzle, she placed her hand on the first block and examined the large structure. Out of nine slots there only appeared to be only eight blocks that needed to be arranged into a picture. The image appeared to have orange and black hues dancing across it in a Picasso type format. On some of the blocks there appeared to be words attempting to be formed through it. “This…shouldn’t be too hard,” Midori mumbled, pushing the first block into position with relative ease.

“Oh! You’re right! With the pieces being lighter than they look, we’ll get this done in no time~!” Mia agreed, rushing over to help her friend; however, Midori’s second block, which she pulled now, felt like Thor’s hammer slammed into her body causing the poor girl to be flung backwards after having to let go in distress. When she slammed to the floor, she let out a loud gasp, worrying Mia to the core that her friend had hurt herself severely. Only to heave a sigh of relief when Midori moved once more.

“WHY IS THAT ONE SO HEAVY!?” She screamed, hands flying up into the air from where she lie.

The scene shifted to Don, who was sitting calmly in another part of the museum. “Some of those pieces may be made from…marble and concrete instead of plastic.” He paused for a moment, before simply smirking into the camera. “Hey, some people have to draw me, which will be hard enough since there’s so much handsomeness they have to capture; these teams will have to make due with struggling to pull some of those blocks.” He smiled mischievously toward the camera before it switched back to the The Odd Girls, now pulling the block together in strained unison.

As they struggled, the second team to choose this challenge came bursting in in a hurry, that team being the Paranormal Specialists. The camera switched to Eli’s handheld device and showed a shot of the floor and Eli’s legs as he came rushing in toward the challenge area. “Oh, gosh!” He yelled, stopping to catch his breath. “I-It’s so hard…not being in Germany!” He gasped between his words, the camera suddenly going back to its original view.

Kennedy stopped next to him and patted his back before continuing his examination of the next part of the challenge. “This is…going to be complicated.” They murmured, hand going up to scratch the back of their head, hat wiggling as they did so. “If this was a challenge with wooden figure whittling, we’d be done by now, but…”

“W-Well… ” he gasped out, grunting as he finally caught his breath. “... Standing here won’t solve it, now will it? Oh, I so hope the next place is Savannah… I really could use a haunted city or something! I hope Don doesn’t just take us to these boring places!”

Kennedy’s only response was to shrug, not seeing Don actually caring much about a ghost tour.

“Well, we’ll just go around the towns we stop in and make our own little ghost hunt, huh??” He nudged his teammate in the ribs, a sly smile slowly creeping onto his face. “Then we’ll get some excitement out of this! Now get pushing!” He ordered, throwing his hand out to point at the blocks.

“Ja ja.” Kennedy mumbled, elongating the tone of their voice. Even though they appeared calm on the outside, a wave of annoyance filled them with his fiery nature sending him into leader mode; a mode that got them into so much trouble with authorities everywhere.

Eli gasped and crossed his arms. “I WILL NOT!”

“Well, then, don’t boss me around.” Kennedy calmly warned him, turning to the first block. “These look heavy, so we’ll need to push them together…”

Before the camera switched back to the atrium doors—where Helen and Frank came strolling in—Eli and Kennedy began to push the blocks together.

As the husband and wife duo sauntered into the room, Helen giggled softly and pointed toward the puzzles lying about them. “What do you think the image will be??” She asked cheerily, sending a wave to the two she’d conversed with outside. She received no wave back—as they were invested in pulling a marble block across the floor, Eli looking like he was the one struggling with it while Kennedy simply didn’t care.”

Frank grunted in reply but smiled nonetheless at his wife’s enthusiasm. This challenge may prove difficult, but at least he’d be able to do it with her after all. “I guess we’ll see if we can actually solve it” The man finally answered, taking her hand and leading her to the puzzle. The large blocks appeared more scrambled on their piece than the others, appearing to serve as an advantage to some teams more than others. In a similar light, a few of these puzzles could be near completion but have one piece on the other side of the board, much like the one the two Christmas hair colored teammates were working on.

“Oh, I love puzzles! Isaac has me help him when he has them on his homework all the time!” Helen laughed cheerfully, placing her hand on top of the block. “I bet this one will be just like that!” But as she tried to push on it, the block gave only a smidge of give before she slid down on to the floor, hands still firmly holding the block.

“Or…maybe this one will be like moving a couch!” She laughed, attempting to pull herself back up. When she was unable to, Frank rushed to her aid and attempted to stand her upright once again.

“We…may have chosen the wrong one…” Frank muttered pessimistically, eyes rolling up to the ceiling in disbelief.

Helen dusted herself off and glanced over at the two Specialists. Turning her head to look at Frank, she smiled. “Well, I’m sure we’ll finish this in no time! You’re a smart man, and I’m a go-getter, so this challenge won’t stand a chance, even if my shoes slide across the floor!”

“Well, this place looks clean enough...so maybe you can take off your shoes if you need it?” Frank suggested, placing his hands on the heavier block, moving it easier than Helen did. “No, wait, don’t bother, dear; I got it! You just tell me where to move these darn things…” He grunted as he pushed the block she’d tried to before. He was still uncertain if they’d chosen the right challenge, but he wasn’t going to sit here and cause the both of them to lose with his gripeing.

“Will do!” She cheerfully sang out, climbing up on top of the blocks to examine them in more detail. In a change of subject, the older woman made small talk with her husband. “Say, dear, do you think any of these kids are young enough to be adopted? I saw this adorable set of twins….”

“Which ones?” Frank asked, wiping his hands free of sweet and dust on his pants after successfully moving a few of the blocks.

“Oh, there’s more than one? Well, there was a girl and a boy--”

“Still not specific enough.” The man stated.

“They had dark hair.”

“Nope.” He shook his head no.

“Oh, my goodness!” Helen laughed. What could one quality be to set them apart?! “WELL, one had glasses!”

“Oh, I saw them. I think they’re young enough, but they’re probably seventeen.”

“Oh…that’s still tempting! Imagine paying for them to go to college!” Helen laughed pleasantly as she stated this, the idea of actually going through with adopting them floating about in her head.

“I’d...rather not… ” Frank admitted, shaking his head at the very thought of college. Not even their own kids were there yet.

In a different wing of the art gallery, the scene shifted to the atrium filled with easels. A white canvas sat upon each easel, and dozens upon dozens of other canvases lined the walls in an oddly shaped ring. In the center of the room—behind all the easels—sat a large container felt with what seemed like an endless supply of tubes of paint. On the wall all the canvases were turned away from, a giant banner with Don giving his trademark grin in front of a purple background stood ceiling to floor. Finally, the old man from before sat on a chair near the entrance, reading a book on modern art.

At the entrance of this room, Encore and Masquerade could be seen rushing through, the camera following the duo. Pausing for a moment, Encore stopped in place, glancing up at the purple banner with a scowl of disbelief furrowing onto her face. “Wait, we have to paint him?” With a shake of the head, she quietly tsked to herself as Masquerade went back to gather his partner. “Oh well, I’m sure I can make him look fabulous.” She chided herself with, following Masquerade to an easel nearest them. As Encore glanced between the banner hung upon the wall and the blank canvas in front of her, Masquerade gathered a whole assortment of tubes of paint, laying them before the drag queen.

“I’ll let you lead the way here, Picasso.” The young man shifted about on his feet as he handed a tube of a near electric purple coloring to the other.

“Hm… You know, I think I’m more of an Andy Warhol kinda gal.” She teased in good spirit, applying the bright colored paint to the canvas. Wanting to make sure she perfected it, the superheroine took her time in making each stroke was perfect.

“Only you know who that would be, old lady.” Masquerade joked, snickering slightly. All this did was result in a friendly eye roll from the other half of the duo.

With a quick transition, the camera focused back on the entrance of the room, where Candi and Alan jogged in—their hands interlocked between the other’s. The two were synced rather perfectly as they glanced up at the banner, realizing what exactly they have to do. Speedily, they stepped in front of an easel opposite where the superheroes were standing so they could still be close to paint container.

Taking charge, Candi stood at her husband’s side as she discussed her plan with him. “Alright sweetie, I’ll get you the colors, you paint the picture, kay~?” Her tone was honest and genuine, although a slightly overbearing sweetness was present to it. Before Alan could get a chance to speak, she rushed off.

“Yeah, sure thing sweetcheeks! He stated, glancing over the brushes. He might not have been the best artist around, but there was one thing about him that stood out from the crowd; his memory. Even without Michelangelo-like skills, he felt he would be able to complete the challenge rather easily if he just put his mind to it.

As soon as Candi raced from the container to her husband, the camera panned back to the entrance of the room, where The Stylists came rushing in. They appeared to have gotten over the apparent shock at Alan and Candi thinking they were a couple, although Erin did cast them a side glance of ‘please don’t think we’re a couple again’ as the duo reached the easel of their choice.

“Oh my gosh, Irene!” The male stylist gasped as he glanced up at the purple poster. However, rather than be in shock, he squeed like a teenage school girl at a One Direction concert. That is to say, he was excited for some reason. “We get to give Don a makeover!” The young man paused for a moment, before adding on, “Well, it’s going to be on canvas, but I know we’ll make him look absolutely superb!”

Irene, chiming in, quickly going to work on everything she wanted to do. “Oh, I sooo want to paint his hair! Say, Erin, do you think he would look good with his hair dyed lavender?” The bold young woman asked. The young man smiled back at her as he started to get underway with actually painting the host’s head.

“Oh my gosh, yes! Match the lavender hair with a black and blue suit, and wham, you’ve got one stunning host!” He cheered aloud, resulting in the two of them giggling like two little kids at a bad joke. Candi and Alan glanced their way and still found the two of them absolutely adorable together, completely unaware that Erin and Irene were both super gay.

The camera flashed back to the puzzle room where both the struggling groans of competitors and the scraping of the blocks against the ground almost made the room unbearable. The doors swung open regardless of the noise, and both Father and Daughter and The Internet Junkies casually advanced into the room, some noticing the horrors that awaited them, while others were cautiously optimistic about the whole ordeal.

Starr and her dad were barely leading ahead of Ulyssa and Dylan as they stepped into the room. “Oh, this doesn’t look like it’ll be that bad!” She gave a sigh of relief, having thought that there was something far, far worse waiting for the two of them. The two of them ran over towards the nearest unused puzzle, where her dad simply looked around at everything around them

“Some of the blocks are made of a heavy material; others are a lightweight plastic.” Starr glanced at her dad as he waivered on about his observation. Looking up at his daughter, he continued. “As you can see Starr, some of the blocks even the stronger looking contestants are having a harder time pushing, while others appear to be as light as a feather. On top of that, the heavy blocks appear to be making that awful scraping sound as they’re slid across the floor.”

“Well… I would have loved if Don would be nice and give us one with a lot of lightweight blocks…” The disco diva muttered as she and her dad got to pushing and pulling on the blocks. Gary tended to look back at the big picture due to not being the strongest person around in order to try and get a good view of the picture they were trying to form. Starr, however, struggled as she found out that most of the blocks she were given were literal bricks. “Don, what the hell, this is somethin’ Chris would pull!” The girl complained, managing to move a heavy block just one space.

The disembodied voice of Don chuckled upon hearing that statement. “Hey, I had to up the difficulty here! And besides, a little menial labor isn’t going to kill her!”

As the host’s voice died out, the camera panned from Starr to Dylan, who after just touching a block, fell over as if he just died. “U-ugh… t-too…. heavy… “ He whined, rolling around the floor like a toddler. “My… arms… are gonna… fall off… “ As he complained about the pain in his arms, Ulyssa marched over to the block, and with just a couple of fingers, managed to push the block with ease. Upon doing that, she walked on over to her teammate and—rather forcefully—kicked him in the thigh.

“Dylan, get your weak ass up! That block is made of plastic!” She chastised the neckbeard with a growl, obviously wanting him to pull his weight when the physical aspect of the challenge… really wasn’t all that physical.

“But Ulyssaaaaaaaaaaa--” He slowly sat up, dusting his fedora off just in case any specks of dirt happened to have landed on it. “-- You said YOU would do the physical labor!” He grumbled, resulting in a slight scowl from the short girl.

“Um, no, I said I would be the brawn; this is not a physical labor, this is solving a puzzle Dylan, A. PUZZLE! I can not believe you are going to tell me, ME OF ALL PEOPLE, that pushing around plastic blocks is too hard for you!”

“You need to get a brain if you can’t believe this stuff--” Dylan mumbled under his breath. This made the other internet junkie absolutely livid! Her tone picking up in annoyance, she furiously went off on her team mate.

“Did you just call me stupid? Um, I am NOT stupid! My IQ is one of the highest - and you know it! How would you like it if I posted online that you just called me stupid!”

Dylan simply rolled his eyes, used to Ulyssa overreacting to literally everything he had to say. “Fine, fine, I’m sorry Ulyssa.” He strained himself to say.

Ulyssa, closing her eyes, gave a smug smirk. “Normally… sorry just won’t cut it… buuut I’ll accept your apology this time.” With another eye roll from Dylan, the two of them quickly got to work on trying to complete the puzzle, even if Dylan could barely move the lightest of block an inch.

With another flash to white, the camera was now in the Portrait Room, where Natalia and Lexi were seen running, holding hands and jumping up and down at the sheer excitement of getting a chance to paint something.

Even at the revelation that it was Don they were painting, the girls couldn’t wait to get their hands dirty when it came to actually designing upon the canvas. With a gentle step, they dug into the box of paints, pulling out a wacky assortments of blacks and pinks and even blues from the container. It took them a moment, but they gathered their haul and rushed on over to the easel, where Lexi was the one to speak first. “Ooooooh~! Like, O-M-G, how do you think Don would look with like, a mohawk!?” Natalia, gasping, turned to face her teammate.

“That’s so hardcore Lexi; I was thinking the same thing!” Lexi, laughing, went on to start the duo’s portrait.

“Awesome!” Lexi interrupted. Grabbing a brush herself, she got to work on Don’s face, thinking that would be easier to work on. “Oh, you know what would be the sex? If we gave him, like, an MCR t-shirt!”

Natalia snickered as her friend said this, getting to work on painting other areas of their portrait. “Like L-O-L, That is, like, sooo rad!”

As they worked, The Greasers entered in after them. Babe and Hoss paused when they realized who they painting, causing both to scowl in minor annoyance. “Seriously, we’s being forced to paint that schmuck?!” Hoss asked in complete disbelief.

“Ay, it sure beats doin’ that puzzle!” Babe shot back, grabbing her brother’s shoulder to propel him forward. “We got a royal shaft, ya, but we’re up against a bunch of Clydes here—well, okay, not him…” She gestured toward Masquerade, who probably wouldn’t have found it insulting had he heard it, considering it was Greaser slang that barely anyone here could understand.

Hoss stumbled slightly and straightened out his spine to nod back to her. “You’s got a point, but…He’s, like, tha ultimate Clyde!”

“Then I’ll handle tha front burner while you get me tha colors!” Babe ordered. With that Hoss was off, pushing through anyone that happened to stand in his way—mostly an unfortunate Candi who was in the wrong place at the wrong time—while he collected the paint supplies, Babe went to the easel and mentally battled back and forth between how to draw Don here. He was such a narcissist that he’d probably want them to paint him looking all hot, so an idea popped into her head at what he’d enjoy. Taking a step back, she raised up her arms toward the easel and shot it the double guns. “Ayyyy, you’re gonna make Don cast an eyeball at’cha when I’m through!” She bragged, extending her hand out once Hoss made it back with the paints.

“What we’s doin’?” He asked, curiosity plaguing his features.

“Don’s gonna wish he owned a Flip-Top and he’s gonna think he’s as handsome as I’m gonna draw ‘im!”

“Wait, we gonna make him have smog in tha noggin?”

“You know it!” Babe laughed, lifting her hand up to receive a painfully loud slap for a high five. “Okay, I’m gonna make tha ginchiest piece’a art this museum is eva gonna see! You go on and cut out, ‘till I need ya!”

“Roga!” Hoss saluted his younger sister, taking a few step away. “Ay, why don’t I give ya a pose you can use?”

“AYYYY, NOT A BAD IDEA!” Babe said behind the easel. She leaned out only to burst into laughter as Hoss posed like Rose from the Titanic.

“Why ya laughin’?? Paint me like ona Don’s French girls!” Hoss shot back, obviously joking.

The laughter from Babe drove some people’s attention away from their work only to have a few people snickering as well clearly not that annoyed with Hoss distracting them: Masquerade, not really doing anything since Encore had completely taken over the challenge, glanced over and snorted at the sight on the floor; Alan, who’d been tirelessly constructing his portrait shook his head in slight disbelief; Erin and Irene giggled enthusiastically, memories flooding to the dramatic move of the Titanic since their community theater had performed it; the Scene Queens simply giggled like school girls at the sight lying about them, finding it hilarious and fabulous at the same time; the mood of the portrait room was most definitely more cheerful than the atrium with the struggling contestants.

It took what felt like only a few moments before The Kiwis finally entered the room. They held their hands in order to form a link between the as they ran into the atrium, glancing up at the poster of Don presented in front of them. Was the host really that conceited?

The bus ride had been a bit more annoying to them than they’d like to admit, even though it’d given Korā a chance to get some information on other teams to at least get to know more competitors. It was actually really intriguing to meet some Australians, the closest competitors they could relate to in geography terms. She smiled over at Eva and pulled her closer to her, glad they could actually have some semblance of home while being around all these other hemisphere people.

Eva, on the other hand, was just glad that they were finally out doing something. The run here had been horrible, but watching Korā going at it with her physique had been worth it. Hey, she’d even been given a piggyback ride when her legs started to give out!

“We gotta paint him?” Eva stated aloud, a new zealand accent making itself evident in her voice. “I mean, I got no qualms with painting Don, but I figured we’d be painting Lorde or Lucy Lawless or someone a bit less--”

“I get what’cha mean love; but still, it’ll probably be much easier than solving a puzzle; just throw some paint on a canvas and bam! Modern art.” Korā replied to her girlfriend, gently pulling her a bit close to nuzzle right up against her. Eva gave a friendly giggle in response, looking up and giving Korā a small peck right on the nose.

“C’mon, I reckon we can get a pretty mean painting done in no time!” The shorter girl spoke enthusiastically, heading over towards the containers of paint, while the Maori woman stood in front of the easels.

“Should I get a blue?” Eva called back to Korā, turning her head to glance over her shoulder. “I think blue would really accentuate him well!”

“It certainly does wonders for you,” Korā mumbled softly, smiling to herself and how Eva’s gorgeous blue hair seemed to shimmer in this lighting beautifully; she could feel herself getting lost in those angelic strands; however, she’d been distracted so long by her that she almost missed Eva asking a second time for her opinion.

“So, no?”

“B-Blue sounds great!” Korā stuttered out, embarrassment slightly etched into her features. Eva returned her embarrassment with a sympathetic smile and began to dig further into the box filled with paints to find the perfect tube of blue to use on Don’s conceited portrait. “Korā better not be staring at my butt,” she softly whispered to herself as the camera began to blur her image out to focus in on the two rushing in behind them.

Finally, The Aussie Twins brought up the rear, entering the atrium after a good chunk of the contestants were almost done with their portraits. Glancing around, Cleo bent over and held her knees, wheezing from the sheer amount of running the duo just had to do. “Why… did we not… just take… a taxicab… “She managed to gasp out, still wheezing and trying her hardest to have working lungs once more.

“... Because those things are bloody expensive?” Jason played off of what she said, heading over towards the container of mutli-colored tubes of paint. “Besides, you saw that guy with the neckbeard get in the last one there; I hate to say it, but we really didn’t have the time to waste sitting around trying to get another one.”

Still gasping for breath, the female twin walked up towards her brother, glancing over at him. “... True, very true… “ She stated, before glancing at the paint in his hands. “... And besides, this is going to be a pretty easy challenge; just paint the bloke and make our way to wherever he wants us to go next.”

Jason, smiling, handed her the paint he had already gathered and quickly adjusted his glasses. “If anyone can paint him, I know you can do it!” Reaching back into the container, he grabbed a few more of the tubes. “Just lemme know if you need anything more!”

Snickering, Cleo lead him to an easel of their choice. Behind them, the camera could pick up both The Superheroes and The Stylists furiously working away on their paintings of choice, although it was hard to tell what was being painted. “You got it Jason! If this takes more than half an hour, blame Don.”

At a different entrance, the reddened faces of several more competitors could just barely be seen in the Puzzle Room, hands on their stomachs, walls, and other parts of their bodies to catch their breaths. A few were even sitting on the floor at this point, while their teammates tried to pull them into the room. One of whoe was Pembroke, who was simply dragging Lyndon behind her.

As much as she’d wanted to try her skills at painting, she knew that Lyndon was the mastermind of puzzles; he could solve any Rubix cube she gave him and that must count for something in this case. “Come on, Lyn!” She urged, dropping him when they’d gained a spot at the puzzle.

“You do…your puzzle magic while I…fix my hair…!” She panted. As her teammate slowly sat himself up, she pulled her compact mirror from her pocket and began to furiously comb her fingers through her hair. Lyndon would call her when he needed her, right?

However, Lyndon, after catching his breath, went straight to work without missing a beat. He could already tell what needed to happen.

Pembroke’s hair and makeup were a necessity to her, but she felt a wee bit of concern when Lyndon’s immediate reaction to her asking him to start on this without her was to… start it without her. “Aw, Lyndon~!” She cooed, moving over to stand next to her teammate as he tried to push the heavy blocks by himself. “You’re such a sweetie~!”

“Thanks, Pem...broke…” He panted out, sliding downward because of the floor’s traction not responding well to his shoes. If there was one thing Lyndon knew, it was the complete obvious choice he had to make for this to work in their favor. Reaching down, he removed his shoes and glanced over at Pembroke. “You should remove yours as well! The floors here are great and clean!”

Pembroke, on the other hand, stared at him in horror at the very idea, resulting in him dropping it immediately with a mumbling of, “Never mind…”

Ronnel and Rosamie looked exhausted from their run to the Art Gallery, but they somehow made it in one piece even if Vancouver seemed to have an abundance of their fans. Somehow, their arrival must have been hinted at by a mixture of stalkers and phone calls to their agents. Maybe even Sierra from the original Total Drama series had spread some of the word; who even knew? Well, Don could, but he wasn’t going to spill that tidbit of information to them.

“Goll-LEE,” Rosamie exclaimed, wiping her brow in frustration. “I really do love our fans, but that was just overkill when we’re trying to reclaim fame through the television, not through the streets!” She giggled nonetheless, happy they’d actually been given a lift to arrive here quicker than they would have with their constant stopping. It still stunk to her that they’d been flash mobbed again by their fans, but so long as Ronnel wasn’t mad at her about it, she could handle it. Rosamie just wished he’d relax sometimes about this! There was no way they’d be kicked off first over a few fans! Plus, once they left this place, maybe they’d be in a place where people didn’t have TVs! Ronnel would probably be more relaxed there, but she couldn’t be sure.

Reaching into her skirt, Rosamie produced a bag of skittles and quickly began to down them. “Mm… I do love them, though! They gave us candy!”

Ronnel, clearly less enthusiastic about the happening, grabbed his sister’s arm and rushed towards a puzzle, having made the choice to do this challenge while she stared at him in expectation at the Don Box. “We’re going to fall even further behind if we don’t hurry.” He told her, trying to reclaim order in this situation. Fans were great for helping them climb charts, but they were awful for helping them complete challenges!

Cutting the conversation short, he started to examine the puzzle while Rosamie chowed down on her sugary snacks.

Even though they were behind, it seemed like not many teams were actually progressing with their puzzles, which was both a good and bad situation for them; on one hand, they weren’t too far behind, but on the other, this puzzle might be overly complicated.

“No time like the present!” Rosamie sang out, grabbing on to the first box. “Come on, Ronnel! Help me push!” She pleaded, now noticing how heavy it was when she pressed her weight against it. Ronnel sighed, taking a glance around while he helped his sister, hoping they could finish this puzzle without having much difficulty.

The camera panned to another part of the room where GG and Muff were just winging it at this point. Their hands were always moving, pushing and pulling on the blocks in front of them. Sometimes, Muff would slip and fall to the floor where several jiggly prank memorabilia would go bouncing away. At one point, a ball went flying from their pockets and struck Eli in the side of the head; luckily for them, he’d just shouted about a ghost hitting him and how they should investigate, much to Kennedy’s annoyance.

“Come on, Muff!” GG urged, her hands reddened from pushing the heavier bits. “If you’re tired, then go take a break and… well, scare someone!”

Muff, suddenly sprang up, even though they’d acted like they’d been dead tired a few moments ago. “I THOUGHT YA’D NEVER SAY THAT!” They shouted, bolting off and leaving poor GG to continue the puzzle on her own.

Groaning loudly, she rolled her eyes and mumbled about how she’d make them pee their pants when they fall asleep. How could they be so insensitive toward her--their teammate of all people!?

The camera, still catching Muff rushing around in the background doing little jumps until they were out of the screen, rested on the Neighbors, who were now both working on pushing the blocks around. It almost looked like Lyndon had figured this puzzle out piece-for-piece. “There!” He panted, wiping away at his brow with a wide grin falling on his face. “That’s another heavy one moved…”

“Great!” Pembroke stated, one hand going to her hips while the other hand went above her brow, gazing around the room. “Say, how much longer do you think we’ll be doing this puzzle thingy for?” Her attention suddenly focused on a reflective surface, making her eyes widen and hands go searching through her pockets.

“For about…another ten to fifteen minutes,” Lyndon guessed, judging from how long it’d taken them to get this far. “The mechanisms of it are actually really easy, but the sheer force it takes to push these blocks will be the reason we don’t get done before--!”

“Can we take a break, Lyyynnnnn?” Pembroke suddenly whined, staring into her compact mirror now. She knew that a small break couldn’t hurt them when they were this far along; she just had to fix her face up! It was still all sweaty and gross from running all the way here; she concluded that they’d take a taxi from now on, even though it was her fault they’d run here in the first place.

“W-Well, I mean…the puzzle still needs to get…” Lyndon stuttered. Sure, he and Pembroke had a great chance at completing this challenge with exceptional time, but he couldn’t just stop now, could he? “What… what if we…” He tried to say, eyes widening when Pembroke batted her doe-eyes at him. “F-Fine, but….only for a little bit, okay?”

Pembroke squealed in delight. She KNEW Lyndon couldn’t say no to her!

“YOU’RE THE BEST!” She happily cheered, hugging her companion in an embrace worthy of a bush to him. When she let go, her attention went straight to her mirror. This challenge could wait since they were probably way ahead of the others here anyway. She could judge how easily this would go if she could just fix her eyeliner here…

Lyndon, though happy about the hug, still sighed and stared at the puzzle in distress. Maybe he could push the blocks by himself? Maybe they’d be lighter than the rest?

As soon as his hands touched the puzzle, he ended up groaning loudly and struggled to move it; regardless, he went on to attempt the puzzle by himself while Pembroke fixed her hair and makeup. Though…the realization that Lyndon was now struggling to complete the puzzle on his own caused the girl to suddenly begin to double time her hair and makeup so she could go back to helping him out, guilt-riddling her features at the idea of letting the one who was actually able to solve this work on this alone.

On the other side of the room where Eli and Kennedy were tirelessly shoving the marble blocks around. “Sweet nectar from the gods!” Eli gasped, hands starting to turn red from the sheer force of which he was pushing these blocks. “Don is such an arschloch to make us do this!”

Kennedy, grunting as they shoved another block into place, nodded in agreement. “I suppose, he just wants this challenge to feel harder than the other to tempt us to switch…”

“Ugh! That jerk! Drawing is way harder than doing this! I mean, sure, we’re gonna—sweet Polish sausage!—break our backs doing this, but we’d fail hardcore at drawing…!” Eli gasped out, mostly from the ear-piercing noises caused by the blocks scraping on the flooring. If they were in London right now, he could see this being a torture device used in the Tower of London.

“Unless…” Kennedy mumbled, grabbing hold of the one Eli had started to push. “You could whittle the paper into the realistic features of whoever we would’ve had to draw.” As of now, Kennedy had removed their jacket and was only wearing their white tank top, having sweat too much from the exertion on this huge blocks.

“I doubt it!” Eli grunted, pressing his shoes further into the ground to hold his position. “Paper like that is probably too brittle!”

“Ja, es sei denn, es ist die Art der Leinwand Künstler verwenden.” (subtitles: Yes, unless it's the kind of canvas artists use.)

“Nah, I doubt that’d be the case.” Eli shook his head and moved back to try to examine the pieces of the puzzle. The blocks still looked scrambled, but two pieces had been pushed together to form the word “to.”

“UGHHHH!” Eli screamed, throwing his hands into the air. Despite his frustration, he didn’t decide to punch anything and ended up moving back into place, his teal colored hair sticking to his sweat-covered forehead. “EVEN THE BRITISH WOULDN’T HAVE USED THIS AS A TORTURE DEVICE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES!”

Kennedy, slightly amused by this, snorted and shook their head. “I doubt they’d do this…but the Spanish might have. They had really uncreative means of torture, you know? They literally put people in dark places and had them in devices to create an even scarier simulation of torture. Lahm,” (subtitles: lame) they concluded.

“Oh, yeah… That makes so much sense. Stupid Spanish people and their love of the dark! Remember when we went to Spain and ate those pig ears!?”

“I’d…I would rather you never bring that up again…but, ja.” Kennedy replied before the camera switched back over to the runaway prankster.

As Muff went racing to find their first victim, the sight of Mia and Midori could be seen nearby with Midori standing on top of the puzzle, viciously pointing in a direction and shouting an order that the camera couldn’t pick up and the sight of Helen and Frank sitting down on top of the blocks to take a small break together. They both had a couple of sandwiches in their hands and were enjoying themselves, even though there was no telling where in the world they’d found those sandwiches in the first place.

Muff paused when they noticed the extremely laid back adopt-a-brothers working tirelessly at the puzzle. A sly grin etched itself on their face as they realized they’d found their target. Now… how would they attempt to make them need a new pair of pants?

It’d taken the Yin and Yang longer to finally get to the art gallery since Grayson couldn’t run as fast, but once they found the Don Box and gained their tip, they immediately went to work on the puzzle, not wishing to waste any more time. Nolan’s eyes scanned over the puzzle, trying to figure out how to solve it while Grayson simply surveyed his surroundings to see if anyone had come even remotely close to solving the entire thing to give him an idea of what they were trying to form.

When Nolan figured out a way to formulate his puzzle-solving strategy, he went to work on pushing the blocks, glad he’d been in sports to gain his muscle mass.

Grayson turned back to his brother, failing to find a single one close enough to completion to give him a bit of a hint. “Did you figure something out?” He asked, walking back to his brother’s side.

“No, but…we can’t just stand around and do nothing,” Nolan responded, glancing up at his brother.

“True…” Grayson mumbled, silently wishing this had been a music challenge for them, but he figured it wouldn’t take long with two heads being better than one, even if he felt like he’d just slow them down somehow; his brother was probably way better at solving puzzles than him... at least, he thought that way. Instead of moping around about his insecurities, he went straight to work to help his brother push the heavier slabs around, surprised that theirs seemed to have blocks that were heavier than in the puzzles around them.

The stern woman, knowing exactly how each of these were put together, shook her head in pity at their struggle but said nothing to them. She wasn’t going to address the pity she felt for their unlucky choice.

Muff, having been stalking close by, reached into their pockets and began to shuffle around in an attempt to find a fun little device to toy with those two with; they looked like they were always in a good mood anyway, Muff could easily scare them and not receive much repercussion afterward! GG might get a good laugh while they were out pranking! She did enjoyed that prank on the two girls earlier! After a successful bout of picking and choosing, they finally settled on one mode of pranking that was sure to give them a heart attack!

Slinking toward the unsuspecting duo, they gently plucked an air horn from their pocket and began to raise it up. Seeing as they’d watched Total Drama Colors, they thought the prankster on there had the right idea, but their idea was better--way better! This place had amazing acoustics, sooo...when they squeezed the trigger…

The entire area suddenly became filled with an ear-piercing, window shattering, noise that caused everyone in the vicinity—even Gary—to jump in surprise. The two brothers, nearest to the noise, jumped while Nolan shrieked in shock, eyes widened in horror as Muff exploded into a fit of laughter, dropping the air horn on the floor and holding their stomach as they howled.

The camera flashed to the interview room where Nolan and Grayson were both seated, ready to explain how that scene felt to them. Nolan, with his arms crossed—slightly shaking still— tried to send the camera a smile. “Well, obviously we didn’t expect that.” he stated, nudging his brother in the side happily.

Grayson, not looking too badly shaken, shook his head and shot his brother a glance. “I think you mean you didn’t expect that.” His calm and slow voice responded. Moving his hand up, he ran it through his hair and added, “They really got you, bud.”

The taller male’s eyes bulged out at the accusation. He turned toward Grayson and shook his head so aggressively, his beanie almost flew off his scalp. “Um, what about you?? You were scared too!” Although his head aggressively shook, his tone was still playful, though a bit offended that Grayson didn’t want to give him a break there.

Grayson snickered nonetheless. “Yes, but you were the one screaming like a girl in a horror movie.”

The analogy gave Nolan an exasperated expression, and he quickly tried to shove all the blame onto Grayson to keep his masculinity in check. “What? No way dude, that was all you!”

Before Nolan could be given any peace, Grayson turned his head in the direction of the camera, which went back and replayed the events that just transpired. In the flashback, it showed more clearly the face of Nolan screaming in terror then flashed over to Grayson’s face, eyes widened but mouth clamped shut. When the camera flashed back to the interview room, Grayson’s face remained the same but Nolan’s had an air of confidence to it, suggesting he was unaware of the fact proof had been delivered to the audience.

The camera then switched to a scene of Gary and Starr sitting in the interview room, Starr looking visibly annoyed while her father was back to having the normal ‘bored out of his mind’ expression he tended to have. “What the actual hell is wrong with that person!?” She blurted out, obviously angered at the stupidity of the pranks they pulled. “Like, did their parents drop kick ‘em over a fence and into a rocky field filled with damn boulders or something!?” With a growl, she crossed her arms and glared into the camera. “I swear, I was gonna shove this go-go boot right up where the sun don’t shine if they kept doing that crap!”

Her father, glancing over at his pride and joy, merely nodded. “I have never been more terrified in my life…” he droned on, his tone unwavering from the sheer monotony we’ve been accustomed to hearing. “In fact, I think my heart has stopped; I can’t feel it.”

Starr paused for a moment shooting her dad a rather concerned look before realizing he didn’t mean it literally. “...Daddy, you tell me you normally can’t feel that anyway. ”

Over in the portrait room, the teams were quickly getting to work on attempting to finish up their masterpieces. Some—such as the Superheroes and Two Peas in a Pod—were almost complete, merely finishing up the finer details to their portraits. Others—such as The Scene Queens—were still having a harder time making the portraits look the way they wished.

“Say, Lexi, should I use Bubblegum Pink or Bloodstain Red for Don’s fab Mohawk?” The pink-haired girl asked curiously, holding the two tubes up indecisively. She glanced over at her friend, who was working on giving Don a striped black and grey hoodie.

“O-M-G, Natalia, I think Bloodstain Red is a good color-- “ Lexi reached over to right beside where her easel was standing, picking both a tube of an electric blue and jet black paint off the floor. Gently, she handed them to her fellow scene queen, smiling at her. “-- but I think lighting strike blue and inner sorrow black would look WAY better for Don’s hair!”

Glancing at the two tubes, the other girl gasped out of excitement, quickly getting two new brushes from one of the many unused easels. “O-M-F-G, You are, like, so right!” The girl spat out in bliss. Rather quickly, she got to work on painting her end of the masterpiece, adding blue highlights to the blackened hair.

The camera panned over to show both the Kiwis and Aussie Twins painting away within the vicinity of each other. In regards to the Kiwis, the both of them split up their half of the work evenly, one girl painting one part of Don, the other girl painting the other half.

Taking a step back from the easel, Eva glanced at her portion of the drawing. It… looked sort of like Don; that much she could fully admit. Whether or not it would let them pass, that was up for the old man to decide. “How do you think this looks so far?” The teal haired woman turned towards her girlfriend, tilting her head in curiosity.

Putting her brush down for just a second, Korā glanced over at what Eva had painted so far. She was further along than the other; but that didn’t matter to the young Maori woman. She was simply glad that she was here, actually doing something with the person she absolutely adored. “It looks fine, love!”

“Oh, you’re just saying that.” Eva smiled at the other, finding that her part of the portrait looked spectacular.

“Nonsense; yours looks almost like the real thing!”

Giggling, Eva pulled Korā closer towards her body, wrapping her arms around the other. “You’re as sweet as honey, you know that right?”

“And you’re as cute as a button~.” Korā told the teal haired woman. Slowly, she leaned down, locking her lips with the other for a brief—yet passionate—kiss.

“Awwwwwww~!” Both the Scene Queens and Stylists could be heard uttering at once, finding the whole scene to be as heartwarming as a puppy.

However, Cleo and Jason were having a far more interesting time with their portrait. Cleo had commandeered the painting aspect of the challenge, knowing exactly what to paint. Jason, on the other hand, just stood there, shifting his weight between his feet in an attempt to pass the boredom of waiting for his sister to finish her portrait. Thankfully, she was able to get what she wanted in about twenty minutes.

Suddenly, the brown haired girl turned her canvas around towards her brother, showing off her beautiful work. “And the dankest of portraits is complete!” She smiled proudly. Of course, she wanted to hear what her brother had to say about the picture before they turned it in. “I call it, “That Face when No Internet Popularity.”

Jason was speechless at what he had to witness. He couldn’t believe what was sitting before him on the easel.

Cleo had painted Don to look like Pepe the frog.

“Well, what do you say?” The girl asked, somewhat curious as to what her brother’s silence was all about. She crossed her arms, waiting a bit impatiently for his answer.

The awkwardly silent pause continued on for another moment. Jason, for once, didn’t know what to tell his sister. He thought it looked great, yes, yet at the same time, he doubted it would get them through the challenge. “I uh… well…--” He racked his brain for an answer, managing to maintain his rather chill composure as he scanned the inner workings of his mind.

“It… It’s certainly rare! And it does look excellent!”

Cleo smiled at her brother’s answer. She wanted to turn this in now; the sooner they get done with this part of the challenge, the better! “See, now let’s go--”

Before she could continue to try and get their travel tip, Jason had to interject. “--But--”

“But what?” Cleo’s eyebrow raised onto her face, her expression nothing but confused as to why her brother was stopping her.

“It’s just… I don’t think Don would like this.” The boy rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, attempting to stay rational with his sister. He honestly did feel that Don wouldn’t accept this painting, even if it was amazing as is.

“How could Don NOT like this!?” The aussie girl was astonished! Everyone loves Pepe!

“I don’t think Don’s a fan of internet memes…”

Cleo rolled her eyes; no matter how much she loved her brother, she found the idea that someone couldn’t love internet memes ridiculous. “I’m sure it’ll be fine Jason!” The girl tried to explain to her brother. He wasn’t having it, simply shaking his head.

“Cleo…. “He mumbled under his voice. The girl hesitated for a moment, before finally replying.

“You know, you’re just as stubborn as me. It doesn’t hurt to take a risk every now and then, Jason.”

“I know, but still; it might be better if we get our first challenge right, you know?” Jason did feel bad for trying to get Cleo to redo the portrait, but he knew her skills. He knew that if anyone could whip up a portrait of Don in a jiffy, it would definitely be her.

Shrugging, Cleo spoke once more. “Alright, alright, I’ll repaint Don.” Sauntering over to the wall lined with spare canvases, she stopped in place for a moment, pointing at the Pepefied Don. “But I’m keeping that.” She teased her brother, a dorky laugh escaping her lips.

The camera then panned over to Alan and Candi. Similar to Cleo and Jason, only one person was actually working on the portrait – in this case, Alan. Yet unlike with Aussie twins, Candi actually had a say in the portrait. Most of it was in regards to the colors, yes, but she was trying her best to help. “How’s it coming along sweetie?” Candi gently asked, looking over her husband’s shoulder. She was curious as to the portrait’s progress.

“I say it’s coming along.” Alan stated, turning to face his wife. Charmingly, he smiled up at her. However, she was focused on the painting. Upon examining it, she smiled, tilting her head to her husband’s.

“Oh, it’s beautiful!”

Her husband, still working his charms, glanced up at his wife. “Not a beautiful as you, sweetie.”

The woman’s cheeks became flushed with a rosy pink tone. Okay, that was smooth. Genuinely smooth.

“Oh, you know how to sweet-talk me~!” She giggled. Rapidly, she leaned down towards her husband, who gracefully placed a peck upon her lips – which quickly turned into a rather short-lived makeout session.

“Oh my gosh, all the couples on this show are sooo cute!” Erin could be heard stating proudly, his face beaming with happiness. The camera decided to focus in on him and Irene as the duo talked about how cute they found everyone to be acting. His smile turned towards the golden-haired girl, who simply smiled back at him.

“I know, right! It’s just… they make me feel so warm and fuzzy myself! It’s great!”

With a change of scene, we found ourselves back in the puzzle atrium. Ronnel sighed loudly and slid to the floor, wiping his forehead in annoyance. No matter which way he pushed the puzzle pieces, they wouldn’t match up to the picture he knew would form! If only they could skip this part of the challenge, then they could go for a penalty—even if it would be twenty minutes; he was willing to risk it at this point; however, he knew the stern woman wouldn’t just hand the twin idols a tip, no matter if she was a fan or not.

“Shoot…” He muttered, slapping the floor with his hand.

“Aw, come on, bro bro!” Rosamie called to her brother, waving her hands around to reduce the painful swelling from the heavy blocks. “Heeeyy, I know what’ll cheer you up~!” She sang out, sliding to sit down next to her brother.

“I really don’t want any skittles…” He mumbled to her, though he did appreciate the sentiment.

“I wasn’t going to offer you skittles!” She lied, slipping the bag back into the snug elastic band of her skirt. “I was going to suggest...we...uhm...talk about the names you want to give your turtle!” She suddenly sprang up the topic out of thin air. It wasn’t so much that she’d just thought it up, but she knew that Ronnel’s secret passion was to have a pet turtle!

“Now?”

“Yeah! We need a break, don’t we??” Rosamie interjected, hands going to her hips where her skittles ended up falling out of the bottom of her skirt and on to the floor, much to her dismay. “Look, winning a challenge is great and all, but I think it’d be way better if we had a small break and thought some things through! I can’t do this alone, you know?? Besides, if you get stressed out again, you’ll be like, ‘ugh, Rosamie...we should have taken a break!’ when we leave here!”

“Well… You have a point, Rosamie,” Ronnel admitted, smiling at his sister appreciatively. “Okay, what kind of name would you pick?”

“Katniss!” She laughed, bringing her arms back to mimic shooting an arrow. “I’d teach the turtle to shoot bows and arrows!”

“Okay,” Ronnel started, leaving out how unlikely that could happen with the nub feet of turtles. “But...what if it’s a guy turtle?”

“Sir Katniss!” She said before the camera shot over to another team to avoid anymore turtle talk.

Muff, after successfully pulling several pranks--including but not limited to: giving Mia an oreo with toothpaste instead of cream, throwing skittles on Eli and claiming they were ants, and screaming “FIRE!” only to be chased halfway around the room by an angry disco dancer--came rushing back to GG, who had her hands on her hips, a pout on her lips and fury in her eyes. The annoyance was over several things: Muff leaving to try to prank the ones doing the puzzles, leaving her to push these heavy blocks alone, AND leaving her alone for an extended period of time to work on this. Her eyes narrowed at them and her foot began to rhythmically tap on the floor, much to Muff’s confusion.

“Really? You just up and ditched me when I said you could relax if you were tired?!” She vividly asked, floral hoodie scrunched up from how hard she was gripping it.

“What?! You said if I was tired, then I should take a break!” Muff shot back, sending her a goofy smile. In an attempt to make her feel less angry, they let their tongue shoot out the gap in their teeth, only to see that was a failure.

“Muff, I’ve been doing this puzzle for nearly thirty, minutes now!” She protested. “You’ve just been running around and throwing fake BUGS on people!”

“Nuh uh! I’ve been gone for like s****ing five minutes!”

GG, being a tech person, immediately withdrew her phone from her pocket and shoved it in their face, showing a ticking clock that had been going ever since they’d left her on her own, revealing it’s been way more than five minutes. “OH, REALLY?!”

“Okay, you need to calm down!”

“Don’t tell me to calm down! You ditched me for pranks and now we’re probably going to lose since we were the only team that had one person working on the puzzle!”

“What?? It’s not like anyone is--!”

“FINISHED!” Came a confident shout from across the room, tearing Muff’s eyes away from the annoyed her. The shout came from the youngest person present in the room, Lyndon. Beside him, Pembroke was cheering, her makeup and hair game on point once more. The camera, tilting slightly, glanced over at the puzzle the duo had assembled. Upon the tops of the blocks, the words “Welcome to Denver” boldly stood against a dark city background with it’s bright orange print. Without further celebration, the duo received the tip from the stern woman, who bowed her head with a slight smile at how quickly they’d finished the challenge.

The two Neighbors cheered in delight, Pembroke’s happy and shrill cheering disrupting the gallery even more than the scraping of the blocks. While she collected the tip, Lyndon sat down on the floor and began to pull his shoes on. Noticing his teammate reaching for her pocket as he went to pull on his second shoe, he internally sighed and asked, “What’s the tip say, Pembroke??” As she glanced down at the tip, Lyndon stood up and dusted himself off to listen to what she had to say.

Pembroke, manicured hand daintily holding the tip by the corner, glanced down at the instructions and took Lyndon’s hand. The younger of the two’s eyes widening in an awestruck manner. “The tip says, ‘Go to Vancouver International Airport, because we’re heading to….COLORADO!” She squealed, stopping when she realized something.

“Wait…that’s not exciting… Like, I’ve been there a million times… UGH!” She threw the tip over her shoulder in annoyance and rushed out of the museum with Lyndon in tow. Thankfully, Lyndon managed to pick their tip right back off the ground before he was ushered out of the art gallery like a little kid.

Back to Muff, their eyes went straight to GG with a pained grin now on their face.

“You were saying…?” GG asked, annoyance pricking her voice heavily.

Meanwhile, back in the portrait room, many of the teams were busy scribbling away. It was the Superheroes who had finished first. As Encore stepped away, she blew a slight kiss towards her literal work of art. The Camera focused in on the portrait; upon it, a rather bold, exaggerated Don stood with his limbs sprawled about, leaning back in an overly dramatic manner. The most notable thing about it, however, was the choice of colors; all of them were bright and energetic, which arguably made Don look more like a space alien than a human being.

The duo, careful to avoid getting the pigments on the canvas everywhere and ruining the painting, rushed towards the elderly tip giver. However, rather than receive the response they were looking for, he simply shook his head no.

“...What?” Encore uttered, a scowl working it’s way onto her eyebrows. Masquerade, with a concerned look plastered onto his face, turned his head to face his teammate.

“I’m sorry miss, I can’t accept this; Don told me that he wanted a more realistic portrait that captured his ‘strikingly rugged and manly features while still having that air of charm’. But this… This is just pop art.” If the man knew the reaction he would have gotten from Encore, he likely would have shut his mouth and just given the tip far, far sooner. He was honest in his reasoning, but Encore wasn’t having it.

“This is a piece of art! And this is an art gallery!” The middle aged superheroine yelled, resulting in concerned looks from almost everyone else in the room. She was obviously livid at the fact her art wasn’t considered ‘good enough’. Bah, what does he know! “I worked hard to paint this, and it looks better than half of what’s being showcased in this place anyways!” Masquerade simply nodded his head in agreement with the other, rather honestly not wanting to redo the challenge again.

“Miss, I’m sorry, but if you want the tip you’re going to have to redo the--” The older gentleman restated, resulting in Encore groaning aloud.

“Fine, I’ll redo the painting, but let it be known you are one of the worst art critics I have ever met in my life! Hmph!” With a huff, she walked off, her blood boiling from the tantrum she just through. Now, she was ticked at both the fact she is going to have to redo the painting AND that this elderly man thought her art wasn’t good enough! The younger man simply followed her, attempting to calm her down so they could get to work again.

The Camera changed from the portrait room to the interview room, where the Superheroes were sitting. Encore had her hands on her hips and was glaring at the camera, asking, “Not good enough? Not good enough?! It was absolutely, positively, as a matter of fact a wondrous piece of art, thank you very much! I’d like to see ANYONE do better! You just have no taste when it comes to the art forms–”

As Encore continued to rant to the camera, Masquerade just gave her an amused glance before giving the camera the same amused glance.

Flashing back to the portrait room, Alan and Candi gossiped among themselves, talking about the fit the superheroine just threw, and how ridiculous the two of them felt that whole tantrum was. It was Candi doing most of the talking; Alan was still trying his hardest to finish up their portrait.

“How old is that woman, five?” Candi whispered towards her husband, not wanting to have the older tantrum thrower freak out on the two of them.. “She wasted so much time arguing with that old man; they could have spent it just finishing up their--”

Before Candi could continue on with her gossip, Alan exclaimed “Finished!” Moving away from the portrait to let his wife see.

“Oh sweetheart, that looks excellent!” Leaning over, she gave Alan a slight peck on the cheek, causing her blonde-haired husband to blush in surprise. Once she pulled back, the camera focused in on the painting for a moment; Although it wasn’t painted the best, it did bear a rather striking resemblance to Don.

Picking the canvas up, the Two Peas in a Pod rushed over to the old man—careful to avoid ruining their canvas. Rather than react negatively to it, the elderly tip giver simply smiled and gave a thumbs up, handing the two of them their travel tip. While Alan set the portrait down, Candi took the tip and read it aloud. “Go to Vancouver International Airport and board the plane…. to Denver!”

“Oh Denver! That sound so exciting; I wonder what we’re going to do there!” Alan chimed in, taking his wife by the hand as the two of them began their trek to the airport

With a change of scene, the camera then glanced upon the Vancouver Skyline as Don’s disembodied voice began his announcements. “Oh, you two will be in for quite a surprise there.” He stated, a slight laugh following his statement. After a slight pause, the host continued his narration. “With two teams now having completed the challenge, the race for who’ll be on the first plane continues. The Ridonculous Race will return after these messages.”

@sly4good @singasongsang @iamchillifish @roxyourroleplay @sstwins @short-awkward-me @sarcasticdevotee @bm-vagabxnd @mllermanda @twinidols-superstars @totallynotachespin @justamemelovingfuck @toriable @ix-macaroon

#TDRR:NAT #TDRR: North American Tour #episodes #episode 1b #A Little Less Sixteen Teams a Lot More Paint Me

tdrr-north-american-tour