Welcome to Gaia! ::

When you arrive at the challenge grounds, you see Chef grumbling and standing next to a stage, next to a box. "Awight maggots," he grunts, leaving his post to hand out identical lists. "Chris had ta leave to give some sort of ceremony or whatever, but ah've rigged up a web cam so he can see. Now shaddup 'cause ah'm only gonna go through the rules once."

((OOC: Wasn't really sure how to submit this... so I figured I'd just post it here.))

Ratchet frowned as she wrote. She wasn't much of a person for plays, but she could write a story. Sort of. But normally she did this sort of thing on the computer, for her handwriting was pretty bad. After a while, she managed to write a story. The paper was entitled "Ratchet's Camp Adventure," and though the writing was spiky and scrawly, it was still legible. The paper continued to read:

"Once upon a time at Camp Wawanakwa...

Ratchet, needing some time to herself, was hiking in the woods. Being the handy sort, she’d brought her leather backpack with her, stuffed to the brim with an assortment of useful tools. At her side, she had the most useful of these: A hammer, a screwdriver, and her own trusty namesake. As she hiked, it got darker and darker, and she wasn’t so sure she was still in Wawaknawa any longer. As the path became rougher and narrower, and she began to trip over tree roots, she heard footsteps on the path. Gripping her hammer, she prepared to defend herself, but as the bushes rustled, she saw it was only... an intern? But this wasn’t your average intern. This intern was exceedingly strangely-formed and dressed; he looked as though he made all his own clothes, and on his feet were naught but one sock, and this sock had a mouth and bits of felt stitched to it. It looked strangely like one of Chef’s sock puppets that had had its eyes removed. Ratchet stared at the wild Audio as he rasped at her.

“Gooooood eeeeeeeeevening, Camper!” the feral intern half-shouted. Ratchet jumped back in surprise; wasn’t that a Chris thing? Poor beast had probably been horribly conditioned. But the stranger took no offense at her odd looks. “What a fine set of tools you have there, dude, and that’s a nice backpack. How’d they con you into coming here? But I can set you up, man. Seriously.”

“Well... that’s kind of you, I suppose,” Ratchet stammered.

“I’m gonna let you in on something. See that big tree?” The rogue pointed to a massive oak nearby. “It’s hollow to the roots. If you climb it, you’ll find a hole. If you tie this rope around your waist, I’ll pull you up again once you’ve dropped down it.”

“What would I do under the tree?” Ratchet liked climbing trees, but she wasn’t so sure about this.

“Marshmallows,” the intern said. “When you touch the bottom, there’s a big ol’ hall. Bigger than the mess hall, dude. There’s more than a hundred lamps, and there’s three doors. They’re locked, but they’ve got keys, so all’s good. I can’t remember what else is down there, other than chests of marshmallows, but I do know that it’s dangerous to go alone. Take this,” he said, producing a kitten from his clothes. It mewed as he handed it to her. “Now, dude, climb the tree!”

“Sounds fine, but what do you get out of this? You’ve been taking lessons from Chris, and he doesn’t have an altruistic bone in his body.” Ratchet narrowed her eyes at the Audio, and he grinned at her. “Dude, all I want you do do is bring back the rubber chicken you find in the hall. I left it down there a while ago, and I want it back.” Agreeing to this and with kitten in paw, Ratchet scrambled up the tree. She was feeling quite fine; this would be an adventure! Even if there was nothing down there, she still had a kitten. She tied the rope around her waist, and dropped down the hole. To her surprise, there was, in fact, a hall down there, with three rooms. In the hall itself was a long wooden table with the remains of a birthday party on it- a moldy cake, a few cheap paper party hats, and some assorted wrapping paper bits. What was this place? Ratchet’s curiosity was piqued, but there wasn’t much time to wonder if this was the Loamhedge to the main camp’s Redwall. There was a rubber chicken on the table; she grabbed it and stuffed it into her bag to return to the crazed intern before opening the door to the first room.

The first room seemed to be a rustic bathroom, complete with a basin for water, a tin bathtub, and a hole for... necessaries. In the middle of the room was a chest, and on the chest... sat a wolf! It was a small wolf, but it was a wolf nevertheless. “Jesus!” Ratchet swore, for the wolf looked and smelled horrible. But as she walked backwards and put her paw in some fake droppings, she realized that the wolf’s eyes were... glassier than they should have been. And the fur was patchier. And the claws were missing. This was a stuffed wolf! And with a good wash to get the bloodstains off and the smell gone, it might be pretty cute. Shoving it off the chest, she knelt gingerly and lifted the lid, expecting marshmallows. Instead, the chest was empty, save for a few moths and a green slip of paper with Chris’s face on it; an outdated form of camp currency, perhaps? Always opportunistic, Ratchet took the Chris money, growling about it as she did.

The second room was similar to the first room in size, but the smell here was different. It didn’t smell like a bathroom; it looked like an antique medical office, complete with leeches in jars and a rusty stethoscope, and it smelled like a slaughterhouse. This was probably because of the very large and very real wolf seated on the chest in this room. It growled dangerously, but the kitten in Ratchet’s paw wasn’t having any of it. It hissed, clawed the Audio, and fled the room, the wolf running after it. Ratchet took the opportunity to open the chest to discover nothing but some fake confetti- the sparkle from it was completely gone. Somebody had already taken these mallows. Ratchet kicked the chest and left the room to see what was in the third one.

Ratchet entered the room hefting her hammer. She was expecting a third wolf, a larger, meaner one, and she’d already lost her kitten. However, there was no wolf on this chest. Instead, there was a beaver wearing a t-shirt with greek letters on it. And this chest was different, too; instead of a treasure chest, it was a chest of drawers. This was somebody’s bedroom. Ignoring the beaver, Ratchet rummaged through the drawers. As to be expected, there was nothing good here- just some dried up Silly Putty, a messed-up paperclip, and an old movie ticket from Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Ratchet shook her head. What kind of person actually kept a ticket from that movie? A search under the chest revealed only a wad of chewed up gum, and she wasn’t touching that. There were no marshmallows down here. None. Growling fiercely, she ran back out into the hall, climbed up the tree without any help from the crazy intern, sprinted to him, and punched him in the nose.

Much to her surprise, he exploded in a puff of smoke, only to reappear untouched save for the addition of a shiny tinfoil hat on his head. It became obvious to Ratchet that he was a wizard.

“Excellent!” the wizard cried. “You’ve passed the first test!”

“Test?” Ratchet said, her head cocked to one side.

“Test!” shrieked the wizard. “And if you pass the next two, you will become queen of your own castle.”

“Well, I like that!” Ratchet said agreeably. “Tell me what the next tests are.”

“The first test,” the wizard said, producing a conch shell from out of nowhere, “Is to get a string through this shell! You’ll never be able to do it!”

“Never?” laughed Ratchet. Clearly this man had never read any Greek mythology. “Consider it done. But I need three things. String, honey, and glue.” The wizard produced them from... somewhere... on his person. Best no to ask. Ratchet sat down on the forest floor, where she noticed an abundance of ants. She quickly caught one and attached the end of the string to its back with glue. The wizard had horrible string- it was a ball of scratchy blue yarn- but it would do. She smeared the honey on the edge of the shell, then knocked off the tip with her hammer. She dropped the ant into the shell, sat back, and waited. In no time at all, the ant had emerged on the other side. Ratchet clipped the end of the string and let the ant go free, then tied the string to itself to produce a loop. She handed it to the wizard, who immediately placed it about his neck.

“Very good, very good,” he murmured, stroking the shell. “But you’ll have to do better than that for the final test. Are you ready?”

“Hang on. First let me see this castle,” Ratchet said. “I wanna make sure I’m not getting skunked here.”

“As you wish,” the wizard said, producing a roll of paper from his sock. At first, Ratchet thought it was a scroll of magic, but it turned out to be blueprints. The castle had one main hall, four turrets, and neat brickwork on the walls. Not too bad. The young Audio shrugged and nodded.

“Seems worth it,” she said as the wizard cackled. “Just... are you gonna turn me into a whale?”

“No!” he screamed. “For your final, most impossible test... you gotta open this,” he said, passing her a jar of pickles. “I cannot open this thing.” Ratchet stared at him as he whined about the pickles, then hit the jar with her hammer until it cracked. Immediately, the wizard perked up. “Thanks, man!” he said, before motioning at her with his paw. Ratchet felt the world spin, then everything went dark.

When she came to, she was in a castle on a hill, a city gleaming in the background and a forest behind that. Well, sort of. The city was obviously fake; she could see the frame holding it up. A sign near the castle pointing to the fake city said “To Camelotte.” How odd. As she began to wake up more and more, she realized that the castle wasn’t really a castle; it was a bouncy castle, and it was losing air fast. Scrambling up from the chair that served as a makeshift throne, Ratchet fled her dying castle and stood outside. As soon as it was completely deflated, Ratchet turned around and thought about her predicament. She was lost, but she had her tools and a rubber chicken. What to do? At first, she thought she’d walk towards the city, but she didn’t. “Let’s not go to Camelotte,” she said to herself. “It is a silly place. And it’s only a model.” Just then, something caught her eye. What was that wall in the distance? And those dumpsters? And that patch of incredibly poisonous, vomit-inducing weeds? Suddenly, Ratchet realized that the recently deflated bouncy castle had been set up behind the dining hall, probably for Chris’s amusement.

And she’d gone and somehow popped it.

Oh crap."

Ripley decided he could tell a short story using the given materials. Sitting down, and using the available props to help illustrate, he began to tell the story as he made it up.
...
It all began, when Duke (who is the main character of this story) was sifting through his some of the things his older brother left behind after going to college. Duke knew he should have stayed out of his brother's things, but he couldn't resist when he found the box in the closet.
The box didn't seem out of the ordinary. It was full of things one might expect their brother to have. A dried leaf, an old movie ticket-so faded Duke couldn't read what the movie had been, a dead spider, some kind of tree nut and many other little trinkets and memories. Duke laughed when he found a bit of fake poo, he remembered when his brother used that to freak out their mother. He grinned again when he found a Chris buck, his brother had worked hard to get that from some event. There were the interesting pebbles his brother had stolen from him, as well as a ball of blue yarn that had likely been their grandmother's.
Duke was happy to see his brother's things...but it was the blue-prints that caught his attention the most. Why...they were for a beaver trap. And not just any beaver trap...a really good beaver trap.
They had been having some trouble with beavers from the nearby stream...eating his mother's baby trees and all. Why not try and build this trap? It looked like it might be a good idea. And some fun.
Of course, he had a bit of a time getting it all together. His mother wouldn't let him use one of the kitchen chairs, so he had to use his own. She did let him use the small tin bathtub, and he stole a rubber chicken from his younger brother. That blue yarn in the box was also useful...Duke was sure Gramma wouldn't mind.
After a few days of work, the trap was all set and ready to go.
Duke took it out to the garden (yes, his mother's trees were in a garden). This was a lot of work, since it included a tin bathtub and a chair.
However, he was at a loss about bait. He tried a bit of tree...but after a day that had no hits. He tried to fashion an eyeless sock puppet to look like a lady beaver, but that had no luck (perhaps their trouble causers were girls-or they wanted something with eyes?). He was about to see if they might eat some dried silly putty, but his mother stopped him. She said that could make the beavers sick. And she didn't want to hurt the little animals.
Duke was about out of ideas...and frustrated, he left the trap up overnight with no bait at all.
Much to his surprise, as he headed out the next morning with some ABC gum to try as bait, he saw it. He had indeed caught a beaver!
Suddenly though, Duke realized he had no idea about what to do with a beaver. He knew Dad would never let them keep it as a pet....Not to mention...it looked a bit angry. Now what was he going to do with it. Maybe this was why his brother never made the trap...there was to after plan.
...
Ripley sat back, finished with his tale. "The moral of the story," he said, "is 'look before you leap'."

Okay, what? This challenge was not what Vert was expecting. But maybe that was the point, to mix up the challenges and keep the campers off balance. Because from word searches to hidden rocks with gators to whatever this classified as? Yeah, what in the hell dudes. Maybe she could corral her attention span long enough to do something for this challenge.

Clearing her throat, she began hestitantly, "Once upon a time, there was a beaver. But this was not just any beaver, for she was a princess among beavers. All the beavers in the land agreed that her nerves were the steeliest, her teeth the gnawing-iest, in short, the best dam beaver princess around." While she was speaking she picked up the beaver and made the poor thing dance and twirl, and showed off it's attributes to the audience.

"Alas, the poor beaver, had offended the evil rubber chicken fairy." Down went the beaver, up came the rubber chicken. She shook it menacingly, opening and closing the beak with angry crows and screaches. Also, she made it wear the cheap paper party hat. It kind of looked like a wizard's hat- if you were drunk.

"The evil chicken fairy appeared before the beaver princess and with a wave of her magic wand," Wow, it really was hard to balance that ugly hat on the chicken and make it look like it was holding a bent out of shape paperclip but Vert managed it by forcing the chicken to poke itself in the eye with the clip. "and destroyed the magical castle of the beavers." Here she waved to the deflated bouncy castle. There was no way in hell she was dragging that thing over here.

"And then, just to be a jerkass or maybe because she had a quota of evil to fill for the month, the fairy chicken rained crap down from the heavens upon the poor beavers. " WHOOSH. Vert chucked the fake poo at the deflated castle. And judging by the angry cry from offstage, had missed and hit one of the interns. Whoops.

"Then she appeared before the beaver princess and said, 'If you wish to remove the curse upon your land, you must unravel the secret of... THIS!" With a flourish, Vert revealed the impossible to open jar of pickles. "With that, the chicken made an obscene gesture and then vanished in a puff of feathers and glitter." Vert tossed a handful of fake confetti most of which managed to fall back on herself. She sneezed, loudly, tehn began to cough.

"Ugh, anyways, the beaver set off upon her quest with the mysterious jar." Again, the beaver popped up and was pantomimed into motions as Vert spun her tale. This time, the beaver was wearing a shiny hat. "She traveled near and far, and eventually came to a wizened old man!" Down went the beaver, up came the eyeless sock puppet. "The wizened old man turned out to be... the evil chicken fairy's old boyfriend, whom she had dumped and blinded for forgetting their anniversary." Vert paused and looked over at the rubber chicken. "Wow, you're a real douche, aren't you," she said to it, then shook her head and continued on with her story.

"The old man was only too happy to get revenge upon the evil chicken. So he whispered the secret of the jar to the beaver princess, in exchange for her shiny hat." Yep, sure enough, somehow Vert had moved the shiny hat from the beaver to the sock puppet. "Her quest complete, the beaver returned home to face the fairy."

"She appeared before the fairy, but before the fair could ask the secret of the jar, the beaver hefted the jar and smashed the chicken in the face with it." CRASH! Ooops, well, that was one way to open an unopenable jar. "Then she stole the fairy's wand and stabbed her with it." The green audio struggled for a moment, because damn, it was really hard to stab a rubber chicken with a bent up paperclip. After a few moments of futile attempts, Vert grabbed the whole mess of props and threw them to the side.

"Then, the beaver princess decided that if this was going to be the kind of thing she had to face, screw it, someone else could be in charge of the kingdom. She was going to the movies with the wizened old man, because at least he was a cheap date." Vert waved the old movie ticket at the audience. "THE END."

Vert stood there for a few minutes more, before shuffling off to the side. "Damn, I really want pickles now."

Helens eyes widened, this was just the opportunity she had been waiting for. She loved writing all sorts of stories, and honestly, most of them were based off of the video games she played so religiously. She wasn't one for ridiculous fan pairing Yaoi's, she preferred to keep her favorite guy characters to herself in her stories... Anyways, she was going to try as best as she could to write a story that didn't involve all of her favorite video game characters. but she couldn't guarantee no references. hurrying, because she knew the deadline was soon, Helen rushed to set her play up:

The scene opens, a beaver lays in the middle of the field, though it looks a little less like its sleeping ad more like it was carefully knocked unconscious. Any ways, it's a beautiful day, the city backdrop is set up behind the beaver, showcasing the not so natural beauty of the world around them.

Suddenly, the protagonist leaps forward, jumping off of a chair placed just of stage, giving the leap a little extra oomph. The protagonist starts running, followed closely behind by a 'horde' made up of an eyeless sock puppet and a rubber chicken jerkily being pulled along the floor by a ball of blue yarn attached to the protagonists shirt. A dazed beaver is quietly pushed out of the picture.

Suddenly, the 'brave hero' turned around to confront the 'dastardly foes' that were pursuing her. Whipping out her trusty bent out of shape paperclip, our hero shifted from paw to paw before, after making some weird beeping sounds, (oddly reminiscent of the sound a game makes when scrolling through options) Helen leaped out at her pray, making a slash that could barely count as a hit, before jumping away and pulling one of the monsters at her self in return.

This continued one for a bit, our brave hero tossing the sock puppet aside first before remaining in battle with the rubber chicken for a good five minutes. Eventually, Helen assumed an over dramatized posed and made a loud "Whoosh" sound before taking out broken up hunks of dried silly putty and chucking them at her foe. A few throws later, tour hero whips the chicken aside and twirls around, doing a customary victory dance.

Running forward, our hero grabs the sock puppet and pulls her 'loot' from it's inside. First she proudly pulls out a shiny hat, a important piece of equipment, and then she receives the money that was inside the puppet, one single Chris buck an incredible sum of money worth at least 100 rupees.

"Aha! I finally have enough money to obtain a pass to the next dungeon!" She boisterously exclaimed. Heading to the far left side of the stager, Helen handed in the Chris buck to an offstage vendor, and pulled out an old movie ticket.

With a heroic (Or maybe a little bit evil?) laugh, Helen headed the opposite direction, a hero off to face her next adversary. And as a final flair, Helen tossed a hand full of fake confetti right as she exited the stage, a hero on her way to face the most dastardly and evil of all of man kind... Chris Mclean. (But the fight would never happen because the lackey battle with Chef would be impossible for her to beat.)

THE END!

Helen shook her head as she finished. She had no idea why she had opted to do a play, but it was too late now to change her mind. Besides, it was always fun to act out a battle scene, no matter how little material she had to work with.

(( ;; I've been very busy this weekend, I started a new job and had lots of homework. I didn't get a chance to work on this... If we can have an extension, I can try to get it done tomorrow? <3 ))

Marina decided to wing the whole challenge by doing a comedy sketch using some of the props. She looked around and grabbed the Chris Buck “ This is sooo Chris!!!Thinking he could have his own form a money” she said with a chuckle. She looked around and grabbed the shiny hat and the eyeless sock puppet. She put the puppet on her hand and put the hat on her head “ Soooo Chris what do you think of my new hat” she then tried ventriloquist the puppet talking “ Your NOT getting my marshmallow or my fake rubber chicken” she nervously chuckled Marina kind of realized she was sucking but she just kept going. She put away the two probs.

She sat on a chair and started to play with the blue ball of yarn nervously and not really noticing she was doing so. She picked up the fake poo “isn’t this how all our food taste. Like seriously , they want us to use bent out of shape paper clips to get across muddy water filled with killer birds but they can’t even use some of the money for food” she looked at crowed to see if they were feeling her. She wasn’t too sure. She knew the Chef wasn’t going to be too happy with her.


She wanted to finish up soo she looked at the city backdrop "we will all be back home to our normal lifes sooner or later" she pointed at the backdrop “whatever home looks like to you , congrat guys we ALL ROCK!!!!!!” She said really funny and not noticing the whole time she was talking and walking , the blue yarn was trailing behind her she tried to untangle herself and that might have been the only funny moment.

She finely had to have some interns cut her free “ WELL YOU GULLS , BEHAVIORS , losers I mean Sharks have been great" she said with as much confidence she could muster up. She sat back in her chair and sulked she felt really dumb and was feeling she might have put herself in a hot seat.