Current Events > Teen Titans CYOA: Romance Resurrected Part 18

(+) Yeah! (+)

A)

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bump, will try to get this in the morning
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welp, I did say "try" :|
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A

"Well, once a week seems like a reasonable amount of times, doesn't it? Though, that's not a hardset number. Could be more, sometimes less."

"Good enough!" the others all say with big thumbs up.

You chuckle and munch on popcorn as you sit down again. The Challengers Challenging Challenges show continues, and Byron has survived Ready Aim Water. He has $4000 total, but now is facing something called "The Mucho Macho Ocho Tango! (trademark)"

And it is a rather insane obstacle course! You're reminded of both American Ninja Warrior, Wipeout, and one other thing you can't put your finger on. And Byron seems rather intimidated by the gauntlet before him.

"Behold this daunting task before you!" the host says with just as much edge as she has bubbly energy. "Eight unique obstacles for one Herculean course! And each individual obstacle has its own individual punishment- I mean, surprise, attached! If you can get through all these obstacles, you will have up to another $8000 on top of what you earned today!"

The fans cheer Byron's possible $12,000 total as the host starts describing the obstacles.

"Of course," the host says, "after each challenge, I'll be asking if you feel up to more. If you don't, that's totally fine. You will simply stop with the money you had. But also, you will have to face a very special Quitter Punishment!"

That smile is starting to go from coy to a smug Cheshire cat smile.

"First up," the host continues, "the Trample-lines! Jump from one trampoline to another! Simple, right? Right! So there's more to it! You can't stay on a trampoline for more than three bounces at a time! You can bounce, bounce, bounce, but then you must jump to another trampoline. If you bounce a fourth time on a trampoline, we release The Log!"

Cameras point out a log that's made of faux wood, but it is still a big, burly cylinder all the same.

"Make it to the end of the line... of Trample-lines... in under five minutes," the host continues, "and you get the first $1000!

"Second, the Sand Paper Box! A sandbox filled not with sand but with sandpaper! Jump in, peel pieces of sandpaper away and find a special prize. But as 420 seconds, aka 7 minutes, tick away, you'll lose money off the second $1000! Now, if you run out of those 7 minutes, you will be moved on to the third obstacle by default, but that 1000 becomes $580.

"Third, Happy Gills-More! If you're thinking of fish, you're right! Byron here has to dive into our hot tub sized fish tank, and grab at least 8 fish, but as many as he wants within 5 minutes. The 8 fish minimum secures the third $1000 and Byron can move on to the fourth obstacle, but every extra fish is an extra $200. However, Byron can't risk wasting time! If the 5 minutes run out, Byron doesn't get credit for the extra fish and instead of $1000, it becomes $500.

"Fourth is Lalalala La Balm Bomb! We have a bucket of lip balm, and by that I mean just the balm. Not the fancy sticks that dispense the stuff, just the stuff! Get as big as handful as you can, even with both hands, and you SLAM it down on this miniature carnival bell game. If you can use the wad of balm to get the weight to hit the bell, you can move on with the full $1000!

"These obstacles and challenges are so out there," you say with a chuckle. "Who even comes up with these?"

"Fifth is the Hut Dog Stand!" the host continues. "Crawl into this hut that's badly lit, and where hot dogs will line the walls, hang from the ceiling, and even be all over the floor! The challenge? All the hot dogs are being cooked and kept hot by that dim light, because that light is a heat lamp! And what you have to do, Byron, is eat any four hot dogs! If you can stomach four dogs, you can exit the hut and move on with another $1000!

"Sixth, the Wok of Shame! Two food challenges in a row, what're the odds? But as you can see, we have a hibachi station set up with our 'official' Challengers Challenging Challenges chef!"

A man stands at attention at the hibachi and gives a courteous bow.

"Now, this particular challenge is unique," host says with a big smile. "As soon as Byron starts on Trample-lines, the very first challenge, our Triple-C Chef will begin preparing a small meal of fried rice, with carrots, peas, bits of scrambled egg and white meat chicken. But the catch? The chef doesn't stop cooking the rice until Byron arrives! The faster the Byron arrives, the more likely he'll be eating fresh and appealing rice, or dry, crunchy, overcooked rice! Either way, Byron will have to eat it all if he wants the $1000!

"The seventh and penultimate challenge!" the host says with a dramatic effect added. "And fittingly, it's Pen Ultimate! We have 10 DOZEN pens, still in their packaging! Rip open the packaging to get at the pens, and throw the pens into this pen we made for them! Yes, it's a PEN PEN! If you manage to get all 120 pens in the pen before 5 minutes are up, you get $1000! But if you fall short of the 120, the number of pens leftover, multipled by 5, will be deducted!

"And now... Finally! At long last! The eighth and final challenge of the Mucho Macho Ocho Tango...! The Ocho Nueve Diez! All you have to do, after having gotten through the seven previous challengers, is stand perfectly still on this letter X for ten full seconds. The catch? You only get three tries! If you even LEAN so much as a teeny bit one way or another, that's a strike. You get all three strikes, the challenge is over, no final $1000. You ready, Byron!?"

Byron sputters and stammers like Porky Pig before getting out a squawky, "YES!"

"Okay then!" the host says with a big smile as she aims him at the trampolines. "Ready!"

"He's not gonna make it, is he?" Beast Boy asks.

"Set!"

"Yeah, no way," Cyborg says.

"GOOO~!" as she pushes Byron towards the trampolines!

A) Agree, he's not making it
B) Disagree, there's a chance
C) "I bet he stops at [number between 2 and 7]"
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A
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A.

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A up

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A

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A

"Oh he's definitely not making it," you say.

Byron stumbles and ends up on a trampoline, bouncing a few times as he staggers up to his feet.

"Four bounces!" the host says. "Release the log~!"

And so, one of the faux wood logs is sent out! Byron hurries and hops to another trampoline, and then takes a couple bounces to work up the momentum to jump to another. The log comes rolling in and smacks into the trampolines Byron was just on! There's no crunching or denting, but they end up moving sideways along the ground, being pushed by the log.

"Close call!" the host and even the audience says.

Byron keeps going and makes it! That's the first $1000! Then to the Sand Paper Box. He doesn't have gloves so the sand paper scratches and pokes at him as he digs and grabs at them, which of course causes him to bring his hand back and shake them out. The 420 seconds are ticking as he struggles to find the "special prize." He loses 327 of the 420 seconds, so he only gets $673.

From there, he moves to the third obstacle, Happy Gills-More! Byron dives into the tank, goes after fish as they splash all around! He gets one, then two, then three, four, five, so on and so on, until he gets eight! He gets a couple more within the five minutes, so the 10 fish are worth $1400. He looks at the time, and decides to leave with a minute to spare.

The fourth challenge, Lalalala Lip Balm Bomb, Byron does his best to scoop and scoop and scoop up lip balm and brings the wad over to the bell. Byron SLAMS it down, but the weight doesn't go up high enough. So Byron gathers up more and more and more lip balm, and tries again! Still not enough. So he tries again, and still not enough. A fourth try, and a fifth try, and he still can't do it. He's tiring out, he can't even scoop that much more!

"I... I quit!" Byron says. "I quit..."

"Welp," you and the group all say.

"Anyone hungry for dinner?" you ask. "I can cook something with..."

A) Chicken
B) Beef
C) Potatoes
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ABC
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B+C

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A

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Malcrasternus posted...

B+C

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B & C

"Beef and potatoes. The potatoes for Beast Boy, the beef for the rest of us, and then maybe some third thing that is for all of us."

"Yeah, I've been missing like, peas," Beast Boy says.

"Wait what?" everyone else asks.

"Not P-E-E, guys," Beast Boy says in a grumpy way. "P-E-A peas."

Everyone goes "Oh...!" and then everyone chuckles.

"Yes," you say slowly, "I will make... There's no easy way to say that now, is there? The word, 'peas.'"

Everyone else chuckles, and then you go over to the kitchen area. You work on the beef and the potatoes side by side. You let the ground beef cook, get the frozen peas out of the freezer, let those thaw as you heat up the beef in a pan. You decide the third thing will be...

A) A type of pasta
B) A type of salad
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A

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Cartridge88 posted...

A) A type of pasta

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A
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B

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(Bump)
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(Bump the 2ed)
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Alakazamtrainer posted...

(Bump the 2ed)

Hope everything's fine and you're doing alright, Cart.

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Up

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Bump

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scubasteve42 posted...

Bump

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you guys are godsends. sorry for being away, and I don't want to worry you more, but I was at the hospital since last Monday cuz exhaustion and stress took me out completely. idk if I'll ever rly get caught up on things, but I just want you to know I'm still here.
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Glad to hear you're okay. Its all good if we don't receive updates. Your health and well being always takes priority. Sorry to hear that you've been dealing with a bunch of stress. Take a load off and I hope you feel better soon.

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https://youtu.be/sseXDqBAsGY

In the meantime here's some sassy Raven moments
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A

"How about having pasta?" you say to the group. "Nothing too fancy, just good noodles with some good vegan friendly sauce."

Everyone gives their affirmatives and you set to work. There are broad Barilla elbow noodles, so this might turn into an adjacent to Mac 'n' Cheese depending on how the sauce goes. You look at what the Titans have in stock and get a quick idea of what you can do.

You set all the ingredients on the table: a few juicy tomatoes; what's left of the extra virgin olive oil; a few garlic cloves; a whole onion of a nice "medium" size, so basically one smaller than a baseball; an entire baggy of fresh "baby" carrots; herbs like basil and parsley, and seasonings like oregano, salt and pepper. The herbs aren't fresh but you revitalize them with some Nature magic.

You dice the onions, garlic and carrots and occasionally stir those while they cook. You mash the tomatoes into a paste and add some fresh water to get the base of the sauce going. You also sprinkle the seasonings into it as you stir up the sauce, as well as crumble the herbs into the sauce. Once the mix of carrots, garlic and onion are nice and soft from the cooking, you throw those into the pot and stir it all up into a nice, thick sauce.

After that, you let the sauce simmer while you soak and boil the noodles. They're both done at about the same time so you drain the noodles and add them to the sauce. It's less mess that way.

You then remember there's the beef and potatoes still to do while they've been cooking evenly on the stove. The potatoes are easy enough: mash them, add butter and salt, then serve. But the beef...

A) Slice the beef into strips
B) Ground the beef to add to part of the pasta
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A
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At my house it'd be B, but.

A.

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bump
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A

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A

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A

You decide to make strips out of the meat, like faux strip steaks. You cook those in a skillet, with plenty of vegetable oil on the pan to keep them from sticking. You lightly season them with salt and pepper as you go, and also keep a close eye on how thorough the cooking is going.

"Alright, how does everyone not named Beast Boy like their steaks?" you ask.

"Medium," Robin says.

"Rare," Starfire says.

"Medium rare," Cyborg says.

"Medium well," Raven says.

"Very good," you say as you go to the five strips.

You yourself like it somewhere between medium rare and medium well, but Starfire's preference being rare is complicating things already. That will need to be put aside sooner while the others cook into the medium range.

You keep your eyes on the fifth strip, on the outside of the pan to the right. Using the trick of comparing steak tenderness to the muscle in your thumb and palm, you get an admittedly very good "rare" for Starfire. After putting the strip steak on a plate, you add a hefty scoop of mashed potatoes and an equally hefty scoop of the macaroni spaghetti hybrid pasta.

"Steak cooked rare is up," you say.

Starfire literally flies over, clearly eager to eat her meal.

"And Beast Boy," you say as you plate just a scoop of pasta and scoop of mashed potatoes, "let me know if you want something else, I think we can do something with bread or other vegetables."

"Nice," he says as he collects his plate.

You do the same thing in order for Robin's medium, Cyborg's medium rare, and then the medium wells for Raven and yourself.

A) Watch more game shows
B) Watch movies
C) Watch news
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C
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A.

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bump
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A.

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A

You watch as a new game show begins. It is more trivia based with multiple contestants buzzing in. The host has a podium where he asks questions from and there's the screen for everyone to see the question on, but this is somehow not Jeopardy.

"From science," the host says with his big, teethy grin. "What is the technical term for earwax?"

"Franky!" the host says as contestant 3 buzzes in first.

"Cerumen!" Franky says.

"Correct!" the host says. "50 points for Franky!"

Derik: 0
Lonnard: 0
Franky: 50

"From geography," the host says now. "Libreville is the capital city of what country? Derik!"

"Gabon?!" he says rather unconfidently.

"Correct!" the host says. "50 points for Derik!"

Derik: 50
Lonnard: 0
Franky: 50

"From history," the host says. "Who did Khalid Islamboulli assassinate?"

The three contestants hesitate, but then someone buzzes in.

"Lonnard!" the host says.

"An... Anor... Anor Sodat?"

*BRR*

"Oh, so so close, Lonnard!" the host says. "Anwar Sadat was killed by Islamboulli, but close isn't good enough here."

Lonnard grumbles but the game continues.

As fun as it is watching random people answer trivia questions, you personally want to make this interesting.

A) Bet on a winner
B) Play along at home with the Titans
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Cartridge88 posted...

B) Play along at home with the Titans

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B

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B
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B

"What say we make this interesting?" you say to the group. "We play along, and if there's a winner, maybe that winner gets a special dessert."

"Oooh..." everyone else says.

"Wait," Beast Boy says. "Cyborg can't play along, he has his computer brain!"

"Well, Beast Boy probably shouldn't play because of his bird brain," Cyborg counters. "How 'bout that?"

"They both have a point," Robin says with a smirk. "So that leaves Rorek, myself and the ladies."

"Meh," Raven says with a shrug. "I don't really need to compete to get a special dessert from Rorek, do I?"

Raven rests her head on your shoulder and looks up at you with shimmering eyes.

"No, you don't have to," you say. "But then, that leaves Robin, Starfire and myself."

"I am ready for the competition of trivial information in exchange for fabulous prizes!" Starfire says.

"From entertainment," the host says. "The song, 'Disco Inferno,' appeared on the soundtrack to what 1970s movie?"

A) Silver Streak
B) Saturday Night Fever
C) The Muppet Movie
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B.
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Cartridge88 posted...

B) Saturday Night Fever

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bump
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B

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B

"Too easy," you say.

"Saturday Night Fever," both you and Robin say.

"Derik!" the host calls.

"Saturday Night Fever!" Derik says.

"Correct! Another 50 points!"

Derik: 100
Lonnard: 0
Franky: 50

And in your own personal competition, you and Robin have 50 points while Starfire is at zero.

"From the arts," the host says, a new category now coming up. "What language does English borrow the word 'muffin' from?"

"German," you and Robin both say, with Starfire saying, "The language of Germany!"

"Lonnard!"

"German!"

"Yes!" the host says excitedly. "Lonnard's now on the board!"

Derik: 100
Lonnard: 50
Franky: 50

And of course, Starfire is now on the board but you and Robin still lead.

Robin: 100
Starfire: 50
Rorek: 100

"From entertainment," the host reads. "What Looney Toons character is known for the catchphrase, 'Sthufferin' sthuccotash'?"

You and Robin say "Sylvester!" while Starfire says "The cat named Sylvester!"

"Correct!"

Robin: 150
Starfire: 100
Rorek: 150

"From science, what is the average lifespan of a butterfly?"

"Oh, oh!" Beast Boy says. "I kinda maybe know that one!"

"Uh..." Robin says, "a month?!"

"Correct!"

"Technically that is the average," Beast Boy says as the host also explains. "It depends on the size of the species, because smaller ones maybe make it for a week while Monarchs can for nine months."

Robin: 200
Starfire: 100
Rorek: 150

"From geography," the host says. "What country has the longest street in the world?"

"Brazil," you say.

"Wait, really?" Raven says. "I thought it'd be in like, Europe."

"No, Europe's far to condensed and crowded for long streets," you say.

*BRR*

"I'm sorry, Franky, the correct answer is Brazil," the host says.

"Aw, what did Franky say?" you ask.

"I think he said America," Cyborg says.

"Well, I suppose that's a natural choice to go with," you say, only a little offended as a Brit.

Robin: 200
Starfire: 100
Rorek: 200

"From pop culture," the host says, another new subject coming up. "In what year did McDonald's create their iconic 'Happy Meal'?"

"That's pop culture?" Raven and Robin both say.

"This is going to depend on how the show says it," you say, "but I'm going with..."

A) 1977
B) 1978
C) 1979
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A
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C.

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