All the Challengers arrived to their challenge destination for the day. Like always, Hunter was there awaiting them.
"Whats up guys. Id like to welcome you to the beautiful Oak Valley here in Hermanus."he said as everyone applauded, "This is the site for your challenge today on this season of Rivals. Now, lets be honest, this season we've had some pretty interesting challenges. I had you all jump into each other's arms, I had you all be strung up on your partner's body, I had you all wrestle in oil, I had you do an underwater challenge at night. We've had physical eliminations, we've had trivia....however....we haven't had an eating challenge yet."
A series of groans emitted from all of the competitors.
VC-Brie-As soon as Hunter said the word eat, I knew that we were doomed.
VC-Paige-An eating challenge is never fun. No one enjoys it.
"So let me welcome you to your eating challenge for this season. Its called Dunking for Dinner. here's how its going to be played."
-This challenge will be played in two phases.
First phase
-Played in an all male round and an all female round.
-One player from each team will be hanging upside down from a platform over a lake (with their hands ties behind their back).
-The other player from the team will be manning the lever that controls the position and distance of the hanging partner.
-In the lake, there are two barrels. One barrel has small bags in them. The next barrel is empty.
-The partner manning the lever will have to manoeuvre their partner into the water so they can move the small bags to the empty barrel using only their mouth.
-Everyone will have a total of 15 minutes to do so.
-Each bag that is moved represents a dish that the partner manning the lever will have to eat (e.g.-if person A moved 5 bags with their mouth then person B will have to eat five dishes.)
-There is a total of 11 bags that each person will have to move.
Phase 2
-The partner that was manning the lever will have 15 minutes to eat however many dishes that they have too.
-Phase two will be played with the men and women together.
-The male and female team that completes all their dishes first, wins.
-The last female team to complete their dishes will be sent straight into the Stomping Grounds.
"Communication is key for this challenge."said Hunter, "Now, who wants to hear whats on our menu today?"
"Lets get to it."said AJS.
VC-AJS-When it comes to eating, I'm pretty good at that. Nothing grosses me out, I got a pretty strong stomach so, I'm excited for this challenge today. Its should be a straight win.
"I hope there are vegan options."said Brie.
"All of the dishes you'll be eating today hail from right here in South Africa. They're considered delicacies here. Our first dish is....Chicken feet."
"Our second dish is.....Mogodu which is sheep intestines."
VC-Chris-Intestines? Do you know what are in intestines? Yea, you wouldn't want to eat it either would you?
"And our last dish is....Snoek Roe which is the egg sack of a Snoek fish."
"What the hell is a Snoek fish?"Mandy asked.
"How the hell did they get the egg sack?"asked Sami.
"So guys, since its a girls elimination week, we'll have the guys go first. Discuss among yourselves who's going to be eating and who's going to be dangling upside down and lets get this thing started shall we?"said Hunter.
PreVC-AJ and Seth
Seth-You're.... obviously smaller so...I think you should be the one dangling.
AJ-Are you any good at eating?
Seth-*giggles to himself*......I just thought of the perfect response to your question but I'm not going to say it.
AJ-What?
Seth-Nothing. Forget it. Anyway, I think I can handle the eating part of this challenge. Its not that bad.
AJ-No no no. I wanna do this okay. I know for sure I'm good at eating-
Seth-Do you think you can manage my weight on that lever?
AJ-How big do you think you are?
Seth-Im a lot bigger than you AJ.
AJ-Okay but its not like I'm gonna have to cradle you in my damn arms, I'm using a lever!
Seth-Alright. Fine. Have it your way.
AJ-We're bringing home this win today for sure.
A/N-What do you think Seth's "perfect response" to AJ's question was?
Players that will be dangling-
-Seth
-Aleister
-CM Punk
-Roman
-Sami
The guys were all in their designated positions.
PreVC-Aleister and Velveteen
Velveteen-You know, it may be a girls elimination week but that doesn't matter. We're always going to be playing to win. If we win, we're gonna get a thousand bucks so....God forbid if we don't make it to the finals, at least we're not going to walk away from this completely broke.
"Alright guys, you ready?"Hunter asked, ".......GO!"
Immediately the players in charge of the lever began lowering their partners into the water. Some began fishing around for the bags with their mouths as others were yelling instructions to their partner who was on the lever.
VC-Sami-You're probably watching this at home, thinking that what we're doing isn't that scary. Well, let me be the first to tell you that you're wrong. We are hanging head first above this water with our hands restricted. If any of these cables were to break, its not going to be a nice landing.
"A LITTLE MORE TO THE SIDE CHRIS!"Punk yelled. He already had two bags in his barrel.
Chris steered the lever to where Punk wanted it. Well....maybe he wasn't totally accurate.
He ended up lowering the lever by accident and Punk's head dipped into the water. However, he quickly regained control.
"YOU FUCKING DUMBASS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"Punk cursed.
The girls laughed.
VC-Roman- John and I are working together really well. He has his eye out on where he has to move me, he does it, I get the bags, its smooth sailing so far.
AJ and Seth also seemed to be getting the job done quickly.
VC-Seth-Thinking about it now....this is a very scary situation to be in. My life is basically in the hands of my Rival, AJ. Im hanging upside down in the air, no way of protecting myself and my body is strapped to a cable that AJ has control of. And lets not mention how excited AJ was for me to be the one dangling. Am...I on The Challenge or am I living my nightmare?
"YOU GUYS GOT 10 MINUTES!"Hunter informed.
"CHRIS WHAT ARE YOU DOING! STOP LOWERING ME!"Punk yelled.
"IM SORRY!"
VC-CM Punk-Chris keeps lowering me into the water so my forehead is getting dipped in and out. He's swinging me too far away from the bags I-I don't know if he's doing it on purpose or if he's that fucking bad at controlling my body weight.
VC-Chris-Punk is a lot heavier than he looks okay.
"MORE TO THE RIGHT PATRICK!"Aleister instructed.
"You know, its very brave of you to be calling me that. I can drown your ass right here."Velveteen said to himself.
Time Remaining: 4 minutes
"I GOT IT! IM DONE! I GOT ALL!"Seth said as he spat some water out of his mouth.
Hunter took a look at his barrel and sounded his horn. He was the first to secure all 11 bags.
"GET ME OUT OF THIS THING! MY HEAD FEELS LIKE ITS GOING TO EXPLODE!"He yelled.
VC-Seth-I did my part, now its time for AJ to do his.
About a minute after Sami announced that he too had got all his bags.
VC-Kevin-Im not going to lie, I don't think id be able to eat 11 plates of food. Why would I want too anyway? For a thousand bucks that I'm going to have to split with Sami? Get the hell outta here. For the sake of competing though, i'll give it a shot.
Time eventually ran out. Only four out of the five male teams were able to get all 11 bags. The only team to get 7 bags was the team of Punk and Chris.
PostVC-Chris and Punk
Chris-I was in a very generous mood today. I let the other teams win and I allowed my team to take the fall. You can't always be a winner you know. You attract too much attention. You make too many enemies. So as a smart strategic move, I made Punk and I the losers today. I hope the other teams enjoy this rare act of generosity from us. Its time to let someone else shine you know?
Punk-*amusingly laughs* I...have....nothing to say.
Chris-It is what it is. People think I'm this greedy controlling maniac but I'm not. Im actually a very nice giving person.
Punk-*shakes his head* You just don't want to admit that you sucked today huh?
Chris-What? No! That was a part of my genius strategic plan.
Punk-Strategic plan my ass.
After the men got off the platform, the women took over.
PreVC-Brie and Nikki
Brie-There is absolutely no way I'm eating any of those things.
Nikki-Well I don't want to eat it either. Im not used to eating things like that.
Brie-Im vegan Nikki. If it was anything else, I would have eaten it but its all meat.
Nikki-Ugh. I really don't want to do this.
Brie-Well we're going to have to come to a decision. Its a girls elimination this week so this is important.
Nikki-Oh my god. Okay fine. I'll eat.
Brie-Great.
PreVC-Kaitlyn and AJ
Kaitlyn-I think its a no brainer for this one. AJ is going to be dangling and I'm the one who's going to be controlling the lever and eating. It is so crucial for us to get this win today because I have a bad feeling that if we don't win, we're going to be in the Stomping Grounds. Winning is the only option today.
AJ-*nods*
Players That Will Be Dangling
-AJ
-Brie
-Trish
-Alexa
-Charlotte
-Mandy
"Alright girls, you ready?"Hunter asked, "GO!"
The girls were all lowered into the water by their partners and so their bobbing for bags begun.
VC-Trish-This feels like torture. Im looking at the water and thinking any minute now I can fall head first into this thing.
"STOP MOVING ME!"Charlotte yelled to Paige.
VC-Charlotte-Paige is constantly moving me around, not giving me enough time to even properly get one of the bags in my mouth.
However, through the yelling of the other girls, Paige wasn't able to hear her.
"PAIGE! STOP! STOP MOVING ME AROUND!"Charlotte raised herself up and yelled.
"SORRY!"Paige said.
AJ was seen struggling to keep the bag in her mouth.
VC-AJ-Its not easy to get these bags. They're plastic and filled with air. Plus, its in water so its slippery. Also, my mouth is pretty small.
She tried biting at it but it just slipped away further.
VC-Naomi-Never thought id see the day where id have Mandy strung up head first over water and not want to dunk her ass in there.
"Doing good Trish!"Lita commended her partner.
VC-Brie-My neck is aching, my shoulders are aching. Im feeling light headed. A human body is not supposed to be in this position for this long.
Time Remaining-5 minutes
"I GOT ALL! I GOT ALL!" Alexa called out.
Hunter looked over at her barrels and sounded his horn.
VC-Alexa-I wish this was the challenge itself. Becky and I would have been first place already.
A few seconds after Trish notified him that she also got all her bags.
The time eventually ran out and Hunter sounded his horn. He went over and inspected all of the girl's barrels.
Only three teams had gotten all their bags: Becky and Alexa, Trish and Lita and Charlotte and Paige.
Phase 2
All of the teams were brought over to a different area for the eating part of the challenge.
VC-Nikki-We see a bunch of tables all decorated with the dishes that we're going to be eating and....looking at whats on the plate....I have no idea how I'm going to be able to stomach that.
"Alright guys, here's how phase two is going to go down. Chris, Punk, since you were the only male team not to secure all 11 bags, you will not be participating in the eating challenge therefore, you're disqualified. John, Dream, AJ, Kevin, you all will be battling for first place. Whichever one of you eats all of your 11 plates of food first will be today's winner and earn a thousand bucks. As for the ladies, the only ones that will be competing for first place is Becky, Paige and Lita. As you all may know, the team of Mandy and Naomi, Brie and Nikki and AJ and Kaitlyn did not retrieve their 11 bags. AJ and Kaitlyn, you guys got the lowest number of bags being 6. Therefore, in order to NOT be today's losers, everyone's going to need to be able to eat 7 dishes. The last team to complete their dishes will be sent straight into the Stomping Grounds, got it?"said Hunter.
VC-Kaitlyn-So basically, theres no way we'll be able to win today's challenge because we got the lowest score. We're just going to have to fight to not come in last place. This sucks. I had such high hopes for us winning today.
"Alright everyone, take your places."Hunter delegated.
Eaters-
-AJS
-Velveteen
-John
-Kevin
-Becky
-Kaitlyn
-Nikki
-Lita
-Paige
-Naomi
"Oh my god."Nikki said in disgust, looking at the items that were on her plate.
VC-Naomi-I don't even want to look at those Snoek fish egg sacks man. Ive never seen anything look like that.
All of the eaters had their partners next to them. Their partners each had a puke bucket in hand.
VC-Roman-I can already tell its going to get messy in here.
"Alright guys, you ready?.....DIG IN!"Hunter said as he sounded his horn.
All of them grabbed a plate and began chowing down.
VC-Lita-I have to try to eat 11 plates of this. Never in my entire life have I eaten 11 plates of anything, now you're telling me I have to eat 11 plates of things I have never even heard of before in under 15 minutes?
"Come on AJ! You got this man! I got the bucket right here if you need it. Keep going buddy, you're doing good."Seth cheered on AJ as he ate.
VC-Seth-Look, I gotta do what I gotta do alright. I feel weird about supporting AJ too. I feel....disturbed. But, I want to win this money and he's the guy that I gotta depend on to do it. I wish it wasn't like this but it is so, I gotta swallow my pride and support my partner.
"Two plates done! You're doing great man!"Seth commended him.
"Can you stay quiet?"AJS said.
VC-Kaitlyn-Eating chicken feet is so complicated. Theres barely any meat on it and worst of all, we got to swallow the bones from the toes. The bones are soft but...they're still freaking bones.
Nikki took a bite of the sheep intestine and immediately gagged. Brie gagged just watching her.
VC-Nikki-The combination of textures from these three different dishes are so....*gags*
"Try not to puke, you're going to make me puke."Brie said to her.
"Im trying Brie!"Nikki said as she chewed.
VC-Chris-Im looking on at whats going on and I'm seeing both Nikki and Brie squirming their lives out. And these two are trying to make it to a final? Do they know that in a final they got to eat grosser things than that? Brie of all people should know that, she's been to a final. These two are just not Challenge material, I'm telling you.
A slow motion video montage of the players eating the delicacies began playing. You saw them biting into the food, open mouth chewing, gagging, throwing up into the bucket as their partners held it. Some of their noses were running, gooey string of spit was hanging from their mouths.
Some of their partners kept a far distance from them because of how grossed out they were.
Chris and Punk were seen sitting a little distance away from everyone, watching the action go down and silently judging.
VC-Velveteen-Im actually not bothered by what I'm eating at all. No, it doesn't taste great but at the same...it doesn't taste horrible. Its tasteless. Its bland. Like....all this is missing is some seasoning and some hot sauce.
Dream was seen doing a little dance as he ate. Not once did he throw up yet.
VC-John-Its quite a lot of food to be eaten. In each plate of chicken feet theres like six whole pieces. Then theres heaps of sheep intestines. Then for the egg sacks theres like three huge thick pieces per plate.
Paige threw another empty plate aside and went for a next one. That was her fifth plate so far.
VC-Paige-Im not the greatest when it comes to eating but....Im the same bitch that had to eat cow balls okay, I can get through this. Ive been through worse.
Sami was seen holding the bucket as Kevin puked his life out in it.
Becky tried her best not to pay attention to Kevin's loud retching and focus on eating her Snoek fish egg sack.
Alexa gagged when she saw Kevin's face after he puked. Some of it was still caught in his beard.
VC-Alexa-Im going to need therapy when this is over.
Naomi was seen forcing herself to throw up.
VC-Naomi-I guess I shouldn't have had a big breakfast this morning because I'm stuffed. The only thing I have to resort to is forcing myself to throw up just so I can eat more. Its not the best thing to do, its not right at all but.....If I wanna stay out of the Stomping Grounds then I got to do it. I just got to eat seven plates to get this over with. Im on my fourth right now, I'm this close.
Trish put her shirt up over her nose as she stared at the ground.
VC-Trish-I can't begin to explain to you the smells that I'm smelling right now. I dont even want to look at anyone because I'm sure they're a mess and I just don't need that visual.
"Paige!"Charlotte shrieked.
VC-Charlotte-So...Paige tried to grab for the puke bucket but she missed so she ended up puking on the floor and....on my shoes.
"Come on, last plate! Lets do it!"Roman cheered John on.
VC-Roman-John has been going absolutely apeshit on this food. The guy's not complaining or nothing like that. Its just one plate after the other like he's a freaking terminator.
"They're on their last plate! Hurry up!"Seth yelled at AJ. He was lucky that AJ's mouth was full and he wasn't able to yell back at him.
VC-Seth-AJ has two more plates to eat. One plate of sheep intestines and one plate of chicken feet.
Seth looked over to Kevin who had 2 plates as well and Velveteen who had three more plates to go.
"You guys have 7 minutes."Hunter informed.
"Come on Paige! EAT!"Charlotte commanded.
VC-Paige-I hate this so much. I feel like an absolute mess. I want to just go back to the house and take a shower. Im covered in puke and sweat and all of a sudden I'm reminded of why I dont like doing Challenges.
John threw his last plate aside.
"We're done! We're done!"Roman said. Hunter went over and counted the 11 empty plates. John stuck his tongue out to show that he had no food in his mouth.
Hunter sounded his airhorn.
"John, Roman, congrats guys. As for the rest of the male teams, thats it. You're done. We got our male winners already. Ladies, continue."
AJ angrily threw an empty plate aside and stormed off.
PostVC-AJ and Seth
AJ-I was so sure. I was so sure I would have gotten this one. I don't know-I don't know why I didn't.
Seth-Look, its a girls elimination week anyway so it doesn't even matter. You did your best.
AJ-That wasn't my best! I can do better than that! We were supposed to win this today!
Seth-Okay but we didn't! Just let it go. Lets just focus on next week okay.
AJ-Im...still very disappointed.
"You're doing great Nikki."Brie said to her sister.
Nikki had managed to clear four plates so far.
VC-Brie-Im actually really impressed with Nikki. She's still complaining and still gagging but she's eating while she's doing it.
VC-Nikki-So, I may have figured out a little hack. I would take a piece of the food, chew it up and then pretend to puke it back out. Basically I'm just chewing and spitting it into the bucket.
"Im done!" said Becky as she opened her mouth.
He sounded his horn, "Becky, you got it."
"Yes!"Alexa threw her arms up in relief.
"Has anyone eaten seven or more plates yet?"Hunter asked.
"I was on my tenth."said Paige.
"Well then you're free to go. We got our winner already. We're playing for last place now ladies!"
PostVC-Becky and Alexa
Alexa-Thank god we're getting a break from the Stomping Grounds this week. We're finally going to be sitting in the winners chair.
Becky-Yup. We don't have to worry about a thing. We won, we're safe and we can have a good night's rest.
Alexa-You need to have a shower, thats what you need.
Becky-I agree. I smell like sweat and vomit. Its the smell of victory, what can I say.
Lita and Naomi both eventually finished their seventh plate. The only two eaters that were left was Kaitlyn and Nikki who were both just starting their fifth plate.
"You girls got 3 minutes!"Hunter announced.
VC-Kaitlyn-Im standing there wondering how on earth those other girls managed to eat 7 and more plates of this food. This is horrible. Im tired of throwing up. My stomach hurts. My throat hurts. I don't want to eat anymore. I can't even swallow it because it doesn't even want to go down.
Brie nervously paced up and down as Nikki ate. Nikki's last two plates were sheep intestines and Snoek fish eggs sacks while Kaitlyn's were both chicken feet.
"I don't think I'm going to finish this in time."said Kaitlyn.
"Don't worry okay just keep going, you got enough time to finish this."Sami, who was standing next to Kaitlyn for support, said to her.
Nikki finished her intestines and began tackling the egg sacks.
"Alright girls, you got ten seconds!"Hunter said as he began to count, "Ten, nine, eight, seven."
Panic set into the two teams as Hunter counted. Their eating pace quickened.
"Four, three, two...one. Step away from your plates ladies."he said.
He went over to inspect the amount of food that they had remaining on their plates. After careful observation, he had his verdict.
"The team with the least amount of food on their plates is the team of.....Brie and Nikki. Kaitlyn and AJ, you're this weeks losers."
Kaitlyn's plate had three chicken feet left whereas Nikki's had one piece of egg sack.
"Get this out of my sight."Nikki said as she walked away from the table of food.
--
All of the teams reassembled in front of Hunter.
"Not the worst challenge I've had to witness but its definitely on the list. Anyway, great job today guys. There were two teams that killed it today and thats the team of John and Roman and Becky and Alexa. John, Roman you guys earned yourself one thousand bucks. Becky, Alexa, you guys will be safe from eliminations this week. I can tell you're pretty relieved by that."
"Oh definitely."said Becky.
"As for our losers....Kaitlyn, AJ, you guys will be headed straight into the Stomping Grounds to face off against a team of the guys' choice. So, you guys can head back to the house now, see you all very soon for nominations."
PostVC-Kaitlyn and AJ
Kaitlyn-I always thought that we would have ended up being voted into eliminations but, we got ourselves in there. I think its time. I think its time we go into eliminations and prove ourselves. We haven't been performing great so this is our chance to redeem ourselves and show people that we deserve to be this far in the game. Theres a lot of teams that are in the house still that haven't been into eliminations yet. If we do make it to the final I want to be able to say that we worked our way to be there so, bring it on. I'm ready to go in.
AJ-I am too. Im ready to go in there and tear apart any one of those teams. Im sick of their crap and I'm ready to shut them up.
Kaitlyn-Thats the spirit.
---