You are a contestant on Survival Island: Variety Edition

You have successfully applied to be a contestant on the popular show Survival Island:Variety Edition. You just have to wait to get sent to the island. While waiting for the stasis pod to be prepared, you reviewed the information package.

You will get dropped on the island in one of eight potential drop zones each with several potential hazards around. You will be released from the pod close to some crates with various initial supplies. You can’t take everything but if you gather characters you might have the chance to go back for the rest. A random character will be within a few miles though there is no guarantee they will be useful.

Depending on choices made in the application process, the few dozen characters spread in pods across the island might follow some themes based on your likes though some will be tangentially related. The show does have Monster and Fantasy edition versions after all.

The ultimate goal of the show is to leave the island with as many characters as possible while surviving the longest so it’s important that you convince the characters to stay longer if they have an easy way off the island so that more characters could be acquired. This will be easy for heroic characters but more difficult for selfish or evil characters. The information provided mentioned that some pods might release characters before we reach them and they might be hostile. As a contestant, you will have to decide to either track them down or leave them on the island. (a side note mentions that any characters that you do not find or you don’t take off the island will be picked up and used for other seasons or be an additional bonus reward).

Additionally, all the characters are, before arriving on the island, aware they are prizes for a contestant but this information is blocked until either rescue(when the contestant gives up) or after leaving the island. Until leaving they will be baseline characters who were just snatched. The information packet does reassure that the characters will have some mental suggestions to work together and to protect you from the more lethal hazards. You make a note to try to limit the situations where that will be a problem. After all, you don’t want to lose a character over something that could have been avoided.

The hazards around the island are dangerous and will change randomly. The bear woods might suddenly become the Dragon basin or the swamp nearby might suddenly start to produce zombies(some friendly some not). The seasons and weather will also get more unstable the longer you remain on the island.

You remember the various methods used by previous contestants to escape: one found a shipwrecked ship and with the help of the characters repaired the ship, another found a crashed plane and made a raft pulled by some aquatic characters, and yet another had

got all the characters off by tying sea turtles together.

You have prepared various plans of escape depending on what could be on the island; thankfully your parents were able to send you on some adventurous camps when you were little so you are not hopeless, probably. Granted most of the skills might not apply unless some niche things happen but better to have it and not need it and all that.

“Hello James Gardner?” a white haired girl enters the room wearing a staff uniform. Thanks to the haircut and scar you identify her as Weiss Schnee from RWBY. “The pod is ready.” You nod and follow her to a separate room that had a stasis pod in it. You notice a few machines leading up to it.

“Please look into this,” she pointed to a machine that looked like one from the eye doctor. Looking inside you flinched back as a puff of air was expelled out. “You could’ve warned me,” you complained as you rubbed your eyes.

“I could have,” Weiss replied smugly. You open your eyes and see on various monitors the image of the monitors going into infinity. As you move around you say the video moves as well.

“First person view is now working, now for audio,” Weiss replied as a Nurse Joy walked up with something that looked like an ear examiner. She gently puts it in each of your ears and soon after she snapped her fingers and a character you didn’t recognize with neon teal and green hair with magenta glasses and headphones gave a thumbs up.

“Put these on, and there is a changing room-what are you doing!” Weiss shrieked as you grabbed the offered clothing and started stripping off your average clothing and putting on the more adventure orientated clothing.

“Getting changed,” you say as the many of the characters (all female) in the room look at your naked form with some like Weiss quickly looking away. “You are going to be seeing this later anyways.” Despite being a family show, videos of contestants getting it on with their group of characters are recorded and viewable(usually from first person) to those of legal age online.

“Not the point!” Weiss said from behind a clipboard. “When you’re done just get in the pod.” You finished getting changed, handed your clothing to the Nurse Joy and walked in the pod.

“Good luck, and remember this season’s rescue phrase is ‘Stew Rum Brick’,” Weiss said as she closed the pod and you drifted off to sleep almost immediately.