Challenge 1

Art by Shiny

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎93
‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎Bucket of Pink

* Team

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎Team Seethe

**“**So go on, guys!! Adventure around and find that shopkeeper!**”**
— Hatsy

**Challenge 1** is the first challenge of the first season of HOST (Hats on Some Trip). Hateen, still showing signs of discomfort with bringing along 25 contestants on the honeymoon, is persuaded by Hatsy to visit the airport's souvenir shop to take her mind off of the matter. To their and Lighthouse, Smoke, and Glockie's shock, the souvenir shopkeeper is missing when they get there.

The challenge that ensues consists of two parts: firstly, contestants must be depicted finding the shopkeeper within the airport. As long as the shopkeeper is found and brought back to Hatsy and Hateen, the method to finding them does not matter. Secondly, contestants are asked to design the shopkeeper, with the winner's depiction being featured as the canon design.

The winner of the challenge was both Bucket of Pink and 93, resulting in both of their entry-specific shopkeepers, Woodchuck and Companion Cube (as well as Lighthouse's shopkeeper Avaline-- though as a flight attendant instead of a shopkeeper) to become canonical to the base HOST Season 1 lore.

## Entries

Below is a list of each contestant's approach to the challenge.

### Miku Cube

Miku Cube, while wandering around the airport shops, spots a pair of earrings she really likes. Hatsy and Hateen then make an announcement about the missing shopkeeper, and Miku Cube notes excitedly that finding the shopkeeper would mean she can purchase the earrings. After a while of searching, Miku Cube, notably tired out, finally spots her entry-specific shopkeeper: MAH.

This entry ranked **8th place**.

### Halloween Decoration

Halloween Decoration laments on his poor sense of direction, then enlists the help of Little Friend to find the shopkeeper. Little Friend finds The Shopkeeper standing around somewhere else, and approaches them, completing the challenge.

This entry ranked **21st place**.

### Smoke

While Smoke was re-freezing the souvenir shop's lock back in place, Hatsy told Smoke to help find the shopkeeper so they can get inside, to which Smoke begrudgingly agrees to do despite the fact she could much more easily break into the souvenir shop again. She teams up with Lighthouse because of her height and climbs on top of Lighthouse. After some searching, they spot an unidentifiable figure who is wearing something to cover their face. Before Smoke or Lighthouse can ask if they are the shopkeeper, the figure pulls out a welding gun as if challenging them to a fight. Smoke is ecstatic to fight and jumps off Lighthouse, who tries to grab Smoke to stop her (but fails). Less than five minutes pass and Smoke already has the unknown figure tied up with her hose. Upon unmasking them, Smoke recognizes them as **Welder**, someone who she has fought (and won) against in the past. Welder reveals that he is the shopkeeper and that he's working at the shop because his match with Smoke caused him enough injury that he is still recovering and has to wait to see if he even can go back to fighting normally. This concerns Lighthouse, and Smoke claims that she was just getting back at Welder for nearly gouging her eye out during the match.

This entry ranked **6th place**.

### Bucket of Pink

In Bopper's Challenge 1 entry, Razzleberry commands that the Flu Plushies spilt up in different locations so the process of finding the shopkeeper would be easier. Bopper and Halloween Decoration were advised to head to the airport's clinic, little to no one's surprise they both have no sense of direction and ended up getting lost.

Halloween Decoration then pulls out his Little Friend to locate where the shopkeeper is, they followed Little Friend to where it's going and finally found Woodchuck at Room 236.

After a little chit chat about how Woodchuck got the scar, Halloween Decoration asked is Woodchuck is the shopkeeper, which Woodchuck is to their surprise. Bopper accidentally shouts loudly that Noelle and Ottace founds out both of them.

*Cue the Chase Sequence thank you very much.*

Bopper and Halloween Decoration rushes to the lobby while most of the cast is chasing after them, which went successfully.

This entry scored **1st**, tied with 93.

### Sakura Mochi

Sakura Mochi excused this challenge, and therefore will be excluded.

### Tropical Drink

Tropical Drink thinks about where the shopkeeper could possibly be and, distracted, bumps into Lighthouse. The two resolve to find the shopkeeper together, where Lighthouse points Tropical Drink toward a strange hallway that ends in a portal. Upon hearing about how dark the hall is, Lighthouse then lights up the room, providing Tropical Drink with an easier time getting in. However, she stumbles into the portal and falls, losing most of her liquid. She then meets H. Saturn, a galaxy-themed top hat who is then convinced to become the shopkeeper (and whose disappearance traps Tropical Drink in the galaxy portal room she stumbled into).

This entry scored **5th place**.

### Lighthouse

In Lighthouse's entry for Challenge 1, Hatsy and Hateen send all of the contestants off to search for the shopkeeper. Stumped at the lack of further information, Lighthouse consults her teammate Smoke and asks for her aid in finding the shopkeeper. Smoke agrees, and the two search for a while before realizing they could check inside the closed souvenir shop. Smoke breaks inside, destroying both the front door and the Employees Only door, and finds an abandoned part of the airport with Lighthouse. The two then find a boarded-up door, only to be suddenly struck by the entry-specific shopkeeper Avaline within her Airplane Trolley. After an introduction, Avaline returns to the souvenir shop, and the entry ends with Lighthouse questioning how Smoke will explain the damage, with the latter replying that she'll blame it on Hatsy. This entry scored **3rd place** overall.

### Bendy Pencil

Bendy Pencil excused this challenge, and therefore will be excluded.

### Mind Blower Hat

Mind Blower Hat starts his entry by checking the cast reveal in an odd, 4th wall breaking sort of way. Hateen promptly appears, telling MBH about the missing shopkeeper, and directing him to his team, The Luckiest Days. MBH then suggests that everyone splits up. While most of the team seems to get into different unrelated antics (for instance, Mountain being distracted by an ice cream cone), MBH finds Mush, the shopkeeper, before chasing them down and catching them. He takes Mush back to Hatsy and Hateen, completing the challenge.

This entry scored **11th place** overall.

### Malg

Malg crawls through the air vents looking for anyone that could possibly be the shopkeeper. After a while he comes across a suspicious looking figure restocking what seemed to be a shelf. Malg goes through the vent into the room. The shopkeeper, whose name is Zion, was surprised about this little visit and after a short conversation was grabbed by Malg's tail and dragged out of the storage room. Zion tried to escape, but was almost cut by Malg's tail. After a while Malg dumped Zion onto the floor in front of Hatsy and Hateen. Zion was extremely confused about what was going on and who these people were.

This entry scored **4th place**.