Survivor - Mexico (Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty)
Chapter 24 - Day 22 Part 1
Hello, everyone. Back with another chapter, and in the last one, we witnessed Katt Monroe's torch being snuff by Master Hand. Though based off what I said in the ending author's note, Katt... basically got voted by accident lol. You've got voted out because the other people thought the jury phase was already starting. A rather weird way to go, but I guess all we can do is move on from here.
As far as the ending is concerned, as usual it will end off with a reunion show. Though since I'm too lazy to do math at the moment, I don't know when the exact chapter the story is gonna end. Let's just mid to late 40s lol.
Anyway, we're gonna see some characters reflect on the Tribal Council up to and through the upcoming reward challenge.
~KF
EPISODE EIGHT: High School
Fuerza
Night 21
Chica, Plague Knight, Panther, Espio, Funky Kong, Ryu, Golden, Isabelle, Daisy, Incineroar, Specter Knight
-/-
With one Tribal Council now being out of the way, it was only a matter of time where Survivor - Mexico would have had a confirmed final three for the upcoming jury to see. Yet since it was only night twenty-one, with more than two weeks of Survivor remaining, though being in the middle of the game at that point, these survivors still had a long way ago.
Before anyone could have had a good night's sleep, the fire had to be started as usual upon the players leaning their torches against the tree.
"Well..." Specter Knight of all people was the first to speak. "I suppose that was Katt Monroe's first and last Tribal Council..."
"Hmm..." Panther was near silent.
"I am surprised that she is not on the jury, though..." Golden spoke again of the arguably most shocking 'reveal' of the night during the tribal. "I assume it is going to start now?"
"There are eleven people left." Funky Kong replied. "So I guess now would be a good time..."
"We were rather stunned upon our own realization that Katt was not going to be on the jury." Espio said. "Knowing this, had we known earlier, Plague would have been sent home instead of Katt, who probably would not have been even an option to send home at the time. If any of us were in the final three, our case to Plague would have been that we've brought him further in the jury phase of the game. But now that it is just starting, I feel like we have just wasted a rather perfect opportunity. Now we simply do not know what to do with him at this point..."
Naturally, he and the rest of the old Brains with the exception of the knight all came together.
Golden sighed facepalming himself. "We should have known better... Things did go as planned, but based off the fact that Katt is not gonna be on the jury, I think it is going to be much harder for us to control Plague from this point forward..."
"Can I ask one question, though?" Funky Kong wondered. "I understand what we were all trying to do, but say if this was the jury phase, what difference would it have made if Plague was actually voted off at that point, anyway? I thought that we were just being nice to him by keeping him for one more round..."
"That's actually a good question." Isabelle spoke. "You see, the thing with Plague is that since the jury is gonna start with the next Tribal Council, since the jury is gonna have a say in who deserves to win a million dollars, we have to worry about how we are gonna get Plague Knight's vote. For all we know, he could be the one vote that one of us would need to win. But if we did in fact know that the jury was not starting today, all we had to do was to vote Plague Knight off so we wouldn't have to worry about it."
Realizing her point, Kong widened his eyes under his glasses. "Ohhh... Makes sense to me... Dang, man..."
"So, what are we gonna do now?" The mayor's assistant from Animal Crossing asked. "Do we keep Plague? I mean in all honesty, Ryu is basically running the show right now..."
"I don't know what exactly are we going to do, but no matter what, I'll keep you guys close." Golden explained. "Let's just all get a good night's sleep. Right now we can just call this the core four or something. Bottom line is that I naturally I trust you all more than the rest of the people here. We'll all protect each other..."
"Likewise." Espio scratched the back of his head. "Let us all return to the shelter..."
Speaking of the street fighter, he sat in complete silence in the shelter, the palm of his right hand resting beneath his chin.
"Apparently Katt is not on the jury... Seems to be the hot topic for tonight... Now everyone of the old Brain tribe except Plague are probably all off somewhere expressing how much they regret not sending him home. And if they regret that, I basically regret voting for Katt tonight... I mean, she's placed her trust within me and I backstabbed her, just like how I backstabbed Jet, just for the sake of the trust of others. I mean, it's pretty much how my game is going right now. But I'm betraying my old allies, and Golden is over there trying to keep all of his guys in for as long as possible. Now the Brawns have just as many members in the game as the Beauty people, with the only difference being that Panther is the only one of them in the majority Strong Guys Alliance, now that Daisy and Chica are now all alone on the bottom..."
"Hey..." Suddenly Incineroar showed up. "You alright?"
He sighed in response. "I'm okay, but... I'm just... a little irritated at what happened. Katt shouldn't have gone home... You still good with Specter?"
"I guess..." The Pokemon shrugged. "I don't have no bad blood with him... If he even has any..."
"Good." That was all Ryu needed to hear. "We need to figure this out. We really can not afford to have another Brawn go home right now..."
Fuerza
Day 22
The following morning, everyone was doing the usual. One major advantage when it came to merged tribes is the fact that after the first post-merge elimination, it meant that there was simply one less mouth to feed at meal time(s). As a result, food ration gradually became five percent less difficult as each elimination round passed.
On the topic of the previous elimination round, Daisy was currently drinking from her water canteen in the shelter, ignoring a rather loud Incineroar informing castaways about his victories at the tournaments he participated in.
"I guess the hardest opponent out of any of my wrestling tournaments, though, was this Emboar I had to face at the grand finals..." He paused for a second to turn to Funky Kong. "Aye, Funky, come here for a minute. Lemme show the tribe what he did."
Certain survivors were already snickering as he stood up from his spot, the ape being grabbed by the shoulders by Incineroar.
"Alright, so he immediately grabbed when he started and actually tried to throw me out of the boxing ring, which was always against the rules." The Pokemon elaborated. "That's the biggest mistake you can make. But, you all wanna know what I did? I pulled off a running Lariat by bouncing into the ropes..."
For the 'ropes', Incineroar choose the bed of the shelter of all things to run into, pretended to bounce off of it in order to mimic his performance before running straight at Kong to 'punch' him in the face, him ending up landing right on the ground.
"...flipping him over just like that!"
Almost all of Fuerza laughed.
Ryu shook his head. "I still think I can take on in the boxing ring any day. You think I should enter?"
His eyes widened at that. "Oh my, Arceus... Now that I think about it,... twenty-two days in I'm just now realizing that you could be a good challenges. Probably one of the best challengers I had to face! Maybe I should introduce you to my coach and trainer."
"I'll give it a shot. Deal."
"Aye, what about me!?" Funky said from the ground.
"Alright... So I guess I'm still in this game..." Getting back with Daisy, she was simply pleased that she survived yet another Tribal Council. "I was hoping I won yesterday's challenge to guarantee my own safety, but I guess Panther came through and he made sure that I'm still here. Me and him spoke for like, ten seconds last night, and he apparently made sure that Chica stayed here, too, also just to protect me. I'm still kinda sad that Katt had to go knowing it was gonna be her anyway, but hey, as long as it's not me... Chica is literally the only one here that ended up being blindsided, but since me and her are the only two that are at the bottom now, if those nine people continue to vote together (which I fine totally stupid), I'm probably the bigger threat... What is Panther gonna do now?"
As for Chica Candance, she aside from Specter Knight, was the only other person who was never super interested in what was going on right in front of her face. She appeared to be too depressed to give them any time of day during that morning.
"I just don't know why I'm still even here at this point. Not saying that I'm quitting or anything, because I am not a quitter. Even if I of all people had the chance to win a million dollars and be the last one standing out here, of course I'm not gonna just drop out as if I'm dropping out of college or anything because I don't wanna finish my classes,..." She paused for a brief second. "but... how am I still here? Every time when I think I have something going, something always gotta be the other way. I had no idea Katt was going home or anything... I wouldn't have mind if Katt was getting the boot because it was Beauty against Brawn back on the other tribe... And I couldn't even get the vote right?"
And then by the time she finally looked up, to her it seemed that the rest of Fuerza was generally having a good time with one another, no matter where he or she stood within the game in regards to alliances or on a general level entirely.
"I sat at camp this morning like everybody else, just how I remembered doing back on Quetzal, but at that time it was when certain people were talking with each other and leaving everybody else out of it. I've pointed out that it was always Panther, Daisy, and Rosalina, but at this point, it's the entire tribe except me. Not one person here is even thinking about talking to me that much. I was with Panther the most but I hardly even speak with him these days. I thought we finally had something going during the tribe swap, but you know what, I just don't even know anymore... It's literally high school all over again." She stared down at her feet in utter sadness. "I'm getting flashbacks by the minute. This is Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty. Usually when it's about high school, I heard that the nerds are always the ones underestimated and they don't feel like they belong. But this time it's everybody but me. I never really had too many friends in high school, so you can just imagine what it was like for me in the school cafeteria. But as always, I keep telling myself, 'keep trying, Chica.' But I'm... trying... I'm literally trying... What else can I do?"
Day 22
"Come on in, guys!"
Specter Knight, Golden, Espio, Plague Knight, Daisy, Incineroar, Chica, Ryu, Funky Kong, Isabelle, and Panther all came in with their belongings, seeing that there were two separate stations, most of them assuming that for this first post-merge reward challenge, they were getting ready to be divided into two teams for it.
"Alright, you guys ready to get to today's reward challenge?"
They all answered 'yes' in some form.
"Let's see what we gotta do this time..." Incineroar rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
"For today's challenge, you will be divided into two teams of five." Master Hand began elaborating on the challenge's objective. "On my go, you will hold sandbags connected to a trough above your head. If at any point a sandbag drops, that trough will dump, and your shot at victory will wash away. Last team standing wins reward. Wanna know what you're playing for?"
He went over to a cloth. "Now, I am rather unaware how exactly popular pasta is here in Mexico, but how about some spaghetti today?"
Almost the entire tribe erupted into a major uproar.
"...With garlic bread."
"Ooooooooh!" Daisy at that point was beyond excited, she could have easily back flipped just to express her emotions.
"And a nice sweet tea to wash it down... However,... there is a twist." And there it was. All of Fuerza being completed elated over the upcoming reward only about half of them were about to receive, only for the master to downright ruin it by adding some sort of twist to it. They immediately hoped it was nothing too serious. "...You are all gonna have to share..."
...
"The winning team will head on a boat to a private location in the empire, where a big dish of pasta will be waiting right in front of you with bread on the side as well as the beverage. How much you eat, will simply be on you..."
"...Really?" said Plague Knight.
"Really." Master Hand answered back. "Here's what we're gonna do: there are eleven rocks in here. Two of them are orange, the rest are green. If orange is your color, you are a team captain. Once the two captains have picked their two teams of five, we'll get started."
-/-
"Alright. We divided six sandbags between the five of you and we have our two teams..." Master Hand stated, going over to the red team first. "For the red team, Espio was picked as a captain. He chose Golden, Incineroar, Panther, and Daisy. For the green team, Plague Knight was picked as a captain. He chose Funky Kong, Ryu, Specter Knight, and Chica. Isabelle was not chosen to participate."
She was simply danging her legs over the bench.
"Here we go... Playing for a reward... Hold your sandbags above your heads..." Master Hand waited until everyone done as they were told. "...Alright... Everybody is in position, and this challenge... is on..."
...
"Each sandbag weighs ten pounds each..." The host noted. Though since he explained of how there were six sandbags per team in spite of the teams having only five members each, it meant that one castaway for both sides had to hold two sandbags above their heads instead of one. Thus, for red, that castaway unsurprisingly had to be Incineroar, with Funky Kong holding two for his team. "Just as a reminder: you always have to be holding at least one sandbag above your head at all times. Though you can always pass any extras to somebody else."
But that was not all.
"And in order to make it even more challenging, this challenge would not go on until only one person is standing for their team. Every fifteen minutes, somebody will drop out, making it harder no matter what. That's simply where communication will come into play..."
Though a factor, based on the audience being aware of who was the absolute strongest when it came to challenges and who was the exact opposite, inferences could have been made in order to determine which couple of castaways would drop out of the challenge first.
"All you gotta do is to make sure you're giving it your all... Since you guys don't even eat that much at all,... every last one of you is literally working for food... You wanna eat? Fight for it. That's part of the survival aspect after all."
And all eleven remaining survivors, including Isabelle, very much had the desire to consume food other than the usual rice and beans that day. They had to simply prepare that if they did not give the challenge everything they had and win, who knows when the next big meal was set to be in front of their faces.
Elapsed Time: 15 Minutes
"Alright, it is time to lose one member from each team. Who's it gonna be?"
"Plague, go..." Specter spoke almost immediately, the master alchemist not hesitating whatsoever, with him handing over his sandbag to Ryu, Espio choosing to shift his weight over to Golden.
"You good?"
"I'll be fine..."
"Hmm... funny." Master Hand found a bit of amusement. "Both were picked to be team captains and now they're the first people dropping out. But now you all have ten more pounds to distribute here."
"Alright, Funky, give one of your bags to me." Specter Knight made his way over to the bandanna wearing monkey. "You can not carry twenty pounds forever."
"Incineroar, hand one of yours over." said Panther. "Be careful..."
"Okay, okay..." He said, giving one of his to the StarFox character. "Teamwork makes the dream work..."
"This is the part where communication really plays here..." The master noted. "For all we know, it could either make or break this challenge. We'll be here for another fifteen minutes..."
And for the next fifteen minutes, there were the constant exchanging of sandbags between the players to the point where everybody held twenty pounds of sand for at least a single minute.
Elapsed Time: 30 Minutes
"...Alright. It is that time again." Master Hand said. "Who's gonna drop out now?"
"Me..." Chica answered almost immediately, nimbly handing her weight over to Funky Kong, Daisy dropping out in her to shift her weight onto Incineroar. Since there were six sandbags with three players from each team remaining, all of them were now holding two sandbags exactly.
"Whew..." By the exhausted expression on Candance's face, she clearly had enough as she made her way over to the bench.
"Okay, okay, okay, somebody take one of mine..."
"I got your back..." With Panther taking one of Incineroar's, he was now the first player to hold three bags for his team. Yet now knowing that he was now carrying thirty pounds, he deeply cursed under his breath.
"Panther, I'm gonna get one of yours in a minute." Golden signaled verbally. "Just let me know when you're at your limit..."
"Ryu, take one of these..." Specter gradually handed over one of his bags to the street fighter.
"Okay, okay, you can take it, Golden..."
"Funky Kong, I'm gonna give you one of mine soon..."
"Both teams are struggling now that they have more weight than ever before..."
"Come on, guys..." Plague Knight said from the bench, already getting flashbacks to playing a large factor in giving the worst performance in a challenge in the history of the show during another reward challenge that same season.
"The question is how long can all of you take it? It can all be based off of one person dropping the ball." Master Hand held up a single finger for emphasis.
Funky Kong blew out air closing his eyes under his sunglasses.
"Come on, Funky..." Ryu talked, ignoring the sweat pouring down his face. "Get it under control."
"Alright..." Incineroar was now holding two sandbags in one hand, shaking out his free arm. "I'm just about ready to take another one again if you guys want..."
"I'm coming over." Fredbear announced.
"Any one person can blow it for everyone. Once that trough will drop,... it will be over."
Just who was going to be the one person that would end it all for everyone? Due to the fact that every last one of them were struggling, any of them had a possibility.
...And unfortunately, it ended up being Specter Knight for green. He lost his grip soon due to one of his bags in a single hand collapsing to the ground, causing the trough to drop, water splashing over everyone.
"RED TEAM WINS REWARD!"
The moment those words were sounded, Golden, Panther, and Incineroar all dropped their sandbags causing their own trough to collapse. None of them really cared about getting wet all the while. It was a hot day in Mexico, anyway.
Specter could not have believed it, the scythe wielder almost boiling on the inside out of his own frustration, Daisy and Espio making it over to the winning team for their victory to be shared.
"Alright, red team. The five of you... plus Isabelle, will go on the reward." Master Hand promptly announced, the dog glancing up to the Survivor host almost immediately.
"...I get to go?"
"You sat out, but for today's challenge, it doesn't matter. You're going."
"Oh, yay!" With that being said, she dashed over to the red team, embracing a couple of her tribemates.
"You guys can head on out and enjoy."
"Glad that's over..." Panther commented, himself, Isabelle, Incineroar, Golden, Espio, and Daisy all exiting to their right, Specter Knight hanging his head down in disatisfaction.
"Specter Knight, Ryu, Plague Knight, Funky Kong, and Chica, I got nothin' for you. You guys can head back to camp."
"Whew... I'm glad that wasn't me..." Funky Kong shook his head at the memories. "Sure, I was upset that we didn't win, but... those sandbags were just brutal, man... But Specter Knight? When he found out he was the one that blew it for us,... he looked downright ticked. I haven't known him for so long, but something tells me that he is not gonna be the best of moods for now. His day is now messed up..."
I actually wanted to have a different challenge take place here, but since this isn't exactly a "water" season where it usually took place in Survivor, it just wasn't possible, so I decided to pick another challenge that I like lol.
Sooo... most of the tribe regrets voting Katt off for various reasons depending on who you're rooting for, the challenge took place, but other than that, Chica feels like she's being isolated from the entire tribe...
But on a side note, we got Yoshi from Super Mario coming to Survivor - Caribbean. Hopefully the most lovable dinosaur of all time brightens up someone's day today! I mean, who doesn't like Yoshi?
I'll see you all for the next immunity challenge!