So I had to be creative with this one, since... he never spoke on the show, and from what we could see, he didn't speak. Due to this, I had to find another way for him to communicate, and still get the hypothetical tea.
The interviewer was very stressed out, "So, I kind of went in on Katie and Sadie being irrelevant as hell, but at least they spoke, hung out with their cast for years, and had some good tea. WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY TO SOMEONE WHO DOESN'T SPEAK? Even that Beard guy from the next cast KNOWS HOW TO SPEAK? Why didn't we do Brick first?"
Everyone went silent when the larger man walked into the room with some weird machine with a speaker on it, that's disguised as a hat. It spoke, "Hello everyone. It's nice to be here."
Josh and everyone in the production room were shocked at what they just heard and saw, "Uh... Did the hat talk? What? How? We need some answers."
"I created a mechanical hat, where it picks up on my thoughts, and what I am thinking about saying, which causes for it to signal that I want it to be verbalized," the hat replied, while B sat across from them.
He was more than creeped out, but wanted to get this over with, "Okay... Let's just get this started. I am going to go over a list of players you competed with alphabetically, and you... I guess your hat will describe your interactions with them on the show, and since the show. Anne Maria is first on the list."
A picture of the jersey wannabe was placed in front of him, and all he did was chuckle, "She was... a character. I honestly avoided her for the first bit, since she did scare and intimidate me with her presence, and she also just seemed very rude for no reason to many people. Soon enough, she started asking me a bunch of questions about why I didn't speak, and there's a VERY personal story attached to it, which I don't share with people. It got to the point where she would NOT leave it alone, and there was a confrontation that happened, as much as you can with someone who doesn't speak. I rolled my eyes, kissed my teeth at her, and waved her off. She made fun of me for not speaking, and my weight, so that was the final straw. Of course she apologized once she got eliminated, and we did have some discussions about our tough upbringings. We apparently lived in the same city, but we never hung out much at all. She showed a more vulnerable side to her once we were hanging out with the first cast during the "All-Star" season was filming, and during future ROTI cast meetups. Not friends, but she's alright."
"So what about Brick? You both were booted relatively early in the season, and you two were the only men of the cast to not compete in "All-Stars". Surely, that must have bonded the two of you together."
The hat spoke again, as the picture of the former cadet was placed in front of him, "Not really... We did not speak much during our season, since we were on opposite teams, I was booted early, and he only joined my team after I was eliminated. He was eliminated, and told us all about what happened. I thought he was admirable for what he did, and Sam would get the three of us to hang out together as men, but we just did not get along well, due to him being a health and fitness nut, and I'm... not that. He wasn't interested in mechanics, science, technology, or any of the academic activities I am interested in. We were kind of forced to get to know one another once we were the only guys from our cast not on "All-Stars", and he was very saddened about it. He told me about his past, and how he has a lot of insecurities, so we bonded over that. We agreed to help one another, meaning he helped me with portion control and exercising, while I helped him with academics and technology. We had some great conversations about masculinity, and how we don't fit in with what some see masculinity as. We ended up drifting apart once he became a party animal with a lot of the first cast, and that's not my scene at all. We had a good time whenever we had meetups with the cast, but things changed once he started dating Dawn. The issue is, the timeline of when they started dating, and when Dawn and I broke up was... confusing."
Josh actually gasped, "Ooh... I know Anne Maria mentioned something about Brick and Dawn dating, and you dating her as well, but never mentioned about the timespan. So there was overlap, and you believe that they started dating before you broke up?"
"Well, I can't confirm that, so I don't want to state that for sure, but they dated... VERY soon after Dawn and I broke up. She and I broke up around the time the spinoff concluded airing, so we were together for 3 years, and then they immediately start dating. Brick was in my house when we were dating, and saw how we were. We've had some debates and arguments about it for the next few years, and it really did cause some strain in what I saw was becoming a friendship. And then I questioned the choice of people he hung out the most, like Lightning and Jo. Honestly, I feel like Brick... two faced isn't the word, but he has split personalities, and deals with toxic masculinity, to the point where he would hang out with people who exhibit that. You kind of saw it in the show, but he was like that in real life."
He nodded his head, as he reached for another picture, "That was actually very interesting. I never would have thought that you and Brick would have a frenemy vibe, but I guess you two do have different personalities and interests. Anyways Cameron is next. Despite the two of you being African-Canadian, and being very into academics and intellect, we never saw you two interact."
A smile formed on his face, as he took the picture of the winner of his season, "Cameron is someone that I didn't get to know much on the show. We barely talked on our season, and even when "All-Stars" was airing, we didn't have much of a relationship. During the meetups that our cast had around those seasons airing, we had a few interesting conversations about biology and chemistry, but not much else. What caused for us to become close was us going to the same I.T. university together, and we bonded over the prejudices of being young black men in the Science/Tech programs we were a part of. A lot of what made us close had absolutely NOTHING to do with the show, so that was refreshing. So we hung out for those 4 years, and we were closer than he was to Mike and Zoey, though they visited and called quite a bit. After we graduated, and went to different grad schools, I haven't heard from or spent much time with him, but there are the occasional convention where we meet up. He's a great guy."
Josh moved on to get another picture to hand to him, "So Dakota was one of the few who was booted before you. Of course she was on your team, so you had to have interacted with her. What are your thoughts on Dakota overall?"
"I do feel bad for the transformation that she was forced to deal with due to the negligence of the show, and Chris being a sadist. But beforehand, Dakota and I did not get along. She was very vain, conceited, spoiled, and didn't care about anyone. She would call the paparazzi, and openly told everyone about the stunts she planned to do all season. Dakota thought because of who her father was, that she was going to be a producer pet, and I rallied around the Toxic Rats to put them on notice about her, and the potential riggage that could be put in place. Dakota also fatshamed me very early on in the season, so we just never got on good terms over that. We were just on two different landscapes, but then when I was eliminated, she wasn't at Playa, so I didn't meet her again until she became Dakotazoid. We had several weeks after that to get to know one another, and I helped her try to feel as normal as possible by studying her, and coming up with compartments, and other machinery that would make her life easier. Sam helped the two of us bond during that time, and he became kind of a median during that time. She told me a lot about her struggles when we sat out of the next season, and I spent a lot of time with her, while some of the others were partying, and she really grew as a person, emotionally and spiritually. Dawn helped her through the process, and I thought the four of us really bonded from that experience, but Dakota seemed to return to being that vain person that she was in her first few episodes, and being obsessed with the fame, so we are not close anymore, and lost contact several years ago."
An intrigued, and borderline evil grin formed on Josh's face, as he grabbed Dawn's face to hand him, "So Dawn is next, and despite you not speaking, it was clear that the two of you got along really well. Anne Maria did drop the tea on the relationship you had with Dawn after the show, and it's pretty juicy. What is your perspective of this?"
He vocally sighed, before letting his hat speak for him, "Dawn is a wonderful soul, and was the one person who took the time to get to know me. She was so understandable to my condition, and willing to not force me to vocally speak, or do anything I wasn't comfortable with. She taught me so much about auras, spirits, and the soul, which caused for me to learn another way of non-verbal communication. We did so many meditation exercises, and I just felt so tied to her, in a way that I could never connect with someone before. What they didn't show is that I actually did speak to Dawn verbally, and she was the only one I felt comfortable doing that with. I told her that I did not trust Scott at all, and she agreed with me. I felt like the producers were propping him up, and were going to do anything they could to protect him. Apparently this got back to him somehow, and I was booted. When she was eliminated, we got to spend a lot of time together, and she was really sad with how everyone turned on her during her elimination round. It brought back a lot of anxiety and insecurity issues that she dealt with through her life, and she cried on my shoulder. She couldn't believe how cruel people were, and I told her that people don't like dealing with anything that is different or odd, which isn't odd, but it just shows people don't like being around the uncomfortable. She helped me get in tune with nature, and helped me work on my speech better, since I did lose some development there from my disorder, and then not speaking for years, despite knowing how to. We had a lot of fun at Playa des Losers, where we would go in the forest for hours, and just take everything in."
"Let's get to the point. When did you two start DATING? And when did you know that you liked her romantically, and she liked you romantically?" Josh hissed with an irritated but monotone voice, as he rested his head on his hand.
B just glared at him, "I always thought she was cute, but I never thought that we were going to get romantic whatsoever or anything. Sam, Brick, and Mike were in a romantic mood, and after helping Sam on his first date with Dakota, they felt like I needed to ask Dawn out. They got some of the girls to plan things out, and it was right before Scott showed up where we had a date. It was then that I realized that I liked her more than a friend. She told me about having a pink vibe, which was her way of stating that she has a crush on me, and it wasn't until right before the finale where I told her that I had a crush on her. We lived in two opposite areas of the country, though I did go to BC every few months to hang out with Sam and Dakota, where I would meet Dawn too, but we were friends. When we all got together in the next year, everything kind of started over, since we were spending a lot of time together that wasn't in the game, and she was hanging out with people like Bridgette and Geoff, who are very... sexually liberated, and I'm not a social person. By that point in time, I graduated a year early, and decided to move to BC with her, since I went to school in Vancouver. It was during the end of that time where we agreed to go out. She helped me with my diet, we started working out together, I taught her a lot more about technology, robotics, and all of that stuff. I helped her with a lot of her environmental projects, and we really had a good 3-4 year run. But things became complacent..."
Josh started perking up at this, "What do you mean by complacent? And was this where Brick came in?"
"I really think that my lack of social skills got to her, and this was when Dawn's social skills started to improve, as she was going to parties, and hanging out with more social people, who I never gelled with. It got to the point where we only talked regarding my work or her work, and without the other stuff, you have a copasetic working relationship. Dawn obviously read my aura, and while I'm not as strong as her in that regard, I read her aura, and we came to a mutual agreement to end our relationship. Soon after, Brick asked her out, and they had a thing. I think she was more physically attracted to him, and this was when she was owning her womanhood, which I respect, and Brick became a stronger man regarding character. Despite our breakup, Dawn and I always remained on good terms, and she is my best friend from the cast. I actually hung out with her a lot more when her and Brick were dating, she became a partner in several of my businesses, as she is helping me make my technology as enviro-friendly as possible, and we are both tutoring others. I was not shocked when they broke up, but even after that, we agreed to keep things as a friendship."
A chuckle and a smile left the host's mouth, "Mmmph, that definitely got juicy Beverly, I have to admit. Anyways, I don't recall you interacting with this person, but I have to ask you about everyone you competed with. What are your thoughts on Jo?"
He remained silent for what seemed like forever once the picture was handed to him, and it took a while for his hat to speak, "I don't have many thoughts on Jo. We were on different teams, I was booted early, and she lasted a while on the season. I remember her going on runs very early in the morning, and she also fatshamed me because she wanted to train me with exercising, but I rejected because exercising is just not interesting to me. I knew she was only doing this so she could get intel on the Toxic Rats. We did not speak for about 5-6 years, until she started sending me a lot of messages, asking questions about Brick and Dawn, who were dating at the time. I thought it was very weird, and desperate that for someone who claims to be so strong and secure, was acting so... DESPERATE! Jo even came to my house and flew from wherever she lived, so she could offer to be my trainer yet again. I entertained it for a bit, since I was somewhat trying to lose weight, and I was curious about her too. It didn't last long, I told the other two about Jo, and then... Dawn and Brick broke up soon after, so Jo got what she wanted. This was about 2-3 years ago."
"So what about Lightning? You two WERE on the same team, so you had to have had more interactions with him. He also complained about your team a lot. I am sure dealing with him must have been annoying."
All he did was let out a sigh, before his hat started speaking, "No one knows this, but Lightning, Cameron, and I made an alliance on the boat before arriving on the island. We noticed that we had 3 black people on the cast, and we wanted to do everything we could to protect one another, since we had better odds than the black people that were on the first cast. Once the teams were set, it was just Lightning and I on the team. We agreed that we could be the "Brain and Brawn" alliance, where I would be the brains, and he would be the brawn, and with our strengths, we would dominate. Lightning actually spoke to me about his issues with his father, and how much being on the show meant to him. Our dynamic actually kind of worked, since all he did was talk, and I never spoke, so it was fine. Dawn was a part of our alliance, and she ended up being a good mediator for the two of us, as we did start clashing pretty early on. I would try to come up with strategies for not only the Toxic Rats, but the three of us, but he not only refused to listen, but outright told me to fuck off and go on a jog, since I would be more useful if I was thinner. He became unbearable to deal with, and I told him about Scott from VERY early on, but it wasn't until Scott was eliminated that I found out that Lightning told EVERYTHING to Scott. That REALLY frustrated me, since I felt like he crossed the racial code, and I confronted him about it during the premiere party."
A huge sense of interest yielded in Josh's body, and he scooted forward, "You confronted Lightning, like actually spoke to him? With your voice? Damn, I'm shocked."
"I told him that he's a DEGENERATE, which of course he didn't know what that was, for making an alliance based on our struggles as black men, and NOT ONLY sold me out every time, but DISPARAGED, and SLANDERED me WELL AFTER I left. He of course tried to get physical, since he can't fight with his words, and then he mentioned something about living with Dawn. This was during the time where his parents kicked him out, and he was couch surfing on many of the cast's houses. He then continued to send more and more pictures of him at her house to piss me off, and he just looked dumb. When Dawn and I were dating a year or two after this, she tried her best to get Lightning and I to make up, but it would always fail, since he would take more potshots about my weight, and my lack of speaking. We didn't meet again after those interventions until Leshawna did a podcast with every single black person that competed on the show, or the spinoff about a year ago. Lightning and I got into it REALLY BADLY, and we threw out a bunch of slurs. She had to edit everything out."
Mike's picture was handed to the large man, "So, I don't remember you interacting with Mike much on your short time on the season, but he was eliminated a bit over the halfway point, so you two must have interacted at Playa des Losers. What was your experience with him like overall?"
B had a blank expression on his face, as he thought for a while, "Mike and I never interacted a whole lot, but when we got the rare time to talk, we had some great discussions. Dawn and I actually spoke very early on about Mike most likely having Multiple Personality Disorder, but we both agreed that it was not our place to tell everyone. I intentionally kept my distance from Mike, because he would have known that I knew about his situation, and I didn't want to add any more anxiety, since he took a HUGE leap of faith to go on the show. My first real conversation with him wasn't until after he was eliminated, and he had to break the news to Anne Maria. The two got into a VERY VULGAR argument, and both of them were hyperventilating. I carried him into his room, calmed him down, and expressed to him that he handled things the best way he could. I told him that I knew about his disorder from the beginning, and I told him about my speech impediment and slow speech development issues to ease him, and we both bonded over that throughout the next few weeks. It was nice to have someone understand what I went through, and for him to have someone who went through similar anxieties eased him. Whenever the casts would get together over the last several years during every summer, we would have a good time with one another. Outside of that, the only times we got close was when he would visit Cameron when we were going to university, and Cameron would bring him to me. We had a lot of good times on that campus, but we are not very close in general, outside of being acquaintances when we see one another."
He wanted to keep things going, "Alright so your fellow Toxic Rat Sam is next. What are your opinions of him overall, though we did discuss some of it beforehand with his partner? And were you shocked or annoyed with him being included on "All-Stars"? "
B started to smile, "Sam and I connected almost instantly, like... I would say in casting finals, when we saw one another. On the yacht, we also agreed to work together, and noticed that we were the only other bigger guys, and also one of the only "geeks" on the season, so we should look out for one another. Once we were on the Toxic Rats together, we were both so happy, since our pre-gaming on the boat was paying off. One of my first plans was to get my two alliances, Lightning and Sam, to align with one another, but it became clear INSTANTLY that they both LOATHE one another, so I could not get them on the same page. Sam liked Dakota from the beginning, but before her first elimination, she would let him do things for her, while she paid little respect to him, so I questioned her interest in him initially. Sam confided in me a lot, and I understood a lot of his plights. Scott and Lightning would start bullying Sam, and I didn't like how they treated him, so I would defend him, without speaking, and it caused them to turn on me, so I think that played a part in my boot. Sam arrived to Playa, and he told me about Brick joining those two with making him feel masculine, and I had to explain with words to Sam (he was shocked that I could speak) that there are many different versions of masculinity, and not one person's version is superior than the other. It was one of the reasons why I didn't gel with Brick for a long time. Of course Dakotazoid happened, and Sam was supportive of her journey, but it caused A LOT of tension within their relationship, and he told me all about it."
"Oh really? What stress did it cause?"
"I'm not gonna delve too much into that. She went through something so traumatic not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc. and of course her reactions would be mixed. I think Sam being too excited about it caused a lot of people to look at him weirdly, and it made her even more insecure at times, since it came off like he was fetichizing her, since in his eyes, it was like he was living in a video game. Throughout the entire first year of their relationship, Sam came to me for advice, and vented to me about it. With "All-Stars", I knew he was going to be on ahead of time, and I was the second person he told after Dakota. In my opinion, he was put on instead of Brick because Brick was planning a pre-game alliance with Jo and Lightning, in addition to the other trio, so Chris and the other producers wanted to kill pre-game alliances. It was not fair that everyone within the cast got mad at Sam over this, when most of them would have accepted if they got the same opportunity. There was a period a few years after the show where him and Dakota broke up, and I think he now appreciates it, since it caused for him to find himself as a grown man without Dakota. I actually gave him a job at one of the companies I founded, and he now owns one of the subsidiaries, as he handles all of the gaming elements of one of my companies. Sam has been the one male from the cast who has been by my side from the beginning, to the present day."
"Well, it's nice that you were able to make a male nerd friend," Josh responded, while an evil grin formed on his face. He grabbed the picture of the redhead to pass to B, "So you explained earlier that Scott was told some things about you, and that he targeted you for reasons that weren't just strategic. Let's delve into your conflict with Scott
A growl came from his mouth, and he actually did start to speak, "I disliked Scott from the beginning, and I remember seeing him in finals writing... jot notes on everyone, and then glaring at everyone who was in that audition. I was turned off from him when during the second day, I not only caught him sneaking around, but I caught him in the production tent when no one was there. Scott told so many lies about why he would leave in the middle of the night, and show back up at dawn, saying that he was making out with someone, but it was clear he was looking for the idol. Scott was clearly throwing the challenges, and I told the others this, but no one believed me, and I told some of them that Scott was a production pet. Scott would tell these elaborate stories about his family and his life that made absolutely no sense, and I told Lightning and Sam that he's a clear liar. Turns out, Lightning felt closer to Scott, so he told Scott EVERYTHING that I said, which caused Scott to start torturing me. He put a bunch of desserts in my suitcases, so by the morning, ants and all types of mold and bugs were in it. I screamed, and I lost my mind over it. He then tried gaslighting me with my weight, and saying rude things to get me to reveal my disorder, and I refused to do that for him. Then he got me out with the tactics he used, and I REALLY REGRET not just speaking up to defend myself, and everything that was going on. If I was more vocal, I know I could have saved myself. But once other people started joining Playa, they told me what Scott was saying about me. Even when he was eliminated, and was disfigured pretty much, I made him a robotic machine that he could reside in until he recovers."
"Wait, so that suit he was in during the finale was made by you?" Josh was completely shocked by this revelation.
"Yes. While I didn't like him, and still don't like him, he deserved to be able to have agency over his body and mind. From what happened in his elimination, even he didn't deserve that, so I genuinely wanted him to get better during those last two weeks. He eventually got better, and when we reunited for the premiere party, he didn't even THANK me for making the suit. In general, I avoided him for the next few years whenever the group got together, but it wasn't until around the time "Pahkitew" aired, and when we all met up with the 3rd cast that Scott was seeing someone. No one could outright figure it out who he was dating, but he had brown hair strings on him. What people don't know is that I went to Courtney's university for a gaming tournament, and I saw SCOTT paying her a visit. They were in the shade, and holding hands, trying to play it off as well. So I told others this, and Scott PUNCHED ME IN MY FACE, and yelled EVERY BIT OF WORD VOMIT from his mouth. He said I was making shit up, and I should be concerned about what was happening in my relationship. I told him that she would chew him up and spit him out. It was about 2 summers later, where we got into it again, and he said something about Dawn fucking Brick under me because neither one of us could see my... private parts, as it was swollen by all of the fat. He got mad at me because he thought I leaked his relationship to Sierra, where he threatened to sue her in order for it to not be published. I don't know if Brick told him something about himself and Dawn, but it seemed weird for Scott to suddenly bring up, especially when Dawn and I broke up a few months afterwards. We got into a fist fight that time, and it was the last time I saw or spoke to him."
He had two more pictures in his hand, and the host looked uninterested while handing the picture, "So what were your thoughts on Staci? Both of you are technically the first two boots of the season, never returned for another season, and are the only morbidly obese people from your generation?"
B sent him a death glare, while fixing his mechanical hat, which verbalized his thoughts, "Staci is someone that really annoyed me. I got that she was very nervous to be around all of these people, but coming up with all of these stories were not going to work for her, and she needed to learn how to listen to people. When I was voted off, it was just her, since Dakota had come back at the time, and no one was eliminated until Dawn 2 weeks later. During those two weeks, she told me all about her family stories, and she could tell that I was annoyed by it. Me not speaking, and her doing nothing but talk worked at first, but as those two weeks went by, she demanded that I started to speak, and figured out that I was able to speak. Shockingly, she was about to tell me about my entire life story and my disorder, which impressed me. I did speak to her during the end of that time, and told her that she needs to stop creating lies about her family, since it's impossible for her to be related to all of these people, and I told her that I took a genealogy class at school. We bonded over that, and she was shockingly good with the internet, so we got pretty close, and with Dawn now in the mix, we did become a trio for a lot of that time on Playa. When we saw out of "All-Stars", I spent most of that time with her, since we were the few who were not partying it up. We went to all of the museums we could in Toronto, and it was just a really fun time seeing a more vulnerable side of her. Staci is borderline a genius, and I don't say that about a lot of people. When Dawn and I were dating, she did hang around quite a bit, and we did have some sensitive conversations about weight, but it became clear that she was a lot closer to Dawn, so when we broke up, Staci stopped speaking to me generally."
"Alright, and the final person you competed with is Zoey. You two were on opposite teams during your short time on your only season, so I don't imagine that you spoke to her much, am I correct?" Josh asked, as he handed the final picture in his collage.
The large man just shrugged his shoulders, "No, we did not get to speak during the season, but I heard of her story, and heard how she described things at the group events we would have. A lot did not make sense, like her claiming to be an Indie and Retro person, but not knowing a lot about the times she was favoring, like the 1960s. I also did not like how she handled Dawn during the show, since she claimed to be so understanding of oddballs, and all of that, but she would always dismiss most of them. Dawn told me how she felt about all of this, so I would take it personally on her behalf. It wasn't until Mike and Zoey visited campus, and she saw that I spoke to Mike, but not to her. She asked me why I was closed off against her, and I explained it all down as well as I could. She seemed to have understood it, but I think she is someone that claims to be an oddball because she never felt popular, liked, or had much experience with other people, so she overcompensated. Since being on the show and making friends, I think she had a deep desire to be popular under any circumstances, and that... is that. Nice girl, but we don't have a relationship."
Josh moved on to some of his final questions, "So, did you speak to anyone from the first or second generations, or build any sort of relationships with them, despite not getting an opportunity to compete with them?" He saw B give a blank face, and didn't even respond through his talkative mechanical hat, only to give an unenthused shrug. "Alright, tell me what you learned from your experience on the show, and what have you been up to since your time on the show?"
B was intentionally silent for a while, just to tease Josh, before his hat started speaking, "I guess to talk more when appropriate is what I learned, but I still don't verbalize unless I need to. Since the show, I have become a teacher of several courses, whether it is technology, or from the spiritual stuff Dawn taught me over the years. I founded my own tech company, that producers hats like these, and other tools that help people with disabilities to function better in life. Being an entrepreneur and an inventor is what I always wanted to do, and I'm doing it now."
"Thank goodness this interview is over. Goodbye."