Caribbean - Ponderosa

Chapter 10 - Juror 10

Alright, this is the final chapter. This side fic is just about to be finished.

And we're going to end off with Ken Masters, who fell victim to being the last elimination of the entire season and the tenth and final member of the jury. He was rather close to making it to the end, and obviously he would have easily won the season with literally every single juror voting his way.

Sadly though, he lost the final immunity challenge and he had to live with that for the rest of his life. However, Ken does not seem like the sore loser type at all. We'll see how he's coping here.

~KF

"'Sup, I'm Ken, juror number ten. And this is my Ponderosa. Let's do it!"

Night 38

One day short.

Just one day short of winning it all.

What a shame for Ken Masters. Sure, the final three felt genuinely sorry for him, but it was not as if it was going to change anything. It was still going to happen; he was still going to be voted out whether they liked it or not. The only thing Ken could have done about it was,... well, he could not have done anything about it. His fellow contestants already had their minds made up.

"They were dead set of what they were doing right after Vector got voted out, and I was outnumbered from there. What else was I supposed to do?" He went out to explain. "I gave it everything that I got, I've been talking to people constantly throughout the last couple days to try and get something going, but I've been told straight to my face that I was going to be voted out because I was seen as a massive threat to win the game. Sure, I appreciate people thinking positively as a player, but what happens when you're seen as a threat? They're gonna vote you off."

"Oh well... Looks like I'm not gonna be sitting at the final tribal." Ken sighed and paused for a couple seconds. "But, you know, this is of course one of the best things I've ever done in my life. I came out here, I made friends, won challenges, broke a record for crying out loud, and I made sure I made a name for myself out here. But the fact that I couldn't win the final immunity, I deserve no better than fourth place in my opinion. I tried to make a move, didn't work, so I'm stuck at Ponderosa for the next twenty-four hours."

"I wasn't really considered to be a threat at all at first because no one bothered to even look at me that way. Either Simon's name was written down or Vector's name was tossed around. I was just aligned with them, and that was probably what they thought." He figured. "Some of 'em probably thought that I had no case going into Final Tribal Council, so I tried to do something that would up my resume a little. Not saying that I made a big move just for the hell of it, but if I would have went to the end with Simon and Vector, no way I would have gotten a single vote from the jury, so I flipped on Simon. Too early? At this point, definitely. But hey, Simon was down putting Vector's name on the parchment anyway, so in the end, my flip on him was justified. ...I still feel bad about that, though, since Simon trusted me a hundred percent."

"If I still made it to the end of the game somehow, my plea to get Simon's vote would have been that I still managed to get to day thirty-nine against all odds, and that hopefully would have made up for what happened. Me getting to the end would have been good for the both of us. That would have been what I said if I lasted one more day. But hey, since I'm already out, we're gonna talk, anyway."

He was kindly greeted by Crazy Hand as soon as he made it in side the medical tent.

"'Sup, Doc? ...Uh, no pun intended."

"That was quite an exit for you." He commented on Ken's departure.

"Yeah..." The man gradually made his way to the chair and sat down. "They all clapped for me and everything. Didn't really expected that..."

"Well, people like ya, buddy! I'm sure even though you were voted out of the game, they would love to see you hanging out with them at the Ponderosa tonight!"

Wow. That was actually something really nice to say coming from Crazy Hand.

"I guess they would. Thanks, man."

"I think even though my time at Ponderosa is gonna be shorter compared to everyone else, I still get to go. Sucks to be eliminated, but at least I get some time to Ponderosa just to... hang out and chill for a bit. I planned on having conversations with everyone. Anyone that knows me knows I'm a pretty sociable guy. I've always been extroverted... Oh by the way, do you know how much weight I lost?"

"How much did you weigh at first?"

Ken was now standing on the scale. "I weighed 183.5... But now it says I weigh 154.2... What the hell!? ...Doc, what happened to me!?"

"Well," He laughed. "you're a muscular guy and you were out in the wilderness for thirty-eight days. It's normal for someone like you to lose weight like that so fast."

"And you know what the weird thing is? I hardly feel any different. Only thing I feel is me constantly starving to death."

"Then we better get you on that boat as soon as possible."

The scene then cut to Ken Masters glancing at all of the menu options in front of him.

"I'm gonna be a jerk and order the whole god damn menu..."

"Me and Ryu both hate starving to death. I'm sure by the time he got back to the real world he was eating like crazy. He hates it when he's not eating anything. I keep telling him that I'm worse, though. But hey, I'm at Ponderosa with food. All food is good, right? I won't have to worry about dying anymore."

The boat arrived, and the last confirmed member of Survivor - Caribbean's jury arrived, him wasting no time making his departure.

"Alright, let's see what we got here..."

"I wasn't even off the boat for like, fifteen seconds before people started calling out my name, as if they haven't seen me in years..."

Before he had the chance to predict anything the jurors were going to do, he was already hearing a bit of clapping coming from the cafe. Taking his time in making his way closer, he saw them all. Ridley, K. Rool, Charizard, Meta Knight, Rodin, Simon, Springtrap, Vector, and Val.

And now Ken was joining them to make the jury complete for the next night.

As he arrived, he exchanged friendly hugs and handshakes from his fellow former contestants. For Vector and Simon, they were the ones that were proud the most that they had the opportunity to reunite with Ken knowing they were on opposite sides of the game.

"Simon I hope you can forgive me for that!" He was already talking of the blindside.

"Don't be sorry." He replied as the two were embraced. "I shouldn't have went with the Vector plan."

"Great to have you here, buddy!" The crocodile himself slapped him repeatedly in the back all the while.

"Sorry you were unable to make it to the finish." Meta Knight apologized standing right by the blonde. "You had all of our votes. Every last one of us would have voted for it."

"Aww, be honest. Come on."

"We're serious." Ridley spoke out. He was one of the furthest away from him with his arms folded, though he wanted Masters to know the truth. "Everyone was planning on putting your name down. You made the other three remaining in the game look like nothing."

"Me and Ken never had the most conversations comparing to others." Charizard realized. "We were never on the same tribe together in the pre-merge and I was only the third person voted out of the tribe after we all came together on Aruba. But from my view point from the jury bench, as well as having conversations with others that were in the same position as me after they got voted out, I came to realize that Ken is actually more dangerous of a threat than it seemed. Not to mention, he had a rather fun personality. I don't think any of us have anything bad to say about him, even K. Rool and Ridley of all people despite Ridley criticizing him earlier for him not doing enough for his standards to win the game. Well,... that is until the now infamous backstab on Simon. I'm pretty sure no one saw that coming."

K. Rool friendly placed a hand and shook his shoulder. "You played a great game, dude. If you would have made it to the end, there was no way I would have not voted for you over Yoshi and Chrom."

"Well no wonder those three were constantly telling me that I was a big threat out there."

"If it was Ken, Yoshi, and Chrom at the finish, it definitely would have been a no contest." Rodin figured. "I mean, come on. Who even is Chrom if that was the case? And Yoshi? I would have been surprised if he got one jury vote. I mean, after Vector left I guess, K. Rool and Charizard would have had to vote for somebody. Ken was the closest thing they had to Vector. Yoshi played an inferior game in comparison, and Chrom would have been ignored. So I do believe Ken had every last jury vote in his hands."

They all brought the man in, Ken now eyeing at himself. One thing that was worth noting is that his shirt was actually ripped in places. He definitely appeared at least a bit skinnier than before. But the most significant change was that underneath the hair that was blocking certain areas of his face, he was actually growing sideburns.

"...Do you think Eliza would divorce me by looking this hideous?"

That earned a big laugh from Vector. "She'd probably never want to see you again!"

"So apparently I was as a big as a threat as Chrom, Yoshi, and Doc said I was. Every last person on the jury was supposed to vote for me, and it does please me to know that would have been the case. At the same time though, I can't help but feel a bit more saddened by that. Literally only one more immunity win would have done it. The money itself I don't really care about as much as I would have loved to win this game. Ryu already tried it, so naturally I wanted to see what I could do for myself, and I feel like the thirty-eight days out in the Caribbean was well worth it."

They were now talking over the dinner. Ken ordered two cheeseburgers, onion rings, and fries.

K. Rool stared and blinked his eyes while chuckling a bit, realizing his order was literally the exact same as his. "Oh you even got two of 'em like I did. I suppose this is burger hour, right?"

"Dude," He stated right before he took a bite, knowing that he now needed to talk between bites just to interact with K. Rool. Supposedly he was so hungry the man could not have even waited just a few more seconds to answer the crocodile's question. "I've been craving some burgers for the longest time now. That's all I wanted. You guys probably ordered more than I did."

He then cocked his head Ridley's way and pointed directly at him. "I know you ordered a lot of steak when you first came here."

Before he could reply, Meta Knight had already beat him to it. "According to him, he forgot to do so when he first arrived, and he decided to order them the next day."

"..." Ken remained focused on Ridley with now widened eyes. "Really?"

"..." He "had a look of frustration and embarrassment at the same time, all while not uttering a single word.

"Ahahahaha! Wow! And you kept complaining out loud about how much you wanted to eat your steak since you were starving so much!"

In Ridley's defense though, he was simply wanting to eat so badly by the time he got voted out, he was actually overwhelmed by how many options there were on the menu. To him at the time, it did not matter what he ordered. There was so much food at Ponderosa, the thought of steak likely ended up being pushed out of his mind.

"What was the challenge?" Val asked out of curiosity. "Do you think I had any shot of winning that?"

"Well it was definitely something. It was a test of endurance. Our backs were like resting on planks as we were holding onto a handle that was above our heads hanging at a forty degree angle. There was water coming out of a barrel to make our plank a little slippery to increase the chances of us falling off. And then every five minutes Master Hand cranks it lower so that it would be more difficult. By the time I got out, I was hanging at a sixty degree angle. It was Yoshi, then Doc, then me. But Chrom was struggling a bit too."

"Damn..." Val mumbled. "I think I would have gotten out around the time Yoshi dropped out I guess..."

"Well, this is it." She spoke in a confessional. "Nobody else is going home. There's going to be no more challenges, no more speculating of who's going out next, and we officially make the jury of this season. And now we all have the power to give someone a million dollars. I guess that makes it all feel special in a way, because we are kinda in a major position of power right now."

"So now that the jury has just been confirmed for this season, every last one of us should be thinking about who we're voting for." Springtrap strongly suggested. "Each and every one of us might have a certain criteria, but I believe the ten of us sitting right here should make sure we have the right information about those three players left. ...What do we think of the other three players, and is there any questions that we feel could be exchanged by everyone at this table?"

"First of all," Simon decided to speak first. "who does not really need the money?"

"The Doc is literally Little Mac's coach." Rodin reminded. "He might not make as much money as he does, but when you're the coach of a well known celebrity in real life, those people still make a lot of money. The man ain't broke. And Chrom was literally the leader of an entire army back in Ylisse. Do you really think he came here for the money?"

"He most likely came here for the experience and what he was made of." Ken assumed. "I can't even blame him for that, because that's why I signed up to play this game."

"The only person that actually needs the money is Yoshi of all people." Springtrap realized. "But even then, we all know what type of player he is."

"'Player'..." Ridley repeated. "Right... As if we could actually call him one."

"One thing about him though, he does have morals." Charizard pointed out. "That's something no one can take away from him."

"Good point." Meta Knight assumed. "But we can all say that his gameplay was rather..."

"Weak." Ridley butted in again. "It is okay to be blunt. He has no strategic mind for the game at all. We might as well just write him off and focus on Jerome and Chrom. Even with that, I don't think any of them deserve to win the title of Sole Survivor. I mean, knowing who we have to see tomorrow,... what kind of final three is this? Seriously."

"You think there were better final threes in season past?" Simon figured.

"I mean, we have one person who simply floated, another person who... also floated, only that he was actually good in challenges, and... Yoshi. That's it. That's all we got. I don't even know how the hell am I supposed to vote, but I'm going to call out all three of them. Them as a final three just does not sit right with me."

"Like Vector, I wanted people to open their eyes so badly and just vote Ken out already." The space dragon admitted. "But hey, you can not blame them for him winning challenges, I suppose, except for Val who decided to stupidly use her idol on him to send Springtrap to the jury. Other than that, it was Ken himself who was throwing a fork into their plans. But now that Ken's here, it is rather making me... appreciate the fact that he played the way he did. I dismissed him as a weak player, or a coattail rider, or even... a dumb blonde as the humans say. However,... he changed. He changed into a player that was actually deserving of winning this Survivor competition. And now with him out of the game, judging by who we have left,... maybe things would have been better if Ken did win that challenge and got to the end... This final three is terrible. Nothing more I can say."

"They did take out the right people, though..."

"They did." Ridley nodded at Meta Knight. "But,... who are they and what they even do? That's what I want to know."

"Well, we all are going to be with them for about two hours, anyway." Rodin responded. "That would be more than enough time for all of us to make a million dollar decision."

"Hahaha, all this talk about how I deserved to be at the end of the game if I won final immunity is making me feel even more bad, guys."

"Welcome to my world." That was something Vector related to Ken rather well.

"Ken going out completely sucked, man..." The Mobian shook his head in disappointment. "And to think he was never even part of the early alliance I had with K. Rool and Charizard and we still got along really well. Both of us don't take everything super seriously, we both just like to have fun a live a little. All this while we're still two strong guys making the most of our Survivor experience. And I think we both had to prove to ourselves that we knew when to be serious when the time called for it. And what do ya know?"

He lifted his hands up. "Everything led up to everyone calling us the biggest threats to win the whole game. Only difference is that Ken actually made it all the way to final four, so even though he's relating to what I went through when I first got here, getting cut off at four is obviously more heartbreaking then getting cut off at six."

Ken was then on his way to his room, ready to shower and turn in for the night.

"It's a good thing that Val was the only lady at Ponderosa. Girls don't usually like it when a guys stinks like I'm stinking right now. I told Vector that I wonder if Eliza would divorce me on the spot for me smelling so bad and looking like crap. Hahaha! So you know what, it sucks to be out of the game, but it's awesome to be here. Once I get out of the shower and wake up, I'll be back to my old self outside and inside and the real Ken would be front and center."

Day 39

And there it was. Day thirty-nine finally arrived. Though since this was meant to be for the jurors only, Yoshi, Chrom, and Doc Louis just had to wait until it was their time to sign, since this was only a Ponderosa series, a side series to the main show of Survivor.

Still, castaways were taking the time to acknowledge it.

"Alright, I'm up and ready to eat on day thirty-nine in the Caribbean..."

Ken Masters was getting ready to stuff forkfuls of french toast into his mouth as he sat at the table with Springtrap, Simon, Vector, and Meta Knight.

Close by what he was currently eating was another plate filled with bacon and an omelette. Yet another hungry hippo at the Ponderosa. Though as usual, it was what to expect after all. The poor man had to go thirty-eight days in the wilderness with the usual rice and coconut. How boring was that? He was only lucky to get a break when he won certain rewards. Although, not everyone was lucky. Doc Louis literally never went on one reward.

But anyway, Masters was clearly having the breakfast of champions at the moment and he was enjoying every second of it.

"And of course, after the severe lack of food thing going on with us constantly worrying about how much rice we're eating every day, or... how many more coconuts does the island have, you go onto really appreciate the little things in life, ya know? Imagine what homeless people have to go through. We really do have it easy. I come from a pretty privileged background. My dad's a hotel owner, so I never really had a struggle... and I'm aware of that..."

He paused for a few brief moments. "Survivor really humbles you, man..."

Taking advantage of the bright sunny day outside, Ken (now with sunglasses), Vector (also with sunglasses), were with Simon (without sunglasses) at a wooden, picnic table by the ocean.

"Alright, so clearly us going after each other wasn't the best way to go for us." Simon admitted, currently being the center of attention. "That was the main reason why I was not too bitter towards you. I was honestly upset at what happened, but I've no hard feelings. It's a game. And I only further blame myself for being on board with throwing Vector under the bus. I knew he would have beaten me, but I could have used him for a couple more votes since there were only three of us at the final eight."

"If we would have stuck together and recruit Springtrap,... we would have had two options." He went on to explain each of them. "We would have went to rocks (which I would have been willing to do), or we would have gotten someone to flip over... and maybe vote out Chrom to being the most physical person from the other alliance... Maybe we would have flipped Yoshi."

"It's always Yoshi." Ken laughed out loud.

"I don't think the guy would have been willing to go to rocks..." Vector presumed. "He was scared to death of being voted out and he really wanted to make it to the end after all he went through. Why would he let his fate be decided by a rock?"

"...Well, he would have flipped on that vote, then." Simon concluded. "But that's my theory. We'll hear from Yoshi himself whenever we decide to talk about this, because Ken, I really regret not coming up to you and saying that 'Hey, if we go after each other, all three of us are done for.'"

"Simon is probably one of the biggest gamers of this entire cast. The only two reasons to why he and Ridley didn't get along was because Simon targeted him early in the pre-merge at one point, and even Simon himself cared more about the social game than he did. But he loves the strategic aspect the game so much it really amazes me, haha. However, sometimes I feel like he's forgetting about the fact that, 'Hey, I manage to be on the show that thousands of people applied for. I'm grateful for that.' You know, take a step back and think for a second. This is not just a game, this is an experience. You get to be friends with seemingly random strangers that you would never meet at any other opportunity and you enjoy the people around you and spend time with them, even though you're stranded in the wilderness together. I mean, he and Ryu have very similar mindsets, and that was the one thing that made me wanna talk to him and open him up a bit more."

"I think maybe years down the line, you'll come to appreciate the whole experience of Survivor more than you'll appreciate just the game on its own." Ken predicated. "When you go out here, of course the game comes first... Well, for me it's tied. But later down the line, you'll think of the experience first, and the game second. Like, you went final eight, man."

Simon Belmont snickered. "I did. I was ecstatic when I found out that I made the merge."

"And it's good to be thankful for that." Ken held a hand out. "And you were a threat to win somehow if you got to the end with the right people. But hey, if you're an overall serious, introverted guy, maybe for some people like you, you need people like me and Vector to help you out a little bit. Ya might need a buddy that's there to remind you that it's okay to... chill out a little bit sometimes... maybe we can get you a pair of sunglasses. That'd be a nice start."

Both the human and animal laughed at that last part.

"It's the last day. It's okay to have fun a little bit."

"You make valid points, Ken." He nodded his head. "And you know,... what made me interested in having a friendship with you is... you're basically Richter, but my age."

That made him widened his eyes. "Oh, really? ...You never told me that..."

"Never thought of it until now." Simon smiled. "But I think he'll like both you and Ryu at the same time."

"Yeah, I know everyone's different. Not everyone is a people person and I'm aware of that. But Simon seems to enjoy my company and I'm enjoying is, even though on paper it would seem that we don't mix."

"I have a question of my own." Vector decided to speak again. "Since you two have heads full of hair, how much dirt came out after the both of you showered on your first night?"

"Oh my goodness..." Simon brought a hand to face in laughter. "You wouldn't believe it. I wanted to scratch the top of my head a little bit, and when I did, it felt... nasty. I mean, at the surface I clearly have a lot of hair in general for a man, but I at least wash my hair regularly. But this time,... I don't think I could have been more relieved than that first night by the time I was finished."

"You're telling me, man." Ken chuckled with him. "Maybe we could go to the beauty salon together."

"Me and Ken come from two completely different backgrounds." The first ever Castlevania contestant noted, now wearing a pair of white sunglasses. It was probably at least a bit entertaining for the audience to see. "That much is clear. But opposites do attract, except this time in a brother sort of way. And you know how some people always say that they are their own worst enemy, I'm included in that. And maybe when you're in your head a little too much, your mind starts to play tricks on you. At times I guess I do think too much causing me to get paranoid out on the island, so I can explain to you the whole dynamic between me and Ken in one sentence: he keeps my feet on the ground and I keep him on his toes, even though there are other people in our lives that already do that."

The three of them continued to converse with one another while chuckling every once in a while.

"Playing for thirty-eight of the possible thirty-nine days is something I of course rather take simply being the first person voted off, because that means I was able to play ninety-nine percent of the game out there. And it was worth it. It really was. I loved everything from the day one twist, the challenges, winning immunities, people playing idols on me, going on different rewards to get a break from the main island, everything in even the smallest detail really made my experience worthwhile. I strongly encourage everyone to give this a try. It really is something else."

Ken was now kicking his feet up and relaxing in the hammock drinking a coconut smoothie.

"Me being one day from making the whole way makes me feel disappointed, but... I'm proud of myself. I take a step back and think about all that I've done out there..." He was silent for a brief moment. "And not just for the game itself, but for the big picture,... it's really something to be in the top four. Not everybody can do that. I think aside from training to be a martial artist, this is the best thing I've ever done in my life and I... I was already constantly learning about myself, but... I think you learn more about yourself when you're around different types of people. And that has made me open my eyes even more of how I see things. Survivor is really everything and more, and I think it is something that I will never forget as long as I live. That's probably something rather generic to say, but you know what? When they say it's a lifetime changing experience, the really freaking meant it. So you know,..."

He was now staring directly into the camera. "I think no matter what type of person you are, sign up and play this game. Come on out here! You'll thank me later."

Well, that was it.

That was the last juror. And I really liked how I did with this one. I don't really know how much I'm a fan of Ken outside this Survivor series, but for this, I portrayed him as a typical laid back kinda dude, yet knows when to take things seriously. And that was how he played. He took a step back and lied low, and played aggressively when he felt he needed to up his resume a little bit, broke a major record and nearly made people vote the way he wanted at one point just in an attempt to further his own self in the game. And with him in my opinion being one of the best characters of this season, people would want him to get a second chance. But damn... he really had this in the bag and people are gonna feel bad for him including myself.

With that being said, if you liked Ken in this, there is still enough time to vote for him on my poll. I'll see ya in the main story where we move onto day thirty-nine with the final three!