Caribbean - Ponderosa

Chapter 9 - Juror 9

Okay, so after the longest chapter of a fanfiction I've ever written in my entire life, Val ends up being voted out after a crazy round here. Oh goodness if Chrom would have left, lol. But he is locked in for final four, but Val isn't. She's now going to be the only female on the jury. Though the thing is, she voted out every last player on there. So it's gonna be rather interesting to see what goes on.

I think most of you are waiting see her versus Rodin and Springtrap, though...

~KF

"Hi! I'm Val, juror number nine. And this is my Ponderosa!"

Night 37

"Uggh! ...So close... Just so close..."

The last female remaining in the season just spoke her final words on the camera with the producers before she was told to make her way to Crazy Hand's tent for her afer Survivor checkup. And yes, she was rather close. She could have made final four, possibly made it to the end, and possibly could have won it all.

Being eliminated so late in the game, with Final Tribal Council just around the corner, was a devastating pill that any late juror had to swallow. Valery Ramos was next in line to deal with that.

"I thought that me, Chrom, and Yoshi were set to make it to the final three, but I guess he did in fact felt betrayed of me getting rid of Springtrap, so he got people to vote me off. And you know, it's good for his game." The vixen admitted. "If he saw that I was a threat, then... that's one more threat eliminated for him... I couldn't have imagined what was going on in Yoshi's head, though. Since it was going to be either me or Chrom, because Ken wanted him out to increase his chances of winning final immunity. But,... I really do think when Yoshi talked with Chrom, Chrom likely convinced Yoshi to flip."

"So close! ...Hahaha! Of course I never expected to make it this far in the game, but at the same time, I had two more days and I would have been sitting at the Final Tribal Council. I mean, even Ken knew that Ken was going home tonight, but he won immunity. Surprise, surprise, right?"

"He did win that challenge, because after Springtrap was gone, it was supposed to be Vector, Ken, and cut Doc Louis off at final four. That would have been the perfect plan for me. And... the worst case scenario happened, and I paid the price for it. ...Then again, I can't fully put the blame on Ken. I'm afraid I have to call my own self out, too. If I didn't play my idol on Ken, I would have been locked in on final four and Ken would have been sent home."

"Why did I use my idol against Springtrap? Now,... I love the guy, right? I really do. I never thought that I would be making real life connections that would be that strong, but there was something about Springy that I really liked... Over time though, when I flipped on K. Rool, he was slowly getting harder and harder to deal with. And since I was already trying to take out as many physical players as I could have, I knew I had to get rid of Springtrap eventually. And when I finally realized what he was doing, that provoked me even further to get him out as soon as I could have. Other people didn't agree that he was the best option at the time, so the only way I thought of getting rid of him was using the idol against him. But,..." She lifted her hands up. "obviously I should have waited... I did get scared a little, though. No lie. I thought that he was actually going to make it to final tribal and made me look like an idiot in front of the jury. That was the final nail in the coffin for me."

"Oh well. Lesson learned. I'm not the winner, so that's just something that I have to live with, as well as whoever is going home right after me tomorrow."

She then entered the medical tent for her check up.

"Good evening, Val. Congrats on making it all the way to final five!"

"Thank you." She nodded, making her way over to the chair to sit down. "Getting all the way to this point is something that I would have never dreamed of. I just wanted to prove to myself that I can do it."

"...And you did!"

"And you know,... usually this is the part where you're worrying about what is your loved one going to think whenever you return home. That's happens with everybody, right? And in my case, I obviously want to know what Foxy is gonna think of me after all this is over. He has yet to see my game, but the thing is, he met me in person on the island back at the Loved Ones visit. And... he seemed to be pretty proud of the fact that I made it all the way to that point, and then to make it four rounds further? ...I think I'm... pretty comfortable with whatever Foxy thinks of everything when I get back. That was literally the closure I needed. So,... I'm concerned a little bit, but I'm not super stressed about it. I just didn't win, and that's pretty much all I need to tell him."

"132.1... And then I forgot how much I weighed before I started..." She turned to look at Crazy Hand.

"You weighed..." He flipped through the pages of his clipboard to check. "142.5... So you lost 10.4 pounds, Ms. Ramos!"

"Awesome."

She stepped on the scale to put her shoes on.

"Now I want you to hurry over to Ponderosa because I think it's gonna rain a little bit."

"I appreciate the concern."

"The thing I was concerned about the most is that I had no idea what my reception was going to be on the jury. Because you know what, I was in the loop of every single Tribal Council I was a part of. I wrote down the names of literally everyone that is on this jury. Even with Rodin and Springtrap I had no clue how they were going to act, but our strategic relationship fell on the rocks due to that flip..."

She stepped off the boat and sped-walked her way over due to a bit of rain starting to fall, even though part of her felt rather nervous.

"Hurry up, Val. You never know when it's gonna get worse!" Vector's voice sounded in the distance.

"Whew, man... Val finally showed up." Rodin felt like a large chunk was taken off of his plate. "About damn time..."

"Greetings, Val." Meta Knight placed a friendly hand on her back as well as Vector the moment she stepped inside the cafe. "Welcome to Ponderosa.'

Before she could say much more, there was an arm that was hanging across her neck, something beginning to force her in the direction the mirror was.

It was Springtrap.

"Bittersweet that you're here, but... I guess you should make yourself at home. But first you gotta look at yourself like the rest of us."

By the time Foxy's longtime friend glanced at her reflection, she appeared a bit stunned of what thirty-eight days in the wilderness did to her. Not too different, but she was slightly dirtier than before and she actually noticed her weight loss. "Wow... Okay, who is this chick again?"

"Val was probably a bit concerned again when she made it to the Ponderosa." Meta Knight spoke. "But you know, I think she played pretty well. Even though she voted with Yoshi to eliminate K. Rool, she never really had a major target on her back due to the bigger threats out there. She was the one person that knew what was going on from day one by being in every vote, but unfortunately, Ken winning immunity completely ruined it for her and she knows it."

"Alright, now we're gonna sit down." Springtrap announced as he helped his friend to the table, getting her over to the seat at the very end.

"Oh my god, you guys..."

"Yoshi turned on you." Charizard could not have believed what the voting result was. "Before the master read the votes I was convinced that Chrom was going to get blindsided. People were at the edge of their seats."

"I don't think anyone expected Yoshi to turn on you of all people." Simon shook his head. "That was quite a shocker for all of us."

"Like, it was hard enough already for him to vote me out." Vector added. "I was the only other runaway left. But you? Even I know that the both of you became each other's right hand man after that flip. She became closer to you than with the rest of the Runaways alliance."

"When those two flipped on me, I was mad at both of them, but honestly I was more mad at Yoshi than her." K. Rool talked. "Obviously, I was closer with him by a long shot and Val was of course never part of the runaways, nor were Rodin and Springtrap. So even though she slit my throat, it's a more... 'whatever' kind of moment for me. We were all just being competitive out there, so I had no hard feeling towards her. That's more on Springtrap and Rodin whom she both voted out and backstabbed. But hey, if she reached final three I wouldn't have been too mad."

"I never would have expected Chrom to be here." Rodin shook his head. "But I guess Ken wanted to give you and Yoshi a reason to vote him out."

"Yeah." Val nodded at that. "Apparently he and Doc planned to target me and Chrom was not going to tell Yoshi about it until the last minute, but then Ken leaked their plan and that was when I found out. And Ken said he was not going to vote for Doc Louis at that point, so I pretty much had no other choice but to go after Chrom. Yoshi would have been the third vote and Chrom would be in my place right now."

"That's crazy." Charizard was astonished. "If he was sitting here right now, Ken would have upped his game even more. I honestly think he should still get credit."

"I am impressed." Ridley agreed. "I really am. I never thought Ken of all people would have any sort of shot at winning. I ruled him off as a goat a long time ago, and now all of a sudden he's the biggest threat to win."

"Yep. He is." Val nodded as her food began to arrive. "That Simon move really took his game to a higher level."

Her food consisted of pizza, jerk chicken (the same kind one of the other jurors ordered on his first night on Ponderosa), and french fries.

"Well, since Ridley is the king of Ponderosa," Springtrap pointed. "you can be the queen, then. You are literally the only girl here."

"I wouldn't mind that." Val grinned back as she began to take bites of her pizza. "Not one bit. This is gonna be a good forty-eight hours,... even though I was just short of making it to final tribal."

"Hey, screw them." Springtrap waved the remaining competitors off. "First of all they ain't even got all this food like we do. This is way more than what me and Rodin ate at that reward."

"To the surprise of no one, I really didn't know how Springtrap and Rodin were going to act. Part of them felt satisfied that I was here, but the other half wanted me to be out there still. And Springtrap? ...He was actually... really nice to me." There was a quick clip of him laughing along with Val when his food arrived. "I don't know if it is low-key his way of apologizing of what went down, or game mode is completely out of his head right now. Like, I know he got voted off two rounds before me, but it wasn't that long ago. ...Maybe he just doesn't care. His mind is probably like, 'It was just a game. Who cares? We don't have to worry about that anymore.' Right now he's just having a good time. But I know we're obviously going to talk about what went down in a little bit..."

"Hey, this is the best way to cope about it." Vector suggested. "I was voted off yesterday, and more of me is really thinking about enjoying this than being sad that I got voted out when day thirty-nine is right around the corner."

"Would you vote for Ken if he makes it to the end?" Meta Knight wondered, Val taking a few moments to swallow a piece of the chicken first.

"Well, why wouldn't I?" She responded. "It doesn't even matter who he sits with, right? He's never going to the final three unless he wins that final immunity, which is quite likely since he was actually supposed to go home in... Springtrap's place... was gonna say Vector but,... yeah."

There was a slightly awkward silence.

"Eh..." Kevin rolled his eyes. "Don't worry about that. This is your night. We'll talk more about that tomorrow."

"Aye," Vector then suddenly spoke. "thank you for working with me and Ken that round, by the way. Didn't really make a difference for me personally, but my buddy Ken is now in the final four."

She snickered in reaction, even though part of her did feel guilty. "Well if I really helped somebody, you're welcome."

Speaking of the next day, in the next shot Val was seen walking away from the cafe.

"Well that was a nice meal. Nobody really had anything against me when I showed. I thought that K. Rool was gonna be a little pissed at me that I was part of the reason why I sent him home, but... it wasn't that bad at all. They all actually make me feel a little bit better of how everything went."

She yawned and covered her mouth with her hand. "Now if I can just get a good night's sleep for once..."

Day 38

It was now officially the second to last day of the game and that was definitely something to think about regarding everyone. After the final day of the game in the beautiful Caribbean, everyone was going to be set to travel back home.

For Valery Ramos in particular, it was only her first official day at Ponderosa. And even though part of her is still in game mode due to her being voted off not too long ago, she desired to enjoy the Ponderosa experience as much as possible.

Hence, the reason why she was wearing pink, heart-shaped sunglasses as she simply relaxed in the hammock enjoying the view. The woman already ate her breakfast. Now, it did seem like there was not that much to do other than simply hanging around. And to some, it might have appeared a bit boring. However, no one was going to say that it was not better than being mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted all at the same time while fighting the elements and other competitors for a million dollars.

Remember, the Survivor contestants deserved a break, too.

"I once again had a nice meal at the cafe today. So right now with the sun shining and everything I'm just sitting here while the time passes. I gotta say it's a great opportunity to clear your mind. I'm alone right now, but for once it's actually a good thing. Every time you're alone, your thoughts are all over the place. People could be thinking that you are searching for an immunity idol, people would think that you are trying to isolate yourself, or worse, they could literally be plotting behind your back trying to think of ways to get you voted off... And I don't have to worry about that anymore."

She was not alone for too long, though. Charizard was seen approaching her way, him being glad to see that Val was enjoying herself, especially given the fact that her time on Ponderosa was much shorter than his was.

"What if it rained?"

"Eh,... I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have mattered. At least we don't have to worry about collecting fire wood and keeping the shelter in tact. We actually have rooms. Can you believe that?"

"That was what I was thinking when I first got here." The dragon-like creature nodded in agreement. "I, uh... thank you for sticking with us for twenty-four days. Hate to bring the game up now and possibly ruin your mood..."

"I'm comfortable with it. I've only been voted off less than twenty-four hours ago." She shrugged it off. "But, you're welcome. Sticking with you three was what we felt as the better option even though half of me wanted to side with the army, but if we did side with them, we clearly would have been at the bottom of that alliance. They had four people and you guys only had three... Well,... it was not like we actually knew you guys had Vector and Banjo."

"Yeah." He snickered. "We really took advantage of the day one twist. But you, Springtrap, and Rodin siding with us was the reason why I made the jury. Just imagine how things would have been different if you chose to side with the army..."

"This entire season would have been different." She then had a question to ask him. "You know,... Yoshi might make it to final tribal. There are possibilities for anything to happen in this last voting round, but if he makes it to the end,... would you still consider voting for him?"

"I would." He bobbed his head up and down. "He slit my throat, but I am no bitter person. I respect the game of Survivor. If he figured that I had to go in order for him to succeed, I can not blame him for it. It was just that for my game, I felt that my best interest to never turn against anyone I was closely aligned with in that alliance until we reached the final five. Sure Banjo got voted out by the other tribe, but if we all stuck together, I would have cut Vector off at four and take K. Rool and Yoshi to the end."

"And you would have had my vote. You really would have." Val nodded with certainty. "With K. Rool being out of the question, even though Yoshi's my friend, I..."

"I get it." Charizard chuckled a bit. "And that's why I felt I needed to stick closely to them. But if you, Yoshi, and Chrom would have made final three. It definitely would have been between you and Yoshi. You would have been in the running."

"Nice to hear that I would have gotten at least one jury vote. Maybe someone does like me out here."

That really got him laughing a bit more.

"I got one more question, though." He warned her. "Springtrap and Rodin told us about the whole... Val-Mangle thing... Who are you now? Are you Mangle or Val, or what?"

She laughed out loud hearing that. "It doesn't matter. I am... me. That's all who I am at the end of the day."

"I have come to terms with the fact that people are gonna see the Val side of me, as well as this whole... Mangle side of me when this season airs. The reason to why I acted as if... 'Mangle' was my alter ego, because it was the name I received for my career when I'm in my pirate uniform. But the ultimate goal of that was to separate my real self from my career, because of course people can be a lot different outside of that, which is why I chose to stick with people calling me Val instead of Mangle for this. But now that my Survivor adventure has come to an end, I... I feel that it's closure. I think I've proved my point, so it doesn't really matter too much anymore. All sides of me will be shown to the world."

And for the moment most Survivor fans were waiting for.

Kevin Davis and Valery Ramos were both laying down in the sand side by side, both watching the waves crashing down in front of them.

"..."

"..."

"So,..." Springtrap started. "what did Rodin say to you?"

"We joked a little bit." She shrugged. "He was basically still rooting for me, but me being voted off was what he wanted at the same time. He wanted karma to bite me in the butt, and it did."

He cocked his head to the side. "...Well, I'd say you were more deserving to win this game than the rest of those people aside from Ken..."

"Morally, he said, he wanted karma to get to me." Ramos clarified. "But game wise, he wanted me to still be in it. He just wanted revenge for me voting him out."

"Ah." Springtrap understood, staring back in front of him to watch the ocean. "Understandable. Revenge is satisfying. I was with him when Master Hand officially announced that you have been eliminated. ...We were both glad."

"..."

"However,... I was actually hoping all three of us would be at the Ponderosa together. Win-win for me."

"You know, I was just thinking." She then adjusted her body to face him. "If Ken... If I would have let Ken go,... and Vector would have gotten out at six,... what do you think would have happened at that point?"

"Hmm... Well I would have been the obvious target at that point." He figured, him having his own pair of sunglasses, by the way. "Not counting Chrom who already won a challenge, I would have been the last major physical guy on the board... But with Chrom, Yoshi, and Doc, I wouldn't have been surprised if that was a possible final three. Say Jerome would have convinced Yoshi and Chrom that us two were the bigger threats, then those three would have... Hmm."

The man then lowered his head to reveal his eyes under those white shades. "I think the two of us would have had no choice but to go after each other.

"Heh. Funny..."

"But I think I would have gotten the boot at five. Though say if I won immunity, it would have been between you and Doc Louis if your alliance with Chrom and Yoshi stayed strong."

"You're probably right." She nodded. "Doc would have convinced Chrom that I was a threat and all they would have had to do was to swing over Yoshi."

"Bottom line is that unless one of us was set to win this season,... we both would have been voted out regardless."

"You're forgetting something, though."

"What?"

"If I would have kept Ken, I still would have had my hidden immunity idol." She reminded. "Like I told you, I would have been guaranteed final four if I never used it to get rid of you. If you won immunity, and if I played my immunity idol,... oh my god."

"I..." He was blown away hearing that. "Wow... Somebody would have gotten burned at that tribal. And you wouldn't have been able to put my name down. But I would have put your name down, though..."

"And I would have told you that I had the idol. Last night was the last time to play one. We would have gotten rid of... either Doc Louis or Chrom. Chrom was more physical, but Doc Louis was playing more of a social game."

"It was only a matter of time for me and Val to talk everything over about how our games went." Springtrap sat with his fist beneath his chin. "Well,... I'm gonna call her Mangle for this one just to annoy her, haha! But, you know what? It's simple. Neither of us really played perfectly. And with her idol play, she definitely didn't play perfectly."

He let out a laugh again. "And keep in mind that in the game, our decisions are influenced by paranoia, starvation, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, everything you can think of when you are on that island. So it's no surprise if someone does not play perfectly, and I apparently annoyed V-... Mangle so much to the point to she wanted to be rid of me at that tribal. But hey, I pissed her off. That was probably a good thing, hahaha! I love it... except for the fact that I accidentally made her get to that point to do it... Nonetheless though, I regret nothing. Only thing I have to face outside of this is how Foxy is going to react to this... Oh well. I wanted to win the game, too."

"...Can we just relax, now?"

"Haha, of course." Val decided that she and Springtrap had enough of game talk and simply wanted to enjoy themselves and have a good time, the vixen's head being seen resting itself on his shoulder, Springtrap using his arm to bring her closer in reaction.

"I think we're making Rodin jealous."

Ruining the moment, Val shot her head back up almost instantly and gave him a confounded look. "Jealous? Even Rodin himself knows that the two of us are tight."

"Yeah... He has Bayonetta, anyway."

Later on in the day, the camera was now seeing the back of Val's head. She appeared to be staring at the photo she was holding in her hands.

"Aww..." A small smile crept on her fact. "Look at Foxy with all those kids... 'Ahoy! It's not the same without ye, matey. Have fun!'"

That almost made her immediately tear up. She actually revealed the photo with her luggage on her first night at the Ponderosa, but she simply decided to check it out again. Her hand was brought up to her mouth, not wanting to get too emotional.

"I'd like to take this time to really thank Foxy for allowing me to have this experience. Yeah, I managed to make a name for myself, but... I don't think I would have played this game if it weren't for him. He opened so many doors for me, and I really owe him. He's always giving me great opportunities and... doesn't really expect anything in return." Her head then shifted away for a bit. "That's just how he is. But I guess with me competing in the Caribbean of all places, he probably wanted me to have fun, but really wanted me to do well... And I did. ...I believe that it is the best way to return the favor to him."

Alright, to be honest, I really felt touched by that last part.

Okay... Almost done, guys. Almost done... Don't really know what else to say, here. Sorry if yall expected more with the scene with her and Springtrap, though. Regardless, if yall want Val to win the fan favorite award, vote for her on my poll.

I'll see you all for the final immunity challenge in the main story.