…

Day 13

Put Down That Dr. Pepper

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Spike

Women: Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty

When the players come back from Tribal Council, Kyon is the first to congratulate Kirito, Killua, and Joe.

"You really played us," Kyon tells them. "And I mean that in a good way. We thought that you wouldn't use any advantages because you didn't see us use any. Instead, you took the initiative and got what you wanted. Good job."

"Thanks," Kirito says. "All three of us worked on that plan."

"Kirito was the one to use the votes, and Killua was the brains behind who to vote for," Joe says.

"We decided on Prussia since he's the most incompetent in challenges," Killua says. "We figured that losing him wouldn't be a giant loss. Now we've got to start winning."

"That is, if we let you!" Misty interjects, to much laughter.

"Voting out Prussia is a win-win," Killua says. "It helps my alliance, and saves my bacon. It also eliminates one of, if not the weakest players on our tribe. We need to start winning challenges, and quickly. This has got to be the steppingstone to success, or otherwise it's going to be an all-Women Final Three."

"I can't believe we allowed the three of them to best the four of us," Kyon says. "We had everything in place to pull off the blindside, then Kirito pulls out all these advantages on us. The only way to fight that is to get more advantages for ourselves. And that means winning that very important reward challenge today."

That morning, Killua is again the early bird, and he pulls aside a groggy Alice.

"What is… it… Albino," she says, opening her eyes slowly.

"Come on," he tells her, and he grabs her hand to pull her up and off to the woods.

"What do you want?" Alice asks, as the two stand underneath the trees.

"As you can see, we used all those challenges last night," Killua says.

"That's right," Alice says. "I'm proud of you for using all of them."

"That's the problem," Killua tells her. "We're all out of ammo."

"Out of ammo?"

"Yeah, we have just one Fire Token left, and that belongs to Joe. If the other three are smart, they pool their Tokens together and get one of us out."

"How many do they have?" Alice asks.

Killua shrugs his shoulders. "More than us!"

"Killua, you've got to stop relying on us to bail you out," Alice says. "I can't give any more Tokens to you guys. I need them for our own close vote in our tribe. Besides, you already owe me four Tokens. You can't just can't keep digging a hole of debt."

"Even if I am the king of debt, I'm better off still on this island than at Ponderosa," Killua says. "Remember, the jury hasn't started yet. You aren't guaranteed my jury vote until I actually make the jury."

Alice sighs. "Fine, then, what do you want?"

"I'm not sure yet," Killua says.

"You're not sure yet? Then why the heck are you asking for my help?"

"Because I've got to start early," Killua says. "If we win the reward challenge, we'll be able to figure things out on our own – probably. But if you guys beat us again, then…"

"Are you suggesting that we throw the challenge?!"

"I'm not suggesting that either!" Killua says. "But I am saying that the three of us are in a bad spot and it could have significant repercussions to you personally down the stretch."

Alice sighs again and shakes her head. "You know what, Albino, you're just too much. But I'll still help you, because you're cute."

"I am not cute!" Killua complains, as Alice gives him a noogie.

"Keeping Killua alive is one of my main goals," Alice says. "I am fairly confident that my alliance will win the next vote against the JAM alliance. What I'm not confident about is if I'll have help on the jury once I'm in the Final Three. I need Killua there to galvanize the jury to vote for me. This is why it's imperative that I give Killua the help he needs to survive."

"I need all the help I can get," Killua says. "Right now, I'm in a pretty bad position. I've gotten votes against me two straight Tribal Councils, and I know that the opposing alliance has more Fire Tokens than we do. If Alice could find a way to help me, then I'll repay her down the stretch."

But Kyon, Spike, and Mayuri are determined not to let that happen, as seen from their talk later that morning.

"How many Fire Tokens have we got?" Spike asks.

"I woke up today with two more than I had yesterday," Mayuri says. "Prussia must have bequeathed them to me. I now have five."

"I've got two," Kyon says. "How about you, Spike?"

"Yeah, two myself," Spike says. "So, how do we spend them?"

"Very easy," Kyon says. "We buy the steal-a-vote, then easily vote out whoever we want."

"I'm not sure that's the best option," Mayuri says. "What if they have the idol?"

"There's no way they have the idol," Kyon says. "They would have used it for sure by now."

"But could they possibly get one from the Women?" Spike says. "If there's an idol floating around out there, it could find its way into one of their hands."

"That is true," Kyon says. "But how does that effect what we buy?"

"If we win the reward challenge today, we'll have enough to buy an idol," Spike says. "Then we buy that."

"But if we lose, then I think we have to experiment with several different ideas," Mayuri says. "That includes Knowledge is Power. We could use that to steal an idol off them if we find out that they have one."

"Makes sense," Kyon says. "Let's be on our toes to make sure we know if someone holds an idol."

"I don't know if this is the best option," Kyon says. "We should probably just buy a steal-a-vote, and that would be the best-case scenario for us. But if there's a worst-case scenario, Mayuri is planning for that. I'm not sure it's the right pick, but I'm going to make sure to give it a good think as to what we should do."

"I really want to experiment with that Knowledge is Power," Mayuri says. "I think it could end up with a very fascinating scenario of myself stealing an idol off the other alliance, then using that idol to vote out one of them. We just have to figure out if they have an idol or not."

A little later, the JAM alliance meets up with Killua, Kirito, and Joe.

"Are you ready to pay up?" Killua asks them.

"Pay up?" Ami responds. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"You owe us Fire Tokens," Kirito replies. "We gave you two, and you agreed to pay back with interest. We want four."

"Oh, that's right," Michiru says. "We did borrow some so we could buy the idol."

Ami looks incredulous. "That never happened!" she exclaims.

"It kind of did," Jasmine says. "We can't go back on our promise."

"I'm not so sure about that," Misty says. "This is a game, isn't it? If they want four Tokens from us, then we demand six Tokens from them in the future!"

"Yeah, you pay the same interest you are making us pay!" Ami says.

"We can't agree with that," Joe says. "There's no way we'll be able to repay."

Killua shakes his head. "No, we'll go along with it for now, Joe," he says. "You each hand us a Token, then we'll each hand you two Tokens when we are able to come across them."

"But-" Joe starts to say.

"Fine, then, you have an agreement," Ami says.

She and the other three Women hand over one Fire Token each to Killua.

"Awesome," Killua says. "We will pay you back in due time."

"You better!" Ami replies.

"Kirito, Joe, and I now have some ammo to use in our fight against Kyon, Spike, and Mayuri," Killua says. "With these four Tokens, we can buy an extra vote. Does it make us automatically safe against those guys? No, but we will be in a much better situation than we were before we had these Tokens."

"As long as Killua pays up when it is time, everything will be fine," Michiru says. "We held up our end of the agreement. Now we expect him to do the same."

"I tried to play dumb, but my tribemates wouldn't let me," Ami says. "All I can say is, Killua better be keeping his promise to us, or we'll campaign with the opposing alliance to put him out of the game."

Reward Challenge

"Come on in, guys!"

The two tribes march into the reward challenge area. Players on both tribes look surprised to see a very tall scaffolding with lots of numbers on bags hung across it.

"You guys ready to get to today's reward challenge?"

"Yes!" Misty shouts.

"For today's challenge, you will race through obstacles to a chair. Your tribe will then lift the chair using ropes, allowing you to pick up numbered bags. Once you've retrieved ten bags in numerical order, then the next person goes. Once you've got all 30 bags, you will use the letters inside the bags to solve a word puzzle. First tribe to finish, wins reward. Wanna know what you're playing for?"

"Absolutely!" Konata exclaims.

"The winning tribe will receive one Fire Token each. They will then be taken to a Dr. Pepper Oasis, where you'll have burgers, steak, key lime meringue pie, and all the refreshing Dr. Pepper that you want to drink."

"Could we have a taste?" Kirito asks.

"I think you need a taste," Jet says, pulling out a bottle of Dr. Pepper. "One bottle for everyone to share."

"Isn't that dangerous in today's world?" Alice says. "I think we should all get our own."

"Too bad," Jet says, handing the bottle over to Kirito. Each player has a drink, and Mayuri gets the bottle last. He holds it up, looking inside it.

"This could be interesting for experimenting!" he says.

"Put down that Dr. Pepper," Jet says.

Mayuri reluctantly hands over the bottle to Jet.

"Worth playing for?"

"Of course!" Haruhi responds.

"Women, you have two extra players, you've got to sit two people out. You cannot sit out the same people in back-to-back challenges. Who are they gonna be?"

Ami raises her hand, as does Jasmine.

"Very well then. Sit-outs, take a spot on the bench. I'll give you a minute to strategize, then we'll get started."

The Women and Men each talk over who they want running the obstacle course and going on the chair.

"I think I should do it," Killua says.

"Me too," Kirito says.

"I'll go," Joe says.

"Makes sense," Mayuri says.

"Yeah, we want the smaller people on that chair so it's not as heavy," Kyon says.

"Sure, fine with me," Spike says.

The Women's discussion is a bit more heated.

"I should be on the chair!" Mine exclaims.

"No, I should!" Haruhi says.

"No, me!" Konata joins in.

"But we want the lightest people possible on that chair," Misty says. "That's why it's got to be myself and Michiru and one of you."

"You didn't mention me," Alice says. "Are you saying that I'm fat?"

"I'm not saying that at all!" Misty exclaims. "I'm just saying that you've got a rather curvy body and it would not be conducive to winning this challenge."

"So you're saying I'm fat," Alice says. "Remember this when Jet snuffs your torch."

"Guys, guys, let's stop arguing," Michiru says.

"I'm offended by that word 'guys!'" Konata exclaims.

"Really?" Mine says.

"No, not really," Konata says. "But I wouldn't want to offend Probst."

"About the chair, we can't become dysfunctional like the Men are," Michiru says. "That's why we've got to come to a clean agreement on this."

"Fine, whatever," Mine says. "You guys – I mean, you people can go on it."

"Okay," Misty says. "It'll be Haruhi, Konata, and Michiru."

The Women then join the Men at the starting line.

"For reward! Survivors ready? Go!"

Haruhi and Killua rush through the obstacle course, which includes a few wooden bars to go over, then a grid of logs which the players must navigate by high-stepping. Both of them get through quite easily and make it to the chair.

"Now you got to pull them up to get the numbered bags!" Jet yells.

Misty, Mine, and Alice pull hard to get Haruhi up, while Kyon, Spike, and Mayuri pull Killua up. The Men have a much easier time at it than the Women, who are struggling to get Haruhi on her way.

"If you can lift Haruhi, you can lift anyone!" Jet exclaims.

"Hey!" Haruhi says, as the Women get her up to the first bag. The Men take a bit of a lead, with Killua two bags faster than Haruhi.

"Gotta collect all ten bags in order!"

Killua grabs the tenth bag, and his tribe pulls him down. He gathers all the bags and places them on his tribe's table. As he runs back, Haruhi gets her tenth bag.

"You can now drop her down!"

Mine and Alice let go of the rope entirely, and only Misty is able to save Haruhi from crashing to the ground.

"I didn't say crash her down!" Jet exclaims.

Haruhi runs back, as Kirito goes through the obstacle course for the Men. He then sits in the chair, which Kyon, Spike, and Mayuri lift up.

"Now gotta get bags 11 through 20!"

Kirito starts getting bags, while Konata runs through the obstacle course and gets into the chair.

"Men with a bit of a lead here!"

Kirito gets all ten of his bags, while Konata is only about halfway through. The Men get Kirito down, and he runs back.

"Final person running for the Men!"

Joe makes his way over the logs, then tiptoes his way through the holes.

"Just like high school football!" Jet shouts.

Joe gets on to the chair, which again is lifted by the other Men. He starts with bag #21 and continues to get the others while Konata is running back for the Women.

"Men with a big lead here!"

Michiru runs out for the Women, but she struggles on the obstacle course and trips over one of the logs.

"I told you I should have done it!" Mine complains.

By the time Michiru gets to her chair, Joe has already collected bag #30.

"Men building their lead as we speak!"

Michiru continues to pick up bags for her tribe, while Joe runs back to the start.

"Men, you're good! Get to work on that puzzle!"

As Michiru finally gets her 30th bag, the Men have gotten all of their puzzle pieces out.

"This is a five-word puzzle with 30 letters!"

Killua looks over the letters, trying to find words to spell with them.

"Is there only one V?" he says, pounding his fist on the table.

"Michiru back for the Women! Women, you're good! Go to work on that puzzle!"

The Women start getting all of their letters out of the bags, while the Men continue to work. Killua and Joe spread out words on the table, but they cannot figure out anything.

"Men trying to visualize these words!"

Misty and Michiru try thinking up letters without putting them on the table, while Killua and Joe keep spelling out words on the table.

"Two very different strategies going on here!"

After about 20 minutes, there is still no progress.

"Both tribes really struggling right now! No one can come up with anything!"

Ami looks on from the bench. "I know the answer," she whispers to Jasmine.

"No help from the bench!" Jet shouts.

Ami shakes her head, then whispers the answer to Jasmine.

"Oh!" Jasmine says, before putting her hand over her mouth.

"I said, no help from the audience!" Jet yells.

After about 45 minutes, both tribes are still trying to figure out the puzzle.

"Think about what you're trying to win here!" Jet shouts.

Konata whispers something to Misty, then Misty starts putting letters out on the table.

"Misty thinks she has something, does she?"

"We got it!" Misty shouts.

"Women think they have it…"

Jet reads off the table.

"DOCTOR PEPPER TWENTY-THREE FLAVORS! That's it! Women… win reward!"

"La Cheeserie!" Konata shouts as she raises her arms.

"La – what?" Misty says.

"I don't know, I heard it on a sports talk radio show," Konata says.

Ami and Jasmine run off the bench to celebrate with the rest of the tribe. The Women are ecstatic for winning after 45 minutes of work on the puzzle.

"Congratulations, Women," Jet says.

He pulls out a Dr. Pepper bottle, but instead of it having Dr. Pepper, it has eight Fire Tokens inside.

"Here you go," Jet says, handing the bottle to Konata. "Take one and pass it down to the next player."

Konata does so, as each of the players gets a Fire Token.

"Okay, Women, head on out; a boat will pick you up and take you to the Dr. Pepper Oasis."

The Women happily leave the reward challenge area and head for the boat.

"Men, I've got to say," Jet says. "This is one of the worst performances by a tribe in the history of Crazy Survivor. You guys are just getting dominated and embarrassed."

"It's not fun," Kirito says. "We hate it as much as you do."

"But what's going to stop it?" Jet asks. "You have repeatedly refused to buy the Medallion of Power. We've given you every opportunity to get back in this game, and you've failed miserably. This season was made especially for two even tribes, but right now, you Men are getting your $#*%& kicked."

"Perhaps we will have to experiment with buying the Medallion of Power," Mayuri says.

"We've got to be better," Killua says. "That's on us."

"Spike, what do you think of your tribe's execution?"

"I'm in favor of it," Spike replies to loud laughter.

"And with that, I've got to tell you that I got nothing for you," Jet says. "Head back to camp, and better luck next time."

The disappointed Men head on back to camp.

"I would have liked to have had more Fire Tokens to experiment with," Mayuri says. "Unfortunately, we will have to make do with the ones we've got."

Dr. Pepper Oasis

(Women)

The Women take in all the sights and sounds of the beautiful oasis island that they are staying at. All of them clink glass bottles full of Dr. Pepper together.

"We are dominating!" Mine exclaims. "Those Men are a joke!"

"Here's to ten more victories!" Alice shouts.

"I am going to laugh in Kyon's face the next time I see him at school!" Haruhi says.

"And while they suffer, we eat and drink Dr. Pepper to our heart's content!" Misty exclaims.

"I'm not sure the Dr. Pepper is relevant to the discussion," Mine says.

"Overruled!" Alice says. "Dr. Pepper is always relevant!"

"Spirits are high after this victory," Michiru says. "We haven't lost to the Men in a long time, and now we have the chance to completely dictate how the jury will be formed. If we beat them again at our next challenge, that would leave only five of them. That would make it impossible for a Man in the Final Three to get a majority vote on Men's jury votes alone. We just need that win tomorrow."

"I've calculated things out, and it looks very positive," Ami says. "We can clinch a majority at a split-tribe Final Tribal Council with a win in our next challenge. If we wipe them out completely, then likely we will have individual immunity challenges like in prior seasons, and then it'll be every Woman for herself. That's something to keep in mind as we go forward. I guess we have no choice but to keep winning, because we're never going to merge anyhow."

The Women continue eating and drinking, while mocking the Men the whole time.

"A bunch of losers – literal losers," Konata says.

"Those guys are pitiful," Mine says.

"We're going to keep on winning for sure!" Misty says. "They have no one now that they lost Cato. They're essentially a junior varsity team!"

Jasmine and Michiru, however, remain silent.

"I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves and start counting our chickens before they hatch," Jasmine says. "We kind of did that as the Johto Tribe in Survivor: Shamouti Island. We won so many challenges, but then we weren't prepared for the game after that."

"It's important not to rub our noses in the Men's faces," Michiru says. "There will be between four and six Men on the jury, depending on when the jury begins. We are going to need some of their votes once we're at the Final Three, even if they don't have the majority. I hope we stay benevolent enough toward the Men that they feel that they could vote for us."

Men

(Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Spike)

As Killua cooks some rice for the Men, their morale could not possibly be lower.

"This is horrible," Killua says. "We are absolutely devastated. The losing has taken a big toll on us. I'm not sure some of these people even want to stay in the game."

That person is Spike, who looks willing to quit.

"Guys, I understand if you want to vote me out," he says. "I totally get it. We're just completely screwed. And I'm not helping the tribe any."

"You can't quit!" Kyon exclaims. "You'd be hanging me out to dry, and possibly Mayuri as well!"

"Yeah, of all the experimenting in this game I'd like to do, I feel that quitting is the worst option of all," Mayuri says.

"I just don't feel like playing anymore," Spike says. "This is completely boring and dreary. I want to quit."

As he is saying this, a boat arrives bringing the Women back.

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Spike

Women: Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty

"Did you save us any Dr. Pepper?" Kirito asks.

"If you want any, somebody's going to have to barf it up, 'cause it's gone," Konata says.

"Kyon, Kyon!" Haruhi shouts. "Get a plate!"

She pretends to vomit, then stands up straight and points at Kyon and starts laughing.

"I bet you're starving right now," Haruhi says. "Thirsty? I would imagine so."

"Well, it's time to move on," Konata says.

Kyon shakes his head. "Can you guys be any more annoying?"

"Hey, Probst, he called us 'guys!'" Konata faux-complains.

"There's something else to know," Mine says. "One of you Men is to come with me on this boat on a journey."

"Why you?" Joe asks.

"Our tribe decided that since I hadn't gone already, that I was a perfect candidate to go," Mine replies.

"Fine, then, I'll go," Spike says.

Kyon tries to stop him, but Spike shakes Kyon's arm off him.

"Look, if I can at least break my boredom for a little while, then I'll feel a lot better and not quit."

"No, that's not it," Kyon says, chasing after Spike as he gets into the boat.

The boat then takes off, with Mine and Spike riding away before Kyon can say anything to Spike.

"Rats, I wanted to warn him about what he is to face on this journey with Mine," Kyon says. "If he doesn't know what he's doing, he could screw over the rest of us, and it'll be just as bad as him quitting."

Journey

(Mine, Spike)

Mine sits in the boat with her arms crossed and a bitter look on her face. Spike tries to prod her.

"You getting ready to have your torch snuffed out?" he jokes.

"Would you stop it?" Mine says. "I want to go on this journey so I can get something out of it! Why did you come along?"

"Beats me," Spike says, with his hands in his pockets. "I'm quitting."

"You're quitting?" Mine says. "Stop it with that nonsense.

"No, I'm serious," Spike says. "I'm quitting. Too much boredom, too much hunger, too much drama, not enough food. Plus, I'm not even allowed to smoke a cigarette out here."

"That would be so stupid," Mine says. "I'm sure you'd screw over a bunch of people in your tribe by doing that."

"You might be right; I'll have to determine that for myself," Spike says.

"Come on, don't quit!" Mine says, slapping him on the back. "It's not like I care or anything, but it just… feels right to keep going!"

"All right, all right," Spike says with a laugh. "We're at the island now."

Mine and Spike jump out onto the beach, seeing a path to follow. They travel along it for a while, before a spot where a sign tells them to split up.

"Good luck," Spike says. "Also, I won't quit – thanks to your spirit."

"Yeah, well, all I really care about is it being able to say I won fair and square!"

The players head down their paths to the ship wheels that the other players had been to. "Protect Your Vote" is on one side, and "Risk Your Vote" is on the other. Mine arrives at hers first, reads the instructions, and starts thinking about what she should do.

"We are in for the fight of our lives if we as Women happen to lose a challenge," Mine says. "I need every vote I can get. That's why I'm pushing this over to…"

She slams the wheel over to "Risk Your Vote."

"Now, let's hope Mr. Quitter doesn't do the same thing."

Over on the other side of the island, Spike mulls over his decision.

"Let's see, if I can get us an extra vote, then we can beat Killua's alliance 4-3. Then, if they use an extra vote, so do we, and then we beat them 5-4. On the other hand, if I lose my vote…"

He thinks long and hard over his decision, taking about 15 minutes to choose.

"Eh, what's the difference anyway?" he says. "I was planning on quitting anyway, might as well go for broke."

He turns his wheel over to "Risk Your Vote."

Camp

Men: Joe, Killua, Kirito, Kyon, Mayuri, Spike

Women: Alice, Ami, Haruhi, Jasmine, Konata, Michiru, Mine, Misty

Mine and Spike arrive back at camp late that night. As most of the players sleep, each of them pulls out their bag. Mine opens her bag and looks at it.

"You have lost your vote," Mine reads. "Crap!"

"We are in a very bad position now that I lost my vote," Mine says. "Sure, we have Haruhi's extra vote, but that's not going to be enough to take down the JAM alliance. We need more than that. But now I've gone and lost a precious vote. Man, this really sucks!"

Spike also sees the grim news in his bag.

"Man!" he says.

"It can't be any worse than where I was earlier today," Spike says. "If I get voted out, so be it. But I'm not going to worry about a lost vote. There's a ton of other stuff I can do."

All the while, Killua keeps one eye open with his ears picking up Mine and Spike's cries of frustration.

"They apparently both lost their vote," Killua says. "And while Mine's doesn't matter to me, Spike's does. Because now we have the numbers, 3-2. If they buy an extra vote, then we'll buy one too and make it 4-3. In any case, we are in a much better position than we were a few hours ago. I just worry about some crazy Fire Token transaction that I am not aware of, where Kyon may have gotten an idol or something. But I've been talking to Kirito, and well, he's been telling me everything's going to be all right. I hope his optimism is rooted in reality, and not just blind hope."