EPISODE 7A: Caked in Glory!
*Last time on Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert...*
Upon arriving at the Koopa Sphinx for a mysterious reason, Alexa reveals that a couple of members from both teams will be removed and added to a new team known as the Laudable Leaves! This was both beneficial and problematic for the teams affected, and before they knew it, the new team consisted of ROB, Spy, Phoenix Wright, Luigi, and Jotaro Kujo, balancing every team to five members each.
In the newfound Laudable Leaves tribe, the survivors greeted each other, though not all of them were gentle with their greetings, Spy being evidence of that. After their greetings, ROB decided to calculate their chances of getting first or second place in their first triple-team challenge, and the percentages were rather promising for them, despite them being slightly above average. ROB then further shows off his utility on the tribe by making an impressively good meal texture-wise, which leaves a good impression on most of his tribemates.
Meanwhile, at the Super Shrooms tribe, the lot of them were panicking and worrying over the new tribe, and how some of their best members had switched against them due to the twist. Whilst this stress was short-lived due to Engineer defusing it and changing the subject, Waluigi's sudden cry of self-pity only brought another conflict into the tribe's day, making them see the supposed villain in a slightly different light...
Finally, Power Flowers had a similar panic, stressing over the fact that they had to face two competitors in one challenge more than anything. Luckily, K Rool and Meta Knight defused it, and unlike Super Shrooms, no further drama among the team took place that day. However, in the midst of them talking about themselves and their lives, Meta Knight warned the others of Kirby's power, to which K Rool had a hard time believing.
When the challenge finally rolled around, it was a boxing match that had one member from each team climb and fight on a floating triangular platform, the winner would win the round, and five main rounds would take place. The team that won the most rounds would be the winners of immunity and a prize, whilst second place would win immunity with no prize. And, as usual, the last place would win nothing but a trip to Tribal Council.
The first round became tense, Papyrus being eliminated immediately as Little Mac failed his attempt to overcome Jotaro's Star Platinum, resulting in Laudable Leaves winning the first round. The second round was mainly a one-on-one between Luigi and Waluigi, though Peach stepped in last second to eliminate both Waluigi and Luigi whilst their guard was at its weakest. The third round was similar to the first, with Phoenix getting eliminated almost immediately, leaving K Rool and Kirby to duke it out. Unfortunately for the crocodile, his repetitive attacks resulted in Kirby slowly chipping away at his stamina before knocking him off. As Kirby takes his victory, Meta Knight discovers that Kirby had eaten some of the boxing equipment to give himself the Fighter copy ability, something he had warned his team about.
At this point, each team had one point each, meaning that a tie between two teams would be likely. In the fourth round, Engineer, ROB, and Samus all had an intense fight that ended with ROB knocking them both off at the same time, giving him and Laudable Leaves their second win. In the fifth and potentially final round, Tails knocked off Spy before facing Meta Knight, the two of them having a close duel before Tails managed to outsmart Meta Knight by grabbing and throwing him off the arena. Whilst Power Flowers was guaranteed last place, Super Shrooms and Power Flowers nominated Little Mac and Jotaro for the tiebreaker, which unfortunately ended with Little Mac yet again losing to Star Platinum's speed, power, and precision. This left Laudable Leaves at first with a cake as their prize, Super Shrooms at second, and Power Flowers at dead last.
Back at Power Flowers, Papyrus decided to go against his and K Rool's alliance status by not going through with the idea to force a tie between Peach and Meta Knight, as his respect for the two was simply too high. This caused K Rool to manipulate the two into believing that Papyrus was planning to eliminate Meta Knight using an idol, even though K Rool was the one who secretly had the idol. To the crocodile's surprise, both of them believed him and decided to vote for Papyrus.
At Tribal Council, Papyrus voted for himself, suspecting that K Rool would do the same so Meta Knight and Peach would be the ones to deliver their verdict on who gets eliminated from the show (again, this was out of respect for the two and their performances in the last challenge). Whilst K Rool didn't follow with his plans, karma quickly retaliated, as it turned out that Meta Knight and Peach decided to blindside K Rool, which caused a tie between the betrayed, confused Papyrus and the angry, shocked K Rool. In the second vote, Alexa revealed to them that idols are unable to be played after the first tie, which resulted in K Rool's demise...
What will happen in this episode? Which teams will receive immunity, and who will face elimination this time? All and more will be answered in Episode 7 of Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert!
Power Flowers: Day 13
Survivors: Papyrus - Meta Knight - Princess Peach - Samus Aran.
After the boat that had taken Samus to Exile Oasis took her back to the main desert, she made her way to her team's green pipe in the Challenge Dunes, which turned out to be a shorter walk than the journey to her tribe.
As she traveled through, the bounty hunter flipped out of the pipe majestically, landing on both of her feet. Then, she took in her surroundings, discovering that only Meta Knight was to be seen, making her very curious as to who got eliminated last night. He had his cape snugly wrapped around him, which was a little odd considering the heat.
She approached him steadily, and it seemed as if he had no idea of her presence. However, as she drew near...
"Welcome back," he muttered, surprising her. Either Meta Knight was really good at sensing the presence of a person in general, or he was simply incredible with his hearing. "You probably wish to know who was eliminated last time."
Samus nodded. "It'd help to know, though I have a suspicion that it was Papyrus."
"Contrary to your expectations, K Rool was the one who faced elimination," he said, throwing his wrapped cape over his shoulders before turning to her. "If it wasn't for Papyrus, it would have been me or Peach."
"Interesting... what exactly did he do to save your skin?" She asked, raising an eyebrow with mild interest.
Meta Knight pointed to the tent that Papyrus was currently sleeping in and explained most of what happened yesterday to Samus, going into great detail about K Rool's attempted schemes, Papyrus disobeying him despite their alliance, and voting for himself out of loyalty for the rest of the tribe, and what went down with K Rool's idol in Tribal Council.
"Seems like the skeleton is too naive for his own good." Samus shook her head, breaking a small smile over how ridiculous the actions of Papyrus sounded to her. "Fighting to your last breath is your own option, where you did well or terrible in that challenge, yet Papyrus decided to vote for himself and put his chances of winning all of that money on the line?"
"It is naive, but I cannot help but have respect for him," the warrior admitted. "After all, his actions, as terrible as they were to his own benefit, saved the skin of everyone barring K Rool, which is ironic considering they supposedly had a somewhat stable alliance."
"Last season, Papyrus was incredibly reliant on his alliance, as he had nothing going for him physically. To hear him betray his alliance for the benefit of the rest of the team is shocking, and it means that he's more than a walking, talking pawn this time around." - Samus Aran.
As Samus acknowledged everything she had missed yesterday, the aforementioned Papyrus popped his head out of his tent, waking up from a sub-par rest to see that the two of them were mentioning his name, which worried him to no end.
"E-ERM, THAT USE OF MY NAME BETTER BE IN A GOOD LIGHT!" He hoped, leaping out of the tent and greeting the others. "REGARDLESS, GOOD MORNING TO YOU BOTH!"
"He told me about your decision to ditch K Rool's orders out of loyalty for the tribe. Take that as you will, but I wouldn't consider it negative," Samus explained.
"OH, THAT..." Papyrus sighed. "WELL, I WOULD HAVE STAYED IN THE ALLIANCE IF HE COULD HAVE AT LEAST UNDERSTOOD MY POINT OF VIEW! INSTEAD, HE WANTED TO PLUNGE THE TRIBE INTO ABSOLUTE CHAOS! HE SEEMED TO CARE MORE ABOUT WINNING THAN LOYALTY AND APPRECIATION TO THE TOP-PERFORMERS, WHICH, IF YOU ASK ME, ARE MUDDLED UP PRIORITIES!"
Samus tilted her head. "It's hard for me to agree. I'm in this gameshow to win, and even if I do make allies, there's nothing more important to me right now than the prizes."
"TO EACH OF THEIR OWN, BUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WANTS THE MIDDLE GROUND OF VICTORY AND FRIENDSHIP!" He posed, brushing dust and sand off of his costume. "WHICH WILL BE FAIRLY EASY TO OBTAIN FOR A SKELETON LIKE ME."
"I'm all for friendship too!" Peach said, from behind. "However, I also value sleep a lot, so can you keep it down next time?"
"KEEP WHAT DOWN?!" Papyrus queried, rubbing his jaw, peering around the area. "NOTHING SEEMS TO BE OBNOXIOUSLY UP..."
The princess put a hand over her face, breaking into a giggle over the absurdity of his bewilderment. "Your voice!"
"OH, YOU'RE REFERRING TO MY VOLUME!" He yelled, snapping his fingers.
"Continuing from what I said earlier, I think being social is vital for winning a game show like this!" She agreed with Papyrus. "There's a good chance that the finale will be like last time, where a "jury" consisting of old survivors voted for one of the final three to win. There's no way you can convince them to vote you if you've been nothing but a jerk all game."
Samus rubbed her shoulder. "You're right to an extent, but I argue that your overall performance can be enough to win them over, as long as they aren't enemies with you, that is."
"Well, we'll have to see! There's a wonderfully diverse cast of people here that will have different reasons for voting the victor, but that's too far into the future to discuss," Peach admitted, deciding to change the topic. "Have you caught up on what happened yesterday, Samus?"
The bounty hunter sat down and nodded. "Papyrus and Meta Knight filled me in on all of it. Sounded like an interesting night."
"It was! I have a lot of newfound respect for Papyrus due to his bravery, though I think it was a little bit much," she pouted, turning to the skeleton. "I don't think you should ruin your chances over a mistake! We all make them, and everyone here, including I, has made many on this show. Whether it be in challenges or when making decisions."
Papyrus scratched his head, confused. "WAIT, SO, VOTING YOU BOTH WOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR PREFERRED OPTION?!"
"No no no!" Peach shook her head profusely. "I'm just saying that you should try and put your own safety before ours. You could have simply joined Meta Knight and I in voting off K Rool, for example, as he was digging his own grave the moment he proposed forcing a tie to get either me or Meta Knight out."
Silence...
Eventually, said silence was slain by Papyrus, yet again snapping his fingers. "SO I SHOULD STAY LOYAL TO MYSELF JUST LIKE HOW I WAS TO YOU TWO?! HMM... THAT WOULD BE A HAPPY ENDING FOR EVERYONE!" He beamed. "INCREDIBLE ADVICE, PRINCESS!"
Peach smiled back. "You're welcome!"
"Papyrus is certainly one of the nicest people on here for sure! He's not cold or reserved, and he's brimming with emotion. I may consider forming an alliance with him, but he doesn't seem like the type to keep a secret. Plus, he's going to be very defenseless when all teams inevitably merge into one." - Princess Peach.
Papyrus then wagged his finger. "NOW, WHILST I'M IN SUCH A GOOD MOOD, I'LL BEGIN PREPPING OUR FIRST MEAL OF THE DAY! I TEND TO DO MUCH BETTER AT COOKING WHEN IN A GOOD MOOD, PERHAPS DOUBLY AS GOOD!"
Samus rested her head on her hand, dreading the meal. "Two times zero still equals zero..." She thought.
Super Shrooms: Day 13
Survivors: Little Mac - Tails - Waluigi - Kirby - Engineer.
As the survivors woke up one by one, they went about the usual routine that they had recently adopted: exit their tent; greet the others; cook and eat a meal, and either entertain themselves with board games or chat about themselves.
Currently, their routine had gotten up to their meal, and Tails was elected to be the cook for today.
He dished out the portions. He made sure they were all equal in size and handed out the bowls to the other four.
"Poyo..." Kirby said. It was a common reaction to receiving his meal, so the others took it as a polite and cheery "Thank you!". However, something was off. Kirby's usual optimism that he gave out when he was given a meal had been sapped out of him.
Similarly, Little Mac would be a little thrilled over receiving a dose of energy in the form of a small portion of rice and beans, but today he wasn't as happy to receive it.
"Seems like we got a couple of long faces in this tribe," Engineer analyzed as he took in a mouthful of his portion. "If it's to do with the portions, well I can't help but empathize."
The boxer groaned. "It's not that, it's more so the fact that we missed out on cake yesterday!"
Kirby nodded, giving out the same meek "Poyo..." as he did when he received the dish.
"Out of all the prizes I thought my tribe would be upset over losin', a cake hit them the hardest? Sure, I'd love somethin' to shake up our usual diets of bland, crunchy food, but they look more bummed over losing a cake than the electric fan!" - Engineer.
Waluigi folded his arms. "Well, it's-a that cheater Jotaro! Grr..." He could barely contain his anger. "Even that-a boxer freak who doesn't take off his-a gloves can't beat him..."
"Y-you're one to talk!" Little Mac lashed out. "I haven't seen you take off your gloves!"
Suddenly, he retaliated out of further anger. "Well, mine aren't-a bulbous boxing gloves you-a idiot!"
Arguments were the last thing Tails wanted to deal with today, so he attempted to break it up. "Gloves don't matter! In fact, we should be happy over second place. We didn't get a cake, but we're safe, and being safe is all that matters!"
"You're right, but I'm still going to be forever hungrier. I can barely take my mind off of that cake!" Mac licked his lips, before finishing up his rice. "Anyway, it's not that hot today, so I'm going to go train myself up."
The four were shocked to hear that he would be doing intense exercise. Keeping their energy up is a foolproof strategy to have them perform well in challenges, and training goes against that due to how tiring it is.
"You sure you wanna go waste all of that energy by runnin' around?" Asked Engineer.
"Hey, I need to keep my muscle up! Besides, as long as I get a good amount of sleep, I'm always ready to go!" He said, proudly cupping his bicep with his hand. "I'll see you guys in an hour or three. See ya!"
Little Mac dashed away into the horizon until all the others could barely see him. From that point, he began his routine of runs, push-ups, and any other strength-training exercises he could think of in the limited desert environment.
"That boy has more determination than I could ever imagine!" Engineer chuckled, slamming his hand onto his knee. "I've been and fought in hot places, but doing exercises in the middle of a desert would be downright suicide for me."
"If he's too-a tired to do anything tomorrow, let's-a vote him off!" Suggested Waluigi. "It only makes sense!"
Tails proceeded to profusely shake his head at the suggestion. "I don't want to discuss elimination until we're in that position. Otherwise, it could break up the alliance."
"Poyo!" Kirby agreed, sharing the same passion for avoiding drama.
"Psssh, whatever." Waluigi folded his arms and gave out a groan. "So... what-a now?"
The question turned out to be well-justified, as they only had a few options for killing the time.
Engineer, however, was set on a particular option. "Hmm, considerin' our last attempt ended in calamity only a few minutes in. How 'bout we continue to get to know each other? It wouldn't hurt, since we're definitely gonna be in this tribe for a while."
"Lemme guess, Engie..." Waluigi pulled a cheeky grin. "You're a plumber! You have-a the overalls, and the stupid red and blue that only idiots would consider fashion!"
"The occupation is in the name, bud," he revealed. "I'm an engineer."
"Wait, that's just a nickname, right?" Asked Tails with concern. "Or are you really called-"
His question was cut off. "Engineer? Heck no. It's just a name I've been more or less assigned to by my colleagues, just like how Spy ain't called Spy. Dell Conagher's ma' real name, and there ain't much special about it."
"No names are special," said the fox. "My real name is Miles Prower, and that's not a very interesting name."
"Fair... I imagine your tails have somethin' to do with your nickname?" Dell asked. "You got two of 'em poking out."
Kirby agreed with the observation. "Poyo!" He said, gazing at the two tails in awe.
He smiled, rubbing the back of his head. "More or less. People would say that nicknaming me after something like my twin-tails would be insulting, but I don't mind. They help me fly around and fight off badniks, so it's almost like being nicknamed after a weapon, which is fine by me!"
"So... you're Tails because of Tails, and you're Engineer because you're an-a Engineer?" Waluigi queried. "That's-a so obvious and-a boring."
Offended, Tails pointed to the mustached man. "And why do they call you Waluigi, then?"
"Er, because... I'm-a rivals with-a Luigi..." He replied, realizing the irony of his insults. "Fine, you've proven your-a point!"
With embarrassment, Waluigi then changed the topic over to Kirby. "So, why are you-a called Kirby, then?"
"Poyo?" He shrugged.
Engineer chuckled at the puffball's immediate yet clueless response. "Looks like it was just a name he was given, which is a breath of fresh air from this nickname-fest we seem to have."
"Poyo!" Thanked Kirby, beaming.
"There ain't much I understand about you, Kirby, but there's something about you that radiates purity!" He admitted. "Just look at that smile of yours. Who would have thought that you were good at fightin' as well."
Waluigi turned his head. "Wah! He just got-a lucky."
"No luck's needed for a one-on-one with a three-to-four-hundred pound crocodile, what the critter did was all skill, and it was a blast to watch." Engineer clasped his hands. "In fact, most of the fights had me on the edge of my seat! Includin' the one I actually got to participate in."
"Poyo! Poyo poyo... POYO!" - Kirby.
Tails nodded wildly. "Yeah! I never thought Little Mac would be able to take on Jotaro, even for a little bit. Oh, oh, and you were decent against Samus, who I thought would take you and ROB out in an instant!"
With a groan, the Texan remembered the fight in vivid detail. "Well, I thought I might be able to win towards the end of the match, but that Robo-fella delivered a mighty beatin' to me and the girl."
"Speaking of-a Samus..." Waluigi twizzled his mustache with mischief in his eyes. "I remember you saying something about her having an idol a while ago! Have you heard anything from that since?"
Engineer shook his head. "Not a holler, but I suspect she still has it cookin' in her pocket."
"Samus will probably have a grudge against me 'til the end of time. Not only did I catch her finding the idol, but I also leaked it out to the entirety of Super Shrooms, and that means all teams aside from Power Flowers have caught wind of her idol. At least I told 'em off-camera, so she won't be able to watch me tellin' everyone when she comes home from this show." - Engineer.
"It's good to be safe," winked Tails.
"Poor Samus... she was infamous not only in the first season according to what Sonic told me, but now she's a target yet again thanks to Engineer catching her with the idol. Needless to say, things are going to get VERY ugly for her when the merge comes." - Tails.
More silence passed, and the silence was enough for the conversation to end by Engineer's hands. "Welp, that was a great talk! Now, anyone up for some Poker?"
"NOOO!" Gulped Waluigi. "C-Chess!"
"Aight," he nodded. "Anyone want to bet their rations?"
Again, Waluigi gulped. "Why else did I-a pick Chess and not-a Poker?!"
"Fair!" Engineer smirked. "Casual Chess it is!"
They both got out the board and took turns having duels with one another, Little Mac continuing to push himself to his absolute limits for another hour before arriving back and joining in with Chess to help him wind down...
Tribal Council?: Day 13
Survivors: Phoenix Wright - Spy - Luigi - ROB - Jotaro Kujo.
"And... eliminated at four votes...
"PHOENIX WRIGHT!" Announced Alexa.
The lawyer gasped, shaking his head. "B-but I thought we were all going to vote Jotaro?!"
"S-sorry Phoenix," apologized Luigi. "Blindsiding was our safest option."
"You really think we would get rid of someone as powerful as Jotaro?!" Spy cackled. "You're nothing but a fool!"
As Spy belittled him further, Jotaro gave a mean glare towards him. Alexa began torching his face portrait, causing him to grab and shake his head with despair.
"Sorry Phoenix, but your tribe has spoken! Please leave Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert..." Alexa commanded.
Phoenix suddenly lowered and shook his hands. "B-but-"
"No buts. I cannot allow you to stay on the show any longer," he said. "Please take your leave, Wright."
The lawyer wanted to stand up, but felt glued to the bench, the other survivors mocked his feeble attempt to stand up, as well as the dread on his face. Even survivors like Luigi and ROB were pointing and laughing, which was more than out of character for the two, especially when one was a robot with little emotion. All Phoenix could even do at this point was listen to the fire, its crackling grew louder, and louder... and louder...
And louder...
Laudable Leaves: Day 13
Survivors: Phoenix Wright - Spy - Luigi - ROB - Jotaro Kujo.
Phoenix snapped awake, the crackling fire he had heard mere moments ago was located outside of his tent, and he rubbed his head to clear his mind.
"Ugh... what a nightmare," he admitted quietly, trying not to wake up the person next to him: Spy. "Haven't gotten a dream like that in ages, it felt so real..."
Whilst his nightmare of being eliminated from Tribal Council loomed in his head, Phoenix was more curious to see what was causing the fire outside of the tent.
As the lawyer slipped out of the tent, he saw ROB cooking, Luigi sat on a bench nearby the robot, and both of them immediately noticed Phoenix.
"Good morning!" Luigi smiled before noticing the lawyer's dazed face. "Or-a not?"
ROB was immediate with his remark. "It looks like you might have had difficulty sleeping last night, which might have been caused by the energy content of the cake you and the others had."
He rubbed his head further. "No, I had a decent rest, I just had this strange nightmare..."
"Oh. What was it about?" Questioned Luigi.
Phoenix recalled all of the events and gave a summary of his testimony. "Well, I was at Tribal Council, and I had been blindsided by the team. When I stood up to leave the gameshow as Alexa commanded, I could barely move! Not to mention that everyone was laughing at me maniacally. It was so out of place, and pretty eerie."
"E-even me?!" The plumber queried. "Well, what you described definitely does sound quite nightmarish..."
ROB gave a slightly mild beep to grasp his attention. "Dreams are not understood fully, though most people would assume that a dream like yours is probably caused by unconscious anxiety of being eliminated from the show and losing it all. Though, again, it could just be related to the game show because you are within the said game show, and it has no meaning deeper than that."
"That makes sense..." Nodded Phoenix. "I am pretty scared of being eliminated, specifically blindsided."
Luigi scratched his arm, giving a small smile. "Aren't we all?"
"Ever since I joined the same team as Jotaro, I've been nervous over getting eliminated more than ever before. He definitely wants me gone due to my previous suspicions of him having an idol, and I can conclude that from how I was voted for on the night of Gordon's elimination through rocks. Hopefully, I can make it through, because I can't help but think that Spy will have a big role in the next Tribal Council I go to." - Phoenix Wright.
Suddenly, Spy was the next to exit his tent. "Gentlemen? Good morning!"
Whilst unable to give a proper wave, ROB spun his limbs in a full circle in an attempt to recreate a welcoming gesture. "You too."
"Something that I learned is that humans have a strong passion for manners in their language. If someone orders another person to do something, they may follow it up with a "Please" in order to come across kinder, and then, once the order is complete, they'll give them a simple "Thank you" as their reward. I've attempted to adopt simple kindness and manners into my own language, otherwise, I may just come across as a stone-cold, forceful robot, and nobody wants one of those on their team." - ROB.
"Rather early for a meal, but I won't complain," the mercenary gazed at the food. "Is the rest of the cake fine?"
Luigi bobbed his head, taking the box off of their table and showing him. "Just as good as it was yesterday!"
"Good, that means Alexa didn't give us one that was close to expiring and growing mold," he joked. "I assume we'll be having the rest tonight?"
"No."
Suddenly, he jumped backward and spun around, facing Jotaro, who towered over him. "Don't sneak up on me you imbecile!"
"Considering your job is to sneak around, consider it a taste of your own medicine," thought Phoenix, grinning on the outside.
Despite the lashing, he continued. "I say we have the rest tomorrow morning, right before the challenge. That way, our energy will be a lot higher."
"Oh, right, why didn't I think of that?" Spy agreed. "Very well! Let's save that cake for tomorrow. Good thing it came with a box."
As their plans were made, Jotaro started a different subject. "I was planning on sleeping for longer, but all of the talking outside made it difficult."
"S-sorry," apologized Luigi. "I probably should have been a little quieter."
"I only wanted to sleep for longer so I could get this day over with sooner; I don't feel very tired at all," he explained.
Spy acknowledged his statement, and he couldn't help but sigh. "Exactly! There's nothing to do whatsoever. No literature, entertainment, or even a pen and paper. It's a boring slog, and talking to people here is not a big enough distraction."
With everyone now awake, ROB put the fire out and dished up all of the portions of rice and beans. Yet again, he cooked them to perfection, yet the lack of taste still made them nothing to write home about. However, the fairly minimal taste was bolder than ever before due to their celebratory cake feast yesterday.
"Not even a few bites in, and I'm already aching to have more of-a that cake! It's the best I've ever tasted, but that could-a just be down to me being starved of tasty food for the past two weeks or-a so. Regardless, I've never been-a more excited for a challenge day thanks to it!" - Luigi.
As they somewhat enjoyed their small meal, they spent their day relaxing, talking to others, and drooling over tomorrow morning, where they would be able to have another slice of their prize...
*TO BE CONTINUED*