Mexico (Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty) - Ponderosa

Chapter 2 - Juror 2

Well, I guess Ryu Hoshi is next, guys lol. Maybe he can relate a bit to Espio. Both seem to think the same way to some degree and they have multiple things in common. Maybe on a random season if they started off on the same tribe they would have easily formed an alliance right off the bat, but since there is a specific theme for the season, things didn't quite work out like that, with Ryu only keeping Espio around for Golden, and Espio only keeping Ryu around for Golden.

All in all, neither of the two were each other's long term plan, but now they're the first two members of Survivor - Mexico's jury. And knowing that they don't have to strategize anymore, it'd be better for the both of them to sleep at night and maybe they can get to know each other a bit more, since the only times they really interacted was during the tribe swap.

One more thing to note, congrats to Ryu for being the first person ever in my series to play a fake idol lol. Let's see how he will handle his loss at Ponderosa...

~KF

"Hello, I'm Ryu, juror number two, and this is my Ponderosa."

Night 27

"Well... That was embarrassing..."

Survivor's first ever street fighter character quietly laughed to himself shaking his head, further exiting the Tribal Council area.

"I had a feeling that I was gonna get the boot. I tried scrambling to get the numbers on my side last minute, even willing to go to rocks, but these people just thought I was too threatening to keep around. I found this 'idol' right before Tribal Council, so naturally I thought it was real and Plague was gonna get blindsided tonight right after he got saved last time,... only to realize it was fake. Won't be surprised if Specter Knight made it. Ever since last tribal, he just blew up outta nowhere... He's really making a name for himself out here, but I just don't know how long is it gonna take until people finally consider him too dangerous to keep around."

"The moment when Specter Knight won the immunity necklace, I thought I was done right there. That completely sealed my fate." He went on, making his way over to Crazy Hand's tent. "Because of me getting one question wrong, he literally beat me in the end in about one to two seconds, and now I'm here. ...Well, Specter, guess you won. Won't be surprised if that fake idol came from either you or Plague."

"Me and Specter, we tolerated each other. We never disrespected each other in any sort of way. It was simply two survivors fighting for the same thing just like everybody else. Though the one thing we have in common is that money is not the motivation for either of us; we were doing nothing but trying to be the soul survivors. So while Specter can be rather... 'cold-blooded' as some people say, at the same time, he knows that this is just the game and he did nothing but eliminate another competitor. I give him props for doing that. Maybe if he's in the finals he just might get my jury vote... I dunno about Plague, though." He laughed and facepalmed himself. "I don't think he understands the concept of a 'competition' where most of your moves in Survivor aren't gonna work out in your favor, and you gotta know how to deal with it."

"Coming in..." His voice sounded as he stepped right in the medical tent to check in with Crazy Hand.

"Greetings, Ryu! Welcome to the Survivor Medical Tent," Master Hand's 'crazier' brother beamed. "with me to check you out to make sure everything is okay! How are you feeling right now? Everything good!"

"I feel perfectly fine. Just need to eat something real quick." He replied sitting down in the chair. "A bit tired as well. I don't think any of us gotten much sleep last night..."

"Alright! We'll get your blood pressure and then you get to see how much weight you've lost!"

"I think physically I'm doing okay. I think that I have given it my all in the challenges with overexerting myself, I've adapted to the wildlife, and while there was the lack of food issue that I had to deal with, it was something that I've grown used to. And hey, I won a couple rewards so it wasn't all bad. Nevertheless, you wouldn't believe how much weight I lost..."

"And you used to weigh 187.2 pounds before the game started." Crazy Hand chose to remind him of his previous weight first. "What does the scale say?"

"It says..." Ryu Hoshi widened his eyes in utter astonishment. "Oh my god... 159.4..."

"Oh, wow..." The doctor subtracted the weight on his calculator. "That means you've lost 27.8 pounds, Ryu..."

"...I..." He shook his head. "I don't know if I should feel proud or embarrassed..."

"Hey, you've been out there for twenty-seven days." Crazy Hand recalled. "And for a strong guy like you, how much you weigh now, I'd say that it is rather impressive and fascinating to look at after all you been through."

"Guess you're right. Thanks."

"No problem. Now gather your things so that you can be on your way."

"The moment when the boat took off, I immediately began to think to myself of how I would have gotten to day thirty-nine... If that was even possible considering of how much Specter was trying to get rid of me. Maybe I was too focused into forming new strategic relationships, I completely abandoned my old relationships, maybe I was just too apparent of a threat no matter what, maybe I should have never voted Jet out in the swap, all these 'what-if' scenarios going on through your head. I'm pretty sure almost every other juror feels the same way, and then you start to regret some of your actions. However, no matter what, like all things in life, this is simply a learning experience. My own motto is that I have to be as strong as I can in order to become the best person I can. Sure, not everybody gets that chance to play again, but if I was asked to be brought back, maybe I could... you know, re-watch my own season when it airs on television and think about what I need to do to better myself."

Following a bit of self-reflection, Hoshi finally arrived at his destination, Espio the Chameleon immediately standing up on the steps, him apparently waiting for the student of Grouken for quite a few minutes.

"Greetings, Ryu. About time you showed up."

"Ugh..." He sighed and brought a hand to his face. "Don't wanna be here, actually. I should be at camp getting ready to try to get some sleep right now. But hey, I guess this Ponderosa will help numb my pain."

"The feeling is mutual." The nineteen year old was in agreement. "To think that only two votes were needed to send me here... Where did you get that fake idol from? Specter?"

"I really don't have a clue... I was just thinking about Specter possibly making it, but he appeared to be just as shocked as most of the others... Speaking of which, he is kinda the reason to why both of us are here right now."

"Agreed. Each of us simply have different reasons."

He smirked out of sarcasm. "You were planning on trying to figure out a plan to get rid of me, weren't you?"

"I suppose since we both have eliminated, there is no reason to hide anything anymore." He chose to lay all of his cards on the table. "Maybe not at that other tribal, maybe not tonight, but at some point, I would have convinced the rest of my tribe alliance to send you packing. You were too much of a physical threat to keep around, and I feel that except for Plague, I trusted my tribe alliance more than I trusted you."

"Sounds fair enough." Now it was his turn in order to call it even. "I never had a long term plan to keep you or Isabelle around, because you know, the Strong Guys Alliance... which is probably disbanded at this point."

"Specter Knight broke the game. He is probably even the biggest threat to win out of everyone." Espio predicted the scythe wielder to likely receive the votes at the final tribal. "Hopefully they all wake up and realize it. Him being eliminated will leave Plague with no options. I still regret not sending him home at the merge..."

"Same here, even though I was not on the Brain tribe, but only because I didn't wanna vote out Katt..." Ryu paused for a brief moment. "What the- Wait a minute, why are we strategizing even after we've been voted out? Come on. Let's head inside already."

"After you." He stepped aside to allow the new juror to enter the cafe first. "Mirror's to your left."

"It took me until now to realize that I wouldn't have minded if Ryu was actually put on the Brain tribe." Espio laughed, finding a couple things in common with his fellow juror. "He is highly intelligent. Though what prevented us from fully trusting one another was simply the fact that the two of us were on different tribes. But now since both of us have lost, I am curious to see how this goes with the two of us. We were both just standing on the steps talking about the game quite a bit before we both realized that we had already forgotten that the cafe was three steps away."

Hoshi was now staring at his reflection, his mouth hanging with his eyes not even blinking. "Okay, seriously? I looked that horrible? No wonder they voted me out. I may not have been on the Beauty tribe, but this is ridiculous for even my standards."

Believe it or not, the street fighter actually grown facial hair. Ryu never even knew how much he was capable of growing sideburns. Even a small beard was forming beneath his chin.

He facepalmed out of embarrassment. "Ken's gonna make fun of me when he sees this..."

"I look hideous. Literally a homeless person sweating and sleeping on bamboo all the time. Maybe this is the perfect look for someone like me that has been stranded in the wild for nearly thirty days. Probably the average look if you spent a long time on Survivor..."

Quesadillas, tacos, and enchiladas were all placed in front of Ryu to enjoy, a plate of nachos being put down directly in front of his face shortly after. And yes, he even ordered a salad.

"..." Espio sat as still as a statue. He was completely amazed of all the food Ryu ordered. Though he was aware that Ryu was a minor complainer about the lack of food there was at the camp, he never knew he was that hungry. Yet when he thought about it, he knew that there was no way he was going to eat absolutely everything. From his knowledge, most of the jurors ordered a lot simply to have something to eat after going so many hungry days while consuming nothing with rice and coconut. Heck, the cast was even lucky that beans were a part of their diet.

"I hope you know what leftovers are. You can not let all of that go to waste."

"Oh, don't worry." Ryu shrugged as if it was nothing, already taking a bite of his taco with spicy sauce. "I'll finish all this... eventually. You know you saw me taking advantage of a lot of those coconuts."

"You have..."

"Well, hey, at least I always brought some back for the rest of the tribe... Plague Knight and probably Incineroar would not have cared less." He said in self-defense. "I even heard that apparently on the reward before you left, Incineroar ate more than his fair share of food, resulting in an upset Daisy Rose."

Though he chuckled at that, he shook his head with that information. "Why do I have the feeling that Incineroar has a lack of self-awareness?"

"I mean, he does know that you kinda have to have a social game out there," Ryu spoke between bites. "I don't think he knows what he's doing when it comes to him being around the others, so it really comes down to a lack of self-awareness like you said."

"I do not even know what he is capable of strategically." Espio continued. "In my opinion, he is quite living up to his tribe name... for all the wrong reasons."

"Yeah, he's basically the definition of 'Brawn over Brains,'" Ryu was not afraid of hearing the chameleon's truth about his old tribe mate. "which was quite the opposite of what I was trying to stand for in the game. With me being someone on the Brawn tribe, I wanted to prove that the most physical people can strategically play the game, too. But the only reason to why I recruited Incineroar to be part of the Strong Guys Alliance is in fact because he's strong like I was. Though in all honesty, I felt more close to you by a large margin than Incineroar, and that's saying something."

"..." That was definition something Espio did not expect to hear. "You're serious? ...I thank you."

"No problem." He grinned back. "I'd say we have a good two or three days to talk."

After dinner, he was carrying his large duffel bag over his shoulder to his new home for the time being.

"Very healthy discussion at the cafe tonight." He spoke his immediate thoughts of the matter. "I feel like Espio is just the right person I needed to see here, so I guess the two of us will have this whole place to ourselves until the next person gets here. Something tells me that this won't be the last time either of us will bring up the game, but knowing that we relate to each other heck of a lot, I don't even mind. Time to get a good night's sleep..."

Day 28

With it now being on day twenty-eight, it was technically Ryu Hoshi's first officially day at Ponderosa. He woke up early, yet not too early to enter the cafe, Espio already eating by the time he showed up.

"Looks like it's gonna rain today..."

"It has rained the day after I arrived as well. You're going to eat?"

"Yeah, after I train a bit..." He stretched out his arms, them reaching behind his head. "I'm gonna try those weights out and be back here in a few minutes..."

"Very well."

Within a few minutes, the Chaotix member openly observed Ryu punching and kicking another large duffel bag in a different room of the Ponderosa.

-/-

"I was considering on exploring Ponderosa a bit, but I didn't know that it was going to be wet today, so after I worked out and ate breakfast, there wasn't really that much to do. Like, by the time I ended up being done with everything, I just decided to bring Espio with me to my place. It's really all I ended up doing that morning, but I think I got enough sleep from last night. We're in Mexico, so I don't wanna exactly sleep my whole Survivor experience away. And so since we didn't really have that much to talk about, unsurprisingly,... we decided to talk about the game again."

"So,... how do you think the others are doing?"

"They are probably getting ready to head to the next reward challenge at this time." Espio assumed. "It is possible that they are not in the best of moods knowing what kind of weather we are experiencing at the moment..."

"Well, hey, that's one advantage we have right now." Ryu grinned at that. "We're both nice and dry and everyone else is soaked. Pretty satisfying to see since the both of us are not involved with that. I know Funky Kong's probably the one person that would almost never complain about the rain."

"Rain does not bother me that much either, unless it is interfering with one of my personal hobbies..."

Ryu popped an eyebrow. "Meaning...?"

"I tried meditating the other day, and the weather decided that it was the perfect opportunity to rain at that moment.

"Oh..." Suddenly the street fighter thought of something. "Well, hey, I have an idea. Maybe whenever it stops raining we could do that again outside, and maybe I could introduce you to a couple of my training techniques."

"..." His eyes widened a bit with quite a few thoughts running through his mind. "I... I'm all for meditation, but... although I am not the most physical type unlike a certain someone I know, I suppose I could give it a try."

He chuckled and brought a hand to his face. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. Anyone can grow to be as strong as they can. All it takes is a little practice and if you keep at it, you'll become even stronger than before. In other words, like they always say: 'practice makes perfect'. All the time. You can borrow my gloves."

"Alright, then..."

"Espio's a ninja on Mobius as part of this whole... 'Team Chaotix Detective Agency'. That alone makes me think that he has some serious potential, yes, admittedly he is not the type to win eighteen million immunity challenges of Survivor, but it doesn't mean anything. Who wouldn't want to perform to be the best they possibly could? Isn't that our number one goal in life? Well, other than living life to the fullest, perhaps, but it ties into it. So I just wanted Espio to just try something new. Get him out of the house a little bit."

"Always move when you're not punching... Go on."

He stood behind Espio not too long after the sun finally came out, the young adult punching and kicking away as he was instructed to do so.

"Hmph..." Ryu was rather impressed with his efforts. "Not surprised that you have a strong sense of balance."

He did appear that he was well determined to perform well in that particular exercise. And by the time he was finished, he was curious on hearing Ryu's honest opinion. "...How was that?"

"Not bad." He clapped. "Not bad at all. However, I think one major criticism is how much time you actually take to breathe."

The anthropomorphic animal appeared to be rather confounded by it. "What do you mean? I do need to able to catch my breath, don't I?"

"As well all do. However, since timing is everything, your best option is to simply wait to catch your breath for about two seconds at most. The breathing is something you always need to focus on doing while you are trying to best your opponent. That way it'd be easier for you." Ryu elaborated.

"So focus on breathing and attacking simultaneously is what you are saying." He summed it up in his own words. "Sounds easier said than done."

"In all honestly it does, especially when I first started out as a kid." Ryu talked from his own personal experience. "Balancing punching the bag and breathing will come with time. And pretty soon it'll be the easiest task to do when it comes to fighting your opponent."

"So, how big of a risk is it to take an extended amount of time catching your breath?"

"Well, let's put it this way. ...If you are fighting for your life, would your opponent really be waiting for you to catch your breath for a bit? ...It would not happen, would it?"

"..." He sighed in defeat and lowered his head. "You have a point... I would lose my battle and I would be lying flat on the ground, not being able to breathe again..."

"Exactly."

"I would not say training to be a martial artist is my number one thing that I'd like to do. However, if I were to pick anyone to be my teacher (or my master), I would definitely pick Ryu Hoshi with no questions asked." Overall, the training went really well for Espio that day. He definitely would not have minded if Ryu found the time to train him again while the two were on Ponderosa together. "He's learned a lot from his master, and I know that he would be willing to pass it down and allow others to learn his tips and tricks."

Closer to the evening, Ryu's hands were holding onto the railing, observing the sun gradually setting. Yet on the inside, he was thinking everything over about all that he went through during his time on the show.

"I've learned a lot while on Survivor. It's competitive, fast-paced, fun even, yet a bit painful all the while knowing about all the things you are going to put yourself through. People all over the universe are desperate to be on the show, but I don't think that even at this point a lot of people realize how difficult this game actually is... myself included. My strategy was to somehow find a way for a physical guy such as myself to make it deep into the game. I tried to put it to use, and even though I didn't end up being the merge boot of the season, I still was unable to make it very deep into the game. But, you know what? You live and you learn."

In what appeared to be a slow motion effect, his hands were tightening the bandanna he always wore on his head, before being seen carrying his duffel bag around traveling back to his home.

"It really was quite challenging, but that was what motivated me to be out here in the beginning. My entire life is based off of challenges, so this was simply next in line for me. And I think that it could be compared to what I do at home, trying to be the best of the best for a living. Sure, with me only getting tenth place this season and not too close to winning it all does make me feel like a failure to some extent, at the same time, with a big enough of a prize such as a million dollars (which I did not even need), it really is just a game. We all applied to be on the show, and right now there are nine people out there still in it. Almost everyone at that tribal wrote my name down, so hats off to them for sending me home if they really figured that I was threatening enough that I actually could have harmed their game and prevent them from winning a million dollars. It actually makes me want to respect these players even more. So when I come back to the game as a juror, I'm gonna be sitting on that jury bench watching the rest of these people fight it out and give it all. I can't wait to see how this thing finishes."

Alright, finally done with this Ponderosa chapter. I was kinda worried how this was going to turn out around the time when Ryu woke up the next day since I didn't really know what to do with him, but then I quickly thought of something that fits him perfectly. He trained Espio the Chameleon of all people and he actually enjoyed it! I think they just generally respect each other and both appear to think somewhat alike. I suppose in any random season if Ryu and Espio started out on the same tribe, they would have gone along just like that, and probably even form a major alliance.

But anyway, tell me what you think of this. If you enjoyed Ryu in this game, consider voting for him in my poll so that he has the chance of winning the upcoming special reward at the Survivor - Mexico reunion show where one of these eighteen players will win a hundred grand as the "Player of the Season".

Next chapter will hopefully comes shortly after the next players gets eliminated. So until then, I'll see you all next time!