Mexico - Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty (Ponderosa)

Chapter 7 - Juror 7

Welcome back, everyone. The third era of my Survivor series is simply two chapters away from being completed. And unfortunately, it's already time to be sad. Fan favorite, Panther Caroso has been eliminated. I'd say he is one of the most complex characters of my series thus far. I've always been a fan of the StarFox characters, but I never really paid that much attention to Panther of all people when I write about them. This is really interesting, here.

Well, let's see what his experience with the other jurors is like...

~KF

"'Sup? This is Panther Caroso, juror number seven, and this is... Panther's Ponderosa, ahahahaha!"

Night 37

The purple anthropomorphic cat quietly continued to distance himself from the Tribal Council ceremony. Unbelievable. Just two days short of making it there. He almost made it. But unfortunately, he failed to win immunity so at least he had a fighting chance of making it to day thirty-nine. However, as the only saying went, whenever luck ran out, there was really nothing else that could have been done.

That being said, Panther had no reason to punish himself, like he did in half the challenges he competed in the season. Whether it was for himself or for an entire tribe. Seeing Doctor Crazy Hand was probably what was needed. He literally saw him before in the day thirty-six immunity challenge.

"Tired... Just tired..." He heaved a heavy sigh, but finishing it off with a smile. "But I've had fun. I really have..."

"Well,... I died. I was so close to sticking it out, but I guess fate wanted me to go, so they killed me. The tribe has spoken like the master said and there was nothing I could have done about it. What's done and done. Now I get to spend two days thinking over everything I did and all the great moments I've had."

"I ain't stupid..." He said to the producer nearby. "I knew darn well that if I wasn't winning, I was gonna pack my bags and prepare for it. And to top it all off, Funky Kong, the last major physical threat out there, won immunity. Isabelle of all people wasn't gonna get her torch snuffed. C'mon. ...Not to sound too negative, but realistically, I'd be pretty darn shocked if I somehow survived that..."

"I went from having my team lose the first two challenges, to helping them pull a major victory in the next one, to going on an immunity winning streak, to distancing myself from my closest ally, to successfully playing my idol, and now I'm at this point... They just saw me as too big a threat to keep around. So yeah, kind of an exhausting thirty-nine days... I don't know if I care about sleep more than food right now..."

Nonetheless, he still had to make that pit stop at Crazy Hand's tent.

"'Sup, doc?"

Crazy Hand, though known to be as happy as usual, noticed how Panther was entering his medical tent. "Dang... You look like you got hit by a car..."

"It's been a long day." Panther replied, flopping right down in the chair. "But I'll live..."

"We need to get you out of here as soon as possible. But first," The hand lifted a finger. "let's see that arm..."

A few days prior, while tending to the shelter, Panther accidentally cut himself on his upper arm, which needed a rather large band-aid to cover it up. And knowing that Panther was a furry, that just meant more that had to be dealt with.

"Hmm... I'll clean it, and then I'll get you a new one."

"I can't believe Chica of all people is gonna be the last one standing from the Beauty tribe." He laughed, covering his face with his hands. "But you know, I wish her the best of luck. Maybe she could actually make it to the end. Those three Brains are just far too threatening for them to not backstab each other at this point. It's just a matter of who's actually gonna get the final boot of the season."

"Step on the scale for me."

"Hmm..." He stood and waited. "140.1... How much I weighed before?"

"154.5." Crazy Hand replied. "14.4 pounds you've lost, Panther."

"Cool." He smirked. "Survivor's perfect for anybody that wants to go on a diet."

-/-

The boat pulled up to the shore, the purple anthropomorphic animal landing his feet on the dock, already viewing all of the other jurors in the distance. As a result, he chuckle to himself knowing what was coming.

"Well, let's meet the Ponderosa family."

"I'm here, guys!" Panther's voice sounded, taking his time approaching jurors one through six.

"Come on down!" Golden replied. "There's still room!"

And by the time he showed, he exchanged friendly hugs with everyone there minus Specter, Panther feeling more than elated that he got to see his fellow survivors again. Now they were all bonded by the fact that they had been eliminated and that all of their dreams were ruined.

"Welcome to the club, man." Ryu shook hands with him. "Sucks to know that you were two challenges away from reaching the finals..."

"It does, but, if the Survivor Gods didn't choose me to win, I'm not the chosen one. I can live with that."

"Poor Panther." Golden shook his head laughing. "He almost made it. Like, if he somehow made it to the end and if he got out Funky Kong and Isabelle before the finals, I would have voted for him to win. He would have won in a landslide against Plague Knight and Chica. Dude had such a story out there."

"Guess you had no chance, huh?"

"I mean, the ape won immunity today." Panther reminded the bear. "Soon as he won that necklace, I knew I was going home. But still, I didn't give up and I just had me and Chica write down Isabelle in the like, five percent chance things were gonna turn out alright. But then Funky kept her safe with the idol, and the rest was history..."

He was then suddenly hugged by Daisy yet again. Only this time, it was a lot longer.

And not wanting to ruin her happiness of course, Caroso hugged back. "Hey there, Rose. Looks like Chica's gonna be the last one of our tribe."

"Hey, Chica's not here right now. This is your night, last time I checked." And before he knew it, the panther was being dragged right inside the cafe. "Come on! It's almost time for dinner!"

But first, like everyone else, he had to take a good look at himself first. A dirtied up cat after thirty-seven days? Well, there was Incineroar. So at this point, people might have already gone used to it. Besides, if there was a poll on who smelled worse the night they came back to Ponderosa, Survivor fans would have bet their money on the Pokemon.

Panther of all people knew that smelling bad was never a good sign, anyway. Especially if he wanted to impress the ladies. Regardless, there was still a light smell from his armpits, which was all he needed to know. He was going to have a nice, long shower that night.

"I knew wearing a tank top coming in here was a bad idea..."

Several minutes later, after Panther's kebabs, pizza, and cheeseburger was placed down on the table. The Survivor talk continued with his fellow jury members.

"So Panther," Espio resumed the conversation. "in your own personal opinion, who do you think is playing the best game at this point?"

"Well, I'd say the Brains." It never took much thought for him. "Not counting Plague Knight, Funky and Isabelle have been quite the power duo as of late. All of their allies have been taking out, so they have no choice but to work together... I am still kinda surprised that Iz wasn't willing to flip on Funky at six, though. That was the perfect opportunity. Now he's going to the final immunity challenge..."

"She is afraid. That is what it is."

Caroso laughed at Specter Knight. "That's exactly what Plague Knight said."

"Well, she is afraid." He was in complete agreement. "She is scared to flip on her ally, because she fears that it would make her look like a bad person for going against her word of keeping the Brains united. But in case you have not notice, this game is not about who is the most morally correct. There are no promises. Isabelle does not owe him, nor anybody else anything."

"I don't know what moves Funky has made though." Panther spoke about the bandanna wearing monkey. "Sure, he played his idol on Isabelle... But that was the last time an idol could have been played anyway, and I was already set to go home because I got the majority votes... But then again, an idol play is an idol play."

"Yeah." Daisy nodded in agreement. "Can't take anything away from that. ...How'd you get that nullifier, though?"

"..." He shrugged and smirked. "Found it."

"Ugh..." She was annoyed that he was joking around, rather than him using details of when and where he found his idol nullifier that he used at the final six. "You can't even answer a simple question..."

"But I gave you a simple answer. Didn't I?"

"I was mad at Incineroar yesterday, since he had the nerve to argue with me and have no accountability for his actions yesterday." Daisy recalled. "But with Panther coming here, my mood completely shifted. I guess he can just numb my pain from here on out. Maybe he's just what I needed so that I can remind myself of how great Ponderosa is supposed to be."

"So Panther, I have one more question." Ryu spoke out. "...Are you gonna get your beauty sleep tonight?"

Almost the entire table erupted in laughter as Caroso blushed from embarrassment. Still, he went along with it. "Well, I guess this face does not want bags under his eyes. We barely got any sleep at our camp already. But first, Panther needs a major cleanup."

And later on, he was on his way over to his house, ready more than ever to get himself smelling decent again.

"Maybe this should be an opportunity to explain to the guys of how important personal hygiene is... Guess what, fellas? Personal grooming is actually not a bad idea. Hahahaha!"

Day 38

On the second to last day of the game, every last member of the jury was already at the breakfast table eating away. Well, every one of them except for the latest member. Panther Caroso was still sound asleep in his home.

"Hmm..." Ryu noticed, shoving eggs into his mouth. "King Panther is really living up to his name getting his extra beauty sleep."

"Well, he has been dealing with all this for thirty-seven days." Golden reminded him. "He's more tired than the rest of us. He could wake up at like, ten in the morning and it would not hurt anything."

"True, but at the same time, this is our second to last day in Mexico." Incineroar brought up. "It's not like you have opportunities like this everyday..."

Yet in a few minutes later, the purple StarFox character finally showed up, rubbing his eyes showing everyone that he literally just got out of bed. He was even wearing a black tank top with black lounging pants.

"Glad you're alive, Panther." Golden Fredbear joked. "Go get your breakfast."

He was not afraid of yawning in front of everybody in the room. "With pleasure..."

"I was in the mood for hash browns, bacon, and pancakes today... Oh yeah, muffins. Definitely wanted those... Aw, man. Not really gonna miss rice and beans though. Not gonna eat that for the next couple months."

Unsurprisingly, he sat next to Daisy, his head leaning against her shoulder.

"Why didn't you just stay asleep?"

"I would have, but you know..." He shrugged it off after he finally rose his head back up. "Everybody's gotta wake up sometime."

"I think Panther is taking his elimination rather well." Espio smiled. "He was basically the next contestant to be eliminated that was already set to get the boot for a while. Survivors do all they can to stay alive, and when things do not go well and you cannot recover, there is not really much you can do. They simply saw him as a major contender at the end."

"I don't even know what I'm gonna do today, to be honest..." The only male Beauty at the cafe spoke. "Maybe I'll take a jog at some point, but right now I feel like just being lazy and hang around you all."

"Hey, it's your day, man." said Incineroar. "You do whatever you want. No one is gonna bash you for it."

"I couldn't really think of much to do here other than just to sit down, eat, chat, and look pretty... You know, like a normal beautiful face does. I mean, I only have two days here. And any conversation with anyone would be good. Still trying to take in that I've been voted out last night, but it was all fair and square. I wish everyone else in the game good luck. Even Chica."

About an hour after the most important meal of the day, he was seen walking side by side next to Ryu Hoshi.

"So, uh... So much for your Strong Guys Alliance, I guess..."

"Yeah, right..." Ryu stared down. "I could be more upset about it. I mean, Specter flipped, and it didn't work out exactly the way I wanted, but you know what? I'm part of the blame as well. I took out my old tribe members too early. If I hadn't done that, I would have had more options."

"Do you think Espio would have been a good option at the merge boot?" Panther questioned. "According to Specter, he was the one that three me, Daisy, and Katt under the bus. And I really wasn't too close to Katt from my point of view at least."

"Any Brain that wasn't part of SGA would have been good." He actually had no problems with it. "But Plague Knight was the only Coati member that the rest of the Brains didn't plan on working with since he was at the bottom after Jimmy left. Getting rid of Espio would have rubbed Golden and Funky Kong the wrong way. So yeah... Plague could have went home. But he didn't, and that ended up hurting a lot of us."

"If there was anything I learn from this, one of the first things I would warn other players about is... not all risky moves are good." Ryu chuckled and shook his head. "I should have never taken out Jet. Daisy should have taken his place instead. I don't know if Katt still goes home, since Incineroar never cared about Tifa. But just one more tribe member would have made the difference. I mean, look at Golden, he managed to keep his tribe together, and he was in multiple alliances at once. And Panther's tribe for the most part just flew under the radar during all this madness. Well, they deserved a break after losing half of their tribe in the pre-merge..."

"Now he's possibly going to the Final Tribal Council... Maybe even win if he has like the greatest Final Tribal Council performance of like, all time." They both shared a laugh. "He would have to sit next to Isabelle and Chica..."

"Honestly though, Plague's probably the only one locked in the final three." Ryu predicted. "I literally see any of the other three players getting the final boot."

"To be honest, I didn't really wanna talk or even think about the game that much. But hey, at least it wasn't anything about my game, so there's that. I am surprised at Plague, though. He was supposed to be gone a long time ago, now he's going to the final three."

And now, the moment the viewers were probably all waiting for: his reunion with Daisy.

The two players themselves had been waiting for it. Technically they reunited the previous night, but it was only now that they had the chance to be alone. The panther and the human were both together in the hammock.

"Oh man..." Panther spoke quietly. "I remember the look on your face the moment we lost that first challenge..."

"Oh my god..." Daisy immediately recalled lifting her head. "I was infuriated."

The exaggeration of her voice at the last word made Panther burst out with laughter.

"Literally nobody was good at puzzles, and Bandanna Dee and King Knight weren't exactly the strongest players, so we ended up losing again and we blew it even harder." She continued. "I mean, I am a strong player, but I could only do so much! ...But, you know. The tribe would have been a disaster if it weren't for you."

"It was nothing."

She turned to him and blinked. "...Nothing? Okay, it wasn't nothing, especially not in your world. You were the one that was constantly exhausted in the challenges. I heard that Crazy Hand came to check on you at the final six challenge."

"He did..."

"And you're gonna call it 'nothing'?" She repeated. "You could have really hurt yourself, or even medically evacuated! I get you're trying to be modest about your hard work in the challenges, but you know we needed you."

"Well excuse me, princess..."

"..."

"...What?"

She faced the sky and trees right above her once again. "Why do I have the feeling someone has said that before...?"

"What? Someone calling someone a princess?" Panther turned. "I think you look like one, Princess Daisy."

"Oh, I may be a lot of things." She raised a finger. "But I ain't nooo princess... You know, on second thought,... I'm curious of what that would be like..."

"The girl is just like me... charming." He grinned. "I think one of the few major differences between us is that we are simply not the same gender. Maybe people would joke and say that we swapped characteristics. She's a woman who loves sports, I'm a man that doesn't really care for 'em. But hey, different is good. Maybe it was only a matter of time for us to meet."

He then sighed and frowned. "The downside is though, we are from completely different universes. She's from Sarasaland and I'm from the Lylat System. We're not going to see each other everyday. All we got are the occasional visits. But of course we're gonna make time for them. We're already going to be in touch while the season airs."

It was almost time for the second to last Tribal Council. Remember when Panther said that jogging was going to be the only exercise he planned on getting? Well, that was a lie. When approached by Incineroar and Golden about performing in the gym, he actually took that offer.

One Brawn, one Brain, one Beauty... Well, that was what it was until Ryu came in and ruined everything.

"This experience was everything plus something. This really was an adventure that I will never forget as long as I live. I worked my tail off in the challenges, found an idol, made deals with people, protected my allies, found a secret advantage, and won a couple immunities. It is hard to absolutely everything in one season, but hey, you try to get the most out of it, you know? ...And I think my old man would be proud when he sees all this... Oh, please, Panther... Not now..."

He tried to keep it together. "...Alright, I'm good. Hahaha, but seriously though. This was good. I would recommend this game to pretty much anyone out there. You really get to learn a lot about yourself and what kind of friendships you can actually make. It worked for me. And as the old saying goes, all you really gotta do is simply... be yourself."

And that was Panther Caroso.

Okay, I never thought I was gonna find myself tackling a very serious issue in today's society (toxic masculinity, toxic femininity, and to a lesser extent, basically homophobia.) But based on how I characterized Panther and Daisy, this is the result of that. I didn't even expect the two to get along so well like this, but it all makes sense. I really hope you all enjoyed the relationship between them! It was certainly fun to write!

Alright... one more chapter to go to finally end this era once and for all. Summer's coming. Which means it's almost time for Caribbean to shine...