Survivor - Heroes vs Villains

Chapter 13 - Day 12 Part 2

Welcome back everybody.

So both tribes will be going to tribal, and the Villains will be going there for the first time this season. ...But I guess since the Heroes are going first, we might as well start with them.

But as I said previously, after this chapter, expect to see two people going home in the next one. I like this double elimination twist to be honest (I don't care what Ridley says). They do it post-merge sometimes in real Survivor, but I don't understand why they don't do it pre-merge anymore. Post-merge is kind of ridiculous when they do the twist then, but I haven't been watching the real show since 41 since it's kinda trash now lol.

But I'm still gonna write regardless!

~KF

Heroes

Day 12

Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Zelda, Meta Knight, Vector, Shovel Knight, Golden

-/-

Usually the Heroes tribe was not in the best of moods at all, since that was the routine for them every three days. Yet due to the upcoming circumstances at Tribal Council, they were rather neutral.

"We just can't catch a break from these tribals, man..." Vector voiced. "I mean, I'm glad those Villains are gonna lose somebody for once, but it's pretty pointless if we're going to tribal, too."

"The worst thing about it is that we seem to be more on the losing end, just as our previous season." Meta Knight spoke out. "Both times, we were on the team with less members, and we'll be down to six after tonight..."

"That's almost half the tribe, dude..."

"I know..."

"I'll be thankful if at least half of us gets there..." said Golden. "Otherwise, none of us are even gonna make it to Final Tribal Council."

"Oh well. At least we'll be getting pizza, which means we don't have to cook anything and save up on the rice." Vector patted his furry teammate on the back. "Good job, DK. At least both times my team won the reward as I did what you just did in my season."

"I'm very curious to see what's been going on with the Villains myself." That was also something Donkey Kong looked forward to. "I feel that Plague is still an option somehow, but part of me believes that people are probably forming other plans a little..."

"We are most likely swapping tomorrow and we are going to enter the swap six to nine. I honestly feel this is the worst time for us to be divided right now, though after our tribal, alliances are going to be drawn." Meta Knight had a point. That was the inevitable that was going to occur. "If your team is divided, and your entering a swap down in numbers, that means the game is going to be more complicated... The one thing that I'm hoping for is that I at least have a rather strong alliance that would last for a while. For me in particular, my alliance consists of myself, Shovel Knight, DK, and Golden... But I do not know what plan Zelda, Yoshi, and Vector have..."

"You're solid?"

"I am..." Shovel Knight nodded gradually in the woods. "Whatever name you all plan on putting down, I am fine with. But this swap tomorrow that is coming up is very scary. Overall I am not used to being on a tribe with less numbers before..."

"It's just important to 'never say never.'" Meta Knight gave him some advice. "You're aware of that. I was targeted quite a bit in season four, and I ended up being shocked to know that I made top ten... Surely I would made it further had things happen differently, but my point still stands. ...You're my number one, by the way."

He chuckled. "You've told me about that. I trust you moving forward. If you survive this round, I will be more than likely to learn from you about the strategic nature of Survivor."

"Hmm..." Meta grinned underneath his mask folding his arms. "At first glance I do think you have some sort of potential. People might underestimate you, but perhaps you could use it to your advantage and prove people wrong."

"...You really think so?"

"I think you are intelligent, Shovel. And it's very intelligent of you to be aware of your own pros and cons when it comes to this competition. We'll make it to day thirteen and move forward from there."

He then looked down. "...You do realize that it's going to be a problem for me though, once tonight is over and done with."

"Just do not worry about it." The masked Kirby held a hand out and shook his head. Apparently he was already aware of Shovel's predicament. "If you feel like you've made up your mind, keep your composure and we do not need to worry about any further conversations that might be going on."

"This is the most pressure I've felt in my entire Survivor experience so far... I am in a dangerous swing vote situation at the moment. I wish to align with everyone, but clearly that is not possible, which means I have to officially pick a side. They might think that I've made my mind yet, but..." He paused for a brief moment before shaking his head in denial. "I haven't made my mind up yet at all, actually. It is up in the air for me."

"I mean, I don't see anyone else that would be my number one."

Zelda just had to say the exact same thing as Meta, of course.

"I'm glad you see me that way." Shovel Knight was happy, but also worried at the same time for obvious reasons. "It only make sense for us to align together. Two people from season two, two people from season four."

She giggled a little. "Well, the fans say that those are the top two season favorites so far. Imagine if we made final four together, and we all played together before on top of that."

"Would be a rather interesting situation indeed." Shield Knight's partner agreed. "However, you do in fact know the one thing that worries me."

Apparently she knew about Shovel's predicament as well. "Try not to worry about it too much. Even I can only say so much because when I was a swing vote, I was with Marth... You are in a swing vote position all on your lonesome."

"-which scares me..."

"Just make sure you don't stress yourself about it too much. You're going to be fine." She placed a hand on his shoulder in support. "We're going to get through tribal and you are going to make your decision. People might be get upset at your choice, but this is your game you are planning and this is your second chance. You have to play for your best interest just like the rest of us."

"Shovel Knight has informed me that he is going to be a swing vote for this Tribal Council coming up. It is myself, Yoshi, and Vector on one side, Golden, DK, and Meta Knight on the other, and he is the fourth vote needed for both alliances. But without me getting too confident, I can safely assume that he is siding with my alliance... hopefully."

That was something nagging at her about the possibility of him not siding with her, but she felt there was a seventy percent chance. "Me and him played together before, Vector and Yoshi have played together before and were in quite a notorious alliance. But if we can build a solid four, that's a solid four that already trusts each other. So I believe that gives us and advantage."

Sigh...

Vector sighed, sitting with Zelda at the camp. Come to think of it,... including Emperors vs Knights, Zelda never really left camp like that. But anyway, due to the upcoming pizza reward at tribal, the Heroes not cooking anything meant one less chore the castaways had to deal with.

So they had more free time on their hands.

"I guess we might as well talk about it now... who are we going to vote out, Zel?"

"Hmm... I honestly have no problems voting out any of them, honestly. All that I know is that somebody on here has the idol for this tribe... Not saying that I have it or anything."

"I ain't got it either." Vector turned his head side to side quickly. "Never found an immunity idol in my life... Unlike Meta Knight..."

"DK has found an idol as well in his season. If the idol was in the trees somewhere, he probably found it a long time ago." Zelda presumed. "And Golden is smart, so I think any of those three could have the immunity idol."

That was why Zelda did not mind seeing any of the three leaving.

"Well, no offense Zel, but if we're gonna enter the swap down in numbers like this, we at least need to keep some strength on here." Vector did not want to lose anymore. "I know it's repetitive prioritizing strength all the time, but... I can't go to tribal anymore. Hahaha! I just cannot. I can't take that."

"I understand how you're feeling. No offense taken on my end." She got it. "So we write down Meta Knight, then?"

"Sure. I ain't got no problem with that. Me and him had a complicated strategic relationship, anyway." Okay. That was their target. "I honestly was open to working with him, but I just get a certain vibe from him telling me that he has no plans on working with me for the long run."

"And I think it's going to be a 4-3 tonight with Shovel being the swing vote, but I don't know if the other side is aware of that..."

"Uh oh..." Vector sounded. "That means people are gonna be pissed off. Ha! ...Shovel is with us, right?"

"I'm getting genuine vibes from him. It seems like it..."

"Off the bat coming into this season I happened to be on the same tribe as both Meta Knight and Yoshi. But naturally I feel closer to Yoshi, and if I had to pick between the two, obviously everyone knows who I'd rather align with... Simple as that. So sorry, Meta. I can't just simply work with everyone in this group..."

Golden and DK were out on the beach.

"I think at this point more people are being apparent on what their closest ally is." The bear thought out loud. "Vector and Yoshi are together, you and I are together, Meta and Shovel Knight..."

"Or Shovel Knight and Zelda." Kong raised a finger grinning. "Don't forget. They might not have been in the same alliance throughout their entire season, but they ended off strategically on a positive note."

"...Even though Zelda helped write him off at five?"

"Well there's that, but at the end of the day, he was seen with her, too... But Shovel is around Meta just a bit more. So hopefully this means he's with us... We're writing off Yoshi, right?"

"That's the plan." He confirmed to Golden nodding. "Me, you, and Meta are all gamers. That I can say... And maybe Shovel is drawn to that side a bit more. ...Not to throw Yoshi under the bus or something, but he never really seemed to have an overall gameplay strategy in the first place. He was simply hoping to not be voted off, and to be honest, I'm sort of getting that same energy from him."

Donkey Kong could not have agreed more. "That's simply the mindset of some players. Sure, you hope to not be voted off, but somebody has to win a season and of course you want it to be you. The first four winners won by doing something and I think that trend is gonna stay that way... One thing I could say, Yoshi is probably the most likely non-winning finalist to make it to the end again."

"Just another reason for him to leave. We voted out all the winners, why not vote everybody that has made it to the end before?"

"There are multiple pairs forming in this group at this point. You could argue that I have to call my own self out on this," DK knew he had to have some sort of self-awareness on the matter. "but Yoshi and Vector were the most open about their relationship, and it's quite obvious. They did not even try to hide their connection at all, with the fact that they were in an infamous alliance just this past season. Vector's strong to keep around, and even though Zelda's the weakest of the tribe, she is much needed for puzzles. All this is making us thinking that Yoshi is the best option to vote out at this point. I wanted to vote with Sonic to help vote him out last time, but I guess this is going to be our second try at that..."

Speaking of the dinosaur, the two of them were at a different location in the woods.

"I mean, I without a doubt understand exactly how it feels to be in a swing vote position." Perhaps Shovel took the time to pull Yoshi aside for a conversation. "And you were in a swing vote predicament... several times."

"Yeah..." He was still surprised he managed to get through all that and place second in his season. "It's very scary... But I think you're doing a much better job at handling than me."

"I'll take that as a compliment, then. This whole thing is really something else, and I honestly do not even blame you for your reaction to it, especially if you were a swing vote for... half the game, basically." Shield Knight likely told him all about it from the few rounds she was actually in the game. Unfortunately for her, she was one of those... 'thanks for playing' castaways. "For one, I am not a liar... And I've been straight up lying to peoples' faces just so that I won't give myself away to anyone... It's just not in my nature to do that."

"That's why we're on the Heroes tribe." Yoshi chuckled. "But I agree. It sucks. You're putting other peoples' lives in the game in jeopardy and you don't want to be the person to do that. And for me,... I've come to terms to that shortly after my season finished. I guess somebody has to do it... But I still don't like it at all... Why can't we all just be top seven or something?"

"Haha, well,... because we have to go to Tribal Council." He blinked under his helmet.

"I know, but..." He sighed. "I feel bad for you, Shovel. I know it's just a game, but still."

"I applaud Shovel Knight. I really do. Even I could say that I would still struggle a little handling myself in being a swing vote, even though I already had the experience. ...I... I guess it's just me. I would be more okay with it now if it happened to me again, but I would still be going through it inside. Shovel is doing a much better job, though. But him and I both feel awful for possibly hurting somebody's feelings after you say you're with someone which could turn out to be an outright lie. How do you not feel guilty about that? ...And so I have massive respect for Shovel for the way he's handling it. He's doing a good job."

Now the shovel wielder was with the other knight of the tribe.

"How are you feeling?"

Meta felt like he needed to genuinely check on him to make sure he was alright going into tribal.

"I'm... fine I suppose." There was clearly more than just the few words he spoke to Meta that was flowing through his mind at the time. "I appreciate the concern."

"I like you, Shovel. But at the same time, you understand the price you pay when it comes to being a swing vote. You are expected to burn a couple bridges in a situation like this. It's up to the other side to take it however they want, but at the end of the day, this is your choice. You are going to have the final word over who goes home, so it is up to you to make your decision."

"Valid point indeed." He nodded. "I suppose this moral dilemma is going to be eating me alive when I send somebody home."

"It'll be fine." Meta Knight placed a hand on his shoulder. "No need to feel too guilty. But you need to be able to feel comfortable when it comes to the difficult decision making. Sometimes you might have to cut off someone you have the most respect for, but in this world, it is nothing more than a game for a title we're all fighting for. Other words, it's called competition. Think of it as a sport of some sort."

"Or chess, perhaps."

"Meta Knight and Yoshi are the two names that are expected to come tonight, unless I am somehow blindsided if the six decides to form together... I'm the fool if that's the case." He sat still for a bit. "But if my point of view is correct, I'm the one who is making the choice tonight. And... it is not really a wrong move to write off either of them. Yoshi is rather likeable and his heart is in the right place. That is something I can relate to. However, Meta Knight is here to game, and the game is something someone like me can respect. But they are both threatening in their own right. Yoshi's made it to the end before, Meta could be dangerous down the road. ...Perhaps whatever decision I make, anything that happens long-term will be a reflection of that and time will tell if whether or not I made the right choice... All I can say is I came out here to learn more about the game in general, and I'm kind of already getting what I asked for..."

That earned a giggle from him. "Whatever you want to compare it to. Anything it takes to make you feel comfortable."

Villains

Day 12

Bowser, Sheik, Wolf, Ridley, Shadow, Ryu, Specter Knight, Plague Knight, Foxy, Springtrap

-/-

As a tribe, for the first time all season, the Villains were officially in trouble and their vacation was really over. Strategic business moves were going to happen at tribal, and now everybody has fully woken up realizing that the game was really starting to begin.

First things first, Springtrap felt it was only fair to give his apologies. "I'm sorry about that, guys. I know I had a low chance of beating Donkey Kong, but I started to get worn out near the end."

"I mean, it's Donkey Kong we're talking about." Foxy told him. "What else could we expect? At least you won your first immunity challenge."

"Haha, that I am proud of." He pointed at him with a finger. "And it happened to be a challenge that I participated in before, and we're not even at the merge!"

"First time winning an individual immunity challenge. Never won one before." Springtrap was actually having a confessional here? Hmm. If he never received one that episode people would have officially called him 'the purple edit' of the season so far. "Was disappointed I couldn't win pizza for my team, because we should be the ones getting the reward so we can laugh in the Heroes' faces... But hey, I got the necklace. I know I ain't going nowhere..."

"I guess this is the day, then..." Wolf heaved a sigh folding his arms and shaking his head. "It's been a fun twelve days, but things aren't gonna be the same anymore. We're all Villains here, but we have to lose somebody tonight. I have one important thing to say: I love you all."

That got nearly the entire tribe laughing.

"It's gonna be different and we're probably swapping tomorrow anyway. We'll prepare ourselves for tribal and enjoy our last moments together as bad guys, since we're still the better tribe no matter what those Heroes think."

Foxy sighed at what was going to occur for the team. "I agree with you, though. Would have been nice to be the first tribe that never had to go tribal for the entire pre-swap phase of this... Maybe Ridley was right."

"I told you so."

Well, Foxy was being a little sarcastic, but whatever floated Ridley's boat.

"I'll get started on the fire so that we can have something to eat, since we didn't get pizza today..." Shadow went ahead and wandered right to the shelter to look for the flint.

"I'll help you out with that..." Ryu volunteered.

"Who wants to help me retrieve water?" Sheik asked everyone else.

Specter simply stared. "..."

"I'll go with you." Wolf spoke, Foxy deciding to join the two.

"I'm coming..."

"I was annoyed. I was literally going to ask the tribe myself of who wants to join me to collect the water from the well just so that I could use that as an excuse to get away from certain people here." Sorry, Specter. First come first serve. "And Sheik of all people beat me to it. ...Luckily she was not the won to win immunity, or else me and Plague would be guaranteed to be on the chopping block. At this point if it's not her, it's either one of us including myself. The team is going to be divided at the swap and Plague being a liability might not be the biggest priority anymore. Though due to my neck being on the line with him, I have no chose but to work with him, so our only option is to continue to convince people that Sheik would be the best choice for the Villains moving forward. Based off my history, I am pretty decent when it comes to convincing others to vote my way. Hopefully it plays out tonight at tribal, or I will blame Plague for me not even making it to the swap..."

Plague Knight was seen looking around in random directions, being quite a few yards away from the camp as he remained on the beach. ...What was he looking for? If it was a hidden immunity idol per say, Ridley already found it while he was literally on the sit out bench.

...Wait a minute,... Plague never caught Ridley going back to the snake's cradle to retrieve the idol, did he...?

Apparently not because he never had a confessional, nor had any conversation with his teammates about it. Otherwise, Ridley would have been a huge target himself.

"Where is this guy...?"

"Here I am."

"...Ah!"

"Shhh!"

"Where did you come from?"

Specter Knight apparently decided to head away at camp, told Plague Knight to wait for five minutes, and then to follow whatever direction he went off to. Yep. All this just to avoid detection. And by the time Plague was approaching him, Specter completely caught him off guard.

"Are you trying to give us away? We're meeting like this for a reason. There is probably not going be another opportunity for us to have a one on one conversation until tomorrow..." He brought a hand to his head. "If we are both here, of course."

"Well, let's just get this straight. It's Sheik..."

"Yes it is..." He nodded. "I need to talk to Shadow and Ridley again. I feel that Shadow might put Sheik's name down, but I do not know about Ridley... Perhaps we should also approach Bowser and then we would need at least one more person."

"Who?" Mona's real life partner in crime blinked.

"I don't know..." He thought for a moment. "Anyone...?"

"I mean, we obviously can't have Foxy. He's gonna vote with her." Accurate assessment, Plague. What else? "That leaves Wolf, Springtrap, or Ryu... And we already know we don't have the best history with Ryu, so..."

"I don't know, Plague..." There was a hint of stress in his voice. "I don't know..."

It was starting to sprinkle again as he continued to talk.

"At this point we'll just grab anyone but Foxy and Sheik themselves."

"Specter and I are on edge here..." At that point, if the scythe wielder was worried, so was he. "Okay, so even though I feel like I'm not a hundred percent likely to go home anymore because of our winning streak and because of us still being on the radar, people might target Specter now. On one hand, yes, it's probably not going to be me. But Specter by default is going to become my right hand man here if he survives this. Nobody else is really planning on aligning with me, so I don't really have a choice. But I am not gonna have a shot at all if I don't work with Specter so that we can both save each other. Yeah, I know. Here we go again..."

"Okay..."

Onto the water people.

"Plague or Specter?"

Sheik was curious to hear the responses from her two tribemates, knowing all the talk around camp about her name being thrown out.

"Either or." Now she knew she did not even have to think about Foxy's answer. "I don't care..."

"Same, but I guess we should talk about it." Wolf decided to have a discussion while the three of them were separated from everyone. "So,... Plague Knight is the weakest of all of us, today further proves just that. Cutting him off would mean that we use Specter's strength for challenges if we swap with him. ...But the thing is, we all know he's talented at puzzles."

"Best of all of us to do 'em." Foxy agreed. "Specter's not the one to go to when it comes to puzzles. And challenge wise, we kinda don't need him anymore."

O'Donnell snickered at that. "I thought you just said you don't care if either of the two goes home."

"Not that I care that much. But because of our winning streak, for we all know, Plague might not even be an option to vote for anymore. All we know is that he and Specter threw her name out there."

"And now I'm worried sick that he's gonna have everyone vote me out." The ninja laughed anxiously. "I'm pretty shocked that things have gotten to this point, because I was figuring that whenever we lose it was gonna be one of those two."

"People are really considering getting rid of me over Specter? ...And Plague? ...I'm getting a little confused here." She sat by the woods in thought. "Am I that much of a threat right now? Surely, my move was controversial at the time, but... I didn't make anybody idol themselves out of the game. Why am I a bigger target than Specter? So I really hope that people aren't doing what I think they might do. Only person out here I can trust without a doubt is Foxy, but the two of us could only do so much. And all we could do is to make sure the entire tribe is not putting my name down."

"So Wolf, we have your vote with us?" Foxy outright asked him. "I need to make sure that even if people are writing Sheik, we at least have enough votes to counter that. If you're in, we have three right here."

"I'm in."

"Okay, three down, at least three more to go." He nodded in confirmation, turning back to the woman. "I don't know if we have Shadow anymore because he changes alliances every three seconds. But for more votes, Ryu should be down for this. He probably wants revenge on Specter."

"I'll talk with Springtrap as well." Wolf suggested. "I'm on decent terms with him."

"So am I, actually, even though him and I had an awkward situation going into this..."

"Sheik is being targeted all because Specter doesn't want to go home. Everybody should have been locked in on either him or Plague, but Specter is trying to get something going on to save his ass." And that was the most frustrating thing for Foxy. "I mean, Sheik is thrown under the bus because she's the 'nicest villain'? Come on... I guess Shadow is considering on siding with him because he's also a notorious player, but if anything, Specter and Shadow would be the most likely to switch to the Heroes because of how villainous they are. So this whole thing about Sheik being on a chopping block doesn't make a lick of sense. But now I gotta do what I gotta do to make sure she isn't going anywhere."

Himself, Springtrap, and Wolf were now seen somewhere else in the jungle walking along. "I thought me and Springtrap would have some sort of weird relationship, but me and him seem to be on decent terms and now I'm actually thinking about having him as another ally for me. If I can get him to see what I'm seeing, that's another vote I can count on for this tribal and later on down the line. If Sheik isn't going anywhere, then I want to make sure I have as many allies as possible."

"Not gonna lie." The pirate fox was turning his head side to side showing his frustration. "I am low-key stressed out about this. Specter is trying to convince the entire tribe that Sheik should go because she's too 'nice' for the Villains team and that means she could flip to the Heroes... How stupid is that? You tell me in what world that makes perfect sense..."

"Does he think he has a majority?" Wolf raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know..."

"Who does he think he has?" asked Springtrap. "...Shadow?"

"He probably is gonna vote with him at this point. ...That's the only one I know who might do it, though." He hunched his shoulders. "And I hope he's the only one. We all vote for Specter, he gets out, and Shadow would put himself on the bottom with Plague Knight for not voting with the majority..."

"...Who else do you think you're aligned with?"

"I think that even though I thought I was going to have things to settle with you and Sheik, I actually trust the both of you and I need you. I can't trust most of these other folks so that's why I'm so worried... I mean, how about you Wolf? You have any close allies out here? 'Cause I have no reason to have a problem with you coming into this since we didn't even know each other."

"Wolf is a chill kinda guy like I am." Springtrap told him. "That's why I like him. So maybe the three of us should be in an alliance... But I'm afraid if things aren't in our favor,... we might have to go with the majority."

"Going with the majority?" Foxy cocked his head to the side.

"In other words, overall tribe consensus." Wolf answered. "We're still playing with a team here."

"Let's face it, dude." Springtrap put his hands up. "Here's something you might need to hear... Specter is basically throwing anything on the table to throw somebody under the bus just to save his own skin."

"..."

"..." Wolf snickered.

"...Okay, not that he actually has any skin." The newer FNAF character broke the brief silence. "But,... Sheik is not going to flip because she's the nicest villain of the ten of us. She's gonna flip because she could have an actual reason to. Specter has more reasons to flip than she does. But this is clearly Specter trying to buy some more time, and people are thinking of siding with him because they know he's a big threat and that's why Shadow might do it. If they manage to get big guys like Bowser or Ridley to go on board, if Specter could somehow have a majority of the votes with him,... it's not gonna be a good sign, man..."

Foxy blinked and stared. "...You're saying if the majority of the tribe is against Sheik at tribal, I might have to put her name down..."

"Specter was having little talks with people of how he didn't mind putting Plague's name down when we first got here." Wolf brought up. "If he was thinking of doing that early in the game, writing Sheik's name down could save you from being a target yourself since you two share the same season.

"You might be in a worse spot, Foxy, but we can't fracture before the swap when we have the most numbers." Springtrap went on. "Or else we're gonna be sent home one by one."

That frustrated Michaels even more. "Look, I don't want to do that... Okay? ...I'll write down anyone if it means saving myself, but I'm trying to fight for Sheik's life right now."

"But what if you know it's not gonna happen?" The rabbit folded his arms. "It might be back to Specter last minute, but if worst comes to worst we should stick where the tribe is going. Now if Sheik is gonna survive this, we could stick with aligning with her. But if not, we need to make other plans. And hey, voting her out decreases your threat level... But don't get too worried. If they all want Specter out, that's who we vote for. They all want Sheik out, that unfortunately might have to be who we vote for."

"I had a conversation with Foxy telling him that if the majority is against Sheik, we might have to go wherever the tribe is heading. Surely, it's not about Sheik becoming dangerous, it was about Specter trying to stay in the game. And what goes into that are the relationships people are forming around here. Now for my game, I'm fine with whoever of the two is getting the boot here. But Foxy is clearly trying to save Sheik. It might be a better move to help keep her around. That would be another number I could have for the long haul. But if we can't get enough votes to save her, that's something Wolf and I would have to deal with (who is my right hand man by the way). Besides, Sheik going home gives Foxy less power and it avoids him being set up too nicely. What would I want him to do? Run the show? I'm just trying to keep as lowkey as possible. Wolf and I both know we have the smallest targets out of anyone in this whole camp."

The Strong Guys Alliance decided to reunite again, feeling that it was time to have another meeting.

Bowser sighed ready to get their conversation started. "What will it be, fellas?"

Ryu shifted his head at Ridley.

"Part of me is still leaning Sheik, but at the same time I can see right through Specter. He has nothing against Sheik, but he's just trying to stay in the game."

Ryu then shifted his head back at Bowser.

"...Doesn't that make him a bigger target, then? He's got a lotta game in him and he has Plague Knight. All of the Mexico people found it frustrating to deal with them, and I don't wanna be part of that."

Ryu himself finally got some attention from both of them.

"...What do you think?" Koopa asked him.

"I'm... fine with whoever goes, honestly. I can either help you all get rid of him now, or I have to be patient. Sometimes a little bit of patience goes a long way. ...But he was frustrating to deal with since he knows how to manipulate people just to please his own agenda. Just look at the episode where Golden was blindsided."

"The one thing that is making me want to side with Specter for now is that he's one of the most dangerous threats here, and even though we aren't gonna technically align with him, we're all big threats as well. So for our games, maybe it's good to keep the big threats here for right now."

"Then again, due to the fact that Specter and I have played together before, we side with each other for this vote, the worst that could happen is that people might see me and him actually working together for the long run. And if I get voted out, I can't protect you two."

That was a good point.

"If our best interest is to write down Specter, I don't want to make it seem like it's strictly personal. This whole thing has proven how dangerous of a player he really is and that's why Plague ended up being on the chopping block in the first place so that we could weaken him. Now that we've won four challenges, we can afford to get rid of Specter himself."

Another good point.

"Now I'm not gonna really push for Specter because I don't wanna be too aggressive, but if we come to a consensus that he's what we really need to vote out, you two might have to push it and hope the rest of the tribe agrees. I'm sure Foxy wants Specter gone as well."

"For personal reasons, I'd be more than happy to write down Specter Knight and send him out of this game so that I can have my closure based on what happened with the two of us last time we played together. Everybody knows that. However, I'm not the sole person that is voting tonight, and I can't change how people think out here. People are actually thinking about keeping him and Plague for another round, including people in my own core alliance. And I can see the arguments Ridley is making, but strategically, it actually does make sense to get rid of Specter..." Ryu really did not want to admit, but inside he was at least a little pissed off of the possibility of Specter actually being safe at tribal. "Why wouldn't we get rid of him? What more does he have to do to make people realize he's just too dangerous for anybody on this tribe to vote with? I'm hoping we get right back to Plan A last minute, but if it doesn't come to that, I might have to bite my tongue for a little longer..."

Okay. For the Villains camp there was originally a plan to have a couple more confessionals from people and I had plans to do a whole other scene, but I didn't want the whole Villains section to be too long because things are surprisingly complicated even though there are only two to three options on the table for them...

And the Heroes have their own thing going on, so both tribals are gonna be rather suspenseful regarding who's going home.

So after three episodes, gameplay wise, things are really getting more interesting. Kinda fitting at this double elimination twist. Hopefully your favorite character is safe...

I'll see you all soon!