Survivor - Heroes vs Villains
Chapter 24 - Day 21 Part 2
Darleem
Day 21
Donkey Kong, Bowser, Yoshi, Zelda, Wolf, Ridley, Vector, Shadow, Ryu, Shovel Knight, Plague Knight, Golden, Springtrap
-/-
"Well done, Ridley."
"I know you've been waiting for a while to win this."
The Darleem tribe was now back at their home with Ridley grinning from ear to ear. Now usually whoever won the necklace did not technically have to wear it until it was time to go to the Tribal Council. Though instead of Ridley putting it away, he chose to keep it on for a little longer just for the sake of him wearing it. He really just could not have helped himself.
"You did great, man." Bowser slapped a hand on his back. "I know how it felt to win my first necklace when people were against me in my season. You deserve to brag about this at tribal."
"Took forty-two whole days." He spoke with a sigh of relief. "But I've done it. I know quite a few of my followers were wondering why in the world haven't I won an individual challenge yet, so I suppose it's another thing to make them proud."
"You're guaranteed final twelve." Vector smiled, also in a way feeling rather pleased to see him win it. "First person in this group to outpeak yourself so far, since you placed the lowest out of all of us coming into this."
"Ridley has won the individual immunity necklace. He's now the first person of this cast to perform better in his second season versus his first one." Ryu pointed out. "I'm sure that's a new high for him, and I think of everyone in this SGA alliance, he was the primary target and now he's safe. On one end, he's guaranteed to not be the first member of the jury again. But on the other, that leaves the rest of us strong folk exposed including myself... which is obviously something that concerns me."
"Apparently Vector has no plans on joining us since he already has an alliance with Yoshi, Zelda, and Shovel Knight. Ridley and I just blindsided Shadow and Plague at the last Tribal Council. All this leaves Wolf and Springtrap being in the middle here, and they know they gotta dictate this round to see how this merge is going to play out. We get those two, we have a majority of seven and we can send somebody home. ...Though apparently something went down between Bowser and Wolf yesterday which is not good at all..."
With a Caribbean flamingo having nothing better to do but mind its own business, the scene transitioned to Bowser, DK, and Ridley having a chat (the latter still wearing the immunity necklace just for the sake of his pride).
"Look man," Donkey Kong said with a sigh. "we really need Wolf on our side for this vote. Without Wolf, we don't get Springy. We don't have those two, we will be put on the bottom for the rest of the game."
"Okay, I'm sorry." Bowser aggressively shook his head with a hand on his face in distress. "But don't act like I wanted this to happen. I pulled off a Sonic the Hedgehog move by taking out Foxy without putting his name down, Wolf caught up to it, and now he doesn't trust me anymore."
"I really did have a strong feeling you were behind all that." Ridley knew it. "But if Wolf finding out what happened was going to be the inevitable, did he really have to find out now? He has the absolute worst timing ever... You sure you couldn't have even told him what you were doing before the vote so he could have been in on it?"
"He was hooked up with both Springtrap and Foxy. I wasn't a main priority for him like that. If I told him, he would have ran and told Foxy, and worst case scenario, he would have gotten me out!"
"Yeah, well guess what?" Ridley folded his arms glaring. "You're going to have to be begging on your knees to get his trust back since you were unable to cover your tracks. I have no relationship with Wolf at all, so I am unsure of how do I even approach him. I'm gonna have to send the two of you out to talk to Wolf separately while I look for Springtrap."
"And what are Ryu and Golden gonna do?" asked DK. "They don't really know Wolf like that so their options are limited as well."
"I dunno. They can,..." He placed a hand on his head in thought. "not make things worse for us, I suppose. And before we all separate, we need to discuss our options of who we're going to vote off from the other side."
"...Any of 'em?" Bowser popped an eyebrow.
"For me personally, I'd love to see the look on Vector's face and we somehow manage to get the votes at tribal and have him be the first one to arrive at Ponderosa. That's more than fitting for me." Ridley felt that it would have done him justice for the croc being part of the reason why he was the first member of the jury in their own season. "But as always, we got to be careful. I haven't found the idol on this new merged beach and if Vector has it and he senses something wrong, one of us will be on that jury."
The purple dragon took a glance in DK's direction. "You don't have another idol, do you?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Well if we're not voting for Vector, I suppose none of that Hero Four will be getting the votes. Nobody else from that group is really openly playing a strong strategic game right now."
"Everything has gone Zelda's way so far and Shovel completely flipped on me." Donkey Kong recalled. "But I suppose we gotta get rid of someone who is probably even more dangerous."
"I don't think Shadow and Plague are ever gonna work with us, and they're two of the most dangerous players in this game. What do you two say we got rid of one of them?"
"Wolf sniffed through Bowser's plan, and him not knowing about the Foxy situation sort of pushed him away." In spite of Donkey Kong completely being involved in the plan and him literally wanting to take Wolf out in the previous episode, he now needed the lupine more than ever. It was crazy how Survivor worked, because Wolf was literally going home had La Vega attended tribal again. "This kinda sucks because the fate of my game in his hands. And if he is not with us, he is voting with the Hero Four (which consists of Zelda, Vector, Shovel, and Yoshi), Plague Knight, and Shadow and they're all gonna take one of us out because at this point people probably already know about the strongest people of the tribe sticking together. So now we gotta talk to Wolf and Springtrap for basically the rest of the day, have Wolf forgive Bowser, and we all vote together as a seven to counter the opposing alliance."
Zelda heaved a sigh, seemingly in a conversation with Vector and Plague Knight.
"They are not joining us." And likely she was talking about Donkey Kong and Golden. "I mean,... I can't say I'm surprised, but..."
"That's just that." Vector replied before she finished. "I ain't surprised myself. Every time when we came back to camp they acted like they regretted everything they did because they didn't have enough votes to save Izzy, Mario, and Sonic. And then before we swapped, they voted differently than we did with Meta Knight. Like, I know how it feels to be on the bottom of a tribe alliance. Banjo and I have been there before, so that's why I ain't mad at 'em."
She sighed yet again. "Its fine. Our best case scenario was to have basically the entire tribe split votes between Bowser and Ryu, since the villains' old idol is still in play. But if we don't have DK and Golden, then I suppose we just have to make sure Wolf and Springtrap stay with us..."
"And make sure this one over here and Shadow stay with us as well."
Plague Knight felt Vector's eyes staring down into his soul.
"I... I pretty much don't have a choice, okay?" He spoke with a hint of frustration. "How do I look aligning with Ryu, and Ridley, and Bowser? You know I am not going to align with people like that! Shadow doesn't have anybody else with him, so he doesn't have much to do either."
"As long as we're sure. I'd rather be extra sure than to not have this conversation and end up getting blindsided at Tribal Council. I won't be surprised if Shovel is trying to look for Shadow as we're all standing right here."
That only made Plague Knight wanting to make himself clear even more. "We are voting with you guys. Not against you. I lost Specter, so I have to have some way of making it far in this game again. I don't even give a flying potion of who we're even writing off here. I just don't want to go home myself."
"My most trusted ally is... unfortunately Plague Knight at this point." Shadow heaved a sigh, but it was simply a 'whatever' kind of moment for him. "Rather be with him than be with no allies at all. Nobody wanted to align with me from the get go so I really don't care anymore. But since he is my only alliance, I don't have much room to work with. Obviously if I align with the likes of Ridley, Bowser, and Ryu, that is not going to work because ever since I aligned with Specter, they never trusted me. Donkey Kong and Fredbear are with them as well. Wasn't really there to see what went down on there end, so for me, that's irrelevant. There is however, Zelda, Vector, and Shovel. Those three people were the ones to get rid of Specter, and those same people that blindsided Plague and I are the same ones that need our votes right now. ...It's kind of a business move on there end because they know the two of us would come running back to him so we can find an alliance to stay in. They knew damn well we would never align with that strong Survivor group, so more power to them for further limiting our options..."
Though out of bitterness, he sharply rolled his eyes. "The one thing I gain from this is that if Springtrap and Wolf actually decide to align with us, all hope is not lost for me. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually get somewhere this season. ...You know, now that I think about it, all this talk about me not having any allies since day one has me thinking all of a sudden. That conversation I had with Zelda the other day about how untrustworthy I came across in our old season? ...I don't know if I should be asking myself this, but... was she in some ways right?"
Well, what was his conversation with Shovel Knight like? And oh, by the way, the other person that played with him in Emperors vs Knights.
"And I am sorry that you were given such a hard time from the start." The shovel warrior went on to say. "I've been hearing and we've been observing you for a little over a week now. Other than us winning that one immunity together, I think that the only time you ever smiled was when Master Hand told the thirteen of us to drop our buffs..."
"So is it my facial expression that's the issue? Because I'm not smiling all the time?"
"No, no, no!" He immediately waved his hands out in self-defense. "That is not what I meant at all. Look, I may not have been on the same starting tribe as you in our season, but we did play together before and I have picked up on some of your habits. You seemed to distance yourself from others, almost never have any social conversations with the others, and at times you were rather harsh sometimes when it came to some of our old tribe members making the campfire."
"It's always important to keep the fire going, and it wasn't my fault that the only thing Luigi was good at was doing absolutely nothing."
OOOOOOH!
...Well if there was one thing about Shadow, small moments like that indicated he was never a fan of Luigi at all. He literally roasted him at the Final Tribal Council.
"That's why not even you, his closest ally, voted for him to win at the end. For Mobius's sake, Yoshi played a better game than him. He had two jury votes to his name. Pit played a better game him. He had a jury vote to his name..."
Shovel did nothing but blink in reaction. "Uh... A little sidetracked much? I am sorry, but I don't think now is a good time to head into another one of your rants again. My point is that if you were just a little more open and vulnerable to others in our season, you probably would have had a bigger chance of others approaching you and aligning with you. People could have helped you, Shadow. Zelda and I could both give you some advice if you have some unanswered questions about yourself, or any issue you are facing internally. We all need each other for this vote, and if all goes according to plan and if we're all still here, I would find the time to have a one on one talk with you about your inner demons. If Zelda was here she would say the same thing. You may question things about yourself, but even if you think you're a bad person, Shadow, you could always become a better one."
...
"It is a blast to be out here again, but knowing how Shadow works, I could pretty much tell that he is somehow having even less fun this season versus the first time he's played. He's complaining a lot more, he goes on sudden rants about anything that has happened in our season, and half the time he won't even look at us in the eyes. ...I can't help but feel sorry for him. But I do know that I need his vote. Zelda knows that she needs his vote. The rest of the Emperors vs Knights crew need to stick together to help establish this new alliance. And I suppose to be sure of it is that we need to make sure Shadow realizes that he does need us for the long run if he wants to get somewhere. That's the strategical way of seeing it. And outside of that, I can't help but feel that the conversation we just had with each other was for strategic reasons. But from my point of view, it was a heart to heart, man to man kind of dialogue at the same time. He's really struggling, so hopefully if we stay together, Zelda and I could finally have the chance to really get to know him better so that we can find the real root of his problems. We all have our scars somewhere, and that's okay."
"...Ugh." He grunted facepalming himself. "You just tell me on what the plan is."
"Well since Ridley has immunity (who is probably going to be wearing it for the rest of the day), Bowser would be the secondary target. Though if an idol is in play and if people feel too uncomfortable, we were thinking of targeting Ryu."
"He blindsided me last tribal and I would love to send his own ass home." Shadow crossed his arms. "What about the other two, though?"
"Golden is not as threatening comparing to everybody else in that group. And there are two reasons why we're considering on waiting to vote out DK for now. Even though I do agree that he almost won the challenge today, part of our deal is that we need to even up the overall numbers regarding the tribe lines, and so we feel that it should be a villain tonight."
"Meaning so that we have six heroes and six villains?" That was when the Mobian gave him the side eye. "Shovel, look at how things are going. Who the hell is caring about tribe lines anymore? Plague and I aren't with the villains anymore just like how those two aren't with you and the rest of the heroes."
"...Okay, well it is always good to stay on the safe side..."
"It's pointless. Ryu deserves to go home and Bowser is also a dangerous player who could somehow have an idol, but don't act like DK is going to align with you again. You should be willing to vote off anyone from that alliance. If you're on some 'Hero strong' mentality, get rid of it. It's not going to work."
"That's not even the only reason, though." Shovel Knight reminded. "The second reason on why we're considering on getting rid of DK another time is because that three is greater than two. Ryu, Bowser, and Ridley probably already had an alliance together before we even swapped tribes."
Now that was definitely true. Fans probably saw both sides of the argument. The theme was broken for sure, but those three certain villains had a core alliance together and they knew it with Ridley being the apparent leader of that.
Moving onto Wolf and Bowser...
"..."
"..."
They were sitting beside each other in the sand, neither of them bothering to look at each other in the eye. So the whole thing was kind of awkward for both of them initially. But they both knew they needed to have that conversation, so somebody had to break the ice. Who was going to be the one to do it?
"...Be honest with me."
Wolf.
"I want to know how serious are you of making it far in this together. What are your priorities here? I pretty much know that you want my vote, which is pretty poetic considering on what you did back there. Maybe I deserved it for what I did, but our strategic relationship in this game is in question right now."
"Well, only thing we could do is figure out how to fix it, man." Bowser shrugged his shoulders. "I mean if you save me this round, I'm gonna fight for you to stay in for as long as possible."
"But you want Springy and I to align with the five of you, knowing that once we complete the seven, the two of us are gonna be six and seven. It's dead obvious, Bowser, and you know it."
"I don't think it'd be that cut and dry." And that was something Koopa honestly thought. "DK and Golden could be on the bottom for being two original heroes, Ridley could go from top to bottom of the alliance since he was the one who created this in the first place, there all sorts of things that can happen in the chance that the seven of us stick together."
"Fair enough..." Wolf blinked thinking. "Though I know the overall intention behind this apparent Strong Guys Alliance brewing is to make a super physical player a million dollars. So,... what else?"
"I went from having the time of my life for the past eighteen days, to now having the chance of actually going home tonight." Throughout the past couple days, Bowser gradually grew more worried by the hour. "I'm once again a target at merge just like in Kodai Island. Wolf saved me last time. But now he has the chance to actually end my game... which is crazy! One minute you're at the top of the world, next minute you're in hot water. It's really amazing how fast this game can change for some people. My life is on the line since Ridley won immunity, and it is up to Wolf to decide what to do with it. And whatever side he goes on, he will bring Springtrap with him, and they could possibly send me home since I'm the deer in their headlights."
"I mean, what's next? You're replacing me with Donkey Kong of all people? That's a connection right there."
"DK ain't a bad guy at all, but me and him come from two completely different backgrounds and you damn well know I'm closer with you than him. We spoke to each other before the season even started that if we could protect each other, we could do just that for as long as we possibly can."
"Well, now what look happened, Koopa." He spread out his arms. "Like I said, I know what I did last time, but for this season, I didn't betray you first. You betrayed me, and since I want to win this just like you, I have to think for myself out here as well. You know that I won't hesitate to pull the trigger on anyone no matter who it is. You have to show me that you'd be willing to keep me around for some votes. Otherwise, I can't trust you. Simple as that."
"Wolf, look at me."
He did. And?
"If it weren't for how Foxy was acting, I wouldn't have even thought about voting you out nor would I have kept you out of the loop. But I knew you were close with Foxy and had a stronger alliance with him and Springtrap, and you were more likely to side with him over me at the time. If Yoshi was going home, neither of us would be in this situation right now."
"Just like how you are in a three person alliance with Ridley and Ryu. And unlike them, my ally got blindsided first. But if you had to do what you thought was best for your game, that I can not fault you for. Though if our games aren't aligning right now, then if you ain't with me,... you against me. Ain't no other way to put it."
"Okay, you're right about that. I completely agree with you. You are in a position where you could set my tail on fire. But we've known each other for a few years now, and you know when I make friendships in this game, I naturally want to keep them around a bit. And on the strategic side, you already know why I need you. I promise you that I will try my damnest to make sure you remain out here as long as possible. But on the flip side, if it's not meant to be, then I apologize for messing your game up."
"Apologies for what I've done to you as well, even though it didn't take much time for you to forgive me at all when I made my way to Ponderosa." He snickered loudly.
"Wolf does not play no games. He made it perfectly clear that I harmed his game and that he and Springtrap have to decide whether to save me or to cut me off. And this bastard will tell you straight up what he wants from you if you want him on your side. I keep trying to come up with reasons to why he should stick with me. But every time when I say something, he brings up a counterpoint that actually does make sense for his game. So at this point, it's all up to what he wants to do. Either he saves me or he doesn't..."
And then when Bowser was by himself walking at a steady pace, he clapped both his hands over his face and gradually slid them both down. "This is bad... This is really bad."
He decided to approach Ridley on what to do, but it was bad timing for him. The turtle ended up walking in on Ridley and Springtrap who appeared to be in the middle of their own conversation.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You two still want to be alone."
"No." Without even looking at him, Ridley's finger was pointing at the ground. "Stay over there. We're almost done here..."
"Look, as a player, I respect you, Ridley." Springtrap carried on. "I really do. But in the Caribbean, we had no relationship. We've played together before, but we barely know anything about each other. We had no beef, but we were never in the same alliance. You didn't even know my real name at the time."
Wow. Did he make a point or what?
"And the fact that it was Bowser the whole time regarding of how Foxy went home, he basically put his name down without putting his name down. Regarding us joining forces, it's a red flag for him, which means it's a red flag for me because the two of us have to vote together for this round. We just don't know who to trust out here, and the fact that Bowser's your ally, how do you think I'm gonna trust you? Simply tell me what is best for the two of us."
"Springtrap, let me just say something." Ridley heaved a sigh, Bowser doing nothing but watching from his position. "Just because the five of us are all stronger than you two, doesn't mean you two aren't strong at all. You have just won individual immunity and Wolf is pretty good at challenges himself. And I do not know Donkey Kong and Golden like that."
"Ryu does. He's close friends with both of 'em. And even Bowser has played with DK before and they don't hate each other."
"But the fact that me and DK have voted differently when we first began in Kodai Island shows that there is potential that he can be untrustworthy again!" Koopa jumped in to defend himself. "Sometimes it's not just about who's played with who. It's also about what the trust is like between two people. DK knows we had history together because he had a core alliance with Mario and Sonic and he lied right to my face about aligning with me!"
"Bowser, where's Wolf at now?" asked Ridley.
"I dunno. I just left him and I ran right to you two."
"Of course Wolf and I have to weigh out the pros and cons here. For the both of us, this ain't our first time being swing votes. It's just a matter of what's worse for us in the long run. At some point, maybe I would be targeted for being a threat in challenges. But I am no Bowser or Ridley." Springtrap knew better. That was why DK beat him in the final round of the double elimination challenge twist. "However, on the plus side, there are more villains in that seven if it does happen. DK and Golden's fate would likely be up in the air if we stick together. But even if we aren't six and seven, we're four and five, unless Ryu, Bowser, and Ridley all backstab each other at that point."
"And when it comes to the other side, if we do hook up with those six, there would be an eight person alliance with four heroes and four villains. This would mean Wolf and I would have to hookup with Shadow and Plague Knight. The one thing that would bring us together would be that both of our core alliances have been weakened and we need more allies. Yet the downside is that if I'm on the bottom of either alliance, I'd rather take eighth place over seventh place if you ask me."
The two swing votes in question were now having their own dialogue with one another.
"Alright, so obviously we're both leaning towards the... Anti-Strong Guys Alliance." Springtrap had to come up with something for them. "But even they have their negatives. I don't trust the Hero Four at all."
"Neither do I." Wolf shrugged sighing. "You know the trust in them is crap when we're talking about aligning with both Plague and Shadow, who are both pretty capable of deceiving you the moment they have the opportunity. Do you really think any of those four heroes are gonna give a damn about us?"
"Obviously not." The concept of that was something he found laughable. "And if we side with them, the eight of us would know what the core alliances are immediately. We go top eight together, we're in an obvious drawing rock situation. I am not leaving this game over a damn rock, especially if this is my second chance. Honestly, both alliances have their negatives to it. It's all about what is worse for us at this point."
"Damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's how the complicated game of Survivor works."
"The two of us have to set ourselves up to be in the best position as possible, because this is the part in the game where we have to think about nobody else but ourselves. Perhaps Foxy should still be here because he could have been the brains behind this thing, so now the two of us have to do the heavy lifting ourselves. And I'd love to get that revenge for him by blowing up Bowser's game and make him look stupid in front of everyone. Buuut of course, timing is everything and we can always vote him out later on. Let's see how this plays out at tribal..."
Tribal Council
Night 21
It was going to be quite a party that night. Master Hand literally needed to have some extra seats. Full house, live music, drinks, pizza, everybody was going to stay up for a while and no one was going home until like five or six in the morning.
...Yeah, no. Time for a Survivor reality check. They definitely were not living in a house, there was no music, drinks and pizza only came with a certain type of reward, and since they were on a stranded island, they were almost always staying up past their bedtime. No real party at all. And even if there was, everyone would have been having a kick out of themselves and each other on Ponderosa!
But following night twenty-one, there was only going to be one attendee, not counting Crazy Hand or any of the Ponderosa staff. Hopefully he or she was rather comfortable having to party on by their lonesome.
Ridley, Springtrap, Golden, Ryu, Vector, Bowser, Donkey Kong all sat in the back row while Wolf, Shadow, Yoshi, Plague Knight, Shovel Knight, Zelda sat up front. The camera made sure it was zoomed out just enough to see every castaway at the same time.
"So... seven villains, six heroes. Heroes had the rockiest start out of the gate where they lost back to back to back to back challenges and four of them were sent home one after the other." It was quite brutal for the Heroes team... unbelievable how unlucky they were. "On the other side, the villains won four challenges in a row. But every since the double elimination twist, it was clear as day the villains were not a perfect tribe of ten where three of them went home back to back to back."
"Plague Knight, do you think the heroes are making some sort of comeback here?"
"Umm,... maybe yes, maybe no, but at this stage in the game tribal lines are usually irrelevant by this point. No one cares anymore. When we first started as Heroes vs Villains, obviously are main goal was to beat the other team. Us villains wanted the heroes to lose as much as possible, to be able to kill all hopes and dreams they might have had and made sure that they always went to Tribal Council."
"You get a kick out of seeing us miserable?" Golden spoke out making Vector snicker.
"Uhh..." The alchemist blinked under his mask. "Obviously. Couldn't have had it any other way. Their fans at home can whine and cry all they want to. Your team should have been better at challenges and I did a great job leading my team in my challenge."
"...You know what, for once, I agree with him." Springtrap nodded his head. "The heroes are the clear underdogs of this season, and I've said some things about people focusing on that aspect in my season. Rodin and I shared a similar pet peeve. We can not stand it when people just blindly root for the underdogs just because they are the underdog tribe... I mean,... what is the point of having challenges if you're always gonna get mad at whoever wins them? It's not all about you. I'm sorry I want to win the game just as much as everybody else, and I'm sorry that your favorite hero is not in the game anymore. What do you want me to do? Screw my game up just so things can go your way?"
"Bowser, walk me through people rooting for the underdog tribe." That was one thing Master Hand wanted them to focus on a little more. "Say if the roles were reversed, if the shoe was on the other foot. What if you guys were the ones to lose almost half your tribe?"
"I'd be swearing like a sailor." He grinned without any shame. "I of course lost a lot of challenges before. It would have actually took everything in me not to rage quit, but I want to win this damn game so bad I would have told myself a million times to toughen up, suck it up, and just deal with it. If the Survivor devil works hard, I'll make sure I work harder. Nothing's gonna stop me from doing everything in my power to win."
"So even if it was the worst case scenario for you,... basically whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
"Couldn't have put that in better words. If the roles were reversed, our fans would have been complaining online of how we lost all the challenges and they'd want the heroes to lose for once. But that's not really how Survivor works. So I do agree with Springtrap. Four of the heroes lost the game, but... that's the game for you. Their fans wanna throw a temper tantrum, I really don't give a damn. Boohoo. It ain't all about you. If you were the one who signed up to play this but can't take the fact that people lose challenges, grab your torch, quit, and get your ass outta here. The game is just too hard for you."
"Long story short," Springtrap went on. "if you don't win everything, that's your problem. The heroes ain't the first team to lose challenges and they are not going to be the last. And when some people want us to lose just so the heroes can win? ...That's an insult to us. You're asking us to throw a challenge or something? All I gotta say is that if you sign up for this show yourself, you gotta have some thicker skin than that."
"So Donkey Kong, explain your situation from your perspective. You guys were pretty much having a rough go from the very beginning."
"We pretty much have been going through it, but since the villains clearly do not care, all the six of us can do is keep our heads above the water. We're still breathing, so that's all that matters." Keeping a level head. That fitted Donkey Kong alright. "Even if I was the only hero out here, I'm not gonna stop fighting. I'll slaughter all of these people by even winning twelve immunity challenges just to get to the end and win."
"Vector, you think you can win twelve individual immunity challenges?"
"I don't know about that." He snickered shrugging his shoulders. "But you gotta have that fire in you like Donkey Kong to do anything. I don't know if something crazy like that will ever happen, but nothing is impossible. The heroes had a hard time out of the gate, but say if another villain goes home today, numbers will be tied. That'll show everyone that we're still in it."
That last part made Ridley frown at him as if the croc was a drunk.
"Ridley."
"Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and be blunt here." Ridley was always blunt with people. That was how he was... "Alright, so the underdogs are the underdogs, we already know. But this is what I don't understand. They want all of us villains to break up and not be together anymore, but they're not together themselves. They are talking as if all of the heroes are somehow going to make top six just so they can say they've defeated all the bad guys. It's all a bunch of bs. I am no fool. They know damn well they are not together."
Now he had the attention of everyone. Well done for him putting all of the heroes on the spot. Then again, four of them were in his opposing alliance. Perhaps he was somewhat justifiable...
"The heroes aren't together anymore..." Master Hand took the hint immediately.
"Nope."
"But hey," Bowser hunched his shoulders. "because they are the underdogs of this game, they're perfect, right? They can do no wrong."
"When did the heroes get divided?"
"I'll answer that one." Donkey Kong volunteered raising his hand. "Since they already know we're not going to vote with them anyway, let's just get this straight. Golden and I felt like because of the two of us being out of the Meta Knight vote, we felt that if we stuck with Zelda, Vector, Yoshi, and Shovel Knight, there was no chance in the world they would keep us past fifth and sixth place. We're obviously on the bottom of that, so we jumped ship."
"You and Golden jumped ship."
"Whatever we felt necessary for both of our games in the long run." Golden backed his friend up. "We do love these four, but we have games of our own to play. This is where the individual portion kicks in, and we're taking full advantage of that. We weren't even going to have a conversation about this until after tribal, but they already know where we stand, so... I guess it is what it is."
"Zelda, does it disappoint you that these two aren't with you anymore?"
"Honestly, yes. And I am not trying to tell them what to do or control their games or anything, but for me personally, that's the less allies down the line. Since we are all one group now, you need to have as many allies as possible. The more allies, the more options you have going forward. The less options you have, the less trust you can place in other people."
"Well knowing of how things went at the Meta Knight tribal, you can't really say you're surprised." Golden spoke again. "We all know on that beach that DK and I got the vote wrong, so one of you should have thought that us leaving the Hero alliance was at least a possibility."
He was not wrong. Regarding the edit at least, there was perhaps a little concern for it in that episode. But to this point, not that much at all.
"So Ryu, the villains aren't a hundred percent together anymore, the heroes aren't a hundred percent together anymore, Heroes vs Villains is officially over." Took the master a long enough time to realize that, but better late than never, supposedly. "The game is really up in the air as we know it. Anyone can win."
"I believe that this is anyone's game." He smirked in reaction. "Everyone's being competitive, since this is All Stars. I predicted the hardest part for me was dealing with Specter Knight. I'll be the first to admit that he was going to be without a doubt the biggest challenge that I had to deal with out here, and he didn't even make it to merge, but I did. I took out my arch-nemesis, and to think the rest of this season would have been a breeze. It's clearly not. It's never a breeze even if everything goes your way."
"So with the theme being broken, do you think different alliances are already being established?"
"Of course. This merge vote is gonna set the tone for the rest of the season, because everybody wants to make sure they have just enough votes to not already send someone home, but basically so that they can take advantage of this one vote to have control over the rest of the game. I'm just trying to make sure I'm on the right side of the numbers like everybody else is. Things are gonna get real, real soon."
"As if things weren't already being a bloodbath."
"Well, there's gonna be a lot more blood to shed, and whoever gets to that final three has to show all that blood on their hands and hope the jury will respect the way you handled everyone. Since tribal lines are broken, people feel some type of way towards each other now."
Both Bowser and Wolf were seen eyeing in seemingly random directions.
"Alright, then I guess when it comes to this vote, we will see who the underdogs for the reason of the season will be afterwards." Oh. Was it time already? "It is time to vote. Shadow, you're up."
Up and off he went, going up to the urn to get his vote out the way. Ryu, Shovel Knight, and Springtrap quickly followed.
"Hmm..." Though the rabbit knew his vote was one of the most important of the cast in that round, he quickly wrote down who he wanted out.
Ridley cast his vote in shortly after.
"I have a feeling that if _ does hit the fan tonight, somebody's gonna regret it..."
After Donkey Kong and Yoshi, Plague Knight made sure his vote was extra sealed tight.
"It's my turn to have revenge now. This is for my friend, Specter."
Friend...?
This was probably going to be talked about at the Survivor - Heroes vs Villains reunion show.
Vector, Bowser, Golden, and Wolf were all shown in the montage, with the lupine keeping his straight, somewhat glaring look.
"I will be the one to take you down."
And Bowser was staring at him the entire time as if Wolf was going to pull his blaster out and do it for real.
Once Zelda was finally finished, Master Hand was ready. A thunder cracked and a storm was coming soon. He needed to hurry up and send somebody home already.
"I'll go tally the votes..."
"Holy Star Spirits..." Koopa mumbled to himself.
Shadow shook his head and kept his arms crossed. "This better work, or I'm going to piss myself..."
Wolf hardly even blinked. Perhaps he did not need his blaster. His look alone would have murdered somebody on the spot. Too dangerous to keep around somebody like that. Maybe he should have been the one going home.
"If anybody has a hidden immunity idol and you wanna play it, now would be the time to do so."
A lot of eyes were shot at most of the members of SGA. And to avoid them from staring too long, Ridley heaved a sigh and got up from his seat.
"I think I'd like to play mine tonight."
Music: Step: Subspace - Super Smash Bros. Brawl
"Oh..." Vector widened his eyes in surprise. "He did have it."
"And he won immunity, too, Vec." Springtrap found it a bit amusing. "He got that double protection. This guy is good."
"Aren't you gonna play it on me?" Bowser popped an eyebrow, already asking the question before the dragon even made his way over the master. "Dude,... you gotta play it on me. Please."
"No." Ryu shook his head rapidly at that. "I think I'm the one. Play it on me, man. You saved me before, you could do it again."
But Donkey Kong did not look so comfortable. "I think it's me..."
"Could be any of us." Golden snickered, but he was rather hiding what he was really feeling on the inside.
"Dude..." Yet Bowser was begging the most. "Please..."
All the while, Ridley kept his straight face eyeing all four of them one by one, before casting a look at everyone who was in his opposed alliance including Springtrap and Wolf themselves.
"Ridley...?" What more did Bowser have to say for him to follow through? Jump off a cliff?
"...I'd really rather just hold onto this until I feel like I'm going home, especially since I'm guaranteed for final twelve. But if this works out, the long-term plan would be to play an idol for one of my allies that I can not lose... Ryu, this is for you."
Placing the idol on the table, Koopa glanced up to the sky covering his face with his hands.
"Oh goodness gracious... You'd better be right, Ridley."
"Now I want my name to come up!" Ryu grinned largely. "I have a strong feeling they put my name down."
"Let's wait and see..." The Caribbean player made it back to his spot, none of the members of Anti-SGA uttering a single word, nor making any specific reactions.
"This is a hidden immunity idol." Thanks for the confirmation. "Any votes cast for Ryu will not count. I'll read the votes."
"Oh my God..." Ryu Hoshi mumbled.
"I can't look..." said Bowser.
"First vote..."
Zelda curled up her lips.
"Ryu. Does not count."
"Oh my God!"
"Yes!" Ridley clapped his hands loudly in response.
"Oh thank the Star Spirits." Big turtle was breathing heavily as if air was his best friend. "Thank you..."
Vector slapped his hand on his face rather hardly.
"There goes our plan..." Shovel said in disappointment.
"Ryu. Does not count."
"Good job." Golden commented on Ridley's correct read. "You did good."
"I take it back, man. You made the right call." Bowser had to agree. "Let's see how many times we're gonna see it."
"Ryu. Does not count."
Shadow the Hedgehog looked beyond pissed off. "You guys just don't listen. I told you all this was a bad idea."
"Ryu. Does not count."
"Ryu. Does not count."
Yoshi heaved a sigh, Plague Knight's wrists supporting the sides of his face slouching. "Am I going home now?"
"Ryu. Does not count."
Wolf went from looking completely cold-hearted to regretful and disappointed. Springy on the other hand pretty much looked irritated similar to Shadow.
"Ryu. Does not count."
"Annnd that's the majority." Golden muttered. "That was a correct idol play."
"Ryu. Does not count. We still have no votes for anybody."
Until...
"Shadow."
"DAMN IT!" He stomped his foot in anger. "_!"
...Well that was loud.
"One vote Shadow."
His head was now buried in his lap. Yet as if he was laughing at his misery, Ridley had the coldest grin of all time right his way.
"Get him..." mumbled Bowser. "Read on..."
"Shadow. That's two votes Shadow."
"Sorry, Shad..." Plague Knight felt almost as bad for Shadow as he did for Specter, in spite the two somehow being different than one another. "This is messed up."
All Vector could have done was stare at the ground.
"Eight person voted out of Survivor and the first member of our jury." That was it. It was done. "Shadow. That's three, that's enough. You need to bring me your torch."
...
And... the music stopped. Now even though the hedgehog was just a little quicker to get up in contrast to Foxy two tribals prior, it did nothing to help his mood one bit.
"That was a bad move. You guys should have listened and targeted DK like I told you. All of you just cost me a million dollars. You guys suck."
Not a word from his alliance. Nothing but guilt spread across their faces.
"Now you all have the Strong Guys Alliance to worry about with Ridley running the show."
"!?"
"I actually hope he somehow gets all the way to the end."
"Well that's one way to put me on the spot. Wouldn't you say?"
"Whatever. I don't care." He really did not anymore. The poor man just grabbed his torch and marched to the host.
"Shadow, the tribe has spoken."
And he did not even wait for his torch to go out, as he was already heading towards the stairs.
"What a bunch of dumbasses."
Well, Shadow did achieve something. He now held the record for the saltiest reaction to a vote off of all time in this series so far.
#Blindside
...No crap, Sherlock...
"...Alright." Master Hand actually floated to where he could actually see Shadow as he still making his way down. "That's something to remember. And it seems that if the discussion did not tell anything, the vote off certainly did. Tribal lines are officially no more, everybody out for themselves. It's gonna get messy and I can not wait. Grab your torches, head back to camp. Goodnight."
Votes:
Bowser - Shadow
Donkey Kong - Shadow
Yoshi - Ryu
Zelda - Ryu
Wolf - Ryu
Ridley - Shadow
Shadow - Ryu
Vector - Ryu
Ryu - Shadow
Shovel Knight - Ryu
Plague Knight - Ryu
Golden - Shadow
Springtrap - Ryu
-/-
5-0
13th Place: Shadow
Total Votes Received: 5
Final Confessional Count: 3-0-2-1-2-2-2 (12)
"I feel like I've gotten robbed. I've gotten robbed because I was surrounded by people that didn't know how to play the game. They didn't know who the right person to target. They figured Bowser, Ryu, and Ridley were a core three needing to be split up, and they barely even considered sending DK or Golden home. But they didn't pay the consequences. I did, because I'm not part of the game anymore. Not a soul had my back anyway, so _ all of them for all I care..."
Castaways Remaining:
Donkey Kong, Bowser, Yoshi, Zelda, Wolf, Ridley, Vector, Ryu, Shovel Knight, Plague Knight, Golden, Springtrap
Character Confessional Count:
22: Donkey Kong (+1)
18: Ridley (+3)
17: Golden (+2)
16: Bowser (+2)
15: Zelda (+2), Yoshi (+4), Shovel Knight (+2), Vector (+3), Ryu (+2)
13: Wolf (+3), Plague Knight (+2)
12: Springtrap (+2) Shadow (+2), Specter Knight, Sonic
11: Foxy, Meta Knight
6: Sheik
5: Mario
3: Isabelle
(Yoshi got the most confessionals out of everyone of all people this episode, Donkey Kong's still leading, and even though Sonic and Shadow ended with the same amount of confessionals, Sonic had a big edit even though he only lasted 3 episodes.)
My apologies. I didn't expect this merge Tribal Council discussion to be a little short, but I didn't really have anything else to add... I don't even remember four of the castaways contributing at all! (Shadow, Wolf, Yoshi, and Shovel Knight)
But geez... I'm really feeling for Shadow there... I'm going to leave it up to you all to discuss. Next week's just gonna be Shadow's Ponderosa chapter as the side series will start next Wednesday.
(Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is set to compete in Survivor - India.)