Days 7-9 (1st)

## Day 7

### Blue Team

Kim woke up on Day 7 feeling enraged and cornered. She approached Jennifer to confront her about the vote and question what had happened. Jennifer tried to placate Kim by telling her that they still could use Daniel moving forward, while Marco was still resentful towards them for voting out Brooke over Lenobia. Kim expressed frustration over this change of plans, as she had still voted against Daniel and Lenobia had still voted against her. That meant Lenobia was, in fact, out to get her and was still asleep in the shelter instead of out of the game. Plus, Daniel would now trust less Kim significantly less. Jennifer assured Kim that she could keep Daniel in line moving forward. Still not satisfied, Kim let the conversation drop. She felt alone, but being alone meant that alienating Jennifer by fighting wasn't in her best interest. So, instead of continuing the argument, Kim just checked to make sure Jennifer was still fine voting out Lenobia next, which Jennifer was. They didn't need Daniel's vote to do it, so long as they had Zillik. Feeling only marginally better, Kim left Jennifer alone and left camp to check Marco's traps for food.

Meanwhile, in the shelter, Lenobia had woken up and was sitting alone with Daniel. She asked him if she was going to be voted out next, attempting to make him feel bad and emotionally manipulate him. Daniel promised that she wouldn't go next if they could get Zillik on board to vote Kim out with them instead. Lenobia didn't feel very confident about that, given how helpful Zillik had been for her up to that point. Daniel told her that Zillik seemed to dislike him less than he disliked the rest of the team, so he could probably convince him to vote Kim out with them. This eased her nerves, but Lenobia still found herself hoping they could win the next challenge anyway.

### Red Team

Things remained relatively peaceful at the Red Team, with the exception of Marcus' behavior continuing to aggravate basically everyone around him. It wasn't that he was extremely mean to anyone, but he was loud and had an abrasive sense of humor. He was also confrontational, so everyone knew that asking him to stop would be inviting an argument. This didn't stop nearly everyone from trying at one point or another, but it made little difference. Timothy was absolutely exhausted with Marcus, but he was glad to see that everyone else was too. He resolved to work with Marcus as long as possible, as he would always likely be a target before Timothy and definitely wouldn't stand a chance in front of a Jury. The end of the game was a long way away, but if Marcus proved trustworthy, Timothy felt good about dragging him there, even if it meant suffering through his personality the entire time.

Jade and Blaike, meanwhile, had begun talking more. They made going to check Blaike's traps a regular routine, which was time that Jade used to try and build a bridge to Blaike. Blaike was, like everyone else, exhausted and frustrated with Marcus, and Jade worked on that. At every opportunity, Jade tried to push the conversation towards their shared dislike of him. She didn't want to propose any sort of alliance or tell her about Catherine just yet, as she didn't want to make Blaike feel that she was an aggressive player. Instead, her goal was just to prime Blaike to the idea of voting out Marcus by working on her intense dislike of him. Problematically for Jade, Blaike was able to figure out what her goals were. It didn't make her shy away from the talks, as Blaike did actually feel the same way as Jade, but she got the feeling that she was being worked for a future vote. Given Timothy was currently her closest ally, she decided to talk this over with him later. He did seem to also dislike Marcus, but he also had seemed like he was leaning towards Catherine the last time they'd spoken. Blaike preferred the idea of voting Marcus, but wanted to put herself in a good position moving forward in the game, not just make decisions based on who she liked more.

## Day 8

### Challenge

The challenge on Day 8 had a surprising result for everyone. Being forced to sit out two players had apparently hurt the Red Team's strength enough that the Blue Team was successful in winning their first Immunity Challenge, along with a set of fishing gear and a small rowboat that they could take down the river near their camp. This thrilled the team, as it meant that might have a chance at more food, which would likely help them in future challenges as well.

### Blue Team

After getting back to camp, Kim immediately told the team that they should take their new rowboat down the river and go fishing. Since the idea of being trapped alone in a boat with Kim where she could endlessly try to talk to him made Zillik physically ill, he ditched the team and went to go get water and check their traps in case they didn't find any fish. Also not wanting to spend the evening stuck with people who were definitely still plotting to vote her out, Lenobia told the others that she was going to collect firewood and build a large stockpile for them to cook fish with. Kim accepted this, if only because there would be more space in their small rowboat with only three players anyway.

Once they were on the water, Kim did, in fact, begin working Daniel over while they fished with Jennifer. She apologized for casting a vote against him, though it bruised her ego to do so. Kim explained that it had been an emotional response to feeling like he was turning on her. Not wanting drama with Kim, Daniel pretended to accept her apology. In his mind, though, if she was willing to vote for him out of an emotional outburst once, she could easily do so again. Jennifer only interjected periodically in a few attempts to mediate when Kim got too abrasive. Once they pretended to smooth over the last vote, Kim told Daniel that Lenobia was being voted out next whether he liked it or not, because Zillik would definitely vote with them. Daniel doubted that, but decided only to say that he would miss Lenobia, as he actually liked having her around. The trio spent the rest of the trip mostly focused on fishing and more casual conversations. They did manage to catch quite a few fish for their first outing, which meant a feast back at camp.

### Red Team

Devastated from their first loss, the Red Team didn't immediately jump to strategy when they returned. Instead, Aryel and Catherine prepared a meal and everyone sat around to eat in silence. There was a bit of an unspoken feeling that their team would be strong enough to reach the Merge without any losses, but that clearly wasn't the case. Resolving that it was time to get to work, Timothy left camp with Dragon and Marcus at the first opportunity to supposedly gather firewood. This was actually a chance for them to finalize a plan for their first vote. Once they were alone, Timothy confided in them that he believed Catherine was their best choice for a first vote, as she was simply too big of a threat to leave in the game for the Merge. Shocked, Dragon adamantly protested this idea, arguing that Aryel was their weakest link and least trustworthy teammate. He also insisted that he would be able to keep Catherine as a vote alongside them moving forward. Marcus seemed to be in agreement with Dragon, preferring a strong team over everything else. Realizing Dragon wasn't going to budge on the issue, Timothy agreed to the plan to vote out Aryel, but that wasn't his actual intention. The fact that Dragon had been unwilling to even consider voting Catherine out had only confirmed what Timothy suspected about her being too big of a threat. He needed Dragon to feel like he had no options besides their trio. They finished collecting their firewood and returned to camp, where Marcus immediately announced that he was going for a walk and would return later. Suspicious of his frequent walks out of camp, Timothy decided to follow along in secret to see what he was up to.

Once Dragon had the chance, he pulled Catherine aside to tell her that they needed to vote for Aryel. Catherine, knowing she already had a plan in place with Jade and a decent relationship with Aryel, disagreed. She believed that the vote should be Marcus. He was immature, lazy, and a pain to deal with around camp. Besides, Catherine honestly felt that Marcus was the second worst at the challenges, viewing herself, Jade, Blaike, Timothy, and Dragon all as being stronger than he was. Dragon admittedly agreed with her on these points, but he also liked and trusted Marcus. In the end, he told Catherine to vote her conscious and he would do the same, and they would see how things went. It wasn't going to be either of them, so whether it was Marcus or Aryel, they would simply pick up the pieces and move forward with who they had left. Catherine wasn't thrilled, but accepted that he already had another commitment to his friend and decided to not push the issue. As long as they could swing Blaike and possibly Aryel as well, there shouldn't be any issue getting rid of Marcus. After all, Aryel would want to protect herself before she'd want to vote out Timothy.

### Between Team Camps

Once again, Lenobia and Marcus met up when they managed to get away from their respective camps. Unfortunately for Marcus, he was unaware that Timothy was stalking him nearby and listening in from some nearby brush coverage. Lenobia filled Marcus in on what happened at the previous vote, explaining that she was basically guaranteed to be voted out if they lost again unless Zillik somehow came to her side. Since Marcus was in a pretty solid position on the Red Team, he was feeling pretty cocky. So, he offered to start throwing challenges to keep Lenobia around. Of course, this angered Timothy, who now was extremely grateful he'd tagged along to hear this. Marcus continued by saying that Aryel was leaving at their upcoming vote, but that he would see if he could talk the guys into voting out a stronger target to weaken their team. This gave Lenobia renewed hope and Timothy a new idea.

As Marcus was leaving their meetup, Timothy emerged from his hiding spot to confront him. When Marcus got angry and demanded to know why he was being followed, Timothy lied and claimed that he had been looking for Marcus to discuss a change of voting plans without Dragon, but gave no indication that he'd seen or heard Lenobia. Still pissed at being followed, Marcus decided to put his anger aside and take the opportunity to push for a stronger challenge target. Timothy told Marcus that he believed Catherine was going to be a significant threat later on given how close she was with the girls and Dragon, besides just her being great at challenges. Marcus jumped on this, knowing that Catherine being gone meant their team would be much weaker and Lenobia would have a better chance to survive. Then he remembered Dragon and asked what Timothy planned to do about that. Not concerned, Timothy stated that he was confident he could sway Blaike to vote alongside them. Additionally, Aryel was Dragon's target, so all Timothy needed to do was convince her to vote against Catherine to protect herself. If Jade, Catherine, and Dragon all voted against Aryel, she'd have to vote against Catherine to avoid a tie. They would do damage control with Dragon after it was over. Realizing how sneaky and cunning Timothy was, Marcus decided to accept this plan, but privately planned to throw him under the bus at the first opportunity. There was no way he was taking the blame for this one and losing his alliance with Dragon. As for the meetup, Timothy decided to keep that information to himself for the time being, knowing it could be more valuable later.

## Day 9

### Blue Team

On Day 9, the Blue Team was in higher spirits than usual. Winning their first challenge and having an abundance of fish to cook and eat seemed to have eased tensions around the camp. Additionally, despite feeling like she was on the outside of everything, Lenobia felt significantly happier knowing she had Marcus working to protect her from the other side. As soon as she got the chance, she was going to burn all of the Blue Team for making her an outcast, something she definitely wasn't used to. The thought of that kept her pleasant and content around camp.

Kim had already set about making sure that Lenobia was definitely leaving if they did happen to lose again. When an opportunity presented itself, she approached Zillik with the plan. Exasperated with the team scheming even when they weren't losing, Zillik did what he always did. He told Kim what she wanted to hear in as few words as possible so that she would leave him alone. Not long after she was gone, however, he was bothered by Daniel. This didn't irritate Zillik quite as much. Daniel was quieter and less pushy, which made talking to him much more pleasant. Daniel proposed the idea to vote Kim out next with Lenobia instead. This alerted Zillik to an important realization. He had become the swing vote and both sides expected his help. As much as he liked the idea of voting out Kim, just to make camp quieter, he privately thought voting out Jennifer might be better. She wasn't as useful as Kim in challenges and was more likely to be able to convince people to work with her, since she was less bossy. However, Zillik knew Daniel had a decent relationship with Jennifer and would probably want to keep her, so he just agreed to the Kim vote to make the conversation end sooner. Beaming at the thought that he'd just saved Lenobia, Daniel returned to camp proud of himself.

### Red Team

Timothy woke up ready to work before the vote. His first talk was with Blaike when they left camp to collect firewood that morning. She told Timothy that Jade was very likely to vote against Marcus and might have Catherine voting with her, based on their recent talks. Blaike admittedly liked the idea of voting out Marcus, just because she didn't like him, but she wanted to hear Timothy out. Grateful for her honesty, Timothy told her that the plan was to ahead and target Catherine. Dragon had blatantly refused to cast a vote against her and she and Jade were already close. Catherine was helpful around camp, nice to be around, good at challenges, and had people unwilling to vote against her, which made her too big of a threat to keep in the game. Understanding his reasoning, Blaike was still wary of the plan. She wanted to make sure the numbers would be there, so he told her what he'd told Marcus. The three of them would vote together and try to make Aryel fear for her own safety in the game, giving them four. Even if she refused to help them, they would have a plurality provided Jade and Catherine voted for Marcus and Dragon for Aryel. Blaike, becoming increasingly aware of how devious Timothy could, directly questioned if she would be able to trust him moving forward. He assured her that she most definitely could, but his answer seemed to irritate her. Blaike hadn't felt that it been a genuine response, but she took it anyway, deciding to carefully consider her options at the vote.

Once he'd finished talking to Blaike, Jade pulled Timothy aside to ask him to vote with she and Catherine against Marcus. Timothy was relieved to hear that she and Catherine hadn't switched their plan to Aryel. If what she was saying was true, and Timothy knew Jade was an extremely honest person, then he didn't even need Aryel's vote. Dragon wasn't likely to be voting against Marcus, so he, Marcus, and Blaike would have a secure plurality. To placate his sister, Timothy said he would consider voting out Marcus. Familiar with her brother's word games, Jade challenged him on that, wanting to know exactly how much he'd consider it. Timothy admitted that he viewed Marcus as an easy vote for them moving forward, but he was really annoying to live with. Jade took that to mean that Timothy wanted to not have to live with Marcus, but she couldn't rely on him to vote Marcus out. As long as he thought Marcus might be useful in aiding his path to victory, Timothy was likely to protect him. Nonetheless, Jade chose not to worry about pushing it. If the girls all voted against Marcus, the four of them would comprise a majority.

So, Jade and Catherine naturally approached Aryel and filled her in. The boys were targeting her, or so they thought, and they were targeting Marcus. Aryel questioned whose side Blaike was on, since she seemed to be close to Timothy and generally got along with Dragon. Blaike had actually admitted that she tended to bond with guys more easily than girls, so Aryel wasn't convinced she could be trusted. Jade assured Aryel that Blaike had been in agreement during all of their talks about Marcus, so she was most likely going to agree to vote against him. Besides, Aryel didn't have much of a choice if the vote was coming her way otherwise. Aryel argued back, insisting that Timothy be the first vote, as he was playing the game too hard and would cut any of them to win. Catherine was willing to consider that, but Jade wasn't, which meant that there was no point in discussing it further. Irritated, Aryel told the two she would vote with them, but had a plan of her own in mind. She doubted Blaike would vote with them, so Aryel suspected she would be eliminated at the vote. She was going to vote against Timothy in retaliation, since she believed he was to blame for the plan to get rid of her. Even if she was wrong and Blaike voted with the girls, the worst that happened was a tie, and that could be really interesting to watch play out.

Jade came to Blaike one last time before the vote to let her know that Marcus had been green lit as their official plan and that all of the other girls were on board. Blaike wasn't surprised, but she was conflicted. If Aryel did help the girls vote for Marcus and Dragon voted against Aryel, they'd have a tie between Catherine and Marcus. If that happened, she wasn't sure what Dragon would do on the revote, meaning she risked alienating most of the team and Marcus could still be eliminated. On the other hand, if she flipped to help the girls and Aryel wasn't voting with them, Blaike would be the one who blew the plan. Plus, Timothy wouldn't trust her moving forward, and as much as she didn't trust him already, Blaike wasn't entirely ready to have him as an enemy. She agreed to Jade's plan to vote out Marcus, but truthfully didn't think she would be decided until at the vote.

As Blaike returned from her walk with Jade and took a seat, Dragon sat down beside her for a talk. Blaike was starting to feel flustered and frustrated with all of the conversations going on, but knew it was part of what she'd signed up for. He asked if she knew what she was doing for the vote, mostly just trying to be polite and talk to all of his teammates wherever he could. Blaike told him that she was currently conflicted, as she'd been given different options to think over. Dragon assumed these options were Aryel and Marcus, so he decided to try and win her over since they had been getting along well. He told Blaike that, as sexist and grating as Marcus could be, he really wasn't all that bad of a guy. Besides, Blaike could had demonstrated once or twice that she had a quick temper, and she sheepishly agreed to that. Blaike acknowledged that she did tend to like boys more than girls, since she was more of an outdoorsy builder than a girly girl. Dragon told her that, if that was the case, she might actually find herself getting along with Marcus if she gave him a chance and get to know him more personally. Blaike knew Dragon was being left out of the Catherine plan, and his genuineness with her made her consider spilling it all to him. That would be a bad move, though, so she clammed up and thanked him for the talk, letting him know that it helped her out a lot. Dragon felt great about that, believing that if Blaike sided with them at the vote that he would be the reason why.

As the evening went on and time ticked away, Timothy decided to have a conversation with Aryel when he got the chance, just to see if he could figure out where her head was. The talk was extremely tense, to say the least. After being invited to collect some water, Aryel was put on the spot and asked if she'd thought about who to vote for. Knowing she couldn't just say that she wanted to vote for Timothy to his face, she tried to lie and say that no one had really given her any plans and she felt like it was probably her that was getting booted. Aryel then asked who he was planning to vote for, which Timothy answered by saying that he was also undecided. He had originally considered asking her to vote against Catherine with him, but he realized this could potentially backfire. If Aryel went to Catherine, she could go to Dragon and then half the team could be turned against him. Instead, Timothy just needed to work out if Aryel was voting for Marcus. So, he asked if the other girls had said anything to her, to which she replied that they hadn't given her much she was interested in going along with. This was Aryel's way of attempting to get Timothy to give her whatever his plan was as an option for her, but he didn't feel the need to. Instead, he gave canned responses and wished her luck at the vote, feeling that he had what he needed. Aryel was acting cagey with him, which meant she didn't trust like him and was likely still planning to vote for him. If she had switched her vote to Marcus, Aryel probably wouldn't have been afraid to just say that she was voting with the girls.

Just before the vote, Timothy decided to double-check what he'd been told by Blaike and Jade. He pulled Catherine aside as everyone was preparing to leave camp to ask if Dragon had filled her in on the plan. She explained that, yes, Dragon had asked her to vote for Aryel with them. Being the upfront person she was, Catherine let Timothy know that she wasn't going to go through with it. Marcus was a nightmare to put up with for the girls, and she had resolved to vote alongside the girls against him. Timothy thanked her for the honesty and assured her that he completely understood her reasoning. He, of course, would still be voting for Aryel, but if Marcus was eliminated by the girls standing together, then he only asked that he not be next in line. Catherine only said that she would see what she could do, which gave Timothy all the more reason to want to vote her out. In truth, he didn't care what she did or who she voted anymore. By confirming that she and Jade were definitely voting for Marcus, Dragon was voting for Aryel, and Aryel was most likely voting for him, his trio would have a plurality of the votes. Even if he were wrong about Aryel's vote, the worst case scenario for him was a tie-breaker between Marcus and Catherine, which he could potentially pressure Dragon into breaking in his favor.

### Vote

That night at the vote, Dragon was left completely in the dark as he had cast the only vote against Aryel. Jade and Catherine were almost as surprised to see that they were the only two votes against Marcus, realizing that neither Aryel nor Blaike had voted with them. Aryel, fully convinced she was likely to leave the game anyway, cast her vote against Timothy just to put him on edge moving forward, though she was the only one to do so. Blaike made her choice, ultimately siding with Timothy and Marcus and voting out Catherine. Catherine was shocked and felt hurt and betrayed, genuinely not sure who to blame. She knew Timothy likely was responsible, and Marcus had probably voted with him, but what she couldn't figure out was the last vote. Her question was answered when she saw how angry Dragon looked. He was glaring daggers across at Timothy and Marcus, while Marcus was gesturing over towards Timothy to push blame onto him. Jade was frowning at Blaike, who just shrugged in response. Her choice was made and there was no taking it back now. Despite her disappointment, Catherine noted to the others that she was at least glad to have put the team's best interests first and to be leaving with her integrity. The last comment had been lobbied specifically towards Timothy, since he'd approached her just before the vote and told her outright that he was voting against Aryel, and clearly hadn't let Dragon in on the plan. Dragon returned to camp and hardly slept through his rage, but decided to stay quiet and not cause any problems until he'd had time to cool off.