Days 4-6 (1st)

## Day 4

### Blue Team

After waking up on Day 4, Marco was frustrated. Brooke was gone and he hadn't been able to protect her. In fact, he'd voted against her. It wasn't even that he was close to her, but Marco felt that she was more trustworthy than Kim or Lenobia. One way or another, Marco was set on getting rid of Lenobia or Kim if they lost again. Coincidentally, Lenobia wasn't even thinking of targeting Marco. After surviving the previous vote, all she wanted to do was vote Kim out. It didn't matter how good she was at challenges to Lenobia. Kim was controlling and loud and was always going to push voting out the weaker players. Kim, however, was in an extremely cheerful mood. True to form, she began assigning chores once everyone was awake.

While everyone was working and socializing, Marco pulled Daniel aside and told him that Lenobia had to be next. He had conceded to letting Brooke go once, but Lenobia was the next weakest player and did the least work around camp. Still not wanting to get rid of Lenobia, Daniel turned Marco down once again and told him that he would stick with the girls moving forward. Meanwhile, Kim spent the day chatting with Jennifer, and the two actually had decided to vote for Lenobia. She was the laziest of them and not the most useful in challenges, so Kim was ready to throw her out next. Having decided to stick with Kim for the long haul, Jennifer easily agreed to this. Lenobia's first effort at swinging votes to her side was approaching Marco. Unfortunately for her, even though Marco was frustrated with Kim, he still wanted her gone. So after Lenobia's pitch to vote out Kim, Marco only feigned interest, letting Lenobia think he was on board. Satisfied, she made a note to talk to Daniel and Zillik later. She'd already given up on Jennifer, since she and Kim had been glued to each other for the entire day. As for weakening the team, Lenobia didn't care at all. If she could get in good with Marcus, she would find a place with the Red Team, so taking out threats like Kim on her own team would only help her game.

### Red Team

Given their lacking of having to vote, there wasn't at much active scheming at the Red Team. However, Catherine and Dragon had grown closer, and ultimately the two finally agreed to work together. Dragon chose not to divulge his alliance with Timothy and Marcus to her, as she didn't like Marcus and he didn't want to make either side feel betrayed by his loyalty to the other. If he could comfortably work from the middle, then Dragon figured he could protect Catherine without actually having to tell her about the alliance.

Marcus, meanwhile, was managing to piss off nearly everyone on his team. Despite Dragon trying his best to make Marcus more self-aware, he couldn't help being generally abrasive and confrontational. His sleeping habits were being critiqued, especially by Jade, who felt he wasn't doing his fair share of the work around camp. Timothy also didn't care for Marcus, although he didn't care for most of Ares' kids in general. He mostly stayed quiet while Marcus fought with the girls, though, because he needed Marcus' vote and also it took attention away from him. Well, almost. Aryel was still keeping an eye on Timothy, taking note of anytime he went off alone with someone and feeling skeptical about keeping him around for too long.

## Day 5

### Challenge

At the second challenge on Day 5, history repeated itself. The Red Team won, though only by a close margin again. The reward, this time, was comfort in the form of a tarp to protect the teams from the rain, as well as pillows and blankets to help them sleep at night. Devastated at their loss, the Blue Team knew that more importantly than the reward would be the fact that they were about to down a second member.

### Blue Team

Back at the Blue Team camp, Kim immediately set to work organizing the vote again. This time, her goal was getting Lenobia out. Jennifer consented to this initially, also knowing that Marco would definitely want to go along with plan. Their three votes would be enough to at least force a tie, which would likely be enough incentive for Zillik or Daniel to help. Kim went to Daniel, assuming he would just go along with whatever she wanted. To her surprise, Daniel isn't at all interested in voting out Lenobia, even when Kim tries to coerce him by asserting that she has the numbers to force a tie. Daniel tries, instead, to convince Kim that they should vote out Marco, since he was the least on board with the prior vote for Brooke. Kim isn't hearing this, and tells Daniel that Lenobia is going home with or without him. This is a lie, however, as Kim changed her mind during the conversation. Much like Brooke, Daniel had, in Kim's mind, rejected her offer to work together by refusing to vote with her. As such, she decided that Daniel had to go instead, because she valued a team that would listen to her first and foremost. When she approached Jennifer with this new plan, Jennifer expressed concern. Daniel had done well in the challenges and was an agreeable person, while Marco, admittedly, was angry with them for voting out Brooke. Unfortunately for Jennifer, Kim had made up her mind and told her that Daniel was already done, and they'd just Zillik on board. With Marco voting against Lenobia and Daniel voting against Marco, they only needed Zillik's vote to have a plurality with three. Jennifer relented, though she started to doubt that this was best for the team, as she was growing closer with Daniel.

Jennifer approached Daniel and asked him about the conversation with Kim, which he explained had been a frustrated experience. Jennifer seemed to understand, just assuring him that Kim only wanted what was best for the team. Daniel informed Jennifer that he believed voting out Marco was best for the team, which Jennifer agreed with. Feeling defeated, Daniel told Jennifer that there was no chance of making it happen with just the two of them. Jennifer reminded him that Zillik was, essentially, a wild card vote. He hardly spoke to anyone and was almost always alone, making it seem as if he had no true allegiance. If they could persuade him, they would then have the plurality.

At the moment this plan was being hatched, Lenobia approached Zillik in an attempt to sway his vote against Kim. She was a dictator and there was no reason to worry about team strength if they had the numbers to survive each vote after a loss anyway. She attempted her usual flirtatious manipulation, which Zillik took minimal interest in, and he showed no real interest in Lenobia's plot. Since she continued trying to pull him to her side, insisting that Marco was on board, Zillik eventually decided to feign agreement to get her to leave him alone. Now believing she had Marco and Zillik on her side, Lenobia was feeling empowered, knowing she only needed Daniel to complete her plan.

### Red Team

Nothing of significant note happened on the Red Team, given they were winning and not doing much scheming. Timothy, however, had taken note of Catherine's prowess in the first two challenges. On top of this, she seemed to get along extremely well with Daniel and Jade, which he realized could make voting her when numbers dwindled more difficult. Blaike, too, seemed to like Catherine, though she tended to be more standoffish, offering she and Timothy more chances to talk. When he brought up his concerns about Catherine to her, Blaike told him that she understood his reasoning, but that they shouldn't think on it too much until they were forced to. Feeling obligated to do so, Blaike also told Timothy about Aryel trying to convince the girls that he wasn't trustworthy. To Blaike's surprise, he wasn't very concerned with this. Timothy explained that he trusted she and Jade to not vote against him, and that he was pretty sure Dragon and Marcus would want to keep players who were better in the challenges. Timothy made a note to watch Aryel as they drew closer to the Merge, but that voting her out quickly wasn't a priority, as she held no real power on the team. Blaike was both put off by his bluntness and slightly endeared that he trusted her so explicitly to not turn on him, giving her mixed feelings about the decision to work with him.

Marcus, meanwhile, had once again taken the merriment too far and pissed off Catherine and Jade. When Dragon sensed the mood shifting, he recommended Marcus go get some air, which reminded Marcus that he needed to meet up with Lenobia anyway. Seeing the easy excuse, he took off in a hurry, which made Jade suspicious.

### Between Team Camps

Marcus and Lenobia met up again to exchange recent events. Lenobia did her best to sweet talk information out of Marcus, only to realize that he didn't actually know that much. He spilled the beans about his alliance with Timothy and Dragon and how much Jade didn't like him, but that was the extent of what he knew. Given that Lenobia and Dragon were exes, he wanted to make sure this was cool with her. Lenobia assured him that who Dragon made friends with wasn't any of her business, though she doubted the two of them would be working together later, even with Marcus there. Lenobia confidently assured Marcus that Kim would be leaving the next night at the vote, so Marcus could rest easy knowing that his team was about to have a huge challenge advantage and that Lenobia was in control and safe. The two had a somewhat romantic night without things getting too serious before returning to their camps. To Lenobia's surprise, what began as an attempt to manipulate a dumb boy for her own gain had turned into a bit more. She didn't really see Marcus as a boyfriend type of guy, but she did enjoy spending time with him more than anyone on her own team. She found herself excited for the opportunity to work with him at the Merge and really control the rest of the game.

## Day 6

### Blue Team

Bright and early on Day 6, Kim was telling Zillik that the vote was Daniel. Zillik still didn't care for Kim all that much, but he felt that she was in control of the vote and therefore, he had no choice. In as few words as possible, he agreed to Kim's plan, and she felt satisfied that her vote was set. He mostly just wanted her to go away, given it was early in the morning and Zillik was hoping to spend the day in quiet solitude before the vote. He had known Kim would come to him eventually, as there was no way that Lenobia was in charge of things and Kim was leaving, but he had wished that she'd waited until later in the day.
Not long after she left, much to his dismay, Marco came to Zillik to tell him of the plot to vote out Lenobia. This confused Zillik, since Kim had just come to him with a plan to vote out Daniel. If Lenobia was targeting Kim, Kim was targeting Daniel, and Marco was targeting Lenobia, then Zillik couldn't discern who the actual target was. Given he didn't care for any of them, he decided the easiest thing to do was to just tell Marco what he wanted to hear, as he had done with Kim and Lenobia. He was still planning to vote against Daniel, assuming Kim had Jennifer voting with her.

This would prove not to be the case. To further Zillik's confusion, Jennifer and Daniel came to him together to tell him of the plot to vote out Marco behind Kim's back. Zillik contemplated this. On one hand, it would mean dealing with an angry Kim once they were back at camp. On the other hand, he didn't like her very much and did prefer Daniel's presence to Marco's, since he was quieter. Once again, Zillik agreed to the plan that was given to him, but was curious why Jennifer was going against Kim so soon after they started working together. Daniel expressed a bit of interest in that as well, and Jennifer explained that she believed Kim was making an emotional, erratic decision. Voting out Marco would be better for both the team and Kim, even if she didn't realize it right now because Daniel had argued with her. Satisfied, the three of them split.

Later that evening, Lenobia came to Daniel, planning to finalize her vote for Kim. Daniel informed her that they needed to vote out Marco, because he was targeting her this round and Kim wasn't. Taken aback, Lenobia claimed that it couldn't be true, as Marco had told her he was willing to vote out Kim. Daniel told her that he must have lied, because she was definitely Marco's target. Lenobia, trying to put her plan back together, told Daniel that it didn't matter. She had Zillik, and with Daniel that would give them a plurality if Kim and Marco were targeting different people. Daniel, feeling reluctant to upset Lenobia, carefully told her that he was pretty sure Zillik had also lied, as he wasn't willing to vote out their strongest player and had agreed to vote out Marco. Feeling betrayed by, well, basically everyone, Lenobia told Daniel that she wasn't changing his vote and attempted to sway him by insisting that he could earn her allegiance by voting with her. Though he was extremely tempted, Daniel remembered what Jennifer had said about Kim, and told Lenobia that he believed voting Marco out was both more likely and in her best interest in the long term. Resigned, Lenobia asked if he was certain he had Jennifer and Zillik, and he told her that he was nearly completely positive. Lenobia feigned willingness to go along, while privately still planning to knock Kim's ego down a peg.

### Red Team

That same day on the Red Team, Timothy approached Dragon with his concerns about Catherine. He treaded very lightly, just wanting to feel out where Dragon stood with her. Dragon responded very quickly, informing Timothy that his primary objective was keeping their team strong. He also added that he felt Catherine was a genuinely trustworthy, loyal person for him, and wanted to keep her around. Basically, there was no reason to vote her off when they had weaker, less dependable players like Aryel to go through. Timothy agreed and assured Dragon that he just his opinions on the subject, but this was all a façade. Timothy didn't like how Dragon had reacted so protectively towards Catherine, and it only further solidified her as a potential social and physical threat as the game progressed. As much as Timothy disliked the idea, he realized that Marcus would likely make for a much more reliable pocket vote than Dragon, since he wasn't as smart or generally concerned about the well-being of others.

Jade and Catherine, meanwhile, went for a walk to gather berries and collect water and had a talk about the game. They had gotten along extremely well so far and had a lot of shared views, which made it only natural that they work together. Their first order of business was definitely voting out Marcus. Despite being a child of Ares, they didn't think he was any better at the challenges than they were and they could afford to lose him before Aryel. Neither of them fully trusted Aryel either, but Catherine did suggest that she could be useful for voting out Marcus. Jade was reluctant to cut any sort of deals with the girl who had thrown her brother under the bus, but Catherine confided in her that Dragon was close to Marcus and not likely to help them. Jade decided that it would be better to let her talk things over with Timothy and Blaike and try to persuade them to vote against Marcus instead of asking for Aryel's help, which Catherine agreed to. Ultimately, they decided not to do anything until they had to. They both felt that trying to persuade people to vote with them before their team had even lost would only make them look as suspicious as Aryel did when she brought Timothy up, so their alliance would remain under the radar for the time being.

### Vote

The vote was dramatic, to say the least. Everyone was convinced that their own individual plan was going to reign supreme, so multiple votes were cast all over the place. Kim, as she promised, had voted against Daniel for refusing to do as she wanted. To her surprise, she was the only vote for him. Marco, likewise, had expected more people to be voting against Lenobia alongside him, but he too was the only one. The trio of Daniel, Jennifer, and Zillik voted against Marco as a unit, with Zillik ultimately deciding that he liked Daniel more and pissing off Kim would be somewhat funny. Lenobia, despite knowing that Marco was likely leaving, still voted for Kim out of spite. She wanted to make Kim feel less invincible by reminding her that she, too, could be voted for, regardless of how good at challenges she was. Nonetheless, Marco received a plurality with three votes and was eliminated, feeling betrayed and burned by Kim the most. He hadn't trusted her, but Marco had at least expected her to keep him over Lenobia. Lenobia, despite not getting her way, was feeling rather smug that both of the people to write her name down had been eliminated the very same night they had voted against her. Feeling shocked and confused, Kim returned to camp uneasy and unsure of where she stood with her teammates.