Go to Your Momma

This is the sixth episode of my fan fiction, Survivor: The Cursed Idol.

Previously On Survivor...
A tribe switch caused the tribes to be divided almost entirely by gender, with Belinda being the only woman in Davao, while Seth is the lone man in Cebu. At the combined Reward/Immunity challenge, Davao won, which sent Cebu to Tribal Council. Before the vote, Carly, who had several conflicts with Seth, conspired with Adrianna by telling her Seth has the Cursed Idol and they are going to vote for her. But knowing Serena's possession of Davao's Hidden Immunity Idol, Adrianna convinced Serena that she will be voted out, so she used it at Tribal Council, but for naught. In the end, Seth was blindsided by the former Davaos by voting against him, and using the Cursed Idol as the final nail in the coffin. Eleven are left, who will be voted out tonight?

Challenges
(DIY) Reward Challenge: Tetris Battle Tribe members must solve a Tetris-like puzzle of their tribe symbol in a designated vertical slot. First tribe to finish wins reward. Reward: A breakfast to be enjoyed the next day. Winner: Davao

Immunity Challenge: I Love You Pole One at a time, tribemembers will have to clim a 8 foot tall greased bamboo pole to retrieve 5 keys to a locked cage. Then, they must traverse a greased bamboo balance beam a second (10 ft.) pole where one member must pull a rope to release a drawbridge leading to a cage door. After passing the drawbridge, the tribe members must unlock the cage using the keys they retrieved earler. First tribe to escape the door with all members on their finish mat wins immunity. Winner: Cebu

Night of Day 15
The Cebu tribe returned to camp from Tribal Council, where the former Davao members blindsided Seth, who possessed the Cursed Idol. Feeling hurt and betrayed, Serena demanded Adrianna an explanation for telling her to play her Hidden Immunity Idol for nothing. Adrianna replied that she only wanted to make sure that the original Davao tribe to enter the merge with numbers. While sitting by the beach, Adrianna fabricated a story about her catching Seth, Alanna and Carly secretly gunning for her because she was a threat. But when she was "seen" by the three, she already "assumed" that they would vote someone else. With Serena evidently buying the story, Adrianna revealed in a confessional: "Serena's feeling the heat right now. But it is my job to console her, or else I might not get her Jury vote. I have to lie to her to keep her around as my spare tire. If this doesn't work, I have to vote her out if we lose the next Immunity Challenge." Not knowing if Adrianna was still telling the truth, Serena stated: "I don't know if this bitch may have turned me into an ongoing stop-dance game."

Day 16
The tribes convened at the next Reward challenge, where the Davao tribe was shocked seeing the Cebu tribe now being an all-girl team with Seth gone. With only challenge props and Jeff absent, the puzzled castaways read a note regarding the challenge mechanics. While Belinda read the instructions, Carly were doing hand signals to her old ally Wes to form an alliance with Brock, to completely cement a secret four-man, cross-tribe alliance. Wes whispered to her that he was already successful in doing so. Curtis was chosen by Davao to sit-out for this challenge.

Led by April, who claimed to be good at puzzles, she rallied Cebu to an early lead, as they quickly finished half of their puzzle. But with their tribe symbol messed up by one misplaced piece, they had to start all over again by removing all the pieces they had stacked earlier. Davao eventually caught up with when Cyrus suggested they should solve the puzzle them on the ground instead of stacking them in the slot right away. April started to get frustrated when Serena combatively asserted her ideas, leading to a verbal catfight. This conflict occured while Davao was 1/4 away from solving the puzzle. Seconds later, Brock placed the final piece of the puzzle, giving the new Davao tribe their second consecutive win, winning themselves a bountiful breakfast to be enjoyed the next morning. As the tribes pack to head back to their camps, April and Serena continued bickering.

As Cebu returned to camp, Serena blamed April for not telling about the misplaced piece on time. In a confessional, April said: "Serena is so outwardly insecure, we can't get past the fact that she was transgendered. With that I seriously do not see her as a threat, even with her condition. Her strategy is basically make other people feel sorry for her." Seeing her former Davao tribemates fight, Adrianna sat on the sidelines, neither siding on April or Serena. She explained: "I am confident enough to not intervene with their conflict, because me and Carly already have a secret pact, and when we merge with Wes and Brock, we are good to go. Kill each other for all I care!"

Day 17
In the morning of Day 17, Brock and Belinda went to Tree Mail to retrieve their breakfast reward. Delighted to win another feast reward, Cyrus stated: "Davao continues to flourish after a rough start [from that pitiful first Reward Challenge], and I hope we continue to win. I am looking forward to see Adrianna, Serena and April at the merge." Belinda on the other hand was nervous about her precarious position as the lone female in the tribe. She said: "I think I have to use my idol to save myself."

At Cebu, Carly approached Adrianna about their post-merge schemes, where the former confirmed that Wes and Brock are bonding over at Davao. Adrianna and Carly agreed to eliminate Cyrus should he make the merger, with Adrianna stating that the engineer from Spokane, Washington was a serious threat because of his strong leadership skills and likability. Adrianna stated: "Cyrus is my biggest threat at the first Davao tribe, not Serena. He's good in challenges, I liked the guy and he is a good persuader. He can totally work a jury over. If it wasn't for him, Serena could have been gone before Carson." Agreeing with the plan, Carly proposed she would convice the original Cebu tribe to stick togerther, while Adrianna should do he same with the original Davao. This was to enforce a supposed 5-5 vote between a former Cebu and a former Davao. with three other people voting against the other tribe, the four-person alliance would form a doublecross by pulling a 4-3-3 vote instead. Adrianna was unsure of the plot, since it would only work if Cebu wins the next Immunity Challenge, and if they possess at least one Hidden Immunity Idol. Adrianna explained: "So, okay, if our plan works at the first Tribal Council, the other five will just pick us off one by one at the next one."

Day 18
The tribes convened for the next Immunity Challenge. Much to the all-girl Cebu tribe's delight, the challenge is largely based on balance, something that previous all-women tribes in Survivor prevailed historically. Freddy asserted he could not do the challenge, so he presented himself to sit out for Davao.

Adrianna and Brock rushed to the pole first for Cebu, where Adrianna prevailed first by using her buff as supporting handles while climbing. With both tribes following the same strategy, both tribes are dead even. Cebu managed to establish a lead when the Davao members struggled to get pass the greased bamboo balance beam, but lost it when Serena struggled to climb the second pole due to a sprain. But after several tries, Serena pulled the rope on top, releasing the drawbridge faster than Curtis, who was nauseus. With Curtis continually struggling releasing the drawbridge, Cebu eventually unlocked the cage door and frantically ran to their finish mat, winning themselves immunity.

Back at Davao camp, Freddy expressed his disgust by Curtis' dismal performance at the second pole, stating that he should have let other people do the job, but Cyrus rebutted that Freddy himself confessed that cannot do the challenge, so he should not point fingers. Freddy combatively replied that Cyrus should not meddle with the situation, but Cyrus did not back down. That afternoon, Cyrus comforted a visibly sick Curtis, who apparently had fever. Both agreed to vote Freddy out, stating that it was not the first time he lashed out at sombody. Curtis said: "Cyrus told me that Freddy has bullied Carson out of this game, but I will make sure he will never do the same thing on me." While Curtis was resting, Cyrus approached Belinda and Wes and asked to vote Freddy out, which both agreed, because it would even the original tribes out 5-5.

On the other hand, Freddy attempted to convince Brock to vote Curtis out to extend the original Davao's numbers by 6-4 at the merge, but Brock stated in a confessional: "Freddy has no place in this game. He's always about me, me me, me, me. I've seen his power struggle with Cyrus over these past few days, and I thought Freddy is so not a leader-type. The dude is insatiably power-hungry and inconsiderate." Thinking he did not persuade Brock, Freddy's last chance is to look out for the Hidden Immunity Idol, but he failed to find it, with only few minutes before the tribe headed to Tribal Council.

At Tribal Council, Curtis and Cyrus again bickered with Freddy about Curtis' performance at the challenge, stating that he should have sat out instead of competing. Curtis replied that Freddy cannot do the challenge for reasons he has yet to explain, so he had to compete. Freddy sheepishly revealed that he was acrophobic (fear of heights). Angered by this revelation, Cyrus outright revealed Freddy's possession of the Cursed Idol. With this, a visibly upset Davao tribe decided to unanimously vote Freddy out in a 6-1 vote. As a parting gift, Freddy passed the Cursed Idol to Cyrus.

Next Time On Survivor...

 * The stage is set for the budding cross-tribe alliance, and a vicious blindside coming up!

*shocked faces*

Author's Notes

 * This reward challenge is based on a traditional Filipino game called Palosebo, a game where contestants reach a certain prize (or flag) on top of a greased bamboo pole.
 * I'm addicted to the Tetris Battle Facebook app. :)