Stranded in Kuril Islands

Another day another dollar! Only 13 more people stand between you and that sweet prize money. Hopefully you're ready to race the end of this marathon like your life depends on it.

1-Another man out the door. How does Ace's departure impact your game?
2-Break down the trust you have with each member of this tribe. Where do you think your strongest loyalties lie?
3-What alliances are you a part of? do you think these will hold long term? or are they just a mechanism to make the next phase of the game?
4-Merge must be on the horizon at this point. Have you and your allies discussed your plans?

BONUS

5- Walk us through the setup for that epic blindside? feeling the rush?

Dear Jeff,
RE: this wonderful forum

Please add either 1. an auto-save feature, 2. an auto-refresh that doesn't drop the chat one's writing or 3. the ability to stay online until intentionally logging off AND LOSING EVERYTHING.
All my love,
Susie

1-Another man out the door. How does Ace's departure impact your game?

Ace leaving gives my game life!

That was a pretty sweet and total blindside. Last tribal was a huge low. Losing Crystal, who I thought was my closest ally on the tribe, was bad enough, but she epically managed to boot herself while trying to boot me, even though she knew I had the idol (??) and TOLD her I would play it for all of us. WHICH I DID. (I mean what was she thinking??)

I feel like Crystal deserves special flair for that move. And the move needs a name. I’ll have to think about that one. The boomerang boot, maybe.

Then here comes Ace, who serves himself up, hot and tasty, and made what was a toss-up decision (leaning heavily towards Chris because of Ace’s nice NO gesture at the last challenge) an easy choice. After a whole day of her not mentioning it, it turns out he apparently left a nastygram message to Aurora before the last vote and said something mean. Dude, bad choice. This isn’t Mafia. Be nicer.

Our new pals dispatched the vote with style and, once we recovered from a buildup of anxiety over what was really nothing too surprising of an activity pattern, Devens FINALLY shows up, improves our plan and boom, it is so. So satisfying seeing Ace’s name come up. I hope he’s actually nicer in person and maybe he’s pretty young too. Start with the relationship man, or stick with Mafia.

Also, there was no idol, where would it have come from? I’d just played it the tribal before and we hadn’t had any way to even get a clue yet. I can’t look up every single word on Wikipedia goddammit. Joaq may disagree.

I’ve got a four person alliance in a tribe of six, so I’m doing OK for now. Eric has the idol, so it will be slim pickings after next tribal. Chris and Eric should be a bit more motivated to win now, so that’s nice.

2-Break down the trust you have with each member of this tribe. Where do you think your strongest loyalties lie?

Aurora – My number one spot on this tribe now goes to Aurora, who should have been number one a while ago, sorry future Aurora. She’s my girl, I’ve done everything I could do try to save her ass twice now, three times counting the Jacquie vote I tried to talk her into for her own best interests, but she went off with her trio. That may come back to bite her or she may overcome it.

She’s finally starting to get a little mushy with me, so maybe it won’t take a whole year for her to warm up after all. She’s smart and doesn’t overshare, which limits the relationship to cordial friendship rather than best pals. I hope she is warming up to me a teensy bit more than she’s still warm for Lauren and Michelle, but they’re sweet girls too, so I can see why she likes them.

Aurora is a smart lady and probably has some tricks up her sleeves. I wouldn’t put it past her. She carries a lot of doubt, so I’m hoping since I’ve gained her trust, it will carry us through together and she’ll remain doubtful of others instead. God that sounds so bad to say! Sorry future Aurora, this is hard!!

Randy – A gem. His communication is a little bit confusing sometimes, but I’m hoping it’s like a dialect that I’ll be better able to decipher as time goes on. He’s much better at this game than he realizes, but he still needs a bit of coaching. He’s a fast learner and one to watch. For now, he’s lovely and loyal and great at relationships and getting people to trust him. He’s my number two and a super-secret ally who is gathering intel from the guys and giving it to me. Such a nice guy to share like that. Such nice gifts. He may be a white knight or a perceptive friend, we shall see.

Randy was crucial to winning over Devens, as Devens really seems to trust him, and pushes back at “too much strategizing” so that was amazing. Truly. I’m pretty sure Chris sees Randy as his number one. Gah, that’s going to be gutting. Sorry future Chris. Hope you are real nice, not fake nice, if so, sorry.

Randy’s also super funny. I’m pleasantly surprised at the senses of humor among so many here. Fun times.

Devens – I learned a new thing about the office worker from Arizona! It’s his birthday tomorrow and he’s in Vegas for his cousin’s wedding! Huzzah, that’s like, doubling the things I knew about him!! Also, I know that he’s not to be dissed in ANY way. And hates strategizing. And possibly conflict. This could be interesting. I’m going to have to rely on Randy to manage him for some time, I suspect.

But OMG what a gift he gave me today! The gift of life! He was meant to be my third vote from the guys. Which I guess would have taken us to pleading our case and rocks? But instead, he saved me. On the strength of Randy alone, so far as I can tell. Amazing.

Chris – Seems nice, probably a good guy, on the other side of things in the game.

Eric – Well, he was my first nickname. So there’s that. That’s about all I got.

3-What alliances are you a part of? do you think these will hold long term? or are they just a mechanism to make the next phase of the game?

I’m with this four for the duration, if they’ll have me. I’ll be curious to see if they’re still buying any of the wide-eyed, lost angle. Probably not. I’ll probably get blindsided eventually. Hopefully I’ll get spies in enough places to at least see it coming.

4-Merge must be on the horizon at this point. Have you and your allies discussed your plans?

Ride it out a while here, join with the women at the merge. Sounds too easy, makes me worry.

BONUS

5- Walk us through the setup for that epic blindside? feeling the rush?

Oh man, today was a nail biter. All day, Aurora and I were frantically trying to sort out our strategy to woo Devens over and he takes forever to get online and then only really talks to his pal Randy. Finally, he not only accepts our plan, he improves it, chooses Ace for the boot, who we’re now mad at for the mean pre-tribal comment to Aurora, and we’re off.

Everything goes through beautifully, I still have my trusty secret spy and we have at least one more easy vote. Fantastic! Since I now know that calm of this nature cannot last long, I’m steeling myself.

Also, if it's not too much trouble, maybe an edit feature? I want to edit, Jeff.

Susie wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:49:32 am Also, if it's not too much trouble, maybe an edit feature? I want to edit, Jeff.

While I'm sure you woudn't get up to no good, this will never happen.

Gary Hogeboom wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:03:51 am

Susie wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:49:32 am Also, if it's not too much trouble, maybe an edit feature? I want to edit, Jeff.

While I'm sure you woudn't get up to no good, this will never happen.

lol. the edit feature exists, it's just turned off for players

You laugh. I cry. I feel like there must be a way to do visible editing. It's fine. I'll deal. This lack of editing is me having to sleep on bamboo poles.

OK, now I'm not sure who voted for me, but I no longer think it was Crystal.

Crystal, I'm so very sorry, I still haven't solved the mystery, but I have absolutely no reason to think it was you anymore. I should have waited to name a move for you, that was unkind. Very sorry. I'm sorry you got booted, it sounds like whatever A said to C spooked the guys into switching to you. Ugh. I tried to save you!

Hope you're well, if you can read this, and yes, I ate dinner.