Episode 08

Welcome to the merger!

You made it!

Tell me how you're feeling, nervous? excited? a bit of both?

Also, now that the game is shifting from tribes to individual, are you focusing now more than ever on how to win the game, or is it merely how to advance as far as you can?

How do you plan on making an impressive enough showing in the merge to warrant a vote from the potential jurors that you are playing with now?

Where do your loyalties lie? With the original tribe? Your newly swapped tribe? or your original fans/favorites split? Who do you trust the most/least going into the merge?

I'm relieved that I made the merge, it was looking a bit touch and go for a while when I was on Atacama, but I am pumped and ready to go now!

I've got my gameface on now and I have to decide what move is going to get me furthest in the game and to the end with the least threatening people. I feel like I've played the game fairly well so far in that I have a few options that I can pursue:

1. I can stick with the Palena majority block of Dan, Jo, Russell, Wendy. This would guarantee me final 5 but I doubt I would make the final 3, plus every one of them (minus Wendy probably) could beat me in the vote.
2. I can form a guerilla alliance with Holly. Would get me into the final 3 and potentially a win if it works, but highly risky and unlikely to work. Holly seems to be certain Dan, Ken and Tyrone would be on our side, but I know Dan isn't.
3. I can try to flip to Atacama with Ken, Ted, Yve, Chase and Jake. Complicated (would involve convincing Palena to boot Tyrone at the merge) and might not guarantee me a place in the final 3, and potentially be viewed as a flipper and goat.

I think at the moment it would be the best move to stay with Palena until at least 3 of Atacama is gone. I have sown the seeds for Yve to be the last Atacama remaining, because I think I can work with her the most... hopefully it pays off. During this time, I want to make friends with all of the wildcards in Palena, namely: Holly, Tyrone, Ken and Wendy, because I don't want to see Dan, Jolanda or Russell at the end... They could easily win.

So much for trusting fucking Holly. Ted's sent me a message saying that apparently Holly is telling everyone that Ted and I have an idol. I don't know whether Holly's throwing me under the bus or Ted's tricking me to get me to flip, but either way some shit is going down. I sent a message to Jolanda (she's online and she seems cool) asking if anyone's mentioned me having an idol. I didn't tell her who had been telling the rumour (Holly) or who informed me about it (Ted), I hope that it might help me get closer to the truth. The current state of play is that I still think Atacama should be Pagong'd (I know, fucking boring) but now I want Holly gone sooner rather than later, that girl is a fucking virus.

This merge is such a hot fucking mess. I came home today after being out for 2 hours (in what would have been like midnight-2am in America) to find 10 messages in my inbox.
So many weird things are going down:
1. Playground Bullies has been reunited... weird. Once again it has become abundantly clear that Dan is not invested in it at all anymore (he has moved onto greener pastures with Jolanda and Russell I'm assuming), Tyrone's his usual silent self, and Holly is as rambunctious and bombastic as ever. I doubt this alliance was ever fated to work
2. Wendy is trying to vote Tyrone out. Something rummy is going on there, if I recall correctly, Wendy's partner is Jake... I think perhaps Wendy is planning a little flipperoo. Voting out Tyrone would actually be pretty swell for me, if that happened I could easily flip to Atacama with Wendy and potentially Ken (now partnerless) to flip the game on real threats like Jolanda, Russell, Dan and Holly. In that group I believe I have strong connections to Wendy and Yve, I am also a smaller target I believe... Just because I suspect some people forget I'm even here lol! ANYWAY, back to the Tyrone boot, Holly has already spilled these beans to Tyrone, so the likelihood of it working is fairly low
3. Yve has pledged her allegiance to me in the sweetest way possible. Voting out Yve would be far too difficult for me, she seems so innocent and lovely. Of course, this could be her masterful social plan... But I think most people get the impression from Yve that she is a complete submissive follower... Not the kind who usually racks up a tonne of votes.
4. Jolanda and Russell are beginning to lose faith in a strong Palena 6... probably with just cause. I have however promised Jolanda that I would tell her if her name was being thrown around... What was I going to say, no?
5. The Magellenes tribe is in the grips of idol mania... No one knows who has them. I would not be surprised if Holly had one, but the other could be anyone's.

Stay tuned, this merge is going to be a clusterfuck if ever I saw one!

Holy fuck these three posts in succession I missed a chunk of game over the last week, but I am staying tuned now for sure.

So all things considered, which of those initial three options is looking the most preferable right now? Or has an option D arrived?

Hehe sorry, I thought I should keep you updated even if no one was asking :P
I think it would be in my best interest to get a Palena booted tomorrow whatever happens. I'm still working out what the best move for me after that is, but if a Palena like Tyrone or Holly is booted this round, that will get me either into a swing vote position for Palena if I decide to stick with them, or it will make it easier for me to flip to Atacama next round if it looks like that is a possibility. However, booting a Palena won't be easy... I think I might have to wait until the immunity challenge to decide how it goes, if either Ted or Chase win immunity, it will be easier for Palena to be persuaded to eat one of their own.

Another option has occurred to me. I could tip off Atacama as to who Palena's target is (say Chase), and get an idol to be played on Chase, so that a Palena goes home. This is good because it knocks an idol out of play and I could hopefully have a large amount of say in who goes home, it would likely ingratiate me into Atacama moreso also. However, it would also mean that I am committing pretty wholeheartedly into flipping to Atacama. We'll see how things pan out.

Hehe sorry, I thought I should keep you updated even if no one was asking :P

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I just love the drastic change of tacks between them And always keep us updated. We are kinda sucking as a hosting unit on the confessional prodding of late,, we have a new semester, moving country for a new job, and a wedding between us :P but merge is always a fresh start of sorts, so expect more of us (me at least) in the coming days.

Just to get back to your talk of a) booting Tyrone or Holly, and b) fear of committing too much to Atacama. You talk of them like they are separate options. Does this mean you think you can get support for a Holly or Tyrone boot from members of ex-Palena, and not have it seen as a flip? Who would be backing you on these targets?

No problems! Good luck with all the studying, moving and marrying!!! xD
If I can get Palena to think that booting Holly or Tyrone is the best course of action that would be ideal. It's not impossible, we are up 8-4 so they might not be too unwilling to cut it down to 7-4 to get rid of someone potentially untrustworthy. If I told Atacama who to play the idol on this round and yet still voted with Palena, while Palena would probably guess that there has been a leak, I doubt I would be the first person they would suspect. Ken, Tyrone and Holly are all untrustworthy, and if it is Tyrone who ends up going home, Wendy would be under suspicion as well. Of course, there's always a chance that someone from Atacama could dob on me, but at that point I'd be ready to flip anyway if I wanted to flip to Atacama. At the moment I just need to work out my best course of action... Because it's become quite clear to me that there is a large amount of Palena who are untrustworthy, and that I can potentially in the core four of Palena... I believe Jolanda and Russell trust me completely. At this point, sticking with Palena could be the best move... I have no enemies and the only one who could potentially be gunning for me is Holly, who no one trusts... So an Atacama going this round wouldn't be the end of the world.

Well now, you promised some clarity once you knew who was immune - I guess that rules out three people as targets. What happens tomorrow?

Also, looking back on your inactiveish period in the early game, do you think that is having any lasting positive or negative effects on the game now as it stands?

Well... Things are even less clear. Wendy and Ken are gunning hard for a Tyrone boot... That's 6 people, they could force a tie! It just doesn't make sense to me, why Tyrone? He's a threat to no one. If I can get them to change the target to Holly, I might join them. But for now I kind of want them to stay with Palena and get rid of an Atacama, we can make the same move next week... I just don't know what's going to go down!

In regards to my inactive period, there are definite positives and negatives. The negatives are that I missed out on a lot, there might be certain alliaces I could have been included in/known about if I were around, and I wasn't able to form any huge ties. The positives are that I don't think anyone thinks I am a target, and I am someone anyone can approach and let me know about a plan... I guess I am sort of a wildcard to everyone. Of course, this might end up backfiring on me this round because I am going to have to make a decision that's going to piss off someone.

I voted for Ted :'( Bye bye partner!
It made the most sense to me. Ted and Chase are obviously too close of a pair to be kept together. If I flipped now, no way am I making the end. I've discussed this with Ted, and we agree that if we're planning to flip, next vote is the best time. That way, there will be as many Palenas in the new majority as there are Atacamas... plus I believe I'll still have Yve on my side. In reality, I think the best move for me would be to stay with Jo/Russ/Dan throughout the game, but I don't think they have the votes. Wendy, Ken and Holly are all so volatile, I may as well jump from the sinking ship seeing as I've been wise enough to reach out to all of them. I hope this works!

Ok so things have changed, apparently it's Chase tonight? This seems risky to me... But in reality for me I'm not ALL that fussed whether Chase goes home or they play the idol and Tyrone goes. Those two are the two that I have the least of a relationship with so I won't be bothered... As long as the Atacama group don't play the idol on Chase and change their votes to someone like me... That would suck.
If something horrible happens and the vote doesn't go to plan, I have a back-up plan for next time. I'll feign ignorance, say I was all on board with the Tyrone boot but then lost contact with Wendy Jo + Ken said he didn't want to vote Tyrone, so I just went with how I thought the majority would fall. I think they would view me as fairly harmless and hopefully I'll be able to weasel a bit further into the game.