Board Thread:Survivor 24: Caracol/@comment-30582641-20170529023710/@comment-30582641-20170529155450

​Forrest-

​Oh boy, I'm not sure where to start with you, Forrest. You were always ready for a fight, and as someone who is very conflict adverse I had trouble getting along with you. Sometimes I became fed up and fought fire with fire and we'd bicker and then I'd need to take a break from the game because I don't surround myself with many people like you IRL and it as just emotionally exhausting for me. I don't think you're a bad guy, but someone like you is sometimes just too much for a delicate snowflake like me to take. Given how you talked shit about everyone to everyone, I should have realized sooner that I shouldn't take any of it personally. Yeah, I still don't understand for the life of me why some people choose to be abrasive, but at least now I understand that my best response is to just let it slide off like Teflon, which I didn't with you.

Yeah, I think I got the short end of your social game, but I know you can turn on the charm when you want to. The way I see it, you saved yourself upon being swapfucked on Macal 3.0 by gaining Kristen's trust and admiration. I wanted you gone before anyone, even Dwayne, because I knew you were dangerous and not on my side, but I was just too worried I'd upset Kristen, so kudos for using her against me.

In every other aspect of the gameplay though, I viewed you as a powerhouse. And of course, I can't talk about our relationship without talking about the fake idol you may or may not have found. For the unaware, these are the facts:

-Forrest, Kristen and I agreed to search for the idol together.

-I planted a fake idol under Alexis from Cagayan.

-I mentioned to Forrest that I had guessed Jefra from Cagayan to hopefully get him on the Beauty tribe tangent with his guesses.

-Less than an hour after I planted the fake, Forrest replied that he guessed Morgan from Cagayan. Then, he messaged me "Sorry, I meant to say I guessed Alexis. I just woke up, lol"

-Of course, my first thought was that he had been lying about his guesses to me, and then upon discovering the 'idol', changed his story so that I wouldn't guess in the square where the 'idol' was found, so I wouldn't get the 'You found a hole in the ground, someone was here before you' message. I mean, he said he found nothing under Alexis. It seemed pretty open and shut to me that Forrest had a fake and wasn't going to tell me.

-At the merge, we fight. Kristen tells me Forrest wants her to vote for me, and he showed her an idol. I show her what his fake should look like, and she confirms that's what his idol looks like.

-Forrest later admits he asked Kristen to vote for me, but denies showing her an idol and calls her crazy. I choose to trust Kristen over him on this one, for obvious reasons. Kristen quits that day.

-When Luis goes around telling/implying heavily to everyone that I had an idol, the majority alliance strangely didn't seem to believe that Hunter had an idol, despite Hunter being Forrest's original suspect for having the Cayo idol. My theory was that Forrest decided that if I had an idol, it couldn't have been the Macal one (Which Forrest believed he had), so if I had an idol, it must have been the Cayo one, hence Hunter didn't have an idol. This is all my own speculation of course, but my point is that from what I could gather, everything pointed to Forrest having the fake and if anyone tells me they'd have believed otherwise in my position, then I probably won't believe you XD. He said he guessed Alexis. Kristen said he showed her it, and she never lied to me once.

But late in the game, Forrest kept denying he had it. He said he in fact guessed Alexis the night before, before the fake was planted. He said Luis had spelled out plainly that my idol was from Macal (But then why did everyone think Hunter didn't have one though?) He said Kristen was lying to me (But he confirmed everything else she said that day was spot on).

So here's the thing: I should have been so sure that you had the fake, Forrest. But despite all the evidence, I found myself doubting myself. You swore up and down you never found such a thing on Macal, and I nearly believed you. I'm still unsure what to think. It's true I couldn't find a reason for you to still lie to me about it so late in the game, but that doesn't mean you didn't have one.

So if you found the fake, major props for gaslighting me and making me even consider otherwise. Unfortunately, I always tried to err on the side of caution when dealing with you, so as long as I was unsure, I behaved as if I were sure. And if you truly never found the fake idol, then the universe was obviously conspiring against us. I explained to you already how much thinking you were lying to me about sharing idol guesses impacted my choice to side against you rather than with you. This merge would have been so, so, so, different if it weren't for our F10 clash.

I really am eager to get to the bottom of this at FTC or on the jury for the sake of putting my mind at ease. Obviously if you were ever lying, you finally would have absolutely no reason to lie anymore so I can't wait to see you there. Bring the sassy GIFs or what have you too; I won't be offended this time. I hope the job search is going well and you're enjoying your summer break.