Living Large and Loving It/Confessionals

Day 28
"andante"

- Joe gave me his garnets just as I figured he would, and that's crazy exciting. I mean, firstly it's exciting because bro was loaded, and now I'm theoretically the richest person in the game. I always thought the garnets were going to spill into the game at some early merge auction, but now that they're later game, I figure I might as well hang onto some of them this time. On top of that, that whole charade to Joe that I played up has put me in a great spot, because it garnered sympathy from him that I'm this last man standing fallen comrade of our mutiny tribe, even though I actively took part in the eliminations of all three of the other people from our tribe. So, I've been sweetened as an underdog in the eyes of the jury, I've managed to sell a majority's split vote as being a hail mary Chloe blindside I supposedly tried to arrange last second to save Joe, and I'm the capitalist pig of the season with six garnets to my name. I'm living large and loving it.

"andante"

- Joe's gone! I have voted correctly every single time this merge and it feels great.

Obviously I'm trying to think about what my best endgame plan will be, since I'm certain people are trying to consider goating me. Ideally I want to be at the Final 4 with Zach, Sam and Hesh, but Zach and Sam easily beat me. I'd keep Hesh with me, but...what do I do about the other two? Do I pray that someone has the idol and does that job for me? Do I get into cahoots with other people? Much to think about...

Also, tied my El Salvador placement but there's 6 more people on this season, so, go me! Single digits was never going to be an easy feat with 22 people.

"andante"

- So after the greys betrayed us. They buttered us up. Joey tried some stuff, but he’s gone now. They all voted him, so did we and we split on Chloe. We still don’t know who has the idol but we have a 6 of AJ Isaiah Zach Sam Liam and i, so we’ll split this vote 3-3-3. Brian and Isaac had the right idea, they just failed. I can’t believe my boy Sam pulled in Isaiah like that... insane move... naturally I have a final 3 with them now. Zach is aware though. It’s all to make him comfy. Isiah That is. Aj is in a final four with us and got all of joeys garnets by tricking him. hilarious if you ask me. Anyway we’re in control moving forward, just gotta be smart

"andante"

- Thank fuck for that! 7-2-1 vote as predicted, with Joe going home, Chloe getting two votes and Joe's one Isaiah vote. A base level of trust with the others has been restored, and I still have a 5-4 advantage over Zach's crew. Round 2 is right up next. Not only that, but Brian has given me the idol back as planned. Nice one.

Isaiah, however, almost blew it. I get word from Brian that Isaiah confronted Joe about his plan to vote Isaiah out FIVE MINUTES before tribal was over - if Joe had an idol, we would have been fucked. Brian and I are losing our patience. On one hand, Isaiah at this stage is a near-perfect goat for us to take to Final 3 with us. On the OTHER hand, he almost seems too unreliable to take there.

We're at single digits now, and honestly I'm fairly satisfied with my game thus far. Obviously the Andrew vote was a major setback, but as recoveries go I think I've done alright. I'm looking at my eight fellow competitors and I rank us like this in terms of jury votes:

1. Zach - Zach has been the figurehead of his group for the entire merge so far and has built up a reputation as a big threat. Without question, he's the biggest threat in front of a jury thus far. Need him out ASAP, and would have had him out if it wasn't for Isaiah panicking.

2. Sam - Sam's proven himself as a fairly adept challenge competitor and has a fairly decent social game, without any of the interpersonal conflicts that some of us have faced. I might be misreading his chances in front of a jury, but I think unless he's with Zach he'd do fairly well.

3. Myself - Maybe tooting my own horn here, maybe I'm deluded, but I think as it goes I'm likely the biggest threat from the people not inside Zach's quartet. My social game has allowed me to remain clued in on all tribals, with the only true "blindside" being the Shane vote. My physical game is woeful, but aside from that I think I stand a good chance.

4. Brian - Brian and I have been a tight duo since the beginning, and I intend on taking him with me out of honour. With that said, I do think I'd beat him in front of a jury. Brian's admitted openly that his social game isn't as strong as mine, and he's got a slightly more flammable personality that has resulted in one or two conflicts with others. His challenge results, however, could turn the tide. Need to keep an eye on him.

5. Hesh - Heshy has been Zach's right hand man for a long time now, but his interpersonal skills may come back to bite him. He had intense conflicts with Joe throughout the season, and I'm unsure if his game can make up for some of the holes in his social game. Then again, I may be underestimating him. 2-5 is fairly interchangeable, anyways.

6. AJ - AJ is an interesting one. His pre-merge game was exceptionally chaotic and earned both the ire and the confusion of everyone else playing; this was the direct cause of him being cast out on a tribe of 4. His post-merge game has surprisingly been far more subdued, and if he gets to the end as the last of the Rubicante 4 that'll be a great story in front of a jury.

7. Liam - Liam is a great guy, but his demeanour throughout the game has ebbed and flowed consistently. He's threatened to quit multiple times, and while everyone definitely has sympathy towards him, I doubt a jury would reward him with the win.

8. Chloe - Chloe is another interesting one. I measured her as a fairly decent threat in the pre-merge, but she's made no real impact of note in the post-merge and if anything has been somewhat inactive. To me, she's failed to make an impression on anyone aside from inconvenience due to inactivity, and a jury will not like that.

9. Isaiah - Love the guy, but this is an obvious one. Isaiah's post-merge game has been incomprehensible - flipping on Lex to join a minority alliance, ruining the plan to blindside Zach out of panic, confronting Joe despite there still being an idol unaccounted for. If his game was intended, it'd be impressive, but it's quite clear that it isn't. He's simply lost, and dangerously lost for the rest of us.

Oh, and I fucked this challenge as well. Absolute shocker.

"andante"

- Liam winning immunity throws a massive spanner into the works, because it means he's safe and complacent now and won't be a reliable person to attempt to flip to the greys with for this upcoming vote, and it also means I can't use him as the easy out target if I flipped someone else instead. Had Liam been vulnerable, I would've taken him out, and then I could've easily gone back to Zach's posse and said that I just didn't want Liam taking up a goat spot because he was going to get brought to the end with them instead of me. Now all that's out the window, and it's left me with very little room to manoeuvre this vote at all, so I'm probably going to have to go with the status quo unless something drastic changes, which would be awful to see unfold honestly since I've been playing this whole merge stage so well that it all coming undone because Liam decided he cares about the game for one more round would be tragic. I'll find a way out of this and I'm not giving up but it'll be shit to lose out on a perfect chance to yoink splurg my gloop on the fabrics of this game.

"andante"

- Hesh wants to split the votes... after the Lex incident... knowing that Isaiah is in our split plans... with literally zero wriggle room in the event of a flipper... sick. I'm absolutely going to capitalise on that. Thank you very much Heshmoney I will gladly take a shot at one of your bois now. As much as I want it to be Zach or some shit to be able to say fuck yeah I'm big dick, I kinda want to still run with my plan of having targeted either Liam or Isaiah for this vote, and since Liam's immune, I guess Isaiah is the vibe. Isaac's group probably won't be too happy about that, but honestly, beggars can't be choosers and I think that they should consider themselves lucky I'm throwing them a temporary bone anyway. People didn't even bother looking in my direction when I was on the bottom, so the fact I'm extending an olive branch to them at all is already far more courtesy than I was ever offered. No idea if this will even work or if a 4-3-2 is even worth attempting, but hey, one way to find out, right?

Day 29
"andante"

- I DID IT! I did it.

I have beaten my El Salvador placement, so no matter what happens from here on out, I will have felt like I really accomplished what I wanted to do.

This tribal is interesting, just in the sense that I don't think the circle of Fraud will impact THAT much. In a likely scenario, Brian/Isaac idol and the other one ties with whoever they vote, and they go home on the revote. I'm still hella nervous about how this will play out, but hey, I can't go home! I can relax and rest easy tonight.

"andante"

- I didn't do too badly in the challenge, all things considered. I got 28, which was more than everyone except Liam. Bastard. I kid, I kid, I love the guy. He's now beaten his top placement, which means half of the people left have beaten their previous placements. Nice work boys, line em up!

I'm nervous about tonight. Like, really nervous. Joe going home was essentially a truce for all parties, but I know now that myself, Brian and Chloe are in the firing line. I'm being forced to rely on AJ's trust, which I've made a point of not doing the entire game - however, he's actually giving me legitimate intel, which proves to me that he's willing to cooperate.

Zach, Hesh, Sam and Liam seem to be splitting their votes, which is honestly a pretty dumb idea. They've also attempted to rope AJ and Isaiah into the plan, which also feels a tad silly. Initially I'm told by AJ that the split is on me and Chloe, but the info quickly changes to Brian and Chloe. Apparently Zach doesn't want any votes placed on me tonight. Go figure, I'm his biggest threat right now so -shrug-. There's some idol paranoia on their side about me potentially having it, which I also find kind of hilarious. I've assumed this whole game that I've been perceived as a big idiot, yet the past few votes have shown that I'm perceived as the figurehead of the Queens of Josephine. Of course, I DO have the idol, but still.

Preferably I'd like to take one of Zach, Hesh or Sam out, but we're being forced to appease Chloe and she's adamant it be Isaiah. We've left her out of the past two tribals in terms of forming plans, so I get it. AJ also would prefer Isaiah, stating openly that he feels it's the only way he can maintain cordial relations with the other side. All things considered, that'll be imperative if the idol needs to be dropped next round. I've been told by Brian that Isaiah has apparently made a chat of five with Zach, Hesh, Sam, AJ and himself, which is proof to me that Isaiah doesn't have my best interests at heart anymore. He's consistently played chaotically this entire merge, so if it's him tonight, I won't be crying. Nice dude, but he keeps stepping on my feet.

There's fear in the back of my head that this is all one big ploy to blindside me, but I've got another sixteen hours to decide what to do with this idol. Either I keep it in my pocket and hope for the best, I play it on someone, or I pass it to Brian again this round. Good god, I'm gonna puke.

"andante"

- Can Hesh stop being so. goddamn. PARANOID. PLEASE.

For whatever reason, this dude has become super erratic and thinks that AJ out of all people will flip on us, more specifically him. Zach and I then tell him that Brian and Isaac want AJ out more and he says "That's what I'm thinking".

....

.....

MAKE UP YOUR MIND

"andante"

- This is a fucking stressful vote. Right now, the plan is still to vote out Isaiah - me, Brian, Chloe and AJ are voting him, which creates a plurality as the others are splitting votes. The split has changed once again; it's now Brian and myself that's getting votes. With AJ flipping to us, Brian gets 3, and I get 2. This is stressing me out.

I've had all four members of the Alichino quartet (Zach, Hesh, Sam, Liam) come to me today, and it's clear that they're trying to get a name out of me. Hesh in particular is implying I should vote for Brian as "the logical vote", and Sam is interrogating me. It's apparent that they're beginning to get crushed under paranoia, which is honestly pretty common for Hesh at this stage. He insisted that Chloe get two votes as insurance for the Joe vote, and Isaiah pretty much flipped upon Zach and Hesh pressuring him for the Andrew vote. Thankfully, it seems none of them are suspecting that we're aiming for Isaiah. Hopefully AJ isn't bullshitting us.

As for the fake votes, I've gone for the radical strategy of asking my alliance to pile 'em on me. It's a bold choice, but it feels right to me. The people splitting votes will likely vote for the other member of the split for the fakes, meaning three fakes for me, two fakes for Brian. If Chloe, Brian and AJ all put their fakes onto me, that gives me a majority at 6. Again, a bold choice, but a choice nonetheless. At best, I think there's gonna be an advantage related to it - anything from an extra vote, to immunity. At worst, I'll lose my vote next round and still have the idol on me in case things get hot. But if the hosts aren't bullshitting, nothing will happen. Either way, I want to make sure the info is on our side of the division.

In twelve minutes, I'll know if I'm being fucked over or not. Fingers crossed.