- Wed Apr 20, 2016 2:53:59 am
#959
Time for another late-night novel. My confessional is becoming disturbingly large...
Jenn telling me Dan hinted to her that I should be voted off based on my challenge performance with the puzzle. I have very little reason to believe this at all (it just reeks of being a poorly-executed lie out of desperation), but I might decide to rat her out to Dan in order to help me get in tighter with him and try to keep him on my side. He seems to have a decent amount of influence over Joaq and Joe and if there's any truth to Dan throwing me under the bus, that's really bad for my game.
Still I just don't think Jenn's story adds up, the way she said it, it just seemed like tiny truth fragments twisted together to form a lie. As if Dan would actually be delusional enough to think he has any right to criticize my effort in that challenge. All this does is make me think Kelly is saying "we gotta work on Sierra, we gotta work on Sierra". Like, I've been trying to toe the line to make sure So doesn't tiebreaker me out of here this round, but at the end of the day I might be pissing off all three of them in the process. There's no doubt Max could write my name down tomorrow, so if those girls want, they could latch onto that.
Dan continues to talk about So and Kelly's unbreakable duo. It probably is pretty strong. I think they're both around the same age, and Kelly has sort of put her own game in legitimate danger on a number of occasions for this chick already. But that combined with Jenn (I think) lying to my face makes me want Jenn gone before So, to ensure that I remain a key swing vote if it gets down to 6 in our tribe. A pair like Kelly and So, who's gonna target Sierra with that still looming? But Dan likes Jenn the best out of the non-Amigos, at least for now.
Joe and Joaquin. Such a risk staying loyal to them when I don't converse with either of them much strategically, which again is mostly my own fault. They're closer to Dan than they are to me almost by default. They've admitted to me that "word has spread" that I may be working with Kelly to turn on them. So they don't even trust me. Yet just to keep up this Asmat loyalty charade, I continue to protect them. It doesn't sit well with me, but Kelly's constant need to stir the pot sits even worse with me at this stage. I really WISH I could trust Kelly 100% because if I could, we could create absolute chaos. But it's not that I don't trust her because right now I sort of do. It's that she's messing up my blueprint to win this game by continuing to try to get me to flip on Dan and company. I know she'll always be on the outside of our 5 for the foreseeable future, but I think I'll be able to maintain a bond with her throughout.
Working our way through this game as the 5 Amigos is something I really want all four of them to buy into, because if I could just trust the 5 to stick with it, eventually it may become time to build up Dan, Joaq and Joe as an unbreakable threesome and get the "Sierra, you're 4th over there" talk started, thus leading more people to want/need my vote, all the while viewing me as someone who needed to be convinced.
I know I keep planning ahead way past where I am in the game, and none of this will probably happen the way I say here, but I can't help myself. The game is your first PM on day 1 to the last word in a jury speech, and all of that time needs to resonate favorably with the jury. They need to SEE above all else that I'm worth voting for, whatever that means in each juror's mind. Generally I want a respectable, low-key resume before the merge, solid footing throughout the early merge, and then I'd want the late stages to be viewed as actually impressive and sort of paint my whole game in a better light. It's gotta be done in a way where people change their opinions about me for the better as they walk single file into Ponderosa.
I'd love to be viewed as a lower rung on this Dan/Joaq/Joe totem pole entering the merge for a lot of reasons if we have a majority, or I get the first opportunity to strike. Which is part of why I've risked some of this double-dipping with Kelly's extremely bloodthirsty ass. I don't know how long I can hold off her obvious desire to make things happen and really "play" without it becoming a detriment to my game. Eventually she may just be like "okay fuck you all, I'm flipping" but I'll try to curtail that. I'd love to make a move with her at some point but I don't see her being as willing to wait as I would.
I just know she's going to try to make noise with Yali at the swap and merge, I know it. Ugh I have so many ideas on things I wanna do in this game but I really think the best way to get them ALL at my fingertips and put my fate into my own hands is these next couple of immunities. We have so many good challenge competitors. Not me of course, but plenty of players who can dominate challenges for me now, and then go home because of it mid-jury.
One thing that can screw things up in the short-term is this HII, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for that but otherwise the plan is still the same for me... Max going home if we lose, continue the Asmat/Amigos strong plan for now, win comps, start to fly a little bit more UTR, sure up friendships with Joe and Joaquin beginning, like, yesterday. I almost got myself caught in the middle between Kelly and the Amigos, but I'd like to think I'm starting to quell some of the doubt.
Game experience and using that against people is another thing. Joaq and Joe strike me as relatively new players. Kelly and Dan have essentially admitted to me that they're either vets or at least multi-game players. So seems newer-ish, and Max I think told Kelly this was his 1st game, if that's even the truth. Jenn I can't figure out but my guess is somewhat new.
Joaq and Joe specifically, and maybe I get them mixed up in my head and unfairly relate them to each other since our relationships are so similar, but I think they're both going to be pretty loyal. Some of the complaints I've heard about them from others are fairly consistent with newbies, that they never talk to them individually and things like that. The only one (other than Jenn the first day) who has really lauded them has been Dan, which is no coincidence to me. But that means that right now they probably don't have many options in the game and seem pretty loyal. Just gut instinct, I could totally be wrong, but I feel confident in saying that their trust is all I need to stay safe at this point.
All the while I want Dan to be the player they feel most closely aligned with. Push them into a corner where eventually they won't be able to get out from under that reputation as a trio. I love obvious trios floating around at merge time.
I never should have been so vocally anti-Max. Why the fuck did I think there was anything to be gained from doing that... good thing Dan's Max hate is overshadowing it for Kelly, who will ideally make sure that my name doesn't get so much as halfway out of Max's mouth during his eleventh-hour pleas.
