Confessional

And so it begins. I'm curious what you mean by back stories. Avatars, posts in the introduction thread... by the nature of this game, I can't imagine back stories going beyond that.

No real impressions of my tribemates yet... based on the introduction, I'd wager the other tribe has some stronger, more domineering personalities. But it could also just mean that my tribe is sneakier. Should be interesting.

Not sure if I can see Princess Mint's confessional, or if she just posted it in the general confessionals section/pulled a Sam. But either way, I can see her confessional.

Also, some people have PMs turned off. I don't know if they did that deliberately (I can't imagine why - maybe accidentally, trying to get rid of notifications) or if they just don't have access yet.

I'm still trying to figure out what the Tree Mail means. I've compiled a cheat sheet for everyone in the game, but I don't think that's what you mean... what can you really use for r123k, for example, at least without suggesting they're the r123k that pops up in Google? I also searched for "Brady Cohen", thinking maybe there's some famous Brady Cohen (apparently not), and Survivor players with those names - Shawn Cohen and Brady Finta. Just too many possibilities.

I wonder if the last 2 lines are part of the riddle, or just there to make it 4 lines and tie it up neatly.

I feel like I'm way too active, way too early, in the tribe area. But I also feel like the tribe is *kind of useless*, so I'm trying to guide them into talking about stuff without actually taking the lead, but I feel like that's failing miserably. heh. We'll see how that goes...

I was hesitant to play with a 3, but figured since I'd never played with a low card before, it might work. Ultimately didn't pay off.

And seriously, wtf @ the first tribe challenge being individual.

I'm guessing I didn't get the Immunity Idol challenge correct - obviously. I'm guessing some that were the same season I got out of order, and it didn't even occur to me that the chronological order would vary in each season (and would've taken too long to look up, anyway). Or James leaving with 2 idols... that was China, right? I actually didn't look that one up (only the season number). Oops.

Well, good. Everyone seems more involved now. Hopefully this works.

Dayman seems very familiar somehow... hmmmmmm... Kind of embarrassed I lost a card game, btw. Like, that rarely happens. But in some ways it's good... I think in the last Lsquared, I didn't really visibly falter (I totally did, but people didn't see it when I did). So hopefully I can successfully tone down this over-activity and play along, with people not really seeing me as a challenge threat this time around (even if I do well in other challenges, this one will likely stand out in others' memories for a while). As long as this vote works out, I think it's possible. We'll see.

Princess Mint can't PM either, btw. She just sent me a test PM, but I can't send one back.

The twists are interesting. Not good, but interesting. Ordinarily, I wouldn't feel at risk now. But after participating in the Idol challenge, I'd be a good target to flush out a possible idol.

I've talked to Jonathan and Aaron, both mentioned r123k. Whether that's true or not... absolutely no clue whatsoever. But r123k reached out to Shy Guy and me (Shy Guy being Mykee, yes?), and Shy Guy would be a great ally. r123k, not sure - but he proposed Lady Lambdadelta, so I'll be voting with him. I just need to accept that's what I'm doing and stop second guessing it (because you know as well as I that I'll end up voting with him if he's my #1, regardless of my thought process getting there). Which could end up giving Lady an advantage if she's not voted out (and if I am a target to flush a potential idol I don't have, and some are throwing votes to r123k, it could screw me over - if our votes are what decides that).

Eh, fuck it. Gonna change clothes, feed my dog, and vote (procrastination, but for valid reasons).

Shy Guy... smh. He was the one who was adamant about voting Lady, then PM'd me 10 minutes before the deadline (a couple after I voted) to go with the majority. Ah well. Doesn't matter either way, nor am I trying to utilize the twists so much as dodge them entirely.

lol @ this Genius-style fuckery. This is gonna be a mess.

Yes, there's a lot of strategy. But after my introduction to this game, I'm staying the fuck out of that. I hope someone else on Brady sees it and speaks up, though. I pointed out one thing... that's enough.

I understand this better than I let on, btw. Sorry for all the time delay. I'm just trying to not seem like a douche (but how often to I succeed at not seeming like a douche? Never).

your tribe is boring. nobody answered any of my questions.

I knew you were playing off that last challenge. I didn't think it was that confusing. The funny thing about the Genius-style challenges is that I wrote this season/these challenges a year ago. So none of it is actually inspired by those games.

My tribe is terrible! I really hope these tribes were chosen randomly, rather than, "hey, you won last season... let's see how you do if I royally fuck you over with this useless tribe..." (kidding - I'm sure the tribe assignments were either random or based on pre-determined criteria). But put me with Dayman day 1, and we could've dominated this. I was expecting another schoolyard pick kind of thing.

As for my tribe... useless. I guarantee you tonight will be 3 people, maybe 4 max, and at least one will be clueless (see: Zac posting his position like 5 times in a round last challenge, I think twice with positions from the wrong side). But Cohen can now afford to have 2 people inactive without any detriment to them. I just pray that tonight's challenge is something Shy Guy (the one and only silver lining of this tribe) and I can do on our own, without any penalty. As it stands, between the losses and my impressions of a couple people on the tribe, the merge isn't looking bright (should I get there).

Also, to be fair, posting in the tribal threads can be suicide. Anything you say can be twisted. It's fine if everyone does... but if you're the only person, it doesn't look good.

The Genius... hasn't the current season been going on for 20 years?

I'll do a tribe assessment later tonight (was thinking about it earlier, but signed on with my phone - too much effort).

By the way, I'm trying to post like an idiot with "lol" and few commas to hide my identity. Ironically, I'm also trying to avoid fast/careless typos to hide my identity. Hm.

Seriously. They were going for our active players, not our inactives. We should've just stuck with 1 (or 2, after your addendum) people posting weight. But everyone wanted to fucking join in. What the hell was I supposed to say? "stfu and don't post - we don't need you"??? My heart dropped that first round when they put all that weight on him. I kept thinking I should've said something.

To be fair, I also screwed up, too. I though the player with the lowest weight had their weight dropped, not that the lowest weight was dropped. But to be fair... "Each round as a player drops out, I'll also remove the lowest weight." That, in the same sentence as "player", does suggest that the player's weight will be dropped.

It's also funny because I didn't want Aaron to be the hero - he's active, but not very present usually. Obvious choice for a hero. I actually wanted Shy Guy to be the hero (he's our most vocal/visible person, which would make them think it's not him)... but refusing Aaron's request seemed, er, not good. So I didn't say anything. Next challenge, I'm being a dictator (watch it be a challenge I genuinely suck at and don't understand).

Anyway, cast assessment...

Jonathan - Hitler avatar amuses me, but ya know, never trust anyone who uses Hitler to represent themselves (funny story... my first choice of an avatar was actually an artist's depiction of a kachina, but with a knife in its hand... opted against that because of the knife). 2 challenges in a row he hasn't been a part of. Dictated the first vote. Dude has to go.

Aaron - I like Aaron. Work schedule is work schedule. I've come to understand that one since I only telecommute half the time now (t.ears... as a side note, I'm buzzed and want to say that this was a shit place for me to move when working in tech... managed to work out of California for a while after the move, but now... no. Fuck). I can't tell if he's "fake" or just a little closed off. Even with what Shy Guy said on our board, I'm still not sure - that could go either way.

Shelby - She's so sweet, which could be deadly if that's a facade. Active - big bonus. I keep thinking she seems a little like Misty, but like Misty after you get to know Misty and she opens up more... so, definitely not Misty. Still, positive association.

Zac - irrelevant

Shy Guy - the silver lining of the tribe. This is why I wanted a challenge that was just him and me. I can work with him. I love how grumpy he can be, and how he can say all the passive-aggressive shit that I want to say but don't. That takes balls.

I'm torn between voting for Jonathan or throwing a vote at someone else, in case Jonathan has an idol and plays it.  But there's nothing to say that 1 vote would make a difference, depending on if Jonathan has, say, Zac.  But it would keep Jonathan from potentially being the 1 deciding vote.  I'll think and vote later.

I just need to buy some weed at spend my limited nights here laughing. Because what's the point of doing anything else?

Shy Guy's idea to vote out ID is good, except for a few things...

1.) If he plays an idol, we're screwed. Of the 3, he's the most likely to have an idol.
2.) Longterm doesn't bode well. Everyone on former Cohen/new Brady would see it as a powerplay... us throwing a challenge to keep Aaron safe, all of us coordinated and unified. Should we need someone to flip, that takes away their incentive to flip to our side. Stay on their original side, knowing there are probably fractures within that that they'd have time to exploit, or flip to us and be the bottom of a 5 person alliance? The choice seems simple, and not in our favor.
3.) It's really relying on Pancake staying inactive. Even if we could get rid of ID and Dillon, buying time for Aaron to set-up a play and vote out someone on his tribe, for the numbers to even be even would mean Pancake stays inactive.
4.) If we stay in these tribes another 4 rounds, we've seriously weakened ourselves for that final challenge. Unless we can get Aaron to flip something on Brady, say, round 3. Again though, even then - we'd be tied, 4 vs 4... it would be down to drawing rocks, someone flipping, or an immunity idol used successfully. All big gambles.

The pros? We get out one of their stronger players. I'd personally bluff that we're voting out Pancake, and vote out Dillon instead... IF we lose. Maybe throwing the next challenge, to buy Aaron some time. But beyond that, it's not a sustainable strategy.

If we're going to pull that shit, it would be down to the 3 of us voting last minute, making sure Pancake hasn't signed on. If she has, throw all of our votes to her or Dillon. If she hasn't, 2 for ID and 1 for her. I'm fine with that as a compromise, but it does rely on the 3 of us being willing/able to vote last minute. And we can't make it obvious we're throwing this challenge... it could be obvious if we were going into the merge with a majority, but... we won't be, so making it too apparent that it was our plan all along could be very bad.

Sorry! Really wasn't trying to give you a headache. It's just that the rules didn't actually say people had to post, "I'll go to Box x", only that 1.) everyone active needed to post, and 2.) everyone needed to post which box they're in. There was no specified format for posting that. Since I did post, and posted which box I was going to (albeit in a weird format), I thought that counted (it should've, per the rules!).

I get how doing it like that was confusing, though (but it was still in accordance with the rules... just sayin'). But the result doesn't really matter, as long as Shy Guy, Shelby, or I aren't voted out. heh.

It's funny, because at first I was trying to throw that competition, because I thought that was the plan. But then started trying to win, and... damn.

I like ID. I don't trust Aaron at all. I can't go along with ID and snub Aaron without upsetting Shy Guy, though. I get the impression SHelby isn't crazy about Aaron, though. So this stage of the game is confusing as hell.

I honestly thought you did it on purpose to throw them off you intentionally losing.

Yeah, I was afraid you'd think that, considering the first round I said (where you could see) that I was purposely trying to create confusion.

I actually missed when you asked ID about it the first time - I just didn't see that at all, so my bad. I think that was when the forum wasn't letting me post (it just wouldn't load - I could load other pages on the forum fine, just not to post - weird), so I was more focused on that and not paying attention, just making sure no one else posted another list first.

Not a big deal.

...

So, I'm thinking... if we could get Dillon and ID to vote with us three times (or at least Dillon, because... c'mon, it's Dillon), they could easily flip on us to their advantage. Which is fine for the time being... as it gives them incentive to vote with us 3 times. Ideally, those other 2 will be reserved for the merge, though (practically, too... they can't both vote with all 3 of us, in tact, twice in this tribe incarnation... lolz).

Also, Shy Guy said he has 2 idol clues, but he also said he didn't finish the first idol challenge. So I'm wondering how he got the 2nd. Definitely some possibilities... 1.) he did complete the first challenge, or... actually, that's all. Last vote, there was one vote for me, but since I voted Lady Lambdadelta for the first tribal, he wouldn't have been able to get a clue by voting against me (only 2 consecutive votes with me). I mean, I'm assuming R123k voted Lady, yeah? So... hm. So either R123k penaltied and Shy Guy DID vote Lady the first tribal and lied about it (not likely), or he lied about the first challenge.

Risking the twists and turns of Dillon is looking better and better.

Seriously?

This is the longest losing streak I've ever been on in these online game things. And it's bruising my ego. I just want the game to be individual already. I generally hate working on a team (you and Pete excepted, and that's not just flattery). Which is funny, because I like the Survivor format better than BB... I really can't make sense of that. Teamwork is just overrated. I mean, I understand why some people like other people and stuff... I just think they're crazy. I mean, Nikola Tesla fell in love with a pigeon. To be that misanthropic is a thing of beauty, and apparently a thing of interspecies love, too. Why can't people all just fall in love with pigeons and fuck off? The world would be a better place.

I actually love these challenges, and great job coming up with them. I just feel like my tribe never gets it... so they get confused, which makes me confused (because... people, making "noise"), and it's just... I want my individual bubble, where I don't have to coordinate with anyone. That's all I want right now.

I really do hate Star Wars. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but... damn, that shit is dumb.

What I wrote about the vote is only half true. I never intended to vote out Shy Guy. But I want that doubt to be visible should I need to pull some trickery. I do really like ID though and wish I could've played this game with him, along with Shy Guy and Shelby. Losing sucks so much. This must be what Cherry always feels like.