Confessional: Round 6

[AJ]

And then there were ten.

We just merged a few hours ago, and the mad scramble has already begun. Crazy things are going down, and I'm being pulled in two directions, neither of which I'm terribly fond of.

Since my last confessional, I've had some important interaction with Ozzy, Terry and Hillary. My hope was always to get to the merge and be able to put together a group consisting of the members of the old Anubis tribe, but that looks like it'll be difficult. Hillary is very distrustful of Ozzy and Terry. Ozzy I can understand, since he's made alliances with everyone, but it's the Terry part that worries me. Hillary think that Terry would be willing to betray our tribe and join forces with the other side. From my dealings with him, I doubt that he would do that, but who knows. The problem, though, is that if Hillary doesn't want to work with Terry at all, then I have to choose to either align myself with Ozzy and Terry (who seem to be fairly tight) or Hillary (and perhaps Britney). I hate both of these scenarios because any in-fighting among the old Anubis folks would leave us as sitting ducks unless we can make an iron-clad agreement with a couple of people from the old Bastet tribe. Even in that scenario, though, Hillary would be the one making agreements based on dealings with people from previous games and I'd be totally dependent on her. I trust Hillary to an extent, but I'd like to be the one at the center of the power structure instead of being a spare part.

Complicating matters are the facts that a) It's currently an even split, 5 vs. 5, of the old tribes; b) Christian Bale might get eliminated as a result of his dare; and c) There are still the tie-breaker and Vote Nullify special powers out there, and they might belong to people from the old Bastet.

Right now, my absolute best-case scenario is to talk Hillary into sticking with Terry and Ozzy for a while by assuring her that I'll side with her and Britney if and when the time comes (which might or not be true... but it's too early to think about that). I think that's an unlikely scenario, though, so I guess it's time to start seeing if there are people on the other tribe who are willing to join an alliance with some people from my old tribe.

So basically what I'm saying is.... ugh. This is way too freakin' complicated.

[AJ]

In the last couple of days, things haven't gotten any simpler, and today a bit of paranoia hit me for the first time.

First off, Christian Bale was eliminated in the Dare challenge, and I couldn't have been happier about it. It gave the old Anubis tribe a 5-4 advantage. Unfortunately it's not that simple.

The dynamics within the old Anubis tribe are really weird. Right now, it seems pretty clear that Hillary and I are the two power players. For the most part, I've got influence over Terry and Ozzy, and Hillary has influence over Britney. If we could just hold things together we'd be alright, but the major problem is that Ozzy and Hillary don't trust each other whatsoever. A whole lot of my time is spent trying to convince them that they aren't a threat to each other. A growing concern for me, though, is that Hillary's got a lot of options going forward, and some of them aren't good for me.

To put things in context, here are the essentials of what has happened with me and Hillary. Pre-merge, we always consulted with each other before votes even though there's wasn't a clear, cut-and-dry formal alliance - such an alliance wasn't really needed yet, since we had so many inactives. Once we hit the merge, though, Hillary almost immediately came to me to try to put together a "big alliance", as she called it. I was planning on doing the same thing, so that was great. Her plan wasn't too specific, but it was clear that the two of us were making a commitment to each other. Like I said in my last confessional, the problem was that Hillary didn't trust Terry and Ozzy. I tried to convince her that I could control them for now (and I think I succeeded, for the most part), but that was my first hint that something was amiss. Anyway... after Bale was eliminated, I went to Hillary again so that we could figure out who we wanted to vote out. Her response was that she wanted to vote out Billy Joel, which was just fine with me, and she said she was gonna tell Britney and I told Terry and Ozzy.

My paranoia was heightened when I got a PM back from Ozzy. He's convinced that Hillary doesn't have any intention of sticking with us, and that she's aligned with Lady Gaga and Sarah Palin based on previous interactions in other seasons and their brief time on one of the four tribes from the last round, and that Palin said to him that I was trying to get Ozzy voted out. Now, I've said to Hillary in the past that we could deal with Ozzy at some point, but there was never any specific plan in place, and in order for Sarah to hear about to would have meant that Hillary told her. I calmed Ozzy down, but it obviously raised another warning flag for me. In the same PM that set the "big alliance" in motion, Hillary was really open with me regarding her previous dealings with Sarah Palin, and how they usually try to work together in these games. Hillary claimed that Sarah didn't want to work with her this time. After Christian Bale was gone, I suggested to Hillary that she get back to Sarah and see if she'd be willing to work with us now. (This was before Ozzy told me that Sarah said I was trying to vote him out). In the interim, I had actually swapped PMs with Sarah, and I actually like her quite a bit. I thought that having her align with us would give us some flexibility, but it may have been a mistake.

My problem is basically this: right now, I need Hillary to survive, but there's a scenario where she doesn't need me. Now, this doesn't mean that I necessarily think that she's going to stab me in the back; the fact that SHE was the one that came to ME to form an alliance is a good sign, in my book, and if she IS lying to me than she went to really, really great lengths to pull the wool over my eyes. I think it's more likely that she legitimately wants to be aligned with me. But even if we stick together at this TC and vote out Billy Joel, and then maybe vote out Lex at the next TC, the specter of Hillary remains a problem for me. If the final seven consists of the original Anubis 5 plus Gaga and Palin, Hillary could easily decide to go with her friends Sarah, Gaga and Britney and vote out me, Ozzy and Terry. Not a fun scenario, and I don't know what to do about it.

To be totally honest, there's a big part of me that wishes that I could strike first and try to vote out Hillary this round, but I just don't yet have sufficient relationships with some of the old Bastet members to pull it off if I wanted to give it a shot. This is the first time that I've really felt that I'm at a disadvantage because some of these people having played the game with each other before. And on top of everything, there's still the damn Vote Nullify and Tie-Breaker powers out there!

Until I can come up with a better plan, my hope right now is that everyone will keep their word for this TC, nothing weird will happen, and that Billy Joel will go home. But I've gotta figure out what I'm gonna do about Hillary... unless, of course, she decides to vote me out at this TC. Argh.

[! Chad !]

Aug 30, 2009 1:17:18 GMT -4 AJ said:

In the last couple of days, things haven't gotten any simpler, and today a bit of paranoia hit me for the first time.

First off, Christian Bale was eliminated in the Dare challenge, and I couldn't have been happier about it. It gave the old Anubis tribe a 5-4 advantage. Unfortunately it's not that simple.

The dynamics within the old Anubis tribe are really weird. Right now, it seems pretty clear that Hillary and I are the two power players. For the most part, I've got influence over Terry and Ozzy, and Hillary has influence over Britney. If we could just hold things together we'd be alright, but the major problem is that Ozzy and Hillary don't trust each other whatsoever. A whole lot of my time is spent trying to convince them that they aren't a threat to each other. A growing concern for me, though, is that Hillary's got a lot of options going forward, and some of them aren't good for me.

To put things in context, here are the essentials of what has happened with me and Hillary. Pre-merge, we always consulted with each other before votes even though there's wasn't a clear, cut-and-dry formal alliance - such an alliance wasn't really needed yet, since we had so many inactives. Once we hit the merge, though, Hillary almost immediately came to me to try to put together a "big alliance", as she called it. I was planning on doing the same thing, so that was great. Her plan wasn't too specific, but it was clear that the two of us were making a commitment to each other. Like I said in my last confessional, the problem was that Hillary didn't trust Terry and Ozzy. I tried to convince her that I could control them for now (and I think I succeeded, for the most part), but that was my first hint that something was amiss. Anyway... after Bale was eliminated, I went to Hillary again so that we could figure out who we wanted to vote out. Her response was that she wanted to vote out Billy Joel, which was just fine with me, and she said she was gonna tell Britney and I told Terry and Ozzy.

My paranoia was heightened when I got a PM back from Ozzy. He's convinced that Hillary doesn't have any intention of sticking with us, and that she's aligned with Lady Gaga and Sarah Palin based on previous interactions in other seasons and their brief time on one of the four tribes from the last round, and that Palin said to him that I was trying to get Ozzy voted out. Now, I've said to Hillary in the past that we could deal with Ozzy at some point, but there was never any specific plan in place, and in order for Sarah to hear about to would have meant that Hillary told her. I calmed Ozzy down, but it obviously raised another warning flag for me. In the same PM that set the "big alliance" in motion, Hillary was really open with me regarding her previous dealings with Sarah Palin, and how they usually try to work together in these games. Hillary claimed that Sarah didn't want to work with her this time. After Christian Bale was gone, I suggested to Hillary that she get back to Sarah and see if she'd be willing to work with us now. (This was before Ozzy told me that Sarah said I was trying to vote him out). In the interim, I had actually swapped PMs with Sarah, and I actually like her quite a bit. I thought that having her align with us would give us some flexibility, but it may have been a mistake.

My problem is basically this: right now, I need Hillary to survive, but there's a scenario where she doesn't need me. Now, this doesn't mean that I necessarily think that she's going to stab me in the back; the fact that SHE was the one that came to ME to form an alliance is a good sign, in my book, and if she IS lying to me than she went to really, really great lengths to pull the wool over my eyes. I think it's more likely that she legitimately wants to be aligned with me. But even if we stick together at this TC and vote out Billy Joel, and then maybe vote out Lex at the next TC, the specter of Hillary remains a problem for me. If the final seven consists of the original Anubis 5 plus Gaga and Palin, Hillary could easily decide to go with her friends Sarah, Gaga and Britney and vote out me, Ozzy and Terry. Not a fun scenario, and I don't know what to do about it.

To be totally honest, there's a big part of me that wishes that I could strike first and try to vote out Hillary this round, but I just don't yet have sufficient relationships with some of the old Bastet members to pull it off if I wanted to give it a shot. This is the first time that I've really felt that I'm at a disadvantage because some of these people having played the game with each other before. And on top of everything, there's still the damn Vote Nullify and Tie-Breaker powers out there!

Until I can come up with a better plan, my hope right now is that everyone will keep their word for this TC, nothing weird will happen, and that Billy Joel will go home. But I've gotta figure out what I'm gonna do about Hillary... unless, of course, she decides to vote me out at this TC. Argh.

*Applauds*

That my friend was what I call the best confessional ever.

[Deleted]

Boy, you were a much more trustworthy ally than i thought. I should have stuck to you instead of kdub.