Stranded in the Andes

Interesting final result to the challenge, no? Anyway... we are at Final Fourteen! Things are cooking up now. Have fun with another challenge tomorrow!

1. Ancha, you decided to take the advantage for next immunity challenge and give Kallpa the night off by booting Danny off. Do you agree or not with this? Think you got favour from the Incan Gods?
2. That deadly sins challenge. How do you feel about who got assigned which sin, especially the one you got? Accurate or not? Tell us who you think each sin is truly represented by.
3. Who are your current targets? Do you think your targets match those of who the overall tribe might target soon?
4. How important are things like idols and advantages to you in a game like this? Have you currently searched for any yourself?
5. Let's see some trust rankings, a tier list of your tribe so far. Where would you rank everyone at currently from top to bottom?

Day 6 - Pre Challenge
I can feel that blood pressure already! The impending challenge doom always gives you the shakes, I swear. I know I've set myself up in a great position but I still have all the anxiety and paranoia of someone actually in Survivor. Only way to quell that fear...is to make more bonds!

I talked to Shan a decent amount about working together. She's finally opening up more and more. I'm going to guess this is turning into F2 territory. She's a great secret bond for me and I'm so down to keep it for as long as I can. She discussed how much she likes Evvie, but not really anyone else. I can see that I was correct in assuming that Evvie was trying to make that bond for her own long-term success. It's good that I've probably surpassed her now and have Shan in my pocket for the eventual Evvie vote-out. It also sounds like after Danny, Shan is perfectly fine with Heather or Sara going. This is perfect.

I talked more game with Xander, as usual. We discussed more possible idol locations and we both agreed that we should be looking for some sort of password forum. I think I was really stupid here, but I told him about the list of password phrases I had to maybe figure out what the idol password could be. I don't know why I do these things...but if he's playing on the same level that I think he is, he probably has something similar. I mean, no one else has been checking past season forums like him and I are.

One thing I didn't mention regarding my conversation with Evvie. It kind of slipped to her that I was LGBT. Maybe something about her alias being Evvie or her telling me about her brother...I don't know, I just had to tell someone. I'm constantly struggling between wanting Evvie in my game until F3 and needing her gone before we get close to it. I know I won't be able to beat her in the end. She's just so likeable. Everyone I've talked to absolutely loves her. I also don't want to lose her friendship in voting her out as well. I need to block this out until later in the game or it's just going to eat me alive. *IGNORING IGNORING*

With Deshawn it was just more talk about Sara or Heather. I mentioned that Shan thought it was dumb for anyone but Danny to go, so it looks like the whole master plan is going to go on the back-burner until Danny is out. We also talked about Heather's potential girls alliance sans Sara. We're unsure how real it could actually be considering Evvie told us about it before it was even a thing. We ended on basically waiting for the challenge results before doing anything further.

Heather FINALLY talks some game with me...but it's such basic stuff. I like this person, and this person, and I don't know about this person. Oh my god, you have no idea how fast this game is moving. She mentioned something about how if you don't hear about alliances then you're probably not in them. Hit the nail right on the head my girl. I really want to start this whole Sara vs Heather war, but it needs to come at the right time. Danny, you need to go dude.

Day 6 - Post Challenge
Wow we actually pulled off another win. Talk about a nerve-wracking challenge! I was ready to go to tribal when I saw us 3 points down...but then all of a sudden it clicked that Deshawn might have helped us out by putting the answers in reverse-alphabetical order. I think it was Shan once again who came up with a solution that won us the challenge. That girl is so damn smart. She's becoming a bigger target more and more as the game goes on. Her and Evvie as an alliance would be insanely dangerous. I think I've done enough work to be on the upper end of Shan's loyalty. But I need to continue to foster that relationship long-term if I ever want to *sniff* take Evvie out.

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Ancha, you decided to take the advantage for next immunity challenge and give Kallpa the night off by booting Danny off. Do you agree or not with this? Think you got favour from the Incan Gods?

A part of me wanted to just tell Kallpa to get fucked, but Jeff mentioned that the advantage would be huge. Did he say huge? *Goes back* Large! We ended up taking the advantage and agreed that we could probably crush the challenge again next week. I'm always thinking of the impending tribe swap, so I was more worried about them retaliating in some way when that time comes. The tribe swap is probably my biggest worry in this game. I have a feeling it's coming at round 4 or 5. Something like 3 tribes of 4 and then merge at 10? And I do not want to be in a situation where I'm 1 Ancha vs 3 Kallpa. All in all, it's probably the right decision as the Stranded Gods only bless you when you do something nice...or I guess Jeff said Inca Gods.

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That deadly sins challenge. How do you feel about who got assigned which sin, especially the one you got? Accurate or not? Tell us who you think each sin is truly represented by.

Well we all know now that Deshawn assigned them by reverse alphabetical, so his choices didn't mean anything. I can tell you what I would have probably done with honest answers:

Anger - Sara
Envy - Abraham
Greed - Xander
Gluttony - Deshawn
Pride - Shan
Lust - Evvie
Sloth - Heather

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Who are your current targets? Do you think your targets match those of who the overall tribe might target soon?

My current targets personally are Heather / Shan. If they get wind of what Xander, Deshawn, and I are doing to get Sarah to go after them, it's game over for us. Even Evvie knowing is a little risky now because she's going to realize (if not already) that Xander and I are playing a lot harder. We have to reduce everyone's options as much as we can while making our own options better. I think the main targets in the tribe right now are Sara and Heather, but I can also see it being Myself. With how hard I've been playing, I'd be surprised if I didn't come up in someone's mind as a potential target.

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How important are things like idols and advantages to you in a game like this? Have you currently searched for any yourself?

They're incredibly important. I don't think anyone has been looking harder than I am (maybe Xander?). I've gone through every location Xander mentioned to check. I don't even think I checked most of the spots he told me to because I was already there a day or two ago. I've looked through the page source, I've inverted banners, background images, etc. Can't find anything. I've even tried guessing forum numbers (example, if this thread I'm typing in is viewtopic.php?f=384 then I've tried 385, 386, etc. I even went through all the user groups to see if there was a user named idol or something. NOTHING. From listening to the Stranded podcasts, I remember a line Poody/Jeff said about how some idols are so hard to find, you won't get them until the 3rd clue. I confidently said "yeah right, I'll figure it out". I'm looking pretty dumb now. I'm thinking that eventually one of the locations I've been checking is going to spawn some sort of clue or the idol forum itself. Then I can start hammering away with passwords.

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Let's see some trust rankings, a tier list of your tribe so far. Where would you rank everyone at currently from top to bottom?

  TOP TIER: Xander - If he screws me, my game is over. EVERYTHING I've built hinges on him. If he's not true to me, I don't make it to the end.
HIGH TIER: Deshawn - Deshawn thinks of me as his F2 and main partner. I just have to make sure he continues to think this and that he doesn't figure out otherwise from Xander.
HIGH/MID TIER: Evvie - I need to trust her right now for a lot of our plans to work, but I feel her slowly slipping down the rankings. I've known from the very beginning that I will one day have to get her out, it's just tougher and tougher the longer we go through
MID TIER: Shan - She also thinks of me as a potential F2. I think I have her loyalty more than Evvie does now like I mentioned above. I just don't think I can beat her in some of the more puzzle-esc challenges during the merge.
LOW TIER: Sara - A pawn. She's playing an important part in the game for us, but she has no chance at end-game plans with us. Xander doesn't trust her, Deshawn doesn't trust her. She has no ties really. Hey...that actually might make her useful late game.
BOTTOM TIER: Heather - Dead woman walking. An easy target for our master plan.

Speaking of master plan...

Alliance Round-up
I thought it would be helpful to just give a round-up of alliances and where I think people stand as the game goes on. it might help me to see something that I might have missed.

SPIRAL SQUAD
Formerly the stoner alliance. We all agreed to rename it to this as I mentioned that I always spiral around challenge/tribal time and we try our best to stop each other from spiraling. i think it fits a lot better. Also I guess I just snuck a Jersey Shore reference into the game? I'm not sure if that's amazing or disgusting.

THE CANADIAN CONNECTION
Started calling Deshawn and Myself this. I thought maybe naming our alliance to him would make him trust me more or think that this is a real thing. I kind of need him to as I think he's perfect to be in F3 with. Also revealing how strong this connection is by naming it at the end of the game will probably get me jury points for people who had no idea.

ANDEEZ NUTS
Just a dumb name I came up with for the Xander and Deshawn group alliance. We're using this group to plan the Sara vs Heather war. I thought of it while studying the Andes Wikipedia page one late night pre-game and just couldn't stop laughing at this in the first line for the pronounciation of 'Andes':



The rest is history?

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And of course the updated graphic that everyone seems to be enjoying:



That's all for now (that's all...like I didn't just spend hours writing all this). Hopefully everything continues to go well for us!

You are a TOP TIER confessionalist, sir. Many thanks for your truly excellent updates <3

INSANE confessional. Love it.

This is the writing of a mad man (a smart mad man).

James - nah just a regular mad man. I'm going so nuts in this game that I have no idea if I've dug myself into a hole or set myself up properly. lolMike H - I totally missed your aquarium question last time. Here's my answer:

Evvie - Coral saltwater tank - I'm terrible at these but it's something I've always wanted to do. In turn, I wish I knew how to manage my friendship with Evvie and separate it from the game. I want to continue with her but long-term it's not good for me. Her relationship in this game will be my downfall - I have a good feeling about this.

Xander - Jungle planted tank - There's so many hidden parts for fish to live and spawn. The babies have lots of room to hide. Similarly, I want to enjoy Xander for who he is, but I worry that he's able to make secret alliances behind my back that I just can't beat. It's like, I'm not going to know what's in this tank until I do a tear-down, so I won't know what Xander is planning until the end-game when we can read each other's confessionals or I get voted out.

Deshawn - Iwagumi tank - Simple but beautiful in design. It doesn't need all the fancy plants and wood that spiral around the tank. The beautiful manicured carpet is what makes it great. Deshawn doesn't talk big game or show his plans very often, but he's always on top of things and has been a great person to work with. Very agreeable in nature.

Shan - Dutch style planted tank - So much variety and intelligence goes into making a dutch tank work. This tank separates different plants into bunches for a more cohesive look. It looks simple, but is actually very complex. I feel like Shan has all these different layers we're not seeing and she has the ability to sort of chameleon her way through the game.

Sara - Reminds me of my first planted tank. I didn't know what I was doing or if I was doing it right. There were algae blooms, there were fungal and bacterial infections, pests, etc. But I'll still always remember it as my first tank and I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Sara is playing like how I did in some of my first seasons. Quickly get that majority, set a plan, done. And now we really haven't talked much to her since then. She's about to get told about Heather going after her just so we can use her trust in us later down the line. Because of some of our game experience, using Sara is a little easier for us.

Heather - That small 1 gallon tank that parents get for their kids so they shut up about wanting a dog. Has that Spongebob pineapple in it that takes up like 80% of the tank and then when the parents go back to Petco and yell at the fish guy about how their Betta died in 1 day. It's like, what the fuck were you expecting exactly? Heather didn't talk to anyone early game, never made connections, and now comes back asking us all what our plans are and if we can vote Sara out. Where have you been? How can you just show up 6 or 7 days in and try to make a move like that?

Day 7 - Emergency Confessional
I'm legit having a panic right now. Turns out Evvie has just been making F2s and using emotions on everyone to get her further. I really thought we had something real outside the game. Regardless of us wanting to vote each other out or get to a certain point and then betray each other, something about how she manipulated both Xander and I into telling deep personal things about our lives makes me feel nauseous. I don't even know what I want to do anymore. I need a serious break from this stuff. Maybe I should just sign off until the challenge.
Once Xander brought up that I told Shan about Xander and Evvie being close, I confronted Shan about it. Shan told me that her and Evvie had a F2 and that they were each other's number 1. Okay great, that's how the game is played. But why even have the heart to heart about stuff outside the game and how we're going to be each other's rock? I struggled so hard with wanting to work with Evvie and taking her out. But it's obvious that's my only option. Then I find out she did the same to Xander and has been using him emotionally to get further. It legit makes me sick. It's even worse what she did to Xander because he's had some much tougher times than I have and she's been using that to manipulate their relationship. I honestly want either myself or her gone as this point.

Excellent confessionals.  Hang in there and don’t give up!!

Thanks Erika! I know, we just gotta hang in there. A much better update ahead.

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Day 7 - Post Meltdown
I'm such an idiot. I fucked up big time. This all started because I wanted to test Shan's loyalty and told her I think Evvie and Xander are extremely close. She ended up telling Evvie, who in turn told Xander. Once Xander told me, it made me wonder why Evvie didn't just come to me with it. That's when I started to spiral (how appropriate). For some reason, I thought it meant that Evvie was basically feeding everything to Shan the entire time. I confronted Shan about what happened, and she told me that Evvie was telling her that they were each other's number 1. At that point, I was extremely upset. I thought that everything we built was meaningless, and the things we spoke about the day before in confidence was all for game (some pretty personal stuff). I really thought our relationship went beyond that.

I immediately went into crisis mode. I told Xander about how I think Evvie is playing us both, and explained the situation. Xander said that Evvie had similar conversations with him and that he was worried everything was ruined as well. For some reason, I didn't consider that maybe our F3 was just building our bonds more and more, and I should have trusted in that. I mean, it's Survivor at the same time. Anytime you find out how close people are, you panic. I then told Sara how we needed to change the vote from Heather to Evvie, due to the crisis I was experiencing. Another dumb move. I thought telling Sara (since we had already built her confidence in us after revealing Heather's plan) would allow for us to switch the vote to any of the girls without issue. Sara agreed, especially after I explained the situation and how I was feeling extremely betrayed.

Finally I talked to Evvie. I explained to her the situation and how I was feeling betrayed by her. I should have done this FIRST. She said she was totally blindsided by the whole thing and she thought that she was just building her relationship with Shan which was part of the plan. I felt really stupid. I might have blown everything out of proportion and made it to be something that it wasn't. I apologized to Evvie and explained my pre-game situation about coming back into the game to put a positive spin on my love for Survivor and ORGs. When I felt betrayed by Evvie, it brought me back to a dark place. I apologized for the whole situation and told her that she would always have my vote and my confidence in the game. I swore whatever I could to her - even my life in the game, should we go to tribal. I'm hoping I can mend this relationship with Evvie, but I'm thinking there's no way she trusts me 100% ever again. We also had to do damage control with Shan, and confirm that it was a misunderstanding. Shan accepted what we told her and she said she felt even more comfortable with us now. I'm not sure how, but I guess she sees that the three of us (Evvie, Shan, Myself) thought we had a strong bond with one another personally, and didn't consider that working as a group would have prevented all of this. So I'm pretty sure that's two relationships I've fucked up. Now if I were to ever vote out Shan or Evvie, this is a huge knock against me if they're on the jury. There's no way I ever get their votes. My clearest way to the end now is if Shan goes pre-merge and Evvie, Xander, and I do go to the end like the original plan. I'm not huge on it, but I think for now, it's all I got. Until I properly repair things and have votes together for a long period of time, there's no way I can repair OR break the relationship with Evvie. I'm stuck with her now and I made my choice. My only option is if someone else goes after Evvie, I tell her, and have no power to change the vote. Or, Evvie goes pre-merge, which is not ideal.

I apologized for blowing up to Xander and Sara as well. I told them we can go back to the Heather vote. I had to loudly lick my wounds all evening to show how sorry I was about everything, even offering to go should we lose the challenge. Anything to make people realize how much I regret how I dealt with everything. The next few days, should we not go to tribal, I need to do serious damage control like never before.

Day 7 - Challenge
Well, that was...how do you even explain what just happened? In my infinite wisdom, I predicted the challenge for the second time in a row....and also almost cost us the entire win. We had an amazing 3 word advantage against the other tribe in the word unscramble, and manage to solve everything pretty fast. Only I submitted the answers in the Challenge Beach thread instead of our private Ancha Tribe camp. This is like my 7th or 8th fuck up of the day. So we got to sit there for 11 minutes, while the other tribe could look over our answers and see the one mistake on our word phrase, and then submit as late as possible for the easy win. But Kallpa, god bless those fools. They copied our answers from the thread and posted them pretty much immediately. I thankfully made the challenge thread and posted them in our camp before they did, and we ended up winning the challenge. This is despite us having the phrase wrong, me posting the answers, and them having an 11 minute advantage. I guess even on my dumbest day, Kallpa manages to be even dumber.

So we ended up turning a pretty mediocre day into a good one. What a roller coaster. We once again avoid tribal for the 3rd time, and now we're off until Sunday. However, I need to work really hard these next few days. I need to repair all of my relationships and hopefully get some more plans going. People are looking forward to this long break now, but I need to put in a LOT of work while everyone rests up. I can't slow down now, especially after this colossal mistake. I need to turn this mistake into a lesson for myself about how I play ORGs. This is my only second chance in this game. I could have very well gone home tonight because of my stupid mistakes and paranoia.

My goals for the next 4 days:

1. Rebuild relationships (Shan/Evvie/Xander/Sara) and have more conversations. No game talk unless I'm specifically asked.
2. Reconnect with Deshawn and make sure I have him with me the same way Evvie has Shan.
3. Reconnect with Evvie and Xander in the Spiral Squad chat and 1 on 1. I need them to see the old me again, before all this happened.
4. CHILL. THE. FUCK. OUT. STOP WITH THE PARANOIA AND ANXIETY. This is literally why I've gone home in all my past ORGs. When I managed my anxiety and was confident in my play, I won my first game.

I need to take everything negative about today and turn it into a positive lesson for the future. If I make it to the end, this is the day that I'll remember back to where I turned it all around. I need to now, when it's only day 7, or this is going to be my eventual downfall. No. More. Mistakes.

And since I forgot to make my own title, this round will be referred to posthumously as:

Episode 03: The Cloacal Kiss of Death

 

Abraham wrote: ↑Wed Jun 14, 2023 11:17:52 am James - nah just a regular mad man. I'm going so nuts in this game that I have no idea if I've dug myself into a hole or set myself up properly. lol

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Mike H - I totally missed your aquarium question last time. Here's my answer:

Evvie - Coral saltwater tank - I'm terrible at these but it's something I've always wanted to do. In turn, I wish I knew how to manage my friendship with Evvie and separate it from the game. I want to continue with her but long-term it's not good for me. Her relationship in this game will be my downfall - I have a good feeling about this.

Xander - Jungle planted tank - There's so many hidden parts for fish to live and spawn. The babies have lots of room to hide. Similarly, I want to enjoy Xander for who he is, but I worry that he's able to make secret alliances behind my back that I just can't beat. It's like, I'm not going to know what's in this tank until I do a tear-down, so I won't know what Xander is planning until the end-game when we can read each other's confessionals or I get voted out.

Deshawn - Iwagumi tank - Simple but beautiful in design. It doesn't need all the fancy plants and wood that spiral around the tank. The beautiful manicured carpet is what makes it great. Deshawn doesn't talk big game or show his plans very often, but he's always on top of things and has been a great person to work with. Very agreeable in nature.

Shan - Dutch style planted tank - So much variety and intelligence goes into making a dutch tank work. This tank separates different plants into bunches for a more cohesive look. It looks simple, but is actually very complex. I feel like Shan has all these different layers we're not seeing and she has the ability to sort of chameleon her way through the game.

Sara - Reminds me of my first planted tank. I didn't know what I was doing or if I was doing it right. There were algae blooms, there were fungal and bacterial infections, pests, etc. But I'll still always remember it as my first tank and I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Sara is playing like how I did in some of my first seasons. Quickly get that majority, set a plan, done. And now we really haven't talked much to her since then. She's about to get told about Heather going after her just so we can use her trust in us later down the line. Because of some of our game experience, using Sara is a little easier for us.

Heather - That small 1 gallon tank that parents get for their kids so they shut up about wanting a dog. Has that Spongebob pineapple in it that takes up like 80% of the tank and then when the parents go back to Petco and yell at the fish guy about how their Betta died in 1 day. It's like, what the fuck were you expecting exactly? Heather didn't talk to anyone early game, never made connections, and now comes back asking us all what our plans are and if we can vote Sara out. Where have you been? How can you just show up 6 or 7 days in and try to make a move like that?