Episode 07: The Brood Parasite of Pachamama
Birds, such as the common goldeneye, indigobirds, whydahs, honeyguides, cowbirds and New World cuckoos, that lay their eggs in other birds' nests, in order to have their chicks incubated through fledging by the parents of another bird, often of another species.
Day 14 - Morning/Afternoon
I finally had some conversations with all of the original Kallpa members. It actually went pretty well. I think being across from them for so long, you get a weird sense of animosity towards them when it's not really warranted.
I ended up reconnecting with
JR after last night. I apologized for being an ass to him and he did the same back. We just had a brief talk about the game and how he's against the wall, so he really had no options but to play like he was playing. He's right though - I can't fault him for it. I don't know where to go here from JR, but it's probably better to build this relationship rather than continue to wall him out. He's going to be an eventual jury member should our plans go correctly, and I need all the help I can get.
Leslie was a very pleasant conversation. We just talked about our lives (where we live, work, etc.) and some video games. She's definitely a super positive person and I really like that about her. I'm not sure what I can do with that as it's hard to turn on Ancha, but you can never say no to a number down the road.
Erik wasn't much of a conversation. i just learned he was from Australia and that's about it. He's not really online a lot and I think that's starting to be good for him. Sara has mentioned that keeping him around because of his inactivity is good as he wouldn't be able to swing anything in his favor.
Jaime was definitely the heartbreaking conversation today. She was super worried about being the one going home and also mentioned how she's been on the bottom the entire time. There's something about our conversation that I just really liked and it just made me feel like "Fuck...I don't want her to go this way". It would have been great if JR went instead but I'm not really going to be the person to change the vote around....maybe.
Day 14 - Evening
As the vote drew closer, I spoke to some of the tribe about our plan. For some reason, the Jaime vote still wasn't sitting right with me. I put out some feelers about it and found that Evvie and Deshawn were also feeling bad about voting for Jaime. Deshawn eventually said that he would champion a change for JR and see how it goes. I did the same by talking to Shan, Evvie, Sara, and Xander as well. Shan was having a tizzy about the vote being changed. I guess she's not going to handle all the changes that come around closer to tribal - which is probably good news for me. Evvie was down for the change to JR of course, but wanted to make sure we actually had everyone on board. Xander didn't have a vote, but expressed that he didn't think changing the vote was a good idea. Sara was the biggest opponent of the idea. She said that JR was useful for when we wanted to get someone out later as no one else really wanted to work with him. She also said that if Jaime has the ability to change our minds like this using emotions, it's probably a sign of what she can do in this game. Hey, that's a pretty fair assessment.
So unfortunately, I had to tell Deshawn to give up on the idea and we quickly had to get everyone on the same page to vote Jaime. I phrased it for Shan and Evvie by saying it was Sara's last word that said no to the idea and that what she says goes right now. This way I can paint a picture of Sara being the mastermind of our tribe and take the heat off of Deshawn and Myself for trying to switch the plan. That was quite a bad move on my part. I have to really start taking a back seat to these plans, especially next round when I don't have immunity.
As said above, we are also in the jury phase now. Congrats on making jury! Let's ask the big question everyone in this phase gets asked: How important do you think jury management is for you?
Thanks! Jury management is incredibly important. It's why I decided to turn my conversation with JR around. I also tried my best to make a good impression on Jaime before she left as well. I'm going to be breaking a lot of promises and relationships soon enough, and I need to think about how I'm going to explain myself to these people at the end. I've had a very good track record with my final tribal speech, so I think I do have a good chance at changing some minds. But having people leave with a sour taste is also worrying. It's a thin line to walk when you play this game.
What would you say has been the most difficult thing about merging into one tribe?
Managing all of the relationships you're not a part of. Everyone is talking to each other and they're also making their own groups, alliances, strategies, etc. I need to ramp up my management of all the players left and make sure I know who is close to who. This is when those lines start to blur. You're not playing correctly if you don't have a good working relationship with each person in this game. And so, I have to think about all the different relationships that could cause my downfall as I go deeper in this game.
Day 14 - Tribal Council
For some of you, that was your first tribal. For others, this was like any other round. How did you feel about this particular tribal council? Was Jaime leaving the right call for your game, or would you have wanted someone else first as the merge boot? Were you nervous or excited with all the many whispers going around at Tribal?
Oof...tribal is not fun! Especially with all those damn whispers. When I saw JR whisper to both Evvie and Shan and they both responded back, it made me feel like all of my worries were true about them. It was like a "I fucking knew they were gonna flip on us". I tried to wait a bit and see if any whispers would come my way to reassure that the plan was good, but more whispers just kept flying back and forth that I had to join in. Sara responded saying that it was just JR trying to flip the vote to Heather. Evvie told the same story. At that point, I wasn't going to change my vote and screw things up, so I just left it as it was.
Thankfully, Jaime did go home. It wasn't my first pick, but it had to happen to solidify the Ancha 7. We finally voted and our plan worked. However, there was a stray vote for Leslie and it caused the vote to go 5-4-1. We almost lost that and someone on Ancha is the culprit. Now this is going to be a topic of discussion for the next few days as we head into the next round. It makes me wonder, was the Leslie vote a loyalty test for someone? Did someone make a mistake and vote the wrong blonde girl? What could possibly be the meaning of that stray vote. And if it's Kallpa messing with us, who on our side voted for Heather? I'm wondering if maybe someone was spooked by all the whispers and it caused someone to vote incorrectly?
Anyway, after the vote there was a huge discussion going around about who the Leslie vote could possibly be. Heather of course, as usual, threw out Sara's name. Shan said that Heather was blaming Sara or Evvie. That's pretty crazy. I talked to Heather and the conversation was quite different. Instead, Heather said it couldn't be Evvie because they were so close. So did Shan just say the Evvie line to push us in another direction and not realize it was her who voted against us? This started a conversation with Sara who ended up making a group chat with Xander and I to discuss the possible Ancha traitor and decide on the next vote. I'll have to give another confessional tomorrow morning as this group chat is still going on as of 2:15AM.
Are you having fun with your Stranded experience? What are some of your favourite highlights so far?
I'm having an incredibly swell time. I'm loving the paranoia, the anxiety, the scheming, the ups, the downs. All of it is so fun and it's bringing me back to my old days of ORGs. And to add to the experience, I think you guys are putting together such a great game for us. I don't think I've played an ORG that is so well organized and filled with all these impressive graphics. The tribal! The hover on the player banner! Everything is just so well done.
Highlights so far:
- Xander as an alliance member. I can't get enough of this guy. Best alliance I could ask for.
- The photoshops / memes we've been making have been so great. I just know 'Xander'd' is going to be a phrase we use for the rest of the game
- Winning 5 immunity challenges in a row!
- Making it to the merge/jury!
- The friendships. I'm hoping despite the backstabbing, we'll all be able to hang out online together and chill when this is all over.
Could we get an updated trust rankings with all of your new tribemates included? Top to bottom
