Round Five

[nax]

So, I thought I was going to be utterly screwed in this challenge. I'm out of town, and expected to be kept busy the whole time, but...

I got "lucky". Nobody called me up to hang out. So, yeah, I'm universally hated (or just ignored?) but I at least got to make an OK showing in the challenge. ~11-1/2 hours. Not too shabby. But, since we were forbidden to talk about our progress in the challenge, I have no idea where that's going to put me, caste-wise.

The real question, is where does it put everyone else in RELATION to me, and will my peeps be able to protect each other from the badness of a growing majority of opponents. I just don't know.

Fortunately, this challenge is over in time for me to make sure I have no trouble getting my vote in. That's what I was really worried about.

There's a lot to say about this round, but it's going to have to wait until I have time in front of the computer to talk about it. Which might not be until Monday. But I promise, there will be details, impressions, and maybe even an updated POWER RANKINGS (and I'm playing with a new idea for that, breaking the players up in to the castes based on their gameplay and position in the game as it currently stands.... so STAY TUNED!)

[nax]

I'm starting to get the feeling - from watching logins to this board - that maybe only Woods and Ricky have even started their challenge yet. Timing was weird for me, so I had no choice but to do it today, but I guess people will really start going on this maybe tomorrow evening and try to pull an all-nighter. I'm hoping that starting later in the day like that will cause some to crap out.

I could easily have done 30 or 32 hours. Just bad timing a challenge like this one falling this particular weekend.

Must sleep now. Long day tomorrow, and more drinking tomorrow night.

[nax]

OK. I need to re-read this tomorrow, when I'm sober, but I'm seriously considering turning on Ricky and Nicole. Mostly Ricky, but I know if I do, I pretty much permanently burn that bridge with Nicole at the same time.

A lot's going to depend on how things shake out caste-wise this round. Am I Brahmin, and therefor safe? If I'm mid or bottom, do I believe I have numbers with who I'm with? If I don't have numbers, do I have faith in my ability to make something with members of my caste to keep me safe and advance my game?

I'm thinking I could potentially work with Woods or Joe. I'd have too much work to do to get in with Jermainey, Animal or Ryan at this point, but if that's my only option... would I vote out a Jedda, Ricky or Nicole? I'm thinking I might. Because although I'm a Loyalty player, I'm also WAY competitive. I won't give up a chance at victory (or safety) for loyalty. I'd fight, even if that means a cage match with an ally.

I think. But I'm not sober right now. I'll re-read tomorrow.

[nax]

Betrayal averted by not sucking at this challenge.

Ricky, Nicole and I are all in Brahmin (again) so we're all safe. Which means, whatever drunken clarity I may have experienced last night need not be put into action. And I'm kind of relieved. It really does go against the grain for me to betray a trusted ally. And my issues with Ricky aren't even a little bit about trust. They're about making sure I can win this game. Because, DAYAMN, I'm a competitive sumbitch.

What we DO have, however, are once again allies on two separate levels, one Amulet to hand out, and no clear majority on either tribe.

Ricky, Nicole and I talked about how to proceed. With Jedda, we figured best bet was to help him escape that vote by social engineering - i.e., make sure that Joe votes for BK. Joe says he will, and if he wants any trust out of us, that's exactly what he'll do. It gains him nothing to vote out Jedda, unless he's looking to ingratiate himself to the Woods' and Zack's of this game. Which he might, I admit. And that would suck. But we have to hope that Joe will try to buy our trust, instead, because, afterall, we only have ONE Ganesh to give out.

Meanwhile, in Vaishya, we have Brookie. Brookie. Goddamn Brookie.

We talked about just giving the amulet to her, but doing so would probably mean Quanz gets voted out, and that doesn't do us a whole lot of good (no bad, but hey, we're playing this thing to win, not break even). So we figured, hell, why not give it to Quanz and let people THINK it's going to Brookie. Worst case, Zack, Woods and Brenda split their votes and we wind up with a tie, and the revote will probably axe Brookie, but we get Quanz as a consolation prize.

Best case, the split the other way: 1 to Brookie, two to Quanz, and Woods says his fairwell. Medium case, same thing happens but they vote Brenda instead, which has the added benefit of sending a message: Don't betray us. Loyalty is paid with loyalty, but betrayal is paid with death (in this game).

So, this should be a real nailbiter. Stay tuned, folks, because NOTHING is set in stone this time around, and however it goes, there WILL be fireworks!

[nax]

Aside from a bit of surprise switching of last minute targets, the votes went as we wanted. Frankly, anybody who left from Vaishya would have been fine by me, but ultimately one of the two that I was happiest with going the fuck away actually went. Most of today, it was supposed to be Zack getting the boot. It was all primed, ready to go. Quanz was going to vote Zack. Brookie would vote however we told her to. And Woods....

Woods screwed himself. Apparently, he told everyone, both inside Vaishya and beyond, different stories about what was happening. That made people nervous. Personally, I think it's stupid - with a little cajoling, both he and Brenda would have voted Zack, and (what I consider to be) the more dangerous player would have found himself in RC tonight. But no. Paranoia set in, and everyone was set on switching it up for Woods.

Basically, Ricky got bored. It was going to well, and he wanted to exert a little control and make things happen against the grain. That's fine. I don't care enough which of those two go. But it's a warning sign.

I mean, he'll be faithful to me until much later in the game, and probably won't see any breaking from our F3, but sooner or later... well, I can't beat him if he calls all the shots. I have to be seen, at some point, as being in control of my own game, if not everyone else's.

Anyway, the BK/Joe/Jedda vote went as planned, no hiccups. Only surprise there is that BK just basically threw his hands up and said, "fuck it, I don't want to play. Here's my toys, I'm taking them home. Wah." Gotta be expected from such a young, not-very-bright kid, but even so... too many quits, and it's become the accepted norm for arriving at RC that SOMEONE is going to just quit. LAME!

The only piece of bad news is that Lexi lost her challenge at RC, which means she's actually out of the game. But damnit, she FOUGHT for it, and I have to respect that. It's just that Woods... somehow... was better at that challenge. I don't know how. He's not stupid, but I doubt he did that challenge on his own. No accusations, here: I'm not even sure that someone helping him with it is even against the rules (it's not explicitly stated as such, afterall), I'm just saying it smells fishy. Gut it, scale it, filet it, dump it in beer batter and fry it up. It's got fish stink all over it.

But overall, my position - well, my alliance's position - looks pretty good. I'd be happier if there was still a chance of Lexi coming back, but I think I can still capture Woods, should he return, and Quanz is still a controllable vote, for awhile. But I'm going to have to eventually do something about Jedda. I need him until the numbers get a lot smaller, but he's just too goddamn close to Ricky. Yet another element of this game that *I* don't control and Ricky *DOES*.

And, the more I think of it, I'm leaning more and more to capturing some loyalty from Animal and Joe all for myself. That's touchy, though. If I say anything too overt, I doubt they're above copy/pasting to break up me and Ricky. Subtlety and long-term planning is what's needed here. I already know Ricky's plan. That's half the battle. Now I need to put one of my own into motion.