*Super wild card vote incoming*

Crystal and Carmine.  One player I never felt all that close to, and one player I never had the chance to get close to.  So this is an odd vote for me.

Carmine seemed to be in the better position for most of the game, but as others pointed out, there was a big reason for that:  Bobfather.  Certainly before merge, and seemingly in the first half of the merge, it seems like the two were inseparable but Bobfather was more in control.  But hey, props for recognizing that and not keeping Bobfather around until the end.

Crystal admitted to not being around much in the early part of the merge, which is obviously a disadvantage.  But managing to survive despite that is a skill in itself; and then it seems like Crystal became more involved when it really mattered.  In the end, it seems like Crystal also managed to pick the best possible person to be up against at FTC, so props for that too.

All else equal, I tend to be more impressed by the person who manages to make it to FTC despite being in a weaker position leading up to it.  Especially when it comes down to a crucial clutch challenge win.  And everyone knows I love a good underdog story. 

Vote: Crystal

1) There's been talk of the merge and yeah it's been a factor

2) I don't think it was inevitable, because we won a round with the same players

3) My favorite is *real life*.  That isn't affecting how I approach the game though

4) There may be a little speculation but it's not really affecting my decision here

FOOTBALL!!!!!!! (Sorry, had to let out some testosterone)

Not game-related at all, and it may not be as funny postgame once I see who Viola is, but I just found that especially hilarious when looking at Viola's avatar next to that comment.

Well *now* what do I do...   like this whole tribal dynamic still feels weird to me and I don't know what to do.

Vent's the easy vote but I don't know how to get Bobfather/Carmine to make that vote without it backfiring on me.

That is a pretty big chunk of my reasoning, yeah. I didn't want to deadlock this tribe. But also thinking long term I envisioned Al Capone as being a particularly dangerous force in this game, he was the highest scorer not only on our tribe but in the entire game several times. If he kept that up after the merge he could waltzed deep into the game. Also I thought he might have earned the construction idol for the same reason, and that scared me too.

okay soooooooo that means you're gonna turn on me next because I'm good at challenges too right

I know my confessionalizing sucks now... Bobfather actually apologized to me for voting Capone, and was the only one of the former Lucchese to comment on the vote. His reasoning was basically just that it was "painful" talking to Capone and Vent was stepping it up from where he was pre-swap.

I'm trying to rebuild a bridge with Vent after not telling him anything about the vote (partially because he was the vote and partially because I wasn't around by the time the lines became clearer).

And Carmine... I just don't know what to do with him now because he's given me nothing since I told him that I was leaning to vote Vent.

If you want to know specific things I'm down to answer questions... though I'm pretty sure the merge is coming next which is going to be heeeellllll

But at least we still won the challenge, so I can finally relax a little bit after not getting home from work until 11:30 last night.

Also haven't PMed anybody in over 36 hours so should probably do that.

Kill me now