Welcome to your confessional!

[Lennie Briscoe]

Hahahahaha life is complete and utter shit

Anyway, if I had to guess, Chase is gonna be going, we'll see how things shake out but our alliance seems relatively set on it.

Poirot, because he's the fuckin best, brought to me that Leon told him that he's closer to Scruff and Jake than he is to me, and that he wants to make a four with Leon, Scruff, Jake, and Poirot. So fucking much for Leon and I being in a tight two, huh? I mean, I could have worked harder at reinforcing that, I'll admit, but yeah, ugh. This probably isn't something to address right now but I'm really glad Poirot brought it to me, and I sort of brain-dumped at him about what happened on the original 27th tribe and specifically my thoughts on both Jake and Scruff. There's definitely nobody I'm closer to in this game, and what I said still stands that I suspect at some point if we were to get down to it, one of us would probably take out the other if we saw the other as an impediment to winning, but that's basically the story of every alliance, right? Making it there is going to be tough so there's no reason to think too hard about it for now.

[Lennie Briscoe]

I should probably write a confessional since we swapped.

Poirot: Happy he's here, he's still the best ally I could ask for, but we're in a tight spot.

Judy: Still good, I think she might be in danger if we go to TC.

Nick: Just didn't get a lot of time to exchange messages, we'll follow up tomorrow.

Penelope: Seems sweet, enthusiastic (by which i mean every sentence in her first PM ended in an exclamation point), but kind of doesn't have a lot to talk about? Thankfully we got to talk about board games some and I brought up cooking so maybe there's something there.

Lucifer: Seems kind of cold? Like I just got off a tribe that went to four straight TCs and you're not asking at all how it went just "yeah, that's rough"? I dunno, the preliminary vibe I get is that I don't possibly figure into whatever his plans are, which isn't great.

Jake: Ugh it's frustrating because he honestly gave me a LOT on what went down on the other tribe, especially considering that they never went to TC so it'd be pretty easy to handwave things. But he also basically laid it out as "hey I can keep you safe with the former BAU members" with the implicit "so we can vote out a former SVU/99th". He also said Lucifer thinks that Poirot and Judy are like, super close, which is not an accurate read imho, but also not wholly inaccurate in that the3y worked together on the last tribe and we're in a group chat. I actually asked him straight-up if he's just dead set on it being one of them going if we go to TC, we'll see what his answer is.

Honestly I kinda don't like working with Jake. I feel like he's playing so goddamn hard and so out in front and it's so dumb, he's never going to be able to hide after the merge and it feels so frustrating to be in a position where I have a bad feeling that people I like and think are better players than him are going to get cut down because of circumstances just so he can flame out like a dumbass. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe he can make it all the way, but it seems incredibly unlikely to me.

[Lennie Briscoe]

So after I wrote this confessional, Penelope got back to me again and started talking game, which was positive. She sounded like she didn't get along the best with Lucifer, which could the the way in for our former SVU folks.

Jake also responded to me asking if he was set on an SVU going and he said no but he didn't want to betray people blahblahblah. I said hey, that's great, that's all I wanted to hear, let's work on this. here's his response:

Yeah, I agree. I understand that the SVU was hell, but the BAU felt a bit like Purgatory. A lot of hurry up and wait...form an alliance, make a plan, barely win the challenge and then have to retire the plan. I'm not comparing that to your experience, but it made for a very weird (and untested) dynamic. God help me I like everyone on that tribe. I'm prepared to default on some of those relationships, but it will be difficult for the ethical rules I've set for myself this game. Not impossible, though.

to be clear, the first half of this message is totally fine. but "God help me I like everyone on that tribe" yeesh like fucking go from 9 to 5 and get the fuck back to me about making tough choices

[Lennie Briscoe]

So Jake, Penelope, and I won our codenames game, which was really good. It's a weird feeling winning when you've lost so many times.

Feelings on folks:

Poirot: Still the best. He, Judy, and I are collaborating on this Tiger idol challenge, and I think we can guarantee that we get it if we're all on and working when we get our additional clues.

Judy: It's funny, I'd just made a joking comment to Poirot that I'd recommended death metal to Judy, but she shortly thereafter asked for more recommendations. We'll get her listening to Putrid Pile in no time.

Penelope: She's the new person I'd say I have the best connection with, I like her and she's willing to talk game (and I kind of get the impression a lot of people on the last tribe didn't do that with her, which is even better). I got the impression she'd like to go for Lucifer, which would be fine by me, and I think Poirot got the same impression.

Jake: Honestly there's nothing to update here since earlier, he was super super busy today I think. He and Poirot I think feel very good about each other, but Poirot knows enough that we'll need to be wary of him if/once we hit merge.

Lucifer: We've chatted, it's not awful, but I wouldn't be surprised if his name were floated seriously if we were to go to TC. We haven't really talked game at all, but it'd probably be a good idea to do that just to cover all the bases.

Nick: Honestly we've just exchanged so few messages. Tomorrow I want to try to message him first just so we can get some sort of back and forth going. It's mostly a schedule thing I think.

[Lennie Briscoe]

Hey, I'm not on the shitty challenge tribe anymore!

So in our group chat with Poirot, Judy was like, way overstrategizing. I honestly didn't follow all of what she was saying, but it seemed to involve a) revealing info she probably shouldn't have to people who shouldn't know she has it and b) trying to distance from me and Poirot making it sound like we have stronger bonds on the other tribe? We're not even going to TC, for chrissakes. It seemed like a lot and I sort of worry that she already spilled too much. She talked in the past tense about telling Nick that she knew Lucifer was talking about her, which she knew from Jake telling me and me telling her, so uhhh I don't like being in that chain. This is messy and could be a problem.

My feelings on the tribe haven't changed much but my relationship with Nick is still by far the weakest. This one PM a day thing has to end, and while maybe I'm doing a shitty job at offering points to connect on, like, I'm PM'ing at a time when he has plenty of time to respond and I still don't get a response until the next morning.

[Lennie Briscoe]

It was so nice having a day off without going to TC, god.

Brief summary of pre-challenge interactions:

Hercule: still the best

Judy: She apparently found the culprit for the immunity idol thing and shared it with me and Hercule, we've got a plan locked in if we go to TC.

Penelope: not much today but I still feel goood

Lucifer: honestly, liking this guy more as we talk. Talking about the other tribe's dynamics was weirdly positive, I definitely felt like we at least have kind of a similar view of tribe dynamics

Jake: in contrast to Lucifer, we talked about the other tribe and honestly he just talks himself into these crazy scenarios. He kept trying to talk about how maybe it wouldn't be Quentin going even though that was the easy boot. yet another red flag. to be clear, Jake is still a closer ally than Lucifer but we really don't look at the game the same way.

Penelope: she's great, big fan, want to ally with her, if we go to TC I'm hoping me, Poirot, and Judy can get her on board for booting one of the other three. Which probably would be Lucifer unfortunately given my positive comments up above but such is life.

Nick: We finally talked game but he still doesn't send me more than one PM a day, is he on fucking rations? Fuck me, like I realize our schedules don't line up great but either he's just ignoring the site in the evening or the morning or both, he seems to message at like 1pm his time or whatever and I reply at 6pm his time and he can't find it in him to get back to me until 1pm the next day? Like dude I am available for many hours after that, I would happily reply, this isn't the goddamn Civil War where it's like "Dearest Nick, I hope this message finds you well". Maybe I should lead off with that next time.

Anyway, so we got the 20 questions challenge and oh man Judy was kind of trying my last nerve. I think that's just her nature in talking through this stuff but it was really frustrating. She seemed fixated on the fact that a number of Australian logos were in the logo challenge, which is true, and it wouldn't shock me if one of these questions were Australian-centric, but like, we're still looking for 50/50s. She thought "west of the Urals, east of the Pacific Ocean" was a 50/50 question for "Famous people", are you kidding me? It was very frustrating.

Also, apologies for how profane I am in confessionals late at night (and maybe generally), I hope that doesn't rub people the wrong way.

[Lennie Briscoe]

We won the challenge handily, which was nice. That last one was tough but thankfully the other team had just as much trouble and we were up on them in every other category.

Nick finally replied to me a little before the challenge ended, and honestly it was not a bad message. It was pretty long, talked about the tribe, I think he was trying to seem open to a Lucifer boot but also maybe priming me for the potential for a Judy boot? It was still good to hear game talk from him. He said he felt good about me, I guess that's good. Honestly that's maybe as much Poirot priming both of us to feel good about each other? Which to be clear, isn't an issue if that's the case, part of the point of allies is to help each other facilitate bonds.

Jake also messaged me, he was busy this weekend with some family retreat, but he did suggest bringing Poirot into the fold with the Good Old Boys, which is what he called the alliance of me, him, and Scruff. I told Poirot, and Poirot said he felt like Jake was hinting at Jake, Poirot, me, Scruff, and Leon working together post-merge, which would be fine but we'll need to keep an eye on our positioning, as Jake, Scruff, and Leon are probably closer to each other than us.

So after the challenge, a new opportunity for a clue went up, and Poirot messaged the group chat with me and Judy half an hour later saying how to find it. About 20 minutes after that, Jake messaged me saying Penelope told him about this same thing, and then told me that he tried it and there were no more clues available. I sort of wonder if Poirot heard about this from Penelope because he didn't mention that. It's also worth noting that Penelope messaged Jake (and maybe Poirot) about this and not me, which tells me I'm maybe not as close to her as I'd like to think. A part of me wonders if she's trying to ally closely with Jake and Poirot.

There's always a concern in this game that other people are closer to each other than they are to you, But at the same time, that's not necessarily the worst position to be in, if other people see what you see, those bigger threats and tighter bonds will get cut before you.

Anyway, I'm not sure I can sit next to Jake or Poirot at the end and win (I think Jake is gonna go well before that, Poirot I dunno), and really, Penelope may have been laying low early on and while I thought initially when I met her that other people felt worse about her than I did, Nick did comment in his message that she's been different/better on this tribe than she was on the previous ones. Anyway all of this is to say that I should be thinking about who I can sit next to at the end and win against and who needs to go post-merge, assuming I make it there. There are some big threats in this game, some I haven't even met, like Grouch and Pikachu. I might actually need Judy long-term as someone I could potentially beat at the end?

[Lennie Briscoe]

This challenge seems potentially crapshooty (here's how you can tell: if I do poorly, it's a crapshoot, if I do well it's actually a well constructed challenge and kudos to the mods), so we'll see how the team does. Judy actually broached the subject of throwing to keep Leon safe, which is insane to me, but whatever.

I haven't heard from Nick since literally before the last challenge ended, haven't heard from Jake since late Saturday night, despite him posting publicly yesterday "I'm back from my family thing and going to PM everyone" or w/e. Like dude, why? Why even bother bullshitting?

Also, Nick and Jake show up all the time in the online users list despite this? I don't think that's intrinsically damning but it's very frustrating.

[Lennie Briscoe]

So we got absolutely trounced in the challenge. I'll admit, I suspect I'd prefer different scoring in this challenge (e.g. it should be absolute value, which I think it isn't), but we might have lost regardless. I was kind of blown away at some of the scores on the other tribe.

Anyway, so it's on to TC. We come out the gate and Poirot, Judy, and I have already agreed on Nick as our best target, so honestly I'm saying Nick's name to everyone but Nick. He did get back to me before the challenge results were posted, and I feel bad because it sounds like he has some serious stuff ongoing irl, but like god, there's just not enough? 2 full days without a message is just a tough thing to work with, and it's not like that was an anomaly. His messages were good otherwise but how much trust can I put in that? I'm pretty sure he was messaging other people during that time but not me. Anyway, I'm sure that the fact that I threw his name out got back to him, but c'est la vie.

Jake was going hard trying to sell Judy as the "smart" boot, but his arguments don't really make sense. I think what he's not saying is that Nick is a much closer ally for him than for others, so it makes little sense for him to get rid of Nick, but he won't just say that, it's all these dumb arguments about how the former 99th will come together postmerge (which isn't an argument over Lucifer and isn't an argument over the 12th doing the same thing). His point about separating Judy and Poirot is more valid, but it's too early, at least for me. I made the points (which I really believe) that a) they're not as close as he thinks and b) they'll be an easy visible post-merge target.

Meanwhile, Lucifer I think is super cagey and paranoid, I threw out Nick's name to him early and he wasn't really committing, I think he was afraid that I was just trying to get him to agree and throw him under the bus, which wasn't my aim but I can understand the concern. It wasn't until Judy talked to him and I think made him think I was actually receptive to the Nick vote that he reached out again. I told him, hey, I was being straight up when I threw that name out, I'm not playing some 4d chess game here. We're cool, I don't want to vote you out. I should really work more tomorrow on building on that for the post-merge.

Judy also sent Jake what he described as a "forceful" message (which made me laugh), arguing that they have so many mutual friends, him targeting her is just making life harder for the both of them, which really is a good argument. Anyway long story short, Jake came around with Judy's and my arguments (and also I think realizing that the vote was there whether he was on board or not, flashbacks to the Hannah boot).

This probably alienates Penelope a bit, which is a shame, because I would be happy to go far with her, and I'm not quite sure how to mend this relationship.

If everything stays where I expect it will, I think both Judy and I deserve a lot of credit here, probably Judy more than me. That won't stop me from taking partial credit at FTC though, lol

Right now, it looks like Nick is going. I think a lot of us are expecting a merge following this boot, but honestly I could see us doing another round before merging, getting down to 10, with a battleback to bring the merge number back to 11.

[Scully and Hitchcock]

HITCHCOCK: Thank you so much for saving Mable.
SCULLY: Mable is what he calls his favorite toilet seat.  Thank you so much for rescuing Gloria.
HITCHCOCK: Gloria is Scully's girl.  And by girl I mean toilet seat.  She's in the stall right next door to Mable.
SCULLY: Anyway, sorry you haven't seen us lately.  We've been getting... reacquainted.
HITCHCOCK: We're here now though!  So can you please catch us up on your game so far?  Give us the full debriefing!
SCULLY: Well, maybe not the full debriefing.  Maybe just a few sentences.
HITCHCOCK: Three sentences or less, please!

[Lennie Briscoe]

Things are looking good going into a possible merge with Poirot and Judy as one alliance and the original 27th (me, Jake, Scruff, Leon) as another. I think I'll be able to navigate the first few rounds without too much trouble if my alliances stay true. Hopefully my allies will end up being bigger targets than I am so I can make it to the end.

[Lennie Briscoe]

Phew, so this has been quite a merge so far.

Going into this, Jake and I were hoping we could bring the 27th and 99th together early on, but Grouch was completely left out of the Cheddar vote, and Scruff hasn't talked to him in days.

I guess I'll just go through the new folks for now since it's late:

Grouch: I like Grouch a lot just from our limited interactions and knowing that Poirot is positive about him, but it seems obvious very early on that he's going to be a target.

Rust and Pikachu: Honestly had kind of similar interactions with both. Connected decently well all things considered, given that we haven't met until the merge. Talked about our respective votes, they seemed understanding about the Nick vote.

Scruff: it was great to reconnect with him but a real bummer that he sees Grouch as such a huge threat. And I mean, that's not wrong, Grouch is a "threat" in the sense of seeming like a capable social player based on interactions and third party opinions on him, but I see Scruff, Grouch, Poirot, and I as being cut out of the same cloth to a certain extent, and we really need to keep threats like each other around.

Still need to hear from Leon, I feel like his take on things could be very useful. Rust said that Leon was positive about me, which was good to hear. I still think I'm beneath several others in his list of priorities, but it's good to know that I'm at least someone he'll be positive about.

[Lennie Briscoe]

Also how the fuck am I the first person to make a "time is a flat circle" joke to Rust? Christ almighty

[Lennie Briscoe]

Rust: Actually we get along pretty well? We've talked TV, and he asked me for any tips on Poirot and Judy, and I told him to mention Agatha Christie, etc. for Poirot, which seems to have helped, and similarly Poirot and I roughly told him that Judy's a straight shooter, etc..

Pikachu: I said previously things were about the same with Rust and Pikachu and at this point I'd say that's not the case at all. Like it's as much on me as on him, but I get the impression that he has little use for me in the game going forward. We talked about how oh it's not original tribes, we build bonds as we go on, and he explicitly was like "yeah you build bonds with people you've spent time with, versus us who just met at the merge". Like is it even reading between the lines to say that he couldn't give less of a shit about whether I want to work with him?

Grouch: Things got a little clunkier but I still feel decent, but also he's guaranteed to be targeted this round and it could be tough/impossible to save him. I've been trying to mend whatever differences there are between him and Leon/Scruff, and he ostensibly seems receptive but who knows, and it's probably futile anyway.

Leon: he thinks Grouch hates him, which I don't think is true, and he was feeling me out for whether Judy/Poirot/I would be bothered if he were voting Grouch this round. I tried to reassure him that it's not that bad but also that if that's the way the vote goes then I don't think there are any hard feelings.

Poirot: still the best, we talked about rust/pikachu/grouch, we realize it's an uphill battle. I had suggested Penelope's name last night as an alternate vote, just spitballing, he thinks that doesn't make sense and I think he's right. Honestly if we weren't so close I'd be concerned that that kind of thing would be leaked, but I still feel good.

Judy: We talked a bit about her perception as gamebot and I said I hate that word/concept (which I do, I think it's dumb lazy shorthand for bad social play but the phrasing just demonizes strategic play and they're two completely different things). I tipped her off (Poirot too) to the fact that Leon was concerned about their reaction if he were to vote Grouch at TC so we can manage that relationship. She said she likes Rust more than Pikachu, and actually compared Rust to me in terms of interactions, which I can sort of see?

Scruff: tried to encourage mending fences with Grouch but I think I'm probably shouting into the void. Even if that happens, who would his target be? Probably Penelope or Lucifer?

Lucifer: just talked about how we see the tribe, and the dynamics on the former Narcotics Unit

Jake: honestly this cycle is definitely going to hinge on his take on things and he hasn't messaged me since before the merge (which I think goes for everyone, so I don't mean to sound paranoid).


Honestly I'd love to see Pikachu go, by far the person with the least interest in working with me, we'll see how the challenge shakes out.

[Lennie Briscoe]

lmao nope it was just me Jake wasn't messaging! Thanks buddy! Thanks great ally, so glad we could talk this stuff through! Love to go 48+ hours without a message from a close ally at the beginning of the merge.

Jake is so frustrating to work with, like I don't think he's dumb but he makes arguments that don't make sense, and I don't know if he believes them himself or he thinks they'll convince other people? And also he'll raise "concerns" without actually saying how this should alter our course of action, and you get the impression he has a very clear idea of how he wants things to go but he's hemming and hawing and dancing around and won't come the fuck out and say it.