So, here is the Strike Team. "That is a pretty sweet Strike Team," you might say. WRONG.
Here are the existing major alliances as I understand them. Narcs are placed around the periphery to indicate dormant alliances with the members of the other tribe.
Lennie and I go way back to the 27th. The Good Old Boys reconnected right away and kept lines of communication up. Lennie is still kind of distant, but when the chips are down he sits up and engages hard. He's flexible and seeks to convince rather than bludgeon an ally. I was interested to see how things progressed after the merge.
Since the 27th, he'd fallen in with Poirot and Judy. Poirot is aware of how "bull in a China shop" Judy is, and has confided that he knows she'll become a liability before long. For now, though, P+J is a strong alliance, and Lennie was in tight with them. I went to lengths to engage and ingratiate myself with Poirot, who is clearly the brains of the pair, and was rewarded with promises to work together.
Meanwhile, my connections from the BAU matured...or deteriorated. Nick and Penelope both came into this tribe without a lot in the way of firm allies, and so I reached out to them and strengthened ties, building an alliance. We call ourselves the "Inglorious BAUsterds". There is also the stagnant proto-alliance between Lucifer/Grouch and Scruff/Peralta, but Luci kind of went silent and sullen, and in hindsight it looks like he was focusing more on his old 99th buddies, Poirot and Judy. Fair play.
When TC came about, the BAUsterds decided it was either Lucifer, who is a relatively weak, isolated player, or make a play for Judy. The three of us would have to flip one of Lennie and Lucifer, preferably both, and if possible secure the consent of Poirot. Well...I almost had it. Lucifer agreed, Lennie was receptive to my arguments, and Poirot acknowledged the validity of a move against Judy, though he declined to join it. Almost, right?
Nnnnnnnope. Guess what? Lucifer lied to our faces. Didn't even bother to hedge. Lennie was still debating Nick vs Judy with me when Judy bullrushed me with the facts - Luci had flipped, Lennie was on her side, and I had to make a choice. She dangled a pretty tempting carrot, too: Lucifer was expendable, but Judy/Poirot/Lennie and I had mutual friends. Leon and Grouch were waiting for us on the other side of the merge. Scruff too, but I'm not going to bicker about it.
So I gave it some thought. Having a strong, interlocking alliance of 6-7 at the merge would be impenetrable. One by one we could pick off Rust (who lacks allies to the point of not making the diagram), Pikachu, Penelope, Lucifer, and whatever returnee the mods throw at us. In contrast, the BAUsterds were looking pretty anemic.
So I made my choice. I would abandon the BAUsterds and join the winning coalition. I made overtures to Penelope pointing her towards the writing on the wall, and she picked up what I was putting down. She started to make efforts to distance herself from Nick, and for a few hours, it looked like this might be a unanimous vote.
Hahahahaha. Oh, Survivor gods. Thou art tricksy fuckers. Rot in hell I love you.
Judy, the vain twat, just had to rub Nick's nose in it. She TOLD HIM he was screwed. Then apparently Lennie doubled down. WHYYYY. Why would you do this? We had a good thing going!!
SURPRISE. NICK HAS AN IDOL. He still trusts Penelope and I, and wants to maintain the relationship, so he tells me he's using his idol...and wants to target Lennie. Because Lennie was a cold, distant dick to him. I KNEW it. Right from the start of the 27th, I KNEW Lennie's cagey, obviously-tactical play was going to be a problem. It's why Scruff and I backed off from him and the Good Old Boys alliance and founded the Wheelmen with Leon.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE. Nick has a +1 vote advantage! All this might have died with Nick if Judy had just kept her MOUTH SHUT. But noooooo.
STILL MORE!
We'd suspected that Poirot or Judy had the tiger idol. Guess what! Judy can't keep that secret in her pants either! So now everyone knows! Poirot clarified that Judy had figured it out with a series of lucky guesses, and they'd locked it in as soon as the results of the challenge were posted. Poirot beat her by seconds, so technically it's played for him BUT he's considering giving it up for her sake. AWESOME. For about ten seconds, it looked like I could tip Nick off and eliminate Judy after all, but now it's a question mark, essentially protecting both of them. Fine. Whatever. It expires. Judy's on my list - she's a liability as an ally.
So here's my dilemma, Spectators and Mods.
I have an idol too. I could play it to protect Lennie, thereby earning myself major loyalty points with the probable merge majority alliance. But I'm not an idol hound - this is probably the only one I'll have all game. It's not a strength of mine, and only luck got it for me. I don't want to waste it.
I could vote for someone else. Anyone, really, as long as they aren't idoled. Lucifer stands out. My (anonymous) vote against Nick's would flush the idols and throw us to a revote. I don't know how it would go. I'm probably seen as a social threat, so there's a chance my altruism goes against me, or an ally like Poirot or even Lennie. Especially if Nick's +1 vote gets thrown into the mix. I might have been able to rally Lennie to double our votes against Lucifer to mark time through this TC, but it's too close to deadline. That would alienate Nick and Penelope without eliminating either, and expose a lot of my gameplan. Not worth it.
And so I'm stuck with option three...Do. Nothing. Pretend I know nothing. Keep my vote on Nick (he's aware of it) to maintain my cover and plausible deniability. Keep playing both sides, and take my vengeance for Lennie when I can. Because here's the thing...strong allies into the merge ensure survival, but only to a point. Penelope, Nick, Lucifer, Judy, I don't think they're threats to win it all. Lennie
IS. He's a short-term critical ally, important mid-term ally, but long-term? He's a big old threat.
I'll let the attack fox take the fall for taking him out, and remain in the shadows.
Sometimes the biggest move you can make is reviewing your options, your tools, your allies, and deciding to just let things unfold.
So be it.
Topic: Strike Team (Read 387 times)
