Welcome to your confessional!

[Holly Short]

Oh my! Who do we have here? A new officer joining the ranks?

Well thank the fairy heavens for that! The last new recruit we had was Sherly and he’s still bumbling about thinking of himself as a consulting detective. Pff!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes!

Welcome! We’re excited to have you here.

This is your confessional, where you can post whatever you want. Your thoughts, your ideas, your deepest, darkest feelings! No evidence can be used against you here.

Please make a post in this thread to confirm that you’re still up for the task of joining the force. I wish you the best of luck!

[Lennie Briscoe]

Well I should write an opening confessional I guess. Hi, I'm Lennie Briscoe, big Survivor/BB fan, happy to be here.

Chat today started quickly with Scruff and Jake messaging immediately, I had to start the chats w/ my other tribemates (which isn't a big deal but worth noting). I guess I'll just go tribemate by tribemate:

Jake - wow, he came out of the gate hot. I'm just gonna quote his first PM, which was like 7 minutes after the game started:

Hahahahaha I'm completely unprepared for this game. They asked me to replace in yesterday.



Well yeah, obviously.



Well that seems apropos for Survivor.

Hi! How are you. I'm Jake. If you had to describe your Survivor-self in three adjectives, what would they be?

I'm not sure if he sent this exact one to everyone or what? I do suspect Scruff and I at a minimum got similar ones? I may dig into that some more but it's not a big deal. Honestly in a way it's a bit of a relief to just get to talking about the game and playstyles right away, and I think we clicked pretty well? I said I played kinda old school, treated the game as social (though I'll be frank, I'd like to play socially, dunno how good I am at it in this format), wanted to build early bonds, etc..

He agreed but talked about how like he doesn't like lying (SNOOOOORE) and how bad it is to backstab and blahblahblah. Whatever. He seems to be making a distinction between lying when it's "expected" versus not, but bleah, people who focus so much on what a horrible thing it is to lie are not my favorites (as a fan at least). For an ally, that's fine and a desirable trait too be honest and trustworthy but the emphasis on it unprompted is so weird, a bit of a red flag? But whatever, it's early and I would expect anyone saying that to at least stick with it early on. He sort of called back to that when talking about how Jake and Lennie the characters are standup guys, etc.. Again, whatever. I don't disagree, this is fine, I think we're good and can work together.

We eventually talked about the tribe, he said he likes Scruff and Leon, it's good that he's telling me positive things about specific people early so I'm down with that.

Scruff - So we exchanged a couple messages early and I missed a response for an hour or two? We caught back up though, I told him that I felt good about Jake after Jake had told me that he felt good about Scruff, I figured this would be a good way to connect with Scruff by being positive about someone he is likely to feel positive about himself. He responded pretty frankly that Jake had spoken positively about me to him, and I actually probably went a little too far in suggesting we align as a three. He seems receptive to it but talked about how Jake didn't want to make anything concrete just yet, which is fine, whatever. Scruff also is positive about Leon, he and Jake both seem pretty high on him. It wouldn't shock me if I'm looking at this as "oh me, Scruff, and Jake can pull in Leon" and they're looking at it like "we (Scruff and Jake and Leon) can pull in Lennie". we'll see.

Scruff was good to talk game with though, I definitely get a good vibe, and could see us working pretty closely though weirdly we didn't connect too deeply otherwise. I'm sure we'll get there though.

Hannah - chatted some, she'd mentioned tabletop gaming in the main thread and we got to talk a bit about that. I brought her name up to both Scruff and Jake as someone I felt good about and they both hadn't connected much with her, which isn't great. Apparently there'd been some snafu in communication with Jake on Hannah's part (didn't hit send or something), hopefully they're patching that up.

Ace - the first person I contacted after replying to Scruff and Jake. I dunno how well we've clicked, doesn't seem too chatty. I know he talked to Scruff and Jake and said he liked everyone he'd talked to, but neither of them had even mentioned him so they might have had the same experience I did.

Leon - big personality, coming out strong in the tribe thread, I get the impression I'm old enough to be this kid's dad, which itself isn't like a bad thing but I dunno how well we'll connect.

Paul - the last person I was able to connect with and we didn't exchange many messages, but I actually liked talking to him. Slow start but I could see this being a valuable connection.

[Scooby-Doo]

You can't solve this all by yourself, with out a raggy who would be your second in command?

[Lennie Briscoe]

You can't solve this all by yourself, with out a raggy who would be your second in command?

At this point, probably Scruff? I at a minimum know that Jake likes me but how he would rank me versus Scruff or Leon I don't know. Honestly that probably applies in reverse to Scruff too. I should probably talk more strategy with Hannah and Paul, thus far I've liked our conversations but they haven't really tuoched on the game, and if we stay safe for a round or two, those could be really useful relationships going into a swap.

[Heiji Hattori]

Welcome to the game, Lennie!

I saw you're a big Survivor/BB fan. Which player's style do you think you'd like to position yourself in this game? Or if there really isn't one player, do you have a strategy you have in mind in order to become the ultimate Survivor?

[Lennie Briscoe]

Welcome to the game, Lennie!

I saw you're a big Survivor/BB fan. Which player's style do you think you'd like to position yourself in this game? Or if there really isn't one player, do you have a strategy you have in mind in order to become the ultimate Survivor?

I'm sure this won't be anyone's favorite choice because the season left such a bad taste in people's mouths (for completely justified and understandable reasons), but Tommy Sheehan on Island of the Idols played a really great game (even if he's kind of a boring guy). He was able to be loyal when it made sense and switch things up when he needed to, he was well-liked without being targeted for it, had a bigger target in front of him in the form of Lauren. It really was the perfect old school social game. No bag of tricks, no immunity runs, just really good social and strategic Survivor play. And he managed to win from the position of being dragged to the end, which people had previously used for goats.

Now, I'm not saying I can pull that off, we'll see how it goes, but yeah that's how I'd like to do it ultimately if I can. I suspect that the players in this game are a lot more capable than Dean and Noura though, so I dunno if a Tommy game necessarily fits into this game.

[Heiji Hattori]

Now that you've gotten a bit into the game, how do you feel about your other tribemates, both on a social and the challenge game? Do you see yourself making strong alliances at this stage? If so, what characteristics in an ally are you looking for?

[Lennie Briscoe]

Now that you've gotten a bit into the game, how do you feel about your other tribemates, both on a social and the challenge game? Do you see yourself making strong alliances at this stage? If so, what characteristics in an ally are you looking for?

So socially my feelings are mostly the same as my previous confessional with one change being that Leon and I got to connect over music, which was good. I was like "uh Doja Cat kinda got canceled..." so maybe that wasn't great but I think the conversation was positive because I'm not sure anyone else listens to rap so it was a unique point of connection. Basically, I feel the best about Scruff, feel good about Jake, feel decent about Hannah and Paul and Leon, and Ace is tough to connect with but I'm still trying not to let that fall by the wayside even if he'd probably be the easiest (and my preferred) boot if we went to TC.

One of my flaws is that I do think "okay let's connect socially" to start and I'm bad about knowing when to transition that into game talk, I'm hoping to improve upon that. I still need to broach game talk with Hannah, Paul, and Leon so that this is more than just chatting about interests.

As far as the challenge goes, honestly, I was probably the worst performer? I was thinking "oh, we'll get together at noon, get a gameplan, and start" but basically the challenge had started when I logged on, so I was playing from behind and just trying to contribute what I could when there was uncertainty. I imagine that didn't escape people's notice, but also I don't think it's such a detriment that it puts me in danger. The feeling I get at least from Scruff and Jake is that they are, like me, more focused on getting a group together early, not obsessed with challenge performance or anything like that. As mentioned above, I need to work on getting a better idea of other people's thoughts on the game.

Re: what I'm looking for in an ally, my ideal is someone that I can just speak candidly with and especially voice little things where it's understood that I might bring up "oh it's interesting that X did Y" as something worth noting but isn't necessarily damning. An example would be that I brought up Jake's form letter first PM to Scruff, and I think he basically sent the same thing to everyone? We both agreed that even if that wasn't the greatest start, we both genuinely felt good about Jake from the conversation that resulted so it's not a big deal.

One note on Jake, I think he's pretty out in front here in this tribe. I think he's going to be seen as a big social threat in the medium to long term. That doesn't make him a bad ally (on the contrary, it's a good thing, he'll be a good shield), but I wonder if he's aware of that. Scruff strikes me as a lot closer to my style of gameplay, and it's arguably a flaw of mine that I'm very inclined to ally closely with people who are like me in the game, but it's a very comfortable relationship and I'm glad to have it. When I say it's a flaw, I think ideally you should be able to work with anyone, just be adaptable in any situation, but I can't lie and say I'm not drawn to specific types (and, inversely, less likely to play with other types).

I think I kind of went all over the place in this response/confessional, sorry about that.

[Heiji Hattori]

Not at all, since there is a great deal that us spectators can't see, the more you talk and more you specific you get, the better it is for us. In addition, this could benefit you as well since we are neutral innocent bystanders that you can use as a sounding board. By sharing your thoughts, maybe it can help clarify any ambiguity or crystallize a strategy you may want to implement.

In your previous post, you mentioned that you felt that Jake was strongarming the tribe personality-wise. What made you perceive him as a big social threat? You said that this is a boon to you that you can act as a shield behind, but what do you think his impression of you is? Is this meat shield someone you would want as an ally long-term or are you willing to part ways sooner rather than later?

In addition, you mentioned that you had a flaw in which you may not know the best transition into game talk. In previous iterations, what were the mistakes you made? Have you seen you have made any corrections in this cycle? If not, do you think the tempo of the game may play into a factor and your mood?

[Lennie Briscoe]

In your previous post, you mentioned that you felt that Jake was strongarming the tribe personality-wise. What made you perceive him as a big social threat? You said that this is a boon to you that you can act as a shield behind, but what do you think his impression of you is? Is this meat shield someone you would want as an ally long-term or are you willing to part ways sooner rather than later?

So I definitely wouldn't use the word "strongarming", if that's how it came across then I should rephrase. I think everyone likes Jake, and I suspect that everyone talks to Jake more often and more deeply than they do to most people. His form letter opening PM may have been a little corny/hamfisted, but I think it did get conversations going into game mode almost immediately so that while the rest of us are feeling out "hey what do you do for fun", he's already talking about approaches to Survivor. So that's great for him, I think everyone feels good about their relationship with him, but I think he's also doing this in a way where like, I think it's obvious to us all that the others have similar positive feelings? In a long-term sense I'm not sure how he can shake that perception. I'm gonna be curious to see how he's perceived when we swap.

Now, as to how does Jake see me? I'm not really 100% sure. It'd be nice if he did see me and Scruff as a trio with him. I think that's the case but I could see him being happy with Leon or even Paul maybe in there instead of me? Who knows? It's not super important, I might not be at the core of the onion but I'm a layer somewhere, and I don't think the outermost.

I could see him going deep, I'd be fine going deep with him, I doubt that I'd be cutting him anytime soon.

In addition, you mentioned that you had a flaw in which you may not know the best transition into game talk. In previous iterations, what were the mistakes you made? Have you seen you have made any corrections in this cycle? If not, do you think the tempo of the game may play into a factor and your mood?

In my last game I think people saw me as cagey because I wasn't talking as immediately or openly about game (also just in some circumstances, I was genuinely clueless and people mistook that for caginess). Anyway, I broached game talk with Paul and Leon, got responses, like everyone basically says the same thing, Jake and Scruff are cool, Paul/Leon seem okay too, Hannah hasn't connected as much, and nobody really connects with Ace. If we were to go to TC, I think Ace would be the likely target.

[Heiji Hattori]

That was a close call and unfortunate miss in the challenge. What's your game plan for this tribal?

[Lennie Briscoe]

That was a close call and unfortunate miss in the challenge. What's your game plan for this tribal?

So things have been weirdly quiet since the challenge results came out. I don't know if that's because people have been busy, or because we just have a bunch of conflicting schedules, or what. Honestly it'd make me feel much more nervous if I hadn't largely confirmed even before the challenge results that most people don't feel great about Ace (not disliking, just finding it difficult to connect). I was having dinner with my mom this evening prior to challenge results and then had a trivia competition from 9 to 11 so I wasn't in a great position to reach out to people but also I barely heard from anyone.

Shout out to Paul (yes I realize giving shoutouts in confessional is counterintuitive/pointless) who honestly did allay my fears by reaching out and just confirming "okay we're probably on Ace, right?" just after trivia ended.

I will say, I was arguably the worst performer in the challenge, as I said previously, and while my instinct is that this isn't the case, it's entirely possible that they've been like "Wow what a shithead Lennie was showing up last minute and barely participating" behind my back. You never really know in games like this.

That said, I don't think that's the case though, I feel like I've connected really well with Scruff and he said that Jake was really ranting about being frustrated with Ace even prior to the challenge results, to the point that I think Scruff was hinting that Jake might have wanted to throw a challenge before we swap to get him out?

I will also say, the fact that we seem to be so inactive collectively following the challenge results, and we lost the challenge, I'm having a moment of like "wait... are we the fuckup tribe?" Like I'm looking at the active users list, I'm the only one on from the tribe going to TC and there's like 2-3 people from each of the other tribes.

[Lennie Briscoe]

Oh one thing to mention, I told Scruff he's my #1 prior to challenge results, which is true, and I dunno if he exactly said it back but his response made me feel good about our relationship.

It's so frustrating having such a different schedule than other people (I'm on the East Coast but very much a night owl), because I'm going "oh, I'm not hearing anything, is it me?" when like, nobody from the tribe has logged on from what I've seen in a while (except Hannah, I fuckin see you not responding, but multiple people have complained about her being quiet so that's probably not an issue?).

[Heiji Hattori]

But hey, you survived the tribal. Congratulations! Do you want to give us a wrap up on episode 1 and your ending thoughts on the tribal council? Did anything happen behind the scenes that made you feel safe or grew worried?

[Lennie Briscoe]

But hey, you survived the tribal. Congratulations! Do you want to give us a wrap up on episode 1 and your ending thoughts on the tribal council? Did anything happen behind the scenes that made you feel safe or grew worried?

Honestly, I don't even know what Ace was doing. I dunno if he was busy (he probably would have mentioned it) or not in the right headspace (more likely?). I think a bunch of people had similar experiences where it was just very difficult to get much of a conversation going. I actually semi-joked about Ace being a mod plant where like if you decoded his weirdly terse PMs, you'd get an idol or something.

One interesting tidbit is that Jake was worried about suggesting Ace to me because apparently he and Ace went back and forth talking who to vote out and I was one of the first names Ace said as someone he didn't want to vote out. On the face of it, one could say it's a mistake to get out someone who valued you, but like, I didn't know that because he didn't tell me and we didn't really have a great connection where I could read that? It was probably because I messaged early and I at least kept trying in the conversation.

The lack of communication across the tribe broadly was a bit of a concern as I mentioned, but today I felt pretty secure. There was a moment where I had said "well it's probably going to be Ace" to Hannah and she was like "okay, I trust you, because Scruff said he likes you and I trust him" and I thought that was both weird and annoying? Like for one thing, shouldn't you feel good about me because you like me? Also shit girl, everyone on the tribe was saying they weren't sure about you early on and I was like "No Hannah's cool" to Scruff and Jake and then they came around. To be clear, I know that's not all my doing, they would have put in some work to keep talking to her either way but I do think I primed them to be more receptive. I actually mentioned this (and my feelings on it) to Scruff because we were talking about "well does anyone know how close we are" and I gave that as a potential example. That might have been a mistake? I dunno.

Oh also I'm relatively new to this community and ORGs in general but I always think it's weird that people refer to "episodes". I guess it makes sense because otherwise you'd need to use a different word but it's just this weird vestigial aspect of a game that started as a TV show and is completely divorced from the TV format.