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.