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[M. Gustave]

@brendan: it's all too possible that people could flip. i know duke is down for rocks because he brought it up to me before i could suggest it to him, but the jury is out on royal and margot... margot is immune so she wouldn't even be at risk, but idk if she sees her chances as being better with one of {not writer/madame} gone than with madame gone.

there's also the chance that instead, a madame voter flips onto writer. this wouldn't suck too much but i don't expect it to happen.

[M. Gustave]

amazing pagetop. also, i hope that whatever spectators are around are having some popcorn and enjoy watching me lose my mind!

[M. Gustave]

all sorts of developments! the short story is that i no longer want rocks, and instead just want writer out followed by richie.

this split was entirely orchestrated by richie, for richie. he gets to keep writer, who is loyal only to him, while sowing distrust among everybody else. it only failed because royal voted writer instead of me/herman. but now, having tied and given us a chance to talk, we've been able to piece together what happened. richie claimed margot wanted suzy gone, which brought suzy on board. and herman was loyal to richie/writer already, so oracle joined to avoid alienating both of them. does that excuse them leaving me and duke out of it? not entirely, but they both do seem legitimately sorry and so i've forgiven them.

so richie is seriously frickin' good at this game. i knew he was good, but i didn't know he was that good. but now everyone sees it, and has him high on their lists. current plan is to form a four of me/oracle/duke/suzy, get rid of richie / herman next time, and then run things from there. can i necessarily beat oracle or suzy? no, but i'll try my best if i make ftc and losing to either of them (or duke) wouldn't break my heart. oracle and suzy are both seemingly down to flip and take out writer.

[M. Gustave]

phew, so success was had. now just the small matter of not having the next two votes go horribly.

[Captain Sharp]

ideal next 2 votes?

[M. Gustave]

ok, looking at the teams for the challenge, i'm mainly thinking "don't let the live-action team win." maybe madame will throw her section? that would help, but i don't know if she'd be super down to do that and asking her to throw feels icky and possibly against the rules to not discuss the challenge, so i won't.

considering that me, suzy, and royal are some of the weaker challenge performers in this game, i don't expect to be immune, but i hope that margot, oracle, and duke can go beast mode to compensate. if richie and herman were to be immune, that would be pretty awful because that increases the odds that my four is targeted by a ton.

pedit: if i were to just select two players to smite from existence no questions asked, they would be richie and margot. they're both people i can't beat ever, and i don't trust them to vote with me for even the near future. i think richie will be gettable this time if he isn't immune, but margot may be trickier - depends on where herman really is at. he's such an enigma, and if there weren't so many players harder to beat than him still around i wouldn't mind getting rid of him so everyone left is somebody that i understand.

[M. Gustave]

"Confessional Prompt 21: How does the outcome of this past vote transform the game?"

well, writer being gone removes a richie loyalist and a challenge threat. it also has caused all sorts of confusion to the point that i'm tight with duke and oracle but most people don't realize this. richie is strong but everyone sees him as a threat now; margot and madame are seen as dangerous as well. royal has ties with them but knows he can't beat them, and the same with me/duke/herman vs oracle and perhaps suzy. i think my win condition is to reach final 3 with two of herman, royal, and duke. if margot, madame, or richie make the end i'm not beating them ever and i'll be sad i couldn't stop them. if suzy or oracle get to the end then my work will be cut out for me but i won't be too upset, because they have been great allies pretty much the whole game, and in particular during the merge.

[M. Gustave]

"Confessional Prompt 22: Was the challenge team you landed in awkward, or rife with potential? Will the group chat stay active after this?"

the challenge team wasn't bad at all! i like suzy a lot, and royal is someone i could see myself working with in the not-so-distant future. how the other two feel about each other is more fuzzy, so i'm not sure if the group chat will be used, but i intend to use both of those relationships no matter what.

as for this vote, margot is immune (again) so my main considerations are whether to vote richie or madame. both are good players, i like talking to them, and both could have an idol. i also lose to both of them, so picking which to vote is complicated. i think that, if i were in madame's place, to get killed by someone who just saved you would feel extremely bad; i'd rather avoid that, both for jury vote reasons and because i don't want to be an asshole. she will have to go before long, but i don't want it to be this round.

[M. Gustave]

pet plan that i've come up with for this vote: make it seem like richie's the target, by 'accidentally' letting the wrong person know, and then actually vote out royal. if richie has an idol, he probably plays it; if not, nothing really lost because there's not really any trust between us anyway. and royal is definitely not being honest with me, because he's acting like he voted writer in the revote when he clearly didn't.

if it works, i could actually maybe take credit for doing something in this game, which is nice because so far i haven't done much. the downside is we'd be taking out royal, who isn't a huge threat compared to the other options, but he's clearly got more going on than i had realized before, and everyone fears the idol. of course it's been not even a day since i said he's someone i could beat at the end, but if i can actually get a resume i might not be forced to face off with just the lower-tier people to have a chance.

[M. Gustave]

current plan is an adaptation of my pet plan. the vote will, afaik, be on herman with richie and royal voting elsewhere and richie hopefully playing his idol. royal has been told that it's richie, and i'm pretty sure he's where richie gets all of his information. why herman instead of royal? answer: madame really wants herman out. as such i'm good to let her lead the charge to lower my own profile. like royal, herman would be beatable, but i don't control his vote and perhaps i should aim a little higher than aiming for such a meh ftc.

next round though has to be a big-name threat, though. richie, margot, madame - all must go. especially margot "challenge god" tenenbaum. if she has an idol, we'll need to take every opportunity to gank her that we can.

[M. Gustave]

strike what i said about voting herman, the more i think about it the more stupid it seems. suzy has suggested madame, and i'm down for it. then our 5 can run the rest of the game, and herman can't even meaningfully flip on us unless he really just wants to rock and roll. this weakens margot and can still flush an idol from richie if he has one.

[M. Gustave]

FUCK

SUZY LEAKED EVERYTHING

[M. Gustave]

so basically, me duke and oracle are tremendously dead. like, incredibly. credit to suzy for making a great play, i didn't expect it at all and i don't think the others did either. i'm now cut out from basically everyone and talking to people will feel very awkward. this will still be my highest ever placement, and i can live with going out this way. i felt like i was a factor in this game rather than just making up numbers, which is better than my previous tries. i don't know who's going tonight but there's a good chance it's me or oracle.

[M. Gustave]

"Confessional Prompt 23: We're down to F8 now. With end game in sight, what is your current primary concern?"

short answer: not dying
longer answer: finding out why suzy comes to me asking "want to do madame?" then decides to tell everyone that we're going after madame. like what? was this some kind of trap? at least the idol's gone now. any dream of having an easy majority is shattered, but if i can just keep making it one more vote, who knows what will happen?

[M. Gustave]

now things are getting really confusing. suzy says she didn't leak info. i'd believe it, because this whole mess doesn't really benefit her from what i can tell and just makes no sense for her to do. but then how did royal and richie know shit? granted i may have accidentally tipped richie off (that'll teach me to respond to messages instead of just ghosting people...), but it's still weird that they knew exactly who we were going for... i don't see this benefiting either duke or oracle, and obviously it didn't help herman. so wtf, are there some psychic powers afoot or just a good guess?

[M. Gustave]

yeah, great. the more i think about it the only thing that makes sense is that i accidentally my entire alliance. fuck me.

[M. Gustave]

absolutely dying of embarrassment. cannot bear to open richie's pms rn. that will wait until tomorrow when hopefully the shame will be less burning. so much fun, i've successfully created my worst fear: making a fool of myself in front of my peers. ughhh

[Wes Anderson]

Can you fill us in on what went down near the end of the vote, and why you’re feeling shame?

[M. Gustave]

the simple version: i was talking to richie about how i promise that i was thinking through my options, and i'd let him know if it was likely to be him. i then told him with about 40 minutes left that it was him, which he instantly saw through, thus shooting the plan to vote madame into bits. i feel less bad about it now, having slept on it, but still a big misplay. by the end of the game i'm sure i'll be able to laugh about it, but not just yet.

[M. Gustave]

mercifully, nobody is publicly ridiculing me. even madame has been super chill, considering i tried to get her out. things are never as bad as my brain tells me they'll be, i just wish i could control my fears better.

oracle is, at least to me, sticking by me, and suzy feels worse than i do. duke said he was... not happy with me, but was willing to move on. hopefully that's real. but oh, that final tribal. rehashing this misplay again for the jury will be... annoying. but that's a bridge to cross if i get there, not now.

i found 10 letters in the maze, and made an 8-letter submission that i know works. i doubt my 9-letter one counts, but we'll see. if somebody made a 10 letter word, then damn. i'm pretty sure i went down every path and found every colored room. it doesn't especially matter who wins this one, though it being one of my side would help for rock odds.

[M. Gustave]

omfg i found chastens but didn't see chasteness, incredible.

[M. Gustave]

so the plan is: see if there's support to vote margot. if not, then vote royal so that margot and madame are vulnerable to rocks should we force them. i don't know how many people would go to rocks for royal, but he's surprised me many times already so i won't be shocked if they do. i so wish richie hadn't won, but at least we can try to take out margot, maybe.

[M. Gustave]

ah and i guess the above is an answer to "Confessional Prompt 24: Who do you want to go home this TC?"

[M. Gustave]

good feelings: i heard from oracle that richie wants margot out, which is very helpful.

bad feelings: oracle and richie's conversations are apparently getting very heated and unfriendly.

paranoid feelings: if richie is actually on board for a margot vote this seems just way too easy... would they really just give over a majority like this? i'd assume they're looking for a crack in our 4vanhoe, but i haven't been approached by anyone... which means that if there are approaches, then they're about cutting me. that's hopefully not the case. also possible that there's another idol out there which would make me scream.

[M. Gustave]

yeah, no way is richie actually down to vote margot, surely. and my suspicion was confirmed, in that it appears margot has been trying to get 4vanhoe people to vote me here. can't blame her at all for that, and i'm glad that my game instincts were actually right this time. i'm voting royal, so that margot and madame are both rockable. hopefully this goes alright, but if i go out now i'll be able to accept it.