Okay whooowee there is a lot I need to catch up on. A lot of my thoughts on the game tend to be very relationship-focused, so I'm going to be talking about individuals, who I'll be grouping into adversaries, short-t and medium-term allies and long-term prospects.
For a bit of fun, we'll start off with the....
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Adversaries--
Suzy is nice and fun and I think under different game circumstances she would probably be an ally of mine! One of my favourite moments was us talking about Omaha even though I don't know anything about Omaha except that it's on the USA Ticket to Ride map.
I can't think of anything about Suzy that would make me hesitant about working with her,
except for the fact that the game is currently such that she has her allies and I have my allies and there's a fair bit of overlap but there's no real
reason for us to be closer to each other.
I also don't necessarily want to be close to absolutely everybody. I think that sometimes it's important to have people who you can vote out without having them feel betrayed or slighted. And I'm pretty sure that Suzy is one of those people. I don't expect that she would be incredibly surprised if she suddenly found out that I was going to vote for her.
I don't know how soon I'll be able to vote Suzy out though, because she's not drawing enough attention to make herself a target, but definitely has reasonable connections, seemingly with Gustave, Herman and Young Writer at the very least. She could easily go far in this game, but it is unlikely that she'll go far with me.
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Herman's position in my mind, similar to Suzy's, is an unfortunate result of circumstance, with him being the likely loyal ally to people who are not me. This is a problem! Just from talking with Herman, I get really nice vibes. I think he would just be generally really great company, and is probably held back here by a combination of lack of free time and less thorough PMing.
I am aware that I'm not helping matters. For example during the round that Peter left, as well as after it, I was telling Herman all about how I agreed with him that Peter was too unpredictable and that I wanted Peter out, which... I didn't. I would have much rathered it were Herman.
But... I think a combination of factors made it difficult to sway votes in a particular direction during that TC, and so I'm going to have to acknowledge that that was a vote where I was not "in control" and that it was not a vote that was "good for me" but also that I'm moving on from it and making my stamp on the game before it's too late.
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Short-Term Allies
By this I could mean
very short-term, it's difficult to say. Okay, so Writer is just such an intriguing person and player in this game! From their connection with Peter despite being in a prominent Ivanhoe alliance, to their alluring sense of humour and PM style, Young Writer is somebody who I would absolutely love to know more.
At one stage in our PMs we were speaking in riddles to each other (not, I believe, in a game sense, but just because... it was fun) and I still don't know if either of us worked out what the other meant, but maybe that's not actually what matters in the end?
The early talk is that Young Writer could be a vote target if he is not immune at this TC, and as much as my own game-connection with Young Writer is minimal, I don't think that would be ideal for me, in terms of game position. I want Richie to go hard in protecting Writer and Royal whilst people like Suzy and Gustave, even Oracle wonder why they can't just vote Writer out. Obviously my hope would be that either of Suzy or Herman goes instead but again, it's early.
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I don't know if Richie deserves this exactly, and of everyone in this game, I have the most difficulty ascertaining what Richie actually thinks of me. I believe it could be anything from "indifferent by useful for a couple of votes" to "MAMA D IS DA SHIZ" and I can't work out where on the spectrum I lie for Richie. Even if he did love me once I doubt that he can for too much longer, as my PMs have not exactly been inspired.
Who are Richie's connections though. Obviously he was originally very well connected on Ivanhoe, but he now seems a bit more of a lone ranger, being connected to Young Writer who is the new Ivanhow pariah and VERY positive about Royal of all people.
I often do get suspicious of his motives though, with him having put a fair bit of effort into drumming up paranoia about Margot. The other thing with Richie is that he told me he didn't elect to mutiny, but Duke said that he himself did, which means that Richie must have as well. Why lie to me about something so... trivial?
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Medium-Term Allies
I am very fond of Gustave! I love how he talks about things that interest him, but seems to tailor discussion to things that I might be interested in too. For example, earlier in the game I had engaged with Gustave on the topic of soccer, and now he seems to more freely bring up thoughts related to that. I love that!
I also enjoy his willingness to focus almost entirely on non-game-related talk in between tribal councils, whilst also being transparent when there are game things to discuss.
I can't consider him a definite long-term prospect right now because of his potential threat status (after all he did fend off an assassination attempt just like I did) and some uncertainty on my part over whether he considers me a long-term ally.
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Earlier in the game, Oracle was someone who I interpreted as having an air of insincerity about him. It felt to me like there was this cute and nice schtick going on and that Oracle was just being everyone's "good boy". And maybe he is, but I have also come to realise the most likely thing is that Oracle is just... actually cute and nice. I feel like I have an okay connection with him too. I've enjoyed our effortless music swapping, our analysis of hugs. Sometimes it seems like he tells Margot more than he tells me, but I'm not sure if that's just because Margot is much more direct when it comes to the game than I am.
Either way, I like Oracle a lot, but I think he would be a bad doggo to go to FTC with.
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I still am a little bit amazed at my relationship with Margot. I still don't know exactly how or why we grew close, and I guess now we have just found an appreciation for each other's way of communicating about the game and that appreciation has been proven by multiple tribal councils experienced together! Hey, it works for me.
I do a fair bit of subtle distancing from Margot in my conversations with other people, mostly because I don't want to be dragged down by Margot if she accidentally pisses someone off, but I also do have some doubts about her long-term. I don't know how long she's planning to work with me for and she strikes me as the sort of person that always has contingency plans.
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Long-Term Prospects
Duke has been the big surprise of the merge for me and I'm here for it. I think we just each started giving the other a bit more than we absolutely needed to in PMs and now there's somehow been this easy and comfortable rapport developed. One of my favourite things was our conversation about cat and dog people, but honestly Duke is evidently a really thoughtful conversationalist and I find talking with him to just be easy.
What's more is that Buckley also liked Duke very much and encouraged our connection, so I want to work with Duke for Buckley too.
Duke's priorities don't quite match up with mine though, unfortunately, and so that may be something that I need to work on, but with people such as Duke (and even less long-term allies such as Margot and Oracle) I am really focusing on being honest when I'd be uncomfortable with a particular plan or vote because that's my best shot at having something else happen.
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Royal may be a difficult person to go very far with, and I also don't know if I'm at the top of his priority list (I know that he has a close relationship with Richie), but the way that he pro-actively organised a vote split against Foxy/Max to ensure that one of them was voted out really drew my admiration and I appreciate his straightforwardness and authenticity.
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Buckley also would have been here if he were still around and I regret not having gotten to talk more about Buckley in my confessional. He was a great friend to me and someone who I felt very in-tune with in regards to Survivor and this game. I knew that I could talk about something with him and he'd get it, and I'll miss that a lot.
Topic: Chapter 8 (Read 335 times)
