Oops. I skipped Episode 3. Whatever.

Woooooot. Safe for another round! What an entertaining past 24 hours or so.

So I was having a nice peaceful Tuesday afternoon, just doing the usual chatting thing with Donovan, speculating about how the swap would work. I was going to chat up Kate or John to make sure that we would stick together as Vanderbilts, even with a swap. And then, BAM, swap!

Looking at the new tribes, I was instantly relieved by 3 things: 1) I have Jacob with me on my new tribe, 2) It’s 3 Vanderbilts on my tribe, with 2 Carnegies and 2 Rockefellers, and 3) we have a bunch of challenge monsters on our tribe, between Jacob, RJ, and Spencer. And I know that Lindsey, Anthony, Kate and I pull our weight. (I was thinking about putting myself in the “challenge monsters” category, but I’m not an arrogant guy, right? =P) So in regards to Immunity Challenges, unless it’s something incredibly luck-based…I think we should be fine for awhile.

Almost immediately, I get separate messages from RJ and Spencer, both of whom were from the Carnegie tribe. I talk to both of them for a good 2 hours – after my experience with my first tribe, I realized how important getting that early rapport is. Spencer’s a really nice kid – he’s still in high school, but like Donovan, he’s very well-spoken and intelligent. He’s a bit like Maxis, but definitely higher on the talkativity scale (which is probably how he’s lasted longer).

RJ’s a cool guy too! We talked about tribal dynamics for a bit, and some game stuff. When we resumed chatting at the end of the night, we hit it off on music – turns out he’s sick of Carnegie talking about “Taylor Swift and Jessie J” all the time. Hahahahahahahahaha. I’m so sorry, dude. I mean, I love me some TSwift (especially after that DAMN LIP SYNCH VIDEO), but…I can’t deal with more than 10 minutes of pop culture talk per day. So I think we built up some rapport there.

I also got to talk to Lindsey for a bit – she’s such a sweetheart! I know she’s a strong social player and can strategize, but I already like her a lot, even though we didn’t talk that much.

Finally, I chatted with Kate at the end of the night for the first time in what, 5 days? I was actually going to message her, but she messaged me at the same time. What’s with these things? Anyways, we finally seemed to click (maybe it took a swap for it to happen). I think she wants to feel secure in an alliance, especially with all these people that she doesn’t know. After some casual chatting for 30 minutes, I approach her with the idea that the old Vanderbilts should stick together (me, Jacob, and her). She agrees immediately – great news for all of us.

So I’m enjoying this new tribe a lot! We’re challenge beasts, and seem to have a lot of generally chill people. I haven’t talked to Anthony yet – apparently he had some beef with RJ – but I’m sure he’s cool as well.

I’m trying to spin a few different Tribal/alliances in my head, but I don’t want to overdo it until we actually have to go to Tribal. But for now, I think the Vanderbilts are in a strong spot – we only need 1 person to come on board with us to have the majority alliance. At this point, I think we could bring on RJ the best, since he said that he was feeling nervous about Anthony. I’m sure Spencer and Lindsey would be willing too as well, but we shouldn’t take on more than 2 people. It’s very possible that Rockefeller and Carnegie could team up to take us Vanderbilts out – I think they’re no slouches when it comes to strategy. But in terms of convincing the other 2 tribes, I think my best argument is that it’s better going into the merge with 5 instead of 4 (5 if you join Vanderbilt, 4 if you join the other tribe of 2).

One of the things I have to figure out right now is exactly how much people tend to stick with their old alliances. I know that at least in the show, when tribes swap, they tend to stick with the swapped alliances instead of the original ones. But in this online game, it may be very different. I still have my solid F2 with Donovan, and would be willing to work with John to go F5.

I also need to figure out if backstabbing one of them is even an option for me in this game. I don’t think people would take it personally – they’re all Survivor fans, and appreciate big moves. But at the same time, I don’t want to mess my game up by throwing wrenches when nothing needs to be fixed. Hm. Probably shouldn’t think about this too much unless I get to the merge, but it’s still fun to think about it…

Anyways, game’s been fun so far and it’s still a blast. I want things to be stirred up though! But I know that’s a bad thing for now, so I’m just gonna keep chatting everyone up, keep my social/strategic options open, and see how things go.

TSiu, out.

On a side note, I feel like I should be looking for a damn Hidden Immunity Idol somewhere. If this was real Survivor, I’d be looking around for that trickster until my balls fall off. But I mean, there’s not exactly a jungle to explore. Um……maybe I’ll go work on decoding some of the Wonka Mail in hope of some ‘clue’ to an idol?!

I’m probably going to end up as some kind of twitching, paranoid, OD-ed on caffeine mess by the end of this game. Alsja;lskgjlaskdfjaskldfj

Hm. I think I'm a goat. I don't want to be a goat.

I'm a motherfucking LLAMA!

Yay llamas <3