After talking to Kate last night, she seemed to be down with voting Mike. She recognizes that the Rockefellers are a threat, and was extremely worried about Mike mentioning that he was willing to vote her out. We were still torn by the end of the night, as Jacob wasn't on to discuss the vote. It would be best for the Vanderbilts to vote together in order to ensure that the vote goes the way that we want.

Unfortunately, by 5pm EST, the three of us still have not had a chance to talk together. At this point, my heart's telling me to vote for Mike - he's less trustworthy, and definitely influenced by Lindsay. RJ told us he would be indebted to us for the rest of the game - which I believe, but he would also say anything to stay in the game. I do trust RJ/Spencer more than I do Mike/Eric, but it might just be too late to get the votes together for Mike.

UPDATE: At around 6pm EST, Jacob and Kate finally both got online. I tried to convince both of them to go with Mike, but it seemed like they were both decided on RJ. I’m now very suspicious – Kate just went with Jacob’s decision (according to her), and Jacob tried to smooth things over with me. While I’m okay with RJ leaving, I’m not okay with the influence that Jacob has on the vote. While I still trust him and want to work with him (for the time being), I’m more inclined to work with other folks right now.

This is the best time for me to do some damage control and work the potential jury a bit. RJ knows he’s going out – when we talked last night, he said that there were no hard feelings. I was very upfront with him that it was between him and Mike, and he seemed to truly appreciate my honesty. I think if I was at FTC, I’d have RJ’s vote.

I then worked Spencer a bit – was also upfront about him that RJ would be getting voted out, and that I had to vote for RJ in order to not look like I was going against my alliance. I made it very clear that I campaigned hard to keep RJ, but just couldn’t pull the votes together. Spencer said he was wary about working with the 3 Vanderbilts, but he’s rather stick with us than with the Rockefellers. I mention to him that both Lindsay and Jacob are the biggest threats after RJ, and that neither of us stand a chance against them at FTC. He agrees that Lindsay is the one who should be targeted next – she just has too much sway over the Rockefellers. Hopefully with this talk, I’ve got Spencer’s trust (and his vote, if he was on jury and I was at FTC).

Stacey – I finally talked to her! I know that she and RJ were tight, so I wanted to get in a few words to her before TC results were revealed. I let her know that I’m really sad that RJ’s going tonight – we both agree that he’s a good guy, and we’re sad to see him go. She says that she’s feeling alone after RJ goes – that she and Spencer are cool, but RJ really kept them together. I let her know that she doesn’t necessarily have to be alone after this vote – Carnegie and Vanderbilt need to stick together against Rockefeller, or else we’ll all be taken out. She knows that Lindsay will want to continue to take out the rest of us; she says that RJ trusted me, and with him gone, she’ll trust me. This is fantastic for the next round – we absolutely need the 5 to stick to get out Lindsay, or there’s no hope for the rest of the game. Jacob and Kate don’t really talk to Stacey, so I need to make sure that we have her vote.

The biggest issues that I’m gonna have now is 1) making sure there’s no side alliances, and 2) making sure that I’m not a big threat.

1) I’m very, very wary of Jacob and Kate. For all I know, they have side alliances with Lindsay/Eric/Anthony. I know Kate doesn’t like Mike, and neither of them have talked to Anthony too much. Eric’s craftier than he comes across, and Lindsay is experienced. Kate acknowledged that Lindsay is a social threat, but when talking to her yesterday, she didn’t seem too enthusiastic about trying to get her out soon. It’s very possible that they’re working together, and I’m on the outs. So I just gotta watch out for that.

2) I put myself on the line in rallying for RJ today. Now both Jacob and Kate know that I can scramble if need be. I know Jacob still tries to lay low with strategizing, but I can’t let him do that too much, so I’m putting his name out there to put a bigger target on his back. I need to let Mike know that we’re still watching out for each other in a way (even though I wanted him out this round). It was good that he didn’t mention he would vote out me (when he said Jacob/Kate to RJ). At this point, I’m cautiously working with almost everyone but Lindsay – and if that becomes obvious, it’ll come back to bite me in the ass. I’ve been doing my best to use vague language – act like I don’t know how the vote is going, or pretend like I’m not close with Kate/Jacob. But it’s a very, very fine tightrope to walk across. In getting Stacey’s trust, I need to make it seem like Spencer and Stacey are tight. I also can’t let my talks with Eric/Mike/Anthony too known to Jacob/Kate, and vice versa.

Goddamn, this is difficult. I’m juggling so much, and I SUCK at juggling. But it’s also a ton of fun – this is what I love doing, so much more than the boring votes of everything up to now. This is what I expect from Survivor – I wanted crazy; I wanted things shaken up. The bubbles are slowly building up, and it’s either gonna fizz out, or explode.

Holy shit, holy shit, things got crazy. I'm gonna need a ton of posts to get through all that's happened in the past 14 hours. Bear with me! (Hi Steve!)

Hey everyone! It’s been a very lively couple of days, especially with this back-to-back tribal. I actually prefer the game going by quicker – with more time between tribals, there’s more time for people to make side alliances. There’s also more time for people (including myself) to fuck things up. Having a shorter timeline means you should have a better grasp of what’s going on.

I know my confessionals have been mini-essays, so here’s what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna separate key events into different posts. I don’t expect a ton of readers, but for whomever is actually reading, this’ll hopefully be easier to digest.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE:

I knew that we had to keep this one away from Lindsay or Mike. These two are the biggest targets (for my game). While we have the option of voting one or the other, it would be better if Mike didn’t win – I still don’t know if Kate is down to vote out Lindsay at this point.

Thankfully, Jmoney won the immunity! Yee yee yeeee. While I wouldn’t have minded winning it, it’s actually not bad for me that he won. It puts a slightly bigger target on his back (I’ve been sucking at challenges), making it less likely that people will take him to F4 (in the case that it’s not in my hands at that point).

POST-IMMUNITY: 8:00pm EST to 10:00pm EST. Monday night, December 1st, 2014

Now that people know who won, it’s time for the vote scramble. Mmm, I do like my eggs MESSY, so it was fun going back and forth between people. (I don’t actually eat eggs, hehe, but I like a good metaphor). The people I talked to last night were: Stacey, Spencer, Jacob, Kate, and Mike. This is a bit complicated, so bear with me. There’s a lot of subtleties that I’m trying to work with, and (for the sake of any of you interested in this game stuff), I’ll do my best to remember them all.

After the vote, Jacob hit me up. We do our usual joking banter; he then mentioned that Kate wanted to talk to the both of us about the vote. The two of them went to shower (um, separately, in their own places, of course…), leaving me with about an hour before talking to them. One thing I learned from this brief exchange is that Kate is still actively working with us. She wants to make sure that she’s on the same page, and still trusts in what we decide to do. This is good to know, since I wasn’t sure about where she really stood last round (being hesitant about voting Lindsay; going with Jacob’s vote).

Spencer and Stacey hit me up separately pretty soon after. They were both nervous about the vote, and wanted to see what I thought.

Spencer: he was still very worried about his and Stacey’s fates for tomorrow’s Tribal. We chat a bit, but I let him know that I’d update him tomorrow after trying to work Jacob and Kate to vote with us.

Stacey: we talked about cats some more (looking at her previous games and her chats, it’s pretty obvious that she loooves cats). I mean, hey, I like cats too! Even though I kind of used the cat topic to get on her good side, she and I actually naturally get along very well – it’s too bad that it took so long for us to chat. She knew that she was backed into a corner, and needed to work with me/Jacob/Kate in order to get further in the game. According to her, she was willing to vote however we wanted to if it came to not getting voted out.

Summarizing my gameplay behind Spencer/Stacey’s convos from last night: they were both extremely nervous about how this round’s votes would play out. It doesn’t seem like they actually talked to Jacob/Kate much beforehand, so they were relying on me rallying their votes in order to get them to stay. Now that RJ’s gone, I have two very strong (side) allies to work with for the next few rounds. It was perfect for me that I had talked to both of them before RJ left – they knew that I was fighting for RJ, and liked Carnegie more than Rockefeller. The fact that they messaged me so quickly means that I’m their best bet on Vanderbilt.

The Calm before the Storm: 9:50pm – 11:00pm. Monday night, December 1st.

Jacob, Kate and I finally managed to convene around 9:50pm. Jacob and I do more silly talk, leading Kate to call us nerds. ^_^ The names that we threw around for our group were “Vanderbuffs”, “Vanderbuilt”, “Vanderhollas”, and my own suggestion, “VanderBALLERS”. I think that’s what our alliance is called now =D

I immediately learn that Spencer hasn’t talked to Jacob or Kate much. It’s exactly what I figured – and it’s why I needed to talk to Spencer before RJ got out.

Jacob and I both say that Spencer mentioned wanting to get a Rockefeller out. Jacob doesn’t know where Stacey lies (could be a lie, but I think it’s true). I mention that I can talk to her (unbeknownst to them, I already have!)

The 3 of us then have some more silly talk about YOLO jello shots and cute dog pics. Also, Jacob was gonna do Trapped in the Closet for the Survivor theme; I mention Survivor Gone Wild. We’re awesome.

I ask if any of the Rockefellers tried talking game to the other two. Apparently Mike has – he mentioned wanting to take out the rest of Carnegie. I mention that we should be wary of what the Rockefellers are plotting – they know that they absolutely need our votes to get the rest of Carnegie out; otherwise, the Rockefellers are at risk. Since neither Jacob nor Kate talk to Spencer/Stacey much, I volunteer to do some intel gathering next morning. At that point, Jacob goes to sleep, and we end the group chat.

Thankfully, it’s all been set up already. I’ve already talked to Spencer/Stacey, who are down to work together. Jacob/Kate are down to work with Spencer/Stacey. And at that point, I preferred to leave it a little nebulous as to peoples’ allegiances. I don’t want to betray that I’m close to all sides, or else it makes me a target.

Last conversation of the night – Kate and I talk a bit about the vote. She says that Mike needs to be out, especially since he brought up her and Jacob’s name last round. The most suspicious thing that she says is “I think you’re in a really good position right now”. I respond with “I think we’ve been in a decent spot so far…aw thanks, but really, the 3 of us have been good”.

GAMEPLAY TALK:

What Kate said there worries me the most out of everything, really. I’ve been doing my best to play a fairly UTR game, acting as social mediator and messenger; while people might be tempted to shoot the messenger, the messenger controls how the words are conveyed. I don’t want to make power plays; while those might work on the show, everyone in this competition has game. Power players get voted out. My goal has been to be genial, friendly, and play a little dumb – but smart enough where people want to work with me. I’ve been withholding information so that it doesn’t look like I talk to everyone. In friendly, casual game talk, I’ve planted seeds that other players are the stronger ones to take out (RJ, Lindsay, Jacob, especially. I keep my options “open” for both my allies and “enemies”. I discuss ways that I might vote – and then say that I’ll have to talk around. I’ve been forthcoming with important information to Kate, RJ, Spencer, Donovan, Jacob, and even Mike and Eric – as long as it helps my game. I’ve been crafting a long-term plan for jury success – I should have Spencer/RJ/Stacey/Jacob’s votes for sure, and possibly Eric/Anthony.

But none of this works if I suddenly become a target, and get voted out/blindsided. I need to chill out the strategy – maybe pull a Jacob and have to go to work. That way others can do the strategizing, and I can chill for a round. Regardless, I need to keep the impression that I don’t really talk to people; I need my allies to trust me so they know I stand with them, but I’m also holding hands with everyone else.

Ugh, I have to go home in 30 minutes, and I still have a whole day’s worth of shitshow to describe. So I’ll condense this shit as much as I can (I know I tend to write mini-essays even though the shit has been in pieces. Also, I’ll stop with the crap talk.)

RIDING OUT THE STORM: 8:00am PST – 5:00pm PST, Tuesday, December 2nd.

Stacey: Last night I told her that Eric may not be trustworthy. He told me he’d vote out Lindsay, but I got the feeling that he said that to lead me on. Stacey confirms this: she says that Mike told her that Eric wouldn’t vote for Lindsay. The assumption there is that they’re skeptical of working with Vanderbilts, and want to take us out. I’m sure that it’s leaked back to Lindsay that I (and maybe Jacob) have wanted to take her out. Stacey told Mike that he wouldn’t vote Lindsay out either, but he said that he would. Lie! Now Stacey knows that Rockefeller is tight as shit and won’t go against each other – even more reason for her to vote with us. Score! She tells me she doesn’t believe them at all. I have absolutely no reason to disbelieve Stacey (I don’t think she would lie that easily).

Mike, 9:20am. Calls me “gurlfrand.” Haha. I like you man, but we ain’t no gurlfrands. I’ll hold yo purse, but don’t think I’m not gonna look through yo shit. I say I hear from Kate that the plan is to finish off Carnegie. Mike agrees. I mention that at 7, we’re gonna be in a tough spot – we need to take out Lindsay. Mike agrees. I ask him how he thinks we’re gonna do that (hint hint you should probably say that you should flip over to us. You should say that Eric’s down to flip). INSTEAD, he says that he’s not sure how to get Lindsay out, and he’ll have to think about it. Ooooo, bad news for you boy. People already don’t trust you – and now they especially don’t have a reason to.

Kate, 11am: Messages me with a RED ALERT. “mike threw my name to stacey. mike is going to try to make a 5 way alliance of: stacey, spencer, mike, eric, Anthony” I respond with a “wtf” – really, why is Mike doing this? He knows that he needs to make Vanderbilts feel secure in order to knock us out. He should know that Stacey/Spencer would try to work with us – it’s the only smart option that they have. F6 is better than F5 people: it’s math. I convey this to Kate – she agrees.

THEN, she says that Mike is now gunning for Lindsay. WTF? While I’m okay with that, Kate now wants to run to Lindsay about it. She asks me if I think it’s a good idea – I then ask her what good it would do. She outright says “i don't want to lose her as a friend tbh hahaha”. Okay girl, you’re now telling me that you and Lindsay are gonna be real hard to split apart.

Stacey, 11:30am: I tell her that Kate is considering telling Lindsay that Mike wants her out. Stacey thinks it’s batshit! Don’t do it, she says! I agree. But we both know that Kate probably did. Kate’s playing the Rockefeller side, just as I’m working the Carnegies.

Kate, 11:30am: Now she says that Stacey says that Mike is telling her that the vote is for Kate. Jeez, Mike. Get your stories straight! If you’re gonna stir up shit, it’s gotta be consistent shit. Not a piece of shit here and a piece over here. No, good, healthy shit is well-formed and passes through your bowels like…oops, I said I’d stop with the shit talk. My bad. Kate copy-pastes a convo she’s having with Eric. Eric thinks Mike is targeting Lindsay/Kate to make a power move for F2 argument’s sake. (Kate showing me this also tells me how much she’s working Carnegie. She’s gone up in my book for strategy, but also higher on my hit list).

Still Kate, 11:40am: She’s trying to make sure I’m still down to vote Mike. She’s real paranoid that Mike has targeted her two rounds in a row – and I’m sure she’s bothered that he’s targeting her bff Lindsay. For some reason, I have to convince her that I’m loyal to Vanderbilts – okay, I’ll play along with this.

Spencer, 12:00: He wanted to confirm that Jacob/Kate are good with Mike. I told him that we talked it out, and it should be good. He also confirms talking with them – good job, Spencer! I tell him that Eric told me it’s Stacey – doesn’t hurt for him to know that I trust him with info like that. He’s worried that Kate will flip on us next round. He says that Kate hasn’t been too forthcoming with details past this round, leading him to think that she’s more on Lindsay’s side. I reassure him that we still have Kate – but honestly, this has given me a bit of paranoia as well. It’s now my goal to instill a bit of distrust of Lindsay on Kate’s side – I’ll have to figure out how to do this, but Eric/Anthony might be useful here.

Kate, 2:00pm: She tells me that Stacey and Spencer are confirming that Mike’s targeting her. Okay. It’s stressful for her, I’m sure, but we definitely still have the votes to get Mike out. I’m not flipping; it would be stupid for Stacey/Spencer to. And I see no reason for Jmoney to (unless he’s playing me – and if so, good for him). I know they only need 1 to flip, but it’s suicide for any of us to vote any way BESIDES a Rockefeller this round.

Jacob, 3:30pm: Just checks in with me. He’s talking to Spencer a bit more. I tell him that Mike went ballistic and hopefully sank his own ship. Kate’s paranoid, but Spencer and Stacey are tight with us (in retrospect, maybe not the best thing to say, but I don’t dwell in the past). He’s cool with everything and thinks we should be solid. I trust him to vote Mike, and we don’t talk much past this.

Eric, 4:00pm: I just chat with him casually about work stuff and drinking (I want to drink with someone >.<). I tried to plant a little seed about Kate’s paranoia to try and get him to say something about Lindsay being okay with voting Kate…but that didn’t work. Meh, fail move, oh well, no biggie. I’ll have more chances in the future.

It’s actually somewhat less of a shitshow than I had promised (sorry! There’s no ceiling for the shit to hit the fan this round…) But it’s messy on the Rockefeller side, and I’m glad that they’re (probably) gonna have to pick up the pieces where Mike’s scrambling left them.

Also, I really suck at not writing a million words. Ugh. But hey, at least one of you is reading all this shit, right? <3

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Also, I really suck at not writing a million words. Ugh. But hey, at least one of you is reading all this shit, right? <3

This sums up my entire SC experience.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

I'd like to let it be known that I've read all of BOTH of your shit.

YW. TY.

Thank you, Steve. <3