Round 4: You May Be The Golden Boy, But I'm Platinum

[briansback]

Thank you BasedBrian for the quote I'm stealing. Oh, and my confessionals are now fully up and running with things like gifs. 

Now, let's see...Stephanie's horrible mishandling (egged on by me) burned her idol and resulted in Ken leaving in a 2-2-1 vote. Ken was a nice guy, and I did think I was the closest thing he had to an ally, but not mentioning it or bringing that up once made it unable to stick with him, and the possibility of Kass going home was there. They modified my original 3-1-1 plan to a 2-2-1 plan, which worked just as well, so I'm still stealing partial credit, even though I didn't have that much of a say in the vote-off myself. The next challenge just so happens to have 2 tribes going to tribal council, which I think is great. Why, you may ask? Because I do not want Ciera on the jury. I don't want to be stuck interacting with her at all, so getting rid of her would be kickass and it would reduce the greater Ares alliance numbers. LJ agreed with me, and I have to talk to Teresa about it and see her thoughts. I think now that we're down to 14, then with the double boot it puts as at a prime position to merge at 12, with hopefully means a F3. By me sitting out, it removed one of the top challenge performers for the Athena tribe (first one hard to gauge, second I was one of 3 people to be on the entire time and won my duel, and in the third challenge I had the second highest amount of points.) Usually I don't give a shit about doing well because it makes me a threat, but I think my strategic and social gameplay already did that for me, and my tribe still went 0-2 before Hades appeared, so that shouldn't be a problem. When we merge, my goal is to try and lay low for a bit, or give advice but don't call the shots. I'm a big enough target, and I don't want to make it any bigger. 

Now, time for a random lists because I do this every few rounds. This is on my top 5 favorite people here.

1. KASS.
Kass and I are pretty good friends in this game, I'm very glad to be able to play with her, and hopefully she's sitting next to me at the end. 

2. AUSTIN. 
I like Austin a lot. He's my favorite second favorite person.. Preferably if it is a F3, he's sitting to my left while Kass is sitting to my right. Sociable, funny, we have a lot in common, and I actually (uh oh) trust him.

3. TERESA 
T-Bird is great, but I have the lingering feeling she's gonna turn on me and try and get rid of me. Oh well, anyone can. She's very witty, and always a pleasure to talk to. More than anyone else in the game, I see her as another chess master rather than a pawn. 

4. LJ 
I like LJ, and he is nice, but I will have to remove him at some point in the game, just like Teresa. I don't think he has the charisma to beat me in the end, so he might last that long for that reason. My closest ally on Athena, and I do like the guy a lot, but he doesn't have the same social draw as Teresa.

5. YUL AND CANDICE 
This is my cop-out answer. I like them both a lot, but knowing Candice outside of the game helps a little bit. Yul is similar to Austin in the sense he's very sociable, but Austin and I just connected more initially. Candice and I haven't talked as much this game, and I did kinda get her out in a Big Brother game, so...yeah. Still a very nice individual, and I'm hoping Kass keeps things good with us. 

[briansback]

Sorry for the explosive gifs everywhere, I promise I'll put in less next time.

[briansback]

T-Bird and LJ are on board with throwing and removing Ciera, whose mental state is questionable at the least.

[briansback]

I was talking to Kass, and apparently word got to her via Teresa that my plan at the merge was Athena plus Yul/Candice...? Okay then, cool. When we merge, Teresa needs to leave as soon as possible. She won't take me out immediately, because she needs to ensure she has her numbers, but with my cross-tribe deals, Teresa can (hopefully) be sent packing before she turns on me. Ideally, I can vote with Candice/Katie/Kass/Austin and get rid of her, maybe even pulling Yul or LJ in to vote. I'm not entirely sure if Yul is more loyal to Teresa, myself, or the original Ares tribe. I haven't been paying much attention, so I need to rejoin the scene and work on 1. Surviving the vote, because I'm a bit more paranoid now and 2. Removing T-Bird without making it look like it was me. After her vote, I'm just gonna lay low for a few rounds and keep myself safe.

[briansback]

Because of one Jeremy's questions was about my whole "game plan", here is how I would want it to go. I assume we merge at 12, with Austin/Kass/Yul/Candice/Jay/Todd/Julie on one side as 7, and then myself/LJ/Katie/Teresa and then Sabrina/Stephanie (whichever one survives), which puts Ares-Athena at a 7/5 split. From there, I want the Ares tribe to just vote off Teresa, so it removes a big threat to my game (and her dropping seeds is too shady for my liking), even though I like her and will leave so she can make the FTC and vote for her if I'm on the jury wanted to work with her a bit further. From there, that's a 7-4 split and I hope my connections to Candice/Kass/Austin/Yul allow LJ, Katie, and I to vote with them, making it 7-4 but this time with myself in that group. Eliminate Jay, Todd, Sabrina, Julie, yada yada yada, and then that's the time to remove someone like Candice or Katie - mutual allies, but not overly close ourselves. If that pans out, it leaves LJ, myself, Kass, Austin, and Yul. Yul and LJ are friendly and Yul is a very big social threat, so he should go at some point, which leaves a F4 of Kass, LJ, Austin, and I. From there, I would think those three would attempt to keep me unless I'm too large a threat, so I would need a few immunity wins along the way. If it is a F3, I would remove LJ, someone I don't have a F2 deal with and go to the end with Austin/Kass. If it is a F2, I would preferably make the end with Kass, because I had a deal with her first making Austin the final juror.

So, to sum it up, this round: Ciera and then Stephanie/Sabrina/Katie leave.

• Merge at 12.
• Remove Teresa.
• Get rid of the Ares that probably won't work with me.
• Get rid of mutual allies that I'm not as close with.
• Get rid of threats that are closer to others than they are to me.
• Get rid of threats that could beat me.
• ??
• Win.

[briansback]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA CIERA GOT REMOVED!!!!!! Brilliant. It takes out someone who was gunning for me, and keeps me safe from actual tribal. It couldn't have gone any better. Meanwhile, Stephanie is totally fucked because of her confrontational nature and being in the minority. Looks like a 7-5 merge, if we merge. I hope we merge. If we didn't, I would be sad.