Episode 1 - XTC: DEVON'S ISLAND

[devon]

[Benji]

Thx for the shout out bb

[devon]

Bonus long confessional (I won't post one this long again, I promise lol) where I get into my thoughts on each person on my tribe, the dramatic to semi-dramatic moves I'm probably going to make now that I'm immune this round, and my game philosophy as a whole.

Some additional thoughts:
- Grace should be/likely is wary of Jess, so I might be able to use that to my advantage in making her want Jason out sooner than later, since he met up with her for an hour on Devil's Island.
- The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of blindsiding Kristine, and perhaps as many people as possible, with this vote. When you're near a swap, that kind of stuff is bad because you make people potentially bitter against you going into a new tribe, but we're a long way away from that and blindsiding Kristine/others could set them up as the next boot(s) before me. I at least want to blindside Kristine, and I might try to frame it to Elyse and Grace that Jason feels good about Gabby, increasing our incentive to blindside him as well. But again, I don't know how close Jason is with certain people so that may be too ambitious.

[devon]

I've been going back and forth on this, between:
(a) play big this round to try to get some agency in the game, at the risk of being an earlier boot than I would be otherwise, and
(b) coast on the bonds I've made, which I'm confident are at least decent, at the risk of being around the 4th person that would get the boot from this tribe

The advantage to (b) is that I really think I can prop up Gabby, Chris, and Jessie as people to vote out before me, which will likely get me to merge or swap - where everything could change?

The problem with (b), however, is:
(1) things might not get better at swap, especially with Jess likely in control over on the other tribe
(2) it's just a bitch way to play the game that goes against everything I stand for
(3) it's much more difficult from a mental health perspective, since I'd constantly be stressing out about whether the people more powerful than me are keeping me safe - and as it stands right now, I don't have anyone that I can truly confide in.

So I'm realllllllly leaning towards (a), and using the resources and information that I have to carve out some agency for myself.

[devon]

This isn't a team sport. I'm immune, and I'm going to do everything in my power to get what I want this round.

Welcome to Devon's Island, bitch.



Here's my checklist:
1. Figure out the optimal result for my conversation with Jason tomorrow - that is, the one that gives me the most ammunition to fuck him over while covering my tracks (preferably, I won't have to outright lie to other people about what happened in the conversation).
2. Talk to Jason
3. Talk to Gabby, get her on board to vote Jason
4. Talk to Chris, get him on board to vote Jason
5. Talk to Jessie, F2 her, get her on board for Jason
6. Talk to Kristine, get her to vote Jason, confront her with my knowledge of the alliance that she deliberately excluded me from if she pushes back against the idea.

[edit: somewhere in this I'll float the idea with Elyse further; I want to make her feel like I'm closer with her than I am with Grace, then argue that a Jason boot gives her more power because she'll be Grace's main ally.]

If I can't make this work and/or Jason has already checkmated me, there was nothing I could have done - so I'm going to take the biggest swing I possibly can*. Not promising a fun Jason boot, but I can promise that I am doing everything in my power to tilt this game in my favor and that I will continue to squeeze every drop of the lemons that this game gives me.

[*unless it's blatantly obvious that I can't get it through, or too many of the people I need on my side are question marks. Then I'll settle for my current spot in the game, but VERY begrudgingly.]

[devon]

Welp. Chris took the boat, Gabby seemingly hasn't been online today, and on a game level I get more annoyed with Kristine by the day. I don't think there's any way I can get this ragtag coalition together in time, so I have to retreat, and I hate it.

In my initial conversation with Elyse and Grace, the idea of voting Gabby seemed like a conspiracy that we were starting, but now all of a sudden everyone just understands that it's the vote. This makes me think that there's another, actually-important group chat that I'm also not involved in.

I'm sure I'm getting crap from the VL about making fun of crackhead-like players while acting a lot like one myself, but this superficially-crackhead-like behavior is just a lagging indicator of the fact that this tribe was low-key pretty bad for me from the start, so I need to put in this level of effort to try and make things better.

Misc. thoughts:
- Winning the clue was SUPER bad for me because I've already found the advantage and now other people are eventually going to find out that it's gone; and I'll be a prime suspect.
- The above fact + the fact that so many people on this tribe are letting me down + Grace's close bond with Jason, are making me interested in F2'ing Elyse, even though I'm sure that she has other close bonds.
- I think Elyse is the main person besides me that would benefit from a Jason boot (because it would make Grace more dependent on her), so that F2 could be natural
- I'd reveal my advantage to her (but not that it's a legacy advantage lol) to help signal that I'm being genuine about it, plus that would take some of the heat off me, since she seems more interested in the clue than most + I think she's already found the spot + I think she's grilling me specifically to see if I have it.
- - I still need to feel things out a bittttt more before I place my bet on Elyse like that though.