The Place in Which Confessionals Shall Periodically Occur

[alexismaxwell]

Round 8 - Post-Challenge

HOW DID I MANAGE TO WIN A CHALLENGE WHILST THROWING IT?! Not only that, but the decision maker was literally a crappy 69 joke! I'm aghast, both in a shock sense, as well as a horror sense. I mean, I'm immune, awesome, but this just puts a target on my back in the long run. There was literally no strategic benefit to me winning immunity this round. Crap, I should have just stuck to my original plan of sticking Penner down for everything.

My name didn't come up as many times as I was afraid it might, which is good, especially considering that Erik stupidly told me after that he'd written my name down for most things. It looks like Dave did, too, or rather he perceived that everyone else might. I don't like that. He's either terrible socially, or he's trying to pin a target on me.

BREAKING NEWS: Okay, so now Erik is telling me straight up that he thinks I'm the bigger threat than Malcolm. Is this guy legitimately stupid? I mean, I don't mean to sound like a dick, but who says that to somebody literally right before they're about to flip to save your ass? Fool. I'm having second thoughts now, really. Maybe I let Erik get the boot here and replace him with Dave or Sean in my plan. At least I know that Sean still believes Malcolm to be the bigger threat.

Ugh, but I need the rivalry between Erik and Fairplay to continue on, though. Damn. Another rock and a hard place. I've got some thinking to do.

[alexismaxwell]

Round 8 - Post-Challenge (Part 2)

Alright, so I've had a chance to see where everyone's head is at, and I think it's time to deal with Erik. I can't get rid of him yet, of course. The feud between he and Fairplay is too important to my game right now, both in that it ensures two big targets are around, as well as it stops other players from getting overly paranoid and making dumb moves for no reason. Half of these people probably think they're Survivor GODS right now whilst riding Fairplay the end, which is exactly what I want. Let Fairplay do all the heavy lifting. Less people to manipulate. I sort of think of them as parasites now, really -- Fairplay and the Parasites. See, if Fairplay doesn't want me gone, the Parasites won't want me gone. They sort of just feed off of him, which is kind of what I've been trying to disguise myself as doing to half of these people the whole game so far. The difference is, from what I've seen, the Parasites literally won't do anything without Fairplay's blessing, and Fairplay himself seems to trust my opinion. For now, anyway. I highly doubt any of that'll last much longer.

Anyway, so yeah, about Erik. I thought a lot about it, and he's mentioned that he's really close to Dave. Erik likes the guy, and wants him here. He trusts Dave the most. Dave is going this round, and I'm personally seeing to it that he does. I've got Malcolm on board, and it looks like Fairplay and the Parasites are also on board. This is all, of course, in retaliation for Erik's stupid, stupid move of telling me he thinks I'm a bigger threat than Malcolm. If the guy really thinks that, then I'm not going to let him have his closest ally be there for him when he inevitably decides to take his shot at me. That'd be almost equally as stupid.

So, when Dave gets the boot, I'm going to be all "Whoops, sorry bruh, it had to happen, they wouldn't budge. Sorry about you friend, bruh. For realz, bruh.". Erik will probably be none the wiser and move on, because next round is the one I flip and all that. I do feel a little sorry about Dave having to go out like this, but that's kind of the chance you take when you align with Survivor mediocrity. I, myself, took the same deal when I aligned with Penner, and it almost got me voted off before the merge. (Though Penner was fucking awesome to watch, let's be real)

I'm not an idiot, though -- I realize that everything I'm doing right now could blow up in my face at any time, and most likely will. I've got my hands in so many different cookie jars at the moment, it's ridiculous. All it would take is for one single person to talk to a certain other, and I'm gone quicker than Dan Foley's pants on Worlds Apart. Or Malcolm is gone, in the case of this particular round. It's just a matter of prolonging the inevitable. The feud between Erik and Fairplay needs to rage on, and Malcolm needs to distrust both of them, leaving only me to be trusted.

Muahahaha, I feel like an ass.

[alexismaxwell]

Round 8 - Post-Challenge (Part 3)

Two things:

First, I feel fucking TERRIBLE about voting Dave off this round! We just finished talking at length, and I feel so bad for him, that his game is going to be cut short because of his allies being morons. Logically, though, it seems to be the best move for my game. He and Erik are tight, so I'd like to split that up preemptively, and just based on his Majority Rules answers, he perceives me as a threat. He is a decent player, though, and I don't really like taking decent players out early. I really believe that if he'd been in the majority after merge, Dave is the likely winner of Survivor Decades. It'd have been such a boring ass season, though.

Second, Steph and Lindsey have finally brought me into the alliance with Malcolm. I'd heard about this supposed foursome for a while now, so it's cool to see it actually forming, officially. They say they're open to taking LJ or Fairplay out whenever, but I don't think they really are. The Parasites most likely want Malcolm and I to feel comfortable going deep with them, right before they snag the majority for themselves and vote us out back to back. So, I named the alliance Malcolm's Angels, and I'm not putting too much stock into it. It's nice to have that connection, though, fake or not, because it may be needed when shit hits the fan next round.

[alexismaxwell]

Round 8 - Post-Challenge: Part 4: The Rectoring

Welp, I really don't know what to think anymore. This is where the paranoia generally starts to take over my game in these ORGs. I'm trying to contain it but . . . UGH, CAN'T  . . . HELP . . . SELF . . .

- Puts Tinfoil Hat On -

Oh shit, I have so many conspiracy theories right now, man. Fuck, I'm giving everyone way too much credit, but my mind is racing. I just finished speaking with Sean, and apparently he knows who I am from Pure, which is not good, because A) Now he's got an out-of-game reason to target me, and B) I don't trust him  enough to not cheat and use it to sway people to vote me out. Fuck, this blows. He also claimed that Malcolm had an idol, and that I'm playing the best game at the moment. And then, and this is the interesting part, he claims that he thinks he's going tonight. At first, I thought maybe he was just trying to bait me into switching the vote over to him, and then maybe he plays an idol, and Fairplay goes. I think it's sort of the reverse, though -- perhaps he doesn't have an idol, and he's trying to make me think he does, so nobody votes for him? Like I said, most likely giving him too much credit, but it's got me thinking.

What if Erik actually isn't aligned much with Dave, and is actually closer to Sean? He tells me Dave is his closest ally, and then he proceeds to tell me all about how he thinks I'm the biggest target and shit. Thus, rationally, I vote out Dave. Once again, most likely too much credit. As cool as it'd be to be playing with other players of that caliber, I highly doubt they're not just a couple of idiots.

- Takes Tinfoil Hat Off -

I highly doubt any of the above is truly happening, hence the tinfoil hat, but you can't overlook stuff like that. Consider every possibility and what have you. Regardless, though, he either heard from somebody that I played on Pure, or he knows who I am from Pure, and in either case, there's now a big red X on his back with only Erik to back him up. GG, Sean. I think I can still use him for another round or two, so long as he anticipates that he has some variety of trump card in his pocket for later on down the road, but I'm #blindsiding his ass as soon as I see the opportunity.

[alexismaxwell]

Just a quick update: So, now Erik is telling me that somebody came to him with a plan or whatever. I immediately looked at who's online, and Steph is offline, but Lindsey and LJ are both online. Are Lindsey and LJ flipping? Steph is online now. Maybe Steph is the third person flipping now that she's here? I don't think Steph would vote Malcolm out, so probably Fairplay. I'm not really sure what they'd be trying to achieve by flipping this round, if they are, but it would certainly be a . . . unique(?) move. Is this the inevitable downfall of Alexis Maxwell? Earlier than I expected. Perhaps I'm overanalyzing things, and it's a simple idol play, or Erik is trying to psych me out last minute for some nonsensical reason. Who knows, man. I'm anxiously excited. kek

[alexismaxwell]

Round Nine - Pre-Challenge

Wow, Dave certainly surprised me with the way he went out. I expected him to have a lot more class than that. Ah well, as far as things go, I wasn't thrown under the bus too badly. Everyone is starting to see the position I'm in right now . . . there's really no hiding it. I've tried to own it, but downplay it a bit, saying that I'm not much of the middle-player type and other bullshit like that. There are multiple layers to my bullshit. There's the bullshit I want you to see through, the bullshit I don't want you to see through, and the bullshit I don't really care if you see through or not. It's hilarious, because people are just now starting to see through the first layer of bullshit, and they're all high and mighty about it. "Wow, certainly can't fool you guys! Hahaha!", but really, I'm surprised it took them this long, in all honesty. LOL

Anyway, this new round should be pretty interesting. It's time for the Pagonging to come to an end, whether that means Lindsey goes, or Malcolm or I go. It's not even Erik I distrust now, it's Sean. Along with me, Sean also felt the wrath of Dave's hurt ego tonight, where he was accused of being a rat . . . which is funny, because if anyone's a rat here, it's me, but I digress. I don't know how much I can trust a fellow rat, and that's a sticky situation to be in. (I know, I know . . . cheesy, eh?) Erik assures me that I should be able to trust him for at least this round, which is what I want to hear, so that alone warrants further thought into it. Not against the move, but rather, a contingency plan is needed. Perhaps the move would be to show Fairplay that Lindsey and Steph were planning on flipping on him, and I personally took the first shot at them in order to keep Fairplay safe for a while longer. That's my second variety of bullshit. With the aforementioned bullshit, even if Steph and Lindsey weren't actually going to flip, I'd be given the benefit of the doubt, because how was I supposed to know, right? He'd have no choice but to go along with it!

Now that people are realizing how big of a threat I am, it's become imperative that I take others perceived as big threats to the end with me. Malcolm, Steph, Fairplay, and maybe Sean and Erik. It'd be a tough sell taking Fairplay or Malcolm to the end over me, and that's what I'm banking on. If I go to the end with, for example, Erik and LJ, I'm screwed. That's the game-losing mistake I made in my last ORG, and I don't aim to repeat it here.

(Also, new font -- yay or nay? Seems easier to read.)

[alexismaxwell]

Lindsey approached me just now and proposed that we target LJ this round, because he's a non-threat. Her spiel is that we need to keep threats in the game in order to be taken to FTC, which  agree with, however . . . Lindsey isn't much of a threat right now, which is ironically why I'm targeting her. Would I prefer to target LJ? Of fucking course, but I have no reason to trust Lindsey outside of her offer, and if I'm wrong about her, that could mean the end for my own or Malcolm's game. They could easily get us to vote for LJ, play an idol on him, and then RIP. Here's the second issue . . . Lindsey called me the biggest threat in the game. Lindsey was foolish to do that, and now I have even more reason to want her gone.

Her offer translates over to practically any of the actual threats left in the game, anyway. I could easily go to Steph next round, and tell her about how she's the new biggest threat alongside Fairplay once I'm gone. I could do the same to Fairplay, to Malcolm, to Erik, to Sean, etc. It'd theoretically buy me a lot of time to line my ducks up in a row once more.

Essentially, If LJ ends up getting votes at TC this round, I'm going to feel kind of shitty, but it's simply wayyy too risky not to vote Lindsey out at this point. Sorry, Linds.

[alexismaxwell]

Round Nine - Post-Challenge

Ayy, what's going on, Confessional people? ( Read: Literally just Kenny)

This round, I've pretty much just been trying to set my mid-jury game up. It's been kind of a frantic mess, though, since I just got back on campus a few hours ago. My goal is to basically make certain key people understand why it benefits them to keep me around. With Steph, my pitch was that we're both seen as big threats for similar reasons, the only difference being that I'm looked at as the bigger of the two right now. When I'm gone, she takes my spot as "biggest threat", and thus, it makes sense to keep me around so she can work under the radar for longer. I tried arguing a similar reason to Sean, who seemed to be more preoccupied with attempting to make me feel uncomfortable, which is his strategy, I guess.

I'm still not sure what to make of Sean. He sketches me out a lot, and he knows I've played Pure before. I think he feels like he's "getting to me" a lot more than he really is, but it probably benefits me to leave him feeling that way, so I will. I'm more amused than anything, albeit amusement doesn't benefit my game. I think he'll have to go pretty soon. Possibly next.
Apparently he believes he made a big move with his "fake idol play" thing, which is kind of hilarious, 'cause the votes were never on him in the first place, and nobody ended up leaking the information to me to begin with. No matter what I tell the guy, though, he thinks we were voting for him last round. Ah well, ignorance is bliss, right?
Except for when it gets me voted out. Sean seems to legitimately think I'm talking to everyone, which is far from the truth. Only key people, like Fairplay, Steph, Erik, and Malcolm. I feel like Sean thinks I'm some kind of mastermind with my Tribal Council answers. I don't know if he's attempting to feed my ego so that I begin to overplay, or if he simply doesn't understand that telling people you think they're a threat is a bad idea.

I've gotten Erik suspicious of Sean, at least I think I have. I lied and told him that I tried to push for Sean last round, but nobody would have it, and that they wanted to target Dave instead. Erik thinks that because Sean has survived this long, he must have a secret deal with somebody on Fairplay's side. It's fantastic.

Steph feels like she's the target now after speaking with Erik, which makes this round even more hilarious. If she plays an idol on herself, I'm going to die of oxygen deprivation.
I keep thinking about a certain One World challenge, where Kat keeps jumping off a beam and into the water, but each time, there was no need to do so. She just sort of sees other people do it, and her brain can't process anything more than that, so she jumps. It's hilarious. I'm glad she got voted off.

Lindsey is still going home, unless something changed behind the scenes. Apparently she decided to not include Steph in on her plan to vote LJ off, which is strange to me. Why not include Steph in on that, especially after we just created our four person alliance? Essentially, why would somebody need Malcolm and I to put our votes on LJ? Interesting to think about, for sure.

[Host Kenny]

I'm always reading and appreciating all confessionals <3

[scoutcloudlee]

I read this stuff too >_>

[alexismaxwell]

Round Ten - Pre-Challenge

w00tw00t, Final Eight! BUT AT WHAT COST?! People fucking hate me now, man. Steph is acting like I've just killed the family dog, and Lindsey didn't want anything to do with my apology sent before TC results were posted. It's awesome, and great for my game. The perceptive are going to start to realize that I'm not as much of a jury threat as they initially thought, now that Lindsey and Steph are most likely not voting for me, even if I play a brilliant game. Hopefully that keeps me here a little longer.

Steph is gunning for me now, saying stuff about how she wants Malcolm and I out and crap, which honestly surprised me. I didn't really take her for the irrational idiot archetype, but there it is. I do understand where the emotions are coming from, though -- she thought she'd already won the game, and this was a pretty loud wake up call wailing "Nuh uh, bitch". Or maybe this is just some last minute strategic attempt to make sure I'm targeted and not her? I'm going to get some votes this upcoming Tribal Council for sure, though, which is a little worrying, since I've yet to get any since the merge. It's guaranteed, and people know it. It'd be so easy for somebody like Sean, who I don't trust much, to simply put another vote on me, and then I'm gone. I may need to consider playing my Nullifier earlier than I'd planned.

Erik seems to be rational, in that he understands both that he and Sean are the next "power duo" once Malcolm and I are split up, and that keeping me around while Steph is targeting me is good for his game. I haven't spoken to Sean yet, but my hope is that he also realizes these things.

I spoke with Fairplay only a little bit, but he seems to feel betrayed, which is pretty stupid, considering Lindsey wanted to target his ass this round, but I get it, sort of. Maybe that whole thing was a play to make us feel comfortable, like I explored previously, and now he doesn't know how to react to all of this. That'd be pretty amusing. 

I'm interested to see how this round turns out. My ideal target is Sean, but I'd have no problem voting LJ or Steph off, either. If I do end up going now, at least I can take solace in that I somehow ruined Steph and her Slovakian friend's lives by voting the latter out of an ORG. Lool

[alexismaxwell]

Ayy, so here's the plan for this round so far . . . I call it Operation Bye Felicia. Basically, the first part is to piss Steph off as much as I possibly can this round. I'm making fun of her, trolling her, mocking her, annoying her, etc. The point is, I want her to be very obviously coming after me harder than she is Malcolm. This way, people are more likely to want to blindside Malcolm, because then there'd still be somebody around who wants to gouge my eyeballs out.

The second part of Operation Bye Felicia is that we have to get Erik and Sean to vote for Fairplay. I mean, LJ would be okay, too, but Fairplay is more likely to work with us next round if he sees that Erik and Sean are still trying to take him out.

Final stage of Operation Bye Felicia is to #blindside Steph's foolish ass. Malcolm says that he can get Danielle to vote with us instead of Erik this round. The vote would be Steph. I use my Vote Nullifier on her, and the vote should end up 3-2-2 for Steph to go. #ByeFelicia
Of course, Sean could flip, in which case the vote would tie between myself and Steph, which complicates things. I think taking this risk is much better than just voting LJ off, and essentially waiting to be flipped on, though.

Oh yeah, and one more thing . . . Steph is mentioning all over the place "Thank God Lindsey gave me the idol!". Lol, bull fucking shit she did, bud. If Steph had the idol, why would she go around casually mentioning it now? Maybe she wants us not to believe her, but I feel like that's a stretch. If she doesn't have it, this is just horrible gameplay on her part, and at this point, it wouldn't surprise me at all.

I'm sort of having a moment of regret over here, in that I'm now starting to realize that I've unknowingly gone to the end with shitty-to-mediocre level players. And Malcolm. I think, out of the bunch, Fairplay or Sean are the only two I'd want to see win the game, aside from Malcolm and myself. Even then, they've both not had such a strong showing so far. I thought Steph was a much better player than she is, and I figured that Fairplay would know better than to hesitate on taking a deal, even if he wasn't going to follow through with it. These people are all pretty ridiculous, really.

[alexismaxwell]

Round Ten - Post-Challenge

Operation Bye Felicia is a go! Malcolm won the challenge, and I'm hopefully being looked at as the tribe idiot! That's what I've been up to this round, trying to make myself look annoying and dumb. I've gone as far as to ask Sean and Erik Tinder questions and crap, and proceeded to make lame jokes about it. They might see through it, but my hope is that their view on me is skewed a little bit after everything I've been doing. At the start of this round, I was seen as the "smartest" player in the game, and I can't have that if my end-game plan is going to work out this time around.

Malcolm had an idea last night for if one of us won immunity. He wants to take the aggressive approach, and simply force people to vote Fairplay, saying that he'll be using the idol on me this round. I'm not so joyful about this plan, because A) It suggests that we don't actually trust Sean and Erik (which I don't, but), and B) If Malcolm doesn't play the idol, I'm probably going to go because he played it on himself sometime in the future.
We may indeed have to go with this plan, though -- and if we do, I need to make sure Malcolm actually uses the idol, or else I'm in a bad spot, especially if they call his bluff.

I've spoken to Sean some more, and he definitely knows who I am. It's uncomfortable. He even knows that I've won an ORG before. This makes me feel like he's been a PW before, and thus has read one of my applications. I can't really see anyone taking the time to actually remember that, if I outright mentioned my ORG win before, unless they've seen one of my applications. Maybe he really did care, though? Aww. What a weird person.

I want him out, but I can't do that just yet. I figure that if I take Sean or Erik out, Malcolm will have to go either right before, or right after, because once the "underdog duo" is split up, I think everyone will be coming after us, and I'd like to put that fire out ASAP. And so, I'd like to wait as long as I can before it's time to finally take Malcolm out. I think he's loyal to me, and that's hard to come by in an ORG. On the other hand, the guy is way too damn nice, and I'm an ass. Noooo wayyy I get the votes if I'm sitting next to him. It'll be Fishbach and J.T. all over again. On the other hand, he's probably the only one here who might get cut right before FTC over me. Yet another rock and a hard place!

[alexismaxwell]

Alright, so I'm getting a lot more apprehensive now due to a few happenings over the course of the past two hours. First, after almost a whole round of radio silence, Fairplay finally decides to shoot me a message! Wow, isn't it interesting how he decides to communicate with me after seeing that he and LJ are the targets? Mus' be nothin. Anyway, it took me by surprise, so I ended up having to improvise some bullshit. He said he wasn't actually going to be moving forward with Steph this round, and so I "made him a deal", where if he'd be willing to vote Steph off next round, I'd "change the target" from himself to LJ. Basically, the first part ensures that he doesn't think I'm voting for Steph this round, and the second part is meant to make him feel like I'm saving him or some shit. Simple and easy, right?

BUT THEN MALCOLM HAS HIS OWN PLANS. Malcolm, who was spoken to at the exact same time out of the blue, wants to actually get Fairplay to vote Steph with us. So now my plan has gone down the toilet, and I'm left immunity-less while Fairplay knows who is getting the votes this round. Super. Even better, Malcolm is now trying to convince Fairplay that I have the merge idol, and that I'm going to play it on myself this round. WOOO.
I don't feel good about all of this at all. I think we're now overplaying, and if it backfires, it backfires on me. Conversely, if I had immunity this round, I'm sure I might want to perform the bolder move, too, but I don't. I'll take one safe move, please!

It's out of my hands, though, because by the time Malcolm told me about his "plan", he'd already told Fairplay that we're targeting Steph. It's not that I don't trust Malcolm, it's just that I don't trust anybody. Not Fairplay, Erik, Sean, LJ, Danielle, Steph, or even Malcolm. There are only people I trust the least . . . lowest . . . amount . . . yeah.

I'm really hoping this works out and Steph goes, anyway, 'cause otherwise I'm probably a goner, and something tells me I won't be getting such a friendly reception at Ponderosa this season. The worst part would be Steph thinking that she masterminded my demise, whereas Malcolm sort of would have, in actuality.

Here's the scenario: Fairplay gets Malcolm and I to throw our votes on Steph, and he votes with LJ and Steph. 3-3 tie if he can't flip one of Sean, Danielle, or Erik, which he probably could with all of the evidence Malcolm just finished giving him. Vote is now 4-2-2, and myself or Erik most likely go home. Calling it now.

Here's hoping that I'm pleasantly surprised. ;V

[alexismaxwell]

ALRIGHT. I've just finished shitting all over Malcolm's plan and have now come up with my own. I don't trust Fairplay enough on nature alone, and so . . . I'm going to force him to vote Steph out! Muahahaha

Plan:

• Get Fairplay to "vote" for Steph with Malcolm and I. (Done)
  
• Show Fairplay the idol, explain to him that if he simply changes the vote onto Sean/Erik, the vote will tie 3-3 between himself and Sean/Erik, in which case Malcolm and I vote him off for going back on his word.
• Fairplay is now forced to vote Steph with us. If he changes the vote, he goes. If he doesn't, he goes. If he votes Steph, he stays. 
• Vote is now 3-3-2 between Steph and Fairplay.
  
• Use Nullifier on Sean before the vote. 3-2-2, Steph goes home
  
• #ByeFelicia

Seems simple enough, right? The only question I need to answer is whether or not to tell Fairplay about my Nullifier, or simply leave it at "LJ will vote for you to stay over Steph".
There are obviously certain things that could fuck my plan up, such as Fairplay jumping over to vote with Sean/Erik/Danielle, but I'm not sure he'd do that just to keep Steph in the game. If Lindsey didn't actually go out with the idol, I'm going to look like a pretty big ass, too. Either way, it's much better than what's been proposed so far, where I go around like a dumbass telling everyone I'll be playing my idol, giving them a golden opportunity to create a new majority alliance excluding me. We need to make a move that'll not only keep us safe this round, but next round, as well. If this move works, I forsee another A&M flip next round.