survivor-trinidad-and-tobago

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Finale, Awards, & Draft Winner

Final Tribal Council

The jury was largely split going into Final Tribal Council, and they served some TOUGH questions to our finalists. Jack and Michael defended their games admirably, but by the end of tribal council, we had a clear winner: Alex is this season's sole Survivor!

Alex played a great under the radar game, making early alliances with eman, Kaleigh, and Steven. After the first tribe swap, he was able to cement his bond with Kaleigh and Steven and continued working with them until Steven's untimely demise. Alex's social and strategic game especially were instrumental in making sure that the loss of a core ally wasn't responsible for ending his game. He was able to connect with Colin and Michael while keeping his threat level relatively low, and his allies stayed loyal to him to the end. He also won two individual immunity wins and a fire-making challenge. Not bad for an org newbie! Congratulations, Alex!

Awards

All right, we loved this cast SO MUCH so here's a whole bunch of awards.

Best Confessionals: Jack wins this title! Although he often was "delulu" (to use his own word), his confessionals ALWAYS had us laughing and kept us entertained.

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Best Host Chat: The player with the best host chat is Colin. Watching Colin be completely unhinged in their host chat only to be the world's best and most supportive tribemate in the tribe chat was hilarious. Colin always kept us abreast of what was happening in the game and their reactions to everything were hilarious.

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Best Duo: Champ and Zee were the best duo in the game. They were chaotic in the best way, and their antics leading up to the "funeral" tribal council where Tony ended up going home had us dying. They hustled like hell and even though it was pretty transparent what they were doing, they never gave up on each other or their alliance with Jack.

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Best Alliance: Trin's Favorites (Michael, Kaleigh, and Alex) wins Best Alliance. These three were in lock-step the entire post-merge game, and the vibes in that chat were IMMACULATE. Even when they were on the bottom and things seemed hopeless, they never gave up hope and had amazing attitudes. Their teamwork was unmatched, and their loyalty a testament to their bond. It was devastating to see them have to split up when Jack won the final immunity challenge, but even then, they split up on their own terms.

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Best Under the Radar Player: This goes to Kolby! Kolby was seen as a non-threat for much of the pre-merge game, and it seemed like every day he was being placed in a new alliance. Kolby was able to hide behind his allies, using them as shields while making subtle moves behind the scenes.

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Biggest Surprise Player: This just has to go to Michael. I don't think anyone expected Michael to be in the Final 3 based on his pre-merge game. He was very quiet, only talking to a handful of people (most of whom got voted out immediately). He was nearly a merge boot, but we're so glad he stuck around and got to come out of his shell. He had one hell of a strategic resume and had everyone nervous to vote him in fear that he would pull out another advantage.

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Biggest Move: Michael flipping on the seven alliance at the perfect moment (while simultaneously flushing Zee's idol by stealing her vote). This changed the course of the game completely and was amazing to watch as hosts.

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Biggest Flop: Zee using not just one, but two idols incorrectly. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

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Biggest Blindside: This almost went to Michael flipping on the seven, but really, y'all should have seen that coming. Instead, we're giving this to Zee and Champ sending Tony home using a Banked Vote. Zee and Champ played up their desperation perfectly leading up to tribal, including coordinating funeral outfits, and the other side felt confident enough to split the vote. Ultimately it didn't save Champ and Zee, but it did allow Jack to make it to the end!

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Best Tribal: Two words: CHAOS! IDOL! This was one of the most fun tribals to host because it gave the underdogs some semblance of control.

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Villain of the Season: This was a controversial choice, and we ultimately disagreed.

Trinica: My villain of the season is Eman. Eman played a masterful strategic game but was able to hide it behind an even more powerful social game. Everyone trusted Eman, and even after having the number of alliances they were in exposed at tribal council, their allies stayed loyal to them. What really cemented them as the villain of the season in my eyes is the way they ruled with an iron fist, running the votes in their alliances. To borrow their words: "If you take a swing at the queen, you better not miss." And if you did miss, Eman was COMING FOR YOU. A villain hiding behind a hero's game, Eman was incredible to watch from the host chat.

AJ: My villain of the season is Colin. Colin played a very strategic game, and wasn't afraid to hide it in the end. He was in the minority alliance, and openly stated that he would poison a jury if it came down to it at one point. But besides that he had many cunning moves and insights into the game, and was by far the ultimate challenge threat on Purgatory. The opposing alliance was constantly worried about what his potential return might bring, but within his own alliance he was widely trusted. Paired with his overall strategy, gameplay, and the snippets we got from his host chat, makes him the season villain in my eyes.

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Hero of the Season:

The hero of the season is Kaleigh. Kaleigh was a loyal player through and through and was willing to fall on the sword for her alliance time and time again. She agreed to go to fire at the end of the game, even though she was seen as a strong contender for winner if she made it to FTC. She only received two real votes this game, nearly won the Popularity Contest, and was widely beloved by everyone on the tribe. She played from the bottom for the majority of the game and did it with grace. And when it came time for her to join the jury, she never stopped going to bat for her allies, making sure that the jury knew just how strong their games were.

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Fan Favorite: This was no contest. Kaleigh was voted the fan favorite, receiving nearly half of all the votes. She was funny, whip-smart (even if she plays a bimbo on TV), and won hearts with her deadpan tribal council answers and big personality. You couldn't help but root for her!

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Player of the Season:

This is decided by the hosts as we got to watch the game unfold and see how people played. This was a really difficult decision as y'all played hard and were such a delight to host.

Second runner-up goes to Zee, who played her lil heart out. She was chaos incarnate, had a knack for finding advantages (even if that didn't always translate to playing them correctly), and was unafraid to speak her mind. Much like AJ, she's an intense player and was immediately clocked as a big target, but the votes never quite seemed to stick to her (until they very much did). Whether she was falsifying messages or getting caught in lies and trying to lie her way out of them, we always looked forward to Zee's antics. She slayed.

First runner-up goes to Michael. Again, Michael was a huge surprise to us. But when he got voted the person who didn't deserve to be here, he made sure that everyone knew he was here to play. He flipped with beautiful precision and completely annihilated the majority alliance, turning them into a minority alliance with the help of the allies he had been cultivating since the first swap. And when they were despairing that their game was over, he pulled out a chaos idol out of nowhere and changed the game again. Michael's strategic chops were amazing to watch.

Finally, the winner of Player of the Season goes to Kaleigh. Kaleigh played this game with her entire heart. Her enthusiasm for the challenges, humor, the apparent ease with which she built social connections, the aptitude for strategy that she hid behind her casual exterior, and her unwavering loyalty to her allies made her amazing to watch and an honor to host.

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We can now reveal that the winner of the draft was D'WEEENEEERS (Esteban) with 315 points. Here's how the rest of you did (or see it here).

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Finally, here's a link to the host chart, which includes the edgic and winner picks as well as some season stats.

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 17: "I wanna gag these mfs so hard and randomly win the final challenge so these hoes can scramble 🙄"—Jack

In this round: Jack gags these mfs so hard and randomly wins the final challenge so they all have to scramble; Michael, Kaleigh, and Alex take matters into their own hands and tie the vote on Alex and Kaleigh; Alex wins the fire-making challenge

Alex

This sucks. Good on Jack. He demolished that. This sucks. I don't want to vote for Kaleigh. Kaleigh was my number one this entire game. But I've gotta consider FTC arguments. This sucks.

Jack

OMFG BORING!!! Kayleigh is so lame for literally doing no moves. Out of the 3, Michael gets my vote if I’m on jury cause he at least has balls to make moves and own it. Kayleigh is fake af like bffr w me like??? Why lie??? I wanna gag these mfs so hard and randomly win the final challenge so these hoes can scramble 🙄

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as of right now I’m excited to enter the final 3 🥰 I hope Kayleigh walks out the door but even if she doesn’t I’m still actually confident in my ability to sway the jury my way

Michael

So this may be my final confessional, who knows, but I'm really proud of the game Alex, Kaleigh, and I played. We were able to even have one last call together before the vote. The plan is to tie up and go to fire, let's hope it happens! I think it'll be a great display of how much we ran this game if at the end even Jack with the final immunity win in the came can't control the last vote

Alex

Even at Final Four I'm gonna go out on my terms if I go out. And if I go out I'm gonna boost Kaleigh up in the process. LOL at me saying I'd play a villain game back at the start. Anyways if this is my last confessional: this was a fun fucking time. It was great meeting new people and seeing how creative this community is when it comes to game creation. This was what I thought it would be and it wasn't at the same time and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. Thank you for the invite, Trin. Thanks to all the players who helped make this the ride it was. At least if I go out tonight it'll be a few drinks deep at a concert for one of my favorite bands.

Kaleigh

WELL! THIS GAME IS REALLY ALMOST OVER! jack won that nonsense challenge so … alex and i are going to fire, i think. or, i guess, we are going to embarrassing towel game. jack told alex this morning that he wants to target me bc i’m such a baddie and everyone would vote for me - thx jack - I’M NOT BUYIN IT BUT OK I GUESS I AM VERY LOVABLE AND COOL AND PLAYED A KINDA SICK GAME BUT W/E!!!! INSANE TO GO FROM TARGETING MICHAEL OVER AND OVER TO ME SUDDENLY BEING THE BIG THREAT!!! alex suggested to me that we could have… michael and i vote for him, he votes michael, and jack votes me, to get alex out cuz he thinks i have a better chance with the jury than he does and wants to give our alliance the best chance at winning. but we are going to go to fire bc either way whichever of us wins gets that on their resume, and i think both of us are just… not that keen on pleading our cases to this jury LMAO i really don’t want to ;__; anyway. i loved this game i’m so happy and feel so lucky that i got to play such a long game with alex and michael, two angels from heaven, watched over by trinica, who i got to know a lot better and also love and cherish <3 i also truly loved steven he was gone way too soon <3 anyway i’m guessing this towel game is a guess who situation. and i told alex that bc i love him and want him to have as much of a chance as i do if i’m right. and i love michael he is a gem. can’t wait for game night :*

Alex

This is... bittersweet. But, hey, I said I wanted to play like Todd Herzog and now's my chance. Let's win it for Soca.

Tribal Council

Votes:

Kaleigh: Alex (ILY)

Alex: Kaleigh (❤️❤️❤️)

Michael: Alex (This is just how we planned it. I had a great time playing with you and getting to know you, and I hope we can continue to be friends post this game! Let's hangout!)

Jack: Kayleigh (ily girlie I would vote for a female over a male in every sense so u gotta go babes)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 16: "I'm definitely in the minority and I do think I'm a jury threat!"—Champ

In this round: Alex wins a very chaotic game of Solo; Champ is sent to the jury, leaving Jack as the last Hot Girrrrllllzzz member standing; and Kaleigh plays her idol since it's the last time she can use it

Alex

Sorry for the last-minute steal, there, Kaleigh, but I couldn't let you take the lead in immunity wins. It's nice to know that everyone's pretty wiped out by this point in the season and nicer to know that we're just a few days to the end. It's maybe leaning Champ for this next vote? I think she's a greater threat at final immunity and then as long as Jack doesn't win final immunity it's our little trio at FTC?? Champ would probably snag a good number of the majority votes and Jack already got voted out of the game, which is just further points in the column of why I'd rather go with Kaleigh and Michael when asked. Kaleigh's making it sound like votes are a little more up in the air than I personally think they are, and I don't know if that's the case but either way we'll see what happens.

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So I've been kind of just happy to scrap through with Michael and Kaleigh because they're the ones I'm closest to but when I do think about it, which I honestly haven't done a ton of tbh lmao, it just makes more sense to anyways. Like, Jack or Champ are gonna pull jury votes by default if they make it to the end. At least this way MAYBE I'd be considered the lesser of three evils.

Kaleigh

WOW ALEX RLY STOLE THAT THIRD IMMUNITY WIN FROM ME!!!!!!!!! but good for him LOL um, who will we be getting out? champ i guess? i guess i’ll use my idol on myself just as a safeguard ? i don’t think anyones coming for me but like… what am i gonna do, save it ?? as a souvenir? lmao i have so little energy to put into this at this point i’m just like… lets get on with it!!! jack and champ of course are like LETS GET MICHAEL OUT! but honestly like i have wanted to just get to the end w alex and michael this whole time …AND also that’s what i think is best for my game at this point? like if i flipped on michael i’d be … only POTENTIALLY getting to the final 3, and even if i did make it to final 3, jack and/or champ would be at the end too, and like the majority of the jury are ppl who were closely allied with champ. or who are salty enough that they’d vote jack if the option was me/jack/alexormichael. so i think the only way to give myself a chance at winning is to go with michael and alex. which coincidentally happens to be what i want to do! so i think i’ll vote champ and play my idol for myself just to show everyone i had it LOL

Jack

So even tho Alex won and it seems like me and champ are at a 3-2 disadvantage it seems like Kayleigh is ready to make a move and get out Michael LOL so maybe me and champ are boujee. At this point we have no other option LOL

Michael

No one has talked to me today really, so I know I'm going. 5th out, it's been fun.

Champ

Omg running late on a confession again! Honestly it’s so obvious it’s me going home, I’m definitely in the minority and I do think I’m a jury threat! Everyone so boring ew bye

Tribal Council

Votes:

Champ: Michael (You’re boring OPES)

Kaleigh: Champ (ILY ANGEL GOOD LUCK ON UR ILLINOIS SURVIVOR COMP!! <3)

Alex: Champ (Sorry, dear, but I think you could pull out a final immunity win. Just know that you weren't dragged to final five, your own game got you this far ❤️❤️)

Michael: Champ (You've played a great game, and I think if you make it to final tribal you have a really good shot at winning. I think it's me tonight, but if you do get voted out this tribal, even though we didn't play together, you made the game really fun!)

Jack: Michael (wouldn’t be surprised if me or champ go home, but hopefully Kayleigh voted with us)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 15: "ACQUIESCE BABY!!!"—Kaleigh

In this round: Everyone acquiesces to Kaleigh's spelling superiority when she wins her second individual immunity; Kaleigh steals Zee's vote; and Zee joins the jury

Zee

Whaddup my name's Jared I'm 19 and I never fuckin learned how to read

Michael

Honestly not much to report! I'm going to try and stay strong with Alex and Kaleigh. Tony left but I'm sure that's a big relief for him, he did great for his first game.

Jack

Hey babes, so I’m SOOO HAPPY to be back and I’m with my hot gurlzzz and I love them. Im so happy Tony got out cause he didn’t vote w me (that’s what he gets 😌). At this point anyone but me, champ, or zee going home is the best for my game cause it’s gonna be a 3-3 tie. IM READY FOR ROCKS☠️😈

Kaleigh

woooooo another immunity win, i woulda been so shocked if someone could beat me at a spelling bee. ACQUIESCE BABY!!! my deranged cobwebby brain is good at one thing and one thing only… and that’s spelling. i’m jk i’m good at other things too but wow lol ok. so i’m immune tonight. zee is asking me and alex to flip on michael, and its just condescending at this point :( like i know what i’m doing babe and idgaf if u think michael is gonna win. i’m fine with that LMAO why would i flip on my allies to be at the bottom of ur 3? like? no??? but i told her it’s a possibility but i think i’ll probably just steal a vote tonight and get zee out. please god don’t let her have another stinking advantage !! also i finished that book and it was extremely good. and it’s my niece’s 4th birthday.

Alex

Ugh, this vote still feels tenuous. Champ said today she wanted to take Zee out last vote (not that it would have mattered, ultimately - I KNEW she had a second idol lol). She's flat out lied to me so many times at this point, but she also knows how big of a threat Zee is. Finding the time to actually talk game with her feels like it will be impossible, though. I finally reached out to Zee last night to compliment her on still trying to unify the tribe like with the game night. She used the words 'icing out' to describe how quiet chat has been between sides, which is fair. I don't know if it was directed only at me, but even if that wasn't what I was trying to do I can see how she felt that way. It just felt like there was not even, like, pretended level of potential to work together and I didn't know how to bridge the gap of "hey even though we won't tell each other anything in-game, how's life?" and have it not seem disingenuous. So I'm glad that came out of last night. The Tony blindside definitely surprised me, and Jack coming back into the game over Colin. It really feels like it's Champ or bust with this vote but if we come to the risk of rocks, I see them possibly flipping. Now that I'm at Actual Final 6 I don't actually want to go to rocks anymore lol. It just feels like if we can get through tomorrow's vote we could get the rest of the way but who knows. If Zee has a third idol I'll lose my mind lmao. The way Kaleigh's still got her steal a vote and idol and I'm sitting over here with my flopped advantages. Sigh. Kind of incredible of her to only have one vote against her so far AND IT'S FROM ME. She's killing it. Wait. Do I have the most votes out of our 3? I do! Well, that's something I guess. Maybe I could have played a more fluid game, and tried to get the majority alliance to eat each other from the inside of it, but there's no point in thinking about that now. I'm at Final 6 and that's very neat.

Champ

I’m running late again for the confession, anyways here for a good time! Not a long time LMFAO

Zee

Haven't heard from Jack all day, Champ messaged once. I'm pretty sure I'm going home tonight

Tribal Council

Zee: LOST VOTE

Champ: Alex (ROCKS ROCKS ROCKS)

Kaleigh: Zee (IF YOU HAVE A THIRD IDOL ISTG)

Kaleigh (Zee’s Stolen Vote): Zee

Alex: Zee (You’ve played SUCH a good game, and for all I know, you could still be here after this vote. It genuinely wouldn’t surprise me lmao. But here’s hoping this works. I enjoyed our pre-swap talks.)

Michael: Zee (you’ve played a wonderful game, sorry we didn’t really play together but that’s how it goes 🤷🏾‍♂️)

Jack: Alex (sorry babes we ain’t working together)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 14: "It's just us two, plus this extra vote."—Zee

In this round: Alex destroys the competition in Puzzle Paradise; Jack narrowly beats out Colin on Purgatory and comes back after tribal council; Zee plays another idol but ultimately doesn't need it (on brand); Champ dabs throughout tribal council; the newly formed 28 and Up alliance splits their votes in case Zee has an idol; and they would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their Banked Vote

Alex

Okay, well the back-up plan still worked! Props to Jack for going down swinging and for making it until that last tribal before ever receiving a vote. And props to Champ for reading the way the votes were headed. So Trin is talking jury management and I'll be honest: Kaleigh and Michael are both playing bigger games than me, when I think on it. Michael has had 2 big moves so far and the girls are at least still talking to Kaleigh, but they've fully stopped talking to me. Steven sent his advantage to Kaleigh, Astyn would probably vote Michael as an original Calypso unless they were still upset that he's the one who went home over them, and I'm not gonna get Kolby's vote cause he think I flipped on Soca (props to Zee for that gotta admit). I burned Eman at least once at this point, with stealing their half of the extra vote, though to be fair, that was only a last resort after Zee stole Michael's. Jack I could maybe get but he reached out to me specifically about the Eman move which we ended up not doing so he could easily be feeling burned by that, but realistically he's probably just more impressed with Michael's/Kaleigh's game over mine. Tony would vote Michael. Steven and Colin are the only ones that really feel up in the air but they're also probably impressed by Michael's moves. I am. Even if the girls don't want to vote Kaleigh they'd probably vote Michael over me. There's still a lot of game to go, though, and I don't want to get ahead of myself. But I don't see how I win unless I'm in the finale with other people and tbh that's not a Final 3 I want to be in!! This is all for fun (and stress) and Michael and Kaleigh are the ones I had the most fun with so obviously if I can't win, I want one of them to! I Sorry I'm bad at wordle and choose your own adventures so I never found an idol, I guess? I can make the case that my game was always more social and that I was always willing to be flexible until someone made it clear they were no longer interested in working with me, but at a certain point, all y'all made it clear you didn't want to! If I keep offering I either look a fool or desperate. Again, this is getting aaaahead of myself and damn I would love to get immunity at least once for both security and a little bragging rights, but we'll see what happens. Even if I am kind of the goat out of the three of us, I can't NOT hope that our 3-person minority could make it to the end together after all this.

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LET'S! FUCKING! GOOO! I'll have more to say later, once more strategy gets talked, but FUCK THIS FEELS GOOD. I DOMINATED THAT.

Kaleigh

sigh this game is rly something huh??? colin and jack are in purgatory, we are at final six, and colin is presumably coming back today. zee lost her vote last round so i’m guessing colin did that LOL wonderful. who will go home tonight? i do not know. i need to go to the grocery store for pesto and tinned fish. so. we have champ and zee, obviously a tight pair, and then me, alex, michael, and tony. champ and zee are SCRRAAAAAMBLING! i do feel zee has an idol, but that might j be bananas. but i do feel it. she is RELENTLESS. now saying she’s down to flip on champ. my god. maybe we will try to make it seem like it’s gonna be champ in the hopes that zee will feel safe enough to not play her idol (if she has one) and then j vote for zee. i still have my steal a vote and my idol. idk what’s gonna happen tonight. alex won the puzzle challenge and did insanely well, good for u alex!!! like damn!!! everyone has been kinda offline for the past couple days, it feels like we are j all burnt out - we have been playing for 33 days and i’m just zzzzzz tired. we’ll see what’s in store tonight. also i started reading a good book it’s called the indifferent stars above :)

Zee

So we lost Jack last tribal after Tony flipped, another hot girl, gone with the wind. This is very much not ideal, however I did expect it. Tony and Michael are Ride or Dies, I’ve been saying this since we hit the merge. Michael and Tony refuse to vote each other, so when Tony suggested Michael last tribal I had a bad feeling, especially with Eman gone, Tony had no reason to align with us anymore. But I banked my vote in the hopes that things would go well, and as a bit of security in case they didn’t. Currently there’s six of us left, Champ and I have been playing from the bottom/in the hot seat ever since the Raffy vote out, and since then our numbers have been quickly dwindling from flips and vote outs. It’s just us two, plus this extra vote. Problem is, I don’t want to use my idol, because if I use my idol and Champ goes home, then I’m idolless, and I was planning to use this to idol myself into final four. Our only hope right now is to pull one or two people from the other side onto our side.

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Last night I said to Kaleigh like, what is going to happen once they finally vote the rest of us out? They’ll have to turn on each other. I should probably say more about that today too tbh. Like, she’s the only girl, and if Jack comes back that means they’ll have to turn inward at final four, and if not, they’ll have to turn inward at final five if Colin is the one to come back. Tony and Michael would bring each other without a doubt, so it would be her or Alex battling it out in final four, or Alex would vote with the majority in final five, adding Kaleigh to the Jury. All she replied last night was “oh I’ll have to think about it. I want to see the challenge results.” which roughly translates to “Oh I won’t be voting with you, I just want to see if either of you win the challenge so we know who to pick.” Kaleigh also said last night that she “wasn’t willing to go to rocks” if it was a 3-3 vote, so I suggested she bring in Alex and we vote Tony or Michael, genuinely I don’t even care if it’s Tony at this point. I doubt she will but we’ll see.

Tony

The final countdown! I’ve obviously flipped over to the 28+ club and it’s been nice so far. I’m trying to go final 4 with Alex, Kaleigh, and Michael but tbh, would love to make it to final two with Michael but only time shall tell! I’m nervous if Jack returns as he knows I voted for him. I’m also nervous about Colin because I’m not sure if he’ll want to work with me.

Zee

Me and Champ really need to bust our asses off and pull some A-level gameplay in order to survive this tribal in the slim hopes that Jack comes back. I’m suggesting that we tell Tony that Alex and Kaleigh suggested either him or Michael for the tribal, and that they’re planning to blindside them, maybe even fabricate some messages that Kaleigh could have written. Tell them that since it’s only us two we genuinely don’t care anymore and just wanted to let them know. Then suggest that they Vote Kaleigh with us. I mean, I’ve been playing/trying to play a pretty honest game so far, but at this point it doesn’t really seem worth it if it means I get voted out. I really don’t want to waste my idol. Not after last time. Also there’s at least one other idol out there that somebody else found, and it could be Alex or Kaleigh since Alex said that stupid chicken phrase. If we can scatter their votes, then we can have the power in numbers with our three votes. And we could finally get Michael out, OR, vote Kaleigh, but I don’t really want to take that risk.

Michael

Last ditch efforts to flip me by zee and Champ are kind of wild, but it's survivor. Feel like I'm going home tonight, every night I don't go home from last tribal on is a win to me. They should really cut me. If they were smart they would cut me rn.

Champ

Everyone left in the game is so ugly tbh except queen Zee- she’s so iconic duh! Musty Michael thinks he’s running the game LOL! Anyways tonight I’m dressed for my funeral tonight🫶🏻

Tribal Council

Champ: Tony (NOT TRAITOR TONY EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW)

Zee: Tony (Bonk)

Zee (Banked Vote): Tony (Bonk Bonk)

Alex: Champ (I’m just part of a split that’ll hopefully result in you still being here. If not, nothing personal I promise <3.)

Kaleigh: Zee (i somehow doubt ur going home but ily :’))

Michael: Champ (Hey no hard feeling we just ended up on different sides, I could see myself playing with you in the future! Who knows it could be me tonight.)

Tony: Zee (your challenge endurance is unmatched and I’ve had a great time playing with you.)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 13: "Garfgoyle give me strength 🙏🏽"—Tony

In this round: After Michael begging Tony to flip for several rounds, Tony finally makes the jump; Zee absolutely dominates 24-Hour Tasks; Champ plays a Safety Without Power since she lost her vote due to Masochism anyway; Champ gives the Bank Your Vote advantage she got from eman to Zee, who banks her vote; and Jack is left as the only one in that alliance able to receive OR cast votes, which sends him to Purgatory even with his Grow As You Go idol nullifying two votes

Alex

Michael's a fucking king. Like. Pulling that Chaos Idol out of his back pocket like that? Incredible. Then the teamwork of each of us figuring out a step in making it happen? OBSESSED WITH THOSE TWO!!! Everyone on the other side is blatantly lying to either me or Kaleigh LMAO except for Tony so MAYBE we can get Tony to work with us to take out Champ tomorrow. That's gonna rely pretty heavily on Michael, I know, and it feels like he'd be in kind of a tough spot no matter who comes back from Purgatory if he did flip, but also Tony might see it as an opportunity to make a move in this game since the girls are running the show over there. If not, I'll go to rocks, I don't care lmao and I know Kaleigh feels the same way. Lemme go out on my terms, baby. Not sure about Michael, he's been feeling too rough post wisdom teeth surgery to talk game, but I do feel that he'd be more willing to go to rocks than Jack or Tony. Entering merge, I wouldn't have guessed I would've been working so opposite Eman this game, and it sucks that's how that played out, but it just seemed like we didn't see each other as actual options for moving forward together (even before the Colin vote). I really thought Eman or Tony were gonna win Masochism and save each other, though.

--

Anyways 24 hours tasks is the bane of my existence. I legit was playing it all through the night while still camping and hanging with friends and I still feel like I'm not doing enough so that's super fun. I'm afraid to take a shower in case I miss another post that I'll probably fuck up by misreading a component of the prompt. So we're having a fun time right now. I don't feel like I'm going to win this game and I have no idea how many words this is but I'm hoping that we've reached 50 because I'm not living la vida loca right now.

Kaleigh

this game is honestly driving me crazy. I can’t believe that zee is so far ahead of everyone even though Alex and I both stayed up until like 6 AM and Tony has been really playing his little heart out. This is just crazy I really don’t want Zee to win immunity LMAO I don’t even know why I don’t think we’re going for her but I guess we’ll see. poor michael is still laid up with his jaw swollen from wisdom teeth surgery so it truly is just me and alex LOL god i hope we can get tony to swing to our side. here’s hoping !! pray for us!!

Michael

Seems like the challenge is over already but why not do one. Also my mom kept me from posting in time. This round has been exciting to say the least. At the previous tribal council my alliance and I were able to pull off a successful play of the chaos idol, which only adds to my resume at this point. I fear that this makes me a large target? But I can't let fear keep me from making moves. Classic survivor bby.

Zee

They had us in the first half, I'm not gonna lie. I woke up at seven this morning after going to sleep super late last night because I thought people would sleep and I could catch up. I woke up FORTY POINTS BEHIND. Anyway nobody really went to sleep but I've mostly made that up by now with a solid 20 point lead, I'm just unsure if I can keep that up until the deadline tonight

Champ

Omg sorry I have like 15 minutes to put this in! I’m gonna play my safety without power so I’ll be in final 6! Yay :)

Kaleigh

okay that 24 hour task challenge was hell on earth. and also kinda fun. but would have been more fun if i won. i stayed up till SIX AM TO LOSE. LIKE! okay hats off to zee tho she fought for her life fr. um. so. last night’s tribal. was nuts. a little bit before it started, michael sent me and alex info about this CHAOS IDOL advantage he had purchased (FROM WHERE ? STILL DONT KNOW) and he had to solve a riddle and then unscramble a sentence and say the sentence at tribal to activate it. fucken a. we did it. we did it ALL!! anyway the chaos idol protects whoever has had a vote cast against them, so we voted for each other and evvvvveryone else voted for alex. so we 3 were protected and they had to revote one of them out lmfaooo a couple mins into voting, eman was like put the votes on me, i’ll come back! and they ended up going home, with just two votes on jack. it was an insane move. michael is rly pissing these ppl off LMFAOOO i am obsessed. zee messaged me before tribal yday and was like girl i j wanna let u know they are gunning for u LMFAOOO BABY YOU REALLY THINK I AM A FOOL!!! LIKE WHAT!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO! after tribal she messages me and is like “i convinced them to vote for alex!” HAHAHAHA MY GODDD!!! now she’s trying to convince me that michael is a huge threat blah blah we should vote him out no one would see it coming if i swapped to them lmaoo. god. i was like babes champ doesn’t have a vote why would i swap now. lets go to rocks babes. idc. she also kept trying to convince me that michael is talking to everyone over there and apologizing for flipping and wants to work with them LMFAOOO NOT THE MICHAEL I KNOW!!!!!!!! so she is being wild, jack and champ are both messaging me without talking game, like y’all please give me a break. please. please! god i’m so glad we dont have tribal tonight. i am dog sitting this chihuahua who literally will whine until i TUCK HIM IN. WITH A BLANKET. it’s absolutely insane and adorable. michael thinks we can get tony to flip to us, which like… tony should. absolutely. but will he? i don’t FUCKING know. would it be a bigger move to flip to us to get one of them out, or to trick us into trusting him and get one of us out? either way he’s on the bottom of either alliance and is boned :( like, oopsies. um. idk if we’re gonna toss all our votes on 1 person and hope for no idol or put 2 each on champ and jack and hope they dont have an extra vote or whatever, then revote after the tie and get champ out. still dyin to know who PREVAILED in purgatory today. will i play my steal a vote? my idol? i dont knoooooow. it depends on what they do and who’s back from purgatory. ok. i’m tired.

Michael

Soooo, I think my time is near. I very well may be going home tonight. Zee and Champ are trying to Flip Kaleigh, and I honestly wouldn't blame her for flipping now but Zee and Champ are a dangerous duo. Hopefully Kaleigh stays with us, I absolutely adore playing with Kaleigh. But my spidersense is tingling hardcore. I've had fun!

Tony

That last challenge was hella fun! But goddamn I cannot stay up to save my life. Eman and I had something solid going with our alliance, but with them gone it’s time for me to flip over to the 28+ club. I’m making the flip at tomorrows tribal. Garfgoyle give me strength 🙏🏽. We’re gonna have to be smart about this, but from here on out, it’s gotta be Michael and I to the end 🤙🏽

Alex

It's funny that, like, one of my earliest confessionals in the game was me talking about like 'oooh am I gonna play a villian game???' after the lie about the extra vote being just a Shot in the Dark and now I'm ride or die with Michael and Kaleigh to the point that I am willing to go home tonight in rocks or have Kaleigh play her idol on Michael instead of me. And if that's the case, then the girls are playing are playing better than I thought because they are actually banking on us having an idol and believing they're gonna target Michael this time even though they've targeted me twice. Oh well. We'll see what happens.

Jack

I’ve been super busy but even with my two negated votes with the amulet I still think I will go home lol hopefully me champ and zee r all safe but we’ll see

Tribal Council

Lost Votes: Champ, Zee

Jack: Michael (sry baby ur too iconic at tribal)

Alex: Jack (This wasn’t the plan, but I wasn’t expecting Champ to do that. Sorry, buddy.)

Kayleigh: Jack (SORRY BABES <3 GL)

Michael: Jack (Damn, didn’t want to do this right now but kind of have to. Hope your vacation is fun!)

Tony: Jack (it’s been fun playing with you! You’re always great at breaking up tense moments with humor and it’s much appreciated!)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 12: "michael and alex and i are FULLY FUCKING VIBING like can we just get an escape pod to leave the game together"—Kaleigh

In this round: Michael is considered a traitor for flipping on an alliance where nobody asked for his input; Champ goes all the way in Masochism, earning her a slew of disadvantages, including the reveal of her Hot Giiiirrrlllzzzz alliance with Zee and Jack; Zee gets immunity by proxy; an anesthesia-addled Michael shares the details of his chaos idol with his alliance a half hour before tribal and they manage to decode it, using it to flip the vote onto the majority alliance; eman tries to vote herself but in lieu of that, volunteers to go to Purgatory

Eman

Earlier today, I sent the following message to the VL.

"Ugh, the ETHICS of it all!"

I was torn between three votes: Michael, Alex, and Colin.

Michael was the obvious vote - he betrayed EVERYONE (on our side).

Colin was the strategic vote - and also an absolute snake-in-the-grass.

Alex - Alex was the vote causing me angst. I wanted to keep my word to him. I did. Not just because I don't like striking first (which is terribly gendered behavior and I need to get over it) but also because I just do. As I've said before I wanna play a heroes game.

But here's the deal, yo! And I've said it before.

I'm not gonna strike first, but I will strike back. (And this goes double when it's someone I care about)

Now, obvs. I forgave Jack for two reasons. 1) Cuz he's playing to my ego and calling me 'auntie' and I'm a superficial slut and 2) because I truly believe the guy doesn't have a malicious bone in his body and he got played.

I will also add that I obviously would've had an issue voting against (for?? what preposition works here) Kaleigh as well even if she hadn't been immune.

(SIDENOTE - Fuck me with a rusty pocket knife I just read the challenge)

But - Kaleigh and Alex voted against me here . . . and that means all bets are off. I didn't write their name before, and I wouldn't've, but I have no problem doing so now. Probably moreso Kaliegh than Alex as she stole my 1/2 an extra vote (albeit Alex told her about it).

I like when previously difficult ethical dilemmas are rendered easy. So thanks, ya'll.

Alex

I am 0 for 3 in trusting my gut this week and if I were even 1 for 3 I would be in such a different spot in this game. So that kind of sucks to think about. Kaleigh has an idol and if I was right with my intuition on Eman MAYBE there's still hope but it doesn't feel like anyone from the other side is gonna try and shake things up (or talk to me today LOL) who knows what will happen. Whatever. The chat between me, Kaleigh, and Michael last night was the most fun I've had in this game so far so I'm glad that happened before one of us potentially goes.

Jack

Kaleigh

god this game.. zee got a steal a vote and stole michael’s vote and jack lied and said he didn’t have a vote (i think he’s lying cuz tony said he didn’t have a vote and jack claims he found out DURING the vote, which i do not see being something the hosts doing). michael and alex and i are FULLY FUCKING VIBING like can we just get an escape pod to leave the game together LMFAOO i fully would!!! so i’m gonna have to tell the boys that i have a steal a vote, probably tell michael i have an idol… idek this game is giving me brain worms. i dont know who to vote for tn bc A) two people are gonna be immune (probably on their side) and whoever wins immunity is probably going to have some unknown slew of disadvantages, one of which may be losing their vote. SO. i have to be careful about how i play STEAL A VOTE. and i have to try and figure out if i can use my idol in a smart way. FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!! maybe i should ask my host chat if i can build a spy shack á la tony in cagayan.

i love alex and michael, i’m saying that straight up so JOT THAT DOWN FOR THE EDGIC. champ i feel uncertain about, i know she has lied to me about multiple things, zee i WISH i could work with again but i don’t think we’ll ever be able to trust each other. but who knows man. we chatted yesterday and she lied to me about some shit and may have been honest about some shit. she said she didn’t know about emans advantage that i stole LMAO but idk idk. eman i don't feel good about at all. god fuck, i do not wanna go home tonight! i need to be able to talk to alex every day or i will die!! i need to be able to talk to michael about tv!!! well we can’t actually scheme until we know who’s immune so. time to let go and let GOD

Tony

Things are getting dicier as the game continues on. I’m gonna have to make a choice to flip but tonight is not the night to do it especially with the amount of disadvantages I’ve got going on. Michael has saved me once so I feel like I owe him at least to know if folks are gunning for him.

Zee

See, people think I'm not perceptive, or that I don't notice things, but my anxious ass is constantly thinking. I'm pretty sure that I'm the one being left out of the most conversations happening in this game right now. The only (active) alliance chat I'm in right now is Hot Girlz, but it's late in the game, there's definitely more Alliance chats out there, and aside from the fact that I need to step up my game, it's kind of making me think about who's aligning with who. Right now I'm pretty sure Tony and Michael are working together still, it's smart too since nobody would expect them to be working together, and it means Tony would have the power to flip whenever he wants. Eman and Champ and Tony i think are working together closer than she's leading me to believe, but only because nobody but Champ told me about Tony losing a vote, so she had to know somehow. This has got me thinking that I'm gonna have to step up my gameplay and maybe choose my loyalties a bit better. Obviously Kaleigh Michael and Alex are working together still, but everybody kind of knew that already.

--

I think i need to put in more work with the rest of the tribe, and maybe get some alliances going, since I'm not in a great position right now. I'm honestly not in too many alliances and that's kinda upsetting. Kaleigh and I have a weird Romeo and Juliet thing going on where we're both in opposing alliances but we're still talking tea about past shit or cool stuff the others have done during tribal or just in the game in general. I'm hoping maybe there's the chance for she and I to start working together again, but who knows.

Eman

Okay, let's think this through because I have nothing else to do between now and my 9AM flight and I may have had one-too-many cans of wine.

Given: There's no way to win this challenge.

Proposition: I have to get the least worst option.

We are now at 8.

People I am pretty sure are "on my side"™️ - Zee - Champ - Tony

People on "the other side"™️ - Michael - Alex - Kaleigh

Here's where things get interesting. Jack is a free agent though I think he's burned his bridges mostly because he was played and who would like that. BUT at the same time he might be aware he's on the bottom on his alliance.

And Colin is in purgatory and I wouldn't put it past him to send a disadvantage if not to me to my side.

So, what's a human to do.

Option A - fuck immunity, pray you wind up in purgatory where you can either send advantages to your side or fuck up the other side because you sure as shit don't wanna wind up on the jury, but at the same time it's pretty certain you're going to be voted out if somehow "The Other Side"™️ can garner enough votes.

Option B - Fight like hell for immunity and take whatever stacked disadvantages come with it. Even if those stacked disadvantages mean losing your vote. Even if those stacked disadvantages mean potentially fucking yourself over for future rounds.

Now. . . wouldn't it be funny if "The Other Side"™️ knows that you're fighting like fuck for immunity . . . because, after all a) you need it and b) you're the type of person who will fight like hell and c) you're also the type of person who will fight like hell for their people and the prospect of a SECOND immunity is extraordinarily tantalizing.

So, in order to try to rob you of that advantage someone on "The Other Side"™️ also steps up.

And wouldn't it be funny if I didn't.

And they have, in so doing basically thrown one of their own to the wolves because only one is not immune.

Wouldn't that be funny.

Anyway, I haven't decided what I'm doing yet - because mostly I have to decide where the line between martyr and criminal mastermind lies (somewhere south of "never go up a Sicilian when death is on the line")

And also because then I'll have to immediately decide to whom I'm giving the immunity - a long time ally or a chaotic choice that also seems rational (perhaps Jack as a reward for sticking with me?)

And whether I'm willing to have potential disadvantages from Colin stacked on top of whatever disadvantages I earn in exchange for immunity.

Holy hell.

I think I may have just calmly and rationally talked myself out of going for this immunity. There may actually be far more to lose than to gain, and a lot of my day job includes trying to convince people to not fall for the trap of short-term-ism, which is what this challenge is.

But it's not scheduled until tomorrow afternoon, so I have more than enough time to try to argue myself into another decision . . .

Champ

Again doing confessionals so last minute, anyway LMFAO kinda iconic for 2 immunities right away but yeah I’m for sure Screwed going forward. Hopefully this next vote goes according to plan and there’s not any extra votes or steel votes honestly I would love for a rock draw because I’m safe the end so let’s spice things up. Anyways hope I’m not getting too cocky cause I’m definitely not next.

Tribal Council

Tony: Jack (I hope we get to play again together someday!)

Michael: EMAN (We didn't really get to play together)

Alex: Eman (Again, genuinely a testament to your game that this was the extent we had to go to take you out. I'm glad I got to be a  hero with you for a little while.)

Kaleigh: EMAN (i hope u enjoy ur tripp)

Champ: Eman 

Zee: Eman (as you wish, your sacrifice will not be forgotten)

Eman: Jack (I hope this doesn't work. I wasn't allowed to vote for myself)

Jack: eman

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 11: "Jack holds all the power in this vote. Jack. God help us all."—eman

In this round: Kaleigh wins Wordle; Zee immediately re-finds her idol; Tony and Michael are left at tribal council without votes; Kaleigh steals Eman's 1/2 of the Guac is Extra vote they shared with Alex; Michael is Public Enemy #1 for destroying the seven alliance; Zee is somehow playing from the bottom in an alliance of 5 people out of the remaining 9; and the Core 4 alliance loses a member when Colin is sent home

Champ

Phone on 3% so this is short and sweet, um yeah Michael you went from goat to actually making a move! Congrats!!!!! Just upset it was at Kolby’s expense… #justiceforkolby #IWillComeForYouMichael

Jack

Michael

Oooooh boyyyyyy we pulled it off, it's fun to actually do a survivor thing. This vote isn't going to be as simple as we think, I'm sure that the other side is organize a vote against me. If I go out now I'm happy that I made a successful move instead of riding to the end of the game on someone else's ingenuity and success.

Colin

i've been on such a HIGH since last tribal. holy shit I can't believe that worked.

god bless Michael. he really made that move and it's HIS to claim, I don't wanna take it away from him. but I feel like Kaleigh, Alex, Michael, and I collaborated so well and everything went PERFECTLY.

we FLUSHED ZEE'S IDOL and then GOT RID OF KOLBY. I had a suspicion that Zee did have an idol so I'm glad I was right and we got rid of it. I just hope she doens't have any more.

the current plan is to pull in Jack and vote out Eman. it's gonna be a lil difficult because Jack did approach us last round to work with us, but we didn't know how much we could trust him. he ended up actually being honest, but then showing his whole ass by being the ONLY vote for Eman. it's nice to know that he was being honest, but now I hope he's willing to continue to work with us now.

the plan is to vote Eman and use an extra vote just as a safeguard in case Jack doesn't trust us now. the scary part is that I have no idea who the other side is voting, so if Eman gets idoled, or if they have any extra votes, we have no idea who they're targeting. we now have TWO IDOLS to spare but I don't wanna waste them and potentially still be wrong. it's a toughie!

Alex

What a fucking wild 48 hours. Jack flipping??? WHAT? That wasn't the move I necessarily wanted to make but it's the move I trusted could successfully happen. I wanted to trust Jack so badly but I just wasn't sure. Going from not talking game at all to hey here's the entire plan they had?? It felt too good to be true! And I told him that when we talked post-tribal so hopefully he'll still trust me/us going forward. But also again maybe that's what you can get when you talk real world with someome and not just game. I do genuinely really like Jack! He's fun and has a fully different energy he's bringing to the game. Plus he's the only person from the other half who even attempted to talk to me today so I kind of hate we did that to him. But if Astyn hadn't stolen Michael's vote I feel like we could have actually taken out Eman. But now we've got the Core 4 + Jack MAYBE? Jack's gonna get to be a swing vote now and he still knows Champ IRL (something neither of them know Kaleigh and I know) and I could see Kolby sending me a disadvantage, so we'll see what happens next. That vote genuinely was not personal. But if Kolby was refusing to talk to me because either Eman, Zee, or Champ made him think I flipped and he didn't feel like even trying to verify, I'm not complaining we got him out. Was my voting message a little villainous? Yeah. But also he thought I was a villain so hey why not lean into it?

I FEEL LIKE I STILL HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT. We got Zee to burn her idol when they were trying to do that to us which is amaaaazing. I don't remember who pointed out that if we stole Zee's vote she'd probably play her idol (Michael?) but fucking GENIUS. I still wonder if Eman has the Maracas idol (which is also why I was nervous about Jack's plan) but at least now Zee maybe doesn't? Unless she immediately found the merge idol. IDK! I should have gone to the water well tonight! ALSO, I got votes! And Champ straight up lied to me about "having me". Giiirl. AND I still have to choose who I think will win next challenge AND could still maybe do the beware advantage that Kaleigh got. Idk. I actually feel like I have options in this game again after last tribal but again I don't want to be too optimistic. No one from the other 4 have reached out and I don't expect them to other than maybe Eman so our majority feels tenuous at best rn. But hey, made it another day, and I'll take that. I'm just glad I got to not game tonight and actually feel fully present with my friends I'm out camping with.

--

I should have pushed for splitting the votes on Eman and Kolby and said it was worth the risk of going home to have Jack fully trust us. I should have used my Gamble Advantage on Kaleigh like I initially planned to. I think I'm gonna transfer it to Kaleigh because hindsight is feeling Not Great tonight. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Eman

I'm not complaining. I'm not. This is great. I just have one question.

HOW THE HELL AM I STILL ALIVE?

I mean, I would've voted me out by this point.

That said, I'm also more determined than ever to win, so there's that.

I am also trying to figure out whomst I can really trust. And it might boil down to Champ and Zee--in that order.

Unless I can figure out what the hell happened b/t Michael & Tony. I mean . . . did Michael make the move independent of Tony or is there more going on there. Cuz I'm not gonna get played for a fool.

I'm loyal to those I'm loyal to, but if you fuck me, I'm gonna fuck you harder.

--

After whinging about the *hard* parts of the game for the past few days, I have to drop a bit of a paean, and why I keep coming back, and it's the friendships

A breathless Skype call with Champ last night that moved from the game to a multitude of other topics, a chat with Zee this morning where we talked again about the game and then about anything but.

Jack DMing me last night to apologize and say we'd still be friends IRL (and the funny thing is I *do* take his betrayal less personally than I have so many others in past games.

I'm sad about Kolby--wish I coulda been on the call to say goodbye.

So, yeah, that's what keeps me coming back; it's the friendships.

After all, it's not like we're playing for real money - but as I learned in Girl Scouts, friendship is more precious than gold.

--

Just realized Jack holds all the power in this vote.

Jack.

God help us all.

Tony

The final 9! Didn’t think I was gonna make it this far tbh. I’m learning now that people don’t perceive me as a threat and perhaps see me at the bottom of the tribe. I have been working pretty closely with Champ and Eman, but I also want to work with Michael to the end. I’m obviously conflicted on the situation! I’m gonna keep my votes neutral for now, but I’m obviously gonna have to make a flip sooner or later

Kaleigh

WELL I HAVE IMMUNITYYYY thanks to alex tossing his extra 10% gamble advantage thing on me. i also found an idol with alex’s help and told him about it - the notification of getting the idol said “this cannot be stolen from you” which … makes it sound like it can’t be stolen from me…. but trinica clarified after i told alex and colin that it CAN be stolen from me j not randomly - like.. knowledge is power would work but someone couldn’t just grab it outta my… virtual pockets LMFAOOO OKAAAYY. so. anyway. i told colin and alex so they know about the idol. i think i’m playing knowledge is power to steal eman’s half of their shared extra vote w alex tonight just as insurance for in case jack decides to vote with champ/zee/tony/eman.

alex transferred his challenge gamble whatever adv to me cuz he’s scared he’s going home and i’m like bro if ur going home take my money so u can send me advantages in purgatory LMFAOOO so i sent him my $60 but also we have an idol? TWO idols cuz colin has one. but would they target alex AGAIN? god fuck idk. i think michael must be the decoy vote cuz jack said zee said she wants michael out. i don’t like how there’s no like community activity to potentially repair awkward betrayals or w/e. like group challenges before were chill we all hopped on a call and got to chat a lil. now it’s like… there’s literally several ppl who havent spoken to me in DAAAAYSSS. and it’s just a bummer! oh well.

i still havent told anyone about my steal a vote. but michael/colin/alex know about knowledge is power and colin/alex know about idol. i’m also thinking more about like when it’s down to SEVEN and SIX and FIVE… if i’m even still here lol but like… i feel good w colin and alex right now and colin said he wants us as final 3 which makes me nervous but like.. I WOULD BE FUCKING GOOD WITH THAT IF I COULD RLY TRUST IT. like i would legit love to stay loyal to the two of them and get us all 3 to the end of the game. but maybe i feel that way bc i’d potentially win if we all 3 were at the end? altho probably not cuz i think colin and alex’s social games are actually sm better than mine LOLLL IDEK god. i bought a survivor pack of cigarettes and it’s gone now and i miss it. i might go buy more cigarettes LOL it’s my only vice!!!!! this game is driving me mad!

anyway the vote tonight is we’re putting all our shit on eman and hoping they dont have an idol or w/e. cuz i think eman being gone will maybeeeee free up tony and potentially even champ to work with us. altho i rly dont think tony likes me LMAO gotta be careful!!! god. i know i’m not going home tonight cuz i won immunity but i’m not any less nervous than i was last tribal. i have to get my work done before this shit pops off i only have two hours!

Zee

Ok so last tribal was absolutely wild. I got asked a question about Jury Management and tbh I don’t exactly know how to Jury manage so I answered honestly about it. Colin however, decided that he wanted to chime in on this subject during his answer to HIS tribal council question. He said something along the lines of “when Zee was talking about how she didn’t know how to Jury manage, I think that’s the most honest thing she’s said this entire game.” Which is quite honestly rude, and kinda BS at the same time. Have I told a couple small lies, yes, this is true. But in general I’ve been honest about it all, when I say that things have been massively dead or that nobody is talking to me, it’s because that’s what’s been happening. If I don’t want someone to know something, I’m not going to lie about it, I’m just not going to say it. Which I guess I can hear the argument “oh lying by omission is still lying” but at the same time, my tribemates are not the confessional box, and they’re not a diary to whom I’m supposed to tell everything to. You can’t make everyone on the Jury happy, it’s nearly impossible. Sometimes, people are left out of the vote. For the Raffy vote, the people I didn’t tell were the people who appeared closest to him from an outside perspective. Not even about friendships outside the game, within the game the people who appeared closest to Raffy were Astyn, Colin, Alex, Steven, and Kaleigh. Colin and Astyn had been in an alliance with Raffy pre-merge according to Colin, and so it seemed like, at least after the saving people challenge, like they were still close. Steven and Colin also kept saving each other, and Alex was mostly speculation, but it just appeared that he could be working with Raffy. Sometimes you just get vibes from people. I genuinely was going to apologize to Kaleigh after, however from nearly all of them I was only met with passive aggressive messages, and votes. I seem to be target number one, especially with Michael stealing my vote. I’m playing from the bottom currently, but I guess that’s just another notch to my crazy game.

If we’re going to talk about jury management, let’s talk about the treatment of the three left out, after those tribals. First off, I never got a straight apology from most of them. Colin gave a pretty decent apology but it still wasn’t great. I apologized and gave my reasoning for the Raffy vote MULTIPLE TIMES. I did get a shit ton of passive aggressive comments though, so how would that make me, as a jury member, feel? Additionally, ignoring me all day the day of the wordle challenge(which i didn’t do great at but then again I’m also not good at regular wordle, so) and most of the day today before tribal, it’s just kind of lame. To be fair, Colin spoke to me a little, but it honestly seems like an attempt at jury management after lashing out. Alex and Kaleigh have said a total of z-z-z-zerooooo. But look, Colin isn’t afraid to poison the jury, and neither am I. However, I have a dilemma. This stems from the fact that I FUCKING FOUND ANOTHER IDOL. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. I literally went down path 6 on the idol hunt, and since the merge I’ve only really gotten disadvantages, so I was like “oh this bitch about to be a -20% disadvantage, for sure.” But then Trinica was like “you found an immunity idol” and I was like ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS. Out loud, I said that out loud. Had a couple minutes of disbelief but when I wrote to the hosts I was composed, of course. Oh and I did send that reaction meme lol, that shit was pretty funny.

Eman messaged me and said that they want to get Colin or Michael. Haven’t heard from Champ, Jack, or Tony, but they all seem to be voting w/Eman, and Jack and Champ and I have our little alliance which, allegedly Jack will be loyal to it, but idk. It kind of seems like he’s the extra vote right now to either side, he’s honestly in a very good position. But here’s my thing. I have the dilemma of either using my idol and not getting any votes or not needing to again. OR, I run the risk of going to purgatory with my idol. Do I think I could win my way back from Purgatory? Yes, most likely I do. Champ and Jack allegedly are going to transfer me some of their money before tribal so if I go I can buy advantages or disadvantages and send them back into the game, so we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I’ll probably write more after tribal. I’m nervous and probably going home, so at least it’s not a blindside.

Tribal Council

Votes:

Lost Votes: Tony, Michael

Alex: Eman (I’m sorry. This vote isn’t personal. I just think you’re playing a damn good game.)

Colin: Eman (I’m shaking in my boots)

Kaleigh: eman (<3 hope you slay purgatory & eat lots of ramen)

Champ: Colin (I know I’m gonna be on the bottom of this vote)

Zee: Colin (This is what people said to do, so it’s what I’m doing)

Eman: Colin (I dig you, boo, but I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. Nothing personal.)

Jack: Colin (you’re a great player! Don’t be too bitter on jury)

Kaleigh’s Extra Vote: eman

Zee (Michael’s Stolen Vote): Colin

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 10: "Michael? What the fuck is that man doing?"—Kolby

In this round: Touchy Subjects leaves everyone feeling a little, well . . . touchy; Colin, Alex, and Kaleigh bond through being the only ones left out of the vote; Champ throws everyone else in an alliance chat and trusts that it will stick; Raffy and Steven send in advantages and disadvantages galore from beyond the grave; and Michael proves he deserves to be here with a little help from a steal-a-vote received from Chris and a plan to flush Zee's idol

eman

I have entered my Lilith era . . .

--

We all know *what* I did, now it's time to get into why I did it.

Honestly, quite honestly, there are a lot of people in this tribe that I feel some degree of closeness with but if those degrees of closeness were to be put on a spectrum there are also those I feel closer to than others.

And in typical type-a, nerd, never got asked to the dance fashion, I have actually been wracked by guilt with the knowledge that my big inclusive circle was going to have to dwindle. (See also the tears over the chain reaction even if I already had my list ahead of time and didn't actually randomize it)

So, here's how the vote went down. Champ & Zee had been gunning for Raffy for a while. Couldn't tell you who first threw his name out there, wouldn't even if I could. I like Raffy (who doesn't like Raffy), and I was willing to admit to some idol paranoia - I also suggested maybe keeping him around for a few more rounds than sending him to purgatory to let him get stronger and build his resume and voting out a subtler threat in these early merge rounds, but that wasn't accepted, so I went along.

And then at the chain reaction it became pretty clear that there was something going between Raffy & Steven.

So, we had to break them up. We just did.

And then they started throwing Tony's name out, and that's when it became clear just what subtle game was being played.

I'd had my doubts when I was first sent to Maracas. AND I was sent to Maracas with Tony.

People have been trying to get me to say just how close Tony and I are for a while. Dude, what do you think it was the three of us on the Island alone for over a week?? Plus Tony and Kolby coulda turned on me when Tanner tried to drive the vote and they didn't. Then Tony coulda betrayed me again at the prisoner's dilemma game and he didn't. He had my back and I will forever have his. (And he sent me a 10% advantage to).

Not only was NOT betraying Tony an option, BUT even more importantly if I had a chance to blow up the other game in the process, I was gonna do it. Because I strongly, strongly suspect that this was a longer term thing (first sending me to Maracas and then undermining my primary foundation by taking away one of my closest allies). So I denied them the chance.

And then I sent both people responsible away. And they will have to battle each other so that no matter what happens only one will emerge.

The only thing that shocks me is that I was able to send both responsible away. I really expected to sorta be banished in the process. And since I wasn't, I gotta come up with a long-term strategy and fast.

Ooops!

Zee

Forgive me father for I have sinned, apparently more than the rest of my tribemates. The Raffy blindside was a success, we told most people that Kolby and Steven were gunning for each other, but most people seemed to want Tony, which is fine, and it's safe to say nobody who was left out of the Raffy vote, expected the Raffy vote. Champ and I both used our extra votes to ensure success, and it all went off without a hitch. This is what I would be saying if shit didn't hit the fan. Eman gave their immunity up to Tony before votes were cast, which caused some people to say to vote Eman, I replied "that seems kinda mean" and people switched to saying Kolby. Colin played an alliance revealer on Eman, figuring out that they had 6 alliance chats which were msged within the last 48h before the tribal. Four of those I was in, the other two I'd assume would be w/Michael + Tony, and Kolby + Tony. Raffy then played his Full Transparency Advantage, so he knew who ended up voting him, and so did everyone else. Alex, Steven, Kaleigh, and Colin were all left out of the vote, and then Trinica told us that a second tribal was immediately happening. I forgot to give Kaleigh a name bc a lot of ppl were msging, and we switched from Colin to Steven last minute.

Problem is, Colin was pushing my name to his compatriots of Steven, Kaleigh, and Alex. I KNEW, that they all were working together, and I knew I couldn't trust Kaleigh. So I got four votes that tribal, which means since I didn't win immunity, I know I'll likely be voted if the numbers aren't in the right spot. Onto the challenge, we had touchy subjects, and I knew that my name would probably be the answer for a lot of these questions considering that after tribal I got passive aggressive messages from Kaleigh, Alex, and Colin. Like....hella passive aggressive bordering on plain aggressive. Also, got many many many non-apologies for writing my name down, which, for those of you who are unaware of what that looks like, the sentence starts out like an apology might be coming, but actually morphs into reiterating how they were apparently closest to me(which is like Alex wth you barely talk to me, if we talk I'm usually the one initiating conversation), which is why they were the most upset that I betrayed their trust like this.

Meanwhile, everyone is flocking to the henhouse. Eman has the best social game, and everyone can see that too. They won "who will win if they make it to the end", "who is actually running the game?", "who is the season's hero?", "who is playing the best strategic game?", AND "who is playing the best social game?". Apparently Eman told Champ that people were lobbying for them to vote me on the revote, and they told me everyone was running to them after they got left out of the vote. Very suspicious. Eman and Tony however lost their votes(allegedly), which means my chances of staying in the game are even more slim. I REALLY don't want to use my idol, and Colin came to the Codenames group and suggested us working together, so maybe that's a pretty good plan. I have to talk with people more today, but I NEED to win the next challenge, and I NEED the votes to go my way. If we isolate Colin from his allies, and breed distrust, then I'm hoping that we can shake things up just enough to pull off the numbers. Especially because it makes sense to offer colin the chance to betray us, because I'm using my full transparency advantage this tribal.

Jack

--

Strongest Allies - zee and champ (my babes) they r so genuine and I love their personalities

Kolby

Alex

Fuck if I know what's going on in this game, confessional prompt, FUCK IF I KNOW. Actually that's a lie: Zee's running the game, Champ is lying to me and Kaleigh, and Eman doesn't trust me, apparently. So shout out to the editors if I were in the show proper, I'd have a fabulous downfall episode right now cuz all the shit I said last episode collapsed on me. Colin, Kaleigh, and I are now I guess gonna scrounge however we fucking can to swing the numbers back our way and build a new majority. Hopefully some of the quieter players will decide they can get further with us than with Zee and Kolby and hopefully some combination of Colin's idol, my gamble advantage, and mine and Eman's extra vote can help do it.

Colin

okay so I'm not the bitch that goes out without a fight. like I WILL stick up for myself and everyone should know that.

but damn is it getting hard right now. after last night's double tribal it's just been LIE after LIE from everyone!! from Zee, Champ, Jack, Eman, all people that I thought I could trust!! that I was literally aligned with!! the ONLY good thing about last night was that it put me with Kaleigh and Alex. like those two had my BACK and TRUSTED me during that second tribal. they could've easily just left me to rot with the rest of my game. but they showed me so much loyalty

so naturally we made an alliance and i shared with them that I had my idol. the one thing I vowed to keep secret in this game, but I don't regret it. like they had my back and I for SURE will have theirs. it is a COMMUNITY idol for us, and we gonna use it to outplay the rest of the hoes.

--

as much as I like to play up a villainous archetype in games, it kinda stings when touchy subjects comes along. like up until yesterday's tribal, I was straight vibing in this game. no real strategy, just getting to know people and forming connections. but out of NOWHERE I was blindsided and left out of both votes? for why?? just because I'm friends with Raffy??

now touchy subjects makes it seem like I'm public enemy #1. I don't get it. everyone turned on me SO QUICK just because I stood up for myself when people were lying to my face.

i'm really annoyed by it, and honestly not in a great headspace regarding it. I feel like I didn't do anything to really warrant the villain status, so still getting it makes me feel shitty.

Kaleigh

WELP!!!! THIS GAME HAS SUDDENLY BECOME EXTREMELY UNFUN!!!! apparently everyone knew to vote for raffy and steven except for ME (and alex and colin lmao oh and raffy and steven obviously) ANNNDDDDDD… for the second surprise tribal colin randomly messaged me and said he thought had the numbers for zee and zee wouldn’t give me anything so i voted for zee and of course steven got one vote more than zee did. champ hasn’t spoken to me since tribal, zee said she was rly hurt i put her name down and i said i was rly hurt that she lied to me about the vote and didn’t give me a name for the second one even tho it was obviously a coordinated move. so yaaaa, obviously neither of us trusted the other before this and now it’s like, ok obviously we both have showed with our actions that we don’t trust each other. which is okay with me! like i made a choice that i thought would be good for my game and it didn’t turn out the way i was expecting it to but i have a newfound very tight alliance with colin and alex…

this challenge will be interesting, i sense i may be the vote for the CAN’T KEEP A SECRET bc everyone kept info from me this past vote so i guess they think I CANT KEEP A GODDAMN SECRET! or also the person most likely to turn on their alliance. likeee, sure w/e fine, i never intended to be allied with zee for long anyway. she has literally been lying to me LITERALLY**** LITERALLY! SINCE DAY ONE.

i messaged a little with michael and jack after tribal. jack was being friendly to me and reassuring me he wants me in the game but iiii knoooooow he’s tight with champ and will do whatever’s best for their game so i can’t trust him whatsoever unless i’m able to build trust with champ again. idk wtf she’s doing. but she WAS covering for SOMEONE this morning for the idol hunt cuz alex and i got the same prompt a couple hours later. and i think it’s where the idol is cuz i got the hint. SOOOoo i think either jack or zee have the idol, probably zee. which… if i can pinpoint where that idol is… i could potentially steal it… OR i can steal eman’s half of their extra vote with alex. i feel like an idol is more helpful than an extra vote but what the FUCK DO I KNOW!!! lmao god. this game is hard and i miss steven and weirdly i miss raffy, who i literally never talked game with and didn’t have any interest in working with in the beginning bc he didn’t talk to me but HE HAS GROWN ON ME AND I WISH HE WERE HERE.

please let someone from purgatory return soon. i am planning to tell alex about my knowledge is power advantage today whenever he’s off work and let him know i discovered that i could steal eman’s half of their extra vote and hopefully he’ll have some ideas of how to either use that to our advantage or figure out who got the idol and steal that. i think zee, kolby, champ, and jack are tight and tony, michael, eman, and also potentially kolby are also tight. cuz jack+champ know each other irl and so do tony+michael. scary they have kolby as the common tie. but either group could peel off and grab me/colin/alex to get out someone from the other group. so let’s hope that happens! i’m a little scared for alex bc he rly thought he could trust eman and they fully lied to him about this vote so i’m like… eek…. anyway i did record a 13 minute video confessional but cba to figure out how to post it so here you are :) i’m hoping alex can talk sense into eman or something cuz the way these IRL relationships are fucking up my game is rly pissing me off!! also i'm the only person who flipped on their alliance and is still in the game with the person i flipped on LMAO cuz jack flipped on raffy who he was allied with. so, i do a little bit fear for myself. but also QUE SERA SERA BITCHES

Tony

Welp, I didn’t think old tribal lines were gonna matter as much but apparently they do. Not only were people gunning for me at last tribal, I now have no vote for this tribal!! I’m so frustrated with this, but hopefully things change!

Champ

Well wow just pull off two back to back blindsides! There’s so much going on but as of right now I’m closely aligned with Zee Eman Jack Kolby and I know the Michael and Tony are friends IRL so they are locked in votes for sure. I’m hoping this vote for Alex goes well, tbh I feel horrible for voting him but I have to be loyal to the people I told my votes too. I think I’m definitely well connected however I’m definitely making a target of myself so I’m hoping I can go far and honestly if I go out at least I’m playing better this game then I was last game so at least this is a major improvement

Zee

It has been radio silent all day. I genuinely am unsure of whether or not to use my idol, because nobody has told me even one name all day. idk if anyone is online but usually people are by this time, and so I'm a bit concerned since tribal is in 8 hours, and I haven't heard even a single name yet. Are people trying to pull a Zee blindside? Or maybe they're trying to make me flush my idol by being paranoid or something. Very suspicious, not enjoying it very much. I definitely feel more vulnerable after touchy subjects, AND after that last second tribal council. The vibes are off, might have to try to bust my ass to win every consecutive individual immunity, use the idol to cement myself in final five, and then keep winning. That shouldn't be too hard....right? We're 10 people, moving down to 9 shortly. So to get where I need to be, I need to win five individual immunities in a row basically. I have the ability to lose one of those and use my idol, it's a feat that I don't know if I could pull off but honestly I've gotta get a challenge win because people seem to think I'm a threat, and it's not a good thing. For some reason I'm getting the credit for spearheading Raffy's vote out which is like, I mean I did kinda organize most people together for the vote, so it's a nice little mark on my resume. But still I don't vibe with how it's negatively affecting my game. I KNOW Champ won't give up her immunity, and we don't have strong numbers, also my name is definitely out there so it's just a case of whether or not I decide to use my Idol.

--

Ok so Eman Michael and Tony said they don't have votes, and Jack said that Alex said he didn't have a vote either. Jack just suggested an Eman blindside.... so....I'm ok with that, I was honestly thinking about it earlier today so I'm glad he's the one who threw it out.

Michael

Kaleigh, Alex, Colin and I are going to try something tonight. Champ assumed I'm voting with her after like 3 messages and one vote? Oh well, let's see what happens

Kaleigh

um. things are popping off. michael wants to vote w me/alex/colin and he has a steal a vote. apparently tony and eman and michael all lost their votes due to disadvantages of purgatory origin. someone (certainly my angel baby steven) has sent me a steal a vote. i haven't told anyone. jack is saying he wants to vote w me/colin/alex but i call bullshit so we aren't telling him anything real so far. we'll see how he votes!!! we might use my knowledge is power to steal eman's half of the extra vote they share with alex if they aren't willing to use it tonight the way alex wants to. i dont know whether to reveal my steal a vote or not. it could be the diff between me staying or going. i haaaateeeeee today LOL

Alex

Michael is willing to blind side Seven with us and that is fucking GAME CHANGING. I'm not going to fully get my hopes up because, like, oof last tribal, but this could be something. Everyone wrote him off (clearly, based off TS) BUT ME AND KALEIGH STUCK WITH HIM. This slow burn alliance has finally caught fire!! He's cool as hell in general and now he's coming out of the shadows to go for throats? Incredible. I was holding off on writing this until we got to do our video call but even with Michael losing his vote I still have hope! Sorry, Eman and Zee, here's hoping one of you goes tonight and the more advantages Kaleigh and I can keep to ourselves/quiet, the better. Just gotta do some extra work on Colin to make him trust the plan, it seems, but let's GOOO.

Tribal Council

Lost Votes: Michael, Eman, Tony, Zee

Michael (Zee's Stolen Vote): Kolby (It’s nothing personal, honestly just making a move in this game. We just ended up on different sides of things, but hope to play a game with you in the future!)

Champ: Alex (I’m sorry I didn’t ever want to do this)

Colin: Kolby (Play your own game babes. I hope youre having a great time in europe)

Kolby: Alex (shouldn’t have flipped on soca!)

Kaleigh: Kolby

Jack: eman (AUNTIE :( I love you personally but everyone seems to love you sry :()

Alex: Kolby (Second time is hopefully the charm.)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 9: "What in in the tattooed baby Jesus tap-dancing through frozen-over hell just happened?"—eman

In this round: a Popularity Contest finally gives some clues about where allegiances lie; Super Sleuth Steven reveals to Alex and Kaleigh that Jack and Champ know each other (cue an audible gasp); Michael got the only game advantage at the merge feast which clues him in to a powerful advantage at the Auction; eman unexpectedly gives up immunity to Tony and is outed as being in six alliances; and a double tribal and a Full Transparency Advantage play by Raffy sows chaos, leaving Raffy and Steven in the dust

Raffy

Last night, after tribal, people ended up staying on call. It was Steven, Kaleigh, Alex, Colin, Eman, and I. Zee and Jack were there, but they left earlier. I felt really good about those 6 people if I am being honest. We vibed really well together. I am hoping that this can be an alliance in the near future because I feel it could be a really strong group.

I am so excited for Steven to be back. I may have been a little too excited since that could easily be read as a duo, but I don't particularly care. He's back and I'm happy. I definitely think I will be working with Steven.

Right now, my next targets for tribal council are Kolby and Tony. I just feel like Kolby is very paranoid and strategic meaning he'd be a wildcard of a player. Tony, meanwhile, I just don't really know. Like, he's a person I've never been on a tribe with at this point.

Jack

Colin

what COWARDS use a RANDOMIZER during a POPULARITY CONTEST challenge?????

Kaleigh

ok. so. astyn ended up going home 5-1 (michael). zee wants raffy out. steven wants kolby out. OH AND STEVEN’S BACK. uh so we have a redemption island situation. steven came back with the vote info, who voted what, who lost their votes, etc. so we know zee and champ didn’t use their extra votes and that colin voted michael. champ had told me that she had to use her vote at the last tribal, so i was likeee ok she lied??? when i saw she didn’t use it. but apparently bc we merged before she went to tribal its just a regular extra vote now. but i didn’t learn that till after i messaged her asking for my vote back LMAOO she is fully avoiding me, took over 24 hours to respond but was at the auction and the challenge just regular degular!

at the auction i won some food which gave me a hint to the idol and also told everyone i won a hint to the idol. luckily no one’s asked me about it… but this idol hunt is soooo scary. i hate it. then i ended up being a finalist for popularity contest and in the position to pick between eman and colin. i trust eman more than colin AND thought i’d be less likely to win against eman so i picked eman but not without an award-winning performance pretending i was using a randomizer. i mean i was going to but then i couldn’t find the button on the website. ANYWAY.

so eman and i tied when everyone had to vote for who wins immunity so it was randomized and eman won. zee thinks steven/colin/raffy are a voting bloc. could be! and now she’s less wary of alex bc he was the first vote out lmao which was honestly surprising but also good like, yes plz think alex is doing nothing in this game. anyway i need to stop using confessionals like a recap, we do not need a recap.

alex and steven and i figured out that tony + michael know each other outside the game and that jack + champ are actually IRL friends so that is like…. insane and huge info. we are geniuses. steven and alex and i tried to figure out a way to get someone besides raffy out (either zee or kolby) but we’re scared. i feel pretty certain we are grossly overestimating zee’s influence in this game lol but better safe than sorry i guessss! champ still seems to want to work with me and alex despite the fact that i asked for my vote back and she curved me and then said no basically LMAO ok girl! jack messaged me after the challenge and said he “heard tony’s name.” like, okay, work! alex talked to champ and said she suggested maybe michael or tony or kolby and he was like OOOO KOLBY??? OKAYYYY, cuz we want kolby gone bc he seems to be very tight with zee annnnd it would be good to knock down her number…s? but alex told her he hadn’t heard anyone yet. good job alex. this tribal is going to be such a shitshow i’m so exhausted these calls last hours !

i still have my knowledge is power advantage and now i have the idol hunt clue and i have $60. AND I’LL FINALLY BE ABLE TO VOTE AT TRIBAL, GOODDDDD. where can i spend this money?!?!?!?!?!

i love alex and steven, they are angels and i feel very lucky and glad that we’re working together. at this point i feel i would be happy to see either of them win. colin is still a huge mystery to me, i msged them and was like LMAOOO CUTE VOTE! cuz they had msged me before the vote and said he was voting for astyn cuz there was ‘no reason to go against the tribe’ LMAO then he voted michael and was the only one. which like, sure it’s maybe not fun to have a unanimous vote annnnnd now if astyn comes back they have a buddy. but i didnt even ask who they were going to vote for, like they j randomly told me LMAOOO but ya we got to laugh about it so i feel ok with colin. tho he did vote for eman in the popularity challenge.. that little shit!

oh steven told me that you can buy a fake idol in purgatory and give it to someone in the game LMFAO SO IF SOMEONE WE VOTE OFF SENDS ME AN IDOL I WILL BE KEEPING THAT IN MIND!!! sorry hosts, i might try and do a video confessional before tribal but who knows! enjoy this diary entry!

oh ALSO. alex said jack had messaged him before the challenge and said that he was gonna vote me or alex first in the popularity contest? which he did (me) but like, telling alex that is like so random, i immediately was like, alex, baby, he knows we are tight bc we have that alliance with champ and jack and champ are irl friends even tho theyre pretending not to be LMAO alex was like ohhh yeahhhhhhh. so i was like, jack seems a lil like a lost lamb, we shld probably make a lil group chat for him or sth at some point. he honestly seems like a lil sweetie. anyway now it seems like tony is out. i would rather see kolby go but neither of them talk to me so ultimately who cares.

Jack

SAD :(

Eman

Oh man. Oh woman. Oh camera. Oh television . . .

Things what happened since my last confession.

Voted out Astyn.

Got to having some good conversations with Alex.

Got approached by Colin to form a secret alliance because no one would suspect us of working together.

Began second guessing more vibes. (Especially Kolby & Zee)

Vibe-checked Colin and Zee with Alex (why not).

Steven returned (which in the context of some of Kolby's other inconsistencies has me rethinking a lot).

Got involved in a MARATHON post-tribal chat/game/convo.

Which resulted in . . . my THIRD alliance.

So there's that.

--

What in in the tattooed baby Jesus tap-dancing through frozen-over hell just happened?

I'm actually talking about the auction not the popularity contest.

I'm slightly more uncomfortable with the peanut butter purchasing and people helping me buy it than I am with the results of the popularity contest. Why were people throwing money at me like I had the last snow shovel in a 5 foot blizzard?

Don't get me wrong, the results of the popularity contest both ameliorated and exacerbated every high school trauma . . . and while I'm kinda stroking my metaphorical beard about how well I played pretending to randomize things while actually being very calculating (yes, I made a list ahead of time - and then based my vote based on every other move made up to that point (ironically, I truly suck at chess)) and also about the fact that I'm 95% certain that all the other members of the Mystery Machine alliance were doing something similar based solely on the fact that we managed to occupy so many of the final slots . . . (that may have just been the longest dependant clause in the history of the English language, nevermind my abuse of parentheticals)

BUT I am also simultaneously truly horrified at the outcome - here I am (with Kaleigh) on display as someone that everyone likes/is willing to save. Here I am (with Kaleigh) splitting the vote between everyone for winner of this immunity. Here I am (with Kaleigh) pretty much advertising that NO ONE IS GOING TO WANT TO SIT NEXT TO THIS INCREDIBLY LIKEABLE PERSON AT THE END.

Fuck me sideways with a rotting trout skeleton.

My only saving grace is that the final immunity was randomized. Thank you for that, Champ.

--

Wondering who actually reads the tribe posts . . .

The reason I'm wondering is b/c it looked like post-auction that I'd actually just paid all that money for nothing more than a jar of peanut butter.

But then post-tribal in the post it came out that I had an advantage--based on the auction results post.

So in one group I tried to get ahead of it saying that it was just a 10% (thank you, Tony!), in another (Tony's group, I just said, oh - hey, I got an advantage) without disclosing what it was. And then in a third, I've not said anything (mostly because based on current vibes/whims, I kinda wanna strategically tell the truth, but I'm NOT quite there yet).

AND yet NO ONE--in either group chat or DM--has said, "so, hey, eman, you have an advantage after all . . . 'sup?"

And why does this matter?

Well, friends & frenemies, the advantage is that I can bank a vote.

And in classic overthinking fashion, I'm going to be pondering whether tonight's the night I wanna use it. Mostly because when better to NOT vote then when you're guaran-damn-teed to be safe, amiright?

But I don't wanna not vote if I am not 100% certain that the person for whom I'd otherwise cast my vote is going home.

Or maybe, for just once, I let go of my control-freak type-a side and let chaos reign. (As long as I know that everyone with whom I'm tight is also safe . . .)

Colin

okay THIS is starting to feel like a real merge tribal.

last night, Jack, Raffy and I decided we wanna vote Tony because there's too many og soca, and we were gonna spread it around throughout the day today.

so THEN Steven allegedly told Zee that he wants Kolby out. Zee went around and was saying that Steven is gunning for Kolby. now Kolby is saying that he wants Steven out

I did plant a little Kolby too. He's misrepresenting it by saying Steven is recklessly throwing his name out, but I corrected it and told him it's actually ZEE who's spreading it around that his name is being said. I'm not sure if Steven told Zee in confidence that he wants Kolby out or what, but I feel like we're not getting the whole story.

i can't WAIT to see how this turns out hehe

Alex

honestly kolby saving michael over me in that first round was maybe the best possible thing for my game. it hopefully got zee off my back since she told at least kaleigh that me and kolby are all tight when in reality it's them who are tight and now zee thinks i'm not talking to people as much as i am. i want her to gooo lol. i never know where her head is at, she has NO interest in talking game to me, and now i don't know where champ stands with me and kaleigh compared to zee. the elite want to take out her or kolby but just cannot figure out how to swing the numbers yet. i'm playing with the elite and the heroes which ultimately works for me I think long-term in case the elite end up in the minority, but zee going is in my best interest. your onion is too layered! it's threatening! and i really like BOTH groups of people, i'd call kaleigh and eman my closest allies and favorite people in the game, but i don't know how to combine them without being like hiii yeah i'm coordinating more than any of you know! i've gotta figure out where eman is at without being too pushy. they were worried about colin being so willing to give that information up about zee at the summit but if i can switch it around to being worried about zee playing so strongly and not telling any of us. the way i actually WANT raffy to have an idol now so he could potentially negate the votes zee maybe wants to put on him if she's telling kaleigh the truth. ugh.

Champ

I HAVE SO MUCH TO WRITE AND SO LITTLE TIME TO DO SO😭 so like if I get blindsided by this vote IM RAGE QUITTING jk but like I will be outraged, I’m trying to set up a very big blindside and if I miss… IM TOAST so everything and everyone better work on according to plan otherwise I WILL blow up some peoples games. Also idk why I’m sounding so aggressive rn lol anyways the way it was between Kaleigh and eman for the popularity contest was not a surprise… i see right through them, great game players, so great socially!! They are pretty much allied with everyone and like who are you actually loyal too😭?? I could write a novel but I’m running out of time. I’m genuinely nervous about this vote

Steven

--

Kolby

Tony

This tribal feels serious AF! Apparently folks are throwing my name around and it’s got me hella nervous because I didn’t anticipate myself being a threat, but maybe I am at this point in the merge. All I know right now is that Champ and Eman are backing me and that’s enough to calm my nerves for now.

Michael

Busy weekend for me and a busy time in the game, not opportune at all. I fear Tony is going next but we'll have to see. Trying to do what I can to save my friend here. There are talks of a vote being organized against Raffy, so it could go wither way. Will not be present at tonight's tribal so who knows how it's going to go.

Zee

These hoes ain't loyal. Not one fucking bit. Pardon my french but ya girl is sussed out by a lot of people recently. I don't think I can trust Kaleigh, recently I've just been getting strange vibes from her, and I think she could be in with the men, which is sad, because it means out of the Mystery Machine Alliance, she'd be the first to go. The challenge was wild, but here's what it taught me: Tony trusts Eman and Michael the most, meaning that they probably got his shared advantage which he purchased from the auction. Colin, Steven, Raffy, and probably Alex(hell, maybe even Jack) seem to be in an alliance, and they all told me they "couldn't see where tribe lines fell" meanwhile we all witnessed Steven and Colin continually save Raffy, and then the Colin-Steven saving cycle that happened a million and one times over. I also do feel like I would consider myself closest to Champ and Eman. I'm trying to get a chicken coop alliance with me, Kolby, and Eman going. I kept randomizering people's names, very obviously. But in reality I was just picking random people from the list. I picked Tony a couple times. I picked Eman, Kaleigh, and Champ. Kaleigh seemed like it was the last thing she wanted, to save me, Champ tried not to but like if it came down to it she saved me, so I'm not sure about Kaleigh. The vibes are off, and I don't think I can trust her anymore.

The plan is, hopefully, to get Raffy out, or at least flush an idol. Steven told me he wants to get Kolby, so maybe their group will be voting Kolby, so worst case scenario, Kolby goes home, or the votes are more split. Champ and I combined have 4 votes, which we're(for now) planning on using. Then Eman says they want to get Raffy out, and maybe Tony will vote with them, and perhaps Michael will vote with Tony as well. So in that case we're at what, 7? If we can get Kolby and Kaleigh on board that's 9 for Raffy, but again I have no idea who's side Kaleigh is actually on. I haven't told Eman about the fact that I don't trust Kaleigh, nor have I told them about this extra vote. If they're really worried, I might say it, but who knows.

Also as a little lover of chaos, I'm thinking of using my Full Transparency Advantage. If there is a plot against me, or Kolby, or if anyone doesn't vote the way they've said they will, then I'll know. If I go to Purgatory, I'll know who sent me, and honestly I'll probably bestow my Idol to Champ. Sure, people will know I voted Raffy, but that's alright. I'm still just considering it, depending on how confident I am at Tribal, I might use it. We'll see how it all goes.

Raffy

This morning, Zee came to me saying that Steven threw out Kolby's name as a potential vote. I told this to Jack and Colin (in our three-person alliance called "AA Meeting" - named after our dearly departed Astyn and Andrea). After comparing notes, it seems like Zee was exaggerating what Steven had said and is trying to pit Kolby and Steven against each other. I have to say that it is a smart move as that could provide shields to hide behind. However, even Alex has figured out Zee is probably lying and is playing a little reckless. So now Zee seems to be on people's radars. Even Colin told Kolby like "I actually heard your name from Zee, not Steven." I've been just trying to get Tony out as he's not really around. This is more of a planting seeds round than it is like intense strategy maneuvering.

Also I do not trust Zee. She never wants to banter or talk strategy with me. It feels like I give her all this information for free, but she never shares any of her own thoughts and opinions. Like, you've got to give me something or I'm gong to think you're just using me to get information. She's shady. I got to watch what I say to her.

Tribal Council

Tribal Council #6 Votes:

Jack: Raffy (hey bb ily and hopefully u play an idol or something but a threat has to go :()

Michael: Raffy (This may put a giant target on my head, but I'm doing this for my buddy. Sorry Raffy, hope to play with you again!)

Tony: Raffy (Had to protect myself)

Alex: Kolby (Not how I planned on voting, but also not how I saw this tribal going, so… *shrug emoji* sorry!)

Champ: Raffy (Sorry I honestly don’t think you’re going home)

Champ (Extra Vote): Raffy

Eman: Raffy (Please whatever high atop the thing let this work)

Kaleigh: Kolby

Kolby: Steven (I’m afraid of a double idol play with no votes so i’m throwing this on you and hoping you go home with one vote <3)

Zee: Raffy (Love you King)

Zee (Extra Vote): Raffy (Idk lol like what do I say)

Colin: Kolby (What the FUCK is going on)

Raffy: Kolby (Idk I wasn’t planning on voting you, but I had no other name to go on)

Steven: Kolby (So I’m very confused but I guess this is the best decision for me while under this time constraint)

Tribal Council #7 Votes:

Jack: Steven

Michael: Kolby (That just seems like where the heat was going if no-one voted the way they said they would. Sorry Kolby, have fun in Europe !)

Tony: Colin (it feels too late for me to know if I can trust you and I had to make a choice :/)

Alex: Zee (Idk, sorry, you’re the first name I heard.)

Champ: Steven (This vote doesn’t matter bc I think you have an idol)

Eman: Steven (Can’t risk an idol play, yikes.)

Kaleigh: Zee (ILY BUT ONLY HEARD UR NAME AND U DIDNT GIVE ME A PLANNN GL ON PURGATORY <3)

Kolby: Steven

Zee: Steven

Colin: Zee (I don’t know who i can trust)

Steven: Zee (This could fuck me up but no one is in my dms so whatever I guess)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 8: "i have never been so alone in the game"—Astyn

In this round: Tony, Champ, Colin, Raffy, and Kolby win Family Feud, leaving everyone else in danger of being eliminated at tribal council; half the tribe loses their vote; Astyn is voted out; and Steven wins on Purgatory and re-enters the chat after tribal council

Eman

I've gone back to feeling a bit adrift . . . I feel like I am in a good position, very close with a number of people - but I don't think I'm anyone's number one. (In fairness, I don't know that I have a ride-or-die either, just a lotta people that I really like and would be happy to continue working with.

Interestingly, I will say that I've seen a bit of negative chatter re: Astyn, and I'll come right out and say that I like them! They were one of the first people to welcome me post tribal switch and they've just been plain *nice* to me and I see no reason not to reciprocate. Maybe the two of us could somehow get a whole UTR thing going I'd be down for that.

Also finally chatting with Alex more - I broke and addressed the elephant in the room first (we now only have one extra vote between us and should strategize on how to use it at some point) and I'm reasonably certain (it's SO hard when you can't read body language) that he appreciated that.

--

Oh how the worm squirms . . .

I suspected Zee, now I'm close with Zee.

I was close with Kolby, now I'm finding Kolby's actions suspect.

AND I CAN'T MAKE A FREAKIN' PLAN cuz I don't know how anyone beyond my immediate group did all because Raffy was milliseconds faster on hitting enter than I was (and I'd actually like to send off to New York for a replay because there's NO FREAKIN' way that he wasn't hitting enter before the hosts were done talking. That's all I gotta say.

But I think Raffy also knew he was in danger, so I can't fault that. I'm probably in danger too (or I'm paranoid; I'll give it even odds) for being too freakin' old and too freakin' likeable (and too freakin' opinionated, but right now only my diary/the confessional booth knows that latter part).

Anyway, I'd really like to stop thinking about the game and instead go back to obsessing about other things . . . so more later.

--

What kinda game am I playing?

I ONLY WISH I KNEW.

Fly by the seat of my pants, what feels right in the moment, dear god I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass in the long run, I wanna be likeable, but not too likeable, I wanna be smart, but not too smart, god-freakin-dammit, this is too hard, gosh-freakin-darnit this is so much fun.

That's what kinda game I'm playing.

And I am also obviously growing increasingly unhinged as time goes by.

Tony

Champ and I fuckin killed that challenge and I’m stoked that we’re in an alliance together! I’m not nervous for tribal but am torn because it feels like folks are gonna be gunnin’ for Michael. I’m gonna do my best to protect him but only hope it pays off.

Zee

We hit the merge! And my my my, I have so much shit going on it's crazy. I realized the only people I haven't really spoken to before merge were Michael and Raffy, but since the merge I kind of have just been talking about yellowjackets with Raffy, still haven't gotten around to talking with Michael but that's alright. I'm hoping that I'm on the winning tribe for this family feud thing, because I feel like there's a target on my back(put there by Raffy) and I'd really like it if I didn't have to feel like I need to play it so early on. I still don't trust anyone, of course, but right now I'm vibing the most with Kaleigh and Champ, and also with MH(Eman). The edgic definitely is super interesting, I'd like to think that I'm this under the radar player that people keep talking positive about, but I also have no idea, since it seems like(since last time they got UTRP5) that they are being talked about A LOT, by everyone, but in a positive way. So maybe it is me, who knows.

I also am majorly stressed about tribal council, to a point where it's almost unfun to actually play due to the anxiety. Why, you ask? Well, I got the read receipts on disadvantage in like....my first Idol hunt I think, which goes into effect in my next tribal council. Except the problem is, I NEVER WENT TO TRIBAL, so it's never been used. However, Trinica and AJ said they're only able to tell me how it messes up my game, AFTER tribal council, which makes it all the scarier. Can I calculate my moves based on what it does? Nope. So basically I have an advantage I know virtually nothing about now (insert yikes face here). I do know that if Raffy isn't safe, it seems like the smartest move to vote him out.

--

So Champ and I just had like an hour and a half call(and we're probably gonna call more later to talk about things) and like.....I don't wanna say I trust her but I really want to trust her. Like we out here vibing and I just hope she stays loyal bc I genuinely want to work with her so I think it's really good if she wants to work with me too. I feel like it would be wise to call w/Kaleigh at some point as well, just to get on top of things, but genuinely Kaleigh and Champ are the two people I want to be sitting at the end with. And I know, I know, you have to take goats along so that your game seems better and blahblahblah. Whatever, sue me. Also I genuinely don't know who is allied with who right now, but I do have theories. I think Kolby is probably in Alex's pocket, and if Alex is smart(which he is, in a very mischievous and tailored way) then he's definitely aligned with Raffy. I know MH might be close with Kolby as well, but maybe they won't tell him anything, if we(or I) stress the worries that I have surrounding that. Chances are that whatever we tell Kolby, makes a beeline right to Raffy, or at least to Alex, both of which aren't good. I definitely also think that Colin and Astyn have made their way back to Raffy, and also Colin apparently has a rather big mouth, so it's not wise to tell him anything of substance.

Champ and I also talked about who we'd want to get out, and the list as it stands is Raffy, then Alex, then Colin, in order of threat level. As it stands, the plan could be this: Kaleigh and I, and at least Jack don't have votes. There's a large possibility that more people than that don't have votes. But let's talk about what we are almost positive of. Kaleigh and Jack don't have votes, and neither do I. So, valid votes without extra votes are 9. If I use my extra vote, and Champ uses her extra vote and her normal vote, and MH votes with us, perhaps we'll be able to bring in Tony too, that gives us 5 votes. If we're lucky, the other votes will be scattered. If not, we'll either have majority, or go to rocks. At least that's the goal. I have no clue what's happening challenge wise, but we'll see. Stay tuned for more folks.

--

Ok so let’s get one thing straight. I still don’t trust none of these bitches. Especially since ya bitch doesn’t have a vote. HOWEVER, I think I’m making a plan. Most of the people in the Mystery Machine group(those of em w/votes) seem to want to vote Astyn, especially is good if MH can convince Tony to vote w/them. I’ve also heard Michael’s name from people like Kolby, and Colin seems to want to vote for Michael as well. Sooooo, if I’m lucky, the votes will be split somewhat between Michael and Astyn, sending one of them home. I don’t want to use my idol, because that will break the trust of everyone, so I just have to hope that tribal goes my way. Also, EVERYONE is coming out of the woodworks to talk w/me, I also have been trying to talk with others as well lol, since I kinda got a bit lax and didn’t do much talking for a bit. So I just have to stay on top of my social game more.

Colin

FUCK YEAH I'M SAFE

that challenge was so chaotic. glad we made it thru.

I haven't heard anything about the first vote yet, which is fun because I know it's going to turn out chaotic, but at LEAST I'M SAFE so I don't have to worry about it. Zee also put together a chat with me, Jack, and Champ and I suppose it's going to be an alliance. I'm excited for it, but there's not a ton of loyalty there, there's other people I wanna work with more. This group only formed because we played the codenames challenge together. I think I'm gonna try to reinstate the power rangers alliance with Raffy, Jack, and Astyn. BUT I also really wanna work with Eman and Alex, so I need to lay ground work there because we haven't been on a tribe together before.

I have nothing else to confess about so here's a power ranking of everyone on the tribe, ranked by how much I wanna work with them

1. Alex 2. Eman 3. Zee 4. Raffy 5. Kaleigh 6. Jack 7. Astyn 8. Champ 9. Kolby 10. Michael 11. Tony

will confess later when tribal starts triballing.

Jack

side note: I love Michael and would not throw him into the firing line unless it’s a last resort option but I was HELLA frustrated with his answers screwing us in the challenge

Kolby

Michael

We have tribal council tonight, I've heard from pretty much everyone that the vote is Astyn. Just makes sense at this point. So I'll go that way.

Raffy

I do not really have much to say. I haven't really been socializing well with my tribe, so I have no idea where the vibe is. Apparently, Kolby and Zee are leading the charge against Astyn which I hate. But I can't do much about it because I don't even have a vote. I could use my idol on Astyn, but to take out who? There's no one whose eligible that I really want gone. I wish the target would change from Astyn to Michael. If it has to be someone from OG Calypso, let it be someone I was never in an alliance with, you know? I just hope I can find my footing because I feel a bit lost right now.

Kaleigh

broooo i got a knowledge is power advantage holy shit. it stresses me out bc i’m like well maybe i should save it but i dont wanna be one of those ding dongs who leaves the game w an advantage that could have saved them. uuuuuuugggggggh.

lmao zee asked to chat and casually was like “i lost my vote in an idol hunt but i have that other vote from before,” as if she had told me about it, i was like hmm what vote? she was all “DID I NOT TELL U?” baby i c u!! u know u didn’t tell me hun. either that or the bimbo alliance is more aptly named than i thought. anyway so i'm not sure if champ told her i knew (rude) or if she just decided that she wanted to lock in w me. either way... NOTED!!!!

okay what is new what is newwwww. i’m vulnerable at tribal (i just typed TRIBLE LMFAO) , alex lost his vote in the SAME IDOL HUNT THAT ZEE DID!!! i wish i had told him not to go down that path but i didn’t know how to w/o telling him zee lost her vote. which NOW… i wish i j had cuz zee has suddenly gone extreeeemely messy. OR IS IT ME WHO’S BECOME MESSY? AM *I* THE DRAMA?!?!? zee wants michael out (probably bc he is the person she’s spent the least time talking with) and i want astyn out (for the same reason and also they are allied w raffy who is not allowed to get far in this game!!). so zee asked who we should vote and i said astyn and she was like “or we could stay soca strong and vote out michael.” LOL voting out astyn would be soca strong??? what r u talking aboutttTTT!!! and alex said after he threw Astyn’s name out to zee and zee said michael, five minutes later colin told alex that kolby was the one who mentioned michael’s name , not zee LMAOOO she is just… doing a lot. these sentences are so confusing even to me. ANYWAY.

alex and i are pipe dreaming about whether or not there’s a way to get zee out tonight - i havent told him (or anyone) about my advantage, j bc i’m kinda scared he’ll target me, but honestly i like alex and it feels like he’s been pretty forthcoming with me about stuff, AND he’s usually available for a phone call which is like everythinggg. like i like playing w him. we also figured out michael and tony might be irl friends bc alex noticed a familiarity when tony said something to trinica in the scavenger hunt challenge and michael told me yday he’s friends w trin and that’s why he’s in this game. AGAIN… something steven was correct about - he had said that he chose michael to be on that second soca formation bc he wanted to separate michael and tony bc they were both in texas and might know each other. genius! i miss steven!! but michael and i talked game finally (phew) and he seems to want to work with me and also alex which YAY. he said he and tony are voting astyn. i wish it felt like there was an easy way to get zee out this round cuz her gameplay is giving CONFUSING. and i dont like it LOL i haven’t gotten to talk to champ at all since the results of the challenge came out, and i’m kind of nervous about that. i thiiiiink we can get astyn out but zee is making me very wary cuz she’s j not rly replying and knowing that she’s trying to orchestrate some weird michael vote out is just creeping me out. ANYWHO… not much else to say. i might tell alex that zee lost her vote the same way he did to see if he can come up with any ideas to get her out tonight but i j dont think i feel it. might be too big a move rn or too divisive or alienating to ppl who aren’t in on the vote. or maybe it would just fail LOL who knows!! astyn feels like a safe vote rn but who knows what will happen before/at tribal. not me :) part of me is like, vote me out so i can have my life back!!! and the other part is like, if i get voted out my life will be over!! which is… truly out of touch with reality!!

Alex

It's fascinating seeing everyone keeping their cards so close to their chest for this first vote. Kolby and Zee both straight up asked me who I was thinking without any buildup but when I spun it back on Zee she was like "I don't have any big thoughts." Like, I know you suggested Michael to Kaleigh so you definitely have thoughts, you just suddenly don't want to share them with me? I know Eman and I will talk game today but we're at least having conversation outside of the game, too. Kaleigh and Michael are the two I feel genuinely solid with right now, and Champ, she's just hard to reach already and it makes me worried going forward. Kaleigh and I were thinking Asytn because they're one of the only two we haven't really met yet, and when Kaleigh floated it to Michael Michael floated it to me. So I think we're all solid as a trio, we just don't have a group chat or anything to make it official like Champ, Kaleigh, and I do. Jack it sounds like is also on board, at least for Astyn, but I don't know if it's because he and Michael are close or because he's just going along with what keeps him safe. Colin and I are dancing around giving up any information to each other and since he's tight with Zee I'm trying not to make the first move. Raffy and I haven't talked since before the challenge even kicked off, so I don't know where we stand, and Tony and I haven't talked since pre-merge but whatever.

--

LMAO I just remembered I don't even have a vote for this. Idol hunting is a nightmare and I'm half-considering stopping hunting entirely so I don't get hit with something else.

Astyn

This round been so quiet for me. I feel like my time has come to an end in this game. I was so excited to make merge. But i have never been so alone in the game. People I thought I was working with with aren't talking to me.

Tribal Council

Votes

Lost Votes: Alex, Kaleigh, Zee, Raffy, Jack, Astyn

Colin: Michael (I don’t think you’re going but unanimous votes are boring!)

Tony: Astyn (nothing personal, we just didn’t have time to connect)

Michael: Astyn (At this point it just makes sense for my game, hope you have a good one!)

Champ: Astyn (OPE OPE OPE)

Eman: Astyn (I hate voting for an enby during Pride month, but to do otherwise would be tokenism.)

Kolby: Astyn (they’re super sweet and i’m sad about this but everyone just wants an easy vote and i don’t want to rock the boat this early in the merge!)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 7: "I don't know what's about to happen but I'm not looking forward to it."—Alex

In this round: Kolby singlehandedly sends Steven home by being the only person to protect himself in Safety in Numbers; Steven emulates his role in Refriended in a completely unhinged confessional (has anyone checked if Kolby is still alive?); and we finally merge

Soca Confessionals

Astyn

Champ

damn okay like I actually like so many people on this cast! Zee is my girl, LOVE kaleigh, LOVE eman, but dang I’m in like three different alliance chats rn and tbh I think I have a VERY good read on this game. Threats- Raffy, Alex, Colin, and Zee. But tbh I really wanna work and keep Zee in for a while because she is my shield and as long as she is in the game, people would target her instead of me. I feel like Alex Kaleigh and I have such similar games, but Alex is more tied with Raffy which makes me very nervous. TBH idk if Raffy is coming for me or not LOL. Like I just know he’s such an amazing game player that he would be dumb to not come after me, or maybe I’m hella delusional. Colin Raffy and Alex gotta go but I have better relationships with them than I do with Michael and Astyn. Like who is Astyn even aligned with? Raffy and Jack?? Michael I’ve like never spoken to lol. But I’m down to keep my girls plus kolby Jack and Tony as safe as possible. There’s so many blurred lines that I don’t want to step on other peoples toes.

Eman

I SAID I WAS GOING TO MAKE MERGE . . .

Goat or GOAT.

I'm a *little* bit nervous that Kolby was the only one to make a move, and (hello Andrew Shepherd) my nervous exists on a few different levels.

1) Kolby is a close ally, will he also turn on me 2) Kolby is a close ally, if he (as he claims, and I believe) really just changed in panic at the last minute has he made himself a target and will I have to expend some capital to protect him.

Cuz, really, related to number 2 - and as I've told him R-E-S-P-E-C-T . . . he's won the game if he doesn't get voted out, and the selfless part of me (yes, there's a selfless part of me) would like to see him make it all the way for that truly EPIC (even if inadvertent) move.

Now I've gotta get into my own strategery.

I've got 1) An extra vote 2) Some percentage (I think ~10 or 15) if it carries

Others 1) Jack has no vote 2) Raffy has no vote 3) Alex has an extra vote 4) Champ has an extra vote 5) Zee has an extra vote

So next vote

Raffy & Jack will have no vote Champ MUST use her extra vote

Alex and I have until final six to use our votes I don't know Zee's vote expiration . . .

So we are

Twelve strong with two that can't vote and one that has an extra vote (and I'm allied with the extra vote). Which means that with with at least 3 others (counting Champ's vote twice) we can take out who we want.

Champ's suggested re-upping the SLAY alliance which means we'd need only one more to do what we want (with Champ's extra vote).

And then, depending on whether who we decide to target has an idol, the question becomes who's the alternative - can we simultaneously control TWO votes??

And if we can, can we do it without tipping our hand.

This is gonna get REALLY interesting really quickly.

--

All the omphaloskepsis because we're in a lull.

1) I'm beginning to think that Stings is either really bad or really good for those that have unresolved childhood trauma related to abandonment, rejection, and being rejected from cliques . . .

2) Everyone telling me that their good with me, etc. And me, a Scorpio:

Or in the words of the late, great (that was ironic) Ronald Reagan. Trust, but verify.

I'm good with Champ. I'm good with Tony. I'm good with Kolby.

I'm good with Zee - which is to say I'm keeping her close but not too close and I'm pretty sure she knows it, and is working me as much as I'm working her.

I'm working on building things with Jack and Astyn. I'd actually kinda like to keep working with both of them, but at the same time, I do have to acknowledge that they are less important to my primary allies.

I liked Kaleigh before though we were never *that* close so it would be fun to build something with her.

And then there's Alex. He and I were SO tight before, and now I get the sense we're sort of circling each other like two feral cats. I've tried to own it - coming right out and saying how awkward it is. The irony is that neither of us have addressed the elephant in the room, the fact that our shared and then individual extra vote is now shared again. I wonder which one of us will crack first.

Jack

LITERALLY the last challenge could not have worked out better! I was telling my Allies champ and Kolby that the only ppl I don’t wanna see in the merge was Alex and Steven cause those r two ppl I’ve never been on a tribe with and I was nervous about their bond. Seeing Steven get eliminated was perfect and I’m happy going into the merge with my position and that I don’t have any blood on my hands with the Steven elim. Kolby definitely has the eyes on him and idk how ppl will see him now. Going into the merge I definitely wanna work with champ, Kolby, astyn, Michael, Colin, zee, eman & Kaleigh with everyone else being my targets lol. Love this game and excited to keep going!

--

Raffy

I’m sad that Steven is gone. I don’t have a vote still. I’m crying

Kolby

Calypso Confessionals

Kaleigh

ok it seems like the merge is gonna happen s0000n. i got sit out of the next challenge by the magic wheel and everyone else is randomly paired w someone from the other tribe and they have to do a thing. which i’m kinda bummed about bc it is going to give ppl sm info and is an opportunity for every single pair to build trust and i just donnnn’t get that opportunity!

also i went on the summit excursion today with champ THANK GOD! champ and i talked and she immediately brought up how zee is a good shield and we will have to vote her out eventually. i was like ok! sure! LOL U SAID IT GIRL, NOT ME! but ya we agreed that for now we are good w zee. i told her about raffy telling steven that A) aj + zee are siblings (she knew) and B) that she is really good at playing a dumb game. she was like ya i was kinda playing a dumb game last season LOL. she said she was super down to get raffy out, and she said she was *hypothetically* willing to play it safe so i could risk and steal a vote, and i was like nahhh you’re on a tribe w raffy u shld *hypothetically* take the extra vote and use it to vote him off. *literally* i did not even think about losing my vote, like i am such a bimbo living in the moment and not worrying about shit LMAOOO so then champ and i sign off and i have to decide to risk it and the text is like “if u risk it and they play it safe, they steal ur vote,” and i was like oh shit i forgot she doesn’t just magically get an advantage, she’s literally stealing my vote! lmfao GOD i love my perfect and fully functional normal brain. so ya i went back and said in the tribe chat that we both played it safe and gained nothing, but told zee i gave champ the vote to get raffy out if they lost, and then told steven and alex that i j didn’t know what champ was gonna do so i played it safe and she stole my vote. so they know i don’t have a vote. i’m suuuuuure everybody thinks i’m up to some weird shit but what can i do about that?! nothing! not a damn thing! so ya champ was very sweet in our summit chat, she was very complimentary and said she just loved me and was so happy to see me in the challenge yesterday. i was like damn girl ur doing a LOT RN BUT WHAT CAN I SAY I BASK IN THAT SHIT! i feel kind of stupid for giving her my vote when i could’ve just as easily taken hers but yunno in the moment i wanted to demonstrate trust and i do feel secure on my current tribe but also i’m certain this tribe is about to become one big happy family with the other one so …. ya. i do trust champ to not let me go home if she has any ability to do that. if she IS playing me she played me like a fiddle :) but uh yeah, kinda freaked out that my first tribal council will probably be post merge and i won’t have a goddamn vote. fuck!

Zee

Kaleigh and I called before the challenge dropped last night, since she had an excursion with champ that we wanted to talk about, and bc she got magic wheeled onto the sit out bench. Oh boy is this challenge a doozy but holy fuck I’m incredibly lucky I got paired against champ. I immediately suggested that we both go for taking no action, since that would grantee that we're both safe. She thought it was a good idea, so as of last night we both kind of had a solid plan. And it stands pretty well for me too, if Champ betrays me, and I go to tribal, then I, and Kaleigh, and everyone going into merge knows that she's untrustworthy(also I'm-allegedly- one of her closest allies in this game so far, so it only makes sense to keep me around). If she doesn't betray the trust, then we both know we can trust each other. The only downside is if we all go to tribal, but I'm not too worried. If I think that I'm going to go home in the event of a tribal, I'll honestly probably just use my idol. Again, I don't know if Raffy has poisoned anyone against me, he seems to lead with a very mafia mentality, and from what I've heard, it already seems like he's trying to tank my game, which, let's be honest, really sucks bc he doesn't even know me. Like chill bro please, I just wanna talk about yellowjackets with you. :((

Anyway, Colin let me know that he and Astyn also plan to both take no action, which is slightly concerning since I fear that Eman and Tony will also try to take no action. Steven has also noted that he and Kolby are planning on taking no action, so that's fantastic. As I'm writing this, I haven't heard back from Alex, but I did ask him what he was planning on doing. Idk if he and Raffy met/are close, but I'm hoping there's some discord and chaos there and one or both of them go to tribal(it sounds mean, but it's better them than me.). There's the possibility that someone could betray what they're saying to someone else, Champ could be one of them, but part of me wonders if Raffy has something up his sleeve and is convincing those on his tribe to bamboozle the people here. The variable of Jack and Michael(who I genuinely forgot was in this game) is also there, idk what either of them will do, but there's a very real possibility that we all go to tribal. Unless someone betrays someone else and I REALLLYYY hope someone does. I genuinely want to work with Champ, so I'm not going to betray her, so we'll see how this goes.

I'm also not TOO worried, because I have literally so much chaos about to burst whenever a tribal happens. I have an extra vote I took from Colin, that I think I'll be forced to use unless I don't go to tribal. I have that read receipts on disadvantage that could be pretty chaotic, and I also have an idol that I WILL use if I'm too scared about going home, or if I feel that there's not a secure enough plan, and that people are gunning for me. But anyway, we'll see what happens.

Alex

I don't know what's about to happen but I'm not looking forward to it.

--

Okay. So, after the initial panic of being the only pair who's not on the same tribe I feel... okay! Like, Raffy and I got along pretty well on Soca 2.0 even if we never talked game and even before we did our little SiN chat I had a feeling we'd both be of the same mind about it. We're both here to play and play with people who are going to make the game fun and exciting and we both see each other as one of those people. So, we're both theoretically planning on taking no action so we can get to the merge and see what happens next. I feel like I can trust him. I hope he trusts me. I don't see the need to upset the status quo for ourselves. Fingers crossed I avoid tribal until merge. I genuinely think I will, but if not, at least I have an extra vote. It's funny that I was so wary of Raffy going into swap but I feel like I could trust/work with him better than I can with Tony - who I was in my first alliance with! - since Tony's not been giving me ANY info game-wise on Calypso 3.0. Like, dude, what is your plan here going forward?

--

i feel like i should be talking strategy in case we all go to tribal but this week got off to a rough start and i don't really have the energy to. besides, no one's started that conversation except for zee. i at least messaged raffy to try and find out where his head is at/try and float some names on who i want to protect the most. at this point, sorry original 5, but i feel closer to Soca 2.0 and depending on how Raffy and Champ are doing, maybe we can pull her. obviously i'd rather Astyn or Jack go just because I don't know either of them, but as a show of good faith to Raffy i'd maybe throw out Tony as an option. sorry, but if you're not going to try and work with me i don't know that i can work with you. i don't love that for maintaining my relationships with Eman and Kolby but i'll figure it out if need be.

Tony

Oh shit the final merge! Glad I made it but I’m feeling nervous now. I’m really wanting to work with Michael, Eman, and Champ, but with Kolby going out of town I’m not sure how much I can protect him if folks are gunning for him. My true alliance has always been with Eman and outside the folks I’ve already listed, I don’t really want to work with anyone else. Im seeing Raffy, Colin, and Zee as the biggest threats to me currently because we don’t have much allegiance to each other.

Michael

We merged? I honestly don't feel too at risk. I think I'm going to be playing the game with Alex, possibly tony, possibly Kaleigh. I want to corral some people into an alliance, but don't want to seem too eager. I know after this first immunity challenge things will pop into place. I wish it was an individual immunity challenge though, because now we're just 2 tribes again? It doesn't help me figure out who wants who out.

Steven

Alex

damn....

that sucks.

Colin

what happened to Steven should be a CRIME.

I feel so bad for him, I know i'd be so pissed if it had happened to me

It really tainted the excitement I have for merge. I'm happy to have finally made it here after a ROUGH tribe phase, but now here we are.

I have no idea how to feel about this tribe. like, no one has really had to strategize yet. I've had some game talks to a few people throughout the game, but nothing serious. every elimination has either been a med evac or just a matter of voting out the inactive.

this first merge vote is really gonna set the tone and show who I can trust and who I wanna move forward with. here's to hoping it's not a complete shit show!!

Kaleigh

um. everyone played it safe except kolby, who was paired with steven, so steven was the only person who went to tribal and went home. this absolutely fuuuucks my game. also i found out that zee has an extra vote, which steven was certain of but i was like shrug idk. LOL i wish i could tell steven he was right ;__; alas. um so ya zee hasnt been honest w me which obviously breaks trust - happy to keep working with her for now. champ and i talked last night and she told me zee did tell her that she lied about the excursion. so i’m like ok zee trusts champ more than she trusts me, good to knooooow. champ does seem genuinely interested in allying with me which feels good cuz she said she feels very solid w kolby and eman and that’s numbers baby. she did say she wanted to talk to the hosts to try and give me my vote back which ???? what are u talking about LOL ur not gonna do that. i was like, they’re def not gonna go for that. j vote w me and we’re good. and she was totally onboard ALLEGEDLY. i talked to alex (who told me about zees extra vote, he learned from colin) and feel okay w him. i chatted w raffy, used a little flattery ~ to be like “omg when no one got dracula i was dying inside, your clue was so obvious” j to have a little bit of a connection. its just so not my style to go after anything/one that doesn’t want me LOL it truly feels so cringe!!! at this point i don’t feel like i’m in a powerful alliance like i did with alex and steven and it’s kind of bumming me out - EVEN IF THAT POWER WAS DELUSIONAL! I’M ALSO on my period so i am just generally feeling fucking bummed!! glad today is an alleged “day off.” though the number of Skype messages i have suggests otherwise.

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 6: "you joined a Zoom call with two people who look fucking identical, did you not think people would connect the dots?"—Kolby

In this round: Lexi is medically evacuated; Zee finds an idol; a tribe swap switches things up again, bringing 3 tribes back down to 2; Raffy's soul leaves his body during Celebrity; and Zee thinks Raffy has a vendetta against her because he shared the absolutely shocking revelation that AJ and Zee are, in fact, identical twins

Soca Confessionals

Astyn

Champ

NEW TRIBE YAY! I’m so sad that Lexi got medevacted, I know she would’ve been an easy number for me going forward, but she left me 40 TT dollars so SLAY my social game! Raffy said that I’m very good at playing dumb LOL honestly I’m just a ditsy person in general. I would’ve loved to make a big move on Raffy had Lexi not got medevaced :( Honestly idk where I stand with him but he is probably coming after me so oh well. As long as I make it to merge, I feel pretty okay in my position. I’ve made good enough connections to know a lot of information and not be a threat. Everyone knows that Zee and AJ are sisters now and that’s so funny because I called it day 1. Also the fact that Kaleigh gave me her vote and now she doesn’t have a vote is so slay omg I love her she’s so sweet and I got her back 100%. Kolby Eman and I have an alliance that I feel really solid in and im assuming we are going to tribal so hoping for a good ole blindside

Eman

At first I was afraid. I was petrified. BUT I SURVIVED

And I was excited to continue working with Tony & Kolby.

I even confessed it to the VL how excited I was about it.

SO OF COURSE there was a twist and another swap.

So, I've still got Kolby.

And there's Champ who's been like boats passing in the night with me.

And Astyn who's already messaged me, so I've gotta see what they're all about.

And Jack seems nice.

And of course Raffy on who's good side I need to remain.

And then Lexi the enigma.

We'll see.

I've already revised my celebrities list a few times trying to be less esoteric. (It originally included Missy Copeland, Angela Merkel, and Mao Tse Tung)

--

Life comes at you fast.

First, thank God for Champ! I've wanted to work with her since day 1 and now we're finally there. She called me right after the challenge and we totally bonded and agreed that we need to bring Kolby in on things and I think we're good. A strong 3.

Where things get interesting is that Astyn and Jack have also expressed an interest in working with me. And from Jack I learned that he and Raffy don't have a vote next tribal.

So basically Kolby, Champ, and I could control the vote if we wanted to. Presuming that whomever we target either feels confident or doesn't have an idol.

I was feeling on the bottom with this shuffle and I don't anymore. This could get interesting.

Goat or GOAT?

--

PEE ESS

If it seems like I'm a little obsessed with my extra vote, it's because I am.

This is my third game and my very first tangible advantage and I've only been watching Survivor since the actual debut (see also: I am OLD) and I'm determined not to squander this, so in classic Survivor fashion, I will be overthinking everything associated with it.

Kolby

Jack

Raffy

My tribe is the worst. I don't want to be here. Apparently everyone and their mother on this tribe has no grasp of pop culture. I'm writing this as we are losing this challenge. I don't wanna be dragged out for another 30 minutes just to lose. Please someone end my suffering all of these people are getting on my last nerve with this challenge. From not knowing who Dracula is to Jack showering in the middle, I've had it up to here. I'm over it.

Calypso Confessionals

Zee

Ok hello hello, welcome to Zee tries to write longer confessionalssssss. I've been hella tired since that movie challenge, and I feel like I mellowed out A LOT. Let's recap a little bit here, I put my entire Calypsussy into the Movie challenge, like hardcore. I'd had the idea of the Wes Anderson style trailer since Thursday, when they put the challenge on hold, so that babey was SIMMERING, until they restarted the challenge(which I didn't even know if they'd do, honestly). Did I sort of take over the challenge when I woke up? Sort of. But I didn't steamroll anyone or anything. I'd been asleep at least 7 hours when the challenge was dropped, and nobody said a thing about it, so I copy pasted suggestions from the host chat, and gave a vague idea of the plot, which was kept vague until I edited. Middle of my day friday people said they liked the idea, so I asked for clips, and Champ and I called because she said I was the only one working and putting out ideas, and she felt bad lol. So she and I decided to be the "stars" of the movie trailer, and we shot a bunch of stuff, and then I gathered clips from everyone, and I shot my own clips for TWO DAYS, since I missed my bus home and stayed over at my friend's house. Then I edited all day Sunday, wrote the voice over and had to expand on the vague one line of plot I'd kept, but in the end it turned out great and we won first place even though we didn't have an advantage! I had a creative vision and I would have been damned if I didn't see that shit through.

As far as round four goes I didn't really do much, I woke up to having been sat out of the challenge, which seemed like a pretty fun challenge, but it's alright I guess. They did discuss it without me, but also they wanted to just lock everything in which is super valid, and it meant I HAD to participate in the next challenge, which is dope. We ended up getting first place again I think, which is very slay, and Astyn got a perfect 8/8! I do keep getting nothing from my idol hunt, which sucks, and Sally fucking swindled me out of 5TT$, like ma'am, please.

Round five was FANTASTIC, and I really think helped me bond with the team a little more. I also(and this might come back to bite me later) told Champ about the fact that I got the read reciepts on disadvantage from a hunt and not the excursion, and she said she was shocked bc the way I wrote it, it seemed legit, so maybe if she thinks that, so does everyone else I originally told. Again, I'm realizing I probably didn't need to tell anyone I got anything bad, but I did feel at the time like if I said I got nothing, nobody would believe me, but anywho now Champ knows. But I'm really hoping she and I stay allies, because we talked and bonded a bit more through being put on the same tribe in the swap, so hopefully that works out for us. Other than that, Champ and I called at 10pm my time, and began to practice Codenames because we both hadn't really played before, and didn't really know what to do. Colin and Jack came in a bit later, and the four of us played until the time of the challenge, which was at 3am for me, so my brain was definitely off by then. Somehow though we managed to pull through and secure second place, probably in part thanks to the five hours spent practicing lmao. At one point Colin and Jake(who were on a team opposite Champ and I) gave the hint meat, and so we went with wings, walrus, and pie. We probably would have(technically) tied with Soca, had it not been for the fact that when Jake gave the hint of body, I went with Disease instead of wings. But regardless, Jake Colin and I stayed on the call until the results were announced(Champ went to go watch survivor with her dad, mega slay) and we were all relieved to be safe from tribal. Trinica did give us shit for walrus meat though lmao, but it's the only thing Frikkie wants to eat so.....

With the Maracas Tribal, I wanted to stay up for the challenge to drop, since I know everyone talks about it without me lmaoooo. SO I set an alarm for 12:45 and plopped myself down to sleep. After some Zs, I woke up to see we had been SWAPPED AGAIN. My little heart cannot handle this, but upon waking up I realised that this actually could be exactly what I need for my black widow brigade plan, since I'm making allies with the ladies across tribe lines, though it seems like we're running low on those. BUT KALEIGH AND I ARE BACK TOGETHER ON ONE TRIBEEEEEEE. I woke up to the alarm at almost 1am and that was the first message I saw. Sadly Champ got taken to another tribe, I'm sending her all my luck, since I know she might need it. Kaleigh and I plan to call later today to update each other on everything, and I can't wait to hear how it's all been going for her. Do I trust anyone still? Oh absolutely not, but I am vibing with everyone. Alex IS on our tribe again, which makes me nervous because I don't really trust him because of his bio, but still I'm interested in this challenge. I put a lot of gay Icons(plus David Tennant) in my celebrity list, I also Included Jenna Ortega for Wednesday if we need one worded answers for round 2. Thank god it's at a decent time. I hope we win again, and I feel like we might, but I also sucked ass at that song challenge a bit back, so we'll see. I need to update my idol hunt document, but now that Kaleigh is back, maybe I can get some info from her again...we'll see.

--

"How the fuck did none of you know who DRACULA was. NOBODY. Anyway, WE WON AGAIN. And I found an Idol last idol hunt, but it's no big deal I guess. It's nice to have it but I feel like this idol is going to be like one of those stickers you get but never stick anywhere because you're afraid that it'll be in the wrong spot or be ruined and besides you think it's really pretty anyway, so might as well just keep it. Anyway we slayed so hard in the Celebrities challenge that multiple people on the other tribe asked if we could end it early out of mercy. Lexi got med-evaced so Soca isn't going to tribal, so idk what's going to happen there, or what they're doing, but we're at thirteen players now, which means a merge could be close, and I'm ready for it. I don't know what I'd do in the merge, because I try to put my whole ass into these challenges, and if I can win them, why wouldn't I? The only problem is that doing so would put a huge target on my back, and then the one time I don't win, people would immediately target me as a huge threat. Unless.....if I just win win win, then I have this idol, and I can use it on myself if I don't win, kind of like a safety assurance. But if I did that, I'd have to keep winning until almost final three, otherwise if I lost another one after using the idol, they'd just get me out then.

I'm interested to see who still wants to ally with me when the merge happens, because it would appear that Raffy is out to get me. To get to the bottom of this, let's flashback to last night when Kaleigh and I called to catch up after the challenge. We talked a lot about some mostly pointless stuff just like life, but we also talked about what was happening on the tribes we got put on. Sadly I didn't have much to say, since my tribe was veeeery quiet, and we kept winning so we didn't really have any drama. It's going to be interesting going to tribal though, especially with people who have already been to some. It's like watching an action movie with a war veteran, you're like "ooooh explosion" and they're like "[grizzled war voice]you wouldn't understand the sacrifices I've had to make to survive". I also have no idea if I can trust anything Kaleigh says, for all I know she could be lying to me about practically everything, that's the problem with this game, I don't fully trust anyone. Does Kaleigh know that I told a fib unrelated to the game in the beginning? Yes she does. Does she know WHAT it is? Nope, all she knows is that it was pointless, and started as me not wanting to correct people. She told me she wrote in all her confessionals about how much she missed me, but again, I have no way to know if this is true or not. Anyway, back to the point. She told me that Raffy told Alex, who told Steven, who told her, that I'm related to AJ. So it would appear that Raffy has been spreading this information to make people more wary of me and my game. Which is also a bit annoying because AJ has been especially harder and stricter on me than she is with anyone else, she even marked me as unemployed instead of a student in the bio in the beginning. She's extra hard on me because she doesn't want people to think she's playing favorites, and judging by the fact that I didn't get a winner's pick yet, I'd say her favorites are in other places. Regardless, there's no FRIENDLY reason for Raffy to spread this info, so it would appear he's out to get me. I would however like to use some of his own words and sentiment against him come tribal, if I'm asked a question about the rumors, because I know last game he and AJ had mild beef bc she kept saying he knew the host, and that he had hosted before and knew a lot about the games and was a challenge threat, and he could see those because tribal council there was posted and everyone knew what went down on the opposite tribe's tribals. I'll use his words of(vaguely) "I want to be judged for who I am in this game, and how I play here, and not for anyone I know or how I've played in the past." you know, something to that effect.

Oh also it's kind of random but Kaleigh and I have decided to conduct an experiment on Alex, since we both agree that the way he's acting in DMs seems very tailored to the way each of us talk, and kind of seems like a persona of himself that he's putting on specifically to charm us. Which makes us(or at least me) nervous, because of the info that he put IN HIS BIO. I still can't get over that, man revealed his entire strategy in his intro post, and nobody seems to have noticed lmao. Anyway, to test our theory, I've decided to start saying yassssss a lot in my messages with him, and see if he takes that and starts using it too. Because I already use a lot of double or triple letters, and he's been using it too, but ONLY with me lmao. So yeah, that's a little bit of fun we've got going on now."

Alex

Okay, a very successful 24-hours. We finally took first in an immunity challenge so I'm steadily raking in the TT$, and me and Michael worked SO well together in Codenames which has fiiinally helped us start talking more. I liked his vibes immediately so I wish we could have been talking throughout the entirety of our time on Soca 2.0 but better late than never. I've still got the rest of Soca Elite with me, too, which rocks. Colin already, reached out, which is cool, since he and Zee are the only in's to find out what was going on over at Calypso. I'm wondering if Zee worked some magic to rebuild trust from that first summit or if I can kind of play their information off of each other. I at least feel like I'd be secure were we to go to tribal. Less certain of what could happen over on Soca 3.0. Soca 1.0 still has a majority but with Kolby and Eman being sequestered from everyone else, Raffy and Champ's history, the Calypso 2.0 of it all, and not knowing anything about Jack or Astyn, I feel like there's the potential for some shakeups. Fingers crossed I make it to merge, I think things are going to just keep getting more exciting.

Colin

this swap has breathed LIFE into my game, I'm so grateful for it.

it's a little scary not knowing very many people on the tribe. Michael and I were both on OG Calypso, Zee and I were on Calypso 2, and then I know Steven from prior games, but then everyone else is new to me. But everyone is pretty active and I'm having great conversations!! It's giving me a lot more energy in the game, feeding off of everyone else's vibes.

I need to get some allies on this side, as all of my existing alliance is on the other tribe. I'm looking at Zee and Alex rn, they seem like great allies. Strong players are good to have on your side.

With us crushing this round's immunity, I think we just have to survive one more round till merge, so I'm feeling confident!!

Here are my tribe first impressions that no one asked for!!

Alex - kinda my fave. Very easy and fun to talk to. I wanna get close with him, he's someone I wanna get to know better. Kaleigh - loving the energy. haven't gotten to talk to her much, but I think she'll be someone fun. Michael - was pretty quiet on OG Calypso and didn't get a chance to get to know him before the first swap. I think he's a bit more active now, but I don't really have too many thoughts about him in the game as of rn Steven - in general, I would die for Steven. he's great and super nice. i value every game we get together because he's such a genuine person. i think we're two very different players so we usually don't get paired together strategically, so we'll see what happens in this game! Tony - seems really nice!! maybe kind of an underdog in the game. a wildcard mayhaps. Zee - a force to be reckoned with. She's passionate about the game and the challenges specifically, I know she's always going to give her all. Definitely a valuable ally to have but idk how far I wanna go with her yet.

Tony

And just like that I’ve reunited with so many folks from my previous tribe! It’s a bittersweet reunion seeing that Eman and I were split up :( but I trust that she is playing a strong game on the other tribe. Now that I’m here I gotta make sure that I’m pulling my weight given that I sat out of the last challenge. No telling what’s gonna happen next!

Michael

Not going to tribal again so the game is pretty stale. Tony and I are going to work together. I also entered an alliance with Alex, we need to pull a few more people. I also need to let Tony know about Alex. I just think nothing is really going to pop off until the merge, which I hope I'll make

Steven

Kaleigh

welp we had another swap. by some miracle?? or just a twist of fate, alex & steven & i are all still together, but on calypso now - michael too, though he still hasnt talked game to me. ZEE IS BACK. which i am v happy about. then we have colin and tony. raffy is on the other tribe. which is JUST FINE WITH ME! we had our little celebrity game today and we fuckennnn DOMMMINATED it was so fun and also kind of sad/hard to watch raffy going like “ok, the original vampire. like, you think of a vampire, that’s this.” and his team being like “oh! uh! twilight! edward…edward cullen! robert pattinson!” and literally not get it at all, and then on my turn i get dracula and go “Transvylania, vampire” and like my whole tribe in unison immediately goes DRACULA. LMAOOO LIKE DAMN i could feel raffys frustration in that moment. um ya so they did a mercy ruling in the 3rd round bc we were so far ahead. their team actually requested it lmao sheeeeesh. but then no tribal bc lexi was medevaced. that looks so ugly written down.

i talked w zee after the challenge and we caught up, got a bunch of info, feeling v solidified in the bimbo alliance. also talked to steven tonight. zee and steven both said they thought we’d merge @ 12, and what choice do i have but to believe theM? LOL i’m not doing any research on that! i messaged w tony briefly last night, asked him how his experience was on maracas, he rly dodged it and was like “the vibes were off with nick and tanner.” like, my brother in christ, we all know exactly how off the vibes were. they are gone! this is not helpful! obviously it seems like he and eman and kolby must be TIGHT, but he didn’t say shitittt and apparently alex asked him today about the excursion and he was j like “haha excursions are not my fave!” WHAT?! LMFAO WHAT ARE YOU DOING MY GUY!!!! like, what MUST be ur only solid alliance (eman and kolby) aren’t here! you gotta share info to build trust and get in where you fit in! like i get feeling like ur vulnerable and being uncertain about who to trust, and also… plz trust me :)

anyway, i feel very solid with zee now, and steven and alex as well. i don’t know what da fUUCK is gonna happen once we merge. maybe i’ll try to talk game with michael tomorrow. idk. oh i told zee that raffy told steven that she and aj are siblings and she is soooo pissed, UNDERSTANDABLY! like truly he did not need to share that info, even tho it seemed (based on what zee said) that someone else had asked about it and been thinking it. so anyway she is like ok raffy’s gotta go. she said she’s gonna try to fake ally with him once we merge, which, like, good luck girl… but if she’s successful in faking an alliance and then voting him out that tribal will be extremely delicious. she also said champ will totally work with us, which i believe! tho champ and raffy played together last season… also steven said raffy said that champ is good at playing dumb, which i’m like, what are you even talking about? like pretending to be a bad player? idk. i am getting a LOT of info from both steven and zee tho so that’s sick and like, maybe will help me out later. like raffy telling steven that aj+zee are siblings absolutely destroyed any potential game he had with zee, who actually seemed eager to work w him before hearing that LMAOOOO SORRY RAFFY MAYBE YA SHOULDA PRETENDED TO WANNA WORK W ME!! but ya zee said too that colin and raffy were in an alliance w astyn andddd drea so i know colin and raffy are allied, and i think zee was feeling good about colin and potentially working w raffy but i think that might not be the case anymore.

ok so my only strategy in this game so far is to win as much as possible (duh, and my teams are crushing it) and to do as many phone calls/video calls as possible bc that is truly the easiest way to tell if someone’s bullshitting AND it’s the best way to build trust and get info bc ppl just looooooooove to chitty chat. god yunno i will say it’s not ideal that alex+steven see zee as a big target and zee thinks alex is like playing a rly good game (is he?). it’s not ideal that my two alliances are gunning for each other. gonna have to fix that. i’m not even CLOSE to being ready for zee to go. who the hell has the idol(s)?? also kinda offended i havent been a winners pick since round one?!?!??!?!!?! who’s gettin those?!

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 5: "ok shit is goin kinda sideways"—Kaleigh

In this round: Maracas faces yet another tribal council after a truly abysmal Codenames showing; Kolby attempts to get Eman or Tony to vote for him under the guise of being too busy to play on vacation so he can split their votes and work with Tanner to get one of them out to save himself at a future tribal council, but they're too loyal and ruin his plan to betray him; excursion-goers get an extra idol hunt (but nobody believes Michael got an advantage); and players begin to suspect a swap

Calypso Confessionals

Champ

Since our tribe is winning, I’m so bored LMFAO I know I’m in a good position and wouldn’t be voted off if we lose. I feel really good about Colin Zee and Jack being on my tribe and kinda hoping for a tribe swap soon.

Colin

this game has been so dry since the swap. partially my bad, I haven't been as chaotic as I wanna be.

Right now I'm feeling closest to Jack because he and I have kinda vibed since the beginning and we've been allies since round 1. Astyn too, but to a much lesser extent, I don't talk to them as much as I do Jack.

I wanna trust Zee and work with her but I think she's such a powerhouse player. She's held onto this double voting power since round 1 because she's never been to tribal, and the later in the game it gets the more powerful it becomes to have another vote. If we ever have to go to tribal as this tribe, it's gonna be scary!! I think we'd work well together but I can't tie myself to her too closely, she's gonna be a huge target come merge. I don't wanna be caught in that.

right now I'm just vibing and hoping for the best. hopefully we can keep winning, I do genuinely enjoy the vibes of our tribe. very chill and lowkey. wish it was a lil more active strategically

Jack

Zee

yoooooo we killed it at the challengeeeeee, but now everybody keeps saying they suspect a swap, and I'm very scared. Like I just went through a swap, I'm not emotionally ready for another one :((

Soca Confessionals

Alex

Well I'm tragically still awake and a lot has happened today so I might as well talk about it. I figured another excursion was coming I just didn't expect it to happen already. I also knew that Raffy would PROBABLY end up going because he'd floated wanting to go on the last one where Kaleigh threw my name out. I was worried Kaleigh's move would paint a target on my back, and maybe it has idk, but we talked about it and we've talked good strategy since then, so I feel strong with her. I just have to hope it was ultimately the better move to send him versus make no attempt to work with them socially. Raffy's story of what happened, though, just makes SO little sense. How would a steal a vote work between three players? Why would Tony risk a vote when he's in the majority on his tribe and was actively working with all the Soca still in game with him on Maracas pre-swap? Was the blatant falseness part of the strategy here? Am I being TOO overly suspicious of Raffy just because of his past games? He's been overall nice to me in game so far, so I feel bad being so wary of him but it's also a sign of respect, hopefully? I've read the first few eps of North Sea and he keeps talking about how he wanted to change his game style there, I just don't know enough about it all to know what ended up actually happening. Is it all just a front to hide the fact that he maybe has an idol?? If worst comes to worst, I can always use the extra vote and try and get a 2-2-2 split on Michael/Raffy/one of Soca and we go from there. I'd have to reveal to Steven and Kaleigh the reality of the hero summit but I feel like I should maybe do that anyways at some point to earn trust, and because I don't know how things have shifted relationship wise on the other tribes. Hopefully we'll pull out another win in Codenames and I'll be able to stress a little less about it for now.

Kaleigh

okay i decided to risk it and talk to alex 1:1. first i talked to steven and asked him if he thought it was chill for me to sit this challenge out and he was like oh ya who cares, do it. and we talked a little bit about raffy and he was like ya raffy’s good at challenges and that’s why i wanna hang onto him for now, hopefully we can all make it to he merge and he can help us vote out zee or whoever. n i’m like… ok shit is goin kinda sideways cuz yes i do think zee should go eventually but i also think she might be a good ally for me for a while after the merge! like if we get rid of her then my only trusted allies are steven and alex and … i don’t know, i honestly j feel like i’d rather be in an ally with women SHRUG LOL. these dudes are talking to each other!!!

so anyway steven and i chatted a little and he said he knew alex and i would probably wanna vote for raffy if we did go to tribal and that he’d go with whatever we wanted but he’d rather do michael cuz raffy could potentially help us with his gameplay. which… w/e, idc, i still think raffy doesn’t care to work with me and therefore i want him gone :) i also read some of last season’s confessionals and julia’s first confessional was something like “i’m disgusted that raffy is here,” which makes me feel like raffy is like kind of brutal or did a big betrayal or something. and lots of ppl last season talked about him being a huge threat or w/e. soooo. ya. i’m thinking steven and raffy are probably allied, and i just didn’t want to be the only one who was like clocking that. so i messaged alex and asked if he wanted to talk and i had some info i wanted to share. and he was like sure, so we got on a call and i was like hiiiii, i know you’ve mentioned a few times that ur rly nervous about raffy having advantages or idols and just in general are very wary of him, i’m wondering if you have read like the last season? and he was like yeah i read a little bit, kinda skimmed it. and i brought up the “disgusting” julia comment and he was like wait whaaaat. and i pulled it up and he read it and i was like… im feeling like steven possibly is allied w raffy, based on raffy telling him that zee and aj are siblings, and they know each other, and steven’s been pretty upfront about not wanting raffy to be our first vote. i pointed out that steven responded to raffy’s excursion synopsis j like “wow sucks for whoever got those disadvantages” rather than being like, oh who was it? and alex was like… hmm idk, maybe he was just fishing for info… and i was like yaaa i think he already knew bc i think raffy told him before he told any of us. i also pointed out that when alex brought up raffy’s story about the risk/steal votes it made zero sense, and steven didn’t rly say anything which seemed weird. alex didn’t seem very convinced and said he felt like we 3 were working rly well together and i was like dude YES i love our little alliance and def don’t feel like i can’t trust steven or anything, AND i just wanted to kind of share this thought bc i feel like its good to keep that in mind just generally. and he was like yeah i hadn’t really thought of that and agree that’s good to keep in mind. so ya the convo seemed to go well but i’m still just like… is alex j gonna turn around and tell steven, idk how close they are, idk if i’m fucking shit up !!!

alex seems like a veeeery hesitant player, which is funny cuz like day 1 before i ever said a word to him zee was like BE CAREFUL OF ALEX, I THINK HE AND KOLBY ARE VERY CLOSE AND ALEX IS VERY CHARMING AND DANGEROUS! LMAO i’m like ok.. where even are u getting that!!! but ya. alex does seems very stressed, poor baby.

today michael went on an excursion and said he got a 5% advantage cuz of the dog and i’m j assuming he got some sorta advantage bc… that doesn’t rly make sense at all. ok. w/e just gonna trust my guys and hope for the best! i do think raffy has an advantage of some sort and michael too! hate that! i just wanna make it to merge so i have more options!

Raffy

I think Michael is lying about the excursion results. It just doesn't make sense to me that there was a challenge advantage as that has not been done before. Also why would the dog find something on the excursion? The idol hunt probably has nothing to do with what you find on the excursion. He's hiding something. I want to talk with Colin because I know he'll tell me the truth regarding those excursion results. I might just have to use my advantage after all...

Michael

We won the challenge and I got a 5% advantage! Things are going well, I dread when I actually have to vote. I think I can pull Alex and possibly Raffy, though I think Raffy is close with Steven. We'll see 🙈

Maracas Confessionals

Eman

I guess I oughta drop a confessional.

Nick is out, which I'm still mostly okay about.

On the one hand I feel truly bad for him and the circumstances. On the other, compassion will only get you so far in this game (I say--hypocritically--as someone who missed the tribal call because I was in too much pain to attend).

Chatted with Tanner last night and might have overplayed my hand a bit by telling him that I was worried about my own position in the game . . . I'm not really--I think that my alliance with Kolby & Tony is strong--but I was trying to build trust and the pain killers had my judgment impaired.

Meanwhile, on the upside, I found I dog, which I know can be up to a 10% advantage as long as the tribe lets me keep it AND I still think might transforming into something more . . . as long as the tribe lets me keep it.

--

If I were an oddsmaker I'd say 20% chance I'm going home tonight 80% chance that it's Tanner.

This is where social > skill because I do believe in my alliance with Kolby & Tony and I do think the three of us go well together . . .

But I did (along with Tony) eff up the game last night, and I've been out there playing. Obviously idol hunting (which is bringing back advantages for the tribe, so useful there) and putting myself on the line every challenge which means when there's an eff up, it's also my neck in the guillotine.

Tanner has told Kolby he wants me or Tony gone . . . so, we'll see.

I've got my extra vote - but do I want to waste it when I'm 80% sure? I don't think so - but if I make the wrong decision it's going to suck to go home with it in my pocket.

Also, I have a knife, which means I can now cut the thing out of the fishing net. I HAVE to stick around to do that, because I'm pretty sure anything that requires multiple steps to get out is gonna be big!

Tony

Losing the last challenge felt discouraging. Going to tribal 3 times in a row even more so, but I feel like my bond with Kolby and Eman has only gotten stronger. This next tribal will set the pace for the rest of the game and hopefully the 3 of us can make it to the merge

Kolby

Tanner

So I have to go to tribal again and I am waiting for an idea on who to vote

Tribal Council

Votes

eman: Tanner (If you take a swing at the queen, you better not miss.)

Kolby: Tanner (really sorry about this! Just what’s best for my game.)

Tanner: Emily (I think you need to step up your game and i haven’t seen that yet)

Tony: Tanner (I think you played a great game and I’m sorry to see ya go.)

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 4: "Bye bye Nick. I don't even think he'll notice that he got kicked out of the tribe chat"—Kolby

In this round: Calypso and Soca dominate at Scattergories, sending Maracas straight back to Tribal Council; Nick is still sick, discusses his diarrhea in his tribal council answer, does not submit a list for Scattergories, and does indeed not notice that he got kicked out of the tribe chat

Soca Confessionals

Alex

Glad that we're all still safe, not glad Calypso keeps getting TT$. A) Because I want those TT$. But B) Because I have NO idea what's happening over there. With how social Zee is and with how little I talked to Lexi I have no idea where they stand. Champ said I was her #1 but she's spent more time post-swap than we spent together so I don't know how things may have changed. Also still ever aware that if Raffy or Michael have an idol and they play it successfully if we did go to tribal one of the Elite is gone. I've talked more with Raffy than it sounds like Steven or Kaleigh have and I don't know if that's good or bad for me. I haven't talked to Michael at all since the first day of the swap. I've also done suuuch strategy with the Elite that it's making me rethink how to move forward: original 5 or the Elite and maybe try and pull in Champ? I've got options, I've just gotta make sure I have the opportunity to make use of them.

Kaleigh

okay, two nights ago steven and alex and i had a little soca elite phone call and talked for over an hour. we talked about our idol hunting and advantages disadvantages etc and i am liiiiiike…………. very uncertain about whether or not i was caught in a LIEEEE which is like torturous. basically we decided to pool our info on idol hunting (which is actually something zee and i did, her idea, love it, but we didn’t get far) and i made the doc and we were sharing info (which, i’m pretty sure at least steven withheld some info bc he said he did all but one idol hunt and i didn’t actually count bc i am lazy and drc but it FELLLTTT like he was short when we were going over the ones we had done… but i could be absolutely wrong LMAO) , andddd i was like, ok i should maybe keep SOOOMETHING to myself IDK this is survivor i need to stop being SO transparent and bimboey... so i decided to not tell them about a $5 advantage i got (NOT WORTH IT FOR THE RECORD) and pretend i hadn’t done it. BUT. earlier in the convo we had just casually been talking about the things we’d done and i didn’t REMEMBER that the abandoned sandcastles was the one that gave me $5 , and steven was like “yeah i helped the kids w the sandcastles and got nothing,” and i was like “oh yeah i explored the abandoned sandcastles and got nothing” LMFAOOOO so then when i made the DOCument, i invited steven and alex, and i had typed out the sandcastle one as one of the options, but not marked a result, even though if i hadn’t actually done it like i claimed i wouldn’t even have that information as the options. and steven was like “didn’t u say u did the abandoned sandcastles?” and i was like no? i thought u did? LMFAOOO OH MY GODDDD!!! anyway… uh… so yeah idk if he clocked me or not (i feel like it’s likely that he did bc he is *very* observant and is def like keeping close track of everything everyone else is doing) or if alex noticed but uh… yeah. so. that has been haunting me since last night. i literally talked about it in therapy yesterday and had nightmares about it that night LMFAO i feel *so* bad , like , getting caught in a lie is among the worst feelings!! sigh. so hopefully i haven’t broken trust with my little alex/steven alliance bc i honestly like them. it’s veeeery different to build trust w someone LIVE on a call than through text. like idk they kind of … j become real ppl.

also, we talked about who we would vote out if we lost (not that we thought we’d lose), and i was like, tbh, probably raffy only bc he doesn’t seem *at all* interested in working with me. and steven was like, idk he’s good at challenges and we wanna win! and i was like, idc, michael seems fine at challenges too AND he is way friendlier to me and doesn’t rly seem like he’s playing super hard , which we allllllllllllll agreed that raffy was like *PLAAAAYING*. anyway so i said i’d vote off raffy if we went to tribal last night, and then yesterday raffy RANDOMLY messaged me after not saying anything for days and fully letting our convo die , and he’s all casually like “hey how’s your day” LMAO ok bud!! i assume it’s steven who was like hey you need to be friendlier to kaleigh … bc i do sense that they have an actual full blown alliance. or maybe raffy just decided to check in! idk. impossible rly to know!!!

i actually hate that i will very likely be betrayed by steven or alex (like, hello, that’s the point of the game and we *all* know it) OR that i’d have to betray them. like i hate that! why am i doing this! but also i’m enjoying getting to know them and do these fun little challenges! this is just kind of an intense experience!

i miss zee, we all agreed that she was so lovable and veeeeryyyy dangerous and steven said she’d probably be an early post-merge vote off, which makes sense to me cuz like i’m thinking most ppl are clocking her as a very lovable angel and as someone they don’t want to compete against at the end. sigh.

today raffy again offered himself up for the boat excursion and after much delibration alex and steven and i agreed to send him. i really think steven is allied w him and i’m considering talking to alex about it. sigh. i think the worst part about this game is that i’m building friendships with these ppl and then will betray them or be betrayed by them and then there is not likely going to be any kind of repair or continuation of the friendship bc these connections aren’t as deep as they would be if we were all stuck on an island together LOL annnyyyyyyyyway i’m interesting to see who else is on the excursion and who gets voted out from maracas. i hope that when zee and i are reunited we can resume our alliance without too much distrust or too many other well developed alliances. i wonder if anyone has an idol? i feel like someone must! idk who!

Steven

Raffy

I had a good call with Steven where I basically said that Kaleigh and Alex are a duo and we should target them. Hopefully it works

Michael

Honestly? Nothing much is going on. Makes me feel on the outs but I'm hoping that's just because we haven't been to tribal in 2 challenges. I hope to keep winning challenges so I can at least make it to the merge.

Calypso Confessionals

Astyn

Champ

Honestly the tribe is so chill that there’s literally nothing exciting going on at all, hopefully we can just keep winning so this game is easy for me lol! Idk if there gonna be like a second swap or these are the teams we are gonna be in until merge but I feel very confident in my spot rn

Lexi

Loved how quickly my team came up with a plan for this challenge! It was nice and simple so this one wasn’t super eventful but I’m relieved we won and it was so fun to see everyone’s answers.

Zee

As it stands rn I'm a bit behind on confessionals. But as far as the scattergories challenge goes, I can't say much because I woke up to having been sat out. I'm not upset bc we won anyway, and also because I did kind of take over the movie challenge but i did let my tribe know I'd like to not be sat out in future bc I'm almost positive I'll be able to participate in every challenge, and if I can i want to :P

Colin

I’m so glad we won bc I’ve been so inactive. Somehow not as inactive as the rest of my tribe lmao. If worse comes to worst, I got a handy lil idol too. I’m just tryna make it to merge

Jack

Hey babes love my tribe and I’m happy we r doing well I’m happy we don’t gotta go to tribal but if we do in the future I wanna target zee🫣I heard she ran the OG tribe and I don’t like that 🤭 we will see what happens tho love y’all

Maracas Confessionals

Tanner

I am doing good making those connections

Eman

If my work calendar didn't look completely ugly, I would currently be creating a spreadsheet with all the remaining members of all the teams and what I know of them. e.g., Nick - Maracas - largely absent and non-participatory. I'm half convinced he's gonna strike out this round and spare us the need to vote. Makes me more bitter that Kathryn offered herself up, because I'm pretty sure even in Hawaii she coulda come up with a list of 8 things. Tanner - Maracas - god grant me the confidence of a white man that needs to be handheld through the process and yet still thinks he's in a good position Kolby - Love the enthusiasm, not sure about his strategic chops yet Tony - closest alley - hope we can hold on and continue to work together post-merge. I might be telling him to much, but I'm trying to show that I'm trustworthy and I'm hoping he'll reciprocate because I think we could be more powerful together than apart. And so on, there's even things that can be inferred through a close read of the posts (like that Steven, Raffy, Zee, Alex, Colin, Champ, and Jack are playing to some extent.) The more mercenary part of me even wants to come up with some sort of coded system to categorize people -- Ally, Threat, Shield, Goat -- but then I start feeling guilty for thinking that way and so I abandon the idea. Plus, in a game this chaotic, things are ever-changing.

--

So, the question is . . . WHO is the weakest link? Nick - who has been largely absent with a few exceptions (like will there be another excuse after this sickness, or can we expect a change?) OR Tanner - who I've had to handhold until this round where--to be quite frank--he defied my expectations (was it a fluke, or will there be more good performances? Has he been playing dumb up to this point and suddenly going to be a sleeper. I don't even know what to make of this!) Do we remain Soca Strong (my original preference) or should we be mercenary and get rid of Mr. Invisible (who may or may not be sick, and will likely have some other excuse in the future)? Stay tuned!

Kolby

Tony

Geez, what a fuckin whirlwind! Not gonna lie, going to tribal twice feels shitty! But I still feel strongly that we can pull out a win!

Nick

I'll hopefully be feeling better in a few days. I voted for Tanner bc of spamming my individual chat and then responding with one word answers. But I'm probably out this round.

Tribal Council

Votes:

eman: Nick (Being absent for one round is unfortunate, being absent for two rounds is a coincidence, being absent for three rounds is a trend that I fear we can’t let last. I’m sorry to do this as I did want to work with you, and I really hope you feel better . . .)

Nick: Tanner (kept individually chatting me and it felt inauthentic)

Tanner: Nick (I love you but there is no game stepped up) 

Kolby: Nick

Tony: LOST VOTE

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 3: "I put my entire calypsussy into this challenge"—Zee

In this round: A twist splits the two tribes into three; Kolby and Champ sow the seeds to gaslight Alex at merge; Drea is medically evacuated in the middle of the challenge, leaving Raffy to take on the editing role for the Movie Trailer challenge; Nick shows up the day before the challenge is due with an entirely new, AI-generated script for consideration, then gets sick and doesn't submit any footage for the challenge; Kathryn offers herself up for tribute when Maracas inevitably loses; and Colin finds an idol—hope they make good use of it later!

Soca Confessionals

Alex

Well, my game just changed by a fucking lot. I just lost my entire alliance AND Champ. I at least have Steven, who kind of got me into this mess, and Kaleigh but I haven't talked game with her at all. I've gotta assume Steven has been talking with her through the screen cap challenge so I hope we can stick together. They're at least both strong in challenges. But Champ let me know that Raffy is here to play and that he plays WELL, so I've either gotta go for him first or figure out what I can do to get on his good side. I've at least got an extra vote, and I'm gonna be "transparent" about my shot in the dark because in a 3 v 3 at tribal I have to assume they'd think it be reckless and selfish to ever use. Okay. I can do this.

Michael

I really like Alex and Kaleigh. My biggest allies were Drea and Raffy, but drea had to leave so that kind of messed some things up. I don't feel super secure. Probably going to have to flip and go Raffy when it comes to it. The other 3 seem too tight. Raffy is my biggest threat since we are the only 2 Calypso left on this tribe. We're both targets. My path to the end is going to be paved with friendship and challenge wins. Will hunt when I have time!

Kaleigh

what a wild ride it’s been!! okay we swapped groups and now my tribe is me, steven, alex, michael, and raffy. i’ve learned (thru steven who learned from taffy) that zee is siblings w aj which blew my mind. INFORMATION! ummm alex and steven and i have a little original soca 3 alliance, still have not been to tribal, andddd I MISS ZEE!!!! their lil wes anderson video was so cuteeeee.

last night i was up late and was (i think) the first person to see that we have another boat excursion. my thinking was, OH, YAY, I’VE NEVER BEEN AROUND WHEN A BOAT CAME ! bc the two other times we’ve had a boat come the first person to respond and be like “i’ll go!” ended up going. so i was like, ok, i’m not gonna say i wanna go cuz i kinda don’t, and steven’s already been on an excursion, and i do nottttt want any kind of advantage to be outside of my soca alliance, so i’m just gonna respond and vote for alex and then everyone else will and we’ll all be good. NOPE! in the morning raffy responds and is like “i kinda wanted to go” LMAO BABE? WHAT? SORRY, NO. so alex and steven both msg me and are like uhhh what are u doing LMFAOOOOO LIKE ALEX DEFINITELY DID NOT WANT TO GO AND STEVEN WAS LIKE ?????? DOES ALEX WANT TO GO?????? oopsies. anyway so i told them both i was just up late and eager to not let michael or raffy get an advantage. steven was like ok makes sense , but alex was sooooooo resistant bc he did the hero challenge and got a shot in the dark, like he even suggested that he vote for raffy in the hopes of doing a split? absolutely not! anyway this was my first time feeling like a messy bitch in the game cuz i clearly pissed off or at least ruffled the feathers of my soca alliance with my 2am decision to throw Alex’s name out there and vote for him for the excursion.

okay what else… i like michael, he seems chill and we talked a little about tv stuff. i get the distinct feeling that raffy has zero interest in working with me. steven and alex have both mentioned talking to him privately about the game and i’m like bro he rly isn’t talking to me LMAO like his bio is like “i’m a book nerd!” so i messaged him day 1 and was like omg me too, u reading anything good? and he was like no i’ve been busy. and the convo died right there LMAO which like, sure ok, ur busy… but i’ve never met a book nerd who didn’t like LEAAAPPPPPPP on a chance to talk to another book person about their favs or what they’ve been reading or whatever. so yeah that feels a little sticky bc it seems like raffy is talking about the game with evvvvveryone in my tribe except me. BUT i feel good about my alliance with steven and alex and hopefully zee and champ toooooooooooooo if i make it to the mergey merge.

also i found a dog thanks to zee, NOW WE HAVE A DOG! the vote for keeping it or not hasn’t concluded but hopefully the dog will stay? like who’s gonna vote no for the dog? come on. anyway strongest allies rn are steven and alex and hopefully zee - if i HAD to target someone it would be raffy only bc it *rly* feels like he doesn’t want to work w me, but i’m def not targeting him rn bc i know he’s allied w steven and possibly alex too and their numbers are my numbers rn ((i think)).

let’s see, who are the biggest threats… zee, i’m starting to think steven, and also maybe alex… why am i just naming my literal closest allies LMFAOOOOOOOJFKDLSAJFDKLSFJDKLAS i didn’t even mean to do that. i guess i’m just seeing UP CLOSE more of their game play than anyone else’s so i’m like OH UR RLY PAYING ATTN!! you know i will say that the idea of voting off someone i'm close w sends a chill down my spine. like i literally don't think i could vote for steven or zee at this point. okay well there’s my update

Raffy

Ok I have a lot to say. So from this tribe swap, I actually didn’t mind how I got swapped. Steven was with me and Andrea was with me. I didn’t feel swap screwed and felt that I was in a good position to survive till either merge or the next swap. However, then Andrea had to leave game. Now I kind of feel all alone. Sure there’s Michael but I don’t really know where I stand with him. And Steven does have some connections with Kaleigh and Alex from original tribes. I’m definitely worried about next tribal.

I did find like 4 advantages though! One challenge advantage, one transparent advantage, one advantage to talk to someone on another tribe, and an idol! So I’m swimming in riches at this point. I feel much more confident with these tools by my side.

During the challenge, my tribe was a little annoying with getting good clips that weren’t bad. Also not Kaleigh just outright refusing to send me b-roll lol. That rubbed me the wrong way. And I wish I pushed more for not doing vertical cause it did look bad and had to use some BS excuse on the judges so they wouldn’t dock too many points. Right now my tribe rankings goes as follows from best to “I wanna vote out first”: Steven, Alex, Michael, Kaleigh. I put Kaleigh in the bottom because early in the morning she locked in her vote for Alex to go on the excursion without discussing it with anyone! Like that’s shady and lets me know they might be working together. Well now I wanna go on excursion so that duo doesn’t get their way.

Steven

--

--

Calypso Confessionals

Champ

Omg where do I start… Steven and Astyn go on an excursion and then the tribe splits and STEVEN DOESNT PICK ME? NAHHH omg I got stuck on the inactive tribe lmfao but I’m so glad tribes split evenly and I got Zee on my tribe cuz the girl is putting in the mother fucking work, the Marcas tribe or whatever’s video was so bad that it should’ve been a comedy, I was laughing so hard(sorry that’s kinda mean but I mean it with love). Anywayyys Kolby and I planned to spread lies to our tribes in hopes of making things less boring lol. Jacks cool, Colin’s cool, Zee’s cool, Lexi’s cool, Astyn doesn’t talk lmfao and the clip of the white wall when Zee wanted an esthetic background had me DEAD

Lexi

Okay the movie challenge was so cool. Zee once again took the lead in a way that I so appreciated, she really made the whole challenge so easy for everyone else. I feel like I’ll always feel confident if I’m in the same tribe as Zee.

Zee

I put my entire calypsussy into this challenge, and it paid off 😎

Astyn

Colin

I FOUND AN IDOLLLL

i'm so EXCITED. right before a swap, this is perfect timing. it's gonna be so hard for me but I'm gonna try my best to not say anything about it to anyone.

--

I was feelin really nervous for this challenge because it seemed like Zee was literally doing all the work. but sis came THROUGH. the trailer turned out so so cool and WE WON!!

first round i don't have to go to tribal!! i'm gonna enjoy my lil break hehe

Jack

--

Maracas Confessionals

Kolby

Eman

Things what happened to me today 1 - A bird flew into our picture window and died 2 - My crutches fell and knocked over my tumbler of cold brew 3 - I dumped the very last of my loose powder all over the bathroom floor 4 - I tore one of my two remaining pair of jeans 5 - My favorite necklace broke 6 - I got ripped from the clutches of my tribe

1 and 6 upset me the most. Though 5 has me pretty unhappy as well.

As I write this I don't even know where I've landed yet.

--

Seriously - that's what I feel like this morning. Everyone's favorite ACE auntie eman is having a very rough time being positive this morning, but that doesn't mean I'll stop trying.

But if something doesn't give soon the carrot may have to give way for the stick because I can only try the same thing so many times before I question whether I'm giving way to insanity.

Anyway . . . TONY and I are getting on very well. And I've had a few good one-on-one conversations with Kolby(!) (who is probably too young to know why the exclamation point after his name makes me giggle with memories of a failed presidential run from a former governor of Florida) and I wish he would engage as actively in the primary chat.

Tanner also started a chat with me and then ghosted after I replied. I've called Kathryn out in the primary but I might try something with her privately today--bonding over the shared "mom" role or something cuz I refuse to just give up. Yeah, I'm kinda bummed at being abandoned (although I did tell Steven I would accept his decision regardless, and part of me maybe wonders if he let me go because he knew I would fare well on my own and could then come back, so it just means Astyn didn't do their homework and/or Steven persuaded them not to pick me--and/or based on my bio I was unappealing . . . there's a lot of ways I could read this, and--like I said, I'm trying to stay positive and keep fighting). Now to go back to trying to be the fluffer and puffer upper . . .

--

So, after my confession yesterday morning, I was so excited to suddenly hear from Kathryn (and she seems super-fun, just getting that out there).

And then . . . more crickets. I keep ping-ponging between hopeful and hopeless. But we've got 36 hours to hammer this out, so I'm not gonna give up. And if I have to pull this together with stock footage, team photos and my own narration I will. And we've got somewhere between a 20% and a 35% advantage so that's gotta count for something.

But seriously folks - stop expecting me to do your emotional labor; it's sexist and lazy. So when I ask how you want to participate, don't turn it back on me to find a role for you. I expect me to tell you how you want to participate, what're you good at? What are you comfortable with? HOW DO YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE.

But no - I gotta make a good impression and get along and get the thing done, and these people are virtual (and virtual) strangers, so I'll do your emotional labor, but I'm gonna remember that you're making me do it (Tanner, Nick, and even you Kolby).

(I will neither confirm nor deny that this might also be the order in which I'm targeting folks should we wind up going to tribal)

--

I don't normally do these, but since i had my phone out for other reasons... get a view of my backyard, a glamour shot of my damned foot, and my rambling opinion about everything.

Tanner

I need to make my new tribe feel connected to me

Tony

We just finished the movie trailer challenge and that was a doozy. I feel like we tried our best but didn’t get the full support/assistance from the tribe. This will be our first tribal council so hopefully I’m still here to write my next confessional

Nick

I hate throwing up. It's my least favorite activity.

Eman

HAHAHAHAH!!

The best laid plans.

I was fully ready to cast a vote for either Tanner or Nick, and then Kathryn, delightful Kathryn, had to go and volunteer to get voted off.

And with regret, I'm going to accept the offer - because why waste capital (and my extra vote) trying to change a sure thing.

And even if I think Kathryn at her perceived uselessness will still be more useful than Nick or Tanner, I am not going to tell someone else they're wrong, nor am I going to have them resent me by going against their own wishes.

At least I'm still alive. With an extra vote and a 10% advantage going into the next challenge.

I'm also bizarrely optimistic about my chances of surviving on this non-participatory tribe and making the merge . . . and then who knows!

Kathryn

So, this was a chaotic time. We swapped around tribes a couple times and then got set with a "challenging challenge" with a very short time limit (ಥ⌣ಥ). I can't believe we managed to get a movie trailer made in just a couple days, and everyone actually helped out in making it! Color me surprised ( ﾟДﾟ). But I'm really happy with the tribe members I ended up with, they're all pretty awesome! ( ᐛ ) Everyone worked really hard on the trailer, and I still can't believe we had such a master of acting on our team ( Tony, you're a savant ( ˘ ³˘)♥ ). And Emily got everything so quickly edited, managing to work with the rest of us giving her clips last minute (especially me!), I think they really carried the team in this round. It was a ton of fun making the trailer, and everyone really put themselves out there. I believe I'll be the one getting voted off this round, but it's all good since I'll be moving on to greater things, like long plane rides, and babysitting. So I wish the remainders luck now while I still can! Good luck guys, you can definitely reach the final rounds! (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Tribal

Tribal Council was non-live. Answers to questions are here:

Votes:

Kathryn: Tony (Ain’t nobody voting for Tony, so if I vote for him, he can’t possibly get voted off. I wanted to vote for myself here, but the host gods refuse me my spoils. Sorry Tony, I hope this doesn’t affect you!)

eman: Kathryn (I respect you, which makes this both hard and easy. Easy because I respect you enough to not second-guess what you've clearly communicated you want. Hard, because I respect you enough that I would've preferred to keep you around.)

Tanner: Kathryn (I’m doing this since you asked to get voted out)

Tony: Kathryn (sorry you couldn’t have stuck around longer but I respect your wishes)

Kolby: Kathryn (i actually liked you and if i got to pick, you TOTALLY wouldn’t have been the one i wanted to go but you offered yourself up and i love an easy vote. especially pre merge!)

Nick: Self-Vote

[survivor-trinidad-and-tobago]

Episode 2: "I want off this tribe right now. Put me somewhere else please god."—Raffy

In this round: Soca wins yet another challenge; Kaylee is medically evacuated (#KayleeWasPushed), leaving her boyfriend Tony behind on the island; four heroes step up to negotiate for a challenge win or an Extra Vote (and in the end, Soca winds up with both); Champ is outvoted when Soca adopts a dog; and some of Zee's lies come to light.

Soca Confessionals

Champ

Haven’t been super active so of course I’m nervous! Feel like I’m definitely lower on the total pole but also chatting enough to be safe a few rounds! I never wanted to seem like a big threatening player right off the bat so at least I’m under the radar! I feel like Zee and Eman are definitely the most well connected! Alex and Steven seem close! I love love love Alex omg I want him to be my number one so bad but I know I’m not his number one. I like everyone so far and feel like if we did go to tribal Nick would most likely be the first one voted off due to his inactivity. Now that I’m home I’ll be able to be much more active and build stronger connections to everyone. I feel good about our tribe keeping our numbers and once swap happens hopefully we have numbers to take out the other tribe

Eman

I was going to be a goat or a GOAT. Instead I'm a mama hen? Here's what's going on and what's on my mind.

1) I am currently closest with Zee and Champ and would die for either of them. Zee reminds me a lot of a young me and I just want to puff her up until she has all the self-confidence I never had at that age and she can fly on her own. Champ is just plain awesome and I trust her - and know her through mutual friends.

2) I am in two alliances - which is very much not anything I expected, but here we are. Which means I have connections with all but three people on the tribe--Lexi, Nick, and Steven. Sadly, I would LIKE to be connected with Lexi, but have gotten nothing from her in the outreach. Steven and I are chatting and I feel good about it - and in fact I feel awkward not being allied with him, but I'm trying (given as I'm doing so much other organizing with the challenges) to let others call the shots on the alliances and since Steven hasn't been suggested, I don't have the social capital to push for it. So if you're reading this later, Steven, it's not hard feelings, it's just the way things played out. And Nick - god only knows. Is he even a tribe member?

3) I don't like that Chris was voted out on the other tribe - of course, who knows what was going on but the first thing I see is age, which makes me feel super nervous about how it's all going down and my own position. And also Zee said it was going to be Tanner, so . . . was she fed misinformation, was she feeding us misinformation, or did things go down differently between the summit and the vote.

4) No seriously, what do we do about Nick - do we put him into a key role and make him an easy sacrifice if we lose, or do we carry him in a sitout position (which would kill me quietly)?

Nick

Sat out the last challenge, all my teammates had my back. Technological difficulties aside, trying to get back into the GAME.

Zee

I am not a primadonna girl, but the primadonna girls think I am, and so I must perform. By this I mean, I woke up at 6:30am and saw that the delegation was locked in, and that apparently, at 3am I have to attend a finish the lyric challenge. I really wanted the TV screenshot, but both Nick and I were offline so at least they didn’t choose to sit me out. I hope we can pull off another win, but a part of me really wants to see where the tribal lines are right now. But then again, I still trust nobody, I don’t think anyone here is loyal to me, and I have no way to know if any info anyone gives me is true. I’m taking everything with so much salt that I’ve got sodium poisoning. I’m keeping a lot of information close to my chest, and we’ve got another excursion coming so my extra vote might come to light, but then again, maybe not. I doubt people would assume that I made up a disadvantage. Also, people are being quiet, almost too quiet. Sure most people are offline for most of my day, but even when they’re not, nobody seems to be talking to me. I’m in two alliances but we’ll see if those hold me through to the merge.

As far as advantages go, I found a DOGGGG. I want to name it Frikki, and I will if he becomes a just me dog. I think he'll become a tribal dog though, I think everyone has to vote. I also don't know what he does but even still he's so cute and I'm glad the callout was for a dog and not for falling off a cliff or something. Right now I've got a Transparency Advantage, and Colin's extra vote, and Frikki(which will forever be his name in my heart.), and I'm putting all my choices into a document so I can remember what was where when the merge comes, so that if it's the same, maybe I'll get lucky and know where to find advantages. Last night I suggested an idol hunt doc to Kaleigh, and she thought it was cool, and this morning I made two idol hunt documents with half fake info. I said that where I got my disadvantage was a Food Vendor Ticket, and I omitted the Nylon Pools bit. Kept the food stand where I found Frikki part though, because everyone knows about the dog anyway. I sent Kaleigh one info doc, and I sent Mother Hen another with some sweet message or another.

MH put some info into the document I sent them, about their hunt, and it seems like they went a route I haven't been, but annoyingly it doesn't tell me much, since they said they got "better bird info" or something along those lines. I'll probably have to do my due diligence along that route at some point in time, but it costs 5TT$ which I can only assume stands for 5 Tribal Tokens or some other fun name, and I don't think I have any tokens yet, so I'm going to stay away from paid options for now. But I'll have to double back that way sometime still. Now that I've got more info on my document, I'm going to go back and take new choices that could earn me tokens and stuff, and maybe I'll get some info from Kaleigh and MH about their hunts too.

Kaleigh just put some info into the document but again, I don’t trust it. It seems awfully incomplete, like it’s hard to imagine she just got NOTHING at all from her hunt, not even any information? At least when MH said they got nothing, they said they got better bird info or something. Tomorrow I think I’ll have to decide where to go after we figure out what happens with the dog, but I’m most interested in taking boat one and talking to people on the beach. That or going back to the food vendors, though I think maybe I’d need to pay for something there, so I should probably figure out how to get money first. Uncle Billy’s Beach necessities makes me think that maybe I can get something better to hike pirate’s bay, but who knows. Not me. Anyway you’ll prolly hear from me more after the challenge ends, so nervoussssss aaa. And Edgic came out? Wtf is ittttt. I must crack it. Like I’m studying the voynich manuscript, how hard could Edgic be? But yeah I kind of want to crack it so I might take a go at seeing who I think fits what vibe and going from there.

Kolby

Lexi

I’ve now mostly talked to everyone on my team. Kolby and I worked together on the Movie Quotes challenge and won, and the tribe as a whole ended up winning the challenge - I’m so relieved because at this point I have no idea how eliminating someone is going to play out!

Kaleigh

okay wow things ARE DEVELOPING! now i think my closest allies are zee still and also steven rly climbed the ranks! we body doubled the other night while we were researching our screenshots INDIVIDUALLY and we got to talking - he’s been doing these games for ELEVEN YEARS SO THAT’S COOL I GUESS.. I WAS LIKE I FIRST HEARD ABOUT IT LAST WEEK!! but we chatted on video which is like obvio0usly a quick way to build trust and now i’m like ok steven and i have talked a lot and we are good. everyone else… god i don’t know. i don’t KNOWWW! steven was actually v helpful bc he pointed out were on day like 3 or 4 or w/e and we have a long way to go and shit is gonna change quick when we gotta go to tribal. so that made me feel good that i don’t necessarily need to be like BUILDING ALLIANCES LEFT AND RIGHT!!! though i wish i was… or i wish other ppl were trying to build alliances w me. istg zee is gonna win this whole thing. i love her and can’t imagine voting her out ever (or even being able to GET the votes) but if we don’t… she’s gonna take home the win i swear. gosh look at me worrying about stuff weeks away! umm anyway i am glad our team won and uhh hopefully we keep winning forever. i swear zee might have the idol.

Steven

Tony

The screenshot challenge PISSED ME OFF only because it took me waaaayyyy too long to guess a Supernatural clip. Eman invited me into an alliance with Alex, Kolby, and Zee! So far it’s going well and I’m feeling very supported by them. I think I made a name for myself in these last two challenges. Hopefully I can keep it up and make it the finale!

Alex

Ahhh I want to get out some pre-challenge thoughts cause I'm all nervous about being on the hero task now. I would have preferred someone else volunteer but given that it was only me and Eman who floated their names, it is what it is. If this is a superhero thing like I suddenly guessed it could be I might be in a little trouble, though. I would have liked to have worked with Champ on the song crew just to build that bond a little more versus already (officially!) being in an alliance with Eman but it didn't seem cool to try and assign a mystery task to Zee or Nick, especially with how sporadic Zee's gaming hours seem to be and how quiet Nick has been in the game so far. Nick is the only person I haven't at least introduced myself to, which I feel like I should do, but also, he hasn't reached out to me, and he feels like an easy potential first boot if it comes down to it.

--

Shit. Well that's certainly a twist. It's kinda hot, though. Like gnarly idea, AJ and Trin, if you came up with it. I guess it's a good thing I'm already working with Eman so we'll hopefully be able to have good talks about what to do. The fact that it's Colin and Tanner def gives me pause though after Zee said Colin made it sound like Tanner was gonna be the first Calypso boot, or at least that Colin was targeting him. So I don't know what changed over there.

--

Well, it pays to be a hero. We'll just see how long I stay one. THAT WAS SO TV SCRIPTED I'M SORRY BUT I DON'T REGRET IT LMAO. WHEN IN T&T. Okay, so I have to recalibrate my entire game so far after that Summit with Eman, Colin, and Tanner. If Colin was telling the truth about him and Zee, and Eman and I think he was, Zee is gaming wayyyy harder than we realized. She's super nice but I fell for her "I'm just here to have fun!" routine hard. I guess I'm glad she's in my corner for now but I definitely have to keep on my toes going forward because if she's playing like this on Day 3 who knows what she'll do come swap or merge. I'm working super well with Eman right now but we both know the other is gaming and I don't know if they've thought about what that means for us down the line but I have. They've admitted they play more heart than head, so maybe I can use that to my advantage if it comes to it. Wow, that does sound villainous. Maybe I am a little more cut-throat than I thought. I've never done an org before, though, but knowing myself I very may well end up playing more heart than head, too. The one question mark I have with them is their relationship with Tony. He's the one member of our five that I haven't really talked to, so I don't know how much they talked for him to feel comfortable becoming a member of our alliance, but that summit I think definitely tied us together pretty strongly for now.

Eman

I'm a facilitator, not a dictator (or so I hope). Which means that I am very glad to have gone to bed and woken up to discover that someone else (someones else) finished the assignments for the pop culture challenge, so I didn't have to be the one organizing everything two games in a row - I just started the process, because I can't stand chaos (I can't stand chaos, WTF am I doing playing the world's most chaotic game??).

Nick is still MIA and I STFG if we lose, I hope he gets the boot. Heck, I'm almost tempted to suggest we throw the challenge so that we can give him the boot, but throwing challenges never ends well, and so I shan't do so.

Meanwhile, Alex and I are here on the hero challenge, and I kinda think we're in a no-lose situation (but that's way too close to a no-win situation).

A) If we give up the point, it's not likely going to cost our team the win . . . but we get an advantage.

B) If we keep the point, we'll look like we did awesome in an incredibly difficult challenge (the heroes challenge, after all). I suggested to him that we make a show of really holding fast to whatever we want and then ultimately letting the other team have it so that we can not only not lose but also earn some good will come merge. He didn't push back, but he didn't exactly jump on the idea either . . .

Also, gotta figure out what to say to the rest of the tribe when it's over. Esp as the other tribe members will be going back to their tribe and we gotta keep stories straight because people WILL compare notes.

Also, can I just say that I really wanted to have the no-y-chromosome alliance going, but I'm actually getting better vibes from the unnamed alliance of five. I think I'm probably oversharing with people I trust, letting them into my thinking and gaming out the options with them . . . but I'm not good at dissembling, and better to win people on my side with honesty then have them KNOW that I'm thinking shit through and wonder what I'm keeping from them, right?

--

welp . . . yeah . . . um . . .

First of all - THIS IS WHY I DIDN'T WANT TO RUSH INTO ANY ALLIANCES.

Second of all - THIS IS WHAT I MEANT BY I WAS PROBABLY BEING TOO TRUSTING.

Third of all - THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T LIE. Concealing and keeping information is one thing, but out & out lying is only gonna come back to bite you.

**record scratch** You're probably wondering what the fuck I'm talking about. So lemme back up a bit. As we all remember from my previous confession, Alex & I were in the heroes challenge, which was basically a whole thing where we had to negotiate with the other team on who was going to walk away with the point and who was going to walk away with the advantage. Alex and I strategized and decided we didn't care . . . but we were going to make the other team work for it. And in working for us they gave us dirt. And that dirt wound up being that my confession about being too trusting was prescient. Because Zee is not trustworthy - and even though she's been trying to get close to me and really sucking up (actually to a degree that it made me feel a bit awkward, but I thought she was sweet & naiive, so I wasn't going to say anything bad about her), she was always asking just a bit more than she was giving and, I kept trying to hold her off--gently. Welp, turns out she lied! Completely prevaricated. And not even in a good way where you say something in the main chat and then something else to your allies. Nope. The girl not only got a leap on the idol hunt, she got two votes. Girl's playing fucking hard with no self check.

Now, the upside to all of this. I have information. I'm closer to Alex (and pretty sure I can trust him, though there's one element that I need to figure out and that's with some of the coded messages Steven & I have been sharing). Oh, yeah, that's the other update - Steven and I are continuing to mend our fences and rebuild broken trust and I feel good about it. He's come right out and said he wants to work with me, and told him I was working with others, but that I was open to it . . . and he suggested that he was having conversations as well and that it might be with the same people. So where am I now wondering if maybe some of those other people might be Tony and/or Alex. Which I could get behind. Hmmmm . . . (So glad this isn't gonna come out until after the game and I'll probably laugh myself silly with how off base I was)

Zee

Short confessionals are in girls, get with the programmmmmm. Ok so here's the sitch, we won again by some miracle act of god, but the next challenge is three days long. That's infinitely too long for a challenge. Anyway everyone is so quiet and I'm kinda sus but like if I get voted I get voted, I'm still gonna try to play a spectacular game

Alex

Not me talking to Eman and Tony about how things feel quiet like 30 minutes before the tribe swap. This isn't worst case scenario by any means, I've still got my entire alliance, plus Steven who I've been also talking game with, but I finally got to talk to Champ today and I was SO ready to work with her. We had an awesome video call for like an hour plus and talked game and TV and traveling and she was like, "right away when I saw your bio I knew I wanted to work with you!" Like, being her number one and everything. And I was already thinking of her as my number two after Eman. And now she's swapped over with Lexi and Nick who have been suuuper quiet in game so far so I'm just hella nervous for her. I'm hoping that the three of them will be able to stick together but I have no idea... I'm excited to be a winner pick for now, though! That's super rad! And, like, yeah! I have been playing a good game so far!

Eman

8:41 PM, I chat Alex the following "It's too quiet; I feel like something big is going to happen."

9:01 PM, Tribal swap goes down. I'M FUCKIN' PSYCHIC, YA'LL . . . Now maybe I can manifest a win for myself, too. But I'm sad, Champ had just gotten back online and I was REALLY looking forward to playing with her. Also, one more thing . . . how has no one but Steven, Alex, and me (that I'm aware of) figured out that the disadvantage of the read receipts/reveal vote thing that Zee made up from her excursion didn't come to pass?? In fact, quite the contrary--we didn't even get to see the voting confessions! Anyway, I'm keeping that little nugget in my pocket until I need it.

Calypso Confessionals

Astyn

Raffy

I'm in an alliance with Jack, Drea, Colin, and Astyn. We decided to vote Chris based on a coin flip. All is good. Still want Tanner out

--

So it looks like my alliance was the only reason Tanner stayed in the game which sucks. Cause that just tells me that I should have just pushed for Tanner and things would have been fine. Everyone else was voting him anyways. I just hate how inactive my tribe is. I can’t have any real strategic conversations with anyone except Colin because everyone just says like two things every 8 hours. Like, I can’t talk strategy with anyone at all. But apparently there are all these MOR’s and CP’s and I’m like “Where??” Is the other tribe just having more fun? I just wanna sit down and talk to people about what they think but they’re all too busy or too dry. Like come on y’all. We’re playing a social game. You need to socialize!!!! Whatever. I don’t think we’re gonna win this challenge tbh. My tribe don’t seem like the sharpest tools in the shed. Like no one has even brought up that there were only 9 votes at tribal. So I have no hope that they’ll a) have enough free time or b) be knowledgeable enough to get through the challenge. I want off this tribe right now. Put me somewhere else please god.

Colin

WOOO SURVIVED TRIBAL. EVEN WITHOUT A VOTE. i'm so lucky everything works out for me

putting together a majority alliance really put me in a great position, like... my allies can just do all the work for me. they're the only competent ones on the tribe anyway.

I'm really excited to get to do this hero portion of the challenge. Tanner doing it with me is a nonfactor, I'm excited to get to meet two more people of the other tribe and form bonds there for the swap and merge. I'm already thinking late game here.

I don't want the advantage here. I'd much rather take the point and try and win the challenge. I also have leverage in the form of information for Alex and Eman, who are doing the hero portion for Soca. Advantages are great, but sometimes just having information about who has advantages is just as important. I loved meeting with Zee, but at the end of the day, she did steal my vote and two allies are better than one. I'm sure they'd love to know that someone on their tribe has double voting power.

overall my strategy in this game is just to make it to merge and make it to where everyone wants to keep me around for as long as possible.

Jack

--

Drea

Day 4: well well well, calypso lost another challenge. shocked? no. disappointed? no. I had a feeling some of our tribe members weren’t going to deliver. Jack and I ATE the song lyric challenge. Our target person for next tribal is Tanner, because quite frankly we’re sick of the deliverance of nothing from him. Is that mean? Yes, sorry but not sorry because how are you going to confidently message me with a chip on your shoulder only when we lose a challenge expecting me to vote with you? Good bye Tanner. I’ll be spinning in my desk chair like you did last tribal. My closest allies are currently jack #1 Raffy coming close for #1 and my group alliance the power rangers.

Colin

WE LOST AGAIN FUCK

Kathryn

We're only on challenge two and it already feels like it's been a wild ride! I can't believe we lost two challenges in a row! щ（ﾟДﾟщ)

Well, actually I kind of can because I'm probably dragging the team. I didn't really understand how to play for the first challenge (I mean, I understood, it just took some time to adjust, time that was wasted), and for the second, it relied on me having strong points in pop culture trivia. I do not have this. I'm sort of old school, and most of the music, movies, and even tv shows I like are from back in day (like way back). I would've been a weak player in all categories ( ಥـْـِـِـِـْಥ).

I'm quite proud of the fact that I got any points, seeing as I only recognized "1" screenshot (I was timestamping screenshots of tv shows), and the rest I had to heavily guesstimate. It was not an easy challenge for me, so I'm glad I tried my hardest and actually pulled in some points for the team! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ

So, at this point I'm pretty sure my biggest enemy is myself. If I can stop tripping over my innate dumbass nature, I think I can turn my play around (into something way more helpful for the team). Everyone's really nice, so I want to help them get as close to winning as possible! (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑

Raffy

After losing the challenge by a SHOCKING amount (I’m hard side eyeing you Kathryn and Astyn), my alliance wants to go after Tanner this round. They haven’t really been connecting with him and see him as an intense game player person. So they wanna get him out. The other name out there is Kaylee who Tanner threw out for being inactive. I don’t mind either way, but we’ll see how it goes

Tanner

My strongest ally’s are jack and Colin they feel connected to me

Michael

Right now my strongest allies are probably Jack and Raffy, we really haven't had to make a difficult choice yet so we're still kind of coasting. My target is Tanner! And only because he just makes sense for my game. Andrea and Raffy seem to be pretty vocal but idk if they're "threats, threats" you know. So far my strategy is being nice and chill, trying to get people in my corner, so when it's time I can orchestrate a move. Idols ...No clue! Never cared for idols

Jack

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