Aras' Super Cool Confessional

[Aras Baskauskas]

Hey guys! Thought I should give you guys a little bit on my thoughts in the game so far.

We can start with the immunity challenge. 

I really wanted to do well in the immunity challenge for the sole purpose of showing myself as a strong challenge competitor. I'm not worried about the first vote (that should be unanimously for Sue, hasn't been on yet). But I wanted to do enough now and in the next challenge to show that I wouldn't be a smart second boot if/when we happened to lose. Right now, on my tribe, Joe and David haven't done much in the challenge. But they kinda get a pass since they've been aim while Sue has been mia (see what I did there?).

Now we can move into some very early player observations:

Jim is KILLING it right now which is more than fine with me. I talked with him on aim a bit and he seems like a nice enough guy. But holy shit why put such a huge target on your back on day 1?!?!?!? We talked briefly about sports and I had to go. 

Angie: Seems super funny and we have similar senses of humor. She's definitely an experienced ORG player so I'm going to stay wary of her but it looks to me like we've clicked pretty well. I plan on working with her for sure.

Joe: Had a friendly "hello how are you convo". He hasn't even tried the challenge yet so I'm thinking he might be a non factor here in the game

David: Yet to participate in the challenge but pretty active on aim in the tribe group message. I wonder if he's newer and doesn't initiate conversation one-on-one? He's definitely trying to acclimate socially so I'll probably message him and see what's up. We talked briefly before but nothing other than pleasantries

So: Definitely a lot of red flags on So. She's trying very hard to win this challenge which exposes her as the early runner up for "immunity threat". In talking to her, she told me she'd only done "3 or 4" ORGs before. What? How the fuck don't you know if you've done 3 or 4? Clearly that number is being rounded way down. She had been talking to Pete/Angie I think about how many posts Jim had. I didn't even think to check post counts for this so she's definitely on top of things and talking with a bunch of people. 

Pete: Seems like a great guy. We've been talking a lot and he offered for me and him to "work together" in the game last night. So it looks like I have my first concrete ally at the moment. I haven't seen much that would make me wary. Our challenge strategy was basically the same in the sense that we didn't want to be viewed as weak

Vince: Cool, younger guy. We kinda bonded over that since I'm just into college and he's in high school. Talked about video games and school a little bit. He's pretty new to ORGs so I think he could be a good ally to have as long as I can keep track of who he's talking to.

Parvati: She's also trying fairly hard to overtake So in the challenge which worries me a little bit. We had a good convo about her work and stuff like that so I think I layed a good enough foundation that we can talk about other stuff in the future. Pretty good conversationalist.

Sue: No where to be found. She's definitely going first as the inactive player

[Aras Baskauskas]

Other tribe

Jim: Not sure why I put Jim up into my tribe, but I wrote stuff about him up there.

Natalie: We bonded over school and our shared ages. We've talked a lot since then about movies and shows that we watch. Definitely looking to keep in contact with her.

Abi: Just started talking to her. She definitely loves conversation and has no problem talking about herself (which is a good thing, I suck at faking interest and getting people to talk). She's my age too and loves to talk, not sure how calculated it is. She's doing the "I love talking with new people!" thing. So I'm definitely going to be looking out for who else she's chatting with to get a feel on how aggressive she'll be with those relationships she forms.

Woo: Talked with him a little, not much. He's definitely keeping tabs on everyone considering 1. he messaged me the second I took the lead and 2. He stopped his posts at exactly 300. So he's definitely making pretty calculated moves to be seen as helpful but not too strong. Not saying that's a bad thing, I'm doing it too. 

Laura: Talked with Laura very briefly and we had a pretty funny exchange over her username. It's like hotoldlady or something hahaha. I tried quick to solidify a milf-showmance. I think I got friend zoned

Liz: Had about a 5 message exchange with little responses from her. Until she stopped responding. Soooooo fuck Liz I guess. I'd guess she's among the first to go after the inactives. Fuck Liz and her shitty social game

Katie/Keith/Malcolm: Allegedly they haven't been on at all which really sucks for Ossa. I think my tribe might dominate challenges if Joe/David show up more than the two remaining Ossa inactives do.

[Aras Baskauskas]

From what I've been told, Sue and Malcolm should be going home. Katie showed up a little bit last night so I think that might've saved her over there. Same with Keith, he's playing a funny character but the next boot would probably be between him and Katie since they're not on much.

Angie and I talked about how we should keep eachother around, nothing going on right now in terms of legitimate strategy since this boot is easy

Been talking with Vince, Pete, and Nat through most of the day. Just started another conversation with Parvati, she's lower on my list than the others but she's pretty cool. I've talked to So briefly a bunch of times, still pretty "meh" on her. Joe hasn't been on much and David is Liz-esque in that he doesn't seem to care for holding a conversation.

[Aras Baskauskas]

I'm not sure where I stand exactly with Natalie. We started strong and everything but she seems to have dodged any attempts to talk about others with me. So for now I'm probably just gonna lay off. I'll figure out how much she actually wants to work/talk with me if we get swapped/merged or something.

Pete on the other hand is (seemingly) my closest ally for sure. We had a little chat today about the tribe and agree David would be the next to go. He also has a good relationship with Angie apparently so we agree that should the time arise, we'd prefer to get her to vote with us at tribal. I hope this can continue into a pretty tight twosome between us, especially if we can keep others from knowing.

Angie has also been someone I've had some good talks with, though she doesn't seem interested in any talk about votes at the moment. She comes across as one of those people that just wants to go with the majority and keep herself alive. I hope to use that to my advantage and possibly use Pete and myself to come at her on two different sides without associating with each other. By doing this we could probably have her vote whichever way we feel like while she thinks she's working with us separately.

So is still the challenge beast it seems which makes her pretty valuable to keep around for now. I hope to talk to her more and get her with me. If I know she'll be around til the merge I might as well make sure she'll be on my side.

Joe is super cool when he's online it just sucks since he's not online a lot I'm gonna try and keep a steady convo going in hopes that I can convert on his absence to be able to steer him in the right direction. If he's gone a lot I'm sure he'll be lost when it comes to TC, that's where good ol' Aras comes in

Fuck David that bitch doesn't even respond anymore, he'll go next if we have to go to TC

Parv is kinda like Joe in the sense that when she's on, she's cool. But her job kinda prevents her from being on a lot so maybe I can employ the same strategy as I will to Joe.

[Aras Baskauskas]

Joe got a clue to the idol? Fuckkkkk. I hope this just puts a target on him and he's the next to go from Lomand. I want to keep my allies around and I guess he may be a tough one to secure.

Parvati is playing a little bit harder than I was previously led to believe. She approached me about how "no one wants to be with her" and she needs an alliance and is only comfortable with me. We really haven't talked much so I doubt it. She wanted to quickly secure a 3rd person, after I suggested Vince (to keep eyes off Pete/Angie/I) she kinda dismissed it and settled on So. I'm very glad to be in two different threesomes right now (scandalous ) but my primary alliance is definitely with Pete in the end. We haven't approached So about it, not yet anyway but obviously Parv probably has her locked up if she was so quick to suggest.

Pete and I discussed our alliance and thought it was a good idea to loop in Angie, which we'll probably bring up with her soon. Angie is more of a hands off player so we want to approach it right. We plan to keep our threesome a secret though and be able to work the votes from a couple different angles.

David is the one to go tonight, he legit hasn't responded to me in 3 days so fuck him

[Aras Baskauskas]

Ok so I know you'll get confused reading the shit that's going on so here is the summary: Pete is scrambling with Parv/So and is hoping to either get 4-4 with an idol play (allegedly) or 4-3-1 by flipping someone's vote. I am NOT going to be David/Parv/So's 4th vote. Repeat I am NOT voting with them. It'll piss off Parv and So but eventually I kinda had to just say yes to get them off my ass.

Alright so Parv, Natalie, and So came to me today about how I'm on the bottom and there's an alliance of Angie/Pete/Joe/Vince. Entirely possible, yes. But maybe let's look at the source of that info. Low and behold, these claims came from the man with one foot out the door, David. Naturally I didn't trust it. I message David and he responds to me for only the second time ever. He tells me about the alliance and about his idol.

Now for Parv/So: I said earlier how we were forming an alliance but I was getting pretty wary of Parv and So already. Naturally, they both come at me at the same time echoing David's pitch to the t. *Eyeroll*. I basically get into an argument with Parv over whether or not we should vote with him. I'm open minded, she's basically giving me ultimatums and telling me we're out if we don't keep him in. I basically tell them I can't trust the guy on the chopping block without any proof of his two claims. And of course, he screen shots the damn idol note. Fuck. Looked pretty real to me. So now I honestly have to consider going with them and seeing what's up. So I tell them yes, I'll be their 4th and tie it up and send Vince home.

At this point, even though I find it hard to trust anyone, I have to fill in Pete here. I tell him what's up basically. But behind the scenes I'm also telling Parv/David that swaying one of the opposing four's votes would make the idol unnecessary. At the same time, I'm telling Pete to wait for a message from Parv and convince her he's paranoid about the idol and sell it like he'd swing to vote whatever Parv tells him. As of this second that conversation is ongoing and Parv/David have "informed" me that they might be able to save the idol this round.

So now my plan has shifted into playing the David side into not playing their idol. I'm pissing off them 3 but it's better than randomly flipping and pissing off all my closest allies. There are risks either way but I trust Pete more so I'm gonna go with them. Right now Parv is buying Pete's lies so hopefully David will too and not play the idol expecting the vote to be 4-3-1.

Worst case: He plays the idol and Vince goes. Best case: He doesn't have and/or play the idol and David goes. Either way, Parv is not gonna be happy but it's her fault. The three of them tried to bully me into a vote with them when it makes no strategic sense with the info I have.

***Just curious*** Is there any information you could give me regarding the idol? Is it in the tree? What does it look like? Is it a winged beetle? How would the idol be awarded? Via pm? Couldn't hurt to ask

[Host JFP]

You'll know how to get the idol once you've figured out the password to the board

[Aras Baskauskas]

Apr 29, 2015 22:54:23 GMT Host JFP said:

You'll know how to get the idol once you've figured out the password to the board

Haha ok thanks. 


Like Jesus Christ who blows up round 2?

[Aras Baskauskas]

Tribal Council
Just a quick update. This tribal worked out pretty damn well for Pete and I. I and he got to lead on Parv/So/David and the two of them seem to be relatively okay with my decision and gave me one of those "I respect it and would still wanna work with you". I surely will not trust them too much since Parv, for a little while, was pissed at me for essentially putting her and So on the chopping block. They (seemingly) understand the fact that I wasn't willing to go to rocks just to save David, who I didn't know.

Fallout
So after tribal, on aim as JFP saw, Parvati and So went OFF on the whole tribe basically about how we're handing the game to the 3-person alliance of Joe, Angie, and Vince. Calling Angie a "cult leader" and that she won't comply with the tribal rah rah kinda stuff that we've been employing. So pretty much parroted everything she said. Vince was very chill about the vote once he found out the reason but Joe was not happy and him and Parv went back and forth saying they both suck.

Aftermath and future rounds
In hindsight (and at the time to be honest), this was PERFECT for my game really. Legitimate or not, that 3-person alliance has big targets on them right now. Pete and I's relationship stayed invisible while being the one's controlling the vote this round. And in the process we put big targets on Parv/So who are still willing to work with me since basically no one else will. I've heard this from Parv before though, she has something brewing over at Osso I'm sure.

Me and Pete are basically being the "rah rah Lomand" guys flying under the radar. I think he trusts Angie more than I do, she's kinda been giving me the "one vote at a time" shtick. I'm definitely not super comfortable with them in the sense that I really haven't gotten much from Joe and Angie is playing that hands off kinda style, even though we've said we'd watch eachother's backs. I really haven't had much strategy talk in general from her or Vince. So the threesome alliance is surely a possibility. I might have to use Pete to test the legitimacy of that. Right now I'm just gonna be "rah rah" challenge guy and see how the challenge goes.

Cross tribal alliances
Abi and Natalie (separately) want to work with me at a swap or the merge. Natalie seems very aware of what's going on here and is playing her cards close to the chest on her side. Abi acts like a 14 year old girl which is kinda aggravating to converse with. She's giving me the same story Parv did in terms of saying she hates the tribe and is on the outs. I definitely wanna stay aware of how legit that is. I really want immunity this round. I'd love to see the dynamics over at Osso and see what's going on over there. It's just eerily quiet over there and I think there's a solid majority alliance just hoping Lomand picks itself off. I'm keeping my options open with them but with Natalie I feel like I'd just be selling myself/info to the Osso majority. Jim seems cool but he really only talks when he's looking to pick up info. I just give him the bare minimum which will keep him coming back, he's a lot like Natalie in that sense.

[Sophie Clarke]

RAH RAH OOH LA LA caught in a bad tribemance

"Abi acts like a 14 year old girl which is kinda aggravating to converse with"

Can you explain more?

[Aras Baskauskas]

Apr 30, 2015 6:21:58 GMT Sophie Clarke said:

RAH RAH OOH LA LA caught in a bad tribemance

"Abi acts like a 14 year old girl which is kinda aggravating to converse with"

Can you explain more?

Of course.

Basically Abi likes to talk solely in emoji's and text faces and LOL's and <3's. It's basically how your stereotype middle school girlfriend would text you. She seems very clingy to me and has offered told me how much she wants to go to the merge/swap/end with me. We have talked basically no strategy. She talks constantly about how her tribe is no fun and she wants to be with me instead. It's rare that I can have a real conversation with her because she's usually just saying nonsense with a couple word in response and then <3<3<3.

So Abi is either truly just like that or it's a strategic thing she's kinda playing up to get some info out of me. I'm really leaning towards her just being generally incompetent in terms of being able to socialize in a game like this. It feels like I'm the boy she has a crush on and we're a week into our relationship planning our wedding for the day we're both 18. I'm trying to get some meaningful conversations in but she struggles maintaining a dialogue.

Summary: Short responses, shallow conversation, excess of emoji/face reactions, clingy/flirty personality with little basis

[Aras Baskauskas]

lolololololol

[Aras Baskauskas]

God damn it that tribal could not have gone any better for me to be honest. Most of my enjoyment was from the pure entertainment crazy Natalie provided which was just so freakin funny I couldn't stand it. She's an absolute nut. But she's MY nut <3....just kidding but she can definitely prove pretty valuable to me. Even from Redemption. Depending on when she comes back, she could be an easy flip for me to lock up in a merge/swap situation where my alliance is in the minority. Also, a successful duel from her here would probably give the clue to Abi who I think would give it to me, or I could get it from Natalie directly. So that's definitely good.

Also Abi is going out next so I'll have another shot at the clue from her next time. Hopefully either one of the girls come out of Redemption with just that in mind mwhahaha. But seriously, we could fuck Ossa up pretty bad in the event that we can flip one of their former members. It's tough to rely solely on tribal lines as the game progresses but I'm confident I can rely on Lomand at least in a early merge or a swap situation to vote with me. I will say that I honestly don't know if I could take more of Abi Maria from a sanity standpoint. Continuing to talk to her willingly is harder than any crap I'd ever have to deal with in this game. Seeing her name pop up on aim causes me legitimate pain, pain that I only suffer through because of her clue/future vote potential.

Things are swell over here at Lomand. This game just took a major power shift with us winning the challenge and sending Ossa to tribal. They're a very divided but subtle bunch it seems (a few exceptions of course lol). Jim, as I expected, is in all sorts of alliances including one with Pete (cue possessive freak out!!! just kidding). So I'm not surprised because he is a very personable guy, I talked to him for a little while tonight about football and stuff. It's good to see screenshots of Liz also responding very little to anyone, so I know it's not just me.

Me and Katie talked a decent amount tonight. I'm hoping that can develop into a good relationship. If there comes a time when Lomand starts picking people off, maybe she and Liz could be good options for a foursome late in the game while me and Pete flip over to them. You never know.

Right now I'm just keeping my options open. Obviously Pete is bae, I have Angie looking out for me, Nat/Abi riding on my dick looking for love, Parv/So are kinda just straining for numbers, Katie is a future option.

Summary: Bitches gotta hop off this dick

[Aras Baskauskas]

Oh....I just realized there was a reason for Pete sending me the song "White Unicorn" in our camp thread. I'm a straight male playing an ORG...I feel stupid now. Ok everyone, as you were, nothing to see here.

[Aras Baskauskas]

Alright just a little check in here. I have NO CLUE how the vote would play out on nuLomand, especially following Angie's boot. To be honest, just about everyone here has expressed interest in working with me and probably all of them have me in their plans for the next vote should we lose this challenge. That being said, Pete says he feels pretty comfy that they'll be able to flip Laura/Liz and vote out Keith over there. Pete says he's going to see what he can do to assure I don't go to tribal.

I really hate being in a position where I'll have to piss a lot of people off. I want to keep all my options open but this is where it could really bite me in the ass. Right now our tribe is at 3-3 on the surface between former Ossa/Lomand. But Abi hates Jim/Katie so she'd come work with myself and has expressed a liking to So. On the same note, Parvati and So have said they want this to happen but I can't help but think that a gamer like Parv would hold a grudge against me and entertain the possibility of flipping to the likable Jim/Katie combo. Pete is very encouraging of going with Jim (they have a side thing going on) but to be honest he IS the power player over at Ossa so I could take him out here no problem. Katie is also awesome, she's the person I like most I'd say besides Pete. I'm just worried about how Abi would react to me wanting to work with her old tribe and how my old tribe would view me working with Jim/Katie. Katie does NOT seem willing to part with Jim right now and that's not really something I want to bring up. Katie is counting on me essentially to save her and Jim as opposed to using Abi to vote them out. I have a lot of conflicting interests expecting me to do stuff right now and I would much rather run away from my problems than face them sooooo I'm just gonna hope we win the challenge tonight.

If I had to pick right now, I think I'd probably go with Jim/Katie. I don't think I'd be looked down upon by Joe/Vince too much for voting out people we would have anyway. I can always cry that Parvati was trying to use Abi and co to take me out. The trick is getting Abi to go along with it, this might be tough considering Nat/Abi/Parv clearly have some sort of (possibly only mutual) connection. And Abi has mentioned So. I just don't need one of the girls blowing up at Redemption. I really don't want to have to lie to one of the girls in order to pull this off. It'd be very easy to split the vote 2-2-2 for the Ossa and flip to vote out one of the girls 3-2-1. I just don't want that reputation being blared at Redemption right now though.