Blindside Salesman/Confessionals

Day 16
"zibaq"

- Damn, I can't believe I actually pulled off a 3-2-1 Cirie Fields vote. But after all the madness and plea deals that occured over the span of like three hours, I feel like Will has lost a lot of trust in me. But I've been trying to work Anna to favor me over him for like weeks now and I think that's working. Honestly though I've played these votes so fucking messily I don't have much faith in my future in this game. But hey final 11 isn't too terrible tbh :)

"zibaq"

- Well that vote fell apart. Zak once again proved that he's sketchy and obvious, he pushed so hard to keep Aras and Anna folded for him like a god damn lawn chair. I did too TBH, I was too afraid to draw attention to myself so I went with Zak even though it was so clear that he's a fucking snake and he has a deal with Aras. Mistake on my part.

Fortunately Anna's just as sketched out on Zak. I now realize that Zak has probably told Aras EVERYTHING. Which means...Aras can't make the merge. I don't care anymore about Zaks feelings. I'm throwing the immunity challenge and locking my vote.

I'd be okay with Zak if he was just more smooth about lying, but the kid is dumb as ROCKS. Like, wow. He swore on his mother that Aras wouldn't flip. Like really? That means two things.

1) You really don't have any fucking values as a person if you're going to say that shit for an online game.

2) You have some relationship with Aras that you're lying about. Like come on how oblivious can you be? On top of that, Aras basically admits that Zak told him that me and Anna were thinking about voting him out...

We're going to the merge with a 6 person Zibaq majority and if Zak wants to fuck up his game and try to flip, I could really care less at this point.

"zibaq"

- Malik's gone. Once again, our plan works. Right now, I still lead the tribe, I hope that my guys will stay on my crew. I'm like a blindside salesman and I like it.

"zibaq"

- I'm hauling ass for that vote steal thoughhh. Aras was dumb enough to tell me the prices for everything in the bazaar, and doing the math I know that nobody can afford it until the next reward challenge so, I let Zak and Romain go on this reward. I've never been, which means I'm probably the first person to be invited when one of my allies wins the reward. Once I have that vote steal, I can use it in the merge vote to prevent Zak from flipping, or I can hold onto it. Whatever works.

"najma"

- Tate and I are still searching for a way to avoid a deadlock if we ever attend tribal. We even considered blackmailing Scott with the information he gave us, that he wants to play both sides. I eventually vetoed the idea, because I don’t think Scott is the type of person to put his game above his ego and become our vote slave. I feel like Brett would be much easier to negotiate with if we had any dirt on him, but we don’t.

Scott isn’t very egotistical, but he still protects his ego in certain ways. He likes to make it clear when something isn’t his fault, no matter how small it is. If I am ever fortunate enough to make it to the end, and Scott is on the jury, I could imagine him being bitter. I know the Najmas all around feel fucked by the swap, and think Zibaqs are undeserving to make it far, but I vehemently disagree. Maybe if y’all were more delicate with Kristen, you could have thrown a challenge and voted me out. Instead, you’ve lost Dalton, and now Malik too.

But I digress. Scott on jury = bad for Roodman, probably. If the merge comes before the jury, he’s my pick for the merge boot.

I threw this challenge. I want Will to go to the bazaar. Godspeed, my Socal bro-cal.

Tate is also planning on throwing the challenge, by just not submitting and taking a strike. He’s still cultivating his ‘dead dog’ image.

"najma"

- Things are getting grim. I knew it. I freaking knew that we should have thrown that very first immunity challenge and gotten rid of Roodman immediately. Dalton or Malik would still be here and Aras wouldn't be in danger. Unfortunately, I was overruled by Scott and the other members of the tribe I'm working with and it doesn't make sense for me to do go around calling shots and arguing the point to death. It only makes my target even bigger than it already is.

The reward challenge is PacMan and I am immediately frustrated because screencap is a 1-second opportunity after you lose the game otherwise it's gone forever. I was so angry that I had wasted the limited time I had on Oscars Sunday getting 5 levels in only to have nothing to show for it. We ended up sitting me out of the challenge and Zibaq took the reward. Now this would have been alright if we had won last reward, but since Kristen fucked everything up, both Romain and Zakriah have enough money to purchase some damage-dealing items from the bazaar. Not good. I have to get to the bazaar before the first vote if I make it to the merge. If we enter 5-5 and Zakriah or Romain has a vote steal, we're toast. What the hell did Aras even get from the bazaar anyway? He had the money to get something! I just hope it neutralizes the threat of those two Zibaqs.

Day 17
"zibaq"

- What a perfect challenge! I've been deadset on throwing to vote out Aras, and now I have a chance to do it, win an advantage, and not be held accountable. I had to pull some strings so that people can't tell, and it's risky but I need to get Aras out now. With him gone, Zak has to be the 6th member of our alliance. He can flip to Whitney but that's not gonna get him a majority.

"najma"

- I am FULL ON OUT. Like, show me the door. BACK ON NAJMA I frickin' SAVED KRISTEN IN THE FIRST VOTE. Then I told her how everyone was planning to get her out bc she was weak in challenges. We make an alliance (I'm the only one to make one with her btw) and I STUCK TO IT. I told her about how I was trying to get the idol, AND EVEN SENT HER MY WRONG GUESSES SO SHE WOULDN'T WASTE HER TIME. And what does she do? she FRICKIN GOES TO ROODMAN, SENDS HIM MY WRONG IDOL GUESSES AND SAYS SHE WANTS ME OUT? I'm actually so upset. I clearly REALLY MADE THE WRONG call in trusting her, and I was the only one to, so I feel stupid. And now everyone wants to throw the challenge, Kristen's flipped and I'm suddenly in the middle looking like some two-faced bitch when I WAS THE ONE SHOVED INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD LIKE A WIDE-EYED RABBIT STUCK IN THE HEADLIGHTS. I'm so on edge rn...

"zibaq"

- I'm so irritated that its another pretty much luck based immunity challenge when ive never needed to win immunity more. Not because I'm in less danger of being voted out - with my dark pearl I'm actually in sooo much more trouble the first merge tribal council. But if we go to tribal council, I'm tightly aligned with all four of my other tribemates (or at least I think I am). I'll have to cut someone who could be a pivotal vote later :/ I'm praying for ONCE in this game luck is on my side

"zibaq"

- Both aras and romain firmly believe the other would be voted off if we were to go to tribal council and me anna and will are just like :

"zibaq"

- So, so, so disappointed at the challenge results. I really needed is to lose this, and only Zibaq majority is probably done for. I need Tate and Roodman to make it through tonight, they're my best friends here. I won a double vote which makes me feel great, but I'd trade it to keep my guys in the game any day. Use that idol correctly Tate, please...

"najma"

- The immunity challenge is displayed, a throwable crapshoot with consequences attached. Each player gets 10 beans that can be dispensed into 5 different jars. The tribe with the most beans in each given jar in the sequence receives a point--most points wins immunity and a clue to the hidden immunity idol (Zibaq's first, our second). A player can choose to withhold beans and the player that withholds the most becomes eligible for a shot at an advantage in the game. I'm ready to throw. Scott's ready to throw. Whitney is being annoying and freaking out about throwing because she is worried about Aras of all people. Honestly, this girl is more trouble than she's worth and both Scott and I have no desire to keep her loose cannon ass around once we get to a comfortable spot at the merge (if we're even that lucky). At the end of the challenge, Kristen, me, and one of the Zibaqs withheld all our beans and I unfortunately did not win the advantage. We lost the challenge and while it's very important we attend tribal council, I gained nothing from this challenge outside of that. If Kristen has the advantage, that's something that could be trouble for me at tomorrow's tribal council or further down the line.

Oh wait! Here's something I forgot to mention. While Whitney was playing both sides and spinning the fuck out and making everything infinitely harder than it has to be on herself and everyone around her (it's exhausting, I tell you), she let Scott and I in on a plan Roodman had devised to cast blame on me for throwing the challenge for a shot at the advantage with some of his game theory maneuvers (if you can only see how hard my eyes rolled when I typed that. They left my head completely. I looked like Storm from X-Men for a hot second). Scott and I had to calm Whitney down. I told her I was going to withhold my beans and own it anyways, so it was fine. And let this be known: Whitney is (at least acting) terrified of Roodman coming after me and wanting to throw me under the bus and I COULD NOT CARE LESS that he is. It's the game! He's allowed to strategize and try to manipulate his way from being manned out on the swap. I have no complaints with how Roodman is playing the game. I don't think he's doing it very well, but I'll find that out at tribal council, won't I?

Before results were handed down, I went to talk to Tate. I've been very social with Tate since the swap occurred, heaps more than I have with automaton Ben Roodman who has no perceivable personality and only wants to talk about game theory whenever it presents itself. Side note: I've been making fun of Roodman's game theory antics by adding the word theory to all Survivor sound drops. Sandra throws Russell's hat on the fire: "That's how much game [theory] I've got." Anyway, back to the point. Tate is far and away the most normal person here and that is the highest compliment I can pay someone because most of the players here have this loser-ish virginal feeling to them like this is all there is to life. Then you have people like Scott, Tate, and me that have jobs and have personal lives and aren't crazy and even though Tate and I started on different tribes, I appreciate Tate being Tate so much that I am gravitating towards Tate to work with. I really only like to work with people that I actually like, and in ORGs, that's not many people. I feel like Tate can be very valuable and at the very least, he can be like a second Scott to me and help me keep my sanity while people like Kristen and Whitney are annoying the fuck out of me. Tate and I expressed to one another that we want to work together and that we would not be writing each other's names down. I was very open with the fact that I had thrown the challenge and I apologized that I selfishly kept my beans in the challenge to have a shot at the advantage and he was very accepting because I was truthful. I've told him that if I don't win, I want him to win. And it's 100% true. I'm fine being first jury member as long as Aras, Scott, or Tate are in the finals. It'll make it worth it.

Roodman also approached me immediately after losing the challenge to learn if I had received the advantage, if I knew who else threw, and if the vote was on Tate. Jesus Christ, dude. Go away.

"najma"

- Holy shit, Whitney wants to establish a new world order, and she wants to include me, Kristen, Anna, and possibly Scott or Tate in it. “Forget Najma vs. Zibaq,” she says, “Let’s just pull in peeps we can trust, and flip this game on its head.”

I said, “It’s great that we can trust one another. By the way, what did you buy at the bazaar?”

“Nothing,” she says. Ha. Ha ha ha. “Nothing,” she says. “Nothing.”

I respond, “That’s exactly what I needed to hear.”

I’m so excited. There are two things absolutely clear to me here: Whitney wants to backstab me, and Whitney is going to fail.

Let’s review. Whitney knows her closest ally, Scott, is targeting me, and she knows that I know. She also knows my closest ally in this game is Will (I told her, my mistake). She’d like me to think we’d be equals among this new dominant alliance, but these people are all her allies, and not mine. When I asked to include Will, she suggested Tate instead. She wants to pick me up, use me, abuse me, and then dump me on the side of the road when the time comes. I’ll be damned if this alliance ever becomes more than a hypothetical, but even if it does, the joke is on her. Tate and Kristen are false friends to her. They’re my secret allies. Annabelle probably doesn’t even know Whitney exists yet. Whitney would be the puppet, not the puppeteer.

But it won’t come to that. If Whitney ever votes for Brett, she is going to leave with my, Tate’s, and Kristen’s votes, and that’s that. This game is going to remain a clash of tribes. I don’t need her going around spreading any radical notions that people from different tribes aren’t enemies by inheritance.

Ok, Whitney actually amended her proposal include Will and exclude Scott, without any prompting from me, so maybe she is genuine. Oops. Or maybe she has the link to this doc. Doesn’t really change my approach though.

Our latest challenge flop confirmed what I already suspected: Najma is a yellow ship sinking in a sea of blue. They’re down 6-5 in numbers, and they probably suspect that Kristen has flipped. Why else would Whitney suddenly want to ditch tribal lines after being a Najma stan for the first sixteen days of this game?

Day 18
"najma"

- I'm not feeling too bad going into this tribal council. I feel good about Kristen, mine and Brett's votes, which means at absolute minimum we get 3 votes on Roodman.

From there it's just a matter of getting those other 3 votes to line up properly. I've insinuated to Tate that Whitney and Kristen might be voting each other, which for all I know is true in Whitney's case. Worst case scenario is that Whitney, Roodman and Tate all decide to vote for Kristen. Best case is that Whitney suddenly gains some sanity and votes Roodman. Pretty good case is Whitney votes Kristen, and Tate and Roodman vote Whitney.

Even in the worst case, I think I can make Roodman go away. Brett and I aren't going to flip, which will force one of Whitney or Tate or both to just bite the bullet in a revote.

Either way I think I am in a position where everyone except Roodman has interest in keeping me around, so that *hopefully* will at least carry me to the merge.

"najma"

- Ok so BITCH if I pull this off GURL i’ll be shook as Haiti. I’m like some crazy two-faced hoe but I am genuinely loyal to one of my alliances - the OG Najma i.e. Brett and Scott, and I will be loyal to them to the end, even if it means going home myself. And if what i’ve done works I’ll SCREAM. Lemme give a step by step guide of what I did:

1. Tell Brett and Scott my plan:

2. Tell Roodman that Brett has an idol (I was all it’s 100% real there’s no way he’d create a fake one he showed it to me) and that he’s going to play it on either himself or Scott at tribal

3. Tell Roodman I want to get Kristen out because she blindsided me.

4. Decide with Roodman for me, Roodman and Tate to vote for Kristen whilst Brett and Scott vote Tate and Kristen votes Brett.

5. *heads over to the OG Najma*

6. Decide for Brett, Scott and myself to vote for Roodman whilst Tate and Roodman vote Kristen and Kristen votes Brett, thus ensuring a 3-2-1 victory!

Who said you needed the majority, vote steals or idols to control the tribe.

"najma"

- It's been a headache, you guys. But I asked for a game after complaining about the turtle pace and the lack of action and a high-paced game with paranoia at every turn was delivered to me on a platter today. Scott and I want Roodman gone yesterday. We know Whitney would rather get rid of Tate because she feeds off of other crazy people, but I refuse to target Tate at tonight's vote. It's not happening. The foot is down. Whitney is worried Kristen is flipping and is losing her mind. We tell Whitney if she votes Roodman, it won't matter. Whitney then claims she's convinced Roodman and Tate that I have an idol and I did indeed get the advantage and they should put their votes on Kristen with her. Scott and I tell Kristen to put her vote on Roodman just in case. If we end up in a 3-3 tie for Kristen and Roodman, I hope Whitney votes out Roodman in the revote or we have a 75% chance that one of the sane people (Scott, Tate, and myself) are going home on a rock draw. Disgusting.

This whole day, Scott and I have just been making fun of Whitney and Roodman. Whitney because he's hyper-paranoid and manic and transparently a very bad liar. I'm doing the Margaret from Guatemala. She could straight up have ADD. She's that girl. We've made fun of Roodman for his attempts at getting trust from Scott by asking him for a bazaar advantage Scott doesn't have. That was gnarly. We've just been cracking each other up about the conspiracy theories Whitney blames Aras for and how being around her makes us want to do a double quit like Na Onka and Purple Kelly ("I have nothing left to suck!"). We'll see what happens tonight. I could totally get voted out. An idol could come into play. An advantage could come into play. Everything could come crashing down and as much as I've complained, I have had a decent time and Aras, Scott, and Tate are to thank for that. If I can't succeed, I 100% hope they do.

"najma"

- Fair warning, this next page is going to be all strategic, technical jargon. If strategy doesn’t get you hard, you WILL die of boredom. So avert your eyes.

None of my alliance members wanted to throw this challenge. They all wanted Aras gone. Outwardly, I acted like I wanted Aras gone too. But really, I think I’m a threat, and I think I’m perceived as a threat. I need threats more than I need goats. But I obviously couldn’t say that. The fact that our allies on Zibaq would get an idol clue if we lost didn’t sway Tate, and neither did wanting to vote Whitney out before the merge. But then, the perfect excuse was delivered to me on a silver platter: If you throw this challenge, you get a shot at an advantage.

Today’s immunity challenge is Kong’s Dilemma. I’ve never heard of it before, but boy, is it the perfect challenge for me to throw. Whenever possible, I’ve taken control of the tactical aspects of the challenges so far, from the mixer to the battle match-ups. I always tell people, game theory is my thing. So of course everyone trusted me to coordinate the placing of beans in jars.

But I’m not just throwing this challenge; I’m going the extra mile. As I explained to the tribe, we want to divide all of our 50 beans evenly among three of the five the jars (Not actually the best strategy I can think up, but they don’t need to know that). I pre-designated who is putting how many beans in which jar. Here is what I came up with:

Jar 1: 10 (Me) +7 (Kristen) =17 beans

Jar 2: None

Jar 3: 3 (Kristen) +5 (Brett) +9 (Tate) =16 beans

Jar 4:1 (Tate) + 5 (Brett) + 10 (Whitney) =16 beans

Jar 5: None

This way we’d all be able to tell who, if anyone, forgoes putting in beans, because the same number of beans that they were designated to put in will be missing from the jar. For example, if there’s 7 beans missing from Jar 1, and 3 missing from Jar 3, we know Kristen went for the advantage.

However, I’m not actually putting any beans in. That advantage is mine. Here’s how the beans will actually be distributed:

5 (Tate) + 5 (Whitney) + 7 (Kristen) =17 beans

3 (Kristen) +5 (Scott) +4 (Tate) =12 beans

1 (Tate) + 5 (Scott) + 5 (Whitney) =11 beans

Whitney and Tate are covering for me by each putting five beans in Jar 1, so the total will remain 17, and no one will suspect a thing. As a result, there will be five beans conspicuously missing from Jars 3 and 4 each. Who was supposed to put five beans in Jars 3 and 4 each? Brett was. We’re framing Brett for putting no beans in, and sabotaging the tribe.

I can’t wait to see Brett’s reaction. His only defense is some crazy conspiracy theory about Tate and Whitney secretly coordinating his set-up. That’s just too far-fetched for Scott and Kristen to believe, I’m sure, and even if they give him the benefit of the doubt, my name is still unattached to the scandal.

Brett has been a real social threat up until now, but I can’t imagine his credibility escapes this unscathed if this goes right.

So I decided to take a risk, and tell Whitney that Kristen has told me everything. Of course, Whitney was furious.

However, I did lie and say that Kristen only gave me all of Whitney’s idol clues today, and that I came straight to her when I found out. I told Whitney, “By the way, she also mentioned that you and Scott and Malik bought up all the cheap items at the bazaar. I suppose can’t blame you for keeping those a secret and I hope this demonstrates that I still trust you more than Kristen.”

Ultimately, I wanted Whitney to admit to having some sort of advantage, and then gently request that she lend it to me as a trust exercise, or insurance that she wouldn’t blindside me or something, but she continued to insist that they bought nothing at the bazaar, and I kind of believe her tbh. So I didn’t get what I wanted from this move.

To make matters worse, Whitney said she’s done with Kristen now, and I’m her closest ally. My poor heart is too small for my head. I’mma feel so guilty when this goes the way I want it to.

Kristen doesn’t know I did this, and I convinced Whitney it was a smart idea to not confront Kristen, so at least I avoided a real blowup.