Happy United Merge Mode/Confessionals

Day 26
"taegeuk"

- The Purple Rock tie-breaker has always been one of the biggest flaws in the game of Survivor. I just recently realized it was never removed from the rulebook, only adjusted to not occur when there are four players left, though it has indeed effectively prevented tie votes since its introduction. Needless to say that I would never attempt to get into a situation where a rock determines my fate in the game, regardless of the cost.

But what does all that have to do with Korea? Didn't Monkey play the mask on Ivan and blindsided Hunter? NO, BITCHES. That was never the plan, I only agreed to vote Hunter because he narrowly lost the challenge to Aaron, and there was no way I could convince them to spare him. Everything got confusing when Ivan played his ring out of the blue, dramatically stating he foiled Monkey's plan and we can all comfortly vote him out (of course, adding he doesn't have the Baekje idol. Like I didn't know.). However, I'm not new to this game. I wasn't going to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book, so I voted Hunter as a failsafe vote. If Hunter and Ivan are blindsiding me, the vote will tie in their face. If they really vote for Monkey, I'll simply change it in the revote and take him out.

Yes, I could've taken Hunter out instead. Once the TC was posted, Ryan immediately approached me asking who to vote for in order to avoid the Purple Rock. At first I wasn't sure about his intentions, but the guy was actually ready to flip. That is the moment when I had to bite my tongue and mumble something like "let's wait for Aaron and then decide". I knew Aaron will never show up in time, and Ivan would make the decision for Ryan himself. From this point onwards, Monkey's fate was sealed.

"taegeuk"

- Before TC. I found out that Ivan had the Rings of Duality. I could have told Monkey to play his Ring and Mask in order to still be able to take out Hunter. But I decided that this was the safest way to take him out...but now, I'm realizing the consequences. This is probably the 2nd mistake I've made in the game (The first was bringing Max into SS)

Losing Monkey was a serious blow to the SS moral. I need to be able to turn Monkey into a martyr in order to keep SS solid. I'm posting on our Secret Society page (All For Monkey) so that I will be likely to get his Jury vote, as well as solidify the alliance more.

The other part of my previous prediction came true, about Eddie going home. But damn! He wasn't supposed to be a Jury memeber! >.< Now I have 1 vote against me :/ But I suppose I can reveal that everyone was targeting him when I'm sitting on the Final 3...I doubt that I'll get his vote though.

So in a nutshell. I made the Merge, but it's a bittersweet entrance :/ I hope I still have a few fans out there :/ I'm not feeling the love right now >.<

"taegeuk"

- I am very happy and very nervous at the same time. Monkey, Amir, and who I think was Aaron, backstabbed me in an attempt to vote me out. Why? I don't know. Screw him, that's what he gets. I hope he enjoys being 1st Jury member instead of 1st runner up ;). They definitely seem sorry, and Monkey should. I don't know if I can trust Aaron anymore. Well we are merged now, and the first action to come into plan is get with Alejandro. Now he has told me him and Aston have all of Silla under control, and that he wants to blindside Ivan. I have Max on my side. He has Miggy. Ben will vote whatever Aston says, apparently. It's like we have our own little pets. The thing is, I don't know if I want to go with this group. They seem like they could backstab the same way the others did at any minute. I still have my social skills. I still have my strategical mind. And I sure as hell still have my challenge strength.

"taegeuk"

- Today was a good day. Monkey and Eddie were sent to the Jury, and not only is that good because they were good players that were trying hard, but that means I at least made the Jury. And now tribes are Merged, so that's another big milestone. Top 10 is always a good accomplishment but I'm not just gonna sit on this. There's still a lot of game left to be played and I'm gonna play it as well as I can.

"taegeuk"

- My first tribe, Goguryeo, was light, white. My new tribe, Taegeuk, is dark, black. So I have gone from white to black. Light to dark. Huh...symbolic....

"taegeuk"

- I thought I knew what was going on but how wrong I was!

Before Eddie's elimination we were discussing the upcoming merge, and he revealed to me a lot of information about the Goguryeo tribe. Eddie said he had an alliance with Hunter, Amir and Aaron, and that with Max and me, we would have a majority. I did consider the possibility of flipping to this alliance but in the end I decided there was too much risk. I'm pretty sure Max has been brainwashed by Alejandro and thinks the two of them are tight. And I don't know where Amir's true allegiance lies because I know him to be part of Alejandro's secret society. I wasn't willing to betray my alliance and then find out Amir and Max were never on board for Eddie's plan. I feel bad about Eddie's elimination. He trusted me and I lied to him. But I did what was best for my game. I think he's reacting quite poorly and that helps mediate my sympathy. I'd concocted this brilliant evil plan for the merge where I would form a secret final three pact with Ryan and Ivan, where we would whittle down both sides until it was just us three, but now I've been offered a secret deal by Miggy. He's formed a new core alliance of four of him, me and Aston, and replacing Alejandro with Aaron. And I believe he wants to keep Amir and Alejandro around then boot them at sixth and fifth. I never thought Miggy could be so devious but I'm glad he realises Alejandro is a threat and wants to get rid of him. I thought that was going to be my hardest job convincing people of that. I finally got the full story on the secret society from Miggy. It consisted of him, Monkey, Alejandro, Amir and Aaron. I'm still slightly confused about what happened at Monkey's elimination. Monkey, Amir and Aaron should have at least been able to tie the vote but Miggy says Amir didn't want to go to the purple rock tiebreaker. If he's willing to betray his day one alliance then I really can't trust him at all. So I have to decide if it's best for me to go with Miggy's new foursome. I feel like I can trust him and this isn't just some elaborate ruse. But can I beat him at the end? That is the question.

In cheerier news, I made the merge! Yay! I haven't had anyone outside my alliance approach me. Everyone seems to be trying to stay in happy united merge mode for as long as possible but I'm sure there are secret deals going on. We've decided on our merged tribe name - Taegeuk. Ivan suggested it because it's the name of the Korean soccer team or something but coincidentally it's actually a really fitting name. It means great polarity and is similar to the Chinese concept of yin and yang. It represents balance and unifying opposites, so it's a fitting name for the merging of once competing tribes. It's also the symbol used on the South Korean flag. I've incorporated that into the flag design, using the three colours of the original tribes. We've gone with black as the main colour so that all colours on the South Korean flag are represented. At the top I've included the Korean words for 'strength in unity', which I thought was something nice for a merge even if we are still competing against one another!!

"taegeuk"

- I feel like the last confessional I sent about this TC didn't cover everything, only the bottom line of the strategical aspect, so I thought of sending another one just to express my thoughts about the personal level of what happened last night.

Just to clarify, I did NOT originally intend to vote off Monkey this time. My plan was getting Ryan out, but since Hunter lost the challenge and Ivan played his ring, that gave me the perfect opportunity to vote off Monkey without actually backstabbing him. Not willing to draw rocks is a legitimate excuse for voting someone off, and even Monkey himself told me afterwards that he's not really mad and was harsh on me only in order to make me tie the vote again.

The person who really pissed me off last night was in fact Hunter, with his reaction to the vote. he was like "Really guys?! can I at least get a reason? I want us to go far" (subtext: I want myself to go far! how you dare vote for me?!). Really Hunter? are you suffering from a short-term memory loss? because I remember when you thought Monkey was going to play his idol, you were ready to throw Cassels under the bus anytime. What a fucking hypocrite, Like you ever gave Cassels a reason. Let me see... what was your excuse back then? oh yeah, "our alliance is fairly large". But when the votes are going your way, then we need to keep you "in order to dominate the merge". Suddenly our alliance isn't that large, huh? I guess everything in life depends on perspective.

"taegeuk"

- LOL! Alejandro was pulling a Zane Knight. What a really smart guy, that’s why I want him gone when we hit the Final 6. He’s probably the biggest threat to win out there even with a lot of blindside that he did. This just made it easier for me to vote him out hehehe. Btw, I just made the 4 core alliance of me, Aston, Ben and Aaron hope that alliance would work :-)

"taegeuk"

- Yes! Merge! Every things going to go to plan until the alliance has to turn on each other, now that's going to cause chaos...

"taegeuk"

- I was secretly running this game last time. But now, it's completely a 180. I found out that Miggy, a member of SS has formed a 4 person alliance with himself, Ben, Aston and Aaron.

That's 2 SS members. There goes SS, we're gone. I hope Aston and Aaron are still with me though, I think Aaron was about to tell me about it, but I was offline. While Aston actually told me about the whole thing. I need Miggy gone.

And what makes things worse is that now, Eddie found out about SS. I hope he doesn't interfere in the game by spilling the secrets, or nobody will trust me.

"taegeuk"

- You know, I've been thinking about this game. And I realized how much this one world twist affected the whole game (even if it was only for a few days).

We all got to know each other and cross-tribe alliances became the norm. So right now, we're down to 10 people. It's really hard to see where real loyalties are.

I mean I'm pretty sure that there isn't a single person in this game who only has 1 alliance. I got an alliance invitation from Hunter, and a different one from Ivan (even though they're allies).

I heard Miggy, Aston, Aaron and Ben are allies. But Aaron and Aston show that they wanna work with me.

I think Max is the only person here who only has 1 alliance. But I still think that's unlikely, he's a really clever person. So I'm pretty sure that Hunter has an alliance with him too.

But dang, this game gets more interesting by the day! I'm actually working with people who I know are gonna blindside me in a few days O_o But of course, I won't let it come to that.

The advantage of having an alliance with everyone, is that I'll know if I'm being targeted or not, and for my sake, I REALLY hope that that's true :)) why else would Aaron and Aston spill Miggy's secret alliance right?

Day 27
"taegeuk"

- OMG! I won the challenge! I didn't think I'd win =)) I guess I'm safe tonight, I'll know how hard I need to try based on who goes home. I really either Miggy or Ivan gone. I guess I'll just have to scout around to see who I should truly align with.

I hope at least Aston, Amir and Aaron are with me. Because I would never vote against them unless they voted for me.

"taegeuk"

- Alright. Things look good for me right now. The vote is on either Miggy or Ben (Both of which I'm sure will blindside me later on). I'd LOVE to see Miggy go next, but I'm not gonna do it unless Aaron agrees to it.

There are 3 ways the vote could go tonight. If nothing changes right now: Ben will go home If Hunter agrees to take out Ivan: Ivan will go home If Aaron is okay with blindsiding Miggy: Miggy will go home

I'm okay with any of those scenarios. Because I don't really know who to trust right now except Amir, Aaron and Aston (we're the A-Team). As long as those 3 are not jepordized. I'll gladly vote anyone else out.

"taegeuk"

- This may be the hardest vote going into, The three outsiders Ben, Miggy and Max. But then again now would be a time to break apart the korea alliance and stick with the four original Baekje members, I'm not sure because I like Ben and Miggy but that’s who the alliance want gone.

"taegeuk"

- First of all, congratulations! today we mark the date when Korea is finally tied with Revival in length. The only thing is, there are 10 people still left in the game would it be a bad time now to mention that Revival had one more contestant than Korea? I mean, the season is great in many aspects and there's not much else to bitch about, but that's a big issue. I kindly suggest you, as one moderator to another, to focus on speeding up what's left of it.

So I'm finally part of the merged Taegeuk tribe. On the surface, it seems like nothing has changed too much. Alejandro has Aston and Ben in his pocket so the Secret Society is sure to have majority, while Hunter, Ivan and Ryan are completely delusional believing that someone still care about the Korea Alliance. The odd man out is Max, who is like the unpopular kid in class that nobody wants to play with. It's like every day he comes up with a different plan to align with different people, some of them are ones he never talked to before. I never liked this guy and I can promise you, I'll do everything possible in order to get him out first.

We had our first individual challenge, which was for immunity and reward. At first I didn't really want to win, and I never thought I'd be able to write something funny so fast, but this has just hit to me like a lightning. I wrote a parody of the ORGs based on the story and characters of The Wizard of Oz, and I honestly think I should've won. Ok so I didn't use some random words from a list, but my story was hilarious. It actually had a plot, good characters and lots of ORG references. Damn it also had pop culture references! I should be awarded the title of Sole Survivor just for coming up with this masterpeice Well, Alejandro beat me with a debating lecture. I'm kind of curious to know if those are real techniques to make random words funny, or he just made all that shit up so he could use more words from the list. Either way, that wasn't a story. I'm happy for him that he won and took the target on his back, yet I feel bad for losing the reward, as this could be important. I can only hope he'll tell me what he got, but considering how he acted last time he won a reward challenge - he'll probably try to make me forget about it in a couple of days.

"taegeuk"

- I smell something fishy. If Hunter uses an idol and I got voted out, I probably credit it to Alejandro. That guy is really smart.

"taegeuk"

- The first vote after a merge is always the scariest. You just have to trust you did enough to put yourself in a good positive and get through it. And hopefully it works out the way you want it to.

"taegeuk"

- So It's final. I have a strong 4 person alliance that consists of Aaron, Amir and Aston. Everyone agreed to the alliance and we're officially the A-Team! I have a feeling that they're gonna blindside me though, which is why It's deathly important that I find that idol. I have the advantage thanks to my reward, I've gotta find it.

"taegeuk"

- I feel like I'm losing control. So far I'm going along with Miggy's final four deal but I'm wary of what will happen if the four of us were to actually make it to the end. Miggy and Aaron have been allied essentially since day one. I think at final four they'd almost certainly vote as a bloc. If they plan to boot Aston then I can vote with them and make the final three easily. If they plan to boot me then my only hope is tying the vote with Aston. I'm not going to the final four only to be cut down at the last hurdle. That's why I'm making some provisions of my own. I've been talking with Ivan. I'm pretty sure he and Ryan are aligned, and they must know they are in a perilous position. I want to keep the votes away from them and keep communicating with them, as they could be important swing votes if I were to need them. I'm not happy with tonight's vote, and I'm not even sure how it will go down. We'd agreed on Max, which I was fine with. We don't need him. But then Miggy has become SUPER paranoid and is sure he's a target. He changed the vote to Ryan and then finally Hunter. I don't want Hunter out because he has no real allegiances (that I know of) and so I could use his vote as well. My plan is to try and keep Ryan, Hunter and Ivan around as decent-sized alliance I could flip to if need be. So presumably Miggy, Aaron and Aston are voting for Hunter, and Ivan, Hunter and Ryan are voting for Max. I'm not sure what the deal is with Alejandro and Amir. I know the two are aligned but I haven't heard from Alejandro since the merge. This is highly odd if Alejandro is still on board with our Silla alliance of him, Miggy, Aston and me. It kind of worries me that something may be going on that I'm not aware of. I have to keep in mind that the spectre of the secret society may still exist, and that Alejandro, Amir, Aaron and Miggy are working together. I think Hunter is most likely going home. I just don't have the numbers to get rid of Max. I gave Hunter the heads-up that he was being targeted. Perhaps he has an idol he can play to save himself. If he goes home, perhaps he'll be grateful to me for at least trying to save him. I think there are going to be three Max votes from Hunter, Ivan and Ryan. It looks like everyone else is going to vote for Hunter. There's no point me voting for Max as it can too easily reveal me as deviating from the plan. I've voted for Miggy in the hopes that I can blame it on Max. Then next round I can insist we vote for Max. That keeps Ryan and Ivan safe. Word is that Ivan has the hidden immunity idol. If so, I'm hoping I can get him to play it to idol out Alejandro. That keeps my hands clean as the numbers slowly dwindle, and with Alejandro gone that will kind of force Miggy, Aston and Aaron to stick with me. From there it gives me more options of how I'll get to the final.

"taegeuk"

- The tribal before the merge, I really had a hard time to choose between Hunter and Monkey, I chose Monkey, but in the end Hunter stayed.

I tried to avoid the revote by pointing the target on Ivan. No one listened to me. Now, I lost both of them. Monkey is out, and Hunter is not talking to me.

But things get harder for me now. Amir, Alejandro, Miggy and I (and Monkey, but he's out) are in alliance since the start of the game. But Miggy thinks that Alejandro is a threat so Miggy formed a 4 man alliance (Miggy, Me, Aston and Ben). He formed that just before the merge. I trust Miggy, but the problem is that the trust between Me, Ben and Aston are really not established.

It is sad for me because I thought that Me, Amir, Alejandro and Miggy are solid.

Miggy has a plan to boot Alejandro on Final 6 or 7. My mistake probably is that I said that plan to Alejandro, so he started targeting Ben and Miggy now. If I just kept my mouth shut, this will not happen.

Miggy is trying to pull strategies now, but he lacks at accuracy and reliability. Miggy lost at DrPanda ORG because he was perceived as a floater, so I kinda understand why he is trying to be strategic now, but it doesn't seem to work for now.

Ben is actually on the chopping block. I think it is not the right time to do that, but I don't have time to turn things around because I'm busy with my personal life.

The schedule that I have gives me a hard time to play this game, but I'm happy that I made it to the jury phase. Another problem of mine is that I don't have the will to win. So maybe their right when they say I'm a goat. I just hope the time will come where I will have that will to win. Hahaha!! For now, I just want to go as far as I can.

"taegeuk"

- Oh yeah, Aaron probably tell to Alejandro my plan to backstab him. Now I’m a bit sure that I’m going home.