Blasted Dark Pearl/Confessionals

## Day 22

they want to call me a threat when im not? fine! i'll give them something to be threatened by! watch out bc if im sinking, it's going to be nuclear..
i'm honestly bothered by the clownery perpetuated atm by these people, primarily alex, byron, and edvin, so i'm going to take the night to sleep and form a game plan so i can think with a clear head, but please ffs give me ppl with some logic outside of meta bc that's what this feels like n i'm not even at the caliber to be meta targeted so idk if it is ):"

i can't go to every person screaming ""i don't have the idol and i'm upset at byron for lying"" because that looks susp. as hell. to the contrary of what i really want to do, calling alex out in the tribe chat seems like a bad idea simply because i have a solid point in that byron did lie and he's never been on a tribe with me, but if byron says i passed trial two, which he v well could, my challenge scores put me at passing trial three and people will know i made it to trial five so it might be best to handle this behind the scenes. i think the best route is going to be either:
~ planting a lie with a few select people. maybe isabel and phoenix. talk to them about how sad i am that i'm being targeted off the gate w/ lies
~ just letting the votes collect on me and playing it anyways, because everyone is going to suspect i have it, but right now i have an informant in JP and could develop some in isabel, anabel, etc. and would rather make that play when it's calculated and correct. i have another idol so it's okay
but this round i do want alex out if possible. do i see him as a threat? not really, no. he's transparent asf in what he's doing and the only reason i see him as slightly dangerous is bc his words blow my chance at utr and byron, being an idiot and looking out for byron alone, practically gave him a silver bullet to do so. i think the best way to do that is to win individual immunity, so an anti-jake campaign seems less appealing and just let him leave. seriously so annoying.
i also want to focus on forming majority in some way. i just don't know who to form it with. i feel solid in our valasca alliance chat, now with byron added, as a base but that's four and we need six votes. anabel is close with phoenix and jp is close with zee, so that's two, but both phoenix and zee have og connections that they'd want to stick with so i don't know what would happen! i'll bring it up later in our chat.
i think my pitch for a few people might just be keeping me around as a shield (since i think that's why JP is doing) and hoping it works!!"

people are being very lowkey at the moment socially and it's kinda concerning like.. sis we need to talk to each other and form bonds, but meh it is what it is and i still feel okay with the people i'm with.
today was kinda about planting seeds for this first vote more than anything else. if we have an og valasca chat, it seems plausible that they have an og marpesia chat, so i went to phoenix and basically went off about how insecure i feel in this game given the rumors, laying out everything for him with the byron/alex drama. it seems like alex isn't spreading the idol talk at the moment, so maybe he's waiting until tribal or it could legit be that he's too inactive to do so! but ya i basically kept going off abt how upset and vulnerable i felt to make myself look emotional n like i was coming for advice above anything else rather than planting a seed. hopefully it worked and if the rumors go to the marpesia people, phoenix can counter the truth for me rather than me looking like im doing too much. likewise, i'll be able to cover my own bases with the valasca people and now it's just a matter of do i repeat my phoenix convo with zee or are we good? but ya, i've only talked strategy with four people today since no one is really around and all four are down to vote alex in some way, so i'm thriving maybe?
idk i feel like this first merge vote should be about people enhancing their relationship networks over shifting to ""threat"" mentality and it should make either tal or alex ample targets. i have a good bond with tal. i have no bond with alex. therefore, it seems rational to keep pushing things on alex and hope they stick. hopefully it pays off, but i need to stay adaptable. in a perfect world, alex goes but if i keep having my perfect world, i become a threat. at the end of the day, tal doesn't have a lot of connections in this game and while i like and trust him, i can only do so much with that. my only other concern is how well the lowkey campaigning is going tbh. it feels very ""yes jake, you don't have the idol. yes jake, alex needs to go. yes jake, we're together"" like if things are going that well, i'm happy but it seems too right for me?
i mean if there's a huge conspiracy going on behind my back, i feel like i'm at a unique position in that i have been on a tribe with or talked to through kidnappings 9/10 people so hopefully one person would tip me off and i could idol. maybe that's paranoia speaking. probably paranoia. but always good to think worst case scenario.
regardless, my plan rn is honestly to gun for immunity. i was thinking of throwing but per what ik, alex is public enemy no. 1 and i'm his target, which means if he fires back, it's going to be at me and i want to be safe when that happens. plus ""vote jake he's a bigger threat"" seems less appealing when they can't. i get nervous bc winning immunity is confirming the whole ""threat"" thing but i feel like with alex gone, it won't be spread nearly as much so i'm going to focus on that!! it's just about hoping we haven't made that transition from ""how can i cultivate a relationship network"" to ""how can i position myself against ppl i can beat at the end""!! not to say i think im someone ppl couldn't beat in the end but meta appears to have me perceived that way so ):
anyways, going to keep playing it by ear but those are some thoughts on merge n ya!"

## Day 23

And I'm bidding my whole lot on item numbero siete!
Ya feeling lucky punk?"

i was literally praying that we wouldn't have an auction this season ugh!! auctions are really cute, i just have a huge upper hand over my tribemates with two idols and now advantages could be all over the place. if there's an idol nullifier in there, i'm done like..
likewise, i really wanted to gun for immunity, which will just be random/luck now and that's really daunting for me ):
anyways, still getting sketch this-is-too-easy vibes from people and starting to think i might be in a tough spot. is there a chance someone found the marpesia spot and i'm outed as having two idols? idk. but i feel like i'm being told what people think i want to hear over what they're actually thinking, and that could be a very bad sign.
if not, hopefully this is a really easy vote. anabel and phoenix both seem on board with pagonging antianara but i'm not sure that i love that plan? i think zee is a huge threat honestly, so if tribal lines are an opportunity to take that shot, i'd love to take it, but i think they go for tal first over zee and tal may be someone i need. plus like.. if we get to final nine with four marpesias, one antianara, and four valascas, that antianara not only has an underdog arc, but a natural swing position so.. i think if alex goes this round, it might be a good idea to start thinking about pulling tal and zee in and thinning the marpesia numbers. but by the same measure, if we thin their numbers, it's inevitable they'll want to return the favor and if they try to do so before final eight, we could be in trouble too so idk! i'm kinda surprised people are still playing by tribal lines? bc this marpesia-valasca coalition is something n all, but there are eleven of us so. yikes!"

I have made merge. I should theoretically be in a good position but these people are crazy so they'll probably try voting me out anyway... I told Abi I was nervous about merge and she ignored me. She probabaly wants me out huh? Let's see who votes out who first huh grrrr....
Now I am going to look for the idol and fail at finding it. Ttyl Dreary "

## Day 24

a dark pearl :)
and a skip idol task, which is great since i'm now back on the grid having sped through trials one through four! hopefully i can grab this merge idol i stg
as for the vote, it seems so straightforward it's unreal. we now have an eight person alliance consisting of the original marpesia and original valasca tribes, leaving tal and alex on the outs with alex as the objective target given the fact that byron, myself, edvin, and jp all have beef with him. might propose a vote split because we literally have the numbers but also like.. i rlly have trust w/ tal.. idk i have a feeling alex starts rallying against me soon-ish n with the dark pearl and there only being three candidates for the antianara idol, i really don't know how i feel abt that!!
this still feels way too easy i'm susp as hell"

For me, the auction was a bust, I got nothing. But, Isabel told me about her item, and it's huge. Up until final 7, she can make two people reveal their vote publicly. That can make things absolutely crazy, and I'd love to see it used, as long as it's not on me. After the (what I think should be easy) boots of Alex and Tal happen, we're pretty much all gonna have to turn on each other. It's gonna be interesting for sure."

found the daiwomman idol last night.. literally within eighteen hours of starting the tasks, i found my third idol JSJSJSJSJSJJS.. i feel so much pressure to use these things correctly but also.. if i make it through this vote unscathed, i have six tribal councils until they expire and three idols.
i'm nervous about there being a nullifier in the auction, so i need to dig around and find out where it is if it exists because that's rlly daunting tbh.. i can't become the idol reliant person i want to be if it can be negated. i wonder if i could play an idol after one has been nullified like it's not called the idols nullifier.
as for this vote goes, it really is looking like alex. apparently, per the new valasca-marpesia alliance, alex is going for byron. this seems great for me, because even if alex plays an idol, byron should go? so long tal votes byron. should be 8-2-1 or 0-2-1. if alex doesn't play an idol, i really do think the antianara one isn't out there.
my main goal today is to keep talking to people and just see if there are any holes in this story of an eight person majority alliance with an easy target.
another huge point in my strategy is tal. he's reached out to me asking what the vote is and i have no idea how close he is with alex and i don't want to tip him off, but also tal could be my eyes and ears into what alex is doing and thinking. so for now i'm not sure how to respond bc i don't want to give up my bond with tal over what could be an easy vote, but i really want alex gone so :(
also it is confusing as to what will happen beyond this vote. like is this group of eight really going to stick together until eight to battle it out through rocks? then is it just one tribe pagongs the other? no. the antianaras who are being targeted right now will become a swing and the thing is, the swing holds a lot of power. so even if tal goes next, i don't want zeezo to be the swing. i think JP pulls her towards our side, but i ranked my fellow castaways earlier and i don't want to ride it out with the three top tier people (zeezo, JP, anabel), so i think if tal goes next, the f9 tribal would be my time to flip the game on my old tribe, simply because there are so many beatable people in the marpesia tribe and not nearly as many in valasca. likewise i could try to subtly save tal and take out a threat because i could realistically pass him the marpesia idol n it would look authentic if he were leaving next, but we'll see!!"