Episode 06 - The Merge!

[Jeff Probst]

Welcome to the merge. Are you excited to be apart of this stage of the game? How will your game shift now as we enter the individual portion? Are you willing to make moves necessary to impress a jury should you make the finals?

What players on the other tribe are you excited to get to know or are you just looking forward to taking them out? Is there an advantage in using the players of the other tribe before your other tribemates?

What do you think of the moles, are there any still in the game and if so who do you think they are?

[Ashley]

Hell yeah! I made it through tribal, and seem to have at least 1 person below me on the Nama totem pole. That's got to be best best case scenario right now for someone who came into the game a week late with a character who got tribe swapped

I like Sophie and PB, but PB outright bullshitted about that HII he has and you called him out LOL. I am not going to say anything about it to him, hope he thinks I'm too dumb to realise. Sophie is great, but I she's a massive threat. If I can get rid of everyone who looks good on Nama, I give myself a better shot later - I came in a week late and managed to survive by tricking Nama and aligning myself with the strong tribe form the first day before I was even at merge.

I really like Cochran, but he's not a threat right now so I'm happy to keep him around :)

I'm happy I aligned with Grant - by the sounds of it, he's told Ovambo I'm worth keeping. I know being 5th on Nama looks better than 7th on Ovambo but Nama is getting knocked out now. I learned that much from Socotra. Not competing in that last challenge also may have helped me - they don't know if I have any ability in challenges yet, so I'm not a threat to them.

Re: moles - if the Ovambo mole (aka the nama tribe member) is still around, I'm certain it's Sophie. I am willing to use that to my advantage by having the other tribe want to blindside her or force her to use the idol as early as possible. As for the other mole - which IS still around - I'm not worried about it right now.

[Jeff Probst]

Do you know if Ovambo has any cracks. Are you worried about them having snowed their tribe members into believing they are all at the top of the pecking order thus leaving you at 8th place should you take out Nama?

[Ashley]

I don't know of any yet, and I'm not about to start looking, unless they come from Grant right now. I'm trying to get in with the whole tribe in case Grant is actually low on the totem pole there. I want them to think I'm an easy vote for them, not someone trying to weasel my way into their end-game alliances - at least not at this stage. If we get rid of the Nama tribe, that's 3 TCs at least before I'm at risk (where the mole could idol me out at the 4th). So I've got time to grow relationships with people on Ovambo. I don't want to discount anyone there too early - my experience showed that was an enormous mistake last time.

I'm doing my best to win, but let's be real - if I come 8th, it's better than the 10th I got in Socotra so it's a + for me.

[Ashley]

wtf is going on with this alliance. It feels really sketchy. I hate having stuff come out of the blue. This is really awkward. If it's legit, I don't want Grant going first at all.

It also seems really suspect having only two Ovambo in it, who would agree to get rid of Ovambo first. Why the hell would you do that? I get they want to not be number 7 on the tribe, but they have to be thinking that as soon as Nama get the upper hand, they could be out.

This isn't sitting right with me at all.

[Ashley]

Kristina told PB I was willing to flip. Damage control. Hopefully my decision to try and stick with Grant doesn't screw me here. :( I don't trust the alliance I'm in. It seems really shady. I want to keep an out if necessary.

[Mia]

Monica bby! <3 I didn't realize that YOU were the replacement Ashley! Good luck girl <3 (This is Dawsome btw)

Anyways, do you mind filling me in on EXACTLY who you trust/don't trust, and your take on alliances? Maybe a little blurb on every player and what you think of them at this point? It will help me catch up with what's gone on and it will make for some juicy reading post-game to see where your head was at during this crucial point in the game!

Also, usually the hosts don't offer advice to players, but I always tell people this and I have no problem telling you: Don't play for placement, play for the experience and play for YOU. Placement rarely reflects how well you played, so keep that in mind! ;)

[Ashley]

Hey gurl <3

Trust
Grant --> I feel like he's being honest with me, and I've not heard yet any stories that contradict what he's saying. I'm not sure If I can stick around with him though :( But I don't want to screw him over either.
Cochran --> I like Cochran: He feels uncomfortable about his position in Nama and so do I, but I get only good vibes from him :)

Trust, but ehhhhh
PB --> lied to me day 1. I've been lying to him too, but that's not the point. I appreciate his honesty, and his willingness to (apparently) not jump ship the moment he heard rumours, but him and Soph are two peas in a pod and there ain't room for a 3rd.
Sophie --> is probably the Nama tribe's mole. I'm still not clear on if they were even around when I joined?? If they are, that's my bet. She seemed to willing and sure that it wasn't Cochran for it to be believable, and her weird "I think PB suspects me" bit looked like she was worried if he was going to ask me about it and tried to do some pre-gaming.

Do Not Trust
Ovambo tribe --> I don't know them well enough.
Kristina --> obvious fishing for info and is clearly trying to place herself above me with PB.
Whitney --> never replies to me beyond super basic responses. I don't think she's the mole, but I worry she knows she's considered disposable and will act accordingly?

My Strategy
So far I've told everyone I'm new to the game - everyone on Nama (I'd hope?) assumes I'm a gullible vote-doubler without a clue and is full of loyalty. That's the only way I was getting to merge.
I'm trying to stick with it now, but it's harder to be noobish when you're trying to make deals.
I'm hoping I've set myself up enough to be able to avoid the fire if Grant crashes and burns, but also do that same if the 'Nama' alliance is called out --> Grant can back me up saying I was feeding him information the entire time if that happens.

----

I haven't received any PMs today. I know it's a day off, but it's a bit off-putting.

[Ashley]

dude fkn endurance challenge? this shit ain't cool it's already 1:13am for me ;_;

This better be worth it Probst! I know I signed up for it but dayum.

[Mia]

I ~refuse~ to both participate and run endurance challenges as a host and player because they are a waste of time. Stay strong gurl <3

[Ashley]

That's because you're Dawsome. Obviously. *eye roll at how obvious that was*

:P <3

[Ashley]

Mia you troll haha

[Mia]

Holla gurl congrats on immunity! <3

[Ashley]

Holla Holla Y'all

[Ashley]

What's going to happen with Kristina? I feel REALLY bad for her - I mean, holla holla I won and it didn't last 6000yrs as expected because of it, but that really sucks!

I'm just working on making sure she knows she is definitely not going home, because she really isn't as far as I know. (well, HE but I'ma say she anyway)

[Ashley]

I'm PMing like a mad woman. I'm either making the right moves or I'm just digging a massive hole - I am not sure which :/ :/

[Mia]

What are you PMing about and what's the plan?

[Ashley]

Ovambo is expecting me to flip at this tribal. Nama/Alliance is expecting me not to. What I do will be made obvious when someone goes home. Grant won't tell me anything about his alliance on Ovambo but wants me to just trust him on it. Yeah fucking right - I'm not going from 3rd-5th out of 7 on the Nama/Alliance to guaranteed 7th on Ovambo with a load of Nama trying to lynch me. Why the fuck does Grant think I would flip when he refuses to give me any useful information - he won't even tell me who is in this alliance of his!

I'm PMing him trying to make him realise i don't trust his alliance that much right now, so that when I don't flip it's not a massive shock and if i can pull him in again after it should work out hopefully. if not i'll campaign to have him booted.

I'm PMing Kristina trying to set up a plan long-term for bringing in people in a few days to get around PB and Sophie and Ralph as time goes on.

etc.

The plan now is to vote Mike.

[Ashley]

I know Lurkers apparently love this shit, so here's me at the moment:

If the vote goes as planned (I am really shifty about Ralph right now especially, since he knows I spoke with Grant and is apparently close to Grant), Mike will go home and Grant will be extremely pissed off. But after his non-commitment to me and total failure to show trust, I don't see how I can possibly vote with him. I'll have to see how this vote turns out. If we come out of this on top, he'll be in damage control. If we come out of this on bottom, I will be in serious damage control and will likely have sealed my fate.

The Alliance:

PB, Sophie, Ralph, Kristina and Me. Whitney and Cochran are vote doublers.

I've been speaking with Kristina about PB and we both don't trust him - I know he lied to me about that "immunity idol" he supposedly has/had. Kristina is sketch about Ralph as well after the "Kristina has the idol" play he apparently played. Hopefully we can work together long-term and she isn't playing me. If this goes belly up, she'll be my only link to convince Ovambo that we'd never planned to stick it out with Nama.

To be honest, Grant was who I was waiting desperately to reconnect with at merge. He's made me so disappointed. If he'd just been upfront with me the whole time I would've jumped ship without a worry. Instead he acted all shady, and Nama supposedly has an alliance set up. I'd love to work with him in the future, but he already refuses to believe anything I have to say - sure, he's right to. But he doesn't know about the alliance as far as I'm aware and he's so distrustful it makes me doubt I'll be able to work with him after tonight.

--

I feel bad lying to people - I avoided that so much last time, but I got blindsided for it. Being the "loyal" player didn't work. Now I'm trying to be "loyal" to my own interests instead of to a group.

--

[Ashley]

LOL I fucking KNEW Sophie was the mole!