Round 15

[Russell Swan]

My laptop crashed on Thursday evening, but I'm on a temporary computer and will be getting a new one tomorrow morning. It's why I had to use a boring parchment rather than my normal Black Swan one.

I've got a technique planned that I think will win me one of the immunity necklaces this challenge. That is my ultimate goal for the round to assure that I can get to final 9 without using my idol or I could be a target and possibly go home with these prizes since I'm an obvious person to be targeted.

Bob Dawg was the 8th vote with my 7 last round, and since this is vote is going to be crazy, I'll try to keep my group together here IF I don't have immunity because that's my best chance. I think other people will be nervous and do that, too. If I do have immunity, then I think it's time to make a bigger, riskier move when the time is right. I just need to consider the following. Do I want to create a sub-alliance with Erik and risk going down with him? I get the feeling his strategy is flawed and he's in a bad position, so I need to evaluate this since he wants the two of us to team with Bob Dawg and Silas.

[Russell Swan]

Ami using her challenge advantage screws up my strategy here since she can possibly get the immunity that I want.

[Russell Swan]

IT WORKED! I don't care that it's selfish. This TC is going to be crazy, and I wanted to be final 9. I hope everyone wastes their prizes and powers here, but if not, I still have my idol at final 9 to play and be final 8 if I need it.

Now I need to talk to people and come up with a plan for the vote, but my key allies aren't on right now.

[Russell Swan]

Here's the plan that I discussed with Chicken and Erik earlier. Chicken suggested that he would send John to Fiji, which is a very selfless move that impresses me and will earn him more end-game credibility if he makes it there. It helps our alliance as a whole theoretically if John doesn't give away his prizes. Then, next round at final 9, I suggested that I can use my Prize Reverser on him so that whatever he has left to use won't work and we can vote him out. It's probably the most intelligent way I can think of using it? I might waste it, but I'd probably waste it otherwise anyway.

If my giant alliance of eight sticks together, with John being gone, the only two possibilities to vote out right now are Lex and Yul, so we're going to split the votes up to hopefully assure that one of them goes even if the idol is played. If our 8 splits 4-4, it can work, but the possibility is there of Bob Dawg and Silas (or even Ami or Gary) deciding to take the opportunity to get Erik out of the game, and I wouldn't be surprised at all to see that happen. Erik's foreseen this a little, which is why he wanted to bring Bob Dawg and Silas into an alliance with me to help secure them. I don't like that idea because it may isolate Chicken and Ralph from me, and maintaining full trust with the two of them (disassociating myself from Erik) is definitely a part of my strategy. I want to seem like the perfectly loyal guy who everyone can trust. Even now, I'm not lying to our targets. Yul wanted to make a special end-game deal, but he hasn't even approached me despite being in the minority so either he's busy and hasn't had the chance or he feels confident some other plan will work? I don't fully get that.

I think at least one of our votes may work, but I also wouldn't be surprised if we lose Erik. Chicken would probably be the second target if Bob Dawg and Silas temporarily leave the alliance or if Lex and Yul have some prizes to shake things up with the vote.

[Russell Swan]

Saving this list here since I may lose access to my AIM Logs tomorrow, but here's how the vote is supposed to go.

Russell, Ralph, Erik, Silas: 1. Lex 2. Yul
Gary, Bob Dawg, Ami, Chicken: 1. Yul 2. Lex

[Russell Swan]

I feel sort of bad because my computer's been glitching all weekend, and I've been unintentionally abandoning conversations and ignoring people. That should be fixed now, I think?

I've talked enough to all my key allies to make sure we're on the same page. Someone may flip, but ideally, if we get Lex and Yul out, we're left with a lot of people who I'm closer to and feel like I can influence and maybe control. I've shown nothing but full loyalty to Chicken, Erik, and Ralph. None of them have any reason to go against me from a loyalty perspective since they have the impression that I'm always a solid vote on their side. I really had hopes that I could work with Yul, but he just lost interest in working with me apparently? He confuses me. Because I honestly would've considered working with him in the future if he wouldn't have stopped talking to me. I like Ami and feel like she trusts me as an honest player, but it would be smart of her to turn. As far as Gary goes, I need to keep reinforcing that I'll be loyal to him and Chicken for Original Gunlom. I'm trying to disassociate myself from Erik strategically, but I'll have to factor in the Erik-Russell-Bob Dawg-Silas alliance that Erik added me to. Let's get through this vote first and evaluate my position with those people.

Erik has suggested several times that I give him the hidden immunity idol here. I'm not. Because he wouldn't even know what TC to play it on, and we may be throwing away my best chance of surviving a future tribal council for just a random guess. You have to be selfish in this game. That's why I'm keeping my idol for myself. I will need it coming up here probably because I can't just win immunity every round.