Episode 4: The Survivor Gods have smiled on me

[Marissa]

Not me surviving the vote after being out of the core four alliance for a week and sending a rude confessional to the tribe chat by accident....LOL

But seriously, I'm shocked and relieved that I'm still here. I thought I was DOOMED after my tribe chat mistake last week. When that happened, I called my friend crying saying I should just quit because I was already on the bottom and that was the final nail in my coffin, and that no one would ever talk to me again, and it would be so awkward. He said "No Marissa, you're too good of a player (lol) to just quit," and I'm so glad I didn't because this game is truly never over. Thank you Carson for making the same mistake as me and being the sacrificial lamb and causing the tribe to implode so that I could scrape by, haha.

Meanwhile, post-vote, Ethan has already created a three-person chat with Carson and Zaid. Confused why they are still "trustworthy" when they left you out of the vote and all I did was save myself, but go off dude.

He told me on call tonight, "Going into a tribe swap, we need to start making alliance chats (PLURAL) right away" and "We need to work with the yellows to take out the green tribe" and I was just like SIR, please slow down...we haven't even *met* these people yet. Making an alliance chat (or multiple!) the first night of the tribe swap is just bad business.

Maybe that's why I seem "not strategic" to him. But I've played in a tribe swap before, I really just want to feel people out and not go Russell-Hantz-mode right away. Of course every game and group of people is different, but if the rest of these players are playing the way Ethan is...that's a yikes from me. All I know is, this man is driving me nuts, and I hope the other players smell his calculated behavior and scheming and realize I'm more of a trustworthy asset than him.

[Marissa]

Tribe swap update:
I'm free!!! Well I'm still on Ealing but it's a new tribe!! It SUCKS that I don't have Zaid with me (miss him already), but honestly I feel freer not having Carson and particularly Ethan on this tribe. (I guess that 3-person alliance chat Ethan made can come to fruition.) Being the only person from my OG tribe could give me the opportunity to maximize my *options* and maximize the bonds I'll have built by the time merge comes (if I make it there).

Although tribal is scheduled for several days from now, I know that I'm an obvious odd-man-out. There are 4 OG Bexley, 2 Harrow, and then me. Bexley could easily swallow me with or without Harrow's permission. I guess my destiny in this game is just going to be ~playing from the bottom~, LOL.

What is my path out of this tribe (aside from winning challenges)? My best bet is to appeal to OG Bexley (especially Abby and Juju) and let them take me under their wing. I'm going to tell them the mostly-truth about my OG tribe, which is that I was on the bottom and had no one (sorry Zaid, but I think this could help us stay UTR if we eventually reunite at merge).

The newbies on this tribe seem very wary of ORG "vets" -- Miranda and Casey both asked me how many games I've played and announced that this was their first game, and Casey said "I've heard that a lot of people in the ORG community know each other. I wonder if anyone knows anyone here." Ummm...LOL. He also asked me if the games I've played were minis or full games...I've played two "full games" but that terminology makes it sound worse than it is. It's not like I made FTC in either of them, don't come after me lol. I lowkey wonder if that energy is why Erica was voted off Harrow.

[Marissa]

Lee called me a "powerful woman" the night we swapped tribes (LOL thanks but like you've never met me, that doesn't come across as genuine?) and just added me to a group chat with me/Lee/Miranda/Abby/Juju called the Starfish Alliance. Lmao. He is actually Ethan 2.0. He basically told me he wants to bring me into the fold and carry me to the merge. Thanks I guess! I'm guessing Louise and Casey from OG Harrow have also been given a promise of protection...

I called with Juju yesterday and we agreed we've been wanting to work together, and I also had a call with Abby that lasted over 2 hours, so I'm hoping that my relationships with those two (among others) can help me navigate this swap. I hope that people want to play based on trust and relationships like I do, rather than just tribal lines because that would be boring and would obviously mean impending doom for me.

[Marissa]

Round 4 — will OG Bexley spare me this round? Stay tuned..
YouTube’s really capturing my best moments for these thumbnails

[Marissa]

Louise told me that Lee also called her a powerful woman (of course, that's his MO) and said *they* should stick together too! She also told me that Lee messaged Casey saying that they're both new players and need to stick together based on that. I called this the night we swapped. Lee is all over the place telling each person what they want to hear, and this is the man I'm supposed to trust with my life in this game? Don't think so!

Lee also told Louise that he has an "insurance policy" (gee, wonder what that could be) and asked if she has an "insurance policy" too. And he told her to ask me and Casey if we have an "insurance policy" as well. He's clearly just trying to figure out which one of us (me/Casey/Louise) has an idol so he can figure out who's the safest person to target. I'd bet anything that him or one of his cronies from OG Bexley has an idol because Zaid had told me that he correctly answered all the questions for Case 1 and the idol was gone, and he said that Ethan said the same for Case 2 (questionable veracity there).

I don't know what to do with this man. If it were up to me, he'd be gone tomorrow, but I don't have much pull on this tribe. I really hate having to play like "I don't want to say the name first, I'll do whatever anyone else wants," because I HATE that meek playing style and that's normally not who I am, but my mantra this game has been "play smarter, not harder," so I need to lay low given my position.

I can plant seeds against Lee with Abby (who already seemed annoyed and frustrated about Lee treating us like pawns during our first call) and with Louise and Casey, which is what I've been doing, but I need to be careful. If it comes down to it, I'll gladly write Louise or Casey's name down, but I also want to try setting myself up in the best possible position moving forward, and getting rid of Lee is gonna have to come sooner or later for me to feel comfortable. Otherwise, me and Casey and Louise are getting picked off one by one, and I don't want to play a shortsighted game.