Congrats on making the merge, Penny.

Good try with the whole petition to change the merge color. You're pink, bitch; deal.

How do you think the game will change now?

What's the new plan?

How do you like your new tribe members so far?

Oh its so good to make the merge. 2 times in a row, I really am learning now.

The game is going to get a whole lot more hectic now. Strategy talk was pretty tame on Helios but now with the merge there is going to be shit going down every 5 minutes. This is where I feel I am in my element. I have already started with the strategising.

The three to PM me so far have been Ted, Joanna and Daniel. With Ted, he has asked me what my plans are and I have come straight up and said my survival is entirely in his hands and what path he is going down. With Joanna, I am being semi-social and semi-strategic. Starting out by introducing myself and leaning into strategy just now. Daniel I will be entirely social with. He said he didnt want any strategy talk, so I will oblige by saying I dont really like the strategy talk and just want to socialise with him.

I honestly have no short term plan now. Im doing a Richard Hatch from now and just seeing myself in the Final. So now I just have to wiggle my way to the end and do whatever I have to do. The plan has to be to get Asteria to vote a former Asteria member out. This might be possible, but may not be. So it depends. We also will be able to change tactics if Ted really is with us or not. But determining that will be harder than it sounds.

This is still Asteria vs Helios as far as im concerned and it will be until the end. I have to firstly get the numbers on my side in whatever manner possible and then I have to keep the numbers. Thats all that matters.

Where & Do Rob & Ted fit into the merge puzzle?

How much information is being freely shared, how much is being held back?
First impressions of the new people?



& congrats on merge! <3

They definitely CAN fit in our merge puzzle and if they do this situation becomes 100 times easier than it is now. But in my opinion it is very unlikely. However with a clean slate and no reputation to worry about, they may trust me.

They key to Rob and Ted is to make them think there is a division in the Helios 4 that makes them the third when they are actually the fifth. We are going to try to spread that the Helios 4 are actually split up into 2 sub alliances. Helen/Brian being one and myself/Erin being the other. This way, we can ensure Ted/Rob of a spot in a Final 3 scenario with an Asteria jury. That will be my big move.

My other plan of attack if that cant come about will be to go to one of the Asterians and ask them to vote out Rob ahead of me and in exchange I will give them the Immunity Idol. (Which of course is a fake). Using Rob and my rivalry should be no problem to making my story believable but the key is getting it to work. I will have to do my very best scrambling. If that were to succeed I would approach the other Asterians remaining and tell them that the Asterian's who flipped to our side are planning on systematically voting the rest of them out, and that I would be willing to flip to them to vote out the previous Asteria flippers. If that were to come into play it would hopefully lead to a Helios majority.

Long term, I plan on taking Brian and Erin to a Final 3 situation and if it is Final 2, I would take Brian as he is useless. I dont want to take Helen, although she is my favourite Helios player and probably my biggest and best ally, she is far too much of a threat to beat me at the end.

If Brian/Helen are your ideal endgame opponents, do you worry about being lumped in with Erin in the cover story?

What are your thoughts/impressions of her at this point of the game?

Brian and Erin are my ideal endgame opponents. So I have no problem being lumped in with Erin as it may hopefully draw us closer together so that by the time the end game draws near she is likely to stay with me over Helen.

My impressions of Erin... I really cant get a good read on her at the moment. She seemed to start out so aggressive and strategic early on, but shes quietened down so much now. I think she may be working on a social game instead and intends to let us carry her as far as possible. Its also possible she is content with me and Brian as her end game opponents as well. Which is good, since that is my ideal Final 3.

If you get time over the weekend Penny, could you rankdown the players left in the game, with a few lines on each, on whatever criteria suits you?

Ill do one now for you, but I dont have a whole lot to base it on, but maybe you dont care and just want an analysis? Here it comes. :)

:D anytime this weekend is good. Or mybe first impressions now, more detailed later? (inc. old-Helios?)

So ill start with my former Helios team mates:

Helen - I think Helen is going to prosper at the merge personally, and I imagine she is one of the hosts favourites. She'll be my tip to go on an Immunity run and really assert her authority in a physical sense, and if we eliminate Rob and Christy, who seem to be the Asteria powerhouses according to reports, then she'll be in an even easier position. It will be up to me to beat her when the time comes, and that can only do my good in front of a Jury if I beat Helen in a challenge, particularly if she dominates.

Brian - A loyal ally but seems to be just existing at this stage. Although if thats his strategy then its a good one, because he's definitely one I want to take with me all the way because of it, so it could very well work out for him. Brian seems to be more of a yes man when Helen, Erin and I discuss strategy hes the guy who just replies with "Yeah good idea" or "I love it lets do it". I really love having those players aligned with me, as they will back in the plans I put in place and wont fight me on stuff I want to do. In front of a Jury I think I'd be able to mount a case that I fought alot harder to stay alive than Brian.

Erin - Someone who I felt would be alot more aggressive but really became a lot more passive once she got in a safe position. Probably is biding her time but I have no doubt she'll be the one out of the Helios members to make a move if it suits her so she is definitely one to keep an eye on. If I can keep her under check and block any moves she wants to make, then shes the ideal one to take to the finals, as I would be able to successfully argue that her lack of strategic play was due to my superiority. But thats a long way off.

Ted - Ive put Ted between the former Helios and Asteria members because I dont know where he fits to be quite honest. He opened communications with me yesterday and asked me what my plans were and when I replied with something along the lines of "My plans depend entirely on your allegiance" he stopped replying which is concerning. I think he has considerable power at the moment but will be picked off by whichever alliance he decides to go with as he is the fifth/sixth wheel regardless. The trick will be trying to convince him that he is the third wheel with me and Erin and also guaranteeing him that it will be a Final 3, even though it may not be.

I only have limited info on Asteria at the moment, so ill give you my best:

Rob - Seems to be a lynch pin for Helios as Helen seems intent on relying on his promises to us from the previous round, but thats all garbage as far as im concerned and I think I will try and make him my first target by offering up the Immunity Idol (fake) in exchange for his removal before me. I think it can be done, and as Rob is a physical threat and potentially a strategic threat, I think the former Asterians will go for it. Unfortunately I dont really have anything nice to say about him, since our rivalry from the tribal stage is compounded by the fact that I think his mutiny play was entirely devious and I simply dont believe him.

Daniel - All I have gotten from Daniel so far is that he didnt want to discuss strategy with me, so basically he is entirely useless to me in every sense. From what Rob told us, Daniel is basically hopeless at the game and so isnt somebody I have to worry about. He wont be a target for a while, and I may approach him about flipping since he may just be the one to buy it.

Joanna - Joanna types in lowercase and bad grammar just shits me to tears, so I cant help but stereotype against Joanna and speculate that she is being played by a mid-teen. This makes her my primary target for flipping and I will be mega aggressive with her when I next get the chance. Hopefully she is dumb enough to buy my Immunity Idol ploy and will bring Daniel in with her. Lol.

Christy - She hasnt PM'd me which suggests to me she isnt open to hearing from Helios so I wont be bothering with her if that is the case. Is a supposed physical threat so will be a target as soon as I can manage to get the numbers to boot her out. Primarily though if she doesn't want to be involved in the game, then I just have to try and keep her out of the loop in regards to my scrambling with other Asteria players.

Shawna - Hasnt messaged me either and once again, I wont be approaching her. You can usually tell who the players are by their PMs and those that dont message others I dont think are playing the game to its fullest capability. Shawna + Christy not bothering to communicate with me gives me the impression that they are comfortable enough in their Asteria alliance that they dont even have to worry about us. We'll see about that.