Helen (to Brian): And we're stuck with the bitch. I'm going to be refreshing the index page like a Parkinson's patient.
Brian (to Helen): That was nerve-wracking for me. So Penny just killed Erin, essentially. Thank god we're still alive.
Helen (to Brian): I thought it was gonna be you. I was flipping shit. Amen. Blood on Penny's hands. Maybe this will convince her that she's not as good as bitch thinks she is... we need to solidify her for a 3-3 tie next round. Although, being a F3 goat, it wouldn't be a bad move for her to team up with then, take us out, and either hope for immunity or waltz into finals.
Brian (to Helen): Idol's back. Let's search.
Helen (to Brian): Do we include Penny, or not?
Brian (to Helen): Might as well include Penny. Yes. We need her trust.
Helen (to Brian): Rob left HII, checked forums, and is now Pming
Helen (to Brian): Now Penny is PMing, if she isn't PMing us, I'd bet you that Rob messaged her about him having the idol and having her turn on us.
So fast.
Brian (to Helen): Penny also went back to the idol forum after you said that, although she isn't there now. I finished my list, so I'm working from the bottom up on Penny's.
Helen (to Brian): Already doing bottom-up on Penny's after finishing mine. We can both do a full run at the whole thing. I think it was the name of a thing that Helios (god of vision) fought. After I did research and ran names, I immediately hit up my list instead of checking to see where everyone was on the forum.
Whoever her messages are to, it's not to us. Today didn't pan out well at all.
Brian (to Helen): I'm going a bit slower, but I'll go through yours and Penny's as well as backup before I go to bed. And you can as well if you have the time. Ugh if we didn't get this...
Helen (to Brian): I think he has it. He hasn't gone back in nearly half an hour now. I'll finish the whole list, no worries.
Helen (to Brian): Finished the whole list. You can keep going if you want, or resume later. How late can you be here, because we probably need to start brainstorming, because the weekend will be quiet, and I won't be around all day Sunday during crunch time until about an hour before the challenge.
Helen (to Brian): Is there any advantage that we'd have from lying to Penny and claiming that we have the idol so that she doesn't defect...?
Helen (to Brian): I don't think so right now. She appears to be looking for the idol with the rest of us, so perhaps there is still hope. Let's just see how this progresses.
I'm going to check over your list now, and then stop. But I can be on at least another hour or so to discuss things.
Helen (to Brian): That page you gave has well over a thousand names. I'm not trying to be a pessimist here, but with Christy/Rob gone, and Joanna not even looking, even though we should continue to try it throughout the weekend, I think our time right now would be better spent trying to plan.
Helen (to Brian): Welllll then
Joanna wrote:
they finally listened to me about to believe the opposite of what you guys say <33
you would have gone if you hadnt won immunity so gj!
Brian (to Helen): Sorry, I'm like OCD and had to at least finish the original list. I probably drove you crazy on the online tracker.
Okay, strategy-wise, we need to count on Penny to be sane and force a 3-3 tie with us and for none of us to switch on a re-vote. Because that would be ridiculous leaving 3 people from an original tribe in the game, even though she's considered goat material along with like, Joanna.
What should we do? I haven't been in touch with any Asterians since I talked to Rob earlier. I can't remember when I last talked to Christy or Joanna. If anything, we'd offer them like a "kill the goat" strategy as far as trying to get them to vote for Penny. But even then, I don't think we should flip and it would still go to a tie. I think they'd vote for you with me the backup if you won immunity though since the two of us are a pair and you're probably considered the bigger threat of the two of us. Can we stop that?
Helen (to Brian): Joanna's not even going to speak to me.
Joanna wrote:
Helen its just that your lying has become incredibly predictable now. you guys should have voted us out at the very beginning. your error. good luck with the tie tomorrow because we will be voting for you <33
I enjoy talking to Christy, actually. And Rob is all riddles.
The only things that I can think of are... I just sat here staring at a blank screen for three minutes. Um, we can try to revive the original F4, but that sounds completely disingenuous. Our only hope to avoid the tie is to rake in Christy or Joanna or Rob or a combination of them, but I'd say that odds of that are minimal, and we'll come off looking like douches the same way that Rob did today.
I'm tempted to tell Penny we have the idol, because if she knows that Asteria has it, they'll offer her an F4 deal, with the caveat that (as the goat) she gets a free ticket to finals. Frankly, I think that she'll take it, and we'll be sitting ducks.
I'd agree that it's me first, you next, and then her, unless Rob/Christy turn on each other at the four. Immunity is the only thing that can interrupt it. It'll entirely come down to ensuring Penny's loyalty (which Asteria can tear to shreds if they show her all of my messages) to force a 3-3 and see how the tiebreaker goes.
It's almost poetic that the three-person alliance that we deliberately brought to the F7 will take the batshit girl that we've been annoyed with for days and get her to turn on us to serve us our own justice.
There has to be something insane that we can come up with that we're missing... but only if Rob doesn't have the idol. If he doesn't, and he thinks we do, we'd at least stand a chance of getting their three votes put on Penny if we play up the scenario right.
Brian (to Helen): Lol, I just typed a paragraph about how to design a similar looking idol to the original in Photoshop, not realizing we could do the fake idol thing with Penny by just using the original image. But you're right, there's no reason why Asteria won't do the exact same thing and try to recruit her with the idol, which the probably have. And it's possible they found it and claimed it, then PMed Penny the password for proof before it was changed (assuming it was changed?).
I'll be logging in out of nowhere, checking online list if anyone else is here this weekend to see if they're going through the idol forums, and then jumping offline.
I'm even more confused now about Ted and his potential idol. Why wasn't it put back? Did he even have one? Did he give it away? Did he have the power to give it to someone when he was voted out? It doesn't happen in the show, but in a creative online game like this, it could.
Um, I agree that our entire fate depends on Penny and we need to do everything possible to keep her because obviously they're working every angle possible against us, including probably forwarding your PMs to her to get her to flip. Sorry for taking so long to reply without offering anything new. But I think we need to see if she says anything about Asteria approaching her first, and then like tomorrow maybe tell her about our idol if she doesn't say anything? Or do you want to go about this sooner?
Helen (to Brian): It might not be best, but I want to relax tonight. Just take a break from it.
Based on the show, ever since Fiji (and with the exception of China, for good reason), if there are two idols pre-merge, it only gets replaced post-merge when the second one comes out. The same probably applies here. Never more than one idol hidden per tribe, including the merged tribe. Sure, the things you've listed are possibilities, but I'd deem them unlikely.
Especially with Ted (I really like him, actually, his soft spoken, pretty down-to-earth, but funny when you get him) smileying in TC---which reminds me, I wanted to CUT Penny when she admitted to Ted's idol before Erin was revealed to have been voted out. Just CUT her. Because we could have played with the idea that we lied about who had our idol, too, and that the replaced idol tonight was the second currently in play. But that option is gone.
All we need to do is take the existing idol (unaltered) and re-upload it to imgur (the webhost it was found on) under a different random name assignment, and claim it to be real. The image probably doesn't change, but the web address that it is found at does.
We can deal with Penny tomorrow, though I don't like the idea of signing off without sending another single message to her tonight (though they might've already gotten her by now). I'll send a group good night or something, and we can wheel and deal tomorrow.
Unless there's anything else you can think of, have a good one!
Brian (to Helen): My knowledge of previous show seasons and how idols work isn't as strong as it should be. Thanks for the clarification; that makes sense with only one idol per tribe.
I was mad as well when Penny revealed that about Ted's idol... And Ted did handle being voted out incredibly well and seems to still be enjoying following this. I actually decided not to use the #blamepenny hashtag and instead had some joke about how my biggest accomplishment in this game was apparently being listed as the person who would be best to have a relationship with or something. I was not expecting that all.
I thought Helios would all be split, and Asteria would vote for Christy because she's such a solid communicator.
Yeah, I agree with changing the URL of the image. That should work. And tomorrow, we can focus on talking to her more perhaps, but let's get off and relax tonight since we've gone through pretty much all of our options, and it's getting late. I assume you're working on the goodnight message now?
Helen (to Brian): She'll still be awake for hours, and I'm writing an epically long reflection confessional. I'll send one when I'm off to bed, though. Since it doesn't matter anymore, and since I trust you, obviously (lol), here's my challenge confesh.
Helen wrote:
I should be honest: I didn't cast my ballot as an individual. I tried to "table" out who everyone would vote for and cast my survey as who I thought the majority would vote for, to make it more likely. Also, I teamed up with what I expected the Asterias to personally vote (Penny... Penny... Penny...) since everyone would think Helios to have the majority, but really, Asteria would (as I'd be voting with them), so I could get points that others would get wrong.
I'd also like to note that my survey matched the correct answers on all but one question (Joanna being funniest---my mistake, because that is TOTALLY correct, I brainfarted, although I'm also truly entertained by Christy). I also SHOULD have voted my survey answers for everything, but freaked out, since I didn't see the first question until late, and ended up putting myself "trust for your life" instead of Christy, who I'd truly vouch for in that. If that had caused me to lose the challenge, I'd have beaten myself up over it so much.
Also, for the challenge, I told Penny that I was just repeating Rob's answers to make sure he didn't win (since I was saying all the bad shit about her), but not sure if she believed me. I was actually voting for her regardless, at the beginning, but reinforced by Rob putting it, and then actually convinced myself to start repeating Rob's answers as a viable strategy... until his computer caused him to be out of time every other round. After that, I just tried to wait until the last second to submit, generally matching the second placer unless I was inclined otherwise.
Like I said at TC, this is an immunity win that I ABSOLUTELY wanted because this round is so unpredictable. Penny wants to force a tie, but we don't know what the tiebreaker is, and who might be at risk. Rob can potentially idol our target, meaning one of us are at risk. And even though I'm not expecting it, Penny/Erin can turn on us, also putting us at risk. This is the most relieved that I've been in any post-merge TC, even though this is a critical turning point that could propel us forward, or make everything ten times more difficult.
I sort of substituted "best relationship" with "most normal," and certainly put you down for it. It was probably a low plurality for that one, but when I saw Erin guess it, too, I expected it to be right.
I'll still be here if you have any comments on that. But our "plan" sounds a-go for tomorrow. Night!
Brian (to Helen): Yeah, I think our plan's good. Well, I guess I should say as good as it can be under the circumstances.
I just posted an update in my confessional as well, basically feeling relieved that they picked Erin as the last-minute target over me after you won immunity. I'm sending Rob a semi-sarcastic PM just because I never responded to his last one where he asked me before the vote if he should blindside me based on doing the hypocritical actions that he said I was accusing him of doing. I'll be heading out in like 5 minutes for the night. Night!
Helen (to Brian): lollllllll
http://i.imgur.com/LbT0K.jpgidentical image, and hosted by the same site, so since the last 5 digits are auto-generated, she won't know the difference (though obviously Jeff will)
I'll claim that I got it tomorrow morning (since she messaged me tonight, saying she couldn't find it, so I'd feel guilty saying "lollll got it, sorry I forgot to tell you"), using either "kratos" or "orion" (neither on list, but are on wiki page) which both had to do with fights ensued by god of sight/vision Helios. Will make up more of a story later. Let me know if you have preference if one is more believable.
This was my response to her (true, too, actually):
Helen wrote:
Haha don't worry about it! I've been writing a really, REALLY long "potentially final" confessional (both because of what the next round has to hold, but also, because classes resume Monday, so it will be my last feature-length writing sample), and got interrupted by Rob asking for a "jury vote" deal, which asked for an lengthy (and negatory, ftr) response, hence why I haven't been messaging you or Brian after we finished going through the list, but it was good that we were thorough.
We'll talk tomorrow and figure things out. Good night! (which for once, is actually soon for you
)
Helen (to Brian): I'm starting to second guess whether doing the fake idol for Penny plan is a bad idea. If there's a re-vote, or even if we succeed with the tiebreaker, it's going to cause her to question our trust moving forward, making next round just as tough. That alone probably isn't a reason for me to halt the plan. But I'm realizing that Rob has to be the one to approach her with ideas, and there's no way in hell that she'll team up with him. I'm also starting to genuinely think that she'll stand by our side. I'm still opening the door to talk about her potentially switching if she wants to, in the case we could offer her something in exchange for staying loyal, or pull the fake idol plan back in action. Until then, I'll just be acting more reactive to whatever she says than pro-active.
I also distinctly told her not to give them any indications as to who we're voting for, since a solid 33% chance of hitting the idol---if they will even find it (deliberate future tense for her)---is best. I'm fine with hitting Joanna, like she describes below, since it would probably be best for tiebreaker. I'm not sure if they'll come to the same conclusion, or if Rob is selfish enough to insist on playing it on himself. Christy might be the best vote, but I don't particularly want to do that, since she'd probably stand a better likelihood of striking a deal with one or two of us than Rob or Joanna, if things don't pan out.
Let me know what you think.
Penny wrote:
I was up until 4am my time looking for it with no luck. I looked through all the list words, wiki page about gods and even the wordsearch words.
Rob wants me to vote you out this round and then Brian, then he promises me he'd boot Christy. Lol.
I'd bet there'll be a challenge in the event of a tie. I reckon all three of us could beat Joanna, and that we should lump our votes on her.
Brian (to Helen): I've been exchanging messages with Rob and basically told him why I couldn't possibly vote for you out this round, even though he's bringing up how you're the obvious favorite to win and everything. It would just be suicide for the 3 of us not to vote together. And it would probably be suicide for the 3 of them to not vote together also, although it would be wonderful if they didn't for some reason. Rob hasn't read or responded to my last message from a few hours ago.
I agree on holding off as far as talking to Penny about the fake idol plan. I also logged into here a few times earlier and logged back out, and on one of these times, she was on the board viewing the hidden immunity idol forum for at least a few minutes to confirm that she's still looking for clues like she told you. So apparently Asteria hasn't approached her saying whether or not she has the idol yet.
Helen (to Brian): I genuinely believe her at this point. I also feel like I owe her if we survive. I actually don't mind any of her plans, this round, but that's because there's no harm to them. It's just going to come down to rolling the dice.
Penny wrote:
I wont be flipping at all. It might get me an extra round, but I dont like my chances of beating Rob and Christy at Final Immunity to ensure my place. Ill go down on a sinking ship if thats what it takes so you have nothing to fear.
I purely typed in names of people on that mythology page. Im trying to see if there is a hidden message to that clue but I dont know. Im taking a break for a half hour or so but then ill start trying again. I reckon I have tried every God though for sure.
Im just going to say im flipping to vote you out every time they ask me who I am voting for and you and Brian should do the same, just so they have completely no idea about which way we'll vote.
We've been in worse spots, we can still try a couple of things. I was thinking ill send a message to Rob or Christy at like, the very last possible second before PMs are cut off saying Helen has the Immunity Idol and im switching my vote to Brian in the hope that one of them switches but the others dont have time to or something like that. Ill see how I go.
Brian (to Helen): I believe her, too. She sees the logic in sticking together for the vote, and that's really all that ultimately matters this round. Keeping 3 votes the same way on our side since neither side's going to sway.
And I have no problem playing around with Rob also. And trying to screw up their votes with mind-games, even though it likely won't accomplish anything.
Helen (to Brian): haha yeah. I'll be around for most of the night, but likely won't be messaging much or at all. But let me know if anything exciting happens. Maybe you discover the password
Also, I get the feeling that no one else (maybe Rob does, or maybe Christy, but I'm not too sure) knows how to use this site to one's advantage as much as we do. Checking the message number in the address bar to see how busy it is. Using the "Who is online" to monitor who's conversing or what's going on. Not to mention the simplicity of checking time of last activity. But I just thought that was a fun point, though certainly not that meaningful.
Brian (to Helen): I haven't even thought about the password in a few hours, but I'll see if I can think of anything. I've got a little going on tonight, but not a whole lot. Every 30 minutes or so, I'll check back.
And I'll be honest, I've been following the "Who's Online" since like the first night and saw you and Ted were going through possible idol passwords for a while. Even after I logged out of the board, I checked back on my phone like 3 hours later that night without logging in and saw both of you still on the board. I definitely had Ted pinned as one the people who probably took one of the clues. I wasn't sure about you; whether you took a clue or not, I figured you were just trying different combinations. As far as number of PMs, I did notice that but haven't been keeping as much track of it as I probably could've been. But now that we have fewer people left in the game, I think it may actually help us figure exactly out who is talking to who (with the additional help of Who's Online) although it doesn't even matter this round who talks to who unless something changes with the dynamics.
Helen (to Brian): I think I've given up on the password, to be honest. In part because of Rob's sudden departure from it; and also, Joanna asked late Thursday "are you guys staying up this late to continue trying the idol?" so I'd bet that Rob already told both of them that he had it. I actually didn't even notice the "Who's Online" feature until much later in the game, but ever since I found it, I've used it frequently. I didn't take any of the clues, but was trying anything Greek that I could muster from my recollection for that first night or so.
Brian (to Helen): Yeah, unfortunately I think you're right and they do have the idol. And if so, the password was likely immediately changed and we'll never even be able to log in regardless of whether or not we find the right password.
I didn't see ANYONE else using the "Who's Online" until I noticed you using it a few rounds in. I would always try to click it, then jump out to the index in a tab so no one else would realize I was there, and I wouldn't be caught. I thought it was a useful feature to have to myself, but it's fine sharing.
Helen (to Brian): I swear to god, I want to take that twatwaffle and choke him to death with a gigantic dildo. This imbecile has the audacity to approach me and:
#1 knock your game (which I rebutted to him, beginning to explain how we've jointly made practically every decision for weeks, without going into enough detail that he could use it as collateral to approach Penny), and insist that I'm immoral for not wanting to take him and Christy to F3 as the "three best players in the game" even though he's doing the exact same goddamn thing by trying to vote me out (both last round, and this round)---forgetting, mind you, that we ACTUALLY haven't even targeted him yet and only targeted Christy in an attempt to avoid the idol
#2 approach me with a "we should vote for each other in finals" deal, completely defeating the purpose of "having the most deserving win" and rigging the contest in his favor for something that he claims to want to be decided fairly; and then, after I tell him "fuck no I'm not agreeing to your bullshit deal, because I'm voting for who I please, and you should vote for whoever you think deserves to win" he comes back with a defiant "well, if I was you, I would be ashamed of the game you played, and if you tell me that you're proud of it, then you're not getting my vote"---who ever said that I wanted your vote, bitch? I certainly didn't. go suck a cock.
#3 that he's a better person for having made friends through this experience, and that given everything, there isn't a single person that shouldn't hate my guts, and that I should be embarrassed---cock.
#4 this is all coming from the douche who had the worst social game in the entire cast. that's right, the one who ripped on his entire tribe to a group of people that he didn't even know. the one who acted like an arrogant prick in public to incite rivalries that were completely unnecessary and had a negative impact on his personal standing just because he has an uncontrollably unbearable personality.
If we lose this round, please please PLEASE immunity whore your way to the finals, and make sure that you take him with you. Because I would DIE to see him to get ripped to shreds by a jury and have a shutout bruise his horribly bloated ego on your way to a 3Helios+Ted majority.
</rant> I'm glad that you have the restraint to stop yourself after just a few lines when you get going, because I go on for screens. Hope your conversation with him is fun because I'm done.
Brian (to Helen): Ugh, Rob. Last night we exchanged like 3-4 LONG messages where he's trying to convince me I won't get a jury vote unless I vote you out and that I'll earn his and the entire jury's respect by making a move to take you out here. I told him that it would be ridiculous to go into a position where I'd be outnumbered 3/5, the jury would basically have no respect for me for stupidly screwing over my original tribe, and it would look like a good move on his part if he actually made me do something so dumb. I haven't yet responded to his message from around 3AM last night, but I haven't been around much today.
He also told me everything about Ted's idol, our plans with Erin/Penny, and said how you told him all this without telling me. However, you basically have been keeping me up-to-date on how you've been practically telling him the truth, so it doesn't phase me. He wanted me to be shocked into betraying you. It won't work. I'm pretty grounded to see logic and don't base anything on raw emotional response.
Um, he also sent me like a 10 paragraph PM detailing exactly how the next few rounds need to go and how you and Christy need to be the next two targets in order to get us in the final two with Joanna and Penny who are our best chances of winning against. I literally told Rob that his attempts at emotional manipulation were poor, and that I wasn't just going to "vote you out because I'd get your his jury vote" because that was a ridiculous statement for him to make when he's got completely different angles with you and Penny and is obviously scrambling.
I also told him that I believed he was overconfident and would probably risk going to the final three with Christy and Joanna, thinking he could actually beat Christy, and that I didn't trust him to actually vote her out which he has promised to do at final 5 if you go, or final 6 if you win immunity.
I'm not sure if I'm even going to respond to him anymore though. He's said all that he can, and his argument sucks.
Helen (to Brian): WARNING: LONG ONE
Yeah, after his message late last night (at which point I started ranting to you and confessional) I'm pretty sure that I'm done speaking to him, too. And I've hardly exchanged two messages with Joanna/Christy since TC, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm done with the Asterias, and if anything, Rob's attempts at breaking us apart should merely unite our front against him.
To explain your specific reference, though, intermittently throughout the PM's, Rob was hard core bitching about our "bold faced, unnecessary lies," so I described everything from F11, when we met him, until F8 to contest his argument, since he doesn't even know everything that's gone on and seems to think that he's able to understand and judge our motivations for certain moves even though he doesn't even know the moves or our objectives in each one.
I will, however, alert Penny about this, now, in case he approaches her with the same information. I should have told you guys as soon as I'd sent it (or beforehand), but the only content included were things that don't have any impact on the rest of the game and that there was no harm in unearthing now instead of having to recount at a potential FTC to explain ourselves (for either of our positions). As such, I deliberately left out anything that he could possibly use the content (like the Daniel thing, or your/mine relationship in contrast to Penny) to separate us from Penny for this vote. I didn't think that he'd be ruthless enough to expose the entire content of an exchange based solely on clarification, knowledge, and generosity, but given his current level of gameplay and attempted emotional manipulation (which, for the record, has lost my jury vote, even if he's against Joanna/Penny) I really shouldn't be surprised.
I would continue the conversation with him, except his delusion, arrogance, and hypocrisy has me at my wit's end, so it's not even worth it. Not to mention, I neither care about nor respect his opinion, so there's no reason for it to go forward, especially considering how disgusted I am.
===
The following somewhat belongs in an entirely separate conversation. This is something that I understand you're not asking for, certainly wouldn't want to bring up on your own, and may or may not need to or want to hear, but this was a confessional that I wrote back around the time that Rob was on Helios.
Brian wrote:
As described above, when I used to play ORGs as a teen (and when I walked into this game I expected that), I would do whatever it takes to win. Winning was everything back then. In (at least, what I consider to be) the heyday of ORGs, best friends would throw each other under the bus for the sake of a win, particularly of a well-respected series. With age, I've come to accept that it doesn't matter as much to me. It's fundamentally about the experience. Part of this came from the introspection that I had after our demoralizing loss earlier this week.
Back then, I would absolutely take a goat to the finals over a competitor. But, I look at the reason I applied for this game: to gauge how well I can actually perform. To evaluate how well I can play Survivor. With age, and especially with recognizing that ORGs aren't a huge part of my life anymore (God, some of us were embarrassing children), I don't see as much of a difference between a 1st or 2nd Place, even though a significant difference surely exists. If this was an end for me, then I'd go for the win against a goat. But it's not an end, it's a preparatory exercise (hopefully).
I have every intention of taking Brian to the finals, even if it's not the best move for me, and I plan on expressing that to him at some point. In part, because there isn't a $900,000 difference. In part, because much of my game is indebted to him. And in part, because I honestly want to see whose game the jury would respect more.
If this were Survivor, things would be different, since there's a massive prize on the line, that would be an "end," and I'd want to win dammit. Here, that prize is pride, and to me, that's an acceptable loss, because this is all intended to be a learning experience.
Not to mention, it would be more interesting for you guys to watch that happen, anyways.
Now, this is all having to do with Brian. Does the same philosophy extend to Rob and Christy? No. At least not now. I can't tell you what the difference is exactly---maybe it's the personal relationship, maybe it's because I don't trust them yet---but I'd have no problem throwing them aside, which I certainly don't plan to do with Brian. Is that saying that I'm geeked to eliminate them? No, not necessarily. I haven't made any of those kind of decisions yet, it's far too early. But they aren't saved under my umbrella of [insert word of your choice: conscience, stupidity, perceived deservingness, indebtedness]. Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe. But it's a decision that I'm content with right now.
In case you didn't get it from that passage, but I have absolutely no intention of turning on you or taking anyone but you to F3 or F2. We've been through everything in this game and there is absolutely no way that I would take you out before we're able to reach the end of the road together. At the time that I wrote all of that, I thought the same thing I still believe now, and that is that you'd stand a better chance of winning a jury vote than I would because you've played a much cleaner game that the jury will likely perceive to be on a less morally ambiguous road while you can still reap all of the riches of the decisions that we've jointly made. And I have nothing wrong with that, and am happy of the outcome regardless as long as the two of us can be sitting in the finals together for the jury to appoint the victor.
The end of Rob's last (and what I'm hoping is final) message to me said "If I'm on the jury, I'll ask you if you're proud of the game that you've played, and if you say 'yes,' you won't get my vote, because you should be ashamed." I sat there stewing about it, and decided not to respond at all, but did decide that if that situation does I arise, I will not only unequivocally say "yes, I am proud," but I will take it as an opportunity to explain why I don't care about his vote, don't care about him, and have no respect for him or his delusions that his wholly unnecessary rudenesses are any more forgivable than what he perceives to be our unnecessary lies. (this is all tangential, more bitching, but back on track, somewhat, at least)
This aside, Joanna has actively said that she doesn't like me, and Daniel and Shawna have both taken opportunities at TC as jurors to quote my posts and respond with smilies implying that they hate my guts. You and I may have talked to them equally as much, but their responses there appear to say something about who they'd prefer, or at the very least, who they wouldn't. As far as I'm concerned, along with Rob, that's four votes against me, and the best that I want to do here anymore is get a win for you, regardless of if there even would exist some chance for me to get victory in a final with or without you, it's irrelevant. I'm sticking to us, regardless.
Now, this is all just me sharing my place to give you insight. You don't have to respond to it if you don't want to, I'm fine with that, and you don't need to share the same point of view or feel compelled to divulge your own point of view, whatever it may be. But I wanted to explain it while it's still a sensible time to do so.
===
Now, jumping back into the situation that we're currently in...
I'm not going to be online tomorrow until close-to challenge time, but just think we should make sure that we're confident with our decision for who to vote for tomorrow (hoping that Helios keeps up this unrelenting immunity streak). Also, in case they try to throw us off during TC, we should setup some sort of code for if we decide to change our vote, having some particular word assigned to each of the three of them.
I can't decide if Joanna is an obvious pick for who we'd vote for and if she'll end up getting Rob's idol tomorrow. I'm thinking he's too selfish to play it on anyone but himself, but in my mind, Joanna would be the obvious target to avoid the idol, but that may just be my own second-guessing.
If we do manage to take out Joanna tomorrow, to be entirely honest, I'd rather take Christy to F4 than Rob. If an Asteria does squeak into F3 alongside us by means of an immunity win, and get an automatic four Asteria votes, I'd much prefer it to be Christy than Rob. I can't stomach it. And, while I'm sure that Penny wouldn't align with Rob in F4 and would stay loyal to us in such a case, I'm tempted to say that Christy as the sole Asteria would appear to be enough of a jury threat to keep Penny's loyalty to us, regardless, so we wouldn't be losing anything by taking the shithead out earlier to save ourselves more potential misery.
But, I'm willing to change any of all of these thoughts, if there's something else that you'd prefer to do. Honestly, I'm at your mercy here and I'll agree to any plan that you're interested in pursuing so long as it keeps me in the game, as well.
Helen (to Brian): Updated Penny on everything so that she doesn't have any suspicions about anything. If there's anything that I forgot to include that Rob may have mentioned to you about what I said or whatever, let me know, and we'll get it to Penny.
Also, I was tempted to say the same thing to him about Christy (who, mind you, I'd have preferred to win over him anyways ever since I started talking to her at length at F9) except I don't want him to be discouraged from bringing her to finals if it comes to it because I'd much rather see her win than him.
Helen wrote:
Hey! Just wanted to give you some updates.
I haven't heard a peep from Joanna or Christy since shortly after TC, but it seems like Rob is still at it with all of us.
As far as my conversation with him went, he figured his best appeal to getting me to turn on you guys was to say that I'd lost any chance of winning (which I'm fine with, and wholly expect since their entire tribe is disgusted by me, both in the jury and out) by making people hate me with my "bold faced, unnecessary lies" (accompanied by a video of Russell Hantz's HvV FTC), and that I should owe it to him to let him/Christy win instead of you/Brian. Then, to curry favor with me even more, he hurled accusations about the lies and said that I should be embarrassed and ashamed of myself (for ensuring that our tribe got into a good position from a bad one, I'd assume).
To add insult to injury, I responded to his audacious message (mind you, this'll probably be the last thing I say to him, because he's a miserable cunt that I have no intention of continuing to speak to, but we'll get to that in a minute) with a lengthy write-up of just how our tribe managed to fuck him up the ass. How we used him to throw the F11 IC, by making up stuff about Erin's fake idol. How he would've told us who to play Ted's real idol on at F10, if it was expected to be a 5-5 tie. How he'd have been screwed at F9 if Ted wanting Daniel gone didn't save his ass. And how every lie at F8 was necessary to make our 4 votes a plurality to eliminate Ted, avoiding Ted's idol, and preventing Rob from sweeping Ted up when he'd have had the chance.
Sorry, since I probably should've consulted you and Brian on this before telling him. But I was just fucking REELING when I read all of his bullshit that I started raging immediately thereafter. I made sure not to mention anything in the message that could jeopardize your, mine, and Brian's game from here. Everything that was shared is what would have otherwise been public knowledge on Helios and none of it secretive, meaning it would be unearthed to everyone else by the end of the game if we (and hopefully, if all of us together) end up in FTC. So none of it should do any damage to our current game, and was only intended to make him feel used, fooled, and played (while contesting his own deluded allegations) to make him more emotionally charged and hopefully unstable going into tomorrow.
Still, I wanted to let you and Brian know about all of this, because I wouldn't put it past Rob to run around with that knowledge to try to drive wedges between us, when really, there should be none.
Other Rob news includes him telling me that we should eliminate you/Joanna since he doesn't believe you two deserve to be in finals. He's approached Brian that they should eliminate me/Christy, since he thinks we're too dangerous to be in finals (which contradicts him having openly told me that he'll never vote for me and will do everything in his power to get the rest of the jury to do the same LAWL). Lies, lies, lies.
He has to think that we'd be stupid to give him a free majority to ride to the finals with his friends and allies, when there is absolutely nothing to gain by turning on our tribe right now so that we could have that same advantage, and his attempts at emotional manipulation are ruthless, disgusting, and borderline offensive. You've despised him since the beginning of this game, and all that time, I've tried to treat him like a regular player, only to now realize that he's an abhorrent piece of scum. So, kudos to you for seeing the light so early, and my apologies for not having seen the same until now.
Besides my venting, the main point of all of this is to say the following: whether we win this tiebreaker or we lose it, there is one and only one thing that I want to happen in this game. Winning has never been important to me, and it remains that way (I mean, this is an online game worth nothing lol); all I want to do is get to the end with our group to prove that we did it. But if we survive this round together, or if I go home on Sunday, please, PLEASE do everything in your power to make sure that inexplicable excuse for a human being with the worst social skills of any member of the entire cast does not make it anywhere near the finals because he does NOT deserve it, and none of us want to suffer through never hearing the end of it from him.
(end rant)
Haha. Hope that you've had a good weekend! I'm going to be MIA until near to challenge time tomorrow, so if you have any last-minute ideas or changes for the planned vote, talk to Brian, since I won't be able to respond til late. I'll be checking on here for another hour or so, if you respond soon. Otherwise, I'll talk to you at judgement time
We just need to keep having faith.
Brian (to Helen): I love long messages! It just takes me a while to read and respond, but I'll make this as quick as possible.
I was finding it enjoyable for a little while to listen to Rob's offers, but he's gotten too annoying now, so I'll probably just talk to you until you get off tonight and then Penny tomorrow before the vote until you get on. I don't mind how you explained what was going on to Rob because I'm pretty sure we discussed this after the Ted vote, and I said I was fine with him knowing everything except how Ted had the idol. And then I believe it was Penny who revealed Ted had it publically, so he might as well know that as well. Alerting Penny about it was a good idea since she may not have known that Rob knew all of that and would have been surprised. I do feel like she'd stay with us for the vote either way, though.
I <3 that quote so much from your confessional. Thank you; I saw the quote said it was from me and got confused for about half a second. I will help you make finals as well, and really, this vote is most critical because if we fail, either you're going home tomorrow or you'll need to win the next two immunity challenges to get there. If we succeed, it's just a matter of keeping Penny from turning on you.
I think that Joanna is the most obvious pick for who we would target because she's least close to them and probably has the worst chance of winning a tiebreaker challenge. However, I don't think Rob WOULD risk using the idol on her because he may think we'll decide to go right after him this vote and won't want to look stupid for not using it on himself. Joanna with Rob as a backup works fine for me as far as targets go. I actually agree that Christy should the last Asterian to remain in the game, too. For the sake of her being the best winner if we can't make it, and because Penny would be mostly likely to stick with us for that reason. So basically I completely agree with your thoughts.
I'm pretty sure I caught up on everything now (sorry for long delay) and will be communicating more with Penny during the day tomorrow. I haven't exchanged an individual message with her in a few days.
Helen (to Brian): Oh yeah, sorry about the quote. I just copied/pasted the content, and then manually typed the quote tags. Apparently, a bit too much Brian on my mind.
It's amazing to think that last week at this time, there were still ten of us left. So much shit has gone down since then. Between then and now, it really has turned into an ugly game. In part because of the strategies that we deemed necessary. But also largely resultant of that scumbag trying to overplay and emotionally manipulate us, which is one thing I am very glad to say we haven't done (and I don't plan to).
This might be me being the optimist, but if we win this round, I don't think that Penny will turn on us next round, especially if Rob is still around. It would enter a 2v2 in F4 where her neck could potentially be on the line depending on immunity, and if the fourth wheel does win immunity if the three of us are together in F4, I'd imagine that they'd team up with Penny to take one of us out, anyways.
So, if we win tomorrow, we should be gifted F4 (I'd at least like to think), and if that isn't true, Rob's underhandedness will probably help to instill the additional Helios unity needed to get there. I think that we'd have a slightly stronger likelihood of keeping Penny with us at F4 if Rob is the last one standing, but I don't think it's worth it.
For tomorrow, the more I think about it, Christy would probably be the best choice to pin the votes on, since it's Rob's idol, and Joanna is the weakest. But that's the same logic that got us in trouble last time. And there's no point in thinking more on it or over-thinking because it's honestly just a (hopefully) one-in-three chance.
Helen (to Brian): I have a long day tomorrow, so I think I'm gonna turn in early tonight. I'll check once more before I leave for the day, if you send anything overnight or in the morning. Until then, have a good one, and talk to you tomorrow.
Brian (to Helen): Computer just shut off so on phne. Have a good night and ill see you tomtrow evening. I semi agree with Christy. We almost should use a random generator but I don't thinktheyl guess we will go for her again. Will discuss with penny tomorrow.
Helen (to Brian): Looks like I haven't missed anything today.
Penny responded entertained from my message last night. She also mentioned she wanted to go through with a plan to turn Rob/Christy against each other. While I'm normally just let her go do whatever since it doesn't matter this round, I appealed to her to refrain so it doesn't draw attention to us voting Joanna, in any kind of convoluted logic that might lead to that. That was this afternoon, and looks like she hasn't checked in since then to read it.
I know that it's probably a bad call, but I still think I want to vote for Joanna. I'm questioning whether she's actually the obvious target, or that we just think that way since we've been thinking about targeting her since Thursday. Honestly, I have no idea. But if all of us have stopped responding to Rob, he's probably selfish and paranoid enough that he won't give it up. But truly, I still have no idea, and this is all a random guessing game, and I hate it.
Brian (to Helen): I sent a message out to Penny a few hours ago and haven't heard anything back from her. And I haven't received a PM since your last one last night before this one.
Not like it matters much, but another reason it might be a good idea to take out Joanna is that she has a great chance of being taken to the finals, so the "kill the goat strategy" to some extent will be helpful and maybe increase our own odds of making it there. It is still random, and we could come up with reasons for pretty much keeping or taking out all three of them.
Do you think she actually will listen, or implement her turn Rob and Christy against one another plan anyway?
Helen (to Brian): She said she was going to be out for most of the day, but was going to try it once she got back and had a chance to settle in. Since she hasn't been around, I'd take it that she hasn't done it yet, and only has 90 minutes to go.
When I asked her not to, aside from explaining the rationale that I described to you, I also said how it would most likely be my neck on the line tonight unless I win immunity, and Joanna/Christy haven't hesitated lying to her before about turning on Rob, so I wouldn't expect much more now. I think given the time constraints, she'll avert the plan, or at least put it off until tomorrow.
Agreed on Joanna. Even if it's not wisest for idol-avoidance, Penny's on board with it, and it's the actual boot that I'd be most preferable to. So I think I'm alright with it.
Any news on the Rob front, or have you started ignoring him since the last message, like we have?
Brian (to Helen): Alright, so that sounds good with Penny. And we have our target who likely won't win immunity. Also, Penny just responded to me, so she's around now.
I haven't responded to Rob for several days actually. His last message was was the one at 3am Saturday.
Helen (to Brian): Same for me. And I haven't asked her about talking to him (since she surely isn't talking to the others) but can't imagine she'd have any intention of prolonging that conversation.
Penny wrote:
Yeah fair enough. Ill just sit back and keep calm then.
Sounds like we're just waiting for everything to go down tonight.
Brian (to Helen): Sorry for the super short responses.
I believe we are set and waiting. I just got a "So?" from Rob in my inbox for a subject, which I am debating whether or not I should even open.
Helen (to Brian): I haven't opened mine. Not interested in reading or responding to it.
Brian (to Helen): Alright, I'll leave mine unopened as well. So basically things are all set, and now we wait...longer...
Helen (to Brian): She can't shut her mouth. I know that her talking is going to negatively affect us.
Penny wrote:
You need to win Immunity tonight.
Rob is hell bent on voting you out, but he wants to take me and Brian with him to the Final 3 because he thinks he'll win. Ive told him im down with it.
Anyway, I told Rob that Christy told me she wants to boot Rob if you win Immunity tonight. So now, Rob wants to boot Christy if you win Immunity tonight.
WIN IMMUNITY PLX BABEZ.
Brian (to Helen): Oh my god. How does what she's doing in any way help us?
I couldn't even resist opening this message from Rob now that he's sent another one.
Rob wrote:
Habla ingles?
Helen (to Brian): He hasn't double dipped on me yet. Must mean that you're more likable.
I don't think it helps us at all, the way that she sees it. But now that I think of it, Rob will think that Penny will singlehandedly tell us who to vote for without consulting us about her conversation with him. So, Rob probably thinks that Penny believes him and will vote for Christy without giving us the reason why. So maybe it helps us with Joanna? Fuck if I know. IT'S RANDOM for godsakes.
Helen (to Brian): Also, I'm pretty confident that there could be three of us and ten of them, and Penny would still find a way to unintentionally reveal to them who it is that we're voting for, through her subconscious speech.
Brian (to Helen): Rob wrote:
Apparently Christy wants to vote me out if Helen wins. D: So I mean, if you're down for a F3 of me, you and Penny like I had mentioned, as long as one of the three of us doesn't leave tonight we can write our own ticket.
Wowowow, Penny. I have no idea what this is even doing with the vote, lol. It's a mess. But hopefully this works out somehow at the end of the night.
Helen (to Brian): *sigh* Is this their way of going along with Penny's plan so that we predictably vote Joanna? It's probably best to feign ignorance...?
Brian (to Helen): Yeah, I actually read and responded to Rob's message asking for more details. I have no idea if ignoring him, acting clueless, or pretending to accept is best.
I don't think it will actually matter.
Helen (to Brian): Which is why I wish that we didn't go into any of this shit in the first place, because it's not going to change ANYTHING except give them more insight into who we're voting for so that we're more likely to get idoled AGAIN by having them base our actions on us always lying... we'll get bit by the exact same animal as Thursday at this rate, having learned nothing.
CHALLENGEBrian (to Helen): Congrats, you're in the final 5! Now I hope to be in there with you. Rob's likely going to target me with the rest of Asteria and pretend to target Christy to me and Penny.
Helen (to Brian): Meanwhile, I basically ensure that I get voted out if I don't win both of the next two ICs. I'm almost tempted to hand this to you and take on the tiebreaker... because I don't want it to be my fault if the tiebreaker is shitty and it costs you since I won.
Brian (to Helen): Only give up immunity if you're 100% comfortable. I'd hate for you to lose the game giving me immunity.
Wtf is Penny doing. I fake agreed to vote for Christy. We need a target for ourselves, and I think Rob will play the idol. Or will he give it to Joanna? Aaaahhhh. I don't want to vote for Christy though.
Helen (to Brian): If this is the last message I send to you, I fucking hate how fucking naive she is time and time again.
I think I'm keeping it unless you think otherwise. Sorry? Say it at TC if you do.
Rob wants to boot you at F4!!"? If not, we're good.
And to be fair, I'd actually like/prefer to be doing a little more strategically and look forward to that if I'm still in the game past final 6 because there will be less players and more time to focus individually on talking to them. Like now, I feel like I can have the best discussions that I've had with you all game even though we're not necessarily working together yet.
Why would she say that. Fuck, this is awful.
