Post by Stephanie Valencia on Apr 27, 2013 13:23:13 GMT -5
I actually can't believe that Rob has somehow managed to work his way back into a position of relative safety. *Brushes off shoulder.* Okay, it wasn't all me. It may not even have been 50% me, but I know I had a major influence on shifting the other players' attention away from him. Rafe knows that I'm close to Rob (and they have their own strange friendship going on too) so that helped change the minds of Pete and Natalie. And Brenda, I think, is realizing that she's on shaky ground. Very shaky ground.
I've lost all trust in Brenda. I think she's a really cool girl, don't get me wrong, but her gameplay has become completely transparent. When we were working together more closely in the early phases of the game, she was cool to talk to and easy to get along with. But as her allegiances have been spread increasingly thin, her interactions with me are so undeniably artificial. And if she thinks I'm not aware of that, she has another thing coming. At the start of this round, I began really considering trying to rally votes against Brenda but I was really doubtful that it would work. She's a very good social player and has strong relationships with every player in the game (something that I can't say for myself). And it's obvious that any allegiance she has/had to me has been displaced by a stronger allegiance to other people. That's dangerous for me. I'm trying to position myself in a way that, when it comes down to a choice between voting out me or someone else, the votes don't come my way. I'm confident Rob will choose me over anyone else. I'm confident Rafe will choose me over anyone else. Hell, I think even Boo might choose me over anyone else. Brenda? Not a chance. So it's time for her to go.
But there's another reason I need Brenda to go. She's extremely close to Rafe. I know that Rafe is more loyal to me than he is to her, but that doesn't matter. There are still seven more rounds until the final three and a lot can change between now and then. I've known for a long time that Brenda and Rafe are tight and didn't think much of it. But yesterday, Boo warned me to stay guarded around Brenda because of how close she is to Rafe. This is problematic for a lot of reasons. Boo, while maintaining decent relationships with everyone, doesn't exactly have his finger right on the pulse of the game. So for him to know about Brenda and Rafe's relationship means that it's basically common knowledge. And whenever two names are associated like that, it means trouble. Brenda needs to go because she might eventually pose a threat to Rafe's loyalty to me (not that I doubt Rafe at all), but more importantly, she needs to go so that there's less of a reason for Rafe's name to be in people's mouths. This Immunity Challenge was absolutely brutal because it exposed a lot of people's opinions on each other and I think, while Kat and Rob may have gotten some of the more negative comments, it's people like Rafe and Pete, who received positive comments, that suffer the most because their safety in the game is suddenly thrust into some major jeopardy.
I floated the idea of voting out Brenda by Rafe and he immediately jumped on board. Rob was, unsurprisingly, eager to do the same, and I kind of stoked his animosity by telling him about how tight Brenda is with everyone and that was ready to vote him out last round but changed her vote last minute when she realized I wasn't going to vote with her. I needed to get Boo on board too but Rob warned me that Boo has a big mouth and has "accidentally" leaked information to Brenda before, so in conversation with him, I steered him in the direction of suggesting Brenda himself and then made it seem like, while reluctant to do it because of my personal feelings about her, I would vote with him so that we could eliminate a big threat in the game. Rafe will talk to Pete and that gives us five out of ten votes against Brenda. Rather than go for a clear majority—which is going to be hard to get since I can't see Natalie voting against Brenda—we're going to try to split the vote. We'll float Morgan's name around so that Natalie and Gina will maybe throw their votes in that direction while Brenda, Kat, and Morgan will probably vote against either Rafe or Rob. And with a vote of 5-3-2, Brenda will be gone.
I've lost all trust in Brenda. I think she's a really cool girl, don't get me wrong, but her gameplay has become completely transparent. When we were working together more closely in the early phases of the game, she was cool to talk to and easy to get along with. But as her allegiances have been spread increasingly thin, her interactions with me are so undeniably artificial. And if she thinks I'm not aware of that, she has another thing coming. At the start of this round, I began really considering trying to rally votes against Brenda but I was really doubtful that it would work. She's a very good social player and has strong relationships with every player in the game (something that I can't say for myself). And it's obvious that any allegiance she has/had to me has been displaced by a stronger allegiance to other people. That's dangerous for me. I'm trying to position myself in a way that, when it comes down to a choice between voting out me or someone else, the votes don't come my way. I'm confident Rob will choose me over anyone else. I'm confident Rafe will choose me over anyone else. Hell, I think even Boo might choose me over anyone else. Brenda? Not a chance. So it's time for her to go.
But there's another reason I need Brenda to go. She's extremely close to Rafe. I know that Rafe is more loyal to me than he is to her, but that doesn't matter. There are still seven more rounds until the final three and a lot can change between now and then. I've known for a long time that Brenda and Rafe are tight and didn't think much of it. But yesterday, Boo warned me to stay guarded around Brenda because of how close she is to Rafe. This is problematic for a lot of reasons. Boo, while maintaining decent relationships with everyone, doesn't exactly have his finger right on the pulse of the game. So for him to know about Brenda and Rafe's relationship means that it's basically common knowledge. And whenever two names are associated like that, it means trouble. Brenda needs to go because she might eventually pose a threat to Rafe's loyalty to me (not that I doubt Rafe at all), but more importantly, she needs to go so that there's less of a reason for Rafe's name to be in people's mouths. This Immunity Challenge was absolutely brutal because it exposed a lot of people's opinions on each other and I think, while Kat and Rob may have gotten some of the more negative comments, it's people like Rafe and Pete, who received positive comments, that suffer the most because their safety in the game is suddenly thrust into some major jeopardy.
I floated the idea of voting out Brenda by Rafe and he immediately jumped on board. Rob was, unsurprisingly, eager to do the same, and I kind of stoked his animosity by telling him about how tight Brenda is with everyone and that was ready to vote him out last round but changed her vote last minute when she realized I wasn't going to vote with her. I needed to get Boo on board too but Rob warned me that Boo has a big mouth and has "accidentally" leaked information to Brenda before, so in conversation with him, I steered him in the direction of suggesting Brenda himself and then made it seem like, while reluctant to do it because of my personal feelings about her, I would vote with him so that we could eliminate a big threat in the game. Rafe will talk to Pete and that gives us five out of ten votes against Brenda. Rather than go for a clear majority—which is going to be hard to get since I can't see Natalie voting against Brenda—we're going to try to split the vote. We'll float Morgan's name around so that Natalie and Gina will maybe throw their votes in that direction while Brenda, Kat, and Morgan will probably vote against either Rafe or Rob. And with a vote of 5-3-2, Brenda will be gone.
