[Danni Boatwright]

Welcome back, Legend

Take a look around and soak in this moment. 22 winners have returned to show why they are the ultimate Stranded champion. Over the next few weeks, you will have to fight tooth and nail to emerge victorious in this stacked cast, and to leave $200 richer.

Who do you know out of this group? Do you think these relationships will impact the way you play the game?

Whose legend (if any) are you most threatened by?

Good luck, and have fun. We're all rooting for you

[Cassandra]

Am I really going to have to RP with Penny right now just to get her in my good graces?

[Cassandra]

I guess so.

[Caryn Groedel]

You’re my winner pick in the draft. Good luck, and don’t let me down. Or there will be consequences.

[Cassandra]

You’re my winner pick in the draft. Good luck, and don’t let me down. Or there will be consequences.

This is the funniest shit to me. Weren't you banned from Stranded like twice? Poody's got no balls whatsoever. Truly, though, this to me is like the Clyburn endorsement to Biden--exactly what I need to win.

Who do you know out of this group?

Well, for starters, there's the obvious in Penner. Just hover over our avatars and see how the numbers line up. I can't get away from this kid. Penner's undoubtedly a Good Guy, and I said in the pre-season survey that I guessed I would rather him than anyone else. I think I feel that way every season, and then I get put on his tribe and I feel like a kid getting confronted for getting marker on his dad's favorite tie. There's nothing that needs to be said, just a silent disappointment and a "s-sorry" on my part. But of course he can't stay mad at me--I'm just a little rascal!

I may be Penner's closest connection here, whether he likes it or not. At the very least, if he's willing to forgive Tammy he's willing to forgive me. He always plays up the Irish time zone on the first night so he can opt out of strategy talk and let other people form alliances; in fact he made a joke on his way out about me having an alliance for him by morning. And funny enough, so did Cockring! Penner and Cocky also both described Penny as "dull." Which, if my conspiracy proves correct, means...Penner and Cock are talking? There's nothing really juicy bubbling yet, so my mind is forced to wander to mundane inklings.

But Penny? Dull?! How could someone playing the flirt card be dull!?!??! Really though, this is more than your average flirt card. This is the ace of spades of flirt cards. Penny may well be the loosest slut of all time. Judging from her public comments and Cochran's assertion that she wants to suck his red-haired freckly cock, Penny may well be steering every single conversation into the same awkward purgatory of insinuated RP invitations. As of now I have no clue as to whether I was the smartest or the most foolish person for taking the bait. Regardless, I started talking to her like I would talk to my gf on a good day, and I regrettably felt a hint of a woody bloom inside my pantaloons. So hopefully she/he/they masturbated to that enough that a genuine emotional attachment formed. She was very explicit in volunteering to be my subordinate who I bark orders at, but I'm really not buying that. I'm willing to bet that at least Cochran and Penner were unwilling to stoop to that level, though, and I'm probably a notch above them in her eyes.

I also know Tammy right off the bat, from our brief stint together in Allies. I was pretty down for her, and I got the sense she and Heidi preferred me to Penner within our foursome, which was sick. Penner tried to feel me out on Tammy by talking about how she opposed him toward the end of Allies, but, c'mon, wouldn't siding with him over Heidi at five have been a bit shadier? I had a bit of luck in that they weren't online at the same time, so now I get to play mediator a bit. For example, when Tammy said she'd like us to get together again, I said I'd pitch it to him tomorrow, which to her means I'm closer to Penner than she is and closer to her than Penner is.

Hopefully that's a bit more subtle than Cochran's puppeteering with me and Jeff. I don't really mind it--in fact I prefer it to having to start something myself--but it's the same sort of transparent maneuvering of his that I saw in Revenge. Didn't get to talk to Jeff much at all but he was always a solid host and I'm happy to get to play with him.

So it's looking like I may be in two disparate trios with overlapping goals. Cochran/Jeff/me as one, Penner/Tammy/me as the next.

Cochran also gave a similar elbow nudge toward Ziggy, saying we might be able to capitalize on his freshness. So far I haven't been--he was pretty hush-hush about his relationship with Tammy before and after I told him my relationships with everyone. I don't want to think it's an accident, because I just yesterday heard Poody call him one of the greatest social players he's ever had on Stranded! That's right, I watched the training video! All 36 minutes of it! My favorite part was when Joaquin told Poody to stop shilling for his own game when everyone watching had already been accepted. In fact I can guarantee an eventual alliance with Joaquin based on that alone. I also liked how the entire thing was a complete trap to try to make everyone OOT for the hosts' viewing pleasure. But anyway, I teased Ziggy a bit about that, hit a bit of a roadblock, and then loosened up with him again after we started talking about the show. No strategy talk yet, though, and I don't expect it to come from him too blatantly any time in the near pre-merge future. I got the scoop from Tammy that their relationship is pretty good, though? She wasn't even that explicit about it either.

I had like a one message exchange with Aubry and Kim M. and am now on pause from talking to Yve a bit more. Nothing too revealing from Yve yet, but her inactivity to this point and Alex's total absence are enough to know that everyone hasn't yet mobilized against all the S30 LEGENDS. They easily could, though, so, assuming those trios I mentioned are legit, we're gonna need to scoop up a sixth, and ideally a seventh. My guess is Ziggy and Kim M. (I think it's her, not Spradlin, who knows Tammy?) with Penny as a nice little side ho.

Also, real quick since I don't want to linger on people who may get voted out before my thoughts on them matter:

Courtney --> very down, I liked her a lot in Revenge, and even though she was a little more confrontational she kept my shit-talking of the other players to herself

Catalie --> got the sense in Revenge that she was an extremely good player, and Penny's sudden shutdown as soon as I tried to ask about her relationship with her seems to confirm that

Mookie --> solid guy, down to ally with him, just gotta be wary of he and Penner getting too buddy-buddy

Val --> not down; she already (accidentally) sent me an IM in her passive-aggressive style; good news is Penner had a similar opinion of her, bad news is she's floating in a sea of S34 players over there

Joaquin --> like I said, if we end up on the same tribe, we'll likely ally; in addition to the video thing, I remember talking to him about a challenge late one night, and from what I can tell we have similar play styles

Russell --> Ziggy said this was Chris? idfk I can't be bothered to check

Dunno the rest.

Do you think these relationships will impact the way you play the game?

lol yeah

Whose legend (if any) are you most threatened by?

I wouldn't say I'm threatened by anyone's "legend." I feel like I played a solid enough game that I don't consider anyone "above" me in terms of skill. If they have a bigger legend status it's likely just due to activity in the community or a loud personality. The only legend I'd be scared of is my own. Hopefully winning on the third try doesn't make me one of the "greats" in people's eyes. I mentioned to Ziggy that I got 9th and 18th before that, since he said he felt like he was surrounded by giants. It would be cool if everyone knew that, but it would be very uncool (read: transparent) if I told them myself.

----

A few scattered notes I took while frantically messaging everyone immediately after logging in:

My message content sort of follows the principle of Chekhov's gun. The same way any prop that's foregrounded in a play will be integral to the plot at some point during the play, anything that comes up when messaging is going to be exploited into something bigger. If someone mentions the other tribe in passing, they're inviting you to ask about their relationships over there. If someone mentions any other player, they're cool with you asking about them. In a normal season you can't really operate under this assumption, but all of these people are good enough to know how tiny microdata of info will be perceived and exploited, so they're letting things out bit by itty bit. So having to search for teeny weeny things to stretch out without revealing too many of your own cards makes the game strategically more specific and thereby more expansive--it's crazy!

Most of the badges seem like red herrings to telling threat level, but I did notice that one of them was given to people who won Individual Immunity. That one might be useful for scoping out some challenge threats down the line.

Speaking of challenge threats, not really sure how hard I should fight for this first necklace. Unfortunately, I feel like I won't really know how safe I am until Saturday or Sunday. But on Revenge I won the last four immunities in a row, so I wouldn't want to just cement myself as a challenge threat right off the bat. Then again, I did take out some heavy hitters earlier on, so maybe I'm not even that good compared to other people on my tribe and this is all moot.

I'm also lying about being quarantined in my mom's garage. My rich roommate's mom got him a suite to stay at in a local hotel, so I've been camping out in there for the past week. It's definitely not the dank cobweb-infested dungeon I'm making it seem. I'm not sure if the question of who "deserves" $200 would ever come up, but besides that I'm also not trying to come across as a bourgeois little shit.

[Cassandra]

I didn't say this. This didn't happen.

[Cassandra]

I need to post this here just to keep the fuck track of all these factions myself.

So the overarching group of seven that's seeming to coalesce right now consists of:
Me / Penner / Cochran / Jeff / Tammy / Kim M. / Ziggy
These are all the people who have some sort of past connections with other players on our tribe. The idea is that we stick together to make it a mathematical impossibility for the stray dogs (Aubry / Alex / Penny / Yve) to gang up on us.
Within that, Cochran pitched to me a "core four" consisting of:
Me / Penner / Cochran / Jeff
But apparently he pitched a different four to Penner consisting of:
Me / Penner / Cochran / Tammy
I didn't say anything to Penner about it, thinking that
Me / Cochran / Jeff
might end up forming instead. If that second four did join, though, there'd undoubtedly be a sub-trio in:
Me / Penner / Tammy
which would of course in tangent to:
Tammy / Kim M. / Ziggy
Based on last night, it seems like there may even be another trio in the form of:
Me / Cochran / Yve
That remains to be seen, but it would be a good way to swipe at Tammy's trio from outside if we needed to.
I also think Cochran is understating his opinion of Penny. He keeps talking about bringing her in as a sort of satellite vote, but he's obviously super tight with Catalie, and by all initial inspections Penny is super tight with Catalie.
If all this is true, I'm very much set for a while. I put out a feeler to Penner, Cochran, and Tammy saying things seem to be coalescing so long as the duos and trios with connections actually come together. No way in hell I'm the one making that group chat, and I don't see Penner and Tammy doing it either. Knowing Cochran he'll do it sometime after the challenge results.
But hell, all this could change after I talk to Alex and Aubry. Everyone seems to have a good first impression of them both. Really the only instance of misalignment I've seen is Cochran's and Penner's opinion of Penny. It'd be real nice if I could sit back and let that drive the vote forward.

[Cassandra]

Penny thinks it'd be HILARIOUS to have a "safe word" between us that we randomly say in public. Well gee, how about we just cut the corners and have the safe word be "PENNY AND I ARE IN A TIGHT TWO" then? I mean, we're not, but obviously that's what people will think. I don't know if she's trying to bait me or she just really doesn't know how to play.

[Jeff Probst]

Cass explaining her alliances. Now I remember how you won.

[Cassandra]

I was legit going to draw something like that in MS Paint once things solidified more.

[Cassandra]

So I'm already getting a bit annoyed by Cochran's whole shtick. Way too many permutations of people being thrown out without any evidence of sticking to one solid group. Why pitch a foursome with Penner and Jeff to me and then a foursome with me and Tammy to Penner? He may just be gamebotting so hard he's starting to short circuit. And who the hell pitches a vote by saying "I feel like a little Penny action would be sick"? Is he so afraid I'm going to quote him on it that he has to codify it that hard? Talk about noncommital.

Aside from those details, though, I think we're on the same page. I've surprisingly had way better strategy talks with Penner than with him. Seems like the plan is a unanimous vote for Penny, since the unconnected four have no path to a coup, and next vote we go with one of Tammy's trio. Hopefully that would dispel the "S30" threat a bit, although it looks like only people on S30 are even talking about it as a threat. Good to get a jump on it, though, I suppose. A vote for Tammy or Ziggy would also axe one of the S34 crew, which definitely does need axing.

Jeff is getting along with Aubry, and Penner told me he was too when I passed along that info. Penner also said he was getting along with Alex, so hopefully once Yve inevitably sides with us next round via Cochran and yours truly we can spin it as a recruitment from Alex. Meanwhile Cochran, Yve, and I will be knitting a tight trio, and it seems Yve is vying for Alex as a fourth, maybe to counterbalance my connection with Cochran.

[Cassandra]

Don't think this needs an explanation.

[Danni Boatwright]

Don't think this needs an explanation.

This looks like the sigil for a satanic cult

[Cassandra]

This looks like the sigil for a satanic cult

Give me a few more votes and we'll get there.

[Cassandra]

Cochran's being weird about Penny. Wonder if they fucked.

[Cassandra]

I'm really not trying to control things here but everyone is so fucking slow, good lord. How do you even go three days on here without forming a majority? Obviously I'm trying to attribute more than I have to to Cochran, but everyone is walking on such delicate eggshells that somehow "I have no preference so I'll let the group decide" turns into a dominant playstyle.

[Jeff Probst]

Cochran's being weird about Penny. Wonder if they fucked.

He has a hate-boner for her?

[Cassandra]

Here are some RAW UNFILTERED thoughts on everyone on the tribe leading into tribal council tomorrow. Wrote them in a Google Doc so I wouldn't be seen online. My treat to you, dear hosts.

----

Jeff: Strikes me as a frightened old chihuahua who can’t run like he used to and finds himself in a stampede of bigger dogs. There’s a bit of the Biden in him, which is to say a lot of verbal lapses and confusion. Plus he’s getting propped up by the establishment (Cochran) without being fully aware of what’s going on. I don’t know who he’s trying to fool by keeping his relationship with Cochran a secret. Everyone already knows and if they didn’t I told them. Still, I think we’re on the same page now and he’s not gonna have a total meltdown this round at the very least.

Penner: I suspect Penner fed the quote from Ziggy (where Ziggy doltishly left Jeff out of the group of seven that I thought I had explicitly proposed) to Jeff to stir some shit, so fingers crossed he doesn’t leak our adjacent alliance with Yve and Alex to him also. Should be fine, though, since Cochran’s involvement in that would be a bigger betrayal to Jeff’s trust, and I’m willing to bet that even if Cochran told Jeff about the fivesome he didn’t tell him about the sub-trio with Yve, which Penner doesn’t even know about. (Speaking of which, I really need to update that chart.) For the most part Penner is shaping out to be the lifeline I thought he’d be, and we actually seem to be more of one mind than in all our past seasons, which is weird since you’d think the baggage would just keep piling up. That said I do fully realize Penner is per usual capitalizing on his time zone to let me take the reins--which I subsequently pass off to Cochran--since things we agree on together seem never to have gotten around to the other people involved before I’ve talked to him. Whole season so far has just been an exponential slowdown as everyone tries to hide behind each other only to peek out to nod their heads. A difference in activity level is fine by me, though--the more we can do to distance ourselves in everyone’s eyes the better. Seeing as I’m attributing most things to Cochran I reckon people pin us as the tight two rather than me and Penner. Yve seems to have, at least.

Yve: I like her quite a bit and hope we can stay together for a while. I’ve a hunch she’s hiding her power level for now, since her conversation is super solid but sliiiiightly uncanny valley in how appealing it is. The way she tried to bait me about my past with Penner by bringing up the season summary was straight outta my own playbook. I wouldn’t want her to stick around toooo long but I have a feeling she’d be an ideal juror to sing my praises in Ponderosa. Y’know, after we’ve burned enough hell together.

Alex: Took a while to open up to me, maybe because he was walking on eggshells at first. Finally broke the strategy seal today after a well-timed snipe on Yve gave me a route to roping him into things. He’s got some good-ass opinions on Survivor too.

Aubry: I mean, she’s fine. I don’t know why Cochran was implying she would be like Christ descending from the heavens to greet me. I suspects me a little Skype/Discord off-season affiliation, which he tried to pass off as Jeff really hitting it off with her. Still haven’t talked any game with her but she’s clearly de facto hands off, as much as Cochran tried to put on a pretense of nonpartisanship. Which brings me to

Penny: To answer your question, Poody, a hate-boner would be putting it lightly. I’m getting the sense that this Penny is absolutely identity-shattering for Cochran. I don’t know if she rejected him in high school, or if the idea that a hairy man could be flirting with him behind the mask of Penny Ramsey is making him question his sexuality so much that he can’t bear to stay in the same island as “her,” but I don’t know if I’ve had one convo with him that didn’t consist of something like, “Yeah, Penny is alllll over me. Too bad she’s gotta go. I mean I’d love a blowjob (which she’d give me) but she’s just so dull. Thoughts on that? Thoughts on Penny leaving? I’m open to anything but at the same time everyone else is hands off so yeah she’s just gotta go.” At the same time...my thoughts on Penny herself? ...Not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. I think it’s clear Cochran (and everyone else really) can sniff a goat from a mile away and in an all-winners season there’s no space for that.

Cochran: Besides the Penny thing and my earlier frustrations he’s fine to work with. The flip side of his affinity for running through every permutation of people is that I can manage being in some ostensibly conflicting alliances with him and spreading myself thin. It’s sort of like mutually assured destruction with us, considering we’d never be able to reveal that the other’s fingers are in every pie without pulling out our own pie goop-dripping fingers to point at them. Appropriately enough, I think I covered most of my opinion of him via his relationships with other people, so this section ended up shorter than I imagined.

Kim M.: Complete dud to me. Our first couple exchanges were so awkward (well-meaning, though) that I might have to resign myself to keeping a distance to her so I can play the “Fenrir strong” card if we end up together after a tribe swap. I think right now we’re at just enough of a distance that if we voted differently there’d be no hard feelings and we could chalk it up to numbers. Luckily she seems to be gaining a reputation as Tammy’s bitch, so I doubt I’ll have to talk to her directly too much.

Tammy: Sort of off to me so far. Everyone can see that this is her sixth season so I don’t know who she’s trying to fool with this barely being online shit. She sent an extremely catty message to me about letting Cochran think he’s in charge for now, which is nice because I’m pulling a bit of a double bluff letting her think she’s in charge. It doesn’t seem like the “trio” between her, Kim, and Ziggy is very well coordinated; she’s the glue but she’s like an expired Elmer’s school glue. Still, can’t help but get good vibes from the rate of information exchanged in each message between us, and we didn’t really run into any problems in Allies (although I liked Heidi more), so I’m not ruling out working with her in the future.

Ziggy: I’m not ruling out working with this guy either, but at the same time I know everyone on our tribe feels that way. The guy’s good at playing the happy-go-lucky youngster who gets along with everyone. I want to believe there’s more strategy bubbling under the surface, but the way he botched the “connected players” pitch to Cochran and Penner didn’t bode well. I’m guessing it’s not his bag to be in full game mode yet, though. If only that were possible for me!

[Cassandra]

[Cassandra]

But off the bat I'm thinking Us, Penner, and Jeff. Link that up with Tammy who would bring in Kim M and maybe have a hook in Figgy?

Yeah, okay, but I'M the one who fucked up including Jeff in my pitch to Ziggy. Absolutely ridiculous. Cochran's short circuiting is a legit liability.
He means Ziggy, btw.