[Nate Gonzalez]

Hey!

Congratulations for making the Final 17! This is a huge accomplishment in Stranded, and particularly in an All-Winners season every day is an accomplishment!

1. Tribe Dynamics – the core to the game you are playing. How are you getting along with everybody so far? Who do you think is a threat? Do you have any plans for the present? Plans for the future? Plans for the past????

2. Challenges – how do you think that challenge went? How do you think the upcoming challenge will go? If you've done the challenge already, how did it go?

3. Hidden Immunity Idols and Secret Advantages – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Do you think any are in the game? Do you know who has them? How’s the hunt going?

4. “You better get ready? It’s coming for you. The fire is burning and when this is through – one sole will survive. Winners at War.” What lyrics or song is playing as you pull off a badass move that affirms your badassery as a winner? (pls, I'm making a Spotify playlist)

[Cochran]

1. Tribe Dynamics – the core to the game you are playing. How are you getting along with everybody so far? Who do you think is a threat? Do you have any plans for the present? Plans for the future? Plans for the past????

In my tribe things are a little tense. I honestly hate how this challenge is bound to shake out. All I can hope is that our people see that there are people out there (Aubry) Who will likely need immunity and will take it so that our team doesn't have to go to tribal. But I doubt it. Joaquin is a threat. He's strong in challenges and well connected. Tammy is a threat, she is very well connected.

But it's hard because that's not all that matters. Ideally I keep the threats with me moving forward to try and insulate myself. But Joaq is definitely a problem here, he has a potential bond with Tammy and I'm not sure if it would be smart to keep him. The plan right now is to lay it on thick to both him and russell, promise them both big things and then eventually just decide which one I want and pick them off like that. If one of them went for immunity then things are going to get a lot more complicated.

Jeff seems to think Joaq is some idol god. So if Russell takes immunity, we can potentially throw three votes on to Tammy. Explanation being that Joaq could have had the idol and booted one of us because of it. But really it would be to neutralize Tammy since she's already been burned by me once here and I don't know how much loyalty she actually would have for me.

I have to talk all of this out with Jeff and Yve but I'm pretty sure that if no one takes immunity and we all go to tribal, we're going to put the ax on Russell here. I don't know if that's the best thing honestly, he seems to know he was on the outs and is reaching out but it also seems kind of put on. I can't get a read on him. Which makes this decision hard. Because I don't know if Joaq will value me long term but I could use another person in my army. That being said there was a reason russell was on the bottom of things and I don't know if keeping that around is going to benefit me in a merge when I need people who are my level of visibility.

2. Challenges – how do you think that challenge went? How do you think the upcoming challenge will go? If you've done the challenge already, how did it go?

Blue killed it. What a good feeling, being on a team that can win for shit. Last two times I played I'm pretty sure we just went to every tribal council anyways didn't we? This challenge always sucks since I have no pull over it. I considered grabbing immunity myself immediately but decided against it because I didn't want to have to explain myself. If someone grabs is and I leave tonight because of it I will regret this forever but it really is a long term investment. I'm hopeful my insisting on both Russell and Joaq's part makes them feel safe enough to not want to risk Tribal Council. I don't know how hopeful I'll be about that though.

3. Hidden Immunity Idols and Secret Advantages – can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Do you think any are in the game? Do you know who has them? How’s the hunt going?


Hunt is going badly. I don't have the time. Maybe I'll look this weekend but I don't really care who has idols. Hopefully they won't show up this early and if they do I'm going to do some preventative maintenance to make sure that they aren't a problem for at least tonight. Tons of shmoozing. Because really if you have an idol you want to hold on to it as long as possible, so if I can just tap in to that in a Joaq or a Russell then we'll be golden.

4. “You better get ready? It’s coming for you. The fire is burning and when this is through – one sole will survive. Winners at War.” What lyrics or song is playing as you pull off a badass move that affirms your badassery as a winner? (pls, I'm making a Spotify playlist)


I don't know anything about badass but Scream by Grimes gets me amped up

What kind of music are you in to Nate?

[Cochran]

I should probably do some idol hunting shouldn't I?

Joaq incorrectly identified that we are going to split the votes on him and Russ. I said yeah sure which is perfect hopefully neither of them take immunity and we can just push that facade. I'm not risking any sort of split plan bullshit in case they try and get Tammy to swap over or something, I would rather just rather just have it go down with them thinking they have to trust me and just voting for each other.

If they do play an idol and vote for one of us, I'm hopeful that I've built enough groundwork with them both that it would fuck over someone else. That's really the only play here, make myself available so that even if I try and ax one of them they don't do anything to me. I wouldn't be surprised if Joaq took immunity though. And Russ having the idol is scary but I'm pretty sure we can angle it so that he aims for Tammy here even if he does play it.

I feel alright, I'm definitely still in the drivers seat here but it's a little dicey because of the small group. The only thing that could really really fuck me is an idol play, everything else is pretty in the palm of my hand here. Not that this is a hard scenario, obviously I have the numbers and a core but still I feel pretty on top of things and have all game.

[Cochran]

I am worried about the Munin majority alliance picking up steam. Potentially scooping up Tammy and Kim and then snowballing come a merger. I think that some of them need to be cracked down on in a swap.

Who is left in the game.
Munin Majority
Courtney
Catalie
Stephanie
Joaq
Christina
Melinda
Loveita

Fenrirs that may work with Munin Majority
Kim
Tammy

Fenrir Majority
Cochran
Penner
Cassandra
Jeff
Yve

Potential outliers
Val
Russell
Aubry

So what I'm saying here is that if we get rid of Russell here and Orange gets rid of Aubry then we're going in to the final 15 with a potential NINE people willing to work with the Munin Majority. If we're split up 3-2 (munin fans vs Non munin fans) on three new tribes of five, which could happen then there's a chance I'm putting myself in a situation where I'm giving away the numbers.

If we get rid of Joaq here we probably lose Tammy for good but it takes that core down from seven to six, and the potential Kim and Tammy working with them to eight. Then, depending on a tribe swap we can even out the playing field a little bit if we have a team willing to get rid of some more Munin majority members. I just don't know how concerned I should be. I know Stephanie from Namibia so I have that angle. I can still work things out with Tammy and Kim here, I've played with Catalie and Courtney before so I have connections to that grouping and could probably integrate my way somewhere on the bottom of it if it does seem like they're taking over.

But I don't like playing from that spot. I mean eventually a move is going to have to be made in that group or they'll just steamroll etc etc and I think that Joaq is aware of that and would be willing to use me if I kept him around. I just don't want to play Joaqs game, which is what I would be doing. So. Ideally we don't go to tribal council, but if we do I hope that Russell wins immunity. We then pile our votes on to Joaq, tell Joaq we're voting for Tammy and even if he plays his idol then hopefully it'll be on her.

I feel like this is an easy round to survive through but so fucking important looking at the rest of the game. I would rather go in to the merge having an army able to fight the opposition than not and while I don't know if things will be as concrete as that split I would rather have more cards to play in a fluid merger than not.