[Danni Boatwright]

Welcome to the merge! the 14 of you are all that remains of our cast of winners, and one of you will be walking away from the Valentine tribe $200 richer.

1-Did you expect to make it this far?
2-Who are you excited to meet back up with? Anyone you're ready to drop?
3-How does the merge change your game plan? Are you prepared to start playing harder?

[Joaquin]

Welcome to the merge! the 14 of you are all that remains of our cast of winners, and one of you will be walking away from the Valentine tribe $200 richer.

Thank you for this incredibly personalized opener, Danielle.

1-Did you expect to make it this far?

idk if i had any expectations, but it is nice to be able to continue to say i've never been voted out premerge ever in any game

2-Who are you excited to meet back up with? Anyone you're ready to drop?

everyone and everyone.

strangely, in my now six orgs ever, this is the FIRST time my original tribe is entering the merge with a majority. literally has never happened before (in stranded: Asmat, Vets, and Larrakai). so a bit of uncharted territory here (although austranded i was in the 10 person megamajority to start since it wasn't among tribal lines).

i will say the people i trust the most INITIALLY are Val (obvi), Russ, Tammy, and Catalie. The first three for obvious reasons, and Catalie legit did a tell-all of the orange tribe to me. I think it just stood out starkly in comparison to how much Steph told me and how vague she was. And I trust steph a bit initially here (moreso because she is apparently with russell), but Catalie was telling me exactly how and why she wanted to drop courtney, part of which included courtney viewing me as a threat. And Catalie is also someone who just doesn't give a fuck about past connections which is the exact kind of game I want to play.

the only person i am like 90% ready to drop is varner. dude straight up ignored me like all last night after pleading for his life yesterday afternoon. i legit don't know what i ever fucking did to him, we gel'd well, bro'd out and he came for me and just has no interest in speaking again. don't be sad when you come pleading to me for help again and i make you put my nuts in your mouth before murdering you

3-How does the merge change your game plan? Are you prepared to start playing harder?

the merge is a super interesting spot. i feel like i'm in a pretty decent position, have a mostly working relationship with a lot of people, but because of the idol am way more visible at this point than i was in austranded. that will probably make my name come up earlier than it did before.

my mistake in all the times i didn't win stranded was always banking on one particular outcome - that there would be a 2-2 split amongst val/dale's alliance and i would be the swing, or that the vets would want to stick together. i absolutely don't want that here. my strategy here will once again being a strategic non-entity for the merge boot + 1 if at all possible (i will not be throwing out any names, i just want to go along with the plan). seems like OG Munin will want to stick together for at least a vote if possible. the rest of my time here at the merge is going to be calculating my next move, what's the next group of people i can get to assemble to shake this whole thing up. particularly, who are the big names in the game i can keep around to keep the target off of my back. if my alliance is like russ/val/yve/tammy i am the obvious boot. so for those reasons i'd like the Penners of the world to stick around for a bit.

i'm not expecting to really make a deep run here, my guess is i'll be out at 10 but we'll see

[Danni Boatwright]

don't be sad when you come pleading to me for help again and i make you put my nuts in your mouth before murdering you

Renaming you Joaq Exotic

[Joaquin]

side note - how many idols has trashley found in stranded? if it's four i'd like to tie that here lol

[Joaquin]

don't be sad when you come pleading to me for help again and i make you put my nuts in your mouth before murdering you

Renaming you Joaq Exotic

more of a carole baskin move tbh

[Joaquin]

Penner: "Not gonna lie, I was aligned with Cochran, but happy you took him out, it's really hard to play with someone in his style"

Cristina: "Penner and Cass were SO PISSED YOU VOTED HIM OUT"

lmao

[Joaquin]

More funny shit:

I tell two people today "Varner just stopped talking to me, I don't know why"
A few hours later: sends me paragraphy of messages LMAO

I don't know how information continues to flood to me.

Speaking of which, Cristina and Melinda SKYROCKET up my trust rankings. They both poured basically everything they knew about NuMunin tribe to me, most of which I already knew, but it only affirms my trust in them. Means they're serious about working now. Versus Loveita and Steph, who have actually been the most vague to me of the OG Munins so far.

Apparently "the powers that be" ie, probably Loveita, have decided we should go after Varner or Yve this vote to avoid Cassandra's probable necessary idol play (since it expires after this round). Since none of the Fenrir on my tribe or the swapped orange tribe played the original idol, has to come from Kim/Cass/Penner and Cass has actually found an idol before, which is why we think it's her. I'd obviously prefer to have Varner gone here, but I am not going to die on a hill for Yve. Catalie has the right fucking idea here, peace the fuck out at the merge.

[Joaquin]

NOW it's getting fun!!!

everyone slinging mud at each other. Cass trying to keep Love/Cristina/Melinda, and playing with the confidence of someone who has two idols. I think i've been called out as being in five different "munin cores", which, most of which are actual alliances, but it's hilarious how many alliances are being thrown around

seatbelts on once again, folks

[Joaquin]

i literally dont trust a single fucking person in this game

everyone is playing with the same motherfucking floyd mayweather pussy-ass strategy of "have 800 alliances, then wait for a few to emerge that don't conflict with the boot order"

these alliances come from:
previous stranded seasons
orgy
ndim
original tribes
swapped tribes

everything goes around a million miles perhour since everybody feels the need to inform all of the members of all of their "alliances" of everything they hear

i mean i guess i didn't expect any less from a winner season

[Joaquin]

new rule for fun:

every time i hear a rumor, even if i've heard it, i'm going to say i havent heard it and sound absolutely floored

[Joaquin]

just talked for a LONG time with melinda, about life, the game, our approach here. really solidified things with her going forward which is great for a number of reasons - i needed someone outside of russ and val I could talk about the game seriously with. Melinda also confided that if he had his way, he would get rid of Kim here. Actually naming a name outside the norm requires a lot of trust here - it also shows that the purple tribe is absolutely not just one unified force. melinda got along a lot better with penner/cass but understands their threat level. also good to know that cristina is tight with kim, and so walking that bridge is tight.

i'm still not sold on being able to pull melinda away from loveita/cristina for a vote at some point, but we're getting somewhere.