Congrats on not being the first boot! That would've been embarrassing 
Sweet! Now I can feel free to fuck up royally and ruin my chances of winning without embarrassment! This is long as FUCK by the way, so buckle up, let me confuse you and myself as I ramble.
1. After a unanimous vote, do you think you can trust all the same people this round or do you have alliance shifts in mind?
Oh jeez, I've got a lottttt going on right now.
Both Courtney and Cristina told me I was their number 1 today, and Val heavily hinted at it. Courtney and Steph also appear to be on good terms, because Courtney told me they promised each other protection in the first round (obviously wihin the first 24 hrs before Steph was immune). Cristina told me Cat approached her about an alliance with Cristina and Steph (omg it's amazing when people just GIVE you information). She doesn't trust Cat at all - Courtney, Cat, and I are in a group of three, but Courtney and I both talk about it as less important than our four with Joaq and Melinda. Cat spoke to me earlier about trying to expand that 3 - but her choices were more along the lines of Joaq and Russell.
So I very clearly see these groups formed right now:
Joaq, Melinda, Me, Courtney (trying to build up - would be some combo of Russ/Val/Cat)
Me, Courtney, Cat (Cat wants to build up, suggested possibilities of Joaq/Russ/Val)
Me, Cristina, Steph, Val
(Cat, Cristina, Steph)
(Courtney, Steph)
I also think there are a bunch of tight duos that overlap those groups, etc. For example, I think Russell is close with a lot of people, particularly Joaq, and even though he doesn't seem to be in any specific alliances that I can see (he probably has something going on, no doubt), he is definitely not a name people seem to want to go for. Kim seems to be in the most trouble right now, connection wise, unfortunately. Sorry, Dallas (there's the shoutout you begged me for).
As for me, I've got these tight "ride or die" like relationships with Joaq, Cristina, Courtney, and Val:
- Joaquin is someone I think that can be great for my early game but dangerous for my late game. I get the feeling he's pretty happy to find a majority and ride it for a while, but if we get swapped apart, he'd be smart to keep it fluid. I also will assume at all times that he has an idol. If Poody asks you to MAKE idol clues for people on Stranded, ya best bet that boy can find an idol. And use it well. Terrifying. No thank you.
- Cristina, ugh, such a great person to talk to. Every second of conversation with her, I love it. I know I sound like I'm vomiting rainbows, but I bet Cristina vomits rainbows. She's also hella intuitive on this game. On Friday she clocked Joaq for asking more questions than he answers, and Russell and Courtney for being so baring and open and personal as a huge strength to be cautious of. And she does not trust Cat one bit. The thing about Cristina for me is...she might be more loyal to me than I'm gonna be to her. I think right now, she is fantastic for my game, especially up through a swap or until the merge.
- I don't know if this is at all accurate, but Courtney reminds me a bit of playing with Tiffany/Brooke. She's definitely more restrained than Tiffany, but I can see that fire wanting to spill over. Her game play is aggressive as hell, and if she picked me to be her ride or die, then fuck it sister, let's get on that roller coaster. She keeps telling me how we need to play it safe, blend into the background, get our majority, but she also picked her 2nd boot (Kim) before we even VOTED Mookie. In Iso, I didn't quite trust Tiffany's aggro gamebotty abrupt conversations last time because I wasn't used to ORGers. But she was a lot more loyal than I thought. Pretty sure that Courtney is telling me the truth when she's balls to the walls "hey you're my ride or die". And I don't want to get rid of someone like that as early this time, because she could be a pretty good distraction and target away from me.
- Lastly of the group, Val. Fucking Val. I love Val. I've always loved Val. I loved watching Val play Austranded. I love Val in the community. I hope Val is my secret weapon. Val plays with the people who give her the "warm fuzzies", as she says, and I believe it from watching Austranded. I think we get on great, and I'm trying to hide just how much I adore her. Courtney thinks Joaq is the one who fights for Val. When Cristina and I added Steph and Val, she told me to reach out to Steph and she talked to Val (Val IMMEDIATELY messaged me). As of right now, I think I want to work with Val as far down the line as possible.
I clearly don't think too much.
2. Are you trying to set yourself up for future swaps? Prepare for merge game?Just taking it vote by vote or something else? Lay out your future plans for us.
I am trying to ensure that my name does not come into peoples' heads or out of their mouths as a target. I'll shift however I need to shift, but I'm trying to set it up that, come a swap, whoever is with me is
with me. Refer to above, I'm obviously thinking all over the place.
3. Is there paranoia or speculation about whether the idol is found yet? Why or why not? How has your search been?
Most people have just said they've assumed the clue is impossible and it hasn't been found yet. If someone did already have it? It'd be Joaq, most likely.
As for me, I spent last night going through every Icelandic "legendary" "kings" "chivalry" "heroes" saga I could find, to see if anything struck a chord. Today I went through the stories in the Prose and Poetic Eddas.
Earlier I took a step back and went back into Norse Mythology, and started searching through Nilfhelm, since it's the realm of ice"ish". And low and behold, the river Elivagar: "the yeasty venom upon them had hardened like the slag that runs out of the fire,-these then became ice". So then, let's follow the river.
