Dorothy's Journal - Episode Six (Mario Kart Syndrome)

[Dorothy Hui]

We're at the Final 16 and Episode Six and I've only been to Tribal Council one time. Carrie hasn't even gone at all. This is NUTS.

What's less nuts is the fact that OG Bruxelles is getting focused on hard over on NuAmsterdam. I expected Ricky would be toast with the announcement of the double boot, since I'm sure he was about as active on NuAmsterdam as he was with the original group on Bruxelles. I can't say I have much sympathy for him, and I'm relieved I won't have to force myself to make small talk with him in a different swap or a merge scenario. But Steuart leaving even after Jasmine was one of the driving forces behind Amsterdam getting completely crushed at the last challenge? Awkward, especially after I just wrote last page I figured he would find a way to make the merge.

I guess Cody resolved his differences with Natalie, Austin and Simon, because none of those four are going anywhere anymore on that tribe. Shelli better hope she found something good over on Exile, or else she's going to be in trouble too. Glyn and Jasmine really screwed this up for themselves; there's no stopping the OG Amsterdam folks if they lose more.

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing for my game yet. On the one hand, with Ricky and Steuart gone, big bad Bruxelles looks like less of an overall threat, and a united OG Amsterdam might drive Glyn and Jasmine into the waiting arms of OG Bruxelles. On the other hand, if me, Burnie, Julia and Carrie all look like we're sticking together, Tim and Dustin could ditch us and run back to the arms of their original tribe (where they still have ties with Cody) and pick us off thinking they would have a better shot with them. If tribal lines play a big role in the merge game, it could turn out scary for Bruxelles.

And who even knows if Glyn and Jasmine would want to work with us anyway once they see that our plan is heading towards the elimination of Luxembourg members? If they had connections with Kathy and Jaclyn, they could vote us out anyway to keep saving themselves. Gross. Variables.

Like, I guess the problem is that at this point, I don't know if winning as much as I have is a positive or a negative for me. In a way, I feel like I'm in a game of Mario Kart, handily in the lead, when all of a sudden someone at the back gets a blue shell. Suddenly, losing is winning. If that's the reason Jasmine is still here and Steuart is not, will someone please hand me a mushroom so I can speed away towards the finish line before something terrible happens?

Well, the best case scenario for us is to keep winning, thereby forcing NuAmsterdam into a major deficit at the merge to encourage the development of a NuBruxelles power alliance to thin out the numbers a bit more. If we can repeat what we did at the last challenge, then I think we've got a great shot at that.



In the meantime, positive relationships! I want to feel close to everyone on this tribe, not just to make sure I can stay safe in the worst case scenario, but also to build positive feelings for another swap or a merge. I don't want anyone on this tribe to feel like I'm against them until I don't have a choice.

---

Speaking of positive feelings, I think I might have done a little TOO well with Ian.

I think I know now why I've stuck to male reps in all my games so far - I think Ian is trying to flirt with me and I think I might have unintentionally been encouraging it?

I get along great with Ian, and he my favorite of the new people on the tribe by far, but I think he's totally taking my alias at face value and he thinks I'm an actual girl, or at least a gay man. He hasn't said anything uncomfortably creepy or anything, but he's joked that he's falling in love with me a number of times now. When I complained about not being able to crack the HII password at camp, he said I have the password to his heart. When I implied I might be tipsy on AIM later tonight (in alias world because of the wedding, in real life because I'm going to be hanging out with my old roommate all day and will PROBABLY drink a bit), he said I should come to him so "no one else can take advantage of me" or something like that (I'd have to recheck the log). I helped him find the picture for his new signature (after he was joking around about being Batman or "Batberger" because of his job) and he asked me why I was so perfect. We had a conversation totally in gif form where he dropped Flynn Rider's smoulder AND Joey Tribbiani's "How you doin'?" gifs at me.

Am I reading too much into this? I'm usually not someone who's flirted with and I barely flirt with anyone in real life myself, so it's not as if I'm well versed in any of this. If he really is flirting with me, that's very flattering, but also hella awkward, because the last thing I ever want to do to anyone is catfish them. I can't just tell him I'm a guy, because I've told everyone else I'm a girl as a way to alias and I want to keep people's trust. Ugh, did I go too deep under alias?

I'm hoping I'm reading too far into it and he's not actually flirting with me. He's someone who would be a fun friend, but I can't offer him anything more than that.

[Lisi Fucking Linares]

I live for your confessionals and I am LIVIN' for that Mario Kart analogy. I am totally going to steal that and pass it off as my own original work in the future.

Thanks.

[Katia Winter]

Your Confessionals also give me life.

[Dorothy Hui]

Thank you for the love, everyone! I'll keep filling up this journal, don't worry.

In other news, I've gotten Jaclyn to speak to me about life outside of ORGs!

The good news is she told me a little bit about her family and friends, so she really does have something of a life outside of the cutthroat world of PM based ORGs.

The bad news is that her walls of text are now about her crazy cousin and the cops. I don't know if I prefer the aloof ORG obsessed Jaclyn or the TMI dramatic Jaclyn. Now I can't stop the life story.

[Katia Winter]

The struggle.

[Dorothy Hui]

I can't believe it.

I was on the right track after all. It really did have something to do with language. Hell, I even tried passwords involving scripts - katakana, hiragana, kanji, hieroglyphics...but not Cyrillic. Not the one that mattered.

And now, the idol is gone. And I was 14 hours late.

I feel like such an idiot. I KNEW it would be something that would be staring me straight in the face when I finally got it. That stupid Hooked on Phonics clue, I should have known it from there. Of course there was more to life than A-Z, because there were other scripts in the world. I should have known, damn it. I must look like such a fool - the English major repping Dorothy Hui, notorious for her ability to crack passwords with little to no clues, dancing everywhere around the actual answer except for the actual answer. And then Tim gets the perfect clue, the one that makes it clear as day what the password is, and it's over.

Worse, Tim gave Burnie the clue once he got back, and Burnie still couldn't get it, even with all the other clues. He told me not to feel upset that we couldn't get it, but how could I not? We had more clues than anyone put together. It was there. RIGHT THERE. We both tried so hard. We were on the right path. Then Tim waltzes in, gets the lucky clue, and snags the idol we've been trying for weeks to get for ourselves and secure our own fates in this game.

I don't understand why Tim denied it when Burnie asked him if he got it. We know he got it. The time of Nikki's post in the board fit perfectly to when he came back from Exile with the obvious clue. Either Tim got it himself or told Dustin to get it. Either way, one of them has it, I'm absolutely certain.

I want to trust those two. This tribe sticking together through victory is a good option for everyone - OG Bruxelles can stay alive and kicking, Tim and Dustin can get revenge on Simon and his inactive ilk, Ian can distance himself from the mess that is Jasmine. We all like each other on the surface. There should be no reason for Tim to want to use that idol against any of us unless we GIVE him a reason to do it.

With luck, Tim and/or Dustin will admit their possession of the idol. They'll show they trust us. In the meantime, I'm shutting my mouth about what I know. Burnie said he only told me about the clue, and I don't want to cause a panic among other members of the tribe explaining that it's gone. I don't want to give Tim and Dustin a reason to falter from us. I have to just pray they're being honest with their stated intentions and hope that if/when that idol is played, it's played in a way that will benefit my game instead of destroying it.

...14 hours. Damn it.

---

The loss of the idol was a crushing blow, but I think I've successfully cleared the air with Ian in regards to the flirting.

It seemed to be ramping up last night, and I was beginning to seriously feel awkward, but luckily, he asked me to tell him if he was coming on too strong. I told him I was flattered, but that I didn't want any misunderstandings between us and that I didn't want to lead him on romantically. I was able to let him down gently without revealing that, you know, I'm actually a guy.

He seemed happy that I told him and he assured me that I didn't lead him on. He just wanted to make sure since he knows he has come off too strong in the past with people, and that he's been resented for it in the past. It was a bit of a self-pitying kind of response, and I felt bad for him - I know how it feels to forge a crazy strong and sudden connection with someone in an ORG, and how that connection can blind you a bit to what's appropriate and what's not. That it appears to be a pattern for him makes me feel sad. Is his humor a coping mechanism of some kind? A way to detach himself from those sudden feelings of affection? As a way to protect himself from being hurt if people take his humor the wrong way?

I do like Ian in a strictly platonic fashion, and I told him I'm glad we met before the merge. He told me his investment in the game has gone way up since the swap, and a large part of that is due to me. I'm very flattered he thinks so highly of me, and I'd love for him to stick around...but I also need to think about my strategy. Having a tight bond with Ian is excellent, but I have to wonder how far he's willing to follow me, and I have to question at what point I will be willing to put his name to parchment. I feel like he'll be willing to take me far, but I also feel that way about Burnie and Julia, and Carrie to a lesser extent. I don't want to focus too much on endgame stuff yet, because that's asking to get voted out now, but it's going to be something I need to seriously think on in the future.

---

^Basically my response to Jasmine Trias and her delusions in the Tree Mail. I'm not going to respond to her publicly and I don't know why Julia and Burnie are pushed enough to do so, but who does this girl think she is? She burns her idol needlessly pre-swap, played a significant role in losing the challenge for her tribe a few days ago by not even showing up, and now she's all cocky thinking that she's got this thing locked up?

I hope we wipe off whatever smirk she has on her face. This girl shouldn't be here anymore.

[Dorothy Hui]

FLAWLESS. VICTORY.

Final 14. The only Tribal Council I've attended is the one I was forced to attend. I don't think I'll ever match this streak of pre-jury luck ever again in any game.

What's next? Shelli is probably toast, and Jasmine probably would have been toast if not for her actually showing up to the challenge. Burnie thinks Glyn is gone in Jasmine's place, and Tim predicted Natalie. Either way, NuBruxelles is still fully armed.

The momentum is on our side. Surf's up.

[Nikki Grahame]

I am a straight male, and even knowing you are too, you play Dorothy so well even I want to flirt with you sometimes lol

[Dorothy Hui]

Oh. My. God.

I've been playing ORGs for a little over a year. In that time, I've never had an ally make a banner like this commemorating our partnership.

I can't even words right now.

Journal. How can I possibly ever vote out this guy when he so obviously thinks so highly of me?

[Nikki Grahame]

Apparently he doesn't think THAT high of you. He made you the sidekick and him the star in the photo lol

[Philip Rivers]

Aug 22, 2016 23:45:53 GMT Dorothy Hui said:

Oh. My. God.

I've been playing ORGs for a little over a year. In that time, I've never had an ally make a banner like this commemorating our partnership.

I can't even words right now.

Journal. How can I possibly ever vote out this guy when he so obviously thinks so highly of me?

SPOILER: Click to show

Better late than never

(to the alliance that could have been, also good luck ofc)