The Plan: (some of you have seen this already, it’s slightly different as I modified it to answer the survey questions)
Lie low, wait to be approached first until it starts getting too awkward. Keep track of how often ppl reach out to me and see if that slows down. Don’t be too chatty with everyone, just a few people, try not to be soooo Susie this time. Explain absences and cut off too-long conversations with emergency grandma-related incidents. Try to keep the grandma story straight.
Alter some of my more common text habits and maybe swear more. I don’t swear much IRL. I may channel Rachel/Liz for this. She’s my Stranded server swearing role model. Just don’t be too shocked. I probably won’t be swearing AT people though, well, unless I know for sure it’s Randy. And probably not as much, just here and there for fucks sake.
Do sneaky stuff. I’m not sure what yet. Be sneakier.
Find a favorite contemporary artist. Maybe Ariana, (my actual fave is Freddie Mercury, but that would really date me). Phoebe Bridgers is amazing. Someone older too maybe, Jewel is another fav of mine. I’ll talk about Queen now and then to see who the really cool ppl are. I’ll even invent a love for Taylor if it comes down to that. I mean, "They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential". So relatable.
Find a pet. Maybe my cousin’s husky Hope. (The cats are doing fine btw and send their regards.) (My son is doing well also, for those keeping track.) Neither the cats nor the son will likely make the alias edit. The ex might though… I can’t remember if I told anyone where he was from on my last season, so he’ll need a fresh backstory. Or, you know, I could just go reread my last season to see if I mentioned it, if I get a spare week or two.
AND IF A CERTAIN HOST WOULD EVER GIVE ME THE CORRECT PASSWORD. I’ll likely keep my ex’s actual highlight reel the same, so I don’t have to remember a made-up one. I might invent a tragic demise for him; it’s the least he deserves (kidding!).
Do the best I can at challenges. I’m optimistically hoping for middle of the road challenge performances unless/until I make it to merge. I aim to be slightly less pathetic than my last season in this category, where I set low expectations and consistently failed to achieve them. The new format of 24 hour challenges can only help me.
Look for idols. Find idols. Tell no one unless someone’s telling me that sort of thing and then only maybe. Minimize the power of any advantages, if discovered. I hope Joaq is still doing the clues! I hope I get to find out!
Join an alliance. Ideally, I’d like to join in the early stages of a majority alliance and try to make sub-alliances, so they all think they’re my top two. Make all other alliances silent and 1:1, have-each-other’s-backs, tell-each-other-if-we-hear-their-names sorts of alliances. Make secret alliances with people I hit it off with later in the game until it makes sense to merge alliances or something. Talk to all allies every day. Stay tuned to see if I can pull any of that ^^ off.
Make no new enemies. This one could be tough. I’m apparently unable to not say something when I get a whiff of blind hate, bigotry, misogyny, willful ignorance, etc. and folks don’t seem to appreciate it when I’m saying that something to them. Fortunately, I don’t expect that in this group, but it’s possible.
Have fun and don’t take any of it too seriously. Except this ^^.
Do voice confessionals sometimes, after first figuring out how to do voice confessionals.
Note: I was considering a fakemance, ala BB Canada 2 Kenny and our server’s Dean, for a half a second, but I’m now thinking that I will be recently divorced or something, and “not ready to date yet”. My inability to stomach such roleplay sadly overcomes the hilarity strategy potential. I have greatly reduced my fakemance candidate pool anyway with my choice to be 30 something and female.
I thought about going young guy with the alias, but my lack of current RPG, Pokémon and/or anime knowledge alone would out me as not 20 pretty quickly. There’s just no way I could believably pull off being a sweet-talking 20-year-old male for more than five minutes, even if a certain MAGAgynist makes the cast. That really would be hysterical though, a double-reverse Dean. I may regret not doing this. I hope that Ali and Jessica get the opportunity some day.
By the way, a The Circle season would be fun.
Otherwise, I’m just going to wing it. I’m happy to have another chance to play Stranded and Austranded is an ideal way to do it. Hopefully, I’ll last long enough to get to meet everyone.
Cast predictions and the new alias (also for the survey)
For Kuril returnees, my guesses are Matty and Chris and I think Randy is a possibility. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Michelle, as she might be ready to play again. I’d love a cast full of Michelles, but don’t think I’ll be getting that wish. Shout out to Reem, who made my first ORG game so much fun on Kuril. I’d be thrilled to play with her again, but I would probably cry if she went all villain on my alias.
I will likely be able to detect some of the more colorful personalities from the newer Stranded, Isolated and Excursion seasons, but it’s hard to say who will be cast. There will probably be at least few legends from the first Austranded and earlier seasons, so that should be interesting. Val (<3) has been hanging around on the server more lately, as has Zeke from T&C. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Loveita play, as she’s only technically played Stranded once, I believe. I’d love a whole cast of Loveitas too, very interesting to talk to and great strategy, but not over-the-top chaos. Y’all might nod off, but we’d have an awesome time!
I’d probably be starstruck if I knew which of the Stranded legends and/or past winners were playing, so it’s best that I don’t know who is who. I was semi-sorry to see that Nofo wouldn’t be playing, as that would be so epic (imagine Nofo getting mad at me or us teaming up for a dynamic duo!), but at least he's hosting.
Cheers!
