The think tank idea is working. I hope. All the bananas have shared their strategies and thoughts about alliances and David will stay in his separate alliance and be part of our Arumbera 7 as a secret member. Mat, Jarrad and I will have a similar situation with David's 5 tribe. All of this was exactly what I wanted, but I needed David to say it - how do you suggest to your core four alliance member that you don't want him in your main alliance?? This forced him to do it, so I'm happy about that.
They're giving me SO MUCH information in front of each other, I feel like I just must believe it's all true at this point. They would be going to a hell of a lot of work if they're making all this up just to keep me busy while they're plotting my doom. They were the Three Plantains all along, and I'm just a hanger on, and not a key reason we're still together. I can't rule this out, but my gut says I'm good. For today. I've learned not to predict the future in this game.
So either they have some concerns and side plan ideas they're not telling me, or they're fully onboard with my/our plans. Orrrrr they're remarkable players dragging me along as goat, or they will blindside me whenever they feel like it, or they think I'm an overbearing hag. I hope very much that none of those bad things are true, just the good one, but it will help me to steel myself if I've been Michael-Deaned by a horrible Dichael Kraken (that's Dick, for short btw) sent to bring me angst.
There's also a fair possibility that they aren't worried because they haven't thought to end game. I'm not sure. None of them have brought it up to me, and so I haven't, because I don't want them panicking and thinking the plan was impossible and they should scramble without me. We're not likely to be able to get lucky again and not have a majority band against us to desaturate yellow at some point, likely while they have the majority, so it might be awhile or it might be tomorrow.
I'm trying to create as strong of alliances as possible so the one they pick to vote out isn't me. I've kept pointing out to the 5/7 alliance about how relationship weakness is the best reason to vote out someone, so I need to work my ass off to make sure they like me best. They very well might not. I like them all immensely. I did get them all to identify Michelle as the vote out; I told the 5s it was about relationships, but I told the Bananas the real reason, it was because Michelle had way longer chats with me and I had a lot of people in that category already, so I needed Daisy, who had weaker relationships and was less likely to form a separate alliance, to stay.
Sorry future Michelle, you shone too bright! Orrr, this will turn out to be nonsense and I'll just look silly because you kicked ass and won. Having to carry on playing and confing without a clue how others actually perceive me is not my favorite.
I'd like to take out Jericho, Ben and Nova next. At that point, I would like our secondary alliance members to take out each other, with our help; David may need to jump over to whatever our new name is at that point. I'd rather him here than us there. We could get into a huge clusterfuck sometime in there. Something to look forward to. Immunity will play a huge role.
Or will the remaining side alliances finally band together and take us out one by one? Something will go down I think. Can the Bananas emerge victorious? Hell if I know. It would be fun.
I've 99% decided to just used the idol on myself tomorrow. I'd LOVE to win immunity and give it to one of the three other bananas in a lottery or something. After practicing with Nova today, I think our chances are decent to win, but my speed will be the downfall if we don't.
After the tribal, I'll tell the bananas that I one-clued the idol in an hour or two, which I did. I'll say I thought one of them could be Dean or Michael or someone and really good at working friendly women, I was just being careful, which I was. I'll say it was early game and I kept it ready in case they or I ever needed it, but we all kept each other safe, so we never needed it. I'll say if we hadn't merged, I wouldn't have used it, because I/we had total control of Arumbera, but now there's outliers that I've never spent much time talking to, despite no lack of trying, and they might land a vote on me if it's out that I'm one in control. They might try to put votes on all of us to flush our idol. That's horrifying.
With four, maybe five idols at play tomorrow and no control over every single vote anymore, I'd be a ghastly idiot not to play it. I'd have to win immunity not to.
I am still fairly worried about losing their trust; they will probably go after me fairly quickly if they're really mad. In which case, I'm extra super screwed, because between the two 8 alliances above, that only leaves three others to huddle up with.
At minimum, I'll be buying the clues and serving them up fresh at every opportunity; I'm not completely sure they'll buy that I one-clued it, and even if they do, they'll be offended that I didn't tell them and instead carried on the ruse of getting/buying clues I didn't need. I'll tell them I was burned before when I disclosed I was holding the idol to my alliance, also true. I don't suppose Mat will feel appeased that I gave him 2 coins as a consolation prize for my not telling him I had the idol.
Sorry Bananas of the future! I really do adore each of you in your own ways and hope we can all be great friends after this! This was just a game move. You're amazing players. If y'all can forgive me and move on with me in-game, I'll be so amazed and impressed. If you can't, I'll be fine with that too. I'll still think you're amazing and I value our friendship and the absolute blast I've been having since meeting you.
I do believe it's all been real, the friendship and the strategy convos, I feel it, but if not, then kudos to you. If you outplayed me, I'll be nothing but awed. I will also hope you've been kind in your chats. And I can't wait to finally find out who you all are!
I bet we caught you off guard – even giving you an unexpected day away from tribal! But now you have 13 other tribemates and an entire mess of connections to detangle and work through. 
What’s the best piece of goss you’ve heard since merging? And who are your sources? 
