[Flicka Flame]

Congratulations!!! YOU'VE MADE IT TO THE MERGE!!! Be proud; it's a huge accomplishment. You've earned your spot here.

Let's get right into it!

13 people is a lot, now that you are all one tribe what's the plan on making sure you're in the majority?

Who is your ideal person to be voted out next?

Do you think the whole Cole vs. Julie craziness will have an impact on the first vote?

There was a lot of talk at the last tribal council about voting out inactive people over active people. Is this still the case or does it change now that the merge has come?

Does your gameplan change at all now that it's an individual game?

You know what? Why don't you give me some type of rundown of what you think of everyone left in the game? Who you think is with you or against you, who you want to work with, who you want to work against, who you like, who you hate, etc.

Also, feel free to air ANY AND ALL of your game thoughts here. (It surprisingly helps.)

[Leif]

first of all - I wanna say thank you for pretending I've earned my spot here. I'd be lying if I said it was a hard fought road to the merge, considering the fact that I attended two pre-merge TCs, one where Alan was unceremoniously removed from the game and one where we witnessed a Cole/Julie war, only to have Bill exit in the end. so honestly I don't think I really did a whole hell of a lot to get here.

as far as making sure I'm in the majority for this first round (and every round for that matter) I know it's going to be super difficult. I have the interesting distinction of being the only person in this game (as far as I know?) to have prior interactions with everyone in the merge cast. I was on tribes with everyone except for Cole/Patrick and I ended up in tribunals with those two so I've gotten to chat with everyone so far. going into this merge, obviously 7 makes a majority out of 13 and you want to have a few more numbers just to give yourself that extra security. immediately following that tribal, Julie lets me know that her/Jonas/Chrissy/Ryan want a final 5 with me. this is perfect because it falls in line with the Core 4 group of me/Jonas/Chrissy/Ryan that existed on Natyaya 2.0. along with this, I think I have solid connections with Kim/Christina from the beginning of the game and this second swap tribe we were on. realistically that right there is a solid 7 but there are some cracks because Julie told me that Chrissy isn't a Christina fan which I'm confused by? they were never on a tribe together so I'm not sure where that vendetta would have come from. I'm also trying to work on Roark. she gave her two individual immunities to Kim and Ryan, two people I'm looking to work with in this merge, so I think that she could fall in line as a number. my biggest hesitation here is that Ryan is too connected to the Patrick/Simone/Cole grouping. apparently along with the Cole/Julie vote drama from last round, Cole was scheming behind the scenes to gather the votes for Julie to go. Jonas claims to me that Ryan was the only one to mention this plan to him. this 100% means that Ryan is within Patrick's little circle of trust but it also means Ryan trusts Jonas enough to disclose this information. so idk. it's gonna be rough. there's also variables like Matt who I don't feel like has any solid connections in the game and people like Ali who I'm like ??? about.

my ideal person to be voted out next is probably either Simone or Patrick. I know that I have a major hard-on for splitting up this potential trio, and honestly they may not even be a trio, but I think that these are three of the most threatening people in the game and it wouldn't surprise me if they were working together in some capacity. with all the potential idols floating around and whatnot, I would feel kinda uneasy trying to go for a Cole vote the first round of the merge, because the bullseye is painted bright red on his back and if that grouping has an idol between them, it's gonna get played on Cole foooooor sure. Patrick is a big challenge threat and I'd love to see him go the first round of the merge but it's a big move and I'm not sure how ready some of these people are to make big moves. so I'd like to see Simone go. I threw a vote onto Simone in the last TC but it was mostly just because I was bored. it was pretty obvious Bill was going to be going home and I didn't think tossing a vote onto Cole was going to do anything. I wanted Julie to be on her own island with that Cole vote because it makes it easier to argue that she is alone and could be picked up as a number. I figured with my somewhat recent Patrick drama that I'd get pinned as the hinky vote so I just figured I'd do Simone. she's kinda volatile and rude so I was hoping she'd pop off over it but it was pretty unsuccessful.

I mean, I definitely think there will be some sort of impact, but I don't think that either of these two will receive votes at the first tribal council of the merge. I think that the Cole vs. Julie thing serves as a way to let everyone know that the game has finally actually started. there's no more bullshitting around and letting inactives be removed from the game - at this point, lines are being drawn and everyone is here to play. I think the effect of Cole vs. Julie will probably be seen for the rest of the game, tbh.

like I said in that last lil question, in reference to your "voting out inactive people over active people" question, we no longer have an inactive to vote out. the least active person in this merge cast is Matt but he's not inactive by any stretch of the imagination. I think we got rid of Bill at the perfect time and we get to go into the merge as a big active ass group. everyone kinda went for a cop-out vote last night because it was public and we had a limited time. things are gonna be very different here.

my gameplan doesn't really change at all. my game has always been and will always be about self-preservation by any means necessary. even though I need numbers and I need friends to get by in this game - I don't give a shit about anyone but myself.

OKAY HERE IS MY RUNDOWN OF EVERYONE i'm probably not gonna do it in alphabetical order because I'm like remembering people sporadically that exist in this game

Simone- I think she's nice and everything and we have a pretty good connection when we chat but I just don't see us working together. we're on different sides of the numbers and unless something groundbreaking happens I can't see our numbers fusing together to a point where we could work together.
Jonas- I like Jonas but I've always been a little bit skeptical of him since the very beginning. the dude is too smart for his own good and he reminds me of those kids in high school who were too obsessed with cartoons. I don't entirely trust him and I think I've invested a lot in him that I'm concerned could come back to bite me later on. odds are he got that Natyaya idol and didn't tell me about it (and probably didn't tell anyone) which I guess I can't blame him about.
Julie- pretty sure episode 1 I said that I didn't exactly like Julie but I didn't want to see her go anywhere because I knew she'd create some sort of drama later on down the line and I think that was probably the most prophetic thing I've ever said. Julie has actually really grown on me over time and I think I came to appreciate her unnecessary drama starting, and I appreciate it now more than ever because it's keeping the target off my back. I really wanna keep Julie around for as long as possible because she seems pretty fond of me, and the longer Julie's here fighting with other people, the better my chances are.
Ryan- I absolutely would not trust Ryan under most circumstances but given my current circumstances, I have no choice. I think that Ryan is one of the sketchiest fucking people left in this game. the way he communicates is weird and I wish that I could cut him ASAP. for now, though, he's on good terms with the people I'm on good terms with and I'm forced to cross my fingers and hope he doesn't wanna turn on me.
Christina- my #1 bitch. I love her. she's the only person I've told about throwing my stray vote onto Simone for no reason. I'm concerned for her because I want to go far with her but I'm not sure she's super well-connected in this merge and if Julie saying Chrissy/Christina have beef is actually true, that could cause me some problems later on down the line.
Kim- I really like Kim as well!! we got along super well on the first tribes, then we were split up for a bit and reunited on the second swap and we kinda just picked up where we left off. I feel like I could put a lot of trust in her here and it hasn't really been tested yet since we haven't had to go to a vote but I want to work with her.
Chrissy- Chrissy is kinda just in the middle for me. we have a ton of overlap in our allies and we're part of the same group chats but I'm not too sure how much I trust her individually.
Matt- Matt is a fucking weirdo to me. I know that Ali was uneasy of him and that he probably would've been voted out of Bambarun 3.0 had lost a challenge. he doesn't really say much to me at all. like I said earlier - he's basically the least active one left so I expect there to be an easy Matt vote at some point to keep the peace.
Ali- she annoys me and I don't talk to her hardly ever.
Patrick/Cole- big threats. Patrick is more annoying than Cole is but they both bug me and need to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Roark- I mentioned this earlier but I want us to use Roark as a number. she's connected to Kim and Ryan who would both be on my "side" hopefully but Ryan still sketches me out and if he jumps ship to go with Patrick, that could spell trouble with Roark.

so yeah. that's about it. there are too many goddamn people to talk to and it's overwhelming.