Weeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllll....

Albus died. Shocker. Nothing to see here, really. The only other thing that happened last round of note was the basilisk twist reared its ugly head, and his vote was null’d. Okay, that’s interesting, I like it. Not enough to actively search for it, but enough to say good job hosts. It’ll end up ruining one fun vote in the future, but for now I like it.

The challenge is puzzles with a 10 minute opt out, which I really, really love. It’s a nice variation to a classic challenge. Now, everyone signed up for puzzles, which is SO STUPID. We’re gonna have at least one person go over the 10 minutes, and I’d bet that it’ll be from the cryptograms or dropdowns, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we had 2-4 people go over. I think anyone who feels weak should go that way, and I offered publicly if someone was confident at jigsaws, I’d let them have it and then wait by the car. I don’t want to needlessly risk losing just because it looks better as an individual to put the work in. Be smart with your choices, don’t make them for the sake of it. I’m guilty of just not wanting to do any challenges, which is my personal motivation, but for the good of the team, don’t must try and do the challenge only to flop. Practing dropdowns or cryptos ahead of time is another way to work on it, but I doubt anyone went to the trouble of doing that.

I literally fell asleep on my couch last night while talking to Cormac. He’s so fucking boring it hurts, but I think that’s partially my own fault. He didn’t try with me in the slightest, when he had when we first talked. I also don’t find the same pleasure in talking to Rita that I once had, the spark is gone. I haven’t talked to Fred in a minute either, which makes me kind of sad. I miss him.

My entire social game is Pomfrey and I hanging out in the mornings before work/during class, which I love. She’s by far my favorite person in the game at this point, and it’s fun just hanging out and shooting the shit. Some of the logs are pretty great, I’ll have to see if I can post some more fun ones. The people I had the most fun messing with (Snape and Amos) are far, far away.

This is a shorter update because I’m on my phone and nothing has happened of note. I’m sure I’ll have shit to complain about once the challenge happens.

Okay, time for the real update. Due to how eventful the previous days were, I found myself unable to write anything of substance or depth in my confessional. That will change right now, thankfully.

So, puzzles. My time of 6 minutes and 9 seconds was underwhelming to me personally, due me fumbling around with the screenshot and losing time there. Nonetheless, that's fine, I can live with that. I didn't look as bad compared to some of the other people on the tribe, which is always a huge plus. It's the classic adage: you don't need to outrun the bear, just the person behind you. I think I exemplify that in ORGs, because I can always end up doing better than another player, and never walk away with any true flak , purely in regards to challenges.

I called that we would have at least one person go over 10, and it would be from the dropdown and/or crypto. Pomfrey and Rita both went over time, which I expected, but it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I was the only person on the tribe who said "Hey, if you aren't 100% sure you can do this under 10 minutes, just take the L and sit it out". Nobody actually listened, which was mildly frustrating, and both Pomfrey and Rita said post-challenge that it didn't matter either way because of how incredibly fast Snape and Newt were. I'm going out on a limb and guessing that those two both practiced on other puzzles before doing the official one for the challenge, which is smart. While we couldn't have won, even with people by the car, it's not about that. We were outclassed, yes, but we didn't even get the best possible time. I'm fine with losing if we gave it our all and then just came up short, but we didn't. We didn't actually do the best we possibly could, and stupid mistakes like that will come back to haunt you in the future. We gotta get it together a bit, there's a lack of communication and teamwork, and I'll step up for the next challenge to fill that role if I have to.

As for the actual TC, it's Hagrid. Rita doesn't like him one bit, and he's the least active member of our low-activity tribe . The one benefit, however, is everyone was online and was willing to discuss the vote and what to do. It was an easy conclusion, but it's apparent that game talk is now happening, and that's something we'll have to look out for in the future. Now, the vote. I'm not voting Hagrid. That's boring. I kinda like Hagrid, so I don't want to vote for him. I wanna vote for Cormac. Cormac is the only person I didn't talk to about the vote, and I don't think there's any chance of building upon our relationship. So, because of that and how I don't like that this tribal will be boring, I'm throwing my vote onto him. He seems like the type that will panic with that vote there, and I want to sow the seeds of chaos. There is literally nothing to gain from this except watching him squirm, and odds are he (or someone else) will instantly pin the vote on me. This is way, way more likely to hurt my game than it is to help it, but I don't really care. This is purely because I think it's fun.

I'll just recap anything of note that happened with each of my tribemates from now before I sign off here.

Cormac: I'm voting for him, but that's literally it.

Draco: I'm starting to like Draco more and more, and I'm enjoying our conversations together. He's clearly putting the effort into them, and even though he's not amazing, it still is nice. He cares, and it's making me care. My anti-Draco campaign fell apart anyway, as Pomfrey picked up on how I "hated" him and brought it up. That's not a great sign, so that has to get dropped. If she notices, soon others will too.

Fred: My relationship with Fred just kind of fell apart. I still like him, but I don't like talking to him nearly as much as I once did. It feels somewhat forced on my end, and he's worse at responding quickly to messages than I am. I want some magic to happen here, but I don't really think that's the case. I'll still try, and hopefully we can work through this rough patch and come out stronger than ever before.

Hagrid: Haven't talked to him since tribes started but I was dying when he called Rita a skank.

Pomfrey: SHE A REAL ONE, MY NUMBER ONE RIDE OR DIE BAYBEEEEE. She guessed 7777777 and got two right, and shared it with me. I also told her and only her that I'm voting for Cormac, which she thinks is funny. Honestly I don't know what I'd do without her, the game would be so DULL.

Rita: Rita definitely likes me more than I like her, given that she's thrown out the idea of us working together and shared her idol guess with me. I'm now doing idol guesses so I can share with her (and Pomfrey), but I think I need to keep it up here with Rita. My name will be appearing soon enough, and I just wanna make sure I have people around me that will come to bat for me. She seems like one of those people. The only downside is she's been the worst performer in both our challenges, and I do love me a strong challenge-performing tribe.

Ron: Honestly, I have so much fun talking to Ron now. I've told him I'm his actual father and just call him son a lot, and he continues to laugh at all of my jokes. He's someone I really enjoy talking to, and hopefully someone that I can get closer to in the future.