Claire's Clearing

[Claire Bear]

Hello F3! Congratulations are due to all for making it this far. While I was devastated to be voted out in the way that I was, it’s all part of the game so I have no big grudges to hold out of everyone. I should also note I haven’t read Selene’s opening yet because there are deadlines and MR’s took me the whole half hour I’d given myself to read them all, so apologies if some things get repeated.

Xena! I'm so happy to see you here! After I was voted out I was half hoping you'd fuck these bitches off and get to the end with Jess and T-X, but I suppose giving yourself the best chance of winning is fine too I know you said a lot of people don’t care about the pre merge but I think you are selling yourself short. Yours was easily the best in the game for me, and I thought that before we even became close allies after the merge. You didn’t really have any obvious pairs or alliances that would get targeted down the track, but you were also close enough to everyone that you were never spoken about as a target at all. This translated to the merge where you had options everywhere you looked. I also liked how you admitted you made some errors post merge but you still were able to get to the end without ever being a huge target, so I gotta respect that! After the survey challenge when I got the ‘most likely to win if they went unnoticed’ I remember thinking wtf that is clearly Xena! And here you are with a big chance to prove me right I think I know enough about your game already but is there anything you’d change if you could?

Selene, you were the loudest promoter of #bluestrong before the merge but also the first to completely screw it up by targeting Cherry over Trinity who we’d talked about being the first boot for two weeks. This vote crippled the tribe and we never recovered. Was this part of the plan? And after your two closest allies in Babydoll and Kaylee were voted out, by the sounds of it all you did was cling onto Mother Russia and go along for the ride. What did you do in this time that sets you apart from her?

Mother Russia, many of us definitely underestimated you, I will give you that. Your post merge strategic game was easily the best of anyone in the game. But I think a lot of the flipping you did was necessary because you had such a poor pre merge. You pretty much had no allies. You say you were bottom of that tribe, but that doesn’t just happen, you put yourself in that position. Would you agree? And from the sounds of the jury you were actually capable of holding a conversation as well, but only for the few select people you chose to. My PM thread with you has 33 replies (yes we had some group PMs but you didn’t contribute that much to them either apart from passing them on to Nostromo). My PM thread with Cameron, who I knew for all of about five days, has 44 replies. How do I justify voting for someone who spent more time posting in public that she’d get to me in private soon, than she actually did getting to me in private?

As a bonus, Mother Russia and Selene, this part is for both of you. Maybe this is a bit unfair because it is all hypothetical but it’s been bugging me. You said I was a big threat and you had to take me out, fair enough. But did you think of the challenge beast you were then letting run loose after I was gone? You are both extremely lucky Jessica missed a number early in her count that made her have to repeat the whole thing. Without that she would have monstered all other times. And I’m willing to bet a large sum of money that she would have beaten your pathetic DNF’s in the final challenge too. You may have thought I was a big threat but I was nothing compared to the 10-0-0 drubbing you’d both have taken if you’d let Jessica get to the end. What were your plans if she’d won each immunity?

This went longer than anticipated but you have 40 hours so dwi

Good luck, may the biggest bitch win

[Xena]

Apr 19, 2016 13:22:27 GMT Claire Bear said:

Hello F3! Congratulations are due to all for making it this far. While I was devastated to be voted out in the way that I was, it’s all part of the game so I have no big grudges to hold out of everyone. I should also note I haven’t read Selene’s opening yet because there are deadlines and MR’s took me the whole half hour I’d given myself to read them all, so apologies if some things get repeated.

Xena! I'm so happy to see you here! After I was voted out I was half hoping you'd fuck these bitches off and get to the end with Jess and T-X, but I suppose giving yourself the best chance of winning is fine too I know you said a lot of people don’t care about the pre merge but I think you are selling yourself short. Yours was easily the best in the game for me, and I thought that before we even became close allies after the merge. You didn’t really have any obvious pairs or alliances that would get targeted down the track, but you were also close enough to everyone that you were never spoken about as a target at all. This translated to the merge where you had options everywhere you looked. I also liked how you admitted you made some errors post merge but you still were able to get to the end without ever being a huge target, so I gotta respect that! After the survey challenge when I got the ‘most likely to win if they went unnoticed’ I remember thinking wtf that is clearly Xena! And here you are with a big chance to prove me right I think I know enough about your game already but is there anything you’d change if you could?

Haha I wish you were here!  

I wanted to turn on these bitches and I guess in the end I would have had the power to do so but yeh, like you said I want to win. but you know how much I love you and how much I trusted you and wanted you to be here. If you are unsure then just go check out Kaylee question haha.

I think with the pre-merge I figure what's the point about preaching about it when what we went through was nothing compared to Nostromo. However it was mainly the pre-merge that set me up to get me this far into the game. this is something that I want to ask Jess about and will when I get around to answering her but she had mentioned that the way I play or socialise isn't very common in ORGS. I took that as a huuge complement (hopefully that how it was intended) but my approach to people is to come across as some who is very honest and reliable. I take the time and have the attention to detail to connect to that person. often it can be through reflecting their attitude or thoughts towards the game. You know agreeing to what they are saying and making them think that you believe them and that they're even though you might have a completely different opinion. I think that its this approach and style of thinking that allowed me to make so many solid and reliable alliances in this game and alliances that people didn't really pick up on which was great for when I needed as many options as I could get. I have been told a few times now that I didn't have to fight as hard or I just stayed in the middle but the reason for why I didn't have to fight or become desperate was because I had already set myself up to be safe. Yeh I would get nervous at tribal most of the time but every tribal that I went to I knew I wasn't going home, I knew I was safe and I knew from the start of this game I would be at FTC. Yeh its kind of arrogant for me to say but that was my ambition in this game. I didn't come here to come 12th or 9th or 3rd  I mean lets be real here... even the Nazi's came second. I played because I want to win and the way I played allowed me to get here.

As for me admitting to making mistakes in the merge and owning the fact that I had failed moves, I don't see any shame In doing that. I know my game and the way I played both from my successes and from my failures. I tried to make a few moves in this game and they all pretty much failed but I will take responsibility for that because I know that if I don't someone else will call me out on it and I would prefer to control my own media. I think that I have played a strategic game to be here and just because moves failed doesn't mean that I'm not good at this game. The fact that I could come up with big moves shows that I can play this game for starters but also sometimes strategy isn't just about making moves or backstabbing its knowing when to shut up, knowing when to lay off and get a target of your back, its letting someone else paint a target on theirs. An example of a uncommon strategy was at final 7 where I went crazy with Alice, Jess and TX. I mean I got a friggen Oscar for that performance!

I own the faults in my game just as much as I own my strong points. I am extremely proud of the way that I have played and to see that I can play a strong loyal and honest game and get this far and still have a shot to win it. I think it brings a lost perspective back into this game and proves that the nice guy or the no bullshit guy can have a shot at winning.

[Selene]

Apr 19, 2016 13:22:27 GMT Claire Bear said:

Hello F3! Congratulations are due to all for making it this far. While I was devastated to be voted out in the way that I was, it’s all part of the game so I have no big grudges to hold out of everyone. I should also note I haven’t read Selene’s opening yet because there are deadlines and MR’s took me the whole half hour I’d given myself to read them all, so apologies if some things get repeated.

Selene, you were the loudest promoter of #bluestrong before the merge but also the first to completely screw it up by targeting Cherry over Trinity who we’d talked about being the first boot for two weeks. This vote crippled the tribe and we never recovered. Was this part of the plan? And after your two closest allies in Babydoll and Kaylee were voted out, by the sounds of it all you did was cling onto Mother Russia and go along for the ride. What did you do in this time that sets you apart from her?

As a bonus, Mother Russia and Selene, this part is for both of you. Maybe this is a bit unfair because it is all hypothetical but it’s been bugging me. You said I was a big threat and you had to take me out, fair enough. But did you think of the challenge beast you were then letting run loose after I was gone? You are both extremely lucky Jessica missed a number early in her count that made her have to repeat the whole thing. Without that she would have monstered all other times. And I’m willing to bet a large sum of money that she would have beaten your pathetic DNF’s in the final challenge too. You may have thought I was a big threat but I was nothing compared to the 10-0-0 drubbing you’d both have taken if you’d let Jessica get to the end. What were your plans if she’d won each immunity?

This went longer than anticipated but you have 40 hours so dwi

Good luck, may the biggest bitch win

[Selene]

Apr 19, 2016 13:22:27 GMT Claire Bear said:

Hello F3! Congratulations are due to all for making it this far. While I was devastated to be voted out in the way that I was, it’s all part of the game so I have no big grudges to hold out of everyone. I should also note I haven’t read Selene’s opening yet because there are deadlines and MR’s took me the whole half hour I’d given myself to read them all, so apologies if some things get repeated.

Selene, you were the loudest promoter of #bluestrong before the merge but also the first to completely screw it up by targeting Cherry over Trinity who we’d talked about being the first boot for two weeks. This vote crippled the tribe and we never recovered. Was this part of the plan? And after your two closest allies in Babydoll and Kaylee were voted out, by the sounds of it all you did was cling onto Mother Russia and go along for the ride. What did you do in this time that sets you apart from her?

As a bonus, Mother Russia and Selene, this part is for both of you. Maybe this is a bit unfair because it is all hypothetical but it’s been bugging me. You said I was a big threat and you had to take me out, fair enough. But did you think of the challenge beast you were then letting run loose after I was gone? You are both extremely lucky Jessica missed a number early in her count that made her have to repeat the whole thing. Without that she would have monstered all other times. And I’m willing to bet a large sum of money that she would have beaten your pathetic DNF’s in the final challenge too. You may have thought I was a big threat but I was nothing compared to the 10-0-0 drubbing you’d both have taken if you’d let Jessica get to the end. What were your plans if she’d won each immunity?

This went longer than anticipated but you have 40 hours so dwi

Good luck, may the biggest bitch win

Hey Claire and thanks for the congrats, even though it is pretty clear where your preference lies here, but i will do my best to recap some of these things that were already in my opening post, and expand on them as required.

My apoogies for the delay. My computer is intermittantly working and shutting down indscriminantly, so its incredibly frustrinating having to wait for it to cool off before going again. Really at the worst possible times for all this. Haad even arrnaged the day off yesterday and today to focus on this, only for laptop issue sto strike once aagain. Would have been bertter off doing it there. Anhow..

So, yes I did advocate BlueStrong pre-merge, and depending on how it played out it was either going to make it work in my favour, or not. But it would reveal where people stood. After 2 weeks of sitting idol abascally, had to get some sort of difinitive idea of where veryone stood.

Quite sinly 9 is a huge friggin number to try and manage and manipulate all the way to the end. But it had 2 points. One -if everyone is looking one way, then there is room for moi to move in a different direction.

First off, I did try to mutiny, but Nox beat me to the punch. My plan had been to get over there, try and make some inroads and connections with the Nostromo girls, because they were going to be desperate to want to find some numbers to workk with, and ideally I waanted it to be me. The other reason I tried to mutiny was, tp prevent anyone else from snagging the same idea I had.

Once Nox went though, then had to try something else. With the suspicions and things that we had pieced together over the previous weeks about Nox, was loking for a cash in while s/he wasnt around, by targeting her allie, Cherry. Cherry really hadnt talked much with me over the previous few rounds, and it was pretty clear that I was not reaslly part of her plans. Which did mean she had plans with other people, but hey, si someone is cutting themselves off from you, and not willing to work with, and you definitely get the sense that they done want to work with me, then whats the point in keeping someone like that, over somoeone such as Trinity, who I had been keeping tabs with and chatitng in between her studies. People are far to asy to judge and write off individuals. Hell, most of the tribe had written off both Trinity and Mother before we had even gone to tribal So my plan was to scoop up these and work with them, as wwll as others that wanted to work with me.

So my reching out to Mother prior to this point was something that would have long lasting effects on the events of this game.

The fact that 2 weeks passed and people were still talking the same targets either meant people were just blinkered and not interested in working with them, or were becoming too coccooned in their alliances to realize that leaving people on the fringes was a hazard. Or, that people were just in their own coccoons, period.

See, that Survey challenge that round, it definitely made me rethink what I was doing in the game. If there was a turning point it was this. It had once again painted a great big target in neon letters about a mile wide that I was a big threat. trust with your life, running the tribe, messages the most, ona nd on it went. So what better way to deflect this attention than to create some chaos.

Either the tribe would buy into what I was selling and we would hit the merge united, and with respect, Cherry, who, as I say, had slipped in her 1:1 chats with me to the point of a single message about 2-3 lines every few days. And again thi was going to sound cold, but at that point, this made her more expendible to my game than either Trinity ot Mother.

Was the juice worth the squeexe? Yes.

it made it really clear where people stood in the game. And heading into the merge was the perfect opportunity to have those cracks widen even more. Cherry was on the warpath, Babydoll the same, and I was all for going along with Babydoll's scheme to not wait but link up with Nostromo. At fu=ist I did think maybe too soon, but again, the same reason why I tried to mtiny - early bird catches the worm. So we jumped.

Like I say, 9 people is an awful lot of people to try and steer through, especially if #bluestrong had people fixated on the Nostromo girls. And it very nearly worked, had I not biffed it by throwing that vote at Nox instead of leaving it on Cherry, where it had been for hours.

A pagoning of Nostromo was never going to suit, so linking up with them was the way to go. It would ensure they stayed in the game as a collective shield, and I was hopeful that the renegade group of Kaylee, Babydoll & I along with the Nostromo girls could stay in tact, get down toward F8, hook back up with Mother who had been a sleeper ally and someone I was very close to from way back when, and with the target on the Nostrom girls by that point would be huge (and it was even though the plan didnt quite go all according the way I wanted it to, sadly, losing Babydoll and Kaylee), could get the fragments of blue back together and move to the end.

Obviously it didnt work out quite that way, but that does not mean it wasnt a sound plan. Divide and conquer. And allow Nostromo to be the instruments of it. Unfortunately I didnt quite anticipate some scenarios that eventuated, but you get that.

So had to adapt. Be flexible and overcome. And I did.

And although losing Babydoll and Kaylee was a blow, it was by no means the end of the Selene show. I was not about to roll over and play dead. I had 2 things going for me./ I still had Mother as my ace up my sleeve, so to speak. Mother and I had been working together since before the Trinity vote and all the time we had gone our seperate paths were still comparing notes and having a pretty decent lay of the land, esp of what Nox, Xena & yourself, who had become naturally quite clse at this point were doing etc. So Mother & I had already set the wheelss in motion to get Nox gone at that nexrt vote.

This was a partnership between Mother and I. It wasnt her dragging me, it wasnt me draggin her. We had differnet paths and different parts to play, until now when it was time to start getting it together. Anyhow, I knew the chances of reconciliaton were next to none with Nox, Xena & even yourself right at that very moment, so something had to change. By hooking back up with the Nostromo girls we we able to blindside Nox.

Again referring back to my open comments, one of my social strategies was if you appear as though you are an option to someone then they are going to be so much more likely to want to keep you around. If you mke it appear as though they are only an option for you, then they are much more likely to think , thanks, but noi thanks - and find a different path. Big difference. One of my other guiding principles is, dont ever close the book on anyone, until they are gone. Which was why I made the effort to see what you all were wanting, and where i might fit in. I knew the answer was - I didnt but it would seem odd if I didnt as, and I wasnt taking ti serioously. There was a point to those messages - it was leaving the door open for another day, but it certainly wasnt going to be that day.

Like I say, I knew this attempt to reconcile was bollocks. Why do you think I suggested that, if you dont trust me, just leave me out of the vote, and I'll stray. alol/ Like seriously? Yet, somehow that got adopted. Even as the TC was about to commence Xena and Nox were srill lying to me, and had no idea what was about to go down. In this respect, at least you had said where it was, but lol, no - I wasnt going there. But it would have seemed odd, if I didnt at least ask.


Re, Mother and I, again I touched on this in the opening statement, but will expandon this here. All the way through the merge, Mother was my ace up the sleeve. To keep an ar and eye out for each other, so to speak, compare notes and bide our time. Now the time came. F8 had been where I had been waiting on for the longest time and so the pieces did fit nicely, even if it wasnt with my preferred choices of Kaylee and Babydoll. So now to start making our move to the end. We had decided that Nox was the one to go. It didnt hurt that Nox had shipped my name to Nostromo as a possible way of gettine me gone. Call me a snake or whatever you like, but I got back in with the Nostromo girls. The same that had cost me 2 of my cloest allies the night before. And got them to work with me, to trust me, to vote with me, and ultimately include me. First Nox is blindsided.

And if you don't think I did anything in this stretch of episodes, if helpling orchestrate the Nox blindside wasnt one, then orchestrating the Alice one certainly was. My bloody fingerprints were all over that one. With respect, It was I that reached out to Xena and yourself to do this. Neither Xena or you made any sort of personal approach. Rather were passive aggresive comments in the open thread. So I had to come to you to get that going, not the other way around. And if you dont think I earned my stripes that round, I know Alice was really hurt by that. And it wasnt anger directed at Mother. It was directed at me, because I had been the one they had done the betrayal and had done so in an incredibly cold blooded manner, but it had to be done.

Regarding your own vote out, I had been discussing this option with Jessica most of that afternoon, but was waiting for Mother, to see what she had to say. And she does deserve credit for this though. It was the right move. For me, it opened the door to sit here at the FTC and not be shut at F4, and in a FTC of yourself, Xena & Mother, you would have had a pretty decent shot at the win, for sure. For me to have a shot, I needed to be in your spot. So it had to be.

As for your question about the immunities, usually endurance is something I am ok at, but I had some issues, and made an error at my count very early on. So I was shot. Mother had won a couple of individual challenges also, and Xena was a competant challenge performer. Even T-X winning would not have been a problem at F5. As for F4, yes, I know. I did not complte the challenge. I tried. For 7 hours I tried. There is 3 pages in my missin thread dedicated to piecing the uzzle rogether and trying to deduce the code. I could not get it. I tried, and I tried and I tried. Maybe that makes me a failure in your eyse, but the effort was there. I am realy just not all that well equipped to do well at challenges. Mother ran out of time. I guess its called hoaving ther commitments, and its just one of those things.

Anyhow, I don't know if it will make any difference to the way ou intend to vote, but you deserved proper answers, and hope that this does give you what you aere after. If there is anything else, by all means, fiore away.

Thanks Claire.

[Claire Bear]

Xena I agree that saying you had an easy ride to the end and that you didn't have to do much is a silly argument. If you can get to the end without having to lie and betray everyone on the jury you must have set yourself up in a good position to do so. Likewise, if you had to do all that then you probably forced yourself into that position as well. But girl, stop whatever you are doing and answer the rest of the questions, some jurors are getting restless!

Selene thank you for your detailed response. Although I disagree with some of it (especially about me not approaching you sincerely at F7 when I had just done that at the start of the F8 round and then been lied to, so I wasn't going to do it again), I appreciate the effort and even if you don't get my vote, other jurors are reading this too so you could still sway them.

Thanks girls

[Selene]

Claire, in fairness, you did talk to me during the F8 round, which was accurate and I won't dispute that. Indeed, I believe I acknoeledged that you did in my post. However, considering BOTH Xena and Nox were lying to me that entire round, and Nox even tried shipping me as a target yet again. It's all good though, because, hey, it was all subterfuge, and it was a game being played by both sides, as I was lying to them to. but the fact that, upto and including within minutes o TC starting, that thye were still either thinking I was buying thier bullshit or not, it was pretty clear that they had no intention of working with me.

So even if you were more receptive to it at that point (which I wasnt really going to do anyhow), when the 2 peoople you are most closely aligned with cannot even get on the same page as you it hardly inspires much confidnce, ll. But as for he F7, once Nox was gone,there was no attempt by Xena or you to reach out to me. There was a comment made in the open thread that was quite passive aggressive in nature, congratulating the Nostromo girls,, and indirectly omitted Mother or I, and a brief 1 line msg saying as we going to hand the game yo Nostromo, which again was not particularly conciliatory in nature. So I did have to reach out that round to you & Xena, and if you recall this is th msg I sent to you:

Apr 13, 2016 6:05:02 GMT selene said:

Claire, one thing I have always said, back on Sulaco, at the merge, even to Babydoll & Kaylee was that for a blue to win, it is going to have to be an all blue FTC. My opinion of this remains the same.

It's time.

No more fucking about. The greens have served heir purpose to this point, as a shield, and thiy are now too big a threat to ignore anymore. And this way it gives us a 3:4 chance of making the final. This is the last time we can do this. I have done what I have done to survive to this point, because there is no way I would have gotten here just sitting Sulaco strongthe whole time. That was to be yours, Mothers's and Xena's path. Mine, dur to circumstances nedeeded to be much different.

My biggest problem with doing this before now was that I was always going to be at the bottom of any Sulaco group, and it is clearly evident that while those such as Cherry and Nox were around, then my chances of progressing were not great. The way I was pretty much shut out the last round was proof enough of this, and why I had to side with them at the vote. I know I cannot win, but that doesn't mean have ever stopped playing or was looking to just rolling over and let one of the Greens walk away with this. They have had their time, but that time is done.

It's our time now.

You have heard this before, but I am not fucking around anymore, I am not trying to play you, I have never written to you in greater earnest, more sincerely than I am right now. The reason I didnt do this last night as I didnt know exactly what the situation had been with Mother, but I have been looking at this point for the longest time as being the right time to do this. Having heard how the Mother thing went down, I think it is safe to say that it was a one time deal with her also.

If the 4 of us dont come together now, its the only chance any of the 3 of yourself, Xena or Mother have of winning this game. I dot care about winning, because I think my chances of that are a long way gone in the rear vision mirror.

Please, let's keep this quiet, so we can blindside the Greens. We know how dangerous they are, and how they have been manipulative in the past in playing the division between us. So,just like that passive-aggressive comments in the Serentiy crew thread last night, please keep them thinking you are pissed at me & Mother. So we want them to not start trying to mess this up here. And to this end I am paying aloing with them.

But this is 100% the trth, I am with you here, and it is time for us to get this done.

I am about to write to Xena also and will post in that group chat to confirm this also, but on my life, I am with you here. I swear!

Its time to show the greens we know how to pull off a blindside as well, you know?

So, just to clarify, it was me that did the reaching out to you & sent a similar one to Xena - and it was this got the ball rolling. 

[Xena]

Hopefully they aren't as restless now. Thank you for supporting my game. It does mean a lot and to know that I'm not the only one who respects a loyal game tickles me. I think in this game you make your bed and at FTC you have to lie in it. My bed is honest and with lists of options and if it was anything else then that would be completely on me and the choices That were made.

[Xena]

Also... PUNCHED LASAGNE VAGINA!