Round 2: Younweik

[Monica Padilla]

~ Episode 2 ~ 

Spirits are high at the Akha tribe camp. I generally like to be on the tribe that wins the first challenge, if only because it sets a good precedent and tends to lull people into a false sense of security. They don't think they have to play a strategic game just yet, so they're content to just settle for a little while and go with the flow. It's also easier to crystallize people's opinions against people like Kelly and Tracy, who aren't here and aren't doing much of anything. We have our marching orders for right now, and there isn't a great reason to change them just yet. 

Where things get interesting is that the mole posted in our tribe camp that he threw the challenge and will continue to throw challenges. Right now my main suspects are Joaq and Caleb, so the mole's post could mean one of two things - Joaq didn't do much at the challenge, and the mole is sincerely throwing it, or Caleb was a rockstar at the challenge, and the mole's claiming to have thrown it to dissuade suspicion off of himself. Where this gets tricky is that I was also theoretically a rockstar at the challenge, which means that if people are thinking the same way I'm thinking, it's entirely probable that they'll suspect that I'm the mole just because I so obviously couldn't be. 

It gets even worse factoring in that they put me on the puzzle. That was one of the mole tasks, so a mole of median intelligence would refuse to participate in that task due to attracting suspicion. A mole of high intelligence would take that task and do poorly at it. A mole of low intelligence would take that task and rockstar it to the best of their ability, and potentially attract suspicion that way. So there's literally no way to avoid suspicion during this potion, and when you ALSO add the fact that I don't want to crush the puzzle because it's a dead giveaway that it's me, you get a really cruddy situation all the way around.

What I'm going to do for this challenge is to do the puzzle while watching an episode of Scream Queens and cooking buffalo chicken at the same time. My assumption is that if I have multiple distractions and continually leave the computer to go do other things, I'll get a time that resembles something an average person would get. (I know that sounds really friggin arrogant and I'm sorry, but last time I tried to throw a puzzle challenge I won it anyway). 

Right now my main role on Akha is to be the person who gets along with people and helps out in the challenges, hosts the Cards Against Humanity games, makes jokes and keeps the good humor flowing. I'm just sort of there broadcasting positive vibes, but not being the most visible person. I'm making myself open and available for side alliances when the time comes, but right now I'm not going to play too hard. I'm sure that the time will come for that, so I don't want to paint myself into a corner by playing too hard just yet. 

[Monica Padilla]

Well, the only person in my alliance who I was confident wasn't the mole... just got medivaced. Thrilling. :/ 

[Monica Padilla]

That awkward moment when you put more effort into throwing the puzzle challenge than everybody else did into doing it properly, and then the challenge gets cancelled...