Updated thoughts on players time!
There's not too much more to say on Shuichi at this point, but progression with River has certainly been interesting. I think she has a lot of difficulty coming across as genuine in the things that she says. Obviously there is advantage to saying things that you don't really mean in these games, but River makes a real show of it imo.
A bit under a week ago-
Fenrir: "I particularly enjoyed talking with Shuichi, 12, Ted and Gilly"
River: "That’s awesome!! All of those people are ones who I have enjoyed getting to chat with too!!"
Now-
River (paraphrased): "Donald/Pikachu seems like the easy vote, but Donald is getting better. Btw I don't feel close to Kirby/Gilly"
In general:
Fenrir: [Pretty much anything]
River: [OMG same!]
And on that topic, I can tell she totally wants to take out Kirby/Gilly (or ideally, have me and Zod take them out and save them the trouble), and would very much rather Donald/Pikachu aren't the pair going to the eliminator, but she isn't quite committed enough to voice it. Our conversation has been an entertaining dance of her implying that she would like Kirby/Gilly nominated instead of Donald/Pikachu without stating it outright nor even why she would want that, while I feign ignorance to this fact while River and I both know she doesn't have an argument that would make nominating Kirby/Gilly beneficial for me/Zod.
Also,
I know that to many I'm just an extension of Zod but I like to pretend otherwise okay! Obviously I'm milking his social connections but you don't have to be so obvious about it.
Anyway, don't be fooled by the angst. River is fine. I just find a lot of things she says amusing!
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I haven't been getting too much Kirby drama from Zod recently, and he seems less anti the 4-district alliance than he used to be (I forget the district numbers tbh), so maybe working with this pair is going to become more of a thing. I think Gilly has been slightly checked out the last few days so it'll be interesting seeing what happens in the next round.
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I have gone kind of cold on Coco which is sad. The first phase of the game she was great and I enjoyed our PMs. But now she just doesn't talk to me enough.
And I can imagine that Shadow is similar for people on the other side.
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When River is telling me that Donald "has turned a new leaf" that is very concerning to me. Because he certainly hasn't with me. And that gives me/Zod even more reason to nominate District 6.
Apparently Pikachu is interrogating Zod as well which is hilarious.
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I think this is the pair that I'm overall most personally fond of. Whether this will translate to in-game relationship, I'm not sure, but I found Ted to be lots of fun and Stitch is honestly the cutest. I love it how we could have a very brief exchange about the round (agreeing that it didn't require much discussion) and then just talk about random stuff for the rest of the time (take that Ulysses!). This is a pair that I would really like to work with more in future.
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Hmmm, I get the feeling that I'm not very important to Susan but it's honestly hard to tell. I certainly feel like there's potential there, but I feel like River/Shuichi would always be closer to them than me/Zod are.
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Despite previous gripes, I sadly think it may be necessary to work with this pair. Having won two challenges now, Zod and I probably can't be too fussy if a pair is willing to work with us. And talking with Beetlejuice this round really hasn't been too bad at all.
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Still feel very mediocre about this pair. Tracer is fine but still underwhelming. Just blandly social I guess! But hey, I probably am too!
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I was hoping for a more spicy last place (District 8 was so close to last!), and things just seem to constantly go badly for Tetra. But on that topic, it's probably best that Tetra goes. Everyone keeps telling me "Oh poor Tetra!" while I don't really care (being totally real here) so obviously they care about Tetra much more than I do which probably means Tetra cares about them too!
I like Wenya though. Wenya has sass.
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And I guess I should talk about...
It's been super fun playing with him! And it's kind of a shame I have to feel a little bad about us winning challenges. It would've been nice to just be able to try our hardest to win every challenge and be rewarded for it. But instead I feel kind of guilty and worry about how the other players will see us. But hey, that's how these kinds of games though. There's not much that can be done about it.
I do have complaints though! I mean what was with him telling me the orange creature looked like a penis anyway?? When I said "it feels like a penis when I'm drawing it. Is something wrong?" He should have said "nah it doesn't look that much like a penis", but no, instead he says "that's exactly what it looks like" and he'd used the term mushroom earlier, so there I am drawing a middle school student's interpretation of a penis and who knows what everyone thinks of me now? No one has asked me about it, but they're probably thinking it and not saying anything!
But yeah otherwise Zod has been cool. Hopefully he's not complaining about me too much in his confessional!