This is the endThe light at the end is visible.
I’m going to start by rambling a bit before giving my final care package to each jury member.
Being in the FTC is a very wild experience, and it’s not something I quite expected. I feel like I never fully appreciated it before, and if any one of you hasn’t made it to this point yet, you need to keep trying, because you certainly haven’t got the full survivor experience before getting here. You get thoroughly dissected and it’s like your mum going through all your texts and examining your life. (ok, not quite that extreme) I feel like I didn’t even get any questions that were overly hard to find an answer for either... it’s just quite a thing.
Going in I thought I would be the favourite to win based on my reads on how Gundham and Nagito were perceived, but never once did I think I could take it easy here. I came in giving it my 100% to earn your jury vote. I’m giving it my all because I respect my opponents too much to give them anything less then my full effort. (Also because I know if I slack off now and let my guard down they’ll be able to beat me). I hope I’m still the favourite to win, but I’m not letting myself get excited yet.
I think everyone was given a fair shake and a chance to pitch to open minds. No one really asked me for any detailed play by plays of rounds that went on, and seemed content for the most part with what I already mentioned, but I do want to assure you that if you did, you’d get word vomit about all my thoughts and messages about what I was doing. (hmm, maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t ask)
My challenge strength has been a bit of a topic, and I think I want to talk about it a bit more. There were some of the earlier challenges where there was a lot of chaos going on and a lot to keep track of in short periods of time. I was able to keep on top of it all, keep the tribe organized, and still do my part. This ability here was also what allowed me to help stay on top of all the shenanigans going on. I love trying to find stability in chaos.
Gundham, it was cool seeing a different side of you here. I know this game means a lot to you, but hoo boy, I’ve never come this close either and this game means a lot to me too, so I hope I still beat you. But I do want to say when you told me what your word count was at, I told you it was too long. I tried to warn you.
Nagito, here's my response to your personal burn list
. If you gave it earlier, I could have responded to it sooner then my closing speech. I'll spoiler it because I suspect most people won't care, but I find it kind of fun to debate stuff like this.
Voting Hiyoko in F10I don’t get what’s weird or groundbreaking here? We agreed that Hiyoko had to go, and then we did the distancing plan where we voted separately. I didn’t think it would be Hiyoko vs. Yasu when I made an alliance with Hiyoko, but when it was, I couldn't vote Yasu over her. It was sloppy on my part, but the jury knows about that already.
Voting Kirumi/Sonia in Black DragonsWhen it comes to Sonia vote, again I think it’s clear that I listened to arguments from both sides. If you think me listening to arguments is sheepy, then I guess I’m a sheep. Maybe if I was a sheep, I’d have sheeped Sonia over you? No offense Nagito, but Sonia was a lot prettier
I think it's a bit naive you think you held more sway than people I was directly in a tribe with.
Mediators/Sayaka's opinion of youI was in a worse position going in because I had very few previous connections. My entire first tribe was dead by this point already. The only people I previously met were you, Chihiro, and Sayaka. But I worked to get in the good books and make a long lasting alliance with Kyoko/Celesta/Gundham that lasted until final 7 where the endgame scrambling began. And I still worked with Sayaka quite a bit going forward. Chihiro was someone who didn't like me at that time fair, but she didn't have a high opinion of you either.
The Despair HairpinsI never expected to pull off a bluff with my fake idol. What I did with it, was use it to gain trust with people. Just the act of telling someone you have an item is giving them information and makes people trust you more. Me sharing this item with Sayaka was probably one of the reasons she wanted to side with me and Kirumi for the first vote, over Sonia and Mikan. I would share it with her again in that situation. Yeah she told Chihiro about it, but giving it to her helped me more in the long run.
You tried to vote me out at F6
Uhh, I was never planning on voting you out. I never would have voted you if you didn’t have an idol, and we had the numbers to make you survive if you didn’t. And I was very clear with you that if you didn't have an idol, I'd try to shift the vote off you that round to be between Celes and Akane, so there's now way you think I was actually trying to vote you out. I personally was worried about being idoled out in the future, so I wanted almost anyone else to be a higher priority decoy target. I never intended for you to be on the jury, but better you then me if there’s an unplanned idol blindside out of nowhere. Sorry
Voting for Mikan at F5Again I see no shame in changing my mind when presented evidence or arguments to do so. Mikan was telling me she wanted to go to the final 3 with me, so I thought she was safe to go to the final 4 with. When convincing evidence was given to me that Mikan viewed me as a high priority target I concluded that if she won immunity I’d get voted out. I didn’t write down the reasoning later.
I literally told Celestia right then and there that the reason I decided I was going to vote Mikan was because I thought Celes was easier to beat in the final immunity challenge, and that I’d lose the game if either of them won. She knows I gave her the reasoning then, and not making it up later.
Being the swing vote comes with advantages. I'm allowed to remain open minded, and let people pitch their arguments to me to see what benefits my game the most. I suspect you'd be framing it as Mikan and Gundham manipulating me into voting Celestia if I still decided to vote her.
Alright, time for some care packages.
Korekiyo
I know nothing about you, and it seems like you’re leaning towards Gundham.
I understand you've been gone a long time and you're not super engaged with this game, but I've been putting a ton of effort into this for the last couple months. If you don't consider my case or even bother looking into it because we've never met, I will actually be a little annoyed. Please look into my case anyway and give me a fair shot. If you do, and still think one of the other two has the better case, I'm completely okay with that. But at least read my opening statement. TY <3
Ibuki
So believe it or not, you're the hardest person for me to write something to, and I actually wrote this one last. I think this is an example where I never did fully understand what made you tick, or where to take our talks. I was very scared of your skills, especially when you were doing it all from your phone
I think my last response to your question sums up most of my pitch to you. My physical game was strong. My strategic game was strong because I was usually in a place with many options based on my maneuvering, my social game was strong because I talked to all people and got information so I could keep tabs on relationships and who to watch out for and who would not vote who. I'll end with my favorite Jonny Cash song, and probably what all the finalists will be feeling until the reveal.
Chihiro:
With regard to your last paragraph, I did downplay my relationship with Nagito to everyone. But he did really say he wanted to work with you and Mikan in the upcoming rounds so I thought your read on him was way off and not a good reason for us to not talk
I did tell lies this game. Almost all of them were small things designed to make me look as favourable to people as possible. And I think these little lies helped let me get through the game without ever having to do any major relationship damaging lies. Not great life advice to live by but it works in the game.
Also, before I say anything further, you have nothing to apologize for for medevacing. Real life trumps game life always. But with that out of the way, I agree that you leaving really left in limbo one of the things I was really looking forward to see play out. Would we become closer allies then ever? Would we remain quasi talkative with each other until we decide we had to go against each other? Would we backstab each other? I didn't know the answer to that yet.
But we’re both still a part of this game, so we can put to rest this arc right here xD . I'm just saying, if you vote for me to win, that would be a nice and poetic ending. We start the game as friends, we quickly crash and burn due to things that were probably both our faults, and we slowly try to repair it. And in the end, we finally end as game friends again and everything is forgiven. Sounds nice right? At the least, if you vote for Gundham here, frame it in a way that it’s against me so we can end as rivals who want the other out. Give me that closure man xD
Yasuhiro
I’m flabberghasted you thought I viewed you so lowly. I never thought you were a drooling moron. I never assume anyone is bad or not worth my time. I even still kept up communication with Toko until the end, and she was probably one of the most first booty first boots to ever get first booted. And if I thought you were a moron, why would I take to heart one of the things you said to me? Do you remember? You said you saw all the qualities of a survivor winner in me – and you said that you thought I had a good shot at winning. You said that to me waaaaay back in the Mediator tribe where not many people even noticed me yet. I realized I really did have what it took if I put the effort into it.
That's the encouragement that motivated me a bunch that I referenced in my opening speech.
I don’t want to make you a poor judge of character, and I didn’t make you eat those words. Hiyoko is proud she called this final 3 from early merge, but if I win, you can get credit for predicting me as a winner loooooooong before anyone else.
Hiyoko
You already said you’re voting me so no need to appeal. I’ll just put the roasts you requested here (ignoring you because like I said you roasted yourself enough already)
Ibuki, most of your PMs were so riddled with typos, that my friends who drunk text me have a better accuracy rate.
Chihiro, you're short.
Yasuhiro, your hair might be one of you best accomplishments. (Now is this one a roast or a compliment? The best roasts are the ones where you aren't sure)
Sayaka and Kyoko, your avatar choices and your personalities are about as in sync as
Akane, Sakura would beat you in a fight.
Celestia, your hair is even weirder than Yasuhiro's.
Mikan, cthulu is less scary then you.
Sayaka
I feel like your mind is likely made up because you didn't spend too much time asking questions. I hope you're choosing me, but I'm taking no votes for granted so I'm still going to argue as if you're on the fence.
You mentioned you'd vote for whoever kept the game interesting and did interesting things because it was going boring. But I was like, "I'm open to these things. I thrive in managing chaos! Why didn't you ask me to help you!" After you left, the status quo was shook and the lines drawn in the sand erased with the Kyoko boot, and I don't think it's unfair to say I was a big role in that. After that I played a part in setting up Akane getting idoled out so I did my share of actions that weren't just boring easy boots. So I hope my case, and our relationship and the fact I was open with you for a long time is enough to earn your vote! Thank you for working with me on Black Dragon especially.
Kyoko
It still feels like it's been a very long time since I got to talk to you. The last few councils we kept missing each other, and didn't really talk, and even this FTC I still feel like I haven't fully been able to get closure with you. I suspect no one messaging you made it harder for you to get closure as well, and why you weren't thrilled about that. I look forward to talking postgame with you.
You stuck out in my mind very early when Kirumi would tell me about the clique with you and her and Makoto. I knew you'd be a cool alliance partner if I could ever get in with you. Celes has been getting a lot of praise, but for the longest time you were seen as her equal. (although near the end you kind of dropped off and we all worried you were getting drunk all the time) Gundham should get a lot of credit for getting Yasuhiro voted out, but it was you who was bold enough to make him an option in the first place as well.
I'm assuming everyone is still on the fence, so I'm making my pitch to you still. I think I was the main force (along with Akane) behind getting you out, and you said you thought it was both a good move and that you were planning on targeting me next round so it was justified on my end. I think that's enough to deserve your vote. If I don't win, you got voted out for nothing because Akane isn't here and no one else really wanted you out.
Would you rather be remembered as a boot that most people didn't want but you still somehow died, or the person the winner needed to overcome to get the win. (Yes I'm aware this is eye-rollingly cheesy. Pitches are supposed to be cheesy.)
Akane:
Coming into this FTC you seemed pretty hardcore against me from the start, and then after I responded to one of your questions you shut me down without any other comments so I have no idea what happened between us. I thought we had a positive working relationship in the game and that there wouldn't be any issues.
I hope you of all people appreciate how hard it is to play the middle if you were doing that as well. Like, if you got offended by my post, it’s literally me going “You did a good job hiding your game from me, nicely done! I think I did the same to you, and here’s why.”
So I have no idea what your problem currently is with me, but I hope you still give me a bit of consideration. I enjoyed the fact we worked together for a lot of votes despite never being in an alliance.
Celestia
Mikan
Llike I said I already know I'm getting your vote.
Our relationship reminded me so much of my relationship with my sister. Me and my sister are super close, but when we're in a game together, we become different beasts and very competitive with each other. We'll do everything we can to win and specifically beat each other, but we always make sure we're the ones who beat the other, and not let anyone else do it. If one of us gets attacked in Risk or something, we'll defend the other to the death but we totally plan to take each other out later. Sometimes things get heated, but there's always a respect after.
I felt it similarly with you. Like when you got put on the bloc, I couldn't let you stay up there. By that time, I was pretty certain I was going to need to vote you out eventually, but I wanted it to be me, and not let anyone else touch you. We'd been through too much.
Haha, I have no idea if this is really weird or if you viewed me in a similar way but it's kind of how I viewed you. I'm very glad we could spend time together, and I'm glad the rest of my tribe didn't let you die so early