I'm not sure how to feel about that Medevac.
I think it was good for my game - it's hard to see any way that it could have been bad for it given that Mesprit was likely voting the other way last round
but at the same time, that tribal council would have been one for the MS history books
In case it's not been explained in other confessionals, here's last round's story from my point of view:
The previous round, there had been 7 votes for Coba, and 4 votes for Volc.
6 of the Coba votes were Mystic 2.0, Uxie, and Volc, and 3 of the Volc votes were Hoopa, Celebi and Coba - but it got a bit weird past that point
Mesprit was known to be very much in the pocket of Hoopa & Celebi, and was open about it - informing me straight up that she had an alliance with them and that Volc would have been the next boot on Instinct
but Poipole was also solidly aligned with them, and had not agreed to vote for Coba despite a significant push from both myself and Uxie to get her to do so
it seemed very strange to all of us that someone had not voted with them
both of them later claimed to be the Coba vote, but I believe Mesprit's claim is almost certainly the true one
to quote her message to me:
"I'm honestly scared of possible consequences of my Cobalion vote last round. Even though it was mostly an accident since I went to sleep before I could read their PMs about voting Volc."
I think that says enough by itself - she was still aligned with them, and would have voted with them if she had gotten back in time to do so
I don't see why she would lie about that, so I've concluded that Poipole is lying
Anyway, to get to the actual relevant bit
that meant that Coba's idol play had potentially turned the tables
my plan was (and still is) to pagong down the 4 Mystic 1.0s who aren't Deo and myself, and since subtlety isn't really my strong point, all four of them were well aware of this
as such, they all knew they absolutely had to win the vote this round or they'd be screwed
the Volc boot appeared to have changed the numbers from 7-4 to 6-4, but because Mesprit was doing whatever Hoopa and Celebi told her to do, it had actually evened it out to 5-5
usually, this wouldn't be a massive problem, because a tie vote requires serious dedication to go through with - but the impending pagong had given these 4 players that determination and they were not giving in for anything
thankfully, our five was (I hope) solid, and were all convinced that Mes would flip on the revote
I was... less convinced, given that we were targeting one of her two closest allies, but we couldn't go for Poipole for fear of what Uxie would think of it so we didn't have much of a choice
however, I didn't have much control over that, so I focused on the one thing that worried me the most - where that idol clue had gone
Tapu was pushing for a Celebi boot, and everyone was happy with that, but (to me at least) Celebi seemed like the obvious vote given that Coba was immune
and since an idol clue had been given out in the challenge, there was a good chance that they would have one - it seemed ludicrous to me that we were going for the person everyone knew we were going for,
again, after it had gone so terribly in the previous round
so I was busy panicking and talking to people about maybe switching it up to Hoopa, when Uxie suddenly strongly implies I don't have any need to worry about it
I caught her drift immediately and set the vote back on Celebi without asking any more questions, but she decided she trusted me with it and went further, sharing the idol clue itself and what she'd managed to make of it:
"Achoo i.ibb.co/PjW2dxQ/IdolClue.png
Whoops my allergies. I don't see a route to victory without you, and I was planning on using the idol to save you if I was able to find it in time. Turns out I'm dumb and I can't solve puzzles. When the letters are unscrabbled, they come out to the following
EASLRNXE = XERNEAS + L
OIANLBOWC = COBALION + W
ZMONRCEEA = NECROZMA + E
GOODURN = GROUDON
OOHH = HO-OH
IACELESTREG = REGISTEEL + AC
YLLTELAV = YVELTAL + L
RNADULOS = LANDORUS
ULEEPATAL= TAPU LELE + A
That appears to spell Wallace, but that's all I could find here. I don't know how else I can find the idol, but hopefully you can have a better shot in the next few hours. Also please don't share this with anyone. I feel like you are the only one I can absolutely 100% count on not sharing this back to Cobalion since your life kinda might depend on finding it."
I'm glad she knew her pokemon because I would never have been able to solve that first section
the bit she was stuck on was the final section - the # of the favourite pokemon
well, waddaya know, she came to the right person
or more specifically, the right person was Jirachi, who found out that the spectator Cubone had the status 'my favourite pokemon' without ever setting it himself (because it would have shown in his activity log)
but this was found while we were franctically searching for an idol in round 1, and Jirachi had passed that info on to me, so I knew that the answer was 104
I sent that back to her saying to post 104 in her confessional thread or something, before I realised it was probably the Secret Islet password - ended up being Wallace104 in some form (I forget the capitalisation)
I sent that to her also when it worked, and we spent the next two hours working through the puzzles there together
I was always intending to let her take the idol (I'd look evil if I sniped it) but it didn't end up mattering, since she finished the last puzzle first
but then she immediately sent it to me!
I initially argued that we probably shouldn't play it this round, because there was some chance I wouldn't be the target since the other side didn't know where the idol was, but she talked me to my senses and argued that increasing our odds at the very least was important here
I don't know whether it would have worked, but it was such a relief to actually be safe that I could not stop smiling all evening, and I now fully trust Uxie
the way tribal turned out ended up working in our favour, because the idol wasn't used and we still gained the numbers, but I can't help but wonder how that tribal would have ended if the Medevac hadn't happened
I think the most likely outcome was Celebi going home, but I'm not 100% sure and I won't stop thinking about it until I can find out after the game - if anyone on our side had gone home, I think this game would take a drastically different direction than the one it is going to take
I handed Uxie back the idol, both to gain her trust and to take any potential target off my back
I don't think having an idol would help my gameplan at all, and if the word spread then my alliance would be far more likely to want to take me out at an earlier point (especially Tapu - I'll get back to that)
So, where does that leave us?
Well, provided the 5 of us stay strong, that leaves us perfectly placed to carry out my gameplan - kill off Hoopa, Celebi, Poi and Coba in any order, and then work my way from the final 5 to the final 3 (I'll get back to that too)
will the five of us stay strong? That's always the question, isn't it? We're trying to pagong 4 of the strongest players in the game, and they'll be fighting it all the way. All it takes is one flip and everything changes - but I'm hopeful that that won't happen.
Uxie is probably the person I trust most right now. That joint idol hunt was an experience neither of us will forget anytime soon, and her giving me that idol shows a hell of a lot of commitment to keeping this 5 intact, which I think means that she is fully willing to take out the other 4. I'd trust her with my life right now, and I hope giving her the idol showed her that I'm just as trustworthy as well.
Regi... I still like the guy a lot, and if he's as logical as he appears, I doubt he'll break from the plan. He's terrified of social threats, to the point where he sold out Tapu's plan to me (see Tapu section), and that makes me trust him a lot. I think if it's a final 3, I'd have the best shot against him and Deo, and I think he'd take me there over Tapu or Uxie - I still haven't decided whether that's what I want to do with this endgame yet, but I think I have a solid option there in that.
Deo feels like MvGX Ken. At first that felt fantastic - having someone who's with me all the way and will vote wherever I tell him to - but I'm a paranoid person by nature and everything in me is saying 'How can a favourite be MvGX Ken?'. I think I'm overthinking it - he seemed delighted to make the merge, and his social game isn't great, so it's possible this is the first time he's actually been in this position and he's not thinking about how he'll be viewed by a Jury. At the end of the day, I trust him to stick with me, although having a 'who is the biggest goat' question on this questionnaire is horrible and I really hope it doesn't make him stop being MvGX Ken.
Tapu, oh Tapu. The one person in my 5 who I think wants me gone - Regi informed me that she wants to carry out the Mystic 1.0 pagonging, and then continue it onto myself and Deoxys and take the Valors to the end. That's slowly become more and more difficult as the Valors have gone, but I think she still views my plan as the best path to secure that all-valor F3, and as long as she does, I can trust her to stick with it. It's almost better knowing that someone is plotting against you, in a way? Because I know exactly when she's planning to make her move, so I know she'll be with me until then, and because of Regi I have the ability to turn the tables on her when she tries to go for it.
This might not be an interesting game for specs for the time being - I apologise for that, but Meltan is playing for Meltan, not for the specs
With any luck, this will be an easy pagong down to F5