[Tyler]

I can't hep it. Genie has won me over. There is so much of myself that I see in Genie and I just like this person so much that I couldn't help but offer them an alliance tonight. I didn't consult Shirin. I didn't wait to see how the immunity challenge went tomorrow. I just made the offer. And perhaps deliberately at a time of night when I knew Genie would be asleep, but would wake up to see it, and I hope it is the birthday gift she(/he) is hoping for. I know if I were him (to me his actual gender is easier than the character's gender, sorry) I would desperately be trying to find a way to survive this tribe swap, and maybe that's all he's doing is saying everything he thinks I want to hear. But it's working. He *is* saying everything I want to hear and he *is* doing everything he should be doing to survive this terrible tribe swap he got. I *hope* that there is room in his game for another ally and I *hope* that keeping Genie safe on this tribe doesn't bite me in the ass down the road, but right now I just feel like I would rather keep this person in the game and continue talking with them than some of the other original Mausolus people. 

I don't want to be naive. Genie is probably part of whatever majority alliance was on Kameiros before we swapped. I don't know too many details but I never got the sense from Genie or Ricard talking about their old tribe that they were in particular danger or held any specific grudges against any of their former tribemates...at least not yet. I don't want to give away too much, but I do kinda want to plant the seed with Genie that I am the person he can trust on this tribe, if he doesn't already. I want him to trust Shirin as well, but there is a part of me that wouldn't mind having something on the side that Shirin doesn't...we'll see how that goes. I'm not sure I want to admit to Genie how close I am to Shirin yet. I think there is a good chance I will admit the alliance (assuming Genie accepts it) to Shirin...but there is a weird part of me that is just a little bit suspicious of Shirin too. I *do* trust Shirin but I don't want to be naive to the possibility that maybe I shouldn't. I mean we are all trying to win this game and she could be actively trying to neuter my game behind my back.

Right now Genie doesn't know that I have an alliance with Shirin. And Shirin doesn't know I offered an alliance to Genie. I'm not sure how long this status will last, but there is a part of me that wants to be proactive about my game and establishing trust with Genie, even a secret trust. It feels like a smart thing to do right now. Even if I eventually do tell Shirin about this, which I probably will, for now I just want to see if this can be kept on the DL for now. Maybe Genie will tell me he wants to work with Shirin and vice versa and then fine, but in the back of his mind I am hoping it is *Tyler* he will ultimately be more loyal to. 

I would really like to hear the download from Genie about his former tribe--what all happened in detail. Who is with who etc. If I can get that info out of him, then I would be willing to exchange it. I feel like I do have the power on this tribe somewhat to require the information to come from Genie first. What I *hope* is that it flows out of him in a trusting way and not a bullied or threatened kind of way. I want us to be a team but I can understand Genie feeling vulnerable as well. I want Genie to share this information with *me* and not necessarily Shirin if I am honest. I want the upper hand over Shirin. Right now I can't help but feel like she has the upper hand in this game. I kinda think Shirin is low key running shit. So I don't want to be naive and I don't want to roll over and hand over the game to Shirin, just because I *want* to trust her implicitly. I have no reason to distrust Shirin at all. I just want an extra friend in my--and probably hers honestly--back pocket.

I think there is a part of me that is already detaching from Ricard because he might actually be the first to go over here. As willing as I am to ditch Rodney and I am *so* willing, I also don't want to willingly and readily give up the Mausolus tribe number advantage if I don't have to. A vote for Ricard would be easy to get the tribe to do I think, for the first vote at least, and convince everyone we are still Mausolus strong. But if we have to go a second time--Rodney is toast.

And frankly, I think I am willing to throw the challenges to make both of those votes happen. Maybe I'll get lucky and we merge with 12. If not, maybe I'd be willing by then to send the other tribe to council in the hopes that Will and Nina have done *something* to secure their safety on the tribe. I still want to pick off former Kameiros if we can. I was starting to like Lindsey before we separated, and honestly kinda hope she survives to the merge as well, if she stayed Mauso strong (rah rah), but I would rather see Nina and Will survive that tribe than her. 

Anyway, tomorrow is another day, so we'll see where the relationship with Genie goes from here. What is his response to my alliance offer? How do we play it from here? Do we get Shirin involved or keep it on the DL? Can I actually extract any of the former Kameiros story (aka drama, votes, and alliances) out of him? All of this remains to be seen...