MISSION REPORT | 17 - Awaiting The Twist

It hops over to its old paperwork, rifling through it and pulling out a somewhat worn sheet near the bottom of the pile.



"Amusing, is it not? Every suspect down, every player who was not connected to me down except the Capybara. I think over the last rounds I have exchanged my link with the Rat for a link with the Capybara, which is unfortunate especially given how much of a challenge beast the Rat is. But... one more vote. Assuming the Lion was lying."

The Eagle looks over its notes.

"I had an interesting exchange with the Rat which I did not mention last round. After he annoyed me, I came out and directly told him he was inactive and this was why the problems happened. But... in that conversation, I then tried to mend things a little by, well, being incredibly manipulative. It is not a message I am looking back on with pride, and it actually makes me want him to be at FTC beside me because I think he will campaign against me on the Jury purely because of it."

"I told him he was my number one ally in the premerge and the person I felt I could bounce ideas off, who I felt I could trust completely. And then when he disappeared at merge it sent me down a path of not knowing what to do, not having anyone to talk through my feelings with, losing the person I had placed that complete and utter faith in."

"Obviously, this is completely untrue. Kestrel is that person, Rat never was. But I need Rat to think I am playing entirely selfishly so that he trusts the Kestrel."

It pauses.

"He was straightforward with me afterward. He told me outright that he views me as dangerous at FTC, because I have been involved in two moves he has not, and have been much more active than him throughout. He told me that he does not want me in Final Four for these reasons. And he also told me that he is also worried about the 'Urbosa Curse' of having his work discounted due to the immunity run."

"I suggested that both could be solved if he goes to F4 with me, and then gives up immunity if he wins it. If he thinks he will be called out for hiding behind immunity, then he can show that he is not by making the biggest move one can make and giving it up, putting it all on the line to defeat the massive threat. Unless I win immunity at F4, he would not have to face me in FTC in any circumstance, and should he make FTC he will end the game with a massive move on his resume."

"He... has not really responded to this. I think it is a good pitch. I suppose we will see where his head is at."

The Eagle looks around at the other animals.

"I know the Kestrel wishes for the Capybara's elimination now, and I think that is likely what happens if a returnee comes in. But if one does not, and the Rat does not win immunity, I may well try to push for his elimination regardless. He is my biggest threat simply because I know that if I do not win FIC, I am likely going to firemaking, and he is the challenge beast."

"If he does win immunity and I cannot do this, or if there is a returnee, I think I would be in a much better spot if he wanted me at Final Four. So the pitch is important for that reason."

"I trust the Kestrel to the very end. I think it would be a very bad idea for them to take me, or for me to take them... but I will do it if I have the chance, and I hope they would do the same. I want to be at the end of this game with them."

"I would not hate being forced to firemake against them, as long as if they won that, they went on to win the game. They absolutely deserve it, and I do not think people really see that. They have been at the center of absolutely everything since the very beginning, and they have managed to keep that concealed to the point where they have literally never been a realistic target. It takes something special to constantly be making the choices that decide what direction the game goes in, and yet never be labelled a threat."

"I hope people do not mistake that for them being a goat. Sometimes perception becomes reality, and if you are never labelled a threat throughout the game, people can have a hard time believing they were wrong and you worked hard to be there."

"No returnee! I am in Final Four? Unless they choose to return a player at Final Four, but... that just seems wrong. That would give a challenge threat an incredibly easy ride to F3, in combination with firemaking challenge."

"If Lion's statement was a bluff, it was goddamn incredible though. Everyone was convinced."

"I had a conversation with Kestrel last night about Jury perceptions. They are not taking me to Final Three should they win immunity at Final Four, because of the optics of it all."

"I think that is reasonable. They will have a hard enough time selling their game if I am there, because people will view it as them not cutting their shield at the right time; if they were to take me to the end that blatantly, they likely get considered a goat. It saddens me quite a lot, but I see the reason for it."

The Eagle pauses, a slightly hurt look in its eye. While it does understand, it is not as unaffected by the situation as it is trying to make out.

"Kestrel wishes to eliminate the Capybara here. It makes sense from their perspective. At F4, Cat and Capybara will take one another if they are present, so there are two scenarios where Kestrel gets sent to firemaking; in the RECK F4, Cat takes Kestrel, I take Kestrel, and Rat probably gives up immunity to Kestrel to take me down in firemaking. If their intention is just to get to the end, keeping Rat is the best play for their game."

"That is from their perspective, though. And if they are beginning to think just about themselves in endgame, then I need to do the same. The way I get there is by winning challenges, and that is far more difficult with the Rat present than it is without. Not to mention, I need to win the second Final Five immunity."

It seems deep in thought.

"The only other option I can see is to try to make a pact with the Rat where, if I do not vote him here, he promises to vote with me at second final five, no matter who has immunity or who comes back. My hope is that the Kestrel would also stay onside in this scenario, and that way we could boot either the returnee or the Cat."

"Do I trust the Rat's word to that degree? I do not know. He has not lied to me thus far this game, and he would be very thankful for surviving here. But to do this would be hugely reducing my chances of winning immunity in that F5, so I could just be dooming myself by taking that approach."

The Eagle puts its head in its wings.

"I pitched the Rat on the plan to vote as a three in the following vote, and suddenly Kestrel wants Rat out instead of Capybara."

"If they wanted that why didn't they say so off the bat? That was my first preference anyway! Now I have talked myself into thinking that Rat going is a bad result for me..."

The Eagle flips through its notebook.

"The Rat gave a great many reasons for why I should keep him."

"First, he believes I am not enough of a people person to win, because I do not discuss the goings on of 'the person behind the Eagle', nor do I show great interest in the lives of others beyond the mission itself. The latter is perhaps a reasonable complaint. The former, I do not accept; the Eagle is the Eagle. Is my magnificence such that people must play make-believe and say I am not real?"

"Second, he believes that I have played too selfishly and people will not respect this. In reality, I have been playing with the Kestrel's best interests in mind for most of the game, so I am uncertain this applies. But even if he is correct, to stop being selfish at the final five is the best way to make the entire jury annoyed, because the selfishness that put them all there would then have been thrown away at the moment it was most important. It is a great way to show that my judgement is lacking, when my gameplay has been all about judgement."

"The third argument was that to take the easy route of eliminating him now, instead of facing him at firemaking, would be cowardice. I will admit, this is more effective than most of his arguments because it plays into the magnificence of my character, but ultimately it would be foolish to do something suboptimal simply because to do the opposite could be perceived as cowardice. Especially when nobody would expect anyone to willfully put themselves in a difficult firemaking fight purely for the glory of the battle, unless that player seriously needed to prove something, and I do not think I need to prove myself."

"Finally, he intends to ask me at FTC about my riskiest move, and says he considers the path I have taken to be the 'safe, unenthralling' path. When I asked whether he would describe sniping Hedgehog and sniping Bunny as safe and unenthralling, his response was as follows."

The Eagle plays back its wire recording.



"He is of course incorrect about the Bunny vote, but I cannot correct him on that because it is important that people do not know that the Kestrel and I are as close as we are yet. Outside of this... I would say that the Hedgehog vote was a guess about the payoff, the Bunny vote was a guess about the payoff, the Butterfly vote and the Lion vote and hell, even this vote, were guesses about whether the payoff would benefit me or not. I was never guessing whether a person would do what they said they would do, except potentially in the case of the Owl, because I had the connections needed to ensure I had all the information, but the risks I took were about betting on me being able to perform certain actions and still stay in that central, information-heavy position. The fact I am still here proves that they were the correct guesses to take."

"I think he will still take it upon himself to try to poison the jury against me. He seems to have talked himself, with his own arguments for his salvation, into thinking that the only 'risky moves' that matter for FTC purposes are those where you do not know the intentions of the people you are trusting, and you put your fate fully in their paws. I do not believe I will receive his jury vote, but that is on him, because I do not think this is a reasonable thing to expect someone to throw away a good position in order to do."