My impression is that I was now in bed with Crisismana but I felt like he was a henchman of a larger group which probably had secretpanda as the ringleader. Once we finished our mission against rosslessness I was worried that crisis would not let me into his "inner circle" which could signify that I would be the next target. At this point I did not feel like I had a lot of military might, as my base was very lopsided with factories on W side and generators on the less certain E side.
So I'm pretty surprised to read this and see that crisismana appears to have been perhaps the dominant player in this game. His diplomatic style really appears to have worked for him -- right up until it completely failed him

Stefan and I were having good conversations but no formal connection or specific common goal. I feel like it was a joint-decision between Stefan and myself to impose ourselves into Crisis' group. Actually I recall a point where Stefan formally asked me if it would be okay to form a legitimate alliance with these. Which amused me for some reason, I liked the request, so formal. My impression at that point was that Stefan was a diplomatic player but was feeling a bit edged out and needed to make more formal allies quickly before he was squeezed out of any team and became a target.