Confessional

[Austin Carty]

So these first few days went pretty well for me, all in all. I was deemed one of the more active members of our group by the others, but not necessarily the most active, which is definitely the sweet spot you wanna be in.

I'm a bit surprised we managed to pull through on the challenge, given we had 7 people participate to their 8. A big part of it was luck, to be completely honest, but I think our tribe as a unit communicated much better than their tribe. I'm not sure if they even have a group-chat, but ours allowed us to communicate clearly and efficiently. I think I suggested just about every one of our final targets, which makes me feel a bit good about myself in retrospect. I said I flipped a coin to determine it, so as to not arise any suspicion, but I had analyzed the probability of them targeting certain teammates, which led to my decision. Managing to successfully vaccine two targets got us the win, and I'm proud I managed to determine it rightly. I made  sure to phrase every target as a question, however, so as to try and not appear like a leader. I think if anyone's getting a leader vibe, its Todd, since he's on quite often. Hopefully that puts the target on him and not me.

I've talked to Brian quite a bit, even though he's on the other tribe. We have a lot in common, and he's fun to chat with. It's good to make in roads on the other tribe, just in case, and Brian is my method of doing that. It'd be kinda cool to have an inter-tribe alliance come the merge.

On my tribe, the two people I talk to the most are Kass and Yul, both very funny and interesting people. Kass came to me with the offer of an alliance, which of course I accepted. She said she'd like to include Yul, which I'm completely fine with, and Candice in it. I haven't talked to Candice much, mostly because I haven't seen her on, but I need to begin building communication with her quick if I want some security.

Right now I feel mildly comfortable, but I need to do more socializing if I want to cement my position. Ignoring someone makes them much more likely to target you down the road, after all.

[Austin Carty]

1) How do you feel in your tribe? Are you on the outs, or are you in the majority?

I'm fairly confident I'm in the majority. Yul and Kass have both agreed to alliances, and Candice and I are pretty tight to. Now, that may be 4, but given the fact that the others are very disorganized and Tyson is almost certainly an inactive, this tight four may as well be the majority. We may draw in another number if it becomes necessary.

On the whole, I think definitely ended up in the better tribe. There's much more activity on Ares than Athena, and much less open scheming, from what I hear anyway.

2) Who do you trust the most? Who do you trust the least?

Hmm, thats a multifaceted question. On my tribe, I probably trust Yul the most, and Todd the least. Yul has been very straightforward with me, and he’s a nice guy all in all it seems. Todd answers it one or two words, and yet he’s pretty active, which worries me.

In general, I probably trust Brian the most, and Teresa the least. Brian and I have been tight since day one, and I talk to him the most by far. He’s a really chill guy, very close to my age, and he has very similar interests to me. He really got shortchanged by the tribe setup, but what can you do? Hopefully, we can meet up at a tribe swap or at worst the merge.

Teresa and I had been talking pretty cordially, and I’m sure she’s a nice person, but she flagrantly tried to manipulate me. We were talking about their challenge loss, when she told me I was lucky we had won or else I was going home. Now, its possible I’m a complete moron who has the wrong perception of his place in the tribe, but I’m 99 % certain she was blowing smoke to try and cause paranoia and drama. Then she talked about them possibly throwing the next challenge to get me out, and I knew she was lying through her teeth. Or keyboard, I suppose, haha. Then she tried to cover it up saying it was a joke when I didn’t immediately respond, but I’m not a dumbass. Well, at worst I’m a half-dumbass, haha. She tried to play me and got caught, and now I know I can’t trust her.

3) If you won immunity last round, do you think you needed it to stay in the game?

Absolutely not. We had two inactives, one who’s been replaced at this point and one who hasn’t. It’s an easy boot, and I have enough allies that I could’ve curtailed any real blindside attempts, which quite frankly would not have happened. Everyone loves an easy vote, especially people in alliances.

4) If you went to tribal last round, how did you react when you found out who got voted off?

I know this question doesn’t apply to me, but I think John getting voted off was the biggest blindside ever done in an ORG. He was obviously the mastermind of his tribe, and his unanimous eviction surprised everyone I’m sure. How they tricked him into voting for himself is a mystery for the ages.

[Austin Carty]

1. So, when I saw the tribe swap, I was just a tad bit pissed. I had a solid four with Candice, Yul, and Kass, and all three of them stayed on Ares, I got shuffled over to Hades with two sub-active people and two of my opponents. It would have been awesome if Brian and I were on the same tribe too, but it seems our alliance will remain cross-tribal. I mean, being in Ciera or Todd's position is probably worst case scenario, but it still kinda sucks, from my perspective anyway. This swap certainly hurt my game, for now anyway.

2. This tribe is kinda inactive. Jay's never been super active, and apparently neither is Katie. Sabrina I barely know, and Julie is kinda distant from me. So obviously I'm in a great position. In all seriousness, if we go to tribal, there's a decent chance I go if either Jay or Julie flips, unless Sabrina and Katie toss each other to the wolves. I don't plan on flipping, but that burned me in another game, so I need to consider all my options. After all, this is survivor, baby. (My obligatory title plug, obviously.)

The one plus, however, was that it gave me a chance to find a new idol. If I had stayed on Ares, I'm fairly certain I would've been able to get the idol, but the Hades idol is just as good. I feel more confident now that I have it, and I hope I can save it until the merge. That being said, if I think there's a chance Jay or Julie flip, that idol is getting played. I really, really do not want to leave this game with an unplayed idol... unless I have it in my pockets at the finals, that is.

3. I didn't go to tribal last round, but from what Brian told me I assumed Brenda was going anyway. I haven't asked, but I assumed it was unanimous.

[Austin Carty]

1) How do you feel in your tribe? Are you on the outs, or are you in the majority?

On Hades, I'm certainly not on the outs. The only person I can say I haven't had some form of communication with is Sabrina. Jay and I don't really talk since he's not exactly a thrilling conversationalist on AIM, but he's loyal to the original Ares, which means he's loyal to me. I've had good convos with Katie and Julie, which makes me think they don't want to vote me out, but they may have wanted to evict me if they thought I was a threat.

2) In the first round, we asked you who you trusted the most and the least. Has that changed? Who’s your closest ally, and who’s your greatest enemy?

At this point, I trust Brian the most. I've tried to not put all my eggs in one basket, but I've definitely put more time into our alliance than any other. As for who I trust least, aside from the people I'm not aligned with, that is probably Teresa. Our alliance is a marriage of convenience, and why I like her, I don't trust her to stick by Brian and I. I'm hoping to boot her at F10 or F9, when the numbers are more under control. Kass suggested booting her at the merge, which is not a feasible plan.

3) What are your long-term plans in this game?

This might be a bit long, haha. So, Brian and I discussed this a bit last night. We both agreed that we had three targets going into the merge, which we’re both fairly certain comes at 12. There’s Sabrina, who, if she’s not inactive, is pretty damn close. There's Todd, who’s decently active, but such a pain to talk to because he talks in a very short manner and doesn’t seem to understand grammar. And then there’s Julie, who’s pleasant and pretty active. That being said, she’s the biggest threat outside the alliance, especially in light of her recent challenge performance, and she mentioned offhand to me that she’s won one of these games before. Brian actually showed me the game she won, I guess he decided to investigate. As I said to him, at this point its choosing between an Inactive, an Irritant, and a Winner.

We both think booting Sabrina first is probably the best course of action. Neither of us wants a possible inactive floating in this game, and she’s a vote we can’t control on top of that. It’s doubly good for me, because it reassures people like Jay or Todd that the original Ares is sticking together, which of course couldn’t be farther from the truth. People will start to scramble if the game is flipped too early, so its good to make them feel comfortable, provided they don’t examine the votes too closely. It may be a good idea to see if Brian, LJ, and Teresa will throw their vote to throw off suspicion, but that may be overplaying.

So, say we knock out Sabrina, then blindside Julie. Then we’re at 10, and hopefully Brian will be up for knocking out Teresa at that point. If he isn’t, we knock out Todd, and then hopefully Teresa at F9. Otherwise, flip that around. I can’t keep Teresa around too long, she’s too shrewd. If its a race to pull the trigger, I’ll shoot first.

Hopefully Jay and Katie go out in 8 and 7 in whatever order. Then, I hope I can knock out LJ, which leaves, me, Brian, and the three Ares I’m aligned with. I want to keep Brian with me, so I’ll play my idol on him at this point if I have to, and get out Candice. Yul is well liked, so hopefully I knock him out at F4, which leaves a F3 of me, Brian, and Kass. No true goat in this mix, but its the most solid way I can get to the finals.

Now, having said this, watch the whole plan get sunk down the drain at the merge, and me promptly blindsided a few tribals later, haha.

4) If you went to tribal last round, how did you react to the events that occurred?

Wasn't there, but why break tradition at this point, haha. The Ken boot off was not unexpected, but a tad unpleasant none the less. I knew Steph had the idol, so it was only a question if she would play it or not. She did play it, meaning there was no re-vote and Ken went out. At least its flushed, and she's probably going home now that Ares lost immunity again, so no harm, no foul I suppose.

By the way, WOOOOOOO for never having to go to tribal pre-merge, haha!

[Austin Carty]

1) The merge is upon us! How do you feel in this new tribe?

I feel pretty welcome in this tribe. I’m certainly no outcast on Ares, and I’m tight with Brian and by proxy some of the other Athena members. I feel relatively safe at this point, but I’m worried I may be seen as a threat. I’m trying to downplay that a little, but its hard not to be seen as active when, well, you are.

2) Who do you want to go home this round?

Well, Sabrina is most likely going home this round, unless some idol shenanigans screw me or another Ares over, which I’m wary of. And I want her to gone, truth be told. I’d rather not have an inactive on thee jury, and this merge boot is getting Gretchen’d, so I feel like a lot of people are nervous and want to go with the easy vote.

As for actual player’s I want to go home, I'm leaning towards Julie. She’s a previous winner, and she’s more shrewd than she lets on. What worries me is that she says she trusts me. I’m not sure if she trusts the entire original Ares or me in particular, but it does make me second guess voting her out.

3) If you went to tribal, how did you react to who went home?

Again, didn’t go to tribal, but Steph going home was no surprise. Still very pleasant to see, however.

By the way Jeremiah, I’ve been hearing about these other prizes. An idol that negates other idols? A double vote? BAKLAVA? And I get a disadvantage? I see how it is, Jeremiah. Aras is my new favorite host, now.

[Host Jeremiah]

Aras designed the auction challenge. #ThrownUnderTheBus

[Host Aras]

*Glares at Jeremiah*

[Austin Carty]

1) Two tribes have turned into one. Are tribal lines still intact, or have they blurred?

As far as Todd, Jay, and Julie are concerned, it's still a tribe vs. tribe game. Of course I’m gonna let them think this for as long as possible, but that shipped sailed long ago. I’ve been tight with Brian since day one, and that has coalesced itself into a seven person alliance consisting of myself, Yul, Kass, Candice, Brian, LJ, and Teresa. Katie will be voting with us, but the alliance considers her expendable to an extent.

Of course, even this alliance is merely a means to an end. At the end of the day, I’m hoping for a final two of Brian and I. Plan A&B, all the way.

2) Where do you stand in this game? How are you going to get to the end of the game?

I think I may be in the best spot in this game, right now anyway, simply because I have by far the most options and the most information. I have the Hades idol, which only Brian knows about, which is my ace in the hole, so to speak. The original Ares has the clear majority, so if any of the Athena’s try to double cross us, they know they’ll promptly get decimated. I’m also in the alliance of 7, which is about to take control of the game, for this vote anyway. Right now, I’m not the prime target for any Athena’s, or any Ares. Brian and I are sitting right in the middle, where we want to be.

I plan to vote people out to get to the end of the game, obviously. In all seriousness, I need to eliminate the biggest threat not tightly aligned with me, Teresa, and navigate through a very precarious few votes. If I can keep the target off my back until F9 or F8, I should have an easy ride to F4. It’ll get tricky there again, because I plan on eliminating Yul at F5 right now, and I don’t know how Kass and LJ, the other hopeful members of that group, will play from there. If all goes well, LJ leaves at 4, Kass leaves at 3, and then the jury will pick Brian or me. Hopefully me, by the way.


3) Are you going to fight for immunity this round, or do you think you don't need it?

As was shown, I didn’t fight for immunity, partially because of the disadvantage, partially because I don’t need it, and partially because I want to keep the target off my back. I’m a little irritated I got the second question wrong, because I knew Tony was right but wasn’t sure if it would count because he didn’t technically vote at the F3 vote, but whatever. As long as Julie didn’t get immunity, we were fine.

4) On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did Sabrina leaving impact your game?

Are negatives allowed? Seriously, booting an inactive doesn’t really change the game, aside from leaving the jury full of people who will actually think about their vote, which I suppose is a plus. Booting an Athena helps solidify my position, but it wasn’t strictly necessary.

[Austin Carty]

1) Last round was the first blindside! How did you react to the vote?

Well, considering I was one of the chief orchestrator of the vote, I was unsurprised. If everything goes right, I’ll be orchestrating another blindside this round. Ah, how I love Survivor.

2) We've asked you before who your closest allies are. Has this changed?

Nope, not really. I’m a little more wary of Kass considering she won the contest that is essentially about who is the most liked. That being said, I still intend to take her to Final 3 at this point, because I’m moderately certain I’m one of her closest allies, if not her closest ally.

Since I don’t have too much to talk about regarding the questions, I’ll talk a little bit about what I expect to happen with this vote.

Teresa is the target. She’s too shrewd for her own good, and she has an idol. We have the votes to evict her if we split the vote, provided the original Ares is OK with the plan. Kass seems down for it, she was with me when I came up with the plan. If Kass is onboard, most likely Candice is onboard, because she’s more or less our liaison to her. May need to figure out what to do with that later on, but for now we’ll just need to deal.

Brian recently agreed to the idea, in part because he wants to flush Teresa’s idol. If he does follow through with it, he’s pretty much putting all his eggs in my basket, which is fine with me, as it’ll prove his loyalty more or less. Now, we just need to get Yul on board with the plan, and I won’t be betraying any of my direct allies. LJ and Katie will be blindsided, but I never promised them anything.

Yul is also pretty critical to the plan in that his idol nullifier will prevent Teresa from idoling one of us out in case she gets wind of what's up. We’ll pretend we’re splitting the votes between Todd and Jay, which will gave us a definite majority. Jay and Todd can vote however they want with the way things are going down. If all works out right, it’ll be a 5-2-1, plus whatever Jay and Todd decided to vote, vote off. It may also be 4-2-2 if Brian wants to keep his compliance hidden.

If this works perfectly, I get rid of two idols and a major threat. And, lemme tell you something, that would make me a happy camper, which must be a rare occurrence given our conditions on Survivor, haha.

[Austin Carty]

You know what's great? Blindsiding a huge threat. You know whats even better? Blindsiding a huge threat with an idol.

This Teresa vote went exactly as I orchestrated, aside from Katie self-voting. LJ voted Todd, Teresa voted Jay, Jay self voted again, and as previously mentioned Katie self-voted. The other 6 votes went on Teresa, and even if we didn't have the idol countermeasure, we only would've lost Jay, which isn't really a huge loss at this point.

I'm in the best position in the game, undoubtedly. I have the only idol in the game right now, and only my closest ally knows about it. Nobody's brought up my name, as far as Brian's telling me. I'm not seen as a leader of any type, and Yul is taking all the heat. I have multiple clear paths to the end, the one I'm persuing being very, very likely to get me there. Who knows, maybe I should start working on my FTC speech?

In all seriousness, while I may have an easy vote or two coming up, I'm gonna have to show my hand at some point. Thankfully Yul wants to get Candice out at 7 now, so I won't be burning my Ares bridges doing that.

My only concern is that if Jay gets himself removed, then he'll be letting Katie deep in the game because I need to get Candice out at 7. I think we can vote Katie at 6, but it does worry me.

If all goes according to plan, however, I have a clear path to F3. But in Survivor, you never know when a wrench can be thrown in your plan.

[Austin Carty]

Well, not five minutes after I made this confessional, everything went to shit.

Brian was feeding LJ BS about the Teresa vote, but Yul told me that LJ didn't buy it, which fucks up the entire plan. So I went into damage control mode so I could retain control of LJ's vote and keep the plans solid. So, obviously, I made a F3 deal.

LJ came to Yul, and thanks to my awesome interpersonal skills Yul came to me. We got a F3 alliance in the works which LJ named Cerberus. By doing this, I've retained control over the critical LJ vote. Additionally, I've thrown off all suspicion that me and Brian are a duo, which is awesome damage control as far as I'm concerned.

Now I'm subtly manipulating LJ and Yul into voting the way I need to to advance my duo game with Brian. Brian's really impressed with this and said he'll campaign like hell for me if he's not sitting next to me. It's funnily tempting to boot him because of that, but I intend to honor our F2 deal. He actually told me his name's Don, and I told him my name, and we agreed it was a nice ORG moment, haha.

I really want to take him to the end, and I'm doing everything in my power to bring him there. I may idol him at 5 if need be at this point, as the old LJ plan went down the drain.

As far as I can tell, I'm safe til F5 at least, but its so confusing I don't even know at this point. All I know is that I better win this game at this point. After all, like Brian said, I'm playing by far the best game.

[Austin Carty]

1) Another round, another blindside! How has Teresa's departure changed the game?

Teresa’s departure influenced the game in that it severed the trust between Brian and LJ, which is bad news. Because LJ realized Brian was playing him, he sought other avenues to the end. Thankfully, I managed to manipulate myself into being in the right place at the right time, and now LJ is aligned with Yul and I. This leaves me still in control of the votes I need to keep control over, and even gives me an alternate way to the end if some game changing wrench is thrown.

2) What's the plan for this vote? Another blindside, or are you gonna do the easy vote?

We had two major blindsides in the row, and especially after the Teresa vote, we need to destabilize the game right now. If I decided to blindside somebody powerful this vote, the three floaters would become way too powerful for my liking. The easy vote is between Todd, Katie, and Jay, and we’re personally leaning towards Todd.

Of the three, Katie’s probably the most dangerous because she’s the smartest, but booting her now is dangerous because there’s this idea that she’s malleable now that Teresa’s gone or something. Also, if we make it look too much like an Athena Pagoning, then it may be difficult to explain the rationale to LJ and Brian, more specifically LJ, who still needs to have his trust reaffirmed.

3) If you were to make it to the final 2/final 3, who would you want sitting next to you?

Everyone wants a Jay or a Todd sitting next to them at the end, but everyone also knows this, which is why everyone, including myself, is targeting the floaters to open up a spot in the finals. Confusing, I know.

My goal has not changed. I’m fairly certain its a F2, and I want to have Brian sitting next to me there. He may be tougher competition than some of my other options, and he may be a locked vote for me sitting on the jury, but I’m honoring the first deal I ever made. In that vein, I hope I can make a Andy-esque speech about how I played everyone on the jury and was loyal to my first, true deal.

If, for whatever reason, this season goes Caramoan and we have a F3, then it’ll most likely be me, Brian, and Kass. If LJ wins immunity at F4, then me, Brian, and LJ. In either of these F3’s I’ll probably have more difficulty, but especially against Kass. I have no true-anti Kass argument right now, and I probably need to think of one in the next week or so in case of a F3.

[Austin Carty]

Once, just once, can we have a vote off that doesn't lead to tons of scrambling?

The source of drama tonight was Katie. She blew up at me about targeting her, saying it was dumb to target a floater and blah blah blah. When I asked her to give me an alternative, which apparently Jay is not viable enough to be, she clammed up and just said I was stupid. I gave her a chance even after she cursed at me, and she threw it right in the garbage. Stupidest move ever.

She's probably gonna try and blindside me now, which I understand. Its a bit worrying, but provided Cerberus and Brian stay loyal, short of Kass using her double vote to evict me, I'm safe. Kass and Candice worry me, and Jay's a wild card, but hopefully I'm safe, especially since I can't win immunity this round due to a mix of Jeremiah's mistakes and my stupidity.

Why am I the one getting thrown under the bus regarding Katie anyway? Everyone except Kass fucking wanted it, and Kass screwed me over by slipping that she was the target. I think she's with me, but I also know there's a decent chance she could turn on me here and have her big moment.

If I secure Jay's vote, I'm safe. If I don't, the balls in the air. Katie, hopefully you read this post-game: THIS IS WHY I WANT WILDCARDS OUT!