#//but what really pisses me off is the weird Island Tribe stuff

[cartoonybus]

pnf revival hope: no more of this shit

[sokkas1mp]

I gonna break in this acocunt with me being angry about something that doesn't really matter (very fitting for tumblr if you ask me), this article.

First: "And I’m sorry to open with this, but part of that is due to the age difference between them. Two years is hardly worlds apart (I’m personally working with four), but a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl are. Especially the way these two are drawn. Not to be too voyeuristic about Y7 cartoons, but Katara has clearly gone through puberty, while Aang hasn’t. There is something just…off, about a sixth grade boy having a full on make-out sesh with a high school girl."

This argument is one of the most stupid ones if you ask me, because it blatantly ignores the culture we have been presented by the show. I can understand why people find this weird, but we have to try not to look at it as if its our society, because its not. In A:tla, specifically the water tribes, 16 is marrying age. Right there, our "age norms" (idk what else to call it) are very different. And there are no divisions between ages in their world like we have with middle and high school. To me, two people are fit to be together based on their maturity, not their age. That's why 45 & 40 is not the same as 15 & 10, or 20 & 15. This is the same for Kataang. They have very similar life experiences and matured together, literally side by side, so a two year ago gap is irrelevant.

Second: "...Katara took on a very maternal role with Aang. Sure, she’s a caretaker and sort of a “mom friend,” but it’s a bit more than that. She served as his literal guardian during the show’s run—there’s just no other way to look at it. By the third episode, she called herself his “family,” and later even went on to role play as his mother to get him out of trouble at school. Aang, meanwhile, was… Well, I wouldn’t say “immature” for his age, […] However, Katara is 14 going on 25, while Aang is just, Aang."

There's a compilation of Katara doing thing with Aang that if someone saw a mother doing with her son they would call it incest:

Katara definitely acts motherly towards Aang, but that is just her nature. She is more than just motherly with him. And some people like to call the check kisses familial (which is kinda weird imo), but we know Katara herself doesnt think that:

"Easy there, big brother" She pushes Sokka away. Not to mention, this was about a scene or two before she kisses Aang on the check.

Calling someone close to you your family does not mean you see them in the same way you see your parents/siblings. And Sokka played Aang's father in that scene, but we aren't sitting here using that as evidence to call him Aang's paternal figure.

Something Aang haters forget (or chose to ignore) is that being lighthearted and goofy does not equal immature. Yes, Aang does some juvenile things, but that shouldn't take away from his growth and maturity.

Third: "In fact, in the last season, Katara was shown to be uncomfortable each time Aang kisses her, and even went as far as to tell him to back off with the romantic stuff in the episode before the finale, because she was confused about how she felt. [*new paragraph*] Yet, in the end, she just trots up and blushes at Aang, than happily makes out with him when he goes for it,"

Katara initiated 2/4 of the kataang kisses (not including the check kisses). The kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers and the kiss in the finale. Yes, she's the one that "goes for it" in the finale (she also initiates the hug). She only pulls away once out of the 3 times we see a kiss end (this would be excluding the kiss in The Cave of Two Lovers). She wasn't confused about her feelings, she didn't want to have to worry about a relationship when they were nearing the end of the war.

Fourth: "The post-canon comics only furthered the lack of exploration of her feelings in this relationship"

Fifth: "[referencing a scene in The Promise in which Katara is jealous of a fanclub being around Aang] "I'm sorry, this amazing, adult communication is blowing me away"

The are both still teenagers, who have zero previous relationship experience. Also, Aang had no ill intentions and Katara recognized it.

Sixth: [refencing Katara's role in The Legend of Korra] "Did Katara want to do anything other than sit in a healing hut and be known for having Aang's kids?"

This is another argument that just pisses me off. You can not use Katara's lifestyle in her 80s (she is 85 in s1) as judgement for her adulthood. It's purely assumption based. Constantly this author assumes that because she is in a relationship with Aang, Katara would drop her whole personality. What? Katara would not and could not be forced to do something or conform to some label and Aang wouldn't let it get to that point either. He would squash any idea that she is just "The Avatar's wife" or "The mother of the Avatar's children" the minute he heard it.

Seven: [comparing Katara's reaction to Aang The Desert to Aang's reaction to Katara in The Southern Raiders] "You'll spend a long time looking for her condescending tones. "Anger won't help, Aang," Katara never said, because she got that he was processing something painful and needed to sort it out himself. This difference in behavior is something that would be really fitting for a twelve year old boy to learn and understand. There's just no indication that he ever did."

Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I don't remember Aang being condescending towards Katara. He was offering his advice because he knew her and knew that she would regret doing what she thought was right when her judgement was clouded by anger. And guess what. He was right. He never forced anything on her, either. Sure, he was a bit more pushy than he could've been, but in the end he let her go on the trip with no complaints. He even agreed that this was something she had to do.

Eighth: [referencing The Ember Island Players] "When the actor says 'Wait! I thought you were the Avatar's girl', Aang agrees. Katara is his."

You know damn well Aang doesn't see Katara as just his. And she's give him PLENTY of reason to believe that his feelings are reciprocated (which they are).

Ninth: "It's the story of a woman who swallows everything lest the man she's interested in has to learn anything about his behavior that violates her boundaries."

Ha! You said she was interested in him.

But in all seriousness, you mentioned how Katara stood her ground and told Aang that she was confused, but apparently now she's swallowing her feeings.

Tenth: [talks about the cloud babies daddy issues]

I don't disagree with what is said here, for the most part, but I don't think it is a reflection on Aang and Katara's relationship.

Eleventh: "... given what what we got with Kataang, it's completely unsurprising that Aang and Katara's parenthood/adult life was defined by a lack of communication and availability, at least from what we can tell. This also puts Katara's choice to immediately moved to the South Pole once Aang died in perspective; perhaps the city he poured all his energy into, at the cost of his family, held some bitter memories."

Once again with the lack communication. We can't use the early years of their relationship to determine their whole relationship. Also, there wasn't consistently a lack of communication, you just pointed out one time and ran with it.

We don't know at what point Katara moved back to the South Pole, but there are plenty of reasons for Katara to leave Air Temple Island:

a) Her son moving in/or planning to move in with his family.

b) She was no longer needed in the city and thus had no need to stay.

c) She wanted to go back to her native home for comfort after the love of her life died at a relatively early age.

d) The next Avatar was discovered and she came home to train them.

That's all. Thank you for reading my unnecessary rant if you made it this far, and I just want to close out with a few things:

- There were some things in the article that I did not include for the fear of this becoming a novel of me repeating myself.

- I agree with most thing said in the final segment of the the article. Most, not all.

- I appreciate the author for not trying to shove Zutara in just because Kataang wasn't there. That is becoming increasingly uncommon, so it was nice to see.

[carmensandiego-dreams-collection]

I completely forgot to say anything about Mystère au bout du monde, the most Game I’ve ever sat through. My full review of it below the cut:

-Everyone in the older Carmen fandom has said that this game is the worst, so naturally I had to go see for myself -It’s a sort-of reboot of Treasures of Knowledge but all the changes it’s made are bad, if it were a movie it’d be a direct-to-video sequel that you’d find in a walmart bargain bin -Shadow Hawkins is now Adam Shadow, and is now an asshole weirdo

-There’s a scene in the Louvre where he’s told not to touch anything and he IMMEDIATELY goes to pick up an ancient statue barehanded because he thinks it’s broken. The museum curator yells at him and tells him it was discovered in that state. It was the only funny joke in the game

-Jules picks Adam on purpose to be her partner but does nothing but rag on him the whole game. She’s also weirdly abrasive at times

-Neither of them are all that likeable in this, to be perfectly honest. Treasures had awkward moments, sure, but Jules and Hawkins were still fun and their rapport with other characters was interesting, especially with Jules and Carmen. This had absolutely none of that, everyone’s an asshole for some reason

-Everyone’s outfit/hair/aesthetics just......sucks shit, there is no nice way of putting it. Like I made fun of Jules’ character design a while ago but there’s MORE you guys, there’s more

-The plaid turtleneck. The JC Penny statement necklace. The high heeled leather boots. The skinny jeans. The hair. The clownishly proportioned women’s jacket. God.

-What the fuck is going on with this shirt??? the sleeves????

-I have a new drawing challenge that I’m proposing right now: take ANY outfit from this game and try to redesign it to be good.

-Some of the art looks unfinished, too, like nobody inked it properly and they just rushed sketches out to ship with the game

-It’s a personal gripe, but IDK why every reboot/reference to TOK feels like it needs to make Jules pointedly not-butch? CS2019 is light-years ahead of this game but it’s sort of guilty too

-Wow Shadow, your partner looks GNC af

-I think the only game that doesn’t do this is Hidden Drums?

-Adam’s outfits are better, but they’re still kinda bland.

-They took away all of his pockets. Fuck you. I hate you

-Shadow needs to look like a 7 year old boy that was allowed to dress himself at all times, you can’t do this, game

-The artstyle in general is also super awkward, the expressions look awful. A collection my favorites:

-There’s this weird love square going on?????? There’s no development for it, but it’s there regardless:

There’s this weird redditor/incel-type guy working in the lab who gives off Viktor from Despicable Me vibes. He constantly flirts with Jules but Jules isn’t into him, and he’s also relentlessly passive-aggressive towards Adam and hazes him because he probably thinks Adam is a Chad because Jules likes him more

Adam also constantly makes passes at Jules but she’s also not that into it, except when she is?? Half the time she brushes him off, but then she’ll turn around and flirt with him. I think the writers were trying to do that thing where a woman plays “hard to get”, except no woman ever has acted like that

I guarantee this was written by men

People call Jules and Adam up and they’re like “haha don’t get too distracted by each other you lovebirds” but they’ve only know each other for like two days max, what are they talking about

You think this shit is over, but then Carmen shows up in the ring with a steel chair and is like “Oh Jules, I find Adam attractive as well, oh hohoho! :3″ and you have to sit there and take it

I’m not really one to have strong feelings about “ships” either way, but honestly the aggressive attempt to remove the personal connection Jules and Carmen had in the first game and redirect it to be a fight over some Bland Dude is an act of homophobia, I’m sorry fjkdsl;afd

Thankfully none of this goes anywhere, but it’s uncomfortable nonetheless

- Carmen is barely in this game for some reason? The first time we see her in at least 20-30 minutes into the playthrough

-There also.... hints of racism? Like, all of the non-white people are sort of unhelpful, and there’s a moment where Carmen steals a mask from a Maasai Tribe and one dude sees her doing it, and instead of stopping her he’s like “her willpower and coat of red fire hypnotized me, so I came her to warn you instead”

- :/ idk man

-anyway, it turns out that all the items Carmen has been stealing are embedded with...microchips? And that when put together they lead to....atlantis??

-like, the honest to god atlantis

-ACME finally puts all the chips together and find the map, but then Carmen hacks in and get the map

-They race to an island that I guess does have the doorway to Atlantis, but right as Adam is about to catch Carmen, Jules falls off a cliff and has to be rescued

- To imply that this is a tense moment, rather than play intense music or have additional art with dialogue, the game instead flashes between these two images as fast as possible in dead silence

-Then, instead of addressing that the game just implied that Atlantis exists in this world, the game ends before we actually get to see Carmen, or even if there’s anything on the island

-After all is said and done, this game was entertaining to watch. I love bad media so much, although it’s a piss-poor game if you actually want something good about the characters. I’m hoping the recent show will spur HMH/Netflix to maaaaybe make another game, although who knows.

-A big thank you to fycarmensandiego for posting the walkthrough on youtube, I’m not sure if I could have sat through this on my own. If you like Carmen stuff, or would like to play this game yourself, you can check out their blog here on tumblr, they’ve done a lot of neat archival and emulation work!

[secret-kkh-fics]

Spark Before the Flame | Chapter 2

Due to this not being posted anywhere else yet, please like but DON’T REBLOG my fics.

Chapter Summary:

Old Zuko is sent back into his younger body, and Young Zuko is surprised not just by it happening, but by how much he seems to have changed in 70 years. He’s not the only one who notices the difference, and Old Zuko sits the Gaang down to explain.

Like Falling Dominoes 

"So, what if they had a lot of accurate knowledge," Toph scoffed, rice flying from her mouth as she spoke. "Half of that play was bogus anyway, it was all word of mouth. And it's not like they can suddenly tell the future, so stop complaining. We're going to kick that asshole's butt."

Around the table, the gang looked a little more relieved at her words. The future was still uncertain, but Toph's brash attitude helped pick them all up a little after watching that stupid play. There were even a few small smiles as they returned to eating.

"Yeah, it was bogus," Katara agreed. "Like the part where we flew right over the Great Divide without stopping. We had a whole adventure helping two feuding tribes through there on foot!"

"And how I use sound and vibrations in the air to see. Do I look like an airbender to you?!"

Aang chuckled. "Y-yeah. And the scene with Katara and Zuko in the catacombs?! What was with that?"

"Oh yeah. That was totally fake," Toph scoffed sarcastically, earning some confused looks.

"Well, we were trapped in the catacombs, but that wasn't what we talked about."

"So, no talking at all. Gotcha!"

"Toph!" Katara exclaimed in annoyance.

"W-we actually talked about our mothers," Zuko said awkwardly.

Toph just huffed and muttered under her breath. "Damn. Just make out already, the tension is killing me!" Katara was the only one to hear her and she looked at the girl stunned, her mouth hanging open.

However, no one got the chance to ask her why she was looking at Toph like that, because the next moment, they noticed a bright light racing through the sky towards them. Right towards them. It was so fast that they didn't even have time to move out of the way or even attempt to defend themselves. The light crashed down, landing right on Zuko. As everyone other than Toph shied away, they panicked, worried for their friend, making Toph cock her head in confusion. But when the light cleared, he was sitting there exactly as he had been, unharmed.

They watched as he blinked and then looked around at them all in surprise. He looked down at himself, and then, oddly, at his hands, flexing them. Maybe something had happened to his vision? There didn't... seem to be anything wrong with him. Still, he began stretching, lifting his arms up over his head and groaning as the muscles stretched pleasantly. He had an oddly happy surprised expression on his face and let out a quiet chuckle. The entire group froze. They had never heard him laugh like that before.

Okay, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him, but he was acting... strange.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?!" Toph finally asked.

"Ah, Zuko, are you okay?" Katara was the first to ask.

He looked up at her, as if he was surprised to hear her speak, then looked around at everyone else's concerned faces. As he did, a warm smile lit up his face and his eyes watered.

"Better than you could ever imagine," he told her breathlessly.

"What was that weird ball of light?" Sokka said, a hint of panic still in his voice. "Are you sure you're okay? It didn't hurt you? Did make you extra strong or give you super powers?!"

"Superpowers?" he questioned, raising an amused brow. "You mean firebending doesn't already count?"

"No, that's bending. Of course, it doesn't count."

"Wait, so some ball of light hit Sparky, here?" Toph questioned.

"Yeah, it was really weird," Katara said. "I don't think I've seen something like that since..." Her eyes widened.

"Since what?" Aang asked when she didn't continue.

She blinked, startled by the question, then narrowed her eyes at Zuko slightly before shaking her head. "No, never mind. That was something else."

"Then what was it?" Suki asked. Zuko just shrugged indifferently before seeing his food and happily digging in again.

"You know, palace food in amazing," he told them, "but nothing beats Katara's cooking." He was met by looks of surprise, and Katara's mouth fell open slightly and she blushed.

"Um, thank you. But it's just simple rice..."

"I know... Hey, we should go to the market place tomorrow. We can get some more food, some spices. I could show you some tradition Fire Nation dishes. You'll love the komodo-chiken."

"That... sounds nice, actually," she said. "But, um, won't... we be too noticeable."

The way she hesitated and tried to nicely phrase what she meant made him snort in amusement. "Don't worry, Katara. I've had this scar since I was thirteen. I know how to hide it."

"Th-that's not what I-"

"Yes, it was. But it's fine. I understand. I'm the Fire Prince and we're in the fire Nation. If it makes you feel better, not everyone knows what we look like... Wanted posters and play aside. The other month I came to Ember Island with Azula, Mai and Ty Lee. There were some boys who had no idea who we were and invited us all to a party. It was interesting seeing how they treated us not knowing who we were. Of course, I was in a really bad place at the time and they didn't really like me much. We wrecked their house."

"Because you got angry?" Aang asked, somewhat shocked.

"No, because they were jerks and it was fun," he chuckled, earning more surprised looks. "I got angry and left the party. Broke in here and burnt some of our stuff in a bonfire. Then we all yelled at each other and got some issues off our chests. Then we got bored and went back and wrecked their stuff. Probably not the best move, but very therapeutic at the time."

Toph chucked. "Don't piss off the Fire Nation royals."

"Always a good decision. Get on my father's bad side and he's likely to burn half your face off!" He said it jokingly, but at his words, the entire group fell silent and looked at him in shock. "What? You can't really be shocked he'd do something like that."

"No, I'm not," Katara said darkly. "But did he... Did he..." Her eyes glanced to his scar before settling uncomfortably on the table. He seemed surprised by her unspoken question and a look of resignation came over his face.

"I'm suddenly not feeling so well," he told them, not looking at anyone. "I think I'm going to go lie down for a while." He quickly stood and left the room, his head down.

"Wait, Zuko! I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." Katara faded out behind him.

The last thing he heard was Toph's blunt but sad, "I guess that means yes."

And Sokka's, "...His dad is a dick."

 It wasn't until Zuko was in the room he'd used as a child and closed the door that he let out a deep breath and spoke again.

"Alright, alright! Would you stop yelling?" He said aloud.

'No!' said the voice in his head. 'Who are you? What the hell is going on? What have you done to my body? And how do you know about my life?!'

"I will answer all your questions, Zuko," he told the voice. "But please take it down a notch, you're giving me a headache. I forgot how short-tempered and petulant you were." The last part was muttered, but the voice reacted none the less.

'Excuse me?!' he cried.

Zuko chucked and sat on the bed. "Let's sit down, shall we? It's a long story..."

  Zuko rose with the sun, as he always did. He stretched and groaned, for a moment surprised about how good he felt. Then he remembered why. He was in the body of his younger self. It seemed that his younger self had forgotten too, because he sensed alarm from the boy.

'What the...? Oh, right...'

Zuko chuckled. "Good morning, young Zuko," he said.

The younger man sighed mentally. 'Yeah, you too, old man.'

The talk the night before had been interesting. He had originally planned to just tell everyone who he was that night, but the boy had been shouting in his head so much it was making it hard to concentrate. When he had hinted to the others about the origin of his scar, the boy went into hysterics. He had come to terms with what had happened long ago, and it was no longer a struggle for him to speak freely of it. The young Zuko, however, had not. And he had desperately begged and threatened him not to tell the others. Instead, he had excused himself, deciding it was wiser to let him know first, since apparently, they couldn't actually hear each other's thoughts.

He had told the boy everything, or at least... all the important bits. It had taken recalling not only certain events in his life, but also his thoughts and feelings at the time to convince him that he really was an older version of himself. And the boy had grudgingly resigned himself to his situation, allowing him to fulfil his task. Older Zuko had expected nothing less. Most of his life he had been nothing if not dutiful.

Of course, that didn't stop the young Zuko from sarcastically commenting on everything. It wasn't until he gave him a very brief and understated view of what the world was like in his time, and some of the sad things that were yet to come that he had sobered up and stayed quiet.

Sighing, he pulled on some clothing, only bothering to properly tie up the pants, since he planned to discard his shirts the moment he reached the courtyard anyway. He grabbed a towel on the way and headed out to the courtyard where there was a perfect view of the sun starting to rise over the sea towards the east. He sat down, crossed his legs, and began to meditate. As he cleared his mind, relaxed and focused on his breathing, he could feel Young Zuko doing the same thing, bringing a small smile to his lips.

It wasn't until the sun had risen over the horizon and into the sky that he stood once more. Going by the silence in the house, he knew that the others weren't up yet, but for a moment he was sure he saw a flash of blue at one of the widows. Remembering Katara's confession from long ago that she had secretly watched him train early in the morning, he grinned, shucking off his shirts and folding them off to the side before beginning on some basic forms. Slowly, he added more and more complicated moves to his routine. He didn't stop until Young Zuko's voice practically shouted in his head.

'Holy crap, how did you do that?!'

Old Zuko smirked. "Years of study and practice. I suppose if you want to start learning early you should pay attention." His smirk turned into a full-on grin. "I haven't had this much energy or ease of movement in years. This is going to be fun!”

And with that, he continued, showing his younger self just how powerful he had become over the span of 70 years, leaving the boy speechless. It made him both proud to realise just how far he had come, but sad to remember that back then, he never thought that such a thing was possible. Growing up with a physically and emotionally abusive father as well as having an inferiority complex because of his little sister had rather fucked him over. It was only his friends and his uncle who had allowed him to realise just how wronged he had been, and just how much better he could be. For too long, he had blamed himself for everything. But he guessed that perspective came with age, as well as wisdom.

He didn't know how long he trained for, but when he finally stopped, pushing his hands downward to release the energy and calm himself he was met by the sounds of whooping and cheering. He looked over in shock to see the entire gang sitting on the steps watching him in awe.

"Damn, Zuko!" Sokka said with a grin. "You've been holding out on us."

"That was incredible!" Aang cried. "Can you teach me those moves?!"

"Some of those were waterbending moves," Katara said in wonder, sounding a little confused by this. "And were there some earthbeding moves in there?"

"Oh yeah, looked real impressive to me," Toph said casually. When he looked at her with a flat expression, she chuckled. "Okay, okay. So, I can't see the fire. But it felt hot, and your forms have improved so much it's insane."

It was Katara that he chose to answer as he grabbed the towel and wiped sweat from his face and neck. "Yeah. Uncle taught me that the divide between elements and nations were just an illusion, and he was right. He created a way to direct lighting by studying waterbending, and since then I wondered how else other bending styles can influence each other. I watched what you lot were doing and tried to see what would happen if I do those moves while channelling my fire. I can't believe you didn't notice before. I was using waterbending moves back in Ba Sing Se. You should try it; multiple style bending has yielded some pretty amazing results."

"I'll say!" Katara said. "Now I want to try some firebending moves."

"Damn, Sparky, that's pretty cool."

"Very resourceful," Sokka agreed. "It's like having a boomerang as well as a sword and a club." He grinned as he compared his own weapons to Zuko's bending styles.

"Zuko can use swords too," Aang piped up. “He’s crazy talented with the dao swords.”

“Yeah, I know. He even studied with Master Piendao!" He looked a little disheartened at this, but it quickly fell away to be replaced by one of excitement and determination. "Hey, Zuko. How about a little swordbending rematch?!"

The made-up word brought a huge smile to Zuko's face as he remembered back to the time Sokka had made it while challenging him to a 'swordbending kai'. It was so stupid, and so silly, and it brought tears to his eyes. He knew he missed Sokka. It had broken his heart when news came that his best friend had died. He and Katara had been devastated, and they did not hear from Toph again after that until they received news of her own death. He had missed him so much... but he didn't realise just how much until now.

Without even thinking, he strode up to the boy and threw his arms around him, pulling him in tight.

"Aah!" Sokka cried, his arms splaying out at odd angles. "He's attacking me! He's attacking me!"

"He's hugging you, Sokka," Katara deadpanned.

"Ughhh! Dude, get off me! You're all sweaty!" He protested instead.

"I missed you, buddy," was all Zuko said, his voice rough.

"Ahh... Yeah. I missed you too?" Sokka gave him an awkward pat on the back, but drew back with an 'ugh!' and wiped the sweat onto his tunic with a disgusted look, then pushed him off.

He noticed that the others were looking at him oddly, and he remembered how back at this point, he hardly ever initiated contact, and the only one he ever willingly hugged without hesitation was Katara. Instead of making him feel awkward, it just made him realise how much he had missed them all, and before he knew it, he was drawing each of them into a hug and telling them so. Suki seemed perplexed, and Aang excided, Toph, of course, protested very loudly, and ended the hug by punching him hard on the arm... He'd forgotten how much that hurt. Of course, Young Zuko was protesting the entire time. Asking what he was doing, utterly baffled.

"Don't I get a hug?" Katara teased when he didn't immediately scoop her up in a hug like he had the others.

With a gentle smile, he pulled her into him, holding her tightly. "I always miss you when you're not around," he whispered in her ear.

Pressed this close to her, he could feel her breath get caught in her throat, and she squeezed him tighter. He couldn't help a wide grin when he felt her fingers spread out, feeling the muscles on his bare back. Katara drew back quickly when she realised what she was doing, a blush on her face. Her eyes flicked to the ground, then back at him, widening as they roved over his torso. Then her cheeks flamed brighter and she looked firmly at the ground again. He glanced down and remembered that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

'Agni, is she blushing?!' Young Zuko exclaimed in his head. 'You made her blush! Why is she blushing?!'

The young man was far from clueless, but he was rather oblivious to his own charm and how he affected women. This came double when it came to Katara, and he seemed baffled that he could make Katara blush. But to Old Zuko, who had become comfortable in his own skin knew exactly why. He had bulked up as he got older, gaining more muscle and broadening out. But even now, as a seventeen-year-old, he was still decently muscled, despite his leanness.

Trying to hide a grin, he picked up his robe and wrapped it around himself, tying the sash. When he looked back up, everyone was looking at him a little oddly.

"What?" he asked, confused about their expressions.

"Um... are you okay?" Sokka asked him.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because you're acting really weird!"

'No shit!' Young Zuko grumbled.

"What he means," Suki interjected, "is that we haven't really seen you act like this before. We were wondering what was with the change in attitude..."

"Ah." He sighed. It was probably time he told them. "Why don't we all sit down?"

He took the lead and sat down where he was. Cautiously, the others joined him, sitting down in a circle. Katara sat to his right and Sokka to his left, with Suki beside him, and Aang sitting opposite him. Toph was sitting between Katara and Aang, her hands resting on the ground and supporting her weight. It made her look like she was lazing back and didn't overly care about what was going on, but he knew that it was so she could secretly listen to everyone's heartbeats easier.

"Well, this is looking to be a light-hearted conversation," Sokka said, his tone light, but clearly sarcastic.

Zuko just sighed. "Far from, Sokka. I was thinking best how to tell you all, but I suppose this is as good as any... I'm not Zuko." He was met by wide eyes, full of shock and confusion. He felt them all tense and saw Aang start to rise, so he held his hand up to still them all. "Sorry, that's probably a bad way to put it. I am Zuko. Just... not your Zuko. I am him from seventy-five years in the future."

"Riiiight... Looking pretty good for a 90-year-old there, Buddy," Sokka laughed nervously.

'Great. Now they think I'm crazy.'

He just rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not going crazy. And yes, I am 90, well, 91. I don't look it because the spirits only sent my soul back into my past body."

They all looked at Toph for confirmation of his story and she gave them a slight nod with wide, shocked eyes.

"Then where's our Zuko?!" Katara demanded. She looked angry and afraid, so he smiled reassuringly at her.

"He's still up here," he told her, tapping his head. "For a lack of better explanation, I am the one in control of the body, and he is stuck in his own mind making sarcastic comments. Not the most ideal situation, and I can't imagine it would be very pleasant.-"

'It's not.'

"-But he has accepted it, so I am able to do what I came back to do."

"And what's that?" Aang asked warily.

"Change the future," he said simply, earning many raised eyebrows. He chuckled. "I'm afraid it's a little more complicated than such an easy answer, but that's the gist of it. I come from a future that is... well, falling apart. Many things have gone wrong and it has led to the worlds almost destroying themselves. And it is all a cause and effect from this time. Like falling dominoes."

"Dominoes?" Katara questioned.

"I love dominoes!" Aang exclaimed. "It's this game with these tiles and you have to match up the symbols on them, but it's more fun to stack them on their ends side by side, then knock them over! You tip over the first one and it hits the next and the next and the entire line falls over! It's really fun, but you have to be careful not to knock any down when you're setting it up or you have to start again. Some of the monks used to make art with it!"

"Exactly," Zuko said. "It was just like that. One thing in this time went wrong, and because of it something else went wrong, and another, and another... Things are not good. The devastation from the war never healed. And even worse, it's impacting the spirit world. The spirit world is dying, so the spirits came to me, asking for my help. And, here I am."

"What makes you so special?" Toph asked him. "Is it something to do with your family? With us? Why couldn't one of us do it? Not that I'm complaining, but this sounds nuts!"

"In a way it's about both. I suppose others in Team Avatar could have done it..."

"Ha! Told you Team Avatar works!" Sokka crowed.

"But I was the only one left."

"Hang on, what?!" Everyone's expressions had turned to looks of horror.

"You forget that I am an old man. Almost everyone had died years before. The only one other than me was Katara, and she died when I accepted the task." Katara grew pale. "So, I suppose we died at the same time."

"Wait, died... you died too?" Katara was clearly confused and a little upset.

"To send me back, they had to send back my soul. The only way to do that was to rip my soul from my body, which is not something you survive. I was aware of this from the start. The spirits made sure I was fully aware of the repercussions for me, but it was a sacrifice I was willing to make."

“But why?!” Aang asked. “What is so bad that you got sent back?!”

Zuko huffed. “Didn’t you hear me? The Spirit World is dying. Our world is dying. Everything is dying. Things were supposed to get better after the war, but instead the world fell into chaos. The nations still stood divided, reconstruction programmes fell through, the wealthy fell into poverty while the already impoverished died. What was happening in our world was so bad, it started to affect the Spirit World. And as the spirits died, so did the nature and forces that they protect. The dragons are gone, almost all the spirits are gone from our world, there are fewer benders born every year, … Everything is gone or dying. There is no way to bring it back. The only solution was to go back to a time there was still a way to fix it all.”

“And… and only one thing happened, that caused all of that?” Katara said aghast.

“It’s more complicated than that, but in a sense, yes.”

“What was it?” Suki asked quietly.

“Katara, the Spirits and I discussed everything over many times, trying to pin point the exact moment that things started going wrong. We tried to figure out what was the original domino that toppled the rest, so to speak. It took us months of thinking back through everything that had happened in the last 70 years, but finally we figured out the one single mistake. Everything bad started happening when Aang killed the Fire Lord.”

Author Note:

The idea for this was ‘what if Old Zuko was from the darkest timeline?’ Basically, everyone in the Gaang and the world in general had some of the worst luck. This is, of course, purely for plot. I don’t think any of these things would have happened for sure because of certain decisions, but Aang killing Ozai seemed like a decent catalyst.

Chapter Index  |  First Chapter  |  << Previous Chapter  |  Next Chapter >>

[todaysbiggesthits]

The Exam

Best Music Moment of 2017:

Code: dancing out the entire wedding reception playlist with my best girl on an empty concrete slab on a breezy texas night

BC: -The absolute stellar dance party at Codemin’s Wedding; most notably:

     “Carol” by The Rolling Stones

     “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode

     “Crystal” by New Order

-OK Computer’s 20th Anniversary and the listening/reflection that came with it -My four year old, Emmett, learning “Maps” on the drums pretty much on his own

JD: February: Watching the “Emotional Rescue” scene in A Bigger Splash:

March: Seeing Stop Making Sense on the big screen at my favorite theater with m’gal and a David Byrne Q&A after the screening. April: The dance party of a lifetime at Code and Arden’s wedding. November: Watching Parquet Courts play “You’ve Got Me Wondering Now” for the first time in years.

C: "Born to Run" at a good friend's, Brian Ferguson's, wedding.

Nasty: This playing at the end of Leftovers Season 3, Ep 5 - "The Most Powerful Man in the World"

Bronco: Sitting on my back porch with Brenny, sipping down some delicious whiskey drinks and listening to the new Mastodon on a surprisingly unshitty Amazon bluetooth speaker. Watching his face on the breakdown in Jaguar God was quite entertaining. Also listening to the Squalus album (the metal interpretation of Jaws) with the kids, my oldest asking what it was, and him saying he wants to watch Jaws now. He was especially fascinated by the USS Indianapolis part of the story.

Laser: This 

Chap: My 17 has been dominated by the two new ladies in my life. I made this mix for them:

and played it for them on random the morning they were born. This was the first song that came on:

and I finally broke down with emotion after the 36 hour experience while holding one of them while this song was playing:

Best Shows Seen in 2017:

BC: This first 60 seconds of this:

Nasty: Future Islands & Action Bronson

Larse: Future Islands with Maddie, Nasty, and Sam; Action Bronson at The Rave - pretty sure I got a contact high just from being in the show

C: War on Drugs

Bronco: Mastodon

Codem: lvl up - beat kitchen kitten forever - subterranean downstairs ovlov - beat kitchen pqc - the bottle girlpool - logan square auditorium moving units’ joy division cover set - the bottle PAWS - cobra lounge a. savage - the bottle pictureplane

JD: 1. William Basinski and Julianna Barwick at National Sawdust 2. No Age at Elsewhere 3. Parquet Courts and B-Boys at Elsewhere 4. Liars at Warsaw 5. Deerhunter and Eleanor Friedberger performing while Bradford Cox painted her portrait onstage at Warsaw 6. LCD Soundsystem at Brooklyn Steel 7. Yo La Tengo in Central Park 8. Andrew WK at Warsaw 9. Vince Staples at Panorama Fest 10. Wire at Baby’s All Right 11. Vagabon at Brooklyn Bazaar

Confession of 2017:

Bronco: I listened to the New Kids On The Block offering of 2017 "Thankful" (it was fucking terrible).

C: Still haven’t listened to LCD Soundsystem

Code: -knowing the backstory, the mount eerie album was probably the best album i heard this year, but it was too dang sad to listen to more than a handful of times. -i still loved that brand new song despite the lead cat being a creep. -i thought that this year was pretty rough for music, but my tune changed after looking back through my top tracks.  maybe there were just so few full albums that i liked? -i fast fwd'd through every SNL musical guest this calendar year, but i did catch the tom petty tribute from the vegas countrymin. 

BC: I don’t hate that objectively awful Chainsmokers/Coldplay song because it reminds me of this year’s BOB since Creevey played it every twenty minutes for 36 holes.

Larson: Listened to more rap this year than I think I have in past years; must be Nasty's Lincoln influence!

Nasty: I listened to more podcasts than music in 17.

Biggest Disappointment of 2017:

Laser: LCD Soundsystem

Codem: -no chromatics this year. -the two lcd shows that i saw this year.

Chap: The albums. I would not be shocked if I didn't listen to any of my top 15 all the way through after today.

Bin: DJT

JD: Mondanile

BC: Real Estate.  I think they need to invite the perv back into the band.

Bronco: Bison, Monolord, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, And So I Watch You From Afar. They all put out albums this year, and I've like their stuff in the past, but they did little to nothing for me this time around.

Most Overrated of 2017:

Codem: slowdive, but also twod and japanese breakfast

Bin: Bodak Yellow / Cardi B

Larse: LCD Soundsystem

Bronco: -Pallbearer - just don't like the guy's voice, and though they're slow as shit, there's no good riffs or anything to connect with for me. -Code Orange - hardcore band that I just don't get. One of those 'motherfucker I'm the best!' type super close to being alt-right supremecy type bands even though they're probably completely against it. They're at the top of most metal lists this year. I've given them 4-5 spins, most in reaction to the praise they're getting, but I just don't get it. -Royal Thunder - just one big case of blue balls. All of their songs seemingly build toward a climax that never happens. It's just so blech.

JD: Did the music press even treat anything as a lasting work of art and not ephemeral content to get through a week or two of famous personality driven clicks? King Krule? 

BC: Lorde, I think?  I mean, that album’s gotten a lot of love this year and I thought the lead single – “Green Light” – was hot garbage. It spawned a conspiracy theory in my mind that Taylor Swift was proactively influencing and then purposefully sabotaging the work of her close friends (see Lorde, Haim, et al).

Make it Stop 2017

Bronco: Sex monsters. Can we just take all white dudes in powerful positions, assume they've sexually assaulted at least one person, imprison them, and move on? We could take everything they have, give it all to Native American tribes, then force them to walk their own trail of tears to live out their lives in the desserts of New Mexico, and force them to build the wall, but it would just be a wall around their sad sex monster reservation.

Also, Taylor Swift.

Nasty: I didn't have the luxury of expending any real hate on music this year... which I'm just now recognizing as a bad thing.

JD: -Unceasing sadness and anxiety about the present and future. -Jack Antonoff

BC: Life on this planet.

Code: any rap station that i hear in an uber. that cardi b song was playing every time i caught a cab at 5:30 a.m. to play golf.

Larson: U2

Biggest TBH Regret of 2017:

BC: Not seeing NIN at RiotFest

Larson: Skipping the Car Seat Headrest show at Summerfest because I could tell Maddie didn't want to leave Jonas' party (party was fun, so not a real loss, just wish I would have seen the show).

Nasty: Not even giving new artists a chance. I'll listen to an average album from The National 10x's before I give someone new a shot.

Codebreaker: not having an opportunity to karaoke badu's tyrone

JD: -Had the worst fever of my life during LCD and could only manage standing in the back shivering. -Forgetting to go see Dinner at Baby’s All Right. -Not enough time with Bjork, Miguel, and Blanck Mass. 

Bronco: Fucked up the family calendar maintenance and ended up not being able to see the Toadies and Local H. I was pissed at my wife, but it wasn't the end of the world. I haven't listened to either in forever, and the listen I gave to the Toadies latest offering didn't knock my socks off. It was really just for nostalgic purposes. Still it sucked to have to miss it despite my best efforts to bring it to her attention multiple times.

Detective Murtaugh of 2017:

NACK: I had two separate opportunities to see LCD, and just didn't feel like putting in the effort. Was going to put this as a regret, but I don't regret it.

Code: i skipped 7 shows that i had tickets for and left 6 shows early. two shows i left early due to brightness of lights.  mmmmmnhh

JD: Couldn’t hear for 18 hours after No Age. Needed two Tylenol for the headache I gave myself during “You’ve Got Me Wondering Now” at PQ Quartz.

BC: Having no idea who either the SNL host or the musical guest was for three straight weeks.  Tiffany Haddish? Saoirse Ronan? SZA? I’m too old for this shit…

Nasty: Carson, Maddie, Sam and I went to watch the IU game this weekend with one of Carson's co-workers (an IU grad) who is 23.... I got rolling on a rant about how important it is to enjoy your 20s because after the impending onslaught of weddings and babies life basically isn't any fun anymore. Suspect it was a little too impassioned by the end.

Bronco: I was enrolled in a three month coding bootcamp to learn Web Development. Aside from the two older ladies (50+) and the weird Brazilian idiot (45+), I was the oldest person in the room by probably an average of 13 years. They are all for the most part life-pivoting in to the dev world and they all have all the time in the world to learn new shit, do whatever they want, whenever they want...goddamnit I miss that. So maybe this is my "too married and fathered for this shit" section of the exam.

C: Wife’s Pregnancy

Laser: Every time I wake up with a fucking hangover and tell myself that I’m not gonna drink like that again only to get back on the saddle the next available opportunity.

Resolution for 2017 Update:

BC: Put a goddamn band together. How it went: 

C: Check out some jazz/blues in Chicago. How it went: FAILED

Larson:  Focus on the shit I really care about instead of trying to listen to everything posted on the thread…I’m just going to have to be honest with myself and realize I ain’t got time for all this media! How it went: Terrible; found myself listening to Timeless Pop Rock hits playlist more than anything else.

Chap: Check out more of the recommendations on the TBH thread. Try to organize get-togethers around TWO shows. How it went: Actually not bad. I had a few solid period during nap times when I didn't feel like working. I think I was able to listen to every album I wanted to at least once.

Code: make concerted effort to listen to music that i liked in previous years in addition to music from the current year. How it went: i nailed my resolution, as i devoted four full months to the grateful dead and it was the best musical trimester of the year for me. it was really interesting to watch all of the new music pile up and never once feeling compelled to listen to something else. god damn did the '77 version of the band have it all figured out. i could listen to any uptown mississippi halfstep toodeloo from that year at any time.

Bronco: Learn the guitar. I’ve been fooling around with Rocksmith (guitar hero with real guitar) and I want to push myself to execute the more complex chords, not just stick to the powerchord simple songs like Blitzkrieg Bop, and start learning how to build and execute a solo. I also want to distill my own whiskey, build a garden shed from scratch, and learn to code. How it went: I haven't quite mastered the guitar, but I can play a few songs fairly well. I did not start working on my own whiskey or build a garden shed from scratch...yet. But I did learn to code. I am now at conversational levels of fluency with Javascript and at "donde es el bano" levels with Ruby and Python.

Nasty: See a show in NY with JD. How it went: Not great, Bob! I barely made it down the street to see Action Bronson with Laser 

JD: Seeing more shows with you guys is an evergreen resolution. How it went: To quote BC,

Resolution for 2018:

BC: No more resolutions

C: Catch some jazz in Chicago

Laser: get my list in on time!

Chap: While I didn't have the occasion to catch shows this year, I anticipate doing so in '18 due to some changes afoot.

Codem: make more playlists for my wife

Bronco: Get in shape. I want to stick to a schedule of running all year round. I ran a 10K back in June, then needed to recover for a bit, been recovering ever since...Fat Dad needs to keep running all year round without excuse, especially given that we go skiing between Xmas and New Year's and I'm gonna be a floppy legged mess. During those runs, I'll try to listen to new material each time.

Bin: I'm just going to keep saying "get to NY for a show with JD" until I make it happen. 

JD: See you gents more often with or without a show attached. 

Most Anticipated of 2018:

C: MBV

JD: MBV, No Age, Panda Bear, something surprising

Code: chromatics (i think it's really coming this year), mbv, no age, DOM, CCFX full album

Bronco: Tool. Fourth year's the charm...fuck those guys. It better suck me off when it finally does come out. Also a new Sleep album and a new High on Fire album...still waitin' on those too.

BC: Simple Minds, Vampire Weekend, Kanye

Nasty: Kanye, ASAP Rocky, Rhye, Chromeo, Vampire Weekend

Chap: After a quick glance at the list... Vampire Weekend, Kanye, Chromatics

Larse: Honestly don't even know what is on the horizon, just hope I can listen to it with this net neutrality bullshit!

[survivormalibu]

“I’ll be back in this game VERY soon...” - Darian - Episode 5 (The irony is... he didn’t return.)

And ofc im on a tribe with all the ppl i DIDNT want to be on a tribe with. yippee. i win a challenge for my team then this happens. im just praying i can find a solid footing on this tribe in which i can float along on in peace

colin, tyler f, me, brian? maybe andrew? solid core? mayhaps. let me float in PEACE. end tribe swap culture.

Well, I knew Darian's plan was not going to go as we had hoped, and I am sad to see him go to the resort. But, I can honestly say, I love my new tribe as well! I'm glad I have Zach back, as he and I really connected from being on Escondido together (before we voted him out on his terms). I'm also glad I have Nicholas and Owen, as they are strong players. As for the others, I am looking forward to getting to know them!

Fuck tribe swaps tbh

I hope sitting out of this challenge didn't put a target on my back again. That being said I know I was targeted at the last tribal so who knows.

Y'all really fuckin did that huh. Put me on a tribe with everyone I don't know, I see what y'all are doing. I felt so secure in the brawn tribe and I was in a strong majority alliance and now all I got is........... Carson K. Who ofc saved our asses in the trivia challenge but he's also the person on the brawn tribe I was the least close to. I talked to Tyler F. a little bit when we were in One World at the beginning. But Andrew, Allison, Tyler S, Regan, Brian who??????? Oh well. Hopefully I'm not voted out next. I'm going to bed.

Alright. Round 2 of writing this because it got lost to the internet last time. Alright. Yay!!!! I'm so happy my tribe has slayyyed. Well pescador did. Carson k literally killed the trivia challenge. I'm so glad we had him. Honestly. The dream team would be the five of us (me, Carson k, Carson c, Colin, and Nicholas) I'm really bummed that I didn't make an alliance chat when we were on the same tribe. But I also really do like this new tribe. I think we are going to kick ass. Me Carson c and Nicholas are all together and I think Zach and Casey would vote with us for sure. But I really like Luke, Molly, and Owen. This sucks. But that's how the game goes. But hopefully we just don't lose. I really like these guys and I hope it works out. I'm seriously so worried about Carson k and Colin over there. I really hope that they will find a way to make themselves safe from votes. I need to make the Hpecdor alliance chat!!!! And I want all five of us in it when merge comes. I'm having a really great time playing this season. Next stop, make it to jury! Let's go!!! #honolulutribe #hpecdoralliance  

I really like my sundae so I really hope I can win this one for my tribe since I'm usually not very good at the other challenges. The little flag I made is so cute! It's going to be a good keep sake of he season. Haha. Plus, this tribe is also really sweet and awesome!

So. Disregard that last confessional. I got voted out because TYLER AND BRIAN are SNAKES. But don't you worry about me. Ill be back in this game VERY soon and Ill be changing my strategies when it comes to you boys. I hope my Boo is ok! I love her! and I need her to stay alive in this game. I can't wait to come back and shake everyone up

So heres how my week has been . . . . . That was a list of all of the things said in the resort chat. NOTHING. Im stuck with a bunch of inactive people. Which is fine by me now because I was the only one who made an ice cream sundae. AND I won reward. AND I found a MOTHERFUCKING IDOL. So I'm not even close to out. Im just chilling on the resort. Petting my idol. While y'all bitches get voted out left and right. But lowkey I want off this island bad Like Im missing the action

This tribe swap has the potential to either be really great or absolute hell. I came over with Nicholas and Lily, both of which I was really close to on Pescador. I'm really looking forward to working with them so we all can just make it to the merge. If all the brawns got back together, I feel like we'd have an unstoppable alliance come merge. I'm so glad Regan played that idol because now we know none of the beauties have it. That makes it a lot easier to target them for a safe vote since we cant get blindsided by an idol. Lily was telling me it might be easier to align with the beauties, but if we know they dont have the idols then we should try taking them out. Still, it could be too early to judge this, so I'm not making any deals until i have too.

WHEW so we got a new tribe. I remained on Humaliwo along with Owen and Molly which is GREAT because I connected with the both of them the most on OldHumaliwo so I'm happy about that. My new tribe mates are really cool. I connected with Lily the most because we have a mutual friend but Casey, Zach, Carson and Nicholas are all really cool too. I think we're a strong tribe, I think we have what it takes to win immunity challenges and avoid having to vote anybody out but I guess we'll see!

I'm so proud of myself for actually submitting a decent score. I really hope we pull off the win! Lets go #honolulu #humaliwo #whatever :P

So, I have another idol. Brian found the page, but I finished the maze first and then told him I didn't find anything. The only person who knows about either is Andrew, so here's hoping he doesn't fuck me over. I have the Escondido and Humaliwo idol at this point. So, unless someone found the Pescador idol before it was killed, I have all the idols currently in the game. That's exciting, and a lot of pressure. I'm just glad I have someone close enough to talk it over with so I don't fuck it all up, because I could 300% see myself doing there. I don't think we're winning immunity, but I have Tyler S, Andrew, Brian, and through extension Tyler F. I also think Colin and/or Regan would vote with us. Carson K may be an easy vote unless everyone wants him gone because he literally got 24 on the challenge and I'm shook. Like, I get not knowing, but like, 24? I'm shook. I'm just hoping Humaliwo and Original Escondido can do that thing tbh.

Lowkey pissed that I keep being the only one who volunteers to do things and then we have challenges where more than one person just doesn't submit.

I... I don't know what to say.  I told Ty on call that the only way he'd be safe is if we won, and that I would try and help him if we lost, but I couldn't really... um... say much about his usefulness to the tribe when he submitted 24.  In fact, both Tylers submitted a combined score of 50-something.  I cackled when I saw the results because we shouldn't have won.  Now I just have to hope that Casey goes bye-bye (she didn't submit and tends to submit low scores anyway... plus the advantage she won from the reward) so we don't have to worry about her in this game for awhile.  I just don't want Owen going.  Please.  PLEASE.  He's like the one person I want to work with in this game aside from Allison and Ty, and like... it needs to happen, pretty please. As for Regan... hm... she's a m-e-s-s.  She got upset with me and Ty because we saved her????  GURL, WHAT?!  It honestly doesn't make any sense why she's like, "I'm alone!" but we flipped for her.  We told her not to use her idol either, but she didn't trust us?  Okay, that's a little okay because we coulda been snaking her, but after we didn't... I don't know.  She dumb.  But whatever.  She genuinely confused me, but I'll get over it.  I hope she goes if we go to tribal because fuck her. Finally, some fucking loser got the advantage before I did... with no clues?  Fuck me up!!!  Unless Allison's lying (I did give her the clue before solving the maze), but even if she is, hopefully it doesn't mean my demise.  I trust Allison a ton, and I would consider her probably my second closest ally aside from Ty, but that doesn't mean she necessarily shares the same sentiment.

wow we somehow actually won immunity whew! I def didn't expect it, but I'm happy nonetheless. I was kinda worried about this round tbh Tribe dynamics are still... weird. Regan and Tyler S are pretty inactive, and the only people who like actually respond to me when I message them are Allison and Andrew. I have no idea where I fall into the mix, for all I know I could be at the bottom of the new Escondido totem pole. fuck. I miss my old tribe. I miss the chicken in a bucket alliance :((((

Feeling very anxious about this vote as any vote would go. I really like everyone and feel like everyone helps the teams. I'm currently watching season 1 and I can't remember who said it but someone basically said losing a member of the tribe will not make the tribe stronger but weaker because each person is important. I also feel this way. But someone has to go and I don't want I to be me or Nicholas and Carson so Molly seems like the best choice for us. Molly is a really awesome person and I will be sad to see her go if the plan actually works. It should be me Carson, Nicholas, Casey, and Zach all voting for molly.

THIS VOTE. A MESS. Lily, Nicholas and Zach want to vote Molly. I wanted to vote Casey because if she goes to The Resort and meets us with her bestie Darian then it eliminates the chance of a strong duo being in the main game and being reunited in a merge situation. I talked it over with Owen, my closest ally and he talked to Zach and Casey who apparently wanna vote Lily? Owen/Molly/Zach/Casey are an alliance. Since I don't want to vote against Lily, Owen told Molly to tell me to vote Zach. I'm perf with this becaue I'm not betraying Lily because she could come back from The Resort. My hands are clean. I just pray that these uglies aren't playing me.

IM HONESTLY SCREAMING RIGHT NOW  SO Of course my bitch ass forgets to link the post which like... I respect the host's choice to make the rule and enforce the rule and stuff I just also have never ever ever had to do it before so it's hard when you play games for three years to all of a sudden have to change something you're used to doing without thinking. Tea. ANYWAYS I THIUGHT I didn't have a vote but anyways I was really getting close with Lily  because we have a lot of mutual interests and we are both from Michigan and actually know some of the same people irl?? We really clicked and I love her to death and I wanted so badly to be close with her in the game. So I suggested to her that me Luke her and Carson make a group and pull in Molly and Nicholas since they were on our old tribes to target Zach. He had already been voted out so we know he doesn't have an idol, he's gonna try in the challenges, etc. it made sense like.... honestly that would been so good for them because that's two easy votes right there for the whole tribe!!! BUT THEN TODAY Ashe comes to me saying she wants to vote Molly because 'there are too many brains in the game' And I....? I'm a brain??? Why would you say that? And I gave her numerous reasons WHY it should be one of the others and basically she ended up saying she was gonna vote Molly anyways. I asked if we could compromise, and she said 'I'm sorry'. So instantly like... damn. She also said Zach and Casey were gonna vote Molly already but that didn't stop my gay ass from TRYING. Here's the thing I do not like feeling like I'm helpless??? So I went to zach and casey and I basically like really REALLY exaggerated and told them that lily was pitting us against each other! And that the brawn wanted to keep zach and casey as shields to vote out later and I really played up the fact that they were playing both sides and... and it actually worked. They both talked to Molly. And luke warned me that zach and Nicholas were close so I made sure to make it seem like it was all lily and Carson's doing lmao And zach was sayin all this stuff about how lily and regan know each other irl and I'm like... literally lily lives nowhere near Regan  right but I didn't say that!!! Lol Zach and Casey made a group with me and Molly and after I planted the seed all I had to do was just sit back and watch it grow . I was like 'yeah I'll do anything!!!!' So hopefully they aren't lying and they do vote lily... I'm sorry this has to happen, Lily. And honestly I kind of expect they're lying and it'll be me voted out. But whatever! I was put between a rock and a hard place and I wiggled my ass out of there. Sorry, but if you're not with me, you're against me :) cute!

Honestly Luke, Molly, and Owen should vote me off. I feel horrible. Everyone is so awesome. I hate tribal.

[survivorpacificislandallstars]

Ep. 1 - “Have I ever seen anything that messy? Yes” - Madison (Pt. 2)

The fact that I have Jordan Pines on my tribe is a blessing because that's one person that I genuinely trust not to betray me. Going to tribal sucks, and there's no denying that. But everyone seems to be mostly on board with Isaac and all I can do is trust and hope that they're telling the truth.

So like I came back from hell to a tribe of people I have never talked to. The only two i know are Mitch and Samantha the rest it has just been seeing them around the community. I can't believe im going from being rocked to being first boot what a journey. Even if I'm first boot i hope my tribe slays and someone on the tribe wins. http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/survivor-org/images/e/ec/F1bt6z.gif/revision/latest?cb=20150319025301

Welcome to All-stars! I'm glad I could be cast and be considered an all-star, AND be considered someone who slays challenges! Thanks to Monto and Allisno for giving me a title that will essentially make me indestructible during the tribal phase. Merge? I'll be 60 by then so it'll be okay. I'm glad to be part of this season, which will end up pretty crazy, I'm sure. Casting 32 people? Were those all of your applicants guys? Because what the hell. So this game started during band, so I don't have any idea who everyone is yet. This requires research and Monto won't update the wiki with the cast. All I know is I have the Hoshi (Yoshi) tribe, and our color is dark teal. The first challenge? Flag making. Did I help at all? No. Did Katie do literally all of the work on the flag and I felt bad about giving input because she had already blazed through 70% of the flag while I was unconscious? Yep. I had no part in that flagmaking challenge and I think my input would've been appreciated. Gif flags aren't fun. But since Katie has won flag challenges, I'm just gonna shutup and let her do her thing. We lost because it wasn't starry enough. Whatever. It was a good flag and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately we have to go to tribal, along with another tribe. I've been making decent social connections with everyone, and I'm sure my status as a challenge whore will keep me safe. Right now it's looking like Jordan's going to be the one to go, because he hasn't talked with anyone, and the first message I got from him was an hour ago asking where the vote was. So... he can be swept under the rug for all I care. Here's a tribe assessment: Sara - A sweet girl. We've been in VLs and mass chats together but we don't really know each other, so I think the game will get us familiar with one another. I can see myself working with her. Sam - Sociable and pretty friendly. She's hosting Westeros with Stevie, so that's a connection I'll have my eye on. Otherwise she seems chill and she seems like someone who I could work with. Katie - She's quiet a fair amount of the time, she did our flag so that guarantees her safety basically. I know she's a hard worker but I don't feel a swell personal connection with her, so I'd vote her out if I felt the need. Chrissa - She's pretty awkward socially, from what I've seen in other VLs and stuff. But she's a good person, and I think the sort of neurotic Hannah attitude could keep us together. I can see myself in an alliance with her because I feel like she'd agree to it and stay loyal so easily. Charlotte - Let me just say that Charlotte didn't deserve what she got in Niue because she is the sweetest person so far. I feel like her and I could become really close because she's pretty new to the scene, and I'd like to help her learn the ropes. I just hope that doesn't play against her because she's not as aware as the rest of us are. As far as I know I'll protect her if I need to. Steffen - Steffen and I have a mixed relationship. I think Steffen is an ok guy, and he's pretty chill a lot of the time. In Hawaii I wrecked his ass and lied to his face and he seemed pretty bitter about it for a while, so I'm hoping that doesn't come back to bite me. I think we could work together since we've put it aside, but you never know with these people. Jordan - I rocked him out in Hawaii, and I don't ever really know what he's thinking? He never says much... at all... So I can't exactly hold a conversation with him. Everyone else on the tribe says they haven't even heard from him, so I think it's fine if we take him out...

THE FLAG WAS UGLY, I KNOW, I'M SORRY, THERE'S NOTHING I COULD DO ABOUT IT I mean there were several things I could have done about it but I did not do any of them so um..........there was nothing I could do. I'm CHOKING that Jordan Pines and Jay are on my tribe, I hope that means I'm okay this week? I don't think I'm okay this week, I think I'm going home first and I'm going to be 32nd boot and I'm going to have to actually actively hope that a season with 32 people also has a redemption island twist. Which realistically might not be too far off since we're going season by season and both Izu and Rakiura brought people back from the dead. But whatever. As "penalty" for putting in the most effort, I got sent to Exile, got an extra vote for later, and then came back and everyone was just like "Oh yeah, the vote is Isaac, we're all good, it's Isaac, no one has really come up with chats, it's just Isaac, group decision, vote Isaac, no one blames you for the flag, did we mention it's Isaac, well it is so go vote Isaac" and I'm sitting here like WOW like all of my efforts to campaign are gone now because I'm apparently fine? Even if I don't believe I am? Like I'm genuinely convinced that I'm going to be going home in two hours. I haven't felt this out of the loop in a long time. We'll see, I guess? I don't have too much hope. I think Jay is lying to me, maybe Jordan too. But honestly, if I die, I die. I haven't been here long enough to feel invested. If I live, I'll start to care.

Are these idiots like blind? So we're submitting Karen's and it honestly pisses me off because she basically copied mine so I had to say something, because mine is clearly aesthetically better and were losing the challenge because of these idiots. I hope the other tribe's is amazing. Well won't really matter anyways we might as well just put a picture of yoda on ours.

I love when Jordan Pines recycles alliance chats from old games. Have I ever seen anything that messy? Yes. Does it sum up how I think his gameplay will go? Yes. So I have an alliance with Jay, Dan, and Jordan, which is really cute and all, but eventually I gotta cut ties with that group and play for myself. So far the consensus is to vote out Isaac, and I'm down, but I keep having this feeling in the back of my head that there might be something bigger going down. I don't want to seem paranoid at the first tribal, but I'm really worried. Good survivor Gods, please let me be wrong. Tell me this will go smoothly. 

I think I obviously contributed the most. 1 my flag was the best, 2 karen copied parts of my flag onto hers because she sucks and yeah! :- )

so vote planning seems to be going well. I’ve become apart of 2 main alliances, one of me drew and jay and one of me jay madison and dan. I have a great relationship with ash, and I think I am forming a good one with van. So that about covers everyone on the tribe but Isaac, who sadly if all goes to plan will be going tonight. It should be a unanimous vote, but honestly I’ve been sketched out cause like Isaac is online, but hes not trying to sway the vote? idk whats up. Hopefully all goes according to plan.

first of all screw liana for that judging lol also I hate that we are going to tribal and I just hope it's not me going this week, I need to stay safe, I am so so nervous not gonna lie. I am using that social game

This tribe!!!! Is iconic!!!! Winning immunity by like...a lot of points and all I had to do was nod my head and say the flag looks good when will your fav. Side note I hope it's Karen that goes home I don't even know if her tribe lost but maybe a shark will crawl out of the ocean to get her

I can't wait for Liana and Chris to replace the first people voted out and they were judges to pick which tribe they would end up on Anyways actual game stuff, Steffen and I were talking about what to do and we were talking about pulling together an actual alliance between me him Sara Charlotte then one more, I was hoping Mitch or Chrissa because I don't talk to Jordan a lot so I was hoping it would be him. So now I'm 99% positive after talking to Mitch and Chrissa that this could be a unanimous vote for Jordan... I don't wanna get cocky or anything I've just heard he's the person people have talked to the least and I'm here for it. Jordan is really nice but he's quiet and the first vote is always better if it's easy so hopefully things go smoothly omg I just realized there's 5 girls and that's majority on its own and I think everyone is on board for Jordan hopefully so that's good and Steffen thinks we're super close so like omg if we could do the whole girls alliance I would cry of happiness because that's iconic and we'd have an easy majority STEFFEN IS ACTING SO WEIRD AND IM CONVINCED I'M GUNNA GET BLINDSIDED I CAN'T WAIT TO BE FIRST BOOT OF ALL STARS FUCK

when Katie does the work for me so I don't have to get any blood on my hands

I AM LIVING FOR THIS GIRLS ALLIANCE shookt in every sense of the word

Wow I can't believe I'm going to be first boot. It's kind of hard to avoid that when no one wants to fucking talk to you.