#I did the colette! :D

[zaptrap]

Seeing that you've been here since 2012 is INSANE like you've witnessed it all huh. You've seen probably SO many weird and crazy things in this fandom like man that's so cool for you I feel...

ive def seen and participated in a lot of dumbass bullshit over the years LMAO. although notsomuch during the skybound-to-seabound era cuz i'd lost interest for a bit

Random shit I remember off the top of my head (plz feel free to fact-check):

deviantart era: (2012-2013)

that bright green ninjago ask meme

like, literally everybody making self-insert purple ninjas (sometimes orange, teal, or rainbow) and shipping them with their fav ninja

everyone making their own genderbends of the ninja. cole was almost always called nicole or colette lmao

people also naming their accounts (name)-the-ninja (or "teh-ninja", since this was 2012)

there's a non-zero probability that if you were in the fandom during the season 1 era, you're a furry now

naruto crossovers

half-snake ninja aus.........wonder who uh......who could've done that.....heheh (me) (that was my whole deal pre-nindroid!jay lmfao)

everyone posting like, doll-maker things they made of ninjago? especially dragon ones

(me) posting leaked screenshots of season 2 eps that i found on the lego wiki or smth lmao. this is also how i found out zane was a robot. i think i kept posting leaks when i moved to tumblr

legends of chima releasing and i thiiink it was supposed to be a ninjago replacement? like, legitimately? though a lot of people weren't happy about it. "furry gang drug wars" was a phrase used a lot lmfao.

tumblr era (2013-2016 for me) (may overlap with dA era)

everyone losing their minds over the shirtless ninja in ns2 lmfao

that one video of kirby marrow (rest in peace) saying cole was 14

that other vid of like, behind the scenes and it was the ninja's actors but like in-universe? it's where "cole bucket" comes from

also some behind the scenes vid with the actual voice actors lol

thinking back on this, im like 100% sure it was bullshit but when the end of rebooted aired, there was a rumor going around about fans being so upset over zane's death that they carved a snowflake on their stomachs. lots of people were freaking out lmfao

the rise and fall of "fucknoshittyninjagoOCs" (ashamed to say i heavily participated in harassing this blog even if i rlly didnt like the premise.........)

maypong

lots of tension with instagram cuz of all the art reposts. like. tons of reposts. i remember someone blocked me when i said to take something down but then unblocked me the same evening and apologized LOL so

roleplay twitter accounts (twitter was kinda not-as-a lot at the time)

nindroid!jay of course. its so old there was an update that was made in flash lmfao...

absolute fucking shitloads of AUs and headcanons. i dont think this has changed much but like. there were so many lmfao. entire threads

actually there's too many fucking AUs. im scrolling through my main blog and i cant fuckin find anything cuz ITS ALL THESE STUPID AU THREADS THEY AREN'T EVEN LIKE DEEP LMAO

ask-all-the-ninjagians

the absurd screenshot redraws i did. like they were super stupid lmfao. icr which blog they're on but they're on my comp still at least

ninjagians just. being a term used at all lmao

the ninjago fan-tournament during ns4. people would draw/write about their ocs doing whatever prompt was posted and then everyone came together to defeat a big bad snake man

tbh i started naturally losing interest during ns5, and then VERY QUICKLY dropped the show (and therefore fandom) when skybound came out lmao............... so i dont really remember a lot from this era and everything after

and now im back :D

i hope this is insightful! xD

[scarletfire03]

when I first got into half life I was still very much a furry. so here have fur-life doodles Also yes this AU started out as a furry AU.

gina and gordon are both hyenas but gina is a striped hyena

vvv some lore and explanations for shit vvv

you may notice I didn't choose obvious animals for some characters. most people would probably make adrian a shepherd dog of some sort since his last name is literally shephard. I don't like using domesticated animals for furry designs tho. its too easy, its overused and kind of a weird concept if you think about it. how the hell were these guys domesticated. instead, I like to go for less popular choices and more uncommon animals. I chose a close relative of sheep for adrians design because i think its a bit ironic that the shephard is a sheep. also they have cool color patterns which I really like :D

as for gordon being a hyena, this was originally just a random idea I had. just tried choosing a cool animal. but when I developed this idea I realized that I could do a lot more with this. hyenas are seen as scavengers that aren't very strong and they are also seen as not very intelligent cough cough the lion king cough cough this is completely false. spotted hyenas are highly intelligent and social creatures and they take down their own food for the most part. they are strong. have you seen their jaws?? they are capable of breaking bones with their bite. I wouldn't dare to mess with one. the more I thought about this the more I felt that it was very fitting for the guy that is considered a goofy idiot by most of his coworkers (every fucking scientist at black mesa seems to treat him like hes just an intern and like he has 0 skill) to be a hyena. hes completely misjudged by everyone around him. and during the resonance cascade he showed the world that everyone was wrong about him. at the same time, his actions might've strengthened those stereotypes in some people that saw him. I mean, he kind of did turn into a killing machine back there. even if he was saving my life I would be wary of him. you just cant trust someone that kills without hesitation. the resistance might also be more divided in their opinion about him (something I'm still keeping for my AU because the canon resistance is boring as fuck sorry) and not everyone thinks he is the savior of mankind.

also like, LOOK AT HOW SPOOKY THAT LOOKS

gina is also a hyena because during development she was literally just female gordon. like, she was supposed to be the female player choice. to keep that theme at least somewhat i made her a hyena aswell. to make her design more unique i made her a striped hyena though.

colette is a lynx (a siberian lynx in the doodle but I later decided on her being an iberian lynx instead)

alyx and barney don't have that much story behind their designs aside from me wanting to have an avian character and not just a bunch of mammals.

eli is also a cheetah obviously and i was thinking of making kleiner something like a slow loris cause they look funky and he is very funky

also on a side note: gordon furreemans head looking like a radiation symbol was an accident at first because i was trying to draw him more cartoony and then I noticed this and now he has a radiation symbol for a head. also that doodle is where my current angular lookin style originated.

[bardic-tales]

I'm back now. It didn't take too long. About 10 minutes at the lab. I'm extremely lucky that the lab my doctor uses is right next to my doctor's office. I should have the results either later today or tomorrow.

The doctor is worried about my Vt. D levels, still. I am still so tired. But I am also prediabetic, as I have PCOS. Hopefully, the results will be better than last year.

The phlebotomist was the same girl, but it was quick this time. Only thing that really went wrong was the tape to hold the gauze to the syringe mark wouldn't stick. About 10 minutes from the check-in to walking out.

I hate getting poked, but nothing beats the time my best friend went with me to get blood work. We were 15 and 16 at the time, and my doctor then was trying to figure out why my heart skipped a beat. Well, my friend ended up passing out. We still joke about that when I go home from time to time.

I did imagine Sephiroth was with me, holding my hand. This is part of my self-shipping and the comfort this character gave me for 28 years. You see, MY Sephiroth, the one I ship myself with, is different from the FWC's one. My one is like a combo of both the 1st Class SOLDIER and the One-Winged Angel. He's more tempered? I guess.

I should introduce my S/I that I created a few weeks ago to place me there. While I sometimes use Bia as a stand-in for myself, but she is more of an OC. And I sure couldn't handle the full One-Winged Angel like she could. lol. My S/I is named Colette. She is a failed novelist who writes fan fiction of the boys. She also is a shop keeper who loves knicknacks and items like that? They met on patrol. She literally walked into him on accident.

The diner we tend to go to is a little hole in the wall. That was quick too. There were few people at both places.

Thanks for all the well wishes and everything. Now, I want to write a fic where Bianca takes both Vincent, Lucrecia, and Baby!Seph to a pocket dimension so those three could be a family.

[crab-funk]

Hello to my fellow The Kingmaker Histories™ fans. I was too absorbed in listening to liveblog, so here's an unorganised ramble about the assorted joys episode 22 (Fenetre L'Esprit) has brought me. Obviously it's all spoilers, so I'll toss em under the cut.

NUMERO UNO IS WOOO YEA BABYFACE JOHN APPEARANCE!!! YAYAYAY!!! JUMPING FOR JOY!!! Ohh I love his beautiful resonant voice so much...I hope he made it out of the bar fight okay. I'm sure he did. It's understandable that the gang did not take him with them, but woww, ruuude /j He was being so chill the whole time!

Speaking of beautiful voices, holy shit. I'm saying what everyone else is probably saying but like. S'always so fucking cool when a voice actor can do the 'character doing an impression of another character' type deal. Peacock and Renay do Ariadne as Colette and Colette as Ariadne (did I get the order right?? I can't read) respectively so perfectly. Utterly convincing and supremely funny.

Which leads me to how much I appreciate that Ariadne is just so godawful at pretending to be Colette that Eisen and Telesphore instantly recognise something is up!! Feel like I've seen so many iterations of body-swapping plots where the other characters are just idiots who can't tell their friend is obviously not quite themself. It was very gratifying to see that the boys acted in a realistic way. Terribly amusing that Colette is also awful at being Ariadne, but escapes detection due to the other's reputation for Killing People. God knows what would've happened if not for that!

Anyway, back to voice acting. Not only do we get Colette and Ariadne swapping places, we get Eisen and Telesphore as well! As a treat. Nazeer and Rubino also knock it outta the friggin park - Eisen and Telesphore sound so freakin cute as each other ohh my god. Cool that the sensory nightmare trading bodies with another species would present is acknowledged between em.

And then as a double treat, Telesphore n Ariadne swap. It's so interesting how their voices are different in more subtle ways than the others when they switch places. Which makes sense, they both lean toward sounding a bit posh in their own ways. Not gonna lie, Ariadne speaking through Tel was kind of hot. Hope I'm not speaking out of turn with that, but 'tis my honest opinion.

That concludes my thoughts, I think. Overall, I thought it was a really well-considered take on the whole body swappin trope - which is super refreshing. Sorry if I got anything wrong or used the wrong names. For some reason when I read over what I've written it all kind of blurs together into a big white-on-black smudge. Maybe cuz I've got a cold rn.

If you read my inarticulate yammering, thank you! I'm halfway thru ep 23 rn so I'll try n remember to talk abt it too! It's really good so far (I say this about every Kingmaker Histories episode and you can't fucking stop me >:D)

[championleonsslut]

Tell us about your OC! Does she have a partner Pokemon? Or a team? What region is she from?

Oh I would happily yap about her for hours omg

The Leeanna Post

To start off, her full name is Leeanna Autumn Colette Turner, (but later becomes Woodrow due to her marrying Leon). Though sometimes she is called Lea by her childhood best friends Serena and Calem, Leon. (Pronounced: Lee-uh)

Her birthday is March 15th, making her a Pisces. She is native to the Kalos reigon, and was actually their Champion from the ages of eleven to twenty two. (More on why she left later)

When she was Champion, her team consisted of:

Sylveon ♀ [The ace]

Chandelure ♂

Garchomp ♀

Greninja ♂

Vespiquen ♀

Venasaur ♂

Leeanna is feisty, stubborn, impulsive, and sassy. But she's also quite clever, compassionate, loyal to those she loves, ambitious, determined, and quite a passionate lover.

She was born and raised in Kalos, being sent on a Pokemon journey by her parents despite not really wanting to yet. She never had the best relationship with her parents, especially since she grew up in nobility. She's a Baroness, and suffered quite a traumatic childhood. She developed claustrophobia at a young age, and strove to be a perfectionist to please her parents. She's an only child.

She's essentially the X and Y protagonist. She was the one to defeat Lysandre and take down the ultimate weapon, as well as defeating Diantha and taking her place. The only issue was that she never wanted to be Champion in the first place, and developed a terrible cocaine addiction at age seventeen.

Soon after her twenty-second birthday, her father forced her into an arranged marriage with a Count named Caspian, who she immedietly hated. He was cruel to her, telling her she would only be good as his wife. Naturally, she ran away to Galar soon after this to go live with her uncle.

I won't give too many spoilers as to what happens in her new life in Galar, as you can read the fic on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56822020/chapters/144468685

But, this is where she meets Leon for the second time. They met before as children, since they both became Champions at a young age and saw one another at events. Leon was almost immedietly smitten with a celebrity crush, as Leeanna thought he was loud and annoying, even though he never told her about his feelings.

The two of them meet again and almost instantaniously hate one another. Their story is enemies to lovers, as I love angst >:3

But as time goes on, Leeanna replaces Opal as the fairy-type gym leader. You know what that means! She gets a new team, which is almost entirely female except for Espeon.

Sylveon, Primarina, Tinkaton, Alolan Ninetails, Florges, Mega Altaria, Alcremie, Espeon, and Dedenne.

She does eventually fall in love with Leon, and the two of them end up getting married. In the future, they have three children:

Dande (yes that is his name as a reference to Leon's Japanese name and also I just like the name) Who has dark brown hair, light tan skin, and golden eyes. He takes after his mother more than his father, and is a total mama's boy when he's little.

Auriella, who has tan skin, purple hair, and sea-green eyes. She takes more so after her father in personality, but did get her mother's sass.

Zinnia, who is pale like her mother, with light purple hair and golden eyes. She doesn't really take after either of her parents, being more quiet and reserved.

[I will HAPPILY draw their kids for yall and/or write more about them if you want] :D

And of course, Leeanna is incredibly happy with her future. If you want the full story and not just snippits, go ahead and check out my AO3 profile! The entire first book is on there, and I'm currently working on the second! :)

Draw fanart of them and/or write fanfic and my heart will be yours

[xitty]

My brain happily mushes up years together and I often mix if something happened this or last year but let's try collecting some fun stuff from 2024:

The highlight of 2024 was definitely seeing Kenji Nojima at Desucon. He was so charming and funny. When he gave me back the signed card, he did a little spell in Natsume voice to put magic into it. ❤️

ENSEMBLE STARS AND MUSIC:

Ensemble Stars of course had lots of fun things. Checkmate anime aired. Both Starry Symphonies this year, the Dead of Night and the Midnight Sun, were great. Finally fine and Eden were back for them. And oh my was it emotional. Hikaru Midorikawa 🩷

English server had SS Finals in the beginning of the year and I loved it. Other events I had been looking forward to a lot were Bridal Light, Obbligato and Ghostic Halloween. Been having a lot of fun playing Enstars. 💛

JP server gave M∀N∀ shuffle, I love everything in it. Intelligence scout story became one of my faves. Card highlights were definitely long-haired Eichi (so beautiful) and baby Adonis (cuuute).

Obviously there was a lot of other great things but this would become too long if I mentioned everything...

I put music in the same section because most of my music highlights are from Ensemble Stars, so here they are:

Venus in My Eyes ~Hanasanai, konya~, Soushitsu Guui -Lost Ballade-, Absolute Perfection, Accept My Love, Shiawase no Uta, Tsumi no Soko, Seven Days "Prismagic" and We'll Be "Knights"... Oh and of course Ryou Kataomoi no Kousaten de, Kimi ni Mata Aitakute!

BOOKS AND MANGA:

Favourite books were definitely the volumes of The Case Files of Jeweler Richard I read this year (6, 7, 8 and 9) but especially vol. 6. The series has handled Seigi's trauma about his biological father so well, and Seigi and Richard's relationship has been developing beautifully (and slowly lol). Other books I really loved were Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Foster was also great) and Elolliset by Iida Turpeinen.

Best new manga was definitely Colette Decides to Die. Of continuing series, Kowloon Generic Romance and Therapy Game Restart got 5 star volumes.

RANDOM THINGS:

I absolutely love these two pieces of Enstars merch I got: the Mysterious Myths Rei figure and life-sized poster of Kaoru. :D They spark lots of joy for me.

I made a few gifsets I really like: Ringing Evil Phone, M∀N∀ and Fairy Tale Library.

I wrote a couple of fanfics I'm very happy with: I've Been Saving All My Summers For You (Hiyori and Nagisa) and Would You Smile At Me? (Kaoru and Adonis).

[everybodyknows-everybodydies]

AO3 wrapped!

tagged for two variations of this game by @pia-writes-things and @marylairre - thank you both!! :D combining the two below the cut... this was neat to see haha

20,484 words in 23 fics across 3 fandoms

Top 5 fandoms by word count:

TES (17,786) ER (1,549) The Last Unicorn (478)

Top 5 characters by fic count (this made me laugh):

Kharish (7) Colette (5) Hallie (5) Nerevar (4) Molly (4)

Top 5 ships by fic count:

because I only tag a ship when there's something Romantic(TM) happening/the relationship is already established, so as not to mislead anyone looking for specifically romance-focused fic, I have exactly two this year: trainwreck trio tree-climbing and Kharence kiss :')

Ratings:

G (22) T (1)

Fic categories:

Gen (21) F/F (1) Multi (1)

1) Biggest surprise while writing this year?

being able to stick to a fairly consistent schedule about it lol!

2) How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year?

throws a blanket over wip mountain. at least ten but who knows how many will end up going anywhere!

3) Favourite character to write this year?

PICK A WIZARD ANY WIZARD... special shoutout though as I was genuinely surprised by the character count up there because there is so much of Faralda and Mirabelle in my word docs whoops

4) The character that gave you the most trouble this year?

Martin ;-; he has such a specific presence and I wasn't satisfied with most of what I was trying to do this year. need to replay Oblivion soon to take notes

5) What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

cough............. would like to commit to posting some of the silly little fluff in my docs perhaps. does that count

6) Did you receive any gifts this year?

not on ao3 but yes!! I got to read some wonderful birthday fic from friends :3 and actually earlier this month this one Lemon posted for me making it to day 10,000 of existence :'D

7) Did you do any collaborative works this year?

nope!

8) What do you listen to while writing?

character-specific playlists! I make them mostly to have a soundtrack for when I'm writing/drawing, and I find it helps a lot to keep my thoughts getting too scattered to proceed.

9) Favourite line/passage you wrote this year?

the quick cuts in this one... I know one of my bigger weaknesses is that I inevitably err on the side of saying less instead of more, but sometimes I think that can be a strength too!

thanks again y'all for the tags!! if you've read this far I am tagging YOU YES YOU

[britishchick09]

poto rewritten short stories 6/6: meg the fooler

in honor of read an e-book week, i'll be sharing sneak peeks of the rewrite's first short story collection (which will be an e-book exclusive out this spring)! last but not least is meg and cecile being epic pranksters! ;D

...

The door creaked open…

“BOO!” Meg yelled, running out from the vanity.

“AHHH!” a dancer screamed as she put a hand on her heart. “You got me, Meg!”

Meg laughed. The foolee was none other than Cécile Jammes, her pranking partner. They had pulled many tricks throughout the years on the other dancers, the singers, the stagehands, the managers… no one was safe from their pranks on April Fools’ Day!

…No one except The Opera Ghost, that is.

“I have a little something for my partner in crime!” Meg said.

“Oh!” Cécile’s brown eyes sparkled as Meg handed her a little chocolate fish and popped it in her mouth. “Mmm, thank you. Are you ready to start?”

“I’ve been ready since last night!”

Cécile smirked and tossed one of her caramel brown ringlets over her shoulder. “I know exactly what we can do first.”

...

 A few minutes later, chatter sounded through the ballerina dorm as the corps de ballet filed in. Some did stretches, a few lounged on the sofa, others sat at their vanities and some stood around to talk. Meg and Cécile waited near the back, hiding soft giggles behind their hands.

“Here she comes!” Cécile whispered.

Meg gave an excited squeak as Sorelli DuPont walked in. She rubbed a horseshoe on the wall for good luck.

“What in the world?” Sorelli looked at her horseshoe, which was covered with a rubber bathing cap! “Oh, I should’ve known…”

“April Fools’!” Meg and Cécile exclaimed.

Sorelli rolled her eyes. The jokesters looked over at Fleur, who sniffed a tulip… that sprayed her with water! Elena was brushing her hair at her vanity. She gasped as she realized that cold cream was on it! The lotion belonged to Colette... who smeared ketchup all over her face! Nellis opened her vanity drawer to find nothing inside except a paper fish and April’s paper nameplate had ‘Fools!’ written on it. The remaining seven ballerinas were pranked as well, leaving Meg and Cécile in stitches.

“I knew this would happen.” April said with a sigh.

“You two are almost as bad as The Opera Ghost!” Colette exclaimed.

“And just as delicious!” Meg added as she swiped some ketchup from her face.

“No one could ever be as great as that ghost. It’s-” Sorelli paused at Meg’s look. “He’s the greatest trickster in the opera house.”

“We may be great, but he’s the true master.” Cécile agreed.

Meg looked down at the floor as an idea sprung into her mind. She looked up, her eyes widening with a gasp as she exclaimed, “I got it! We can join forces with Mr. E!"

“Seriously? You want us to partner with The Opera Ghost?" Cécile asked with an uneasy frown.

"Yeah! The Ghost is a bit scary, but Mr. E is perfectly fine. He has access to every corner of the opera house, so..."

Sorelli groaned. "Great. You'll be unstoppable.”

"Oui... unstoppable!" Cécile exclaimed with a grin. "Let's do it!"

Meg cheered. "This will be the best April Fools’ Day yet! I'll go get him!"

She ran down the dressing room hallway, stopping at the very end. She put her ear to the door and listened.

"Meg woke me up by putting my hand in cold water," Christine was saying. "It startled me so much! One of her many tricks for today!"

"What's today?" Erik asked.

Meg wanted to shout, 'April Fools’ Day!' but she let Christine say it instead.

"Ah, yes. One of the best times of the year for The Opera Ghost," Erik chuckled. "Ayesha likes it, too. She stretched out on my legs and I sat up to pet her... and then she started walking towards me. She was going to lay right on my pillow! I caught on and laid back down before she could, but she found a nice spot next to me."

Christine giggled. "Oh, how funny! She nearly tricked you!"

"Sounds like she'd be the perfect kitty prankster!" Meg exclaimed as she ran into Christine's dressing room.

Erik looked up. He was doing a mirror chat with Christine, who looked over her shoulder at Meg.

“Then we’d have three tricksters scurrying around!” she realized with a chuckle.

“More like four.” Erik added with a wink.

“That’s exactly why I’m here,” Meg said. “Meet Cécile and me on stage after practice, Mr. E!”

Erik frowned. “Can’t I just meet you?”

“Nope. I don’t prank alone,” Meg smiled as she added, “Cécile won’t be scared of you, I promise.”

She went up to the mirror and held out her pinkie, getting a confused look from Erik.

“That’s a pinkie promise.” Christine explained.

“It is!” Meg agreed. “It’s one you can’t break.”

Erik looked at Meg’s pinkie before slowly lifting his own.

“There you go! It’s a date! But not the ones you and Christine go on!” Meg said, giggling at Erik and Christine’s rosy blushes.

...

 Meg sighed as she stood on her tip toes and tried to peek into Box Five. It was eleven-forty on the dot. Ballet practice had ended not too long ago and now she and Cécile were waiting on stage.

“He should be here by now!” Meg said impatiently.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to partner with us,” Cécile hoped as she fiddled with her coral ring. “Let’s think of some more pra-”

Just then, the chandelier lights went off! Cécile’s scream echoed through the theater. Meg jumped a little, but she wasn’t afraid.

“The electricity’s gone out!” Cécile exclaimed in a panic. “Let’s fetch the managers!”

“Or you could fetch The Opera Ghost.” a voice said.

The lights returned and a shadow stepped out from Box Three.

“Mr. E!” Meg exclaimed happily. “I thought you’d be in Box Five!”

“Got you, Little Miss,” Erik said with a smile. “Consider that an April Fools’ gift from me.”

“The greatest gift would be partnering with us!”

“As long as you’re not creepy.” Cécile added.

“Oh, that’s only The O- Opera Ghost. Y- You won’t need to worry about creepiness with me,” Erik reassured her. “Y- You’ll just need to w- wo- worry about all the sneaky tricks we’ll pull.”

Cécile’s fearful face was replaced with a sly one.

“So you’re in?” Meg asked.

“Yes, Little Miss,” Erik smirked. “I’m definitely in.”

[homosexual-fast-dancer]

One Rainy Night, Colette x D.oc Sc.ratch

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

My half of a trade for @wisp-herr, thank you for trading with me Wisp! Heck thank you for making this into a trade! I would've been happy writing this for you either way :D

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

It was a quiet day… night? Well it was quiet in the Felt Manor, far too quiet for Doc Scratch, he would usually enjoy his peace and solitude but today for whatever reason was an exception. "Well, this is boring, I do hope Miss Colette will visit me soon, our interactions are always so exciting." Doc Scratch nodded, closing his paper to think more about his love. "With most people I can easily guess their every thought, move, and plan two steps ahead… Yet with her, I can never quite tell for certain what she will do next, it truly makes our interactions one of a kind…" Doc smiled internally, placing his head on his hand as he leaned over in his armchair "Not to mention how breathtakingly divine she looks, a real work of art captured in human form." His face turned slightly pink as he thought more about her, her brash attitude and kindness to others (as opposed to him) were truly captivating.As he began to open up his paper again he heard a knock on the door, 'Hm, the familiar shave and a haircut, well this should at least be entertaining…' he thought standing up to get the door.

The knock repeated itself making him sigh somewhat annoyed, turning the knob "Yes, yes, Sir, I know you're he–" Yet much to surprise instead of the big living pool table it was the girl he had just been thinking about, "Ah, Miss Colette I wasn't expecting you, you have quite a similar to English…" Scratch then moved aside to let her in, she was soaked as it had been raining outside the Felt Manor. She shivered and sat on his chair, he somewhat grumbled before grabbing her a blanket, multicoloured with many different numbers on it. "Oh, uh, thanks for the blanket Doc." She smiled somewhat, snuggling further into as he went off to make some tea. "Of course my dear, now what are you doing here?" He asked, sitting on the nearby lounge chair, turning to …face(?) her while knitting his hands together.

"Can't I just visit a friend without a reason, why were you busy today?" Colette's tone was brash but it did seem like she was still somewhat concerned that she may have indeed interrupted him while he was busy. "Not at all, it was rather boring before you showed up. I'm glad to have you here now however." Doc chuckled, flustering the girl and making her tsk before turning away slightly embarrassed. "Yeah well, you don't need to be too excited… Still I'm glad to be here." Her smile, now more pronounced as she took another sip of her tea and made her way to sit next to him. As she sat down she picked up the paper to look at it with the good doctor, on the front page was a story about the felt fighting the midnight gang. But truth be told, Scratch couldn't care less about what was in the paper, as long as he had Colette with him that was enough, and nothing else could be more engaging.

[e-adlirez]

Treasure Seekers 3 Review/Ramble

Welcome to the third and last entry of the Treasure Seekers trilogy :D

"Wait what?" I probably hear you ask. "What about the other four treasures they said the girls would find?"

And to that I say

yeah it do be a bit sad that they never made a book 4

But make no mistake, Legend of the Maze is a doozy of a third book, and I'd say it's almost on-par with book 1 if not surpassing it. Unfortunately there is no free digital copy of the book, so uh if you're down to spend a bit on a digital copy on the E-book site of your choosing or on a physical copy in a bookstore, I salute you for your determination.

As for the rest of you, you're just gonna have to trust me bro :] /j

Ready? Let's go :D (also this is being written by a sleep-deprived E running on hyperfixation juice so if you find any grammar issues feel free to let me know so I can fix them)

The story begins with the Thea Sisters touring the Capelletti House in Verona with their Italian friend/tour guide Sebastiano. Yes, this Verona.

So yeah Colette is fantasizing about Romeo and Juliet as a romantic ship, Vi is trying to kill her Santa by telling her that Romeo and Juliet are fictional characters (which Colette responds to with "oh hush I can dream"), and oop-- loose floorboard-- what's this package under the flo-- LE GAAASSSPPPP LANE LOOORRREEEEE

The girls fangirl about the ABL jumpscare a lil' too loudly and Sebastiano is a lil' confusion, soooooooo the squad goes out for some snacks outside the Capelletti house to explain stuff to Sebastiano

buckle up Sebastiano you're about to get two 300-page books worth of Lane Lore™

While listening to the story, it turns out that Sebastiano may or may not have heard a peep about a legend about a treasure called the Treasure of Eternal Love (adapted Scholastic name is "Treasure of True Love" which ew, snatches the original Italian name instead), which was said to have been owned by Juliet and tho a lotta people are trying to find it, they dunno where it is now. Sounds very Seven Treasures of the World to me :]

How does Sebastiano know a peep about this very obscure legend? Turns out he learned about it from a letter written by his great-grandpappy Jacopo, who was an archaeologist like Aurora :3

So Sebastiano invites the girls to dinner at his place so the girls can look for the letter. Vi don't get too comfy with the house library I know it looks very cool and antique but we got a goal and that is sifting through a lil' box of Jacopo's kept things and find some-- HOLY CRAP LANE LORE™

-

"Hi Jacopo, tysm for helping me with my research on the Treasure of Eternal Love, you're a real g my guy, regards from me and my sister Linda, also tysm for the tour of Verona."

-- ABL

-

The girls tell Sebastiano their findings over a dinner of bigoli al pomodoro, give some extra Lane Lore™ about Jan von Klawitz and Aurora's six sisters, and mention the possibility that Linda knows where the treasure is, which means that Luke is probably after it too, but also Linda might know where the treasure is, which means a lead >:3

First stop: Verona's city hall, where Sebastiano's friend Guido works and is able to help them with finding information about a Linda Lane who may or may not have lived in Verona approximately a century ago. They find a document that says yes, Linda did in fact live in Verona once, and also her address is listed there because legalities, y'know how it is.

So the girls head on over to the address, knock at the door, and are greeted by an old lady, and :0 turns out this old lady (her name is Mia) knew Linda personally.

-

Linda and Mia met when Linda was in her older years and Mia was a smol child. Mia would read for Linda since her eyesight deteriorated in her old age, and they hung out a lot together. When Linda left to return to England, she left the house to Mia, as well as a good chunk of the stuff she had in said house as mementos for Mia to remember her by.

-

Hey guys you wanna see a trick, it's called "the Lane Lore™ %", aka how fast can we get this old lady up to speed with the ABL drama-- /j

Unfortunately Mia doesn't really know anything about the treasures, but she does have this wack painting of a scenery in Japan that just won't align correctly no matter how much finagling you do to it-- oh there was an envelope inside-- LANE LORE™?

So the letter inside the envelope is a letter from Aurora to Linda basically Aurora telling Linda she found the Treasure of Eternal Love, but because Jan is on her tail, she left the treasure in the "House of the Sun" for now. Now, if you tried looking up "house of the sun", you'd get a hotel in Florida, a manga, a former Incan temple that's now a monastery-- you get the picture, it do be a weird detail and probably not it bro, besides Aurora's too much of a gremlin to be that obvious with her riddles.

At least if you're not a Shakespeare nerd like Colette is (the kind that never read past Romeo and Juliet's wedding), because if you were, you'd know that at one point Romeo equates Juliet to the sun rising in the east. Romeo is simping for Juliet, Juliet is the sun, ergo, the Capelletti house.

But uh, thing is we already went to the house and we already know that Aurora came back for the treasure and took it somewhere else. Sooooo might as well see what the last letter says--

"Hi so I'm on the run rn I can't chat for long because Jan is pissed and he wants to find me and force me to reveal the treasure, and I don't think I wanna know how not-kid-friendly this is gonna get if he does find me. Thanks for introducing me to your friend tho :D she's cool and thanks to her help, the treasure is safe and sound in the shade of the cherry trees! I'll come back for it one day, hopefully that day comes soon. Anyway, hugs and kisses, Linda." - ABL

Spoiler alert, despite having a beeg cherry tree on the painting, there was in fact nothing else hiding behind the painting.

LUKE TRANSITION

So Luke is doing Luke things, not touching grass as per usual. Cassidy comes by to give him a lil' souvenir from great-grandpappy Jan von Klawitz's house in London: Jan's old notes. Luke immediately dismisses Cassidy without even so much as a thank you -- Cassidy girlypop you're not scoring that man no matter what you do, he's the Adrien to your Marinette girlie we're only at book 3, you might as well accept your fate -- and Luke takes a lil' peek into Jan's notebook (he also calls his great-grandpappy "Jan", like just "Jan". I dunno maybe I'm just finding it weird because I'm Asian . .) for the goods.

And goods Luke does find, which he proceeds to consume like a goblin. Bit of Klawitz lore here:

-

"Grrr grrr stupid Aurora and her smartass tricks grrrrr who does she think she is grrrrr she beat me to the Treasure of Eternal Love in Verona grrrrrrrrrrrr well at least now I know how she works, I managed to find this friend of hers Jacopo, who definitely knows about the treasure even though he keeps playing stupid like I don't know that he knows Aurora. Something something cherry trees, I ransacked every single cherry tree in Verona and there was literally nothing, wth, Aurora why are you like this" - Jan von Klawitz

-

Luke responds to this seedy lore from his great-grandpappy with "hehehHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHH JAN YOU IDIOT, YOU COULDN'T SEE WHAT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU BECAUSE YOU UNDERESTIMATED THE LITTLE PILOT GIRL, I ALREADY KNOW WHERE TO LOOK"

Cut back to the girls, and they know where to look next, too

It's Japan, i-it's Japan, y'know Japan's relationship with their sakura/cherry blossoms

Turns out Linda has a friend named Kyoko Bianchi, a Japanese-Italian botanist who was raised in Japan. Since Aurora mentions in her letter that Linda's friend came in clutch, she was obviously referring to Kyoko and now the treasure is in Japan.

So Japan transition :D (based on my personal experience in Japan and also a bit of canon continuity consistency, I headcanon that despite being written in English, this segment of the story mostly had the girls speaking in Japanese, a language they would know how to speak a bit of at least (and apparently Vi is conversational in Japanese so c'mooonnnn).)

The girls land at Narita Airport and take a train to central Tokyo (damn Kumi from Cherry Blossom Adventure you came in clutch possibly teaching the girls how to Japanese subway offscreen because they actually didn't get lost using it on their own :D). Kyoko's hometown was Tokyo, so might as well start searching for her descendants/relatives there. First stop: Shibuya.

Colette is playfully ribbed a bit for having a big-ass bag while everyone else only brought smol backpacks around with them, the luck of the girls not getting lost using the Japanese subway must be balanced out so Paulina's GPS decides now is the right time to be a dick, Shibuya Crossing, and finally they make it to the hotel where Amrita Bianchi, their first Kyoko descendant candidate, is at.

And this is the first time the girls come across the concept of cosplaying, I genuinely don't know how they managed to sidestep it for so long especially since they've been to Japan before for a student exchange, all I can really justify it with is that university has been kicking their a-- RATSUNE MIKU??

Gahd even in 2018 Italy there was no escape from her /j

Anyway so Amrita didn't know Kyoko, so their second candidate is Shinobu Bianchi, a guy living in Shinjuku. They find him-- or more accurately run into him (literally) on his way to work, try to explain things to him but this man is running late, so he invites the girls to follow him to his workplace. They find themselves in a cafe on opening time, customers start filing in before the girls can even tell Shinobu what the whole deal is, soooooo karaoke break :D

Vi c'mon it's not like there's much else to do while waiting for Shinobu-- what're you gonna do, sit there and wait? A-actually y'know what that sounds like something Vi would happily do but c'mooonnn Vi where's your sense-a humor :D

Thirty minutes of singing later, they finally get five minutes to explain to Shinobu what they're looking for and Shinobu says "sorry I dunno Kyoko, I am half-Italian on my dad's side, but my mom has a different Japanese surname"

So the girls Peter William a bit emotionally, Pam goes to what Scholastic is telling me is a kiosk but might as well be a 7/11 based on the banger food Pam got from said kiosk, the girls take a taxi to a Capsule Hotel (judging from the illustration it looks like the Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel), and after a bit of dinner, Peter William into their capsule rooms physically.

The next morning, Nicky goes out for a morning jog as usual (she prolly slept with her capsule open so she wouldn't get claustrophobic), and she finds a gardener tending to a Kyoko Bianchi flower :0 like no joke that's the name, it's a K. bianchi, named after a botanist who founded the Fairy Garden (Disclaimer: neither the K. bianchi nor the Fairy Garden Foundation in Japan exist, they're fictional bits for this fictional story and that's fine :3). Nicky gets the address for the Fairy Garden, runs back to the girls who are having breakfast, and they head on over to the venue.

At the Fairy Garden, the girls meet a gardener named Toshio who happily shows them around, and despite not knowing all the Lane Lore™ (yet), he knows enough to lead them to Kyoko's perfectly preserved office, where the late Bianchi has displayed some pictures from Verona, as well as her furniture and encyclopedia collection.

After a search, they find what was presumably a haiku alluding to Jomon Sugi and the writer's voice being hidden in there, and one jaunt to the record of Jomon Sugi in Kyoko's encyclopedia collection and uhp-- a hidden cassette tape inside the volume!

On one hand, victory, the girls have found a VHS tape that is implied to have a personal recording from Kyoko Bianchi herself, so they're super-close to the treasure now :D

But on the other hand, they found a VHS tape in the year of our lord 2018.

Good news, Toshio knows a buddy who's super tech-savvy, and that's including tech things. Bad news, he's in Kyoto, which is about 445 km/283 miles away from Tokyo.

So the girls quickly take a shinkansen and some bento boxes to Kyoto :D (their wallets are probably sobbing in an 86-USD ticket per person)

At Kyoto, meet Ren, are lowkey surprised that his house is a traditional Japanese house as opposed to a modern flat but hey it's a pleasant surprise, and Ren is able to play the tape for them.

In the tape, Kyoko explains the Treasure of Eternal Love, how it ended up in her hands at the ripe age of 20 through Linda and Aurora, and some Treasure of Eternal Love lore, or rather Ring of Eternal Love lore:

-

Yeah sure Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters, but reality, so it goes, isn't that much different. The Ring of Eternal Love was a courting gift from a suitor to a bachelorette of the Cappelletti household. The suitor and the girl's families had hate boners for each other for a while now, but instead of spiraling into a destructive mess of family feuding and death like in Shakespeare's play, they decided to call off the feud so the two lovers could be happy together. And now the ring, as Kyoko puts it, has been passed down from her to "one who shows love every day, in every way, towards everything that grows from the earth."

-

The girls are happy they got to see the tape and its contents, but they Peter William emotionally once more because well, they're back to square one now-- literally the only clue they have is the thing Kyoko said, and what is the thing Kyoko said? It's cryptic and weird and h a h ? Ren offers to accommodate them for the night, the girls get to sleep on futons for the first time since Secret of the Snow, and the next day they decide to have some downtime vacay-ing in Nijo Castle. A vacay that results in Vi having an epiphany about the riddle and thus who has the ring.

Meanwhile with Luke, he's planning something. Something that's got Cassidy in Japan and putting her master's degrees in Engineering, Chemistry and Computer Sciences to use by assembling a drone (I'm wondering how Cassidy has so little braincells out on the field despite having THREE MASTER'S DEGREES like holy crap--)

Cassidy tries complimenting Luke on the motherboard he sent in from Alaska and-- ew Omar why are you here I thought Luke fired you-- ooh what's that package thing-- oi don't diss on Japanese people being polite, once you see the ruder options you're gonna be pining for that shnit-- wait what how's this drone gonna find the Ring of Eternal Love--

Anyway the girls plus Toshio and Ren take the train back to Tokyo (istg if they took the shinkansen--) and back to the Fairy Garden Foundation, where they talk to the current head gardener: Mr. Murakami.

Mr. Murakami does in fact know Kyoko personally, and after a bit of persuading (it involves a bord like many good things in this world), he decides to bring them to his hometown Nara (which involves a train to Kyoto and then a train from Kyoto to Nara which on the Kodama plus the cheapest option from Kyoto to Nara is-- CHEESUS CRUST 91 USD PER PERSON AND THEY HAVE TO GO BACK TO TOKYO AFTER THIS???)

ANYWAY Mr. Murakami takes them to Nara Park, where he hid the treasure. He brings the girls to it, he checks the hiding place and

It's empty?

Wait, the hiding place is empty?

WAIT WHAT THE HIDING PLACE IS EM--

Off in Alaska, Luke is cackling in his fancy custom-made not-gamer chair.

Mr. Murakami is distraught, most of the girls stay to comfort him while Nicky and Ren scout out the area. In their search, Nicky and Ren find a big broken drone that seems to have crash-landed in the garden, and oop-- LVK logo. It was probably used to spy on Mr. Murakami to snatch the treasure. "DAAAMMMNNNN YOOOUUUU LUUUKKEEEE" Nicky probably would've shrieked at the top of her lungs if she weren't A. in Japan (it's very quiet generally), and B. within earshot of poor Mr. Murakami, who's still recovering from the horrible shock. The girls, Toshio and Ren take the drone to Kyoto while Mr. Murakami stays in Nara with the fam to recover because man, he deserves the break :(

In Ren's house in Kyoto, Paulina and Ren get to work hacking into the drone to snatch its data, and they find that the drone's memory goes as far back as to being in Alaska for some reason. Why would an LVK drone be in Alaska? Unless-- :OOOOO SECRET BASE??

With that lead, the girls depart for Anchorage, Alaska (if I plugged it into Google correctly the price for the flight totals out at a 567-USD one-way flight holy crap girlies have mercy on your wallets-- not including the mini shopping spree for winter clothes Colette was more than happy to drag the girls on). Ren gives Paulina a little flash drive with some written code that could come in clutch in whatever shenanigans they end up in in that secret base of Luke's. Yes Violet as much as I think you're the only person in the group who seems to be concerned for your wallet, ya'll are nawt surviving Alaska with those summer clothes ya'll are wearing.

Behold, a long rest/14-hour timeskip in the form of the last two letters the girls have yet to read from Aurora to Linda. (Well the girls besides Vi, God's sleepiest soldier over here is eeping in the back before the flight's even taken off--)

-

(These are the real letters this time around lmao, if you're confused, Aurora addresses Linda in these letters via her middle name Amaryllis.)

Dear Amaryllis,

I'm very sorry that, because of my job, you are taking on a responsibility that is perhaps too great, and that puts you at risk.

It's all because of the greed of my former professor, a mouse who is incapable of recognizing that beauty should be shared. My dear sister, I have thought about it for a long time, and I have come to the conclusion that the best solution is to take the Treasure of Eternal Love from Verona, where it is not safe... and put you at risk. I am sending you a copy of one of the photos I hold the most dear, in memory of the love that binds us. I hope it will help you make the best decision...

Yours, Aurora

-

Dear Amaryllis,

You wrote me that you are making a decision about the treasure. I agree that the mouse you're planning to entrust it to is worthy of that trust, and I will wait for more news. But you must be careful, even when you write to me, to not mention names or places. We need to watch out, because my former professor is more alert than ever.

It seems that he's building an underground shelter for his riches, designed as a kind of maze to test anyone who manages to enter it...

Professor Jan is clever, and he's always loved riddles, puzzles, and mysteries. I wouldn't wish for any mouse to find themselves in his maze!

Now I must say good-bye, my dear. Sending a big hug.

Yours, Aurora

-

Once the girls land in Anchorage, Alaska, they rent an SUV, pull out Google Maps, read some of the brochures Ren printed out for them just in case, fangirl over a moose (Nicky that's not something to fangirl about have you seen what they're capable of--), and accidental secret tunnel discovery?

Well, accidental secret garbage chute discovery, anyway, since the one thing that allows the girls to not break their ankles when landing is some garbage bags. Food waste garbage bags no less :D Ew :D

Some old aircraft bits are found too which is nice but it's never elaborated on whose old aircraft bits those were so we're moving on to the girls entering Luke's secret headquarters and Nicky trying not to die from claustrophobia :D

CCTVs pose an initial problem, but Ren's flash drive comes in clutch and allows Paulina to freeze the cameras so they can go in undetected (Ren how do you know how to program that is there something you wanna share to the class--). One lengthy labyrinth later, the girls manage to get out of the "we're walking in circles" loop-dee-loop they wound up in and find this little room with a little lit fire pit and an ominous riddle involving the "elements of nature". Pam has the idea of extinguishing the fire pit, and sure enough, inside the fire pit is a key that fits perfectly into the door across the room.

And right after Pam turns the lock on the door, a trapdoor opens up beneath her and she falls into the pit below. It's padded, it's kinda cozy, but it's way too deep for the girls to reach Pam from above without a rope or attempting to risk falling in and getting trapped as well. The girls are very reluctant to leave Pam, but Pam unfortunately only metaphorically slaps some sense into the girls and tells them to go on because they've gone too far to back out now so COMMIT TO THE BIT GODDAMMIT

(you guys like the rhyme-y bits? They're kinda fun to write I do like the rhyme-y bits a bit <:])

And thus the girls minus Pam go through the door to the next room, where there's this swimming pool with a key inside it, which Nicky swims down for, assuming that the trap in the room will only activate once they get the key into the door leading to the next room. Obviously she winds up being very incorrect, as the moment she takes the key from the bottom of the pool, the water starts to drain away until all you got left is a sopping wet Nicky in an empty pool and the key to the next room, which Nicky tosses over to Paulina while asking for her shoes and her dry clothes that they packed. Colette is devastated, devastated I tell you at the idea of leaving Nicky behind, on top of having to leave Pam behind, but Nicky's got faith that the girls will pull through and come back for her; so Colette, Paulina and Violet move on to the next room.

A LOT of walking down a twisting hallway later, the trio make it to the next room (which they use Nicky's key for), and we got four pots with something or other in them, lighting too dim to discern properly what's in the pots, a button sequence puzzle with no margin for error, and a wack riddle. Oh and Paulina's tablet's finally died after possibly uh, 18-ish hours of not charging it. RIP Paulina's tablet, that's gonna be set aside in the corner for the time being.

The pots turn out to have different types of sediment in them, and the wack riddle turns out to be the clue to the correct sequence to input, so the three figure that out fairly quickly and slide down the chute leading to the next room. Except for Paulina, who had to get her tablet from that corner she set it aside in, and wasn't able to make it to the trapdoor-chute in time before it closed on her face, leaving her trapped "forever", as the wack riddle states. The one time you're told to stop holding it, man, unbelievable. I'm never letting go of my tablet again /j

Now Vi and Colette find themselves in an empty room, and they only realize when they get down that Paulina wasn't able to make it out in time. Now this entire time, Colette has been going through it. Of the girls, Colette's been taking the whole leaving-my-friends-behind-for-the-greater-good thing not well at all, and it culminates in an emotional breakdown. Violet comforts her and reassures her that they'll get the ring, they'll pick up the other girls and they'll get outa here soon, but they gotta be brave now for the other girls. (Kinda hard to capture in short and sweet words what the emotion of the scene was but oh well). After a bit of calming down, Colette and Violet look around to find themselves in a... surprisingly simple room? There's a door on the other side of the room from them, and besides that there's literally nothing but thin air.

The two go to the door and move to open it. Yeah this one's surprisingly simple. Just walk on over, pull the door open, walk o-- a gust of wind slammed the door shut . .

Yeah that's right. You ever leave a window in your room open on a windy day and leave your door also open, and the wind going into the room slams the door shut? Yeah, it's that multiplied by uhhhh how much is a vent opposite the door opening up just to blow f%#ken WIMDY-level winds just to slam that metal door shut? However that much multiplies that. The two find themselves in a situation where had all five of them been there to do this puzzle, it would've been far easier; but it is doable with only two people. The plan is one of them wedges themself between the door and the frame and prop it open, while the other crawls under the first person's leg. Transitioning to the second person propping the door open for the first person is gonna be a bit dodgy, but it is doable kinda.

Now Colette has been going through the ringer emotionally, and if you've seen this trope before, you'd know that it'd be a real damn shame if they lost their emotional pillar and had to carry the entire plan on their own, riiiiggghhttt? She's been the handling this situation the worst (emotionally), and it would bring her a belly of the beast to trump all bellies of all beasts and force her to do a The Next Right Thing (hot take: Anna's arc in Frozen 2 was really good), presumably after a lot of sobbing in the corner! It's perfect for angst, and it's perfect for empowerment to see Colette pick herself up and be strong for the girls and save the day!

Which is why Colette doesn't end up being the last one standing :D

Colette was the one who propped the door open for Violet, who crawled through to the other side. The plan was to have Vi switch with Colette so Colette can get through, but one thing they didn't take into account was the fact that the vent would slowly create stronger and stronger winds the longer the door is held open for, so Colette winds up allowing herself to be trapped in the air room so Violet can do the thing. (Oh and the plan was Colette's idea too.)

Heeyyyy Viiiiiiii~ Do you have some cash left over in your wallet? Because I think it's time for you to put your money where your mouth is :DDD

So yeah Violet continues on alone.

Also if you're wondering where Luke is this entire time, he is in fact in his base, still not touching grass and none the wiser about the whole five lil' rat girls sneaking into his base because of the whole frozen cams situation. He does technically notice something's off, but he thinks that the clock in one of the cameras is broken and he ends up complaining about it to Cassidy, haha L. It is also at this point where we learn that the girls have been in Luke's base for a little over three hours at this point :D

Meanwhile, Violet goes down the narrow metal staircase in the hallway outside of the last room and finds herself reminding herself to stay calm but also inside Luke's treasure room, where treasures of all shapes and sizes reside. From whole dinosaur skeletons to ancient Egyptian statues to paintings to suits of armor and-- holy shnit Luke has the Ark of the Covenant in there too o o yeah this guy means business holy crap--

The Ring of Eternal Love is in there too, the lone treasure in the set of seven empty pedestals that Luke was prolly intending for the Seven Treasures of the World. So Vi, clearly not having watched Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, attempts to lift the glass case protecting the ring, which sets off the alarms in the treasure rooms, and whoa holy crap there's a robot voice speaking through the alarms? WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIFTEEN MINUTES TO SELF-DESTRUCTION

Luke, having the shock of his life, comes down to the treasure room to see what's up, and of course it's one of the five brats who's been getting in the way of his endeavors. Hardly a surprise, really, those five have been a pain in the ass from minute one of Luke looking into the Seven Treasures-- from stopping him getting the Alabaster Garden (he didn't even get to see what it was smh), to duping him with the most audacious of gottems to exist only partially due to his goon's stupidity, and now sneaking into the heart of his base without him, his cameras, or his sensors noticing. Strange how there's only one of them, though.

Just like Aurora Beatrix Lane almost a hundred years prior, this young lady is naive, morally stubborn, and idealistic. She is preaching out about sharing these treasures to all, even when the worth of these treasures comes partly in the luxury of not everyone being able to enjoy them. There is value in that sense of rarity, and it's not like any of the uncaring, ignorant whelps working in the museums look at the pieces that sit before them and realize the true value that they have the privilege of looking at everyday. They wouldn't care about them-- they would do the bare minimum to these unique masterpieces and leave it at that. And this naive brat thinks that they are more loving, more caring to these pieces than Luke is?

But as naive and morally pretentious and... ignorant of time and place this woman is (did she really not hear the self-destruct alarm and is thus willing to babble to her grave?)... she is clearly very intelligent. She was able to affect the base's security system such that she could come in undetected. She was able to get past all four traps without getting trapped herself. It is strange how she is alone here, though. She is usually with four other girls-- ah, that's it. They got trapped, and she left them, so she could get to the treasures on her own. What a show of common sense, that is! She must've seen that the traps were designed such that risking oneself to rescue a trapped person is just not worth it, and that first point already makes her far more intelligent than Cassidy or her buffoons could ever be. It could even be on-par with Luke himself. What if... perhaps....

What if they worked together?

Luke, after a bit of back and forth with Violet, gives Violet an offer to ditch her friends and become his partner. If she accepts they can divide everything between each other in the vault, and together, they'll be able to uncover the treasures of the world and enjoy them all to themselves.

I mean of course Vi turns down the offer in favor of sticking with her friends but y'know what it was worth a shot, Luke, kudos to you for spotting a gemstone instead of covering it with mud and pretending it's not there.

Heavily disappointed by Vi turning him down for the sake of "the power of friendship" (I wish I was kidding)(Scholastic!Vi's (?) words not mine)(I would be incredibly disappointed too), he turns to leave her in the treasure room, and it's only then that Vi realizes she kinda effed up. Luke is the only guy here who knows the base inside-out, and thus would know a way to get the girls out so they can Not Die. And to add insult to injury, Luke made a bomb shelter out of his treasure room, so the entire base may explode and the girls might die, but the treasures are gonna be completely fine. Intact, even. Luke leaves, and the robot voice announces ten minutes before self-destruction.

As soon as she's able to, Vi calls the elevator, juggling anxiety and being able to think under pressure. She figures out that Luke oh so helpfully uses pictograms for his elevator buttons instead of numbers, and presses the button for the control room (the heliport floor is locked by a key). She arrives in the control room, eight minutes before self-destruction.

Just as Vi enters the control room, the cameras get kicked back into action, oh so conveniently showing to Violet a timer ticking down to the big kaboom in real time, and footage of Nicky waiting anxiously in the pool room (and Luke leaving), for extra stakes. One Perception check said "yeah, this is a LOT of buttons, TOO MANY BUTTONS", and the tablet sitting on the desk required a password, so oh god what do

Six minutes before self-destruction and one panic attack later, Vi manages to psyche herself up enough to roll for Investigation. She finds a button for disarming the traps, and that allows the girls to get outa the traps and meet up again in the treasure room. Happy reunions aside tho, four minutes to self-destruction

Turns out the girls (thankfully) didn't know about the self-destruct situation. No need to explain tho because Vi is deadlifting the group braincell like she's never done before. She drags them down to the base's... basement, where a train that was probably used to carry the treasures into the base sits unused and ready for the girls to figure out how to work. Three minutes before self-destruction, no pressure :D

Pam sits at the train's controls, Paulina tries to help but immediately brain crashes at the old-timey controls, thus deciding she'd rather help Nicky get the bars off the rails up ahead. Two minutes left, and Pam figures it out and is ready to-- wait they need electricity-- okay cool Nicky and Paulina are taking care of that, cool

Pam gets the train to start up, Nicky and Paulina manage to hop back into the train, and escape the base's explosion range with about ten seconds to spare :D

After stopping the train in a spot where their braincells could afford to deflate, the girls take a minute or two to breathe y'know, just take a minute to breathe, nibble on some wild raspberries growing in Denali National Park, before figuring out what the hell their next move is.

Vi suggests they tell the authorities about the whole secret-base-under-the-park situation and the treasure room and the stuff inside it (since Luke oh so foolishly gloated to Vi about the treasures being perfectly safe), on top of removing the train so it's not getting up in nature's business. They head back to the car talking about their adventure, get a bit sad that they weren't able to find the Ring of Eternal Love-- and oop just kidding, Vi pocketed it in the treasure room right after Luke dipped :D

So on top of the girls escaping with their lives, not only is Luke gonna lose the Ring of Eternal Love as quickly as he got it, he's also losing his entire treasure vault. Can I get a ripperooni

And that's Legend of the Maze :D

I would say that the hyperfixation-that-consumed-these-girls'-lives-for-a-whole-week energy is very strong in this one in the best way, and the girls' personalities are at their most showcased here. The banter is bantering, the girls' dynamics with each other is very believable here, Vi is carrying the group's braincell the entire time and she looks like she's a bit tired from carrying it but y'know wut she's still willing to carry it because it's honest work and she knows how important it is to have it :3 also her trying to kill Colette's "Romeo and Juliet are so romantic" Santa but failing miserably because Colette unashamedly likes believing in the power of love is hilarious

The main thing I wasn't sure about was.... all the infodumpy bits? The infodump goes a significant bit harder in this book than the previous ones (even more than Compass of the Stars, which is an achievement), and it's Scholastic-style infodumping, so you get the girls calling Luke an "evil mouse" or "selfish mouse" and I'm sitting here like "just call him sewer rat please ya'll had no problems calling him that before please for the love of god use that instead it sounds better--"

Don't even get me started with Amrita Bianchi explaining to the girls what cosplay is like she's the damn Merriam Webster dictionary--

Also the Japan segment with y'know Japanese culture and stuff had the terms localized for some reason??? Like haori became "dark jacket", kimono became "long, elegant Japanese dress", they didn't even mention Ren's hakama (he was wearing a very traditional Japanese look), they felt the need to explain bento boxes as "typical Japanese portable lunch boxes" even though "Japanese lunch box" probably would've gotten the point across just fine and also there was an illustration of the bento boxes, Japanese characters became "logograms" for some reason, and dango became "rice dumplings" which became infinitely more confusing for me because the illustration made it look like takoyaki--

I could go on and on but yeah, there are a lot of these and it felt very infodump-y to me. I'm hoping it's just a translation thing, because the story overall feels pretty solid. Scholastic, what happened to the asterisks? Were they just too much for one page? I feel like you would've been able to squeeze them in just fine to make the reading experience a little smoother,,, just like, so it's an optional thing for the reader to read the mini-infodump of the term if they dunno what it means,,,

Other than that tho I don't think I have much to complain ab--

COUGHS GAGS SCREAMS CRIES WRITHES ON THE FLOOR

(I have the magic-of-friendship-invocation tolerance of an angsty teen I'm sorry :'3)

Scholastic, buddy chum pal buddy chum buddy chum pal,,,,

You could've had Vi say "the only way I got here was thanks to my friends", and it would've been fine and infinitely better-sounding and probably more in-character,,, o<-<

Gahd I hate it when Vi's used as the power of friendship prophet -m-

There's a more minor one as the girls are going back to the car and Vi is telling the girls about the deal Luke offered her, and the girls ask her what she said, and she says "I told him I already had the greatest treasure in the world... true friendship!"

Meanwhile I'm sitting there like "MMMMMGGGGGGHHHHHH 'friends like you' or 'sisters like you' or 'my friendship with you' would've sounded better -m-"

(Also the girls call each other like "friends", so like "you were in fact right, friends", which is like, what happened to "sisters" or "girls" those work perfectly fine and get the girls' close relationship across significantly better than "just friends")

Most of what I'm saying here tho are just nitpicks and probably (hopefully) are just stuff with the English translation-- in all seriousness, the book is pretty good.

Aurora's trail here makes sense and is rather logical, and the interesting thing I find about it is that it feels different from the previous two books' worth of shenanigans. Aurora in this one had far less veers and nation hopping shenanigans, and I feel that it was perhaps intentional. Perhaps to give off finale vibes-- Aurora works far more closely with her sister in this one, and the main thing the girls had to work with was not Aurora's diaries, but the letter she wrote to Linda when they were discussing the Ring of Eternal Love. Something about it feels closer, more intimate, more tragic than the previous ones. I felt the need to put her last to letters in the book verbatim because they were emotional dammit -m- Damn you British Amelia Earhart you've done it again /lhj

Luke's character I think is the strongest here. He gives off in a way the most... normal? Vibes here? He's still not touching grass and muttering to himself ominously a whole lot, but his mindset is nice and easy to wrap your head around here. He literally doesn't care about his goons unless he needs something from them, he is more than happy to overanalyze the crap out of a piece of text if he feels Cassidy didn't look through it thoroughly enough, and he wants what he wants right away, and that includes the things he needs to get the thing he actually wants. He as a character literally observes everything happen from his base in Alaska and backseat gamers the crap out of his goons if he sees something they didn't, or if they fumbled the bag and it was perfectly avoidable had it not been for SM being SM--

Also his blatant disrespect for his great-grandpappy Jan is holy crap haha-- it might just be my cultural background, but when I saw Luke call his great-grandpa "Jan" and then say "you disappoint me, Jan", I was flabbergasted haha, not a criticism I just wanted to mention it because I thought it was funny

I really like the fact that Stan and Max (aka SM) didn't show up at all in this book. It would've been easy to have them show up for regularly scheduled hijinks, but in Luke's mind, none of SM's operations have ever been... up to Luke's standards. Especially with how much of a ruckus they tended to make with their presence, they were more of a liability to Luke than an asset; therefore Luke changing up his strategy to be as hands-off and clean and non-intrusive as possible feels like something he'd do, what with how laser-focused he is on min-maxing efficiency to get what he wants as soon as possible.

Omar still being there despite being "fired" might just be a Scholastic oopsie so I can forgive it, Cassidy is still simping for Luke and trying to impress this man and trying to prove she's at an equal level to him, but every time nah. Just nah. Girlie you think you're on the same level as him, which can't possibly be further than the truth. I haven't seen Miraculous Ladybug, but I'd bet Cassidy has even less of a chance of impressing Luke, than Marinette had a chance at getting Adrien to see her as more than "just a friend" before they finally got together.

Now here's something I've been wanting to ramble about for a while: Violet being left alone instead of Colette. It's actually pretty clever when you think about it: Colette is the closest the girls have to a heart (tho she plays hot potato with Paulina when it comes to that role imo), so she's been the most emotional and the most sentimental of the group this entire time. From daydreaming about Romeo, to wanting to believe in love, to happily picking up a microphone to sing karaoke with the girls, to her strong reactions to having to leave the girls behind one by one for the sake of their mission, Colette was being set up for a moment where she is the one who is left alone. You see it a lot in media: the main character is the most sentimental one and as their friend squad make their way to the Big Bad Evil Guy, the supporting characters are forced to get left behind one by one to either hold the evil minions back or because there's no way for the character to move forward with the MC; so the MC is forced to go through the five stages of grief knowing that their friends trust them to get the job they'd set out to do done. It literally happened in Geronimo's third Kingdom of Fantasy book Amazing Voyage, and in that one Geronimo was the one who desperately didn't want to be alone, but he wound up carrying on alone anyway. You see this kinda thing everywhere.

However, in this bit, it makes total sense that Violet is the one who ends up carrying the last leg of the journey alone instead of Colette. Compared to Colette (and honestly the rest of the girls), Violet is the most level-headed. She's the girls' braincell keeper (in this trilogy), the babysitter holding the leash tied to the four gremlins, the one keeping everyone on track and also making sure that the group's collective ADHD doesn't spiral down as badly as it could possibly be. Whenever the girls make a big move that could affect the whole group, Vi is the one asking if it's a good idea or if it's worth doing, and she's the one thinking ahead enough to say "if x happens instead of y, what then?" You get the idea-- Vi is the most capable of keeping herself level-headed even when she's under all this pressure, and she's good at analyzing and planning on account of her often taking the position of the quiet observer.

With this context, it sort've makes you wonder what was going through Colette's head when she offered to help Violet get out of the air room. Violet and Colette in particular get paired together fairly often, and it's probably because of how well they're able to understand each other-- so with the plan, was Colette volunteering herself to prop the door open out of "it was my idea" courtesy, or was she thinking that maybe Violet would be able to figure things out better and thus needed to get to the other side? She probably was expecting to get to the other side with Vi, but would she have thought far enough ahead to a what-if where that wasn't possible? :3c

And Scholastic and power-of-friendship funkiness aside, Violet did handle the situation well, all things considered. The one bit where she only realized Luke was hers and the girls' only ticket out of there was a bit weird, but it can be chalked up to her not being able to take that into account in the moment because of a mix of stress, sheer bafflement from Luke's deal, and the fact that when put on the spot, observers don't exactly handle taking the driver's seat that well :'D (speaking as an observer myself here)

It makes me wonder a bit if Violet and Luke were meant to be foils of each other, what with how similar they are to each other (both of them being observers and planners who delegate more often than they do the work themselves), yet different enough that the contrast between the two is striking. Said difference being

Violet touches grass. Luke does not :)

Anyway so yeah, that's Treasure Seekers 3, and while it is kinda sad that this is where Treasure Seekers ends, y'know what? It gave a solid show as the last installment in the trilogy. I liked it, I liked the canon compliant blorbo angst, I liked the characters character-ing when the dialogue was letting them breathe :]

And of course, we can't forget

God's sleepiest soldier <3

She deserves that nap after what she went through and you know it--

[likes-words-and-shrimp]

Any Tales of - game for the fandom ask :D

going with Symphonia! My first and fave Tales game <3

the first character i ever fell in love with:

It's hard to narrow it down but I did really love Lloyd when I first played! I love my dumb protagonists but he's also just such a good character with really good growth. I think after is Dirk because DWARF DAD and I always wanted to have more with him. We need more dwarves in media!

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

I guess the best answer here is Zelos lol. I think I used to like him plenty and found him funny but, well, a lot of that has tempered down over the years or maybe I just got very tired of seeing him as a focus in fandom and am bored of it. I played the remaster to remember his good points as a character and I came out of my replay loving Regal more oops.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Hm, nothing here really applies. When I first played I actually didn't have many ships at all, even Lloyd and Colette wasn't a full on ship for me! (But I did like them interacting a lot haha). All other ships I eventually liked I still like now.

my ultimate favorite character™:

It has to be said: it's Colette! I do switch back and forth with loving both her and Lloyd together as my pair of faves! But I think Colette ultimately wins out, especially as I've grown older. Much of her story and her struggles just hits for me in ways no other character's background really does in Symphonia. Also religious conflict/guilt of a character is also delicious to me when done well.

prettiest character:

Ohh there's a lot! So it's hard for me to pick. Ofc I think Colette is pretty but so is Lloyd, he's my pretty boy. :D But! I think after watching the OVA, I remember Regal looking so pretty in a way that his in-game model could never do. Regal it is. Also we love a beefy man who cooks, it ups that prettiness.

my most hated character:

Hmm, probably one of the Grand Cardinals, so maybe I'll go with Kvar! HE AWFUL. But fun to write though when I did that one time haha.

my OTP:

*falls on floor* if my blog title isn't obvious, colloyd is my ultimate of ships, the best of my otps. Lloyd and Colette together is food for my soul. I love every aspect of them and they have completely devoured me that I didn't even realize how much I was already shipping them until years later. I emphatically believe Symphonia is their story and about their relationship. The way they understand each other better than anyone, the way they're silly with each other, the way they just love each other?? They do love each other, that's canon. Platonic or romantic (but it's romantic in my eyes) and I am so invested in their dynamic and want to explore every possibility with them. I have apparently written half a million words about them help me.

my NOTP:

:) Sorry but I legit dislike Lloyd with the z-man lmao. I used to be indifferent (I just found it so boring) but now I'm honestly very uncomfortable with it (fandom hasn't helped). Oh well!

favorite episode scene:

I'm going with scene here and it's a tie between the coffee scene and the reveal of Colette's crystallization. Of course both have to do with Colette and how things keep being awful for her :') But I love the coffee scene for Lloyd and how he reaches to hold her, and also how Lloyd assures Colette is not disgusting at all when she has a breakdown of her reveal. Him walking to her to be NEAR HER even as she tries to hide away her sickness gets to me.

Another favorite is the ending: We got big trees, we got beautiful music, we got COLLOYD WINGS. This lives in my heart.

saddest death:

The closest is Corrine! I think what makes it sad more though is Sheena's reaction to it. Also just such a good performance of the voice actress too.

favorite season plot/arc:

Going with plots and arcs in the game, but I think from discovering Colette losing her humanity and seeing this play out throughout the Sylvarant arc of the game is so good and it does make you genuinely wonder what will happen. And when we get to the Tower of Salvation and fight Remiel and KRATOS. I was stoked playing through that when I was younger.

least favorite season plot/arc:

Hm, probably when we're doing the Tethe'alla temples and such. Pacing gets a little off and also with more characters we start to lose the focus on other people. I think it picks back up once the group focuses on curing Colette's sickness.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Lol hate is a strong word, I'm more just fatigued of him but heyyy it's Zelos! I am just uninterested. Also Kratos to a lesser extent, but oddly my opinion of him has actually raised a bit more over the years. So he's like, middle. gj, kratos.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Maybe Mithos? I like Mithos. This boy can fit so much messed up trauma and manipulation. Combined with the uncomfortable idolization of his sister to the point he no longer sees her as an actual person (if he ever did?). And the fact he can genuinely be creepy?? Still my fave Tales villain.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

Colette. ;_; She deserves so much more. Also, Dirk is a close second, he deserves more attention! The dad that stayed!

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

So fun fact, I started shipping Lloyd/Mithos a bit purely because of some jp fanartists, and now I'm very intrigued. (I own two doujins of them now haha). I think there can be so much fun interactions between them, and none of it would be good for Lloyd. But it's fun. One day I will write something with them and no one will have a good time.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

I think this would be Kratos/Anna for me, and I've written several fics of them too. I get the appeal in a way, but ultimately Anna is a character with... no established character lol. Even Kratos barely ever talks about her as what she was like as an actual person? I know plenty of people love this ship and I've seen interesting things done with it, but my investment isn't much for them. I honestly mostly like this ship for the baby Lloyd fluff you'll get from it lol.

[ciryze]

Butterfly Effect turns 1 year old today :D (I pushed the release date on AO3 back in the day but it counts!)

For all 3 of you actually following the story, have a cute family picture <3

Also some Butterfly-Funfacts under the cut :)

The actual "Butterfly Effect" is actually not Raine turning to look for her mother in the prologue, but Kloitz holding Genis instead of Virginia doing so.

The flashback chapters are intentionally scrambled through the actual timeline as Raine doesn't exactly remember the order of events herself

Zelos did return several times to the spot where he met Raine for the first time. However at that point, she was already with Pronyma

Presea is still alive in this story. However she is held in the underground research lab in an isolated container, making her crystal grow under similar circumstances as Expheres do in human ranches. She dies during Raine's first test-run with Odin in Sybak.

Regal is also absent in this story. Mithos has him executed in order to take over his company

The spelljammers (both Tethe'alla and Sylvarant) are made and built by Lezareno company. The ones in Sylvarant are brought over by Cruxis and built by Desians

There's a total of 6 human ranches in Sylvarant (the original 4 as well as one in Triet and one in Hima. Both these locations were suggested by Raine

Sylvarant is much heavier regulated by the Desians. With several large borders, it's harder to manuver around, so most rebel groups are local to their respective city.

Raine manipulated the Cardinals enough so that they raised the minimum age for new recruits. She also made them offer childcare and education in their ranches. Kvar thinks it was all his idea though

Raine still caries a scar on her back where the flames of the Broken sprouted originally in The Broken Ones. It looks like a shard of broken glass.

Zelos made several trips to the Meltokio slums in his life, disguised under rags and looking for Raine

Both Zelos and Colette have elvenblood in them

The higher ups in Tethe'alla have their children operated on if they turn out to have even slightly tipped ears. It's common procedure, although it was made less painful after a few years. Zelos had a particular bad case of tipped-ear-syndrom which is why his ears seem unnatural if you look close enough

Raine in this story is nonbinary, preferes the 'she/her' pronouns though. She occasionally goes around as "Ray" having he/him pronouns

Raine is also demisexual

Zelos is pansexual. He's also the only one thinking of Raine as nonbinary, thus avoiding any pronouns for her as well as he can, which is also the reason he calls her 'Master' instead of 'Mistress'

Kratos is genuenly interested in Raine up until the Altamira incident

Although not explicitly said, Sheena tries to convince Zelos to leave several times while they are still in Sylvarant

The heavy accent Raine has naturally is a mix between her growing up with elvish and the accent they carry in Sybak. It sounds remotely like russian

[goodieghosty]

Half asleep rn, oc stuff below the cut because this is gonna get LONG

Colette chose her own last name, completely changed it after ol' dad signed over his rights. Really said "alright, you are now a stranger to me. Goodbye" I mean, she'd like to think she was calm about it, but in reality she locked herself up in a room for daaays on end and would only leave if it had to do with her snakes.

Colette

Used to work under Madam Margot, keeping the books, used her position to gain intel and would slip it to the Firelights. Until she was eventually found out and had to flee and hide out fir a while

Absent-mindedly sticking her tongue out, she's either really focused or zoning out, it's hard to tell which

"A snake would never do this to me." In a complete monotone. "Colette, I put melatonin in your drink so you'd GO TO BED. You haven't slept in three days."

Colette somehow ending up in weird places while she's lost in thought, akin to walking around ur place while on the phone. Because moving helps her think. Ends up physically way off track and lost af-how do you wander into a restricted area, Colette, how?

Colette, getting sidetracked while out in Zaun getting supplies: "I found a friend! :D" the poor Firelight who has yet to meet these 'friends': "Oh, you did? Who-THAT. Is a SNAKE." C: "Obviously, yes. Don't shout. You'll scare them. >:/"

"Colette, what is that moving under your shirt?" "Snake." "... of course, why did I ask?"

Would be very hesitant and reluctant to use any venom to make weapons or anything, eventually comes around to the idea. Blow darts. Mostly just to temporarily paralyze. But she always carries around stuff to nuetralize it

Colette the second she realizes she has romantic feelings-"Excellent, how do I get rid?" Frazzled. Wtf do you meannnn?? Panik.

Not realizing when someone is actively flirting with her and just continuing on with the conversation, just to be told later on the fact. "... that was flirting? We were just talking-what do you mean??? I thought they liked my snake facts!"

When She flirts, it's not subtle. At all. Very straightforward and to the point. No beating around the bush. "This is flirting."

Prefers being barefoot. She feels like she has better movement/speed without shoes. Can, has, and will ditch her shoes if pursued. Sometimes by chucking them at the person. For the hell of it I'm going to say she's done this to one particular enforcer on so many different occasions, not on purpose, they just have rotten luck and happen to be there lol

Colette threw a shoe at Steb once, ngl. It definitely got brought up. Gal has no remorse.

???: "What did you just inject me with? Poison?!" Colette: "No, don't be ridiculous-_-" ???: "...." C: "This is venom, venom is injected. There's a difference. I need you to know there's a difference."

"It's very important to me that people know the difference between something being poisonous or venomous."

Colette, overstimulated af: "Sedate me."

Tends to stim by tippy tapping her fingers one by one to her thumbs

Enforcers would hate to see her up to no good, she always manages to slip out of her restraints. Look away for three seconds and she's uncuffed. "Oh damn it, it's the snake lady. Give me the heavy duty restraints-" this woman dislocates her limbs and fingers so often

Her and Selve are besties, because I say so. He hates her arm warmers with a PASSION tho. "Why do you have so many? Why not just wear long sleeves??" "I don't like how constricting they are. :/ " "Oh, right. Can I at least make you a pair in a color that isn't a shade of puke?" "I like this shade of puke." "And I said what I said."

Gal is cursed to forever be able to experience death and remember each time it happened, but to never be able to actually move on. Basically immortal, but like, shittily??

It'd be cool if she had Yordle buddy, because those bishes literally respawn in LOL lore. I think. Idk I don't play those games.

So far she's only died once, via The Train incident. V traumatized. Never going near a train again. Will have to draw the aftermath of her Initial "Respawn" soon. It's gonna suuuuck.

Her repeatedly echoing any and every click or chirp she hears Scar and other Chireans make, she doesn't know at first that it's actually the Chirean language. She just thinks they're vibing. Like when you get a roomful of neurodivergent ppl together, one of them makes a random noise. And then the rest just follow suit. Lol

Catch her accidentally telling someone she's "going to kiss their mother with a boot" because Now she's just doing random clicks and Scar has to keep a straight face while the others are losing their shit. "I'm going to tell her-" "Don't you DARE."

Selve, about literally anyone Steb shows an even minor interest in, "Are you going to make me their brother-in-law or what?"

Selve

Will visit the same brothel once a week, likely how he met Colette. He lets her crash at his place sometimes

Loves, loves, loves tailoring clothes to fit different physical requirements for Vastayans and the like. He likes a challenge.

His shop is right near one of the borders, residing in Piltover because it's "safer" and closer to family. Does unfortunately have to deal with snooty folk from time to time. "Oh, ha ha. You're the third person this month to insist my clothes 'smell like fish'. You aren't original. Grow up, you tall child."

Loves gossip, but his lips are sealed when it comes to his friends' secrets and lives-unless they're in danger, but that's a given ngl

He and Steb get together for the occasional coffee or brunch or what have you. At least once a month, to catch up. Lots of signing going on, Selve is very animated when he signs. Everything is dramatic with him, I swear

"Who was that total hunk you were on patrol with the other day, Steb? Are they single?... No, it won't be weird for me to date them... I mean, I won't be weird about it.... Uuuuuugh, fine...."

Been thinking about pairing him with Acacius, ngl. For the drama.

There's probably a three year age difference between him and Steb? Give or take. He still babies his little brother, despite them both being grown adults.

Steb can literally handle himself, but that does not stop Selve from being so protective. It can be so embarrassing for Steb, ngl

These boys were glued to the hip when they were kids.

Selve loves shenanigans. Loves messing with Steb. Will just show up randomly to his place and move something random to annoy him. Not even saying anything. Just, complete eye contact, straight face, while he moves a cup or whatever. And then turns the light off on him before leaving while Steb is just glaring at him the entire time. Asshole

"Who designed the enforcer uniforms?" "I don't know." "How is this comfortable?" "Used to it." "What about your fins??" "They're fine." "Ew." "Hm." "At least the blue is nice." "It is nice."

Selve speaking on Steb's behalf if they're out together because most of the time he's spot on, but Selve absolutely will pull a "He says you're a little BITCH." If they end up in an altercation with someone. Steb usually descalates the situation, but very rarely will he go along with the insult. And when he Does Selve is always delighted

Daddy issues, end post/j

That Bird Guy Acacius

this fucker

Secretary bird motherfucker. His mother was Vastayan, she was a sweetheart. His father is human and completely resents him. He never wanted children. His father often made negative comments about his Vastayan traits as he was growing up, especially after his mother's death, which would lead to a lot of self-loathing and attempting to rid himself of those traits. Feather pulling and the like.

He does not like people touching his hair. Period.

Surprisingly gentle with children, which is shocking considering the man will literally ticket anyone for the slightest infraction and loves getting an excuse to use brute force

If it weren't for his father, he'd be a completely different man. He never wanted to be an enforcer. He wanted to be a baker. Let him bake, damn it.

He and Colette would probably get along if they ever got to talking about their shitty fathers. Too bad he threw her in front of a train-don't worry, she's fine. He has night terrors about it, which just get worse when she-weeks after DYING-comes back to kick his ass. It would be just his luck too, the one person he accidentally kills ends up being practically immortal, lol "You're supposed to be dead!!" "I got better, you won't."

Brings little sweets on patrols to share and lies, saying his neighbor made them. Also, he's a complete "tch, here. Have some, I brought too much." about it. Tsundere ass

Food is his love language, ngl. Man gets unbelievably flustered if someone gives him some of their food.

Steb does Not like working with him because he's so quick to jump to conclusions. I can see the poor fish man snapping on him one day and verbally tearing him a new one. Acacius knows he done fucked up if the quiet guy is pissed at him.

He's so tired

Man was probably suspended after the train thing, man needs an eval

You know what, he was the unlucky enforcer Colette kept chucking her shoes at.

Ends up quitting after a few months and getting himself a job at his maternal aunt's bakery, he's still a bit of a jerk, but he's Learning, okay??

I love them

[vehicroids]

this is for @soft-pink-raccoon (whose name won’t tag??) as part of the @talesofsecretsanta2018 !! i picked Colloyd and ‘victory poses’ :’D i hope you like it! happy holidays

[leahlillith]

Colette Hairstyle Clayfied Version: DOWNLOAD SIMS 4

New thing for me, did a clayfied version of this hairstyle and I gotta say I like it quite a lot :D did two version, the normal one and two-toned as well^^

[saucy-mesothelioma]

A- Apple

B- Biscuits

C- Cat

D- (motherfuckin) Dinasaw

E- Evergreen

F- Ferret

G- Goat

H- [My Brother's Name] or Hello, Jon. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself. I'm assuming you're alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn't try to stop reading; there's every likelihood you'll just hurt yourself. So just listen. Now, shall we turn the page and try again?

I- Iguana

J- Jackalope

K- Ki ki ki, ma ma ma

L- Lichtenberg

M- *in LSP voice* Michaelllllllll

N- Nope.

O- Octagon

P- Pont du Flaque. Now, Colette, that sounds like "culotte"; that's "panty" in French. And "piscine" means "pool". "Panty pool." "Flaque" also means "pool" in French. So Colette Piscine, in French "panty pool", drives over the Pont du Flaque, the Pont du Pool if you will, to avoid hitting Mrs. French's cat that has been missing in Pontypool... Pontypool. Pont du Pool. Panty pool. Pont de Flaque. What does it mean?... Well, Norman Mailer, he had an interesting theory that he used to explain the strange coincidences in the aftermath of the JFK assassination. In the wake of huge events, after them and before them, physical details — they spasm for a moment; they sort of unlock, and when they come back into focus they suddenly coincide in a weird way. Street names and birthdates and middle names, all kind of superfluous things appear related to each other. It's a ripple effect. — So, what does it mean?... Well, it means something's going to happen. Something big. But then, something's always about to happen. (I'm sorry)

Q- Quarry

R- Retcon

S- Suck it

T- Time

U- UV Light

V- Vulture

W- What?

X- Xian, an ancient Chinese city, true

Y- Yolanda (I blame Simulacra)

Z- ZZ Topp (Thanks Barenaked Ladies for this one and X)

seeing what the first word comes up for me with each letter of the alphabet ( I’m bored )

A- arson

b- booger 💀

c- cum

d- donkey?

e- ego

f- fruit

g- girlfriend

h- hell

I- ignore

j- jump

k- kiss

L- loser ( baby a loser godamn baby )

m- murder

n- no

o- off

p- pee lol

q- queer

r- real

s- STD 🤧

t- tea

u- umbrella

v- vagina 😀

w- why

x- xylophone

z- zoo