#I'm sorry if I missed any others!

[kirbyoc-secretsanta]

Hello! I'm Thunder, and I loved drawing your oc! It did take a little but for me to think of an idea, but I eventually managed to do something! I'm sorry I couldn't add Imp Dee to this drawing, I really wanted to but I couldn't come up with anything. Still, I tried to pour as much love and passion to my gift! I hope it is able to bring a smile to your face, for that's the greatest gift I could ever give. I hope you have a fine day/night, and I'll be sending you the best of wishes!

from: @thundermarisol

to @paintedplum7

[bunnykaye]

Colin + his head tilting when he's with Pen

[ladystoneboobs]

no of fence to jon snow fans who for some reason care about his exact age, but these discussions just annoy me no end. not only bc there's no way any weirwood flashbacks bran has to rhaegar/lyanna will come with time/datestamps, but also bc there's always comments like this:

SEVERAL turns of the moon (ie, months)?! have these people never seen a human baby before or just have no concept of their ages? even if we take into account travel time from the toj to wf, meaning jon was not a newborn too fresh out the oven when catelyn and robb arrived, there's still a difference between a newborn and a 3mo and an even bigger difference between those infants and an older baby 5-7mo. there's very good reasons these lines were cut. whatever birthdates can be worked out internally for jon and robb from when they're first mentioned as 15 and 16 don't matter in the end, bc grrm doesn't care about a consistent timeline and the actual text of catelyn's pov and ned's convo with robert about cheating on her should outweigh any guesstimates about jon's official nameday wrt robb's. catelyn may not have cared for jon, but she would sure as hell have noticed his nameday if it came before robb's and made him ned's firstborn. if jon's birthday canonically came before robb's then either ned's cover story would not involve adultery (not impossible for him to sire a bastard before his wedding), or he'd just give jon a new nameday along with his new name to fit the adultery lie. it makes no sense for him to lie about one and not the other, undermining the big lie with a little public clue of his story not adding up. whatever else she was as a stepmother, cat wasn't stupid and a bastard who was actually the eldest son being raised alongside her trueborn heir could be an even bigger insult than whether he was born of adultery or not.

BUT, the unknowability of jon's true birthday is not the only reason this annoys me, it's bc this is all based on the assumption that jon must be older since rhaegar/lyanna ran off together before ned married cat, as if both boys must have been conceived asap as robb canonically was when his parents consummated their marriage. and that's not how human reproduction works! even if you don't understand how fast babies grow in the first year, you should know that people who get pregnant do so through ovulation cycles and a lucky sperm finding an egg and all that, not just immediately getting knocked up as soon as one has p-in-v sex for the first time. not unless you only know mean girls sex ed where if you have sex you will get pregnant and die. (even tho lyanna did die, there's plenty of canon examples where pregnancy did not lead straight to death. also examples of people who did not get pregnant right away and even some who are/were sexually active and childless without always having moon tea on hand.) we can't know how long lyanna was having sex before that sperm+egg match happened or even how long she was with rhaegar before losing her technical virginity. if they were married, doesn't it make sense to think they didn't consummate their relationship until the wedding night either? that's the only leverage there is to ensure a status as wife rather than just mistress.

and while i just said grrm doesn't care about exact timelines and a lot is still foggy surrounding the rebellion and esp rhaegar, there is one timemarker wrt robert's rebellion he voluntarily threw in, time and time again: that stannis was besieged at storm's end for almost a whole year. that siege, which mind you, did not match the duration of the entire war. it only started after robert won his battles at gulltown and summerhall, returned to storm's end, and then went out and lost the battle of ashford, leaving his homeland open to the reachermen. the same siege which only ended when ned made a detour there after the sack of king's landing, before going to the toj. even if lyanna may not have given birth that exact day ned found her, she could only be waiting in that bloody bed for weeks at the most, not months. so if rhaegar knocked her up the very same night he carried her off and jon was still a newborn when ned found her after the siege of storm's end had ended, wouldn't that mean lyanna was pregnant for well over a year? that's not how human pregnancy works either! so, maybe that's proof that jon and robb, whichever order they were actually born in, were actually very close in age as babies, much closer than if they were both conceived asap.

and really, jon's actual birthdate does not matter imho, when he was raised not just as the bastard to robb's trueborn heir, but with robb also known by catelyn and the world as ned's firstborn (which he was, in any case, as jon was ned's nephew by birth). what difference could a birthdate before robb's make (even were there some means of discovery) after ned, cat, and robb are all dead? if one is looking only at his birth parents then he's only a firstborn child on lyanna's side, but definitely a second son on rhaegar's side. maybe he was always meant to be a second son with a not much older half-brother! even if the aegon fka young griff is not in fact rhaegar's son, he'll still be known as aegon vi targaryen, meaning jon will never be known as any father's elder son. if i may reference mean girls again, it's not going to happen.

[anattadukkhaannica]

can you tell that gregoriah and miche are my favourites cause they were the only two that got full-body ones. anyways idk enjoy or don't maybe I don't know. also sorry if it looks like I drew pest with no pants that was not the intention I just didn't feel like colouring their ""legs""((I only drew the very very upper thighs)) these were all done in pdn with my mouse so maybe when I eventually post something that I put more effort into it'll look better or worse depending on your style preferences

[write-it-motherfuckers]

As promised, an update now that both Bug and Bunny are safely back home from the vet. Turns out there's honestly not much to tell you. Bunny thankfully didn't end up having any more episodes or showing any worrying behaviours, and after checking everything over a second time, they're almost certain that the lizard or snake that she ate part of, was what caused the seizure in the first place. Something I honestly didn't know was possible, despite being aware that some reptiles are toxic for cats, but I guess you learn something new everyday.

Bug was his usual menace self while at the vet, and even attempted to make a move on an elderly cat that they were watching for the night, despite no longer possessing the necessary parts to actually do anything about his infatuation. Apparently she proceeded to give him a thorough enough verbal dressing down, with a few additional educational swats just for his sheer audacity, that he ended up sulking the rest of her stay. He went right back to being his usual dramatic yelling self soon after, and made sure to inform everyone of his ill fated would be romance on the train ride back home.

They've both since settled down for a well earned nap after the stress of the strip and the tiring ordeal of removing the scent of the vet from each other.

As an apology for my being such an insufferable stress head throughout this whole thing, please enjoy four straight minutes of the fluffballs noisily grooming each other after arriving home. Once again I apologise for the irritating screaming of my aircon, there's nothing I can do to fix it.

Enjoy 🖤

[dollypopup]

y'all can all cancel me (again) for this, but if there's even a SHRED of 'who should I pick?' from Penelope in season 3, I am tuning out SO fast because like. . .sorry not sorry, there IS no choice. Debling is some crusty OC suitor she barely even knows and Colin is a man who she has been so supposedly in love with to the point where she'd ruin her entire family's reputation to have a potential love story with him. Penelope and Colin have background, years of knowing each other, intimacy that few people in the Ton can boast of having (letters, conversations about purpose, fights and arguments and makeups) and her and Debling have. . .a dance or two at a ball because he's a rebound for Penelope's broken heart. he means nothing. he has no nuance, he has no weight to the story, he is such an afterthought to me. either I wanna see Penelope going 'you know what? I don't even LIKE this dude. he's. . .fine, but I don't care about him even a shred as much as I care about Colin' or the INSTANT Colin's like 'you know what? we should get married' if it's not an immediate 'say less, you're already my husband, try returning me without the receipt, Debling whomst?' then I don't want it!

like. . .it's just so frustrating to see all the 'I hope Debling sweeps her off her feet and she rejects Colin's proposal and she makes him work for it and and and-' nonsense from the fandom and it's always tagged and no matter how many times I block it, it just keeps popping up. I go into the Polin tag for POLIN. I don't give a SHIT about a male love interest other than Colin. Not one. Not a shred. Not an iota.

and also. . .Debling has the 'benefit' of not having depth, or character traits, or HISTORY, so peeps can project onto him however they want, but I'm calling it now, there is NOTHING he could do or be that would make me like him more than Colin. Colin will always hit different, and I will always love him more. and if Pen's not on that same page? lol bye

you want me to believe Penelope and Colin are soulmates and it's romance for her to hem and haw about how difficult a decision it is for her to marry a stranger who knows barely anything about her. . .

when Marina was out here dropping banger lines like 'You were the only man with which I could see myself being happy' and 'I do not care about any of these men, where is Colin?'? like hello??? and she wasn't even fully in love with him!!!! but we'll demonize her until the cows come home in our fandom and make her the villain in Polin's love story for DARING to get in between Polin, yet Debling, a white man, is a darling dear perfect prince for getting in between Polin? existing in our fandom solely so Penelope can be like 'lol, Colin ain't shit, let me entertain any and everyone else'?

if that's the direction it goes then, ten toes down and on my mama, she doesn't deserve Colin and she can move because I'm on my way to court him my damn self

and that's that on that

[piosplayhouse]

Someone just commented on one of my SV posts saying the official translation is so much worse than the fan one on bc novels but . The official translation was done by the same fan translators as before. Faelicy and Lily were two of the main original translators from the bc novels fantls . They did both .

[bonefall]

Oh yeah! In your Tiger's Fire AU doesn't Swift survive because of Fire? I remember that Twany joined Swift in his colony while Bramble stayed with Fire and became a medicine cat? I think Moth and Hawk, Feather and Storm were split too between the two huge lake clans if I remember the AU fully. Idk it's been awhile tbh. I just remember you had a tiny blub from Tiger's pov about Lynxkit's death and Firekit not understanding it. I really liked it.

OH sadly I don't run my other AUs anymore. All my time gets dedicated to BB and Clan culture these days (FOUR CHAPTERS TO GO BEFORE DARKSTAR'S COMMANDMENT POST IS DONE AYYOOO).

I'm deffo influenced by the work I did on Tigerstar's Fire in how I approach Tigerstar tho. You're probably thinking of this post. If you want to go hunting, I tagged that whole AU with #Tigerstar's Fire AU

[liquidstar]

Oh fuck tomorrow I'm going to be a little birthday boy I keep almost forgetting

[irritablepoe]

I WANT SOMEONE TO LOVE ME. I want someone to casually sit beside me and nudge me every now and then to get my attention. I want someone to pull me into a side-hug because they've been laughing about a joke of someone and want to share that joy with me. I want someone to carefully take my hand into theirs and look at my fingers or perhaps the lines on my hand just because they can. I want someone to look at me absentmindedly while they're thinking of something. I want someone to sit quietly beside me when I'm feeling down and just take my hand and squeeze it to tell me I'm not alone anymore.

[bookish-library]

Love letter to languages that are not English (as a native English speaker).

Your languages are so cool. Not only cool, but they are also so pretty, hearing people speak Spanish, or French, or Portuguese sounds like something out of this world in the best way possible.

To Spanish speakers: (personas que hablan Español)

Gosh yall sound amazing. From the incredible feat of rolling your "r's" (as someone who cannot no matter how hard I try) to how your letters interact in a way that English wishes it could, yall sound beautiful. The way of describing things is so beautiful, especially in song, everything is so romantic and described in a way that english cannot achieve. Your different ways to say "I love you", the weight each one of them carries, how your language bonds you together, strangers or no. I have been learning Spanish for around 4 years now, and I cannot get enough of it. Your music (I love Missa and Evan Craft) and the beautiful lyricism has me nearly in tears sometimes, yall have a way of saying things that english songs don't. I love the Spanish language and all that comes with it.

To French speakers: (personnes qui parle francais)

Your language is on a whole 'nother level because wow. Between the one pronunciation sound of about 7 different words that somehow all almost sound the same yet mean vastly different words and the way your words are built, English could never come close lol. Yall somehow have the ability to make noises within words and vowels that my mouth simply does not understand how to do (not from lack of trying), and yall someone manage to sound fierce, gentle, and graceful within one word. Your language is kicking my butt on duolingo lol, but it is worth it to try and learn this language. I first got into French because of Miraculous Ladybug, and yalls music is so fun. I love papa ou te [I think I spelled that right], as well as songs by Lnni Kim.

To the Portugese speakers: (pessoas que falam portugues)

Yall are so cool. Your language sounds like a friend you have not seen in a long time, but are finally meeting them once more, and they have changed, but they are still the friend you know. You've got vowels that english would have to amalgamate other vowel to even try and achieve a semblance, and you've got wayyyy more curses than english does lol. Your language reminds me of if French and Spanish had a really cool kid, that kid would be Portugese. It's rapid-fire fast, and yet somehow takes each step with grace. I cannot wait to learn this language, to attempt to wrap my head around this beautiful language.

This next part is just personal reflection

The qsmp has allowed me to learn so much about the world around me. I am finding that I can understand Spanish so much faster than I could before, and while I may not be the best speaker, just being able to listen and understand is such a fun experience. Though I do not know portugese, my experience with Spanish has allowed me to get a glimpse into this language, especially with watching Cellbit and Roier interact. Being able to at least slightly keep up with their rapid fire conversations feels like such an achievement to me, and has def inspired me to try and learn portugese one day. I am trying to learn French right now, because of traveling to France for irl events soon, and I want to be able to interact with people on their own turf. French is kicking my butt lol, but to be able to pick up words here and there on streams, or to understand bits and pieces of the songs I am singing is such a fun feeling. Getting to hear other songs that have such different rhythms, instruments, or tone is so cool, and if anyone has any reccomendations in any language, I would love to hear them. (Une fille de soleil by Lou and Adryano is a favorite, especially since it blends french and spanish) Qsmp is such an amazing project, and I love every time the cc's get into discussions about their language, or trade slang, or teach each other words. So excited to continue this language journey!

[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--

[neurotypical-sonic]

also while we're on the topic. I'll go back to sonicposting after this sorry shdjdj

I wholeheartedly support anyone who is seen/constantly depicted as evil/inherently abusive/demonized etc

systems, those with npd, bpd, aspd, hpd, bipolar, schizophrenia, psychosis, etc etc etc I LOVE and SUPPORT you

[planerot]

ALRIGHT FANDOM DATA GATHERING TIME!!

I've seen a variety of tags used in the cars/planes fandom so I'm curious to see what the most used ones are. So poll time!!

Please note, although the tags ONLY say cars, this also applies to planes. I just didn't wanna cause any confusion by putting cars/planes, so you can just swap planes for cars in your own brain.

[loregoddess]

Would you be willing to share your builds/levels for the final boss(es) of Octopath II? I'm trying to figure out how much more grinding I realistically need to do to actually finish this game.

Oh yeah, sure! I uh, had a lot more thoughts on this than I realized I would, so I'm sticking most of this under a read more, and I've tried to be vague about spoilers bc I wasn't sure how much you knew already from osmosis or looking at other online tips/guides. Also I ended up breaking things up into sections for easier navigation, because there is...a lot.

Table of Contents

General Thoughts

General Overarching Strategies

Character Preferences

Notes on Bosses

General Thoughts

Full disclosure, I've basically just been rotating my party and using whoever's the lowest level to try and catch them up on levels. Because I started with Ochette, she's locked into the party and is ungodly powerful as a result, but this will occur with literally anyone you start with (my first run I was using Osvald and he was so damned powerful by the end of the game). So I don't have a real "strategy" per boss (except for the optional superboss) so much as I switch around passive skills and subjobs based on who's lowest in levels and who I have to have in the party (Ochette + whoever's story I'm completing).

I will say, I don't feel like most of the bosses require a lot of level grinding, at least not for the character story final bosses. I kinda assume that the recommended level of 45 is like, the average of the entire team. As a general rule, I rarely use the fast-travel feature until I'm in the postgame section, and will literally walk my team everywhere, which helps to maintain levels so that I don't have to grind (and even if I do it's like, running laps in the dungeon right before the boss area until my lowest level person gains two or three levels, which only takes about about half an hour for me usually). Like, when I finished Hikari's route first, I had to run laps before the miniboss to get my two lowest team members to lv. 40, but Ochette was already lv. 52 at this point, and Hikari was about 42 or 43, I think. But I haven't needed to run any laps for any of the other bosses so far.

Also, I feel like Octo2 is a lot more balanced when it comes to stats/subjobs, and you can get away with doing a lot of weird things that work out in the long run so long as you're familiar with the battle mechanics and passive skills and how to make them work for you (which was true for Octo1 too, but I found myself almost always having at least Tressa and Therion in my team so I could get free money and open the purple chests w/out needing to backtrack, which limited my team compositions a lot more than Octo2, where no one character has a field-specific skill that makes them more or less useful than another).

General Overarching Strategies

I do have some general preferences. I like to have a at least one cleric and one apothecary in the party, and they can't be the same character (unless there's multiple clerics or apothecaries) just in case I need one of them to revive the other. This is mostly bc I like having the option to heal all, heal single, cure status ailments, or revive on hand at all times (as a result, if I'm using these as subjobs, they usually end up on a character who isn't my main damage-dealer, but even then it depends on the damage-dealing character).

I also like to have a merchant so I can use Collect bc I like having money, and giving the merchant subjob to certain characters is really helpful bc of the Rest skill being able to restore SP and cure status ailments. Generally I also like to have a hunter for Leghold Trap, or Agnea with Windy Refrain (gained by visiting Sealticge's shrine in the Leaflands) so I can manipulate when the boss attacks. Aside from those classes, I end up being really flexible depending on what I think I need. (As a side note, Leghold Trap + A Step Ahead from the inventor job can be really useful if you go in knowing a boss's weaknesses ahead of time, since you can break the boss and deal a lot of damage before they even get a chance to act).

Oh, but as a general rule, whenever I notice a character start to hit the 9999 damage limit output, I go and get DMD from the warrior class for them, because I love seeing big numbers go boom by optimizing my damage output. I also switch around subjobs a lot depending on what I think I'll need, and if I die during a boss fight I will go and rearrange my jobs or skills before I try level-grinding.

I also don't use any stat-enhancing nuts until the optional superboss, but I really don't think they're needed for any of the character story final bosses anyhow. If you've used them already that's fine though, I've totally mismanaged my nuts in both Octo1 and Octo2, and it's nothing a bit of level-grinding won't solve when it comes to the post-game bosses.

Character Preferences

Here's an outline of how I like to use all the characters. Keep in mind, everyone has their general preferences for how they like to use each character, and there's no right or wrong way to use a character, this is just what works for my playstyle.

Ochette

General: I use Ochette mostly to break enemies quickly with her Provoke monsters ability, and to output a lot of phys. damage. She's one of my main damage-dealers, and I rarely use her for support.

Latent power notes: She has one of the best latent powers for dealing damage, since the damage of her attacks scales with her level. I use her latent power as soon as the boss is broken, and I'll save Ochette's BP to use it at a full boost. Generally I use Beastly Fangs, but if the boss has multiple enemies that need to be taken care of (i.e. Partitio's final boss fight), then Beastly Claws is excellent as well. I don't really use Beastly Howl because there are better options to achieve the same effects that don't require Ochette to drain her latent power. I always use Ochette's latent power before I use divine skills or legendary beasts, since the latent power will refill throughout the battle and it doesn't cost SP.

Favorite subjobs: My primary subjob for Ochette is warrior, since it gives her access to Brand's Blade which is a good alternative to Beastly Fangs, and the warrior stats buff her already high physical stats. Alternately I will use her in merchant, but specifically for the optional superboss so she has access to Hired Help's Beastlings in case she has to use them (notes on that in the boss section below).

Notes on monsters: In general you can have whatever monsters you enjoy using for Ochette's Provoke ability, but I highly recommend having at least one monster that can deal axe damage twice to all enemies (any level, even the highest level "2x axe (all) monster" will only deal 1 damage to the postgame bosses, so choose whichever monster you like best), and a monster that can deal either dagger, axe, staff, lightning, or light damage to all (recommend getting a 9/10 strength monster for this, as they tend to have additional effects to their attacks such as debuffing the enemies or buffing the party; the Peek-a-boo from the area around Timberain tends to be a favorite because it debuffs enemy phys. and elemental defenses). Those two monsters will be the most useful for clearing the optional superboss, and a lot of bosses in general have a weakness to axes.

Castti

General: Castti works well as either a damage-dealer or support, so I tend to change her subjob depending on the rest of the team.

Latent power notes: I refuse to use concoct unless I have her latent active so that I can save on the ingredients. The only time I use concoct without the latent is during the two postgame bosses. I managed to get through the final boss fight my first run with only one pomegranate leaf thanks to her latent power (I uh, forgot to stock up at the secret market, but if you need more rare ingredients for concoct, the merchants that show up at night in the area to the west of Healeaks will sometimes sell stuff like pomegranate leaves).

Favorite subjobs: If I'm using her as a damage-dealer, than warrior and armsmaster are my go-to. For support, I tend to stick with inventor or merchant.

Notes on concoct: I use it almost exclusively for healing and buffing the team, and the ability to give everyone BP is super useful for setting up other damage-dealers and support characters.

Throne

General: One of my main damage-dealers, one of the best damage-dealers in the game. I was able to hit the 99,9999 damage limit with Throne thanks to the fact that Aeber's Reckoning scales with speed and seems to take the phys. attack stat into consideration as well. Optimize her speed and give her a high-damage dagger and she's golden for dealing wild amounts of damage.

Latent power notes: I don't have a particular pattern for how I use Throne's latent power, since how I use it depends on the battle situation. Sometimes I use it so Throne can act as temporary support, and sometimes I use it to set up Armor Corrosive and then use Aeber's Reckoning. Really, whatever I need a double-turn for, this power comes in handy for.

Favorite subjobs: Hunter for sure, it gives Throne an excellent boost to speed and evasion while also buffing the phys. attack stat nicely. Dancer is a decent subjob as well bc it gives her even higher speed/evasion stats than hunter, and access to Dagger Dance which is a nice aoe attack when level-grinding, but overall Dancer!Throne is kind of glassy for my tastes, and I like having Leghold Trap as an option for Throne's debuff repertoire in boss fights. I don't mind using merchant for Throne either, since Rest and Collect are useful skills for her to have.

Osvald

General: One of my main damage-dealers, magical edition. He's very squishy though, a true glass canon, so I have to either patch up his defenses with equipment and passive skills, or have someone dedicated to healing on the team.

Latent power notes: Love his latent power, it's especially good if you stack it with the buffs from either Advanced Magic (or the Stone of Truth, which just provides the 2x spell buff from Advanced Magic permanently), or Alephan's Wisdom. I would recommend using this at a full boost for optimal damage output. Like Ochette, I use this as early as I can so it an refill as the battle goes on.

Favorite subjobs: Cleric. Osvald's base stats make him an excellent healer, and the extra magical stats do him nothing but favors; plus having access to Holy Light is useful when his latent is empty since it'll typically deal more elemental damage for less SP than one of his aoe spells, and Mystic Staff can restore his SP. Alternatively though arcanist will grant him the best magic stats possible. I also didn't mind using him as an apothecary high elemental defense means good healing, and he can be a decent support when he's not blasting enemies off the screen.

Partitio

General: I tend to use him mostly as support, but he can deal decent damage when he's not supporting. Mostly he's a main support character for me though.

Latent power notes: Very useful for getting extra BP whenever you need it, and it tends to refill pretty fast so I use it liberally whenever I need BP.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to have Partitio mainly as an apothecary because it gives him a nice buff to his physical stats and more support skills to use (he doesn't make a bad healer either, especially with access to lots of BP from his latent). It also gives him access to a decent aoe attack (Sweeping Cleave) and Poison Axe, which are both handy to have. Alternatively, Paritio does okay as a warrior, thief, or hunter if I want to boost his damage-output, and inventor or dancer are good jobs to give him for extra support options (although I really only use dancer for the optional superboss). I'm thinking of trying him in the conjurer job for a while in my current run to see if the extra magic stats make Bifelgan's Bounty more useful for Partitio, since he seems to lean more physically for me than magically. (I hardly used conjurer except to get SP Saver my first run bc I couldn't figure out how to use it effectively, but I know it's gotta be useful somehow).

Other notes: If it wasn't obvious, the merchant job is one of my favorites as a subjob, and it gives Partitio a really nice set of skills. I don't actually use Sidestep that often and instead focus on things like Donate BP to boost my main damage-dealers in a pinch. Collect is a great skill bc I like having money.

Agnea

General: Main support, and a secondary magical damage-dealer. I tend to focus her on supporting, but her high elemental attack (especially paired with the Mooneater dagger) puts her almost on par with Osvald. She also has access to Windy Refrain which moves ALL enemies' actions to the end of the next turn, which is super useful for turn manipulation (and like Leghold Trap, very powerful when paired with A Step Ahead).

Latent power notes: Honestly I rarely use her latent power. Mostly I use it in general battles when I have her subjob set to scholar so she can use a boosted Analyze on all enemies. It is useful for using Collect or Steal on all enemies as well, but again, there's very few bosses with multiple enemies that you can Collect/Steal from. I think I might be able to use the latent with the apothecary's Rehabilitate which would be very useful on occasion, but I've never tried it bc Agnea is so optimized for magic that the phys. aspects of the apothecary subjob don't seem to fit her. Might have to try that out at some point though.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to have her as a merchant (Bifelgan's Bounty is a very nice powerful single-enemy elemental attack for her), but she does well as a scholar (excellent stat boosts to her magical stats) or thief (nice boosts to speed/evasion). She should technically make a good cleric as well, but I've never tried it out since I usually have another cleric present when Agnea's in the team.

Dance session notes: Dance session comes into play any time you use a dance skill, including Dagger Dance, so if you have the right follower, you can really benefit from Agnea's dance session. For most of the game I've been dragging along an NPC from Cropdale who offers Calming Rhythm (restores 500 HP and 40 SP to the target), but there's a dance session called Celestial Chorus which grants 1 BP to the target, which is super useful in boss fights since extra BP means more boosted attacks. The Allure page on the Wiki (here) has a full list of the dance sessions, and potential NPCs who offer them. Dance session boosts the power of the support dances by granting extra support bonuses beyond buffing stats, and Agnea's probably one of the strongest support characters as a result.

Temenos

General: Like Castti, I use Temenos half as support, half for dealing damage, but unlike Castti who I tend to rely on more for support, I rely on Temenos more for damage.

Latent power notes: His latent power is wickedly good for his Coerce path action, especially when paired with Sixfold Strike from the armsmaster job, and technically you could use it the same way in boss fights to break shields quickly, it's just...armsmaster is better on other characters in boss fights for the physical stat buffs it offers as a job (although Temenos did hit the 9999 damage cap when I had him as an armsmaster in one of the side dungeon boss fights, so Armsmaster!Temenos isn't entirely useless as a phys. damage-dealer). But Temenos's latent power + armsmaster + Full Power from the merchant class makes Coercion much easier.

Favorite subjobs: I tend to move Temenos around a lot in subjobs depending on what I need. He makes for a decent scholar due to the magical stats buffs, and dancer offers him decent stats as well and more support options, but my favorite subjob for Temenos is arcanist because it gives him access to light and dark elemental attacks, making the most of the Sunshade staff, and most importantly Reflective Barrier. See, my favorite thing to do with Temenos is have a dancer use Sealticge's Seduction on him, have him use Prayer for Plenty at full boost (hopefully on a team that's at full HP) to boost everyone's HP (up to possibly 9999), and then use Reflective Barrier and/or Sacred Shield at various levels of boost so I can yeet spells back at their caster(s) or otherwise cut down damage for a little while. Also arcanist offers really nice magical stats, and gives Temenos a good boost to his total SP pool, which is handy for when I do try to use his personal EX skill (bc of his personal EX skill, you will want to have something equipped that lets him regen SP, bc he can drain his SP really fast otherwise).

Hikari

General: Main damage-dealer. Makes for a sturdy backup support when you need one though, but I focus on his high phys. damage stats.

Latent power notes: Very useful and somewhat similar to Ochette's latent skills. Depending on Hikari's SP and available skills, I either use Hienka at a partial boost, and then follow up with Brand's Blade, or Tenretsuzan at full boost. Alternatively, if I need Hikari to do some backup support or use another skill, I'll use Hienka at full boost, and then use his bonus action for whatever. Sougetsusen isn't bad as an aoe attack when you need it though. Like Ochette and Osvald, I use Hikari's latent early in the battle so it can refill and be used later.

Favorite subjobs: Hikari does great as a merchant because of the access to Rest, which makes his Challenge path action easier to use without using all your healing items. Also Rest restores SP, which is super useful for Hikari since he can burn through SP really quickly between his warrior skills and Learned Skills. When I don't have him as a merchant, I like to use him as my armsmaster bc it gives him the best phys. stat buffs, and giving Hikari a Blessing in Disguise with the armsmaster subjob means you can use a lot of high-power equipment with negative effects without suffering the negatives (you can do that for any of your armsmasters by the way). When I don't have him in those two jobs, he makes for a decent apothecary (not as good at the healing though) or hunter.

Notes on Learned Skills: Like Ochette's monsters, you can more or less have whichever Learned Skills you enjoy using, but I like holding onto Divine Dual-Edge from the Ch3 fight with General Rou since it's a useful aoe attack, and picking up Limb from Limb from the Sanctum Knight in Stormhail (enter the Sanctum Knight HQ, go down the left hall and knock out the guy standing in front of a room, then go into the room and the guy in there is the one you can learn Limb from Limb from). Limb from Limb offers a powerful 4x sword attack on a single enemy, and was the main skill used in the guide I found when I needed help with the optional superboss. You can find a list of Learned Skills on the Wiki as well (here).

Notes on Bosses

Most of the character story final bosses are pretty easy, or if they're tough it's bc of their stats and not battle gimmicks, so it's just a matter of chipping away their health. Here's a few battle gimmicks I'd keep an eye out for though:

Castti's final boss has an ongoing battle condition where the entire team's max HP is reduced every turn. You can bypass this with the Sealticge's Seduction + Prayer for Plenty tactic, but it's still risky (Angea ended the battle with a total of 5 HP on my current run). It's best to just try and finish this battle quickly. (Your team's HP will return to normal after the battle).

Throne's boss has the ability to lock the party's main job's skills (so Throne won't be able to use thief skills) until broken so subjobs are very important, and this boss can summon all of her previous bosses (not all at once, but over the course of the battle), so this can be a tough fight. There's a few other gimmicks this boss can access (I think subjobs can be blocked until the boss is broken at one point as well), so paying attention to what's happening in the battle and having a flexible battle plan will help. Either bring a lot of healers, or find a way to output a lot of damage so you can skip the prev. boss summons and gimmicks.

Partitio's final boss has three enemy units you have to defeat before the armor on the main boss's shield fall off. Dealings lots of aoe damage is useful for the first part of the battle. A Step Ahead + Agnea's Windy Refrain is probably useful as well (for my current run I did not have A Step Ahead equipped, and had to do quite a bit of healing in the first half of the battle).

Hikari has the most stages to his final boss. You have to fight a miniboss (which you can save after), the final boss part 1, then there's a cutscene and Hikari has to fight a battle via the Challenge path action, and then the final boss part 2. So just be prepared for like, a lot of battle segments.

(I also seem to remember something being kinda tricky about Ochette's final boss, but hers was the first story I completed on my first run, and it's the story I'm saving till last on my current, so I dunno if my troubles with her boss were "this was the first final boss I fought" or if there's actually something weird about the battle).

As for character levels, for my current run I started with Hikari's final chapter, then worked my way to Castti, Osvald, Throne, Agnea, Partitio, and I plan to do Temenos and Ochette next. As I noted earlier, Ochette, my starter, was at lv. 52-ish during Hikari's chapter, with my lowest level team members being at about 38-ish and I had to do some laps to get them to lv. 40. Right now, going into Temenos's final chapter, Ochette's level is in her mid-high 60s (which probably will be closer to or over 70 bc I want to explore some dungeon areas on the Sundering Sea before I head to Toto'haha), and my lowest level characters are like, 51 or 52, which is well above the rec'd lv. 45. So again, I don't think you have to level-grind for the character story final bosses, because just by fighting them and travelling to their locations, your characters are going to get stronger.

As for the two postgame bosses...

If you do want to level-grind, I would suggest the Infernal Castle, as it's the highest level area of the game at lv. 55. There's also ways to optimize the amount of exp and jp you get via passive skills and equipment, so make sure to move that around before you level-grind. Also I found bumping the game speed to x2, and using powerful aoe attacks made the grinding go so much faster (I only spent maybe 4-8 hours grinding total my first run? on a file where I put somewhere between 180-200 hours into, so basically no time at all for grinding). I would not rely on Bewildering Grace, Agnea party-wiped the team more often even than the optional superboss killed me, so it's just not a safe skill. Also if you fight the Infernal Castle's miniboss, it can show up as a random encounter, and I personally found that the exp gained from fighting it again wasn't worth the time spent. I gained more exp per minute just entering minor battles, smacking the enemies with a double-boosted aoe attack (from Step Ahead and Boost Start from merchant), and then moving onto my next battle (courtesy of Vigorous Victor from apothecary). It's tedious, but it does work.

I would suggest completing all the side quests before beginning the final chapter, as there's a lot of nice accessories and equipment you can get. Keep in mind that fighting the optional superboss is actually one of the side quests, so while you can track your completion of side quests by area in the Journal, one of the areas will be incomplete until you kill the optional superboss (you do not have to fight the superboss to complete the final chapter, and the ability to complete side quests opens back up after you defeat the final boss). The optional superboss is absolutely meant to be more difficult to defeat than the actual final boss.

Also there's technically four bosses in the postgame. Two minor bosses during the final chapter segments, the actual final boss, and the optional superboss. The two minor bosses are easy though, they're no stronger than the character story final bosses (although for my first run I had fought the optional superboss first, so I was waaay overleveled for the final chapter segments; still the two bosses couldn't do anything fancy as far as I could tell).

For the Actual Final Boss, I accidentally steamrolled this dude my first run bc I fought the optional superboss first and had misused my nuts and therefore had to level-grind to make up for stats. Half my characters were at lv. 80 and other other were at 74 or 75. I didn't even have my passive skills optimized bc I was expecting the "dungeon" the final boss is in to be an actual dungeon, not a flight of stairs with no enemy encounters. All the characters were in my preferred classes for them (Warrior!Ochette, Inventor!Castti, Hunter!Throne, Cleric!Osvald, Apothecary!Partitio, Merchant!Agnea, Arcanist!Temenos, and Armsmaster!Hikari, but not in that order bc I didn't optimize my party order either).

A few guides online list the recommended level for the final boss as being 72-75, but I wouldn't know bc again, lots of level-grinding (I plan to fight the final boss before the optional superboss for my current run, just to see the difficulty differences). You will get to use all 8 characters though, not in the same way as how the Galdera fight works in Octo1, but you will need all 8 characters for the battle, so keep that in mind. Overall I haven't heard/read about too many people having trouble with the final boss, so you should be fine using whatever your preferred battle strategies are with a full team that's at least in their low 70s level-wise.

The optional superboss is a terrible jerk, I hate this boss so much, and despite being Pretty Good at the game I had to eventually look up a guide. The guide I used is here (major spoilers obviously), although I will say I modified this person's strategy (for example, I optimized Osvald's critical stat, had Castti as a merchant, small changes like that). I will note this person manages to output enough damage to skip one of the mid-battle phases of the first half of the boss fight, and that the Hired Help Beastlings skill from the merchant class is needed for this mid-battle phase if you can't bypass it (if I'm being too vague and you don't care about spoilers, I can actually go through this entire boss fight stage-by-stage and explain the logic behind the guide and my adaptations to the guide). I'm thinking of modifying the strategy here further on my current playthrough, but overall this is the superboss for a reason. Extremely gimmicky, very high stats, very annoying, but also possible to beat in like, 10 minutes with the right setup.

[megaawkwardhuman]

cringetober day 17: fake anime screenshot

... let's close our eyes and act like this looks more anime like than it does

ok? ok