#that means you thea

[aledethanlast]

Jeremy shows up to practice fifteen minutes early and finds Jean in the team lounge. "This is for you," he says.

Jean expects those words, like all the other times he's heard them, to be accompanied with a bright smile and flowers, or chocolate, or a plate of whipped cream to the face—don't worry, revenge was had—but instead finds himself staring at...a note.

White flash card, folded twice, one corner bent back down halfway for no good reason at all, and the memories hit Jean like a racquetto the head. How many of those noted had he been given? Shoved into hands without stopping to look and passed on just as quickly.

Jean is a man of instincts. Reflexes. Ingrained responses so deep the brain need not bother, for the body already knows.

And this note is a cue his body knows too well. One, take the note before anyone can think to come near it. Two, shove it into his pocket before anyone can see. Three, storm down the hall to tell Kevin that he is NOT waiting for 45 minutes again while he agonizes over a two fucking sentence response, and—

The door opens again, San Diego sunlight blinding him as two more teammates come in, and Jean remembers Kevin isn't here. Which means. Which means.

He unfolds the paper too quickly—it would've torn if it had been thinner, but the thick flash card just gets stuck. Typical. Holy shit, typical.

Thea's handwriting is the same precise script as ever (except the lowercase g's for some reason). The letters are smaller than the guidelines, like she didn't know how much space she needed to write everything she wanted to say.

Hi Jean. Kevin says you're doing well. Or rather, Kevin says that Jeremy says. Not that I think Jeremy would lie, but there's only one messenger I've every really trusted, and that's you. I'll be in SD sometime next week. Give me a call.

A phone number is scrawled beneath. No signature. Overall, it takes just over half the card; either she miscalculated or she had more to say but instead chose self censure. Both options are unlike her.

The myriad pieces of Jean's mind read the note, over and over, all slightly out of synch from one another so rather than comprehension he only gets nose.

"Jean?" Jeremy's had on his shoulder, concerned. Jeans hand jerks upwards, sharply, and then he brings it back down as he turns to face Jeremy, pretending he hadn't been this close to stuffing the note in his mouth. "You good, man?"

Good question. Great, even. Jean has a better one. "Who gave you the note?"

Jeremy frowns even harder. It doesn't suit him, brow furrowed like that when he isn't trying to run through a backliner like they're made of tissue paper. "Coach Rhemann came back from Texas this morning, told me Muldani gave it to him. With very specific instructions not to open it. I met Coach, he gave it to me."

Of course. Thea doesn't ask for things; it's the first piece of advice she ever gave him. If you want, and you can, then do it. Forget who might stand in your way; they can only try, same as you.

"Jean?" Jeremy asks again. "What did the note say?"

Thea wanted to pass a message to Jean without Jeremy in the way. Well, maybe fuck what Thea wants. Jean hands him the note. Jeremy skims it, raises a brow. "What does she mean, that she only trusts you?"

His concern, born of meeting Jean back at Abby Winfield's house and fed by the steady trickle of Jean's stories of the Nest, seems momentarily absurd. "The Ravens weren't allowed to date," Jean says simply, as he had many times before. When Jeremy seems to catch on, he nods at the note. "I was their favorite messenger. Well. I was the only one who wouldn't sell them out."

"Why didn't you?"

Because Kevin was his friend. Because Thea deserved better than anything the Nest could ope to give her, much less dare to deny. Because every breath Jean took in protest to that tar pit came filled his lungs just a little bit deeper.

"Because then I got to read Kevin's love letters."

Jeremy's eyes go wide. "Shakespeare?"

"Poe."

Some teammates turn at the sound of their captain's laughter. More turn when they hear him hit the floor. Jean gives them all a plain look.

He takes the note back from Jeremy's twitching fingers—it's best to let him wear himself out on such occasions—and stares at the phone number.

Thea does not ask, she acts. If Thea wants to come down here and see him, then nothing stands in her way.

Except Jean. If he doesn't call, if he doesn't show, he's sure she won't push. She will never call or text or write a note to him again and all he has to do is nothing.

The thought rumbles through the dark halls of his mind that still belong to the Nest, like a freight train pushing forward too much air, pushing, pushing until the wall ahead falls apart from the pressure and—

Sunlight. The lounge door is open again. More teammates, almost late, confused by their laughing captain.

Jean takes out his cell.

#aftg #tfc #thea muldani #jean moreau #jeremy knox #do you understand what it means to me that Kevin wasnt Jeans only friend at the nest #i dont think you do

[forbescaroline]

235 FAVORITE SHIPS OF ALL TIME (ranked by my followers) 155. thea queen and roy harper - arrow

#thea x roy #arrowedit #dctvedit #dailyflarrowgifs #thea queen #roy harper #arrow #otp: you mean the world to me #** #235ships #mine: arrow #mine: thea and roy

[howyouloveyourdragon]

okay so im drafting this at like 8am on a sunday and while i usually don't feel comfortable posting milestones, this felt like an important one and i am so incredibly grateful for you all

i saw this morning that i hit 1k followers which is absolutely insane to me

i want to thank everybody who has ever followed me, supported me or inspired me especially as of recently and i apologise to anybody that i may have missed from tagging below (i originally tagged everyone in this post but it wouldn't let me because of stupid tumblr block sizes so please check the reblog down below) and there is absolutely no pressure from my end for you to interact at all! i just wanted to say thank you and that i really appreciate every single one of you and whether or not you were aware of it, you had an impact on me both as a person and a writer. im simultaneously in awe and trying to process why so many people on here have even tolerated me on this godforsaken hellsite

i greatly encourage any and everybody seeing this to check out any/everybody i have tagged below in my reblog and their writings/blogs, i can guarantee you that you will not be disappointed

i feel like i have been able to grow so much as a writer since publishing my first fic on this app, lavender haze, because of everybody's support and i just cannot even comprehend how so many people could actually enjoy what i write or listen to all my ramblings

when i was 13 and writing fanfic for the first time back in 2018, i never would have imagined being welcomed into a community so wide and meeting so many incredible people through this fandom let alone people actually enjoying what i write and following me at all

this horny fandom feels like a second home sometimes and i want to sincerely thank every single one of you from the bottom of my heart for being here for me even when i overshare and talk too much ☠️

sometimes i feel like i've only just typed howyouloveyourdragon into create account for the very first time and sometimes it feels like it's been a year already but hey only a few more months to go and the anniversary of howyouloveyourdragon will be among us

to celebrate you all joining me on here, i think that i will be finally buckling down and finishing as many of my drafts as i can and publishing them asap for you all to enjoy

i will be uploading a poll shortly to let you decide how i should prioritise them

unfortunately i doubt that i will able to celebrate in this way on the same day as this milestone as i will be in another country as of friday 28th but i will be trying my hardest to deliver these fics as soon as possible and as of this week i am reopening some malnourished drafts as i type this

to all of my followers, mutuals and friends thank you so very much

#thank you #you don't know how much this means to me #thea talks too much #follower milestone #tumblr you beautiful bitch you

[campbyler]

Mike Wheeler as “love is embarrassing” by Olivia Rodrigo

CORRECT! on that same vein (inspired by my recent listening) i would like to offer you: mike wheeler as heartbreak girl by 5sos

#i told andi and thea abt this realization earlier today #but given the fact tht acswy mike is a 5sos listener. meaning he would have listened to heartbreak girl while it was going down . #anyways you’re so right. soooooo true #asks #acswy tunes #hold you tight straight through the daylight i’m right here when you gonna realize #btw. if you care.

[e-adlirez]

Treasure Seekers 2 go brrrrr

So this sequel... exists :D

Welcome to the second entry in the Treasure Seekers trilogy that I'm gonna ramble about for the next six hours (in me time, in you time it's probably gonna be like thirty minutes or less), if you wanna read it yourself before reading this ramble, here's an Archive copy. Otherwise, enjoy the ride :D

So our story begins with the Thea Sisters locked in a basement in the dark, with Russia's penchant for matches (and the basement's lack of a smoke alarm) coming in clutch. Seems like another vacation's gone awry for them :3 How could it have possibly turned out this way?

Flashback: so the girls are vibing in Moscow, visiting all the cool sights and all that, Pam is wanting to try some Russian cuisine, when they spot this girl that's wearing what appears to be a barrette that used to belong to Aurora's sister Hannah Lane. They follow her a bit, find a THUG JUMPSCARE, follow the girl, Cassidy and co into the building they're heading into, and oh dear door with passcode is in the way. They find this dood Sergei, explain to him the situation, deal with him being like "who is u, and wth are you on about mate" until they hear a scream and oh dear turns out that girl with the barrette is Sergei's sister Irina and she's in trouble.

Sergei opens the door, they go in, walk in on Cassidy, Stan and Max (who I will from now call SM for simplicity) doing their whole thug jumpscare thing and kidnapping Irina in 4K. SM somehow rolls a high enough strength roll (or the girls roll a low enough initiative) that two roughly intimidating guys successfully trap six people into a basement without breaking a sweat get yourself some self-defense classes girls oml, and that's the end of that.

Luke's up to his shenanigans again, and it seems that he's targeted Irina Lenenko for the same reason the girls double-taked at the sight of her barrette: Irina (and Sergei in conjunction) is a descendant of Hannah Lane, and Hannah Lane may or may not have known a thing or two about one of the seven treasures. It's such a shame tho that Irina doesn't wanna spill any of the tea. What's this about a "queen's jewel"?

Oh also Luke has Aurora's third diary. I would like you to pay attention to this detail in particular. Oh and he's keeping Irina ratgrabbed until she tells them what he wants to know from her. Oh naur

Meanwhile the girls infodump all of the TS 1 LANE LOORRREEEE to Sergei in one whole sitting and finally manage to get around to "what the hell does this have to do with my sister". Sergei thinks it's not really possible for Irina to know anything about great-grandma Hannah's involvement with Aurora, but Irina's still in trouble soooo time to solve this nerdy-ass science trivia keypad puzzle to get outa the basement. Irina's nowhere to be found in the lab itself, so they regroup at Sergei's place to use his phone tracker app on his computer.

Bad news, SM dumped Irina's phone somewhere in the lab so the tracker app is useless; good news, while looking for some Lane Lore™ to get some context about the situation, the girls find some Lane Lore™ :D

-

Turns out Aurora was looking for one of the seven treasures again, y'know just updating her sister on that, who'd moved to Saint Petersburg with her husband Ivan.

Seems like Aurora's quest at the time involved "the queen's jewel", which Aurora said she was 1000% down to ramble about to Hannah, maybe when she's done finding all seven treasures and hiding them from Jan.

I would like to take this moment to remind you that Aurora is a British Amelia Earhart, and if you dunno what that means, look up what Earhart was famous for and then look at this with that given context :']

-

With that lead, the girls plus Sergei take a ride on presumably the Krasnaya Strela night train to Saint Petersburg, read some Lane Lore on the way, Peter-Griffin upon realizing that they spent the whole night reading AO3 fanfics Aurora's diaries and it's like 2AM now, land in Saint Petersburg, stop by Nevsky Prospekt Street to have some breakfast (I think they went to Venezia?), and discussion.

(For the rest of this review, please assume when I say "the girls", I'm including Sergei because Sergei tags along with them and helps them out in their entire journey. It's okay, Sergei may be biologically male but he is an honorary female in our hearts /j)

Aurora mentioned the queen's jewel in her diary, and when you're in Russia, the first queen that comes to mind is Catherine II, so maybe something relating to her? Some Lane Lore of Aurora taking interest in Catherine II's Amber Room in her palace specifically confirms their theories, sooooooooo it's time to go to the Amber Room to see if Aurora left any clu--

The girls are about to walk out of the Catherine Palace to Peter Griffin in private when SM JUMPSCARE--

So SM is stalkin' around the Catherine Palace looking for something, so the girls stalk them back and follow them out of the palace, into a car (the girls called a separate taxi to follow them), and to a little gray building in the outskirts of the city. They don't follow SM into the building because it might be dangerous, but Irina's scarf lying around near the premises confirms that Irina was in fact there and possibly being held hostage in the building.

The girls do a little tactic I like to call "the Ding Dong Ditch": Pam and Nicky knock on the door, SM answers it, do a little Metal Gear exclamation point "HOW DID YOU GET HERE", Nicky and Pam book it so SM chases them, and that's literally how the other girls plus Sergei sneak into the building to get Irina out. (You dunno how badly I wanted to make a videogame reference for this but I couldn't find anything so here we are--)

With that, the girls plus the Lenenko siblings book it outa there without SM being none the wiser (seriously it doesn't even cross their mind that there are more than two Thea Sisters, that's how dum they are). Irina books a hotel room at a friend's place and gives them some extra Lane Lore that she never told Klawitz despite the interrogations:

Hannah Lane was once visited by Aurora unexpectedly, a little after Hannah and her husband moved to a house near the Ob River, in Siberia. Possible lead :3c? The girls think maybe, so they decide to head on over to the exact address in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

In Siberia, the girls cross the frozen Ob River in Novosibirsk to this abandoned little house, where they find this little note with a riddle that talks about Cleopatra and an emerald she had at one point, and CASSIDY JUMPSCARE--

Cassidy busts in, snatches the note and books it away on her snowmobile before the girls can even react. You may be wondering, how the hell did Cassidy get there and know where they were? The answer is the same as the reason behind the SM jumpscares in Russia and in book 1, and that is Luke.

Luke Von Klawitz is doing a little segment that I like to call: Luke Touch Grass, where it becomes increasingly clear that Luke's spent way too much time on 4Chan (/j but you'll see what I mean). Luke hears about SM's failure and facepalms. Then he calls his friend Petrovski, who has access to the database of all of Russia's airports, for help tracking down "six mice leaving Saint Petersburg". Petrovski gives him results in minutes: the girls and Sergei are leaving Saint Petersburg and heading for Novosibirsk, Siberia (most likely Tolmachevo Airport). With that intel, Klawitz looks into his own database of Aurora Beatrix Lane, finds a picture of Hannah and Aurora together, and uses his own version of Google Lens to figure out the exact coordinates where the picture was taken, which happens to be in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

No this man does not in fact canonically touch grass on the regular, who's asking

Anyway so he sent Cassidy the coords, instructions and Aurora's diary to go, and that's how Cassidy walked in on the girls in that little abandoned hut next to Ob River. Only thing is uh, she dropped her purse on the way out. A purse that just so happened to contain Aurora's diary that Luke gave her.

So the girls scoop that puppy up and assume that the treasure is Cleopatra's emerald, thus they think it's in Egypt.

So the girls go to Egypt :D (29 and a half hour flight there good god no wonder they conked out in the plane--)

The girls read some Lane Lore, something about Aurora finding the treasure and hiding it somewhere in a desert, in an "expanse pure and white" that a star compass will lead to. First thing the girls think of at the desert bit is the White Desert (Sahara el Beyda), specifically a spot near Cleopatra's pool, so they leave the airport (not realizing Cassidy is following them now) and head over to a market to buy some supplies because might I remind you, they initially went to Moscow, Russia for vacation.

While in the market, Pam meets a guy named Omar. Pam tells him a little bit about them going to Cleopatra's pool in Sahara el Beyda, and she finds out that Omar just so happens to be an Archaeology major in Oxford University who's here on his summer vacation and works as a guide for Sahara el Beyda, and is more than down to give the girls a tour. Talk about lucky :D

The next day the girls take the scenic route and after a while make it to Siwa, where Omar books a room in a hotel for them, and the girls find this interesting myth there about Cleopatra that I will summarize here:

Cleopatra was once given a jewel that maxes out the owner's rizz and the effect is supposedly indefinite. Cleopatra liked the jewel so much that she wore it on her crown at all times... until she grew a bit self-conscious about the gem's maxxed rizz effect and how everyone kept eyeing the emerald a second too long for comfort, so she decided to hide away said rizz in a spot where none of her rivals could get to it. Oh and uh Cleopatra wrote up a dedication to Ra that's hella cryptic too.

One long rest later, the girls go to Cleopatra's pool on a donkey cart. Yes, a donkey cart. It was Omar's idea. Speaking of Omar, prepare yourself buddy because the girls have dubiously decided to give you some Lane Lore to chew on. O-oh you like it a lot. A lot a lot. Well okay cool, maybe you can help out, cool.

The girls manage to figure out the riddle in Cleopatra's dedication, find a little stone coffer that has the queen's treasure and-- SM JUMPSCARE

With a donkey as the girls' only escape method and Omar having suddenly disappeared, a scuffle ensues where the girls play hot potato with the box until SM gets their hands on it and opens it, and here we get a very accurate depiction of what SM and the girls found in the box once it was actually opened.

Description: a hand made of salt shaped in an upside-down "ok" symbol, circa 1920s-30s.

The sheer whiplash of this leaves both sides of the conflict losing enough HP that they're all on red-- SM is blaming the girls for this (how dare >:[) and dip. Omar is gone, and all the girls get as compensation is the empty box and a letter from Aurora telling them that they'll know to read the hidden clues. The girls head back feeling very hollow and dead inside, and this is the one time one of the girls questions how the hell did SM know they were at Siwa. I mean they never get any answer to this (kinda), but it is a milestone! They're aware of it now!

Once they get back to Cairo, they ask around and find that Omar's completely up and vanished, and they decide they'll just head back to Moscow since their investigation has come to a dead end. On the way, Pam comments about the falafel she bought being hella salty, which leads Violet to an epiphany that hey, the Sahara isn't the only desert that exists, let alone the only desert known for how white it is (like how Boracay Beach is known for how white and fine its sand is, but it's not the only white sand beach that exists). A quick Google search (and a long flight (35 HOURS CAIRO TO SUCRE???)) leads them to the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia.

Nicky reserves a room for them at Hotel Luna Salada (a real place you can book a stay at actually :D), and they make a friend by the name of Adriana, a local waitress in the hotel restaurant. Adriana helps them pick out a dessert, fills them in on some stuff about the Salar since the girls came here 100% out of impulse, and talks about possible itinerary locations to go to, like the Isla de Pescado, Tiwanaku (the "Gate of the Sun"), Lake Titiaca, and Laguna Colorada. Y'know, typical tourist stuff, and Adriana was so kind to show them pictures she took when she visited said places herself! :D

Anyway so while the girls long rest, Luke is mulling about in his base waiting for updates. Someone calls him about the whole Egypt thing, and Luke calls the girls incompetent? Rude, oh and something about the caller being Luke's "secret weapon". Cassidy calls him on a theory she has about the gemstone being in Cleopatra's palace, and since the girls are currently long-resting (which means they aren't doing anything), Luke figures that a little diving trip in Alexandria to search for the gem with Cassidy won't hurt. Besides, he still has his secret weapon.

Oh yeah and he knows the girls are long resting because he has a drone in Bolivia spying on them and showing him their every move. Touch grass, Luke. No, going on a diving trip in Alexandria doesn't count, there's barely any grass there /j

Morning comes in Bolivia, and the girls head out early to search the Salar as much as they can. They look around the flat white desert, eat some late breakfast, toy around with forced perspective camera shenanigans for a bit, and read up on some LANE LOOORREEEEE

So Aurora's been to Pumapunku and Tiwanaku which is cool, she paid a visit to the archaeological site probably and that's really cool. She says something about hiding the queen's treasure in a fish's stomach covered in very fine thorns. Sergei ends up having an epiphany, and that leads the girls to Isla de Pescado, which just so happens to be "Fish Island" in Spanish, and has cacti on it, it's all coming together :D

Oh and the fish drawing Aurora made is coords to the treasure seemingly so that's cool-- OMAR JUMPSCARE

The girls are very surprised to find Omar joining them, and Omar explains that he booked it when SM came over and lost his cellphone as a result. However, he managed to figure out that Aurora's riddle was about salt and not sand, and decided to head on over to Bolivia since he assumed that's where the girls are going. How did he find them? It was just out of pure coincidence, and also the fact that the girls are extremely recognizable. Hm.

Anyway, Paulina plugs the coordinates into her GPS and leads the girls plus Omar to a little cave at the bottom of a little embankment. The girls find that, lo and behold, there's an old tin box containing a bright green emerald!

Meanwhile Luke is not finding anything in Alexandria haha L, LVK L get dunked on Luke, Cassidy girlie that's not a man to simp for find someone else gurl-- oh dear Luke is alerted that the treasure has been found and now he's planning on heading over to Bolivia? Now how could he possibly know that?

In the meantime, I dunno what's up in the air or if it's the Archaeology major speaking in him but Omar's really invested in this treasure, even more so than the girls to the degree that the girls are a little freaked out by it-- RHEA JUMPSCARE-- Paulina calms the big bord down and gets it to not trample Omar please, he's still a friend of theirs. Colette picks up this blue notebook Omar seems to have dropped.

The girls plus Omar head back to the SUVs, and Omar is really trying to persuade the girls that he should bring it back to Cairo. The girls are not jazzed at the idea because Omar bringing it back alone will be too unsafe, y'know with Luke and Cassidy and SM and all. They gotta think about this rationally-- WHOA OKAY OMAR calm your man tits buddy why are you demanding they trust you like you automatically deserve your trust-- ohh that's how Klawitz has known about the girls' whereabouts, Omar was working as a double agent.

So yeah Omar snatches the box from Colette and drives off in his SUV, leaving the girls in the dust. The girls freak out and are feeling that EMOTIONAL DAMAGE, but Colette for some reason is very calm about Omar booking it with the emerald. And that's because SHE HAS IT :D she did a lil' switcheroo so now the emerald's with her while the box is with Omar.

For context about how Colette knew about this, remember the blue notebook Omar dropped? Yeah that notebook was a company LVK notebook, straight from Luke himself. Then after Colette saw it, everything about Omar became incredibly sus, so she performed this precautionary measure.

So now the girls talk to the local authorities about how the whole thing with the emerald is gonna go down, and soon the girls are waiting for a plane back to Moscow.

As for Omar, well, he goes over to Luke's super-fancy hotel in La Paz, Bolivia, and he hands the box to Luke, explicitly stating that he decided he'd let Luke open it before he himself can appreciate it.

Luke opens the box, and here we see an accurate depiction of what Luke sees.

Description: an upside-down "ok" symbol drawn in strawberry pink lip balm, signed Colette [insert last name], circa 2018.

Luke punts the box (prolly with the lip balm still inside it) into the swimming pool, tells Omar to get out, and that's the end of that. Haha Omar L Luke L

The girls head back to Moscow to drop Sergei off when SURPRISE PARTY BY IRINA'S SQUAD :DDD

Then the girls are about to return to Whale Island to presumably Peter Griffin in their dorms, when Colette suggests they make a journal a la Aurora Beatrix Lane, and they do. In a pink notebook because it was Colette's idea so we might as well give her that

And they take a black-and-white group picture of them wearing adventurer clothes like Aurora would've done. The brainrot is real, these girls are mentally ill /j

And that's the book :D

... Honestly it's the most meh out of the trilogy besides the big-brain bits in the middle and the end imo

The writing was so much more stilted in this one, even for Scholastic standards, and everything feels pretty..... kid's book. Even more so than the usual in the book's English translations. I do readings for the books in some of my Discords, and this book did not read well at aaallll. And I haven't even mentioned the typos in the book (they're not a lot, but they exist, and they're kinda egregious :D) and some grammar errors if I'm remembering things correctly. It might just be a translation thing-- I worry a bit for the translator who had to put this together.

Luke's character here is also kinda wonk? For one we see him directly contradict his anti-friendship spiel in TS 1 since he literally greets Petrovski like a friend (maybe it's a "friendship doesn't exist except in 4Chan" thing, I dunno). Then in the middle of the book, he gets... very Disney villain-y. The most egregious example here is the chapter "Lurking in the Shadows", where as you can see

I am confusion?? Luke has been described as a to-the-point brat who hardly cares for the means to his end (unless it will impact his ability to achieve the end) and is so fixated on his goal that he doesn't touch grass. Is this not-touching-grass behavior? Yeah, definitely, but this??? This is too Disney villain???? Why does the man break into an evil cackle in front of Cassidy???? I understood it in book 1 because man thinks he's doing a "You may think you have outsmarted me but I have OUTSMARTED YOUR OUTSMARTING", but this one?? Maybe it's my personal taste, but it's too cartoonish and too... deviated from what we know of him up to this point.

ALSO TWIRLING HIS MUSTACHE? WHAT MUSTACHE IS HE TWIRLING THAT THING IS NOT TWIRL-ABLE

Also time to address the one big plot hole in this book: Aurora's diary.

So in this book there's only one diary, which is infinitely simpler than the two we got in the first book. This diary supposedly contains Aurora's records of her mission in hiding Cleopatra's Rizzmerald, and the details are supposedly vague enough that Luke felt the need to kidnap and interrogate Irina, a Hannah Lane descendant, to fill in the blanks. However, when you look at the contents of the diary itself (which lord knows how many times Luke himself has looked through it), there's hardly any blanks that need to be filled, at least if you're Luke.

The diary itself is mostly in the background-- like I said, not as much Lane Lore here as the previous book, the girls mostly rely on Aurora's letters to Hannah here-- but there's one specific entry the girls read in the latter half of the book that explicitly mentions Pumapunku and Tiwanaku, and how Aurora is there for her mission to hide the emerald. Complete with coordinates hidden in a little drawing! My one question I have for Luke is, why didn't he go straight to Bolivia and started searching there? Why did he go through all the effort of kidnapping Irina, tailing the girls around Sahara el Beyda, letting SM fall for the salt replica gambit, left his base to touch grass and go on a dive with Cassidy in Egypt; all if he could've just gone straight to Bolivia to look for the treasure there? Sure, Aurora did a good job hiding the coordinates in the fish doodle, but someone as observant and as obsessed about the outcome instead of the journey like Luke would rather have sidestepped all the Aurora shenanigans and beelined straight to the goal if he was able to.

Luke hardly has an excuse here because he owned the diary at the start of the book, and most definitely read through it many times (and we know he's the type to do this, see TS 1). The plot hole is plot hole-ing, it seems :/

Maybe it was just an excuse for the girls to get a giant glowing arrow pointing in the direction of the treasure? It certainly feels like it.

Anyway, the things that carry this book and made it memorable when I first read it (and allowed me to ignore the iffy bits) are the gottems and Omar as a character. Aurora setting up a salt replica of the Rizzmerald as a gottem in a time capsule, only to be opened almost a hundred years later to still be as potent as intended when it was made so long ago? That is amazing, like c'mon, pure comedy material.

Even funnier is Colette doing the exact same thing, only with her lip balm. Luke is quaking in his bougie-ass leather boots.

Now for Omar. This may be a hot take of mine here, but Omar's sus-ness is actually at a decent level compared to the girls and what they usually deal with. On one hand, Omar is incredibly suspicious with how incredibly lucky the girls are to find an Archaeology Oxford major working as a Sahara el Beyda tour guide; but on the other hand, the girls had almost the exact same situation with Diego in Mexico (I didn't mention him in the first review, but he came in clutch in TS 1).

The girls met Diego in Merida, Mexico, and he helped them with their research into "the invisible place", which happened to be Uxmal, along the Puuc Route. Diego also just so happened to be a tour-guide-in-training for the Puuc Route, which was the place the girls just so happened to need to go to find Aurora's second journal.

In comparison, the girls meet Omar in Khan El-Khalili while they were looking for supplies for their trip to the Siwa Oasis. It comes up in conversation that the girls are headed to Siwa, and Omar just so happened to be a tour guide for Sahara el Beyda, which was where the Siwa Oasis is, and it just so happened to be where the girls needed to go. When you stack them up together, it made perfect sense that the girls thought they could trust him-- Diego didn't know much about their trip and helped them the best he could (which was a lot), so why wouldn't Omar do the same? He's an Oxford Archaeology major, too, for crying out loud, the girls struck gold in the end!

Gold that was too shiny and too good to be true. Gold that was, in the end, nothing more than pyrite, fool's gold.

Omar is a good case for why you should be careful with who you trust, and when you should start thinking a little bit when you're getting a little too lucky with the people you meet. When the girls got to know him a little more and decided to trust him and tell him the deal with their trip, he got way invested in the gem-- too invested to not be a little bit suspicious. Maybe the girls mistook it for his passion for his archaeology major, maybe they mistook it for something else-- but whatever the case, Omar pulled the cheesecloth over the girls' eyes and really only fell apart near the end, when his alibis and behavior started becoming more and more suspicious; and by then, Omar didn't need to be as inconspicuous, and the girls had gotten to know him too much to readily say to him "okay buddy can you kindly f%ck off, your vibes are not vibing here".

The girls probably should've been suspicious when Omar reappeared in Bolivia out of nowhere, but I guess his alibi was just good enough (and the girls at this point were probably running on adrenaline, caffeine and a brain on 70% capacity at most) to pass the Deception check.

Fr tho there were some bits where the girls should've found him sus but they didn't (him accidentally saying "I did it" when they uncovered the emerald, and also him handling the emerald the way he did), so shrugs. It could be a translation thing, but it could also be something else.

Anyway, kinda meh for a sequel, but it does have its standouts that allow it to somewhat stand on the same level as the first and third books. Kinda.

Hey, at least it's not as bad as Crystal Fairies-- that's the bar of bad-ness I'm setting. It's not as bad as Crystal Fairies and that's what matters--

Also special thanks to @ishmeowwow (it won't let me ping you for some reason bestie <:[) for making the lil' artworks haha

#geronimo stilton #thea sisters #thea stilton #book review #book rambles #book rant #thank you ishmeow for making the gottems for me :D #you came in clutch while my ipad is still dieded thank you bestie <3 #in the book it's just the lip balm but ishmeow decided to go all-out with the gottem gag and i can't be more grateful lmao #same goes with the gemstone in aurora's gottem (it's just the fake tiara plus fake gem) but hey the more salt the merrier :D #book 2 luke is so jarringly different from his other depictions but at the same time #he does not in fact touch grass and he does crack an evil cackle at least once a book so #i dunno how i feel about it . . #on one hand it adds to him not touching grass #but on the other hand it doesn't connect with his “this villain is supposed to make you shnit your pants at how intimidating he is” #he's intimidating because of his connections his ability to basically spy on the entire world and control everything from his base #and y'know he can tell his goons to do whatever and they'll literally wreak havoc to fulfill said requests #he was so intimidating in concept that they had to nerf him with incompetent goons lmao #after doing last minute research i am deeply concerned for the girls' wallets and their mental and physical health :D #like good god i thought a ten hour flight was unbearable and made your body stiff but holy damn #i'm not complaining too much about the timeline tho because this is hilarious and makes the girls look so neurodivergent #“what do you mean we flew a total of 64 hours by plane feels like it's only been a day to m--” #*dies*

[billdenbrough]

i’m not personally interested in any romantic combination of the kevin-thea-jean situation (but i do think thea makes the most sense in terms of canon endings with kevin) but i am so completely fascinated by the three of them as like. this is someone who lived through a hivemind with me. this is someone who understands what this life was. here is someone who knows ravens, knows the nest, knows the person i once was and will never fully shake. here is someone who was forged in that fire with me, even if beat with a different hammer, made into a different shape, held onto a different thing to get through. and now, here is someone i can’t look at directly, not always. or maybe i can, but i don’t recognise them completely anymore.

like. there is something so completely captivating about them as a trio of people making life after the ravens, after riko, after all their entirely different experiences of the same place, but the same core truths recognised by all of them. kevin was not at risk from riko (until he was), but he could see it in both of them. thea was not inner circle, but she understood the threat of riko and the master. jean did not have the same ability to walk out—to live long enough to graduate, to have someone to run to—but he knew them (individually and together), no matter the difference in all their circumstances.

they all made it. you know? thea clawed herself to the top in a team that made it twice as hard for her to be anything, and she made herself the best. kevin walked out in the wake of losing everything, and he’s the ultimate comeback kid of exy, the son who reclaimed his title no matter all the things done to destroy that dream. jean was told he was a thing before he was a person, and the one friend he had for free, no strings, walked into that nightmare and pulled him out. thea shows up when kevin says he’s never been skiing. jean can’t look at kevin, but he goes to the trojans in the end. and that’s the best gift kevin can give him: the team he loves, captain he admires, sunshine and ocean air and a thousand miles away from the court that tried to make jean into broken bones and blood in the shape of a backliner.

they made it! they made it. and i just. i don’t know. i just think it’s so fascinating to think about, all three of them, all the things they’ve seen and more that they haven’t, truths shared and truths hidden, and how at the end of it all, they might not be the same people they were back in the nest, but they’re never going to scrub those people from their skin. and maybe thea doesn’t want to, and maybe jean doesn’t know how to, and maybe kevin slips back into that person when he’s on the court and frustrated beyond belief. whatever. that’s part of the appeal. i want to look at all their sharp teeth, bared over each other’s necks and grazing it but not closed over it, and point at those sharp teeth. let me look. let me look

#aftg #kevin day #thea muldani #jean moreau #thea & jean is my actual favourite thea dynamic (i think kevthea is understandably more important though) #i’m just fascinated by like. jean has had so little to hold onto. him having a player he looks up to like. means so much to me lol #i do have an idea along these lines but i have to decipher how much of it is a story as opposed to like #an expulsion of my own thoughts ordered into narrative #anyway you can dislike or like any of these characters or ships obviously. it makes no difference to me #i just think it’s a waste of a dynamic to ignore the mess they could have instead of exploring it #also i know i said i don’t have strong interest in any of these dynamics romantically and i stand by that #but i’d still write them for stories i’d want to tell. if that makes sense #mostly this is me saying ‘i don’t regularly write these dynamics romantically bc they’re not my main focus’ but like. i would #post ravens trio

[dayurno]

the idea of kevin day telling jean and thea to hook up, the only two people he has ever liked and Wanted. i see what you are (poly). that man was made to be in a throuple

I KNOW RIGHT i think he meant it so genuinely and casually too. it wouldnt hurt his feelings at all and its a means to an end so why not? but of course its more complicated than that and not everyone can be so casual about it kevin day! this is only adjacent but i was thinking earlier about how kevin slept with thea once and had a few months of giggling and kicking his feet reading her notes and then either told renee she was his girlfriend or said something so remarkably cheesy about her renee made the assumption herself. that's so intense i wonder if thea agrees with that at all? clearly she cares about him a great deal but i wonder if she'd be like wow okay okay okay let's calm down a bit.

anyway that is to say the moment jean and thea do hook up kevin already thinks they're a throuple. he hasn't done anything with jean at all but he figures they'll get there eventually and jean is just shy. it seems reasonable to him. my dear reader....... has kevin day ever gotten even close to being reasonable before?

#its actually quite nonsensical for renee to know about that and tell neil about it but its funny so ill let it slide #its been ten years so its fine but one thing about aftg that kills me is how much its about people explaining things to neil #how do you know kevin likes thea..... did he tell you...... how does nicky know kevin and jean were friends.... did HE tell you? #was kevin in the habit of having heart to hearts about his interpersonal relationships with nicky and renee? #CRAZY IMPLICATIONS TO ME. but im into it #renee: so you and kevin kissed in 2003 huh jean: what. how do you know that renee: what do you mean. he told me #JUST ABSOLUTELY OPENING HIS HEART TO HER..... OKAY #funny funny #asks #kevin #kevjeadora

[krys-loves-otome]

Saw some talk about creating character ask blogs on my dash earlier today! And as many of you know, I have a plethora of characters to pull from...

But, I also have a full schedule so making ask blogs is a little out of my spoon range at present.

That said, would anyone be interested in me doing little brain rot posts with my ocs instead? Of course, my writing blog (@not-krys) is full of WIP Wednesdays involving them but this will be even more off the cuff, like if there's a thing happening in their game and I just need to comment on it? Or something going on in RL that makes me think about my OCs and their boos, and I just need to share it with you guys?

In my writing files, I actually do have a doc where I keep random thought blerbs where I put things that come to mind about my girlies. Sometimes it's just a sentence or two, sometimes it goes into meta, sometimes it just screaming about something cute going on, things like that.

Would anyone be interested in something like that? I can't promise they'll be a regular thing, but I do love sharing about my OCs and brain-rotting is the most available method of me doing so.

Asks are also available if anyone has questions or just wants to shoot ideas at me if that's more your thing!

Thanks for coming to my little thought session, lovelies~

#krys talks #krys's babies #I'd probably call it something like 'krys's brain rots' or something #miri might be regular appearance bc of the regular chats in obey me #like one of the more recent ones where Belphie got him a pillow that gives you strange dreams #and towards the end Belphie privately messages about MC/Miri getting the pillow and what they think/what they dreamed about #one of the options that they can have a dream of being with everyone and having a good time #and while Belphie complains about wanting be alone with them even in their dreams #I couldn't help but remember that this is the Nightbringer timeline and MC/Miri is not in her normal time #and I like to interpret that moment to mean that MC/Miri was missing her original time and had a dream about it #and then I just teared up as likely Miri did in remembering that dream and hi angsty feels for an initially silly idea #other brain rot post ideas: #what Thea and Abby are doing in the Interlude timeline #I'm at the fight at the mansion part of the interlude #what would they do if they're boys are trying to fight for their undead lives #on the ikepri front: Clara vs Gilbert #...oh dear #thanks for listening either way!

[marsixm]

let me just tell yall i wont get over what a trip and a half it was to log onto tumblr dot com, hear all about how moffat & his who run was evil misogyny incarnate, because, i shit you not, “the female companions’ lives revolve around the doctor”, and how rtd who was way better, only to go watch dr who from the jump and be confronted with the first black companion ever’s entire storyline being about her unrequited sad crush on the doctor

#the episode where he loses his memory and falls in love with some white woman from the 1890’s while martha watches from the shadows? cruel #sorry theas tags reminded me of this lmao #it was a real epitome of ‘just say you dislike something bc you dislike it #also not lost on me that ever black main character got shafted like that #meanwhile there was that entire episode about how amy and rory were living their own life and the doctor was the one who missed them #ANYWAY im not mad i also loved rtd who and had issues w moffat who. doesnt mean i have to twist the truth to have that opinion #2014 internet was a TIME

[waylibee-analysis-firm]

😈

how does it feel to be evil.

#😔 #WHAT DOES THIS MEAN !!!!!! THEA #GRABBING YOU SHAKING YOU AHHHH #🫧 #/asks

[highevara]

theres definitely a point in the blight where elethea’s almost scared for it to end. she doesn’t know who she is, her identity has become hinged on violence because its the only outlet for her to pour her anger into. who is she without rage and fear and revenge? shes scared to find out

#out of character. #thea: you mean i have to address my trauma? absolutely not

[campbyler]

I never actually dreamt about the actual series but I did dream a little bit ago that you guys opened a little shop where you sell little trinkets and acswy merch or something and you did a meet and greet for the opening of the shop. I got there and one of you three (suni I believe) was actually one of my friends from summer camp. (Which does not make sense because you are not the same age but yk dreams.)

Anyways I was like “omg what are you doing here?” And she was like “I’m one of the authors” and I was like wtf. So apparently suni andi & Thea aren’t your real names according to my dream and you made them up because pen names ig?

So in case you’re wondering what you look like in dreams, apparently my camp friend whom I share a birthday with.

HELPPPPPPP 😭 absolutely obsessed w every aspect of this ask ????? me being your summer camp friend (age discrepancy aside) and the trinkets and merch and the MEET AND GREET??? i know this ask is a million years old bc it got capital b Buried in our inbox but just know i did see it way back when it came in and giggled to myself about it. so sorry (or you’re welcome) for invading your dreams 🫡🫡

#i mean technically andi suni and thea are Not our real names #so you were right #but with every passing day i do feel more and more like a suni and less like a [REDACTED] #asks

[e-adlirez]

Dancing Shadows was wild like they really tried to convince us that a self trained ballerina was better than professionally trained ones lmao

Like that's not how ballet works sweetie😭

DON'T SLANDER CARLOTTA LIKE THAT SHE WAS AMAZING /J

Yeah that's fair, Dancing Shadows does have a cliche plot and it's not very realistic with Carlotta's backstory/development, but you can't deny, the book does earn its place as a golden age book :]

At least in my opinion anyway, the girls' brains were showcased like hell in that book and you love to see it. Also aesthetic, you can't deny the aesthetic

On Carlotta tho, yeah her character in general is probably by far the least realistic part of the book, but even then the focus was more on the judges trying to sabo the competition than Carlotta herself. Being real, her skill in ballet probably would've been more like uh

Okay if we're gonna go with the lore here, she is a self-taught ballerina whose skill allowed her to qualify for this mega-prestigious dance competition, so her skill would be (compared to everyone else in the competition) mid at best? I think? If we disregard everyone being like "beautiful, amazing, prodigy", she'd probably be mid in the competition. Don't get me wrong, that'd probably be a "WHAT" kinda skill level for someone in her situation, but uh yeah with Mice for Dance sabo-ing, girlie probably won't make it past first round, especially if the MfD judges were rig-y enough that only Colette and Violet, both classically trained students, made it among the Thea Sisters in the preliminary rounds, which, funny enough, was what would've happened in the book haha. Rousetti's vote really did carry her huh

Okay ramble over, main thing I liked about the book was the emphasis on the message of "it's not about if you went to a bougie-ass school, it's about if you genuinely care for the art and put effort into it". And the girls big-braining the crap outa getting the MfD judges and competitors exposed for their shenanigans. The switcheroo was a clever one change my mind

Also the theme of where the line where artistic legitimacy is drawn. The book has these debates peppered around about whether or not it truly matters what your background of education is in ballet in order for it to be legitimate ballet, highlighted especially in Vasily and Pyotr's debate, where Vasily believes that ballet should be open to influences from around the world, while Pyotr believes that authentic ballet only exists in the traditions taught in Russian dance schools. It's kind of a debate that happens in all forms of art in some flavor, and in the book, neither Vasily nor Pyotr are proven right or wrong, if that makes sense. Even when Carlotta makes it big, she's still kind of a point in Pyotr's favor, since she's a ballet nerd who studied as much as she could about the tradition and the art in general despite being a self-taught dancer who watched ballerinas dance from backstage and then copied their movements in front of a mirror to the best of her ability. So seeing where artists fall in that spectrum of the debate is something I find interesting (when ignorant idiots aren’t the ones debating).

Edit: I only realized that I didn’t finish the thought last night, how did I only notice it now, I dunno you tell me

#thea stilton #thea sisters #questions with e #ramble #fr tho carlotta with ballet for you is pam with drums for me #woman in mouseford book 7 was like “i remember making drumsets out of pots and pans as a kid” #“that means I can play drums at performance quality right?” #and I was like NO #NOOOOO #BESTIE YOU'RE NOT GONNA HAVE THE BODY COORDINATION TO CARRY A BEAT AND DO FILL-INS AT CONCERT QUALITY FIRST TRY #speaking as a drummer student btw #WOMAN REALLY THOUGHT SHE COULD PRODIGY HER WAY THROUGH THE DRUMS WHICH NAAAHHH BRUH #NAAAAHHHH #IT TOOK ME A YEAR OF PRACTICE EVERY OTHER WEEK JUST TO GET TO HALFWAY DECENT #wanna bet that the concert the girls just had pam knee jerk her way through the kickbass and the tune was steady enough that she #got away with it anyway

[faerune]

i just know nessa is so annoying at diplomacy councils <3

#emily plays wotr #oc: nessa #emily.txt #thea: :) hey why dont you ask the elves to send troops #nessa: hahahahaha...oh my dear were you being serious? #it's really telling they sent nessa as their emissary and that's it considering she's looked down on by so many #the only reason she has been able to make the progress in politics there is her skill in magic #obv she'd never admit that but i mean honestly the crusade is lucky they even sent her considering kyonin does not give a FUCK about anyone

[emily-prentits]

addison's unborn daughter named ella 🫠

#you have NO idea how much the fact that this is canon means to me #addison montgomery #private practice #thea talks

[unfortunate-arrow]

2 for Thea, Georgie, and Tadhg please?

—thatravenpuffwitch

2.) Drawing from the language of flowers, what flower would symbolize them?

Tadhg — Mixed Zinnia, which means “thinking of or in memory of an absent friend.” This would symbolize Tadhg and specifically, in his canon timeline where he becomes an absent friend.

Georgie — Sweet bay magnolia, which means “perseverance.” Georgie doesn’t let anything keep her down. She always gets back up and perseveres, especially as life has handed her a lot of difficult things to deal with. She’s often wearing a brave face, even when she feels like she’s drowning.

Thea — Osmunda, which means “dreams.” While not a big dreamer, Thea certainly does have a lot of dreams. Some she fulfills, some she doesn’t.

Thematic OC Questions

#tadhg lynch #georgie parsons #hphl #hogwarts legacy #thea whitten #hpma #magic awakened #wow… finding a flower for them was difficult #(finding a site to give you flower meanings is difficult) #but it’s such a thea question