Hello and welcome to Behind the Adventure where you get a behind-the-scenes look at adventures on Awe Island.
My name's Christy, and I'm part of the writing team here on Awe Island.
I'm here with Susie, creator and head writer for Adventures on Awe Island.
Hi, Susie.
Hi, Christy.
Hi, everyone.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you.
Today we're talking about Chapter 13, the third task, the Paint by Numbers Challenge.
How fun is that?
I was really shocked at how it was described.
It seemed a little overwhelming, but we'll get to that later.
Before they get to the art supply store, Marie finally gets a chance to talk to Xander.
He doesn't reveal much, but we do learn about his sister Kiki, and that Madame Amado is going to be gone for some time.
Yes.
Can you talk a little about how you decided what to reveal in that conversation and what to hold back?
Sure.
Definitely you've hit the nail on the head.
I wanted to reveal some things and I wanted to hold back some things.
The Madame Amado part.
I wanted to have kind of touch base, so to speak, and have him be able to tell her that she is okay, but also reveal the disappointing news that she's probably probably going to be gone a long time, which is significant especially to Marie because she's moving away.
And so she has to feel the feels as they say that she might never see Madame Amato again.
I also revealed that Xander has a sister, which is kind of fun and exciting and surprise news to Marie.
Because up until now, the audience hasn't learned anything about Xander's family.
And lo and behold, he has a younger sister.
And she is now helping out at the ice cream shop.
And so...
I thought that was fun and exciting news for Marie to learn.
Also, I wanted the conversation to reveal a closening of the relationship between Xander and Marie.
She is feeling more and more like he is kind of like a surrogate big brother which she doesn't have.
She's an only kid, so...
It's kind of cool that Xander and her are having this friendly relationship.
And I think she feels close to Xander because he reveals to her that there are people on Aue Island that feel like family to him but aren't biological family.
And Marie has the exact same situation for herself.
Her only biological family on Awe Island is her parents.
And yet, as a family, the Duguay family has friends on Awe Island that feel like family and that they celebrate holidays with and important events with.
And lo and behold, Xander has the same situation.
So that is an instance of revealing that deepening closeness between Marie and Xander and her feeling like he's kind of like a surrogate big brother and he's, you know, understanding her and she understands him.
And so...
I thought it was a lovely little conversation that she got to have.
I did too.
I like learning more about him.
I like learning more about characters that aren't our main trio, because it seems like they have a lot of things going on that they might not be ready to reveal presently.
Yes.
In a word, yes.
Okay.
Well, it sounds like you are indeed being very careful about what you reveal here.
So we'll move on to the next moment.
There was a bittersweet scene where Marie got a letter from Saskia.
At the same time, she learns that she's moving away from Owai Island sooner than she thought.
Why did you bring Saskia back into the story now?
Is she meant to be a comfort to Maria in this difficult time?
Absolutely.
It's meant to send a message that most life events, even the ones that seem bad, you can still have good experiences within them.
Marie still doesn't want to move away, but where she's moving to has somebody that she already knows.
So it's going to help make her landing a little bit softer.
And it's also that event, that letter that she got, is a hint for the audience that Saskia is more important than maybe was originally revealed.
Interesting.
Well, it's a good thing Marie still has about a month left before she has to move.
And she's determined to finish the quest before she leaves.
So when the kids get to the art store, they get their next task, the third task, and it feels overwhelming.
It's a huge detailed paint by number.
And the kids are all shocked.
They're like, how are we supposed to do this?
I noticed that Marie JJ and Christian all react differently when they're faced with a challenge like that.
Could you tell me more about what you think their different coping styles are?
Absolutely.
I'm glad you noticed that because they all do react very differently.
Marie's coping style is to kind of have on rose-colored glasses, quite frankly.
She really feels like if she's presented with a task.
There has to be a solution that has to be able to get done.
And so she's always hopeful and excited about that, even when a task feels daunting.
JJ, on the other hand, is more of a realist.
She asks the hard questions, but she asks the hard questions because she sees value in finding out even the things that don't work, or are the wrong answers or the not the solution to whatever they're trying to do?
She sees that as simply more information that is moving them towards a successful outcome.
And that's kind of her secret sauce and magic dust.
Christian is a very black and white thinker.
He likes finite answers and not everything has a finite answer.
And so he hates the tasks where there's gray area.
So they all have different coping mechanisms and ways of looking at a task differently.
And it's very interesting because the tasks different tasks have leaned into different coping mechanisms depending on the kid.
Yes.
So the first task was an engineering task that was perfect for JJ.
And then the second task was a logic and deduction challenge that was perfect for Christian.
What about Marie makes her the right person for this paint by number challenge?
Well, for starters, Marie is the artist of the group.
And so an art project-based task is right up her alley.
She loves all sorts of different art things and is the one that likes to go to the art supply store most of the three.
So it makes sense that her task is this.
But the other part of the task that's important and what makes it up Marie's alley actually, is what is being tested, which is the kid's ability to follow instructions.
Who are the ones that are willing to, I should say, follow the instructions exactly?
And who wants to jump right to the solution?
I remember I had a pop quiz like that in high school where we were told to read the entire quiz before starting.
And there were 10 questions and nine were really hard.
But the final question said leave all the others answers blank and just write your name at the top for a perfect score.
Did you ever have to do something like that?
And was this inspired by something like that?
Yes, I got nailed by that in seventh grade.
And I don't know what your tasks were.
You just said that they were very hard, but...
The one that we had, it was at least 20 questions.
We were told we had five minutes to complete the whole thing.
And they were silly questions like stand up next to your desk and bark like a dog and all this crazy stuff.
So so you like, the first one was like write your name in the upper right corner, and then the second one was, you know, like bark like a dog.
And the third one was like do something else silly, and then then it was like a math problem and all this crazy stuff, and of course one of the earliest ones, or one of the latest ones, was read everything on this test before you do anything.
And if you read all the way to the bottom, you found out that you were only supposed to do question one and like question two or something like that.
I forget what it was, but that's going to be.
That's exactly where this came from, because it's.
It was such a funny experience and I thought the kids can go through that too.
At least this time it did reveal an image for them that will lead them to their next task, I'm assuming.
Yes, yes.
This time their clue could be a visual clue.
Well, since they've all had their own tasks so far, I am very curious about what the fourth task is going to be.
Who is the fourth task going to test?
The fourth task is going to test all of them.
And it's all going to test something that is challenging for all of them.
So it's a big deal.
It is our fire test.
And...
Listeners will just have to listen to find out.
Oh, I am.
I'm thinking back to when you told us about an emoji that would describe events to come, and you gave us a fire emoji.
Yep.
Very interested.
Wow.
And it'll be something that listeners did not expect, I bet.
I'm looking forward to it.
Well, Susie, thank you so much for sharing this behind the scenes story of Chapter 13.
Thank you, Christy.
And thank you for all the great questions.
How fun.
And thanks, everyone, for listening and spending time with us.
Remember, if you have questions about the mystery or what's going to happen, you can leave a comment or send us a message and we might feature your question in a future.
Behind the Adventure episode.
And be sure to listen to the next episode of Adventures on Hawaii Island to find out what the fourth fire task is going to be.
We'll see you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Thank you.
