#harp heists

[aeonvy]

Heyo, I'm Lyre, but I also go by Leandro or Athos n' use he/they.

I post art here but it's ultimately a whatever blog. I'm too lazy to make a diff one about art or yapping specifically lol

I am NOT consistent so you will see a lot of completely unrelated oc and fandom shit here. good luck ig

Main tags:

#harping around -> yap/text tag.

#harping lore -> same as the prev one but for lore dumps lol

#my art -> art tag!

#harp heists -> for reblogs; paired with #art reblog often.

Post subject to changing at any time! I'll update as I go!

While you're here, go check out my friend @noctilu-uca 's art, too. they're incredibly talented!

[reboundttv]

Another one of these posts? Yeah sure why not.

So I know that there's a sort of, tongue in cheek joke about how the AU that Ekko ends up in, is WAY better because Vi is dead. That's a big one that people love to harp on: "oh Vi is dead in this universe and everything is okay HMMMMMMM how INTERESTING perhaps VI was the jinx after all HMMMMMM"

and like. no. shut up.

Because there are (no less than) TWO specific canon divergences that we are aware of in S2E7 that contribute to the way the cities are in that universe. The first is, obviously, that Violet dies in the heist in S1E1.

As an aside, I 100% agree with/believe the wiki entry that says that Vi and Caitlyn are soulmates in every universe, which means that Caitlyn probably also died in the Hextech explosion.

So Vi (and Caitlyn) dies and Hextech doesn't get developed. Neither Jayce nor Viktor are shown in this universe, so one or both of them are dead (Jayce likely via suicide if he wasn't imprisoned or exiled, and Viktor because he doesn't ascend to be Super Jesus with the Hexcore).

But there is another, less obvious one that gets a fair bit of screentime but isn't really like, touched on. And that is:

ZAUNDADS.

Silco and Vander are cool with each other. That's really important. It means that either:

They didn't fight because Silco found the note from Vander (S2E6), OR

They DID fight, but stopped themselves before they did something they regretted.

See, because in the main universe, neither of those things happen. Silco nearly gets drowned and gets bunch of sump water all up in his face, so he becomes dependent on Shimmer to keep the bacteria in his eye from killing him. He would assumedly lean on Singed to iterate on the formula, which is why he becomes the kingpin and rules over the Chembarons. The production of Shimmer, and its propagation through the streets of Zaun, contributes to things being arguably EVEN WORSE for the Zaunites.

But in the AU universe, he doesn't need Shimmer. I would argue that Singed is probably still on some fuckshit, but isn't helping anyone make Shimmer or chemtanks. This means that a lot of the industrial waste and runoff that's a byproduct of Shimmer production is also not there. Zaun isn't just better off because there's no Hextech, but also because there's no Shimmer.

Now, I'm gonna point a third thing out and I'mma use big ass letters so you can't miss it:

PILTOVER STILL DOES NOT SEE ZAUN AS EQUALS.

The heist still happens in this universe, which means that Vi and the other kids are still adopted by Vander. Which means that bridge riots or something similar still happened. There is still inequity and injustice in this universe; it's just not as dire as it is in the main one. They're still talking about Piltover like "yo fuck those guys" but it's less "they're hunting us for sport and killing us in the streets" and more "we're gonna show 'em up in this STEM contest that we're doing."

They're basically farther along in the "things will get better" timeframe than the main one is after S2E9.

[junonomenon]

i do think its interesting that people often focus on nureyev seducing people in order to steal from them when he really doesnt do it that often. he does it what, twice? that we see of. three times if you count nova, although thats more of a crime of opportunity. and one of those times was with juno who we know he was genuinely attracted to, so its possible he wouldve used another distraction had that not been the case. he was just picking his pocket, its not like the key was inside junos mouth.

its probably just perspective bias: we see him as more inclined to that sort of behaviour because he's genuinely sexually and romantically attracted to the point of view character, so thats the impression we get of his behaviour and personality, and the first example we get of a con he pulls. even if that isnt broadly reflected in his choices and behaviour in other jobs (the thief among us, train from nowhere, prince of mars, man in glass (wrt to the main heist), infernal grind, vanishing act, etc. even the initial heist of the muderous mask).

but i'm not here to harp on flanderization. my point is that when you consider that seduction isnt his go-to strategy and is something that that, up until season 5, we have only seen him do when he is actually romantically or sexually attracted to the person he's stealing from (juno). (again theres nova, but he isnt really "seducing" her? like she just makes it up in her head that theyre in love and hes going to leave his wife for her and he takes advantage of that after the fact.) his behaviour in recipe for disaster seems... kinda weird.

this isnt Just Another Job for him, its not What He Does To Get Things, he is making a deliberate choice to use seduction here... why? obviously hes not actually in love, so does peter nureyev, master thief, really NEED horace rao's help with this? i mean, i'm not a thief and its not like i was there, but juno gets in without it, and could probably have stolen grandpappy's recipe himself if he wanted to and nureyev didnt pull the alarm on him. surely nureyev could figure something else out, especially since planning a heist with someone 1. who is not a criminal and 2. who's family's livelihoods depend on the thing you're trying to steal seems unnecessarily risky. what if he told someone? what if he changed his mind? its not like the thief among us, where some rich lady takes a hit to her ego and then goes out to buy all new stuff with her millions of creds. the embarassment doesnt outweigh the theft in this case. his family needs this, and at the end of the second part he does, in fact, confess to everything, albeit too late to actually do anything about it. it seems almost inevitable that he would, once its clear nureyev isnt coming back, with the guilt of betraying his family and sending them and himself into financial ruin hanging over his head.

and at long last we reach the thesis of this post. the confession IS the point. what does rao's confession accomplish? well, it tells us who committed the crime and how, which is useful to juno for getting out of prison and the rao's for learning what happened to grandpappy's recipe, the first of which nureyev wasn't really planning for until juno shows up in the greenhouse (AFTER he already did the plan), and the second of which, to put it bluntly, he doesn't really care about. secondly... it upsets juno. the things horace rao describes immediately remind him of his own relationship with nureyev. telling him he loved him and wanted to run away with him in season one, acting like they were partners in crime and planning a heist (or two or three) with him, only to run away with the thing(s) they were planning to steal in season three.

these parallels arent just a coincidence, or an unfortunate consequence of the best way to steal grandpappy's recipe. all of it is deliberate. nureyev KNOWS that juno will be following him, KNOWS he is going to get to the bottom of this case, and he is using horace rao to try and convince juno that their relationship was just another con to him. he does this to EVERYONE, so dont follow him. he never meant it, so just let it go. he can't say it, but he's hoping that juno will put the pieces together on his own, will feel insulted enough by the lack of weight nureyev's words seem to hold that he stops looking for him.

luckily juno knows better than that.

[aeonvy]

I JUST REALIZED TOMORROW IS THE 14TH

I'm gonna be doing this too btw just drop me an ask if you want somth specific otherwise I'll just send you a doodle anyway o7

🤗🤗🤗🤗

[utilitycaster]

Not to harp on that anon as well, but man, the reason the inter PC dynamics were so tepid and lukewarm (outside of like 1 or two imo) was because they were allergic to confrontation. A good portion (not all ofc) of the C2 discourse came from things happening within the Campaign and people arguing which blorbo was right (crollgate, bowlgate, etc) and later campaign was more ship based iirc, C3 discourse was more about people saying "hey it's kinda fucked up that Imogen kept pressing the button to incinerate the other party during the heist" and the response was mainly "you are attacking Imogen for displaying #girlpower, you are attacking my blorbo and, in turn, me, i see that misogyny and homophobia is still rampant in the fandom", there was little engagement to what the things discussed actually, and more about "fighting" character assassination for the pretend people

So like, if you agreed to the general opinion of the fandom, yeah it wasn't that toxic ig, careful if you like any other character however

So on the one hand you are right in terms of the tenor of the problem - it really was "I cannot bear to see the fandom speak ill of my blorbo at all, no they are TOTALLY flawed it's just YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT because you haven't passed my personal purity tests, ie, being exactly like me" and so on and so forth, and yes, overidentifying with the characters and demanding you be nice to the characters to be nice to them, which is not unique to Campaign 3 but was certainly far more prevalent.

I think however it's notable that like...it was the holders of specific opinions - not even the general opinion of the fandom. like, I have consistently been open about thinking that Taliesin and Liam have no unique chemistry, that no pairing of their main campaign characters has ever had anything I've found worth exploring, and you know what? no one's made death threats towards me over that or asked me why I like Fjord and Jester even though Molly and Caleb have more fics, and Imo/dna fans have repeatedly done this. I was lukewarm-to-overly harsh on Veth and Vax (to give some examples) for a long time before realizing I was being overly harsh, openly didn't care for Molly, and pretty complimentary towards Beau and yet I have gotten zero shit from Veth and Vax fans (at most I think people may have quietly blocked or unfollowed) and about the same amount of shit from Molly stans and from Beau stans over time. Like, I got the same amount of people getting on my ass over me saying "I didn't want Molly to come back in episode 140 and I'm glad he didn't" and saying that Caleb was better than Beau at arcana, an objectively true statement.

It's not the fandom opinion; it's fans of specific characters or ships who do not take out the trash and indeed defend it.

[twistsandturnsroundwonderland]

From a writing standpoint, how Malleus is incorporated into events is a fun exercise in in universe vs. out of universe reasoning.

Malmal is stupidly, absurdly, (importantly) disproportionately strong relative to the other characters. We’re both told and shown that consistently- the coconuts in Al’ab Nariya come to mind. It’s also (presumably) important in the writing of chapter 7 (I’ve only played en and thus can’t verify).

This also presumably makes the incorporation of Malleus into other events complicated. How do you have or maintain a specific plot having specific challenges when one character could blast through it without even blinking?

Which comes back to the out of universe reasoning: Malleus’s firepower cannot be a direct solution to the problems faced, whether that’s by nerfing him in some fashion (Glomas, Beans Day 2); not being present in problem solving (Vargas 2, Fairy Gala, Halloween 2); or having the problems be something that can’t be solved by blowing it up (Halloween 1, Al’ab Nariya).

So then it comes to seeing how the in universe reasoning is built into the need to match this out of universe reasoning:

Glomas- firepower is actually the solution, but alas, for Malleus has been temporarily nerfed after the first incident with the flowers and does not have the reserves to do this alone- time to climb the bell tower!

Beans Day 2- Malleus is too busy battling Lilia to have the capacity to get to the harp and then oh, ope, he’s out of the competition cause he ran out of beans

Vargas 2- Malleus (and Lilia) was asked to step out of the challenge specifically because it would have made it too easy for the others

Fairy Gala- the other fae find him intimidating and magic can’t be used as a solution, so let’s have a heist episode instead!

Halloween 2- can’t solve problems; he’s too busy creating them on purpose

Halloween 1- murder is frowned upon, Malmal

Al’ab Nariya- relatively relaxed event in terms of problem solving, but then no, please do not blow up the marketplace; catching the thief has to be done manually to avoid any kind of collateral damage

So ultimately you can see why things play out the way they do from both the in universe and out of universe sides.

[aeonvy]

Thanks for the tag!

1. I own two cats, their names are Bobby and Mia, respectively

2. I almost went blind at least 4 times in my life so far (specifically the right eye. I assume life really wants me to have an eyepatch)

3. My irl name is alliterative (e.g. like Peter Parker) + the name I go by (Lyre) is actually my last name! So that's kinda cool.

4. I escaped school on my first day of kindergarten (I'm pretty sure I was like 5?)

5. I'm in a band! (Am a sorta amateur pianist :p)

@noctilu-uca @ariveii @yureilatus pspspsps

it's so weird to me that everyone on this website is a human person outside of their weird internet niche so rb this with a random bit of your lore

[echo-bleu]

I love your "bark of our bones" series: could you share more about the Heist fic for it?

Yes! Thank you :)

For context, the bark of our bones is my AU where Maglor was captured and taken to Angband when he tried to go after Maedhros. The heist fic (as yet untitled) is the "main" fic in the sense that it's the one that kicks off the canon divergence: after Fingon rescues Maedhros from Thangorodrim, they mount a heist team to steal Maglor (and possibly some shiny pebbles) back from Morgoth.

I haven't written much of it yet, only some of the more angsty bits of the rescue itself, but I am pretty excited about it. I just need to figure out how to pull off a heist xD

Here is a snippet:

“Take the Silmarils,” Makalaurë smiles, reaching out to stroke his cheek. “Run. Live.” Then he turns away, and his hands touch the strings of the harp. Everything stops when he starts singing. His voice, trained by the best tutors Aman had to offer, used to be beautiful. He had dazzled crowds and left audiences in tears from the sheer splendour of his songs. Now, honed by years of torture, distilled to its essentials, his voice has become eerie. No longer sweet and elegant, but transcendent. It weaves into Lúthien’s song, matching her power and heightening it into a spear. Across the room, Lúthien briefly stumbles before she gains her hold on this new might. Her timbre drops, and Makalaurë’s soars.

Ask me about my WIPs

[bonbonbobomb]

If you're still doing the WIP ask game- Can we see Instrument of Destruction?

woa ty for the ask!!! of course!!!!

instrument of destruction is my gripping political thriller (/hj) about a heist to steal the government's most powerful weapon to use against them, only to find out what they were really hiding from everyone.

the story is mostly going to be accidental, recovery, and flashback whump-- with no real traditional caretaker role. only a group of three criminals who are very much not cut out for that kind of thing!

i'll put a couple snippets from my wip under the cut!

(ask game)

Laid low by a team of just three. The only one of which who seemed capable of understanding its technology at all was an amateur.

Logically, the situation should have been easy to turn in its favor. Logically, it should be able to neutralize all three threats to the country and return back to its vault, safe from the wrong hands. But for some, deeply terrifying reason, it couldn’t move a muscle.

Whatever horrible invention that technician wielded, it was a stronger jammer than anything the Harp had ever encountered in its existence.

---

“Um… I don’t actually know,” the technician responded, reaching for– No, no, it didn’t want to be touched– Their hand cupped its cheek, and its motors hummed uselessly in distress as it stared at them, ocular apertures contracting. “I’ve never seen an android this advanced before.”

Get your hands off me, It wanted to scream, to unsheathe its weapons and riddle the intruder full of lead–It never should have trusted that man. It didn’t want to trust him. But he had authorization. It couldn’t say no.

[hunting-songs]

Senritsus Stories! Tagged By: A little Bird! Tagging: @skarletchains @rake-rake @bewitchingbaker @nephytale @gyofukuki @uzumakiuser @kiigan @distortedkilling @yeonban @swxpped @zealctry @curseisms @muddsludge @saiakv ! What Saga Are You ? Your Result: Eirik's Saga You're a born traveler and adventurer! This saga is about the Viking discovery of America. Eirik sees it when his ship is blown off-course from Greenland. They later go back and explore it. They travel southward and find Vinland but are run off by the Skraelings, otherwise known as Native Americans.

Which Legend Are You ? Your Result: Dagda's Harp You're clever and emotionally intelligent! Dagda was a high priest. When a rival tribe stole his magic harp, he followed them to their castle and then called out to his harp. It came to him, and he played notes on it that made the tribe cry, and then he played a song that made them laugh, and then another that put them to sleep so he could get away.

What Wild West Legend Are You ? Your Result: The Sundance Kid This famous gunslinger and his partner, Butch Cassidy, were responsible for one of the longest strings of successful bank and train heists in U.S. history. While they were feared by many, there is no confirmed evidence that the Sundance Kid actually ever killed anyone. Like the kid, you are smart, fast, and resourceful. People might worry about you, but they really don't have much reason to, as you are careful to not actually hurt anyone as you pursue your own goals.

Which Medieval Legend Are You? Your Result: Robin Hood You always root for the underdog! You're a hero with a heart of gold, a sharp wit, and a sometimes-mischievous nature.

[aeonvy]

@noctilu-uca @yureilatus @ariveii this is about you three btw. poster drops when

“who’s your favorite character?” my friend’s oc. “who’s your favorite character in canon?” my friend’s oc. “your favorite character can’t be your friend’s oc!” the posters on my walls and discord messages say otherwise. my wound has a heartbeat and only my friend’s oc can fix it. goodbye chat

[waffliesinyoface]

i know ive harped on about it a lot but its crazy just how good Capaldi's tenure was as the Doctor. like, lets go through all the episodes hes in, shall we?

Season 8: Deep Breath - Great Into the Dalek - Good Robot of Sherwood - Okay Listen - Good Time Heist - Superb The Caretaker - Okay Kill the Moon - Well, *I* liked it. Mummy on the Orient Express - Absolute Banger Flatline - Great In the Forest of the Night - Okay Dark Water/Death in Heaven - Superb Last Christmas - okay this one sucks but its the christmas special

Season 9 Magician's Apprentice/Witch's Familiar - Superb Under the Lake/Before the Flood - Superb The Girl Who Died - Good The Woman Who Lived - Okay The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion - Great Acting, the delivery of the speech at the end is so fantastic you forget the motivations behind it are stupid Sleep No More - We don't talk about this one Face the Raven - Great Heaven Sent - S++ Spectacular Hell Bent - Great The Husbands of River Song - holy shit, you made the doctor and river into a believable couple, AND the episode is just great on top of that? Are we SURE this is a christmas special?

Season 10 The Pilot - Great Smile - Great Thin Ice - Superb Knock Knock - okay i remember this one sucking Oxygen - Superb Extremis - Great Pyramid at the End of the World/Lie of the Land - Superb Empress of Mars - Great The Eaters of Light - Good World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls - Excellent Twice Upon A Time - christmas special. okay.

that is an EXTREMELY high hit rate. he CANNOT stop winning

[aeonvy]

I've been thinking a lot about Sky recently and specially about how skykids work so I'm really glad to have found this post ^^ it succinctly puts down the same things I thought about the topic as well. I think I might make my own drawn version later, but the OG concept is the same — the skykid's body is the vessel (I like to think of it as a kind of clay-like vessel) in which the light soul is contained. The cosmetics in this case are the light manifested into a more specific shape, which is why a skykid's cosmetics do not appear in their shadow in-game (check it out)! The default cosmetics are what skykids are able to shape themselves into without (much) external help, specially the 3 default hairstyles, for a brief example. The seasonal and event cosmetics could be considered more complex, which is where the need for a "mold" would come in. Similarly, in the lore I had been brewing in my mind, a skykid could go past the simple mask look and take on the shape it dictates (hence the anthropomorphic skykids, since I can't really choose between drawing my dragon skykid as an actual dragon or a masked kid sometimes-), though that requires more 'light malleability' from the user, as OP put it. I really like the inspiration from selkies! They're one of my favorite myths, plus it's a little silly since I do have a selkie skykid oc (though they're a bit unfinished...haha). Overall, this is a really interesting way of looking at skykid...biology? Well, it keeps a ton of doors open for whatever design you'd want, which I enjoy very very much.

An expansion of my headcannon of skykids being able to transform into the animals their masks are based off of! Typed versions of the image text and additional notes below the cut, because LORD do I have so much to say about this concept.

Image 1:

Bottom left text:

BODY is just the CONTAINER—Skykid soul is the LIGHT inside

Light takes shape of container at first, but has no one shape

Top right text:

Light grows used to assuming humanoid shape to fit container, but as a skykid strengthens their light, they remember/learn how to assume other shapes and gain the ability to mold their container to their will.

Image 2:

LIGHT is fluid, but the container is stiff and easily broken (at least at first). It takes a lot of slow, hard work to mold it, and MASKS are used to tell the container what shape to take/give the LIGHT a direction.

Skykids imbue their mask with their light so that when they wear it, it connects to them and allows the transformation to occur.

Change happens in increments, not all at once—learning to shape oneself takes TIME.

Small notes: "Small changes first" above the drawing of the two hands, and "Most stick to an anthropomorphic form" beside the fox skykid.

Additional Notes:

This process is also why Skykids are born wearing masks. Because light is fluid and has no single shape, the light of a newborn Skykid has not yet learned how to be humanoid, and is at risk of breaking the fragile body it inhabits, therefore: Megabird gives newborn Skykids a basic mask to “teach” their light how to maintain its shape inside the container. It takes a lot of effort to obtain the blank/“faceless” mask because it takes a lot of effort for Skykids to maintain a humanoid shape without the assistance of a mask.

Also potentially how the chibi mask works (in a world where chibis aren’t just toddlers/babies)—the mask tells the Skykid to be small.

The process of becoming a Morpho (workshopping the name) is long and arduous, and involves a lot of studying the animal one wants to take the shape of, before then making the mask that will guide the shape-change. Though most of the Skykids who take an animal form choose a more anthropomorphic default, it is possible to transform completely into the animal of choice, and this is often done for fun or stress relief.

Possible that the Eden cycle strengthens the body and makes it more malleable to change? Something to do with repeatedly dying and being reincarnated and becoming more familiar with/at home in the body you possess. Kinda like how exercising is just you tearing muscles in your body so that they grow back even stronger.

Masks can also of course be just masks. A lot of Skykids like to wear animal masks without doing any of the actual Becoming; its fun to disguise as a little creature sometimes!

Unlike human beings (and potentially ancestors?), who are all full of guts and bones and stuff, Skykids are pretty much all light in there, and the outside is just a shell. They can eat and drink and everything, and it’s fun, but it all gets burnt up instead of being digested or anything and they don’t need it to survive. Also how Krill work; they’re starved for light, and Skykids are full of it, but there’s this pesky little shell in the way, so the Krill have got to crack it to get the light out.

This is slightly inspired by the legends of the Selkie, with the masks being akin to the seal pelts that the Selkie wear to turn themselves into seals.

The body/container is what protects Skykids from having their light too badly damaged and allows them to walk the realms of Sky, but it is also what limits them in their ability to shape-change. In a hypothetical situation where a Skykid was completely unrestrained (i.e. pure light without a body, like we are in Orbit), they could potentially become any and every light creature available to them.

Essentially: Skykids = light, and light = all light creatures, so Skykids = all light creatures.

I’ll probably think of more stuff to add to this later, but for now that’s about it. I’m already thinking up possible animal forms for my singular sky OC lol (because even though I looked it up and that mask is technically a serow mask, it could very easily be any number of other things, like a dragon or a giraffe).

Bonus content: a little bird guy, and closeups of the random fox guy I made without their cape and hair (because I put way too much detail into parts of their outfit that weren’t even going to be visible). I’m for sure drawing them again <3

[chaoticbooklesbian]

I've been harping on Headless being amazing for a while now, and I would hope everyone who's read my ravings has watched it by now. In case you haven't, though, it's now easier than ever: @shipwreckedcomedy just released the Complete Cut on YouTube! The full series, as a single video, that you can watch like a movie!

This show has an amazing balance of spookiness, silliness, and mystery, with an amazing cast, great writing, and an absolutely fantastic soundtrack!

Follow Ichabod Crane, the new science teacher at Sleepy Hollow Middle School, as he meets the Headless Horseman, makes friends, and solves the mystery of the Horseman's missing head and his own history with the town. There's twists and turns, babes and bards, an honest-to-goodness HEIST, and so much more! Check it out!

[cozcat]

siuan & mat + heist

They are as ready as they ever will be - iron, flint, their own mettle, some idiot with a harp - and yet, that will never feel ready enough.

Mat refuses to elaborate on why he knows so much about the Tower, because surely, that many games of Snakes and Foxes is not going to teach him a damned thing, but still, it's all they have.

The boy tries to hide the way he nervously taps his fingers against the ashanderei, the way he makes sure he has all his dice; Siuan tries to ignore the way her muscles twitch, the way her stomach roils, as they gamble their lives on a beaten-up letter and a maybe.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

How would you rate the twst events out of 10

I’m not really good with assigning numbers to things (especially since there’s so many different factors to consider for the TWST events 💦), so I’m just going to give a quick rundown of my thoughts on each event (excluding Master Chefs, Birthday Campaigns, and Anniversaries, as those events don’t have extensive plots associated with them).

***Event spoilers below the cut!***

Happy Beans Day ~Seize the Golden Harp!~ — Not a fan of the beans camo, it’s so ugly to me (sorry not sorry, but it’s perhaps the ugliest fashion of all the event cards) 😭 Fashion aside, I enjoyed the backhandedness, alliances, and double crossing involved in the competition. Also we get a free J word so it’s a good event in my book 😳 This is one of the few events where Yuu and Grim actually play a significant role in the story, but it ironically has the opposite effect of taking me out of the story xjbdjsdhjsjss I think I’d rather just watch the boys being petty to each other instead of them pausing to ask for my thoughts when I know my choice won’t affect the story much in the long run.

Fairy Gala ~Festival of the Spring — Calling Fairies~ — I LOVE THE LOOKS SERVED HERE 👏 Unfortunately, FG is kind of lacking in story to me... Like, the first half is a training arc and the second half is the actual heist, which I didn’t find that exciting. I think the best parts of this event were L*ona being sassy 😂 I especially enjoyed the part where he charmed the little fairies right as they were about to catch us red-handed.

Ghost Marriage ~Proposal of Destiny~ — Easily one of my favorite events! I like the outfits a lot (formal wear my beloved 😭), as well as how the story plays off of a lot of the usual romance tropes and then proceeds to subvert them. It just goes to show that a lot of the NRC boys are just... well, still boys and not yet ready for romantic love, nor particularly wanting romantic love (I see you there, Idia). I had a lot of laughs when I read through Ghost Marriage (it fucking SLAPPED, pun intended), right up to the sweet (if slightly cliché) ending.

Wish Upon a Star ~Dance and Wishes~ — One of the better event stories, in my opinion! I liked getting to learn a little about every character’s wish and what the views on it coming true via “magic” were. The outfits were alright, not exactly to my tastes but the flowy fabric was very fitting for a performance. I think what really shines in Wish Upon a Star is Deuce and his determination! Another thing I appreciate is that this event elaborated on the closeness of the Shroud brothers and introduced us to Star Rogue, both elements which would later become relevant in chapter 6 of the main story.

Scary Monsters! ~Screaming Halloween Show~ — I appreciate that TWST went all-out and made a mark on Halloween as their “big” event of the year. The limited cards released for this event were also really unique, with more of a focus on trying to actually look scary in their Groovies rather than just be plain fanservice. I think this event’s story was definitely on the weaker end. It’s nice that the boys had fun, but the “antagonists” were chbdjsbsjs kinda lackluster? I mean, they were just annoying people looking for social media clout... which is WAY too “real” for me 😂 I don’t know, I’d rather read about an otherworldly or magical threat over a mundane one like that.

Vargas CAMP! ~Spring Happening~ — There’s nothing outright offensive about this event, but there weren’t that many memorable moments to me either. I’m not much interested in watching the boys go around doing sweaty labor or Vargas doing... whatever it was he was doing 💦 Honestly, Sebek was probably the best part just because he was so damn petty the whole time djsvuwveisbeldiwg

Happy Beans Day ~The Harp-less Brawl~ — I don’t think there’s a lot more for me to say here, because this event basically just expands on the story presented in the first Happy Beans Day. I definitely liked the additional details added (like Lilia fighting Silver and Malleus, how Rook teamed up with Trey, Floyd fucking off to do whatever he wants, etc.), but other than that, it basically feels like a repeat of the original but told from a slightly different perspective. Some of the tension is also taken away because we technically already know how this one would end.

Scalding Sands' Al'ab Nariya — This was a cute one! I love that we got to step outside of NRC and explore more of Twisted Wonderland (plus we got to meet Jamil’s sister, hehe). More tasty lore 😳 The story kind of meanders, but I’ll excuse it because we got to see so many unique sets and learned a lot about the culture and traditions of the Scalding Sands. We also get a healthy helping of Jamil suffering 😭 THIS POOR GUY Their fashion was also very interesting to see; it’s pretty but also practical and allows for great mobility.

Scary Monsters! ~Endless Halloween Night~ — I think the marketing for this was genius. The animated trailers for Endless Halloween Night and the story concept itself helped build hype, as did the first half of the story. We were all expecting some powerful, otherworldly entity freezing time and kidnapping students, and for an epic showdown to stop its evil machinations. The build up to it was SO good... The kids having to go to another world, collect mysterious mirror shards, fight their possessed peers... It was all setting up for an even greater ending!! ... Only for me to be met with complete disappointment 😔 IF ONLY IT DIDN’T END LIKE THAT, THIS EVENT WOULD HAVE BEEN AMAZING 😭 but instead it comes off as a cop-out and a wasted opportunity...

Sam’s New Year Sale 2022 — This one has more of a story than Master Chef, Anniversaries, and Birthday Campaigns, so I thought to include it. It had a very simple story and conflict, but what I didn’t like about it was that they never fully resolve the legend of the voucher that everyone was gunning so hard for. Was it actually something that Sam made up to push sales, since no one ever found it????? Some confirmation would be nice Dx because as is, it’s one massive question mark, an unfinished circle.

Harveston's Kelkkarotu — The boys look so warm and fluffy for this event...! It contrasts nicely with their blazing competitive streak against RSA (every time the Dwarves were on screen and the NRC boys were gagging at their sweetness, I screamed). It’s a very cozy event, and like the Scalding Sands one, I loved learning more about the world of Twisted Wonderland through it. dhksvehebdmd AnOTHER frEE J WoRD CARD I actually enjoyed the parts where they’re going on a food tour of the village more than the sledding race HAHAH 😂 They’re growing boys, they should eat well!!

Fairy Gala What if? ~The Fantastical Festival of Fairies~ — What If has a lot of the same issues as the original FG, just because they follow a very similar structure. What I will say is that What If is great just because it has fairy ballerina Ortho, who is one of the prettiest limited cards 😤 and I much prefer What If for how it resolves its conflicts over the original. It’s really cute how hard Ortho is working to find his own originality, and how the others stepped in to try and help! I also love that Silver stepped in to serve as a diplomat between them and the fairies and how it was Jack that sneezed and gave them away. It lends more depth to Ortho and Silver’s characters (that will probably become relevant again in chapter 7).