#deluge: twst

[dollops-of-delusion]

have you ever considered crowley, that maybe, just possibly, you are the problem?

i just. sometimes he makes me so mad. i get that the "this school legitimately needs a guidance counselor and a school therapist" idea isn't exactly a new one, but what irks the hell out of me is that this man has actively fucked up or just flat-out disregarded the concerns of so many students.

tl;dr - sometimes crowley makes me mad. sometimes he doesn't. i don't know, i feel weird about it

to preface: yes, all the characters had their own insecurities, flaws, and pasts before coming to the school. we should acknowledge that. the point i'm making is that crowley and the administration as a whole sure didn't make things for them any better.

i was so immeasurably angry for what crowley did to jamil during the fourth chapter. just another adult that told him to "be the mature one."

crowley, one of the so few adults in jamil's life that is supposed to be impartial and center on giving students their earned dues, as his job, ignored him for the position of housewarden in favor of kalim. all because kalim's daddy wasn't likely to fund the school otherwise. and don't get me wrong, i adore kalim, i think he makes a great prefect. it's just the way crowley treated that situation that angers the hell out of me.

this snapshot is from chapter 3. one of the many other chapters where he saddles the mc with jobs they're ill-equipped to handle, but do anyway. but i'm not mad about that; story needs to progress somehow. what i'm mad about is the fact that he consistently guilt-trips us by mentioning just how expensive it is to take care of our food and water bills, to keep our living situation in ramshackle. that is how he convinces us to help him out with whatever dorm is going through it's villain arc-- by making, you know, our living situation, feel like a burden.

dude, what the fuck? the mc didn't ask to be transported to some mystical fairytale land. the mc didn't ask to have literally no means of living but whatever run-down dorm you gave them. your school's magic mirror brought them here of it's own accord. and you won't even make an attempt to try and just look for their way back home?

i don't know. the point i'm trying to make here is that crowley's fucked up a lot, in a lot of ways. but i guess that's what makes him a nuanced character. i think he cares about his students, sincerely; how he reacts when someone overblots, or when the students in chapter 3 got tricked into signing contracts, would be different if he didn't care. it’s just that sometimes he makes mistakes

[llondonfog]

twst (horror) tober — day 2 (decision)

➤ Day 2: Decision “It’s your decision. Choose wisely.” 

The river rages just beyond the tips of his worn sneakers, a frothy maelstrom stirred to greater agitation by the recent deluge of storms. It churns with a vicious hunger, devouring swathes of the banks and snapping the limbs of low-hanging trees with terrifying ease. All that power, all that devastation, mere inches away from his shivering frame.

"It isn't as frightening as you might think," the man perched precariously at the river's edge regards him with a patient smile, dark, water-logged hair slick against his delicate features. "What have you to fear, child, when I will be right there alongside you?"

The problem, Silver thinks, is that Lilia has forgotten the innate human fear of floodwater when it is all that he's known, ever since it swept him away seven hundred years ago.

But Lilia isn't the kind to make promises lightly. He's told that to Silver before, running a hand fondly along the thick plumes of the marsh plants that parted their roots like ladies lifting their skirts in the mud, revealing trenches lined with objects small, thin, and white.

(Silver had stared at the bones of children missing and stripped from decades past and knew distantly that he should have been stricken with fear— and yet, there had only been the cotton-thick haze of understanding.

Lilia had cupped his chin with those frozen, sharp fingers of his, and mourned aloud for the loss of those who had broken covenant, who had failed to be fit for the river's test, who had longed for the comfort of a father and instead rejected his gift at the very last moment, only to fall into the arms of a watery grave where Lilia could no longer reach them.

But not Silver— his Silver would be different, wouldn't he?)

It is not hard to imagine where the children before him have gone wrong. It is not hard to imagine them stepping, shivering, into the foamy edge, only managing a few steps before a foot would slip on an uneven rock. How they must have panicked and thrashed in the cold, unforgiving water, shrieking and slapping away from a figure that must have now appeared as a demon, all clawed hands and gleaming fangs as it reached for them desperately and called out their names.

Perhaps it was because they did not love Lilia as you do, a voice whispers in his mind, small and insistent. The river must have known that they were not worthy, that there could only be one who could cling to a man so undead and call him 'father'.

"Silver?"

Lilia's voice is as calm as ever, the exact opposite of the rapids below. It's always been the very sound of tranquility, and Silver nearly smiles to himself; he thinks about sinking into its still waters, peaceful where nothing and no one could possibly hurt him anymore. He thinks of a lonely bedroom filled with even lonelier children. He thinks of the rejected adoption papers he had glimpsed, of Sebek's eager little face sharing the news with him that he would be meeting his new family the very next day.

"Would you promise me once more, Father?"

And he knows what he is asking by this, the bindings around his heart tightening with a contract older than his mind could comprehend.

"Forever?"

And Lilia smiles at him with dark eyes deeper than the riverbed as he presses a damp, papery hand to the matching chill of Silver's cheeks.

"Forever."

[dollops-of-delusion]

oh AND ON ANOTHER NOTE

how the FUCK are you guys getting your spells levels to 10??????

cray. teach me your ways. all of the cards i use regularly have level 5 spells each

[dollops-of-delusion]

hey, guys? if a magishift (spelldrive, whatever) team only has 7 players, then technically grim can't get picked as a rep for the interscholastic tournament, can he? ramshackle dorm makes 8 dorms to NRC's seven dorms. he'd need to beat someone out as a rep from another dorm to participate.

if one of the later chapters features this event, then i already know the excuse crowley's gonna make for us not being able to participate... again.

also... wow, night raven college's biggest issue in the interscholastic spelldrive tournament is teamwork? the magic of friendship? who could've guessed? that sounds like an "mc and grim" problem to solve! we love foreshadowing <3

[dollops-of-delusion]

goddamnit, leona

and to think our main characters would've realized that grim was (very obviously) eating the waste products of the overblot victims if this lazy ass lion deemed it fit to say something

[dollops-of-delusion]

NO. no. where is the "hey man, i was really insecure about my body too as a kid (still kind of am), so i get this. getting bullied fucking sucked." option??? where is the "politely looks away because you can tell he's clearly very uncomfortable" option??? where is the nice happy medium between acknowledging kid azul looks absolutely adorable and also being respectful of something he's clearly insecure about and doesn't want people to see 😭

[dollops-of-delusion]

hey guys

so im pulling for ghost bride ace, right?

look who i got instead.

[dollops-of-delusion]

to every person i randomly friended on twst: our support cards are now best friends. they get fancy brunch together weekly. in fact, they have a nice little outdoor picnic planned for this saturday. see you then <3

[dollops-of-delusion]

WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF OPTIONS ARE THESE 😭

“TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER???” I’M SORRY IS THIS AN ALIEN FLICK?? AM I A LITTLE GREEN MARTIAN???

[dollops-of-delusion]

so i used the free pull not expecting anything and… RIDDLE??????

wtf i havent opened the game in 2 weeks

[dollops-of-delusion]

bro so i've been trying to get twst on this computer like i did w my old one but bluestacks won't work anymore and my heart is breaking

[dollops-of-delusion]

91 pulls in and i have yet to see this face. the universe is plotting against me and my acquisition of a pretty card and an even prettier eel

[dollops-of-delusion]

The event was actually so cute :)

1. It starts off with Kalim + Jamil going on a trip bc fireworks festival yay, and then Kalim invites people (Cater,Lilia) and they bring plus ones (Malleus, Trey) *Lilia ends up not coming bc he was sick ew*

2. I discovered that silk city is so big omg

3. This event has confused me more about what culture the Scarabia dorm is based off of bc I’m just confused

4. I never got Jamil’s event SSR bc school got in the way :(

5. I would reccomend watching walkthroughs/playthroughs of the whole event bc Jamil has some character development !!

1. OMG YAY I HEARD ABT THAT!! super interesting choice of characters to bring along! i heard cater gets some character development along the way

2. Silk city has my whole heart <33 I hear u meet jamil’s sister, najima?

3. see under the cut for my infodump

4. NOOOOO FUCK SCHOOOL (also same mood i tried pulling for his too and didn’t get it and felt like crying)

5. YES YES I WILL!! twst also has an option to play past events in the archives so i might do that too

very VERY long explanation of what Scarabia is culturally based off of under the cut because I immediately infodumped when I saw u were curious I’m so sorry Saturn you ofc don’t have to read it 😭

Scarabia is based off Aladdin, but culturally I’m pretty sure the dorm is supposed to be based of MENA (Middle East/North Africa.)

The white henna done on Kalim’s arms and the name of a lot of the chapters during the event I glimpsed were in Arabic. Lots of the food Jamil prepares is also from the Middle East, most notable shawarma during the Beans Day Event! Kalim in one of his SR vignettes also references his love for excessively sweet mint green tea, a personal standard drink im Morocco that leads me to headcanon him as specifically Moroccan (also bc I’m Moroccan and I’m biased.) Something innacurate would be that they’re wearing gold, as men in Islam aren’t supposed to wear gold, but being MENA and being Muslim aren’t mutually inclusive, although most of the time they do exist in the same realm

The movie Aladdin itself, however, grossly meshes and in that mutilates MENA and South Asian culture, so personally I’m not sure if Scarabia itself can be used as a proper basis for either culture. The movie was honestly quite orientalist and also included weird referrals to the ancient Ottoman Empire? There are also touches of South Asian influence, specifically from India, in the dorm, but I’d have to look deeper into it to make sure I’m correct. Long story short I love Scarabia so much <333

sorry for the infodump whenever someone mentions anything remotely arab i get excited 😭

[dollops-of-delusion]

the scalding sands twst event came out and i dont have any time to play it or do missions to get gems and i’m going to cry

ITS THE SPECIFICALLY ARAB EVENT AND I CANT PLAY IT,

IM SO SAD :((((((

[dollops-of-delusion]

twst tier list bc i was bored:

yes, even the characters in their respective category are ordered correctly to the highest degree of importance in said category

please ask me to explain my choices so i give you my little heart-eyed rant about them all <3

here's the tier list maker btw (don't listen to it when it asks you to sign up to download, just right click and copy)

[dollops-of-delusion]

i put my neck on the line for you over and over again, and this is the respect i get? after promising to make a deal with quote-unquote "the shiftiest guy on campus" ? damn.