. . : : : The Story : : : . .

(I'm not typically one to bring real-life and virtuality within each others' realms, but this is surely an exception...)

Alright. Many of you know my name simply because of my obsession with these Prismatic Wings, which I had advertised myself for over a month (not to mention that I have been going by some variation of the name Icarus since back in the Closed Beta/Preview Event). Then came the GM auctions, which included 12 rare one-of-a-kind Accessories - each still to be wielded for the first time by some lucky Knight. These rare Accessories included 3 pairs of Wings: Volcanic Wings, Divine Wings, and... Prismatic Wings. I had easily 50 people send me a mail, whisper, or message of some sort notifying me of these Prismatic Wings being placed on the Auction House by "Spiral HQ" (AKA the Game Masters). I had even more people wish me good luck in winning the auction. I would like to once again thank each and every one of you for being so kind and thoughtful! There were even a select few who told me they would avoid this specific auction just because they knew how badly I wanted the Prismatic Wings - and a special thanks goes out to them! :)

Many people told me I had also set a "market standard" pricing for the rare Accessories, due to my offer stated in this very thread of 5,000,000 Crowns (~80,000 CE). However, because these GM auctions were not player auctions and the Crowns would be going no where (among various other reasons), I decided that my final bid would be near 2,500,000 Crowns, and definitely no more than 3,000,000 Crowns. (On the contrary, I actually found myself straying upwards of 4,000,000 Crowns in the end :x ).

Naturally, I lost the auction because of my lack of confidence, and my figuring that there must be someone else out there who wanted these Prismatic Wings far more than I did. I was disappointed, mostly in myself, because I felt as if I had let down so many friends as well as myself. Even many people aside these friends seemed disappointed alone in the fact that this mysterious winner of the Prismatic Wings would not show themselves (being as the Wing Accessories seemed to be the most revered of them all).

But then it happened... a couple of hours after the auctions, and attending the congratulations party for Rubyeclipse and Levis (the other two Wing Bearers), I received a mysterious piece of mail from an unknown Knight named "Aureya". Written was only an ASCII heart: "<3" - but there was also an attachment. I couldn't believe it at first, so I clicked the "Accept" button to see if it was real. For a while, I sat there, not believing what now lay in the Accessory section of my Arsenal: Prismatic Wings.

It was only because of the "<3", and, perhaps coincidentally, the date (11/14/11), that I was able to muster up a suspicion about who this mysterious "Aureya" might be. About half an hour later, after waking a certain someone from their (consequently not-so-deep) sleep, I was able to conclude that Aureya was, in fact, my one and only, lovely, sweet, and wondrous wife. :)

A bit of back story:
After talking for a while I got some of her side of the story out of it. I guess she knew how badly I wanted these Wings, because that's nearly all I had talked about the entire weekend. xD So she knew basically everything about it, including the fact that I was going no higher than 2.5m or so. This, I'm sure, helped to assure her that I was not going to be bidding against her after a few million, heh. (That would not have been good. O_O ) So, she got her credit card ready, and was apparently ready to spend up to $400 (~10.5m Crowns) in order to get the Wings on Sunday night. o_o That's over twice my original offer! (Plus the fact that she was totally new to nearly everything in Spiral Knights (except for the times she watched me play) - but she's a smart girl, and she figured it out pretty quickly. :) ) Now, she got them for a little less than my original offer, so at least things didn't get completely ludicrous. Her original plan was to save them until our (engagement) Anniversary, which was more than a month away at the time (Christmas Eve, actually), but she was afraid that I might actually find a pair of my own by then, and apparently she couldn't bare to see me as disappointed as I was that night, let alone the next few days. xD (Also there was the current data 11/14/11 as stated above, which was [in our time zone] the day after the night of the auctions, and the numbers 11 and 4 have always had a special meaning to us ever since our childhood so it seemed to her like a good date anyhow.) So, after her triumph, she decided to mail them with a cute little heart, being all suspicious and whatnot, then get to bed as quietly as possible to avoid any possible suspicion. She had told me earlier that day that she had a lot of catching up to do with work, so we were effectively "doing our own things" that night (at least that's what I had been convinced of xD ). This, plus the fact that I was so unbelievably distracted by these auctions, caused me to not even notice what she was up to! (Although, she was on the other side of the house too...) But, she was caught red-handed only a few hours later, and I don't think she has stopped giggling about it yet. :)

I only wish I could bring her in to world of Spiral Knights along with me, to enjoy the game as much as I do. Alas, she has much more work than I do, and is often much more stressed than I am, with much less free time than I have. (Not to mention it's not exactly her favourite type of playstyle.) Maybe one day I can drag her online just to say "hi". xD (For those of you who recognized my old guild "Wing" - it was created in my own false hopes of her playing SK with me, and being able to lead the guild with me, however being as this never happened, Wing was disbanded shortly after its creation. For now I have re-created Wing as Aether, but only for myself, until she might join us on SK.)

In the end, I suppose that I was correct in my assumption that whoever won the auction for the Prismatic Wings wanted them more than anyone else - even Aecarus himself. My wife Aureya wanted them far more than I did, for the sake of making me as happy as I am. Perhaps this is, in part, due to the fact that I often fail to make myself happy (e.g. in getting the Wings I had longed for), yet somehow, she is magically able to do it for me (e.g. winning the Wings for me as a gift). :) Though, there is absolutely no doubt that my happiness for her as a wife is far, far, far greater than that of the happiness any pair of Wings will ever bring me. ;)

Thank you again, everyone; acquaintances, friends, and my wife. Without you, I would still be flightless. :)

I am going to have to think up one heck of an anniversary present to match the love put in to this one. <3

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                                                                  I am looking to buy Prismatic Wings!

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If you happen to find a pair of Prismatic Wings, however so, you may have found the long lost wings of Aecarus! :D

If you find a pair of these Wing Accessories (or any type of Wing for that matter), please contact me on my Knight "Aecarus" whether you intend to sell them or not - I would love to at least have a look at them.

On the other hand, if you do plan on selling them (Prismatic Wings), please be aware that I, Aecarus, am willing to pay a fortune for them: tens of thousands of Crystal Energy (or millions of Crowns), at the very least. :) (You'll even get your own imaginary player-implemented title: Reclaimer of the Long Lost Wings of Aecarus.)

You can contact me on this thread or in-game on my Knight Aecarus.

Thank you, and happy Spiraling. :)

A note for those in doubt:

The possibility of obtaining Wings (among various other accessories) from Lockboxes has been, once and for all, confirmed by Nick.

Keep opening those Lockboxes everyone~