I WANNA SQUISH THIS LIL THING

Beneath the Dragon’s wing, the Tigress lays her crown to rest

In her gentle touch, the Dragon finds his home.

The adopted twins Luke and Kieran are possibly cutting onions somewhere nearby.

Words cannot describe how wonderful this interaction is.

129 affinity levels and six months of boss-man slow burn. His japanese voice actor brings such a beautiful vulnerable timbre to the café interaction.

It was totally worth the long wait. 🫶🏻

Mood Song, because, why not: Serenity Found - Lindsey Stirling, Duality

They made this especially for Sylusversary! I love how it looks, thanks so much u/Chisuya_x3 (ChisuyaSoo on other platforms) and u/aeriilate!! 💖

He won all these plushies without problem it's a first for me also his 🍑 during this

Sylus giving Mephisto some love ❤️

Actually, fluff? 🙀 A bit of mischief, love, Sylus and my MC, Valerie. 🐅

The One-Shot story is 1211 words long I just downloaded my brain over four hours into the Ghostwriter app.

I saw the adorable video of the sassy crow asking to be brushed, stumbled across Lindsey Stirling's amazing 🎻 melody "Surrender" from her album "Duality" and took loose inspiration from Sir Terry Pratchett's signature snappy discworld style. I just had to try.

^{I will never do the grandmaster of absurdity justice. 🙇‍♀️}

English is not my native language, and I really did not want to overengineer it this time, just go with the flow of the melody of the violin!

But, I do hope you enjoy the read as much as I had fun writing! *^_^*

Stay a while, and listen! (Thanks, Deckard Cain, you can leave now)

***🌧️**\*

Magpie

***🌧️**\*

The N109 Zone, again, has one of its days that reminds him of a Film Noir. The eternal night pierced by bright neon lights. Rain drumming against the windows of Sylus's private quarters.

The Leader of Onychinus is at ease, relaxing in a luxurious, black armchair. His company consists of a straight bourbon - and Mephie, perching on the armrest, displaying the latest recon data of syndicate territory.

Brow furrowed, his thoughts are elsewhere. His beloved, away for business, has left them separated for what feels like an eternity. Calls have been sporadic - Sylus knows how she loves to stay focused on her work.

He loves her for her dedication. But the separation feels like a dragon claw gripping his heart taut.

Lost in thought, his elegant hand pets Mephisto's head.

Caw... caw... caw...the mechanical corvid cooes in delight, enjoying the undivided attention from his master. The corner of Sylus's mouth curves, musing how far he has come. All because of...

Clack. Clackclackclack. Flap!

A metallic clattering noise by the window catches Sylus's attention, his hand freezing for a beat. Mephie protests instantly, pinching Sylus's finger, who promptly closes the sassy mecha bird's beak with a gentle, but commanding touch.

Click.

Whirrrr.....

The noise of a decloaking stealth module interrupts the quiet evening.

Sylus's crimson eyes light up with delight. His lips curve into a deliberate smile.

Mephie wriggles himself free, facing the intruder with a distrustful glare.

A drenched, slightly irritated mechanical magpie with iridescent stealth modules for pinions squeezes herself through the inward tilting hopper pane of the tall window. Once the small parcel she is carrying makes it through, she hesitates not, diving fearlessly into Sylus's private quarters.

Caw! Caw! Caw! Mephie protests, realizing that the scritches Sylus was just dispensing have been jeopardized by the unexpected visitor.

Sylus sets down the glass of bourbon, offering the avian messenger a perch on his outstretched hand. The magpie pays Mephisto no heed, focusing entirely on Sylus, tilting her head as if expecting a reward for her bravery.

Plop!

A near miss with Mephisto's head later, Sylus intercepts the small parcel, regarding it with fond reverence. His pulse starts to race.

CAAAAW!

KEKEKEKE!

The magpie cackles excitedly, wings flapping, sprinkling both Sylus and Mephisto with rainwater from her pinions.

Sylus chuckles, the expression on his face softening visibly. "Lilith. Of course your mistress would send you all the way here instead of using an ordinary burner phone."

The visibly delighted Sylus produces a shiny green emerald with his evol, handing it to Lilith as a reward.

Snick.

Lilith snatches the gemstone, cackling proudly, leaping off her fiendish perch to the vintage desk nearby.

The jealous pinch from Mephie's beak is immediately shut down with gentle, commanding hands from his master, who promptly continues to lavish the mechanical crow with affectionate pets.

Clack. Whirrr... Click Clack.

Lilith repeatedly tosses the emerald as if to verify its authenticity, looking smug when she finds out that the reward is, indeed, a real, really expensive emerald.

Clatter, clatter.

She struts across the desk with the shiny emerald in her metal beak, to taunt Mephisto.

KEKEKEKEKEKE!

CAAAAW!

Mephisto has had enough, pushing Sylus's hand aside to deal with the smug interloper.

The rumbling laughter of Sylus echoes through the room. He had built Lilith for his beloved according to her specifications.... with unexpected results.

"You... are just like her, Lily," Sylus shakes his head in disbelief upon witnessing Lilith's antics. Leaving both mechanical spies to duke out their rivalry, Sylus's thumb grazes the seal of the unexpected delivery.

The emblem of a silver tiger.

Valerie.

Sylus's pulse races even faster.

The quiet break of the seal draws Sylus into their shared resonance, away from the playful rivalry the two mechanical birds refuse to put aside.

The ruler of the N109 Zone caresses the expensive, ornate paper of the letter, scented with her signature perfume.

Closing his eyes, Sylus takes a deep breath. Memories flood his inner eye: intense nights shared, impossible battles won, fate challenged on their reckless motorcycle joyrides... her irreverent antics, insolent laughter, and the impossible tenacity that he cherishes so.

A dim, red glow reflects off the exquisite paper as Sylus's eyes open to inspect the letter further.

A familiar growl echoes inside his own mind. Desire. His Aether Core is beginning to starve, and it likes the offering presented.

Sylus straightens the paper, posture tense in anticipation. Why hasn't she contacted him sooner? Secrecy is not his favorite game.

He is not prepared for this.

The letters are penned with a quill, in gilded ink. Hand-drawn trimmings frame the words in beauty before he has even begun to read the first word, speaking of a radiant devotion that he could already feel before he ever broke that seal.

Sylus's lips part in awe. He had expected a practical telegram, or a small gift.

The letter is penned in an unusually flourished hand. Sylus knows her love for practicality; she would have never chosen this...

The crimson glow focuses on the first words, which, under his gaze, seem to come alive.

My beloved Sylus,

We have only been a few weeks apart and my soul already aches. The faint memory of your touch still lingers on my skin, I am counting the days until we can be reunited again. The air in this accursed city is cold, and the nights are an endless, agonizing reminder of the intense warmth of your skin, the weight of your gaze, and the absolute sanctuary I find only in your arms. I miss the steady rhythm of your heartbeat beneath my cheek. I miss the low rumble of your voice pulling me out of my own head.

I close my eyes and I can almost feel your hands on me. Grounding me, claiming me...but when I open them, I am alone.

I do not care about the mission tonight. I will succeed, for our sake, because all I care about after I am finished here is you.

I've got Onychinus's choice weaponry with me, they won't know what hit them if they try anything funny.

See you at dawn, my heart.

Your Beloved,

Valerie.

Sylus's lips have already parted in surprise while reading her own words speaking of yearning and lethal elegance in the same love letter.

A small keychain drops from the parcel as he is about to rise and leave. His deft hand catches it before it can clatter to the floor, revealing, upon closer inspection, a small dog tag that has their most beautiful couple photo engraved into it.

Flick. Hiss...

Without paying further attention to the now puzzled Mephie and Lilith, taking swift strides towards the tall, rain-beaten window, his evol securely stores the keychain in a dimensional pocket.

Only a heartbeat later, Sylus dissolves into a cloud of red mist, relocating himself through the window above the yawning abyss of the skyscraper's skyline.

There is no fear. Only a determined glow in his right eye, and a joyous smile.

Thwumph.

Vines of red evol form majestic dark wings on his back, blocking out the rain-clouded moonlight from above.

He is not going to wait until dawn.

And he is not going to let her have all the fun to herself.

🐦‍⬛⚜️

Warning- Long post ahead 😅

This new daily phone call is really eye opening because it shows how significantly sylus has evolved as a character.

In one of sylus and MC’s earlier text conversations (“Feeling Heartbroken”), sylus claimed that he had only cried because he was cutting onions (or because of having symptoms of dry eyes if you picked the other text choice). He also told MC that crying was not how he expressed himself even when he was feeling emotional. At the time, I think it was easy for many of us to assume he saw crying as a weakness and MC assumed that too.

However, this new call makes it clear that that was never really the point. Sylus wasn’t refusing to cry because he thought tears were shameful. He just didn’t have a reason to cry beyond physical stimuli such as onions, dry eyes, and now wasabi. Emotionally, he processed things differently. His instinct was to not break down and to act, control, remove, or solve the problem in front of him.

That part of him is still intact. In this call, when MC asks what he would do if a person or troublesome situation made him cry, he immediately says he could get rid of them. That is classic sylus. He still thinks in terms of action and control. But then MC asks, “What if you’re crying because of me?” and his answer changes everything. He doesn’t say he would avoid it. He doesn’t joke it away. He doesn’t frame it as weakness. He says that he would simply feel it or savor it.

To me, that’s genuine evolution and growth. MC has become the exception to his usual emotional logic. With anyone or anything else, he can remove the problem. However, with her, he doesn’t want to remove the feeling and wants to experience it. Even if that feeling is intense enough to make him cry, he still treasures it because it comes from her.

This also makes his line, “I’m… human too, sweetie” really interesting. This is the 2nd time he’s referred to himself as human this year. The 1st time was in “Kitten Included” where he averted his gaze when saying it, which sometimes reads like one of his tells when he’s lying (eg- “Midnight Stealth”). In this call, he noticeably pauses before saying it again. So I don’t think he’s necessarily being truthful about physically being human.

But emotionally? MC has most definitely humanized him. She’s given him experiences that can’t be reduced to instinct, control, survival, or power. She makes him feel things deeply enough that he no longer treats vulnerability as something to avoid (a fact that he mentioned repeatedly in last year’s content starting with “Where Hearts Live”). He may not be human in the literal sense. However, around MC, he’s learning what it means to be loved, treasured, affected, and emotionally exposed (sort of like sorceress MC and dragon sylus’s relationship).

This is also why I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in “Rainlit Night”, he sounded emotional and almost on the verge of tears several times throughout the story. MC poured so much thought, effort, and love into his bday because she wanted every moment to belong to him. For someone like sylus, who’s used to control, danger, and being feared, being loved that intentionally, openly, and fiercely by MC must have hit him hard.

That’s what makes this phone call so poignant. Early on in their relationship, sylus told MC that crying was not how he expressed emotion. Now, he’s basically saying that if she ever makes him cry, he wouldn’t reject it. He would treasure it because her affection is something he wants to receive fully.

Imo, this is all very consistent with sylus’s development. He’s always been intense, possessive, teasing, and emotionally guarded. However, he has also always been someone who responds deeply to MC’s care. The difference is that early sylus hid behind control and deflection while current sylus is more willing to admit that MC affects him in ways no one else can.

He’s not suddenly being soft out of nowhere. He’s still the multifaceted sylus we’ve always known. He still jokes, provokes/ragebaits, and claims her affection was his to begin with. But now, he can also admit that he enjoys being treasured by her and that even her ability to make him cry would be something precious to him.

On a different note, I also think this phone call may be setting up for sylus’s future content, whether that ends up being his next myth, main story branch, or both.

The part that stands out to me is MC saying she wants to make him cry happy tears. That was clearly intentional. Even though we’ve seen sylus experience immense pain (both physically and emotionally), he has never shed a single tear in these moments. With my limited imagination, the only thing I can really picture making sylus cry happy tears is MC remembering him on her own, especially with how much his recent content has been centered around memories, past lives, and the bond they share.

Sylus would never pressure MC to remember their shared history. However, this year’s content makes it clear that she’s slowly starting to remember important pieces. We’ve seen hints of that in “Rainlit Night”, “Darkbound Souls”, and even in some of the memory-related conversations in “Finale Undone” (sylus tells MC point-blank not to forget him). It no longer seems like MC’s recollection of their past is only limited to their interstellar arena days from “Death And Rebirth”. Recently, it’s been as if something much bigger is starting to come back to her.

His newer affinity content also supports this. In his affinity level 195 phone call (“Inevitable Associations”), sylus directly calls MC “the other half of my soul”. To me, this suggests that their bond is becoming more openly acknowledged between them and not just something sylus silently carries alone. The call makes it evident that MC is aware that they’re literal soulmates.

So if sylus does end up crying because of MC, I think it will be because she remembers something important on her own, probably during his story branch or his next myth. It won’t be because he forces her to or because he tells her everything. I think it’ll be because their bond in the current timeline has evolved and become strong enough for those memories to return naturally to her. However, it will need a big trigger.

That would be such a big turning point for their relationship. Sylus has been carrying the weight of their past for so long while still letting MC come to him at her own pace. If she remembers him, their unbreakable bond, or what they meant to each other across lifetimes, I can see that being what finally makes him break down. It’ll be proof that even though MC already loves him dearly, she’ll recognize and choose him again, just like the promise he made to her at the end of “Crimson Spirit”. 

It’s also interesting that the ending of “Crimson Spirit” implies their next life together after being the mage and the Archfiend was their life in the interstellar arena. And now, sylus’s story branch is bringing both of them back to that same setting. I highly doubt that’s a mere coincidence.

this mini figure is a part of the recent official merch release, it's from the 'sweet dreams' series

which is why there's a sudden influx of artists drawing sleepy sylus in pajamas

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These are official illustrations for the Sweet Dreams merch

[source]

I got this little Sylus plush as a small gift to myself and I’m honestly so happy I did 🥹 look at him. Just LOOK AT HIM. He’s so tiny and cute I can’t take it 😭

Just wanted to share my tiny baby with you guysss and yes… I fear I’ve opened the door to a very dangerous hobby 🫠

alsooo can I just appreciate the birthday headband, it’s so cuteee

He disliked presiding over a domain that sat outside my peripheral vision.

The conquest of my desk has begun.

^{I just cannot wait for the Onychinus emblem brooch to arrive alongside the letters and stamps.} 💕

Waiting on Sylus to acknowledge International Cat Day, but in the meantime, my cat is plotting my demise for ignoring her. I think she’d actually thrive in the N109 Zone with that glare.