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saint-bestial · 4 months ago

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sylvester plot summary for your convenience

copying these over from discord for public access. goes over pretty much every major event in sylvester's "canon" story. it's not completely exhaustive and some of the darker details are kept vague or omitted but this is the important stuff. there's some acronyms referring to fics in which the events happen, don't worry about it. if you know you know. everything's under the read more since this post is going to get long lol

warning for kiryu typical suicidal ideation and sylvester typical violence and shivship typical toxic relationship w/e these guys are horrible and messy

Pre-Canon (Ancient times)

Sylvester and the other Signer Dragons are created by the Crimson Dragon 10,000+ years ago as its servants and defenders of humanity.

~5,000 years ago, Sylvester begins having doubts about the cycle of Signer Wars. He cannot accept that he was created only to be used as a tool of war and then put away when he isn't needed. He is cold toward his respective Signer, but begrudgingly does as told. In the days preceding the Signer War of that era, he is contacted by the Earthbound Immortals who sense his resentment and other negative emotions. They tell him that if the Signers are defeated, the cycle of war will end. If he helps them win, he will be freed from servitude. He agrees.

During the Signer War, he turns on his fellow dragons. This leads to Ancient Fairy Dragon being captured by Uru, him seriously wounding Life Stream Dragon (which is why Life Stream is Power Tool Dragon in modern times), and him slaying his own Signer. Assisted by power granted to him by the Earthbound Immortals, it is extremely tough for the others to take him down while also dealing with the gods. However, Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon manage to wound and nearly completely subdue him. Another burst of power allows him to break free and attack the Crimson Dragon directly. Upon contact with its body of sacred flames, his body is incinerated and his soul is left maimed.

The Signers are victorious. Sylvester's original name and all evidence of his existence are wiped from history. Only underground Earthbound Immortal cults carry on his story.

Law of the Jungle (Sylvester arriving in Satellite to him becoming a Dark Signer)

Sylvester's soul is placed in the body of a child who died at sea by the Earthbound Immortals. He washes up on the shores of Satellite to a small group of confused and concerned onlookers. They ensure he's alive and find his (body's) name written on the inside of his jacket: Sylvester Sauvage. No other information on his origin is found. One person steps forward and becomes his caregiver.

The arrangement does not work out. At all. Sylvester is difficult to communicate with and is constantly nervous and aggressive. His caregiver has no idea how to deal with him, becoming convinced he's some sort of devil child. When Sylvester runs away not long after being taken in they don't bother to look for him.

After running away, Sylvester starts living with a colony of feral cats. He ends up picking up on a lot of their behavior. They don't mind his presence as they would the presence of a human. The cats are effectively his family and he'll go out of his way to defend them.

He soon meets Kiryu, a sickly looking child covered in cuts and bruises. Unlike other children who avoid or mistreat him, Kiryu doesn't tend to overstep his boundaries. The two are fairly wary of each other and don't really talk, rather they provide a mutually beneficial presence at first. Sylvester scares off other people who would hurt Kiryu and Kiryu finds food to offer to Sylvester.

Kiryu tends to disappear every now and then, returning even more roughed up than before. Sylvester doesn't involve himself with Kiryu's personal issues at that point. That changes. One day when Kiryu is fleeing one of his abusers, the man sees Sylvester crouched in an alleyway and mistakes him for Kiryu. Cornered, Sylvester lashes out with his homemade knife and kills him. Kiryu witnesses the gory aftermath and his obsession with Sylvester is born.

They grow closer into adolescence. Sylvester learns how to play Duel Monsters from Kiryu (he previously just collected the cards he found for the artwork). Kiryu meets Yusei, Jack, and Crow and establishes Team Satisfaction in his late teen years. Sylvester functions as an unofficial member, unknown to all besides Kiryu. His job is mainly to gather supplies as well as scout out rival duel gangs and record their decks, strategies, and base/territory layouts. In exchange, Kiryu promised him safe passage in the team's controlled areas.

Sylvester's job was extremely fucking dangerous. Moving through enemy territory was risky enough as is, even more so if they suspected he was a scout. Many of his scars come from this period. Notably, the diagonal scar across his chest happened when a gang member attempted to stab him. He had to stitch the wound himself. Despite this, he would hide injuries from Kiryu and would even go out on missions while still recovering.

Yusei, Jack, and Crow grow suspicious of Kiryu's regular solo outings. They end up following him to where he was meeting with Sylvester, Yusei walking ahead with Jack and Crow farther back. Sylvester fled immediately as soon as he realized he and Kiryu weren't alone. Jack's mark burned painfully in proximity to Sylvester, cementing his negative perception of him. Worth noting that Sylvester has a very biased view of the others based on Kiryu's rants about them when he's venting.

As a symbol of trust, Sylvester gifts Kiryu a knife he made out of scrap and other objects. Thus part of the reason their ship name is Shivshipping.

Team Satisfaction soon conquers Satellite. However, Kiryu's growing paranoia leads him to start using Sylvester to intimidate and threaten beaten gangs he believes might try to rise up and defy him. When the others find out about this, combined with his other behavior, the team dissolves. Sylvester and Kiryu are alone together again.

Kiryu asks Sylvester to help him with his plan to attack Security, to which he agrees (Sylvester knows Kiryu doing this is basically a death wish, but it's not like he can stop him). Sylvester helps with gathering materials while dimly aware that Kiryu probably isn't going to be coming back from this little stunt.

When Kiryu comes to collect what Sylvester obtained for him, he asks one last time if Sylvester will kiss him. Which is something Kiryu's been trying to get for a long long time. And he gets it. And Sylvester realizes he's fucked up horribly by refusing to indulge his feelings for Kiryu that grew over all the years he knew him. Before he knows it, Kiryu pulls away and is out the door leaving him alone for reality to sink in.

The attack on Security happens. Kiryu is arrested, though Sylvester believes he's dead. He grieves. Hard.

In the following months, Sylvester gets sloppy. He feels like his life has lost its purpose and he's painfully alone. Until one night he gets followed home by former members of one of the gangs Kiryu sent him after. He is killed in the resulting conflict, but is revived as a Dark Signer and quickly exacts his retribution. While dueling the ex-leader, he gets a taste of his new deck and the card containing his degraded dragon body. After the burst of energy allows him to eliminate his assailants, he passes out and is tracked down by a Dark Signer Kiryu who retrieves him.

Dark Signer (All of the DS arc)

Kiryu brings the unconscious Sylvester back to the Dark Signer base. Events of HNTSIMY occur.

After waking up a few days later, Demak and Rudger brief Sylvester on his situation. They are aware of who he really is but decide to withhold most of it. His body has also changed slightly, with the addition of large, elongated canines along with the usual dark signer changes. Additionally, his pelican EB contacts him and is optimistic of his role.

Kiryu, having deluded himself that Sylvester was going to rescue him from the Facility, is pissed at him. However, they manage to smooth things over fairly quickly and get into a sort of relationship to everyone else's horror. Kiryu informs Sylvester about what actually happened (albeit from his warped perspective).

Aside from messing around with Kiryu, he receives lessons from Demak about the history of Signers and Dark Signers with the hope that it will jog his memory naturally. Sylvester gains a strong sense of loyalty to the Dark Signers and their gods. He also befriends all of the members who gathered by that point. But the fact he can't remember anything makes him feel like he's failing his god and the only group he's ever trusted.

Realizing that Sylvester hasn't remembered anything, Rudger grants Demak permission to fill Sylvester in on his own origins. Sylvester isn't sure what to make of it, and it doesn't return his memories. He was told he wasn't human prior which he took comfort in, but knowing he had an entire life before really kinda screws with his sense of identity. And it's the reason why he's going through everything now.

Kiryu has his initial duel against Yusei. Sylvester spectates this and is ultimately disappointed it didn't end in Yusei getting finished off for good.

The DS ultimately fail to return Sylvester to his proper form and restore his memories. The Signer War begins.

While Sylvester waits for the Signers to come to him, he watches for the result of the other's duels. Though he's mostly concerned about Kiryu, he's getting pretty pissed when the others start to fall. And then when Kiryu too is defeated, he's livid, absolutely boiling.

Yusei and Aki make it to his location. They aren't in agreement on who should duel him, but he's not having it. He starts a 1v2 against them so he can take them both out at once.

At first, his duel consists of him using his monsters to chase and stalk them throughout the area. Some horror type shit. Sylvester is unwilling to listen to them and tries to injure them with every one of his attacks.

Eventually, though, Yusei and Aki are able to turn the tide and drive him to the shore, effectively cornering him. Now with a bit more control over the situation, Yusei tries talking to him to get him to see reason. But it only angers Sylvester more. He knows Yusei couldn't possibly understand who he is or what he went through. Sylvester rants about how they're taking everything away from him and that they killed the only person who could understand him, the only human who wasn't cruel to him. Aki begins to realize that he's kind of like her, mistreated and rejected by humans. She takes over and is actually able to get him to listen somewhat. But it doesn't last long before he ends up doubling down anyway.

He manages to regain the advantage, forcing the Signers to summon their dragons. This is Bad. Stardust and Black Rose hiss and roar at the sight of Sylvester. He feels an ancient rage in his bones. He can feel their anger and hear their hateful words. Not only that, he senses the Crimson Dragon's presence, a being that completely despises him. With his own dragon on the field, they engage in a brutal clash.

It ends with Sylvester's dragon being destroyed. Which hurts like hell, physically, since it's also his other body. He kind of starts going completely unhinged. He directs part of his rant toward the Crimson Dragon, who he currently identifies as the root cause of all of his problems. Sylvester expresses how unfair it is that he's being hated for something he supposedly did thousands of years ago that he doesn't even remember doing. He's determined to wipe the Signers out to avenge the others, please the EBs, and so everyone can leave him the hell alone.

Sylvester summons the pelican god with the goal of ending the duel then and there. He doesn't have a handle on himself at all anymore, just raw grief and rage and ranting. There's nothing Yusei or Aki can do to quell him. He's just been so genuinely hurt by his circumstances that he'd never see a nonviolent way out of this. He will kill both of them if the duel continues. They can hear the Crimson Dragon's orders to end the betrayer in their head. They don't feel good about it, but they don't really have a choice.

They manage to defeat the pelican EB, as well as finally bring down Sylvester. He's sent flying backwards toward the ocean from the final blow. As he's falling, all he can think about is how badly he failed his god and the others. How he had everything only to lose it. His body disintegrates into dust upon contact with the water.

Yusei and Aki are just kind of frozen in silence for a moment after that. It was A Lot. They won, the Crimson Dragon is pleased, but it doesn't feel good. It feels like they just put a suffering animal out of its misery as it kicked and screamed the entire time.

Any remaining Dark Signers are defeated, Godwin is taken out and the apocalypse is averted. Through the power of the Crimson Dragon, the Dark Signers are properly returned to life.

Apostasy (End of DS to end of Crash Town)

The Dark Signers are revived properly after the conclusion of the Signer War. Sylvester seeks out Kiryu in a panic, finding him wandering the streets in a semi-dazed state. He clings to him and sobs, meanwhile Kiryu sees Sylvester's fangs and realizes that yes, all of that shit did really happen.

Sylvester is now clingy as hell because he's terrified of losing Kiryu again. He's basically stuck to his side near constantly.

It doesn't take long for Kiryu to start getting the itch to leave. At first he's resistant to Sylvester coming with but caves knowing he's going to follow him anyway. Their travels lead them to many dingy motels, sketchy towns, and dubious situations. Sylvester kinda knows what Kiryu's endgame is already but also knows he can't do anything to stop him. He's resolved to accompany him even if it means watching him die.

Events of HNTCWTC. There's so much friction between them during this arc (like the rock incident in B&C). Kiryu wants Sylvester to leave because he can see the entire thing is destroying him but also he wants him to stay because he's yet another way Kiryu can hurt himself and Sylvester has nowhere else to go anyway. Sylvester is grieving for Kiryu while he's still alive and mourning the loss of the other Dark Signers and the Earthbound Gods. But of course he can't talk about that with Kiryu because Kiryu hates who he was during DS so he conducts his little prayer rituals to his god in secret.

Sylvester keeps a small pelican figure and a few other tiny trinkets with him in order to honor the god he served under during DS. Sometimes he gets weird with it and pricks his finger to paint on his old face marking with his own blood. He feels fucking awful for failing it. He misses it terribly. At the same time he's shutting up the tiny itch in his mind telling him he was being used.

The pair eventually arrive in Crash Town, at which point Sylvester has mentally resolved that once Kiryu dies he's going to kill himself as well. Kiryu quickly proves himself in town, winning despite how badly he wants to lose.

Sylvester quickly learns to dread sunsets. Maybe Kiryu will come back, or maybe today is the day that he doesn't. Most nights he doesn't return until extremely late, reeking of smoke and alcohol and unfamiliar scents. Sometimes he's really, really drunk. Kiryu's subjected to some awful shit but he doesn't let Sylvester know about it. Sylvester's often held against Kiryu in that if Kiryu doesn't do what Ramon wants he'll threaten to hurt Sylvester somehow.

Yeah Sylvester and Ramon fucking hate each other. Ramon has absolutely rancid vibes and Sylvester picks up on all of them. He'd kill Ramon if the situation allowed.

Sylvester ends up meeting a horse which he gradually manages to tame over the course of them being there. He names him Tempest and he's just as foul tempered as his owner. Yes there's a Sylvester horse girl subplot just go with it. There's a southwestern desert in Japan in this show let me have this.

I'm still not entirely sure on how I want to handle the Crash Town arc itself. Right now it's similar to how it carries out in canon but I have some other ideas floating around. I kinda like the idea of Sylvester not being able to bear it anymore and challenging Kiryu himself, intending to put an end to his suffering. And then Yusei arrives and intervenes maybe, but idk.

Regardless, both warring factions are disbanded and Kiryu (and Sylvester) stay behind in the renamed Satisfaction Town as in canon.

we don't know what happened to ramon in canon so maybe sylvester ate him. give him one last murder. as a treat.

Epilogue (End of CT and beyond)

The long, excruciating, nonlinear healing process for both Sylvester and Kiryu. Adjusting to having some form of stability is really, really hard. Sylvester struggles especially badly with having to live amongst human society. While he's willing to help with physical labor during the rebuilding process, he has no desire to integrate with people in the community.

Satisfaction Town itself slowly sees improvement. Better infrastructure and services make it actually livable full time. It still maintains the wild west look and feel, though. Attracts some tourists.

Sylvester primarily occupies himself with Tempest, chickens, the local stray cat population, and a fish tank. He collects lots of cat and ocean related objects. Develops a friendship with Aki, who visits sometimes. She or Kiryu will take him on outings sometimes when he's getting mopey.

Kiryu's involvement in town affairs varies. Having an entire town thrown into your lap after a mental health crisis is kind of. A lot.

Nico and West are there, maybe. I haven't totally decided on what I want to do with them yet. They'd probably be living with a qualified foster rather than an unstable 20~ year old and his feral fallen angel dragon bf (but they'd get to visit so it's ok).

Everyone turns out ok. I promise. It takes a really long time but they get there. Kiryu and Sylvester never officially get married but it's obvious to anyone with eyes. Despite everything they get to grow old together. The good ending.

#oc: sylvester sauvage #shivshipping #yugioh oc #yugioh 5ds oc

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