#character: sylvan kirsche

[kades-rp-lore-hell]

hi. decided to put all my drawings for this ask game here. for less clutter or something. if you sent an ask that isn't here that's because i didn't know what to do with your prompt. sorryyyyyy.

i was planning on also drawing sylvan in... the outfit N actually wears on cherrytree-irl... but i've been drawing all day and would kind of like to stop now. maybe later.

oh i forgot the hat. usually i don't draw N's hat because i don't like drawing hats but i meant to put it on sylvan. i forgor.

laelia's first date outfit ended up looking fairly similar to her default outfit. that's fine, maybe it's a quirk of hers. she's not great at fashion and keeps accidentally making the same outfit over and over again. i don't know. that's a different coat, at least. she's at least knows not to wear a lab coat to her hypothetical date.

[cherrytree-irl]

lore masterpost

i made this list because i like making lists. enjoy

so, here's some stuff that's important and/or could get mentioned again in the future:

Known side characters:

Vernon Kirsche: Sylvan's father, who lives in Lacunosa Town. He's judgemental and old-fashioned, but he cares deeply for his son.

Azalea Rosewood: Sylvan's mother. She left Lacunosa Town after an argument with Vernon when Sylvan was eight years old. For years, nobody except Laelia (see below) knew where she was. She's now known to live in Galar.

Oliver Kirsche: Sylvan's older half brother. He moved out shortly after Azalea left, breaking contact with the rest of the family for fifteen years. He currently lives in Anistar City, Kalos and runs @blackout-rotomblr under the alias "Amarena."

Laelia Rosewood: Sylvan's younger half sister. Azalea took Laelia with her to Galar when she left. She was three years old at the time. She owns the blog @rover-on-rotomblr and is Rover's caretaker.

Willow Rosewood: Sylvan's youngest sister, who lives in Galar with Azalea and Laelia. She was born after Azalea left Unova, so Sylvan didn't know she existed for a while.

Aurelia Bonney: Sylvan's former rival and ex-girlfriend. She and Sylvan broke up due to poor communication. She lives in Castelia City and is Bailey the Espeon's original trainer.

Linnet: A Latias who took the form of a human child and sought Sylvan and N's help when something important was stolen from her. She's smaller and weaker than others of her species.

Latios: Linnet's brother who is almost always by her side. He currently chooses not to use a nickname.

Raivo Merari: N's former coworker. He hated N for his past with Team Plasma, and repeatedly attempted to sabotage N and get him fired from his job. He was arrested after what he did to Luigi (See below).

Luigi: A Hydreigon who was brought to the shelter N works for when she was a Deino. Raivo stole her from the shelter and tried to frame N for the theft. When that didn't work, he forced Luigi to evolve twice in a very brief time period and then got her to attack N.

some other people have been mentioned but if they're not listed here either they're not really relevant or I Forgor 💀

now for links to posts:

Sylvan's hypothetical role in the games

Previous post part 2

Sylvan's relationship with his father

About Sylvan's ex-girlfriend

About Zekrom

Sylvan's family photo

About Sylvan's brother

Doesn't every girl want to be a boy?

Sylvan's childhood

Sylvan meets Sage

Azalea leaves

Sylvan's search history

Sylvan's favorites

Sylvan plans to visit home

Petting guide for Sylvan's Pokémon

Sylvan visits his dad, part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Vernon's knowledge of Team Plasma

Sylvan's thoughts on battling

Linnet shows up

Sylvan communicates with Linnet

About Linnet's family

Linnet reflects

What.

Retrieving Linnet's Soul Dew

How Sylvan and N met

There's an egg now

The egg

The bond between siblings

Sylvan fears Murkrow

Idele hatches

Sylvan's secret crush

The cycle of roller skating

Sylvan likes Unova

He also likes Sinnoh

About the Lacunosa legend

N needs glasses

Sylvan thinks about his siblings

Sylvan will have no father-in-law

About animals

N's infamy 1

N's infamy 2

This is what Linnet looks like

Sylvan knows this from experience

Club Piplup

N gets his glasses

Euler and Lucky

Sylvan and math

Sylvan doesn't want kids

N's regrets

Oliver wants to see Sylvan

Oliver's good side

Oliver thinks about disease

Sylvan and Oliver reunite

How N asked out Sylvan

Sylvan's favorite season

The worst kind of social gathering

The Orchid

Rosewood?

Mother's Day

Wet

Laelia's whereabouts

Sylvan discovers Laelia

How Sylvan met his Pokémon

Sylvan and N ramble about their jobs

Sylvan and N get spotted in public

Oliver shows up

Idele is weird

Vernon is weird

The Kangaskhan Incident

Claustrophobia and Ferris wheels

Sylvan reunites with Laelia and Azalea, part 1

part 2

part 3

This post is basically a recap of the previous 3

Sylvan proposes

N meets Azalea and also some other stuff happens

Azalea gets a grip

Group photo

N announces the engagement

Sylvan's nerves

Sylvan and forgiveness

Luigi shows up

N is totally not afraid of this Deino. Absolutely.

Luigi likes her name

Luigi is ready

This post is relevant

Luigi is stolen

N gets blamed

A lead on Luigi

Luigi attacks N...

...And it gets in the news

N loses his job

N's thoughts on why he was fired

Idele's first battle

Sylvan's romance drama

About Multiversal Ghetsises

About the Animals™ franchise

[kades-rp-lore-hell]

random poll for my own amusement

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it's kinda FUCKED UP that i made sylvan briefly hyperfixate on super mario 3D land right after N got his ass kicked by a pokémon named Luigi.

in my defense i was also hyperfixating on super mario 3D land and not thinking about the implications very hard

[kades-rp-lore-hell]

fresh sylvan and N refs

only slight changes for N but i figured if i was making a new sylvan ref might as well do N too.

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putting this on sylvan's playlist

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are you ready for a long-ass tangent? good, because i've decided it's time for me to tell you sylvan's entire development history as a character.

so, first and foremost, sylvan was not originally made to be a roleplay blog character. his original and primary purpose is to be a self insert guy i can draw kissing and/or hanging out with characters i like.

the character that eventually became sylvan was made... about 5 years ago, i think. maybe. and he was originally made to be a sword and shield self insert. he had a different design, though i never drew it. i made it in gacha life or something and lost the screenshot.

that's usually how i start designing characters. i open up gacha life and/or picrew and start dicking around until i end up with something i like that i can mess with more when i eventually draw the character. which i never did with galarian sylvan. his name was originally oliver, by the way.

anyway, from memory, i think he looked something like this.

do excuse the Slop, 'tis but a quick doodle.

i don't think i ever worked out much of a backstory for galarian sylvan. i didn't think about him for very long. he was kind of just... the sword and shield protagonist.

personality wise, i remember him being a guy who didn't talk very much, even when commanding his pokemon in battle. he was a very good battler, though. good enough to become champion. this is not a trait that stuck around.

anyway, galarian sylvan faded into the back of my mind eventually... until i played pokemon black. (cool kade fact: for some reason i played pokemon black and then pokemon white 2??? i don't know why i did that. it's not really relevant to this story.)

and i was like. hoo boy. i want to make a self insert guy i can draw kissing N. and THEN i was like wait a minute. don't i already have a pokemon guy i can recycle. i would kind of have to rework everything but idk i have a face and name to start with i guess.

but what do i make him wear. i contemplated this for a very long time. outfit design is not my strong suit. so i focused on backstory first.

in my first idea for his backstory, he was a team plasma member. he wasn't a normal grunt but i don't remember what was special about him. i didn't keep this idea for very long and don't remember most of the details, but whatever i had cooking i eventually decided "messed with canon too much."

so i tried something else. his second backstory is... closer to what he have now, but still some pretty notable differences.

so, he lived in lacunosa town, with parents who argued frequently and eventually split, his mom leaving after a big fight.

but sylvan (who was still called oliver by the way.) had something else going on. you see, he had this problem where he kept encountering legendary and mythical pokemon. like, at least once a year i think, some legendary pokemon, presumably including ones who aren't even unovan, would show up and just stare at him or something and then leave.

except one time he encountered a legendary pokemon who didn't just stare at him and leave. i think it was supposed to be either kyurem or one of the swords of justice. doesn't really matter. whoever it was became aggressive and attempted to attack him. pretty sure he got out uninjured.

and then, depending on which iteration of this backstory was currently in my head, he either left lacunosa town of his own accord or was sort of... exiled, i guess. either way, he thought of himself as dangerous to be around.

and then. uhhhhh. my memory of this backstory gets a lot fuzzier after that. i have a very vague little timeline i wrote out in the back of one of my sketchbooks at some point. apparently this version of sylvan had two exes? an ex girlfriend and an ex boyfriend. i only remember this version of him having an ex boyfriend and I don't remember what the ex girlfriend contributed to the story.

so, what i THINK happened next is that he moved to sinnoh with his boyfriend. but over time sylvan became very possessive over his boyfriend, who freaked out and abandoned him. or something like that. sylvan, unable to pay for the place they were living, proceeds to fuck off into the woods or some shit and live there.

so he lives in the woods for a little while. at this point he had grown to fear/hate humans and disown the title of human. and then one day he comes across an injured pokemon who he begrudgingly decides should be taken to the pokemon center.

on his way there he sees zekrom flying overhead and he thinks "oh god not this shit again." this leads into sylvan encountering N, and i don't remember many details beyond that, i don't think i thought about it much. i do remember that sylvan was afraid to fall in love with N because he worried that he would get all freaky possesive on him like he did with his ex.

pretty sure the "sylvan is weirdly yandere-adjacent" thing is one of the first things i got rid of in this backstory, lol. though he does still have a bit of a possessive/jealous streak, it's been toned down a whollleee lot. to the point where it hasn't even really come up on the roleplay blog i don't think. though there was a mmm event i was planning to do where it was a lot more appearent, but i ended up not doing it because i Didn't Want To.

ANYWAY. there isn't exactly any given point where the backstory i just described to you became the backstory he has now. just... over time, stuff got removed or changed or swapped out until we got here.

...but let's circle back to his clothing now, eh? because this whole time, i knew i didn't want his original outfit, but had no fuckin clue what he should wear now.

until i remembered this one time, a long time ago, before i even made galarian sylvan, i participated in an ask game on tumblr. someone made a post that was like "send me an ask with a character you like and i'll assign them an outfit from my pinterest board." so i gave them a character, and they gave me this:

ohoho, it's all coming together. i thought, "i can put these clothes on a character." and i did! i also used tiktok at the time, and i thought about a tiktok i had seen recently where someone talked about why they liked the pokemon cherrim. and i was like. "what if i give my guy a cherrim." and i did!and a cherry blossom theming to boot.

unfortunately, i still have the first drawing i ever did of sylvan's current design. which means unfortunately i will be showing it to you. this was made in the summer of 2022, i think.

i went through a few different eye shapes for him before i landed on how they look now. here are very quick doodles of two of his previous eye shapes:

fun fact he wasn't originally meant to have a deerling. i looked at deerling and was like "oh i could give him that— wait they aren't always pink. meh, i'll give him something else." and then i changed my mind at some point and I don't really remember why.

over time his eye shape kind of slowly morphed from the second one in that image to his current eye shape. here's an old picture where he's kind of in that process:

pretty sure most of the colors used in his design were color picked from pokemon he either had or was supposed to have at some point. though i couldn't tell you which ones are which, and some of them might have been color picked and then shifted slightly.

i think... if i were to remake his party today... it would be mostly the same, but he'd have a munna instead of a deerling. i mean, look at munna. that is a sylvan pokemon if there has ever been a sylvan pokemon.

and he did originally have a munna, in addition to the deerling and everyone else and also a shiny audino. but a little while after i made the roleplay blog, i retconned the munna and audino out of existence because i didn't do anything with them and wanted less characters to keep track of. a few months later i would finalize N's team for the blog and add his trainer card to the pinned, giving me six new pokemon to keep track of. whatever, me.

but if i redid his team now i'd replace sage with a munna because it fits him better, i like that he doesn't have a full party because he doesn't battle, and i like that all of his pokemon are from different regions. because he's been to many different regions. i guess giving him multiple unovan pokemon works because even though he's been to so many places he's still a unovan at heart, but idk.

if you ever wondered about sylvan's Triangles™ (his necklace and belt buckle), those are there because i like latias and latios. and i wanted to give my self insert something related to that. so, two little triangles in the color of mega latias and latios. yay.

anyway, his visual design has stayed mostly the same since this drawing. his hair has been simplified a bit though.

i don't remember at what point i gave him siblings. they just showed up in my brain at some point. i think that was after i changed sylvan's name to sylvan though, so let's talk about that.

so, as i've mentioned, sylvan was originally named oliver. at some point i decided that name didn't suit him. so i started looking for new names. it took a while, but there's not much of an interesting story to tell about it. it was just a lot of me browsing name websites.

i really liked florian, but that was taken by the male scarlet and violet protagonist. i was soooooo pissed about that.

briefly considered viorel, which would have been a funny name to pick since it's an anagram of oliver. but it didn't really suit him either. even less than oliver in fact.

anyway, eventually i ended up at sylven. that's not a typo. the issue here was that i did think the name fit his vibes, but i didn't actually like the name very much at first. i quickly learned that it had an alternate spelling, sylvan, which i liked the look of a little more.

so i was like. fuck it, sure. he's sylvan now. does he need a last name? i'll give him a last name. let's just throw the word cherry into google translate. yeaaaah, kirsche, that'll do. the name sylvan has grown on me quite a bit since, actually.

uhhh. OH, right, i was gonna talk about his family a little. there's not a lot to say about their development, i don't think. but they have gone through a few name changes themselves.

sylvan's mom went from holly to azalea

sylvan's dad doesn't necessarily have an old name that was ever canon, but he didn't have an Official™ name for a while. when i first made him in the sims i just hit the random button for a while until it gave me mason. it didn't fit the theme the rest of the family had but it was a fine placeholder name. eventually i gave him vernon.

sylvan's older brother was always oliver i think. for the funny.

sylvan's older younger sister (sister who is younger than sylvan but older than his other sister) went from poppy, to lilac after i realized poppy was taken, to laelia.

sylvan's youngest sister was fern for quite a while, before i noticed that all sylvan's family had names that were six letters long. so i gave her willow to fit that.

i THINK that's all my words finally. unless i think of more things to say later. if you read all this... why.

[kades-rp-lore-hell]

sylvan kirsche: an incredibly terrified creature anonymously coming to an inbox near you

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if sylvan gets to show you his webmonz i get to show you my webkinz.

they've all got the same names as sylvan's except the austin terrier, who got turned into a boltund. his name is austin, but that doesn't make much sense for a boltund. so in sylvan's world he is bolt.

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sigma sygna suit sylvan

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what a goober

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so mad that i lost motivation for the damien blog so quickly. i have fun ideas for him i want to play as him but my brain says no. i WILL get back to him though i swear to god. i WILL. even if it takes until october when the new fantasy life game comes out i WILL PLAY AS DAMIEN MORE.

... wanderer-sylvan probably not though lol. okay i'm also a little sad about that one because i had fun ideas for it, i liked how his story was going differently from cherrytree-irl sylvan. but posting there just feels like a chore and i don't really know why. good thing i didn't go through with that original reboot plan, eh? haha...

and we don't need two sylvans. one sylvan is more than enough sylvan.

[kades-rp-lore-hell]

the squad

+ N again but with pants ⬇️

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i'm planning on recycling oliver's blog into something else soon, since that blog served it's purpose and then died, like i expected. (arguably the blog wasn't really alive in the first place, haha.)

but i wanna make ultra super duper sure that the oliver and sylvan reunion remains intact and stuff because it's important lore, so i'm pasting the whole thing here. if you've already read the thread where oliver and sylvan meet at vernon's house, this is just that again.

'Amarena' stands at the door of a house he hasn't seen in many years. Despite the vague sense of dread tugging at him, he knocks on the door. Here, in his hometown, his internet persona is dropped. Online, he's Amarena, but in the real world, he's...

"Oliver!" A man says after opening the door.

"Vernon." Oliver replies dryly.

"Come on in."

The two men enter the house and sit down in the living room.

"It's... good to see you." Vernon says. "How have you been?"

"Fine." Oliver replies curtly.

Vernon sighs. "Y'know, I... I'm real sorry about how things were between us when you were a kid. You were under a lot of stress, and I was supposed to be the adult, I shouldn't have stooped to your level so often."

"'Stooped to my level?'" Oliver responds, glowering.

"That's... not what I meant. I just mean... you were the kid and I was the parent, and I should've acted like it."

"You're not my dad."

"I know. But I agreed to act the part as well as I could... and I didn't do very well."

"Fine, yeah, whatever. When's Heather getting here?"

"Sylvan."

"Sylvan. When's he getting here?"

"Soon. I don't know when exactly. How about we watch some TV or something while we wait?"

"Fine by me."

Not much time passes before Sylvan arrives at his father's house, N by his side. Sylvan knocks on the door and then sighs nervously while he waits for his father to answer.

"I'm getting a sense of deja vu..." Sylvan remarks.

N smirks amusedly. He takes Sylvan's hand in his own, rubbing his thumb over Sylvan's. Then Vernon answers the door.

"Sylvan! Good to see you!" Vernon says. "...And you brought N."

"Yup!" Sylvan replies, grinning.

"Why...?" Vernon asks.

"Hello to you, too..." N grumbles.

"Moral support." Sylvan answers.

"If you say so... You two come in."

The three of them walk inside and make their way to the living room, where Oliver is waiting.

Sylvan and Oliver make eye contact, and within a split second Oliver is on his feet and eagerly enveloping his younger brother in a tight hug.

"Oh—" Sylvan says under his breath, taken off guard by the sudden embrace.

"Sylvan!" Oliver cheers. He backs up to look at his brother. "My, how you've grown, mon frère!"

"Uhh..." Sylvan is rendered somewhat speechless by this encounter.

"How old are you now, anyway?"

"Um... Twenty-three."

"TWENTY-THREE! Oh, it's been far too long!" Oliver once again pulls Sylvan into a hug. "I'm so sorry... For everything."

"Uhh. Yeah, um... don't... don't worry about it, man."

Sylvan mentally stows this away in a list of things to talk about in more detail later. It'll come up at some point, right...?

In this moment, Oliver and N catch each other's glance. Oliver stands up straight, eyes widened slightly.

Sylvan, confused, looks in the direction Oliver is staring.

"Oh!" He says. "Uh, Oliver, this is my partner, N!"

"Nice to meet you." N says.

Oliver's eyes have widened even further.

"N Harmonia!?" Oliver exclaims.

"Um." Sylvan says. He and N look to each other.

"Yes?" N says, looking back to Oliver in sync with Sylvan.

"Mon dieu!" Oliver gasps. "You're dating the king of Team Plasma?!"

"That's—" Sylvan starts.

"What?" Vernon interrupts sternly, raising his voice.

Sylvan and N freeze.

"You!" Vernon shouts, quickly approaching N. "I knew I had seen you before! What do you think you're doing hanging around my family!?"

"I— You don't understand!" N asserts.

"Damn right I don't understand! I don't ever want to understand someone with a warped mind like yours!" Vernon says.

"That's—"

"Shut up!"

N flinches away when Vernon gets in his face. His bravery in the face of this father's explosive anger seems to give out and he panics, faintly muttering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"You BETTER be sorry, you—"

"Dad, back off!" Sylvan says, attempting to come between the two of them.

"And what do YOU think you're doing, dating some Plasma scumbag?!" Vernon asks his son.

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Sylvan responds.

"Oho, oh yeah, tell me all the reasons he gave you that explain why he's not a bad guy!"

"What happened with Plasma wasn't his fault!"

"Oh, is that so?" Vernon asks in a demeaning tone.

Sylvan silently glares at Vernon, knowing he isn't being taken seriously.

"What other lies has this insane freak told you!?" Vernon continues.

"SHUT UP!" Sylvan yells, his anger boiling over and his fist flying towards his father's face.

...But then he's stopped.

In a split second, Oliver inserts himself between Vernon and Sylvan. One hand pushing against Vernon's chest, and the other grabbing Sylvan's wrist.

"Both of you need to calm down before you do something you'll regret!" Oliver declares.

"YOU'RE the one who started this mess!" Sylvan hisses at Oliver.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm a little surprised Vernon didn't already know this, though?" Oliver muses.

"We didn't wanna tell him 'cuz I knew he'd freak out about it! Sylvan says.

"Who wouldn't freak out about that?!" Vernon retorts.

"Okay, okay!" Oliver shouts. "You guys need to, like, go into seperate rooms or something and cool off!"

"Hmph. Fine.” Sylvan says, yanking his wrist out of Oliver's hand, though he's only able to do so because Oliver releases his grip.

Sylvan looks to N, who's clearly still shaken. "I'm going outside." He says. "You coming?"

N silently responds by taking Sylvan's hand and following him outside.

Sylvan sits down outside. He pats the ground next to him, inviting N to sit. After doing so, N tilts his head towards the sky, taking in deep breaths of the outdoor air. It's silent for a moment, both of them trying to soothe their pounding hearts.

"Are you alright?" Sylvan eventually asks.

N shrugs slightly and says, "I could be worse."

Sylvan nods solemnly, replying, "...I don't know what to say. Um... I'm- sorry about... you know, my dad."

N shakes his head. "You don't need to apologize."

"You didn't need to either."

"What?"

"When we were inside. What on Earth were you apologizing to Dad for?"

"I don't know. I... I guess I just panicked..."

Sylvan wraps an arm around N's waist, and in turn N rests his head on Sylvan's shoulder. The couple go silent again, their minds individually wandering. A minute or two later, N breaks the silence.

"I just don't get it." He says.

"Get what?" Sylvan replies.

"Two years ago, I was able to confront Ghetsis while he had the power of Kyurem on his side. But just now... I practically cowered in fear when your father got angry at me. It doesn't make sense."

"Ah. Well, it's— just... the brain's inconsistent like that, you know? It's a weird meat blob, it's not always logical."

N laughs slightly. "Weird meat blob..."

Sylvan smiles, glad his silly remark was able to make his partner laugh. Then he thinks a little more.

"Maybe part of it was about like— preparation?" Sylvan ponders.

"Hm?"

"Like, back then, we came to Unova knowing you'd probably have to face Ghetsis, and it most likely wasn't gonna be pleasant. You, like, had time to be ready for it. Or... as ready as you could be for something like that. But you didn't come with me to meet my brother today knowing my dad was gonna scream in your face."

"Interesting theory... It does seem to make sense."

"Anyway. I wonder how things are going inside."

Meanwhile...

"...And uh, yeah. That's the whole story, I think. Thanks for finally shutting up and letting me tell it." Oliver says, idly tapping his fingertips on the dining room table.

Vernon sits across from him, deep in thought. After a moment of thinking, he speaks.

"That's fucked up." Vernon says.

"Yeah." Oliver replies.

"To be honest, I didn't really know much of anything about Team Plasma, except that they were running around taking people's Pokémon. I didn't know about... all THAT."

"Why do I know more about Plasma than you? I haven't lived here in years. Literally none of what I just told you has affected me in the slightest."

"Ah, I guess I just don't pay much mind to the news nowadays."

Oliver rolls his eyes. "You can say that again, sheesh."

Vernon sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "I really made an ass of myself, huh?"

"Yup. Good thing you're about to apologize." Oliver says assertively. He gets up and heads towards the front door.

"...Hey. When did you get so good at breaking up a fight, anyway?" Vernon asks.

Oliver glances over his shoulder at Vernon. "I'm a bartender." He says. Shrugging, he continues, "It's part of the job."

Oliver continues to the door and opens it. He peers outside, Sylvan and N turn to look back at him.

"Hey." Oliver says. "We're ready for you guys inside."

N and Sylvan look at each other with a bit of hesitation in their expression. Then Sylvan looks to Oliver, nods, and stands up. He then offers N his hand and pulls him up as well. Everyone goes back inside and sits at the table. Vernon sighs.

"So. It seems like some apologies are in order." Vernon says.

"I... I'm sorry to both of ya, for blowin' up at you like that. And N, I'm sorry I insulted you and such. Oliver filled me in on what happened with Team Plasma... showed me how much of an ass I was being."

"Thank you." N says.

"So, am I forgiven?"

"...I don't know." N says, brows furrowed. "You haven't treated me well today, and you didn't treat me well last time I was here. So I suppose it's just a little hard to take you at your word."

"I gotcha. 'Actions speak louder than words' and all that. I'll keep it in mind."

"Good."

"...Sorry for trying to punch you in the face." Sylvan says to his dad, who shakes his head.

"Don't worry about that. No harm done. And I kinda had it comin', haha!" Vernon responds.

"Ha..."

A somewhat uncomfortable silence falls over the group, no one entirely sure what to say next. But then, Oliver gets an idea.

"Hey, Vernon, do you still have our old board games?" He asks.

"Uh... as long as Sylvan didn't take them, yeah." Vernon replies.

"Didn't touch 'em. Kinda forgot we had them." Sylvan says.

"Excellent!" Oliver says, before getting up to retrieve a board game.

In the midst of playing the board game Oliver chose, Sylvan has an epiphany.

"Hey, Oliver..." Sylvan starts.

"Yes?" Oliver responds.

"Why do you call Dad by his first name?"

Oliver looks confused for a moment, before looking to Vernon.

"You didn't tell him?" Oliver asks.

"...It never came up..." Vernon replies, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"What never came up?" Sylvan asks.

"Vernon's not my dad." Oliver says bluntly.

"...Huh?!"

"I was eleven when Mom and Vernon met. I'm not his kid."

"But— you— your eyes! You have similar eyes!" Sylvan says, pointing at his own eye for emphasis.

"And Laelia had similar hair. Mom had a type, I suppose."

"L-Laelia's not...?"

"Laelia's not my kid either." Vernon says. "It's... part of why your mother and I split up."

"I... I'm your son... right?" Sylvan mutters.

"Yes." Vernon replies. "My only son."

"Okay." Sylvan says with a slight nod, though he's clearly still distressed. "Okay... I guess this doesn't— change things that much."

Sylvan looks to Oliver and continues, "I mean, you're still my brother. And Laelia's still my sister."

Oliver nods. "Of course."

"Alright, I... I guess I can process all that later. Whose turn is it?"

"Yours, sweetheart." N says.

"Oh! Right." Sylvan responds. "Let's see..."

With that, the game continues. The group talk, joke, and share stories together... and their worlds quietly grow bigger.