#esp if he succeeds in just totally going off the rails. consciously (initially) in his right mind choosing to do so.

[darkestrellar]

Giving Svern a bunch of different verses has helped me round out my understanding of him a lot because it's provided different points of reference other than just mainverse Svern

I'm understanding that not only does the shadow crystal give him something to fixate on and make him "happy", as well as bring out and make more tangible the vague feelings he'd had beforehand, in a way it also makes his persona more real. Like I said before a lot of the time when he acts excitable or wild he's putting on that behaviour in the moment to a) project that impression to others and b) essentially play pretend for his own benefit. Getting immersed in the act while simultaneously being aware it's just an act and detached from how he really feels is one of his coping mechanisms

What happens with the shadow crystal and how he gets excited about that is that it syncs up the kind of behaviour that he would normally be faking with an actual feeling, and the more gets lost in it the thinner that line becomes, and he prefers it that way