Sylvain Jose Gautier

Caspar tried to keep a calm composure, as he was completely miffed a little by the candor of Sylvain’s response. He was determined to get a straight answer out this man, so hopefully this no non-sense attitude continued,

“At least you’re able to read the room, so now I don’t have to bullshit you anymore. I was never good at the diplomatic ass kissing crap.” He crossed his arms and stood up a bit straighter, not that it made him look much bigger but it did show off his muscles and conveyed seriousness.

Caspar grimanced and continued, “You fought well on the battle field, even almost had me convinced you’re really are fighting for the Empire’s will. I’m not sure what game you are playing here, but I would watch your back if I were you. Hubert is not one to be crossed and betraying Edelgard or harming our soldiers will get you on his bad side; he even scares the hardest soldiers I know. I also love my friends and worry about them too, so the goddess will not help you if you are why they come into harms way. You might have fooled Edelgard, because she’s a softy for those harmed by the throne and Dimitri, but I don’t buy the whole renegade pretty boy act. If you aren’t a spy, then why would your loyalty not stay in Fargus when push comes to shove against a former ally. Also, being raised in luxury as a best friend of the king has it perks, why give that up? No noble with that kind of power would throw his whole life away to tear down the system that played so well to your favor. I might not know much about you outside of your friends and lecherous history, but it all just makes it hard for even me to trust you. Just know that I don’t wish any ill will on you and if you’re not serious about the empires will then you made a big mistake buddy! I would also look over your shoulder for Hubert when you can.”

Caspar so did not practice in his head all day till now, but it was done. If Sylvain got himself hurt because he crossed Hubert or double crossed his friends, then its his cross to bear. Caspar warned him and with that his conscience and intention’s couldn’t be any more clear.  With the last breath of his little tirade, Caspar waited for Sylvain’s response but was considering leaving since his peace was said.

One thing that Sylvain was easily able to pick up on was when people were faking around him. He was a master in hiding himself, keeping his true intentions hidden from even his closest friends, which was why it didn’t come as any surprise to him that Caspar wasn’t all smiles and laughs, regardless of how kind and friendly he tried to appear. He wasn’t one to underestimate appearances because if being a noble taught him anything, it was that everyone lied and no one acted like who they truly were. 

He was actually a little grateful when Caspar dropped his act, when he started telling him how he truly felt about him coming to the Black Eagles. He knew that leaving the Blue Lions had been hard not only on him but everyone else that he grew up with as well. He would be lying if he said that he had been able to completely cut dies with Ingrid, Dimitri, and Felix without any feelings at all. His thoughts wondered to them, worried about if they were doing okay, but he couldn’t continue to fight for a system that he didn’t believe in. He wanted nothing more than to dismantle the crest system, to see change happened, and he knew that wasn’t going to happen with Dimitri, who was the husk of the person he used to be. 

He let out a laugh, but there was no joy behind it. His laughter came across slightly bitter and a little dark as he looked over at Caspar as he listened to his onslaught of words. “Growing up the only Gautier with a crest meant I had to learn how to fake niceties. Real easy to figure out when people are doing the same, it was apparent from the moment I met you that you were never good at saving face. Wouldn’t expect you to get into diplomacy to begin with, don’t know why anyone would.”

Sylvain shrugged, leaning back against the wall as he let some of his normal mask slip, allowing his darker, more cynical side slip out. “What else would I be fighting for then if not for the Empire’s will? Doesn’t really matter to me what you think about me anyways. I have my reasons for fighting for Edelgard and I’m pretty sure my lance skills on the field should have been enough proof for you.” He felt his body tense and seize up the moment that Caspar mentioned growing up as a noble as well as Faerghus. “You don’t know anything!” His voice got slightly lower, with a hard edge to it as he glared at the other. “You have no idea what I had to go through growing up as the son of a noble. Real easy to assume I had everything handed to me just because my dad was rich.” There was far to much that he had to deal with growing up between his father only paying attention to him when he acted like a proper heir and having to deal with Miklan trying to kill him or beating him up but never allowing anyone to know what was happening. 

Those were all the burdens that he had to bare but were also the reasons that drove him to want to dismantle the crest system. He knew that he grew up with privilege and didn’t have to struggle for food like Ingrid had to, but he wished that the crest system had never been invented. It was only ever used to classify and divide people and while he didn’t agree with Edelgard’s methods of going about this, she was the only one who was trying to make systemic changes.

At this point, the music in Caspar’s headphones were set low every morning. He at first argued that it was for safety, but eventually this habit of not blasting his ears with noise let him hear just how good of a job Caspar did annoying his neighbor. The amount of satisfaction and general glee he got from the occasional exchange with Sylvain, was enough to turn even the worst day around.

He knew that Sylvain was a firefighter and worked odd hours, but he never got to know the guy more than that. Caspar could even admit that Sylvain had a decent house on the outside, but it looked like a reason size for a firefighter to afford. However, it was not rare for Sylvain to pull double shifts or all nighters at work, so at least he was a good worker, he guessed…There were many days that Caspar’s morning run went without any snide comments but today was not one of those days.

Leaving the door to the house, Caspar was half-way down his drive way, when he heard a familiar annoyed voice ring in his ears.

With a wiry grin and a sickeningly sweet tone, Caspar retorted, “GOOOD MORNING, my dear Sylvain! I missed you too.”

He rolled his eye and continued in the same tone, while fast walking down the drive to try to quickly as possibly pass Sylvain’s house.

“Yes, It might actually kill me to be quiet, but I’d never ask the dogs to do that.  They’re only really just being themselves and I can’t tell an tiger to change it stripes. That would SO cruel!” Caspar grasped at his dogs leashes dramatically as he finished that sentence and then continued,

“However, I will try to keep it down in my next mile! The quieter pups are next, so you can rest your pretty head easy.”

Caspar jogged away as sylvain replied, he then turned the volume of his music up on his phone and finally started his run for the day. A good day it will be indeed.

The fact that this back and forth was almost a daily occurrence at this point only furthered Sylvain’s immense disdain for his neighbor. He wasn’t even sure what the man’s name was. He remembered that it started with the letter C but called him a different name each time that he saw him. He just continued to call him the loud neighbor with the even louder and more annoying dogs. He had nothing wrong with animals, had a deep love and respect for them, but being woken up by loud bellowing from his neighbor, followed by even louder barking got real old real quick.

He stopped keeping track of how many times he’s screamed at the other, asking him to keep his voice down. Sylvain was sure that he could have handled the situation far more tactfully, but he was exhausted each time the two of them had to interact with one another. They never had an interaction with one another when Sylvain had a day off or hadn’t been working a 24 hour shift. He felt always felt tense and agitated each and every time he had to get out of his bed to scream at his inconsiderate neighbor. He wasn’t sure if he worked, or if he just thought that being loud this early in the morning was something everyone just absolutely enjoyed.

He was hoping that he’d be able to say his peace and that the other would just continue on his way, but it wasn’t looking like that was going to happen. He felt his skin prickle when he saw the wiry grin along with his sickenly sweet tone, knowing he was using it as a jab towards him because they were not friendly with one another in anyway. He felt his muscles tense and had to hold back from just screaming out of frustration at the other. He would never be able to comprehend how inconsiderate his neighbor could be for other people that lived around him.

“It wouldn’t kill your dogs to have them be quite! You don’t have to rile them up every time you go for a walk! Maybe if you weren’t so loud and obnoxious, they wouldn’t be either!” He yelled out, feeling irritation roll off of him in waves as he watched the other start to run with his dogs, not even listening to what he had to say.

Felix was pretty sure if he rolled his eyes any harder, they’d roll clear out of his head. He scoffed audibly, muttering under his breath, “Irresistable, my ass.” Felix hated that he wasted so much time fooling around; there were a million better things he could do than chase skirts. Sylvain always pretended he was such an idiot, but he wasn’t, and he just threw it away for reasons Felix just really couldn’t comprehend. Because he just didn’t feel like it? Because he didn’t want people ot expect things from him?

“How about I hit you, instead?” he snipped back. Such a pain in the ass.

He kept the sword-tip pointed at Sylvain’s throat. It was just a training sword so the tip was blunt, but it was still clearly enough of a threat from Felix. It wasn’t like he’d hesitate to give him a whack with it hard enough to bruise. Probably not on the neck, though. He didn’t actually want to kill him, even if he threatened it on more than one occasion. “Most of the time,” was his response, though it held slightly less bite than usual.

Folding his arms over his chest, he stepped back to let him have room to work.

Thin brows quirked upward slightly as he watched, then pinched together again before Sylvain could turn to look at him. He was… surprised, at least. It wasn’t as if he were terrible or anything. After a moment, just a beat or two, he ventured over to him. Grabbing him by the back of the shirt, he pulled him back to the point he had started at. Manipulating him back into his starting pose, he began making adjustments. Wedging one foot against his, he nudged first one and then the other until his stance was a little wider, then pushed one elbow closer to his torso and pulled the other up slightly. “Try that.”

When Sylvain had come into the training area, he knew full well that Felix wasn’t going to be in the mood for his antics. However, he always found it a little funny how easy it was to ruffle the other’s feathers and to get him to be snippy with him. For as much as he made the other grumble and grouse at him, he knew that Felix would never actually do anything to hurt him. They had been friends since childhood and for as much as he got on Felix’s nerves, he always trusted him to have his back.

He knew that if push ever came to shove that he could rely on the swordsman to help it out, unless it happened to deal with Sylvain getting himself in trouble because of his shameless flirting. He was sure that if he gave as much effort into training as Felix did, that he would have full mastery of his lance already. It wasn’t that he wasn’t proficient at using his weapon, but he knew that he could be better. He just didn’t want to prove to everyone that he was actually able to train and be dedicated when he already had a reputation as being a lazy student who didn’t care.

He didn’t mind it being that way either. It was easier for him because after living his whole life with expectations put on him by his father, he was more than glad to have a place where he didn’t have to worry about having more expectations placed on him. He knew that it was probably childish and explaining it to anyone would probably make them roll their eyes at his reasoning, but he didn’t really care. He was happy to be carefree and study or train in secret, away from other people’s prying eyes and unrealistic expectations.

After he had finished showing Felix the move that he had been working on, he was expecting him to respond, to say something. What he wasn’t expecting was to have Felix grab him by the back of his shirt and start moving him around. He knew that the other was more of an “action” type of person, preferring to show or act instead of using words. Sylvain tripped slightly when Felix first pulled him before regaining his balance again.

“You could have just said that you wanted your hands on me, Felix~ you didn’t have to surprise me like that.” He teased, knowing the other was probably going to hate his response. Little to Felix’s knowledge however, there was a slight flush creeping up the back of his neck, which he was grateful that the other couldn’t see. He had been able to keep his crush on the other a secret and intended to keep it that way. He was sure that if he just randomly told him that it wouldn’t end well in the slightest and he didn’t want to do anything that would put their friendship in jeopardy.

Edelgard kept her stance strong as the non familiar red head asked her questions about the upcoming mission. She wondered why he hadn’t approached the professor about something like this and came to her instead. Perhaps the professor was busy with their own thing. Edelgard thought that Sylvain was asking too many questions for a simple mission but then the gears started to turn.

Sylvain had to know the person in question. She narrowed her eyes very slightly and thought back to someone telling her about the relics. Someone else who worked behind the scenes and told her the Lance of Ruin was a relic of House Gautier. So obviously the relic had some semblance to Sylvain being his house weapon. She decided to choose her words carefully as if to not give too much information away but she needed to not seem so cold to him either.

“They did give a name, but why would a mission of ours interest you that much? The Lance of Ruin is your houses so why wouldn’t you know what happened to it. Perhaps you can answer the question of why our house is helping with this.” Her hand found her chin and pondered on a thought then. What if Sylvain could help out with the mission. Perhaps then something could be worked out. Surely the professor would approve.

“I’ll ask something else. What if you helped us out with this mission? Then I could provide all the details I know.” Edelgard figured it was only fair that if he wanted the information he could help out with it.

When Sylvain was heading over to the Black Eagles classroom, he knew that Edelgard and anyone else that was around would probably have questions about why he was interested in their mission. The houses usually didn’t have much contact with one another, interactions outside of the Blue Lion’s was rare for Sylvain and mainly only from trying to flirt and pick people up. He was grateful that Edelgard hadn’t immediately dismissed him or felt like he was too suspicious with the questions that he had been asking her. He figured that she would be the easiest person to talk to about the details of the mission and she’d have the most knowledge out of anyone besides the professor.

It wasn’t any secret that the Lance of Ruin  was part of House Gautier, but he wasn’t given any information about what had happened to it. My father probably didn’t trust me enough to tell me what happened to it. He was sure that his father’s aim was to try and take care of this “incident” as quickly as possible and that the end result was going to be death for either them or the person who had taken the lance. He had a sinking suspicion that it was Miklan, that he would be the only person bold enough, or stupid enough, to steal a relic from his father.

The only problem was that he didn’t understand what Miklan’s end goal was by stealing it. He figured that he could probably sell it and make some decent money that way since after being disowned by his father he wasn’t entitled to any of the wealth that they had. He knew that Miklan would have the awareness to know that his father would launch a full-scale search for the Lance of Ruin and that he wouldn’t let whoever took it get away with their life. As much as Miklan had made his life hell, Sylvain couldn’t help but hope to the Goddess that he was wrong about who was behind the theft. That he wasn’t going to have to face his brother, years after he was forced out of their home, only to have to kill him.

“My father isn’t one to give out information, especially to his only heir who he doesn’t deem all that trustworthy. I don’t care what my father’s reasons were for not telling me the particulars, but I have a feelings I know who was behind all of this and I just want to be sure I’m right.” His voice was even, there wasn’t any hatred or ill emotion as he spoke, just stating the facts of why he was kept in the dark about this entire mission. “My guess is that since the Professor is teaching for your class, that you get to be assigned to the more interesting missions. The Blue Lion’s are assigned to help with something minor this month and as much as I’d love to help them, I’d much rather figure this out instead.”

Whenever Ingrid found herself in danger or involuntarily placed in an uncomfortable situation, Sylvain always seemed to inexplicably arrive on the scene to support her. Knowing that she had a friend at her side, particularly in times where she felt she was being disrespected, eased the tension in her shoulders. Regardless of whether or not she had assistance, Ingrid was perfectly capable of handling herself, but knowing she wasn’t completely cornered was a comfort. Sylvain was an idiot. One of the biggest idiots she had ever met. But she trusted him more than anyone else. Ingrid didn’t have the words to describe her appreciation for him–not that it mattered. She’d never admit it to him, as it would only boost his already inflated ego.

Sylvain’s next comment, however, immediately caused her to snort. Sylvain? Pick up on a hint? Rightttttt. She mused to herself, reflecting upon the many times she had to go to a stranger’s house to apologize personally on his behalf to the girls he had offended for one reason or another. Not to mention that time in high school when he mistook a girl for playing “hard to get” when in reality she hadn’t wanted anything to do with him in the first place. It was so very tempting to comment on his lack of awareness, but Ingrid ultimately decided against it. She didn’t want to encourage the guys attempting to persuade her to keep going, especially when it seemed they were starting to reconsider their pestering.

Much to her relief, it seemed Sylvain’s veiled threat had been effective. The men had begun looking to each other, a few shrugging while others shook their heads. Finally, one spat a few dismissive comments about how “she wasn’t that pretty anyway,” before finally turning to leave. Ingrid smirked at their minor victory, only releasing an audible huff once they were out of sight. She raised her arms placing her hands on her hips before turning her head back toward Sylvain.

“I could have handled them by myself, you know,” She replied, shaking her head, “honestly, what brings you here anyway? It’s a Friday night. I’m shocked you aren’t trying to bed a girl right now.”

The bond that Sylvain shared with Ingrid was one of an older brother wanting nothing more than to protect his sister. He hadn’t exactly had the best role model for what siblings were supposed to be like, his older brother Miklan had gotten casted out of their family and didn’t have any tie to the family business or inheritance. He still didn’t completely understand what had happened growing up, all he knew was that Miklan blamed him for the way his life turned out and made sure to make his hell up until the time he left.

He vowed that he would always be someone who protected those that he cared about, never wanting to cause harm or hurt those he was close to. He knew that he could act aloof, purposely causing trouble for many of his childhood friends, Ingrid in particular, but it was self-protective for him that way. He was able to maintain his image as a flirty playboy who caused trouble with people he found attractive. He did feel bad that Ingrid was always the one to go and smooth things over, he hadn’t ever intended for that role to fall onto her, but regardless she was always there to help him out no matter what type of situation he had gotten himself into.

He knew that if he hadn’t walked over, that Ingrid could have taken care of these men herself, but he wanted to be of some use to her. He had witnessed her being harassed and he’d feel like a horrible friend if he didn’t do something to help her out, especially since she helped him out as much as she did. He smirked to himself and put a hand on his hip when he watched the men look at each other before finally deciding to walk away. He knew that they were just mad that they hadn’t been able to do what they wanted with Ingrid which is why they were upset.

“I know, I know.” He mused, moving his hands behind his head as his posture relaxed. “I wasn’t coming over here to be a white knight for you, I promise. I am well aware of how much your punches can hurt.” He teased, even though he often did get hit in the arm for his actions. “I just wanted to make sure that they didn’t do anything to you. There was still three of them and only one of you and I didn’t want them to get any ideas.”

He let out a low chuckle before looking over at the other, pretending to be hurt by her words. “I’m hurt! Getting into bed with beautiful people isn’t the only thing I do on a Friday night you know! What if I was on my way back to my place to work on some homework, how about that?” In reality, he had just been bored and looking to see if anyone was on campus and wanted to hang out for the evening. He hadn’t really wanted to spend his evening in his room with a stranger and was glad that he ran into Ingrid, even if it had been under less than ideal circumstances.

Edelgard had received the plans from the Professor and took into consideration what the next battle would be about. Retrieving an ancient relic weapon from someone in the Kingdom’s territory. Perhaps he had stolen it when it didn’t belong to him and now he was fighting back authority to return it. Edelgard didn’t quite understand the full reason but she knew what had to happen. There were other problems that needed to be addressed but she could deal with it later.

Hubert had known that Edelgard needed to speak with Those Who Slither In the Dark soon which meant donning that armor which caused a personality shift in her. Edelgard sighed and walked into the Black Eagles classroom. There were no other students currently in it which meant she could sit at one of the desks and rest her head in her hand. She knew that the constant state of being watched was something but now on top of a surprise mission, she sighed softly.

Why couldn’t Dimitri and his class deal with this situation? This has nothing to deal with the Adrestian Empire. Edelgard pinched the bridge of her nose and then heard the door creak open. Her stance stiffened and she rose to her feet. Her eyes looked to the figure and saw a student from the Blue Lions enter. The familiar red hair, she knew who he was but why was he here? Did Sylvain only want to know about the upcoming mission?

“Certainly. Ask away of what you want to know. I can answer only what I know though. So keep that in mind.” Edelgard folded her arms slightly and kept her stance strong, she didn’t know what Sylvain could be after but he seemed sincere when he asked Edelgard. So he was here on a serious matter and not for any flirtatious reasons.

There was very limited amounts of interaction that Sylvain had with Edelgard. He didn’t really have an opinion on her, the only stories he ever heard were second hand and didn’t feel the need to concern himself with what was going on with the Black Eagles...that was until he heard that they possibly were going to have a mission involving his brother. He knew that the reason that his class hadn’t gotten assigned his mission was because Byleth wasn’t overseeing them, it seemed like their class always got handed the far more serious missions for some reason. He was just hoping that he’d be given permission to join them because he wasn’t sure what he would do if he had to miss the opportunity to finally see what happened to his brother after these many years. 

The other had seemed a little tense, but he figured that was something that everyone in a ruling position looked like most of the time. There was a lot that weighed on everyone’s shoulders, but he never would want to be in Dimitri, Edelgard’s, or Claude’s position. That was far too much responsibility and he was more than content to just continue to aid Dimitri however he could. 

Sylvain was grateful that Edelgard hadn’t given him the second degree, that she was allowing him to ask what he wanted. He wasn’t sure how comfortable she would have been with him coming to her and suddenly wanting to know about the mission she was going on with the rest of the Black Eagles. He hadn’t really had a conversation with her before and wasn’t really sure what her response was going to be to his sudden curiosity.

Righttttt.” Ingrid replied in an irritated tone, drawing out her voice to emphasize her complete lack of enthusiasm towards the group of guys that had approached her. Still, they attempted to persuade her, causing her to roll her eyes and shake her head in disapproval. After a long day working on her studies followed by practice, the last thing she wanted to do was go to a karaoke bar and entertain a bunch of empty-headed idiots. She released a heavy sigh as they continued talking, completely ignoring their words in favor of her own thoughts. Despite dedicating hardly any time to her appearance aside from basic grooming, she had somehow become a magnet for men. Worse yet, this attraction had only become even stronger as she entered university. Ingrid almost suspected her father played some sort of role in this, as he was always arranging random dates for her. Crossing her arms, she decided she had enough.

“Look. As much as I would ‘enjoy’ going out to the karaoke bar with you all, I’m busy and tired from baseball practice. I just want to head home, get a bite to eat, and go to bed,” She replied firmly, shifting her equipment bag to her other shoulder. Metal bats clinked together within as they shifted and reminded of their presence, Ingrid was tempted to pull out one of her bats. One whack would keep them away, at least, the threat of a swing.

Her violent thoughts faded the moment she felt an arm snake its way across her shoulders. Instead, she visibly flinched, her form tensing. As a first instinct, her first thought was to deck whoever had the audacity to touch her, only to realize it was none other than Sylvain. When did he get here to see this spectacle? Ingrid wondered, somewhat surprised he didn’t have one of his “companions” with him.

“Seriously Sylvain?” Ingrid sighed, “if you keep up with the jokes, I’ll ask you to get lost just like these guys. Which, by the way, I shouldn’t have to repeat myself. Get lost.” She said, glaring at the persistent bunch.

The flinch and tensing of Ingrid’s form didn’t unsettle Sylvain. He knew that he had come up behind her and she wasn’t exactly in a situation where his normal invasion of personal space wouldn’t be seen as a slight threat. He hadn’t really thought about it, since he was normally throwing his arm around his friends and coming up behind them, getting as close as he physically could, but he also wanted to let the guys know that he wasn’t going anywhere either. He could be menacing when he wanted to be, but he didn’t want Ingrid to feel like he was coming to rescue her like she was a princess in need of saving by a knight. 

He did feel protective over her though. They had grown up together and he considered them to be close friends. He had always been impressed by her value system and how, no matter what, she fought for what she believed, even if other people didn’t feel the same. He was the exact opposite of Ingrid, constantly “rebelling” in every single way that he could from his father’s wealth and status. 

He let out a light chuckle as he looked over at her. “Aw, you wouldn’t break my heart like that Ingrid. You know that you’d miss me if I left. Besides, I’m just here to make sure that these guys get lost. Nothing is more sad to watch then for men to not be able to take a hint from a woman.” He knew that he was known for being overly flirty with people, but he never continued after someone told him no or asked him to get lost. There was a line between trying to ask someone out and being a nuisance and these guys seemed to have already crossed over that line. 

@future-flame-emperor

Miklan’s name bounced around inside Sylvain’s hair as he walked around the monastery with conviction. Something that often wasn’t associated with him in the slightest since he normally came off as lackadaisical about most things. However, this was different, this had to do with his brother, with the Lance of Ruin. Everything he had heard came second hand, but he needed to find Edelgard and figure out if these rumors he was hearing was true. That the Black Eagles were being sent out on a mission with the professor to get the Lance of Ruin from his brother. 

The last time he saw his brother was when his father disowned him, casting him away like he was garbage. He never understood how his father could be that thoughtless and care that little about someone he raised and was supposed to be his son. He knew the answer was because Miklan was worthless to him. He didn’t bare a crest and therefore had no worth to his father. The years before Sylvain was born when he threw himself into his studies and did everything he could to be the perfect noble were all forgotten the moment that it had been confirmed that Sylvain had a crest. 

His brother made his life hell growing up, Miklan tormenting him every possible way that he could. Truly trying to kill him at times and part of Sylvain hated him for that, but another part of him felt nothing but sorrow for him. His life had been doomed to misery when he had come along. He understood his anger, the hatred that Miklan had for him, but that wasn’t an excuse for his behavior. He wished that there had been some way for his older brother to be saved, but he knew that the outcome of this interaction was going to end with bloodshed. 

He felt his heart hammer in his chest as he finally made his way over to the Black Eagles classroom, standing beside the doors and looking inside. He saw Edelgard in there and was grateful that Hubert wasn’t around, this wasn’t exactly a conversation he wanted an audience for. It wasn’t like he was doing anything secretive, but this was one mission he had to be apart of, no matter what. He needed to see his brother. Needed to know what happened to him, what life he was living now, what being crestless really meant for a Gautier. 

@galateaswings

The cool autumn breeze gently ruffled Sylvain’s hair, pushing a few of the crimson strands that fell in front of his face to the side as he continued walking towards through their quad. He had just scored two more dates for that week, the guy from his science class finally got the courage to stop just stealing glances at him and he took him up on his offer to have some quality, one on one study time alone, emphasis on time alone and less on studying. The other was with a girl who he saw in the gym from time to time when he went, but she always tried to avoid him every single time that he was there. He’d give her his winning smile and watch as she’d walk away from him. He was surprised when he went that morning to find a note from her in his locker asking if he wanted to grab coffee with her and put her phone number at the bottom for him to respond with his answer. 

He wasn’t naive enough to think that either of them actually wanted to go out with him because of the charming person that he was. He was sure it was because his father was rich and they knew that he was to and spending any amount of time with him meant that they would get to elevate their status and brag to their friends that they got to be spoiled by the rich kids son. 

He sipped his coffee, letting the warmth from the freshly made beverage fight off the cold that was starting to settle in as the sun slowly starting making its way down past the horizon. He knew that he should be making his way back to his apartment, but it felt stuffy and impersonal there. It wasn’t a place that he called home because it was somewhere his dad told him he had to live. He knew better than to argue with his father about wanting to find his own place, he was going to inherit his father’s company and that meant all of the responsibility that came along with it. 

He let out a soft sigh when he thought about what his future held. He was majoring in business and economics, but he would have much rather had the freedom to chose something he actually enjoyed. I should just switch my major to theater, I’m pretty sure my father would blow if I did that...it’d be funny to see his reaction though. Sylvain wished that he could have done something with the arts, but his father didn’t find any worth in them and he couldn’t have a son running a company with an art degree, that wouldn’t do. 

He idly let his mind wander to what he was going to do for the rest of the evening. His schedule was surprisingly open that day and wondered if he would be able to get one of his friends to go out to dinner with him. He grabbed his phone, put his Air Pods in and put on his favorite playlist as he hummed along with the music. He was only able to enjoy the upbeat and energetic beats before he saw Ingrid surrounded by a couple of guys who looked like they were harassing her. 

He pulled his headphones out, put them in his pocket and started making his way over to them. He knew that Ingrid was strong enough to handle this on her own, that she didn’t need Sylvain to come in and intervene on her behalf, but the protectiveness he felt over his friends ran deep. He didn’t care if he got a scolding from her as long as he knew that she was safe. 

@rose-of-themis

Wind was blowing gently, ruffling up Sylvain’s hair as he made his way to the marketplace. He finished with his classes for the day and figured that he could see if there were any new beauties that he could chat up. His week was pretty filled with dates, a different guy or girl to have dinner with each night, but it was never to early to start on next week. He ran a hand through his hair, descending the stairs and smirking to himself when he saw a new face among the merchants. 

The marketplace was normally bustling with students or other professors, looking to buy foods that they couldn’t get from the kitchen or wares from other areas. However, from time to time, there were new faces that would come up, people who were traveling from other places stopped by to see what items were being sold. It seemed like it was his lucky day because there was a beautiful woman who he had not seen around before. He figured that she was stopping by, maybe just passing through on her journey or maybe she had business with the monastery, either way he didn’t really care. 

@lonewolfswordsman

Another deep sigh escaped past Sylvain’s lips as he looked around the courtyard, noticing that none of his friends seemed to be around. Lately he had far more than enough time on his own without them and he was starting to feel a little lonely and bored. He knew that Dimitri had to deal with politics and was still the crown prince of Faerghus which meant that he had more responsibilities than the rest of them. He wasn’t sure what Ingrid was busy with but he knew that Felix was doing what he always was, training and learning new sword techniques that he would be able to use in battle. 

He knew that if he just showed up to the training grounds it would seem a little out of place, since the only time he was ever in there was to hit on someone or when there was hardly anyone in there. He had talked with some of the other members of the Blue Lions earlier that day, but there was still more than half of the day to get through and he had been practicing a new sword technique in secret to showoff to Felix. He figured that rather than spend the rest of the day being bored out of his mind, he could go bug his childhood best friend and show him that he was able to use more than just a lance. 

Looking around at the bustling grounds around the castle, Sylvain almost felt like he was in Fodlan. He had no idea how he even ended up in this world, one minute he was chatting up a beautiful woman near the greenhouse of the monastery, the next thing he knew there was a blinding light and he was suddenly in a completely new place. He had never heard of Askr before, didn’t come across it in any of the history books, but he was sure that there were more places than were just documented. 

He figured that while he was in this place, he may as well check it out and see what was around. He hoped that he didn’t have to stay long, as much as he enjoyed visiting new places, this had been pretty unexpected and he was eager to get back home. He ended up wandering towards where they stored the weapons, letting out a low whistle as he looked at the lances that they had. Most of the standard ones he was familiar with, but there were others that he never saw before and was half tempted to find an open field to try them out. 

After he finished looking at the lances, he figured he may as well go a little further into the armory and see all the different types of weapons they had. I bet Felix and Ingrid would absolutely love it in here. I gotta say, they have some pretty interesting weapons. He mused to himself, lost in his thoughts and completely missing the other person that was in there with him and accidentally knocking into them.