Misha, why?

I'm really interested to see how it's going to go down in Chapter 7 with Malleus and Silver.

I hope this isn't how it actually goes down, but I had an art bunny.

I was actually planning to never post this anymore since I was too tired to line/render it + I found a nice ao3 fic with a coincidentally VERY similar brotherly premise and dialogue and didn't want to get accused of anything/be redundant😭 But after looking at my sketch for it this evening I decided this was still worth posting since I like how I drew and characterized them here🔥 This style is good for anti burn out

swipes everything else off of the table to yell about diasomnia flower bookmarks

(I gave Silver one too :D)

silver vanrouge ❌️

silver draconia ✔️

malleus beats lilia to the punch

I'm trying REALLY hard not to build up any solid expectations, because I wanna go in ~fresh~! they're already so far away from anything I thought would happen (not in a bad way, I'm just accepting that I'm on Miss Yana's Wild Ride at this point and we're seeing this thing through 'til the end, by gum). so it's nothing too major, but:

they've been handing new crying expressions out like candy lately, I want to see some delicious Malleus tears.

honestly I want everyone to cry buckets. their tears sustain me. the more Silver angst specifically I get the happier I am.

SILVER!!!! 👏 VANROUGE!!!! 👏

just let him have this. the poor boy's been through so much. let him have his big "I'm proud of you, son" moment with Lilia.

I'm 100% expecting Grim's arc (and probably whatever's going on with Crowley) to be its own episode, but a nice hook to leave us hanging on would be good!

a nice hook though, please, I don't think I can take another "Grim is attacking us! now wait eight months to find out what happens :)" cliffhanger...

some Meleanor? as a treat? just a little bit, a tiny quick flashback or something, please Twst I just, I just want to see her again. let her have a little ghost cameo like Dawnathan Knight got. Lilia and his kids are all having their big group hug or whatever and she can gently fade in to be all like

I don't like to speculate TOO much, since it usually ends up going in a totally unexpected direction that renders all theorizing moot (gestures to episode 6) (did anyone have "it starts with robots breaking into the school and kidnapping everyone" on their bingo? no, I didn't think so). but I do feel pretty certain that the main crisis is going to involve Malleus deciding that the best solution to all these Uncomfortable Feelings is to just...magically put everyone to sleep for some hundred-odd years so he won't outlive them. problem solved! where did all this ink come from

there's a few things I would like to see from 7, but I don't have any solid expectations either way on:

the mysterious f o u r t h y e a r s

Malleus in full dragon form

child Malleus in flashback? :D :D :D

we'll probably get Silver's backstory, but maybe not his last name (I'm still terrified that he does have one, and it's...also Silver.)

SHOW ME THE DIASOMNIA UNIQUE MAGICS (I feel like Silver's could be something to do with dreams, that seems thematically fitting to me?) (and I know Sebek is supposed to be lightning-based but I do think it would be hilarious if his power was just A Really Big Bite) (he takes after his mom!)

it would also be super cool if Ortho got a UM, though I could see it going either way on whether or not he can even have one (I feel like narratively, Ace is more likely to get his during whatever ends up happening with Grim, so while it would be a nice surprise, I'm not expecting it for a while) (now watch as it's the first thing that happens)

I know they're not going to just show me Sebek's family (unless...? 👀) but any time they're so much as mentioned it's absolutely delightful and I want more of them

zero idea if it's going to go this way, but I would lose my entire mind if they did that one trope that's like

back at it again with the extremely self-indulgent diafams! I am being emotionally supported by overly-cutesy interactions between anime characters right now, don't judge me.

(also continuing with my headcanons that 1) mustache Bauru, and 2) he'll be hugely tsundere about it but you can, ultimately, convince him to do just about anything via careful application of Sebek.)

to be fair, the chronological placement of his birthday story just doesn't make any sense in general. like, it can only really take place during his second year, since Ace and Malleus are both there...yet we have seen pretty definitively what Silver was doing on the evening before/morning of his 18th birthday, and it was very much NOT his history homework. this myth?

jk jk I think it's just one of those card stories that's meant to be more...perpendicular to canon, if that makes sense? 😅 like a lot of them aren't really supposed to fit into a specific point in the timeline; instead all the characters and relationships tend to be somewhere vaguely post-episode 1 (occasionally with a bonus post-6 Ortho) except Yuu is already friends with everyone and nobody is surprised to hear them call Malleus Tsunotarou.

mostly they can get away with it, but it starts getting a bit weird with the cards that are supposed to be set at specific times. :T for those I think you gotta just kind of suspend your disbelief and take 'em as, like...little what-if AUs, or something like that! it's not exactly not canon, but more like. this is Silver's birthday if none of the narrative development happened and so his curse is still in effect, or something. 🤷 uhhhh basically Twst's timeline is an eldritch thing that cannot be perceived by mortal eyes, to try will lead to nothing but suffering, down this path dwells only madness.

that said I do 100% accept the presented canon that Silver's roommate is in eternal torment. this is the real victim of Twst right here.

«In meeting you, I learned for the first time that bright colors exist»

Ref:

Single dad shenanigans.