Just thought I’d throw out some thoughts here…
The first one being, well, that was dark. I was wondering if it might be, based on the description. Just wasn’t sure of the context.
I feel like Sylus ever since Shared Bliss has gotten pretty bold and comfortable. As much as he encourages MC to be open about her desires, I think Sylus himself has been pretty strongly chraracterized by his restraint. For a long time he had to be careful with MC to earn her trust and avoid scaring her off. I kinda consider Shared Bliss the big turning point though because it‘s where Sylus showed this vulnerable yet dangerous side of himself—and she didn’t run. She just said it was okay and she’d help him.
And I do think that has set the tone for their level of intimacy and Sylus’s more open and less restrained behavior in recent content.
In relation to the new card, I’m not even strictly talking about the spicy times. But also the role Sylus serves in this story and how we’re seeing the way he influences MC.
During the scene where they ambush Graymist as payback for him putting a bounty on MC’s head, Sylus seems pretty blatantly positioned as the devil in MC’s ear, encouraging her to give in to her darkest impulses and even assuring her that no one would need to know if she killed the guy. Notably, regardless of what option you choose in the story, MC doesn’t kill Graymist. She resists the temptation and leaves him for the Association to deal with.
Sylus and MC opt to enjoy some time in the hot springs at his private estate afterward, and he asks her why she didn’t kill Graymist. She is described as thinking of many reasons, but he guesses the most important one—she doesn’t want to be controlled by her desire.
MC asks that if he were in the same position, would he know the difference between satisfying a desire and being enslaved by it. His response is that it makes no difference because he commands desire, and there is only one desire he truly yields to (Her of course, but he opts for show instead of tell haha).
MC asks him to tell her what it is, criticizing him for being cryptic and asking him if he would pull her back if desire pulled her into the abyss.
There are no pretenses, with things heating up as he tells her that no, he would pull her deeper into it. And… well, I don’t think I can describe anything that happens next in a PG fashion lol. It’s a very intense time and there‘s a lot of… movement. 😂
I think in some ways, this card retreads familiar territory because we see again how Sylus gets off on fueling and feeding MC’s desires. It’s the most intoxicating form of foreplay for him. But the interesting thing to me in this story is really seeing Sylus’s efforts to draw MC further into his darkness highlighted, and how he openly admits to it. He wants her to feel and share in that insatiable hunger.
It stands out because I do think Sylus, being the hopeless romantic sap that he is, dreams of the perfect happy ending where they get to live however they want and grow old together. Yet this kind of thing gives me a sense of foreboding. Sylus speaks very confidently about desire being his to command, yet we know what the nature of his power truly is and that his own self-control is not this unshakeable thing. I have this feeling that these two may become more dangerous to each other the more they indulge in their desires for each other. But idk what’s gonna happen.
In any case, this was an interesting card for sure. On a lighter note, did anybody else laugh out loud when MC broke the bed in the first half? 😆