Sylvester Ashling

"Knight takes rook, bishop takes pawn, sheep to E5... beef to D2... Rook takes sheep! Sheep takes beef!" Dr. Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling is a major character in Epithet Erased. He is an inscribed 15-year-old psychologist who investigates interactions between epithets and the human psyche. While visiting the Sweet Jazz Museum, he overhears Indus Tarbella talking about the Arsene Amulet and decides to stay behind so he can find and study it. He is later convinced by Mera Salamin that Molly Blyndeff and Giovanni Potage are thieves, and that if he apprehends them, she will allow him to get an "academic preview" of the amulet. Eventually, he learns the truth about Mera and joins Molly's party, but loses to Mera and temporarily had his epithet stolen. After Giovanni defeats Mera, Sylvie is sent to a hospital to tend to his broken bones.

Physical Appearance
Sylvie is a boy in his mid-teens with fluffy salmon pink hair, pale skin, and green eyes (due to his glasses giving a blue tint they probably are green). He is very short for his age. His height (or total lack thereof, he's barely taller than Molly) gives him the appearance of a preteen and causes most people to mistake him for one, much to his dismay.

He wears a white and green blazer jacket, with swirls on each sleeve, over a yellow hoodie with off-white drawstrings and green trim around the hood that resembles clouds, a silver belt with a swirl on the buckle, green trousers that end above his ankles, yellow and white striped socks and grey loafers. His outer jacket also resembles that of a lab coat.

He also wears glasses that have a yellow frame and lenses that give off a blueish hue.

Personality
Sylvie is very deeply dedicated to research, psychology, and discovering new things about epithets. He's isolated himself from others (growing up without any friends,) and tends to act snarky and push others away. Under his standoffish exterior, he's very caring and wants someone to talk to.

Along with this, Sylvie has a tendency to think very highly of himself and feel that he's always right, because of this, he usually gets into a lot of arguments.

Sylvie is easily angered by others when they call him a kid because he likes to view himself as mature. Ironically, he can act quite childish at times such as blowing raspberries or portraying an over-the-top confident genius persona (complete with pushing his glasses to his face so they glint in the light). He also tends to drastically overthink things, genuinely confused when Indus is straightforward with his epithet which he said was "strategic suicide". In the same encounter, he overthinks the tactic of reverse psychology so much that he effectively stuns himself.

He can be caring to others when he wants to be, for example offering Molly a free session when talked about the topic of her deceased mother.

Epithet
Sylvie's epithet, "Drowsy", can be used in a variety of ways to lull his targets to sleep. Sylvie can raise his arm to cause a golden dust to fall over the room, gradually putting people to sleep. As this dust is also in his hair, bumping into or brushing past him can also put one to sleep.


 * Counting Sheep: Sylvie summons a horde of Counting Sheep that can nibble enemies and put them to sleep by jumping onto them. He can also use his sheep to form a fluffy shield to protect himself.
 * Nightmare Fuel: When his opponents are groggy enough, he can bring their subconscious fears and nightmares to life. However, Nightmare Fuel doesn't do anything if the opponent has no fears, or if their fears already exist in reality.
 * Dream Big: Sylvie can put himself to sleep, bringing his own dreams to life, summoning his dream self, Dr. Beefton, around his sleeping body to protect and fight for him. Beefton is his own entity and Sylvie does not have full control in this state. Dream Big is reverted whenever Sylvie is woken up.

Miscellaneous Skills
Sylvie has specialized expertise in psychology, specifically in how epithets affect the psyche of their users (though apparently he has worked domestic cases in the past).

Molly Blyndeff
Sylvie was quick to dismiss Molly as a thief and a wannabe street thug, but when he sees that is obviously not the case, he stops being so cold to her. When he realizes he misjudged her, he makes an effort to get to know her better and find out who she really is. He's unaware that the only reason Molly is in the Sweet Jazz Museum with him and Giovanni is that he accidentally sent her to sleep with his epithet, resulting in her being trapped inside, or that she and Giovanni have only just met. He is under the assumption that she has been Giovanni's "minion" for some time but cannot understand why anyone would follow Giovanni, let alone a timid little girl, so he asks her. Possibly, hoping the reason is something he can resolve so that she doesn't have to work for Giovanni. When he learns Molly's mother is dead, his empathy and professionalism kick. He immediately gives Molly his card and offers her a session with him, free of charge. When Mera was about to steal Molly's epithet, he came to her aid despite being in no condition to fight. He consequently got his epithet stolen instead, but after Mera was defeated Molly returned it to him. As Sylvie was loaded into the ambulance after the police arrived Molly encouraged him to call her and she would send him toys from her store. Sylvie seemed genuinely touched by the sentiment and asked if she truly wanted to be his friend. She confirms and their friendship truly begins.

Mera Salamin
"You're no museum worker. You're just another theif!"

At first, Sylvie thought Mera was his ally, as she manipulated him into thinking Molly and Giovanni were trying to steal the Arsene Amulet. He believed this and agreed to capture Molly and Giovanni for her in exchange for being allowed to examine the amulet. However, when he discovered Mera had tricked him and it was, in fact, her who was trying to steal the amulet, any allegiance he had to her immediately ended and she is now his enemy. Sylvie then went to Mera to get Molly and Giovanni to safety and lost his epithet for a short while.

Giovanni Potage
Sylvie and Giovanni have a very reluctant alliance, only working together because they need to. He finds Giovanni to be very obnoxious, immature and annoying and they bicker constantly. He also disapproves of him being around Molly as he views Giovanni as nothing more than incompetent criminal scum.

Trivia

 * "Ashling" is an anglicized form of the Irish first name "Aisling", which can mean "dream".
 * His birthday is on May 23rd.
 * This makes Sylvester a Gemini.
 * Taking from the twins that represent it, Gemini is considered one of the most important of the zodiacs since it captures someone's most basic levels. For instance, it articulates their dual nature, a species with lower self and higher self as well as the way they are bilaterally symmetrical.
 * This could be a reference to Sylvester's alter ego of Dr. Beefton.
 * He has a ghost-hunter uncle who married the undead spirit of a cursed blues singer whose music kills everyone who listens to it.
 * Brendan Blaber believes that if Sylvie continues his current trajectory, then by the time he is around late 20s to early 30s, his Proficiency will have reached the Orbit class.
 * As stated by Zack Maher, the biggest fear of Sylvie is being vulnerable, the bigger extension of this being relationships. This explains why he has been isolating himself from friends and family just to prevent himself from letting them down, which ironically impedes him from becoming a strong functioning person.
 * Therefore, if Nightmare Fuel is used on him, he will be paralyzed and his heart and thoughts will race in anxiety until the spell gets dispelled.
 * Zack Maher has also hinted that Sylvie has a fascination for a particular card game, and can be one of the redstone factory engineers in Minecraft.