#if i separate them from this lore something more connected to isat the game will have happened instead.

[luifaro]

man i hate roblox roleplays that start off as silly little jokes that become more serious because i have a little guy now. a little siffrin variant but their lore is STUPID because when they were born (aka undied) we were still in the jokey phase so literal nonsense happened and i don't KNOW what to do... curse you stardust and your honestly exciting idea. so basically loop turns back into siffrin and siffrin turns into loop.

"but what's so stupid about that, tumblr user louie far o?"

it'll make less sense in context so here!!!!! (note really long and rambly + prolly makes no sense i'm so sorry)

ok you know how loops like a loser or something (idk i didn't play the prologue yet i'm mostly basing this off tumblr osmosis and how i roleplayed them don't kill me!!!!!!!) who ruins everything? WHAT IF absolutely crazy shit happened to them!!!!!

so to start off loop ended up meeting a siffrin they were fairly sure was the real one and fondly nickname them sleepyfrin because they look tired. they also meet hatfrin (sleepyfrin doesn't have their hat, hatfrin does) but don't like hatfrin as much as they like sleepyfrin (loop finds hatfrin annoying), so sleepyfrin's their favorite siffrin variant!!!!

anyway loop and bonnie end up egging the two siffrins on and trying to get them to fight, though of course sleepyfrin doesn't want to because he has like. morals or something boring like that. hatfrin's eager though!!!!

left loop and right loop (sits on the left side of the favor tree) (my loop sits on the right because i was stupid and forgot they sit on the left) end up beefing though i don't remember why (i think it was just a simple "there can be only one" thing but not entirely sure) the stars are fighting man. left loop and right loop are both trying to cook each other... bonnie gets popcorn and shares some with right loop (they absorb it??? idk they still don't have a mouth)

sleepyfrin sadly DIIIEES because they ate pineapple (left loop made them food that contained PINEAPPLE!!!!!) but hatfrin didn't (right loop also didn't because they don't have a mouth)

a little after that, bonnie also got hatfrin some pineapples and they and right loop basically guilt-trip hatfrin into eating it even though loop knew it'd kill him and then he loops, proving that HE'S the real siffrin. (right loop is not happy.)

they like. died because left loop built a BOMB to KILL right loop!!!!! (had glue so they couldn't get it off their hands.) they're told to defuse it but it doesn't really work out like that because the bomb would be very difficult if not impossible to defuse. the bomb EXPLODES so loop their little stardust DIIIE. (they were standing in the blast radius when it went off but on a good note so was sleepyfrin's ghost, so they undie because in this canon ghosts getting killed again makes them undie)

hatfrin loops again but loop is still dead (and now a ghost)

and then loop undies (something about how killing ghosts brings them back to life.) but this makes loop turn into siffrin and siffrin (formerly hatfrin) is turned into loop. this is a confusing predicament as there are already a couple other siffrins (just sleepyfrin at the time but confusedfrin also appears later on) (sleepyfrin's called that cause loop noticed they look tired)

sleepyfrin is ofc CONFUSED about what just happened. loopfrin tells sleepy to not look and that it'll make sense if they don't so they're like "ok." and he turns away for a bit. sifloop suggests that loopfrin pretends to be hatfrin and tells them where to find his hat (it's in the clocktower)

so yeah loopfrin just kinda skedaddles to go steal that hat. they return and sleepyfrin turns back to look at them and is like "what took you so long" (something like that i think) and loopfrin just kinda admits what actually happened, though it's kind of confusing.

so loopfrin renames themself stardust to not be confused with anyone else (but they'll still call other siffrins stardust so it's still very confusing. "Stardust!" vs ", stardust!") at some point confusedfrin appears (can't entirely remember how i think they were just also under the tree?) and they get the nickname confusedfrin because they were very confused at the time about what was going on. after confusedfrin appears the three siffrins aren't sure about what to do (mostly sleepyfrin) but then stardust gets a plan (totally not inspired by the one thing where siffrin and loop swap out every now and again) where the idea is they'll all pretend to be the same siffrin and interact with the party one at a time. stardust goes out first since the other two would rather not.

sifloop follows them. they meet bonnie and they come up with a story about how loop (actually sifloop) is a wish star that fell out of the sky and that they're going to help them get back up there and bonnie's like woaaw. skip a bit (i forgot part before this) and wowza it's mirabell!!!! stardust meets mirabelle and ends up accidentally spilling the beans about being in a timeloop (tldr got confused and thought mirabelle wasn't joking when she said she was trapped in a timeloop so they blabbed thinking they were both trapped and just never said anything to each other) and they feel so BAD and STUPID they RUN BACK to the favor tree and climb to the top where all they're friends are and start crying and freaking out cause they think they RUINED IT and that everyone knows now!!!!!!!!!

other frins try to comfort stardust but it doesn't quite work and at sifloop's suggestion they impulsively decide to run off to the clocktower to run away from their problems a bit. other siffrins chased them i think. they end up in the clocktower and i sadly miss the next part because i went afk but before the part i missed, it turns out isa and bonnie were downstairs and UH OH this is bad!!!!!!! stardust starts panicking and insulting themself because this was a STUPID IDEA and they're FUCKED NOW.

sifloop tells them to QUIET DOWN so the nerds downstairs won't hear them and they try to quieet doown... but end up having to hide anyway because skill issue. so stardust, sleepyfrin, and confusedfrin all end up HIDING and luckily aren't seen?? sadly then i miss a part but from what i saw i think confusedfrin and sifloop were arguing about something. stardust feels like. very terrible about everything and doesn't want to come outta the closet (they were hiding in there). sleepyfrin tries to talk to them but they won't respond, so confusedfrin talks to em and lets them know that they won't leave them behind. yk yk the whole moment is very sweet. (conversation went like this basically: "i'm so STUPID and RUINED EVERYTHING." "ok but i don't think anyone else would've known what to do in this situation." "why not just leave me behind?" "stardust listen. no matter what, we aren't leaving you behind.") stardust reluctantly accepts that confusedfrin just isn't gonna give up on them and decides they have to come out then.

yay the siffrin trio is BACK BABY!!!!!!!!! they come up with a new plan which is to basically pretend they're loop's guardians or something and they just happen to look like siffrin. they go downstairs and try it out!!! stardust gets to show off their charisma and stands on the table because they're cool. once they're done distracting isa and bonnie they RUUUUUUUUNN ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE FAVOR TREE!!!!!

stardust remarks that running from their problems has NEVER felt better and that they should do it more often! sleepyfrin and confusedfrin end up climbing to the top of the favor tree again and they have a conversation, though stardust isn't really paying attention at this point. sifloop suggests they just loop back but yk... they sadly can't because they techincally aren't siffrin. this reveal results in sifloop having an IDEA.... if stardust can't reset despite having physically become siffrin, perhaps sifloop can STILL loop despite being loop. but how to test it out? for a moment stardust forgets they have a dagger, that is, until sifloop reminds them of it. (first suggestion was to feed them pineapple like the first time stardust KILLED sifloop but they don't realize in the moment that it was a reference. dw they'll reference it again later and stardust will realize.) stardust stabs sifloop until they die, resulting in all the siffrins looping back to the meadow (but notably stardust is still a siffrin and sifloop is still loop.)

stardust wakes up in the meadow to have sleepyfrin tease them a bit about being a little sleepyhead, saying they should've been named sleepyfrin instead. as revenge, stardust makes fun of sleepy moments later when they get confused and says maybe they should've been named confusedfrin instead. sleepyfrin talks to stardust a bit about how they're upset they looped without warning the others (and also a little because they stabbed sifloop). they come to an agreement, that being that they'll ask the other siffrins before looping next time. sifloop on the other hand, is off talking to The Horrors (Mal Du Pays). no one properly recognizes mal du pays but stardust gets a little concerned cause mal seems aggressive and could be attacking sifloop. luckily for them, they get to avoid having a confrontation because mal du pays leaves. that is, until sifloop starts a SEARCH mission for them!!!!!!!

confusedfrin (as their namesake suggests), is a little confused about what happened both in and out of character (was afk dw we told em the LORE..) sleepy and confused end up following after stardust and sifloop for a bit before they'd end up searching the clocktower for mal du pays (sifloop saw them in the corner earlier) since sleepy and confused get the bright idea to just. not. and take a break so they can continue the conversation they were having before stardust RUDELY looped.

stardust notices they're gone and starts trying to look for them. they end up correctly guessing that they're back at the clocktower. stardust doesn't realize they were avoiding them and sifloop so no worries! they talk for a bit, stardust and sifloop have a convo where they reveal they no longer hate hatfrin (sifloop) and that they don't really have a favorite siffrin anymore cause they're all their friends now!!!! in this time sleepyfrin comes up with the idea of them having their own parties with a separate captain. sleepy and sifloop are one team, and stardust and confusedfrin are the other. stardust, being the captain of their party, decide that their party will buy sleepy and sifloop time by distracting anyone who were to discover team confusedstars, making it clear that if they're running away, sleepyloop better run.

uh oh Mal Du Pays at four'o clock!!!!!! sleepyfrin approaches mal and tries to free them. in return, they whisk em away to the void while traumatizing them with the voices of their party!! and NOT JUST them either, because poor stardust heard it too. the sound mal du pays made terrifies them so much they run all the way back to the favor tree again, confusedfrin chasing after them.

they're in full panic mode this time. they can't stop laughing, something's so funny they can't stand it. they let It take sleepyfrin. they let it take sleepyfrin. they let- oh heeeyyyy it's confusedfrin!!! they found stardust! yeeah stardust is not looking too good. confusedfrin tries telling stardust to calm down but YEEAH THAT DOESN'T HELP. HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN??? confusedfrin tells them to breathe. they're panting like a dog boiling in the sun. sifloop also tries telling them to calm down. they end up YELLLIING. CALM DOWN??? HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO CALM DOWN? SLEEPYFRIN IS DEAD BECAUSE OF THEM! THEY KILLED SLEEPYFRIN! THEY'RE GONE!

sifloop: vro literally just loop. oh right they forgot they could try that. they're unsure though. would sleepyfrin WANT them to loop? should they really? what if it doesn't work? they consult their friends and come to a decision. they'll try out looping again.

wooo!!!!!!!!!!!! the wicked BEAST is GONE! sleepyfrin is BACK BABY!!!!!!! sleepy's kind of confused since once moment they were in the terror void and the next they're suddenly in the meadow again. stardust sees him and IMMEDIATELY rushes the poor guy and HUUUGGGG!!!!!!! they're so happy he's ok they're so glad sleepyfrin is back . in fact they're so glad they actually SCREAMED "SLEEPYFRIN!!!!!!!" when they saw them instead of calling them stardust. sifloop teases them ("when are you going to kiss?") and all the sentimentality is OVER. no more hugs. this is because stardust loves teasing but hates being teased.

and that's it... the... END.

[russetfoxfur]

response to some of your bullet points under the cut! also tw for self-harm

okay i'll be honest there really isn't too much lore in game (last i checked). most of the king stuff is in supplementary materials and fanon, and you play as your own skykid, not as a predetermined character -- but when i checked the creator's tumblr and saw that they were leaving the identity of the forgotten country my mind immediately went to "oh my god Sky"

about that passphrase room.... i saw the broken glass BUT ONLY IN ACT FIVE. i never used the broken glass beforehand so i ONLY saw the starry blood thing. god i'm going to need to replay this game and see that interaction, that sounds so nice..... (well the odile-cleaning-your-arm and bonnie being fiercely against you hurting yourself. the self-harm is obviously Not Nice) speaking of souvenirs i remember using it in act 6 and siff throws it across the room (along with the mirror picture which Hoo Boy i love that we also got a blackout siff as well) as to not use it again. that just.... touched me

on isa/sif, i was worried about how they're called family members in-text that ppl might claim that it was incest to ship them out-of-universe (like in mcyt in some circles) (maybe even using memory of touch to prove it idk) but i did a bit more digging and im glad that the canon basis of isabeau's confession seems to have won out. but in universe yeah they're definitely doing Something after that ending. being gay probably. instead of sex they arm wrestle and since siff's so strong from being in a timeloop they actually have a chance against him.

wait hold on i never considered that actually. the change god possessing loop in order to force them to allow siff to stab himself.... okay never mind i think i'm going to begin to agree with you on this one What The Fuck Change God. like they're pretty much a passive observer and they do give you the keyknife in every run but. fuck i never connected those dots (these events occurred like an act apart from each other my mind was on wishcraft not daggers) (but i do still think those kaomojis are cute)

ah yes of course the ability to go back to loop before you begin act 5 (< totally did not see that option, somehow not pick up on the fact that talking to her would end any chance to complete side quests, and then promptly get thrown into act 5 before i could fill that person in on the fact that johnathan (?) was just a guy)

i'll be honest i didn't even know mirabelle was canonically cis. like as an aroace the moment she said she didn't want to go through dating profiles but yeah she did say she hasn't changed like isabeau or any of the other priests at one point. huh. anyway yeah i also love that her quest is about how, while it's okay for change to hurt in order to grow outside your comfort zone, you shouldn't force yourself to hurt just so that you can be like everyone else.

yeah i guess the mc quote doesn't really fit here... in mc the universe feels like another character, and the universe is whispering this to the player, while in isat the universe is more apathetic. i suppose that a better quote from the end poem would be "Sometimes when they are deep in dreams, I want to tell them, they are building true worlds in reality. Sometimes I want to tell them of their importance to the universe. Sometimes, when they have not made a true connection in a while, I want to help them to speak the word they fear." or "and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you / and the universe said the light you seek is within you / and the universe said you are not alone / and the universe said you are not separate from every other thing". idk man im getting end poem vibes from this game

also sorry but about the loop count being wrong... the implications are killing me. did those loops even happen at all or is it siff losing count? (since one of the milestones has siff saying they count the loops themselves). and if they did happen what happened during them? why can't we play them at all?

OH ALSO another tangent. the quit button when you die. apparently this button never works so the implications of that as well.... how it symbolizes siff's escape being so tantalizingly out of reach but him being forced to "get back to the stage" afterward because of course it's not as easy as pressing that simple little button, of course you have to actually begin the loop again before you can even think of leaving. love it love it love it

do you mean about how siff's left the title screen during the final menu? because yeah i did see that, good for them. (i will say i never exited during act 5 and holy hell i want to see what that looked like. Was Siffrin Okay)

yeah no im gonna be obsessed with this game aren't i.

I would like your thoughts on ISAT please and thank you

AAAAAAAA

im going through this in bullet points based on what pops up in my mind so i might jump from act to act. under cut for Major Spoilers

- color palette. stunning awe-inspiring astounding and the fact that its even acknowledged in-game (and then WONDERFULLY subverted by the scarlet of the world ending!!). i remember seeing isat fanart on the dash and i was like 'why are all these in monochrome' but it makes sense i literally cannot imagine siff with color

- i pronounced pretty much every name wrong (according to the wiki at least). what do you mean bonnie's name is pronounced like THAT. well except odile i called her odie on purpose

- headcanoning that siffrin is from sky children of the light. hes got the cloak hes got the connection to the stars hes got the evil unswayable king. one could argue that sky is also a timeloop game (albeit one without much focus on it) due to eden reruns. the isle could be the isle of dawn. also both skykid and siffrin start with s let me have this

- on the topic of crossovers: narrator (tsp) and loop would absolutely be worsties. you cannot convince me otherwise. they Hate each other's guts and constantly piss the other off

- and on the topic of loop somewhat: GOD that boss battle. loop's eye cracking red.... loop looping..... LOOP USING THE SAME ATTACK AS SIFF........ and then siff winning and sparing them because they helped them get so far in the first place. TWO HATS...... so much dialogue becomes recontextualized its insane

- also THE DAGGER. i was sort of pissed off at loop throughout basically the whole game so when the dagger came up i jumped at the chance to tell loop to fuck right off with what they think and don't think is good for siff but then....... god the game treats suicide with as much gravity as it's worth it was genuinely so jarring to see the game contort loop in order to grant my wish (....HOLY SHIT) just seeing loop go all white-eyed and narrator-voiced.... and then the tree glitches into a warped version because thats loops tree and you just contorted loop......aaaaaaaaa. i did almost try to do One death with it just to see what it was like but loop's begging through narrator-voice was just.... it reminded me so much of narry's (tsp) begging in the zending and i was like "nope not using the dagger not at all"

- one major crit of the game is how hard it pushes familial ideals. i really dislike familial dynamics (thank you mcyt) and the fact that everyone was shafted so hard into very specific roles just bugs me. i do prefer it without the hard shafting but i'd rather them all be queerplatonic at best. come on guys platonic bonds are fantastic please please please stop making this a traditional family when i said i liked found family i did not mean literal family. more deep meaningful platonic bonds in the world please. also just based off how mcyt treats the clockers and stuff do i want to know how people treat isa x sif (whatever its called)

- another crit is the save system. this ones more minor but i wish you could save from any point in the game instead of just those little lights. just a small inconvenience.

- but back to positives im just going to dedicate a whole bullet point to specifically the bonnie-murder-and-subsequent-jumpscare. ill be honest i DID spoil myself for this one but i am glad i did it because even with the warning i was jumpscared by it actually happening. just... you try reasoning with the king because okay maybe this is a really extreme reaction and he can be reasoned with and then you can stop looping but the king isnt going to change if he wanted to change he wouldve done it earlier and then he forces siff to watch as the kid--the kid they gave their eye for, the kid they keep giving their half-immortal life for--is slowly and painfully crushed to death in front of their eyes. that is when you realize the king CANNOT be reasoned with. i saw a youtube comment that was like 'the reason bonnie goes blackout is because siff is actively flashback-ing to that moment and actively redacting all the gore out as it goes' and it has NOT left my head let me tell you. just... the way it shows siff's sanity slippage, and the way that exact blackout is then used in act 5 as an eerie callback..... god it makes me ILL. including the fact that the loop i got that on was one where the daydreamer dis-remembered their sibling AND the change god's statue had a different face and i was like 'siffrin is So Fine You Guys'

- also the change god. both the statue (love how its face changes at random, i only saw two during my playthrough but theres a whole bunch on the wiki) and the little quest thing. thats the ONLY OTHER TIME we see white-eyed loop through the whole game which. Well. also i think its cute how they talk with kaomojis with mira. best god ever would absolutely dedicate my life to that guy as well

- SPEAKING OF! best aroace rep ever mira love of my life /p she is ALSO a doubtful anxious "chosen one" who will murder to save her friends and loves them all so very dearly and also has a roommate who makes bombs. shes the best i love her i think she deserves to rip the king to shreds with her teeth

- ok so to preface this i was actually reliant on a map for my playthrough because like three times i accidentally looped to floor three when i was trying to see the library and i could Not take it anymore. but act 5 messing up the whole house is evil. took me like half an hour just to figure out how to get to a star crest because i kept ending up in the infirmary and getting stuck. i know im just experiencing the intended effect but like still. siff next time you have a mental breakdown due to the depression and insanity caused by being trapped in a timeloop without anyone else to speak with excepting an immoral god whose only goal is to piss you off as much as possible.... could you PLEASE remember the house better

- but on that topic.... god siff "the lost one" rin's crafts are very telling of their mental state. the fact that all the puns are gone from the attack names.... no more jackpot points because theres no one else to do jackpots with.... and then all three attack skills having no cooldown while the buff and the heal both do....... (that one in particular is making me have thoughts. it hurts more to heal and get better than to keep lashing out at any desperate hope you've got for breaking out without addressing your own issues.) i love the crafts in general because of the very personalized nature of the names but act 5's crafts and also the "just attack" craft are like. Siffrin Is So Fine You Guys Teehee

- my first impression of bonnie was "young and angry. yeah that's a pretty accurate descriptor of them siff." my current impression of bonnie is "how the fuck are they so good at cooking"

- i accidentally began act 5 before i finished a sidequest...... to be fair it was the sidequest w/ the chateau castle comics but like.... still. i was so close i literally just had to go back to that guy with the knowledge of that final issue. additionally the ghosts quest. i was trying to do a whole run of the castle (grindy purposes) and i got both ghosts on the first two floors before not getting the one on the third floor. it was evil it was so evil. damn you rng

- i love that one lesbian jeweller in dormont. actually i love the casual queer rep in general. mira's whole quest is about coming out as aroace in a world that Very Much does Not want that to happen. isa is probably trans. 40% of the main cast is non-binary. the lesbian jeweller. apparently mira's roommate has a crush on the head housemaiden but to be quite frankly honest the only thing i remember about claude is their name and that they build bombs. bomb-building lesbians ftw i guess

- ....okay yeah i did fall for the pineapple slices. In My Defense i was immersing myself in siff when i fell for it and i was Not Thinking about loop i was thinking "oh my god i love pineapple lets project my love of pineapple onto this traumatized punmaster". barked a laugh aloud when they said it was good. spicy :3

- also i did accidentally spoil myself for the ending but... somehow i arrived at the conclusion that the king was actually siff from before and that siff's climax would be defeating the king and then taking his place when the party tried to leave. thank GOD it wasn't that (i would've rioted) i love what we actually got much better.

- king shouldve died for realsies. you do NOT just murder bonnie like that and then send siff into a panic attack and expect to get off with a sympathetic ending let me beat his ass up

- i literally cried at the ending. let me just say i do not cry at video games easily but like..... siffrin's loved. he's spent the entire game desperate for any scrap of attention, slowly spiralling as the loops keep happening and everything keeps falling out of his hands, convincing himself hes a disgusting manipulative bastard who cant even see properly.... and then when they realize that that's why he was an asshole to him, because he's been hearing the same rote lines over and over and he hasn't been telling anybody.... and then they forgive him. they don't forget--siffrin did hurt people, justified or not --but he's not an awful person for wanting to be loved, for wanting to have something to hold onto. he's terrified of being alone so much so that he inadvertently traps himself in a timeloop because he can't stand the thought of them parting ways. and it's not his fault. he can be forgiven. they still love him.

- (you know, while i was playing, i saw the universe belief and my mind immediately jumped to "and the universe says i love you because you are love". call me obsessed with mcyt, but it feels a little like it fits in isat, i think.)

- but siffrin's loved. after 106 loops (in my case), a thousand dead ends and red herrings, failed kisses and intimacy cravings and teammate murders and cheeky gods and trauma, so much trauma.... after they've run themselves ragged trying to break themselves out and nearly crashed and burned..... siff's finally free.