#its not like siffrin was real. they were just a copy. they can just take their place. its not like they got attatched.

[lucabyte]

Standalone post of my doodles for @samhainian's AUs of sorts from this post which you should go read because oouuuuh,,,,,

There's a lot of possibilities with how either of these go, mostly depending on how honest Loop is upfront (or how caught red-handed they are, so to speak). Since... Well, the party is loving. That's the point of the story! They just learned this!

But. How do you even begin to explain this. Especially when you aren't fully over it yourself.

[btas-swap-au]

Ghostfrin, Encounter Four: Meet NIRFFIS

Nille: "Urgh, not another one..."

(... Nille is shaking as she looks dead ahead. The only thing up ahead is...)

Odile: "Seems like another Siffrin copy thing."

(...they...can see it?)

(I thought I was just losing your mind and the ghosts...things weren't real, but if they can see it too...)

(...I try to say something, but no words come out. My throat is dead dry.)

Isabeau: "This one isn't disappearing like the other ones, strange..."

Mirabelle: "W-we shouldn't get too close, this looks suspicious."

Isabeau: "Oh come on, it's just Siffrin. What's the worst it could do?"

Nille: "...HELLOOOO, OTHER FRIN!!"

(I nearly startle and lose my balance as Nille shouts out to the other me.)

(...it turned around. A perfect reflection stares back. Glasses, coat, hair, craft book.)

(What differenated the ghost and I was the scariest thing on its face. An unsettling wide smile.)

(I shudder and nearly retreat back entirely. It takes all my strength to stand my ground.)

("Haha! HAH! Yes, you can see me, you can?") 💎

(Nille shivers once more.)

Nille: "It speaks, that's even worse."

Odile: "...What are you?"

Isabeau: "They look like Siffrin but aren't. Are you really a ghost?"

Mirabelle: "Hello, sir ghost Siffrin. Please... d-do not come any closer."

(...I find my voice once more.)

💎("Are you...real?")

("Real? Real?!")💎

("Ekaf ro lear, does it matter, does it matter?! I'm as real as you long as you THINK I am, as long as you SAY I am! As real as real as they say! HAHA!") 💎

("Hm...but something isn't right, is it?") 💎

("Ellebarim, Uaebasi, Elido, Ellin, surely you remember me, your best friend, Nirffis?") 💎

Odile: "...you're...pronouncing our names all wrong. And...your own as well."

Isabeau: "Well, I mean, we never asked for their name, so maybe it really is their name?"

("HAHAHAA! Well, I wouldn't wanna be confused with Ol' Siffrin, now would I? Would I.")💎

(...my family and I exchange glances with a nod.)

(Time to leave.)

💎 ("...Well, uh nice meeting you?")

Odile: "Absolutely, I hope we never meet again."

Isabeau: "Yeah, uh, Madame Odile meant we hope we WILL meet you again, Other Frin."

Mirabelle: "Yeah, g-goodbye."

(Nille doesn't speak a word, but there's a fearful nod of sorts.)

(...the room just got darker.)

("Haha! Hahahaha. Oh silly little family.") 💎

("Who said any of you...") 💎

("...were going anywhere?") 💎

(The ghost lunges.)

TRATS ELTTAB!

[lucabyte]

obligatory ramble about postcanon loop ask

also your art is amazing

Hiiiiiiiii :D thank you :)!!

and thank you for the excuse to post the. just absolute wall of text that i truncated down to form the tags of that post. (i did,,, hit the tag limit. i forgot tumblr had one of those...) so let me just paste that and tidy it up a bit...

I am putting this under a readmore because it's a bit long. but:

This is like. The General Context for all* of my postcanon doodles? (Except AUs obviously) Like this is the base idea I've been drawing them all in. So, feel free to backread with this in mind. I've basically had this 'postcanon' timeline set in my brain since finishing the game...

My general thoughts are that I like the idea of Loop (even if through dubiously ethical means) being able to slowly reintegrate with the party as a whole new person, because they are, in fact, their own person.

It's a muddle of thematic threads im pulling on and "wouldn't it be fucked up if", but. (at its core, it's powered by the fact that like, while narratively isat's theme of 'the only person who can truly take the first step to help you is yourself'. (wrt: loop helping the party help siffrin in act 5) which i LOVE AND IS GREAT NARRATIVELY…. would be super fucked up irl to learn that your friend 'learned as a lesson' while you stood by kinda uselessly. I know i'd be upset about it. but thats mostly background here. doesn't really come up. at least not until loop has to explain who they are and the party realises they had to fall back on literally themselves again for help, but i digress,)

The real core concept is: Occam's razor. It is like, inherently, a buckwild thing to accuse a person of being somehow a clone or copy of your friend. Even if they start vaguely alluding to a backstory it's far more likely they were some other person before all that. (I still think Odile has that theory in the back pocket but she's rational enough to know it's a really long shot without a solid explanation. and i think Loop deep down knows this, and would, if cornered into confessing, turn the situation around to go J'ACCUSE and make HER explain it instead. Ever longer dodging being direct with their emotions...)

And the party are nice! And if someone has changed and wants to keep stuff secret it's kind of not their business? (Though it's hard not to speculate… see: the main joke of the doodles) And they seem important to Siffrin so they just try to accept them abrasive quirks and all. And eventually the question of their prior identity just fades away since, well, they're Loop. Their friend Loop.

but yeah. personal headcanon is that a few months/weeks after picking up and getting aquainted with Nille** (since that was presumably the IMMEDIATE TASK postgame), Loop reappears (either after a literal period of nonexistance, or just spending a few months wandering the french countryside alone being attacked by wild dogs). Since Siffrin has had a while to be therapised by the party they're doing mostly okay, but Loop showing up and still being agitated/aggressive pulls them both into a bit of a backslide behaviourally and puts the party on the back foot again.

Hooowever, I do think that due to no longer being literally stewing in the worst pressure cooker of all time together, the two do mostly actually sort themselves out with productive conversation. (Via a cycle of: genuinely distressing argument -> weeeird lovebombing -> ok we're good -> repeat, that gets less intense over time)

Thus, allowing the party to just. Integrate loop as a new person. They and Siffrin shuffle into different ecological niches (Loop taking over stuff Siffrin is now too squeamish for, etc (see: hunting, mostly)), and while it's not exactly what Loop wanted they generally get that beggars can't be choosers and it's a pretty good deal. And the rest of the party does straight up just like them as a friend, especially when Loop quits trying to actively antagonise them after a few weeks of being around them, since they just can't keep up being mean to people they like forever.

As for how I think the truth eventually drags itself out. This is where I invoke The Isabeau Torment Nexus™. So its gonna get shippy here for a bit hold on.

Which is, I think giving them time before Loop reappears long enough that Siffrin and Iseabeau actually manage to become established, Isabeau has to be the one to nudge the pair of them and go. "Hey. You know we're in Vaugarde right. I'm okay with polyamory if we all communicate." Before Loop and Siffrin actually even acknowledge that whatever the fuck they have going on kinda looks a lot like a relationship of some kind. (or have already been agonising about that via fighting and arguing, depending) (Obviously this comes after Isa "Emotionally intelligent enough to keep a lid on the jealousy" Beau has managed to use that big brain of his to Not just go Scream somewhere on the daily because oh godddd they keep talking like theyre suicide-baiting each other jesus chriiist. is it overstepping his boundaries to bring that up?? god)

This, taking a bunch of the tension out of Loop and Isabeau's relationship (Since I imagine Loop is a. being weird for the obvious reasons and b. feeling kinda guilty about 'getting in the way of' Siffrin and Iseabeau), allows them to actually get close in a normal friend way. (I think an interesting turning point could be Isabeau actually taking Loop's side in an argument vs Siffrin, which would absolutely break Loop's brain. Especially if it's an argument that matters. Like what do you mean he isn't just going to play favourites. What?)

Then Isabeau, just actually open minded and charmed by Loop (and maybe even somewhat at Siffrin's suggestion?) tries to close the final open side on the polyamory triangle here and that's the final straw for Loop on "This lie by omission is too unethical to keep up, this is just actually sick and wrong. I can't do this while he doesn't know who I am." Though. Obviously it probably goes. Very poorly with emotions high like that. And the added element of several months of deceit. Getting dark here for a second but that dagger is going MISSING and so are THEY for a hot minute.

Then yaaay everything works out in the end 👍 yippieee!! all it took was maybe a lot of harrowed recontextualisation of all the weird shit your new friend said and did when it turns out they're your old friend. It's fine.

But yeah. this is basically the context all of my postcanon doodles have existed within? And those exist to give other people something to chew on. So this does too.

I suppose TL;DR: Imagine if sloopis almost fucking happens before isabeau knows who loop is. can you fucking imagine. can you imagine having to navigate that. nightmare.

*Yes this includes the implied cannibalism comic. Uhh. Comes part and parcel with headcanoning that Loop went way off the deep end similar to A5 Sif But Maybe Worse before giving in. Add weepy half-asleep confessions to murder wherever you see fit in your mind palace. 👍👍👍

**Re: Nille footnote. I don't have anywhere to put this besides here! I have some thoughts on Loop and Nille having an odd dynamic. I don't imagine Nille to be super gung-ho on trusting a bunch of adults (even if they are majority around her age) given their implied backstory. It's probably a big shock to the system, especially since Bambouche is a good couple hundred Kilometers up north from Dormont and these guys don't seem to have trains. She would've been unfrozen and without Bonnie for some time....

Which is to say: I think she's suspicious of them. I think she may be looking for excuses to distance herself, keep Bonnie safe. SO.... A new guy showing up? And antagonising the party? What do they know that I don't...? I should find out.

And since... Loop didn't ever know Nille, they have no ammunition or real reason to be cruel. Plus, if they're trying to stay on Bonnie's good side (SINCE... if Bonnie thought Loop was cringe they may as well kill themselves. In their mind.) they SUPER have no reason to antagonise Nille.

Mostly, they might be able to open up to each other easier than they can the rest of the party?

I feel like this resolves with Loop feeling compelled to apologise for what they and Siffrin let happen to Bonnie, though... Hmm... Depends on how you interpret Nille that they'd be glad nobody else had been told about that yet, or furious it had been secret this long. I lean toward the former.