#start again: a prologue spoilers

[rarely--motivated]

Loopquest! Loopquest! Loopquest!

Is there loopquest?

Or should I say

Star quest

there is infact a starquest!!

it plays out pretty similar to loopquest, where they hang out all day, watch the party die to the king, and reset the loop, BUT. there is an added bonus:

Traveler figures out that Stars is an alternate Siffrin.

granted its not like. super hard to gather lmao- but their dynamic changed pretty substantially afterwards because of it :3

also Stars initiates the friendquest bc hes lonely, given that Traveler usually loops back into the house instead of in Dormont (see: SAAP gameplay) , and Traveler accepts it bc theyre so tired of the repetitive nature of their loops. so they hang out and ignore their problems for a little bit :]

[vive-le-roi-au]

Prologue

(This post contains both images and text.)

(You’d been looping back to just the third floor for… you don’t know how many loops. Hundreds?)

(Maybe that was the problem. You didn’t do it all in one go. You just have to do it all, from start to finish, and kill the King.)

(From the top.)

(…Again.)

(You went back. Again.)

(Maybe you took too long. Just need to go faster.)

(…No. Still not enough.)

(It feels good though. Killing the one who killed you, thousands of times. It’s cathartic.)

(You’re even strong enough that you don’t need the Housemaid—MIRABELLE. HER NAME IS MIRABELLE, MIRABELLE, MIRABELLE!!!)

(…You don’t need Mirabelle’s help anymore.)

(…)

(You wouldn’t mind doing this a few more times.)

(…)

(Back to the stage, Siffrin.)

(…)

(…)

(…)

(It’s just another part of the loops now.)

(Go through the House. Kill the King. Talk to the Head Housemaiden. Something’s broken, failing, rotting. Loop back to Dormont.)

(The worst part?)

(Murdering the King has stopped bringing you joy.)

(It used to make you smile, seeing him crumble, blood spilling from his mouth, pooling on the ground.)

(Sometimes, you reduce his body to dust, cutting it up more and more and more until there’s nothing left. You’ve killed him slowly, draining him of his strength and bleeding him from a million places all over, watching the light slowly leave his eyes.)

(And you can’t even enjoy it anymore.)

(…)

(So why are you still here?)

(Whose fault is it that you’re trapped here?)

[woodswolf]

So I played In Stars and Time and turns out it's a really good game! Honestly my instant GOTY and it's not even close. People who are me will see a story about time-loop-rot and go "is anyone gonna go insane over this" and not wait for an answer.

This ended up being just as much if not more so a START AGAIN: a prologue video (not to mention the comics) than an In Stars and Time video, mostly because of… well, my favorite character is Loop, and this video (or really this song in general) is about them more than anything else. So you know I had to get a bit meta with it :D

The song is "Next of Kin" by Lucy Dacus. The album it comes from is really really really good PLEASE listen to it.

This took somewhere in the range of 40-50 hours of work overall, a fair amount of which was actually image editing. I have no idea what font the new game+ comic used, but I decided that I liked it so much that I would manually recreate it and use it for all of the comic sequences. After a while of doing that I felt like a 12th century monk alone in a monastery transcribing the bible. Not recommended, but it sure was an interesting experience!

[chaos-canary]

A small 230 word long post I made about Loop because I noticed A Thing™

Warning: major spoilers for both In Stars And Time (Optional 6th Act conversation) and Start Again: A Prologue

So, I've been thinking about Loop, and you know, how they're Siffrin from Start Again.

One particular detail that stood out in isat is this:

"The King... I could never beat him, did you know that? No matter how hard I tried, the King always defeated me."

Now, for anyone who's not familiar, Start Again has 4 endings. The one in particular I'm mentioning is the True Ending.

During the game, Siffrin has been looping for a long time, and at the point we start the game, has completely forgotten their friends names.

The only time they remember everyone's names, is during the True Ending.

The reason why this is notable is because the only time Siffrin beats The King, is also during the True Ending.

So, Loop never experienced the True Ending, and never remembered their friends names.

Well, didn't remember their names during the loops...

Because we have this line:

"Hah, can you believe, I forgot their names, for a time?"

Notice the past tense (also, there's a line where they say everyone's names, but I forgot to take a picture of it).

So either, A: Loop relearned everyone's name during the time between Start Again and isat.

Or B: Loop only relearned everyone's name after being sent to isat Siffrin's world. (world, timeline, universe? I don't know what word fits.)

And if B is the case, that opens up a whole new possibility for Loop angst.

So, I hope you enjoyed my rambling! And I hope this interests someone!

[moodlemcdoodle]

Dug up some isat art from back when it first came out!!! With a bonus bird boy from stp too lmao

[pillowspace]

(Unreality:) Hey, has anyone here ever played that co-op game In Stars and Prologue? I need some help. My partner recently got a bug in which they've been stuck on the third floor and neither of us know how to get rid of it. I also think this game wasn't really built well for co-op because the rest of the party seems to only be able to process one Siffrin at a time, even when it's really obvious there's two? Which? Is weird because it's a two player game, why didn't the developer bother to account for two Siffrins???

[yonch]

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE COSMIC JOKE

[lucabyte]

some thoughts on Claude

alt title: diversity win! this Butch Nun is crafting bombs in an unventilated room in her convent while actively courting Mother Superior! Do Not Give Them Access To Unlimited Power No Matter How Nice They Are

+ bonus

[ginumo]

kay hang on heres another thing GEFJSBFWJFBWD

im pretty sure someone out there has done this specific edit already but i wanted to give it a try myself HEHE. go my hamburger

[hazelnootnut]

Oops, all Loops and Siffrin!Loops! Great for a balanced diet!

(these are all transparent, so feel free to use them for whatever. i'm letting them run out into the wild)

[rarely--motivated]

While the stars were still in ISAT, Did they have a loop helping them or not?

they did not :3

they were forced to go through their timeloop without a guide, without anyone to talk to. instead, they would talk to the Favour Tree. spending some time each loop to regain their thoughts and speak their mind aloud in order to organise the ever worsening mess of their mind. so when they were thrown into Traveler's world, when they finally had someone they could talk to, it almost dulled the pain of losing their family, if only for a moment.

Stars wants to do everything he can to help, to give Traveler that voice to talk to that he never had, but his broken mess of a self can only do so much good before it hurts them.

them talking to the Favour Tree is actually why they decide to stay there in Traveler's world!! that tree brings them a small semblance of comfort, of familiarity, like how a wounded animal clings to its final breath. they make it a place of comfort for both Traveler and themself :)

(given this is a swap AU between SAAP and ISAT, if basically swaps the "roles" of each world. the siffrin's swap places, but so do their celestial forms. instead of Siffrin, Loop, and Bigfrin, you get The Traveler, The Stars, and The Supernova :3 woudlve been funky to keep Loop around but ultimately i decided against it)

[vive-le-roi-au]

Act 2

Scene 1

(Your body floats in darkness.)

(And then)

(You wake up in the... meadow...)

(...?)

(This isn't the meadow. There are... sounds... that don't belong in the meadow.)

(After some thinking, you know what to call them. Waves lapping against the shore. A steady gentle breeze blowing inland from the sea. The sea?)

(You sit up. The sea. You're on a beach.)

(Looking down at the sand beneath you, you slip off a long glove and push a hand into the sand.)

(You scramble to your feet and away from the shore. There's trees not too far away. You pick one and hide behind it.)

(You watch for the voice you heard. After a moment, you see a tall darkless figure. Is that... hair?)

(she lowers her hands)

(her face is flushed)

👑: Can we... try that again...?

(she takes a step towards you)

(nononononono)

(you have to run you have to run you have to run)

👑: Hi.

(run run run run RUN RUN RUN WHY CAN'T YOU MOVE)

👑: My name is—

(your legs are free to run)

(You run.)

(You run with everything you have.)

👑: W-Wait! Hey!

(You keep running.)

[mizzle-moths]

what if i just (explodes)

"what if they died because you tried to get a better ending" i actually really dont like it here i really dont. GOD.

[tealgoat]

I think something is wrong with my copy of start again??

[dragonymango]

a play left unfinished

[pillowspace]

ODILE, internally: Ugh. Who's being so noisy? It was easy to ignore a moment ago, but I might get a headache if this room gets any louder. What--? / ... / Siffrin sounds... aggressive. Like they're fighting with someone. / Someone?

I know where Isabeau is. I know where Mirabelle is. I know where Boniface is. / No one else should be in this room, or even in the House for that matter.

So why does everything feel so... muddy when I try to focus on...

...? Wait. No. Siffrin wasn't... No, Siffrin WAS always standing there, but I didn't acknowledge that previously. Why?

ODILE, verbally: Siffrin, who are you talking to?

Players, STOP fighting. You're making your Researcher get sus

( co-op )