#the reason of all of this is just bc i like siffrin

[crawsmost]

did you know. i have been collecting. exploring. finding. DISCOVERING. JOURNALING (is this a word?) SIFFRIN/ISAT COSPLAYS ON PONY TOWN? why. because i hate myself. i have been all these days, morning and night, searching for good siffrins. everytime i find one i put it there. we MUST infect THE INTERNET with SIFFRIN.

if you're one of those siffrins (because i asked all of them if they had tumblr and only 1 didn't) be free to feel..proud . you're now part of me. i consumed you.

my favourite one has to be the green siffrin. "why is he green?" "goop"

[lucabyte]

Olive Branch

Wrong Move

[chronologically-challenged]

I think that the party's communication issues can be summed up as "man, is it awkward to tell someone that you want to spend the rest of your life with them if you've only know them for a few months? Probably."

[puppppppppy]

AND I MET THE CHANGE GOD TOO. OKAY. COOL OKAY

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

Alright so I'm actually drafting this the day before I post it because I hit the post limit reblogging cool stuff but fuck it I'm going to make the AU of "siffrin? more like sif out" AU properly

So brief overview of the AU - in this AU, everyone in the party remembers the loops. Like all of them. Usually this would be a good thing, but here's the thing - Siffrin doesn't know anyone else is looping (and by extension neither does Loop) and the rest of the party who are all quite shaken look at Siffrin's "I'm so fine guys" face and go "does he know? he doesn't know oh no"

So the party is one team of loopers and Loop and Sif are the other team.

Loop only knows whatever Siffrin knows and therefore doesn't realize everyone else knows

Everyone else goes to protect Siffrin but sorta fails

Siffrin still ends up as the weakest party member! This is because they get a choice - either remember the loops well enough to be able to coast through them or retain all their levels/strength. A part of him wanted to go with the strength but in the end, they're too scared to get far away from the party in levels.

Ironically, this stabs him in the back because not only is he the weakest by a long shot, they also drive themself insane trying to figure out if their memory is just that bad!

The party ends up super protective. Like "I would kill for this kid" and they're a grown ass adult who is currently experiencing The Horrors tm.

The AU is called the uh. The.

Let's call it the Tears and Time AU bc I can't think of a funny and that's a kickass name. (Yes I have reasoning for that ask me about it PLEASE I beg of thee/nf)

[zillychu]

hi hello looks at the tags of ur recent act 5 sif art. i wld LOVE to hear more about the stress level mechanic you mentioned if you perhaps wanna ramble about it 👉👈

I kept putting off answering this ask forever bc I wanted to finish the idea it came with, but idk when that will happen so here we go!

This was a game mechanic I thought of while refining an idea for a hypothetical sequel (two actually, for a trilogy), where Siffrin essentially remains OP as hell. But this does not actually make things easier.

Ramblings about the distress level mechanic, and story thoughts under the cut! This contains spoilers!

Re: In Stars and Wind

(get it. re: because it's a sequel. and also re:wind. wind is important. and there are no loops but Sif rewinds. god I'm so funny)

[[ Act I, part I ]]

Starts as a slow, cute holiday where the player gets to control different party members for each part of the story for different points of view and inner thoughts, to get a better feel of where everyone is emotionally.

Now in Bambouche, the party is traveling together, the atmosphere very much a relaxed and welcomed vacation. We see some of the new, but very mild conflict they have to juggle–how everyone has different opinions on handling their exploding fame, different ideas on where to go next… acclimating to Siffrin’s new demeanor and ailments. 

It's nothing terrible! Siffrin is more susceptible to Crafting sickness now, like an old injury that's fully healed but can get sore easily. Using Craft normally tends to mean lingering fatigue, maybe a nap or two. Heavier usage, and he gets body aches and fevers. 

He's also…different, now. They all know, they understand, they take it all in genuine stride. It's just a bit bumpy when Siffrin brings up something he shouldn't know, references things that never happened, still instinctively reaches for their knife or looks for easy ways to die when they feel cornered. Sometimes he gets unreasonably scared in battle, sometimes unreasonably scary. His power fluctuates from lv.1 to lv.999 (wait, wasn't the level cap supposed to be 99?)

Odile and Isa are the first ones seen discussing how odd that is. They saw those after-images of him running through the House on his own, they know he's strong. Much stronger than anyone could be even with years of fighting Sadness. (How long was Siffrin trapped in those loops, anyway?) Hell, he had the power to become something akin to a god.

They chalk up his moments of weakness to Craft Sickness, perhaps even a new and lingering disorder. They're not worried about it being a bother, they're just worried about what it could mean for him. They've brought it up before, but Sif also looked a bit confused and would say he just felt weak and tired for some reason. They think maybe his ridiculous power back then was only there due to the Wish Craft that no longer exists–maybe they're blowing things out of proportion.

Though all in all, everyone is happy! They're all together, seeing new places, becoming closer. 

At the end, they have a campfire picnic at night. It's then that everyone solidifies they're family now, and Sif is struck by how similar it all feels to that night. The night he wished he had back. He breaks down into tears and they try to comfort him, but he's happy. He tells them about that night now lost in the loops, how everything went right that day. Everyone laughs and cries and it's full and bright, their little campfire shining like a star in the night. They all love, and they're all loved. 

[[ Act I, part II ]]

Despite all the warmth. Despite all the joy and progress they've all made. 

Siffrin is still hiding something. 

Back in purely Sif's POV, we find out there's much, much more to his condition than everyone realizes. 

He struggles with keeping his masks in order, some of them popping up against his will. He doesn't have multiple personalities, but he is a bit more extreme with his personas. He tries to be Siffrin, the rogue, the traveler, the friend. But he's also Siffrin, who endured over a year stuck in a time loop, who aged what feels like eons, whose power now rivals a god's and can barely contain his extreme reactions to distress, to knowing or even thinking his family is in danger.

Sometimes, during a fight, he thinks a Sadness hit a friend a bit too hard–and he eviscerates it, gaze too dead and too cold and he can see the way his allies freeze up. Can see their uncertainty, their waiting fear (just like that time). Thankfully, he can shake it off once he notices they're safe, and they relax when he's “back to normal" easy enough. 

But it isn't just battles when this can happen. Sometimes even doing the simplest most mundane thing can slowly slip the contentment off his face (even if he's still happy!), or habitually slip into masking too hard with unnervingly fake smiles. Sometimes he'll simply order some food only to find the shopkeep staring at him warily.

But that's okay. He's used to acting. His family tells him he doesn't need to do that, that he shouldn't hide anymore. But this isn't the same, is it? He really is happy, he's just covering up some weird muscle memory that'll disappear in time. This is a good thing, actually! He's being more honest this way! Right? 

Like he's being “honest” about the Time and Wish Craft irrevocably etched into his soul now. He's not lying, he really does get Craft Sickness easily now! It's just. It's maybe not all coming from his “injury" of overusing Craft and nearly destroying the world. Not entirely. But that's part of it, so he's not lying! 

(Lying by omission is still lying. Stupid. Useless. Don't you ever learn? When will you learn? Can you learn? Why do you keep repeating the same mistakes–)

They're not the same mistakes though! He's getting better at talking to his friends, letting them know when he needs help. He's changing he's changed too much go back go back go back just like they are!

He knows he needs to tell them if something big happens. And he will! He'd never get trapped in a another time loop and not trust them enough to avoid relying on them. He knows now how much it hurts to see a loved one shoulder so much pain when you can be there to help split the burden.

But what's going on is nothing. It's silly! It's just him being silly. There's no reason to tell them about something they'll probably get all worked up over when it's really not that big of a deal. Friends don't tell friends absolutely everything, they've all admitted as much too! Sometimes you do have to balance little white lies, little secrets. Pick and choose which battles to share, which to keep personal. 

So it's really not that big of a deal! He's figuring out why his body still innately uses Time Craft sometimes and he rewinds the world a bit. 

Okay. Okay that sounds so much worse than it is. Really! He's not stuck in a loop anymore, he doesn't rewind whole days. He'll just. Sometimes he'll get hurt, or really scared, or really upset and the world kinda. Blinks back a few minutes, or hours. Back before the thing that caused him distress. 

They don't need to know about that. It's no big deal. Nothing has ever changed drastically anyway (Bonnie would have just gotten scuffed up falling down that hill, that stomach wound Odile sustained could have been easily healed, Isa would have recovered from a broken fractured leg, Mira could have dealt with that overzealous fan herself) 

It wasn't like he watched them die again again again, he didn't die, the world wasn't ending. Everything was fine!

Did that weird cat just talk. 

[Gameplay changes from here, traveling from town A to town B. There are still a lot of Sadness roaming about, you save a couple people, etc etc]

[[End of Act I]]

[GAMEPLAY DIFFERENCES]

Everything is the same, but has additional statuses now!

Buffs and debuffs have two levels, normal (1 level) and critical (2 levels)

In addition to HP, there's now distress (DL= distress level)

Distress increases with: 

Battle duration

Damage taken (healing proportionally reverses this) (lower HP = bigger increase)

Allies getting hit with Criticals

Allies getting low on HP

New enemy attacks that inflict negative emotions

Distress decreases with: 

Healing

Shields and buffs 

New distress-specific items

New neutral Craft ability: Breathe

Resets to 0 after battle victory

Effects of distress:

When personal distress hits a certain percentage, allies gain certain debuffs and/or buffs (intentionally made to show stress can be beneficial, up to a point)

20%: ATK/DEF/ATKSPD up (1)

40%: ATK/ATKSPD up (1), DEF down critically (2) (most mob fights stop around here)

60%: ATK up (1), DEF/ATKSPD down critically (2)

80%: ATK/DEF/ATKSPD down critically (2)

100%: Cannot act. Essentially frozen, can only be decreased with specific items/skills or battle end.

Siffrin only: 

As personal distress increases, the chance increases that Siffrin loses control of his strength, dealing massive damage 1.5x above a Critical, but at a cost. These are called Overclocked attack/Crafts (haha, get it?)

Overclocked attack: Hits all enemies and your party, lowering HP (including yourself)

Overclocked Craft: Increases both ally and enemy stress (including yourself)

80%: Act 5 Siffrin unlocked. Sprite permanently changed until distress is lowered under 50%. All attacks/Crafts are now Overclocked, and he only has DEF down critically. Allies gain distress 1.5x faster.

100%: Unleashes Wish Craft immediately (regardless of turn order), dealing massive damage to all enemies and allies, and brings HP down to 1. Gains special “Craft Sickness" status, where all stats are down critically for the remainder of the battle. 

This state is Siffrin instinctively attempting to go full bigfrin, but non-fatally stabs themself to keep their mind grounded :)

(You eventually obtain equips and/or Craft skills that minimizes the backlash of Siffrin's Overclocked hits and Wish Craft, making it a viable strategy to intentionally distress him. This has an effect on the story! It's not healthy to burn yourself out to achieve more in life, stop that.)

And that's all I have for now! I'm not sure if/when I'll get the urge to finish things up, but I have a super rough draft. Can you guess what the weird talking cat is about? :) Teehee

[beneathsilverstars]

au where siffrin takes their time to think about it and decides they don’t actually want to be with isabeau like that, ofc they love him but not in a romantic way that’s any different from their feelings for the other party members

and loop is about ready to throttle him again like. what do you MEAN you get isabeau and you don’t even WANT him!

so, okay, that’s perfect though right, no isafrin means there’s plenty of space for isaloop?

except! being the consolation prize siffrin is actually even worse than being the “date one siffrin get another of equal or lesser value free”!!

bonus points if loop’s identity hasn’t been revealed yet and isabeau does actually have a separate crush on loop. but he feels terrible about it, bc doesn’t it cheapen his feelings for siffrin to be falling for someone else so soon? what if it’s just a rebound thing?? and siffrin and loop are obviously so close what if they like each other??? and then when the reveal eventually DOES happen, that does NOT make it any simpler.

bonus bonus points if loop is also struggling to figure out if they’re actually into isa, or if the only reason they can say “ofc i’d want to date him if i was in your place” so easily is bc they aren’t? they think they want to, but maybe they’re just desperate to be special to someone, to be prioritized more than siffrin for once. maybe they would’ve truly loved isa, once upon a time, but they’re not actually capable of that sort of thing anymore. maybe they really do want to be with him and that’s exactly why they can’t, bc if loop gets something they want it will inevitably be taken away! maybe they want to, but they know it would be wrong to date isa without explaining who they are, and once they do that they’ll never be able to trust that isa wants them back for themself and not as a second chance at siffrin.

and siffrin just wants so badly for two of his favorite people to be happy, and maybe they could be happy together, and it would be so perfect… except for all of the ways that it’s messy and complicated and painful and difficult and imperfect instead. and even if there was anything he could do to help, siffrin is kinda the last person that either of them would want this sort of help from, right now. so he just has to watch, feeling guilty twice over.

[biblicallyaccuratecrow]

in stars and time but ghibli movies au braindump

nobody fucking asked for this but it's been plaguing me for weeks and i need other people to think about this with me

IDEA 1: Howl's Moving Castle x ISAT

I mean, come on.

Isa is Sophie. Listen. A hat shop? the themes around changing and transformation? learning to love someone who believes they don't deserve to be loved? Seriously. its perfect.

Sif is Howl. Self explainatory, but I'll talk a little more about it later.

Loop is Calcifer. Also self explainatory. If you know then you know.

Bonnie is Markl. I need more Siffirin as a mentor figure for Bonnie.

Odile is the Witch of the Wastes. Definitely not the same characterization as in the movie though. Don't think too hard about it I just didn't want to make her Turnip Head or something. Plus I think it's a funny idea that Odile does all that shit to Siffrin bc she suspects he did some forbidden magic shit. Basically Witch Hat Atelier.

Mirabelle is Sophie's sister from the verrrry beginning of the movie. she can be more included in the plot because I fucking said so. Maybe she would meet up with Isa when they settle back into the original town?

The King is Madame Sullivan. I have not been able to get the scene where she says "let's show your mother what you really are" out of my head beacuse. it's so so so much like what siffirn fears. also turning her followers into weird blob monsters? its sadnesses for real it works too well

Siffrin as Howl has been knocking around in my head for a while. A few things to note:

The hair dye scene. Siffrin's hair starts out black, and then turns white after. Initially it seems like it's a vanity thing, but their reaction is more because they're afraid of being seen as different.

Howl is a big crow thing. Odile has a cut line where she calls siffrin "little crow". do i really have to explain.

The "dream" sequence where sophie goes to find howl after he comes home injured. "Tell me what's wrong so I can help you!" "You're too late!" like. FUCK. it's them. it's them it's them it's them...

Actually pretty much any sophie and howl scene from the last act of the movie, in particular the one where sophie tells howl to run away... and howl says that they won't because they've finally found something they wanna protect,,,, bc they have a family,,,, ough,,,,,

i yearn for funny kinda isaloop moments (HE LIKES MY SPARKKK)

do i really gotta say it. the opening scene of isat. Loop's wish. eating the fucking star the entire fucking opening of this game is a howls moving castle reference-

there's a lot more i could say about this one but i also wanna talk about my other ideas....

IDEA 2: Castle In The Sky x ISAT

hi, I love castle in the sky, am definitely normal about it, have definitely not made prior aus about it for totk, definitely not

Siffrin is Sheeta. just a random guy with special powers who came from a sky (star) centric civilization that has been forgotten by everyone? yeah. yeah that's. yup.

Isa is Patsu. not much to say there, just. they share a lot of similarities. except isa has more braincells. Also the idea of engineer Isa workin on the planes is enjoyable to me.

Odile is Dola. Listen. I need pirate Odile in my life. I need it with my whole body and soul. She would be wonderful. So full of piss and vinegar.

Mirabelle and Bonnie are members of Odile's crew, they got picked up along their journeys. Mira is there? because she's running form the secret police (Muska/The King ig)and Bonnie is there bc Nille is a mechanic who basically keeps the whole ship running

Muska is The King. There's not a lot I gotta say about this, other than Muska is genuinely the most terrifying Ghibli villain ever and is the reason why i watch this movie in dub (thank you Mark Hamill), so a lot of the conversations surrounding Laputa kinda remind me of the country

The Lost Country is Laputa, enough said, an entire country that has been forgotten by seemingly the entire world with technology and magic that is so powerful that it could quite literally lead to the destruction of humanity, yep yep yep

i also like the thought of the giant gem in the center of laputa being a star...

Misc ideas that I haven't really fleshed out as much:

Princess Mononoke: Siffrin is San. Isa is Ashitaka???? i guess???? Odile is Moro, Bonnie and Mira are the two unnamed wolf gods. The King is lady eboshi. the universe is the forest spirit, and triggers the red shade when it's head is severed. the kodamas are the little change god statues.

Spirited Away: Siffrin is Haku. the forgotten name, the loss of identity, the badassery... they've got it all. Bonnie as Chihiro, if you make it weird it's ON SIGHT, uhhhh loop as Kaonashi/No Face, The King as Yubaba, Euphrasie as Zeniba, Odile as Lin (I LOVE THE IDEA OF ODILE AS LIN WITH MY WHOLE SOUL, where is more hurt/comfort of odile and siffrin MY GOD-), beyond that i have zero idea who mira and isa would be ;w;

anyways yall have fun with this one

[clairaworlds]

SIFFREN CLOAK POST TIME BBY.

Tl;dr: In my opinion the backstiching on Siffrin's cloak is used to reinforce the seams, the cloak likely has a lining flatlined into the cloak, and if you'll allow me to offer a headcannon, hand sewn.

More in depth analysis and examples below

Ok to start, let's go over Isabeau's dialog about the cloak. I'll put it in full here, other characters comments are cut out.

So right here, right, that's super interesting stitching. It's backstitching, right, which is a very solid kind of stitching, and it's used in a lot of different places... But Vaugardian clothing in general is moving away from backstitching, because, well, we think it's boring. Like here, my clothing here has something called chainstitching, and also it's in a zigzag shape, because it looks cuter I guess. But backstitching is just more durable. Now that I look at it, your hat has the same stitching too... I wonder if they were a set? And, um, look at the way the cloak is weaved, too! It's wool, and it goes one thread up, one thread down, et cetera... But, again, Vaugardian clothing likes to be more interesting visually, so if you look at Mira's cloak--

...

No, no, I'm not saying it's boring!!!!! I'm just saying it's like... It's clothing that's less like Vaugarde, or even Ka Bue's artistic clothing... It's less clothing that's to make you look pretty, or make you stand out, and more clothing that's here to keep you comfy and warm. Function over form, you know?

…

So, um, what I'm SAYING is... Considering the Craft that came into it... The temperature regulation and how it grows with you... Whoever gave you this cloak wanted to make sure you're gonna be nice and comfy for a long time, Sif!

Note: I'm not a tailor, I've made a few garments and I embroder but that's about it. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Alright, first what is he even talking about? Here's a quick example of the two stitches Isabeau mentioned and a running stich which is probably the most basic stich

Please ignore my inability to sew in a straight line. Also my horrid chain stich. I did not do it justice there so here's a better example of how it looks

we can ignore Isabeau's incorrect opinions on what qualifies as an interesting stich bc he's probably talking more about the cultural differences between Siffrin's cloak and Vaugardian clothing. Which I'll admit IS intresting. But what stuck out to me is the fact that Isabeau can see the stitching at all. Most garments hide the majority of their stitching. You can see the seams sure, but the atual stichwork is typically on the inside.

As you can see here, now that IS a cloak, and the seem hides the stichwork, the next option is that isabeau is looking at either the hem or the collar, i dout it's the collar just bc that's really close to Sif's neck/face and also bc it might not have any visible stitching either. The hem line is a possibility but if Siffrin's cloak has a lineing it might not show any visible stitching either.

Atually let's talk about lineings real quick. I imagen Siffrin's cloak has one, for several reasons, I think it'd be cool, I think it'd work with the idea that the cloak is designed to survive a LONG time becuase it reinforces and protects the garment, and it works with some fun headcannons i have. Here's an example of a lined cloak, the outside is the shiny later, the inside has the hand-embroidered stars. I'm focusing on the seems in thease pictures but a lined cloak might hide ALL its stiches including the hems.

Although that's IF the cloak is bag lined, which is a process that leaves the lineing and the outside as mostly separate layers. You basically sew two garments then stich them together at the edges. But i have a feeling Siffrin's cloak is flat lined, not bag lined, so you basically attach the lineing to the outside and sew it together like it's one peice of fabric, the lineing dosnt move as much and honestly it comes out a little nicer. So that means the stichwork would still be visible on the inside of the cloak AND the hem, but I have a feeling Isa wasn't just holding Siffrin's cloak inside out to show off the stitching, and i don't think he was talking about the hem because it's not really a load bearing structure if that makes sense and it seems to me like Isa is talking about something that would benefit from being reinforced. So what's he talking about.

Well look at this

There we go! Visable stitching on the outside of a garment!!! So what's the difference here? A couple of things but the best summary I have is: the seem is reinforced by being stiched down. Here's an example on a different garment.

To test this, I grabbed some scrap fabric and tried it out i also did a quick hem with a backstich just to see how it'd look. I used contrasting thread to make it visable

I also think Siffrin's cloak is a full circle cloak constructed with two halves sewn together like the bottom example here

This is generally eaiser to construct than a four piece version and atually HAS seems unlike a single pice verdhion. Admittedly it may be a challenge depending on the width of the fabric, although if it was made when Sif was a kid and Crafted to grow with him that's much less of an issue

So! That's my two cents on the stitching on Siffrin's cloak. Honestly I would LOVE to make a Siffrin cloud but fabric is expensive and I can't really afford it, i also don't have the time. For now I should focous on finishing the star cloak I showed earlier, incase anyones curious here's the full inside of that cloak as of now

Here's some other headcannons related to fabric and sewing.

First sewing macheens and other textile production macheens exist. I know isat is a veaugly fantasy historical style setting but I'll die on the hill that there's some sort of quicker way to produce textiles, primarily because fabric, fiber and clothing has historically been massively important and I have a hard time imaging that craft isn't capable of making fabric quicker.

Related to that, I think part of the reason Crafted clothing (like Sif's stuff) is more rare is becuase it has to be hand made. Maybe not hand spun and woven and sewn but in my head the more steps you do by hand the more it's Crafted.

In that veign I think Siffrin's contry has a tendency twards hand-made stuff. There are reasons for this but it's mostly vibes. Honestly I think all of isat puts a higher emphasis on arts and crafts than the real world but I like the idea that Sif's contry espechally focuses on the hand made, it makes sense with the whole ritual thing, there are plenty of rituals and superstitions arround hand-made goods.

In contrast Vaugarde trends twards evolution of techniques and technology, where someone from Siffrin's contry may be a master at an ancient technique that's been passed down for generations, a Vaugardian crafter will have developed their own unique style and often prioritizes astetics above convince, not to the point of it being low quality (like fast fashion) but more like "I decided to use two diffrent fabrics to make stripes insted of just one solid color fabric even though it's more work becuase it looks cool" Ka Bue has a heavy focous on tradition but also artistic vision, i kinda imagen it as the ballance between the two ends of the spectrum, but in a totally different way.

Next i think Siffrin's contry likes incorporating subtle decorations, like the hat with the stars on the lineing, or useing visable stitching on seams both to reinforce it and bc it's prity--sewing in a straight line is HARD, doing a backstich with consistent stichlenghts is harder, doing both by hand is impressive, having the stitching appear on the outside of the cloak would be a deliberate choice becuase you CAN just reinforce a seem on the inside of a garment. Admittedly that might be what's going on if we assume Isabeau is looking at the internal construction insted of any vidable stichwork. So yeah, function over form but with some subtle detailing.

Is this just an excuse for me to pretend that the lineing of Siffrin's cloak is hand embroidered with stars? Yes! But you can pry this headcanon out of my cold, dead hands! I love hand embroidered stars on the inside of a cloak, i literally own a cloak that i made that's like that!! (I'll finish it one day I swair! I just made a mistake and attached the lineing b4 I did the embrodery, like an idiot, and it's really annoying to work on!!)

One last thing I think is interesting is the use of the word "cloak" cloaks typically go over the shoulders and CAN close in the frount, but are still open. I'd describe Sif's cloak more as a poncho, and Mira's cloak as a shawl, but there really arnt any perfict words for every garment, so cloak is a good enough word. It'd also make sense if "cloak" is just the word for "outer layer garment that goes over the shoulders like that" in the world of isat.

[aroace-poly-show]

i think about siffrin knowing how to wish properly from the start all the time cause like. i know theres so many things about him just like that. things he does learned from his culture that now he doesn’t have any reason behind it bc he can’t remember. its so. ougfjvhjdsbk

[startagainaprologue]

Grins Ok well in that case the Equinox questions.

Are they a fusion of Siffrin and Mirabelle in terms of personality/memories/etc (steven universe style....) or is it more of a plural type situation (or something else entirely)

What caused Mira to give up along with Sif in the first place/how come they couldn't get outta the loops together?

How does she interact with Siffrin and Mirabelle?

I'd think of more questions but to be honest I'm being obliterated by the sun rn I'm just drastically curious abt your guy (I see the words Sif + Mira anything and my ears perk up like a dog)

(putting these together since they kind of tread similar ground)

i cannot really say for certain bc im not plural myself and such but. from what ive heard from friends while talking abt equinox thats kind of the situation happening. DEFINITELY not a steven universe situation. they share a body and. can hear eachothers thoughts (<- vvery disorienting at first. well i mean the everything was the universe jsut kinda scrambled them together and put them together in a human-ish mold) but still are both kinda separate in their head??? odd phrasing MY APOLOGIES.

2. This one is one im a bit unsure on..?? just having trouble figuring out the giving up together thing. was it still a mostly siffrin thing and mira got caught up in it as well? (<- would be a bit fucked idk if id go with that one, did a kind of jokey drawing abt it though) did they both agree to do it? gotta.figure it out...mmy au it was jsut born.

as for why they couldnt get out together i think its just.. idk with the way sasasap is idk even with two loopers if it was smth they couldve figured out the reason too. or well.they gave up before they could,, since i imagine not long after beating the king for the first time is when the giving up happens. bc. good lird. i would too man!

3. files this away under (things i gotta iron out more) bc. ouu. loop and mira r already kind of. characters i wanna try writing more bc i dont feel i got them down super well so combining them and making smth out of it proves. a challenge ! but i will try o7. a bit similar to canon loop in a way but.yknow.obv differences.. im trying to figure out whhoo their guiding though? bc ive rlly only just thought abt it being only siffrin but theres plenty of other ways to go abt it i think would be neat

SQUEAKS sorry if the phrasing here at all is odd but!!hope i made sense o7 IF U HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS SEND ME TO THEM ANYTIME I WILL CHEW ON THEM A GREAT AMOUNT. siffrin and mira mmy friends i do think abt them a lot. into the dimension with them

[lucabyte]

I am alone in the three-part folding mirror on the bathroom door

[chronologically-challenged]

Everything around the Isabeau confession is so well written.

Firstly, the set up. When you're playing the game, killing the King is just a vague goal. A natural one! But other than the vague desire to hit an end point, there isn't really a strong emotional reason compelling the player forward. But Isabeau!!! Telling you he will tell you something once you beat the King!!! That!!! That is a tangible goal to lean onto especially over time as you get more and more endeared to the whole party. Even if you're not aware of it being a love confession, getting to Isabeau to hear what he has to say is still a compelling reason get to the end.

And if you're Aware of how these things go for stories like these, you may also say, "Well shit, we're not gonna get a confession until the end of the game, are we?"

Second, the interruptions. The order of the interruptions are so quietly brilliant. I can't get over it. Bonnie interrupting first is such an excellent choice. You know Bonnie!!! Bonnie has been jumping into conversations all game so far. So interrupting Isabeau doesn't seem all that out of place. Then Mirabelle interrupts next time. And you go, okay. Thats two of three.... but surely Odile won't interrupt, right? By this point, the player has seen Odile tease Isabeau multiple times about him liking Siffrin, so surely she won't interrupt... right? Right??? But she does. And despite it being obvious that she would, the player is still left in tension if she would.

The way things are set up, there's a plausible deniability each time. You don't expect the first interruption, Bonnie naturally would interrupt so Mirabelle could be surprising, and Odile interrupting feels so outside of what she'd usually do that you don't expect it.

And yet!!!! Saying all this!!! This is very tropey!!! Very time loop tropey!!! Stopping people from messing things up so you can have your moment is quintessential time loop tropes and yet!!! It doesn't feel tropey due to good characterization and story structure.

(And if you do realize that all three are going to interrupt from the beginning, you get a wave of DREAD when you realize that you're going to be here. Again and again. That you have to beat the King again and again and again... and as you watch the confession fizzle, seeing the Head Housemaiden there, despite Siffrin's happy demeanor, you can't help but feel it all about to crash down before it even happens. In that moment you have a taste of what the game is about to put you through).

Third, the family quests. I have two points here. Firstly, "yelling at your screen like it's a telenovela" is the best summary of my feelings on the stargazing scene. Even if you KNOW Isabeau isn't going to confess until the end of the game bc that's how these things go, it won't happen until the end because that's how good writing works, You Still Want It To Happen. So Badly. You want Isabeau to confess to Siffrin!!! You want that tension to release!!! But you have to watch and see that perfect confession slip away every time and it hurts to watch, especially if you do the quests multiple times. Second point is the fact you can't continue the Isabeau confessions on a family run kills me. It's so good. Like you're never going to get everything in one go no matter what you do so you have to pick and choose. And!!! That plays into Siffrin feeling like he's manipulating Isabeau!!!

Of course Siffrin isn't actually manipulating Isabeau but when you're so aware of what you're doing and how events could have played out, it's difficult not to see a situation where you changed the outcome as manipulation. Which... of course leads us to Siffrin's feelings at the end of trying to stop the interruptions...

Fourth, Isabeau stopping himself when confessing. It hurts so good. Idk just. Denying the player that payoff. Denying Siffrin that moment of confession. Because really Siffrin didn't learn the lesson needed to actually get this moment of vulnerability between the two of them. It's such a genius choice that brings that awful dread and hopelessness. And in the end, I suppose all five of them stop the confession from happening because from that point onward, Siffrin interrupts the confession every time. Siffrin doing everything they can to get what they want only to accept that they're never going to get it. Never CAN get this because he doesn't deserve it.

Finally, bad touch. People have talked about bad touch enough, so I dont need to go too far with it. I will say I appreciate how much it doubles down on subverting the "romancing someone in a time loop" narrative. These loops while in some ways made Siffrin more perceptive, they're also PAINFUL. They mess with his head, lean towards making worse and worse decisions, and a large part of that is his role in his family's lives. Especially with Isabeau!!! So yeah. Of course the surprise kiss doesn't go well. Especially with the context that Isabeau doesn't think Siffrin wants to be touched let alone kissed? It ends in disaster just like most of the sidequests do.

In general, the ongoing Isabeau plot is very well implemented. The seeds for it are planted immediately, and it takes a lot of commitment to see all the parts of it. As a result, unless you try to do a ton of runs in act 3 immediately just to get the confession, it's a very slow burn part of the story, doing well to parallel Siffrin's mental state and the growing hopelessness in the loops. It grounds the story in a tangible goal from the beginning and in many ways, once you get to the end of it, get to bad touch, you're left bereft. Something... lost after you spent so much time being aware of Isabeau. That tangible feeling that you're slowly running out of things to do, of ways to spend these two days.

(And of course, then you have act 6 confession, and the pure relief, the joy in finally having the confession after it being set up from act 1. Siffrin doesn't need to reciprocate for it to have its impact. Something has CHANGED they have changed. And finally FINALLY after all this time, the moment can happen. And it's beautiful).

[stuffyflowers]

idk if this is a fic someone's written already but

ceroba time travel au..... thoughts ? whether it's to the start of the game's timeline or all the way to before chujin and kanako's deaths.

if it's the latter, she is not going to let her husband experiment on himself (though he might just do it anyway)... and when clover falls, she will at least be there to reason with chujin (not an easy task)

Ooooh…… I feel like most ppl who follow me know im not the biggest fan of “all the ketsukanes live/get un-amalgamated” au stuff but this is a really interesting way to go about it. The before the loss of her family route is the most intriguing option that I wanna rant abt, im thinking during game but before pacifist ending -> after integrity but before experiments as the timeline here

On the surface, it does feel like the solution to all her problems, her family is back! But like. I feel she’d get very self destructive with it. She’d go abt it in a real siffrin isat way: initially seeing it as a miracle before it slowly destroys her in an entirely new way, and not telling anyone abt it bc it’s her mess to clean up.

Like ok. Knowing that your husband kept an entire second life hidden from you, exaggerated his abilities to encourage you to finish the job, put his experiments before his own family… she should berate him, she should be angry! But,,, I don’t think she would, at least outwardly. She knows how miserable it was to lose him so she’d rather not address the cracks in the foundation of their relationship and risk losing him again. She has to pretend she discovers his secrets “on accident” or some shit to be as non confrontational as possible. Either way, their relationship is falling apart. How can she know he’s not gonna do it all again anyway while she’s not looking? Her trust and devotion can only be spread so thin…

With Kanako, I think she’d start having a lot of doubt her parenting abilities given what she allowed to happen. She ends up becoming more and more distant, which is awful for kanako if we’re assuming this takes place after integrity when she needs more comfort than ever before. Can she even look her in the eye knowing what she did to her before? Just for some stupid experiment????? And god. Do you think when she goes to tuck her in every night, the routine “love you lots” exchange just. Reminds her even further.

And man. Clover. She’d definitely be more hesitant to go along with any plan to kill them. That decision was heavily influenced by her whole sunk cost situation: if she doesn’t do it, chujin and kanakos sacrifices were for nothing. Outside of that, her views are a little different to chujins. We know she still values the idea of monsterkinds freedom greatly (“tomorrow means the surface… when do you think tomorrow will come? because it’s been today my whole life” or whatever that line was) but she sees humans a little more similarly to martlet, actually, with chujin planting that seed of doubt in both of them that they only act upon in certain circumstances (the “Chujin was right” line in her vengeance fight. She def has doubts in the whole humans are ruthless narrative outside of this route). If she met clover before the time travel she’d feel even more conflicted given they are. Just a little guy.

I could honestly see her going either way with the clover situation, depending on a whole lot of other factors and how they’d play out. Does she end up helping in chujins plan anyway, just convincing herself she just needs to do it “right” this time by not involving kanako? Does she realise that this was never right, that an innocent kid shouldn’t have to die just for an experiment with no guarantee to succeed? Does she do a secret third thing that rips her apart in an entirely different way? Godddddd the possibilities

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

FUCK YEAH I FOUND A POST I WAS LOOKING FOR

THIS ONE RIGHT HERE https://www.tumblr.com/abyssal-author-and-artist/763659972027514880/my-objection-to-people-who-say-they-never-would?source=share

CRAB YEAH I WAS LOOKING FOR THIS ONE FOR SO LONG AND I FOUND IT

I was looking for it bc my opinion on what I wrote here doesn't completely translate to isat but some of these thoughts I was remembering and I was like "I should find that timeloop post and relate it to Siffrin because I totally can)

"No one but you remembers the previous iterations of the day. On that note, every single person other than you will take the same actions every single day unless affected by your actions somehow. So here we have our time loop. You, in this scenario at least, are a rational person - a person who has a full grasp of logic and human emotions. You act based on a healthy mix of logical reasoning and emotional impulses. I'm aware this isn't going to be true for everyone, but it's easiest to define "you" as a rational person whose behavioral patterns we can predict. For this exercise, an irrational person is a person who is unable to make decisions based on logic - as opposed to a person who simply doesn't choose to make decisions based on logic. If you are unable to look at a decision logically and take in all information before making a decision, you are an irrational person. If you can but choose not to, you are a rational person choosing to act irrationally."

Those are the rules I set out. One of the rules is missing but that's because I defined the day as being "as normal a day as you can imagine" and that doesn't fit. But other than that, that's In Stars and Time. Like that's the timeloop. That's Sif. Sif is, by this definition, a rational person.

"Let's go hang out with your friends. That should work, right? Well, it does until it doesn't. You get into a fight with your best friend that you're seething about 20 resets later. You meet a new person and hit it off amazingly but can't replicate that energy any other time you meet them (they think you're creepy because you act like you already know them). You can't make or further any meaningful relationship."

Hmm, you can't make or further any meaningful relationship? Using a callback to the rules I laid out "On that note, every single person other than you will take the same actions every single day unless affected by your actions somehow", that sounds like everyone's following a script and you can't change anything about your relationships, and if you do you'd just manipulate them into "changing". Now, where have we heard that before? Oh, what, Act 5? Mal du Pays? Everything Siffrin says to himself?

"You are now an irrational person. ... every single interaction is pointless, so you've lost the ability to engage with the world around you rationally. If this seems fast, keep in mind two things. Two hundred is a lot and this isn't 200 days, this is the same day 200 times. You've lived this one day 200 times. You can't change anything."

Double that so it's the same two days 200 times and that's just called Act 5. Siffrin has lost the ability to be a rational person. They're just a mess. A disaster. Too emotionally destroyed to use logic. Think that's an insane conjecture? Might I direct your attention to Sif's act 5 meltdown again? Where they decide, against all logic, that the only way to break the loop is if he's the one to land the hit on the king. Yeah, that's not a thing a rational person would do.

"In fact, you're likely to kill yourself before anyone else. And you do. Multiple times. Often on a whim - again, you're now an irrational person. You just went "that sounds fun right now" and did it."

"You can now loop back using your dagger." Do I need to explain this citation more.

And look at that! I linked a thing I wrote a while ago to In Stars and Time! Whoo!

[acerikus]

thought about your forgotten island residents post from yesterday and thought about a funny fun fun addition to what i said on it with how they saw the country wish breaking when sif and king tried to say the name of the island: the near end of act 5.

this is mostly just my hc, but i like to think that with bigfrin and the whole universe and world slowly tearing in on itself, the forces that hold wishes together just momentarily stopped, especially whatever wish kept the island in particular forgotten from the world.

do you think that its residents on one faithful day, saw the skies tear apart? do you think they saw siffrin's figure in the distant, and almost immediately, terrifyingly, knew who that was? that for how long it has been since they, and anyone who has went missing, he was still as recognizable as ever from the day he set out and never returned? do you think siffrin's parents saw them during that moment? did they all knew that this power, this grief, this unimaginable sadness all comes from a single point, in which they knew that this is what happens to those who cannot return home? that the homesickness in his heart managed to explode so loud and bright that it could be felt from where they stood? even if they didn't know the details, even if they didn't know the reason, it was almost tangible and sensible enough to be true?

when it all ended, did they stare out into the bleak sea for a long time, the wish returning to hide them once more? could they even know what to do with what they saw? so many went out to search for people like siffrin, and none came back. why would it be different now?

(the post in question)

I've had this sitting in my inbox for days bc every time I look at it I wanna explode. AUGHHHHHHHHH... Them getting to see him, to know he's out there, to know on some level that their home is loved and missed and that everybody who ever vanished from it wants so deeply to be able to come home again, to see their families again, their country... But something is holding them back. They're out there and they're alive and they want to be there so badly but they can't.

But even if they can't come back, the people of the island are still loved by all those who left. The rituals and the lightless sands, the people, the culture... They can't leave the island, if they don't want to risk this happening to them. They can't lose anyone else, especially not now they know the magnitude of the grief of those who leave. Their loved ones may be alive, but they can't see them again. But... But at the very least, they're out there. And no matter what stands in their way, on some level, they are still loved.