#I will not try to name the loop-isa-sif ship

[isatartdump]

Mindless sketches...

isaffrin save me, save me isaffrin... and also... Sifloop...isa?

[rose-petal123]

love love LOVE the shells and tides au and all the designs you have been putting out for ittt waahh… definitely it is on my list of things to draw at some point …. :>

in your king post though you mention the au being no time loops. for my own curiosity, IS there a plot you have in mind? or general story? 👀 or anything ur willing to share?? vv interested…

Hello yes! I do kind of have a storyline of sorts! Mostly basic background info on what the au is about etc.

Mirabelle quite literally found Siffrin hiding under a rock! They are extremely unfamiliar with waters outside of where they come from. They don't know surface customs etc, So Mirabelle teaches them the primary language! Though being merfolk they also can communicate with little whistles and clicks etc. Mirabelle teaches Siffrin a lot about what places are safe etc. The two are basically inseparable until Mira is comfortable with Siffrin swimming off on their own and not getting themself into trouble!

Mirabelle and Siffrin live in a sunken ship together! They both like to collect any trinkets and shells they find! Nille and Bonnie are friends of theirs! (They live in a nearby underwater cave)

When Siffrin is in the middle of becoming fluent in vaugardian, they notice a boat above! Mirabelle explains the concept of humans to them and such. Siffrin, being a curious little fella swims up there and discovers Odile, who's a pirate captain, and Isabeau! Along with the rest of their crew. Siffrin, who likes giving gifts like shells to his friends, starts leaving shells for the crew in attempt to make friends with them. Isabeau starts collecting the shells because Ooo pretty!!

One day Isabeau catches Siffrin putting shells on the deck. They make awkward eye contact with each other and then Sif swims off. Isabeau tells Odile about what he saw, and against Odile's warnings about Sirens, Isabeau decides he's going to try to befriend Siffrin! (Which is very successful)

Isabeau definitely helped in Siffrin's ability to speak fluently. They tend to exchange gifts with each other!

I don't want to make this post ridiculously long so that's what I'll give you for now along with these last couple points of info,

Siffrin introduces Mira to Isa, they become friends

Odile finds out about Isa befriending merfolk and hesitantly over time warms up to them as well.

Odile tells Mirabelle and Siffrin lots of stories! She'll read books to Mirabelle

Siffrin lost their eye protecting Bonnie from a smaller sea monster. Nille killed said sea monster

Mirabelle was given a starfish from Siffrin as a sign of their friendship! Sif has one too! Siffrin also made the bracelet Isabeau has ❤️

Nille found Loop, known as Sandy, while gathering sea urchins with Sif and Bonnie! (I plan to make a mini comic page with this.)

Yes that's right. I made Loop a sassy albino sea urchin named Sandy that can talk. They sit on a crate in the sunken ship and make fun of and or give advice to Mira and Sif.

[lucabyte]

Okaaaaaay so this thing. Happy weekend everybody it's time for some Director's Commentary™!!!

right. so this thing was originally part of a far larger Thing. Sadly, I realised I was absolutely in the wrong medium for what I was trying to communicate with it. After about 5-6 different takes on how I was going to format it I realised I wasn't just out of my depth but just like, not making something condusive to a comic. Still though, I liked what I was trying to communicate and I don't want to just scrap it without giving it to everyone in some form.

So...! In an ask way back I mentioned what i like to call The Isabeau Torment Nexus vis a vis: loop hanging out with the party in postcanon.

Namely the idea of isiloops *almost* happening before loop's identity is made clear. now i vaguely made fun of myself for this in the tags but yeah, no, even if what i draw is all the conflict, like 90% of the time i bash the dolls together in my head its like 😊💖🌺yaaaay yippiee what if they healed and it was niceys even through the rough patches yaaay✨✨✨😊💖🌺 which is kinda necessary for this rugpull, logistically.

So. I point to the link up there. All that still stands. The idea of a like. "siffrin has two hands" ship dynamic forming as Loop slowly re-integrates into the party as a new person and even if it's weird and a little bitter, it's still nice. And if you ascribe to my readings of certain party members (bonnie. it's bonnie*) maybe they even end up becoming closer to them As Loop than they did as siffrin due to knowing their boundaries already and not having Fucked Up Real Bad In Act 5. So they just become another party member with their own unique relationships even if they are a little prickly and unpredictable with triggers, seemingly.

Nowwwww a bit of analysis on Siffrin and Isabeau.

So. Isabeau is a far less well adjusted individual than most initially read him as, and even if he manages to get over the posessive streak he super has, he then has to contend with something else: accusations of cowardice.

While I think pre-game isafrin would be a fucking . catastrophy . i don't know that either of those two would be able to recognise that. and I think that it's likely that Isabeau doesn't really enjoy the knowledge that he chickened out of the confession that consistently. And that, potentially because of this, Sif felt themselves unlovable.

So! Proactivity! Change! Be more forward from now on! Maybe that will help! (and usually it would!)

then, I feel, while we never see how Siffrin truly acts around Loop in a "knowing who they are for certain" state, it would't be an unfair assumption that they may, both, on occasion err on the side of "i probably know what the other wants, since we have the same brain". Which is like, pretty logical, and is at the very least utilised and acknowledged by Loop outright joking about exactly what Siffrin is thinking in-game.

Ergo... Siffrin and Isabeau coming to the conclusion together that maybe they could just close the open side on the polycule triangle, and it'd be cool and nice and solve a bunch of loose ends? If we assume that Loop has cooled off enough to at least be cordial (maybe even friendly!) with Isabeau after however long its been, and that Isa has been charmed by them (almost as if they . kinda like when weird short freaks are mean to him), if Isa approaches Sif with a "hey would this be a good idea?", Siffrin, knowing who Loop is, and seeing that they aren't completely antagonistic of Isa... Well? Wouldn't it make sense? He knows they still love him, right? So..?

and thus. gestures. what if 2/3rds of the polycule had a pretty reasonable idea that seems like it'd go well, and then. it very much. does not.

^^^ AS YOU CAN SEE. TOO MUCH TO REALLY COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY IN ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF A REASONABLY LONG-TERM FANFIC which is a thing i will not be doing.

and not only that. god this is way too far off into the future speculative for my comfort. i know i obviously dip into more of a fanfiction-space than a pure-analytical space when drawing anyway, but this is just a little too far off for me.

but yeah. that's this. that's free ball for everyone to play with now, now that it's out in the wild.

buuut. but. i didn't realise i was going way too long with this until after the thumbnail pile started getting a touch insurmountable.

so. since waste not want not, here's my thumbnails. sad i wont be finishing a couple of these since i like their flow and framing but c'est la vie.

these are all from june, including the original version of the one i decided was strong enough to finish on its own. as you can see i tossed the dialogue and changed the last panel due to the more wordless nature. But i do still like a lot of the faces here n such. also its funny to show off how messy it all starts out. Sorry that the speech isn't formatted at all but hopefully it's followable if you try matching it up.

but yeah. god. be free my post. this thing has been a sword of damocles above me for a while since i wanted to articulate. all this. but i think it's fine to just lay it all out like this for everyone to take if they want it.

i suppose the one final note here is: oh yeah btw i think framing this as The Thing that finally makes Loop break and have to come clean about their identity is the fucking good shit. Like they vanish until nearly daybreak that night after this, Sif can't find their dagger, etc, and when they finally come back loop is very blunt about how they have to talk. now. or else. sorry this is fanfiction again. free to take though if you want it im not gonna be writing it 💖

*(bonnieeeeeee..... hijacking this isiloops post to talk about like. god. have you ever thought about how loop could score a slam dunk so easily with bonnie if they remember to treat them with a level of maturity and no-bullshit explanations of harder topics? loop basically gets a fresh no-baggage start with them if they play their cards right, which could lead to a very fruitful relationship? but also uagh. what do you do if you (siffrin) find out your alt-self has become a more trusted figure in the kid's life than you in like no time flat. god. i think about it.)

Olive Branch

Wrong Move