#<- for the. the memory of sadnesses siffrin thing..

[murmurmurl]

I didn't want to post any isat fanart yet, but ough I am so unwell.. I must...

+ doodles

[sysig]

Wuh oh (Patreon)

Bonus:

The novel experience of being crushed by a giant rock, a visual metaphor

[loop-lover-central]

At least one(1) person asked for it. SO-

We'll start with some stuff from the isat spoiler Q&A

Let's get started!

-There is only one canonical straight shot timeline that technically erases the prologue from existence. When looping back the previous timeline is completely overwritten, like saving over your save file in a game! It's all gone! Despite this, when you start a new game you're making an entirely new Siffrin to torment. So at least you're not making the same Siffrin go through hell again and again! *sweeps Loop under rug* Don't look at that. Don't worry about them. They're fine.

-While wish craft and other craft types are described to have a smell, time craft does not! I mean, what would time craft even smell like anyway? Clocks???

-Mirabelle's time freeze immunity will wear off eventually!

-Loop could actually be still comfortable with He/They. While the time loops did put them through it, the They/Them was mostly for anonymity. But there WAS some sort of identity shift. So you can and should have fun with Loop pronouns. Do it! Do it!!!

-Despite the island being forgotten, it's still physically there the entire game and before that! So it being lost is purely anti-memetic fuckery. It is just censored out by the universe.

-Loop and Siffrin sitting quietly together was originally a bug where ID5 accidentally softlocked Siffrin and trapped him at the tree. They thought it was a sweet moment of respite and implemented it.

Let's Switch it up! Reddit AMA

-There was originally a love triangle between proto Mira, Isa, and Sif before Mirabelle was made aroace. It probably would have ended in an OT3/polycule situation. So QPR MiraIsaSif truthers out there, enjoy this one.

-The idea of Loop being Siffrin came about during saap's developement. Originally the guide for isat was going to be one of ID5's ocs.

-Change God knows everything about meta because they are a God. Loop only gets a smidgen of meta knowledge, however.

-Loop's ability to see what Siffrin is up to works the same way their calls work! The farther Siffrin is, the harder it is. So Loop calls stop working past snack break 3, and Loop can barely see past the King.

-Isabeau wouldn't play video games. He touches grass.

-Siffrin was subconsciously inspired by Snufkin, from The Moomins. So we wouldn't have Siffrin as he is if everyone wasn't rabid over Moomins a few years back.

-Sadnesses ARE are a constant in the world of isat. They only become more common and poweful during times of great duress, like war or Insane False Monarchs with timey wimey powers

-The doppleganger wish in the selfcest book happened "a long time ago" and is only a child's tale now.

-Odile's name is her given name. Kinda. (No elaboration on what the fuck THAT means.)

-Siffrin only got memory issues after leaving home. They were not a forgetful child.

-At one point before they had names, Isabeau was just called "dude".

-While only called scrawny in game, Adrienne calls Siffrin "deathly thin". Metabolism monarch out here. (Probably all the casual wish craft.)

-The reason the party stops reacting to Sif's poking is just because it's tragic and makes things worse for him. That's it. The universe just hates him.

-Everyone but Odile would like rollercoasters.

-Just... this. This is so funny. Also Loop being the final boss while Siffrin is the secret final boss... Also Loop confirmed deity looking!!!

-"comic!siffrin is a whole different siffrin than game!siffrins sadly. rip to them. still stuck in time" WAY TO FUCK ME UP ON A MONDAY? Comicfrin is still stuck in time.

-The characters have official voice claims but not a single one is serious except for the King's. Mira sounds like Animal crossing isabelle(isa.belle. hm.). Bonnie sound like a inkling from splatoon (ID5 specifically used the female inkling as example). Odile sounds old. Isabeau quantum mechanically sounds flamboyantly gay or like All Might from MHA. Loop sounds like stock glitter sound fx. No Siffrin voice claim. Siffrin has video game protagonist voices which means they sound like whatever you want.

-Loop's glow is comparable to a lamp. Not enough to hurt the eyes.

Siffrin and Friends Q&A time!!(Beware these are SEMI-CANON)

-Siffrin isn't really a trap master. They're just fast enough to activate and dodge the traps.

-Odile doesn't like fennel.

-Fave flowers! Bonnie=Sunflowers, Odile=Orchids, Mira=Lavender, Isa=Roses, Siffrin=None, dubiously answered with dandelions however.

-Sif is a night owl, Bon and Mira are early birds, and Odile and Isa are average.

-Siffrin and Odile have probably eaten crabs and would tempt Bonnie with their sinful ways of consuming crustaceans.

-Odile has been traveling for about 2 years.

-Odile knows how to play a shamisen. It's one of her favorite instruments as well.

-When prompted with competition Loop and Siffrin stare each other down like "kids about to throw hands".

-Loop would like to eat a pastry if they could. GIVE THEM YOUR BAKED GOODS NOW!

-Kill the King day is a Tuesday.

And finally random trivia I found while sniffing through the wiki!

-Salty broths actual cure 6 cooldown, instead of 2 like the dialogue implies.

-Chateau means castle. The cursing of castle castle...

-The Change God face with six eyes and a cat-like mouth is inspired by ID5's oc Eye Gal

-The only time tears can freeze Siffrin with no warning is in saap. By using the second Star Crest to clear one of the rows of Tears, you can just walk into the second row and freeze.

-The dev's older notes mention specific shades being used for hair dyes but they're never mentioned in-game because of the an unadded event.

-In ACT 2, there's a small chance Siffrin says "Heheh… Bonk." when activating the switch for the rock trap

-Saap Bonnie thinks nuts are gross according to some unused dialogue, but enjoys raisins.

-During early development in saap tears were originally intended to be spike traps. A left over sprite of Siffrin being impaled does exist, including minor blood spurt. This was probably changed because it was a little too gruesome, ID5 definitely tried to reel in the darker concepts and has stated they went too dark sometimes.

-Loop turning back into Siffrin was considered long enough for them to get an entire animated walking sprite.

[canonicallyginger]

Isabeau, who says he killed the person he was. Loop, who gave up being the person they were only to watch a new and arguably better version of them slowly descend into being worse. Siffrin, who wouldn't mind staying the same forever.

Odile, who realizes that her heritage is not the same as her identity. Siffrin, whose heritage was so thoroughly a part of him that when the memories vanished, his entire childhood was out of reach.

Mirabelle, who strives to change even in ways that make her intensely uncomfortable. Siffrin, who's "fine with staying the same person forever."

Bonnie, who avoids talking about the most important person in their life out of grief for someone who can still be saved. Siffrin, who can't remember anyone from their life before this journey. Loop, who lost everyone they cared about by their own choice, and now they watch as people who aren't quite the same go on as if they were never part of it.

The king, who doesn't pretend to have a name. Siffrin, whose name is probably not what they went by when they were young. Isabeau, who doesn't share his deadname. Mirabelle, who has no interest in using her other names. Bonnie, who only remembers the name they actually use. Odile, who keeps her other names to herself in solidarity. Loop, who isn't Siffrin and never will be again.

Identity and change and stagnation. Past and present. You are a product of everything you've experienced. You are part of the universe, and the universe doesn't forget, even if you do. Change is destruction. Destruction is a form of change. You can't make a pancake without breaking a few eggs. Teardrops that force you to wallow in someone else's misery forever. Sadnesses, in all their shapes and sizes. Homesickness, for places that were home until they couldn't be. Throughlines and throughlines and this post might be incomprehensible bc im making it first thing in the morning.

[beneathsilverstars]

i think if you’re doing mirabelle’s rpg. you have to put isat right in the middle. i think it should go like… she goes through vaugarde collecting the orbs and noticing all these mysteries about her companions and mourning all the frozen towns, and she wants to get to know her friends better, and figure out what’s bothering them and help with it, and go do fun touristy things with them, etc etc, but they have a country to save. there’s no time, and everything is frozen. if that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t even be traveling together at all! and the whole time mirabelle’s struggling with anxiety and imposter syndrome and the weight of being The Savior. she has to fix things but she can’t, she wants to help her friends but she can’t, she has to change but she doesn’t want to. she’s getting a bad grade in rpg protagonist!!!

but then we hit isat. and you expect it to be the culmination of mirabelle’s arc, but she’s not ready for that yet, just like she’s felt unprepared and unworthy all game, stuck in this role, under the weight of everyone’s expectations — of course doing the thing everyone wants her to do can’t be mirabelle’s defining moment, no matter how much she also believes in the importance of the quest. when she vanquishes the king, it doesn’t actually fix any of her personal problems. it wasn’t even really about her.

instead, the focus of this event is on siffrin, since it turns out the unchanging king was his foil all along, not mirabelle’s. mysteries are answered about both siffrin and the king, but more importantly — this is the turning point for everyone. the result of the most seemingly-stand-offish character’s arc is the key to making progress in everyone else’s: the party admits they care about each other and decides to keep traveling together.

the second half of the game, then, is going backwards through vaugarde, visiting all the same places again. and now that they’re not on their blessed quest in the name of change, they DO have time and they ARE all officially friends. everyone gets a little arc, echoing the five orbs, starting with isat as siffrin’s. they’re still clearing out sadnesses — and there’s some really strong ones as everyone takes stock of how much time has passed and how much damage has been done — but they don’t respawn anymore. people are starting to recover! and instead of dungeon puzzles, there’s fetch quests and mini games as the party helps vaugarde rebuild. a lot of the quests relate to things they saw while frozen, a bunch of mysteries and tragedies that they can finally DO something about. and in the same way, the family can finally get closer and talk about important things and meet each other’s friends/family and share their interests etc etc, all these old mysteries and maybe-some-days getting resolved!

and then, finally. mirabelle has been doing work that she CHOSE, helping vaugarde rebuild. and sometimes people use the opportunity to rebuild differently, but sometimes people just want the same familiar things back, and that’s not actually bad, it’s nothing like being frozen. you can keep living in the same house but making new memories, fixing things as needed, both different and the same. and mirabelle realizes that she doesn’t need to change. she realizes she has changed, and she will keep changing, but she can stay the same the whole time too. she doesn’t need to be what people expect, not the perfect housemaiden or the rpg protagonist savior. she can just strive to be the best version of herself!!

and that’s the end of the game, bc mirabelle isn’t trying to figure out how to do everything right to win the game anymore. she’s just living ^^

[lilietsblog]

the fandom infantilization of Siffrin upsets me. like yall thats a whole ass adult!!!! he lived on his own for like 10 years!!!! without a home or a community to call their own they survived and did well enough that their first meeting with the party was SAVING THEM from a Sadness!!! the entire party's impression of him was on a scale between "extremely suspicious stranger" and "cool and mysterious"!!!! their reaction in the first loop to odile bringing up the super potion incident was to bat their eyes cutely!!!! they start the touch therapy thing in the garden room on their own initiative becasue they're aware of their own mental health needs!!!! Siffrin is a chaotic gremlin ADULT who manages his own shit perfectly fine until he's put in a situation tailored to target his personal weaknesses with laser precision!!!!

like... yall. Siffrin looks after people around him. Siffrin has strong opinions on taking care of children. Siffrin is second oldest in the party after Odile and shares a unique understanding with her.

Siffrin. Is. An adult. An asexual, nonbinary, short adult who's managed to remain functional and autonomous despite serious neurological problems without any support network. The rest of the party thinks he's cool because he is. They have strong moralðical principles that they act on, rather than just personal duckling imprinting loyalty ("I love you personally because you're mine" comes up nowhere in his speech to Bonnie about why he would protect them at the cost of mutilation again - it's purely about Bonnie being a kid and adults having an obligation to protect them)

Like... there's this perfect storm of Siffrin being - explicitly asexual, implied on the aromantic spectrum, - mentally ill with brain damage (the memory shit) and also physically disabled (the eye), - nonbinary, - short and thin, - quiet with cutesy mannerisms, - specifically needing care and affirmations at the end of the story, that combines to people lumping them into the "cute baby to be taken care of" category, consciously or subconsciously to various degrees

but like

no it's actually pretty important that Siffrin is an adult who needs those things

mid to late twenties is an adult

mid to late twenties having lived on his own since mid to late teens is VERY MUCH an adult!!!!

give me Siffrin who drinks. give me Siffrin who gambles. give me Siffrin who used to engage in a variety of high risk hobbies/games/activities that they've scaled back on since joining because they identified Mirabelle and Isabeau as impressionable youngsters to be kept safe from bad ideas. give me Siffrin who is competent at a wide variety of random odd jobs because that's how they used to make a living. give me Siffrin who has a wide pool of mostly but not exclusively shallow medical knowledge and an unsettlingly deep expertise in first aid because he's had to take care of himself for a decade (and who picks up Healing Craft quickly&effectively compared to the years people usually need to study it due to this 'field experience'). give me Siffrin with multiple failed relationships in their past, some of which ended amicably due to the natural process of self-discovery and drifting apart, some of which ended because the other person was an asshole, and some of which ended because Siffrin himself was an inconsiderate jerk. give me Siffrin who used to be a much more unpleasant person, including on purpose, when they were younger. give me Siffrin who can in fact be trusted with sharp objects post-canon but avoids some of them of their own volition now because they're aware of self-harm urges being a bad thing to be avoided and are capable of managing that for themselves when outside of an active ongoing mental breakdown!!!

give me Siffrin who is better at flirting than Isa is!!! give me Siffrin who can talk Mirabelle through her hangups and anxiety attacks!!! give me Siffrin who engages with Odile as a peer when the rest of the party sees her a an elder!!!! give me Siffrin who is good with children from the position of an adult who has the patience and empathy to indulge them!!! ALL OF THESE IN THIS PARAGRAPH ARE LITERALLY CANON FACTS ABOUT SIFFRIN!!!!!

sickfic about Siffrin is great!!! give me sickfic where at one point everyone else falls apart from fear and pressure and Siffrin, all while still having a fever and stumbling while walking, steps up and picks up the slack!!!

give me a fic where Siffrin helps Odile deal with the unsettling experience of her new research topic having antimemetic properties by sharing his own tricks for dealing with memory loss!!!

give me a fic where Siffrin keeps having to scale back their flirting with Isabeau because they keep stumbling on Isa being unable to articulate or even realize his boundaries and have to make a project of walking Isa through basics of healthy relationships!!!!

give me a fic where Siffrin teaches Mirabelle about the wider world outside Dormont and outside her sheltered bubble as a Housemaiden!!!

give me a fic where Bonnie increasingly relies on Siffrin as an adult to come to with problems, and Siffrin keeps having to develop new skills and areas of knowledge to effectively help!!!!

give me a fic where the party has no idea how to help Siffrin with a problem because Odile has never had a problem quite like this in her life and the rest of them just feel completely lost in the face of experience they have never had!!!!

GIVE. ME. SIFFRIN. THE. ADULT.

(also, on a tangentially related personal preference aesthetic note, give me Siffrin with scars. give me Siffrin who overdid Healing Craft in the last loop so bad Mirabelle couldn't heal them cleanly and who is happy to have reminders that these events really happened and are over now and he's still in the same timeline. give me Siffrin with top surgery scars deliberately kept as an aesthetic affectation. give me Siffrin whose face did not heal cleanly from the loss of an eye. give me Siffrin whose body reflects their history and experiences)

[jollyparaphernalia]

The Stagemaster

(What's Kingswap?) Meet the Stagemaster, the main antagonist of this little Kingswap AU i've been cooking. The fellow who could have been Siffrin, had their life not taken a different path. In this post, I'll cover a bit about where he came from, their personality, what they're capable of, and other bits and pieces.

Well...maybe not everything. A fellow has to keep some mystery to himself.

As a blanket statement, this AU is just full on spoilers for 'In Stars and Time', and any content warnings that apply to the game apply to this post under the cut!

So...where'd the Stagemaster come from? How'd our Beloved Siffrin end up like this?

Truth be told, no one is born a villain, and the Stagemaster is no different. As I spoke a bit about it in the previous post, the Stagemaster starts in a different place than canon Siffrin; already a young adult, staying in Corbeaux before the Island is disappeared. Think of him as the equivalent of a university student away from home.

Awwww, look at them! So full of whimsy and so many thoughts in that little head of his! I'm sure nothing bad will ever happen to him ever.

He has a life, he has goals and desires, he has friends in Corbeaux (who aren't The Party we know), and he also has strange dreams but that's not a big deal.

Unfortunately, we know how this ends - The Fella Who Could Have Been Siffrin wakes up one day without a name, without any memories of where he came from, and a whole city and House of people who don't know him anymore. Sure, he has some memories, like why he was studying in Corbeaux, that he had people who he loved, but everything else is just swiss cheese in his head.

He doesn't take it very well.

At some point after the Big Forgetting, after trying to reclaim ANYTHING that's his (and failing miserably)...Not-Siffrin makes a request. A small, selfish wish...for just a little bit of control in their life.

You've heard of eating stars, but I present the thrilling sequel(?): Hugging a star so hard you shove it into your ribcage.

And so is born a stranger with nothing to lose and a general spite of having his life messed with...and a desire to mess with other peoples lives in some form of messed up retaliation. Crashing out and making it everyone's problem.

So, What is the Stagemaster Capable of? Is his gimmick still freezing time, or does he have a new skillset?

Both! But the focus for the Smaster is a new thing called 'Control Craft', inspired partially by ISAT Siffrin's view that he was controlling or puppeting his friends/family like actors...so, the Stagemaster takes that concept and makes it very literal!

He also has the floating Disembodied Hands because I Think That's Cool.

Well before the start of the Loops, and even earlier before the King starts his Time Freezy thing in the main timeline, the Smaster is living his best life, playing with their toys (the toys are other people.) He's sort of a travelling ghost, wandering at his whims to hone his skills, so he's messed with all sorts of places across several countries before even starting his grand torment of Vaugarde.

Vaugarde has it too good, in the Smasters opinion, so, he wants to just subject its people to being Crabs-In-A-Bucket and fighting among themselves before he freezes them. He's pretty petty like that.

The rarity of his Tears makes it a bit hard to do the freezing thing...so it's very convenient he is able to outsource them to this Suspiciously Present Sadness That Technically Shouldn't Exist In This AU!

What Kind of Person IS the Stagemaster, Anyways? What's Their Personality?

I'm going to be so real with you, reader, I just threw a bunch of villains whos vibes I really liked into a blender

( Emet-Selch (Final Fantasy 14), Dimentio (Super Paper Mario), Count Bleck (Super Paper Mario), Cheline (Phantomarine (Please read Phantomarine)), Lord Dominator (Wander over Yonder) Fandaniel (Final Fantasy 14))

But in all seriousness, I went with a more low down approach to the Stagemaster - the ISAT fandom generally likes focusing on the more Unhinged, Manic version of Siffrin we see from Act 5, and it's a good approach! I love unhinged manic Siffrin, but, I really wanted to explore the more quiet and avoidant aspects of both Siffrin and Loop (while still being theatrical and fun to watch), while also adding some new bits into them.

(If you know where I stole these quotes from, you get a cookie)

I will be so real with you, the Stagemaster is just fun to draw in general, especially peeled (Without the hat or the cloak)

Also...strangely...He knows a lot about the party. Weird!

I'm sure it means nothing.

Hey, I've read the Intro post to the AU, and there's this talk of the Stagemaster having a Big Form and a Little Form That Exists At the Same Time - whats with that? Are they Clones?

Not clones! But the same person with two bodies.

But...why does he need this?

You see...the Stagemaster did his whole Thing in Vaugarde, with ruining communities and friendships and stuff...and then went 'yeah, lets move on, time to do Dormont'. Unfortunately, for him Euphrasie, the Head Housmaiden, kind of planned in case he set his sights on the House of Dormont, and forced him to 'go loud' as it were.

Hey, do you also remember why there's so many locked doors in The House of Dormont in baseline ISAT? And the Party eventually figures out it was the Housemaiden's actively locking stuff up to keep the King in? That also applies to this AU.

Long Story Short: Euphrasie played him like a fiddle, put up enough of a fight to force him to Go Big Mode, and then before she was frozen, she activated the whole Orb Door dealio, trapping the Stagemaster in the House.

Even in an AU where Siffrin isn't the looper, Euphrasie still gets to be his metaphorical jailer. Because I think it's funny.

Sure, the Stagemaster could just sit on his laurels. He technically already won, the Time curse is spreading, Vaugarde will be trapped eventually...but so will he. And he would rather be Free than to Win, so...The Avatar comes into play, allowing the Stagemaster to pick up the pace of his Freezing Vaugarde thing, and to have some fun.

This also lets the Stagemaster have a presence in the Pre-Loop Orb Quest the Party goes on to open the Big Orb Door.

But uhhh...

yeah the smaller form is much weaker and the Smaster gets his ass kicked in a straight up fight, forcing him to be sneaky during Orb Quest Antagonism. Usually he cultivates and wrangles powerful Sadnesses for the party to fight.

Eventually, the party suspects that maybe the Stagemaster is weaker than everyone thinks, that he's hiding in the House of Dormont because the Party will easily defeat him, so he's stalling for time to freeze Vaugarde.

Yeah, he's turned the Party into a way for him to free himself. (Funny, then, that they're never getting out of this House anyways, because a certain long haired Knight trapped himself in a silly little Timeloop) (Unfortunately for Clovis, our swapped King...he's not the only one here who is aware of the loops. Good luck, Clovis!)

And that's all for today! Thank you for reading! Hopefully this is the last 'Pre timeloop' info post before I actually get into the Time Loops Proper...But it's so fun to speculate and imagine snippets of the previous adventure!

(As always, a special thanks to the ISAT discords AU channel for listening to my brainrot, and thanks to everyone who's expressed such enthusiasm for these posts!)

[askoverkill]

Follow him. You got a hug him back. Make it right.

transcription below:

(STARS, STARS, STARS!!!!!) (GALAXIES WITHIN GALAXIES, YOU SCREWED THIS UP!)

(You should go find him and hug him back! Fix this!) (But!!!! He was so scared of you, what if you make it worse?!!?)

(Stars, you blinding fool, why are you so?? Bad?!?? With???!? PEOPLE?!?!)

[You got a memory of LUCKY EMBRACE!] [You'll always remember this.]

(AH!? THERE'S ANOTHER VOICE IN YOUR HEAD?!)

[Sorry, sorry!] [Have I really not given you any advice this whole time?!] [Wowie, oops! I sure suck!]

(Wait, that's Loop?) (Loop?! What are they doing in your head?!!)

[Hehe, anyway!] [When you get a memory, you can equip it to worsen or help your loops!]

[When this memory is equipped, you get +10 passive nausea but 1+ touch therapy per hug!] [Ooh, that's a good one, all things considered!]

What does any of that mean???

[Those are status effects!] [Without sadnesses, memories affect your mental health instead of combat.]

[If you equip this before entering the clock tower you'll be doubling your touch therapy speed at the price of being nauseous at dinner.]

[It's up to you! Once you get used to nausea, this effect can be easily exploited. Which is useful, as your Touch Starve stat is astronomical.]

(What?????) (You're never doing this again, are they insane?!?!)

[It's cute, how you don't realize how lucky you are.] [A hug!!!! A whole hug, freely volunteered every loop?] [Any Siffrin would kill you to take your place, dead meat.]

(...You'd hope the other yous wouldn't be that disgusting.)

[mari-lair]

what if the neglectful route is a one time thing where anymore attempts to try and replicate it would be met with the party's utmost amount of distaste towards the player?

It absolutely is a one time thing, you can't do that route more than once.Even doing it once is already incredibly hard.

I compared to the undertale genocide route in the tags once cause it is not fun, the characters need to be at rock bottom (so no time bonding even with each other much, no snack break, no exploring the town or The House, no talking with Loop, reject siffrin's flower souvenier, only memory associated with bad things equipped in all members), there are plenty of options given to pay attention to sif when he displays sadness/self destructive tendencies that you need to INSIST in denying for EVERY PARTY MEMBER, there is no useful skill gained ("I can help" is propositionally not useful, and can only be achieved when Siffrin is using the 'memory of incompetence' which makes his status awful.) and when sif dies in this route everyone gains bad memories that put their status so down it's own hard mode.

The game (THE PARTY) doesn't want that. If you try again, the option to ignore sif when he is visibly troubled is in black (aka, no longer a possible option)

[esoogthegoose]

Commented this on a post that asked why Mal Du Pays, being a sadness, looks so human.

And I hadn’t really thought about it much until now. But,,

My interpretation is that perhaps it’s because Mal Du Pays is such a huge part of Siffrin. Siffrin’s entire home, childhood, knowledge, and culture were completely erased. So what goes in its place? In that spot goes the gaping, empty hole that calls itself “Mal Du Pays.” Mal Du Pays is a constant in Siffrin’s life, affecting them in ways so huge and clearly diminishing, like memory, to minuscule things like habits; all of what Siffrin has memories of experiencing are accompanied by Mal Du Pays. Because of this, Mal Du Pays can’t be anything BUT Siffrin. A personal manifestation of all of their insecurity, fear, and most importantly, loss.

Really rushed because I don’t have the time to type paragraphs on paragraphs right now, but I do want to elaborate more on this in the future!

[circlesuponcircles]

You stumble your way forward. You've been forcing yourself to go on like this your entire journey through this cursed place, ignoring any pain and injuries you chose not to waste energy and resources on.

You very quickly realized exactly why Siffrin and Bonnie were the ones to carry things around, finding that the pockets in your dress could hold no more than one or two tonics at a time, weighing you down and throwing off your balance. You almost died several times just because of the unexpected weight put on you, and your growing hunger most certainly did not help.

You just want to rest.

But you don't deserve it. Haven't you had enough rest already?

You navigate the painfully familiar corridors entirely through muscle memory, your eyes clouded by exhaustion. Each step you take feels like thousands of needles shooting up through your body. You almost instinctively strike down each sadness, blindly feeling your way through the maze like a scared animal, until...

You find yourself standing in your old room.

You stopped visiting this place entirely at some point. Something about it was just... too painful to look at. Not like there was anything there other than components for a bomb that Claude was planning to make before... before...

...

You choose to stop thinking about it.

Averting your gaze from your roommate's side of the room, you approach your bed. The familiar smell of mirabelle plums fills your nostrills, a break from the unbearable scent of caramel.

Part of you wants to lie down in your bed, to just wait until it's all over, but... you can't rest yet. Not now, no, you can't, you should push further! To prove you're worthy, to finally deserve the love you've been given!

But... surely, just... sitting down for a moment wouldn't hurt, right?

...

You slump down against your bed, eyelids heavy. In this moment, you imagine you must look a lot less like a person and more like a discarded doll, waiting to be picked up again.

Maybe that's what you are.

The darkness around you grows closer, and before you realize, before you manage to force yourself to move...

You drift off into sleep.

[instarsandcrimeah]

If the world is your memory and that world is erased, what happens to the memory that's left behind? It becomes fractured and broken, and if anything comes to fix it once more, the world must break it once again, going through an endless cycle of creation and destruction, leaving the person the memory is connected to in shambles unable to rebuild.

But that person will always try to rebuild, because that is human nature.

I. Love. Memory. And how it functions.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong, this is just from my own understanding of how it functions) From what I understand, how you think of things is through a bunch of bridges that spiderweb through your mind. When you learn something, you have to cross that bridge every time you want to remember it. So if something happens and that bridge gets damage in any way shape or form, you have to find another bridge, which is really hard tbh, because your mind will want to go back to that original bridge.

This is where Trauma comes in, your brain wants to take the broken bridge, but you have to learn a new path, sometimes you'll accidentally take the old path and have problems, but you have to find a new way through.

Now because I'm in the In Stars and Time Soup atm- Siffrin's memory is WILD, it boils down to them having a bad memory, but it could also be that those bridges are broken, from what? Probably the fact that their entire country just went poof along with any direct memory of it, along with the language. Like, at time Sif knows what something is, but cannot remember the word, this could be a language thing, Theres a lot I could talk about with this, but like, it boils down to "Siffrin's memory bridges are like SUPER broken from the erasing of any memory of their home"

I would like to think of it like, the bridges disappearing mid thought...

[the-real-timeloop-tourney]

Round 3. Round 3.... Babies are crying in the streets. Fields of soldiers lie dead, having comfort in knowing they fought till the end. What I'm getting at is that this round was very eventful and a lot of fan favorites have fallen. Perhaps even more than anyone expected. Let's do the round recap/ in memorial thing.

I feel it would be a disservice to start with anyone but Ángel. When he came into this tournament he was just a rookie. But the Beebites fought with a ferocity that wasn't seen anywhere in the tournament. It felt like they were gaining momentum as the tournament went on. No one knew if they could even be stopped. And then they met the flower. To be fair, the flower is a strong contender for winning this whole thing. He's in the sweet spot of being a very complex character from a super popular source, and that's something that very few in the tournament can claim. But that does not make the loss of Ángel sting any less.

We similarly saw the exit of Noel, who also was an underdog who managed to pull off some upsets. But Niko had a bit too much star power. However debates over if Niko counts as being in a timeloop have been raging so we'll have to see if that hamper's their future performance.

We also lost the last joke character, that being "when you really really suck at a hard game". Honestly it got farther than I think most expected... I wonder if Bill Murray could have won if he had been against the same opponent.

I would argue the most surprising loss was definitely Hatchling. Like both characters are quite similar, being silent protagonist I feel it would really just come down to which source was liked more. And while LoZ is by far the more well known game, I feel like Outer Wilds is one where people who have played it REALLY like it. So I wonder if it's just that the group that has played Outer Wilds is smaller than expected, or maybe people feel more attached to Link's story than expected.

And of course... the moment you all knew was coming, the mourning of Mr Arimnaes. I have kept it no secret that he was the one I hoped would win it all, so to see him go is very sad. There is also something I must reveal, and you all will not like it.

You see, at the beginning of this tournament ISAT characters were banned from submissions due to them having too big of an advantage. However given the history of this blog I wasn't just going to NOT have siffrin. So I told everybody that I had a plan for him. Many people assumed that this meant that whoever won the main tournament would get to face off against siffrin. This was partially correct... Mr Arimnaes, would you please step to the side?

You see, Arimnaes and Siffrin chose to join this tournament as a duo, sharing one bracket spot, but so as not to make it too easy, Siffrin chose to make himself hidden until now. And you see there can still only be one winner, so if that bracket spot won the tournament there would have needed to be one more tie breaker between Arimnaes and Siffrin. So that is the ONLY scenario in which Siffrin would have gone against the winner. So I'm sorry to say... Siffrin has been eliminated from the tournament.

Oh and one last thing; I didn't get to use them so here's a bunch of miscellaneous funny sprites of Mr Arimnaes;

And with that I bid you adieu, have a good day, see you in round 4, Drake and Josh.

[akemiiya]

i like how memory of sadnesses is a qol improvement but only barely because you still run into those things sometimes or they get stuck in doorways and you have to fight them anyway. i imagine siffrin letting out this awful rancid nearly act 5 aura and trying sooooo hard not to snap in front of the party again while the sadness keeps running further into the locked door like it's trying to fuse with it

[justanotheryellowsoul]

Thinking about how the team never comments on Siffrin's new moves, in the same way they never comment on equipment.

The universe corrects very small things like that and makes them disappear from view, erases the memory of them ever being there because you already have those weapons.

And Siffrin's craft probably falls under the same category in a way.

They are a weapon.

The party doesn't question it, and the only time it's acknowledged is if Siffrin slips up on the tutorial sadness. And that might be because Sif turns back and looks before the universe could really correct.

Anyways, thinking abt how maybe it's more obvious in early loops because Siffrin still views himself as a person. But the longer they loop and the more they dissociate and lose their sense of self, the more that new crafts fall under corrections for the universe.

[erasumi]

Now that I’ve finished watching a play through of in stars and time, here are some theories of mine that did not come true!

1. Siffrin becomes the king.

I had this theory before we even met the king, I didn’t know what his deal was only that he froze the kingdom in time. Siffrin was becoming increasingly sick of time loops so I thought he might come to a place where he’s like I’m so tired of this, time can’t loop back if it doesn’t move forward and freezes vauguard (if that’s how you spell it) as a way to escape the loops.

And we kept seeing that Siffrin was beginning to forget more and more things which would explain the king not knowing who they were. This theory would also explain why that change statue was the only one intact because some part of king siffrin remembered that it was made by Mira. I gave this theory up after realizing the king doesn’t loop

2. Siffrin has been looping since before loop 0.

This one I was SO CONVINCED on right up until we found out Loop’s true identity. The evidences: The very beginning of the game shows Siffrin crying and swallowing a star. When Siffrin woke up he said “time to beat the king, again” Then when we first meet loop, they had a really odd expression that I almost interpreted as grief. Not to mention Loop knew us very well, already had a nickname for us, and knew about future events. When we hung out with loop and saw our friends die they were impatient “did you figure it out yet” as if this has happened before.

The conclusion my dumbass interpreted: Siffrin has been looping for a long time with loops help (which in this case is just a star) and grew very close. However after a really long time we grew so tired, so upset and miserable that we begged loop to make us forget everything, every loop we’ve ever done. To start fresh, to be unburdened by our memories. Loop was like hell nah but was eventually convinced cause Siffrin was just genuinely so distraught (and maybe made a promise to help them here which explains their whole “if there’s one thing you trust, trust that I’m here to help” bit)

And so that’s why when loop meets Siffrin again they look sad/grieved, uncomfortable. Why they knew us so well and were so affectionate with us. Why they were impatient at times as we figure things out because they’d already done all this before