#cephalopod yapping

[cephalopoptimism]

from the downdetector comments section on this fateful night of Febuary 6th, 2026

[cephalopoptimism]

What if in the Overkill AU instead of Siffrin dying because of their curse getting progressively worse, they were dying because every loop their hat grows ever so slightly bigger until it's WAY too big and they get swallowed up by it never to be seen again like a black hole.

In this AU Loop is just a big hat that flops up and down to speak.

The Director is also a big hat but slightly smaller and significantly more red.

Dusk and Lupus are not hats in this AU but Dusk is suffering from the hat curse. Lupus's hat does grow but only itty bitty little bits so it'd take much longer for them to get eaten by the hat.

Idk this just came to me and I felt the need to share it with the world. Inspired by a fanart I saw once where Siffrin has a REALLY BIG hat and it was awesome.

@askoverkill

[cephalopoptimism]

My beautiful creation... my child... I birthed it out of my brain like Athena and it is so beautiful.

[cephalopoptimism]

sometimes when i see odile isat i make unholy gutteral animalistic noises and bite my arms off and howl to the moon and sacrifice my firstborn child to her and stuff but like you know in a casual normal way ykwim

[cephalopoptimism]

How In Stars and Time Handles Magic and Craft

One obscure bit of ISAT lore that I really really love is that there's Craft, a real-life "magic"-like thing that people in this world can really do, and then there's magic, a conceptual thing that exists similarly as it does in our world; as a superstition. The real-life magic system and the superstitious concept of magic coexist, and not only that, they impact each other.

We know this because the book Mirabelle suggested Odile read about the Change belief was called "The Life-Changing Magic of Changing Yourself." Note the word magic here. If craft was the same thing as magic, just called something else, this book would be titled "The Life-Changing Craft of Changing Yourself," and the word "magic" would not exist at all. But it's not, meaning that "craft" and "magic" are two separate things in this world.

We also know that wizards are a thing because of the wizard-loving kid, but we don't really know if wizards are fictional people who do "magic," like in our world, or if they're just highly specialized at Craft. However, the wizard-loving kid mention that their mother says wizards aren't real, so we can assume it's probably the first one.

And since the closest thing we see to actual magic is just Wishcraft (which is still a type of craft), we can assume that "magic" in ISAT is similar to what it is in this world - a superstition. The only difference is that things like time manipulation, wishes, and animating objects aren't magic, since they're feasible through Craft (although the first two actually are considered magic since people don't know they're feasible through craft, which is an example of people confusing their real magic system with superstitious magic, but I'll get to that later.)

Now this is really interesting worldbuilding because most fictional worlds that have a magic system do not have the superstitious concept of magic, because worldbuilders assume that the reality of magic would replace the superstition of magic.

But this is actually very unlikely to be the case! It's in fact more likely that there would be more superstition surrounding magic because people are constantly trying to make sense of the world around them, and before science, the main way people did that was through religion and/or superstition! It doesn't seem like science is a very big deal in ISAT's world - at least not in Vaugarde - so people would likely still be in the mindset of explaining things they do not understand through superstition and magic. The existence of magic would only further escalate this, because if one "magic" thing is real and possible, why can't another?

For example, horoscopes! We know these exist in ISAT thanks to the book in the candle-making one's room in the House of Dormont. The difference is that horoscopes in this world are based off of your Craft type rather than your star sign. Which is an example of a superstitious "magic" idea that has spawned around ISAT's real practice of Craft!!! Craft's existence didn't get rid of the concept of superstitious magic - in fact, it has brought about more superstitious magic ideas based on it!!!

You're probably thinking, "okay Eight awesome but so what," but the reason I love this so much is that most story's don't do this!!! They assume that real magic cancels out superstitious magic! @insertdisc5 didn't assume that! They allowed both concepts of magic to not only coexist in their story, but also to support one another!!!

Furthermore, the line between them is not clear and distinct! Just like in real life, different people have different beliefs about the correlation (or lack thereof) between magic and Craft. Like with the horoscopes, Isabeau seems to like them (although I doubt he seriously believes in them, though he clearly thinks they're fun), and Odile seems to think they're silly and maybe even pointless. Wizard-loving kid clearly believes in wizards, but if their mom is anything to go off of, most people don't.

Vitally, wishing at the favor tree is a superstitious, "magic" thing that most people do for fun, like blowing on dandelion seeds; something that people are only taking seriously now (meaning, just before the events of the game) out of desperation. They don't know that wish craft is a real thing - they don't know it's a thing at all! This is an example of them confusing their real magic system for their superstitious magic concepts, something that most stories steer far away from in fear of confusing their readers.

ISAT doesn't avoid making it's deceptively simple "rock-paper-scissors" magic system complicated, nor does it avoid letting it's characters not fully understand it - and subsequently, us as the game's players! ISAT lets it's worldbuilding be messy and complicated; it lets it's magic system be complicated because it's more realistic that way! This one tiny detail has been in the back of my mind since I first played the game and noticed the title of "The Life-Changing Magic of Changing Yourself" used "magic" instead of "craft." It's such a tiny little detail but it makes a massive difference in understanding the way magic and craft works in this world!

[cephalopoptimism]

siffrin canonically has the type of hair that curls up into little devil horns next to their forehead when their hair gets messy it's true don't look it up just trust me

[cephalopoptimism]

me as a kid picking a random boy at the start of each year to have a "crush" on so I'd fit in: yeah I like boys :)

me as a tween forcing myself to have a "crush" on every pretty person I met: yeah I like boys and girls :)

me as a teen who's "just not interested in romance" and "more focused on school": yeah I like girls :)

me as a slightly older teen who did a little bit more research into asexuality/aromanticism: fuck

[cephalopoptimism]

hugh morris what do the words you say mean