Comic!frin being a gamer is SO funny omg. like (if loop showed up as a guide for comic!frin):
Loop: *explains that they put markers on the locations of all quest-relevant objects, how dialogue skipping works, how to call them if frin has questions, etc. in their own whimsically aggressive fashion*
comicfrin (who has not spoken to anyone not relevant to the "main questline" in a concerning amount of time & thinks in gaming terms to cope): The RPG got a blinding QOL patch update!?!?
Loop: What was that absolute alphabet soup that came out of your mouth just now.
ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS.
(For reference: This is my Comic!frin au)
Comicfrin: Stars, I've always hated the layout of this map, the RNG just sucks - I always waste time grinding in this area for basic drops.
I am obsessed w/ your comic!frin au (& just comic!frin in general. there are no fics for the comic on ao3 and it is killing me), PLEASE ramble at me about it.
Hello!! Thank you!!! I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to see this!!!
Please please please feel free to send me more asks about this!! anyone!! everyone!! this post got really long under the cut but i can keep yapping for days!!
For anyone who hasn't seen my original post, this is an fic that I'm planning to write (in the distant, D I S T A N T future) about Comic Siffrin. They're the Siffrin from the original comics that the concept of In Stars and Time and Start Again: A Prologue was developed from! A proto-frin, if you will. Apparently they're still stuck in the time loops and that makes me vividly sad.
Ma poor fully grown adult baby. they are significantly older than me. Someone save them.
*ahem. * BIG SPOILERS FOR IN STARS AND TIME.
The base concept for this au (which is absolutely subject to Change!! don't trust me with anything) is that Comic!frin is the 'first' Siffrin, or at least the 'first' Siffrin stuck in a timeloop.
And when they hit their breaking point, instead of wishing for 'someone, anyone to help me!!' and turning into an astronomically themed guide for another Siffrin, they wished for 'someone, anyone to take this responsibility, this fate, this life away from me!!'
This had its consequences.
Unlike with Loop, where the differences between ISAT and SASA:AP universes are minor, there are a LOT of differences between this version of Siffrin and the ones we're more familiar with. The biggest one being, of course, that they alone are the Saviour of Vauguarde.
How did that happen?
Well, Comic!frin actually knew the Head Housemaiden personally before the Royal Court attacked, and when the group of villains began to freeze Vauguarde in time she enlisted their help in finding mcguffins around the country. But Euphrasie's travels meant that there was no one to protect the House of Dormont from the Court's attack, and she went in to face the group alone. Vauguarde's greatest warrior, capable of reversing time craft.
But she didn't leave before crafting a few... plan Bs.
In the end, even she wasn't enough to defeat the combined might of the Royal Court. But there was one last hope, one last blessing that the Change God bestowed on their people. Siffrin, the Saviour of Vauguarde. Not just able to reverse time craft, but completely immune. Or... that's what the people believe.
Yeaaaaaaah, the blessing that Comic!frin received wasn't a gift from the Change God: it was Euphrasie's back up plan. A fail safe for the worst case scenario; an experimental manipulation of Siffrin's wishcraft; true, she couldn't replicate her immunity, but what better guarantee of victory than being able to erase your failures?
Than a time loop?
It was still Comic!frin's wish that trapped him in the Loops, that much stayed the same, but it was Comic!Euphrasie who made sure the wish would be interpreted by the Universe as forming a time loop. Which is why, in the comics, she actively 'sends them back' once they've won - Comic!Euphrasie has much more control over the loops than in ISAT. In her defense, she hoped that it wouldn't be necessary to activate in the first place.
But why does she send them back? How does she know so much about wishes in the first place? And how did Comic!Frin and Phrasie meet??
:)
Wait, Royal Court? What happened to the King??
The Royal Court are this au's main villains, and the ones freezing Vauguarde in time. There are five true members of the Royal Court, each ranging in levels of humanity, and their twisted and contorted 'Pawns' that replaced the game's Sadnesses are completely inhuman, despite their shape. They have their... own reasons for their actions.
As for the King? let's just say he isn't a member of the Court. Our tearful tyrant did exist in this universe, but he isn't involved in freezing the country. I wonder why...
It's a fun reversal of the power dynamic of ISAT - instead of one big bad facing off against a group of plucky heroes, there's one player character against a boss rush, Mario Style!! If only there was a multiplayer option...
More about Comic!Frin!!
I mentioned this on some of the replies to the previous post, but the imagery surrounding Comic!Frin is no longer theatre based, but game based! Funny silly worldbuilding thing, but every time the universe gets reset because of a powerful wish like wishing an entire country out of existence, the timeline gets pushed back, and technology and society becomes more advanced. Comic!Frin has access to technology (in theory. on account of the whole apocalypse making xboxes a lil inconvenient) and sees his life as a videogame. As well as being grounded in the language used in InsertDisc5's comics, I just think it's funny that the one Siffrin who isn't a game is obsessed with them. Comic!frin?? More like Gamer!frin.
This is getting really, REAALLLY long, so I'll keep going on a different post. There's still so many concepts to touch on, like what this version of the party are up to, Comic!frin's saviour complex, more about the Royal Court and their motivations, Loop, and if birds still go 'Piou Piou'!
Spoiler alert - they totally do.
If you managed to get to the end of this (if so you're an absolute madlad) please please please feel free to send me more asks or questions or even make your own ideas!!! that would be awesome!!!!
I have several (and I mean several) concepts that I'm very excited to play around with when I eventually write a fic focused on Comic!Siffrin, but my favorite one - and the one that I'm willing to share rn - is that the party doesn't exist.
Like, the alternate versions of Mirabelle, Isabeau, Odile and Bonnie are all alive, well and unfrozen somewhere Dormont for various plot related reasons, but they never joined a quest to save the Country. In their universe, Mirabelle was never given a blessing, and somehow Siffrin is the lone saviour of Vauguarde.
hello I saw your comicfrin au idea and I am eating it whole bc it's so good and intriguing yes. would you perhaps desire to yap about it some more 👀
I would absolutely love to yap about it more!! Thank you for enabling me ^-^
So. Comic!Frin. Saviour Complexes. Goes together like Malangas go in Fritters.
In this au, Siffrin's entire sense of self is not built around being the Party's Funnyperson rogue, simply because they did not have a Party to build a sense of self around. This time, their self image is entirely dependent on being the Sole Saviour of Vauguarde.
Their journey collecting the orbs was the first time (that they could remember) travelling in Vauguarde, and they were blown away by the kindness and warmth that the people had welcomed them with. Offering him food when their families were going hungry, shelter when their homes were about to be destroyed and kindness under the cruelest of conditions. Siffrin made the classic mistake of assuming this kindness was a result of their position as a saviour, instead of it just being How Vauguardians Are tm. Poor fella got hooked on that feeling of community, and has been bending over backwards to keep it going, never accepting help or assistance in case it shatters the illusion of a perfect Saviour. Completely unaware that the people's love has never been conditional. So silly!!
Wow sillylittlecharacters! A person who idealises Vauguarde and does everything in their self appointed role to protect its perfection, including and not limited to trapping the entire country in time??? Sounds an awful lot like the King!
IT DOES!! THEY ARE!! Where did you think the King got it from? Ah, but that's another story for another day.
Ultimately, it was this fervent love of Vauguarde's people that doomed Comic!Frin - the reason why Comic!Euphrasie has to send him back to the start every time they 'win' the game is because they cling so desperately to being 'Vauguarde's Saviour'. And once they 'win' for good, what will they have? Who will they be?
Nothing.
They'll be back to being a nameless, useless little traveller with nothing to offer the world, and nobody to notice their absence. What purpose does a Saviour have once the world is saved?
On a completely unrelated note, all of the Comic counterparts to the party members will make an appearance in the future (far, far, faaaaaar future) fic! I can't go into much detail on them yet, because of story spoilers, but all of them are alive and kicking in or around the town of Dormont at the beginning of each Loop. I wonder what they're up to…
