#s.au

[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 ^^

[beneathsilverstars]

thinkign about odile with fangies,,

au where odile is a vampire and siffrin "donates blood" for money (classic occupation for someone lonely and hopeless) and siffrin says something funny while woozily recovering and odile did NOT expect that from him and laughs and siffrin is like. oh fuck yes i'm getting a good grade in being vampire food.

it's not even a purposeful dumb joke he's just a little out of it and saying things. which odile usually gets annoyed when people go all no-filter and say things to her that she is not interested in hearing or god forbid having to respond to. but siffrin is just being cute and earnest and still not too chatty!

and then siffrin is like I MADE HER LSUGH I HAVE TO KEEP BEING FUNNY and his actual attempts at jokes are so weak that they wrap back around to being entertaining. odiles like mhm im sure there was a joke in there somewhere maybe try again in twenty minutes.

they're going through an agency at first, but odile gets annoyed at how large of a cut the agency takes, but it's easier and safer than trying to arrange something with a stranger independently. but she really likes siffrin so after a couple times she's like. no pressure but if you'd rather get paid a little more we could just continue doing this informally. and siffrin is like YES PLEASE bc they really need the money and they like odile too!

but then siffrin starts donating too much blood bc he's still going through the agency as often as allowed And going to odile independently. it's pretty obvious pretty quickly though, and as soon as she catches on odile lectures them and says she won't keep doing this if siffrin won't take care of themself, and siffrin gets all sad (<- hates to be rejected) and is like oh.. ok.. guess i'll leave... and odile is like oh my god no you still have to drink your orange juice first and you should not have even driven HERE in the first place. *i* will drive you home. which has siffrin all ?? bc wow mixed messages (<- has never been cared about before). but odile finds out that siffrin lives in the shittiest apartment ever and is always this close away from getting evicted and long story short siffrin ends up moving in with odile.

odile is like. well. this is kind of a problematic setup but definitely better than the alternative.

[beneathsilverstars]

i’ve seen plenty of alt-looper AUs where sapfrin’s wish resulted in someone else looping, assisted by starry loop. and i’ve seen plenty where isatfrin or one of their party members made some kind of wish that resulted in additional people remembering the loops.

but

how about an au where sapfrin’s wish resulted in someone else looping, while sapfrin remained in the role of siffrin? either now there’s two loopers in the party, or, the ability to remember new loops is what transferred, so siffrin wakes up every time with their last memory being the wish for help.

this siffrin is just so ground down and not siffrin anymore. but without becoming loop, they’d keep trying to act the part, which is easy enough when they’ve got a script, but… the more the other looper switches things up, the more siffrin will struggle. the other looper will want to help them, but what can even be done when they're still stuck in the loops??

if siffrin still remembers new loops, then they have to keep going through the fucking house even after they reached their breaking point. but at least there’s hope now? but is there really? and now, for the first time in years, they have to deal with someone else being able to remember their actions, and this person knows about the time loops. siffrin definitely isn’t going to be jumping to confide in them, despite how desperately they need the help — will they even tell them that they’d been looping for ages already?? even if they try not to, it’ll eventually become obvious something is going on.

or if siffrin doesn’t remember new loops anymore… how would the new looper handle it? how many times do they explain that they’re looping now instead before they stop bothering with it? or does not explaining means siffrin freaks out too much at the looper abandoning the script entirely for no apparent reason? but there’s no way they won’t freak out upon learning that they’ve just doomed someone else to live out this hell in their stead, that’s quite the news to have to break every single time. perhaps there’s an in-between that would work?? lying about what’s changed, or following the script until they suddenly deviate, then immediately loop back once done with the deviation? they have all the time they need to workshop it, at least.

either way, this siffrin is probably gonna be even less help than loop was. at least loop got to chill out at the favor tree and think — siffrin doesn't have that luxury. and while the new looper will be bringing in a fresh perspective, they simply don't know the things one needs to know about siffrin in order to figure out these siffrin-based loops. and, at this point, siffrin might not anymore either! it's been years since they made their wish. that doesn't make it unsolvable, especially since it's possible to get out by pure chance. but it'll be hard, especially since siffrin has even more intense reactions than isatfrin, as evidenced by them not even making it to euphrasie before looping back.

what a fun little bad time for everyone ^^

[beneathsilverstars]

the answer was right there in front of me all along.. loop is siffrin's drag persona.... it just makjes sense....,.

if i ever did a mundane earth au a drag au would rule. isabeau helps everyone w their outfits. mirabelle does the flyers. siffrin hosts. bonnie can't even go to all of nille's shows but they are gearing up to guest perform at drag brunch with her one of these second sundays. odile i. th. sorry i can't keep theorizing i imagined odile in drag and now i have to go sit down

[beneathsilverstars]

ooc of me to go this long without thinking about a daycare teacher au but i'm doing it now and i think siffrin would teach babies, nille would teach toddlers, isabeau younger preschoolers, mirabelle older preschoolers, and odile the after-school kids.

baby rooms are very routine-based with lots of written notes and almost no variation from the schedule, which would work well for siffrin! i think older kids might stress him out because he's kind of sensitive lol, but babies can't be mean to you or each other. and they definitely need more snuggles in their life, which babies are great for.

toddlers enjoy a lot of rough and tumble play because they're calibrating their proprioceptive senses, and people tend to hc nille as active and strong. having a bad reaction to sudden touch could be an issue with any age group, but at least toddler classrooms are built to make it easy to keep track of where everyone is at once, and toddlers don't care if you react weird sometimes!

early preschoolers are trying to learn how to name and manage big feelings and navigate interpersonal conflicts, but still can't communicate very clearly, so isabeau's emotional perceptiveness would come in handy. he's also strong enough to still be able to carry them and swing them around easily. and he's very silly, which is a plus with any age, but esp kids who are old enough to have active opinions but not old enough to hold a long conversation.

pre-kindergarten is the era of mastering basic skills like writing letters, using scissors, and naming days of the week; mirabelle loves taking all sorts of classes, so i think she'd love teaching all sorts of skills! and since she's used to working through her own anxiety, she would probably do a good job helping kids who are starting to become aware of more complex social dynamics and getting shy and self-conscious.

odile is self-assured and unflappable enough to be able to handle big kids, who will pounce on a hint of weakness. i think she'd get quite bored of cutesy early childhood stuff, but elementary school kids can play real games and do cool big projects! and she'd definitely notice when any trouble starts brewing so she can nip it in the bud.

none of them are lead teachers lol, except odile since the ratio for elementary schoolers only requires one teacher. euphrasie is the director, and mirabelle works there because she went to the same center as a kid and remembers it fondly. bonnie goes to the after-school classroom, and nille gets that sweet employee discount on childcare. odile is doing this temporarily while she looks for a job teaching adults in her actual field, isabeau kinda defaulted to childcare because he has way too much experience taking care of younger siblings, and siffrin applied to every job in the area and happened to get this one first. <3