Siffrin...? (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
loopsiedaisy) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bottlecaplogs2025-11-01 07:44 pm
loopsiedaisy) wrote in bottlecaplogs2025-11-01 07:44 pm
[closed] you're not the hero. you never were
Who: Siffrin(?), Siffrin, and Odile
What: What happened when the Siffrins simply got spirited away from the network
Where: The woods! Just barely into the Northern Forest.
When: Backdated to early October
Warnings: SPOILERS, and the usual
[In the woods approximately five minutes away from the Canopy (because that's how close they got back to town before they got wound down), there is: a Shinx. They're fidgeting, claws extending and retracting, puncturing fallen leaves; it's still very tempting to just run. But. At this point. They are pretty sure it is far too late.]
[They can hear footsteps, distantly: the measured steps of a Weavile that already feel familiar again, even after barely more than a week, with a certain sort of restrained frustration. More rapid than usual. The anxious, light scamper of a Meowth, only audible because they know to listen for it. They can't quite tell who's going to get to them first.]
[Either way, whenever someone does show up, they immediately straighten up, still their paws, and scrunch up their eyes in a forced smile. Their mouth... doesn't match. There's just enough of a grin that it doesn't look like a natural cat expression, but it's still very faint, like they've forgotten that they need to put effort into that part of their face too.]
[It's self-defense. It's this expression or look terrified.]
What: What happened when the Siffrins simply got spirited away from the network
Where: The woods! Just barely into the Northern Forest.
When: Backdated to early October
Warnings: SPOILERS, and the usual
[In the woods approximately five minutes away from the Canopy (because that's how close they got back to town before they got wound down), there is: a Shinx. They're fidgeting, claws extending and retracting, puncturing fallen leaves; it's still very tempting to just run. But. At this point. They are pretty sure it is far too late.]
[They can hear footsteps, distantly: the measured steps of a Weavile that already feel familiar again, even after barely more than a week, with a certain sort of restrained frustration. More rapid than usual. The anxious, light scamper of a Meowth, only audible because they know to listen for it. They can't quite tell who's going to get to them first.]
[Either way, whenever someone does show up, they immediately straighten up, still their paws, and scrunch up their eyes in a forced smile. Their mouth... doesn't match. There's just enough of a grin that it doesn't look like a natural cat expression, but it's still very faint, like they've forgotten that they need to put effort into that part of their face too.]
[It's self-defense. It's this expression or look terrified.]
no subject
That much isn't hard to grasp. Who else uses the nickname 'stardust'? The rest is a little bit more outlandish, even when you've already accepted the existence of Wish Craft and time loops. "I suppose it must be something to do with the loops," she continues. "You've obviously been through them as well. Theoretically, messing with time could result in duplication..." The star head thing, though? Wish Craft could do it, or maybe even Body Craft, but why?
None of that touches on their decision to play at being another person entirely at all.
"Why don't you fill me in?" she tries again. "I'm not sure wild guessing is going to be helpful here."
no subject
But somehow it's a relief at the same time.
They swallow, once, then prop themself up on their back paws so they can press their front paws together. They need the extra body language to hide their lack of equilibrium. "That's right!"
Isn't this what you wanted, Loop? For someone to recognize you?
Stars. It wasn't only hours ago, they know that logically, but they still remember the feeling of resignation. What they can't remember is how they were planning to explain any of it before they gave up. (Isn't that typical of them, both the memory and, apparently, the giving up -)
"I don't think you're allowed to call anything you do wild guessing anymore, after what you did in the House." They wink at her - it can be a compliment as well as a way of flagrantly stalling. Because, seriously, Odile? Figuring out enough about Time Craft in that time to stop stardust from looping back again? They feel pinned down in the same way, really.
...fine. Fine!
"But I'll save you the trouble! That wasn't what 'duplicated' me." (And there's a lot to read into there - both that they say 'me' instead of 'us,' implying they were the one copied... but also a strange tone to the way they say 'duplicated.') "I made another wish!"
And... they leave it at that.
Unfortunately, deciding to talk doesn't mean she's not going to have to wring every scrap of detail out of them by force.no subject
...well. That's not all true, is it?
Odile can't deny she's a bit satisfied that a past version of herself successfully pieced together such an obtuse puzzle. But not enough to erase her frustration, that said Odile did nothing useful with the information. That was true already. Now, to know that was built on the remains of a worse failure...she quashes her disgust ruthlessly. This is not about her own feelings.
"To escape the loops?" she asks, though she truly cannot imagine what else it might be.
no subject
...only, there isn't another shoe to drop, is there? They keep having to remind themself: they didn't doom everyone with their wish. Nobody but themself(? themselves? two different versions) and - stardust got out, in the end. Besides, stardust was still the same person who trapped himself in the first place. So in the end, the only person who has a reason to be upset about their wish...
Even so, they can't help the note of relief that seeps into their tone when she provides an answer for them. "Of course! What else would it be?"
They were wishing to escape the loops. One way or another. And if they weren't picky about surviving it, as long as it was over... they don't necessarily want to talk to her about that! Or have her realize that they weren't even thinking about what might happen to everyone else!
They try to cover it with a cheerful expression and one uplifted claw.
no subject
Well, so what if she did. It's too late to backtrack now. At least, she doesn't feel as though she can after how obviously eager they are to change the subject. Fine. She'd promised herself not to push so hard. She'll shelve it for now.
"Were you planning on telling any of us? I understand why you may not have wanted to at the time," Considering Siffrin had run off to fight the King alone and all that! "But after?" She never saw Loop again. She wasn't even the one who typically talked to them with their bizarre Calling Craft. It hadn't been long, though, and they'd all been occupied with getting Siffrin treatment.
[1/3]
They were. They were. Until they stepped out to Isabeau wishing at the Tree, and all that everyone saw was a stranger.
Somehow, they thought that... despite their appearance, something about them would still be - still be Siffrin. Faced with the party's expressions, though - desperate, frantic, confused, but without even the slightest spark of recognition...
What was there to do, then, but be Loop? Siffrin was in the House, heading toward making the same mistake Loop had, or an even worse one. Taking the time to explain would have been a bad idea anyway!
[2/3]
"But then I thought about it some more, and..."
[3/3]
And if they couldn't bring themself to replace him, to rip his happy ending away from him after all of that, then...
...then that was it, wasn't it.
Not that they really had time to either carry through on their choice or change their mind! But no. They weren't planning to.
no subject
Problem solved! Obviously! As if they're just an item on a shopping list to be checked off! Odile rolls her eyes. She probably should not have done that or said that, but really. "And what were you planning to do with yourself?"
no subject
...like they're trying to laugh at the thought.
They don't answer her question. (They don't have an answer. There wasn't any planning, there was just what they couldn't do.)
no subject
"I'm sure Isabeau could work something out."
WELL IS SHE WRONG??? But Odile moves along quickly, wry smile or no. "What were Mirabelle and Isabeau supposed to do with some random old woman from Ka Bue deciding to tag along? You can't get hung up on that kind of question or you'll never do anything." She thinks along similar lines at times, of course. Maybe everyone does. But Odile has long since learned to disregard such worries - she'd never have left her home as a child, otherwise. What do people want with a kid who's so visibly different?
[1/?]
[2/?]
[3/?]
[4/?]
(Not that they don't have their own insecurities about that too, just like stardust does... but they're totally self-aware about it so it's not a problem. Definitely.)
"Is that really the same...?"
[5/6]
"You get back from here to Vaugarde as magically as you arrived, and head off to find everyone again. Or maybe you head back to your life in Ka Bue! Pick your favorite! But you arrive, and..."
[6/6] wheezes
Uncharacteristically, for a moment they meet her eyes. If anyone besides stardust could understand, wouldn't it be Odile? ...maybe? Or maybe they're asking too much of the Universe, when the only way someone could truly understand you is...
But they don't bother with any of the qualifiers. 'And you know she's not an imposter,' anything like that - it's Odile. She knows what they mean. They don't think she's going to squirm out of giving them a real answer by adjusting the hypothetical; if she doesn't want to answer, she just won't.