#sif in the background:

[the-ace-with-spades]

A tiny little scene from way further in my trans! Bradley fic - chapter 14/15 o (sometimes I feel) like a monkey pilot, we're currently on chapter 5 - featuring Uncle Slider

For context, Bradley came out after a mental breakdown and reunited with Mav and Ice less than two months before this scene. tw: slight misgendering (one slip-up)

*

March 2013

It was a big day — Bradley had been asked by Maria to meet someone else from the family as his therapy homework and Uncle Slider was selected as the one to fulfill that assignment. Out of the whole family, it was just him and aunt Sarah that lived in San Diego, and only the two of them knew that, well, that Bradley wanted to be called Bradley now and that he’d come out in the worst circumstances possible.

At least Ice said he did know — he was the one to tell Slider when Bradley moved in with them and he hadn’t said more than he was a little confused but he’s okay when Bradley asked how it went. He still didn’t know if Ice didn’t tell him more because he wanted to protect him or if it was truly all the reaction he had from Slider. He hadn't talked to many people since he came out and even the people he did talk to were strangers who Bradley would usually either never see again or could avoid seeing again. Family seemed like an entirely different category, one that made him freeze and tense with dread.

Hopefully, by the end of the day, he’d still be Bradley’s uncle.

He and Mav had just finished kneading the dough for the ravioli they were making when the front door bell rang. Ice, who was just watching them from the other side of the kitchen island, let his book fall down next to the fruit bowl and walked to the foyer.

Ice and Slider talked in the foyer for a minute, tones too quiet to hear the words, before Bradley heard their footsteps and Slider's voice broke through the door to the corridor, “So, where’s the wayward son?”

Ice sounded a bit exasperated when he replied but Bradley could still hear lightness to his tone as he said, “In the kitchen with Mav."

He tried not to worry. Tried to take it as a good sign and not to have the worst case scenarios flash before his eyes.

He turned away, back to the kitchen island and the entrance, looking at his hands, still covered flour from the dough. He saw Mav's concerned gaze in the corner of his eye, but he only shrugged, trying not to worry him.

It all should be fine. Even if Slider didn't react well to actually seeing Bradley as Bradley, it wasn't going to be the end of the world.

Mav pinched the bridge of his nose, a sigh that could be only directed at Uncle Slider leaving his mouth. Bradley turned around.

First thing that caught his eye was a giant baby blue balloon, floating around Slider's head, the It’s A Boy! text in a darker shade of blue in semi-cursive.

Slider himself didn't look much different than the last time Bradley saw him in 2006, right before he retired from the Navy. He already had grating hair back then, now they were almost completely gray, there were a few more wrinkles around his eyes and he seemed to have lost some muscle from around his shoulders but he still mostly just looked like Bradley's Uncle Slider.

“Hey, kid,” he said, like he had always been. “I didn’t want to come empty handed but Shay is at a conference in LA and she’s the one who chooses gifts usually so… There was a shop next to the girls' school and I thought it would be, you know, fitting.”

Bradley hadn't been in contact with them when Slider and Sarah's second daughter was born — he had only heard about her from Ice, a couple of weeks ago when they tried to catch up on all the family matters he had missed in the years he was away.

“The youngest is six now, isn’t she? Sof, right?”

“Almost seven,” Slider replied, sounding quite proud. “Tells us to call her Sofia now, because she is too big for Sof. Well, unless you’re her Uncle Mav, then you can still call her Sof.”

“What can I say? Kids love me,” Mav quipped, right from behind Bradley.

“That’s because you’re a big kid yourself,” Ice supplied, rolling his eyes.

Now that he wasn't standing right behind Slider, watching him for any wrong moves or words toward Bradley, he had moved back towards the high chair on the other side of the kitchen island.

“He’s as big as a kid you mean,” Slider said, one hand making a little measurement gesture, cutting the air right below his shoulder, where the top of Mav's head would reach.

Bradley couldn't help it — he snorted.

Slider used the moment to step closer, pulling on the balloon's string, and handing it off to Bradley.

“Thanks,” he said. When Slider opened his arms, the same way he used to do whenever he wanted a hug from Bradley, his voice cracked as he added, “I’m covered in flour.”

“Come here anyway,” he told him and Bradley did, stepping into his arms. It had been a while but it also didn't feel any different — Slider was still the only person from their nearby family who was taller than Bradley, still would just wrap his long arms around his back and bring him close enough that he'd be sinking into his chest, put Bradley's face in the crook of his neck and say into the curls behind his ear, “You gave your folks quite a scare.”

“I know,” he whispered into Slider's shoulder.

“Good to have you here with us, buddy, really good,” he said and Bradley tried to soak in the moment, but at the same time not to put his dirty hands on Slider's nice black polo.

“Now, is any of you going to roll the dough for me or are you just going to stand there?”

Bradley let go of Slider, still not completely sure this day wouldn't become a disaster, but a bit more relaxed.

“I thought you finally bought him that pasta machine,” Slider said, mainly toward Ice as he took a step back toward the kitchen island.

“Oh, I did,” Ice said, with an accusatory tone to his voice. “Put it in the back of the cupboard right away and never used it.”

“My mamma didn’t need a fancy pasta cutter, I don’t need it either,” Mav said and it sounded like they'd had that discussion at least a couple of times. “Baby, can you roll the stuffing for me?”

“Yeah, just let me wash my hands again,” he replied, giving Slider one last glance over his shoulder as he moved to the sink.

Mav, satisfied now that Bradley was within his reach, turned to Slider with a glare. “What? If you’re not going to be useful, get out of my kitchen.”

Slider raised his arms and backed out, sitting down next to Ice at the other side of the island. Bradley could feel his eyes on him, following him all the way inside the kitchen but not adding anything.

Mav stepped next to him, bumping their shoulders — or his shoulder and Bradley's elbow, really — and asked close to his face, “You doing okay, baby?”

He turned on the tap, trying to gather his thoughts. “Yeah, I just—”

“I can still kick him out if you want,” Mav offered, way too eager. “In fact, I’ll take great joy in kicking him out.”

“You invited him,” he reminded.

“No, we invited him,” Mav corrected. “If it’s too soon—”

“I can’t live behind closed door forever, as much as I want to,” he noted because that was the truth. The past almost two months now, Bradley'd been seeing his parents and the healthcare professionals that were taking care of him and then almost no one else. At some point, he had to start living again, even if it was scary, being in the world and out and not in the safety of his parents house. Most of the time, he still felt a bit like a fraud, calling himself Bradley, telling people to use he and him when talking about, that he was guy — almost like he didn't deserve it until he looked the way people expected him to look.

“I know,” Mav said and he didn't seem any happier about it than Bradley, his eyebrows creasing as his hand reached to caress Bradley's cheek gently — he had flour on his hands, too. “I wish I could make the world a better place for you.”

“Thank you, Dad.”

“Promise I’ll kick him out if he says anything,” Mav added, giving his cheekbone a last swap with his thumb and then putting his hands under the running tap.

“I’m pretty sure that if he does, Pops is going to be the one who’d kick him out,” he noted.

They were both standing around, watching their interactions like guard dogs, ready to bite at any slide of hand, and Bradley felt almost okay with it.

Bradley washed his hands and dried it off on the nearby towel. Mav sent him a wink before stepping away, bending down to find the rolling pin somewhere in the mess of their corner cabinet.

Slider called out, louder than he'd been talking to Ice. “Hey, is there a chance you made enough that I won’t have to think what to make for dinner for the kids?”

Ice sounded exasperated again, shaking his head at him and Bradley smiled as he said, “You just came here to steal our food again, didn’t you?”

“Told you a hundred times, brother, cooking well is his only good quality, I might as well milk it.”

Bradley shook his head at the familiarity of the whole moment and said, “You’re in luck this time — we’ve already frozen the first batch.”

“Don’t let him win, buddy,” Ice quipped.

Bradley pulled up the sleeves of his hoodie, taking out the bowl with the spinach and ricotta filling out of the fridge. As he carried it to the counter, the free space on the shelf below the kitchen island, right next to the ravioli dough, he felt watched again. He tried not to pay attention to it, but Slider was suspiciously silent, eyes scrolling over Bradley's mostly flat chest, clad in a binder invisible under his hoodie, and going up to Bradley's military-regulation short hair. He'd been looking like that the past few weeks every day but suddenly, it felt inadequate.

“Since when do you like Dallas Cowboys, kid?”

Bradley didn't have to look down to remember what he was wearing — the blue Dallas Cowboys hoodie he stole from Jake when he left Lemoore. Bradley didn't know shit about football but he used to go to NFL games with Jake whenever Dallas Cowboys were playing and they were in the area, it was Jake's team and Bradley would always wear one of his t-shirt or sweatshirts to blend in with the crowd and, well, because Jake liked when Bradley wore his clothes and Bradley like to wear his clothes. The past four months, the hoodie had been a source of comfort in the situations that made him nervous, used almost as often as the blanket hoodie Mav bought him in high school.

He wasn't about to tell them he missed Jake or who Jake was or anything else. "Can't I just like football?"

“I thought you were a basketball kinda girl—boy—guy—Shit.” It was clumsy but Bradley would give him points for trying. When Ice elbowed Slider into his side, he added sheepishly, “Sorry, Brad.”

“Please don’t call me Brad.”

“Sorry,” Slider repeated, scratching the back of his neck. “I thought it was Bradley now.”

“It is,” he said. “I’m just trying to avoid all the Brad Brad jokes that will come with it.”

“Yeah, you did make your life harder with that name change,” he said and just as he finished the sentence Mav and Ice turned toward him again, glaring. “I meant—”

“I know what you meant, relax,” Bradley told him, somehow feeling the tension oozing out of him now that the first slip had been made. “Mav said my parents had it chosen for a boy, so…”

“That does sound like something Goose would choose,” Slider said, slowly, and Bradley almost laughed at how hard he was trying to avoid his usual speak-before-think mode. “You can always go by your second name. Plenty of people do.”

Yeah, that was not happening. “I think I will just stick with Bradley.”

“By the way, Ron would make a great middle name,” he added. Ice elbowed him again but he didn't seem to mind too much and honestly, Bradley didn't mind the turn conversation had taken — it was all good-natured and so casual that it had almost calmed down most of his nerves. "Simple, traditional, can't be confused with a female name, what's not to like?"

Mav huffed. “Kerner, don’t even try—”

“What? He had a second name before,” Slider cut in.

“The paperwork is done already, anyway, so you’re a bit late,” Ice pointed out.

Mac turned to him this time, frowning. “It is?”

“Ice took me to the courthouse this week, after—after the session,” he admitted. Ice went with him inside and did most of the talking with the court clerk when Bradley couldn't reply to the simple what is the petition you need for question without spilling his whole life history. “I filed the petition.”

“I don’t think we chose a middle name, did we? Did you put one down?”

“I did,” he admitted, not elaborating and hoping they would leave it at that.

He concentrated on taking out the ravioli filling and scooping it into balls

“What is then?”

He only glanced at Ice shortly but that was enough for them to realize.

“Oh,” Uncle Slider only said before his typical shit-eating grin made its place on his face.

Mav didn’t say anything but he stepped closer toward Bradley, his close presence more than words.

Ice didn’t move even a millimeter. He bit down on lip, blinking the wetness out of his eyes and asked quietly, “You went with—with Tom?”

“Thomas,” he corrected, just barely hearable. "It's Bradley Thomas Bradshaw now. Or will, when the petition goes through."

"It's a good one, baby," Mav said, giving his shoulder an approving rub, eyes a bit watery. 

“Not as good of a choice as Ron, but I supposed you can live with it,” Slider said and just like that, Mav turned to him and tried to hit him with the rag he was holding — he dodged last minute and Mav tried to hit him again, basically crawling over the kitchen island, until Bradley started laughing at them.

Ice was still looking at him, though, still speechless but with the corners of his lips quivering now.

#this will probably be rewritten by time I'm actually going to post chapter 14/15 but yeah enjoy #trans bradley rooster bradshaw #ron slider kerner #bradley rooster bradshaw #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #mavdad #icepops #technically background icemav #and a tiny mention of #hangster #this is from a hangster fic so it should count #(sif) lamp tag #charlie writes #op

[blade0fgrass]

#start again start again start again #start again: a prologue #sasasa #sasasap #in stars and time #isat #siffrin #isat siffrin #sif scribbles #i didnt draw the background its a photo #digital art

[clovariia]

thank you for everything, sif! 🥲❤️

i’ve attached some of my personal memories from the game under the cut

here’s my card album!

here are my titles!

here are my wallpapers!

here’s my profile info from the last day of the game!

I’LL MISS YOU FOREVER SIF 😭😭😭

#love live #honoka kousaka #chika takami #ayumu uehara #kanon shibuya #llsif #sif #my art #the dates are the start and end date of the game #the heart sections + their dresses + their bracelets are the groups colors #and the symbols in the background are all the other members of the groups! #i represented yu with that plushie in ayumu's section #love live has been so important to me for so long...it's so surreal to see the original game shut down #i've played it for most of its lifespan #although i haven't been active with it for years #i primarily play sifas #but i'm excited to see sif2 come out so i can play that too!!! #nervous but excited for this new era of the franchise... #it was really nice to do love live fanart for once...hopefully i'll do more eventually

[scienceisfood]

#sif personal #getting s call from the school councilor that is supposedly to inform you but really sounds like she is chewing you out #and it's like this is the first I'm hearing of it and she keeps referencing this time last week THAT I WAS NOT INFORMED OF #meanwhile my kid is crying in the background because he fucked up #and i literally just got out of therapy an hour prior talking about him not being straightforward and lying about shit like this #and it's like well with a school counselor like this no fucking wonder

[abluskittle]

A commissioned art I made for Aviators for their song release of Bonfire on YouTube.

Made with Photoshop CS6 on stream: Twitch.tv/ABluSkittle

#ABluSkittleArt #cat #Digital Art #landscape #art #background #photoshop #Dark Souls #Demon's Souls #Bonfire #forest #cosy #Sif #Artorias #Emerald Herald #siegmeyer of catarina #Shalquoir

[bengallemon]

kagedaze piece is going rather well considering I made the executive decision to do it in colour

#lemon time #i mean. only odile and the background will have any actual colour. sif is still basically in greyscale #id estimate im. halfway???????? maybe a third. #i should get it to a point tonight where i can finish tomorrow #im also jumping between this and a traditional watercolour piece

[loversquarrels]

Wip!!!

My oc just feels ... awkwardly there lmao. But a poly relationship is good every now and then

#wip #work in progress #drawing #i hate coloring #backgrounds are scary #oc #thor god of war #sif god of war #god of war ragnarok

[zkretchy]

We interrupt our normal Witcher-content to bring you Dark Souls brainrot for a day(or picture really) since Artorias (and ofc Sif) has a habit of sneaking up into my braincells every now and again so-happy art for those two (fight me)

#i know i know basically everyone doing soulsborne art does rly rad cool aesthetic art #and like i COULD #but i could also just draw these two out on a stroll in nondescript 2 colour background-thing #dark souls #knight artorias #sif #deciding on colours was hell but what makes this easier is the amount of shading and shine armor brings out #anyhow enjoy this bit i'll go and crawl away into the freezer #its starting to get hot during the day again and-no thanks #art #zkretchy

[astralartefact]

The Final Unsundered Azem Ariadne Demon of Amaurot

Front The Demon of Amaurot is steadfast in her perfection. With her Threadsaw at hand she cuts through fate and follows her distant dreams.

Back Each Azem's uniquely black mask is reformed using the aether of the planet's hopes and dreams, its form acts as an omen of their term. As such, the carrier of the demon mask will make sure their fear of her isn't unfounded.

Ariadne is a hurt girl in a perfect world who finds out that this perfect world is going to end before she's able to get her revenge on it.

Born without the sensation of pain she is othered by the people of Amaurot ("Who can live a fulfilling life without pain?") and treated as a demon child. Hardly able to relate to others she finds it impossible to use her creation magic to construct living beings such as animals and familiars and instead focuses her childhood studies on replicating plants and flowers instead.

To show the entirety of Aetheris that she can and will indeed surpass their meaningless lifes she begins actively branching out her studies at a young age, mastering uncountable disciplines in a bid to make Amaurot acknowledge her worth. Her personal method of using red threads of aether to construct materials in a safer and more precise manner catches the eye of the Bureau of the Architect who offer her a place to continue her studies with Amaurot's board of architects.

During her training there she begins questioning the rules of Amaurot. After all why should she, someone people hesitate to call one of their kind, have to follow their rules? If she's "not like them" then why should she have to hide her differences from others when this pretended equality is nothing but a sham?

Her childish outburst of individuality had lasting effects. Because of her impressive skills and long-lasting interest in flowers she had been a contender to rise to Halmarut's seat in the future when he considered stepping off. However the convocation quickly turned against her, only acknowledging her skills as far as they had to.

There remained only few members of the Convocation for which Ariadne's capabilities outshined her outward disrespect for their customs. Emet-Selch, as her supervisors at her place of work, is - while deeply offended by every word she speaks - finding common ground with her more often than both of them would like. Venat on the other hand quickly becomes endeared with her and soon decides to announce her as her successor.

As Amaurot's final unsundered Azem, her term would be remembered as most fruitful and impressive, yet far too short - at least by those who lived to remember it.

#ffxiv #ffxiv art #ffxiv azem #azem #the card/artstyle inspiration is voice of cards #ariadne's design is inspired by rapunzel sinoalice and also by what i always thought azeyma would look like #the threadsaw (big sword) is loosely based on sif unnumbered from nier reincarnation #Btw Aetheris is the german form of Eitherys and I just like it better so I'm using that instead #i'm so bad at practical photo editing q_q please don't look too close at the background #again i am reminded that i have not studied anatomy/proportions enough

[paranormal-potatoes]

Teague: sorry what? i was distracted by the 11 foot tall twink

Ornstein: what is that and why are you looking at me

Teague: a twink is–

Gehrman, shoving his hand over Teague's mouth: nothing. don't mind him, he's chronically stupid. it's terminal

Teague: *muffled noises*

translation: fuck you let me seduce the twinks

Gehrman: no. behave. or I'm telling what you did last sunday

Teague: *remembering last sunday when he accidentally broke one of Maria's favorite mugs*

Teague, muffled but loudly: FUCK

#another edition of things funny only to me #ive been watching someone play dark souls and i got interested in and then rapidly attached to Ornstein #and Sif and Artorias #dont worry about how this convo is happening its fine #the other twink is artorias #idk if those two count as twinks #i just remember the streamer getting Ornstein's death cutscene and her chat saying ''TWINK OBLITERATED'' and it was so funny #that cutscene is so funny in general #teagan is (of course) in the background doing a rendition of the live slug reaction #ch: gehrman #ch: teague #OH FUCK WAIT THIS WILL SHOW UP IN THE TAGS IM SORRY #IM SORRY ARTORIAS + ORNSTEIN + SIF + DARK SOULS TAG BROWSERS #ch: ornstein #rel: gehrman & teague #potato writes fic

[liichkiing]

Someone remind me to finish this drawing I'm working on tomorrow.

#sif says #I'd post the wip but... the fear or whatever. #gotta give it a background before posting it.

[trash-bin-ary]

I promised my mom that I’d remake her favorite pin of mine when the og eventually falls off and to do that I’d have to print a paper for it and if I’m printing something for that purpose anyway I might as well do multiple and my brain is making Ideas ™️

#this is a post i made #I have one that I can’t get out of my head that’s ‘lord give me one more chance’ around the db clock #and then I thought of one that was one of the dark sif smiling pictures and it says happiness? wrong time loop #or one that I forgor with db and sif on it #and then maybe one with the kollk 1991 intro background with ‘we find ourselves back at the start’ #and then one with maybe the floating sofa when you die or alternatively mal du pays

[rubys-domain]

i've made some progress

#⇢₊˚⊹ 🩷∥ruby∥yo，ide yo !! #only took staying up all night #and actually putting my phone on a damn table cuz i'm usually a thumb player with rhythm games #i like laying down when i play. but apparently i need to actually try with this game #the nerve 🙄 #you'd think that being a former SIF player would mean i wouldn't completely suck at this game. they kinda had the same layout and all that #(specifically the notes flying from the upper middle and fanning out and downwards) #but it seems my skillz have been dulled from lack of practice #i also had to adopt /the/ most minimalist live settings ever #i underestimated how much the 3d background distracted me. cuz switching to 2d really helped #(also pls excuse my non-bloomed yuta. i don't have enough drops to bloom him yet) #(and i don't want to use dia for that) #anyway. glad that i now have one more time-waster in my roster besides genshin lol

[glacialmaples-pkmn]

I made some.... decisions regarding rank up gems. and while I didn't get to use as much LP in the event like I originally planned, I'm still happy with the overall outcome!

it took me a little over 4 days to completely use up all the LP (it would've taken me 3 days, but I got back into babymetal and binged a bunch of their stuff that I've missed lol). I probably would've used it up earlier, but I took advantage of the time I had to sink in and used exp charms and kept getting LP by ranking up lol.

I said this in the tags of another post, but thank you to everyone who responded to my question abt LP overflow!!! it's what ultimately led me to using all the rank up gems I was able to all at once.

#maple crunches #love live #love live sif #llsif #love live school idol festival #I had so many streams and videos lined up to play in the background #playing swipe songs on repeat hurts :( #but I'd 100% do it again lmao

[ghosttoastx]

Sif-stem by @vulpixisananimal :D

I’ve been sick and icky feeling all day but i had to doodle them!!

I tried to make MDP’s veil like sparkly (because oooo shiny✨) but the shinys didn’t show up very well :(

I am now going To go pass the fuck out :3

Bonus:

I liked the darker background with this one

#isat #in stars and time #in stars and time siffrin #isat loop #isat mal du pays #isat siffrin #sifstem #I draw these a few days ago actually #but I was so tired and loopy I forgot to post them #my art

[yellowocaballero]

Been a fan of your fics for YEARS. I was just telling my friend how despite how much I read fics I never actually love them, with some of your fics (especially TMA) as the exception. Felt the need to reread some of them and saw you reblogged some ISAT fanart. So. Any thoughts on ISAT you'd like to share?

Hope you have a wonderful day!! So happy I found your fics again!!

I avoided answering this for a while because I was trying to think of a way to cohesively and coherently vocalize my thoughts on In Stars and Time. I have given up because I don't want to hold everybody here all day and I have accepted that my thoughts are just pterodactyl screeching.

I love it so much. I have so much to say on it. It drove me bonkers for like a week straight. I have AUs. It's absolute Megbait. They're just a little Snufkin and they're having the worst experience of anybody's life. Ludonarratives my fucking beloved.

I am going to talk about the prologue.

The prologue is such a fascinating experience. You crack open the game and immediately begin checking off all of the little genre boxes: mage, warrior, researcher, you're the rogue...some little kid who's there for some reason...alright, you know the score. You're in yet another indie Earthbound RPG, these are your generic characters, let's get the ball rolling.

Except then you realize that these characters are people. You feel instantly how you've entered the game at its last dungeon, at the end of the adventure. They have their own in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They get along well and they're obviously close, but not in a twee or unrealistic way. They have so much chemistry and spirit and life. I fell in love with them so quickly.

But Sif doesn't. Sif kind of hates them, because they will not stop saying the same damn thing. They walk the same paths, do the same things, make the same jokes, expect Sif to say the same lines. They keep referencing a Sif we do not see, with jokes we never see him make and heroic personality he never shows - they reference a Sif who is dead - and Sif can't handle that, so he kills them too.

They become only an exercise in tedious frustration. Sif button mashes through their dialogue, Sif mindlessly clicks the same dialogue options, Sif skips through the tutorial, Sif blows through the puzzles. Sif turns their world into a video game. Sif is playing a generic RPG. Sif forgets their names. They are no longer people with in-jokes, histories, backgrounds, adventures. They're the mage, the warrior, the researcher, and...some random kid.

I did not understand the Kid's presence at first. I had no idea what they contributed to the game. They didn't do anything. As a party member in a video game, they're a bit useless. Why is the Kid there?

Because Sif's life isn't a video game. Because the kid isn't 'the kid'. They're Bonnie. Bonnie, who the party loves. Why is Bonnie there? Because they love them. There is no room for Bonnie in the boring RPG that Sif is playing. And then you realize that Sif is wrong, and that they've lost something extremely important, and that they'll never escape without it.

Watching the prologue before watching ISAT gave ISAT the most unique air of dread and horror, because you crack open ISAT and you see the person Sif used to be. You realize that Sif used to be a person. Sif used to be the person who made jokes, who gave real smiles, who interacted with the world as if they are a part of it. And you know you are sitting down to watch Sif lose everything that made them a person, to lose everything that made them a member of this world, and turn them into a character in a video game who doesn't understand the point of Bonnie at all.

At the climax of the game, when the others realize that something is deeply wrong and that Sif physically cannot tell them, they realize that there is nothing they can do. So Bonnie declares snacktime. And for the first time they have snacktime.

What is snacktime? Classic JRPGs don't have snacktime. There's literally no point to a snacktime - not in a video game, and not in Sif's terrible life. It's not fixing this, because nothing can fix this. But Bonnie gives Sif a cookie and Sif eats it.

It's meaningless. It's a cutscene. It didn't save Sif and it didn't change a thing. It will make no difference in the end.

But it did make the difference. It made all of the difference in the world. Bonnie is a character who you really don't understand the point of before you realize that Bonnie was the entire point.

ISAT is about comfort media. Why do we play the same video games over and over again? Why do we avoid watching the finale of our favorite shows? What is truly comforting: a story with no conflict, or a story where you always know what is about to happen? Do you want to live in a scary, uncontrollable world, or do you want to play Stardew Valley? Do you want a person or a character?

When I beat Earthbound for the first time (and if you don't know, the prologue/ISAT battle system is just Mother) and watched the ending cutscene where the characters part ways and say goodbye...I felt a little bit sad. I wanted them to be together forever. But that's something only characters could ever be.

#these aren't deep or unique thoughts they're just the specific aspect of ISAT that made it one of the most interesting gaming experiences #i actually like the prologue much more than ISAT for just this reason #its honestly a video game art piece that's created to give the player a very specific experience #that makes them an aspect of the narrative that is told #it's. incredible. #in stars and time #start again start again start again #start again: a prologue #isat #god and there is so so so so much more to say here #what a rich and complex and fascinating game that made me cry like a baby #i dont even kin sif. we arent similar at all. #i cant imagine how devastating this game would have been if i did #but I do have a deep relationship with escapsim #and i write about it a lot #and video games about being video games are wonderful #as are stories about being stories #and why we consume stories. how we use them. how they save us and hurt us. #never played a video game that used its medium so well #i bet undertales also pretty good at that but this is more so i think #stories about stories have to be about why we love stories #and im not an artsy person and i roll my eyes a bit when people talk about the spiritual neccesity of art #i think people need stories because the world is sad and hard and boring and we want to think about something else for a while. #some people need to be anywhere but here #and sometimes if you're Lil Depressed-Ass Snufkin that looks like being here forever #baby cringe-ass snufkin big hat idiot