#nova aus

and surprise sloopis

Part one!!!! i have all the parts done already, it's just prettier if i put them separately lmao

quickest sloop ever tbh

uhrghrhuh northen lights sloop save me. save me forever. this is uhhhhh circa 25ish years post-canon (they have the Upgraded bonding earrings which happen only when tilly's like. fourteen or smth, and tilly herself happens lijke 8y postcanon so like. timelines and all ynkow)

im going the id5 route in saying these things take TIME and some pretty extensive self reflection, because theres no way a straight post time loops relationship is going to work healthily but also. Siffrin does take a little time to figure it out bc hes so fucking confused.

I am hitting him with both the aromantic spectrum beam and the "wasn't socialized a lot as a child/youg teenager (in this case bc they remember fuck all about their socialization) and that combined with some kinda neurodivergence made them utterly incapable of naming their own emotion" beam.

So like, yeah they love Isabeau, but what the fuck is romantic love. What does it even mean??????? will he be expected to do something?? sex is kinda weird and gross, but people say its better when its someone you love, and they thougt Vulnerability was weird and gross and look where That got them. So he doesnt say anything about it ever.

Look, theyve been so so good at saying shit out loud post canon, surely they can have one repression as a treat.

So we're directly post canon, in the month/month and a half it takes them to get to bambouche with siffrins newfound chronic issues that he absolutely Would have after channelling a god level amount of craft for weeks at minimum. (i suspect travel is faster post curse but theyre still crossing p much the entire country, a post disaster zone, with nothing but medieval level technology. it takes a lil, horses or not)

Siffrin, between all of the other problems, feels so fucking guilty that hes not anwering isabeau, so he just goes and says no. Is he sure that he doesn't want to date isabeau? Fuck no. Does he know that a rejection might hurt him? Yeah, which is why it takes them almost a month to say it. But they reckon the pain of a rejection is better than the suffering Isa would endure having to keep them (a wretched, insatiable, horrible thing) around forever.

But Isa is not stupid and also outregiously down bad, so hes like Okay!!! I will proceed not to actually move on and stay quietly in love wih you forever if you dont mind!!!!!!!

He wasnt lying, in the sense that he really doesnt mind keeping their relationship platonic and he loves them a lot anyway, and they Do have a shitton of other problems to focus on, so theres no real disappointment. But the feelings Continue to Fester and he doesnt Really move on from his crush on them, he just accepts its gonna stay an him thing.

Then, the travel!! Id imagine the All together travel would keep up for, uhhh, sixish months?? Vaugardian schools tend to close during rainy season bc thats when its the most annoying to get to school, and since they save the country right when its starting to get a little chillier, they have a couple months of freedom b$ Petronille drags bonnie back to Bambouche.

Bonnie goes, isa goes afterwards to make sure he Has a House and to build himself up for a job, then mira to continue her pilgrimage in a more personal and private way. They all leave postal adresses and make the others Promise theyll write regularly, and to send in the letters an approximate travel plan so they may respond. Siffrin has a couple mental breakdowns about it but at this point its been like, eight to ten months of feelings talky talks and feeling buddies sessions and all that, and he still has Odile to ground him, so hes not in active suicide risk like he mightve been at the start.

They keep traveling with Odile, seeing Kabue and having a grand ol time on the other side of the world (Im imagining some pretty decent sea travel, so vaugard kabue would take smth like six months? idk, i need to draw myself a globe at some point. they also take it pretty slow because they dont Really have anything else to do) but the thought is. still there.

Isa is always so sweet in his letters, and he is cute, objectively, like mira and small dogs are cute, and he does give pretty wonderful hugs, and hes so attentice and smart. But they still have no idea what love Is.

So there come a bunch of very awkard, unsubtle questions to mira (by letter) and odile (in person) just to undesrtand things. Because, also, isa kind of??? asked him to come live nearby when he returns to vaugarde?????? and its not like siffrin wants to say no, isa is his family! their friend who they love! but it does come with Implications of. things they have to think about.

(piece of this that i think will be a comic eventually) where Siffrin deseprately asks odile what the fuck love is and she, heavily autistic with a very "love is a list of things you do" ideology, just kinds of. lists things to him. Well, you're in love when you kiss someone, and you want to have a life with them, and you care for them very deeply.

And siffrin has to be like, what the fuck, i care very deeply for all of you!

And the kissing, well. THe kissing is kinda weird? Theyve never wanted to try it much, and the ccouple times theyve done it was kind of overwhelming but not much else. Good, because touch, better than the sex in terms of grossenss, but nothing to write home about.

Odile goes well, kissing is different when its someone you love romantically. Surely you wouldnt want to kiss me, right? So if theres any desire to kiss isabeau, you have your answer.

But siffrins like. Actually. If you wanted to kiss me? Id give it a go???

And then they kiss a bit platonic style. Odile doesnt actually have romantic feelings for siffrin (i personally think they would have chemistry if they were interested, but odile is not interested in romance at this point of her life, and siffrin is kind of attractive to her but to adorable to consider seriously) but shes never above kissing the homies, and siffrin will do enarly anything that gts him an ounce of affection.

This does not actually help him realize anything romance wise, but it does get him to a conclusion.

He doesnt mind at all. Yeah, feelings are super confusing and hell never be sure sure that it's romantic, but he does love isa, and they like hugging him and being close and spending time with him. They have similiar tastes, a shared sense of humor, companionship and friendship. If all there is to a romantic relationship is a couple different kinds of touch, what the hell, they want to try.

Siffrin returns to Vaugarde alone, a couple months shy of Odile (she actually returns to Vaugarde, too, because having reorganized her father's things and put in a notice at her job, she doesnt really have any ties to her homeland. The year theyve spent there cured her homesickness a bunch, and she prefers to be somewhat close to this weird little family shes found for herself; nothing stops her from travelling again if she feels like it, and the new inventions to come, like craft trains and faster boats will only make this easier.)

A bunch of things happen to siffrin, actually, including meeting and almost joining a merry band who changes names for every stage, befriending a couple people, remembering and then forgetting a lot of things about the island, etcetera etcetera, but this post was isafrin focused and its already long enough.

When he's almost to juvente, he meets isa on the road. Turns out, jouvente isnt as good to live in when you kind of hate all of your old friends and your parents and many siblings are costantly harrassing you. So, as he wrote in a letter that didnt reach siffrin before they left kabue, hes moving to another city, closer to the center east of vaguard, that well call Carsien.

And, uh. Did. Did isa always have glasses? And fancy flowing shirts that show off more of his muscles than the defender uniform ever did. Siffrin isnt into that kinda life, but even he can recognize when a guy is very objectively attractive. Aesthetically pretty. What a man.

They have a very cute reunion, talk the whole day sharing little stories and adventures that didnt make it into their many, many letters, and they end up on the couch at Isas new house. Its pretty big, thanks to the saviours money, with three bedrooms in case anyone wants to visit, and a very big first room downstairs that could become a boutique with time.

Theyre both dancing around each other, skirting over the things they want to say as theyre wont to do. Siffrin went through a lot, in these two years, two years and a half. They've gotten slightly better, they've gotten a lot, a lot worse, and then they ever so slowly got better again - disregarding minior setbacks, theyve been on those getting better tracks pretty regularly for the last few months. But hes still a siffrins, and siffrins dont have the power to say what they mean out loud.

Eventually, they get it out. They tell him, they dont know if what they feel is romantic love, but they want a relationship. They want to feel close to him and to make him happy, even if they want to be happy in slightly different ways.

Isa is overjoyed, of course. He doesnt mind adjusting to non typical relationship, hes a very open guy! So, what kind of differences are on the table here - do they, uhhh, dont want to call it a romantic relationship? Like avoiding "my boyfriend/my partner kind of thing"?

Siffrin combusts immidiately at the idea of someone in his family calling him "my" anything, and thats a pretty clear no.

So, what, do you not want me to get too touchy? Nope, they want alll the touch they can get.

No petnames? (Siffrin doesnt answer, but his face gets way darker at the thought.) No kisses? (they dont mind, actually, it feels kind of nice.) No dates? (those are pretty much just the normal hangouts they already do).

And at one point isas just like. Sif. Siffaroonie. That kìjust kind of sounds like a romantic relationship. Like, in the most explicit common definition of a romantic relationship, even. Are you sure you're not uncomfortable with any of this.

And they!! aren't!!!!! but it still feels weird!!!!!!! these things dont feel romantic to them. These are friends things! Very normal friend things! that he doesnt mind doing, because he loves isabeau a lot, and they make them both happy. Whats romantic about that!!!!!!!

They eventually just let it go. The exact definition of romance doesn't really count when this kind of relationship is good for both of them, and they just, give it a try. Siffrin will spend exactly two months in the apartment he bought for themself on the other side of the city, before moving kind of permanently at isa's.

(a couple years in the future, mira will be perfectly happy to rebuy that same apartment for herself. Shes close as ever to her best friends, but she also has that independence shes gained with her newfound confidence. She can love and be loved without it being romantic, still having her space and her life, and its the best thing in her life)