Hello, and welcome to the Shin Megami Tensei / Persona Infinite Loops!

This is the revised edition of the original compilation, due to loss of notes. Last updated: August 17th, 2023. This section will be update upon further developments.

This introduction is essential to the story and is included in every story thread and compilation related to this project.

If you don't know what the loops are, here is a quick introduction:

Originally started by the author Innortal in this very website, the Infinite Loops Project is a complication of snapshots involving characters from various franchises, reliving their lives over and over and over again – and getting into various shenanigans in an attempt to alleviate their boredom. Eventually, SpaceBattles (the website) got its hands on it, and now the Infinite Loops is a truly massive community project with countless authors, involving just about every fandom you can think of.

And the Megami Tensei franchise – or as it is known in the Loops, the Amala branch – is no exception.

Now, an introduction of the official loop mechanics, paraphrased to be as current as possible (original rules set by author Saphroneth):

One person per loop, often the main character, is an Anchor. They are the person who first starts time looping. There may be more anchors per loops for a variety of reasons.

There is at least one Anchor present in any Time Loop snippet, though it may not be the local one.

The standard pattern for a loop is that the Anchor (and whoever else is looping there) come to awareness in a loop at a particular point in the story. From there, events will play out as influence by the Loopers present, acting with the benefit of their foreknowledge, until a predetermined end point is reached or all Loopers have copped it.

To be Awake is to be aware of the time loops (that is, to have gone back in time this time). NOTE: Awake applies only to Loopers – those who know that there's a time loop but are not loopers are called "Loop Aware".

The Anchor is the only character guaranteed to be Awake. Even after other have started looping, it is mostly random as to whether they will be Awake this particular loop.

Crossovers, fusions, and alternate pasts can also take place. It is perfectly possible, for example, to have the characters Awaken into a loop which conforms to a fanfic universe rather than reality, or to Awaken to find that someone from a different Loop has replaced their friends.

Loops do not have to be in a chronological order, but it is strongly preferred that they do not require a mutually contradictory order.

Just about every looper is very, very stir crazy.

Background:

Time loops happened because something went horribly wrong with Yggdrasil, the supercomputer that runs the multiverse, and the Admins running everything put a great deal of universes into time Loops to stop them from breaking any further.

Backups do exist though: in many worlds, other Loops are stored as works of fiction, just in case the Admins need to restore the factory settings of a Branch. Our world, the Hub, is the master backup, and contains every backup of every loop known to exist.

And as you should expect, Amala is the (second) most damaged up branch in the multiverse (No. 1 is the Mega Man branch, for those curious).

Whatever broke Yggdrasil caused the cosmic flaw that made the MegaTen universe – Amala – as messed up as it is. It drove YHVH (the one present in the branch) absolutely mad, and even warped the backups, so that YHVH can be nothing but the tyrant we know from the games. Nocturne especially is one of the most damaged sub-branches in existence. Fortunately for them, the Persona sub-branch managed to escape most of the damage.

Branch info:

Admin: Taira no Masakado

Shin Megami Tensei I (known as "Mainline" branch)
Anchor: Steven
Loopers: Futsuo (protagonist), Aoi (female hero)

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne (known as "Conception" branch)
Anchor: Naoki Kashima (Demi-Fiend)
Loopers: Pixie (also known as Super-Pixie), Hee-Ho, the Rider Fiends

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey (the "Schwarzwelt" branch)
Anchor: Langdon Alder (protagonist)
Loopers: Arthur

Shin Megami Tensei IV and APOCALYPSE (the "Firmament" branch)
Anchor: Isabeau
Loopers: Flynn, Burroughs

Digital Devil Saga (the "Junkyard" branch)
Anchor: Sera (soul-bonded with Serph), Seraph (when the two fuse together)
Loopers: Serph, Heat, Argilla, Gale, Cielo, Roland

Devil Survivor 1 (the "Lockdown" branch)
Anchor: Atsuro Kihara
Loopers: Kazuya Minegishi "Abel", all the "Bel" demons (soul-bonded with Abel), Yuzu Tanikawa

Devil Survivor 2
Anchor: Al Saiduq
Loopers: Hibiki Kuze, Daichi Shijima, Io Nitta, Yamato Hotsuin

Devil Summoner – Raidou Kuzunoha games
Anchor: unconfirmed – Stealth Anchor
Loopers: Raidou Kuzunoha XIV, Gotou

Persona:

Anchor: Igor
P1: Naoya Todou, Maki Sonomura, Kei Nanjo, Masao "Mark" Inaba, Reiji Kido, Yukino Mayuzumi, Yuka Ayase, Eriko "Elly" Kirishima, Hidehiko "Brown" Uesugi
P2: Tatsuya Suou, Maya Amano, Eikichi Michina, Lisa Silverman, Jun Kurosu, Katsuya Suou, Ulala Serizawa, Baofu
P3: Minato Arisato / Makoto Yuki, Yukari Takeba, Junpei Iori, Mitsuru Kirijo, Akihiko Sanada, Shinjiro Aragaki, Fuuka Yamagishi, Koromaru, Aegis, Ken Amada, Ryoji Mochizuki (soul-bonded to Minato Arisato), Chidori Yoshino, Elizabeth, Theodore
P4: Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa, Teddie, Naoto Shirogane, Nanako Dojima, Ryotaro Dojima, Tohru Adachi, Margaret
PQ: Rei (soul-bonded with Zen)
P5: Akira Kurusu "Joker", Morgana, Ryuji Sakamoto, Ann Takamaki, Yusuke Kitagawa, Makoto Nijima, Futaba Sakura, Haru Okumura, Sojiro Sakura, Zenkichi Hasegawa, Goro Akechi, Lavenza, Sophia, Sumire Yoshizawa

Loop Aware Entities: Lucifer, the Fiends, the White, Philemon, Nyarlathotep, Zen

Dreaming: Takahisa Kandori

Additional branch-specific notes:
Naoki Kashima is an MLE for some loops
After the Edit, Naoki Kashima is now a Travelling Looper
Law and Chaos heroes in general cannot loop. Same goes for the humans in the Vortex World.
Reiji Kido, Tatsuya Suou and Jun Kurosu have been Grima Patched to prevent Nyarlathotep from looping.
The Rumour Curse and the Atma virus are under Read Only.
Aleph is currently not looping for several reasons.
If SMT If… ever loops, Igor is anchoring it.
When in an "Eternal Punishment" loop, Eikichi, Jun and Lisa cannot be all Awake simultaneously.

Other important terms:
Baseline: The official canon story. Technically these fics are all sequels.
Variant: One or more elements of the Baseline have been changed.
Fused Loop: Crossovers.
Ping: A signal that loopers can use to alert other loopers that they are Awake. The Ping has to be taught to other loopers, and only those who know how to use it can detect it.
Subspace Pocket: A pocket dimension that allows loopers to store objects and carry them across loops. Technically, it's a means to sap them of their excess power so they don't grow TOO overpowered, but that drain is negligent, especially compared to the utility. They start small but grow larger as the looper grows stronger, with no known upper limits.
MLE (Malicious Looping Entity): A Looper whose actions are harmful towards the stability of their Branch and Yggdrasil in general.
Loop-Aware: A non-looping character who knows that the time loops exist.
Dreaming: A character who (usually literally) Dreams about previous loops without being a looper themselves.
Cluster: A collection of closely-associated Baselines. Amala is one. (for other examples, think Nasuverse or all the Mario stuff).
Read-Only: An ability or object that can only be obtained for the duration of the loop they're in, and cannot be carried over subsequent loops.
Eiken: The punishment loop, reserved for loopers who threaten the stability of a loop. Ran by Aphrodite and usually follows rule 63 and all the cringe anime harem high school clichés you can possibly imagine.
Grima Patch: In case a looper is connected metaphysically with a non-looping evil being, the Grima Patch can be used to prevent that evil being from looping.
Chrysalis Syndrome: Named after Chrysalis from My Little Pony. A looper who first Awakens in a variant treats the variant as a their baseline. This can alter their personality.
Sakura Syndrome: Named after Sakura from Naruto. This looper is convinced that their actions have absolutely no consequences due to the time loops, leading to unhinged and immoral behavior with no regard to other people.
Setsuna Syndrome: Named after Setsuna from Sailor Moon. This looper is convinced that the loops MUST play out exactly as in baseline, even though that's technically impossible due to variants and fused loops.
DLID (Dissociative Loop Identity Disorder): If a character has two or more baselines (appears in multiple media of a Cluster), then they are often confused over what their "true" baseline is.
Null Loop: A loop where nobody has access to their out-of-loop power and Pockets.

Compilation notes: Each snip will be marked at the beginning with the following information in bold:
Fandoms: listed as [fandom a], [fandom b]
Title: if there isn't one, it will be marked (no title)
Author(s): if author is unknown, it will be marked as (unknown). If the author has an fanfiction or AO3 account, both usernames will be used in the following format: fanfiction username (sb username)
Canon status: all snips are considered canon unless noted otherwise.
Mini line brakes – as in, those used in individual snips, in chapters where multiple are posted – will be marked as following: …

Now, please enjoy the world of the Amala branch of the Infinite Loops!