#now i feel like i dodged a huge bullet bc i don't know how i would have dealt with hearing that reveal in the cinema lmaoo

[stuffyflowers]

Started playing PS Outertale a few hours ago and I have, thoughts.

For the most part, geno has been a chill time. There are some tweaks I really appreciate, like the grinding being so quick and skipping dialog by holding C. Asriel was a little jarring at first, really did not like the way he talked down to Papyrus (and that bit where he's pretending Sans is still there? eugh), but once we were past not-Snowdin I really started to appreciate him. His relationship with Frisk/Chara/The Player/Whatever is really intriguing, especially how Frisk or whoever genuinely seems to reciprocate his feelings. Love the Best Friends Setting The World On Fire vibe we got going on.

I did kind of feel like the game was just, really easy? I beat Undyne the Undying without dying, and that's without knowing what the new spear attacks did. But a lot of her normal attack were just like, easier versions of her original attacks? I did like the extra attacking mechanic and how it was still loosely DDR esc like green soul mode.

Beat Mettaton on my second try. Orange soul mode was neat. A little weird to get used to but it didn't offend. Defiantly a little harder that Undyne but not a huge step up.

Alphys... I REALLY do not like this fight. As of writing this I have not beaten it and I don't thing I will. There are a just, lot of little things that just drag the whole thing down for me. For one, Screen Shake. Lasers shake the screen, the expanding rings shake the screen, hell, even the damn MUSIC shakes the screen! I can't see where I am or what I'm supposed to be dodging! Second, the obnoxious spinning background. It's distracting and bugs the hell out of me. Third, the music. It's very meh imo, gets grating after a bit and just sounds like noise now. So far my biggest issue is that her attacks are 1000 years long. Each one feels like three for four attacks in one. Sometimes I'd get most of the way through an attack and just, get fatigued and take my hands off the keyboard cause I'm so overwhelmed.

I've never felt like this before. I don't usually mind a challenge, I actually like throwing myself at a problem until I break through. I loved beating UTY geno without using any equipment (Only Rubber Bullets, the Patch and the Toy Gun. Honestly if you're looking to play UTY geno again but harder I highly recommend), and that was a grind that took weeks. But this? I have absolutely no desire to return to this. I can't honestly say the fight is even good or bad cause I just can't get into it. This is the worst time I've ever had fighting an UT boss, and I don't think that was the intention.

I don't know where I was going with this. I just had a lot of thoughts and felt the need to share them.

Fun fact u can hold alt+press left twice to open the debug menu and get temmie armour infinite hp etc etc would highly recommend using whenever a fight annoys u lol im not grinding for this game. I agree w ur alphys boss complaint so much, I almost got my ass beat WHILE using th temmie armour, the patience soul mode is just not made for a boss fight of that scale I don’t think, especially not one where it piles on what feels like 20 attacks in one turn. It’s so sad bc I was genuinely pretty hyped to see final boss alphys, seeing herself as the one to blame for everyone’s deaths in this route coulda made up for the nothingburger she was given in pacifist but it was just. Eh.

Also asriel is just very funny to me. This au really only cares abt asriel and twinkly seems to exist just to fill floweys slot which is smth I don’t care for, but I at least appreciate they let him be an edgy little shit rather than playing into the idea that having a soul would magically fix flowey/twinkly and make him a normal kid again. I like that frisk is kind of just fucking around ig, it makes a funny contrast against asriel. I wish the route used the frisk/asriel/mk trio more also. Idontknow I still haven’t fully figured out how I feel about this route it’s so weird. I did enjoy it more on average than lv0 pacifist tho so that’s. Something?

[thickness-protection-program]

Dear TPP,

I'll try to keep this as short as possible, I can ramble pretty bad. So I have a long distance friend, m/m both of us in early 30s, that I've know for a couple years. We mostly interact in a group dynamic (he's a casual small streamer and the regulars have become a group of friends).  Anyway it began as a normal "ooo cute stranger" crush, but now we've known each other for quite a while and my feelings have certainly grown. And I really think he has some very similar feelings for me (I have several points to think this but brevity).  And here is where the problems begin.

Both of us are more on the reserved/shy side and pretty much refuse to plainly say how we feel. So of course the solution is to just take the leap and say "boy I have strong feelings for you and what about it?" And I get that. And I'm working on trying to get that courage. BUT (here's the next problem) our relationship has a bit of an imbalance. I know what he looks like, since he does stream (on twitch) and the occasional selfie, and the most of myself he has ever seen is a couple "new haircut" pics that were only eyeballs and up, bcus that's the only part of myself I'm not afraid to show others. This is bcus I'm a midwestern 2-3 on a good day, and I have many times over had the app experience of "having a good conversation with a guy, then I finally send them my pics and get instantly blocked". Therefore I tend to refrain from sharing or even taking selfies. So I have an incredible fear of if I take the leap to express my true feelings, then I will of course have to show him who I am literally. And as I said above it's not a great presentation. I would I be able to continue to maintain the friendship if all the sudden things change after he sees me? And I know he's not enough of an asshole to just outright block and ghost me when he realizes I'm ugly so that will just leave us both in a terrible and awkward place.

Now on top of all of that if miraculously the feelings are reciprocated, and somehow he doesn't find me too ugly (since I know ppl always think of themselves as way uglier than other ppl think of them but I'm legit pretty bottom barrel) then we have our final major problem. That being I have so many problems and aspects that are often just flat out "deal breakers" for ppl. I think him getting involved with me is a huge mistake and for his own good I would not want to pull him into my abyss of issues or go through my laundry list of possible deal breakers.

All in all that basically sums it up. And I do apologize for dumping this on you (I just saw your post that said something like TPP advice is open), and I don't like discussing my personal matters with ppl in my immediacy (another problem of mine haha) so I have been wanting to discuss this with a third party. In a way I feel like I know what I need to do, but I just want to bounce it off someone for idea, and maybe what order to proceed and see if maybe I really am just THAT insane and I should just go live in a cave.

Sincerely,

Neurotic Sword

Hmm ok. First off I wanna say there is no such thing as being ugly and anybody who treats you poorly based off of how they perceive you is a reflection on THEM not you. And how you perceive yourself is much more important than how anybody else perceives you, so don't let anybody make you feel bad for taking selfies and loving yourself.

As for this specific situation, I can understand where you're coming from. I do think it is important though that whoever you're wanting to pursue any sort or platonic or romantic relationship with knows what you look like. Obviously you don't have to like send a picture every day or anything but I feel like knowing what you look like builds a base layer of trust since you know for sure who you're talking to. You don't necessarily have to outright be like "hey I like you" just yet but eventually he would have to see you. And if he responds negatively then babe you dodged a bullet bc everybody deserves respect no matter what you look like. I don't know any specifics but I do feel like if you guys have been talking for this long then the relationship shouldn't be broken by a face reveal.

Also, babe, it's not good to yourself to bring yourself down like this. Yes all your feelings and emotions are valid but you are not this horrible person you think you are. Getting with you is NOT a mistake but a blessing. But again I don't know the specifics so I can't really say anything in detail but ultimately you have to do what's best for YOU not what's best for anybody else. And trust me I know what it's like being shy but shyness has to take a backseat when it comes to doing what's best for your own happiness

I'm not sure if any of this helps or is useful but if you have anything else to say I'm here

[leporellian]

a starless clan predictions/thoughts

ok now that we know the first 2 book blurbs and frostpaw's personality i'm gonna shoot for predictions. note that given how batshit the erins can be i'm essentially shooting a bullet into lake michigan and hoping i hit a fish but here we go

- frost-as is going to carry this arc. i love her sm <333 can't wait for them to throw her through the fucking gutter

- anyway i think mistystar reedwhisker and mothwing will all die. we know this. we can all just feel it. but i think the operant here is How, and my vote for How is that there's some kind of illness running through riverclan. purpose of this will be to a) get rid of some bg characters the erins had no use for and b) the erins Know we all expected rabies arc with the last set of books.

- although can we all be so fucking glad there was no rabies pandemic arc in the last arc given current events. bullet dodge of the century.

- i totally think mothwing would resent frostpaw a little bit or at least be deeply concerned for her future. until moth dies. anyway

- n e way i think they'll also maybe use the illness to curb down another leader who hasn't lost many lives yet? not bramblestar though because he's the erins' little pet unfortunately

- fidgetflake will train frostpaw after moth's death but he probably will only be like, a mid-tier mentor. this is also how we'll get a look at skyclan bc god forbid we leave them alone for like 5 mins

- not that i'm complaining they're fun. i hope rootspring stays tf away because we all know he's going to just be the 'my dead gf' guy

- HUGELY LOOKING FORWARD TO FROSTPAW SHADOWSIGHT BOND.... i can FEEL shadowsight will still have some kinda involvement but he'll take a backseat ofc compared to tbc

- anyway frostpaw is totally going to be in a runningnose situation and its great they're gonna wreck this child's psyche so hard

- flamepaw. hm.

- i ONLY care abt him if they don't pull an alderheart and instead make him... sort of an antihero dequilent type? would be mad cool if they remembered he looks more like scourge than firestar and did something with that.

- if they made him the outright villain that would be kickass but they won't. bets its gonna be a riverclan rando or some rogue. i'd be interested if it was a riverclan rando at least, or even if there were multiple villains ala the tigerstar-brokenstar duumvirate from tpb

- or even a civil war scenario like mudclaw... cats vying for power... maybe one or two cats who are either 'genuinely wants the best for clan but isn't going about it the right way' mudclaw-style or Straight Up Classic Villain and are trying to remove frostpaw from power... or a belief divide in riverclan...

- WAIT I GOT IT. THE DEATH OF STALIN WITH CATS. YESSSSSS.

- also side note but i hope curlfeather is like 100% soccer mom energy

- i literally can't find it in me to care abt sunbeam i know she is our first true background character protag but like... why would i care. erins what is the pitch here.

- i hope they never acknowledge needletail is her half-sister or whatever because i'm sorry that would set up a boring plot and the sooner we forget most of avos the better

- oh well if flamepaw and sunbeam suck ass at least frostpaw is shaping up to be a character of all time