Thesecretbeetle - A Beetle In A Trenchcoat And A Fedora

Just realized I can make my own posts... I'm coming here from Pinterest, and I'm used to just reading stuff, but I can actually... you know, say things.

reblog if you have skilled writer friends and you're damn proud of them

!Undertale True Pacifist Ending Spoilers!

I can't believe Undertale is turning ten years old this summer. I cannot stress how much my life changed after experiencing this silly little game.

Little Me had been playing video games their whole life, but had only really thought of them as fun things to do on weekends. I mean, I knew they could have storylines and stuff, but I hadn't really considered they could be stories in the same way as books or movies.

Then I found Undertale in the form of a YouTube lets-play. And at first I was like; "haha, this game's cute and funny". But the person I was watching was doing True Pacifist, and so it quickly turned into so much more than that.

A game where there are monsters and you don't have to fight them? Where you are encouraged to make friends with them? As a Neurodivergent tween who would write Pokemon fanfictions about cities ruled by humans and Pokemon together, and attempt to befriend Endermen in Minecraft by wearing pumpkins and placing cool blocks for them to pick up, it felt like finding someone who finally got it.

I couldn't stop thinking about it. I loved all the characters. I laughed so hard, even at the jokes I didn't really get. I was so invested.

It was the first time I ever cried at a video game. Comforting Asriel at the end was the most emotions I'd ever felt over a piece of media that wasn't a Pixar movie. I remember thinking; "wow, I didn't know video games could be like this".

I grew up with my parents playing games like Dragon Age and Uncharted, which Little Me couldn't comprehend in the slightest. And even as I started to understand more complex stories, I still didn't really think the plots or characters were part of the appeal of games like that. I thought my parents just liked stabbing and shooting things.

Undertale changed my perspective on video games as a whole. They could be like movies. They could be like novels. They could be art.

It was the gateway drug that got me into indie games (and made gaming one of my primary hobbies). I loved the music so much it got me into listening to video game soundtracks outside of their games. The "despite everything, it's still you" line will stay with me for the rest of my life. It had some of the first LGBTQIA+ representation I'd ever seen in media. It helped me find friends. Omega Flowey is still one of the most terrifying boss designs ever. It taught me how to spell "spaghetti". In every game I've ever experienced since, there has been at least one thing I can't help but compare to something in this one.

And, of course, it taught me to always stay determined.

Undertale did so much for me. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for this game.

Sorry for the long, sappy post. I just really can't believe it's been ten years already. Wow.

people who don't experience hyperfixation don't know what it feels like to hyperfixate so much on something that it becomes not only your subject of obsession but also your source of happiness and literally the main reason why you still keep going; literal source of strength and life.

shoutout to my favorite fictional characters, favorite people, favorite ships, favorite movies, favorite tv shows, fanfics and archive of our own

Acknowledging that “critical thinking” means “thinking about things in a thorough way from different perspectives” and not “finding every flaw in a thing and fixating on it until all the joy is gone” is so liberating.

It’s supposed to be about intellectual curiosity, not about finding ways to devalue things that aren’t perfect or that we personally dislike.

I wonder if “we have to torture this special character. in the lab facility. with secret science.” is an interest all 12-year-old children share or were we just the generation exposed to Maximum Ride

Idk if this applies to neurotypicals as well or even other autistics but I think I figured out why I hate talking on the phone:

I can’t multitask and am understimulated.

An in-person conversation demands you pay attention to where someone is in the room, their expressions and body language, even if you’re distracted while talking to them *your* body language can make it clear that you’re still listening.

Text, on the other hand, does not need an immediate real-time response so I can be doing 3 different things and not have to worry about mishearing or not hearing something someone says because it’s in text right there.

But a phone conversation? I have no one to look at and have no expressions and body language to rely on for the “I’m listening I promise” cues, and I can’t see what they’re saying so it’s really easy to miss words unless I’m solely focused on the phone conversation. Which means I can’t do anything else that requires split focus and have to stop everything else that I’m doing to devote entirely to this call.

Text has its own problems lacking tone and inflection, but in terms of “why I hate phone calls” this awkward middle ground of focus is like an itch I can’t scratch.

Every Minecraft world has that one person…

Nintendo for years: our niche in the video game and console market has been lower power systems marketed at kids! These systems are usually less expensive than our competitors as a result.

Nintendo now: the switch 2 is the same cost as a PS5

We all making grandpa cry btw