My morbid tendencies are fascinated by the idea, but I, myself, can't help but feel like staring at an incoming tsunami crest.

They'd need to come back and plant something else, because the side-effect of shortening attention spans has also increased the frequency at which we require new flavours of brainrot. I think this method of doing things is somewhat ineffectual.

Honestly, if I were to guess how someone would stunt us, is to "help" us improve our industry before we even grasp its implications. It essentially created Baron-Gods (and we sure do like triangles and shit!) while ensuring that we'll choke ourselves out.

Oh, how the true vermin emerge again...

Surely, if something/someone intentionally caused our existence, they must be pulling out clumps of hair at this point (or equivalent gestures).

Although... well, this is purely speculative and quite a bit philosophical, but I guess it all comes down to how they'd manage fear and greed. I initially wanted to say that viciousness seems to be a facile trait for sentience, but I only have us as a sample, so...

I genuinely don't even know what to think anymore. My sense of scale and value has been completely shattered by our contemporary debasement with Fascism and burning the planet and everything in between and around, not in a million years could I have believed humanity in general could be so stupid as to do the same horrid shit all over again, and especially not after our forerunners' fervency in purging the very concept of Fascism. Hell, maybe it was just Marketing...

I mean, how can anyone consider a governing system so unabashedly inimical to life as a feasible way of doing things?! I... I just don't understand it. I don't know if I'm too stupid, or too naïve, or cloistered, or whatever the fuck else, but I just cannot process the idea of anything which looks like me behaving in such a horrid manner. I can grasp that capacity for violence, because I have it, too, but to use it in such a manner? No. That's where my system hangs.

Oh, no, it'll be a massacre...

Honestly, I don't think anyone in their right mind would risk it! We're certifiably insane when in large masses, we'd ruin their civilisation if they'd get us all.

We'd deffo see Bezos/Musk/Zuck/etc. becoming the Breens of our timeline, and we already hate'em!

Edit: plus, why bother? It's enough to cause a Pandemic, we're aces at making things worse by ourselves! Planet cleans itself up, move in, adapt existing infrastructure, no risk of random nukes... sounds like a good deal to me!

Me! Me, me, me, I wanna be Pope! I know, like... religion and shit, I can do it! Put me on the field, coach, I'm ready!

Edit: to sweeten the pot, first thing I'd do would be bring back all the good shit from the Old Testament - kill money, the rich are the Devil's butt warts, reinstate virtues, "make Heaven over here, ya' idjuts," the lot!

And I'll also respect the time-honoured tradition of interpreting dogma however the fuck I feel like! And I'll choose to interpret it as an MLP episode, where Friendship and Empathy are the true heroes! Open up the churches to everyone, turn all cemeteries into nature reserves, God says all shapes and sizes of marriage are legal, Meme Dump Sundays after Mass, "Jesus would say 'what the fuck,' too," focus on love! Make Catholicism Hippie again!

I fucking hate this timeline... I always fall for ridiculous memes about Conservatives, because, like, Conservatives almost literally cannot be outdone in the sheer quality of stupidity they're putting out.

This is without a doubt something I would downright expect from Prager U, in all seriousness.

How can this even be parodied? It even covers sarcasm, ffs...

Now, now, let's give ourselves fair share of the credit, we're dumb enough to come up with Flat Earth on our own, tyvm!:)))

These are noteworthy and relevant breakthroughs, yes, but I don't see us doing anything dramatic with this technology in less than a decade, maybe two. And that's just for something like regrowing teeth, way longer timeline for anything fancier. We're still just basically optimising old tech right now. New battery designs incoming, solar panel tech is getting better (slowly), we are moving, yes. But it's like watching people paint the living room at this point, and I assume long-distance space travel still isn't "cheap" for them, even with their fancy manoeuvering.

Up next: Nintendo thinking of suing everyone with a Mario tattoo into slicing off affected bit of skin.

If I were The Aliens, I would've stopped coming here somewhere around 2013-2014. And I don't say this with any kind of undertone, I just feel we haven't developed in significant ways over the past decade. They most certainly haven't presented any social interest, so it's a study. They'd only need vertical slices every half century to a century or so.

I always take my first try as a test run. I have managed to beat bosses on the first try because I still put in the effort to improvise and adapt to them, but I plan around losing. As such, it's not been that annoying to me in general, pretty much serves as a nice adrenaline shot. If we're talking about Malenia, though, the situation changes!

I hate when a very, very tough boss has a hidden phase. Attrition is nice, but not when I don't even understand if I can dodge them, let alone not when the boss forces me to burn through my utilities during the first phase. Something with a gimmick to it, like Mohg, works way better, I feel. Malenia's just a meat grinder *which dumps the remaining chunks into a wood chipper.

You're very welcome! I'm glad I could offer you this, at least!

I understand that sentiment. Paying it heed is a large part of what annihilated my first relationship. Just continue being yourself, because what you're offering as you are is obviously working for her. And still keep that 10% of yourself for yourself. I'm not saying this out of selfishness, but the situation may change and swing you toward not being able to carry it without it affecting you emotionally in a negative way. Be there for her, but be there for yourself as well. Don't pause your life for this.

Every single word...damn it, I'm old...

Yeah, I get it, believe me... Have a similar situation on my end, with one of my oldest friends. Luckily, it's very easy for me to be her friend and keep things platonic (with the occasional mild flirty poke), so there's been little turmoil. But I did go through another one of these earlier in my life, and that one was just pure anguish. I had to distance myself from the situation after a few years...

Spoil yourself as much as you can right now, besides dampening the impact of things, it'll also serve as a reminder that you can also offer yourself care and attention.

And you can hang on to that love, but I think it needs to fit between very specific points on the intensity/complexity/whatever spectrum in order to be able to comfortably juggle being friends and keeping things in check. If you're there, you can still offer the platonic bit of that love to her. It really does sound like you've fallen hard for her and that you genuinely care about her, and genuinely loving someone for who they are can never be a bad thing. It can be friggin' uncomfortable, sure, but it's never bad to love.

First off, I am very sorry you're going through this. It does, indeed, sound like a tough and chewy time, but it's most definitely not wrong.

Secondly, everything's coming from a (moderately) cis straight guy, I really don't know how this situation would play out beyond guessing and imagining, so I apologise in advance if anything comes off as irrelevant, off-key, or even insulting.

To get on with it, the two things I know you shouldn't do right now are the following:

• Do NOT change who you are for someone else, especially not before you've even broached the subject with said person! Not only are you risking dumping yourself for something which may very well go nowhere, but you may actually dump aspects which the other person would enjoy. Always bring yourself, as you are, to the table. And always keep at least 10% of yourself for yourself.
• Do NOT get involved in anything until the divorce paperwork is signed and stamped! This is skipping a few major steps, I know, but right now everything should be off limits. It'll just end up becoming a bigger mess, believe me. Plus it wouldn't give you the best start possible, which you already kinda' have through the fact that you're very close friends by the sound of it.

What I would do, in all honesty, is nothing. At least not now, not until she finalises her divorce and has some time to grieve and recover. The best thing you could do is continue being there for her as she goes through The Suck, continue being her friend, that's more valuable than anything right now.

Afterwards, after you've also had some more time to process things, cross the t's and dot the i's, so to speak, you should consider having a talk about it with her. Present your side of things, explain it as best as you can, try to frame it all as "here's where I am, this is what is happening to me." It'll probably be a lot to process for her (or maybe not, but those odds are not worth the bet), so try to put as little pressure on her as possible.

It may make things awkward between you for a while, it may even lead to the dissolution of the friendship. If the latter happens, well... maybe that friendship has reached its natural end. If the former happens and you are absolutely certain you can play The Friend while pining for The Lover's role, then business as usual - be there for her as and when she needs it, give her space to come to terms with the new data, and see where things go.

But, again, no changing who you are! Seriously! As long as you don't have profoundly toxic and/or damaging behaviours (which are a whole different conversation), you should never give yourself up for somebody else! Dating hollow flesh defeats the purpose.

And put a mask on the back of her head if your facial recognition's not participating in the fun.

Dunno where I saw/read about invul frames, it was pretty soon after ER launched, so I'm not taking it as the truth, either. I still feel that something about the dodge itself is different, but with the amount of delays and long wind-ups to enemy attacks it's hard to tell. Sometimes I (think I) dodge right as the swing starts, and I'm at the other end of the arena by the time it lands. Other times, I (think I) dodge as the swing starts, and end up stunned and eating a second hit as well... Which is ok, because only the Mimic Tear managed to kill me so far (got overconfident first time at it, it ended up doing more damage per hit to me than I did to it).

Edit: either way, I'm 99% certain there's no input lag (at least under optimal conditions, it's not default to the game itself), I tested it extensively with other actions, and none feel as finicky as dodge timings. Heck, the akimbo Bloodhound's Fang slam attack staggers armored war horses, I don't really dodge anymore:))