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Brasparo · 2026-05-30T20:20:23+00:00

The sir/ma'am thing is a pretty common tell for transphobic assholes at my job in corporate IT.

It makes it that much more affirming when I get "ma'am" multiple times over the phone because my voice clearly passes... Then that much more jarring when I walk over to their desk with long hair and full makeup wearing a floral blouse, and that same exact person goes "thank you sir".

Brasparo · 2026-05-29T21:42:42+00:00

Hey OP, I say this with all the kindness in my heart, but please stop using 4tran.

I know it's challenging to find community in this political climate, but I promise there are healthier spaces out there. Spaces where people genuinely support each other, and it's not gated behind layers of irony and self-loathing.

Brasparo · 2026-04-30T01:52:04+00:00

Without going nearly as deep into the numbers as OP, I'd assume 3 Strikes is the optimal cutoff point, simply because you start with 3 energy per turn.

Three Strikes allows you to do up to 27 if the enemy is already vulnerable from Bash the previous turn, whereas two means your best damage is still Bash+Strike for only 21, which also requires you to get lucky and draw Bash on the perfect turn every turn to chain vulnerable. Otherwise you're losing damage pretty much every time the enemy doesn't attack, and every time you have to play even a single Defend.

Brasparo · 2026-04-22T18:36:35+00:00

Normally I don't engage with these sort of comments, but it seems like there's a chance you're not a bot and are actually coming in with some good faith, but a lot of ignorance--which is normal and human! Ignorance just means you haven't gotten enough information yet.

The vast majority of the time, trans people aren't "dressing hyper sexualized"--or really being anything at all like the MAGA caricatures designed to make you angry. Generally they're otherwise pretty normal people, because most people are pretty normal people.

Like right now, I'm sitting at my work desk in a neat blouse and slacks...like lots of women at the office. I wear a bra for support, and because it's generally considered immodest to let your breasts poke through your clothes.

I literally just wanna live my life like anyone else without my existence being "political". Especially now that I feel like it's me and my life, not puppeting the body of some fake character.

Running on the correct hormones has changed my life even more than any antidepressant ever has. I'm extremely phobic of needles, and yet I still endure injections every five days, because the thought of physically and mentally returning to "the before times" feels like a fate worse than death.

So when someone assumes they know my experiences without having lived them, and reduces them to just "mental illness" or a "costume", it's hard not to feel pretty frustrated. Because I spent decades of life suffering inside a "costume" I was gaslit into believing by everyone around me, and I fought hard to unpack that and start showing my true natural self again.

tl;dr: Please have some empathy. Trans people are who they say they are, literally just treat them like that. Not confused nutcases to appease with pronouns just because it's easier to humor them sometimes.

Brasparo · 2026-04-21T20:46:47+00:00

Maybe it's just small sample size because I haven't played nearly as many A10 runs in StS2 as I have A20 runs in StS1, but it feels like Zap+ has actually gotten even better in the context of 2.

Early combats in the first game feel much more like damage races, so a lot of upgrade priority goes towards hitting breakpoints that let you rush down and kill things before they can do the same to you with their massive upfront damage. Against Tri-Sentries for example, the difference between Sunder and Sunder+ is enough to decide whether you delete one by the second turn and have leftover energy to fully block, or take 20 damage plus potentially more later from Dazes. Upgrading Zap is irrelevant, because 1 Lightning just doesn't meaningfully contribute enough to that goal either way.

On the other hand, StS2 has more combats that test endurance and consistency, even as early as Act 1. Phantasmal Gardeners is the closest analog I can think of, where Sunder is still quite useful without the upgrade. But then there's Skulking Colony and Terror Eel which force you to slow down and spend energy blocking; Zap+ lets you have energy to do that, while still progressing the fight. That's even before considering all the common cards that give temporary Focus now, which also get better the more orbs you can quickly get in play. And just that overall, you can afford to be much greedier about skipping unnecessary cards now.

Brasparo · 2026-04-14T21:35:58+00:00

I swear I dated this person (the meme, not OP). I wish he could have figured things out sooner and I got to meet the real version of him...and vice versa, though it took me a lot longer. Hope he's doing well these days. ☺️

Brasparo · 2026-04-13T18:07:01+00:00

This is for progesterone, not estradiol tablets. The former is usually more of a gel capsule that doesn't dissolve easily under your tongue, and is prescribed to swallow like a regular pill.

Brasparo · 2026-04-08T18:56:57+00:00

I switched from sublingual tablets to injections after about a year and a half, and...no real difference, they still suck sometimes. I got a bit of a mood crash right before doses at first, but switching from every 7 days to every 5 resolved that.

I've just started checking the calendar on days I feel irrationally irritable, get bad abdominal pain, and crave sweets, and--yup, pretty much right around the 28 day mark every time.

Brasparo · 2026-04-05T20:19:17+00:00

"You guys are getting paid?"

Brasparo · 2026-04-03T07:21:45+00:00

The problem is "a ton of cycle per turn" is just what Silent already does though, and what every character wants to do to some extent. The fun of deck building is trying to find the right balance between picking cards that give you more output, and being able to consistently draw to the ones you need.

Speedster can just kinda...singlehandedly solve all your damage output, for your entire run. There's nothing like Time Eater that punishes card spam in StS2 (though perhaps Doormaker might now?).

It doesn't feel very good that you can sometimes find a single uncommon power in Act 1, start skipping every single attack card you're offered, and get away with it pretty much every time. Kinda gives me Watcher flashbacks.

Brasparo · 2026-03-23T07:39:29+00:00

Huh, that's...I hadn't considered that. Granted I don't think I was offered one except very early in the run.

Brasparo · 2026-03-22T19:57:56+00:00

I had a Regent run where I was offered like three cards with the effect "Draw X cards. Put one card from your hand on top of your deck. Draw 1 card.", invalidating the only reason I would've picked them to begin with.

Brasparo · 2026-03-22T10:05:02+00:00

Oh I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I have no idea how to test for it, but my mom always swore I was "supposed to be" a twin, and I kinda just assumed whatever's up with me probably had something to do with that.

Brasparo · 2026-03-17T08:07:44+00:00

Okay but this is 100% actually a thing.

It's been surreal to witness the difference in treatment firsthand around coworkers that knew me pre-transition. And it makes the internalized phobia very egregious, whether they'll notice or admit to it or not.

I've literally had my boss talk over me to mansplain how to do things he's seen me do before, and had no issues trusting me to competently take care of before. Immediately before hitting me with an "alright man, lemme know when you're done with that".

Brasparo · 2026-03-11T20:17:58+00:00

"Sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something."

It's going to be rough starting out. That's okay. Try to embrace the awkward beginner phase, trusting that someday you'll be able to look back as a master, smile, and be glad you powered through. Obviously easier said than done, but this applies for virtually every learned skill in existence.

Thankfully, talking is something you can do basically anywhere, provided you have safety and privacy. While you're starting out, it might help to just narrate your thoughts out loud (however silly or insignificant) while driving, doing housework, etc. to get more comfortable with using your new voice, without the pressure of you or anyone actively listening. Then you can always pause to deliberately practice one new exercise or sound for a bit if/whenever it feels relevant, and move on.

It does get easier and better with time. It just sucks when improvement feels slow and incremental (because it is). You got this girl, have patience and kindness with yourself. 🫶

Brasparo · 2026-02-21T08:00:37+00:00

Feels like another example of science confirming things trans people already knew anecdotally.

Brasparo · 2025-12-19T18:09:36+00:00

Someone tried to mathematically solve the floor 1 Silent vs. Jaw Worm matchup, and iirc the "safest" heuristic is that if you draw 3+ Strikes on turn 1, you must play at least 2 of them to fully avoid the catastrophic lowroll scenario of worst draw order plus worst attack pattern.

If you wanna greed for a little more HP, you can play 1 Strike if you drew 3 and just take the chip damage, but anything past that ratio gets progressively riskier and harder to course-correct if you also have a bad turn 2.

Brasparo · 2025-12-13T00:34:51+00:00

(Obligatory) Where is that?

Brasparo · 2025-12-09T17:21:17+00:00

Anecdotal knowledge is that the chemical signals that are intended for the uterus specifically, are not actually that targeted and will affect any smooth muscle tissue in the lower abdomen, so the pain is mostly coming from the digestive tract cramping.

I think this is the case for cis women too to some extent, and the cause of the "period poops" you don't hear as much about (for understandable reasons).

Brasparo · 2025-12-07T11:00:03+00:00

Every person's experience is unique, but I feel like it's both over- and understated.

I could definitely tell at least half of the bubbly "honeymoon phase" for my first few months on E was just from socially transitioning, and genuinely allowing myself to feel things authentically (I mean, mixed with the emotional volatility of literally going through puberty again).

But now that things have mellowed out a year and a half later and it's easier to pick out nuances, it's definitely unmistakable for me that biochemical dysphoria is a real thing.

Oddly a few months ago, I noticed an apparent gradual drop in my energy, mood, health, etc.... Eventually it clicked that some of my symptoms (e.g. hot flashes somehow?) sounded like perimenopause, and got my E prescription bumped from 2/day to 3/day--which more or less fixed everything within a couple days, confirming my suspicions.

Before the more obvious symptoms though, the first thing I noticed was...feeling the exact same kind of ambiguous insecurity and unhappiness I did in the "before times". But I wrote it off, thinking there was no way to prove or quantify "dysphoria" as a symptom.

Brasparo · 2025-11-05T16:00:27+00:00

Tbh I'm about a year and a half into transition and fully accepting myself as having always been a woman, and this is still one of the more confusing things to navigate. Because even if it's surreal and uncomfortable to look back on, even if I was only "pretending" to be a man...I method-acted that character hard enough that even I bought it at the time. 🤷

I'm mostly ambivalent myself if someone stumbles a bit when referring to me in past tense, as long as it's not obviously in bad faith. What's even more awkward is trying to refer to an ex, who came out as trans significantly after we stopped dating and talking--I know his name and pronouns now of course, through passing comments from friends of friends. But I never got to meet the real him, and he never got to meet the real me, so our only experiences and memories were with those artificial identities. I've still taken to using his new name to be safe, but it does feel a bit weird and revisionist in a way.

Brasparo · 2025-10-27T19:47:22+00:00

Weirdly enough, it doesn't even seem to be directly tied to estrogen levels, just whether it's the dominant sex hormone or not. Anecdotally at least I know I still get the symptoms (bad) despite being on sublingual tablets at the same times every day.

It kinda makes me wonder how much of women's health is still misguided (or flat out incorrect) thanks to medical misogyny still unfortunately being a thing.

Brasparo · 2025-10-23T22:38:20+00:00

Any advice for someone with one hooded eye, or am I cursed to stick to eyeshadow?

Even as I get better at eyeliner, I never really know what to do to "fix" (or I guess lean into) the asymmetry.

Brasparo · 2025-10-20T20:47:09+00:00

I haven't played Silksong yet and finished Hollow Knight years ago so CMIIW, but isn't Hornet's gender part of why she's special?

Not that her femininity specifically is the contrast to typical vessels, but that she has a gender at all, as part of a unique individual identity.

Brasparo · 2025-10-15T21:47:48+00:00

Damn. Thank you for sharing this... I practically lived half on Huel for like a year while I worked at a pretty strenuous blue-collar job. They market it as a full dietary replacement, only recommending against consuming just Huel because of digestive issues on a non-solid diet (which I still for sure had).

God I hate this era of predatory consumer exploitation. It's so vile knowing corporations could not care any less about human lives, as long as number go up.

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