did your gaster finally put in the safeguard where if you fall to a sufficiently negative z-level, you're automagically brought back to the default spawn location for your zone?

Yes, haha. It takes you back to the entrance of Castle Town if you try in Castle Town, and it takes you to just beyond the Castle Town gate if you try in Card Kingdom. I haven't tried anywhere else yet... but is it really that important for me to know?

Carol buying Noelle a Bear Pride flag (she just looked up Pride flag online and bought the one she liked the most from Amazon without actually knowing their meaning)

Noelle looked down at the striped piece of cloth in her arms, staring blankly at the large paw print in the corner.

"I know I haven't always been…as supportive as I could've been," her mother was saying slowly, a nervous look on her face. "But I've been looking into ways to be an ally — that's the term, right? An ally. And one person said that they showed their son support by buying him this… 'pride flag'. So I figured, well…" She trailed off.

It was a touching gesture — really, it was, and Noelle definitely appreciated her mother trying to understand her. But this…

This was not the right flag.

"Um…" Noelle didn't quite know what to say. It would be rude to tell her, right? But what was she supposed to do — hang this on her bedroom wall? Angel, no! Kris would never let her live it down!

She settled on a somewhat strained, "Thanks, Mom. It's great."

But she had never been good at lying to her mother, and she seemed to see right through it. "Oh, no. What's wrong?"

"W-W-Well, it's just — um." Noelle swallowed. "How to put this…"

"Ugh, I messed it up, didn't I?" Carol frowned, awkwardly adjusting her glasses. "I'm sorry, Noelle, I — I'm trying my best, but this whole…culture…is very new to me."

"No no no, I appreciate it, really!" Noelle assured her. "It's okay, Mom. I'm just happy you're trying."

Carol gave her an expectant look. "But…?"

"But this is the wrong flag," Noelle said, quickly and quietly.

"Wrong flag?" Her mother's eyebrows shot up. "There are multiple flags?"

"Um, yeah…"

"Well, which one is this, then?"

Noelle couldn't meet her eye. "This is, ah, well. This is the bear flag."

"Oh." Carol looked a little perplexed. "Apologies. I'll make sure to get you the reindeer flag next time, then."

Noelle's jaw dropped, and she had to consciously will it closed again, squeezing her eyes shut and trying not to wince. "Thanks, mom…sounds great."

Noelle finds out that there's a whole online community of people who find her relatable, a good chunk of them trans and neurodivergent

Noelle shone her flashlight down the deep, dark steps of the bunker in the woods, and took a deep breath.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Kris asked. "We don't know what's down there."

Noelle steeled herself. "If there's even a chance Dess is trapped here…we have to try, Kris."

Kris nodded, and the two of them began their descent into the earth. The stone beneath their feet eventually turned to metal, and the space opened up into a large room with lots of strange, blinking devices.

"What…is this?" Noelle asked softly.

Kris took a cautious step forward, looking around. "Seems like some kind of laboratory."

Noelle moved over to one of the machines, which had a big, wide screen, displaying…wait, no, that couldn't be right. "Is this Monster Tumblr?"

"What." Kris walked over to her and stared. "Wait, holy shit, it is. And are they talking about…us?"

"Noelle is so skrunkly I want to laminate her and keep her in my purse," Noelle read aloud. "That's, uh…"

Kris leaned forward and began scrolling down. "Noelle is just like me for real…Noelle is such prime blorbo material…"

"Blorbo?!" Noelle exclaimed.

"Here's a picture of a video game text box of you talking about how you want Susie to push you to the ground and laugh at you, captioned 'Naurrrrrrr girl' with a skull emoji…"

"Th-That never happened!"

"This one says, 'Noelle can commit a little murder as a treat. God forbid a woman do anything. Besides gamers aren't people she did nothing wrong.' " Kris turned to her. "You didn't kill anyone, right?"

"N-No! Why would they say that? Do they want me to kill people?"

"Sorta seems like it." Kris pointed at something and giggled. "Here, look, there's a drawing of you freezing Berdly in ice."

"That's horrible!"

"Come on, it's just a joke." Kris smiled. "You'd never actually do that. That's why it's funny."

Noelle looked away. "I guess."

Kris kept scrolling. "Oh, here — it looks like you got fourth place in the…'transfem swag' tournament on tumblr? Look at the comments: Noelle is such a trans icon, I want to steal Noelle's gender, Noelle has so much transgender swag it's insane…"

Noelle blinked. "I'm flattered, but, um. I'm not trans?"

"Too bad. You are now. The people said so."

"Who even are these people?!"

"Trust me, it's a compliment." Kris poked around a little bit more. "Oh, but look at this — I got second in the 'nonbinary swag' tournament. So basically I beat you."

"Yes?" Noelle stared at them. "Because you're actually nonbinary?"

"But it means I have more swag than you, Noelle."

"Okay, this is—" Noelle rolled her eyes. "This is nonsense. Let's not waste our time on weird, fake tumblr posts about us."

Kris stepped away from the screen. "You're just mad I have more swag than you."

Noelle stomped a hoof. "Kris, focus!"

"Yeah, yeah…"