Look Outside Pacifism Concepts: Part 2
Continuing right along with the Teeth Family and Edwin’s victims roommates!
Toothlings and the Teratoma
That’d be a great name for a band, right? Toothlings and the Teratoma. No? Just me?
If you eat any sugary food in the same room as them, the shrink back in fear, running away instead of chasing after you from that point onwards.
Food items that trigger this interaction are cola, orange drink, lemon drink, hard candy, chocky bars, gummi bears, and bocky.
Managing to interact with a toothling at this stage prompts the text:
The clump of teeth and gums chatters nervously and cringes. Do they really hate sugar that much?.
After you assert your dominance over the Teratoma in this manner, it can be given toothpaste. In exchange, you get a Wisdom Tooth: a Joel-exclusive accessory that decreases the amount of damage he deals to himself from using his teething skill and increases the amount of turns that pass before he naturally loses teeth.
Madison
If you have Benjamin’s teeth pendant equipped, Madison’s addled mind will mistake you for Benjamin instead of Baby Teeth.
She’ll admonish ‘Benjamin’ for being out of bed before the doctor arrives to have a look at what’s wrong, but she is glad to see that ‘Benjamin’ seems to be doing so much better!
She will, however, insist on giving you a hug before sending you back to ‘your’ room… and I mean you CAN turn her down, but would you? That’s right. Didn’t think so.
You take five rounds of minor damage from her mouths digging into you, having a small chance to proc a bleed each time.
Baby Teeth
While you cannot actually kill Baby Teeth in the base game, it would be a cop out on my part to leave her unchanged!
A less-violent manner of pacifying her once combat is engaged is to toss her Madison’s handbag! I sure hope you picked that up.
Baby Teeth will spend the first turn ‘gurgling eagerly’ if you have it. If you don’t give her the handbag on that turn, she flies into a tantrum earlier in the fight than normal, which generally makes the already difficult encounter even harder.
If you give it to her before the second turn starts, she’ll tear into the bag excitedly.
The massive infant’s teeth shred through the bag as if it were made of paper, revealing it’s contents: it’s full to the brim with various rubber items, chew toys, and pacifiers.
Though Baby Teeth’s razor sharp chompers shred the items in short order, doing so seems to provide her with just enough relief to sink back below the floorboards with a relieved sigh.
Clint
I didn’t do those out of order, there’s a reason Clint’s last! Trust my vision.
Hey, did you know, in the base game, killing Clint isn’t required to enter the tooth family home or to recruit Joel? Just thought that was interesting : ).
Encountering Clint with Joel in your party will make Clint come to his senses after he lands an attack on his son.
In Clint’s fleeting moment of lucidity, he recognizes that it would be a tremendously bad idea for Joel to stay any longer. He gives the okay for Joel to “Sleepover with the neighbor, okay? Just for a few bites- NIGHTS, a few nights, that’s all.”
It’s very clear he’s lying, but Joel believes him wholeheartedly. From that point on, the door to the tooth family’s apartment is repaired and barricaded from the inside.
Confusion
If you manage to inflict Confusion with the confusion status, they reach a breaking point and combat ends.
The creature gasps and sputters as it reels away from you. Whatever it is that they're experiencing, it's enough to make them crash to the floor where they lie limp. After a moment, they begin gibbering madly, no longer concerned with... whatever it wanted from you. You make a mental note to avoid this particular corner of your room from now on.
If you have Xaria and Monty recruited, you will contemplate telling them about this particular encounter but decide against it.
Stretchface
If you have never entered your bathroom, Stretchface will not be hostile, even if they DO still offer to stretch your skull out so you can think wide thoughts too.
But assuming you aren't doing a 'Miasma' challenge run:
Once Stretchface finishes their in-battle dialogue, they wail that they just can't go back to watching you take shits that last hours on end from their perspective. At which point, you can offer to use your bathroom only once per day, if that helps.
“…I mean that sounds great actually. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just get reshaped like me? None of us ever need to use the bathroom. No? Suit yourself. We're out of spare rooms anyways... at least until Edwin gets back to renovating."
If you speak to Stretchface after recruiting Roaches, they will say the following:
"Huh? Roach guy? Naaah, I don't have any problems with him. He's cool. Not, uh, not that you aren't... but I mean, come on. He's a guy that's roaches! I could watch that aaaaall day. And I do!"
You can either honor your pact with Stretchface and only use your bathroom once per day, or you can go back on your word, resulting in Stretchface being hostile again if you ever return to see them. Additionally, they will begin to scrawl mean things in the steam on your mirror after a shower.
Spine
I am of the opinion that it is completely moral to kill Spine to death.
However. I could hardly exclude her due to personal bias! She wasn't in the previous version of this post due to her getting added to the game literally hours after before I finalized the draft and hit 'post'. Pain.
Anywho! Playing out the battle as normal, Spine will speak up once more when she's brought to low health.
"A-Ah, Sam, I... I see. This is too sudden. I understand. If... hhhhhahhh... if you'd like, you could head back home... w-we could... take things... wheeeeeze... a little slower. I'll be right there beside you until you're... g-ghhhah... ready to take the n-next step."
At this point, Spine can be fled from at a 100% success rate and will not reengage. You are free to leave the way you came and will continue to receive messages about invisible touches while in your apartment.
EDIT: This was actually written BEFORE 1.5 where literally the above scenario plays out! I have never felt so vindicated as a writer.
Stargazer/Edwin
Edwin’s a tricky one! Because he’s simultaneously really dangerous, while also thinking that what he’s doing to people is a good thing. There isn’t any real potential to calm him down or appease him, because he’s actually very calm, and the only thing that would appease him is grinding you into a fleshy paste. For your own good, of course.
But!
My thought was that, should you manage to evade him with the lights off all the way through his apartment, you can bait him over towards the telescope! Provided it’s pointed outside and the lights are off, Edwin will crash into it and the lens will be absorbed into his body, kicking off one last growth that expands his form even further.
The creature remains stationary, even though you have no doubt it could still chase you. Sometimes, it looks like it’s about to, but it keeps getting distracted every couple of seconds with something new to stare at.
You’re still able to Crete the Void Disk thanks to Edwin’s body still functioning as a telescope.
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That does it for this round!! Next time we'll cover the hypothermia crew and the taxidermy gang!
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
