#Also I actually used binary counting for the numbers at the bottom this time

[whatudottu]

Ever since I talked about a universal language, or at least about common languages used in the interplanetary (though given we have examples from the Andromeda system, it could also be intergalactic) community, I have been contemplating number systems. Not exactly a universal one no, but certainly what the counting systems of some of the smarter species of Ben 10.

And who else none other than the cerebrocrustaceans that I have been headcanoning so much about for the privilege!

I remember watching a video about creating a number system (part of a series about making a conlang because :P) and at the time I had misremembered what the 'best' number system was and thought 'well what if the one thing cerebrocrustaceans and galvans agree on (rivalry or not) is their numbers'. Turns out, it's a hot fucking debate in the numbers community between base 6 (senary/seximal) and base 12 (duodecimal/dozenal), and the video made a compromise for base 16 (hexadecimal).

So instead of like... going based on that, I went with the next step; fingers!

Except... cerebrocrustaceans have uh... less fingers than humans (or even galvans). Sure, maybe if their number system is so low it can actually contribute into a literal billion digit IQ using the power of a base 2 (binary, of course) number system, using the 'on/off' of an open and closed claw to count but- 2 claws, 2 hands, that only counts up to 4. So I thought 'okay, what else would they use to count?' and looked at their teeth, counting from there; it didn't end up working, the tooth count was inconsistent between screenshots even though Brainstorm specifically held the same expression.

Then one day, in the middle of the night, as I was trying to figure out how to count with the babylonian number system (count to 12 on one hand counting the joints of your 4 fingers with your thumb, hold up a finger on the other to signify how many twelves you've counted up to 60);

What if I just give cerebrocrustaceans and extra joint on their claws (which technically they do have based on animation but it isn't shown because animation-friendly) and have they count the fronts and backs of their claw per claw (though I didn't understand the babylonian counting system previous since I kinda combined it with binary which I did know how to count).

Behold! A diagram!

We will address the 69 shaped elephant in the room later.

Let's bring in the close-ups for the discussion!

Including 0 (which would be an open claw in the same way a closed fist for a human is 0) the cerebrocrustacean number system using this diagram ends up being a base 9 (nonary) system, an odd-numbered system that I am not going to get into because I am only using hands as our counting origin. While functionally in decimal (because I practiced counting this way to stress test the system) you can count from 1-80 (each section on the tens claw corresponding to a multiple of 9 ending at 72), but with the fact that you can count up to 8 in each claw in a nonary system, it's actually counting up to the equivalent of 99 with only hands alone. Considering that the limitations of claws is that there isn't a vast landscape to count with, cerebrocrustaceans make do by counting each section of a claw twice, once from it's inner side and another on it's outer side going from, using the tip to count by touching the corresponding number.

The order from 1-8 is counted first in the (typically) right claw by the pollex (the inner claw) on the inner edge of the pincer (the outer claw) from bottom to top. Then the pincer bends to allow for the pollex to reach the outer edge, tapping the top claw then the bottom claw. Then the pincer follows the same steps to the pollex, counting from inside bottom to top, then outside top to bottom. The pincer has a little more reach being the larger of the two claws, but the pollex folds more because it has more mobility.

As a nonary system, there is no 9 and instead the 'nine' in this instance is 10, which is counted in the same order as 1-8 but done in the (typically) left claw, mimicking binary in how it accents the units of the right claw by adding an additional ten relevant to the corresponding claw.

Admittedly I had no rhyme or reason to display these claws in the order that they're in, but if cerebrocrustacean number systems are written in the same way it's counted then technically inside out, right to left, would probably be a pretty cool and also pretty hostile way to convey numbers (hah, reference to heavy out-grouping biases).

The main goal of the claw positions is to make at least an easily distinguishable set of numbers that don't blur (too much) between each other if you kinda look at it from silhouette alone. Not sure how successful I was but it isn't the actual numbers in written form themselves, so it's a different ball-park and more of a visualisation of the dexterity used to count.

And now- gotteem!

A funny thing about making a counting system and like, actually practicing how it feels and how to actually count, is that you sometimes stumble into comedy gold and get a 69 on the decimal 69 (if you twist your hands around to mimic it at least) plus just hitting you with an almost perfect 👌��just made me want to actually visualise this. Well... I was gonna visualise it anyway since it helps to provide an example on how cerebrocrustacean's count with claws but like- yeagh I don't care that odd-numbered bases are not optimal I'm keeping the nonary system for this joke alone (not actually but it's a bonus)!

Anyway- don't ask me how they do math and have a good time counting to 76!

[verycharismaticdragon]

As the novel guy(tm), I need to set the record straight: Wen Kexing is not compared to a wife just once in the novel, he and Zhou Zishu have an elaborate roleplay about being ~husband and wife~ that gets brought up time after time. Where Wen Kexing, the strongest mf in all jianghu not counting the literal immortal, pretends to be a poor bullied wife whose husband is giving her a cold shoulder 😩

And he's having so much fun with it too like *GASP* "are you abandoning me now that you've toyed with me?" *GASP* "how could you go to a brothel when your old wife is still alive?!" (they were there for information) *starts reciting confucian rules for obedient and virtuous wife*

He also cooks and is all like "something made by human hand has real flavor, and it may even have ~love~, when you taste it you'll be able to tell 😘" this man is malewifing it up SO hard. To the point that I haven't seen a single novelverse fic where he's referred to as 'husband' - I think because he self-ids with 'wife' so gladly in canon it doesn't feel right to use anything else.

So yeah, novel!WKX is not just "compared to" a wife, he's wearing the moniker purposefully and with a lot of joy.

That said, if you saw "husband and wife" and thought "oh, just another BL recreating gender roles but with two men 🙄"... Wen Kexing is the top, actually.

More specifically, he's an example of my favorite danmei trope 少女攻 shàonǚ gōng - a.k.a young maiden top. The concept of shàonǚ gōng seems to have originated as a pushback against "masculine top, feminine bottom" cliche. You all know that one: the top is physically strong, stoic, and wise to the ways of the world, occupying the role of either the protector or the aggressor; while the bottom is kind, emotional, and naive, slotted into the nurturing role if not outright damsel'ed... yeah, it was really prevalent in the '00s. And much criticized since then for 'regurgitating traditional gender roles' or 'gender essentialism with the serial numbers filed off', as some ppl put it. Now, I don't quite agree with those assessments, but that'd be a tangent; the important thing is, a number of BL concepts that saw a rise in the '10s are actually deconstructing this exact cliche.

Shàonǚ gōng trope in particular seeks to decouple the traditional gender role stuff from the characters' preferred positions: shàonǚ gōng is a top, but he is also sensitive, emotive, and nurturing - often much more so than his partner. (Yes, Luo Binghe is another example of this trope!) In other words: the purpose of this trope is to fuck with the portrayal of the top as traditionally masculine, and it's done by giving him traits, values, or interests that would typically be assigned to the female lead (in m/f) or the bottom (in m/m).

Of course, since the time this trope started appearing (TYK in specific was written in 2010-2011), the discussion on gender has come a long way, and shàonǚ gōngs wearing every gender hat with style now comes off as more gnc / queering the binary than anything. Which is a fun optic! My nonbinary ass is thriving here!

But I'm also not... entirely joking when calling these characters "a guy who is a femme but also a top". Broader femme identity is about approaching traditional femininity in a queer way; and the shàonǚ gōng concept also engages with traditional femininity as mapped onto queerness, if from a fairly different place. So yeah, while I'm saying it light-heartedly (i mean, we are talking about for-the-bit guy yuri poll), Wen Kexing is very femme-aligned, by virtue of his character archetype.

Of course, if we have a guy who is femme-aligned, it would only require the tiniest leap of logic to say his relationship could well be guy yuri-aligned. But what about the other half of that equation, Zhou Zishu? Well, first of all, I gotta say that you can transfer the same dynamic where ZZS is the husband while WKX is the top onto a story where they are both women, and it would still work in a perfectly queer way.

But aside from this, Zhou Zishu is also extremely mom-coded - though that may not come thru to eng audiences because he's specifically "strict chinese mom" coded. Think Evelyn Wang from EEAAO; Zhou Zishu is basically the same with his kids. He may say harsh things, but that's only because he wants the best for them. (Btw he and Evelyn also share a character beat of actually doing their best to not be the parent their parent (figure) were to them.)

And in a different vein, he's also mom-coded because for most of the novel he's doomed to die. You know, I'm actually very curious if anyone wrote any analysis on the intersection of "dead mom" and "dead shifu" tropes because both are supposed to die to facilitate their child's coming of age... interesting stuff.

You could also btw say wenzhou are yuri-coded because of how their interactions after a certain point are laden with delicate heartache of not being able to keep the one you love... (novel is a HE though, dont worry.)

So basically we have one guy who's a virtuous wife and one guy who is a strict mom and the guys are dating. That's very yuri.

Propaganda:

For Vanoe: "vanitas promised his canon love interest, as a romantic gesture, that if she started to become a monster, he would kill her so she wouldn't have to suffer. and then later when discussing how vanitas will eventually turn into a monster himself, he said he wants noe to kill him when that time comes. pretty yuri. also i'm a lesbian and i like them"

"Idk they have such a homoerotic shoujo manga dynamic but they're guys. Or maybe not that much but you gotta admit this would be exquisite yuri if they were girls. Noé the gothic romance heroine etc etc"

For Wenzhou: "Basically in their family unit Wen Kexing is the wife but Zhou Zishu is the mom. Also there are lots of genderbends of them around but the best ones are those where Wen Kexing goes super hard on femme but Zhou Zishu deadass has the same personality and appearance - like shoutout to those artists/writers u r the real ones. Also lesbian Zishu still being called "husband" by Wen Kexing, mwah chef's kiss! He would SO be a butch."

"Wen Kexing is compared to a wife twice in the show and at least once in the book iirc. Canon malewife + wears red eyeshadow and rocks a red robe in his Ghost Valley Master getup + his husband is an emo assassin, they are so incredibly yuri even if they're guys"

For Ineffable Husbands: "Well due to neil mentioning that they was plans for a fem presenting 1960s scene of the two of them that never ended up happening, there's a lot of fanart of that. Plus, they are an angel and a demon, and both technically don't follow the gender rules of humans and many other species on earth, so while they do present very masculine throughout the show, they could be any gender and therefore they seem very fitting for this.(I do apologize as I don't quite understand what guy Yuri is despite your definition so I am guessing and have no clue if they count."

"Looks like m/m on first glance but they don't actually really have gender and Crowley dresses as a woman for a good few years canonically"

"theyre male presenting in the show but they dont really have gender so they could be wlw if they wanted to"

"While both characters spend most of their time presenting as male, they are supernatural beings without any real sex or gender. Crowley appears as a woman multiple times, and one scrapped scene included both Aziriphale and Crowley as women in the 1960s. Additionally, it’s very common to find ��Ineffable Wives” fanworks, with both characters appearing as women. As well as having been an immensely popular fandom ship for many years, it has been confirmed that Aziriphale and Crowley are canonically in love with each other."

"Regularly turned into women in fanart. Both Aziraphale and Crowley are incredibly gender. They have been together in some sort of way for 6000 years. Heavy yearning. Cringefail. Divorced and married at the same time. Literally an angel and a demon. What more could you want?"

"theyre literally genderless and can be anything ever!!!"

"Their genders are ineffable and they have hopelessly pined for centuries"

[hrokkall]

Misfortune

[PART 1]

[fordtato]

The Symbol Cipher Theory - A Gravity Falls Mystery: What do the symbols on the portal page mean?

NOTE: Since Rob Renzetti replied to this on Twitter, new/corrected info is being added to this google doc (including everything in this original post) Go there for updates!

-------

There are a lot of things about Journal 3 that I have yet to figure out. What are those dumb little rectangles on the sides of the pages? I’ve tried applying everything I could to them - binary, international telegraph alphabet, morse? I couldn’t crack it. And what of those lines with a bunch of circles in them - you know, the ones that look like crop circles? And what of those numbers? You know the ones - they show up in this order from time to time: 6, 1 345 [or 3 4 5] 12 89 [or 8 9] 10 11. 13. 7. Sometimes they’re rearranged or missing elements, but that’s how they appear at their most complete (on the final page they show up on - across from those alchemical symbols), I hate those numbers. I have no idea what they mean. And boy, have I tried…

Aw well. They probably just mean nothing, right? 

But I would like to propose something: Maybe there is one more mystery in Gravity Falls.

Again: Link to theory google doc here.

The Symbols On The Portal Page

I want to guide you guys through a little exercise. Everyone got their Journal 3s? Alright. Open up to the portal schematics page:

t’s very familiar by now, and truly iconic. But, speaking of icons, look at the symbols. The truth is, these symbols show up a few times throughout the journal, mixed in with the rest of the codes and ciphers. But, similar to the aforementioned alchemical symbols, they probably mean nothing. After all, we’ve pored over them, again and again. 

These 13 symbols.

Huh. 

13.

On a half-circle.

Well, if that circle were complete, there would probably be 26 symbols.

Which means these might be letters.

Which leads us to the first question. Where are the rest of the letters?

My first move was to check the show. 

No dice. Neither of the journals show the other half of the circle - and on the bottom journal, they just flip the symbols upside down - it actually fooled me at first (I was very excited to see these upside down symbols before realizing it wasn’t new at all, simply upside down).

But whatever! We have 13 symbols. Hell, if we had examples of them in certain words, we might even be able to find the other 13 for the full 26. 

So… I went through the pages. And I found 4 instances of the code showing up in Journal 3. 

The Tie Code (on the same page spread as the Tie of Possession

Bill Page Code (On the same page spread as the one that names Cill Cipher)

The Hide Behind page spread

The Boat page spread (On the same page spread as the Island Heads and the scribbled out boat)

Let's analyze these one at a time.

The Tie Code

This is the only instance of a page including both an upside down and right side up version of a symbol directly from the portal page. It’s odd - we have that circle with the 3 dots, and two sideways T, the sideways table with 2 dots, and the sideways upside-down 7 with a dot here. 

I’m not sure we are able to get more meaning from these, but we’ve learned something: these symbols do show up in both right side up and upside down form.

The Bill Page

Of note, we have seen one of these 5 symbols before. The 5th symbol of the Bill code matches the third symbol of the wheel (in its upside down form).

The first symbol on the Bill page also looks suspiciously similar to the second symbol on the portal page - the upside down 7 with a dot. But it’s missing the dot. I’m inclined to think this is a new letter. (I am coming at this from the angle of someone who knows Arabic - where the number of dots on a letter makes a difference in which letter it is. So, you know… maybe it makes a big difference here?)

But at the very least, let’s count this as 4 new symbols: the backwards 4, the N, the 4 lines, and the symbol with a missing dot.

Added to our original 13, that’s 17 symbols so far.

The Hide Behind Page

This code is three rows, in a pattern of 5 symbols, 5 symbols, and 4 symbols (or 5, depending on if you count the first one as 3 vertical lines or 2 vertical lines near 1 vertical line. We also have some more familiar icons. The second, third, and fourth symbols all match a symbol from the portal page in upside-down form! 

We also have a repeat of that upside down 7 symbol! Again, without the dot, both in the second and third row (upside down and right side up). But surely they wouldn’t have a symbol with missing elements, like missing dots, right? 

I’d like to direct your attention back to the Bill Page Code. Notice anything similar to this code? No? How about now?

So we have our second clue: sometimes, a symbol may be drawn that is missing an element. 

So… I am unsure if the upside-down 7 with a dot (portal symbol #2, Bill symbol #1) is being utilized here, just missing the dot. If so, it might be showing up as the 6th AND 12th symbol in this. 

Regardless, because it shows up two times without the dot, and because the symbol is missing the dot in the row of symbols that the second row of the Hide Behind Code is emulating from the Bill Code, I will go ahead and again say I am treating it as a new symbol. But I also understand someone else reasoning that it is not. 

We also have a repeat of the symbol that is just 3 vertical lines (Portal Symbol #1), and a new symbol that is a sideways table with 1 dot in the center and a line next to it (Hide-behind symbol #1). We also have a strange symbol at the end of row 1: the three lines with 2 more layered on top in an asymmetrical pattern. 

The first symbol in row 3, the one that is either 3 vertical lines or 2 vertical lines near 1 vertical line, is bugging me. It can either be one symbol or two. It might also be 4 vertical lines missing the third line (We will see another instance of 4 vertical lines in a bit, so bear with me). Regardless, I’m inclined to treat this as one symbol because of the spacing it lines up with below the symbol above it.

All in all, it looks like there are 3 new symbols, depending on how we treat the first two (or three) symbols in the last line. It’s up to interpretation, but alas. Let’s add in the new ones. 

3 + 17 = 20 symbols so far.

The Boat Code

Last one!

We have some more symbols matching up! #9, 10, 11, and 12 on this page match up with #2,3,4 and 5 from the Hide-Behind page! 

Let’s take a look at the rest. We start with a dot. It is hard to say for sure if this is its own thing, or if it is part of the stylistic ink-splatter dots on the page. It seems just a little too perfect to count as a splatter, so I will go ahead and count it as a symbol for now. Even if the dot is NOT a symbol on its own, a dot+two vertical lines is new.

Next, we have a recurrence of a double-vertical-line symbol multiple times.

Lastly, #3, 5, 6 and 7 are ALSO new. As established previously, the rest are repeats. 

So, we have 6 new symbols. The dot (or the dot with the double line if we’re counting that), the double line (without the dot), the horizontal double line, the triple-horizontal lines with two dots, the upside-down table, the 4 vertical lines

6+20? 26 symbols.

Final notes:

Is this theory perfect? Not at all - there are several letters above that might end up being two, or perhaps symbols that I counted as different, which might be the same one. 

But it definitely seems like there are ~26 symbols, which may or may not correspond to 26 letters of the English alphabet. I know, I know, it’s a stretch. But it’s *my* stretch, one I’ve fixated on for way too long. 

So which symbols mean which letters? I tried assigning letters 1-13 to the symbols on the portal page, but it feels like gibberish (that being said, this is Gravity Falls we’re talking about here. Gibberish could be any number of ciphers). It might also be letters 14-26? Maybe it being upside down is a clue? 

But then I remembered, The Numbers:

This is the last iteration of the numbers. The last version to pop up before the journal switches perspective from Ford to Dipper. It is also the most complete version. 

6, 1 345 [or 3 4 5] 12 89 [or 8 9] 10 11. 13. 7

It’s interesting that they go up to 13, is all. 

A1Z26 makes this string of numbers into: F A C D E L H I J K M G, but it is missing one of the numbers.

Maybe that’s (roughly) the order of the schematics page? I don’t really have this figured out. Frankly, I’ve been at this for a couple years - that’s how long the theory has been polishing up in my head. It’s time to let this go free.

Thanks for reading, and I hope making this post spurs some more theories.

UPDATE: IF YOU CHECK THE REBLOGS, YOU WILL SEE THAT USER DUMBBUTTASS FOUND ANOTHER ONE ON THE PAGE WITH THE MONOCLE - EVERY SYMBOL ON THAT PAGE IS IN THE PORTAL PAGE HALF-CIRCLE. REBLOG THEIR UPDATE IF YOU CAN

[rosesradio]

Hell yeah, your binary bf ficlets are back!! Any way I could get one with the prompt "holding hands during a stressful situation"?

hell yeah, it's the "hell yeah!" anon ! hopefully you don't mind me calling you the "hell yeah" anon lol, you just have a distinctive voice and i've always wanted a reoccurring anon with a name :-) anyways enjoy this 550 word drabble !! <3

Demetri had done many brave things in his life. He'd stood up to bullies when push came to shove in the karate war. He bet actual money on his Skyrim skills. He even talked to a girl one time in seventh grade and asked her to the dance; she laughed in his face, though it was the thought that counted.

He'd never been cliff-jumping before, though.

Eli was the one that was all over this stuff, chasing the adrenaline high with any number of crazy stunts, his anxiety disappearing at the sight of something that looked "badass". Demetri was typically the one that stayed on the sidelines with the first-aid kit, yelling about how dumb (X,Y,Z) was.

But Eli got tired of this routine and decided to pull Demetri into his antics, and Demetri, admittedly, was a little excited by them. He'd done mostly the same routine every day; school, homework, video games, hanging out. Something like this, well--his mom would kill him, and for good reason, but he couldn't help but admit it interested him.

Demetri stood close to the edge now, the sea breeze ruffling his hair. It felt good, really good, as if the air was breathing life into his shaking lanky limbs. Even so, as he looked down…he couldn't imagine falling all the way to the bottom and living to tell the tale.

"Hey," Eli murmured next to him, reaching out--their fingers traced each others'; a gentle, uncertain dance, sparking at the slightest graze. This, along with the churning sea beneath them, was also new. The feelings were always there, simmering on different intensities for years. But the acting on it, the hand-holding and kissing. It made Demetri nervous, but not in the way jumping off a cliff did. He imagined that it felt like this for Eli; another adrenaline chase, though one he'd be able to hold onto.

"You don't have to," Eli continued, voice gentle in a way he'd only use for him.

"I want to," Demetri replied, sparing a glance down. "It's not that bad…I am kinda wondering if you're trying to kill me to get my Batman issue 167, but…"

Eli put his hand up to Demetri's cheek, then, and turned him his way. He smiled cheekily, eyes sparkling, before kissing him, long and careful and sweet. When he pulled away, Demetri felt as if his brain were scrambled, staticky like a TV not picking up a channel.

Demetri thought Eli was going to say something really romantic, then, something to match the kiss. But all he said was: "I've seen middle schoolers jump this and turn out fine."

Demetri laughed, rolling his eyes fondly as some of his anxiety ebbed away. "Yeah, whatever. I'll be alright…I mean, I got you, you know?" His face flushed. He was never one to come out with romantic statements like that, but Eli seemed to just…bring it out of him.

"Yeah," Eli held onto his hand, squeezing gently. "You got me."

And, after quite a few more minutes of freak-out and debating, Demetri finally dove off the cliff. Nothing scared the shit out of him more than soaring through the air with no ropes or harnesses, but nothing was more refreshing than the splash of seawater at the bottom.

[greenscreener]

I decided to write down the entire process on how I cracked the thing, but first, we’re actually going to have to explain some concepts from cryptography and after reading this, you might know how to break many of the simple ciphers people online tend to use. (Even though this stuff is only useful for ciphers that haven’t been used in actual cryptographic practice since the 1800s)

We’re going to start with some of the most well known ciphers: Caesar’s cipher. For those who don’t know it, it works by shifting each letter by usually 13 letters in the alphabet, that’s why it’s also known as ROT13. So A becomes N, B becomes O and so on. The word SECRET becomes FRPERG.

Another example might be Atbash, which just flips the alphabet around, so A becomes Z, B becomes Y.

Both of these are monoalphabetic substitution ciphers (this is an important magic word!). Substitution here means we replace one letter with another. (in general there are substitution ciphers that replace larger groups than letters at a time, but we’re not talking about these now). Monoalphabetic means it only uses a single alphabet for the substitution. Now how do we use an alphabet for substitution? We usually create a table, with the normal alphabet at the top and some shuffled alphabet at the bottom. Such table for Ceasar’s cipher might look like this:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ NOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLM

Now, since the top line is always the same, we can just use the second line, as the “key”, that’s why we only need a single “alphabet”. When we want to encrypt something, we take each letter, find it in the top row and then replace it with the letter in the bottom row. For decrypting we find the letter in the bottom row and replace it with the one in the top row.

A generic substitution cipher has the bottom alphabet randomly shuffled. You might assume that such cipher might be unbreakable, since there are 26! (twenty-six factorial, equal to 403291461126605635584000000 (about ten thousand times the number of atoms in a drop of water)) options on how to shuffle such alphabet, trying them all would take millions of years.

But such a cipher does reveal some information about the original text, for instance, character frequencies. If we go back to the ROT13 example of SECRET, we know there are two Es, and the resulting encrypted FRPERG contains two Rs. Every language has a very specific frequency of each character, the longer the text, the closer these frequencies get to the average distribution.

These frequencies are usually used as the starting point in trying to crack a monoalphabetic substitution. Since we know E is the most common letter in the English language, we can start building our substitution table by replacing the most common letter with E and so on. Many frequencies are too similar to be useful in this way however, so we need to do something smarter.

The easiest thing to do automatically with a computer is bigram analysis. Instead of counting the frequencies of individual letters, we count frequencies of bigrams – pairs of consecutive letters. This can be usually quite good at recovering even fairly short encrypted texts.

What can usually be done manually is trying to find some recognisable words in the partially decrypted text and slowly getting more and more letters.

Now, after a whole lot of theory, let’s get our hands dirty

I used CyberChef, which is a great tool for deciphering various weird things.

If you want to follow along with me, you can use this link.

Here are first few lines of the encrypted text:

-000 001 011--000 100 001--000 101 101- -000 000 000--000 011 100--000 001 011- -000 100 001--000 001 101--000 100 001-

I immediately assumed these are letters turned into binary in some way. The most obvious way is ASCII, but characters in ASCII are usually 8 bits (ones or zeros) and letters start with 01. I also assumed that each character is represented by nine bits, not three, because there are only eight possible combinations of three bits, which isn’t enough to encode all letters. I also noticed that nine zeros are probably a space.

I wanted to do some analysis on the text, so first, I turned each group of nine bits into a single character. I then had to do some magic with the text to replace the weird control characters into letters, because most analysis tools work only with letters.

After running frequency distribution calculation on the text, it did look vaguely human-language-ish to me, so I ran another test, the index of coincidence test. This is a single number, which roughly represents how random the text is. If it is only made of a single character, it has IoC of 1, not random at all, if the text is entirely random (or encrypted well), it has IoC of 0. English text generally has an IoC of between 0.67 to 0.78. The IoC I calculated fell generally in the range of English text, which confirmed we’re most likely dealing with monoalphabetic substitution.

To start deciphering, I first used this generic substitution autosolver. It didn’t work quite right, because it is by default case insensitive (doesn’t know the difference between lowercase and uppercase letters), which breaks on my text where upper and lowercase letters encode a different letter.

her there one known as the seoond itsttor rom oant read thts and ty rom oan thatd ke arettr tiaresstie aotmallr haie a mood dar or else

It got enough of the letters right to make some parts of the text recognisable, mainly the recipient’s username “the-second-visitor”.

So I went back to CyberChef and started pasting individual words of the ciphertext with the corresponding words of the plaintext into a substitutor and uncovered the rest of the text manually.

Sorry if I've maybe uncovered a bit of the "magic" behind this, but I hope in turn, you've learnt something cool.

-000 001 011--000 100 001--000 101 101- -000 000 000--000 011 100--000 001 011- -000 100 001--000 001 101--000 100 001- -000 000 000--000 011 011--000 010 100- -000 100 001--000 000 000--000 101 010- -000 010 100--000 011 011--000 011 101- -000 010 100--000 000 000--000 000 011- -000 010 101--000 000 000--000 011 100- -000 001 011--000 100 001--000 000 000- -000 010 101--000 100 001--000 010 010- -000 011 011--000 010 100--000 011 001- -000 000 000--000 101 100--000 010 011- -000 010 101--000 010 011--000 011 100- -000 011 011--000 001 101--000 000 000- -000 101 101--000 011 011--000 100 100- -000 000 000--000 010 010--000 000 011- -000 010 100--000 011 100--000 000 000- -000 001 101--000 100 001--000 000 011- -000 011 001--000 000 000--000 011 100- -000 001 011--000 010 011--000 010 101- -000 000 000--000 000 011--000 010 100- -000 011 001--000 000 000--000 010 011- -000 101 001--000 000 000--000 101 101- -000 011 011--000 100 100--000 000 000- -000 010 010--000 000 011--000 010 100- -000 000 000--000 011 100--000 001 011- -000 000 011--000 011 100--000 011 001- -000 000 000--000 001 010--000 100 001- -000 000 000--000 100 011--000 001 101- -000 100 001--000 011 100--000 011 100- -000 101 101--000 000 000--000 010 011- -000 001 100--000 100 011--000 001 101- -000 100 001--000 010 101--000 010 101- -000 010 011--000 101 100--000 100 001- -000 000 000--000 000 011--000 010 010- -000 011 100--000 100 100--000 000 011- -000 000 101--000 000 101--000 101 101- -000 000 000--000 001 011--000 000 011- -000 101 100--000 100 001--000 000 000- -000 000 011--000 000 000--000 000 100- -000 011 011--000 011 011--000 011 001- -000 000 000--000 011 001--000 000 011- -000 101 101--000 000 000--000 011 011- -000 001 101--000 000 000--000 100 001- -000 000 101--000 010 101--000 100 001-

:)

Does anyone here speak computer? @greenscreener?

[phcking-detective]

9. Positive Reinforcement

Fic Title: First Blood

Rating: E

Length: 9/33 chapters, ~128k

Tags: Slow Burn, Idiots to Lovers, Trans Character (gavin), Autistic / Asexual / Non-binary Character (nines), BDSM, learning to use good etiquette and safe words, Dom Nines / Sub Gavin, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort

Chapter Tags: hospitals, hurt/comfort, domestic, Nines takes care of Gavin, caring Dom Nines, Gavin has a mood swing / shouting episode but there’s no partner abuse, using BDSM instead of therapy (not recommended btw)

Link on AO3

***

Hospitals suck ass.

Gavin repeats this mantra to himself like one of those meditation techniques. It's not enough to block out how his hip keeps slipping between the three chairs he's trying to lay on horizontally or how fucking cold it is in nothing but jeans and Nines' stupid fucking Cyberlife jacket or the bright fucking florescent—

"Detective."

Gavin squints up at Nines' sudden appearance like he's looking at a miracle—inherently suspicious and wondering what the fucking catch is. He's woozy and tired and somehow also hungry, the nurse took four tries to find his vein, and Tina didn't answer any of his calls from the courtesy phone because who the hell answers phone calls?

"What are you doing?" Nines asks in the sort of tone normally reserved for walking in on someone trying to suck their own dick.

Not that Gavin's ever tried.

"I'm sleeping, fuck off."

"On three separate chairs?"

"You know what?" Gavin sits up and stabs a finger against the android's steel fucking stomach. "I'm tired, I don't have a phone or my wallet, I can't pay for a cab, Tina isn't answering, and I don't—"  

The finger-stabs turn into punches.

"Have. Any. Other. Friends!"

Nines stands there, letting Gavin punch him until the bruised knuckles aren't worth it anymore. The waiting room starts to sway. Fuck, he really needs a snack or something right now. One free cookie and a juice box just isn't going to cut it.

"Here."

The inside of the jacket suddenly begins to warm up. Nice to know it could have done that the entire FUCKING time. Nines also produces Gavin's cellphone from his pants' pocket and offers it to him. Gavin snatches it back and stares at the screen.

"Can't phcking read this," he mutters.

Nines produces his headphones too. When all Gavin does is take them back and hold them stupidly in his other hand, Nines crouches down in front of him. His fucking head hurts so bad, Gavin actually sits quietly and doesn't complain while Nines plugs in the headphones and then puts the earbuds inside his ears.

Your jacket is at the dry cleaners. Nines' voice sounds in his head at a mercifully low volume. I have brought your truck and ordered you a large number five meal with a strawberry milkshake.

Gavin slumps forward and lets his head rest on Nines' shoulder so he doesn't cry. He punches the android's arm and chest a few more times for good measure. It doesn't even crinkle his fancy black dress shirt. Nines stays perfectly still and allows this too.

Your food is becoming cold, detective.

Gavin grunts. He'll get up in a second.

Nines decides he'll get up right now. Those ridiculous fucking yaoi hands grabbing his thighs is the only warning he gets before he's hoisted in the air and held against Nines' chest. Which—fuck, that's hot, but not here!

"Fuck off tin can, leggo!"

Gavin puts up a fight against his partner's gay shit because there are people watching. He can see them right over Nines' shoulder, the nurse at the front desk and the six other people in the waiting room. Yeah, shit's a lot better for gay people now, but that doesn't mean he wants the entire hospital to know what a bottom bitch he is.

"Don't fucking hold me like a fucking child," he complains as they reach the automatic doors.

A second later, Nines shifts him into his arms bridal style, like that's any better.

"Hold me like a man, god damn it!"

Then he's slung over Nines' shoulder in a fireman's hold. Between the giving blood wooziness and suddenly being upside down, he has to stop yelling and just focus on breathing for a second. The rush of cold air when they get out to the parking lot helps.

Even better, when he opens his eyes again, he's greeted by an up-close view of Nines' ass in tight dress pants. Best of all are the thick, powerful thighs right beneath it, marching away. A little bit lower, and he could just bury his face between those thighs and suffocate the way God intended.

Car tires crunch against the asphalt in front of them and Gavin's pretty sure he recognizes the blurry, upside-down image of his truck between Nines' legs. Has the automated driving feature always been capable of being remote controlled, or is that just some freaky shit that Nines did to it?

He doesn't get a chance to think any more about it before he's flipped upright, set inside his truck, and buckled into the passenger's seat like a toddler. It's a miracle he hasn't dropped his phone or had his headphones ripped out of his ears yet.

"I hate you," he tells Nines, just to make sure the android knows.

Nines takes the bag of fast food off the dash and sets it in his lap.

Occupy your mouth.

Gavin makes a face at him. Why's everything he say have to sound so ominously dominating? The passenger door shuts in his face before he can think of something smarter than I'll occupy your mouth though, so he settles for grabbing his milkshake and making loud slurping noises. Nines gets in on the driver's side and immediately takes the milkshake from him, so he counts it as a success. He's too hungry and tired of hurting his hands to try hitting him for it, so he digs into the food bag.

A large number five, fried chicken club sandwich, none of that stupid special sauce, extra ketchup.

Gavin really can't help the moan he makes when he bites into it. But there's only so much toxic masculinity even he can handle, and he'll moan like a bitch if he wants to moan like a bitch. As long as it's just the two of them.

"Mmphfgh. So."

Swallow.

Shit. Fuck, his headphones are still in. Gavin rolls his eyes to try to shake off how he jumped, but he does still swallow his bite before talking again.

"How'd you know to come get me? Tina never answered."

I know the location of the Henry Ford Medical Center, detective.

"Yeah, but who told you to come get me?"

It was an independent decision.

Gavin takes another huge bite of his sandwich to think that over. Some ketchup squirts out the other side onto his fingers, and he sucks it off as obnoxiously loud as possible. Nines flashes red in his peripheral vision. Well, he can't actually see the LED because it's on the wrong side, but he can see his partner's reflection in the driver's side window.

"You find the perp loitering nearby?" he finally asks.

No.

Gavin tries to think of any other reason Nines would come get him but comes up empty.

"So, why did you …?"

He takes another long drink of his milkshake to avoid putting whatever this is into words. Take care of me makes him sound like a child and do the nicest shit anyone's done for me in years (or maybe ever) just sounds pathetic.

We need to get back to work. Humans need food after donating blood. Your jacket needed to be cleaned.

All right, those are simple explanations. Yeah. Maybe that's just how Nines sees it. He doesn't have a social module, so he was probably just solving a series of problems, completing his task list or whatever. Not like. Actually caring.

Except then Nines turns and says out loud with soul-searing intensity, "You are my partner."

Gavin does the only reasonable thing and stuffs an entire handful of fries in his mouth so he doesn't have to look at those pretty blue eyes staring at him like he's important. Or do some gay shit, like cry.

He's not going to cry. It's just been a long day, that's all. He makes the mistake of looking at the dashboard clock.

11:36 am

Fuck.

***

(9 hours later …)

Mmm warm good smell. Food smell. Gavin takes another greedy inhale and feels the warm thing touch his lips. He instinctively takes a bite before he even finishes waking up. It tastes good and kind of chewy, if a little bland. He snuffles and licks the fingers that fed it to h—

Wait, fucking whom'st fingers is he licking right now?

"Fascinating."

Gavin swats the hand away and glares up at Nines hovering over him. "What the fuck did you just make me eat?"

Nines cocks his head to the side. He looks more like a creepy animatronic owl than the cute puppy eyes Connor gives when he does it.

"Can you not tell?" the android asks.

"Can you blow me?"

"I tried that on a banana," Nines says casually, as if that mental image makes any kind of sense.

"Whuh—wh—"

Gavin smacks his lips together and tries to figure out what his mouth tastes like right now. Kind of … cheesy? Like pasta maybe, but without any flavor. Whatever he swallowed was dry at least, so no sauce or anything.

"Why?"

"To know if I could," Nines replies. "My combat protocols automatically activated and my jaw locked shut."

"OK, so you can't eat bananas, but what the fuck did I eat?" Gavin demands.

"Technically, I did eat the banana," Nines says. "Partially. My jaw snapped shut after taking a bite of it inside my oral cavity."

Gavin's dick starts listening to the conversation. It's because of karma and maybe some sort of android fucking witchcraft that now his dick gets hard listening to the bitchiest most stuck up Alexa ever say the words "oral cavity."

Of course Nines notices the reaction right away. Because fuck his whole entire life, that's why. Nines stares down at his crotch and Gavin can practically hear a zzzzzz as his eyes zoom in on his traitor dick.

"Fascinating."

"Tell me what you fucking fed me or I swear to God, I'll—"

"One cheese ravioli."

Gavin stares at him. "A cheese … did it even have sauce?"

"No, I washed that off."

Gavin opens his mouth, stares harder at that completely serious face, and shuts it again. He pinches the bridge of his nose instead, rubbing over the thick gnarl of scar tissue there.  

"Why …"

But that's all he can bring himself to say. For once, Nines is the one who has no trouble with speaking.

"So it wouldn't drip on the carpet," he says, like that's obvious.

"You really think a bit of Prego is gonna be the worst this carpet's ever seen?" Gavin asks.

Nines' face darkens into a scowl that would be terrifying if Gavin didn't know this was his version of pouting. "Do not remind me. I have deleted fifty-seven analysis reports this last hour alone."

Gavin rolls his eyes. "Well, why'd you feed me a cheese ravioli?"

"To save the beef ravioli as a higher value treat."

Gavin looks him over. His left arm hangs down casually by his side, but his hand presses slightly behind his crouched thigh. It looks like he's holding something in one of those magician's grip that makes his hand appear loose and open while something is secretly tucked into his palm.

"You may have the beef ravioli if you sit at the table," Nines tells him.

He stands up and takes a few steps backwards toward the kitchen, raising up his hand to reveal the ravioli. Gavin gets off the couch and marches toward him to kick his ass, but the android matches his pace exactly to step backwards until they're right next to the table. He opens his mouth to start yelling, which immediately proves to be a mistake.

Nines shoves the ravioli directly into his open mouth. Gavin automatically bites down, but the android's reflexes are too quick for him, and he gets his fingers clear before being bitten. Instead, Gavin only bites into delicious beefy filling.

And he would spit it out. He really would, right onto Nines' perfectly shined shoes.

Except it's been a long ass day filled with paperwork about what happened with the reporter and no other goddamn leads and he has no idea how late it is since he fell asleep on the couch, but it's definitely past suppertime and he's hungry as fuck.

(Also, maybe he remembers the consequences of the last time he tried to spit at Nines, and his traitor-dick needs to Shut Up about that.)

Gavin chews the beef ravioli with the angriest face he can muster. It doesn't help that it's really fucking good, way better than the takeout and ramen he usually lives on. Nines opens the lid of the to go box sitting on the kitchen table, and the best smell his trash apartment has ever encountered steams out.

Gavin sits his angry ass down and starts to eat. Fuck him if he's going to waste good food. Most of the ravioli is beef, but there's some cheese-filled ones too, mixed in with the rest in a thick meaty sauce. Nines sits in the seat across the table to stare at him while he eats. Fucking creeper. Always one step behind him, staring at him, following him back home like they're friends or something.

"Why the fuck are you still here?" he deliberately asks with his mouth full.

"Juarez is currently our best lead to identifying the shooter," Nines answers. "As she may wake from her coma at any time, it is most efficient for me to stay with you in the event we are called during off duty hours."

Gavin chews his food. His partner is real fucking good at coming up with totally logical answers that he can't argue against without looking stupid even though he just knows that's bullshit.

"Whatever," he says. "I'm not paying you back for this. Or the chicken sandwich."

Nines keeps staring at him with those blank, lizard eyes. "I did not ask you to."

Gavin pushes back his chair and slams his hands on the table, yelling "Fuck you!" before he even knows what hits him. His moods are like that sometimes.

Nines doesn't even blink.

Usually, that sort of shit would just set him off even more. The lack of response sure as hell drove him to push harder and harder when they first got assigned as partners. Now Gavin just feels stupid, shouting at someone just sitting there.

Stupid. Fuck, he always does this shit. He knows this. He <i>knows</i> this.

"I don't …" Gavin forces himself to exhale slowly out through his teeth, gripping the edge of the table so he doesn't throw something. "Need. Your charity."

Stupid stupid stupid.

"You are my partner," Nines says.

Monotone. Four words and not a single inflection. When Gavin finally makes himself look up from panting at the grain of the fake-wooden table, Nines' face is just as blank. It should probably trigger some sort of uncanny valley lurch in his stomach, but without any micro-expressions for his brain goblins to pick up on and start screeching about, Gavin's anger starts slipping away like resin on tarp.

He looks back down at the table so he doesn't have to see his partner's face.

"If you cannot accept your own rule that partners look out for each other, consider this an investment to ensure you are recovered for our next shift tomorrow."

Gavin exhales again. Then inhales. Stupid. Exhale. At least he didn't throw anything. Inhale. This time.

"Also, I am applying Pavlovian training to encourage behaviors convenient to me."

Gavin sits back down and rubs both hands through his hair. "You're dog training me?"

"Positive reinforce—"

"You can't fix this," Gavin growls out, then gestures to himself and the kitchen at large. "This! Me. Anyone can read a fucking psychology book, dipshit—I already know what's wrong with me. If I could just good behavior myself into getting better, I would have done it already."

Nines' composure finally breaks as he blinks. "I am not a KL-nine-hundred unit, detective. I have absolutely no intention of—"

Gavin groans because he knows the air quotes are coming. Nines looks him dead in the eyes and does them anyway.

"—'fixing' you."

"I hate you."

"I only want to encourage relevant behaviors," Nines continues without acknowledging the outburst. "Such as doing your own paperwork rather than playing games on your phone."

Gavin grunts and manages to take another bite now that he's settled down some. Sure, maybe he'd been dumping all his paperwork on Nines now that the android has proven he knows how to do it properly. But he gets it done way faster and trying to make letters hold still on a bright ass computer screen gives him the worst headaches. God, he probably needs reading glasses at this point but he'd rather his entire head split open than wear that kind of shit at the station.

"Listening to my input at crime scenes."

"Hhegh," Gavin says around a mouth full of beef.

"Basic table manners."

Gavin swallows. "Hey. Fuck off, I do listen to you. I have been, so don't fucking sit there and try to tell me—"

"You have been," Nines says.

Gavin stops with his mouth hanging open. Dammit, he was just getting good and pissed off again, and then the bastard goes and agrees with him. What the hell is he supposed to say to that? It's definitely a trap. Like sarcasm, or some sort of passive aggressive ...

Something.

"Throughout our current case, you have taken note of my input," Nines says. "I was not implying otherwise, simply that I would start rewarding you for doing so."

Gavin narrows his eyes at him. "Yeah? Why?"

"I was forced to work with other humans at the Juarez residence." Nines finally finds some inflection to say other humans like he means radioactive screaming toddlers. "It was not ideal. And while I certainly will not beg for your continued cooperation, I am not above bribery as a means to ensure I can do my work in peace rather than relying on … the kindness of your heart."

Gavin grunts again and goes back to his food. Eating slightly cold ravioli is easier than making eye contact with his partner right now. He might have been a teensy bit better lately, but obviously he's not some kind of android rights activist. If Nines is worried he's going to flip back to being an asshole on a whim or a bad day or because other people were watching, well.

That's pretty fucking fair, to be honest.

"Dog training though?" he mutters after a minute. "Really?"

"I have read many human psychology books." Nines pauses, then adds, "Dipshit."

Gavin snorts and lets the insult pass.

"I can recite them. I understand the words. But they are merely words to me," Nines admits slowly. "Dog training books are much more simple."

"Is this a kink thing?"

Nines rolls his eyes. "Gavin, would you care to explain to me in honest and personal detail why offering food triggered such an immediate and violent reaction? Please include at least three references to your childhood."

Gavin shoves more ravioli in his mouth and smacks as loudly as possible as he chews.

"Then perhaps you would prefer a simpler way of relating to one another," Nines speaks over the noise. "No emotional sharing, no childhood details, no sad sob stories about what made you like this. You behave, you get food. That is all."

"What if I don't behave?" Gavin immediately challenges.

"Then you do not receive any food or treats."

"You gonna punish me, sir?"

Nines glares down his perfectly sculpted nose at him. "If you had listened to my explanation on the benefits of positive reinforcement, you would already know why it is the more effective training method."

Gavin resists the urge to repeat thE MorE eFFeCtIve TrAInInG MeTHoD back at him.

"Also," Nines continues. "You are far too much of a needy little painslut to be truly punished by corporeal means."

Gavin focuses very hard on mopping up the rest of the meat sauce with his side of garlic bread instead of answering that. Even when they know better, he's never met a Dom he couldn't piss off into beating the shit out of him just like he wanted. Technically, if they're counting their little "scene" in the DPD's men's bathroom, Nines hasn't proven himself to be an exception, either.

"Well." He stands up and leaves the mess on the table. "Good luck with your totally not a kink pet play. I'm gonna go watch funny youtube videos until my brain dies."

"Cat videos?" Nines asks as he passes him, raising one perfect eyebrow. "Am I to assume those are not also a pet play ki—"

Gavin flips him off and slams his bedroom door shut.

***

***

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33

I also have a Patreon for this fic, if you want to support me! $1 gets you access to chapters a week early, $2 gets bonus content and deleted scenes, and $3 gets short chapters from two AUs I’m writing: an A/B/O heatfic and reverse!AU

by the way, Nines totally posted a video of himself feeding asleep-Gavin the ravioli to his blog and it has a weird overly formal title like Human (36M) Instinctively Eats Ravioli During the Course of REM Sleep. all of his posts are like that because they’re meant to be “educational” “”experiments”” and the text posts are just black text on a white background

meanwhile, Connor’s blog consists exclusively of super cute pictures featuring either him and Hank on dates or cuddling on the couch, and Sumo of course. Nines thinks it’s disgusting and dumb and is lowkey (actually highkey) upset that Connor’s blog gets way more views than his

It isn’t even educational!! >:(

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Iruma 19 - 20 | Magia Record 5 - 6 | Eizouken 6 - 7

Magia Record 5

“I’m the only one who can fill the void in Yachiyo’s heart.” – Says Mifuyu as she gains a hole in her heart.

“I might be in hot water here.” – Nice pun. Not sure it existed in the Japanese, though.

“Tiro Finale!” – Yay! I loved Tiro Finale when it was first introduced!

Hmm…I think I know why I’m not enjoying this as much now. I actually really, really like the Urobutcher’s work, although it feels like a non-sequitur in ConRevo and Thunderbolt Fantasy…is Thunderbolt Fantasy.

“I have school tomorrow.” “It’s Saturday.” – LOL, I remember thinking something like that too.

The titlecard is clearly a question, “There’s No Place for You Here” is highly likely to not be the translation. Update: After double-checking the characters I forgot were sukima, it turns out the real episode name is “Are you the one who can force your way into the void (gap)?” (referring to the void in the heart)

Magia Record 6

Who is this blonde girl, anyway…? A magical girl, knowing the show.

Felicia, see? I knew it. Anyways, the winning system for the icy poles is that if you win one, you either redeem for prizes or get more (in this case, it’s the latter). Also, the amount of fruit juice in the melon icy poles seems to be going down…

Hey, wouldn’t there be bouncers to toss the girls out? Or is this a Labyrinth?

Felicia is basically Kyoko Lite.

“Where are your parents?”

Uwasa = rumour.

There’s a teardrop on the titlecard.

Magia Record 7

Who’s Beatrice…? Update: Beatrice is Felicia’s Doppel (witch/magical girl hybrid).

The characters that appeared momentarily said “goodbye” (sayonara).

Couldn’t Felicia stay with Yachiyo? Wait, considering Yachiyo doesn’t trust Felicia, that’s out of the question…

Eizouken 6

Bit Winsoft, LOL.

Kanamori inviting the group to eat is a novel concept...she must have something bad in mind to balance this...

Kanamori with hair tied back and glasses on the back of her head is also novel.

Wakame is a type of seaweed. It stains stuff green and can be easily obtained for bento boxes...at least for me.

Kanamori just sunk into the floor (...?)

Okaikei. <- One time a person I know said "biru" for the bill, but that means "building".. which is why I checked the phrase Kanamori uses for "check please".

Kanamori does the manspread...(Have you noticed all these comments are on Kanamori? I know I don't swing that way, but I'm thinking it's a bit of a girl-crush...haha.)

Eizouken 7

The title translates to something like, "I'll Save [the Anime] for Myself!" Given the context, I can see why it was translated that way though...my translation's a bit vague.

Oh, for some reason it never occurred to me that Doumeki is a girl, despite the fact she's been on the Anime Trending lists since the season's start. I thought she was non-binary or just liked dressing in gender-neutral clothing because it was comfortable or something.

Why is Mt Fuji upside-down? Normally the Mt Fuji is the right way up in a bath house...Update: It is upright, but I saw the reflection.

The Japanese translates properly (of course, but it's "not running" rather than "you must not run"), the English you can confirm yourself but the Chinese translates to "no need to run". That's just using the running rule as an example though, so the bottom left one about washing your body doesn't count under that.

The water animation here reminds me of Lu Over the Wall. I started that but didn't finish it.

"…tried to hatch an egg…"

Oh, I finally hear Asakusa make her own SFX. That took a while to discern...(As in, it took multiple episodes to do that. Notably, I’ve been watching the episodes for Eizouken in the so-called “great outdoors”, so the fact Asakusa’s making her own SFX is going to be lss obvious.)

That sudden "I just won an argument with Kanamori" was hilarious!

Asakusa is a bagworm now (lel).

Iruma 19

So hypothetically, Sullivan could've escaped at any time, huh?

Random musical number!

Opera's so good at everything...haha.

Iruma 20

Gah...way to hype that up, broadcasting club...

Sugoi de Shou (Wow Prize) = Sugoi deshou! (That's amazing!) Likewise, Tricky de Shou = Tricky deshou ([That was] tricky, I think).

Iruma got used to that song, huh? (LOL.)

Past!Ameri uses her name as a pronoun.

You can see the Devidol Kuromu on the newspaper!

I wonder if Iruma will ever meet this human Ameri's father mentioned...?

Girl!Azz-kun and Iruma next time!...I hope...

[icecoldflames]

The Pinnae Flower Epilogue

Masterlist

Patton-ly Perfect was filled with customers and, honestly, Roman loved it. So many people marvelling at the decor and the various pastries behind the counters.

Patton was currently out so Breena was managing the cash and the customers.

After Fairy Cakes and Fantasy Books went bankrupt Patton offered her the job here. Roman liked to joke that his and Logan’s frequent visits there were the only reason the old cafe stayed afloat and, now that they lived in Mayflower Town, the cafe’s main source of income was gone.

Along with Breena came the hundreds of books from her shelves which were now displayed outside her new house in a Free Little Library. But it wasn’t all that little.

Roman saw Virgil in his usual spot and walked over, draping his arms over his shoulders. “Hello, love.”

Even though Roman couldn’t see his face, he could sense the smile on his face. “I swear, Roman. If you ask one more time about the ending of PS, I might smack you across the head.”

Roman pouted and took a seat across from Virgil. “Aw, c’mon.”

Virgil tried to give Roman a glare but failed miserably. Instead, he ended up barking out a laugh. “I want it to be a surprise for everyone. Including you. Besides, have you forgotten what day today is?”

Roman pretended to be hurt by Virgil’s statement. “You think I would forget such an important day? A day that wouldn’t be possible without you?”

Virgil rolled his eyes, still grinning. “Shouldn’t you be setting up for that?”

“We’ve got it all drafted and set. It’s ready to go.” Roman said, waving his hand. “We’re doing a theory about Lewis.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Roman!” Logan’s voice called out from the doorway of Patton-ly Perfect. “Come here for a moment! Tell Virgil you won’t be long!”

Before Roman could open his mouth to ask, Virgil waved his hand. “Go on. Anyway, you know what they say: bros before h—“

“—That doesn’t count with us as you’re both male. Everyone’s my bro. Except you’re my boyfriend too.” Roman added in before striding over to where Logan was.

Logan was wearing a black button up and a blue tie with diagonal stripes. His hair looked recently brushed and he was nervously playing with his fingers.

“Looking sharp!” Roman commented as he neared Logan. “Looking very fine indeed.”

“I don’t know how you went on a first date without feeling nervous like this. I don’t get nervous often.” Logan muttered, pushing up his glasses.

Roman just patted Logan on the shoulder. “I was nervous. I’m just the better actor and was able to hide it. Anyway, it’s good that you’re feeling nervous. It means you actually like Patton.”

“What? I’ve always liked Patton and never felt this nervous in my entire life!” Logan said, fixing his sleeves.

Roman grabbed Logan’s wrists and forcefully pushed them down to his sides. “Talk to me. Maybe it’ll calm you down a bit.”

Logan nodded and coughed. “Very well I suppose. Did you hear about Jo?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I? Serves her right, to be honest. Karma is a bi—“

Logan rolled his eyes. “I just wish Virgil would have stepped forward.”

Roman shrugged. “Jo would have gotten what she deserved whether Virgil said something or not.”

“You know Virgil can’t stay hidden behind a pseudonym forever, right?” Logan suddenly said. “Jo figured it out. This is just the beginning.”

Roman bit his bottom lip. “Virgil and I have talked about this before too. Virgil said he’s been thinking about it long before Jo figured him out. He’s planning on how to break it to the fandom and press soon. He thinks maybe after Pinnae: Spelunca is released.”

“Good on him.” Logan nodded.

Roman smiled. “Alright, you look a lot less nervous! Now go get ‘em, Lo!” He exclaimed loudly and pushed Logan in the direction of Patton’s house.

When Roman could no longer see Logan ambling down the street, he made his way back inside the cafe to Virgil.

“Do you think the date will go okay?” Virgil asked as Roman slid into his seat. He didn’t look up from his screen.

Roman nodded, stealing part of a raspberry muffin Virgil had bought.

“I think everything will be okay.”

~~~

Pinnae: Spelunca

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST PINNAE BOOK, PINNAE: SPELUNCA

Can I just say that Raz really outdid themself on this one? I mean, this book made me cry, it made me want to smack some characters, it made me laugh out loud.

I loved it so much. It might be my favourite out of the series, knocking Pinnae: The New Era down to number two.

I loved how it took us back in time to the timeline of Pinnae: Magus and Pinnae: Exsul where Arel and Parisa are on opposing sides of the upcoming war. It’s like, if PM and PE are on opposite sides of the spectrum, PS is the middle zone where both sides are right and both sides are wrong.

So many plot points have been solved thanks to this book and, boy, am I freaking out over them. They are just perfect and they make so much sense. Let’s go over four of the main ones.

Number 1. Why the dragons stole the pinnae flower. We always knew the dragons stole it from the previous books but never why. But now we know that it was to keep the fairies and sprites from starting a war. However, they obviously failed as we can see in PTNE. Case closed.

Number 2. The importance of the pinnae flower. Logan and I had always assumed this last book would be dark but not like this. The pinnae flower being made of the wings of fairies turned sprites? Totally uncalled for. I almost hated King Oberon in this. I was this close. Until it was revealed that ol’ buddy Oberon had no idea of the whole cut off wings thing and that it was his father who did everything and who cut off Queen Titania’s (then, Princess Titania’s) wings. Can I say that that chapter was absolutely devastating? Can I blame Queen Titania for kind of wanting the pinnae flower to see if she could ever reattach her wings? In any case, case closed.

Number 3. SIDNEY’S DEATH. Hallelujah! Sidney’s mysterious death is solved. I know that his death is controversial because it was on accident. Pinnies think the death was a cop out and that Sidney deserved a more grand death than the one given to him. Personally, though, his death is, however sad, is perfect. It’s just that Sidney could possibly still be alive if Kaida had just been less prideful and practiced aiming just a little more when she had the chance. Again, case closed.

Number 4. The cloak. Sidney’s darned cloak. The thing that split the fandom up since the very beginning of the series. What was beneath Sidney’s cloak? Was there even anything under there? Was Sidney just being dramatic and trying to look mysterious and cool? Well now, we’ve got our answer, folks. Wings. Yes, wings. Sidney the Sprite was actually Sidney the Fairy all along. The secret agent go-between between the fairies and the sprites and ultimately working for the dragons. His secret beneath the cloak is so simple yet so perfect. Again, no one expected it. But this one wasn’t controversial. And another case closed.

These were four of my favourite plot resolutions in this final instalment of the Pinnae series. I’m just gonna go cry in my bed for a month or so. What am I going to do now that the Pinnae series is officially finished and done? What am I to do when all the theories have been theorized and there are no more left? Just kidding. Logan and I will never run out of theories.

Also, can I just say that I would literally die protecting Aeni and her sunflower patch? Raise your hand if you’d like to start a Aeni protection squad.

And, until next time, take it easy guys, gals, and non-binary pals.

PEACE OUT!

[darkcherrywitch]

Behavior Exercise

Hi girls, guys and non-binary pals <3 

This is the scond fanfic i write, this one is inspired in a movie called The Road Within and hopefully my first series so please let me know if you want me to keep posting it, maybe is not as good as i think it is haha i’d really appretiate some feedback, also, english is not my first lenguage so please be nice i’m trying :( 

WARNINGS: 4k+ mentions of drugs, alcohol and mental illness. This fanfic contains sensitive topics like anorexia, OCD and drug addictions if you feel triggered by any of this topics please do not read it. 

“Nineteen, twenty, twenty one, twenty two, twenty three” You could hear Robert whispering a number for each mug whilst cleaning one per one with an anti-bacterial microfiber cloth he just bought yesterday. You take another sip of your non sugared coffee already cold keeping your gaze in your roommate who was onto an old baby blue wooden chair, his favorite, because it was easier to clean than the other ones “Twenty four, twenty five…twenty fiv-five” he stutters with a low voice almost like a secret he can only hear.  You put your mug down on the table knowing what is coming next, like every other morning, he just hated odds numbers.

“Five- twenty fiv-five” He keeps repeating walking back and forth all over the kitchen with his hand scratching his head pulling his blonde curls. “Hey, good morning” A deep British accent stops you from standing up and walking towards Robert making him stop as well. He looked at both of you just to switch his gaze feeling the pressure in the air as he continues to grab an empty plastic cup from the kitchen bar assuming he could get in trouble if he gets anywhere near the mugs shelf.

“Morning, did you have a good rest?” You greet with an awkward smile on your face. Harry moved in just a week ago so it is understandable he’s not fully used to Rob’s breakdowns as you are after nine years. You know Rob since secondary school; a catholic schoolhouse in Portlaoise where special and difficult teenagers were sent by his parents to make them better, doesn’t work pretty well if they ask you.  Robert and you shared some classes and weekly group’s therapy meetings, however, you only knew him as the schizo boy just to find out, years later, he does not suffer from schizophrenia but a severe ODC and constants paranoid episodes, it all got worst four years ago when he came home to find out his mom had left a day before the graduation  night, all she left was a note saying how sorry she was, a load of cash, a blue tuxedo he was supposed to be wearing at the dance and an empty home.

Four years ago

You lost count of how many minutes, maybe hours, you have been staring at the old pink dress your dad had bought you for tonight’s dance, it would be better if he could actually share the evening with you but it was too much to ask, you thought. It had stopped raining some hours ago but a loud splash outside your window snaps you from your deep thoughts about tonight, a rowdy cry followed the splash “SHE LEFT ME, WHY DOES EVERYBODY BLODY LEFT ME?” You ran to your window to see what was happening, and then, you saw Rob on a puddle wearing anything but his underpants and his navy blue tuxedo in his hands all covered in mud, just as him. He was  crying and screaming while Miss Gillen held him helping him for hurting himself  “MY DAD IS DEAD AND MOM HATES ME, I-I ‘AVE NO ONE, NO ONE FUCKING CARES ABOUT ME” He yelled at the sky escaping from Miss Gillen’s arms slapping mercilessly his face and pulling his blonde hair roughly.

You have spent almost a decade in that hypocrite househole where religious people pretended to know what was good and bad, and even worst, pretending they care about all of you. You knew people were lonely back there, after all, most of you were abandoned by your families, they just gave up on most of you and you were aware of that. You knew everyone there was ill, was broken and alone, new people came and then they left, some people have been taken to the hospital after a breakdown and they have never returned, it was hard to live in a place like that were you could share breakfast with someone just to wake up the next day with their bed empty and another casket full, that’s why you decided to not make any friends, carrying with other person’s problems could destroyed you just as much as losing another loved one, but when you saw him all covered in mire when just yesterday he cried in the middle of the cafeteria because he spilled a drop of tea in his pants something changed in you. You almost didn’t recognize him; it was the same guy who couldn’t even walk outside his bedroom without latex gloves, however he was there outside your room, broken and scared. He had no one and you knew that feeling.

“Rumor has it you have your own place now” You said having a sit next to him in cafeteria two days after the dance. He looked strange at you “do yo-do you eat?” He answered you sharply but those comments didn’t bother you anymore. You smiled at him taking a sip of your water bottle “so, is it true?” You insisted “‘s not mine, ‘s me mums” he mumbled cleaning the spot of the table you just removed your hand from. “But she left” you say abruptly making him look at you, finally getting some strong eye contact, he kept silence trying not to cry, you leaned closer to him and whispered “when are we escaping this hole then?”.

Now

It’s been four years since you convinced Rob to leave that place, four years since you’ve been living together in that house his mom had left for him, and four years of the only caring human interaction you both have; you take care for each other and you could say it was the first time in ages that you haven’t feel lonely.

“Could been better if I’m honest” Harry replies with a cheeky smile “Of course it could have been better, it could have been better if you just would stop yourself from snoring the whole night” Robert cuts Harry off “Did you know he goes to sleep without taking a shower? and WE have to share room it’s just unacceptable, unaccepta- unacceptable” You can see Rob’s face turning red and his eyes looking at you almost popping out at the memory of last night.

“Oh I’m sorry, did my snoring muffle that boring music you sleep with?” Harry says without looking at him as he pours some orange juice to his cup “It’s not my fault you don’t appreciate quiet music you cheap ass Mick Jagger” Robert spits roughly making Harry giggle as he decides to stop the argue blowing him a kiss. He was cheeky and irreverent and you like that, Harry was like a new specimen like a new world you wish to explore, it was something you have never seen before, neither you or Rob haven’t met anyone like Harry, you feel excited about this new experience even though now and then you feel guiltiness for making Rob go through this, you know he’s not looking forward this as much as you are, in fact since Harry is living with you Rob’s stress levels has been higher than usual.

When you left the clinic you decided come up with a plan to keep both of you sane, you knew Rob’s money it wasn’t going to last more than a few months and his disability allowance was not enough for both of you, so you decided to get a job and attend to some free therapy session at a community center near Rob’s house, and that’s how Harry came into your life.

One month ago

What it seemed like a normal summer rain predicting its end becomes a dreadful storm within minutes. You make you steps larger covering your head with your old jacked which is completely useless as you try to rush Rob who is a couple steps behind you freaking out because his boots and the bottom of his pants are all covered in mud. There’s only a couple of blocks left to the community center where both of you attend to the weekly sessions that keep yourself sort of sane. You arrive to the center soaking wet and just in time to the session, however, you spend a few minutes taking care of Rob helping him to clean himself.

Both of you take a seat in the circle in the middle of the huge cold room; the therapist, Arthur welcomes you with a big smile understanding the weather was not something you could control or change. “So now that we’re complete…” he stand up and says looking at Rob and you “Are you okay, Robert?” he asks kindly to what Rob just nods “great, now I want to start this meeting introducing our new member, he comes all the way from London so I ask you to be nice and make him feel welcome”.

You were too busy taking care of your friend and cursing at the wind that you haven’t notice the new member of the group; a tall white guy with silky curls, they seem recently wet as well even tho he doesn’t look bother about it. Your gaze travels his figure from bottom to top; he’s wearing some old used boots, a pair of blue jeans and a grey hoodie. You notice his big and strong hands as he says hi to the group with one of them; both decorated with multiple rings, It’s not until your glance meets his big emerald eyes ornamented with some bags under them that you realized you are probably staring too much, as you try to look somewhere else you see he offers a smile at you; not yet a malicious one, not yet a kindly one, it was more like something in between; a cheeky lovely but arrogant smile.

“Hi, I’m Harry, Nice to meet you all” He says briefly without taking his eyes off of you he looks at the rest of the group smiling still just to sit down again. You could hear some distant and slow claps, probably your partners are just as confused as you; most of the introductions were followed by a whole crazy story of why are they there and even some tears and breakdowns but never just a cheeky smile and a breathtaking glance. “You probably want to tell us why you’re here Harry” Arthur says looking at him.

“’kay, if you want me to” He says rubbing his palms on his thighs looking at the ground until he speaks again “…I’m a sex addict” he looks up staring challenging at Arthur chuckling. Arthur looks quite annoyed he probably knows what the newbie’s here for, you’ve shared these sessions with some sex addicts they only last two or three weeks top, but you are pretty sure he’s just joking. “Probably just another junkie” Rob speaks up louder than he expected. The whole room is filled with silence for a couple seconds even you fell Harry deep gaze on Rob “Wanna bet pretty boy? can show you”

“Harry is here because he’s trying to keep himself sober and we’re to help him, okay?” Arthur interrupts quickly “He’s new in town so if you know about some apartment available for him would be a great favor”. The rest of the session keeps going pretty normal even though you can’t focus on any of your partners, you are too confused yet intrigued about the whole new guy situation; after that interaction you can tell Rob has been tense since then, on the other side Harry seems cool about it, you were expecting him being an asshole with the rest of the group as they share their week with you, but instead he listens carefully, looking attentive to each person who stands up, he even shares some advices with them, good advices. Robs is kind of right, he is a junkie, still he is not just another junkie, there was something different about him and you want it to find out.

“Hey, so the new guy is looking for somewhere to live” You say to Rob who was cleaning the snack table of the therapy room. “There are a lot of bridges he can live under” He replies without looking at you, he was too focused stacking some water bottles carefully. You take a piece of fruit and a bottle of water as you feel Arthur Gaze on you “I was thinking he can live with us, we have a spare room” Robert stops abruptly his stacking process just to give you a perplexed look “are you seriously suggesting me to offer my house to a bloody drug addict we just literally met just because he’s hot?”

“C’mon… I never said he was hot” Rob turns his face back to the table cleaning something else you don’t even see “That’s not the point, I’m not letting a stranger sleeping under my roof”  “You let me sleep under your roof, beside, we can actually use some extra money” you say looking for the new guy in the room “and he seems fun” Robert grunts rolling his eyes at the sight of you looking for him. “Robert, Y/N, we’re about to the closure would you please join us?” Arthur says from a distance. “take it as behavior exercise” You insist Rob with a begging look with both of your hands together “I’ll think about it” He cuts the conversation walking away from you.

One week ago

You make your way into de kitchen to find Rob finishing his cleaning routine; you overslept this morning understandable after keeping yourself with almost anything but water for the last three days. “Morning babe” You said weakly to your friend as he quickly reach a chair for you to sit “Hey, I made you some breakfast” He says as he opens the fridge taking out a plate with fruit and oats “There’s no need Rob, I’m going to be late to work” You say as you try to stand up  but he grabs your arm in order to stop you from getting up, you look at his hand wrapped around your arm and look back at him in shock; his germophobia doesn’t let him have any physical interaction with other people, he never touches anybody and freaks out when somebody touches him. Is the first time in years you’ve feel his touch; even though he’s wearing latex gloves as usual you can feel the warm emanating from his big and soft hand.

“You might take care of me most of the time but I’m not stupid Y/N, I know you haven’t eaten a full meal in four days, so please, sit down and eat your breakfast” He finally releases your arm as he walks to his room to probably change his gloves. The whole situation leaves so speechless that you don’t have any other choice to do what you’ve been told. You can’t remember a time when Robert has ever touched you or at least without having a crisis, definitely your relationship has grown a lot in those couple years and now it seems like he cares about you more every day and part of you couldn’t just let him down.  

As you keep eating your meal and thinking about your relationship with Rob a knock on the door snaps you out to reality and you hear Rob rushing to the door “no, no, you can’t leave the table until you finish”. He reaches to the door and takes a big breathe before open it just to find a pair of emerald eyes looking at him “Oh Hi, nice to see you again Pretty boy” Harry says after finishing his cigarette and stepping on it “Oh it’s you, what do you want?” he asks hiding half of his body behind the door. Harry smirks and shows him the black suitcase he was holding. Robert knew what he was there for he just forgot about it when he looked into his eyes. Today is the day that Harry moves into the house; after a couple endless nights convincing Rob of letting him stay today you got yourself a new roommate.

“Oh, right, come on in, I guess” Rob says opening the door wider for Harry to come in. “Take your shoes off” Robert adds without looking at him walking towards the kitchen “Normally I only accept to take my clothes off after a couple of drinks but for you pretty b..” “We don’t use shoes inside the house, that’s the first rule, it’s not a joke” Rob cuts Harry off abruptly facing him again “Okay, take it easy they’re off” Harry says without erasing his cheeky smile of his face “I think we didn’t even say hi properly ” Harry adds offering his hand to Rob, he has heard that he’s quite special to interact with but there’s no person in the world that Harry can’t just win over, he’s irrelevant and funny and just full of natural charm, everybody likes him and he’s aware of that but there is something in Rob Harry just feels attracted to, he likes to push his buttons it’s like a challenge and he has always loved a good challenge.

Robert stares at Harry’s Hand for a moment “I don’t do that” he adds looking back into Harry’s eyes “you don’t do handshakes?” Harry replies chuckling at Rob’s weird affirmation; who doesn’t do handshakes? “I don’t touch people” Robert replies almost yelling at Harry; his face started to turn red and his breathe is getting harder to catch. Harry’s afraid maybe he went too far but it was not his intention at all, he like to mess with people but not like that. “Hey, it’s fine, hi Harry”

You rushed to finish your plate as soon as you heard Harry’s deep voice coming from the door not because you feel excited but because you’re worried about Rob’s reaction, after all they didn’t have a great first meeting. You follow their voices that lead you to the living room; Harry was wearing some regular skinnies and a black t-shirt somehow on him that simple outfit looks like the most complex combination of clothing, a bunch of tattoos covered his arms making him look cooler than the junkie you see every Friday night. Robert raising his voice makes you stop staring at your new roommate and actually talk to him.

“Hey, N/Y, morning” Harry answers with a big smile on his face, you don’t remember his skins glowing as much as it does today it is hard not to stare at him. “Are you ready to move in?” You ask nicely as Robert tries to calm down adjusting his gloves and taking deep breathes “Yep, pretty much” Harry says pointing at his suitcase. You show him the place; is not too big it’s only a small one floor house with three bedrooms but it’s a way to make him feel comfortable. As you show him around Robert starts telling him the most important rules of the house and Harry only nods at both of you.

“So this would be your room” you say finishing the house tour opening the door between Rob’s bedroom and yours “As we told you before It’s not habitable right now, we need to fix the roof and most of the walls they’re almost ruined by humidity, we were thinking maybe with the deposit and probably your first payment we can like fix it meanwhile you can share room with Robert if that’s okay with you” You say showing him where the humidity has damage the roof “Sure, it’s going to be a pleasure” Harry winks at Robert who seems bothered enough already. You can see how annoyed Rob is by this new roommate situation, however, you know if he wouldn’t agree with this he would tell you, besides somehow it seems like he’s more anxious that bothered about it; he thinks you didn’t realize but you saw him cleaning his room twice last night a strange way to say he’s excited about the next day. Maybe both of you are excited about sharing your life with someone new, someone as special as Harry seems to be, maybe it’s just attraction, maybe it’s just Harry’s aura that makes everyone go a little bit crazy about him or maybe it’s only your mind playing tricks on you but at that moment you realized something in your life is about to change drastically and you quite like that.

Now

“C’mon Y/N you have to finish it” Robert says with his elbows on the table resting his head on both of his hands, you’ve been struggling to finish your meal for almost an hour now and Robert is more than exhausted now, you can see it and you feel bad of seeing those lovely green eyes so tired because of you but you just can´t finish it. “I can´t Robert I promise” You say pouting your mouth on a failed attempt of leaving the table. Harry just appears on the kitchen and watches the scene grabbing an apple “take it as a behavior exercise” Rob adds with an exhausted voice. “Behavior exercise? what’s that? Harry asks with his mouth full of the bite he just took.

“Back in the schoolhouse we had exercises to learn how to deal with our illnesses; they made us do things to get tour limits and they just acted like nothing was happening at all” you say playing with the food on your plate. “Once they made me walk with dirty trousers for a whole day!” Robert continues giving Harry an indignant look. Robs turns back at you pushing your plate closer to you.

“Interesting” Harry responds taking the seat in front of you; he search for your gaze and looks right into your eyes getting your full attention as he usually does whenever he’s near you. “C’mon Y/N you’re better than a plate of food, are you gonna let a couple of vegetables defeat you?” the room is filled with silence as he smiles at you and leaves the kitchen making his way out to the porch. If anyone else would say that to you you would throw the plate at them with no hesitation, but the way those words left his mouth like he knew everything about yourself plus the way he looked at you just made you believe every single of them. You look back at Robert who was already falling asleep on the table and continue to finish your meal.

Once your plate is empty you help Robert to go to bed and clean your dishes as you always do. You remember Harry’s outside and decide to make him company smoking your nightly cigarette as usual. He was laying half of his body on the wooden bench of the porch. He looks so lost in his thoughts you almost feel guilty about interrupting because as soon as you step outside he turns and smiles widely at you “How was your behavior exercise?” he say probably joking or probably actually concerned you never know what his intentions are, that man was a complete enigma to you. “Beat the fuck out if it” you say quietly as you stand beside him lighting the last cigarette of the pack. He chuckles loudly in responds.

After that you just stay there enjoying the silence and the smoke coming out of both of your cigarettes; the night is particularly quiet, the stars are shinier and the wind juts take the bunch of your thoughts and concerns with it. It’s nice to spend time with someone who’s not constantly asking if you have washed your hands already or telling you how disgusting is the habit of smoking. None of you feel the need to fill the lack of conversation at that moment; you are so focused on enjoying the moment that you almost don’t realize that out of nowhere Harry decides to break the silence with a question.

“Why did you let me stay in here?” He asks with a husky voice keeping his eyes on his cigarette “Robert thinks you’re hot” you respond after a couple of seconds and even though you are looking at the sky you can feel Harry smiling at your answer. “yeah, well, I don’t blame him” he says annoyingly turning his body towards you “but I’m sure that’s not the only reason why you guys let a good-looking junkie staying at your place, and if you do I’m quite concerned, I must reckon” you face him narrowing your eyes at his smart ass answer.

“Robert and I have this weird dream of make a sheltered for people in need, people who have been abandoned by their families like us, we saw a chance on you” you say letting the smoke of you cigarette fill your lungs and letting it out. “It’s like the biggest behavior exercise you ever had then?” Harry says with an adorable voice, one you’ve never heard before “You might say” You say smiling at him just to continue enjoying the clear sky above you.

[roxannepolice]

I’m curious on what you think balancing would actually mean. I always get get caught up on the light = good and dark = evil dichotomy. George Lucas has said you need both for the Force, but that kinda rubs me wrong way if Light and Dark are good and evil. I don’t know it’s like saying evil is necessary. I guess that why I think the Dark isn’t necessarily evil, but of darker feelings/emotions that those with evil intent like to use. -Wanderingspacedragon

Alright, so this grew into a longish meta that ended up exceeding the confines of GFFA and touching upon real world philosophy. But, I guess this is what Lucas asked for when he first came up with the force. So here goes nothin'.

Master Carl-Gus Jungobi's wisdoms

First of all, reaching to LF themselves, Brian Young defines light as the suppression of ego and dark as its amplification. So far so good. However, from jungist perspective (and a nice intruduction to how C. G. Jung fits into GFFA as well as mythology in general done by crash course can be found here) any juxtaposition like day-night, sun-moon, angel-demon, heaven-hell also quicksilver and sulphur but that's a different level of symbolism are all metaphors of conscious and unconscious. Conscious mind is a socialized, clear and immersed in the norms of the community while the unconscious is individual, animalistic and shapeless - and imo, that's rather simple to reconcile with what Young wrote on twitter. Existing only on the level of consciousness always puts the community before the individual whereas being guided only by our unconscious reduces the outside world to the level of tools to satisfy our needs. Because of that, Jung points out that unconscious has been throughout the ages identified as evil (this is why those needs had to be repressed in the first place, hence producing the shadow archetype in the unconscious), which leads us to some really intriguing topics.

Because the question of nature, cause, purpose and possible necessity of evil is nothing short of one of the most important questions of any religion and moral philosophy - and it seems well into 8th millennium we're nowhere closer to a definite answer. The statement good and evil are abstract concepts tends to cause very negative reactions, because it appears like denial of their reality, but I think it's misunderstanding of what an abstraction is. When I say numbers are abstract concepts, the matter seems clear - there is no independently existing number two, yet it exists in the sense of quantity - but no one seems to protest that I don't believe in maths or sth. There's an anecdote about Einstein's student years where he compared good and evil not to binary opposites, but rather to temperature. We simplify the issue to the point of warm and cold, but is there some absolute border between them? What is the polar opposite of -1°C, +1° or +30°? There exists an absolute zero, at which all atom movement ceases, but is there an absolute plus? But even though there is no physical impossibility of life in too hot surroundings, like there is in the case of absolute zero, yet we earthlings feel extreme warmth isn't that good either, don't we? And then there's a matter of subjective experience - someone living in Siberia has different ideas of warm and cold than someone living in the rainforest - but it doesn't change the fact that objectively speaking 20°C is warmer than 9°C and both of these people will recognize it. So regardless of whether it was Einstein who made this comparison, I think it's a pretty good metaphor.

Leaving philosophy and coming back to psychology, the basic point that Jung makes about conscious and unconscious is that individualized, integrated self needs them both in order to lead a creative, meaningful life. Either of them alone limits the person, the unconscious to the purely biological life, fulfillment of one's wants, but conscious to the self repeating sustenance. Arguably, life on the purely conscious level (in pure light, so to speak) is a safer, better choice - but it results in changelessness, in mindless recreation. Yes, it's not as selfishly destructive as that of pure unconscious, but it's an unproductive as life of Adam and Eve in Eden, arid like Tatooine and Jakku and, at worst, dogmatic like the prequel jedi. Both conscious and unconscious are infertile when kept strictly separated, hence the ever present symbols of female and male - and marriage as a metaphor of integration. Now, the important point is that the integration has to be on conditions, so to speak, of the conscious - but unconscious has to be accepted for what it is, it can't be forced to become overall conscious, only this way the shapeless mass of our imagination can keep its vital powers.

Mircea Eliade, an intellectual: holy marriage and coniunctio oppositorum; me, a fangirl: smut hut and thigh grab

Using the jungist metaphor, the general story we hitherto got in SW presents itself as follows: we start off in strict consciousness repressing the unconscious (jedi fighting siths in every form) - and so it finally got itself a psychotic flooding of the psyche with the unconscious content (a nigredo, blackening, using alchemical terminology Jung studied) in form of Anakin’s fall into his shadow persona of Darth Vader and republic becoming the empire. Jung would venture as far as to say that a psychotic episode is necessary to the growth, though I would argue that's mostly because he lived in very repressive times. Regardless, the first flooding of the unconscious is almost always depicted as violent and terrifying, with one of the most visual metaphors being a total eclipse when the moon blanks out the sun completely.

Thus, the originals are basically the painstaking process of the psyche overcoming the psychotic episode and consciousness regaining control. One might argue that the individuation process is actually completed on the individual level - Luke appears to have accepted Darth Anakin for what he is, and thus integrated his own shadow as well - which is why old EU would have Leia accept her father too, eventually, and for some the sequels are straight up redundant rehash of the originals. Far from thinking the bottom line wasn't that DLF want to make money, the apparent narration fits pretty well with the idea of re-repression: the shadow isn't integrated, ex-imperials are banished and the Skywalkers accept Anakin only by rejecting Vader - and so nigredo repeats itself, and will continue to repeat until the shadow is integrated. Additionally, it can be argued that Luke committed a mistake of thinking the individuation is a static goal and as such refused to reenter the spontaneous life (refusal to rebuild the jedi until it was really necessary). This is a frequent temptation and if it rings a bell with a difference between a buddha and a bodhisattva, bingo - buddha was considered by Jung one of the metaphors of the integrated self.

Which brings us to our current holy marriage and where they left off at the end of tlj. Viewing Rey and Ben as avatars of light (conscious, communitarian, idealistic) and dark (unconscious, individual, emotional) makes much more sense than when we view them as plain good vs. evil. Now, while no one seems to have any problems grasping the problem with Ben's actions (integration on unconsciousness’ condition is simply another nigredo), from a psychoanalytic viewpoint Rey isn't that much more in the right. She isn't willing to integrate the shadowy unconscious, only wants the unconscious to become conscious, if not downright negates the existence of the shadow (yeah, she’ll cross the galaxy to help Ben turn - only she never asked if he even wants to turn). So while most reylos want to see her as determined to wait for Ben and an/is as having given up on him completely, I would say her current state is closest to Luke's then my father is truly dead in RotJ. She isn't determined to save him in as much as do the right thing and it's likelier to mean sparing him. That being said, she needs to undergo her own violent nigredo if she is to accept him the way Luke accepted Vader by the time he threw away the ls.

*Aggressively hums Hans Zimmer's 503*

An interesting side reflection occured to me while writing this answer and thinking of how abstract ideas of good and evil get framed by different moral philosophies and religions (to get something straight: I analyze religions from a purely social/cultural sciences pov, so I'm not evaluating them in any way - and regardless, Jung saw all religions are basically metaphors of individuation. I'm also not arguing what is Lucas's preferred interpretation of the force - I'm just discussing the discourse within the trilogies). So I think the force has always had strong vibes of some form of divinity ever since it was first discussed by Obi-Wan and then by Yoda. However, it appears to me the conceptualization of it, as well as its two sides, has altered throughout the subsequent trilogies, counting OT, PT, ST.

In the originals the vibes are definitely closest to East Asia’s religions/moral philosophies, with main connotations being dao and yin-yang. There isn't much talk of force having a will of its own but rather being a general flow of reality that one can be attuned to or not - Luke's compassion for Vader isn't shown as qualitatively more correct, more of what the force wants, than Yoda's and Obi-Wan's condemnation. The prequels are much more Mediterranean/Middle East in tone, with Anakin's fall being framed as a greek tragedy but also force being shown as having a much more concrete will, definite plan for the galaxy and directly interfering in the history. This constitutes what Mircea Eliade considers the crucial feature of judeo-christian-islamic tradition: God has a will similar to human and a linear plan for humanity. And because of that I'd say the prequels are very First Testament in tone. There's absolutely no way to prove that destruction of the jedi, including the youngling massacre, wasn't a part of Anakin's purpose in bringing balance to the force - and when we look at the First Testament then we get passages like the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, egyptian plagues (including death of the first borns!) or the Book of Job. None of this disproves God's benevolence, but destruction is a frequent part of God's plan.

In contrast the sequels (and Disney era in general) got very close to the New Testament and christian theology. Light and dark are no longer equal elements of the universe, just as God and satan aren't equal opponents, there would be no evil if Lucifer hasn't rebelled, force is its light side and dark an aberration, so to speak. Rey and Kylo Ben are framed as equally powerful, but the force prefers her because of her allegiance to the light. The downsides are that trusting the force and keeping up hope (faith and hope being two of the three theological virtues) are themes brought up ad nauseam and the public plot is infuriatingly predictable - angels are going to win no matter how numerous and technologically advanced the halls of hell get. There is no Battle of Evermore in christianity, there's only the Last Judgment, so the only interesting battlefield is each individual soul. The upside is Prodigal Sons, Lost Sheep and Adulterous Women galore - as well as despair understood as loss of faith in God's mercy and possibility of one's salvation as one of the sins capable of forfeiting the soul.

But anyway, the bottom line of this prolonged rambling (what can I say, I could deliberate on the dichotomies of the force for ages) is that light and dark side symbolise conscious and unconscious and the balance means integration of the self. It definitely fits into the jungist reading and would give this trilogy a narrative value.

Though obviously, this topic wouldn't be so interesting if there was a definite answer.

[blogvisa149]

Illuminati The Game Walkthrough

Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic puzzle game developed by Four Quarters. You’ll be thrust in front of a little machine with a monitor and single red button. Can you resist touching anything?

There are 25 endings to discover and I’ll give you the complete solution to every one of them below. If you get stuck while playing the game look here for the Please, Don’t Touch Anything Endings.

The Secret World brings MMO storytelling to a whole new level by putting you and your friends smack in the middle of an exciting, overarching storyline filled with memorable characters and unique. Nov 02, 2015 PDTA: The Walkthrough. Thank you for staying with me, reading all my thoughts about PDTA. These are my compiled list how to unlock ending. This list isn’t finished yet. I’m still left with last ending before I’ve finished the game. Nevertheless, please enjoy my list and if you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask. In Illuminati, you increase your wealth and power to take over the world until only YOU reign supreme. Now, this classic game of conspiracy and world conquest has been updated to include current events and up-to-date references! Illuminati is for two to six players.

Ending 1: Peaceful

When you begin the game the guy tells you to look after the monitor for him. Be patient and wait until he returns without touching anything to complete the first ending.

As a side note if you wait a further three minutes before touching anything you’ll get the “Ergophobia” achievement.

The “Just Logo” achievement can be gained by going to the pause screen and clicking the button that makes up the O in the Please Don’t Touch Anything Phrase at the bottom of the screen.

Ending 2: Disobedience

You may discover a few other things before getting this ending but if you hit the Red Button 20 times. In this ending the machine will shut down.

The “Disobedience” achievement is gained from pushing the Red Button for the first time.

Ending 3: Mushroom Cloud

Pressing the Red Button will reveal a switch below it. Flick the switch to blow up the city in a great cloud of smoke!

Ending 4: Satanic

Press the Red Button twice to open the three-button panel above it. If you look at the Instruction Poster on the top left you’ll see on the right hand side of it some Roman Numerals placed vertically down the side. Imagining that they are horizontal will reveal the code (I III II II III I). Press this sequence into the Three-Button Panel, 1 3 2 2 3 1, to reveal a Lever.

Pull the lever to the left for a Ten-Digit Panel. Enter the code 8367 into the Ten-Digit Panel. This code is taken from the numbers on the top half of the formula on the Instruction Poster. Entering this in will reveal a Panel with Green Buttons.

Use the Green Buttons to make the points of a star, shown in the picture below for the ending.

Ending 5: We are Watching

Pressing the Red Button 15 times will reveal a Hammer. Grab the hammer and smash the monitor. The screen will break revealing a “?”.

Click on the Question Mark and the game will shut down. Look closely at the four corners of the ending screen to see four symbols you’ll need to remember later. They are the Timer, Eye, Waves and Key. Don’t worry. Restart the game to pick up where you left off. You’ll get the “We Are Watching You” achievement.

Ending 6: Back to the Past

Press the Red Button twice to reveal the Three-Button Panel above it. Type in the code, 1 3 2 2 3 1, to reveal a Lever. Pull the Lever to the left and a 10-Digit Panel will be revealed to the right of the Red Button. Look at the bottom half of the equation on the instruction poster. You have 8 squared + 3 squared. Don’t worry about adding this up just type in 8 2 3 2 into the 10-Digit Panel.

Typing this in will reveal a small display with the date and two arrow buttons, one pointing to the left and one to the right. Press the Left Arrow Button to go back to the past.

Ending 7: Back to the Future

All of the steps in this ending are the same as Ending 6, except that instead of pushing the Left Arrow Button you push the Right Arrow Button to see the city in the future.

Ending 8: Yin-Yang

After pressing the Red Button 8 times a Screwdriver will appear to the right. Pick up the Screwdriver and use it to unscrew the panel on the top right. Underneath are four coloured buttons.

Have a look at the instruction poster and read the second instruction. It says “GRBB Your Hammer”. Grab is spelt wrong and is actually a code for the colours. Green, Red, Blue, Blue. Press these buttons in order for the Yin-Yang ending.

Ending 9: Black Hole

Press the Red Button twice. Enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the left to reveal the Panel with Green Buttons and the 1 to 4 Buttons.

Look at the ordering of the instructions on the Instruction Poster. They go 1, 2, 4, 3. Enter this code 1 2 4 3 into the 1 to 4 Button Panel for the Black Hole ending.

Ending 10: Bender

Press the Red Button twice. Enter 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the right to open up the Binary Panel. Look at the Instruction Poster and to the right of the word “Work” you have a series of dots, some of them lighter than the others.

The light grey dots represent 0 and the darker ones 1. Enter this code into the Binary Panel. So it goes 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 for the Bender ending.

Ending 11: UFO

Press the Red Button twice and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Have a look at the arrows on the Instruction Poster.

You can see they point to the top left, top right, top right and top left. Enter this sequence into the Don’t Do It Buttons. So press the top left button, top right, top right and top left button for the UFO ending.

Ending 12: Meteors Drivers acer iconia tab a501.

This ending is quite tricky so get ready for a slightly longer puzzle than the others.

Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the lever to the left and enter the code 8 3 6 7 into the Ten-Digit Panel (This code is from the top half of the formula on the Instruction Poster).

Now we need to figure out the missing numbers in the third item on the Instruction Poster. If you want to get on with it the answer is 1 2 1 1 but I’ll explain the reasoning in the paragraph below.

This sequence is counting up how many ones and two’s there are. The first is 1 so there is one 1, or 11. The second is 11 so there are two ones, or 21. The third is 21 so there is one 2 and one 1, this makes 1211, and that’s the answer to the puzzle. To continue you have one 1, one 2 and two 1s, which is 111221.

Enter 1 2 1 1 in the 1 to 4 Button Panel to open up three musical notes on the left hand side.

Do you remember the recommendation to wear headphones while playing this game? You’ll need to hear the background music clearly because the music code is within the music. There are notes within the background music that sound exactly like the three keys you have hear. Listen for them and repeat them in your little keyboard.

The notes are High, High, Mid, Low, Low, Low, Mid, High. Enter these in for the Meteor ending.

Ending 13: Cthulhu

Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Press the Red Button another 6 times to reveal the Screwdriver. Grab the Screwdriver and use it on the little wires just under the monitor. This will reveal a Digital Display to the right of the Restart Switch.

Click on the Don’t Do It note a few times to lift it off, revealing the words Pisano Leonardo. This is a reference to Leonardo Pisano Fibonacci who came up with the Fibonacci Sequence. The next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers. It begins with 0 and 1.

Pull the Lever to the left to reveal the Ten-Digit Panel and then type in the Fibonacci Sequence, 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 1 3 for the ending.

Ending 14: Green

Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Turn the arrows on the Instruction Poster around so they are the right way up in your mind or on some paper. Now they point to the Bottom Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Left and Bottom Right.

Press these buttons below the Don’t Do It note. So that’s Bottom Right Button, Bottom Left, Bottom Left and then Bottom Right Button. This opens up a Counter Panel to the right and a strange D4 Box top right.

The Counter Panel has 2 7 6 written on it so press the Grey Button until the counter shows 2 7 6. Then press the Red Button on the Counter Panel for the ending.

Ending 15: City Boom

Randomly you’ll be given the opportunity to complete the City Boom ending. You can keep clicking Restart until you get it.

A plane will fly over the city. Press the Red Button to drop a bomb. With each fly over you get 4 bombs to drop and then 3 bombs and then back to 4 bombs and so on. You’ll fly a little lower each time. You must completely wipe out the city before landing.

When you land take notice of the completion screen. Certain letters are flashing, Y, R, B, B. You’ll need to remember them for Ending 19.

Ending 16: Alien Invasion

Press the Red Button 15 times until a hammer appears. Use the Hammer on the central Red Button to smash it. Keep smashing it until an Alien appears. Hit the alien and little pods will spawn.

Hit each of the pods three times then go for the central alien. You need to complete this mini game before the blood runs down to the Restart Switch.

At the end a screen will show with four symbols in the corners. Take note of these symbols as you’ll use them later on. They are they Eye, Key, Hourglass and Waves. The game will shut down. Just load it up again to continue.

Ending 17: Death Star

For this ending you’ll need to either wait until just before midnight or change your computer clock to about 11:59 and 30 seconds.

Press the Red Button 8 times until the Screwdriver appears. Use the Screwdriver on the Instruction Poster to reveal a weird clock. There’s also some notes here (B4, D1, D7). We’ll use these later.

When each of the hands reaches 12 the green light turns on. At midnight all hands will be pointing to 12 and all three lights will turn on. When this happens a Ticket will come out.

The Ticket will reveal the code to put into the Three-Button Panel. To figure it out count up how many dark squares are in each row and type this in starting from the bottom to the top.

My Example (x is the dark square):

o x o x

x o x x

x x x o

o o x o

x o o o

x o o o

Counting up the x’s on each row, from the bottom to the top, we have, 1 1 1 3 3 2. Your code will be different unless you get the same ticket.

Ending 18: 666

Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Press the buttons under the Don’t Do It note from Ending 14, Bottom Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Left and Bottom Right to reveal the Counter Panel on the right side.

Click the Counter up to 6 6 6 to reveal Pictographs. Click on all of the pictographs until only the four ones you have seen in previous endings are lit up. That is the Hourglass, the Key, the Eye and the Waves.

Once only the four pictographs in the image above are showing the ending will play.

Ending 19: Sand Worm

Another tricky ending! Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the left to reveal the 10-Digit Panel. Type in 8 3 6 7 to open up the Green Button Panel.

Do you remember the notes behind the Instruction Poster? They had D7, D1 and B4 on them. One is missing and that is F4. Press the Green Buttons, assuming A to F is from left to right and 1 to 7 is from top to bottom. You’ll need to press the buttons from left to right and top to bottom, just the way you write or it won’t work.

Once the five buttons have been pressed a D4 box will open, revealing a Diamond. Press the Red Button another 6 times to reveal the Screwdriver. Use the Screwdriver on the screws to the top right to open up the Multi-Colored Buttons.

Do you remember the letters that were flashing at the end of Ending 15? Y for yellow, R for red, B for blue and B for blue. Press the colored buttons in order to reveal a strange panel beneath it. It’s only half open at the moment.

Look at the stamps around the Don’t Do It panel cover. Reading from left to right they make the numbers 4 0 2 0. Press these numbers, 4 0 2 0 into the 10-Digit Panel to open the strange panel completely.

Place the Diamond in the right section of the strange panel and click the button on the left for the ending.

Ending 20: Stanley

Randomly when you complete an ending you’ll have the chance to do the Stanley Ending. The monitor will show “Awaiting Input”. Press the Red Button and then any other new Red Buttons that appear. Once you have done this six times the words will appear “Thank you for your cooperation. You got the job, S.”

Free Game Walkthrough

Ending 21: V for Vendetta

By now when you flick the Restart Switch a little booklet should be showing in the bottom right corner of the screen.

This is a passport. You can either accept or deny entry. Click on the Red Button marked X to deny entry.

Ending 22: Crack in the World

Press the Red Button once and a faint grey arrow will show to the right of it. Click the area next to the grey arrow to reveal a little Red Arrow. Follow the path of the Red Arrow to reveal another one. Keep clicking and revealing the arrows until a Green Panel is revealed.

When the Green Panel has been revealed you need to click on the buttons until the entire panel is yellow. Each time you click on a button, it and the surrounding buttons turn on or off. Start in one of the corners and keep going until all buttons are lit up.

Ending 23: Pluto

There are two sections to this ending. The first is getting the code you need. You’ll then restart and use the code in the second part.

First Section: Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the right. Grab the little Scanner located at the bottom left of the machine and use it to reveal some numbers next to the closed panel with screws. See pic below.

The numbers will show:

0-23

1-4

2-1

The numbers on the right are the positions and the numbers on the left are the values. So in position 2 and 3 the value is 0. Postion 4 has a value of 1, and position 1 has a value of 2. This gives us a sequence of 2001.

Restart the machine.

Section 2: Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the left and enter the code we just discovered, 2 0 0 1 into the 10-Digit Panel. This will reveal a lock mechanism. Turn it until it displays. PL U TO. Press the faint button underneath to reveal a Key.

Press the Red Button 6 times for the Screwdriver and open the panel with the multi-colored buttons. Press Red, Red, Red and Red to reveal a Key Lock.

Use the Key on the Lock to complete this ending.

Ending 24: Morse

Press the Red Button three times and enter the code 1 3 2 2 3 1 into the Three-Button Panel. Pull the Lever to the right. Use the Scanner over the buttons below the Don’t Do It note.

You’ll see the word “Morse” between them with arrows pointing up and down. Use the Scanner on the Don’t Do It note to reveal three letters DOT. Turn this into morse code and type the answer into the Binary Panel.

Using a morse code translator you can find that the word Dot translates to “-.—-”

If a dash is 1 and a dot is 0 then we can translate Dot to 1 0 0 1 1 1 1. Enter this into the Binary Panel for the ending.

Ending 25: The Coffee Machine

Once you’ve completed 24 endings and restart the machine the guy will return and tell you it’s a Coffee Machine. Now when you hit the Red Button a cup of coffee will appear. You can sip on it while watching the ending credits.

Congratulations on making it this far! Watch out for more gaming walkthroughs soon.

We Are Illuminati is a new conspiracy-themed clicker game for the iOS and Android platforms by clicker magnate Tapps Games. Your goal in this game is to brainwash as many followers as possible using various means such as controlling corporations, planting fake news, and making friends with the reptilians. You can convert people into lackeys, buy all sorts of upgrades, and rack up an insanely huge list of followers. Read on for some tips and tricks for We Are Illuminati!

Keep on the lookout for all of the bonus rewards that pop up. Some are limited-edition and some are always available. What’s always available is the double-follower boost, which is activated by tapping on the little clock icon in the lower-left corner of the screen. When the phone icon pops up in the top right corner, tap it and you can earn some free gems or a time warp for free by watching a video ad.

When you get far enough into the follower earning, you’ll be able to prestige and convert followers into lackeys, which give you a permanent percentage boost of 3% each, so once you get up to 1,000 or so, you’ll really begin to notice the difference. If you’re still making easy progress, though, don’t prestige right away. Wait until you get as far as you can without being able to make much good progress, and then prestige so that you can max out the lackeys.

You can then spend lackeys on other upgrades, such as multipliers to the corporations or even to all businesses, and upgrades to how much of a bonus each lackey is worth. Before doing this, though, make sure you’ll have enough lackeys left over so that you don’t accidentally tank your bonus. Generally, you shouldn’t spend more than 1/5 of your lackeys on any one upgrade.

Don’t forget the regular follower upgrades, too. The managers, of course, will automate one thing at a time. The upgrades menu, which is in the icon next to the managers menu, will double the follower-gain of a specific area.

Illuminati The Game Walkthrough Free

Once you hit a specific milestone in levels, you’ll gain double as well. Every time you hit a level that’s a multiple of 25, your income for that specific area will double. Once you fill up your star count to 5 and then hit a multiple of 25 again, you’ll move up to silver tier (level 150 is when this happens). At level 300, you’ll move up to the gold tier. Level 450 will move you up to platinum.

Xbox Game Walkthrough

Related Posts:

[rfmdataanalysis]

Machine Learning

Machine learning

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that builds systems that learn iteratively from data and make predictions. Three main characteristics of machine learning are automation, customization, and acceleration. Machine learning is largely an automated process. Machine learning accelerates the process of running sophisticated analytics on big data so that results are generated quickly.

 A neural network is an example of a machine learning model. In a neural network, the weights start close to zero. With each pass through the data, the neural network learns more and refines the weights. Other types of machine learning models: decision trees, random forest, gradient boosting and other tree-based models, neural networks, and support vector machines.

Applications of Prediction-Based Decision Making

Areas that require predictive modeling are fraud, targeted marketing (also referred to as direct marketing), financial risk, and customer churn.

Fraud detection methods attempt to detect and impede illegal activity (for example, involving financial transactions). Anomaly detection is one of the ways to detect fraud. In anomaly detection, the goal is to predict an event that rarely occurs and identify patterns in the data that do not conform to expected behavior, such as an abnormally high purchase made on a credit card.

In the telecommunications sector, companies build predictive models that protect customers and the bottom line by proactively detecting fraudulent activities. Based on usage data, location-specific data, and customer account data in real time, these models identify baseline "normal" behavior and flag deviations from that normal. For example, a model can flag atypical phone calls that might indicate theft or hacking.

Targeted marketing involves identifying individuals who are most likely to respond to a marketing action, and then designing and implementing a marketing campaign that targets those individuals. The goal of targeted marketing is to acquire new customers and generate additional revenue from existing customers. Predictive modeling helps companies answer crucial questions such as: Who should I contact? What should I offer? When and how should I make the offer?

Customer churn is a problem for many businesses. Churn (also known as attrition) is the turnover of customers who use a product or service. Studies have shown that attracting new customers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones. Consequently, companies focus on developing accurate and reliable predictive models to identify potential customers who will churn soon. Customer churn is the business challenge that's featured throughout the course.

Financial risk management models attempt to predict monetary events such as credit default, loan prepayment, and insurance claims. Banks use multiple models to meet a variety of regulations. With increased scrutiny, bankers must establish a model risk management program for regulatory compliance and business benefits. Bankers rely on predictive models across many lines of business, some of which expose the bank to significant risks. Examples of financial risk management models include loan approval using credit scoring and hedging models using swaps and options to manage the balance sheet while protecting liquidity and determining capital adequacy.

Other Applications prediction-based decision making are listed below:

Database marketing applications include offer response, upsell, cross-sell, and attrition models.

Process-monitoring applications detect deviations from the norm in manufacturing, financial, and security processes.

Pattern-detection models are used in applications ranging from handwriting analysis to medical diagnostics.

Recommender systems make recommendations by predicting a user's rating or preference. For example, recommender systems are often used to recommend movies, songs, or products to subscribed members.

Text mining applications include, for example, determining customer sentiment based on online comments, classifying a document based on content, or determining the authorship of a document.

Predictive asset maintenance assists with retirement planning.

Network management and optimization includes modeling and predicting network traffic fluctuations to optimize quality of service and routing by being able to reallocate bandwidth as needed, identify and resolve network bottlenecks, manage capacity to plan for infrastructure investments, maintain quality of service, and optimize the network for the most valuable customers.

Predictive Modeling Predictive modeling (also known as supervised prediction or supervised learning) starts with a training data set. The observations in a training data set are known as training cases (and are also known as examples, instances, or records). The variables include inputs and a target.

Inputs are also known as predictors, features, explanatory variables, or independent variables. The target is also known as a response, outcome, or dependent variable.

A variable can be numeric or categorical. Numeric variables are also known as interval variables. Numeric variables can further be classified as continuous or discrete. Continuous variables can take on any one of an infinite number of values within a given range. Income is an example of a continuous variable. Of course, for practical reasons, income is typically rounded to no more than two decimal places. Discrete variables are counts. The number of items purchased is an example of a discrete variable. Categorical variables take on qualitative values, each value representing a group or category. The number of possible values of a categorical variable is typically finite. Categorical variables are often nominal, which means that the categories have no particular order. Occupation is an example of a nominal variable. Ordinal variables have categories with an inherent order (for example, Shirt Size). Binary variables have two categories, such as a positive or negative response concerning home ownership.

A predictive model can generate one of three types of predictions: decisions, rankings, and estimates. Decision predictions are the simplest type of prediction. Decisions are usually associated with some type of action (for example, classifying a case as a churn or a no-churn). For this reason, decisions are also known as classifications.

Decision predictions are used, for example, in handwriting recognition, fraud detection, and direct mail solicitation. Decision predictions usually relate to a categorical target variable. By default, Model Studio assumes decision predictions when the target variable is categorical (binary, nominal, or ordinal). Ranking predictions order the cases based on the relationships between the input variables and the target variable.

The most common example of a ranking prediction is a credit score. Using the training data, the model attempts to rank the high-value cases higher than the low-value cases. For example, the model might produce a list of customers ranked from highest priority to lowest priority. The actual rank values are irrelevant; only the relative order is important. Note that ranking predictions can be transformed into decision predictions if cutoffs are defined for the ranks. For example, it is possible to make a binary decision by classifying all ranks above a cutoff as event cases and all ranks below the cutoff as nonevent cases.

Estimate predictions approximate the expected value of the target, given the input values. For cases with numeric targets, this estimate can be thought of as the average value of the target for all cases that have the observed input measurements. When the target is categorical, the estimate might equal the probability of a target outcome. Prediction estimates are most commonly used when their values are integrated into a mathematical expression.

An example is two-stage modeling, where the probability of an event is combined with an estimate of profit or loss to form an estimate of unconditional expected profit or loss. Prediction estimates are also useful when you are not certain about the ultimate application of the model. Estimate predictions are versatile because they can be transformed into both decisions and ranking predictions. Thus, if you are not sure which type of prediction to use, it is best to go with estimates.

[irarelypostanything]

Metaphors for Coding - Job Interviews

When Steven was 16, he was gassed, gagged, and taken to a single room with sterile white walls and one-way glass: On the other side were his friends and family, and Steven was told to watch them die.  To show how serious they were, they shot his previous neighbor - a kindly man who plowed their driveway and always had the best Halloween candy - in the chest.

“If you want the killing to stop,” explained the job interviewer, “solve this coding challenge.”  On the side opposite the one-way glass was a whiteboard, three differently-colored markers, and a can of LaCroix.

“But I don’t want to work at your company!”

“Hold that thought.”  The interviewer exited the room, shot one of Steven’s friends, and returned.  The neighbor was still bleeding out.

“You were saying?”

“If I solve your challenge, what will happen to them?”

“Depends on if you solve it correctly.  I enjoy watching people in pain - that’s why I became a job interviewer.  Notice that I didn’t shoot either of those two in the head...that would be too quick.  Murder isn’t like movies portray it.  When given a fatal shot somewhere other than the head, people don’t die instantly.  I enjoy the sound of agonized screams, and the smell of blood is like roses to me.  I like to do it slowly.”

“Makes sense.”  Steven turned around.  “You want me to implement a sorting algorithm?”

“Correct.”

“Is selection sort okay?”

For so much as suggesting that, the interviewer shot Steven’s ex-girlfriend in the right kneecap.

“Can I just store values in a vector and make a call to std::sort?”

The interviewer shot Steven’s ex-girlfriend in the other kneecap.

“What made you like this?”

“When I was a baby, a notorious serial killer sawed off my mother’s head and made me spend two days soaking in her blood before the police arrived.  By the time I was 18, I had job offers lined up by Google, Amazon, and Palantir.”

“Also makes sense.  Surprised two days was enough for Palantir, though.  How about merge sort?”

“Go ahead.”

Steven wrote two functions - mergesort and merge.  He finished and replaced the marker.

“Let’s see...right off the bat, you have mergesort(array, helper, low, middle) and mergesort(array, helper, middle, high).  That line of code look okay to you?”

“Yeah.  Recursively sort both the left half and the right half.”

The interviewer killed both of Steven’s parents.  “It was supposed to be middle+1.  Otherwise there’s some overlap going on, don’t you think?”

“Ah.”

“Other than that, good job.  Another candidate solved the problem without any syntax mistakes, though, so you fail.  Now I’m going to kill everyone else.”

“Why?”

“They’re witnesses.  It’s the old question - how many people do you have to kill to cover up the first murder?  Murder all the way down, if you ask me, but I’ll give you an option.  Kill yourself, and no one else has to die.”

“Why?”

“More interesting.  I am a devout Christian.  I believe that people who kill themselves burn for eternity.  The thought of your soul burning forever would give me more joy than killing the rest of the people you love.  What do you say?”

“I think what you’re saying makes sense.  If the amount of pain you inflict on my afterlife is infinite, then that’s more pain than the number of years times the number of people you are taking away.”

“Sounds good.”  The interviewer handed Steven the gun.

“Oh, damn it,” said the interviewer, just before Steven shot him.

*****

Now Steven was 26 and their plane was about to crash.  Jerry said the impact would likely be in approximately eight minutes and 53.719 seconds.

“I don’t know,” said Roger, “that story sounds incredibly made up.”

“The point is,” said Steven, “interviewers are the lowest form of humans.  They exist solely to ask you arbitrary bullshit and feel morally superior because you didn’t remember page 147 of Cracking the Coding Interview.  Shouldn’t they just be asking about concepts?”

“You have to memorize the code for merge sort to really understand the concepts.”

“I strongly disagree.”

“This plane will crash in eight minutes!” shouted Jerry, from the other side.

“We know!” Steven shouted back.  “God, that guy is such an idiot.  Anyway, where were we...right, the car problem.  Optimally park cars in lots for minimum distance.  Poorly defined inputs.  An interviewer who acted like it was a perfectly reasonable question.”

“Maybe we should deal with the crash?”

“Maybe.”

Their altitude was dangerously low.  The control console was flashing so many warnings that they could not scroll up and see all of them; they had no choice but to modify the debugging level to ERROR.

“This aircraft is about to pass through the Amazon cloud.  Looks like there’s a lot of activity.  Brace yourself.”

The plane rapidly descended into gray lightning and fog.  In those flashes, Steven caught a glimpse of operating systems that never were and never would be.

“Good.  We’re through the Amazon cloud.  On the count of three, I need you to activate the load balancer.  1...2...3!”

“Deploying!  It’s not working, though.  Aircraft is too heavy...can we drop the payload?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“I need you to pull out all the stops.  Maintain structural integrity...deploy dispensable resources like the landing gear, fuselage bottom, and idle processes we had dedicated to mining bitcoin.”

“Done!”

“Console reporting that the left engine is on fire.  Use Task Manager to put out the fire in the left engine!”

“The left engine is dead now!”

“Yup, that’s what happens.  Easier to just kill the process than actually fix it.”

“Right engine is now on fire!”

“Talk about a bad day.  The probability of both of them failing is like 1/65536.”

“How Task Manager is on fire!”

“Use Task Manager to kill Task Manager.  Our best bet now is to land in that field over there, right next to the forest of binary trees.”

“On it.”

“As instructed,” said Roger, now talking to the box, “the value of our lives is less than the value of the aircraft.  Even if we do not survive, we will use our last moments alive to provide you with crash data, so that someone may recover this aircraft and figure out what went wrong.”

“Saving a copy of all log files now,” said Steven.

“Sending a bunch of pictures of various parts of the aircraft now,” said Roger.

“Hey, you know what would really help us right now?”

“What?”

“Solving merge sort on a whiteboard.”

[shearssheep47-blog]

Customer Monitoring As Well As Object Degree Security In Salesforce

Security

#toc background: #f9f9f9;border: 1px solid #aaa;display: table;margin-bottom: 1em;padding: 1em;width: 350px; .toctitle font-weight: 700;text-align: center;

Content

Expert Driving Capacity

Whizrt: Simulated Intelligent Cybersecurity Red Team

Include Your Get In Touch With Info Properly

The Types Of Security Guards

Specialist Driving Capability

Go to Application tab import your any type of application (. qvf file), I am importing Customer Sales( which drops by default with installment of Qlik Feeling Desktop and fairly popular throughout everybody ). Security to MasterObject or AppObject is the inmost or lower level security. This is shown in the Hex-Rays decompiler pseudocode in Number 5. method anticipated 3 specifications, yet this COM object was reverse and not well-documented design was required, suggesting it was time to dig with some assembly code. If Wat van beveiligingsbedrijf is objectbeveiliging run this manuscript, anticipate some intriguing side-effect habits such as approximate applications being introduced, system ices up, or manuscript hangs.

After watching item detail pages, look right here to discover a simple means to browse back to pages you want. Amazon.com computes an item's celebrity scores based upon a device found out model instead of a raw data standard. The version takes into consideration variables consisting of the age of a score, whether the scores are from confirmed buyers, and also aspects that establish reviewer reliability. Please maintain publishing your views as well as Questions, It will lead me to enhance the quality of the paper.

What are the 5 performance objectives?

A good security guard is always alert and aware of his surroundings. It is necessary to constantly stay focused and avoid distractions as much as possible, or risk missing something that could prove important.

Whizrt: Simulated Intelligent Cybersecurity Red Team

used for the various services and also can be safeguarded independently. determining the authenticity or accuracy of the information being shared. The features defined here are based upon the exchange of body components. If the genuine identity of the stemming individual is unknown, customer even. mastermind will not have the ability to review the message that was sent out.

What is the objective of safety officer?

According to Andy Neely, author of the book “Business Performance Measurement: Unifying Theory and Integrating Practice,” there are five main operational performance objectives: speed, quality, costs, flexibility, and dependability.

Add Your Get In Touch With Info The Right Way

A lot of these concerns can be fixed by closing the applications that were launched or by eliminating the processes that were generated. The checklist of CLSIDs can be obtained making use of the following Powershell commands in Number 1. The term "COM Object" refers to an executable code section which applies several interfaces stemming from IUnknown.

Right-click the initial access which will certainly appear as a search engine result and also pick the "Run as administrator" context food selection access. Click the number 4 key or F4 in order to start your COMPUTER in Safe Setting on Windows 10. Merely click the Beginning food selection button of your computer adhered to by the Power Switch.

This enables you to control object accessibility by transforming a customer's group membership, instead of straight editing and enhancing the object's role map.

Appian suggests using only groups to establish object security.

Each object accepts a different collection of permission degrees in its duty map.

We offer versatile and also simple support programs to make best use of the value of your FireEye product or services. Therefore, more content will certainly be included the coming weeks. Logging use of an object by a particular event by wrapping the object in a logging forwarder. Limiting the use of an object by covering it in a narrower user interface.

exact same line delimiter be utilized by both the mastermind as well as the recipient. either the quoted-printable or base64 encoding as defined by COMEDIAN. securing the hash worth with the personal secret of the producer. beveiligingsbedrijf heeft veel to be authorized is prepared according to the summary listed below.

Objectsecurity. The Security Plan Automation Company.

Discover how your company can gain from Security Policy Automation. Exactly, that's why I did not include it in my listing of options, plus, markings have a recommended ceiling of 100 marking which would certainly not be suitable in my case. I'm fine with Mozilla managing my details as described in this Privacy Policy.

A Ticket Broker equipment, which is a solitary static IP equipment that the Tableau Web server depend demands Trusted Tickets, that machines with dynamic IPs can ask to retrieve a trusted ticket for them. A device of trust between the Ticket Broker and also the various other internet application machines need to be developed also. If you are not embedding Tableau web content right into one more web page, but still want to implement SSO, you can make use of SAML or Relied on Verification (see to it to activate Unrestricted Trusted Tickets ). Tableau Web server has constructed in multi-tenancy utilizing the Sites include. Ideal method in a multi-tenant release is to give each occupant their very own site.

For an explanation of just how multi-tenancy in Tableau maps to multi-tenancy in your data source systems, checked out The Tenets of Tableau Templates on Multitenants. Search for "Command Motivate" by typing it either right in the Beginning menu or by pressing the search button right beside it.

The Kind Of Security Guards

IUnknown is an interface with 3 techniques, which support object lifetime recommendation counting as well as discovery of extra interfaces. Every COM object is identified by an unique binary identifier. These 128 little bit (16 byte) internationally unique identifiers are generically described as GUIDs. When a GUID is utilized to identify a COM object, it is a CLSID (class identifier), as well as when it is made use of to identify a User interface it is an IID (user interface identifier). Some CLSIDs likewise have human-readable text matchings called a ProgID.

Security Vs. Exposure

If you can see, Currently I have actually taken concern all object Graph Call, Measure as well as Dimension that made that worry chart as resource.name. You wish to limit your customer to any graph particular graph and also hide other graphes to customer( JARVIS). All the charts will show up on that particular restricted sheet(" Budget Analysis"). Now login with customer JARVIS, you will certainly discover Stream for Jarvis.

What are the objectives of a security guard?

To obtain the position of Security Guard with The Towers residence; coming with experience completing multiple tasks, such as patrolling, monitoring surveillance systems, responding to alarms, and investigating problems with the desire to create a safe living environment.

[mathematicianadda]

The Big Lock-Down Math-Off, Match 25

Welcome to the twenty-fifth match in this year’s Big Math-Off. Take a look at the two interesting bits of maths below, and vote for your favourite.

You can still submit pitches, and anyone can enter: instructions are in the announcement post.

Here are today’s two pitches.

Nikki Rohlfing – Mathematical card trick

Nikki Rohlfing is a heavy metal roadie turned maths teacher. On twitter he is @heavymetalmaths.

Pupil: “Sir, how did you do that?”

Me: “Magic!”

Yes, that’s how helpful I can be when teaching maths….I probably just ‘multiplied by a clever number 1’, that seems to do the trick for a lot of secondary school maths!

But how about some actual maths/magic combo: here is a trick I learnt a loooong time ago, yet I keep coming back to for its mathematical magic.

This card trick fascinated me as a child, and I remember one week in particular during the summer holidays at my grandad’s house where I investigated a bit more: can I find a way to make it work with more/less cards? Or more iterations of the separating of stacks? etc. I was counting cards for days but got nothing conclusive.

Over the years, I kept thinking about it: part of me was bothered that I couldn’t work it out, but part of me also enjoyed the fact that it was still magical to me (not the actual trick, but the ‘magic’ of the maths behind it!). So here I am, over 20 years later, having another go at cracking the code, and although my maths is frustratingly not up to scratch, I hope to provide some insight at least, and maybe awaken some curiosity!

So to start with, let’s opt for an exhaustive method to confirm it works, that the method shown in the video does indeed always return the required card into the 3rd place from the top.

I’ll start by labelling the cards 1-8, show the two stacks, and branch off the “yes”/”no” answers to show all possible outcomes.

With each “yes/no” decision, you are creating $2\times2\times2=8$ possible outcomes, which is good, as that relates to each of the 8 cards. What was not obvious to me before setting out the diagram was that if going “yes, yes, yes”, the cards are back in the exact order they started in – magic! And looking at the numbers in the stacks, then there’s quite a few patterns to see, like in the second to last, the numbers 1-4 and 5-8 are already grouped together again no matter what route.

But why does putting the stack with the card in on top result in it being always in third place of the final stack?

After not unlocking much myself in the limited time I have, I had a little internet search, and found a Matt Parker video on a very similar (and arguably better) trick. You may want to watch before reading on, as I’ll refer to his method.

The main difference is that Matt’s trick has more cards, and they get divided into 3 stacks, and the similarity is doing the iterative stacking process 3 times. Matt’s trick is based in ternary maths – is this due to doing the process 3 times or because he has 3 stacks? Given his numbering of 0,1,2 to help order the three stacks, I am sensing it’s the latter. This would lead to mine being in binary, which also links in with the $2^3$ cards/choices perhaps.

Matt’s trick is based upon calculating one less than the participants number in ternary form. Given the three stages, this requires 3 digits per number, which then shows why the “one less” is key, as for example, I would need to go from 0 to 7 rather than 1 to 8, so the 3rd card in the pack would actually be number “2” when counting from 0. Another reason for using 0-7 is that 8 in binary would be four digits, which wouldn’t work. So looking at how the card always lands in 3rd position, I should perhaps look at the number 2 in binary and try and apply Matt’s method:

\begin{array}{ccc}\\2^2&2^1&2^0\\0&1&0\end{array}

And again, following Matt’s design, I would place the pack with the participants card first on top if I see a 0, and on the bottom if a see a 1, but reading the binary number from right to left. If you have a pack of cards (or by all means try mentally), you might want to think about where the card ends up before clicking on the reveal below.

Spoiler: [+ show][- hide]

The card always lands on top…..I actually like this, what a cool variant one could do!

Well, the sharp-minded amongst you will have known this wouldn’t work, as to get it into 3rd place, I place the stack with the card in always on top. So using the binary method, this would be 000. Hmm, so perhaps I’m computing it wrongly. But, out of interest, what about other numbers? Well, for example, trying “3” (011), gets the card into second place each time, and as you process the binary numbers 0 to 7 you do indeed get all the different positions.

The participants card will move to:

Decimal number 0, binary: 000 $\rightarrow$ 3rd place

Decimal number 1, binary: 001 $\rightarrow$ 4th place

Decimal number 2, binary: 010 $\rightarrow$ 1st place

Decimal number 3, binary: 011 $\rightarrow$ 2nd place

Decimal number 4, binary: 100 $\rightarrow$ 7th place

Decimal number 5, binary: 101 $\rightarrow$ 8th place

Decimal number 6, binary: 110 $\rightarrow$ 5th place

Decimal number 7, binary: 111 $\rightarrow$ 6th place

Yet more number patterns, with an odd/even twist. What is also noticeable is how these 0s and 1s link back to the “yes/no” options in my original diagram (although in reverse, and slightly different thinking, but the same underlying principle!).

So looking at the aforementioned 011, means the stack with the participants card in goes (reading right to left) “bottom, bottom, top”, which translates to “no,no,yes” (left to right) in my original notation. It takes the participants card to place 2 in the final stack, which happens to be starting card number 3. In fact, from my diagram, you can see how each binary number 000 to 111 takes card 3, and places it into one of the 8 different places in the pack. This feels like my original trick backwards somehow!

So what has this actually all achieved? Well, two different approaches, working in different directions, using binary and decimal, as well as (perhaps not sensibly) labelling the cards 1-8 when dealing with numbers 0-7….. it has definitely achieved my brain getting muddled a few times!

But one clear break-through is that I now no longer have to rely on revealing the 3rd card, and can in fact have the participants card pop up anywhere I like! I like this as a possible way to get their card on top, or bottom of the stack, which are key positions for any card magic and could allow an expansion to the routine. The changing of position also allows for greater repetition of the trick without people realising that you just choose the 3rd card each time.

However, going back to my childhood musings of can this work with more/less cards or iterations, then perhaps I’ve made less progress. Matt’s version shows that at least one more way is possible. But how many different ways could there be? The fact that when you follow my diagram with “yes, yes, yes”, the cards are back in their starting order might be helpful. However, for 3 stacks, like with Matt, I’m not (yet!) sure which combination is required to do the same, given that’s it’s “0/1/2” rather than just “yes/no”. If nothing else, I hope you have a go at doing the card trick with someone; and by all means get in touch if you discover anything I missed!

Pat Ashforth – Some thoughts about becoming a mathematician

Pat Ashforth explores maths through knitting and crochet at woollythoughts.com.

Reading all the pitches in the The Big Lock-Down Math-Off made me start thinking about what influences turn a person into a mathematician or, more specifically, into a particular kind of mathematician.  We all know that there is no dividing line between mathematicians and non-mathematicians. Everyone has some kind of mathematical thinking whether they regard it as maths or not.

I don’t remember much about my maths education in my early life. My father, who was in no way a gambler, taught me to play pontoon when I was old enough to hold the cards and this could have contributed to being at ease with numbers. At the age of three I was one of those awful children who did not ‘rest’ in the afternoon (or sleep much at night either).  I went to a nursery where the other children did rest so, each afternoon, I was sent to the end of the road where I could see the town clock and told to come back at a particular time. I’m not sure I could tell the time properly but I was able to come back and demonstrate, with outstretched arms, the time on the clock. It wouldn’t happen these days.

In Junior School I loved sums, which were more complicated than they are today because we worked in pounds, shillings and pence, and pounds and ounces, and feet and inches. Using several different number bases was just what we did.  There were other lovely things like hundredweights and tons, and pints and gallons.

At the age of eleven I went to the very new local Grammar School. Maths was a revelation and a very different animal from what we have today. It was split into three separate subjects, each with a different teacher – Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. I doubt if I had even heard these words before. I remember very little about arithmetic and algebra but geometry had a massive impact. Mr Parkes was terrifying. He was ex-army with the loudest voice imaginable. He always wore a gown. Most Grammar School teachers did in those days. He marched down the corridors and it billowed around him. He had metal tips on the heels of his shoes. That wasn’t unusual either but he seemed to be louder than anyone else. You always knew when he was coming and could get out of the way.

The very first lesson has stuck with me forever. We all had the obligatory geometry set but this didn’t fulfil all of his requirements. Pencils! Two 2H pencils were essential. It was a punishable offence not to have them. On reflection, it makes perfectly good sense. It is not possible to draw a thick line with a 2H pencil and he frequently reminded us that a line, theoretically, has no thickness. The second pencil had to be cut in half. One half was to be used in compasses. We all know how frustrating it is to draw a circle with a bump in it where the pencil hit your fingers. It was all terrifying but it was new and it was fun. To this day every drawing I do has incredibly faint lines and I still feel guilty if I don’t use a 2H pencil to do it.

I loved Maths but I also loved crafts. I wasn’t allowed to do any practical subjects. I was in the stream that had to do Latin instead. I resented that at the time. It was assumed that only boys would do Maths and that they would all be scientists. I was not a scientist. At A Level I wanted to do Maths and English plus something else. This didn’t fit with the school’s Arts/Science paths. To their credit, they rejigged the sixth form teaching to make it possible. Once it became an option I wasn’t the only girl doing Maths. I’m sure my future would have been very different if I had been forced down the science route.

Over time, more by chance than intention I found my own weird way of combining maths and art. I am now very thankful that I didn’t do anything arty in school. I was not directed by other people’s ideas.  I was definitely a geometer and I lay that at the feet of Mr Parkes. You can never know the long term effects of the little things you say and do with students.

So, which bit of maths made you say “Aha!” the loudest? Vote:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The poll closes at 9am BST on Monday the 1st, when the next match starts.

If you’ve been inspired to share your own bit of maths, look at the announcement post for how to send it in. The Big Lockdown Math-Off will keep running until we run out of pitches or we’re allowed outside again, whichever comes first.

from The Aperiodical https://ift.tt/2ZQojXS from Blogger https://ift.tt/2yQqe3A