#;puzzle solved {answered}

[fan-a-tink]

Something about how loudly Edwin says Charles' name in this scene has been driving me insane and I think I've finally figured out why.

When Charles finds Edwin in hell, Edwin is rolled into a little ball of misery, covered in blood and quietly sobbing. It's probably a position he's developed over decades, making himself as small as possible, being as quiet as possible, trying to take up as little space as possible. He's almost pretending he doesn't exist in order to stretch out the moments before the spider finds him and the loop starts again.

And then Charles says his name and Edwin looks up and sees Charles, and it's like all of his defenses just vanish. He doesn't whisper Charles' name, he says it, loudly, as if he has completely forgotten where he is and that they need to be quiet. He gets up, unfurls his limbs, slowly standing up to his full height, taking up space again. Every instinct in his body should tell him to stay hidden and as invisible and silent as possible, but Charles has just smiled at him, and Edwin speaks again, asking "Is that you?" and letting out a shaky breath of relief.

He is completely vulnerable and exposed now, like Charles' arrival has made him completely forget that they are in hell and that he could be ripped apart by a spider doll demon at any moment. All the defences he has built up over literal decades just completely crumble as soon as he hears Charles' voice.

And then the spider comes and rips him away, and I don’t think it would have done (at least not yet), had Edwin not alerted it to his presence like that. I think that’s why this moment wouldn’t let go of me, because I always thought it shouldn’t be this easy for Edwin to abandon a survival tactic he has developed over decades of torture. But all it takes is Charles being there, and Edwin forgets everything else.

[chatlote]

while your interest in chess is generally known, do you have any thoughts on sudoku? i figure as a solo logic game it's pretty fun, especially because most of my friends don't wanna learn chess </3

I have to agree, Sudoku is a good game for those who want a brain workout and have no one to play other mentally challenging games with. I tend to do Sudoku and Crossword puzzles on the local newspaper.

[circus-clangen]

Answer to the apprentice name puzzle incoming, so if you want more time to figure it out yourself, don't read below the cut!

[Things begin to fall into place, as you delve into memories as scattered and disorganized as the passing years' souvenirs strung up on the Ringmasters wall.]

[The longer you stare, the more certain you are that somewhere in your memory, there was once a strange, almost-human but almost-animal hand pinned in the very center of the wall, stuck fast in a strange frame. The only evidence of its existence is the faint handprint of a slightly lighter yellow, where an oddly shaped spot was once shielded from the buildup of dust on these things long forgotten.]

[Of course! Monkeypaw! Ringstar used to mention him all the time, when you were a kit. But it's been many moons since you've heard the name at all, and try as you might, you can't quite recall the stories that you heard in your youth.]

[Now you remember the name... but what did he look like?]

[Something is strange about the frame, and as you look at it, you realize that it is not merely a frame, but rather, the back of one.] [You reach forward to turn it around, but the naught-but-dust wall behind the nail holding it in place gives way, and with a cloud of plaster, then whole falls to the ground with a mighty crash.]

[What was once hidden is now revealed, albeit in a confetti array of bright shards gleaming in the candlelight.]

[l-in-the-light]

Advice for One Piece theoretists about the upcoming Strawhat crew members

I watched this vid so you all don't have to. The only thing Ohara got right is Law tbh (but the arguments he listed for him are so-so, he could have fished out so much more). I saw lately a post with big advice for One Piece theoretists to go back to their roots (early sagas), so now here's my piece of advice for all of you who want to crack the mystery of who the last Strawhats are gonna be:

crewmate (nakama) =/= friend (tomodachi). The word nakama appears in manga only when Luffy means "crewmate", it's been always consistent, because that word is clearly a big deal for Luffy. Someone who travels with Strawhats isn't automatically a crewmate. Not every friend will end up becoming a new crewmate either. Remember Water 7? Being a crewmate is a serious business, it's not just regular friends we snatched on our way. Once you're a crewmate, you're part of the family, basically. Family yakuza-style, might I add. Once you join you can't just quit because you feel like it, it's a commitment. So friends like Rebecca, Viola, Stussy, Lilith, Carrot, Bon Clay, Koby are not gonna become actual crewmates. They will always remain friends with Strawhats though!

not every crewmate will choose to take the journey with Strawhats. Take Vivi, Kin'emon or Momonosuke for example. They have their own responsibilities. That being said, if their duties ever get fullfilled, they're hopping on the crew 100%. I can see that happen with Vivi, not so much with Kin and Momo though, Wano is not gonna go anywhere, right? (or is it? :D)

Luffy made promise to Yamato. It's a promise he wants to keep in Ace's stead. This is important for him. People should start taking this seriously and I'm not sure why they don't.

plot convenience isn't enough of an argument for someone joining or not. That would be kinda bad storytelling ngl. Just because someone has "no other place to go" or "would be so useful on the crew" doesn't mean they will become a Strawhat. Being a crewmate ain't so cheap.

potential crewmate doesn't even have to be a friend at first to become a crewmate. Remember Franky's or Robin's case? Luffy was hostile towards Franky for the whole arc, not counting the very final chapters when Franky build them a new ship for free, which is The Moment when Luffy finally started liking him. At the literal end of the arc.

Luffy's final word is the most important one. Try to think of his own criteria, instead of trying to guess what's in Oda's head. Luffy is a simple boy, his criteria are also pretty simple and every Strawhat fits those. It's not about long, tragic and satisfying flashbacks (Zoro's flashback is short, for example), bonding over food, or stuff like that. You want to find Luffy's criteria, go all the way back to the beginning when Luffy meets Koby and then Zoro.

the last Strawhats do not have to be people from early sagas! Early sagas are important, but ignoring the later ones is a huge mistake. There are a few really nice theories that help you narrow it down: for example the theory of 13 Strawhats. Since as early as first OP chapters Luffy's crew is called Mugiwara Ichimi (which means Strawhat crew, but ichimi can be read as a pun: ichi means one, san means 3, Oda loves puns and number plays like that and uses them all the time, also in chapter titles). People also noticed this helpful pattern: there are always four Strawhats joining from each sea Luffy adventures in (Nami, Sanji, Zoro, Usopp from East Blue; Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook from Paradise; that leaves us with Jimbei and three others from the New World).

Yes, I'm a believer in 13 Strawhats theory, just like most Japanese fans. Oda likes giving obscure hints for that theory scattered around. But the actual answer lies in this image:

You have all 13 Strawhats here, disguised as cats. All you need to do is crack the code and figure it out. Have fun!

My hint is: start from who Luffy considers and called a nakama. You need to search through the whole story for it :D

[bettinalevyisdetermined]

Guys!

Guys!!

Guys!!!

I think I just came up with an original thought to put out into Tumblr! A logical puzzle that I don't have the answer to myself, but I would LOVE to see people who are much smarter than me think about!

(Inspired by my most recent video on reading comprehension, which contained a debate on is more valuable / practical, $30 in bills or $30 in coins, and me reading the comments under said video!)

You know that silly riddle, which is heavier, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers? (Trick question, they're both a ton.) Well, what I really want to know is...

If you have a pound of $1 bills, and a pound of $1 coins, what is the difference in their total monetary value? Is it a very dramatic difference? What kind of fraction / percentage / ratio would the comparison be?

[deakwithit]

I dont subscribe to the house has secret debilitating empathy for people hc..i think he cares, and doesnt want all people to suffer, but he doesnt experience day to day empathy like someone else would. i have next to no empathy and it makes me just a little happy to imagine house having no empathy, because he isn't represented as someone who does only bad despite his lack of empathy, just that his motives are different from "well, ill feel bad if i dont" or "but society says i should care" (this, he would probably call selfish, anyway).

i think he recognizes his lack of empathy but still does the good thing anyway, not because he cares all the time, just that hes not evil, and can make nice choices for others.

[redacteddoesstuff]

The inanimate insanity arg has arrived!... And immediately solved lol. I had completed ADAM's cypher when I went to see the community's progress and, well they solved it. In less then an hour I think. That's genuinely insane.

But the most important part is that we got conformation that there will be an act 3!!!! LET'S GO LET'S GOOO!!!!

[antirepurp]

i should be used to youtube people misunderstanding petscop at this point but like. are you really calling it an ARG. there is no ARG it is a story a kind of creeepypasta petscop is unfiction you can't call it an ARG what are you doing

[sexologii]

Tucker lowkey born for the challenge tho

[catsafari25]

Another question for the Skulduggery Pleasant fandom, because I've just finished reading the Haunted House on Hollow Hill, and I feel like I'm missing something.

Below the cut 'cause this is, y'know, a murder mystery

Do we get two explanations for how the police officer (Dudley) dies? First is that Grody killed him (and is used as an alibi for Grody & how there is more than one killer abroad) and the other is that Terry did it (and he openly admits it) - the second option is clearly the correct one, given the confession, but it just felt odd that there's not even a nod back to the first red herring.

[kikizoshi]

Hello, Kizo! you've also mentioned some of the interesting aspects of Gogol's personality I haven't thought about before. Like his pessimism. He is so constantly and desperately wants to seem excited, amused, thrilled, that he's managed to fool me. But it makes sense. "The only salvation from emotions is mine or smn else's death". He is quite pessimistic, just like Dost. And he's a perfectionist. He wants an absolute perfect freedom and nothing in between. Why is he like this, maybe trauma?

Thanks for the interesting asks!

It's neat to me that Nikolai manages to fool you. What I love especially there is that, like you said, while putting on that act he's so energetic, vivacious, and drawn very enthusiastic and animated. But when he breaks character, there's a stillness to him. His shrill tone softens into a meditative tenor; his grand gesticulations withdraw into intimate gestures; his stretched mouth and squinted eyes relax into the visage of a quiet, thoughtful, introspective young man. Harukawa expresses all of this beautifully with their drawings, and I just love it so much. The glimpses we see of the Nikolai under his mask are what made me fall in love with him in the first place--it's what makes his character for me.

One thing I really love expressed in characters like Nikolai is the 'sad clown paradox', which I think fits him pretty well. It's the playful jester character who's internally cynical. Nikolai creates a persona of a spontaneous, silly, horrifically brutal psychopath, but the scant few glimpses we get of him, we see a thoughtful and caring person, so much more and so much opposite just under the surface. I absolutely adore that duality.

I'm not gonna talk about potential backstories for Nikolai; I feel like speculation there is kinda pointless for me, since it could be literally anything. But, I can talk about Gogol's influence on him a bit.

Regarding this:

"The only salvation from emotions is mine or smn else's death". He is quite pessimistic, just like Dost. And he's a perfectionist. He wants an absolute perfect freedom and nothing in between. Why is he like this, maybe trauma?

I see a lot of Gogol's influence here. I'm not sure how much you know about Gogol as a person, so sorry if this is reiterative, but it's important context (and please take my cliffs notes version with a teaspoon of salt; I'm by no means a Gogol scholar). Gogol, at the end of his life--though probably during too--was very concerned with the purity of his soul. Why isn't something I can really comment on, but it seems to have culminated in him going to a radical priest, who advised him to undertake an extreme fast (meant for monks, I believe). Gogol then burned his manuscript for the second part of 'Dead Souls', and starved himself to death over the course of about twelve days (whether or not he meant to die isn't agreed-upon as far as I can tell, but that he died as a result of this fast is). All to reach a purity of soul he felt he didn't have, and couldn't get without drastic actions.

I genuinely have no idea if this story inspired Nikolai's, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. There are a lot of parallels, and if you replace Gogol's 'religious purity' with Nikolai's 'freedom', you get a similar tragedy. Both seem based on the belief "my mortal/inherent failures/limitations are holding me back from what I need". And rather than go inwards and seek clarity through introspection, both externalise their problems and try to "fix" themselves via grand--and painful--proofs of their "faith/conviction".

There's also the parallel with Gogol's priest and Fyodor, though I'm not sure how much it tracks. Fyodor does seem to have some influence on Nikolai, but it sounds like Nikolai was already on his path when they met... that's all backstory stuff though, so who knows.

Then there's still the missing piece of 'why', with Nikolai. Why does he feel he needs to free himself from his emotions? Gogol's motive makes sense several ways: fear of Hell, self-hatred, a deep, spiraling depression. It's understandable, it's human, it's relatable. But Nikolai's freedom?

That Asagiri chose 'freedom from emotions' to be Nikolai's pursuit isn't something I've ever managed to understand. I just don't get it. I can't connect it to anything. You hear about people wanting to be numb, sure, but Nikolai's wants seem more about being capable of doing anything, or proving that he can... And he said (paraphrasing) "in spite of happiness I choose free will," so at the very least Nikolai thinks he's capable of happiness, and it's just not as important to him as his "freedom."

Yeah, idk. There's definitely something interesting there, though, that Nikolai's Ability gives him the freedom to do pretty much whatever (as Atsushi said in Sunday Tragedy), but he's so wrapped up in his own mind that he either can't see the freedom he has, or physical freedom is ultimately meaningless to him--which would make him seeking freedom through external actions an interesting failure to understand himself.

Then again, I don't know how honest Nikolai's being with himself, honestly. His whole "freedom" thing is an ever-moving goalpost. First it was torture people to death and kill himself. Then it was kill his best friend. Then it got so convoluted I won't even try to summarise it. And now he just seems lost. Giving Asagiri the benefit of the doubt and assuming this is intentional characterisation (and not just giving him plot-convenient reasons to take certain actions), Nikolai seems at best very confused (and trying to appear like he very much isn't). And, well, I'm confused too.

So yeah, all that's very interesting. Not sure how much of it was intended. Hard to tell with a character that gets like one scene every two years. And hard to tell where he'll go, considering how rarely BSD characters stay true to who they were past their debut.

Regarding the pessimism thing: ironically, I'd say Fyodor's pessimism is more optimistic in nature than Nikolai's. Because Fyodor believes in a world that can change. Fyodor believes he can make the world a better place, and is doing everything he can to achieve that. Nikolai, however, in his best case scenario, proves that it's technically true that complete freedom exists. But his world is still comprised of people in cages. It's cynical and oppressive, and his grandest hopes don't come close to changing anything for the better. I think that fits mostly very well with some differences I've observed between Dostoyevsky and Gogol.

[askthehylianchampion]

Out of curiosity, Is there anything you really really suck at? Like an anti-talent. Anything you tried once and realised you were not meant to do by any means.

The Princess and Mipha both have tried to teach me more book smarts, but they say I have the attention span of a sparrow. So I don't understand a lot of what they're trying to read me.

I also can't sing the best

[i-havenothingelsetopost]

genuine question, do you like maths?? i have a vague feeling i saw your post of tags or something that said something about it but i cannot figure out if it was in fact you or if it was even positive ahahah

Yeah that was me! I don't go looking for math problems, but when I happen to do them, I tend to enjoy it. Wasn't always this way — elementary school math was about speed and memorization and I hated that — but I had a really good teacher in upper secondary school, and it became about creative problem solving. It feels the same as writing a poem in meter or managing to untangle a really bad knot in a ball of yarn.

[cantankerouscatfish]

the puzzles book I have has a page that is Star Names with the consonants removed and held in a box at the top. so there's like _I_IU_ and you write in the s, r, s and cross them off in the box. yeah okay

I only solved like 3 of the star names. this is so sad. most of the names I can think of aren't in the puzzle. :(

[littlemsterious]

trying to solve this book while avoiding spoilers is interesting cause I won’t look at anything online and I’m definitely missing stuff

i cant check what stuff other people have because somehow I’m gonna see something important that i would have rather figured out. i dont know how to interact enough that I’m interacting but not so much that i ruin something fun

edit: i think this post might be funnier with this picture i took. this isnt even all of my notes

[voidcat]

I actually rage quit the sudoku

Yeah I can tell… at first I tried doing it from where you left off but getting doubles I started from scratch- you misplaced a number there early on that caused that puzzle to clog up (no offense)