#and i think I've already posted a response somewhere that I genuinely didn't enjoy writing that fic cuz it feels a bit... tamer than

[throwaway-yandere]

creative difference part 2??

Sorry but no lol. Maybe next time.

Side note: i feel bad receiving "part 2" messages because even when I do write part 2s, the people who asked for it usually don't give feedback or any sort of response lol so no thank you kind sirs/maams but i do appreciate that you think it's worthy of a continuation.

I think i do have a tag for that fic tho, #tag: cd - tighnari". Idk if I left around crumbs or something.

[caffeinatedsunbear]

finished mob season 2 a week ago, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

god.

was that a ride!!! needed to freak out about it somewhere and I'm a little too lazy to actually write it down by hand so typing it is :)

finished season one around two before and then season 2 just a week before this. oh man.

wow where do I even start with this??

I guess I can start with how I actually started watching mob? Which isn't actually that difficult to explain. I've heard of the anime as far back as 2016 when season one first aired via Domics (one of his old videos) and I didn't give it much thought at the time. It didn't seem like the kind of anime that I would enjoy (mostly due to the aesthetics, the art style is relatively unconventional for an anime and the character designs weren't traditionally attractive.) I've seen other posts about mob after that, and even seen fanart of it, but like I said I just never got into it.

Once I got into grade 11 and got closer to Victoria I started seeing more mob things but I was still relatively detached from everything. Then I promised her that we would watch it together at some point (I think this was first mentioned during winter break?) But because of the thing that is ib/dp2, we couldn't do so until after may exams were over.

So!! Exams are over, and I end up watching the first 5 episodes of season 1 with Victoria and. They were really good??? Especially the teru arc (and the op is. Insane. I never skipped the op for either season once) but we had to stop at episode 5 because it was getting really late. Then I took a few days break from it and didn't get back to watching it until maybe half a week later(?). And then the Ritsu gaining powers arc happened and I was hooked (because brooding overachiever archetype and the wonderful sibling dynamics???) Seeing how much mob cared for ritsu made me feel so many things. And also made me care for mob as a protagonist that much more. And then he gets kidnapped?? And the Claw infiltration arc???? Was so intense???

And of course I have the mention Reigen's 1000% power up. The way he's just a great father figure to mob despite the fact that he's technically a shit human being for underpaying and exploiting mob for his powers is so interesting?? The way One is able to write characters that I dislike initially (teru, reigen, 7th division members) and make them likeable is actual witchcraft because the turnaround is insane. Also the way that Reigen main priority throughout the entire infiltration arc is to make sure that mob doesn't have to fight because he's just a kid, and shouldn't have to bear the responsibility of saving the world because he has powers made me so emotional. It's so rare to see a functioning adult mentor figure that actively cares for the child and takes responsibility for their well-being. When he got slashed I genuinely thought for a second that he was going to get hurt (silly me) but the way he comes back was so. Fucking badass.

I just want to give mob and all the other kids a big hug man. Watching them get beat up hurt (almost physically???) Which just speaks to the impact of the animation (which is also absolutely stellar?? It's so dynamic and creative and so impactful) I can't help but feel hurt by proxy when mob is hit by the antagonists.

So season one was already absolutely insane and amazing, but oh man I was not ready for season two. I think this is the first anime that I watched where I deliberately chose to avoid consuming media surrounding it to avoid spoilers (which worked for s1/2 but. I am weak and I have a few minor spoilers for s3 and I regret everything) but going into season 2 was an experience.

I like how the way each season is structured kind of mirrors each other as well, starting with 3 episodic episodes before moving into some shorter arcs and then into the big bad of the season. The way that the Emi episode showed mob's growth was genius and really impactful and really set the tone for the season.

So. The mogami arc. Haha. Where do you even start with that??? I took a break after episode 3 and came back a few days later and I was not ready. I was ugly crying through all of the first half of episode 5. Watching mob have to go through the abuse from mogami was so fucking painful because he didn't deserve any of it. And the way the show somehow made me laugh after crying so hard when dimple showed up and the epic fight between mob and mogami happened was. Also a first!!! So many firsts with mob man. The scene where asagiri apologizes to mob was so touching.

By the way the messages of the show are so????? Positive????????? About how regardless of any external factors and how others perceive your identity you can choose to make your own life and have autonomy over your decisions, how children shouldn't fight adult battles, how conflicts should be resolved in a pacifistic manner if possible, but sometimes force is needed, the relationship between power and responsibility, the various relationships formed between people, finding the strength to stand up for yourself, dealing with insecurity and ego, how everyone has the potential to change regardless of their past, the importance of just being a good person at the core. Just. So many good things to watch be presented.

The separation arc!!!!!!! Aka. Reigen is an ass to mob but it turns out to work in both their favours. Seeing Reigen's struggles with his insecurities and loss of identity, and subsequent rebuilding of his self and abilities when apart from mob, and seeing mob grow by acknowledging how Reigen isn't always spouting the gospel and asserting his boundaries was incredibly refreshing. I think the first half of episode 5 and Reigen's tv scenes are two that I cannot watch again (I probably will but.) They were so hard to watch. I got second hand embarrassment when watching Reigen flounder on stage. The final scene where mob tells Reigen that he's a good guy makes me cry lol.

And. The big final boss arc. Was so. ARHDJDHSHSH the stakes felt so high?? And all the fights were so well choreographed and felt so impactful (I cannot think of a different word to use). Watching mob walk off alone to fight the boss and helping serizawa was so sweet and. Once again. Watching mob get beat up hurt. I also find the way that mob is able to take on the boss on his own as opposed to reigen really interesting. Because reigen comes back for mob but isn't able to properly fight (since he isn't an esper) and mob decides to take on the responsibility.

Watching mob lose himself for a moment and start to laugh maniacally while at 100% was really scary. And when he decides to go back for suzuki when he was self-destructing made me cry lol. How he was willing to take on the energy and pain from the explosion and stay with him in his "last moments". Come on. Like. COME ONE HOWNDNDNDJD he's so kind?? And good-hearted???

Anyways mob has since altered my mf brain chemistry. I'm not ready for season 3 (madeline said it will make me cry even more lol) and I can't wait to watch it with jet and colleen.

Also!! I read through "A Breach of Trust" which is this 300k+ mob fic in an au where mob is taken away by mogami as a kid and that made me cry too lol. It was really good and I really hope it wraps up with a satisfying ending.

Tl;dr I really, really like mob psycho 100 :') it's a good show. I think the high will die down after a while but gosh. It is good. I don't think I'll ever love it as much as I love it right now (just like how I'm sad I'll never get to watch it for the first time ever, which in of itself is a first for me) but I hope I'll still be able to love it tons even in the future :')

[mayuripng]

Thank you so much, Mr. Holmes! I really appreciate your response. It must take loads of time to compile all of this information and write it down in a post, and the fact that you are taking the time to answer a teenager about their questions instead of working on cases and doing your own experiments is truly heartwarming. Sorry for taking so long to reply! These past days have been quite hectic. About me being a beginner, I really appreciate your kindness. I've gone through some online communities on the topic, and some people have not been so kind. Guess people forget that they all start somewhere, huh? I will for sure take your advice on drawing the structures! It should help me remember them more easily, right? Memory is usually bound to vision, at least to me, and seeing and writing stuff down does help. About the website, I audibly gasped and said 'this is amazing!" before I even noticed I was talking. So, my opinion on it must be pretty clear. Thank you so much for sharing it with me, I'm now wondering how I didn't find this before. And thanks for the warning on the 'macroscopic organs' situation: I'm not sure if I would be disgusted or not, but considering I've gone to those university labs that store organs and dead bodies (I forgot the name, I'm unsure if those are called morgues or not), I think I should be fine. I even held a brain, a heart (that was in half) and a fetus!!! I was more excited and fascinated about it than I probably should have been, given my age (and the fact that people usually get disgusted), but the experience was great. About the stains and equipament, I appreciate your concern, and I do agree with all you said. I will look into safer (and cheaper) alternatives and see what is best for what I'm looking for given my situation (and if you want, I can even share my progress! Would you want that? It's a genuine question, so feel free to be blunt!). I also enjoyed the fact that you said 'when you study biology', and not 'if'. You assumed correctly, as I'm aiming for med school. Props to you! I will most definitely take care of my slides! I already took great care of them before, but with your testimony, I'll be even more careful. They should be of great use when studying, especially if I get in med school. Thank you, once again!

Hello, Mr. Holmes! How are you?

So, long story short, I ended up with an optical microscope in my room more or less 4 months ago, with 200 previously made slides (secured in a proper box), and lots of new ones too, for me to prepare myself. I love microbiology (it's one of my hyperfixations, curse my neurodivergency) and now I love it even more (my mother has had to drag me away from the microscope - I named it Wesley - in the middle of the night multiple times now).

After much conversation, I finally convinced my mom to buy me the proper equipment to prepare the slides!

So, I'm sending this ask to you, as I know you also have a microscope and that you use it a lot: what kind of equipment do you recommend me buying (gloves, scalpel blades, tints, etc), while still remembering that all of the stuff needs to stay in my room (properly taken cared of by me, of course)?

For example, I'm unsure if different dyes are used for different smears and specimens due to it's affinity (I've noticed that on 'organic matter' slides, images are usually tinted purple or pink, while on plant-based slides, images are usually tinted green and blue, with a few red structures.) Considering that I don't have access to a mortuary, I will mostly make plant slides. There must be a difference in the dyes then, right?

Sorry for the long text! Hope this isn't too much of a bother.

- a 17-year-old :)

Congratulations on your new light microscope. I do hope you get the best out of it. I am overjoyed that someone else appreciates the art of microscopy and microbiology.

However, you need to be careful to not strain your eyes. It is recommended to take breaks every 15 minutes to close your eyes or focus on something in the distance to reaccommodate your eyes. And get up every 40 minutes, stretch and correct your posture. And it is recommended to not use a microscope more than 5 hours per day. John has to chase me away from my microscope sometimes to take a break when I sit there for hours, my posture like a Caridea.

Concerning equipment, you will obviously need a scalpel or other sharp blade to make very thin slices of your specimen, as thin as possible. And forceps to move your samples (best just get a whole dissection kit it has everything). Obviously slides and coverslips, pipettes for the stains or water, maybe some tubes. A pen to label your slides. In many staining procedures ethanol or acetone is also used. A waste jar to safely dispose of any chemicals, but be careful what you mix. A rack for staining and containers. I would recommend nitrile gloves, some people are sensitive to latex.

The dyes you use depend on the specimen. For example in histological slides of tissues hematoxylin and eosin are most commonly used (short HE-stain). That's what you most likely saw on your slides, it's blue, purple and pink. Hematoxylin is a basic compound extracted and oxidised from the logwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum), and it stains acidic compounds in the cells (or basophilic because they have an affinity for basic substances). For example nucleic acids like DNA or RNA get stained by hematoxylin because they are basophillic. And where are lots of nucleic acids? In the nucleus and ribosomes, that is why they appear blue to purple in the staining because they bind hematoxylin. Eosin is an acidic compound, and stains basic or acidophilic compounds red or pinkish, like proteins, collagen, cytoplasm, extracellular matrix.

(Ductus epididymidis with HE-stain)

(Tongue HE-stain, pointer marking a ganglion; that is my picture)

Of course there are more specific stains for specific tissues like Golgi's silver staining for neurons.

For plants toluidine blue is often used, high affinity for acidic tissues, and can stain blue to green to purple. It is often combined with safranin, a basic azine, which is probably the red stain you saw. It stains polysaccharides and lignin, woody parts of the plant. Safranin and astrablue is also often combined, astrablue stains non-lignified parts of the plant.

(Ulex europaeus stem; not my pictures I don't have any samples currently, source Atlas of plant and animal histology)

Safranin is also used in bacteriology, in the famous Gram staining. In Gram staining you use crystal violet (blue/purple), Lugol's iodine solution, then wash it with ethanol and add safranin (red) as a counter stain. Bacteria is gram-positive if the crystal violet stays in their thick murein cell wall, can't be washed out with the ethanol and the bacteria stays blue. Gram-negative appear red because of the counterstain.

(Staphyloccocus aureus (violet, gram positive) & Escherichia coli (red, gram negative); not my picture, source Wikipedia)

However, I am not sure whether you have access to any of those substances, if they are too expensive for you or if they are too hazardous if used in your own room for a prolongued time. Of course those substances need to be stored properly, and your own room is probably not a good place, especially for ethanol or acetone. The fumes. I would recommend to ask your biology or chemistry teacher whether they can recommend anything further and where to buy said solutions in your area, and if they can't they are idiots. There are also many useful resources and tutorials on Youtube.

Another fascinating experiment for your microscope, that you can perform without buying any chemicals, is a hay infusion. You put hay into a container filled with water, and let it sit undisturbed for a week in a sunny area but not in direct harsh sunlight. During that time the microorganisms in the hay are reproducing in the solution, feeding on the polysaccharides of the hay. Protozoans also flourish in the hay infusion and eat the bacteria. It might get cloudy and a bit foul smelling (best not do it in your own room if you don't want to sleep next to a rotting smell). When you put a drop of the solution onto a slide and look at it in the microscope, you should see a variety of microorganisms like bacteria (like Bacillus subtilis), amoeba, ciliates, heliozoa, algae et cetera. At different depths of the liquid you should find different kinds of organisms, because of differing oxygen content. However, pathogens can also occur in the hay infusion so handle it carefully and work sterile, wash your hands properly.

And even if you don't work at a morgue you can still get tissue samples to experiment on, after all meat is sold in supermarkets, basically the same as a human body. And at the butchers they even sell organs like chicken hearts, pig kidney, liver, blood et cetera. Or observe your own hair under the microscope.

Which kind of samples and slides were included in your starter kit? Be careful to not leave them lying around in the sunlight, or the stain might fade. Always store them in the proper box.