#but i enjoy puzzling it out really

[icryyoumercy]

there is something hilarious about learning about the battles of the american civil war through youtube videos

they're so extremely usamerican, made by and for usamericans, and no one ever thinks to explain the basic whys and wherefores to the point where it feels like there were just random armies wandering the countryside, occasionally encountering each other and fighting for a bit, with absolutely no sense of tactics or strategy, and then wandering onwards once they get tired of that particular fight

[kirby-the-gorb]

[chongoblog]

Have you heard of the Sum and Product Puzzle, aka the "Impossible Puzzle" because it initially seems like there isn't enough information to go on? I think I have the answer, and I'm mad about it.

I hadn't so I looked it up and here's Wikipedia's summary of it

There's also an explanation, but I didn't look. I wanna figure this out myself.

So let's break it down.

"P does not know X and Y" means that X and Y are not both prime. If they WERE both prime, then P would know the two numbers right away. So if S KNOWS FOR CERTAIN that P doesn't know X and Y, that means that the sum of X and Y can't be made up of two prime numbers. So, for example, the sum can't be 20, since if X and Y are 1 and 19, P would get 19 and be able to easily deduce the values of X and Y.

So we have a bound for the sum here, so we just need to find all numbers that can't possibly be the sum of two primes. I tried to get a good list of all numbers that aren't the sum of two primes through trial and error, but I after I found the first few I just let the OEIS do the rest of the work for me

So our possible sums are: 11, 17, 23, 27, 29, 35, 37, 41, 47, 51, 53, 57, 59, 65, 67, 71, 77, 79, 83, 87, 89, 93, 95, and 97.

Now that doesn't narrow it down a TON, but we can probably do something with this. Now that P knows that these are all of the possible sums, they know FOR CERTAIN what X and Y are. Very interesting. That tells me a lot about the product.

So let's say X is 4 and Y is 7. Then P is 28, and S is 11. Now, other factors of 28 include 2 and 14, which add up to 16 (not on the list), so we could just say that and call it a day, but there's something else that perplexes me. What if P is 24? The factors of 24 are 6x4, 8x3 and 12x2, which give us sums of 10, 11, and 14, and 11 is the only one on the list, so we have new X and Y values for S = 11 that could also apply. And since the S mathematician said he knew what X and Y were upon hearing that P knew, we can safely say S isn't 11, since X&Y could have multiple possibilities.

So, simply put, we need a value of S where there's only one possible P that could work for it. On one hand that still sounds like a LOT of guess and check work, but on the other, I feel like there's a way to find this solution without that.

Doesn't matter. I did the guess and check work anyway, granted it was actually easier when I got to the higher numbers, since most possible factors of P went over the sum of 100, which is one of our limitations. Easiest way to find these unique products is to find the largest prime number (lower than the sum) and use that as one of our two values.

So the conversation goes as such.

S sees that their sum is 17. Knowing that 17 can't be reached as a sum of two primes, S says "P does not know X and Y", which tells P that the sum is one of those numbers we saw up there. P's product is 52, he figures and he only knows two numbers whose sum add up to one of those numbers. So he says "NOW I know the value of X and Y". S hears that and figures that it has to be that one EXACT combination.

X and Y add up to 17 and multiply to make 52 which means that X and Y are 4 and-

...

GOD DAMMIT

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law and shreds of closeness part 3: Donquixote Family Edition

What can I say, I got struck with inspiration yet again, the thoughts just do not want to leave me. This time it will get dark. And it will hurt, so feel warned. I will take a closer look at Law's closeness to the Donquixote Family and also do a small case study of affection between Doffy and Cora and their dad as well, to get a fuller context. Main focus will be on physical affection, yet again.

So what do you think, did Law get support and affection from his "second family"? I would say, very little. But let's look at evidence:

We have verbal support from Doflamingo himself when Giolla and Buffalo start to fear to touch Law or to even stay in the same room after they learn he's sick. That's 1:0 for him, I'm sure Law appreciated and remembered it. In retrospection, it would have been better for him if he didn't.

Then we have Giolla and Machvise who handled him like he's an object. Giolla keeps touching Law on the head, probably not caring why he seems displeased with it. She's just reinforcing the trauma, but I think overall she means well, she just doesn't think much about it. Giolla also shows Law the most physical affection and I swear it feels like she's trying to make up for her initial reaction, she's just not going the right way about it, making it worse instead.

Meanwhile we have Doflamingo, who despite defending Law before, never touches him. And I mean, never ever. Doffy remains cold not only with Law though, which we will see in a moment.

And then we have Baby5. She feels sorry for Law and even cried for him when she heard the story of Flevance (not in Law's presence tho), but she herself is bad with affection and care, because she also never received much, it also doesn't help that she is genuinely scared of Law's angry glares. All she can do to show him she cares is to smack and scold him. And of course when she does smack him it's on the head, which only becomes a trauma trigger over and over again. Those two just completely miss each other by a mile.

That's it. No other Donquixote Family's member ever tried to show some care in front of Law. They train him of course, but would you count kicking and punching him as a positive experience? Yeah, I don't think so.

And let's not forget Corazon, who carried Law like a bag of potatoes (and threw him around) for a long time, even after he kidnapped him. The Trip to Hospitals All Around the World kinda made him become better, holding Law close, trying to make him smile, carrying him all the time and at one point he even begs Law: "please give me the chance to do things right, stay strong for 3 more weeks!". Doesn't change the fact the touches he did give Law at the beginning were brutalized forms of affection, and we can't really forget that fact: that's exactly how Law's trauma of being touched on the head even started in the first place.

He already trained for awhile, but he still failed in the confrontation, and I think it was because of the touch. Being pinned down made Law probably freeze and unable to move. But even after being saved by Doflamingo, Law doesn't even try to seek support in him, unlike Baby5. Here we can see Doflamingo is alright if someone seeks comfort in him, but he will not give it by himself. That makes Doflamingo-Law combo the worst possible match up, a person who will never give it first and a person who will never ask for it, no wonder things were always cold between them.

Thanks to the fight against Smoker in Punk Hazard we learn that Law managed to overcome his trauma of being pinned down to a significant degree, because he manages to escape on his own. This scene gets an extra focus in the manga (it takes like 5 different frames!) which further convinces me it's that siginifcant. Law probably trained himself not to get overwhelmed like that ever again. Still, I can't help but notice soon after this happened Law starts to have troubles breathing, which means it still didn't leave him unaffected. He pushes to finish the fight faster afterwards as well.

One of his trauma triggers is feeling helpless and being pinned down definitely counts for that. I don't think this started with Vergo, I would say it was already a thing after Flevance, when he had to discover more and more dead bodies of people dearest to him, unable to do anything about it.

Let's look at his symptoms thanks to which we can recognize he's going through a triggering situation. Visible shivering, heavy panting (to the point of weezing which makes me think it can even go as far as bordering on hyperventilation or the opposite - apnea). And then in the last image he just goes stiff which I interpret as him completely freezing up. Damn, that's actually a lot. It's very similar to Robin's trauma responses in Water 7.

You can also notice that Law clenches his fists and it seems to be a sign that he's struggling or forcing himself to be strong. He still does it *a lot* when he's an adult. I think it might have honestly became a habit. He does that just before a battle, in most stressful situations when he knows he can't show his emotions (or just doesn't want to), and well, if we go by the anime version, also when he leaves Wano with his own crew. Basically any time he makes a firm resolve or a hard decision, he also does that. I swear sometimes it feels like he struggles for half of the Dressrosa and Punk Hazard, which you know what, might be way too accurate.

Also bonus wholesome points for Luffy caring more to support Law and Muucy than caring for falling into water himself. I'm not sure how much that helped Law when he was dealing with a triggering situation, especially that unfortunate contact with the top of his head. I guess it's still better than similar situation but with Law completely alone.

This puts this scene into a completely new perspective, right? He's shivering here and definitely froze up, even his speech bubble looks distressed. He's not getting angry here, his trauma trigger kicked in. I did check if he ever shivers or freezes up when he tries to, for example, stop himself from feeling angry, but no, we never see that happen. I'm sorry for ruining the comedy :( tho to make it better, he's also shocked, because just moments before Strawhats feared him, and now they already don't and even laugh at him. Damn, I'm now so torn about this scene, I mean, Strawhats couldn't have known!

Now a promised closer look at Donquixote family's approach to closeness and touch. When they were still Celestial Dragons, they barely touched each other. No small touches on the back, hand holding or anything else you usually share with kids. The closeness starts only after they're all starting to be persecuted. First time we see Doffy holding his mom's hand is when they run away from their burning house. First time we are shown Homing hugging his kids is when village people are beating them up and he is just trying to cover them with his own body, so he takes the beating instead of his kids.

The last memory Rosinante has of his father is the hug. And the first memory he has of Sengoku is also a sort of half-hug. Might be why he got so attached to him.

Little Doflamingo and Rosinante are always together, but they never touch in any way. It's clearly Doffy who takes care of his younger brother, probably also telling him to toughen up.

Weird mocking touch on the head from Trebol. And like always, no one ever touches Doflamingo, not even his own officers, and that's true ever since Doffy was a child.

He even tells Trebol he's too close. Doffy doesn't want touches anymore, because it seems in his mind he understands them as someone protecting him, and he doesn't need protection. Ever since he killed Homing, Doffy took the role of being a head of the family and protecting Rosinante, so no more hugs or hand holding for him. In other words, Doflamingo associates physical affection with protection and incoming abuse. And whenever he touches someone it's exactly for that reason: to hurt them.

An interesting parallel because this happens in exactly same chapter: Law is trying to move away because Luffy's "too close". He even lets him take the transponder away and just stands there and waits. And you might wonder: what for? Is he hoping Luffy will give it back by himself?

No, it just took some extra time for Law to brace himself to touch Luffy and shove him to the side. Even though both Doffy's and Law's first instinct here is to move away, Law is struggling but actually tries to overcome it, contrary to Doffy, who seems content in his "no touching" comfort zone.

Let's take a look at Dressrosa now. Doffy is carrying Law by his clothes, Law is unconscious, but he will not touch him directly anyway. Cora-san used to do it as well at first to Law.

But then, you might ask, they fought so much in Dressrosa, surely some kind of touch had to happen as a result? I mean, most of them were indirect touches with Doffy's strings, kicking Law or stopping him by grabbing his sword. But you are right, exactly two touches do happen. You're not gonna like it.

This is literally the first time Doflamingo ever touched Law. To stop his attack he forcefully grabbed his hand. Law is shivering, this actually triggers him, and there's just no way Doflamingo doesn't know that, he can feel it.

And then he makes the full use of the situation. Doflamingo holds Law up in the air, but we can see by the onomatopeia that he's literally holding him up by his hand alone and Law is just freely dangling there, Doffy's not using any strings to immobilize him, not even armament haki. He doesn't even need to. Finally he gave Law the touch he must have been craving when he was a child from him, but it's not a caring one, and what's the next thing Doflamingo does to that hand he just touched? He cuts it off, ripping open the psychological wounds, making them deeper, perhaps hoping Law will never recover from them. Because that's the easiest way to control him later if he wishes to do so, to make him pliant, defenseless and unable to fight back and terrified. But also to punish him for the "rebellion" against him... but also to punish Law for his need and fear of touch. This is a lesson: never want affection, closeness or touch, you're never getting any. Unless it's this: abuse. And if you don't think this is terrible enough, let me remind you: this is their first touch *ever*, Law probably waited for it when he was a kid.

And Law is just hanging there, not even trying to move, and it lasts for like three or four pages long, and I remember when I reread this a couple of times, I was a bit puzzled. Why isn't Law struggling to release himself? Why is he just letting this happen? Especially when it's becoming very clear what Doflamingo is gonna do next. So I have my answer: Law froze up, it's his body shutting off on it's own and all he can do is to just be there and wait for it to be over. It's painful, because we know Law always struggles, always fights back, and he tries here, with words, but he can't do anything else and he just watches it happen.

And this is the second time Doflamingo touches him. It's after the Gamma Knife attack, Doffy knows what he's doing here, he chooses to make contact with Law's head/face (he must have noticed Law's discomfort to it before when Giolla often did it to Law as a kid, and now he utilized this knowledge). He tries to make Law freeze up so he can't finish his move and who knows, maybe that was the final factor of why Law failed to kill off Doflamingo.

To wrap things up, I will share the interesting parallel that I think can be drawn between two rather unexpected characters: Law and Boa.

Both Law and Boa are most comfortable around Bepo (and the snake in Boa's case). Both are victims of brutalized touch and lack of loving and caring one. But while Law fearfully accepts what's given to him, Boa rejects it (even symbolically by kicking fluffy animals away or refusing any show of affection like gifts). Both are touch starved, but Boa will never even try to touch Luffy, and the only time Luffy touched her was in that stealth mission in Impel Down (they didn't have the choice) and hugging her after she gave him the key to Ace's cuffs. Boa doesn't return the gesture, she is very flustered and falls to the ground afterwards, which reminds me a little of her later scene with Rayleigh. Not even Boa's own sisters are shown to share any sort of physical affection with her, Boa shows cold and manipulative attitude to almost everyone besides them. The only other person Boa ever touched was Rayleigh (she's on the ground here again) after he helped them fight off Blackbeard's assault on Amazon Lily and it might be a traumatic response: Blackbeard tried to strangle her after all. Boa's love is passionate and platonic, she shows her affection and caring with indirect gestures (food preparation, offering support and help etc.), probably because that's what she remembers others tried doing for her before. She can't even deal with intimacy face to face and Law also tends to act cold to very open displays of affection and emotions.

Big thanks to @tae-rambles for mentioning the scene with Boa that completely slipped my mind <3 added it in the edit!

[theskymother]

animal jam is a lot more fun when you're rich

[pumpkajelly]

Inspired by some discussion I've had at my workplace lately...

(Bonus: Share your favourite riddles in the tags or replies! 👀 I am a ceaseless riddle-enjoyer always looking for something to puzzle on!)

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

They’re SO MUCH BIGGER and more Two-like than I thought! I LOVE IT! Even tho he’s a bigger boi I can’t help but still love him. Lookit this goofy goopy lil creecher.

But, like, actually tho, they would be absolutely terrifying to see in motion on all 4s like this tho. Especially if it’s fast.

Something that looks frail, but isn’t, and most certainly has something WRONG, AND can move terrifyingly fast? Dead. I’m dead on the spot. Heart stopped before Goops even got to me. It’s one of my favorite flavors of horror. I missed the timing on the body-horror submission ask (and tbh I have an essay’s length of a response for my favorite elements) but he his SO MANY of my favorite body horror details. Gosh I love it when I can just look at something and can be brought to silent tears.

Like, no they don’t have much in terms of stable muscles or fangs (that I can see at least) but that thing will catch you and suffocate you with its own viscous, sloughing off, non-newtonian fluid textured tissue and painfully invade your body with its own. Gag-worthy and violating. Writhing in your viscera and crawling under your skin. Nothing you can do to stop it once it’s inside. Victims reduced to horror and helplessness.

Its more than just a creature of horror, it’s dread. The sickeningly cool, thick sludge pooling and making your stomach feel heavy and churning kind of dread (which is quite fitting considering that might be a bit what it feels like to have that goop shoved down your throat), and mixed with fear is just *mwuah* a horror delicacy.

FANTASTIC. Beautiful. 100/10 did NOT expect this from such a cutesy series but I am PLEASANTLY SURPRISED. As much as I love and could happily drown in slice-of-life family fun with the mittens, I CANNOT wait to see what you do with Spoopy Goops here! I’ll be patient but also vibrating with excitement.

Genuinely glad to hear all of this!!! I was so worried how Goopy would be received but seeing everyone love(and fear lol) him makes me so happy 💕

[gatheringkeepsakes]

I started playing hsr because I had to take a break from fooling around in genshin to rest my hands and JOKES ON ME CAUSE IM ENJOYING IT MORE THAN I THOUGHT I WOULD

[transgaysex]

dude laying in bed feels crazy

[prismatoxic]

i am for sure approaching the finale of the first level in p5t, where the only spoiler i know about will happen, presumably. i've decided i'm going with ryuji. i fucking love yusuke with all my heart and soul, and i'm sure his version of whatever this plays out as is great, but...

well, pegoryu was my first p5 ship, and remains one of my faves. ryuji is special to me. if i can't have akechi for this then ryuji is equally good (but in a very different way).

...admittedly i also have no idea where or when or how the akechi & yoshizawa dlc comes into play. i bought it before i even started the game. i assume they're not just inserted into the main story or anything, but i kind of assumed they'd be available as just team units. i guess that could be right still; the whole first level is about re-assembling your team, so it'd probably be weird to just give you two free guys when the structure is about building up your power and strategy. so maybe after this part...?

i could look it up of course, but i haven't gone into a persona game blind since strikers, and it's more fun that way. i'm sure i'll figure it out.

[saltinesinsoup]

aughh man its like. i want to watch something but nothing on youtube is good and everything being recommended to me feels like mindless slop but also i dont feel like there's any good shows out right now that i could watch and i also dont really want to rewatch anything and at its core i think im bored and a little bit creatively unfulfilled

[sysig]

Things discovered: Charm is stupid amounts of fun to draw in the WOY style (Patreon)

Bonus:

Spider bites are already round and soft-shaped!

[bitegore]

I'm truly fighting tooth and nail to get to sleep until 9:30 these days, its unreal

[novelconcepts]

As soon as I find the rhythm for this fic, it’s all over.

[end-orfino]

What if i'd make an art sideblog

[chstart]

thinks abt beanix's weirdo cryptic cryptid ass laughing during his own trial coz he was thinkin bout "how much fun" the trial was