#hence why I zoomed in on the screenshots

[calamitaswrath]

Hair color is finalized, time for the next part of the face!

(Link to female version of poll)

[theineffableoystercatcher]

*spoilers for the Welcome Home update*

People have been pointing out Eddie's noticeable exclusion from the main website on the recent update, and it's quite prominent in the new audio clips on the merchandise page.

In the Homewarming Storybook Record, Wally and Barnaby go around asking the neighbours how to celebrate Homewarming. Eddie isn't mentioned at all, which is suspicious in and of itself, but towards the end there's this:

'With all the neighbourhood accounted for' - ie, everyone except for Eddie. Suggesting that Eddie isn't part of the neighbourhood, and doesn't belong there. The fact that this is coming from the narrator suggests that the showrunners were trying to reinforce this idea for the audience (personally I agree with the theory that Eddie got cut from the show and the video on the secret website is the consequences of that).

Again, in the Welcome Home Wishbook recording, all of the neighbours are mentioned, but as soon as Eddie is brought up, the audio distorts and turns to static. Another odd thing is that Frank is specifically mentioned to have been 'a good neighbour this year', which I found weird because the main reason this is happening to Eddie seems to be his relationship with Frank. It's possible that the Playfellow Workshop saw Eddie as the more 'disposable' one of the pair and then took extra measures to ensure that Frank wouldn't seem to have been involved (hence why the neighbourhood page now claims that Frank and Julie could be a couple).

There's also very little purple in the website background (purple being Eddie's favourite colour), with the few instances being a couple of flower petals, one tree trunk, and the wings of a butterfly (all of this is only visible when zoomed out of the page as far as possible). There's probably something to be said about how Eddie's colour only properly shows up on something associated with Frank, but that's for another day.

(Also here's a screenshot of the mini Frank and Eddie icons next to each other on the merchandise page because they're adorable and I love them-)

[thecoramaria]

Hello! I have recently come across your videos while writing my first long fic. They have been such a joy to watch and very helpful. Your videos showed me that we are both quite extensive planners when it comes to our fics, but it sounds like your outlines are way more extensive than mine. Have you/would you be willing to share how you format your outlines to keep up with such detail?

Aaaahhh thank-you! I'm glad you've found them helpful. I always love to hear that from my dear viewers 🥰 and I'm always glad to hear from other extensive planners!

To share my outlining process in a video will probably be a feature-length movie, and since I use Milanote, I think they ought to sponsor me for it because I genuinely love it and have convinced other people to love it as much as I do haha

The thing that makes sharing my outlines for my WIP 'The Light Invasion' tricky (other than spoilers) is that I do decorate them with a lot of fanart. I think it's okay for private use, but I wouldn't want to share my outlines publicly unless I can somehow get permission from the dozens of fanartists. If I were to do a video on my outlining style, I would recreate my format from scratch to showcase it, rather than use my actual story notes.

I will share a snippet of my outline that uses screenshots from canon though, since that's what I used for my first few chapters.

[Put two in there because the first has lower quality.]

Okay! So my goal with my outline and how I format it is to both have the details and the big picture. I want to get a ton of information at a glance. That's why I use pictures and colour coding, so let me walk you though each feature, from top to bottom.

The Parts: 'The Light Invasion' is divided into three parts, and the chapters of each part sit on their own row, so we have the 13 chapters of Part I at the top, and then the 29 chapters Part II below that, and then the 11 chapters of Part III at the bottom. When I zoom out of my outline, I have a quick way to visualise how long each part is.

The Columns: I think it's pretty obvious that each column is a chapter. Since the state of the sky is perhaps the most plot-relevant thing in my story, that's what that strip of colour at the top of each column represents. The light blue represents a typical day/night cycle, while the dark blue is the perpetual night, and then there's orange later on that represents perpetual twilight.

Chapter Names: I've explained in one of my videos why I think chapter names are just as helpful to writers as they are to readers, but the gist is they can help me remember which chapter is about what. It also means I can connect the chapters in my outline to the chapters in my contents page and manuscript.

Thumbnails: These are screenshots, stock images, or fanart that make a great visual shorthand for what the chapter is about. The first chapter includes a prose adaptation of the opening scene from 'Twilight Princess' where Rusl and Link are chatting at dusk in the spring, and the second chapter is when the perpetual night has set in over Ordon Village, hence the use of screenshots. We haven't departed that far from canon yet!

Edit Tracking: Before I post my fics, I usually do three final rounds of editing. The first round is the final copyedit, when I resolve everything I made a note in my manuscript to change. The second edit is the final proofread, which is also what I record myself reading out loud for the podfic. The final "edit" is the editing of the podfic. These checklists help me keep track of that, so I don't end up doing extra edits because I forgot I already did a part of the process.

Scene Cards: So each card you see in each column represents a scene, and those cards are actually collapsible, so when you click on them, you get a full dot point list of the scene's beats, as well as possible details, description, and dialogue to introduce.

POV Colour Coding: The strip of colour at the top of each colour corresponds to the character who's POV we're in. As you can see, most of the POV is Link (green) with a little bit from Zelda (pink). We don't actually get to see our second-most prominent POV character have her own scene until Chapter 5, hence why you don't see any blue strips representing Midna, my blorbo to end all blorbos!

Single Sentence Summary: So this is something I kinda abandoned later in the outline, buuuuut the first sentence in each card, right next to the POV, is meant to describe the purpose of that scene's inclusion. I've since just started writing what the premise of each scene is and going from there. The thing about a scene's "purpose" is that it's pretty intuitive for me, so I don't really need to state "and this is what this scene will be for!" since I already know in my heart (or can figure it out during editing). But anyway, that little bit of text that's available even when the card is collapsed helps me quickly remember what a scene is about.

The Beige Colour: Okay, so remember how I mention zooming out to see my 53-chapter outline in full? A big part of this is that I actually use my outlines to track my writing and posting progress. The default colour for the cards is actually the same colour as the columns: so Dark Mode Black in my case. When I finish writing a scene, I colour it grey. When I post a chapter, I make it beige. That way, when I zoom out, it's really easy to see how much I've written compared to how much I've posted, as well as how much I have left to write/post.

So yeah! I use my outline not just as a plan for my story and a way to keep track of all the nitty gritty details, but also to track the progression of the drafting, editing, and posting process. It might seem complex to others, but works really well for me. I can find anything I want with ease, and I can learn a lot of what I need to with just a glance. Hopefully this will give you a few ideas on how to creatively use your outlines too!

P.S. This is just the plot for one book in a trilogy alone. It doesn't go into how I've done my worldbuilding notes or character profiles, the latter of which is uh...

Yeah...

Each one of those icons is actually a full Milanote board you can click on to see their character profiles. OC icons were made using Djarn and Brightgoat's picrews. Idk where that picture I use for Fabian is from and I'm too low on spoons to find out.

(also this relationship chart is outdated so take everything here with a grain of salt)

[aemiron-main]

newcomer here but what's the deal with edward creel? he's never mentioned in the show, right?

HELLO AND WELCOME, ANON!!! Fantastic question, I'm always so happy to see people getting interested in the Edward stuff! :DD And also, I'm still going to answer all of this here (and I'm going to talk about TFS too, because that's something I don't talk about in the video because it was made pre-TFS), but I do also have a youtube video with a basic explanation of Edward! So, Edward Creel is not verbally mentioned in the show- but he IS in the show! Like, the name "Edward Creel," does very much appear in the show, on our screens. You can see it in the Indianapolis Gazette article about the Creel murders when Nancy and Robin are reading the articles in the library:

(it's also clearer if you go and watch netflix in HD on your phone & zoom in- unfortunately, in order to screenshot it, I have to use google chrome on PC & netflix caps the quality on google chrome specifically because of chrome's ability to bypass their anti-screenshot stuff, hence why the screenshot looks fairly blurry, but it's actually much, much clearer on the screen when you watch the show at a higher quality. That's why I'm able to accurately read the papers even though my screenshots are blurry/almost illegible sometimes-it's because I'm actually reading them off of the HD version on my phone most of the time.) Basically, there's three different news articles about the Creel murders that we see during that Nancy and Robin library scene- the Roane Daily Citizen, the Indianapolis Gazette, and the Weekly Watcher. The Roane Daily Citizen is too far away for us to read any of it, unfortunately, so we don't know what's in there. But then, when it comes to the Indianapolis Gazette, we can read it & see that it talks about Edward Creel- and it also says that Edward's father is Victor, his sister is Virginia, and his mother is Alice. And then in the Weekly Watcher, Edward Creel is absent, and instead, it talks about Henry Creel, his sister, Alice, his father, Victor, and his mother, Virginia. So, not only do we have the Edward vs Henry thing in these papers, but Virginia and Alice's roles in the family have been swapped (and there's a ton of other differences too, like Victor's age changing, and the fact that according to the Edward paper, the Creels lived in Hawkins for two years and moved there in 1959, whereas with Henry, the Creels moved there in 1959, and lived there very briefly prior to the murders- you can check out posts like this post, this post, and this post for more information regarding the differences between the Edward paper vs the Henry paper)! And while you might be thinking that Edward's name in the paper is just a typo, keep in mind that: a.) The ST team is so insanely meticulous about props (the duffers had to personally approve the *shape of el's bloodstains on her gown during NINA*) and you can go and read some of the alternate versions of the articles that didn't make it into the show- so, they put enough time and effort and thought into it to have multiple, extremely detailed custom articles & to go through multiple interactions of it. b.) There's tons of other "Edward" references outside of the paper- the name "Edward" is bolded on the S4 movie inspo board, Eddie "Edward" Munson is constantly delivering Edward Creel subtext (if you want an easy rundown of how Eddie Munson delivers Edward Creel subtext, I talk about it in that Edward Creel youtube video), as well as 9324737984 other things that I’ve posted about! and c.) Some of the newspaper articles in The First Shadow also align with the Edward articles- like I talked about in this post, we get a glimpse of an article that seems to talk about Virginia as the daughter of the Creel family and Alice as the mother, the exact same family dynamic that's present in Edward's newspaper, but not in Henry's paper.

So, to answer your main question/"what's the deal with Edward Creel?"- we don't entirely know what his deal is in-universe, but some options are that Edward might be Henry's naturally-occurring alternate timeline counterpart, like a Twinner, he might be some sort of long-lost twin, he might also be the result of some sort of lab experiment/cloning experiment- or Henry might be the result of that, after all, basically everything happened to Edward first- he moved to Hawkins two years before Henry did, and his Creel murders happened a few days before Henry’s Creel murders. So, sometimes it feels like Edward might be the original Creel boy, but who knows!

However, regardless of his still-mysterious origins, I do also think that he’s likely Vecna (and then there’s also all of the weird Brenner is Vecna stuff/the idea of a Brenner-Edward or Brenner-Henry merge like the merge in The Fly, but that’s a whole big topic for another time), because as mentioned earlier, I think that Eddie “Edward” Munson is being used to deliver subtext about Edward Creel, and one of Eddie Munson’s main things is that because he’s the DM for the Hellfire DND game, he “is” Vecna because he plays as Vecna in the DND game- but Eddie Munson isn’t the “real,” Vecna, instead, I think that Eddie “Edward” Munson “being” the fictional Vecna in DND is delivering the subtext that Edward Creel is the real Vecna. But this is also another topic that I go through in that video I linked, so there’s a lengthier explanation of this there.

And now, this also all ties to Mike/the Wheelers (and if you’ve seen stuff talking about “The Creelers,” floating around, this is what that’s referring to), because I think that Karen Wheeler is a Creel- but not Alice Creel.

Instead, I think she’s Virginia Creel- but not Henry’s mother, Virginia, instead, I think she’s Edward’s sister, Virginia. You can check out this post, this post, this post, and this post for more information regarding Virginia and Karen, but long story short, we don’t know what happened to the daughter version of Virginia from the Edward timeline- we have no idea if she died, we don’t know how old she was, we don’t even know her hair colour or eye colour. There’s so much room there for Karen to be that daughter version of Virginia, without the issues that are present when it comes to the idea of her being Alice- issues like Alice’s eye colour not being the same as Karen’s eye colour (but Karen’s eye colour IS the same as Mother Virginia Creel’s eye colour, and Daughter Virginia may also have had those same brown eyes/this may be another point in favour of Karen being Daughter Virginia), or Alice’s death.

This would also mean that Edward Creel is Mike’s uncle- and it may explain the weird connection that exists between Vecna and the Wheelers (his whole thing with Nancy & showing her the vision of her family), because if Edward is Vecna, Karen is Daughter Virginia, then Holly, Nancy, and Mike are all Vecna’s nieces/nephew.

And then, there’s also The First Shadow’s Edward references and the fact that "Henry" in TFS keeps having to remind himself that his name is Henry (he keeps repeating "I'm normal, I'm Henry Creel"), and is two years older than he should be (TFS Henry is 14, whereas in-show Henry is 12 according to the Weekly Watcher), which then aligns suspiciously well with Edward having moved to Hawkins two years before Henry/possibly being two years older that Henry (we never get a confirmed age for Edward), especially considering the Edward references in TFS, such as a song about a guy named Edward being referenced right before Walter asks TFS "Henry" who he is. I've got a lot of other posts about Edward and TFS in my TFS post list, too! But yeah! I hope that's a helpful little rundown for you, Anon, there's so much stuff I didn't include because there's just so much to dig through regarding Edward and I didn't want to overwhelm you with all of it at once, but you can also check out my list of Edward posts for further reading,

I also highly recommend you check out henrysglock, heroesbyler and reikunrei's blogs for more Edward stuff! I was trying to keep this as a brief introduction to Edward, but there’s so many great posts out there for you to dive into if you’re interested!! Thanks for the ask!! <33

[cindersnows]

DISSECTIONS AND THEORIES: HANG WITH ME GUYS

Fig 1.1 - 1.5

ok ignoring the goofy ass screenshots: it's clear chosen is getting attacked here. assumedly by someone from or related to rocket inc, and i get the feeling the screen is purposefully cropped so that we can't see the attacker. i'll get to WHO i think the attacker is later.

Fig 2.1 - 2.2

here, it seems like second is either drawing smth out to show alan, or drawing a kind of defense/weapon thing (like how she did in ava5 and ava4). either way, he's clearly panicked and frantic, probably bc of chosen. alan isn't moving the cursor so he probably doesn't know what's happening yet (hence why i'm leaning towards the idea that second is explaining something).

Fig 3.1 - 3.6

my first thought was that chosen got fire laser eyes somehow, but nah it's just firebreathing again (alan rembered!!!!)

Fig 4

NEW CHARACTER!!! they don't look like any of the sticks we've seen, including the ones in stickcity in avm30. my guess is this was intentional: the crew were clearly planning this out since before avm30, so the fact that all of the background sticks looked normal was on purpose. difference in style can't be the reason for why this stick looks so quirky.

going to be calling them logo (at my little brother's request): they look a lot like AIM or another type of program. they seem purposefully bulky, so i'm guessing they're supposed to be good with brute force and fighting. gives me CIA/FBI vibes, kinda like a military secret ops stick.

either logo is from a website, like rgyb (since solo animators probably wouldn't draw a stick as 'clean looking' as this), or they're built by the people from rocket inc. maybe there are multiple sticks built exactly like this, and this is the stickfigure equivalent of a killer robot.

Fig 5

SECOND NOOOO :((

not much to say about this shot, i'm guessing he's getting knocked down by logo, the other stick or a third mysterious stick we haven't seen.

Fig 6.1 - 6.2 + Fig 7.1 - 7.2

this is the other stick!!!! idk what to call her but i know i'm going to babygirlify her to hell and back. glados vibes imo.

originally (looking at fig 5) i assumed rocket inc was just going in to capture second, maybe for his powers, but it seems they're going for the kill. (imagine if they shoot and the bullet just goes through second's head)

in fig 6 it seems like sec is either waving to someone or looking for someone. my guess is chosen, although it could be someone from rgyb. not dark, because i'm guessing sec would be more apprehensive or more aggressive (and we don't even know if vir survived yet). not purple or mango bc there's no logical reason for them to be here.

glados stick seems to be a sniper of some sort, probably working for rocket inc only. she has a kind of tab over her face with a search function, which implies that rocket inc has access to some high tech stuff or they're utilising human functions like the zoom button to work.

this is a long shot since we've seen like 3 frames of them but i feel like glados stick is probably going to be a serious, straightfoward no-nonsense kind of guy. king, purple and dark were all kind of dramatic in their villainy, so having a more discrete to-the-point sniper as one of the new villains would make sense.

Fig 8.1 - 8.5

chosen seems to be escaping to somewhere, obviously glitching. i'm guessing they were in a fight with rocket inc, which got so dire that they ran off to get help from alan and co. this implies that rocket inc can literally corrupt/glitch out code which.... oh no.

Fig 9

you literally cannot see anything here bUT i included it anyways bc it feels important and i'm scrounging for scraps here.

it's not shown in the screenshot but there's like a zoom of black streaks across the screen. obviously a smear frame, but imo it seems like there's actually multiple people moving instead of just one. none of the smears are connected at any point in time so this leads me to believe that rocket inc have a group of (identical looking?) agents probably chasing after chosen and second. might be connected to what i said earlier about logo being one of many stickfigure robots or smth although i'm doubtful abt that.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

here's how i think the shots are ordered:

fig 3 coming first, with chosen fighting rocket inc.

then fig 8 as they escape to get help from alan and second.

second meets chosen and smth happens, then alan pops up, leading to fig 2 where second is frantically explaining the situation to alan.

fig 9, where rocket inc is sending a group of agents to find chosen and second.

fig 6, probably after second and chosen and maybe rgyb go down to the outernet to do something. chosen goes missing and second is trying to find them.

fig 7, glados stick tries to shoot second but he somehow dodges it; this alerts him of the enemies nearby at which point the rocket inc stops trying to be stealthy.

fig 4, logo and maybe some other agents are chasing after second.

fig 5, second gets knocked down by someone.

i don't really know where the sequence in fig 1 would go because it could either be at the very start, before chosen escapes to alanspc, or after fig 5, assuming they somehow get to stickcity while being chased by rocket inc.

i think there's probably a third stick in rocket inc that they haven't revealed. someone with more flashy powers/fighting style, unlike glados stick and logo. the reason i think so is because of the sequence of fig 1 --- chosen is getting their ass beat by someone.

glados stick is a sniper, so it's highly unlikely she's the one fighting them (unless she's multitalented, though i feel like she'd wouldn't have strong punches like that). it could be logo, but due to their build and the fact that they're holding a gun i also doubt they'd have a close combat fighting style like that - it seems too fast for them.

imo it's most likely another stick we haven't seen, and i doubt it's dark or victim or anyone from the avm series.

SPEAKING OF DARK

WHERE THE FUCK IS SHE

i have to believe that the crew purposely didn't show dark in any of the shots, to leave her fate in ava5 a mystery for longer. regardless of whether vir died or not, there's no way they won't be at least mentioned in the new episode (whether it's as a the leader of rocket inc, as a living person alongside chosen, or just as someone acknowledging her role in ava5 and the fact that she might be dead). i don't like the idea that xe's leading rocket inc because it seems ooc for me, so i'm guessing rocket inc will probably have a wanted poster of her or some kind of record of them dying (if that's the case). i really really doubt they'll just leave him out of the episode entirely, unless he actually is alive and is being saved for a future plot twist of some kind.

anyways,

I AM SO FUCKING HYPED OH MY GOD

IF YOU READ THIS FAR THANK YOU. I'M GOING TO EXPLODE NOW

EVERYBODY SHUT UP ALAN POSTED A TEASER

[the-empress-7]

Rumour has it that wasn’t a business zoom call and it was a private one, hence why Archie & Doria were on it. Looks like they’ve either been hacked or someone deliberately took a screenshot & leaked it on social media. And there was Harry thinking the biggest threat to his family was lack of security, nope, it’s his wife’s desperation.

I heard it was for Archetypes, isn't that business?

[phantasyreign]

Hi, I'm having some troubles with Theme 03: Qinni Han. When I use the theme, it's too zoomed in on my blog page, causing aspects of it to overlap. Is this something that can be fixed?

Hi! Thank you for contacting me. I went to your blog and so that I can see what it seems to be the problem. However, it looks alright from my end as what you can see from the screenshot below:

Be that as it may, I think I may know the issue. Just to double confirm, from your chrome Settings - Appearance, have change the font size/page zoom to anything other than the default option? I ask this because the unit that I used for coding is actually a relative unit. Meaning to say that the size of the elements may increase/decrease depending on the said option (the font size/page zoom from the chrome settings).

For example, if I change the font size to large like what you've seen from this screenshot,

Your blog will look like this:

Does the screenshot above looks the same as the one you are facing? If yes, then the chrome setting might be the issue.

Since this is actually one of the earliest themes that I created, I didn't take note of the possibility of other people changing the font size through chrome settings. Hence, that's why it may look wonky.

Other than that, then I'm not too sure what it seems to be the problem because as I mentioned earlier, it works fine from my end. I hope this clarifies!

P/S: I love the color scheme of your blog <3

[kickingstonesandbones]

What I’ve gathered from the 3 Episodes bc some of y’all seem confused or asked

Disclaimer: For the past 10+ years, I've made it a hobby of mine to thoroughly analyze fictional characters and plots, so I feel pretty confident in predicting characters. There rarely are plot twists that can surprise me. BUT that is obviously no guarantee that I am absolutely perfect at it and never wrong! Nor do I believe that I am always correct, just quite confident in reading between the lines with characters.

There are some theories and posts I've seen (on different platforms) that, I think, are doing a good job of getting the general gist of stuff, but nonetheless, they all seem to be overlooking minor details that can turn around meanings (like the way Hoshino acts). Also, many of you seem to either be ignoring or unaware of the mindset of older JAPANESE generations (of Insanely Rich Families™).

So yeah, I am just going to put statements/theories I’ve seen and go through them one by one. They’ll be obviously marked, so just read the ones you’re interested in? (Also, I absolutely love a good discourse, so if you have something that would challenge my own theories, or would like to discuss something that I haven’t touched up on in this OR want me to elaborate on something, feel free to comment, reblog, or dm me with your opinion or question! Whatever you’re more comfortable with 😊)

#1 Haru killed the woman. (I see this as a kind of side-comment a lot?)

#2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now. (Why it’s more complicated than that and also different than you think – explained more lengthily than I intended to, but still shorter than I could’ve lol)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists.

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now? (Just brain farts, pls kinda ignore this one haha I just wanted that one theory written down to get back to it)

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General... (aka Daisuke’s behavior in Ep 3 explained)

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected. (I haven’t seen a single post about the 1998 Files and the Parents in this context, for some reason, and was wondering.)

I’ll put a Read More here because this is going to be long, very long.

#1 Haru killed the woman.

Absolutely not true. (I do see people mention that like “he killed her in self-defense” in case you're thinking "well duh, Sherlock.") Choice of words is ALWAYS important.

In Episode 2 when Haru and Daisuke talk on the stairs, Daisuke relays information about Haru. He says, "you misfired and seriously injured the target" when talking about the reason why Haru is not in First Division anymore.

Now, Daisuke does not seem the type to sugarcoat facts, which means he would not leave out "which resulted in their death" at the end, or just straight up say "you misfired and killed the target." Now, 'seriously injured' means that the woman's life WAS in grave danger and she was close to dying, but she DID NOT DIE in the end. She survived. Being shot in the chest does not mean inevitable death. In fact, you can survive injury to any organ (even the brain) EXCEPT for the stomach (bc inner walls are covered in a protein that protects the stomach from digesting itself -> injury that would let the acid leak from it -> acid will burn away other organs -> you die of multiple organ failure bc you cannot stitch up a stomach)

It hits her in the right side of her chest, maybe even right below the shoulder. It’s hard for me to tell the exact position from the frames. But anyway, it most likely pierced through her right lung, which in itself is already deadly enough. But yeah, she did not die. No one in the anime ever even alludes to it.

I think some people believe he actually accidentally killed the woman because Haru was so devastated by it IMMEDIATELY. No, it wasn’t because of that per se. He was absolutely devastated because he. LOVES. PEOPLE. (As shown by his entire conversation with the boy on the train before he gets off and his faith in the good in people in Ep 3.) And it just left him so shaken that he (seriously) injured an innocent person. (In his eyes innocent because someone who is about to shoot you out of anger/other strong emotions is not necessarily innocent to me but that is an entirely different discussion.) Anyway, I think he was most shocked about the fact that he had pulled the trigger on her out of reflex (because he instinctively knew she WAS going to shoot him DEAD in that moment and his body reacted before he could think about it – as his immediate reaction to shooting her shows).

See the absolute shock in his eyes? Like he only realized what he did right after shooting her. Reflex.

 #2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now.

Yes, but no. I don't quite agree - and I don't agree mostly with the explanations given why (but also parts of the statements). And the reason for that is simply Hoshino's different facial expressions and exact choice of words in the interactions between them. To me, he seems like the type who would have an indifferent kind of face most of the time since I literally screenshotted every single scene with him (solely for this analysis lol), and he does have variation in expression, but only a little bit most of the time. His feelings are kinda subtle.

But before I explicitly explain what I mean, let me define something. 'Being torn' about something in general means that one cannot decide between two things, mostly two opposite (or at least quite different) things. And since some say Hoshino 'feels torn,' it would mean he would have two opposing feelings towards Haru, which I honestly don't think is true. It is just one very complex feeling that manifested over time.

Let me start by how Hoshino views Haru.

Haru is Hoshino's senior (senpai). Hoshino is Haru's junior (kohai). As we can see in the flashback in Ep 3 on the rooftop, Hoshino admires Haru. Like, this baby has complete and utter admiration in his eyes.

(He likely also thinks in that moment that Haru is insane, but that is besides the point right now.) He admires Haru for being able to do things fearlessly that he hesitates about. He looks like he’d like to be just like Haru as well. He looks up to him.

Then, the incident of Haru shooting the woman happens. Haru leaves the First Division and 'gets demoted' to the MCPTF. The two of them only speak to each other with higher level (distant relationship) honorifics. (I have a point about Hoshino calling Haru senpai in the first episode, but I will get to that.) Why they fell back into stranger honorifics will get more obvious in my second main point.

In the flashback we get in the third episode,

we get a Hoshino who stays on the side, also looking kind of dejected. I do not think that he is disappointed or angry at that moment. He just stares at his senpai in silence. Since he admires Haru so much, I guess he always wanted to be a cop JUST LIKE Haru, so he is... grieving? with Haru. I don't really know how to put it into words, but you could say he is HURTING by seeing his amicable, precious senpai BEATEN. Do not forget that Takei (Haru’s former superior) also puts a reassuring hand on Haru's shoulder. This interaction shows that they DO NOT blame him. (I am saying this bc I've seen people angry about what Hoshino says to Haru in Ep 3, saying "why would he hate him so much now and be so mean" - he doesn't. He absolutely. Does. Not. Hate. Him. He is frustrated and disappointed, but not hateful towards Haru.)

Having explained that, let me get to my first main point here:

I don't think I need to lay out Haru's work ethics for you guys because they're so clearly shown in the anime. So considering those work ethics of his, I truly believe that Haru ASKED to be removed from the First Division (which is why I put gets demoted in '   ' earlier) and be switched to one where he does not need a gun. Hence, he's now in the MCPTF. We do not SEE him getting demoted after that incident, which is why I firmly believe that that was Haru's decision and that he was persistent about it. When he packs up and leaves

he does not seem sour to HAVE to leave the division, but rather that he still seems to dwell over the reason WHY he's packing his stuff up. (You can see turmoil in his eyes. And that he’s lost in thoughts. He seems regretful, but also kind of set on something.) I mean the train scene really shows just HOW MUCH it still affects him

so I am pretty certain that he's thinking about exactly that and that he does not deserve to be a cop because of what he has done in that exact moment, and so on.

My second main point:

My first main point is exactly the reason why I think Hoshino acts the way he does towards Haru. It explains his expression that we see as Haru packs up his stuff.

He does not look angry.

He is hurt. And disappointed.

He feels let down.

In a sense, also betrayed. Like this isn’t reality.

The oh-so-great senpai, whom he has always looked up to all this time, who seemed so amazing, is pulling in his tail between his legs. Giving up. And running away. Just like that. Just because of ONE mistake. One mistake ALL of them probably would've made in that situation if they had been in his shoes. It made him realize that the senpai he had idolized all this time might not be as invincible as he had thought.

And. It. Hurts. Hoshino. To. No. End. (I mean, just zoom in on the pic and look at those eyes.)

I don't think he has ever let Haru know just how hurt he was just watching him leave and accepting the work he'd do in MCPTF (which is literally just desk work and filling in missing men force, as far as we’ve seen), which probably would mean that he let the hurt foster and foster inside of him until it slowly started to turn into coldness/curtness towards Haru. (Also could be that they fought before Haru left, which would also explain some remarks Hoshino makes.) He was hurt, and he somehow needed to show it.

Hoshino looked up to Haru, and was left feeling let down by his former partner. That stings. Deeply.

(I mean you can literally see the small changes in his eyes. His expressions slightly soften and harden. But the words tend to be more direct and harsh. And honestly, that is the result of disappointment and hurt speaking. But nevertheless, he still lets Haru and Kamei listen in (bottom right corner) even though he does look slightly annoyed; probably because he knows that he won’t be able to get rid of them, especially Haru. So the admiration is still there – probably had never left – which can give him moments where he “gives in”. Also, look at the bottom left corner.)

I mean Hoshino probably used to ALWAYS call Haru senpai for a longer period of time because he NEVER ever calls Haru senpai in the anime except for that one time when Haru startled him in the first episode. People in general react out of reflex and instinct whenever they're startled because reflexes and instincts are not a thing your brain CONSCIOUSLY processes. Those are subconscious responses.

If you don’t believe me, here is the other times Hoshino has called Haru – and when he did, it was literally only “Kato-san” (there aren’t a lot of other examples bc he literally only says Haru’s name like four times so far, but when he is NOT surprised, he addresses Haru like this):

(Completely taken aback by Haru just stealing the ear-piece, surprised face, afterwards not even aware that he did call Haru senpai, which he never does again (so far))

Which means Hoshino did not (more like COULD NOT) think about the way he'd call Haru, so that "senpai" slipped past his lips out of pure old habit. (Which goes to show that they used to be really close.) I'm not crying, you are.

.

I also have to bring up that first conversation on the train in Ep 3.

Kato: “That was rather fast.”

Hoshino: “Why are you here?” (he says Kato-san in Japanese, not “you”)

K: “I happened to be on the train. The perp is male. He said he failed the college entrance exam, so his age is somewhere around 19 or 20. I’m guessing he’s from somewhere around Hyogo.”

H: “How do you know-”

K: “I was sitting next to him, until moments ago.”

H: “Any other information?”

K: “No. I only started talking to him when I was close to getting off.”

H: “Understood. We at First Division will be handling this case. Kato-san, please take your leave.”

K: “It’s alright. I’m not a stranger in his light. Let me do it.”

H: “Do you have any authority to be on this crime scene?”

K: “What do you mean?”

H: “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

Look exactly at the changes in their eyes in each single picture here. Notice how Hoshino goes from surprised to somewhat indifferent to challenging? Someone might even argue that he looks angry, hostile, or that it’s resentment in his eyes, but considering that he is asking “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” it is neither of those, because he is challenging Haru to defend himself. But Haru doesn’t answer, and they just stare each other down for a few seconds.

Just by the way Hoshino says it, and the way Haru reacts and how it immediately triggers the flashback/memory afterwards, I think this might actually be something Haru has said TO Hoshino (about himself) back then when Hoshino might've tried to change Haru's mind on leaving the First Division (that he does not deserve to be a cop, investigate crime scenes like that, etc). At least that interaction and just how Haru reacts to it seems to be implying that to me.

I refuse to believe Hoshino did not try at all to persuade and hold back Haru back then (I mean just that pic of Hoshino staring at Haru when he was packing his stuff and leaving the division literally SCREAMS INTO YOUR FACE), so I believe Haru told him at least SOMEWHAT how he feels about the whole thing, and I think Haru probably definitely said something along those lines. Like, he “did not deserve to investigate crime scenes LIKE THAT” (I mean the trauma and the train scene are literally the same hostage scenario with the culprit having a firearm (even if the kid's was a model gun and not real)) nor that he “deserved to be a cop any longer (because cops wouldn’t hurt the innocent).” He might’ve said something like that to Hoshino, which only frustrates and disappoints the latter further.

So in this complicated mess, what is it that Hoshino is actually feeling? That mixture of hurt, disappointment, betrayal and being let down has manifested itself into frustration. Hoshino is frustrated with Haru.

He’ll probably explode (in Haru’s face) at some point in the anime, too.

(I think Hoshino is an interesting character.)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists

I was so confused about that scene in the beginning and had to check whether I WAS actually watching the third episode lol

The main thing I get from it is that it's entirely about INFORMATION. That is probably entirely because the Hong Kong episode got deleted and instead we'll get that in a drama CD? In Hong Kong, Haru probably would've learned that HEUSC is an AI butler, not a real one, and how to use him. (Among other things.) I mean, he somehow needs to first get to learn about HEUSC before he can use him for the whole train scenario later in the episode? And that hadn't been done yet, and probably would've happened in Hong Kong, but we aren't getting that in the anime so that information needed to be given another way. Which is probably why that first scene even exists. If anyone knows well about script writing for that and how that in general works, and knows more about this, please let me know, I am interested in learning lmao

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now?

I do not want anyone to comment that it was confirmed that they are siblings or some shit. NOTHING has been confirmed. She still could be his wife. She also just could be his sister. Or a cousin. We will get to know eventually, but as of right now, NOTHING AT ALL HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. REMEMBER THAT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU HATE IT.

I, in general, do not really care for ships. So idgaf if she is his sister or wife, but I DO have a theory of my own. And it is all because of how Daisuke's grandmother introduced herself.

DAISUKE'S grandmother. Not THEIRS. Not Daisuke's AND Suzue's grandmother. ONLY Daisuke's.

So this either means a harsh canon awakening for shippers, or it MIGHT mean something entirely else. (And I have 3 points to make here.)

(1) That she does not accept Suzue as a grandchild. Now, she did not look like she harbors resentment towards Suzue and wished she wasn't present at all or didn't exist. Buuuuut.... Suzue might be an illegitimate grandchild? Like, I know that sounds wild, but hear me out.

Children sometimes look more like one parent rather than the other (or a parent’s side). Sometimes, not always, but often enough. Animes in general do not make love interests or parents look almost identical. (But then again, you could never know with the devs of this one lmao) Soooo... It could be that they either look like their father, or their mother. And the respective parent had an affair, resulting in Suzue. And why I believe it would be Suzue, if one of them actually would be the illegitimate child? Because she is younger than Daisuke, and the way the grandmother treats HIM. (Honestly, if Daisuke would be the illegitimate child, 1. Grandma wouldn't claim him 2. Why would the other parent stick around for two more years to have another child with a cheater?) Which could be why - considering the mindset of older Japanese generations - why she only introduced herself as Daisuke's grandmother. And also why she is so immensely strict with him. In her eyes, he would be the only heir to the family. So she has to raise him to be a responsible man whom she can hand over the company to with peace of mind.

(2) Daisuke and Suzue are actually married. So get over it in this case. (And don't you DARE hate on a great character (again) because of that, otherwise I'll only refer to ya'll as salty hoes from them on.)

(3) We all (read: I) might be interpreting too much into it and it literally means nothing at all, and she just introduced herself that way because they were going to talk about Daisuke because of his new work place and since Daisuke and Haru are partners. For this case, I already have my wig, red nose, and make up ready 🤡

If I am being honest, (1) does not seem too likely to me – just something I randomly thought of. I actually think it’s just simply (3). But I am presenting it for the VERY small chance that (1) could actually be true lmao I bet I will cringe hard at it later

Highly likely: Since Haru would be more involved with Daisuke than Suzue because of work, it could be that she just found it more logical to introduce herself as his grandma, rather than theirs, so yeah… like I’ve said, these are just brain farts and I just wanted to have them written down lol

EDIT: I’ve been made aware that there seems to be an error in the translation. Since it is too much of a pain to add even more pics on mobile, I will just relay the information of the tweet. You can find the link to the tweet in the comments though. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I am dependent on the translation, so errors can occur, which makes me happy when people point something like this out to me. Basically, what Kikuko is actually saying in Japanese is that she’s the grandma, but she leaves out the pronouns - therefore not really saying whose grandma she is - so it could refer to both of them. Like I said, (1) doesn’t seem likely to me anyway lol

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General...

Are strict. Are very conservative. Especially insanely rich families like the Kambe's. Kikuko is NOT strict with him because she has a bad personality or because she is inherently mean or something. (Though she does seem to consider him a bit irresponsible because she calls him selfish)

(Also notice how she asks “so hasn’t he” instead of “he hasn’t been, has he?” which means she always expects him to cause trouble for everyone. This goes to show that Daisuke can never do enough or do good enough for her, which also explains his character a bit since his grandma took care of him since his parents died, but my point here is not to analyze his entire behavior.)

The Japanese have a culture of respect. Respect your elders. Unconditionally. And grandparents of insanely rich families like Daisuke's also demand respect, which means not talking back, or DISOBEYING THEIR ORDERS. Which brings me to the next point (for which I have written this one because y’all might be misinterpreting Daisuke’s behavior, which is exactly what I meant in the beginning with “ignoring or being unaware of the mindset of older Japanese generations”)...

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Sorry to burst the bubbles.

I see everyone going on about them now being partners, and Daisuke trusting his life with Haru’s judgement.

The second part, yes… kinda at least.

The first? Not so much.

Let me talk about the first half of the sentence first. Like the point before this clarifies – unconditional, non-questioning respect, and no disobedience. Which means that Daisuke would NOT go against the orders of his grandmother. By helping Haru with that case and listening to him, being coached, is literally just him obeying Kikuko. (He might also think that it would be better to just follow before Haru rats him out to his grandma for a second time.)

(I do bet though that that will soon change and be genuine!)

Now, with the part about trusting his life to Haru’s judgement… I am not sure whether I can properly explain this the way I mean it, so I just hope it will make sense. I think Daisuke kind of trusted Haru’s judgement on the boy, but also trusted his own judgement just a little more than that. I think he just made logical deductions from what he witnessed inside (reported that a person was down and that they were probably killed by the boy, then it turns out he is doing all that for his sister’s surgery, then it turns out that gun is not real (after causing a distraction) and nobody is actually injured, but then he gets his hand on a real gun (Hoshino’s) and points it their direction in a panic, and Daisuke notices Haru cannot shoot the boy, so he deducts that if the boy knows that his sister will be safe, he will calm down and the situation will be completely de-escalated, so he steps forward and states he will pay for it (he does not really care about spending money as we all know lol) and stands with confidence because he knows flinching or getting nervous – or even blinking – would make it look like a lie and he would definitely NOT want that). Does this make sense? Like, Daisuke is such a calm and collected person, I doubt he would just absolutely BLINDLY jump into something because of someone else’s judgement BEFORE making sure that their judgement is correct by his own observation of the situation, which would be why he stayed behind Haru and just observed until a certain point where he was absolutely certain that it would be safe to do so.

Though what that DOES mean though would be that Daisuke would probably trust Haru’s judgement without being too skeptical about it soon. (I feel like this might’ve been that part in the Episode 3 Hong Kong PV 3 where a person (looks A LOT like Daisuke, so I’ll just assume it was him) was cuffed and Haru comes to the rescue. It might’ve been that Haru judged that person who ended up doing this to Daisuke to be shady, but Daisuke went ahead anyway and got himself in trouble, which was why he ended up cuffed to something, or something of that sort that would show Daisuke Haru’s judgement can be trusted.) [Edit: I used this simply as a theorizing example of how this could be done in another way with a scene that actually DOES exist (though we won’t be seeing that in the anime anymore it is still canon material) instead of having to make something up, and Hong Kong was just a good example to further show my point.]

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected.

In short: Yes, I think so.

In long: (This theory might be a far reach hahah)

The first time we see Haru enter the office of his division, he is carrying files.

'Unsolved Case Files 1998,' it specifically reads. We know Daisuke's parents have died and he says “it was in Japan” when that one day turned his life around (though we do not have any indication of year yet). I assume they were killed (and that it wasn’t an accident at all) and it is the true reason why he came back to Japan (even though yeeeaaars later bc he needed to be trained)

and why he specifically asked to be in the MCPTF BECAUSE Haru is in it (I’ll explain why soon), instead of the First or Second Division - as the superintendent general had suggested for him to be put into, which resulted in Daisuke declining the offer.

But we don't know much about Haru's family. Actually, NOTHING AT ALL. Now, I think that his parents are dead as well, and that their deaths are connected to Daisuke's parents' deaths. The fact that Haru looks through cold cases (or well, at least old cases), which is only briefly shown by showing the files he carried in the first episode, most likely is meant to be some "foreshadowing/hidden info given” kind of thing. Haru is possibly investigating his parents' (or at least a loved one's) death. His parents' death (if none of his parents were police officers themselves and therefore influenced him in that way) is possibly also the reason Haru became a police officer in the first place (even though he tells Daisuke that it is simply to "nab criminals," maybe specifically the criminals who have to do with that?).

Now, I said before that Daisuke asked to be in the same Division as Haru, not the MCPTF (though he names the division, not Haru’s name but you'll know why I'm saying that by the end of this. I don’t think he has immense interest in the division itself but WHO is IN IT). In the second episode, we get to know that Daisuke has a lot of information about Haru. During the case of Isezaki, we get to know during the interrogation that Daisuke obtains information about a person by having HEUSC scan a person's documentation item

or simply by asking HEUSC. 

We never see him doing that with Haru though (I also seriously doubt Haru would hand him any kind of ID, especially in the beginning lol), which brings me to the point that Daisuke probably already had obtained all of Haru's information before he had arrived in Japan; or maybe at the latest after the Bridge incident though I am pretty certain it was BEFORE arriving in Japan, just that maybe he didn’t know the face? Or maybe he even knew the face but didn’t care. (He probably knew more than just about the trauma and why Haru left the First Division, but Haru did not let him speak any further in that scene. It is unclear though, whether Daisuke would've kept talking or that being all of the information he would have delivered in that moment.)

Because Daisuke might already know from the start that their pasts are connected, while Haru is oblivious to it.

So, Daisuke wants to solve the murder of his parents, and he might think that the key to solving it might be by being around someone/doing it with someone who is also connected to it.

(I have no clue whether I am still making sense bc I haven’t slept and worked on this all night, going through the episodes again and again and at this point I am just extremely tired lol)

Like, I know by the fact that we are only 3 Episodes in that this might sound like a far reach BUT I seriously would not be surprised by this. The thing about storytelling is that at one point you would need to introduce the Motive™ of the story. Since animes have very limited time to tell the story in only 20 minutes, at least ALMOST everything in an episode sooner or later needs to give us that information; and honestly? They could’ve started this anime in ANY other way, but they chose to start by Daisuke telling us about his parents. And I honestly just think that it would be odd if that is not of greater importance in the whole story, so I think that that might be the motive that should be revealed within the first half of the anime. The devs seem like the kind of people who would give small hints for something like this (Daisuke’s parents, the 1998 Files) throughout the entire show and then SLAP it into the face of the ones who are unsuspecting in the second half of the anime, ESPECIALLY since they are so secretive with everything lmao I love them.

I am going to bed now, I’m so fucking tired lol

August 3, 2020

[dracarysqueen]

tumblr retina fix (tutorial)

For everyone who is stuck with shitty, blurry images on Tumblr (or elsewhere) after upgrading to a retina screen, don’t despair! I’ve found and worked out a quick turnaround to this problem (until the whole internet is ready for higher quality images). Some people were asking, so I’ve decided to write a tutorial, since I figured it might help people like me that were completely at lost on how to deal with the downgrade in quality after upgrading to a high density screen. How did I wish for a quick solution myself when I first switched! After SEVERAL hours of research and testing, I think I’ve found something that at least makes me NOT want to scratch my eyes out. And YES, it also work on gifs, because that’s what’s important, am I right?

Please note that it doesn’t render all images perfectly, but it’s way better than seeing everything on Tumblr look blurry. It also makes the text on images a bit over-sharpened, which is unfortunate, but it’s the lesser of two evils, IMO. Sometimes, it also makes some pictures look over-sharpened, but I haven’t seen it a lot so far.

IMPORTANT! A lot of people won’t really be able to tell apart retina or non-retina screens. These two screenshots from a gif I made were taken from two browsers to show the differences. They are also a bit zoomed in to show more details. As a gif maker and a graphic designer, my eyes see a lot of details in pictures that other people don’t. That’s why I just couldn’t let this go and searched for a way to fix it for people like me. If you can’t see the differences between the two screenshots before, this tutorial isn’t for you.

This quick fix is for Retina displays, but I believe it could also be worked out for Windows HiDPI. This tutorial works with Google Chrome, but could also be applied to any other browser with a CSS/JS replacing script extension.

The problem with retina and images is that your new high definition screen scale up low-density images to fit their sizes, hence the blurriness and the pixelated vibe. Browsers are separate entities so they do their own rendering, and that’s what we’re gonna play with here.

***

First, download and install the Stylebot extension.

Copy this code snippet. 

Click the CSS icon in your extensions list, and go to “Options...”

Select the Backup Tab, click on “Import Styles...”

Paste the previous code into the prompt box. BEFORE SAVING, be sure to replace the “yourusername.tumblr.com” with your own Tumblr handle, so that the fix applies to your own theme as well.

Click on the “Import” button.

Refresh your browser.

***

This whole fix revolves around the CSS snippet below. Usually, the image-rendering property is set to auto, which triggers the blurriness. We’re setting that to pixelated, to get a few more details back. If you wanna know more about this property, look here. 

img {    -ms-interpolation-mode: nearest-neighbor;    image-rendering: pixelated; }

***

For Photoshop users using Retina, you can also open your program in Low Resolution to see how your work will look like on Tumblr and on other “normal” screens. This can be done by right-clicking on your PS app, select Get Info and check the box Open in low resolution. 

***

There you go! You fixed the way your browser sees Tumblr images and gifs! 

I hope this helped :)

[lethargic-lass]

So my brother sent me a screenshot (the pic to the left) of an online school meeting he attended today. He was like “Sis. Why does this look familiar? Is this from Persona???”

Boy did I burst out in laughter as I was shocked to see actual teachers using this picture as a background for their online game party. Heck I even said Ryuji’s catchphrase, “For real?”😂 Legit, they were playing 4 Pics 1 Word with this picture in the background! Hence the timer at the top left of the screen.

My brother asked me to search the Internet where his teachers got the background. We were suprised to see that it’s an actual background in the Zoom app (the pic to the right).😂 Still, it’s suprising to see teachers using this background for an online meeting, perhaps not knowing the symbolism behind that image.

[shepherd-of-the-stars]

Artificial

My submission for @hetabang​ ! Hope you like it! 

Word count: 3,590

Summary: Novovol, Russia, the 36th century. The people of this new age have formed two distinct societies: those of the upper world, high in the sky in pearly cities, and those of the lower world, living on junkyard scraps and breathing polluted air. These societies, both run on fear and power, were meant to forever stay separate. But one night, an android fell from the sky and broke through the barrier that divided them. An android who has no memory, not even his own name, programmed to be a companion, but also a guard. His weapons system had been upgraded illegally, and without proper maintenance, could prove to be dangerous and unstable. Ivan, one of the best mechanics of the lower world, fixes him up and gives him a name; Alfred. Together, they go on an adventure, discovering things about their world, themselves, and their feelings.

Chapter summary: Ivan ventures into the junkyard to dig through the heaps for useful treasures, his almost nightly activity. One wild decision changes the course of his life. 

Warnings: brief mentions of death and bodies, hints at abuse(through scars)

Rating: T (to be changed)

Chapter 1: Hell’s Wasteland

The cold night air did wonders in smothering the noxious scents that blanketed the junkyard like a fog. While the sun’s heat cooked them and made them more powerful, nighttime forced them into hiding. The stench of death and rusted metal was enough to make a normal person retch, but Ivan frequented the location often enough that it was nothing but a minor nuisance. 

With his scarf pulled up to cover his nose and goggles to protect his eyes from the chemicals and dust, he weaved through the heaps of filth, looking for treasures hidden amongst the trash. His mechanical pack mule followed behind him dutifully with its heavy, steel feet making square indents in the hard dirt. The droid was bulky and large, similar to the size of its namesake, but its well oiled parts allowed it to move silently. The only noise that came from it was when the luggage it carried clashed into each other inside the bins on its back. 

This machine, that Ivan had built from scraps and named Buster, carried his maker's oddments so that Ivan could dig through the heaps freely. Every couple feet, the man stopped to poke through the collection of garbage and junk to pick out pieces that he could use for his work. There was a time when he'd jump at every eerie thing he found, but after years of coming here, those things only made his heart skip just a little. 

Spotting a human-like leg sticking out from a pile, Ivan scanned it with his device and waited. "Artificial, 20% damage," it said, allowing Ivan to release his breath and drag the limb out so he could toss it into his bins. He had learned the hard way that it was better to be safe than to drag out a corpse. 

It was one of the reasons the place was nicknamed "Hell's Wasteland." Broken androids tossed out here made it look like the place was littered with human bodies. The gangs saw that as an opportunity and began to dispose of their enemies here, hence the smell of decay. No one but vultures like Ivan went through here. No one would ever see. And even if someone did, the law would never listen to someone who only had 2 sets of clothes and ate crumbs for meals. 

What was once a scrap yard had now turned into a dumping ground. After the owners had disappeared, no one was left to take over. Local rumors said that the owners were still on the land, buried under rotten food and broken refrigerators. “If you listen closely, you can hear them crying,” they would say, “they’re waiting for someone to rescue them. But once you get close enough, they’ll snatch your body and use it as their own.”

But Ivan knew better than to listen to wild stories of ghosts and possession. He knew after many visits that it was the cries of cats. When they yowled in the night, it sounded like a child who had lost their guardian, or perhaps someone who was in pain. And since they ran away at the slightest sound, it was no surprise many people have never seen the source of the sound. 

Just then, that exact sound that people dreaded hearing pierced through the air and struck Ivan’s heart with chilling fear. He knew it was only a cat, but even the bravest of men would flinch at a shrill noise breaking silence. Head tilted towards the night sky, he listened, waiting for the sound to meet him again. 

When it came, he followed it with the stealth of an assassin. Even the slightest disturbance could send them running, and Ivan didn’t want to miss his chance of seeing a cute cat. 

With every step, he drew closer, which meant the cat had not discovered him yet. Maybe this time he would be able to catch it and bring it home. Then again, his budget could barely support his sisters and himself. To add another mouth to feed, that would leave them eating out of the dumpster. But one could dream. A small part of him hoped that the soft clanging of metal in Buster’s bins scared the cat away so he wouldn’t have false hope. 

But things never seemed to turn out his way. As he peeked out from behind an overturned car, he spotted the cat that had been yowling for attention and finally understood why it had not run. 

What he saw was an unfortunate black cat stuck in a discarded raccoon trap, its paw reaching out past the bars in an attempt to open the spring doors. Ivan approached it slowly, his large body hunched over in an attempt to make himself smaller for the cat. The mental image of himself looking like a crooked, old witch approaching their animal apprentice crossed his mind and made him smile. 

“Don’t scratch me, please,” he whispered after tugging down his scarf, “I’m just trying to help you.”

Back arched and hairs standing straight, the cat was not happy at all that such a big creature was so close while it was defenseless. It hissed and swatted at Ivan’s hands when he got too close, but eventually, the human proved to be trustworthy. 

He didn’t make any sudden movements, and for that, the small creature was thankful. Slowly, it relaxed, pressing itself against the corner of the cage instead of trying to shred Ivan’s helping hand. 

“You’re very beautiful. I will call you Novi. Do you like that?” He smiled down at the black cat that stared at him with wide, wary eyes. The cage jolted and clicked when it was finally opened and the cat took off with such speed, he could see bits of the ground scatter as her claws tore it up. 

Ivan let out a soft grunt of disappointment watching her disappear behind a pile of garbage bags. “What? No ‘thank you’? That’s a little bit rude.” He chuckled at his own silliness before walking back over to his droid. “Did you get that, Buster?” 

Those keywords made the droid open his sealed mouth with a click. Ivan reached between the spiked teeth to grab a cord to connect to his phone while Buster’s eyes flashed red to verify his identity. They turned blue when the iris scan passed the test, his tail wagging as his defense mode was disengaged. Only Ivan, his sisters, and people he approved had access to Buster’s security files. If anyone else had tried it, the jaws would clamp shut with enough force to take their hand clean off their body.  

With a few taps, he was able to see what his droid’s eyes had recorded. Crystal clear footage of Ivan interacting with the cat popped up on his screen. The quality was good enough that Ivan could pause and zoom in on it just to get a closer look. He took a screenshot and smiled.

“Send this image to Kat. Caption it, ‘rescued a cat from a raccoon cage. Named it Novi. Can I keep it?’ Message complete.” He continued to scrub through the video as he waited for the droid to do as he said. 

The droid went completely still for a few seconds then moved his head in a nodding motion once it was done. He spoke in a human-like voice with a slight mechanical buzz. “Message sent to Kat: Rescued a cat from a raccoon cage. Named it Novi. Can I keep it? Image attached.” 

“Good boy.” Ivan pat him on the head twice before disconnecting the cord and tapping his chin, making his steel jaws slam shut. Turning to the left, he began to return to his previous task but Buster stood firm. 

“Novi spotted.” 

Ivan stopped, turning back to the droid. “What?” 

“Novi spotted,” he repeated, looking straight ahead. 

He followed the eyes of his droid until he saw what his target was. There, standing on top of an old monitor, was Novi. Her tail swayed in the air playfully, as if waiting for Ivan to notice. “Are you back to thank me?” He asked the question as if he expected an answer.

Novi stared at him, completely still except her tail, then she blinked and hopped off the pile of scraps. Ivan had expected her to run a second time, but she turned back to look at him and waited. 

“Buster,” he said, his eyes not leaving the cat.

The droid chimed once. 

“Choice: Follow, or don’t follow.” 

The droid chimed twice. “Choice: Follow, or don’t follow. I choose follow.” 

Ivan hesitated. “Buster, what’s my luck today?” 

Two chimes again. “Your luck today is amazing! Who knows what will happen when you take a chance!” 

“Take a chance,” he repeated under his breath. Every fiber of his being was screaming to him that this was just like the start of a horror movie, but he took a deep breath and began walking towards the cat. “Maybe she will show me her kittens. Yes. This will be good. I have good luck today.” 

Even as he told himself this, his hands were cold and clammy from nervousness. A black cat on a full moon wanted to lead him somewhere. It didn’t seem like a good sign. Any rational person would ignore this stray animal. It could be a trap. Maybe demons. Or maybe Ivan was just being too superstitious. 

Several times, he had attempted to turn the other direction, thinking that following a cat was just too silly, but every time Ivan tried, Novi would walk back over to Ivan and stare. Waiting. Whatever it was Novi was trying to show him, it must be important. 

“Alright alright, I’m following,” he muttered after a fourth attempt to escape. 

They were nearing the center of the junkyard now. The piles here were stacked so high, even Ivan had to crane his neck to catch only a small glimpse of what was at the top. 

He tended to avoid this area. Located directly below the highway, it was a popular spot to toss things over the side. If one wasn’t careful, they could be crushed flat by someone tossing out their garbage. It was also very unstable. One misstep could cause the garbage to topple like an avalanche, and if one was alone, once they were buried, that would be the end. 

“I don’t think I can follow you further, Novi.” Ivan watched as the cat hopped gracefully on the pile, her light body barely making the objects move. But for Ivan, every step he took made garbage tumble down the sides. 

The foolish human had already come this far on his quest, and he didn't want to waste it by turning back. But one wrong step made his foot slip into the pile, a broken beer bottle cutting into his leg. It wasn't deep, but it was enough to make him hiss and stain his torn pants with blood. 

Maybe it was a sign that he should stop trying to climb this mountain of garbage. The wound on his leg was small, but if it wasn't treated, it could cause an infection. “I’m sorry but this is the end of our little adventure. My sister will be very angry if I die trying to follow a cat.” 

Of course, Novi gave no response. She only stared at him a while longer, looked at the highway above, then took off. At first, Ivan thought that perhaps she had run off because she knew Ivan would no longer follow, but the sound of a car door slamming shut told him otherwise. 

“Oh no.” He looked up at the highway, spotting two men approaching the side, working together to carry something heavy. Ivan shouted for them to stop as he scrambled to get to the bottom, but they couldn’t hear him. From the highway to the ground was a drop almost a hundred feet. His pleads would never reach them. And even if they did, they wouldn’t care. 

Ivan had only caught a glimpse of what looked like an old sofa being chucked over the edge  before the impact of it crashing down into the pile caused everything to topple over. Like a mudslide, everything on the top layer tumbled to the ground, Ivan included. 

He did what he could to protect himself as he fell; his limbs cut and bruised as he tried to shield his head. There was nothing he could hold on to. Nothing was stable. It only stopped when everything pooled on the ground, adding to the mountain’s size. 

Buster, who had stayed on the ground while Ivan chose to climb, ran over to the spot his maker was buried. He dug him out as fast as he could, then dragged Ivan to the side where he’d be able to avoid the damage of falling garbage. 

“Are you okay?” What Buster got wasn’t an answer to his question, but a smack on his metal head. “Ow.” 

“You liar. You said I have good luck!” He hissed as he stood up. His clothing was torn in several places and his body was covered in filth. 

Buster tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Luck readings are chosen randomly from choices you programmed into my system. If you are not satisfied with your reading, please ask ag-... Ow.” The droid was cut short when his maker smacked him again. 

“Maybe if I rebooted you, you won’t be so sassy.” 

“My personality is also programmed by you.” 

“Stop talking.” 

“Silent mode: On.” 

Ivan sighed when the droid went silent. He knew it was his own fault for following a cat into such dangerous territory. Now he had to go home and tell his sister that he needed to borrow money to buy a new set of clothes. At least his scarf was okay.

He wrapped the piece of cloth back to how it was when he started his hunt and tended to all the cuts with the first aid kit kept inside his droid. Then, pretending like nothing had happened, he went back to digging through the rubble. If he was going to ask Kat for money, the least he could do was sell a couple more of his projects to earn it back. And to do that, he needed the parts. 

The more he looked and the more he collected, he was beginning to believe that perhaps Buster’s reading was correct. While this area was dangerous and risky, it also held the freshest picks. He had collected so much scrap metal and spare parts that the bins grew full. 

Dozens of different projects zipped through his mind. He could make a small pet droid. Maybe a drone. Or maybe he could invent something brand new! He could be rich! 

A noise from the highway above only added to his excitement. He took a couple steps back from the pile, just to be safe, then watched to see what the people would toss over. “Come on. Give me something good.” 

All he could see were dark figures, but the mystery of it made his heart race. It all stopped when he saw the discarded object reveal itself in the moonlight as it fell. “No way…” 

Like before, the impact of the tossed object caused the pile to crumble. Anything on the surface was buried once again, but Ivan’s eyes were locked on the new addition. 

He waited until the trash had settled and the men above had left before dashing over to where the object was resting. It was buried under bags of garbage and electronic trash, but Ivan had found it. It was broken and damaged, but it was unmistakably an android. 

“What a beauty,” he said to himself as he admired the human-like machine. If it wasn’t for the broken skin revealing metal underneath, Ivan would have thought it was a human. 

The body was built to be male, a strong one too, and it had a head of long, blond hair with a firm but pretty face. The model wasn’t one Ivan has seen in the catalogs either, so it must be custom built. Which also meant it was an expensive model. The more expensive the model, the more he could sell it for. 

“Let’s see… Are you still active?” He waved a hand in front of the android’s lifeless face but gained no reaction. Snapping his fingers to try and wake it by sound did not work either. But when his hand made contact with its silicon skin, its eyes snapped open and locked on Ivan. 

Ivan jumped back quickly when blue eyes flashed red. “W-wait!” He snatched up whatever he could to protect himself. Unfortunately, his weapon of choice turned out to be a bent pole. “I’m friendly. I promise.” 

The android stared at him for a long time. Ivan could hear the whir of his engine as his system tried to determine whether or not Ivan was a threat. Several times, his eyes had gone dark only to flash back on again seconds later. 

“Battery failure,” he whispered as a mental note, “but reaction is good.” That brought a smile to his face. With a couple quick fixes, he could have this android good as new and sell him for thousands. So no matter how long it would take, he waited. 

He waited, with an eager smile, until the android relaxed his body, his eyes dimming down to a natural blue. “Identify yourself,” he spoke. His voice box was damaged, making his speech sound like he was speaking through a static tube. 

"My name is Ivan. I won't hurt you," he keeps his voice calm and quiet like he had with Novi. Now that the android had calmed, he lowered his weapon and came closer until he was within his arm’s reach. 

Ivan had opened his mouth to speak again, but the android’s arm shot forward and grabbed his scarf. He pulled the human down until Ivan was staring into flickering blue eyes. “Who… am I?” 

"I don't know. We've only just met. But I can find out." Dig through his memory files, erase them, reboot him, sell. 

"Are you ICON?" The android spoke the word as if he didn’t know the meaning. 

“ICON?” Ivan paused, his train of thought halting. "I'm Ivan, not ICON. What is ICON?"

He was silent and still for a while, making Ivan believe that it was another system malfunction. But since he had continued to blink, Ivan knew it was just his mind trying desperately to process an answer. "I... don't know. My limbs are damaged. I don't believe I can walk."

"I can take you to my home.” He took a step to the side, gesturing to Buster. “I can fix you. Would you like that?"

"I lack the currency required. At least... I believe I do..." His eyes moved sluggishly from Ivan to the droid, then back again. 

"I don’t require currency. Only your permission. Will you allow me to fix you?"

The android grew silent again, then slowly, he nodded. “Okay.” 

"I'm going to pick you up now. Is that alright?" 

"... I give you permission," he nodded again, "but become a threat and you're dead."

Ivan gave the android a nod in return before he slowly moved the junk off of him. It wasn’t until all of it was cleared that he realized the reason the android couldn’t move. 

His left arm and both of the android’s legs were marked with plasma burns. The damage of it melted through the synthetic skin, past the metal plating, and scorched the circuits underneath. The pattern of the injury looked like it was done with a rope, or perhaps a whip, wrapped several times around each damaged limb. Thoughts of fixing and reselling the android quickly began to fade. Not even a machine deserved to be treated like this. The rich were truly inhumane. 

“Does it hurt?” 

"Of course it hurts," he gave him a puzzled look, "but that doesn't matter."

"It does matter. You shouldn't suffer. Do you want me to power you down? I promise I'll turn you on again when you're safe. It’s so you won't suffer any pain when I move you."

The android frowned, his face scrunched up in distrust. "How can I trust you?"

"I guess you'll just have to. But I won't force you to agree." 

The android had no reason to trust Ivan. They had only just met. If Ivan was a dishonest person, he could shut Alfred down, take him apart, and resell every piece for a good price. Both parties knew that. But Buster had predicted that today was Ivan's lucky day, and that prediction showed to be true. The android, who couldn’t even process his own memories, had decided to trust him. 

“Fine,” he said, his voice soft. “Turn… turn me off. But I’m trusting you.” 

"You're making the right decision. I'll speak to you again soon. I’m turning you off now." He reached forward slowly, praying that the android wouldn’t activate his defenses once again. His fingers felt around the back of his neck until he grazed across a circular dent. 

For a second, his fingers rested there as he stared into the android’s eyes. He recognized the fear, the panic and uncertainty, but if Ivan was going to move him without hurting him, he would need to be shut down. 

“You can trust me,” Ivan reassured him. 

Then slowly, the android’s eyes slipped shut. 

[ori-flails]

Rewatching Guardian - Episode 07 Part 1/3

Episode List || Episode 06 || Part 2 | Part 3

SPOILERS for upto episode 40, SPOILERS for the novel.

The translation is by AvenueX. Youtube decided to not translate for me today.

A pity, I think the youtube translation had soomething like “a beauty named Shen Wei”. xD

Ah... I am a fool. At the end of the last episode, I mentioned how Shen Wei had a droopy quiff because it was the end of the day. But after Zhao Yunlan came, Shen Wei’s quiff went back to its former glory. xD

I really wonder how it would’ve gone down if Zhao Yunlan hadn’t turned up. Shen Wei could’ve obliterated these two without a sliver of dark energy.

Shen Wei looks too pretty. WAY too pretty.

Everyone isn’t full of suspicion like you, Zhao Yunlan. xD

But okay, Zhao Yunlan’s acting just a tiny bit strange. xD What, you’re worried Shen Wei would realise you were maybe following him for no reason except for your crush on him? And that maybe you did wanna show off just a little bit to him??

He’s just so automatically defensive here.

First of all, I absoulutely failed at getting screenshots for the fighting but just... I implore you to zoom into Zhao Yunlan’s face in the very last screenshot. xD Look at his eyes lmaooo

It’s too funny not to include.

I get that the SID isn’t regular police but even if Zhao Yunlan can’t arrest these two, shouldn’t he still at least hand them over to regular police? They’re muggers. Why is he leaving them here with only a warning?

“Become a consultant for the SID.”  “No.”

Absoulutely zero hesitation. xD Poor Zhao Yunlan’s like “??????”

I guess this is because 1) Shen Wei’s identity would endanger Zhao Yunlan and the other members of the SID. Specially if they aren’t aware of who he is, and also 2) I’m just guessing, but this might be because of alliances or something. SID itself is clearly its own entity at this point under Zhao Yunlan’s leadership. But on paper, it’s under Xingdu Bureau. Hei Pao Shi working for the SID would be like saying, yeah, Hei Pao Shi (at least partially) answers to Xingdu Bureau, which he doesn’t. And also, it ends up looking like the SID, Zhao Yunlan more specifically, has ambiguous loyalty or is being influenced by Dixing. But I’m not sure.

Working for the SID as a consultant would obviously be ideal because it will allow the SID and Hei Pao Shi to work together more closely to do their jobs right, and it would allow Shen Wei to remain close to Zhao Yunlan.

So once it becomes obvious to Shen Wei that Zhao Yunlan and the SID will be exposed to danger regardless of his identity known by them, and that his ‘Professor Shen’ identity it only hindering his efforts to help them out, and once Zhao Yunlan figures out his identity, point (1) becomes meaningless. If point (2) is actually an issue/being considered by Shen Wei, then it would be outweighed by the pros of working for the SID as a consultant. Hence, Shen Wei takes Zhao Yunlan up on the offer later on.

When Shen Wei’s massaging that thing on Zhao Yunlan’s arm, I know that despite whatever that reaction of Zhao Yunlan’s looked like, it’s meant to be a grimace of pain, because that’s what it was when they were rehearsing the lines in a behind-the-scenes video.

But still, it looked like what it looked like. xD And added with the comment about Shen Wei being good with his hands it’s just too much to ignore. ͡°‿ ͡°

Zhao Yunlan’s adorable and he’s such a flirt oh my poor

I have this idea that the OST used in a scene is often from the POV of the character(s) the show wants the audience to pay attention to/sympathise with, if that makes sense.

I’ll have to do a little digging to find the name of the OST used in this part. (Sorry guys, I didn’t find it :/ But it plays at 5:12 - 6:39 in the episode) The OST is very melancholic, life if repressed longing was music or something like that.

The OST is clearly from Shen Wei’s POV because at this point Zhao Yunlan has no reason to be thinking/feeling this way.

Basically the OST was wrecking my heart and soul and I didn’t want to be repetative and say the OST really made this scene for me and gave me all the feels but that’s exactly what happened.

Shen Wei... TT~TT

Also, I’m fairly certain that Shen Wei discretely used his healing powers to partially heal Zhao Yunlan’s arm just enough to get away with it without alerting Zhao Yunlan.

First of all, where the hell was that bedroom even? Just in case, I went back where the cat brothers break into Shen Wei’s home, and yep, no bedroom, no bed. His apartment looks less structured than Zhao Yunlan’s, and looks more like a big room with furnitures than a big space compartmentalized for specific functions.

In that scene, I didn’t see a bed, or even see Zhao Yunlan go into a “room”. Now, this doesn’t mean that Shen Wei’s apartment doesn’t have a bedroom for sure, just could be that we didn’t see it. But we followed Zhao Yunlan’s POV in that scene and the entire time he spent in Shen Wei’s apartment was shown. So if we didn’t see a bed or a bedroom, neither did Zhao Yunlan.

So what’s up with that?

Anyway, my man just dug his own grave and jumped in it lol

Once again with the ominous music though. It stopped me from realizing before just how funny this scene is.

Another example of Zhao Yunlan goofing up in Shen Wei’s presence. xD

And then the stuff he says to try and salvage the situation are also gold because if Zhao Yunlan had been in any state to calmly think about what he was saying, he’d have noticed the window he was talking about faces the opposite direction to the one in his apartment.

Also, I checked and the two apartments are very different even if you remove all the furnitures, so there’s that. Shen Wei wouldn’t know because he hasn’t gone to Zhao Yunlan’s apartment yet. But still.

Slightly unrelated, neither of the two apartments seem to have any washrooms. I didn’t see any doors leading to one anywhere. I also didn’t see a kitchen in Shen Wei’s. He has a balcony where Zhao Yunlan’s apartment has a kitchen. And there goes out collective headcanon about Shen Wei’s beautifully clean kitchen.

Back to Zhao Yunlan’s blunder.

Shen Wei knew it was them to begin with and would’ve probably never mentioned it.

But then Zhao Yunlan the Disaster made such a dumb mistake and then realkized himself. At that point, it was too obvious for Shen Wei to ignore. In fact ignoring it would be more suspicious. Oh my god. xD

And when Zhao Yunlan’s flailing and making further fool of himself, Shen Wei’s sarcastic nod and his smile lmaoooo He seemed so amused xD

On the other hand, Zhao Yunlan looks so uncomfortable xD Poor man’s heart’s probably about to sprint out of his ribcage. He’s so cute istg.

Shen Wei just handing the entire bottle to Zhao Yunlan because he doesn’t need it and can’t heal him himself but can’t leave him be either. Ugh. So extra and so tragic.

Zhao Yunlan just taking it though... That’s not quite the normal response here... is it? Like, shouldn’t there be some protest to taking it at least for the sake of being polite? These two didn’t meet all that long ago and aren’t that close yet as far as Zhao Yunlan’s knows.

Like, politely refuse and buy one of his own later, or try to refuse at least; isn’t that what’s meant to happen here?

Idk. Zhao Yunlan’s response seems odd to me. I can’t tell if he’s just like that or if this is him being uneasy and in a hurry to get out of there after his slip-up.

Shen Wei TTATT

Well, both of their hearts are about to sprint out and away to Cold City now for two completely different reasons.

(Continues in part 2)

[monstersandmaw]

... What *is* the difference between damascus and damascened?

I’m so glad you asked!

Well. This turned into a bit of an impromptu essay, so forgive me...

Damascening is a method of application of gold to a surface, usually steel. This is not gilding, but rather the surface of the steel is etched, scratched, patterned/roughed up in some way, and then the gold is burnished or pressed into it in thin sheets or in wires. It’s a physical application, rather than chemical like, say, amalgum gilding very dangerous don’t try that one at home, kids.

Damascus Steel is a trickier subject because it’s a term that’s been somewhat muddied, with researchers and musuem curators using terms without really qualifying them (hence the confusion between ‘damascened steel’ and ‘damascus steel’ in the first place), and contemporary knife makers using the term ‘damascus’ in their context with a different process... In more recent years, however, terminology has become more rigorous. Essentially it’s usually called ‘wootz’, it’s crucible steel and it’s got a pattern inherent in it, but it’s not pattern-welded steel (see below). No gold involved.

Much longer version below the cut, with images:

Damascening:

This tulwar features elements of gold decoration on the blade - text and tiger - applied to the surface of the steel. This was done either by scoring the surface or by punching, evidence of which you can see in the image (click the link below to the original so you can zoom in).

It also features kundan work on the hilt (method of gold settings). (Koftgari is another form of damascening, usually with harsher/coarser marks in the steel, and the other extreme of that is nunome-zogan, in the Japanese tradition)

Source: Wallace Collection

Damascus steel is also known as ‘wootz’, and it fetched an extremely high price because it makes an extremely high quality steel. Modern knife makers use the term ‘damascus’ to refer to pattern-welded steel, which is a different thing entirely, though it originated in mimicking wootz. The use of the term ‘damascus’ steel in museum/academic settings (rare now, as ‘wootz’ is usually used) refers to a crucible steel, ‘watered’ steel, or ‘wootz’, and not pattern-welded (see below).

Damascus or wootz is a crucible steel, meaning it was completely molten at one point. That fact is important because not every steel-smelting culture made crucible steel, which means that those who did produce it could charge more for their superior blades. The reason that ‘damascus’ blades (and also the ulfberht swords, and/or Frankish steel) were so prized in northern europe (ie. by Scandinavians (yes, ok, Vikings) and Anglo-Saxons) during the early medieval period was because they were really good swords, were harder, and held their sharp edges longer than the ‘false damascus’ blades created to imitate the natural pattern of wootz.

Wootz/damascus steel has a characteristic pattern in it, caused by large crystals of cementite (Fe3C) which, when forged out from billet to blade, create the pattern. The blades (or armour, but that’s rarer because this stuff is expensive) and later the barrels of guns were etched with acid to reveal the natural pattern. It is this pattern which makes it distinctive, and what pattern-welding tries to emulate.

Wootz, when etched, looks like this:

[x]

To make it, iron was melted down with carbonaceous material (plants, straw etc.) in a sealed crucible. The process would take several days to melt everything down into a cake of steel, and it was then allowed to cool extremely slowly (we’re talking days, not hours, which is also why it was more expensive). The cakes of crucible steel were then exported to centres of arms manufacture (including Damascus), to be coaxed and extremely skillfully forged into various weapons. Forging broke up the crystals of cementite and created the distinctive pattern. By careful forging, it was possible to maintain the pattern (it’s really easy to overheat and/or overwork it it and just bash out and destroy the pattern completely, so not all crucible steel is damascus steel...) It’s only called ‘wootz’ if you can see a pattern in it after etching.

It’s also possible to polish out the pattern with over-zealous cleaning, but you can usually get it back if you etch it again. This is a controversial subject amongst museum curators and conservators.

Wootz was largely made in India and the Middle East, and by the 18th century, we even had helmets and even things as large as shields (not always practical because it was relatively brittle, being so hard) being made out of this patterned steel in Central and South Asia. It has always been highly prized as a status object both in the past and now.

A large number of the ulfeberht swords (swords with some variant of the Frankish name ‘ulfberht’ inlaid into them) are actually not wootz, but pattern-welded steel. Pattern-welding is a process by which two steels of differing carbon content are folded together to create a pattern when etched. Originally, it’s thought to have been done to create knock-off wootz, but now it’s used by knife makers and bladesmiths to create some truly incredible works of art, and is a skill all of its own. In jewellery, copper and silver (or other precious metals) are fused together and then worked to create ‘mokume gane’, or wood grain pattern, which is similar, but not done with ferrous metals.

Modern pattern-welded steel:

[Screenshot from The Artificery, Instagram - follow him omg his work is amazing]

[Mokume gane ring by Anne Wolf - source]

Dr. Alan Williams is a leading researcher in wootz, and I spoke to him at the Wallace Collection’s Arms and Armour conference back in 2016 - he’s a Mega Nerd(tm) for sure, but he knows his stuff. Here’s a video of him talking about wootz steel at that conference if you’re interested.

___

Hope that makes sense and is interesting?! I spent way too long answering this, so it’s back to writing my 12 Days of Exomas stories for now, but I’m a huge nerd so please feel free to ask me stuff like this!

[allthenetworth]

Season 3 Part 2 Ending Analysis

Yes, i’m doing this thing. because i think its pretty interesting

so we have this scene, with 10 year old Mikasa, Armin and Eren in it, enjoying their life with no worries (This was before Wall Maria and their village got raided by Titans). We see this scene in Season 1. Nothing suspicious here right?

Then we see this scene. it zooms out pretty quickly but there is a boy standing up. Nothing suspicious again i hear yourself asking. Until you realise that boy is actually Marco, a dead recruit from episode 13 season 1. No intro never mind outro has ever featured him until now. just a random, screenshot you may ask? Look at the next picture.

A little bit harder to catch, but there Marco is again in the left hand corner of the screen. Maybe its a coincidence again? Maybe its just another random screenshot the producers put in that just so happened to feature Marco?

Oh look! there he is again. and the camera actually zooms out on him! Still think its a coincidence? I honestly don’t think so and i imagine you are questioning it too.

There he is again! oh my god! This time hes actually looking up at Reiner, Bertholdt, Armin and Eren's conversation in episode 3 of the first season. If you're a manga fan you will remember in chapter 77, they explain how and why Marco dies. This is almost foreshadowing how he dies. He listened to Bert and Reiners conversation on how the mission was slow. He is a very quick thinker and can pinpoint stuff much the same as Armin, a very smart boy. Unlucky that is how he ended up being killed.

He might be in this scene, i cant actually remember if he arrived in this group or another separate smaller group?

There he is again in the bottom left corner this time. It seems a bit odd now that he is in most scenes in this outro and not in any of the other ones, hmm. I know the main focus would be that its everyone past life and how they got to where they are now. This has happened in the past and they have never featured Marco.

I think this is Bertholdt in this scene, but I think it could be Marco because i would of thought Bertholdt would of been much further forward with Reiner. Everyone comes in pairs or Trios. Eren is with Mikasa and Armin, Connie is with Sasha (as seen here), and Reiner is just with Annie. Jean is by himself (Jean is paired up with Marco up until episode 13/chapter 18.)

Here is Marco near enough the middle, looking up at Annie. His face is either puzzled or just like 'crap i now know what she can do.’ I think this would play a major part in chapter 88, when Marco didn’t really want to mess with the trio. Hes a quick learner to realise that he shouldn’t mess with them. Which i don’t think that that was his intention when he confronted Bertholdt and Reiner on the roof about their titan abilities. Annie would be tough but there was a soft spot there for Marco when Bert and Reiner forced her to take off his 3DM gear.

Here he is again, Wanting to stand up to pull apart Eren and Jeans fight. Hes a very caring person and shown by this scene, wants to defend his new friend Jean.

He was a little more far out here, but i caught the shot. Hes giving his salute behind Reiner and Bert, meaning that in the character pyramid, he could be in the low to middle section behind Bert and Reiner. Though he is by his self of the back row as Annie is walking away, you can tell its her by the white hoodie. I think this would symbolise that the characters left standing would be the ones that could stand up for themselves and are quite strong in what they are saying and physically. But since Marco is quite far back, he wouldn’t of been as strong as the other troops in front of him. This would also link back to chapter 77, where Annie was very reluctant to take off Marcos 3DM gear, hence why she is walking away, and Reiner and Bert knew what they were doing was right in their minds, hence why they are still standing strong and proud.

Not in this scene/screenshot

THE MOST IMPORTANT SCREENSHOT THIS HAD ME SCREAMING. You may be wondering 'Wtf are you on about Jamie.' but look at the 4th bunk from the bottom on the right. there’s a 104th training regiment jacket! And i’m 99.9% sure its Marco's! everything else had a feature of Marco, so why wouldn’t this? It would seem pretty out of place for this to not have something to do with our favourite Angel boy. This may signify that he left in such an unfortunate way or that he was innocent, hence the bright white lights that are beaming through the windows. This often happens when only Marco is in the shot, foreshadowing his innocence.

[cicadude]

(sorry is the screenshot looks like ass lmao i had 2 zoom out to get all the context (heres the post link as well though, jic - https://inthishousewekinkshamefnaf.tumblr.com/post/184375123488/wow-what-a-amazing-day-to-be-a-valid-lgbtqa-as-a - hope it works aa))

i believe i was blocked!! and i wrote a real long response damn luckily i copied the whole ass thing cause i had a feeling id get blocked lmfao ;; heres the whole thing pasted <3:

all he said in response  to your post was that the acronym is just lgbt. thats it. and i have looked at his blog, hence why im following him.

also lmfao when the fuck did i say that online things dont affect mental health? the fuck? no one in this post said anything abt that but u. ive had online shit affect my mental health a hell of a lot so i for fucking sure didnt say jack shit about that.

and no one here is excluding valid lgbt people. ace and aro ppl are valid as fuck m’dude! theyre just not lgbt for being ace/aro. u dont have 2 be lgbt to be cool!! i have cishet friends who are SO RAD!!

and abt the aspec oppression ,, op please tell me abt times where being ace can have u in literal danger. have u been screamed at by a parental figure for being ace? did ur step mother talk abt methods to convert u into not being ace anymore? did u try to come out as an uwu qweer acey at school only to be threatened and bullied constantly? please, tell me abt all the bad shit aspec ppl experience for being ace or aro other than a stinky exclusionist on tumblr!!

[the-empress-7]

Rumour has it that wasn’t a business zoom call and it was a private one, hence why Archie & Doria were on it. Looks like they’ve either been hacked or someone deliberately took a screenshot & leaked it on social media. And there was Harry thinking the biggest threat to his family was lack of security, nope, it’s his wife’s desperation.

Leaked by MM for sure 😅. I find it funny that allegedly they are always hacked or being papped when Harry isn't in the country 🤡. MM releases everything by herself

A screenshot being leaked while Harry is away and the Cambs are in the news. Trust me she leaked this herself...probably from a hotmail account.