#horizontal computer cases

[todays-xkcd]

Our sysadmin accidentally won a Nobel Prize while trying to debug neutrino oscillation error correction.

Neutrino Modem [Explained]

Transcript

[Cueball and Ponytail are inside a large white circle on a black background. Cueball is at a workstation typing on a computer keyboard, floating above a wheeled desk chair behind him. Ponytail is floating in the air up and to the right of him. Attached to Cueball's computer by cables are a second monitor or a tower unit floating to the left, and a large device labeled "Neutrino Modem®" below and to its left. A logo on the modem shows circle with five horizontal lines entering from the left; the fourth line from the top stops within the circle, while the others pass through to the right; this presumably represents neutrinos passing through a planet or other object.] Cueball: Check it out—45ms ping times to every server on Earth! Ponytail: That 99.999999999999% packet loss is pretty bad, though.

[Caption below the panel:] Networking tip: You can minimize worst-case latency by locating your node at the center of the Earth and communicating with the surface using neutrinos.

[tapwater118]

Has anyone ever heard of “Battle for Dream Island” (1990) before? Really obscure NES game, doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page (or hell, even a mention in one).

From what little I can find about it on the internet, Battle for Dream Island was an NES game released on January 1st, 1990, apparently made entirely by a pair of independent American developers. Never made all that many sales, but eventually it garnered a rather niche following on an obscure gaming forum, though it had long since dissipated. Unfortunately, seemingly nothing from the forum threads was archived, so all I have to go on are a few vague threads titles from a navigation page.

I, rather cliched like, bought this BfDI cartridge from a sleazy old guy at a flea market (along with Puzznic and Wario’s Woods for a bargain deal). I dumped the ROM and booted it up on an emulator to take some screencaps.

Upon pressing start, you are prompted to “Choose Contestant,” and have a choice between any of 20 playable characters (who are all everyday objects, for some reason). Each contestant has their own stats, and while you can feel the difference while playing, the overall impact of character choice is pretty negligible. (Also some of these guys don’t even have arms?? Weird design choice but okay.)

Two screencaps of the character select screen. I went with Pin for my first playthrough cause idk she seemed kinda cute. I’m almost sure the stats are “Strength,” “Speed,” “Jump,” and “Skill.”

(Continued under cut)

While touting itself as a game show, BfDI is essentially a glorified minigame collection. The gameplay loop is as follows: You and the 19 other contestants play a minigame (referred to as “challenges”) to earn points based on how well you do (though I’m fairly certain the computer contestants just get a random amount of points for each challenge). Most of the challenges are various platforming segments, though some others fall more into puzzle game territory.

Two of the challenges. The green “Win Tokens” can be collected for bonus points. LEFT: A horizontal platformer level. The grey wall in the middle of the screencap moves up and down. RIGHT: A challenge about climbing ladders while avoiding “acid spitballs.” The game pauses to scroll vertically a la Super Mario Bros. 2.

After each challenge, this speaker thing shows up (pretty sure he’s supposed to be like a game show host?) and tallies up everyone’s score. The contestant with the least score gets “eliminated” and removed from the game.

The results screen. Leafy did rather poor on the last challenge, so she’s out of the game.

The game continues like this until you lose (have the least amount of points) and get booted to the game over screen, or until you are the last one left, in which case you win Dream Island! (Though of course in reality you just get booted back to the title screen. No Dream Island for you.)

The victory screen, with the gates to Dream Island in sight. Feels more like the gates to hell given how Pin’s staring at me.

It’s a fairly easy game for NES standards (I won on my first try). Took me about 80 minutes on my first playthrough, though subsequent ones could take less than an hour as I knew what I was doing. The brevity and the fact it saves your high score gives BfDI a nice sense of replayability (though this is probably best done sporadically, as the challenges tend to get a bit samey after a couple of back-to-back playthroughs).

So yeah, just wanted to share this in case anybody else has heard of it. I’ll probably rip the sprites and upload them sometime later cause it doesn’t look like anybody’s done that yet.

[mellxncollie]

Part 1 of looking into some of the technical cinematography aspects of the show

(or, why does Dead Boy Detectives look Like That?)

(update 6/30/24: there's now a part 2! check it out here)

Dead Boy Detectives has some interesting things going on with the cameras. You probably noticed it at some point while watching the show. Whether it was the weird blurs or the sort-of-fisheye, there’s something about many of the shots that doesn’t look the way many people expect TV shows to look.  

The main reason why is because it uses an anamorphic lens instead of a spherical lens. These lenses are pretty different from spherical lenses, and the recent rise of anamorphic lenses in TV has not been without some pushback, as viewers unaccustomed to them may find the look weird, distorted, or that it pulls their focus away from the content. Whether you enjoy how Dead Boy Detectives looks or find the cinematography distracting, this post is designed to explain the different effects that the lens has on the show.

This post is very long and very graphics heavy (I made lots of gifs to illustrate my points) so the rest is under a read more.

What is an anamorphic lens and what is it used for?

To begin with, a bit of history and technical info. Say you’re making a movie at most any point before the mid-'90s and you want it to be widescreen. However, the 35mm film you’re shooting on has a smaller aspect ratio (closer to a square than widescreen). You could use letterboxing (black bars on top and bottom) but then you waste the top and bottom parts of the film, and it ends up being slightly lower in ‘resolution.’ The solution: use a lens that records the full height onto the film, but squishes the picture horizontally so that it fills up the whole film frame without any letterboxing. Then, a projector (or a computer) can stretch it out again to display the whole thing in widescreen. The kind of lens that can do that is an anamorphic lens. They've technically been around since before the 1920s but were mostly used between the 1950s and the 1990s.

Up until sort of recently, television networks broadcasted using a smaller aspect ratio that they required shows to be in, and TV shows were not given the kind of cinematography budgets that movies were afforded. Anamorphic lenses are expensive and for widescreen, so they really just weren’t used for TV shows. Instead, a spherical lens was used, which is just the standard lens you think of when you picture a camera lens. 

In the 90s, new flat/spherical film formats came out that allowed for widescreen (one of the popular ones being Super 35) caused anamorphic lenses to drastically drop in popularity. However, there has been a recent resurgence, one that you’ve probably subconsciously noticed in both film and television.

In the last 10-15 years, TV has been given larger and larger budgets. Additionally, the rise of streaming services and the use of phones and computers to watch shows rather than actual televisions has meant that networks have started allowing wider aspect ratios, paving the way for anamorphic lenses to begin to be used for series. 

The history of these lens’ usage means they’re associated with a ‘cinematic’ look. They have a lot of characteristic effects that are not really ‘natural’ and depending on the viewer, this either enhances the experience or detracts from it.

Lots of recent series have been embracing these lenses (to varying degrees of success), including The Witcher, Sandman, Shōgun, Narcos: Mexico, The Mandalorian, Andor and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Doctor Who also started using anamorphic lenses at the switch to the 13th Doctor, so that may be a good reference point. For some of these, it’s a very subtle look, for others, the lens choice is glaringly obvious and overdone (I’m looking at you Sabrina), and sometimes, as is the case with Dead Boy Detectives, it’s really obvious but it remains an effective and compelling choice. 

Why use an anamorphic lens in the 21st century when you could just use a spherical lens?

Anamorphic lenses create a look that some filmmakers desire, whether for their associations with a more cinematic look or their sometimes unusual quirks. In a film and tv world filled with spherical lenses that are nice, clean, and precise, anamorphic lenses introduce some irregularity and character. Making an informed decision on what kind of lens to use can enhance different themes of the work. 

I want to briefly bring up Moonlight to illustrate this point. Go watch the trailer if you haven’t seen it, and you’ll probably see some parallels with the cinematography of Dead Boy Detectives. There’s less of the ‘radial’ look, but otherwise, there’s a lot of the same kinds of things. Moonlight uses an anamorphic lens and it makes the whole thing look dream-like, nostalgic, and a bit like we’re getting into the character’s heads. To me, it indicates that the story is being filtered through people. We’re not detached from the characters, observing them. The story we are watching is personal, emotional, and necessitates intimacy. 

Dead Boy Detectives really benefits from the same visual effects. This is not because it enhances a dream-like or nostalgic quality, but because in the context of the show, it makes it look a bit otherworldly, magical, or otherwise supernatural. Additionally, the constraints of the lens means we get lots of focusing in on individual characters, with nice long looks at their faces allowing for more reflection on their dialogue and reactions.

So, here’s 5 different effects of anamorphic lenses to point out to you all. Starting with the one that allows us to easily identify that anamorphic lenses are being used in the first place.

You’ve probably heard of bokeh before. It's the way the lens renders the direct sources of light that are in the background but out-of-focus. You can see in this shot of Jenny how all the string lights are not circular, but elongated. On a spherical lens, these would be round.

In this next shot of the Cat King, the candles around the floor are all those elliptical shapes. Additionally, lots of other details in the background that aren’t from direct light sources also have an elongated shape. This is sometimes called waterfall bokeh.

Finally, check out this shot of one of the cats. Not only are the lights in the background irregular and elongated, but if you look to the left where the ‘horizon’ line is, there's a series of elliptical shapes where the light hits the edge of the docks.

The bokeh effect is one of those things that just happens because of the lens, and makes it pretty easy to identify that an anamorphic lens is being used. Unlike some of the other effects I’ll mention, I don’t have much to say about how this does or doesn’t add to the visuals.

Breathing is how the field of view changes when you refocus to a subject closer or farther from the lens. While spherical lenses also breathe, there’s a much more distorted look to the breathing that occurs with an anamorphic lens.

Lets start with this shot:

You can see how much the frame widens when the focus shifts from the jar of coins to Jenny. It affects the edges much more than the middle of the frame. Here’s the same shot, but with some of the features outlined (forgive my messy outlining, I used my laptop trackpad) so you can see the movement.

The frame widens when the focus goes from the foreground to the background. It appears like the whole shot is being stretched apart horizontally and compressed vertically.

However, it also does the reverse, narrowing as the focus moves from the background to the foreground.

(also in that last shot of hell, notice how the two points of light in the background elongate into those oval bokeh once they are no longer in focus)

Breathing is a very dramatic way of refocusing, and it forces us to pay attention to different things. In the shot of the Night Nurse, we have a light but the important thing after it turns on is not the light but the reaction that the people have to the cause of the light. In that shot of Niko and Edwin, it’s telling us: listen to Niko. In the shot of hell, it’s not letting us forget what the characters are running from. 

The next effect is the lens flare. You can get a lens flare from a spherical lens too, but anamorphic lenses typically generate strong, horizontal flares. A spherical lens would typically create a more radial flare, with multiple lines shooting out in different directions from the light source like rays from the sun.

We see these all over the show, sometimes they’re very prominent, such as in these shots with obvious light sources:

And sometimes they're a bit more subtle. Take this shot of Edwin, Charles, and Crystal on the dock:

While the lens flare at the top of the frame has a clear source, there’s a bunch of other horizontal lines cutting across near the middle and bottom half of the frame. These likely come from light sources outside of the frame.

Some directors, cinematographers, and other creators really like anamorphic flares. Others don’t. For a show with so many dark scenes that have colorful and dramatic lighting, the lens flares seem to enhance this. They are also a constant reminder of the interaction between the lights and the camera, kind of a fingerprint of the production. Sure, they make it seem more ‘cinematic,’ but I think they also ground us in the physicality of the production. (Kind of ironic given the lack of physicality of the main characters, and also you could consider the flares themselves to be the ghosts of the lights and the camera!)

Barrel distortion is where we start getting into why exactly the show looks the way it does. This is basically a subtle fisheye effect. Because of the squishing and stretching of the footage, anamorphic lenses have more distortion than spherical lenses, and it is strongest around the edges. 

You can see it most clearly in shots that have lots of vertical lines. They are relatively straight in the middle of the frame, but the closer to the edges, the more they are warped.

Looking at that shame shot of Niko in the bathroom, I have set it to stop at 3 different spots. Pay attention to the shape of the edge of the door.

At the start, it’s curved outward, like an open parentheses: (

Then, in the middle, it’s a vertical line: |

Finally, as the door passes all the way across the frame to the opposite side, it curves inward, like a closed parentheses: )

Again, notice how the lines in this shot of the Lost & Found Department change as they move from the outside towards the center. The door has an outward bulge at the beginning but becomes more 'normal’ shaped as it gets further away.

Anamorphic lenses can also have a pretty shallow depth of field and it’s used a lot in this show which is why we get a lot of those centered close-ups, and why we get that ‘radial blur.’ 

The center of the frame is where the actors are least likely to be distorted, meaning its easiest to have just one character in the dead center (pun intended). With a shallow depth of field, the background is out of focus, and since the actor is in the center, the background gets the most affected by the barrel distortion, leading to the sense that the background has been radially blurred. 

This blurred background with a strong, centered foreground really makes objects in the foreground pop. We are then able to really focus in on different objects and characters. It brings immediacy and intimacy. Here, we have nothing to do but consider Charles. He isn’t speaking so we must consider his reaction to what’s being said. 

Also, the further a character is from the center of a shot, the more they are distorted, such as Edwin and Charles in this still:

This kind of distortion definitely lends a more unnatural look to the shots, which definitely supports a show about ghosts and the supernatural. If the subjects are able to see things in our world in a way the viewers cannot, then why display the physical world the way we see it?

Finally, we have focus falloff. This is (like some of the other effects) a distortion that occurs around the edges. Here, the focus decreases the further from the center of the frame even if they’re all about the same distance from the camera.

In this shot of the Tongue & Tail, the sign 'Butcher Shop’ is clear and legible. But imagine if that sign was up in the top left or right corners, where things start to get blurry. We probably wouldn’t be able to read it.

It's also visible in this shot of Edwin. Not only does the floor get blurrier the further you get from the center, but you can see how the rope is less in focus in very top and very bottom of the frame.

The falloff (combined with the barrel distortion) is how we get the really unique dream-like look of the Edwin and Niko scene on the roof in Episode 8. (If you’re having a hard time spotting the falloff here, look at their legs)

When you start looking for falloff in this show, you start to see it everywhere. It’s easiest to spot in the corners of shots, but you can usually see all the way around the edges.

Look at the corners of this still of Edwin, or the way the top and bottom of Niko’s rent envelope aren’t as clear as the middle of it.

Or in this still, look at Charles’ jacket. The arm closest to the center has a much more defined line between it and the background compared to the arm closest to the edge. 

This blur definitely is one of the more noticeable effects in the show, and it’s good at focusing our attention on the center of the frame. It guides the viewer exactly to what we should be looking at. We get tons of centered shots in this show because of this and the barrel distortion. 

The falloff makes the show look softer and artistic, sometimes painterly or impressionistic. More than any other effect, the falloff is what makes me feel like I’m watching a dream or a vision. It puts us into the sensation of being fully immersed in a story.

I would argue that all of these effects (but especially the last two) not only enhace the supernatural aspect of the show, but they help us fall in love with the characters. They focus us on their faces, and encourage us to reflect on their motivations, reactions, and thoughts. The lens is telling us that we are not to take things at face value. It’s not letting us forget that there are multiple people and multiple stories involved, that things are blurry around the edges, and that things are not perfect and clean-cut. 

-----------

Sometime in the next week or so I’ll be working on part 2, where we’ll take a closer look at the cinematography of Edwin’s flashback to 1916 in Episode 1. It's posted! Read it here.

I really wanted to highlight the work of the cinematographers, Marc Laliberté, Craig Powell, and Pierre Gill because it’s clear that there was so much care and intention put into every aspect of this show. 

I’m so glad fans of this show are really embracing the work of different crew members, like the work of costume designer Kelli Dunsmore (and if you somehow haven’t seen @captainfantasticalright's posts about the costumes and other aspects of the show, please go check them out right now. My roommates and I have a kind of 'stop everything, new costume analysis dropped' attitude towards their posts, and their approach to show analysis was definiteily an inspiration for this)

If you want to read more about anamorphic lenses, the article Why ‘Shogun’ (and the Rest of TV) Is Slightly Out of Focus in The Ringer is about Shōgun and the rise of anamorphic lenses in TV (Marc Laliberté also worked on a few episodes of Shōgun) and it's a great place to start.

Finally, I want to first thank @skyvoice for these tags on one of my gifsets for semi-inspiring this post (I was already considering making this but these made it into a reality).

[no-name-publishing]

Kill the Director by erikschampion

My part in a gift exchange taking place in Renegade's California satellite server. This was a lot of fun and very experimental for me. My idea was to pursue something a little grunge, a little smudged, to go along with the early 2000s Brit punk vibe that the fic gets its title from. Spray paint, screen printing, some blood, some tears, and it's to its new home. Glamour and process shots under the cut!

The yellow base is a plain linen bookcloth that's been coated with acrylic. The pink accent color is a combo of spray paint and smudges of pink Golden Fluid acrylic paint. The endbands are sewn with Gutermann polyester florescent sewing thread, and the endpages are my attempt at an italian vein marble with pink, yellow, and black paint.

Some shots of the typesetting, and a video showing the book as a whole. The fic has some exposition written in a script format, so I typeset that to reflect. And it's always fun to include text message bubbles and emails and stuff.

The graphics on the case were done with screens and waterbased screen printing ink! I went through a few iterations and even tried to set my kitchen on fire in order to get it right before settling on the screens. I'm very very pleased with the result. (The fire was from my DIY attempt at making my own gelli plate with gelatin, glycerin, and rubbing alcohol. All the instructions were telling me to be careful about how many bubbles I was stirring into the mix but I was like, it'll be fine. I'll use my heatgun or a lighter to pop whatever bubbles are there. It works with resin so it should here. Yall alcohol is flammable lmao. Why did I do that. I put my lighter up to those bubbles and lost my vision for a moment at the flash of light. I've never done something that stupid)

The freshly marbled paper hanging up to dry in my kitchen; the screen for the front of the case; my practice piece including the spine design; the case drying on my shower rod (along with some pieces of fabric for another project lol). I have fewer process pictures than I thought lol.

The graphics on the front and back were also partially designed by hand. I printed images of the characters then cut them vertically, and alternated the slices. Copied that, then did the same horizontally. Scanned that, and then did some cleaning up digitally on my computer. Here's some shots of the steps and the pieces themselves.

The third picture shows my first attempt, as I actually did this process twice. The first time I didn't feel like the first pass was pixelated enough, so I cut it again both vertically and horizontally and alternated them once more. This was a mess, and ultimately I didn't like the finished result. Round two (second image) was the final round, and what wound up using in the project instead.

Thanks for looking!

[transgenderer]

*vertical* japense text is right to left (first top to bottom, then right to left), but i learned today horizontla japaneze text is left to right??? thats crazy?

Modern Japanese scripts adopt tategaki and/or yokogaki depending on the type of the writings and their genre. Let's take a look at some examples. Typical ones that employ tategaki include the majority of writing in newspapers (except for some headlines) as well as most books, magazines and manga (Japanese comics). As these are written vertically, they start from what would be the back cover of English books/magazines. Another type of tategaki examples is formal greeting cards and traditional writings. On the other hand, specialists' books in certain genres like music, science, computers, mathematics, languages, etc. are usually written horizontally, as their materials (e.g., musical notation, mathematical formulas, etc.) suit yokogaki better. Also, websites and computer-related writing (e.g., WORD) along with most technological gadgets predominantly adopt yokogaki. Texting from mobiles (携帯 or ケータイ ketai) is also done in yokogaki. There are also many cases which use both tategaki and yokogaki such as product information on their packages, and interestingly, children's picture books (絵本 ehon) can either be tategaki or yokogaki, which means that Japanese children these days are exposed to both formats from early age.

[foone]

I think my brain has decided to dump mind control/hypnosis into the same bucket as fursonas and TF.

Specifically the one where it's like "this would be extremely interesting if you could do it, but you can't, so why bother with something that's only fantasy?"

Which is strange that it happens here. Like, there are definitely interests/kinks that are completely fantasy but I'm still into them, still enjoy reading about and seeing art of them. (I'm not gonna specify which ones because this is not a TMI Tuesday post)

But for some things my brain decides that I'm provisionally into it but only if it can be done for real. Like... Imagine someone who is into bondage but has zero interest in bondage porn/erotica, only in doing it for real... And then imagine they're someone who can't do any bondage for partner/disability reasons. That's where my brain is at.

I'm not sure if it's that I'm not interested enough in these things, or I'm too interested.

Like the former makes sense: if I was majorly into TF, I'd be into it even though it's impossible. The fantasy would be so erotic/interesting that I'd be all over it, even knowing I'm very unlikely to ever get slowly turned into a deergirl with antlers.

But the latter might be closer: I'm too into these things. My brain is like "omg this is the best idea ever! We need to do it now!!!" and then the disappointment at realizing it's impossible just sours me on the whole damn subject.

Like I can't get the motivation to design a fursona because it keeps reminding me that I can never be the cute cow. I don't want to have a fursona that's just a thing in pictures and stories, I want to have hooves and big horizontal ears and NOT BE A FUCKING HUMAN.

It's annoying because I think in all these cases it's something I could legitimately be interested in and get a lot of enjoyment out of! Like, furries are awesome! (and I am one, even without a fursona). They have lots of fun with their fursonas. I could commission art of my fursona using old computers! I could design keyboards for use with my hooves! It could be tons of fun.

And TF? Don't get me started. I am constantly saying I need to be less human. I theoretically love the idea of turning into something else. But nope. I can't enjoy it, maybe because I'm going "why isn't that me?"

And I've read some mind-control/hypnosis stuff recently and I'm having the exact same reaction. There some parts where I'm like "this has a lot of interesting ideas! Why can't I do this?" oh yeah because it doesn't exist. Damn it.

And that "damn it" emotion is when I close the story. So I can't really enjoy the parts of it I like, I'm too dissuaded by the disappointment.

I dunno if this is an autism thing. I've known some other people on the spectrum have similar issues with just deciding subjects are zero interest to them, after only a quick glance. I don't know if that's the same or a similar thing than I'm talking about.

(also, hypnotists? Don't come saying "but hypnosis is real!" to me. I know, but it's not real in the ways I'm interested in)

[thegildedbee]

Familiar/Fall: May 3 & May 4 Prompts from @calaisreno

I've been knocked off my feet at comments some of y'all have shared ❤️🌞🌺(so I've added some tags if you want to keep following along -- let me know, though, if you'd prefer not to have your stream cluttered :-) Program note: So the comments have surprised me into doing something I hadn't thought to do with @calaisreno's daily-merrie-month-of-May-party-invites: incubate a fic. So, full disclosure, seat of the pants improvising is the order of the day! There's no storyline tucked away in my pocket, not even a hazy 🌫️ one -- I'll be making this up as I go along 🤔, responding to the first thing that pops into my head with the prompts (so the timeline will be bouncing around and I will likely be working myself into puzzles I can't get out of 😰) But, hey, if you're game, so am I, you crazy kids! 😜 .............................................................................................

"John, right on time,” Lestrade says, waving him in after hearing the knock at his office door.

John steps across the threshold and pauses, tilting his head to gesture at the door. 

“Right,” Lestrade replies, with a quick nod at the unvoiced question. “Turn the lock.” He shuts down the computer window that's open on his screen, and walks over to John and grasps his good shoulder.

“This is really happening, then?” he asks, scanning John’s face intently.

“It really is,” John confirms, pushing his shoulders back slightly and reflexively straightening his already straightened posture. “I’ll be leaving for parts unknown in two days' time, so I’ve been doing not much else -- even sleeping -- except cramming the prep. As we suspected, Mycroft tries to arrange for local operatives as back-up for Sherlock -- that is, when he knows where he is, or where he might be headed, which is often not the case -- but I’ll be a roving asset, one that he won’t ever meet face-to-face.”

“A shadow,” Lestrade offers.

“Yeah, something like that. As far as Sherlock will know, I’m still in London. Mycroft has stripped the metadata from stills he's pulled from CCTV footage that he can use to send to Sherlock if he asks for an update on my status.”

Lestrade takes that in, and then nods his head. “No time to waste. Let’s get what you came for, and send you back out to do whatever needs doing before you leave.”

Slipping on a pair of nitrile gloves, Lestrade walks over to a bank of filing cabinets at the back of the room, moving swiftly to pull out and fully extend the second drawer from the bottom of the second unit on the right. He barely glances at the contents, reaching toward the back for a horizontally stacked set of folders, which he lifts up and sets aside. He then retrieves a small black steel case that’s been revealed and sets it on a nearby table, and beckons for John to join him, pulling another set of gloves from his pocket and holding them out for him to use. 

Lestrade pulls a blank file folder from the bottom of the stack he’d removed and opens it, revealing a small key taped inside, which he detaches and hands to John.

“Thanks, mate,” John says, a slight catch in his voice, “for keeping it safe . . . and for returning it.” He raises his fist to his mouth and coughs into it briefly, which allows him to pause and regain his composure. “I know this wasn’t a by-the-book decision,” he acknowledges.

Lestrade snorts. “That’s one way of putting it,” he says, giving a shrug. John touches his elbow, and says insistently, “It was a risk for you, a real one. Don’t think I don’t know that. Once I walk through the door we’ll forget it ever happened. Although I won’t ever forget you standing by me.” 

John uses the key to open the steel box, and stops to gaze at the Sig P226 before he picks it up. He palms the grip, the familiar feel of its shape and of its weight in his hand a comforting one. He briefly disassembles it, then reassembles it, giving it another long look. Hello, comrade. We took out the first henchman Moriarty set at Sherlock, and, when the time comes, we’ll finish the game and take out the last one as well.

John furrows his forehead and looks at Lestrade, his expression fading from determination to being at a loss, saying in a lowered voice, “And thanks for taking it away from me when you did. You’re a damn smart copper, Greg, and a damn fine friend. I owe you.”

“Ah, hell, John, no,” Lestrade protests, throwing up his hands. “That you were in such a dark place is partly down to my own participation in the whole bloody shitshow at 221B,” he says, a pained look on his face.

John places the Sig at the small of his back, and looks down at his shoes, pausing for a moment before turning to Lestrade, and saying harshly, “We were pawns, Greg. Pawns of all of them: Moriarty, Mycroft, MI6. All of us were trapped in a knotted-up web they were weaving as they pulled the strings. It was a struggle to even begin to figure how to get out in front of any of it.” He squeezes his eyes shut, and sighs. "It was a colossal clusterfuck.”

The two men look at each other, somber, each recalling, in retrospect, what they can now understand counted and what didn’t, what they should have seen but had failed to recognize, and how the seemingly solid facts they thought were in their grasp had liquefied, running through their fingers, leaving only emptiness behind.

Leaning his hip against the table, John crosses his arms across his chest, and says evenly, “And Sherlock, too. I try to imagine what it was like in his brain in the days before Bart’s, running scenarios and switching-out variables, over and over, unable to fight his way out of a tangle of nets and hooks, trying to find the surface. 

“We didn’t know . . . but when he fell . . . from Bart’s roof,” John says, starting, then stopping, his voice trailing off, lost in whatever he’s picturing in his mind’s eye. “His fall . . . it’s as if he slashed through the tangled-up parts of the web when he fell. And that made an opening to begin taking all of it apart.”

Lestrade makes a soft noise of agreement, and then rocks back on his heels, his hands in his pockets. “I know it’s hard for you to know how long you may be gone . . . but I hope we see the both of you back here soon.” He reaches out to shake John’s hand, and then shifts, pulling him into a hug instead. “You take care out there, mate. We’ll keep our eyes and ears open here.”

“Well, that’s what got us this far,” John says, with a knowing look at Lestrade. “I wouldn’t be doing this on our terms without all of us having brought it about. Mission accomplished, in getting out into the field; let’s hope the first leg of what's to follow goes just as well.” ........................................................ @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @friday411 @peanitbear @original-welovethebeekeeper @topsyturvy-turtely @lisbeth-kk @raina-at @jobooksncoffee @meetinginsamarra @helloliriels @a-victorian-girl @keirgreeneyes @starrla89 @naefelldaurk @solarmama-plantsareneat @bluebellofbakerstreet @dragonnan @safedistancefrombeingsmart @jolieblack @msladysmith @ninasnakie

[chili-heeler]

I DIDNT READ IT THAT WELL SORRY 😞😞😞

I’ll just do jaswinnzel (sorry if the sentence isn’t that good 💔💔 i was thinking of one and this came to mind)

Sentence: Footsteps ran through the apartment, making such a loud noise that even disturbed the birds resting on the roof of the whole building.

(apartment would be the wells in this case)

Footsteps ran through the apartment, making such a loud noise that even disturbed the birds resting on the roof of the whole building.

Once Hazel found out she had the apartment to herself for the next few days, and Curse Of Gregory just so happened to release that evening, she knew right then and there what she would do and who she should invite that night.

Hazel was preparing the couch, adding whatever blankets and pillows she could find, Winn was trying to connect Hazel's computer - which had the full movie downloaded - to stream it on their TV, and Jasmine was in the kitchen trying not to burn the caramel for their popcorn (it's harder then it looks, Hazel would know).

If you were the Wells' downstairs neighbor, you'd probably think that it was not just the sugar that was burning.

"There we go!" Winn announced, closing the extra gaming console they had on hand to entertain themselves during the process.

Hazel remembered about how she daydreamed about being old enough to go to the movie theater by herself to watch what was then the newest release from the franchise. Now that she turned 15 not too long ago, she could easily do that - but she just wanted to get cozy in her own home, honestly.

As if on cue, Jasmine walked out the kitchen with a large bowl of steaming brown popcorn, she even made extra milkshakes they weren't expecting and cut up some apple slices, sweet!

"Why didn't you open netflix?" Jasmine placed everything she concocted on the small brown table infront of them.

"My family's old fashioned," Hazel got under the blanket placed on top of their couch, like those sheet ghosts you'd see in old cartoons. "We're not paying for a tv subscription we weren't gonna be using." Besides, growing up Antony taught his little sister a thing or two about pirating, it was easier if you knew where to look and what to avoid.

"Have you seen the reviews?" Winn joined Hazel, sitting horizontally right next to her and resting their head on one of her shoulders, taking up most of the couch's space (being the tallest, and all that). "4.1/10. Ouch, Is it really that bad?" Hazel only responded with a shrug.

The franchise's quality had been going down for a while now, that's all Jasmine was talking about to Hazel during class the week before ever since she went on her own movie binge.

Though Hazel resisted to talk about the minimal amount of spoilers and small scenes she saw on dimvid and social media as the two wanted a spoiler free watch, but she could confirm that yes, it was bad, but in an "amusing car crash" sort of way.

Jasmine turned off the lights in the living room, now only dimly lit by the blue screened tv. She also swiftly joined them huddling on the mini pillow fort. Winn left out a small yelp How she managed to fit in between them was beyond the both of them, but they were just too excited as if they were still 10 by this point to care, maybe it was all the soda they drank that morning, who knows. Come to think of it, what time was it?

Winn finally pressed play. The tv flickered from the blue screen, now showing a young girl reciving a package from her front door. Confusily eyeing the doll she pulled out of the cardboard box

Hazel knew she had AP exams to study for. That's what spring break was for her mother told her before they left her.

Studying could wait, though. Sometimes you just want to have a good time and laugh at a really bad movie with your partners well into the night.

[gerard-ways-left-sock]

cd care tips because no one asked

only wipe ur cds when u need to + wipe them across, not in a circle its cleaning time when ur cds are dirty, scratched, have fingerprints on them or wont read. cleaning them with soapy water works well enough dont do the thing where u breathe on them and wipe just use water

dont touch the reflective side even if ur held at gunpoint dont u want them to look brand new ??? like tgey are straugt from the womb ???? also touching the shiny side makes it more likely that it cant be read by the computer from the greasy ass fingerprints

keep the creature in the case keep him in containment

try to store them horizontally instead of vertically on top of eachother it can damage the case and maybe the cd especially if its a paper case

the creatures are like vampires. dont store them in light they melt

hold the men by the edge of the cd or by the edge and the hole refer to point 2 for why

dont bend them (obviously) self explanatory u dont want them to break unless ur sadistic

check them for scratches and dents and dirt regularly scratches and dents can happen from normal use

paper cases are more likely to scratch ur cd jewel cases are better and can be bought off amazon for like 50p each if ur worried about scratching them

[chthonicophanim]

Genders inspired by this noun generator

[PT: Genders inspired by this noun generator[link]]

Wildhitchghostic

[PT: Wildhitchghostic]

A gender related to the concept of a ghost that has become lost in the wilderness and attempts to hitchhike with passing cars.

May be related to folklore of ghosts appearing in the back seats of cars, hitchhiking ghosts that disappear when they reach their destination, the specific tradition in Japan of driving ghosts to where they want to go, even when the driver knows the address they’ve been given is no longer standing, etc.

May also be related to ghosts in general, the wilderness in general, forests, being lost in the woods, hitchhiking in general, abandoned cars, etc.

[IDs: A screenshot next to two flags. The screenshot is of a random noun generator, with the results being ghost, car, and wilderness.

The second image is a flag with eight diagonal stripes that peak in the centre to create a triangular pattern. From outside to inside, the stripes go black, very dark green, dark green, dull green, dull stormy grey, warm grey, light grey, and yellow.

The third image is a flag with eight horizontal stripes that follow the same colour order, going from top to bottom instead of outside to inside. End IDs]

Sunlightreeic

[PT: Sunlightreeic]

A gender related to how sunlight looks filtering through trees, becoming scattered and leaving shadows of branches and leaves on the forest floor.

[IDs: A screenshot next to two flags. The screenshot is of a random noun generator, with the results being sun, position, and trees.

The first flag has eight coloured triangles in various positions, with two of them creating a vertical hourglass shape in the centre, two of them creating a larger horizontal hourglass shape on the sides, and four of them filling in the spaces between the hourglasses. The top of the vertical hourglass is dark green while the bottom is dull brown. The left of the horizontal hourglass is dull green while the right of it is dull blueish-green. The other four triangles are warm bright yellow.

The second flag has eight horizontal stripes of equal widths. From top to bottom, they are dark green, warm bright yellow, dull green, warm bright yellow, dull blueish-green, warm bright yellow, dull brown, and warm bright yellow. End IDs]

Spiderrorgirl

[PT: Spiderrorgirl]

A feminine gender related to spiders, computer errors, glitches, and being a girl. This may be related to being a glitchy spider-girl, being a glitchy girl who likes spiders, being a spider that causes errors and being a girl, etc.

‘Girl’ in this case doesn’t necessarily mean female-aligned, but can be used that way.

[IDs: A screenshot next to three flags. The screenshot is of a random noun generator, with the results being error, spiders, and girls.

The flags are all similar, all of them having eleven equal horizontal stripes, with the colours on the bottom mirroring those on top. From outer to inner, the stripes are black, dark purple, dull pinkish-purple, dull pink, and pale greyish pink, with the centre stripe being neon green. The second flag has a line symbol of a spider in the centre of the flag, while the third flag has this symbol distorted in a pink glitchy effect. End IDs]

Abandrelossic

[PT: Abandrelossic]

A gender related to abandoned buildings, loss, being lost, and simple linen or cotton dresses.

This may be related to overgrown buildings, feelings of grief or loss, the idea of dirtying a white linen or cotton dress by running through forests or exploring abandoned buildings, becoming lost in an unfamiliar place, etc.

[IDs: A screenshot next to two flags. The screenshot is of a random noun generator, with the results being loss, building, and linen.

The second image is a flag with eight diagonal stripes that peak in the centre to create a triangular pattern. From outside to inside, the stripes go black, off-black, dark brown, warm brown, warm dark tan, greyish tan, silver, and pale yellow.

The third image is a flag with eight horizontal stripes that follow the same colour order, going from top to bottom instead of outside to inside. End ID]

DNI: bigots, radinclus, radexclus, pro-endo, if you’re going to try and argue with me on any of these points, if you demonise mental illness, pro-transid (eg; transabled, transage, transrace, etc), proshippers/anti-anti, MAPS/NOMAPS/necro/zoo DNI (full DNI in pinned)

[3ofpents]

The Jersey Devil & The Pine Barrens Pin Stripe // Fabric design for @shapeshiftersvt and The Cryptid Collection

Oh it's time for my favorite cryptid, the Jersey Devil.

We've reached the first fabric design that was a direct adaptation from its coordinating travel poster. Here, let me show you, I think it's pretty obvious.

This wasn't the first based-on-the-poster design that I did, but it was the very first poster that I did. I mean obviously. I grew up in New Jersey and, save for a 9 month stretch in Brooklyn after I was born, and a 2 year stint also in Brooklyn in my late 20's, I lived there for about 30 years. The Jersey Devil has always and will always hold a special place in my heart.

So why on earth is there a version of this pattern without it???????

Easy! Remember when I said that some of the fabric designs were created with Eli's runway looks in mind? Well here's the concept sketch for the Jersey Devil design:

The initial concept while we were brainstorming and finalizing the fabric designs was to create a skirt suit with the trees-only design (Pine Barrens), with a binder or sports bra in the Jersey Devil design peeking out from underneath. I can't speak entirely to Eli's thought process, but I believe part of this decision was made with the photobombing idea behind the posters in mind, where the cryptids are sort of semi-hidden, or at least not the focus of the image. And part of it was aesthetic, not wanting to have multiple moons all over the outfit that might even get cut off and such.

I want to say I had a decent time with this one, and I think I did in the end. But I have to admit that it ended up being a little frustrating because it took a lot longer than I expected it to. Or that I thought it should, considering I was just recreating a slightly altered version of an illustration that I'd already done. It took a while to get the trees right, especially because for some reason that I kept getting a single pixel wide line across my horizontal seams that, like. The only way I can explain it is that it was as if the canvas was a single pixel shorter on the bottom than the image, so every time I smoothed out the seams and moved the tile back, that single pixel line would come out of hiding and break up the whole image because it didn't get edited, so the colors were in the wrong places.

This was NOT the case, for the record. I expanded the canvas multiple times in my attempts to fix this thinking that was what was happening. And yet it kept happening. I don't remember if restarting my computer fixed the problem (I often have issues with things on my screen not appearing properly when I need to restart to free up some memory); if I confirmed that it was just a weird visual glitch in Clip and that it wasn't visible anywhere else; or if it just stopped happening because I stopped moving the tile multiple times to double or triple check it and it was happening at the point of moving it. But I got it fixed, obviously.

And I'm pleased with it! I think if I'd put this one further down the list and so had more experience under my belt, I would've done it a little differently. Really mainly the tree repeat. I think I would've done a larger tile to get more trees, for more trunk shape variation; and to have more room to get a more gentle curve back and forth.

But the essence of the thing is still there, and I still think it's a cool concept (one that Eli came up with, I forgot to mention!) with the trees being stripes. And of course I love my flying Jersey Devil. I need draw more Jersey Devil art.

As always, if you'd like to order your own binder or sports bra with either of these fabric designs, you can find them (and the poster print) here, on the Shapeshifters website. If you do, we'll finally be able to get a photo instead of the mockups I made up there.

If you want to purchase the fabric for your own sewing projects, you can do so through our Spoonflower shop. Important to note that the Pine Barrens stripe runs vertically along the length of the yard; and the Jersey Devil stripe runs horizontally, and the pattern repeat is a full yard, so there's only one moon on each yard.

[piratesexmachine420]

Here's a pet peeve of mine:

When DVD first came out, a lot of publishers either didn't understand or didn't care to understand the format, and this affect how they choose to format some widescreen movies. See, architecturally DVD only really supports two aspect ratios: 4 to 3 and 16 to 9. In either case, the resolution will be the same (720x480 @ 30fps or 720x576 @ 25fps), but in widescreen these pixels are horizontally stretched.

Now, many widescreen films are not a 16 to 9 aspect ratio, necessitating black bars ("letterboxing") below and atop the actual video, like this:

The Black Hole (1979), 2004 DVD release

This wastes bandwith, of course. In that Black Hole example, a whole 23% of the video data on that disc is being wasted on black bars. The effective resolution is only 720x368! But it's the better than the alternative: encoding widescreen video as letterboxed 4 to 3. Here's the widescreen version of A Fistful of Dollars' 1999 release:

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), 1999 DVD release

53% of that video is black bars. That's more than half! We're left with an effective resolution of only 720x196, and on my monitor (16 to 10 aspect ratio), the movie is left looking pretty stupid:

It's not awful, and VLC can alleviate the windowboxing by cropping, but you still have to suffer the compromised vertical resolution.

Fortunately for us film enjoyers with eyes, this basically stopped being a problem around the mid 2000s. Widescreen televisions had finally started selling in real numbers, so studios started having to care. This particular formatting problem only only really affects you if you buy all your movies from thrift stores, like I do.

Unfortunately, Blu-ray sort of re-introduced this problem in the other direction. HD and UHD Blu-rays can only store video in 16 to 9 widescreen. This is basically fine for most people, given that 16 to 9 displays are really the only kind anyone makes anymore (well, for TVs and computers anyway). I am not most people. Here's Evangelion on my monitor:

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), 2021 Blu-ray The Complete Series release

Ooh, so close. VLC will let us crop to 4:3 to remove the letterboxing, but for whatever reason this fucks up the captioning layer.

No clue why, can't figure out how to fix it. This affects DVD subtitles too, but fortunately most of my DVDs with aspect ratio problems are English-language and thus don't need subtitles. Not so here. This seems to be a long-standing bug in VLC, and it looks unlikely anyone is working on fixing it.

Aspect ratios suck.

[the-mewrderus-duck]

found and old explanation of my dysgraphia I made for one of my college professors, who didn't want us to use computers to write down information. Spell check is extremely important to my ability to write as person with dysgraphia and my writing is almost illegible without it. So to get this guy to understand I sat down and made this and he let me use word processors for all my assignments. I'll include an image description under the read more if you are having a problem reading the picture.

Image id: white paper on a striped blanket.

Written on the paper

Dyslexia is for reading, dyscalcula is for numbers, dysgraphia is for writing.

How most people learn I have dysgraphia

b&d > get flipped [the d in flipped is crossed out with a d above it indicating a b was written and then corrected] constantly.

Current solve pointing at the following.

A diagram showing b with a line under it showing a stick and circle with "2 line" written under it

next to a diagram showing a d with a line pointing to a almost connected upsidedown candycane shape with "1 line" written under it.

Old slove b and D - I would just capitalize D

So you would get sentansws like this where I woulD be writing and the words I hadni't [a typo for the word hadn't] memoriseD woulD get capitalized with seemingly no pattern.

Also h & n

The h and n have an additional horizontal line extending from the final point.

Keeps from looking like b or r and y vs g

A diagram showing the g having a tail that connects back on itself like with cursive letters and the abbreviated from of because written as B.C. capital G with an arrow pointing to the section of the G that points into the circle and a diagram of lowercase y and upper case Y showing the tails as sticks.

[infernalmellifera]

it’s totally fine if not but would you ever consider posting some info on how you made your mirage head?id love to cosplay v2 but im lost on how to go about the construction of it lol

HI I LOVE THIS QUESTION AND I WAS ACTUALLY HOPING TO MAKE IT THIS MIRAGE MONDAY ANYWAYS!!! 🩷🤭

🩷Mirage Monday: Construction and Process!🩷

I dont have pics of the template, but if i ever remake it ill be sure to make one sorry ;; BUT before even constructing, ive found that making a small doll-sized prototype! (and fun bonus, if you dont lose yours like i did, you can use it with your monster high dolls!)

The line going straight across the horizontal center is a score line (not cut all the way through) to assist in shape! it helps to give it that little edge to it without having to glue it! i also scored it to make the rounded parts at the bottom of the neck and the inset of the eye :)

each side is its own panel, except the front that is composed of 5 panels (left and right sides, center top, chin, and under chin( and the optional stem, that i ended up ditching because it dug into my neck.

after hot gluing all the pieces together, i filled in the seams with clay foam, but that step is completely optional when working with sharp edges. after that, i spray painted it white (which i regret! it wont get the smell out of the cardboard!!!) as a base coat, but id suggest just using white gesso or white acrylic paint to help get that vibrant colors on. i used acrylic paints for the colors and a light shine finish on top! but if you wanna bypass that step, you can totally use glossy acrylics :)

the face mesh!! mine is made from patio screen, but if you can afford it, there is a mesh made specifically for prop heads that would look better !! acrylic paint also works great here. shown above is my first draft for the face that i ended up ripping off and starting over for, so be prepared to either have two in case you mess up, or start by drafting it out on plain paper to see if you like it.

theres a piece of foam at the chin for stabilization too! i put a headband on the inside for the same purpose, but ive found my hair is too long to actually use that without a wig cap, so its a little obsolete and i push it to the back while wearing it. it kinda hugs the back of my head and stabilizes it decently….. but honestly you could get that same effect with just the foam.

lastly, the mechanics!! i am by no means an engineer by any means, i just happened to have extra LEDs. The Eye is made of LEDs set into two painted ribbon spools glued on top of the mesh screen with a painted fabric-like plastic sheet (from a wig bag) to diffuse the light (and that little extra circle is just a piece of paper) .

in the back of it, i have a little switch! it comes from a pack of string lights from the dollar tree, but i had to dismantle the battery pack because the LEDs only work with 9v batteries (sad!) so i had to figure out how to make a 9v battery cover out of the AA battery pack. its a bit cheugy but its functional! if youre planning on wearing it for a long time, totally install a computer fan!!!! it gets super sweaty in there (ew!) even though the entire face is ventilated :p

i am the worst person to ask about soldering, but im positive you could find a pretty good tutorial on youtube :,) my lights run from the back battery, to the left light, to the right light, and ends at the eye (mostly because the lights had input/output on both sides and the eye did Not).

if ive missed ANYTHING, feel free to ask me in comments, reblogs, asks, or DMs!!

[nice-bright-colors]

How high are you?

Let’s all just review some proper numerical penmanship, shall we.

This is the standard and widely accepted ways to write the numbers “2” and “7”. Even if you don’t follow the horizontal dash rule, the “2” is curved with a flat bottom, and the “7” has straight lines with a sharp angle.

So how in the hell does this package end up at the building next door?

I will not comment on the handwritten “9’s” that look like lower case “g’s”. However, those “2’s” are all very clear, INCLUDING THE FUCKING COMPUTER PRINT OUT.

Friday’s in Colorado, Hell pretty much everyday in Colorado. Everybody is always high as fuck, including the delivery drivers.

[firewolf-pyro]

8. REMORSE

The Doctor enters through the cracked open window of the control room onboard the crescent ship. Rose and him both are climbing into the ship that is sticking up sideways in the snow. The room is nearly vertical to the ground with how the ship had crash landed. Both of them drop into it then are suddenly horizontal on the ship’s surface as the artificial gravity onboard the spacecraft takes hold of them. The snow storm outside of the ship has increased, the howling of the winds are so intense that each step they take into the ship causes it to shiver and quake, threatening to rock sideways or backwards in the wind.

“There has to be a reason this Dalek is here- what reason would a genocidal creature like that have coming to a frozen wasteland?” He moves quickly away from the cold open window over to the screens of the control room. The computers there are flickering and staticky having some obvious damage from the crash but they are still clearly functioning. With a smirk he immediately begins messing with what he could, the sound of his sonic screwdriver low under that of the storm just behind him.

“It could just be here by accident… Like the other one.”

She suggests and turns to look at the world outside of the ship that is horizontal to them. The blizzard outside has gotten so bad that she can no longer see the TARDIS beyond besides a few flickers of the blue box every once in a while.

“Mistakes? Daleks don’t make this many mistakes. Their whole ideology wouldn’t allow for it, oh good the computers’ Star mapping functions are still available.” He ignores Rose and what she is looking at, instead he is frantically poking and prodding at the Dalek converted computer system. He opens a Star map to try and figure out where the Dalek was coming from and where they were planning to go.

“Or, maybe they aren’t as perfect as they seem to think they are. As perfect as you seem to believe they are.” She retorts as she leans against the wall watching the snow beyond. She squints her eyes as a dull yellow light flickers through the dark snow beyond them. She moves to lean out of the window, her hair shifting under the hat of hers down towards the snowy ground below her. Under the groan and moan of the wind she can barely hear the familiar noise of heavy machinery.

“This - this doesn’t make sense… They came from earth, they JUST came from earth. What was this Dalek even DOING on earth?” The Doctor scrolls through the star map’s route showing the planetary system the ship came from then scrolls forwards to see where it was going. The solar system the Dalek was attempting to head to was nearly a light year away from this place.

“Oh- old stomping grounds…” He whispers as he seems to recognize the planet that the star map pulls up. The strangely colored marble rotates around and around on the screen as he peers at it. The only reason the Daleks had abandoned this one was due to the strange sentient plant life that had an odd habit of rooting down into metal. Sure their seed pods were rather explosive too- but the Daleks seemed to have opted out of wasting their time attempting to totally terraform this planet at the time.

“Doctor… Doctor I think she’s coming back-“ She looks over her shoulder for a brief moment before looking back out the window towards the growing light. By now the machine’s front, hauling the casing, was cutting through the snow and was mostly visible.

“Why would you … Wouldn’t they want to waltz right back into the current hive? Why hide out in an abandoned Dalek mining facility?” He pulls up visual records from the computers connected to the planet. A few comic book images of the planet are scattered throughout other images of a forest covered planet with large vine-like plants that had even larger flowers on them. Amongst the images are pictures of old Dalek casing’s with the flowering vines sprouting from their surfaces .

“Doctor…” Rose backs away from the window as she keeps her eyes on the machine while the shovel presses right up against the side of the ship. It shakes the crescent ship with such force that Rose stumbles backwards, thumping into the computers where the Doctor had also braced himself. After the shockwave there is stillness. The machine’s noises echo through the space of the control room along with the howling winter wind. A groan comes from the outermost part of the ship as the cat clambers out of the vehicle onto the shovel then into the ship itself. She sits with a huff just inside of the window. Rose backs away from her but keeps herself between the Doctor and the cat. The Doctor is looking furiously down at the half frozen cat.

“Did it get too cold for you, kitty cat?” The Doctor scoffs in a mocking tone once she is seated against the underside of the window. He inches around Rose’s side to try and get to her. Now was the perfect time to rip that mutant away from the warmth of its host. With it half frozen it’s actions would be slow and sloppy.

“Oh jargza off you old jaski.” She sputters as her arms pull into a self hug. She is very obviously shivering with snow coating the outside of her snowsuit.

“Hey now! Watch your language and I am in no way irrelevant.” He looks first surprised by the swearing then offended via the insult. He wanted to go around Rose’s side but she prevents him by elbowing his gut.

“Why’d you come back? You have what you wanted-“ Rose starts, stepping closer to the cat who is now chattering her teeth as she tries to warm herself. Even in the ship they can see each other’s breaths.

“I- … Is your companion blind, horrorkon esc j-wibbial.”

She looks mildly concerned at Rose before making a move to stand up. The action causes Rose to stiffen, the girl wanting to stand her ground just in case this was a move to harm her or her partner. But the cat woman didn’t make a move for anyone, the goal primarily seemed to be to get away from the open window.

“Oh man I think the weather here’s busted my translator or something, Rose did you catch any of that?” The Doctor glares over at the cat who is now dusting the snow off of her coat and stumbling away from the window. He moves to stand beside Rose who is carefully moving closer to the cat.

The cat circles back around the console of the control center’s computer system. She looks over what files the Doctor had open and glances over to him then to Rose with a deepening look of concern. Had he figured out what she was planning yet? The Doctor and Rose both walk just a few feet away from her side. She is keeping a close eye on both of them as she closes out the Star system maps and instead pulls up a radar system designed to read the current weather and predict what is to come. She hoped he had not.

“Not a word, but I’m sure she’s trying to insult you.” Rose stops just a foot or so away from the cat’s shoulder. She was peering mostly at the cat’s back, inching closer and closer as if aiming to pull the hood down from her again.

“Well you are not wrong there, Menns thing.” She glares over her shoulder at Rose, but doesn’t move away. She was daring her to continue her approach. With how much blood the host had lost if she pulled him off of her now she was done for. He was absolutely ready to justify killing Rose just for causing the host’s death.

“With how freely you are talking I’m going to assume you aren’t just … Some soldier or drone?” The Doctor also moves carefully around to the cat’s other side. He is glancing at the screen then back to the cat as he does so. With her closed in on both sides it would be easier to detain her.

Rose uses the very points of her fingers to gently pull the hood of the cat’s snowsuit down. Before either the Doctor or Rose can react a tendril comes shooting out from the cloth and slaps her hand hard enough to make her yelp. Rose quickly steps back a few feet holding her hand close to her. She pulls her glove off to see a very red welt along the surface.

“I warned you not to touch me again. That is your SECOND warning.” Blueton snarls, the hood is pulled back up to cover her head via some tendrils before she turns to face the Doctor who is reaching out to Rose in a sympathetic sort of way. She gives him a scolding look as if to say ‘get control of your little pet.’

“Rose- are you okay?” He skirts around behind the cat to comfort Rose who at this point is glaring in a hurt manner at the cat. He takes her hand and looks over the red welt. He’d taught Dalek mutants in the past sure but the most out of it he had ever experienced was being choked out. He wasn’t away they could use their tentacles in this manner.

“Be thankful I did not hit you harder.” The cat woman growls lowly before standing tall over the computers in front of herself. The fact that she had to deal with both of these humanoids had really made this trip more complicated. Now she had to figure out how to ditch them, and keep them out of her… Well, buisiness.

“I will be stuck here for awhile if this snow storm does not give in, this is worse than the oquolloquox on Skaro.” She crosses her arms back over her chest and turns to look over the Doctor and Rose who are standing shoulder to shoulder. Her head tilts a bit to the side as she observes their interaction; she wishes she could join in for the body heat alone.

“That was entirely unnecessary, Dalek.” The Doctor glares at the cat as he coddles Rose to his side. He lets Rose take her hand back to herself. If this one could hit that hard with just one tendril he did not want to know what else it could do. He felt horrible for the cut this creature was clung to- it must have been a horrible fight.

“It was necessary. All of the Menns things only seem to learn via punishment or reward. And to answer your question, no. I am not a drone nor am I a mere soldier.”

She turns to look back over the computer’s readings. The storm readings she was staring at looked to be growing then shrinking then growing again. The strange pulsing made her think the planet’s atmosphere had been strangely damaged via their entry.

“Stop calling her an alien, Rose, this is… A Dalek piloting some poor cat nurse. Cat nurse piloted Dalek, Rose-“ He gestures between the two of them. He is still moving closer to the cat now that Rose has been seen to. There could be a way to remove the mutant from her without harming her- but he would definitely need to be careful about it.

“There is no need for introductions. You will either kill me for simply being a Dalek, or- I exterminate you for being the enemy of the Daleks.”

Actions: she turns to glare at the Doctor, once again ignoring Rose entirely. She stood tall as the Doctor walks right up to her front.

“Tell me the truth, and tell me honestly. Why are you here? How did you get here? And this ship is clearly non-Dalek, so how did you get it? Why are you even using it?” He leans on the counter to prevent the cat from averting her eyes back to the screen. His arm is rested on the counter to block more of the screen. With the controls and the important information in front of her blocked off the cat nun lets out an irritated huff. She glanced behind her to the door leading to the rest of the ship. She debated showing him- would he kill what she had created? Would it prevent him from killing her?

“Please… We won’t try and hurt you- I won’t let him hurt you- we just want to know what’s going on here.” Rose pulls her glove back on as she cautiously walks towards the door that the cat was glancing towards. She was curious about what might be behind it.

“And if I do not?” She answers the question with a question. When she notices Rose step closer to the door she also takes a few steps back towards it. Was Rose lying? Would she actually protect her and what she had made from this monster? Could she actually protect her and what she had created from this mess of a man? She didn’t believe so, she did not trust this situation.

“What’s behind door number one, eh?” The Doctor bolts over to the door with Rose, blocking the cat’s path. He flings his hand onto the button that opens the door then rushes out into the hall. He stops dead in his tracks. The hallway is dark, the lights are non functional.

When the cat nun sees that the whole inner system of the ship was inoperable she moves quickly past both Rose and the Doctor through the darkness to the exact room she really did not want to lead her worst enemy to. Her worries were about the life support system controlling the fluid levels in her little experiment. She tests the dead door panel with her hands before prying the panel off of the wall. Quickly she fiddles with the wiring - with a flash the door slides open before the lights go dead again. Before the Doctor or Rose can get to her she is in the lab. She is lost in the dark for only a moment before the lights in the lab flash blue then bright white. She takes a moment to thank Skaro the backup generators to this room hadn’t been damaged in the crash.

“Thank the song of the Lallapalange they are not dead-“ The cat leans against the tank's glass and stares deep into the dark yellow water. She completely ignores the entrance of the Doctor who carefully looks around himself- though he sticks an arm out to block Rose from entering the room with him. He had a sense of what was going on in here- the last thing he wanted was to get Rose stuck between him and a very protective brooder.

“So… This…” He takes a good long look around himself at all of the different tanks along the walls. This was a nursery. He side steps to one of the walls and peers into the murky fluid beyond. There was no doubt about it.

“Oh… Oh~” He smiles looking over at the cat then immediately frowns. He blinks back to the tanks as he relaxes a hand to the warm glass. This was- something morally horrible he had to debate with himself. These were Daleks- this was a Dalek broodery. These babies had done nothing wrong but they would, he had no doubts about that. They would grow up to be killers. They would grow up to be one the most dangerous species in the universe. He had not prevented their species creation in a past life- but maybe today he could prevent another wave from growing up. Prevent them from killing off more alien species later on down the road.

“I have witnessed thousands upon thousands of my own kind perish… I do not know if I could handle losing these ones too.” She keeps her gaze on the tanks as she moves towards one of the computers reading the life signs of the creatures within. She kneels down to read the lower display screens. They were stable. All one hundred of them. She let out a deep sigh of relief.

“Yet the deaths of billions of other species doesn’t bother you one bit?” The Doctor scoffs though quiets himself when he sees the cat visibly flinch. He stays where he is to watch her. It had? The deaths of other species had bothered this one? Or was that the cat nun herself reacting to the statement. Reacting to the memories of the Dalek itself about the mass exterminations, the death camps, the planet glassing.

“It is easy if you do not see them as people.” The cat nun seems to relax in that sentiment, standing and staring into the water. A very soft smile pulls itself onto her lips as she watches the tiny squid looking things only about an inch across move around in the liquid. No, Daleks did not see other species as sentient. They had trouble comprehending the idea that others could think like them. Different was inertly wrong.

“But they are still people.” Rose speaks up from the doorway. She doesn’t make a move to enter the room knowing if she did the Doctor would likely react poorly to it. Instead she steps from side to side watching the two interact with the creatures in the tanks around them.

“And Yet I am still using one as a flesh puppet.”

She turns towards the Doctor and points towards the door. Her look of love towards what was growing in that tank turns immediately to one of sheer rage. She couldn’t have him here. Not with these little ones all around her. He would kill them, she decided. The predator of the Daleks wouldn’t care if they were children or not- she knew this.

“GET OUT! Get OUT of my lab and AWAY from my Arkellis!” The metallic snarl calls out as she steps closer to the Doctor. The cat snarls in the Doctor’s direction causing him to flinch backwards. Now this is as the reaction the man was expecting from her the first time when she came back to the ship. Instead of moving away the Doctor glances over the tanks and the computers behind her. He stands up from the tanks he was looking into and steps closer to her instead. She certainly seemed to care quite a bit about this brood. It weirded him out a little.

“Who are you… Really.” He stares into the cat’s face. His arms are outstretched as if offering himself up to her. It was time to try a more gentle tactic here as he was still debating on what he would do. Could he bring himself to kill off these small creatures? All it would take was a flick of a switch really, all he had to do was turn off the life support systems and the small Dalek mutants would perish.

“I am Dalek Strategist BT122.”

“The BLUE one! Oh- of COURSE it HAD to be the BLUE one!” The Doctor yells and takes a step closer to her. The connections were drawn as he recalled exactly where he knew this casing from. A Time War Strategist- one who certainly worked closely with the Time Controller. This realization only seems to anger her further.

“Listen- Blue- or.. Blu. Or…Blueberry or-“ He takes another step closer to her. The rumors about this maddened strategist ran wild during the chaotic war. He wanted to test them, test what exactly was true about this snake.

“You do not know me, Storm.”

“No, I really do- story’s about a meddling Dalek causing strategies to fail despite their calculations showing they should have succeeded… Sure you’re no Rusty but -“ He glances towards Rose who is watching the both of them with a look of concern. His smile widened- she should be concerned. This Dalek in front of them was one of the true insane.

“There is no proof tying any of those failures to me.”

“Are you sure? Last I heard you were locked up in some god forsaken asylum somewhere. It seems not even your own empire believes you DIDN'T play a role in those ‘failures’.” He cackles as he took another step closer, closing the distance between him and the cat. He grapples her, his arms wrapping around her much unlike a hug. The illusion of a friendly face had worked. A little bit of compassion and he could walk all over his victims.

“GET OFF!” They push him trying to get him off of herself. With a few shuffly steps the cat tries to push or pull the Doctor away from the tanks. Her goal was to get back out into the hallway.

“Come on, Blue- tell me why you are here-“ He reaches a hand into the suit again trying to get a hold on any part of the Dalek mutant. By doing so the cat makes a gagging coughing noise- blood spewing out of her throat and mouth as the Dalek releases her entirely. Blueton was fed up with all of this touching.

“THIRD WARNING REVOKED!” He snarles and bolts off of the woman’s back. She collapses into the Doctor's arms very clearly dead. The holes in her throat ooze blood letting the last of her warmth trickle out into the floor around the man. The Doctor gasps and quickly holds his hands up around the bleeding wounds, sinking down to the ground to better hold pressure on them. It wouldn’t matter, however. She had no pulse.

“No- nooo Blue no-“ The Doctor winces letting the woman sink down to the floor carefully as he looks around trying to find where Blueton had leapt to. She was a lost cause, he was sure of it. And now with the mutant on the loose out of sight he worried he had taken a step too far. What was this insane creature plotting? He had to think a step ahead of them but how could he? The damned thing was so unpredictable.

“Oh my god-“ Rose gags at the sight of blood seeping out onto the floor around the woman. She frantically looks up around the room trying to spot where the Dalek mutant had gone. The Doctor shouts, jabbing his finger towards some movement. Blueton was in the computers, their longer tendrils dangling over the edge of them as they scrambled up their sides. They say there, shorter tendrils on the controls- staring at the Doctor waiting for him to move.

“You didn’t have to do that- … You didn’t have to kill her…”

“I don’t believe she was even alive to begin with, Doctor.” Anis states from where she stood at the entrance of the lab room. Behind her in the dark hallway some torchlights flicker around as more people explore the interior of the ship. Behind her Bastion and Lesly both peak their head into the room. The Doctor looks over at the group behind him which is enough of a give to make Blueton lunge down at him. No one there was ready for such an ambush.