#Blue Cowl

[rj-drive-in]

First Post!

Yes, pilgrim, you have stumbled upon the initial offering of RJ's Drive-In Theater, Radio Show, Library, Art Gallery, & Grill. Watch your step. Stumbling is dangerous. In this blog, updated every Sunday at 9am (EST), you will find something strange-- an audio drama, some prose literature, a poem, art, humor, or a recipe for Hackberry Wine unlike anything you've ever tasted. That last one is pretty unlikely, but it just goes to show you what the possibilities are. So get in on the ground floor, because the elevator only goes up from here and the metaphors never end. For this initial offering, we present four (count 'em, four) creations as a sampler for what lies ahead. Enjoy!

Also, please consider checking out our companion blog, the indefatigable and chronically amusing web comic, Trunkards.

And now, onward:

Old-Time Radio Department:

The Blue Cowl, Episode One, "The Adventure of the Nasty Soul"

© 2022 by Rick Hutchins

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when heroes filled the airwaves, and listen as the mysterious Blue Cowl and his trusty Femme Fatale assistant battle homegrown American Nazis.

____________________

Science-Fiction Department:

And here we have one of what I call my "Drunk Science" tales:

THE TABETHAN ANALYSIS © 2022 by Rick Hutchins

Rapping her knuckles lightly on the wooden apartment door, Geetika said, “Professor? Are you home?”

“Come right in, Miss Bakshi,” came the immediate reply.

She opened the door cautiously and peeked inside. The small apartment was dominated by a large dining room table, covered with stacks of books, a handful of mobile devices, a tangle of wires, and the professor’s widescreen laptop. There also appeared to be a six-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager among the mess.

“Hello, sir.”

Professor McManus was sitting in an office chair at the near end of the table, hunched over the laptop. He swivelled toward Geetika and waved her inside. “Come on, come on,” he said. “No need to stand on ceremony.”

She came hesitantly inside and closed the door. Aside from the electronic devices, the only light came from an old-fashioned floor lamp in the corner and a table lamp next to the couch. In the dimness, the walls seemed to be lined with bookcases.

“Come along, don’t be shy, sit down,” he said, pointing at the couch. He handed her a bottle of beer from the six-pack. “I saved you a Sam Adams.”

She thanked him and sat down, noting that the remaining bottles were empty. “You’ve had the other five already?”

“Eleven,” he corrected. “But there’s more in the fridge when you need them.”

“Will I need them?”

He leaned back in the office chair and it squeaked. He regarded her with a steady gaze that gave little hint of inebriation. It was odd to see Thompson McManus outside of class, in jeans and an MIT school jersey-- which revealed that he was heavier around the middle than she had thought. He was still quite a handsome older man, despite that.

“More than likely,” he said at last.

“Is this about my grades?”

“What? No, no,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “Are you kidding? You’re my best student. That’s why you’re here. Hell, you could teach my classes.”

Inwardly, she breathed a sigh of relief. “I could?”

“And you probably should,” he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I should have retired ten years ago. Now I wish I had.” Maybe he was a little tipsy at that.

“Then why did you ask me to come over, sir?”

“Because,” he said, reaching into the mess on his desk and pulling out a thumb drive, “I need a little peer review done.” He tossed the drive and she caught it. “You’re aware that I’ve been working on an article for The Astrophysical Journal on KIC 8462852?”

“Oh, yes,” she nodded with a smile, almost giddy that she wasn’t in some kind of trouble. “Tabby’s famous star. ‘I’m not saying that it’s aliens– but it’s aliens!’”

Professor McManus smiled mildly and nodded his head.

“So... what did you find”

“It’s aliens.”

Geetika’s jaw dropped. “You... it’s... what?!”

The professor took a deep breath, and ran his hand through his shock of white hair. “In order to synthesize the most accurate and extant knowledge base for my study, I collected every known data point from every known source available. Kepler, the Planet Hunters Project, historical observations, Spitzer, AstroLAB, the GRB Mission, the VLA, Mauna Kea, you name it. I cross-referenced everything with Doctor Boyajian herself. It’s all on the stick.”

“And your conclusion?”

“It’s a megastructure. Of a sort.”

“But I was sure they had ruled out any kind of Dyson object.”

“They ruled out everything. Every theory was falsified. The only reasonable explanation was a giant dust cloud, or clouds, but nobody could account for the missing infrared radiation. I was finally able to account for the missing radiation.”

“In what way?”

“By demonstrating that the clouds are not made of dust. They’re made of trillions upon trillions of nanomachines.”

“Oh, my god. A Dyson swarm of nanomachines? Is that possible?”

“You’ll be the judge, Miss Bakshi,” he replied, indicating the memory stick. “It makes sense. A cloud that size would have enough memory and computing power to hold a nearly infinite virtual reality, and it would be much easier to build and maintain than gargantuan cities in flight. The Tabethans could have uploaded themselves to their version of Heaven and made themselves immortal. If that’s what really happened.”

“That’s remarkable. Amazing. Everything fits.” Then she saw the look on his face. “What do you mean, if that’s what really happened?”

The professor sighed. “That’s not all I found,” he said. “I was also able to confirm that the clouds orbit within the habitable zone.”

“Why is that a problem?”

“There’s no planet in the habitable zone.”

Geetika shrugged. “Wouldn’t the Tabethans have dismantled their planet to build the nanomolecular clouds?”

“Not necessary. If you’re constructing a Dyson Sphere or a Ringworld or anything similar, you’d need to clear the system for building materials and to remove dangerous debris and gravitational disturbances. A nanomolecular cloud can be built from the materials in asteroids and comets. It doesn’t even need to be in the habitable zone.”

“Then where did the planet... oh. Oh, my god.” She remembered her Sam Adams and took a long, long drink. “Oh, my god.”

Professor McManus nodded grimly. “Exactly. It may have been an industrial accident or maybe a doomsday weapon. Or just a prototype that got out of control.”

Geetika put her hand over her mouth and sat back on the couch. “Oh, no. Instead of uploading themselves to Heaven, the Tabethans may just have obliterated themselves.”

“Actually,” said the professor slowly, “it may be far worse than that.”

“What do you mean? What could be worse?”

“This is why I need you to peer review my results before I publish. The paper has to be perfect, given the implications. I was able to incorporate some new data sent to me by some colleagues at Cornell earlier this week, and that changed everything.”

“What is the new data?”

“Two things, both of which imply that the clouds are not native to Tabby’s Star. One is simply that the comparison of targeted spectral isotope analyses suggests that they were constructed around a K-Type main sequence star.”

“And the other?”

Professor McManus leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and paused for a long moment. “The gas clouds don’t just have a deficit of infrared radiation,” he said at last. “Some of them have a surplus of ultraviolet radiation.”

“Oh,” she gasped.

“Exactly.”

“They’re blue shifted.”

“Exactly.”

“They’re moving toward us.”

“At a large fraction of the speed of light,” the professor replied. “Leaving us scarcely centuries to prepare.”

____________________

Pulp Space Opera Department

Little Miss Muffet ain't got nothing on our girl Victoria here.

Victoria Peak Versus Victoriapeak. © 2022 by Rick Hutchins

____________________

Humor Department

"Always leave 'em laughing," say those who say sayings. So here's a little something for breakfast. Please join us again next Sunday at 9am for more somethings.

© 2022 by Rick Hutchins

[sonicman66]

DpxDc fic where Danny is just haunting the Bats and providing memes to the internet whilst being invisible

Because I read a fic ('the curious case of who lives in the walls' by RaccoonRobyn over on ao3) that has Danny chilling in the Wayne Manor's walls and commenting on the Wayne's habits and goings on and i just

Tl;dr danny has a twitter page where he invisibly follows the bats and documents their funny mistakes like a nature documentary.

One day a Gothamite spots a new twitter page on their feed. Its not got a lot of posts, but they're all pictures. And the first one is... Nightwing. Lying on the concrete, face-down, with another bat or bird very obviously laughing at him.

They think nothing of it. They compliment the photoshop for its realism, and move on. Except there's more pictures. All of them, every last one of them, has the Bats and Birds suffering from a trip, fall, a gaffe, a misstep, anything and everything.

And then they find a video

Its clearly a handheld or phone camera, pointed at Robin in an alleyway. Someone starts talking, in a very poor attempt at sounding like David Attenborough, narrating like a wildlife documentary. "Here we see the youngest of the Bat-brood partaking in one of its more private behaviors, unseen and unknown by its kin."

And Robin just. Steps further into the alleyway and gets swarmed by stray cats, all begging for food. He grins and starts feeding them, all whilst narration continues, talking about this like its an animal's behavior.

And they have more. So many more.

A video of Red Hood. He does a fancy gun twirl when nobody's around, bobbles it, and accidentally fires into the ground. He picks it up and acts like nothing happened. But the video sees all.

A video of Batman on a gargoyle on a skyscraper, with shaky footage from clearly around a corner, but on the same level. "Commentary on this specimen has been added in post, for reasons you will soon see. Batman, the patriarch of the Bat-Brood, is incredibly elusive to research, and for good reason." In the video, the camera jolts a little and Batman turns suddenly to the sound of rocks moving. The camera goes still, and Batman scans the area, seemingly seeing nothing. Then, his white eyes turn blue, and he looks directly into the camera. Footage ends.

The acc posts a screenshot of a dm that is very clearly an Oracle sockpuppet. She has sent something along the lines of 'how have you obtained this footage, this is dangerous,' etc etc. His response is 'i am in ur walls lol'

He is not aware of the level of Bat Paranoia this brings out.

[yarnoverhook]

[La Résilience] Cowl

[vimbry]

I miss drawing these dudes

[unfinishedsweaters]

One Chevron Scrap Cowl

just a garter stitch cowl. nothing to see here

[denim-bias]

[womenofwrestlingfashion]

Cowl Neck Open Back Maxi Dress from Edikted ($33.60 - on sale)

[deusvervewrites]

Which AUs do Second and Third have a higher opinion of Izuku than Canon?

Early Cowling (Vigilatism)

Blue Blazes (Covered up a murder)

Hustle and Bust (His conning)

Tamama no Mom (Kitsune amorality)

[age-of-moonknight]

“Memory of a Killer,” Moon Knight: City of the Dead (Vol. 1/2023), #1.

Writer: David Pepose; Penciler: Marcelo Ferreira; Inker: Jay Leisten; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[rj-drive-in]

Old-Time Radio Department:

The Blue Cowl, Episode Two, "The Case of the Crumbling Victory"

© 2024 by Rick Hutchins

[rubiatinctorum]

on that note and also, if i had a nickel for every time i found a pretty merino wool sweater that would have been excellent were it not a cowl neck sweater, i would have two nickels

[yarnoverhook]

[Glacier Cowl]

[kilowogcore]

I love Silver Age comics. They're so utterly ridiculous! Like this! Look at this! In what universe does wearin' a full cowl under what had appeared ta' be just stage makeup actually work? I defy even Batman ta' find a full head mask that both fits over a cowl an' looks convincing.

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

The suit doesn't look so awful in shading I suppose

Scarlet seems like a neat and fun character

Theres a weird?? Social media thing? They're a social media duo? Recording what they do and having a catchphrase?

I am, and have been, a fan of Jason dying his hair to look like Dick, though the way this comic presents this is the wrong way to go about it. It's much better when Bruce unintentionally forces Jason to dye his hair, either in subconscious how he reacts to Jason way or in a "you need to keep your hair dyed now to help hide your identity" that Bruce doesn't really think of the consequences of. If we're having hints of pre-crisis here, Bruce not thinking about the consequences of his actions is a great addition

Very ah. Weird and icky how Dick, even in privacy with Alfred and Damian, still insists he can't do any business with the added on dialogue of "I grew up in a circus tent."

I'm not going to be having much fun at all with this series

[susoriginals]

Vintage Ladies Blue & Beige Cowl Neck Pullover Side button Sweater by Talbots Women's Large Only $10

[mhaccunoval]

i'm normal (<- again fixating on that last ad pic i reblogged)