#moon 308

[pikaclan]

Moon 308

Major Events

Finchstar disappears for a few days, perhaps seeking treatment from twolegs, and returns to camp with a white nylon collar. Upon returning, their body just couldn't continue forward - they've lost all their remaining lives to old age and traveled to StarClan the Dark Forest (their life was questionable and as they were not mentioned in Loudstar's leader ceremony, I took this as they are in the Dark Forest) Loudstar received his nine lives and became the new leader of the Clan. They feel like they are not ready for this new responsibility, but will try their best to do what is right for the Clan. Lakehusk has been chosen as the new deputy. They look at the Clan leader with an odd glint in their eyes.

OOC this means I am now implementing my three strike warrior code system. Each code break will be a strike and upon three strikes will be exile, demotion, or otherwise depending on the cat and the crimes. For each individual code strike it is assumed the leader punished accordingly with apprentice duties, digging out the dirtplace, etc. However, the Clan will still not punish interactions with loners or kittypets unless sharing prey is involved. This might change with a different leader (Loudstar was a former loner and is fixed; he only had kits through adoption but Lakehusk is bloodthirsty). Additionally, I will be turning on cats can have mates with outsiders. Having kits outside the Clan will count as a strike if discovered (determined off screen) but cats will not be exiled upon outsider root kits even if that is their last code strike (essentially it counts as a strike unless it is the last strike). Alternatively, if it is discovered they have a half-clan relationship (determinedoff screen if caught), they and their kits will be immediately exiled and assumed to join the other Clan. Otherwise, any other part of the code is the same, though this may change in the future with certain leaders

Misc

Valleyfalcon was seen speaking calmly to a cat from LionClan (not a code strike per Loudstar but sus)

Lakehusk was caught sharing prey with a rogue, who was chased off by a patrol (code strike)

Health

Loudstar has a running nose Avalanchebeetle is no longer frostbitten

Patrols

As the patrol is marking the border lines, a gang of rogues strides confidently out from behind a tumble of rocks, yowling as they confront the Clan Cats! (proceed) The rogues are terrifyingly coordinated and are quick to use the patrol's momentary surprise to their advantage. The patrol cats are picked off, only a couple managing to escape

Valleyfalcon died

[lloydfrontera]

it doesn't even make sense from a narrative sense!!! that's not what lloyd wished!! he never wanted that kind of position!! it goes directly against what he wished for!! not even in a satisfying 'challenge your character's goal' way! like!!

ok here, let me show you what i mean

"Yes. it's just... All I ever wanted was a proper family that would greet me after i came home from work. With them, I thought it would be nice to live an ordinary and happy life with the money I make.”  “So?”  “So, I worked hard every day. That is, before I found myself here. But my dream hasn’t changed even after I got here.”  “To start a family?”  “Yes, though I've come to covet one more thing,” confessed Lloyd.  “What’s that?”  “Lazing around for the rest of my life.”  “Oh?” Verkis sounded intrigued.  “Now that I have a prosperous life in this fiefdom, I want to protect it and enjoy everything that it offers. And now, I want to stay here and laze around for the rest of my life. With my family, I have come to yearn for the relaxed life of a retiree. And that is why...”  Lloyd meant every word he said, and his voice now contained force.  “It will be just burdensome for me to obtain more power, larger territories, a stronger military, or something along that line. I'll be kept away from leisure to deal with it all. Doesn't it seem like a lot of work? Thus, my only wish is for my family and the people around me to be at ease and happy. I want to live the rest of my life surrounded by their warmth without another day of work.”  “And that is why the Jewel of Truth is a burden to you?”  “Yes, since I already have everything necessary to make my dream come true. Nothing more is needed. So long as I stop the restoration of destiny, I'll be able to achieve my goal. Anything beyond that would just become a stumbling block to my dream.”  -Chapter 313: Swordsmaster Syndrome (1)

like. c'mon. this was such a good moment! it's good storytelling!!

at the start of the story you have lloyd who has lost his loved ones, who is struggling to barely keep himself afloat and whose only wish is to have a family that would welcome him home and enough to keep it safe and comfortable. and he thinks the only way to achieve this is to marry and have kids because that's pretty much the only way our amatonormative society considers appropriate.

and then as the plot goes on we start to realize that. no. actually lloyd doesn't really need to do that because. well. he's already getting a family. as he gets closer and closer to the fronteras and javier you realize that lloyd's wish is coming true!

All I ever wanted was a proper family that would greet me after i came home from work.

and what's better is that it comes to a point lloyd himself realizes this. he realizes that despite his attempts to keep his distance and not take a place he feels he hasn't earned he already loves his new family so much he's willing to do anything to keep them safe no matter the cost.

This change was also manifested in Count Arcos and Countess Marbella, who chucked their gardenind gadgets and rushed to his side. "Lloyd!" "My, are you alright?!" Both of them were completely out of breath as they wrapped their arms around Lloyd. Their hands were caked with dirt that they failed to shake off on their way to him. Lloyd was grateful for that. He was overwhelmed with gratitude toward them for regarding him as their son and always warmly welcoming him with open arms. And he was more appreciative that their concerns preceded their warm welcome and joy to see him. [...] Touched, Lloyd grabbed the count and countess' hands and he looked at the count, his eyes wet with tears. "I am proud of you," Count Arcos encouraged as he patted Lloyd's shoulder. "Good job." "Thank you." Lloyd choked up once more. He then made a decision. He would protect them. He would work harder from now on as he wanted to be with them for as long as possible. With that resolution, he flashed a big smile as he held back his tears. Then he spoke the words he always yearned to say when he had a family. "I am home..." -Chapter 308: Changing the Construction Site (3)

again! lloyd's wish was to have a family, people he loved and the could come back to when he came home. that's it. the 'wife and children' detail was just him working with what he believed was his only option. but then plot happens and he comes to realize that actually no it isn't. there's other ways to get a loving family and he's already doing it. he's already achieved it! now he only has to fight to protect it.

it's a perfect arc. you set up expectations and then you subvert them without cheating your audience of seeing their main character not get his heart's desire just not in the way he initially envisioned. it's great.

and then. you marry him off and separate him from the family he worked so hard to gain and protect so he can have a straight marriage and children. because obviously you can't have a happy ending without that. right. forgot about that 🙄

sigh. anyway. onto better things.

if i think too long about the ending making lloyd leave the home he worked so hard to save behind along with the new found family he sacrificed his life for so he can move to a place he has no emotional connection to where he only knows two people (one of which is actually following him from the aforementioned home) in order to make him get a standard "have a wife and children" 'happy' ending i start wanting to bite people not gonna lie

[my-castles-crumbling]

library - @wolfstarmicrofic - word count: 308 - TW vague mentions of child abuse, injuries

Remus burst into the room with a bang, shaking the door as he stumbled forward to sit at Sirius’s bed, eyes wild. 

“...he’s fine, Moony, Merlin…” James’s voice trailed up the stairs, but Remus was too busy grabbing for Sirius’s hand, searching in his tired gaze for answers to questions he hadn’t even asked.

“M’fine, Moons,” Sirius repeated softly, wincing as he sat up, throwing Remus a small grin. “Just got tired of Walburga using me as target practice is all. She didn’t take it well.”

Fighting against the urge to laugh at his boyfriend’s absurdity, Remus gave a sigh, still looking Sirius over nervously. “Fuck, I’ll kill her,” he murmured, taking in the bruises littering Sirius’s face and exposed torso and running a gentle finger along Sirius’s cheek, terrified to hurt him, but desperate to touch and hold him.. 

“With what, your library books?” Sirius joked again, but the look in his eyes told Remus that he appreciated the concern. 

“It’d make a good headline,” Remus allowed, smiling. “Deranged Werewolf Attacks Renowned Pureblood Walburga Black with Books and Not Bites.”

“Ha. As if you’d harm a hair on anyone’s head,” Sirius chortled, resting back on his pillows again, not letting go of Remus’s hand.

“For someone I love? Of course I would,” Remus argued without thinking, trying not to think too deeply about the depths to which he would go for Sirius. The things he would do for the other boy. 

But Sirius’s face had taken on a strangely blank expression. “Love?” he repeated, looking shocked.

James, however, burst in before Remus could even stutter out a response. “Mum says it’s time for your potions, so Nurse James is here!” he sing-songed, oblivious to what he’d interrupted.

So Remus settled with squeezing Sirius’s hand and giving him a small smile. Yes, he really did love this boy.

[kestrelteens]

Holidays are approaching and when I stumbled upon this cute set by TheClutterCat I was thrilled 'cause there's never enough clutter, especially winter holidays themed 🎄

Sooo, there's a bunch of items, everything is very low poly and there is no texture bigger than 512x512 since we don't want our texture memories to get overwhelmed during these cosy-wintery-Sims playing days ⛄️

Everything's compressed, there's a collection file as well! The items list and poly counts are under the cut, enjoy! ♥

download (sfs) // alt download (mediaifre)

This set consists of:

3 wise men 1 (608 polys, 4 swatches)

3 wise men 2 (240 polys, 4 swatches)

3 wise men 3 (452 polys, 4 swatches)

advent candles (688 polys, 6 swatches)

big gift pile (628 polys, 6 swatches)

candle arch lamp (functional, 1056 polys, 5 swatches)

freezer bunny snow globe (730 polys, 3 swatches)

gingerbread house (978 polys, 4 swatches)

gingerbread house doormat (not pictured, 308 polys, 5 swatches)

ho ho horse frame (590 polys, 7 swatches)

holy moly cowplant (740 polys, 4 swatches)

holywood (616 polys, 3 swatches)

moon candelabra (578 polys, 3 swatches)

big mr nutcracker (887 polys, 4 swatches)

mr smoky (858 polys, 4 swatches)

oranges tray (160 polys, 4 swatches)

reindeer (900 polys, 7 swatches)

small gift pile (396 polys, 4 swatches)

small mr nutcracker (831 polys, 4 swatches)

snowflake jar (112 polys, 5 swatches)

winterfest cookie jar (144 polys, 7 swatches)

winterfest friends rug (272 polys, 7 swatches)

winter greens (944 polys, 6 swatches)

8 wallpapers

[outromoony]

Imaginary

@wolfstarmicrofic | Word count: 308

"Relax, Moony. Remember; it's not real, it's just a boggart." Sirius' voice, warm and soothing, whispered close to Remus' ear, sending shivers down his spine. They were practicing for their DATDA test for tomorrow, but Remus couldn't quite manage to transform the boggart into anything other than the full moon—the terrifying full moon.

Remus stared at the luminous orb, his heart pounding in his chest. "I- I can't do it, Sirius. I can't." Sweat trickled down his forehead, and he was sure that if Sirius hadn't been holding him, his legs would have given out long ago. "It's not working; it's not changing."

Sirius tightened his grip around Remus' shoulders, his voice filled with unwavering confidence. "You just need to imagine. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in your favorite place, with your favorite person in the world. You can do it, Moony. You've always been the best of all of us."

Taking a deep breath, Remus closed his eyes, letting Sirius' words wash over him. He didn't have to imagine anything, because he was already in his favorite place, with his favorite person in the world. The warmth of Sirius' body pressed against his back, the gentle rhythm of his breathing—it was all he needed to feel safe and strong.

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, his voice steady and firm. The full moon began to shimmer and shift, transforming into a bouncing ball that made the funniest noises as it hit the ground. Laughter bubbled up inside Remus, and he couldn't help but smile proudly. "I did it!"

Sirius turned him around, his eyes shining with pride and something deeper, something that made Remus' heart flutter. "You've always been the best of us, after all."

But as Remus gazed into Sirius' eyes, he couldn't help but think that the best of them had always been Sirius himself.

[apod]

2024 June 7

SH2-308: The Dolphin Head Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Prabhu Kutti

Explanation: Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the well-trained constellation Canis Major and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240607.html

[wonders-of-the-cosmos]

Sh2-308: A Dolphin Shaped Star Bubble

Wolf-Rayet stars in general have over 20 times the mass of our Sun and expel fast particle winds that can create iconic looking nebulas. In this case, the resulting star bubble spans over 60 light years, is about 70,000 years old, and happens to look like the head of a dolphin. Named Sh2-308 and dubbed the Dolphin-Head Nebula, the gas ball lies about 5,000 light years away and covers as much sky as the full moon -- although it is much dimmer.

Image Credit: Aleix Roig 

[dailybridgerton]

Bridgerton Season 3 Episode Titles:

301 Out of the Shadows

302 How Bright the Moon

303 Forces of Nature

304 Old Friends

305 Tick Tock

306 Romancing Mister Bridgerton

307 Joining of Hands

308 Into the Light

[snoopdoggs]

public commission : * . #308 gifs of moon sang-min in 'cinderella at 2am (2024)' have been delivered to their owner, and can be accessed by joining my discord server. sangmin is of korean descent and was born in 2000, so cast accordingly. please like and reblog if you found these useful.

tw: violence, hospitals, alcohol

please read my rules before using. all gifs were made by me, so do not redistribute or claim as your own.

[uncontrolledfission]

SH2-308: The Dolphin Head Nebula, 2024-06-07

Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000 light-years away toward the well-trained constellation Canis Major and covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about 70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.

Credits: NASA's 'Astronomy Picture Of The Day.'

[mysticstronomy]

HOW IS OUR UNIVERSE EXPANDING??

Blog#308

Saturday, June 24th, 2023

Welcome back,

The universe was born with the Big Bang as an unimaginably hot, dense point. When the universe was just 10-34 of a second or so old — that is, a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second in age — it experienced an incredible burst of expansion known as inflation, in which space itself expanded faster than the speed of light. During this period, the universe doubled in size at least 90 times, going from subatomic-sized to golf-ball-sized almost instantaneously.

The work that goes into understanding the expanding universe comes from a combination of theoretical physics and direct observations by astronomers. However, in some cases astronomers have not been able to see direct evidence — such as the case of gravitational waves associated with the cosmic microwave background, the leftover radiation from the Big Bang.

A preliminary announcement about finding these waves in 2014 was quickly retracted, after astronomers found the signal detected could be explained by dust in the Milky Way.

According to NASA, after inflation the growth of the universe continued, but at a slower rate. As space expanded, the universe cooled and matter formed. One second after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons, photons and neutrinos.

During the first three minutes of the universe, the light elements were born during a process known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Temperatures cooled from 100 nonillion (1032) Kelvin to 1 billion (109) Kelvin, and protons and neutrons collided to make deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen. Most of the deuterium combined to make helium, and trace amounts of lithium were also generated.

For the first 380,000 years or so, the universe was essentially too hot for light to shine, according to France's National Center of Space Research (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, or CNES).

he heat of creation smashed atoms together with enough force to break them up into a dense plasma, an opaque soup of protons, neutrons and electrons that scattered light like fog.

Roughly 380,000 years after the Big Bang, matter cooled enough for atoms to form during the era of recombination, resulting in a transparent, electrically neutral gas, according to NASA. This set loose the initial flash of light created during the Big Bang, which is detectable today as cosmic microwave background radiation.

However, after this point, the universe was plunged into darkness, since no stars or any other bright objects had formed yet.

About 400 million years after the Big Bang, the universe began to emerge from the cosmic dark ages during the epoch of reionization. During this time, which lasted more than a half-billion years, clumps of gas collapsed enough to form the first stars and galaxies, whose energetic ultraviolet light ionized and destroyed most of the neutral hydrogen.

Although the expansion of the universe gradually slowed down as the matter in the universe pulled on itself via gravity, about 5 or 6 billion years after the Big Bang, according to NASA, a mysterious force now called dark energy began speeding up the expansion of the universe again, a phenomenon that continues today.

A little after 9 billion years after the Big Bang, our solar system was born.

The Big Bang did not occur as an explosion in the usual way one think about such things, despite one might gather from its name. The universe did not expand into space, as space did not exist before the universe, according to NASA. Instead, it is better to think of the Big Bang as the simultaneous appearance of space everywhere in the universe. The universe has not expanded from any one spot since the Big Bang — rather, space itself has been stretching, and carrying matter with it.

Originally published on space.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, June 28th, 2023)

"IS THE MOON RUSTING??"

[violetganache42]

Be sure to watch the season 2 premiere of Moon girl and Devil Dinosaur because the show is in danger of being cancelled

Yeah, everyone at the Disney Beat server and I saw a couple of nights ago, and we've all been so fucking ANGRY at Disney. 14 episodes getting dropped all at once on Disney+?! What the fuck were they thinking?!

(Rant under the cut.)

It's bad enough they release batches of episodes at once like what Netflix did with Sonic Prime, but they plan to drop around half a season there to where they're making the main channel do two episodes per week?! You seriously couldn't do weekly premieres on TV and have the new episodes get released the next day on streaming, like what HBO Max did with Unicorn: Warriors Eternal and My Adventures with Superman?! The fact they reveal this on the MGDD Crew TikTok and paint it as a good thing does not help either. "How could you not celebrate" HOW COULD YOU NOT REALIZE YOU'RE BEING SO FUCKING DENSE RIGHT NOW?! LOOK AT THIS SHIT!

You cannot make this up! Streaming as a whole has seriously fucked over entertainment. Netflix made the binge format the new norm, and it's not working anymore. If you thought shows getting shorter-lived hype through binging compared to a weekly release was an issue, the quantity is a-whole-nother problem. If it was 5 or 6 episodes getting added at a time, that would be less infuriating, but this is 14 half-hour episodes we're talking about! That's 308 minutes of straight-up binging Disney expects us to do! No one is gonna binge this many episodes in a timeframe like that! And keep in mind, this isn't an earlier season from a finished or ongoing show; this is a whole new season we're talking about. People who haven't watched MGADD yet or don't have Disney+ and/or cable are gonna get exposed to a fuck ton of spoilers. Not to mention Disney Channel is gonna have to spend 7 weeks catching up to Disney+ with the episodes they air on TV. That will do a serious number on the TV views! And don't get me started on the international releases because I was told MGADD has been delayed so much to where S2 of dubbing is done (hence the promos in Japan), but considering the company's crapass handling of international releases, people won't be able to watch it until a much later date. Oh, and there are also countries that don't have the show despite it being dubbed in their language. Right off the bat, that's international views down the drain and the strong possibility of people in the other countries being exposed to spoilers depending on what they come across and who they're following.

You know what the absolute kicker is? They had the fucking audacity to reveal this shortly after they treated The Ghost and Molly McGee like garbage. No joke! The very minimal reruns they gave it throughout its run, its cancellation as season 3 was being drafted, the shitty promotions, them releasing "Jinx vs. the Human World" on iTunes and "The End" on YouTube ahead of their TV and Disney+ releases. I am not kidding about the last part; because Disney didn't temporarily remove them, SpoilerTV reported both episodes received only 63K and 56K TV views! Now compare that to the 375K views "Watching and Dreaming" got; all three TOH specials weren't released on YouTube or Disney+ until after the DC/XD simulcast premiere! And this is the same show that got shortened by the now retired Gary Marsh! The upsetting part is Bill Motz is blaming himself for putting too much pressure on the fans for watching TGAMM and appointing ambassadors to help promote it. No, it's not your fault, Bill. It's the Disney executives and their shitty marketing strategy's fault your show got cancelled. You care about the show you and Bob Roth created, and you wanted it to do well. The higher ups didn't bother to continue promoting the show after it premiered, and that alone just forced you, the ambassadors, and the audience to do their job for them. They're the reason why it underperformed on D+ and DC. Now, it may potentially happen again with MGADD thanks to them!

Why did they pulling any of this shit was a good idea?! The show got ample marketing, from an advertisement outside the Days of Christmas store in Disney Springs and Moon Girl herself appearing in Disney California Adventure to merchandise such as a Moon Girl Funko, a couple of books, and even a graphic novel! It has received nominations and won awards, and the current lead executive Ayo Davis said season 1 performed well in ratings! Yet they turn around and pull all of this bullshit as season 2 approaches! Seriously, what is preventing you from doing next-day weekly releases and continuing your marketing, Disney?! All your other Marvel shows have gotten weekly releases and so much promoting, and regardless of the reception of each show, they all get high ratings! That even includes What If…?, the MCU's first animated show! Just because MGADD is adjacent/not entirely connected to the MCU and is a Disney TVA show doesn't give you the excuse to treat it like crap post-season 1!

I'm sorry for the ranting, but this multi-whammy has been so fucking frustrating. I have been a big fan of MGADD since the beginning, and like I previously said, it helped fill the DuckTales-shaped hole in my heart. I'm glad that it has such a strong start, and I want it to continue doing well, but the upcoming 14-episode release was such a fucking gut punch. The more the active Disney Beat server memebrs and I ranted and vented about it, the more furious we grew to where a few of us—myself included—were in tears; it is such a horrendous decision the Disney executives made! I'm at least glad the past week has gotten people to talk about how shows are getting treated nowadays thanks to streaming, and Disney Beat tweeting about the 14-episode bomb release announcement got deleted. Unfortunately, the higher ups most likely deleted it just to save face and won't reverse the decision in the end. Regardless, more people are catching onto the pitfalls with streaming and are noticing how shows no longer have the opportunities to build audiences over time. They are treated as nothing more as a means of gaining views and instant gratification rather than a medium made for one's enjoyment. With the Animation Guild's contract having been expired for around a few months, I hope one of their demands is to stop the shows' mistreatments and lack of sufficient marketing because streaming left a devastating and worsening impact on the entertainment and animation industries.

[neverscreens]

— HELLUVA BOSS, SEASON ONE.

Murder Family, 219 Screencaps.

Loo Loo Land, 257 Screencaps.

Spring Broken, 288 Screencaps.

C.H.E.R.U.B., 241 Screencaps.

The Harvest Moon Festival, 304 Screencaps.

Truth Seekers, 308 Screencaps.

OZZIE'S, 261 Screencaps.

Queen Bee, 285 Screencaps.

Like or reblog if it was useful, every interaction shows us that we should keep making screencaps for y'all ♡

[whump-me]

Unseen: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Unseen, a novel-length whump story about a ruthless mob heiress and the superpowered assassin she kidnaps and forces to work for her—and the unexpected friendship that develops between them.

Masterpost | the Mind Games universe | Read the complete novel on Patreon

---

The back of the unmarked van was unlit. But that didn’t matter. The blindfold around Delta-Nine-308’s eyes, made of military-grade fabric and custom-fitted to her exact measurements, wouldn’t have let any light through anyway.

Her world was darkness. Her world was the jolts and bounces of the van underneath her. Her world was the tight straps digging into her skin as they held her in place. One around her waist, another around her chest, two more locking her wrists hard against the bench. The final two wrapped around her ankles and kept her feet pressed tightly to the vibrating floor.

The air smelled like outside, even though she hadn’t set foot outdoors yet. It smelled like not-headquarters. Like car exhaust, and sweat, and the dirt from the boots of whoever had sat in this van before her. It smelled like nighttime. She didn’t know why night smelled different from day, even inside the van, but it did.

Those smells never failed to send her heart into a butterfly flutter in her chest, the heady drumbeat of excitement. She smiled until her dimpled cheeks pressed painfully into the sharp bottom edge of the blindfold. Tonight, she would see something besides the four white walls of her room. Tonight, she would get to do what she was trained for.

The van jerked to a stop. The vibrations under her feet ceased. Her grin widened until she thought her face might split.

The squeal of the back doors opening. A rush of cool air. Heavy boots on the metal floor.

The straps released, one by one. Her skin prickled as blood flowed back into her extremities. The blindfold came off.

Joss, her handler, flashed her a disapproving look. He didn’t like it when she looked too happy about a mission. It was a sign of potential instability. He didn’t want her to get an instability warning in her file. He liked her. He didn’t want to see her recycled. That was what he had told her, when he had warned her to stop looking so excited about her missions.

She forced her the grin off her face.

“Do you remember your briefing?” he asked.

She nodded. After years of memory training, hers was near-perfect.

“Be out in fifteen minutes,” he said.

She nodded. She fought to keep the grin off her face. Fifteen minutes. Fifteen glorious minutes of night and movement and freedom.

Mission nights were her favorite nights.

She stepped out of the van, ignoring the hand he offered her. She didn’t need help. This was her element. This was what she had been trained for.

Outside, the moon was faint, hidden behind a cloud. The shadows were dark enough to hide her, not that she needed their help. Even in the murky shadows, the street looked just like the pictures her hander had given her to study. It looked like a storybook street, a row of houses all sitting there small and cheerful, with their two squat stories and their lacy curtains in the windows and their picket fences out front. Sometimes it made her dizzy to imagine people really living in houses like that.

She breathed in the crisp night air. It smelled dark and rich, like growing things. She smelled the exhaust of the van, too, but that was the best smell of all, because the van meant a mission.

She twirled, once, in the shadows. She stared at her hands as she held her arms outstretched to either side, marveling at the way her the outlines of her fingers grew indistinct in the dim light. In PERI headquarters, either the lights were brighter than sunlight, too harsh for anything to hide, or the darkness was absolute.

She only spun once, because she didn’t want that instability mark on her file any more than Joss did. And because she only had fifteen minutes. It was a generous time allotment; she could do it in ten. Still, she had been trained never to waste a valuable minute.

Her target’s house was down the block. They had parked several houses away, so that no one who was asked later could say they saw a suspicious van parked outside.

The houses on the street were like multicolored candies. One yellow, one blue, one pink. One of the instructors had brought candy once, when Delta-Nine-308 was seven. She had allowed them each a taste, everyone in Delta-Nine-308’s cohort. It had broken between her teeth with a soft crack, then turned to a thick syrup in her mouth, full of a dark, rich flavor she had never tasted before.

The lead scientist who had developed their cohort had lectured the instructor about bringing in distractions from the outside world. The instructor had said it would make a useful incentive. She’d had them compete for the other pieces. The ones who did well at that day’s tests had earned the remaining candies. The others got nothing.

Headquarters liked incentives. They liked competition. They liked to drive wedges between any cohort members who were growing too close. Enhanced weren’t meant to work together. They were too powerful. Working together was dangerous. Delta-Nine-308 had never questioned why. It was a law of headquarters, and therefore a law of the universe.

Delta-Nine-308 hadn’t earned any of the candies. She was good at what she did, but so were all the rest. That one taste was all she had ever gotten.

She still thought about it sometimes, more than a decade later.

She stopped at the yellow house, the color muddied by the shadows but still recognizable. It was the house from the surveillance photos Joss had shown her. The candy her instructor had given her had been yellow, too. It had stained her fingers until she had licked them clean of sweetness.

Other than the color, and the bush as tall as she was out front with big yellow flowers that matched the house, it looked just like its neighbors. Anonymous. Invisible. How could a house that bright seem invisible? But it kept its secrets. Delta-Nine-308 didn’t know why the man who lived here had been targeted for assassination. She never would. It wasn’t her job to know.

What she did know was that there was a dog she wasn’t permitted to harm, and a security system that Epsilon-Nine-308, one of her cohort-mates, would remotely deactivate thirty seconds from now. Epsilon-Nine-308 understood technology the way Delta-Nine-308 understood moving unseen. His mind slipped inside any electronic lock and eased it open, its alarms quieted, its failsafes useless. No interface required.

What else? She knew the man in the house had a bad knee. She knew he was allergic to an obscure heart medication she currently carried a full syringe of. Whoever had ordered the death had wanted it to look accidental to the police, but also for it to be obvious to certain people that the man’s death had been ordered by someone with the ability to find out about his unusual allergy. Again, she didn’t know why. She wasn’t meant to know why.

Behind her, the van pulled away so it wouldn’t be spotted. Joss would be back for her in fifteen minutes exactly. She knew he wouldn’t abandon her out here. They had done this many times before. Still, with the van gone, the world felt too big.

The road stretched ahead of her impossibly far. The dark sky spanned a vast distance above her, and around the edges of the clouds, she caught the glimmers of stars. They were too far away. The world had no right to be this big.

The size of the world felt glorious when she had the van right there, an anchor to hold her down. If it got to be too much, she could think about the straps holding her in place, and the four walls enclosing her. Now she didn’t have that safety net. Not for another fifteen minutes.

Thirteen minutes now.

Behind her, an engine hummed. It was too late for most people to be out driving. The briefing had said so. Was Joss back? Had something gone wrong?

She looked over her shoulder. The car was black like the van, but it was the wrong shape. It was too small, too sleek, with headlights like the eyes of a predator.

It stopped in front of the yellow house. Directly beside her.

She ducked into the shadow of the flowered bush. The car doors opened all at once, perfectly in sync. Four men dressed all in black poured out. They wore black masks to match their clothes, which in turn matched her own all-black ensemble. The better to help her blend in. Not that she needed help.

Only their eyes were visible, hard and cold. The faint blue light reflected off the whites of their eyes like diamonds.

They looked at the house. Two of them bent their heads together, talking in low voices. Then the one in front, the tallest, pointed toward the bush. Toward her.

She disappeared.

She didn’t know how she did it. Her instructors had asked her many times, over the years. They wanted written descriptions of how it felt. They wanted diagrams outlining every step of the process.

She couldn’t give them what they wanted. All she knew was that she thought about disappearing, and she did it. When she looked down, her body was invisible even to her.

The man in front didn’t stop looking at the bush.

His gestures grew more urgent. He motioned the others forward, and they moved, clutching something long and flexible and unwieldy between their hands. It looked a bit like the jump ropes the cohort had all had when they were six, all tangled together.

A net.

They threw it. The weight of the thick rope came down over her chest, bulging the empty air out where the net should have settled snugly against the bush. Where it would have, if the air had been as empty as it appeared.

All four of the men were gesturing now, with harsh exclamatory whispers like sharp puffs of breath. They pointed to the space where empty air should have been.

Pointed at her.

None of their eyes looked surprised.

She didn’t have a backup weapon. All she had was the syringe. PERI didn’t like to give her anything she didn’t strictly need for the mission. They trusted her to handle anything that came up, they said—although the look in Joss’s eyes the one time she had asked for a backup weapon hadn’t resembled trust.

The next steps unfolded in her mind. Grab the rope. Turn the net invisible, because anything she touched disappeared along with her, if she wanted it to. That would give her enough time to fight her way free.

Then she would complete the mission. She had to complete the mission. She would get a red mark on her file if she didn’t complete the mission. Red marks were worse than instability. Red marks meant recycling.

Complete the mission. Wait for Joss. Tell him about the four men and their net and their lack of surprise. Headquarters would handle it. Headquarters handled everything.

She grasped the rope between both hands. The rough fibers bit into her skin. She gripped harder, and thought about disappearing.

One of the men took out a thin black canister. He raised it and aimed it at her face. A misty white cloud shot out, directly at her eyes.

Her eyes felt like they had caught fire.

It was the test they’d all had to do when they were twelve, holding each other’s arms to the open flame until the flesh bubbled. A test of loyalty and endurance in one. She still had the scar. Only the pain was in her eyes this time, and there was no fire, no heat. Only burning.

Tears streamed from her eyes. A river of tears. An ocean of tears. All the water in her body. And it did nothing to quell the pain.

One of the rules of the mission was never to make unnecessary noise. Definitely not anything that could catch the attention of the target, or worse, witnesses. But she screamed. Her scream was high and shrill, sharp enough to cut the night. She had no choice about the screaming, just like she had no choice about the tears.

A light flicked on across the street.

She would get a yellow mark in her file, for sure. Yellow marks weren’t as bad as red. But they were still bad. She would get a lecture tonight instead of sleep. A week of extra training. The threat of recycling would hang over her. The rest of her cohort would avoid her, as if mistakes were contagious.

The four men closed in on her. The net was still tangled around her, holding her in place.

Maybe she wouldn’t get that yellow mark after all. Maybe she would never make it back to headquarters.

They tackled her.

She fought, of course. She had been training in hand-to-hand combat contempt since she was four years old. But her limbs were still tangled in the net. Three of them held her down while the fourth took out a syringe. The tip glistened silver in the moonlight.

He thrust down blindly at the empty air that wasn’t empty. It landed in her abdomen, just above her hipbone.

She thrashed as a creamy liquid sank under her skin. Then her vision blurred.

Then the shadows grew, and the darkness took her.

---

Tagged: @suspicious-whumping-egg @whump-kitty @violets-whumperflies

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[marshmallowgoop]

DCMK Blu-rays

A list of Detective Conan and Magic Kaito content with physical HD releases.

This won't be comprehensive by any means; I'm going to be focusing on Japanese, German, and United States releases because these are the ones that I own and am most familiar with. I believe that many of the films are also available on Blu-ray in several countries, dubbed in several languages, but I don't have much concrete knowledge about that at this moment. Please feel free to add any information!

That said, the main thing to know about Detective Conan Blu-rays is that... they kind of don't really exist. The television series is (mainly, more on this later) released on DVD only in Japan, usually with the equivalent of four episodes per disc, sold at 4,620 yen each. They're grouped in "Parts," with up to 10 Volumes per Part, and the next release, on June 23rd, will be Part 31, Volume 3, containing episodes 1007, 1008, 1010, and 1013.

A handful of episodes are released on Blu-ray via collections in Japan; there are the Treasured Selections and Akai Family TV Selections. But with a series running over 1,000 episodes, it really is just a handful of episodes available in these collections.

Treasured Selections

With the Treasured Selections, you can get 67 episodes on Blu-ray:

1: "The Roller Coaster Murder Case"

2: "The Kidnapping of the Company President's Daughter"

54: "The Game Company Murder Case"

128: "The Black Organization: One Billion Yen Robbery Case"

129: "The Mysterious New Student"

176-178: "Re-Encounter with the Black Organization"

226-227: "Battle Game Trap"

230-231: "Mysterious Passenger"

258-259: "The Man From Chicago"

271-272: "Hide, Hurry Up, and Abbreviate It"

277-278: "English Teacher vs. Great Western Detective"

286-288: "Shinichi in New York"

307-308: "The Remains of Voiceless Testimony"

309-311: "Contact with the Black Organization"

338-339: "Four Porsches"

340-341: "The Hidden Secret in the Toilet"

343-344: "Convenience Store Trap"

345: "The Confrontation with the Black Organization: The Coincidence of the Two Enemies on a Night with a Full Moon"

346-347: "Look for the Mark on the Buttocks"

361-362: "Teitan High School Ghost Story"

425: "Black Impact! The Moment the Black Organization Reaches Out."

427-428: "Super Secret School Zone"

429-430: "The Point of No Return"

462-465: "The Shadow of the Black Organization"

484-485: "The Whereabouts of the Black Picture"

491-504: "Red and Black Crash"

507-508: "Blind Spot of the Karaoke Shop"

509-511: "Conan VS Double Code Mystery"

However, anything before 286 is not in HD; these are all traditionally animated episodes that were not especially remastered for these releases:

Episodes 286 and beyond (from Treasured Selection 6 to 18) are digitally animated, and these Blu-rays are more properly HD:

Akai Family TV Selections

With the Akai Family TV Selections, you can get 33 episodes on Blu-ray:

563-564: "The Detective Squad vs. The Band of Robbers"

578-581: "A Red Omen That Summons Danger"

675-676: "Not Even a Millimeter of Forgiveness"

699-700: "Shadow Closes in on Ai's Secret"

701-704: "Pitch Black Mystery Express Train"

724-725: "Thief Kid and the Blushed Mermaid"

779-783: "The Scarlet Return"

785-786: "Taiko Meijin's Match of Love"

836-837: "The Unfriendly Girls Band"

861-862: "Just Like a 17 Year Old Crime Scene"

863-864: "The Spirit Detective's Murder"

866-867: "The Traitor's Stage"

881-882: "The Magician of the Waves"

Other Japanese Blu-rays

Beyond these, the TV-original specials Episodes 804-805 ("Conan and Ebizo's Kabuki Juhachiban Mystery") and Episodes 965-968 ("Kaiju Gomera VS Kamen Yaiba"), plus the canon Episodes 927-928 ("The Scarlet School Trip"), are also available on Blu-ray.

Finally, special edition Blu-rays for Movies 17-25 include a second disc containing the movie's tie-in anime episode... but that second disc is likely a DVD, speaking as someone who doesn't own any of these but does own the Japanese special edition Blu-rays for Movies 14 through 16, where the second discs are, indeed, DVDs.

German Blu-rays

Outside of Japan, Germany is currently releasing boxed sets of the Detective Conan series starting from Episode 1. At this time, these are the only physical releases of the remastered footage (which make a big difference), and they include Japanese and German audio (but any German-dubbed songs are omitted). Three boxes are available now, covering Episodes 1 to 96 (or 102 with the international numbering); a fourth box is set to be released on May 19th, covering up until Episode 122 (or 129 with the international numbering).

Do note that these releases edit the name boxes in a way that can't be turned off, however.

Films, Specials, and Magic Kaito

In Japan, there are Blu-ray releases for:

Films 1-25

Both Lupin crossovers

The Disappearance of Conan Edogawa: The Two Worst Days in History

Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small

Magic Kaito and Magic Kaito 1412

In Germany, all of the same content is available on Blu-ray. There's also a Blu-ray release for The Scarlet Alibi, and I believe that they're the only ones with a physical HD release of Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories as well.

In the United States, there are Blu-ray releases for:

Films 19-23

Both Lupin crossovers

Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small

As far as I'm aware, there are no HD releases anywhere of the OVAs. They're available on DVD in Japan, either separately or via four "Secret File" compilations (though these only cover OVAs 1-9).

There also aren't any HD releases of the Magic/Bonus files, but DVDs are included with the Japanese special edition versions of Movies 12-16. They're also available for individual purchase in Japan as well.

TV Specials 1, 2, and 4 (with 3 being the Lupin special, 5 being The Disappearance of Conan Edogawa, and 6 being Episode One) seem to be DVD only, too. Actually, I'm not sure if TV Special 1,"Time Travel of the Silver Sky," is available on disc at all? But TV Special 2, "Black History," is said to be included with the Japanese special edition DVD of the second live-action drama special, and TV Special 4, "Fugitive: Kogoro Mori," is included on the Part 24, Volume 7 DVD.

TV Special 7, "Love Story at Police Headquarters ~Wedding Eve~," might be included on Blu-ray in Japan with the special edition of Movie 25, but I can't confirm if that disc is a Blu-ray or DVD right now (and the same goes for The Scarlet Alibi, included with the special edition of Movie 24 in Japan).

The eight VHS-only Shogakukan Illustrated Encyclopedia Series tapes are obviously not available in HD, either.

Tl;dr?

So, in short, combining releases and eliminating the not-remastered Treasured Selections, you can find 186 episodes on Blu-ray right now (with more on the way with the fourth Detektiv Conan box). You can also get all of the films and Magic Kaito series, plus a few specials, in HD.

And I think that's all I've got! Feel free to add more information if you know any! I am desperate to physically own more HD DCMK content.

EDIT: I've done some more digging, and from what I can tell, starting with Movie 24, the Japanese special edition Blu-rays for the films changed the bonus second disc from a DVD to a Blu-ray instead. This means that Episode 1,002, "The Beika City Shopping Center Garbage Bin Mystery," included with the special edition of Movie 24, as well as Episode 1,039, "The Flying Jack-o'-lantern," included with the special edition of Movie 25, are available on Blu-ray, too. So, a more accurate number of episodes that have been released on Blu-ray (in HD) at this time is actually 188. Further, this confirms that The Scarlet Alibi and TV Special 7 are also available on Blu-ray in Japan.

Additionally, though I have provided a couple of links throughout this post, the Detective Conan World wiki deserves a bigger shout out than I initially gave; their "Collectibles" page, and particularly their "Japanese Blu-ray" article, were a huge help in compiling the information laid out here. Many, many thanks to the contributors.

And while I'm here, for those interested in English-language releases specifically, Magic's Detective Agency is a fantastically detailed resource for every DVD released by FUNimation (Volumes, Season Sets, and Films). They're not HD releases, true, but at the time, they're the only physical releases of any episodes and the first six films in English.

Finally, I also discovered that a fifth Detektiv Conan box is set to be released on July 21st! This should mean that remastered episodes up until 145 (or 155 with the international numbering) will be available on Blu-ray, and it bodes well for these releases to continue. Hopefully, there will be physical releases of the remastered footage in other countries, too!

[apod]

2023 March 29

Sh2-308: A Dolphin Shaped Star Bubble Image Credit & Copyright: Aleix Roig (AstroCatInfo)

Explanation: Which star created this bubble? It wasn't the bright star on the bubble's right. And it also wasn't a giant space dolphin. It was the star in the blue nebula's center, a famously energetic Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars in general have over 20 times the mass of our Sun and expel fast particle winds that can create iconic looking nebulas. In this case, the resulting star bubble spans over 60 light years, is about 70,000 years old, and happens to look like the head of a dolphin. Named Sh2-308 and dubbed the Dolphin-Head Nebula, the gas ball lies about 5,000 light years away and covers as much sky as the full moon -- although it is much dimmer. The nearby red-tinged clouds on the left of the featured image may owe their glow and shape to energetic light emitted from the same Wolf-Rayet star.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230329.html