#usb cooler

[levynite]

I see that the Northern Hemisphere is finally getting the extreme heatwave the Equator countries have been suffering from for the past 5 months.

Get an AC of some sort, seriously. And powerbanks and USB fans. Your power grid ain't gonna hold up, I assure you from experience from the first half of 2024.

[omarnissarvektrapc12]

Corsair iCUE 5000X RGB QL Edition Mid Tower Case, Tempered Glass, 4 QL120 RGB Fans, Lighting Node Core, 136 Total RGB LEDs, White | CC-9011233-WW. We offer the best price for Corsair 5000D Core Airflow Mid-Tower ATX PC Case, High-Airflow Front Panel, Tempered Glass Case Windows, 25mm Cable Routing.

[isaacathom]

2024 has weird vibes on account of how mine and 2 other friends' computers have all broken, in distinct ways, within the first weeks of the new year

[weoxcoolfan]

Weox CoolFan Aroma Diffuser with water reservoir for refreshing mist to cool down even further 😁

[thornedswan]

I bought my brother the pokemon edition switch and...I am so jealous because it looks so cool compared to my own... 💔 The dock is so cool and the backing too.

my brother's gf just made me a drink and put candies in it so...here I go 🥳

[hihelloimanerd]

Chip Switch

I love Lab Rats, it's my favorite show and I rewatch it constantly. It is not without its faults. Chip Switch (1 x 12) is an episode I have a major gripe with. Bear with me I'm gonna yap a lot about this.

Ignoring the medical improbability of bionics, I think that the idea of the chip being the only thing that makes them Bionic is unlikely. Not only are they genetically engineered -mentioned multiples times throughout the show- they likely have biotech throughout their bodies. For example when Chase activates his hearing, we see a sequence of wires in his car canal or the USB in his finger. I believe the chip is mainly the power source and code for the Biotech.

Taking this into account with the chip switch it should've caused way more problems then it did. They're all engineered to have muscles, speed, and agility (at least in my headcannon). However they don't share the same biotech. Adam likely has most of in his major muscles and bones, as a result to support his major ability to retain muscle, he has to eat a lot. Bree even more so, her biotech increasing her lung capacity, bone strength, and muscles in her legs. Chase has to have the most, in highly dangerous places like his orbital nerves, brain, ears, and muscles for agility. Chase is the only one of the three with tech in his car canal, so when Bree has his chip while it might slightly enhance her hearing, it would be no where near Chase's hearing. They also would not have been able to access microscopic sight or the computer in his brain.

When Chase had Adam's chip, I find it weird that suddenly his intelligence went down the drain, as if he forgot everything he might have learned with his chip and from Davenport. Unless the chip for some reason interferes with intelligence but I don't think thats possible. With Bree's it makes sense that they can all use it with varying degrees of success due to enhanced muscles, trouble breathing and pain are very likely. Adam's chip would be similar.

I think the episode would've been cooler taking into account how bionics and their genetics work together. More glitches and giving the audience a firmer grasp on how they work. All of them have different abilities so their genetics have to intrinsically intertwined with their bionics.

Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear how other people think the bionics works.

[cleolinda]

I am so fucking pissed. We’re hearing forecasts that we might get FIVE FUCKING INCHES OF SNOW overnight from Monday to Tuesday. In ALABAMA, where we have no snow removal equipment. Like I think we got one bag of sand for the whole town. No snow tires, I don’t even know what those are. This isn’t cute “Haha it’s just barely below freezing! Snowball fight!!!” snow. This is 14° Fuck (-11° Come the Fuck On) snow. FIVE INCHES? We get flurries and the city descends into madness.

What if we lose POWER. Everything runs off USB cord stuck in the outlet charging nowadays. This is why everyone used to run out and buy Milk Bread Batteries. Listen. I have this memory of the power going out during this wild snowstorm when I was a kid--I want to say it was Winter Storm '93. Ask anyone who lived in Alabama at the time. Like we had Desert Storm '92 the military operation one year and Winter Storm '93 the next. It was that serious in our minds, and I'm not sure you can blame us:

The storm dumped several inches of snow each hour on Birmingham, which ended up with officially 13 inches of snow.

Due to the high winds some parts of Birmingham reported drifts 5 to 6 feet deep. One state trooper reported that the roads were in the worst shape he had ever seen. "People can't tell what's road and what's not."

Low temperatures during the storm were in the 5-to-10 degree range on that Sunday.

IN A TOWN WHERE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT A SNOW PLOW IS. I think we had one for the entire county. Like I'm only kind of joking here.

And our power went out.

The snow was so heavy that it pulled down power lines either by its own weight, or by the tree branches its weight broke off. Meanwhile, the power at my house already went off every time a squirrel sneezed. I don't how many days this lasted; it was probably like, 2-3 days, but in my head, I was 14 years old boxed up with my family with no heat and it lasted two weeks. Maybe three years. The four of us slept in sleeping bags layered with quilts, huddled on the floor around a wood burning fire. (In the haunted house, no less.) The carpet was really nice, at least. We had a--do people still call them boomboxes? A big portable cassette player--battery-powered--with AM/FM radio. We listened to whatever TV shows were broadcast from the ABC station at night. We did have hot water; I took a lot of hot baths. We cooked food over the outdoor grill (which we moved to the comfortably large area under the deck, to hold off the falling snow), sometimes using aluminum foil as a kind of thin impromptu frying pan, and kept perishables like milk and meat in a cooler. Oh, did we have a bag of ice for the cooler? No, we used snow. God knows there was enough of it. Of course, I'm sure the refrigerator was perfectly serviceable even without power, because it was TEN DEGREES FUCK ALL.

I remember going outside a good bit and playing, as much as a teenager plays, in the snow with my seven-year-old sister. I remember that all the neighborhood kids got big rubber trashcan lids and used them as toboggans, going up to the top of the hill on our street and pretty successfully sledding down. Maybe it was "lmao snowball fight!!" snow when I was 14. I'm 45 now, and the cold makes me hurt. It makes me hurt all over. Maybe Winter Storm '24 will be a fun core memory for my nephew. I am pissed. And also charging all my electronics.

(ETA: It’s ‘24 now, isn’t it. My brain hasn’t clicked the date over yet. What is time.)

[which-item-poll]

[emmkitt]

III EP 18 SPOILERS III EP 18 SPOILERS

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SCROLL AT UR OWN RISK

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i hope this is enough text where it will do the ‘read more’ thing

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i hope

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if it doesn t im sorry

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ANNYWAYS I RECENTLY BECAME A FLOORPHONE / MEFLOOR SHIPPER AND OH YM GO‼️‼️‼️‼️ thats kind of irrrelevant but thanks ep 18 for making my soul leave my body!

anyways they knew i was maiing human designs so they gave me initiative to make more alt designs for mephone and floory yay!

do not disturb mode mepjone is so cirsed in the epiaode YOU GUYS DONT KNOW WHAT YOUVE DONE.

anywaus i gave him a muzzle and handcuffs cause thats cooler design wize, and his antennae now have the crescent moon shape in em. LSO PURPLE COLOR SCHEME SOOO PRETTY!!! also his usb plug thingy mabob is on his upper back becayse im NOT following phone anatomy oh my go

as for floory! him being human, containing him in a jar qould be impractical, so instead to ‘contain’ him his vines have to be killed and then he basically becomes glued to one spot. poor floory. also the rest of his design goes to a more muted brownish color scheme, its similar to what i imagine his fall season scheme would be, except he’d obviously appear much more lively (his antennae wouldnt droop, and his leaves wouldnt be shriveled up n dead)

ok thats it!

[generic-sonic-fan]

Fic idea that won't leave my head despite my continued insistence that I'm not going to write it (Bad dad Eggman warning)-

It's a Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games fic. Bowser and Eggman are hanging out, villain solidarity and all that.

Metal Sonic walks in. Eggman precedes to pause his conversation with Bowser to absolutely scream at Metal for coming in third place in the 100m sprint. The whole nine yards. "I built you to be SUPERIOR!" and all that. He then orders Metal back to the training area to practice clear through the night 'til the next morning.

He then turns back to Bowser and says, "you were right! Kids are difficult!"

And from that moment Bowser makes it his mission to adopt Metal Sonic at all costs.

Just one problem- nobody believes him.

The Mario gang insists that it's none of their business. There's a truce between heroes and villains during the games, after all, and Peach isn't interested in pissing off what she sees as Mobian sovereign who's been known to mess with cross-dimensional shenanigans before.

So, to the surprise of everyone, Bowser then goes to Sonic to mention the problem- only for an apathetic Sonic to emphasize that he's already given Metal enough second chances by now and that frankly it's his own fault if Eggman's mean to him. Most of the rest of the Sonic gang seem to agree with this- with the distinct exception of Amy, but even she's hesitant to stir up trouble during the games. She suggests that if Bowser nicely talked to Eggman about all this, maybe Eggman would treat Metal Sonic better!

But of course, Bowser already gave the dress-down of the century to Eggman the very moment after he sent Metal Sonic away. Did Eggman listen? Of course not.

But we all know that Bowser is nothing if but persistent. He also happens to be the resident expert on kidnapping people. . .

Step 1: Bowser got his kids together and asked them to help him befriend Metal. So now Metal's got this menagerie of Koopas suddenly taking an interest in him and he doesn't really know how to deal with it. Other kids? They think he's cool and not a failure? They invite him to hang out and do fun things? But of course, Eggman prohibits "fraternizing with the enemy", but Metal finds ways to get around this order anyway.

Step 2: have the Koopa kids teach Metal a koopa sign language- one of the kids, Lemmy, already uses this sign language because he's nonverbal, so it's not too hard for the rest of the kids plus Bowser himself to sneak in a few lessons behind Eggman's back.

Step 3: once Metal is conversational, Bowser asks Metal if he'd like a new papa who won't scream at him so much.

Step 4: realize in horror as Metal explains that he can't leave- Eggman's programming won't allow him.

Step 5: Bowser asks Amy to ask Tails how to get the subservient programming out of Metal's head. Tails then provides a small USB plug-in that'll give him remote access connection once plugged into Metal's systems so that he can undo the programming.

Step 6: kidnapping time!

Step ???: realize that Metal would actually prefer to be a girl. Bowser's daughters/GNC kids then proceed to dress her up in the blackest, spikiest clothes and accessories they have. Metal adores it.

Step 7: ruin the entire Olympic games setup as Eggman threatens violence against whoever stole his robot.

Step 8: Metal gives her original "dad" the finger as she jumps into the portal back to the Koopa kingdom with her much cooler new family.

Uhhhh skip a few steps in here as the whole Bowser family goes no contact with the rest of either gang for a bit. They don't care that they ruined the Olympic games, not when they got a cool new daughter/sister out of the deal. Eventually the Mario gang comes around and forgives Bowser for ruining the games. They then invite Metal go-karting. All is well.

Step 11: Sonic visits the mushroom kingdom one day and is absolutely appalled to find out that people say to him "ohhhh you're like the flesh version of Princess Metal from the Koopa kingdom!"

[copperbadge]

[ID: A photograph taken in the dark of the edge of my bed and nightstand; mostly what is visible is the illumination from my little personal cooler fan, which shows Polk the tabby, in shadow, sitting in front of it at the edge of the bed. ]

I have to say, I bought the little Evapolar Chill unit because I found it on an open-box sale and I was willing to risk $60 to see if it would help me keep my bedroom cool while the AC is out. It's a great little unit -- it takes less than ten watts an hour and runs on a USB, so you can run it from a normal electrical outlet with a USB adaptor, from a laptop, or from a sufficiently powerful backup battery. It's light enough to carry around, and each tank of water gets through roughly 4-10 hours depending on how high you've got the fan going.

It does not cool down the room. I think that's a losing proposition. But it does have four intensity settings and on the highest it'll cool about a ten-foot space very well, and on the lowest setting it's still powerful enough to cool a person lying in front of it (me) on the bed, without feeling like it's blowing air in my face. The cold just kind of trickles out, and you can see even Polkadot was enjoying the cool last night. I am sleeping MUCH better since running it on my bedside table, pointed down the bed. (The blue LED is a nice nightlight but also can be turned off.)

It comes with a biodegradable cartridge that needs replacing every 3-6 months of continuous use to the tune of $30, but feels worth it, especially since once my AC comes back in two weeks I'll probably use it mainly for summer stuff -- it'd be great to have at a beach party or a cookout. Or even just for use to cool down while sleeping if I want to keep the AC bill down occasionally.

Anyway it's a great little tool for what it is so do recommend.

[kde-neon-official]

My new PC!!!! :D

ASUS PRIME B450M-KII

Ryzen 5 5600

Kingston Fury Beast DDR4-3200 (2x8GB)

Patriot P220 512GB 2.5" SATA III SSD

tp-link AC600 USB WiFi adapter

Cooler Master MWE 550 BRONZE V2 PSU

XFX Radeon RX480 (we already had one, not pictured)

[who-knew-a-sheep-can-write]

Police Dog: Bigby Wolf x Fem!Cop!Reader - Chapter 1

Welcome to the rewrite :)

I made a reference to another game series, lmk if you guys spot it ;))

You stared at your monitor, the dim screen barely reflecting back into your near-lifeless eyes as you mindlessly scrolled and robotically clicked through the usual files only to have to actually go into another file to really make any work at your mind-numbing task. Why were you even given this bullshit to begin with? You leaned back in your horribly worn chair, the spine and back cushion creaking eerily as the wheels squeeked against the “polished” stone floor. You picked up the paper cup filled with coffee to take a sip, only to sneer and place the flimsy cup back down. Your coffee had grown to be ice cold, there was a strange grittiness to the brew and it tasted like someone had replaced the coffee with ink.

You heard the constant rushing of other officers in the background, whatever your cubicle really allowed you to hear past the tall wood and styrofoam walls really. Mindless chatter, the bubbling of the water cooler, some cop banging the shit out a vending machine, that horrible fucking fax machine you wished the captain would put out of its misery. You were going to hear those grating sounds in your nightmares for the rest of your mundane life.

At least it wasn’t too bad, today. Normally, the oh so “charming” lifestyle New York City made things pretty ridiculous sometimes. The main office was pretty quiet today, so much so you could hear the very faint classical music playing overhead you normally couldn’t hear over the rambunctiousness of your fellow officers.

That was, until the bullpen was let out.

Just hearing that door slam open and the cops inside spilling out almost made you knock over your nasty ass coffee onto your keyboard. You slouched in your chair, leaning back as you finished your work finally after doing this boring nonsense all week. You took out the usb drive with a content sigh, toying with it in your hands as you listened in on what the others were saying. Something about a shoot out somewhere in the South Bronx caught your ear when you saw a reflection move past on your monitor screen when it stopped behind you. Turning, you quickly saw the tall and brawny figure of one of the sergeants who was casually leaning at the entrance to your cubicle.

“The captain’ll have your knees for leaning,” you turned back to your monitor. You were about to mindlessly pretend to look through stuff just to get him to go away, but he didn’t seem to get the hint. Turning back around after a few minutes, you noticed the stupid smirk on his face that you wanted to smack off so badly. “What?”

“He’s been havin’ ya on paperwork for the past two weeks. Don’tcha think somethin’s up?” his thick accent teased.

“Considering I’m the only one who knows how to do things the way he likes them, not really.”

The sergeant gave you a pointed look before shrugging.

“Whatever you say, rookie.”

“I’m not a rookie, I’ve been in this department for almost a year now.”

He ignored you and sauntered off, definitely eyeing one of the female cops that would bat their lashes at him to get out of work for the day. Just as you started fiddling with the usb drive, your stationary phone started to ring. You picked up the phone, noting how you needed to fix the coiled cord as it somehow became tangled yet again.

“(L/n),” you greeted with your last name.

“Officer (Y/n),” the captain’s smooth voice greeted you from the other end of the line.

“I finished all the paperwork, sir, I have the usb dr-”

“I know you have, you always get the job done. Please bring the drive to my office, and hurry. I have another assignment for you.”

The phone cut off with a monotone buzz. Placing the cradle back into the receiver, you stood from your squeaky chair and started for the captain’s private office which was past the bullpen that still had some cops. The few that remained inside eyed you as you neared the captain’s door, their voices hushed as they started bickering about what it was you could’ve done.

You didn’t need to worry.

You knew that if you had fucked up, the captain wouldn’t have hesitated to call your ass out from over the intercom and demand to come to his office louder than any military drill sergeant.

His door was closed and the blinds were drawn shut which was a bit odd unless he was speaking to someone important. You stopped before the door and knocked promptly, eyeing his placard with his name written in dark ink across the golden plate.

“Come in, Officer (L/n),” the captain called out.

“Are you sure that-” As you opened the door, the conversation that was just going on had cut off.

Aside from your captain who was in his seat behind his grand desk, there stood another man. Tall and broad but fairly thin, he was imposing for sure. Dark, slicked back hair. A tan tailcoat hiding the strength you knew this man had. And when he turned to you, you couldn’t help but feel a little threatened under his intense gaze. His eyes looked as though he’s seen some fucked up shit, he looked fucking tired too, like he hadn’t slept in days. His grown out stubble also showed that as well. He eyed you up and down, not saying anything, his face was hard to read.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but here’s the flash drive,” you spoke up, offering out the usb drive to your captain.

You captain stood from his desk and beckoned you to sit in one of the chairs provided, but not before accepting the drive from you. Your captain sat back down at the same time as you, but the other man in the room just stood. He moved away from the desk a little bit, his chest to you but he was now looking back at your captain.

“Excellent work, like always.” Your captain turned towards the stranger, giving him a look you really couldn’t read either. “I promise you, Sheriff, she is the right officer for the job.” Sheriff? He didn’t look like the sheriff from the boroughs, and especially not any deputy. Was he maybe from upstate?

“I’m still not sure about this.”

His voice was deep and gravelly, like something out of an edgy comic book turned into media.

“Nonsense, Sheriff Wolf.” There it was again. Your captain turned towards you once again. “Officer (L/n), I’ve asked you here to see if you were willing and able to help Sheriff Wolf here with… a delicate situation.” You eyed the two back and forth slowly, confusion painted obviously all over your face. “You can back out at any moment if you wish to do so, but I must iterate the importance of keeping something this delicate between you and yourself alone. Nobody else must know.”

You eyed the “sheriff” warily once again. There’s no way your captain would do something stupid like leading you off with this guy. There has to be a reason.

“Okay?” You cocked your head in question. “What delicate thing are we talking about?”

You saw the stranger pull something from his pocket but you couldn’t tell what it was as it rested in his hand.

“Are you aware of what societies live along with us?”

“You mean cults?” you cocked a brow.

Your captain laughed, the stranger stayed quiet and unmoving.

“No, but that was a good one.” He regained his composure. “Let me rephrase this: Do you believe in the supernatural? The unknown?” You eyed your captain as though he were just some crazy loon. “There lives another society among us, a good portion of said society live right here in New York City across the five boroughs. Sheriff Wolf here is the- uh, peacekeeper for said group. You were the first officer to come to mind for this position.”

“What kind of secret society are we talking about?”

“Fairy tale creatures.”

A part of you never stopped believing in that kind of stuff, especially with some of the weird things that have popped up on the news recently. Photos of creatures that can’t be explained, videos that weren’t ever proven to be edited, miracles that just seemed to pop out of nowhere.

You eyed the stranger again before nodding to your captain.

“Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll help.”

Your captain’s shoulders slouched a bit in relief before he smiled at you.

“Thank you, Officer (L/n).” He motioned to the Sheriff as he stood. “You’ll be reporting to Sheriff Wolf here until this situation is done. He will give you all of the details.”

Sheriff Wolf pocketed the item - which, now that you got a good look at it - looked to be a perfume bottle? He walked towards the door and opened it, waiting for you to get up and pass through before he followed soon after. You uttered a soft ‘thank you’ before you both walked together towards the elevator.

You both stood in silence as the metal shaft rolled down. You stared at the numbers ticking down, wondering to yourself about what you possibly could have just gotten yourself into. You worried at the inside of your cheek and figeted with your hands until the doors swing open at the chime. You both started off for the front door of the station.

“So-”

“Not here,” he cut you off. He flinched at his own words. He stuck his hand out to hail a taxi. “Not here, there’s too many people. I’ll explain it all when we get there.”

A taxi driver finally caught sight of the sheriff and quickly pulled up to the curb. You were about to start for the other side when he opened the door for you once again. You couldn’t help the little flutter in your stomach at just a normal gesture as you quickly climbed in.

The Woodlands. You glanced at the seemingly solid gold plate slapped onto the stone pillar as you wait for Sheriff Wolf to pay for the taxi. You peered through the wrought iron fencing at the towering building. It looked as though they were luxury apartments and nothing more. It could use a good powerwashing, though. Other than that, from what he barely told you in the taxi, this would be where you were going to stay for a little while if you wanted. You honestly wouldn’t mind it; No crazy traffic, not getting wet when it pours, you get to stay in bed longer.

“So you’re all, um, fairy tale creatures?” you tried to strike up a conversation.

“Yeah.” Something told you he wasn’t exactly the type for small talk, but the silence between you both was suffocating. The sheriff opened the gate for you as you both walked towards the front doors to the apartment. “Gonna stop by the Business Office. Snow will wanna meet you if she’s still there.”

You beat him to the entrance this time, holding the door open for him to which he gave you a semi-amused look. As you stepped inside, it really was a shock at how dated the lobby was. Hell, it even had a security guard asleep at the front desk, slumped over the desktop, hat covering his bald spot as he drooled on his tie. The carpet was so discolored from packed on dirt, the wallpaper was stained from years of neglect, the chandelier in the center had a few bulbs that were that spiders had claimed to be their new homes.

Maybe you wouldn’t stay here…

“Snow? As in Snow White?” you asked as he called in an elevator.

How bad would that be if the lobby looked like this? Did you just sign your death certificate?

The sheriff hummed in agreement as he pulled out a carton of cigarettes, a brand you’ve never seen before: Huff n’ Puffs. He tapped the bottom so only one cigarette popped out the top and he took it with his teeth. He fished out his lighter but stopped before he could light the flame, eyeing you.

“You good if I smoke?” he asked you rather politely.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

He lit the cigarette and pocketed his metal-plated lighter, making sure to blow the cigarette smoke away from you. You could smell that the cigarette was stale and a little old, but the way he scrunched his nose a bit drove it home.

‘What fairy tale creature was he?’ you couldn’t help but think.

 He didn’t look like any you’d recognize.

“Are you also a- uh- fairy tale person or…?”

He eyed you, throwing his brows up before puffing out another plume of smoke.

“Yeah.”

The elevator finally opened up, allowing you both to enter. You watched as he hit a button and the doors closed with an eerie creak before it jutted back to life. You were lying to yourself if you said you weren’t afraid of the thing collapsing underneath you and plummet into the basement.

“We never properly introduced ourselves.” You wanted to smack yourself across the face. Really? You bring that up now? He looked at you out of the corner of his eye, puffing out another plume away from you. “I’m (Y/n).” You stuck your hand out for him to shake. “You don’t have to say the whole Officer (L/n) schpiel, just (Y/n) is fine.”

He eyed your hand before he took it, and holy shit, his hand was big.

It was big and warm and calloused, and very strong. You could tell he was being gentle when he shook your hand.

“Bigby Wolf.”

Bigby? You never heard of a fairy tale character named Bigby Wo-

“Oh! You’re the big bad wolf?” you blurted out as your hands parted.

You felt like an idiot for not getting it earlier. Wow, just looking at him now, it kind of makes sense. But how was he… human?

“You got it right,” he gave an airy chuckle. “It took your captain a minute to get it.”

The elevator came to a direct stop, nearly toppling you over as the doors swung open. You quickly exited the damn thing, telling yourself you’ll take the stairs from now on as you followed Bigby down the halls.

“So - if you don’t mind me asking - how are you… human? Is that correct?”

“Normally, Fables that aren’t human need something called a glamour to make ‘em look human - to fit into the Mundy world.” He stopped and looked at you. “Mundies are people like you; Human.” He continued down the hall. “I didn’t need one after what Snow did to me before we all came here.” You briefly wondered what she did, but he filled in the blank for you. “She stabbed me with a special blade covered in werewolf blood.”

So he’s a werewolf? Like, a big, tall, hairy wolf man werewolf? Does he go crazy on full moons? Is that something you have to worry about now?

“Oh,” was all you could say. Your eyes briefly went to down to his coat pocket to see the faint outline of the perfume bottle. “Do you mind if I ask you another question?” He looked at you, stopping before a door and putting his hand on the door knob. “You had like a perfume bottle in your hand back in the captain’s office. What was that for?”

“It’s some magic shit the witches on the thirteenth floor concoted. It’s supposed to knock whoever out for a few minutes and make them forget about Fables. I would’ve used it on you if you said no.” He turned towards the door, looking at you barely over one of his broad shoulders. “Brace yourself, this isn’t shit you see everyday.”

What could he mean by that?

He opened the door and your jaw dropped. The place was fucking massive. Not only was it large enough to fit an entire circus in, it was also towering! You swore your entire station could fit in here with room to spare. You walked in, passing Bigby who was looking at you amused with his arms crossed. Your eyes scanned the towering bookshelves of books magically moving around and sorting themselves, spying the magical trinkets and statues that lined the carve outs of the wall. And the fucking ship. You watched as a fucking pirate ship lazily floated on by, the wood softly creaking as it turned in the air like it had down for so long.

“Holy shit,” you whispered. “This is your office?” you gawked as you looked back at Bigby.

The sheriff laughed. He actually laughed, the cigarette nearly falling from his mouth.

“Fuck no. My office is basically a glorified broom closet,” he walked past you. He eyed the three empty desks in the middle of the floor with a short frown. He sighed through his nose and took out the now near-burnt out cigarette before he snuffed it out on the heel of his dress shoe. “Stay here,” he looked at you, “I’m gonna go see if Snow’s still here.” You nodded silently, quickly wondering why he looked up at the ceiling as he walked away. “And don’t be scared if a green monkey with wings falls from the rafters, he’s just drunk.”

Your eyes widened as you watched him disappear behind a bookcase. You turned around, looking at all of the magical items that littered the room in awe.

You understood why something like this had to be kept a secret, but holy shit, this was wonderful.

You spied something out of the corner of your eye and slowly walked towards it. Stashed in between two rows of bookshelves laid a large mirror with a very intricately wound golden frame. It looked to be freshly dusted unlike most of the other items in the room. As you approached it, you quickly found yourself slightly dizzy as the mirror swirled to life with hazy green swirls. A theater mask appeared before you, no face or body attached. It blinked at you and smiled softly as the mirror hummed with life.

“Welcome home, such as it is. This squalid office, these corrupted streets, they are yours now, and are bound to them.”

It was hypnotizing, your body relaxing in the green glow as you stared at the mask before it quickly faded away. You blinked, seeing that the mirror had returned to just that, and Bigby was now standing next to you.

“I never understand the damn thing,” he grunted and looked at you. “Snow isn’t here, probably went out for the rest of the day doing Deputy Mayor shit. I need to do some paperwork on you before we can actually start, come on.”

You were hesitant to leave the office so soon but you figured it wouldn’t be wise to make a bad impression on your first day. You followed him out and back down the office before stopping before another door similar to the Business Office. The same standard door with the same color of frosted glass for the exception of the writing of just his name.

He stilled his hand on the doorknob before looking at you sheepishly.

“I wanna start off by saying that I’m sorry for the mess. I wasn’t expecting to actually get the help I need.”

“Oh, don’t worry. You should see what some of the cubicles look like at my current station.”

“Oh, I know,” he wore a look of disgust, “I smelled the shit the second I stepped into the building.”

“My old station had worse.”

Bigby shuddered, his thoughts now running rampant at just the smells he could conjure up. That was horrifying.

He turned the knob and opened the door, still holding a little bit of embarrassment on his face as you fully saw his office.

It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t great either. The walls which probably were painted white originally were now stained yellow probably from his smoking. You spied an extra large ash tray that looked to be from the 70’s when smoking wasn’t yet linked to so many horrors filled to the brim with a tower of snuffed out cigarette butts. There were files everywhere, some opened, most were closed. The file cabinets all sat overstuffed, his desk was covered with mugs of half-drunk coffee, his metal-mesh trash can was filled with dead pens and crumbled up paper balls. His poor office didn’t even have a window to even air out the smell, just a rinky dink fan in the corner.

There was something nailed to the flimsy drywall on the back wall, a plaque in the shape of the typical shield used for law enforcement and military. A gold panel had his name scripted, and underneath commended him for-

Three centuries of service?!

How old was this guy?

[puer-aurea]

Divine Intervention

Part 2 | Part 3 (You are here) | Part 4

Begin

Arabella gave the Tulpar's crew a brief tour after taking her suit off and getting their captain situated in the med-bay. There wasn't too much to show off despite its size, it was still a work in progress. The downstairs was off limits to non-crew members, simply being storage rooms and wires.

"Well, I hope you enjoy your stay on the S.S Inara!" Arabella claps her hands together.

"You named your ship after yourself?" Swansea criticizes.

"Ah, NBSAR requires it. Legally, it's only named 'Inara', but it feels cooler to add that bit."

"Are you the only crew member?" Daisuke asks.

"Yes. Normally, NBSAR sends me small rescues, like overconfident rich people on leisure trips or express deliveries. Despite large mainstream deliveries going automated, they still have single person crews for those small express deliveries." She explains.

"But your ship is so big!" He gestures around for emphasis.

"This was my dream ship! As long as both the ship and captain meet certain requirements, NBSAR let's you use your own ship. They just give you some decals to slap on the outside and an excessive amount of paperwork."

Daisuke seems overly eager to hear about the ship and being a search and rescue worker and while Arabella would love to indulge him, the ship is still docked.

"If you have more questions later, don't hesitate to ask. I have to go re-route and let the landing crew know now." She turns to head towards the cockpit, throwing a small wave at them.

Once inside the cockpit, she closes the door. It feels odd for her to be closed in, she usually leaves the door open even during rescues because of her modded upgraded auto-pilot. She sets her bag on a small table in the corner, opening it and taking a laptop out.

It was covered in a layer of dust but the Pony Express logo could still be made out. Arabella expected it to be in much worse condition and was fairly surprised when she pulled it out of the hidden compartment to find it unharmed. She plugged it into the cord hers would normally be on and booted it up.

The lack of a code on it added to her surprise but she clicked around a bit and found it to work fine. It had all of the camera footage from the Tulpar on it and she figured it could be good evidence if Curly really did crash the ship on purpose like they said. She didn't bother to watch any of it, instead plugging in a spare USB to back everything up on and putting it in the drawer of the table. It wasn't hidden but it was well enough out of sight that it shouldn't matter.

She sat back at the control panel and turned the auto pilot off. The Tulpar's original destination, Earth, was still nearly seven months away, lining up with what the crew said about having crashed five months ago. She re-routed to the nearest planet, which would only take around 76 days to get to.

Arabella turned the auto-pilot back on and tried to make contact with the landing crew.

"Weyland Landing, please state your and your ship's name and purpose." A masculine voice came through.

"Arabella Inara on the No Boundaries Search and Rescue ship Inara. I've got a rescued crew with me."

She can hear clicking on the other end before they speak up again.

"Who are you rescuing and from what business?"

"The last crew from Pony Express under Captain Grant Curly."

"Co-captain Jimmy James?"

"Yes."

Arabella looked around the monitors in her cockpit while the landing crew worker clicked away again.

"State of the crew?"

"Only one injured. The rest of the crew sustained no external injuries, though I'm certain they're dealing with hunger."

"Who is the injured, and how bad is it?"

"Captain Grant Curly is... a nugget." Arabella snorted.

"Captain Inara, please take this seriously." The landing worker chuckled slightly before reverting back to a serious tone.

"The captain is covered in burns and each of his limbs has been dismembered. He cannot move nor speak much at all."

A longer moment of clicking than the first two.

"Alright, how long until you will be landing?"

"Approximately 76 days."

"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Captain Inara. Please give us weekly updates and- whatever, I'm sure you know the drill." The landing crew worker seems to be tired of having to say the same things over and over.

Arabella can't help but laugh.

"Of course. Thanks for the help."

The connection is terminated and she lets out a sigh. Next step, let her patients know the estimated arrival. Then, she'll try to get the old captain to cooperate long enough for his old bandages to be replaced with fresh ones.

76 Days Until Landing

[silentangel00]

The Batman

(Reader Insert)

Chapter 1: https://www.tumblr.com/silentangel00/731630688641662976/the-batman

Chapter 2 Drive

Your first night as a consultant was a long and rough one. Much more mentally taxing than you had initially prepared for. You knew it would be bad but this, this was something different. You returned back to your penthouse at around 3 AM that day and went straight to bed and passed out in the deepest, stone-like slumber you have ever had. You woke up late in the afternoon, extremely groggy and disoriented. You went to the kitchen and chugged down two whole glasses of water and decided a shower would be best before you head out again.

You left at around 6 heading to the morgue since you were asked to perform the official autopsy on the late Mayor, making sure there was nothing more hidden for you to discover further about our killer. Unfortunately, you came up empty-handed after hours of careful searching. You were about to close Mitchell back into the mortuary cooler but had gotten interrupted by Gordon coming in with a plastic bag. He and Batman had found Mitchell's missing thumb that night. You took it out of the bag to assess it, you saw something metal dangling off of it, attached to the end looked like a USB. You look curiously at it before Gordon bitterly scoffs.

"Thumb...Drive...." He says simply. Your confusion drops and you look back at him with a look of 'Are you serious?' He puts his hands up in surrender and nods in agreement of just how ridiculous this is.

"Must think he's hilarious" You say with a disapproving shake of your head.

"Yeah, think you can separate the thumb from the drive without damaging it and then send it back to evidence for me?"

"Yep, no problem."

Gordon leaves, leaving you alone yet again to try to reattach this thumb to where it belongs. You really wish you could have someone to talk to right now. It would make the hours go by so much faster instead of having to focus in silence on a dead body the entire time. Gordon seemed to be in a rush to get out of there so you didn't bother with trying to strike up to deep of a conversation with him earlier. You looked down at your phone and looked at the time. It was almost 10PM, you scrolled through your list of phone numbers. There was no one there you would feel comfortable bothering this late. You had tried reaching out a few times when you got to Gotham to an old friend of yours, but he didn't return any of your messages. You sighed as you finished what you were doing and locked up. You had a sudden craving for something chocolate. Nothing could convince you to not indulge in this craving and you pulled up your GPS to search for the nearest diner. There was one not too far away, just a 20 or so minute walk, which was very much needed to clear your head and get some fresh air. You started walking taking in the scenery and architecture Gotham had to offer. So Gothic and historical with a splash of modernity shoved in here and there. Its ambiance always consisted of police or ambulance sirens that seemed to echo through the city on an endless loop. What you would give to hear the peace of a bird song, or the whisper of rustling leaves as the wind glides through. You pass by what seems to be a club "The Iceberg Lounge" you read as you pick up the pace. Whatever is going on in that place you don't know, but you definitely don't vibe with the energy it's giving off. You turn a corner and the diner is right there, you smile to yourself as you start to imagine the Chocolate cake you are about to devour with zero guilt.

You head inside pleasantly greeted by a nearly empty diner. A man sits hunched over in the middle seat of the counter scribbling on a piece of paper while sipping a small cup of coffee; he is the only one in here. The waitress greets you and tells you to sit anywhere. You take a seat just a few seats away from the man, closer to the door, and grab a menu searching immediately for the dessert options. The waitress a few moments later takes your order of a chocolate cake and bottled water and leaves. You pull out your phone and start scrolling through news articles til you finally give in and send your father a quick text message, 'How's mom?' since you haven't contacted him in a few weeks. You sigh and go back to reading a research article that piqued your interest. You hear the bell to the diners door ding as a new person entered. To engrossed in what you were reading, you didn't bother to look up. You didn't bother to look up as you heard the voices of the waitress and the new person start talking. In fact, you didn't even bother to look up as the voices started to get into a heated conversation. It wasn't until you felt something pressed to your head that you finally bothered to look up and meet eye-to-eye with the end of a gun barrel.

"Put the money in the bag or I will blow her head off." The masked man said in a trembling voice to the waitress. You couldn't move a single muscle. You looked at the waitress as she shook in fear shaking her head and crying.

"Please I need this money for my family, please please" She tried to plead with the man but he wasn't having it. He forcefully pressed the gun even further into your head forcing you to painfully bend your neck to the side.

"I'm not playing lady! You've got 30 seconds to give me what I want or I will shoot!" He screams at her. You look her dead in the eyes and she looks back at you. She says nothing, does nothing, and just cries harder as he starts to count down. As he realizes that she isn't making any moves to comply he stops counting. "I guess you still don't get it huh," He says darkly and clicks the safety off.

'Oh,' is all you can think as a tear escapes your eye. You suddenly feel a forceful weight launch you to the ground causing you to let out a shocked scream as you hear the gunshot ring through the tiny diner. Your ears are ringing but you can still make out a commotion going on. Screaming, the ground vibrating, the bell of the door, the weight still holding you down. Is this what it feels like to be shot in the head? You wonder as you stare up at the ceiling. Wait...no.

A face comes into view suddenly peering down at you through clear-framed glasses. You look back at him and regain your bearings, lifting yourself up onto your elbows slightly. You're fine, you're not shot! You suddenly realized the weight still on you was him, the man that was sitting at the diner counter just a few seats away from you had pushed you out of the way of the bullet. You both just stared heavily breathing for just a few moments, processing the situation. He finally made a slow movement off of you standing, and you soon followed gripping the counter as you steady yourself on your feet.

"Are you ok?" He asks looking down at the ground. You hear police sirens making their way toward, what you would hope, was your location.

"Yeah, I think so. Thank you..."

He just silently nods. The cops soon enter causing the waitress to crawl off the ground and run into the arms of one of the cops sobbing and incoherently explaining the situation. One of the cops comes up to you. "Ms. Y/L/N? Are you alright?"

You nod in surprise, not expecting him to recognize you. You were about to give him your statement before you were cut off by a quiet voice beside you.

"Y/L/N? As in Y/L/N Laboratories?"

You look over at the man that had saved you. He was looking you in the eyes this time and it made you feel uneasy but you still answered with a simple "Yes."

"Didn't know you were back in Gotham..." His tone had taken a shift that you couldn't quite understand, it felt...dark.

"Yeah..." You reply sounding guilty, thrown off by his sudden shift in demeanor. The cop quickly goes through the standard in a situation like this and then they soon let you know you're free to go. You walk out of the diner feeling too shaken up to walk back to your car. You start to dial to call a driver to pick you up and take you home but you see the man that saved you walk out of the diner sparing you a quick glance before he starts to walk away from you. "Hey wait!" you call out to him and walk a bit towards him, he turns facing you fully "I wanted to say thank you, again."

He just nods saying nothing as he stares you down, is he....angry? He turns to leave again.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" You quickly ask. He stops dead in his tracks but doesn't turn around this time.

"No... but I think soon you will." He leaves you with that as he disappears into the darkness of the night. A chill runs through you like ice through your veins. You quickly make a call to get picked up by a driver and with very little shame ask them to stay on the phone with you til they get here.

Chapter3: https://www.tumblr.com/silentangel00/732612665548161024/the-batman

[satanicspeaks]

What I want to know about The Expanse world is how is data storage being managed? If there is that many people across our solar system (and beyond) then where is all the data being stored and how?

This also applies to other sci-fi media. Currently we are so used to places hosting data that it’s become an after thought (until AO3 goes down or someone remembers they don’t actually own a copy of the e-book they bought on kindle).

In The Expanse there are terminals, similar to phones but can do a lot more, where anyone can log in to a terminal with their identifier and then it has all their messages and things they need. So instead of the phone number system we have it’s more like logging in to a universal Facebook. That raises some security issues but not the point here.

By making it a Facebook type system then the person also doesn’t own their own data. It’s not solely stored on their device. There are tech in that world where data is only stored on one thing, like our USB’s, but that’s not the standard because there’s a network. For there to be a network there must be a place to connect it all to.

So, given what happens in book 6 (no spoilers here dw) I reckon it’s stored in the belt, somewhere in vacuum/space, on Luna, or on several of the moons. Reasoning is that reduces a lot of natural heat data servers would have to deal with, reduces natural environment problems. It would absolutely be several locations, sole locations are a serious liability, and also with how much emphasis the series puts on light delay data/communications from one to another that would cause bigger issues.

As I type this I just realised: each station/location would need to have some level of a local copy. There were times that characters quickly set up a new terminal within a minute, and functionally waiting long periods is just bad business.

This likely isn’t something the author considered for the series, because killing or taking data servers hostage would be a way to fuck everyone over. Hence strengthening to the idea that data storage is in *a lot* of locations, making it hard to do a full take over.

There is also some programming elements that make me ‘hmmm’, especially season 1 of the Tv series where a sole person is trying to crack complicated encryption on a time crunch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a hobby programmer at most, my area is UX, so I don’t know if that’s truely effective. But from how over stated the complexity is it would make more sense to have several people on it (buuut of course story wise it’s cooler if one person can crack the really complicated Martian encryption).

I do wish the TV series showed Naomi as a programmer too, not just electrical and systems engineer. Maybe it’ll pop up later, I can see why they don’t with wanting a more visual way to show what she’s doing, but it feels like it understates her skills and what she can actually do.

Ty for reading my ramble if you made it this far. There’s practically no fandom for this series so mutuals can just second hand enjoy this