[network] @featherydouche; video; unsafe medical experiments for fun and profit; morning 190 [open]

[mrcreamsicles]

[No text today! Instead, the viewers of Norfinbury get a video showing a weird orange bird guy filmed from inside a house. In addition to the shades, behind which a faint orange glow is visible, he's got on the standard peacoat people receive here. It's the same violent shade of orange as the rest of him.]

Hey. A bunch of you already know by now, but the name's Davesprite, and I'm this thing called a sprite and I'm part crow.

[He caws demonstratively.]

But I'm posting this because House and I just did some experiments about the whole nonhuman thing yesterday. See, some people were positing that maybe I only look weird because of distorted perceptions and junk, so we wanted to test basically if I'm the way I should be or not.

Thing one, I've got a hole through the middle of my chest where my sword used to go, because sprites are weird. Don't worry about it. Watson told me how normal objects found here go right through anomalies, but stuff coated in rubble dust hits them. So he and Sherlock wanted me to try to stick some rubble in my sword hole. Spoilers, it worked.

Thing two, my blood's bright yellow like somebody cracked a glowstick open, and it doesn't look like a human's under a microscope. Since the admin said my bloodtype's been "adjusted", House wanted to inject some of it into himself to see if he could. And that worked too.

If you want to go and lecture us about how that was dangerous and stupid and we could have gotten ourselves killed: Yeah, I know, but too late. Sometimes you gotta be stupid to get science done. And now we've confirmed that looking nonhuman is still real and not just some illusion cast on our senses via the nanomachines, and that regular humans can accept "adjusted" blood with the right type.

Thing three's got nothing to do with the experiments, but House wanted me to share that he found an SD card back on day 183 with Andromeda and Winter talking some more. If you saw the post I made about the card I found a while back, the one where they were talking about the cult? It sounds like this one relates to that.

[Here at the end Davesprite links a few files. First are video recordings of him and House performing the experiments described above. His blood in the relevant experiment is indeed a yellow as he said and slightly luminescent. Along with this he includes a couple photos of his blood taken under a microscope. The blood cells aren't human or avian, but a shape that looks somewhere between both.]

[Next, he includes the audio file of Winter and Andromeda talking.]

(OOC: Replies may come from either Davesprite or House!)

Comments

[mrcreamsicles]

[Without any preamble whatsoever:]

When the pimp's in the crib, ma, drop it like it's hot, drop it like it's hot, drop it like it's hot... When the pigs try to get at you, park it like it's hot, park it like it's hot, park it like it's hot...

[And he'll keep on going through the whole damn thing unless Stephen (or House) should stop him.]

[thewarningafter]

I'll tell you if you STOP singing --!

[mrcreamsicles]

[Davesprite cuts off and holds his silence for a moment. Do you hear the force of that disapproval, Strange? It rings in the quiet.]

You've got no taste at all. Now what's the answer?

[thewarningafter]

My cloak. It has magical properties that haven't been completely nullified here. If it's the nanomachines in our blood preventing everyone from using our powers, it shouldn't be affecting an artifact made entirely of cloth.

[mrcreamsicles]

Show me.

[It's more proof than just saying it, and honestly, he'd want to see it anyway.]

--> video

[thewarningafter]

'kay.

[Whyyy not. There's a brief lapse as he fiddles with the setting, and then his feed switches over to a video taken from where he sits on the edge of the bed. Just a few feet from the camera, an empty cloak hangs in midair, holding its shape as though worn by an invisible man.]

Smile for the camera.

[The cloak, being a cloak, does not smile. It does seem to sort of perk up like it's paying attention, though, and turns to face the camera.]

[mrcreamsicles]

[Davesprite keeps to audio, and there is a silent stretch as he just stares at the video.]

I'll be damned. What's it for? I've made weird stuff just to see if I can before, but I'm guessing there's gotta be a reason for that one if you're still wearing it around. Aside from not freezing to death.

[thewarningafter]

What, you think I'd just abandon it because it can't make me fly anymore?

[Whoops, too personal. Back it down.]

That's the main thing. Flying. Or levitating, technically.

[mrcreamsicles]

['Abandon' is a strong word to apply to a cape, but he's not going to ask more in depth.]

Nah, I just thought it being magic meant it had to do more stuff that hover in the air like that. You're not alone, though. Admin took my flight from me too. I can't get more than a couple inches off the ground, and it sucks.

[thewarningafter]

[Yes, please, they can just move right along and not talk about that choice of words. It's a relic, that's all -- important in its own way, but not to be anthropomorphized, certainly.]

Can you tell me how your flight works?

[He's already heard about Davesprite's clipped wings limited flight from Doctor Watson, and that conversation raised more questions than it answered.]

I mean, theoretically the nanomachines are nullifying everyone's powers, but it's obviously not an on/off switch. Not when you and the cloak can fly, but only at a designated altitude of practically zip.

[mrcreamsicles]

I think I got left this much because if not for that I probably wouldn't be able to get around at all. Either I'd have to drag myself everywhere or learn to slither around like some half-assed white guy Quetzalcoatl, and probably get frostbitten all to hell in the process. And I think that's part of what things we get to keep. Most stuff is gone, but if it's like, necessary to survive at all or just has no actual benefit above the rest of people, then it gets to stay. Like, I can watermark the sky with my face, but that doesn't give me any benefit but trolling people.

[That's not really what Strange asked, though.]

Anyway, flying is just something sprites can do, and all it's based on is willing yourself to do it. Like deciding you're going to move your arm, except it's all of you. The wings aren't even necessary; I lost one once and kept floating around anyway.

[thewarningafter]

[It makes perfect sense from a logistical standpoint, yes. It even falls in line with the way they're given a bare minimum of supplies to keep them alive long enough to start finding their own. What's given and what's taken away is perfectly deliberate.]

I was hoping you were going to say it was something you'd had to learn, so you could tell me how you learned it. That makes sense, though, considering how screwed you would be if you you couldn't.

[Blunt honesty; Davesprite's body is clearly not built for terrestrial locomotion. It's frustrating as hell not being able to run across the courtyard and look up how levitation actually works. He'd not really gotten to it, considering it's not something a human can typically do and Stephen had been focused on learning skills as much as general theory.]

Can you show me the watermark?

[mrcreamsicles]

If I see a kernel floating around, I'll be sure to tell you so you can jump in. You know, if you want to trade your legs out and open yourself up to getting combined with something else.

[Not that it would do much good here. But then if there were a real kernel to be found, that would indicate bigger problems.]

It's kind of a hassle since I have to know where you are and what the place looks like and everything. But hey, you ever meet me in person somewhere out in town, I'll give you the whole tableau. Promise.

[thewarningafter]

As tempting as it is to trade in for one of the new hybrid models, I think I'll stick with Stephen one-point-oh. That's what the cloak's for, anyway, if I can get it working again.

[mrcreamsicles]

Let me know if you do. And I'll do the same if I can fly again. I don't think I could even glide if you threw me off a roof like this.

[He's not aerodynamic at all.]

[thewarningafter]

I will. Do you want my professional opinion?

[mrcreamsicles]

Professional opinion?

[He raises an eyebrow. On what, whether he'd break his neck trying?]

[thewarningafter]

Don't let anyone throw you off a roof.

[mrcreamsicles]

Thanks, doctor, I'll take it under advisement.

[In complete deadpan.]

[thewarningafter]

Also, maybe rethink the part where you hang around dirty old men who want to take videos of you sticking things in your hole.

[He knows that was Davesprite's idea, but House didn't have to encourage it.]

[mrcreamsicles]

Bit late to get morally judgey about that one, Strange. You want to make a better argument, leave off the innuendo and try the part where we could have died.

[It's more cringey than funny when other people joke about it.]

[thewarningafter]

Are you saying you actually would have listened if I did?

[mrcreamsicles]

Nope. But it's less disingenuous than making dirty jokes at a teenager you barely know.

[thewarningafter]

...Did I make you uncomfortable?

[Genuine question.]

[mrcreamsicles]

No.

[Yes.]

I'm just saying I'm the one with the weird chest hole, so I'm the one who gets to do the jokes.