Know what else is weird?

Pip actually said the right thing.  Also, Hillary must have asked him to get contacts.

I don't know what they are fueling that reactor with, but they gotta stop.

Strangely enough, that's how I reacted to the dubstep version of the Narwhal song.

Pip, you should know by now that when one of the Think Tank says something is weird, it means that in reality it's doubleplusWEIRD. The only rational action at that point is disengagement.

This could very easily be an effect of limited resources coupled with the Denizens not needing to see only in visible light.  Technically, wavelengths in near infrared and in ultraviolet can also be seen with eyes and other organs alongside visible light.  (For example, reptiles and birds can see as far into the ultraviolet as much as an average human can see into red compared to a dog.)  In fact, some animals, including a select few mammals such as platypi, can fluoresce in dark light (they do make dark light flashlights out there).  Imagine Leonard glowing pink!

But the Denizens are neither mammal, bird, nor reptile.  They probably can see into electromagnetic wavelengths no animal can.  As UV would cause Leonard to fluoresce in visible light, the output of a Denizen reactor would cause a lightbulb to "shine" these other wavelengths which would cause things to "fluoresce" in ways that would be utterly doubleplusWEIRD to our eyes, as Scarlet so ably demonstrates.

Of course, the question arises of how a perfectly ordinary light bulb can possible "fluoresce" in way it isn't meant to without being modified in some way first.  I'd say it is being modified, by some intrinsic add-on to the electrical current that affects the light bulb while the Denizen power is being applied to it.  This likely is hardwired into the reactor's power supply output so it can't be simply bypassed.  But turn the current off, and the light bulb does revert to being ordinary again.  The Think Tank can filter out or work with the add-in with their own high-end, lab-quality equipment downstairs, but bog standard household stuff wouldn't stand a chance since the add-in is likely designed specifically to affect it.  Plus, the "fluoresce" wouldn't be noticeable in standard Denizen tunnel lighting any more than Leonard glows pink in sunlight.

Likely, the Denizens did this because they need that add-on in order to work with their equipment, so asking them to remove it would be like demanding a human filter their eyesight so they can only see in black and white (not just grayscale, but only in black and white).

And who knows?  Maybe I'm just whistling in the dark.  

CyberCorn Entropic wrote:
And who knows?  Maybe I'm just whistling in the dark.  

A nice analysis, but fails to take into consideration how they both developed eldritch horror teeth. I'm thinking it more it opens up alternative dimensions to the senses of humans. Kind of like in From Beyond. What we see is what has always been there, but when we see it it drives us mad.

tarmaque wrote:A nice analysis, but fails to take into consideration how they both developed eldritch horror teeth.

X-rays come to mind. A lot of EM radiation goes through our flesh as if it was barely there. For Pip, it would be similar-looking structures in the mouth region rather than teeth.

Zalgo...?

Stibbons wrote:Zalgo...?

No, Z̶̡̛̝̟̠͔̬̗͚̾ ̶̙̿̅̔͒̈́͒̓̈̚Ä̷̢̟̙̼̹̱̮̰̲̮́̊̿̄̊̀͗̚ ̸̧̲̣͕̗̰̤̀͌̉͛͂̾͠͝L̷̥̤̫̟̝͖͉̦̾̉̑̒͌̈́̑͛͘͜͝͝ͅͅ ̸̛̱̱̞̘̣̙̬̮̿̂̓͒̑͑̓͠Ĝ̷͔͚̹̪͈̣̙̜̪̲̈́͋͠ ̷̡̤̦̩̈́̓̊͌̎̔̔̕͝Ǫ̴̖͊̈́̈́́̌̚...