#and it helps the nautilus later

[girddlepatchilles]

We need more shows like Nautilus. It's a silly adventure show, but there's also a Message about the evils of colonialism, but there's also Shenanigans involving giant electric eels and maybe Atlantis?

We have an ensemble cast of wonderful characters who are fun to spend time with! The main Probable Romantic Couple just argue all the time and they're fun together! Like, I would happily watch them go from Bickering to Friendly to Lovers. They're so Benedict and Beatrice coded and I adore it!

There's a tragic backstory between one of the villains and our main character that is kinda gay, but also just seems deliciously tragic.

And the cast! The cast! So fucking great!

It kinda has a bit of a feel of OFMD, but a different flavour? If that makes sense? Outcast found family of piratical individuals in a submarine.

I hope there's more!

[charminglyantiquated]

Hi, guys. I try to keep my personal life off of here for the most part, but my partner and I have experienced a pretty bad blow, and I don't know what else to do. On Friday a private yacht backed into our sailboat, the Nautilus, with enough force to move the concrete dock we were tied to. The main mast was snapped in half, and we're still waiting to learn how bad the damage to the hull is.

We've worked on the Nautilus for years now as her crew, and this spring we put every cent we've been able to save over the last decade into buying her. All of our time has gone into sailing and maintaining her, and running our charter business - and now she's out of commission for the foreseeable future. Insurance will hopefully help, but we don't know anything concrete yet. The best case scenario is that with 8-9 months of work, we can have Nautilus sailing again by next summer - but in the meantime we still have the vessel's loan payments, and our own living expenses, and no source of income, let alone the repairs we'll need to begin sooner rather than later if we can hope to get her seaworthy by next summer.

I know things are hard for everyone right now, and I know we are incredibly lucky no one was hurt. One way or another Crow and I will get through this, and be okay, so please don't feel guilty for passing this by. But if you are inclined to help us get through the next few months, by donating or by sharing our fundraiser, I would be more grateful than I can express. I will be posting updates, photos, etc. on our Instagram page at nautilusmaine as we learn more, if anyone would like to follow along with what is hopefully the journey to rebuild her.

[deepdreamnights]

Tribute AMV for Dr. Underfang and Mrs. Natalie Nice/Nautilus.

From TyrannoMax and the Warriors of the Core, everyone's favorite Buzby-Spurlock animated series.

After all, who doesn't love a good bad guy, especially when they come in pairs?

Process/Tutorial Under the Fold.

This is, of course, a part of my TyrannoMax unreality project, with most of these video clips coming from vidu, taking advantage of their multi-entity consistency feature (more on that later). This is going to be part of a larger villain showcase video, but this section is going to be its own youtube short, so its an video on its own.

The animation here is intentionally less smooth than the original, as I'm going for a 1980s animated series look, and even in the well-animated episodes you were typically getting 12 FPS (animating 'on twos'), with 8 (on threes) being way more common. As I get access to better animation software to rework these (currently just fuddling along with PS) I'm going to start using this to my advantage by selectively dropping blurry intermediate frames.

I went with 12 since most of these clips are, in the meta-lore, from the opening couple of episodes and the opening credits, where most of the money for a series went back in the day.

Underfang's transformation sequence was my testing for several of my techniques for making larger TyrannoMax videos. Among those was selectively dropping some of the warped frames as I mentioned above, though for a few shots I had to wind up re-painting sections.

Multi-entity consistency can keep difficult dinosaur characters stable on their own, but it wasn't up to the task of keeping the time-temple accurate enough for my use, as you can see here with the all-t-rex- and-some-moving-statues, verses the multi-species effort I had planned:

The answer was simple, chroma-key.

Most of the Underfang transformation shots were done this way. The foot-stomp was too good to leave just because he sprouted some extra toes, so that was worth repainting a few frames of in post.

Vidu kind of over-did the texturing on a few shots (and magenta was a poor choice of key-color) so I had to go in and manually purple-ize the background frame by frame for the spin-shot.

This is on top of the normal cropping, scaling, color-correcting, etc that goes into any editing job of this type.

It's like I say: nearly all AI you see is edited, most of it curated, even the stuff that's awful and obvious (never forget: enragement is engagement)

Multi-Entity Consistency:

Vidu's big advantage is reference-to-video. For those who have been following the blog for awhile, R2V is sort of like Midjourney's --cref character reference feature. A lot of video AIs have start-end frame functionality, but being able to give the robot a model sheet and effectively have it run with it is a darn nice feature for narrative.

Unlike the current version of Midjourney's --cref feature, however, you can reference multiple concepts with multiple images.

It is super-helpful when you need to get multiple characters to interact, because without it, they tend to blend into each other conceptually.

I also use it to add locations, mainly to keep them looking appropriately background-painting rather than a 3d background or something that looks like a modded photo like a lot of modern animation does.

The potential here for using this tech as a force multiplier for small animation projects really shines through, and I really hope I'm just one of several attempting to use it for that purpose.

Music:

The song is "The Boys Have a Second Lead Pipe", one of my Suno creations. I was thinking of using Dinowave (Let's Dance To) but I'm saving that for a music video of live-action dinosovians.

Prompting:

You can tell by the screenshot above that my prompts have gotten... robust. Vidu's prompting system seems to understand things better when given tighter reigns (some AIs have the opposite effect), and takes information with time-codes semi-regularly, so my prompts are now more like:

low-angle shot, closeup, of a green tyrannosaurus-mad-scientist wearing a blue shirt and purple tie with white lab coat and a lavender octopus-woman with tentacles growing from her head, wearing a teal blouse, purple skirt, purple-gray pantyhose. they stand close to each other, arms crossed, laughing evilly. POV shot of them looming over the viewer menacingly. The background is a city, in the style of animation background images. 1986 vintage cel-shaded cartoon clip, a dinosaur-anthro wearing a lab coat, shirt and tie reaches into his coat with his right hand and pulls out a laser gun, he takes aim, points the laser gun at the camera and fires. The laser effect is short streaks of white energy with a purple glow. The whole clip has the look and feel of vintage 1986 action adventure cel-animated cartoons. The animation quality is high, with flawless motion and anatomy. animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, studio Ghibli, don bluth. BluRay remaster.

While others approach the scripted with time-code callouts for individual actions.

[surrgarrashcafe]

Alright so I just got bored during the month of summer so I thought why not just create a fic of Azul being greedy with his darling so who is just trying to do her job at a vacation beach 🏖️ this might be a little yandere but I can’t help but love this octo boy a lot💖💖

Anyways hope yall enjoy.

Azul Ashengrotto x Fem reader part 1: 🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊

Beneath the Waves of my Greed. 🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊 It all started when you were just a little kid on vacation. You were just wandering at the beach, hearing the waves crash against each other. seagulls squawking at the bright, beautiful Sunkissed sky until you found a cave that is rather dark and eerie. So, you decided to go into the cave since it caught your curiosity to explore the darkness. As you got deeper into the cave, you suddenly heard a sad little octo-boy. crying and sniffling on a rock. He was very hostile to you at first, splashing you with water with his little tentacles, making you stay away from him as he let out a choked cry in the lump of his throat. Whenever you came to visit his cave, he either left when you came by, or he would hide in his little octopus' pot. but over time you brought little trinkets for him, whether it be shells, coins or toys. He'd end up taking them when you left them outside of his octopus pot. You saw that as progress. Soon, the mysterious Octomer would stick around only to watch you whenever you were at the beach, watching you playing around in the sand or collecting shells. You mostly did the talking, and he listened. On one of your visits, he actually talked, telling you his name, it was Azul!   You would spend every vacation with Azul. It was clear that he was insecure about his weight, but you reassured him. You loved him no matter what or how much he changed. You didn't know it yet, but those words would stick with Azul for a lifetime since he saw you as "his precious pearl, his angelfish."  Soon, he'd leave Trinkets for you as well. one of them being a necklace with a yellow nautilus shell on it that only glowed each time both of you got close together. Years would go by as you two grew up, and you were finally old enough to move out from your parents and into a house nearby that very same beach, meaning you and Azul could hang out more, "which was quite an opportunity to have you all to himself right?" You decided to work. on a port closer to the ocean, making it easier to meet up with Azul. He, too, has changed after all those years and is now a young man with less baby fat. having a ton of weight lost and a dramatic change just for you, but… you did have a life outside of Azul and made more friends as well. which made Azul feel a bit lonely now that you have friends who all care about you. "But what about him?' He already loves you with all three of his hearts. and has kept all of his treasures and trinkets that you gave him in his lare grotto when you were both little. It made him lovesick to know that you are not always going to be with him, and it hurts him because you were the only person who would comfort him whenever he had ink-stain tears that would bawl down his eyes to his cheeks when mer kids would call him fat and stupid. He misses the feeling of you comforting him and being in his arms when no one else could, but he can't take that opportunity away, not "when you are his poor, unfortunate soul that is meant to be dragged down in the very depths of the sea with him."  🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊🌺🌊

Sorry yall I couldn’t make a longer version for Zuzu because my word count is limited (•_•) but I will post a part two later. Anyways hope you had fun while I am writing this 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[simp999]

A New Home Ch. 34

Various! Splatoon Manga x Skilled! Isekai'd! Reader

Wc: 1k

A/N: sorry chat ww uh go read some past chapters for comfort idk

Warnings: Agressive language (swearing), abusive past significant other.

A/N 2: you can avoid reading this part if you think it'll make you uncomfortable,- it's just backstory and doesn't pertain to the story too much.

Back to the start! Previous Next

With a heavy heart, you arrived home and helped Milo make supper for the family. The night went by slowly with Milo's sister on your mind, but recognizing that he didn't seem as heavily affected by it anymore did help soothe you.

That night, you all fell asleep watching a movie; you in Milo's arms while he petted your tentacles. It was difficult not to fall asleep with how gentle he was- he must've had lots of experience.

The following day, Tasha was cleaning her weapon when you noticed a furrow in her brow. She then quietly said that she would be going to stop by Sheldon's today. Ah, she must have noticed a scratch or something. Either way, you figured it would be a good opportunity to spend time with her, so you asked if you could tag along. With a soft nod, she told you when she'd be leaving. Sooner rather than later- she'd rather fix her weapon as quickly as possible. You figured you'd get your weapon checked too while you were there. Seemed convenient.

It didn't take long before the two of you left the house, Tasha making sure not to scratch her weapon further. She held it close on the subway.

Maybe today you'd get to find out why she took such good care of the thing- if a reason at all. You're sure there had to be one, though.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You gave your weapon to Sheldon when you arrived, and he seemed shocked.

"The ink isn't fully going through! How have you been battling like this?"

... you've been at a disadvantage this whole time? He compared it to missing multiple Ink Saver abilities- it was really confusing.

Finally, Tasha carefully handed Sheldon her E-liter, pointing out the scratch he had to buff out. With a pleasant smile on his face while he analyzed the weapon, he said;

"Pristine as ever, Natasha! I admire your dedication to your weapon! If only others were as diligent as you..."

You noticed how Sheldon was looking at you when he said that, and you looked away out of embarrassment. Well, hey- you're sure Leo was much worse; you once caught him using nail polish to repaint a scratch on his dualies after dropping them.

"...Told you not to call me that." She quietly replied.

The two of you left Ammo Knights shortly, making your way to the lobby. It was a hot day, that blazer of Tasha's was probably way too warm. She was about to take it off when you caught her freeze in place.

She appeared terrified. You followed her gaze- and it was at some octoling boy. His tentacles stood out- a sort of mohawk fashion going backwards. He toyed with his Nautilus 47. He wore a wicked smile on his face. His eyes were closed and his sharp teeth showed. He sat next to what you assumed was his twin; a matching forward mohawk and a big frown. An octobrush sat next to him. The first one- the smiley one had pink tentacles, the second, frowny, had blue. The first laughed like a hyena as some girl he sat with told a joke, his arm around her with a seemingly painfully tight grip.

..he seemed like he was holding her hostage. Damn.

You looked back at Tasha and she seemed to cower even further as she stared at him. She held her weapon with shaky hands- wait, Tasha? With shaky hands? What the hell happened between these two?

The two of you had to walk by them to get to the Subway. You slowly tried to reach for her back, gently rubbing circles as you guided her, placing yourself between her and the twins.

But you were still noticed. You suppose she does stand out a bit with her height.

The pink-tentacled one stood up.

"Hey there sweetheart! S' been a while, love. How ya been?"

He got much too close, breath mixing with hers. She held her weapon even closer. She kept her head down. His hand left her shoulder when she flinched and she quickly tried to walk off, and you heard him mumble under his breath; "Tch. Bitch. Got what you deserved anyways."

Her hand shook as she held it in front of her mask on the subway. She was still frozen and you could see her tearing up.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You trailed behind her as she rushed to her room. Despite what you may assume, she continued to hold your hand. She needed company. She didn't want to be left alone.

She took her mask off as she shook. She was so vulnerable.

That's right. Her scars.

Wait... is that how she got those?

What the hell did that asshole do?!

Sobs wracked her body as you held her free hand, her other thumb rubbing her weapon, soothing her.

Once you offered her a soft hug, and you got her to breathe properly again, she began to explain. You wiped her tears as she went on.

"My weapon malfunctioned once and only once. The night I ran away from him.

...the night he gave me these scars.

I couldn't defend myself."

You looked at her with sympathy, and rubbed your thumb over the palm of her hand to soothe her. You stood up once again and held her head close to your chest, resting your chin on her head as you pet her tentacles.

Milo heard from Leo that the twins were in the square. Trav n' Marx. Milo put two and two together and raced down to Tasha's room to try to comfort her. He wrapped her in a blanket and quickly let his motherly instincts take over.

According to all you've gathered, she had an abusive boyfriend.

Tasha of all people.

Goes to show it can happen to anyone.

Poor girl...

.

.

.

Mar.26,24

Next Part

[sea-angel-dancer]

File of "LA DANCEUSE"

Z-20, codename « La danseuse » previously known as « the light » real name « Angela Meri » is to be ELIMINATED ON SIGHT. Z-20 is extremely dangerous due the toxins she releases but is also extremely violent in her methods of satiating her permanent hunger and WILL consume operatives on sight if it happens to be a while since she has eaten. While no murder of her own was recorded, she has been observed feasting on corpses of EXR-P personnel killed off by other entities. It is noted that Z-20 is defenseless when out of water and is too weak to actually injure living people.

After being released by Z-13 from her containment cell, **the showroom** she was observed being carried by Z-13 to further flooded rooms and thrown in. She only emerged from the place after three days where she dragged her body to feed herself. Up until now, Z-20 has only consumed 3 EXR-P units.

Z-20 was brought in as LR-P in 2015 after being proved guilty of 1st degree murder, injury on higher authorities as well as bringing a deadly non-weapon in the tribunal and was sentenced to death by electric chair. She was instead swooped up by urbanshade, her execution was faked and she was officially declared deceased in 2015.

In 2016, Z-20 was selected to partake in experiments to make a human bioluminescent and help during power outages and her DNA was mixed with the DNA of bioluminescent plankton and Sea angel. While the experiments were successful as she was able to illuminate pitch black rooms, the undesirable side effects such as permanent hunger, partial blindness as well as her skin turning translucent deemed her as a failed experiment and was to be euthanized later. She however was never terminated as dr. ||[][][][][][][][]|| took an unprofessional interest to her and her « beauty » and proceeded to mutate her body by blending her dna with nautilus and spanish dancer strands. This experiment was proceeded to turn her into a « mermaid » to entertain sponsors and was put in huge water tank in the **showroom**. to keep her under control. Z-20 was underfed to keep her weak, which was deemed an extremely bad choice considering her behavior during feeding time as she would try to attack staff to get her way on early stages, but it seem to have calmed after a while as she started controlling herself around staff soon after.

It is in our best interest to eliminate her to finish her off as she is no longer of use for urbanshade.

[alma-amentet]

The year's been tough for me. Started this post with intent to thank everyone who supported and still support me, got carried away with sad memories, wrote about my break-up instead... Maybe I'll publish that too, later, for now let's try again.

One of good things is that by the end of summer I crawled out of my art block. That break-up may have helped this. Even started attending art-school again.

And yeah, tumblr is something that helped me greatly. Met some really cool and supporting people here. Was even flattered when the ones whom I've been following and admiring started noticing my headcanons posts and even followed me!

So thank you all, no matter if we didn't interact much (i just love seeing you on my dash)

@katyspersonal @katastronoot @sheirukitriesfandom @evilwriter37 @catcas22 @bri-the-nautilus @karpachev @heraldofcrow @bimbomcgee @maxwell-entropy @beholdingthedead @stuckinaliminalstate @the-sunlit-earth @ashildr-arts @fantomette22

And some others I may forgot to mention.

I keep thinking that maybe I should post more ideas and headcanons... Will finally try.

[thatboreddrake]

The Night's Cavalry

First off, thanks to @bri-the-nautilus for getting me thinking about these fellas. Second, this is not really a theory per se. More of a headcanon, considering that we have so little information about the Night's Cavalry other than a) they serve Morgott directly and b) they hunt Tarnished.

As always, we begin with the item descriptions of their drops.

Night's Cavalry Set: Worn by the Night's Cavalry who ride funeral steeds. The Night's Cavalry, who now wander the dim roads at night, were once led by the Fell Omen and were deliverers of death for great warriors, knights, and champions.

Fairly standard information. Served Morgott, hunted various troublemakers in the post-Shattering world, nothing we didn't already know. The only other equipment we *see* them use, the Flail and Glaive, have item descriptions that describe their physical properties but don't include any helpful lore tidbits. However, all of the Night's Cavalry (with one exception) drop Ashes of War, and this is where things get *really* interesting.

Bernahl calls Ashes of War "Mementos of all the warriors who raised their arms in battle, lost, and died." Thus, we can reasonably make the inference that the Ashes of War dropped by these Night's Cavalry were the skills which they wielded in life (could it be from warriors they killed? Yes. I'm choosing to go with what I believe to be the more interesting angle).

The Ashes of War dropped by Night's Cavalry are as follows:

Repeating Thrust: Twist to build power, then unleash a flurry of thrusts. (Limgrave)

Barricade Shield: Skill made famous by Sir Neidhardt. Focus your energy into the shield, temporarily hardening it to deflect greater blows. (Weeping Peninsula)

Ice Spear: Skill of the warriors who served Lunar Princess Ranni. Spin armament to release cold magic, then channel it into a piercing spear of ice. (Liurnia South)

Giant Hunt: Skill developed for confronting gigantic foes. Step forward from a low stance, carrying the momentum into a sudden upward thrust. (Liurnia North)

Poison Moth Flight: Slash with a poison-infused blade. If the follow-up strike lands on a poisoned foe, it will deal significant damage. (Caelid)

Shared Order: Skill of the Golden Order fundamentalist knights. Grant the armament and those of nearby allies holy essence. Highly effective against Those Who Live in Death. (Altus)

Phantom Slash: Skill inspired by the fond remembrances of the Night's Cavalry. Creates an apparition of the knights' former instructor who guides a joint lunging upward swing. Additional input allows for a follow-up attack. (Forbidden Lands)

Bloodhound's Step: Skill that allows the user to become temporarily invisible while dodging at high speed. Moves faster and travels farther than a regular quickstep. This skill can be used to circle around lock-on targets. (Dragonbarrow)

The only Night's Cavalry who do *not* drop an Ash of War are the duo in the Consecrated Snowfield, who instead drop an Ancient Dragon Smithing Stone. Also notable, with the exception of Poison Moth Flight, all of these Ashes of War can be used on the Nightrider Glaive. Is that significant? Probably not. I just thought it was neat.

All that to say, I believe that the Night's Cavalry are a sort of Elden Ring "Ocean's 11." In the aftermath of the Shattering, Morgott traveled the Lands Between, under the guise of Margit the Fell Omen. He recruited these knights from every former allegiance and walk of life to aid him in restabilizing the Lands Between. In honor of this theory, I am attempting to create OC's for each of these knights (to come in a later post because the creative juices simply are not flowing rn).

[nigh-temptation]

Alledia, in this version, is split up into 7 countries:

Windsor

Coco

Lufen

Nautilus

Frontera

Kanalis

Gulfeńn (which is split into more regions, or provinces)

(I will draw a better quality map someday 😔)

I made the map a little less of one big supercontinent, and I thought that making this world feel a little bigger would help make this story feel more vast without needing to leave the planet (I am never forgiving Kazu for that goofy ending in book 7, it literally came out of nowhere)

I will update this map later (I’m going to move the mountain range in Gulfeńn to the coast, so that geographically it makes a little sense as to why that whole area is an arid desert, and extend the mountain range up up north a bit)

During the war all the western countries are known as the Common Alliance (or at least, it will be if I don’t think of a less cheesy name). The best way to think about these countries is this:

(The flags are a bit ugly, but I tried my best 😭)

Windsor:

NOT occupied by Gulfeńn yet

the superpower of the CA

It’s really cold up there

Like… wet and cold

This place is just 1940’s England

Their national animal is the whale

I imagine Windsorian cities looking like Dunwall from Dishonored

Coco:

I haven’t come up with much other than it’s a small nation with not that much to offer in the way of trade, and was actually going through negotiations to become a part of Lufen before the war

Not occupied by Gulfeńn

Nautilus:

They are only partially occupied by Gulfeńn

The “front line” country

A lot of citizens have been displaced from here

This country (in my head at least) reminds me a little of Ireland

Frontera:

Completely occupied by Gulfeńn

A lot of elves actually live here

Human-Elf relations here is a lot more chill than in… say Windsor

Kanalis:

Also completely occupied by Gulfeńn

Basically if Chicago was a country

I always read Enzo and Rico’s lines in a Chicagoan accent, because they have Italian names 🤷‍♂️

Lufen:

‘MERICA RAAAHHHH 🦅🦅🦅

Idk, I have it in my head that this is cowboy country

This place is a lot looser than The boarder countries or Windsor

It’s a bunch of farmland broken up by forest, plains, and towns (kinda like where I live)

These guys are technically neutral, but have been sending supplies to Windsor

I will have a separate post for Gulfeńn (and why I am spelling it like that), but for now I want to focus on the human countries.

You might be wondering… how exactly did humans end up on Alledia anyways? Well my friend, I have a surprisingly simple answer for you!

I don’t fully know :/

I’d like to think they stumbled across the “Gate” (or portal thingy that Emily stumbled into) at some point hundreds of years ago, and adapted accordingly… but that leaves a couple of plot holes (how did that many people fit through the Gate? How did people of that many different cultures come all at once?) so let’s just not think about that for now 😅

The time period in which this will be set is more so in the 1930’s-1940’s. Because this is fantasy, we don’t have to be exact, and we can be a bit more flexible with “historical accuracy” or whatever.

I feel like a war oriented story such as this would benefit more from a Dieselpunk aesthetic. That way we have a bit of the modern age to work with, in terms of technology, and a thematic framework for the story right off the bat.

Here is an example of Dieselpunk! This piece is called Gray Monster by Jakub Rozalski:

I think mechs, blimps, and wartime would work perfectly with this genre of punk

final quick note, in my version of this story there are a couple different powers at play: The Common Alliance (bad-ish guys), The Resistance (okay guys), Gulfeńn (bad-ish guys), Ceilis (meh guys), and the Luna Moth Crew (good guys!)

Remember, this is an ongoing WAR. It is NOT a good time to live in Alledia, and the world should feel as such. With that being said, this is not going to be a “gritty” depressing story. I still want to capture the magic that the early books had. We can still have some fun with it!

Let me know what you think and if I should change anything :D

[inmateofthemind]

Hihi! For Cal, midnight? Thank you!

What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

The later question is the easiest to answer; Cal spends the wee hours of the morning/final hours of the night looking either up at the stars or at a piece of metalworking.

Cal has always had a fascination with outer space from the aspect of 'so many possibilities, so much potential'. It gives him a faint hope for himself. (Not to mention how it's just plain gorgeous up there; he could spend hours just looking at the colors of a nebula). As for the metalworking, it's how Cal channels his emotional turmoil. His art comes from the heart, pure and simple. He takes great pride in it. He's also somewhat secretive about it; you're more than welcome to commission him for something, but his personal pieces will never see the light of day if he can help it.

Cal obviously has a fear of abandonment, but the one fear and anxiety that is stronger than that is him becoming a plaything/afterthought for someone else. He's seen what chasing after the validation/affection of others can do to a person due to how wrecked his mother was after Cal's father leaves them, and he refuses to let the same thing happen to him. Thus, he closes himself up and only has the smallest hint of his true self peeking out to seek out companionship if someone catches his interest. This is actually the attitude, along with his nimble fingers in both metalworking/tactile puzzle-solving/A Bunch of Stuff, Really, that earns him the Floyd Leech-brand nickname of Nautilus.

The images below (somewhat) represent the before and after of that exact 'I'm just a toy to you' scenario that plays out during the 2nd Arcane Exchange, the second image meant to be him in young adulthood.

Taglist: @cyanide-latte @ramshacklerumble @tixdixl @simons-twsted-children

[buffyfan145]

Really sad to see this as Disney+ has cancelled their upcoming British show "Nautilus" before it even aired along with a few other unreleased scripted shows. It was a new take on Captain Nemo and it's already been filmed and was supposed to debut later this year. According to Deadline Disney is helping with the sale of the show as they are trying to get another network/streamer to pick it up. I hope it works out as I really was looking forward to seeing this and will be so unfair to the cast/crew if this never gets to air.

ETA: The show has been picked up in the US by AMC/AMC+ and will air on both next year!!! 😀

[cornfields-td-nonsense]

i kinda wanna know more of esther as a character, how her personality differs from zeeks, how her farmgirl brain works, etc. it would also be cute to see if the siblings have any quirks they share

Yesss an excuse to talk about the character that kicked this whole thing off! You will (probably) not regret this.

Alright y'all might have seen that character ref sheet I made of her a little while back. It was made back when I was first creating her (before most of the nautilus cast even existed) and I'm thinking of redoing it, just to keep it up to date. There haven't been any super drastic changes but I wanna make sure it's all accurate. Anyway, Esther time!

(This turned into a life story recap so im putting it under a readmore so it doesn't clog ur feed :P)

Like her older brother Ezekiel, Esther was born and raised on a farm far from the alien world of the suburbs, by Mary and Patrick Miller (bonus points to anyone who can guess who the parents are named after). And, like Zeke, Esther was taught some... regressive values by her father. She was described as a 'free spirit' as a child - she couldn't sit still, she'd hurt herself while climbing trees or playing with the animals and brush it off like it was nothing, and she seemed to have an endless well of energy and enthusiasm for pretty much anything. But as time went by, Patrick decided that these traits had stopped being cute or endearing, as he viewed her free-spirited nature as something to grow out of. And quickly.

When Esther and Zeke were still young, but old enough to work with food without injuring themselves, Mary would allow them to help her in the kitchen, preparing meals and baked goods. It was some great and valuable bonding time for the siblings, and for them and their mother. But then Zeke turned thirteen and Patrick decided that just like that, it was time for him to become a man - and as he saw it, men certainly should not waste their time in the kitchen. The more the siblings grew older, the more it felt to both of them - Esther especially - that they were being raised individually by their parents. Patrick taught Zeke to toughen up and act more like the future 'man of the house' should, and Esther was taught domestic chores by Mary. Both of them had to 'know their place', but Esther always felt like her mother's heart wasn't in it. She didn't show nearly the same passion in teaching Esther to sit still, smile, and speak when spoken to, as Patrick showed when teaching Zeke how to hunt. (He never talked about what happened on these hunting trips, and Esther never asked. She got the feeling he didnt want to talk about them.) Neither Mary nor Esther were happy with their place, and though they never spoke about it, there was a sort of camaraderie between them, an unspoken understanding that they were in the same boat.

Then Zeke found out from his permitted 10 minutes of television per day that there was going to be this new show called Total Drama. And everything changed.

Esther actually helped her brother audition - they both worked together to make their father extra happy so he'd be more likely to say yes. Esther tried extra hard to do all her chores to perfection, didn't complain once, and almost forgot what the sound of her own voice was like. Patrick said it was the most well-behaved he'd ever seen her. (She had to accidentally-on-purpose burn the food and knock over the milk jug the week after to make herself feel better.) And she even held the camera to record Zeke's audition tape.

They... probably should have taken the fact that Zeke accidentally shot Mary with a fake arrow as a bad omen, and not sent in the tape. That's what Esther thought later, anyway.

The episodes air and Zeke is the first boot. Patrick is not happy about this. What followed was Patrick spending the rest of the day at the nearest available phone, making a series of long angry phone calls to the producers of the show, while Mary and Esther go about their day wearing earplugs.

I should mention that Esther was twelve at this time, soon to turn thirteen, and she was kind of dreading her birthday. Given how much had changed when Zeke hit this milestone, she didn't want to think about what would happen if the same was in store for her.

Turns out not much was different, to her relief. She was sent on more errands out of the house, but that was pretty much it.

This marked the point of Esther spending more and more time outside of the house, always returning home late and having some excuse in her back pocket. Being at home was just... too complicated. With Zeke gone, tensions were rising, and she did not want to be there when they boiled over.

Spending more time out of the house also gave Esther ample opportunity to snag more time watching TD. She managed to watch the first two full seasons while sitting in a 70s themed diner with a tiny little TV set that happened to play a lot of Total Drama. And, like literally every other preteen/early teen girl watching TDI, she had a crush on Gwen. Watching the show was the starting point for her figuring out she was bisexual, which was a whole journey in of itself.

Not only that, but watching the girls on the show helped Esther question what Patrick had instilled in her. These girls were strong, and cool, and skilled, and smart. The final four were two boys, two girls. The final two was a boy and a girl. They were equals, something that wouldn't have been revolutionary to your average viewer, but was utterly earth-shattering to Esther.

Then after TDA, Zeke returned for a little while and he seemed... different? But he was still Zeke and Esther was just happy to see him.

And then he got called back.

And then World Tour happened.

And Esther watched the whole thing unfold in that 70s-style diner, watching everything her brother went through on that tiny little television set while surrounded by people who had no idea who she was.

...

Okay that was a downer so have a few light hearted Esther facts to wrap this thing up

- She had a pet horseshoe when she was five. She tied twine around it like a leash and dragged it along the ground behind her. She named it Harry.

- Her favourite colour is green.

- She used to go digging for buried treasure out in the fields when she was young. It got so bad that her parents thought there was a mole infestation. She did find a few old coins, a bottle and a handful of animal bones, so that was pretty cool.

- She and Zeke used to play 'the corn chip game'. The idea was that you would take it in turns to eat from a plate of corn chips, only taking a small handful at most each turn, and the person who ate the last chip was the loser. It would get very competitive, and made a single plate of chips last hours. No joke. You were technically allowed to break the chips to create more, but you had to do a forfeit if they broke (usually stuff like: kiss the ground, say the ABCs while standing on your head, drink pond water).

[daisychainsandbowties]

Palmer station AU

Ava: Lilith, Paprika is on the loose! Again!

Lilith: I told you she would get through the deadbolt.

Ava: Less proud papa, more helping, please. I have somewhere to be later.

Lilith: Beatrice knows no human engineering can cage Paprika…

Camila: Hey guys, look who I found in the galley eating all the shrimp!

Lilith: You’ll spoil your dinner, Pap.

lilith is such a (not-so-secret) softie about her little scientific aquarium. she leaves nightlights on for some of the tanks and on one occasion slaps ava’s phone right out of her hand because ‘the nautilus likes it dark!’

ava’s phone screen cracks and she whines about it all summer, ‘dude, i keep getting glass cuts from playing fruit ninja!’

cam: ava that game is so outdated

so yeah lilith is the cephalopod-mom of all time. she’s basically this video & keeps finding her pet octopus in the drawer of her desk and then (thinking herself alone) saying in a horrendous baby-talk voice ‘oooo who has the most task-oriented muscular hydrostats? who is my best bilaterally symmetrical boy? oh yes that is the exact pigment of my skin… but who are you hiding from?’

5 seconds later: ‘oh, hello beatrice. i, ah, didn’t see you there.’

bea, trying to stay professional: ‘it looks like paprika did though.’ she notices lil turning red and walks over to let pap stick out one of his little arms to wrap it around her fingers, chancing a glance at lilith before launching into a similar spiel of, ‘who’s the best boy papi?’ making little cooing noises at him until she feels lilith relax and lean her shoulder into beatrice’s.

‘thanks’

‘what for?’

‘you know.’

[gible-love-nibles-archive]

First Meeting

I don't have a good name for this, I just wrote this all out this morning. I'm still working on the E.ternal D.iva fic (which is up to. 16k words now 💀), but it should be hopefully done soon. I do intend to completely finish it.

But either way, let's jump ahead in time to right at the start of A.zran L.egacy! So for context: I got, very flustered upon seeing S.ycamore's face right at the start of the game, so this is me just. Expanding that idea if I were There In The L.ayton W.orld. Don't take this too seriously: I just wanted a little breather from my now-30 page story, but still wanted to write D.esmond.

Word Count: 481

Taglist: @crickiss @caracello @wutheredhearts @halsdaisy @sosawl @fictional-bear-friend @jocelynships @imaginemyshipswithme [If you want to be added or removed, click here!]

Professor Sycamore had his back turned to us when we entered the cave, but he looked back upon hearing our footsteps. He had a hard, suspicious look on his face before he realized who we were and relaxed a bit.

“Professor Layton!”

Oh. Oh god, his voice was pretty. And he was even prettier in person than in his picture. While Layton and Sycamore greeted each other, I was busy trying to make sure my heart didn't hammer out of my chest and not focus on his pretty brown eyes or how his curled hair perfectly framed his face or—

Emmy didn't fail to notice my flustered reaction and bumped me with her elbow. “You really do like him,” she teased.

“Please, not in front in him…” I quietly pleaded.

It was just my luck that Sycamore seemed to catch wind of our conversation. When he looked at me, his expression brightened and the polite smile he had on with Layton seemed to reach his eyes now.

“Is that Miss Clare? I'd no idea you would be joining us!” He said enthusiastically, grabbing both my hands with his own.

Something like an electric shock went through my whole body when he did that. His hands felt so… warm. I was screaming at myself to focus on answering him, and I fumbled my words a bit.

“Wh— Do you— Am— Am I famous, Professor Sycamore?”

“Famous in my research expertise, yes! You've seen the Golden Garden of Misthallery, the Nautilus Vault of Akbadain… You even helped raise the lost city of Ambrosia! You're a walking legend!”

Oh, he sounded so cute when he was excited, my heart couldn't take it! No, focus. For everyone's sake.

“W-Well, please don't treat me like a legend, P-Professor Sycamore. I'm here to help, as everyone else is. A-And… no need to be so formal with me; you can just call me Clare.”

“Hm! Of course. In that case, you can refer to me as Desmond if you wish.”

“A-Alright, Profe— Desmond. I really look forward to working with you.”

Desmond's smile became softer, and he brought our hands higher up. He closed his eyes, and left a gentle feather-light kiss on my hands. “No Clare… the pleasure is all mine.” He said as he let go.

I felt two seconds away from a heart attack, I was so startled. Everyone else looked a bit shocked too, and Desmond seemed to realize his "mistake". He quickly pivoted conversation to what he had found in the ice cave, but I wasn't really listening. I had to walk away for a bit and yell into my sleeve.

“I think Desmond has a crush on you~” Emmy said later when we had a moment to breathe.

“Shut up…” was all I could weakly say to protest.

“Do you think he's thinking about what your hands felt like in his?”

“stOP—“

[goobtacular]

What's your favourite person from history whom most people don't know the name of?

Aw fuck that's not easy to answer. Actually this is quite easy to answer if we increase the weight of the condition "most people" someone like Marie Curie or Earnest Rutherford would work. But I won't cheese your question instead I will tell you about Hyman G Rickover the man who was perhaps the biggest fan of nuclear submarines the world will ever see.

Brosky was working with people to make a nuclear reactor for big ships, I think destroyers I don't know my ship types, really big ships. Anyways he's looking at this tech and he thinks "man imagine if we put a reactor in a submarine that'd be pretty cool" so he tells his boss and his boss is like "look at this idiot, fuck this guy" and get Hyman reassigned to like a shit post or something just not great. Naturally Hyman does this like a bunch more times and truly nobody gives a shit, everyone thinks it's a dumb idea that'd never work.

Now at this he's been at this for a good deal of time, but he finally gets a boss man who's receptive to his idea and sends it up the chain. Bam! Suddenly Hyman off to the races. He works up a plan, some schematics, ect.. you get it, gets his ducks in row and sends his plan off to the nuclear regulatory commission. Now if you don't know who they are, they had absolute authority on everything nuclear, actually don't know if they're still around. Anyway if they didn't like your idea, your reactor, your nuclear plane, your bomb, whatever it was they don't like it you don't do it.

Naturally they looked at Hymans plans and said this is a terrible idea, look at this fuckin idiot. So he sends a different, if similar plan, and gets rejected again. He does this so persistently they start rejecting his proposals as soon as they realize his names on it. (This would be a cool story if he just lied about who he was but honestly what he did instead was approximately 9000x cooler)

Like two years after he starts working on his nuclear sub idea, called the Nautilus, he gets himself appointed as a director in the nuclear regulatory commission. I'm not 100% certain as to how high that is, whether he was big man in charge or part of council. Realistically probably the later. Regardless, this baller ass man is now the person who gets to decide if a reactor is made.

So he submits his proposal again, and wouldn't you know he approved it as well. Undoubtedly a terrible conflict of interest and indicative of some rather terrible hiring practices, but good for nuclear submarines and actually like everyone on earth. Dude bro made this reactor, with a team, that was like super tiny and when it exploded was pretty tame all things considered. Plus it was a water steam reactor, meaning to resupply you just more fuel rods and more water, the first of its kind. There are more effective reactors, there are more efficient reactors. Most reactors produce plutonium as a waste product, and some funky peeps, I believe in Japan, created plutonium reactors that used waste plutonium for nuclear fission.

But that plutonium reactor, when it was created in France, exploded, admittedly due to user error, and was nearly catastrophic. Haymans reactor on the other did explode, in the U.S and nobody gave a shit. I believe there were three casualties, one dead, because he got hit by the door of the reactor. Quite literally the safest reactor ever invented. Every reactor in operation currently is based on Hayman's design.

Hayman was legendarily concerned with nuclear safety. For all that his motives in getting the position, while the/a director for the nuclear regulatory commission, there were 0 reactor explosions in the entire U.S navy. Let me repeat that 0. He earned a shit ton of medals too, cause he was really good at his job.

He revolutionized, with help, nuclear energy and saved countless lives from the potential risk of more dangerous reactors. Admittedly did so by creating weapons of war, which also killed people

He died in disgrace after a scandal, which, I believe, he was not culpable for, and accepting bribes which he was culpable for

[kazoosandfannypacks]

"Open to Interpretation" by kazoosandfannypacks

Chapter 13/16: Rain on Your Parade Pairing: CaptainSwan Rating: General Word Count: (1.8K/24K) Summary: Emma Swan is appalled at works by modern artist Killian Jones- until a handsome stranger convinces her otherwise- and after introducing himself as the artist in question, he invites her out on a date. As their relationship develops, they find that they might not be as different from each other as originally thought. Chapter Summary: Killian introduces Emma to many of his relatives and family friends. They later share a quiet moment together, which is awkwardly interrupted. Tags: au, fluff, captain swan, modern au Author's notes: for my next trick, I will cram the most random assortment of ouat cameos imaginable into this chapter /hj Taglist: @zahara @kmomof4 @jonesfandomfanatic @booksteaandtoomuchtv @jrob64 @tiganasummertree @anmylica @teamhook @undercaffinatednightmare @gingerchangeling @lonelyspectator @caught-in-the-filter @ultraluckycatnd @cs-rylie @pirateprincessofpizza @lfh1226-linda @pawshapedheart [if you'd like to be added to or removed from this list, hmu in my dms or askbox!]

Also on Ao3!

 Emma'd slept better that night than she usually did in new places, and when she made her way to the kitchen that morning, she was greeted by a kiss on the cheek and a "good morning, love" from Killian, as well as a pancake breakfast with him and his family. Afterwards they dove into last minute party preparations like decorations and getting the food ready, with his parents insisting Emma was a guest and didn't need to help, and Emma insisting that it was no big deal and she wasn't about to sit around and do nothing, and Brennan mumbling something about how if that's the case then opposites very clearly attract, as Killian had made a living off of doing just that.

 Once the rest of the guests started to trickle in, Emma then began to mingle with them, Killian introducing her to many of his relatives, former teachers, and family friends. A lot of them seemed somewhat insufferable in their own way, but there were a few kinder people among them. Most of these ones, Emma made it her goal to remember- she'd always been pretty good with names and faces, so it wasn't too hard.

 One of the first guests in attendance was "Granny" Lucas, a kindly widow who lived down the street. She apparently treated the neighborhood kids like her own grandkids, Killian mentioning how she'd let the kids play in her yard with trees to climb and dogs to run around with whenever they wanted. He mentioned as well how she'd bake them cookies and knit them scarves and blankets. To this day, from what Emma heard, Granny's backyard was the center of town for the neighborhood kids.

 They spent quite a while talking with Uncle Nemo, who gave Killian more than his fair share of teasing about the "lovely young lady friend" he'd brought with him that day, and though he seemed a bit embarrassed by his remarks, Killian still looked fondly upon his uncle. They talked for a bit about Uncle Nemo's contracting company, Nautilus Home Improvements, and how excited Liam was to soon begin his apprenticeship there. Nemo also seemed very proud of Killian's art career, saying he'd be certain to head down to the Nolan Blanchard to see his art himself at some point.

 Killian introduced Emma as well to his step-aunts, Ruel, Bell, and Astrid. Aunt Astrid brought a somewhat familiar face with her, her boyfriend Leroy. Emma quickly recognized him as the lead from the jazz band that'd played at the museum's benefit dinner, and realized that it was the family connection that had landed him that gig.

 Perhaps the most memorable person Emma met was Killian's cousin, Rogers. Killian had told Emma in advance that people always said they looked alike, though Rogers was a few older and neither of the two could see the resemblance. However, when Emma met him, she marveled at the powers that be, and how they'd been gracious enough to grant such perfect looks to two fortunate people. Rogers did look a little bit older than Killian, though he attributed the gray streaks in his hair to the stress of being a single parent, but aside from that, they looked so similar it was almost uncanny. Emma was secretly a little glad when he left early to take his daughter to dance class, because his mere presence was, admittedly, a little confusing. Even afterward, Emma almost felt it easier to pretend he was just a weird dream that never happened, as it made things a lot less confusing for herself and everyone involved.

 Sometime later, Liam introduced them both to a friend of his, a sweet young lady named Paige. Based on the side-glances and smiles Killian was giving Liam as they talked, Emma could tell that she was more than just a "friend" of Liam's- and if not, he was clearly hoping it'd head in that direction. She seemed impressed to meet a semi-famous artist, and when she mentioned having a great appreciation for the arts, Killian offered to give a personal tour of the museum should she ever come down that way, then not-so-subtly hinted that Liam was heading in that direction sometime soon and they might even consider going together. This, of course, was met by blushing and stuttering on both of the teens' parts, but neither of them seemed entirely upset by this suggestion.

 "I don't see why you said this weekend would be unbearable," Emma whispered to Killian when they'd found themselves alone in the kitchen, savoring a moment together before joining the rest of the guests back outside, "it's not so bad so far."

 "That's because you're here, Swan," Killian replied, "how could I be miserable with you by my side?"

 Emma could feel her cheeks turn red and looked down at her shoes, wondering how Killian always knew exactly what to say to fluster her so much.

 "Besides," Killian said, leaning against a kitchen counter, "my father is less critical of me when there's others around. Can't have anyone see how disappointed he is in me, now, can he?" "I'm sure he's not disappointed in you," Emma said, despite having heard quite a few statements otherwise from him in the brief time they'd spent together that morning, "and Liam and your step mom seem alright." "They're great people," Killian whispered, "but I never really knew them as family. I'm just beginning to connect with Liam, and you probably know my step mom about as well as I do by now."

 "Then maybe get to know them," Emma suggested.

 "It's harder than you'd think, love," Killian said, "the only thing we really share in common is my dad, and some days I wish we didn't."

 Emma rubbed his shoulder to comfort him.

 "Somedays I almost wonder if it'd be easier if I didn't have a family at all," he said.

 "It's not," Emma replied, so quickly she hadn't realized she was saying it until she'd already said it.

 "Great going, Emma," she thought, "what a way to comfort him- reminding him his life is so much better than yours and that he should just suck it up and deal with it? Is that what I just did? Maybe he won't notice."

 But the look on his face made it evident that he knew her response was borne of personal experience.

 "I'm so sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to…"

 She was interrupted by his arms wrapping around her, cradling her in an unexpected hug.

 "Here I am, complaining about my family," he whispered, "and you don't even have- gosh, Swan. I'm so sorry."

 "It's alright," Emma said, shifting in his arms so she could return his embrace, "just because your pain is different from mine doesn't mean it doesn't still suck."

 They looked up at each other, each reading something in each other's eyes, something that transcended words.

 "Apology accepted, love," Killian said.

 Emma smiled, so lost in him she forgot where she was- and so did he. They started to lean closer to each other, already holding each other tightly and trying very hard to remember why their lips weren't already back together– though they were already moving in that direction.

 They were soon reminded why, however, by Killian's dad's voice.

 "Killian James Jones!" Brennan said, in a tone equal parts shocked, appalled, and disappointed.

 Killian and Emma quickly snapped back to reality, letting go of each other and stepping a few feet away from each other.

 "Oh, uh," Killian said, "uh, hey, dad? Can I, uh, help you?"

 "I was going to let you know we're about to cut the cake and raise a toast," his dad said, condescension building in his voice, "but I can see you've still found some excuse to let your little brother down and bail on him yet again. Had I known bringing your friend along would be so much of a distraction, I never would've invited her."

 "I'm sorry," Emma said, her cheeks red for a different reason than usual, "I was, uh, upset about a family thing, and Killian was comforting me."

 "And do you still need to be 'comforted?'" he asked, "or is my son free to rejoin with the rest of his family?"

 "I'm good now," Emma said, needing comfort now more than ever, ashamed at embarrassing Killian in front of his father.

 "Then feel free to join us, but remember," Brennan said, "Killian can do just fine at disappointing us on his own; he doesn't need some pretty blonde distraction to help him out with that."

 "Yes, sir," Emma nodded, wanting to melt into her shoes and disappear.

 "I would appreciate if you'd show Emma a little more respect than that," Killian said, interrupting her shame to defend her.

 Emma and Brennan both looked at Killian, a little confused, though Brennan's confusion was tinted with disdain, and Emma's was tinted with awe.

 "What was that?" Brennan asked.

 "I don't mind that you don't respect me," Killian said, "I've gotten over the fact that no matter what I do, I'm always just the family disappointment. I'm okay with that. But I'd at least expect you to treat Emma with a little more dignity than that, seeing as it's not a high standard anyways. You can treat me like dirt all you want, but I draw the line at you treating Emma like that."

 The awe on Emma's face didn't fade as she watched him defend her. He'd been shrinking back in front of his father so much that to see Killian stand up to him for her was impressive, remarkable- and attractive.

 But the disdain on his dad's face didn't fade either.

 "And I'll draw the line at you disrespecting me," Brennan said, "I thought I raised you to respect your parents, and not to be so rude to your host."

 "I'd hardly say you raised me at all," Killian said, "seeing as I was raised to care about others."

 Before the argument could get any more heated, Fiona walked in.

 "Oh, there you guys are," she smiled, unaware of what had just been going on, "everyone's waiting outside."

 "It'd be rude to keep them waiting," Brennan said.

 As they followed his parents outside, Killian and Emma walked next to each other, though not quite close enough to be touching, not even on accident.

 "I'm sorry," Killian whispered.

 "Sorry?" Emma asked, "I was about to thank you for defending me."

 "I wouldn't've needed to defend you if I hadn't brought you here in the first place," Killian said, "I'm so sorry."

 "It's okay, babe," Emma said, "and I do appreciate you sticking up for me."

 "All in a day's work, love," he said.

 And despite how things had just gone so sour, Emma couldn't help but think to herself that, if him protecting her like that was all in a day's work, she wanted to spend every day she could by his side.