#or just nigel in general really

[afrsconp]

What does this mean 😭 is it a tease 😭 will Nigel be in another episode soon 😭

Also look at his fucking FACE, you guys. JUST LOOK AT IT. That is not the face of a man who is 100% ok with just being friends.

[cbsghostsmetasandtrevor]

Finally got a chance to see the season 4 premiere AND IT WAS AWESOME.

Patience is bat shit crazy and I love her.

Issac as an "investor" with a say in anything is annoying.

It was nice to see Crash, if only for a brief moment.

Why IS Nigel still in the house?

Pete rubbing it in about his power is going to get old.

No Carol. Yeah.

I thought so too! It was SO GOOD. And I am so glad I go into things without being spoiled because I know they tend to spoil the best stuff.

Patience is insane but it's kind of nice? Like we need a ghost that wants to just F things up!! <3

Isaac as the investor will continue to piss me off so much. Like WTF it's just a reminder that she gave a ghost money. I kind of wanted him to Patience's captive for a little longer.

I was SO shocked be the random Cash-body cameo. Wasn't expecting it, but loved it! Especially with "At least I know he can't sneeze". Lmao.

RIGHT? Jay was right - Nigel should leave, instead he's camped out in their other den???

Oh yeah, I imagine thought that Pete's just excited. I feel like the others probably did the same when they discovered their powers at first and his power is the coolest. But hopefully they let that go.

I'm surprised Carol wasn't seen in line with the other ghosts in the chain. But she's probably on her honeymoon.

Thoughts on Trevor's Plot with Thor (basically)? It really bugs me that they aren't consistent with his power. He can reset up a website, chat with Bela, and generally have no issues in some episodes, and then it takes him like an hour for a button in others? It really drives me nuts.

The other thing that bothered me - jokes about his legs because it relates to his lack of pants.

OTOH, he was the anchor with a GREAT idea and "Suck it, Thor, Pass it on." :)

[fallen-gabrielle]

My contribution for Father's Day.

First being just the general atmosphere between Grandfather and Monty.

Second is showing that despite being happy to be Numbuh Zero's son, Nigel still can't really live to the expectation his father set up.

Last one is extremely inspired by the Presidential AU/Fic with Nigel's evil form Wrath.

[kommandonuovidiavoli]

Sometimes a name is just a name, but what I love about KND is that names aren't just names; they are tied to the person's look, personality, number and more!

Kuki is written with the kanji of "air", reminding of her carefree nature and apparently airhead personality.

Wallabee's name is spelled almost like "wallaby," pressing on his Australian origins. Joey is also Australian. "You don't get more Australian than that," said Warburton, then proceeding to call their father SYDNEY.

Lou is close to the word "loo", a British (and Australian!) word for toilet, tying him to the Toiletnator.

Abigail... literally female from Abraham. I will die on this hill.

Hoagie... yeah.

Then I was searching for something and I found two interesting things: Montgomery was the name of a famous General active for A LOT of Europe missions, and one of the first faces of NATO. I mean... fits!

Wanna know about Benedict?

You sneaky, clever thing, Mr. Warburton.

But maybe... was he trying to also foreshadow something?

Because Nigel... means "black". And we know there is a black figure in his family already. And we know black means something bad or dangerous.

Just a thought.

I love giving names special meanings if I can!

Like Penny: Doe as a surname is really rare, and is usually tied to the John/Jane Doe name given for missing people. Her parents and brother are missing so... yeah. And Penelope is tied to the character of the Odyssey, the wife of Odysseus, who will wait for him for 20 years ignoring the advances of more than one person. Likewise, Penny will wait for a long time for... something... mh... she can't remember what, but she'll wait.

[littlefingies]

So I'm rewatching 2x04 and 2x05 and thinking about Lucius. And I think there's a decent chance that:

The Revenge is his first experience on a pirate ship, and

He and Stede are the only ones in this situation.

The show makes a point of telling us that the other people on the ship either have experience with pirating/violence, or have had a shit time of it so far.

We know Jim's backstory.

Olu doesn't have lots of combat experience, but between his "we have no other choice" speech and "la vida es dolor", he's had a rough go.

Roach sewed his own arm up once.

Wee John demonstrates his weapon with gusto and clearly has pyro experience.

Buttons just straight up tells us.

Pete may be lying (put him down as a maybe) but he's clearly happy to be here.

Frenchie was "in service" and has seen enough of the world to find it pretty blase.

The Swede could potentially be a maybe. We just know nothing about him.

We know that Lucius can read, and we know that he used to pick pockets, but he seems uncomfortable with violence in a way that only Stede shares. (See: "yeah he looks pretty stunned" re: Nigel Badminton)

So why am I thinking about this?

I think it's interesting that Lucius is the only one disturbed by Ed's weird half-apology speech in 2x05. AND I think there's a good chance that the horrors he experienced on the other ships (after getting thrown overboard) were yes, horrors, but also pretty standard for pirate life.

By this point in the show we have Archie, who gives us a window into how most pirates (who have never met Stede) would view the Kraken-era Revenge. And she seems to see it as... fairly normal? She's a bit perturbed by Izzy, and she's pissed at being asked to fight Jim, but she seems to see all the rest as pretty average.

This sets up a really juicy contrast between life under piracy in general vs. life under Stede piracy.

Lucius is the only character to experience pirate life when his *only prior pirate experience* was under Stede. That makes him a modern window into the show - he's like "wow this is fucking terrible", as we would no doubt agree if we were thrust into that situation.

Anyways, something about perspective, something about Lucius thinking his experiences have been uniquely violent when they probably haven't (not that they weren't awful), something about Blackbeard being a pirate but not a uniquely violent one, something about Izzy saying possibly his first true thing all show (yeah I lost a leg, I'm a fucking pirate, this happens all the time), something about how if Lucius told Archie about what he went through, she'd say "oh so you were... on a pirate ship? Yeah, piracy sucks, but so does everything else".

Something about how if any other crew members had that experience *before* meeting stede I think they'd find it pretty normal as well. Because the point of piracy in the show is that it's not a fun adventure, it's actually violent and awful and the people you care about are always at risk. (It's also one of the few ways to survive when there's not a place for you in a colonized world, I think? But I'm not the right person to write about that and others have said it better.)

[ifuckinglovedinosaurssomuchjesus]

On the subject of Dinosaur Documentaries...

So Life On Our Planet dropped a few days ago, another installment of this seeming boom of these kind of shows since Prehistoric Planet last year, and it got me thinking about this whole little niche genre.

The very first "Paleodoc" was released in 1922, made by the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to educate museum goers on how the fossils they saw were collected and prepared. This began the format I like to call the "Talking Heads" Paleodoc which is mainly in the form of interviews or narration over actual footage of Paleontologists at work with the occasional "Live" Dinosaur for visual aid. These are by far the most common form of dinosaur documentary you'll find, even today, mainly because they're cheap to produce and fit in the general style of most science documentaries.

For many decades throughout the 20th century, Paleodocs were pretty rare. They would pop up time to time, and with the sudden influx of attention they got after Jurassic Park, we got some really good ones. Yet they were all the same Talking Head types. What really changed the game was the good ol Magnum Opus of the field: Walking With Dinosaurs.

WWD pioneered the second type of Paleodoc I believe to exist, which are the "In Their World" Paleodocs. These are different in the fact they focus almost entirely on the live visual aids, with the human presence being limited to narration or brief pauses for context. They're meant to simulate the modern nature documentary, like Planet Earth, that focus more on showcasing animal behavior with state of the art filming techniques than being a source of in-depth science.

The success of WWD cannot be overstated, and I have to say I do find the In Their World format a lot more engaging and easier to connect with. They portray the wonder of prehistory spectacularly, letting audiences get emotionally connected in the animal characters the story creates, even if this has lead to criticisms of anthropomorphism. These programs also almost always use real footage of modern day earth for their prehistoric creatures to roam on, which I'm sure is very sad for the people who want to see their favorite dead plants on screen.

The Walking With... series would expand into sequels and spin-offs and Nigel Marven, and other companies like Discovery would jump on the bandwagon and release their own takes on the concept, but by the mid 2010s the format had basically died out. We'd get one or In Their World style doc every few years until we just didn't get anything. Outside of the occasional TV special that reused When Dinosaurs Roamed America footage, it was empty.

It took until Disney's Live Action remake of The Lion King of all things for that pendulum to start swinging again. Seeing those expressionless CGI cats got Jon Favreau thinking about how he could use this technology and the talented people behind it to make something really cool, and we got Prehistoric Planet.

And, in a repeat of Walking With Dinosaurs, we're seeing more of these In Their World type shows. The original guys behind WWD are even making a comeback with their own series, Surviving Earth. Plus even more little hints and rumors of massive incoming projects from overexcited paleontologists trying not to break their embargo.

It looks like the 2020s will be another resurgence in these types of spectacle Paleodocs, and while a good ol Talking Head will always be there, I can't help but get excited for these animated spectacles and all the weird and wonderful ways they flash those visual aids across our TV screens.

[islandtarochips]

Call of Duty OC: Tiala “Malie” Toa🦈

Commission Art done by @temeyes 🔼

A young female First Sergeant, who joined the U.S. Marines Corps to honor her older brother’s name. Who sadly passed away from one of the toughest missions. Working long and hard to save civilians from being captive by terrorists or any dangerous enemies. She’s the woman who would get the job done.

UNIVERSE: Modern Warfare 2/Modern Warfare 3

General:

🦈 Name: Tiala Toa 🦈 Alias(es): 

Tiala

Tia

Ala (her family and closed friends called her that)

Toa

Malie

Lie (lee-eh)

Shark

First Sergeant/Sergeant Toa

First Sergeant/Sergeant Malie

First Sergeant/Sergeant T (Only her team or closed friends are allowed to call her that)

Sharky (Only close friends can call her that)

Alpha 5-0

🦈 Gender: Female 🦈 Age: 24 (MW2), 25 (MW3) 🦈 Birthday: November 19th, 1997 🦈 Nationality: United State National (American Samoa) 🦈 Place of Birth: American Samoa 🦈 Home: Kahaluu, Hawaii (Moved there to where the base are at) 🦈 Spoken Languages: English, Samoan (Native), Spanish (Learning) 🦈 Sexuality: Heterosexual 🦈 Occupation:

First Sergeant of the Marine Corps

Second-in-Command of the Warriors Task Force

Sniper

Appearance:

🦈 Eye Color: Dark Brown 🦈 Hair Color: Black 🦈 Height: 5’7”/170 cm 🦈 Scars: 

Wounds: Bullet wounds on her right shoulder where her burnt scar was at (caused by Callie Graves), even on her left hip (caused by one of the Shadow Company members)

Scars: Full burnt scar on her right arm where her tattoos were at (caused by the enemies who she got kidnapped), some small scars on her left arm (suicidal while being kidnapped)

🦈 Face Claim: Auli'i Cravalho

Favorites:

🦈 Color: Ocean Blue 🦈 Food: Samoan Oka and Hawaiian Poke 🦈 Drink: Water 🦈 Flower: Red Hibiscus 🦈 Hairstyle: Braided (during work time) and either putting her up in a bun or hair down (out of work)

Affiliation:

Warriors Task Force:

- General Alana Kalani

- Captain Kanoa Toa

- Sergeant Agnes “Blast” Falagi

- Dr. Aelan Kalani

- Sergeant Nigel “Squirrel” Harrison

- Tama Nikau

- Special Officer Emma Tabua

Specters/Team Charlie: ( @deeptrashwitch )

- Captain Alicia “Origin” Marchant

- Lieutenant Luke “Harlem” Michaelis

- Sergeant Jackson “Doc” Blackwell

- Sergeant Edward “Eager” Jackson

- Corporal Noah “Cobalto” Garcia

Mexican Special Forces/Los Vaqueros:

- Colonel Alejandro Vargas

- Sergeant Major Rodolfo Parra

- Special Officer Alyssa Martinez ( @alypink )

Task Force 141:

- Captain John Price

- Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley

- Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish

- Sergeant Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

- Charlotte “Jade” Le Jardin ( @sleepyconfusedpotato )

- Sergeant Major Hannah “Sparrow” Clayton ( @revnah1406 )

- Sergeant Annabelle “Kit” Pham ( @applbottmjeens and later joined in the Shadow Company)

Para Special Forces: ( @welldonekhushi )

- Captain Arjun

- Sergeant Aditya Tripathi

- Staff Sergeant Yuvraj Chaudhary

Shadow Company:

- Annabelle “Kit” Pham ( @applbottmjeens )

Second Commando Regiment: ( @kaitaiga )

- Captain Lachlan Jones

- Sergeant Damien Whitlock

CIA:

- Station Chief Kate Laswell

Personality:

🦈 Myers Briggs Type: ISTJ If you want the job done right away. Tiala is there to finish it. Whatever task that you have she’ll do it even if it’s small. She just wants to assist to make things easier for her friends and comrades (if you're trustful enough for her).

🦈 Strict but Caring: Just like her father, who used to be in the military, she is very strict when it comes to training. Making sure that the recruits are not just lacking or sitting around. She made sure they DO things. But she is very caring for her comrades. You can say it's called "Tough Love" (learned that from her parents).

🦈 Judgmental: Tiala had a habit of judging people at first glance. Of course, she doesn’t show it when meeting someone during work hours. But OUT of work? She’ll just give you that look. The look that says it all.

🦈 Stubborn: Tiala is usually a stubborn gal. She doesn’t usually ask for help. It was really concerning for others to see her working by herself very hard without any assistance. But if you’re a close friend with her. She’ll reconsider.

🦈 Reluctant: There are times that Tiala will hesitate when it comes to deal with people who has families. Should understand she has her OWN family back at home. So that will hold her back at times. 

🦈 Bad Driving Skills: She doesn’t have a very BAD driving skills. She can drive nicely! BUT. When it comes to the situation that someone is rushing her or annoys her WHILE driving. She’ll just swerve the car a bit. As long as you let her focus on driving then everything will be alright. Just be silenced and enjoy the ride😊 (And she had a driver’s license)

Skills and Abilities:

🦈 Fighting Style: Hand-to-Hand Combat, Martial Arts and Boxing

🦈 Weapons: Mk 13 rifle, M4A1 and Benelli M4

🦈 Distinct Weapon: Gerber Gear Knife and Glock G43X

🦈 Special Skills:

Sharpshooter: A very skillful sniper who can take down any targets. From near and far.

Swimming: I know most people can swim but for Tiala. She can swim and goes down under water for over 20 minutes. How deep? About 50ft down.

Planning: She always has great plans to succeed in their missions. Even have a backup plan in case. If you need someone to plan ahead for any special occasions. Tiala is the woman you need.

Family:

Nakoa Toa (Father, Alive)

Elei Afoa Toa (Mother, Alive)

Hōne Toa (1st Eldest Brother, Deceased)

Sami Toa (2nd Eldest Brother, Alive)

Serah Johnson Toa (Sister-in-Law, Sami’s Wife, Alive)

Penny Toa (Niece, Sami’s eldest daughter, Alive)

Dinah Toa (Niece, Sami’s baby daughter, Alive)

Rangi Toa (3rd Eldest Brother, Alive)

Kanoa Toa (4th Eldest Brother, Alive)

Hemi Toa (5th Youngest Brother, Alive)

Iosefa Toa (4th Youngest Brother, Alive)

Tamah Toa (3rd Youngest Brother, Alive)

Fetu Fetuao Toa (2nd Youngest Brother, Alive)

Iona and Kiona Toa (Youngest Brother, Twins, Alive)

Pets:

Fin (Tiala’s Kitten, Alive)

Teine (Kanoa’s dog, Alive)

Unnamed Dog (Sami’s Dog, Alive)

Unnamed Puppy (Tamah’s Puppy, Alive)

Maliu (Tiala’s Cat, Alive)

Trivia:

🦈 Tiala’s last name, Toa. Means ‘Warriors’ in Samoan. So you could see that these families REALLY represented their names. By joining the military. 🦈 Love Sharks and the oceans. She secretly has a shark plushie back at home (Kanoa got that for her). 🦈 HATES the cold. It always makes her nose runny and needs a lair of coats and scarfs to keep her warm. 🦈 Heat doesn’t bother her. Even wearing long sleeves and putting her hair down under the heated weather. She lives in a "Tropical Island". What do you expect?

Background Story: (WARNING: Might mention about Sexual Abuse and Kidnapping)

In American Samoa on November 19th, 1997. Tiala was born. And she was the youngest one in the family.

After two years of Tiala being born, her older brother (Hōne) had left to the Marine but he would always come back home to spend time with his family.

When Tiala turned 16-years-old, it was her birthday. She had received very sad news from Kanoa. Kanoa came back from the Marines to tell them the news that Hōne had sadly passed away from the mission that he was sent to. Which really upset Tiala. She could feel her heart was crying out for her dearly older brother. For he had promised that he’ll come back home on her special day. So she hadn’t celebrated her birthday much since then.

During her Sophomore Year in High School, she was still 16. Tiala had a crush on a boy who was part of the football team. And she was trying to ask him out before their Christmas break. And to her excitement, he accepted. She had thought that she had found love in her life. But little did she know that her happy love life would turn out dark.

After the summer break, Tiala is a Junior in High School. Her boyfriend has been acting pretty touchy lately. NOT in a good way though. More like touching the part that she doesn’t want him to touch. Which made him upset. And she doesn’t want him to be upset. So she let him have his fun.

Until the year of her being a Senior, her boyfriend had been getting a bit more possessive than being lovely. And it worried her that she needed to talk with her family. But that’s when he pulls the threats on her if she EVER tells anyone about this. She hesitated and didn’t tell anyone. Except that her little brother, named Hemi, saw what her boyfriend was doing in the back of the school. Hemi was being sent by their parents to check on Tiala that they’re there to pick her up. He was going to tell their parents but Tiala begged him not to. So he just gave in and didn’t tell their parents.

And on the night of the Senior Prom. The school let the Senior students bring some of their family members to join in this special occasion. So Tiala happily invited her parents and some of her brothers. Which is only Rangi, Kanoa and Hemi. The night was going so well until Tiala���s boyfriend wanted to take her away from the party so they could have their “FUN” which she doesn’t want to. And that’s when he started to get very pushy at it. Which caught Hemi’s attention to see his older sister being pulled away. So calling the two older brothers. Kanoa and Rangi quickly came in and took Tiala back before warning the boyfriend to stay away. Soon the whole crowd’s attention was on them as the boyfriend was getting pissed off. Starting to yell at Tiala and blaming her for being such a boring kind of partner. And that’s when he confessed that he cheated on her with another girl. Which fueled Kanoa’s anger but instead of HIM beating the boyfriend up. Everyone was surprised to see Hemi ran in and tackled him down. Beating him up instead. One of the teachers pulled the two boys away and ended the party.

(Everyone was alright. Just Hemi’s knuckles were being bruised up and he was 11-years-old! Can you believe that?)

After graduation, Tiala had started to plan on joining the Marine Corps with her two brothers. To honor for Hōne. So they started packing and the two older boys took her to Hawaii. Where the camping of the Marine soldiers will be at. She had worked long and hard to finish her test and training. Which was worth it for she had passed all of it. And the two older brothers were very proud. She was 17-years-old when she joined.

So Tiala had taken the position as Staff Sergeant after serving for 4 years and she had made quite a few friends. But her two main friends who she had met are Staff Sergeant Ela Anand and Master Sergeant Herman Black. The two had always made her feel so welcoming ever since she joined in. And the three had been picked by an unnamed Colonel who needed soldiers to help assist to stop the human trafficking. And he did warn them about how dangerous this could be. The three friends were excited for this mission but Tiala’s older brother, Rangi, disapproved of this. He had his concerns for her as this was her FIRST mission and were afraid that something bad might happen. Kanoa had reassured Rangi that she’ll be fine. He will go with her to keep her safe. Tiala agreed with this term even the Colonel agreed as well.

They have traveled to Baja California. The borderline of part Mexico. The team had gotten an intel about Human Trafficking in that area. They have believed that the Drug Cartel is making deals with the other Trafficker who was doing Human Trafficking. So they have to act fast to stop them. The Colonel had already made orders to separate two different teams. Which Tiala is going with Ela and Herman and the others. But Kanoa cannot go as he is going with the Colonel and the other teams. Tiala had reassured her older brother that she’ll be fine since she’s going with her two friends. The two different teams had already split up as they went to look for the Cartel. But Tiala and her team have been ambushed and kidnapped by them. This was in May 2017.

3 months later. Tiala and her two friends are the only ones who are still alive. They don’t know what these cartel people do to their other team members but they have to stay strong and hope that the other marines will come to their rescue. But after a few weeks, Tiala had seen Herman had been dragged out of his cell first and was being pushed by the men. She doesn’t know what they’ll do to him. But her question has been answered by the sound of guns shooting and some people screaming. Her eyes widened at this and felt Ela hugging her and trying to comfort her. They need to get out of here and FAST.

At the very last week of the month, Ela had already had a plan to escape. And Tiala agreed to go through it. The two had already escaped from their cell and put down most of the enemies who were blocking them. And all they have to do is to go over the wall. Ela wanted Tiala to go first and was about to boost her up before being shot. Tiala was devastated and shocked as she saw her only friend had died in her own blood. She was taken back and was dealing with her PUNISHMENT. Which you will know of how she got her burnt scar on her tattoos. And already losing her virginity.

2 months later, Tiala was slowly losing her emotions and her insanity as she kept working for those bastards. As they were having their fun. And today was her last day to be living in this cruel world. FINALLY. Before they could even take her, there was a sudden shooting in the area. And even BIG explosions. Who could it be?

It was the Marines. And her brother Kanoa was the one who was leading and had found her. So he took Tiala quickly to the medical area back to the base. October 2017.

Tiala was released from the Marines just to let her rest and hopefully recovered both mentally and physically. She wasn’t the same from then. She didn’t want any of her brothers or her father to come near her. Even though they are her family she couldn’t get the images about those MEN out of her head. Every time they come near. She’ll scream or flinched when they are present. Which really hurts their hearts.

It’s been 2 months that Tiala has to recover and still didn’t let any of her brothers or her father come near. Until, Kanoa had an idea. While Tiala was just resting on her bed, looking through the window. She suddenly hears someone singing outside of her room. So curiously, she slowly walked out of her room and into the living room before seeing Kanoa was playing the guitar while singing their favorite church song. Called “A Pei Se Vaitafe” (Like a River). And she slowly walked over to Kanoa as memories flowed through her mind of how Hōne used to sing that song to her. And sat down next to him as she softly sang along with him. Her whole family slowly peeked in to see this and was very touched to see Tiala had finally come out to her family.

Before the Summer starts, in the year of 2018. Tiala had come back all fresh and new. For she wanted to continue to serve for her lost friends and brother. And then she heard that Kanoa was making a Task Force. She was also being asked by the General, named Alana and the one who was helping Kanoa to form a team for his Task Force, if she wanted to join. So she didn’t hesitate to take it and was placed in to be Kanoa’s Second-in-Command. That’s when she met the other two new members of the team. Sergeant Agnes “Blast” Falagi and Dr. Aelan Kalani. The two soldiers who were the one who helped Kanoa to save her. And she had given her thanks and accepted them into their new team.

MOOD BOARD

More of Tiala "Shark" Toa posts

[mordredpendragon]

Cain! Hope I'm not too late for the Arthuriana Ask Game BUT: 📜 📖 🖼️ 😇 😈 Okay, bye!!!!!!

never too late! thank u for the ask!!!

📜- What was your favorite Medieval story you read this year?

PERLESVAUS HANDS DOWN. EVERYONE PLEASEEEE READ PERLESVAUS ITS SO GOOD. it's something i've been eyeing for ages now but i was finally able to read it thanks to nigel bryant's translation! (the one i vastly prefer imo + his translations are just great in general)

admittedly, it's a bit of a hefty read because it's loaded and filled to the brim with religious undertones and references (similar to vulgate except i think vulgate is easier to parse if you don't have a catholic background considering anonymous monk pretty much explains what so-and-so means to you lol) but it's so worth it. percival is the titular knight in this yes and it follows events that take place after he failed the grail question, so the land is in havoc and basically fucked thanks to his mistakes. there's actually 4 main POV's in it. other than percival, it follows arthur (who goes on his own series of quests) gawain, and then lancelot. i'm in awe of perlesvaus just of the amount of sheer depth and characterization they have for these 4 characters. plus it's got a lot of badass crazy moments. pretty much everything percival does is worthy enough of its own post

like percival fighting the dragon knight, dindrane getting kidnapped and percival literally venturing off to find her captive, beheading him, then PRESENTING it to her.

lancelot going through the beheading game (tbh everything he does in this drives me insane. its also just my favorite lancelot in general imo like more than vulgate lancelot) + gawain finding the sword that beheaded john the baptist. it's also got some crazy horror fuel that i would love to make art of one day just because of how much i want to see it visualized, like lancelot finding that one house full of corpses and the pit. i mean THE PIT.

LIKE ITS MY FAVORITE EVER. i could go on forever but fr just read it its so good. like not just if you love percival, but also if you love gawain arthur and lancelot they're amaaazing in this

📖 - What was your favorite Modern retelling you read this year? (Single book)

technically it's henry newbolt's mordred, a tragedy but it's a play and i already plan to make a post on it. (which was also my contribution to L's long af retellings list so if you like it you're welcome i was the one who showed it to her lmao)

so i'm going to say john steinbeck's acts of king arthur. ITS SO GOOD. can everyone pleae read steinbeck. peak lancelot peak morgan peak yvain.

this is one of the arthurian books that genuinely made me cry i fr felt like a husk at the ending. steinbeck's favorite character is lancelot and it really shows bc of the amount of depth and complexity he writes in his character, and it's got some of my favorite quotes of all time

SERIOUSLY its the best i love it so much. i've been recommending it to everyone ever since

🖼️ What was your favorite Arthurian art piece made by someone else this year? (Any medium)

all of @tboymordred's mordred art sorry i'm gay

especially this one

😇 Who is a character you discovered this year? (Positive, blorbo)

agravaine. i mean i always knew he existed obviously except i found newfound love for him this year. doubtly @queer-ragnelle's influence lol

also he's sick as FUCK in vulgate i think everyone should read agravaine vs druas the cruel genuinely one of my favorite story arcs in vulgate ever

😈 Who is a character you discovered this year? (Negative, beloathed)

geraint idk fuck that guy

aside from him there really isn't a lot of characters i hate. it depends on the depiction and portrayal really. you could make me like someone as heinous as uther if you cook hard enough lol

[kndrules]

Sector V autism headcanons: their experiences with diagnosis and school

Nigel also does not mask and had very obvious autism as a kid, but because of how he acted out in targeted ways, he was labeled a troublemaker instead and diagnosed with ODD. He got less support in school because of this, but he did have some resource classroom time. His parents were the core of his support and advocated for him. Nigel saw a lot of specialists as a kid and that's where his distrust of doctors comes from, as most of them wouldn't take him seriously. His autism does eventually get diagnosed in middle school, but if he had more of a say he probably wouldn't have sought a diagnosis

I know I've said a lot of this before but Allow Me To Infodump

Kuki and Wally are a category of their own because they are the highest support needs of the group (medium support needs). They were both diagnosed really young, and started having serious behavioral problems early too. Wally in particular is demand avoidant, but both struggled with meltdowns. In school, they spent part of their day in a separate setting/ resource classrooms. Their academics lagged well behind their peers. As they grew up, Kuki started to mask more and more but Wally is never able to. Kukis academics improved sooner than Wally's did- Wally was barely able to graduate high school on time. He didn't find strategies that worked for him until halfway through his undergrad years. Both of them are AuDHD

Hoagie and Abby are also similar to each other in that they're both double gifted and didn't have IEPs in school. They both appeared to have it together, so they didn't get any support when they actually needed it. They didn't know how to ask for help. Abby in particular put a lot of pressure on herself to appear perfect.

Abby is a high-masking autistic person who needs a lot of rest and space away from people to recover. She absolutely is never officially diagnosed, but she's self diagnosed. She suffers from burnout frequently, but is good at hiding it.

Hoagie actually has huge deficits in certain academic areas that they don't have a special interest in, but because they excell in other places, teachers assume it's because hoagie is just being unfocused and lazy. They have learned that they can do better in subjects like English and History if they study/write about topics they ARE interested in. But they still struggle tremendously if they have to, for example, read a book for English class that isn't interesting to them.

Hoagie gets diagnosed as an adult. Its like super obvious that they're autistic for their entire life, but their parents are definitely also undiagnosed autistic, so they saw how their kids behaved and thought "yep, seems normal!"

In general, I imagine when they went to school was in the 2000s, which is when I was also in school- special education programs were better than they used to be, but not as good as they can be now. And now, it still hugely varies from school to school. I don't think resources were very good for kids at Gallagher Elementary, since we see the teachers be terrible to their students and belittle kids who struggle academically or behaviorally.

[vampmama]

Caregiver! Nigel (TND of Charlie Countryman) moodboard + headcanons!

These are specific to how I think he’d take care of Adam (Adam 2009) because I love spacedogs! if anyone wants more broad/general ones feel free to request <3

🐕 Caregiving did not come naturally to Nigel at first, but he got the hang of it and started to really enjoy it after a while!

🐕 Nigel spoils his baby. Gifts, dinner, trips out, you name it!

🐕 Enjoys taking Adam stargazing, to the museum, planetarium, park, etc.

🐕 He loves to listen to Adam ramble even when he’s big but hearing his little self talk about his interests so excitedly without any worries of judgement is his favourite thing <3

🐕 So. Many. Petnames. He just can’t help himself! Baby, sweetheart and little one are his favourites in English. He also uses Romanian terms of endearment!

🐕 Prefers the titles dad, mister or dada the most!

🐕 Very physically affectionate! Though he is respectful of Adam’s hesitancy to touch and will constantly check in with him.

🐕 Buys food shaped like different things (eg. dinosaur chicken nuggets) because he thinks they’re funny. Doesn’t anticipate how cute the excitement on Adam’s face would be and forgets how to breathe for a moment when the boy lights up and starts stimming unapologetically as plates of fun shaped food are put in front of him.

🐕 Cosy movie nights, cuddles in bed, relaxed days where he lets his baby play on the floor and sits on the couch to watch are the best kind of days!

🐕 Puts on stupid accents/voices when playing with his little. Gets VERY into play!

🐕 Does his very best to curb his swearing habit when his baby is around…… they end up with a nearly full swear jar anyways.

That’s all for now! I hope these are okay!

My requests are currently open!

[fanfiction-artist-prototype]

Apparently Elon Musk wants to donate the largest political donation ever in UK history to Nigel Farage (apparently it'd work out around £78 million) and quite frankly, I hope someone fucking steals it. I hope it bankrupts twitter - since he legally can't give it to him as a person and would have to do it through the British branch of twitter- even more and that Farage and his slimy twat cronies do a switch-aroo and rob him fucking blind. They've already admitted that they had to have family and friends run for them last minute because they were so under-fucking-prepared in the general election; I so SO hope they continue to be that unprepared about everything.

Farage is an utter disgrace to politics, his party stands for nothing but the opening of a door for white supremacist groups to be normalised - especially since he's had to say before that some of his fellow party members OUTRAGEOUS claims are just 'normal down the pub' opinions when speaking about how a party member believed the UK shouldn't have fought AGAINST Hitler! Like wow, like of course Musk is a twat of epic proportions but he really wants to start putting his grubby little right wing fingers in all the international pies doesn't he? He's not content helping fuck up the country HE lives in, he has to try and fuck everyone else up as well.

[tookishcombeferre]

My ramblings below the cut.

(If the drawing of Tilly, Cordelia, Roland, and Cedric bears resemblance to the cover of The Outsiders Broadway album ... I take no personal responsibility for how many times I've listened to it. It's just so good.)

The concept for this came off of a few different ideas that have bounced like ping pong balls around my head lately.

First was a post floating around about Baileywick and Cedric that has this screen still of Cedric where he's is creeping up behind Baileywick like my toddler does right before they pounce on me to ask for pony rides.

Anyhow, Cedric's posture in that post made me remember that Baileywick was easily about late twenties, early to mid-thirties around the time of The Incident. Meaning, Baileywick is a well established member of that adult generations' "safe adult" group prior to The Incident. (I very much see Baileywick as the person Cedric, Tilly, Roland, and Cordelia went to when their mothers weren't around for comfort. I also see him as the person they went to to hide their mistakes and messes from their fathers.)

Second, I just finished writing a story set after "In Cedric We Trust" and the story opens with Baileywick's perspective. The backstory I set for Baileywick had him and Nigel both really involved in the politics and life of the castle. But, it also put him deeply at the mercy of Roland I and Goodwyn's style of thinking. This leads to my next point.

Finally, I've also been quilting some pieces for "In the Flares of the Sun," and writing a few scenes between Baileywick and Cedric, or ones where they're heavily involved with each other even if neither of them is narrating, and I've found it really interesting to think about how Baileywick breaks down, not only his thoughts and notions about Cedric over time, but also how Baileywick gets time to reflect on these moments that he shared with this past generation.

I wanted Baileywick to have time to think about the things he misses from his being the "go to" person for the four of these, then children, now adults. I wanted him to have time to think about his own role in the mess that ended up happening. (And, it gets *messy.*) I wanted him to have time to think about his biases, his struggles, his career, and his mistakes. But, I also wanted him to be able to find forgiveness and peace, eventually.

Thus, this little doodle popped into my head

That said, I’m not sure how well practiced I am at drawing anymore, but I used to be an IB Art student back with the dinosaurs when I was in high school many, many moons ago.

My gimmick project was basically writing my own original poetry into cartoons/children's book style illustration either through artistic matting or by weaving it into composition. (There was a lot more to it than that, but that was the basics.)

Sadly, I don’t even own a functional scanner anymore. I tried to get zoomed in shots of the individual panels, but they refused to turn out without getting shadows of my phone and fingers in the way of the shots. (Hopefully, everything is still legible without the individual panel shots.)

I truly haven’t tried doing this type of composition in … almost twelve years? But, as this is my “week of throwbacks,” since I will be turning thirty next week. I gave myself some doodle time for pleasure since, as a parent of a toddler, I rarely get time to draw anymore and I (secretly, not so secretly) still love doing it. I rarely draw in black and white, but this was fun. I will definitely do it again.

I did my very best with the characters. Most of the time now, I just draw clothes because I sketch fashion designs for the characters in my novels so I know what they're wearing and how it would move in space when they're doing stuff. And, I hardly ever draw kids. So, that was an adventure for me.

Also, I have always struggled to draw hands. I lost patience towards the end, and since this was meant to be for pleasure, I just sort of gave up on Sofia's hand.

This got long. Anyway. Enjoy the art. Maybe, next year, I'll make another doodle because it will honestly probably take me that long to draw again.

[astrangeraccoon]

On Sam and Gwen convo in ep 18:

Sam definitely dropped the ball here. I'm not blaming him and not saying it was his fault but he messed up and I fear that this will lead to Gwen :

Not talking about it again

Putting herself in danger either to prove she can handle it or to bring back proof of what she was trying to tell Alice and sam

The thing that hurt most here is Sam was genuinely believing her. He is a believer of the supernatural. And despite Gwen hostility at time, he has been showed to have an at leat positive relationship with her and regularly take her side (even over Alice in some argument).

So he was believing her and Gwen really believed she was gonna get the support she needed and was finally opening up to get.

She unfortunately just chose the wrong example. I am not blaming her here. Bonzo is the most monstrous of the "external" we got to meet for now. We know how awful he is because we got multiple time where we see him and we got a description of what he look like and we know it's awful.

But from Sam point of view she s basically saying the equivalent of the bear mascot from haribo (first example that came to mind) is in fact a monstruous murderer. So I get why Sam laughed, I probably would have too in his place. Especially since we know from the casement in ep 10 that bonzo was loved by kids probably Sam generation

Also Sam s best friend is Alice. Alice who has no concept of what's appropriate and where/when to joke. She s the kind who would make a joke like that with a big lead up (esp knowing Sam s obsession with the supernatural and his want to help/protect his friend and uncover mystery) that end in the most surprising /stupid way. ("you absolute asshole" that s def something he s said multiple times to Alice wehn she did weird bad jock)

So yeah I don't blame him for his reaction. He still hurt Gwen so much tho (could have realized she was actually genuinely panicking and stopped the joke or something). Especially since he (accidentally) described nearly exactly what happened (the only difference being the tone of voice and it happening at Nigel/bonzo s house). Especially the BONZO BONZO BONZO that must have triggered soooo much panic in her.

(Gwen reaction and her voice just broke me up)

I just wished he had checked on her at the end but of course we can't have healthy communication in this podcast

Tldr: while Sam s reaction to Gwen mentioning was not good™ it made a lot of sense and was very understandable but I wish he checked on gwen later

[kommandonuovidiavoli]

Something I love about the ‘Nigel’s Birthday’ comic is that it reinforces my idea that the UNO family represents generational trama; how Ben and Monty were both abused by their father, and while Monty brook the cycle and rased Nigel with love and care, Ben kidnapped 5 children, brain washed them, and made them do his bidding while forcing them to call him ‘Father’. And then in your comic he got a hold a Nigel, and the cycle almost continued. But then Nigel got Penny and once again the cycle stopped.

Also just imagining Jeff Benets shifting into Morese LaMarshs as Ben transforms into Father is alone giving me chills.

I'm gonna reveal 2 little facts, about the whole time Nigel had to stay with Father and Penny.

#1: Father REALLY almost had a change of heart.

To make it simple, it's the same thing as when you have a thing always ready to be used: you take it for granted, it's there, you can use it whenever, so maybe you might forget about it because well... it's there. Then, the thing is gone. Forever. You won't be able to use it again. And all of a sudden, you remember how much you actually liked that thing, even if you didn't use it.

The same happened to Father when his brother was gone: he felt a deep pain and sorrow, a void he tried to fill for years suddenly got bigger and nothing he could do would close it. Not even revenge. So, when Nigel was back from the G:KND, he felt like he was the last thing he had left of Monty. The last good thing he had in his life. Even if he KNEW Nigel would never trust him, he wanted to try; try and comfort him, give him a new house and family and try to build something new.

Nigel was having none of it, sometimes running from the Villa to go sleep in his house. And each time, Father would leave breakfast ready for him. It took time and patience, little acts of trust and Nigel slowly started to lower his defences... unfortunately.

All it took was a little, insignificant argument with the Children that made something black come out of Nigel's body.

And Father was back to his old self, seeing a REAL opportunity. He could keep that act going for two more years, until Nigel was 18 and his powers would awake. By that time, he might've won all his trust and convinced him to do as he wanted.

Or... he could just use a machine to turn him two years older.

Guess we know what he chooses. He's never been a patient one.

#2: If Penny never appeared Nigel might've gone evil, too.

What I know about depression, is that at some point, EVERYTHING and ANYTHING will make you snap, at some point.

Even if your friends do not answer a text for any reason. You have no patience for that.

Even just being alone for too long. You don't want that, even if you could easily take a walk.

We saw there is a dark entity trying to convince Nigel to give up and let it consue him. If Penny never appeared, that entity would've won.

And Nigel would've become something maybe worse than Father.

[gravitysaint]

okay okay okay, i’m on my premium bullshit today. take a seat and grab a coffee because this is gonna be a long one

i have a theory for the Magnus Protocol, and I am so not normal about it that I need to rant. Spoilers ahead for literally any part of the show from ep. 1 to ep. 23

Okay so, with this latest case, i think the supernatural shenanigans of Protocol have less to do with the Fears and more to do with self-image and identity

A bunch of cases have been about this—I won’t go on about all of them, just a few that i think either really point towards this or that i think can be seen as decently convincing when looked at another way.

The most obvious ones, to me, are Episodes 2, 16, and 23.

In 2, ‘Making Adjustments,’ the artist is literally reshaping herself to fit with her image of her “ideal self.” She’s pushing the “her” she wants to be out into the real world. It doesn’t escape my notice that Ink5oul is involved—don’t worry, I have words about them later.

In 16, ‘Anti-Social,’ Madam E (another Ink5oul victim/canvas) becomes wrapped up in her online identity and image—comments physically affect them, and when those turn into a stream of hate… well, it breaks her heart.

In 23, ‘A New You,’ I barely feel like I need to explain. The whole case is Alesis pursuing and following through with a means to become her ideal self. She goes through the entire process willingly and with the express intent to become the person she wishes she could be.

As for the ones that will need some more explaining, I’m mainly thinking of 10 and 13.

‘Saturday Night’ reveals everyone’s favourite children’s mascot/government hitman, Mr. Bonzo, and gives some background on him. Mr. Bonzo was a gag character in Nigel’s late night show. Not only did someone in a Bonzo costume do some murdering, but… Bonzo himself took over Nigel’s show and ‘imprisonment’ in the comedy dungeon due to his popularity. Perhaps this sort of thing got to Nigel, and he saw his life—because the show did seem to be his life’s work—being taken over by the mascot, and then saw that same mascot with blood on his hands. Perhaps Nigel made a monster out of Bonzo in his head, and that monster was made manifest… somehow. Or maybe some kid who loved and idolised Bonzo saw the murders and felt like a monster themselves, spiralling until they became Bonzo a la Episode 23, then attached themselves to Nigel because, well… Nigel and Bonzo were always together.

‘Futures’ is a bit simpler, I think. Darrien wanted to be rich again. He saw himself as “one of the elite,” as evidenced by his attitude and the company he kept when his experience started. His desire and ideal of richness lead to him throwing himself into worse and worse situations for more and more money… until, i think, he realised he needed to stop. He realised that his life had just turned into destroying himself for money, and he was ready to stop that… so he stopped seeing himself as “someone doing whatever it takes to get rich” and instead saw himself as “someone destroying themselves.” And the money stopped, just like that.

Now, for Ink5oul and alchemy. Every Magnus Institute case (the ones from their records/research, anyways), has mentioned the terms “subject,” “agent,” and “catalyst.”

These terms are pretty generic, but we pretty much know the Institute was deep in alchemy, and alchemy is, in essence, the art/science of transformations.

Transformations based on self-image and identity, perhaps.

The subject is what changes (Madam E, Daria, Alesis). The catalyst is what starts/actualises/accelerates the change (Ink5oul’s tattoos, Alesis’s “piece”). The agent is what sets things in motion to change in the first place (Ink5oul is the current main example of this).

This is already really long and I’m basically just rambling at this point, so I’ll stop. This could be the most surface-level take or a complete swing and a miss, but I like thinking about things like this, so oh well

[dustinslovehandles]

People I met at the Pre Show for Wembley; a review!

Starting with people I got my picture taken with

Britt Baker: Very polite, though I feel like these events aren't her favourite thing to do, which is understandable. Genuinely surprised by how strong her american accent is in person! Had very soft skin and smelled like vanilla. 7/10

Toni Storm: Pretty lady! Very nice and friendly, despite saying that her shoes were killing her, hah! 8/10

Rick Knox: Seems like a nice enough guy, though we didn't really get to say anything to him so it's hard to say much about him. 6/10

Excalibur: Ahhh, what an absolute sweetheart! Very warm and friendly and shaped like a friend. Wasn't expecting him to be the person who made the biggest impact on me but there you go! Total cutie, 10/10

Mariah May: So sweet! Before I even got up to her she was telling me how much she liked my outfit and was just so nice. Like talking to an old friend from school, such a nice girl. 9/10

Aubrey Edwards: Not gonna lie, always had a bit of a crush on her so I'm very bias. But she was very friendly and sweet and is another person who commented on my outfit so much appreciated! Absolute sweetheart, 9/10.

Hook: Adorable, precious baby child. Kinda looked like an abandonded child but very sweet. I think I broke him when I went for a fist bump at the end because he entered polite mode and said thanks and that it was lovely to meet me, hah! 9/10

The Acclaimed/Billy Gunn: I'm so SO sorry my mother glomped you, Billy. Thank you for not having her kicked out or anything. 7/10, thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Now for people I ran into/saw but didn't get pictures with:

Nigel McGuinness: Had two interactions with him, one where I asked him to move out of my way, and one where he asked me to move out of his way. Things are now perfectly balanced and we can never meet again, 7/10

FTR: Walked past us several times and made my mum go "Oh, hello!" as they walked past and cracked up a nearby security guard. 7/10

RJ City: Has a genuine dorky charm to him, very sweet. Surprisingly big boy up close too! 8/10

Renee Paquette: SO pretty. However pretty you think she is, add some more. 8/10

Amanda Huber: Awesome lady, really loved talking to her. Very clever, very passionate and kind and caring. 10/10

The pre show was generally awesome, really enjoyed it and would definitely go again!