#WR: Nautilus

[lethesbeastie]

Finally got my full ref for Captain Nautilus up on artfight!

[lethesbeastie]

Working on artfight refs and I've trapped myself in a hell of my own making designing Nautilus' tattoos

They're all so pretty But Also. Hand hurt

[lethesbeastie]

8) What hobbies does your OC have? What do they do to unwind?

Wraith's hobbies include drawing with Irving, learning music with Maren, helping Albatross in the garden, and doing petty crimes with or without supervision akfhskfjwkf

As for how they unwind, Wraith is very very cuddly, so they usually just pester Nautilus into carrying them. Alternatively they also like to bask in the sun in the garden, especially when Albatross is working with the plants or Nautilus is basking!

Context for this little comic here

[lethesbeastie]

🌻 GO MY MEADOW

One of my friends has started writing an honest to god royalty/knight au fanfic about Wraith's pirate dads, and I think this may be where I peak in life akfhwjfhwkfhe There's Fanfic!!!! ABOUT MY OCS!!!!!!!!!! I started drawing art for it immediately, and while it's mostly messy doodles right now, I'm having so much fun thinking about it akfhsjfhs

The main characters for the fic are Nautilus, Albatross, Albatross' daughter Amelia, and Wanderer (I love Totally Normal Horse Monster Wanderer <3 you cannot separate her from Nautilus, that is his best friend and also his emotional support shape-shifting monstrosity). Wraith shows up later down the line akfhsjfhs

[wristwatchjournal]

Introducing – Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde Anthracite (Live Pics & Price)

As some of you certainly know, there’s much more to Gerald Genta than his fame as the designer of the Royal Oak. The man also founded his own watch brand, which was acquired by Bvlgari in 2000 and is one of the pillars behind today’s impressive Octo Finissimo collection. Last year, we saw the name “Gerald Genta” printed again on the dial of a 50th-anniversary model. For 2020, Bvlgari continues to revive the name and brings a new, more modern take on the signature double-retrograde display, with the new Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde Anthracite.

Gerald Genta is renowned for his designs, such as the Royal Oak or the Nautilus. But he was also the founder of an eponymous watch brand and produced some of the most striking and boldest haute horlogerie watches of his times – including some grand complication models. Another element that consolidated the fame of his brand was unique displays – the retrograde and bi-retrograde movements. In 1996, Gerald Genta was the first to combine jumping hours and retrograde minutes on a wristwatch. Known as the Arena, the architecture of the watch was inspired by the structure of ancient “arenas”. Most watch enthusiasts might know this model under the Mickey Mouse editions.

An example of an early Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retro (circa 1998) – Photo by Antiquorum

Bvlgari acquired the Gerald Genta brand in 2000 together with its sister company Daniel Roth from The Hour Glass. In 2010, the two companies stopped existing as standalone brands. This also allowed Bvlgari to integrate teams, archives and knowledge under the Bvlgari umbrella, all of which participated in the creation of multiple record-breaking ultra-thin watches… Now, Bvlgari brings Gerald Genta’s heritage back into the spotlight with the launch of new models that bear the Gerald Genta logo and breathe new life into the brand’s distinctive design codes and signature mechanical movements. This started last year with a platinum Arena Bi-Retrograde. This year, the brand welcomes a more modern but also more accessible Anthracite edition.

At first, there can be no doubt regarding the lineage. This new Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde Anthracite is perfectly in line with older GG watches, whether for its design, its boldness and, of course, its unusual yet iconic display. However, Bvlgari has worked on the model to make a more contemporary watch. While last year’s platinum version was relatively subtle and refined, with its monochromatic blue dial, this 2020 edition is sportier and more colourful. A sign of evolution, the case now measures 43mm in diameter with a restrained height of 12mm. It is crafted from grey, brushed titanium. Like its predecessors from the 1990s, it features a smooth, rounded bezel, straight lugs and a coin-edge profile. The crown is partially protected by extended crown guards and the case is WR to 100m.

The main evolution for this 2020 Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde is the dial. The platinum edition played on elegant tones and shapes; this titanium version is far bolder and almost sporty. The dial, divided into clear sectors, combines dark grey (for the background) with yellow (for the hands and tracks). All the indications are framed by brushed metallic rings.

Attractive and unique, the “Bi-Retrograde” display is the signature element of this watch – and a hallmark of Gerald Genta’s creations. It combines jumping hours in a window at 12 o’clock and minutes on a 210 degrees arc. The date is also retrograde (with a 180-degree motion) and fills the empty space available at 6 o’clock. And as Xavier explained in his review of the platinum version, “not everyone realizes that the jumping hour is a rare, complex and exacting mechanism. Hours and minutes need to jump and snap back precisely on the hour. The mechanism needs to accumulate power before releasing it all at once with one swift, precise movement“.

To power the Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde and visible through the sapphire caseback, Bvlgari relies on its classic in-house automatic movement, the BVL 300 base – a 26.2mm movement with bidirectional self-winding capacity, 4Hz frequency and 42h power reserve. On top sits an in-house module that drives the jumping and retrograde indications. The movement is classically decorated and features a rotor personalized with the GG logo.

Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde Anthracite Dial comes on a matte black alligator strap with a titanium folding clasp. It will be priced at EUR 15,000. For more information, please visit www.bulgari.com.

The post Introducing – Gerald Genta Arena Bi-Retrograde Anthracite (Live Pics & Price) appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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[lethesbeastie]

Safety // Sorrow

[lethesbeastie]

Bonus art inspired by @fishyfishyfishtimes tags on my last art post of these two! If yall have any questions about these guys, feel free to drop an ask!

*Forgive my complete lack of understanding of the Twitter layout I've never been there*

Fullsize images and inspiration under cut

[lethesbeastie]

Day 6 of bweirdOCtober feat. Wraith! Thought it'd be a fun prompt to drop some lore writing I have for them, so enjoy! :3

The Wraith of the Merchant's Seas

The first thing I remember was the way the light glimmered from beneath the waves. 

I don't know how long I'd been there— floating aimlessly through the open sea. I do know that when I woke up then, for the very first time, I was hungry. 

I was small then— no larger than the captain's compass, able to fit in the palm of one hand.

I don't recall what I ate. Probably plankton or some other microscopic prey, whatever was drifting along with me in the open sea. I do know that I did not try to surface for a very long time.

It was a storm that brought me up eventually. I had no sense of how frightening they were above the water; beneath the waves, it's not much different from the sea at night. Just with worse currents and brighter lights. But well, that time there was a ship nearby. 

The storm killed it. 

Sent its crew and cargo sinking down, down, down into the depths below. Sent it down to me.

I like light. Not. Not a lot of it— hurts my eyes a bit— but I think it's rather pretty. Especially when it catches on something shiny. And that ship, I guess it must've been something rather important, because it sent so many glittering things into the water. 

Took forever for me to collect them all— I've still got a few. Brought em’ to the captain after I decided to stay, though I didn't really understand money at the time. Sold most of it off to buy myself stuff at the markets the first time the crew took me to land. Kept these pearls though. They're pretty. And soft.

The sparkling things made me curious about where they'd come from. I didn't really understand ships— I thought they were like whales, some sort of great beast that lived its life above the waves. (I wasn't entirely wrong about that either, though Captain says the Wanderer is a rather unusual case.) 

Eventually I decided I wanted to learn more about them, these beasts of wood and metal. I understood the whims of sharks and eels and birds. It was only these ships that remained such a stubborn mystery.

I began to follow them on their routes across the sea. First from beneath the waves, then as I got bigger and a bit more bold, from the shadows of their great wooden hulls. 

I learned that ships carried many things. Some held shiny treasures like those I'd found that first night. Others had paper or fabrics, though those didn't tend to do well in the sea. All of them held people

I don't really know what I thought before I saw other people for the first time. For some reason I'd assumed I was alone. I knew fish could think and feel, but most of the little ones didn't seem to plan, and even the bigger ones weren't too keen on anything that didn't get them food. 

The people on the boats were different. They weren't simple like fish. They made noises and touched one another, wore strange colors and moved in stranger ways. 

I thought they were beautiful. 

They did not feel the same.

The first time I got spotted by a sailor, I think they thought I was a baby kraken— some sort of little sea beast, still too small to do harm. They threw things into the water at me, pointed and made strange sounds. I didn't like it, so I dove away. 

The next sailors that saw me threw spears. 

After that, I decided that no matter how curious I was, I'd never let the sailors see me. It was too dangerous, too frightening to face them and the metal claws they might toss into the depths. 

Still, as I waited for my wounds to heal, I could not ignore the way my curiosity continued to burn. 

I wanted to understand them, these strangers and their wooden beasts and their metal claws. I wanted to know why they feared me so much as to try and take my life. 

I started leaving the water. Climbing up anchor chains and slithering between the rails in the dark.

It was strange, moving out of the water. Sound traveled differently, struck me like a knife between the eyes if I wasn't ready for it. And the lights were so brilliant, so bright. 

I can't say that I really liked it. But I became accustomed to the change. 

Got good at sneaking about and hiding, at following and learning people's routines, how and where they moved, where they looked. 

I learned more about the sorts of things the people kept on the ships. Paper and fabric, though useless beneath the waves, were luxurious when kept dry. The metal claws they used against me before came in many more shapes and sizes, and were used to compensate for their lack of proper teeth or claws. Cooked food was my favorite early discovery, a bowl of half eaten fish soup left cold on the edge of a deck becoming my first forray into the wonderful world of culinary arts. 

There were things the ships helped me learn about myself too. 

The first time I stowed away on a ship, I came across a mirror. 

It was dark in the hold, surrounded by boxes, and I'd been using my bioluminescence to try and sneak a peak when I saw something brilliantly glimmering. I drew closer, then closer, until I hit my head on the glass with a wet smack.

Once I got a handle on my startled squeak of pain, I turned to face my assailant and saw… me. 

Took me a while to understand that that was what I was looking at.  

I didn't look like any of the sailors I'd seen. I didn't look like any of the fish either. I looked... strange. Half formed. Like half eaten bait. I sat there for a long while, examining myself, learning the curves of my face, trying to piece together why I was the way I was. 

After I saw my own face, I came back down to the mirror every night for many weeks, comparing myself in the dim light to people I'd seen. 

That's where I learned how to change.

I've always known how to do it— it's instinct more often than not, an unconscious reaction to the thought that I should hide. Most of the time I'd just mimic rocks or animals, trying to blend in. But there, beneath the deck, I thought of people's faces. And I tried to make their features all my own. It was never quite perfect— I couldn't seem to shake my need for gills and fins— but it made it easier to creep about. Easier to pretend I was something I was not. 

It was dark the night I crept onto the Wanderer's Jaws. 

The night's eye— or the moon rather, as I later learned— was in one of those thinner stages. Like a shark had taken a bite and the flesh had come away clean. Nights like that were always best for creeping onto new ships. Made it harder for the night watch to notice me. I climbed up using the anchor chain, which was hanging low near the water, and slithered across the deck until I found a place to hide.

I remember being confused at the time why there weren't any people on watch. Most boats with any size to em take a lot of hands to man, and while the Wanderer wasn't a particularly grande size, it was still a decently large ship. I don't know what I chalked it up to. Experienced crew or something like that. But eventually I dismissed the emptiness and set to sneaking into the hold. 

I was looking for something interesting in the cargo. I've made a habit over the years of collecting things from the ships I snuck onto. My own sort of treasures. I'd seen a sailor recently using a sparkling gold compass, and decided I wanted one of my own. I hadn't seen one when I decided to board the ship— I just thought that if there were people, it'd be a good place to start.

I didn't end up finding one. I know now that at the time, they'd just left one of their usual markets, which meant most of their cargo was either gold from being paid or other items they planned to sell at their home port. Plus, they weren't the trinket collecting sort. Least, not till I came along. So there wasn't much chance of me stumbling across anything small and sturdy enough for me to keep. 

The food on board was good though. Better than any I'd had before. One of the crew members— a tall, slender thing— had some pets on board.

I'd never seen a goat or a chicken before, since I'd never gone out onto land, but at the time I remember thinking it was rather odd. The goat's milk and chicken's eggs helped supplement the usual sailor’s diet of hardtack and gruel, and they'd gotten several exotic foods in Port, so when I came aboard the cook had taken to crafting up a feast each night. It was wonderful, and I remember wishing very badly that I could somehow eat more than the scraps I'd snatched from the waste buckets when no one was looking. 

I hid on board the ship for two weeks before I was caught. At some point in that first week I'd decided I liked the ship enough to stay till they hit portside, and took to memorizing the crew's shifts and routines so I could avoid them. 

I didn't think much of how few there were aboard till they started to get suspicious of a few stolen things. I thought the trinkets I took were small— shiny bits of metal and glass, things that no one would miss. 

Turns out though that a navigator losing their tools is actually a rather significant cause for alarm. 

I ended up returning them, put em’ back close to where they'd been found. But the damage was done. The crew knew there was someone else on board, and while I was sneaky, I was still lacking in experience with the wider world. It had never occurred to me that I could be tricked and trapped just as easily as the fish I'd learned to catch. 

They ended up setting a trap for me. Left a plate of food unattended in a quiet part of the hull, and ended up finding me tangled in the ship's living rigging, holding a broken shard of the plate as a makeshift knife.

The crew seemed to freeze at the sight. I don't think they really knew what to make of me. Captain told me later that it's not completely unheard of to find orphaned children on the sea. Usually they're found closer to port though, or sulking about on deck after dark. And those children never look like me. 

I'd never really thought about the different kinds of people before then. To me, if it spoke and moved and thought, it was as much of a person as me. I learned later that there were categories though. That people who looked certain ways came from different groups than others. And that some people didn't belong to any group at all. 

Hybrid. That's what I was. That's why I didn't look like anyone else I'd ever know. I was something that shouldn't exist, that didn't, couldn't, wouldn't belong anywhere, or with anyone at all. 

I remember being very, very scared when they caught me. I don't know why, since aside from those sailors in the past with the rocks and harpoons, I'd never really been found before. I didn't have any reason to believe that they'd hurt me. But for some reason, something in my head thought they would. 

It didn't really help that the first thing Captain did upon discovering me there was to chortle out a deep, booming laugh. He was the only one to do so— the rest of the crew were still trying to make sense of my odd assortment of limbs. 

Captain was the first person to try and speak to me. I don't know why, perhaps the other's were too unnerved, too unsure of what I was. By then I'd learned enough language to catch the gist of things, though I wasn't good at talking myself, but it was still hard for me to understand. 

In the end I decided to trust him because of his tone I think. He's a big man, broad shouldered and strong, and while I know now he's got gentle hands, back then they were simply large. He looked like a predatory thing, like the type of fish that had tried to make a meal of me back before I learned to leave the water. 

But his voice. It was hard to be afraid of that voice. 

It was raspy, yet full, and it reminded me of the distant bellows of whalesong. I'd heard him speak before, heard him bellow at the crew and the sea, heard him laugh and roar and howl. 

But here, with me, he was so very quiet. His voice was soft, and warm, and calm. 

I don't know why, but I felt like I could trust him. And when he held out his hand, so large compared to mine, I decided to take it. 

It's been years since then, that first frightening night. The crew taught me common, how to read and write and speak. Told me the tales the sailors told of the wraith of the merchant's seas— tales about me. They gave me my meals, and my bed, and my name. 

I've learned a lot since then, about the world and about myself. 

It is more dangerous for me than I'd realized, to travel as a hybrid on the sea. We have to be careful no matter where we go to port. 

There are powerful people that hate us, who speak with silver tongues and set the masses on our kind like a frenzy of sharks. It's safer to hide what we are when we aren't among friends.  

I'm especially good at hiding. 

Half changeling, Captain says. He'd never met one himself, but he'd heard of them before I'd come aboard. He went out looking for a few after the crew decided to keep me, wanted to find someone to teach me how to shift. He didn't end up finding one, but he did bring back a few books. I'm good at changing now, good at making myself look like something I'm not. It's sort of like a game of shells and cups.  Under one of these figures is a secret. Most people don't find the right one. 

I miss my crew. They've done so much for me since they found me. Raised me up on the shifting sea. They love me too, I know it. 

That's why I have to bring them home. 

[lethesbeastie]

BEASTIE BACK AT IT AGAIN WITH THE WRAITH ANIMATIONS!!!!

[lethesbeastie]

If anyone needs me I'll be sobbing on the floor about this :)

[lethesbeastie]

BweirdOCtober day 9 feat. my favorite pirate dad and his adopted eldritch kiddo, Nautilus and Wraith mean everything to me <3 <3 <3

Before they settled on the triton disguise they based on their captain, Wraith mostly hung out in their true form since it was most comfortable and the crew of the Wanderer weren't (usually) scared of them. After Nautilus decided they could stay indefinitely, Wraith crafted the form they wear now as a sort of sign that they also chose Nautilus as their dad captain. Yes, Nautilus did cry about it, though he would never admit that.

Nautilus wasn't too keen on having a kid on his ship at first, but he let Wraith stick around since they didn't have anywhere else to go

His crew knew Nautilus would soften up eventually, and in the meantime, watching the most feared pirate on the seas fumbling while trying to parent was A+ entertainment. Especially for Albatross, his first mate, and also his husband, who was having the time of his life getting to be a parent again.

[lethesbeastie]

Inspired by the song Her by JVKE because the vibes were whimsical and the idea of Nautilus realizing his entire life has shifted around the kid he's adopted makes me want to openly weep

[lethesbeastie]

Longer Wraith animatic be upon ye :3

This series of events from session 3 was probably my favorite moment of the campaign so far just due to how viscerally frightening it was. The moment that Umberlee summoned the fucking tooth my stomach dropped. 11/10 session, living in fear for the lives of my crew <3

[lethesbeastie]

If you had a living ship, would you make it a Halloween costume?