#PILOT BERTIE!

[ohmystarrynight]

Better luck next time Bertie! But Thomas, PLEASE be mindful of your poor aunties they don’t like when you race for goodness sake!!!

I think it’s so cute that they race in so many movies and episodes :,)

Also- hey hey! Thomas art! Woah! Been a minute for sure.

[codenamesailordarillium]

I didn’t think too hard about it at first but it’s kinda cute how both River & Basil have had a companion with the surname Potts. 

Cute until the point I’m at anyway cuz it seems in the case of poor Bertie .. he ded. And no space liquid gf to come save the day and revive him. Wait.

The inverted parallel of Bill Potts’ first adventure with Doctor Basil Disco concerning a monster that exudes liquid (yeah it’s technically some typa space oil, semantics), juxtaposed against Bertie Potts’ only adventure with Professor Song concerning a monster that drains water/liquid. 🧐 I kinda love it tho.

[bahja-blix]

Challenge Accepted ',:) (A Tumblr🧵 REQUESTS OPEN)

*Critically Cracks Knuckles*

Let's begin shall we? ',:)

Better shows I have in mind are:

Demon Slayer

My Hero Academia

Attack On Titan

Full metal Alchemist

One Piece

One Punch Man

Uzaki Chan Wants to Hang Out

The Owl House (from Disney to indie)

Little Witch Academia

Lackadaisy (indie)

South Park (old classic still running)

The Amazing Digital Circus

The Amazing World of Gumball (childhood Nostalgia)

Regular Show (childhood Nostalgia)

The Punk'd Pooch Pilot (indie)

The Original Classic Powerpuff Girls (childhood Nostalgia)

Bluey

Smiling Friends

Mao Mao Heroes of Pure Heart (underrated classic)

Any Vintage Cartoon Classics

And trust me, we can do this All Day :)

REQUESTS CONTINUED:

Batman The Animated Series (Vintage)

Bojack Horseman

Gravity Falls (Childhood nostalgia)

Infinity Train

Total Drama Island (childhood Nostalgia)

Avatar: That Last Airbender (childhood Nostalgia)

Ramshackle (Indie)

Murder Drones (Indie)

Tuca & Bertie (Underrated classic)

I WILL ADD MORE TO THE LIST ALL REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED FOR THIS THREAD 🧵 :)

[cfffrk]

WW2 AU

PART 0

...and when I gathered all Wooster's will in my fist and decided to deal like a man with this incognito who had interrupted my secret rendezvous with the c., I heard a voice that made my heart do a salto mortale.

"The doctor has forbidden you to smoke, sir."

~~~~~

And then you're like: ayo wtf cjjferk?

Well, this is my au about their lives during the WW2 :,)

An idea I had one night. Nothing more

Of course in the book as far as I know this period is just skipped and they just move on? But the series ends before WW2 so I have an idea about that~

In my AU Jeeves works for Aunt Dahlia while Bertie is learning to pilot. But one September day Jeeves mysteriously disappears on his way to his and Bertie's flat. He then becomes a spy and is sent to France on various super secret missions. Jeeves can't get in touch with Bertie, so he thinks Jeeves has abandoned him or died(

But then they meet in 1944 in a hospital somewhere in the more southern part of England don't ask me how. Bertie's plane crashed and he was wounded but slowly recovered. And one spring day while walking in the hospital courtyard he decided to hide behind the hospital building and smoke.

...And just as he was about to put the lighter to the cigarette some hand took it out of his mouth.

In fact my whole idea is shattered by a simple question: why wouldn't they have gone to America?🤔

I'm still working on it

Btw if you know any good fanfics in English about it you can tell me🥲👉👈

[kristengish]

undefined

Hey! Do you like indie animation and supporting indie artists? Check out the trailer Kelly and the Kung Fu Gators! It's an independent animated pilot that a parodies Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but from the perspective of April O'Neil. 

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOnBN74CgYA&t=8s

For those of you that don’t know me (or forgot who I was because I stopped posting on tumblr lol) I’m a writer, director and storyboard artist working in the animation industry. I’ve worked on Star vs the Forces of Evil, Ducktales, Tuca and Bertie, and currently The Great North! The past year has been pretty rough for original animated shows. Currently, the industry seems to love corporate mergers more than they love animation. 

If supporting indie animation is something you love and care about, literally all you have to do is watch my pilot when it premieres on youtube March 16th! Subscribe to the youtube channel for more updates, or follow me here on tumblr! Other social media:

twitter: https://twitter.com/KristenGish

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kgishfish/

If you want to send any financial support, you can donate via Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/kristengish

But honestly, the best thing you can do to support is subscribe to the youtube channel, comment, like, all that good youtube stuff. And watch KELLY AND THE KUNG FU GATORS MARCH 16TH WHOOO!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOnBN74CgYA&t=8s

[sayitwithsarcophilus]

Much as I enjoy "Bertie Wooster and the Horrors of War" fanfiction, my personal headcanon for his wartime experiences is that the boy never saw the inside of a trench.

My scenario is that Bertie dutifully joined up like any other patriotic young gentleman of his generation, but got rather badly hurt during training (lots of opportunities to get banged up or clonked on the head, especially if you were a trainee pilot), and the nature of his injuries involved a long and touchy recovery process that kept him off active duty.

But once Bertie was up and around he was recruited for a special intelligence assignment that relied heavily on his ability to fit in at society parties and look harmless. Get himself invited to parties with guests of interest (probably not hard, given the difficulty maintaining traditional dinner-party gender ratios when so many men are deployed), eavesdrop shamelessly, snoop around a little, and report back anything suspicious.

[black-bentley]

Find The Word

Thanks to @california-112 for the tag!

Rules: Share snippets of your work containing each of the words the previous poster selected for you (optional addition: if you can't find the words in your WIPs, or you simply don't have any WIPs, you can just write a sentence around the word).

The words I'm working with are button, real, likely and watch.

The words I'm passing on are quick, leg, blink and wait!

These are all Biggles, natch, and none of them have titles so they will be swathed in mystique...

Button

In which Algy reappears after going missing for a couple of days.

"He'll be all right," said Biggles reassuringly. "Got off lightly, all things considered. Three broken ribs, two black eyes, one busted nose, and a—"

"Partridge in a pear tree?" offered Bertie.

"I was going to say, 'a mild concussion'. You can both go in and see him now, I was just coming out to fetch you."

When they entered the room, Algy was sitting up in bed and looking surprisingly cheerful. Despite all the worry and the self-recrimination of the past two days, Ginger felt a relieved grin break out on his face at the sight. Algy had, as Biggles had said, deep purple bruising around both eyes and across the swollen bridge of his nose, as well as a scrape on his forehead and a badly split lower lip. Ginger could just see the edge of a bandage above the buttons of his pyjama jacket.

Real

AU fic, where Ginger doesn't meet Biggles or Algy until he's posted to 666 in 1940.

Because it was a shame, really, that his new flight commander had turned out to be such a posh twat. He'd remembered while he was sorting out his appearance how he knew the name: this would be Algy Lacey, Biggles's business partner and co-pilot in their globe-trotting years between this war and the last. Thwarting smugglers and chasing down jewel thieves, real Boy's Own Paper stuff. There was probably still a dusty box of newspaper cuttings at Ginger's parents' house, if his father hadn't thrown it out. Based on that, he'd been expecting a man in a similar mould to the skipper; they were cousins of some kind—but then again, weren't all these well-bred types related?—and there was a familial resemblance that was more than passing, but that was where the likeness stopped.

Likely

MORE POST-TERAI FIC, who's surprised?

Algy couldn't remember the last time he'd been out for a joyride with Ginger. Whenever it was, their roles would most likely have been reversed, with Algy at the controls and Ginger in the co-pilot's seat; even then, it would probably have been more in the way of an instructional flight than a lark. It was something he and Biggles had done a lot in their younger years, heading out for the day with a picnic or just spending a couple of bright hours doing some aerial sightseeing, but since Ginger came along they'd done a lot more flying for a living than for fun.

It was a good day for it: high cloud and a light breeze, the spring sun surprisingly warm where it shone through the Auster's windows. Algy found he was slightly disappointed that there hadn't been a hamper in the boot along with their jackets, and not just because that would have delayed the point in the day when they had to go home so that he could resume the important business of doing as little as possible.

Watch

Algy receives an unexpected invitation.

Algy glanced at his watch. He had no idea where the invitation had come from, or how it had found him, but from the moment he opened it there was no possibility that he wouldn't attend. Which meant he had a little over nine hours to somehow put together a suitable costume. He was definitely going to need some help.

He hurried out of his room, and banged on the adjacent door with his fist. There was a muffled and extremely impolite response from the other side.

Tagging @philomytha, @sholiofic, @dotsayers and @sweetsorcery, and anyone else who wants to do it...

[rand0mfangurlstuff]

Sing Yourself to Sleep - Bucky x Y/N - Part Ten - I Will Always Love You

This chapter was incredibly hard to write. But I had a vision of how I wanted this chapter to go and I think I got there in the end. Only one or two chapters left of this. Loosely inspired by Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You

Major Gale Cleven was dead. The news spread like wildfire throughout Thorpe Abbotts. Y/N was devastated. Gale was a good man. Brave, and kind. He deserved better. Her heart broke even more when she thought of Bucky. Who would tell him? He was in London on weekend leave. On leave because of what she did. Maybe that was her final gift to him; sending him to London. Otherwise he would have met the same fate as Gale. Maybe he would have preferred that...

***Thirty- Six Hours Earlier***

'Goodbye John' she said as she walked away. She walked as fast as her two legs would carrie her. She needed to get out of there before he had the chance to chase after her, and before she had the chance to change her mind. It broke her heart to break things off with Bucky, but she knew she had to. Knew that it was the only way. Bucky deserved better than her, than an already married woman. Used goods. If their relationship became common knowledge it could ruin Bucky's career. Military men all stuck together and the higher ups would blacklist Bucky as soon as they heard he was fooling around with the Colonel's wife.

She landed back to her quarters to find Albert sitting at the table reading the paper.

'Hello dear.' He said as he looked up from the paper and took a sip of his coffee.

'Hello Bertie.' She hoped she didnt look upset.

'Nice walk?' he asked with his nose burried in the sports section.

'Oh fine. It's a little chilly out there today. I might go for a bath to warm me up.'

'That's fine dear, don't take too long though. I'll need to have a soak too before we head to the club tonight.'

The club. Oh god she could not go to the club.

'I'm not really feeling in the mood for the club tonight. But you go if you want.'

Albert stood from the table and made his way towards her.

'That's not like you Y/N, everything okay?'

'Yes of course, I just feel a bit tired. Maybe I'm coming down with a cold or something.'

'You poor thing. You draw yourself a nice bath. Hopefully you feel better soon.' He kissed her cheek.

'Thank you dear. You should still go though.'

'No no, I should be here taking care of you. Perhaps we shall just have a night in tonight.'

'That sound lovely.' With that she smiled, kissed his cheek and headed for the bathroom.

She pushed the bathroom door closed behind her and turned on the taps at the end of the tub. As the water filled the tub, so did the tears rolling down her face.

____________________________________________________________

She once again found herself crying in her bathtub. Poor Gale, Poor Bucky. She knew he would be devastated. Knew this loss would crush him completely. She wanted to be there for him. But it was too late for that. He likely would want nothing to do with her.

It was later that afternoon that she heard Bucky had returned to base early. She knew what that meant. He was flying today. Dread filled her. She wanted to go to him, beg him not to do this. But she knew it was no use. He would go avenge Buck whether she liked it or not.

She hid around the corner of the controll tower, watching as the men assembled into the planes one by one. She didnt want anyone to notice her paying such close attention to the pilots, espically one pilot in particular. When she saw him, he was without his usual sheepskin jacket. He boarded the plane and she could just about see him through the window getting set up for take-off. She blew a kiss in his direction, hoping somehow it would wrap around him like a blanket and keep him safe. She watched as he flew into the sky, a silent tear escaping her.

____________________________________________

What felt like a lifetime but was really only a few hours passed. She was in the kitchen, making the chocolate chip cookies Bucky likes so much. She figured he would enjoy a nice treat when he got back to base. Something to soak up all the whiskey she was sure he was drinking. She was just about to pop them in the oven when she heard the shuffling of footsteps and the quiet, muffled sobs. She retreated from the kitchen into the mess hall to see a few of the red cross girls huddled together, wiping away the tears of one girl in particular.

'Ladies? Whats wrong?' she knew what was wrong. It didnt take a genious to know why a red cross girl would be in tears hours after a mission. She'd lost someone. One of the girls looked up at Y/N

'It's Mark, he didnt come home. A lot of them didn't.' she said.

Her friend burst into tears at the mention of the mans name. Y/N felt ashamed that the name 'Mark' didn't mean anything to her. She left the mess and headed towards the offices. As she approached she saw a man storm out and kick the wall beside him in frustration. She headed up the stairs and came across Harry Crosby. He looked on the verge of tears.

'Harry? Are you okay?'

He startled at the sound of her voice. Standing abruptly and wiping his face her said 'Mrs. Clarke, oh I'm sorry its just... oh hell... they're gone Y/N, Mrs. Clarke, they're all gone. Only one plane made it back.'

One plane?? Only one plane? Oh god, please let that one plane be Bucky's.

'Oh god, only one? Who?..'

'Rosie.' Harry finished before she could. He and his crew are the only ones to make it back.'

'But Bucky- Major Egan?'

'Egan's gone.' he said holding back tears. 'His plane went down. No sign on any chutes.'

No. no. no. no. Please no. Not Bucky. Please. He cant be gone. Not after everything. He was supossed to be safe. He was supposed to survive all this and meet a nice girl and fall in love. He couldn't be dead.

She stood there. Staring straight ahead. She barely noticed Harry excuse himself. She felt everything and nothing all at once. She felt ike she had just been shot right in the chest. She had heard soldiers saying that sometime the pain is so severe that your body shuts down so you dont feel it anymore. She was certain thats what was happening now.

A hand on her shoulder broke her from her trance.

'I'm sorry dear.' Albert said to her. 'I know how fond you were of Major Egan.'

He said everything he needed to and could in that moment. I know you were fond of him. I know you were having an affair. I know you loved him. I know his death is going to tear apart your soul. She couldnt form a response.

'Come now, sit and have a drink. You're in shock.' I forgive you. I'm going to take care of you. I still love you. I will help you grieve the loss of your lover.

He ushered her towards and empty chair and handed her a flask of whiskey for her to drink. As their hands connected over the flask she grabbed onto him and looked him in the eyes for the first time in what felt like years, 'Thank you, Bertie.' and with those words and that look in her eyes she said I'm sorry. I love you. Thank you for loving me. I will be a better wife.

John Egan was dead. And her heart was broken. But maybe this was how it was meant to be. Maybe now she could grieve, and move on. The love her and John shared would always be with her, in the depths of her soul. But that was a burning love that was never meant to last. Her marriage, to her wonderful kind husband, was what she truly needed. This was would end soon. She and Albert would go back home. Thorpe Abbotts and everyone in it would be a distant memory.

She would survive this heartache and learn from it. She would never forget it, but she would overcome it. As she raised the flask to her lips, she said one final goodbye to John Bucky Egan. I'm sorry Bucky, for everything. I love you. Part of me will always love you. You are safe in heaven now. You free from pain and suffering. I will carry on, as I know you would want me to. Rest in Peace my love.

[ducktoonsfanart]

Donald's girlfriend, Donald's sister, Donald's relatives and Donald's friends. - Duckverse characters

I will be posting some of my old drawings and I am posting new drawings related to certain characters from the Duckverse and the classic Disney universe from comics, cartoons and video games that I love and I am posting them separately.

The first drawing is Daisy Duck and yes Donald's girlfriend, and aunt to April, May and June, but definitely she is a special person that I love in the Duckverse. I drew her in Ducktales 2017 style in a beautiful dress, but in my own way.

The second drawing is Della Duck, Donald's sister and pilot and mother of Huey, Dewey and Louie. Although she had a role in the Ducktales reboot, she also had roles in comics, especially Dutch comics. I drew her combining the Ducktales reboot style with the Topolino style. Also, I was inspired by some drawings related to her,

The third drawing is Gyro Gearloose, a famous innovator who works for Scrooge, but helps Donald and his nephews a lot. He is also Donald's best friend. Yes, I drew him in the style of Ducktales in 1987. And there's Little Helper.

The fourth drawing is Fethry Duck, Donald's clumsy cousin who does all kinds of things just to somehow please others. He likes to help, but sometimes things go too far. Still, he's Donald's best cousin to me. I drew him in the style of Italian comics (Topolino).

The fifth drawing (new drawing) is the Gladstone Gander, Donald's lucky cousin. He is often lucky and annoys Donald a lot, although his luck is not always useful. He also has problems. Overall, I love Gladstone. I drew him in the style of Italian comics (Topolino) and he is wearing a four leaf clover as well as a horseshoe which symbolizes good luck.

The sixth drawing is Gus Goose, Donald's cousin who is often lazy and likes to eat and sleep. Although he annoys many, he is still useful to Grandma Duck where he works at her farm. Still, I love Gus. I mostly drew him based on the Italian comics (Topolino) and that he was eating his sandwich.

The seventh drawing is Grandma Duck (Elvira Coot), who is also the best parent in the Duckverse in general, because she took care of Donald, Della and her other grandchildren a lot. She is also strict, but she is also well-intentioned. I drew her based on the Italian comics (Topolino) and that she is holding a cake, as she likes to bake and cook cakes. She is also the oldest living citizen of Duckburg, although she lives on her farm and is the daughter of Clinton Coot, who founded the Junior Woodchucks.

The eighth drawing is Dickie Duck, Goldie's granddaughter. She is a very lively, exciting older teenage girl who works a lot and hangs out with her friends. Yes, she works for Brigitta and Gideon, but also helps Scrooge. She also hangs out with Daisy a lot. Plus she babysits Donald's nephews and Daisy's nieces. I drew her based on the Italian comics (Topolino).

The ninth drawing is Bertie McGoose or Grand Mogul, the leader of the Junior Woodchucks, also one of Donald Duck's best friends from childhood. He can be curmudgeonly, but mostly he does everything to help the Junior Woodchucks, in which Donald's nephews and Gyro's nephew Newton are certainly the most useful.

I hope you like these drawings and love these characters.

[sir-griswold-of-macelwain]

OK getting mad at it again so here is how Matthew could have not died:

The Overseas Posting: Like Bertie in the first movie, the king asks Matthew (as an earl's heir, the bridge between tradition and modernity in Downton, a former soldier, etc) to accompany a member of the royal family on a tour of the colonies. Makes less sense than with Bertie because Matthew isn't a senior peer, but it could still work. Mid-season 4, we learn a whole scandal about an embezzling governor and the prince Matthew went with named him as temporary governor, he has to stay there. Season 5 has a storyline of Mary agonizing over whether or not she should join him with George, while the more pragmatic members of the family (Violet first) argue that they can't endanger the miraculous baby who is the only heir if Matthew dies abroad. Later on, Bertie realizes he knows of matthew because his cousin Peter talked about him in a letter.

The Henry's Motor Show treatement: As early as season 2's final, Matthew says he doesn't want to go back to being an attorney, Violet screams Huzzah, Matthew explains he wants to go back in the army because he can't stand the idea of letting other fight in his stead. Over season 3, we see him regularly coming back from training or such. Having been a captain during WW1, even with the army shrinking, I assume he could be in charge of a sizable part of the army. Heck, have him be one of the guys who first tested fighter planes! it's a late-WW1 invention, i didn't look it up but i assume they didn't just chuck it aside after the war and not get back to the idea until 1939. Have him mention that he'll have to be away, but for now he just wants to seize the moment with his family. Over season 4, Mary receives letters, Tom and Mary go to visit him regularly, Tom now has a passion for planes as well. In season 5, Mary becomes pregnant after visiting Matthew in his airfield base. Whole storyline about how she resents that he can't be here to help her. Season 6, if we really want to kill him, have him die in a plane crash during a routine exercise. There's no need to see who is piloting it. We can have Mary show George the plane and say "Daddy's in this one" as he waves a little flag, or something. Flames. A mannequin brought out with a sheet over his body and face. The lucky charm found later in his locker or something and given back to Mary.

The Natalie Portman's Endgame: Matthew films a few scenes before going and they use these scenes (whichever storyline you use, overseas posting, plane testing, whatever) over the three next seasons to take off the feeling we never see Matthew.

the Dracula AU/Michael Gregson treatment: Matthew, as a sollicitor, is asked to travel to some european country. After a while, letters stop. Mary gets super worried. Violet uses her connections all over the foreign affairs (opening the storyline for Shrimpie's daughter, Rose, to come?) to find out if they know anything. Unlike Gregson tho, Matthew would still be alive. He either doesn't come back because he convalesces in Europe, or Mary even leaves to join him, OR he comes back "extremely changed" and they just have a new actor with roughly the same hair colour and face shape. OK this one I'm less sure about. It would have been funny tho.

[spaceyalienz]

for the SF ask thing... 3, 8 and 21

Aye! Thanks for the ask!

3. favorite episode?

That’s a hard one - bc I pretty much love all of it ( besides the 2nd season Halloween special but only bc it had a bunch of jumpscares and I’m a baby 😭 ) buttt I’ll say my favorite episode is probably the first one if I’m being honest bc it’s such a way to start off the show. It’s a very chaotic pilot ( and has such memorable lines such as Allan’s ‘I just wanted my cheeeeseee’ ) like 10/10 pilot. That’s prob my favorite if I had to choose.

8. do you have a character you think is underrated?

Ummm not sure if he’s quite underrated, but I really love the Boss as a character. I would say he’s underrated bc I don’t see much attention on him from the fandom besides the main guys but the Boss is funny af to me and has the most funniest lines imo

21. what's your favorite adult cartoon aside from smiling friends?

I’d say Tuca & Bertie and Bojack Horseman.

[meanscarletdeceiver]

Sodor Work History: James Edition

Ugh, it seems to have vanished?? But I had an anon request a James equivalent to my Edward work history post. Of course now that I'm done writing I can't find the ask… #ThanksTumblr… Anyway here goes:

I'd like to! But James is tricky...

The thing with James is, we seem to have a bunch of data points throughout the books on his doings. But there's so much we don't know about the main line working and how many "unseen" engines share the work with our main characters. Like, all the branch line characters are easier to at least assemble pieces into a rough border because there are more constraints there. The main line has too many unknowns. There is a similar problem to sketching out Henry's timetables, but at least with Henry���like with all the other MCs—we know of at least one thing that he is known to do regularly. We don't have a touchstone for James.

Broadly, though, here are a few things I notice (and/or just streeeeeetch to conclude in a fever dream) about James's Sodor career:

He spent a little while there as the closest damn thing Tidmouth had to a station pilot. I feel like this gets completely overlooked. After the bootlace incident he's benched from passenger work, of course, but in addition to goods work he is doing a lot of coach-fetching at the big station. Troublesome Engines says that he continued being the "odd jobs" fellow for a while until he started to rebel. He would never have been full-time—unlike, say, Thomas. Thomas, I'm sure, would have been transferred to Tidmouth when HQ moved and continued there if not for his branch line assignment. But, unlike Thomas, James is trusted to take trains out of the station. But in between those trains he was largely stuck with the shunting. (In "Troublesome Trucks" his tricky goods train appears to go as far as Maron or Cronk? Not traversing the whole line, not yet.) Troublesome Engines says of course that Gordon and Henry had to step up, and also that Edward helped when he was available, but I think it's pretty obvious who was a) actually a Tidmouth engine and b) the newest Tidmouth engine and c) the smallest Tidmouth engine. (To add to this brief period in James's life, I note that the train that pushes him down the hill at the end of TTTE might well be—da dum da dum!—the same train that Thomas lost control of in the previous story. How's that for literary repetition, eh? Anyway, point being, James might have been expected to fill in Thomas's old role on the NWR from the very start.)

During Thomas and Bertie's chase, James is seen in an illustration with a goods train on Thomas's line! Now you can explain away one random illustration if you want, but it does make a lot of sense that in 1948 Thomas might need help running goods on his line—this would have been after the useful working lives of the Coffee Pots, but before Toby (and way before Percy) join the line. So yeah, until Toby's arrival James might have pitched in on Thomas's line fairly often. It's a nice detail. It might have gone all the way back to the '20s or whatever. Certainly James would have been grateful to Thomas for rescuing him so he was probably happy to do it... at least for a while...

Let's talk main line stopping trains. I have a bit of a headcanon here, though it's built on the slenderest of canonical reeds which is why I'm not calling this bit an analysis. We see James with a lot of these stopping trains but in my personal canon I've decided that all such trains we see him on in this era ("Dirty Objects," "Old Iron," "A Close Shave," and maybe "Henry's Sneeze") are 'the Limited,' which I take it is a semi-fast that stops only at major stations (places like Knapford, Wellsworth, Cronk—maybe Crovan's Gate though that seems to leave CG, like, absurdly well-served). No all-stops for James, thank you! Well, occasionally he gets stuck with one but usually that's beneath him.

Sadly for him, throughout most of the '50s goods are clearly not beneath him. If I am right that in passenger work he specializes on the semi-fast, he has no such luck in goods work. "Dirty Objects" has that wonderful description making it clear how much James hates slow good trains but I suspect those are his bread and butter for years to come. Certainly he's in the midst of another such assignment a year later in "Old Iron"—and in that story it is also made clear that, not only does he have to stop at each station to pick up or drop off trucks, at most of these stops he has to do his own shunting. This sounds like it probably takes most of his damn day. The day described in "Dirty Objects" of one morning passenger service followed by one of these endless slogs is probably pretty typical for James in this era.

In the early '50s at least, this routine gets broken up—occasionally—only when there is a need to cover the Express. The '50s were a good decade for it, as, in addition to Gordon's regular need for "rest" or maintenance, James also gets to score big with Gordon's unplanned trip to London and Gordon's lengthy punishment following the Ditch Incident. Jackpot, baby!

[Time-Sensitive Alert: There Is A Tram Engine Blocking Your Line]

I assume all James's appearances at the junction with the narrow-gauge gang are when he's taking an Express. Or maybe some sort of Limited? But it's... fairly consistent that Tidmouth engines are not just randomly on the eastern end of the line unless they're taking some sort of major train—I presume that any of the humdrum 'Locals' on the eastern side are taken care of by Vicarstown engines.

The '50s are when we get the most complete picture of James's working days. I reckon it changed, however, towards the end of the decade. Along with the other 'eight,' our boy's fame is on the rise throughout the decade and I think James effectively parlayed this into doing more passenger work, taking advantage of what was surely a rise in tourism to the island. At some point James is merely picking up the slack when it comes to heavy goods—and then. Then! Donald arrives. Bringing a twin with him! I tend to think at this point James was pretty much relieved from the goods work he had hated for so long completely... for, like, a month or two. Then Donald had to be repaired after his totally-accidental signalbox adventure and TFC observes ruefully that "James will have to help with the goods work... he won't like that!" Surely not, but I think the thing was, when TFC got an unexpected 2-for-1, James was immediately released from that stuff. God, no wonder that by the final story he was so keen for both twins to stay on! For that matter, I also reckon that James was usually tapped for snow-removal duty during winters before the Caledonians came. Really they were a godsend to him in his effort to rise above his station. Ye're welcome, laddie.

Seriously. For the rest of the Wilbert Awdry books, I can't find another instance of James doing goods work. *shrugs casually* Now, Awdry was also giving James far less screen time at this point so you can say definitely say there's not enough data to draw meaningful conclusions. I however prefer to think it was no coincidence but rather a logical effect of recruiting Duck, the Caledonians, and the diesels of the '60s. It makes sense. Heavy goods would have only been getting heavier. Not that it was impossible for James to keep up, but if you have some modern diesels and two Scottish goods engines who love to work together as much as possible then, you know. Why keep forcing James into that role?

I admit that Christopher Awdry fucks up this trajectory. Sigh. Sometimes he is soooo thoughtful about his timetable choices but other times I think he just defaults to some of the most obvious franchise tropes the same way a TVS writer would. It's maddening.

Anyway yeah, I concede that as soon as we see James again in '84 he's taking goods. He's also complaining about having to shunt his train, saying that this should be Donald or Douglas's kind of work, but the twins were both called away to help on Edward's branch line on that particular day so the field is open for James to have his karmic story ("Crossed Lines"). Now you could make a plausible case that what James says when he's grumbling is not to be trusted as gospel truth and that he's exaggerating the degree to which this is now true but I'm inclined to take it at face value.

At any rate, for all the rest of the series, James is seen (when he is seen) taking passenger trains, including at least one turn on the Express in '92/'93, except on a few occasions:

1. Filling in while Henry is in overhaul on the Flying Kipper

2. Working some sort of special job repairing rails along with Donald and Douglas in the final book. Notably he expresses on the last day (well, the "last" day, or so they all thought) that he's looking forward to it being done so he can hopefully go back to passenger trains, but he is remarkably chill throughout the whole story and causes zero (0) drama at all. And you thought Gordon was supposed to be the only RWS character to show growth. Mwahaha!

In short, I suppose when you add in the Christopher Awdry era (you know. if we want to) then it's no longer clear whether James is really doing goods work and odd jobs significantly less or whether he's just bitching about it less. I'm inclined to think Both, however: He's called upon for it less often than in the pre-Caledonian invasion days and therefore he doesn't chafe and bitch nearly about it as much when he is.

Much like we let TVS confirm/fill in the gist of Edward's latter-day career, I feel like we can take similar cues for James. I'm thinking here mostly of the Brenner era, especially *drumroll please* "SOMEBODY HAS TO BE THE FAAAAVOURITE!" vibes. Well, I'm not so sure James is really going around singing his smokebox off (... though it's cute ngl...) but I do think it's true that he is, in general, picking up a steady enough supply of "good" jobs that his ego is pretty well fed. Which is honestly a much better way to manage James than to try desperately to teach him humility, if you ask me.

I'm not sure how useful a proposed timeline will be but it seemed to be some people's favorite part of the last such post I did so I'll give it a try.

1925 — goods trial, first day cow-field crash

1925 — overhaul

1925 — passenger trial, bootlace incident

1925 — station pilot and local goods (western end of line only)

1925 — allowed back on passenger trains, also western end of line only

1928 (or whatever year you allow for the strike and Percy's arrival, which is somewhere between '25-'35) — shifts to a longstanding pattern of morning stopping passenger train (I proposed the Limited, to Cronk and back to Tidmouth) and then has a slow heavy goods out of Tidmouth (this requires stopping and shunting at many stations and takes the better part of the day), probably tacks on an evening passenger service too

1939-1946 — I do think wartime disrupted James's schedule. Ironically I tend to think he got a lot of passenger services, including regular charge of the Express to free Gordon on heavy coal and war materiel trains, but the work was all non-stop hell and Vicarstown certainly and probably Tidmouth also got blitzed so it's not like he got to enjoy it. Troop trains were also probably a James specialty.

1960 — James transitions out of heavy goods work and his longstanding timetable of Limited + slow goods + evening commuter service is changed, probably to something featuring more passenger trains than previously. Fitted goods are definitely an option to replace his hated slow goods assignment.

2010-11 — James picks up a months-long assignment helping with some sort of line repair. Notably it seems to be during the late winter/early spring "off season," so my guess is that he took his usual commuter services but that during the summer and holidays James is also taking frequent specials. It's during that chunk of his "busy season" timetables that he is pulled for stuff like this in the off-season—no need to find coverage for him.

You'll notice the 1920s were suuuuuuper eventful but also only a blip in James's life.

Which is the exact sort of thing that I think we so often forget. They've all lived so much more life than their little highlight stories that we're privy to.

[c0tards--s0luti0n]

mini guide to the mechanisms for my non mechs followers who have zero clue what im saying when i talk about them

jonny d'ville;

role: captain first mate mechanism: heart last death: stabbed straight through the heart during a bar fight backstory: born and raised on a planet called new texas, took hitman jobs from one eyed jack to pay off his father's debt . in one of the jobs, he killed his dad . after he got mechanized, he went back to new texas and burnt down the casino one eyed jack ran.

gunpowder tim;

role: master at arms mechanism: eyes last death: crashed into a space station with a gunship backstory: him and his best friend bertie joined the starborne infantry to fight in the war against the moon kaiser . bertie died during the war, sending tim into a crazy rage, absolutely destroying kaiser's forces, eventually getting caught and taken away for execution, he managed to distract the guards and set off a canon, blowing up the moon. he survived by hiding in an escape pod, but couldnt get the visor closed in time, therefore losing his eyes.

drumbot brian;

role: pilot mechanism: everything except his heart last death: threw himself back into space backstory: landed one day on a random planet with no memory, the townsfolk were convinced he was a witch and threw him into space , everything except his heart completely froze .

ashes o'reilly;

role: quartermaster mechanism: lungs last death: dropped a match into gasoline on an un-named planet , setting it on fire as the final light in the universe . backstory: recruited into a gang at the age of 11, 12 years later, was framed as a double agent and trapped in a burning building. got mechanized, went back to the planet and burnt the whole thing down.

raphaella la cognizi;

role: science officer mechanism: wings last death: took a piece of the broken aurora, and flew into a black hole with it, as one last experiment. backstory: N/A

ivy alexandria;

role: archivist mechanism: brain last death: got trapped inside a library planet that caught on fire in a war . backstory: she was born and raised around books, she died (unexplained why) and had her brain mechanized. she cant remember her past , it comes back to her in dreams that she doesnt remember when she wakes .

marius von raum;

role: ship's doctor mechanism: right arm last death: eaten by octokittens after checking on them . backstory: he's from a planet with what used to be very powerful weapons, that slowly degraded from years of war . him and an un-named person tried to stop the war, but failed .

nastya rasputina;

role: ship's engineer mechanism: (quicksilver) blood last death(?): she ejected herself out into space before the bifrost incident, because the aurora 'wasnt the same ship anymore, being replaced piece by piece until she was a different person.' backstory: she was raised on a technologically advanced planet, and killed during a revolution, then being mechanized.

the toy soldier;

role: N/A, does almost anything it's told to as long as the directions are clear (autism) mechanism: everything but its voice last death: after all the other mechanisms died, it simply stopped pretending. backstory: The Toy Soldier originally lived with a widow who collected clockwork figures. She treated the Toy Soldier like it was her husband and tried to teach it to act like him. she died, and the Toy Soldier was donated to a museum. one day, it just decided to leave, wandering out into the street and ending up joining the Salvation Army.it met person who it ended up falling in love with. but they were in love with someone else, and the Toy Soldier killed them and took their voice. It was then found by an antiques dealer, and ended up being bought by the Mechanisms to replace Jonny for a show while he was in prison . then it just stuck around .

erm . sorry that probably made everything more confusing !

[eraserheadadult]

moving less than a block away from my previous apartment after living with the same roommate for 8 years we are having a tuca & bertie pilot experience right now

[dotsayers]

for the WIP meme, the sakhalin daemon AU?

“I have fallen in one river,” said Hazel, incensed. “While being shot at.”

Bertie chuckled, seated across the cabin from them both. Towser, curled nose to tail at Bertie’s feet, lifted his head balefully. “Some of us are trying to sleep,” he said, mulish.

“You should have thought of that before you agreed to ride in the cabin,” said Hazel. “I never sleep on flights. It’s unnatural.”

Towser huffed, then let his head drop back onto his paws. “I will be as unnatural as I like, so long as it means I’m awake when we make it to Sakhalin.”

“My better self makes a good point,” said Bertie. He was dressed warmly, with his flying jacket turned fur side out. “And I reckon all this arguing is giving our pilot a headache.”

Hazel shook her head. Her beady black eyes were fixed on the window. “He’s flown in worse,” she said.

“Of course he has,” grumbled Vedastus. “We were there for half of it. At least this plane hasn’t got an open cockpit.”

The daemons all exchanged a look of resigned understanding. 

Towser woofed miserably. “Have you ever ridden in a sidecar at a hundred miles an hour? It’s a bruiser, I’ll tell you that much.”

[for-valour]

Prince Albert, as he was known at the time, and his friend Major Louis Greig getting prepared to fly to France. These photographs were taken in 1918 at Hendon (formerly a civilian flying school, which was commandeered by the War Office in 1916). Bertie gained his RAF pilot wings on July 31st 1919, becoming the first member of the British Royal Family to qualify - and to achieve this despite actually having a phobia of flying & heights was in itself rather courageous! I do also think he looks somewhat anxious, all cocooned in that big padded coat, gauntlets and helmet. Still adorable, though :)

Fourth photo: they’re just about visible in the cockpit, but the aircraft nerd in me mostly wanted to show off that biplane bomber, a Handley Page O/400, oh my!