#lots of talking with this one lmao

[ye-olde-sodor]

Night Talks (CotL Fic PT 3)

Gordon gazed of into the distance from the castle balcony. His eyes glanced down at the sight of the city of Vicarstown below him. Vicarstown, the largest city on the Island, connecting the Mainland to Sodor itself, looked so small from the palace in the sky.

When 10 had took control of the island, the Diesel works had ascended into the sky, shifting and morphing from the ranshack sheds that the Diesels dared to call home into a grand and wonderous palace that could rival that of Windsor itself.

Gordon turned his back from the view and leaned against the railing of the balcony. He felt the cold autumn wind brush against his face and arms as he turned his attention to the archway. The light of the moon seemed to shimmer around him and the balcony railing. As Gordon look at the grand arch, a small, thin man in a red turtleneck and black overalls had appeared.

Diesel, the appointed magic scholar, had returned from his trip from the bar. Gordon scoffed at him as he approached.

"You're fifteen minutes late, Rudolph. Any later and you would've had to deal with the Patrols."

"Yeah yeah," the diesel mocked. "It's not my fault we had to take the roads."

Gordon became cross at the mention of roads. "You took the roads?! You're a diesel, why didn't you just travel by rail?!"

"Hey, blame Dodge, not me!" the thin man proclaimed. "His engine failed last week, remember?"

Gordon blinked. He had heard of Dodge's engine, but had assumed all had been fixed. He also assumed that Dodge would've just climbed into one of his colleagues cabs and driven home. Then again, after living with them for so long, he knew the diesels tend to make things more complicated than they would've been had they just used their heads. At least they were typically creative in their poor decisions.

He rolled his eyes at the man but decided to drop the subject. "Just...try to get back here on time next time. I'd hate for you to get mixed up with the patrols."

Diesel, surprisingly enough, felt guilty. Gordon was one of the few engines on the railway that had a fondness for Diesel, although he's not exactly sure why.

In a surprising turn of events, Gordon had stayed with the Diesels after his fight with Diesel 10 and had been working for them ever since. He'd gotten along with the other diesels better than anyone would've expected...and he became especially close to 10.

Diesel wasn't the only one who noticed this change in the prideful engine's notion towards diesels. Many suspected that it had to do with what had happened in the fight between the two of them. While he himself wasn't present for it, he knew that the mysterious Gold Dust was involved with it...and he was determined to understand how it worked.

He walked closer to Gordon and pulled a sheet of paper out of his overall pocket and handed it to Gordon.

"If it makes up for it, I've been meaning to give you to this," he explained.

"What is it?" Gordon questioned.

"It's just an experiment proposal for the dust. I'll need a small bag of the dust for it, but it's a reasonable amount."

"So you want me to propose the idea to him." Gordon concluded as he skimmed through the paper. Diesel was right, It was a simple request. Just a small amount of Gold Dust for Diesel to sprinkle onto a live plant to see what would happen. Simple, but if it produces a result, can prove to be very useful.

"You're the only one he talks to anymore," he argued. "Even Splatter and Dodge can't get to him."

"That makes sense," Gordon argued, "He's...changed since the last time you've seen him."

"Really?" Diesel snarked sarcastically.

"More so than usual, you brick." Gordon sneered. "If you knew how much he's changed you'd understand."

"Of course I know how much he's changed," Diesel thought, "I've known him for years and no one knew he would do this. Besides, what do you know about him? How did you suddenly become his number one fan?"

Gordon put the paper in his pocket and turned to Diesel. "Well, I'll see what I can do. I can't guarantee that he'll go through with the idea, but I'm sure he'll have a look at it. I know he's fond of your little tricks and tests."

"Y'know, you sure know a lot about him." Diesel teased. "I've known him for, what, Three years now? I didn't even know he liked my tricks!"

"What are you implying?" Gordon growled.

"Oh nothing! Nothing at all!" Diesel said as he threw his arms up in defense. "It's just that, well...You two seem awfully close for-"

"We're friends." Gordon interrupted, his face turning red. "Nothing more, nothing less. You're just telling whoppers again."

"For Makers sake Gordon, you two have matching tattoos!"

"Friends can have matching tattoos!" Gordon protested as steam rose from his mouth.

"And send each other love poems?"

"Friends can absolutely send-HEY."

Diesel smiled at the reaction. Little did Gordon know that he had stumbled on a poem on Gordon's desk earlier that day. He had no ill intent with the information, he merely wanted to hear it from the blue engine himself. Both for confirmation and for the fun of it.

"It's fine, really." Diesel insisted, "I just wanna know the story. How did you two, of all engines, hook up?"

Gordon, knowing he'd been caught, let out a long sigh. "It happened around...three years ago. When he first showed up here."

"That long?!"

"It didn't happen right away, you fool!" Gordon clarified. "He was the one who started to feel something for me when I was teaching him the express route. I didn't start having those feelings until after he sent me one of his poems."

"How Chessy." Diesel snarked sarcastically.

"Oh it gets better," Gordon remarked. "It was a rough draft. According to him it was awful, but his driver mixed up the rough draft with the finished poem."

Diesel cocked his head, "Sooooo what happened when you read it?"

"I was swooned." he admitted with a deadpan look, "Completely taken out of my element."

Diesel burst into laughter as Gordon went on, ignoring the man altogether as he was lost in recollection.

"He had his driver pin the note to the side of the shed wall where I was sleeping for the night. When my driver found it in the morning, he read it out loud to us."

Diesel tried to compose himself as Gordon when on.

"I didn't even know we could feel intimacy towards each other until then, and even after the poem I was still skeptical about the feeling. A few weeks later the two of us met to talk about it, and we decided to just keep things the same."

"What?"

"Neither of us knew what romance was. 10 believed that we could feel it, I didn't. We didn't even know if what we were feeling is love to begin with. It could be something else entirely for all we know."

The emotions of machines were never fully understood by anyone, not even the machines themselves. Many believed that they could feel certain emotions, others didn't. Gordon was one of these machines. Him and the majority of the engines on the island believed that love was foreign to engines, even after the evidence from Toby and Henrietta. Until 10 came along, he was convinced that romantic attraction was impossible for engines to feel, and even went as far as to shame those who did back in his youth. Now that he was older (and wiser), he's been expressing doubts about the beliefs that were drilled into him at Doncaster.

Diesel, now incredibly intrigued and eager to help, wanted to quiz the engine. "Can you describe it. The feeling I mean, can you tell me what it feels like?"

"It's...difficult to explain it, but I could try to."

Diesel nodded and decided that questions could help him out. "When my driver fell in love, he said that he could feel happy when he thought of her. What does it feel like when you think of him?"

Gordon took a moment to think about it and responded back. "I feel...warm. Like my fire was recently lit during the winter. It's cozy, and it feels good."

"What about when you two are close together or when you spend time with him? Do you get the same feeling?"

"Yes, I do." Gordon explained. "It's the same feeling, but it's stronger. Warmer even...What do you make of it?"

"Driver says love is like a fever," explained Diesel, "But it's a good fever. It means you found the person who you want to stay with for the rest of your life. The two of you are supposed to be happy together, your supposed to make each other happy, y'know?"

"When you put it like that, it makes sense. But it feels so much more complicated than that, words just can't do it justice."

"It sounds a lot like love to me," Diesel spoke. "but I can't speak for the two of you. You gotta figure that out yourselves."

"True, but some advice from an expert would be appreciated...I don't think either of us know what we're doing."

Diesel shrugged his shoulders. "I may not know much about love but...well I wish for the best for you two. If anyone it can make it work, it's 10. He's tough, but he's a softie. He'd never hurt someone that he loves."

Gordon smiled at the man. He was about to thank his friend before he was seized by a sudden coughing fit. He began to cough violently as thick black smoke had begun to bellow out of his mouth, the smell of diesel fuel filling the air around him.

He knelt down to the ground as he gripped his chest. Diesel reacted quickly and placed his hands on his shoulders as he tried to soothe him. The smoke stung his eyes, but he held on to his friend, waiting for the eventual end to the coughing fit.

The two of them had grown accustomed to the fits, as they had started after his fight with 10 on the platform at Knapford. They typically started around midnight and in the early morning hours, and only lasted for a few moments.

Diesel would never suggest it to Gordon's face, but he suspects that the Gold Dust that 10 used in the fight had been the cause of the fits...and Gordon's transformations.

Eventually, as the black clouds faded, Gordon released the grip on his chest and looked at the palm of his hand. His already long nails had formed into a set of claws, with small quills jutting out from his arm. He cursed as he rubbed his wrist and, with the help of Diesel, got up from the ground.

“It would appear…that my stay here is overdue. Very overdue." he spoke weakly. “Derick and Spamcan must be waiting for me at the gates…I should be off."

"Wait, are you alright? Do you need someone to cover for you?"

"I'm fine," he spoke softly. "If anything, it's quite ironic. I lecture you for being late and yet here I am stalling. We can chat in the morning when we get back, if you'd like."

Diesel smiled as he helped Gordon to his feet, careful not to poke himself with the quills. "Deal, but take it easy. I don't want to be the guy to tell 10 that his boyfriend got hurt on the job."

"Oh hush you." he teased. "There'll be Hell to pay for everyone if that were to happen to me."

Gordon waved farewell to Diesel and walked into the fortress. As he entered the castle, a feeling of excitement and unease rushed into his body in anticipation of the patrol. Like all of the other changes to his body, he had become used to the sudden changes in appearance and behavior by now...but it didn't make what would happen next any more normal.

He hated it, but there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it. Not until they understood his situation, and in order to understand it, he had to let it happen. Not that he had much of a choice.

A small pain in his chest had formed again, and his heart began to race...and he sprinted towards the gates, praying that no one would see what would about to happen to him next.

[krysmcscience]

I have some questions about karaoke night, Alex Hirsch. Very Important Questions. Which I will happily scream at a poor hapless baby triangle who can have no answers for me, and possibly also does not have object permanence yet.

Follow-up that is I guess suggestive, but let's be real here, Bill's a fucking triangle:

Dude slipped right into his birthday suit, lmao

this is so stupid :D

Anyway, I don't care what anyone says, this brilliant individual knows what's up - Bill is absolutely way more of a monsterfucker than Ford could or ever will be, full stop.

[meamiiikiii]

silly comic based on a time i struggled to read live on stream :thumbsup:

context clip compilation below ASDASDFASA

(cw for brief mention of hospitals/strokes)

[otaku553]

I’ve been trying to read the ace novel to practice reading Japanese and I find it really funny how deuce describes ace like he’s the heartthrob surfer dude male lead in some 2010s Disney film

Anyways here’s an ace since I was thinking about him

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[ardentpoop]

"same circumstances, I wouldn't" was such an iconic sam line to me after this episode aired. especially because a lot of people hated it :)

what sam means: I would never rob you of your agency by using whatever dangerous means I have available to prevent you from dying even when you clearly express that you're ready to; by using your love for me to manipulate you into being violated by a strange being and then lying to me abt it every day for weeks until the situation spun out of control and you had no choice but to come clean.

what dean hears: I wouldn't move heaven and earth to bring you back from the dead and keep you here with me, which means I don't love you anymore you pathetic piece of shit

[kyouka-supremacy]

BUNGO STRAY DOGS ANIME GUIDEBOOKS

[meteortrails]

law and luffy are just like. what if I saw you at the peak of your miracle working competence, and then the literal next time I saw you it was at your most isolated and broken. and what if that moment of seeing you alone and grieving and terrified was the moment where I decided you were someone worth keeping, someone who I personally cared about and wanted around. how does that not make you wanna lose your fucking mind.

and then the other thing on top of that which always gets me is the way that you can just so clearly see that neither of them has any idea how to fit this relationship into any preexisting context - Luffy calls him part of his crew, but law is the captain of his own crew and would clearly die before giving that up; law calls them allies but it is glaringly obvious that they care about each other in a way that goes beyond that. of course Luffy is generally a lot less bothered about this than law, who routinely wants to put his own head through a wall about it, but it’s just such a fun layer to their dynamic I think.

[last-in-line-for-hell]

Time Passes

[tianhai03]

some re8 doodles ive done in the past two days

bonus: (featuring dante from the devil may cry series)

[sergle]

I'm listening to a lot of Maintenance Phase (bc I love it) and this comes up sometimes, so I'll just be sat here thinking about how common it is for little kids to grow up watching their moms and other women in their life jump from diet to diet. Just as ambient background noise in your childhood, the adults around you obsess over calories aloud, express guilt over eating enjoyable food, frame exercise as a form of punishment for eating, and so on.

[manichewitz]

i dont think yall understand how floored i was when i found out that the interview with the vampire books are actually incredibly erotically gay for real and not just light queercoding or fan's gay ships?? bc this changes everything. i had always assumed anne rice hated fanfic authors for making her male characters fuck, but no, she just wanted to be the only author making her male characters fuck

[krysmcscience]

The Lamb is malicious in a funny way and the Goat is funny in a malicious way. No, I will not elaborate.

Anyway, everyone give thanks to the Lamb for interrupting what was sure to be a very boring and patronizing PSA from their grouchy cat hubby. Truly, they are doing God's work. Granted, the Lamb canonically is God now, so, uh. Mostly they're just doing their own work.

Speaking of their grouchy cat hubby, yes this is absolutely still Narilamb, Narinder is 100% into his goofy-ass spouse always no matter what and we all know it, he just wasn't expecting his brand new adopted kid to share the same single goofy-ass brain cell as the Lamb. :)

[spitblaze]

I will say this once because I'm tired of seeing stupid discourse: anti-transmasculinity is not about being treated bad because we clock as men, it's about being treated as stupid little girls because transphobes think we've been tricked into this.

It's kind of the opposite of transmisogyny- instead of fear and revulsion, it's constant condescension, the implications that we've been whisked away from femininity by scary bad guys, that we're going to cause 'irreparable damage' because we don't know what's best for ourselves, somehow. People fearmonger a lot about the "ugliness" of transfem people, but for transmasc people that 'ugliness' is used as a warning- you'll look like THIS! You'll go BALD! Your top surgery scars will leave you MUTILATED! A lot of aesthetic concerns. Worry about our 'beauty'. Because it comes from that same stupid reactionary 'we gotta SAVE the WOMEN' shit, but this time they have to save them from getting 'stolen away', as if we're being seduced or pressured into this. As if we can't make our own decisions.

For TERFS specifically, they're losing one of their own. We're 'gender traitors', willingly aligning ourselves with the half of the population they consider unilaterally dangerous and evil.

We aren't REALLY trans, we just want the benefits that men get. You don't actually want to transition, you're just trying to avoid misogyny.

You aren't actually a man, you're just a self-loathing lesbian.

Why can't you just be a butch girl? Why can't you just be a tomboy?

Why can't you just be something that I don't think is icky?

Anyway. Like all things, it boils down to misogyny. Women stupid and gentle, dont know what best for them, evil men trick into taking man juice, must save because lady stupid and dont know what best for them (having babies and being Feminine).

Theres like. Obviously more to this but I'm just a Transmasc Rando explaining this from my perspective, and I'm not the best with words. Anyone is free to hop in and add on to this

[starheirxero]

I love you Eclipses with multiple arms. I love you Eclipses that can retract or add more at will. I love you Eclipses who stole their extra arms from other people. I love you Eclipses who were made with multiple arms to wrangle more kids. I love you Eclipses who have multiple arms because they aren't entirely animatronic.

I love you Eclipses with multiple voices. I love you Eclipses who stitch together clips of other people speaking to communicate. I love you Eclipses who speak with a layer of heavy static. I love you Eclipses who speak only in video game sound effects. I love you Eclipses who don't speak at all.

I love you Eclipses with a red/black/orange color scheme. I love you Eclipses with a yellow and blue color scheme. I love you Eclipses with a purple color scheme. I love you Eclipses with a black and white color scheme. I love you Eclipses with a glitchy handful of colors.

I love you Eclipses who hate Sun and Moon. I love you Eclipses who love Sun and Moon. I love you Eclipses who have a messy relationship with Sun and Moon. I love you Eclipses who are Sun and Moon.

I love you Eclipses who bite and snarl. I love you Eclipses who are cold and calculating. I love you Eclipses who are scared and anxious. I love you Eclipses who are silly and whimsical. I love you Eclipses who are ominous and unsettling.

I love you Eclipses who sink their claws into everything out of a fear it will leave. I love you Eclipses who believe they've never done anything wrong. I love you Eclipses who actually have never done anything wrong. I love you Eclipses who were made to fail. I love you Eclipses who deserved better.

I love you Eclipses <3

[isalabells]

Edin Terzić, Head Coach of Borussia Dortmund, embraces José Mourinho following Real Madrid's victory during the UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Final match between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid CF at Wembley Stadium on June 01, 2024 in London, England.