#skarloey is like there too i guess

[skarloeyspa]

aye it be 2/2 again

i did this in like 20 mins sowwy

[ryan1014n2]

WHAT is the extended railway series and why doesn't it seem to exist anywhere??

[anonymousboxcar]

Stanley (RWS) Time!

These are all to do with my AU series, so I guess I can’t call them headcanons, exactly. Just some ramblings. Hope you enjoy! :)

—————————————————

-In 1987, the Thin Clergyman publishes The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways. Stanley is still sore over his depiction in the RWS, so he turns his nose up at it. But Duke greets him at the sheds one night with a copy, saying he might want to read a certain passage.

-The passage is about him. And this time, it’s right. His name, his improper re-gauging, his history — all of it.

-It turns out the Thin Clergyman wanted to make things right. Stanley is surprised but also touched. After some thought, he reaches out to thank him for the corrections… and to forgive him. The Thin Clergyman’s done his best to make amends and match his good intentions with his actions. That’s enough for an engine long weary of grudges and wasting time.

-Following Stanley’s lead, the other SR engines begin speaking to the Thin Clergyman again. While awkward at first, things smooth over. The man spends his final years a friend of the railway once more.

-Once he sorts out his new life, Stanley finds he and Duncan get along like a house on fire. They share a “coarse” sense of humor and a tendency to say things as they see them. If allowed to do so, they’ll spend hours watching Duncan’s tapes of George Carlin. “Unlike you lot, he gets it!” Duncan snaps at everyone else when they complain.

-But as he also points out in private, it does Stanley good to laugh. It’s the kind that leaves him wheezing like he’s out of water, too happy to even speak. It’s the laugh of someone who didn’t have much of a chance to do so before.

-When the others notice Stanley seems more at ease after these watch sessions, they agree. Rusty shoots Duncan knowing smirks that he endures with minimal grumbling.

-Speaking of Rusty, I’ve decided that my joke in “Straddling The Lines” about poker night does come to pass: They and Stanley do wind up joining Duke, Rheneas, and Skarloey on said evenings! There’s no such thing as teams in poker, but they cheer each other on as “fellow youngsters” when given the chance.

-They practice their poker faces in advance, sometimes making a game of it: whoever goes the longest gets to delegate their tasks for the day. Rusty appreciates doing something other than maintenance work every now and then, and Stanley needs his breaks from goods and demanding passengers. (The Thin Controller sees this helps their productivity and allows the adjustments to the schedule.)

-For a short while, Stanley is a bit starstruck by Skarloey and Rheneas. Even in his MSR days, their reputations as wise, brave, and kind engines were known to him, as they were to every engine on Sodor. After his rescue from the mine, he also learns about their heroics in the SR’s tough times.

-Seeing them bicker, tease, and swear at each other helps bring Stanley back to earth. So does their gentleness towards him, which eases any lingering anxieties of his.

-Rheneas appreciates Stanley’s frankness while encouraging him not to take on too much, to know he’ll always have others to help with burdens. Skarloey delights in Stanley’s refusal to put up with anyone’s foolishness, noticing when he gets a bit too angry and offering his own experience in managing a short temper.

-Duke and Stanley work to find their rails with each other. Neither of them want to go back to their MSR dynamic, but anything else takes more time to puzzle out. It doesn’t take long at all, though, for their nicknames of “youngster” and “old timer” to stick.

-They banter about the local news and politics, pull the occasional train together, and commiserate over their shared experiences in feeling “out of time,” after being lost for years. Duke refuses to give up his poker secrets, but Stanley swears he’ll get them out of him one day.

-They’re friends, but also mentor and student. They’re Duke and Stanley, and they get along. That’s all that matters, they decide.

-Peter Sam’s optimism is of a balm to Stanley after years of hopelessness. He’s also grateful for advice in pulling coaches. He tries to repay this by teaching him some of the working songs he picked up in America, as well as by reassuring him when he’s unable to keep from feeling low. Peter Sam appreciates this to no end.

-Sir Handel is boastful, but has immense respect for Stanley and so shows off… which he denies as Stanley teases him for it. They squabble over silly things but would bash anyone’s buffers for each other. Sir Handel also introduces Stanley to Gordon, which somehow goes both much worse and much better than expected.

[cleothebeo]

Sequel.

In the land of 𝙨𝙤𝙙𝙤𝙧, there are seven narrow gauge engines who work in the blue Mountain quarry, and The Skarloey Railway, Their names are: Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty, Duncan, and Luke, They had been working in the blue Mountain quarry and Skarloey Railway for a long time.

But these months, 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙩.

There were a lot of trucks they had to pull, Some had broken down from pulling too much, Some were complaining about the extra work and late work hours they had to do.

They all are exhausted everyday, They loved their jobs, but there were too much! So Mr Percival decided to do something..

𝘽𝘼𝘾𝙆 𝙄𝙉 𝙇𝙔𝙉𝙏𝙊𝙉 𝙍𝘼𝙄𝙇𝙒𝘼𝙔..

"Oh, Shush Merlin!" Merlin's twin, Acorn spoke.

"It's true! If you stay on the turntable when there's a windy storm, then it will spin!" Merlin said.

"I don't think we're even ALOUD to work at windy days.." Said Acorn.

Merlin was about to speak, until Acorn's and Merlin's Driver came

"Hey, Acorn and Merlin!" Dillon, Acorn's driver said.

"Oh, Hey Dill! What's up?" Said Merlin.

"Acorn's gonna work at a island called 'Sodor', and on a railway named 'The Skarloey Railway', and 'The blue Mountain quarry'." Neil, Merlin's driver spoke.

"Skarloey Railway? Is it like Talyllyn Railway? Since Skarloey and Talyllyn are well known twins.." Acorn questioned, raising a brow.

The drivers nodded in sync.

"Wait.. What about me?" Merlin asked.

"Sorry Merlin, Your not coming."

"But.. Acorn's my twin! He's never been out of Lynton before, Where is he supposed to go?!" Said Merlin.

"Don't worry, a standard gauge will pick em' up."

"Oh.. Well.. I guess this is goodbye, Acorn." Said Merlin sadly, as Acorn frowned.

"Yeah.. I guess it is.. But, Our drivers can send letters to each other, right? And tapes, We can still keep in contact." Said Acorn, trying to lighten his twins mood.

"Yeah, but don't you 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 forget me!"

"Forget you? I won't forget you, Merlin, We have grown up together, worked with each other, and bond with eachother everyday! There's 𝙣𝙤 way I would forget ya!" Acorn said.

Merlin looked at Acorn, and smiled.

"I won't forget ya too, now come on! Let's get workin' before you go!"

Merlin said, making Acorn smile brightly, and they went along with their day, working and shunting, pulling and hauling.

Until.. The standard gauge loco came.

The standard gauge seemed to be a Little River Railroad 4-6-2 No. 110, painted in a sapphire blue colour.

"Hello, Merlin! Hi Acorn!" Said the engine.

"Hello, Casper..!" Merlin and Acorn said in sync.

"Are ya ready for a new adventure, Acorn?"

"I'm sure am!" Acorn said, before looking at his brother who'd smile sadly.

"Well, This is goodbye, Acorn, I don't think working here will be the same without you.."

"..i'll miss you." Merlin continued sadly.

"I'll miss you too, but things never stay the same, don't they?" Replied Acorn who looked at his brother with sympathy, he felt bad for Merlin.

"..yeah.." Merlin mumbled.

"Don't forget me, okay? And, even if I'm far away, I'll 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 be your twin." Acorn said, before smiling softly at Merlin, who did the same.

Acorn was loaded up into the flatbed, And he whistled his whistle at his brother for the 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚, as his brother did the same, and they set off into the sunset.. Heading off to a new adventure..

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Edwards exploit?

It's one of my favourite Edward story's next to old iron.

Hmm, sometimes I prefer “Old Iron” myself, at least so far as TVS goes ♥ (that long tracking shot over the bridge is friggin’ gold, man.)

But only in TVS. Story-wise, while both are great, there's just a little extra something going on in this one...

So many people have noticed the similarities between those two stories, of course, and indeed you can throw in Edward’s introductory arc too—this story doesn’t really break new ground in the Edward-proves-himself genre. And with it, the genre is DONE. Okay y'all? DONE. NO MORE. FIND ANOTHER PLOT. YES, SHOW WRITERS OF YEARS PAST, I AM TALKING TO YOU. Nor is the “exploit” really any more impressive than “Old Faithful” and “Gallant Old Engine,” which in RWS actually come before this story, and in which the stakes were higher.

And yet I still feel like “Exploit” is in a league of its own, and judging from its insane popularity I’m not the only one who feels that way.

At least one thing that sets this story apart, something I’ve come to really treasure: The feat is such a group effort. The crew’s contribution in “Faithful” and “Gallant” was mostly to get out once the train stopped, do an examination, and pronounce, Huh. You’re broken. And we're stuck. *awkward pause* Soooo, uhh… whatcha got, hotshot? And it was really all down to Skarloey and Rheneas. Whereas in this story the main character’s willpower alone is not enough, and the crew had to contribute their own talents. More than once, actually. True teamwork. So, like, yes, this is a story about perseverance, it’s a story about beating the odds, but it’s not only about that. This time at least (for we’ve seen that old theme in RWS before—many times) there’s also something about it that moves me in a similar way to the Henry arc.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this story also shows something important about disability. If your only takeaway here is “Edward is an inspiring badass,” it’s not that you’re wrong, but there’s more. Specifically—he could not have done it without help. Even with the help, he could have done it but it would not have necessarily been a triumph. I mean, this could have easily been a story about a stubborn, in-denial old git finally learning his limits the hard way and limping back home, shamed and beaten and probably damn sure never taking another “important train” ever again. In fact it could very easily be this sort of story, given the big engines’ gossip at the beginning and, at the end, good ol’ STH being on hand and proper pissed off about the extreme lateness.

Why isn’t it an L? Apart from the meta that Edward is a ray of sunshine and one of Awdry’s favorites? Mostly it’s because of the passengers—so let’s give them props, too. They had all the power to define this narrative! But instead of being put out and caught up in their own inconvenience when stranded in the middle of nowhere during a wild dark wet rainstorm, they had the sense to notice and appreciate the efforts of engine and crew. Instead of stropping out onto the platform and complaining, they celebrated and thanked everyone. Whether this incident was a disgrace or an “exploit” is really all a matter of perspective. Hell, they literally changed STH’s!

And, of course, we see it as a triumph because of the way Awdry frames it. Do we always see it that way in real life, though? I hope so. I wish we lived in a world where the need for aid and accommodation does not invalidate what we do. I wish we lived in a world where the disabled or old or sick or just the plain not-as-gifted were always respected rather than disparaged due to the fact that it may take them three times as much trouble and effort to accomplish things that are easy to others.

But let’s be honest: we don’t live in that world. We’re a long ways from it. And while there are lots of RWS stories that inspire us to persevere and to press on and to do our best and to never give up… “Exploit” really hits me in the heart because it also portrays how the need for others’ help and for adjusted expectations isn’t shameful at all, in fact it shows me how interesting and impressive it is when people (people and, I guess, the occasional sapient locomotive) work together in complementary ways—not to mention, it portrays how much more exciting life is when we show each other genuine, unstinting grace.

[nickywhoisi]

Okay, now I would like to put in my general headcannons and worldbuilding for my envisioning of humanoid!TTTE Let's go!

ALL THE ENGINES

Their body types are human, but their bodies are made of solid metal and iron, all the things that make up a train would be utilized/rekajiggered into anatomically correct versions of body parts. I wouldn't really know the specifics of that because I'm not a train expert orz There are slight lines that they all have on their exterior bodies which imply jointwork and plating, but the rest stretches and bends as if it were flesh. Their inner bodies also have a main gut/stomach that is their furnace, and it remains unchanged in how that works, just that the engines can eat coal and stuff exclusively with their mouths.

They are ONLY humanoid, this universe does not have engine forms to go into as they are already like mini giants...giving them a train form wouldn't actually work out as well, since they would be way too large to fit on the tracks! I know, doesn't seem to make sense for a train fandom, and the fact that these golem people seem to work as the trains but dress up as drivers, yet they have no trains to fit into? uhhhhh just consider this a fledgling universe for now I'll work out the kinks maybe retcon things if it doesn't work so well it's still in the drafts uhhhhhh shit whaddo i do now

The sizes and shapes of how they are in canon translates to their body types in this universe. For example, Percy is a small engine, so he would be little, but Skarloey and any other engine smaller than him would be even tinier. And while the squatter you are to your own golemy kind isn't so neat, they are on average 7 to 8ft. So if you were 6 or 5, then you would be within normal human size anyway! But it seems like the bigger you are, the wider reach you may have, which is more favourable in their culture. Not so much about height as it is about the most capability; being useful. The tender engines would have larger frames, very thick and muscular like Henry or Gordon, or they can be slender and athletic like James or Edward. Then the diesels would be large too, but also with a stockier shape to reflect their overall square shape feeling.

The steam-diesel rivalry still exists of course, but it's a little harder for the untrained eye to tell who is what type of golem. The only way to spot the difference is when they're so mad they're physically fuming about something; steamies blow usual puffs of steam, diesels blow out their dark chemical smog. And electric? I was gonna say nothing, but the idea that they produce small electric charges around their heads is way more interesting! I don't remember if anybody said there were electric train characters, but just to be inclusive and just to be sure...

Almost all of the story beats from the model series is what I infuse the most of into my rendition of the cast. Of course it's not limited to, as I'd love to find inspiration from the railway books and cgi series, it's just that I've only ever experienced the model show and movie. So I guess that would be the Britt and HiT era? They are basically them, but with leggy to stand up. and arms to finally hug trees and hold up mirrors isn't that right henry n james hoohoohoo

The Magic Railroad story exists here as a "world arc", but possibly with different human characters (I am inspired by the cryptic but grounded old man from Blue Snowplow's Hawin the Lost Blue Engine mystery thriller series. Go have a watch it's really good!), and after that biz, Lady and D10 would be mainstays. Because I grew up with that dorky little movie. Speaking of, I really prefer the characterization of the engines from the amazing movie parody by MrConductorFan1406, give that a watch too, it's such an adorable love letter that will also leave you in laughing fits. In fact, it was the very first Thomas movie I ever knew about, so it's special to me. So I emulate a bit of their personalities into my verse's version. While Lady is less involved than others, D10 takes a very active approach to a lot of things. He does not actually stop trying to destroy Lady's magic, he's just plotting how to do it and biding his time.

will add more to this post later, I am sadly getting sleepy...why body must you betray me at my finest hour...at least when I typed this last night, but now I am still bleary like that and I have to work hard at things today. dear god it never ends.

[joezworld]

📁

Specifically, any headcanons of the Sodor Engines interacting with the internet, or the internet in general?

For some reason, I’d imagine that podcasts and the like are popular among vehicles in general.

That is a question that I've been working on for some time - because I'm workshopping my own Tornado headcanon (and boy oh boy does she use the internet a lot) - but I have some ideas for the Sodor engines as well: 

Henry is probably the most "plugged in" engine on the island, weirdly enough. One of his drivers gave him an iPod back in the early 2000s, and kindly preloaded it with a bunch of torrented music.

 BTW, that works because all the engines are now equipped with automatic train warning systems, and the little on-board computer has a USB port - as a nice side effect it allows music players to work with the engines in the same way as bone-conducting headphones do. The computer also acts as some kind of computer interface, which I am not going to explain how that works because Jesus Christ I don’t know how it does either.  

 Henry has managed to upgrade his iPod a few times since thanks to hand-me-down units from NWR staff, so he eventually got his buffers on a wifi-enabled iPod Touch and now downloads new music from the station wifi. He does listen to podcasts, but as every other engine will tell you, you could show Henry ten thousand new and exciting songs from the best artists in the world, and his top ten played songs are still going to be Genesis, Phil Collins, and Yes. Bear considers it a win that he managed to convince Henry to regularly listen to Rush after a mere twenty years of convincing. 

 Mavis and Daisy listen to a very interesting program called The News, because as stated elsewhere, they invest a shitload of money and need to be on top of things. Thomas and Percy wish that Daisy would use headphones or something similar to that, instead of listening to Bloomberg TV at loud volumes in the middle of the night. Toby frankly doesn’t mind, as it’s very nice to be kept up-to-date on the outside world.  

In a move that surprises no-one, Bill and Ben have a podcast where they talk about whatever they think about at that moment - usually horse-racing, investing, and clay mining. As such, they have a wide audience, almost none of whom know that they’re that Bill and Ben, as their podcast is audio-only.  

 In an also unsurprising move, Edward and BoCo have been made very much aware that Bill and Ben have a podcast, but are still unsure as to what the hell a podcast is, despite being frequent guests on it.  

Of the main line diesels, only Bear has shown any real interest in the internet, and was immediately put in charge of the Amazon Alexa when a unit was installed in the diesel shed. He also has an iPod that he got for Christmas a few years back. (The NWR has a very good personal  electronics recycling program called give it to Henry, he’ll make use it.)  

Bear does listen to podcasts as well as music, but his choices are so insufferably boring that even Henry refuses to listen to them. (I don’t really listen to podcasts - despite making one - so insert the most boring podcast you can think of here.) 

 As for other internet uses... 

Gordon is very up-to-date on the newest social media trends - somehow - but only really cares when he is involved. He won’t admit it, but he’s been trying to figure out how to work a camera/selfie stick for some time so he can start up his own Instagram account. So far he has been unsuccessful, but one day he will manage it. 

 James has had an ongoing feud with his own Wikipedia page for about a decade now. The article sourced most of its information about his construction off of some out-of-print book about the L&Y. The book in question is accurate about James’ class, but not James himself - as he was a prototype engine. There’s no other primary sources available, so the very dedicated Wikipedia mod who created the page won’t change it - no matter how much James complains that he was there! He knows what happened! 

Every now and again a TTTE fan blog/tumblr will make a post about hypothetical “ships” of the Sodor engines. Most of the time it’s shipping the core characters like Gordon and Henry, much to Gordon’s bafflement and Henry’s amusement! 

Only one blog (a ttte fan tumblr by the curious name of @mean-scarlet-deceiver  ) has gotten it right. Henry actually reached out to congratulate this blogger, but was unfortunately mistaken for a very dedicated roleplay account.  

James is very annoyed by these blogs, as they have never once correctly guessed who he is “shipped” with! He has tried several times to be seen in public with Delta, but these events have never gone as planned - the “best” instance is when Edward rolled by at exactly the wrong moment, leading to months of speculation that JamesxEdward was the ship to look out for! 

Thomas, being a generally oblivious sort of engine, was totally unaware of the online fan community around the TV show until he started getting actively harassed by vloggers and Instagrammers in the early 2010s. He’s fine with it now, but it was a deeply unusual experience for most of 2012.  

Toby has developed an unexpectedly popular following on social media following his collab with Stormzy. His official twitter is huge now, with over a million followers, even if he has no idea what to do with it. He posts rarely, but usually manages to make an incredible post when he does.

No-one is sure who told Oliver what a “fan-production” is, but if you manage to get ahold of him for any period of time and ask him nicely, he will lend his voice to your TTTE fan-project, so long as it isn’t about [INSERT TERRIBLE SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIEW(S) HERE]. This means that he has 100% voiced dramatic readings of NSFW Fanfics before, which is always an absolute riot to spring on people unannounced.

There is a series of slice-of-life TTTE fanfics on Ao3 that have been written with such accuracy and innate railway knowledge that people are sure it was written by a Sodor engine, but nobody knows which one.

The Culdee Fell Railway has very active Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts, with all of the engines and coaches showing up regularly. It’s about the closest any of the railways on Sodor have come to what those outside the UK would call “normal locomotive social media”.

The Skarloey Railway has social media accounts too, but they don’t really feature the engines in any meaningful way, instead being used as a normal service announcements page.  

 The SR is a real working railway that doesn’t rely on tourism money as much as the others do, so they get a bit of a pass here.  

 The Arlesdale Railway has Twitter and YouTube, which didn’t usually get a lot of hits until 2020, when Ivan and Amanda Farrier started badgering the staff to make some videos just to alleviate some boredom. So far the most popular videos on the channel are a front-mounted camera video of the entire line slow-tv style, Bert explaining how steam engines work, and a video of Mike complaining about Justin Bieber for a solid half-hour.  

 That’s about it as far as Sodor goes, but before we’re done, I want to take a moment to talk about Tornado, because I have some fun ideas for her... 

First of all, we need to establish that Tornado is very young. Her construction only started in late 90′s, and she was steamed to life in 2000, putting her firmly into the “Zoomer” category. Add in the fact that she was built by a bunch of old men who didn’t really know how to treat a new engine, and she was raised much more like a human than a locomotive - I’ll get to this much more in the proper Tornado Headcanon post, but what this means here is that when social media started being a thing in the mid-to-late 2000′s, the people at the A1 Trust decided that they needed a young person to run things like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace... and, well, Tornado was the youngest person in the trust by a large margin.

I should state here that in the rest of the world, locomotives are on the internet at roughly the same level as humans are, so there’s plenty of equipment to connect a phone/computer/camera to an engine - being English, the A1 Trust didn’t know how common it was, but they managed to get it up and running just the same.

 So Tornado has very quickly become attuned to the internet, just like any other teenager would. (yes, let’s let that settle into our minds for a moment - Tornado is barely old enough to drink in the US!) Quite naturally that means that she knows social media inside and out, and is actually quite a proficient social media manager for the trust, managing all of their social pages. More than one person who has complained about the trust on twitter has unknowingly been complaining to Tornado herself! 

 “On the internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog Engine”. 

 Tornado has her own personal social media accounts too, but most/all of the time she gets mistaken for a very dedicated role-player, as the general perception of British Locomotives is that they don’t tweet. This has resulted in some amazing reactions from podcast hosts (because, as you might expect, Tornado is very knowledgeable about steam traction in the 21st century, and tweets about it often, so train podcasts want to talk to her) when she gets invited onto video calls, turns on her webcam, and is met with screams from people who suddenly realize that her profile picture is accurate.  

 By far the best instance of this is when she was invited onto a video call with a railfan podcast. She was at the NRM at the time and managed to convince them to let her use their Skype setup. A wide-angle lens was needed because she was on the turntable in the Great Hall, so that podcast quickly got sidetracked when her webcam was turned on and revealed Tornado, with Mallard, Evening Star, City of Truro, and Green Arrow visible behind her. Whatever the original topic was quickly got thrown out in favor of a 2-hour Q&A with some of the most famous engines in the UK. 

[houseboatisland]

Falcon/Sir Handel

“Everyone, EVERYONE knows I’m a catch! AND a gentleman, too! Just ask those fetid cracker boxes this railway calls coaches!”

💞✨ OTP ✨ 💞:

Him and Freddie.

I love the idea of Fearless Freddie being the one engine capable of of cracking his grouchy pseudo-aristocrat exterior. In their youth on the MSR, the then-named Falcon saw Freddie as what we today would call “a hunk,” strolling heroically away with the heaviest lead trains or expresses to the port.

Needless to say, Sir Handel was jumping with joy on his steamroller wheels for several weeks after he and Freddie were reunited. (Not that he LIKES him or anything…….😡)

Other Ships That Are 👌:

He and Duncan I think would make a good pair of grumpy old men.

Their dates involve complaining about the quality of coal they’re served, complaining about the quality of the track they have to run on, complaints about overwork, etc., and they do it 🌈together🌈.

Interesting But Fence 👀:

He certainly seemed to idolize Skarloey at the end of “Four Little Engines,” but I guess that was only because Awdry pictured it being the Skarloey Railway’s only book at the time of writing. When he realized he was back to writing after “The Eight Famous Engines,” Sir Handel’s gained maturity evaporated. We can explain this away however by calling it regression, or maybe Sir Handel never grew at all, and was only being puppy-dog eyes innocent.

Either way, anything he had for Skarloey dissipated when he saw how quickly the old engine was ready to take defend the coaches over him. They could have him, Sir Handel decided after that, and he’s since gone to pretending this crush never happened.

Just as well, too. Skarloey never would’ve taken him, and working together for decades after that would have been uncomfortable for everyone.

Better As Friends 😊:

Him and Peter Sam.

They’re more like brothers than mere friends, and let’s face it, Peter Sam struggles to tolerate him enough in THAT capacity.

Meh 😑 / Overrated :

Don’t have anything to put here.

It Happened Once In A Dream 🌑 (or AU 🤔):

Sir Handel once dreamed he had become standard gauge, allowing him and Gordon to be together at long last.

He woke up enraged that it hadn’t happened, and had the nerve to treat Gordon like he had anything to do with it when he next saw him.

That’s right! Sir Handel has an unrequited crush on Gordon. I don’t know who got off luckier to have avoided it.

If I Had to Put Them in a Polycule 💗:

Him, Freddie and Skarloey, provided the latter two make a better engine out of him. (They would fail.)

NOTP 😤:

Might as well put him and Peter Sam here, too. Same with Duke. No, just… no.

[brain-dead-killjoy]

Hey People! This is kinda a wtf moment, well for me at least. So, I was thinking about race and Thomas the tank engine, like do the engines Is this character White, Black, Asian or another race? Do they have a race since they just have accents that indicate where there from because their faces are all grey.

Gordon:

Well Gordon is just voiced as English, that doesn't immediately make him any race. He's just an engine, no race. I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Thomas:

Well Thomas is just voiced as English, that doesn't immediately make him any race. He's just an engine, no race. I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Flying Scotsman:

Well Flying Scotsman is just voiced as English, that doesn't immediately make him any race. He's just an engine, no race. (Writing He for Flying Scotsman feels awkward, I've always called the real life Flying Scotsman She) I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Diesel:

I can't overly remember how he's voiced but he's just an engine, no race. I never categorised him into anything other than a diesel.

Emily:

Well Emily is voiced as English, that doesn't make her any race. She's just an engine, no race. I never categorised her into anything other than a steamie.

Skarloey:

Well Skarloey is based off of a Welsh engine (Talyllyn to be exact), that doesn't immediately make him any race. He's just an engine, no race. I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Rheneas:

Well Rheneas is based off of a Welsh engine (Dolgoch to be exact), that doesn't immediately make him any race now. He's just an engine, no race.I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Now here's where I get confused. There are a few engines who aren't British that came to mind and their the ones that kinda confused me.

Victor:

Well Victor apparently is Cuban, I had to Google that cause I don't think they actually said it anywhere. Victor, from what I remember, said he came from far away, he never specified a country. He has an accent but else wise I never saw any other indicators for him being different to the other engines. I never categorised him into anything other than a steamie.

Hiro:

Well Hiro is apparently Japanese, I actually didn't have to Google that for once. Like Victor, Hiro, from what I remember never said where he came from, though unlike Victor, Hiro had a sort of flash back-ish story thing that kinda showed Japan. Also Hiro has a different eye shape too the other engines in the island and he has an accent. Though truly as a kid he was just categorised as a steamie.

Nia:

Well Nia is apparently from Kenya, thank you Google. I wasn't watching any new Thomas the tank engine when she was first introduced, so, I don't overly know how she was introduced but from the jist I got Mattel wanted to expand Thomas by modernising, aka booting Edward and Henry from the show to make room in the steam team for more female characters, and making Thomas travel the world. To me Nia seems very stereotypical, when Victor and Hiro didn't. She also seems like she was added in a hurry.

Now too be honest I don't see the point in the race thing when it comes to Thomas the tank engine cause literally their not human you can only say something from their voice and their face. But you do you I guess.

[skarloeyspa]

While You Were Away

Saw a "make a story" tweet and was like why not so this is the result. Based on the Seven Years Later AU by @ryan1014n2, here you go bestie I hope I didn't mess up your characterizations too much. Formatting was a bit awkward for this one since I'm still inexperienced when it comes to this platform, so apologies for that lol.

Warning for self-deprecating talk, Skarloey gets recurring nightmares and at one point hints toward no longer wanting to be around, there are parts where this is written in 2nd person, but the role "you" play isn't really integral to the story. General warning for grief as well since this is a bit of an unprofessional exploration of its five stages, I personally have not experienced grief from a deceased person so this might not be the best depiction.

While helping declutter the director’s office, you found an old wooden crate with several envelopes, browned from age. The envelopes were addressed to some workshop in Wales, but no mention of a receiver, nor a person to return to should the envelope become lost. There was no stamp on the envelopes, no glue to keep them sealed, only a date in the corner. Within the envelopes you found letters, written by someone who hadn’t had the best penmanship. Curious, you decided to read through the letters by date.

Dear Brother,

Driver said it would be a good idea for me to send you letters while you are away, and I thought it would be nice to keep you posted about the railway, so I hope you’ll have time out of your busy day to hear from me. How are you? How’s your overhaul going? I still don’t know why they thought it was necessary to send you all the way to the Mainland, but at least that means you’d be getting the best care there is, right?  I’m doing alright, it’s a bit lonely here without you, but it’s not as if driver lets me be alone much, so don’t you worry about me. Your driver’s been swapping out with mine with you gone, and the stories they tell me are just hilarious! How come you’ve never told me about the time you had to stop abruptly because a cat jumped out onto the tracks? Your driver said he spilled his morning tea all over your cab, and I didn’t even hear a word of complaint from you. By the way, I had sort of a strange dream last night. I dreamt that-

An entire sentence was scribbled out. You managed to make out the word “boiler” amongst the mess. The letter continued as normal after.

-you got into a nasty accident that resulted in some serious boiler issues, so serious that you would have to be sent for a heavy overhaul overseas. Ha! Isn’t it strange? I know you’re overseas right now, but I still managed to dream of such things. But perhaps the strangest part of it all was the pit in my boiler from when I woke up, it just felt so real. I’m alright. It was just a nightmare, all engines have those. But I can’t say I don’t miss you just a little. I hope your overhaul is going well.

Much love, Skarloey

You picked up the second letter, the paper was noticeably more wrinkled than the last.

Dear Brother,

Hello, it’s me again. I haven’t heard back from you since my last letter, but it’s not like you could have read it anyway.  I got into trouble today. I was shunting some trucks in the yard and broke some loaded trucks, I spilled slate everywhere and the trucks were deemed irreparable. Mr. Sam was quite cross with me, but he didn’t punish me as I had thought. He simply made me stay in the shed for the rest of the day while those new engines ran the line. I guess I should have felt more apologetic, but those trucks had it coming. I don’t want to tell you what they said, but it was about you, and it wasn’t nice. Just-

The word seemed to be written in a rush, as a single pen stroke tore across the page as if whoever was writing this had to quickly drop the letter to handle something else. The letter continued as normal after.

Sorry, thinking about it makes me upset, driver said I shouldn’t talk about it. Oh, let me tell you about those new engines, Sir Handel and Peter Sam. They’re fine, I suppose. They kept our line running while I was kept in the sheds.  But I must say, I’d much prefer you return. Sir Handel is quite arrogant and irresponsible, and Peter Sam is so cheery it’s almost annoying. But driver didn't seem to mind, he even called me a grouch! Me!  I miss you, brother.

Much love, Skarloey

You picked up the third letter, the writing a lot more scratchy and rushed.

Dear Brother,

I had that nightmare again, remember the one I told you about in my first letter? You probably don’t, but I don’t blame you. It must have been so annoying for you to have to listen to all my nonsense, huh? I hope you’re at least getting some silence wherever you are. Sorry, about my nightmare, I hope you don’t mind my rambling once more. It’s still the same, only now it’s more clear to me what that nightmare was really about. It’s still about you, but now it’s about me as well. It was never something I made up, and now I can’t stop seeing it in my sleep. I keep seeing you over and over again, and it keeps replaying in my head. Your

The ink colour changed here, as if the writer had to pick up a new pen because the old one dried up. But the previous ink was still well-pigmented, you had a feeling something else happened that forced the writer to put down their parchment.

Incident. I could still hear that loud sound, it’s still ringing in my head whenever the night gets quiet. And every time I see piping on the side of houses, I see you. I see your 

The ink colour changed again, you realized this happens several times throughout this letter.

Broken boiler. Your piping sticking out where it’s not supposed to. I couldn’t see your face, and you couldn’t reply to me. And every time I think about it, the pit in my boiler only gets wider, and it feels like a million ants are crawling all over me, trying to dig their claws into my shell, it feels like the fire inside my own firebox is trying to burn me alive, melting away until all that’s left of me are the charred remains of my chassis. Perhaps that would have been a better fate. I wish you were here to berate me, to tell me that I’m just being silly, tell me to get back to work and to act my age. I should have noticed, I should have realized that something was wrong. Why wasn’t I more vigilant? Why did it happen to you? It should have happened to 

The paragraph ended abruptly there, with no harsh pen strokes or blotches of dripping ink, as if whoever was writing this simply decided not to write down their thoughts.

I’m sorry, I’ve just been thinking a lot these days, maybe a little too much. I keep getting this impending feeling that something would go wrong, like something would stop our trains from running or worse, shut down our railway.  And those new engines as well, Sir Handel and Peter Sam. They were fine when they first got here, but lately they just keep making small mistakes. How hard is it for an engine to stop properly at a station? And don’t even get me started about their work in the yards. Any engine can shunt, but that Sir Handel just won’t stop complaining. And I understand treating others with respect, but you can’t be too lenient with trucks, and that Peter Sam simply couldn’t understand that. Oh, but I shouldn’t be talking about them, when I’m such a wreck myself. I’m sorry, brother, that you have to hear from me like this.

Love, Skarloey

You picked up the fourth letter, written on a different type of paper entirely, small and fragile. The writing was awful, almost incomprehensible.

Dear Brother,

I keep having nightmares, every night they end the same. There’s nothing I can do, there’s no one I can go to, no one would understand. Everyone seems to have moved on already, and I should as well.  But when I think about leaving you behind, when I think about you, I just can’t. I’m so sorry, brother. I’m so sorry for letting our railway fall like this. I can’t even bare to leave my shed these days, there’s no point if you aren’t there.  There’s no point when you’re not here. 

Skarloey

You move on to the last letter, seeming much less weathered than the rest. The penmanship was also different.

Dear Brother,

Hello, it’s been a while. I hope you’re well, wherever you are.  I’m doing fine, better than the last few years. It seems that our railway is doing better now as well. You wouldn’t believe the new flowers that have started blooming at Rheneas! Oranges and reds and buds and petals, all blooming strong under the sun.  Whenever I see them, I think about you. Don’t worry, I really am better. I think about how you would have been concerned about how distracting they are for passing locomotives, but you would secretly love them yourself. I even dare say some of the bigger ones match your livery perfectly. While I was away, I think they fixed some of the old tracks around the railway. It’s so smooth I could barely even recognize it. I think it’s some well-needed change, wouldn’t you agree? Oh! Speaking of the tracks, Sir Handel was being cheeky again. He almost derailed himself at the junction again. His wheels saved him just barely, and now he won’t stop talking about them. Silly engine, he looks like a steamroller! Also, I hope you wouldn’t mind. I know you wouldn’t, but I felt this deserves to be mentioned at least once to you. I talked to your crew the other day about you. I was very happy to find that they shared similar feelings as me, albeit less strongly. It was a nice change of pace, I haven’t allowed myself to speak of this with anyone for a very, very long time.  And I know you would tell me there’s no need for an apology, but I do feel like saying sorry, maybe just one last time. Talking with your crew finally woke me up, I can’t cling on to you forever. There’s still a railway to run, with you or without. And I’ll be damned if I don’t keep our railway running till my very last puff.  So please, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine here. I’ll keep your memory alive, and I’ll do it properly this time. I don’t think I’ll write to you again, I doubt you would need a written parchment to understand my thoughts anyway. 

Thank you, Rheneas.

Much love, Skarloey

That was the last letter. With the paper still in your hand, you looked out the slightly browning window of the old director’s office. Just outside, a vermillion well tank engine and a dark blue saddle tank engine chattered, laughing about something you couldn’t quite hear. The vermillion engine laughed particularly hard at something the dark blue engine said, their eyes crinkling from joy. The dark blue engine simply smiled, with such a warm look in their eyes you could almost feel your heart melt.

The director’s voice calling your name knocked you out of your observations. You hastily returned the letters to the old wooden crate and shoved them atop an old shelf. The excitement from this morning returned, you couldn’t wait to watch the two old engines double-head their first train since Rheneas’ successful overhaul.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OKAY IT"S DONE

Hi hello thanks for making it this far I don't have much to say besides errrrr is it implied that Skarloey got someone on the railway to write the letters for him or he grew fingers and wrote them himself uhhhh I dunno that was the prompt I got so I'm just gonna roll with it

[brownsugar-chan]

I could be here all day asking questions, but uh I guess I’ll just ask about some of the narrow gauge peeps and their quirks? :3c

Skarloey and Rheneas's quirks work in tandem with each other since Skarloey can turn different parts of himself into fire and Rheneas can control it.

Sir Handel has erasure like Aizawa. As long as he is looking at a person he can erase their quirks. Though the quirks have to be transformation or Emmiter quirks.

Since I gave Sir Handel Aizawa's quirk I thought it would be fitting to give Peter Sam a quirk similar to Shirakumo's (Aizawa's friend who got killed) He can float when happy and create clouds that are dense enough to ride on.

Rusty was thought to be quirkless, turns out they're just a very late bloomer. Their quirk isn't that powerful but it helps them with their job. They're able to tell what type of material they're working with just from touch.

Duncan has Acidic blood. It's somewhere between Ashido's and Vlad Kings quirk in that he can control it if it's outside of his body.

Bertram has a minor strength quirk. He can lift about to 500-600 pounds? Too bad he gets incapacitated by the hero killer(s) 😔.

Freddie has a quirk that makes it so friction doesn't really work on him. It makes him go faster and gain momentum quickly.

Ivo Hugh's quirk basically makes him a living generator. He stockpiles energy really well and is able to use it to increase his strength and speed as well as make little balls of pink energy.

I've already explained Luke's original quirk but the one he got from the experiments makes it so that he can copy quirks permanently. Though he can only use 3 before he starts to crack and 7 before he shatters.

[anonymousboxcar]

Moving Forward AU: Romance?

(This was something I meant to have out by Valentine’s Day, but… yeah. No spoons. The silverware drawer was empty. Apologies for the lateness, folks!)

I’m pondering what romantic shenanigans Stanley might get up to in my AU. I imagine it would be years before he felt up to pursuing that kind of relationship. But once he’s had time to settle into his new normal, process his trauma, and make new friends, he might feel more comfortable with it.

One possibility I see is that he and Duncan decide to give it a try!

I like the idea of Duncan falling for this rough n’ ready, plainspoken engine who helps him not blow up over the little things in life. And for awhile, Stanley is too busy adjusting to his new life to see it. But he feels ever fonder of his grumpy friend who makes him laugh and doesn’t ask him to be patient all the time.

Once they sort themselves out, they’re not ones for extravagant gestures. They do what they did before, watching tapes of George Carlin and cracking jokes, with the new understanding between them. It’s very easygoing and comfortable for them both.

(There’s also an ongoing competition between them to call each other the most ridiculous, nauseating pet names possible.)

Another possibility: you know how there’s a notion in the RWS of engines being paired up with coaches, almost “courting” them? I like to think Stanley scoffs at this. It seems silly and quaint to him. But he’s also rejecting any closeness due to his old, ingrained fears surrounding derailments and getting somebody hurt.

And then, at the rail museum, he meets a truck.

The truck works with Stanley in his capacity as an exhibit on trench railways. They used to carry troops and supplies during WWI, though not on the same railway as Stanley’s old wartime circuit. At the museum, they haul passengers around the grounds.

They notice Stanley’s uneasiness over this business and try to reassure him: “So what if you slide off the track? I blew up once!”

“…what?”

“Well, it was a ways ahead of me in the train. Got a face full of shrapnel and a bent axle. But! Point is, I’ve had worse. I can take a bump or two.”

Full of irrepressible cheer and optimism, the truck helps assuage the worst of Stanley’s anxieties. In return, Stanley — grateful and a touch bemused — does his best to give smooth rides. This wins him the trust of the truck, who never experienced such gentleness in an unpatronizing package.

They start chatting on their runs and at the end of the day about museum gossip, guests, and their old lives. The truck shares their adventures with other trucks after the war. Stanley tells the truck about operation on a more typical railway like the SKR.

Hearing about Skarloey and Rheneas’ treatment of their coaches, the truck wonders what it’s like to be treated the way a civilian engine treats their coach. Stanley, thinking of his own struggles to fit into a “normal” railway on the MSR, offers to help. The truck accepts.

Stanley stumbles over calling the truck “dear,” as well as the other typical flowery compliments and language. He’s self-conscious and a little embarrassed by the time the day’s over.

But he’s also flustered by the warmth in the truck’s responses, their own compliments towards him. They’re not flowery, demure, nor outrageous, but honest and open.

The truck, seeing how red in the face he is, apologizes for making him uncomfortable. “You already made me feel respectable, proper-like, before I asked you to do this.”

Stanley admits he liked their compliments. “Just didn’t know what to with ‘em, I guess,” he says. “But… I really did like ‘em. Made me feel good.”

“Oh. Well, you can tell me that, if you like.” The truck looks Stanley in the eye. “You can tell me anything. I won’t laugh.”

“Not even if I ask you to keep doin’ what you did today?”

“Not even that. Though — if I’m honest? I’d like it if you kept up your end of things, too.”

So they keep at it. Their exchanges become more natural, more like second nature over time. They become mixed into casual conversation, become less about meeting expectations of engine-rolling stock relations and more about what they like in each other.

After a certain point, one curious child visitor asks for how long they’ve been married.

A pause follows. It’s long enough for Stanley to realize he isn’t surprised or confused by the child’s assumption. It’s long enough for him and the truck to make significant eye contact, to see his happiness and hope reflected back at him.

“A year,” they both say at the same time, smiling.

[littleflower-0]

“Gosh Duke, I guess we didn’t save you in time..”

“We didn’t lie when we said we’d come get you.

When we said that we’d bring you to another railway and be useful once again.

Did we take too long?

Did you give up hope?

Should we have searched harder?

Are you mad at us, for taking so long?

Oh, to imagine we disappointed you..

We’re gonna miss you, Duke.”

[end Ver. 1]

—

Both of them were speechless when they found him. The workmen who dropped in wanted to bring both Sir Handel and Peter Sam to the scene to break the news to them.

Peter Sam’s eyes teared up. He whispered his words to Duke, hoping somehow he’d hear. The engine who acted like a father for him lay here faceless. He wondered how much pain he was in and how disappointed Duke was. That night he cried in his shed, next to Sir Handel. He would for the next few nights.

Sir Handel, on the other hand, was very emotionless. This whole time he tried not to get his hopes up, but the sight of the shed before they opened the door to Duke raised hope in him. He didn’t shed anything; not a tear, frown, smile, or grimace. He just started to reverse away, leaving Peter Sam and Duke. He didn’t care about anything in the moment, he was just overcome with anger and regret. He blames himself but he lets no one know.

Skarloey and Rheneas didn’t know how to comfort the two. All they could do was act like nothing was wrong and they tried to shed the cheeriness onto the other two. This worked for Peter Sam, who continued to work. This didn’t work for Sir Handel, though, who instead became more and more rough and misbehaved. If it wasn’t for a flashback of Duke’s story of Smudger, he would’ve continued being that way.

[end Ver. 2]

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Diesel 10 for that shipping thing?? 😅

I shouldn't be allowed in anyone's inbox pff

Froggi, you are eternally valid. <3

I may disappoint you though, because despite some soul-searching I personally just don’t ship him (much).

Either he’s a hammy Big Bad, an evil bastard who does evil bastard things—in which case I appreciate the ham, but I don’t give a shit about his happiness…

… or he’s not evil, I can rationalize him on Sodor as a rather antisocial eccentric no problem, in fact lately I’ve been thinking that he’s a terribly interesting character that way—you know, the creative brooding loner aspect that @feigeroman and Saphirefox (AO3) bring out so well, but combined with his canonical ‘massive adrenaline junkie’ streak?—personally I HC that he is deeply scarred from the dysfunctional mainland diesel-vs.-steamie civil war + the dystopian job management did raising him and his class, which left him eternally prone to genuine mental breakdowns…

… yeah, like I said, fascinating. But not really conducive to him having healthy relationships. I can’t see anyone on Sodor who would be the right match for him.

Luckily, for large chunks of his life he can barely stand the idea that other people/engines/etc. exist… so he isn’t too sorry about that.

Oh yeah, also in my HC he’s just an ordinary ‘Warship,’ no major mods.

Once posters for TATMR came out, more than one engine encountered D10 to check in…

“Er, Ten? So it looks like in that movie they’re giving you this—”

“Didja see they gave me a CLAW!” *beaming because this was during one of his manic years*

“Oh, good.” *with real relief* “You heard.”

“Heard? It was my idea! Great, innit? Hatt can’t believe they went for it!”

*chuckling in appreciation—‘cause Ten certainly is a true original*

Okay, so, if I go for that second interpretation, then here’s what little I have:

💞✨  OTP ✨ 💞: Marion?

Strictly platonic. But I think they get on very well together. (Ten kills it at “Guess What’s In My Shovel.” Marion adores his witty guesses—and she has no problem at all shutting down and ignoring any of his “nonsense,” when he Gets Into One Of His Moods. She's the only one who can tell him off when he's a dick, and he'll reliably listen rather than resent her.)

Other Ships That Are 👌: His other special friendships:

‘Arry, Bert, Henry, Salty, Madge, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Harvey, Mavis, Harold

Also Ten and Smudger in Saphirefox’s ‘verse are 👌x1000… I hope there are half-a-dozen more installments

Interesting But Fence 👀: Basically, these friendships are… a bit one-sided?

all the Skarloey engines (he tries to hide it, but Ten has a thing for little guys and the narrow-gauge does just melt him), Bertie, Arthur, Nia, Oliver, Diesel, Percy, Gordon

Amazingly, with Gordon the one-sidedness is on Gordon’s side. Gordon is remarkably tolerant about at least some of Ten’s eccentricities. Given that he usually rails against Ten-sized changes, let alone genuine disruptions, to his daily life, this is an unusual degree of tolerance. But Gordon is okay with the notion that big express engines need, nay have the right, to sometimes cut loose, especially if they’re not getting regular gallops (poor engine!)

Better As Friends 😊: Molly, Daisy—in particular, I can see him and Daisy having a chronic on-again-off-again thing. Mostly off, to be honest. But it’s still as close to a functional romantic relationship as I think Ten will ever have!

Molly would be more of a one-time thing. It was sweet, really—almost too sweet for even Ten to imagine it would ever stand to be poked again.

‘Arry and Bert qualify as better as rivals, I think.

Meh 😑 / Overrated : Even with all the explanation and backstory and worldbuilding in the world, I have to confess I really can never suspend my disbelief for D10/Lady. More power to those of you who are having a ball with it, but it’s just not for me.

It Happened Once In A Dream 🌑 (or AU 🤔): Ten hates Rebecca. (There’s no particular reason; truth is, if you first meet Ten when he’s having a bad day, there’s just no coming back from it. Thomas and Philip are also on his shitlist.) However, he did once have a very, very, very steamy dream about her…

He has yet to forgive himself or her for it.

If I Had to Put Them in a Polycule 💗: This guy is incapable of handling one intimate relationship; there’s no way he’ll ever be well enough to navigate a polycule.

The closest thing I have to offer is that I ship Mavis and Salty (OTP-level, too!) Ten is one of the best versions of himself around them, and they take pity and have him third wheel a fair amount... considering that they themselves don’t get nearly as much time together as they should like.

NOTP 😤: James. In my ‘verse, they probably have the absolute worst relationship on the NWR… It’s a problem, and basically everyone knows to not leave them alone or really anywhere near each other.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

little verbal tics from rws/ttte that i love

Admittedly, I may be extrapolating one or two examples and then running waaaaaaay too far afield with them.   

But I don’t care. 

Gordon’s endearments… even when they’re patronizing (you’re little Edward, and you’re little James, and you're little Thomas, and have I mentioned lately how little everyone is in comparison to me?)… and then he also starts throwing “my dear”s around like candy in later years and AK*SJF;KJAASDKLJDAS;KJ   

similarly: Toby referring affectionately to “our Thomas.” since Toby gets a shamefully minuscule amount of screen time, I’m gonna just assume that he actually uses “our” a lot in this way, and my heart   

Henry referring to “we engines”… happens often enough that you know he’s just developed this sense of… collective identity and engine solidarity ♥ 

James and his puns… because underneath all that splendiferousness he’s just the world’s biggest dork? i guess? 😚 

Percy’s lil (actually not-so-lil) rants when he’s pissed off. the one he unloads on Toby in the TV version of “Percy and Harold” is particularly great because he just? shows up? no hello? just immediate bitching? non-stop bitching? bustling about gathering his trucks and then, still fuming, leaves without even saying goodbye—just a final gripe or two? Toby never gets a word in edgewise. We see Percy in other episodes having these salty monologues to thin air, so yeah, he doesn’t really need anyone to say anything, he just needs to vent.   

BoCo’s minimalism. You can tell from his lines that he’s quite reserved and just basically a Dude of Few Words. But damn does he make them count. Every direct quote we get from him is just so... to the point. (Starting with “These are mine. Go away.” asf;dfjk;adskfj;alskdfj KING OF CONCISION) 

Oliver is so goddamn extra. We gotta talk about this sometime. I can’t believe I haven’t rambled about this before because it’s one of my pet loves in this universe. Listen to his overdone vocabulary. Listen to his tendency to narrative-ize everything. Listen to his grasp of symbolism and irony. I blame his crew, who definitely must have read him far too much action-adventure pulp fiction and comic books, possibly during that year on the run. 

saying something “gravely” because behind your straight face you are laughing (or, in Duck’s case, basically sticking your tongue out at the big 3)… this is usually (and very frequently) seen with Edward ♥ but Duck and Skarloey have also been known to take this particular verbal tic out for a whirl. which also makes me wonder if we have a generational chain passing down this vein of humor from one mentor friend to another? Skarloey  ->  Edward  ->  Duck… one hundred years of Sudrian passive-aggressiveness. Beautiful.   

Duck using an absolutely excessive number of exclamation points. I may have to tally up his ratio of exclamations to regular statements at some point. (to be fair, I should probably also do Thomas’s at the same time, for comparison purposes)   

speaking of Thomas… “lazybones” being his most frequent (and also his most devastating) insult. pfffffttttt. Mossy, you have an Issue.   

everyone… but especially Thomas… actually for the most part it’s just Thomas and the workers: great variety of exclamations that are definitely not bowdlerized swears (this could be its own separate post)   

bonus: FC2 seems to spend the first half of his controllership wanting to laugh at something cute and hilarious his engines are doing, and trying valiantly to disguise it (coughing, turning around until he can find his stern face again). by the second half he’s somewhat relaxed and will indeed just laugh in their faces (Oliverrrrrrrr).

[joezworld]

Flesh is Temporary, Steel is Eternal. (2/5)

Sister

1967

“Don’t you have anywhere else to be?” Skarloey asked Nancy one afternoon in early summer.

“Nope!” She said, and draped herself over his saddle tank to continue reading her novel.

“Really?”

“Uh huh! All my friends are away, and mum and dad both work here, so I might as well stay here with you!”

Skarloey rolled his eyes. Nancy was too old for this to be called ‘babysitting’, but even when she wasn’t, the time for objections had long passed. She had been draping herself over himself and Rheneas for so long that The Thin Clergyman had written about it! At this point he was more used to her being around than not, and his grouchiness was growing more and more amiable with each passing month.

“What are you reading?”

“A pulp novel about a boy who is cursed by a witch to turn into a locomotive under the light of the full moon.” Nancy sounded especially sarcastic as she read the plot to him.

Skarloey stared up at her. “Really?”

“Yeah!” A hand dropped in front of his smokebox, showing the gaudy cover of the book; It did indeed feature a young man holding up his arm in horror as his hand turned into a locomotive wheel. CURSE OF THE WERE-ENGINE was printed in lurid red letters across the top of the cover.

“That is the worst book cover I have ever seen.” Skarloey said once he finished goggling at it.

“The book isn’t much better.” Nancy admitted as she retracted her arm.

“Then why are you reading it?”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t interesting. Besides, I want to see how the witch did it!”

“You want to see how to turn someone into an engine?”

“Yeah!”

“Why?”

“Becauuuseeee...” She said as she draped her entire head over the edge of Skarloey’s smokebox. “I’m curious!”

“About what?”

“About being an engine, silly!” She said as though it was totally reasonable. “I spend so much time with you and Rheneas and the others that I’m curious about what it’s like!”

“You could just ask me what it’s like.” Skarloey said, more than a little shocked at this

“Yeah, but you don’t know what it’s like to be a person, so it’d be like comparing apples to oranges - this book shows both sides.”

“What does it say then?”

“Honestly not much. The bloke is too busy being scared to actually notice anything. Typical boy.” She muttered.

“Nance” Rheneas asked groggily as he woke up from his nap. “Why do you want to be an engine?”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“I imagine a lot of people.”

“Like who?”

“You parents for one, your friends for another.”

“Eh. I’d rather be what I want to be than what they want me to be. ‘Sides, if I had to be like someone, I’d rather be like you two.”

Skarloey and Rheneas looked at each other. “Why?” Skarloey asked slowly.

“’Cause you’re brothers.” Nancy said simply. She’d clearly been thinking about this for a while, and kept talking like it had been on her mind. “And you’ve got Peter Sam and Duncan and Sir Handel and everyone else. I’ve just got me.”

Skarloey and Rheneas looked at each other again. They had no idea what being an only child was like, but evidently Nancy didn’t like being one.

“And if you turned into an engine,” Skarloey said with exceptional care. “What would that make you?”

“I dunno - your sister or something?” Nancy said blithely, unaware of the wide-eyed looks the two engines were having. “I feel like I already am sometimes, but it’s weird to say that when you two are older than my parents.”

“Well,” said Rheneas in a small voice before Skarloey could say anything. “If you ever manage that, I think you would be our sister then.”

“Okay!” Nancy said, blissfully ignorant of the emotional impact of her words in a way that only young people can be.

---

Two Years Later

It was a clear, cloudless night in July. The moon was supposed to be full and bright that night, and Skarloey and Rheneas had asked to be parked outside so that they could see it.

They were both half-asleep in the bright light of the very full moon when a dark-dressed figure came crunching up the gravel towards them.

Now fully awake, Skarloey called out to the figure. “Who goes there! Show yourself!”

“Keep your voice down!” Hissed the figured, who tore off their hat to reveal:

“Nancy!” Rheneas hissed. “What are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night!”

“I need to show you guys something,” Nancy looked strangely determined. “And it can only be done under a full moon!"

“What?”

“Look!” Nancy took this as permission to keep going, and rummaged through her bag to produce a thick, leather-bound book. “I found this in a second-hand shop on the mainland.”

“What is it?” Rheneas asked, instantly more interested in the book than in Nancy’s late night escapade. Skarloey would have whooshed steam at Rheneas to keep him focused on Nancy being out so late, but his fire had been dropped so long ago that there was nothing left.

“It’s a big book of enchantments and cantrips! Magic!” She said with excitement.

“Oh Nancy,” Skarloey wasn’t sure whether to be indignant at her or disappointed on her behalf. “Magic isn’t real!”

“I thought you’d say that,” She said quickly. “So I brought proof!”

She reached back into her bag, and pulled out a battered old school book. In the light of the moon, Skarloey could see that the book’s hard cover had words and shapes carved into it.

As the two engines watched, Nancy brought the book up to their eye level and then let go.

Instead of falling to the ballast below, the book hovered in mid-air. Skarloey watched with amazement, all objections forgotten.

“Amazing...” Whispered Rheneas, instantly very interested. “Did you learn that from the book?”

“Yeah!” Nancy exclaimed as she flipped the spell book open to a different page. “I found that and a load of other spells, but I wanted to try this one with you two!”

Skarloey was hesitant. Rheneas was not. “We’ll do it!” He cried before his brother could say anything.

Nancy squealed joyfully and knelt down between the two engines, quickly marking on their cylinder blocks with a grease pencil that she’d produced from... somewhere.

“What are you doing?” Asked Skarloey as the grease markings suddenly began to itch.

“I’m making a rune.” Nancy said, quietly concentrating as she made sure that the marks were identical.

“A what?”

“A rune - it’s a magic thing from the book.”

Skarloey wanted to roll his eyes at Rheneas and Nancy’s misplaced enthusiasm, but he looked back at the school book, still hovering over the tracks, and realized that he might be the wrong one in this situation.

Rheneas gasping broke him from his ruminations. “What are you doing?!”

What Nancy was doing was slicing both her palms open with a folding knife. “It needs blood to work!” She winced, before slapping both hands onto the runes.

Skarloey expected a wet slapping noise, and was vaguely horrified when a sharp sizzle emanated from beneath her hands instead. It sounded like Nancy was being horribly burned - even though neither of them were in steam, but she didn’t wince or cry out; if anything, it looked like whatever just happened had healed her hands, since her pained look lessened significantly.

Much to both engine’s concern, she then started reciting something in what Skarloey was certain was Latin:

“Duae familiae fiet unum,

Tenetur per metallum et sanguinem,

Fratrem in hac parte,

In lumine lunae,

Hoc autem creatus est vinculum solum potest conteram Deorum”

Her recitation was slow and methodical, and her face was deeply calm as she said it, ignoring the blood that was dripping down from both of her palms.

Rheneas looked to be somewhere on the ‘fascinated’ side of ‘horrified fascination’, while Skarloey was firmly on the other side - to the point where he couldn’t even muster up the words to tell Nancy what he thought of this macabre ritual, he was so horrified.

As she finished the string of ominous-sounding Latin, a bright light surged out from beneath Nancy’s fingers, tracing along the grease pen runes before running its way up her arms and Skarloey and Rheneas’ connecting rods. The light built to a hugely bright flash that looked like a silent lightning bolt.

When Skarloey blinked the spots out of his eyes, it was over. Nancy was lying flat on her back in the gravel a few feet away from where she started, the grease paint was gone from both engines, and when she stood up and brushed herself off, Skarloey could see no trace of the cuts to Nancy’s palms.

If one ignored the floating book, it was almost like nothing had happened.

Skarloey was still speechless from shock and horror at the whole affair, but Rheneas was somehow much calmer. “Now that the light show is over, are you going to tell us what that did?”

“Oh!” Skarloey didn’t need to see Nancy’s cheeks to know that she was blushing - the silly girl had totally forgotten to say what this spell did. “It’s suppose-”

“Hey you! What are you doing here?” The night watchman from the big railway’s works had been alerted by the bright flash of light, and was making his way across the yard, his flashlight bobbing up and down as he crossed the standard gauge rails.

“I’ll tell you later!” Nancy whispered as she stuffed the floating book into her bag and took off running up the narrow gauge line. Within a few moments, her dark clothing was swallowed up by the night, and she vanished.

The two little old engines waited until the watchman had run back to his office in the works to phone the police before speaking.

“Our sister is crazy.” Rheneas said finally.

“That’s not the word I’d use.” Skarloey muttered. “Foolish, irresponsible, worrying even, but-”

He stopped midsentence as something occurred to him.

“Rheneas, since when is Nancy our sister?”

“Since always?”

“Since always?! She wasn’t ten minutes ago!”

Both engines blinked for a moment.

“I guess we found out what that spell was supposed to do then.” Rheneas said quietly.

-

The next afternoon, Skarloey rolled into the yard after taking a train of slate trucks down from the mines. Nancy, who had been slumped bonelessly over an old chair in the shed with a magazine, hopped up and clambered up on top of his boiler without so much as a hello.

“That was an incredibly stupid thing to do last night.” Skarloey chided gently.

“I know,” Nancy said as she laid down between his funnel and dome and started reading. “Was worth it though.”

“Isn’t it hot up there? I’m still in steam.”

“Nope.”

“At some point you must really show me exactly what that book said.”

“Can you read Latin?’

“No.”

“Then I don’t think it will help if you read it.”

----

Two weeks later

It was another wonderful clear night, and Nancy was half asleep on Rheneas’ cab roof while he and Skarloey bickered over something incredibly minor as their fires died down. As much as Skarloey would complain about her sitting around idly, she did actually do odd jobs for the railroad, and had volunteered to drop the two engines’ fires once they got low enough. The problem was that this minor argument was keeping both of them thoroughly ‘fired up’ as it were, and she’d likely have to wait until the coal burned out entirely before she could clear out their ash pans.

Eventually, the argument got Rheneas in such a tizzy that he belched a gout of thick, sooty smoke out of his funnel, covering all three in a choking cloud of ash and coal dust.

When the smoke cleared, Skarloey was still blinking soot from his eyes while Rheneas spat chunks of clinker out of his mouth.

Nancy, meanwhile, had been directly in the cloud's path and was black from head to toe. She was not pleased about it.

Not that Skarloey and Rheneas cared, and the argument was quickly forgotten as they laughed themselves silly at their sibling’s predicament.

“It’s not funny you two! I just bought this jumper!” Nancy protested as Skarloey and Rheneas howled with laughter. “Aren’t you both - achoo!”

She cut herself off as she began sneezing massively from the ash in her nose. In fact, there was so much ash in her nose that it started coming out in little black puffs, which only fueled her brothers’ heaving laughter.

Skarloey could barely see, he was laughing so hard, and was therefore surprised to hear Rheneas’ voice go from mocking to concerned in the span of two seconds

“What’s wrong...” He trailed off as he opened his eyes.

What was wrong was plainly obvious - Nancy was still sneezing, but was now doing so from within an impossibly large cloud of black smoke. There was no way that it had all come from her, as the cloud was bigger than Nancy was, and was still growing with each sneeze.

By the time the cloud had grown to the size of Skarloey, neither brother was laughing any more, and were beside themselves with concern.

“Are you all right?” Rheneas called into the cloud.

“Ye- achoo! Yes! I think!” Nancy called back. “But something feels weird! Achoo!”

After a few more tense minutes, Nancy stopped sneezing and the smoke began to clear up.

Skarloey blinked once, then once more, then a third time. Next to him he could hear Rheneas quietly swearing.

“What?” Came Nancy’s voice. “What happened?”

Skarloey tried to speak, but his mouth just flapped open like a dying fish.

“What?” Nancy’s voice sounded increasingly concerned, which was impressive considering that she wasn’t even in sight anymore.

Well, she couldn’t be in sight anymore - there was an engine parked directly in front of where she had been standing, which meant that she had to be behind it.

It was a very familiar looking engine too - like if someone had taken off Skarloey’s two rear wheels and put them onto Rheneas’ frame.

“Will either of you say something!” Nancy’s voice demanded. It’s funny - if Skarloey didn’t know any better, he’d say that the engine was speaking with Nancy’s voice.

“Nancy?” Rheneas said in a small voice. “is that you?”

“Is what me?” The engine asked, its eyes darting around.

"You-you-you..." Rheneas spluttered incoherently.

“WHAT IS IT?!” The locomotive asked. A small corner of Skarloey’s mind was astounded that they hadn’t woken the other engines.

After another frantic moment, the locomotive looked down at its bufferbeam. Whatever it saw deeply surprised it, because its eyes snapped back up to look at Skarloey and Rheneas before looking back down at itself.

“Am... am I...?” It asked slowly. Skarloey felt like he was having an out of body experience - the pieces were there, but he wasn’t quite putting everything together.

“Yes!” Rheneas was quicker on the uptake. “Yes you are!”

The engine looked like it wanted to say something else, but it suddenly morphed and changed in a dark flash of movement. When it settled back down, Nancy was once again standing in the middle of the tracks.

“What?” She asked, in no small amount of shock as she patted herself down.

Seeing the engine turn back into Nancy suddenly made everything come together for Skarloey, and he tried to speak, or scream, or say something! Instead, all the words tried to come out at once and he just babbled incoherently.

Rheneas wasn’t in a much better state, and was saying something that he might have thought were words, but were actually just syllables.

Meanwhile, Nancy had suddenly stopped patting herself down, sprinted for her bag, which was hanging on a coat hook near the shed door, and flipped it over while she scrabbled for something in it. Eventually finding what she was looking for, she sprinted back in front of Skarloey and Rheneas, revealing that she was holding the same book of magic spells from two weeks ago.

Her brothers were not in any state to speak, let alone question her, and so she was able to quickly flip to the page she was looking for.

“That was not listed as a result!” She said after a minute, before carefully setting the book down on the ground and taking a few steps back. "But maybe... I switched some words around because you're made of metal. Let me try this again..."

Skarloey and Rheneas lost what little of their composure they had regained when Nancy’s form blurred once again, and the engine appeared in her place.

The engine - Nancy?! - blinked once, then blurred back to a human form. This continued back and forth several times, before Nancy, once again a person, staggered back on her heels, a look of joy on her face.

Wordlessly, she approached Skarloey and wrapped her arms around his smokebox.

“Now I really am your sister!” She said, tears beginning to stream down her face.

-

As the years went on, Nancy’s ability became normal to Skarloey and Rheneas. They had to keep it away from the other engines, because they were certain that some engines (Sir Handel, Duncan) would be unable to keep it secret, but it was not a secret that they considered Nancy to be their sister - even if nobody understood how or why!

If they had wanted to keep it a secret, then that option went out the window when Nancy’s daughters greeted the old engines as “unca Ska’oey!” and “unca ‘Neas!”

Similarly, Nancy could never pull any trains, because someone might notice, and ask where the new engine came from, but the trio were content to spend time with each other late at night when nobody was watching.

In the early 1990′s, Nancy and her husband moved to the Isle of Man for work. While they visited often, neither of them liked being so far away from their family, who all worked or went to school on Sodor, and they came back in 2002. Skarloey and Rheneas were thrilled to see her, which cemented her resolve to never leave Sodor again.

In 2013, Nancy’s oldest daughter entered the “family business”, and joined the board of directors for the Skarloey Railway. She proved to be a capable administrator, and was promoted to head of operations in after only a decade.

Even as she grew older, Nancy continued to hang around the sheds, never quite able to stay away...

-

2045

One bright summer morning, Nancy hobbled her way into the yards. Skarloey and Rheneas watched with no small amount of discomfort - age had not been kind to their sister, and she no longer moved with the grace of a young person. Coming to a stop on the tracks in front of Rheneas, she closed her eyes and morphed back into an engine.

Unlike her human form, she was just as young-looking an engine in 2045 as she was in 1969.

“That’s better.” She sighed quietly as she rested on her wheels.

“Nance?” Rheneas said quietly. “You do know that people can see you?”

“I don’t care.” She said as a wisp of steam curled out of her funnel, causing Skarloey to raise an eyebrow.

“Do you want to explain something?” He asked.

“I am old and I am creaky and I am tired of it.” She said, looking at Skarloey pointedly.

Skarloey’s other eyebrow rose, and Rheneas’ jaw dropped. “You don’t mean...”

“I do.”

The engines sat in silence for a moment - Nancy enjoying the Summer sun, while Skarloey and Rheneas digested her words.

After a while, a voice could be heard coming closer to them. Nancy’s daughter Elaine made her way across the tracks, deep in conversation on her earphone.

Although they could only hear one side of the conversation, Skarloey and Rheneas could pick up enough context clues to know that she was talking to the board about when it would become necessary to find another engine.

The two old engines eyed their younger sister - they had a feeling that this wasn’t a coincidence.

“-yes, I know that we only got Wolfgang five years ago, but traffic has increased ten percent since then! We can barely keep up with the Amazon traffic as it is. Thank god that we have Rusty back at full power after his rebuild-”

She stopped mid-stride as she looked over at the trio of engines. “Let me call you back.”

She stood there for a moment, glaring at her mother. Skarloey did not need to look at Nancy to know that she was making a face right back - the shite-eating grim was so prominent he could almost feel it.

Elaine gave up first, burying her head in her hands. “Mum, mum. We talked about this.”

“You talked about this. I ignored you.” Nancy smirked. Rheneas couldn’t hold back a gasp of laughter at his sister’s unadulterated snark.

“How am I supposed to explain this?” Elaine said, not even lifting her head out of her hands.

“I don’t care. I’m not going back.”

“What about dad? Isn’t he going to be waiting for you?” Elaine was trying to be upset and it wasn’t quite sticking.

“Your father will be waiting for me in heaven whether it’s for ten years or ten thousand. I’m staying here with my family.” Nancy wasn’t budging from her position.

Elaine drew her head out of her hands to glare at her mother again. Eventually, she admitted defeat, and threw her hands into the air. “Fine! Fine! You win! I give up!” She shouted as she stalked away towards the railroad’s offices.

She tapped her ear twice to engage another call, and Skarloey could hear her start talking to someone- presumably her sister. “Hey - she actually did it. No I’m not joking. Yeah, I’m gonna have to explain this to the board somehow. I don’t know how. Do you have the book still? Why? Because if she can do it then so can I when the time is-”

The door to the office closed behind her, silencing the conversation.

The trio of engines looked at each other meaningfully. No words were said until Duke puffed into the yards. He eyed Nancy with suspicion.

“There were two of you earlier.” The striking similarity between the three was not lost on him.

Skarloey was wondering how he was going to explain this to the normally-superstitious old engine when Nancy spoke up.

“For shame, Duke!�� I go to the works for a month and you forget all about me?”

“I’m sure I don’t know you.” Duke was unconvinced.

For once, Skarloey was the first off the draw. “Really, you forgetful old engine? You know my sister for almost a hundred years and you forget her after a month?”

“How can you forget Nancy? She’s been here longer than you have!” Rheneas chipped in, once it was clear they were just going to gaslight their colleague.

Duke stared at them, unamused. “I only know one Nancy, and she most assuredly does not...”

The surety faded from his eyes as Kitten, woken from a nap by the argument, sauntered across the rails, hopped up onto Nancy’s bufferbeam, and fell asleep once more.

“...” Duke blinked several times as he tried to reconcile his memories of Nancy not being there with the engine sitting in front of him.

“I apologize. The years must be finally getting to me.” He said quietly, and steamed into the sheds, the automatic door sliding shut behind him.

It took all of Skarloey, Rheneas, and Nancy’s strength not to dissolve into laughter then and there.