#this is a lot of words to say

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Something I feel that we (the TTTE community) have not addressed enough is the fact that Vickerstown (the real life neighborhood in Barrow that Vicarstown is based on) was built mainly to support the workers at the Vickers Shipyard across the channel in Barrow, as Barrow proper did not have the room.

One can only presume that the Sodor's Vicarstown served much the same purpose once the strangely coincidentally named shipyard across the harbor was built.

The Vickers Shipyard, it should be noted, was and is the primary Shipyard for the Royal Navy, has produced nearly all of the British nuclear submarine fleet, multiple Royal Navy flagships, and literally hundreds of capital ships for navies around the world, including battleships.

Therefore, it stands to reason that each and every one of them was built, by hand, by People Who Live On The Island Of Sodor.

Yes! Agree 100%. Underrated connection.

The joint between Vickerstown (real life) and Vicarstown (fictional) is remarkably clean, if you ignore the name and the size of the islands they are on.

I think that's one reason I've gotten so stuck on this area of "RWS research" rather than moving onto other topics. Because the longer you look into this particular topic the smarter Wilbert Awdry and all of The Island of Sodor come out looking.

Barrow attracted workers from all over even before the days of Vickers Shipyard, so Sudrians were certainly among them, moving into the town or commuting there by ferry way back into the 19th century. This connection must go way back. (It is starting to make a little more sense for the island to be represented by the Cumbrian MP.)

The Walney/Jubilee Bridge was built in 1908 but it seems to have been strictly for road vehicles. I have not been able to find whether or not the tram system ran across the bridge but I doubt it. Anyway it in no way precludes the introduction of the bridge introducing a rail link in 1915.

That there was a settlement in Vicarstown dating back centuries I don't dispute, but I reckon this etymology is a bit... post-dated. Self-serving. I headcanon they usually knew it by a different name, until Vickers arrived and started buying up and developing land. At which point it became a national point of honour to insist that Vickers hadn't named the place—they had only appropriated Sudrian history!!1!:

(It may be noted that I am deliberately spelling it as Vickerstown right now in A Hole in the Net. Because it's from Nobby's point of view and he's every inch a Barrovian—he probably has no idea there even is a competing spelling/etymology. Certainly the FR would have spelled it that way.)

Anyway. After the arrival of 'Vickerstown' company-owned housing and development dominate the area, of course, and there is no doubt that Vickers was an economic, jobs-giving gold mine for all of east Sodor. But we also know that Sudrians are very touchy about their autonomy and I reckon there was some internal strain, some conflict between economic interest and national pride. There would also have been people residing in "the town" who were not Vickers employees, too, and they might have carried the flag of resistance to the idea of being subsumed into a Greater Barrow area.

Housing in Barrow during WWI was a huge problem. Westminster launched an investigation in 1917 (if I recall the year correctly) on the danger of a workers' revolution in Barrow—they were keeping an eye on several towns regarding this issue, but only for Barrow did they feel the need to take this step. The rent inflation was insane and by the midway point in the war temperatures ran high.

That's in real life. In the RWS timeline, a rail link to the rather commodious island of Sodor would have been a great relief to everyone. Ballahoo in particular is said in IoS to be a bedroom community for Barrow. (It's a bit far away—but presumably it had empty housing already built, which was the big bottleneck. Why would it have empty housing? This implies that the town had seen a decline in population... so there are interesting details that could be filled in there about the economic history around Ballahoo...)

Interestingly, Vickers had to lay off a lot of people in the years after Armistice. This coincides with the period where the FR (and the MR, of course) are basically telling the NWR "pay up or return our stuff please, you're on your own now." The fortunes of east Sodor and Barrow that were so linked in the first quarter of the 20th century would begin to deteriorate. (That wasn't true of Walney Island, but Walney Island is much smaller and doesn't have much going on besides Vickerstown. Sodor has a bigger population and lots of other ways to earn one's daily bread.)

Now, Vickers hung on very well and is still pounding out ships to this day, so I don't doubt your proposed headcanon that the industry (largely under military contract) remains a huge factor in Sodor-Vicarstown economy.

Island of Sodor downplays this because Rev. Awdry was a pacifist and has a demonstrated history of ignoring wars as much as possible.

But I'd go further and propose that in the RWS timeline there might have been a real possibility for Vicarstown to eclipse Barrow—there comes a point where Sodor's economy seems more diversified than Cumbria's.

I wonder if the NWR-LMS Agreement was partly predicated on fears of Sodor getting too big for its britches. They didn't care if Sodor had its own railway—the LMS did great business through Sodor, and if they didn't have to bear the costs of the rail system there then all the better—but perhaps it did want to try keep it somewhat irrelevant. The lack of a depot at Vic(k)e/arstown meant fewer non-Vickers jobs based in the town, protecting Vickers' hold on the town and also shifting population and workers back to Barrow (which was otherwise emptying out fast, now that the war was over). And then, of course, the LMS insisted on keeping control of the commute into Barrow via the Norramby trains. Presumably because otherwise the NWR could have held it hostage and fucked around with it to retaliate if relations ever soured with the LMS. Or just that the LMS had an interest in regular services for workers into the mainland, an interest that the NWR might not have been able to meet on its own motive power. Remember that the LMS was not the only one involved in this deal—Westminster required Grouping and they must have also agreed to wind up overlooking the NWR. It only requires one or two Cumbrian MPs who want to protect the interest of its mainland constituents at the expense of its island constituents for the NWR-LMS Agreement to start to make a lot of sense.

(This is in complete contradiction to what was said in the latest Awdry lecture about how Westminster ignored Sodor because it was just too dang poor but that "new canon" doesn't make sense to me. You can still exploit a poor region. That's kind of the whole point of imperialism. I prefer to think that was the official face-saving narrative but the reality was that Anything to Keep Sodor Dependent and Poor While Still Giving Us Our Imports and Workers was the goal. A somewhat missed goal. Because the Sudrians are bloody creative and ungovernable, that's why.)

Anyway despite the attempts to keep Vicarstown a strictly company town and in spite of the 1925 Agreement, I think Vicarstown went on to thrive after WWII. Shipbuilding was at its heart but it did not alone dictate the town's development. That's another story, but I accept wholeheartedly that at some point we can patch in the TVS timeline whereby Vicarstown again opens a depot. The shortest version of this history? Well, part of it had to be by Sodor capitalizing on its knowledge base. The entire eastern half of Sodor is by now dominated by shipbuilders and engineers, trained for generations by Vickers and Crovan's Gate respectively. A technical education in eastern Sodor has to be a hot commodity in itself!

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[inkskinned]

i love when words fit right. seize was always supposed to be that word, and so was jester. tuesday isn't quite right but thursday should be thursday, that's a good word for it. daisy has the perfect shape to it, almost like you're laughing when you say it; and tulip is correct most of the time. while keynote is fun to say, it's super wrong - i think they have to change the label for that one. but fox is spot-on.

most words are just, like, good enough, even if what they are describing is lovely. the night sky is a fine term for it but it isn't perfect the way november is the correct term for that month.

it's not just in english because in spanish the phrase eso si que es is correct, it should be that. sometimes other languages are also better than the english words, like how blue is sloped too far downwards but azul is perfect and hangs in the air like glitter. while butterfly is sweet, i think probably papillion is more correct, although for some butterflies féileacán is much better. year is fine but bliain is better. sometimes multiple languages got it right though, like how jueves and Πέμπτη are also the right names for thursday. maybe we as a species are just really good at naming thursdays.

and if we were really bored and had a moment and a picnic to split we could all sit down for a moment and sort out all the words that exist and find all the perfect words in every language. i would show you that while i like the word tree (it makes you smile to say it), i think arbor is correct. you could teach me from your language what words fit the right way, and that would be very exciting (exciting is not correct, it's just fine).

i think probably this is what was happening at the tower of babel, before the languages all got shifted across the world and smudged by the hand of god. by the way, hand isn't quite right, but i do like that the word god is only 3 letters, and that it is shaped like it is reflecting into itself, and that it kind of makes your mouth move into an echoing chapel when you cluck it. but the word god could also fit really well with a coathanger, and i can't explain that. i think donut has (weirdly) the same shape as a toothbrush, but we really got bagel right and i am really grateful for that.

grateful is close, but not like thunder. hopefully one day i am going to figure out how to shape the way i love my friends into a little ceramic (ceramic is very good, almost perfect) pot and when they hold it they can feel the weight of my care for them. they can put a plant in there. maybe a daisy.

[pirateprincessjess]

I feel the need to periodically remind people that Idiocracy is a eugenics movie.

One of the things that eugenicists believe is that it is bad for society when the “wrong people” breed.

The entire premise of the movie is that “stupid people” kept having kids while “smart people” didn’t have kids, and it ruined society because stupid genes propagated while smart genes died out. This is eugenics propaganda.

I know people will read this and their response will be “actually it’s satire” but the movie isn’t satirizing eugenics. It’s satirizing anti-intellectualism, and consumerism, and it proposes eugenics as a solution.

When eugenics was first conceived, it was used as a way to justify inequality. The idea was that people who held privilege were able to do so because they were smarter and genetically superior to lazy and stupid people who don’t have privilege. Obviously this is bad and wrong, but it is also the core lesson of Idiocracy.

The movie literally ends with the main character becoming president and having “the smartest children in the world.” Because he and his wife have smarter genes than everyone else. The proposed solution for the things that Idiocracy is satirizing is for the smart people to have children that can be in charge of the world.

I know it’s fun to use this movie to dunk on anti-intellectualism and the MAGA movement, but we need to stop. When you quote and reference this movie you are spreading eugenics propaganda.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Nico referring to his mom as "Mama" implies he most likely at least used to refer to Hades as "Papa" and i 100% headcanon he still does but mostly in the manner of him having the entire Underworld wrapped around his finger for being the baby of the family

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

different POV of this comic

x

[archivebottles]

"You don't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself now."

[juniemunie]

Happy Errorink Day y'all

I did a redraw on the very art that started off my brainrot on these two for nearly a decade,,, wowie

-...-...-...-

Ink!Sans by @comyet

Error!Sans @loverofpiggies

-...-...-...-

and because i couldn't resist-

[marikodraws]

You're the one person I refuse to lose to! You're the one person I refuse to lose.

🧤 Ta-da! Here's the comic I did for @rivalszine

[lunalivvy]

miles saying ass, gwen saying hell, miguel saying fuck in spanish… LET THEM SWEAR

LET MILES MORALES SAY FUCK

[ride-a-dromedary]

[It was nothing.]

No. It was everything.

[edgeasaurus-art]

What several levels of exhaustion does to a mother fucker.

I was listening to the album grow again by Moe Reen while making this. specifically Why Deny (The Climate of Our Love).

You could admit it's all on fire And confess to loving me This world is surely ending soon, Our love is certainly something true So why deny the climate of our love?

Theres so much to say about them. The world is on the precipice of disaster and yet they found each other, the successors to the emperor and empress titans. Did the emperor and empress wonder what their successors would become? did they wonder about who their successors would be? did they hope that they would find the love they had? or did they think the story of the titans ended then?

When Fearne was alone with Nana Morri did she ever dream about the people she has around her now? about sharing a bed, with no other expectations other than waking up together?

When Ashton found themselves left behind after the nobodies left him, did he dream about a group of people who listened to what they said and respected their words? did they ever dream of someone wanting to be with them just because they liked being around him?

when they were at their loneliest, was the thought of each other a fever dream?

I still stand as a firm believer that both Ashton and Fearne have two hands, but watching them grow closer together has been amazing. And I hope their relationship continues to flourish, platonically or romantically.

[meagancandraw]

You ever think about how neither of them got to say goodbye?

[inkskinned]

you get used to it, but it's tiring, because they need you to understand your own life as a series of goalposts. what college are you going to, what's your major going to be, whatcha gonna do with that, oh where will you settle down, when can i expect grandkids.

for the longest time my goals have been so blurry that they track into each other, their undefined edges slipping quietly back into the soft night. today i want to be a writer; tomorrow i will want to be a doctor, later i will wish i took that law school free ride. how the fuck do people just know what they want to do with their life?

where do you want to be in five years? i want to be alive; which is a huge step for me. ten years ago i would have said i want to be asleep and meant i hope that i'm dead by then.

but i want a yellow kitchen and a stand mixer. i want a garden and a fruit tree (cherry, if i can make that happen) and a big yard for my dogs to play in. i want to come home and read poetry out loud to someone and have them close their eyes to listen. i want a summer watergun fight. i want to make snowmen. i want to be the house to go to for halloween. i want my life to settle around me in a softness, for it to lay down gently. if i am very, very, very lucky, i want to travel; finally go someplace overseas.

of course i don't know what i want to be doing professionally. what i actually want to be doing is curling up beside my dog, settling in to read. i want to be making myself a cup of good coffee.

i can't answer the other questions. whenever people asked me what do you want to be when you grow up, i used to say i hope i'm happy.

i hope i'm still kind, five years from now. i hope i never get jaded and mean. i hope i have stayed in therapy. what do you picture yourself doing? when will you actually be an adult about this? why are you so afraid of being ambitious?

am i not ambitious? the other day i rearranged my furniture which doesn't quite fit into my apartment. i watered my plants. i'm going to try to propagate a cherry seed. my five year goal is to spend more time laughing. to lie down in a patch of sunwarm moss. to relax for a minute. to close my eyes and think oh thank god. this is why i stayed. this is finally it.

[beawake]

I swear the only reason the Try Guys and Ned Fulmer are still fucking trending with barely any new news coming out is because Ned fucking said consensual workplace relationship instead of cheating or had an affair with my producer.

[shadowduel]

eye of the beholder