#I used to do it a lot more when I first started drawing for it

[natanielkovack]

hii katsuki x shy reader headcannons maybee??

Omg, Yess!!! Thank you for the request, Qyuin! :3

I'm scared of flies... I'm scared of guys...

Katsuki Bakugo x Shy! Reader headcanons ; gn, fluff, comfort.

Ever since the entrance exam, Bakugo didn't pay much attention to you. It wasn't because he was actively ignoring you, you just didn't really talked or participated.

The first time he realized your existence was in the physical testing with Aizawa. It was just a brief moment, but he tried to learn your quirk to somehow beat you in battle.

To him, you were just another extra in the way, another person he had to beat in order to be the N° #1 hero, so he was surprised by your sudden calm and friendly behavior as days passed by.

Of course, he answered with his usual yelling and cursing, telling you to go away and leave him alone. But you never gave up in trying to know him.

Bakugo would secretly keep every detail you give him. At first he would do this with everyone, but as his closet grew full of things he got rid of almost everything... Still, he couldn't get rid of what you gave him.

He would look at you with annoyance when you miss his Monday doodles, silently handing you his notebook for you to draw something small.

At first it feels like a one sided thing... Until you notice how he gives you the bigger portions of the food he cooks for the class, the juiciest parts and the sweetest servings of those cakes Sato bakes.

He knows you're shy, it used to annoy him so much. You would always take so long with talking while handing him something, but now he finds himself looking forward to those clumsy speeches you give.

He's really understanding, but he also understands that you have potential and a lot of it. In class he would tell you to rise your hand when you know the answer, taking your wrist in his hand and raising it for you. It feels like a mini heart attack, but that satisfactory feeling that you answered correctly is so relieving.

He will always follow those with an "I told you so" and a grin before looking back.

Everyone noticed his change in behavior, how he grew sweeter with you. He even knew what you wanted without you even talking... Everyone knew except Bakugo himself and that made everyone so angry at him.

That man is so oblivious to his own feelings.

You can't really tell when your "nervous because of people" turned into "nervous because of Bakugo". Your heart beats faster, you want to be so close to him, you start drawing more hearts and writing sweeter words and oh it makes Bakugo so... Happy?

He thinks that you've somehow infected him with your shyness or something because why else would he blush and feel so warm when you're close? He sees you running away more often, now the letters and drawings just appear in his backpack and he feels his heart missing a beat everytime he sees it.

It takes a few hangouts with the bakusquad before Mina snaps and hits the back of his head, saying "You're more annoying than ever! Can't you see that you like them? Like, you blush and all! Everyone knows! Get a grip!" And he seems to contemplate his whole life while everyone laughs, is that what that was?

He tries talking to you once... Twice... The third time he starts getting angry and there's no fourth time because he decides to do it your way.

His writing is honestly so lovely, a drawing at the end with a heart saying everything he feels. From how he hated you for being like a scared mouse to how he wanted to protect you.

He didn't knew how to look at you the next few days, his eyes darting from you to any other space he could.

When he grows the courage to ask you out you feel like fainting, because why is Thee Bakugo Katsuki asking you out? But you're with him holding hands while walking in the blink of an eye.

He's so sweet and knows when to stop his borderline cruel jokes and comfort you, never judging when you feel so much anxiety for things that are common for others.

He doesn't care that you go speechless when he holds you while watching TV on the common room's couch, it is nice and even you know you'll get used to it... Right?

He cooks for you constantly, he thinks is only fair to give back all you've given him that way.

At first he takes his hand away from yours because of how insecure he is of his sweat, but you just slowly search for his fingers to intertwine yours and the world stops around him.

You slowly grow more comfortable, being more vocal with him about your thoughts and even rambling about nothings. He doesn't ever complain, getting to listen to your voice is such a privilege that he doesn't ever wanna risk losing.

He's so proud to see you growing, working with your shyness instead of against of it, your charm never lost and you're so kind, he could never get tired to see you interacting with the world.

Bakugo makes fun of you from time to time, Joe red you get when he's too close and how your voice lowers when he teases you, you're just too cute, can you blame him?

But he would never be cruel to you, he likes to comfort you. Both of you laying on his bed and hugging, something he would never admit but he loves.

He just loves being around you, you're polar opposites and he can calm down around you while you get more talkative with him.

You're shy, not quiet, at least not around him. And he has learned to be a lot calmer when he's with you, the way his heart beats like crazy balances out that need for constant stress.

A/N: I hope I did good TwT I've read a lot abt Bakugo but I still feel like he's ooc, he's actually really complex! Thanks for requesting, this was so much fun!! (^з^)

Hey! Natan here! ; wanna read more about Bakugo? ; check out my masterlist.

[catenary-chad]

Why Greaseball is a Really Great train villain: a looong post (4.8k words) on all the historical train context behind replica Greaseball 

For all my issues with the other main engines, I think (replica) Greaseball is FANTASTIC. He just works on so many fundamental levels and gets so much better/worse with historical context.  If we make him an EMD E9 locomotive (a common headcanon) things get even more interesting, and there’s even a convenient irl engine to base him on! 

Note: if you’re into real US trains this info probably won’t be as new to you as my Nez Cassé post, since E and F units are so well preserved and documented in English.      A lot of the topics I go on are pretty widely discussed in US railfan circles and not terribly obscure.  Also this is just about replica, Elvis-style Greaseball vs Wembleyball… her being more modern and European changes a lot and I would take a very different approach.

Also CW for non-graphic discussion of abuse in the very last section. I have a separate warning before it comes up so you can leave before then.  

DIESEL TRACTION IN THE US

First of all, to clear up a common misconception: 99% of all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric.  The diesel engine is used to generate electricity to power electric motors to turn the wheels.  This is why dual-mode engines that can switch between drawing third rail/overhead wire electricity and making their own with a diesel engine are so common.  Besides the power source, they work similarly, so it’s not hard to incorporate.  This is NOT how hybrid cars work, though diesel-electric setups have been used on very heavy trucks for purposes like mining.  Diesel-mechanical is more in line with how automobiles work but is basically unheard of outside of very small switchers in the US (mostly in museums now) and 50s-era shunters and that one weird Fell diesel in the UK. The technical reasons of why isn’t really important here, but has to do with the difficult of making an appropriate gearbox for road locomotives and appealing qualities of electric motors for train use (high starting torque). 

Internal combustion-based locomotives are actually much more recent than pure electric ones.  Electric engines achieved practical use around the 1890s and were well-established in urban and mountainous areas by the 20s-30s…. which is when diesel boxcab switchers first started production in substantial numbers and lightweight diesel trainsets like the Zephyrs, M10000, and Flying Hamburger started to pop up.  The earliest diesels were either slow (switchers) or fast but very weak (lightweight trainsets and railbusses). There were major tech limits to maximum horsepower in diesel locomotives until the second half of the 20th century, which is why several of them were often needed to replace one steam or electric engine, and why you had some weird turbine designs in the 50s-70s as an alternative. 

Early diesel locomotives in the US actually had a lot in common with their early implementation in the UK.  They’re often perceived differently because Thomas the Tank Engine had so many characters based on unsuccessful early British diesel models, while most of the failed earlier US diesels are obscure compared to the successful and widespread ones (that often have the strongest museum presence). There were some notably good early switcher models (some still being used today) that were among the first to replace steam engines because it was one of the tasks that they had the biggest advantage over them in, and limited size wasn’t an issue.  Road diesel implementation was messy and due to the early state of the technology, some railroads like the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strategy more akin to early British Rail in that they planned to just slowly phase out steam as they electrified.  Higher wages and stronger unions were also a factor in both countries dieselizing, due to the vastly lower labor needed for diesel locomotives vs steam and generally safer, more pleasant working conditions on them.  There was also a need to shed a reputation for being outdated to draw in customers again with both.  There was also a desperate early demand for diesel power that led to a lot of questionable builders and designs being picked up early on and later dumped for being nonstandard.  

The main difference is that dieselization’s serious pursuit in the US started around the Great Depression and really picked up in the late 30s, almost two decades before the Modernization Plan of 1955.  So it was a far more mature and well-established technology by the 50s and Greaseball is very much based on this dominant position vs the messy early experiments of the Thomas diesels.  

Greaseball’s helmet heavily resembles the fronts of the E and F unit carbody locomotives made by EMD from the 30s-50s.  I’ll go into those specific models later, but the manufacturer alone is really interesting and has a lot of great symbolism that works with Greaseball. 

Earlier diesel manufacturers included steam builders like Alco and Baldwin, outside companies getting into the diesel locomotive market like Fairbanks-Morse, and EMD, which started as an independent company but quickly became part of General Motors.  One of the major advantages EMD would acquire is mass-production in assembly lines, the way cars were made, as opposed to building one engine at a time like steam shops did.  So Greaseball has some quiet ties to the auto industry (and boy did GM hurt trains in other avenues).  They also used common parts between models, making them relatively easy to repair and rebuild.  You had all kind of mods and changes done to their engines over the decades, which is a fun tie-in to the bodybuilder AND greaser aspect of Greaseball.  I’ll go into how I think he’d specifically be modified/rebuilt later though.  

Another major factor of EMD is… they often weren’t the best in a lot of ways and very much an example of “survival of the good enough”.  Until very recently they all used relatively dirty and inefficient two-stroke engines and other manufacturers often had stronger or technically superior competing models… but it was the ease of working on them and relative reliability vs their competitors that contributed to their success and helped make EMD the dominant manufacturer.  

Bonus fun fact: EMD (and later General Electric) had a lot of success in the export model market due to their early reliability, especially vs British diesel engines.  One of the funnier instances being several colonial African railways holding onto steam into the 70s because they were forced to buy crappy British diesel engines otherwise, and promptly dieselizing as soon as they could buy American ones.  EMD made huge inroads into the British freight market with the Class 59 and 66 (the latter also used in continental Europe).  These came too late to have had any affect on the development of the show early on, but it’s an interesting instance of American encroachment that could be thematically relevant.  The sheer ubiquity of EMD diesels worldwide makes Greaseball weirdly relevant in a lot of countries if you basis swap him a little.  I haven’t figured out quite how I’d approach Girlball but I’d definitely make her one of these export models since it fits.  

Anyways, back to the general history timeline because it’s important for the other reason EMD was so successful.  By the late 30s, diesel switchers were widespread and road models were starting to come out in limited numbers.  Widespread dieselization would have happened nearly a decade earlier if not for World War II.  When the US entered the war, copper, oil, and diesel engines became critical to the war effort.  Coal was not and steam engines don’t use much copper, so the existing steam manufacturers were forced into building them.  EMD’s FT series had proven itself prewar and the company was among the few to be able to develop their locomotive lines during the war.  This gave the company a huge advantage post-war and their E and F units dominated the road locomotive market afterwards (switchers remained more competitive since they had more development before and during the war). 

 If you’re European and know little about American trains, you may wonder when things started getting electrified after that.  They didn’t.  Outside of one stretch of the Northeast Corridor, a recent project by Caltrain, and some isolated freight lines… the US didn’t electrify anything after WWII, and if anything de-electrified much that had existed.  The oil crises of the 70s almost led to something, but the subsequent drop in prices in the 80s made that dry up too.  Leading to the modern day status of having only 1% electrified rail mileage.  The rest is all diesel domain.  They were never a stopgap here.  Due to railroads remaining private businesses post-WWII and facing almost unwinnable economic and political conditions vs roads and air travel, the cost of electrification was out of the question and the much smaller up front cost of diesel engines made them take permanent hold over most of the country post-steam.  To this day, railroads avoid paying up front for things vs just paying more in yearly maintenance for diesel locomotives, and the price of fuel has never gotten high enough to incentivize electrification.  There’s also a whole carrot vs stick situation with state governments raising emissions standards without providing assistance to electrify that leads to a crappy state of limbo that just gives automobiles even more of an unfair advantage, but that’s another tangent that’s not relevant enough to go into.  

This is all a long way to say that Greaseball as the conservative, oppressive establishment is spot-on to the status of diesel traction in the US.  It really can’t be overstated how dominant and inescapable it is.  It’s kind of hilarious hearing people from the UK or Europe talk about how gross and stinky and backwards they are and how much more disliked they are there.  This is why the Greaseball vs Electra feud is so appealing to me- the US is one of the few places where they would be considered remotely competitive and where that matchup is politically relevant.  There’s this compelling thread of Greaseball being a “pragmatic compromise” that’s held on so long it’s become status quo, but would be viewed as a regressive relic elsewhere in the world, akin to how the US’s economic politics are seen in much of the rest of the world.  Greaseball is the majority who very much has capitalism and inertia on his side, Electra is the more qualified but long-sidelined minority who wishes things were even a little more like Europe economically and politically.  They’re so rural vs urban, right vs left wing coded it hurts. Diesel power mainly thrives where frequencies are low and distances are long and rail is a private business that often can’t afford to electrify.  Urban trains are almost exclusively electric due to their inherent frequency and pollution requirements, and are almost synonymous with being state-owned. 

Him being particularly nasty to steam engines also checks out, he’s the era of diesel locomotive that often directly replaced them and I’ve seen claims EMD did deceptive things if not outright cheated on tests vs steam engines.  At the very least they had fairly aggressive marketing.  There’s a reason why I object to the idea that Electra would cheat against a steam engine (even in the early days electric ones trounced them so thoroughly it routinely exceeded railroads’ expectations), but think Greaseball doing it makes sense.  Him playing dirty against Electra also makes sense because they’d have similar top speeds (and that’s being very conservative with Electra’s abilities and keeping them a relatively old model) but Electra benefits far more from a clean setting and would be relatively vulnerable to attack. There’s been decades of cultural downplaying of the advantages of electric vs diesel trains due to the latter’s sheer dominance in the US too. Further tying into the political aspect, electric trains are one of those things whose status only goes up the more you actually learn about them… and it really knocks combustion engines down several pegs, paralleling how right wing politicians in the US tend to be actively anti-education because they quietly rely on voters being low-information and uneducated about how negative the effects of their policies often are.  

Greaseball as a macho jock is also reflective of the perceived strength of diesel vs electric engines.  Because the US is infamous for its large heavy freight trains that are almost entirely diesel-hauled (besides a single power plant out west), electric freight is an almost alien concept and people associate electric traction with high speed trains, subways, maybe lighter, faster European freight trains at most.  People often act like they’re weak because of this.  This is patently untrue, just look at IORE or the Virginian Railway.  Also see my earlier discussion of how weak diesel engines were early on.  Electric locomotives still have vastly higher horsepower per single unit and the only reason there aren’t ones as strong as diesel engines in the US is lack of demand.  It wouldn’t be that hard to build one for that niche.  But diesel has strong associations with being the “strong and manly” blue-collar option because of its use by every large freight railroad and almost every shortline for all the tough, gritty jobs, unlike those darn city slicker commuter trains. Let’s just conveniently forget that the Milwaukee Road existed and that mines are full of weird little battery-powered “lokies”.  People will even crow about the Big Boy all day and rarely acknowledge the multiple electric engine models of that era with comparable abilities.  

EMD E and F UNITS

Finally, we can discuss Greaseball’s more specific basis.  Greaseball’s helmet doesn’t have a single explicit one like Electra’s, but its styling is very typical of 30s-50s era carbody diesel locomotives, specifically the “bulldog nose” E and F-Units.  These models were and still remain some of the most popular toy and model diesel engines, and are some of the most recognizable American trains in general.  Which they totally deserve, they came in a lot of fun colors and were VERY widely used from the 30s to early 80s irl and were still used in limited numbers for decades after that and are extremely common in museums today.  It’s probably harder to find a railroad museum in the US that doesn’t have one.  They are probably THE symbol of diesel trains in the US, especially circa the 50s.  Even highway signs for train stations resemble them.  

Carbody locomotives like these made the streamlined body a structural element of the engine to save weight and required indoor walkways for maintenance access vs being able to open external panels.  Alco and Baldwin also made far less successful carbody locomotives as competitors but they looked very different. Funny enough, a number of electric locomotives of the era also were built this way, but with cabs at both ends, some of them looking a LOT like Greaseball’s helmet.  

The E-units were EMD’s first line of road diesel locomotives, mainly designed for passenger service.  Since the 30s there were several different models of the line, the first few being built in smaller numbers, and the later ones being much more widely produced post-WWII.   They were relatively long and large for a diesel engine of the time, with atypical A1A -A1A (powered/unpowered/powered x2) wheel arrangements and two seperate prime movers (the actual diesel engine) to produce more horsepower due to the limited abilities of individual engines.  While successful compared to their competitors (which were… generally a mess) there’s a sense that they were designed for a time that would never come.  

They were very much optimized for being smooth at speed for passenger use and while not useless for freight service, weren’t ideal for it due to their limited strength and not having all powered wheels for traction.  Which was a terrible market to be in with the massive decline in passenger rail post-WWII.  The E-units still generally had long and successful lives, but were never as successful as their younger, smaller sibling, the F-unit.

F-units visually resemble shorter E-units, but with single prime movers and Bo-Bo wheel arrangements (four powered axles).  By modern standards they’re small and not terribly powerful, but for their time they were solid and VERY successful in freight service, and often took the place of E-units in passenger service since they worked for that too, and were more versatile overall.  There are a bunch of F-units running in museums because they look good and are easy to find parts for due to the sheer quantity produced (also some, but far fewer E-units). You could totally make Greaseball an F-unit and it would fit with how there’s been some infamously short Greaseball actors.  

There’s a lot of fun commonalities between both models that are relevant to Greaseball.  Both were explicitly designed to be used in multi-engine sets due to their limited individual strength, which perfectly fits Greaseball having his Gang follow him around.  Working in packs that large is a VERY midcentury diesel thing.  Both had the massive drawback of having no rear visibility and basically no ability to go backwards for switching.  That was one of the main traits that led to this style of engine falling out of favor, roadswitchers that actually had rear visibility were more versatile than having separate road and switch engines.  In a race going backwards, Rusty would clean his clock even if he was SUPER crappy and could only go walking pace, because Greaseball would be flying totally blind and crash.  It’s also a hassle to perform maintenance and get inside that body style and the noses were reportedly harder to manufacture.  

As a cursed side note, ATSF solved these problems with their old F-units by roadswitcherfying them into CF-7s.  Hey, they were old and past their prime but still useful and worked GREAT as ugly utilitarian roadswitchers and ran for decades afterwards.  There’s several of these things running in museums.  I’ve actually worked on one and I approve of roadswitcherfication because they really are way less of a pain to maintain this way.  

Speaking of rebuilds, the highest horsepower Greaseball would have as an E-unit would as-built is only 2,400 if he was an E9, but because early EMDs got modified so much and routinely re-engined, we can play around with this.  It fits the character and the Railways Series routinely did this kind of thing.  We’ll suppose Greaseball was re-engined or otherwise modified to get up to 2,700 horsepower… but then there’s the reported issue that the unpowered axles might make him too slippery to actually apply full force, so we’ll get a bit more out there and say he got more substantially rebuilt into a Co-Co (six powered axle) arrangement.  Now you have something that would be vaguely comparable with one of Amtrak’s dysfunctional SDP40F diesels of the late 70s-early 80s, if still a bit weaker but probably more physically stable.  It’s hard to avoid that Greaseball is kind of statistically wimpy no matter how you slice it.  They’d need to tweak the numbers in the song a little, but again, swapping out engines in early EMDs was super common and suits him so it’s not too much of a stretch to bump him to 3700 or something.  You still have issue that he’s not large by UP standards specifically (they are INFAMOUS for large single-unit engines) but he’d still be fairly large vs more typical passenger diesels of the time.  

Anyways, another VERY fun fact about E and F units is that they were regularly used on corporate trains after most of them were withdrawn from regular mainline service in the 70s-80s.  People often complain that Greaseball is barely relevant circa the 80s, which isn’t really true since a lot of E and F units were used on commuter lines for years afterward (if often in cab car form, which are terrifying in any talking train verse).  But there’s another huge loophole that gives a perfect excuse for his existence well into the modern day.  Union Pacific itself used a set of three E9s on their corporate specials until 2019!  They only got pulled due to wheel issues… got no lovers if you got no wheels I guess.  But now you have a perfect excuse for why Greaseball is a 50s-era engine with UP colors pulling passenger trains well after the railroad axed those services in the early 70s.  He’s a corporate pawn!  He’s one of the faces of their company, chauffeuring executives around. Which leads into another fascinating topic with him.

UNION PACIFIC, FREIGHT RAILROADS, AND PASSENGER RAIL

All of the modern big Class I railroads in the US suck in similar ways, but Union Pacific has a stronger identity and seems to have the largest cultural presence abroad, making it the most visible and appealing of them to the public.  It tends to be THE American railroad to many, which goes well with Greaseball’s basis being THE American diesel engine.  Yes, they do have some cool heritage fleet stuff and really cool heritage unit paint jobs, but you’ll never see me depict them in a terribly positive way (if at all) because they’re a PR campaign like the Budweiser Clydesdales for an infamously awful company.  Make no mistake, this is a company that’s been voted “worst place to work” on multiple occasions (and its cohorts aren’t much better).  That’s the ironic thing about Electra being made a crappy boss, Amtrak is notably much better to its workers (and steam engines are the most competitive where labor is cheapest and least organized).  The main thing is unreasonable on-call hours, lack of sick leave, vacation, and break days in general, and working conditions.  Look into the blocked 2022 railroad strike for more on this.  Greaseball could be SO nasty to the freight to reflect this if you made him a symbol of railroad leadership.  You’d have any railroaders in the audience booing him if they did this in the US, it’s a very relevant political issue.  Ironically, things weren’t nearly as bad labor-wise in the 80s, ALW just really bet on the right horse in terms of railroads to align a train villain with.  But there’s a more prominant and existing aspect of canon that also fits the crappy things UP and other class Is do.

Passenger rail has never been as profitable as freight in the US. To give a modern ballpark estimate, I’ve heard $30,000 revenue on a fully loaded longer passenger train vs $500,000 revenue on a train of oil tankers.  And that’s not even including the higher maintenance standards that passenger rail requires, which adds millions to its cost and makes it almost impossible for it to turn a profit.  There is a reason why almost all countries with widespread passenger rail today have nationalized rail systems and even US passenger service is all government-run outside Brightline and museums.  

This situation was particularly bad in the 50s-60s before Amtrak took over passenger service.  Passenger trains absolutely bled money overall, and many of them were required to keep running even at massive losses per government regulation because they were an essential service.  This contributed to the financial ruin of many railroads, and most of them dropped passenger service or sold it to the government as soon as it was offered.  UP in particular was more financially stable, but also happily got rid of their passenger trains when offered.

Since then, the giant merged Class I railroads have become almost exclusively freight-oriented and hostile towards Amtrak-run passenger services.  They’re almost all terrible, but UP is one of the more visible offenders, holding up commuter services in Chicago, and contributing to the massive delays in long-distance western trains.  “Coach sexism” in the form of widespread hostility towards passenger rail by the likes of UP is one of the few canon social metaphors that WORKS.  The other engines would not be that way considering the systems they’re aligned with, but Greaseball could be made so, so much worse.    

There is a weird element of “I hate my wife” boomer humor when people describe passenger trains.  There’s “keeping freight trains in line” schedule-wise due to their time sensitivity.  There’s being seen as needlessly spendy for PR reasons (often true in the older days) paralleling “my wife wastes money on stupid things”.  There’s being seen as more delicate and refined due to needing better track conditions and gentler handling because you know, humans have standards that grain hoppers and sand don’t.  There’s the way that passenger rail isn’t as profitable as freight and basically requires government subsidies… not unakin to caring jobs and “women’s work” in general vs blue collar industrial jobs (Caveat: passenger rail employees were almost all male until Amtrak).  In short, yeah the freight railroads’ treatment of passenger trains in the US does have parallels to sexism, if slightly different from how canon does it. Abruptly dumping them in the 70s also fits Greaseball ditching Dinah mid-show. 

Even if you go the comparatively mild route of mirroring modern railroads, you still have him treating the coaches as second class vs freight (despite them being legally prioritized).  This is a major issue and why Amtrak has so many delays on long distance trains.  To summarize a complicated issue: due to the relatively unique economics of railroads, they are incentivized to run fewer, longer, irregular freight trains that have become so large they don’t fit in sidings and can’t physically let prioritized passenger trains through.  They then get delayed for hours, especially if the freight train breaks down (bonus: freight trains have a staff of two, engineer and conductor.  The conductor may have to walk up to THREE MILES to check out a possible defect on a car, delaying even more).  The Class Is have a broadly hostile relationship with Amtrak in general for various reasons related to insurance and minimal investment in track maintenance, and it even affects non-Amtrak passenger services like steam excursions.  UP has its personal steam fleet for publicity reasons,  but all of the Class Is are various shades of hostile to running steam excursions with passengers now due to those same reasons.  Even UP barely sells public tickets for theirs.  

Bonus: the reason Mexico has basically no passenger rail now is due to the nationalized railroads being taken over by companies heavily aligned with US freight railroads and with many similar attitudes towards passenger service.  They ditched virtually all of it en masse when they took over. Turbo works perfectly as just Greaseball but in Mexico because the same thing happened there… only a few years before the Mexican Stex production happened.  Electra might be an even more pathetic and unthreatening character there though, because the single, long-delayed electrified mainline built by NdeM was ripped out after only a few years of service by the  private freight railroads.  

WARNING: Leave now if you do not want to read about how abusive Greaseball could be made based to US railroads’ treatment of passenger trains pre-70s.  It’s not graphic, but it is blunt and dark.  I put this at the end for a reason, there is nothing beyond this last section.  

Basically, canon even at its worst arguably undersells how awful Greaseball could be to Dinah and the coaches if you make them symbols of UP and other major railroads vs passenger service pre-Amtrak.  They could be even MORE toxic.  You have a situation now where he outright hates her and wants her gone for above reasons, but is forced to stay in the relationship due to outside requirements and is fundamentally built for that kind of setup as an E-unit.  Railroads forced to keep passenger services usually didn’t have mandated quality standards for them.  They just had to have something.  This led to pathetically short trains (one or two cars), understaffing, and poor maintenance because they just had to have SOME passenger train on that line.  Track conditions reached terrible standards in the 70s on railroads that were near bankruptcy and delaying maintenance.  I absolute do not blame canon for not going this dark in a kids show, but basically there is no limit to how miserable Greaseball could make her life, short of actually killing her. I can’t understate how much she symbolizes something he’d want to rid himself of at any cost but can’t and will take that out on.  It’s BLEAK.  I don’t think I’d even write them this dark myself.

Well… now you see why I do not redeem and revise Greaseball the way I do Electra.  While the latter is wrongly demonized in an impressive number of ways, Greaseball is awful for all the right ones, to extents deeper than the creators probably ever imagined.  He is so versatile and nearly timeless in his awfulness.  If Greaseball were portrayed as remotely good I’d be ripping him to greater shreds than I do Rusty, but he’s great as a hateable bad guy who’s entertaining and globally recognizable even by much of the general public.  Despite all this, I’m fine with him just being a cartoon bully because it’s more palatable and not wrong.  But you could also make him so much nastier than even the workshop if you wanted to go darker.  

[nootybloops]

Literal computer programmer here.

Primary school, mac at school, windows at home (once we got a computer). High school, windows at school, mac at home. First two laptops were macs (one still runs my music!).

I didn't even learn how to start programming anything other than very basic webdev stuff until this point! I was in my late 20s!

Desktop is windows purely because so many games still require it, extremely shitty third laptop is linux because I was only using it for uni programming work anyway so why even bother paying for a windows license when you're going to have to fake linux half the time to compile stuff anyway.

All of which to say: I've got Some Experience in this shit, and I'mma tell you your computer literacy has nothing to do with the OS and everything to do with a combination of how interested you are, and the quality of the teaching you receive.

Forever grateful to my PS Computer Teacher, who who taught all the kids at my school how to use The Computers! IIRC the first computers we ever got a go at didn't even have mice, they just had keyboards! And she taught us about whatever the mac equivalent of ms paint was by drawing the GUI on a whiteboard, and explaining the icons!

(This is actually an extremely effective method, by the way. No matter what anyone tells you, understanding icons is not intuitive, and an explanation beforehand stops you freaking out because So! Many! Thing!!! I remember we were all particularly confused by the eraser tool.)

As it happens, she was also the librarian. And when we were a bit older and the school actually had an internet connection (it was the 90s, okay), she taught us about how to find stuff out online, and how to tell if it was reputable or not. Extremely good teacher, and excellent at guessing what would actually be useful for us to know in the future.

Anyway these days, where phones do so much shit By Magic*, and both mac and windows upper management seem to want pcs to follow them (see: app stores), it's no surprise that kids don't know how things work. How could they? The level of technical skills they need to make things work is tiny, and from what I hear they don't get helpful computer lessons any more! It's like expecting a regular train commuter to know how the signaling works. Just. What??

* ie, in the background where you can't see anything at all, even if you want to.

Also to underline Feather's point above, we had a semester's worth of typing lessons in high school. I was the only one in the class who knew how to touch type at the start of it, and I'm pretty damn sure I was the only one who knew how to touch type at the end of it, because no one cared. The teaching in that class was uh... nonexistent, I don't remember a single lesson. IIRC there was some kind of typing tutor program we were supposed to use, but we were pretty much just left to do whatever on the computers (as long as it was text-based. There was a LOT of people turning the font size in word way up and writing swears at people across the room).

If I hadn't already known I probably would've used the time to learn, because even back then it was extremely obvious that it was going to be An Extremely Helpful Life Skill, but clearly none of my classmates agreed with that. :/

[maclediumzeyheri]

How I Draw: PART 1

Hello, this is Zeyheri. While I was happily drawing, I suddenly realized, "Oh no, the new school term is coming! Once I start going to school, it'll be hard to draw! And my promise to share how I draw will be delayed so much!!! (I'm doomed!)“

...So, even though I haven't finished my drawing yet, I thought I should at least upload a post to prevent my trust from shattering into pieces.

I’ve noticed that authors always include words of gratitude in their book prefaces (so I’ll imitate them!). I sincerely thank the two people who’ve helped me a lot in writing this post and who will continue to help with many questions in the future. I also love all the users who constantly take an interest in my drawings!

As you probably know, I’m not a professional illustrator. The only formal art training I’ve had was at an art academy in elementary school! So, it’s probably not a great idea to expect to learn much from my writing. However, anyone can enjoy drawing even without formal training. "The act of appreciating art" is an even more accessible field to enjoy. If you read this and felt intrigued or inspired to try something experimental, then that is exactly the purpose of this post, and I will be happy.

-

(1) Tools & Programs

I use three programs to draw: PaintTool SAI2 / Corel Paintshop Pro / Corel Painter. Oh, I almost forgot-The tools I use are the love-hate Surface Pro 8 and the Huion Kamvas Pro 16 (4k).

-Rough sketching, inking, base coloring, adding shadows, and initial corrections: PaintTool SAI2

-Adding paintbrush effects: Corel Painter

-Other corrections: Corel Paintshop Pro

(*If you're wondering why I don't use Clip Studio, it's because my beloved Surface laptop might die from it! "Then how do you use Corel Painter?" you ask? The moment I open Painter, lag starts, and the fan goes crazy. If you value your laptop's lifespan, take my advice and avoid it!)

In fact, about 70% of the process happens in SAI. So, in this post, you’ll only see me using PaintTool SAI2.

(2) Rough Sketch & Line Art

Rather than creating a detailed rough sketch, I prefer to draw lines while adding rough sketches when needed. The first image is proof of that! For me, the rough sketch stage is less of "the first step in drawing" and more of "getting the atmosphere right."

For the lines, I use the SAI pencil, adjusting the brush density to around 75-85. Other than that, it’s probably set to the default settings, at least as far as I remember. (It's Korean, but I believe you can understand what it means by location)

If you look at my line art, you might notice faint shadows sometimes. This isn’t because I adjust the brush density; I adjust the layer opacity instead.

(2-1) Drawing Hair

Now, one of you asked me a question: "How do you draw hair?" I’ve created a simple resource to explain!

As always, there are exceptions, but when I draw hair, I tend to make the shapes angular. This way, the hair looks solid, almost like stiff RNA strands.

After that, I add lines following the flow of the hair, giving it a fuller look. I usually add these lines when I’m refining the inking stage.

Sometimes, if I’m feeling it. I add thin strands of hair around the edges to give it a more "hair-like" appearance.

(2-2) Drawing Eyes & Coloring

There was also a question about how to draw eyes. I’m not the type to add sparkling glitter for a glamorous look, so my approach is very simple.

In the picture, I’ve divided it into several steps, but honestly, it’s a very quick process. Start by shaping a hexagon and keep adding multiply layers while coloring. The key point is in the 6th step, where you cover the entire eye with a light pink multiply layer. Doing this creates a much more eerie, painful, and melancholic look! (I was really excited when I first discovered this! Yay!)

(3) Coloring

Now it's time to add color. Typically, I would choose colors that fall within the left square area, but if a highly saturated color seems more fitting, I use colors from the right square area. If you ask me why I choose these colors, I'm not sure. I just feel like I like low chroma colors.

Be thorough in coloring, and once you're done, apply textures lightly to finish it off. (You’re asking what texture I use? Well, since I’m not a texture creator, I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about it publicly. But if you send me a private message, I’ll answer you secretly. I think it was over $30.)

While coloring, using an Overlay layer to test can help when adjusting the color tone later on.

-

Thank you for reading. Please look forward to our next post as well! Feel free to let me know if there are any awkward expressions or anything you would like me to add to the content of this article!

[gardenwalrus]

The Beatles speaking about themselves in DISC (12 October 1963) [George & Ringo section here]

[PAUL] We’re not unapproachable… It’s fab - the success and all that - but I wish people wouldn't think that because we’re successful, we’re unapproachable. It’s not true. We’re just the same now as we always were, and I hate it when maybe someone who lives in the same street now ignores me because they’re frightened I’m going to turn my head away.  I think in the last year or so, I’ve grown up a lot. I’m still the same old Paul McCartney, but I seem to have learnt a great deal more. For instance, I know there are times when I must behave myself! When you’re in the public eye for most of the time if you’re caught out doing anything mischievous the comeback’s on the group, and the rest of the Beatles shouldn’t have to pay for any mistakes I make. 

I know it sounds stupid coming from me, but I don’t want to be classified as anything, and if I had more time, I’d like to relax and take life as it comes.  I had a taste of really relaxing when Ringo and I went to Greece.  The only part we didn’t like was having to take the garlic from all the food, and there were times when I longed for a good old steak and chips, or a few cheese slices. I’m on a slightly different food kick now. Bananas, meringues, pancakes and crepe suzettes.  In spite of this I’ve lost a lot of weight in the last few months. I suppose that’s from running around, but as long as I feel healthy, there isn’t too much to worry about.  The biggest moment in my life that I remember is getting my first bike. I must have been about seven.  But the funniest thing is, I always used to pedal backwards and it took months to get me to do it right!

+

[JOHN] I want to write a book… I love doodling. You know, I want to write a book and when I eventually get round to it I want to fill it with Lennon-type ramblings and cartoons.  If I wasn’t what I am today, then I think I would like to have been a cartoonist. On the other hand, if I did too much drawing, I’d finish up with square eye balls to match my glasses! I don’t like specs, but I have to wear them. It’s as simple as that. I chose black square frames because I think they suit me best. I’ve gone right off what you call ‘beatle-neck’ jackets. Got sick of wearing them. Instead I’ve started going in for four button suits with two vents at the back, preferably in a heavyish material. I’m always looking for changes. You get a bit fed up with wearing the same gear all the time. But one thing I won’t change is the colour of my socks. I always stick to black and navy blue, and usually elastic-sided boots.  I suppose my likes and dislikes are the same as everyone else’s. But there are one or two things that make me hopping mad. For instance, I can’t stand it if someone plays one of our records in public knowing we’re there.  Another thing I hate is people who go out and buy all these wild rhythm and blues records without really understanding them but because it’s the thing to do. Maybe I’m biased, but to me, music is sacred. I love it in most forms, and even have an album of the stuff by Stravinsky, along with The Shirelles and Chuck Berry.  I like people to be natural, and perhaps a little offbeat, but not way-out. Those way-out cats are only trying to attract attention. Don’t think I’m hitting back at the groups who are supposed to copy us in dress or music. I just think they’d stand a much better chance by being themselves and, if possible, trying to think one jump ahead. 

[changelingsandothernonsense]

That I can do! @vehksfingerguns

Josh and his Tattoos

So, Joshi doesn't have too many tattoos, which is a design decision on my behalf since he's covered in scars. A lot of the time he's actually just written notes on his arms because it's quicker than getting his journal out or his fingers are painted. (note there is one nude drawing here so just a warning).

His first tattoo was the violet pattern that you see on his face. It closely mimics Ashlander scarification, and he gets it done at age 13 out of spite. If he was going to be treated like a Velothi, regardless of his mother's obsessive grooming habits then he was going to make sure there was no mistaking what he was.

(Josh at 22) He picks violet because if he's going to have tattoos forever, then he may as well go with his favourite colour. He sometimes regrets getting them but more so just accepts them as a part of his face in the end.

His second tattoo wasn't his choice and consists of his prison ID inscribed on his left wrist in black. He gets this on the day he's sentenced. He doesn't hear his name spoken for 36 years.

The next tattoos Josh gets between ages 58-59. (Note he's 266-68 in the above images, they just display the tattoos I'm talking about)

He gets another tattoo just under his ID that's the symbol of the Morag Tong. He gets it when he joins up (which is contentious since he barely finishes his training and hasn't technically been fully initiated before he gets whisked off to go do Nerevarine things). He had hoped that the purple tattoo would be used to cover his prison ID but unfortunately that doesn't end up happening since the tattooist places it just underneath it in the more traditional place. He choses a violet pigment similar to what's on his face. He's still iffy about the decision since he ultimately never got very far within the organisation despite intending to.

I am currently toying with the idea of giving him a small Twin Lamps tattoo on his right wrist but don't have it drawn yet. But it will sit on his outer wrist bone.

His next tattoo is one that he holds very dear. It is the entirety of the poem, "May I Shrink to Dust" with the symbol of the Urshilaku Tribe next to it. It matches his husband's though Josh's is placed on the opposite side of Erra's since the skin on the right side of his chest is too damaged/ overly sensitive for ink. They choose a more traditional black ink and receive the tattoos on their wedding day in-place of the more traditional scarifications given that their wedding wasn't considered "official" in traditional Ashland society at the time.

I realise the only example I have of his last tattoo is a nsft image but oh well...

After Erra passes, Josh gets the entirety of "Wondrous Love" tattooed on his wrist, which is something they both planned on getting after the whole business with Red Mountain is done with. He gets it instead to honour his memory.

Things Josh wears that are actually paint.

Scribbling all over his arms. The notes on his arm here pertain to opening a particular puzzle lock.

Josh, once he's initiated into the Urshilaku he starts wearing dark pigment on his hands. It's similar to henna and he usually paints variations of the above design onto his hands every few weeks.

They eye in the above Arkanis image is mostly symbolic.

Josh is mostly wearing ashpaint here in both white and black. He only wears this when acting as Ashkhan and is meant to be a sign that he is widowed.

[nichiperi]

I've been using this sketchbook since 2018 when I started attending university. But I didn't really use it much until around 2020, shortly before I got back into Invader Zim. Flipping through it recently, I realized that there's a bunch of stuff in here I never shared with anybody (or at least, not a lot of people), so I thought I'd post some of it! :D

Open the Read More to peer into the sketchbook~ ✨📓✨

These were some of the first adult Dib sketches I did when I just barely tiptoed back into the fandom. I was still trying to relearn the style at this point lol, but I still like 'em!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is what the interdimensional transporter that Zim and Dib use in my fic looks like! I'd always intended to make a nice colorful reference sheet, but it never came to pass... I'm still working on my fic though, so maybe someday!! The design could use some tweaks first though...not enough wires or cables for my taste lol.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This is the first overtly ZADR-y thing I'd ever drawn. Sounds silly to admit now, but I was actually really scared to draw it or even talk about it at first. (⁠;⁠;⁠;⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠) Things sure are different now lol. These past few years have been my first time doing this much ship art in general, and it's been really nice to have gotten to a point where I'm not so nervous about it all the time!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A Space Trash Zim from the @izspacetrash AU! I once had a version of this I'd colored, but I must've accidentally deleted it at some point because the thing is just gone. It is lost to the void. Maybe I should redraw him one of these days... ✨👀✨

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A gaggle of assorted doodles!! I like doing these cluttered messes every now and again to practice with expressions or poses...or even just 'cause I wanna mindlessly put more space bug shapes on paper. 🪳🪳🪳

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A Dib expression that turned out really good. Can't remember what he was supposed to be for, but....he exists. :)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This was supposed to be a thing with a whooooole lot of Zim's killing each other. I was....feeling A Way. (⁠•⁠ ⁠▽⁠ ⁠•⁠;⁠) Buuut quickly realized that I didn't like what I did with their proportions and scrapped it. When I first started out re-learning how to draw Zim, I tended to give him more lanky proportions. But now, I really tend to favor drawing a more canon-compliant tiny Zim. I think this piece in particular was kinda the last nail in the coffin for my taller Zims. Sorry, tall Zim.... XD

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These last two were going to be part of a comic... The last time I asked for sketch requests, someone sent me a prompt that really just sent my brain into overdrive and I was SUPER inspired.....and then life happened and I didn't end up finishing the idea I had. (⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠෴⁠ ⁠༎ຶ⁠) Sorry if you're reading this, whoever you were! Your ask is still sitting in my box and I STILL rotate this idea in my brain quite often!! I'd love to finish it someday!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

That's all for now! But I hope y'all enjoyed! I've been having a rough time irl and seeing all these older sketches really made me happy, so I felt like sharing. Currently crawling my way out of some weirdly selective art block, but I shall have more finished things to share soon~! 💚

[neonscented]

Guilt

[pa-pa-plasma]

hey i feel like we're really sleeping on that time Danny possessed Vlad & framed him for assaulting a minor

Editing with the clip because people don't believe me. Episode is 41: Eye for an Eye.

[dykedvonte]

I keep seeing fanarts of ppl's OC's being on the ship, so do you think that if there was 6st crewmember (specifically, another woman) Anya would've been more safe? Like, someone to actually call Jimmy's begaviour out, someone Anya might wanna trust? Is there a possibility something might have changed (even if a little) or it would not have mattered at all?

-💀

I feel like the game would make it part of the commentary on where she would believe and help Anya but still be sort of dismissive? Like the whole “don’t waste time crying and being scared keep going and move on, don’t let him win”. It’s supposed to be positive and reinforcing but sometimes it does more damage in those times of mourning and grief, it feels patronizing, like you don’t understand what you’re going through but they do. Even if they did call out his behavior it’s still on Curly to act and while another voice would help, it’s still 4 against 2 on guys that don’t get it until they have to vs women who always have to.

I don’t mind mouthwashing OCs but I do get a bit bored as they tend to be borderline saviors or like Jimmy aligned. They are either more complicit than Curly or just Jimmy haters for no reason, outside of what the creators know about what he did to Anya. I am never irked by OCs but in a story like mouthwashing you really need to think about what your character adds to the commentary, especially if they are there during the crash. It’s nice to have like characters on Anya’s side more whole heartedly and interesting to see characters who placate Jimmy but sometimes it’s one note.

I can’t and don’t want to police peoples OCs it’s never my intention when I comment on trends I notice, but I do feel like the way people make their OCs interact with these two characters and especially Curly, really show a grave misunderstanding of the narrative and these characters as people vs roles in the story. Still, I know people just make up characters for fun and that’s fine. Great even, but I guys I’m focusing more on OCs that are supposed to have those serious dynamics. My favs tend to be pretty-Tulpar or post-Tulpar au OCs.

The inevitably of the crash is on Jimmy. He did that not because he wasn’t stopped but because all his means to kill Anya were taken. The gun, the axe. Even if Curly did strip him of his co-pilot privileges and try to keep him contained there’s only so many people. An extra body helps but they have jobs they have to do, he’s the only one steering the whole ship and Jimmy would likely have an out: food, bathroom, etc. He’s not new and if he couldn’t crash the ship directly, who’s to say he wouldn’t sabotage something else? A clunker like the Tulpar wouldn’t take much. An extra person helps but it’s just another thing that prolongs what a person like Jimmy is willing to do to shirk responsibility.

It’s more than just needing someone to stand up to him and think that’s what is missing when it comes to inserting a character into the mouthwashing setting.

[triglycercule]

oh yeah before i forget cute mttpoly headcanon because i said so: when killer finds out (through SOME way of means. he has his ways) that dust and horror like something then at every chance he can he goes and finds that thing for them :3 because I SAID SO AND IT'S CUTE ‼️‼️ (something something killer has no idea how to properly show affection and appreciation after believing his whole life was meant to cause pain and suffering to those close to him and now that he's trying he does silly goofy stuff like this hehe,,,,,,, dust is DROWNING in piles of fluffy blankets and books. horror cannot keep up with eating the amount of snacks killer keeps stealing for him 😞😞😞)

[non-un-topo]

My Neekeys over the last two-odd years. I was curious to see the changes 🤔

[puppppppppy]

Atla live action 😐

[plushie-lovey]

Alright so. I'm getting into junk journaling. At least, I'm going to try to! I have a plan to start myself off with 2, one for personal/random shit so I don't feel so confined, and one focused on my plushies!! Not every one of my plushies will get a page but I will dedicate a page to whoever inspires me in a particular moment. I may not share every page right away. But if I fill in an entire journal I will try to show the finished results of what I created! I will also be doing this at my leisure because this new hobby is an outlet for my creatively and mainly my emotions. Shout out to @ cafe-mouse for inspiring me

[bmpmp3]

tbh the biggest thing that drives me towards synthv and cevio/voisona 2.0 isnt even the smoothness and clean "realism" of it all, its actually the fact that said realism allows for more variation in vocal provider pronunciation mouth and tongue positions etc to shine through. i know people in da vsynth scene often use "character" to refer to a voice's robotic or engine noise-y elements (i assume because of piapro and such) specifically but i think the character that comes directly from the vocal samples/training itself is a little underappreciated. cevio ia's か゚-y がs <3

[biddy-biddy-biddy]

maybe i should talk/show more about my oc now that i’m thinking… idk! everyone is doing something for their ocs/self inserts idfkkkk…

like i just made her for funsies like haha what if i’m eltingville also everyone is eltingville/northwest why not do it…