#James is looking mighty fine though
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ecstarry · 8 months ago
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"The one with only one bed" for you baby @malchai, for always inspiring me
“James, this is not what I had in mind when I said I wanted to live in a book,” Regulus quipped as he stared at the only bed in the middle of their hotel room. 
“I swear this was an honest mistake,” James said, though his words were far from convincing as laughter filled the room.
“I’m not sleeping with my brother’s best friend,” Regulus said firmly, except his mind couldn't help but entertain the scenario of a night sharing a bed with James.
“You should never say never, Reg,” James replied with an exaggerated wink. “It’s just one night. Get over yourself. Besides, you’re not my type.”
“Fuck off, Potter. I’m everyone’s type,” Regulus said, a cocky grin spread across his face. 
“Not mine, though.” James was clearly trying to start a game with Regulus. He knew it, but Regulus Black was prideful, he was always hungry for a victory. 
“Really?” Regulus dropped his bag to the floor, and slowly walked towards James. He could tell that even closing the distance was enough to make the mighty James Potter blush. 
“Yeah,” James said with a sudden shy voice. 
“So you don’t mind if I take my shirt off, right? The weather is kinda shit here.” Regulus stepped closer, their proximity was a territory they had only ventured into while drunk, never sober and never alone.
“Yeah.”
“Since when are you a man of few words, Jamie?” Regulus grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled it over his head, ruining his perfectly arranged curls, almost as if someone had run their fingers through them.
“Are you getting hot too? You look flustered,” Regulus said as his eyes traveled to James’ crotch, he was wearing a pair of sweats that did very little to conceal the bulge forming underneath. 
James took a deep breath and looked back at Regulus with a challenge, or a proposal even. Regulus couldn’t tell yet, but he was curious enough to see where this went. 
“Actually, I am hot. I think I also need fewer layers.” James was wearing a linen white shirt and, instead of giving Regulus the satisfaction of a quick reveal, he slowly started unbuttoning it, allowing Regulus’ gaze to savor every detail of his body.
The sight of that god-like body was enough to make Regulus forget what the game even was. Any coherent thought left his mind as the last button of James’ shirt was undone, revealing the most delicious man he had ever seen standing shirtless in front of him.
“Eyes up here, love,” James teased with a low voice. 
Before Regulus could even process James’ comment he heard a knock on the door, he quickly avoided meeting James’ eyes and walked over to open the door. 
“We are truly sorry for the misunderstanding, we have a room that matches the description you asked for, if you would-”
“This one is fine, thank you,” Regulus replied and closed the door. 
He turned around and saw James waiting eagerly for any sign that confirm exactly what Regulus’ last words meant. Regulus returned to his previous spot, close to James and reached for his own pants and started unbuttoning them, an action mimicked by a very excited James. 
“Rethinking the ‘not sleeping with your brother’s best friend’ thing aren’t you?” James teased. 
“Rethinking the ‘you’re not my type’ thing aren’t you?” Regulus quickly snapped back as James pulled him closer and held Regulus’ face between his hands. 
“Just let me fucking kiss you, Reg.” 
I win, Regulus thought. 
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miryum · 1 month ago
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Pirate Captain!James Potter x Princess!Reader
A princess should know her kingdom and her people. That thought kept rushing through your head as the ship with the black flag steadily approached yours. And her people include the ones roaming the seas, right? If only you could go to your mother and tell her, "I told you so," as the pirates began to board your ship. Of course, your guards surrounded you, faithful until the end, but there wasn't much they could do on a ceremonial ship that prized decorations and etiquette over weapons and speed. Perhaps you shouldn't have commanded your ship to leave the harbour, but there was a traffic jam with all the merchant ships and whatnot. You thought it best to sail around them to get to the far peninsula. 
It wasn't long until your guards were either dead or captured and their blood stained your dress. You were in shock when the pirates hoisted you onto their ship and began to sail off. "Do you know who I am?!" the cliched words spilled out of your mouth. "My- my mother and father are very influential!"
"Don't sell yourself short, princess," one pirate dressed in a loose black shirt that paired with his shoulder-length black hair chuckled. "We know damn well who you are. Our captain picked you out himself."
You hiccuped and tried to fight back the impending tears. You would not cry in front of these brutes. Words failed you as the black haired pirate tied your hands behind your back with rough rope and shoved you down sitting onto the deck. Your dress poofed out around you and the pirate chuckled again. "Mighty fine fabric," he commented. He crouched down next to you. "Could get a pretty penny for it."
At that, you shot him a confused look. "I'm sorry?" you asked, voice thick with unshed tears. "I'm worried for my life and freedom and you're thinking about my dress fabric?" 
The pirate held up his hands in surrender. "Pardon me, princess," he said sarcastically. "But the world doesn't revolve around you."
"Right now it does!" you exclaimed. "The moment the guards on the mainland saw the smoke from my ship, they would've sent a frigate to check on me. Once they see the blood in the water, the blood of my men, they will alert my parents, also known as the king and queen of this land. Once my parents hear of this, they will send out all the ships in their fleet to bring me back to safety. They will not rest until I, the heir to the kingdom, is rescued, and you and your men are held to trial and hung."
The man sat back on his heels and commented, "brigantine?" 
After a beat, you asked, "pardon?"
"Your parent's ships? They're brigantine, aren't they?" At your hesitant nod, he continued, "yes, so, first off, bold of you to assume I am the captain, though I blush at your praise." He threw you a grin before standing in front of you. "Second, the ships in my captain's fleet are all sloops. They're the fastest type of ship ever and with the crews, almost a hundred on each, we know how to push them even faster. Your parents won't ever catch you unless we wish them to."
"Are you torturing the poor girl?" A new voice rang out. The rest of the crew had just finished setting the ship up for top speed to rejoin the rest of their fleet and were now wandering over to you, curious, but not malicious intent in their gazes. The new speaker had hair a little shorter than the first man’s, but it was lighter and messier. He had scars riddling his face and shoulders, but they had healed long ago.
“Remus, you know torture makes me sick,” the first man grinned. “I’d much rather leave that to the captain. Or Wormtail,” he added. 
A scruffy looking boy in the crow’s nest peeked down. “What?” he called. 
“Nevermind, Peter!” the dark-haired man shouted back.
“Where are you taking me?” you demanded, pulling against your bonds. They rubbed against your wrists painfully and you winced. 
The dark-haired man scoffed. “Oh, look at that. Can’t handle the ropes, love?” he taunted and Remus smacked him on the chest.
“Be nice, Sirius,” Remus reprimanded. “We just kidnapped her, for god’s sake.” Remus bent down behind you and undid the ropes. You stared at him, trying to figure out his motive, but he just said to Sirius, like you weren’t even there, “and what would she do? Her dress would sink her to the ocean floor and even then she can’t swim back to the mainland.” You glared at the pirates once you realised he was right.
“Where are you taking me?” you asked again, still sitting on the deck. 
Remus gave you an odd look. “To our captain,” he said as if it were obvious. “Didn’t Sirius tell you? Captain requested you himself.”
“What does that mean?” you pressed, standing up. Your legs shook slightly and you swallowed thickly. “What on earth are you heathens going to do to me?” When they didn’t answer right away, you continued, “I- I’ve heard stories of how wretched you pirates are. And I would rather die than give up my dignity and autonomy.”
“She’s feisty,” Sirius said once you were done. “Captain will like her.”
Remus crossed his arms and said, “Sirius, stop scaring her.” He sighed and turned to you. “We have a fleet of ships a few knots from here. The Captain is waiting for you. He’s very eager to meet you and I can guarantee he won’t hurt you in any way you’re thinking.”
“Why isn’t he here now?” you glared at the two men.
“Captain doesn’t like the mainland,” Sirius said simply. He took out a strip of cloth from his pocket and began wrapping his hand, playing with the fabric. “And if anyone ever caught a whiff of him, he’d be good as dead.”  
“If they could catch him,” Peter shouted from where he was descending from the crow’s nest. 
It was then that you realised that these weren’t the pirates you had heard tales of. They weren’t there to torture or assault you. They had even released you from your bonds. They clearly had loyalty towards their captain, but were also oddly well kept. Other than Remus’ scars, they all looked perfectly healthy and fit. You only hoped their captain was as well-mannered as his crew.
“Who… who is your captain?” you asked slowly. “And will I ever be returned to my kingdom?”
“Ah, well let him introduce himself,” Remus smirked. “Only two or three hours now until you meet him.”
Sirius then shrugged. “And who knows about returning you? Whatever the captain thinks is best.”
“You make it sound like I’m a commodity to be bought and returned,” you spit out, hands gripping at your skirts.
Neither man said anything. 
It was another three hours before the ship began to slow. By that time, you had sat down on the steps leading up to the wheel, having resigned to your fate.
Yet, you couldn’t help when your lips parted in awe when you saw the dozen ships appearing from over the horizon. Their flags all shared the same black cloth with an ‘M’ stitched on them. “Impressive, hmm?” Remus came to stand next to you. He held out a hand for you to take and you pulled yourself up. Your hands pressed along the sanded wood of the railing. 
“Yes,” you admitted. “I… I never knew the extent of pirates in our waters. It gives you chills, does it not? Being on the sea. You never know what’s out there.”
“On the contrary,” Remus said. “It’s liberating.”
 His words sunk in and you stared out at the approaching ships. “Why an ‘M’?” you asked.
“That’s our name,” Remus looked over at you, leaning against the railing too. “We’re Marauders.”
You tried to smother your smile. “Clever,” you admitted. 
“Yes, he thought so. In truth,” Remus revealed, “he employs only those who need it. He creates a community forged not by stealing and gold, but by camaraderie and love for the waters.”
“But you still are pirates,” you said. “You still steal and plunder and purge.”
Remus tilted his head to the side in acquiescence. “Yes,” he replied truthfully. “But not from villages or towns who work hard to earn their keep. Not from merchant ships. We only plunder and purge nobility vessels and that of the royal navy.”
“Those are my men!” you exclaim, turning to face Remus. “But you are slaughtering and maiming my men! I know those men, some of which are barely out of boyhood. I’m the one receiving the reports of who has passed at sea at the hands of you pirates and I am the one who has to send letters to grieving mothers or wives or children.”
The man with the scars bowed his head and didn’t say anything for a while. “If it makes you feel better,” he muttered, “captain orders that we give them all a proper funeral.”
You throw your hands in the air in anger and disbelief. “Oh, yes! That will make me feel better! Let me write to their widows so that may console them.”
“Princess,” Remus stopped your outburst with a firm stare. “I suggest you calm yourself. May I remind you who is in charge.”
“Your captain whom I have not even met.” You scowled and crossed your arms like a petulant child.
Remus nodded towards the fleet they were quickly catching up to. “You will soon.” Sirius called for Remus’ help with manning the sails or something of the sort – you weren’t particularly paying attention to the people who had kidnapped you – but Remus paused and looked you in the eye. “You know,” he muttered, “if you talk to the captain about the men we’re killing… he will probably stop.”
“Do not jest with me.” Your face twisted into an unpleasant expression. “Why on earth would he listen to the princess he kidnapped?”
The pirate’s own expression softened in contrast. “A man will go to lengths for someone he’s supposedly in love with.”
“In love?” you repeated in a whisper after a moment to process what you heard. “But- why- I mean, he’s never even met me!”
“He has,” Remus told you. “You may just not remember.”
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The pirates, to their credit, tried to be chivalrous when sending you from one ship to another. Sirius held the rope ladder steady when you climbed down to the rowboat where Peter sat, ready to row. There were numerous times when the ladder swung back and forth and you let out a squeal, clutching to the sides and hoping your satin shoes didn’t slip off the small wooden planks that served as rungs. You were sure you looked ridiculous, both crews watching as you yelled down to Sirius to not look up and consequently under your gown. 
Once you finally settled in the rowboat, casting a disgruntled look to Sirius, Remus climbed down after you and the four of you made the short journey to the other ship. They had you climb the ladder before them and the pirates on the captain’s ship grabbed your forearms to help haul you up over the railing. By the time you stood on the captain’s ship, you were a bit sweaty, the ends of your dress were wet, and you were thoroughly annoyed. 
Sirius and Remus disappeared into the captain's quarters. From your position on the deck, you couldn’t hear much, especially with the waves lapping on the side of the boat and the soft conversations of the crew. 
As much as you tried to be afraid, you couldn’t find it in you. Some gut feeling told you that no matter if these were gross, stinky, immoral pirates, you wouldn’t get hurt. 
Soon enough, you were ushered into the captain's quarters. 
The first thing you noticed was that it was decorated with stolen goods. Pieces of art from all different countries, furniture from four kingdoms, velvet embroidered drapes, and a small bookshelf of books behind glass that looked as if they were crumbling apart. 
The second thing you noticed was the man. He was lounging on the chaise, a leg thrown over the armrest and a tricorn pirate hat held lazily in his fingers. You scoffed and said, “this is not how one should greet a princess, pirate captain or not.”
Instantly, the man bolted to his feet and cleared his throat. “Right. Yes, I’m so sorry, princess.” He was a tall, lean man with a mop of frizzy curls on his head. His skin was tanned from his years at sea, but his hazel eyes shined with utter joy. “Princess,” he repeated, holding his hat to his chest.
“Are you… the captain?” you asked slowly, thinking a pirate captain should’ve been much more fearsome. But this man simply looked… lovestruck.
“Yes,” the man said. “Captain Potter. James Potter.”
Your head tilted to the side inquisitively. “You don’t seem like a pirate.” 
James’ eyebrow lifted up. “Is that an insult?”
“No,” you decided. “You’re simply not what I expected when your crew regaled your triumphs.”
The captain let out a chuckle. “And what accomplishments were those?”
“Well, is this your fleet?” You nodded towards the dozen ships that you could see from the porthole.
“If you think I only have a dozen ships to my name, you’re daft. I’m the most wealthy and respected pirate to sail these seas,” James boasted, a hand to his chest. “Terror runs through the veins of the ships who dare cross us.”
You pressed your lips together in annoyance and James immediately straightened up and cleared his throat. “You know, if you truly wanted terror to run through my veins, you may want to make my capture more unpleasant,” you said.
James snorted in amusement. “And how would you like your kidnapping next time, your highness?” he asked.
“First, I would like to know why you decided to slaughter my men and kidnap me!” you exclaimed, voice rising in anger. “Those men had families! Children! And I have a family too! You think my parents aren’t worried sick, not knowing if their daughter is alive or not? If- if they’ll see her again or not?” your voice shook slightly; obviously, you were projecting your own fears onto your parents.
“It wasn’t intentional to slaughter your men,” James said, as if that was consolation. He stepped forward, but didn’t offer you any more comfort than that. “If they had given up, they would be back on their way to the mainland. Unfortunately, they are loyal to you, so they had to be stopped. And I truly am sorry for all the pain I have caused you, your parents, or the kingdom. I would love to sail you back and return you, but I’m afraid I can't part from you quite yet.”
“And what could you possibly gain from me? Is it money? Because I assure you, there will be a hefty sum to be rewarded if I am brought back alive and well.”
James shook his head, almost sadly. “While I am glad that neither Remus or Sirius told you the true intent of your bringing here, it does give me the embarrassment of having to do it myself.” He shifted his weight foot to foot and it looked as if the dreaded pirate king was almost… nervous.
“Tell me. Now,” you commanded.
James ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up and your nose wrinkled as you watched. “I believe it was… three years ago,” James said, “when I fell in love with you.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Oh, no. It’s entirely possible when it comes to you.”
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Yes, there will be a part two
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underoospeterparker · 10 months ago
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CONGRATS ON UR MILESTONE BABY!!! i’d like to request 🪸 CORALS !! with the idea of cowboy!james and innocent!reader in mind teeheeee <333
YAY babe thank you so much ily!!! challenged myself to use some slang hehehe
join the celebration
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cowboy!james potter x innocent!fem!reader, 0.9k words, hurt/comfort, angsty
tw: (slight) violence, blood mention, toxic ex, swearing
James strolled over with the confidence of a man who'd already won his race. "How're you ladies doing tonight?" He asked you and your friends, leaning over to plant a kiss on your forehead.
"Well, bless your heart for asking," Mary Rose blushed, "we're fairin' just fine," she added, a huge smile on her face. James reciprocated it, but it wasn't as pleasant as hers had been.
When she turned around, you rolled your eyes and James chuckled, taking a seat next to you. "No need for jealousy, darlin', you know I'm all yours," he said, his voice deep and quiet. This time you were the one blushing, forced to hide your red face in the crook of his jacket.
It was a second later when you pulled away, and you noticed Mary Rose's glare from across the bench. James surveyed your eyes quickly, a touch of concern in his big brown eyes. "You alright there, sweetheart?"
You were quick to nod at him. Giving him your best smile, you asked, "when's that race of yours happening?"
He checked his watch on his wrist, then got up to stand. "Reckon it's about to start in a blink of an eye," he replied, grinning at you. "I'd be mighty honoured to have you by my side, darlin', will you come to cheer me on?"
Mary Rose was quick to speak up. "You bet your spurs we'll be there, cowboy!"
James looked at her with a small smile, then turned to you as she began getting her things ready. "I'll be front and centre," you reassured him, and his face brightened. "Wearin' my finest cowgirl hat," you added, giggling softly. "Now go show 'em how it's done."
Your boyfriend saluted you and head off to the races. "Yeehaw," Nellie squealed, tugging at your arm as you laughed along with her. "Let's mosey on down, ladies!"
While you climbed down the stands, hand-in-hand with Nellie, Mary Rose pulled you aside, her grip tight on your arm. "Don't think for a moment I didn't notice you cozying up with my ex. You better watch your back, partner!" Mary Rose's nails dug into your skin, drawing blood. She pulled away when Laura called her over, waving with a fake smile on her face.
You winced as you looked down at your arm, crescent moons left in her wake. You covered it up as best as you could, pulling your jacket on although it was mighty hot outside. Then, you returned to the race tracks to watch James ride.
"Ladies and gentlemen, gather 'round," the announcer clapped his hands excitedly, "we've got a lineup of fine cowboys ready to tear up that track. Among 'em, we got James Potter!" The crowd roared with enthusiasm as James made his way onto the track, a massive grin on his face. You waved happily at him when he blew a kiss to you good-naturedly.
Mary Rose turned around to look at you, glaring. "Say, (Y/N), I need to make a trip to the outhouse. Would you be so kind as to join me?"
You couldn't refuse, not with all of the girls surrounding you, so you nodded, even though James was about to ride. Mary Rose would have done much worse if you hadn't.
She gave you a smile, then pressed a heavy hand to your back, leading you to the bathroom. James, however, noticed your disappearance soon after, and swiftly mounted his horse. He quickly rose over to where the girls were stood. "Where might I find (Y/N), ma'am?" He asked Nellie pleasantly.
Nellie pointed over to the outhouse, and James nodded, saying, "much obliged, my friend."
He climbed over the fence, although the announcer was yelling at him to get back over and on his horse. James started to jog over to the bathroom, starting to get worried. "Shucks," he said under his breath, swinging the door open to find you cowering in a corner, a bruise blossoming across your face.
You managed to gain some confidence, however, and you struck a painful punch across Mary Rose's face, so hard that she stumbled backwards. "You bitch! I'm gonna-"
James stepped between the two of you. "Hold your horses," he said, his face hard. "I'd never lay a hand against a lady, but you raised a finger against my sweetheart. So I'd suggest you keep your distance."
With tears in her eyes, Mary Rose nodded and stepped out of the way. James turned to you, nothing but care and worry in his eyes as he surveyed the damage.
"James," you murmured softly, "any reason you're lingering 'round here instead of hittin' the track?"
He smiled, "I gotta take care of my girl, y'know? She's my top priority." James cupped your cheek, face softening when you grimaced in pain. "Shhh, I'm sorry, sweetheart," he crooned over you, wrapping you up in his arms, "don't you worry. I'm gonna take good care of you." He paused, making sure you were listening. "And I ain't one to make empty promises, darlin'."
You smiled up at him. "No doubt in my mind, cowboy."
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wolven91 · 10 months ago
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The Ceremony
As the ursidain leant in, claws filled with sharp implements and teeth bared in concentration, James lifted his chin, defiant of the nerves that threatened him. He willed himself still, despite his fear. 
Her hands reached for the material that covered the man and stabbed a sliver of metal through it. It was sharpened shard and as long as his finger, although thinner. It seemed impossible for her to be so dexterous with such massive paws around such a tiny device. The man’s eyes snapped to the side as the archway that led to the room they were in rattled as the curtain made of beads and polished stones hissed and cascaded. It reminded the human of heavy rain. 
“He looks pretty good! After what you said, I was worried you weren’t going to be able to get him ready in time!” Declared the newcomer in a jovial tone before joining the former lone occupants of the room. He joined the pair and settled his own paws against his double wide hips, wearing a carefree grin as he leant back and observed the human from above. Appraising her work.
The seamstress leant back onto her stool, her mighty paws on her knees. She wore elegant blues and turquoise. The robes that flowed off her stopped at her shoulders and fitted her rotund form closely, allowing her to move unimpeded as she had been, slowly moving around James as the sun crept across the sky through the window. She had spent the last hour putting finishing touches to the robe that now covered him. 
It was a facsimile to the one that covered the newcomer, Hensra. 
James had saved Hensra’s life only days before. His fear had been forced aside by bravery for a mere scant few moments, but it was enough to prevent the ursidain from meeting his end. 
That was why James was here. 
On Source, the ursidain homeworld. 
Why he was being fitted for a ceremonial robe by the clan leader’s personal seamstress. 
All as a reward for his bravery in saving the only son of the current clan lord. Above as the clan leader was above all other clans. 
“When you said you needed a rush order for a new member, I expected someone…” She glanced at James’s face, “Larger.” James said nothing. 
“Hey. He’s big where it counts.” Declared the male, hitting his own chest with a fist. “He looks good though.” Hensra complemented, gesturing at the red and black robes that fitted James perfectly. The seamstress reached forward and for a moment her hands and wrists blocked out the world either side of James’s head. Then her fingers pinched the hood that hung around James’s shoulders and brought it up and over. 
It hung low, covering the man’s head all the way down to his eyebrows. He could see the two ursidains, at least their knees. 
“Of course he does. I made this. Is everything prepared for tonight?” Sniffed the seamstress, seemingly satisfied with her work.
“Yeah, I just need to tell our friend James here, how it's going to go.” Replied Hensra calmly. 
It was only when the seamstress twisted at the hip as she stood to openly stare at Hensra that James realised that this was not something that should have been left until now. . 
“You haven’t told him? This is happening this evening, Hensra.” The older woman pointed out with an incredulous tone. Almost admonishing what was essentially a prince. 
“He’s brave. It’ll be fine.” Dismissed the large male with a wave of his paw.
“Fool!” Snapped the older lady. “How you came from your father’s loins is beyond me. Every year I am yet more certain that he found a particularly talkative rock and named it ‘Hensra’.” The seamstress declared with blatantly no fear of punishment for such brazen insults. She picked up her equipment and packed it away in haste. The male gave the human a shrug but said nothing as she tidied rapidly. 
Before she left though, as a silhouette in the open archway, the tall female turned back. Her eyes shone the sunlight that was filtering into the room back at James. The gleam in the dark. A predator’s eyes. Something buried deep within James’s evolution cried out in fear. Fear of the cave bear. Hunter of man. 
“He may be a fool, but the boy speaks only truths for as long as I’ve had the displeasure of dressing him. Listen to his instructions. Obey them. Be brave. Good luck James of Earth.” And with that, and a rattle of beads, she was gone. 
James felt doubt replace her as a presence in the room. 
“Right.” Hensra started, clapping his great paws together. “Let's talk about tonight…”
== 0 ==
The veil of the darkness of night had settled across the plains and the giant rocky cliff faces that stood in front of them. Only the moonlight illuminated the path. The five figures stood in the dark at the very mouth of a valley. At the end of the valley, at the top of the hill, was a bright bonfire that burnt steadily, licking at the vertical cavern walls. It cast strange shadows that played with the eyes. 
Sparks rose in the distance, disappearing into the sky. This was the premier clan’s ancestral grounds. Were tradition demanded they respect the old ways. 
From James’s position, as he watched the sparks, he noticed the three moons of Source had aligned perfectly over the bonfire and the crowd that were at the top of the hill. The three sisters were why this ceremony had to happen so soon. 
A pair of horns, placed on the very top at the cliff edge on either side of the valley entrance declared the beginning of the event. Even from all the way down at the bottom of the valley,; James could see how big the horns were. He watched as dark shapes, ursidains, approached, reached up and began a single mighty and long sound through the horns. Both were strong and sure, perfectly in time with one another. The sound echoed through the valley, but also out into the plains at the five robed figure’s backs. 
It declared the beginning of the ceremony. 
“Here we go. Translators out.” Whispered the familiar voice of Hensra, robed as James was. Hensra was at the head of the convoy of four robed ursidains and one robed human who was second to last in line. He would lead the way. James dug the translator bead from his ear and slipped it into a pouch on the inside of his robes. 
A powerful voice shouted and called out from the top of the valley. An ursidain and one with a voice so loud and clear James heard every word. It was clearly a declaration of some kind, not an invitation or question. 
“Aaaah! Dree! Dah! Kai! Sky! Vah!” James had no clue what the words meant, but the three ursidains ahead of him began walking towards the bonfire and the one that shouted. 
The five robed figures began their ascent of the valley. Drums began, marking their approach. A steady beat that almost matched James’s heart as it drummed within his chest. As it echoed down towards them, James noted it was a staccato beat. 
James recalled what Hensra had explained to him as they walked. 
*”First, we’ll ascend the valley to the ancestral clan grounds. We can’t talk once we start. Throughout all of this, you’re not expected to speak or respond.”*
James nervously smiled under the deep hood as he kept pace with the larger creatures. A walk for them meant a quick paced march or even a mild jog for him. Whether they were taking their time for him, the human wouldn’t know, but he made sure to keep up. Wind blew in from the plains behind them and played with the heavy hems of their robes. James barely felt it.
In James’s nerves, and concentration not to put a foot wrong as he walked up the hill, the man barely even realised how quickly they made their way up the path. Within what seemed like moments, they had already approached the edges of the ‘camp’. 
A wall of fur and broad shoulders prevented the five robed figures from progressing further. Unphased, Hensra walked forwards without hesitation until at the very last moment, as James expected him to slam into the back of the ursidain, the ursidains who had their back to the newcomers parted. 
A path appeared almost instantly. 
A low rumbling chant began. Every single ursidain held the beat with the drums, a short word for each thud.  
“He Ooh Gos Ran Dun Niu Yeh Petro Hes Manus Laga Sota Lah.”
James kept his head low as Hensra had told him to. 
*”When we get to the bonfire, we line up and present ourselves to the leaders.”*
James took his spot next to the other robed ursidain. A fugitive glance from beneath his hood showed him how to stand. The other robed figures had their shoulders back, chin parallel to the ground. James matched them as the crowd continued to chant, only now a low grumble had appeared beneath the words as a rumbling growl. 
The crowd on the other side of the fire were all staring, all chanting, their eyes gleaming in the dark. As the human watched, it appeared that as the ursidains across from him finished a line in the chant, in turn they would draw out the final words into animalistic howls, craning their heads back and ultimately roaring, growling or outright screaming into the sky. 
Three of the largest ursidains James had ever seen, were stood directly between the fire and the five robed figures as they waited in a row. James tried to remember what was next. 
*”First, the test of nerve. He’ll try to intimidate you. You can flinch at any point after this, but not to him.”*
One of the shadows stomped forwards and James steeled himself, expecting something loud or sudden. He was right and wise to have done so as the ursidain roared and snarled and bellow at someone further down the line, what James assumed was their face. 
It wasn’t long before it was James’s turn. His hood was torn from his head, but James remained still. 
*”He can’t touch you. It’s just bravado.”*
“HUURGH! GARREE DARINMURAH!” Roared a maw full of teeth and spittle, scant centimetres away from the human’s face. James willed himself to remain still and calm. He was rock, and would allow the water to merely flow over him. 
With that, the roaring face was gone, shouting at the next and final in line.
The first shadow that had done the shouting disappeared into the crowd, hidden instantly amongst the shadows and flickering lights given off by the fire. 
The second silhouette approached. 
*”Next is the taste of character… Trust in her… She decides whether this is successful or not.”*
She raised her hand into the air, a glint of steel flashed before she brought her hand down in a swift strike that left James’s sight. He heard and felt the ‘thud’ of flesh on flesh at high speeds as well as a grunt by Hensra.
The figure did the same action two more times, before a huge belly appeared in James’s vision. He tilted his head back to meet the new ursidain’s eyes. A female by the looks of it. On her hand, capping her first finger, was a metal spike, like a weaponised thimble. If she hit him with that, not only would James go flying, the spike would definitely go deeper, into more important things than if he were an ursidain with literal inches of blubber. 
The ursidain raised her hand as before. 
For lack of a better idea, James tensed, grit his teeth an set his jaw and held his shoulders back. He’d come this far, he would not be found wanting now. 
Something struck James in the pec. It was solid hit, like a cricket ball striking him. He grunted, but otherwise blinked in shock. She had pulled her punch!
James glanced back up at her, only to see a single red droplet, gleaming in the firelight. The ursidain touched it to her tongue, before nodding and repeating the process with the fifth and final ursidain.
With that, she too melted into the crowd. 
Which suddenly went silent, with the exception of those that were growling or howling. They finished in their own time until all the remained was the crackling of the bonfire and the howling of a distant wind. 
“Whoooar! Tami Ro Mara!” Bellowed the hits and final ursidain, framed by the flames. He was by far and away, the largest, tallest ursidain that James had ever seen; even on a planet of them. He held his arms up in a declaration, one that James had no clue of what it meant. 
Whether it was positive, or negative? He might have declared them blood brothers or announced they were to be eaten and the human wouldn’t have had a clue without the translators. 
The titan shouted again to the crowd, his arms still up and turning so all could see and hear him.
“Whoooar! Tami Ro Mara!” 
This was an unseen trigger as the entire crowd erupted in their own cheers, starling James until he flinched at the sheer wall of noise that battered him from all sides. All seriousness was lost, the robed ursidains tore their hoods from their heads and joined in with the shouts, jumping in place and hurling themselves around. 
For a brief moment, James feared for his safety as titanic bodies, easily twice his size, threw themselves chaotically in their mad joy. That was until a strong hand grabbed the back of James’s robe and hauled him clear of the floor. 
It was Hensra, who merely dropped James onto his broad shoulders, he grinned from ear to ear and spoke.
“Glyow weese? Ou bes Woul.” 
One of his paws reached up and tapped the pouch that contained James’s connection to the rest of the aliens. He quickly fitted them into place where they suctioned securely. 
“You’re one of us now!” Hensra declared, still grinning up at the human.
“You said you’d explain it afterwards, what do you mean?”
“I mean, you’re a clan brother now. You’re an ursidain!”
[r/WolvensStories]
[AO3]
[Ko-Fi]
98 notes · View notes
themculibrary · 3 months ago
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Stucky Halloween Fics Masterlist
a day in the life (ao3) - powerfulowl (StuckyFlangst) E, 20k
Summary: Steve Rogers wakes up on Tuesday October 30 1956, and doesn’t seem to remember his life that well. Why does every day feel so familiar? And why does he keep getting visited by tall, dark, handsome men who remind him of Bucky?
A Halloween Miracle (ao3) - Oh_i_swear T, 5k
Summary: As he stands on the doorstep of his sister’s house, Bucky sighs. It’s Hallowe’en night and he could be anywhere right now… but ideally he’d be inside of his tiny apartment ordering a pizza, watching horror movies and ignoring the world. He wouldn’t be standing here in a Captain America costume waiting to take his niece and nephew trick or treating.
At First Scream (ao3) - SmutConnoisseur E, 5k
Summary: He didn’t have Samhainophobia. He didn’t.
Because Bucky wasn’t afraid of the holiday, he just hated haunted houses and being scared shitless. That’s a common thing.
But when his best friend drags him to a haunted manor experience on a cloudy Halloween night, Bucky feels his heart race— and his gut clench from something more than jump scares.
Blood sucking squatters (ao3) - Just_Bill G, 8k
Summary: When Steve inherits a house from his estranged great aunt he doesn’t know what to expect. Not the creepy mansion which seems to come straight from a Lovecraft book. Nor the fact that it’s not as uninhabited as he thought it was.
Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater (ao3) - odetteandodile T, 7k
Summary: Bucky’s first impression of the tall, hot blonde guy is that he’s the only other person at Clint’s Halloween party who looks as awkward as Bucky feels.
His second impression is that the guy is about to cheat at a dumb game to avoid watching a scary movie.
As for third impressions and beyond? Well, things start looking up from there…
Could A Sexy Vampire Ever Love A Hipster Werewolf? (ao3) - perfect_plan M, 12k
Summary: Steve Rogers tries to manage coming out, avoiding the school bully and being in love with his best friend.
Emperor’s New Clothes (ao3) - IllusiveBirds T, 3k
Summary: ‘You’re going to be at the Halloween party and you’ve won best costume for the past three years but this year I am wearing the best costume ever if you defeat me I will eat my - wait you actually look really cute when did you turn hot what the fuck um’ AU.
Steve is determined; no he is fucking resolute, that this will be the year that he wins best costume at Tony’s Halloween party. He has been planning this costume out since July, okay and he will not let James Barnes win another year. No way or he’ll eat his own helmet.
I especially am slow (ao3) - bangyababy T, 5k
Summary: Steve’s been in love with Bucky his whole life, but he’s never told him and that was okay, Steve was fine. Until Bucky announced that this year he’d be doing a couples costume with his new boyfriend Ryan.
Jack-o-Lanterns and Kittens (ao3) - captain_wintersoldier T, 9k
Summary: Steve works at a Coffee shop. Cue attractive customer named Bucky Barnes. Steve falls in love and ends up embarrassing himself, but scoring a date anyway. Yay relationships.
Mighty Morphin Captain America (ao3) - 74days T, 4k
Summary: Bucky Barnes is sitting outside of a haunted house because he’s to scared to go inside - and meets the worlds most hilarious Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. It’s just a shame he’s got no idea what the guy looks like.
Sharp Like My Love (ao3) - mikazure E, 3k
Summary: Steve and Bucky carve pumpkins for Halloween, it’s hard to focus on the task though, when Bucky’s showing off his impressive knife skills
sometimes dead is better (ao3) - aniloquent N/R, 3k
Summary: “You hate scary movies,” his mom says.
“You’re literally Netflix and chilling,” Becca says.
“You’re not sleeping in our bed tonight,” his dad says.
Bucky throw his hands up. “We’re just hanging out!”
Bucky’s dad grunts, unconvinced. “Take a condom.” He hesitates, glancing over at Bucky but not registering the horrified look on his face. “Or two. Steve plays football. Kid’s got stamina.”
“Oh my god,” Bucky breathes, eyes rolling up to the ceiling.
The Asset and Halloween (ao3) - Introvertatheart G, 6k
Summary: It’s Bucky first Halloween with the Avengers. As usual, he doesn’t understand Halloween. So when Tony invites him and Steve to the annual Halloween party, things get interesting.
The First Encounter (ao3) - sunrow T, 2k
Summary: Instead of Tony throwing a huge Halloween party, the Avengers have planned a truly horrifying haunted house experience, all in the hopes of scaring Steve and Bucky into revealing their hidden feelings for each other. But not everything goes according to plan.
Or, the Avengers don’t realize Steve and Bucky are already in a relationship, and think they need to help them get together.
the only john wayne left in this town (ao3) - lisainthesky, toookish E, 3k
Summary: The M&M hits the floor and rolls under the fridge, but he doesn’t really notice.
Steve’s peeking out from under the wide brim of his cowboy hat, a blush spreading across his cheekbones. Always so shy, even when Bucky’s staring at him with his mouth open like an idiot, even when he’s trying to be sexy, leaning against the wall like that with his thumbs in his pockets and his hips cocked.
Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me (I Wanna Be Dirty) (ao3) - OhCaptainMyCaptain steve/bucky E, 11k
Summary: (And Bucky is none-the-wiser, until he stumbles into a screening and sees his supposedly self-conscious boyfriend strut onto the stage in a corset, fishnet stocking, and tap dancing shoes.)
On stage, Steve owned that outfit like he’d been fucking born in it. All self-consciousness he’d previously shown in his body was non-existent, as he strutted around with his hands on his waist like a model on some sort of catwalk; popped his hips from side to side and gave these playful, almost sinister-looking grins to the cast and the rest of the crowd. It was so unexpected, but there was also something sexy about seeing Steve up there, acting like that. It was like some free-spirited sex kitten had possessed him or something. Goddamn it, it had Bucky fucking confused.
trick or treat (ao3) - liionne T, 2k
Summary: Bucky, Steve and Nat go to Sam’s for Halloween, to watch some movies, pig out a little, have a few drinks— and end up babysitting Sam’s nephews and niece.
Trick or Treating with the Avengers (ao3) - Writerofthelorde G, 14k
Summary: Post Winter soldier. Bucky has been with the Avengers for a couple months now. Steve has been trying to help him through everything. It’s halloween and the Avengers all go trick or treating. Bucky is wearing his army suit from back in the day and it’s making Steve fall in love with him all over again. Awkward moments and a ton of emotions follow.
Tricks and Treats (ao3) - Somerandomauthorrr N/R, 2k
Summary: Steve loves the Halloween season. Bucky does not.
We Got A Lovin’ Thing (ao3) - MacksDramaticShenanigans G, 6k
Summary: Steve’s trying to think of a good response that doesn’t make him sound pathetic in front of Brock when a flash of leather catches his eyes. His Sandy. The man is only a few feet away, and before Steve can think his actions through he’s striding towards the man and sliding an arm around his waist, pulling him into his side.
Sandy looks like he’s about to say something— probably ask who the hell Steve is and what he’s doing, which would blow the lid off of Steve’s lie. Brock doesn’t need more to taunt him about.
So Steve does what any normal person would do. He pulls Sandy in by the waist and leans in to lay one on him.
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cant-get-enough-btr-forever · 6 months ago
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Big Time Games: "Stage Rush"!
Perhaps you've seen my "Recycle Rush" play-by-play (wonderful little game, by the by). Now, here's my "Stage Rush" play-by-play.
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Kendall, you're on camera. Put on your shoe.
*clears throat* Now that I got that out of the way...
First thing I saw after clicking "Play": Logan is all by his lonesome.
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Did he get distracted by schoolwork/a new book, and the others left him behind?
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Anyway, Lonesome Logan needs to get to the stage (hence Stage Rush). There are hordes of fans scattered in his path. You know, we have lines for a reason.
It's your job to steer him away from their light...beam...things. Basically, he's avoiding their eyes so he doesn't get violated.
You also have 3 VIP passes on hand, which are automatically given to anyone who sees Logan.
This will, um, bribe them into not tackling him.
You can grab extra passes along the way, as well as musical notes (which are bonus points).
But if you run out of passes, and someone notices you?
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Right then. On with the show.
I busted out laughing as soon as he started...doing whatever this is.
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Mighty inconspicuous there, dude.
Luckily, these fans (who mainly consist of twins) do not have working peripherals.
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Logan: "If I just stand verrry still, they will never know I am here! 😃"
Side note: You know those movie scenes where a prisoner escapes at night, and they try to dodge the big searchlights? That's what this reminds me of.
And holy cannoli the girls' screams are irritating. I'll stay away from their weird glowing auras, if only to prevent them from screeching.
...Is that what this game is trying to show us? How annoying we can be...?
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Once I'd eluded the searchlights fans, this is what it told me:
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Ah. So Logan is actually early, and the other boys are late. Now that makes a bit more sense.
By the way, the VIP passes don't refresh for each guy. Therefore, if Logan only has 1 pass, so does Kendall. Although, confusingly, if Logan has 0 passes, Kendall magically has 1.
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Oh well.
Anyhoo, here's the rest of Big Time Rush, merrily prancing after their bandmate.
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And here's a screenshot of the first time I escaped with 8 passes (the most I ever salvaged):
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It's sad how accomplished this made me feel.
The difficulty increases as you go from Logan, to Kendall, to James, and finally to Carlos. Which is amusing to me, because it implies that Carlos has the hardest time maneuvering the fans. I couldn't blame him, though.
I felt agoraphobic just looking at his situation.
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The poor boy doesn't even have his Helmet to protect him.
I've got you, Carlitos.
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Much better. (Side note: Is he wearing two watches...?)
After what I believe was my 5,397th attempt, I finally hustled all 4 guys to their dang stage. This was my prize:
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They made it there on time, yet it still says "Game Over."
Makes sense.
I don't have an account with this site, but I clicked "Login" anyway.
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The site Big Time Crashed.
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I also checked my closet, hoping to find Big Time Rush. Sadly, I discovered nothing. If I had been able to log in, I'm certain they would've been in there.
You know what? It's fine. I got the boys to their show, and that's all that matters! In fact, I'm pretty sure I can call myself a pro gamer at this point...
Final Thoughts: This one definitely seems harder than "Recycle Rush." Also, Recycle Rush has many more levels. That said, Stage Rush's graphics are cool. I give it a 5/10.
Here's the link, if you want to try it out for yourself. Unfortunately, it's not mobile-device-friendly, so use a computer.
Once again, happy playing! ☺
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wisteria-cherry · 1 year ago
Note
Hello! Hope you’re doing well! Could I request a story for your mauraders collection where they all go to Hogsmeade and make excuses to be separated so Sirius and reader are left alone?
(you sly girl/gay/they. absolutely.)
in which the marauders are your wingmen
it was easy to get lost in hogsmeade, but the marauders were a tight-knit group; they stayed together no matter what. or so you thought.
during one particular trip to hogsmeade, you were walking in a particularly odd formation. you were walking next to sirius, and the other three boys were walking together up ahead. usually, it was remus with you. granted, you just as well could have been overthinking things— they were teenage boys, after all, they don’t think much about things like who they’re walking next to. really, they don’t think about much of anything.
“y’know, moony, you and i haven’t spent any time together,” james announced loudly, throwing his arm around remus’ shoulder (which took some effort, as james was the third-tallest and remus was the first-tallest).
“i suppose we ought to change that.” remus replied. “what do you suggest we do?”
“we ought to go to zonko’s, don’t you think?” up ahead, you could see james grinning widely as he looked up at remus.
“i think that’s a fine idea.”
“off we get, then!” james announced, abruptly changing course, causing peter to run into remus by mistake.
“i’m coming!” peter announced, scurrying after the two.
“that was… weird.” you remark as you and sirius keep walking. you wrap your scarf around yourself tighter; it was snowing and somewhat windy, and very cold.
“sure was.” sirius looked back at where the three boys had disappeared. he grinned widely before looking back at you. “someone’s a little chilly. fancy a butterbeer? it’s just up ahead.”
“yes please.” you reply, teeth chattering, walking closer to sirius so your shoulders touched. sirius ran hot, and you intended to exploit this. upon noticing your scheme to get warm, sirius shed his robe and draped it around your shoulders.
“wait, but you’ll be cold,” you protest, beginning to take the robe off, but sirius’ big hands set themselves firmly on your shoulders.
“no you don’t. i’m alright, dove, you just get warm now. the three broomstick’s right up ahead.” sirius replied, snickering as you gave him a look.
you and sirius were mostly quiet on the walk, probably because you were busy trying to stay warm and sirius, whose arm had been tossed casually around your shoulders, seemed busy looking high-and-mighty as per usual, a ghost of a smirk on his lips. once you got inside, though, it was nearly impossible to stay quiet— a warm atmosphere with dozens of witches and wizards eagerly chatting was impossible to resist.
“you go on and get warm, right, love?” sirius pulled a chair out for you— a table for two, right by the fire.
“should we get a bigger table for when the others return?” you ask, hesitant to sit down, pulling sirius’ robe tighter around your shoulders.
“no need.” sirius shrugged, taking his robe off your shoulders and setting it on the back of your chair. “we don’t know when they’re coming— if they’re coming— and we don’t want to take up a big table all by ourselves, now, do we?”
“i suppose not.” you sit down, and sirius pushes you in before tousling your hair affectionately, going up to the bar to get your butterbeers.
“oh, you’re here!” you look up to see none other than lily evans, love of james’ life.
“lily.” you smile, and she smiles back, taking your hands in hers, sitting down across from you.
“so, you and sirius are finally on a date, are you?” she asked.
“what?” you blink, and lily immediately retracts her words.
“wait, you aren’t? i’m sorry, i assumed that you were since it was just you two here. he doesn’t usually hang out with anyone without the boys, you know.” lily tilted her head thoughtfully.
“… you’re not wrong.” you narrow your eyes, looking at sirius, who was delightedly making small-talk with the bartender. he looked back at you, seeing your expression and immediately giving you a mischievous grin. lily noticed the way you two exchanged looks and gave you a look of her own, pointed and unamused.
“you didn’t even realize, did you?”
“not til now, i didn’t.” you reply, equally as unamused as lily.
“evans!” sirius greeted jovially as he returned to the table. “i would’ve gotten you one if i knew you were joining us, but this lovely lady has priority, i’m afraid.”
“black, did the others ditch us on purpose?” you demand, slipping your hands out of lily’s to cross your arms over your chest, raising an eyebrow.
“whatever do you mean, darling?” sirius grinned boyishly.
“you know exactly what i mean.”
“don’t play dumb, black.” lily chimed in. sirius only shrugged, butterbeers in hand.
“okay, so maybe i did tell prongs and moony to spend some time together, but wormtail was completely on his own.” sirius admitted, not a drop of guilt in his voice.
“because you knew he’d follow james.” you retort.
“obviously.” sirius’ grin widened as he set the drinks down. “you can’t possibly think it was a coincidence, can you?”
“i did until lily here enlightened me.” you sigh. sirius laughed.
“you’re adorable.”
“and you’re incorrigible.” you respond. you turn to lily. “care to join us?” you smiled somewhat smugly.
“wait, wha-“ sirius protested before getting cut off by lily, who shared your haughty expression.
“why, i’d love to. allow me to pull up a chair, won’t you?” lily stood up and left to fetch a chair from a table that wasn’t in use and sirius sat down in disbelief.
“how could you do that to me?” sirius exclaimed. “cockblocked by my own best mate’s crush!”
“you’re evil, you know that?” you sip your butterbeer. “positively evil. you deserve every bit of what you’re getting.”
“not fair!” sirius pouted, slouching in his chair as lily returned with her own.
“i’ve got one.” she announced, plopping down in the seat in between you and sirius.
“since there are only two butterbeers, would you like to split mine?” you offer with a smile, and sirius groans.
“of course.” lily giggled. “how romantic, no?”
“how very.”
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aneurinallday · 6 months ago
Text
The Tragedy of James Steerforth
Chapter IX: Ruination
It rained that night. A fierce rain that forced them to abandon their search and return home - a relentless downpour that pounded the windows and hammered the roof. As David lay awake in bed, with Agnes slumbering peacefully at his side, he watched rivers of water running down the window panes, and remembered the last time he had experienced such a rain. He thought of James Steerforth clinging to the rigging of the sinking boat, while David stood helplessly on the beach, unable to help him.
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Where was Steerforth now? Wandering the dark streets? Seeking shelter from the weather? Huddled under whatever cover he could find? Perhaps he was already dead. Perhaps he’d fallen drunk into a canal and nobody had noticed. Perhaps he’d seen no other way out of his unhappiness.
In the morning, they resumed their hunt, and by the laborious interview of multiple persons, determined that Steerforth was renting - or at least, had been renting - a small, fourth-storey flat on the outskirts of the East End. Upon arrival, they were taken aback by the shabby squalor of the place. Surely the fussy and snobbish James Steerforth wouldn’t take up residence here, surrounded by the poor and miserable?
“Maybe we made a mistake,” David wondered aloud.
“Maybe,” Agnes said in a clipped tone. He could tell from her voice that she was holding back nausea.
“You wait here, my love,” said David, “Ham, please stay with her.”
A narrow flight of creaking wooden steps led up several storeys. While Ham and Agnes waited below, David ascended to the top flat. Along the way, he heard the sounds of people living in misery - coughing, crying, and couples fighting behind closed doors. Reaching the final door, he tapped upon it and waited for a response, but only silence came from within. As he knocked again, a harsh female voice spoke behind him.
“No point knocking - it’s empty and the new tenants haven’t moved in yet.”
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David turned to see a haggard woman peering from the open door of another flat, watching him with beady eyes.
“The gentleman who rented here - did you know him? He had curly hair…”
“Aye. I knew him. He never deigned to speak to me, though, nor to anyone. We might as well have been dirt on his shoes, the way he looked at us. All high-and-mighty…” She spat on the floor.
“Perhaps you can help me.” David approached her. “This gentleman - I need to find him, urgently. Regardless of his character, it’s very important that I find him. Do you have any inkling of where he might be living now?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care either.”
“Please, madam. Any suggestion would be helpful. Even the smallest clue…”
“All I know is, the landlord threw him out a week ago. He never paid his rent, you see. He kept saying he would, but he never did. Couldn’t afford it.”
“He was penniless?”
“Aye. It’s funny - he had all these airs and graces, but not one shilling to his name. I could hear him making excuses to the landlord, saying he was going to pay soon, saying his mother was going to send money. It was all lies.”
“What happened then?”
“Well, when the landlord’s patience ran out, he started selling his things. He sold his fine clothes and his ruby ring and his fancy little cane, but the money went fast. He needed it for medicine, you see.”
“Medicine?” said David, dismayed.
“Aye, for his chest. He had a nasty cough. I could hear it through the wall - coughing, coughing, all night long. Drove me insane. Didn’t stop him drinking, though…he would come crawling up the stairs every night, barely sensible. Woke us up with the noise.”
“But you don’t know where he went?”
“No. Out on the street, is all I know. Serves him right, the good-for-nothing.”
“Thank you for your time,” said David, and departed.
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He emerged onto the street to find Agnes leaning against a lamp-post, looking queasy. The non-stop coach-riding and walking, coupled with the smells of the streets, had proved too much for her.
“I’m fine,” she insisted upon seeing his concerned face, “I just need a respite.”
“My love, you need to lie down. Ham, would you take her home safely, please?”
“I can take myself home,” said Agnes, “Ham, you go with Davy. Look after him.”
Being pulled in two different directions, Ham sighed.
“We’ll both walk Agnes back to the coach, and then we’ll carry on, alright?” he proposed.
“Alright,” David reluctantly agreed. They did as Ham suggested, and after bidding Agnes farewell, continued onwards.
As night fell, their search for the disgraced Steerforth took them deeper into the sprawling, crowded slums of the East End. The ramshackle buildings would’ve seemed derelict if not for the flickers of light and snatches of voices that came from within. The narrow streets were filthy, the open sewers overflowing from last night’s heavy rainfall. Covering their noses against the foul smells, they stepped around the muck; David almost retched. The wretched poor were watching them with hungry eyes.
He tried to picture James Steerforth in a pit like this, but couldn’t.
“Surely he would rather crawl back to his mother than endure this,” he muttered, “Surely he would.”
A gaggle of urchins darted past them, and they instinctively covered their pockets against any small hands.
“We shouldn’t be here,” said Ham, “It’s not safe.”
But David insisted they press on. The unfortunate residents of the East End mostly ignored their attempts at questioning, but David refused to be discouraged. Somewhere, amid all this sea of human suffering, someone had to have met and remembered Steerforth. A man like him wasn’t easily forgotten.
Pigeons roosted on a dilapidated roof, beneath which sat a grimy old woman, mending a hole in a child’s dress. David approached her.
“Please,” he said, ”We’re looking for a friend, a little older than me, and shorter. He has dark curls and green eyes. Have you seen him?”
She didn’t raise her eyes from her work.
“It’ll cost you.”
David handed over a shilling.
“Over that way.” She jerked her head in the direction of an alley. “He crawled off to die alone, the animal.”
David and Ham approached the alley with trepidation, and stood at its mouth, staring into the dark.
“It could be a trap,” Ham warned. “There could be thieves waiting to pounce.”
“It’s possible.”
“I’ll stand guard here. If you see anybody who isn’t Steerforth, cry out.”
“I will.”
While Ham hung back, David ventured down the dirty alley with a pounding heart. Rats scurried past his feet, disappearing into nooks and crannies amid the brickwork.
A weak ray of moonlight leaked through a gap in the crooked eaves, illuminating a patch of darkness. A ragged man was curled up on the cobblestones, his dark head resting against the brick wall behind him. His curly hair was tangled and unkempt. As David drew closer, he heard the man stifling a grim cough from deep within his chest.
It took him a moment to recognise Steerforth.
“My friend!” David cried out in distress. “My friend, what has happened to you?”
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Steerforth no longer resembled the stylish and debonair youth he’d once been - his clothes had been reduced to tattered rags, just as the man himself had been reduced to detritus. Gone were his tall hat and embroidered neckerchief and beloved cane. Gone were his colourful waistcoat and brightly patterned trousers.
Hearing David’s voice, Steerforth recoiled. He hid his face with his hands - perhaps expecting to be struck, or perhaps hoping to not be recognised.
“Go away,” he wheezed.
David crouched beside him. This time, Steerforth was too weak to run away.
“At last, we’ve found you! Thank God. We’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He clasped Steerforth’s hands, but Steerforth’s cold fingers squirmed free. “You’re frozen. Come with us. We’ll take you back to your home - back to Highgate.”
“Us?” Steerforth echoed faintly.
“Yes. Me and Ham Peggotty. Agnes too.”
“Peggotty?” Steerforth was alarmed. “No. No, I’m not going with you. Leave me alone.” fear strengthened him; he turned away, still trying to hide his face. “Please. Just leave me alone.”
“I’m not abandoning you in this place,” David said firmly. “Come with us.”
“I won’t.”
“But you must! Everybody’s been worried. Your mother’s been beside herself ever since Yarmouth.”
“My mother?” Steerforth sounded confused.
“Yes. She’ll be overjoyed to know that we’ve found you.”
“How can that be? She despises me.”
“What? Never. She adores you. She worships you!”
“How could she? Everyone hates me.”
“That’s not true. Your absence has tormented her.”
Too weak to hold their position, Steerforth’s hands slowly lowered into his lap, his arms sinking to his sides. Now that his face was exposed, David could see that he was gravely ill. His eyes were glassy and bloodshot, and his skin was pale and clammy. Beads of sweat clung to his forehead and upper lip.
“You’re not well. Come with me. I’ll take you somewhere warm and dry.”
He tugged on Steerforth’s arm, but Steerforth resisted weakly.
“Please, James,” said David, “You can’t stay out here. Look at this place - the damp, the rats. It’ll be the death of you.”
“I know. I know! This is what you did to me. This is your fault.”
Steerforth was overcome by a fit of coughing. He expelled the contents of his lungs violently into the crook of his elbow. When he lowered his arm, David saw that his sleeve was stained. Steerforth was now struggling to breathe.
“My God. You need to see a doctor!”
“No, I don’t. Go away.”
“Don’t be a fool, James. You need help. You need medicine, a roof, a bed.”
“I’m fine. I don’t need your help. I don’t need anyone’s help.” Steerforth slumped back against the wall. The brief effort of arguing had exhausted him. “Just go away.”
“I’m not leaving here without you. I’ll drag you home if I have to. But I would rather it didn’t come to that.”
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“I don’t know…” Steerforth coughed again. He looked around the alley with eyes full of despair, and waved his hands helplessly. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Just let me help you,” David said gently. “That’s all you need to do. Everything else will work itself out.”
“Daisy, I’m not…I’m not feeling well. I think I might’ve caught something.”
“Yes,” said David, relieved at Steerforth’s admittance. “Yes, that’s right. You’re not well. But if you come with me, I’ll get you medicine and a warm bed and a cup of tea. How does that sound?”
“I’m hungry.”
“A big bowl of soup, then. As much as you want. And bread besides.”
Another tug, and this time Steerforth offered no resistance. David helped him to stand, placing an arm around him. They began to make their way towards the entrance of the alley. Steerforth limped slowly along, leaning heavily on David for support, wheezing with every step.
“I’m tired,” he said.
“It’s not far,” David encouraged him. “We’ll find a coach to take us the rest of the way. You can rest then.”
As they neared the open street, Steerforth stopped abruptly. He was staring not at David, but at Ham Peggotty - the man whose fiancée he’d stolen away across the English Channel, the man whose life he’d ruined.
Ham stared back without a word.
“It’s alright, James,” said David, “He won’t harm you. Will he?” He gave Ham a pointed look.
Freeing himself from David’s grasp, Steerforth backed away until he felt the wall behind him.
“I don’t…” he tried to speak, “I don’t…”
He swayed on his feet, his eyes unfocusing. Without warning, he collapsed. David caught him, but unable to hold up his limp weight, lowered him to the cobblestones. With his hand, he cushioned Steerforth’s head from the hard ground.
“Please, Ham, help me carry him. You’re stronger than me.”
Ham said nothing, and did nothing. Steerforth was fading fast.
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“Ham, please! He used to be my friend.”
Ham didn’t reply. But then he looked down at Steerforth’s lifeless face, and was startled, as if he’d been jolted awake from a dream. Quickly, he bent down and scooped the man up in his arms. No matter the harm that Steerforth had carelessly caused, he didn’t deserve to die sick and lonely.
Steerforth was fading fast. He wasn’t sure whose arms were carrying him, or whose shoulder his head was resting against. He just knew that he could finally rest. The last thing he heard before sinking into blackness was David Copperfield’s voice close by.
“It’ll be alright, James. It’ll be alright.”
Chapter X: Blood and Broth
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esta-elavaris · 1 year ago
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Flufftober Day 9: Massage - James Norrington/OC [1,149 words]
* this prompt comes from an alternative list I found, and isn't for one of the official Flufftober prompts.
My Flufftober '23 masterpost can be found here, and my behemoth of a main fic about these two is here 💜✨
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When James returned home from his first day of work under the great and mighty Lord Cutler Beckett, he appeared angry. The second, exasperated. On the third, however, he just looked exhausted. Having anticipated his working days no longer being the source of satisfaction they had once been for him, Theo met him at the door with a glass of whiskey in hand, and a sympathetic face that, she hoped, hid her worry.
“I should like to think,” he said, sitting on the sofa and ridding himself of his hat and wig both, “that even without your input, I would have seen him for what he was.”
Theo considered his words, lips twisting at one side.
“It’s been a while since I was able to brush up on the source material, but from what I do remember, you were never particularly chummy. I think, at absolute most, you considered him a necessary evil…until Governor Swann…”
She regretted the words immediately, for they only seemed to add to the heaviness cast upon her husband. There was a weariness about his eyes that she knew he would not allow to be seen were anybody else in the room with them – and while it warmed her that he allowed her to see it, it still made her sad to witness, all the same. His jaw was set, his lips pursed, and he even gave it away from the neck down, too. His shoulders held tightly squared even as he sat, the hand not holding the crystal tumbler of whiskey clenched tightly into a fist, even his thighs tensed visibly, twitching every now and then beneath the tight confines of his breeches as though ready to spring up into action.
This wouldn’t stand.
“How do you feel about the prospect of dinner in our nightclothes?” she asked.
He blinked at her. “When people talk of changing for dinner, that’s not quite what they mean, my love.”
Theo snorted.
“Yes, thank you for the English lessons, I’m quite aware. But I have a plan for before dinner, but we’d have to shed a few layers and putting them back on might be uncomfortable after.”
“That’s where your mind strays to after talk of Beckett?” he raised one dark eyebrow at her.
“That is not what I was talking about, you absolute lecher,” she laughed. “Come. I’ll show you.”
His suspicions were hardly assuaged when she led him upstairs to the bedroom and ordered that he should strip down to naught but his breeches. As he did, she took up a jar from her vanity. Coconut oil – the only thing she would willingly use on her skin here, because she knew it wouldn’t contain arsenic, nor lead, nor bird shit, or whatever else it was the fine ladies of Port Royal were rubbing into their faces each night.
When he was done undressing, he helped her strip down to her shift – mostly so that she could move freely, and wasn’t at risk of crushing him beneath the weight of all of her damned skirts.
“Lie on your stomach – on the bed,” she said, gesturing towards it like he didn’t know where it was.
It was then that he caught on, and he smiled softly.
“Theodora, you needn’t-”
“I want to,” she interrupted, rising on the balls of her feet so she could peck him on the lips.
He offered no more argument then, settling down onto the bed with his arms tucked beneath a pillow, his head turned sideways atop it.
However tense she’d thought him earlier, she realised now that tense was an understatement. The man was like a steel beam. Settling the jar down beside him, she climbed up onto the bed and straddled him – swatting his backside as she did so. He breathed a low, surprised laugh.
“Now who’s the lecher?” he asked.
Theo smirked. “You’re right, this is just an excuse for me to get my hands on you.”
As she spoke, she dug out a chunk of the oil with her fingertips and began to warm it between her hands so it would melt.
“Mm. You need never look for an excuse to put your hands on me,” he said.
If that wasn’t a glowing privilege, she didn’t know what was.
She began by smoothing her hands up and down his back, taking note of a few scars here and there that she’d previously known by touch alone. Up and down her hands worked, over and over, increasing the pressure on each pass until she was using her body weight to press the heels of her palms into his back, ever on the look out for signs that it was too much. There were none, but still she worried – she was hardly a professional masseuse.
“If it hurts, tell me and I’ll stop,” she said quietly.
James made a noise akin to a purr and murmured.
 “If you stop, I’ll never forgive you.”
Theo laughed quietly, curling her hands into fists and using her knuckles next, thumbs pressing down at either side of his spine as she moved up, straightening her fingers to press beneath his shoulder blades when she reached them, working out the knots where the muscles had bunched up, then upwards still, around to the front of his strong, broad shoulders while her thumbs smoothed across the base of his neck.
She worked up quite a sweat as she progressed – thrilled she’d thought to strip down, her brow and chest developing a sheen despite the fact she was only in a shift. But she delighted in each new reaction she drew out of him, noting what worked best and going forward accordingly. Only when there was no portion of skin on display that she hadn’t thoroughly attended to, and then some, did she stop. By that point, it had grown entirely dark outside, his eyes had fluttered shut, and he was all but melted into the bed. It was difficult to say whether he was awake.
Erring on the side of caution, she leaned back and placed her hands onto the footboard of the bed behind her, doing her best to ease herself backwards without upsetting the mattress too much. Her toes scarcely brushed the floor before she was reminded that she was, indeed, married to a warrior – for in one moment he was lying as if boneless on the bed, and the next he was upright, a hand at her arm, pulling her towards him until her back was against his chest.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he murmured into her ear.
Theo laughed, allowing him to drag her back. “Someone’s feeling better.”
“Someone, evidently, is married to a witch,” he teased, lips brushing the side of her jaw. “But she uses her powers for good.”
Dinner ended up being a tray of fruit and cheese, on a tray in their bed – many hours later.
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Links: AO3 -- FF.net -- flufftober masterpost -- dividers by cafekitsune
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ina-shumelim · 21 days ago
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Raging against the dying of the light: Chumbawamba don’t want to fade away
(Content note: HIV, suicide.)
I grew up with one Chumbawamba album that my mother had a self-burned copy of. It was not Tubthumper, but rather the calmer and much more melodious A Singsong and a Scrap (2005). Recorded by a much smaller Chumbawamba (Jude, Lou, Boff, and Neil) as half the band had left after the previous year’s Un to pursue their own projects, Singsong embraces a soft folk sound, foreshadowed already ten years prior on the Love-portion of Swingin’ with Raymond (1995). My favourite song on the album is By and By, an hommage to songwriter and labour activist Joe Hill (“don’t mourn, organise!”)—can you imagine a more beautiful epitaph?
Anyway, today yesterday I was listening to Fade Away (I Don’t Want to), on the same album. The title reminds me of Neil Young’s My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) (1979): “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”. In autumn 1980, John Lennon commented on this song as he understood it:
I hate it. It’s better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. If he was talking about burning out like Sid Vicious, forget it. I don't appreciate the worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or dead John Wayne. It’s the same thing. … If Neil Young admires that sentiment so much, why doesn’t he do it? Because he sure as hell faded away and came back many times, like all of us. No, thank you. I’ll take the living and the healthy.
This led Neil Young to clarify:
The rock’n’roll spirit is not survival. Of course the people who play rock’n’roll should survive. But the essence of the rock’n’roll spirit to me, is that it’s better to burn out really bright than to sort of decay off into infinity. Even though if you look at it in a mature way, you’ll think, “well, yes ... you should decay off into infinity, and keep going along”. Rock’n’roll doesn't look that far ahead. Rock’n’roll is right now.
When Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, he left a note referencing this line: “I don’t have the passion anymore, and so remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.” I think it’s a line that reads very differently depending on what place you are in.
In 2005, Chumbawamba are in their forties. They’d tried to change the world with punk rock and had their time in the limelight, but to what avail? It must have been tiring:
It’s a mighty long way from my own front door To the world we were going to make We got bloodied and bruised for the old excuse That it’s hard just staying awake
It seems so easy to sit down in your rocking chair, remote control in hand, and turn to a Fine Career (The Boybands Have Won, 2008). And maybe that’s what their life looked like from the outside. In the liner notes to the song, they tell the story of meeting a 45-year old punk, like Chumbawamba at this point without spiky hair: “‘punk is here,’ (touches his heart) ‘I don’t need the clothes to prove it.’” This seems to have resonated with the band, now an uneasy listening folk act. But it is not the sound or the outward appearances that make the punk band: Chumbawamba have not surrendered their fight, they are still looking for a reason to kick and scream:
Wake me up if you catch me falling Gently into the Night Shine up my shoes ‘cos I can’t get used To the dying of the light
Dylan Thomas’s poem Do not go gentle into that good night (1951) describes the futile fight against death. Wise men, good men, wild men, grave men—when they feel death is near, they all “rage, rage against the dying of the light”. Even though for Chumbawamba the fight is not yet against death, the stakes are equally high: “Struggle! To struggle is to live, and the fiercer the struggle the intenser the life.” (Pyotr Kropotkin, Anarchist Morality, 1987).
I think it is worth noting that Do not go gentle inspired another of Chumbawamba’s songs: The closer of Anarchy (1994), Rage, is dedicated especially to the people behind Diseased Pariah News, a 1990s humorous zine by and for people who were HIV positive:
Hear the ghosts of everafter Yell of anger Ring of laughter Don’t go gently into the night Rage against the dying of the light.
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mythicalsanctuarysodor · 9 months ago
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The Adventure Begins
The Island of Sodor and the north western railway, the sun was shining on a mid-spring day, the rivers were running and the birds were singing. Through a tunnel of track ran a thundering galop before emerging from the end pulling a passenger train was horse-human chimera cheering “Express coming through!” He ran fast along the track with the pounding of hooves rhythming against the ground, he bellowed a mighty horse neigh signalling he was coming through, then again when he saw a work colleague passing him by on the opposite track. He ran past stations and up a steep hill and then down the other side cheering as he raced down.
The smallest odd looking human chimera working on the railway was Edward, an old mustang stallion centaur that was working the shunting yard at Knapford station. He was busy shunting and pulling coaches and cargo, he was just putting a flatbed away when he heard Gordon the large centaur exiting the yard. “A goods train, a goods train! Oh the shame of it, oh the shame of it…” He sulked as he passed the elder with the number 2 on his flank. “Oh come now Gordon, it can’t be that bad.” Edward said. “To be fair Edward I can’t imagen him griping at anything else.” A transparent pale man said from beside the tracks the number 2 was standing on, holding a rope that was attached to the horse chimera. Gordon ignored the man’s comment and continued trotting along. “Yes Edward, it is. I am a very important stallion. Thankfully I won’t be pulling goods trains for long, not after the new person gets here.” Gordon responded. Edward though was surprised. “New person?! What new person?” Edward asked attempting to follow after Gordon but his hitch hadn’t yet been undone, so he was jolted to a stop before the pale man undid them and then Edward quickly cantered forward to follow the bigger centaur.
“Haven’t you heard? Sir Bertrum said they were getting someone new. The last one they got was much too small with the fragile stone body.” “But I’m not small!” A centaur with his lower half made of solid black onyx and a horn sticking out of his head said as he came into the yard along a track that was covering Edward and Gordon’s paths. Both blue stallions planted their hooves hard into the dirt while pulling the brakes on their carriages and managed to not crash into the number 5 or his train. Gordon groaned as he glared at the new-comer. “James…” he hissed with his ears flat. “I might not be as big as you Gordon, but I’m bigger than Edward, and there’s nothing wrong with being made of onyx ither. And I am also the only unicorn here.” James said. “Unless you crack and break of course. Now do please move, you’re in my way…” James moved for Gordon and watched as he left. “I don’t break, I’m just as strong as you!” but the big blue stallion was already out of earshot.
After a while Gordon was on the mainline track as he approached the big hill and had trouble pulling his train over it. His hooves slipped on the sleepers as he tried to get his footing again. He groaned and strained but eventually got stuck and applied the brakes, giving up in a tiered groan as he stood on the track. His jockey looked confusingly from his carriage and locked its breaks on before hopping off and walking up to his work college. “Gordon? What is it?” the jockey asked. “I can’t do it, those noisy trucks hold a stallion back. If they were coaches, now that would be different.” The centaur stated.
The jockey sighed and pinched his nose in frustration, it was clear this didn’t faze the jockey but that didn’t make it all the more annoying. “Well to bad for you, they’re not coaches and their not just going to disappear into thin air for you just because you can’t be bothered. You need to muster some strength and keep trying, the fat controllers aren’t going to let you drop this job because we’re too far in now.” “Hmph! I’d need a banker then.” Gordon said crossing his arms. “Ugh… fine, I’ll get in touch with Sir Stephen. I’ll let the breaks off and you start heading to the bottom.” The jockey patted the centaurs hip and walked back to the van. “Are you going to do anything to make this up to me Harper?” Gordon asked his jockey. “I was thinking of inviting you to a lazy night tonight since we’ve both had a busy day, no need to moan.” Harper called back.
Back at Knapford station, the controllers of the railway endearingly called “The Fat Controllers” had a glass sphere glow and vibrate on one of the desks. A man tsked in annoyance from being distracted from his paperwork before answering it by tapping the crystal ball. “Hello?” he asked. “Hello Sir Stephen, it’s Harper. Gordon has come to a stop on the hill, we may need some help.” “I see… have you exhausted your options yet?” “Kind of hard to have options sir. He stopped half way up the hill, we’d need to head back to Knapford in order to gain enough speed, and knowing Gordon, he only reserves his speed for the express.” “Oh dear… well, I’ll get Edward onto it soon, hang tight.” Sir Stephon ended the connection and was about to stand up when another man at a desk peeked up to see what was happening. “Stephen? What’s happened?” the man who looked nearly exactly like Sir Stephon asked. “Nothing grandfather. Gordon has just stopped on the hill.” “Stopped on the hill? He’s an express stallion, he should have no problem getting over the hill.” Another man at a desk said. “Unless he wasn’t going fast enough.” The prior said. “Yes, that’s exactly what happened. Apparently he ‘only reserves his speed for the express.’ Harpers words not mine.” Sir Stephen said. The three stout men groaned. “Honestly Charles this is what I was worried about when you said you got a stallion like Gordon.” One man said. “I know father but we’ve all been somewhere dark in our lives before, Gordon is a proud stallion, so it will just take longer for him to… mature, in the right sense.” “Ironic you telling me that son.” The man who was apparently Sir Stephen’s grandfather said. “You haven’t reached there yourself grandfather.” Two of the three men laughed at the comment.
Bertrum checked his watch and realised they had been standing chatting long enough. “Well we need to go inform Edward he has to bank Gordon up the hill, I shall be back in a second.” “No, I could honestly use a break. Why not pay a visit to the old friend?” Charles said as he also stood up to follow. “Wait for me you two.” Stephen commented. “Okay I believe we’re all going then…” Bertrum said shaking his head fondly at his immortal family. “Alright Hatt’s, let’s move.” Sir Charles said following everyone out the door. When the Hatt family walked out onto the yard they greeted Edward with warm sets of hellos. “Hello Edward, I’m afraid Gordon needs your help.” Sir Bertrum said. “My help sir? Are you sure?” Edward questioned. “Do you expect me to pitch in as well sir? Because I can only assume it’s something to do with the goods train he was pulling.” The pale man quizzed. “Hopefully not Zorran, if Gordon pulls his weight as well.” The eldest Hatt told. “Okay sirs, I’ll do my best. Jockey?” Edward asked as he looked to Zorran. “Yeah, yeah, I gott’cha Eddie.” The ghost grinned petting the centaurs hip before mounting him and the two set off for the mainline. When they arrived at the hill Zorran hopped off Edward and floated over to Harper who was at the bottom signalling Gordon backwards. “‘Elo, Top Hat. Found yourself in a mess?” the pale spirit asked the other fellow jockey. Harper sighed tiredly at the old name and stopped Gordon backing down the hill. “Unfortunately Zorran. And here I was thinking when I was younger and naiver that Frank and Eddie were the most stuck up people I would ever meet.” “I’d say look in the mirror, but… you know.” “Glad to see your humour hasn’t changed over the last fifteen years. Now, onto real issues. We going for the standard approach?” Harper asked. Zorran clicked his tongue and checked the size of the train. “Yep, three stamps on the rails and then we go.” “Wonderful, see you at the yard later.” Harper waved and then floated up the slope to Gordon to tell him the plan. Zorran doing the same back over to Edward. “Alright ol’ boy, standard approach.” “Brilliant.” Edward said as Zorran mounted him again.
Harper climbed back onto the carriage and held the reins tightly then giving them a flick. “High hoe Gordon!” Harper shouted and the stallion proceeded to stamp his hove twice on the rail making a harsh clang as horse shoe meet with rail. Edward copied the action with three stamps then a high horse cry as he began to push with Gordon calling out from up front and trying to pull up the hill.
Gordon slipped a few times on the sleepers causing him to fall back and a sudden weight being shoved onto Edward, but the old stallion kept pushing. “Oh please Gordon, try!” Edward pleaded. “Come on Gordon this is a cake walk for you!” Harper encouraged. “I can’t do it!” Gordon shouted as the continued to climb. “I will do it!” Edward cheered as he continued to push. “I can’t do it!” Gordon shouted again as he continued to slip. “I will do it!” Edward cheered as he stomped his hooves hard into the ground for traction. “I can’t-” Gordon was stopped half sentence when he realised he was at the top of the hill and just beginning to get over the other side. Zorran and Harper using their levitation abilities to make the train less heavy for the centaurs. “I’ve done it! I’ve done it! Haha! I knew I could to it!” Gordon cheered in hara when he thundered down the other side. “Seriously?” Zorran questioned in annoyment when he watched the train move on. “Not even so much as a thank you? Hmph!” Edward nickered.
When Edward got back to the yard to sort the trucks and coaches he was confused when he heard a voice he had never heard before, he listened in as James talked to them when the new voice mentioned they were from the mainland to which it clicked to Edward. “The fat controllers new worker!” He gasped then backed up to where James was on a siding, when the blue stallion stood next to his work colleague he was surprised by what he saw.
It was a boy centaur standing there. He was covered in a teal full piece set of clothes down to his hooves leaving only his long tail with a fur tip to be seen, he had a heavy blanket over his back and a large head piece over his forehead that was buckled down like a complicated bike helmet. He had black hair and bright blue eyes, and if his tail was to go by, he presumably had blue fur under the suit.
The new centaur was confused when he saw Edward staring at him in shock. “Um… hello? What’s the matter? Do I have soot on my face?” Thomas asked as he whipped his face. “No, no… it’s just, well… you’re not a big colt, or even a stallion.” The boy seemed to grow upset at this as he scratched his front hooves on the ground and wiggled his ears in frustration while crossing his arms. “Yes I am!” the foal defended. James chuckled. “Hehe, no you’re not.” “Well I was big enough to pass my tests on the mainland.” The small blue colt said slowly trotted off, not really wanting these older centaurs company.
Edward tried to back track as he didn’t mean for that to come across as an insult. “Wait! Wait! All I meant was, you’re not as big as I am, and I can assume you’re a unicorn if your muffler is anything to go by.” Edward said while looking to all the mufflers around the young lads hidden horn.
“I may not be as big as you, but I’m very hard working.” A deep horse cry along with a thundering of hooves cut the young colt off as a cloud of dust from rubble Gordon kicked up entered the yard. “Hahaha! And who are you?” The big burly stallion asked in a judgmental tone down to the little colt. “I’m Thomas.” The young foal said. “The new centaur!” Edward said as he watched Gordon’s expression turn into one of finding this a joke. “Oh dear, I believe the fat controllers made a terrible mistake. I think they were expecting someone really useful.” Gordon said smugly. “I am really useful.” Thomas said while flicking his tail in annoyance. “For fetching coaches, perhaps. If you stick around long enough you might see me pulling the express, that will be a fine sight for you- Ow!” Harper flicked the reins from the carriage so they smacked Gordon in the face. He hopped off the carriage and came up to Gordon to pull him by the lead.
“If I hear one more remark like that Gordon you will find yourself pulling nothing at all for the next week.” The man gritted before sighing and looking to Thomas. “Terribly sorry about him young man, sometimes his ego is too big for his shoes. This is Gordon, and I’m his jockey Topham Harper, but everyone calls me Harper.” “I’m Edward, and this is my jockey Zorran.” The old stallion said looking up to his partner. “Nice ta meet ya squirt.” Zorran waved in a two fingered salute. “And I’m James.” The onyx stallion said with a bow and illumination of his horn. Thomas mimicked his stance awkwardly when they all heard a voice enter the yard.
“Hello! Hello! Hello!” “And here comes the fat-” “Ah, sir Topham Hatt’s.” Edward said cutting James off as the controllers of the railway walked into the yard. “Ah, you must be Thomas, our new colt! welcome to Sodor! I am sir Bertrum Topham Hatt. These men beside me are my descendants. My grandson- Stephen and my son- Charles.” “Pleased to meet you.” Thomas said with a smile and wag of his tail. The yard grew quiet with an awkward tension as the men expected for Thomas to continue when Edward whispered to the young colt. “‘Sir’, you’re supposed to call them ‘sir’…” “Oh, ah, pleased to meet you sirs.” Thomas corrected. “We’re very pleased to meet you to. Now, as you can see, we are very busy men, and this is a very busy railway, so we expect you to make yourself really useful right away. Edward will show you what to do, and Harper? I want you to fill in for Thomas’s jockey for the day, his boat here has been delayed until tomorrow.” Sir Bertrum said.
“Of course sir. Go have a small rest Gordon, you’ll have to take the express without me.” Harper said giving the big stallion a pet then letting go of Gordon’s lead and heading over to Thomas’s as he assumed Edward would be showing him how to buck. “Um? Sir? May I ask why we have another unicorn here? Let alone one so young?” James asked before the Hatt’s left the yard. “Ah… Thomas here is actually a very special request, I unfortunately can’t disclose why until tomorrow. For now I want Edward to show Thomas the ropes of bucking.” Sir Bertrum said. “Bucking? But I thought he was a unicorn sir, he should be able to use magic at his age.” Zorran said looking extremely puzzled. “He has all these mufflers on for a reason, he’s not allowed to use magic for the time being.” Sir Stephen said. “How odd.” Harper remarked as he took a hold of Thomas’s lead and guided him to follow Edward. “Come on Eddie, lets show the squirt how it’s done.” Zorran said taking Edward by the lead as well and walking him back to the rails. Edward showed Thomas the basics of bucking. He kicked with his back legs on a big block of wood that was around the coupling but in between the buffers of a truck. The truck went rolling a little ways and closed in on the truck behind it, when it gently tapped the other trucks buffers Zorran used his telekinesis and coupled them together. “Now you try Thomas.” Edward encouraged. “I’ll lead you to the trucks.” Harper said with a clipboard in one hand and Thomas’s lead in the other. They stopped in front of a line of trucks that needed to be pushed closer together to be coupled up. “Alright, just buck.” Harper said watching Thomas turn around and then kick hard against the truck making it crash into the others behind it with a few bits of cargo coming out. “Ohh… opps…” Thomas grimaced as he realised he bucked to hard. Harper sighed and clicked his fingers, the boxes that had fallen out being put back and the trucks being fixed up on the tracks while being coupled up.
Edward then showed Thomas how to push and pull, for this one Harper just floated beside Thomas as he was too big to actually ride on the small colt. Edward was linked up to the coupling on the coaches and slowly walked back, using his hands to hold the coaches from backing into him to quick. Once he had all the coaches together he pushed them onto the same track as Gordon. Gordon was harnessed and hitched up to a carriage that was coupled to the coaches, normally Harper would be on the carriage with the reins to drive Gordon but the stallion could break the train himself if he didn’t have a jockey with him. Thomas had untied himself from the lead that Harper was holding and actually trotted up to the front of the platform standing next to Gordon to admire the outside of the yard. When James came onto the same line he neighed loudly to tell Thomas to get off the track, the small blue colt did just that and tried to gallop out the way but was confused when he came to the signals, not knowing if he could go or not. He ended up flopping over himself before the lines crossed and narrowly missing a train that passed in front of him. Harper was quick to get him back on a lead and pulled him away from the signals. Thomas was put back in the yard and tried to get back to bucking and pulling. He crashed into a train this time face first into the wood causing the boxes to fly out of the trucks again. After Harper made sure he was okay and didn’t have a broken nose he fixed the trucks again and their cargo. When Thomas was pushing a train he accidentally went onto the wrong track and was put towards the station again. He stopped once he realized the mistake but was seen by the passengers on the platform, he was curious about a girl that seemed to fawn over him by being a- ‘pony’ but he was quickly snapped out of it when James cried out again for him to get out of the way, making the colt bolt backwards to get out of the station.
In the afternoon Thomas and Edward had taken a small break when the young colt noticed Gordon taking a rest in the yard. He as quietly as he could tiptoed up to the large stallion and when he was right next to him he cried out in a high pitched whinny as hard as he could. Gordon was startled awake, but when he heard Thomas laughing he instantly grew cross.
“Wake up lazy bones! Why don’t you work hard like me?” the young colt then cantered away, leaving Gordon to grumble as the sun set and rain clouds started to roll in. That night, Thomas was the smallest centaur in the stables. Harper guided him into the spare stall that had a big tank engine behind it and began to untie the harnesses for him. Thomas sighed as he began to unwind and relax. “I like being on Sodor Edward, I just can’t wait to pull trains.” Gordon groaned in Thomas’s direction from mere mention because of the disaster Thomas had caused everyone today. The large stallion undid his own harness in a grump since his own jockey was busy with the new comer, once it was off he tossed it into his tall fenced stall with a large tendered locomotive behind it.
“You have a long way to go Thomas if you think your even close to being able to pull trains yet.” Harper near scolded with the same expression as his centaur co-worker. “I actually have to agree with Harper Thomas, you best learn how to buck trucks and coaches before you pull any trains.” Edward cautioned as Zorran undid his harness in his own stall. “Learn how the trains are put together before you pull ‘em Thomas, the last thing you want to do is become a one trick pony that only knows how to pull trains.” Zorran quipped. “I resent that!” Gordon hissed as he knew that jab was directed at him.
“Oh do hush up Gordon, you have no room to speak after what happened today.” Harper shot down his centaur fast. “And even then, he’s too young to be pulling any big trains. And what’s the use of a unicorn if they can’t use their magic?” James asked from his stall as he clicked his crystalized fingers, teleporting his work harness off his body and onto a mannequin. “I do have to wonder that to. Why do you have so many mufflers on your horn? And… hold on.” Harper said as he took the straps and straddles off of Thomas and placed his harness on the floor, when he noticed something out of place. “This isn’t a normal blanket, this is a wing girdle.” Harper quickly undid the now discovered wing girdle. Thomas suddenly turned sheepish and looked to be upset as he began to undo the mufflers on his horn as Harper took off the girdle. “Why on earth do you have one of these on Thomas? These can cause some serious issues especially in your line of work, it restricts-” Harper was cut short when the girdle fell off Thomas’s back.
What flushed out spread wide open were a set of big blue purple tipped feathered wings, Thomas ruffled them a bit and made them flitter before folding them back down to his sides as he also took off the last muffler around his horn. Thomas wasn’t a unicorn colt, he was an alicorn colt.
All the mythic in the stables stared and gawked for what felt like hours to the young colt. He sat down and used his wings to partially hide himself in as he now looked really worried and embarrassed. “I was sent here because it’s the safest place for mythic… I was told I would be really needed here, so, here I am...” Thomas mumbled out.
Gordon was the first one to do anything as he walked over to Thomas and began to circle him. When the bigger stallion had done a lap, he stopped by Thomas’s wing and gently ran his hands down the feathers. “Hmm… your wings are like magpie ones, down to the rainbow gloss in the feathers. That gloss often means a pegasus can do magic, so I believe it makes sense that an alicorn’s feathers would be the same. And you have all your flight feathers but none of them look disturbed…  have you ever actually flown before Thomas?” Gordon asked turning his attention back to the young colt.
“Um, no. I haven’t ever flown before… the people who owned me were to scared that any teacher they gave me would snitch and I would be hunted.” Thomas meekly said as he twitched his wings away from Gordon’s hand. James was the next to come over as he took a good look at Thomas’s horn. “A curved blade and blue tinting… your horn is definitely built for strong and fast attacks like an enchanted katana, but the blue tinting that’s strong at the tip then dulls down to the base means you have a lot of magic building up, and you don’t use it regularly. I can assume you’ve used magic before at least since you wouldn’t have a horn at all if you didn’t.” James observed. “I have used magic before, but I have a huge knockback whenever I use it that often causes trouble, so they keep a lot of mufflers on me.” Thomas said gently tracing his finger up the bone on his head.
“So you haven’t had a teacher for magic ether I assume.” Harper said gently petting the colts hair. “No, apparently mage unicorns are hard to find nowadays. And even then, the same reason I said before, they were scared that a teacher would snitch.” Thomas answered with his ears drooping. “Huh… say, Toppy? What do you think Magister Star could do to teach him?” Zorran questioned to his fellow jockey. Harper’s eyes lit up. “Oh! You have a good point Zorran.” Harper said with a little glee at the mention of his former employer.
“Hold on, isn’t magister a title used for a person who lead a gathering of mythic? Like how we could call the sir Topham Hatt’s magisters?” Thomas asked. “You’re correct in that assumption Thomas, magisters are titles given to well respected leaders of businesses or mythic of authority. You could call the fat controllers magisters but because their immortals they wouldn’t respond to well to you calling them that. I actually did that for a while when I first arrived.” Harper chuckled sheepishly. “Ugh, that was a weird culture shock to get over.” Zorran agreed but in a grimace as he recalled the awkwardness of his experience. “Culture shock?” Thomas asked.
“Me and Harper used to work in America for rivalling businesses, when the second war came about my magister sold us to Magister Star and after the war was over we relocated here to Sodor.” Zorran explained looking over to his work colleague. “We worked at the docks and harbours around the island for a bit before a few of us wanted to explore different careers. Sodor was known for being big on its railway so a few of us got qualified to become jockeys and now we work here.” Harper said smiling back up to the spectre as the ghoul flouted above them.
“Wow, how many of you work on the railway now?” Thomas asked as he wagged his tail and wiggled his ears in excitement. “Settle down kiddo, we’ve got plenty of time to tell you.” Just as Zorran finished that sentence a deep deer cry came from outside and what quickly bolted in and into a stall next to Gordon was a deer centaur with a jockey riding on its back. They were both soaking wet from the pouring rain and the second the jockey got off the deer shook himself dry. “Ah! Henry! How many times do I have to tell you to wait so I can dry you?” the jockey scolded his steed. “I hate being wet though…” the deer, Henry, said as he was given a towel to dry off.
Thomas had skittishly dashed into Edward’s stall and hid behind him when he heard Henry cry before he charged in. The young colt looked to Edward in a hope of an explanation. “Who are they?” “Those two are Henry and Zak, Henry is a very kind soul, but he’s a bit of a worrier. And he doesn’t like rain. Zak is both Henry’s jockey and his adopted father, he’s firm and strong, but his heart is in the right place.” Edward answered when said mythic looked to their direction.
“Hey guys, sorry about the floor. I’ll get to moping that up.” Zak said but did a double take when he saw Thomas. “Oh? Is he the new guy the fat controllers were talking about?” “He is indeed Zak, this is Thomas.” Zorran said to his co-worker. Thomas smiled nervously, he slowly walked out from behind Edward and approached the two, revealing his wings. Henry and Zak gawked when they saw that Thomas was an alicorn. “Woah! He’s an alicorn?!” Henry gasped as he walked up to the small colt and circled him a few times to get a better look, James and Gordon backed up to let him study Thomas. “How on earth did the Hatt’s afford an alicorn? Let alone find one.” Zak asked as he studied Thomas from afar.
“Apparently he’s here for protection. Sodor’s code word is Sanctuary after all.” James commented while stretching and waltzing off back to his own stall. “Wow…” Henry awed with a smile, he did a light skip on his front legs to Thomas as an instigation of play when a loud crash of thunder sounded overhead. Henry screamed and bolted into his own stall next to Gordon. Zak sighed then looked to the others. “See you all in the morning, ‘night.” He said then walking into Henry’s stall for the night. “Goodnight Zak.” Zorran said then looked to Thomas. “Are you going to be okay tonight Thomas? Maybe Edward can stay with you.” “I don’t want to bother him, plus, I don’t want to be seen as a scaredy-foal. I’m 14 after all.” Thomas smiled with his chest puffed up a bit before Edward placed a hand on his shoulder. “Believe it or not Thomas when Henry first came to the railway he stayed in my stall for a bit until he was comfortable in his own, same with Gordon, and the both of them were 13 and 14 as well. I don’t mind if you’d like a bit of company and comfort.” Edward said with a kind smile. Thomas looked decisive for a second before he nuzzled his head on Edward’s arm. The old stallion petted Thomas’s hair before he began to put his pyjama’s on.
“I can safely assume people don’t see you often without a muffler on or a wing girdle?” Harper asked as he handed Gordon his own set of pj’s. “No… the only person who’s seen me like this up until now has been my jockey.” Thomas answered. “What’s your jockey like? Since we’ve been told we’ll see them tomorrow.” Zorran asked. “My jockey mainly acts as my handler for now since he’s way too big for me to carry him, he’s a lot like my dad and he’s really caring and compassionate.” Thomas said as Edward helped him to take off his shirt since he didn’t have any pyjamas to change into. “Is he a mythic or is he human?” Harper asked. “He’s mythic.” “What kind?” James asked the colt. “He’s a fallen.” “A fallen what?” Zorran asked. “I don’t know, he’s always referred to himself as a fallen. I’ve never been able to get much more out of him.” Thomas sighed as he laid down on a mattress on the floor, Edward joining him by his side and handing him a pillow. Thomas took the pillow but rested himself under Edward’s arms so the stallion would have to rest on Thomas’s back, Edward chuckled and petted the young colt as he relaxed to ease into sleep.
“Well I guess we’ll have to see for ourselves tomorrow. Gordon? Are you ready in there?” Harper asked while knocking on the door to Gordon’s stall. “I’m ready.” The big stallion said from behind the door. Harper in a puff of red smoke disappeared and a big bat took his place, it flew over the stall walls and just like that it was out of sight.
Thomas gripped Edward’s arm in a fright, hugging him close to his body. “I didn’t know Harper was a vampire this whole time…” he shivered out. “He’s not a hundred percent a vampire Thomas, he’s half sea wizard as well.” Edward soothed the young colt. “Well if you wanna get things out the way then I guess knowledge about his new co-workers is in order. I’m a ghost, that’s obvious. Zak is a witch doctor, or shaman. Edward is a plain mustang centaur. Gordon… I think, is a shire mix breed of some kind. Henry is a forest spirit. And James is a crystal unicorn.” Zorran answered as he gradually floated higher above them to the support beams in the roof, kicking back as if he just set himself up in a hammock. “I’ll see you lads in the morning, ‘night.” “Good night Zorran. ‘Night Thomas…” Edward said before easing Thomas down to head to sleep. The young colt trilled in a soft purr, lifting one of his wings over Edward as a blanket. Edward chuckled softly before the two fell asleep.
In the morning as all the centaurs got up for the day the fat controllers came to talk to Thomas. The horse hybrids and their jockeys were eating breakfast when they heard a knock on the stable doors, Zak stomped his heel into the floor and the door magically swung open to reveal the stout men.
“Good morning everyone!” Bertrum said as they walked in. “Good morning sirs, what brings you all here?” Edward asked. “We’ve come to tell Thomas some news, oh! I see you’ve been informed about what he really is.” Stephen said when he noticed Thomas didn’t have his mufflers or wing girdle on. “Oh! Ah… I hope it’s okay sir.” Thomas said when he realised he was still only wearing his pants. “That’s okay Thomas, you’re going to be given a new uniform today anyhow.” Charles said making the alicorn smile and wag his tail. “Really?” “Hah-hah! Yes! We want you to head straight to the forge works to receive it, they will also be giving you your harness and reins and other work necessities.” Bertrum said. “You’ll also be meeting your jockey there, his ship finally arrived last night.” Stephen said.
Thomas bounced on his front hooves in a skip, he wanted to run straight out the door and get going. “Hoho! calm down Thomas, you need to still get dressed, and James will be escorting you to the forge works.” Charles said. James groaned when he heard that, and judging by the excitement on Thomas’s face the young colt wanted to get going as soon as possible. The crystal centaur sighed in defeat and got up from the table to fully get ready. “Could someone throw that out for me?” James asked as he walked back to his stall and got his clothes on, Thomas speed getting fully dressed as well.
When the two were done they were out onto the mainline and travelling down it at moderate speeds, Thomas having trouble keeping up with the stone mythic. James had noticed this but assumed Thomas would ease out by the time they got halfway, when he didn’t and the colt was still fumbling awkwardly James ran alongside him to talk.
“Thomas? Why are you running like that? You look like a sausage made of rubber with a jelly centre.” Thomas was huffing as he tried to keep up with James who had a longer stride than him, he also wasn’t as fit and had a physical deformity that made running awkward for him. “It’s not my fault, my wings are to big so when I run they offset my balance.” “Ah, I’ve heard of conditions like that, I thought they were fixed with a bit of therapy and practice.” James commented. “They are, but again, I’ve never had a teacher with wings, so I’ve never gotten physical therapy for that. And I was always kept in a close quarters room, I’ve never had space to properly run like out in a field.” “Sounds like you’ve been pretty sheltered then…” James said in an almost envious tone. Thomas decided to ignore that comment as he didn’t know whether he should be sad or insulted.
When the two got to the forge works there were a few workmen already waiting for Thomas’s arrival. James bid Thomas goodbye for now and erupted a black crystal from the earth before jumping into it in a flash of light and disappearing, the young colt assuming that was James’s method of teleporting while he trotted in.
He was told to strip down to his underwear and was given a compression suit for horses, except it had gaps in it for where his wings would go. When it was on he was given a white shirt for his human torso and then came the actual uniform he was to wear. For his human torso he was given a light blue collar shirt with a deeper blue vest over it, a bolo tie with a simple clip as the clasp, and finally a silver ring over the base of his horn but hidden by his hair.
For his horse body he was given a sturdy white leather chest piece that covered his horse torse but left the back empty for his wings, it had several buttons and clips on it for what Thomas could only assume was for his harness and reins. And last was a long blue cloth that had a number 1 on it that was clipped to his flank and covered the base of his tail.
“I gotta say that number does look good on you, almost makes me jealous.” A man from behind Thomas said as he was the one that clipped on the numeral cloth. Thomas darted around when he heard the voice and instantly lit up like a lighthouse when he recognized who the man was. “Titan!” Thomas cheered as he hugged the big burly man into a tight squeeze, using his wings to wrap around him as emphasis. “Haha! Good to see you to buddy, sorry I wasn’t here yesterday to join you, the ship I was on was delayed because of a sea beast.” Titan laughed hugging the boy back. “I’m just glad you’re here!” Thomas trilled and trotted as he snuggled his father figure and jockey. “Alright lad, calm down, we’ve still got the full day ahead of us. Why don’t we head down the mainline back to Knapford?” “Sure! How about a race?” Thomas skipped. “Why not? It’ll get you some practice in while we’re at it.” Titan said as he walked out to the front of the forge with Thomas darting around him with a glee filled smile.
Titan stopped at a line in the concrete to use as their starting line, beckoning Thomas to come over and ready up. “Alright, on your marks, get set… GO!” The two darted off, Titan floating just centimetres off the ground as he kept pace with Thomas’s awkward galloping. Titan knew they had a lot of work to do, but they had all of eternity if necessary.
Once the two got back to Knapford Thomas walked around a little bit until he found the yard and had spotted Edward getting a train ready. He neighed to get the stallions attention and when Edward saw Thomas he was very surprised by the get up and who he had floating beside him. “Edward! Look! I’m blue, I’m blue! Just like you!” “Haha! That you are Thomas. Oh! Your also number one,” the old stallion observed seeing the cloth on his flank. “Does that mean I’m the best?” Thomas giggled as he trotted in place from excitement. “Alright calm down kiddo, I’m sure it means something, we can find that out later. For now though I see you’ve already made a friend, who might this be?” Titan asked looking to Edward.
“Oh! Right. Titan, this is Edward. He showed me how to buck yesterday, and Edward, this is my jockey Titan Crescent.” Thomas introduced the pair. Titan lit up at hearing that Edward was Thomas’s first teacher. “Well hello ‘ol boy nice to meet you, thank you for being Thomas’s first teacher.” Titan said offering a handshake. Edward smiled and gently shook it, feeling flattered by Titans words. “It’s nice to meet you Mr Crescent, Thomas has told us your essentially his guardian and I must say you’ve done an excellent job, he’s such a polite yet cheeky young colt.” Edward commented with a little chuckle. “Oh dear, what has he done?” Titan grinned. “He spooked our express stallion awake when he was taking a nap, oh! Speaking of whom, here he comes into the yard now.”
The trio turned and watched as James, Gordon and Harper entered the yard. But things quickly turned ecstatic when the vampire and mystery mythic locked eyes. “No way… Top Hat?” Titan asked. “Ten Cents?” Harper questioned. The second those words left Harpers mouth Titan bolted into Harper, giving him a tight tackle hug, the vampire not even being half Titans height as the mystery mythic laughed in a hearty glee. “HAHA! Hello my old friend! How have you been? I didn’t expect you to be actually working on the railway, last I saw you, you were still bickering with Frank and Eddie. How did you get from there to here?” Titan smiled while gently putting the number 4 jockey down.
“How did I get from there to here?! Ten Cents! I don’t know if you’ve realised how big you’ve gotten! You were still shorter than O.J last I saw you, how did you get from then to now? I thought you divinely mythic aged ludicrously slowly.” Harper asked as he floated in front of the large mythic. “Oh sure fire tales for later in the eve’, I’m more excited we get to be work colleagues again.” Titan smiled. “Ah I should have known a powerful centaur like Thomas would need an even stronger jockey to rein him in, and I can’t think of a better man for the job. But honestly Ten Cents, you old dog! I didn’t think you’d be the first of us stars to have a kid!” Harper smiled looking over to Thomas.
Titan floated back over to the colt and landed back beside him. “I’d have gotten it on paper by now, but you know how the laws are, it’s been a miracle we’ve gotten this far and to this point already.” The giant man said while ruffling the alicorns hair. “Oh! Zorran and Zak are going to be so surprised! And all the others to if we get the time, they’re working at Arlesbrough harbor.” Harper informed. “We’re gonna be what now?” Zorran asked as he, Zak, and Henry entered the yard when the former rivals to Harper and Titan spotted the large mythic.
“Well I’ll be dipped! Titan Crescent is that you?” Zak gawked and having Zorran following suit when he recognised the former little number 1. “Zak! Zorran! My you two have changed, I adore how your hair looks now Zak, it looks great long. And Zorran, oh how the tables have turned ay?” Titan said walking up to them and giving them firm friendly handshakes. “I know, I never expected you to give Hercules a run for his money, but here you are.” Zorran said grasping the man’s hand in a cold icy lock.
“Say, how have the others been? Top Hat just told me they’re working at Arlesbrough harbor.” Titan asked. “Yeah, some of them are. Big Mac moved up to the Skarloey railway working as their standard gauge or as their river hauler since one travels along the railway. And Zip moved to working on the Arlesdale railway, apparently that side of the island is the gateway to its most mystic part and its entrance is heavily guarded by fae folk, so Zip got a little curious.” Zorran explained when Henry’s ears flattened and he whimpered a bit until Zak gently pet his side to calm him down.
“Are you okay Henry?” Thomas asked sounding concerned. “It seems we have a few stories to tell when we get back to the stables tonight, but for now we’d better get back to work.” Edward said as he watched Zorran float up to him then mount on his saddle. “True, we still have trains to pull.” Harper said floating back up and then sitting back down on the carriage Gordon was pulling, proceeded by giving the reins a flick. “Someone can fetch me my coaches.” Gordon said as he trotted off to the platform. Edward looked to Thomas with a bit of a sad sigh. “You’d better do it Thomas, I have to get back to my branch line, I’m rather behind on my work.” “But… I thought we were going to be working together.” Thomas said with a bit of disappointment. “We will be kiddo, just not all the time.” Zorran said with a grin. “Now! My coaches!” Gordon yelled from the distance. “Is it just me or does that centaur sound like a certain someone?” Titan smirked to the ghost. “3… 2… 1…” Zorran counted smugly before a harsh ‘thwap!’ could be heard from the station followed by Gordon yelping. “How many times have I told you to use manners?!” Harper shouted causing the quartet to snicker into a fit.
Titan waved the other pair off as they trotted down the line and guided Thomas by the reins to get to work. When they stopped in front of a pair of coaches Thomas took a hold of the coupling to pull them backwards, the carriages budged with a jolt but with the sharp movement made a strange phenomenon happen.
The coach facing them groaned with a disturbing creek making Thomas stop pulling. The coaches wood then suddenly splintered and broke, cracking and breaking into a vaguely familiar shape. Titan pulled Thomas back and grit his teeth in a hiss of- ‘uh oh’, while the young colt hid behind his leg. “Whoops… I think these ones must have been due for-” “I say, where were you taking us?” a ladies voice spoke making Titan and Thomas look back up to the coach.
In a splash zone of broken and splintered wood on the coach was a face, and a female one at that. Titan then smacked his forehead. “Ah, terribly sorry m’dears it seems we’ve given you a fright.” Titan apologized and beckoned Thomas back in front of him. “Yes you have, now, can you please tell us where we are going?” another ladies voice from the other coach says. “T-to Gordon, it’s time for the express.” Thomas says as he takes the coupling again and pulls them out. “But we’re not the express coaches.” The two coaches say in unison. “I’m Annie, and she is Clarabel.” “And the express coaches are on the other sidings.” Clarabel says gesturing over to the white and green coaches beside them.
“Oh! Uh, terribly sorry your ladyships. I’m new around here so I didn’t know.” Thomas said then pushing the two back. “Say, I didn’t know haunted coaches were even still allowed, how did you two manage to survive the restrictions?” Titan asked. “Well Sodor isn’t nicknamed sanctuary for nothing, every species is welcomed here.” Annie said. “Granted they don’t cause any trouble.” Clarabel said. “Any species huh?” Titan pondered but looked to Thomas. “Hm, well for now we’d better get the express coaches. It was nice talking to you two ladies.” “It was nice meeting you to, uh… gracious we didn’t even get your names.” Clarabel commented sheepishly. “Oh! Well how rude of us, my name is Titan, and this here is Thomas.” Titan said ruffling his boys hair. “It was a treasure meeting you! Until another day?” Annie called. “Until some other time!” Titan said as he guided Thomas to where the actual express coaches were.
The whole day was pushing and bucking, pushing and bucking. Thomas felt himself rushed off his hooves very quickly. But he enjoyed it! He was finally out and about, running some short distances up and down the yard. But he never got to fast as he would trip over his wings or they would make him lose balance. By the end of the day the steeds had begun returning back to Knapford to return their coaches and get a drink of water from the fountains.
James came thundering in and came to a sharp stop with Annie and Clarabel, his hooves dragging against the wooden sleepers and gravel balise. “Here’s James!” the crystal unicorn cheered at his arrival. “Oof! James! Careful.” Annie scolded the stallion at the sudden stop. Titan rolled his eyes, his attitude almost reminded him of Harper back in their younger years, except the vampire hybrid wasn’t as brash.
Thomas sniffed the air as James uncoupled himself from his train, the air smelt like there was a chemical in it somehow. “Do you guys smell that? Like a chemical smell?” “No, nothing out of the ordinary.” James quickly said and was about to trot away when Titan stopping him in his tracks and took a long whiff of the air. “That’s the smell of freshly cut gemstone, you never forget the smell after visiting a mine. James, I’m no expert on you’re kind but I’m very sure broken pieces of your body aren’t a good thing.” Titan confronted the unicorn. “N-Nonsense! It keeps my hooves sharp! Your exactly right! What would you know about my kind?” James seemed very offended but at the same time backed into a corner. He turned his nose away from the large jockey and walked around him to get away to work on his next train. Thomas grew worried for the unicorn but Titan shook his head in disapproval. “I can’t believe I ever had that faze, the only reason I did was because mine was justified.” Titan commented. “Huh?” “Oh, story for hopefully later tonight Thomas. I promise.” Titan ruffled the colts hair and guided him over to the fountain so he could rest.
Henry and Zak were already there taking a break, Henry cupped his hands into the water to take a drink while Zak was working on a wooden tiki. The stags ears twitched at their approaching presence and he gave a kind wave, he did abruptly leave Thomas last night after he had just shown an interest in playing with him. “Hello Thomas, Mr Crescent.” Henry gave a curt bow to the mystery mythic. “Oh don’t be so formal kiddo, it’s just Titan. Ay Zak, you still have wood carving as a hobby?” Titan said as he walked off with Zak to have an adults talk, leaving Thomas and Henry alone together.
Thomas hopped up onto the ledge of the fountain and laid down to have a rest, splashing his hooves with some cold water. “Are you alright Thomas?” Henry asked. “Yeah, just a little sore. First day of hard work I’ve ever had.” Thomas said while taking off his compressor socks and horse shoes to rub his sore feet. “Would you like some help?” Henry asked. “Help? Help how?” Henry smiled at Thomas’s question and showed that his hands lit up with a dim green glow and his eyes lighted up. “I’m a forest spirit, one of the perks of that is the natural ability to heal people.” Henry hovered his hands over Thomas’s hooves and just like that in an instant his aches were gone and his pains healed.
The alicorn colt was amazed, he didn’t know Henry could do magic. “Wow! You’re really good.” Thomas said while stamping his front hove as a test. “Thanks, I’ve had a lot of time to practice… I’m also the only healer here. Well, maybe except for Stuart.” “Who’s Stuart?” “A hybrid faun that works on the Skarloey railway, I think he can cast a little bit of healing magic, but I’ve never been in his presence long enough to tell.” “Hopefully you might someday, it’d be really useful to have more than one healer on the island.” “What about you Thomas? Do you like to practice a certain type of magic?”
Henry’s words got Thomas thinking. The young colt could still count on both hands the amount of times he’s casted magic before, and every time it caused him to have a knockback. “I guess… blasts? That’s the only magic I’ve ever casted, and it always makes me fall backwards.” Henry looked surprised at Thomas, but in a thoughtful way he peered into Thomas’s eyes. “Did you know that a magic casters first attempt at subconscious magic often defines what their style is? Mine for example was creating vines upon vines of thorns, when I panicked they started to entangle me and even began to choke me.” Thomas was shocked. “That sounds horrifying! Your own magic turning against you, how did you get it under control?”
Henry chuckled slightly. “That’s the biggest misconception of magic that non-magic casters interpret. Considering you’ve never been taught anything on magic I’m not surprised you’ve interpretated that as well. No, magic is a reflection of you right down to your mental health, it is your thoughts and ambitions. If you perceive magic as a threat it will become a threat. Going back to my first time I ever cast magic, I wasn’t in a good head space. I was getting headaches from my antlers growing in, and I was having horrible nightmares every night. And also going back to how I said a magic casters first attempt as subconscious magic often defines what type of style they use, I was showing my style with those first thorns. I specialise in plant magic.” Henry showed this off by growing a blue and white flower in his palm.
“This is a rare type of flower on Sodor only growing near the top of Culdee Fell or in the deepest parts of the enchanted forests, I was very lucky to find a sample on the Skarloey railway near Shane Dooiney. It’s called a silent princess, it was an old princess’s favourite flower back before Sodor was revolutionised by the English.” “Wow…” Thomas was amazed by the beauty of the flower, the luminescent blue in the shade catching his eye.
“I guess my very long point being, I don’t think your ill-trained in magic Thomas, I think you’re just interpreting your magic wrong.” “How?” Thomas asked. He understood it from Henry’s story but he didn’t understand it from his own story.
“Think about it. You might not have ever been told point blank that you are something powerful, but you got the inclination. Along with having no teachers for the sake of keeping you safe I can only imagen you feel like your magic would be naturally powerful and huge compared to you, which is why it comes out as a blast, you don’t think you can get a grip on it because it’s out of your experience.” Thomas looked like he had just been told the meaning of the universe, his eyes were wide with amazement as the gears in his head were turning and clicking into place.
“So… my style might be something to do with light, but it comes out as a blast because I think it’s too powerful for me?” “There you go!” “Huh… that… actually really puts my mind at ease, thanks Henry!” Thomas smiled while swishing his tail. “Heh-heh, no problem Thomas, I’m glad to have helped.” Thomas hoped up and brushed against Henry’s side like a cat, he trilled like a bird and a few short yips that sounded like enchanted neighs. Henry had heard James make such funny neighs and assumed it was a unicorn thing.
The pairs jockeys soon arrived back, ready to take them back to the stables. Zak mounted Henry and Titan held Thomas’s lead to guide him. When they arrived back at the stables Edward and Harper were setting up a dinner table and food for everyone, as they walked in the doors Edward peeked around to see them. “Welcome back you four, how were your days?” the old stallion asked.
“I got some practice in on running, that’ll be helpful.” Thomas smiled as he took off his reins and Titan taking off his hitch. “Oh that’s right, James told us you have a physical deformity with your wings.” Edward stated. “I thought you’re wings looked a little big on you.” Gordon commented. “He’ll grow into them, just you watch, he’ll be the best flyer on Sodor.” Titan said as he scratched his boys ears. “If we’re talking working mythic on the railway then he’ll be our only flyer, the only ones who can fly are me, Harper, and now you Titan.” Zorran said.
“On that note, can we discuss how you four know each other?” Gordon asked looking to the quartet of jockeys. “Remember how we’ve told you we used to work in America for rivalling boat companies? Well Titan was the number 1 on Harper’s side.” Zak said as he took Henry’s saddle off. “So you two used to be work colleagues?” James asked pointing to Harper and Titan. “Yes, I worked closely with the railroads. Ferrying the trucks and cargo around. Titan despite his species was the boat equivalent of a shunter.” Harper answered.
“Hold on, you used to shunt?” Thomas asked looking up to his father figure. “I did, though it was out on the water and I actually used the boat to do it.” Titan chuckled. “And I will never for the life of me figure out why, you could control water at the time.” Harper said. “I found human crafts rather fascinating, and to be fair you all did think I was human at first. The only person who knew was Hercules.” Titan smirked at his old colleague. “That was a surprise to find out that you were a mythic that day when it spread around the harbor.” Zak commented with a look of old surprise in his expression. “Right? And when he actually showed it off for the first time? That was the warmest and coldest I’ve ever felt in my life.” Zorran said while rubbing his arms in a chill running up his spine.
“How do you think we felt? We were there when it happened for darn sake! That absolutely pissed off expression at the hunters that he had? I never knew he could give Captain Star a run for his money until that day.” Harper said in a dramatic gasp. “It was also weird to find out you were the oldest person in the harbor although you didn’t act like it.” Zak said. “It’s a divine thing.” Titan said while grabbing himself a beer bottle from the fridge and taking a swig before handing it to Zak. “That should give it a kick.” Zak took the drink and gave a gulp of it. “Oof, yeah, that’s strong.”
“So can we maybe stop with the suspense and actually find out what you are? Even Thomas doesn’t know.” James asked while plonking his gem flank down at the table. “James, I expect this from Gordon, not you.” Harper scolded. “Oh hush up Top Hat, if I’m offended I’ll let him know.” Titan said as he removed his hat and coat, then disappearing them in a wind of ash and flame.
What revealed itself after the removal of his hat however, was the small set of horns he had just above his hair line and a gold ornament hung between them. “Oh, the crown thingy is new.” Zorran commented. “I made a plea with the higher ups and it was approved, the only condition is that I have to raise this little man.” Titan said petting Thomas’s head who was fascinated by the horns on his guardian.
“Plenty of mythic have horns though, that doesn’t exactly tell us much.” Edward said. “Alright then, this might be a little more recognisable.” Titan then had a silver rusted ring appear above his head, it floated in mid-air and followed his every twitch of his neck.
The stallions looked up and astonishment, this care giver of Thomas’s couldn’t have been implying that he was… “A halo… and Thomas called you a fallen. Of course, someone closely as powerful as him would be qualified to be his guardian.” Edward said in a realization, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Nah-ah, last I checked angels can’t have horns.” James said with a sneered frown. “Normal angels; correct. Fallen angels; no. 33 years ago when I still worked with Harper a powerful demon came to Bigg city port. I had fought him off but it left my heavenly signal very tainted, so it condemned me. My halo was shattered and my wings singed of my feathers. I sent him packing into heaven’s jail, but my divinity was lost in the process. Heaven was in a huge fuss over it because there hadn’t been a fallen angel since Satin, so I was sent to trial. I was basically given community service and a very long probation with the condition that I raise someone in the next few decades. Then I could get my divinity back.” “So your raising Thomas to get your angelic-ness back?” Zak asked. “At first I was doing just that and treating it like a job to do, but the more Thomas grew up the more I saw myself in him. So, I made it my mission to do right by him when I didn’t have that.” Titan answered. “Didn’t you act out to begin with in heaven because you wanted attention?” Harper asked. “Yeah, my older siblings were very dismissive of me and were really busy, so they didn’t have much time for me.” “You had siblings?” Thomas asked. “Yeah, Michael, Jophiel, Raphael. If you’ve heard about the bible then chances are you’ve heard of the archangels. I was the first archangel to be created in millennia.” Titan explained.
“I’ve actually read the bible, what part of god were you if you were an archangel?” Gordon asked. “Gods humanity they dubbed me, the biggest titan of titles to be had. And like humanity, I’ve struggled, I’ve messed up royally on some occasions, I’ve made progress, and more. So you can see how that mirrors my existence.” “Considering world war 2 was coming up in the next 20 years after you became burned I can see how that was a hidden message.” Harper commented. “Am I… am I really on the same level as an angel?” Thomas asked honestly looking rather worried. “Angel’s used to ride alicorns into battle, so while you’re not on the same level as an angel yet, you’ll grow and thrive into that, I’m sure of it.” Thomas didn’t look to confident at his father’s words, he hung his head low on the table with his ears drooping.
Henry trotted up and sat next to the young colt, wrapping his tail around the others back and giving him a kind smile, reminding Thomas of their talk earlier. Thomas smiled and wrapped his wing over Henry’s back, it was clear the two were growing close. Gordon peered at the alicorns outstretched wing and walked over, when he was behind the two he examined Thomas’s feathers. “Gordon, we’ve been over this. I don’t think it’d be a good idea, he needs an actual pegasus to teach him.” Harper said as he helped Edward serve the food. “What’s this now?” Titan asked. Harper sighed. “Gordon was a product of the Gresley line from Doncaster barns, he saw the pegasi being trained and flying all the time before he was bought by the Hatt’s. So naturally he thinks he can maybe teach Thomas how to fly.” “Hey! My cousins were taught by City of Truro, he was a clipped pegasus and yet he got them successfully flying up in the sky.” Gordon argued.
“He had wings at one point Gordon, he has experience, you don’t.” His jockey rebuttaled. “I’m half pegasus, that’s why I’m far lighter than a pure breed shire horse!” “But you’ve still never had wings!” “Gentlemen!” Edward cut the argument and the whole room silent, all eyes on him.
“Harper, as much as I actually agree with you in that under normal circumstances I would not trust Gordon to teach Thomas how to fly, he is the only one out of us who has knowledge in such anatomy. I’d presume Titan has more bat-like wings than feathered ones, and you also have bat wings. Zorran doesn’t need wings, and James barely has enough magic to levitate more than 2 trucks let alone himself. I think our number 4 may be Thomas’s best option for the time being to learning how to fly, at least in teaching the theory behind it or the basics.” Edward argued.
“Thomas? Would you be alright in learning how to fly?” Titan asked. Thomas practically hopped on the spot as he circled in pure excitement. “Yes!” He finally shouted and frolicked up to Gordon, giving him a big hug. The large stallion stiffened at the touch and everyone looked at them in shock as it was a known fact that Gordon didn’t do touching.
Thomas tap danced on his front hooves, his tail wagged behind him and his ears wiggled in joy, his wing fluttering with their feathers rattling together is what gave Gordon piece of mind. The big blue stallion hugged Thomas back, petting his head and holding him to his chest. The little colt began to trill and when Gordon put them apart he placed his hand on Thomas’s wing to get it to stop rattling. “First lesson then little Thomas. Don’t rattle your feathers, that is seen as an intimidation display to other pegasi, and the last thing you want to do at your stage is to pick a fight you won’t win.” “Why would a pegasus want to fight another pegasus?” Thomas asked. “You’ve heard of bar fights before right?” Gordon asked. “Ooohh…” Everyone laughed at the young colts realisation.
When the laughter died down Titan wanted to bring up what Edward mentioned about the Arlesdale forests, and why they seemed like a sore subject.
“Uh, Edward? You said that we could maybe hear more about the Arlesdale forest later. So, why does that place seem like such a sore subject?” All the local mythic to the island suddenly seemed shaken, Henry coward to Zak, hugging him close. While the others looked uncomfortable.
Edward started however. “This happened in 1915… Arlesdale forest was basically the name of the forest that covered the entire north side of the island. When the first world war started they really cracked down on the mythic business to use the mythos instead of their machines so more iron could go towards the war. That ambition lead them to the forests of Sodor, as it was a well-known fact that many mythic were living in there. So…” Edward trailed off in a sad tone. “They started raiding it, to draw the mythic out.”
Titan and Thomas were horrified, but in their shocked silence the old stallion continued. “The humans got as far as a few kilometres before the forest retaliated and pushed them back out, cursing itself with a powerful fog that no human may enter and only mythic or kin of mythic can even make an entrance. But the damage was done… even in those few kilometres there were a few houses and villages, mainly belonging to faun. Those poor souls were taken or killed, and the land the humans managed to conquer was turned into the mid Sodor railway. It’s the worst piece of history for us mythic on the island, and relationships between humans and mythic’s are still rather bad because of it. That area of the island is now called the Arlesdale railway, and is run mainly by fairy folk on miniature gauge tracks.”
Titan was saddened but also not that surprised, he was God’s humanity after all. Thomas however was horrified, he had no clue humans could be that cruel, he had only ever seen them as weird mythic that didn’t have the same energy around them. The young colt hugged into Titan’s hip, he was now nervous about being here, he could see why he was now hidden for all these years. Titan petted his head and eased him back down, and he also took notice that Henry was taking an exceptionally bad reaction to this story. Then it clicked, Henry was a forest spirit.
“Were those your grounds Henry?” Titan asked. Henry was in silent tears as he sniffled with a nod. “M-my m-m-mother was the g-guardian at the time, I w-was eight when they c-came… sh-she was k-killed when she went t-to check what was g-going on… I ran, I ran straight out as f-fast as I could… and ran into Edward…” Henry said through sobs when Zak continued, “Edward took him in from there and he was integrated into the railway, originally trying to pull the express but because of his damaged connection to the burned forest he was and still is kind of sickly. Then I was replaced after you left Titan in late 22 and came here so my abilities might be put into better use, and when I arrived I first took up what I thought would have been a temporary job as being a jockey, so I could get a house and get on my feet, but it ended up being permanent as I got to know Henry better.” Zak said as he soothed Henry down by rubbing his back and hugging him close.
Titan smiled at the albino witch doctor, knowing the feeling well of growing attached to a kid. “But why here? Why the UK? There were plenty of American soldiers.” the fallen angel asked. “The UK was always my back up plan, it was a lot smaller and obviously on another continent, so it worked great for a new start.” Zak answered. “You know, I always admired that about you. Your absolute ballsy-ness and disregard of nearly all common sense to preserve your life, you’ve always been very bold. A freak to your own species, then victim to mythos trade, that’s a hell to go through. And I’m surprised Magister Zero actually gave that away, whoever replaced you must have been a close second.” Titan stated. “He actually replaced me for a diesel, it made sense for the time. My ship and me didn’t really have the best of health, so I was the most logical one to boot.” Zak said. “Then why not just let you drive the diesel and scrap your old boat?” Titan asked. “Because the piolet of that diesel was a were-orca.” Zak answered nonchalantly. “Yeah, Oscar. Good kid and a pretty big change of pace at the time.” Zorran said. “huh… seems like a lot happened after I left…” Titan rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe we should arrange a get together, have the whole team back together for a night out.” Harper suggested. “I’d say that’s a stellar idea, once we get Thomas more worked into the railway I’d happily see the others again for old time sakes.” Titan said.
“Hm… about Thomas, if we were on the topics of giving Thomas a teacher beforehand, why not have James teach Thomas the basics in magic?” Zorran asked. James spat out the food he was eating. “Pu! What?! Me? Hell no!” James shouted. “Oh come on James, don’t be so dramatic.” Harper scolded. “Oh nah! Don’t pull that with me Harper, I’m not Gordon and you’re not my jockey! I have better things to do than to teach a 14 year old who can’t even run straight how to do magic.” James crossed his arms. Thomas looked really embarrassed, he used his wings to hide in while the others could hear muffled sounds of sheepish whining.
Edward walked over to the crystal centaur and grabbed him by the horn and dragged him over to a support beam. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OW! Edward let me go! Gah!-” The old stallion drove the unicorns horn through the wooden beam of the stables and tied a cloth around the back his head so his horn was stuck there. “If Gordon can teach the basics of learning how to fly, then you can teach him how to do basic magic.” The old stallion dusted his hands off and returned to the dinner table. “I won’t be able to teach him anything with my horn through a poll!” James struggled, trying to shimmy back and forth to get his horn lose.
“Um… why is James having such a hard time getting his horn out?” Thomas asked, watching with a little amusement. “Have you seen what happens to kittens when you grab them by the scruff?” Zorran asked. “Yeah.” “Same thing, except when a unicorn is grabbed by the base of the horn they struggle to move or cast magic.” Henry finished. “So I should watch out if someone tries to grab my horn?” Thomas asked. “Yep! That’s also why we gave you such grief when fitting your horn mufflers, can’t have ‘em to tight or you’d start walking funny.” “You mean I don’t walk funny already?” Thomas quipped to his guardian. “No, you run funny. Theres a difference.” Titan defended. “Speaking of which, before we do anything with magic or flying, we’d better get him acquainted with running first.” Edward followed up.
“I agree, but I actually have to agree with James’s attitude towards Thomas’s running. I think it’d be a waste of time for any of you to teach him how to run, the best teacher for him learning how to run is himself. He just needs to get the exercise in.” Titan said looking to the slightly confused and hurt alicorn. “I think to put it in nicer terms Thomas, basically your anatomy is something only you can get a handle on. Your horn makes you run like a unicorn, but your wings also make you run like a pegasus. Both of those two have different run cycles, so no one other than another alicorn could teach you how to run. That’s an experience you’ll have to earn yourself. Find your rhythm and work with it.” Zak said petting the young boys hair. “Look at you acting all parent like,” Titan teased his co-worker making the others snicker and laugh.
Once everyone was finished and the dishes were done, everyone went to bed. Thomas had a large thick mat set up in his stable with a few large pillows and a nice fluffy blanket, Titan tied up a hammock since the bed that was already installed was too small for him. Once the two were comfortable, everyone had lights out and dimmed the lanterns.
Thomas however couldn’t fall asleep. He just laid there on his mat, hugging a pillow to his face and chest. What had been revealed to him today was a lot to take in…
His father figure used to be an angel, he found out how horrible humans could be, and worst of all… he found out how utterly defenceless he was. He had been in this mentality that he had been hidden for so long to protect others from him, and to also protect himself. But the truth was he was woefully over exaggerated, he didn’t know how to fly, he didn’t know how to cast the simples of spells, heck, he couldn’t even run straight without wobbling in his gallop. He had been over exaggerated to his whole life, like he was some prince of mythos, and that he was a kind of demigod. Well, he was, but he was an incredibly bad example. He needed a freaking fallen angel to be his body guard for crying out loud! And the fact that Titan wouldn’t have ever met him if he wasn’t assigned to look after him really hurt. Was he really his guardian? Even if he said that he loved him, was that just a part of his job?
The young colt wanted to cry, but he knew he would alert Titan if he did. So he just bottled his tears up. He kept his horn away from the pillows and his wings tucked in tight away from his line of vision, he just wanted to pretend that they weren’t there, or at least only one of them were, he wanted to imagen he was a normal magicless centaur like Edward or Gordon. He had never felt so unsure in his whole life.
The next morning Thomas was incredibly groggy, he was asleep on his feet and almost cut Zak with his horn when he nodded off for a second, and actually walked through Zorran and into a wall. Henry caught Thomas nodding off again as they all started to leave the stables, he let out his own dear/horse cry to wake the colt up, giving Thomas a small startle. “You need to wake up Thomas, Gordon is waiting at the platform to take the express soon.” Thomas shook off his drowsiness and started to stamp off to Knapford, running as best he could while still trying to stay up.
When they got to the yard, Titan dropped Thomas’s lead and tied it to his hip. “You can take the coaches to Gordon, I’ll make a small start on the other trains.” The fallen angel petted Thomas’s back, hoping to ease some of the work off him today. “Thanks Titan, I’ll be back.” Thomas pulled and pushed the coaches up to Gordon who seemed to be less than happy at Thomas’s delay. “Hurry up you!” He snapped. This made Thomas also cross. “Hurry up yourself!” the young colt huffed in a horse heft.
Harper hadn’t sat down on the carriage behind Gordon yet as the train wasn’t to leave for another 5 minutes, so the vampire had gone out real quick to stock up on some snacks for the stallion. But that of course left the larger centaur without a conscious to ground him. So when Gordon heard Thomas’s remark he grew a mischievous grin. “Yes… I shall, ah!” Gordon smiled to himself when he felt the rough bump that knocked him forward a few steps.
The big blue stallion flicked his reins off of their peg from the carriage and tied them around his waist so they wouldn’t become an inconvenience, his ears twitched as he listened for the chain rattling’s of the coupling being moved between the hitch and the shunters poll. When he heard that his own coupling was secure and the passengers were all boarded in, he pushed forward and began to move out of the platform. But Thomas hadn’t been disconnected from the coaches yet, so when Gordon began to take off with the express he dragged Thomas behind along with it.
“Woah! Ah! Gordon? Gordon?! Stop!” Thomas cried as he was pulled behind the coaches with his hooves dragging along the sleepers and ballast, it hurt as his frogs were run along the rough material like a cheese grater. As they went along Thomas tried to initially keep up but his sloppy running proved to be doing him in yet again, his shorter stride compared to Gordon also didn’t help much. The young colt then tried to jump up on the buffers to keep off the rails but his hitch was too tightly close to the coupling to climb up properly. Thomas was soon running out of ideas as Gordon kept picking up speed and the alicorn couldn’t keep up anymore, and if Thomas let himself drag behind the train he would be left with no hooves by the end.
As a last ditch attempt, Thomas opened his wings and began to flap them as he ran, like how he saw pegasi take off. His wings caught the wind from Gordon’s speed under them and gave him lift, pretty soon the alicorn colt was being pulled along like a kite just having to flap every so often. Thomas was amazed! This was the closest he’s ever gotten to flying before! Thomas was so thrilled he let out a high pitched horse cry as he cheered with his arms in the air. “WOOHOOO!” The fun was abruptly cut short however when the train came to a sharp stop and he was slammed into the back of the coach. His hame smacked into his second chest leaving a decent bruise but Thomas was too thrilled to care about the pain right now, he just flew! He flew for the first time and it was amazing!
Thomas undid the coupling himself and weakly trotted to the side of the track on shaky painful legs, his hooves hurt from being dragged on and his sternum hurt from faceplanting into the back of the coach, his nose didn’t thank him ether and he was pretty sure it was bleeding.
“Gordon!” “Thomas!” Harper and Titan called as they had flown after them once they saw that Gordon had taken off with Thomas still behind him. The young blue colt dropped to the ground once his legs gave up on him, but he still had a big glee-proud smile on his face. “I did it! WOO! I flew! I actually flied!” He cheered.
Titan came up to assess Thomas while Harper went up to Gordon and hit the emergency brake so the train wouldn’t be going anywhere. Thomas was a little scraped up and sore in a few places that it didn’t look pretty, but Titan was just glad he wasn’t crying. Now, what was this about him flying? “Tommy, what the hell happened?” “I wasn’t uncoupled from the train in time before Gordon took off, when he picked up speed he was going fast enough where I started to fly once I opened my wings! It was like I was a kite he was just pulling along!” Titan though, did not look pleased. In fact, he looked rather furious. “Did he now?” the fallen angel asked glaring over to Gordon. “Hey… maybe that’s how he could teach me, he could run and coach me while I’m being pulled along behind him!” Thomas said until he noticed Titan’s expression directed at the big stallion. “Sure sport… Hey, why don’t you ask Harper to clean you up while I go talk to Gordon.” Titan said getting up and walking over to the front of the train. “Please don’t hurt him dad!” Thomas called as he got up and brushed himself off.
The former oh so wanted to amputate the older centaurs legs as a punishment but he really didn’t want to endure the wrath of Harper, he’d seen what the kraken-vampire king could do and the idea of fighting him was something he really didn’t like. When the young archangel reached the front of the train he could see some passengers looking cross and the station master seemingly trying to discourage the disgruntled crowd, and Harper was to the side of the station ripping into Gordon and giving him a tongue lashing with the formerly proud stallion suddenly looking very meek in front of his jockey.
When Titan walked up to them Harper sheathed his fangs and eased his temper, Gordon was surprised by his partners sudden 180 mood change until he saw the expression of the person behind him. Titan’s face was loomed in shadow with his eyes lighting up the dim air of his murderous expression in a blue hue, the shade wasn’t as passive as one might think, the haunting blue glow was reminiscent of blue flames licking at the souls of the dammed or a frozen hell.
Gordon was fearful of Harper as it was a rare sight to see him so mad, but he was petrified at the sight of Titan. How could eyes burning so hot feel so cold? He could now realise why Harper stopped on his rampage of tearing him a new flank, Titan looked like he would do it literally with his thighs still attached.
Gordon felt his legs begin to shake and tremble as he cowered at the stature of the large man, with each wide step Titan took Gordon took two steps back of his own. He was hunkered down, ears flat, and expression absolutely terrified as he feared for his life cornered by the shrubbery and fence of the station. Titan got down on one knee and stared into Gordon’s soul with the fear akin to being hit by a frozen bullet, the stallions attention all on him. “If you ever pull a stunt like that again I will show you what it’s like in the darkest side of hell… are we clear?” Titan whispered into Gordon’s ear. The horrified stallion could only whimper as tears threatened to spill over his watery eyes.
Satisfied with the answer, Titan got up and left. When the mountain before Gordon was gone he could now see past him that Thomas and Harper had been watching the whole thing, both looking pretty worried. Gordon scrambled up onto his legs and bolted over to Harper to give him a full force tackle hug, he will never take for granted his jockey’s scolding ever again.
Harper hugged his comrade back to calm him down as they still had a train to pull, he petted his back carefully and guided him back to the hitch, taking one last glare at Titan before setting off again.
After Titan and Thomas made it back to the yard, Thomas got in a lot of trouble after the station master filled Titan in on the full story. The young alicorn was confined to the yard by himself while Titan watched him from afar, he shunted trucks and coaches all the while grumbling. “It’s not fair, I get my first ever taste at flying and I get in trouble for it. All the other stallions can at least run without galloping funny, and James can use his magic.” At the mention of magic, Thomas remembered Henry’s words about how magic works and how he’d been interoperating his own.
The colt backed away from the trucks he was pushing and decided to give a levitation spell a try. He concentrated on his breathing, calming down and relaxing his mind and muscles, not putting any strain into his horn and just letting his thoughts handle it. Thomas staired at the coupling between the train he was shunting, the small chain glowed with a light blue aura around it and lifted slowly, it was held in the air a little to Thomas’s amazement before it moved over to the hook on the other truck and looped on. Once it was there, he dropped his magic and the coupling staid where it was.
Thomas stamped his front hooves in excitement and fluttered his wings and wagged his tail, he had done it! He used magic successfully for the first time! The young colt kept going, the truck after that, and the truck after that. He pushed the train together and got a rhythm going of coupling them up, chaining them along one link at a time in smooth succession.
Next Thomas tried moving the whole truck. He couldn’t wrap his magic around the whole rail box, so he tried moving it by getting a grip on its buffers with his magic, which worked! He was shunting the trucks with his magic! He then moved onto trying to pull the train, he grabbed a hold of the coupling on the lead truck and pulled it along, he felt his horn strain as a row of trucks was heavier than one, but he managed, he pulled it to the other end of the yard and then added a brake van. Thomas was very proud of himself, he just marshalled a train together with only his magic!
But unfortunately his pride was short lived as James came grinding into the yard with his trucks. “Tah-dah! You can take my trucks away now Thomas, I’m ready for my coaches!” Thomas heard as Annie and Clarabel groaned from next to him. He couldn’t say he blamed them. He then smelt a familiar chemical smell, that one that Titan said was the smell of cut gemstone. “Are your hooves broken again James?” Thomas asked. “What?! No! They’ve never been broken! Hmph!” James huffed as he uncoupled himself and used his magic to pull Annie and Clarabel up to him. Thomas sighed and used his own magic to take the trucks away.
Almost in an instant, James and Thomas’s horn’s zapped each other! “Ow!” Both unicorn creatures yelped and instantly buckled down from a splitting headache. “Ahhh! Thomas! What was that for?!” “I didn’t mean to!” James and Thomas whined. “Are you two alright?” Annie asked as she watched the whole ordeal. “No! I just got static magiced!” James snapped. “How did that even happen? I was just trying to take the trucks away.” Thomas said confused. “That can sometimes happen when unicorns use magic at the same time, they need awhile to adjust to each other’s auras otherwise they give each other a static shock like just now. But Oooof Thomas, you pack a punch.” James explained as he steadied himself back up. “What would you expect James? He is an alicorn.” Clarabel said when the face of her coach disappeared and a lady in a ball gown floated over to Thomas to help him stand up.
Thomas was confused, he didn’t know she could do that. “Woah, you now look like Zorran!” Thomas said surprised. “That’s because I’m a ghost silly, most ghosts will be transparent.” Clarabel said. “I think he’s more confused we can even look human and not just a mouth on a coach.” Annie said doing the same thing as her sister, instead coming over to help James. “They just unpossessed the coaches Thomas, if Zorran were to possess something he could make it look like a face to. Annie and Clarabel just like to be more hidden.” James explained.
“Why?” Thomas asked the sister spirits. The two looked at each other then seemed to look sheepish or embarrassed. “It’s a little personal Thomas, we don’t like to talk about it.” Annie said. “Oh, okay then. Well thank you for helping us.” Thomas said as he shook himself off. “Not a problem,” Clarabel said before beckoning to her sister that they return to the coaches. “How about Thomas sets us on the line James, and then you take us away and leave the trucks for Thomas?” Annie questioned. “Works for me.” Thomas sighed. James smiled and did just that after Annie and Clarabel possessed the coaches again.
Once James was out of range and running down the branch line Thomas got back to work, taking the time to practice with his magic. He pulled and pushed with his magic the rest of the day and would even try to get off the ground and glide to the other side of the yard if some trucks he needed were far, he also managed to figure out how to make a massive jump using his wings to give him a boost. Thomas felt incredible! He was making more progress than he had with anyone trying to teach him in 10 years! He figured out how to fly on his own, and he was figuring out magic on his own as well! Well… sort of on his own anyway.
When the end of the day approached, Titan came down from the station roof and guided the young alicorn back to the stables. Thomas looked up to Titan with a happy expecting expression, after all he figured out how to do magic in the yard while Titan was watching over him. But when the fallen angel looked back at him with a less than amused frown Thomas’s enthusiasm dropped. Maybe what he did wasn’t good enough, it was only a levitation spell and gliding after all. Thomas promised himself that he would do better tomorrow, maybe figure out how to teleport and actually take off.
Thomas pondered this the walk home, but his thoughts were interrupted when Edward came trotting alongside him. “Hello Thomas, I saw that you flew behind Gordon’s train today, that must have been incredible!” The old stallion cheered for the young colt. But Thomas didn’t feel like it was that incredible anymore with Titan’s frowning expression. “It was an experience, but I doubt I’ll be doing that again…” Edward picked up on Thomas’s sad tone and noticed Titan’s frown. “Did you get into trouble for it? I can imagen being pulled behind a train isn’t exactly something to be praised over.” “Yeah… I did.” Thomas’s ears drooped. “But you managed to get a taste for flying! You should be able to apply that knowledge to next time right?” Edward asked with an encouraging enthusiasm. “I…” Thomas wanted to tell Edward that he had been all afternoon once he got back to the yard and even figured out how to use magic, but he was worried Titan might scold him again. “Hopefully…” Thomas muttered.
Edward gestured to Zorran for him to intervene, the old ghost could pick up what Edward was putting down and got Titan’s attention. “Ay TC, mind if we chat? I’ve been trying to get a more complicated ghost thing happening with Zak for a while but we may need some divine intervention.” Zorran guided Titan away over to Zak leaving the centaurs to talk.
Once they were gone Edward spoke to Thomas. “So, tell me everything that happened today.” “First was the thing with Gordon’s train, then when we got to the yard again Titan found out the full story and I got into trouble. He put me in the yard by myself as a punishment while he watched from the roof of the station. But while I was there I actually managed to do some magic thanks to Henry’s advice! I managed to push and pull the trucks and even couple them together! I even figured out how to glide and jump super high! But… I don’t think Titan was impressed… I know he must have seen me, there was no way he couldn’t have from his view point.”
Edward felt a pang of sympathy for Thomas, he wrapped his arm around the alicorns shoulder and gave him a small squeeze hug. “Well, even if Titan is upset with you, I think you should be proud of yourself, you managed so much in one day! You’re improving quicker than you think Thomas, have you even noticed your wobbling less as you walk?” Thomas then took notice of his trotting, he was indeed managing to keep on balance! And in the yard earlier he had to have been galloping around to try and get a running start for his gliding. “Oh wow! I am! I didn’t even realise,” Thomas smiled, his enthusiasm returning with a big ol’ smile. Edward chuckled as he amped up his trotting a little into a light gallop, bumping Thomas’s side in a teasing fashion. “Let’s see if you can keep up with this old colt then ay? Race you!” Edward then zoomed off! Thomas giving chase, “Your on Edward!”
Titan watched as the two centaurs raced off down the line, he hoped Edward would be careful with Thomas, he’d already been injured enough today and he didn’t want his little buddy to take another trip.
Zorran and Zak were talking between each other as they walked at their own pace, Titan knowing he was the third wheel and that Zorran had just wanted to give Edward and Thomas some room to chat. The tall standing divine mythic looked down to the pair and cut their conversation short. “Do you two think I might have been a little too harsh on him?” Titan asked. Zorran and Zak looked up to their former rival with a look of confusion, but Zorran was the one to address it. “He did seem pretty out of it when he was chatting with ol’ Ed, and he asks me to get involved very rarely. So when he does motion me to I can tell it’s important.” “What is the full story behind Thomas’s little spill? I’ve only heard it in passing today.” Zak asked wanting more context.
“Apparently Thomas and Gordon were in a bit of a grumpy mood, antagonising each other. So before Top Hat got back to the carriage Gordon took off early with Thomas still coupled behind him. Thomas was grinded along the rails for a bit before he figured out how to open his wings and fly. And he didn’t land safely ether, he face planted into the back coach when the train stopped, going at 90 kilometres per hour, I imagen that couldn’t have felt nice. So I ringed into Gordon and that was before I got back to the station. I just thought Gordon was being an ass until I was told Thomas enabled it. It made me feel like an idiot for defending Thomas afterwards because I worry he now thinks it’s okay to do dumb stuff like that because I’ll always be there for him, and it’s not unfounded now. He was practicing how to glide and even figured out how to use his magic! He could have had another knock back, crashed into a train, or even tripped again the whole time. This kid is so far behind, and with his strength now over powered compared to his experience I’m afraid he might accidently overdo it and hurt himself.” “That’s where Thomas got that from?”
The jockey’s looked to Henry who had been walking a little ahead of them but was apparently ease dropping. “Thomas got that from you?” “Got what exactly from me?” Titan asked the forest king, a little confused. “That mind set, we talked about his power beforehand and that his mindset was the thing holding him back. He thinks he’s too powerful for his own good, and if he thinks that then his magic will act on it, I had the same issue when I was younger.” Henry explained and it then clicked to Zak what his son was referring to.
“Oh! Thomas is having the same thought process you did back then? Okay that actually makes a lot more sense. Ty, like Henry said Thomas thinks he’s too over powered because you told him so, and with that mindset it probably makes him to scared to actually try magic, and whenever he does do magic his psyche will take over his control and make his magic have a powerful knock back.” Zak explained.
Titan looked at the witch doctor with a dreadful expression. “I… I did this?... I did this to Thomas?” he questioned worryingly as he checked his head back up to the way his son and Edward had ran. “If you’ve been the only one around him most of his life then it’s very likely, otherwise who else is he going to pick that up from?” Zak said. “I think your sheltering Thomas a little too much, if he figured out how to use magic and get to gliding by himself in the span of a few hours then I’d say he’s doing pretty well, I know I’d be proud if I were his age.” Henry said. “And call me for a fool, but you sort of sound like how Zeb treated Zip in his early years. Not letting him get to far ahead and monitoring his every move, what spells Zero tried to teach him and a few other things, and we all know how that ended up for him in his teens.” Zorran said.
Titan had his old memories of Bigg City port come rushing back to him. It was true, Zebedee absolutely watched Zip like a hawk when he was growing up, the naga was apparently really protective of his adoptive pixy son. And as such when Zip came into his teens he wasn’t preforming as well as the others had expected of him, he was rather depended on the others as a result and rather incapable. It wasn’t until Zip actually started to get a little upset with Zeb and put some space between them did he have enough room to learn on his own and eventually improve, by the time Titan had left, Zip was one of the most valuable members of the Zero fleet. And it looked like through Henry’s own past trauma his young mindset did the same to him, and now he was seeing it again in his own child because of him.
The young deity mythic looked really hurt, but what parent wouldn’t after they just realised they’ve been unintentionally hurting their kid. Titan steeled himself up and voiced his next course of action. “I’m going to chat with Thomas once we get back, I need to apologise to him…” To Zorran and Zak it was weird seeing Titan look so defeated and worried, fears were something just not normally in the fierce angels vocabulary. Zak petted Ty’s thigh in a comfort before walking up to Henry and giving his own reassuring pets, he knew Henry’s past was not one the deer centaurian liked to bring up. Zorran looked up the line and began to float ahead. “I’m gonna go check on them.” He then zoomed off to catch up to Edward and Thomas. Titan noticed Harper and Gordon coming up so he decided to join them the rest of the walk, much to Gordon’s dismay.
When everyone was back at the stables and beginning to take off their equipment Titan assisted Thomas in getting his off, he was gentle and wore a not so angry expression this time, making Thomas wonder what he and Zorran could have possibly talked about to change his mood. He didn’t have to wonder long however.
“Thomas? I wanted to take the time to tell you I’m sorry, how upset I got with you wasn’t okay once we got back to the station.” Thomas was surprised but it slowly warped into astonishment the more he just registered what Titan said to him. “I also owe you a humongous apology… for the most of your life… Henry brought it to my attention that you two apparently had a talk about magic beforehand, and he explained it to me your mindset towards your power. Thomas, I am so sorry I taught you that. I am so sorry I taught you that your power was something to be contained, I never wanted to make you feel like you were beneath your power, I am so sorry for giving you that misconception. And I’m proud of you, you managed to learn how to levitate something and practice how to glide in the span of a day! This is absolutely incredible progress for you! And your running, you’ve made so much progress in so little time… it really makes me regret not letting you see other mythic sooner, but I’ve come to realise that I was just being a really over protective parent, I was trying to protect you but in the end it was hurting you… I am so sorry, for what I’ve put you through.”
The second he finished that sentence Thomas jumped on Titan in a rough hug, his fears of the previous night suddenly washed away, Titan did care about him, he cared about him so much. “I love you dad…” Thomas whispered. Titan hugged him back tightly, petting his hair down gently. “I love you to son…” He gave Thomas a peck on the head before putting him back down to finish the rest of the alicorns harness. Thomas smiled and wagged his tail the rest of the night until it was dinner.
Thomas helped set the table, cutlery where the cushions ran parallel, even fluffing the cushions with his new levitating magic. Once that was done the food was still a long way away so Zak told Thomas to go play a little. The problem with that was that the stables weren’t very large, and he wasn’t allowed to go outside because it was dark out now. So Thomas tried to practice some things he’d seen pegasus centaurs do, he stretched out his wings and started to run his hands through his feathers, lining them up and evening them out, but he had some trouble the further away from his body his wings got.
Eventually Gordon came out dressed in some more casual clothes and spotted Thomas trying to preen his wings, and honestly doing a fumbling job. He had gotten the first half of his wings done as far as his arms could reach but the rest was a disaster. The big blue stallion checked to see if Titan was around before approaching the young colt, when he was standing in front of Thomas with his shadow looming over him did the young colt take notice of his presence.
“Oooh… um, h-hey Gordon. I-I’m sorry Titan went off on you, it really didn’t hurt as much as he made it out to be, he was just being over protective.” Thomas apologised for his guardian. “Don’t be sorry for him Thomas, he’s a grown mythic in his own ways, if he’s sorry he can tell me it himself. But I’m more intrigued by what you are doing, are you trying to preen?” Gordon asked. “Preen?” Thomas asked confused. “Preening is what birds do to groom and straighten out their feathers, pegasi and other feathered wing mythic do the same. However,” Gordon sat down beside Thomas’s wing and began gently running his hands through his feathers to straighten them out.
“These type of mythic are often in herds or flocks, as you can probably tell your arms don’t reach far enough to straighten them all out, so they rely on team members to finish the rest.” Gordon cupped his hands over his mouth and breathed into them as if he was warming them up, but he quickly ran his hands through Thomas’s feathers again, this time the feathers turned stiff and shiny and strong like he just put in hair jell over them. “Whoa! What did you do? They look so glossy now,” Thomas asked amazed. Gordon suddenly fell into shock and fluster, looking like he was embarrassed or terrified and looking to quickly scrape an excuse together. “Uhhhh, g-glands! Yes that’s it! Glands that I h-have! Before I came to Sodor I worked looking after my cousins and relatives who had feathers and such, when they were young I would preen them! Y-You should have some to Thomas.”
Thomas didn’t seem to by Gordon’s lie completely but he could tell there was some truth behind it when his voice got calmer, so he decided to take Gordon’s word for it. “Okay… So where are these glands and how do I use them?” The alicorn asked. “They replace your tonsils in your neck,” Gordon gently pressed under Thomas’s chin where they were. “When you breath out a long breath you can squeeze those glands and what will feel like spit will shoot onto your hands, that spit is actually a natural oil that when smoothed over your feathers straightens them out, you try, I’ll press on those glands while you open your mouth.”
Thomas and Gordon did just that, Thomas spat the oils into his cupped hands when Gordon pressed on Thomas’s throat. The young colt found it uncomfortable and rolled his neck when it was done. “Ugh, bleh.” “You should be able to get the hang of it with a little practice, just make sure not to do that aimed at anyone, it’s seen as very disrespectful.” Gordon warned. “Got it.” Thomas then went back to preening the feathers he could reach and Gordon got to work on the feathers that were further away.
As the two worked this large task of fixing Thomas’s wings up, Gordon decided to strike up a bit more conversation so he could try to bond with the alicorn colt if he’d be working with him, and trying to teach him how to fly. “So… have you been growing a mane?” Thomas was confused. “What’s a mane?” “A mane is a plume of feathers or fur that grows around your chest or second chest.” “I don’t think so. Why? Am I supposed to be growing one?” “It could just be my biased because I’ve seen many of my relatives grow manes, but when I see mythic having big fluffy manes I can’t help but feel like their very regal and elegant, and that’s a look I think would fit an alicorn. So I was just asking.” Thomas gave it a little thought, if growing a mane out would make him look regal he kind of wanted to know a little more about them. “When do pegasi normally grow a mane?” “They’re sort of born with one normally, but it’s just downy fluff until they grow older. When they hit their late teens is when their full adult bodies really starts to grow in, so if you do have a mane it should be showing up in full swing by the time your seventeen or eighteen.” “Nice,” Thomas said with a little smile, he would need to ask Titan if he was born with a mane because he honestly couldn’t remember.
Gordon then took a peek down at Thomas’s back hooves and he noticed a bud growing on each leg above from the hoof. “Ah, I see you’ve been growing your dewclaws.” “Dewclaws?” Thomas looked at his hands to see if he had been growing claws and he hadn’t noticed. Gordon stifled a laugh, “Heh-heh, no, no Thomas, on your back legs.” Gordon pointed. Thomas lifted his leg and his eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh! Is that what these bumps are?” “Yes, those will grow into dewclaws.” “What are dewclaws?” “Dewclaws are talon-like single claws that pegasi have, they’re used to grip into vertical surfaces or to pick things up from a swoop, like how hawks snatch up prey.” “Are pegasi carnivores?” “No they’re omnivores, but some pegasi in the past used to take on characteristics of specific birds, some took on after eagles, some after ducks, and their hooves would reflect that.” “So duck pegasi exist?” Thomas asked with a little amusement. “Oh there used to be, but they were breed out when the horse carriage industry came into full swing. Now you’ll see duck pegasi characteristics in hippocamps and kelpies.” “What are hippocampus and kelpies?” “They’re both types of water horse mythic, you’ll mainly find them around beaches if you’re lucky. Okay, that’s you’re wing done, want to move on to the other one?”
Thomas however had an idea he wanted to try out. “I actually wanna see if I can groom my other wing by using my magic.” He explained. “Alright… but be careful not to pull any feathers out.” Thomas stood up for this and spread his opposite wing, he gleeked his oil glands into his hands and tried to pick up the little liquid that was there. It was challenging to pick up water Thomas had to admit, but after 20 or so tries he finally managed and began to glide it through his feathers. He found this so much easier and faster than doing it by hand, using his magic to reach further than he could and getting it done in half the time. “Huh, I guess that would make sense that alicorns can preen themselves if unicorns can groom themselves with their magic.” Gordon commented, secretly surprised and impressed that Thomas was taking up on magic so quick, he could only hope he would take that quick to flying.
Just then Titan walked up to them. “Alicorn’s rarely actually stayed in herds, they were often solitary mythic when living on earth.” He commented. Thomas grew a little concerned. “Does that mean I should be keeping away from you guys?” “Oh no, no Thomas, I said rarely, that’s not to say they hate socialising, they just kept to themselves which was odd considering most other horse mythic stayed in herds.” The alicorns guardian explained. “Why is that? From what I’ve heard most centaurian’s followed alicorns like leaders in the past.” Gordon quizzed. “That’s actually a lot later in history than you think, before my brother Jesus was born, centaurs and all other kinds of mythic followed alicorns as leaders because when an alicorn was released onto earth it meant that their time was coming up. Essentially, letting an alicorn go was a mark of retirement. So by then they were wise and powerful, which made them great leaders. After my brother came to heaven though that practice stopped and alicorns could then only be found on earth. Alicorns were then hunted along with the other mythic during the witch hunts, and like so many with them they went extinct as a result.”
Thomas felt meek at that revelation, that he was the only alicorn left in existence. “So I’m a one of a kind?” “In all honesty we don’t know, we don’t know if alicorn’s used their powerful magic to hide or if they are just gone. A lot of angel’s believe that their just hiding and I want to believe that to, but so far it’s only been divine intervention that’s made one be revealed so far.” “Me…” “Yes.” Titan confirmed his son’s thought.
Gordon petted Thomas’s hair, he knew the feeling of being one of a kind in a world where you would be an exception. Thomas leaned into Gordon’s touch when James interrupted the moment.
“Thomas!” Everyone half jumped at the stone unicorns sudden yell, “I wanted to get you started on some magic training, if you’re going to be shunting in the yard and using your magic to do it, then I’d figure we’d better start getting used to each other’s auras so we don’t shock each other again.” James handed an old book to Thomas that read in runes and English ‘Magic Study’.
“This was the book I used to get going on basic magic, It should help. I’ve already gone through it with a fine tooth comb so you’ll find a few lines underlined in pencil and a few notes and drawings here and there.” James said as Thomas opened the book and began skimming the pages to find that James had scribbled on many of the pages with various notes and doodles “If you need to be taking notes Thomas I have some spare work books you can use to write in.” Gordon said walking into his own stall and coming back out with books and a few pencils. Thomas took them off Gordon’s hands and instantly began to read through the book at the kitchen table, writing down anything he found interesting or something he wanted to follow up on.
Titan looked to Gordon with a quizzed look. “How come you have work books? James I get why he has a book on magic but I don’t recall a reason why norms would have writing books.” “They’ve become more popular as of late for norms because we’ve been slowly getting an education in the past few generations, kind of hard to read station signs where you’re meant to stop if you can’t read them. I was born into a high prestige family so an education was mandatory fortunately. Edward however is actually literacy and numerically challenged, he’s been attending a church on his branch line on his free time to try and get some lessons in though.” This surprised Titan, Edward of all people was without an education?
“Edward? That’s a surprise, he always seems so collected, I wouldn’t have ever guessed he was illiterate.” James then cut in. “I was surprised to, I asked one of the Sir Topham Hatt’s for a cook book one year to give Edward as a Christmas present because he was the one always experimenting with food at dinner, I was surprised to see him look worried at it like it just spat fire at him. That’s when he told me he couldn’t read.” “I had a similar experience. When I first came to the island Edward asked how old I was, when I answered him I was twelve years old he asked if that was higher than four, I thought he was pulling my leg trying to be funny so I just scoffed and changed the subject. Looking back on it I can now realise he was being very serious.” Gordon stated.
Speaking of the devil, Edward had overheard them and decided to step in. “If all of you are so fixated on my education, then I will be happy to inform you as to why I’m illiterate. I was born in the late 18th century, so wild centaurs could still be found around then. I was born in Glasgow and captured along with the rest of my herd, we were brought to Barrow-in-Furness where we were then put to work. My herd didn’t have a literacy system in place and we didn’t even know how to write in Scottish, we just spoke it. So along with learning a new language we also had to figure out what a literacy and numeracy system was. I didn’t get to far with writing, I only drew the station signs in a book with a map layout so I knew what signs to lookout for to stop at.” Edward explained. “And you’re only now beginning to take classes at a church along your line?” Titan asked.
“A friend of mine who keeps a vicarage’s grounds helped me, most of the clergy were surprised a mythic would even enter a house of god.” Edward informed making Titan rather upset. “My dad helped create a lot of mythic we know today, he wouldn’t mind at all if any came to church, he’d welcome them just like all the others.” “Maybe you should tell them that.” James commented with a chuckle, knowing what would probably happen if Titan showed up to a church. “I wish, but fallen angels like demons were taught to be feared for a good reason. The people in mass are my type of people but I wouldn’t want to scare them.” “Fair.” Edward said to the formerly divine mythic before heading into the kitchen to start dinner but Titan decided to join him.
“If you have more time on your hands Edward I wouldn’t mind teaching you, I home schooled Thomas after all.” The large man offered. Edward thought about it, “Can you also teach me what the deal is with this worship of a book? And whatever else happens in a church?” “You want to become religious?” “No, I don’t think so at least. The humans at a church just seem to be a lot more kind than most of the other people I’ve meet in my life, I honestly want to keep seeing them but it’s not like I can follow them to a café once the day is over.” “So you want to understand and make friends.” “Yes, as much as I like talking with the others, meeting some new people would be a welcomed change.” “I get it, and who knows, maybe you’ll set in motion a more constructive view of mythic.” “You honestly think a small old centaur like me could change people’s views on mythic they’ve had for generations?” “I don’t think, I hope. It’s obviously not a guarantee but I believe your already heading in the right direction if you’ve been getting friendly with the people there.” Edward paused for a while, setting up a cook pot and lighting the stove. “…I’m not exactly to confident in teaching them how mythic really work, but I would like to take your offer up on being taught after hours.” Titan could work with that, after all, the future wasn’t set in stone.
The night went on as per a new norm the mythic would come to find. Thomas would be at his new book studying up with James checking in on him every so often, then for a few hours Gordon would lecture him on flight theory. The jockeys would chat and laugh about the old days and share old tales of a world with an oceans distance between them. Edward and Henry would work on food together, discussing recipes and new ideas. Then once everyone ate it was their usual bed routines.
Thomas would sleep on a large mat, Titan would hang in a large hammock. Edward would lay down in a pile of pillows and curl up to get comfortable, Zorran would float around the construction ever keen and on the lookout. Henry would cuddle up to Zak, his body half on a mattress and half on a rug with a blanket over the pair. Gordon would wrap himself in a blanket and Harper would transform into a bat and sleep somewhere in the room, whether on Gordon or hanging upside down from a ledge. James slept on a large flat of stone, his floating limbs losing their magic as they fell to the ground in all different messes as the unicorn snored.
The next morning, Henry was aching all over and sounded like he was hacking up a lung all throughout breakfast. Thomas was concerned and a little confused as to why Henry couldn’t just heal himself better. “Henry healed my aches a few days ago, why can’t he just heal himself?” “Henry’s healing powers are connected to his own health in a way, that’s why he can heal minor injuries, but full bodily chronic pains and a chest bug are out of the question.” Zak explained. Thomas understood, but was then curious as to who would take Henry’s train. “What should I do about Henry’s train then? All the others have their own work to do by now.” “Go ahead and get the train ready, we’ll see if this doesn’t improve after some medicine.” “Will do Zak, let’s get going Thomas.” Titan said before running with Thomas out to Knapford.
While they were running, Thomas got a thought into his head. If no other centaurs were available, then maybe he could pull the train. The idea suddenly made the young alicorn very giddy as he began to run with a skip in his hooves. Titan saw this and could guess why, he rolled his eyes with a smirk and began to mentally prepare for his sons impatience.
When they got to the yard Thomas used his magic to shunt and pull the cars again, and when Edward trotted by with his own train behind him he was surprised to see Thomas looking so spry. “Did Thomas make another milestone Ty?” Zorran asked from the carriage. “No, Henry’s still sick back at the stables, so Thomas thinks he could maybe pull the train if Henry doesn’t show up.” Titan answered making Thomas nod in excitement. “It’s not as easy as you think Thomas, it’s a lot of hard work.” Edward commented as he passed by. “If there’s no strain then there’s no hard work!” Zorran shouted out as they went.
Once Thomas was at the platform he waited to see if Henry would arrive, as the time turned closer for the trains departure and people were climbing into the coaches the fat controllers were standing on the platform waiting for Henry to show up. When it was calling it to close for comfort Sir Bertrum walked up to Thomas and Titan. “Thomas, Titan, I want you to quickly find a carriage car and attach it at the front of the train, you’ll have to take the train.” “Yes sir!” Thomas cheered as he skipped off to find a carriage.
Once the pair found a carriage they put it at the front of the train, Thomas coupled it up to the coaches while Titan got a carriage harness and reins ready for the alicorn. Thomas was then hitched up and Titan sat on the carriage holding the reins. The young colt danced on his hooves with eagerness but the eldest Hatt was quick to intervene, having seen this happen a few times already in his life. “Thomas, remember, there are poachers out there, and there have been a few instances along the route your taking where some tried to shoot at Henry. If you value your safety you need to keep a clear eye out in the shadows for anything shiny like a silver gun barrel. This is a privilege, yes, but it’s one that comes with bigger risks than shunting in a yard.” That instantly dropped Thomas’s excitement when he was reminded yet again of his position. He gulped and nodded to the senior most controller. “Yes sir, I’ll keep my guard up.” “There’s a good colt. Now, Edward will go first, then you, so this next whistle isn’t yours.” Just as Sir Bertrum finished that sentence the whistle for Edward’s platform went, and when the train cleared the signals Thomas’s platform whistle went.
Thomas gave a mighty enchanting neigh before trying to pull the train forward, it was a struggle but he managed to get going. As they travelled along the country side, Thomas couldn’t help but feel free pulling the coaches, he was happily running with the wind through his hair when a glint from a shade in the bushes caught his eye. He then felt his hackles raise, he kicked his magic in full gear to hopefully be strong enough to stop a speeding bullet should one be aimed at him. To the young alicorn’s relief no shots were made, but he was still on high alert as he could feel his father’s aura being rather intense as well, Titan only dropped his threatening aura when they came up to the platforms and started it right back up again when they got the clear to keep going.
This continued throughout the whole journey, Thomas still kept his wits about him though until they got back to the safety of the yard by the end of the day. He was surprised to see Henry in the yard using his antlers to push the trucks and coaches around, he trotted up to the large mythic and gave a friendly bray to let Henry know he was there as he came in. The deer centaur instantly turned his head up and was happy to see Thomas pulling in, he quickly cantered over to greet him as the alicorn came to a stop.
“Thomas! I see you did well with the train?” Henry asked. “I did, though maybe there were a few scares along the way.” “Scares? What do you mean?” Henry asked sounding concerned. “I think I saw a few flashes of silver from the bushes, I couldn’t have been too sure though if they were gun barrels.” Thomas answered. “Oh no, did Sir Bertrum tell you about poachers?” Zak asked as he walked up to them, a grin on his face. “He did, and I don’t know if I should be worried going down that way now…” Thomas answered, not hearing much of the amusement in Zak’s voice. “I can answer that for you Thomas, no. No you shouldn’t be worried. Poachers are a thing but they’re in more country nowhere stretches of line nowadays, Sir Bertrum probably just said that to keep your excitement down and your focus up.”
Thomas was surprised to hear Zak’s words, and was now a little confused. “But, Sir Bertrum said that Henry had been shot at before down that line.” “He did, when he was still new to the railway. Back when this railway used to be just one line with one or two branch lines, it was considered to be country land, so, poachers would be here and try to get at the mythic that worked on the rails. Edward would be able to tell you more, but thankfully those days are considered gone.” “Not quite old friend,” Titan answered Zak as he hopped off from the carriage. “I did sense something out there, Thomas had every right to have his guard up. I don’t think there’s a threat to any of the others, but some people may be gunning for an alicorn score.” “Right…” Zak hissed out awkwardly. “I completely forgot about that if I’m being honest…” “Wouldn’t the Sir Topham’s just give Thomas a guard charm?” Henry asked lifting a gold coin on a string out from around his neck. “Oh so that’s what I’ve been sensing.” Titan commented while looking at the coin.
“What does that do?” Thomas asked. “It’s basically a powerful guard spell that keeps you safe from intent to harm, so if a bullet was coming your way the charm would cancel it and the bullet would vanish before it reached you.” Henry explained then tucking his charm away. “The Sir Topham’s should’ve given you one at some point, Titan can’t always be around to protect you.” Zak said. “Huh… okay. Well, I’d better get this train away, we’ll see you two at the stables latter.” Thomas said before pulling his coaches away to shunt them into a siding.
Once everyone started to retire to the shed they gave they’re praises for Thomas managing to take his first train successfully, they were also empathetic to Thomas’s concerns of poachers. They were giving their own advice on how to deal with poachers when a knock came from the door, and to their surprise it was the fat controllers.
“Hello everyone, I apologize but we couldn’t help but ease drop as we came up to the door. Has something been happening to a few of you on your trains as of late?” Sir Charles asked. “It’s just me sirs, on my first run today I thought I saw something in the shadows, and since I’m an alicorn I’ve sort of become a little concerned.” Thomas answered. “We’ve figured that might of happened sooner or later, news such as an alicorn being on Sodor would spread fast unfortunately.” Sir Charles said. “Which is why I recommended giving Thomas this,” Sir Stephen said as he walked up and gave Thomas a gold coin clasp for his bolo tie with a number 1 etched into it. “This is for your tie Thomas, clip it on and it’ll be your protection charm, you’ll need it for a goods train tomorrow.”
“A goods?” Titan asked looking curiously at his boss. “Yes! We were very impressed by how Thomas managed his train today, so we figured we would give him a longer running train.” Sir Bertrum said. “As for you jockey’s, you’ve been requested to have a meeting with someone, so for tomorrow you won’t be with steeds. Edward, the train Thomas will be taking was your goods, so we want you back in the yard again tomorrow.” Sir Charles said making all the workers very confused. “Hold on sir, this is Thomas’s second ever train, and I’m also his jockey for good reason, what on earth could be so important that I and the rest of the jockey’s would be taken away for?” Titan asked sounding concerned. “You had to leave Thomas behind for a day when he first arrived, he’ll be fine, it’s just from Knapford to Maron. And the person who wants to speak with you all made a very compelling argument, he said something about… a crescent star?” Sir Bertrum said.
The jockey’s grew surprised in unison then looked back up to Titan who looked just as shocked. “Well… guess I can’t keep the man waiting, we’ll be there to meet him sirs.” Titan said tipping his hat with a smile. “Excellent! We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. As for the rest of you, we’ll leave you to it, have a nice night!” Sir Bertrum said as he and his descendants began to leave. “Goodnight sirs!” everyone chorused.
Once they were gone James jokingly prodded Thomas in the arm to tease him. “Looks like someone is shaping up!” the red stallion cheered. “Hey!” Thomas laughed as he tried to push James’s hands away. “Congratulations Thomas, looks like the Hatt’s are exceptionally proud of you if they want you to take that train.” Zorran commented catching the young colts attention. “What’s with that train that makes it so special?” Thomas asked. “The trucks that make up that train are haunted, and the spirits that possess them are known to be rather mischievous.” Harper said. “So they often like to try and derail the trains.” Zak said. “What? Then why is Thomas pulling them if they have a reputation like that?” Titan asked now filled back with worry. “My best guess is it’s actually a thing for Thomas to do while we have a long overdue talk with you know who.” Zorran chuckled as he floated around above their heads.
“Is he that intrigued?” Titan asked his fellow jockeys. “Oh you bet, he’s been wondering about you ever since you left. And besides, if you’re going to meet him it’s very likely you’ll see the others to.” Harper said with a smile. Titan couldn’t help but smile as well. “It would be nice to see them again, I really do miss Sunshine…” “He’ll be over the moon when he sees you, I just know it.” Zak said chuckling a little. “Well I guess it’ll be a party tomorrow then, I can’t wait to see their shocked faces…” Titan grinned mischievously.
The next morning the jockey’s set their steeds up so they could be working by themselves for the day. Zorran gave Edward a firm handshake and wish good luck, Zak gave Henry a blue bird plush and a hug, Harper listed off instructions to Gordon as the stallion writ them down in a note book, and finally Titan made sure Thomas’s protection charm was firmly on and everything else was secure. Once they were all done they watched as the centaurs all trotted off, leaving their guardians to pack for themselves.
“Just so I’m not caught with my pants down, should I be aware of anything before we arrive?” Titan asked. “We got a few newcomers since you left, we already told you about Oscar.” Zorran said as he packed a bag. “We also had some old faces join, Bluenose believe it or not was discharged from the navy and has been hanging around Magister Star.” Harper commented as he packed some books. “Bluenose?! As in officious naval twit Bluenose?” Titan asked absolutely shocked. “Yep, the one in the same.” Zorran said. “Well sink me, that’s a surprise.” The fallen angel said. “They also managed to get a ocean liner as of recent, she’s a mermaid orca and whale hybrid.” Zorran said with a smirk. “Yeah you and Edward would know,” Zak said in a teasing fashion. “Don’t be rude boys, sharing is caring.” Titan intrigued as he swung his bag over his shoulder. “Yeah, the mermaid is Edward’s long term girlfriend, apparently they’ve know each other ever since before Edward came to Sodor.” Zorran said. “Oh my~” Titan mock covered his mouth with his hand causing the others to laugh.
Once the old sailors were done with their packing they all began to fly over to Arlesbrugh harbor, Zak being carried on Titan’s back. They landed a little away from the town and began to walk in and have a look around, the group ether having never seen this side of the island or not really having the chance to sight see often. But they grew excited when they saw the piers come into view, they began to speed walk to the stairs with Titan in the back, when they got to the level where the building was the former angel hid behind a corner so he could reveal himself in dramatic effect.
Harper, Zak and Zorran turned the corner and cheered a happy ‘Hey!’ that the other mythos in front of the new Star Tug and Marine building copied with a lot more enthusiasm. “Zak! Good to see you again!” A naga said as he slithered up and gave the witch doctor a handshake and then firm hug. “Good to see you as well Zeb! You look great,” Zak commented to his old work colleague. “Zip! Good Christ kid what the hell happened to you?!” Zorran cheered as he saw a tall and large man with big pointy ears in the back and came up to give him a handshake. “Zorran! Good to see you again, and what happened to me? What happened to you?! Is that a goatee I see?” Zip teased back as he and the ghost joked. “Like you have room to say about my facial hair.” Zorran tried to do his best to ruffle Zip’s hair but was proven to be blocked. Zak and Zebedee chuckled at the twos antics, the naga slithering up to separate them and to give Zorran a proper hello. Zak then noticed Zip’s former other half wasn’t at his hip, so he looked around the crowd more and along the building walls were a few benches, one had a merman sitting the closest to Zip. Zak grinned and walked over to sit next to him. “Hey Zug, long time no see.” “Zak, good to see you again, I like how you’ve grown your hair out, and it seems like you’re doing better with your braiding.” The manta ray merman smiled. “Better than what I was doing last time you saw me, that’s for sure.” The former number 3 chuckled.
“Gentlemen, the pleasure is all mine to see you once again!” Harper said as he walked up to his old crew mates. “Nice seeing ya Top ‘at! Oh! You got rid of your monocle!” A merman said from the edge of the pier as his tail swayed over the side. “And I see you got a tattoo Warrior, very fitting and looks splendid!” Top Hat complemented. “Top Hat giving complements? Are we sure this isn’t an imposter?” a burly man with a Scottish accent chuckled. “Can’t even call him Top Hat since he doesn’t wear one anymore,” a shorter man with red hair humoured. “Big Mac! Sunshine! It’s great to see you both again- is that a cane? Mac, since when do you use a cane?” Top Hat asked worryingly when he took notice of the man’s walking stick. “Oh this? I’ve had it for three years now, the lads on the Skarloey railway noticed I’ve been having some aches more often so they made me it, pretty dignifying aye?” Mac asked as he gave the cane a few stamps on the ground. “With the way you ware your pelt now it makes you look very robust in an authoritative way indeed,” Top Hat smiled then turned his attention to Sunshine.
“And Sunshine! You really grew your hair out, don’t you think it deserves a cut by now?” “Nae, I tie it up when I’m on work hours, otherwise it’s kept down.” Sunshine smiled. “I personally like it, it reminds me of the gold falls at the end of Upriver when the sun would hit them just right.” A familiar and deep voice from behind them said as he came from behind. “Hercules!” The former Stars called as they saw the tall man with the sharp blue eyes smile a toothy grin. “Hello m’dears it’s been awhile!” Hercules cheered as he reached to shake Top Hat’s hand. “It’s been far too long, it’s good to hear your voice again.” Top Hat smiled when Warrior caught their attentions. “Oh! Hey Grampus,” Warrior smiled as another more skinnier merman jumped out of the water and sat next to him on the pier. “Hey guys! Long time no swim!” the deep sea merman said as he smiled and waved. “Grampus! How’s the light doing?” Top Hat asked. “Great after we found a vet that actually works with marine mythos, it works better than ever now!” Grampus smiled.
“It would have worked all the same if you hadn’t of gotten it damaged in the first place.” a familiar but irritating voice sounded out as the owner of it stepped off from his boat. “Ah, Bluenose, I didn’t expect you to fancy these sort of meet ups…” Top Hat in a monotone said while Zorran and Zak groaned behind him. “I admit curiosity got the better of me, so I will be here if anyone ‘fancy’s’ my company.” Bluenose said as he walked to a bench and sat down, knowing the answer to that question already. “You’ve got only yourself to blame for that, so don’t ruin the mood with your sulking.” “Kill joy.” Another few familiar voices said as a skeletal man with an eye patch jangled up to the group from his own boat followed by a human Atlantean hybrid. “Sea Rouge! Boomer!” Sunshine cheered as he came up and gave the undead pirates hand a fist bump. “Ay fellas, good to see you again.” Boomer said addressing Top Hat, Zorran and Zak. “Ay Boomer, haven’t seen your mug in a while,” Zak said as he came up to give him a hand shake followed by Zorran.
“So, you’re the one I replaced and heard so much about.” A new more gravelly voice said as its owner watched from the perch of his tugs bow, he jumped off and landed close to the group to walk up to Zak who took a defensive stance. “I can only assume you’re the Oscar I’ve heard about.” Zak said as he and Oscar sized each other up. “Seems we’ve both left a reputation.” Oscar said then offered his hand out for a shake. Zak took it cautiously, but when he saw Oscar give a more confident smile and firmer grip with the shake it spelt respect, Zak smiled back in return. “It’s nice to see you again Zorran, it feels weird not seeing you without your partner in crime.” A voice Zorran knew well spoke from the water and Zorran gave a tip of his hat to the owner of the voice. “It does feel weird seeing you without him here, I’d bet he’d feel jealous. Either way, it’s nice to see you again to miss Orcades.” “You know my preferred name, you can use it.” She insisted. “Alright, Orchid.” Zorran corrected.
“Top Hat, Zak, Zorran, it has been a very long time gentlemen.” A familiar voice said that cut the commotion as a man hobbled out of the door using a staff as a walking stick and a senior merman in a wheelchair following behind him. “Magister Star…” Top Hat smiled as he gave a salute, followed by the other mythos. “It’s good to see you again lads, I see you’ve been doing well.” The old merman said rolling his chair up to them to offer a hug, they each took it in turns before it landed on Top Hat’s turn. “It’s good to see your still around O.J, it’s been a little weird having to be the voices of reason to other mythos.” O.J laughed, “I can only imagen! Haha!” Everyone else gave a chuckle before they heard the heavier footsteps of a large man come up to them, all the mythos minus the jockeys gasped with mouths open when they saw who it was.
“Well now, this is quite the gathering, what are we celebrating?” Titan smiled with a big grin. The whole group didn’t make a sound for a solid minuet before it was Hercules to make the first move, he walked out from behind everyone and approached the now larger mythic. He stood directly in front of Titan’s chest and had to strain his neck to look up into his eyes, what looked back at him were the same blue eyes he had always known, a fierce blue that could always be interpreted as ether a bright hot blue flame, or a fridged unforgiving cold ice, indecisive not unlike humanity.
“Titan…” Hercules whispered as his eyes grew misty with tears, it had been decades since he saw his brother. “Hey Herc.” Titan’s smile broke away into a happy sob, he crushed the man into a tight hug which the other returned in kind. “Gods I missed your hugs, to hell with my height they’re still the same as I remember!” Titan laughed in a hearty jolly boom as he let Hercules go. “To hell with your height indeed, go back to being shorter than me!” Hercules laughed as well as he had to jump to try and ruffle Titan’s hair, knocking his hat off. As the two began to roughhouse a shout came from the crowd as well, “Ten Cents!” Sunshine yelled as he gave a running jump and leaped onto Titan’s back and have a hug around his neck. “Sunshine!” Titan cheered, swinging him around on his neck and sitting him on his shoulders so the shorter man could hug his head. “Man it’s been so long! Don’t you go running off for that long again!” Sunshine shouted as he tried to do his best to noogie the taller mythic. “It’s not like I had a choice, I was a freshly fallen, I had to start working out my options.” Titan chuckled as the others all started to trickle in and approach the former star tug number 1.
As they all started to get reacquainted it was a surprise how much had changed for all of them. “Holy cow, Zip? A controller of a railway?!” Titan gawked as he staired shocked at the man. “Granted it’s nothing like the NWR you’re working on but it’s definitely shaping up, I actually find it more surprising that the fae folk there are letting a pixy be their boss.” Zip said as he pulled a beer bottle out of a cooler he brought. “Huh, if only Magister Zero could see you now, he’d be eating his words.” Titan commented with a chuckle, causing a few of them to look at him with inquisitive looks, mainly Magister Star.
“Have you not seen Zero in hell? I would have thought you would have recognised his aura.” Star asked. “No, no! -Well I mean… okay, I’ve been to hell on some occasions, mainly to serve some errands that Lucifer wanted me to do among the angels on earth or some higher ranking demons, but I’ve never stuck around long enough to sight see, hell! I didn’t even know he was studying in hell until you just told me.” Titan said. “I’d have thought the devil would have mocked you for it.” Mac said grabbing a beer and sandwich as well. “What do you think he is? Ten thousand years old?” Titan asked, making the others nod in a fair point.
“Speaking of age, how old are you now Ty? I thought angels aged very slow.” O.J asked. “Once it was drawing closer to Thomas’s birthday I was allowed to go into heaven for a few errands and excess training, we went into a different area of heaven where time moves much faster, so to me it was another few centuries but on earth it was maybe a month at a time.” “How old are you now then?” Hercules asked. “Fifty million.” “Jesus!” Star said shocked. “No I’m Titan.” the fallen angel joked causing a laugh around the group. “But alright enough about me, what happened after I left?” he asked.
Star started off. “Well, after you left all of us were pretty sad, we all didn’t know if we would ever see you again so we started mourning you as if you were dead. I remember Hercules took the worst to it.” Hercules nodded his head in sad agreement. “And as I’ve told you I was replaced.” Zak said then the magister continued, “After a few months we started to fall into a better routine, we were down one switcher but we managed until I could purchase a new one,” “And that would have been me.” Sea Rouge said raising his hand. “You Rouge?” Titan asked sounding surprised. “Yep, the navy bought the munitions factory and that left me without a job since they didn’t want mythic as staff members, especially undead ones, they thought we were a bad omen.” “But then two years later the navy base was relocated, saying they didn’t want soldiers and military equipment so close to civilians.” Bluenose followed up from Sea Rouge. “And I’m betting they couldn’t take you with them so they sold you,” Titan smirked. “No actually, when we were relocating they did a mass inspection on everyone’s records, including mine. So after an extensive view into mine they found me more suitable for civilian company work instead of the navy, so they discharged me.” Bluenose corrected. “That’s a load of dredge and you know it!” Sunshine remarked rolling his eyes. “He attacked a human officer and he was chased off.” Rouge answered making the others chuckle. “You know what I can’t say I’m surprised.” Titan acknowledged.
“Then a few years later Boomer joined us again.” Sunshine commented. “Yeah, the council decided that maintaining a house boat wasn’t such a good idea, and tenants never appeared to stay long even with me being their personal butler that came with the house.” Boomer said. “They were going to scrap his boat and then run Boomer back through the trade, so I stepped in before they could do that. I paid for his restoration and brought him back, it ended up being a pretty good investment as Boomer worked as a large switcher able to do harbor tug work and switching.” Star commented also giving Boomer a pat on the back.
“Did his jinx come back after I turned?” Titan asked. “No it didn’t surprisingly enough,” Boomer said looking down to the tattoo and scar on his right arm. “To be fair mine didn’t disappear after you turned ether, I remember you and I were discussing it before you left but we never finished that conversation.” Hercules said looking down to his own scared and tattooed right arm. “And I’m afraid a few million years later didn’t give me any answers ether, the angels involved with Lucifer’s fall didn’t have any blessings with humans at the time because so far it was only Adam and Lilith around, so none of them could tell me if their blessings stayed after they got turned.” Titan grumbled. “Well maybe you’re the first, you can probably figure it out still.” O.J encouraged. “I’m not the first by far, the problem is that angels that had given blessings in more recent centuries that turned fallen had their “bless-ies” die from ether war, sickness, or just old age. Apparently angels just haven’t been giving blessings all that much anymore and it only happens in the span of three decades now.” Titan said earning a concerned look from the group.
“So heaven has been retreating from earth for a few generations as of late?” Star asked. “It’s not like hell has been doing much ether, the demons that are here are a lot more like Zero than anything else, not causing trouble and just living among humans.” “So what? Christianity mythos are kind of just flattening out?” Mac asked. “Basically yeah, but I’m sure once another sickness or war comes about they’ll be popping back up again.” Titan said. “Good time to be raising Thomas then without any divine intervention ay?” Zorran commented. “You have no idea, the few demons I have come across have been small potatoes but I wouldn’t want to run into another Johnny.” The others grew frowns and nodded in agreement, a demon like the one that could go toe to toe with Titan was one they didn’t hope to encounter again.
“Getting back on topic, how did you guys get from America to here?” Titan asked. “Well after Boomer joined us we had a few years peace before world war two came, and that’s when Zero wanted to sell his business as he saw it a prime time to move into hell for his more demonic studies. We’d all grown rather familiar with the zeds over the decades and the idea of them being separated and not seeing each other anymore set a lot of us off, so I bought Zero’s business, and then the zeds were stars. Afterwards I thought it would have been a good idea to relocate, so I found Sodor after a while and we moved here.” Star answered. “Then after a few years of working around the docks here a few of us wanted a change, so some of us went our separate ways and went for other carriers.” Top Hat said. “Then that was when a few of us went inland a little more, me and Top Hat found Zak riding on Henry’s back when we went into Knapford and he told us all about a jockeys life, and the rest his history.” Zorran concluded.
“Now enough about us, how did you get from last we saw you to raising my nephew?” Hercules asked sounding very interested in Thomas. “Well after I left I was on the run for a bit from other angels that would have sensed an over powered demon on earth, after I learned how to go to hell I ran straight to my brother Lucifer to see if he could help me since I’ve actually talked to him before.” Titan said. “I remember that, before we joined Magister Star a man in a suit came and talked to you.” Hercules recalled. “Yep, that was him giving me some support should I ever need it. Anyway, I talked to him and he got me started on some more demonic magic that he would teach me if I ran errands for him, I agreed at the time because my angel magic wasn’t working that well anymore and I needed a new method of defence. After I was good enough in some crafts I went back out onto earth to see about getting a meeting with my family, to my surprise almost the same day I was out of hell, who would greet me but some of my most powerful brothers Michael and Amenadiel! …” Titan gave a bit of a pause as he recounted the even with hurt in his eyes.
“They had been sensing me since I first turned but had no idea it was me, so when my demonic signature disappeared and then came back stronger they decided they needed stronger angels. They were, believe me when I tell you, surprised to heaven and back when they saw it was me… both of them instantly grew concerned and wanted to bring me straight back to heaven to get this mess sorted out but then we quickly realised I would burn up before I got close enough. So for a few years I was bouncing back and forth between training on earth and hell to get stronger, once I was deemed fit enough they saddled a lot of magic buffers on me and we began praying that I wouldn’t burn to ash on the way up. So after all that we got to the silver city and surprise, surprise! Dad wasn’t home. So with that hope dashed, we then started to look into how an angel can get their position back in the old scripts, and we found that raising another god-like being could win your favour back… And so I believe you can guess the rest from there.”
“They pointed you in the direction of Thomas from there and I’m betting the rest is history.” Zorran stated and Titan nodded. “I’m surprised that alicorns are even still around, I thought they went extinct ages ago.” Zip commented. “Thomas was a divine intervention, so I’m not sure he counts as a natural. The truth is heaven hasn’t seen another alicorn in centuries, so for all we know is that their ether hiding really well, or they are just gone.” Titan said while rubbing the back of his neck. “So he doesn’t have any potential mentors?” Magister Star asked.
“He does, for the basics at least. After that though I have no clue.” Titan said. “We were actually discussing at one point that maybe you could teach him sir.” Zak said. “I was actually thinking for maybe the more advanced stuff, he’s going to be the demi-god of the night sky so that’s a lot of astrology magic he’s going to be packing.” Titan cleared up since he knew his old magisters art of magic was a lot more advanced than what Thomas was ready for.
Magister Star stamped his staff on the ground and a stack of books appeared in front of him. “Astrology magic is one of those types that you’d better start studying sooner rather than later, the beginner stuff isn’t even all that complicated, it’s firstly reading the stars and finding out the constellations, you can do that with any book.” He said levitating the books over to Titan who caught them in his arms.
“Okay, what’s after that then?” Titan asked. “Next would be water manipulation since the easiest subject of that type of magic is lunar currents, but I imagine learning to read the stars will take up most of his time while also learning the basics.” Star said. “Oof, learning to manipulate water can be pretty difficult. I’d be happy to help once he gets to that level.” Zebedee offered. “I actually already know how to use astronomy slips, I used them when I had to go out at sea back in the day, so maybe I could help in that department.” Hercules said. Titan smiled, “It would also be a good moment to introduce his uncles, I don’t see any reason why not.” “It’d be really good for him I imagen, since he’s only known you for his whole life.” Zak said.
“So, what’s Thomas doing now at least? He starting with the basic’s on trucks? Has he got shunting down? Magic so far?” Zip asked. “He’s running a goods train for the first time today, he’s gotten okay with bucking or shunting, and so far he’s gotten a start on levitation and figured out how to glide.” Titan answered proudly.
On the other side of the island, Thomas was souring above the tracks with his train being levitated behind him as he screamed to get himself under control while going down a hill. “AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!” “ON! ON! ON!” The haunted trucks chanted and laughed maniacally.
“Impressive, sounds like he’s flourishing already.” Magister Star praised. “Oh Zorran? How is Edward doing?” Orchid asked. “He’s alright, he’s been teaching Thomas how to shunt and the beginner steps to pulling trains. It’s honestly rather adorable watching those two work together.” Zorran chuckled. Orchid couldn’t help but share the sentiment, she always found it adorable when her love was with kids, it made her fantasise what could be someday for the two of them if they were careful and played their cards right.
Something then came to Titan’s realisation like a lightning bolt after he heard Orchid, he realised an old acquaintance of theirs from back in Bigg City wasn’t with them, and he was sure that under no circumstances would his brother leave them behind. “Huh… Oi Herc, I just realised, how come Lillie isn’t here with you?” Everyone seemed to grow quiet with a look of distain on their faces as they all looked to Hercules to see what he would do, Zebedee actually held onto the dragon’s arm in an act of trying to comfort him. “Lillie and I had a huge falling out before we left for Sodor Ty, she hit some rather raw nerves and we said some things we shouldn’t have. Since then after arriving here, me and Zebedee had actually grown rather close, now we’ve been dating for two years.” Hercules said with a kind smiled at the end and pulled Zebedee in for a hug and kiss on top of his head.
Titan was surprised, he honestly didn’t know what Hercules’s tastes were but now he could see that he liked them kind but strong. He was now finding some humour in how Hercules and Zebedee didn’t get together in secret sooner. “Daw! Well I’m glad you’ve found it in each other, you two could do brilliant together.” Titan praised. “Wait, really? I thought Christianity didn’t allow same sex relationships.” Harper said sounding confused along with a few others also looking puzzled. “Guys I was in my thirteen-thousands when ancient Greece was coming to an end, I’ve grown up watching humans and mythic doing all sorts of things they probably shouldn’t have done or were testing the waters. So in my opinion, you guys are alright and I support it. My other family members though tend to be divided, some like it, some don’t, but like I’ve said before Christianity mythos aren’t all that present anymore on earth, so there’s nobody really stopping you. Except the law here of course, I imagen Magister Star wouldn’t want a complaint that someone saw you two kissing in public.” Titan chuckled that last part with the others finding it a little funny to. “I’ve already had letters about that actually, and I tell them to ether talk to me in person about it, or to mind their own business. You know those paper balls I’ve been having you burn Hercules?” “Yes?” “Those have been them.” Hercules grinned maliciously at his magisters petty revenge who returned the gesture.
“If we’re on the topic of relationships, I’ve actually been dating a girl since we got here.” Sunshine commented with a smile. “Oh yeah! How’s that been going for ya?” Mac asked while giving the shorter man’s hair a small ruffle. “Heh-heh! Well, we’ve actually been talking about kids lately, I’m okay for it but she want some more security before we bring a new life into the world.” “Oh that’s nice Sunshine, congrats!” Titan cheered for his old bestie. “Anyone else been seeing somebody?” Titan asked.
Zip gently poked Zug’s head to get him to shoosh when he lamented his own woes about his love experience so far. “I’m honestly not too interested at the moment, but it seems girls can never get the hint, even some men have been staring at me. It feels weird, yeck!” Zip shivered that last part out. “Maybe you should go around with a sign on your chest and back saying- ‘Not interested in you or anyone else’.” Harper chuckled a little. “You know what, next valentines day I’m doing that.” Zip said with new confidence making the others chuckle at his enthusiasm. “How do the three fairy-teers find your troubles?” Zug asked.
“Yeah, I wanna know more about you’re little railway.” Titan said having all eyes on Zip. “Well as Zug said, there’s three of them. Rex, Mike, and Bert. Rex is the leader of the trio, although Mike likes to think he’s the leader. Rex is a green hairstreak butterfly with a bit of a wing deformation, his top wing tips are a little too small, so he sometimes has issues stopping or taking off. Mike is sort of a hot head but means well, and oddly enough he prefers goods to passengers any day of the week. He’s a red admiral and I swear when he gets mad, his red glows brighter. Bert is the eldest and a adonis blue, the best way to put him I guess would be shy, he’s a bit of a shy flyer to but I’ve been looking into why that could be.” “You do know one out of three working flyers isn’t a good thing right?” Zorran asked looking sceptical at Zip.
“And three out of five swimmers with one unable to touch water wasn’t ideal for Zero yet he kept you on.” Zip retorted back rendering Zorran’s argue mute and having the others give a laugh. “Haha! He’s got you there Zorran.” Zebedee laughed. “Zip go back to being an idiot.” Zorran teased. “No. Anyhow, I actually want to hear more about the Skarloey from Big Mac, how have the fauns been?” Zip asked causing Big Mac to be put in the light.
“They’ve been alright, Skarloey and Rheneas are the same-old-same-old. But recently we’ve gotten some new commers, their names are Duke, Falcon, Stuart, Duncan, Proteus and Andreas. All of them are rescues from around the area, Duke, Falcon and Stuart were all from the Mid-Sodor Railway near Arlesdale, but that railway obviously closed down to make your railway Zip.” Big Mac said making a sigh breath out of Zip. “Phew, I’m glad. I was wondering what happened to the mythos that used to run the line before us, I’m glad they didn’t leave Sodor.” “Yeah, they’re disappointed that they had to leave their home, but they’re managing to move on okay I think.” Mac said with a sombre tone. “But anyway, Duncan, Proteus and Andreas were all different cases. Andreas was found near the hills close to Cros-ny-Cuirn, he’s a faun ghost who haunts a locomotive that was built in world war 1, he talks odd, speaks about machines with faces that aren’t mythic, ghosts are a fantasy as well as mythos.” “How..?” Sunshine directed to Mac confused.
“We have no idea. But he’s floating around like a new death, and also like if he’s figuring out life for the first time as well. For him it’s like- forget he phases through things when he tries to grab them, it’s like it’s his first time having hands at all. And it’s not like he has amnesia, he told us his name and he even said he knew who Skarloey, Rheneas, Duke, Falcon, Stuart and Duncan were, although all of them claim to have never met him. He also remembers his death, saying he was in a gorge that passed through the hills he was found on, and a landslide of rocks crushed him.” “That’s… really bizarre.” Zak said with his mind rolling over in theory’s to Andreas’s condition. “I was actually hoping you could shed some light on him Zak, maybe give a reading or some therapy?” Mac asked. “I’m not a professional Mac, but I’ll do my best to lend an ear or an explanation, mythic ghosts are already rare enough as is, I’d be excited to get the chance to see one.” Zak nodded smiling.
“You said Duncan and Proteus were also rescues?” Titan reminded. “Ah! Right, okay so Proteus was cursed when he was young to only see through flames, so he carries a lantern around with him wherever he goes. But as an extra downside, the flame often burns his fat instead of burning the candle or wood it’s on, so he’s also very thin to the point he’s a walking skeleton practically. He’s selectively mute though, and often talks in sign or uses his hair or tail to spell out letters or make little puppet shows.” “Ooh, poor guy. Best to not let me near him anytime soon.” Sunshine said rubbing his arm.
“And Duncan?” Hercules asked. “Duncan came from a horrible railway in Scotland, it had a reputation for being a garbage working environment for the humans but it was outright cruelty for the fauns that worked there. Instead of maintaining their hooves or horns, they would have them removed and have their fur and hair shaved down to the skin, then have the area burned so it wouldn’t grow back. They didn’t get given clothes even if they were girls, and the most common cause of death there was being overworked until they dropped. Duncan was very lucky in a sense because he only got a branding scar and his hooves removed, otherwise he’s in great physical condition, but his head is definitely not in the right place. He’s rude, aggressive in some cases, stubborn, and complains a lot.” “To be fair, I’d be that way if I was from a place like that.” Rouge said. “Yeah, I hope he gets the help he needs.” Zebedee said. “I hope all of them do, fauns aren’t known from coming of the best origins.” Titan said causing everyone to agree, they liked the fauns on this island.
As they all chattered on throughout the day and into the evening, Zorran then noticed the position the sun was in and then noticed the time. “Oh crap, we’d better get going back home soon guys. I imagen a few of our steeds will be missing us.” Titan then noticed the time to and jumped. “Oh yeah, let’s get going. Sorry to cut this here guys, but we’ve got places to be.” “It’s alright m’dears we get it.” Hercules said giving Titan a hug goodbye. “Aye you lads go back to your colleagues and kids.” Mac said giving a smile and waving them off. “Ay make sure you bring Thomas around here sometime Titan, I’m pretty sure we’d all like to meet him soon.” Star said giving his send offs as well. “Done, you’ll get to meet him soon. We’ll being seeing you lot!” Titan said as he got up and started walking off with the other jockeys following him. “Goodnight everyone!” Harper called, “See ya bozos later!” Zak hollered. The other sailors said their own farewells as they watched the jockeys take off into the pink and orang skies on their way back towards Tidmouth stables.
When the four landed back down close to Tidmouth they saw a really bizarre sight. Thomas was actually flying around in the field! He was being chased by Gordon who was running and would try to leap and swat Thomas’s hooves, and James was platforming across pillars of onyx he had erupted from the ground after the alicorn as well. Edward and Henry were resting at the top of the small hill watching this all play out until they spotted the jockeys return and Edward waved them hello and to beckon them over.
Once they had gotten to the two they had some questions. “What’s going on here?” Harper asked as he was confused by Gordon’s odd behaviour. “Don’t get they’re attentions yet, you’ll ruin their fun.” Edward chuckled as he watched the three. “Are you saying their actually playing?” Zorran asked surprised as he knew his partners choice of words quite well. “Yes they are, Thomas made another huge milestone today and when he got back to the station he was flying in loops around the support beams of the canopy. It apparently caught Gordon’s attention so the two have been playing all the way back here with James joining in at some point after a little teasing.”
Titan was excited by Edward’s words. “Really? What did he do?” “Apparently when he was taking his first train the haunted troublesome trucks started to get away from him and made him become a runaway down Gordon’s hill, but in a panic he got back the control by levitating the whole train off the rails and then flying ahead of it like what pegasi do on the mainland. He was so proud of himself and managed to do it again on purpose with his next trains, and by the time he was finished he was so excited he hasn’t touched the ground again since.” Edward gleamed as he watched Thomas soar around.
Titan was horrified that Thomas had become a runaway but then felt his chest swell up with pride when he heard of his boys accomplishment, he beamed a broad sharp teethed grin then made a small skip off the hill with his own wings suddenly revealing out from behind his back and flying towards his son.
He swerved around the alicorn laughing with absolute glee, “Thomas! I just heard! I am so proud of you! Well done!” Titan cheered as he circled his child. Thomas smiled big and wide as well with his tail wagging behind him as he then began to give chase to his old man.
The rest of the afternoon was of the flyers playing a game of air tag with some of the runners trying to catch them from the ground, it wasn’t until the fat controllers came did the fun stop and the professionalism return as everyone landed and stood at attention.
“Well done Thomas! The station master’s along your route told us about your save and then progress for the remainder of your trains, great job!” Sir Bertrum said with the other Hatt’s having smiles of their own. “Thank you sir,” Thomas smiled with his tail and ears flicking with excitement. “Unfortunately though Thomas, we want to give you another job but tomorrows trains are already taken. You and Edward will have to shunt in the yard since there’s been a bit of a backlog.” Sir Charles said. Thomas then frowned, he didn’t like this news but didn’t have much of a choice. “Okay sirs, I’ll be in the yard tomorrow with Edward.” “It won’t be all that bad Tommy, on the plus side, Edward can teach you all there is to know on haunted trucks so they don’t cause you trouble again.” Zorran pointed out causing Titan to smile and give his nod to Thomas who gave it some thought then shrugged with a smile.
Once the fat controllers were satisfied that everyone understood their jobs they left for the night causing the others to also retire to the stables. Gordon immediately pulled Thomas to the side and began to preen his wings while the young colt stripped to get into his pyjamas, but he found it difficult to do so since anytime he pulled away Gordon pulled right back to finish the job properly. Eventually Thomas gave in and let Gordon preen him until he was done. Dinner was another Edward special with Titan at the cook pot as well to help read out the cookbook James had gotten Edward, by the end everyone was ready for bed say for Henry who was growing a headache and kept gripping his antlers, whimpering most of the night in pain.
The next morning everyone had gotten up bright and early, Thomas had a piece of toast still in his mouth as he was about to run out the door to meet the others in the yard but was quickly greeted to a slap in the face of rain and cold. “Gah!” Thomas jumped and skidded back indoors, the toast now soggy. “Um… it’s raining.” The others chuckled at the colt. “Hnn….” Henry groaned, doing his best to hide under the table while looking terrified up at the ceiling. “Come on Hen, you’ve gotta train to pull today.” Zak soothed. But the lighting strike did little encouragement for the deer centaur.
“Why is Henry so afraid of the rain anyway?” Thomas asked as Titan gave him a raincoat to fit his body. “A storm happened after Henry escaped his old home, he apparently got very lost in the rain. So most rainy days bring back those bad memories.” Zak explained. Thomas hummed, he wanted to help Henry, but didn’t know how… he looked down at his wings and started drying them off when he felt the underside of his wing, it was still dry, the water hadn’t gone through his wings and soaked them. That gave Thomas an idea then, he gently wrapped his wing around Henry’s back and held his hand. “It’ll be alright Henry, I’ll walk with you. If you stay under my wings, you won’t get wet.” “It’s not the wetness of it Thomas, it’s-” Henry was cut off by another thunder struck, but before it could even finish Thomas had held his hands up to Henry’s ears and instead of a thunderclap, all Henry heard was a twinkling sound, like small windchimes, but Henry was honestly just reminded of the stars when he heard it.
“What…?” Henry questioned. Thomas went to remove his hands but Henry was quick to grab them and hold them back up to his ears, he heard the same twinkling sound again when he did so, confusing him. “Can anybody else hear that?” Henry asked. “Hear what?” Gordon asked. “Thomas’s hands sound like stars.” Henry stated earning a few confused looks from the others. “Oh that? It’s just something Thomas is able to do, he himself can’t hear it but others can. If you were to let his wing wrap around your head you’d hear something akin to a night sky ambiance, and depending on the season you’ll hear more wintery night sounds.” Titan cleared up. “Really?” James questioned and sat down beside Thomas to have his wing wrap around him, and sure enough when James listened he could hear crickets chirping and winds blowing like he was near a beachside at night. “Oooh! That’s neat!” James grinned.
Zak then smiled. “Think you could do this until the station Thomas?” “Sure! You ready Henry?” Thomas asked removing one hand. “Umm… we can definitely try.” Henry hushed out, not having much faith in this plan. “Let’s rattle and roll then!” Thomas chirped, helping Henry get his large body out from under the table.
With wings over their bodies, and hands over Henry’s hunched down head, Thomas walked with the giant forest spirit to the big station, the others trotting in tow. Every time a thunder strike would sound off, all Henry heard was a shooting star pass by. And Henry wouldn’t be able to promise, but he could swear that when looking through Thomas’s wings, he’d see the night sky instead of cloudy grey day.
Eventually they made it to the station canopy where Henry was left to his own devices, the rain had started to let up and the thunder became a distant drum in the back of the band. He even became brave enough to stick his hand out into the lasting drops and let them fall on his antlers, flowers growing in places where the water landed. Thomas was pleased and left to go to the yard for the days shunting, watching Edward join him with Gordon and James heading to wait at their platforms for their trains.
After the two smaller blue steeds had gotten the trains ready and to their respective haulers, Edward shook his body to rid it of the water, with oddly enough a little steam seeming to flow off of him. Thomas used his magic to get the water off himself, finding he’d just drench Titan and Edward again if he shook it off. “Well, that was refreshing.” Titan mentioned as he steamed the water off his body. “I could have done without…” Zorran said as his normally translucent body was looking a little more transparent than usual. “Zak’s waterproofing seemed to have worked on you though.” Titan commented. “Yeah he perfected that not long before he left, and thank god to, being a ghost working on the water is not a smart thing, let alone in a county where 70% of its weather is rain!” Zorran shouted getting his opacity back to normal.
“Do ghosts not do well with water?” Thomas asked. “No they don’t, for most types of ghosts water is basically like acid to us, we can’t touch it.” Zorran stated while he played with his transparency a bit. “Which is weird since you say you remember being brought back in a sailors outfit.” Titan commented with a smirk. Zorran however groaned, “I don’t know! Maybe I just liked playing pretend in a past life, or maybe I died coming home from sailing! Grr!” “Easy, Zak says he’s working every day to help with your amnesia, something like that has just gotta take time.” Edward did his best to soothe. “Thanks for telling me how my own treatment works Eddie.” Zorran snipped making Edward raise his hands and back away.
“Amnesia?” Thomas asked. “It’s when you lose your memories, so basically you forget who you are or who your family are. In Zorran’s case he was human at some point then passed away, he doesn’t remember how that happened, or who he was in his past life. To him he just woke up on a beach in the middle of the night one day, no clue of who he was or how he got there.” Titan explained. “No clue what I even was ether, so admittedly I screamed when I saw a human for the first time, thinking they were wrong somehow instead of the other way around, hehe… that was a funny time.” Zorran chuckled. “Oh… and the sailor outfit?” Thomas asked.
“Depending on how humans die can be the way how their brought back as a spirit, for example if a sailor drowned out at sea they would have an immunity to water as a ghost. Or if they died to hypothermia they’d make a room cold if they walked into it. Y’know, thematic stuff. So the others find it weird that if I was potentially a sailor I would’ve drowned out at sea, and have an immunity to water, but as you can see that is not the case.” Zorran explained. “So at least you can rule out a watery grave, maybe you could’ve died to a heart attack or something?” Thomas suggested. “That’s not an option, humans dying to a “natural death” doesn’t give them a pass to become a ghost. So if a human dies of old age they won’t be brought back, same with other things like cancer.” Zorran clears up. “Maybe you were murdered then? Poisoning? Gun shot?” Thomas asked. “I’d have a strong sense of smell or “vision” to poisons then, and if it was a gunshot I’d more than likely be a vengeful spirit instead of a wandering one like what Zak classified me as.” Zorran cleared, looking disinterested from the conversation as he’d heard all the theory’s a thousand times. “What would magic do?”
That threw Zorran’s head for a loop. “Huh?” “Magic, like if a strike of magic lightning hit you, what would that do?” Thomas asked. “I…. don’t know, you’d have to ask Zak about that, he’s more knowledgeable in the dead than I am.” Zorran said. “Not something you’ve taken into consideration is it Zorran?” Titan asked. “No… I honestly didn’t even think of if I previously dealt with mythos in my past, maybe I was cruel towards them and an uprising happened.” Zorran pondered in thought. “Weird to think that for you… you’re rough around the edges but hurting other mythos is not really something I would pin you with.” Edward commented. “Thanks Eddie.” “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”
All the mythos suddenly looked to the entrance of the yard to see James coming in hot with a row of haunted trucks behind him, sliding him along the rails, and the sound of breaking gemstone grinding against the ballast and rails. “HELP! THEIR PUSHING ME! THEIR PUSHING ME!” James yelled as he was spat back out of the yard and down one of the branch lines. “James!” Thomas and Edward shouted, bolting after the runaway stallion with their jockey’s quickly running into the station to tell the fat controllers.
As the two gained speed Thomas tried to get a running start to fly and started flapping his wings to get him air born. “Thomas! Be careful!” Edward shouted after the young colt as he watched him get above the ground and fly after James. Thomas flew as hard as he could manage to get to the head of the train, the smell of cutting geo being awful, but that meant that James could be in a lot of pain. “James!” Thomas shouted as he flew overhead of James. “Thomas! You’re flying?!” “Not the time! Use your magic! Try and slow the train down!” “What do you think I’ve been doing?!! Their repelling my magic! My body is breaking apart! If I don’t stop soon I’ll shatter!” “Hold on! I have an idea!”
Thomas’s horn started to brightly glow, layers of magical aura stacking on top of each other as it became obvious Thomas was planning something big. Then, with little warning, Thomas started to levitate the entire train! “GAAAHHHH!!” Thomas screamed as he raised his head like a wand, picking up the runaway! “Woah! Go Thomas!” James cheered. “No! On, on, on!” The troublesome trucks chanted as they realised they were being slowed down, but what nobody realised that with the train being picked up off the ground, James suddenly had not ground to stand on. With a slip of his hooves, James suddenly found himself succumbing to gravity.
“Huh? Oh no! Thomas! AAAAAHHHH!” James shrieked as he plummeted to the earth. Thomas gasped! “James!” He bolted down to hopefully catch the black steed but it was too late, James landed on the ballast with a crash! Onyx chunks flying everywhere! “GAAHHH!” James screamed as he lay broken on the dirt. “James!” Thomas cried as he came in for the rough landing, setting the trucks beside the track so they wouldn’t be going anywhere. “James! Are you okay?” Thomas panicked as he fell to the unicorns side. James groaned, “Ow…” “Oh no, oh no, no-no-no-no, I-I need to find Henry! He should be able to fix you!” “Thomas! James!” Edward shouted from the distance as he came toward the crash site. “James!” Edward gasped as he quickly came to his work colleagues aid. “Come on, we have to get him back to Knapford. Thomas, think you could carry him back and fly at the same time?” Edward asked with urgency. “I’ll give it my dammed best shot.” Thomas assured then took James in his arms, swinging him onto his back then getting another running start to fly.
When Thomas got back to Knapford he could see the jockeys already out in the platform with the Hatt’s, he brayed as hard as he could as he came in for the landing, it was wonky but it was successful none the less. “James shattered!” Thomas cried running up to the adults. “What?!” The fat controllers gasped as Thomas trotted up to show them who was on his back. James’s entire equine body was gone, shattered and broken at his hips, his arms hardly staying together with chunks falling off and crumbling the more he held onto Thomas for dear life, his horn even cleaved away at the base.
“Zorran, go get Henry here, now!” Sir Bertrum ordered. “Yes sir!” Zorran saluted before he was gone with the wind in the direction of the mainline. “Hold on James, you’re going to feel a little odd, just try not to grab as much as you can.” Sir Stephen warned before his eyes started to glow and he rested his hands on James’s chest and shoulder. “Grab…? Gya!” James was taken aback by the sudden flood of magic that rushed through his veins, considering he went from weak and exhausted to suddenly feeling energised in a second. He could see what Sir Stephen suddenly meant by grabbing, the immortal man giving his magic to James willingly so he could recover. But now he was vulnerable, if James so desired he could drain his bosses magic for himself quite easily and get a huge magic boost out of it, the magic was incredibly tempting as well, almost like a drug. But James just sat there on his back, keeping his body together as much as possible until Henry arrived.
Which thankfully wasn’t long. An elk cry could be heard sprinting into the station and skipping across the platforms to get to them. “What happened?” Henry demanded, nudging Stephen out of the way. “The trucks pushed him into becoming a runaway and he started to break.” Thomas explained. “Told him he should’ve gotten that cracking checked.” Titan crossed his arms only to be smacked at the side of the head. “Not the time Ten Cents.” Zorran scolded. “Okay, James do you need anything specifically for you to regenerate?” Henry asked, setting his hands on his friend to begin healing his bleeding wounds. “Minerals… a metal and gemstone, and a safe place.” James croaked out.
Sir Stephen removed his tie to reveal a ring on a necklace, it had a gold band with a ruby center stone and two smaller onyx’s to the side. “Wait Stephen, that’s-” “I’m well aware what it is.” Sir Stephen cut his father off then gave his ring to the broken centaur. James brought it up to his mouth and quickly swallowed it, what happened next made everyone go into shock. Ruby started to form over James’s body like a rash that slowly grew larger and denser, it had quickly encased him in a chrysalis like he was frozen in ice.
Once the growing had stopped Henry double checked to see if James was alive. “Phew… He’s alright, I think he’s just gone into a stasis.” Henry said much to everyone’s relief. “What even is James? Theres no way he’s 100% centaurian.” Zorran said looking down to the Hatt’s hoping they might have an answer. “We don’t know, it just said that he was a unicorn when we saw the advertisement, so we purchased him.” Sir Charles said. “Well ether way, when James does recover from this he’ll have some serious questions to answer. For now though, I’m going to bring him back to Tidmouth for him to rest, at least that way he’ll wake up in a familiar space. …When he wakes up…” Henry said that last part to himself. He hoisted James’s encased body into his arms and began to start trotting towards the sheds, Thomas was about to start walking with him when Sir Bertrum stopped him.
“Hold on now Thomas, I’m confident Henry has it from here. You’re still needed however and now more than ever since we’re down a unicorn. I want you to gather the breakdown train and bring it to recover the troublesome trucks, after that you’ll be taking James’s trains while he’s out of commission.” Thomas wanted to argue but knew better than to make the eldest Hatt cross, so he solemnly nodded and quickly skipped over the tracks to get hitched up to the breakdown cranes. A crew consisting of two twin ghosts floated out of the cranes and over to Thomas, greeting him with a sense of urgency.
“Is there an emergency?” “Has anyone been hurt?” “Are medical assistance on the scene?” They bombed Thomas with questions. “Easy Judy and Jerome, it’s just gonna be a salvage. Don’t hound the young man.” Zorran eased as he floated over to Thomas and sat at the lead of the carriage attached to the hitch, picking up the reins and giving them a flick for Thomas to get moving. “I’m gonna be your jockey for this Thomas, Titan volunteered to take Henry’s train on.” “Oh thank you Zorran. Alright, let’s go!” Thomas pulled out of the siding and down the line to the crash site, arriving to see the various trucks groaning with some of them even unpossessing their hauntings to help the others righting their rolling stock back onto the track. “I hope you trucks learned something from all of this…” Thomas frowned at them, using his own magic to start helping to re-right them with Judy and Jerome summoning chains from themselves and using them to lift up the trucks as well.
Later in the day after Thomas had finished packing away the trucks and taking the cargo to its intended destination, then taking the trucks to the works to be repaired, he flew back to Tidmouth stables very late and exhausted. But to his surprise, there was a small party waiting for him! The steeds and jockeys as well as some workmen were there to welcome him home, clapping and cheering as a small banquet was being prepared.
“Well done Thomas, today you really proved to be the best of us.” Edward congratulated as he set down a few appetizers. “Congrats kiddo, you really pulled a power move today.” Zak applauded. “Incredibly well done young Crescent, you’ve grown so far in such a short amount of time.” Harper smiled. “We couldn’t agree more!” Sir Bertrum said as he walked up with his family in tow along with a few familiar faces to the jockeys.
“Magister? What are you doing here?” Harper asked when he saw Magister Star behind the controllers. “It was the Hatt’s idea, might as well make it a proper party to celebrate such an achievement. And a reward if what I’ve been told is correct,” The wizard chuckled. “Indeed, now everyone gather round, this is big news!” Sir Charles said beckoning all the steeds in. Once everyone was standing at attention Sir Stephen stood up on a small crate to address everyone. “I’d first like to say to everyone thank you for coming, tonight is a splendid night indeed. We are here to congratulate Thomas Crescent’s achievements for today, saving the life of a fellow work colleague, and making milestones in his achievements of learning how to use magic and to fly, this we believe is worthy of celebrations as well as a handsome reward! Thomas, won’t you step out to the front?”
The young colt did so with his head held high at attention. “Thomas, due to your unselfish bravery and heroism, it is my honour to reward you with your very own branch line!” Sir Charles beamed as another wave of applause sounded out. Thomas smiled and bounced from hoof to hoof in happiness, hugging the stout gentlemen for good measure. “Oh thank you sirs! I promise I won’t let you down!” The men all chuckled, and when Thomas let go Sir Stephen presented him with a metal name board. “Ffarquhar?” Thomas questioned when he read it. “That’s a breast board, you wear it as a belt so it lays flat on your second chest, it helps passengers read what service your pulling.” Harper clarified. “And that’s the name of the branch line you’ll be running, from Knapford to Ffarquhar.” Sir Bertrum answered. “Oh!” Using his magic Thomas made the plate float over where it would sit on his body. “How does it look?” “Ya wear it like a pro kiddo.” Zorran smiled ruffling the alicorns hair.
“Alright enough of this, let’s get this party started!” Magister Star smiled forming a spell with his staff before casting it into the air creating a makeshift disco ball. Everyone “Ooh’d” and “Ah’d” at the pretty ball before some music began to play, Harper, Mac and Zak having summoned some instruments and begun an upbeat tune. Once the music was on everyone started to mingle and party, Titan showed up a little late but walked up to his son with some people in tow behind him.
“Thomas, I’d like you to meet some extended family members. This is my brother Hercules, and… sorry Zeb what pronouns do you feel like today?” “He, him.” “And his long term boyfriend Zebedee, their your uncles.” “Uncles?” Thomas questioned giving the pair a look over and wagging his tail in happiness once he looks into their eyes. “Oh wow! It’s so nice to meet you both! C-Can I give you both a hug?” The couple chuckled and opened their arms out. “Of course kiddo, come ‘ere!” Zeb smiled letting Thomas pull him into a tight squeeze with Hercules joining in.
“Oi, what about the rest of us ey?” a voice from behind them said. When they all turned it was Sunshine was standing at the head of the rest of the stars tapping his foot smiling with anticipation. “Heh-heh, of course, of course. Thomas, this is your god father Sunshine and his fiancé Rain. Behind him are the rest of the gathering I was a part of when I was your age, the wizard who made the light in the sky is Magister Star, behind him is uncle Mac, to the right is your grandpa O.J, next to him is uncle Warrior…”
The next day after the party, the Tidmouth team heard a cracking sound coming from James’s stall, they were all very surprised to see James break out of his stone cocoon made entirely of a new gem, bright red ruby with a golden glitter starting to mist from his tail and hooves. He fell to the floor in a heap but Edward and Harper were fast to help pick him back up. “James! You’re alright!” Thomas shouted in glee. “Ugh, yeah, j-just give me a minuet… oof.” James breathed, slowly righting himself up onto his hooves and letting his body assemble together, it still floating disconnected at his joints. But somethings were a little different, his horn was more of a cork screw fashion now than the spiral he had before, and the ruby attached to his flesh was more jagged and less smooth unlike the clean cut the others had seen prior with the onyx.
“Ooh! You look amazing James, we couldn’t really see much after the stone you were in grew rock over it.” Henry smiled admiring the new look. “Yeah that was me, I didn’t exactly want you guys seeing my intestines through the rock.” James managed to walk forward and sit at the kitchen table, still pulling his energy back if the gold flow was anything to judge by. “I like the new horn, very stylish from the norm.” Gordon complimented handing James some water and a small bowl of cereal. “Well I figured its officially out now that I’m not your average unicorn, so I wanted to try something different. The new gold tail and frills should kick in soon I just need to regain some strength.” James said taking a spoon to the cereal.
“So does that mean you’ll tell us how you were made?” Henry questioned looking hopeful. “No. I’ll tell you later Henry in private about my healing process but that’s about it. So, apart from me, has there been anything I’ve missed?” James asked. “Well you were out for 12 hours…” Edward cited. “Huh, only that long? Not the worst I’ve ever had. Please continue.” James commented gesturing for the others to go on. “Well Thomas is now considered a hero for helping save your life, he was even rewarded the Ffarquhar branch line to call his own.” Titan mentioned nearly making James spit out his food. “What?! Now hold on a damn second, I was in no danger of death, that is a huge stretch. Also, the branch line I’ve been working on since before Thomas arrived? Whatever happened to seniority?!” Well James’s energy 100% seemed to be back now as his tail and frills flared with gold like a stoking flame.
“Well what did you honestly expect when you didn’t tell us anything about your anatomy before? We thought you breaking and shattering your body would have been a death sentence for you!” Harper scolded. “Well, I’m better now! So shouldn’t that hero title be revoked?” James questioned looking at Thomas. “From what we’ve been told James the decision is finale, and regardless of your accident, Thomas has done a very good job over the past week, he deserves a reward for all that he’s managed to do.” Edward contested.
James looked like he was about to blow his lid off, his face was as red as his body and it almost looked like something dark had flickered through his eyes before he quickly shot it down and to the back of the mind as quickly as it happened. The crystal steed huffed out harshly and almost looked to pucker his lips in, was he trying to hide something in his mouth? “Nope! No! I won’t get mad over this, I won’t get mad over this, I won't get mad over this.” James chanted as he turned around and walked back to his stall, slamming the door shut.
The others were confused but they didn’t have much time to think on it when Titan beckoned Thomas over. “C’mon champ, time for your first day!” “Yes! See you guys later tonight!” Thomas waved his friends goodbye before he galloped out the door and headed straight for the carriage shed at Knapford. ���See you later Thomas! Have fun!” Edward called out watching the colt run off.
Thomas hitched up to Annie and Clarabell and was excited to be leaving out of the station, Gordon eventually joined him on the opposite platform wishing the young steed well. The guards whistle blew and Thomas cantered happily down the line to crowds of people, human and mythos alike, congratulating him. When he finally got down to Ffarquhar he was surprised to see a mythos with sheep legs and a human body greet him, he had red wool on his thighs and black ram horns atop his head, but most striking to Thomas was the number 1 sown in on a loincloth around his waist.
The mythic was using his horns to cut away shrubbery from a locomotive with a vertical boiler when he heard the crowd and Thomas trotting in. “Oh! you must be the new number 1, welcome to the line!” He said with a thick Welsh accent. “Thank you, I’m Thomas.” the young colt greeted. “My name is Glynn, lovely to meet you Thom- Good heavens!” Glynn suddenly gasped when he noticed Thomas’s wings. “Y-You’re an alicorn!” “I am, and uh… I’m sorry, I don’t know what you are.” Thomas admitted sheepishly. “Oh, I’m a faun, nothing to special compared to you. Wow… I can’t believe they managed to get an alicorn to run this old line, do they have big plans for it? Or is it only practice since I can see your rather young still.” “Nope, I-” Thomas was cut off by the guards whistle. “Oh! Sorry Glynn, maybe we can chat some other time? I got to keep to time on my first day!” Thomas brayed before trotting out of the station, waving a goodbye to Glynn who smiled and waved back watching Thomas go onto the loop.
Thomas happily galloped along the track, watching birds fly overhead and grass go whizzing by! He let out another enchanted mighty bray with his wings opening up to take flight, this being the best day of his life! “Haha!” He cheered into the open blue sky.
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Back on my Jamie Tartt bullshit
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Five times Jamie asked someone about their Dad, and one time someone asked about him.
Roy
“What’s your Dad like?” Jamie asks Roy one day after an early morning training session. Jamie is warming down and stretching. They had been talking about the upcoming Manchester City game. It was a home game for the Greyhounds and Roy had asked him if he had heard from his prick of a father. Jamie told him he hadn’t since Wembley six months prior.
Roy raises his eyebrows at him.”He’s fine.”
“He’s fine? What the fuck does that mean?” Jamie says to him thinking he shouldn’t be surprised, it is Roy after all. “You never talk about him.”
“You don’t talk about your Dad,” Roy counters.
“Yeah, but me Dad’s a dick. You already know that.”
Jamie was trying anything to get his mind off the upcoming match against Man City. The team had been playing like shit since the loss to West Ham. Even with God’s gift to those that have everything, fucking Zava, they still couldn’t buy win.
Higgins had assured Jamie (and Roy, multiple times) that James Tartt, Sr. was banned from Nelson Road but he still wasn’t relieved. The fact that his Dad hadn’t texted or called him asking for tickets had freaked Jamie out even more. He should be happy his Dad hadn’t called, but instead it just made him more weary wondering if he was about to jump out from around every corner instead.
“I don’t really know my Dad well if you have to fucking know,” Roy admits, but there’s no heat behind his words. “He was always working while I was growing up. My Mum too. Grandad was the one who picked me up from school and all that shit. Made me dinner, helped with fucking homework and put me to bed. He was more of a fucking Dad to me than my own was. Then I went to Sunderland at nine and haven’t spent much time at home since.”
Well that’s depressing Jamie thinks. He always asks people what their Dad’s are like. Jamie never knows if it’s masochistic if he wants to hear about these great Dads other people have or if he’s looking for someone to make him feel better about his own shitty Dad. Usually, whatever the answer is just makes him feel depressed in one way or another.
“But your Dad, like, came to your matches and shit?”
“Yeah, once I played at Chelsea. Bragged to all his mates when we won the Champions League in 2012, didn’t he. And when I played for England. Wouldn’t talk to me after we lost to Iceland in the Euros in 2016 for like a fucking month though.”
“To be fair, who loses to fucking Iceland? Even the Mighty Ducks beat them for Christ’s sake.”
Roy gives him a look. They had made their way through the Mighty Ducks Trilogy during a trio of away games. The team agreed D2 was the best of the series. Sometimes Jamie wishes Gordon Bombay was his Dad. He would be sick at hockey if he knew how to skate.
“He ever come to a Richmond game when we played together?” Jamie asks him.
“No, he doesn’t even live in fucking England anymore. He fucked off to Marbella after my Mum died, bought a fucking strip club.”
“A what?” Jamie asks, laughing.
“Yeah,” Roy rolls his eyes and explains. “Sold the fucking posh house I bought them like two weeks after she died and moved there. He’s only even met Phoebe a handful of fucking times. He was pissed at my sister for getting pregnant. Probably has talked to Ruth even less.”
“Your Dad sounds like a dick,” Jamie tells him.
Jamie loves Phoebe. She’s smart and funny, especially for her age. He doesn’t understand how any grandparent wouldn’t want to see her. If he ever has kids, his Mum will probably demand to move in so she can spend more time with her grandchild. Anyone who doesn’t want to spend time with Phoebe sounds like a floppy cock to Jamie.
“How come you never told me about him?”
“Cause I talk so much about my fucking feelings for people?” Roy counters which, fair enough. “Besides, you kind of cornered the market on shitty Dads.”
“I guess I just can’t help being the best at everything,” Jamie says, Prince of Pricks smile on his face, pretending like he doesn’t care about his own Dad, like he doesn’t feel bad for Roy, too. Roy knows better now. He knows Jamie always puts on a smile or a grin, makes a joke or says something cocky when talking about his Dad. But Roy knows the real Jamie, the one that cried in his arms after standing up to his father for the first time. The. Jamie who flinched at his hug because he’s used to pain rather than comfort coming from the older men in his life.
Jamie knows his Dad takes the prize for bad father of the year, but it doesn’t mean Roy deserves the Dad he had either.
Dani
“What’s your Dad like?” Jamie asks Dani. They’re on the bus on the ride home from Rebecca’s father’s funeral. Jamie glances down at Dani’s feet, clad in Rebecca’s slippers and feels relief for his friend’s feet. He can’t wait to get home and take off his own shoes, maybe call his Mum, confess to her how he professed his love for Keeley. Try to relieve himself of some of his guilt.
“Mi Papa? Oh Jamie, he is wonderful. You would like him a lot I think.”
“That’s good muchacho,” Jamie says to him, truthfully. Dani is always so cheery, he isn’t surprised that Dani has a great Dad. No one as happy as Dani could grow up with the type of Dad that Jamie had.
“I am very happy to go home for a few weeks once the season is over,” Dani tells him.
“Oh yeah, that’s good,” Jamie adds. “You must miss them when you’re here.”
“I do, sí. But we talk on the phone each day. Papa and mi Mama are very proud. My sisters, tambien. I am very lucky.”
Jamie agrees, Dani is lucky. Clenching and unclenching his right fist unconsciously, thinking of a few weeks earlier when he saw he last saw his Dad at Wembley. Dani would never punch his Dad. He doubts the Dad that Dani described would ever do something worthy of being punched, would ever lay his hands on his own child.
“You are amigo,” Jamie tells him, happy that Dani’s has a Dad worthy of the kind and caring striker.
Sam
“What’s your Dad like?” Jamie asks Sam when he hears that Ola is coming to visit his son in a few days.
“Oh, he is amazing,” Sam tells him, smiling.
Jamie smiles back at him. He’d always been a little jealous of the younger man’s relationship with his Dad. The Nigerian loved his father enough to name his restaurant after him, Jamie wouldn’t name an unflushed poopy after his father. Jamie witnessed numerous phone calls between Sam and his Dad. Sam is always smiling and laughing, telling him how much he loves him. Jamie can’t remember the last time he told his Dad he loved him, can’t remember the last time he would’ve meant it.
Sam’s Dad was everything Jamie wished his own Dad was. Supportive, loving, not a fucking nightmare. Sam’s Dad seemed like Jamie’s own Mum, didn’t care that their sons were Premier League stars, only cared if they were happy. Ola and Georgie would probably get along very well. Jamie feels a swell of guilt. Neither would be happy the way Jamie treated Sam two years before. Jamie has tried to make amends to his teammate, starting with the Dubai Air boycott and Jamie planned to keep making amends to his Nigerian friend.
“Oh yeah?” Jamie says back to him, not sure what else to say.
“He is very wise. Very funny. He always tells me to follow my instincts, and to trust in the universe” Sam continues. “The universe will provide, he says. Did I tell you he bought bitcoin in 2009?”
“2009, swear down? You were still in diapers then,” Jamie ribs him.
“Jamie, you are only three years older than me,” Sam tells him seriously. “But the universe told me to stay in Richmond last year, and look at us now. I know this is where I am supposed to be.”
Jamie says a silent prayer to the universe for Sam remaining in Richmond. Even Jamie Tartt can’t disagree with the universe.
A few days later, when Sam cries into his Dad’s arms in the changing room, Jamie can’t help but think of the last time someone’s Dad was in their changing room. The last time ended with Jamie’s fist connecting with his face. Everyone looks around awkwardly, the silence much the same as it was in the Wembley dressing room. Jamie feels helpless watching the scene unfold, the way his own teammates felt the year before.
Sam cries in the comfort of his Dad’s arms, while Jamie cried in Coach Kent’s arms. Sam’s Dad brings comfort, his own brings pain. Sam’s Dad brings support, his Dad gives criticism. Ola and James could not be more different. In some ways Sam and Jamie also couldn’t be more different, and each encounter is stark in their differences, but both young men are seeking comfort. Ola gives it freely, easily, while James just causes heartbreak and fear, pushing Jamie to seek comfort in others.
The next night when they’re at Ola’s helping cleaning up the mess, Jamie smiles when Sam walks in with his Dad. The big man cooks for them, appreciative of the way they care for his son while he’s so far from home. Jamie chats with them while they cook, thinking maybe he should ask Simon to teach him some of his recipes. Jamie is glad his friend has Ola for a Dad. Sam deserves a Dad like Ola.
Beard
“What’s your Dad like?” Jamie asks Beard, watching the older man hold his baby daughter. They’re at a cookout at the Higgins house, a few weeks before the season starts. Vera, Beard’s almost year old daughter giggles in his arms as Jamie tickles her.
“Apathetic,” Beard answers. Jamie still isn’t quite sure how to talk to him but it’s gotten slightly easier. Beard is different without Ted, more his own person than an extension of Ted. Still weird as fuck but Jamie appreciates the weirdness now. He’s trying to be more curious than judgemental. Jamie understands Beard is a man who has lived many different lives. The newest one being father.
“Right okay,” Jamie says unsure, so he turns instead to Vera the pitch of his voice raising as he asks, “And what’s your Dad like?”
Vera giggles.
“Didn’t really know him,” Beard admits. “My parents divorced when I was around 2. He disappeared after that.”
I wish my Dad fucking disappeared, Jamie thinks. It would’ve made his life a lot easier. Made his Mum’s life a lot easier.
“That’s shit,” is what he says to Beard instead.
“I’ve met your Dad, Jamie,” Willis says to him. “It’s shit but better than what you had to deal with.”
“Yeah,” Jamie says, making silly faces at Vera.
“But Vera,” Beard says to his daughter in the type of voice one only talks to babies with. “Is going to be have a much better Dad, aren’t you mi lady?”
Vers giggles in agreement. Good, Jamie thinks. Vera deserves the Dad that Beard wants to be for her.
Simon
“What’s your Dad like?” Jamie asks his step-dad. It’s Father’s Day night and he’s at home in Manchester, visiting Georgie and Simon. Mum had gone to bed early, but Jamie was too wired to sleep. He’s on the sofa when Simon came back downstairs and sat with him, silently watching television with him.
Jamie’s 19, he just left his own Father’s flat, after he passed out drunk. James had guilted Jamie into taking him to a fancy dinner, where he promptly ordered the most expensive scotch on the menu and told the kindly waiter to keep them coming. Jamie barely got him home before he passed out. Jamie snuck out while he slept and instead of going to his own flat, he just wanted to see his Mum. He hated Father’s Day, he always wants to make it a second Mum’s Day as one day is never enough.
When Jamie was younger, before his Dad started coming around, he always hated Father’s Day. They had to make cards in school and Jamie, with neither a Father, Grandad or even an Uncle to make a card for was always made fun of by the other kids when they saw his hastily made card with Happy Father’s Day Mummy scrawled across the front.
But then his Dad started to show up again, didn’t he. Expecting cards and love like he didn’t dole his own love out with insults and bruises. And it’s always been easier to do something with his prick of a Dad then deal with the consequences if he doesn’t. His money makes it easier now, Dad is happy with an expensive gift and a steak, he doesn’t have to put in the effort or the same time he did before he was being played to play football.
Jamie is a dutiful step-son though, and always wants to make his Mum happy, so he’s always gotten Simon a Father’s Day gift but he was saved from having to spend the day with him as Simon goes to see his own Dad. Not that his own Dad would’ve allowed it.
“He’s a lot like me, I guess,” Simon tells him. Jamie’s met the man a couple times, and saw him at the wedding, but he doesn’t think he’s really talked to the man. “At least that’s what my Mum used to say. Two peas in a pod.”
“Was he a teacher too?” Jamie asks.
“He was a principal,” Simon tells him. “Even was my principal when I was in primary school.”
“That must’ve been tough,” Jamie says, he can’t imagine being around his Dad every day in school.
“Oh not really,” Simon tells him. “We walked to school together everyday, it was nice.”
It strikes Jamie how different he is from Simon, their upbringings, their interests, all they have in common sometimes he thinks is loving his Mum.
“I’d go mad if I had to see my Dad fucking everyday,” Jamie tells him, internally wincing at the f word. Simon never chastises him for swearing but Jamie knows he doesn’t like it.
“Your Dad is a different sort, Jamie. I’m lucky to have a Dad like mine. Yours is lucky to have a son like you,” Simon says to him, smiling sadly. “I’m lucky to have a son like you.”
Son, Jamie thinks bitterly. Wants to spit back he’s not his son but holds his tongue. What would he be like if Simon had been his Dad and not his prick of a father? Or married his Mum when he was 6 and not 16. Jamie probably wouldn’t be nearly as good at footie, but would he be happier? Simon’s been his step-dad for a few years but Jamie’s never thought of the man as a father, or even in a father role. Simon is perfectly nice, perfectly fine. He makes his Mum happy so that’s good. But he’s kind of just there. Jamie hasn’t thought of Simon as more than his mother’s husband.
But Simon just called him son. Simon who always cooks for him when he’s home and tries his best to make whatever fits in his nutrition plan or whatever Jamie requests of him. The same Simon who asks him about all his football matches even though he knows he doesn’t like or understand the game. Simon who does his laundry when he’s home and drives Mum to any matches she wants to go to. Usually ones they know his Dad won’t be at.
Simon, who the few times they’ve been in the same room just took James’ insults rather than say something back and make a scene. At the time Jamie thought him a pussy for not responding in kind to his father. Now Jamie thinks that’s his father’s voice saying it in his head rather than his own. It made his Dad so angry when Simon ignored him, something Jamie now understands is a choice, a message, even more so than any retort back to James would be.
“I guess,” Jamie says to him, shrugging, wondering why he’s never really let Simon in. He wonders if he has the father he deserves after all.
+1
Jamie looks down at the newborn baby in his arms, David George Tartt, and can’t keep the smile from his lips.
His son starts to fuss a little, Jamie rocks him back and forth, softly singing “Baby Tartt, do do do do do do, Baby Tartt do do do do do do, Baby Tartt, do do do do do do, Baby Tartt.”
The baby settles quickly and Jamie whispers to him, “You remember your Dad singing that while in your Mummy’s tummy then yeah Little Davey?”
“I can’t believe he’s finally here,” his wife says to him, an exhausted smile on her face while looking at the picture perfect image of her husband and their son.
“He’s perfect,” Jamie says to her, not taking his eyes off his baby boy.
“Of course he is,” she laughs. “He looks just like the pictures Georgie showed me of you as a baby.”
His Mum is going to lose it at the sight of her sexy little baby holding his own sexy little baby. Georgie and Simon are on their way, probably breaking all sorts of traffic laws. Jamie can’t wait for his son to meet his Gigi and Grandpa.
“You think so?” Jamie asks her. The swell of brown hair and grey eyes certainly favour him.
“I do,” his wife says. “And I already know he takes after you if all the kicking he did to my insides is any indication.”
Jamie turns to smile at his wife, a new level of love for her building that he didn’t think was possible. He had no idea what childbirth was going to be like, but watching his wife through hours of labor, he has a new respect for mother’s everywhere, and in particular his wife and his own. Jamie walks over to sit on the edge of the bed next to her.
His wife wraps her arm around her boys, laying her head on Jamie’s shoulder.
“Little Davey is so lucky to have you for a Dad,” she tells Jamie. “And I’m lucky to have this DILF for a husband.”
She kisses him on the cheek, then turns to place a hand on her son’s tiny chest, feeling the steady rise and fall as she gazes at his perfect little face. “And how do you like your Dad, little man? You are a very lucky little boy. Your Dad is the best man I know. He’s funny, and sweet, he’s loyal, and giving, and he’s going to be the very best Dad. Already is.”
Jamie would be lying if he said he hadn’t freaked out numerous times during the pregnancy. His own father had been absent, at best, and abusive, at worst. He knew from stories that James Tartt, Sr.’s own Dad had been similar. But everyone in his life, including his Mum, his wife, Roy, Simon, Doctor Sharon, even Ted, had assured him that he could break the cycle. And if Jamie was certain of one thing, it’s that he would. Jamie Tartt is going to be the father that his son deserves.
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defensivelee · 11 months ago
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NUMBER 21 FOR MARIA YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Of course!! Thank you for the ask :D
21. Does your OC have any illnesses or disorders? How do they handle it?
Her backstory is still in the works, but I do know she definitely suffers from PTSD from the grooming and subsequent sexual abuse she experienced because of James when she was a teenager. She's been in this relationship for a very long time, and it hasn't gotten any better...so I think the PTSD just gets worse over time. She doesn't handle it very well, she just looks to James for comfort and tells herself that everything is perfectly fine and legal between them now.
Her unique abilities as an Ally handler and former servant (that I won't fully reveal the reason for just yet) come with side effects that could...almost be described as some kind of disorder? I really hesitate to call it that since it doesn't parallel anything specific anything in the real world, but she's had a lot of challenges because of it.
-She sees devil reflections (manifestations of the devil in her world, but not the devil itself) everywhere, constantly. They seem very attracted to her, for some reason, and they always have things to say to her-- warnings, orders, mockery, all that and more. As a child they scared her; as an adult she learned to befriend them and they have come to respect her enough to back away when she orders them to. But there's always whispers...
-Because of this she has a pattern of believing she's more powerful than everyone around her! But technically, she's only right when it comes to the magic she can do. She's really just a person, subject to the whims of her own emotions and of course, the LAW, and while she wouldn't say this of herself, she's powerless under James. This causes her to come off as really arrogant at times and even annoying. Most people who know her don't even really consider her a victim of abuse because of this-- she looks like she's doing fine, as high and mighty as her husband. She tries to remember to check this in James' presence; it's the fear she believes is doing good for her.
-As she's witnessed a lot of things from the devil reflections since she was very young, she's learned how to keep a cool head and expression against whatever she sees so that no one knows she's actually seeing things. It's embarrassing to be called out on it, even more embarrassing when the one calling her out is James, and he's rather unforgiving about it. She can come off as quite heartless, never reacting to violence and gore with anything but mild disgust, which James loves about her. She hates it, though, as a huge part of it is detaching her emotions from her experiences, and she just feels awfully empty afterwards.
-She can become hypersexual at times when she's feeling off, or needs a distraction from the reflections. Naturally she turns to James, who also experiences this hypersexuality, and while it does make her feel like everything's okay with him for a moment, she feels nasty afterwards. Still, she hinges a lot of her self-worth in the marriage on her ability to please him, especially now that he's an Overlifer-- it is the duty of everyone around James to keep him happy and satisfy him.
So a lot of these symptoms aren't really made easier by the fact that she lives with James, but she believes he helps her handle them and that she doesn't necessarily need help. She also smokes just as often as he does.
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openingnightposts · 9 months ago
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longsenlucks · 1 year ago
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10 best short stories by O Henry
The Gift of the Magi 
ONE DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheek burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. 
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. 
There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the 
shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. 
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat 
at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad. 
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name 'Mr. James Dillingham Young.' 
The 'Dillingham' had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of 'Dillingham' looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever 
Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called 'Jim' and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good. 
Delia finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. 
Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim. 
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art. 
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. 
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham 
Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some continue reading here
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denimbex1986 · 1 year ago
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'J. Robert Oppenheimer wasn’t just a renowned physicist. He was a fine party host who often held gatherings at his Los Alamos, New Mexico, home for his colleagues, as moviegoers are learning at “Oppenheimer” screenings.
And though the scientists’ atomic-bomb mission was dubbed the Manhattan Project, his drink of choice was the martini.
Cocktail lovers who paid close attention during a party scene may have noticed Oppenheimer (as played by actor Cillian Murphy) mixing one for a guest. He takes a glass and dips the rim … Wait, what is that? Salt? Sugar? This hard-charging, chain-smoking scientist isn’t making a Lemon Drop, is he?
Turns out he had his own concoction — a strong one. The Oppenheimer Martini is gin with just a splash of dry vermouth, with a rim that’s been dipped in a mixture of honey and lime juice.
Because of the movie, there’s renewed interest in the cocktail, though it’s enjoyed a place in Los Alamos history since that World War II era. The Los Alamos National Laboratory features the recipe on its website, and the Los Alamos History Museum sells cocktail shakers and martini glasses etched with the recipe.
According to a Los Alamos Historical Society account of that era, “Pat Sherr, the wife of a lab physicist, said, ‘He served the most delicious and coldest martinis.’ ” Another couple reportedly said the mixture of gin and high altitude made it difficult to even get up from the Oppenheimers’ dinner table, much less walk home.
Curious to try a (less potent) version, we paid a visit to Stephen Shelton, a noted Silicon Valley bartending and hospitality industry veteran who owns the Lexington House in Los Gatos. He’s getting ready to celebrate the restaurant’s 10th anniversary with a series of “flashback” dishes and cocktails in the coming weeks.
He had heard about the Oppenheimer Martini over the years and seen the movie, but hadn’t tried the cocktail yet.
Bartender Chiara Harleman looked at the recipe and selected a gin whose botanicals would pair well with the ingredients — Gin Blend No. 1 from Venus Spirits, a craft distillery in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The official Los Alamos recipe calls for 4 ounces of gin, which Shelton said is a mighty big drink. He suggested the traditional 2 or 2.5 ounces of gin.
Harleman stirred (although Oppenheimer reportedly liked his martinis shaken), dipped, poured, garnished with a twist. “It’s like the Bee’s Knees, which is gin, lemon and honey, but a boozier version,” she said.
Her gin choice was indeed a smooth one, and the honey-lemon edge adds just the tiniest touch of sweetness.
Now we needed the expert opinion, the carefully chosen words of a man who has catered to the whims of bar customers for more than three decades.
Shelton took a sip. “It’s not bad.”
He took another sip. “The lime and honey is very interesting.” He compared the drink to an “old-school gimlet” made with Rose’s lime juice.
“I would like a little more vermouth. But there was a lot of pressure on Oppenheimer — ‘should I build a bomb?’ — so he probably needed extra booze.”'
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