#The Ten Cent Adventure

[cryptocollectibles]

Superman The 10¢ Adventure #1 (March 2003) by DC Comics

Written by Steven T. Seagle, drawn by Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens.

[mythicalsanctuarysodor]

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.

[be-kind-and-rewind-again]

Chapter 10: Mysteries by novarose122001

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“Humans in the loop” must detect the hardest-to-spot errors, at superhuman speed

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

If AI has a future (a big if), it will have to be economically viable. An industry can't spend 1,700% more on Nvidia chips than it earns indefinitely – not even with Nvidia being a principle investor in its largest customers:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39883571

A company that pays 0.36-1 cents/query for electricity and (scarce, fresh) water can't indefinitely give those queries away by the millions to people who are expected to revise those queries dozens of times before eliciting the perfect botshit rendition of "instructions for removing a grilled cheese sandwich from a VCR in the style of the King James Bible":

https://www.semianalysis.com/p/the-inference-cost-of-search-disruption

Eventually, the industry will have to uncover some mix of applications that will cover its operating costs, if only to keep the lights on in the face of investor disillusionment (this isn't optional – investor disillusionment is an inevitable part of every bubble).

Now, there are lots of low-stakes applications for AI that can run just fine on the current AI technology, despite its many – and seemingly inescapable - errors ("hallucinations"). People who use AI to generate illustrations of their D&D characters engaged in epic adventures from their previous gaming session don't care about the odd extra finger. If the chatbot powering a tourist's automatic text-to-translation-to-speech phone tool gets a few words wrong, it's still much better than the alternative of speaking slowly and loudly in your own language while making emphatic hand-gestures.

There are lots of these applications, and many of the people who benefit from them would doubtless pay something for them. The problem – from an AI company's perspective – is that these aren't just low-stakes, they're also low-value. Their users would pay something for them, but not very much.

For AI to keep its servers on through the coming trough of disillusionment, it will have to locate high-value applications, too. Economically speaking, the function of low-value applications is to soak up excess capacity and produce value at the margins after the high-value applications pay the bills. Low-value applications are a side-dish, like the coach seats on an airplane whose total operating expenses are paid by the business class passengers up front. Without the principle income from high-value applications, the servers shut down, and the low-value applications disappear:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

Now, there are lots of high-value applications the AI industry has identified for its products. Broadly speaking, these high-value applications share the same problem: they are all high-stakes, which means they are very sensitive to errors. Mistakes made by apps that produce code, drive cars, or identify cancerous masses on chest X-rays are extremely consequential.

Some businesses may be insensitive to those consequences. Air Canada replaced its human customer service staff with chatbots that just lied to passengers, stealing hundreds of dollars from them in the process. But the process for getting your money back after you are defrauded by Air Canada's chatbot is so onerous that only one passenger has bothered to go through it, spending ten weeks exhausting all of Air Canada's internal review mechanisms before fighting his case for weeks more at the regulator:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/air-canada-s-chatbot-gave-a-b-c-man-the-wrong-information-now-the-airline-has-to-pay-for-the-mistake-1.6769454

There's never just one ant. If this guy was defrauded by an AC chatbot, so were hundreds or thousands of other fliers. Air Canada doesn't have to pay them back. Air Canada is tacitly asserting that, as the country's flagship carrier and near-monopolist, it is too big to fail and too big to jail, which means it's too big to care.

Air Canada shows that for some business customers, AI doesn't need to be able to do a worker's job in order to be a smart purchase: a chatbot can replace a worker, fail to their worker's job, and still save the company money on balance.

I can't predict whether the world's sociopathic monopolists are numerous and powerful enough to keep the lights on for AI companies through leases for automation systems that let them commit consequence-free free fraud by replacing workers with chatbots that serve as moral crumple-zones for furious customers:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563219304029

But even stipulating that this is sufficient, it's intrinsically unstable. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the mass replacement of humans with high-speed fraud software seems likely to stoke the already blazing furnace of modern antitrust:

https://www.eff.org/de/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

Of course, the AI companies have their own answer to this conundrum. A high-stakes/high-value customer can still fire workers and replace them with AI – they just need to hire fewer, cheaper workers to supervise the AI and monitor it for "hallucinations." This is called the "human in the loop" solution.

The human in the loop story has some glaring holes. From a worker's perspective, serving as the human in the loop in a scheme that cuts wage bills through AI is a nightmare – the worst possible kind of automation.

Let's pause for a little detour through automation theory here. Automation can augment a worker. We can call this a "centaur" – the worker offloads a repetitive task, or one that requires a high degree of vigilance, or (worst of all) both. They're a human head on a robot body (hence "centaur"). Think of the sensor/vision system in your car that beeps if you activate your turn-signal while a car is in your blind spot. You're in charge, but you're getting a second opinion from the robot.

Likewise, consider an AI tool that double-checks a radiologist's diagnosis of your chest X-ray and suggests a second look when its assessment doesn't match the radiologist's. Again, the human is in charge, but the robot is serving as a backstop and helpmeet, using its inexhaustible robotic vigilance to augment human skill.

That's centaurs. They're the good automation. Then there's the bad automation: the reverse-centaur, when the human is used to augment the robot.

Amazon warehouse pickers stand in one place while robotic shelving units trundle up to them at speed; then, the haptic bracelets shackled around their wrists buzz at them, directing them pick up specific items and move them to a basket, while a third automation system penalizes them for taking toilet breaks or even just walking around and shaking out their limbs to avoid a repetitive strain injury. This is a robotic head using a human body – and destroying it in the process.

An AI-assisted radiologist processes fewer chest X-rays every day, costing their employer more, on top of the cost of the AI. That's not what AI companies are selling. They're offering hospitals the power to create reverse centaurs: radiologist-assisted AIs. That's what "human in the loop" means.

This is a problem for workers, but it's also a problem for their bosses (assuming those bosses actually care about correcting AI hallucinations, rather than providing a figleaf that lets them commit fraud or kill people and shift the blame to an unpunishable AI).

Humans are good at a lot of things, but they're not good at eternal, perfect vigilance. Writing code is hard, but performing code-review (where you check someone else's code for errors) is much harder – and it gets even harder if the code you're reviewing is usually fine, because this requires that you maintain your vigilance for something that only occurs at rare and unpredictable intervals:

https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1773779967521780169

But for a coding shop to make the cost of an AI pencil out, the human in the loop needs to be able to process a lot of AI-generated code. Replacing a human with an AI doesn't produce any savings if you need to hire two more humans to take turns doing close reads of the AI's code.

This is the fatal flaw in robo-taxi schemes. The "human in the loop" who is supposed to keep the murderbot from smashing into other cars, steering into oncoming traffic, or running down pedestrians isn't a driver, they're a driving instructor. This is a much harder job than being a driver, even when the student driver you're monitoring is a human, making human mistakes at human speed. It's even harder when the student driver is a robot, making errors at computer speed:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/01/human-in-the-loop/#monkey-in-the-middle

This is why the doomed robo-taxi company Cruise had to deploy 1.5 skilled, high-paid human monitors to oversee each of its murderbots, while traditional taxis operate at a fraction of the cost with a single, precaratized, low-paid human driver:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

The vigilance problem is pretty fatal for the human-in-the-loop gambit, but there's another problem that is, if anything, even more fatal: the kinds of errors that AIs make.

Foundationally, AI is applied statistics. An AI company trains its AI by feeding it a lot of data about the real world. The program processes this data, looking for statistical correlations in that data, and makes a model of the world based on those correlations. A chatbot is a next-word-guessing program, and an AI "art" generator is a next-pixel-guessing program. They're drawing on billions of documents to find the most statistically likely way of finishing a sentence or a line of pixels in a bitmap:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3442188.3445922

This means that AI doesn't just make errors – it makes subtle errors, the kinds of errors that are the hardest for a human in the loop to spot, because they are the most statistically probable ways of being wrong. Sure, we notice the gross errors in AI output, like confidently claiming that a living human is dead:

https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/according-to-chatgpt-im-dead

But the most common errors that AIs make are the ones we don't notice, because they're perfectly camouflaged as the truth. Think of the recurring AI programming error that inserts a call to a nonexistent library called "huggingface-cli," which is what the library would be called if developers reliably followed naming conventions. But due to a human inconsistency, the real library has a slightly different name. The fact that AIs repeatedly inserted references to the nonexistent library opened up a vulnerability – a security researcher created a (inert) malicious library with that name and tricked numerous companies into compiling it into their code because their human reviewers missed the chatbot's (statistically indistinguishable from the the truth) lie:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

For a driving instructor or a code reviewer overseeing a human subject, the majority of errors are comparatively easy to spot, because they're the kinds of errors that lead to inconsistent library naming – places where a human behaved erratically or irregularly. But when reality is irregular or erratic, the AI will make errors by presuming that things are statistically normal.

These are the hardest kinds of errors to spot. They couldn't be harder for a human to detect if they were specifically designed to go undetected. The human in the loop isn't just being asked to spot mistakes – they're being actively deceived. The AI isn't merely wrong, it's constructing a subtle "what's wrong with this picture"-style puzzle. Not just one such puzzle, either: millions of them, at speed, which must be solved by the human in the loop, who must remain perfectly vigilant for things that are, by definition, almost totally unnoticeable.

This is a special new torment for reverse centaurs – and a significant problem for AI companies hoping to accumulate and keep enough high-value, high-stakes customers on their books to weather the coming trough of disillusionment.

This is pretty grim, but it gets grimmer. AI companies have argued that they have a third line of business, a way to make money for their customers beyond automation's gifts to their payrolls: they claim that they can perform difficult scientific tasks at superhuman speed, producing billion-dollar insights (new materials, new drugs, new proteins) at unimaginable speed.

However, these claims – credulously amplified by the non-technical press – keep on shattering when they are tested by experts who understand the esoteric domains in which AI is said to have an unbeatable advantage. For example, Google claimed that its Deepmind AI had discovered "millions of new materials," "equivalent to nearly 800 years’ worth of knowledge," constituting "an order-of-magnitude expansion in stable materials known to humanity":

https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/millions-of-new-materials-discovered-with-deep-learning/

It was a hoax. When independent material scientists reviewed representative samples of these "new materials," they concluded that "no new materials have been discovered" and that not one of these materials was "credible, useful and novel":

https://www.404media.co/google-says-it-discovered-millions-of-new-materials-with-ai-human-researchers/

As Brian Merchant writes, AI claims are eerily similar to "smoke and mirrors" – the dazzling reality-distortion field thrown up by 17th century magic lantern technology, which millions of people ascribed wild capabilities to, thanks to the outlandish claims of the technology's promoters:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/ai-really-is-smoke-and-mirrors

The fact that we have a four-hundred-year-old name for this phenomenon, and yet we're still falling prey to it is frankly a little depressing. And, unlucky for us, it turns out that AI therapybots can't help us with this – rather, they're apt to literally convince us to kill ourselves:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkadgm/man-dies-by-suicide-after-talking-with-ai-chatbot-widow-says

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[dalesramblingsblog]

Nobody does horrible, universe-shattering war crimes like this little guy.

i love Seventh "the doctor" Doctor so much its unreal

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

The Lost 4

Warnings: non/dubcon, mentions of loss, grieving, death, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

Characters: nomad!Steve Rogers

Summary: You move into a shared flat and encounter a mysterious man.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

You don’t eat breakfast, not that you ever really do. You buy enough food to have dinner when you get home and that’s about it. As the clock ticks on, stretched longer by a sleepless night, you count down to the inevitable. You have to leave that room eventually.

You dress in the convenience store button up, an ugly shade of mustard and pin your nametag on. Not wanting to risk running into your housemates, you talk yourself down to quickly brushing your teeth and tidying up. You won’t shower.

You listen through the door but hear nothing. Not like the night before when you heard everything. When you heard too much.

You bring your little canvas pouch of toiletries and lock your door behind you, just in case. You look left then right, heading down towards the bathroom. You stop as you find the door closed. Shoot. You hesitate, struggling to make up your mind. You should just go back and wait in your room.

Too late. The door opens and you jump in your shoes. You stumble back into the wall, unable to hide your fright. S emerges, his blond hair slightly damp as he combs it back with his fingers. The scent of his soap wafts out with him, warm bergamot cutting through the dingy air of the aged house.

“Sorry,” he leaves the door open behind him as he steps out, “didn’t mean to scare ya.”

You nod and wave him off, mouthing ‘it’s fine’ but unable to summon your voice.

“It’s all yours. Hope you weren’t waiting too long,” he hugs tighter the folded towel in his arm, curled around a leather zip up bag.

You give an ‘mhm’ but his timbre just reminds you of the threats that slipped beneath your door the night before. In your head, the unseen menace was a slimy little ghoul, waiting to creep up on you. You look over your shoulder as S passes.

“He hasn’t bothered you again, has he?” He stops and turns back to you.

You shake your head.

“Good,” his chest rises as he glances towards the far end of the hallway, “Guy’s a freak. On parole…” he faces you again, “not to scare you but you should know.”

You lower your eyes and squeeze your pouch tight. You bite your lip and turn to the bathroom. As you approach the door, he shifts on his feet, the floorboards creaking beneath his weight. You stop but can’t bring yourself to look at him.

“Thank you,” you squeak.

He doesn’t answer right away. You linger in the silence before he musters his response, “no problem. Girl like you, can never be too safe.”

You don’t have a chance to reply. His door opens and shuts and you peek over to find him gone. You keep your hand on the door handle as his words cling in your mind. A girl like you…

Is it so obvious that you're alone? Vulnerable? Afraid?

If it is, maybe it’s better that you have someone like him watching over you.

🚪

You arrive for your shift and take over after balancing the till. It’s quiet and you don’t get much more than the usual pop-ins. An old woman takes up close to twenty minutes playing the scratch cards and a group of teens come in to buy energy drinks and ten cent candies. It makes you wish you only worried about wasting your money on unwinnable jackpots and unhealthy snacks.

You spend your downtime doing the crossword in the newspaper Aziz left behind. The pencil lead dulls with each letter you press into the newsprint. The door chimes again and you peek up as a greasy haired man looks around. His eyes scan the store and finally land on you.

You stand up straight and greet him in your small way. Your voice crackles beneath the drone of radio DJs as they discuss their weekend follies. The man nods and diverts to the magazine rack. You tap the pencil and go back to the puzzle, glancing up periodically as he browses the shelf.

When at last he retreats from his perusal, he approaches and lays down one of the magazines shrouded in black film. You try not to show your discomfort as you flip it over to scan the bar code, overly aware of its more adult contents. He doesn’t show an shame as he leans on the counter and breathes loudly through his nose.

“They all got fake tits these days,” he snivels, “I remember my dad’s rags they used to have the natural girls.”

You blanch and hit total, reading out the amount owing. He snickers and reaches into his pants’ pocket, feeling around a bit too long before dragging his hand out. He chuckles and reaches into his jacket instead, taking out his wallet. Ew.

The door chirps, signalling another customer. You don’t look over. The man across from you searches his wallet slowly, fluttering his fingers over the bills inside. His tongue flicks out like a lizard’s.

“Is cash or credit easier, sweetie?”

The pet name sends a chill through you as his tone tickles your memory. That’s the voice you heard last night. That sickly, simpering slither. You can’t help but take a step back, even with the shield of plexiglass between you.

The other customer appears behind the man and clears his throat, “pay and get out.”

You look past the greasy-haired man as S looms behind him. His fist closes and opens, as if he’s holding himself back. You gulp as the other man rolls his eyes.

“Mind your business, meathead,” he deliberately counts out the bills. “It’s the handsome ones that are mean…” he tuts, “nice guys like me, well, we’re hard to find.”

“She doesn’t care. She’s working,” S snarls.

“You don’t own the store, guy,” the other retorts, “you don’t scare me.”

“I don’t gotta scare you,” S steps closer.

The other man bares his teeth but shrinks, just a little. He throws down the money and shoves it through the slot. You gather it up. It feels almost as slimy as he looks. You reach your hand under with his change and he grabs your hand, closing it around the coins.

“You keep that, sweetie,” he squeezes, “pretty girl like you earned it.”

“Don’t touch her,” S grabs him from behind, wrenching him away. The suddenness has your front hitting the counter before the strange man lets you go. “Take your stuff,” S snatches up the magazine as he holds the man by his scruff, “and go.”

He throws him against the door before whipping the magazine at him. You watch helplessly. The smaller man, much smaller than S, catches the porn rag and tries to look fearsome against his accoster. It’s a pathetic attempt. He seems to realise as he slouches down and tucks tail, pushing out into the street with a grumble.

S shakes his head and turns back, marching to the counter. He puts his single protein shake on the other side of the glass. You swallow and put the change down shakily.

“Those are two for four, sir,” you say, “if you’re interested.”

He nods thoughtfully, his throat bobbing. “Thanks, uh, yeah, maybe I’ll grab another.”

He draws away and walks down the center aisle. He stands before the cooler, pulling open the door, before swiftly spinning on his heel and coming back. He places a strawberry shake next to the vanilla one. You scan both and the till applies the discount.

“Sorry, er, to cause a scene. I just… he shouldn’t be pestering you. Especially at work.”

“N-no, it’s… it’s fine. It’s… nice,” you stammer out as you accept his five dollar bill. “You don’t have to… do that.”

“It's not about 'have to',” he shrugs as you count out his change. He takes it, then the vanilla shake. He doesn’t touch the other one.

“Sir,” you point to the strawberry.

“You seem like the strawberry type,” he steps back on his heel, “it’s for you.”

“I… I can’t–”

“You didn’t eat breakfast. You should,” he insists.

“Sir, really–”

“I’ll leave it here,” he says, “in case you change your mind.” He nudges it closer to the glass, “make sure you give it a good shake. The flavour settles at the bottom.”

He turns away before you can argue. Again, he ends the conversation with his departure. As generous as he is, you get the idea he’s not into negotiating.

[jamesshawgames]

Big Relics 3 announcement

OK, so here it is.

Relics 3 is not going to be released on the Hosted Games label.

I just sent an email to Jason revoking my permission for the company to publish the files. I’m just so fucking sick of that company, the shitty way they conduct themselves and their unacceptable approach to managing the Forum. I don’t want those cunts to make another cent off anything that I make.

And so I’ll be putting the game up for free for everyone to access on Dashingdon. It’ll be a little while before I put it up. Since there will now no longer be a save import function, I’ll have to reimplement the “enter your choices” thing at the start so that people can continue their adventure with the same character from Relics 2. I’ll be rediverting my focus from Neon Fire to get that implemented over the next few weeks, and will let people know (prob here rather than on their awful Forum) when it’s up and ready to go.

I’m sad that I won’t make any money from a game I worked super hard on, but that’s still preferable to letting that company make money off me. I’m one of the tens of thousands of UK academics on strike this week. That probably means that I’m in a particularly anti-authoritarian mood right now, so this is me sticking it to the man.

[frogaroundandfindout]

“He’s already there when I return. Showered and cleaned up, and punishing himself. Another tragedy. He blames himself. He always does. Sometimes…I feel like he’s going away. Like maybe he’s already gone. How much pain can one person bear? His life is a story of tragedies…” (Batman: The Ten-cent Adventure Comic).

[263adder]

The Horny Bisexual Trope

Eleanor Shellstrop, The Good Place

"[In a research paper by The Journal of Sex Research] researchers found that bisexual women, compared to lesbians and heterosexual women, were evaluated as more confused, promiscuous, non-monogamous, neurotic, extraverted, and open to experiences. Bisexuals were also evaluated as less agreeable and less conscientious." Psypost

Lisa Palmer, Santa Clarita Diet

"Though LGBT+ representation in the media has been improving in recent years, it is still rare to see positive portrayals of bi characters on television. Characters are usually assumed to be either gay or straight, depending on which characters they are interested in romantically. Even if a character is portrayed as being attracted to both male and female characters, they rarely identify as bi, instead claiming to “not need labels.”

"Bi characters are typically villains, promiscuous characters, or untrustworthy." Soapboxie

Nick Scratch, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

"A common and inaccurate stereotype is that all bisexual people do not want to be, or cannot be, monogamous. It is inaccurate and harmful to imply that bisexual people are categorically more “promiscuous” than others. People of all sexual orientations can be monogamous for some or all of their lives, or they can choose other types of relationships. This decision is entirely separate from one's sexual orientation." GLAAD Media Reference Guide

Klaus Hargreeves, The Umbrella Academy

"Pansexual people are [also] commonly faced with [this] stigma, fuelled in part by some people's belief that they lead hypersexualized lives. This infers that pansexual people are more likely to cheat and be promiscuous because they are "available to everyone."

"This misconception has led some people to assume that pansexual people are wanting to engage in any and all sexual activities, negating the need for sexual consent." Very Well Health

Irene Adler, Sherlock

"The hypersexualization of the LGBTQ community has taken many forms. Not only are gay men and transgender women framed as sexual predators, but lesbians are objectified and fetishized by straight men, and bisexual and pansexual people are assumed to be constantly sleeping around." The Under Ground

Bisexuality on screen is used to indicate sexual experience and promiscuity. This feeds into the misconception that bisexuality is used as a way to appear more attractive and "bisexual people [are] just attention-seeking nymphomaniacs – or that bisexuality was, in the words of Carrie Bradshaw, “Just a layover on the way to Gay Town.”" Fashion Journal

Margot Tenenbaum, The Royal Tenenbaums

"The way its [bisexuality] been commodified, that was always going to happen… there’s a whole sort of discourse around bisexuality, its exotic… that bohemian angle, it masks the actuality of being a bisexual person even in this day and age." University of Huddersfield

Bisexuality is used to add to the mysteriousness of an already mysterious character. It's not undisclosed for privacy; it's hidden to feed into a "not like other girls / guys" trope.

Willow Rosenberg, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Bisexuals talk about “coming out twice"—once as gay or lesbian in a heterosexual world when they acknowledge their attraction to their own gender, and then again when they acknowledge their continuing attraction to the opposite sex." Psychology Today

The common depiction of bisexual myths is one of the reasons bisexuals feel they have to come out numerous times or don't come out at all.

"Three in ten bi men (30%) and almost one in ten bi women (8%), say they cannot be open about their sexual orientation with any of their friends, compared to two per cent of gay men and one per cent of lesbians." Stonewall

Not all visibility is good visibility.

[dragonbma]

Reasons why I firmly believe Vos didn’t perish initially in the Sea Temple and instead survived (if even for a short while) inside: This is going to be a rant so bear with me…

The subtle hints in the game dialogue reveal a lot despite us never finding his inventory or concrete evidence suggesting how Vos died:

1) In the emporium when you first consult Jack about going to the Sea Temple, he mentions his friends Vos and Sammy were killed during the first adventure. He doesn’t explicitly state he saw them both die, just that “neither of them made it out alive.” (More on this in 2)

2) After freeing ‘Vos’ in the temple, Jack seems more excited than confused that his buddy is alive. In fact, Jack asks him no questions. (I can dismiss that as Jesse needing the dialogue options, but Jack’s lack of suspicion is either because Vos had an ambiguous death or he’s in denial that his friend is dead.) Jesse mentions to ‘Vos’ that “Jack said he saw you die.” But from all the game dialogue I’ve seen, Jack never says he saw that.

Full Quotes:

3) “Whatever’s left of Vos must be somewhere down here too…” -Jack after picking up Sammy’s inventory in the Sea Temple

He says “somewhere.” Almost as if he’s not even sure where his other friend died. Huh, kind of like he didn’t see it…

Yes I know that upon entering the guardian room of the temple, he says that everything is a blur, but after picking up one of your friend’s inventories, wouldn’t memories come flooding back? I feel like that would have been a crucial memory even if it was repressed.

Side note: It’s kind of weird he doesn’t go looking for Vos’ inventory. Idk if this is because he genuinely doesn’t know where it is or because he’s so distraught after finding Sammy’s inventory that he needs some time to think before he can handle seeing Vos’ as well.

4) “I thought you were a goner, man!” -Jack to ‘Vos’

Note how he says “thought.” What happened that made you think he died? Because seeing him die wouldn’t merely leave you thinking your friend died. You would be 100% sure-

Jack doesn’t say “I saw you die!” Or “How did you survive (insert whatever killed him)?”

5) “The real Vos would never have survived in my Sea Temple that long!” -Romeo post-reveal

HE. SAYS. “SURVIVED.” That’s a weird thing to say if Vos had really died initially along with Sammy.

He doesn’t say anything like: “You really thought I was your friend? After you watched him perish?” or something implying Jack saw it occur. Because knowing Romeo, he would absolutely jab at a blunder like that and belittle Jack for believing his disguise after seeing his friend die.

So, yeah. Our favorite sea temple adventurer lived in that death trap of a Brita filter for Admin knows how long until his eventual death by… starvation? Temple traps? Both? Maybe the guardians still killed him but later? My main guesses are he got trapped in the obsidian cages, or separated from Jack while they were escaping. Either way, Jack accidentally abandoned him after thinking he was killed. Such a shame we never find his inventory pile or anything because that would answer so many of my questions- Romeo give back Vos’ inventory challenge (impossible.) I know you have it.

Idk if we’ll ever know what actually happened but here’s my ten cents. ^^ I am so very mentally well as of now. Thank you for coming to my TellTalk /j

[Or another rant if you want:]

[sixteenstrikes]

PLEASE talk more about DurgeWyll and Hozier, PLEASE... I am rotating the songs you posted and the vision is so good

thank you for asking me :) (the doors close sealing you in the crypt)

i joke. ok first of all i need to cite ten @bladesmitten as a resident durgewyll expert and direct you to his blog... she's written some incredible fic & analysis of the durgewyll romance and made a lot of gorgeous wyll edits and art in general, can't rec his blog enough.

i have sadly never played through the durgewyll romance & only watched it so there are undoubtedly story details i am unaware of. alas i have only played the tav version of his romance so far

some spoilers for durge beneath the cut. i tried to be vague but a warning there. also i didnt stick my oar into unreal unearth or any of the adjacent eps for that album .. sorry

all that being said here are my 2 cents

i think the main draw for picking hozier songs for durgewyll is that incredibly sexy dynamic they have of being each other's foil as well as each other's love interest. both wyll and durge are bound to an inescapable doom within the story: to pay with their body and soul for the fate of baldur's gate. durge must destroy it to please their father, wyll must save it. (wyll's saved it already, at the cost of his soul, and durge has to sacrifice their soul to destroy it as (redacted), but i wont go further on that tangent lol. its fascinating though.)

i think a core concept of wyll to focus on here as well is his faith. in his act 2 dance scene, in response to one of the dialogue options, wyll replies that he 'still keeps faith in the old tales of true love'- this is crucial. wyll is the man to whom the gods gave a cold shoulder. he has no love or faith for them. but he keeps faith in the old tales- he keeps faith, specifically, in durge.. 'his greatest adventure'.. and if durge chooses to resist their father's authority, they spurn a god for wyll's sake. there's an incredible amount of mutual devotion there.

there is also the monster hunter/monster dynamic. i haven't delved into it much here bc i am more interested in how eerily wyll and durge parallel each other as twin mirrors and exiles from the gate, the light and dark sides, sharing almost a common doom, trapped in the long shadows of their fathers.... man. but the monster dynamic should absolutely be examined and explored, it's fascinating. i think it's another compelling aspect of wyll's character. he's a man with a lot of resonant contradictions. a monster hunter who refuses to hunt the monster of baldur's gate and instead severs them from the one who made them .... a monster hunter who holds out his hand to the monster he is supposed to kill... wyll's love of the mysterious and strange and his kindness, i think, predispose him to see durge as an ally and a friend. not from naivete, but from an open heart

my hozier picks for durgewyll overall:

it will come back - i love the way the view shifts in this. one of my top durgewyll picks for the way it evokes a lot of the horror & tragedy that wyll looks into and doesnt flinch away from & the hunger durge has toward wyll extending his own lonely & friendly hand

shrike - i see this as primarily from durge's view. picked for the devotion & regret

NFWMB - applies beautifully to both of them. theeeee durgewyll song to me from andy's works... consider the lyrics from both person's perspective to feel the world open beneath your feet lol

as it was - ditto, i think it encompasses both perspectives. also one of my favorite songs he wrote so im biased lmao. i think this is another very resonant choice for the durgewyll dynamic

like real people do - feels an overly obvious pick but it could work especially well for a resist durge

no plan - could be an intriguing choice. i can't quite swing it but some of the lines in this for durgewyll... i like them...

you could definitely make a case for from eden for another from durge's view. gives me a feeling of a durge who's not resisting but idk

[cryptocollectibles]

Batman The 10¢ Adventure #1 (March 2002) by DC Comics

Written by Greg Rucka, drawn by Rick Burchett and Klaus Janson, cover by Dave Johnson.

[eternal--returned]

IGGY POP: Once I heard the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters, and even Chuck Berry playing his own tune, I couldn't go back and listen to the British Invasion, you know, a band like the Kinks. I'm sorry, the Kinks are great, but when you're a young guy and you're trying to find out where your balls are, you go, "Those guys sound like pussies!" I had tried to go to college, but I couldn't do it. I had met Paul Butterfield's guitarist, Mike Bloomfield, who said, "If you really want to play, you've got to go to Chicago." So I went to Chicago with nineteen cents. I got a ride with some girls that worked at Discount Records. They dumped me off at a guy named Bob Koester's house. Bob was white and ran the Jazz Record Mart there. I crashed with him and then I went out to Sam's neighborhood. I really was the only white guy there. It was scary, but it was also a travel adventure—all these little record stores, and Mojos hanging, and people wearing colorful clothes. I went to Sam's place and his wife was very surprised that I was looking for him. She said, "Well, he's not here, but would you like some fried chicken?" So I hooked up with Sam Lay. He was playing with Jimmy Cotton and I'd go see them play and learned what I could. And very occasionally, I would get to sit in, I'd get a cheap gig for five or ten bucks. I played for Johnny Young once—he was hired to play for a white church group, and I could play cheap, so he let me play. It was a thrill, you know? It was a thrill to be really close to some of those guys—they all had an attitude, like jive motherfuckers, you know? What I noticed about these black guys was that their music was like honey off their fingers. Real childlike and charming in its simplicity. It was just a very natural mode of expression and lifestyle. They were drunk all the time and it was all sexy-sexy and dudey-dudey, and it was just a bunch of guys that didn't want to work and who played good. I realized that these guys were way over my head, and that what they were doing was so natural to them that it was ridiculous for me to make a studious copy of it, which is what most white blues bands did. Then one night, I smoked a joint. I'd always wanted to take drugs, but I'd never been able to because the only drug I knew about was marijuana and I was a really bad asthmatic. Before that, I wasn't interested in drugs, or getting drunk, either. just wanted to play and get something going, that was all I cared about. But this girl, Vivian, who had given me the ride to Chicago, left me with a little grass. So one night I went down by the sewage treatment plant by the Loop, where the river is entirely industrialized. It's all concrete banks and effluvia by the Marina Towers. So I smoked this joint and then it hit me. I thought, What you gotta do is play your own simple blues. I could describe my experience based on the way those guys are describing theirs . . . So that's what I did. I appropriated a lot of their vocal forms, and also their turns of phrase—either heard or misheard or twisted from blues songs. So "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is probably my mishearing of "Baby Please Don't Go."

Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain ֍ Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)

The Stooges ֍ I Wanna Be Your Dog (1969)

Muddy Waters ֍ Baby Please Don't Go (1953)

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x14 - Set Sail! To a New Continent! / Departure for a New Continent

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Takeru's Partner Digimon finally evolved! And then he exploded, giving Takeru a story that he'll be telling his therapist well into his forties. Fortunately for him, when your Tamagotchi shits itself to death, you can always start over from scratch. But it's just not the same.

Now, with Devimon defeated and File Island restored, a strange hologram of a man has revealed himself to the seven children.

At long last, someone who understands what's going on is here to explain the plot to the gathered children.

Old Man: So you are the Chosen Children. Very impressive, given that you've defeated Devimon. Taichi: Who are you!? Yamato: An ally of Devimon!? Old Man: Don't worry; I'm on your side. Sora: It's amazing to finally see another human besides us in this world. Old Man: Well, although I am human, at the same time, I am not. Mimi: Are you obake? Old Man: --hrmph!?

As previously discussed in episode 12, bakemono is an umbrella term for a variety of shapeshifting yokai who take on other forms, often to deceive humans. Obake is another word for bakemono; Mimi's accusing the old man of being the same sort of creature as those "worshippers" that Jou and Sora encountered.

Mimi's question takes Gennai completely offguard, causing him to verbally flinch and turn to look at her. He picks back up like that didn't happen a moment later, but it seems she rattled him.

Over in the dub:

Old Man: So, you children are the DigiDestined. You must be strong to have defeated Devimon. Tai: Who are you? Matt: Are you a friend of Devimon's? Old Man: Fear not, for I am a friend to all! And yet, I am a friend to none. Sora: I can't believe it! There are actually other humans besides us in this world. Old Man: I am human! And yet, I am not human. Mimi: This is confusing. Old Man: HRM!!!

"Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? 'If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right.'" ~Mystery Men

This bit might have been screwed out of the gate. We don't have a similar concept to obake in American reference pools common enough for children to pick up on. Even the subtitlers had to go with "ghost", which doesn't quite convey the right idea.

Unfortunately, that leaves him grunting aggressively at Mimi for what seems like no reason. Since the obake line is untranslatable, this may have been a good spot to insert a Valley Girl Mimi quip instead. Give him something to react negatively to.

Old Man: ...My name is Gennai. Because of Devimon's interference, I couldn't contact you sooner. I'm glad to finally meet all of you. Koushiro: Contacting us from where, exactly? Gennai: I'm on Server Continent, which is pretty far away from File Island. Sora: How long have you been there, Gennai-san? Gennai: I've always been in this world. Mimi: Were you the one who brought us here? Gennai: ...no, I'm not. Mimi: Then who did? Gennai: Well... (long pause) ...I don't know. Takeru: Do you at least know what we have to do to return to our world? Gennai: I don't know that either. Takeru: What the hell, Grandpa!? We can't depend on you at all!

Mimi is acing this interrogation. She has destroyed Gennai's mystique. Poking all sorts of buttons he doesn't want poked. He's trying so hard to present himself as the kindly old mentor figure and she's just like "Ohhh you're an Imposter who did this to us, gotcha."

Old Man: Now, my name is Gennai. I couldn't send you this transmission during your battle with Devimon but now the lines are clearer and only ten cents a minute! Izzy: Well, who are you? And just where are you? Gennai: I am speaking to you far away from File Island, across the ocean on the continent of Server. Sora: Talk about a long-distance call! How long have you been here? Gennai: Since before the beginning, until after the end. Mimi: Are you the one who got us stuck here in the Digital World? Gennai: ...it was not I. Mimi: Then who was it? Gennai: It was... (long pause) I dunno. T.K.: But Mr. Gennai, sir, do you know what we need to do so that we can all get back home again? Gennai: No, I don't. Tai: Boy, you're a regular fountain of information, aren't you!?

With the exception of the phone service jokes inserted to break up the conversation, this dialogue is almost completely identical.

Though it's worth noting that Gennai's name is said differently. In Japanese, it's pronounced "Gen-nye" with a hard 'g'. In English, it's "Jen-nye" with a soft 'g'.

Gennai: But I'm depending on you. You must come to Server Continent and defeat the enemy here. As the Chosen Children, you should be able to do this. Koushiro: But we don't know how to get there. Gennai: You're right. I'll send you a map through your laptop. Jou: But there's no way we can defeat an enemy that's more powerful than Devimon! Gennai: Not so. You can, if your Digimon evolve to an even higher stage. Agumon: We can evolve further!? Gennai: You will need these in order to do so. By inserting a Crest into this Tag, you Digimon can achieve higher evolution. Gabumon: Where can we find these Tags and Crests? Gennai: Well... The Crests are scattered across Server Continent. As for the Tags, Devimon gathered them up and hid them somewhe-- (Suddenly, Gennai's hologram fritzes out) Gennai: Oh no... ...Devi--... ...interference....

The device shuts down from there, leaving the kids to make do with the information they got. The dub covers this part practically verbatim.

Koushiro checks his laptop and, sure enough, Gennai sent the map. File Island is a pinprick compared to Server Continent.

(Japan's actually pretty huge but in terms of relative position to the continent, it makes me think of Japan's position in the sea relative to Asia. I wonder if that's deliberate?)

Meanwhile, the kids break for dinner.

Koushiro: It looks like he was at least able to send the map. Sora: What should we do now? Taichi: Let's get off this mountain first. We can decide on something after we eat!

I love how the dub presents this exchange.

Tentomon: Gennai's transmission ended rather abruptly. Izzy: Well, at least he was able to send the map through before he got cut off. Sora: I hope he's alright. What's our next move going to be? Tai: Huh. I've got a foolproof plan: First we'll eat something, and after that I'm open to suggestions!

XD Foolproof indeed. Never change, Tai.

Given that they've had a long day, the kids decide to break here. They head back down the mountain and forage up dinner so they can decide what to do on full stomachs.

During this time, Yamato finds Takeru sitting by the water with his Digitama.

Yamato: Takeru? Takeru: It's nothing. I was just hoping my Digitama would hatch soon and grow. Yamato: Your Digimon will join everyone here soon enough. Takeru: Yeah! You're right!

It's a small moment, but a sweet opportunity for Yamato to be Takeru's big brother.

Over in the dub, Matt may be confused about how this works.

Matt: T.K.? T.K.: Ohh, I was just wishing my Digi-Egg would hurry up and hatch already so it can grow up! Matt: Don't sweat it, lil' bro! When your Digimon hatches, it'll be the coolest one yet! T.K.: Egg-xactly!

They just wanted to make that pun. But also, uh, no, Matt. It'll be the same one he had before.

Once dinner's out of the way, it's time for the kids to decide on next steps. We all heard what Gennai said. But. What do we do with his request?

Taichi: Now that we're all nice and fed, let's figure out what we should do next. Sora: Gennai-san told us to go to Server Continent, but.... Koushiro: If this map is right, then it's a far distance from here. Mimi: I can't swim more than 25 meters. It's impossible for me. Jou: Do we have to go? Devimon is gone from this island. The Black Gears are gone too. This last week we've been here has made us more or less familiar with the landmarks. There's plenty of water and food, too. Sora: What are you trying to say? Jou: Can we even trust what this Gennai said? Is there really even a Server Continent? Taichi: Hey, what's all this about!? We can't get back to our own world if we just sit here! Sora: It took everything we had to defeat Devimon. But there's going to be even stronger enemies waiting for us. Koushiro: Besides, how would we even cross the ocean to reach the continent? Mimi: There might be weird Digimon over there too! Jou: Uh-huh. Yamato: Maybe we should look around here a little longer. Taichi: What the hell, guys!? Takeru: Let's go! Yamato: Takeru? Takeru: I don't know what enemies are waiting for us, but let's try! I'm sure that's what Angemon would have said. That's why I.... Agumon: We'll come too! We can evolve further if you have the Tags and Crests, right?

I'm glad this comes up because it's worth debating. These kids, now aware of what they've been drafted into, are being asked to risk drowning in the ocean for the sake of going to a foreign land and fighting a war. And without even the barest smidge of hope that this will actually connect to sending them home, which is still only Koushiro's speculation.

And if there is no reason to believe we'll ever return home, then "What if we just stay here and build our lives on this tropical island?" is a question worth discussing. If they're lost forever, there are worse places to be lost than File Island.

But once the Digimon begin to cast their votes, the tide of the conversation changes completely. One by one, each of the Digimon implores their kid, and each of the kids relents and agrees to go to Server. Even Jou puts up little fuss.

Once again, the dialogue here is near completely identical in the dub. With two notable differences, both of which center on Mimi. Her first line about only swimming 25 meters is changed out to:

Mimi: I can't even swim across the bathtub! It's impossible for me.

While her second line about weird Digimon is replaced with:

Mimi: We don't even know what the fashions are like on Server!

To be fair, worrying about weird Digimon is a redundant complaint to raise when we've already been told there's going to be far more powerful enemies over there waiting for us. Though, given that Mimi's been harassed twice in the last week, it's possible she means "weird" in more of a gross way.

But if that's the case, I wouldn't expect the 90's localization team to actually translate this as, "We might run into more Digi-Perverts!"

So begins the greatest logistical undertaking the kids have had to do since arriving on this island. They're going to need to build a raft capable of taking all thirteen-plus-egg across the ocean.

Koushiro: It looks like it'll take a long time just to cut down the trees. Sora: There's no point in rushing. Let's not be hasty.

It's at that moment that Sora notices the sound of heavy footfalls coming their way. Turning around, she spots Leomon on approach. Given their history with Mr. Kill the Children, it's natural that she has a kneejerk panic response.

Sora: WAUGH!!! Koushiro: Leomon!? Leomon: I've heard you're leaving for Server Continent. Sora: How did you know that? Leomon: Some of us monsters love to gossip. I was wondering if you needed any help with anything. Sora: (excited) You'll really help us? Leomon: There's more than enough helping hands.

As he says, more Digimon begin to arrive. Kentarumon, Mojamon, and Elecmon are next to show up, followed by Monzaemon and Yukidarumon. Then Meramon and countless villager Pyocomon.

Before long, the residents of File Island have assembled an impressive raft to send the children off.

Before long, they have a seaworthy vessel for crossing the ocean.

Taichi: It's done! Koushiro: Looks like it has good balance, too! Jou: Can we really cross the ocean with this? Taichi: We've already decided to go! We'll have to use this. Leomon: With your abilities, I'm sure you can cross the ocean safely. Taichi: Thank you, Leomon! We couldn't have done this without you!

Meanwhile, in the dub, Joe has a different concern.

Tai: Alright! Izzy: It's hydrodynamically designed! Joe: I think I'm getting seasick already.... Tai: Get a grip, Joe; It'll have to do! Leomon: Believe me, that raft is strong enough to get you across the ocean. Tai: Thanks, Leomon! We never could have done it without your help!

Notably, Leomon's line is different between versions. In the original, he puts faith in the children to be able to make this journey, while Dub Leomon puts his faith in the raft he just made. Rude.

As soon as the raft is finished, there's even more good news!

Poyomon hatches from his Digitama to greet the world! This little newborn goop ball can't even speak words beyond reciting his name like a Pokemon. "Poyo! Poyomon!" Surprisingly, the narrator chimes in to give us a rundown. Poyomon is a Baby-stage Digimon with no type.

(To my understanding, Baby I-stage Digimon never have a type. They have to get to Baby II before they develop one.)

Narrator: Poyomon! A slimy Digimon shaped like a jellyfish. It is said to be the most primitive of lifeforms. Its vitality and adaptability are greater than you might expect from its unassuming appearance.

Tentomon takes care of this in the dub.

Tentomon: Poyomon is a jellyfish-type Digimon of few words. But, if his friends are in trouble, he's ready for action!

Trying really hard to sell Baby Jelly as a badass there, Tentomon. Gritty 90's Americana at work?

At last, the kids shout their farewells to the denizens of File Islands and set sail for Server.

Narrator: The seven children learned how to survive using their own strength, by fighting Digimon, and by forming friendships with Digimon. And so the children left File Island behind.

Tai takes care of this bit of narration over in the dub.

Tai: So we sailed away from File Island where we had some really cool adventures! When we had to survive on our own, we grew up very fast. Except Joe; He just threw up very fast, ha! But he came around too! We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side of the ocean but we'll face it as a team!

XD Poor Joe. Rude to call him out like that, Tai.

Meanwhile, my ass is over here like,

Drake: And so the kids... completed the tutorial level. Now that they're in the open world sandbox, the real game can begin. Holy crap.

Once the kids are out on open ocean, it doesn't take long to start talking about the survival logistics of their journey.

Taichi: (looking through telescope) I can't see anything. Jou: I wonder how long it will take? Taichi: We just set sail! Jou: But even if we ration our food and water supplies to bare minimum, they'll only last us half a month. Taichi: Then we can fish or something! Sora: All we need to hope for right now is good weather.

Jou's right to be concerned here. Catching fish won't solve their problems if they run out of water.

(While we're all traveling by raft, this would probably be a great time to bring back the compass from Mimi's dad's survival kit. But I think the show's forgotten she had that.)

The dub tweaks Joe's line to add onto his concerns.

Joe: The salt air is killing my sinuses and we've only got enough food for two weeks.

They also remove his mention of water supplies. Without that concern, Tai's plan to supplement their supplies with freshly-caught fish seems more effective.

Despite the dub giving Joe so much shit for seasickness, it's actually the young'uns Koushiro and Mimi getting queasy at the back of the raft. Though Takeru seems to be handling himself okay.

Apart from nearly losing Poyomon to the waves, that is.

Suddenly, a colossal wave nearly capsizes their raft. They make it through, but struggle for a moment to discern where it could have come from.

Yamato: Where did that come from!? Koushiro: There's no wind here that could be causing these waves! Jou: Maybe a ship is passing nearby? Taichi: There's no ship here!

I want to say that was a silly guess by Jou, but given how many random human things are scattered about File Island, human ships freely wandering the ocean is entirely plausible. There are no rules here.

The cause of the wave, however, is something much more frightening.

Their raft is caught in the wake of a colossal Whamon. A frankly confusing Digimon, Whamon is a Vaccine-type Aquatic Digimon whose stage is... complicated. Due to what I can only assume are creative inconsistencies, Whamon are either Adult-stage or Perfect-stage depending on the media.

Adventure's rundown pegs them as Adult-stage in its data boxes.

Narrator: Whamon. An enormous Digimon who lives in the Digital World's deep seas. The giant tidal waves he causes and his Jet Arrow blasting through his blowhole are fiercer than you might expect.

Notably, I believe this is the very first mention of the world they're in as Digital Sekai or "The Digital World" rather than Digimon Kai or "Digimon World".

Fortunately for the dub, Tentomon quickly asserts in the original that we're still close enough to File Island for him to recognize this Digimon.

Gabumon: W-Why is he doing this!? Tentomon: Whamon is a powerful monster, but he always keeps to the bottom of the ocean!

The Partner Digimon knowing nothing beyond the borders of File Island is a factor that has not kicked in yet.

Tentomon: Whamon is a giant Digimon who lives in the deep oceans of the Digital World. Its Jet Arrows are unbelievable! Gabumon: It was massive! Tentomon: A Whamon can sometimes be fierce but I've never seen one act this aggressive!

Whew! The diegetic rundowns are still in the clear! No time to worry about that now, though! We're under attack!

In case there was any doubt over whether Whamon is purposely harassing us or not, he quickly clarifies his intentions by devouring the raft whole.

Koushiro: This must be Whamon's shokudou (either 'esophagus' or 'restaurant' depending on the kanji)! And by that, I don't mean the 'restaurant' version of shokudou! Jou: We're aware! Mimi: He ate us after all! Sora: How far until the exit!? Koushiro: The exit is his butt! Mimi: I don't want to leave that way! Palmon: Like poop. Mimi: Don't say that!

So here we have more fun with Japanese linguistics and also talking about poop. Obviously some changes were going to happen here, but not as many as you might expect.

Sora: I hope we don't give him a sore throat! Izzy: Technically, it's not the throat! It's the esophagus that leads to the stomach! Joe: He thinks we're fast food! Mimi: So he really did eat us! Sora: Sooner or later, this has to lead to an exit! Izzy: It does, but you don't wanna go there! Mimi: This is damaging my hair all the way to the roots! Palmon: Use my roots. Mimi: You're a plant!

They still tie in the esophagus, even if they have to recontextualize it to get away from Koushiro frantically babbling about linguistics. They also keep the butt joke by implying it instead of outright stating it.

Also, the roots/"You're a plant!" bit got a big laugh out of me. I don't say this a lot but this is one time I think the dub greatly improved this scene.

The kids quickly find themselves under attack by the least effective antibodies in history, which throw themselves haplessly into the water and miss the raft by a wide margin despite the kids doing nothing but screaming and cowering.

Then, at the end of their journey, they spill out into Whamon's stomach. Fitting his strange cyborg whale design, his stomach is a machine. Red lights around the edge suddenly light up with a loud activation tone, releasing gastric juice into the stomach for digestion.

After Koushiro briefly explains gastric acid for the kids at home, we get this exchange.

Taichi: Don't fall in! Jou: We've got to get out of here quickly before things get worse!

Which the dub edits to:

Tai: Don't let it get on you! Joe: We'd better get out of here before we give him a major ulcer!

Similar to Sora's line about the sore throat, the dub kids seem more worried that being in here might hurt Whamon than for their own safety.

Speaking of ulcers, it's at that moment that Sora notices something directly above them.

Whoops! Looks like Devimon missed one when he was recalling all the Black Gears to Infinity Mountain.

Taichi: A Black Gear! Agumon: So that's why Whamon was running wild! Gomamon: Let's help him! Jou: How? Palmon: Climb up there using my vines!

Over in the dub, poor Joe gets called out again.

Tai: It's a Black Gear! Agumon: That's why Whamon was acting so aggressive! Gomamon: Joe, do something to help! Joe: Why me? Palmon: Someone can climb on these!

Man, it really is Pick On Joe Day over at American Digimon.

Dangerous as this is, Palmon ensnares the Black Gear with her Poison Ivy. Then Taichi makes the ascent, climbing hand-over-hand to reach it. Once he's close enough, the light from his Digivice shines and harmlessly disintegrates the Gear. Palmon pulls Taichi back towards the raft before he can land somewhere else.

As soon as the Gear's destroyed, Whamon's stomach glows with a strange light. The raft ascends and, before long, the kids are all ejected from Whamon's blowhole.

The good news is, they emerged from his stomach unscathed. The bad news....

So much for that raft. The kids are unharmed, but their means of transportation is totaled and their supplies are now floating in the sea.

However, Whamon isn't done with them yet.

Mimi: DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!!! Whamon: I'm sorry for my outrageous behavior. Piyomon: It's not your fault, Whamon! Sora: It was because of the Black Gear! Taichi: That must have been the last one! Jou: Are you sure about that? Whamon: My head is clear now, thanks to you. Taichi: Whamon, do you know how far Server Continent is from here? Whamon: Yes. It would take me about five days to get there. Yamato: That means it's pretty far. Takeru: This is bad. Our raft is broken. Whamon: Are you trying to reach Server Continent? Agumon: That's right. Whamon: Allow me to take you as thanks for disposing of the Black Gear. Sora: Really? Mimi: LUCKY!!!

Mimi throws up her arms in celebration. In the process letting go of the log she's floating on and nearly drowning herself. Palmon has to pull her out of the water and reattach her to the log.

XD She got excited.

The dub dialogue is the same, save for some gags added to Whamon's dialogue.

Tai: By the way, do you know how far it is to Server? Whamon: Yes. It would take me five days. Uh, make that three and a half without traffic. T.K.: Great, our raft's broken! Whamon: Are you going to Server? Agumon: Yeah, we were trying to! Whamon: I'll take you there myself. It's not every day your lunch saves your life!

The promise of Whamon-sized traffic sure makes me glad we're not on a raft anymore!

Swimming and bouncing from the water, Whamon makes his way to Server with the kids safely nestled on his back.

Sora: Feels great! Koushiro: This is a much more pleasant experience than the raft. Mimi: I won't get seasick from this! Taichi: Now all that's left is to find the Crests and Tags that Devimon sealed away! Whamon: Did you say Devimon? Taichi: Do you know something? Whamon: I'm not quite sure what you mean by Tags and Crests but I do remember Devimon hiding something under the waves. Taichi: Where!? Whamon: It's on the way to Server Continent. Please take shelter inside my body while I go there.

Dub Whamon adds a particular stipulation.

Whamon: It's on the way to Server. You can all ride inside me and I'll take you there. But no tickling!

That's fair. The last thing we need him to do is sneeze or cough us out at the bottom of the ocean.

Whamon takes the kids down to a secret cave at the bottom of the ocean, where an air pocket exists. He lets them out there and they enter the cave to explore.

Whamon: Since I can't go any farther, I will wait for you here.

Seems fair, being a whale and all. The dub has other ideas for why he can't come with.

Whamon: I'm so out-of-shape, I have to rest here for a while. I gotta drop a couple of thousand pounds!

He can't come into the cave because he's too fat, I guess. Also. Y'know. Marine life.

Before long, they find their destination.

Deji Mart, your one-stop shop for all consumer goods! The "Deji" is how Japan romanizes the word "Digi".

Unfortunately, DigiMart was not left unguarded.

Drimogemon, an Adult-stage Data-type Beast Digimon. His name is a conjunction of "drill" and "mogera", meaning "mole". Drillmolemon.

Narrator: Drimogemon. Living deep underground, he uses his drill to move at high speed. His sharp Drill Spin and Crusher Bone attacks devastate his enemies.

Over in the dub:

Tentomon: Drimogemon lives deep inside the earth drilling tunnels. He uses his iron Drill Spin and Crusher Bone to wipe out his enemies!

Practically verbatim.

He's not just any passing drill mole, either.

Sora: He has a Black Gear! Jou: I knew there were still more of them! Drimogemon: No one may enter here, by order of Devimon-sama! Leave at once!

See, Taichi? Assuming makes an ass out of u and ming.

Gomamon evolves to Ikkakumon so he can hold off Drimgemon. Everyone else makes their way into DigiMart to find those Tags. While Almost immediately after the kids are inside, Ikkakumon hurls Drimogemon through the storefront. The impact shakes the store.

Jou: Ikkakumon, go easy on the attacks!

At this point, Ikkakumon is as much a threat to us as Drimogemon is.

Dub Joe, on the other hand, has a thirst for blood.

Joe: Ikkakumon! You've got him down! Get him!

Joe's going to see Drimogemon go down if it's the last thing he does. Which it may be.

Apparently not listening to Jou, Ikkakumon fires off a Harpoon Vulcan instead of listening. The missile slams into Drimogemon and explodes, rattling the store inside.

It's at this point that Tentomon evolves to join the fight.

(They don't say Ikkakumon is fired from engaging Drimogemon for being too reckless, but there's an implication there.)

Drimogemon tries throwing his signature Crusher Bone at Kabuterimon, but you know how those flying Digimon are with projectile attacks.

With three dimensions of evasion, Kabuterimon maneuvers around Drimogemon and takes out his Black Gear with a precisely-aimed Mega Blaster.

(Was that so hard, Ikkakumon?)

Amid all the friendly fire-inflicted carnage at the DigiMart, Takeru loses track of Poyomon. When he finds him again, Poyomon's found the loot!

Mission complete! Drimogemon apologizes for the fight and disappears underground.

Drimogemon: I-I'm very sorry! Gabumon: Wait! Where are the Tags? Drimogemon: Th-They should be in the store. Good luck finding them!

Dub Drimogemon offers more specific directions.

Drimogemon: The Tags should be in the convenience store next to the jerky.

Oh, sweet. We have five days of whale-riding to do so we should stock up on jerky while we have the chance.

Inside the store, the kids open the box to find the Tags they'll need. Setting sail for Server, we close on a reminder of the next stage of this journey.

Yamato: He mentioned the Crests are spread throughout Server Continent, right? Gabumon: Right. If we combine the Tag and Crest.... Agumon: We can evolve further! Taichi: Yeah! We'll definitely find those Crests!

A new adventure begins here.

Assessment: What stands out to me about the Tags and Crests is how Toyetic they are. Digimon as a franchise started its life as an offshoot of Tamagotchi. That's what the Digivices are; They're a way to incorporate the little handheld Tamagotchi device into the anime.

This is a toy-driven series, like Transformers or My Little Pony. It's just a different kind of toy.

Considering that, I am curious if the whole "Use this merchandise sold separately NEW MACGUFFIN to reach Perfect-stage!" thing, like... Is this a thing? A real-world thing being incorporated into the anime, like the Digivice? I dunno. It's certainly peculiar.

In any case, this episode goes strong at the start with the farewell from File Island, but slows down once they're on the ocean.

I'm not a big fan of the DigiMart mission. Having to go on a fetch quest to unlock the ability to go on the next set of fetch quests feels like it's just killing time. Also, it's bloody convenient that the very next person we happened to meet after learning about Devimon's secret stash happens to know where Devimon's secret stash is!

Can you imagine if the stash was somewhere on File Island and we left without even checking? Boy would our faces be red!

This is a bridging episode between the Devimon and Etemon arcs, and the main interesting thing that happens concerns how the cast moves across the ocean. So, for me, it feels like the Tags were just thrown in so we have an excuse to wander off-course and beat up a Bad Guy for the third act climax.

For the dub, it's weird that they put so much emphasis on Joe getting seasick when it's Mimi and Koushiro who spend the episode wrestling with that. It's probably meant as a callback to the Bakemon episode, when he was throwing up over the side of his bed. But he never gets seasick once in this one.

Still, while their characterization choices stumble in a few places, they're able to lay down most of the important plot points with few deviations. We've seen better dubs than this episode, but we've seen worse too.

[hebuiltfive]

Tabloid Trash!

The Forgotten Fifth: Who is John Glenn Tracy?

In another attempt to use the Tracy name as clickbait, a celebrity editor at the Daily Celebs! tabloid magazine speaks to an old friend of John's about who the often forgotten fifth brother truly is. John isn't impressed, but he's more concerned about how the tabloid found out about another, smaller detail.

AO3 link here (I coded this so it should look like a news article. Hopefully it works and isn't glitchy!)

Previous TT works: Aliens!

---------------------

by Madeleine Buchanan, Celebrity Editor

Like the Kardashians of old, the Tracys are the world’s most intriguing family. Whether we’re wondering what they’re wearing to their latest red carpet appearance, or whether we’re glued to our screens as we watch them head off on their next daring rescue with their philanthropic organisation, International Rescue, the Tracy family are firmly in our minds almost twenty-four seven.

The family (and their extended close circle) are never not working. This year alone has seen Virgil Tracy attend almost fifteen art gallery openings, Gordon Tracy visiting almost seven marine conservation centres, Scott Tracy organising no less than ten charity functions on behalf of the family’s two organisations and Alan Tracy beginning his college degree adventure. Add in all the work the family does under International Rescue and there doesn’t seem to be a lot of room left in the schedules for down-time.

Yet they somehow manage it.

Oft-forgotten brother, John Tracy, made the news this week with the publication of his new book, Times Trails Tells. It is his fifth book in as many years (find our review of the scientific breakthrough here).

Die-hard Tracy fans might recognise the name, but normies are probably wondering who John Tracy is and why his name isn’t as known as the rest of his brothers.

In fact, Daily Celebs! recently conducted a poll on the general public’s knowledge of the Tracy family as a whole. From hobbies to skills, names to numbers, our reporters asked one hundred people on Hollywood Boulevard what they knew about the elusively in-demand family. You can see a more detailed report on that here, but staggeringly, it showed that almost sixty per cent of those interviewed got one of the more simpler of questions completely wrong.

How many sons did Jeff Tracy have?

The answer, of course, is five (bonus points for those readers who can name them in order), but sixty people interviews claimed it was four.

So, why is this the case? Who is the elusive fifth brother that everyone seems to forget?

If we start at the beginning, we can paint a better picture of who this man is. Born John Glenn Tracy, he is the third son of Jefferson Tracy and his late with Lucille. Like his brothers both before and after him, John was born in Kansas and spent most, if not all, of his childhood in the state. He excelled at school and, for a while at least, was surprisingly popular with his peers. Rumours of troubles with bullies begin in the years after his eldest brother left to attend a separate High School in the area, though these reports could not be confirmed at the time of writing.

John graduated from Harvard University and has since gone on to receive multiple degrees in various subjects including, but not limited to, Advanced Telecommunications and Astronomy. Most of his published works are continuations of his previous research studies.

When it comes to International Rescue, John is one of the team’s most valuable members. Known to the world as The Guy In The Sky, John is the Tracy who filters, listens and responds to all the incoming emergency calls. If you’ve asked International Rescue for help, you were most likely talking to John Tracy.

Yet he’s the brother who is most often forgotten about. Is is because he spends so much time up in space? A former peer from John’s college days suggests that it might be.

“John was always such a party-pooper at college. He was never interested in doing anything fun. He always had his nose stuck in a book. No matter how hard we tried, the guy was never interested in any of the parties or any of the girls. Total waste of space, if you ask me. What is college if not an excuse to get absolutely wrecked? Basically, what I’m trying to say is, it’s no surprise to me that John’s the guy who’s based in space. Honestly? Best place for the loser.”

Clarence Hickory, a computer programmer for the Hickory Foundation, agreed to speak with Daily Celebs! about his former friendship with John Tracy. (At the time of writing, Tracy Industries have yet to respond to a request for a comment.)

“We met on orientation day. It was a chilly fall day. I remember it well. John stuck out like a sore thumb. You could tell he hated it. Everyone crowded round him when they saw his dad and his brother at his side. Everyone wanted a piece of him.”

Was Clarence one of these people?

“God, no! I knew to let the guy have some space. If I’m being honest, my father saw John’s as a kind of rival at the time. Both the Hickory Foundation and Tracy Industries were thinking of branching out into the same sector. Neither did in the end. My father ended up becoming good friends with Jeff Tracy.”

And you became friends with John?

“Wouldn’t exactly call us friends. We were more… colleagues. We shared a dorm along with a couple of other guys, but we didn’t get along. John didn’t fit the vibe of ‘typical college student’. He wasn’t popular with many students.”

He didn’t have friends?

“He did, just not many and our friendship circles certainly didn’t cross.”

But you studied in the same classes?

“Yeah. For Advanced Telecommunications. Bullshit lectures, let me tell you that, but it did give me a job, so I can’t complain.”

Your father gave you a position in his company, you mean?

“I like to think of my appointment as a reward for all my hard-work, rather than it being complete nepotism, Maddy.”

So, back to John. Have you seen much of him since leaving Harvard?

“I see him occasionally at conventions and conferences. He’s never interested in the talking or the mingling. I think I’ve spoken more with his brothers than John himself. I don’t think he’s changed all that much since college. In these situations, though, I can hardly blame him. I remember how terrified he looked on that orientation day, when the crowds swarmed him just because of his family name. I can’t imagine those events are much different. No wonder he doesn’t do them often.”

Our readers are going to want to know your opinion on why you think John Tracy isn’t often seen around, why he could be considered the forgotten fifth Tracy brother, but I think you’ve practically answered that.

“John is a recluse. I don’t know if he does it on purpose or whether it truly is just him, you know? But he’s definitely not an outgoing person. Never has been. Probably never will be.”

Were you surprised by the revelation of his involvement with International Rescue?

“One thing to know about the Tracys is they are probably some of the most sickeningly do-gooders the world has ever seen. Do you know how much is costs to be in their shadow as a business? A lot, okay? Did it surprise me? A little, maybe. We all had our suspicions around who IR were. Everyone did. All of us thought it was the Tracys. It doesn’t surprise me that John was involved in that, no. Not even as the comms guy.” 

You described him as a recluse.

“John is a recluse, yes. He’s also a bloody enigma. There’s a reason no-one knows a lot about him, Maddy. He likes it that way. Hell, I bet half the people in his life don’t have the full story, with the exception of his brothers probably. Maybe. Who knows!”

But why would a recluse, as you put it, be the one who answers the calls?

“I think the better question isn’t why put the recluse on the calls, but rather about the work that they do. International Rescue are, annoyingly, a phenomenal organisation who do incredibly heroic and important work. Listen, I can sit here and talk to you about John all day. I’ve probably got plenty of anecdotes that could earn me a fortune, but I’m not going to share them. John and I… we didn’t get on but he’s a good man. If he doesn’t want the world to know more about him, I say respect that, Maddy, and leave him be.”

John attended three bookstores and his old university on a short tour for the launching of his new book. So far this year, that has been the entirety of his public engagements. Suspicious or, as Clarence suggested, private?

The Enigmatic Tracy will be in attendance at this year’s annual Tracy Christmas Ball, hosted by Tracy Industries LTD. Find out more here and check out previous year’s red carpet appearances here.

————————————————

John reclined back in his seat and switched the projector off. The glasses he’d been using to deflect some of the harshness of the screen were yanked off his face, and fingers pressed into the bridge of his nose as he repressed a sigh.

Time and time and time again did glossy magazine reporters (if they could even be called such a title) tried to ‘unpick’ him. Like this, most of the time it was nonsense news, though John was surprised they’d managed to track down someone who would actually speak to them about him. Normally it was all words and suspicions with no credible source to back it up. In fact, John would have been impressed if he wasn’t so exhausted by it all.

An enigma. The Enigmatic Tracy. Was that to be his new title? He’d lost count of all the others he’d been given over the years, not to mention the ones his brothers had been assigned.

He hadn’t meant to read the article. Most of the time, John actually prided himself on being able to skim past tabloid news stories about him or his family. Nothing good ever came from taking a read. In his opinion, one article like this was usually the equivalent to searching one’s name and then doom-scrolling through the feeds for hours on end, but he was in need of a break from all those numbers, and the words seemed unusually inviting to him.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been down here since breakfast, Johnny.”

Scott’s voice echoed from the glass doorway behind him. His usually immaculately styled hair was floppy and damp, suggesting he’d just come from a quick dip in the pool. John’s eyes skimmed the patio to find Gordon and Virgil still in the water, evidence enough to conclude his assumption had been correct.

He took out his ear-pods, still blasting his choice of music for concentration, and laid them on the table beside his empty mug. The sorry sight of the ceramic had him craving more coffee.

Whether it was brotherly intuition or the gleam in John’s eye, Scott took a few strides forward to confiscate the mug before the idea of a refill properly went through his mind.

“Absolutely not! You’re going to crash hard if you have any more of this.” His eldest brother chastised, breathing in once and then grimacing. “Jesus, John, how many cups have you had? You smell worse than Virgil’s studio after a long night of ‘creative pursuits’.”

Very much not impressed by the comparison — excuse him, he was not as bad as Virgil, thank you very much — John swatted Scott’s arm before trying, and failing, to reach for the mug.

“Scott…”

“No more coffee. It’s—”

“Unimportant.” John finished for him, disallowing his brother to finish that train of thought.

“I wouldn’t call twenty mugs of coffee—”

“It wasn’t twenty—”

“— unimportant, Johnny.”

“The tabloids know I’ll be at the Annual Tracy Christmas Ball this year.”

John’s bombshell had Scott take a pause.

“They… shouldn’t know. The guest list hasn’t been released yet. It’s only… what? October?” His blue eyes cast an unweary glance toward the holo-projector and then toward John. “How do you know the tabloids know?”

There was another brief pause before both brothers were scrambling for the holo-projector. The sight would have been amusing if Virgil or Gordon were paying attention to the riot that was happening indoors. Thankfully for the two battling it out for temporary custodianship of the projector, neither seemed to notice. 

Scott won with ease and flicked the screen back on to reveal the article John had foolishly not completely disregarded before switching the projector off.

“John…”

“It wasn’t a bad one, Scott, I swear.”

“What have we said about reading these things? Besides, aren’t you supposed to be running the numbers for whatever it was Brains wanted you to check for him? Not exactly a productive use of your time, Johnny.”

“One, stop with the Johnny, Scooter. Two, I needed a break. Yes, even geniuses like us need breaks. And three… Are we going to pretend EOS didn’t catch you reading up on some article concerning your alleged morning Get Ready routine?”

Scott lifted a finger. “Hey, that was important! They got the hair preparation steps all wrong! I don’t want the world to think I use some crappy conditioner!”

John tried to stifle his laugh. “Yes, because correcting them was the most productive use of your time.”

His eldest brother ignored him. He sighed, scanning the article quickly and then shook his head. “I’ll check with Saf tomorrow morning, see if they know who leaked something. Of course, the journo could just be… postulating.”

He couldn’t help the raised brow. “Postulating?”

Scott nodded. “Mm-hm. Postulating.”

“That’s a big word for you, Scooter.”

The comment earned John a gentle whack of his arm, but it was worth it. 

“If I can’t call you Johnny, you can’t call me Scooter.”

“I thought you liked Scooter.”

Again, Scott ignored him. “Are you going to come out and join us for a while?” He asked as he returned the projector to the table. When John reached for the mug, he held it out of reach. “No. More. Coffee.”

“If I come out and risk burning to a crisp in this stifling hot sun, will you let me have another cup?”

“It’s late October, John. It’s not stifling hot anymore.”

“Will you?”

“Absolutely not.” Scott began to trail off outside, with the cup still in his grasp, calling back to his brother as he left. “There is this thing called sunscreen, Johnny. If you’re so worried, use it.”

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

Barbara 'Oracle' Gordon first appeared in Detective Comics #359 "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl" (1967). This means Babs is worth one sixth of Steve 'the Bionic Man' Austin, otherwise known as the Six Million Dollar Man. Additionally, DC released "Superman: the 10 Cent Adventure" in 2003. Adjusting for inflation, that would mean that in today's money Barbara Gordon is worth $9,122,814.37, and Clark Kent would be worth 91 Cents, meaning Barbara Joan Gordon is worth ten million Supermans. As she fucking should be.