#but they're still greaseball!!

[gutsofgold]

ily woman greaseball

ily man greaseball

ily greaseball

there's no difference aside from the fact that one of them is a girl and the other is a man. can we keep in mind that they're the same character

they're the same character!!!

[dinahdoeeyes]

Greaseball is at least 5x worse in the 1983 workshop (which doesn't bother me because it's a non-canon early version of StEx), but I still got treats from it.

You may ask, "Tumblr user dinahdoeeyes, why would you screenshot Greaseball pulling Dinah gently by her hair and then wrapping his arm around her?" To which I respond: "... HEAR ME OUT!!"

(The answer is that I am what the Victorians would call "a nasty little wretch who listens to too much Lana Del Rey, Nicole Dollanganger, and Ethel Cain.")

[nauticaltrain]

is the way you interpret the stex characters, are they robots or a mix? since they don't feel pain, but bleed oil etc. what is the lore? are they built at a young age or are they built into adults? (p.s your art is delicious too look at !!)

ohohoho boy, the lore i have for you, strap in

(brief note, this is all my personal interpretation and is definitely not the word of god lol. I genuinely love every interpretation and believe that headcanon variety is vital to a healthy fandom ecosystem)

So, this is something I have thought a lot about and still continue to think about. I'm pretty sure I've nailed it down but it might still be a little nebulous so bear with me.

In the most basic sense, my interpretation of Starlight Express, and all of its characters, is that they are real world pieces of rolling stock that have the ability to shift between a train form (primary configuration) and a human form (secondary configuration). Not an uncommon idea in this fanbase.

However, I'm an overthinking bitch, and I love going in-depth on things like this, so let's expand a little.

There are three main phrases that I use to define my interpretation (headcanon? au? lore?) and to keep myself on track when developing ideas. Sort of layers, if you will. They are as follows:

Fabricated manifestation of psyche - This is rolling stock's appearance in secondary configuration, or what we see in the musical. Their human bodies are a cosmetic representation of their will. A psychological trick. It reflects their personalities, their jobs, their mental age, the demographics of the region they serve. There about a million different factors that go into how they look, and like us, they can't control it. (well, except for CB, but he's another story) It's important to note that this is a manifestation. They are not Transformers. Secondary configuration is not 1:1. There are certain things that get muddled in the changeover. Wheel arrangements being different, missing certain parts, changed color palettes. You could open one up and see parts but not in any sort of similar arrangement to their blueprints. I mean, who can honestly picture every single part of their body in perfect detail and then reinterpret it into a new shape? (this is in part my answer to discrepancies between the real costumes and my lore shh shh)

Counterfeit reflection of humanity - This is their minds. They are our copies. They experience everything we do. They work, play, socialize, fight, fall in love. You could talk to a piece of rolling stock and have a fully human conversation. They are people. However, the longer your conversation goes on for, you may notice certain...oddities. Gaps in their knowledge, speaking in rhythmic sentences, constant repetitive movement. Someone copied humans and didn't do the most perfect job. Like looking at human culture through a lens. Many a train has pondered the simultaneous existence of being machine and being alive.

Physical incarnation of industrialism - Now this, is the origin of all of this. The humans did not create trains to be the way they are. Every piece of rolling stock is designed as they would be in the real world: vehicles to transport people and goods from one place to the next. No one designed Greaseball's slicked back hair or big, studded belt, they designed an EMD E7 built for pulling fast passenger trains. My point is, at the advent of industrialism as we know it, the trains manifested their secondary configurations themselves. They are the offspring of humanity, sired by ingenuity and innovation and birthed from the overturned earth of the Industrial Revolution. No one knows how or why, they just are.

So, in summary, they're sort of robots? Sort of a power of the mind situation? Sort of my own self-reflection on the nature of being alive?

Bonus facts!

Indeed, they do not feel pain. In fact, much of their sense of touch in general is limited. It ranges from same sensitivity as human flesh (hands, face, wheels) to just registers contact (shoulder boxes, hip plating, couplers). I have a diagram of the exact distribution somewhere lol

They bleed? Kind of? If parts are pulled off or damaged, they sort of…leak. Also, if their fleshy bits are "injured", the wounds only heal when the actual machinery is repaired. Also also, if you remove a human part (arm, leg, head, etc.) it will turn back into a train part!

Their temperature resistance is notable too. Comfortable is between -10 F to well over 500 F. Anything above or below that, and they start to complain. Wooden rolling stock have a harder time than steel ones.

They're afraid of deep water and tornados.

In addition to their nails being painted in relevant colors (which I believe is a semi-popular headcanon already), their mouths are the same. Some more unnatural colors include, black, yellow, and blue!

Tall! Generally between 12 and 17 feet. Loosely correlates to their height in primary configuration. Some are the same height, some are taller, some are shorter. Really depends on personality. I contemplated once to have their heights be the length of their primary configurations, but that would result in some pretty awkward height differences and they would be too big for their loading gauge.

They always manifest as adults, or at the very least, late teenagers. They kind of age? Sometimes? Momma started out a bit middle aged, but Rusty has spent like 50+ years looking 25. Really depends on the person, workload, environment, etc.

[bellesdomain]

Updating Starlight in Bochum

So... the German production has had a lot of rewrites over the years. Understatement, but bear with me here... first MAJOR overhaul was in 2002, when the show imported a lot of material from the just-closed original London production.

Next in 2007/2008, the show got tweaked, cut back somewhat, and material from the US/UK Tours was imported. The show was smaller and cheaper to run.

In 2013, the material received another major overhaul and became more cohesive than before - rather than a threadbare attempt to put on a big-scale production, things like the orchestrations were modernised to actually suit a smaller digital band. "I Do" got imported from the UK tour at the same time.

Then, 2018, obviously MASSIVE changes to the show after the 2017 workshops. All that work was done to "fix" the problems with the show as seen in the 2017 "One Night Only" English-language gala.

Since then? Well, the Creative Team have been very busy in 2023/2024 mounting the Wembley revival show, with a lot of new material, new designs, new characters... pretty controversial changes but well received by the public.

2002... 2007-08... 2013.... 2017-18.... see a pattern there? Pretty much every 5 years there's been a major update to the German show. COVID has thrown a spanner in the works, I think they wanted to mount the UK Revival more like 2020, 2021, so there's a delay in the schedule. But I think that 2025 is going to bring major updates to the Bochum show.

But what updates? The Wembley show is "Non-Replica", which means the Direction is by Luke Sheppard not Trevor Nunn (or Arlene Phillips recreating his work). Choreography belongs to Ashley Nottingham not Arlene Phillips. Costume Design is Gabriella Slade's work not John Napier. Arlene Phillips was given the vague title of "Artistic Dramaturg" for the Wembley production, but none of her input under that role is going to specifically BELONG to her, in a legal sense. I assume. Unless there's been some very interesting wording in contracts...

So, how are they going to update the Bochum show? The credit for a Female Greaseball, for example, presumably goes to Director Luke Sheppard. If they change Greaseball's gender in Bochum, they have to credit (and pay!) him for using his work. Gabriella Slade's costume designs being used means Gabriella Slade gets paid for their use - but what is John Napier's contract with the German production? Can they just - STOP using his work and stop paying him for the costumes, while still using his set design? (and obviously, they're not about to stop using that!) Seems likely that he would have a clause in his contract to say that they can't just cut him off - which would explain why he returned in 2018 to design the new characters when he had already decisively retired. But if they do add the new characters, would they get John Napier back to design more? Would a new "Associate Designer" work with him for the show?

Musically the question is simple - Andrew Lloyd Webber has the melodies, Richard Stilgoe has the words. They can add in "Hydrogen" with no difficulty, but the problem lies in who is singing it and why!

But contrary to popular opinion Andrew Lloyd Webber is not the story writer nor the absolute authority on decisions. I believe he has the power to veto decisions, but he doesn't have the power to push things through without the full agreement of the rest of the Creative Team.

So... I have no idea what will ACTUALLY get put onstage in Bochum next year. I expect the Really Useful Group Contract Lawyers are working hard to iron this all out, because it does all boil down to money - who is gonna get paid for their work! Pay Artists fairly! But also boils down to producers wanting to run the show as cheaply as possible to maximise profits, because capitalism.

One thing I am sure of is that we're overdue some significant rewrites to the German show. Keep an eye on casting and the New Kids joining the show in the new year...

[honey-dont]

stex month day 13: flat top!

favorite actors: SO many. ross dawes is my forever fave but i also love delano williamsen, dennis courtney, luuk hartog, todd lester, mark davis, richard mylan, marcel brauneis, and paul treacy! plus whoever played him in tuacahn, i've never been able to find a cast list </3

i think a lot of actors tend to play him pretty one-note so i love when people balance his jerk asshole side with his softer caring side! plus he's always fun comedic relief, shoutout to ross for smacking himself in the face with his own brick. and how can we forget dennistop's goofy helium laugh. love him

favorite songs/scenes: watching him mess around in freight and the blues is SO fun he's so funny <33 the lil spin and suspender snap paul does is adorable, also love him bothering this poor random woman in the audience with his brick. i mentioned ross above but him climbing around on the set like a jungle gym is so so cute!! also tuachan flats getting super excited to see rusty and waving at him!!

love literally all of his and dustin's interactions too, esp when he waves off the rockies for teasing him ough. their little goofy solo in freight!! <3

AND ofc all of his and rusty's interactions! him being a little shit to poppa and rusty jerking him back by his couplers....peak sibling behavior. love him giving rusty his helmet back after he gets beat up, esp how ross does it bc he doesn't tell him to give up!! he still believes in him!! brb exploding

him and poppa/momma are rly fun too, flat top is definitely their least favorite child but they still care about each other <3

honorable mentions to dinah giving him a cheek kiss too it's so cute

OH wait one last thing. when he hears about cb's plan and he looks SO disappointed in greaseball bc that's him finding out that his hero isn't who he thought he was and UGH. it's so good

wait i lied one more. him and rocky messing around during the megamix and throwing the brick to each other <3

favorite costumes: london!! oh my god all the little details are so good like he's quintessentially 80s london punk and it shows. his little socks! the steel toes on the skates!! the bigass frankenstein bolt collar <3 i'm especially fond of his earlier fluffy black & silver wig, it's adorable

i also loooveee the 3d glasses makeup but the bit where he just had graffiti scribbled all over his face is so funny like "hey what should we put on him to show that he's rebellious?" "just write SEX + DRUGS" "ok got it"

also brick on a chain my beloved <3 AND in late london where his belt was made of wood planks to show that he's a flatcar!! so good

i also have a fondness for on ice flats. his stupid nail boots. and tuacahn bc i respect the decision to put him in a crop top and chaps

favorite ships/friendships: flatdust is my train otp i love them i love them i love them <333 they have it all....friends to lovers....sunshine/grumpy....introvert/extrovert....good stuff. their friendship is so sweet to me bc they're total opposites and yet! special shoutout to that one boot where it genuinely looks like they're about to start making out onstage

i love him and rusty too, they're absolutely siblings to me and wind each other up all the time but they still care for each other! also him and cb in a frenemy situation bc cb thinks it's funny to push his buttons

his hero worship on greaseball is also really interesting bc it ties into his whole self-discovery arc imo

headcanons: he's physically the weakest of the freight and he absolutely has a chip on his shoulder about it </3 i hc him as a bulkhead so engines tend to dislike him too due to him being prone to derailing at speed, so he's desperate to prove that is he is cool and strong actually!! he's also like 5'4" without the boots lmao little guy

he's scared of thunderstorms but won't admit to it so dustin will hold his hand and pretend that he's the one who's scared ;-; he also helps dustin out in his garden sometimes but he sucks at it so he just gets to stand there and be moral support. guy who doesn't get the concept of seeds and will just rip up whole flowers for dustin to plant

also very rarely smiles bc he doesn't like his tooth gap :( dustin thinks it's cute tho

unpopular opinion: flat top is such an interesting character bc like. he does NOTHING and yet he has one of the strongest character arcs in the whole show! it's all about him figuring out who he is and where he belongs and it's so fascinating to watch unfold in the background. him racing with rusty in the final would've been such a good culmination of that

also i don't think this is unpopular but on my knees begging him to be punk again like that's his whole point

anyway sorry for writing an entire essay i'm normal about him.

(last two pics are commissions from arachnidal and sparemayonnaise!)

[whistlingstarlight]

C.B. is a character I don't talk a lot about bc at his core I don't think he's as deep as some people say, but there's a very specific era of the show in which I think he's at his strongest, and absolutely is a deep character.

And that's when he decides to backstab both Rusty and Greaseball, one after the other.

It's never made much sense to me why during Wide Smile, he promises Electra he'll wreck Rusty in the next race. Electra does not care about Rusty, the two almost never actually interact. The exception to this 80s London, in which they race against each other in the second heat. Obviously in this case, there's actually grounds for Electra wanting Rusty out of the running later down the line. But from Broadway onwards Electra only has one rival, and that's Greaseball.

It does make sense for C.B. to promise Greaseball he'll get Rusty out of the race. Even though Greaseball's newer rival is Electra, he doesn't like Rusty and has never wanted him in the races. His specific reasoning can vary, but however you see it, Greaseball will want Rusty out of the running. Greaseball and C.B. are also already shown to have an alliance, as it's always implied in-show C.B. has something to do with his race partner's wreck in Heat 1, and in There's Me Greaseball shushes him when he says "what a team". It's not really a secret that C.B. isn't as nice as he acts.

Electra, meanwhile, their strongest dynamic is with Greaseball. Rusty isn't a concern to them because they do not care about him. But Greaseball, he's a threat.

C.B. would naturally play on all these different dynamics. Promising Greaseball he'll help him, then instantly going to Electra and promising to wreck Greaseball makes him even more two-faced, and amps up his danger levels by making it clear he does not care about any of these engines.

C.B. pulling the strings of all three main players does still come into play later, granted, but I think it adds something to Wide Smile for his twist to be a much punchier one, where he reveals nobody is safe from him, even the engine we presumed he had an alliance with.

To me at least, one thing better than a twist where a character is revealed to be the bad guy is a villain where the twist is that they're so much worse than we first thought.

C.B.'s on his own side, after all.

[kittyhasskittles]

Starlight Express has completely taken over my hyperfixation currently so I turned the cowboy lesbians Aura and Sigrid into trains. (Sigrid belongs to @cardwolf )

Aura's a dinning/passenger car while Sigrid would be a Steam train (still keeping on the cowboy theme). They're less toxic than Dinah and Greaseball tho hehe.

[trainfanz]

Further ramblings on London 2024 as I've now had a chance to listen to it! Below the cut! (I can't send out the audio, sorry.) SPOILERS ABOUND!

ACT ONE

"Stop that boring music!" IS GONE!

There really isn't a lot to separate the additional trains. Their introductions and little pre-race mantras are all "They're fast!"

Al Knott sounds great.

I appreciate they rewrote Crazy to actually make it more of an intro song for Rusty instead of just sticking it there.

Arguing before 'I Am Me' is hard to follow with no visuals!

"Friends!" "Friends!" "More than friends?!" "-just friends." HAHA

"Trucks will identify themselves! Fuel Trucks!" Honey, they're all fuel trucks.

Freight really doesn't get to finish and I don't think I really like that.

Stopping here to say that Hydra is the standout of this new incarnation. Going into his little mantra at every applicable moment and annoying everyone else is hilarious.

AC/DC is... fine. Still prefer the older sound.

New take on Pumping Iron however is pretty good!

I want to see Control offering Pearl a spot to sit so bad.

"Please welcome to the other side of the tracks: Momma McCoy." "HOW WE DOIN?!" That's great.

Shoutout to them for using my preferred little outro ditty for the blues. Hard to explain what I mean.

I get that the 4th qualifying engine isn't integral to the downhill final but to only have 1 winner in Race 2 feels weird.

Surprise El DeBarge Lyrics???

ACT TWO

The Rap is pulling a lot from the first two incarnations - "Race Time" shows up in the megamix but not in the actual song.

Dinah UGLY crying hhhh

Slick gets her own take on Wide Smile. Not sure if I like it but it's definitely unique.

Still think what immediately follows Race 3 ends up being 2 versions of the same scene stuck together, but that's not this production's problem.

It stings that Right Place, Right Time is gone. I get that it doesn't really work with the fuel trucks as apposed to the Rockies but I miss it!

No awkward key change in Starlight Sequence!! (If you've heard the current German version, you know.)

For how integral to the plot he is I expected Hydra to get a little more of his own number, but the "It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when" is the most song he gets and the rest is just talking.

Aaand here's Lord Andy's big twist, Rusty explicitly converts himself to run on hydrogen. More on this in a few lines!

They REALLY get their mileage out of what they got Lord Andy to write for this production.

Ok, I see what people mean by them altering Prusty in 2017 to fit 'I Do' better instead of changing the song again. I get it now. I think.

Even as a sapphic, Greaseball still can't spell.

New lyrics in Light At The End of The Tunnel is WEIRD.

I don't hate that they try to work in a message about clean fuels but at the same time I don't think its necessary? Was the original Starlight really meant to convince the audience that coal is the future in real life? Not really. Especially at the end things feel a bit heavy handed but again, I don't HATE it.

Still amazed I am open to/liking this new take on Starlight as much as I am.

[phopollo]

Tell us about the other characters in Rusty and GB's photos!

TEEHEE IM SO GLSD YOU ASKED (this is going to be a long post)

Also just for anyone who's curious about the mentioned photos becsuse you may have missed the post, fear not, you can just check it out right here 👍

So!! Let's start with Rusty's photo! I think it's pretty clear thst we've got Rusty in the center there, little baby man style, just a little guy-- but of course, he's not the only one there-- so let's talk about Rusty's little parental polycule!

To his left is Momma!

A bit younger than she's appearing in the actual rest of the story, but there she is! Momma is pretty much the same as the musical version-- previous world champion racer, retired in her old age, etc etc

Above Rusty though, is Poppa! That's right, I say both Momma and Poppa rights for Rusty

Poppa is a steam engine switcher like Rusty. He ran a few races back in his younger days, but he never really won any-- and while he's about the age that he really probably should be retiring, he's still working hard!

And then to Rusty's right is Memphis!

Alternatively, the original Belle! I've decided to use just Memphis, since there 2024 Belle already, and I wasn't planning any connection between them, so making them Jr/Sr just didn't feel right. Memphis has a roughly similar story to her canon one as well! She's an old sleeping car who used to race with Momma, and was even her coach for many of Momma's years as champion!

It may not be as obvious because he calls her by name, but Memphis is absolutely also one of Rusty's parents! Unfortunately, they as a family got separated when Poppa and Memphis got assigned to another station/train yard when Rusty was younger-- it's been maybe a whole decade at this point. Rusty will always volunteer to bring something to the other station when they send requests for help though, just for the opportunity to see his other two parents

So then! Now let's talk about Greaseball's family photo!

In case it wasn't entirely clear, because I used the like.... draft version of her wig; on the left is Junior!

This one's our little baby girlball! She is not having a good time :(

On the right is Virtuoso!

Lowkey, kinda just made him up, because Greaseball strikes me as having really complicated family relationships. They're kind of age gap siblings, they never really had anything in common aside from their father's racing desires for them, and admittedly, in what turned out to be a golden child/black sheep situation, Virtuoso was very much the black sheep. He is very much what I'd consider as a "season 2" kind of character-- one mentioned a couple times or that you visually see the photo of some time during season 1 (shortly before the events of the musical through Rusty becoming the champion), but you wouldn't actually hear about or meet him until season 2

And then finally, in the middle, we've got Senior

Everyone say hello Greaseball Senior, who's inspiration came from the very first iteration of Greaseball. He sustained a pretty serious injury pretty early on in his racing career, leaving him unable to get up to speeds to keep up with those around him. And while he could still work, he wasn't satisfied with that-- as a result, he ended uo pushiny his dreams and aspirations of racing on his kids pretty hard

As I mentioned earlier, the family dynamic and relationships are kind of.... rocky, to put it politely. Virtuoso is completely out of the picture at this point, and I definitely wouldn't say Jr and Sr get along. Jr will go out of her way to avoid him, but Sr keeps going out of his way to track her down because of the vicarious glory of being her, the current reigning world champion's, dad. Admittedly, Jr's view of family and what family is supposed to be is a little messed up because of all of this

[green-planets]

StEx Appreciation Month Day 13: Flat Top!

🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱

Face Claim: Mark Davis, Richard Mylan, or Delano Willemsen

Favourite Song/Scenes: I will never recover from Flat Top's intro in the spoof show. Between him almost rolling off the stage after throwing his brick (Rusty catches him and pulls him back), the “C'MON BIG BOY!”, the way he points at the Rockies when Dustin says “They're not rocks, they're aggregates!”, and the hyper aggressive dancing during the ‘Aggregates are Really Great’ segment, it may just be the greatest Flat Top performance ever (thank you Richard Mylan, you're my new favorite Flat Top!)

Okay now that that ramble is out of the way, he's extremely entertaining during Poppa/Momma's blues, I love how he teases and antagonizes Poppa/Momma and Rusty, he's so goofy when he worships Greaseball during Pumping Iron, I love the moment when he realizes that Greaseball isn't a good guy, He looks so torn when the gang is beating Rusty up and when he give Rusty his helmet back!!! Gutwrenching

Favourite Costumes: I've grown extremely fond of Flat Top's London costumes and the detail put into them (brick on a chain should be brought back!!!) I do like the versions with the brighter, more prominent graffiti designs and it's funny when he has random graffiti written on his face. I still like the Broadway/Bochum shoulder boxes better (load that guy up with bricks!!)

Favourite Ships/Friendships: Flat Top x Dustin, Flat Top x Rusty, Flat Top x Zero. Friends with the freight crew (except Lumber and Porter-- he has one-sided beef with them), Rusty, and the coaches. Best friends with Dustin and Ashley. Tried befriending Greaseball's gang but that didn't work out so well

Headcanons: He had so much fun being a little shit with Slick up until she betrayed Rusty (afterwards he's super wary of her). He was also expecting to be booted out of the freight crew's found family after his behavior during the races but they welcomed him back with open arms

Unpopular Opinion: A lot of people say he's unnecessary to the plot (which is true tbh) but the show feels so empty without him :(

🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱

[starlight-lesbians]

Imagine Tass and Belle being against Dinah dating anyone cause they both have shitty exes and they dont want the same happening to her, so she dates Greaseball in secret at first and tries to hide it from them but is SO BAD at hiding it. Like, terrible and the poor girl makes everything obvious

oh my godddd yeah

the way Eve plays Dinah especially because her eyes are always on Greaseball, she's literally swooning 24/7 at the dumbest things

They'll be like making out somewhere and then they have to scramble away any time they hear someone nearby but Greaseball still has Dinah's lipstick on her face and will Not wipe it off even when questioned (she's a horrible liar and she won't stop smirking)

Tassita sees a hickey on Dinah's neck and questions her about it but Dinah panics and says she burned herself cooking

They're supposedly "just friends" but Dinah is with Greaseball So Often holding onto her bicep and looking way too interested in whatever she's on about

I think they barely make it a week before Belle and Tassita figure it out and just accept it because whatever she's in love

they're like sooo standoffish with Greasy at first, like exuding protective sibling energy at her

In post canon, Greaseball has to work harder for their forgiveness than Dinah's, and she has to do a lot for Dinah's lmao

[tending-the-hearth]

stex appreciation month day 1: rusty!!!!!

he's one of my favorite and most underrated theater protagonists EVER he's just a Little Guy

favorite actor/costume:

merging two prompts into one for bernie blanks and blake patrick anderson, both from the bochum production!

both versions mainly have to do with their appearances, but bernie's style just screams rusty to me, and one of my favorite parts is his curly hair. i think it's such a good juxtaposition agains greaseball's slicked back hair and electra's mohawk! POSSIBLE BROADWAY STEX REVIVAL IF YOU BRING BACK CURLY HAIR FOR RUSTY I WILL SELL YOU MY SOUL

and head in hands blake patrick anderson is the rusty ever, that photo of him just gives me the happiest feelings ever, when i picture rusty, i picture him 😭😭😭 lil floppy hat rusty my beloved

favorite song/scene

"crazy" is quite possibly my FAVORITE starlight express song, it is just pure joy, and i love the vibe of the coaches having such a fondness for rusty while still trying to get him to see reason. plus his and pearl's interactions is just adorable

also another favorite is i THINK from the vegas production, and it's when rusty saves pearl from flying off the track, and there's just one beat between the two of them before he goes skating off and i just melt into a puddle

favorite ships/friendships:

prusty will forever have my heart and soul as my favorite stex ship, however due to @goblin-iz-whack and @storyweaverofgondor, greaseball/rusty is probably my second favorite ship for rusty, they're just so silly and i'm such a sucker for friends to enemies to friends to lovers

friendships!!! favorite is rusty and dinah!!!! they're siblings your honor!!!

-

i'm going to try and do as many characters as i can this month, but at the very least i had to do my favorite guy <3 beloved fr

[beanghostprincess]

Shuggy headcanons as per request Madame: Love me some „Shanks being in love with Buggy’s long hair“, but I raise you „Buggy absolutely adores Shanks hair and can’t keep his hands out of it“. Granted, Shanks doesn’t really take care of his hair. Shanks is a bit of a greaseball at times. Suits Buggy well actually. When they were teens that gave him a perfect reason to just be „Eugh! When was the last time you washed this?“ While grabbing a fist full „OW! My hairs fine! I washed it last week!“ „LAST WEEK? GOD YOURE GROSS!“ and nag him about it till he cleaned up. He could always pretend the detached hands that raked trough Shanks hair after this where just there to make sure his idiot best friend did a good enough job. Actually he needs to check up on this every so often because clearly Shanks can’t be trusted to look after his own head and Buggy would be DAMNED if this ginger brought lice into their bunk HOLD STILL. The rituals…Elaborate but stupid as hell.

Shanks doesn’t mind as much as he pretends, as long as Buggy isn’t pulling his head this way and that by its roots, and enjoys the little bit of extra attention when Buggys fingers scratch over his scalp. On quieter days when they are hanging out together Buggy will actually relax enough to play with his hair without the guise of checking for dandruff for once and just absentmindedly chop a hand of to run his fingers trough while he is reading or even just bitching about something unrelated. Shanks just turns to mush every time this happens. Complete zen mode achieved.

In a world where they get together as adults again those moments become a bit more regular, usually when they are in bed together and they are both still in the process of waking up. „Feels nice…You got a real thing for my hair huh?“ Buggy shoots him an unimpressed look and Shanks can’t help but roll his eyes fondly as he answers: „I’m just checking something. I think it’s thinning out. If you keep going at this rate you’re gonna go bald.“.

As I said, the rituals : intricate but stupid as FUCK

So cute and sweet and also a bit angsty because just add the PINING to it,,, They make me go wild. Like, it's noticeable how I've been talking more about Shuggy lately and things like this make me go fucking insane. They were so in love. Gonna jump off a bridge. Anyway!

This is so real. Because Buggy would always complain about Shanks not washing his hair properly (even if one day he does have an immaculate, perfect hair) only to have the excuse to touch it or just be closer to Shanks without actually looking like a needy, pining idiot (does he even realize he's in love with Shanks? He will never admit it). And, y'know, I think Shanks genuinely ends up trying to take care of his hair (more or less. He just doesn't care much and forgets about doing it. Like yeah! Gonna be clean from now on! And then a week passes and he hasn't showered because he's been too busy with adventure to worry about it, or something) because he kind of likes the praise that comes with it afterward. Buggy saying something nice to him doesn't happen often, and he cherishes it forever. But it doesn't happen a lot bc he always ends up forgetting to wash his hair.

I'm a sucker for Shuggy being each other's first kisses, and if it happens while Buggy is playing with Shanks hair,, I might die. They're just too much.

Also, when they're older Shanks still doesn't take care of his hair and Buggy literally drags him to the shower with him. Shanks won't stop making sexual jokes about showering together and Buggy literally and genuinely just wants to clean Shanks as if he were a damn stray dog he just found (kind of the same thing tbh). Then Buggy makes him go back to bed with him and cuddle because he just needs a moment of romantic bliss before fighting his husband again.

[alumnusofheavenandhell]

(Contains spoilers) Alright so. I've watched the Megamix and MickeyJoTheatre's initial impressions video on youtube and. Y'know what, here are all my positive thoughts about stexlo so far:

Oh my god. Oh my god I'm so gay for both Greaseball and Electra. Al Knott's voice is GREAT.

Rusty and Pearl's interactions are cute, they kinda remind me of miis in Tomodachi Life if that makes sense? (Which is admittedly both a positive and a negative to me but still)

I know it's a bop but honestly I'm happy about Dinah's Disco being cut. It never made sense (Since when has Dinah cared about whistling? She could have a thousand other reasons to not want to race with Electra, and whistling was always Pearl's thing) and it had this weird moment of coded transphobia that always made me uncomfortable when otherwise Dinah is one of my favorite characters.

It sounds like Slick Oil is in the role of Post-2018 Bochum Caboose, and it's hard to say with such limited information still, but I feel like I'm not gonna dislike Slick Oil nearly as much, because it doesn't feel like they're pretending to be a character they're not, if that makes sense? Like, they still have Wide Smile but hopefully (and probably) the lyrics have been changed enough to make it feel more distinct.

I love all the coaches' designs, especially the blue and pink checkered one (which I'm GUESSING is Dinah but I'm not 100% sure).

Also Momma's design. She looks great.

In general I can best describe the costumes as "growing on me." I said these would be my positive thoughts, so: I like the colors and the holographic and shiny materials, and for the most part I like the silhouettes. I don't think it's strictly necessary that they look like real train cars, same way it's not necessary that the cats in Cats look like real cats (even if I prefer it when they do).

I love Control (and their bedroom!) being on stage. They cast several kids as Control, and I'm guessing that's so that none of them have to work too many nights in a row.

Coda of Freight is one of my favorite songs, glad to see it there.

I'm excited to find out more about Hydra! Their song sounds very threatening! But honestly I'm here for it!

[bellesdomain]

Latest news from London rehearsals... more characters! * Green Arrow * Orange Flash * Golden Eagle * Blue Lightning * Silver Bullet = enough ensemble engines to run full races, two heats, four competitors in each! Also, Silver Bullet has replaced Grey Wolf, which is a relief. Blue Lightning vs Blue Horizon, Horizon felt slightly more creative a name, but no big difference.

We also have confirmation of Electra's components being Killerwatt, male (bass) Volta, Wrench and Joule.

Also singing bass is "Hydra". I initially misread and thought we had a new name for Killerwatt, but no. We're short named Freight, with Porter, Lumber and Slick Oil being all we know so far. To stage the song "Freight", to my mind you absolutely need a minimum of four in each train, so the most logical assumption is that Hydra is another freight car. I'm still hoping for some sign of characters who could sing "Right Place, Right Time", but so far I'm not sure. Seems fair to assume that the role of Dustin has been renamed. The train-crashing villain cannot sing "Right Place, Right Time", nor can the heavy truck that believes in Rusty to race in the final. My thought is the number is simply cut, and we won't have break-dancers with a grim view on life. But I'd love to be wrong.

"Slick Oil" is confirmed to be in "One Rock'n'Roll Too Many" alongside Greaseball and Electra - I'm assuming the character is an oil tanker, and taking on the role of chaotically crashing trains, an oil tanker deliberately creating oil spills has some logic to it. Does confirm that Red Caboose as such, is out of the show. Slick Oil is played by Emily Martinez.

While this is what we can glean from the current situation, they're still more than a month away from opening. Lots can change between now and then.

[lastritesbish]

Now we need to expand on the life of the Greaseball-Dinah-and small child beginning with F (I forgot her name I’m sorry, I know it’s two syllables and begins with an F 😭) family. We also probably need to give them a surname so I don’t have to phrase it like this each time

fairbury!! its like. fairy but with a bu added in there

also u r right !!! greasey and dinah still race, just with fairbury cheering them on from the sidelines!! shes rather clingy, so aside from that, shes always with one of her mothers. she has anxiety about being away from them, and she also depends on one of them to help hold her up so she doesn't fall.

all the coaches and other rolling stock in their yards are pretty used to having a little engine toddling around, especially belle and tassita. and they're also all used to the random piles of diesel left on the ground, thrown up by yours truly. she also really admires rusty, and how steamers can whistle- much to greaseballs chagrin. but she supports fairbury interacting with others, as shes really the only child and needs people to talk to.

with fairburys exsistance, greaseball has softened incredibly so over the years. shes rather soft now, yet will deny that like her life depends on it. fairbury and dinah know the truth, and will snicker together at greasy denials. dinah and fairbury also like to bake together and stroll around!!