#road freight tracking

[postkodes]

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[buff-electra-truther]

I think Dinah/Electra is my unship. Not a NOTP I hate, just a dynamic where it’s fascinating to explore just how they DON’T fit. They’re just kind of incompatible in canon but it goes a lot deeper when you consider irl train context. I tend to picture Dinah as an older steam-heated dining car geared towards looong multi-day cross-country luxury trains, which goes hand in hand with a 30s-50s era diesel streamliner like Greaseball…. but is basically mutually exclusive with a semi-modern (70s-80s era) electric engine who barely had any overnight routes in their territory. There’s the likes of the Night Owl and that’s about it for the electrified northeast, and those trains usually had cafe/buffet type cars. Plus Electra would almost certainly have Head-End Power and be literally unable to keep Dinah warm at night, which is how I like to spin her being so fixated on whistling lol (Greaseball is old enough to definitely have a heating boiler for that use).

Electra is more oriented towards fast intercity service vs old-school land cruises and she’d get so aggravated by them starting/stopping so frequently and rapidly, rushing her on things that take time, and not appreciating the plusher finer touches of things. Meanwhile Electra would just go “plz no more” halfway through a five course meal, get annoyed when expected to be calm and pleasant and dutiful vs quick and efficient, and go ballistic at the idea of plodding along the rails that long and fussing with a so many formalities.

I think they’d have similar incompatibilities with most sleeping cars since a lot of them are either rooted in or directly from that era and philosophy. One of the reasons night trains became rare in Europe was faster daytime intercity trains taking their place. Buffy would be a solid partner though, canonically I think they both know exactly what they’re getting into (hot and cheap and quick), and some kind of snack/cafe/buffet car is bog standard on intercity trains.

[zipaworld1]

Inland transport plays a vital role in the supply chain by moving goods from ports and production facilities to their final destinations. It utilizes multiple modes, including trucks, trains, and barges, to provide flexibility and efficiency. Effective inland transport minimizes delays, cuts costs, and improves the overall reliability of deliveries. By integrating with maritime and air transport, it ensures a smooth and cohesive logistics process, crucial for meeting market demands and maintaining customer satisfaction.

[oshawottarchive]

[Pt 2] [Pt 3] [Pt 4]

I’m angry so you guys get a bunch of incorrect quotes now <3 might draw some of them later

————

Etho: What is it called when you kill a friend?

Bdubs: Homicide

Tango: Murder

Skizz: Homie-cide

————

————

Tango: I just want someone to take me out

Skizz: On a date?

Bdubs: With a sniper gun?

Etho: Both if you’re not a coward

————

————

Bdubs: A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

Skizz: An optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel

Tango: A realist sees a freight train

Etho: The train driver sees three idiots standing on the tracks

————

————

Grian: You know, Joel gives Etho flowers every day, I wish you’d do that too

Scar: Okay

*later*

Scar: *gives Etho flowers*

Etho: ???

Scar: I don’t know, I’m confused too

————

————

Joel: I love you

Etho: *not paying attention* What was that?

Joel: I said I’m selling you to the ZOO

————

————

Scar and Grian: McDonald’s! McDonald’s! McDonald’s!

Skizz: We have food at home

Impulse: *pulls into the McDonald’s drive through*

Scar and Grian: YAYYY

Impulse: *orders one black coffee and leaves*

————

————

Skizz: *teaching Grian how to drive* Okay, you’re driving and Impulse and Scar walk into the road. What do you hit?

Grian: Oh, definitely Scar, I could never hurt Impulse

Skizz: The breaks, Grian. You hit the breaks

————

————

Cleo: All in all, a 100% successful trip

Joe: But we lost Jevin

Cleo: Exactly

————

————

Jevin: Will Joe be okay?

Cleo: He won’t be once I find him

————

————

Mumbo: *setting down a card* Ace of spades

Cleo: *pulling out an Uno card* +4

Hypno: *pulling out a Pokémon card* Jolteon, I choose you!

Xisuma: *trembling* What are we playing??

————

————

Tango: *laying in bed* Get out of my room

Zedaph: *standing just inside the doorframe* I’m not in your room

————

————

Pearl: That’s it, you’re all grounded!

Pearl: Mumbo, no adventuring for you! Bdubs, no fighting for you! Scar, no stealing for you!

Pearl: And Joel. . . Is there anything you love?

Joel: Revenge

Pearl: No vengeance for you

Joel: I was gonna say “I’ll get you for this”, but I guess that’s off the table

————

————

Tango and Skizz: *accidentally set the kitchen on fire*

Tango: We need an adult!

Skizz: Tango, WE’RE adults!

Tango: We need an adultier adult, get Impulse!

————

————

Skizz: Dipple-Dop? I mixed redbull with coffee and now I can see sounds

Impulse: Skizz, I swear to god—

————

————

Scott: *sighs*

Martyn: Are you bored?

Scott: Yeah

Martyn: Wanna start drama for no reason?

Scott: I thought you’d never ask

————

————

Etho: *looking at a map* It’s a barren, featureless wasteland out there, isn’t it…

Impulse: Other side, Etho

————

————

Joel: Pros and cons of dating me

Joel: Pros, you’ll be the cute one

Joel: Cons, holy shit where do I begin—

————

————

Scott: Being gay isn’t a choice. It’s a game and I’m winning

————

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Joel: I think we should have glowstick juice injected into our bones when we’re born, so if we break our bones, we get a fun little surprise

Jevin: What’s the surprise?

False: Blood poisoning

————

————

Pearl: I’m going to get myself some soup

Gem: Be careful not to burn yourself, it’s hot

Pearl: Pfft, I won’t burn myself

*30 seconds later*

Pearl: Gem I burned myself

————

Expect more… sometime idk

[railwayhistorical]

Bozeman, Montana

I was shocked today to see an image of the Bozeman passenger station falling into disrepair. I have two images of the station in better times—when Amtrak's North Coast Hiawatha still ran.

In my shots here we first see an eastbound Burlington Norther freight on the former Northern Pacific line, and then the Amtrak passenger trains arrives. I would ride the NCH between Bozeman and Milwaukee.

[Being a locomotive geek, I see that the BN GP9 on point is a former Northern Pacific engine, running on home rails, built in 1957. The power for the passenger train is a relatively new F40PH built in October of 1977, just shy of two years old.] It should be said that this Amtrak train was named in honor of earlier passenger trains on both the Milwaukee Road and the Northern Pacific—as its long journey would use the tracks of those two railroads. The train operated for Amtrak between 1971 and 1979. Again, sorry to see the station falling into disrepair. I hope it is saved and that passenger trains return to the line. Two images by Richard Koenig—made in August of 1979.

[whirligig-girl]

Commission for @trydianth of Entrapta operating tiny trains (since she loves tiny food so much!)

Image ID: Entrapta from She-Ra is grinning and fiddling with some train cars on her model train set. Entrapta is a tan-skinned woman with pink hair in large prehensile tentacle-like pony tails. Her regular hands are on the train layout table but she’s messing with the train cars with her hair. She’s also using her hair to control the model railway’s power transformer, which is hooked up to a First One’s crystal. The train layout contains a yard with three sidings with five freight cars and a purple tank engine. It also contains a loop that goes back and forth between a simplistic diorama of dark purple Dryll castle on the left and of Brightmoon castle on the left, with a small diorama of the Whispering Woods’ dark blue trees in the foreground. There’s a spur track that runs off-screen with the ominous reddish glow of the Fright Zone. A pretty streamlined tan, white, and gold train is coming from that line. On the loop line near Entrapta is seven freight cars and a scary looking military-green diesel with a Horde insignia. End Image ID.

Under the cut are some detail close-ups and artist’s notes.

Flatbed of First Ones Tech, FZR Boxcar, two unnamed vans, a refrigerated Salineas Fisheries boxcar, an unnamed tank wagon, a gondola of snow from the Kingdom of Snows, a Fred Pelhay Coal Co. truck for some reason, a Plumeria Products boxcar, and a Freight Zone Rail Road boxcar with graffiti reading She-Ra was Here.

A Freight Zone Rail locomotive and an old industrial shunter tank engine from Dryll Quarry.

Bright Moon Railway’s cab-forward streamliner, coming from the Fright Zone. Does that make sense? Perhaps not, but I hasten to remind the viewer that this is just Entrapta’s toy model.

I definitely put more detail into this than I intended to! It was going to be a lot simpler, but by the time I got to drawing and then perspective-skewing an actual model railway layout with sidings and switches I realized this was going to take a while. I wasn’t quite sure what to do for the engine visual style. At first the locomotive positioned next to the Dryll tank engine was going to be a big Dryllian steam engine, but I decided it’d be better to show a big scary Horde diesel.

I used steam engines for the good guys and a diesel for the bad guys soley and completely because i am thomas the tank engine-brained because I just like the look of steam engines! There’s no realistic reason why there should be steam traction in Etheria, rather than something entirely magical--but then, steam engines just look better in fantasy settings in my opinion! I can justify it, after-the-fact though: magic is everywhere in Etheria, but it can’t be harnessed by everyone (during the events of the series). Sometimes transportion has to be done through mundane means. And it’s not like we see any big power plants on Etheria, so electricity is out. Entrapta’s one of the only people who uses first one’s tech to power her inventions--otherwise we see no powerplants in Dryll. So. Wood or coal or magic-crystal powered steam engines! Yipee!

Obviously they’re all electric powered in this model, though.

[20th-century-railroading]

Duplainville crossing

On the afternoon of July 29, 1997, a southbound Wisconsin & Southern freight, led by former Southern Pacific EMD GP20 No. 4118, is about to thunder over the diamond at Duplainville, Wisconsin. In the background on the Soo Line’s former Milwaukee Road double-track main line is Wisconsin Central train 47, waiting at the connection track signal to head north on the WC main after the WSOR train clears the plant.

[louisupdates]

The Habit He Can’t Break 4/4

IQ 123 | Gordon Masson | 9.11.2023

If I Could Fly

With the production traveling to Australia, in early 2024, before shifting to Latin America, Andy Lovell at Freight Minds is gearing up to become involved with Tomlinson once again.

“We did the Central and South America dates on the tour last year, and onto Mexico,” says Lovell. “It was very challenging back then as we were still coming back from Covid, and various systems and infrastructure were in pieces. But it all went well in the end, as we kept an eye on things and worked on it every day to make sure we had solutions to everything that was thrown our way.”

Lovell continues, “Things on this tour kick in early next year for us. Historically, Australian services were quite reliable, as we could use any number of airlines. But post-pandemic, the number of long-haul flights still aren’t as frequent as they were. As a result, the production is being reverse engineered with the budget being worked out before we can see what we can afford to take as freight, and then we try to plan accordingly.”

“Similarly, in Central and South America there are still just a fraction of the flights operating, compared to pre-Covid, so that makes it very challenging. If there aren’t the flights to handle the gear, then you have to start looking at chartering aircraft, or alter your schedule, and that can become very expensive, very fast.”

With everyone working on the artist’s behalf to make sure the tour remains on track, being able to call on such experienced production experts is paying off on a daily basis.

Sherwood notes, “There are a few back-to-back shows over long distances that occasionally mean we don’t arrive at the next venue until 11 AM, rather than 6 AM. But we’ve never failed anywhere to open the doors on time, so we know we’re capable of getting things done, even if we have a late start at mid-day.”

Such dilemmas are not lost on agent Rowland. “It’s not so much the routing, it’s more like the timings, because Louis does have two support acts, so the shows start at 7 o’clock, and then when we’re done, we need to load out to get to the next show in good time for loading in the next morning and soundchecks, etc.”

Nevertheless, Sherwood admits that he loves the trickier venues and schedules. “Because I’m a dinosaur, I relish anything that makes things difficult or awkward for us on the production side of things,” he says. “I think everyone on the crew looks forward to challenges in finding the solutions to problems.”

Common People

Having amassed millions of fans through his association with One Direction, Tomlinson very much has a ‘pay it forward’ attitude to music and is building a reputation as a champion for emerging talent, wherever he performs.

“He’s a great advocate for alternative music,” says manager Vines. “Louis realizes he’s in an incredibly privileged position in terms of what he can create in terms of awareness. He loves alternative music and indie music, and he understands how hard it is for that music to be heard. But we have this amazing platform where we can put these bands in front of these audiences as a showcase that allows them to build these authentic new audiences. It’s a huge part of his love of music, wanting to help younger bands.”

Rowland agrees. “He took an act called Andrew Cushin - a very new artist – on the road in America with him as a support, and he’s doing the same for Europe. Louis is a fan and is championing his career.”

Indeed, Tomlinson’s A&R skills have knock-on effects for his agent, too. “He asked me to confirm the Australian band Pacific Avenue as support for his Australian tour last year. The music was great, and they didn’t have an agent, so now I’m representing them,” says Rowland.

Perfect Now

As the European tour speeds towards its conclusion, agent Rowland is enjoying every minute of it.

“It’s incredible – they’ve really stepped things up,” she says, fresh from seeing the show in Athens and Paris. “They’ve got six hanging LED screens on the stage, and the whole production just looks polished and professional.”

And Rowland is especially excited about next year’s Latin America dates, which will deliver her first stadium shows as an agent. 

“The return to Latin America is going to be huge – Louis is playing arenas and stadiums in South America and Mexico 15 shows across 11 countries,” she says. 

Vines is similarly enthused. Harking back to the Covid situation, when the show would go on sale, sell out, be postponed, and then re-scheduled in a bigger venue, Vines says, “For example, in Chile, originally the show was scheduled at a 5,000-cap, half-capacity arena in Santiago. And what we ended up doing with three nights at 10,000-cap in that same venue.”

Vines contends that Tomlinson’s work ethic is outstanding. “He loves his fans, and he loves performing for them, it’s as simple as that,” he says. “He just loves being on the road and seeing how the songs connect live. In fact, the second album was very much written with the tour and live shows in mind – ‘This song could work live,’ ‘This one will open the set,’ ‘This is the one we can do for the encore.’”

Fearless

Another element to Tomlinson’s psyche has been his decision to visit places off the usual tour circuit.

“Louis has a real desire to perform to fans in markets that are often overlooked,” says Rowland.

Manager Vines explains that while the Covid-delayed first tour allowed them to upgrade venues pretty much everywhere, “On this tour, we are a bit more competent on venue sizes, but we still speculate a little bit in different territories. In Europe, for example, we’ve gone into the Baltics in a number of different places to test the markets there, while in America, we’re looking at A and B markets, but also tertiary market as well – we go to places where people just don’t tour in America, just to see what the reaction is. That was something that very much interested Louis - to play in front of people who don’t normally have gigs in their town. So there’s been a lot of experimentation on the tour in terms of where we go and what room to play.”

That concept is something that Vines has employed before. “I manage a band called Hurts, who were pretty much overlooked by the British radio system, and we have spent 15 years building a business outside of the UK. And that was built on going to play at those places where people didn’t normally go. They built to multiple arena level in Russia, for instance.”

“If you can build fanbases in lots of different places, you have festivals that you can play every summer, as well as touring those places. It allows you to have more consistency over a number of years, by having more opportunities.”

Such a strategy found a convert in Tomlinson. Vines tells IQ, “Louis also is extremely fan-focused in everything that he does. He comes at it from a perspective of ‘I want to take the show to them,’ meaning he’s always more willing to take the risky option to try something out.”

And the result? “It’s a combination,” concludes Vines. “There have been a couple of places where we now understand why tours don’t go there. But there are more places where it’s worked incredibly well. For example, we enjoyed incredibly good sales in Budapest. And overall, it’s allowing us to get a clearer idea, globally, of where the demand is, which will help us when we go into the next tour cycle.”

1/4, 2/4, 3/4

[ripchaos69]

SCP incorrect quotes time

SCP-1879: A pessimist sees a dark tunnel.  SCP-1471: An optimist sees light at the end of the tunnel.  SCP-5045: A realist sees a freight train.  SCP-2030: The train driver sees three idiots standing on the tracks. 

SCP-2030: SCP-1879, you risked your life to save me!  SCP-1879: And I’d do it again! And perhaps a third time! But that would be it. 

SCP-5094: Who's in charge here?  SCP-5045, shrugging: Usually whoever yells the loudest. 

SCP-5094: I think I need a hug...  SCP-2030: Good thing I'm hug shaped!  *45 minutes later*  SCP-5094: You... you can let go now.  SCP-2030: No, I absolutely cannot. 

SCP-1879: Hey, SCP-5054. Why did the chicken cross the road?  SCP-5045: To get to the other side?  SCP-1879: You were supposed to say “I dunno, why?“  SCP-5045: Uh... fine. I don’t know. Why did it cross the road?  SCP-1879: To get to the idiot’s house.  SCP-5045: ...Ok?  SCP-4166: Hey, SCP-5054. Knock knock.  SCP-5045: No.  SCP-4166: You were supposed to say “who’s there?”  SCP-5045: Fine... let’s get this over with. Who’s there?  SCP-4166: The chicken.  SCP-5045: SCP-1879: SCP-4166: SCP-5045: Listen here you little shits-

SCP-5094: I have a problem.  SCP-1471: Kill it.  SCP-5094: Can you chill for like, two seconds? 

SCP-5094: You three, explain right now!  SCP-2030: It was SCP-1471.  SCP-4166: It was SCP-1471.  SCP-1879: It was SCP-1471.  SCP-1471: SCP-1471: …fuck. 

SCP-1471: What happened to your nose?  SCP-1879: I used it to break some guy's fist. 

SCP-2030: *Game show voice* Time for your favorite game, guess what problems I have today! Is it insomnia? Is it depression? Anxiety? The urge to murder? Lack of appetite?  SCP-5049: I’m going to go with… Anxiety, maybe with a little bit of feeling like shit?  SCP-2030: Congratulations SCP-5049, you win a million dollars and a will to live that I never had!

SCP-1879: I thought I told you to stop reading my emails.  SCP-1471: Well, I thought I told you to stop keeping secrets!

SCP-2030: Sometimes I like to place my hands on someone’s cheeks, look into their eyes...  SCP-2030: ...And violently jerk their head until it snaps.  SCP-4166: ...That took an unexpected turn.  SCP-1471: So did their neck.

[distant--shadow]

re: last post- watching poison vids or his appearances on shy's makes me wanna write a story about 2 tboys travelling across countries together trainsurfing and camping and maybe more🥴

road trip? broke. catching freights and leaving their monikers like little diary entries on public transport and running from authority and constantly in fear of being caught? yum

"what if we had to cozy up on a low open bed under a shipping container and hold onto eachother as the train tracks rush by beneath? 👉👈"

[hbosscreations]

Fixing Hellblazer: Dead in America

Apparently I'm not doing being negative today, so I'm going to channel my bullshit into fixing things.

Let me tell you a bit about me. I love bad horror movies. I LOVE horror movies that aren't great, but you can see how they COULD be great under different circumstances. My favorite thing to do for years was take a movie that wasn't good and think about what needed to be done to fix it.

Dead in America actually has a pretty simple fix that would help with the rewrite. You'd have to rewrite the whole thing, this draft isn't salvagable, but if you really want to tell the story about American Racism, it's such an easy fix, I don't know why they didn't do it in the first place.

Make Noah Ikumelo the main character.

Seriously. That's the big change.

Maybe he's not the focal character for the entire 11 issue run, but have him be the perspective of at least one issue instead of the random racists that keep getting their stories told like we're supposed to care about them.

Issue 1: Flee

Tommy is dead, K-Mag is dead, they're on the run, and John says 'well, I've got friends in America who could help us out'.

Noah's scared, Nat's scared, John seems to have a plan. So, they're off to America with no money, no papers, nothing but the clothes on their backs.

It's okay at first, John's magic lets him manipulate people a bit, gets them through security checks and keeps them fed, but it's definitely not enough to keep them safe forever.

Noah has a bunch of exposition he gives about being black in the UK, about being disabled, about his feelings about his mother (being a cop, being in a coma, being weird about magic).

How he has always felt unheard until John came into the picture and saw him.

They're traveling, the fear starts to wear off, Noah realizes they've fled the country and his mother is alone.

Where's his gran? This is a point to show flashbacks. Maybe she's not mentally all there? Maybe Noah has been sleeping on John's couch. Maybe he's been learning magic during the months we don't see in the original run. Not a lot, John tells him that he likes that Noah's not really involved in this shit.

Until the murder dreams, when Noah starts getting a crash course in magic and hasn't had a chance to think about anything except John and his stupid plans.

The issue ends with them on the freight ship they stowed away on approaching the docks. They've arrived in port, and it's time to leave. John puts his hand on the double decker bus and reassures them both that he's got this. He's got a plan, and things are going to be okay.

He looks fondly at Noah, and Noah wonders if he can trust that face. Can he believe John?

He doesn't really have a choice, does he?

Issue 2: Where is everyone?

This issue is mostly from John's perspective and his narrating voice takes control again.

John reaches out to old contacts. They're gone. Dead or never existed in the first place. No capes and cowls in this universe. Just magic, divinity, and damnation.

They're fucked.

Meanwhile, Noah and Nat both realize that they're being treated differently than John is. Both have experienced different types of prejudice based on race, gender, disability, and now there's an extra layer of it. The American layer that the story really wants to talk about.

John gets a little, but it's pretty clear that people are generally cooler with a blond haired, blue eyed, white man with an accent than they are with Noah's lack of speaking and Nat's heavy Glaswegian accent.

There's a level of cruelty that makes being trapped in another country, unable to call anyone and tell them that you're alive, unable to know if your family is safe, unable to know if you were even a suspect in the crimes committed, extra fucky.

John's contacts he'd normally call are all of touch the easy way.

So, fine. If he can't call them, he'll go to their usual haunts and track them that way.

Hence, road trip.

This leads into the actual comic scene where John is in St. Augustine, Florida and talking to the statue.

You can still have the Girl Scout come and be cryptic and cruel, have John losing his shit over the fact that he's damned Noah to hell.

(Or we can include my favorite headcanon that Noah was supposed to be a tulpa designed to distract John. I don't know if it would work here, but a story about a kid literally designed to be a sponge for prejudice and cruelty might be a mirror this story about racism could play with. It would need a MUCH more competent writer than me and at least two sensitivity readers.)

Noah wants to pull over for a hitchhiker, they've got the space and he's kind, but John cautions him that America is VERY different from London. We learn that Noah has not traveled much outside of his home city if at all because of his mother's profession and then her coma, leaving him in the care of his gran, who lived on the estate and therefore didn't really have much in the ability or desire to go far.

The dream with Dream still happens, which gives us a nice connection to the previous story as well as John's whole...being dead thing. They're looking for the sand, they're looking for friendly faces, they're looking for magic in a world that John quickly realizes is GASPING and DYING.

Because the multiverse still got punched in the dick by Tim Hunter, and while this world hasn't been hit by him specifically, it's feeling some of the multiversal repercussions of an apocalypse that massive.

And John doesn't have the power to get them out of this while he's a corpse. The longer he rots, the weaker he gets.

Dream gives his orders. John agrees.

They wake up, Noah is being threatened by the cop because he's black and driving a bus. We don't make it about the cop being too stupid to know what a bus is this time, instead, we make it because the bus looks strange and 'why is a black boy driving a bus unless he stole it? obviously he's a thief and he's refusing to speak out of disrespect'.

That fucking sucks, but it also works more to the actual threat of racism in the US. The OTHERING. They're dangerous because they're OTHER. They're lesser because they're OTHER.

Nat keeps the cop's gun after he's frozen. She's freaked. Noah's freaked.

John calmly tells them the spell won't last forever and they need to drive. Nat goes to the wheel and we watch Noah sneak up to the upper level and cry.

John watches from the stairs until he's sure Noah is asleep. He doesn't know how to offer this particular kid comfort, how to offer to hold him without revealing his death or just being too attached.

We see him put his coat over the boy as a symbol of protection. He brushes a hand over Noah's head and asks Dream to look out for the kid.

"I know you're pissed at me and I don't really have the right to ask, but hasn't he had enough nightmares for now?"

Noah's dream about all the horrible things he's processing from the previous issue, the previous run, and that night melt into something more pleasant. Maybe the groundwork for him learning John is his father.

John is back with Nat as she's driving. She's angry. The conversation from the original issue can stay and be expanded on. John tries to comfort her, tries to ease the tension, and it eventually works.

She gets what he's doing, even if he's not doing a good job.

This is a Classic John Constantine who cares about other people but isn't necessarily good at showing it.

The sun starts to rise.

"Where the fuck are we going now? We're a target in this thing, John, and that cop's gonna call us in."

John reassures that they're fine and he's got a new plan.

Most of the hero types don't exist now, but that's fine. He's started to tap into the multiversal memories that he'd repressed in the 2019 issue, and he's pretty sure that he's got a friend who will exist in this universe, even if people like Zatanna and Superman don't.

After all, the Green is a multiversal constant.

This leads into the ending of the original issue 1, with the swamp being filled in and turned into a golf course.

And that ends issue 2.

I don't know if I want to invest energy into re-imagining the entire run, and I suspect that would require the run to be finished before I can properly fix anything except the opening. If you actually read this...sorry about the way it's written, this was all just thought to typing, so it has 0 polish.

I think this is a series that could have worked under different circumstances. I think there are elements here that are good, but this was clearly not written with any real oversight or a coherent story beforehand.

I would have loved for them to learn magic on the bus. Scenes of Nat and Noah picking up spells, Nat teaching Noah the proper way to throw a punch that won't fuck up his hands. Noah being REALLY good at making sure they all manage to eat properly (I am deeply invested in this child shoving oranges into people's hands because 'do you want scurvy?').

A scene of John teaching Nat sign language while Noah slept because he's already so isolated and they all need to take care of each other. Nat forcing John to drive, only for him to hit a car and immediately switch back to her driving. Nat reading a novel aloud to keep Noah awake while they drive at night.

Basically, we need to make them seem like they're actual people who actually spend all of their time trapped together.

Also, does John eat? How have they noticed that he doesn't eat? Does he sweat? If he showers, does that damage his skin and hair, since he's apparently molding at the start of the series?

[postkodes]

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[incognito-princess]

My neighborhood is next to freight railroad tracks and then there's a narrow strip of land that can't be developed, and then a state highway, and then a strip of land with stores and a restaurants and a walmart, and then a creek.

But guess what! In the no-man's-land strip between the tracks and the highway lives a very successful colony of PRAIRIE DOGS!!! Yes! Prairie Dogs- the meerkat of the American West! So yes, sometimes you have to go to Walmart (boo) but then when you're leaving and waiting for the light to change you get to see Prairie Dogs!!!!

Occasionally one will run out into the road and that's not good, but the crows also have babies to feed. And in the Autumn we have the turkey buzzard migrations, so... circle of life!!!

[merpmonde]

Schwarzwaldbahn Erlebnispfad

or the Black Forest Railway Adventure Trail!

The railway through Triberg climbs the hill opposite the waterfalls we covered yesterday, to get out of the Gutach valley and proceed to Villingen. But inclines are notoriously difficult for trains, as metal-on-metal contact yields little friction, so, like many other modes of transport, whether roads or even footpaths, the railway weaves its way up... but on a larger scale, as trains aren't as maneuverable!

The result is this loopy section between Hornberg and Sommerau, 11 km apart in a straight line, but the railway is 26 km long! It climbs 447 m at an average gradient of 1.7% (which, again, for a train, is hard work), and with over 30 tunnels to get through the irregular terrain. Today, an "Adventure Trail" complements the route opposite Triberg, providing hikers with amazing viewpoints and some chances to get close to the tracks.

Of course, this climb for hikers is far, far steeper! The route I took started with a strenuous 15% over 700 m. One would be very happy to find this bench after that climb - Liegewagen meaning "sleeper car"!

The trail has stations with information boards about various aspects of the railway, and, at the viewpoints, the timetable! Perhaps a bit of a downer is that there isn't a huge amount of traffic: just two DB Regio trains per hour (presumably the ones you came in on), one InterCity train at weekends, no high-speed ICEs, no freight. But the views more than make up for the low variety, and, at a decent pace, it is possible to be at a viewpoint for each passage and not miss one.

Most regional trains on this section of the Schwarzwaldbahn are push-pull sets with Dosto carriages - that's short for Doppelstockwagen, or double-deck. The end carriage seen above is a (deep breath)... DBpbzfa 766, each letter being short for some technical info allowing rail workers to know at a glance what they're dealing with: D is for double-deck, B second-class seating, p has air conditioned coach rooms (as opposed to compartments), b has wheelchair accessibility, z has a centralised electrical installation, f has a driving cab, and finally a means that the driver can operate the doors alone. 766 is the series number. These Dosto sets are usually driven by Baureihe 146 locomotives.

All in all, the Erlebnispfad can take up most of an afternoon (I completed the circuit in around 3 hours), it was a very satisfying walk and experience to be able to make the most of each vantage point. There are some other attractions along the route that I haven't mentioned - probably a short post tomorrow. For people who like hiking and trains, this trail at Triberg is worth doing!

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Catching Out: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.8k

Summary: Spencer has his suspicions about your parents but you refuse to even listen to him. There is nothing going on with your parents... right? No, they’re normal parents that are just overprotective of you. Spencer is just being paranoid.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: So, I know in previous episodes I had mentioned the reader's birthday is in February, but I forgot that when I wrote this episode. I have decided to change it to April since I've also based some other episodes around her birthday being in April. So, from now on, the reader's birthday is now in April.

I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

The nearest train tracks around the Modesto home are only a mile away, given it's close enough for the unsub to get off the train and watch the couple he killed for a few nights. There are freight haulers at the train station, and they are willing to talk to you, Derek, Emily, and Rossi when you arrive.

"The guy we're looking for is using freight trains to get around. He targets homes within a mile of the tracks," Derek says after he explained what's going on.

"Bulls and 'bos don't usually cross paths."

"Bulls and 'bos?"

"They call rail cops bulls. We call them 'bos, as in hobos."

"You're saying you rarely see hobos around here?" Rossi asks.

"I see them plenty. To tell you the truth, I'm nothing more than an armed scarecrow. When they see me coming, they get the hell away. Their biggest problem is with each other. If you get two of them in one boxcar, it usually gets ugly."

"So, if a 'bo jumps off one of these trains in a new town, is there someplace he goes first?"

"The jungle. That's what they call the camps. A local one's a couple of hundred yards that way," the man points to where it is.

"Do you happen to have a vending machine in here?"

"Yeah."

Rossi thinks if he has food for them, then they might be willing to tell them what they want to know. Your phone rings, and you step off to the side and answer your boyfriend.

"Where are you?" he asks.

"We're just off Highway 99. We just got done talking to the freight haulers. I think I'm going to drive back up to you and leave them down here. Though, I can tell this area is nothing but crops. There are neighborhoods on one side, and the other are all crops."

"They are farmlands. You can't see that from standard road maps."

"The railway track runs parallel to Highway 99 most of the way. I think I'm seeing a lot of what the unsub saw."

"Most of central California is one big valley. It's a flat basin surrounded by mountain ranges on all sides, supported by rivers, lakes, and aqueducts. It's ideal for farming."

"Well, I don't know what it gets us, but I think we should at least factor it into the conversation."

"I agree."

"I'll see you in about an hour." You hang up on him and approach Rossi who has a couple of candy bars in his hand. "I think I'm going to drive up to Sacramento. You two can handle it down here, right?"

"Yeah. We got it."

"I'm going to come with you," Emily says.

By the time you two get to the headquarters in Sacramento, they are ready to give the profile. Spencer told Hotch and JJ about the farmlands, so they have a better-sculpted profile to give.

"Let's get started," Hotch announces. "I'd just like to reiterate that this unsub is not getting around on Highway 99. His travels are linked near railway lines."

"He's targeted five homes and killed eight people in six weeks. We're looking for a male, indigent transient between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. He's fit enough for the physical demands of train hopping, or 'catching out' as they call it," you inform.

"He'll be bruised from jumping on and off trains, and he might also be beaten up from just defending himself in any kind of turf war. He may look homeless, but he's taking clothing from his victims' homes. So, he'll be the only transient on the tracks in clean clothing."

"The trains and the rail yards are his home. When he gets tired of these, he chooses a house to make his own," Hotch says.

"He'll have a pronounced red, dry rash around his mouth and nose. It's what's commonly referred to as a 'sniffer's rash'."

"How do you know that?"

"He takes household cleaners and sniffs them," you explain. "We believe he's abusing them as psychoactive inhalants. He'll use nail polish remover, glue, paint thinner, lighter fluid, or whatever is the cheapest high available. They're referred to as 'tollyheads' because they derive a high from sniffing toluene, a chemical solvent. Once inhaled, the effects are felt instantaneously."

"We believe he's living out a fantasy in these homes. The fantasy is that it is his house for the night. He spends hours enjoying the comforts of his victims' homes. Upon leaving, he takes clothing, money, jewelry, and small electronics. If you get close to him, you won't miss him. He will smell like a combination of human filth and paint thinner."

"Please spread this around to the other departments in neighboring cities. Thank you."

The profile is disbanded, and you look at JJ who takes a seat tiredly. She places a hand on her stomach, and both you and Spencer walk over to her.

"Are you okay?" you ask and sit next to her.

"He's kicking a lot today," she chuckles.

"In the third trimester, there's an average of thirty fetal movements per hour. Babies kick to explore movement and strengthen muscle," Spencer explains.

"Have you ever actually felt a baby kick?" When he shakes his head, she grabs his hand and places it over the area where her son is moving. "Do you feel that?"

"Doesn't that freak you out?"

"No, not at all. Why? Does it freak you out?"

"Very much so."

"Okay, I see how it is," you nod.

Spencer looks at you with a weird expression, but you don't say anything more about it. You and JJ lock eyes, and she knows exactly what you're thinking. JJ's phone rings, and she answers it when she sees it's Penelope.

"Hey, Garica."

"Bad news alert."

"Hold on a second," you tell her. "Guys!" Hotch, the detective in charge, and Emily walk in when you call them. "Go ahead."

"Earlier, I had Garcia look into all unsolved burglary homicides in central California while paying particular attention to small farm towns."

"I found his DNA in three more cities."

"How did I miss this?" the detective sighs.

"Small towns don't always link their evidence up to state or national DNA databases. It can happen when unsubs cross jurisdictional lines."

"What are the cities, Pen?" you ask.

"Tehachapi, Vacaville, and Orange Cove. They're all farm towns, and all super far away from Highway 99."

"Thanks, Garcia. Could you look into the farm life surrounding those areas? The sales of the crops, maybe?"

"I'll hit you back when I have more."

JJ gets up and waddles over to the fan that is blasting. The air conditioner must either be out or not working well. Being pregnant is hard enough, so you want to make this as easy as possible for her. You grab some cold water and a damp cloth and approach her with a smile.

"Here. It looks like you need it."

"Thank you."

She takes the water and gulps half of it down before placing the cloth on her forehead. You kneel next to her chair and look at her stomach with a smile.

"May I?"

"Of course."

You place your hand on her stomach, and she moves it to the spot where her son is kicking. Your eyes light up at the feeling.

"I'm not going to lie. I kind of miss this. It was different before, of course, but when I felt my daughter kick for the first time... It didn't matter how old I was or what happened. At that moment, I felt pure joy."

"How is she doing?"

"She calls and texts me, but she has her own life. She knows I'm here if she ever needs me though. With your baby, though, I am going to be the best aunt ever. I'm going to spoil the shit out of him." You realize your mistake and smile shyly. "Sorry. I don't mean to cuss around him."

"Would you consider having babies with Spencer?"

You look behind you at Spencer and Emily, and you can't help the smile from forming on your face.

"In a heartbeat," you say truthfully. "I'd be very lucky to have his kids, and they'd be lucky to have Spencer as a dad. I can picture it now. He'd play chess with them, but our baby girl would want to play with her dolls instead. He'd read them bedtime stories and dance with them to the music on an old radio. He'd perform magic for them because they'd laugh and he'd never want to stop making them laugh."

"You're happy."

"I am. He makes me feel like I'm the only woman in the world. It's why this is so hard with my parents. My dad doesn't like him, and it hurts me. I know he'll come around eventually, but I just wish he'd get there sooner."

"It'll be alright. I know it."

Spencer looks behind him at you and JJ in thought. Emily sees the look he's giving you, so she nudges him.

"Are you considering it?"

"Considering what?"

"Having baby geniuses one day?" she smiles.

"With Y/N? In a heartbeat," he says truthfully. You two have been together for over two and a half years. He's not ready to be a dad, but he knows that one day, he'd love to have some with you. "I'd be very lucky to have kids with her one day."

Penelope calls Spencer back, and he calls in you, JJ, Hotch, and the detective.

"I've noticed in the cities, including the new ones we've discovered that there's a spike in the sales of certain crops during the time the unsub is there. In the last week of August, the apples in Tehachapi spiked. In the first week of September, the tomatoes in Bakersfield rose. In the second week of September, the fall squashes in Fresno were high."

"He's in town whenever there is a big harvest. If this unsub is riding trains from town to town during big harvests who doesn't have a car or permanent residence, then we're looking at a migrant farm worker."

There is news of another murder close to where you are, so you quickly head over there. The murder is still fresh, so the victims are still lying on the ground in their bedroom. You can't look at the victims without seeing the unsub beating them over and over again.

"He left a shirt on his male victim again," Hotch says.

"That's not all he left." Spencer holds up the newspaper that was printed a couple of days ago. The headline reads 'Modesto Couple Victims of Highway 99 Killer'. "This was printed before we released to the press he's using trains to get around."

"He's taunting us, telling us he's smarter than we are because we got his mode of transportation wrong. The more confident he gets, the more he's experimenting with his ritual."

"The first few murders were five to eight days apart. This one was just one day since Modesto. If we don't find him soon, he's killing another couple tonight."

"Okay, this couple is Hispanic. The previous couples were Caucasian. He switched his victim profile," you say.

"I don't think he knows or cares what race they were. I think this house was just an easy target."

Spencer's phone rings, and he places them on speakerphone.

"Yeah?"

"So, we got something," JJ says from the office. "The jewelry stolen from the home in Sacramento turned up at a pawn shop in Modesto. Garcia just sent you a picture from the security cam. The employee said he was about 5'8", slight build, late thirties, and has dark skin with a red rash around his mouth."

"Circulate the picture, JJ," Hotch says.

"I'm already on it."

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: What big Teeth (Issue 29)

Moon Knight, Issue #29: Morning Star. 

Enter WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. 

We're going back to the start of it all. 

Also, this cover? Fucking BANGER. 

(This issue has two stories, but I'm going to cover the second shorter story in a separate post.) 

Titles page reads: 

"Jack Russell must reach Moon Knight before the full moon, before the change...And before the hooded figures can use him for their own terrible ends." 

Yesss….. It’s time to fall back to the roots of it all. A horror story. 

We open on a train yard. 

"It has been said that the train, outmoded though it may be, functions as the nations lifeline. 

But here's something else that's been said: 'As a viable mode of transport, the nation's once mighty rail system is dying a painfully slow death'

Take your pick....Then Decide where that leaves the nation. Or consider this: Here, in the twilight of an Omaha Freight yard, long lines of trains merely slumber. 

Reassuring? Nope. 

Because the peace of sleep is easily shattered." 

We see a man running for his life as people fire on him. 

"I could change... I could kill the man... But I don't want to..." He weaves through the train cars and tracks. 

"Full moon rising... Soon I won't be able to control myself... Just a little longer!" 

He jumps on a train that's starting to pull out. 

But the train moves at a crawl. 

The men move in. 

But the moon is risen and full. 

"Dusk dies. Leaving only a circle of silver to light the sky..." 

And the monster is awake. 

"First night: Darkness and the moon conspired with an ancient curse to answer my prayers --and to give me what I needed. From the shadows of the boxcar I reached out, seized the first man--and Squeezed. 

He was surprised. I felt my talons flex under the pressure. Then puncture his flesh. Blood spurted. I bared my fangs and almost howled, but not yet...not yet.

True, I'd become the werewolf again and all awareness of my human identity as Jack Russell had gone the way of my flesh... Still, I was cunning. 

Soon the hated man would be dead...But I knew there were three of them. Plenty of time to howl, so I snarled instead." 

The wolf carries on. He rips into flesh then runs. The wolf knows it needs more time. 

It makes a break into the night on the departing train. 

The remaining men rush to the station and demand to know where that train is going. 

New York City is about to get interesting. 

Back in LA, we find ourselves in a satanic cultist curch where the leader, Schuyler Belial, who also calls himself Morning Star, is giving a midnight mass sermun. 

It's typical satanist cultist stuff. 

As part of his promise to his followers is that he produce the "Beast of the Apocalypse". 

Which he was supposed to produce that night. That obviously is not going to happen. 

"You promised you'd produce the beast tonight! That's what we came for! Where is he?" 

"Ah, no--Not tonight--But soon. Soon the sign shall be manifest! And you shall see--" 

Apparently he's been promising to deliver the beast for the past year. 

It's hard to deliver a pissed off werewolf on a time schedule. 

The congregation is pretty displeased and most of them leave. This leaves Morning Star pretty riled up. 

He needs that beast and he plans to get it. 

Time to head to New york. 

You know who else is in New York? 

This page is just….It’s the heart of this comic. Lockley chilling with his friends. You got Crawley and his flowery language and oddly high insight. Jake asking how Gena and the kids are doing. Flint contacting Moon Knight through Gena’s diner… It’s perfect. 

Moon Knight meets up with flint. Flint passes along a letter marked "Super urgent" for Moon Knight. 

"Moon Knight, for past favors, please meet me tonight before 6-- Jersey countryside, old house on Deer Run Road just off Routes 27 and 63. -Jack Russell" 

Moon Knight has a flashback of him punching a werewolf. 

Yeah...that...that sounds about right. 

He makes haste but it's a half hour trip and it's already Five thirty. 

Yeah that's pretty much how it went last time too. 

"Moon Knight wasn't in time. I jumped all over him for it. When the moon is full, I have no control over myself...None! And then I splashed through glass into the night. " 

Moon Knight has his own thoughts on it. 

"Well, you may have transformed, Russell...But you sure haven't changed much since our last meeting... Still adhering to an altogether too hairy lifestyle." 

"Too late by a matter of minutes--And now instead of merely containing him, I've got to capture him." 

Moon Knight is not looking forward to this night. He's been faced with capturing him before. 

The Wolf runs for freedom, knowing the Moon Knight is after him. 

He's easily distracted at the sight of prey. 

A large stag frozen in fear before him. 

"And there HE was--A wealth of silver moonstuff itself." 

Moon Knight bursts into the clearing and startles off the stag. 

Russell gives chase. And so does Moon Knight. 

There he goes…on the ground again. He has the worst luck. 

And Moon Knight takes a hard blow to the head. 

The attacker flees and calls up Morning Star to tell him the bad news. "Moon Knight the Avenging white angel" is after the beast. 

Morning star elects to wait until Russell has changed back to human form when he is worn out and easier prey. 

Speaking of prey, the wolf has taken his own prey down and feasted well. His rage and need for the hunt quelled, he heads to a stream to wash off. 

And then the dawn broke and the man was left behind. 

"I went to sleep on my feet--standing in water." 

And just a few yards away, Moon Knight also awakens. 

They’re doing great. 

Moon Knight pulls Russell from the water. He and Frenchie take Russell back to Grant Mansion to let him rest. 

He wakes from a nightmare. 

Moon Knight asks him about the men following him. Russell believes them to be phantoms, since he can't seem to shake them. 

"...But no matter how far or fast I go, sooner or later they always show up." 

Moon Knight recalls how the cowl mic was filled with static. 

He calls in a doctor. 

Outside, down the road, the cultists wait for their chance. 

After x rays are taken they discover a chip that has been implanted in Jack's head just under the scalp. 

The doctor says he can remove it, but it will take time and time they don't have. He will have to wait till the next day to remove it. 

Moon Knight explains to Jack how he's being tracked. 

In the mean time, he does what friends do best. 

"Strap you down, lock you up, and keep watch over you throughout your werewolf phase. Right here." 

The moon rises and so does the wolf. He snaps the straps and is now loose in Grant mansion! 

Yeah...Moon Knight didn't think this one through.... 

CONTINUED NEXT TIME! 

I have to say, I love how when the wolf appears, we get the narration from the wolf’s point of view and it’s still in Russel’s voice, but more confused and more driven by the wolf. 

On a different note, I was excited to see Marvel previews for other comics popping up in the back of this issue! It means that Moon Knight has broken into the big leagues at this point and now they are advertising the more mainstream events and comics. 

There was ALSO a letter from the editor, Denny O'Neil stating that Ralph Macchio has been promoted and will be dancing up the Marvel food chain. It also talks about how the publishing schedule for Moon Knight is going to change. They can't give information yet, but the hope is to reach a larger audience. 

It's heartwarming to see how this little obscure comic started to get such a following so early on and started to grow.