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kelocitta · 2 years ago

Note

What if I want to hear your thoughts on the void worms and saint and how people see them? What then? Because now I'm curious ngl (no pressure tho)

Ah I certainly could try to get my thoughts in a row, and was sorta planning on it once I got a sideblog set up (I have it but its WIP at the moment) I can sorta cover what I primarily think though, a bit less properly thought out and in order. Warning for Downpour endings.

New addition made after I typed everything: I did not hold back this is so long. I went insane okay

*Small Note, I know Rain World is themed heavily around concepts of Buddhism and it's teachings, but for the most part I'm not really gonna invest much in that for my own thoughts on the things in it.

I'll start by saying I have a lot of complex thoughts on Saint, I don't dislike their campaign (It's neat!) but I do have hm… certain feelings on the what it communicates and how it communicates it, but I'll also say I think I interpret Rain World in a very different way than a lot of people do, or at least have a "second half" to the thoughts people tend to express, and the way Saint plays out gives me conflicted emotions from those feelings. That and with RW's inspirations its just… easy to be conflicted emotionally. Without going to far into things I guess you could say that in many ways I see Saint as a bad thing. Not really a villain but a… negative. It's complicated and I don't really have the words for it right now, other than I think RW does a lot with its themes of life and death and Saint complicates it as an outside force imposing a solution. And perhaps that statement there makes the caption on the art a little more clear- "Do you think yourself above it all?" as something that could be the statement of either Saint or the Worm.

Jumping from that to the "how people see them" I often see a sort of expression of surprise, mostly playfully, about how the solution turned out to be a slugcat (Saint). The idea there is a sort of novel "Ha! Its this silly little forgettable creature" but in what way is Saint any different from the worms? Are the worms not also creatures, just ones that live in an environment most cannot? They are massive and incomprehensible from our perspective, but thats hardly a new thing- there are some things just above peoples ability to understand, and that really doesn't make them abnormal or unnatural. I suppose I find the whole placement of the worms as some sort of divine creature or gods to be misplaced because even within RW the concept of a god is recontextualized- Five Pebbles gloats to the player that they are "Godlike in comparison" while rotting away from the inside and crumbling to pieces, because at the end of it all his position doesn't save him from the mechanisms of the world, even if he stands high above many of the creatures of the world and would be "incomprehensible" to a lizard or slugcat in the same way a giant space worm would be to us. Are the echos, ghosts as they are, gods? So what does it even mean to be a god, in the context of rain world?

There's another aspect, which is that ultimately the worms still lie at the heart of the solution, the final step when the survivor leaps into the void is to have themselves plucked by the worms and ascended. When artificer dives into the sea, the worms reject them for their incomplete karma (They observe them, and then leave, forcing artificer to just continue swimming), and they dissolve. They don't become an echo, they just fade away in the waves the void. Its not so much the just void sea that does the ascension- its the worms within it too. In this aspect Saint is very similar to them- but forgoes the void. To make a bit of a joke, a worm off the string.

So going back to my first statement on Saint being a bad thing… I said I wasn't going into it but damn, I am, a lot of people seem to view the void ends as some sort of "Life sucks, and then you die" kinda thing. Life sucks, you fail over and over, its unfair and horrible and then you die. And in the context of Rain World you die, and then you wake back up in a new life and start it all over again. But people tend to interpret this so… pessimistically. When actually Rain World, even the base game, actually holds a lot of love for that cycle as something worth it. Survivor wakes up after a traumatic event and they fail over and over, they exist in a frustrating environment they have no control over and no real help for- but its through those failures that they (you) get better. You fail less, you learn, you understand. And even if things stay unfair eventually you get your bearings and you can face that uncertainty with more confidence, you grow and establish yourself- you can even start going outside your safety nets and still succeed. To quote the actual achievement for survivor- "This land has become your home". The fun of Rain World, the part that sticks with people- is when it finally clicks and they start to get it, when they get just a little bit better at understanding the world they live in, the creature they are, and can find the fun in a world that is scary and unfair but something you can overcome if you just keep trying.

And that's the beauty of a life- that despite that suffering you can still get back up again and do better. You can do worse. But you still get back up. In the wide scope of Rain World's reincarnation, you can fail so badly its lethal but still, ultimately, try again. The world around you is cruel and unfair but not impossible. There can be rain and blizzards so awful that most things can't survive them but some things can, and will. Life finds a way. Even ascension, the escape- is something you can only get after you've gotten good enough to make it there. You learn how the world works, make peace with it. And at the end, if you so choose, you can take this and complete your cycle via ascension.

Downpour spins this all very differently with its endings- instead opting to give the slugcats ways to indulge in their lives- to find their homes, their families, find friends… It very much indulges in the exact opposite of ascension- a reverence for life, overcoming the suffering in return for the good. Attachment to the world. In Artificers case, they can indulge in such simpleminded lust for revenge and violence that they can lock themselves at karma one. It begs the question- is giving this up something to be desired? Is an attachment to life good or bad? If you know there is a solution to simply cease existence, what does it mean to take that choice? The Echos says as much- The Ancients understood how the aspects of how their world works. They sought such, and some failed, others didn't. Some resent their failure. Others made peace with it. Some don't understand why it was ever something anyone wanted. The rest ceased to be.

And I guess that's where Saint comes in as something I have conflict over. With the void worms there's an aspect of choice to choosing to cross yourself out. Saint acts as a solution to the fact some creatures cant possibly even know there is a way out of life to seek. The struggle for survival is, of course, a struggle after all. Death is something creatures want to escape, but failing to do so just means returning to the escape again. But what does it mean to take that choice from something that doesn't even know it has it? Will Saint take that choice from things that know it, and wouldn't want it? The iterators want it, sought it, direct those who ask to it, but that was the purpose of their whole creation. They are satisfied with Saint's choice to do so, but if the Ancient in undergrowth were still around, what of them? They seemed to not want to seek such a thing at all, moved by some unknown pressure. The world teems with life still- a harsh blizzard, a burning desert, these are not lesser ecosystems than a forest or a city. The world is not barren, not empty, and when the Ancients' towers finally crumble away into unrecognizable scrap and dirt made of rust, life will continue to pull themselves from the dust.

Its sad, its solemn to think that one day everything here and everything there will become nothing recognizable. That any link between past and future may vanish so thoroughly that no lines can be drawn between them… but it is also kinda beautiful in a way. The stubbornness of it all.

Perhaps this is just a very long way of saying I would become an echo.

#rain world #ask #hey so this is so long i got tumblr errors ive never seen before #so like. hit the readmore for a novel about how the world is beautiful and im making out with the undergrowth echo #if the text has weird typos its cause i broke some keys on my keyboard and had to glue them back on #also this might not be 100% lore perfect this was very much just typing from my brain and feelings i just have a lot of them #general spoiler warning and also like. warning for a lot of talk about death and death of the world as you know kinda thing but like.#positively?

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gramarobin · 11 days ago

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Daily words are hard to write

in my mind is always a fight

between raw truth,

which might be uncouth,

or a silly surface string of words

that flit through my mind like

a flock of birds.

-rw

#i wrote this #birds #thoughts #writing

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kid-az · 1 year ago

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Omori Xenoblade 2 Crossover au

Am very bored so I just wanted to share a silly crossover idea I thought up. I hope you folks enjoy reading.

(Main ships are Heromari, Cactiflower, and Sunburn)

Hero (Driver): A driver from Uraya. His family is part of the Urayan nobility, and like in canon, they pressure him to become a doctor, (One that treats injured soldiers) even though he wants to be a chef, specifically one that serves the common people and downtrodden. He defended himself with a frying pan before becoming a driver, but now fights using Mari’s tessen’s, or war fans. He wasn’t able to become a driver at first since he wasn’t attuned to it, but after Mari became his blade, he got better at it.

He wears the typical Urayan outfit, not as grand as some of the nobles, but he doesn’t mind at all. He wears Urayan armor while in battle, though the chest plate has a symbol that resembles an Aegis’s core chip or the Conduit. He has dark blue hair (As blue as his canon RW shirt) and has scale-like protrusions on his cheeks and neck.

Like in canon, he’s an extremely nice, friendly guy, though unlike in canon, he didn’t have depression or survivors guilt due to never meeting Mari until his adulthood. He is of course completely terrified of Arachno’s, though highly appreciates nature otherwise. His and Kel’s parent’s have blades of their own, his dad has an earth-based, doglike blade named Hector and his mom has a light-based, human blade named Polly.

Mari (Blade): A wind-based attack class blade who has an appearance partially resembling that of a spider, such as having 2 pairs of beady eyes, bristles on her human arms and legs, and 4 spider-like webs on her back. She wears a short-skirt kimono that is colored in many shades of purple, two scarves that she weaved with her ability of making web-like strings, and wields war fans that she can use to hit in a distance by tying webs around them.

Just as kind as Mari, but can be very sagely in her advice and a little mellow… almost depressed. This happiness comes back when she sees Sunny, her so-called little brother…… and becomes depressed again when she remembers that Sunny doesn’t remember her… or does he? She kicks herself out of the depression by talking about bugs, weaving and knitting clothing/plushies, and playing the family piano or accordion.

Mari is actually a flesh eater, one that has existed almost as long as Jin had, before Torna got destroyed. She and her little brother were awakened by a driver who they considered their dad, and before he died. (Old age, he survived Torna.) He offered his heart to his daughter as he favored her more than Sunny. While Sunny went back into his core crystal and became mysteriously lost, Mari remained active and conscious…… so she decided to travel the world and help people.

Heromari Dynamic: Hero would meet Mari while she was in Fonsa Myma, donating clothing and playing a button accordion. Although afraid of her at first, Hero would be endeared by her kindness, beauty underneath her spider-like features, as well as her mischievous, smug nature. Mari would be endeared by how much of a kindhearted, selfless dork Hero was, (And also wanting to act as an older sister-in-law for Kel, since he sorta reminds her of her little brother) and decide to pick him as her driver.

They’re dynamic is the same as in canon, though Mari like to jumpscare him in the dark as she finds his scared reactions to be funny and adorable. She acts as a responsible teacher and older sister-in-law to Kel, teaching him how to knit and weave, encouraging him to be as confident in himself as he can, and offering sagely advice… albeit she gives advice to both brothers. She dotes heavily on their baby sister Sally.

Kel (Driver): Also a Driver from Uraya, and one who actually became a driver earlier than Hero did, in spite of their parents favoring the latter. More confident in himself than in canon due to Mari’s encouragement and the fact he’s a driver. Is the royal guard to Uraya’s queen, basically their version of special inquisitor Morag.

Wears gilded, modified Urayan armor, though this one is much lighter as he utilizes agility than brute force and tankiness. It is also shaded a faded orange as that is his favorite color. Same hair color as Hero yet also thicker, and has scales above his eyes. Kel doesn’t play basketball as it wasn’t invented in Uraya :(

If Hero likes nature, Kel LOVES it! He would never attempt to harm an animal, and would always find some way to drive them off/nonlethally incapacitate them. Loves Hector and takes him on walks, and is of course very energetic. He wields a scythe, first a regular war scythe then Basil’s Blade scythe. Usually joins meetings with Uraya and Mor Ardain, with him and Morag being friends (And gushing about their blade partners, which they get embarrassed by.)

Basil (Blade): An earth-based, tank type blade, Basil is regarded as “The flower of Uraya” and it fits very well for his appearance and personality. He always has a vibrant flower crown on his green-colored hair, and his outfit consists of a long robe overgrown with vines, mushrooms, moss, and of course, flowers. He wields a gardening scythe as his weapon.

Although his various incarnations (Such as Stranger, Rowan, and Flower) were of various characters, (Former was mysterious and very blunt, the middle was outright violent and rebellious, and the latter was far too closed-off and meek) This incarnation of Basil is one that is extremely kindhearted, albeit a little too insistent on how “everything is okay.” His overall appearance and demeanor is slightly based on who his driver is, and due to Kel’s optimism, bravery, and sense of responsibility, Basil shares these same traits.

He can be a little bit meek, shy, and socially anxious, but all in all he is a very reliable friend to his pals and a significant other to Kel, who they can all rely on and to never give up. He has been adopted by Polly, who acts as Basil’s mother-like figure. During the rare times they meet, Brighid acts as an older sister figure to Basil.

Cactiflower dynamic: After Hero’s failure in awakening Basil, (Thankfully only getting a nosebleed and headache instead of death.) their parents reluctantly had Kel try to awaken him so as to not become an embarrassment to the nobility. Thankfully, Kel managed to awaken him on the first try, and the both of them immediately got along very well without any issues, outside of some shyness over their mutual crushes.

Thankfully, after the acknowledgment and encouragement from Morag and her blade partner Brighid, Kel and Basil felt comfortable enough to start dating eachother, and now they are a powerful, inseparable pair! Unlike most of Basil’s previous driver, who were often sent to put down rebellions or slaughter political targets and beasts, Kel and Basil have instead decided to help out the population with their issues, helping fend off beasts on in way that harms not people nor nature, exemplifying Uraya’s culture of natural coexistence.

Also they love cuddling together because teehee it’s cute!

Aubrey (Driver): She is Tantalese, having a singular cross-shaped marking under each of her eyes. She’d be dressed similarly to the average citizen on the Titan, though her jacket would be white to reference her varsity jacket, and she'd have a pink ribbon that she got from the black market, made in the Uraya titan! Her family life would be similar to how she is in Omori, a shitty single drunk mom, having to rely on herself to feed her and her mom. She does this by hunting some of the wildlife and monsters, selling their parts in the black market to get stuff she needs.

Unlike in canon however, she wouldn’t have met the rest of the group yet. She’d be a lot more verbally harsh and closed off to strangers, and would be as brutally honest as possible. She’d however heavily idolize and maybe be friends with prince Zeke and Pandoria, thinking of them as pretty cool people she can trust greatly. (And she is objectively right) She’d wield a a sword with a gun stuck on it as a weapon before becoming a driver, and after that she’d ditch her old sword with the dual ones Sunny has. Speaking of…

Sunny (Blade): As stated, he’d be a dark type blade of the healer class, his weapon class being two butterfly swords. His initial design would be inspired by the Komusō monks (Specifically the basket mask, kimono and flute) and the Nekomata, (Specifically with two tails and cat ears. No human ones though) though with enough trust with Aubrey and maybe some of the gang they’ll eventually meet with, he’ll take off the basket mask and show he only has one eye….. and that his core chip is cracked! (His right eye is replaced with black foggy mist.)

His cracked core chip would give him some pretty bad amnesia and dissociate, often referring to himself as either Sunny or Omori. He’s also be a bit more verbally sassy due to influence from Aubrey. He would have the special ability to absorb any attacks via a black hole, and then shoot these attacks back whenever he feels like. Also he’d have several red hands extending from his back.

Strangely… Sunny would be drawn to artwork, music, or people that resembled the ancient Torna Titan, one that had been destroyed 500 years ago….. and he’d have brief recollections of a person named Mari….. weird, normally blades wouldn’t remember their past lives…

Sunburn Dynamic: So like… Aubrey is a little distrusting of Sunny even though he is a blade, and it doesn’t help that he wears that strange basket mask. Snuuy… while not at all distrusting of Aubrey still doesn’t show much emotion and is shy. But then later she decides…… hey, she should take inspiration from how the prince and how he interacts with his Blade and just…… over exaggerate herself as much as possible. Give Sunny cute nicknames like Sunbun or Sunshine… even go as far as to pose dramatically like prince Zeke would…… and Sunny starts chuckling happily, and it was probably the cutest laughter Aubrey has ever heard.

Then their relationship gets better, Aubrey offering Sunny piggybacks as she is very STRONK, and Sunny plays tunes with a flute he has one him so as to soothe her. Eventually, the both of them decide they would escape Tantal and the overall Genbu Titan and go out into the cloud sea….. where a wider world and possible friends await them.

#omori #omori game #omori crossover #omori au #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade chronicles 2 #xenoblade 2 #omori hero #omori mari #omori kel #omori basil #omori aubrey #omori sunny #character headcanons #headcanons #alternate universe #crossover

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ijustliketickling · 4 months ago

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...why there's no tickle content on rain world...(Well i mean i've seen only one art and it wasnt safe)

I need to have tickle arts for rw where Iterators just have fun and being silly after their creators left them and they got off the strings... AAAA

-Kelpie

Ahhh so many fandoms are like this though it's so sad ;--;

Also- srr for taking so long to answer, haven't used Tumblr in a little while -w-'

#just talking

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sapphicdib · 7 months ago

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YOOOOO these r so cool :D i love love love enot being a shapeshifter, my inv has glitch teleportation powers (kinda like vanellope from wreck it ralph) and will drain the karma of those around it :3 ALSO YES MY HUNTER JS A LIL GOLDEN RETRIEVER TOO SHE IS JUST A PRESHUSH BB ;-; like she can hold her own in a fight but outside of that she basically acts like a lil mini-sig hehe :3

i also did wanna know abt ship hcs in general bc i always wanna know how ppl headcanon their dynamics n stuff so if u wanna reblog this with those go ahead!!!! no pressure tho :3

i love counterstrike a lot hunter and inv are just my silly goofy guys <3 what are ur headcanons for them :0

Alright!

Inv(erted)/Enot:

They are a shape shifter!

She just prefers to stay the same "shape" and just change the eyes subconsciously (that's why every time I draw him she's got different eyelashes) (or it'll purposely to do the 👁‍👁‍)

His ability to maul is because she has a second pair of teeth behind the first pair!

(YES MY SLUGCATS HAVE BEAKS BCS FUCK YOU)

If Inv COMPLETELY changes its design and takes the form of a different creature (or friend) the colors would be inverted (the torn ear stays and the eye color stays the same for Inv)

She can shape shift into whoever but will stop if you express discomfort from them shifting into you. [Hunter, Rivulet, Artificer and big Saint have done that]

Can and will break every scene / film rule in the book (the 180 degree rule) (will walk to the right side of the screen and come the left side) (will actively interact with the comic format) (eye shape changes everytime you see him)

Hunter:

A fucked up amalgamation of DNA (but not as fucked up as Spearmaser ;P)

The teeth are from a red lizard, the eyes are from overseers. (but he is mostly slugcat, got red lizard, overseer, and VERY LITTLE scavenger)

Their skin can have a COMPLETELY different texture. (the tail is smooth and is a little sticky and most the skin is reptilian)

He was SUPPOSED to have a very macho personality but her personality is just that of a golden retriever.

I have more but my brain is giving a blank rn.

#HEHE THÈSE R CUTE ;-;#my hunter is fluffy bc sig’s can is in a cold area so sig made her fluffy so she could stay warm #also i love the diamond symbols in her eyes those r so cool #rw #silly string

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druidshollow · 5 months ago

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silly squad ask session!

send me questions for them today and ill get to them tonight and/or over the weekend! you can ask them as the entire group, the individual guys, or whatever combinations of guys you like >:)) depending on how many i get i might close questions sometime today

#rain world oc #iterator oc #rain world #rw iterator #off string au #druid draw #os silly squad #ss ask session

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deadlydoofus · 3 years ago

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here we go here we go this is gonna be a bit of a long post i think but

OMORI BUT THEY ARE OBJECTS

i hit them with the object show laser yippe yipee

calling it the Faraway Objects AU for now

here are the bajillion drawings i made in the span of today, i will be dumping them in three, two , o (spoilers ahead as well!)

the basket planter is basil (obvious)

decorates himself with the flowers he grows hehe

rabbit plushy is the aubrey

bat is visibly without nails, she could accidentally hurt herself if it did!

ears look like a lop bunnys because it looks a little silly and i think its fitting

sunny is a star projector, and omori is the lightbulb(tm)

(the lightbulb in white space is replaced w something else)

suny probably glows purple when dreaming

kel and hero are a bottle cap pin and a blue ribbon respectively!

hero's ribbon flows behind him like a hero's cape (haha), and kel has a design that is vaguely either an orange slice or basketball. you will never be able to truly tell

mari... mari.

glass ornament, with lily of the valley designs, and has a little light inside! has a small dent where there was broken glass repaired after a softball injury. wears picnic themed bandanna, but that can also be replaced with the one cyan ribbon (y'knowthe one), or the white one she wears for the recital

uh oops

speaking of which, here are sketches of the "hanging" incident

the accident is still the same, but the hanging is less gruesome

rather than faking a you-know-what, sunny and basil try to simply hide her in the tree so nobody finds her, simply a 'hide the body' scenario. They have seen christmas ornaments in trees, so surely this would not be so different. Mari ends up getting strung up by her string loopy that most holiday ornaments have.

they are about to go back into sunny's house but due to cruel fate, the branch holding mari loosens and breaks and she falls to a lower branch, tree snapping noise is heard, it causes the two kids to look back and, well..

the figure of Something is formed because Mari shattered after falling down the stairs. The light she has inside forms the illusion of an eye staring back at Sunny and Basil (and like the og, hints at the possibility that she's still alive lawl)

The cracks in Mari's glass also form Basil's Something, but i dont have a drawing yet

the Sunny and Basil fight goes just a little differently in this AU

when Sunny's eye gets stabbed, the shears acts like a conductor to electricity since snuy is an electrical appliance. it causes both of them to pass out due to electric shock rather than the fight wearing them out.

i KNOW that makes you eyebrow raise at both lake incidents but im maaking both sunny and mari at least a little waterproof its finee its all good shhh shhhh

here's sunny and basil a little happier (based off of a photograph in the album)

...and thats it! for now anyway

there's probably things i forgot to mention but i can explain those later or in asks or something if anyone has any questions

these are all subject to change, its just something silly that i want to make

i can objectify the other faraway residents too but that is for another time, i am tired LOL

good day, and have some headspace versions that don't actually differ that much from their rw just yet

...also stranger

#omori #omori au #object shows #osc #omori omori #omori sunny #omori aubrey #omori kel #omori hero #omori basil #omori fanart #omori spoilers #suicide tw #just in case #faraway objects au

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joezworld · 4 years ago

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Story - The Railway Prometheus, or, when the Diesels discover fire

Based off of this headcanon that I made.

And this one.

And also parts of this one.

I decided to write an actual honest-to-god RWS style thing

Dragons teaching Diesels

2001

Most diesel engines dislike being cold started.

Cold starting occurs when a diesel is started while their fuel and engine block are both cold. Diesel engines do not work like petrol engines, which use a spark plug to ignite the fuel, and instead compress the fuel vapour, causing it to ignite on its own. This is called compression ignition.

When the engine block or the fuel is cold, the fuel does not compress properly, and it means that some of the engine’s cylinders will fire, while others do not. This causes the engine to fire unevenly, makes a ghastly knocking sound, and produces a lot of smoke and soot - commonly called clag.

On the Island of Sodor, a cold started diesel also produces another ghastly noise - this time coming from the Steam Engines watching. They assume that something has gone dreadfully wrong, and make many unhelpful comments about the clag and the noise.

Bear and BoCo are well aware of what cold starting is, and try to avoid being near other engines - partly so that they can cold start without Gordon or James’ unhelpful commentary, but mostly so that no one could hear them yelling...

“FUCK!” BoCo swore from within a cloud of soot and clag. It was a bitterly cold February morning, and nobody wanted to start properly. His engine was knocking like it belonged in an old jalopy, and he felt most uncomfortable.

Bear grimaced in sympathy as he shot his own tower of clag into the otherwise crisp morning air. His motor mounts were going to ache later, and- “Aggh!” He cried as fire shot out of his exhaust vents.

Another issue with cold starting was that unburnt fuel would build up within an engine’s exhaust manifold. Once the manifold got hot enough, the fuel would then spontaneously combust - sending huge gouts of flame out of the exhaust stacks. Bear hated it when that happened, as it caused a very unpleasant sensation. He knew BoCo hated it as well.

But, for some diesels on the island, it seemed to be the highlight of their day…

“Three, two, one, GO!” shouted Pip and Emma in unison. At their call, massive pillars of flame shot out both sets of exhaust stacks, bathing the yard in a bright orange light for a moment.

“How do you two enjoy that?” He asked. Before this winter the HST pair had been stabled at Barrow, but had been moved down to the Tidmouth diesel shed in the summer of 2000. Now that he was regularly in close contact with them, their numerous eccentricities began to stand out.

“It’s fun!” Came the response from the blue and yellow passenger train.

From inside his cloud, BoCo hacked incredulously. “Fucking How?!”

“You have to do it right.” Said Emma. The massive grin on her face meant that she was eagerly anticipating somebody asking her to demonstrate the ‘right way’.

“There’s a wrong way?” Bear raised an eyebrow. He wasn’t letting her get what she wanted that easily.

“Of course there is! It’s the wrong way if it hurts!”

“We’re catching on fire. How does that not hurt?”

“By being a dragon, silly!”

“What.”

“Just be a dragon!” Pip shouted from the other end of the HST trainset.

“You still haven’t made sense.” Bear puzzled as his engine finally started firing on all cylinders.

More bursts of fire belched from within the BoCo-shaped cloud - his motor just wasn’t having it today.

“Bear - stop. What is the right way Emma?” Implored the cloud.

“I - I don’t know how to explain it,” she began. “But you need to - it feels like-”

“Just breathe in through your exhaust manifold!” Bellowed Pip, as if this made any sense.

After a few minutes of listening to BoCo making bizarre sounding whistling noises, Bear began to think that Pip and Emma were making fun of him. His only evidence against this was Emma’s genuinely earnest expression as she tried to talk the diesel through this ‘breathing exercise’.

Finally, a hacking cough emerged from the Cloud Formerly Known as Boco, before a giant column of flame shot ten feet horizontally out of where BoCo’s mouth would be.

Swearing loudly, the Hymek lurched backwards as Pip and Emma cheered.

“Was that supposed to happen?!” He cried.

“Yes!” Pip called as BoCo began to fire on all cylinders.

Bear goggled at her, to which she wryly grinned, before shooting her own blast of flames - right out of her mouth.

“See, this is why we’re the Dragon Sisters!” She said exuberantly.

“Really?”

“Nah. But it sure is fun!”

As Bear pondered the class 43’s sanity, BoCo’s cloud dissipated, revealing a happy Metrovick - engine now firing on all cylinders. “Pip, Emma, however did you learn how that worked?” He asked as his crew emerged from the yard office - totally ignorant to the many bursts of fire that had just happened.

“I dunno,” Emma said after a moment of thinking. “It just sort of happened. But it’s really cool! I can do it whenever I want to as well!”

To prove this, she smiled, and a small burst of flames licked around her teeth, but didn’t explode outwards like before.

“What an incredibly odd thing for the factory to do to you. Carry on.” BoCo was at a loss for words and was unsure if he should be concerned, but decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and said no more as his crew ran across the yard and into the warmth of his cab. His cold engine had made them very late, and they wasted no time in driving him away.

“You weren’t built like that, were you?” Bear said as BoCo disappeared into the distance.

“No.” Said Emma.

“Can you teach me?”

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

Revenge is best served on fire

BoCo lived on Edward’s branch line, serving as the primary freight diesel for the industries in Suddery and Brendam. As a result of this, he is often forced to be in close proximity to Bill and Ben.

Bill and Ben are two yellow menaces tank engines that work for the China Clay company in Brendam. Originally, they were restricted to working just on the small industrial spur that served the clay pits, but as cargo traffic increased in the late 1990s, they had been given permission to travel as far as Wellsworth to deliver their trains of clay directly to the main line.

This sounds like good news for BoCo, as it means less work for him, but in actuality it is the opposite.

You see, Bill and Ben are very dedicated pranksters, and spend many hours having fun at BoCo and Edward’s expense. While the pranks only work occasionally, their goal of annoying BoCo and Edward is often met regardless.

One day in March, BoCo was resting between trains at Wellsworth Station when Bill and Ben peeped into the yard, a long string of clay trucks rattling behind them.

Maybe they’ll be too tired to do anything. He thought to himself.

“Oh! There’s BoCo!”

“He’s sleeping! Let’s do plan seven!”

How naive I must be.

BoCo kept his eyes shut as Bill and Ben began babbling to each other in German. He had no idea how or when the terrible twosome had managed to learn it, but it had proved most irritating - which was probably why they learned it in the first place.

“Mal sehen, ob er das merkt!”

“Ja!”

BoCo had no idea what they were saying, but knew he’d be annoyed by it. Perhaps a pre-emptive strike could be arranged…

Breathing in deeply through his exhaust vents like Pip and Emma had taught him, BoCo waited until the twins drew nearer.

As they got close, he dropped his jaw open as if he was about to begin snoring. After waiting a few more seconds, he let out the deep breath he was holding.

A massive blast of fire shot out of the Diesel’s mouth - BoCo couldn’t see it, but it almost scorched Ben's eyebrows off.

“SCATTER!”

“AAAAAAHHHH!”

The sound of frantic steam engines vanished into the distance, and BoCo sighed in relief.

For a moment, all was still.

For a moment -

“What in the world was that?!”

BoCo cracked open an eye to see Henry, sitting at the signals with a load of hoppers. He had seen everything, and wasn’t sure if he was seeing things or not.

“Indigestion.” Was all BoCo said before going back to sleep.

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

Wendell, Dragons, and Bears, Oh My!

Despite what many engines may claim, Pip, Emma, Bear, and BoCo were not the only diesels on the North Western Railway. There is also Wendell.

Wendell is the works diesel for Crovan’s Gate works. He is a Blue and Yellow Class 47, and spends most of his days rescuing broken down engines and returning empty stock from the works to the yards where they’re needed. Because he normally meets engines while they are broken down, he is regarded well by all the engines on the Island - even James, who normally views Diesel traction with suspicion.

Just like the other diesels on the Island, Wendell dislikes cold starts, but has much less experience with them than the others do, as he has a nice warm shed at the works that he lives in year-round!

Bear and BoCo aren’t jealous, but Pip and Emma are! No matter how much they enjoy cold-starting, they still don’t enjoy being left outside in the frigid air.

One morning in April 2001, Wendell was dispatched to Tidmouth - Henry had failed, and an engine was needed to take his morning trains.

Wendell had agreed - in no small part because he didn’t know that Henry’s ‘morning’ included the Flying Kipper, which left Tidmouth at 3:15 in the ‘morning’!

To make things worse, there was an unseasonable cold snap, with temperatures dropping below freezing overnight.

Wendell missed his shed as he shivered in the yard at Tidmouth. His engine was cold, and the fuel that his driver had pumped in wasn’t any warmer.

His starter motor tried and tried to make him start, and when it eventually happened, he was enveloped in a cloud of soot and clag as his engine fired on maybe three of its twelve cylinders.

“Yuck!” He moaned as the cloud thickened. “I can’t see anything! And my motor mounts hurt!”

“Breathe through your exhaust!” Came a cry through the haze.

“What?”

“Breathe in through your exhaust manifold! It should help!” The mystery voice said again.

“Okay!” It wasn’t like he would lose anything by trying, so Wendell tried, and eventually managed to take a deep breath in through his exhaust stacks.

Unfortunately, this meant that he inhaled a lot a clag and fuel vapor, which caused him to start coughing and hacking until -

“Yipe!” A jet of fire shot out of his mouth!

A cheer broke out from beyond the haze as his engine started to fire on more cylinders. In a few minutes, Wendell was much warmer, and his engine was firing on all cylinders as the haze began to clear, revealing Bear and Pip.

“Isn’t that better?” The HST called to him.

“Yes, but - what?” Wendell tripped over his words. “How does that happen?”

“We’re not sure,” Said Bear, as flames danced around the inside of his mouth. “but it works wonders on cold nights like this.”

“Ooookaaay.” Said the Works Diesel slowly. “So, I can just do that now?”

“Pretty much!” Pip said cheerfully.

Wendell, feeling like he had just been initiated into a cult, said his goodbyes as his crew stumbled up to him, coffee thermoses firmly in their grasp.

This island is insane. He thought to himself. But I live here. So I must be insane too.

As he was driven towards the docks, he breathed in through his vents again, and felt a pleasant warmth fill his mouth.

He smiled to himself. Maybe being a bit crazy isn't so bad.

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

Fire Breathing Dragons

While Pip and Emma live on the Island of Sodor, their duties require them to travel from Tidmouth to London and back on a daily basis. Ordinarily there is no issue with this, but every now and again, they will be forced to stay the night in London.

One night in the summer of 2002, planned track work meant that their return service couldn’t be run, and the sisters found themselves in a very shabby looking depot outside of Euston station.

God, this place has gone downhill since BR. Pip thought to her sister.

Too right. I think the shunter said that this was going to be torn down after they replace us with Pendolinos. Emma replied, referring to their class as a whole. It was an open secret that the Intercity 125 sets were going to be replaced with new tilting trains on the West Coast Main Line - soon the Dragon Sisters would be the only HST on the line.

“Eurrgh,” Oiled a voice from a few lines away. “Must we stay here tonight?”

Pip was blocked by a rake of coaches, but Emma could see that there was another HST set a few roads away. The power car looked disgusted to have to be in this shed.

“Yes Chauncey,” Came the voice of the other power car on the set. “We have to stay here tonight. I’m not any more pleased about it than you.”

“I know, 092, I know,” Chauncey said resignedly. “At least it could be worse.”

“How can it be worse?”

“Well, that other HST set could be awake - then we’d have to talk to them!”

“Oh heavens! I hadn’t even thought of that!”

Well they seem nice. Pip sarcastically thought to Emma - clearly Chauncey and 092 didn’t share the same mental link that they did, and assumed that the sisters were asleep.

Yeah - like Gordon when he gets boiler sludge. Emma replied. She vaguely remembered working with 092 back in the BR days, and didn’t have fond memories.

Several hours passed. Pip and Emma were idly discussing the newest gossip that they’d heard, a few trains rumbled past on the WCML, and Chauncey and 092 made inane conversion around which railroad in the country was worse than the others.

Emma was on the edge of drifting off to sleep when 092 spoke up.

“Oh! That’s right! What about the No-Where Railway? That place must be a pit!”

He didn’t. Emma thought.

“You mean that one off of Furness? The retirement home for antiquated heaps?”

He did. Her sister replied.

“Excuse me!” Pip spoke out loud for the first time that night. “But are you, by chance, talking about the North Western Railway?”

“Oh goodness!” Chauncey said in fright. “I’m sorry! Did we wake you?”

“No,” Said Emma. “What were you saying about the NWR?”

“The No-Where Railway? There isn’t much to say about it really,” 092 said blithely. “It’s a hole in the countryside that you shovel old metal into - I’d be ruder, but I don’t think that they ever got the notice that BR dissolved, so I can’t blame them.”

“92?” Said Chauncey, who had suddenly noticed the lettering on Emma’s side - and the expression on her face. “Perhaps you should stop talking now.”

“Why? It isn’t like they’re from that island - they don’t look like they came out of a black and white film.” 092 said, unaware of who he was speaking to.

“Actually,” ground out Emma. “We are from that Island.”

“Oh. well how unfortunate for you,” 092 sniffed. “Tell me, do they still believe that Beeching is alive there?”

The late night trains at Euston Station practically jumped off of their rails at the barrage of sounds that echoed throughout the station yard. It sounded like the Tyrannosaurus from Jurassic Park was yelling at someone, and punctuating their conversation with massive fireballs.

Fire crews from Railtrack and the borough of Camden responded, but found no traces of any fire - or a Tyrannosaur.

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lexydakitten · 1 month ago

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im realizing in hindsight i dont like those colors for her overseers/inspectors as much it feels like too much despite the awesomeness of gummy worm vibe. anyway i have a lot of ideas regarding her but again, not a lot of depth, so i'm not 100% set on keeping her character she may just get lost to the abyss of the mental bin or smth

first thing to note is i did not draw the antenna very well. they're supposed to be more springlike i just didnt have a reference. based on those funny bouncy headbands but she also has little cat ear base to the springs bc why not it's cute. i actually dont remember the reason i think the antenna were drawn at like, 1 am

second thing to note is that the nickname thing doesnt actually matter i wont remember it personally. will probably end up switching between 44 and strings referring to her, though its Supposed to be 44

third thing is that the distinction between cape and scarf is purely about size its honestly more functionally like a scarf . mini-cape. yeah. go my overdesigned robot /silly

this character has been jammed in the "consider later" folder of my brain for months i'm recycling old ideas. infodump will be messy and disorganized i haven't had much of a chance to think about her - its just loose concepts really. and also its way late. dont expect good im having fun

anyway. as it says on the ref - her specialties are chemistry and medicines. when her benefactors were still around she would've operated normally, but after they left, the opportunity to find answers Her Way would've gotten to her. her personality would've always been that she's normally very energetic, again very much a wildcard type that can be very out of pocket. she isn't inspired by any rebelliousness (my other oc, aus, who has a kinda similar personality, is, hence distinction) but rather actual curiosity stemming from wild ideas. instead of looking at each idea and going "well, that logically isn't realistic" she spends the energy trying anyway - just in case. so once given that freedom, she eventually finds herself studying all sorts of pseudosciences, mainly alchemy. maybe its not fair to say that alchemy would exist in rw because thats a very human myth and i dont think theres any backing for it in rw but ehhhhh. i have fun. obviously her backgrounds in these subjects should lead to her going, well that's ridiculous and not worth the time, but if anything it just leads to her getting more ideas. to her she should be the one to actually check for herself if something is true or not, even if a million others have done that before her - and also, i think her logic would be more adjacent to "these myths exist for a reason" which she would want to find.

now, her other groupmates would see that as unhelpful. not really effective study considering there's no backing for it. i think they'd also find her frequent self-experimentation risky and wasteful too and be very discouraging of it. plus it's curious, how's she getting around that? aus can kind of normalize breaking taboos to the iterators overseeing the rest of their groupmates (primarily CG given OSA, the main guy doing that, becomes unable to do so. there's more there that i'll talk about but it's not relevant here) but that's because they're doing so in a way which is mostly net benefit to everybody. the acceptance is begrudgingly, and also very biased in context. from an outsider's perspective 44 doing that is dangerous, especially because it's completely reckless. on that note too, i think stars and 44 get that information via the same means, and while aus obliges in not talking about it, ffs comparatively doesn't care. but the point is - everyone wants her to stop doing that, and she doesn't want to stop doing that, and cg pestering to stop impedes her from falling down rabbitholes. it's okay though, because she can do something about it!

obviously to get everyone else to leave her alone, she's just gotta do a bit of secretly producing a sort of biological malware /silly. something that can fly under the noses of other iterators (i think it'd be a major pain for iterators to get infected with regular computer malware. there's no reason for them to be left vulnerable to that imo they seem too conscious of their processes for that to be effective. at least on the scale 44 needs it to be). there's no reason for her to make it excessively harmful - what she wants is to make sure her activity is less noticed, less present in the minds of anyone too vocal about making her stop. what she needs is to create a parasitic organism with some technological parts to silently infect those bothering her, and with the technology in it mess with their ability to access select memories regarding her. give her some access to their memories, so she can either just outright erase the ones of her choosing or make it exceedingly difficult to access the ones of her choosing, not sure which one is more reasonable for her, but either way she's banking on them not getting wise of it. her goal is not to harm anyone, so after that she steps away from interfering back at them, aside from the continuous action of deciding which things of her those victims will remember or not. she absolutely leaves some, her goal is not to be completely forgotten, there's no reason to do more. just enough so that she can assume she'll be left alone to keep acting like a fool.

in my mind this would also be very successful, and she'd make herself mostly isolated from everyone else. out of boredom she'd probably observe them from the background quite a bit, incase there's any new ideas she can gain from it. and also because it's her hobby to acquire information she should not have, get blackmail material she'd never have a reason to use (though i think she would teasingly threaten it from time to time and it'd be impossible to tell how serious she is about it.) it makes her practically a complete third party to the events happening in her group. always in the background, and it'd probably be really great if she chose to be helpful, but she only wants to be a fly on the wall. and also probably putting deranged things in her intake systems just to see what new and funny thing happens this time. i dont think any of my rw ocs would find a solution but i do think of the now 5 of them 44 would be the most likely and if she did it would be on complete accident. to me she has 4 am gone wrong unboxing videos energy. she knows what shes doing is ridiculous and is fullheartedly doing it anyway just because she can and nobody else is. those antenna are too bouncy for her to act on realism. if its not obvious from at least the acronym alone she was originally meant to be a meme oc i just had a cool thought (make biological malware) it makes her seem more serious than she is

finishing a ref's colors right now oh my god she's so adorable wtf... im making another iterarttor. her name is 44 strings i will post it soon when im more done. just to show. its funny that shes coming out rly cute because shes got the most out of pocket personality of my rw ocs (so far. havent had a lot of time to give her much depth yet i've been busy)

#“stop paying attention to me!” (gives you a disease) /silly #rw iterator oc #oc reference #digital art #<- incase it maybe helps this be more findable later for others. i dont expect this to get seen it's a ref #it will at the very least help me find her later incase i forget anything about her... cuz i honestly mightt my memory's been bad lately #not like it'll be the only time i ever infodump abt her this will absolutely happen again i think. live by having fun w it

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