#tendersteam

[captainmvf]

Last week I went ‘wow I haven’t drawn Hydra in a while’ and then doodled Hydra for a bit. And some TenderSteam.

[itsnotamatterofif]

Thinking about a figure skating au…

Rusty (he showed up to his first competition with Rusty skates and the nickname stuck) is a rising figure skater with longtime partner Pearl, never wins anything but they get awfully close a few times. Pearl’s manager thinks she could do better and that Rusty is the one holding her back, so contracts her to work with a new star from the continent who has been winning a lot of regional and national comps, who goes by the mysterious stage name Electra.

Rusty can’t skate without a partner, and now has a bad rep since he couldn’t win anything with Pearl, but comes back to his rink to destress late at night to find it in use by one of the technicians who didn’t think anyone would see them just absolutely shredding ice. It’s not technically sound, but they have rhythm, mobility, and are handsome to boot, so Rusty decides to make a little project, and try and teach this Hydra how to dance before the next championships.

[ratsvalley]

might as well start this off with them

[starlight-distressed]

[green-hoedrogen]

frankly monumental amount of effort just for the Bit but i drew the boiz. Hydra's shirt is based off the underlayer of the costume.

[jay-thomas-llc]

WORKS~LIONEL TRAINS HUDSON No. 2065 4-6-4 STEAM LOCOMOTIVE & PREWAR 2666W TENDER Check It Out $197.00 https://ebay.to/2IscbU7

[estupor]

Arròs de Cuarentena. (Si, again, una variante amb kale, tendersteam broccoli, shitake, vibranium i beskar de la reseta del arròs sec de @moniquescudero per a @elcomidista . Oro en paellón, mis onses) https://instagr.am/p/CFCt-9jDyFc/

[captainmvf]

Convert to Hydrogen, boy.

[itsnotamatterofif]

Having absolutely gross cringe tendersteam thoughts, it is not enough to write fic I want a movie about them. I am just having like stupid little thoughts that definitely do not constitute a whole fic so here’s some headcanons that I need to get out lest the worms eat me alive:

- they get together the night of the final heat. Hydra’s been harbouring a crush for as long as he’s been here, whilst the whole thing has hit Rusty quite suddenly

- Gross couple that cannot keep their hands off each other. Rusty is literally always holding Hydra’s hands or Hydra is leaning on his shoulders, there is always contact (Rusty’s love language is touch and Hydra has literally never had a hug before so is thoroughly addicted)

- Hydra follows this fucking engine around like an absolute puppy. Would do anything for him, nothing is too hard, would probably start planning heists and murders should Rusty even suggest it.

- Hydra has a bay in the freight shed but it becomes pretty much abandoned once they get together.

- Rusty likes human things. He likes tea and as many non-flammable cosy things as he can get his grabby hands on, and will accept payment from Control in the form of this. Hydra finds this absolutely bewildering.

- Hydra likes planning dates and is more than happy to charm his way around and annoy other locos to acquire the perfect items and locations to take Rusty to. Dude managed to snag a long haul job to County Durham once to get him as close as possible to Kielder Forest.

(As always my asks are open for ficlets)

[itsnotamatterofif]

Hydra has shown up for every job possible since the races, dedicated to helping Rusty get used to being an intermodal.

Except this one

~~

Little post ‘Hydra got exploded’ fic for ya :D I think this is as close to a sick fic as I’m gonna get in canon verse with my HCs of how they work, but I might do one for a human au too!

[itsnotamatterofif]

❄️❄️ Some more ‘Get your ice Skates On!Verse’! ❄️❄️

I’ve been talking about this a lot with Garnet and this has the potential to become a beast, so I’m gonna do a quick rundown of roles in the AU - if you want to know anything about it just send me an ask!!! Will help motivate me to write 🥴

- they all compete in ice dance rather than pairs skating (no chucking each other around like pancakes)

- the national trains are older champions and now the coaches for the various skaters - Rusty’s coach is Brexit (known in this as Prince, or by his full title, the Prince of Wales since he’s a Welsh dude called William), Pearl’s coach is Ruhrgold

- Rusty and Pearl have been skating together since Juniors, and Ruhrgold has hated his guts since he first laid eyes on him

- Momma runs the Troubadour skating rink, a big former tv studio that was up for sale or get demolished. She’s a former Olympic figure skater who took Rusty under her wing when he was a kid and inspired him to skate

- Also based out of the Troubadour is the Brent Butchers, an amateur hockey team trying to make it big. They’re comprised of the various freight trucks. Slick, Lumber, and Porter play forwards (centre, left, and right wing respectively), Dustin and flat top play Defencemen, Hydra plays goaltender. Slick was originally told she had to wait for a woman’s team, rocked up one day with a forged birth certificate, and has been coming for people’s kneecaps ever since. The rockies are mascots. Only Dustin is referred to by his actual name; everyone else has these nicknames that just stuck. No one actually knows what Flat Top’s name is.

- Hydra is a lab technician for a local hydroponics nursery, and plays hockey in their free time. He used to dance as a kid, but couldn’t be the dancer his coaches wanted him to be so gave it up (👀🏳️‍⚧️)

- Rusty is a massive sap who has fallen in love at first sight before and WILL do it again

- Greasey and Dinah are a well known pair from the US of A, and Greaseball paid the judges to bend the rules to let her dance with another woman. She was technically born in ROI, so uses that as an excuse to dance on both sides of the pond. Dinah is a genuine dual national

- Electra kicks Coco’s ass (daughter of French Olympic icon Bobo) in some French nationals, but has a reputation for churning through dance partners like butter; they’re incredibly experienced and take a lot of risks, so push their partners into intense routines that they’re often not ready for.

[itsnotamatterofif]

Dropped some Hydra/Rusty fluff, time for bed now :’3 this is just pure tooth rot yall, wanted to write something but wasn’t sure what so have some recompense for all the shit I’ve been putting Hydra through lately

[itsnotamatterofif]

AO3 comment about Lumber giving Rusty a shovel talk is living rent free in my actual brain - like, the freight are family and stick together even if Hydra is a bit new, so when he couples up with an engine - not just any engine, but a racing engine - that’s a biiiiig step.

Lumber does the whole, very macho ‘now you listen to me shithead’ one day during transport, Rusty is way too shocked to do anything about it, and Hydra wants to actually leave this mortal coil since he just KNOWS the rest of the trucks are never gonna let them live this down, EVER

[itsnotamatterofif]

When Hydra gets too close to another train, he coughs up flowers. This would fine if each relationship didn’t threaten his life.

~~

Hydra/Rusty Hanahaki fic! I just love putting Hydra into bad situations and making him smile through them it’s so fun.

[itsnotamatterofif]

Me: I’m just going to write something short and cringe for this old AU I used to like

Also me, 6k words later and having Hydra already churn through two awful relationships and vomit flowers once: I haven’t even introduced Rusty yet

[itsnotamatterofif]

So now brain has two fics on the go and I need to choose one (1) of them to work on tomorrow, so vote now on ur phones gang whilst I’m ‘eepin’