#thunderbirds season 1

[coffeebookslovegt]

John & Clarice

[idontknowreallywhy]

Anyone know what The Midas System in Thunderbird One is? Scott activates it on the first flight we see in Ring of Fire (is it what Brains has upgraded?) but it never seems to be mentioned again?

She flies great, Brains!

[pareidoliaonthemove]

@astranite, ah, yes, ‘Runaway’! I can generally turn off my ‘train-brain’ for any train episodes – unless of course our hero or villain is train surfing, traps the opposition on a carriage, and kicks at the coupler to separate the carriage from the engine, and speeds off into the sunset to await round 2. Then the entire neighbourhood has to endure me yelling general abuse, and "Couplers don’t work like that!"

While mag-levs are strictly outside my area of expertise, they do share a lot of infrastructure details and safety features with current diesel-electric, and electric trains, and when you take those into consideration, well, let’s just say the set up shown on screen is, um, lacking.

Brains, John and Virgil should all be having very strong words with the Japanese Rail Network.

First point is: why on god’s green earth are they testing a new locomotive design on a live line?! Especially one that operates passenger services? Even if it is a locomotive undergoing a post-overhaul mainline test, there should have at least been a qualified mechanic on board to test-ride it’s performance. Away from passenger trains.

Second problem: and speaking of the track, it’s all one track, one rail, so how do trains going on opposite directions pass each other? At the very least there should be what’s called ‘crossing loops’: a short section of track that forks off and then runs parallel to the main line, before rejoining it. One train goes into the loop, and pulls up, while the other train passes on the main line. If the crossing loop is long enough the train might not need to stop – this type of setup is more common in the United States than it is in Australia – we get to stop and stretch our legs.

Many crossing loops in my area are being upgraded to include catch points. These are a set of points (which is the junction where a train can change tracks, they can also be called ‘switches’, but the standard term here is ‘points’, so that’s what I’m sticking with) linked to the points on the mainline which are intended to prevent a train rejoining the main line without permission from the controller. Instead, the lead engine will be directed off the tracks to loose forward momentum in a specially constructed section of ballast (rocks, preferably granite, about the size of your fist). A mag-lev train would be able to be shunted to a de-energised section of track, and allowed to shed its momentum safely there. (There should be friction locks that deploy when power is lost, like in an elevator car – ‘it would be like hitting a brick wall’, eh, not so much, Brains.)

Third Problem: And this is the biggie! All modern locomotives have a safety system in place designed to prevent the driver falling asleep on the job. In Australia it is currently called the ��Driver Vigilance System”, or ‘vigi’. Its job is to safely stop the train before it is stopped, should the driver fall asleep or be … otherwise incapacitated.

The technology has gone through a few iterations, the oldest being the ‘Dead Man’s Switch’, a footplate that drivers had to hold down while the train was in motion. Unfortunately, due to the fact that drivers can be on a train for up to 12 hours, and it required a degree of force to hold down, drivers were prone to wedging the footplate down with their lunch box, or an emergency flag. Sadly, the system was shown to be entirely ineffective on 31 January 2003 when the driver of the Tangara G7 passenger train suffered a heart attack enroute and slumped with his weight on the deadman’s switch, allowing the passenger train to enter a curve rated for 60km/h at 117km/h. It derailed, killing seven (including the driver), and injuring 40 people. It is commonly referred to as the Waterfall Train Disaster.

The current system has a light illuminated for 10sec, which then flashes for 7 sec, then a 5 sec high pitched beeping, if the ‘vigi’ button is not pressed in that time, the train brakes will deploy automatically, while simultaneously putting in an emergency call to the network controller. If the train crew doesn’t respond to the controller answering the call, emergency procedures are brought into play, and emergency services are sent to the train’s GPS location. (And if you weren’t incapacitated, you would wish you were.)

All the hapless engineer in ‘Runaway’ would have had to do was … not press the button.

And the thing that makes me laugh? John being able to reset the points the ‘instant’ that the passenger train clears the points. For safety’s sake, points are locked in position until the system detects the rail traffic has cleared a set point at a safe distance, and even then, there is ‘time out’ period between clearance, and points unlocking, and then a 120 second ‘time out’ between the points registering as being locked into position, and the signal clearing.

But hey, technology changes. Maybe they ‘improved’ the points system? Although their cyber security is seriously lacking ….

But it looks good on screen, and I don't suppose the series' target demographic really has a whole lot of practical experience in rail operations.

[crunchyluigi]

Randomly drew this, I might as well introduce Scarlet Diablos from the Thunderbirds Experiment!AU, She’s a witch and she’s going to be Virgil’s (eventual) wife!

Also yes, I am feeling better, thank you for your love and consideration 💚💚 I hope I can come back and share good artwork once again and introduce the entire Experiment!AU

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

My Morph primer

Since X-Men 97 is drawing in a lot of new fans with varied levels of experience with the original animated series or the comics, I figured I could give a write-up of who Morph is, where they come from, and why you don’t see them in any of the movies or other media.  This is also an excuse for me to write about an obsessive fave, seriously, they are all over my blog. I'm not necessarily an "authority," but I've watched TAS and read the comics, which are the basis for this write-up.

Who is Morph?

"Wolverine! Fall back!"

Morph is a shapeshifting mutant who was added to the X-Men team in the original X-Men: The Animated Series as a redshirt/sacrificial lamb, to be killed off For Real in order to show that the stakes are really high.  Originally it was actually going to be Thunderbird, a short-lived X-Man who died in the comics just a few issues after he was introduced, and has remained dead for decades.  But creators realized that killing off the only Native American character on a mostly white team was a bad look, and went with Morph instead.  Morph proved surprisingly popular with (mostly child) viewers, and was brought back in the 2nd season as a result.  Morph in TAS was originally presented as male using male pronouns, but I’m gonna use they/them for the character since they are nonbinary in X-Men 97.

(Btw, even Morph's TAS costume shows their redshirt nature, as they are basically wearing a variant of the standard X-Men uniform that different groups have worn, with the Original Five (Angel, Jean, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman) and the New Mutants all wearing something similar. There was a time in the 90's when all the X-Men were wearing this uniform to try to give them a team look, but thankfully that didn't last, the individualized looks are much better. Morph's amazing disappearing reappearing jacket are the only personalized touch in their uniform, and I hope X-Men 97 gives them a costume upgrade after everyone gets used to the new look.)

Morph doesn’t appear in many episodes of TAS, but here are the definitive ones:

Season 1:

Night of the Sentinels Parts 1 and 2: Morph seems to be an established part of the team, a wise-cracking shapeshifter who is so naively overconfident about their mission that they’ve practically got a target painted on their back.  When the mission goes wrong, Morph pushes Wolverine out of the way of Sentinel lasers, and gets blasted all to hell.  Morph’s supposed death (which was meant at the time to be a real death) is sensed by both Jean and Xavier.  Cyclops orders a retreat because the team is getting their asses kicked, abandoning both the (dead) Morph and (alive but injured) Beast, who spends the rest of the season in jail.  Morph is quickly forgotten as a character, BUT the impact of their death is felt throughout the season.  We get Wolverine yelling “This one’s for you, Morph!” while slicing up a Sentinel, and Cyclops in the finale insisting, “I’m not leaving anyone behind!  Not this time!” 

Season 2:

Till Death Do Us Part, Parts 1 and 2: Morph returns as a villain, but a sympathetic, brainwashed villain under the control of season Big Bad Mr. Sinister.  Sinister is an evil scientist who likes to fuck around with mutant genetics and is especially obsessed with getting Scott and Jean to fuck, because their child will supposedly be an extremely genetically superior mutant.  After Morph’s “death,” they were taken by Sinister, who revived them and implanted a control device into Morph’s brain that he uses to literally torture Morph into compliance.  Morph seems to have a kind of split personality, which Sinister exacerbates and encourages, shifting between a haggard-looking Evil Morph who wants revenge on the X-Men for abandoning them and cracks jokes while attacking the team, and a normal-looking Good Morph, who doesn’t want to hurt their friends, and is generally scared and confused and having a Bad Time.  If you are wondering about Morph turning into that version of themselves with dark circles around their eyes in X-Men 97 “Fire Made Flesh,” it was a reference back to this:

Evil Morph lookin' reeeeeaal creepy.

Morph uses their shape-shifting trickery to fake marry Scott and Jean (as the priest), impersonate Xavier and turn the team against each other, until Wolverine identifies them by scent.  The team then chases Morph to Sinister’s lair, where he’s captured a honey-mooning Scott and Jean.  Morph has been struggling with the brainwashing the entire time, and breaks free long enough to attack Sinister, then runs off away from everyone. 

Whatever It Takes: Wolverine, who has declared the Morph is “the only one who could ever make him laugh,” chases Morph down to Brazil in an attempt to drag them back to the team.  Morph, still fighting their dark side and flipping back and forth between the two personalities, taunts Wolverine in Jean’s form, fights him, and eventually gains enough control to tell Logan to back off. (“I have to get through this by myself!”) 

Fighting your friend in an abandoned mine shaft, a totally normal thing to do.

Wolverine reluctantly lets them go.  This the B-plot, the main plot of the episode features Storm and Rogue confronting the Shadow King in Africa, and is also really good.

Reunion Parts 1 and 2: Morph leaves a message for Wolverine stating that he wants to return to the team, in what seems like an obvious set-up for a trap.  Wolverine, Jean and Cyclops go to retrieve them, and find that yes, it is a trap.  Morph attmpts to warn the group to leave, but they are jumped by Sinister and the Nasty Boys, and the fight ends with Jean being taken, and Morph (still struggling against Sinister’s control), going semi-willingly.  The whole team winds up at Sinister’s base in the Savage Land and there are a lot of good character moments, like Gambit telling Rogue he loves her.  Morph spends the whole time still fighting against the brainwashing, but throws it off completely at the end (with Xavier’s help) and turns on Sinister, helping Scott and Jean defeat him.  Morph is then Put on a Bus to Muir Island so that the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the character but could hold them in reserve to use later.  Xavier comments that he can remove Sinister’s mind-control chip from Morph’s brain, but that “removing the psychic damage will take longer.”  So the answer to “Where’s Morph?” in later seasons will always be “Recovering on Muir Island, probably hanging out with Moira and Banshee.”

If you are a Morph fan, Season 2 is THE Morph season, they get a great character arc that fleshes them out, and establishes their close relationship with Wolverine.  I’m glad they didn’t toss out Morph in X-Men 97, both because I like the character, and because Morph’s entire arc in Season 2 was about their struggle to come back to the team, and constantly reaffirms that Morph is one of them, and that they belong with the X-Men.  Also, I know Tumblr love an angsty, suffering blorbo, and good God does Morph suffer in Season 2. 

(Someone is having a Bad Time).

Season 4:

Courage:  After getting only a couple of non-speaking background cameos in Season 3, this is Morph’s comeback episode in Season 4.  Morph believes that they are fully recovered and ready to rejoin the X-Men, while both Moira and Xavier seem to think they are not ready, and warn them to slow down a little.  Morph tries to jump back into their old role, makes jokes, and goes on a mission with Wolverine, but is clearly still dealing with PTSD and completely freezes up when Sentinels attack the mansion and kidnap Xavier.  Morph is left at the mansion while the X-Men go to rescue Xavier, but follows them anyway, and manages to play an instrumental role in stopping the Sentinels and saving Xavier.  Despite this, Morph decides that they are not ready to return and cannot be relied upon in battle (because the writers didn’t want to deal with using the character on the team), and goes back to Muir Island.  It’s a standard “character fucks up at the start of the episode but saves the day in the end” superhero cartoon story, and I was a little disappointed that the episode focused entirely on Morph’s “near death trauma” from the Sentinels and not the much worse “brainwashed and tortured by Sinister to the point of developing a second personality” issue.  The closest we get to addressing that is Morph pointedly walking up to Cyclops with “Scott…been a long time….” which sounds like a way of saying “We’re cool now, bro, I promise I won’t try to kill you.”  Still, we get some great Morph and Wolverine moments, and Morph kicks a lot of ass at the end.  After Morph spends most of the series either dead or suffering, I don’t mind an episode where they get to kick ass. This episode also establishes that Morph was suffering from serious nightmares for awhile, so consider that a canon excuse to put that in your angsty fanfic.

(Morph also gets a non-speaking cameo in Beyond Good and Evil Part 1, sitting next to Jubilee at Scott and Jean’s second wedding.  I think it’s sweet that they were invited, but can also imagine Scott putting them in the front row just to ensure that there are no more “fake priest” shenanigans.  “Let’s put Morph where I can see him….just in case.”)

Season 5:

Graduation Day: After Xavier is attacked, Morph returns to help calm mutants world-wide by impersonating Xavier and making a public call for peace.  Morph doesn’t do much in the episode, but they get an individualized goodbye from Xavier while he is addressing the team one by one, and it is clear at the end that Morph is officially back with the team.  In other words, the writers could give Morph a happy ending of coming back since the show was ending and they didn’t have to deal with it going forward.  Thankfully, the X-Men 97 writers were happy to pick up that ball and continue running with it, and I love what they’ve done with Morph so far!

Were there shippy vibes between Morph and Wolverine in the original series?

I dunno friend, watch “Whatever it Takes,” and “Courage,” and you tell me.  Morph shifting into Jean to taunt Wolverine definitely gives me vibes of “There’s something going on there.”

Is Morph in the comics?

(Note – I’m using he/him for all comics versions of Morph because those versions all apparently ID as male.)

The answer is yes, sort of.

Changeling:

Morph was loosely based on an obscure, long dead shape-shifting mutant from the X-Men’s original 60’s run.  Changeling was a villain with a tacky costume who acted very much like a standard 60’s comic book villain, associated with a terrorist group called Factor Three. Look at this fucking dude:

  At the end of the Factor Three arc, it turns out that Factor Three’s leader, Mutant Master, is an alien who wants to destroy ALL life on Earth to make way for his own people, and the mutants in the group turn on him and help the X-Men. Changeling is the first one to question Mutant Master’s motives, and that’s probably the only interesting thing he does in the whole story.  Several issues later, Xavier supposedly dies while helping defeat a villain named Grotesk and save the world.  This story is retconned near the end of the run, when Xavier is revealed to be alive, and explains that the dead “Xavier” was actually Changeling.  Changeling had discovered that he was terminally ill, and came to Xavier seeking redemption.  Xavier asked Changeling to temporarily take his place as Xavier while he shut himself up in the basement to prepare to stop an alien invasion (and no, the X-Men were not informed of this, besides Jean, and yes, that is really fucked up).  So Changeling became a reformed villain and honorary X-Man who went out in a heroic sacrifice, and was almost never mentioned again.  (Even now Changeling appears to still be dead in the comics, even though the current storyline has allowed ALL the dead mutants to come back.  Even Thunderbird is back.)

Changeling was greatly reworked to become Morph, totally changing his personality and origins.  The only similarities are the shapeshifting powers and physical appearance.  You can see how this guy:

Became this not-actually-a-guy:

Or even this version:

X-Men 97 Morph got a real glow-up to their human form.

Of course, they also share the trait of being a sacrificial lamb plot device, and X-Men TAS creators were originally going to call the character “Changeling,” but changed the name to Morph because DC’s Beast Boy was called Changeling at the time.

Age of Apocalypse Morph:

In the 90’s, there was a cross-over event over all the X-Books called the Age of Apocalypse, in which a time-traveller (Xavier’s son Legion, long story) murdered Xavier in the past before Xavier formed the X-Men, and created a dystopian alternate reality in which Apocalypse had taken over and Magneto led the X-Men.  This was a kind of what-if event that let writers have fun with switching up character relationships, turning good guys bad and bad guys good, and of course, killing a lot of characters off.  The event only lasted about four issues before it was all undone and we returned to the main Marvel universe, so they could really go wild.  In the AoA book Astonishing X-Men, Magneto’s team includes a character called Morph, a versatile shapeshifter with a pasty white made-of-clay look, and a jovial, upbeat personality that is clearly based on TAS Morph.  (This change to character design is where X-Men 97 Morph’s white, featureless appearance comes from).

Just a silly little guy!

AoA Morph is also stated in the book to have been formerly Changeling, before undergoing a name-change and attitude adjustment, making him an AU variant.  He explains to Sunfire at one point that he never takes anything seriously because fuck it, he’s probably gonna die anyway, he may as well die with a smile on his face.  AoA Morph is pretty cool, he does great shapeshifting tricks, and has some depth and heart beneath the obnoxious jokes.

Exiles Morph:

After Age of Apocalypse, the fan-favorite character Blink (like Morph, another alternate version of a short-lived character in the main comics timeline) gets pulled out of the AoA timeline and placed on a team of time-displaced X-Men.  This team, all coming from alternate realities and including some other minor neglected characters (like versions of Thunderbird and Mimic), is tasked with hopping through realities, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap will be their leap home.  The team also includes a version of Morph, who is so similar to AoA Morph that Blink mistakes him initially for her old teammate.  This is another AU variant of Changeling who was never Changeling, but instead was recruited into the New Mutants (a bit of an age retcon for the character, as 60’s Changeling seemed much older, while Exiles Morph is clearly much younger.)  Exiles Morph was a popular hero in his reality, served as both an X-Man and an Avenger, and is an incredibly powerful shapeshifter.  He also winds up being a long-running mainstay of the Exiles team, so this is really the book to read for Morph content.  Exiles also fleshes out the character’s past, stating that he was born as a shapeshifting blob with X-gene already activated, and only assumed a human appearance to fit in with peers.  He also lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his obnoxious jokey personality was partially a reaction to that, an attempt to both cheer up and get some attention from his grieving father.  Exiles Morph is a great character, my only complaint is that he is a bit of a sex pest, constantly making “jokes” that border on sexual harassment of his female teammates.  I don’t think he’s meant to actually be a creep, he never actually does anything, and when the teammate he has a crush on reveals that she is a lesbian, he steps back and acts as a supportive friend.  I think Exiles Morph just suffers from late 90’s early 2000 writing where the funny jokey character has to be all “LOL, Boobies!” all the time, just so we know he’s straight.  (Funny, given how not-straight X-Men 97 Morph seems to be.)

The Other Morph: Benjamin Deeds:

Brian Michael Bendis, in his Uncanny X-Men run, introduced a new character named Benjamin Deeds who could shapeshift, and looked suspiciously similar to a teenage version of Changeling/TAS Morph.  His personality was different, though (more of a sulky teen trying to deal with being a mutant than a funny guy), and the nature of his powers is different.  Benjamin has what is described as “chameleon-like” shapeshifting, taking on the physical characteristics of people when he gets close to them rather than fully shifting forms.  He also exudes a chemical that makes people automatically like and trust him.  Emma suggests the codename “Morph,” and although Benjamin doesn’t like it, it becomes his official codename going forward.  I don’t think Ben actually has any real connection to Changeling or TAS Morph, he seems more like a legacy character or winking homage, like Pyro II (Simon Lasker, who inexplicably has the same powers and looks almost exactly like original Pyro, St. John Alledyce).  He’s fun character and a cute lil’ guy, though.

There are people who call TAS Morph an “original character” completely invented for the cartoon, and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong.  Morph is VERY different from Changeling,  But to me, it makes the most sense to consider TAS Morph another AU variant of Changeling, given all the influence back and forth between the comics and the cartoon.  Morph was based on Changeling, and Morph’s popularity led to AU versions of Changeling in the comics with TAS Morph’s personality literally named “Morph,” and now X-Men 97 Morph has been redesigned to match AoA/Exiles Morph’s appearance.  They are variations of the same person.  And it’s not exactly the first time that a comics character has been drastically reworked in an adaptation – I’m looking at you, First Class Mystique and Evolution’s “Lance Alvers.”  I wonder if people would still be calling Morph an “original character” if they’d kept the name “Changeling,” since keeping the name seems to be all it takes at times.  Still, TAS Morph is kind of right on the border between OC and “adapted from the comics,” and even I tend to include them in groups of “created for the cartoon” characters like Firestar, Spyke and X-23.

Why is Morph tagged as “Kevin Sydney/Sidney”?

Because that is the character’s name, more or less.  TAS Morph didn’t have a “real name” in 92, because Changeling didn’t (similarly, Rogue also didn’t have a real name because the character hadn’t been given one in the comics.)  In Age of Apocalypse, characters called Morph “Sydney” or “Syd,” and Morph even referred to himself that way in a thought-balloons, but the Exiles writer apparently decided, “Nah, it’s a last name,” and officially named Morph “Kevin Sydney.”  The name stuck, and the 2004 Marvel “Book of the Dead” gave Changeling that name in the entry on him.  Morph’s name has never been given in the cartoon, but it’s probably safe to assume that their official “human name” is Kevin Sydney, just like TAS Rogue is probably Anna Marie (her official name in the comics.)  Interestingly, even in Exiles, the book where the name originated, Morph always goes by “Morph” and never “Kevin.”  Maybe Home Alone ruined the name for him.  I tend to use the Kevin Sydney tags on Tumblr and A03 to differentiate from other uses of the “morph” tag.  In particular, Tumblr has a lot of body modification fetish posts tagged as “morph,” and no offense to the fetishists, you all keep doing what you are doing, but that’s not the content I’m looking for.  I’m sure the fetish people are probably a bit annoyed at their own tag filling up with an X-Men character, but hey, it’s their name. 

How old is Morph?  How long were they with the team and when did they join?  Is the featureless white face their “real form”?  What’s their history with Wolverine?

I don’t have answers here because we don’t know.  There’s a lot we don’t know about TAS Morph, and the origins of their comics counterparts don’t really translate well into cartoon continuity.  Like I can’t imagine TAS Morph ever having been a willing member of Factor Three. 

Personally, I tend to assume that Morph was with the team for awhile before their “death,” given that they have an established “old friend” relationship with Wolverine and know the team extremely well.  I also tend to assume that TAS Morph is a similar age to the other young adults on the team like Scott and Jean.  They sometimes look older in the original series, because they were based on Changeling (who also looks older), but the voice acting and general personality of the character seem younger, plus Wolverine calls them “kid”a couple of times.  And it seems like their “human form” may not be their “real face” anyway, given that they’ve now defaulted to the white blank-face look.  The white blank-face look IS the real form for Exiles (and presumably AoA) Morph, so the same is probably true for TAS Morph and Changeling.  But this is all just my own headcanon and speculation, based on what I’ve seen in the original cartoon and the comics.  You are all free to come up with your own headcanons fleshing out the character, I’ve already seen great stuff in fanfic out there!

Edit: Actually, I thought of a bit more:

How does Morph shift their clothing? Does Morph even wear clothes? How can they create accessories like Psylocke's swords?

Honestly, I dunno, this is Rule of Cool and Morph as a vehicle for character cameos in affect here. I will say that, in the comics, many characters with shapeshifter-type powers, like Wolfsbane, wear costumes made of unstable molecules that shift with their bodies, the same may be true of Morph. Exiles Morph, when commenting on his female teammates' skimpy costumes, at one point jokes that he "wears even less," so he may just be literally making clothing out of his own body. Although I would think that would get cold, or painful with no protection against the elements.

I assume that Morph does form accessories like Psylocke's swords out of their own body, which also presumably means they can't drop them. I wonder if it would hurt Morph if one of the swords broke? Exile Morph regularly turns his own body into accessories that he can hold (but not separate from his form), so presumably X-Men 97 Morph is doing the same. This is a step-up from TAS Morph, who never did that. Exiles Morph seems to be able to turn their body into whatever they want.

Does Morph copy the powers of other mutants?

Morph seems to be able to mimic only the physical-based powers of other mutants, under the shapeshifter logic of changing their body to give themselves larger muscles, claws, etc. So Angel's wings, but not Cyclops' eye beams. Nightcrawler's tail but not teleportation. In X-Men 97, Morph takes a couple of shots from X-Cutioner after shifting into Colossus, so apparently they can do the whole metal skin thing. But in TAS, when Morph turns into Wolverine, their claws are not adamantium and Wolverine easily slices through them.

I would add that Exiles Morph is also extremely durable, and can literally be ripped to pieces and shapeshift himself back together. This doesn't seem to be the case of "died from Sentinel lasers" TAS Morph, but maybe they just aren't there with their power levels yet. Exiles Morph IS especially susceptible to burns or laser blasts, and almost dies when Hyperion hits him with a beam at close range.

That’s it, hopefully this is helpful for people completely new to the character who got into X-Men 97.  Mostly I just love writing about Morph.  I encourage you to go back and watch the original series, or at least the Morph episodes.  It’s a good show, if a bit 90’s corny, and will let you fully appreciate X-Men 97 (which has been, so far, an absolute banger of a series).  Presumably we’ll see more character development of Morph as the show continues, which will maybe answer some of these questions.

[tagsecretsanta]

From @sofasurf

From @sofasurf to @ozzmatr0n

Your prompts are as follows:

1. The “ever so fashionable” Lady Penelope (1960s Lady Penelope).

 2. Daily morning routine on Thunderbird 5.

3. The Tracy brothers favourite gifts under the tree

Interview

“Welcome back! If you're just joining us we are on the sofa with the elusive Tracy brothers!”

Scott smiled his trademark smile, dimples winking at the camera that loved him. No one looking at him would know that at that moment he was considering all the ways he could kill Penny and the TI PR team.

“But it's for the children,” Penny had pleaded, eyes sincere and, were those unshed tears? A master at work and, he thought darkly, he'd fallen for it.

Perhaps he wouldn't have had to if the others hadn't also fallen prey to the dirty tactics employed. Even John had lacked immunity from those deadly baby blues.

And so, here they were on the famous red sofa, the hair and makeup team having spent a long time on the completely casual look.  They all wore pastel shades the colour of their uniform baldrics, only Alan not in red, but matching his oldest brother a soft silver grey hoodie to his brother’s stronger blue grey shirt.

Scott sat closest to the Interviewer, even in this  protecting his brothers from the ‘danger’ of the gossip hungry fans.  Of which, unfortunately, the two woman conducting the interview seemed to be the biggest.  There was much faux hair tossing and giggling at him during rehearsal; at all of them even Alan had had a gentle version of the treatment much to his wide eyed fascination. Both women, Donna Flannigan and Carol Song, seasoned hosts seemed to have forgotten their professionalism when faced with International Rescue in the flesh.

And rules of personal space, Scott thought grimly. Death to Lady Creighton- Ward.

Gordon had nearly passed out laughing when Carol’s hand had landed dangerously high up his eldest brother’s thigh earning him a surreptitious slap around the back of the head from John while Virgil, after a quick double take, had deftly shifted the focus to himself as he spoke sincerely about the children's charity they were promoting, allowing Scott to gently extricate himself just off camera. What the live studio audience made of it was anyone's guess.

Yep, Penny was dead. 

He'd managed not to yelp out loud at the uninvited physical contact.  He was however grateful he’d manoeuvred himself between the woman and John, who Donna also seemed to be very keen on getting close to.

“Before the break we were discussing the incredible work that Beginning Together does around the world and your family’s personal passion for the project. Again if you're just joining us, the details to donate to this outstanding charity are on the screen with further links on our website.”

“Indeed, Carol,” Donna took over with a seamless change to look at the different camera signalled by the harried looking floor manager. “And you had referenced your desire to help other children experience the kind of normal childhood that you had growing up in Kansas.  However, normal doesn't feel very like the word to describe your current lives. Let's talk for example about your “normal” day to day life?” The air quotes on the word ‘normal’ drew a titter from the audience.

Scott leant forward slightly smiling. “Now, Donna, our lives for the most part follow pretty normal routines.”

“When you're not saving the world in your supersonic rocket ship!”

“When were not doing that,” warm laugh, dimple, dimple, smile, smoulder.  Scott, despite all his protestations was a natural, all boyish charm and disarming candour. Alan looked on in awe from his place wedged between Gordon and Virgil.  “Mum’s warmth; Dad’s razzle dazzle. Just you watch,” John had whispered to him as their eldest brother had worked the studio like a shareholders meeting when they arrived, remembering names and faces that  had all blurred into one almost instantly for Alan in the overwhelming strangeness of the studio.  

Now Scott answered the questions about his morning routine, Gordon adding little details that made everyone laugh, Yes really, yes running and swimming, yes at dawn.

“So you are the morning people of the family then?” Donna gestured between Scott and Gordon who like Scott took this in his stride. Olympic press training added to the Tracy charm had set him up early to handle himself well under press scrutiny.

“Yes, indeedy. I like to be around in case the old man sprains something on his run!”

The hosts and audience roared in delighted laughter as Scott rolled his eyes good naturedly.

“It's also part of my role as health and safety monitor to have coffee ready for the family bear when it awakens.”

“The family bear?”

More laughter as four fingers pointed at Virgil where he sat preached on the end of the sofa- he and Scott bookends to the row of brothers.

“Hey!”

“It’s true. Virgil should not be approached until he's had at least one coffee,” Alan final felt brave enough to chime in earning indulgent smiles from his brothers despite Virgil's mock outrage.

“There's a reason he's known as the family bear!” John saved Alan from further scrutiny.  John didn't enjoy the spotlight but he was a Tracy and could be charming when he really wanted to.  He just didn't often really want to. Like Scott, Penny's demise was not far from his thoughts.

“The Bear? Do the rest of you have nicknames?”

“No!”

“Yes!” both responses were simultaneous from various brothers.  The audience laughed.

The terrible two jostled to answer.

“Scooter”

“Spacecase”

“Squid!”

“Sprout! Cos he's so little, Gordon tousled the golden bread beside him ironically now slightly higher than his own.

Annoyed Alan tried to deflect from the sight murmur of “ahh” from the audience, “Gordon still sleeps with plushies”

“Alan sleeps on the floor!”

“Yes, well Scott sleeps na....”

“As you can see,” Scott’s calm voice cut across the two shuting his youngest brother down just in time, “Normal siblings!” his tone was carelessly amused, his dimples dimpling and his laugh enchanting but there was a slight edge that the brothers alone detected, used to hearing it when Scott deliberately kept cool but they were in trouble. Gordon was grinning like a loon, John shook his head in mock despair and Virgil gently bumped against Alan's shoulder as the youngest blushed crimson at his near blunder.

About ignored the renewed looks from Carol at that fresh almost titbit.

“So these two are the early risers. Virgil, you're not a morning person. But John, surely you can't claim that your morning routine is normal! I mean you’re in space!” Donna warmed to her topic her intense grey gaze raking over John in a way Scott was certain it shouldn't on a family show.

“It can be surprisingly mundane I assure you, even in space.  Safety and often sanity depend on routine. Except during an emergency I try to keep to island time like these clowns” a muffled hey from Gordon “so I'm awake even they are. I even sometimes  jog around the gravity ring before breakfast!”

The audience approved. A banner saying “We love you, John!” in orange glitter caught the studio light and John did a slight double take before returning his calm smile to Donna who had moved forward in her seat, unnecessarily, Scott felt

“What do you have for breakfast in space?”

John grinned, “My favourite is a bagel with cream cheese.”

“Cream cheese in space?”

John laughed at that, “Yep!”

“Sometimes we send up pancakes,” Virgil chipped in.

“Oh,” Donna showed her investigative prowess, “who is the chef?”

“Scotty makes incredible pancakes,” Alan loyally contributed.

“Bagels and pancakes does sound very normal. But,” Donna was still gazing at John, “What about things we all just normally do like showering for example. How do you keep clean? I mean do you have water in space? Surely you can't ever take your suit off to shower? You can't be in a shower in space! Can you? What if there was an emergency and you were all soapy?”

There was a slightly stunned silence while everyone consider this question.  John, blush starting to creep to his neck opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again.

“Now Donna! You can't have all our secrets,” Scott dimples once again dimpling as he cut across the awkward silence that threatened. Virgil wondered vaguely if they actually had an on switch and their own generator. Older brother smoothly for the win.

“He does smell a bit when he gets home,” Gordon cheeky chap persona fully engaged helped Scott move things along while pushing his leg a little tighter to John's where they were against each other on the sofa.

“What about Christmas then?” Carol reclaimed control giving her Co-anchor side eye. “Are there any special traditions or routines?”

“It’s usually fairly quiet. Just us and a few close family friends. Scott and I tend to cook the main meal to give our grandmother time off.” Virgil was very diplomatic. “He's all about the ham and makes an incredible glaze.”

The others nodded in agreement and Scott waved off their praise endearingly embarrassed.

“Oh what's your secret?”

“It’s an old family recipe and I think I’d be struck down by a curse if I told.” Dimple. The audience lapping it up.  Mom’s recipe was perfect.

“And what about the rest of you?” Donna once more weighed In.

“They each do a side,” Virgil confirmed. “Some more... experimental than others.”

“Hey, it's not my fault your palettes are not mature enough to appreciate genius.”

“Gordon, Brussel sprouts in lemon jelly was not the idea of a genius,” John once more joined the fray.

“Agree to disagree.”

“Disagree!” all four of his brothers responded as if having rehearsed. It took a few moments for the laughter to die down.

“Are there other traditions you look forward to?”

Alan didn't hesitate, “Tree Day.”

“Tree Day?”

“Tree Day,” Gordon nodded in agreement and the older three looked at them with indulgent affection on their faces.

“Well,” Scott began. “Tree Day is basically exactly how it sounds.  We go get a tree and put it up in the lounge and decorate it. Like so many other families who celibate the season.”

Carol smiled at Alan, “It's clearly a favourite tradition of yours would you like to explain what makes it special?”

Alan glanced at Virgil who gave the teen a little nod of encouragement.

“Well it's some of my earliest memories of us all together.  Even when everyone was all over the place and it was just me at home, everyone came back for Tree Day,” Alan moved forward in his seat, looking so young and with enough boyish joy in his tone that the audience were listening rapt. “Everyone would arrive back or Dad and I would go collect them if they couldn't get flights and then we'd all go and pick the best tree we could find. I remember Dad carrying me on his shoulders if I got too tired, then it being Scott who would do that. And Johnny and Scott always disagree about how to cut it down when we find it until Virgil, the actual engineer will just do it his way while they are bickering. And they still do it even though that's kinda what always happens, every year!  And then we carry it back and secure it, and fly home.  Even when I was little I was allowed to help with all of it. Then we get it into the house and we  all hang the decorations on it. It helped that in the past they’d always brought me presents to go under the tree once it was up.” There was gentle giggles at that. “And even when Scooter,” he seemed to catch himself glancing suddenly at his older brother who smiled a strange little smile at him his eyes unreadable.  Alan seemed to swallow slightly then continued. “I mean, there was a year we couldn't all do it and we did it in August instead when we were all together. Like a bonus Christmas! So... ah, yea. I guess I just like that it's something we have always done together,” he stopped finally looking up again at Scott then stood to smile at Donna who liked a little watery.  Virgil's arm moved from along the back of the sofa to his youngest brothers shoulder and John moved a hand to Scott's knee at the same moment. There was a moment of connection between the brothers that was like a tangible electricity.

“Except the year Virgil wired the lights wrong and blew the generators!” Gordon squeezed Alan's leg as he played up that story to the audience. Ignoring the few hankies being dabbed to eyes in what he could see of the front row of the audience. He soon had them guffawing.

Carol had just started down the path of what exactly was under the tree and the audience were lapping up details of Virgil's traditional knitted gifts when Scott’s wrist began to vibrate violently.

“Sorry,” he looked at his wrist punching a few buttons and frowning.

“The perils of live tv folks!” Carol joked but Scott got to his feet in a moment that would be looped on need feeds and holo screens around the world for days to come.

“I'm sorry Carol, Donna, but we're going to have to cut this short,” gone was the charming farm boy ribbing his siblings good naturedly and there stood the Commander of International Rescue. Cameras were hastily moved to capture the moment as it happened.

“We have a situation. There has been a mud side in Tibet. Thunderbird 5?”

John was already pulling up information, wait,  Donna’s eyes widened at her favourite Tracy, where had he got a data pad from? The others were instantly on their feet.

“I see it. Best location for coordinating search and rescue will be with you momentarily.”

“F.A.B. Thunderbirds 2, 4 and 3 configure pods enroute.  Thunderbird 5 with me.”

A chorus of F.A.B. and they were moving as one.

“I,well....”

“A world exclusive indeed ladies and gentlemen.”

Both hosts paused as the rubbing roar of the green behemoth parked outside the studio caused everything to shake.

“Looks like that's the end of our catch up with the Tracy Family,” she touched her ear piece. “Here’s a quick word from our sponsors!”

In the control room Penny smiled from where she been watching. Contributions to the charity had trebled since the show had started and those shots of Scott being all Commanderesque would be circulated for weeks to come. 

She watched a the production team scrambled to find sobering to fill the remaining 15 minutes of airtime. Kissing Sherbet’s head in delight she bid her farewells – she have Parker swing by the Tracy's favourite take away and had over to Tracy Island to await the return of her ‘normal’ boys.

[niffler-gold]

Burning

Just a short injury fic focused on Scott with some comfort thrown in.

His muscles burned in agony as he tried to get up this morning. Apparently doing two mountain rescues back to back with a lot of climbing followed by rigorous water training led by Gordon did not agree with his muscles. Still nothing a hot shower and some stretching wouldn't fix.

He slowly pulled his legs over the side of the bed and stretched up towards the ceiling his joints loudly cracking to show their disdain at being moved from their current position. He quickly pulled on his running gear and was about to head out before his hot shower. Leaving his room he could already hear Gordon furiously swimming in the pool at this early hour.

Just as he was heading down the stairs to start his early morning routine John popped up on his com. He groaned internally before answering, knowing his hot shower was going to have to wait. "What's the situation John", he asked, ever the professional. "Another climber got into difficulties". Scott paused before answering, "That is the third one in less than 2 days, what are these people thinking, we should start charging for these at least that might be a deterrent", he rambled on. John cut him off before he could get any further, "even so this guy does need our help", he paused for a second before continuing, "it's an unusual one, he was climbing a large cliff face when he said the cliff seemed to move under him, next thing he knew all of his belay wall clips started pinging undone and he fell around 50 metres getting tangled in the line as he went... The unusual thing is I haven't detected any seismic activity around that area nor does it have any implications in the surrounding geology that any seismic activity has taken place in the last 100 years. "He's probably just imagining it and didn't secure his clips properly enough", grumbled Scott in response. "Could be" replied John, "but I did a quick background check on this guy and he's been climbing professionally for about 30 years and has never called us or any local rescue teams out to aid him before." "Hmmmm, that is odd" pondered Scott. "I'll take 1 alone, no need to wake up the bear this early for a pickup.. see you in the sky thunderbird 5", "fab scott, safe flight" and with that John had disappeared and Scott was running towards one's launch shoot to gear up.

Sitting in the pilot's chair of one he slowly tried to stretch his burning muscles out once more but to no avail. He really could have done with that hot shower he thought to himself. Nevermind it could wait. "Approaching the danger zone now thunderbird 5" he called through the coms. "Fab thunderbird 1" John called back through to him. He tried one last futile time to stretch his muscles out before coming into land at the bottom of the cliff face.

After exiting one and surveying the scene before him he knew the best option was going to be to climb up after the man rather than using the jet pack due to the unknown unstable condition of the rock face. Thankfully he could use the grapple gun in order to get up there with speed as the man looked to be hanging on his side completely covered in rope. With precision he fired the grapple into a secure spot of the wall and started his accent.

His limbs were once again burning with the strain of the climb by the time he had reached the man. But still he kept face and called out to the dangling climber. He quickly learned that the man's name was Ben and started trying to secure him to a new line before tackling the rope that was binding him. Luckily Ben seemed unharmed apart from a little bit of rope burn where it had dug in and caught him.

Ben kept chatting to him as he worked and he soon found out he was a seasoned mountain rescue operative on a holiday as he called it to get a little alone time. It was definitely something that Scott would have done if he ever had more than a few hours to himself and he kept wondering how the climber had managed to get himself in such a bind. Soon enough though Ben was free and was back secured against the wall. However before Scott could lower Ben down back to the ground again they had to get his gear cut down so they didn't tangle up with it on their way down.

As Ben was helping him sort it out he noticed something odd. One of the belay wall clips looked chard and burnt and the rope around said clip was in similar condition. He looked at Ben and asked if his equipment was this damaged when securing it to the wall. Ben confirmed it most definitely was not in that condition, then he noted that when assessing the rope to be cut down back to the ground, that would of been the clip that failed when the cliff started moving. This puzzled Scott even more.

Once the gear and ropes had been safely thrown back down to the ground Scott got ready to lower Ben down to safety. But before he could he asked Ben if he knew whereabouts on the wall that the burnt clip had been secured. His Tracy senses were tingling alarmingly but not in a good way at all. Ben said it looks like it was the clip about 10 meters above them, so Scott decided he needed to take a look before returning to the ground. Scott slowly lowered ben back down to solid ground before slowly climbing to the spot Ben had previously pointed out to him.

He quickly found the spot where the clip had been as a small black spot protruded out of the crack where the clip had been secured. Small cracks could also be seen in the burnt section of the wall. He slowly felt around inside the small fisher to see what could have caused the damage as nothing natural would do this type of carnage. His fingers slowly curled around something metallic small and sharp. He cautiously pulled it out and held it to the light to better examine it. He could just make out the chaos crew logo.

His hand flew up to his com button to alert John but in a split second a fireball had engulfed a section of cliff high above him to his right. An ear splitting explosion suddenly came from his left much nearer to him than the first. He started rappelling down the cliff as fast as his equipment would take him. Another explosion just above him and he could feel the heat lick the side of his face. It had detonated where he had just been a second before. Next thing he knew he was falling. The explosion had dislodged his grapple.

He fell as fire and debris surrounded him on all sides. He fumbled with a new grapple cartridge, discarding the old one out of the gun and fired. The line caught him less than 10 meters from the ground. Before he had a chance to get moving again a last fireball explosion detonated just below his right leg.

He was lying on the ground his ears ringing. He could see smoke floating all around him as his vision swam. His right leg was numb with scalding pain shooting all around it. His vision swam when he tensed it unknowingly. He could hear muffled movement round him someone shouting his name. The next time his eyes peeled open against the heat a figure loomed over him. He seemed to be yelling something but it sounded so far away. Green and blue swam in his vision as he lost consciousness once again.

He could hear low murmuring voices all around him. His head swam with confusion. He could feel soft cotton sheets wrapped around him and the tell tale sting of an IV line inserted into his left arm. His body felt numb and his right leg had an odd feeling of coolness about it. Gingerly he opened one eye to figure out what was going on.

He was greeted with the sight of all his brothers sitting around the bed he had been put in. He heard a low chorus of Scott being said around the room as his eyes adjusted to the light of the room. He felt a hand on his and saw Virgil gently holding it looking like he hadn't slept in over a week. "What happend" he gently asked looking at his little brother in the eyes. His voice came out quite horse and raspy much to his surprise. "The chaos crew" Virgil replied quietly and solemnly. Suddenly the images of the rescue and the carnage that had surrounded him came back into his mind. "How bad he asked" still looking at his brother. It was John who answered instead on the opposite side of his bed. "Unconscious for 3 days, bruised ribs and a definite concussion..." He seemed to trail off towards the end. Scott knew he was avoiding telling him something but before he had a chance to enquire further Gordon finished off for John. " Your right leg", he stated nervously. "When we found you it was blackened and chard, your uniform was missing and the parts that were still there were fused into your skin". "The doctors managed to save it though" he said cheerfully trying his hardest to lighten the mood. Alan chose this moment to interject, "you've had multiple skin grafts and surgeries to assist with its healing, for now it's got to stay in the specialty brace to keep it healing and healthy." So that's why, he thought to himself, it felt slightly cold.

He could already feel the sleep tugging at his eye lids as he looked at his brother's noticing how worried and anxious they all seemed to look. Virgil gently brushed the hair back of his forehead, "sleep Scotty" he gently whispered as everything started going black again.

A month later and Scott was sitting at his father's desk keeping an eye out on the rescue that the rest of his brothers were on. He still was on crutches as he wasn't allowed any weight on the leg just yet. The brace that surrounded it kept it nice and cool though.

He thought back to that morning where all he wanted was a nice hot shower but had decided to go running instead. He should have just had the shower he thought to himself. At the moment all he was allowed was a gentle cold shower due to his injuries. He sighed to himself knowing it was still gonna be a little while until he could have the hot water pouring down his skin.

"SCOTT WHAT ARE YOU DOING", yelled Virgil having just materialised on the holo projector in the middle of the room. "What" Scott replied with his cocky grin on his face. "I'm sitting down" he tried not to laugh at the expression on Virgil's face. "You are meant to be elevating that leg, not sitting at the desk". Well at least some things never changed.

[yallemagne]

So I finished the first season of X-Men: The Animated Series of course. Highlights?

Episode 1 & 2: Night of the Sentinels

Jubilee's father really fuckin sold her out huh? And holy shit the fucking sentinels. Dog, why did you MAKE THEM SO BIG. I had expected like that they started small and got bigger ones when the X-Men were revealed, but no, without even alerting the nation that they were making these robots, they sent a giant ass robot into a mall to capture one teenager.

Me pointing out "huh Morph is getting a lot of moments here, I like it" followed by them immediately dying. Like damn. They really did that. No wonder the creators backed out of having Thunderbird be in Morph's role, that would have just been insulting. Especially since he probably wouldn't have been brought back.

"Tell Cyclops... I made him a convertible."

Cyclops refuses to apologize for leaving without Morph and Beast but instead offers Logan an opportunity for revenge. It's so them. These petty bastards.

Episode 3: Enter Magneto

Beast... you're so silly. So, Beast refuses a rescue by Magneto (he's imprisoned) because "I'm awaiting a fair trial that will prove my innocence"... girl. You are a giant blue man. So, yeah, another case where Magneto was right.

Sabretooth is such a fake-ass bitch, I love it. So, he shows up at the trial causing a ruckus and gets injured and the X-Men take him in and start treating him like their pathetic little meow meow. This couldn't possibly go wrong.

"Come on, they're gonna kill him!" "Good." *turns around* "WHAT?"

"He's a threat." "He was near death." "Not near enough."

They just keep giving Wolverine all the best lines.

Episode 4: Deadly Reunions

Sabretooth, my poor little meow meow... all you did was a few itty bitty kitty murders... That's what Charles is saying at the start of this episode.

Xavier truly does try to get to the root of Sabretooth's anger with some super therapy, but alas, Sabretooth is just That Bitch. We do know that a competent telepath can temper his anger though, just look at Birdy.

They leave Jubilee alone with him acknowledging full well "this man is more dangerous than Wolverine... have fun babysitting!" He's restrained in a chair growling "let me at 'em" as Senator Kelly is being racist on TV and Jubilee very kindly turns it off and he's like "sowwy I'm twying to be a good boy... 😿" So of course Jubilee sees his restraints are hurting his wrists and releases him to help. Hahahaha. Oh girl.

If this were a show being produced today, I could totally see Sabretooth being accepted by the X-Men because "daww look he's angry just like you Wolverine" being drawn out into a longer arc where he actually gains their trust so it creates a genuine rift in the team... but also maybe he's not that patient for a scheme like that.

(also I know the show probably isn't going with the continuity that they're blood-related, but Wolverine telling them Sabretooth is nothing but trouble and getting hit with "but he's just like you 🥺" is very brother-coded okay?? Anyone who has a terrible older brother can relate.)

"Alright you egg-sucking piece of gutter trash. You always liked pushing around people smaller than you. WELL, I'M SMALLER! TRY PUSHING ME!!" << that's some little brother dialogue.

(… Morph would have listened to Wolverine about Sabretooth. Morph knows the Deep Lore.)

Episode 5: Captive Hearts

Callisto saw Cyclops and immediately said "I'm gonna make him my trophy husband", and while that is a valid reaction, no means no, hun.

They literally establish Storm as the Morlock's future Moses basically with her promising to come back for them when the time is right and they feel safe to breech the surface. And then they gave Magneto that role in '97. Ugh. He has the nerve to say Xavier just left them down there when it was in fact Storm that respected their right to self-determination.

Episode 6: Cold Vengeance

I love every time I see Sabretooth, he's just so silly-looking. No wonder everyone else imprinted on him like "hehe silly orange kitty" he's so BIG. He's incredibly top-heavy, just look at his bazongas.

We got through this with no sacrifice of Inuit life but a sombre sentiment that they'll be abandoning the old ways rather than rebuilding their homes.

Episode 7: Slave Island

Jubilee and Gambit have a nice little dynamic. He's the first person Jubilee used her powers to protect and she does it multiple times. I imagine he's like her cool older brother with street smarts.

No wonder Gambit was suspicious of Genosha in '97. Can't really trust that all is well when the foundation of that place was quite literally built with slavery.

This just makes Magneto's "tsk tsk Charles didn't use his wealth and resources to ship a load of UNWILLING Morlocks to Genosha for their own good" comment in '97 all the more frustrating. Man can be a dumbass.

Anyway--- CABLE CABLE CABLE. My silly little big boy.

Episode 8: The Unstoppable Juggernaut

Juggernaut is such a funny guy. I feel like usually, the big guys don't get to be the wise-cracking type, so this piece of shit was fun to watch.

Also just love Colossus, he's perfect.

Episode 9: The Cure

It's hard to feel bad for Warren when he's literally rich and funding a project that can be easily weaponized to hurt mutants. Sure, he was tricked and wasn't actually funding his "cure", but it would have been awful even if he got what he wanted. Just wear one of those collars for the rest of your life, jackass.

HOW IS NO ONE CHECKING IN ON THIS RESEARCH?? This experimentation on human beings is taking place with no government interference???

Pyro and Avalanche are fucking don't even try to convince me otherwise. Pyro, I don't care where you are from, I'm gonna be so weird about you calling every man you meet “darling”.

Episode 10: Come the Apocalypse

The public will see literally any villain and be like "A RENEGADE MUTANT!!" Like yeah sure I think Apocalypse technically is a mutant?? But like they really just profile all criminals as mutants.

Again, not sorry for you, rich boy.

Poor Rogue, having to absorb all these men's damage.

Episode 11 & 12: Days of Future Past

Bishop is a fucking traitor holy shit. Sure he gets better but damn. Girly was really like "The face-eating jaguars would never eat my face." and then was immediately told he was no longer needed.

"Someone... or something has come back through the time portal." "CHECK PLEASE! TIME PORTAL?"

"You kids better behave yourselves; I'm staying behind to babysit."

"Okay, ROUND BOY. Let's dance."

Wolverine has all the best lines.

Wonder why Mystique specifically chose to impersonate Gambit for the assassination. Perhaps he seemed the most likely? Perhaps a grudge against him for his relationship with Rogue?

Episode 13: The Final Decision

I'm so fucking disappointed that the fate of mutantkind lies in the hands of Senator Kelly because, dog, I wanna shoot him.

When you make a giant racist robot factory and even the giant racist robot factory is smart enough to recognize that mutant rights are human rights and so it resolves to protect humanity by replacing it with robots. Fucking dumbasses.

Honestly makes you wonder what the fuck Trask thought he was doing coming back in the new series. He knew that starting up another Master Mold would inevitably lead to the robots replacing politicians' brains with computers and he DID IT AGAIN ANYWAY.

Seeing Chuck and Magnus working together always warms my heart. And then they go right back to being enemies.

That Mister Sinister teaser at the end was... I'm not gonna say it.

[cookidoughlilac]

A somewhat more serious TAG edit this time. Completed a few days ago and forgotten about because I immediately fell asleep after-

Legacy - Thunderbirds Are Go, Season 1 Episode 26

Done For - Epic The Musical, The Circe Saga

[korshrimpski]

KEVIN KORCHINSKI APPRECIATION POST

Hello, this is a remake of a post i made last season and i'm making it because 1. love kevin 2. can't stop thinking of how shit my old post was lol, so a remake is need (you won't find the og post because i deleted it)

1. let's start with some base things. he was drafted 7th overall in the 2022 draft to chicago

2. he's a defenceman

3. his rookie season was last year. he struggled a bit and is going to play in the AHL this year for the rockford icehogs

4. he got 5 goals and 10 assist

5. his dynamic with connor bedard is so sweet. They were both rookies for the chicago blackhawks last year but before that they played on team canada (wjc) 2023 together.

6. In warms ups connor would glide in bump into kevin, kevin would bump/push him back and connor would spin (x) (x.2) (x.3)

7. they also got their first fine together 🤗 (they went no bucket for their rookie lap and got fined)

8. since kevin and connor's whl teams never played each other they bicker about which team would have hypothetically beaten the other in a match up

9. kevin and connor combined to defeat the leafs in OT last season and it was beautiful

10. if you want more kevin and connor content here is a list of videos for you to watch:

Every Shift Season 1 Episode 5: Ambition to Action | 15:06-15:20

Every Shift Season 2 Episode 6: Great Expectations | timestamps; 1:37-4:20

(INSTAGRAM video)

they did a podcast together (it is a very painful watch because of the host :/)

11. he has a youtube channel (the name of which i cannot remember which makes me so sad) but it is him doing backflips or talking about hockey

12. speaking of him having a youtube channel- he was asked if he could be an influencer and he said he would try and then fail

13. there is a scar under his eye that he got when he was playing in the WHL conference finals and got high sticked in game one

14. the reason he decided to go to the WHL was to follow in his fathers' footsteps and so they have something to bond over (x 0:00-0:45)

15. kevin speaks really high of his dad as he is one of his main inspirations

16. literally whenever there is a single post about him people default to the "hi kevin" video/gif from spongebob lol

17. he used to play the piano because his mum wanted one of her kids to learn piano so kevin was put in piano. In year 9 he quit to focus on hockey. But he still likes playing piano for his mum

18. but kevin likes music and can play guitar, ex.1, ex.2,

19. here's him singing a zach bryan song with alex vlasic x

20. speaking of zach bryan, kevin is a big country fan

21. he is also a big coldplay fan because of his dad

22. his favourite show is suits

23. he was a very energetic kid and because of that his grandad called him "energy bunny" (x)

24. his hockey habit is that he has to change his laces every game. if they're a pair of laces he likes he'll keep them for a couple of games. he also has to retie his laces after every period

25. he is competitive with big sister whenever they play cards | timestamp: 10:26-10:56

26. he was at school for a test, when his friend told him he got drafted to the Seattle Thunderbirds (x)

27. during his rookie season, colin blackwell took kevin under his wing. they would drive together to practice some days and colin teached kevin who to cook steak

28. there is an amazing video of kevin and sam savioe singing shallow by lady gaga in colins car that i have to show you, like it's beautiful x

29. he might be real or not idk his existence is debated

[corrodedcoffins-blog]

Meet Y/n

quinn hughes x nhl player!reader

has played on men's teams since she was 13 (storage rooms are her second home)

got drafted to the Seattle Thunderbirds when she was 16, in 2016

and played with them until she was drafted 3rd overall to the Vancouver Canucks in 2018

she's mainly a center but can also play left wing

she's 5' 7"

born in 2000

from Quebec and is French Canadian

never backs down from a fight especially since she's a women in a men's league, that just makes her want to prove she's just as good and just as strong

never wants to be captain or alternative captain, i think she was offered an A this season but said no because she 1, doesn't want that responsibility and 2, she doesn't think she would be good as a leader

wants kids but not until after she's retired

when she was 22 she got her eggs frozen and her tubes tied

quinn didn't know about this obviously until they got together and it was a bit of a shock but she's still able to get pregnant just not by accident which is a plus

quinn and her got together during the 22-23 season but broke up late March/early April, because y/n felt they were becoming to serious and she wasn't ready

but got back to together during training camp/preseason-ish

[skeefee-sky]

'Sentience ain't all fun and games...'

@thunder-tober Day prompt: 10 - Speed Characters: Alan Tracy, Thunderbird Three Word count: 570

Hhhhhhhhh, I hate how much I struggled to write this one >w< but! Of course, not all stories are going to be easy to write – such is the life of a creative writer <w< I’ve also based this like, early season 1 so, Alan’s a lil bit inexperienced and brash; don’t mind him >w> Alan persuades his brothers to use Thunderbird Three for a ground-mission… which doesn’t go exactly as planned.

💙❤️ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ~~~ TB ❤️💙

“I can’t believe you thought that was a good idea… How did they even let you think it was a good idea?!”

Alan opened his mouth to reply, but his words were lost on his tongue. He’d come back down to the hangar to check in with his ship, half expecting a few words of discouragement from him, but Thunderbird Three sounded genuinely upset with him. He did have a sprained wrist to answer for it…

The Thunderbird let out a quiet huff through his vents. “I know I haven’t been sentient very long, and yes, it’s cool and all but... Trying to get to the danger zone before Thunderbird One is, not an excuse to test out what I can do.”

“I just wanted to help…” the astronaut murmured, finally finding a chance to say something. He felt so small tucked against his Thunderbird’s thruster, but it was the only way they could hear each other, without the youngest Tracy having to climb back into the cockpit. The upside was, it was still warm from them being out on a rescue… A sigh drawled from the Thunderbird’s systems.

“I know… Sorry… I’ll admit, I want to test my new limits now too but, we can’t do that at every opportunity,” he explained, rocking the slightest on his refuelling pad to make sure the locks clicked into place. Their little test drive had used up half of his fuel reserves, and he didn’t want to risk being half-empty if they were called out again. “If a rescue calls for speed, or heavy lifting, we already have two Thunderbirds perfectly capable of that. I was built for space missions...”

Alan knew that. Scott had reminded him of it too. He’d just thought, now with his Thunderbird’s sentience, they could be a little bit more useful on missions… Of course, yes, there was the fact his craft was a spacecraft… He tilted his head back, blue eyes trailing up the side of his Thunderbird as he nursed his wrist to his middle.

“… Wasn’t it just a little bit cool to tow that cargo ship though?”

“No.” Thunderbird Three had been rather abrupt with his answer, and there was no way he was admitting out loud that actually, yes, it was a bit cool. The nosedive he’d taken into the water hadn’t been… “We were going too fast for it to be considered safe anyway.”

“Since when have you ever worried about that?” Alan snorted; the craft not being able to tell if he was humoured or annoyed. “You’re always breaking your own rules, Three!”

“When we’re in space…” the rocket grumbled. It wasn’t just their speed he’d been concerned about… His manoeuvrability had been rather shoddy too, and while yes he was fast, he was a lot bigger than Thunderbird One… His pilot could have come away with a lot worse than a sprained wrist had his nosedive not been as controlled as he’d made it… “You know, you worry me sometimes, captain…”

“Makes sense. I’m still ‘just a kid’ after all…”

“That’s not what I-…”

Thunderbird Three quietened when he no longer felt the small of his pilot against his frame, settling a little straighter on his refuelling pad. Had he been too harsh…? He was still trying to figure out everything that came with being sentient… Maybe he should ask for pointers from his pilot’s older brothers at some point…

[emtb319]

Fishtank week Day 5. Today's theme: Comfort Food/Food on the Go.

‘Do we really need to go back right away?’

‘Gordon, I’m tired, it’s been a long day, and we’ll both be over our flight hours soon.’

‘1 hour, tops, I promise.’  Virgil sighed.  It was really hard to say no to Gordon when he got a thought in his head.  Just how did he have so much energy right now?  The mountain rescue had been long and tiring.  There was barely enough coffee on 2 to get him through the flight home.

‘For what and might coffee be involved?’

‘They usually have coffee, but I’m not sure.  I know it’s apple cider season, and they’ll have gallons of their homemade stuff on hand.  Oooo…they probably even have those donuts that Scott loves.’

‘You want to stop by the orchard?’ Virgil asked him.  It was a tempting argument.  Their homemade goodies always hit the spot.  

‘Yup!’  Virgil debated a moment.  It wasn’t easy to park Thunderbird 2 near there, but this would make Gordon very happy.  They’d even get to bring some home too for everyone else.

‘Hold on Gords.  I need to find a place to land my bird.’

‘I already asked Mr. Jenkins.  He said that we can borrow his lot, even offered us some of his corn.’

‘Ok, so corn from the Jenkins farm and the rest from the orchard.’  Just as Gordon promised they were only down for an hour.  They brought back 2 carts filled with stuff.  Corn and apple pies from the Jenkins farm.  Fresh fruit, homemade apple donuts, and ice cream from the orchard.

‘Here I saw you eyeing it, so I got some for you for the ride home,’ Gordon said as he handed Virgil some raspberry ice cream.

‘Thanks. I haven't found anyone else that can make raspberry ice cream like them.  Let’s eat up and get going.  I’m tired, and I’m sure Mr. Jenkins wants his lot back.’

‘You eat your ice cream.  I’ll fly the first leg home.’

‘You sure Gords?  I’m fine to fly, just a little tired.’

‘I know she’s your bird Virg, but I promise to behave and not hit anything.’  Virgil chuckled.

‘Ok, ok.  Just the first leg while I finish this, then I’ll take over.’  Famous last words...Gordon flew the first leg, then all the way home.  As he was eating his ice cream, Virgil relaxed and fell asleep.  Gordon didn’t have the heart to wake him, but he made sure to grab the ice cream and store it before it fell out of Virgil’s hands.

‘You could have woken me up, you know.’

‘I know, but you were tired.  Let’s put this stuff away and get upstairs.  I know I need a shower and a nap….and don’t even think about shutting off my water again.’

‘Why, you don’t want to smell like ‘hard work’?’ Virgil barely had the words out of his mouth when something flew past his head.

‘It wasn’t funny then, and it’s not funny now,’ Gordon said.  ‘Keep it up funny man, and I’ll start giving Eos humor lessons again.’

‘Ok…ok, you win.  Go, I’ll finish up here and send some of this up to John before everyone jumps on it.’

[hebuiltfive]

... I did a thing.

It's the first time I've ever made a quiz online so I'm hoping it works okay! I couldn't find many Thunderbirds quizzes out there, so I thought I'd try and make some of my own (if anyone enjoy these).

This is a quote-trivia quiz. I'd love to know how people get on with it - if it was too easy, too hard, too confusing etc.

Okay, throwing this out into the void and running.

[idontknowreallywhy]

Just chucking my rambling about the soundtrack of SOS2 in a separate post rather than buried in the showdown reblogs… mostly because I’m impressed by how many things there are to say even though I don’t feel like I mentioned half of them!!

🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵

Musically (which is my particular obsession, especially as I also listen to the episodes a lot in the car so don’t have the picture to tell the story)… SOS2 though is next level.

It has all the themes, plus the new ones from Calypso/Braman but it shifts and develops them.

We have Four launching to the theme in 5/4! That’s so clever, it really sets me on edge as it makes it clear something is OFF. The scene before when they are discussing Braman adds to this edginess because the quiet tremolo strings in the background just tip it off comfortable.

The search / chase / trap cues are brilliantly executed… the chaos crew themselves could have been written a lot better, but the theme is a very clever and flexible one (much like the mechanic’s was - the Fosters clearly love a baddie) and it’s well incorporated here, especially in how it is blended with the ‘underwater’ soundscape and then with the tension music as the choir backing happens and the pulse increases… your high panic from the upper voices, strings and solo trumpet… the sense of inevitability and hugeness from the lower end of the orchestra… till it all culminates in what is effectively a musical scream… and then the strings give us quiet pain.

Then the silence.

Oh the silence.

There is no musical background as Fuse approaches. It’s just water and rocket noise. Which in such a musically rich episode is jarring, it makes me hold my breath.

Then when he sees Gordon and we hear the start of the string and horn backing for the elegy… I like to think it’s a turning point for Fuse, him realising this is bad, having regrets at the same time the audience are desperately worried for Gordon. But they are brave - they start the mourning song but they stop it! When it cuts back to the Chaos Cruiser and the Hood deserves no music.

It’s only when Fuse asks whether Gordon will be ok that we get the music back and… oh my.

THAT ELEGY.

Look I know I have raved about this before but holy moley it’s beautiful.

But but - notice - where the hood got only engine noise & no music, once the chaos cruiser is gone and it cuts to Thunderbird 2 we have all music no sound effects. I believe it’s the only time in all 3 seasons where the soundscape is entirely bare but for music. The Fosters talked about what a privilege it was to be given sole charge of what the audience hears at that key emotional moment. Thunderbird 2 silent??? The Tracys silent - they communicate only by looks. The music speaks their agony for them. The rockets on Thunderbird 2 fire but there is no sound from them. Virgil says Thunderbird Two is Go but we don’t hear it fly overhead.

The Thunder is gone.

The theme develops as FAB 1 is in shot and the sound effects coming back is another little shock - like you’re waking from a bad dream to find out it’s real.

The Rescuing Gordon cue gives us part of the elegy theme with Gordon’s launch again, back it’s back in a slow 4/4. Because Two is there and Two is safe and stable. BUT… it’s still not quite right - listen to the strings… not the semiquavers in the bass but the single broken notes over the top - slowly rising and then falling - they aren’t on the beat! Every time the note starts just a little sooner than it feels like it’s supposed to. They have a plan, they know what to do, but agh they are also in a rush and there’s a sense of fumbling desperation. So. Flipping. Clever. I didn’t notice it until maybe the 30th time of listening.

The strings climax at the point the pods lock on and we hold our breath… and as Penny cuts Gordon free so does the music - they really play around with the speed here, the new string tune that comes in… with too many notes to fit into the 4/4 pattern it’s like the beat pauses but the melody continues until with a *gasp* she has him and the pulse restarts.

When they get him into Two’s med bay it seems like the music is gonna stop, like it does on the Chaos Cruiser but no. There is a single, quiet, sustained note… the orchestra doesn’t let Gordon go.

I mean I could go on all day… Shadow V Chaos, wonderfully scored too… the fact the Braman’s Sacrifice theme (from when he steered the Calypso into the sea) soars in and combines with Kayo’s theme as she gives up her advantage over the Chaos Cruiser to turn and save him. Lush. The soft family theme at the hospital… aaah.

But one final thing…

The ending.

Because I have listened to this hundreds of times and STILL the goosebumps.

Brains brings up the data - We have the insistent pulse of the familiar theme but then a slow minor key string version of Braman’s sailing sailing song. Then as they start to realise what’s going on that fades and Jeff’s theme starts! Are we going to get it? It’s not totally clear… as Brains is trying to decrypt the hidden message the notes are held but as we see FAB we get the end of the melody! At last! JEFF TRACY! And it all rises and climaxes into the main theme at the end. PERFECT! BRAVO! *leaps from chair and dances*

[mrmustachious]

Aight before we go into the third round and I have a very real fear the best episode (in my opinion) has a good chance of going out next round, it's time for some propaganda

✨️Vote for SOS Part 2✨️

This episode is jam packed full of action, emotion, angst, beautiful shots, and an awesome cliffhanger

Ok first of all let's start with the CHASE

Guys GUYS okay the way Gordon goes off to search for Braman and we know that the Hood also knows about Braman and we're just waiting for him and the chaos crew to show up

The way we all panic with Gordon when they do show up (and hello that shot of the chaos cruiser!) and Gordon's slick manoeuvre to get away and his heavy breathing whilst he's hiding. Like we're now like ok this is real this is more than just a normal encounter with the hood. Gordon is actually terrified

But he knows the risk of what's going to happen is worth it because although he has no idea where or who Braman's transmission is coming from, he knows something is UP and he is willing to risk his life for a robot (something he has previously shown distrust in- see chaos part 1 & 2- so this just further shows the risk he is willing to take)

So he goes for Braman anyway and we think oh maybe he might make it out of there and then BOOM Braman starts singing and no surprise really because it was never going to be that easy.

Now the chase is on which is a classic in Thunderbirds. Chases always happen. And we're thinking that Gordon might get away. Barely. But he'll get away.

And this seems true when he dodges their missiles but then. THE DAUNTING LOOK on Gordon's face when he realises they were never actually aiming for Four, but were actually aiming for the wall. And they hit it. And Gordon knows he can't get away and it's gonna hit him, so all he can do is put on his helmet to minimise the damage.

And then there's nothing.

It's quiet. The only thing we hear is Gordon struggling to activate his emergency call, and John's response. John who doesn't seem to be too worried at first, but then when his baby brother doesn't respond he goes into full blown Panic

And then we get the best sequence in the whole god damn show. Thunderbird Two launches with no countdown. No words are said. Virgil and Scott exchange a look and us viewers just KNOW what they are saying to each other.

AND THE MUSIC GUYS THE MUSIC THAT PLAYS WHEN THEYRE ALL RUSHING TO THE SCENE

And let's also talk about THIS moment

This shot. My favourite shot. Fuse lit up, like he is Gordon's saviour. Like he is going to rescue him. The way this shot lingers for a few seconds in just quiet

Then we see Fuse's conflicting emotions when he sees the crumpled tb4. When for a moment you think he's going to save Gordon instead of Braman. When the side of him controlled by the Hood wins out (God I would love to have seen a chaos crew backstory as to how they started working for the man) and when he takes Braman back to the ship, he shows very real worry about Gordon's wellbeing. And we see how little the Hood actually cares about the Tracys.

Then of course we get the rescue (Penelope rescuing Gordon!!) Then the other chase with Kayo vs the hood and chaos crew. And Brains' cryptic message to forget them and finish what Gordon started and rescue Braman

Later we get the soft scene of all the fam in the hospital and a broken (but thankfully alive <3<3) Gordon, and a cute pen&ink moment.

And then we end with the cliffhanger! Jeff is alive!! And this sets up the rest of the season to go and rescue their dad!

Asgdsfs I just love this episode so much guys

Anyway I hope this reminds you all why SOS part 2 is the best episode and you are all persuaded to vote for it in the coming rounds. If anyone else needs convincing then obligatory cat propaganda post