Discover Top Posts Tagged with #shelli speaks

Do I just post about my Ryan headcanons or do I make something. I'm just swamped is all. 😔

Also LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS WITH HIS 'LITTLE' BOW TIE 🥺💜

#ttte #ttte ryan #shelli speaks #i wish trains were real #thomas and friends #i miss making things #i need to make more ryan content

Begging people who read fanfics to leave comments. Especially in the small communities like ours. Fanfics don't have the same support that art does, where it can be reblogged and commented and shared. The only validation we get is from comments, more so than kudos honestly. Because then we feel the engagement, and it feels worth it.

Lots of love and effort goes into writing. So even just a "Loved it!" Or "Can't wait for the next chapter!" changes everything for us. And sure, you can tell the artist directly, we love it when you do. But comments on our works are like scrapbooks. I go back to comments I love to read them over again to get that warm and fuzzy feeling. A hit of dopamine to keep me writing.

Do writers a solid. Tell them you liked it. And thank you to everyone who does. Yes, write for yourselves, but no one is immune to validation, and so we do it for you! Especially in communities like this, where there aren't many stories to go around to keep the fixation fed.

#just shouting into the void #because it can be discouraging #not just for me but for everyone I see out there #and i'm no saint i know i leave kudos and then go “i'll come back to comment”#i want to do better #this isnt an attack either I'm just like #please like me please like this thing #anyway #shelli speaks #support writers #as far as i've seen its a lot harder for them

I said what I said

#i wish trains were real #shelli speaks #not tagging this for the whole fandom but my followers get to see it lol

Here's a question for yall since I'm curious

Characters like Duck and the Scottish Twins were absent from the show for years, right- it could be easy to assume we were just always missing them, and that they were just busy off screen.

But Duck specifically drawing attention to how he hasn't seen Donald and Douglas in ages in Lost Treasure, that to me feels more indicative of them truly being gone, because he is the most likely to have seen them on his little western line.

What do yall think? I'm a little enamored with the thought that they had been sent away for a year or more, perhaps on loan to a heritage railway in Scotland. And they come back, and Duck and Oliver are just so pleased to have them back at last. Or do yall think they were just bustling about off-screen, and yeah, it's just a cute nod to how they've been gone from the franchise for years. All takes are valid!

Of course I'm asking because you know, I would want to incorporate the time away into my shipping content 😏 absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Home is where the heart is, on the Little Western. 🖤💚

"Well I-.. don't know, but it feels like you've been gone for ages!"

#ttte #thomas and friends #the railway series #donald and douglas #donald the scottish twin #douglas the scottish twin #the scottish twins #ttte duck #duck the great western engine #oliver the great western engine #share your thoughts!#i wish trains were real #shelli speaks #yeah a new tag

Having a lot of thoughts about aus where Edward and James met when they were still on the Furness and the L&YR respectfully. An express engine meeting a goods engine, before they could get on the relatively equal footing they have when they do meet in canon (James leveling up to mixed traffic status and boosting his confidence/ego, Edward downgrading to mixed traffic and being humbled).

It also gives me room to explore how Edward was back then. Snooty, cutting at times, a proper engine but not above poking fun at others. A shy steamer but graceful, even if he falters more often than his brothers do, and he knows it. Fancies himself above yelling and such debasing behaviour but he can and will throw little tantrums over things he doesn't like and can be downright petty about it. Will absolutely join in on the cacklefest when the other Seagulls dogpile on some poor bastard.

Or at least this is what comes to mind. I love picturing him trotting around nose up in his smart red livery like a horse with his head strapped high. Purposefully ignoring anyone he sees as beneath him. But he's already more empathetic than his siblings are because of his runt status amongst his flock, and if any one of them is going to pause before stepping on someone, it's him.

And then he meets a goods engine. Maybe it's after James' rebuild (it hinges on Edward not having gone to Sodor, and they end up going to Sodor at the same time or close to it), and he seems to be one of a kind. A flock of one, abrasive and confident he's going to make something of himself. Or maybe it's before that, and he's seething and writhing in his rivets to be more than what he is.

Anyway just random shelli 2 x 5 thoughts. I love their roots as express and goods engines from very different railways. I they have the dynamic ever no matter what point they meet in their lives.

#ttte #thomas and friends #ttte james #ttte edward #shelli speaks #2 x 5 #jameward #ttte au #i wish trains were real #just thinking out loud

Engines as humans, 'projections' and such

Engines will always be the best form to me, and what I'm most interested in reading, I also love thinking about engines being able to project themselves as humans somehow. Or like, go between forms (but always leaving their engine forms behind). And this, along with transformation, is my next favorite thing. Not only because this opens up avenues for story and shenanigans off the confines of the rails, but it's also interesting to think how the engines and the people around them relate to an ability like that, and how it might not be so fun and breezy. For instance, I think certain engines don't like to do it at all. James is the first one that comes to mind. James ties so much of his self-worth to what he looks like, what he's doing, and how he's being perceived by the world. Looking like anything but Sodor's splendid red engine would be distressing, and it would take work for him to come to relate to this new look. To accept that it's still him, still splendid AND, most importantly, recognizable. And even then, I think he'd still see his engine-self as the superior form. And that's okay! To me that's so damn interesting, seeing the journey of him learning to be comfortable outside of his red paint, his technicoloured dreamcoat. And that could also be used as a tool to help him extend his self-satisfaction beyond his appearance, to what he was made to be, what he is, and the things that he rejects about himself.

Duck is another engine who I think would not take to projecting himself. It's simply not the Great Western WayTM. And he's satisfied with what he is. Not only that, but as an engine, he knows how a railway works. He knows how to be an engine. He's comfortable and confident in what he knows, and all the routine that comes with it. He can forego taking part in festivities because watching it means he doesn't have to engage in it, with the things he doesn't know. He knows no other way of being, and he doesn't really WANT to know. The only exception is the time he wanted to sail, and perhaps that's more to do with wanting to see beyond the horizon, and less so much doing the thing. And as far as projecting goes, I like to think they can't go too far from their engine selves. Certainly not beyond the horizon, anyway. Even if that wasn't the case, you can still long for the things you don't really have the motivation, courage, or inclination to do. But also, how would the railway itself relate to this? It's interesting to think how other railways, like the LNER, L&YR, might relate to that. Do railways that more frequently scrap engines prefer them not doing that, to avoid seeing them as anything more than machines, tools that can be thrown away? Or, do they see opportunity, to cut down on the cost of manpower when you can have an engine simply firing themselves. Or is that just not the Proper Way.

Anyway, just wanted to go off about that. Because while I love them being both human and engine, I don't think it's as easy as just "Wow we're human now we can do anything let's go ride the Ferris wheel!" There's more nuance than that! Even if you're X, and you've thought of being Y, actually becoming that comes with complications and things you'd never even thought of, because you couldn't have known the full scope of Y.