The Crew Looking Awesome As Ever

Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks Time-Skip Monoma looks like Edgeworth?

This is part of the reason that I don't like when people characterize him as being this really stoic emotionally unavailable character, because he is super emotionally available, but he just isn't emotionally intelligent if that makes sense.

He's just a really sweet guy who happens to be rather dense, not dense in that he doesn't recognise peoples emotion but rather in that he isn't super good at social cues in working out why people tend to feel those emotions.

But I really do love how he puts away all of his pride, which honestly Shoto doesn't seem to have a lot of to instantly give her the motivation, I know canonically it was because they were both heavily reliant on their quirks but I think it was also because of Shoto's self confidence, well less so confidence just he lacked the care for what other thought of him in a sense, he get's over himself without question because.

A. That get's them the win

B. Put's her back in the game

He knows she's competent, massively so as can be seen by her dissection of the Training Fight in which she broke down why everyone got their scores, and she out maneuvered him in the sports fest, I think he was in a way rather distraught that she was feeling so bad for herself, because to him, why would she have to feel so put out, it was one bad match up.

But to get back on topic in some way, I think it's cute that he tries really hard to help her through out the exam and even afterwards with Kamino and the Hood attack.

We don't talk enough about how Todoroki goes out of his way to see Momo happy in that final exam arc. He:

Notices Momo is nervous about the practical and comes up with an idea for the both of them

Reassures her when the exam starts and listens to her concerns

Tries to protect her the moment he knows Aizawa is nearby

Immediately fucking shelves his ego and plans when his teacher tells him to believe in his partner

Tells Momo about his confidential vote for class president, because he knows it will give her the confidence she needs to have someone she admires, admire her back

Fucking basically offers to massage her foot when he sees her starts crying?! This boy, I swear...

Todoroki himself is sleeping on it but this man has game

So modified some of the colours on Momo's Season 4 Look (Sorry for using the Arabic Dub version only one that I could get at a good full body that didn't have that stupid shelf in full view).

The colours are based of the new TUM art.

And Honestly I like the black cape and the, Bandolier? Utility Skirt? With the pale colours, the lighting making it look white, so I swapped it to the pre existing white, so now the diamonds on the side match up with the rest of the costume finally.

Whilst I'm not 100% about the Arabic changes, to explain how that would work, I'd say it's a mesh so it works with the fats being semi liquified before forming their objects, I think this would likely be included with the full winter gear to keep her slightly warmer.

The Black boots are an inclusion I added after having it pointed out that her hair resembles a Cranes tailfeathers.

Cranes do have read markings often on the head, so the colours match up, and some have yellow orange feathers so all the colours are present.

Honestly pretty happy with the light change, I'm not 100% on it but it's a fun variant, the Arabic alterations are a bit, well dividing but I think they would work as a preamble before going full close cover as a pro, which likely is an improvement of the mesh design.

SUMMARY: Jirou and Denki's likes are far and between. Jirou likes Denki and Denki likes Jirou anyway. A/N: I was listening to Wild Side by ALI when I thought of them and you should too. (Actual a/n: It was so fun imagining all of this! I based them off some actual events between me and my friends. The homeless one is an actual thing my best friend and I do lmao, sit outside the mall's store and eat while our gang illegally take our photos and call us beggars) WARNINGS: Some mild swearing and a lot of probable inaccuracies for the sake of the plot and because I haven't finished MHA yet

It is wonderful my life

Jirou likes the name Jamming Whey and Denki likes the name Jirou-Jack.

Obviously the both of them detest the nickname the other’s given, or so everyone thought, based on the poking from Jirou’s end and dramatic sighing from Denki’s. Not that it stopped them from calling each other that at all opportunities. It was endearing to watch to the class; it was a trifle odd for the Bakusquad, for when they tried to use it…

“Um, what?”

“Sorry bro, but that ain’t for you to use!”

Mina thinks it’s funny, how it’s like a codename for only each other. Suspiciously so.

Please could you kiss my name

This round’s exercise of heroes versus villains is different.

The villains were Todoroki and Momo, so Jirou and Denki would have to play it smart to win. Inside the building it had seemed like a good idea at that time to split up. Now, not so much, when Jirou found herself stuck in Todoroki’s ice as he handed her the device Aizawa had given them to stay in contact with each other. Momo, no doubt, was nearby to catch her partner unaware.

“Call Kaminari to come out.”

“…Denki, the bomb’s in the room down the hall. The door to the left.”

But then suddenly it’s Momo and Todoroki on the floor, shocked by Chargebolt’s electrical attack. Jirou breaks out of the rest of the partially melted ice herself and grudgingly slaps her partner’s hand when he raises it, hopeful for a high-five.

Todoroki twists his head around, surprise evident on his face. “How’d you know it was as trap? Jirou didn’t say anything suspicious.”

Denki bursts out laughing smugly. “She’d never call me Denki willingly - it’s always Jamming Whey…” his shoulders slump. “Unfortunately. But anyways, we won, Jirou-Jack!”

“Shut up.”

Momo wonders if that day was when Jirou finally accepted the nickname, because for once she didn’t object to it.

Todoroki admires how in sync they are.

When the music's over?

Jirou likes rock and Denki likes electronic.

They argue about it a lot. The usual which is better, yours make no sense, it's much more superior that whatever you call that music. Sometimes during study nights the books and work are forgotten, pushed aside, to make way for their heated debate. Their friends roll their eyes and ignore them; it's almost a ritualistic thing at this point.

Only Mina thinks there's something more to it - to the rest the noise just dies down when one of them whips out their phone and forces the other to listen to their music. So what if they were sitting really close to each other and occasionally lean their heads on the other's shoulder? They're sharing an earbud after all, and the wire required them to be close.

(They're sulking, the rest think, because they see the eyerolls and shoulder shoves.)

(They're in denial, Mina thinks, because she sees them smile at the same moment when it hits the chorus and hum together.)

Turn off light, it was such a sweet time

Momo thinks she’s come up with a solution.

Jirou and Denki stare at her blankly, bewildered by her sudden excited announcement that study night. She says she’s heard them arguing about what music to choose a lot; Jirou replies they do it all the time and Denki adds that it’s normal. Momo nods but repeats what she says. She hands them both her phone.

“Jazz? Yaomomo - what?”

“I thought you were the sort to listen to classical shit. This ain’t my type!”

“No one cares about your opinion right now, Jamming Whey.”

“No, no, I just thought that if the two of you can’t agree on either one of your genres you’d like to try a third option. A compromise, sort of.” Momo smiles, believing she’s provided a resolution to their squabbling. Jirou’s not, though she tries to - she’s going to miss -

“What’s with that face, Jirou-Jack?”

“Don’t elbow me!”

“We can still share earbuds…or you could just plug your jacks into my phone.”

Jirou smiles, but it’s with an eyeroll as Momo looks hopefully on. Denki plays Momo’s choice, holding the phone uncomfortably close to her face like a kid showing off his crayon drawing to his mom. “I’m still choosing which one though!”

They still argue over the music, unsurprisingly. They’re openly sharing the earbuds now, surprisingly.

Could you pray for me, my friend?

Jirou likes movie night and Denki likes the popcorn.

Most of Class 1-A is already gathered in front of the TV, sprawled on the sofas or lying on the ground. She’s a little way from him, squashed between Momo and Mina. Denki pretends he’s not staring at her when his neighbor Kirishima points it out and Bakugo explodes telling them to just pick a movie already. Most of them vote for horror.

Jirou gets up. Strange, because he knows she likes movie nights. Then he remembers, she doesn’t like horror, but her pride wouldn’t allow others to know. Denki himself wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t deduced it by her actions over time and gotten her to admit it. Her friends attempt to persuade her to stay, but she feigns tiredness.

“Why don’t we watch something else? We’ve already watched this movie like what, three times already? Boo, we literally all know what’s going to happen!”

Of course he gets pummeled by the pillows but after a little more convincing they agree to change it. He claims he needs to use the bathroom and runs out.

It's starting over time

Jirou’s not yet to her room.

He catches up and makes her turn around, ask why she left, tries to wheedle her to stay. Denki already knows her so well, so Jirou says she doesn’t like the movie. But he’s convinced them to change it, something he think she’ll like, so reluctantly she follows him back. It’s really hard to say no to Denki sometimes, Jirou thinks, then sighs as she remembers that no, it’s actually ALL the time.

They get back and find their seats been taken. No matter, he shoos a few legs away from the ground near the couch and practically forces Jirou to sit next to him. The movie’s a murder mystery; Denki worries the gory parts might affect Jirou. Unconsciously an arm slips around her shoulders and maybe he shifts a little closer. But Jirou feels it. An eyebrow is raised and Denki jerks his head back to avoid the earphone jack, tilting his head back with a protesting look.

“Get your arm off me.”

“If you get scared-”

“If you try anything, Kaminari, I'll poke your eyeballs.”

“I wasn't!”

But they end up cuddling anyway; Sero helpfully throws a blanket over them because that’s what happens every movie night, somehow.

Taking overnight

Jirou likes to sleep and Denki likes distracting himself.

It takes his mind off the fact it’s nearly 1 a.m. and if he lies down on his bed he’ll just overthink everything and probably count down how much hours of sleep he’s losing and he’s going to be so sleep deprived and tired tomorrow and then he’ll get scolded by Aizawa for not paying attention in class and be stupider than he already is and he wishes he could close his eyes and why is it so cold in the room, all his senses feel waaay too alert and man does he want some ramen-

He tries a few other things like finishing some homework or reading but his eyes don’t feel like they’re working right. Or rather they are, but everything is blurring together. Denki leans back, listens to some music and scrolls on his phone. A bad distraction but a distraction nonetheless.

But now he can’t keep his mind off wondering if he could text Jirou and just…dunno, talk? Gossip? Ask her if she wanted to get instant ramen with him? Probably because one of her songs somehow crawled their way into his playlist right now.

She’d probably yell at him for waking her up and order him to go make ramen himself. The thought seems funny to him, but then again everything is funny at night. He opens up her chat because insomniac + a-need-for-company = no self control.

(Somewhere in the back of his mind he wonders why Jirou is the first one he thinks of.)

>>hey you up?????

>>can’t sleep 💀💀

>>would anyone be mad at me if i got up right now to make ramen

>>kinda want a juicebox or something lmaoo

>>CANNOT MATH RIGHT NOW 😩😭🥴

>>sorry to wake you

Denki throws the phone to his bed after deleting everything but the last message.

Taking over blue time

He’s in the midst of actually going out to get that juicebox when there’s knocking at the door.

Denki throws open the door, electricity at the ready in case a ghost really existed and was paying a visit to all those naughty little boys who aren’t abiding by bedtime.

It's Jirou, actually, who's paying a visit.

“…hi?” His brain and mouth feels numb but he attempts to be normal. “What, couldn't sleep until you saw my handsome face?”

Jirou's face gets more annoyed and disbelieving that she was even here in the first place. “A face that's about to be punched.”

“Aw, you do miss me~” Denki yanks her inside, unable to stop his grinning. He slams the door shut. “But seriously, why’re you here?”

“Just because you deleted the text doesn’t mean I didn’t see it.”

“…oh, yeah…about that.” Denki awkwardly scratches his neck. “We don’t gotta get the ramen or anything. I’m just having trouble sleeping then.”

Perhaps not so much now, when he suddenly found his eyes about to close themselves while his head was tucked under Jirou’s and his arms looped around hers, both somewhere in the stacks of blankets and pillows and plushies lying on Denki’s bed.

“Not a word, Kaminari.”

Not that he could manage one, finally dozing off with her.

(It’s a little hard to explain to Kirishima the next morning why Jirou’s plushy is on his bed.)

If you heard that screaming, shout in your mind

Jirou likes fries and Denki likes hamburgers.

There’s not really anything to argue about for this one but they do anyway, comparing which fast food chain was better. Usually it winds up with Denki defending his honor while Jirou pokes fun at how his big mouth came about by having to stretch it to fit all his beloved burgers. Nothing different this time round as Class 1-A heads out to another shopping trip together.

Denki doesn’t want to go into the stupid store. He’s hungry. Jirou snorts and says he won’t die of starvation like he says. He whines about craving a greasy, fat hamburger. Jirou elbows him; he lingers outside the store, at the window, declaring he was going to stay outside until they could eat and if they find his corpse lying out there it was because they wouldn’t let him have lunch. Tokoyami helpfully points out that it’s still morning.

He stays out there regardless, ignoring the scoffs and snickers from a certain someone that he looked like a homeless tramp.

A very hungry tramp, Denki argues. I want a hamburger. Maybe a soda.

Taking over the shine

“Hey.”

“What…aw, hey, you got me a burger! I’m saved!” Denki eagerly peels back the wrappings, taking a huge bite and beaming at Jirou, who’s plopped down next to him. She points out the lettuce in his teeth and sips her drink, holding her own burger.

“I didn’t see you come out of the store?”

“There’s another exit at the back. Passed by a restaurant and well, you said you were hungry and I didn’t want you complaining anymore.”

“Didn’t you say I looked like a homeless tramp sitting out here?”

“…now there’s two homeless tramps.”

Denki bursts out laughing and Jirou scolds him for spraying out hamburger. You never heard me say that, she says, and Denki stores it away in his memory as he takes the drink from her proffered hand. Jirou unwraps her burger and makes a face. “This better be as good as you say.”

(Later the Bakusquad catch them feeding each other fries; Jirou complains Denki opened the wrong packet of sauce.)

Taking over the shooting star

Jirou likes the solitude and Denki likes socialising.

Which is why despite the numerous asks from her friends if she needed them Jirou declined, preferring to spend her quarantine from the flu in her own room by herself. It wasn’t too bad - she could just do whatever she wanted in bed: scroll on her phone, practice a little music, catch up on assignments…if it weren’t so damned COLD.

She’s already sneezed about a bajillion times already and the bin’s full from tissues. No matter how many layers of blankets she was trying to burrow under she just wouldn’t heat up. Maybe her tolerance for the freeze had just lowered after hanging out with Kaminari - the man was quite literally a walking electrical heater.

Speaking of Kaminari, Jirou just might have to borrow Bakugo’s nickname of Dunceface for him, because who the hell gave him permission to barge into her room like that?!

Jirou throws a plushy at him. “Get out.”

“I’m not here to pass you your homework though…you know I don’t even understand any of it myself.” Nobody asked but he plops down next to her. “I heard you were sick!”

“Less sick and more of in danger in getting frostbite,” Jirou grumbles, hugging herself and shivering.

So of course he just hauls her ass to the door and basically kidnaps her to the kotatsu.

All I was talking about was music

“Better?”

“Maybe.”

Denki smirks and pulls her closer. She doesn’t even bother fighting it, finally warming up from the combination of the kotatsu and him. Probably the stifling three thousand blankets Denki piled on them as well. At least he had the decency to kidnap her rabbit plushy as well; he paired it up with his worn, dumb Pikachu one. The one where she had won for him at an arcade to get him to stop his sulking. Hah.

“Let’s play music! My turn to pick!”

“I’m the sick one, Jamming Whey.”

“It’s my phone!”

“You’re literally borrowing-”

They both rolled around for a while before someone’s elbow, finger, knee, something touched the screen sufficiently for the phone to recognize the command and start playing. Start playing Momo’s music choice, specifically. Jirou sighs and Denki shrugs. They let it play and huddle under Mount Blanket. The plushies are kidnapped inside.

“Warm enough yet?”

“Yeah.”

(And that's called jazz!)

Could you imagen the, what the fuck?! moment when Creati, the hero know for spawning things into existence, pulls a knife out of her belt, like she didn't make that, she had it on her, she is using a pre-made knife to kill you, you have gotten to the point where she doesn't really want to think and just wants to beat your arse, well done random villain.

Momo stopped thinking.

Villain: "Ha, you seem to have out of juice Tenya, not so fast now, let's put you in the same place as your brother, in the hospital!"

Ida: "Call an ambulance then, but specify that it's for you." He says pulling two large knifes that look suspiciously like ice skates from the side of his boots.

Enemy: "What the fuck is stabbing me, oh god is that a floating knife! AM I BEING KILLED BY A GHOST?!"

Toru: "Worse, a naked woman with a knife!"

Enemy: "WHERE WERE YOU HIDING THE KNIFE!?"

I like to think that one of the lessons Aizawa taught class A is "always have a knife".

You never know when you'll need a knife so never not be in possession of a knife. As such every member of class A has a knife hidden somewhere in their hero costumes. His gift to them when they graduated were custom engraved knives with their student number on them.

Not on board? Ok. Just imagine how funny it would be tho.

Villain: "Number one hero Deku! I am punch proof! The more you hit me the stronger I get! How will you defeat me now-"

Midoriya: "Knife."

Villain: "Wha-" *gets stabbed*

Midoriya: "Knife."

Hero: "Oh no! We're tied up! However will we escape!"

Tsuyu: "Knife."

Hero: "What?"

Tsuyu, pulling a knife off the bottom of her foot with her tongue: "Knife."

Groupie getting a hug: "Are you using your quirk or are you just happy to see me?"

Kirishima: "It's a knife."

Groupie: "...What?"

Kirishima: "Knife."

Villain, completely insulated in rubber: "You're a one trick pony chargebolt."

Kaminari, reaching down into his boot: "Oh boy are you wrong my dude!"

Hero: "You need to calm down."

Bakugou, reaching down into his V-neck: "Listen here you son of a BITCH-"

Hero: "WHY DO YOU HAVE A KNIFE!?"

Kouda: "Stop scaring the pigeons! They're a domesticated species that we abandoned back into the wild. They're sweet creatures who are pets by nature!"

Douchebag: "Or what?"

Kouda: "..."

Douchebag: "..."

Kouda: "..."

Douchebag: "oh my GOD HE HAS A KNIFE-"

Made several of these myself, and called them Trainsonification, similar to the Langauge Feature Personification.

How to Swear Like a Steam Engine (And Other Sentient Locomotive Slang)

If there’s one thing engines enjoy doing, it’s complaining and insulting each other, and they’ve developed their own slang to do it. Phrases like “fusspot,” “cinders and ashes!” and “bossy boiler” are common in the Railway Series, but there are many other terms.

The following list of phrases and expressions are commonly used by engines on American railroads, in particular on the Jefferson Great Divide Railway in the mountain west of the US. Some may be common in Sodor and the rest of Britain as well, others are specific to America. There are other lists on the internet documenting the various IRL slang used by human employees, and a lot of that is used by engines as well, but this is specifically the slang terms that were more or less developed within the locomotive subculture.

All Smoke and No Steam: All show and no substance. A person or engine who talks a good game or puts a lot of effort into appearing to be helpful but can’t back it up. An engine that’s making a huge cloud of smoke and a lot of noise looks impressive but if what’s coming out the smokestack is all smoke and no steam it’s not actually doing any work. Can also mean empty words or promises that won’t be fulfilled in the abstract.

“He’s all smoke and no steam!” = talks a good game, is all hat and no cattle, etc.

“That rule’s all smoke and no steam” can mean a rule isn’t / won’t be enforced, or that it will be enforced but it doesn’t actually make things better and is just a way of looking like something’s being done. E.g. “The new safety regulations are all smoke and no steam, management’s still going to come down harder for being late than for safety violations.”

“Their threats are all smoke and no steam” (when referring to customers/clients/workers) = they complain loudly but they’re not actually going to do anything like stop buying tickets, or ship freight by other means, or quit, or strike.

Amtrash: Derogatory term for Amtrak and its engines, used by freight railroad engines. Amtrak is the USA’s quasi-nationalized long-distance passenger rail network. Most of the track it runs on is owned by other railroads which are freight-only, and there’s quite a bit of resentment between them. See also: Useless Pacific, Nofucks Southern, Satan Fe, All Trains Smell Funny, Borington Northern, Misery Pacific, Criminally Slow and X-pensive, Southern Pathetic, Big Nasty Stupid Fuckers. The US only had its railroads forced into a Get Along T-shirt for like three years and that was during WWI-era, so there are a lot of rivalries between different railroads there.

Ballast Plow: A large truck, especially a flatbed, that stalls at a crossing – because if it gets hit it’s likely to bend around the engine’s front and be dragged down the track instead of getting thrown aside, digging into the embankment and scattering ballast everywhere.

Buckled Rail: A buckled rail (usually happens due to thermal expansion of the track in a heatwave) is at a minimum extremely painful to run over and can often damage engines or rolling stock and derail trains. “I need that like a buckled rail!”

Cattle Cars / Cattle: Derogatory term for a passenger train / passengers, particularly unruly and annoying passengers. Engines aren’t supposed to say this within earshot of passengers (and coaches get offended too).

Cowboy / Car Wrangler / Rodeo Clown: Shunter/switcher engines. Definitely popularized in the American West.

Did you fill your Tender/Bunker from the Ash Pit?: Ash doesn’t burn and would make a mess all over the cab. Basically translates to “Who pissed in your cornflakes?”Can also refer to an engine who has no steam or energy.

“Did you fill your bunker from the ash pit this morning? You’ve done nothing but complain and insult everyone all day!”

“Did you fill your tender from the ash pit today? I might as well be pulling this train by myself!”

Did They Fill Your Tender With Rocks?: Less profane version of the above.

Drink Hard Water: Hard water, i.e. water with lots of mineral content, is not good for a steam engine because mineral deposits (boiler sludge and scale) can accumulate in the boiler and other plumbing and be very uncomfortable / difficult to clean out.

“Go drink hard water!” = Go jump in a lake / go to hell / go fuck yourself. Basically “go somewhere else and have a miserable time while you’re there.”

“I’d rather drink hard water!” or “That’s like drinking hard water!” = Hell No.

Dry Crownsheet: VERY strong expression meaning an engine is tired or frustrated to the breaking point and about to lose their temper. “My crownsheet’s dry” could be compared to “I’m going to blow a fuse” or “Blow my stack” but that doesn’t cover the intensity. The crownsheet is the top of a locomotive’s firebox, and allowing the water level in the boiler to drop low enough that the crownsheet is exposed can cause it to overheat, weaken, and fail, which is a common cause of boiler explosions. If that weren’t bad enough water suddenly being reintroduced to an overheated crown sheet can flash to steam and cause a catastrophic pressure spike. Blowing a fuse means a safety mechanism has activated to prevent catastrophe. A steam locomotive with a dry crownsheet means the safety mechanisms have already failed and is on the verge of a devastating explosion. Used figuratively, means an engine has run out of ability to cope with stress and is one more tiny irritation away from taking it out on whoever’s unlucky enough to have added the proverbial final straw, or just anyone nearby, without regard to consequences for themselves.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault. He rolled into the yard with his crownsheet dry” = He wasn’t angry because of you, he was already angry and something was going to set him off sooner or later.

“Listen, I got a dry crownsheet from my last train. If any of you cars start anything I’m about ready to jump the track into the river and pull you all along with me.”

“Please just get me out of this station! My crownsheet’s about dry and if I have to hear the passengers complaining I don’t think I can take it!”

Find a Scrapyard: This basically means “Kill yourself,” so… not a very nice thing to say.

Fire Me Dry: Basically equivalent to “Fuck me” as an expression of exasperation. If an engine’s fire was lit with no water in the boiler at all, it might not cause an explosion but would still destroy the firebox. Apparently Furness Railway No. 1 was severely damaged and later scrapped due to this.

Flatlanders: Insult used on many mountain railways to make fun of engines and crews from plains regions who aren’t used to running the difficult routes.

“Boy, if those flatlanders think one in one-twenty’s a hill, I can’t wait to see ‘em coming up the pass!”

“They way some of these flatlanders talk you’d think you can’t climb anything over 1% without cog wheels.”

General Sherman, Sherman’s Army, Sherman’s Necktie: Refers to “Sherman’s Neckties,” a tactic of destroying sections of rail by heating them and twisting or bending them until they were unusable. This phrase is pretty much US-specific, and likely originated with engines used in the US Civil War picking up the term from humans, but has spread to subsequent generations of engines who often weren’t taught the historical context and only knew that Sherman was a man who commanded an army and destroyed a lot of railroad track. General Sherman and his army have become almost folkloric figures that various causes of track wear and failure are attributed to, sort of like Jack Frost. Can also refer to incompetent track maintenance / rough and poorly maintained track, or to the crews and vehicles responsible for it. Though they sometimes use the term for an engine who’s particularly hard on the rails or otherwise damages the track.

“That crew really did a General Sherman of a job with these rails.” = Sarcastically saying the maintenance crew made the rails even worse.

“Be careful at that junction, it’s a real Sherman’s Necktie.”

“Ouch! Who laid these ties, General Sherman?”

“That new road-rail’s a real General Sherman. Take any track he’s been over slow or you might break an axle.”

“Hey, General Sherman, try checking a switch is set right before you barge into it.”

“In case you’re wondering why the spur’s been closed all day, General Sherman over here spun his wheels ‘til he damn near hit ballast.” (Diesels in multiple unit operation can occasionally spin their wheels on a stopped train for so long they grind/melt halfway through the rails)

“They ought to put you in a siding and necktie the rails” (similar to “They should lock you up and throw away the key)

“Keep an eye on the track ahead of you: General Sherman’s hard at work on days like this” = a warning given in very hot weather that could cause buckling of the rails.

Getting the Rails Painted: A euphemism for a person or animal being run over by a train. Alternately: “Paint my wheels” or “Paint my pilot.” Obviously no sane engine wants this to happen but some engines use this phrase as gallows humor between each other. Occasionally said to humans who break safety rules by a furious engine.

“What the hell are you doing walking between moving freight cars? You almost painted the rails back there!”

“I heard they got the rails painted at the 58th Street Crossing?” “Yeah. From what I heard, poor guy must’ve been drunk and fell asleep on the tracks. They didn’t say whose train it was but Robbie’s been in the shed all week.”

“Some idiot ducked under the crossing gates on a bike and just about painted my pilot.”

“I got my pilot painted by a herd of deer yesterday. I swear, once they get on the track they must think they’re a train, they just run along it!”

Go Get Your Ash Pan Raked: Removing the ash that collects under an engine’s firebox could be considered the closest steam engine equivalent to using the bathroom, but the connotations aren’t quite the same. Cleaning out the ash pan is a task firemen hate, so telling an engine to get their ash pan raked basically means “Go be someone else’s problem for a while (instead of mine)” Basically translates to "Fuck off."

Hotbox / Hot Axle: A hotbox or hot axle is an overheating axle and/or bearing box, usually on rolling stock but sometimes on engines. “One hot axle stops a train” is a common proverb that means a small missed detail can cause a massive inconvenience or impediment – compare to “For want of a nail” or “One bad apple spoils the barrel.” It doesn’t matter how many cars are on a train, a single hotbox can force the entire thing to stop until the problem is fixed. In slang use, of course, a hotbox can refer to anything small and seemingly irrelevant that manages to cause a disproportionate amount of annoyance, delay, or wasted time. It could be a physical object, a rule or procedure or an event. It is also a common insult: sometimes directed at engines, but more often at people or other vehicles. It basically means “killjoy” or “wet blanket,” with a specific connotation of “You and your opinion aren’t important but you are holding everyone else back / ruining things for everyone by making a ton of noise.” Common examples of hotboxes include an overly officious inspector or manager, a broken down road vehicle blocking a grade crossing, a track maintenance crew that’s working slowly and blocking multiple trains, a small weather event that still sometimes manages to delay everything, or an unruly passenger who causes an entire train to be stopped on their account (or unsuccessfully demands it be).

“Sorry I’m so late. Some drunk hotbox picked a fight with the conductor and the cops had to drag him off the train.”

“Will you quit being such a hot axle? Everyone else is enjoying the roundhouse party, if you don’t like it just sleep outside!”

“They’d better fix those jammed points soon, they’re hotboxing the whole damn yard!” (note: the use of "hotbox" as a verb among engines probably predates the drug usage)

Icicles In My Smokebox: Hyperbolic complaining about cold weather. There are many parts of a steam engine that are susceptible to things freezing where they shouldn’t, such as the feed hoses from the tender, water tanks, and possibly journal boxes and other running gear could feel stiff and numb if the oil gets cold enough. Naturally, when engines are complaining about the cold they’ll claim the hottest parts of them, which have absolutely no chance of freezing while their fire is lit, are freezing. Other variants include “Frost in my flues,” “If they put ice cream in my firebox it wouldn’t melt,” and “Cold enough to freeze your smoke halfway up the stack,” and “So cold a snowman could fire me all day long” (standing next to a firebox door shoveling coal is hot work, if it’s that cold in the cab it’s pretty darn cold)

Idiot Siding: Off the rails, specifically a safety siding where the rails end in a sand or gravel bed, or wherever a train that runs over trap points / catch points / derailers gets sent. These devices intentionally derail an uncontrolled or runaway train to prevent it from obstructing a main line or endangering people further down the track. If a train ends up here either somebody didn’t check the switch alignment, moved when they weren’t supposed to, or lost control of their train, hence the name.

If it gets any hotter my fireman’s gonna be out of a job: Hyperbolic complaining about the weather – implying that the heat of the sun on an engine’s boiler is enough to raise steam without them needing a fire.

In My Cab: Sarcastic way of saying another engine (usually) or a non-crew human is being bossy, or controlling and/or micromanaging, or giving advice on things that are none of their business. Basically meaning “You’re acting like you think you’re my driver.”

“Get out of my cab, I can sort these cars how I want!”

“Manager’s been in my cab all week.”

“Who let you in my cab?”

“Yeah, sure thing. Hey, while you’re up there in my cab, why don’tcha polish my gauges?”

Lionel Lines / Lionels: Derogatory term for narrow-gauge railways and trains, named after the popular brand of toy and model trains. Visitors to the JGD are strongly advised to NOT use this term around the resident standard-gauge engines. They are very protective of their narrow-gauge friends due to certain incidents in the past.

No Ashpan: e.g. “You’ve been running with no ashpan all day” or “He ain’t got no ashpan.” The ash pan is a tray underneath a steam engine’s firebox that collects ash and cinders that fall through the grates. An engine with no ashpan would leave a trail of red-hot cinders everywhere it went, which could be scattered by the wind from a train at speed, starting fires around the track – especially in the dry climate where the JGD is! Basically it means someone leaves a trail of destruction wherever they go. This is a very strong way of calling someone clumsy or incompetent (as in “You fuck up everything you touch”). It can also be used to refer to someone who’s rude, tactless, cruel, or toxic.

Pulling With Your Regulator: Wasting effort, doing more work than you need to. A steam engine’s power can be controlled using the regulator/throttle (reducing available steam pressure / flow rate to the valves) or by using the valve gear control (the “Johnson Bar”) to reduce the amount of time the valves are open. Controlling power and speed using the Johnson Bar (admitting small amounts of high-pressure steam into the cylinders) is more efficient than using the throttle (letting lots of low-pressure steam into the cylinders).

“Sure, you could shunt those cars like that, but you’ll be pulling with your regulator. Those grain hoppers are going out tomorrow morning and you’ll have to get ‘em out from behind everything else.”

Put on a Liquid Diet: A coal-fired or wood-fired steam engine being converted to an oil burner.

Rolling Dumpster: Insulting term for a tender. Not like a slur against tender engines, in fact it’s probably mostly tender engines who use it. E.g. “Why don’t you get that rolling dumpster off that siding and do some work for once?”

Sand in my fire and coal on my wheels: An engine feeling sick, confused, or discombobulated. Ironically oil-fired engines do actually periodically get sand thrown in their fire to clean their tubes out.

Scalding: Yelling at someone, dressing them down, treating them with cruelty. Engines can’t be physically scalded, but they know the meaning from the injuries that escaping steam can cause to humans.

“I’m sick of that stationmaster. He scalded me and my crew for running two minutes behind schedule without even asking why!”

“Geez, ask a simple question, get a scalding.”

“If that switchman isn’t fired tonight, he’ll wish he had been after the scalding I give him next time he see him. Throwing a train onto a siding at that speed could’ve derailed me, not to mention if there’d been a train there!"

Slug: Someone who blindly follows orders with no initiative or independent thought, or a yes-man or toadie. Used by diesels. A slug is an extra motor unit that can be coupled to a diesel-electric engine that draws excess power from it to provide extra traction while shunting, but a slug is not alive in the same way that tenders aren’t alive.

“Oh, company policy says, the rulebook says – quit being such a slug and live a little!”

“Yeah, the guy’s just Bernie’s slug. Always following him around hoping to be noticed. Pathetic.”

Smoke out the Stack: Similar to Water Under the Bridge. Expression meaning something’s in the past and no longer relevant.

“Hey, sorry about this morning.” “Ahh, don’t worry, that’s smoke out the stack."

Squishies: A very rude way of referring to careless yard workers and light road or rail vehicles, as well as people who trespass on tracks.

Sugar in My Fuel Tank: An unpleasant surprise. Originated in petrol-powered vehicles, but spread to diesel locomotives even though sugar in a diesel tank doesn’t really cause that much damage.

Teakettle: Insulting term for steam engines, especially small ones.

Tender-first: Doing something totally wrong, i.e. Ass-backwards. This one translates very literally. A tender engine running backwards can’t see very well and neither can its crew.

This Train’s Leaving. You can be on it, beside it, or under it: Means “My mind is made up. You can either help or leave me alone, but if you get in the way there’s going to be serious trouble.”

Thrown: Throwing a switch is what changing it from one direction to another is called, but when an engine talks about getting thrown it means being switched in an unexpected or unwanted direction, particularly at high speed. Like other types of sentient vehicle engines need a human operator to move with full control, but they also run on rails and cannot “steer.” In essence a train moves in one dimension while a car or boat moves in two and an aircraft moves in three. Even the most free-spirited engines don’t usually truly want the ability to go any which way: they like the certainty and predictability of knowing where moving forward will take them. However, engines do value the limited autonomy they do have. An engine can’t control itself without a driver, but as anyone who’s read the Railway Series will know, it is extremely difficult to move an unwilling engine. Thomas and James had runaway incidents because they were either trying to move without a driver on purpose or didn’t realize there was no one at the controls, and once they had made the choice to let themselves start moving, they couldn’t change the state of their controls by themselves. But an engine won’t move without their consent. Switches are a different matter. An engine is reliant on someone outside the cab to set the points, and being sent down the “wrong track” against their will feels very violating to many engines in a way that being physically pushed or pulled by another vehicle doesn’t. It’s like being manhandled. There is an expectation that switch operators follow the instructions of either an engine, their crew, or the dispatcher or yardmaster who is expected to tell the engine in advance where they are supposed to go. It’s also physically a jarring and unpleasant out-of-control feeling for an engine even when traveling at a safe speed – basically the train equivalent of going up or down a staircase and expecting another step that isn’t there, or suddenly hydroplaning or hitting a patch of ice in a car, or having your feet start to slide out from under you. And it’s often downright dangerous, either because a train is moving too fast for the curve of the switch and is derailed or because it’s sent into a collision on the other track or off the end of a siding (e.g. the Flying Kipper crash). Engines being engines, the term is also used hyperbolically to complain about an abrupt change of routing or scheduling with little warning, e.g. “Well, nobody told us about the special using my regular platform, until the last signal, they just threw me to Platform Five!” or “Today’s ore train was late. Dispatch gave them the tunnel instead of me so they didn’t have to stop going uphill, but I didn’t hear about it until they threw me on the passing siding!” It can also be used figuratively, similar to “thrown off track” or “thrown off,” to describe an unpleasant surprise or failure of communication.

Traveling In Style: Slang for a vehicle, especially a locomotive, being transported on a flatbed.

Tubes in a Twist / Knot: Expression of an engine (or human) being irritated, or feeling sick.

“What’s gt your tubes in a twist this morning?”

“That’ll put a knot in the foreman’s tubes for sure!”

“Are you feeling okay? You look like you’ve got a knot in your tubes!”

Turf Train: Affectionate term for farm tractors pulling multiple trailers or appliances.

Turn Your Grates: Implying that an engine has a buildup of ash on their firebox grates that is preventing their fire from getting enough air – almost always used figuratively to imply the engine’s mind is clogged with useless thoughts or strong emotions that are keeping them from thinking clearly. Or that they’re just being an idiot.

“Turn your grates before you run your mouth” = Think before you speak, in particular about whether you’re coming from a place of emotion or bias.

“Turn your grates and look at the track” = You have your mind on something other than what you’re doing, stop thinking about that and concentrate.

“Your cars are right on Spur 7 like I told you, turn your grates and look again!”

“I know the last diesel who visited was rude, but let’s turn our grates and keep an open mind about the new ones.”

Yoopers and Burlies: These are JGD-specific slang. The railroad connects to two major interstate railroads, Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF). At some point some engine heard about the word “Yooper” to describe people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, decided to start calling engines and employees from Union Pacific this, and the name stuck. “Burlies” are BNSF engines. Prior to the 1995 merge of Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the term was used for Burlington Northern, but there wasn’t really a term for Santa Fe engines other than “Santas” or “S-Fs.” A few engines tried to get “Reindeer” adopted as a term but it never caught on. Yoopers and Burlies are common on the JGD because both railways have trackage rights on one or more of its major routes.

You Got Your Valve Gear Backwards On the Left Side: Steam locomotives reverse by using their valve gear to change the timing of their valves. If one somehow had its valve gear operating backwards on one side, one cylinder would be trying to go in reverse and the other forward and it wouldn’t get anywhere. Used figuratively to mean “You’re sabotaging yourself” or “You’re the cause of your own problems.” Mostly used by older engines.

He says he's going to try shoot a former member of the SAS, I don't know if that's bravery or Stupidity, but what ever it is, that's going to work Alexander.

I love those Lex Luthor panels I reblogged yesterday because basically that whole conversation went like this:

Lex: you’re the Batman, and I’m going to prove it by shooting you

Bruce: that’s crazy, Lex. you’re crazy. I don’t even know how to throw a punch.

Lex: perhaps. but what if I shot your butler instead?

Bruce:

Lex:

Alfred:

Bruce:

Lex:

Bruce: have you ever been kicked so hard in the face, you saw the rebirth of Krypton?

Oh god I just realised that Hagakure's whole shtick is.

'Mirror Mirror on the the wall who is the fairest of them all'

these poor guys

Haha… yeah… that’d be crazy…

A Dark Cave of a Head

I had a few ideas concerning that post about Midoryia in Gotham, and that got me thinking, does the MHA version of Batman have a quirk? Or is it the same as normal no quirk?

I my head he has one considering his age the murder of Thomas and Martha likely awoke his quirk, what would that quirk be?

Here's the idea.

Quirk: Constitution

Mental attack have no effects on the target as their mind is walled completely off, unreadable and unchangeable to mind altering abilities, if a person tries to read their mind they simply encounter a wall of inky darkness.

Basically it's just a version of Bruce's canon ability to make his mind unreadable, it also makes quirks like Brainwash ineffective, simply it makes his brain tamperproof, doesn't give him any greater abilities, it simply makes him strong against mental attacks, put's him in an Aizawa situation where he has a good quirk, but it's not going to win by itself, hence the rest of the Batman training.