#human machine!au

I drew this guy way back in 2021 when I was still writing the tugs side of my human machines au, it's probably pretty cringe by now, but a few of the things I introduced in that fic have been reused and put into a lot of other tugs stories I've made since, Captain Stars origins of how he became a captain being the most common example.

Since Gordon is now blind and has his mouth obstructed he has both the Henry's guide him around. He's been learning sign language, morse code, and braille along with the others. The outbreak turning a lot of people suddenly blind or mute.

James can still speak but with a very heavy slur, he's been learning sign and morse to help him communicate better. Percy mainly communicates in morse code by clicking his tongue, he rarely takes off his mask and now eats by sticking a tube down his throat. Thomas is actually not blind in his former right eye, he can see movement out of it like a heat signature that has an incredible radius, it helps out a lot with sneaking around. His third eye can actually see in the dark while his remaining normal left eye is untouched.

In 1908 Gordon Gresley was born in a breeding camp for the later to be A1 pacifics as its prototype. He was the firstborn and was the test subject to see if the module would be a success, and when he turned 12 he would be the fine result that yes indeed him and his siblings to come would be a success. He spent only a few months working in London before he was sold and taken to Sodor. Not being in the favor of the genetic pool of looking older than he actually was, he quite often stayed merged to his engine body to make it seem to the other older engines that he was older than he appeared. This didn't work all too well for when they used basic math the others were able to figure it out, but they let him have his little bubble that he cherished so much of being the most important engine. It came to a halt however when Gordon meet Henry still walled up in the tunnel. Gordon had heard of the Gresley highest in that thieves stole a sperm sample, so that meant Henry was Gordon's older half-brother by a year. Gordon actually dropped his guard and de-merged from his engine body to come talk to him from over the wall and the two really got to bonding over that time. It was made even better when Henry was taken out of the tunnel and later joined him back at Tidmouth. The two bonded over time and became as close as brothers, them often de-merging to rough-house or other such things with Thomas and Edward often playing parent or big brother to the both of them. Then when 1973 happened, and word of the Flying Scotsman's condition in America reached Gordon, he was very fast to get over there himself, and rescue his little brother.

In 1910, Scott Gresley was born along with 9 other brothers to different women. His older brothers of Gordon, Northern, and Frederick, being the ones to effectively raise them. That was until the day Gordon was sold and sent to an island called Sodor. The family did their best to stay together, the older siblings doing right by example to teach the younger siblings well. But as the years went on and their class became more and more popular, they were quickly being sold off once they discovered their engine bodies. This happened to Scott in 1923 at the age of 13. Scott at first heavily protested against leaving his younger brothers behind to fend for themselves, but he was henpecked into submission by his crews over the years and the threat of being scrapped by his own father. In 1934 however that came to a stop when Scott was after experiencing a particularly nasty fight with none other than his own older brother Northern. The young engine was heavily put into a fume over the fight, and it so happened that day was an annual exam. Fueled by anger and fury, he was the first recorded engine to go 100 miles per hour. This obviously caused a huge boost in popularity for the engine and as a reward he was locked in his locomotive body less and less, as long as he didn't show the public. This caused him to grow a lot of pride in himself going forward as well as a growing confidence. This especially came in handy when his driver tried to slap him for being disobedient, the man hit his mark only to have Scott smack him back 10x harder and sent him careening into a coal pot. Scott was not punished for this action and instead his driver was sacked at Sir Nigel Gresley's request himself. After that incident Scott and his other siblings began to hold out hope once again that they could have control over something, even if it would be a very rare chance. So it then became a competition to be the next best engine, so they could have that next taste of freedom. Then the human-machine wars took place from 1939 to 1945. Scott was under the belief that all youths deserved to be left out of the conflict, so he personally volunteered to take the youth trains out into the countrysides. Scott became a far more caring and mature person during this time, as he didn't care what species, race, or age these children were, they all deserved to be happy and safe. Many turning to look up to him as a father figure, and Scott would have been lying if he didn't sometimes stay longer in the countrysides to look after them longer. After the war was over, Scott was some of the few who decided to go back to the way things were with his job of still pulling passengers, the difference this time being that he was going to get paid and respected. In the 1960s the scare of the converter culling practice was upon Scott as the same as other converters. In 1962 however he was 'bought' by Alan Pegler, this at the time being one of the confirmed ways to have a steam locomotive converter be saved from death row. But when the scare passed and the law was not passed Scott decided to stay with Pegler anyway as he enjoyed working for him more than he did for British rails. Until it was when Pegler asked Scott if he wanted to do a tour of America. Scott found the idea thrilling as he had never been outside of the country before, so they got some plane tickets, and flew off to the USA. When they landed, apparently the US had different laws regarding converters. So Scott had to be administered with gold liquid while he was traveling on the rails as he was not allowed to de-merge while traveling. This royally ticked off Scott but confused him more, this was exactly what the human-machine wars fought to prevent, and here they were doing it all over again. But nonetheless, Scott sucked it up and begrudging accepted it. Little did he know this would become one of his greatest mistakes. After 10 years and then finally becoming bankrupt, did Pegler have to bid Scott goodbye as he had to leave the engine to rust because he could no longer support him. Scott was