#ttte robotized

Here are some finished concepts:

(Duncan didn’t want to be in the photo at all.)

Sorry for disappearing for a while, I suffered a bit of a art block because I was driving myself mad trying to get down my design ideas for Gordon, Henry and James, but I couldn’t figure them out no matter what. ;-)

So, I decided to take a break and draft the Skarloey engines instead, and SOMEHOW I managed to finalise the designs in ONE DAY.

(I also made a design for Duke, but he’s still a WIP.)

Anyway, here they are!

I don’t think I mentioned this before, but in this robot AU only diesel robots are allowed to wear clothes made out of cloth. steam robots are forbidden from wearing clothes because they pose a risk of setting it on fire. Their ‘clothing’ is made entirely from metal and is only supposed to give an illusion of actual clothes. There are few small exceptions to this rule, like headbands or scarves, but a steam robot still has to be careful while wearing those.

With that out of the way, I’m going to ramble for a a bit.

Skarloey and Rheneas: I give their outfits similar features, because they were built in the same workshop, and in this au, they were designed to look like brothers. But they are still different enough to not to be mixed up.

Sir Handel: he was a bit harder to figure out, but since he pulls the express train (if my memory doesn’t fail me) I wanted him to give off this fancy aura. I was originally going to put him into a suit, but then I realised he would look too similar to Skarloey and Rheneas. So he’s stuck with a vest.

Peter Sam: he’s incredibly friendly, even when things don’t seem like they’ll turn out well. The sweater-vest felt like the best thing to put him in.

(And it makes him match with Sir Handel in a way now that I think about it.)

Rusty: since their line was of work is a track maintenance, I wanted them to wear something that will offer a protection when they’re cutting up the rails, but also easy to move around in since they’re also doing a lot of heavy lifting.

(And before you ask, yes. I made Rusty non-binary.)

Duncan: I won’t lie, he was the hardest to design. I was originally going to put him into overalls and a shirt, which I thought would be the best fit for him and it would also go well with the fact that he used to work in factory before coming to SR. But then I thought about it and came to a conclusion that Duncan most likely wouldn’t have any clothes painted during his time in the factory and would be painted just one colour instead.

Then that developed into an idea that after being bought by SR, Duncan had no idea what type of clothes he actually likes. He would get confused when the designers started questioning him how he would like to look like and ends up giving them free hand. His only request being to have a colour yellow incorporated into the design.

(Douglas: excuse me, why do you have my number? / Calm down laddie, I won’t hurt you)

Basically, Douglas is dead.

How? Not even he knows, the last thing he remembers is taking a goods train off the island onto the mainland, and then he woke up as a ghost.

Later on he learns from observing his loved ones that he allegedly got into a fatal accident which caused him to be scrapped. But he can’t help but feel like there’s more to that story…

A year passes and Oliver arrives to Sodor after being rescued by Donald. After getting repaired, he’s given Douglas’s number. This is Sir Topham’s attempt to help his engines move on from the loss of their friend.

This act causes Douglas’s spirit to be bonded with the little westerner. Oliver becomes the only engine capable of seeing, and hearing Douglas. A fact he learns rather unfortunately when he woke up to the former No. 10 standing over him one night.

He’s is terrified at first, but after he realises that Douglas isn’t a vengeful spirit, they form a friendship and together they set on a journey to figure out what really happened to Douglas and why he’s still around.

Oliver’s number also causes dispute between the other engines. Some accept it, others think it’s a disrespectful. Poor little westerner is stuck in the middle of it all, feeling bad for technically replacing Douglas, but also refusing to accept any blame thrown his way for simply carrying the number.

(I decided to change Edward’s hair a bit)

(Henry’s old design)

(Trampy movie redraw)

(for more information click here to the first post.)

I drew this way back in the November and kinda forgot to post it. Better late than never I guess.

(Sorry if I wrote Douglas’s accent wrong, I’m still learning how to write it.)

• AU rambling below:

Oliver wasn’t aware that there was another holder of the number 10 before him. It wasn’t until receiving the number, which caused a ruckus among the bigger engines, that he actually learned about Douglas. He felt bad of course, it wasn’t his intention to replace or disrespect anyone.

But there’s nothing he can do about it since the Fat Controller didn’t give any indication that he was going to change the number, and Oliver didn’t want to get on his new controller’s bad side after just getting to the island. So he puts on a smile and tries to make the best out of this awkward situation.

As the time passes, Oliver starts feeling this lingering presence of someone watching him. He thinks nothing of it at first, just old reflexes acting up after 3 years of being on the run from scrap, nothing serious. But that feeling remains, and soon, unintelligible whispers and shadows that linger in the corner of his eye join in. Poor Oliver doesn’t understand what is happening, but he doesn’t tell anyone. He barely escaped scrap and got a new chance at life, he wasn’t going to throw it away by making the Fat Controller think he’s cracked in the processor and unfit for work. And he doesn’t need to give the bigger engines any more reasons to pick on him.

So, he keeps silent and ignores the shadows and the whispers. He manages it quite well, and for some time, nobody suspected a thing. But the feeling of the lingering presence grows stronger, the whispers become full sentences and the shadows morph into a singular shape of a steam robot that looks eerily similar to Donald. Oliver starts to grow paranoid, because he has no idea why he was having this hallucination. His change in behaviour didn’t go unnoticed, Duck was the first to take notice and confronted Oliver about it, but the little westerner managed to convince his friend that everything was okay.

Because… how are you supposed to explain that you, a perfectly functioning robot are having a visual and auditory hallucination? That alone sounds insane as a thought, and it solidifies Oliver’s decision to keep lying about his emotional state and his absolute refusal to acknowledge the hallucination that keeps providing him with unwanted remarks how he should ‘just spill out’ whatever’s bothering him.

Oliver manages to balance this arrangement for a while, but he eventually slips up. One night after a particularly hard day of work Oliver retires to the shed, feeling exhausted and wishing for a good night’s rest. But the sleep doesn’t come to him. He half-opens one eye to catch a Caledonian blue coloured robot standing over him, watching him. Closing his eyes again, Oliver speaks; “Do you need something Donald?” The robot in question stiffens and doesn’t reply. Growing annoyed, Oliver repeats himself, louder this time; “do you NEED something Donald?” The robot finally speaks in low tone “y-ye ken see mi?” Tired and irritated now, Oliver opens his eyes fully. “Of course I can see you Donald! You’re standing right in front of me, it’s kinda hard to-“ the words die in his voicebox as Oliver takes into focus the robot in front of him.

It isn’t Donald.

On the first glance the robot could’ve been mistaken for Donald, but the details are off. His hair is styled differently, His eyes are glowing yellow, his frame is, slightly transparent? And his number …is same as Oliver’s.

A beat of silence passes, before Oliver starts screaming, this startles the ghost and he tries to calm Oliver down, but it’s no use. His yelling alerts Duck who runs to the shed, and manages to calm Oliver down, before questioning him why was he screaming on top of his mechanical lungs. Oliver looks around the shed, searching for the ghost, but he’s gone. Without an explanation that wouldn’t get dismissed as nonsense, Oliver lies and says he had a nightmare.

He doesn’t get much sleep that night, contemplating what in the blazing pits did he just saw. It was the first time that the hallucination had appeared in clear shape and colour. And it looked exactly like Donald.

Why did it look so similar to Donald? Why did it looked so surprised when he acknowledged it?

What was it really?

A hallucination?

A ghost?

Did… did Douglas’s ghost came back from dead to haunt him? That couldn’t be possible, ghosts didn’t exist!

…right?

With far more questions than answers, Oliver drifts into an uneasy sleep.

The next day, Oliver tries to go back to work and act like nothing happened, but the ghost (?) corners him as soon as he’s alone and demands Oliver to acknowledge his presence. Oliver ignores the hallucination’s (?) attempts, he already has a lot on his plate, he doesn’t need more baggage. It’s hard task, especially since the hallucination (?) grows more and more frustrated the longer he ignores him.

The breaking point comes few days later thanks to Oliver’s attention being split between focusing on his work and doing his best to ignore the ghost (?), causes him to mess up his jobs. After receiving a scolding from Fat Controller, Oliver retreats into a secluded corner of the Little Western, where he promptly unleashes all of his grievances. And the stupid hallucination/ghost thing argues back! Claiming to have no idea why either of them are stuck together or why Oliver is the only one who can see him!

The shouting continues until they’re both out of steam. After taking moment to cool off their tempers they glare at each other a while longer, until Oliver walks back toward the shed. Without answers and far more confused and frustrated than he was before.

At least he confirmed that Douglas was a ghost and not a hallucination.

Few days pass and Oliver and Douglas are giving each other a silent treatment. Until late one evening, Oliver decides to break the tension and he addresses Douglas first. It’s a rocky start, there is still a leftover resentment on both sides from the previous argument, but it’s a start. Over the course of the next week they manage to form a sort of understanding between each other. And get a few facts straight.

At the end of a week, they make a deal; Oliver will do everything in his power to uncover the mystery behind Douglas’s disappearance and Douglas will protect and look out for Oliver. Because the answer to the mystery most likely lies on the mainland, and that is a very dangerous place for a steam robot nowadays…

• • • • •

Oliver’s relationship with Donald:

I already allotted toward it in the first post, but in the simplest form possible, it’s rocky.

The loss of Douglas hit Donald the hardest. He’s in deep denial about his twin being gone, gone. (Which Douglas technically isn’t, but Donald doesn’t know that.) And he views Oliver having the number 10 as a sort of an insult of his brother. He knows it’s not Oliver’s fault, but he can’t stop this anger brewing inside of him every time he sees the little westerner.

So, in order to avoid lashing out, Donald avoids Oliver altogether. Which greatly saddens Oliver, because he admires Donald after he saved him from scrap. He tried to mend their relationship, but the attempts didn’t end well…

I’d like to clarify that Donald doesn’t hate Oliver, he’s just really upset right now and has a lot of feelings that he needs to sort out first.

———————————————————————————

Author’s note:

(For anyone who’s confused)

Oliver isn’t capable of seeing Douglas right away, he’s becoming aware of his presence in a slow build up. That’s why he calls Douglas a hallucination. He also doesn’t know how Douglas looks like, hence why he mistakes him for Donald.

This is a rough draft of how I imagine the first act would play out. I don’t know if I ever draw this AU again, but I wanted to put this out if anyone’s interested in the concept. I might post some old sketches, but I don’t promise anything.

Anyway, if there’s something you’re curious or confused about, feel free to ask.

Glynn has joined the team!

After drawing Stephen I got this itch to draw more of the old engines as robots.

I won’t lie, Glynn was pretty hard to figure out, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to convert the giant boiler into his design without it looking kind of silly.

I give him mostly boxy look since it allies with his head shape in the SGI show and also because (in my robot universe) a square-shaped robots were easiest to build during the early age of the steam robots. Before you ask where his nose is, I can assure you that its absence is intentional. If you saw my Stephen’s design, you know that he neither has a nose. This again is because back in the day, people weren’t as skilled with the face designs as they are in the modern day, so an illusion of a nose was the best they could do. This is also a reason why he has so little detail.

I wanted him to have all of these oddities to illustrate the difference the difference between the modern steam robots and make it obvious at the first glance that Glynn is, just like Stephen “ancient”.

First design attempt:

Stephen is unironically one of my favourite and one of the funniest CGI characters.

I wanted him to give vibe of those old porcelain dolls that are considered creepy by today’s standards, but were entirely normal back in the day.

So, in a small celebration of this anniversary I decided to post full body pictures of Percy, Gordon, Henry and James instead. Enjoy