Tiny Roses, Or Just Tiny Flowers? Tiny.

Tiny roses, or just tiny flowers? Tiny.

Small anouncement!

I finally got a tablet! I've been using it for a couple of days now, and the learning process has been really fun and chaotic.

Of course, I needed to draw something Robot-Trains related, so here's Kay's hand.

I also drew one of my OCs. Meet Jack! my fortune teller and farmer boy. I'll eventually show more of him and other OCs.

🧶✨️ Jeffrey✨️ 🧶

He's a cool old man, he shall be protected from the struggles of aging.

Here's how he looks without glasses and the hat, he was very fun to draw, green and yellow sure suit him.

I feel like when he was younger he probably did lots of crazy and fun stuff, but now he just takes life easy and leaves the major part of the risks to the younger robot-trains.

[On a side note, right now I feel like redesiging all of the RT characters I've done before. Jeffrey made me realize I can actually do a better job with them, we'll see I guess.]

Theories of Duke's and Kay's powers

After re-watching S1 (again), I've realized some stuff about the abilities of Duke and Kay. Which might explain why Duke is so introverted (and a couple of other things too).

I'd love to hear more thoughts about all of this, so feel free to leave your comments and opinions.

(I'm only taking S1 in consideration, therefore this has spoilers for all S1. Also this might be a bit long; you have been warned.)

DUKE

The way Duke fights and showcases his powers lead me to assume a couple of things:

He is able to, not only control energy, but also recognize and change its properties. This is why he managed to get rid of Selly's G-force Nanobombs, he instructed them to stop working.

He can only do this if the energy is: contained somewhere (the smaller and simpler the container is, the better he can use his abilities), instructed to do something (for example, inside a train the energy has to do certain things, like well, keep them alive), and in direct contact with him.

He is more sensitive than other trains to small changes in the energy around him. Is not just like when, for example, someone sees how much energy other train has left, no, Duke can tell exactly what is going on with them, this is very clear when:

In the middle of the second battle, he was able to tell Kay was reformated, which is weird because in EP3 Selly herself (mechanic and doctor) was unable to guess it just by looking at Kay.

Kay's engine was about to become "strange" before the Other World incident, and he tried to make Kay train with him.

So, where is this going?

I think Duke can literally feel how other trains feel, he's basically an "emotional reader" where, even if he doesn't want to, he can sense the internal state of anyone that's around him. This must be very overwhelming for him, to the point he just doesn't want to be around too much people (also this is why he doesn't show up on the race events as Alf pointed out in EP16, having to interact with some many people must drain him a lot). He sees how others just don´t like him that much, (something that was happening even before the accident), which must be a pain to deal with, especially since he has done nothing to gain such reputation (which he held even before the virus incident). Despite all of that, he still likes to help others, which is honestly very kind of him.

In addition, his base seems to be made to have as less stimulants as possible, no colors, no stuff in general. He already deals with too much changes and feelings, so he needs a quiet and simple place where he can just rest from everything.

Oh and before the incident I'd assume he used his powers for healing reasons, simmilar to what he did in EP29, where he managed to woke up a train by giving him some kind of "electric shock". The virus made him use that ability to damage Kay's engine in a more specifc and dangerous way than any other train could have done, he focused the electric damage in order to burn Kay's engine, or at the very least leave him more exposed to regular attacks.

Though, this power could be the main reason why he survived after the final episode, he managed to wrap the energy around his engine and protect it from over-heating. He must have an insane control over all of his body, which means that he will use the energy in the best way possible, making his engine very efficient, and almost as fast as Kay's.

On the brightside, this means that the trains he actually interacts with (aka Kay and Selly) mean a lot to him. So much so that he can just relax with them, as he knows they care about him and, regardless of how they might feel at the moment, they still respect him as a co-worker and as a friend.

In conclussion, Duke can:

Know how trains around him feel.

Probably guess when someone is lying to him, though he wouldn't have a 100% accuracy.

Heal (and hurt) other trains through energy manipulation.

Control the energy inside himself for efficiency or protection.

KAY

I think that weirdly enough, Duke's and Kay's powers are pretty simmilar, it's just that they're focused on different aspects of the energy. Duke interacts with "living" things, while Kay interacts directlly with the enviroment around him. I'll have to specultae a bit more here since despite everything Kay's properties are more ambigous than Duke's.

From what I can tell, the requirments for Kay to use his abilities are:

The energy needs to be flowing freely, if it's being being used by someone or something (a train, a smaller machine, etc) he won't be able to use it, however this has an excepting which I'll go into later.

He should have his equipment on, otherwise he won't have total control over his powers (this is why he lost control on EP25, rather than enhancing, his equipment seems to lock his whole potential because otherwise he won't be able to use his special capabilities without hurting himself).

Preferibly the energy should be strong and connected to other flows of energy (basically, the more areas that are connected through the tunnels, the more powerful he becomes).

But how does this affect the areas and Kay himself?

First, the fact that he can use and change the properties of abnormal amounts of energy means that he can also change the space (and maybe even time in most extreme cases) he is in, that's why he can open tunnels and connect different areas.

The levels of electric flow of the different zones probably affect his mood and behaviour too. He needs to be in constant movement to maintain his engine functioning correctly, which means that, the more contact he has with different kinds of energy (and areas), the better he feels. He needs adrenaline and stimulants (like training) to be at his best physical and mental capacities. That's why his base is basically a rollercoaster, it just makes the start of his days a little easier.

On a side thought, it appears as if the energy itself seeks for him, he's a pretty much a magnet that can store huges amounts of energy, which would explain how he managed to go back into the rails on EP1 (and EP25) despite being out on outer-space/void.

About him traveling to the Other World on EP25; that's the best example of what happens when he's not in full control of things, Duke was able to tell something was going to happen (due to the things I've mentioned before) and wanted to prevent it, but he didn't thought that Kay would lose control so quickly.

I wonder, if Kay was able to literally rip a whole in space-times and hop to another dimension, what else is he capable of? Are there more trains like him? Is him somehow related to Alpha?

And here comes the exception I talked about a while ago, Kay managed to use Alpha's cargo, or at least the energy inside of him, this was probably because: A. It produced so much energy that it basically became an "area" on it's own, B. For some reason, the cargo allowed Kay to use the energy on it (simmilar to what Duke did when he helped Kay with the Intercontinental Railroad construction).

Conclussions:

Kay not only enjoys adrenaline and training, he needs it to keep his engine (and himself) "healthy".

Kay is more powerful the more energy he has access to (or the more area's energy flows are connected to each other).

Kay can lose control of things unexpectedly.

His engine appears to carry some mystery, and maybe Alpha has something to do with it.

More notes:

All of that was the reason Kay able to hold the energy of all areas and use it in a single attack on EP2, he transformed everything into a huge circuit with him as the "on and off" mecanism.

Before that event, he probably asked Selly and Jeffrey what would happen if he ever did that a movement like that, they probably told him something like -Kay, DON'T EVER DO THAT YOU FUCKING IDIOT, YOUR ENGINE IS GONNA GET FRIED! YOU WOULD GET A LOT OF DAMAGE EVEN IF YOU WERE AT YOUR BEST PERFORMANCE.- and then he replied -I'd never ever do that guys, I promise... BUT JUST IN CASE I'M GONNA GIVE IT A COOL NAME!-

And this is were the ability "overdrive" goes into place. I've searched and over-drive has two main meanings, when we talk about machines, is the point of maxium power and/or best use of energy of the engine. If we talk about people, it's the moment where you are left completely exahusted and cannot keep going any longer, basically, you drive yourself to exhaustion. So he literally surpases his engine's regular capacities in order to use all of the areas' electricity, or at least most of it, leaving him too tired to even move after that. That's also why in the second battle Duke apparently drained most of the energy of the available areas, he didn't want to risk Kay doing something simmilar again.

I know I've been hoping through a lot of topics during this analysis, so I want to close it with a more wholesome thought. The kind of bond that Kay and Duke share makes so much more sense to me now, let me explain. Kay is different from the rest because he geniunely needs and enjoys adrenaline and training, that's what his engine demands. Duke needs some distance and a quiet space for him to feel alright, that's just how his powers work.

They understand very well what is like to be pretty different from the average robot-trains, and take time to support eachother as there's no one else than can understand them so well in this specifc aspect of their lifes.

Before the accident, Kay probably tried to do most of the social stuff for Duke (while also giving him), while Duke helped Kay with the most boring and repetitive tasks so Kay didn't get too frustrated.

I like to imagine them having a conversation like this: Kay: "What did I say Duke?"

Duke: "We are not like the average robot-trains..."

Kay: "And?"

Duke: "And... that's okay."

Kay: "AND THAT'S FRICKING AWESOME!"

Duke: "Y-YEAH, yeah?"

Kay: "YES!"

🔺️VICTOR▪️ (WIP)

Hello, I have been drowining in homework lately. Also, I have some nearly finished drawings that I'm yet to post, but meanwhile...

Here's a little sketch of Victor based on @mica-mice 's doodle, he's cheering up.

When it's finished I will print him and make him into a sticker for my laptop.

• New year approaches •

What is the best way to end the year? With a Duck meme of course.

On a small side note, I can't believe I really started to post RT content this year, all I say it's that I don't regret a single thing.

The original idea for this was from @mica-mice aka Dora. Duck is a duck and no one can tell me otherwise.

Here's the original meme plus an alternative background-less version of the drawing.

Also have a gif of Duck's cutest moment ever. Is there something better than ducks in a field of flowers? No.

He's a smal train with a gigantic heart (or engine, whatever trains have).