#Ulysses UDAD lore

[passcodepenelope]

Word spreads just as fast as a wildfire, Ulysses. You of all people should know this. Honestly, though, you really shouldn’t be asking how I found you. We both know the answer.

Death isn’t the escape you think it is.

- Hades, ruler of the Underworld.

“Call this a Finale if you’d like. Maybe even an encore. I can give you a show, but are you just a part of the audience?”

#ask ulysses udad #ask the mechs #Tw light blood #Ulysses UDAD lore

[jonsmissingribs]

Listened to udad for the first time, and was i the only one who expected the weapon in the vault to be an improved version of Ulysses's trojan horse sound? Like something that would spread across the planet and just make everyone kill each other starting with the Olympians?

#I do like the canon ending though it is much better #A lot more cathartic #Ulysses really does die at dawn good for them! #It is just this is a mechs album and i am so used to them ending in world ending tragic fates #so udad ending surprised me #ulysses #ulysses dies at dawn #udad ulysses #the mechanisms #I still hope the mechs managed to end up destroying the planet #The City is such an interesting set up and so rich at lore #I have only listened to udad promotheus and twisted threads for that setting though i need more

[allthedoorsareopennow]

Incomplete collection of Marius lore

suggestions for additions are welcome, but it MUST HAVE A SOURCE

overview 

He is the ship’s medic[1]/ship’s doctor[3], plays fiddle and has a mechanised right arm[1].

backstory 

He is neither a baron nor a doctor[3][5]; ‘Baron’ is a corruption of his original name, Byron von Raum[2][5].

Marius has a sister called Dorothea, and they were raised by a single nonbinary parent. Marius doesn’t remember their name or face, and knows them only as Zeze[6].

It is strongly implied that Marius was not mechanised by Dr Carmilla [7].

Marius is 5’5 and very skinny. This is apparently because he came from a world that is ‘somewhat medieval in its nutrition levels’ and Marius was not a healthy child. [14]

He piloted a mecha called KISMET. She was 5-6 storeys tall and slightly insectoid, like a dragonfly or butterfly. [17]

‘The control pod’s entirely in the head, which allows the internal control rig to right itself like a ball bearing, keeping the pilot upright whether she’s standing on the ground, hovering, flying horizontally, banking sharply or even rolling.’ [17]

The mecha is not meelee-oriented. [17]

time with the mechanisms 

Drumbot Brian said that ‘given that we're immortal and don't need a doctor, it's the job we're most comfortable giving Marius, and it keeps him busy’ and also that he ‘frequently tries to psychoanalyze inanimate objects’ [5]

His mechanism was ‘probably botched’ and he has a ‘tenuous grasp on reality’[2] 

According to Jonny, he grew a beard presumably around 08/02/2014 ‘almost instantaneously, and without warning’ and was apparently ‘very upset’ and ‘said he’d been holding it in for decades and just that momentary lapse of concentration as I kneecapped him had ruined all his hard work’[8]

He once dressed up as the Toy Soldier for a halloween concert [9]

Drumbot Brian once responded to someone asking how the mechanisms were by describing marius as ‘mad’[10]

The Aurora describes Marius as ‘the broken doctor’ [16]

songs/albums

He had a planned lecture on the psyche of the olympians, but this was cancelled[11]

He helped Ashes install at a minimum the camera in Ulysses’ vault in UDAD, though he does not remember this[4]

Apparently, ‘Marius spent his time on Fort Galfridian sitting at the porthole for days staring into the sun because he didn't realise it was supposed to be unbearable, and now the Ghouls think he's some sort of prophet’ [12]

In The Bifrost Incident, Marius does not know where he got the violin - in fact, he doesn’t even realise he’s holding it until Lyf points it out [15]

death

Marius was always skeptical of the crew’s immortality and was less surprised to meet his end. ‘One day, at something of a loose end, he will decide to check on the octokittens. Unfortunately, the purring horde has not been fed in many decades, and devours him, head to toe, in 11.7 seconds.’ [13]

Jonny is implied to have already witnessed Marius’ death before the final concert; he says ‘11.7 seconds. At least, by my watch.’ [13]

In Marius’ death, tunes from ‘Blood and Whiskey’ and ‘Favoured Son’ can be heard [13].

[1] Mechanisms Marius von Raum Available at: https://themechanisms.com/the-crew/marius-von-raum/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[2] Young (2020) Future Projects: The Death of Byron von Raum (spoiler free) Available at: https://kofiyoung.com/2020/07/25/future-projects-the-death-of-byron-von-raum-spoiler-free/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[3] Revenge of Spaceport Mahon

[4] Mechanisms Eskhatos Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/eskhatos/ Last accessed: 11/01/24

[5] Below (2013) Why do immortals need a ship doctor? Available at:  https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58736308596/why-do-immortals-need-a-ship-doctor-i-need-an Last accessed: 11/01/24

[6] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/727612334921678848/holding-checklist-titled-qualities-to-kill Last accessed: 11/01/24

[7] Rasputina (2013) Where'd you folks pick up Marius and Raphiella? Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58960694562/whered-you-folks-pick-up-marius-and-raphiella Last accessed: 11/01/24

[8] Sims (2014) Ingratitude Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/75995731661/ingratitude Last accessed: 11/01/24

[9] wickedacephotos (2013) The Mechanisms at The Cellar, 29 Oct 2013, for Halloween with Polar Patterns Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/wickedacephotos/65528149745/wickedacephotos-the-mechanisms-at-the-cellar Last accessed: 11/01/24

[10] Below (2013) Hooray for questions! Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/the-mechanisms/58734952128/i-apologize-that-i-didnt-ask-a-question-to-make Last accessed: 12/01/24

[11] The Mechanisms Ulysses Dies at Dawn Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/ulysses-dies-at-dawn Last accessed: 12/01/24

[12] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/624522490768736256/i-feel-like-i-should-clarify-because-it-does-at Last accessed: 12/01/24

[13] The Mechanisms (2020) Death to the Mechanisms Available at: https://themechanisms.bandcamp.com/album/death-to-the-mechanisms Last accessed: 12/01/24

[14] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/630817295229468672/so-i-am-absolutely-going-to-go-draw-tim-with Last accessed: 12/01/24

[15] thedreadvampy (2020) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/thedreadvampy/631436135234699264/you-dont-need-to-awnser-this-because-i-am-lore Last accessed: 12/01/24

[16] themechanisms A Bedtime Story Available at: https://themechanisms.com/fiction/ghost-in-the-machine/ Last accessed: 06/03/24

[17] Young (2023) Available at: https://www.tumblr.com/neitherabaron/708247931183153152 Last accessed: 11/04/24

To do:

not yet added Marius’ dttm dialogue

may add more detail to what is contained in expert testimony

could probably add detail on things seen doing in photos, e.g. Marius playing rock paper scissors with TS. (are photoshoots canon? I assume so)

[3] missing a link

wow did I really miss pilchard. I will Get To It at some point maybe

does anyone have the his arm is like a fungus post link handy

perhaps more backstory info from byron

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231124594544783361?s=20

https://x.com/neitherabaron/status/1231604579529302018?s=20

numbers are ordered mostly in when I added the source rather than order of appearance as I have moved things around a lot. as above this is very incomplete and I don’t have the willpower to update this now maybe I will later. I’m just uploading it now since someone wanted marius lore

#doors.txt #the mechanisms #marius von raum

[alukardtheabysswalker]

I find interesting the relationship (or lack thereof) that Ulysses Dies At Dawn has with The Odyssey.

For starters the name of the character, no Odysseus there, however the full album and story takes heavily from The Iliad in fact almost the same general plot and resolution, changing the political and romantic conflict to a revolutionary and still heavily political but in a different way conflict (not mention of Helen or a parallel of her at all).

So Ulysses is Ulysses and has not gone through an Odyssey yet they did spent over twenty years at war and then in regret. Original Odysseus wanted nothing more than to get back home, to his kingdom and son but mostly to his dear Penelope, a woman who did everything to wait for him, in fact what else she did was focused on making sure everything was in place for when he got back. So obviously The Mechs (in meta) wanted to avoid that stereotype (that in some ways was set by the legend of Penelope herself) but this is where we do get to how UDAD does in fact relate to The Odyssey, somewhat.

Ulysses wins the war and regrets the massacre if not outright genocide they committed so they spend a decade or more drunk, high and or fucking but no Penelope to go back to. We find out in the end is because she is dead, but for how long? When did she die?

Admittedly I haven't read all of the lore posts so this whole thing might have been answered already but when she died is important here. If she died before the war on Ilium it sets Ulysses' mind (did the people of Ilium kill her somehow?) during the war also could have affected them (did she participate?) Or was it after the war? And for how long?

The tree next to which she is buried is stated to have been a beacon of rebellion that at least Ulysses if not her as well wanted to use, long ago. That beacon, that thing it symbolizes is death. True death, death as freedom, as liberation from the oppression of The Olympians.

That is what Ulysses is after, truly, they want to return to Penelope, to reunite with her, which they can only do in death.

Their Odyssey is to die.

#ulysses dies at dawn #udad #the mechanisms #the mechanisms udad #ulysses udad

[tired-fandom-ndn]

this is like, definitely a really weird question to throw your way, but you're the only person i know of who's into it, so- how do you get into the Mechanisms? like. do you just listen to the albums?

Not a weird question at all, anon! The Mechanisms are great but they're also like. A lot and really difficult to get into without some help.

I highly recommend checking out this post for a great general guide on the characters, basic lore, and the main albums.

Basic info from me:

The Mechanisms were a character band where the performers each played a member of a crew of space pirates, made immortal through being "mechanized" (except for The Toy Soldier, which is doing its own thing).

The albums and individual tracks are presented as retellings of events that the mechs witnessed in their travels to different planets, space stations, solar systems, etc. Different mechs play characters in the story (ie: Jonny Sims plays the mech Jonny D'Ville who plays Ulysses in UDAD), presenting their own (self-admittedly biased and inaccurate) accounts of what happened. These albums are heavily based on things like mythos and existing tales, which is explained in-lore as stories just replaying in the universe in different ways.

These stories do not have happy endings. Ever. "So know the void is screaming mad, no happy endings out there, lad." - Tales to be Told.

Since the albums are telling a story, the songs have to be listened to in order to understand them. The general pattern is narration-song-narration-song. The albums themselves can be listened to in any order though; most people recommend Once Upon a Time In Space, then High Noon Over Camelot, then Ulysses Dies at Dawn, then The Bifrost Incident. Personally (don't come at me), I feel like TBI is a poor one to end on because it doesn't have a finale song like the others; I recommend finishing on a really strong note with UDAD or HNOC.

Once Upon a Time In Space: a story of a rebel space faction waging war against an immortal tyrant king, with a heavy focus on a refugee princess trying to save her wife from the king. Inspired by classic Western fairytales like Snow White and Cinderella.

High Noon Over Camelot: a scifi Western taking place on an abandoned space station, with the leaders trying to gain access to the station's controls before it goes hurtling into the sun. One of the songs, Hellfire, is incredible but based heavily on Southern doom preachers in case that's a trigger. Inspired by Arthurian mythos with biblical themes and a tarot theme for the track names?

Ulysses Dies at Dawn: a corrupt world run by people using the brains (and, presumably, souls) of the dead to run the planet and fuel their own immortality, with a main focus on a retired war criminal and their brief stint as the captive of a bunch of criminals trying to access their locked vault. Inspired by Greek and Roman mythos (you can actually figure out "sides" based on the characters' names!)

The Bifrost Incident: a transport officer trying to investigate the decades-old disappearance of a train containing their world's most powerful and influential people, with three captive mechs being their main source of information. Inspired by Norse and Cthulhu mythos.

There's also some incredible side albums like Gunpower Tim vs the Moon Kaiser (GPT's origin story and how he was mechanized), Frankenstein (an extremely trans retelling), and Alice (a side sequel to OUATIS, about a planet where the war continues).

There's also individual tracks and short stories that sometimes stand on their own and are sometimes connected to one of the main albums, just little ways to fill in the lore. Jessica Law, the performer for The Toy Soldier, has a frankly beautiful song called Narcissus Under the Knife that is about a character mentioned in one of the lore stories for UDAD.

Some of the mechanisms have their own individual origin songs. That list includes Gunpowder Tim vs the Moon Kaiser (GPT), One-Eyed Jacks (Jonny D'Vill, debatable, he's said most of it is lies), Lucky Sevens (Ashes O'Reilly), Cyberian Demons (Nastya Rasputina), and Lost in the Cosmos (Drumbot Brian). Kofi Young, the performer for Doctor Baron Marius Von Raum (neither a doctor nor a baron) is working on their own album for Marius' origin titled The Death of Byron von Raum.

Speaking of lore: you can find official fiction for the characters and individual albums (excluding TBI rip) on the official website. Highly recommend reading them if you're interested in engaging with the fandom.

There's more lore but a lot of it is buried in old archived blogspot posts, on twitter, or idly mentioned on either tumblr or on discord servers (Maki's is very active). I'm sure there's some google doc with links floating around tumblr somewhere but a lot of it is just off-hand stuff (like the time Drumbot Brian was briefly replaced as drummer with octokittens, multi-tentacled creatures living on the ship).

The fandom has sooooooo many antis, man, it's not even funny. People will ride your ass for shipping Nastya and Jonny, noncon is a big no-no (goddd), and fans simultaneously want all the mechs to be uwu soft and fluffy found family but also if you give them any personality traits whatsoever then you're trying to erase their horrific crimes. It's a fucking mess so be prepared for that.

#Anonymous #the mechanisms

[astronomical-bagel]

EPIC I'v basically just listened to Ulysses dies at dawn and Bifrost but MAN. Favored son slaps tbh

YESSSS FAVORED SON IS SOOO *vague hand waving*. My personal favorite is the riddle of the sphinx bc. OUGH. the body and mind DO decay actually!!!!! i actually started making an hermitcraft au loosely based on the world of udad -- mainly inspired by the Prometheus song in tales to be told tbh -- just bc its got SUCH an interesting lore behind it. udad makes me go insane actually i need to listen to it again

#beloved mutuals #astronomical asks

[sleepylinguistt]

there’s no set order, but the most important thing is that you CANNOT shuffle the main story albums. you can shuffle Tales To Be Told if you like but you must never shuffle Once Upon A Time, Ulysses Dies At Dawn, High Noon Over Camelot, or The Bifrost Incident.

you can start on whichever album you like, but the quality DOES go up as you progress, as the mechs were able to get more funding the longer they played.

most people prefer to listen in the order of release, which is OUATIS, UDAD, HNOC, and TBI, but it doesn’t actually matter.

if you’d like to learn more about the characters (er, the mechanisms i mean) then feel free to hmu in my DMs.

thank u so much :D i will stick to release order thats works fine for me!!

ty for reaching out hehe no longer feeling a little lost in all of it :] ill deffo keep ur lore offer in mind :DD

#blabbering #asks #thank u so so so much :0

[lucreziaborgiagf]

not sure what’s funnier, the idea that each of the Suits decided individually to wear cool pinstriped outfits and ended up accidentally wearing the exact same thing, or the idea that Oedipus, Ariadne and Heracles coordinated beforehand as a power move because they wanted to embarrass the little singer only for him to show up wearing a pinstripe suit as well so they all pretended to be surprised with each other to save face

#the mechanisms #ulysses dies at dawn #udad #the suits #listen #liSTEN #as far as i can remember its only orpheus who mentions the suit thing #would this not be funnier #probably not but i like it anyway #poor orpheus #this is my alltime favourite piece of mechs lore #lore??? yeah i guess #orpheus #heracles #oedipus #ariadne

[seaglassdinosaur]

The Olympians look at neurodivergents and say ‘You are Legally not allowed to die.’

#like #fuck you? #though considering the Acheron.... no there’s no good solution #but really the lore is messed up #neurodivergents get stuck in an asylum to not die forever #they LEGALLY are not allowed to die #because everyone who dies goes to the Acheron #no exceptions #and some ppl would unbalanced the workings #so the solution: Just Dont Die #udad #ulysses dies at dawn #the mechs #the mechansims #my post

[tornsuits]

mechs timeline... or something

good evening gender identities! i’ve been thinking about the order the albums might have happened in, chronologically, and how events from some albums might have affected others! and now i have a whole long theory/headcanon about it, because i’m insane. so. here we are!

(obligatory disclaimer that i did make some assumptions about events that happened offscreen, and while they’re all based in actual canon, they are still, y’know, headcanons that shouldn’t just be taken as fact.)

so, typically the assumption is that the albums take place in the same order that they were released (ouatis udad hnoc tbi, with ttbt songs wherever they fit) which is possible (and probably correct tbh)! but this line from ‘ulysses’s will’ caught my attention:

Doesn’t matter there’s nothing beyond the City save the automated colonies that feed it and the empty black.

which could be interpreted a couple different ways, but the most literal being that there really is nothing beyond the city- there are no more habitable planets, & the city has taken over the last planets and is using them for maintaining the city (presumably). which, considering we know that there are many planets and other Things In Space in the mechsverse, probably means that udad is actually the last of the albums to take place, timeline-wise.

the only piece of evidence i could find directly contradicting this is that nastya went Out right before tbi, and was present (though offscreen) during udad. but time travel is an established thing in the mechsverse that we know the mechanisms have access to, so:

yes, udad happened last in linear time, but that doesn’t mean that it happened last in mechs time- in fact, if i were newly immortalized & could travel through time, the last human civilization is probably one of the first places i’d want to go. so the album release order is probably the order that the mechs visited these planets, even if that’s not the order they existed in, like, human history.

anyway! so what order did the albums take place in, then?

i’m gonna go out on a bit of a limb and say that i think tbi actually took place first! i know it’s usually considered to take place last because it was the last album to be released, (+ the thing in out i talked about already). but hear me out!

tbi took place first, after a good portion of, like, other things had already happened. what other things? i don’t know! the mechs probably didn’t write about them because they were actually happy, or unsatisfying, or whatever. so tbi is actually the first step to the destruction of the rest of the universe, and i’ll explain how that might have happened in a moment. (which actually explains why lyf saw notes that the mechs’ technology seems so alien- it was pretty early along in the timeline, compared to the rest of the albums).

so i’m working under the headcanon that the bifrost managed not only to destroy all of the yggdrasil system, but a good portion of the rest of the universe as well. it’s pretty easy to guess how the sudden disappearance of a whole system would lead to people going to investigate, which would lead to more people getting killed by the Rainbow Shit, and if anyone survived they’d probably bring bits of the Rainbow Shit back to their home planets, ect, ect. (also, not to delve too far into forbidden lore, but the void spreads.) so, the bifrost probably wiped out most of the civilizations in the universe.

but a few planets/systems survive- ones far enough away that they weren’t immediately affected, and were able to get word that Maybe Investigating This Is Not The Best Plan. which brings us to ouatis, which i think happened sometime after tbi (possibly around the same time or after as hnoc- i’m putting it first for organizational purposes, but it could go either way).

so the system from ouatis survives, & this is probably how old king cole was able to establish himself as an immortal tyrant, since there was a sudden lack of other governments to keep him in check/send support to citizens starting an uprising. this basically leaves old king cole free to colonize a good portion of the planets that weren’t destroyed by the bifrost. presumably the government collapes after king cole dies, (to quote the fiction, it most likely suffered ‘the most horrendous power vacuum and subsequent bloodshed the universe has ever seen’ which probably killed a good amount of the remaining citizens) and that’s another mass civilization down! fun times.  

which actually ties very neatly into alice. it’s unlikely that the ouatis system (does it have a name? i can’t keep calling it the ouatis system i can’t) was able to completely escape the horrors of the bifrost, and might still have some residual effects in the areas that the void touched. the planet/moon from alice was probably an area heavily touched by the void, which might be why it’s Like That.

and then we get to hnoc, which, again, could have happened at any time around when ouatis was taking place. we know that they were never able to finish building the station, & that contact with the outside world was abruptly cut off in holder of the grail. so it’s not unlikely that the civilization, or at least part of it, was killed by the bifrost. (i mean, the other option is that they just, like, got bored with the station and ghosted an entire colony). the station survived due to previously mentioned lack of contact with the outside world, although this doesn’t last long.

which brings us to udad! unlike fort galfridian, i don’t think it was completely cut off from the rest of the universe- just far enough away, or relatively untouched, enough that it was still habitable. which is probably why it got so crowded- so many people were moving there after their home got destroyed by cosmic horror rainbows. there’s also something to be said about the fact that the city is modeled after the ‘roaring twenties,’ which was a time of innovation and celebration after recovering from disaster, but that might be reading too far into it.

but, while the city was mostly sheltered from the bifrost attack, it probably was still at least slightly touched by bifrost, similar to alice. which might be how we get things like orpheus being able to see the future in his dreams. hm! sounds familiar! it’s almost like someone else also apparently saw the future in their dreams and was connected to the void!

[ODIN] When I first built this train, this snaking engine of change, I could not have guessed that this is where the songs I dreamt of would lead.

haha. yep.

also, taking the epilogue into account and how ashes burned down the acheron, effectively killing the last life in the universe... and how they died at the very end of the universe, briefly the brightest thing in the universe... well. i’m not saying that when ashes died they were cast back forward to when they burned down the acheron for the first time but maybe that’s what i’m saying.

so, to recap: during the bifrost incident, the void leaks through into our world and destroys most of it. fort galfridian and king cole’s empire are some of the few surviors, due to lack of contact, although king cole couldn’t completely escape the bifrost. both of these civilizations fall, leaving the city as the only habitable place left, although also slightly touched by the bifrost. the city also eventually falls into ruin, and with it, the last humans in the known universe. and that’s how the world ends, i guess! woo.

again, don’t take this as canon or whatever- i’m just taking the vague scraps that the canon did give us and turning it into a story that makes sense, at least from my perspective. so, yeah!

#tumblr nerfed this the first time i tried to post it </3 if this doesn't post i stg #jay says words #the mechanisms #udad #hnoc #ouatis #tbi #alright im going to go for a long walk now. hopefully this is coherent

[vikingqueer]

music recommendations because i have some thoughts™

i don't wanna be that person who's like "my music taste is so weird lol" but i find that very often most of my friends don't really care for the music i like so i thought i'd just make a long ass post about it on tumblr instead. Fair warning, I'm very passionate about MIKA and The Mechanisms and so this very quickly got VERY long because it is part of my ongoing campaign to convince people to listen to mika and the mechs.

1) MIKA in general, but especially My Name Is Michael Holbrook (2019) and No Place In Heaven (2015) (especially the Deluxe version!!)

MIKA is a kind of British singer (half Lebanese, grew up in France blabla), and you probably know him for Grace Kelly and Relax, Take It Easy from his first album Life In Cartoon Motion from 2007. He writes a lot of FUN music, interspersed with the occasional slightly sadder song, especially when looking at an album like No Place In Heaven, which contains a lot of songs with gay themes, resulting in some songs that are just a little bit ouch. He's originally classically trained and has a frankly RIDICULOUS range and idk he just writes very good pop music. Also I have so much respect for that time he talked about how a lot of pop is very fake, with like expensive cars and stilettos and mini skirts in the snow and said "Because I walk down the street, and I don't see any of that. I see fat women and gay men. I don't know... That's real". He's written 5 albums; My Name Is Michael Holbrook (2019), No Place In Heaven (2015), The Origin Of Love (2012), The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2009), and Life In Cartoon Motion (2007).

For starters, I recommend listening to Last Party, Origin Of Love, Grace Kelly, Blame It On The Girls, Blue, Happy Ending, Pick Up Off The Floor, Last Party, Underwater, Tomorrow and Tiny Love (yes this is a long list but i REALLY love MIKA). If you want a slightly broader palette that's not just my favourites, I recommend the Mika starter pack on spotify.

2) The Mechanisms. I warn you. I am making this a thing. I have been obsessed with the mechs since last march.

Boy, where to start? The Mechanisms were a British 9 member space pirate story-telling cabaret that "died" in January 2020. They rewrite songs to fit retellings of various stories. I don't even know what genre I'd describe them as, but probably folk but steam-punk?? Their 4 "main" albums are concept albums, and I honestly just recommend listening to the from beginning to end in chronological order. A good way to get into the mechs is also to listen to UDAD and then watching the live show on youtube or alternately try giving Death To The Mechanisms a listen, to get good quality live show audio of TBI and various other stuff. Also, it was streamed on YouTube and someone combined the footage with the album audio and it rocks. Really, I think the mechs' best selling points are honestly just their concept albums:

Once Upon a Time (In Space) Their first album from 2012. I'd say this is the most "easily digestible" for the general public, since it's a retelling of various fairytales. So, what if Old King Cole was in fact not merry, but rather a cold-blooded dictator, intent on colonising as much of the galaxy as possible. What if Snow White was a general, looking to avenge what King Cole did to her sister, Rose. What if Cinderella was to be wedded to Rose the day that King Cole attacked in order to kidnap Rose? But y'know, In Space and also like every other mechs album it's a beautiful tragedy. Fave songs are Old King Cole, Pump Shanty, and No Happy Ending.

Ulysses Dies at Dawn You guessed it, it's a story about Odysseus, or Ulysses because I guess Ulysses is easier to rhyme or fit in the meter or something, idk. Ulysses is a war hero of unknown gender who is said to keep something that could take down the corrupt Olympians, meanest families in the City, in a vault to which only they know the passcode. Oedipus, Heracles, Orpheus, and Ariadne have been hired by Hades, who happens to be The Mechs' quartermaster Ashes O'Reilly, to get into Ulysses' vault. I didn't care much for udad at first, but honestly it's got some real bangers and the story is really good. UDAD weirdly stands out as the only of the concept albums to not feature any gay relationships, per se. Fave songs are Riddle of the Sphinx, Favoured Son, and Underworld Blues.

High Noon over Camelot This is my favourite mehcs album. So basically, this is Arthurian legend, but it's a space western and Jonny D'Ville does a bad southern accent. This is the story of the cowboy lovers Arther, Lancelot, and Guinevere searching for the Galfridian Restricted Acces Interface Login, or GRAIL, in order to stop their world from falling into the sun. Meanwhile, Mordred and Gawaine are ruling Camelot, and Mordred has convinced Gawaine to try to establish peace with the Saxons by whom Mordred was raised, but Gawaine hates viciously. If you love getting your heart broken and songs by a fucking off the rails batshit preacher I HIGHLY recommend hnoc. Fave songs are Gunfight at the Dolorous Guard, Blood and Whiskey, and Once and Future King. Honorary mention for Hellfire because it awakens something animalistic in me.

The Bifrost Incident TBI is the frankly only good adaptation of norse mythology I've ever known of, and I say that as Dane who was literally forced to learn things about norse mythology in school because it's my heritage or whatever. I've been listening to TBI a lot lately because it's VERY good. It's definitely the most refined of the mechs' albums (because it's the newest) but also I just love a little bit of cosmic horror. 80 years ago, Odin, the All-Mother, ruler of Asgaard, launched a train through the wormhole Bifrost that would reduce the travel between Asgaard and Midgaard from 3 months to 3 days, but things didn't go quite as planned. Lyfrassir Edda of the New Midgaard Transport Police is trying to solve the case of why suddenly the train has arrived 80 years late; to figure out whether it was accident or maybe it was sabotaged by Loki, who was allegedly sentence to death her murder of Baldur, by the Midgaardian resistance led by Loki's wife Sigyn, or maybe by Thor, who was to take over after Odin, and who holds quite the grudge because he used to be a friend of Loki's. You might've heard the song Thor from this album, it's apparently quite popular. Fave songs are Loki, Ragnarok III: Strange Meeting, and Ragnarok V: End of The Line. Yet again an honorary mention: Red Signal because while Lovecraft was a bitch, his invocations are fucking RAW.

Basically, the Mechanisms do all of their performances in character as captain first mate Jonny D'Ville, quartermaster Ashes O'Reilly, pilot DrumBot Brian, master-at-arms Gunpowder Tim, science officer Raphaella la Cognizi, doctor Baron Marius Von Raum (neither a baron, nor a doctor), archivist Ivy Alexandria, engineer Nastya Rasputina, and The Toy Soldier, who is, as usual, present. You can find very obscure lore about the crew of the Aurora here, tidbits on Tales To Be Told and TTBT Vol. 2, such as One Eyed Jacks, The Ignominious Demise of Dr. Pilchard, Gunpowder Tim vs. The Moon Kaiser, Lucky Sevens, and Lost in the Cosmos.

If you feel like listening to a full 40-50 minute album to find out if you like a band is a bit much, I recommend listening to one of the mini stories Alice, Swan Song, or Frankenstein, which are about 12, 5 and 9:30 minutes respectively.

3) The Amazing Devil You know that guy who played Jaskier in the Witcher? I got into The Amazing Devil from spotify recommending them because I listened to the mechs, and apparently Joey Batey from The Amazing Devil is the same Joey Batey who was in the Witcher. Both him and Madeleine Hyland are VERY talented singers and songwriters and their second album The Horror and the Wild makes me go out into the forest and SCREAM. I listened to it on repeat for like a month straight. I guess they'd also be considered folk, but like. New Folk. Also yes, this is another British artist, I don't know why I'm like this. I've never really gotten that into their first album, Love Run, but King slaps. As I understand there's this whole lore about the Blue Furious Boy and Scarlet Scarlet, Joey and Madeleine respectively, but unlike the Mechanisms it's actually possible to find out things about the actual real people and harder to find the obscure lore? I'm open for people to please help me. Fave songs are The Horror and the Wild, Farewell Wanderlust, and That Unwanted Animal, which is literally a third of their second album, but again. I haven't really listened to Love Run that much, and I just LOVE the harmonies on THATW. (also im gay and dramatic leave me alone)

4) dodie I have so much love for this woman. Like many others, I first knew dodie as doddleoddle on youtube. I think I first stumbled across her in probably 2015, because I distinctly already knew her before she released her first EP Sick of Losing Soulmates in 2016. I think I watched probably every video she's ever made in the span of a few weeks. I just loved her quiet sound and was absolutely HOOKED. Also she's actually the reason I got into MIKA originally, so thanks for that. Dodie just realeased her first album Build A Problem (in addition to her three EP's; the one mentioned above, You, and Human) and it slaps. Yes dodie is also British Fave songs are probably Monster, Rainbow, and In The Middle.

5) Cladia Boleyn Unfortunately, Claudia Boleyn only has three singles and that's it. She's been making content on youtube for quite a while, and that's how I first discovered her. I don't know what genre her music is, but I like it. The songs are Celesta, George, and Mother Maiden Crone, of which the latter is my favourite. I'm not saying Claudia Boleyn invented women in 2017 when she released Mother Maiden Crone, but she did. Also you guessed it, Claudia Boleyn is British.

6) Hozier I'm not about to tell you about Hozier. You know who he is. Listen to Nina Cried Power, Angel Of Small Death & The Codeine Scene, and Shrike. Also Hozier isn't stricly British in that he is definitely from A British Isle, but Ireland is not part of the UK. Give me a break.

7) Oh Land Oh Land IS DANISH. I like her early music best, because I'm not that into the electronic sound. I guess Oh Land is just you regular old pop, but with the occasional weird vibe? Oddly enough, I like her first album Fauna best. Unfortunately I haven't really listened to her newest album Family Tree much, but it seems good? Fave songs are Frostbite, Love You Better and Family Tree. I cried on the bus, first time I listened to the Danish version of Love You Better, Elsker Dig Mer because my mother tongue always just hits harder. Also Frostbite is Oh Land doing a duet with herself which is pretty cool.

8) Oysterband This is a live recommendation. I mean they're a decent folk band and all, but they're a fucking experience live. If you like folk and you ever get the opportunity to see Oysterband live, do it. Unfortunately, yes. They are British. Either way, they are incredible on a scene and I think they deserve a mention for that.

9) Ben Platt Honestly don't know much about this guy, but he's not British and he was in Dear Evan Hansen. He released an album in 2019, Sing To Me Instead, and I just think it's a good album, there isn't really not much more to it. Fave songs are Grow As We Go, Bad Habit, and In Case You Don't Live Forever.

and thats all for now. this has been a ramble. shout out to you if you actually read all of this, especially the mechs part.

#music stuff #amalie.txt #music recommendations #mika #the mechanisms #the amazing devil #dodie #claudia boleyn #hozier #oh land #oysterband #ben platt

[passcodepenelope]

What’s one thing you miss about life in the City?

“Honestly? Probably my old ‘buddies’ back from the time at Ilium. They died a while ago and- well. They were the best things I had- aside from Penelope.”

They pause for a moment, thinking.

“But something from life itself? Maybe back before the war. When people would greet me on the streets with a smile. Sorta used to be well known even before the War and Siege. The Ithaca distract was… it was nice. Not great mind you, but… It was enough for us.”

#ask ulysses udad #Ulysses lore drop #ask the mechs

[allegedlyfranzferdinand]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Odyssey - Homer, Ulysses Dies at Dawn - The Mechanisms (Album) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Odysseus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Ulysses (Ulysses Dies at Dawn), Calypso (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Nausicaa (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Alcinous of Drepane (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore) Additional Tags: how on EARTH am i to tag this, i stole bits and pieces from myth and from udad and i put em in a fic and that's that babes, Mythology - Freeform, the gods are among us my friends, they have depression and chemical addictions, odysseus needs some therapy lmao, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, i tempered some of udad's sci-fi elements, that album is a masterpiece, this is kind of a retelling of the odyssey if that helps Summary:

“Son of Laertes!” he calls, and Odysseus fights back a flinch. “Surely you must know better than any of us what happened at Troy, eh? Why don’t you regale us with the story of when the walls fell? And after, too, man, we’d all love to know what happened to you! Fell off the face of the planet, you did.”

  There are shouts of agreement from the crowd, brays for a story. Men start their own accounts with stammering flourishes, only to be shouted down by their friends, who are certain that their version is correct, that they know what it was that turned Ilium, high Ilium, into an abattoir in a matter of days. Odysseus does not quiet them; he knows Alcinous will. The man obliges with a shout, and he lets himself smile. His false smiles are better than the king’s.

  “Of the fall of Troy there is not much to tell."

#i wrote this #tagamemnon #uhhhh did someone order greek mythology and mechanisms fic #ulysses dies at dawn #the odyssey #odysseus #fanfiction

[gunpowderdtim]

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: The Mechanisms (Band), Ulysses Dies at Dawn - The Mechanisms (Album) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Gunpowder Tim/Ares (UDAD), Gunpowder Tim/Patroclus (UDAD), minor Ashes O'Reilly/Gunpowder Tim Characters: Gunpowder Tim (The Mechanisms), Ashes O'Reilly, Ares (Ulysses Dies at Dawn) — OC, Patroclus (Ulysses Dies at Dawn) — OC, Thanatos (Ulysses Dies at Dawn) — OC, Charon (Ulysses Dies at Dawn) — OC Additional Tags: Jonny/Tim is referenced and they are dating but jonny is Not Here, Tim is Aphrodite, Tim is Achilles, Tim is persephone, yes - Freeform, all three, Narratomancy, Gore, Angst, gore so much gore, Free Will, Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Genderfluid Gunpowder Tim (The Mechanisms), Minor Character Death, (Patroclus ofc), Heartbreak, (Patroclus again), References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Gunpowder Tim Has ADHD, Trojan War, Child Soldiers, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Neopronouns, Tim uses she/her, (first chapter), Tim uses he/him, (second chapter), Tim uses ae/aer, (third chapter), edit: Jonny also shows up at the end, Eye Trauma, Necromancy, (rebodying), Canon Non-Binary Character Series: Part 32 of Ready, Aim, Fire Summary:

Tim has quite the time in The City.

Chapter One: Tim is Aphrodite and has the time of her life Chapter Two: Tim is Achilles and he has An Awful Time In General Chapter Three: Tim is Persephone and ae have a pleasant time overall.

An exploration at how a Mechanism can fall into a Role in a story, and not be able to pull themself out.

Chapter 3 is up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#the mechanisms #ashes o'reilly #gunpowder tim

[irradiatedsnakes]

Hi! I really want to get into the mechanisms but it seems like a lot lol. Ive listened to The Bifrost Incident and loved it, but I really want to know more about the cast themselves. Do you know where I can find those songs, if they are songs i guess. Thanks!

there are some songs about the band members, and some written fiction too!

you’ll find all of the backstory songs on the two tales to be told albums. on ttbt1, there’s one eyed jack’s (jonny d’ville’s backstory) and gunpowder tim vs. the moon kaiser (gunpowder tim’s backstory in a multi-song track, plus a song all about the toy soldier). on this album is also the ignominious demise of dr. pilchard, not a backstory song but one involving the whole crew!

on ttbt2 there’s lucky sevens (ashes o’reilly’s backstory) and lost in the cosmos (drumbot brian’s backstory). marius von raum, ivy alexandria, raphaella la cognizi, and nastya rasputina do not have any backstory songs.

however, if you’re gonna listen to the rest of the songs on ttbt 1 and 2, i recommend listening to the other three main albums- once upon a time in space, ulysses dies at dawn, and high noon over camelot- first! because a lot of the songs on ttbt that aren’t crew backstories are other stories that take place in the worlds of the albums.

as for more stuff about the crew, there’s also the fiction section on the mechanisms website, here! https://themechanisms.com/fiction/ it has some stuff about the crew in the first section (nastya, especially), then stories from hnoc, udad, & ouatis (which also sometimes involve the crew)

and then there’s the liveshows! and other in-person stuff. these’re what’s gonna give you an actual feel for the characters of the crew, beyond just lore-wise. they’re absolutely wonderful. my personal favorite is revenge of spaceport mahon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eYALygp32w

i also recommend the bifrost incident debut, it’s so much fun. and one of the only glimpses we have into..anything marius, really. he’s got such a fun energy.

there’s also the museum tour, which is just DELIGHTFUL. toy soldier, tim, brian, and raph take a tour of the pitt rivers museum. it’s so good.

you can find links to those and MANY MORE THINGS here ! https://kaijudyke.tumblr.com/post/613416413541154816

also i just came upon this video of a bucnh of banter between the crew while looking up spaceport mahon and it’s SO cute oh my gooood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_8dtg0BgY

#mechanisms #Anonymous

[equalseleventhirds]

mmmmm... if I do want to try and start listening to the mechanisms, which album should I start from?

OH A GREAT QUESTION, and one for which there are many answers that many other people have given

whichever album you start from, listen to it all the way through! please! that’s really the only important thing.

for my preference tho… 

i PERSONALLY like to start from ‘once upon a time in space’. it has everything: lesbian princesses, war-is-hell, scifi fairy tales. crucially, it establishes the format (space pirates tell you dope fucking stories about other people) and has a neat little bit in the middle that introduces the mechs, tells you a little about who they are and what they do, and lets jonny d’ville go full fucking feral (and tells u that nastya is……… dating the ship.)

i then like to go into ‘tales to be told’ bcos u get some Vital Crew Intros, and after that either ‘tales to be told 2′ or ‘ulysses dies at dawn’ (and then the other right after). then ‘high noon over camelot’ bcos it’s just funnier to me personally if brian gets stuck in a sun right after he plays daedalus. if you don’t ascribe to my rly silly headcanon about that, ttbt2 udad and hnoc can all be listened to in any order.

i like to end on ‘the bifrost incident’ bcos what better way to end a mechanisms run than with an apocalypse? (also bcos the other main albums are narrated by jonny d’ville and told from the perspective of the mechanisms, but tbi is told by someone else and the mechs just fucking Show Up and Bother People, which is a. hilarious and b. rly interesting as a narrative tool after everything else makes them the storytellers)

also their single frankenstein! almost forgot frankenstein, can’t believe i did that. it doesn’t have a Mechanism Crime Interlude so it’s a bit harder to fit into any sort of chronology but i like to listen to it after ttbt2, and feel like it rly works anywhere after ur first mechs album (but before tbi… gotta end on… yog’sothoth). it goes rly fucking hard, but actually all their songs do? all of them. rly hard.

ALSO there are some bits of canon fiction and member bios on their website, and you can find live videos of them on youtube which are a fucking BLAST, including their most recent and final liveshow, ‘death to the mechanisms’, where they all. die. that one was streamed live and unfortunately kinda glitched and is missing some bits, but iirc at the time they said they were gonna put together a full video maybe? if they could pull enough video from their other cameras.

(also i have heard rumors of a marius project coming up…….. pls i crave the Lore…….)

ETA: here is one post Explaining the Mechs and here is another post from the mechs telling u what they each individually are up to now that they’re dead :)

(also edited to be under a read more bcos.......... long.)

#anonymous #long post #that turned into a very long thing! #other ppl have written better & more coherent posts explaining the mechanisms' whole Deal #this was mostly to explain my own listening preferences but it got......... long #btw anon i would ABSOLUTELY recommend watching the youtube videos #they are an EXPERIENCE and also that's the only way u can hear 'drunk space pirate' which FUCKS HARD