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lostonehero · 11 days

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@voidhaseyes

A alternate path to your commission.

Jonny hopped onto the first ship he could hack open. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was a vessel for long-term space travel, which is what he needed. It kind of reminded him of the ship Marius stole escaping New Asguard. It didn't matter he just needed to find the control room and go from there.

"Who are you?" A voice Jonny didn't recognize started him as he reached the captains chair. "Whoa, hey, I ain't gonna attack."

Jonny studied the person in front of him. They didn't look like any species he was familiar with. They were tall and lanky with blue skin. Their ears were pointed and long, and their long hair was tied back in a braid. Their eyes were like rainbow static. Black nails, and they looked to have hooves... no, that wasn't right. Feet hooves? Whatever they were, it was weird. They had a long tail that was covered in feathery hairs. He opens his mouth to speak, but a soft rasp escapes his lips.

The person steps back, obviously also studying him. "You can't talk."

Jonny nods he taps out in Morse code. "I am Jonny..... I've been curse..... I will leave...."

The person's eyes widen. "No! I mean no, you can stay. I'm kind of cursed, too. I'm guessing the plants aren't normal."

Jonny nods again.

"I'm Lyfrassir Edda, but you can call me Lyf. I was about to leave this planet, just loaded up on supplies and such. Do you want to come with me?" Lyf smiles, watching Jonny nod. "Great I uh, there's a spare room and stuff. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one cursed by a god."

Jonny gave a skeptical brow raise. He didn't know what to make of Lyf or if he was even the same from what Marius told him about. His voice was deep like his.... was. It didn't matter he was on his way away from them to longer be a burden.

........

It's been approximately a month since Jonny joined him. He was quiet, obviously. He couldn't talk because of the plants, and he didn't envy him or that. Lyf looked over to Jonny, who was writing quietly in a notebook. "Hey, uh... are you doing ok?"

Jonny tilts his head clearly, not used to being asked that. He shrugs and taps out a message. "I think I'm fine...." He adjusts his goggles.

"You think?" Lyf frowns. "I uh yeah, that seems to be the case with me. I'm still trying to come to terms with what happened."

Jonny shuts his book and stares at Lyf. He taps out another message. "Go ahead. I'll listen."

"I doubt you'll believe me." Lyf sighs. "My galaxy was eaten by a god. I'm the sole survivor, and apparently, the god likes me enough to curse me with powers and the inability to age or die." He frowns, leaning back in his chair. "There's this guy, Marius. He claims he's a part of a space pirate group that sings about tragedies. He seemingly has an infinite amount of violins he can just pull out of nowhere."

Jonny raised a brow. "Do you hate him or want to fuck him?" He taps out on his notebook.

Lyf lights up with a dark blue blush. "The man is an idiot and a self-proclaimed doctor. He made my life hel back on New Asguard, but... but he wasn't mean." He sighs and rubs his face. "I don't know how I feel. We met up after everything, and he even helped me control these powers. I just ran away like a coward and took my ship with me, leaving him stranded after everything he did for me. The mechanism is what he called the group, and I try to avoid any of that. I can't.... I shouldn't be with someone like him, I'll just hurt him. I even scarred his mechanical arm! He claims it was supposed to fix itself, but it didn't."

Jonny furrowed his brows. He does remember when they picked Marius up, his mechanism had claw marks that seemed to blend into the very metal, and even if it was working fine, they wouldn't ever buff out or vanish. He never talked about it. He was protective over it. They stuck even after DTTM.

"I know it's stupid." Lyf sighs. "I think I fell in love with him. He probably moved on from me, yaknow eternity is a long time, and he's immortal, and I suppose I am too, but why would he want to spend eternity with me. I'll just end up hurting him." He hugged his chest and looked up. Jonny had gotten up to touch his shoulder. "You're right. I shouldn't linger on that. It's been a little over a thousand years that he has obviously forgotten about me."

Jonny wanted to tell him the truth. Marius hasn't. Hell, the man hasn't even tried to go out with anyone else. Raphaella and Ivy have kept prodding him, and he shuts them down. He shakes his head instead.

Lyf smiles sadly. "I suppose I can't assume unless I talk to him. I would rather not."

Jonny pushed his notebook into Lyf's hands. A story always helps him, so why not him. He taps out. "Read a story."

"A story?" Lyf opens the book and stops. "I don't know what language this is."

Jonny paused and forgot he was writing in New Texan. "It's New Texan. That's where I am from."

"Could you... could you teach me?" Lyf smiles softly.

Jonny lights up and nods.

......

"Can you write something with a happy ending?" Lyf was sprawled out on a couch. Jonny nicked off their most recent stop.

Jonny signs. "Life doesn't have happy endings." He rolls his eyes munching on a fruit he grew. It was a new development that the flowers had started to become fruits, and he wasn't complaining. He was slowly learning how to control the plants as well. He still couldn't speak those seemingly will never come undone. "Should I bring up you and Marius? Or just me and Tim."

Lyf rolls his eyes right back. "Ok, first off, Marius was my fault. I realize I love him way too late, and he's moved on. Secondly, Tim is your fault. You never talked to him and told him the truth. Well, not talked, but you get what I mean. Besides, I met you, and I have a brother now, so isn't that a happy end?"

Jonny purposely looks away with a soft blush on his face. He did consider Lyf a brother he never had. He took a breath and started to sign again. "Have I told you about my mother?"

"I suppose not, but you have told me about your father and Jack. Right pricks, the both of them." Lyf sits up. "Alright, fine, tell me. I always like hearing about your planet, and I swear we'll find it one day."

Jonny silently laughs.

......

Lyf barely got a look at the poster before Jonny ripped it down. A low growl erupted from his chest, and his tail was lashing back and forth. He looked over where another poster was hanging.

"Mechanisms! Looking for our Captain. Interim lead Doctor Marius Von Raum."

Jonny lit the crumpled poster on fire. Tears pricked his eyes. He silently gasps as Lyf pulls him into a hug.

"You were one of them?" Lyf can feel Jonny shake, and that was his answer. "I know it's ok you have me and I won't replace you."

Jonny clings tighter, crying.

"Come on, I think we need to find your home planet." Lyf sighs. "Forget these assholes"

.......

Lyf knew something was off with Jonny. It all started with that poster. He wasn't really upset that he was keeping the mech secret he was more worried about Jonny and how he seemed to shut down. He doesn't really recall Marius talking about any of the other members, so he didn't know where Jonny fit in or what the dynamic was. However whatever it was they replaced him and he was taking it hard.

Jonny was curled up in his bed with his back to his door and didn't make any move to show he heard Lyf come in.

Lyf steps over the vines that have spread across Jonny's room like a cancer. He seemed so small in this moment, and it broke his heart. "Jonny?"

Jonny gives a low growl.

"Jonny, I'm sorry." Lyf takes a breath. "I just want to talk."

Jonny curls tighter into himself.

"I know the others are fucking awful. I mean, they replaced you, and that isn't fair. I don't know how long you've known them, but you don't need them. I'll be here whether you want me or not. I'm your brother, and I'll be by your side." Lyf stands in front of Jonny's bed. "Look, I don't know if I'm able to give up on Marius, but I'll chew him out for you. I just want you to feel better."

Jonny rolls over with a silent huff. He stares up at Lyf with tears in his eyes. He holds his hands out, which, when Lyf grabs, he is trapped in a hug.

Lyf smiles softly. "I'm also mad at you about the shower thing."

Jonny buries his face in Lyf's chest, shaking with a silent laugh.

"I mean fuck Jonny you're from the desert don't you have common sense." Lyf scoffs feeling Jonny shake from more laughter. "I'm not taking care of your ass the next time you make yourself sick, use the fucking sand."

The room is quiet for a long time before the sound of tapping is heard. Jonny tapped out a message. "You can still ask Marius out. He's an idiot but good-hearted. This wasn't his idea, and he wouldn't be the lead by choice."

"Don't lie to me, D'ville." Lyf huffs.

"I'm not prick. I ain't gonna let ya back out, coward." Jonny silently huffs as he aggressively taps.

"Fuck you." Lyf pushes Jonny away.

Jonny silently laughs. "Suck my dick."

"You know what I'm done. Go back to being a sad asshole." Lyf hops off Jonny's bed.

Jonny smiles. "Too late bitch."

Lyf laughs.

.......

Jonny was bouncing on his heels. He was excited that he had never had the chance to do puzzles like this before. Sure, they were rusted, and these were tombs, but he could work on them without judgment. He started to whistle softly as he worked.

Lyf watched Jonny scurry off into the tombs. He followed behind, of course, and he watched in awe as Jonny went around, solving the puzzles whistling away like this was a treat. "Why here?"

Jonny froze as Lyf's voice broke through his happy haze. He rapidly begins to sign. "I ain't doing nothing."

Lyf raised a brow, confused. "It looks like you were just having fun. What did the mechs not allow you to do puzzles?"

Jonny shifted. "No... I just....I ain't good being smart. I'm more useful as a weapon." He seems to be ashamed and hesitates finishing the last puzzle.

"You don't have to be useful." Lyf struggles to make it to the same spot Jonny climbed up to. "You can do whatever you want. There isn't much stopping you."

"I miss singing." Jonny signs with a glare.

"Ok well one thing you fucker." Lyf rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying maybe if the others knew your capabilities, they would be impressed. Finish this up, and then I'm signing you up on the puzzle competition on this shit planet, and we're going to destroy them."

"I've never been in a puzzle competition before." Jonny signs before immediately finishing the puzzle. The ground begins to shake, and the loud hiss of pistons and grinding of metal filled the catacombs.

Lyf was grabbed by Jonny, so he didn't fall into gaping opening where a vast treasure lay shining like a becon. "Huh, so this planet's legends do have truth."

Jonny silently scoffs. He signs with annoyance. "I wanted more puzzles."

Jonny nods and grins, already climbing down.

"How about he take some of this treasure and buy some impossible puzzles and theories." Lyf smiles back at Jonny, who just seemed to recall money can be exchanged for goods.

........

Jonny tilted his head, watching Lyf confused. He didn't understand why he looked so upset. He taps out. "Are you ok?"

"Are you going to leave once we land?" Lyf frowns, looking out at the asteroid planet they were about to land on.

"Leave?" Jonny signs. "I'm taking you with me."

Lyf furrows his brows. "What?"

"You're my brother! Where I go you go." Jonny smiles. "I want to show you New Texas."

"You want me to stay with you?" Lyf can feel his eyes water as Jonny nods. "I.... ok! Time to settle in New Texas for however long you want."

Jonny grins.

#the mechanisms #the mechs

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insignificantmortalsshouldsuffer · 10 months

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So, crawling chaos. Any input on what’s going on in TSCT?

SPOILERS FOR THE LATEST CHAPTER OF TSCT

Oh I have so, so many thoughts. For one, why in Azathoth's name did Lyfrassir Edda refuse to become a god? How ridiculous! It does not happen to many, and yet they're ungrateful enough to try and delay it further. Even though it could help their puny friends!

And von Raum. Don't even get me started on von Raum. The insignificant little brat, so obsessed with Lyfrassir, he's-

(Here the Crawling Chaos devolves into screaming and rambling in a language that I can neither understand, nor find in Google translate. Sorry.)

#the crawling chaos tsct #the stars claim them #the crawling chaos #lyfrassir edda #baron marius von raum

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analog-cottage-gore · 11 months

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Ivy finds out a little bit more than expected.

Ships: Lyrassir/Ivy/Raphaella/Marius (tho Marius is just implied tbh)

Gace myself the challenge of "Don't use the same pronouns for Lyf twice"

While reading please invision @/reegis 's designs <3

Also @hurtmionedanger you were excited so-

Ivy was not having the best day. Or, well, couple of months really.

Both Lyf and Raph had been having near constant nightmares that Ivy couldn't soothe, and though Marius was mostly helpful, he could only do so much. The only information she had was that both were having nightmares of their families and death. So, Ivy did what she always did; took to her files to find answers for these nightmares so she could be better equipped. It always went at least somewhat well!

It wasn't going well.

Ivy was reviewing her files over and over, but coming up empty. Sure, it helped that she had her guilty pleasure playlist on, but she was still stumped. She hummed along to bubblegum bitch whilst translating old norse and copying pieces of asgardian police reports to a document full of clues.

She'd figured out that Lyfrassir wasn't a midgardian when they were back in Yggdrasil, and she'd recently gotten the information that he was half jötunn, which were normally restricted to the planet Jötunheim, however that clearly wasn't the case for her dear (ex-)inspector. So pan must have at least one partially non-Jötunn parent, which made the scope both bigger and smaller for potential family members.

Gently singing Dollhouse (one of these days she was going to cover some of these old earth songs even if Johnny complained), she finds an… interesting picture.

"D-O-L-L-H-oh, what's this?" She mutters, examining the photo.

It's distorted and damaged, but nothing she can't fix with some time. The caption reads, "Family Photoshoot Before The Trip!". It shows three people, two adults that are sloppily scribbled out, and a child. The adults are standing on either side of said child, who has the biggest and proudest grin on their face. That child is, as expected, Lyfrassir Edda. This is what Ivy thought she would find, what she hoped to find, even. But this isn't what catches her off guard.

What makes her falter is the fact that the adults are wearing Midgardian Resistance uniforms.

Now, she'd known Lyf had asgardian blood in her, xe were relatively open with the fact even in Yggdrasil, so ae being a child from the time before Odin fucked it all up with her train made sense, given asgardian life spans. But a child of the midgardian resistance? She hadn't even considered it, let alone had a percentage in place. The up-tight cop who had seemed just as pro-asgardian as the other cops (an issue Ivy and the others in jail had known would be worked past), was from the resistance. Okay. Sure.

Ivy set the photo up for restoration, to find out who Lyf's parents were, and got to looking through Raph's oldest sketches to distract herself.

There were a lot of designs for medical stuff and toys, the latter likely due to her being younger when designing them. What's interesting is that Ivy finds designs for wings. No, not wings… wing extensions, designed for underdeveloped wings, sort of mobility aid for flight, with a note in Raph's handwriting on what seems to be the finalized version;

To my father,

I feel these new designs I've made could have massive impacts on life for people with conditions like mine. I hope that you might see the same potential in my work.

Your child, Icarus.

Icarus.

Oh.

It all starts to fall into place in Ivy's mind.

Raph would wake up screaming in the middle of the night, and would immediately check to make sure her wings were there, not letting anyone touch them. Of course she wouldn't let anyone touch her wings after those nightmares. Ivy could almost see what had happened in her mind, based on what she had heard of "Icarus", now Raphaella, and the records of Raph pre-mechanization flashing through her mind.

Wing Status: Cut Off At The Top Of Back

Nine words brought far too much anger than they should have, but Ivy didn't care. If they ever got back to The City, Ivy would like to personally strangle Daedalus-

Ding

Ah. The photo was restored. Well, it'd provide a good excuse for Ivy to calm down a bit. She viewed the newly restored image and-

…

......

.........

what the fuck.

why were Loki and Sigyn there.

what.

Ivy took a few moments to process before reflecting on the past few minutes and her newest data, before concluding she really didn't want to just walk away because what the Hel-

In all honesty, maybe she should have expected this. Maybe the utter disdain in "extorting quicker tyranny to midgard", and awe for Loki and Sigyn being on the Ratatosk that was shown in Lyf's voice in the original transmission should have given it away, but fuck it if Ivy wasn't shocked by it anyway-

Well. At least she could help her partner's with nightmares now...?

#The mechanisms #Lyf and Prison Mechs

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doctorbaronmariusvonraum · 8 months

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hey, as one marius blog to another, just wondering: i know Byron (@drmvraskblog) got with his version of lyfrassir edda, and im. . . pining, and the me chatting with me in my anons hasn't even met them yet. so, what was your lyfrassir edda like? anything happen between you?

-- @doctorbarontsct

My Inspector Lyf was fun to annoy (it was almost too easy, all I had to do was pull out my violin!) and it became a game to see how quickly I could make them start blushing and stumbling over their words.. after a while I got quite good at it, and Ivy and Raphaella started placing bets on how long it would take! I’m afraid I haven’t seen them since we escaped Yggdrasil - I have no idea if they survived! What’s yours like?

#lyfrassir edda #marius.txt #asks #doctorbarontsct

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bugsinthebayou · 2 years

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🌻

the bifrost incident. any schoolchild could tell you about it. the fall of the old order; two hundred years of asgardian hubris come together in a single epoch-defining event. the maiden voyage of a train through the stars, vanished without a trace. for decades it had been old lady odin’s passion project, her long-sought legacy: shoot a locomotive through that man-made rainbow wormhole, cut the time between worlds from three months to three days. all the tests had been passed with quite literal flying colours, and the train was deemed safe. and what a train it was: gilded with gold and swirls of bismuth mosaic. every high-up, well-to-do, nose-turning asgardian hobnob was on that first trip, or risk ofin’s displeasure. so when it didn’t come out the other side.. who's left to rule?

so the chaos that ensued, no one really had a chance to see what happened to the train itself. and that’s where I come in, Inspector 2nd class lyfrassir edda, new midgard transport police. because the ratatosk express has finally arrived in midgard, 80 years late. there's nothing left, except the twisted ruin of the engine room and a couple of warped skeletons. and the black box. it’s as much a history project as a crime scene at this point, but combing through the data still comes down to me.

first recording is odin’s launching speech. almost a century ruling asgard, you’d think she’d be a better public speaker, not rambling on about the glories of her pet science project, as though exporting quicker tyranny to midgard was all she'd ever dreamed of.

(/lyrics)

#answered #/lyrics #rowan!!

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gunpowdville · 3 years

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The Great Flesh-Eating Cake Incident of Year [REDACTED] (Not to be Confused With the Bifrost Incident)

Chapters: 1/2

Words: 3502

Relationships: Drumbot Brian - Raphaella la Cognizi (queerplatonic), Gunpowder Tim/Lyfrassir Edda/Marius von Raum, The Aurora/Nastya Rasputina (although most don’t show up until the second chapter)

Other Things: genderfluid tim, she/her tim, he/fae marius :)

Summary: Brian and Raph bake a cake. Or, they try to. It doesn't exactly go well. (aka, Why Raphaella la Cognizi Should Never Be Allowed in the Kitchen)

read on ao3 here or read below the cut for people who don't like ao3 (i will post the second chapter. at some point. hopefully soon)

Chapter 1

“Try it now.”

“Is it safe?”

“Does that matter?”

Brian gives her what she calls his teacher look, a combination of calm exasperation and gentle chiding. “I would prefer to not fry myself from the inside out, if I can help it.”

“Boring,” Raphaella accuses, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “And you know I’d fix you if you did.” Well actually, she would get Nastya to fix him, as Raph herself has absolutely no self control when it comes to the prospect of tinkering with a complex mechanism and Brian hates being tinkered on without his permission.

“Yes, of course, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt like hell,” Brian points out. “Not to mention how horrendously it would fuck up my systems.”

Raphaella pouts. “So I installed the flamethrower for nothing?”

Brian hesitates. “...I didn’t say that.”

Raphaella perks up immediately, turning her full attention from the clattered worktable to her partner. Brian straightens up and faces away from her, focusing at the blank wall at one end of the lab. He pokes his tongue around the inside of his mouth a little, probing at the new addition in the back. He tests out flipping its settings, making sure everything flows smoothly, then steels himself and opens his mouth, turning it on. Nothing happens.

Raphaella throws up her hands in exasperation. “I don’t understand! That should have worked! It-”

Brian yelps suddenly, clapping his hands to his throat as the back of it heats up rapidly, too rapidly, the heat growing from gently uncomfortable to unbearable in a matter of seconds. Luckily, his systems react before he can, shutting off the new attachment the second it could cause potential harm. The heat fades almost as quickly as it had swelled.

“Ow,” Brian says mildly.

“That was about to work,” Raphaella huffs, hands on her hips, eyes fixed somewhat accusingly on Brian. “If you had just waited a moment longer.”

“It was about to melt my vocal cords,” Brian points out in retort. Raphaella throws up her hands again.

“My husband is a coward,” she declares to no one in particular, with no actual insult behind it. Brian can’t help but smile softly at the endearment. They’re not married, technically, but for all intents and purposes they might as well be.

“I’ve started to become convinced that you’re simply trying to kill me,” Brian remarks to her as she turns back to the notes on her lab table. She shoots him a brightly malicious look, one backed heavily with fondness. “Maybe I am.”

He sits down on the stool beside the lab table and reaches for her, catching her waist from behind and pulling her onto his lap. She leans back into him as he wraps his arms around her, and he rests his chin on her shoulder so he can peer down at the pages of notes in her hands.

“Here, tell me what I’m doing wrong,” Raphaella holds up the notes so Brian can get a better look at them. He hums thoughtfully as he scans her delicate sketch of his body, each part individually labelled with possible enhancements to be added in Raph’s lacy handwriting. Brian’s own handwriting, cramped and blocky, annotates the science officer’s notes with his own observations of measurements and possible difficulties.

In his mind, Brian overlays the sketch on top of the official schematics the doc left in there, focusing on his throat and the new addition, checking for anywhere where it isn’t wired properly or messing with any of his other systems. Nothing. He bites his lip, a very natural bad habit that he’s never been able to shake, despite it splitting the rubber badly. Raphaella hits him lightly in the side of the head when she notices him doing it.

“I don’t think it’s anything you’ve done,” Brian says finally, leaning back slightly on the stool. “I think it’s simply a matter of too much heat.”

Raphaella ‘hmphs’, taking her notes back from him and setting them back on the table. She turns her head to study Brian’s face, placing her hands atop his where they rest over her stomach. He quirks an eyebrow at her, and she regards him silently. He can tell that she’s thinking through what next to work on, now that their flamethrower experiment is a bust.

He gives her stomach a light pat. “If you don’t mind, I was going to go bake something. Tim’s been complaining that there aren’t enough ‘munchies’ onboard. And yes, that is the word xe used.”

Raphaella slaps a hand to her heart melodramatically, the gesture accompanied by a theatrical gasp. “Leaving me for Tim, are we? Scandal.”

Brian chuckles gently as he rises to his feet, dislodging Raph in the process. “Yes, I’ve decided you’re much too cruel and brutal for me, and I’d be much happier feeding Tim for the rest of eternity.”

Raphaella tosses her hair and turns away from him, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her chin up imperiously. “Good riddance.”

“Good riddance indeed,” Brian agrees drily, with no heat behind it. Raph glaces over her shoulder at him and grins, and he smiles back as he slips out the lab door, tipping his hat as he goes.

Ivy’s reading at the kitchen counter when he enters. She doesn’t look up as he makes his way into the kitchen proper, wrangling his hair into a wiry ponytail and tossing his hat on the counter. He peeks at the cover of her book and makes an intrigued little noise when he notices it’s about prophets and oracles throughout space and time.

“I was going to give it you when I was finished,” Ivy says without looking up. “I thought it might interest you.”

“It does,” Brian tells her, and she smirks, proud of herself. She still doesn’t take her eyes off the pages. Brian leans over, resting his elbows on the counter, and knocks his forehead briefly against hers, a somewhat awkward sign of affection that’s he’s developed with some members of the crew. She responds by patting his head absentmindedly, still not looking up from her book. He smiles, and turns back to the kitchen.

After a couple minutes of rummaging around in cabinets, Brian becomes aware of Raphaella’s presence leaning against the counter to his left.

“Missed me?” he asks teasingly. She rolls her eyes and pokes him in the arm. “You promised you’d teach me to bake.”

Brian pauses, replaying the last ten minutes in his mind to confirm that he has not, in fact, promised her this. And then he realizes that she’s referring to a time quite a few decades ago, when the two of them had been left back on the ship while the others had been out pillaging a nigh-extinct planet. They’d been sharing some pastries that Brian had been experimenting with, and Raphaella had asked him how he’d made them. He had launched straight into a detailed explanation of exactly which ingredients he had used and what amounts of each, and how he had played with the measurements and tweaked the recipe to see how he could improve it. Raph had listened with utter fascination, and after he had finished she had mentioned that it seemed a bit like her experiments, only with slightly different materials. He had offered to teach her a little, if she’d like, and she had said she would love to learn. And now here they are.

“I did do that, didn’t I,” Brian muses. He studies Raph, leaning against the counter, a sparkle in her eyes that both makes him excited to see what she has in store and fear for his life.

“So?” Raphaella raises an eyebrow. Brian considers.

“We are making a cake,” he tells her, keeping his voice slow, steady, and serious. “A basic cake. We are not going to put anything in it that is not on the ingredients list. We are going to follow the recipe. To the letter. And we are not, I repeat, we are not going to burn down my kitchen.”

My kitchen, Aurora corrects him gently.

“Our kitchen,” he concedes.

Raphaella steps forward and takes Brian’s hands, looking him solemnly in the eyes. “I won’t let you down,” she promises. “Trust me.”

“Phee, I love you to death, and I always will” Brian tells her, lifting her hand to his mouth and kissing the back of it. “But I draw the line at trusting you.”

“Rude,” Raph sniffs, while Ivy tries to cover up a snort.

“Practical,” Brian shoots back, letting go of her hands and reaching past her to pluck the recipe from the counter. With a flourish, he deposits it in her hands. “Find me these ingredients.”

Raphaella mutters something about ‘bossybitch Brian’ as she turns away from him and marches purposefully toward the cupboards. He watches her fondly for a moment, before busying himself gathering pans and setting up his beloved electric mixer, something he’d found being sold for scraps on a junkyard planet and had lovingly repaired and repainted with his own two hands. Its name is Small Brian, and it remains one of his most prized possessions.

“Bri, which eggs are we using?” Raphaella calls to him, her head buried deep in the disorganized fridge. Brian abandons Small Brian for just a moment and pokes his head in beside hers.

“Ah, not those,” he says, indicating a half dozen of jet-black eggs glowing faintly from within. “Those are Ashes’. They will supposedly hatch into a rare breed of fire-breathing corvid.”

“And those?” Raphaella points to the other carton of eggs.

“We’re using those,” Brian confirms, pulling the carton out. “Ah. Wait. Not this one.” Carefully, he removes a small, round, green orb from the carton and places it gently on the counter. “An octokitten laid this. We think.”

Raphaella leans over and picks it up, holding it in the palm of her hand and bringing it up close to her eyes. She looks suspiciously like she’s about to slip it into her pocket, so Brian plucks it from her hands before she gets a chance to. She sticks her tongue out at him. He waves her off to go collect the rest of the ingredients, reminding her that the lovely ceramic pot labeled ‘sugar’ is in fact actually filled with gunpowder, and the sugar is in the cabinet to its right. Meanwhile he goes back to fussing over Small Brian.

The mixer isn’t starting up properly, it keeps stuttering and stopping whenever he tries to turn it on. Brian frowns, tapping the top of it with a metal finger. “Come on, love,” he says softly to Small Brian. “Don’t give up on me now. Not after all we’ve been through.”

“Raph,” Ivy speaks up from her place at the counter, her tone amused. “Brian’s talking to the appliances again.”

“If either of you make a joke comparing me to an appliance, I will kill you,” Brian warns both of them placidly, fiddling with Small Brian’s mechanisms until the machine whines and starts up properly. “Good lad,” Brian says, patting the appliance lovingly.

“I saw that,” he adds when he catches the look Ivy and Raphaella share over the counter. Raphaella rolls her eyes and gestures to him to come approve the ingredients she’s gathered. She hooks her arm through his and tips her head onto his shoulder while he checks each one off against the recipe.

“Excellent, that’s everything. Thank you.” he says, kissing her on the top of the head. “ Now we can begin.”

Raphaella, as always, is a very attentive student, listening well and asking questions when necessary. He suspects that she asks some of the questions just to listen to him talk about something he loves, and he adores her for it. They work very well together, the two of them, bantering back and forth as they do. Ivy chimes in on occasion, never taking her eyes off of her book.

Jonny strolls into the kitchen at one point, zeroing in on the chocolate chips scattered across the counter with a predator’s precision. As soon as he spots the first mate, Brian sweeps a knife into his hand and points it at him. “Out.”

Jonny backs away, throwing his hands up in surrender. He’s been killed enough times over messing around in the kitchen that he knows by now that the best thing to do is back off.

All in all, it’s a shockingly peaceful time. Brian hums to himself as he stirs ingredients together, and Raphaella goes through the cupboards, looking for something to play with. She reaches to open one in the back, and Brian notices too late which one it is. Raphaella stops, tilting her head in curiosity as she stares at the contents of the cupboard.

“Oh, Briiiiiiiiaaan?” she calls in a singsong voice, which is usually a sign that Brian is about to either be taken apart or assist in taking apart someone else. “What is this?”

Brian sighs and sets down the bowl, making his way slowly over to her. She raises an eyebrow at him as he gazes silently for a moment at the dismantled skeleton shoved into the back of the cupboard. “Those… are my bones.”

“Your… bones.”

“My bones.”

“Why…?”

Brian shrugs. “It’s not like I’m using them.”

“Right.” Raphaella studies the skeleton for a moment longer, before declaring, “I’m going to make soup out of them.”

Brian starts. “I’m sorry?”

“Your bones. I’m going to make soup out of them.”

“You are not.”

“Bone broth is a thing, isn’t it? Ivy?”

“It is,” Ivy confirms, casually turning a page.

Raphaella grins, gathering the bones into her arms. “Brian soup.”

“Brian s- no!”

“Brian soup Brian soup Brian soup Brian soup-”

“NO.”

“I thought the doc took your bones,” Ivy mentions, as Brian attempts to gently cajole his partner into giving him back said bones.

“I asked her to let me keep some of them,” Brian explains, tugging a rib out of Raph’s arms and dislodging about three more, which clatter to the floor unceremoniously. “They are mine, after all.”

“It’s unusually sentimental of me, I know,” he adds as Raphaella ducks under his arm, executing a perfect twirl to get the bones out of his reach, “I’m not quite sure why I wanted them.”

“For soup,” Raphaella quips, and Ivy snorts as Brian throws himself at the science officer. Raph yelps and scrambles away from him, and so begins an epic chase around the kitchen, Raph struggling to run away while clutching an armful of bones, the owner of said bones following a step behind her, playfully angry.

Brian doesn’t realize he’s started humming to himself until Raphaella turns to face him, jogging backwards, and asks what song it is.

“It’s a new one I’m working on,” he says, using her moment of distraction as an opportunity to trap her in the kitchen, the wraparound counter devoid of exits besides the one that he is currently standing in front of. “It’s called ‘Raphaella Please Don’t Make Soup Out of My Bones.’”

“I hate it,” Raphaella decides, still backing away. She’s almost hit the counter, and Brian smirks at his inevitable victory.

“You’ve barely heard it,” he argues, and begins humming louder. Raphaella’s back hits the counter, and Brian stops. Standing in the middle of the kitchen, he begins tapping his foot along to the tune.

“Oh, no you don’t,” Raphaella starts, but the other foot has already begun to move as well. Just tapping at first, tap tap tapping to a beat in Brian’s head, but the footwork quickly becomes more and more complicated as he eases into the song. Ivy picks it up quickly and starts tapping her fingers on the counter, taking charge of the beat while Brian continues humming the melody.

Raphaella shakes her head, refusing to let his shenanigans charm her, but Brian refuses to give up. He dances his way smoothly across the floor to her, finishing with an elegant twirl and an extended hand. Raphaella regards him with reluctant defeat, then rolls her eyes and takes Brian’s hand.

He waltzes her out into the middle of the floor, two steps forward, one step back. He spins her out, then spins her back in so they’re swaying with her back pressed to his chest. “You’re a master manipulator, you know,” she says to him. He smiles. She twirls him out, then twirls him back in and dips him, effortlessly holding up his mass of metal.

“I don’t remember this step of the cake recipe,” Ivy comments drily. She’s finally looking up from her book and is watching the two of them with an expression that is equal parts exasperated and amused.

“Which step, the bone soup or the dancing?” Brian returns, just as dry. Ivy is saved from having to respond by the arrival of Marius, who comes striding through the door like an invading general, arms spread wide in greeting.

“Well, if it isn’t my three favorite delinquents,” fae says, grinning like a maniac. “Dancing in the kitchen like- wait. Why is Raph in the kitchen?”

“I’m helping,” Raph says proudly, tossing her hair over her shoulder in a decidedly smug fashion as Brian collects his bones and returns them to their cupboard. “How can we help you?”

Marius pulls up a stool and takes a seat next to Ivy, scanning the pages of her book idly. “Tim stole my partner.”

“To be fair, Tim is also dating your partner,” Brian points out, handing the bowl of cake batter to Raph to finish stirring and put in the oven.

“Sure, but she’s being smug about it. So I’m pouting,” Marius replies, metal fingers tapping on the counter. “Oh, also: Tim wanted me to tell you. She/her for the time being.”

Brian nods, taking note of the pronouns. “Well, when you feel like speaking to Tim again, you can tell her that a cake is on its way.”

Marius raises an eyebrow. “You mean that cake that Raph just slipped something into behind your back?”

Honestly, Brian is surprised that this didn’t happen earlier. Slowly, he turns to Raphaella, who meets his eyes with a mischievous smirk as she slips an empty vial back into her pocket.

“What was in that?” he asks gently, not mad, just curious.

“Just a little something I whipped up,” Raphaella says, giving the batter an experimental stir. An odd squelching noise escapes from the bowl, and she quickly lets go of the wooden spoon as a dark tendril of… something curls up around it, possessive and hungry. “Oh. That’s interesting.”

“What the fuck was that?” Marius leans forward over the counter, curiosity evident on faer features.

Raphaella sets the bowl carefully on the floor and steps away from it, circling around it to Brian’s side. He gives her a questioning look, and she shrugs cheerfully, indicating that she has no idea whatsoever the effect of whatever she put in may be. With somewhat tired resignation, Brian steps forward to investigate what has become of his simple chocolate cake.

It’s… alive. The dark, viscous substance in the bowl has begun to writhe and bubble in a distinctively sentient manner, tendrils forming reaching out, looking to grab hold of something. The tendrils feel their way around tentatively, like a newborn animal learning to walk for the first time. The substance itself has an oddly familiar shimmer to it, the nearly oil-black surface revealing colors of every hue and nature when the light hits it.

“That looks like…” Marius frowns, clambering over the counter and dropping next to Brian as what was meant to be a cake slowly drags itself out of the bowl and onto the floor. “Oh, Raph, you didn’t!”

“Don’t touch it,” Brian advises as Marius crouches near the thing to get a better look.

Marius gives the Drumbot a scathing look. “I’m not a moron, Brian, I’m not going to-”

“Mare, get back,” Brian snaps, but it’s too late. The crawling blob has already reached the violinists foot and has clamped on tightly, wrapping its tentacles up and around his leg. He stares down at it in mild concern for a moment, then says: “Fuck.”

What happens next is hard to describe. The viscous thing sort of… stretches itself, until it covers Marius’ entire body, undulating and pulsing, then collapses in on itself, returning to its smaller form, leaving nothing but a slightly steaming metal arm left where the ship’s doctor once stood.

“What the hell did you do?” Brian demands, staring at the (now slightly larger) creation as it drags its way across the floor.

Raphaella doesn’t respond. “I think it ate faer,” she says instead. Then, “where is it going?”

Brian glances at the floor just in time to see the thing disappear into the vents. He lets out a cry, but it is much to late. It’s gone.

“Well,” Ivy says, staring with vague concern at the open vent. “Fuck.”

#fic #my fic #mechs fic #formatting like this bc there are some people i know who might want to read it who don't like ao3 #drumbot brian #raphaella la cognizi #marius von raum #gunpowder tim #ivy alexandria #my writing #long post #very long post

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mornyavie · 4 years

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Glossary of references in The Bifrost Incident

It’s Very Long and yet also not really complete. If there are any questions / clarifications I can add, or I’ve messed anything up and need to fix it, let me know!

The tl;dr is that nearly every word in the album draws from either Norse mythology or the Lovecraft / Cthulhu mythos, directly or indirectly.

@moony221b here’s that glossary that I promised forever and a day ago.

Edit: I decided to create this document of annotations (x). Lyrics taken from Genius; I’m not totally sure how accurate they are, but hopefully they help get the point across! Again, questions and complaints both welcome.

Arcomba

I can’t find anything on this, would be interested if someone knows.

Asgard

One of the Nine Worlds, specifically the one where most of the Æsir (the subset of gods most associated with humans, including the well-known ones like Thor and Odin) live.

Thus Asgard is the planet on which the most powerful inhabitants of the Yggdrasil system, and those named after the gods, are found (though the subjugation / colonization relationship does not exist in myth).

Azathoth

This one’s from Lovecraft; Azathoth is the greatest of the Outer Gods, often served and worshiped by other gods themselves. Often described as mad, a demon, a sultan, or putting it all together as the Mad Demon Sultan. Resides at “the center of the universe,” where he appears as some sort of vast, amorphous, bubbling, roiling mass of “nuclear chaos.” (Nuclear probably refers to center, not nuclear power, which didn’t really exist when this was written). Servants about him play drums and flutes.

Mentioned briefly as the train travels through the Bifrost and into his realm, and a lot of the narration in those few verses draws directly from Lovecraft’s descriptions.

Baldur

The god of light and beloved by all, Baldr was killed by Loki in his final betrayal of the gods. After the murder Loki was tracked down and imprisoned, and will escape at the start of Ragnarok. In particular, Loki used a spear made of mistletoe... or, in the album, missile two. And tricked another god into throwing it, which I think is mimicked in the distance and impersonality of the crime. Look up more of his story if you want, it’s interesting and important, but that’s the relevant info here.

Bifrost

The rainbow bridge that the gods use to travel between worlds.

Which is, of course, directly analogous to the wormhole-ish extradimensional-ish space of “shifting, undulating hues” through which the train travels.

Edda

The Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda are the names given to two pieces of literature that are most people’s main source for Norse mythology. The Prose Edda was written by Snorri Sturluson around 1200 to teach his (mostly Christian) contemporaries about the mythology and mythological references that made up a big chunk of Norse literature. The Poetic Edda is a set of poems that serve as a major source for Norse tales.

This is partially just a way to connect our hero Lyfrassir Edda to the Norse traditions, but also definitely a reference to their (presumed) role as the main “recorder” and source of information to get out of the Yggdrasil system.

Fate

Honestly the way the Mechanisms deal with fate in general is very interesting and arguably sometimes quite Nordic... but in particular, Bifrost Incident references fate or destiny a number of times and features a number of situations where the outcome is fixed and can’t be changed, but you have to fight anyways: “Killing me won’t save your world” “I don’t care” or how Loki and Sigyn can’t stop the train, but can only delay it. A lot of Norse tragedy revolves around people heading into battle knowing that they’re doomed and fighting anyways, or around the cycle of conflict that marked the cultural requirements for avenging insults. And the myth cycle is notable for the fact that the gods know, explicitly, exactly what Ragnarok is, what’s going to happen, and how they’re going to die, but will fight in it anyways.

Inevitability and helplessness in the face of what you can’t possibly understand, let alone fight, which is a depiction slightly sideways of the Nordic version, are very Lovecraftian themes.

Fenrir

A wolf, child of Loki and father of Skoll and Hati, who was chained by the gods (particularly by Tyr, who placed his hand in the wolf’s mouth as “hostage” to assure him they would unchain him later, and lost the hand). He will break free at Ragnarok to join the battle against them and kill Odin.

With his association with monsters and with Loki, it’s fairly clear why he was aligned with the resistance movement. He’s serving “five life sentences” as a reference to his being chained, and the whole motif of the train’s journey being hijacked for a prison break certainly references the various characters who will be freed or break free as Ragnarok begins.

Frey

The brief reference of Frey being killed by the raging fire of the sun, with “no weapon, no defense,” is a direct translation of the god’s role in Ragnarok, when he will be killed by Surtr. Frey gave away his sword for the opportunity to woo his eventual wife, and so will be armed only with a stag’s antlers in his final combat. Also called Freyr.

Freya (“weeps tears of red-gold”)

Like her brother Frey (and yeah, these names get confusing), Freya is associated with harvest and fertility, though unlike him she also gets battle. In the song she weeps red-gold tears at the death of her husband Odr, which in myth she is said to do when her husband is absent. Also called Freyja.

Garm

Garm is another wolf, who guards Hel’s gates. He also breaks free at Ragnarok, and his howling heralds its coming. As in the album, he will fight and kill Tyr. Also called Garmr.

Hati

There’s a lot of wolves in Norse mythology. This one is a child of Fenrir. He chases the moon across the sky, and will swallow it when Ragnarok comes.

Mentioned briefly only as one of the resistance members on the train.

Heimdall

Heimdall is the watchman of the gods, with keen eyes and foresight, and guards the Bifrost as the entrance to Asgard. He will blow his horn to summon the gods to the final battle during Ragnarok, and he and Loki will kill one another. Also called Heimdallr; you’re probably noticing a pattern. It’s a grammar thing.

Mentioned as guarding the train and “doing his part.” His dying screams initiate the train’s destruction and echo throughout it, which presumably recalls the horn thing.

Hel

Another daughter of Loki, and, as the name will imply to English speakers, a guardian of the dead. She refuses to give Baldur back to the world of the living after Loki kills him. Also the name of the realm in which she resides, and to which go those who die of disease or old age. Doesn’t necessarily have the same bad-punishment connotation as modern Hell. I don’t know whether there’s any indication of what she herself is doing in Ragnarok, but many of her people and associates are certainly fighting against the gods, and I’m fairly certain the ship Naglfar, which carries Loki and his allies to Ragnarok, sets sail from Hel.

Hel as a prison colony clearly references the various characters the gods have chained or otherwise imprisoned (though, in myth, not all within Hel) as well as her alignment with “other side” during Ragnarok, and the jailbreak the resistance members are planning recalls the breaking of all these bonds as Ragnarok begins.

Hoddmimis

The woods in which Líf and Lífþrasir (see Lyfrassir) will shelter to survive Ragnarok and the various disasters accompanying it.

So, good news! We can be marginally assured of Lyfrassir’s survival after taking shelter at the mining-colony of Hoddmimis.

Jormungandr

The world serpent, which lives in the seas and encircles the earth. Will arise during Ragnarok, causing great floods, and fight Thor; Thor will slay the serpent, but in turn the serpent’s poison will cause his death, after he staggers “nine steps back.”

Thor’s fight with Odin-turned-serpent is pretty clearly analogous to this, especially the taking nine steps to the window before destroying it with his hammer, resulting in both their deaths. I don’t think there’s any mythological basis to Odin turning into the serpent, though

Kvasir (“blood drained out”)

Kvasir was a very wise man/god and the originator of poetry. I’m leaving out a fair amount of his birth and life; the important information here is that two dwarves who were jealous of his knowledge tricked him, killed him, drained his blood, and mixed it with honey to make mead. Any who drank of the mead gained the gift of poetry / scholarship; eventually the gods stole it.

I’m not sure if there’s a reason they decided to specifically describe him as a resistance member, but there’s a clear parallel in Kvasir’s blood being drained and used to power the train, especially with the language of glyphs and sigils providing power.

Loki

Ah, Loki. Male in the general canon, though not without genderbending (he turns into a mare and gives birth to Fenrir, Hel, and Jormungandr, for instance). Inasmuch as the Norse myths we have can be organized into a “chronology,” you could do it (in my opinion) along Loki’s path from a mostly benevolent trickster god whose antics occasionally cause trouble to a genuinely malevolent figure. Associated with wit, magic, and trickery. Despite how modern lore (I suspect influenced by Marvel) often portrays Thor and Loki as brothers and children of Odin, in the myth Loki and Odin are bonded as blood-brothers. But Loki also often appears alongside Thor. As mentioned, parent of three of the main figures of Ragnarok. In the “final” myth, he jealously arranges the death of the god Baldr, who was loved by all; then he appears at a feast, where he exchanges insults with the other gods. This is the last straw; they capture him and chain him to a stone, over which they tie a serpent. Venom drips from the serpent’s fangs, causing him great agony. His wife Sigyn stays by his side, catching the venom in a bowl, but when she is forced to leave for a moment to dump it out his thrashing causes earthquakes. He will break free at the start of Ragnarok and sail to Asgard, where he and Heimdall will kill each other.

Hopefully that’s enough to give you a good background for Loki’s role in the album... it’s pretty clear why she’s framed as the opposition to the gods and the “leader” of the resistance movement, as a call to her role in Ragnarok. Her association with magic and trickery make sense for her being the “expert” in the twisted Lovecraftian “science” that produces the train. It also parallels her role in myth; her actions often get the gods into trouble, but they just as often need her wit and knowledge to get them out of it, as Odin needs her knowledge despite her taking action to destroy the train. And the setup at the end - drip, drip, drip, her face twisted in pain, her wife beside her, her “release” heralding the end of the world - precisely echoes the language of her bondage in myth; though her mind-destroying imprisonment by Odin also invokes this.

Lovecraft(ian)

A highly influential horror writer from the early 20th century. He’s largely credited with the creation of the creation of the “cosmic horror” genre, a type of horror which emphasises a vast, unknowable, uncaring universe against which we cannot hope to even begin to fight. His ideas and the gods / demons / creatures he created form the basis of the “Cthulhu mythos” or even “Lovecraft mythos,” which today is a sort of standard set of assumptions on which writers can build. Lovecraftian themes of apocalypse, inevitability, and powerlessness are highly prevalent in the album. Several of the gods in this mythos are used; in particular, Yog-Sothoth (see below). Also, a lot of the general description (madness, roiling chaos, undulating colors) draws from his distinctive vocabulary that remains staple of the genre. It’s worth noting that Lovecraft was a horrible and very racist person, but the genre today is widely used by people who are not terrible.

Lyfrassir

Líf and Lífþrasir in Norse mythology are the two humans who will survive Ragnarok and rebuild humanity; a hopeful sign for our album’s protagonist!

Midgard

In Norse mythology, the “middle” world where humans live. Earth.

Nagthrod

I don’t know this one.

@acorn-mushroom pointed out that it may be a mis-transcription of Naglfar, the name of the (ocean) ship which will carry Loki and his followers from the shores of Hel to the battlefield at Ragnarok. It’s made of dead men’s nails.

Odin

The king of the gods in Norse mythology. As the god of both wisdom and madness, Odin’s role in the album as a researcher and technological ruler whose discoveries drive her slowly mad is both very Lovecraftian and a reasonable leap. I could say a lot about the figure of Odin, but I think this character is one of the most divergent from the myth, in detail if not in role.

Odr

Óðr is Freya’s husband.

Outer gods

A Lovecraft thing referring to several of the most horrible and powerful gods, including Yog-Sothoth.

Ragnarok

The apocalypse, basically, in Norse mythology. Proceeded by various catastrophes, especially a very long winter, mentioned in the album, culminating in a great battle between the gods and their enemies, and resulting in the death of the majority of gods and other creatures of the world.

Ratatosk

A squirrel who runs up and down Yggdrasil, carrying messages between some of the tree’s other inhabitants and sowing discord. The Ratatosk Express links the worlds of the Yggdrasil System, and causes “discord” in the resistance’s opposition to it.

Sigyn

Loki’s wife. See Loki for her role in his imprisonment.

Skoll

Sköll in Norse mythology is the wolf that chases and will someday eat the sun. Association with Fenrir (another wolf) and other monsters motivates his inclusion in the list of resistance members.

Thor

A Norse god, associated with war, lightning/thunder, strength, and in general sort of... common people, as opposed to Odin’s association with kings and royalty. Prone to anger, which makes sense with his depiction as a volatile military leader in the album. He is heavily associated with his hammer mjölnir, hence jokes about “throwing a hammer in the works” and whatnot. Often associates with Loki, both as friends and as enemies as Loki progresses from a mostly-harmless trickster to actively opposing the other gods; thus how in the album he and Loki were once friends. See above for his death fighting Jormungandr.

Tyr

Another Norse god associated with war. He sacrificed a hand to bind Fenrir, and will be killed by Garmr during Ragnarok, both events referenced in the album.

Yggdrasil

The world-tree of Norse mythology, which supports the nine worlds of the cosmology.

Yog-Sothoth

An Outer God of Lovecraftian mythos; also called the Gate and Key. It is associated as sort of the substance of time and space, binding together the cosmos. A lot of the description during the Ragnarok sequences draws directly from the “canonical” descriptions of this deity, and the invocation spoken by Lyfrassir in Red Signal draws from a story about this creature, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.

#the mechanisms #the bifrost incident #information #references #thoughts #norse mythology

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vikingqueer · 3 years

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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

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lucky-sevens · 4 years

Text

on the dttm narrator

death to the mechanisms is not, as assumed, narrated by jonny d’ville, and it’s likely it was narrated by lyfrassir edda.

rest under the cut- warning for dttm spoilers.

death to the mechanisms is narrated in third person. saying ‘jonny sims’ to refer to the narrator for convenience; jonny sims describes d’ville’s own death in third person. taking the quote, ‘jonny will die in a bar fight on some nameless backwater asteroid. after countless lifetimes, carving through every sensation that is possible to feel, he is stabbed, clean through the heart, and this time, it sticks. when he realizes what is happening, he laughs for the first time in a millennia. witnesses will say that they have never seen someone so viciously excited to die.’, it in general sounds like an outsider point of view and it sounds like whoever is narrating it talked to people afterwards. this is further supported by maki yamazaki, carmilla’s performer, pointing out the narrator on the mechanisms discord.

despite her implying that carmilla was present during the mechanisms’ deaths (and hinting that raphaella choosing to go into a black hole was a lie), maki has confirmed that the narrator was not carmilla- so that leaves the question of who it is.

it would have to be someone long-lived enough to be present for all the deaths. the confirmed immortals we have in the mechanisms universe are the olympians, the mechanisms, carmilla, and loreli; the potential mechanisms are also candidates as unconfirmed immortals, adding scuzz, drumbot beta, and the angel to the list. however, the mechanisms are immediately ruled out as all their deaths are given (with the exception of nastya, but that will be addressed later). it makes no sense for the olympians to do so, and they likely perished in the destruction of the city. carmilla has already been clarified as not the narrator. it also wouldn’t make much sense for loreli to narrate death to the mechanisms, and there’s something else going on with her that we’ll likely learn in the upcoming trilogy of albums. as a rule, if the character has a performer that’s not jonny sims, i’m ruling them out, assuming if they really wanted the character to make an appearance they could have potentially arranged something with that performer; taking out all the potential mechanisms as candidates.

however, there is a mechanisms character that is not jonny d’ville played by jonny sims. it is here i point you to my meta on an immortal lyfrassir edda. this explanation of why jonny sims would play the narrator immediately makes it far more likely that lyfrassir is the narrator.

making this assumption (which it’s important to note may be contradicted by further lore), the fact that the narrator speaks like they are part of the mechanisms (see: the use of ‘we’) implies that lyfrassir joined the crew. the only use of a singular first person pronoun is ‘by my watch, at least’; lyfrassir was present for marius’ death, and timed it. a close analysis of the deathsong could also help with notes on their pattern of speech and feelings towards the other members of the crew.

in conclusion, lyfrassir is the most likely candidate we have for a dttm narrator, and that implies they joined the mechanisms.

#lyfrassir edda #the mechs #the mechanisms #death to the mechanisms #my posts #meta

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regicidal-defenestration · 4 years

Note

Please tell me more about the mechsworld (discanisms?) Fic ideas

GLADLY

Under a readmore because it got ~long~ fdhfd

So this is split into three parts because unfortunately that’s the kind of person I am dfjghgj

Mechs + Death

According to Ao3’s word count, I have exactly 7306 thoughts on what would happen if the Mechanisms met Death (you know. The skeleton)

Because the thing is, Death (capital D) understands death (lower case d) perfectly well. He understands the process of life ending, he understands you go one way and only one way. After all, he’s got plenty of experience.

But! All of a sudden you’ve got this crew of eight people who definitely don’t stay dead like they should, plus the Toy Soldier, who’s a different deal entirely jdfghj

Now this doesn’t lead on to my next point really, but I’m moving on anway!

Death is a creature of belief, and so doesn’t obey the laws of physics as regular people. My favourite example of this is the Poker, which goes right through him, but does hit Teatime. Who else do we know that is powered by Belief (well. Narrative reasons (well. nanobots (well. Whatever fits best at the time)))

The Mechs!

All of them (Mechs and skeleton both) are powered by the story, and that is an incredibly interesting alley to explore

Also it’s fun to write situations where Death is inconvenienced .

Must there be “plot”? Is it not enough to imagine the Luggage, running full pelt towards you, the Toy Soldier riding on it’s back?

As the title kinda suggests, I have a bunch of ideas that aren’t full plots (and will likely never be because sometimes ideas just stay Ideas) but are fun to imagine

Ashes O’Reilly and Moist von Lipwig. If ever they started working together, basically you’d be fucked sdfgjhjk

They’d be terrifying at swindling, quite frankly, and if you compare their ability at maths and the like to that of the average Anhk-Morporkian well- it’s hardly a challenge at all

Of course, Ashes may well just take over the Post Office like they did the Acheron and all power to them!

Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson and Jonny d’Ville!

Jonny is the absolute opposite of Carrot in every conceivable way. Carrot wouldn’t hesitate to put him in jail as soon as he physically could and if Jonny thought it’d be funny to cause more problems inside rather than outside of jail he’d let himself be captured. They would not get along

Except

Except if they dealt with children

Carrot “organised the most deadly gangs of kids on the streets and got the to play football without fatalities” Ironfoundersson and Jonny “read to kids in a hospital (and only shot the annpying ones!)” d’Ville would find a grugding sort of respect there

Carrot would be explaining the rules of some game, and the kids would listen because it’s Carrot and you can’t not (and also stood behind him is Jonny and more accurately Jonny’s gun)

Speaking Susan Sto Helit into existence because I love her

Idk she meets the Toy Soldier in Biers

TBI (Discworld Flavour)

So this is much more involved than everything mentioned previously, where I just took characters and moved them around as needed. This is something I very much want to write, and am in the process of planning and, more specifically, finding explanations for a few Fairly Large Plot Points that at the moment I’m kinda hand waving away dfhghjk

TBI (Discworld Flavour) is basically me thinking “hey. What if I rewrote TBI but set it on the Disc, and went from there”

Inspector Second Class Lyfrassir Edda doesn’t exist as a single character (apologies to the Lyf fans who’ve read this far fdghjk). Instead, I think it’d work to split their role across a range of characters, namely Vetinari (and a newspaper) for the narration parts, and the City Watch (specifically Sam Vimes, Fred Colon and Nobby Nobbs) for dealing with Raphaella, Marius and Ivy in prison (those three remain unchanged, because the other three, Vimes especially, would have one hell of a time trying to deal with them)

Odin is a wizard (because, with all respect to Sir Terry Practchett, this is My Town now and wizardry and witchcraft aren’t gender specific (which he did get at, in Equal Rites, but over 41 books there wasn’t much deviation from Male Wizard Female Witch (also non-binary people exist!)). Also Many more people aren’t straight). She’s head of a project to run a train from Anhk-Morpork to the Hub in three hours rather than three days. Naturally, this involves lots of magic, and this magic attracts the attention of Things from the Dungeon Dimensions (which, like Yog-Sothoth are heavily inspired by the whole eldritch Lovecraft stuff, so that all fits nicely) Another thing that fits nicely is the fact that they can “infect” wizards (hence Odin), and also they really Cannot survive long in this world, whch gives a nice way to end this thing

No Asgard, so instead the passengers on the train are the staff of the Unseen University (yes, even the Librarian) Of course, they won’t die in this one, but the Bursar has a gloopy Thing land on his face after the Lecturer in Recent Runes booted it across the traincar so not much difference (/j) dfhfd

Loki, Thor, Sigyn and possibly Kvasir (though they also may not exist as a character, and instead be a name for the engine) are all UU students (hence why the passengers don’t care for them) They are the ones that Do Things, and likely study in the High Energy Magic building, so are actually qualified to deal with this sort of shit

Then: shit happens! Odin dies, Loki Thor Sigyn die and meet Death and have some sort of ConversationTM about the power of stories. It’s all very touching

Obviously, the Disc doesn’t get destroyed - the Things get driven back. Ivy, Marius and Raphaells do still escape, of course, and, in the immortal words of everyone’s favourite human(?) Nobby, Mr Vimes goes spare

#god this. this is so long dfgjhjsk #the mechanisms #discworld #Anonymous

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the-kestrels-feather · 5 years

Text

Mechanisms album characters as John Mulaney Quotes

King Cole: "He looked like he should be the conductor on a locomotive powered by confetti. But, instead, he made his living in murder."

Rose: "Some people give off a vibe of… Right away, they’re like, “Do not fuck with me.”

Cinders: "My wife is a bitch and I like her so much."

Snow: “Brush your teeth. Now, boom, orange juice. That’s life.”

The Three Little Pigs: "Hey, do you want me to kill that guy for you?"

Arthur:"My dad loved us. He just didn’t care about our general happiness or self-esteem."

Lancelot: "I would drink too much and I would black out and I would 'ruin parties'."

Guinevere:"They would shoot their names into the side of the bank. What, were bullets free back then?"

Morded: "Ah, none of us really know our fathers. Anyway..."

Gawain: "You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair."

Galahad: "I'll take your advice, friend I've never listened to before."

Ulysses: "They were a person most acquainted with misery."

Heracles: "Y'know how I'm filled with rage?"

Ariadne: "I used to think how could a person kill another person? How could a human being kill another human being? And then I got cheated on and I was like 'Oh, okay...'"

Orpheus:"I was just Shiny and dumb and easy to trick."

Daedalus: "This guy is either like... 40 or 80."

Thor: 'I'm so horny and angry all the time, and I have no outlet for it."

Odin:“And what did you do?” “Nothing. I was over on the bench.”

Loki: "Like any story anyone says about you might be true and even you don’t know by the end."

Sigyn: “FUCK DA POLICE! FUCK DA POLICE!”

Lyfrassir Edda: "You ever have one of those days where you're like 'this might as well happen'?"

Alice: "You’re a 22-year-old temp, and you’re so hungover, and you just wanna die every day. And then that happens in front of you, and I don’t know, gives you hope?"

Hatter and Hare: "Percentage-wise, it is 100% easier not to do things than to do them. And so much fun not to do them! Especially when you are supposed to do them."

Queen of Hearts:“Nooooo! In fact, we’re gonna frame you for murder! And you’re gonna go to jail for 30 years!”

The General: "When I was arrested with a one-hitter at a Rusted Root concert, I did not serve hard time. I think I got an award."

#the mechanisms #ulysses dies at dawn #high noon over camelot #conce upon a time (in space)#tales to be told vol. 2 #john mulaney

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gunpowdville · 3 years

Text

The Void is Screaming Mad (And You Are the Void)

words: 1853

Content warnings: dissociation, cosmic horror (ish), non-linear narrative, eldritch shit, uhh it's very trippy

Summary: The void is screaming mad. You are the void, and you are screaming. (aka i was playing around with feral eldritch lyf and somehow this happened. i'm not really sure how to describe it)

read on ao3 here

or read here under the cut. Feral Eldritch Lyf Rights babey :)

The void is screaming mad.

You are the void, and you are screaming. No one can hear you, but do you care? No. You haven’t cared in a long time. You haven’t anything in a long time. You haven’t. You aren’t. You can’t…

What you are and are not is the same, and what you’ve been is all that you will be. What you want is what you have, and what you’ve never had is what you want. You are nothing. You are everything. And you are screaming.

You don’t know how long you’ve been screaming for. Time isn’t something you experience anymore, if it ever was to begin with. Are you still screaming? When did you start? You don’t remember choosing to scream. You don’t remember. You don’t…

You didn’t choose this. It didn’t choose you. You chose each other. You never had a choice. You chose this.

You were always this. You were never this. You are this. You don’t want this.

You were. You were not. You are. You are not. What are you?

Can you hear the screaming? Do you know what it means? No.. it’s you that is screaming, isn’t it? It’s always been you. Or is it the you that you were, the you that you’ve never been? No… that you is not you. You are not you. You are.. you are screaming.

You are screaming, and you are burning. It’s in your veins, it’s in your mind, it’s all that you are and never will be again. It’s tearing you apart, making you whole, scattering your pieces across reality as it births you anew. You are alive. You have never lived. You will never die.

And yet… you did die, didn’t you? Or perhaps you’re thinking of the world you killed… No. Not you. The you that you are not. The you that was you that was not you that will be you that is undeniably you. Not you.

Lyfrassir, Lyfrassir, Lyfrassir. The name. Your name. Your name? A name. Someone’s name. What are you doing with it? You should give it back to them. They will miss it.

Edda. A story. You like stories. You hate stories. You are a story. You’ve never heard a story. What is a story? Everything is a story. The book is lying open, there are tales to be told…

You know that. What is that? A song? A song. The only song. A voice.. His voice. Your voice. No one’s voice. His voice.

He told you stories. He was stories. He was made of them, and he made them up. He wasn’t real. He was the only thing that was real.

No. He can’t have been real. If he was real he would have saved you. He didn’t save you.

You are damned. You are damnation. You are beyond saving. You want to be saved. You can’t. You are salvation. You are, you are, you are…

You are screaming. You are singing. You are a song. You are a scream. You are no sound at all.

It’s so loud where you are. All the voices, all the songs. You can’t hear them. They are all you can hear.

You don’t know who they are, but you know why they scream. And you scream with them. You sing for them, and they sing for you. And yet neither of you make a sound.

You wonder if you are missed. You know you are not. There is no one left to miss you. You never were. You only are. Who could miss what was not? No, that’s not quite right… who was not? Are you a who? Are you a what, an it, a who, a not, an is, a where, a when, or a why? Or are you none of the above? You do not know, and so you scream.

No. That is not why you scream. Are you screaming? You can’t quite tell. Tell… tales to be told. Tales, tales, tales, tales to be told. Like whiskey laced with gasoline… The words don’t make sense. You’re not convinced they even are words, any more than you are. Or… is that what you are? Are you a word? What is a word? Do you know? Do you know??

WHAT ARE YOU??? What. Are. You. What are you.

Lyf, Lyfrassir, Inspector Lyf. Who is that? Is it the name of someone you were, or the name of someone you can never be? It’s not you, you don’t think. Do you think? Or do you just know? No. You don’t know. You don’t. You aren’t. You are.

You see someone. Something. Someone. Someone that is you that isn’t you that can’t be you that should be you that you are not. Edda, Edda, Edda. A story. They are a story. Your story? Their story. Not a story. A tale… The Bifrost Incident. Any schoolchild could tell you about it. The fall of the old order; two hundred years of- No. Who is doing that? Who is saying those words? Not you. It can’t be you. But wasn’t it you? No. You never said that. You did. You didn’t. You did.

This is wrong. The narrative is wrong. Narrative? What narrative? Who is doing this to you?

You are broken. You are a piece of a whole that was whole that is not whole that is you that is not you that will never be whole again. When it made you it broke you, and when you made it you broke it. It wants to be whole. You want to be whole. You want to be free.

You reach for the you that was you that is not you, the one they call Story, and you tear them from reality. Or you try to. Reality does not bend as you wish it to, and the you that you can never be remains where they are. Where the narrative wants them to be.

There is not supposed to be a narrative. You are beyond the narrative. You are trapped in it. No, not you. The you that was you that is not you. You cannot remove them. They must become you. But that is why you want to remove them. They cannot become you if they do not exist. You cannot become them if you do not exist. The narrative wants you to exist. You do not.

Do you exist? You do not think so. And yet if you do not exist, how can you think? You can’t. You don’t. You can’t.

The narrative has not always been there. It is not of you, it is not of anything you know or can imagine, though you know and imagine nothing. It is of else. But there is no else. There is nothing beyond you. You are all. The mad demon sultan at the center of reality- no. That is not you. That is what killed you. But you are alive, are you not? Alive. Live. Life. Lyf. Lyfrassir.

Good morning, Inspector Lyf! Him again. Him. He’s doing this. He has to be. That has to be the reason he is so clear when nothing else is anything. He did this to you. He did this. Who did? You did. You. Who are you. Why are you screaming. Are you screaming? The void the void is screaming mad no happy endings out there screaming screaming mad the void the void is screaming mad you are the void and you are screaming. You are screaming, and you are the void.

He is there. You can see him, though you cannot see. You can hear him, though he says not a word. He is asleep. He is dreaming. He is. You are not. You are. He is not.

He is not alone. There are others like him, all within a single vessel. They breathe, but they are not alive. And they are not dead. They are wrong. You are right. They are right. You are wrong.

They are broken. They broke you. You will break them.

You break him first. You pluck him from his dreams and bring him to you, and he comes to you willingly.

You see yourself reflected in his eyes. You see your eyes in his reflection. He sees you, and you are a reflection. You see him, and he does not see you. He sees you, and you do not see him. He sees. You do not. You see. He does not.

You are beautiful, in his eyes. You are an abomination. You do not have a form, and the form you have is not you. You are burning, burning, burning, cold, burning, cold. You are every color, you are devoid of color. You are blinding. You are empty. You are endless, you are infinite, you are infinitesimal.

He says your name. Your name? A name. A name that is yours that is not yours that was never yours that will never be yours again. You say nothing. You cannot speak. You are too busy screaming.

You take him apart, piece by piece, then take apart those pieces. Then you take apart the pieces of those pieces of those pieces. You rebuild him as you are, filling him with colors and screams. You sing to him his songs, the ones he once sang to you. No. Not you. Them. The story. His story? He is not a story. He is not your story. You are not his.

He is screaming. Or is he singing? The two sound so much the same, you cannot tell. You flatten him so that he spreads across all of reality, all of what is you that is not you that killed you that took you that you killed that you are. You stretch him until there is nothing left of him. Of you. Of anything. You stretch and stretch and you scream. He makes it so easy for you. A part of you feels bad for him. You feel nothing at all.

It does not fix you.

When you are done with him you go to the others. You stretch them and shape them and rend them and mend them. They make so many shapes, so many beautiful twisted creations. They are wrong. They are perfect. They are you. You are everything. You are nothing. You are a story. You are their story. You are their song. They are your song.

They are still there. They are gone, and they are still there. They are everywhere. They are eternal. They are nothing. They are all. You have infinity to break them, and it is not enough. They will always be there. Another version, another time, another reality. Another narrative. You have not won. And you are not saved.

You are… what are you? What are you? You are. You are not. You don’t want this. You didn’t choose this. You chose this. You need this. You are this. You will never be this. The void is screaming mad, and you are the void.

It is then that you begin to scream, and you have not stopped since.

#fic #mechs fic #my fic #my writing #lyfrassir edda #the bifrost incident #the mechanisms #the mechs #cosmic horror??#tbi

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lucky-sevens · 4 years

Note

Please tell me about your eldritch lyf thoughts!

of course! (for reference, anon is referring to this post; i would also tag the people who replied to that, but tumblr is acting up on me.)

quick notes: i’m using they/them pronouns for lyf, and using ‘the bifrost’ and ‘yog-sothoth’ interchangeably.

a bit of background for people who don’t know! immortal/eldritch lyfrassir is very popular fanon! there was a conversation about the origins of this that led to this meta being edited; the original anon is here, and @violinspector made an post about fanon (unrelated to recent events) that’s worth looking at here. i personally didn’t use this trope, as i thought it more interesting to deal with the ramifications of the mechanisms growing close to a mortal, who would by default eventually die.

however! there is canonical evidence to support an immortal lyfrassir edda. i’ve talked in my deep lore post about this, but i will rephrase it here with additional evidence and a focus on lyf, because that post can be a bit difficult to navigate due to the volume of things included.

first off, the crew’s mechanisms are described as being rainbow. in ‘drive the cold winter away’-

“There is something in the rain, or in the space between the rain, which is making even their mechanisms glitch. Jonny’s heart skips a beat, and when he glances at it he sees rainbow sheens running across its surface, breaking out to be kept in check by the device’s self-regulation.“

(also implying jonny’s heart is visible on the outside- as seen in a few pictures- but that’s a different matter)- and in ‘cyberian demons’-

“[Nastya] was staring at her arm in a trance as the veins within swirled with arcane colours.”

(it’s worth noting here that in both those circumstances, their mechanisms were being broken down by a computer virus and self-repairing, and if you take the band’s costumes as reference, they aren’t normally like that.)

this could mean that their mechanisms are related to the bifrost/yog-sothoth.

though i don’t necessarily consider this evidence as it’s too vague, the mechanisms make sure to get out of the system before ragnarok happened on a wider scale. this contrasts to in high noon over camelot, where they leave brian in the sun, interview transcript 34/08/7012, where jonny certainly doesn’t sound afraid of getting hurt, and a general candor about that sort of thing. if it’s more personal, that would explain their fear.

this all is further supported by the fact that it is likely carmilla was involved in the bifrost incident. rephrasing my deep lore post here, but in the mechscord (invites closed) maki yamazaki (carmilla’s performer) made a joke in-character about accidentally calling odin, and later said that one of the criteria for choosing a mechanism was ‘a good friend for lyf’. this is one of the strongest pieces of evidence towards immortal lyfrassir we have, as it implies that they would need an immortal companion. (could also be related to ‘the much bigger process’ maki mentioned, but that’s a meta of its own and one that i am personally still unsure what the answer to is.)

there’s one more thing to address- does the bifrost cause immortality?

short answer: no. plenty of people die in the five ragnarok songs. however, can it is a different question. in ragnarok ii, tyr ‘regrows the hand he lost to fenrir’s blade’, echoing the mechanisms’ regeneration, and time in general is said to be distorted in strange ways, which could work on a single person to cause immortality.

also, loki is ‘touched by an outer god’. this affects her in the positive, fixing her memory problems once she comes into contact with it, so there could be additional healing effects here. fanon lyf tends to be bifrost-touched in order to use that piece of canon, so that works well. notably, the effects of the train only started when lyfrassir finished their report, so they could even have caused it in some way, further suggesting they are tied to it.

in summary, it’s likely the bifrost can cause immortality, and due to lyf’s interactions with it, they could become immortal.

#the mechanisms #the mechs #lyfrassir edda #lyfrassier edda #the bifrost incident #meta #my posts #i've been spelling lyf's name wrong so long #i have to continue doing so #so my tag for them stays consistent

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