#lads ulysses

[love-and-deepspace-wiki]

Dr. Ulysses

Age: Unknown

Occupation: Physics professor

Workplace: Prestara University

Family: 7 year old son, Frank/Frankie

Details:

Dr. Ulysses is a character first introduced in Xavier's Anecdotes story "A Special Vacation" and later portrayed in "Voyage of the Outcast", Xavier's branch of "Prologue to Tomorrow".

Anecdotes Story:

In the Anecdotes story, his son Frankie has an essay assignment to complete over summer vacation. When Ulysses asks his son what he wants to be when he grows up, Frankie declares that he wants to be a Deepspace Hunter. Ulysses is a little surprised but says that he knows an old friend who is Deepspace Hunter and that he could introduce Frankie to him.

"I have a friend who's a Deepspace Hunter. In fact, he's the best of the best. Do you want to go to his place and have him teach you how to become one?"

Ulysses takes Frankie to stay with Xavier for a while so that he can learn more about Deepspace Hunters for his essay.

On the last day of summer vacation, Ulysses comes to pick up Frankie and reads his completed essay. After he finished reading it, he asks Xavier "Did you cast a spell on my son?".

Frankie goes on to sing Xavier's praises. But when he says he can't tell him just how amazing Xavier really is because "it's a secret between me and Xavier", Ulysses doesn't know how to react. The story concludes with the following thoughts from Ulysses:

"He doesn't know what kind of secret son agreed to keep for Xavier, but... Whatever. It's not on Frank. After all, when Ulysses was younger, he was also "fooled" by Xavier"

"Voyage of the Outcast":

In "Voyage of the Outcast", Dr. Ulysses is introduced as a physics professor at Prestara University. He's known for teaching tough classes and is described as the strictest professor at the university. Though he's strict in class, an unnamed student says he's pretty chill on the basketball courts once classes are over.

Dr. Ulysses was formerly an assistant professor but was promoted to associate professor two years ago (in 2046). He is among the few researchers who has access to the campus research center.

Interesting Facts:

During his stay, Frankie mentions to Xavier that Ulysses told him not to eat super spicy food.

[manikas-whims]

Xavier’s Friend, Professor Ulysses

Do you guys know that the Physics teaching Professor Ulysses at Prestara University first appeared in Xavier’s 1st Anecdote?

He leaves his son Frank with Xavier for babysitting 😆

Frank is also a big fan of Deepspace Hunters, and ends up becoming a big fan of Xavier 😊

@love-and-deepspace-wiki you might like this

[ya-boi-haru]

Headcannon that Ulysses is a slow texter and often makes a lot of spelling mistakes because of his hand tremors.

Over time, everyone has gotten used to his typos and can easily read them now

[iincantatorum]

Ulysses, what kind of songs do you like to sing?

"I sing songs to praise the moon goddess Selene, some love ballads for the gorgeous merfolk, and basically any solo overtures when I perform magic when the muse hits. I've heard the goddess of magic and spells do it, so I got it from Hecate."

[dotssu3]

again, but I'm adding paladin danse to this list. I love him. please send me requests for him.

hiiiiii........*looks left and right* send art requests for joshua graham, ulysses, or boone plz....or yes man or jane or victor...

[trashrat420]

After finishing project Eden’s garden chapter 1 I have a question for you lads !!

Spoilers for chapter 1 victim

Diana could go either way as either the partner or the rival, I’m honestly not sure, she’s definitely gonna play a big role in the story tho I’m sure, I doubt they’d do the fake out antag twice tho. Honestly pretty disappointed we didn’t get to watch Wolfie’s decent into madness over the course of the killing game, he was so interesting, and I so badly want to know what his blackmail means. I, like most people, expected him to be a chapter 5 death, him killing Eva and that leading the group to escape. But alas, I have no fuckin idea where the story could possibly go from here, but I’m stoked to find out!

Still crying over the execution, I wanted Eva to survive so badly, or at least to make it to chapter 5. It’s super interesting that they’ve killed off who we previously assumed to be two of the most important characters in the game.

[connorsnothereeither]

I know I’ve talked about this in the context of Brink and Blood but one of my favourite things to explore in storytelling is the intersection between the mortal, the monstrous and the divine, and I think Ulysses is just… a really interesting example of that? I’m my opinion anyway.

Like, Ulysses is a man who tried so hard to become a god that he turned himself into a monster, and yet only found happiness in being the most human he ever could be.

I dunno I just think that’s kinda poetic and that he’s neat, and I’m having a lot of thoughts and feelings about my fish lad given what’s coming up

[zahri-melitor]

Lost the original post, but someone was talking about Tim mostly just having the same gallery of Rogues as the rest of the Bats, and that’s not actually true. Our lad had over 200 issues of solo comic during post-Crisis, he definitely has some Rogues that are his more than anyone else’s!

King Snake (Edmund Dorrance). Dorrance is 100% specifically one of Tim’s villains. If in modern comics any writers decided to resurrect him and start using him again I would be delighted, because he’s such a painful white guy who thinks he’s all that and better than the Hong Kong-based gang he runs. He’s also ‘died’ multiple times and just because he appeared in Blackest Night doesn’t mean he’s still dead now, we’ve had two universe reboots since then!

Lynx (and the rest of the Ghost Dragons). Both Lynx I and Lynx II are also Tim’s foes, though he’s happy to share them with Cass if she also wants to get some kicks in. Lynx I also has died twice (both times due to Cass) because a writer couldn’t be bothered to check the canon bible while writing.

Ulysses Armstrong. The General mostly exists to be an absolute pain and cause Tim angst. Also I’ll never forgive them for killing off Matthew and Hillary Armstrong, who helped Tim out from their very first appearances.

Anarky/Lonnie Machin. Tim’s shadow half. They’ve been feuding since 1990 and there’s no sign they plan to stop (even when they’re working together).

Ratcatcher is arguably more Tim’s villain than Bruce’s, and nobody else really deals with him.

The Sk8er Bois. Bring them (and Tim’s extremely dangerous skateboard) back!

Johnny Warlock. Wow do I ever hate Johnny, and he’s super annoying, but he’s definitely in Tim’s gallery.

The obvious one: Lady Shiva. She’s not Tim’s exclusively but only Cass has a closer connection in the Batfam and Tim’s connection is arguably closer than Bruce’s.

Plus of the more standard Bat Rogue collection:

Arthur Brown particularly dislikes Tim (alongside the obvious pick that he’s part of Steph’s gallery)

Maxie Zeus has mostly only tangled with Tim out of people who aren’t Bruce.

Arguably Tim’s the main Robin to deal with Mad Hatter too.

Ventriloquist is again a Tim-as-Robin era villain (mostly 1, I don’t think 2 spent much time near any Robin)

There’s probably some correlation between Bane’s position among the Rogues and Tim to make, because of how their timelines cross, but equally I highly dislike Bane so I’m not going to bother sketching it out.

Riddler has a soft spot for Tim.

So does Selina, whose first reluctant team up with that kid was during the original Clench.

Can’t forget Jean-Paul Valley (while hallucinating St Dumas)

And that’s just off the top of my head, there’s definitely others with more than a single storyline.

[gailhai1storm]

Ender functions mostly as a techie for the band when on tour but will fill in if needed once he has to fill in as Ulysses and that hit him hard though when he has to fill in on earth it makes the crowd go nuts like imagine if you are going to this obscure band that you like and the guy who saved the entire world appears on stage as if it’s no big deal

and its a guy who not only saved all of earth but fucking disappeared and also committed a xenocide so there is like massive controversy surrounding him.

and he shows up as just like a fill in for this band and is literally so fucking weird like idk I imagine ender as not nervous he's a confident lad but he is not loud he would be cause he's adaptable as shit but he would have such a weird fucking vibe.

and i think he would eat up filling in but it would be like weirdly soul crushing like we can all tell he's working through some shit on stage and its just the most bizarre experience

[upthebracket]

i dont understand feminists who seem to just be all out anti kink when it comes to men like the notes on that p*skink post with the ragging on the lad. if you get off to hitting smaller more vulnerable people i'm raising my eyebrow but if i can just be so real for a smo (sex mo) i really couldn't give a toss if someone likes to pee pee or watch someone pee pee. if it's specifically dishing out degrading treatment to a partner again eyebrow but not necessarily i mean look at jim "ulysses" joyce. there was a freak and a half but totally harmless. sexology is an interesting aspect of psychology and nothing can be reduced down to simple social power dynamics. the virgin hath spoken

[agent-8449]

Agent Logos CJverse chatroom summary.... REAL!!!!

Clears throat. This may be a long post, be warned. Actually, yeah. Bwoink.

The OG AU: Voice of Reason

Whole: Dead as fuck. Sort of. Way before the events of the comic, their Whole 'died'. We refer to not-dead Whole OOCly as 'Hope', but he also sort of exists afterwards as a figment of himself-- the 'shadow' called Cast. Cast can only speak in song lyrics, and currently resides in... the TMAverse, as a cursed item. Woaw.

Heart: Would kill you if you called him Heart. Ozzy/Oz/Ozymandias is a real piece of work. Sourceless guilt incarnate, magically influenced by a cursed mirror to eat it, in a symbolic attempt to erase himself. He's so chill. So fine. So cool. Definitely not so close to collapsing at all times. Got glasses though.

Mind: Tinker/Ulysses. So violently soggy, but hides it under his inexplicable British accent and polite demeanour. Made the transmitters that allow Thirds to traverse between their Surrealities. He half-regrets this. The only one of the three fully aware that Cast is an actual sentient guy. Hid his Soul's trident in his hand after the comic, and so that hole is very much still there <he's 'fixing' it atm...>

Soul: Coda. Coba. Coba Cola. What a disaster. After the comic, it <he/it> was kept in his room as much as possible. Then Oz left, and he completely lost it. It was a big storyline, so feel free to ask about it. Coda is really fun because he's not sane

Me-only AU 2: The Negatives

Whole: Eris... also known as Chase. The Negatives are a sort of "reversal of personality". Eris is a shitty content farm-making YouTuber, and generally hates this too. He also has to deal with the Cold War he sort of constructed with his own Thirds. He remembers what his Thirds do, which is good because he split <past tense> often... like. Every day. They called it 'shifts'. Yeah.

Heart: Phobos, ahhhhh my horrible boy Phobos. Personification of egoism, self-aggrandization, imagination, and intrusive thoughts. Green. Mean. A bitch and a half. Generally sadistic. The de-facto leader of the Negative Thirds. Wears crocs. Idolises Whole.

Mind: Deimos. That is all. Personification of logic, reasoning, and thinking ahead. He is also an absolute goon and pushover. All too happy to be Phobos' lackey.

Soul: Nemesis, though he hates that nickname. Personification of 'cringe culture', self-doubt, second-hand embarassment, and critical thinking. Basically ignored by the other two. Does all the work in the Vessel. Clinically annoyed by everything all the time. Very spiteful.

ASSORTED GUYS <from co-op AUs>:

Allen: Soul from Voib, Andy, Shade and I's AI AU, also known as Reification Initiative: Apotheosis. Yeah I came up with that. My bad. Allen is shitty. So very shitty. Ran away. That's all I can say for now.

Valentine: Heart from WAAAILSSSSSS IT'S ONLY ME BUT HIS COUNTERPARTS ARE ALL DEAAAAD. The Bachelor AU, a 'Lonely' AU. He is trying to live his life now that he fucked up and he's alone. He committed arson. He has to go to government-mandated therapy. He is beloved.

Nyx: Whole from Xanadu AU. Haven't done much with him, but he's in space, and he's an idiot.

Vlinder: :>

Thyme: Mind from the Aonaran/Apocalypse AU. The world ended. It be like that sometimes. And the stress got to their Whole. Thyme killed multiple people.

Pursuit: Heart (2) from Voib's Labyrinths AU. He is big kitty cat lad. Does eat people. Tries to maintain the status quo. Genuinely satisfied with the state of things.

Magna: Mind from Demersal AU. Basically, he got pitted instead of Heart for being a delusional little shit. He did not get any less delusional. Conspiracy nut, drowning 1/4th of the time, and generally horrible person.

Brevity: Soul from Voib and I's Syncopation AU. Olde Mann. No legs, they froze off. He is not mentally well at all, but he's got to keep it together if he wants to continue being 'him'.

Crawl: Heart from the Asides AU. Fourth-wall breaking eldritch horror. Collector of things. Collector of extinct things. Full name 'Crawl of the Horizon'.

"Quinn": Soul from Good Day. Very new AU with me, Voib, Q-ott, and Ledge <@/nitroish>. Meant to be close to album guys. He's denying his halves exist and matter atm.

There you go! Not including the alternate timelines because jesus christ

[ya-boi-haru]

I have thoughts and feelings about Quixis showing up for Rae and Ulysses, let me dump them here...

• This is the second time that Quixis has shown up when Icarus isn't around.

And even though the events were similar, this one feels worse.

This time, Quixis slowly guided the way/direction), almost struggled to communicate (used 1 block instead of a bunch to say yes/no), hesitantly confirmed that Icarus was in danger.

• Quixis communicating when Rae is around makes me think that Rae is somehow involved with Quixis or maybe, Quixis' Rae has something to do with it

• Quixis giving a direction rather than wack spots like they did last time, probably relates to the fact that they go dormant around Fable

• Quixis talking to others - especially in this case - just seems like a last resort.

The World Port is dying and the decay is spreading. Icarus won't listen and help deal with it - because they don't want to - and they still don't trust Quixis.

The decay on Quixis could be worse at this point, I can't imagine the pain they're probably in. So getting to Rae probably took a lot.

• Quixis simply giving a direction, cause they can't go near Fable, but also letting them know that it's not safe to do so right now.

That long pause after Rae asked if Icarus was safe. Then he had to plead for an answer.

I feel like Rae was asking if Icarus was safe at the current moment - with Fable around and his plan.

And Quixis answered no to them not being safe with Fable or in general as the WorldPort is collapsing, which could basically mean the end of the world...

Quixis gave them a direction, that has to be good enough for now. They can't exactly do much on their own right now.

• If Icarus finds out that Quixis snitched their location, I feel that they're going to spiral more. Cause they think Quixis is with them, maybe not on their side but they've been with them, so how dare they go to Rae when they're "trying to fix everything"

• Also Ulysses refusing to let Rae go around Quixis stuff even though he only knows it as this violent thing that can hurt people I just- the lad I love him.

• Him fidgeting with the necklace i-😭

Thank you for reading my brain dump

[tired-fandom-ndn]

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

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

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

Basic info from me:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[iincantatorum]

Ilyas gazed at the many colorful vials that stood on one of the top shelves in Ulysses' cottage. They drew his eyes as if he'd been mesmerized. "Do any of these cause a quick and painless death?"

It was a strange question, even for him.

At this point, Ulysses accepted Ilyas's presence. He would only get miffed if the other made a comment on how it wasn't that great or impressive. It's not that he made peace with the other's comments, more like he was focused with a certain protective spell that was going to have as little repercussions as possible. All magic had a setback, but it took time and effort to perfect a charm.

Once he heard the question, he could no longer found himself focusing on his own spell, and then looked up at Ilyas and sighed. Taking off his thick glasses, he placed them down and sat up straight.

"As opposed to a long, painless death? I do not have poisons, not my specialty. Although I did brush upon a young lad who was only focused on poison related potions, I am not one of those. I doubt you are the type to cause a quick and painless death to another- unless you are willing to give them mercy. Is it me? You loathe me so much, Ilyas? But you wouldn't be actually telling me, so-" he hummed, honestly just talking until everything made sense to him. Ulysses could talk for hours, for there was so much in his mind and it was a good practice for his voice. It's just that everyone else who picked up on what he was saying could potentially get annoyed. He made no efforts to draw himself back, though

"Or, are you just plain and curious if I have that certain vial. I don't have it, plain and simple. Sorry for your disappointment." He furrowed his brows, "sometimes, I worry about you, Ilyas. Why would you even ask me that?"

[xxxlovedandlostxxx]

xxxlovedandlostxxx asked: ❛  eye contact with you always feels like foreplay.  ❜ ulysses iincantatorum answered: "What are you talking about?" Ulysses had no idea what 'foreplay' meant, not because he was some innocent lad but because he had been by himself in the secluded forest for so many years he had forgotten to keep up or had forgotten so much that came with being in a functioning society. It felt like the Inquisitor was teasing him and he decided that the emotion he would exude today was full-on frustration. "Are you saying something is wrong with my eyes?" In that case, he would be right. He tends to see better in the dark, for the sunlight causes him a certain sensitivity.

@iincantatorum

All that Anthony had asked always went unanswered by the man. Everything else was denied or deflected. But in this instance at least, he trusted that Ulysses genuinely didn't understand. It was a case of vernacular. Anthony himself hadn't heard the term until he'd been spending perhaps too much time with Bull, Varric and Sera. "Not at all," he replied emphatically. Anything but. The smirk that would ususally overtake his face was absent. Instead, he maintained that eye-contact, gazing at the eyes that were beginning to haunt his dreams. Like that night before he woke to them checking on him after having to rescue the Inquisitor. Why had he done that? Maybe the answer lay somewhere.... close. Tantalizingly close. The older mage seemed not to notice when Anthony slid his hand downward to cup and gently palm the leathers at the front of his pants. "This is what it feels like when your eyes are on me."

[connorsnothereeither]

what would happen if you put all your characters in a room together?

Hmmm… honestly I feel like it would be kind of chill? A lot of them would vibe with each other for different reasons, I think (also I’m throwing in an upcoming character I’ve teased before cause I’m excited for him lol)

Virgil would be completely fascinated by Ulysses and all of the telchin stuff, and would probably want to take copious notes on everything to add it to the library. I think he’d maybe be a little on edge about Dan, but warm up to him, because I think he would see a lot of Pietro in Dan? And I think similar to Ulysses, Virgil would be fascinated by Leopold, and he’d probably walk away with a lot of diagrams of spider legs.

Ulysses would be incredibly awkward, and I don’t think he would fully know how to interact. I can see him partially bonding with Leopold over tea, and just sort of,,, being able to settle down, in a way? There’s common ground between them, but neither would know how to broach it. I think he and Dan would get along in much the same way Ulysses and Fenris, or Ulysses and c!Centross get along. There’s a mutual understanding of their pasts and their experiences that I think they would come to. I think in Virgil he almost sees a version of himself who he wants/wanted to be? Younger, and able to seek out his interests in collecting knowledge, rather than being forced into a box. He’d be jealous internally, but externally absolutely want to answer all of Virgil’s questions, because he knows thats what he would want.

Dan would probably also be hesitant to really put himself out there with the others? But if anything I think he’s more likely to flirt with them to distract from his nerves than he is to start any form of conflict. They can’t sense your nervousness if you pretend to be overly cocky. He’d probably ask Ulysses for advice on moving past things, if anything, and the pair would talk about their pasts. Honestly I think Dan would be a little put off by Virgil’s enthusiasm and eccentricities, but maybe slowly warm up to him. He and Leopold I think would vibe, but in the way that they’re both aware of the potential danger the other poses, and are content to simply exist peacefully rather than need to pose that danger. They’re the least likely to get along personality wise, which is ironic considering they’re probably the most similar.

Leopold, my upcoming lad, would be… hospitable. I think he’s the one serving drinks, making the others feel comfortable and at home. Ulysses is an oddity to him, and rather than not getting along I just… don’t think they have much to talk about, beyond a few small things like tea, or books. I think he fundamentally doesn’t like who Ulysses was, and it would take him time to look past that. I think he and Dan would reach a shaky ground of acknowledgement, rather than friendship. They would find a rhythm of moving seamlessly around each other in the space, rather than with each other. They’re the kind of guys who would be awake long after the others, and rather than speak just drink in silent appreciation of the others presence. In the same way Virgil would see some level of Pietro in Dan, I think that Leopold sees so much of [REDACTED] in Virgil, and I think he’d be a source of comfort and emotional support for Virgil, if he could. He would want to be there for Virgil.

This was way longer than I expected lol but I didn’t realise how many thoughts I had about my little blorbos. They’re all very similar in a lot of ways, or at least on the same spectrum between archetypes/themes, but I can’t really see them being friends. They don’t clash, but they don’t exactly mesh either, in a lot of cases?