#udad narcissus

[p2ii]

question. are the 'lotus eaters' from Jessica laws song Lotus eaters the nymphs? ik that if the song was kept in it would be in place of sirens but idk enough about greek mythology to really pick up on that that implies.

I kinda though so because lotus is frequently referenced as something Orpheus struggles with addiction to, aswell as presumably being big in the nymph scene/Dionysus's clientele, being so focused on pleasure.

(set at a party held by narcissus, Dionysus's most popular nymph)

also this line (government sponsored??? hmmmm)

[namedafterflowerstournament]

Botanic Bracket : Narcissi Poll !

Daffodil (Spiritfarer)

Narcissus (The Mechanisms : Ulysses Sies at Dawn)

Dame Daffodil / Charo Flores (Dame Daffodil)

Daffodil (Clifford the Big Red Dog)

Narcissa Cronin (Renegades book series by Marissa Meyer)

The two with the most votes will join the main bracket

[reegis]

I rlly want to give your Orpheus a big hug and a kiss on the forehead please be nice to him😭😭 (side note I’m spamming you again I’m sorry)

ok fine…. ill be nice to him for Once….

kisses for him, from his lovers Narcissus & Eurydice, everything is totally fine.. how could this possibly go wrong…….

[lastwave]

oh narcissus UDAD we're really in it now

[phoebastria-albatrus]

modern UDAD headcanons

•i feel like ulysses works retail and the olympians and suits are just the really weird customers. the vault tree is a shrub in a pot in the break room given to him by penelope

•orpheus performs at goth and punk clubs as a single artist. people give him money because they feel bad.

•bonus narcissus. sometimes he shows up and does interpretive dance to whatever he sings

•heracles does boxing. i dont have much more to say here. maybe he does part time as a renfaire guy because have you been to a renfaire? bro would love being apart of the fake fights

•oedipus is just a normal doctor. he’s probably that guy in fics characters come to when they have been injured. orpheus and heracles are weirdly enough the two most common for him to see. orpheus falls off stage a weird amount of times and heracles literally fights for a living. he absolutely hates everyone.

•ariadne is in school for computer science and programming. she regularly does cybercrime for random good causes (god forbid women do anything)

[majorshatterandhare]

Thinking about Medea Asylum. That’s *fucked up.*

[seaside-hysteria]

reading some of the mechanisms fictions and dang i can’t believe narcissus and orpheus became friends after narcissus made out with him that’s great

[rainbowstargazerlilies]

Mechs Ships Tournament: Shipping Round 1 Poll 11

Narcissus/Orpheus QPR:

#NARCISSUS/ORPHEUS SWEEP#they both have so much wrong w them i love whatever thry have going on#the mechanisms (tags via @mothocean)

#PLEASE VOTE FOR NARCISSUS AND ORPHEUS THEYRE SOOOOO FUCKED UP#i love those idiots so much (tags via @asthe-crow-flies)

Ivy/Raphaella

them <333 science vibe lesbians. Pedantic archivist and sciency scientist. Must I say more??? 

science saphics + ivy infodumping while raph does science™ is awesome

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41629023/chapters/104419359 :3

they could be called research paper which is based so vote them

[c0rpsedemon]

i could never make a kin list bc it Would get me institutionalized

[majorshatterandhare]

[ID: a screencap from Orpheus and Narcissus Go On A Trip to the Seaside by the Mechanisms [link] reading “This was no inconvenience whatsoever to the nymphs, apart from one occasion at the end of Orpheus' first week, when Dionysus had proclaimed: "That was a great week's work, darling. You've got real potential. Well done. Oh, and by the way, you're fired." Orpheus had punched his employer in the face and burst into tears before Narcissus could intervene.” The background is white and the text is black. End ID]

This is your friendly reminder that Orpheus UDAD is so incredibly sopping wet

[origami-butterfly]

This- this might be the wildest take I've ever had, bur bear with me.

I'm thinking about how Narcissus wasn't really a bad person. (This post was absolutely not triggered by my sudden UDAD thoughts, of course not/s).

(In depth explanation under the cut, this got kind of long)

Like... in the original version of the myth, Echo falls in love with him after 1 meeting, and he rejects her. Which?? Seems fair enough??? Echo, girl, he didn't owe you reciprocated feelings.

And then supposedly, Echo prays to Nemesis, to curse him to feel a love that was equally unrequited as hers had been. So he falls in love with himself.

Even if you take away the part about it being a curse, is vanity really such a horrific crime? Some people just love themselves more than they love others, and that isn't bad, unless they're actively hurting people- which Narcissus seemingly wasn't. Maybe his rejection of Echo was harsh, but it's not like he was cruel, or violent.

And then, even in the modern day, his name is demonised. "Narcissist" is used as an insult, there's the myth of "narcissistic abuse", and people with NPD are deemed "dangerous" and "scary". Obviously those examples are an issue that deserve their own post, because the ableism towards anyone with a mental health problem- even "accepted" ones like depression- is horrific. But just think about it for a moment... you didn't feel romantic feelings for someone, and now, centuries later, everyone thinks you were evil.

In fact, there's almost connections to be made with the modern aromantic experience. I've seen people say that being aro means you're "self-obsessed" and "incapable of feelings".

I.. I don't really know where this post was going, but I think Narcissus deserves better. Also, people with NPD, you are cool and awesome, and I wish I could do more to help with the shit you face daily.

[p2ii]

just read both the udad!Orpheus centric fictions

some highlights I really enjoyed

[namedafterflowerstournament]

Botanic Tournament : Main Bracket !

Round 2 Poll XX

(Holly and narcissus)

[reegis]

You have 0 idea how much I adore your Orpheus, I want to hold him and make sure he feels loved

TY!! he is such a soggy napkin i love him..

Narcissus’ No Good Very Bad Morning (and also Orpheus’ as well, i guess 🙄)

[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.

[gunpowder-tim]

hi i think narcissus udad was born in december and thats why he was called narcissus