#<- ( INJOKE AMONG FRIENDS )

[metanarrates]

weird question what does town wins mean

not a weird question! i'm a person prone to using EXTREMELY specific made-up injokes to discuss broader concepts, and sometimes i forget that other people don't know what my invented terminology even means. my bad

anyway "town won" is a reference to this post discussing the riverdale finale (in which heaven is a 1950's diner and its characters remain teenagers forever.) my friend, who is fascinated by riverdale, liked this post so much he started referencing it casually in conversation. eventually among my group of friends "town won" became shorthand for "a story that is so caught up in its image of a correct, idealized, usually nostalgic world state that it ignores a more thematically appropriate alternative where its characters would escape those conditions. the end result leaves the story feeling unintentionally miserable."

put more simply - the town of riverdale "won" against its characters because the writers idealized the idea of a small unchanging town. princess tutu's fairy tale "wins" against its characters because the logic of the fairy tales confining them was considered correct by its writers. (ahiru's True Self is a duck, rue's self-worth as a princess can only ever be defined by mytho, mytho's true desire is to go back into the story.) there's other examples, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

hope this was a decent explainer! unfortunately, the nature of this sort of in-joke referential terminology means that it's difficult to lay out exactly. I will try to avoid using it too much lol

[yumedoca]

The reason why "Kosuke" shows up in the 87 anime as a backgrounder is a bit of an injoke if you wanna hear?

When producing the show, they considered having Kosuke be just like his manga counterpart and created a design for him. They also created a design for one of the extras that hung around Manga Megane/Satoshi with a chubby physique and curly hair.

However when deciding to increase the role of the then unnamed Satoshi/Megane, they decided to combine Ataru's two friend groups from the manga into one.

As a result, Kosuke was adapted in the anime as "Perm" whom had a slightly different design in that he lacked freckles and had curlier hair.

However as an internal gag, "Manga Kosuke" and "unused stormtrooper" were used as backgrounders throughout the series. Despite this, Perm is officially the real Kosuke of the 87 series as confirmed in Guides, interviews and model sheets.

Hai there, hope you're doing great!!

Thanks for the info, it's very interesting!!! I did know that Perm is in fact supposed to be Kosuke and that his real name is Kosuke too (I think I've seen images of the character model sheets). I also did know that the manga Kosuke has made cameos but the story about how they were initially going to put Kosuke (and the curly haired guy) in the anime is not something I've heard of before, so thanks for sharing!! And even though I know Kosuke and Perm are the same, to me the different versions of them are incredibly different people because of how much Perm is a flanderized version of Kosuke (as a result of splitting Kosuke's personality among all four stormtroopers).

Kosuke's cameo in the fifth movie caught me off guard though since I don't think it was documented anywhere online on the wikis and such, and I think people weren't aware of it lol.

[nihiltism]

4 and 12 :)

4. inside joke you have with family and friends: ok so when I was a kid my dad had this Long bit, similar to the "crazy? I was crazy once." bit. and it went as follows:

I liiiieeeeke lime jello..... it reminds me.... of squishy things ..... liiike Gutsgutsgutsgutsguts!!! and you can cut them ..... with a Knifeknifeknifeknifeknife!!! I Lieeke lime jello.... don't you??? hoo hoo????

and I had heard this joke so much I hadn't even questioned it. it was probably from some media my dad liked that I didn't remember. when I referenced it to others I'd get a laugh so I figured everybody else knew. No. No My Dad Just Made Up This Deranged Fucking Monologue For A Drama Class In College. and when I quoted it to my friends they just assumed that was my fucked up sense of humor. Fuck Me.

anyway among friends. Girls. that's my favorite injoke. whenever I bring up girls in mothchat we always have to take a sec just to go "girls is being salt cured" "girls has insomnia" "girls has been afflicted with the curse" in a round. and then we continue the conversation.

12. good piece of advice: this may sound rude or mean or whatever. it is not intended to be. it's actually been quite helpful to me. but my Biggest Piece Of Advice In This World. is (You Do Not Matter As Much As You Think You Do). or a more zoomed in take, (You Would Not Be As Worried About What People Think Of You If You Knew How Rarely They Do). this is the litany against "do u hate me". a solid 97% of the time people do not care enough to think about anybody outside of who they are currently interacting with at a given moment. if they are not actively acting hostile towards you I can guarantee this person does not hate you. they likely are not thinking of you at all when you are not in their line of sight. and that is a good and normal thing. people's brains are mostly just making AOL dialup noises at any given time. do not give them undeserved credit by assuming they're taking Any extra time to think about anything. thumbsup

[mrbexwrites]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Hi Sam!

Sorry I'm late in answering this; life gets in the way at times!!

Memento Mori story arc is often referred to by my partner as my 'therapy stories'. Mainly because I've written them during NaNoWriMo, so squirrel myself away to type furiously, and in a manic fashion, but because I started writing the first story (part three of the series, because, why stick to things chronologically?!) during a really rough patch during my work, and I was having therapy sessions.

My therapist told me to make sure to carve out time for me and doing things that I love, which then prompted me to get back into writing after a bit of a hiatus. I've been working on 'therapy stories' for about 3 years now, and I hasn't stopped writing since!

I'm terrible at coming up with titles, so most of my WIPs have silly placeholder names like 'Insert Fun Title Here' or 'Sad Story Times' etc etc!

I'd love to hear more about why Gifts of Fate is 'Premath' to your friends! I am intrigued!!

Thanks so much for the ask!

[toribookworm22]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your stories have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Hey, Sam!

Okay, so the first book of my secondary series has been given a silly name by my brother. However, I can't share it because... you know, spoilers. It makes me laugh everytime though because he says it a certain way, too.

[elshells]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I wish I gave my WIPs silly nickname titles! That would be so fun!!

Agent Ace is abbreviated to 'AA' in most of my Google Docs, and EMBR of the Earth is usually just referred to as 'EMBR.' But I don't remember ever making up silly names for them (or anyone else doing it, for that matter), though I absolutely should!

Of all my WIPs, I think Encore would be the best candidate for something like this, given what it's about. Something tells me that a story about horror movie time travel might deserve a funny joke title, though at the moment I'm blanking.

Sorry if this wasn't a very interesting answer! I'll come back to this post if something comes up naturally for this question!

[fisherpon]

Tumblrpon Retrospective: 1-16/16 “The Shared History”

First and foremost, let me get this out of the way: I’m not leaving. This is not a goodbye message, this is marking the end of the Great Draft Dump with a look back upon my time in Tumblrpon. This will be a very long post, hence the pagebreak.

Comic sprites commissioned from @darkfiretaimatsu Final art commissioned from @askmovieslate Background vectors by BonesWolbach Editing by me

Credits for each drawblog are after the page cut.

A long time ago, I had a saying. “Ten days online is like a year IRL.” What I meant by that is that so much stuff happens online and so quickly that if you go away for a couple weeks and come back, things may look completely different. Just think of the addition of ‘blorbo’ to Tumblr vocabulary, for instance. My point is, on that measure, I’ve been a part of Tumblrpon for 408 Fyears (Fandom years). Considering the oldest trace of Tumblrpon we could find is 415 Fyears old and the show itself is 438 Fyears old, it’s safe to say I’ve been around for a while. And, like any old dragon, I've lived through a lot and got some stories to tell.

The Beginning

When I started, Tumblrpon was small, but vibrant. There were drawblogs, indeed; the First, Applebloom; the Drunkard, Berry Pnuch; the Musician; Octavia, and surely others I have forgotten. In these very early days, Tumblrpon was mostly roleplayers. Among them, the Second Queens, the Lawlicorn Diarchy. This was the age of magic anons, of KA-THINGY spells and the invention of the word ‘ponification’. Aside from the drawblogs, here I have remembered some of the more prominent roleplayers of the era, many of whom were, and are, my dear friends. Many of them are still roleplaying in the depths of Tumblrpon, long since overshadowed by drawblogs. I still think they’re the core of Tumblrpon, though; more on that later.

Eventually, however, one drawblog would appear that would change everything. Easily the most influential Tumblrpon drawblog of all time, and perhaps the most deserving of the title Queen of Tumblrpon. The Third Queen, Pinkamena. Before her entry, grimdark elements like Cupcakes and Scootabuse were frowned upon, even hated. Pinkamena rose up and destroyed that barrier. She was by far the best-drawn drawblog up to that point, and pulled no punches when it came to blood and gore. And in doing this, she became famous outside of Tumblrpon. Her art spread to Ponibooru and other pony outlets online, and seeing what she was doing here brought many, many, many other artists to Tumblrpon. She arrived 3 days before me, and within a year of her arrival there would be hundreds of drawblogs. Her presence was brief, but her influence ever-lasting. This was the beginning of our finest era.

The Golden Age

Over the next few years, Tumblrpon thrived. This was also the golden era of the fandom as a whole, the period from Season 2 to roughly 6 or 7. With every new episode, drawblogs would pop up out of the woodwork. With each new character, multiple drawblogs would appear, often with variants. Tumblrpon-wide memes happened; Misty’s Hoodie, Rainbow Chubbie, Yellow vs Blue Pegasi, Ghost Trixie’s Memorial and the Somboom were but a few of them. Collab drawblogs appeared that were simply ‘put all the drawblogs of this one character in the same house’. I went to my first Bronycon (thanks to a charity drive by my Tumblrpon artist friends) and was part of the first of many Tumblrpon panels, through which we brought even more artists into our community. In the midst of all this, I jokingly called Raikissu the Queen of Tumblrpon, and it ended up turning into a massive injoke among our group of friends (which, because it included a lot of influential drawblogs, turned it into a Tumblrpon-wide injoke). They're the only one who really got to experience that title, making them the Fourth Queen. They were also the last, since eventually people didn’t realize it was a joke and started getting uptight at them about it.

As for me, running Fisherpon was a lot of work. I had separate categories of tags that I would search through, some daily, some weekly, some monthly and some yearly, and I would fully tag and put everything into the queue. I had to make a second Tumblr account and move Fisherpon to a secondary blog so I could bypass the 300/day post limit to handle all the content! But it was too much, and eventually I burnt out. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but I think it was sometime in 2016. After that point, I stopped trawling the tags as much. I was following most of Tumblrpon (often running into the following limit of 5000 blogs), and through them I often saw new drawblogs (which I reblogged) and good pony art (which I tossed into the drafts, for when I’d eventually get around to processing it). Most of my blog’s activity turned into liveblogging new episodes, and Tumblrpon itself left its growth phase and plateaued.

Bit of a side note: In early 2017, a very dear member of the community passed away. He’d been there since the beginning, had one of the most unique ‘draw’ blogs, and was a close friend to a lot of us. Despite not liking alcohol myself, I still raise a toast in his honor on every anniversary of his passing. I still miss you, Rusty. You wise old bastard.

Anyhow, on to the most prominent event in Tumblr’s history:

The Purge

When the news dropped, I was travelling abroad in Korea so I wasn’t watching Tumblrpon closely. However, when all my Discord groups exploded, it was pretty hard to ignore. I feared that it would be the end of Tumblrpon as a whole, and wrote a dissertation about Tumblrpon’s history and my memories from the site. That goes into more detail on my origin story, if you’re interested in that.

And, as I expected, it did a lot of damage. Many drawblogs that were already on hiatus used it to justify finally ending their blogs, and a lot of ones that were active found themselves struck out of the sky by a stupid bot that couldn’t recognize boobs if it motorboated them. Tumblr gained a reputation as being unfriendly to artists, especially for those grimdark and risque artists Pinkamena had attracted to Tumblrpon in the first place. I’ve heard that roughly 30% of the site’s users left entirely, and in no place was it more obvious than my dashboard. Despite following thousands of accounts, there were and are days where I catch up on my dashboard to where I was the previous day and have to wait for new posts to appear. That would never have happened back in the Golden Age. Tumblrpon had already been slowly declining, but watching Tumblr shoot its foot off and strangle Tumblrpon (among other fandoms) was very depressing and radicalizing.

However, despite the purge, Tumblrpon lived on. There was talk of migrating to Pillowfort, NewTumbl or Mastodon, but they never caught on well enough to seriously shift the userbase. Despite everything, some new drawblogs popped up, and some of the old drawblogs that survived the purge kept on ticking and gained new prominence (or were simply no longer overshadowed) among the ruins. Things clearly would never be the same, and yet not everything had been lost. It was reassuring, in a way.

Meanwhile, outside of Tumblr, another great star was nearing the end of its life. The show itself, our source of fuel. It whose whims had given birth to thousands of drawblogs during the Golden Age, and whose fancies had caused no end of trouble for drawblogs whose canon counterparts went through big changes (cough Twilicorn cough). Nothing can last forever, and Season 9 would be the last season. Generation 5 was still at least a couple years away, so I decided to finally lower my standards and bring myself to post pony art without proper tags. I know, it sounds silly now, but I took great pride in my post organization and it took a lot of willpower to override that. I made a post telling people about my plans for the Great Draft Dump and started posting again, dripfeeding Tumblrpon with a post (almost) every hour from my reserves.

The Present

And now, here we are. A year past my original ending estimation and a couple weeks short of 3 years since it began. I could have pushed it to 3 years, but today is also the 12th anniversary of the very first episode that started it all so I figured this would be a better ending point.

Tumblrpon is still recovering from the Purge. They’ve dialed back the bot, and that combined with Twitter imploding (or something?) has helped bring artists back to some degree (or perhaps it’s due to COVID stuffing everyone inside), but there’s still a long way to go. We have new horse content again, and while it doesn’t seem to have the same spark G4 had it has breathed some new life into the fandom which is nice to see. There’s even been a handful of G5 drawblogs that have appeared, even though we still don’t seem to have any for Zipp or Hitch which is weird (especially in comparison to the dozens of drawblogs each Mane 6 member had back in the day). And yet, I’m still reminded of times long past. With most of the drawblogs gone, a lot of the activity on my dash is made of roleplayers once again. They’re not the same roleplayers as back in Oldest Tumblrpon, of course, but I feel as long as they continue roleplaying and interacting with each other Tumblrpon will never truly die.

And that is my history lesson. They may not be aware of it, but the new generation of drawblogs and roleplayers carry on a 415-Fyear-old legacy, part of which I’ve included in this comic. Just as we were Tumblrpon, so are you. To every blogger who ever drew a pony answering a question, and to every roleplayer who by interacting with others helped knit Tumblrpon together, I am deeply grateful. Undoubtedly, in the making of this comic I’ve forgotten ponies who should have been included, and to those I deeply apologize as well.

As for me? I’ll still be here. Ever-watching, ever-promoting, though perhaps not as much as I used to. The tanks are dry now, and everything I post will be from the present rather than the past. I’ll probably just toss it all into the queue and have it post whatever it gets a few times a day. Thanks to Tumblrpon, I gained a lot of horse friends, and it’s always great fun meeting up with them at conventions or hanging out with them in my personal Discord server (the Tumblrpon Block Party). If you made it all the way to the end of my tale and you want an invite to it, or if you have a new drawblog you want me to promote, or if you just want to chat, feel free to message me. After all, like I said at the beginning:

I’m not leaving.

Blogs featured in the comic (Queens bolded): Again, if I forgot you, my apologies. My memory’s far from perfect and there’s only so much space on the billboard.

Beginning (Panel 2): @askapplebloom-blog (archive of the original one) @vindicarthehippogriff @faithful-student @rainbowdash-answers @askberrypnuch @askrustynail (RIP. Survived by @techmomma) @askoctavia @ask-reginald-dragon @asklyra @queenfrau @draggity @ask-nightmaremoon @mythic-swirl @trollestiaanswers-blog-blog @stilllunaanswers

Early Golden Age (Panel 3): @askpinkaminadianepie @askmlcblobs @ask-doctorcolgate @ask-sadistic-rarity @ask-dr-adorable @thetalesofwildcard @askterry @asklittlepip @askhotbloodedpinkie @ask-misty-wonderbolt-blog-blog @raindropsanswers @ask-sapphire-eye-rarity @askprincessmolestia @askcharliefoxtrot @junes-pony @askfluttershyandpinkiepie @spittfire @asksirlintalot @ask-glittershell @ponyhawkesho @askdeadrainbowdash @askpiratedash @askvelvet @askstonedtrixie @asksurprisearchive (archive of the original one) @ask-jappleack @askspirit @sweetiebotreplies @askthenightguards @ask-grimdark-bigmac @askpalette-swap @just-flutterguy-replies @susie-queen-of-the-vampireponies @seaponyluna @askbadbloom @askmeaniebelle @ask-scootabot (sequel to the original)

Late Golden Age (Panel 5-7): @raikissu @vocationaldeathcruise (Somehow, this is still up) @askstalkerloo @asklaura-and-naki @outofworkderpy @ask-dinky-dawberry-doo @ask-doctor-dimension @ask-cyberpunkspitfire @ask-thaumaturge-pony @luna-afterdark @ask-dolly @askmovieslate @cmcnext @thehorsewife @askflufflepuff @questionpinkamena @lilmissrarity @fiddlesticks-archives-blog @darkfiretaimatsu @askfirestarterspitfire @fristart @under-renewal (Ask the CMC) @ask-acepony @pinkiepiesolutions @askshinytheslime @reversal-mushroom @askpun @askloona @ask-de-writer @askresearchertwilight @ask-king-sombra (Somboom reflected in window) @ask-fillytwilight (has since been taken over by a russian pornbot) @ask-ikea-pony @askbananapie @askseriousrainbow @motherlyscootaloo @butters-the-alicorn @thecoopontlc (the first collab drawblog) @ask-canterlot-musicians

Post-Purge (Panel 11): @rainbowdashsmailbagthings @thelunararmy @aerialaim @whirlwindflux @ask-louvely @unlocktheaskblog @adorkabletwilightandfriends @askburningstream @glimglamandpals

Now (Panel 13): @askalbinopie (Fellow Keeper of the Past, except that they also have the art skills to do it justice. If Rai hadn’t abdicated and killed off the Queen system, I’d prolly make Alby the 5th for their art skills and their understanding of our history.) @askjetstream @questionthedoctor @twila-bloggin @ask-izzy-moonbow @askquartzandcord @askdrunktwilight @darkreplies @sunny-and-sparkle @ask-narratordoe @ask-pippamena (What did I say earlier? Pinkamena’s legacy lives on.) @asklostcelestia @a-spoonful-o-generosity @askcharmingshadow @ask-shutter-ghost Here’s a funky fact for those of you who came alllllll the way down here. In late 2011/early 2012, right when Tumblrpon started expanding, there was a lot of Homestuck on my dash as it was still updating at the time. Because of that, I have approximate knowledge of many parts of the mid-to-late part of Homestuck, and also because of it I considered opening up a second Fisher blog for Homestuck material. Fisherstuck. Who knows how things would be today had I done that? Who knows....

[words-after-midnight]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

When Act 2 of Life in Black and White was a separate novel, my friends and I called it "Yumyum" (loosely based on the acronym for the title It's All Inside My Head). I also sometimes jokingly refer to The Dotted Line as "the jungle" (hence my inspo reblog tag) based on one of the protagonist's anecdotes about how "Welcome to the Jungle" by GNR was once played over the loudspeaker by guards as a "welcome" to new inmates (himself included) at a correctional facility when he was a teenager. Based on a true story, believe it or not.

[livums]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

oh my goddd this is so funny! happy STS sam! ty for the q! 💜

so BW, my um. unseriously-titled maybe-webcomic-maybe-something-else WIP (with the tag #{matrimonium}, which is kind of what i've been calling it now) will sometimes be referred to as "Horny Girls" by my friends. because. well. they're girls and they sure do have horns! And for no other reason!

I've taken to calling Demigods "the Fellowship", short for "The Fellowship of the Fling",

[outpost51]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

happy sts sam!!

"the unlikely adventures of bitchface and go fuck yourself" was a placeholder title that unfortunately stuck and then formed the cadence pattern for the rest of the books in the series. a lot of my characters have silly affectionate names (dillon = dillybean, pickle; frankie = fanky; etc) too!

[gummybugg]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Happy STS!

Most of the Sillier titles actually belong to the scenes I write! But to answer the question...

Crater City is sometimes referred to with Blair's name, "the post-apocalyptic story," or "that one story of two best friends who are totally not gay." (The latter is how I bring it up to my family, aha)

Indie's Bar and Thrills is just called "monster story" outside of my blog because that's essentially what it is. Sadly, there are no funny alternative titles.

I call The Mice Come Out at Night either "la souris," "mouse story," or "the gay ghost story." Deciding for its Current name required big brain thinking and I actually kind of like how it turned out for the time being! Its title is based on Morgana's quirky mouse symbolism along with inspiration from the In Case I Make It album by Will Wood.

[feathers-little-nest]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Thank you for the question, Sam!

Actually, half of my wips are named after the main character, haha. Mirage of Spring is referred to as that Chinese one (I have more than one wip inspired by China lmao, still my friends refuse to use the actual title) and And May the Moon (...) is that one about Tiv (btw for most of its existence it was called [title on point]). My last nano project got a nickname that chess one, even though it doesn't have any chess at all, even a pawn. There's also a story stuck with the title THAT ONE ROMANCE (yes, in all caps). Also I shouldn't forget about my children named after the first line, like It is great to rest from time to time.

[writernopal]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your stories have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Happy STS, Sam!

'Premath'?! I'm SCREAMING that's incredible haha. Considering no one knew that I was writing for a very long time, this is something that is really an inside joke between me, the keyboard, and GDocs lol.

For a long time, I was calling anything AASOAF-related (original telling, short stories, and canon works) 'Pirata Time' LOL. I'm really bad at naming things, which meant none of the works had titles in any capacity, so it just made sense to refer to them all by one name (I'm really organized can you tell? lol).

I don't call them that anymore now that it's a more formal series, and most of the short stories and original telling have been more or less retired but thank you for reminding me of that little detail! I'd more or less forgotten about it lol.

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

Happy Storyteller Saturday!

I’m curious, do any of your WIPs have a second, perhaps silly ‘title’ you use among your friends or in your notes? A placeholder title that stuck? Something that someone’s suggested and it became an injoke?

(To give you an idea, Gifts of Fate is referred to as ‘Premath’ by two of my friends)

Happy STS! :D Yep; my nickname for The Power and the Glory is P&G Tips. PG Tips is a brand of tea. I have no idea why my brain associated tea with a fantasy WIP, but it's funny ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

more of tauriel’s hellfamily adventures! there’s still a couple of gaps in my conception of this au, which is why these are bullet points and not an actual fic, but i think i’ve got enough to progress the plot, such as it is. certainly got a bunch of anecdotes i think are funny

i’m not even going to bother explaining how tauriel ended up in one of the fëanorians’ boltholes being treated for mild injuries

nothing super serious, but enough that she’s out of action for the rest of the night. the palace is on fire

the bolthole opens, and celegorm (who’s doing first aid) turns his head. his preemptive scowl melts away instantly. ‘hi elrond!’

the former lord of imladris just sighs. ‘please tell me you idiots haven’t abducted tauriel’

legolas has concerns, apparently. he saw celegorm vanish into an alleyway with her slung over his shoulder and immediately started panicking

‘i've talked him into delaying his rescue mission until i had the chance to check that she was safe’ elrond finishes, sounding absolutely exhausted

tauriel confirms that she is doing fine, as much as she can through the concussion. celegorm’s like ‘if he’s so worried about her why doesn’t he just come up here’

elrond disappears, and a few minutes later legolas scrambles inside

he’s glaring at celegorm. celegorm tells him where the first aid kit is, punches him on the arm, compliments his tracking skills in a vaguely threatening manner, and jumps back out to assist with the chaos

legolas collapses by tauriel’s bedside, still clutching his bow. tauriel pats him on the thigh reassuringly

neither of them are surprised elrond knows the fëanorians - they stayed in his place in tol eressëa for a while, dude knows literally everyone - but they don’t really know why

closer to dawn, elrond’s voice drifts up into the hideout. he’s going on this long irritated rant that climaxes in an extremely exasperated ‘valardamnit dad!’

maglor cackles. tauriel’s like ‘huh didn’t know that.’ legolas makes a face like he accidentally swallowed a spider

by this point, tauriel’s known the brothers hellspawn for long enough legolas has been unnervingly close to a kinslayer way more times than he’d like

this is the longest he’s spent in proximity to them by far, but it’s not the only time he’s interacted with them. they seem to like tauriel, and he knows she can take care of herself

but like still

it keeps happening, though. as tauriel further ingratiates herself with these awful awful elves, her two separate social circles keep bleeding into each other

take the time legolas and co visited the aulendili

before they left middle-earth, gimli whipped round every dwarf they knew and assembled several volumes of complaints. they refuse to confirm or deny whether aulë is the maker, but they are determined someone’s gonna hear their grievances

and thus a small wagon train of wood elves head up into the mountains. including tauriel

tauriel offhandedly mentioned the upcoming trip to the twins, and amras was like ‘hey we’ve got family up there!’ a few messages went up and down the funicular, and now gimli and crew have a place to crash up there

they’re put up by some of the fëanorians’ less murderous (if equally loud) relatives. it’s a pretty interesting trip

half the town is redheads. several people still mistake tauriel for a fëanorian. it’s been happening a lot in the wider noldorin territory lately, it’s weird

caranthir stumbles up into town about halfway through their visit. he gets into an extremely long philosophical argument with gimli that somehow ends with a mutual dwarven nod of respect

he also ends up fighting back-to-back with tauriel in one of those debatebrawls so common among the noldor. neither of them is quite sure how it happens

that’s the way it goes, isn’t it. there’s no big official moment when tauriel becomes part of the family

she just grows closer to them over her time in valinor, as they do to her

she merges into their social world. she develops a rapport with maglor’s wife - a first age mountain sinda and a third age forest avar don’t have that much in common, but they are both looking at noldorin culture from the outside. they have so many injokes about ridiculous bling

(it goes the other way too. this childhood friend oc of hers i’m developing - pretty sweet guy, the token sane man in the legolas-tauriel-him trinity - gets along really well with celebrimbor)

this one time tauriel punches a guy out for calling elrond a traitor. it doesn’t matter that he’s like three times her age, he is babey

she gets chewed out by maedhros and tests out new devices for curufin and drops in on nerdanel for tea. even though she doesn’t permanently live in the definitely-not-fëanorian quarter, she has her own personal space in its innermost warren

she’s one of them long before anyone consciously realises it

what causes that realisation is, admittedly, partially the conspiracy theories. if you say something often enough, you’ll start to believe it, and while the tauriel origin stories circulating through the noldorin rumour mill vary a lot in the details they all agree she is a fëanorian

but that’s a gradual long-term thing. it’s one more thread that leads to the moment

because there has to be an inflection point, i think. the fëanorians have plenty of family friends within the ranks of their definitely-not-minions. some are even as close to them as tauriel’s become

something has to happen to show she’s something more. fortunately, as demonstrated by the darkening and the númenorian invasion, no matter how peaceful it seems, history never stops

shit goes down. the exact details i’ll admit i don’t know yet, but at some point some sort of massive crisis rocks all of valinor. it’s during that crisis that tauriel does stuff that makes it blindingly obvious she’s not just on her side, but one of them

what stuff? again, i don’t know yet. i have this mental image of her leading a strike team that’s half definitely-not-minions and half legolas’ people through a burning city to do... something badass, but that’s as specific as i can get atm

what i am certain about, is that throughout the unfolding of the crisis, tauriel is permanently on the fëanorians’ side, just like they’re on hers

it’s one thing to be someone’s friend in bright happy days. it’s another thing to stick by them when everything’s falling to pieces and the whole world is against them. it’s in the depths of this crisis that both parties have the chance to fully prove their worth to each other

that probably wouldn’t be enough on its own, but combined with the friendship and the conspiracy theories and just the general way she is, once the dust settles it’s blazingly clear that tauriel is a daughter of the house of fëanor

there’s a little debate about where exactly she fits on the family tree, but not much. our sample size is admittedly small, but third generation fëanorians tend to have the slightest modicum of common sense? elrond and celebrimbor both have a fair degree of self-awareness and at least a few brain cells

tauriel does not. tauriel is mad, bad, and dangerous to know, just smart enough to understand that her sheer chaoticness is something she can channel but not nearly close to regularly thinking through the consequences of her actions. she’s loud and violent and does whatever she wants whenever she wants without a single thought towards what people will think of her

and more than that, she doesn’t relate to the second generation fëanorians the way the third generation does. she’s their friend and partner-in-crime, not one of their precious perfect must-protect children. she gets jerked around and bullied and does all that stuff right back, and while she doesn’t have a solid place in the second generation’s internal hierarchy yet she would easily slot in

no, tauriel’s a second generation fëanorian, one of fëanor and nerdanel’s horrible children. the fact that fëanor is currently indisposed and unable to provide an opinion on the matter doesn’t seem to bother anyone

she gets inducted into the family in a massive group hug, and from then on out the brothers hellspawn are the siblings hellspawn

her new family doesn’t replace her old one, of course, she has a long talk with elrond wherein she hashes this out. she’s still a silvan of the greenwood

she’s just also the little sister of the most bloodthirsty elves in history

(that sound in the background is legolas screaming)

[thedreadvampy]

A few notes for people coming in through my Mechanisms posts:

Morgan (who plays Ivy Alexandria) is my big brother (big as in age, he's shorter than me 😊). His pronouns are he/him but Ivy's are she/her afaik. Also APPARENTLY he reads my TUMBLR still so hi Morgan I'm Exposed

Kofi (Marius) is my partner. Further back on the blog he's also sometimes referred to as Mechsam (because my other partner's name is Sam). Sometimes he tag searches Marius or the Mechanisms on here, you have been warned. also things you say to me I may mention to him so like. Bear in mind. I'm also working with him on art for his upcoming solo albums The Wassailant and The Death Of Byron Von Raum so I HOLD FORBIDDEN MARIUS LORE which I Will Not Be Revealing.

Yes I know the person who played Nastya, but they've asked to remain relatively anonymous so I will generally refer to them as Nastya or the Artist Formerly Known as Nastya and use neutral pronouns. Because of their request for privacy I will generally steer clear of talking about them as a person except in passing.

While I consider the other Mechs friends to varying degrees, at time of writing I don't think I've seen them since DTTM and we haven't seen much of each other in the last few years. so I'm not like. a direct line to Jonny or Tim or whoever

Which being said I'm not a direct line to anyone. if you want to ask Kofi something, he's on Twitter and happy to be @ed directly.

which being said, don't be weird about it. Kofi is a performer but he's also a person and it's been discomforting for him the few times strangers have approached him asking about our relationship or referencing conversations and injokes he and I have had.

I worked with the Mechs for a good few years on official art for albums and publicity (I did paintings for Once, Ulysses and High Noon, and the poster and logo for DTTM - Bifrost official character art was @evelynhewett) and I've been into the band since 2011. However I was never on the Discord or very active in fandom beyond live events and chatting with a few people, so my knowledge of Old Fan Lore is potentially limited.

I also did Kofi's makeup and styling for DTTM, you're welcome

the mechanisms are all dorks it's weird they're like. Famous People now.

Serious note: there are some deadnames/names that have fallen out of use on this blog bc I've been on here for the whole 9 year Mechs history. It goes without saying: please be cool about this and don't run around saying SO AND SO'S NAME USED TO BE X, and if you could flag it to me if you think you've seen something you shouldn't, that would be useful, bc it's weird to have long-defunct deadnames pop up in my notifs.

If you were gonna ask, the weirdest thing about the explosion of Mechs fandom is how many of you have photos of my brother as your icon bc I'm used to him being on Tumblr (he's not any more) and I keep thinking you're him at first glance.

If you would like to know more about the Mechanisms the people rather than the Mechanisms the characters, I have compiled and anonymised some of my favourite anecdotes here and you can play a game called Which Mechanism Did This Ridiculous Thing. u can send me your guesses I will neither confirm not deny but I will enjoy it

I'm not bothered by ships but I don't engage in shipping content among crewmates because Those Are My Friends. I won't give you shipping hcs (because I don't have any) and I would prefer not to hear yours.

Nothing I say is canon. the only thing that's meaningfully canon is what's in the albums and fiction published by the band. Also my memory is crap so sometimes I do misunderstand or misremember things and it's not my story to tell.

Having said which: there is no hard and fast Mechanisms canon, according to the band, everything each member writes/says is canon to their character but not necessarily to everyone (which I suppose means in Jonny's universe there is no tube sun)

also I started the tube sun fight in 2014 by accident (I thought Tube Sun was the only obvious take given that the whole band agreed Fort Galfridian was a cylinder) and have not backed down since and now you're all my accomplices in bullying Jonny which 😘👌If you're confused about anything Tube Sun I will explain Tube Sun I have a Lot of explanatory drawings kicking around from the original discussion and more recent conversations

PLEASE do not tag posts I make about the band members out of character as “lore” or “forbidden mechanisms lore” or stuff like that. let’s be clear here. it is not lore it’s gossip. I’m telling anecdotes about my friends. on this blog we maintain a separation between the Mechanisms as characters and the Mechanisms as Actual Human People Who Exist. the space pirate crew of the aurora are fair game but the 9 people who started a band in college are actual people who I know and who are part of my life and it is weird and uncomfortable when people take the things I say about my friends and build them into like. headcanons or fan lore or basis for speculation about their lives or whatever. do what you want on your own time but please respect that it’s weird for me to have my anecdotes about Actual People and our Actual Lives treated as juicy fandom content.

Additional note about TMA because apparently I have to say this: Just because I have in the past been friends with Jonny (and there hasn't been much overlap between when we socialised with each other much and when he did TMA) DOES NOT MEAN I HAVE ANY PARTICULAR INSIGHT INTO TMA. I had nothing to do with any element of the production, nor did Morgan or Kofi, I have had a grand total of one (1) conversation with Jonny in like 2017 about the podcast which can be summed up as 'I listened to your podcast' 'cool I don't really want to talk about it'. I have no special or particular knowledge about TMA (other than that I know a handful of the actors involved through my Mechanisms social groups) and yet sometimes people hold me to the standard of some sort of authority/voice of God which is. wild. I Do Not Know Anything About The Magnus Archives Except That I Have Listened To The Podcast.