#Get out of here if you ship those two... except if you're good. 👍

[the-genius-az]

Thoughts on Maitara? Tytara?

Thanks for the question, Amor!

I'm indifferent, I just don't care until Azula appears in them too.

That happens with a lot of ships, I don't care if Azula isn't there too.

Except Kataang and Sukka, I love those ships.

[mushroompoisoning]

Good friend, I ask of you because I trust you, what are these "The Mechanisms" you are so fond of?

Okay I tried to type out an incredibly long summary but tumblr deleted it so you're getting a semi-sane version instead

The Mechanisms are a band of immortal, space-faring pirates travelling the universe singing about the tragedies they witness for our entertainment!

There are nine main members you'll hear about, with the tenth - Dr Carmilla - having left much earlier and making her own music 👍 ( there is technically an eleventh but they're more of a mystery easter egg than anyone we know things about )

Quick lore thing: the mechanisms immortality works from the mechanical part(s) they each have. They can die and get injured, but they'll revive whenever the narrative wants them too. All logic in this universe functions off of Would It Be Good For The Story

The cast is:

Jonny D'Ville (he/him) is the ship's first mate ( don't let him tell you otherwise ) and he's got a mechanical heart

Nastya Rasputina (she/her) is the ship's engineer and girlfriend! Yea the ship - Aurora - is alive btw. She's got me hanical blood

Ashes O'Reily (they/them) is the ship's quartermaster and best arsonist! they've got mechanical lungs

Drumbot Brian (he/him) is the ship's pilot and the only one with a moral code. It's controlled by a switch which flips between Means Justify Ends and Ends Justify Means with no nuance. everything is mechanical except for his heart

Ivy Alexandria (she/her) is the ship's archivist! Pretty chill, cares more for books than violence but that doesn't mean she disapproves of the latter. she's got a mechanical brain

The Toy Soldier (it/its) is the mascot and whatever else they tell it to be! it just wants to be involved. will follow anything you tell it if you ask nicely ( or with enough force ). it's not actually mechanized, and is instead a sentient wooden man

Gunpowder Tim (he/him) is the ship's master at arms! madman war veteran who I love dearly. he blew up the moon. he's great. I pick favourites. he's got mechanical eyes

Raphaella La Cognizi (she/her) is the ship's unethical scientist! nothing is off the table when it comes to research. nothing. theory is she mechanized her, but iirc that unconfirmed. she's got a mechanical spine and wings!

and Baron Marius Von Raum (he/him) who is neither the ships baron nor doctor. he claims to be both, though. Deeply unserious fella. he's got a mechanical arm

^ here are some good images for crew reference

OKAY! Now onto actual music

They have six albums and a couple singles!

Once Upon a Time (In Space) is an unconventional retelling of classic fairytales

High Noon over Camelot is a retelling of King Arthur

Ulysses Dies at Dawn is a greek mythos adaptation

and The Bifrost Incident is a norse mythos adaptation

there's also Tales To Be Told volumes I and II, and the two single Frankenstein and Death To The Mechanisms ( technically that one is part of an album but the album is just a bunch of their other songs from already existing albums )

The tales to be told albums contain some of the mechanisms origins!

One Eyed Jacks is Jonny's

Lucky Sevens is Ashes'

Lost In The Cosmos is Brian's

and Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser I don't think I have to say

Nastya has an origin song, but it was never officially put on anything. You can find it on the @mechanismslorearchive ( you can get any lore you want on there )

They also have a number of live shows ( you can find those on youtube ) and written stories on their website! I recommend these if you wanna get to know the mechanisms as characters better

that is the basic rundown. I'm not an expert on the mechs so if you're looking to talk to a metaphorical seasoned nurse instead of a med student I'd go to @bugsinthebayou or @gunpowderdtim (sorry for tagging yall)

[kari-izumi2-electric-boogaloo]

From what I gather, this is just to help cover costs as they grow. The free beta is slated for next year, and there's talk of bringing back icon purchases like LJ had to cover costs for this exact reason.

For me, it's worth it to:

Have a functioning website

The option to turn off reblogs and make mutural-only posts. Not that I've had to do that as of yet because the community so far are LJ expats who never got into Tumblr to begin with.

Actual mature conversation instead of pissing matches. I realize that will inevitably change open beta goes live, but after the last year and a half since I finally came here kicking and screaming once LJ sold out to Russian I'd rather have a lower traffic site with actual discussion than fifty reblogs of noise

A functional website

A good block feature (unless said person you're blocking is the mod of a community you're a part of, which is understandable)

Speaking of which, there are moderated spaces there! No more having to be afraid to ship what you fucking want and getting reported over some Shiro/Pidge platonic hug pic you liked 👍because if someone comes showing their ass, they can be shown the door!

It also helps for if you don't want to flood your main blog with stuff most of your other muturals won't care about (like shitty car mods, in my case)

The site works!

Unlike the Writscrib fiasco, the creators there are taking their time to make the interface user friendly and working before opening the floodgates. That's part of what the $5 and staggered sign up schedule is for

Neat feature: reblogging the post only. Like LJ you can comment below the post , but there's no more having to repost five miles of chain blogging to have a conversation only two other ppl care about.

They're actively recruiting volunteers to help work on the site (particularly those familiar with Ruby on Rails, which IIRC is what AO3 uses too) and have a comm specifically for suggestions and bugs that need fixing.

No intrusive ads as of yet

Did I mention the site actually has a great degree of fuctionality? Cuz it does. It's not perfect (I hate that mobile doesn't display the quote block text on my phone in comments), but most of what it doesn't have--like a queue/save draft feature, no ability to upload video directly or GIFs over 1 MB and a somewhat wonky way to view reblogs and likes--are more nitpicks that I except will be resolved in the future once there's a server capable of hosting such things.

The cool thing is PF just offered a risk-free trial of the site not that long ago that allowed ppl to check it out with a full refund if they weren't happy after three weeks....but they do have a demo log-in that has access to most of the site features so you're able to look at how it works before making a financial commitment.

That's ultimately what got me sold: the level of dedication to a user-friendly set up.

I don't know how deep you are into fandom, but Tumblr was never designed for that purpose, or for anyone who doesn't want every waking thought being broadcast into the air. If you're an artist, this site works (unless you post tagged NSFW, evidently 😐). But like I said, I personally never loved this place to begin with, so its pretty easy for me to walk away from here and the other blog I had that was mostly reblogs which got purged. I fully expected to get scrapped cuz of my pro-shipper stance anyway eventually.

But frankly, I can't trust a site that didn't put the most minimal amount of effort to clean up an issue that's been going on since I've been here (and probably longer than that) to put any effort into doing right by anyone who sticks around after this. I've already been there, done that with FF.net, LJ and countless message boards before that and just like in all four remakes of A Star is Born, the ending is exactly the same.

So… 

Someone tell me.

Is pillowfort truly worth paying for?

I just have a deep aversion to paying for personal blog space. It’s been less than a year since something that required a fee would have completely excluded me, and I do not like the idea of a fandom space that shuts some people out–especially people for whom fandom might be the one happy spot in a stressful time of their life.

Yes, really. Five dollars would have been too much. I’m still struggling to grasp that I can afford that now. 

I’m just not fully onboard with this idea, but on the other hand, I don’t want to be left alone here, either.