Once Upon A Time (In Space)

Once Upon A Time (In Space) is a story album retelling fairy tales in space, using folk songs. It is The Mechanisms' first story set / studio album."This tale tells of those embroiled in the rebellion against the tyrant of New Constantinople, Old King Cole. It tells of the love of Cinders for her captured Rose, of the treatment of Rose at the hands of Cole's genetic scientists, and of the bold but savage leadership of the rebel General Snow. And it tells of the final fates of all of these.""This is the Mechanisms' first studio album, recording the set which they have been playing live since early 2011 and which they presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2012."

Plot
From a secret underground chamber in Zantine, the capitol city on New Constantinople, the two thousand year old immortal King Cole rules over his empire of a thousand suns. Looking to improve his army, he considers one of the daughters of the 'noblest family of his kingdom'. Rose is the finest of his soldiers, while her sister Snow is a gifted politician in the royal court, who constantly argues for peace and diplomacy. Wanting an army of cloned Roses to form his new army, Cole has Rose kidnapped on her wedding day, the rest of the attendees slaughtered. She is then turned over to the Drs Hansel and Gretel to engineer the perfect soldier as the Rose Red.

There are two survivors of the attack on Rose's wedding. The first is her sister, Snow, who flees to the Periphery onboard the SS Anderson, but the ship is damaged by a bomb hidden in a crate of apples. The eight survivors of the explosion, including Snow, manually replace the damaged air filtration system, and escape with Snow taking on the mantle of General White, the head of the resistance against King Cole

The second survivor is known as Cinders, Rose's fiancée, and the Princess of an occupied world. Cinders was betrayed by her step-mother and sisters who conceded their planet to Cole's forces, Cinders being imprisoned and her world burned, Cinders taking her name from the ashes of the burning planet. Cinders had met Rose in prison and had only been freed by her 'godmother in white' to marry Rose. With the attack on the wedding day, Cinders swears to find Rose, knowing that her copy of their wedding rings has a proximity sensor that will cause it to glow red when she finds her fiancée.

In the Periphery, Snow's rebellion grows and creates heroes, including Colonel Belle, the hacker Red Hood and Corporal Jack Spratt who was said to have killed a Rose Red Behemoth though, the real killer was Jack's Captain.

On board the Aurora, which has been observing the resistance for thirty years, Aurora discovers that a prototype for the Rose Red, the Briar Rose, who had killed all those working on her on Briar, has been cryogenically slept while being used to power the defense system of New Constantinople. Aurora explains to Nastya that she wishes Briar freed, and the crew attack the facility Briar is held at, freeing her.

With the defenses down, Snow's resistance attacks Zantine. The battle above ground done, the resistance prepares to storm the tunnels under Zantine, with Cinders joining what is remembered as the Noble Twenty-Three, though the name is inaccurate. Cinder's ring already shows that the original Rose is close. In the throne room, the rebels are killed by the Three Little Pigs, Cole's special guard.

Snow spots Rose's cryogenic pod, and shoots it open, waking her up after thirty years. However, the Pigs then kill Snow, before being killed by Rose in turn. Then, as Rose spots and hugs Cinders, she is shot by King Cole. Finally, Cinders stabs King Cole in the heart with her ring, killing him.

Characters

 * King Cole (played by Jonny d'Ville): The immortal ruler of his empire. He is described as having 'a hundred score' years, having been a 'good king, a wise king, it was even said of him that he was merry' however his methods of immortality have changed his personality so that he is brutal and cruel. He rules from a secret chamber underneath Zantium, where only prisoners brought for execution see him on his white throne.
 * Snow (played by The Toy Soldier): the daughter of one of the prominent noble families under King Cole, she attends the royal court and presses for a change to diplomacy and away from militarism. When her sister Rose is kidnapped to become a clone soldier, she leaves New Constantinople to lead the resistance against Cole as General White.
 * Cinders (originally played by The Toy Soldier, including on the studio album. Later live performances were by Raphaella la Cognizi): the Princess of a planet burnt by King Cole's army, after it is ceded by her stepmother. She is imprisoned, meets Rose and plans to marry her. She is released by her godmother for the wedding, then flees when the attack happens, spending thirty years looking for Rose. Her half of the wedding ring will light up when she finds Rose.
 * Briar Rose (originally played by The Toy Soldier, including on the studio album. Later live performances were by Ashes O'Reilly): the original attempt to create a genetically enhanced clone soldier based off of Rose. Named after the moon Briar where she was grown, she killed everyone on the moon before being cryogenically slept and used to control the defence systems around New Constantinople.
 * Drs Hansel and Gretel (played by Gunpowder Tim and The Toy Soldier): King Cole's scientists who work on the Rose Red program.
 * Dr Lorenzo, Mr Greyditch, Colonel Tuco (played by Gunpowder Tim, Jonny d'Ville and Ivy Alexandria): three of the survivors on the SS Anderson with General Snow.

Locations of the Mechanisms

 * The Toy Soldier: Fighting as a Rose Red, ended up as a Colonel.
 * Jonny d'Ville Spent time in a bar playing cards with Jack Spratt.

Trivia

 * As mentioned above, the cast list for performances of this album changed as additional members of the band joined or started singing. This mainly involved Raphaella la Cognizi and Ashes O'Reilly taking over the parts of Cinders and Briar Rose respectively from The Toy Soldier. A sound recording of a live show with this cast list is available from their performance at StandUpTragedy.
 * Cinder's Song and Rose Red were included in the Death to the Mechanisms Sunday performance, and are included in the album.