#A eldritch old god kinda lad

[the-wotog-collection]

true canon: an explanation

True Canon is set in a typical High Fantasy D&D ye olden age world, with monsters and magic and dragons galore. It started out focused entirely on Eve and Viktor and a few others’ travels through a country called Witherhurst, and as we made more characters and stories and kingdoms, we expanded the scope of WotOG (the original D&D game) to cover all of them, until we had a nice world built up around the characters. Since not all of the stories related to the events of WotOG (and WotOG part 2: Electric Boogaloo), we decided to change the name to True Canon, so we knew which universe for sure was the foundation upon which our Many AU’s Stand. Here’s a quick n dirty timeline, for reference:

(much more under the cut)

-Eve, Viktor, and a few others that aren’t relevant to the story travel around Witherhurst on a job or something from a lady who’s Definitely Not Important At All (Her name is Prenella). At some point Prenella ditches the party and they’re stuck without a cleric for a while

-They make it to a big city, and through shenanigans that include travelling the city for fun and also almost dying to a pack of rabid dogs, Eve convinces Intem to join the party.

-Eve, Vik, and now Intem (plus one more pc) unravel a cult plot, something about the end of the world, blah blah nothing really important there. They end up taking out the cult and fighting Prenella, the cult’s leader, who also happens to be a dragon. Neat.

-After that horrifying ordeal, the party reconvenes and decides, ‘fuck it, let’s go find a new place to travel together’ and thus board a ship that they then steal from the captain (after Intem’s “pet” eats said captain).

-So begins the few years the party spends as pirates.

-Things happen, they end up fighting an eldritch god for world-ending rights, and go on their merry way.

- Intem falls into the role of reluctant (but no less ruthless) pirate captain, with vik as his first mate and eve as navigator (despite the fact that she can’t read. they figure it out)

-This is around the time Intem goes from lilac-haired sunshine boy to disgruntled cynic who’s Done With Your Shit, Viktor.

-Eventually the crew docks, and picks up Therai and Pippin for a while. Eve also brings up the idea of reviving Vik’s old travelling companion, Dante (two bros, chillin in a tavern, no feet apart ‘cause they’re so gay), and Intem’s like “Sure why the fuck not” and they set off to find his grave or whatever.

-Hatch and Xander are in the area and end up getting picked up by the crew.

-Dante gets revived, and for the next year or so, everything is fine.

-Eventually the crew docks near Therai’s old home kingdom, and he dips, taking Pippin, Xander, and Hatch with him (he really only meant to take Pip). They spend a while travelling to his kingdom, Aer-Vinn, and encounter Hatch’s long time (boy)friend Aerglo. He joins the party, at Hatch’s request.

-A little while later (vague time frame I know but exact years don’t matter here), there’s some Good Therai Angst when- Shock! Horror! - they end up stumbling upon Tal, who shares ~history~ with Therai. Not the good kind, mind you. They leave soon after meeting Tal.

-There’s a few more encounters with Therai’s old companion before Tal eventually softens up and joins the party, hell yeah. Warren joins too, because he was nearby and Also shares ~history~ with Therai and Tal. (They were all in a party together before this)

-AT THE SAME TIME THIS IS GOING ON: Rain sets out on a holy mission from their church to prove themselves worthy of being a Paladin of the Church.

-They meet Rosemary along the way, and after a small adventure together, they decide to help Rose out and find Catherine with her, because a while back Rose accidentally turned Catherine into, well, a cat.

-They do find Cat, after she’d gone through some Shit in an alternate dimension featuring a Sun Goddess and her complete mental breakdown. Cat Killed A Goddess (or two, we’ll see how the campaign goes), and made friends with the cousins Mikhail and Valentine. Mikhail doesn’t matter to the timeline right now. 

-Anyway, Rain and Rose find Cat, and settle down in a little seaside village where they work together to turn Cat back into a human.

-They Succeed!!!

-Uh-oh there’s a stranger at the door- Oh! It’s just Rain’s Cleric friend from their church, Rahon! Turns out Rain kinda went MIA and everyone back home is having a Panic, so Rahon’s here to make sure Rain is alive and well, or collect their belongings if they’re not-

-But they’re alive, so Rahon calms down and decides to stay (after sending a message back home, of course), to keep an eye or two on Rain.

-Rain is Delighted :)

-The party (minus kal) were traveling somewhere, kal ended up going the same way, and they ended up in the same city for a while. rahon saw her Up To No Good, so he kept an eye on them and saw them getting stabbed, and decided to nurse her back to health, and thus Kal Joins The Party. Rahon is an absolute sweetheart to them

-Eventually Rose, Cat, and Rain head out to a nearby cave system bc of Reasons, and end up kinda sorta stumbling into a system that leads to this world’s version of the Underdark. They need help navigating, because Fuck These Tunnels Are Confusing, and come across a little hermit drow who’s living his “best” life in his underground hut with tattered clothes and ratty books and cracked glasses.

-He just wants to see the surface but is terrified of how the world will treat him if he goes up alone, so he offers to guide everyone through the Underdark in exchange for them taking him up to the surface. Everyone agrees

-Astralus, little hermit drow lad, does so, and soon finds himself stumbling out into broad daylight. He’s got light sensitivity and everything Burns, but he’s so fucking happy oh my gods. Also he’s crying but it’s okay, he’s kinda really emotional.

-Aster joins the party! And they find out he’s cousins with Rose, who practically adopted him as a brother anyway let’s be real.

-Somehow Val learns of Cat’s whereabouts, and pops by to say hi to his trauma buddy. Cue shock as he sees her as human for the first time. Aster develops an immediate crush, and takes to following Val around like a lost puppy.

-Val is having a Time because, Aster looks just like a person he knew in an alternate universe and things didn’t turn out well for them. Yikes.

-Val joins the party, if only to tease Cat and finally have a place to be for a while

-MEANWHILE: Bree finds an abomination living in the abandoned mineshafts near her village. She decides he could probably use a friend, since the entire village is pretty scared of/hostile towards him, and becomes that friend. She finds out his name is Ve, and he’s a sweetheart. She makes immediate friends and he teaches her sign language, because he Literally Doesn’t Have A Face, he can’t speak.

-A few weeks later, either Ve or Bree decide to leave bc Fuck This Town, except they don’t say Fuck because they’re both softe beans (they both legally cannot say fuck. and i actually had an idea for how they leave ovo). Either way, they leave, and through shenanigans, they pick up Three More Tieflings, what the hell, which is kinda funny because previously, Bree didn’t think tieflings existed at all. 

-Tarvaii and Trancey are travelling together as a Chaotic Mischief Duo, and end up joining the party because Bree made friends

-Same situation with Chaym, though he was alone and depressed because his entire village got massacred. Bree made friends, and Chaym joined the party

-Chaym also ended up teaching Trancey magic, specifically Necromancy, which is kinda really stupid dangerous but it’s fine, Chaym survived, why shouldn’t Trancey? (flawed logic but okay Chaym)

-Cut to a few years later, back with Eve and Co.

-They’re in a tavern, Eve sees a depressed tiefling at the bar. What does she do? Immediately go try to cheer him up.

-She finds out he’d left his pregnant girlfriend on a mission to go help out somewhere, and ended up stuck in a weird place where time passes differently for him. It’s been 26 years, though to him it felt more like a handful of weeks. He’s scared and confused and would very much like to find his family, but he has no idea where he is.

-Eve’s heart breaks bc! he’s so sad and his girlfriend is pregnant and he’s got a family and just wants to get back to them, how could she not want to help? and thus she decides to help the tiefling, Viren, find his family.

-Through a series of events, the find out Viren’s family was living in a beautiful city built into the mountains, that fell quite a few years back. Luckily, his girlfriend left beforehand, and moved to a small mining town, where she gave birth to, and briefly raised, their son. She named him Ve, after his father, who she assumed was dead.

-There was a fire at one point, and Angelica, Viren’s girlfriend, died saving Ve. Viren is absolutely devastated when he finds out, and Eve offers to resurrect Angelica, y’know, bring the family together again, even if for just a short time.

-Vi agrees, and they do so! Woo! Also Eve and co. meet up with Ve for a while so the family really is back together.

-Intem, doing a sneaky trick, makes it so Angelica’s soul keeps the body and just, lives until the body dies, be it natural or unnatural causes. He only tells Eve and Angelica about it, and waits to see how long it takes Viren to realize ‘oh shit I’m not losing my fiance so soon’

-Also Viren and Angelica get engaged! Woo!

-A little while passes, Viren and Anne join the party, and Eve gets pregnant with Intem’s kids. At this point the party’s stopped adventuring, and they all settled down somewhere nice. Anyway Eve’s pregnant and gives birth to twins, Olive and Evergreen (Evan for short), but Olive looks more like Therai than Intem and it’s kinda weird, but nobody really minds because the twins are just, so cute. Also Therai (and co) came back and built the party a nice house, so, yeah.

-Olive and Evan grow up, and Evan takes an interest in Druid Magic. Vik lets Evan access his Giant Library and teaches him general magic stuff. Olive scares her whole ass family by taking an interest in Necromancy, and eventually someone gets in contact with Chaym (and by extension Trancey), and has him come over to teach Olive.

-Olive becomes a necromancer! And then heads off with Evan in tow to start their own life of adventuring. 

-Eve has another kid, Avery, with Therai

-Olive befriends a Whole Ass Dragon, gives him the nickname Jade, and introduces him to Evan. By the time the trio make it back to Jade’s hoard, Avery’s taken on the role of Fighter and heads out into the world to do her own thing. She also meets Clover, another fighter, and they travel together for a while before joining Olive, Evan, and Jade. 

-That’s it, that’s where we stopped on the timeline of True Canon. It’ll go on, of course, but, here’s the general timeline in 4 pages

[oopsalldemons]

So HideKaz + A Bonus:

Aight so goin back into big super detail about this fool, a few select folks know my background here as a roleplayer when I was around 13-15 and I had a particular character I used! A young lad named Kazuo, or Kaz for short, in various fandoms. Namely stuff like The Walking Dead, Danganronpa, and Persona.

But also equally as many people who read my old OC tag, I mentioned in passing that I was working on a bird universe. So recently that project got several levels of scrapped with many characters getting rewritten to account for all of this.

This becomes kinda bumpy for Kazuo because throughout his rewrites after the old RP days, I played around with a lot of things, namely working him into my weird ass bird verse. However, one of the things I had worked into the universe late into it's devlife/dev cycle was the concept of ancestor birds and descendant birds to account for a world rebuilding event In Lore™. This is where Hideki comes in. Hideki was a solution to keep aspects of earlier versions of Kazuo because I could easily waive it away as "Oh! He's the ancestor of sorts to this one bird and the world rebuilding event left him a little fucked up with the few things he does remember." This aspect kinda became one of the things that began to cause some very strong issues down the line when rummaging through the remains of that project and trying to salvage characters or ideas I wanted to keep (with the help of @coolsville-ghetto because holy fuck I was in the rough at that time and I couldn't think objectively on what direction to go).

So to fix the issue of Hideki and Kazuo, I came to a compromise with the naming ordeal. Hideki was his birthname before getting ended by his pops and getting revived by the friendly neighborhood eldritch god Charilaos (we'll get to him. Trust me, We Will Get To Him) to essentially be given an eternal second chance in life with immortality. Kazuo ends up being kind of an alias (with matching surname) to hide his existence any time he decides to visit his original plane of existence or any new one if he doesn't immediately trust it right on the get go. HideKaz is just the amalgamation I use just so people don't get super confused about which dipshit I'm talking about.

This issue also applies to his daughter, Aoi, but to a much lesser extent. This is mostly mitigated because in her case, she was stuck in a world that was rebuilt (ask Cools more about this) but she still retains all her old memories as Aoi. The only thing that has changed is her appearance to that of a boy named Satoru, who still talks, walks, dresses, and acts like his female counterpart and isn't really all that different. Tis but a screwup (iirc) from the higher ups that rebuilt the world. Outside of that, AoRu™ is still the same essence Hideki recognizes as his kid.

[eggoreviews]

My Top 25 Games Advent Day 15 - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (#11)

​​“On that day, when the sky fell away, our world came to an end.”

​​​​It would be an understatement to say I was late to the party when it comes to Smash and even fighting games in general, after my first experience being stumbling upon a copy of Brawl amongst my boyfriend’s old Wii games, before picking up the 3DS one for myself. There in front of me was some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game, especially with other people, and a roster full of characters I’d barely heard of. I found myself drawn into the Smash hype circle, getting to know each and every character, their movesets and what characters/stages could turn up in the future. This meant I was in the perfect spot to be blisteringly excited for the game’s latest installment and, for me at least, it is by far the best fighting game ever made, as well as most ambitious and well-executed crossover event conceived.

​​Smash at its base level embodies fun, both for casual players (like me) and those who prefer the competitive side of things. The controls are intuitive, but take time to master, and it’s so accessible I genuinely feel as if I might be competent at it. To make matters even better, Ultimate is the most refined and fast-paced in the series, blending perfectly responsive controls, moment-to-moment fighting and revamped movesets to accommodate these changes, this truly is my definitive Smash title. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve whittled away just playing the CPUs (actually, yes I can, because my Switch tells me), because I genuinely just have that much fun with it.

​​As I mentioned before, I was pretty much immediately sucked into the hype cycle that came with Ultimate and I was unbelievably excited for each and every character that came in. That’s the great thing about Smash; the fact that the lead-up is arguably better than its release, purely due to the giddy speculation of what characters from our favourite franchises could make the cut this time around, even if most of the characters that came in I’d purely heard through other people.

​​In March of 2018, Nintendo dropped a sneaky trailer showing off the inclusion of the Inklings before the game was even announced at the end of the trailer; Inklings are fun and cool and I was into it. Skip to E3 and oh god I’ve never been this excited in my entire life. Fucking everyone is coming back from every previous game, along with highly requested big boi Ridley and slightly less requested Daisy (who I still main sometimes) and that’s when I sort of lost it. Following that up with the likes of the Belmonts, K. Rool, Ken, that beautiful plant, my bois from Persona 5 AND DQ11? And some 90s twunk in a baseball cap? This roster couldn’t get any better if it tried (except it can, because there’s more coming). Each and every stage that accompanies these characters is perfectly realised, with the whole game brilliantly utilising its bright, consistent art style, which is especially impressive when you consider the fact they needed to balance the aesthetics of the likes of Solid Snake and Isabelle. Everything in this game is just brimming with Sakurai and the Smash team’s dizzying attention to detail that packs as many references and callbacks to specific characters and franchises as possible. The vast majority of stages maintain the overall visual design of its home franchise, as well as including camoes from other NPCs from those games. And the S O U N D T R A C K. Basically a thousand tracks worth at this point, peppered with remixes for every franchise, even ones that wouldn’t have been necessary but are just a testament to the amount of time and effort put into making this game the ultimate crossover. Even putting aside the massive amount of original tracks and older remixes, newer ones like Termina Field, Guile Stage, Beneath the Mask, literally everything from Mega Man and Castlevania. It’s all just so GOOD. 

​​However, by the time release was starting to inch closer, one gripe remained. What, if anything, were they going to do about single player content? Because Smash is not famed for its myriad of stuff you can do alone and Smash is basically half the fun without someone to play it with. In Melee, you had Adventure Mode, which was just kind of there. In Brawl, a grandiose campaign complete with unique bosses and wonky platforming, Subspace Emissary. And I’ll be honest, while I loved the cutscenes, I eventually couldn’t finish it due to the sheer length of time I spent competing with the slightly off platforming sections. And famously, Smash 4 was almost completely devoid of any single player content, with the exception being the inevitable classic mode. But all my concerns melted away when they unveiled the opening cutscene of their cool new story mode, World of Light. I know this had mixed reception, but I personally loved it, because it focused on what you’re actually meant to be doing in Smash; fighting things. Add on top of this a vague story about killing eldritch beings and collecting over a thousand shiny JPEGs and yeah I’m hooked on this. It’s still wild to me that so fucking many of my absolute favourite characters are collectible in one place, from Mipha to Makoto Niijima, my DQ11 lads to Ricky the kangaroo. World of Light was an absolute blast and I loved playing it and discovering all of its secrets.

​​And now, prepare for the smallest paragraph in the world as I take you through my two (2) tiny gripes with this game:

​​1. They kinda fucked with All-Star mode. I preferred the sort of gauntlet thing from the previous game, though that is just nitpicking at this point.

​​2. Two tracks and no spirits was apparently all they could find for Final Fantasy. I suppose we can’t blame them, I bet they looked. Probably buried underneath all that Squeenix royalty money. Maybe they’ll dig up some more content one day.

​​There’s my gushing review on my absolute favourite fighting game I’ve played. Maybe I’m biased considering this is packed with my favourite series and full of characters I’ve come to now through the game, but I consider this to be the definitive Smash. And there’s still more coming! I’m going to explode!​​

​​Standout Moment Award: Today’s standout moment is the only one on this list that’s going to something that occured pre-release; that is every Nintendo Direct that gave us a brand new character. That build-up, that giddy excitement of knowing you’re about to find out who’s next to join, is something little else in gaming can match.

Standout Character Award: Joker. Nothing can really top the excitement I felt at my perfect boi dropping into the Game Awards.

​​Tomorrow: No. 10; Space captain and all-around sex machine goes on a universe-spanning, pest control adventure.

[gems-on-a-plastic-beach]

Gorillaz React

So a while back, posted this fanfic on FF.net. Now I got this blog I decided I might as well share this stupid little thing I wrote. :)

"So uh, correct me if I'm wrong. You've gathered all of us here, not to discuss promotions, not to discuss the website, but to film us watching... A sodding Youtube video?"

Murdoc had a perplexed look on his face mixed with slight annoyance. He wasn't quite caught up on all these new trends on Facetube or Snaptagram, or whatever those bloody websites were called. And frankly, he had no desire to be.

Noodle and 2D were more turned into social media, but Noodle was always busy focusing on their music, being the passionate worker she is, and 2D was... Well, he was 2D. Could the job really be left in capable hands with him? This was precisely why Gorillaz hired a manager for their media. Someone who was young and knew what they were doing. The same manager that they'd recently hired for their Youtube channel had called the four of them into the living room of their new HQ: the Spirit House, all sat in a row on the couch, with Youtube up on the TV and the cameras ready.

"Yeah, I don' get this. Wot's all this about? We answering live fan questions or sumthin?" 2D asked, exchanging a few confused looks with the other band members.

"Well no. It's not live and it isn't exactly a Q&A. I know it sounds strange, but keep in mind that this could be considered a type of promotion in of itself." The young manager explained. "Have the four of you by chance heard of the Youtube channel TheFineBros?"

The band exchanged a few confused glances. None of them could say they have.

"Nope." Russel said flatly.

"Can't say I have, no." Noodle said.

"I 'ave no idea what your talkin' about." 2D said bluntly.

"Do you really think I care to know about these silly little "channels", or whatever they are? What the hell does this have to do with us?" Murdoc said irritably.

The manager was losing them. It was better to just get straight to the point. "Uh, well okay. So this channel hosts a series of videos where they have different people of different age groups react and discuss various videos shown to them with topics to do with popular culture, current events, music and movies of the like. Recently, they did a video with some people reacting to a few of your music videos, and discussing them."

The band now started to gain interest, except for Murdoc of course. Bored as hell and lighting up yet another cig.

"It's a video with young people who may have grown up with your music. It's called "College Kids React to Gorillaz"."

Murdoc suddenly looked up. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. College kids?" His tune had miraculously changed to something far more enthusiastic. "By "college" kids, this video wouldn't by chance happen to include any college-age gir-"

Before Murdoc could even finish his sentence, 2D started laughing and Noodle was giggling. Russel just groaned, burying his bald head in his palm.

"Oh for god's sake, Murdoc. Can you not go ten minutes without thinking with your wrinkly old nether regions?" Russel sighed in annoyance. Always the more mature and paternal one of the group.

Murdoc leaned over with a sleazy smile. "Oh, sure Russ. I remember that of all things, you don't seem to possess a pulse. Heheheh."

"Hey, I have a pulse just like anybody else. I just don't go off mindlessly chasing tail like an animal. I don't have delusions of someone half my damn age having any interest in me. Unlike you, ya damn unwashed geriatric." Murdoc sneered at the last remark.

"Yeah Mudz, ya dirty ol' geezer." 2D snickered.

Russel quickly turned to face 2D. "Oh Shut up, 'D. You're just as bad and you know it. Don't try to pretend you're any better. I'm the one who does the laundry 'round here and unfortunately I've come across your stash, and I've seen those stains on your sheets!" Murdoc and Noodle sputtered with laughter while 2D began to blush. Murdoc even shed a tear, he was laughing so hard. Quite embarrassed, the manager tried to interrupt the raunchy banter, but Russel kept going, now with a grin.

"Even now you still take multiple girls back to your bed, many half your age. And judging by your masturbatory material, you into some nasty shit, man. You're no better than Murdoc, you're just more covert about it."

2D was still red in the face, but managed to laugh along. "Ay, I'm not the one to blame there, mate. It's the birds over the years that introduced me to all that kinky shit. The girls love it, I just went along with it and heh, it ain't that nasty. Ya really don't know what your missing." He said with a cocked eyebrow and a cheeky grin. 2D may have been a sweetheart, but he wasn't a chaste guy by a long shot.

Russel scoffed. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, you skinny pervert."

The manager stood there awkwardly. They raised an eyebrow at Noodle. "How have you dealt with this for so long?"

Noodle smiled and shrugged. "Aw, there's little that shocks me. I'm not precious, I can handle it." She then smirked devilishly, and winked. "Besides, I happen to get mine quite aplenty these days."

Murdoc and 2D whooped and cheered for her, like they were a bunch of lads down at the pub, proud of their mate getting laid for the first time. Russel however, turned away and pretended desperately not to hear what she said. She may be 27, but Noodle was always going to be his baby girl after all.

This had gone off the rails enough. Although it wasn't unusual for this lot. Tangents were an everyday norm for Gorillaz.

"Ahem. Back on track- Today, the four of you are going to react to their video of them reacting to you."

"Oh? so it's a reaction of a reaction? Interesting." Russel said.

"Aw yeah, this is what they call a paradox, right?" 2D asked without thinking.

"Heh, not quite, 2D." Noodle said with a smile.

"Ughhh. No, dullard. A paradox is a contradiction." Murdoc groaned, without much patience for the singer's ignorance.

"Really? Oh yeah..." 2D said, spacing out a bit.

Murdoc looked to the young manager. "Okay, alright, I'm with ya, kid. Let's just this done, yeah?"

"Okay guys." The thumbs up was given and the video started.

The video had a cold opening, the first shot with a pretty blonde girl watching the last few seconds of the video for 'Feel Good Inc'.

"That song's so good. I wanna listen to it on my way home now." She commented.

"Well, well. I think we are off to a grrreat start, Haheheh." Murdoc said loudly, with a lecherous grin and that gravely laugh of his. The others groaned.

"Shh! Mudz, come on man." Russel hushed him.

"So today we're going to show you a medley of music from a popular band, starting with their new song and then going into their bigger hits".

The video shown within the video was the start of Saturnz Barz, showcasing each of the young adult's reactions.

"What is this?"

"Oh yeah, It's Gorillaz!"

"This is Gorillaz! Ohhh, I'm so excited!"

"Hehe, I like that guy's enthusiasm!" Noodle said.

"I'm so excited for their comeback." One of the girls said.

"Well get excited honey, because we are BACK!" Murdoc proclaimed.

"I wanna be part of the Gorillaz!" A dude with a yellow beanie said, clearly a fan.

2D laughed nervously. "Well, heheh, I'd be careful what you wish for there, mate. Otherwise you'll end up in a series of unfortunate events, and might find yourself held prisoner by a slimy green bass player, several leagues under the bloody sea!" 2D shot a glare at Murdoc.

"Oh come on, 2D. Let it go. It's been years." Murdoc waved him off.

2D muttered what sounded like: "Fuckin' wanker." under his breath.

The music video was now into Popcaan's verse. Some of the kids seemed taken aback by the surreal visuals.

"I was digging the animation until it got really trippy."

"They seem unfamiliar with our aesthetic." Noodle commented.

"Haha. If only you knew mate." Murdoc chuckled.

"This is different from what they usually do."

"This is so different and creative."

"The pizza's talking. That's so cool!"

"See Murdoc? I told you young people still appreciate artistry." Noodle said to Murdoc.

"Yeah well, They may have picked out an alright bunch." Murdoc shrugged.

"How do they come up with these things?" A brunette with red lipstick asked.

"Personal experiences, love. If not, then a cocktail of LSD and Vodka and three days lack of sleep." Murdoc stated.

"Or, a creative imagination." Russel spoke up.

Murdoc snorted. "Imagination. Pfft, yeah, that what is."

"This is like the weirdest music video I've ever seen!" The blonde girl said.

"The weirdest you've ever seen, love?" 2D laughed. "You ain't seen much of the 90's then. Bjork, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails. Their shit was proper crazy!"

"To be fair, she doesn't look like your average Manson or Nine Inch Nails listener, does she?" Murdoc pointed out.

"Pretty much." 2D chuckled.

"It's very them, but it's kinda creeping me out." Another of the girls said.

"It was damn creepy that day when we shot it, that's for sure." Russel shivered at the memories of that possessed bed and eldritch-like creature messing with him.

"To be honest, I'm not really digging the song." A guy in grey said.

"Well fuck you too, ya little cu-" Murdoc swore.

"Murdoc!" Noodle pulled him up. "Come on, don't be a dick. Everyone's entitled to their own tastes." He grumbled in response.

"It looks like a horror film!" The blonde girl exclaimed.

"Heh, well that's the idea. We're all horror fans to an extent, love. Saying a video from us looks like a horror film is like saying a video from Daft Punk looks like a Sci-Fi." 2D grinned.

The video of Saturnz Barz came to an end, with the final lines from Murdoc and Russel. "Breakfast?" "Oh Yeah! I got a real appetite."

"What in the world?"

"That's so sick. It's Gorillaz, dude, I'm excited for their comeback!"

"I wish I was this creative. I write songs about breakups." A guy in a red flannel shirt said.

"Hey, there ain't nuffin wrong wiv that, man." 2D spoke. "I was in that position once when I was in my teens. Writin' silly songs about girls. But if yew just keep going and doing what yew love, you'll get better wiv time. There ain't much of a science to it. It's just something that'll come to you wiv life experience."

Noodle smiled. "Well said, D-chan." "Yeah man." Russel agreed.

"Well uh, hm. You did have my help, dullard. If it weren't for me you'd still be writing hack tunes." Murdoc bragged. The other two frowned. It was well known that Murdoc often took the writing credit from other band members, particularly 2D. The blue haired front man was famously ditzy, but he was far more lyrically talented than given credit for. Murdoc resented him for it. He wasn't a bad lyricist, but a was jealous he didn't even have half of 2D's poetic gift.

"Actually," Murdoc began, "Come to think of it, they seem to have missed the greatest part of the video."

"And which part was that?" Noodle asked him. Murdoc flamboyantly waved his hands and let his long tongue roll out of his mouth.

"THE BATH!" He bellowed.

"SHUT UP, MURDOC!" The three others yelled at him while he cackled. Not at all pretty image they had to remember.

The video next showed the visuals for two of the band's new songs, 'We Got the Power' and 'Andromeda'. But since they were shown quite short there was little to say, although the college kids seemed to like them.

"One of the greatest things that defines Gorillaz is that ironically, they aren't defined by a genre. They make so much different music and no song is alike." The guy in the yellow beanie in the video explained.

"Mad respect, man. This dude here knows what he's talking about." Russel smiled. The others nodded in agreement.

"Oh wow, I'm buying this album! When's it coming out?" The brunette with red lipstick asked.

"April 28th, honey! Mark it down darlin', Huhuheh." Murdoc laughed that gravely laugh of his again. "Down, boy." Russel hushed Murdoc.

"Now here's a few more songs from earlier in their career." The interviewer in the video said.

"Alright, peeps. Let's see what the kids make of the classics, eh?" Murdoc grinned, clapping his hand together.

The video for 'Clint Eastwood' was showcased, the sound bringing back a whirl of nostalgia for the band members.

"I aint happy, I'm feeling glad, I got sunshine in a bag..." It was familiar to most of the young adults, and some started to even sing along.

"Holy shit, lads. It's been YEARS since I've actually seen this video." 2D gasped. "Geez, look how young we are! Hey, look at you, Noodle! Look at cha, yer such a little muffin!" 2D grinned at Noodle and affectionately nudged her rib. She smiled warmly back at him like he was a doting older brother. They didn't seem to interact much on camera or in interviews, but they had a sweet bond in reality.

"How many years has it been since this song was released?" The brunette in the video inquired.

"Jesus, about... 16 years?" 2D looked at others. "Yeah, yeah. It was 2001. 16 years... Wow." Russel said with awe.

"You were 11 Noodle, I was 23." 2D reminisced. "Yeeaaah... And now Faceache, You're 39." Murdoc drawled, looking at 2D with a shit-eating grin. "How pray tell, does it feel?"

2D frowned, before shooting back a cocky look. "Welp, feels a lot better than bein' 50, ya old git." Murdoc laughed for once at 2D's jab at him. "Ah mate, If I weren't in such a good mood, I'd sock you for that one." 2D grinned back. It was rare for him and Murdoc to have these moments of friendly banter.

"This is giving me Cartoon Network vibes." The guy in grey said.

"It's funny he says that. We were supposed to have our own TV show, but it never got off the ground." Russel pointed out.

Del the Funky Homosapien's rap started in the video. Russel hung his head a bit in sadness for the loss of his dearly departed friend.

"Del. Oh Del. It's been years." Russel sighed mournfully. "You okay, Russ?" 2D asked him.

Russel nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, nah. Yeah don't worry, I'm fine. It's just- you know how it is." The others nodded sympathetically. Russel went through a rough patch after Del was exorcized from his mind, so it was understandable how he felt.

'Clint Eastwood' ended in the video. It was a song liked by pretty much everybody.

"Classic song. I totally know it, but can't think of the name."

"I like the gritty look of each character and the fact that they each have their own kind of personality."

"Well, in the late 90's and early 2000's, there wasn't much of a competition to have a personality in music." Murdoc bragged. "We turned the world upside down! Unlike those teeny bopper shits. They wouldn't have known what real personality was if it turned around and punched 'em in the teeth!"

The next music video showcased was 19-2000. Another video the band hadn't seen in a long time.

"The world is spinning too fast, and I'm buying Nike shoes, to keep myself tethered to the days I tried to lose..."

"I want to know what they look like, instead of these little characters!" Two of the girls in the video said.

"Whatcha see is whatcha get, honey! This is us as we are!" Murdoc said proudly. Although he had a feeling this was going to go a in direction that he wasn't at all pleased about.

"Have they shown their faces on newer concerts?"

Murdoc scowled. This brought back an irritable memory. "Well, no. But that's cause the last time we went on tour, that backstabbing bastard, Damon Albarn stole MY BAND! IT'S MY BAND!" Murdoc stood up and started yelling. He was of course referring to the Plastic Beach tour. "We were holed up in the dressing room for every show! All the bloody doors were jammed and we couldn't get out!"

Russel pulled Murdoc back down on the couch. "Take it easy, man."

Murdoc scoffed. "Oh, shut up Russ. You weren't there! You can't speak for us. Right 2D?" 2D scratched his head. "Well uh, yeah. It was pretty unpleasant being stuck in the dressing room for every show with a grumpy old dick and a psychotic robot." 2D despised that artificial Cyborg that was modelled after Noodle, and was quite happy to hear that the real Noodle destroyed the damn thing.

The next video was 'DARE'. Noodle grinned.

"You've got to press it on you, you just think it, that's what you do, baby, hold it down, DARE..."

"Ah, yes. One of my favourites." she said. "Only because you're the only one in it. You didn't even tell us you were filming it!" Murdoc said to her. Noodle grinned at him. Murdoc couldn't help but grin back. He couldn't stay mad at her.

"Oh my gosh! I know this song!"

"This is Gorillaz? I had no idea!"

Murdoc nodded his head to the beat. "Oh yeah, me mate Shaun Ryder was on this. He even let us borrow his head for the music video!"

"Turn the lights on and off real quick, so I can get into the mood." The girl with red lipstick swayed with the beat.

"Aw, she's cute. She my favourite!" 2D smiled. "Speak for yourself, 'D. I'm into the blonde. Hahahah." Murdoc laughed lecherously.

"Goddammit, you two! Keep it in your pants." Russel snapped at them. They laughed at his reaction.

"They did the DJ music before it was DJ music." The blonde girl said.

"Not exactly. The 80's and 90's were the golden age for the DJs. We just borrowed elements of it." Russel explained.

"I like that in the video they mixed the animation with a real life person."

"But wait, we are like, real life people." 2D said, confused. Murdoc shook his head. "Oh no. They're going to feed them the lie. I just know it."

"All right, come on, you got Feel Good Inc." The guy in the red flannel shirt said.

"Windmill, windmill, for the land, turn forever hand in hand..."

"Oh yes. The song that launched a million IPods!" Murdoc said.

"I mean, at the time it was overplayed, but I gotta say, I'm still really proud of that chorus, if I do say so myself." 2D nodded.

"And so you should be 'D." Noodle smiled at him. "This is one of your best performances." 2D blushed a little and smiled.

"Maybe the first song every Gorillaz fan has heard."

"This is like music you listen to driving down the highway, or next to the beach."

"I'm hearing a lot of similarities between their old music and their new music."

"That bass line is so funky!"

"I know right? Still such a fucking sexy tune after all these years." Murdoc chuckled. He wasn't known for modesty.

"I must say," Noodle chimed in. "Demon Days is my pride and joy. Despite all the mayhem that happened to us after, I'm still so proud of how the album turned out." The others agreed. Demon Days may very well have been their Magnum Opus. The video within in the video came to an end.

"Every song is so different, they have one that sounds like R&B and another that sounds like a poppy boy band."

"Don't know which one sounded like a boy band song." 2D said with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm gonna go and listen to them on Spotify now!"

"They're working with so many of my new favourite artists, so it's really sick to have Gorillaz who are so [BLEEP]ing awesome from when I was a kid, to now be even better."

"They fucking censor the fucking swearing? Well, that's fucked." Murdoc said, followed by a laugh.

"The point is, it's real gratifying to see kids who grew up with our music, now returning as adults to show support for the new music." Russel explained.

"Aaaand some of 'em have grown up to be real lookers, Hwahahah- OW, RUSS!" Russel gave Murdoc a smack on the back of the head before he could continue. 2D and Noodle laughed. Murdoc could never help himself.

"So this is Gorillaz, who are well known for not being an actual band, but a virtual band." The interviewer in the video explained to the college kids.

"I knew it!" Murdoc started to yell at the screen. "I knew they were going to feed them the lie! We are real, dammit! It's just a conspiracy conjured up by those wankers Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett!"

"Is it like a Hatsune Miku kind of thing?" One of the kids asked.

"Noodle! What's a Hatsune Miku?" Murdoc barked, still fuming. "Oh well, it's uh. It's a thing created by Yamaha. A marketing thing to sell voice synthesizers." She explained.

"The band consists of two permanent members, one who does the music and one who does the visuals."

"Hewlett may have helped with the visuals over the years, but Damon takes the credit for MY work. It's MY BAND!" Murdoc exclaimed.

"Chill down a bit, Murdoc." 2D said. "You of all people should be more angry, Faceache! Albarn takes all the credit for your vocals!" Murdoc informed him.

"What? Yew serious!?" 2D frowned. "The fuckin' bastard..."

"The reason they created the band was to comment on the lack of substance in popular music."

"Now there's some truth in that." Russel said. "The landscape of popular music at the time was so devoid of soul."

Murdoc agreed. "Yeah, too right mate. From hangers on of the already dead Grunge period like Creed and Limp Bizkit... Ugggh, to dime-a-dozen manufactured groups like Five or S Club 7. 2D actually used to screw one of the birds from that lot."

"Oy, what does that have to do with anythin'? You're the one that fucked that up for me Mudz." 2D frowned at him.

"That's so amazing! That's like a true artist."

"I love it! There's like, mystery behind it."

"That's so innovative."

"It forces the audience to focus more on the music instead of like, "I like this song because it's Nicki Minaj". It makes you focus on whether you truly like the song or not."

"It's good to see that the attitude of thinking for yourself is alive and well." Noodle said. "I've never lost hope for my generation in the artistic standpoint."

"The Chainsmokers are two guys but have new artists come in and help them with their songs. It feels like that's what they're doing."

"Who the bloody hell are the Chainsmokers?" 2D asked. "No idea" Murdoc shook his head. "Me neither" said Russel. "An electronic duo." Noodle said. "They're not anything special."

"So coming in April, Gorillaz will be releasing their first full album since 2011."

"That's right. Album drops April the 28th." Russel grinned.

"Are you going to check it out when it gets released?" The interviewer asked the young adults.

"Hell yeah, they're one of my all-time favourite bands."

"Yeah! They've had so many hits."

"Now that I know more about them, yeah."

"Hell yes! I'm going down to my local music shop, gonna pick up the album, and that's getting played for a month straight."

And with that, the video of the College kids reacting to Gorillaz concluded.

The manager for their channel cleared their throat to gain the band's attention. "So... Do you guys have any final thoughts on this? The kids from the vid may very well watch this one."

"Right, well. I'll go first then, kiddos." Murdoc spoke up before anyone else had the time to talk. "Even if though they were fed the lie that we don't talk about, in all sincerity it was good to see the new stuff gaining attention. And I was honestly shocked that so many of them knew who we were. I assumed the young people had mostly just forgotten about us and moved on to the next big flash in the pan. But nope, sometimes the kiddy winks really do surprise you with how turned on they really are. So uh, thanks for the support and... one more thing: IT'S MY BAND! And don't any of you forget it."

"Ahem," Noodle started. "I'm sure I'm not much older than these people, but it makes me happy to see such other open-minded individuals. I appreciate the passion from some and the curiosity from others. It's was also kind of fun to get a bit of a blast from the past. Some of that stuff I hadn't seen in years. I hope we get see at least some of you when we go on tour!" She smiled.

Russel's turn. "Well, I've said many times before, but it's always going to be the young people who are the most open-minded, while simultaneously being the most misunderstood. It's very easy to write off young people as a shallow, collective stereotype of kids who only follow the trends, and what the media tells them to do. But that's just what the media want you to believe. Not just young people, but even young kids are smarter than you think. Don't write off what they say just because of their age."

"Got a bit deep there, Russ." Murdoc said.

The band then turn to 2D, fiddling with a cigarette. "Wot? Oh yeah, guess it's my turn." he thought about what to say for a moment, before sharing his thoughts.

"Well, I have to say seein' this video was uhh... heartwarming. Yeah, that's a good word for it. Some of these people would've been very lil' kids when the first album dropped. Hell, I know there's some fans that weren't even born when it came out. But to see that so many people have stuck with us for so long, that's incredible. To say to all of the fans, yew've all grown up to be such smart, thoughtful, compassionate, creative and even handsome or beautiful young adults. And that's something to be proud of yerselfs for. If anyone has big aspirations for anything, like not just music, yew've just gotta stay strong and keep working to achieve what you wish for. If yew've got the passion, the world will beat a path to your door... Or drive a car through a store window and knock you out catatonic, as well as both yer eyes, but that may just be me."

That was... more meaningful than they expected. Noodle clapped for 2D. Russel grinned proudly while Murdoc game a small smile. "Ehh, Not bad, Mr Stu-Pot. Not bad."

"All right guys, I think that's a wra-" The manager froze.

"What's wrong?" Asked Murdoc. They turned to face the band nervously.

"I uhh... I think I pressed the wrong button... I forgot to press record on the camera. We'll have to record this reaction again."

"WHAT!?" The four yelped.

They sacked their Youtube manager the next day.