#biggest techno party

[travelleryoutube]

Most Beautiful Techno Party in The World - Street Parade - The biggest techno party in the world in Zurich Switzerland. You should live this experience Check out... Let me know your thought in Comments!. ..

[strawberrygummiess]

goo goo muck.

floyd leech x gender neutral! reader 1.4k words cross posted on ao3 "By the time this year’s Halloween was over, you never wanted to see a piece of candy again—especially no trick-or-treaters. But now you were in a dance hall in a pocket dimension, tired and annoyed, watching the students’ party when all you wanted to do was go back to your room and sleep. Bah, humbug, or whatever the Halloween equivalent was." (sorry for posting this after Halloween)

If there was a competition for being Halloween’s biggest Scrooge, you’d win it.

As a kid, you loved Halloween—the obvious candy collection, of course, but also the costumes, the décor, and the overall joy the season carried. Even now, you would’ve loved Halloween if you weren’t forced to work seven days straight to keep annoying teenagers out of your dorm room.

By the time this year’s Halloween was over, you never wanted to see a piece of candy again—especially no trick-or-treaters. But now you were in a dance hall in a pocket dimension, tired and annoyed, watching the students’ party when all you wanted to do was go back to your room and sleep.

Bah, humbug, or whatever the Halloween equivalent was.

You were glowering in a lone corner, holding a drink in one hand and rubbing your temple with the other. Your head was pounding. Lilia insisted that the music be deafening, and it felt like the ghosts might hold you here indefinitely. And the longer you stayed, the grumpier you got, your scowl getting deeper and deeper. At this point, the pounding of your head synced with the beat of the loud techno.

"Woah, Shrimpy, if you keep frowning, your face’ll get stuck like that.”

You purse your lips and look up at Floyd. On a good day, you can only handle Floyd in small doses. On a bad day, you just wanted him to go away. You liked Floyd, but he was not something you were capable of handling while your head was seconds away from exploding.

“It’ll be perfect for Halloween then, won’t it? A scary face for a scary day.”

You mean it to be dismissive and boring. But you should know better than to assume Floyd will leave you alone so easily. You know Floyd has a bit of fascination with you. At first, you were concerned, especially when- in between cheers of joy- Riddle gave you half-hearted condolences. But Jade had eased your concerns, saying that “you weren’t so interesting to hold his attention for that long” and that he’d eventually grow bored of you (whatever that meant). But that was months ago, and he was still going strong. And Riddle was still happy to revel in your misery.

Floyd grins and joins you along the wall, and you can’t help the sigh that escapes you. You catch the frown on his face and rub your temples again. The music is much too loud.

“What gives Shrimpy? You’re being a big stick-in-the-mud,” Floyd whines, scrunching his body so his face is level with yours. You sigh again and take a sip of your drink. You could lie and say there’s nothing wrong or that you can’t dance, but he’s not stupid. The longer you stretch this out, the worse it’ll be for you.

“My head hurts, and I’m really tired." You start, finally looking at him. His full attention is on you, and it’s slightly unsettling. You’ve always liked how his eye glowed in the dark, but now it was too intense. It was like you were wronging him by denying him his fun, even if it was at your expense. You break eye contact.

“My head feels like it’s going to explode, and this music is not helping.”

You stare at the ground, counting the tiles under your feet while you wait for Floyd to respond. You assume he’ll say something about you being boring or try to get you to ignore your pain to entertain him. But instead, he says nothing. For a long time. So long you have to check if he’s still there.

He’s staring at you when you look again. Face blank, eyes focused. He straightened up back to full height, an imposing figure staring down at you with one glowing eye. He looks terrifying in the dark.

You open your mouth to say something—anything—to save yourself, but Floyd begins to giggle.

“Oh man, I’m DIGGIN’ that look, Little Shrimpy. I gotta make your face contort in fear more often.”

You hadn’t realized you were making a face. Now you hope he can see your irritation.

"Aww, don’t get all clammy on me, Shrimpy,” Floyd whines, moving from his place on the wall to stand in front of you. He raises his hands to cradle your head, and your heart beats wildly in your chest. You can’t tell if you’re scared this time.

“Do you feel the pressure here?” He moves his hands to your temples. “Or here?” He takes his right hand and gently rubs his thumb under your eyebrow.

You use your open eye to look up at him, trying to see if he planned on crushing your skull then and there. But he only gives you a lazy smile, patiently waiting for you to answer him, absentmindedly rubbing your face. It might’ve felt better if it was skin-on-skin contact, but the fabric on the glove was beginning to irritate your skin.

“My temples,” you answer, wincing when he moves his hand. Floyd hadn’t been rubbing the skin that hard or for long. Maybe you could ask Epel to share some moisturizers with you later.

Floyd puts his hands back on your temples. You assume he’s going to rub the sides of them like you were doing earlier, but when you look back up, you feel your heart drop to your stomach.

He looks giddy, with a wild grin on his face and his eyes focused like a hunter. This is the face he makes when he’s given the green light from Azul to “squeeze” some unruly patrons of Mostro Lounge. And now he’s giving you the same look, hands wrapped tightly around your head.

You were going to die.

You can’t bear to look Floyd in the eyes anymore and squeeze them shut. Hopefully, this means when he crushes your skull, your eyes won’t pop out. You’ve always wanted an open-casket funeral. You hear Floyd cackle in glee, and your head throbs again. If anything, you were thankful that you wouldn’t have to deal with your migraine anymore.

Floyd puts pressure on your temples, slowly squeezing your skull. You feel it slowly, the sensation blossoming from where his palms are to the orbital region of your skull. You wait for your head to explode violently, but it never comes. Instead, you realize your headache has subdued significantly, barely feeling the throbbing sensation at all anymore.

Your eyes shoot open, and you look at Floyd shocked. He meets your gaze and begins to giggle again.

“Dude, you’re full of fun expressions. What’d you think I was gonna do?”

“Not that! You looked like you were ready to kill me!” You try to defend yourself, but you look silly, head crushed between Floyd’s hands.

“You’d know if I was gonna squeeze you in the bad way. This is the good squeeze that makes your headaches go away. I do it to Jade all the time." To emphasize his point, he adds more pressure to your temples.

You pout, because he’s right. It is making your headache go away. And because you know you’ll be stuck with Floyd for another month while you are indebted to him. Maybe if you got enough headaches, you could bore him away.

“Well?” Floyd draws the L’s out in a sing-song manner. “Feelin’ any better, Shrimpy?”

You feel a lot better. Your headache isn’t fully gone, but it’s manageable now. Hopefully, the ghosts will declare the party over and release you soon. Floyd’s squeezing can’t fight exhaustion, and now that’s your biggest problem.

You grab Floyd’s hands and move them from your temples, rubbing the top of his hands with your thumbs. You smile appreciatively, genuinely happy to be freed from your migraine.

“Yes, thank you.”

You try to let go of Floyd’s hands, but he moves to interlock them, his wild grin back on his face. He leans down to your level again, his glowing eye narrowing as his smile grows impossibly wide. You initially thought you tamed the beast, but your naiveté left you caught in his trap.

“Good, now we gotta dance. I’m not letting you go ‘til you collapse." He pulls you away from the wall quickly, dragging you to the center of the dance floor and twirling you around until you’re dizzy.

Make it two more months stuck with Floyd.

[kittyball23]

How do you think Trolls World Tour would’ve played out if Branch reunited with Floyd who was living with the rock trolls but fled when he heard of Barb’s plan to find help to stop her only to run into Poppy and his little brother all grown up?

I think it perhaps would have played out a little something like this 🙂:

Between a Rock and a Hard Place (a Trolls fanfic)

“AAAHHHHHHH!”

The scream startled Branch and Poppy, the pair of them taken aback by the sight of their friend, Biggie, frantically scurrying through the crowd of Trolls in the Village’s clearing. The cause of his fear was made apparent when the Trolls noticed a fuzzy, bat-like creature zipping along right behind him, flapping its leathery, black wings persistently, her bugged red eyes fixed unwaveringly on him.

“Help!” Biggie cried out in desperation. “I’m being harangued by a monster!”

Giving up trying to outrun it, the big blue Troll crouched down and put his hands over his head, hoping it would perhaps go away. But, it didn’t. The creature beat its wings against him and made angry hissing sounds.

“Someone stop it!” he whimpered helplessly.

Luckily, as he’d wished, it was right at that moment that a shock of magenta hair whipped out and snatched the creature from the air. Relief passed through the Trolls, until they realized that it was not the Pop Queen who had grabbed the critter. In fact, it was nobody that the village knew.

But - standing there in the clearing donning black shorts with a large belt buckle, and a simple, black, pearl earring - the Troll seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

“Gotcha! Okay, shhh, shh… Now calm down,... who’s a good girl? You’re a good girl…”

The batty creature struggled in the newcomer’s grasp for a second, not appreciating being held steadfast, but quickly was soothed as the Troll rubbed its furry little belly and spoke hushedly. Pretty soon, its flapping had stopped entirely and purred, the vibration rumbling against his teal hand.

Once the others could sense no more imminent danger, they began to gather a little closer, whispering among themselves.

“Who is that?” Legsly asked, pointing at the new Troll. “And what is that thing he’s holding?” she added, referring to the critter.

“It’s creepy!” Cooper shuddered, shielding his eyes from the creature.

“It’s scary!” Satin and Chenille chimed at the same time.

“And… naAaAAasty,” Guy Diamond yelped in his techno-like voice.

“Hold me, Daddy!” Tiny Diamond whimpered in his deep voice, letting his father clutch him close for protection.

Suddenly realizing that all the attention had gone to him, the newcomer shrunk under everybody’s gaze, bashfully tucking his head down between his shoulders and allowing his magenta bangs to fall over his face, so that it shielded his left eye.

Branch’s eyes narrowed at him, though he could feel that his gaze was not as intense as he would’ve liked for it to be. Reason being, there was something strangely familiar about this Troll. What it was, though, he couldn’t pinpoint right away. That hair, that voice… he could’ve sworn he’d seen and heard it, if long ago in his memory.

As it turned out, it wasn’t a much different situation for the new Troll, either. He looked at him curiously, mirroring Branch by slightly tilting his head and narrowing his eyes, as if there too was something he was trying to figure out. It was only when he shifted his gaze down to the leafy green vest Branch was wearing that things clicked. Recognition seemed to flash across his face in an instant, the magenta-haired Troll lifting his eyes to meet Branch’s and looking as though he were about to say something. But before he could…

“‘To Queen Poppy’?” Poppy read aloud from a scroll that the creature had dropped on the ground. She was confused to see her name written on it, and continued to read. “’Barb, Queen of Rock, announces her One Nation of Trolls Under Rock World Tour. Bring your string to the biggest party in the world has ever seen.’” Poppy beamed. “Oh, don’t worry everyone. It’s an invitation!”

The Trolls chattered excitedly. A party? With games and presents and glitter galore? That sounded like fun!

“But why does she need our string?” Cooper questioned.

“And what does ‘Queen of Rock’ mean? Who is she?” Poppy asked aloud.

“You don’t wanna know.”

Poppy whirled around to face the newcomer, his silence having her almost forget entirely that he was even there. “Trust me,” he said again, “you don’t.”

The Pop Queen was startled to hear such a thing. “But… it’s a party!” she exclaimed.

“Not the kind you wanna go to,” the Troll replied without hesitation. “Not with what the Hard Rockers have planned…”

Poppy shook her head. “But who are they?”

“Nobody!” King Peppy shouted, hurrying into the crowd of Trolls, sidling up to his daughter’s side and tearing the invitation from her hand. He proceeded to crumble it in a frenzy, all while crying out hysterically. “Nobody saw anything! Nothing to see here!” He then turned to the magenta-haired Troll and began to shove him away. “Young man, go back to where you came from! Now, please!”

“Whoa, whoa, Dad!” Poppy called, touching her father on the shoulder. He yelped, jolting and looking at her wildly. Popy was baffled. Her Dad was kicking out a Troll? What in the world for? She took his hands in hers in and spoke soothingly to calm him. “Dad, what’s going on?”

King Peppy gazed deeply into her eyes for a moment, peering between her and the new Troll, and then sighed.

“Oh, Poppy,” he moaned, “I’ve long feared this day would come. I was hoping to protect you from this.”

Poppy raised an eyebrow. “Protect me?” she asked. “I’m not a little kid anymore, Dad. I’m the queen now.”

“You’re right,” King Peppy agreed, nodding slowly. “The truth is… we are not alone in this world…”

Mr. Dinkles made a spooky sound to accompany King Peppy’s explanation. Biggie stuck a finger in his pet form’s round mouth.

“Shhh!” Biggie said to his little friend.

“You see, there are other kinds of Trolls,” King Peppy told everyone. The Trolls around him were silent for a moment, taking this in. Other Trolls? What did King Peppy mean?”

“Wow, really?” Poppy said enthusiastically. “Dad, that’s great! The more Trolls, the merrier!”

The newcomer scoffed. “If only it were that easy,” he mumbled.

King Peppy cut his eyes to him, frowning. “Young man, this conversation does not involve you. I’ve asked you to leave once… don’t make me have to call security!” He jerked a thumb over to where Smidge was standing, the little Troll cracking her knuckles in anticipation of a potential scuffle.

The Troll gulped at the sight, and quickly stammered an explanation. “N-no! Please, I’m not here to cause trouble. I came here to help you guys.”

But when Peppy did not relax, and Poppy began to show signs of discomfort at the confrontation, Branch stepped in to enforce the matter.

“You heard him,” he stated simply, but with a hardness to his voice that spoke more volumes alongside the clenched fists at his side.

“I know,” he replied. “But I can’t just leave you guys in danger, Branch.”

“We’re more than capable of taking care of our - Wait, what?” Branch blinked, surprised to hear this stranger call him by name. How did he know who he was?

The Troll offered a gentle smile. “It’s been a while, bro.”

The blue Troll gasped, realizing exactly who this was and being unable to believe it. All the years he waited and waited, until he couldn't anymore, and now he was back? He could almost feel tears pooling in his eyes as a mix of conflicting emotions assaulted him.

Poppy saw the strong reaction coming from her friend, and cautiously spoke to the newcomer.

“I’m sorry... Who did you say you were, again?”

The newcomer let out a breath he was holding, tucked the bat creature under one arm and extended his other to Poppy to properly introduce himself.

“Forgive me for not doing this sooner. My name is Floyd,” he said, “and I’m Branch’s brother.”

__________________________________________

With the manner in which the Trolls in the clearing had erupted into a cacophony of noise - a mix of questions about the Troll-turned-sibling, panic-stricken worries over the idea of the existence of other strange Trolls, and even outright screaming - it came as no surprise that Peppy had ordered for them to break into a smaller group, to allow for a little more privacy.

It was here in the beautiful secluded grotto in the company of just Floyd, Poppy,  Branch, and the Snack Pack that King Peppy wove a tale unlike any other that had been heard. A story of six Tribes of Trolls, each uniquely defined by their special taste in music - Techno, Funk, Classical, Country, Rock, and Pop - and how harmony had been created as a result of it. The harmony, however, was not meant to last. Intolerance sprouted like weeds, leading to discord, leading to the ultimate separation of each tribe. But perhaps the most striking part of the tale was the revelation of their own string - the Pop string, a gorgeous pink in color and producing an equally gorgeous sound, housing the very lifeforce that made them them - the toe-tapping, finger-snapping, rump-shaking Trolls they were.

“Ohh, I get it,” Poppy murmured, “Queen Barb wants to reunite the strings so that the Trolls Kingdom can be one big party again!” The Pop Queen grinned a little. She liked the sound of that!

But Floyd shook his head. “Um, no,” he disagreed gently. “Barb has no interest whatsoever in uniting the world. She wants to destroy it. And she’s going to do it one tribe at a time until there’s none left!” He picked up the invite from where it lay (a little wrinkled, but still legible) next to the ancient scroll that King Peppy had used to depict the tale. “These invitations were just the first step. A deception. And anyone who doesn’t give up their string is going to have it taken by force.” He looked at the bat critter in his hands and sighed. “I tried to stop the invite from even reaching you guys, but I guess I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Debbie here…”

Poppy was stunned. “B-but… why would another queen use her power for evil? Didn’t anyone try to stop her?”

“The Hard Rockers are all on board,” Floyd explained. “She managed to convince everyone that this was the best thing to do for her people. They all believed her. Well, um… except for me. But then again, I was never a true Rock Troll from the start…”

Poppy snapped her fingers. “That’s riiiight… and that’s something else I’m not understanding…” She turned on her friend. “Branch! How come you never told me you have a secret brother?!”

The blue Troll frowned. “What’s there to tell? I have no brothers.”

Floyd was confused. “Branch, what are you talking about? Just take a look at us…”

It was true. Even by sight, there was a very distinct similarity between the two of them, from their teal skin, purple noses, round face shapes, and even slight downward curve of their ears.

But Branch crossed his arms defiantly. “I have no brothers,” he said again, emphasizing each syllable, “because the day you walked out on me, you lost the chance to ever call me that again.” 

“Branch, please, believe me, I was going to come back, it’s just - “

“Just what?” Branch cut in, scoffing. “You’re a liar. You never followed through with your promise.”

Floyd fiddled with his fingers. “Well, um, I mean, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Uh-huh… twenty years TOO LATE!” Branch turned to the others in the grotto. “Why should we believe someone like this? For all we know, he could be a spy for these ‘Hard Rock’ Trolls!” He searched his friends’ faces. Silently taking it all in, Biggie, Smidge, Cooper, Guy Diamond, and Legsly were a mixture of uncertainty and concern, not sure what to make of it.

King Peppy spoke up for them. “Branch,” he said gently, “I certainly see where you’re coming from. But… are you willing to put our tribe in danger because of it?” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but it’s a risk I’m not willing to take.” He then waved to the Trolls. “Hurry now! We must prepare before Barb arrives! We’ve got no time to lose!”

“Dad, wait!” Poppy cried, trying to stop her him and her friends as they shuffled off. “Guys, come on! Just because they’re different doesn’t mean that the solution is fighting! Branch, help me out here, say something!”

Branch marched right by her. “Wait for me!” he called out. But as he scurried by, he was grabbed by the arm.

“Branch, wait,” Floyd pleaded. Then he turned to Poppy. “Could you, uh… give us a minute?” he asked politely.

Branch wanted to protest, but he groaned, and did not put up a fight. “I’ll meet you in a second, Poppy,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“Oh! Um, okay…” She trudged off, sparing one last glance at them before heading off in the direction her father had gone. The two boys were left there in an awkward, tense silence.

Floyd broke it first, clearing his throat. “Wow… you’ve really grown into that vest of mine. You’re… a man now.”

Branch kept his back turned to him as he answered tersely. “Just goes to show how long it’s been.”

Floyd sighed. “Look, Branch, I know that nothing I can say is a valid enough excuse for what happened. I guess I just got so caught up with my solo career once the Rock Trolls took me in. But I swear that there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about you.” He chuckled for a second. “Remember how we used to make up songs and dances? It was a lot of fun.”

It was, Branch recalled, almost wanting to smile, but he composed himself. “That’s all in the past,” he said coldly, turning to look him right in the eye. “And besides, actions speak louder than words. And the fact is that you never came back.”

Branch felt a tug at his heart when Floyd winced, hurt by his words. But then again, they were words of truth.

“You’re right,” Floyd said, “Actions do speak louder than words. And here I am now, trying to save my little brother from something that I know for sure is going to harm him. Because I want him to be safe. It was a mistake to leave him the first time. And I don’t want to lose him again.”

Branch felt himself loosening. He wanted to keep up the wall of ice he built around himself should any of his brothers try to come back into his life. But not even those walls were immune to the warmth of Floyd’s kindness. “I really want to believe you, Floyd,” he whispered, “I just don’t know if I can…”

“Then let's just take things one step at a time, okay?” And when Branch nodded, Floyd took the opportunity to extend his arms out, allowing Branch to decide whether he wanted to make a move or not.

It didn’t take long to come to that decision, though. Branch embraced Floyd in a replica of that very same night that he had left him. He squeezed tightly, wanting to confirm his physical presence, and afraid to let go should he have been a mirage this entire time.

“Awww…”

The pair broke apart, finding Poppy cooing at the scene. She grinned sheepishly upon realizing she’d intruded on the private moment.

“Oh! I’m sorry…”

“It’s all right, Poppy,” Branch assured. “We’re just about done here.”

“Oh, good,” she breathed in relief. “Well, I mean, because, I wanted to talk to you guys about Barb. We’ve gotta stop her!”

“Can’t say I disagree with the endgoal here, but the trouble comes in the ‘how,’” Floyd pointed out.

“Well, we can think about it as we get everyone safely hidden away in the bunker,” Branch said, waving them to follow.

“Bunker?” Floyd asked, coming up alongside his brother.

“Oh, it’s the coolest thing ever!” Poppy gushed. “It’s underground, and it’s got all these tunnels and rooms, and trapdoors, and… and so much cool stuff!”

Floyd beamed. “Wow, so you built the hideout, huh? I’m proud of you, Branch.”

“Hideout?” The Pop Queen echoed, curious.

There was a hint of a bashful blush in the blue Troll’s cheeks as he shrugged in reply. “Heh, well, it’s not that big of a deal…”

“Of course it is,” Floyd countered, bumping his elbow against his. “Did you even add the ten-story waterslide?”

Poppy gasped. “A waterslide in the bunker? That sounds amazing!”

But Branch shook his head. “Nah.”

“But then, how do you shower?”

Branch answered his brother’s teasing question with a little smirk. “I bathe.”

[bg-11]

Ripping into TCW's A Friend in Need, in which every character is awful.

I'm going to be upfront about this: I do not care for TCW, I never really have. See, I've always been a big stickler for continuity, even as a kid, and by this point there was *plenty* of Clone Wars related content that had been set across the whole 3 years of the war. The big issue of course was always Ahsoka, who of course just couldn't neatly slot into that timeframe at all because there were already plenty of comics that made it clear that Anakin never had a Padawan. She was a square peg the writers of TCW had jammed into a square hole. Of course, Ahsoka wasn't the only example, it was clear the writers never really gave a shit about what other, better writers had already established, and so retcons and continuity errors were rife with the series, only increasing as it continued. Exactly the kind of thing I was leery about. I was willing to give it a chance when it first came out, but that optimistic goodwill didn't really last too long.

I watched it on-and-off when it came out to check it out, I didn't want to judge it without having seen it. It was the same when I heard about how obnoxious Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series was, I wanted to see if that was as bad as people were saying it was (it was worse). By Season 4, I was pretty ready to write it off, the retcons were getting bigger and bigger (Even Piell getting killed off before his Canon death in Coruscant Nights, changing Asajj Ventress' backstory and fate contrary to what it was in the Republic comics, treating the Nightsisters as if they were literal witches who could use actual magic, the list goes on, but those were my biggest gripes). One episode that stood out to me though, was A Friend in Need, an episode in which pretty much everyone except for Artoo is stupid, malicious or both. At the time, I thought it was the worst episode of TCW yet. Has that changed since then? Yeah, but I'd still count this episode as the dumbest.

For whatever reason, the episode popped into my head recently after...I don't know how long its been, relatively shortly after the episode aired, I guess? And, I don't know, I guess I wanted to take a jab at picking it apart? I've never really done this before, there've been a couple of times when I've wanted to examine bad media, but for whatever reason, I never really got to it. So, fuck it, better late than never, I guess. So, I rewatched the episode to get it fresh in my mind. As the old EU was still Canon when this aired, I'm putting it through the lens of it still being Canon when I talk about it.

There's a good reason why my friends call me a masochist, I guess.

Things start out on Mandalore, where Ahsoka is escorting Padme, Bail and Mon Mothma in talks with representatives from the Separatist Senate when Lux Bonteri walks in. When I first watched A Friend in Need, I had missed Lux's Introductory episode which also introduced the Separatist Senate, so I was a little confused here. Confused because prior to TCW, there wasn't a Separatist Senate, the Confederacy was solely ruled over by the Separatist Council. Now, there's commentary from Filoni that apparently, the EU writers had misunderstood the purpose of the Separatist Council, that no, they weren't the leaders of the CIS, and that the megacorporation's who made up the CIS were just neutral parties. I have two issues with that, first being that I trust Dave "I sincerely believe this man wants to fuck wolves" Filoni's word about as far as I can throw his furry ass, and two, that isn't how it comes across in the movies at all.

The leaders of the Trade Federation, Intergalactic Banking Clan, Techno Union and Commerce Guild are all present, outright saying they're pledging their alliance and their armies to the Separatist cause. That they're apparently neutral, uninvolved parties doesn't gel at all, it just seems like a clumsy retcon to me. One of many.

But anyway...

Lux busts in and causes a scene, accusing Count Dooku of murdering his mother, so the Separatist senators have their guards drag him away. Ahsoka, concerned, gets permission from Padme to follow him, as long as she's discrete. Lux is dragged back to the Separatist's shuttle, where a hologram of Dooku appears to gloat a bit, before telling the droids to execute Lux. Why he doesn't just use the Force to choke him, I don't know, all you need is line of sight.

Now, I'd actually misremembered how this scene went down. In my memory, Lux dropped an ion grenade to disable the droids and *then* Ahsoka showed up. Apparently my flawed memory made Lux more competent then he actually is in the episode. How was he actually planning on getting away? We'll get back to that in a moment, but for right now, he's at the battle droid's mercy.

And then Ahsoka intervenes.

Here's another issue I had with Ahsoka, her characterisation. There were a couple of moments that stuck with me that I think are relevant here.

Season 1, episode 19, Storm Over Ryloth: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

Season 2, episode 1, Holocron Heist: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

This episode? Ahsoka is a reckless, headstrong idiot who forces her way into a hostile situation, gets the attraction of a bunch of armed droids and leads them back towards the Senate Guards who are stationed at the Republic shuttle, quickly alerts the unaware men that some pissed off droids are on her tail, then boards the shuttle, takes off and flees back to Coruscant, abandoning the Senators she was supposed to be escorting *and* the Senate Guards who are now taking the heat for her.

Ahsoka is such a shitty bodyguard, Jesus Christ. Getting Lux to safety is a priority, fine, but why does she need to board the ship herself and flee the system entirely? Why not just have Lux board the ship, then go back to help the Senate Guards deal with the battle droids that she *led* there in the first place? They're not just regular battle droids either, they're droid commandos who are supposed to be a lot tougher and smarter than the standard B1 battle droids. We don't see the outcome of this fight, so I presume the Senate Guards won, which, good thing. Because Ahsoka abandoned the Senators she was supposed to be watching over, and I genuinely wouldn't put it past the Separatists to pull something now that these peace talks have collapsed because of what Ahsoka did. They were never going to work out anyway of course, given Sidious' whole purpose behind the Clone Wars, but the characters aren't aware of that.

Anakin gets in contact and when Lux tries to apologise with "Master Jedi, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble." ("If" you caused trouble? "If"?)

Ahsoka tries to brush it off with "It's nothing." Uh, no, it's not. See the above paragraphs for why it *is* a big deal, and I can't see Anakin of all people being too happy with Padme being left in a dangerous situation like that. But I guess we're brushing past that, cool.

Ahsoka points out how dumb Lux's plan was, saying he would have been killed if she hadn't intervened (true). Then Lux says no, actually, he *did* have a plan, then he pulls out a taser and stuns Ahsoka. Seriously? His plan was to go in, confront Dooku, hoping that he'd send a transmission just to gloat (apparently he "knew" he would, but why? He could just have easily been shot by the battle droids), and he went in there armed with a dinky little taser? Brilliant plan, I'm sure that would have done *wonders* against a squad of droid commandos all armed with blasters.

Ahsoka wakes up hours later aboard the shuttle with just Artoo, her lightsabers missing. She goes out to talk to Lux and finds out the contacts he's meeting are the Death Watch, that Mandalorian supremacist group of terrorists who are awful even by Mandalorian standards.

Jesus Christ, Lux is so fucking stupid.

Despite Ahsoka attempting to tell him that they're bad news, he keeps brushing it off because they *also* hate Dooku, so it'll be fine. Back aboard the ship, Artoo finds Ahsoka's lightsabers tucked away in a random drawer. So, if she had bothered to look for them, she would have found them in the space of five minutes. My God, she is useless. These two deserve each other, I swear.

Oh, and we meet Bo-Katan for the first time.

Awful, *evil* Bo-Katan.

On the ride back, Lux reveals he had a way to track Dooku's location through his communication.

Serenno. He was probably on Serenno, his homeworld of Serenno, where he has a mansion on Serenno, Serenno on which he is a Count. This isn't exactly hidden knowledge.

They go back to the Death Watch compound. see them using kitbashed battle droids as target practice and Ahsoka is marched off while Lux talks to their leader, Pre Vizsla. Apparently, he has beef with Dooku now and the Count gave him a scar. Which, first thing, if Dooku had wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Second, I actually don't remember those two falling out, so I looked it up and apparently it happens entirely offscreen between his last appearance and now, so whatever, I guess. Also, Vizsla threatens to cut up Lux if he doesn't hand over the tracer, and Lux seems pretty fine with that. Brilliant, that one, real smart.

Ahsoka gets thrown in with a hut full of enslaved women from a nearby village. Great people, those Mandalorians. Artoo, meanwhile, is taken to the droid shack and told to fix up the damaged battle droids so they can be used as target practice again. They don't even slap a restraining bolt on him, they just leave him to his own devices. Which, in this case, happens to be a room full of battle droids, several of which actually still have blasters in repairable condition as we'll see later.

Well, the Mandalorians are rock stupid, so I suppose I can't complain *that's* out of character.

Big feast is held, now Lux can see with his own eyes that the Death Watch are using the local women as slaves...but he doesn't seem to give much of a shit about it, even as Ahsoka keeps trying to point out how awful his allies are. It's at that point the village elder shows up and demands Viszla let his people go. He did this unarmed, with his only support being two other unarmed villagers, walking into a camp full of hostile people who had already taken the village's women as slaves and expected things to go well for him. When Vizsla agrees in the most sinister way possible, with several other Death Watch members openly snickering about it, the elder thinks all is well and Lux even says: "You see? They're not the butchers you make them out to be."

I...Jesus Christ, they were using the local women as slaves, but you're fine with that so long as they take them back when they're done? Lux has to be the stupidest character in this series, I swear. There is exactly one smart person this entire episode and it's Artoo.

Next day, the Death Watch take the enslaved women back to their village, the Elder thanking him for it.

And then he takes out his stupid edgesaber and stabs the man's granddaughter in front of him. Can't help but feel this would have been more impactful if obvious sacrificial lamb character had more than a minute of screentime, but okay, its awful and its typical Mando behaviour. For good measure they start torching the village and maybe set one villager on fire. And much to my shock, Lux finally gets it. I was half expecting him to brush it off as them setting fires to keep the villagers warm. Ahsoka seems to impale a guy with a blunt pole, before getting tied up. And then they drag her back to their camp from their speeder...yeah, Ahsoka should be dead.

Then Lux says this...

"I believed you had honour, but you're just murderers."

What possibly led you to think that conclusion, you absolute dumbass? This whole time, Vizsla has been acting as blatantly sinister and creepy as Dick Dastardly, if he had a moustache he'd be twirling it. Lux seems like the kind of character who needs to be told not to drink drain-cleaner, I swear to God.

As Vizsla is preparing to deal with Idiot and Useless, Artoo shows up with an army of kitbashed droids...and like I said either, a few of them have working blasters. Literally the only competent character, I swear. Artoo gives Ahsoka her lightsabers back, and Vizsla decides to duel her one-on-one, because like every Mando, he has a totally unearned superiority complex. She ends up slicing his jetpack and he doesn't even notice until Ahsoka points it out to him. How did he not hear her hit it? How did he not feel that? In the confusion of the exploding jetpack, Dumb and Dumber manage to escape, chased by Bo-Katan, but they get away.

Then Lux fucks off in the escape pod, the end.

And apparently the next time Ahsoka runs into Bo-Katan, they're besties and join forces to free Mandalore. Guess Ahsoka kinda forgot about the whole slavery, village torching and innocent people she murdered, huh? Yeah, guess so. Bo-Katan fucking sucks, she doesn't get a redemption, the narrative just wants you to forget all the atrocities she commits because she doesn't want Maul to be her leader. Zuko she ain't.

Ahsoka majorly screws up her assignment, puts senators in danger and gets some guards killed, Lux is so braindead that he blindly trusts the most obviously evil pack of killers he could find. I'd say he needs a helmet, but I don't think its possible for him to get anymore brain damage.

TCW is massively overrated, this is a hill I will die on.

[vixendoesstuff]

Fuck it, I'm embracing the cringe

Trolls AU where everything is relatively the same except Branch is a Techno Troll, purely for the reason that those guys are my favs out of the tribes and nothing else

Like maybe his egg somehow washed up to the Troll Tree from some event I haven't made up yet, and he's found by maybe John Dory or Grandma Rosiepuff and was brought into the family

Same thing happened after he's hatched, he got into BroZone as the weird looking but funky Troll baby Bitty B, the thing happened, the band broke up, leaving Branch alone with his grandma

Then she got eaten (cue the meme)

Poor Branch then turned grey due to the trauma he went through, like

More or less he looks like this for 20 years, with the addition of his pixel heart being split in two for added angst

Same thing happened as in canon afterwards; Branch is the village grouch and self imposed exile, except maybe his treatment is sort of worse here 'cause he's not like the others. Evidence, he has fins for legs, fins for ears, his hair can't stretch like all Pop Trolls can, and just generally the "don't sing or dance or hug" thing. Hence, he's a bit more bitter and more towards the village and more willing to lash out more than he did in canon (or atleast what we're shown on screen anyway)

I don't think his poor treatment would go too far since I see King Peppy sort of protecting Branch as best he can by redirecting the villagers' anger away from him. Maybe due to him thinking his treatment from the civillians were too cruel, or it's 'cause he knows Branch is a Techno Troll and felt bad for suffering this fate from the other Pop Trolls and being separated from his own people, so he did his best to accomodate Branch (doubtful, but no one is perfect I guess)

(Will Peppy tell Branch the truth about him, though? Lol, hell no, he's too much of a wuss to do that)

So I guess in a way, he's more or less on good terms with King Peppy, but not enough for him to consider him a friend or anything. Branch just trust Peppy's judgement a bit more than in canon (still think he's an idiot, though)

But anyway, same thing happened, Poppy hosts the biggest and loudest party ever and got raided by the Chef Bergen, Poppy and Branch sets out to Bergen Town to rescue the kidnapped Trolls, set Bridget up to a date with the king, Branch explains his sad backstory, Creek betrays them and got the whole village snatched up, they all lost their colours, Poppy and Branch sings True Colours to get their colours back and subsequently got Branch's colours back (which I'll make a drawing referencr later 'cause I'm still debating on what he'll look like), and they sang to the Bergens to make everything sunshine and rainbows, The End

So yeah it's all the same with the added edition of Branch being a Techno Troll. Other than gags and jokes about him being different and a sprinkle of added stuff to his lore on why he's different, nothing really changes

But when World Tour happens

Oh boy

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

clipping. – “Run It”

Give clipping. credit: The Daveed Diggs-fronted noise-rap trio was way ahead of the curve on remaking J-Kwon’s “Tipsy.” Three years ago, clipping. did their own version of “Tipsy,” the 2004 J-Kwon party-rap classic, for our very own ’00s covers compilation Save Stereogum. Earlier this year, clipping. gave a wide release to their cover. The next thing we all knew, “Tipsy” formed the spine of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” one of this year’s biggest hits. Today, clipping. have a new single. I don’t know how any ascendant country-pop stars will take inspiration from this one, but maybe they’ll find a way. Right now, clipping. are working on following 2020’s Visions Of Bodies Being Burned the second in their horror-inspired two-album series, with a new project that has rap and cyberpunk overtones. That new record will be out next year, and they’ve just shared an early taste with “Run It,” which is not a Chris Brown cover. Instead, it’s a fast, physical rap attack. On “Run It,” Daveed Diggs goes into athletic overdrive, rapping over a pulshing, clanking, extremely fast beat from his bandmates Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson. The track’s smears of digital noise sometimes cohere into Detroit techno riffs. This is a good one — a track that keeps all the prickly intensity of clipping.’s music without getting so extreme that you couldn’t play it on your headphones while you’re on the treadmill. In the quick-cut Lawrence Klein-directed video, secret agents tail clipping. through DC, Berlin, Prague, New Delhi, Bangkok, and Seoul, on some Jason Bourne/Carmen Sandiego shit.

[rocksibblingsau]

Hello!!! Hope you are doing well!!! I’m too shy too ask this with my actual account sorry

I was just wondering if you’ve got any trolls fanfic recommendations?

Thank you for your time !!

P.S: i love rereading your fic on my way to work hehe wish I could kudos it again every time

╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

Here's an older post of some recommendations!

And some other reccs are:

I Wanna Find A Home by Isabel3710 A 'Branch gets adopted by Country' AU

Rewinding Our Fate by trollsbuzz (thatbennybee) Branch wakes up in the past on the day of the biggest, loudest, craziest party ever with his memories of post-movie 3

Dire Dire Docks by Dialgadoodlez What if instead of Pop Trolls, Bergens ate Techno Trolls?

the Forgotten Broz by jack_shroud Band Together except Branch doesn't remember his brothers!

home is where the beat is by jack_shroud A 'Branch gets adopted by Techno' AU

Every Thing Will Be Alright (Brother Mine) by IndigoRose Branch is taken in by Gristle Jr

Brothers and blood is stickier by Razzle_Zazzle Also a Branch is taken in by Gristle Jr fic!

Brand New by RagingCycloneZorch A very interesting AU with a rewrite of the history of the 6 tribes where Grey Branch gains amnesia! I just started reading it and I'm excited to see where it goes!

[empressgeekt]

So I recently watched the Holiday in Harmony special properly for the first time and let me tell know, it's absolutely adorable. The cutest thing ever. But a couple thing ain't noticed too.

First, Branch definitely has abandonment issues, and while we know he is scared that Poppy will leave him one day. It appears a lot of his self-worth is connected to acts of service even way back before his brothers were even known since this event takes place between Trolls World Tour and Band Together. Enough that the mere thought thay Poppy might not like his gift sends him into an anxiety driven spiral that ends up destroying his perfectly fine gift and his bunker in an explosion when a simple, thoughtful gift is more than enough for Poppy.

Second, Poppy herself was also struggling throughout. She is very clearly aware that Branch has self worth issues, because she even if it's a holiday gift swap she did everything in her power to make sure Branch never learned she got him, even though she herself could not find a gift for him, and made absolutely certain that her gift box was the biggest and most special one in the party. Then, when it was revealed to be empty, the first thing she did was admit it's because she was the one who failed to find a gift for the "most amazing, cutest, sweetes, and most weirdly overprepared troll ever" and that it wasn't Branch's fault in any way.

Also, I think the holiday season must be Trollex's favorite time of year because this dude was jumping to join every song he could. He was absolutely killing it, too.

It think the subplot with Tiny is really cute, even if a bit out there. I love the bond between him and Guy and how much they love and adore each other, even if Tiny can be a bit of a past sometimes. Auntie Legsly was adorable in this too.

I LOVE that Cooper and Darnell have basically become Branch's bestie in this special, helping him in his Bunker and stuff. Branch needs good people, friends, and those two are good people friends. Viking with hsi crazy but careful to pull him back (if they can) when he starts to go too far. Makes me wish they made more appearances in the Band Together movie simply because those two are also a pair of long-lost brothers, and the whole movie's core theme was family, specifically family that had been separated for long periods of time, reconnecting.

Okay A LOT to go over. I watched that special when I was just getting into the trolls fandom back in February.

I was expecting Branch to go overboard the moment I saw that he got Poppy in the gift swap. He's a little over working bean who wants to give his partner everything he can. Also in the little doodle animation where Branch was practically spelling out how his was freaking out over the gift thing, doodle poppy says, "goodbye forever" a quote from John Dory, the night of the break up. I love this detail as it really speaks that his abandonment issues stem from that moment.

As for Poppy, also love that she went out of her way to find something that will make Branch feel loved, cause a normal material gift wouldn't do that for him. He needs meaning not pizzaz and a song would be way more meaning to him then anything else.

These two are just so sweet to each other.

The only problem i had with the techno trolls in this special was that we didn't really get to see Synth. He would look so cute in 3D.

The diamonds are probably one of the healthiest single parent households I have seen in children's media. They just love each other, and it's so sweet.

Cooper and D, are awesome, and i think they would get along. Cooper and Branch were both kind of outsiders growing up, I think if Creek hadn't ruled the roost, they would've been besties earlier on. D just follows his brother around since they're attached at the hip, but with Branch's mechanical know how he's probably closest to a non funk funk like troll you could get.

[echosong-87]

Sooo do the order of the movies change in moonlight au like first is the 2 movie then the 1 and then is the 3

Ok it goes something like this… i am very much paraphrasing at this point… or better yet put it in bullet points.

1. The scenes of when branch was a baby and brozone and his grandma was still round him… so that bit of the third movie is the first to go… or the very start of the story.

2. Is obviously the backstory of how the pop trolls escaped troll tree and such and slowly develop their village/where poppy had her song everybody and was bout to throw out invitations of her biggest, loudest, and craziest party ever and such but it was interrupted by Debbie Barb’s pet bat.(this wasn’t poppy’s queen corrination yet)

3. Cut to where barb attacks techno city or techno riff… or better yet Trollex and his home turf…. Her getting the techno string and was on her way towards classical kingdom… basically the whole second movie… and it leads to parts of the begining of it where Poppy lead Barb and her tribe into pop and they had a blast partying and such and it lead to Branch being crowned the new king of classic….

4. Is where the pop trolls had the beat go on… mixed in with the last bit of the first movie where yes they had that crazy party and yes… chef finally caught wind of the trolls and such…

5. Is where the rest of the best goes on comes in as filler and of course the other half of the start of the third film came into play with the wedding and such.

I hope this helps!! Again… i am writing it all down as best as i can

And thx for the question!!

:3

[trollsedits]

Hello, Can you please write your headcanon for whatever trolls you picked?

Like your own opinion about them...

Of course I will, I decided to do Both poppy and viva since I love their sister duo 😭🫶🏻

Poppy 🩷:

-She’s definitely a huge swifties she would drag branch to go to every single one of Taylor Swift concert (or the troll version of her)

-she’s clingy especially when around branch

-definitely hates it when her dad keeps secrets from her especially about her long lost sister Viva

-she is a supportive friend she will support you no matter what

-she’s the troll that everyone wants to go to for comfort or just need to vent

-Her favorite brozone member is Clay

-she would easily forgive anyone especially creek who literally sold them out to chef

-she’s very talkative you can’t make her shut up

-Is a major fan of Rave and party she will throw the biggest party/Rave with the help of the techno trolls

-she will remember every trolls,bergan birthday/anniversary so do expect her to

show up at your door with gifts and stuff

-she rarely gets mad is hard to see her mad

-when she dose get angry she would angry scrapbook til the scrapbook is in flames she almost set her pod on fire one time b/c she was so angry branch and her father would make the whole troll village splash water on their pod and her father banned her from scrapbooking when she’s angry

-she also listed to Harry styles aswell

-she owns all of brozone albums

-she once called branch older brother John Dory the old one during the Royal wedding it was funny even branch wasn’t mad at her for saying that

-She has tons of baby pictures of branch she even ask John Dory for more pictures of baby branch she made a scrapbook of baby branch

-She’s wears the pants in the relationship (Base on a fan art I saw)

-she would be the one to make a move on branch like proposing etc.

-she owns every Taylor swift album and one Harry style album

-She gave barb a swiftie friendship bracelets after the rock apocalypse

-she basically gave every trolls a swiftie friendship bracelets either with their name/songs from Taylor swift or just something that describes them

-she also gave one to brozone too each one of them having words that describe them John Dory was the most offended by it branch threatened to beat his square *** up if he dare take it off

John Dory: The Old one

Bruce: Daddy BRUCE (okay don’t look at it the wrong way guys cause he’s a dad now 😭)

Clay: serious boy

Floyd: the sensitive one

Branch: Lover or bitty B 💙

——————————————

Viva 💛:

-Still dose not know why her sister is friends with a Bergens

-Still dose not trust Bergens

-Definitely has abandonment issues

-she still mad at her father after 20 years for not telling poppy about her

-she loves milkshake so much that she once drank so many and got hyper clay had to banned it from her for a while til she can control herself

-She’s definitely listen to Lana Del Rey she cried to so many of her song cuz it reminds her of her father and poppy

-Her favorite lana del Rey album is the Lust for life and honeymoon album

-she is protective of poppy won’t let anyone near her not even Bridget and sometimes branch

-Viva likes to make candy necklaces with any new friends she meets

-Viva is that type of girl to kick down anyone door without knocking so believe it or not she has seen some stuff she once kick down clay door and caught him….

-knowing that viva will kick down anyone door down they all got hard metal door to keep viva from kicking in

-She gets angry quickly when she dose clay is afraid of her clay would often try to avoid things that trigger her

-she and clay are business partners

-she’s super duper chaotic

-she’s braided everyone hairs

-she’s a tight hugger she once gave clay a hug so tight taht it almost broke his poor ribs

————————————

Anyways, thanks again for the request Anyways if you want to request me just click under my profile “Ask me anything” I’m currently slowly running out of content so do request if you have any also just to let you all know that I’m working on another brozone headcanon so it will take a while…

———————-

Like + Follow are very much appreciated! ✨

[legochaotixmechz]

ROBY HEADCANONS LETS GOO

Warning Spoilors ofc-

He has a HIGH sugar intake

• His parents have scolded him in the past when doctors' notes came in talking abt if he takes anymore he'll croak

>Doesn't care tho still chugs soda among other sugary drinks like it is his life source

• When things get quiet/at random moments he'll just scream and then act like nothing happened

• Stang zoot / ROAR is a vocal stim for him now ( roar especially even if Wyle isn't around )

• On a call with his parents he talked abt Wyldfyre all giddy then just casually mentioned his uncle tried to kill him and then went back to being a giddy mess

>His parents were like "WHA!?? YOUR UNCLE WHAT?"

>And Roby's just like "Yeah yeah I sent him to jail but anyways!"

• Roby practices his mannerisms and energy in the mirror

> He is a naturally energetic guy don't get me wrong but he practices in the mirror to make sure he gives off a good type of energy that people will enjoy

>After every game he says to himself "YES, FCKING NAILED THAT- THEY ALL THINK I'M NEUROTYPICAL !!"

• Roby uses a lot of slang / silly language if he ever gets into serious conversation and if in conversation that makes himself uncomfortable as a defense mechanism

• He loves vocaloid/Uta

>He listens to The World Is Mine before the game to hype himself

> 1# Teto stan and defender

• Fav music genres are N-pop, regular pop, Rock ( any kind he doesnt mind), techno, and that hyper Pacific music that sounds like being on acid named things like "bong cats bleeding rainbows" or smth

• If he were a Pokmon trainer he would have normal, dragon, steel and fighting pokemon

• Based on the sugar headcanon at the start. He once did a challenge on his ninjatok where he didn't eat any sugar for a week

>By Wednesday he was losing his color and tweaking without a sweet treat after every meal ( he's being dramatic )

>And By the end challenge he almost couldn't even post the last video and once it was done he scarfed down a whole tray of sugar cookies

• He sweeps in sleep-over/party game. >Especially rhythm game !

>Wyldfyre invited him over to a sleepover and he mopped the floor with everyone in Rhythm Heaven, Guitar Hero and Ddr

>Eventually they switched to Mario's party but he swept everyone again

•>They just kept going through games ( super smash bros, Mario Kart, uno etc) eventually Gave up and made him sit on the couch as everyone else played

• If he knows you. He'll know your birthday. And the spilt second it turns midnight on the day before your b day he'll spam you with "HAPPPY BIRTHDAYY BITFHHH HAVE AMAZING FUN AND AWESOME BIRTHDAYY STANG ZOOT!!!!!!!" and then send a voice memo of him singing happy birthday but with brainrot words

• He has 5 phones, 3 laptops, 10 PCs and 15 game consoles. Don't think you can ever ban my man from any social media or game he'll always come back.

• Favorite fruits are mangos, raspberries, blueberries and tomatoes

• In one of the games Roby saw smth flying over their head and just stopped everything to stare at it. So for A good bit, there was just no commentary from him or shots of the fight it was just the camera facing down

• Robys a Lil nasty in terms of if he tries smth he doesn't like he projectile spits

• He's the biggest yapper when watching movies. Always commenting on everything and crafting theories on the spot

• He can recite the entirety of the Heather's musical to a t

• In his free time he guest host talk shows (like Jerry Springer/Oprah but imagine ninjago ver) and his FAVORITE thing is "You are not/are" the father

> He has ran laps around the studio as everything breaks into chaos after every single "are you or not the father" answer reveals

> He even got a show canceled after the incident of him going too far and sending a baby flying by accidentally kicking the baby's carage

• He loves playing roblox and claims his dad owns roblox ALWAYS

• Smells like satin fabric, charcoal, chocolate

• When he sleeps he goes "Honk mimimimimimi" and hugs a comically small teddy bear with a little sleeping cap

Anyways thanks for listing to me yap

[ultraflavour]

Adventures in Shared World-Building

I just got finished my first adventure of Fabula Ultima, using the shared world-building method they describe in the book.

For the most part, it was a very cool experience to conjure a whole-ass universe out of nothing, that anyone in the group could pick up and run with. But I made a few crucial mistakes that led to me very quickly falling out of love with the setting that the group had created. I want to talk about them here, so that people know what they're getting into before they jump in feet-first.

Mistake #1: Not Specifying the Genre Before Session Zero

This was by far the biggest blunder that I made.

Fabula Ultima has three major genres that it supports: Natural Fantasy, High Fantasy, and Techno Fantasy. This is a decision that you have to make before any other world-building can happen, because it significantly changes what's possible and what's thematically appropriate for the setting you've selected.

The Fabula Ultima rulebook doesn't really specify when you need to make the decision between these genres. My assumption was that, like most of the other world-building decisions, it would be made as a group during Session Zero. Whether or not that was the intention of the authors, it was a bad idea for my table.

What ended up happening was almost too predictable. Because I hadn't made any hard decisions about what genre the game should be set in before getting to the table, the setting elements ended up being all over the place.

Two players showed up with what amounted to Cyberpunk capitalist dystopias, while the rest showed up with much more High Fantasy concepts that would have been much more at home in something like Song of Ice and Fire or the Kingkiller Chronicle. It ended up being a genre mismatch that I was not equipped to deal with.

Looking back on it, there were things that I could have done to make things work. The problem was that I was already fighting an uphill battle to desperately try to include the things that the players had created in the game, and didn't have any energy left over to try to create some sort of deeper thematic meaning out of the very disparate setting elements that had been introduced.

Action item: The thing I should have done was decide on an overall setting before the game started, rather than leaving it to chance that everything my players brought to the table would just magically coalesce into a setting. When you're building a house, you build the foundation and the frame first, then put the walls up.

So don't be afraid to make some big decisions about the world before the players get to Session Zero. Also, make sure the players are aware of the decisions you've made so that they don't show up with ideas that clash with your vision.

Mistake #2: Not having enough of a Stake in the World

Another thing that I somewhat misinterpreted from the guidelines in the Fabula Ultima book was that I, the Game Master, was supposed to act solely as a referee and to help shape the players' ideas, without introducing any of my own to the party.

I do think that's largely correct, but it creates a huge problem: I, the GM, ended up having very little buy-in into the world. The players ended up coming up with a lot of stuff, which left me with very little space to fill in with my own stuff later on.

This dovetails into Mistake #3 but I want to point out why this was a problem before moving on. I actually do think that the GM should not introduce their own setting elements during the world-building process, because the game is ultimately about the players and their characters.

If I introduced my own setting elements, then they would be the only ones I'd be focusing on, because obviously I'm going to be more interested in my own ideas than the ideas of the players. So my solution was to not introduce any of my own setting elements, and instead leave everything up to the players, simply acting as the moderator for their ideas.

But the problem this creates is that when you show up to the table, you're not excited about what you're doing in the game because none of it is yours. The players are having a bunch of fun because they built the sand castles and now they get to be the ones to knock them over, while you only built the box.

I know that a lot of GMs balk at the idea of shared world-building because a big part of the fun of being the GM for them is being the one who gets to decide on everything related to the world. The players bring characters, you bring the universe. That's how it's worked for a long time.

But I also think that "The GM decides on everything related to the story" leads to the dreaded Railroad. This is a big part of the reason why I wanted to do a game with shared world-building in the first place. The problem was that I went way too far in the other direction, and ended up with a setting that I felt like I had no real stake in.

Action item: Being more selective about what genre I wanted to run a game in early would have helped here (see Mistake #1). But also, taking some time to introduce setting elements after the world-building session wrapped up would have helped a lot here. I was too worried about trying to incorporate the players' ideas as much as possible that I left no room for myself to create things that I was excited about, and this ended up hurting my enjoyment tremendously.

Mistake #3: Going too Big too Early

The task of shared world-building is big. You're sitting down to create a whole fictional world out of nothing except the fecund imaginations of the players present.

When I first saw that the Fabula Ultima "Press Start" guide expected the players to have everything done in one session and still have time left over for gameplay, I balked. Hard. HA! You expect me and my table to make all of these decisions about the world AND characters in a couple of hours? No way.

Well... There's two sides to that story. Because yes, I do actually think it's a bit outrageous to expect the players to do everything and get to gameplay in one session, but it's not unreasonable to expect the task of world-building to be done in an hour to 90 minutes.

Here's the thing: It's very easy for the players to get carried away. After all, they're filling a world with their cool ideas, and they don't even have to worry about executing on them. That's your job.

You, the GM, are the one who needs to take the ingredients you've been handed and make soup with it. When the players keep excitedly piling ideas onto you, you start to lose focus on the story at hand.

A concrete example of this mistake in action was that the world we created ended up with two maps, one for one hemisphere, one for another. On one map we had 3 continents, on the other, a single large continent.

Well, the problem was that in the time we allotted to play the game, we only really had time to explore (partially) one continent. To incorporate all the other world-building elements into the game, I had to get very creative, and it ended up being mostly unsatisfying. Rather than focus in on a smaller set of concepts that the players were the most interested in, I ended up trying to shoehorn in a ton of setting elements that weren't directly pertinent to the adventure the players were on.

This also ties into Mistake #2. Every setting element the players introduce is something that you, the GM, are going to feel compelled to execute on, and that's not going to leave a lot of room for the things that you are interested in.

Action item: Keep the setting development focused on a smaller area that the players actually have some chance of exploring. Don't be afraid to be vague about setting elements that are far away from where the action takes place. You will end up wasting a lot of time and energy making big decisions about places that the players have no chance of actually exploring, rather than focusing more closely on the area that you know for sure they are going to be interacting with.

Remember, you can always fill in stuff later, if it ends up that the players get really excited about some faraway place and want to travel there. If that happens, you can do a second world-building session to flesh those places out.

Another really good reason to keep things small is that going too big can lead to Mistake #4...

Mistake #4: Over-Committing to Exploring the Whole World

"Holy crap, a FOURTH mistake, did you do anything right?" Well, I've only done this three times, and arguably each time has been unsuccessful, so yeah, I think there's room for a bit of introspection here.

After all, the task of world-building is fun, but it is also complicated. And as we've seen above, there are a lot of ways to screw it up.

For mostly the reasons I've listed above (plus some external factors that were a major drain on my mental resources) I ended up burning out on the game way sooner than I thought I would. The problem was that I had told the group that I would try to run the game for at least 4 months, then start paying off storylines to bring things to a close over the next 2 months after that.

This was way too ambitious, though I couldn't have really known that at the time. I thought that I really needed to commit to the game in order to make the rest of the players feel rewarded for the effort they put in. I didn't want to disappoint anyone by cutting the game short after all the effort it took to create the world.

When you create a shared world between a bunch of different people, there is a tendency to want to reward that investment. After all, everyone put a little piece of themselves into the world. It's like your baby after that.

But at the end of the day, you are building this setting to run a game in. You want players to feel rewarded for their investment, sure, but at the same time, you don't want the game to feel like work. As soon as you start running the game out of a sense of obligation instead of out of genuine excitement, you end up burning out and ending the game in a rushed fashion.

It's often tempting to make big promises, so that players invest their own energy into making the game as big and exciting it can be. You don't want to break those promises, because the next time you want to get the players on board with your idea, the less likely they're going to buy in.

You, the GM, should always be realistic about how much you're able to commit to. Nobody is entitled to your time and energy. It's better to make a promise you know you can keep, and then figure out how you (and the rest of the table) are feeling after that first adventure arc wraps up.

Action item: The obvious solution here is to just not make big promises about how "big" or "epic" the game is going to be. If you can only run the game for a month or two, that's fine. One of the big advantages of the shared world-building method is that everyone at the table has a (mostly) equal stake in the world. That means any one of your players should be able to pick up the task of GMing from you if you find that you're unable to do it.

And hey, here's the thing: If nobody else wants to do the job of GMing, then that's a tacit admission that they recognize that it's a wholly different beast to be a player than it is to be the GM. This is a truth that I think every player of TTRPGs needs to understand, because it has a huge effect on whether or not you actually end up with a full game at the end of the day.

Shared World-Building is still Fun

I don't want to make it seem like the task of shared world-building is fraught with pitfalls. It's actually a very rewarding experience, even if you do it incorrectly.

And it's not like other worldbuilding styles don't have their own pitfalls. Homebrewing a setting by yourself is a ton of work, and you don't always know if the players are going to be excited about your ideas if you never bring them into the creative process. Packaged settings can be good, but you also have no stake in them because they're by definition not yours.

I would very strongly encourage everyone to at least try this style of world-building, especially if you've always just done your own homebrew. It's a very enriching experience, and can be very eye-opening about the creative ideas of other players.

You can gain a lot of insight into the other people at the table by what types of things they get excited about. That can help you to better tailor your own homebrew to your players in the future. It can even give you ideas for how you can incorporate the ideas of Fabula Ultima into your own TTRPG campaigns.

While you might not necessarily be able to totally hand the keys to the kingdom over to the players in the case of something like D&D or Pathfinder, you can still get some input into your setting from them to help you flesh out the things that they're actually interested in exploring. If you show up to the game having already made all of the most interesting story decisions, you will find that your players have no room to move within your framework, and end up feeling railroaded.

Giving your players a feeling of buy-in into your setting increases their investment in your game, even if you are ultimately the one who's going to determine the story. It also increases the potential for emergent storytelling, when your players' ideas interact nicely with the ideas you came up with for your game.

Well, Anyways

I think that shared world-building can be a really cool method to enhance the tried-and-true homebrew methodology that most GMs are used to. But I also don't think that it's a magic bullet solution, and like a lot of tools, it can be used incorrectly.

I hope that I've helped, and maybe you think these tips don't apply, but I assure you that these tips are all borne out of a lot of time spent screwing these things up. Making mistakes is how we learn, and you should forgive yourself for screwing up. At least you tried, and that's more than a lot of people can say.

[valsnonsense]

Princess Strawberry of Pop

"OH MY GOSH!!! It's a Theraposa Blondi! Also know as a Goliath Birdeater! It's the biggest species of spider known to Trollkind! Did you know that they don't actually eat birds? They got that name from an 18th century copper graving made by Maria Sibylla Trollian who depicted one eating a hummingbird- wait where did they go???"

Parents: Queen Poppy and King Branch

Siblings: Choco (Sister), Vanilla (Sister), Apple (Younger Brother), Oran (Younger Brother), Lemon (Younger Brother), Lime (Younger Brother), Blueberry (Younger Brother), Grape (Younger Sibling), Iris (Younger Sister)

Age: 24

Pronouns: He/She/They

Sexuality: Pansexual

Genre: Pop/Funk/Techno/EDM/KPop/JPop

Voice Claim: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane (Halsey)

The third eldest of the Broppy kids and last of the triplets! Bubbly, upbeat, and chock full of endless energy, Strawberry takes after her mother in never ending positivity. But instead of parties, music, and scrapbooking, Strawberry's energy is directed at bugs.

Strawberry has always had a fascination with creepy crawlies. Arachnids, insects, arthropods, you name it. The more legs it has, the better. Growing up, their parents would have to turn their pockets inside out before they came inside, to make sure nothing crawled out at the dinner table.

As an adult, he studies all the fascinating bugs around Trollstopia, and the history of their kinds relationship with Trolls. Strawberry will talk endlessly about them to anyone who will listen for more than five minutes, which is mostly his sisters.

Strawberry has a diverse tast in music. She's never really felt set in just one kind. Strawberry likes loud, wild music that you can play at raves and parties, something that gets you bouncing endlessly. It helps her channel her near endless energy.

Strawberry is very close with her friends and family, and will often go out of their way to make sure everyone around them is happy, a trait she picks up from her mother.

She currently resides in Trollstopia alongaide her family.

Fun Facts!

- Strawberry is never seen without bugs somewhere on her person. In her hair, on her shoulders, crawling through her tail, ext. It often scares the hell outta other Trolls who don't expect to see giant spiders come crawling over her shoulder.

-Strawberry is currently dating Yeona. Strawberry loves to surprise her students with spontaneous visits and lessons on weird bugs. Yeona made the small anklet she wears when doing an arts and crafts lesson with her students.

- Strawberry has a large pet centipede named Jeffery. He's over a foot long and curls around her room while sleeping. Not many who walk in notice him until he uncurls himself.

And that's the last of the Triplets!! I love Strawberry she's my little Poppy clone. I wanted one of my OCs to love bugs, idk why, I just think it's cute xP

Voice Example: Could Have Been Me (Halsey)

[simplepotatofarmer]

hey loyal, i just saw the game shop au you were talking about and i'm c a c k l i n g

techno gives me 'min-maxxer that could easily break the game if he wanted to, and breaks character a lot for sarcastic comments a lot, but also has some of the deepest roleplay of the group'

Dream's spent the last 5 years working on a homebrew world he tried to run Once (the fatal Wilbur and Tommy party), and he hasn't touched it since because jesus christ. That being said, he does a great job running unique pre-made campaigns and settings that are basically homebrew anyway.

yeah, no this absolutely tracks.

techno would be an amazing roleplayer but half the time he's just joking around until something major happens and then he's giving you chills with improv speeches. he's also the player who keeps trying to adopt every mildly friendly animal or monster.

dream's biggest flaw as a dm is wanting that perfect found family d&d group where everyone is friends and would die for each other but his players are fucking gremlins and keep trying to attack each other both in game and out and he's so pissed about it.

[rabbitechoes]

there were some cool singles this week!!! especially the new FKA twigs single holyyyy shit. also, my write-ups this week are a little messy because i was veryyyy busy, but maybe i'll go back and edit them soon :3 click here for last week's post!!

also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter <3

"World Tour (Aquafina)" | "Lightyears" - Juice WRLD

◇ released: Sept. 9, 2024 ◇ featured on The Party Never Ends (not yet released) ◇ genres: trap, emo rap

I wasn't going to write about this because it's yet another posthumous album from Juice WRLD, but holyyyyy fuck look at that cover. Like what an aesthetic nightmare. I would be rolling in my grave. Genuinely one of the most visually unappealing album covers I've seen in a while. Anyway, these songs aren't anything special.

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"The Day the Party Died" - Kendrick Lamar

◇ released: Sept. 11, 2024 ◇ genres: conscious hip hop, west coast hip hop

On 9/11, Kendrick Lamar dropped a track on his Instagram - I fucking hate this practice btw, but whatever - that was untitled, but was coined "The Day the Party Died" by various media outlets. This is Lamar's first piece of new music since both his dominant victory against Drake in their beef and him being announced as the performer at next year's Super Bowl Halftime Show. This song serves as a nice epilogue to the events of this year. It's meditative and a bit remorseful. Lamar laments the state of hip hop and how it makes a spectacle of these feuds. He also takes accountability for contributing to this, it's not exactly a rebuke of his actions, but more-so a reflection. Is Lamar in any position to make these observations? That's up to the listener. I found it compelling personally. Lamar is not the collective moral compass, he is not our savior after all. Hopefully this signals the end of this chapter and Lamar can move on to something else soon. The party is dead.

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"Talk talk featuring troye sivan" - Charli xcx & Troye Sivan

◇ released: Sept. 12, 2024 ◇ featured on Brat and It's Completely Different But Also Still Brat (not yet released) ◇ genres: dance-pop, future house

Charli xcx is gearing up for Brat autumn it seems with this new version of "Talk Talk" with Troye Sivan - right in time for their joint tour together. This is fun. I really love the house elements on this remix, but Sivan's presence doesn't do much for me. Alongside this single the announcement of a full Brat remix album was announced so that's exciting! Not the best remix, but I'm still excited to hear whatever remixes are coming down the pipeline

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"Lowdown" - Michael Kiwanuka

◇ released: Sept. 12, 2024 ◇ featured on Small Changes (not yet released) ◇ genres: psychedelic soul, psychedelic rock

Michael Kiwanuka is gearing up for a new album later this year. These two new tracks, both parts of "Lowdown," are sleek psychedelic soul cuts. They sound timeless and Kiwanuka's voice is so lovely on the ears. The instrumentation is also pretty great, especially on the second part which is just an instrumental. It delves more into a psychedelic rock sound, but it's so mesmerizing. The strings are a nice touch as well. I'm really loving this, super excited for his new album.

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"Run It" - clipping.

◇ released: Sept. 12, 2024 ◇ genres: industrial hip hop, acid techno, hardcore hip hop, industrial techno

I'll be honest, I've never been the biggest clipping. fan, but that could very well be attributed to a lack of trying. Hearing "Run It," it might be time to give them another shot. This track is awesome. I love the beat here, leaning into both industrial hip hop and techno sounds to make this really cold atmosphere. There's just so much energy to this track. I also really love the verses from Daveed Diggs here, which surprised me because I believe his rapping was the reason I didn't click with them in the first place. I was probably being dumb, I'll realize it sooner or later. Anyway, this is an incredibly solid cut and here's hoping I'll become a full-blown clipping. fan in the near future.

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"Nobody Knows" - Shawn Mendes

◇ released: Sept. 13, 2024 ◇ featured on Shawn (not yet released) ◇ genre: americana

What the hell is he doing? Shawn Mendes's weird pivot to rugged Americana music is awkward as hell to say the least. He's not a convincing singer-songwriter, it just sounds like he's being obnoxiously moody and melodramatic. Don't have any high hopes for this new record, but what the hell, it's not like I was anticipating much from him anyway.

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"Eusexua" - FKA twigs

◇ released: Sept. 13, 2024 ◇ featured on Eusexua (not yet released) ◇ genre: art pop, trance, progressive trance

FKA twigs has returned with the lead single and title track to her upcoming album Eusexua. If this single and the snippet that plays the beginning of the incredible music video attached to it is any indication, we might be in for an unbelievable record. Twigs has an amazing track record and that continues to be the case here. This is music that feels necessary, it just feels like you need to hear it. You need to enter the soundscapes Twigs creates with her music - there's not much like it. The production this track is unreal and twigs is as ethereal as ever. It's so sensual and honest in a way that feels a bit too real. It's like she's singing directly to you, even if she's speaking of her own experiences in an extremely visceral way. No one is doing it like her and that remains to be seen on this song. I'm sort of in awe. I was, of course, expecting it to be great, but this is magnificent. Please go out of your way to listen to this track and, better yet, watch the music video as well. Eusexua is my most anticipated album of next year, which isn't saying much, but trust me it means a lot. Can't wait to dive into this world.

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"I'm His, He's Mine" - Katy Perry feat. Doechii

◇ released: Sept. 13, 2024 ◇ featured on 143 (not yet released) ◇ genre: pop rap, atlanta bass

On this latest miserable outing for Katy Perry, she drags Doechii down with her as she sleepwalks through this generic pop rap cut built around a boring sample flip. There's no big payoff to this track at all, it just kinda keeps going until it doesn't. It's like a song written with no goals in mind. God, 143 is shaping up to be one of the most failed attempts at a comeback of all time. This is her Man of the Woods - if Witness wasn't that already. This song also comes after that abysmal podcast interview where she deflected criticism with her reuniting with Dr. Luke which makes it doubly embarrassing. It's not like he's making these songs good, they suck! You're embarrassing yourself. I also miss when artists would actually talk to real journalists instead of feckless, good-vibes podcasters. That's a conversation for another time though and a much more interesting one to have than anything surrounding this song.

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"ALL RED" - Playboi Carti

◇ released: Sept. 13, 2024 ◇ featured on I Am Music (not yet released) ◇ genre: trap, southern hip hop, hardcore hip hop

After gimmicky mysterious posting, several weird cases surrounding his Opium label, and much anticipation Playboi Carti has returned with a new single. I ... like this? His lower pitched rapping took a second to get used to, but I think I enjoy it. This just isn't the strongest song to release as the lead. It's a bit too one-note to leave much of an impression. Whatever he does, it's sure to be polarizing, but I'm curious to hear how I Am Music shapes out.

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"Dancing in the Flames" - The Weeknd

◇ released: Sept. 13, 2024 ◇ featured on Hurry Up Tomorrow (not yet released) ◇ genre: synthpop, dance-pop, freestyle, synthwave

After the letdown that was The Idol, The Weeknd has returned with the lead single to his upcoming album Hurry Up Tomorrow - the final part of a trilogy including both After Hours and Dawn FM. He leans heavily into synthpop on this cut and it works pretty well. I don't think this is the strongest lead single, especially considering the tracks that lead into his previous two, but it's not a bad song at all. Looking forward to this one. I feel like he's at the apex of his career with these last two records and I hope he can finish on a strong note.

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[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Best of House Music Volume 3: House Music All Night Long 1990 House / Garage House / Techno

Here's New York label Profile Records continuing apace with this third installment in their landmark Best of House Music series, whose 1990 release ended up following on the heels of what had been house's biggest commercial achievement in America up until that point, Madonna's "Vogue," which surged as that year's undisputed song of the summer, just after Technotronic's "Pump Up the Jam" had taken the world by storm too.

And speaking of "Pump Up the Jam," I guess the best place to start with this album then is its opening track, which is the all-time hip-house classic of "I'll House You" by the Jungle Brothers, a song that lends itself to this very album's own House Music All Night Long subtitle and also utilizes the same iconic sharp bit of string off of Chicago legend Marshall Jefferson's own early house classic, "Move Your Body (House Music Anthem)," that Jo Bogaert of Technotronic would use for his own Belgian group's goofy, world-changing, signature hit too.

But here's the thing about "I'll House You": it's essentially just a song in which the Jungle Brothers rapped over an already previously released house track, Todd Terry's "Can You Party?" which he issued as Black Riot, and you can find on Volume 2 of this same series. Plus, you can also find that Marshall Jefferson song that Terry and Bogaert sampled from on Volume 1 as well. And then in addition to all of that, "I'll House You" would also later get famously sampled by UK group 2 Bad Mice for their highly popular breakbeat hardcore "Bombscare '94" remix too.

(Note, however, that the version of "I'll House You" that's on this album is actually a remix by the great Richie Rich, who founded UK rap label Gee Street Records and also released an exceptional piece of Latin house in 1989 called "Salsa House" too.)

Feel the house music steady, steady poundin'!

Something else worth mentioning here is how much early Detroit techno is on this album too though, which, before the genre had really started to flesh itself out more distinctly from house in the early 90s, was frequently lumped in with it. And we've got a trio of Motor City classics here, with Reese & Santonio's "Rock to the Beat," Juan Atkins' mix of Inner City's pop-appealing "Good Life," and then Derrick May's breathtaking "Strings of Life (Piano mix)" as Rhythim Is Rhythim, which is so hard to believe actually came out in 1987 🤯. Plus, with Reese of Reese & Santonio being Kevin Saunderson, and with Saunderson also being part of Inner City, we happen to have all of techno's big Belleville Three on this album, which doesn't feel like a coincidence!

And then last but certainly not least, we also have A Guy Called Gerald's "Voodoo Ray," a statement record from 1988 that happened to be the first acid house tune to ever be made in the UK itself. When acid house first started to pick up steam there, the records had been imported from Chicago, but here we have Gerald making one himself, delivering a midtempo stunner that brought forth a spaciously killer combination of a uniquely dubby and metallically bonging bassline, acid darts, and a young and soothingly spiritual female vocal, all over a house backbeat. Psychedelic dance bliss 😌.

So that about wraps up my little foray this week into the first three volumes of this house series from Profile. Despite being right in the thick of house music's growth from an underground, Chicago-centric scene of quirky insularity into a commercial force to be reckoned with that was developing its own scenes in multiple locales internationally, these three volumes still managed to select a whole lot of songs that would go on to prove as definitively essential house cornerstones. Volume 2 is probably my favorite experience of all because it doesn't have many of the same tracks that later "history of house" comps would end up having, but taken together as a unit, this trio of releases is really worth a listen for anyone who either loves or is interested in learning about the history of early electronic dance music. So much of it still holds up to this very day!

Highlights:

Richie Rich Meets the Jungle Brothers - "I'll House You (Gee Street Reconstruction)" Jomanda - "Make My Body Rock (Basic Mix)" Reese & Santonio - "Rock to the Beat" Adeva - "Respect (Dancin' Danny D. Mix)" Chanelle - "One Man (One Mix)" Vicky Martin - "(Not Gonna) Do It (Bam Bam Mix)" Inner City - "Good Life (Magic Juan Mix)" K-Os (Chaos) - "Definition of Love" Rhythim Is Rhythim - "Strings of Life (Piano Mix)" A Guy Called Gerald - "Voodoo Ray" Sublevel feat. Andrea - "Don't Blame Me"