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ladydracarysao3 · 7 years

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In Love, Serenity

Chapter Thirteen: Relics

Chapter Summary Follow Abner through the Fallow Mire. What will happen when her crew stumbles on an old relic of her past?

Note Warnings: Violence. Battles happen in this chapter. Descriptions of death and carnage ahead.

[Read Chapter 13 on AO3] or [Start from the Beginning]

-Abner-

“I swear, if the guts of the undead tarnish my new armor…” Izzalea complains, fitfully brushing rotten entrails from her body with irritated disgust. As if armor was only made to be seen, rather than actually used.

Abner remembers why she prefers to work alone.

But let’s face it, she never forgot.

Ever since they arrived in the bog it has been nothing but misery. Rain, mud, the undead, demons, and constant griping. However, the bog and its contents don’t bother Abner. She’s known worse. But it is the incessant whining from the people around her that has her hackles up. It’s bad enough that Leliana sent her here to deal with an Avvar clan at all, but really, she could have accomplished this mission on her own. It would certainly be less of a head ache.

This clan may be calling for Izzalea personally, but Abner is confident she could quietly and efficiently take care of all Avvar involved in this mess. They would deserve every death, and she would be happy to give each one, personally.

Interrupting her thoughts, Abner spots alarming movement in her periphery. She finds Hawke about to make another stupid mistake. She darts over to him, yanking him violently from the water’s edge and back onto the pathway. She glares at him as he looks at her, wounded and astonished. She scolds him as if he is a child, because that is how he acts. “You nob, you almost stepped in the water…again…” She grits her teeth at the man. When is he going to get it through his thick skull that disturbing the waters in this bog wakes the undead lying within? He has continually stepped in when it was unnecessary, rousing the undead, and causing the group to fight more than they already have to.

...Seriously…These people…

He huffs and brushes off his robes indignantly, “Maybe if I hadn’t suffered a blow to the head yesterday, I wouldn’t feel so disoriented today.” Abner rolls her eyes and shoves him forward down the trail. How is this buffoon supposed to be a champion? He certainly doesn’t act like one.

“Maybe if you hadn’t been so mouthy, Abner wouldn’t have needed to put you in your place,” Iron Bull chuckles. Inwardly, Abner appreciates Bull’s retort, but she is trying to be emotionless toward anything concerning Hawke. She doesn’t understand why he came. He has seen too much of her already. He needs to just fade into the background, like all of the others before him. When she saw him stride up to the group back at Skyhold, she decided she would try to ignore him as best she could, maybe then his crush on her would be squashed.

“It was a joke!” he sneers back at the qunari. She knew he didn’t mean any real harm by what he said, but it is easier to push him away… as roughly as she needs to.

“I do believe our assassin friend did not find your poor attempt at levity to be very amusing,” Solas quips with a smug grin.

Irritated with the ribbing everyone has given him since she punched his arrogant, little nose, Hawke growls at Solas, “You think?!”

Abner considers her options for a moment. She crosses her arms and cocks her head at the brooding mage. Being rough with him isn’t working. It has only clouded his judgement, thus far. Perhaps she should try another approach.

“Alright how ‘bout this… everyone will all stop teasing you,” he lifts his head and looks at her with hopeful eyes. “IF you stop stepping in the damn water every five minutes. I mean seriously,” she points along the trail below their feet. “There is a path right here...follow it…”

He scratches his head, “I kept thinking I saw something in the water. Treasures. I love shiny things,” he pouts.

See? A child. What a dolt…a cute dolt…but a dolt nonetheless.

Groaning with disapproval, Abner points her finger in Hawke’s face. “Well, stop. No touching,” she says sternly. She follows her scold with a quick smile, hoping a little lightheartedness from her will help him focus.

“A smile!” He cheers and points as she rolls her eyes playfully, “A smile! Did you see that, Bull? I think she is coming around.”

“Or she is using the tactics one exploits when speaking to a simpleton… with you.” Solas interjects causing Abner to snort. Hawke glares at the elven apostate. She allows herself to display her amusement at the situation. For all of the reasons she has to be irritated with everyone, this group is oddly endearing as well. Also, she can’t help but think that the elf just gets her, with all of his clever witticisms aimed at knocking Hawke down from his smug pedestal. His adorable, smug pedestal.

“Alright kids. Let’s calm it down,” Izzalea orders, annoyed. Her mood has been sour ever since they discovered that the bog is teaming with undead, just waiting to rip their heads off. Abner can’t blame her. Being a noble, Izzalea is most likely accustomed to much finer things than rotten bogs the smell of death and decay.

She points down the trail. The darkness and rain are so thick that it’s difficult to see even ten paces ahead. “I think I see another one of those beacons. Maker, I hope we are almost done with all of this druffalo shit. Prepare yourself for demons, everyone.” The team cautiously approaches. “Solas, on our ready, light the beacon.”

Cole and Abner crouch on opposite sides of the group. Daggers drawn, ready to strike. With every previous beacon, lighting it not only pulled the undead from the waters, but also summoned terror demons. It has been rough, but Izzalea insists that they void the area from as much evil as they can. Between the beacons, a few fade rifts, and the easily disturbed, hidden undead, they have been fighting nearly nonstop since they arrived.

Solas places a magical barrier over everyone before he lights the beacon with veilfire. Immediately after, a horrifying screech erupts from the ground as a terror demon rips through the veil. Tall, sinewy, and disgusting, it shrieks with an ear-piercing magnitude that makes Abner see stars. While ripping outwardly with long, razor-sharp claws, the demon swipes a lengthy and boney tail behind it to trip-up anyone trying to flank it.

The Inquisitor doesn’t flinch; she immediately throws her grappling chain forward and entangles the creature within its metal links. Yanking it to her with a powerful war cry, she fearlessly bashes into it with her piercingly sharp-edged shield, stunning the monstrous creature. Iron Bull runs to her side and begins swinging his enormous axe into the demon with bloody rage. Blood and bone begin spraying everywhere as the demon shrieks and tries to free itself from their grasp.

Abner detects the undead rising from the surrounding waters. They slowly skulk forward, flanking the melee. She nods at Cole and he nods in return. On opposite sides of the fray, they stealth through the brush and weeds. Flanking their rotting, unaware enemies as they attack.

One by one, Abner sneaks up from behind and jabs a dagger forcefully through skulls. More difficult kills require her to jab and swing as they attack her, slicing their throats hard enough to rip off their heads. Others still, she assaults and forces to stumble to the ground, where she jumps on their brittle, disgusting bodies to ram her blades in into their brains. Putrid bodies stack and fall limp at her feet. Decaying flesh and thick, congealed blood covers her body. With each fresh kill, layer after layer of blood and guts paints over her skin and armor.

The undead Cole and Abner cannot reach in time, are sucked into a vortex by Solas. He manipulates the energies in fade so that a large group can no longer move. They are helplessly gathered into a rancid pile of crunching, shattering bones and slimy, gelatinous flesh. The rift mage then raises their bodies high in the air, only to quickly smash them back to the ground with immense force. Hawke follows up by unleashing a fire storm on top of the corpses. The smell of scorching, foul flesh releases into the air. Abner coughs and attempts to block the smoke from infiltrating her nose with a blood-wet forearm.

“Abner, watch out!” the Inquisitor frantically calls out to her. In that moment, Abner notices the ground beneath her shakes. Before she can roll, or jump, or run out of the way, a terror demon erupts from the earth. The power with which it springs through the veil, forces her to slam to the ground on her back. Her head smacks against a rock hard enough to cause her vision to blur. She lays there stunned for too long, as every moment in battle is open to life-threatening consequences.

“No!” Solas screams. He freezes the demon in place. Immediately, he doubles over, panting from exhaustion. The freeze holds just long enough for Hawke to run to Abner’s stunned, motionless body. He scoops her into his arms, bolting away from the demon as it breaks free from the freeze. With another ear-deafening screech, the demon madly swipes its claws outward.

The rest of group descends on the demon, attacking with all of their might. Izzalea screams and bashes it with her shield, demanding its attention to focus on her. As she blocks frenzied attacks, Cole and Iron Bull stab and slash with their weapons. They rip through the flesh of its screaming, ghastly body until finally, the demon falls into a wet pile of slime, skin, and bone.

Hawke and Abner lie on the ground, panting from pain, away from the battle. He had brought her there, laying her carefully on the dirt before collapsing beside her. Now, he strains to lean over her, brushing her coiled hair from her face. “Are you alright?” he pants, breathless, and stressed. His eyes dart back and forth between hers, sick with worry, searching for recognition. Needing to see the cloudy daze lift from her eyes, to know that she is alright.

Abner squeezes her eyes shut. “Yeah, I’m fine,” answering with a groan, she reaches to rub the back of her head. Her fingers become slick with blood. She curses under her breath and blinks her eyes quickly, trying desperately to find the focus that is taking too long to return. As the shapes in her vision find alignment, she notices that Hawke is wincing. The pain carried in his face is greater than it would be from just falling to the ground. Concerned that he was hit, Abner jumps to her knees, pushing through the intense dizzy spell the movement conjures, and frantically looks over his body.

“Did it get you?” she asks fanatically just before discovering that the demon had ripped its claws across his back. His robes are shredded. Blood quickly spreads from long, jagged wounds. Dark red pools on the ground.

“Solas!” she screams, “Come quick!” She rips a potion from her belt and forces its contents down Hawke’s throat. “Here, this will take away the pain. Solas can fix your flesh.”

Solas runs urgently and slides on his knees across the ground to Hawke’s back. He quickly takes a lyrium potion from his pack, giving him the temporary boost of power needed to heal the damage. As the mage lies there grimacing, the elf surveys the wound. Solas closes his eyes, a bright, green light emits from his hands as the skin magically reconnects. “There will be a scar, but the danger has passed,” the elf reports calmly.

“What about her head,” Hawke groans as he slowly lies flat on his back. He lifts his hand and points to the scout kneeling beside him, “She hit her head pretty hard.”

Solas looks at Abner, before he can speak she shrugs him off. “I’m fine, go check on everyone else.”

Solas sighs and stands, walking away to inspect the others. As he does Hawke grumbles, “No you’re not. You’re bleeding.” He weakly grabs the hand stained with her blood on the fingers.

“That’s undead blood.”

“No it’s not.”

Abner rolls her eyes, grabbing another small healing potion from her belt. She flashes the bottle in his face with a perturbed glare, before downing its bitter, thick liquid. “There. You can shut up about it now,” she says as she tosses the empty bottle to the ground.

With the threat of Hawke’s life now subsided, anger bubbles up inside her. “What do you think you were doing?” She shouts, roughly punching Hawke in the shoulder.

Labored, he sits up enough to rest on his elbows. He sharply barks back a retort, “Saving your sorry ass.”

“You’re a daft fool!” She stares daggers into him. Shoving him harshly back down on the ground, she rises to her feet. She disguises a dizzy wobble with the act of brushing dirt from her knees. “You could have been killed.”

“And what about you?” He sneers up at her indignantly.

“I would have been fine. I was just about to… to…” Abner searches for words, but her ire, or more likely her banged-up skull, is causing a hazy mind. “To throw a dagger in its face and leap away.” She crosses her arms and taps her foot, infuriated. But is she mad at him for putting himself in harm’s way? Or is she mad at herself for being vulnerable enough that he felt compelled to save her?

“Sure you were,” he scoffs. “You were dazed on the ground! You would be dead right now if I hadn’t…” He shakes his head, infuriated. “I think the words you are searching for, my dear, are thank you.”

“Okay, can we quit with this pissing contest?” Izzalea shouts from a short distance away. She and the others stand at the trail, waiting to continue their trek. “You’re both pretty. So, if you’re quite done with the bickering, we have a purpose here.” She signals her hands in a twirl that ends with her pointing into the misty, rainy beyond. “Let’s move out. I want to get the fuck out of this Maker forsaken pit they call the Fallow Mire before I grow old.”

Grunting, Abner stomps to the body of the demon. She grabs her daggers from ground where she dropped them when she fell. Cursing to herself in a language no one can hear, but couldn’t understand if they did, she wipes blood and guts from her blades onto her leather covered legs. She sheathes her blades while connecting a mutual glare with the champion. Both stubborn and haughty, they don’t speak to each other as they bring up the rear to their bog-trudging party.

The vexed group continues on their journey, walking through the miserable atmosphere in silence. All members of the little group are either angry with each other, or simply refraining from speaking - in hopes to not make the tension worse. They continue trekking through the mire this way, until they hear fighting ahead. Abner steels herself. A sick feeling forms in her gut from wondering who they will find.

They cautiously approach the sounds of a small skirmish… and then Abner sees him… a very large Avvar man battling a group of undead. He towers over them and swats them away as if they are merely flies. He is gigantic, far larger than even Iron Bull. I almost forgot how huge they are, she thinks as the sickness intensifies in her gut.

The Avvar giant finishes snapping the neck and crushing the head of his last undead victim as Izzalea reaches him. She stands at the ready in front of and shielding her crew, hesitant of what the man might do. He casually holds his mace on his shoulder, as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. He looks her up and down with indifference. “So, you must be Herald of Andraste.”

The Avvar wear paint and furs on their skin, with large face-covering helmets of varying metals, leathers, horns, bones, and dreaded hair. Abner did not recognize him at first, but as he spoke, the realization hits her like an axe to the gut. She’d recognize that thick, booming accent anywhere. A relic of her past. She always hoped she’d never see the day…

The Inquisitor peers at him, “I am…Why are you not attacking?”

“My kin want you dead, low lander. But it’s not my job. I’m called in when the dead pile up. Right’s for the Gods, mending for the bleeding, a dagger for the dying. That’s what I do. You’ll need no fear from me. Our Chieftain’s son wants to fight you, but I don’t pick up a blade for a whelp’s trophy hunt.” The Avvar man states matter-of-factly.

He exudes undeniable, unwavering confidence. Being surrounded by a group of possible combatants, covered in blood, doesn’t even register with him. He has nothing to fear, he is Avvar. He surely thinks he could squash the entire group like bugs if given a reason to. But in actuality, he is Sky Watcher. A shaman to the Avvar. He has a close relationship with spirits and the Gods. As an augur, he provides the last bits of comfort to dying members of his clan. He will only fight in self-defense, or if given just cause.

The fact that he is not aligned with the mission his leader is on is very good news. Perhaps there are others in the clan who think as he.

Abner takes a deep breath. Pushing through the fear born in her belly, she silently approaches him from behind the Inquisitor. Low yet strong in confidence, she addresses the colossal man, “Amund.”

He turns his head down to the petite woman. Grinning through his mask and beard he declares, “Well lookie here.” Chuckling, he swings his mace off of his shoulder and down to the ground. All muscles of the surrounding people tense as he does, but Amund simply leans on the hilt. Seemingly pleased, he looks the woman up and down. “Abner… hmph. Never thought I’d see you again.” Abner takes the fact that he did not immediately attack her as a good sign.

“You know this goliath?” Hawke calls out from the back of the group, but she ignores him.

“Abner used to be my kin,” Amund states, much to her distaste. As if it would not be a shock to those around her. Not that he cares.

There is a stunned silence surrounding her, save but the sounds of the rain smacking water-logged ground and distant rolling thunder. She glowers at the man and continues, ignoring the shock around her, “Which son, Amund?”

“You know already. Ofred Movransen, but he calls himself ‘Hand of Korth’ now,” Amund responds.

Abner chokes a sharp laugh, “Of course he does. Ofred always thought himself important. Now he thinks he is the hand of the Mountain-Father.” She shakes her head and crosses her arms. “Daft tit. What’s he want the Herald for?”

“He thinks it will win him favor with the Gods to kill her. Thinks that since she claims divinity, she needs destroying.”

Confidence rises steadily within her, as Amund has yet to show her any animosity. She rolls her eyes, annoyed and slightly amused. “Oh there will be destroying… How are the men he took?”

“A couple were wounded, but alive, last I saw them. They killed far more of us than I thought they would. Someone’s trained them well.” He grins at her. An approval. Abner feels a sense of pride within her, however brief. For as Amund finished his statement, the veil rips and crackles behind them.

Solas calls out in alarm, “Inquisitor! A rift!”

After they finished attacking the demons that poured from the rift, Izzalea closed it with the green mark on her hand. The act stabilized the veil between the physical world and the fade once again. Amund had aided in fight, and amazingly, no one was hurt. After the veil was restored, Amund admitted that he was impressed with the Inquisitor’s ability. He stated, “Maybe you do have a God’s favor,” before he disappeared, chuckling assumedly, into the darkness.

Although it was dark and dreary the entire day, their exhaustion proved that it was time to rest. They secured a camp under the overhang of a large rock formation. Solas sat alone, crafting more health potions for the next day. Iron Bull and Cole worked together, cooking a stew with some frog meat Aber caught, over a fire Hawke conjured. Hawke ensured the horses were properly tended and tethered. Izzalea sat and stared into the fire, her face weighted in thought. Everyone was quiet, but Abner felt their eyes often glancing over her while she set up the tents.

She knows they have questions after the information-bomb Amund dropped. Nevertheless, the interaction with him unfolded much smoother than Abner had feared. Discovering who it is that has the Inquisition’s soldiers though, left her with a dreadful pit in her stomach. Her worst fear realized. Part of her knew it had to be him when Leliana first told her about this mission. Ofred is sole reason she reacted the way she did.

However, Abner knows much more now than she did years ago. She can take care of herself far better than she was able to before. As a young woman, she was never taught how to successfully fight a person the size of the Avvar. Never shown how to utilize her smaller, lighter frame to her advantage. How to take out men ten times her size with ease.

But she knows now.

She can do this.

Finished pitching the tents, Abner sits on a rock beside the fire. She quietly cleans and sharpens her blades while watching as Bull stirs frog and carrot stew. The tension in the air is heavy. Palpable. She knows they all have questions. But she strongly avoids indulging them. She never wanted anyone to know in the first place. Yet, here she is.

Time passes slowly, when no one speaks. Once ready, they all eat their stew in silence. A few murmured comments about the flavor of their meal and the ever persistent rain, but not much more than that. Afterwards, they all help clean up and retire to their tents.

Abner lies in her bedroll, unable to sleep. She listens to the soft snore coming from the Inquisitor across from her in their shared tent, the sounds of thunder clapping violently through the sky as the storm intensifies, and the endless downpour of rain slapping against the wet, marshy ground. Her eyes finally grow heavy as exhaustion wins the battle of her worried, racing mind. A mind focused on what could happen when they find the rest of the Avvar.

Sitting on a mountain side, Abner grins into the sunrays warming her soul. The cool, dry mountain air races across her prickled skin. She loves this spot. She always comes here to get away from him. The one place where he never found her. Here Abner can be happy. Brief periods of time where she feels safe, where she can pretend she lives a different life. A life that is filled with laughter and excitement, rather than screaming and pain.

She carefully stands and tries to balance herself on a narrow, rocky ridge. She thinks about how easy it would be to make the hurt stop, forever. But as she balances her bare feet on the edge of the ridge, she realizes that somehow, she is preforming better than she thought she could. Strange, she doesn’t remember having good balance…

“Were you always so graceful and composed?” A voice purrs from behind her. She startles, wavering in her balance. Amazingly, she manages to spin around without falling down the mountain.

“No… I wasn’t?” Abner furrows her face, trying to concentrate, but it is difficult. “Or… I’m not? I’m not sure.” She looks at the man, confused. “Who are you? How did you find me?”

“I live here, of course,” he says with an impish grin. The stranger strides effortlessly along the ridge and sits beside her dusty, bare feet.

She is sitting next to him now, but doesn’t remember how she made the delicate maneuver. She squints her eyes as she peers quizzically at him, “You live on the mountain?”

He chuckles softly to himself, “I live on all of the mountains. I live in all of the forests, too. The Lakes. The Rivers. The Deserts. The Foothills. The Plains. Everywhere.”

She frowns suspiciously at the stranger. “You’re mental. You can’t live everywhere.”

“I can, and I do,” he proudly responds.

What an odd thing to say. This is so weird. Everything feels weird. Wrong. He seems familiar, but she doesn’t know him. His hair is long, dark, and dreaded, like hers. His skin is a warm, rich, and sun-kissed like hers. But his features are angular and strong. He has the long slender ears and body of an elf, yet he is larger and more muscular than any elf Abner has ever seen. She admires the small skull he wears at the crown of his head. Tiny teeth and beads drape down from the skull, woven into his dreaded hair. He looks wild and feral.

Like me.

“What’s your name, stranger?” she asks.

“I go by many names, da’len,” he responds with a smirk.

She glowers and spits her words at him, “I am no child of yours, hahren.”

“Intriguing. Do you know more of the Elvhen language?” He peers at her as if she a subject on a table, awaiting dissection.

She radiates a noise of disgust and rolls her eyes. But suddenly, she feels her heart racing, panic setting in. This is all wrong. Everything is wrong. She doesn’t know him. Why is she here? She hasn’t been on this mountain in years and she would never risk coming back.

Wait.

She knows what’s happening.

“Shit!” she squeaks. Glaring, Abner side-eyes at the stranger beside her. “I know what you are…”

“Oh?” he appears delightfully entertained by her declaration.

“Fadewalker. I am asleep.” She is dreaming and therefore in the fade, revisiting a place that once made her feel comfortable when she was weak. And this man… this fadewalker… is a mage traveling the fade, looking for people to pester. I won’t let him pester me.

He smiles smugly, “Ah, so you have realized that you are in the fade. Very good, da’len.”

“What are you doing here, Fadewalker? What do you want from me? Why have you possessed my dreams?” She crosses her arms and glares at the man with contempt.

He raises his long, lithe body effortlessly and begins to blithely walk back down the mountain ridge. Away from Abner. “I found you… curious, Abner. Thought I would come to see what makes you, you.” His voice is oddly familiar, but she cannot place it.

He spins his body on his toes. Toes that are open to the dirt and rock, while the rest of his feet are wrapped in an elvhen fashion Abner is familiar with and jealously admires. The swift spin of his elegant body has him facing her again. He has an untamed, savage look in his eye. An impish, insolate grin to his curled lips.

Abner grunts and throws a small rock at the figure. “Get lost Fadewalker, go riddle someone else’s dreams.”

He laughs, amused and unaffected by her disrespect. “Perhaps another time, Abner.” With that he steps off the edge of the ridge, disappearing, as if he was never there.

Abner is left sitting on the mountain side, contemplating how she was able to figure any of that out. Perhaps, the mage had aided her somehow. Perhaps, the ability had been within her all along.

#in love serenity #my fic #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dragon age fanfiction #dragon age fandom #dragon age romance

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tune-collective · 7 years

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The 15 Best Gorillaz Songs

Every band has a story, but the Gorillaz are a story. We all know it’s Damon Albarn behind the mic with a rotating cast of collaborative characters, but the stellar, genre-blending electronic music is only half of the band’s greatness. Jamie Hewlett’s cartoons are rife with personality, and the foursome’s outlandish comic antics and adventures bring the project to life. They were breathing in the virtual before society realized its own cyber destiny.

Gorillaz proves that you don’t have to let experimentation and originality fall to the wayside in the name of commercial viability. You can still have songs on the radio and sell a bunch of albums even if you continuously push yourself to be strange, dark, and a little twisted. Gorillaz are virtual beings, and yet they are continuously one of the realest acts on the market.

The proof? Here are 15 of the best Gorillaz songs ever recorded.

15. Gorillaz – “Rhinestone Eyes”

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This electro-funk song from Gorillaz’ third album Plastic Beach stands out for its delicious weirdness. That pumping, synthetic organ surrounded by swirling ghost voices is some kind of wonderful. It’s dark, because almost everything by the Gorillaz is dark, but it’s got a jolt of energy that makes you wanna get up and adventure, as 2D’s deadpan delivery is fabulously juxtaposed against stabbing samples.

14. Gorillaz – “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head” feat. Dennis Hopper

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This Gorillaz song features Dennis Hopper, from effing Easy Rider, reading to you the damned destiny of men who do not heed the warnings of nature. The only other song I can think of anywhere remotely similar to this is The Velvet Underground’s “The Gift,” which is equally narrative-based and disturbing. Put this one on next time you’re sitting around a campfire exchanging ghost stories.

13. Gorillaz – “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven”

Right after the demise of the Happy People in “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” sweeps you into the bright lights of the afterworld. It bleeds just as seamlessly into Demon Days‘ album-ending title track This whole little closing act of the LP is quite brilliant, running beautifully on a theme with this tune as a reflective centerpiece. And who doesn’t fall victim to the charms of an angelic chorus?

12. Gorillaz – “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead”

This Demon Days deep cut has a Western feel, the crashing symbols sound like a cowboy’s heavy walk punctuated by the clinking of spurs. Albarn could be a man singing a sad song of love lost in an old saloon. The bright keys could be the dusty piano. It’s a cinematic piece that grows ever more interesting and noisy in a sweeping, chaotic build, before coming down in a sunset of strings. Nothing is resolved, and everything is as it should be.

11. Gorillaz – “Plastic Beach” feat. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon

The title track from the Gorillaz’ third studio album is a real creamy dream. Funky creaks and croaks and wonks plop here and there among the cascading keys. It’s also, essentially, a collaboration with punk all-timers The Clash, as both guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon grace the tune with classic cool. This is a summer song for when everything is wrong, but partying is still on the docket.

10. Gorillaz – “Rock The House” feat. Del The Funky Homosapien

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’90s alt-rap great Del comes through for his second appearance on Gorillaz’ debut LP. He plays the role of drummer Russel’s dead MC friend. Russel is possessed by Del, which is really not that bad of a deal. While comments from the cartoon members of the band in faux-tobiography Rise of the Ogre reflect a certain distaste for the tune, “Rock The House” stood out on Gorillaz with its bright horn sample (courtesy of “Modesty Blaise” by John Dankworth) as one of the most fun and fanciful moments on the record.

9. Gorillaz – “Superfast Jellyfish” feat. Gruff Rhys, De La Soul

Any song that opens with a clip of a commercial is a winner in my book. De La Soul’s Trugoy grabs the baton of sarcastic capitalism and runs with it right into a bubble of cheeky fun. The bouncing beat lulls you into a false sense of happiness as you crunch on your sugar-coated mind-control bites. Slurp up the pink-and-purple swirl of milk and wash away the feeling that there might be something more meaningful at stake. There you are! You’re ready for the dance floor called life.

8. Gorillaz – “Andromeda” feat. D.R.A.M.

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There’s no denying the fabulous funk of this Humanz single. It’s got an interstellar groove that boldly goes where no cartoon band has gone before. It’s a fun, seemingly innocuous song, but it’s actually very personal to Albarn. It’s named after a nightclub from his youth, and it was the only place that played soul music in the area. He tried to capture the spirit of those nights in the song. He also dedicated “Andromeda” to the mother of his longtime partne,r who recently passed. It’s an emotive dance track with highs, lows, sick synthlines; in short, everything you need in a dope dance hit.

7. Gorillaz – “Ascension” feat. Vince Staples

Sirens and Staples’ apocalytpic party-starting mark the impending dopeness that will certainly leave your ears damaged and demanding more. The off-beat melody creates images of women twerking in dirty streets as buildings crumble and people spontaneously combust. Ain’t no club like the end of the world, and when this world meets its demise, put this Gorillaz song on full blast.

6. Gorillaz – “19-2000”

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If you were a nerdy kid around the turn of the Millennium, it’s highly likely you remember that night when Cartoon Network’s Toonami ran a bunch of animated music videos. It was the first taste a generation of youngsters got of Daft Punk’s Interstellar 5555, and it was also the most we’d ever seen of Gorillaz to date. This song blew my mind when I was 13 – I’d never heard anything quite so strangely, electronically funk – as did its explosive and hilarious video. It’s like a modern day Looney Tunes episode, and it helped introduce us to the characters we know and love today.

5. Gorillaz – “Tomorrow Comes Today”

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This lo-fi beat comes straight from the band’s debut LP and hits you right in the soul. It’s the kind of rainy-day rhythm that turns you inside out and has you thinkin’ all deep and stuff. It’s all blues and grays — the underlying melancholy sucks you in, but you can’t help but head-bob. It’s a little sad, but it’s still a mean groove.

4. Gorillaz – “El Mañana”

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This is one of those rare Gorillaz singles that isn’t a down-and-out dance tune. It’s beautifully sad, the melody of one stuck between a rosy yesterday and the far-off gleam of a better tomorrow. The music video depicts the destruction of the band’s floating island: This is the point in the story where Noodle got lost. As a single, it didn’t perform as well as its Demon Days predecessors, but as a song, it’s haunting and honest, the kind of melancholy sing-along that lives in your heart on rainy days forever.

3. Gorillaz – “DARE” feat. Shaun Ryder

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This was our introduction to Noodle’s singing, brought to us via the vocal chords of Roses Gabor. 2D, a.k.a. Albarn, is on the backing track, with Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder chiming in alongside him. Did you know “DARE” samples Daft Punk’s “Revolution 909” at the end? It’s a downright danceable track, though it keeps that Gorillaz’ creepiness running throughout with those slinking synths and ghostly chorus vocals. It’s got bits of disco, trip-hop, and new wave peppered throughout for a fresh take on commercial viability that doesn’t have to put brakes on experimentalism, a cornerstone of what Gorillaz are all about. It remains the band’s only U.K. number one hit. Ryder is actually saying “It’s There” on the hook, and that was the working title for the track, but the singer’s accent is so intense, they just went with it and changed the name. The music video is full of horror film references, from The Birds to The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and The Ring.

2. Gorillaz – “Clint Eastwood” feat. Del The Funky Homosapien

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I remember the first time I saw this music video. I was 13. My bestie was sleeping over. She got scared. I fell in love. “Clint Eastwood” is the first rap song I knew every lyric to, and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone: This eerie, drum-driven synthetic experiment is the musical equivalent of Damon Albarn creating his Frankenstein’s monster, which might explain the zombie apes in the visual. That red Japanese letting under the logo? It’s a quote from Dawn of the Dead, and it reads “Every dead body that is not exterminated, gets up and kills. The people it kills, get up and kill.” A couple months after this tune came out, every single one of my friends had a favorite Gorillaz member. It inspired me to listen to the group’s debut every time I did my homework for about two years straight. “Clint Eastwood,” much like it’s namesake, is America at its most goddamn iconic. Nothing sounded like it before. Nothing will ever sound like it again.

1. Gorillaz – “Feel Good, Inc.” Feat. De La Soul

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This tune broke the top 10 in 17 countries (and came just four spots away on the Billboard Hot 100), and it’s not hard to see why. It’s got classic Gorillaz rump-shaking buffooner, a cool hook, a cartoonish attitude, and blistering verses from De La Soul. The feature won each a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration. “Feel Good Inc.” is actually the band’s most successful single, and it perfectly encapsulates the group’s vision. That wild laugh in the background is everything that makes Gorillaz what they are — they’re mad with genius, and the only way off their twisted carnival ride is to dance.

This article originally appeared on Billboard.

https://tunecollective.com/2017/07/18/15-best-gorillaz-songs/

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