What's one thing that can never fail to make you feel positive?
A good laugh. Laughter clears my mind and brightens my eyes and lightens the weight on my being. If I can laugh, everything becomes manageable and not as heavy or impossible or despairing. Everything will be okay if I have the strength within me to laugh in the darkness.
Could you possibly introduce me what Mystery Skulls is about?
I’ve been thinking abt this ask all afternoon l ma o
OKAY SO I’m going to give you a quickish (not really I’m soo sorry) runthrough of the entire subject as a whole so prepare yourself bc I love the entirety of Mystery Skulls a lot ( PLEASE ask questions if you’re still unsure of something or want more information!):
First and foremost, Mystery Skulls is a one-man neo-soul/indie pop/electronica act by Luis Dubuc that started in 2011 with the release of this 5-song EP. In 2014, his first full length album Forever was released (which also featured collaborations with artists like Brandy and Nile Rodgers! ). In 2015, he released Ultra Rare Vol. 1- which is a collection of rarities and B-sides that weren’t featured on Forever. Tbh, he’s incredibly talented and super nice and friendly- I’ve gone to his live performances and met him twice! Some good songs to start off with to get a feel for his music might be Ghost, Magic, Paralyzed, Money, In My Sleep, and a personal favorite of mine- Soul On Fire. His music could possibly be compared to Daft Punk, CHERUB, Skylar Spence, and any kind of neo-soul/house influenced artists out there today, but he’s really kinda in his own genre??? I’d also like to direct you to this post here for a more,,, in depth skim-through at his entire genre-skipping discography lmao (which I can go into more detail abt all of this if asked!)
In 2012, a youtube animator by the name of MysteryBen posted a video of the characters from the Ace Attorney series bobbing their heads to Money, which apparently quickly gained traction and popularity. It caught the attention of Luis, who commissioned him to make a music video for his single Ghost ( Due to unforeseen delays, Luis produced another music video for the original demo of the song in the meantime while MysteryBen and his team worked on theirs). The finished animated music video was released a day before Forever in October 2014, and due to overwhelming popularity soon enough a sequel was just released a couple weeks ago- Freaking Out. It’s been since confirmed that the series will last at least 7 videos, and the current arc will last for 5!
It honestly takes several times watching the videos before getting the story honestly! At this point I’d recommend watching them first, because from here on there will be S P O I L E R S pertaining to their events!
The (first) story follows 3 Scooby Doo-esque characters named Arthur ( the Orange one), Vivi ( the Blue one), and Mystery ( the Dog) as they discover and explore a spooky mansion and ultimately meet and escape from a rage and revenge-filled Ghost. The backstory shown in the video also reveals that the ghost they meet was once their friend, Vivi’s boyfriend, and a member of their team- Lewis. Lewis (and the gang lmao) had been exploring a cave some time in the past (before Arthur’s mechanical arm) when they split up into two groups: Arthur and Lewis- with Mystery following behind, and Vivi by herself. Arthur and Lewis find themselves on a cliff overlooking a cavern filled with sharp stalagmites. As Lewis is looking over the cliff to survey their surroundings, an evil spirit invades and possesses Arthur’s left half (including his arm) and shoves Lewis off the cliff onto the stalagmites below- grotesquely impaling him as Vivi and Arthur’s unpossessed right half can only look on in horror. Lewis becomes the Ghost that they met, and it’s shown that his supernatural energies blinded Vivi to the trauma of his violent death by erasing her memory of him. Mystery ( revealed as a kitsune ) tears off Arthur’s possessed arm, freeing him from the spirit. The flashback ends, and the Ghost has Arthur cornered when Vivi jumps in between them, nearly touching the Ghost’s golden heart before Arthur grasps her hand and flees. Vivi and the Ghost reach out to each other one last time, and the heart falls and turns blue. The Ghost becomes enraged and engulfs the mansion in flames right as the Gang escapes into the van. as the drive away, the Ghost assumes Lewis’ human form and opens the locket to reveal a picture of him and Vivi lovingly embracing each other. A single tear rolls down his cheek as him and the mansion fade away into the background and the video ends.
The second story involves the same characters as before plus Shiromori, a somewhat malevolent tree spirit hellbent (lmao) on tracking down Mystery. She can track down others by using their essence to grow a flower and by blowing the petals. She uses Lewis’ essence to make a flower and finds his broken heart, using that to create flowers of the other characters. Lewis reforms and attacks her, and the both of them are getting ready to fight when Shiromori escapes, realizing that she would lose the opportunity to track down Mystery if she stayed to fight. Lewis finds Vivi’s flower, picks it up, and stomps on Arthur’s. Meanwhile in the van Arthur- obviously sleep deprived- is looking at a map of possible sightings of the Ghost. Distracted, Arthur looks at a picture taken of him and the rest of the Gang at Lewis’ family’s restaurant. Lewis begins to disappear out of the photo as Vivi’s eyes start glowing, and Mystery becomes upset at this. Arthur then hallucinates Mystery in his kitsune form, startling himself and waking up Vivi. As Vivi goes back to sleep a single petal lands at Mystery’s feet, signaling to Mystery that he’s being tracked. Back at the mansion, Lewis lays Vivi’s flower petals into his heart locket, healing it from icy blue back to golden yellow. As he leaves the grounds he’s run over by a truck, but takes the opportunity to possess the entire thing and slams on the gas pedal heading in Arthur, Vivi, and Mystery’s direction.
In addition, MysteryBen has a Character Profiles tag + some scattered other posts abt the minor characters with the universe on his tumblr- here’s some posts abt Mr. and Mrs. Pepper and Lewis’ adorable sisters. I’ll find more posts on the other characters later bc boy am I tired.
A moderately small but incredibly creative fandom sprung out of 8ish minutes of animated content and a TON of information provided by MysteryBen and the crew. I’m stopping here for today but check this post a couple times over the weekend for more detailed and coherent thoughts!
send me a ‘hi’ and I will put my playlist on shuffle, write down the first line of five songs and give it to you as a poem
When she went, "hey love come over"You want it all but don't care what you wantI am for you can enjoy I can give youI saw you in a photograph, the answer is in your eyesWhenever I'm alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again
