[X]: Monty Python & the quest for the Holy Grail, Monty Python & The Life of Brian, Monty Python & The Meaning of Life
Arne
You vaguely heard of Monty Python as something cited as a tremendous influence on comedy throughout the ages. At least, among cultures that had some manner of connection to the anglosphere's traditions; long after the English language itself faded into oblivion. If you had heard of it, so many years after its creation; it had to be at least decent right? You were a bit hesitant, comedy is something that tends to age poorly. Jokes were deeply rooted into cultural contexts and you remained an outsider to the culture of the twenty-first century. As fluent as you were in its tongue, you haven't really consumed any of its media to any significant degree.
Would you get it? If it's supposed to be a classic in this time period, would it be alright if you didn't laugh, you wondered. Troubling thoughts for your young mind to be sure, but you had to put on a brave face and not let on that you were being caught in a web of self-doubt. People needed to believe that you had things under control if they were to believe in you, so best to not deepen the seeds of doubt they might already have.
You looked to Samus and pulled her over to whisper into her ear.
"Maybe we could try Monty Python?" You asked, your voice quiet as you tried to not let them eavesdrop in. Easy enough when you could make the smallest sound your throat could manage and she'd easily be able to pick up on it. Easier still when you shared such a close psychic link.
"Mmh, are you sure? It's just a comedy film from what I can tell. Maybe we could try something more intellectual?" She said back, eyes glancing towards you with that brilliant azure energy, quirked in questioning. You could swear that her eyes seemed a little brighter after absorbing the Brood King's genes in a safe, digestible manner. Perhaps a result of the rapidly awakening immaterial connections and prowess that was growing in both of your souls. Maybe from the awakening of many biological upgrades at once? Who could say.
"Well, we've been using our heads more or less nonstop for three days. Maybe we should just...I dunno...relax a bit?" You suggested, often these discussions between the two of you were contests to see who was more committed to duty and not being the first to unwind themselves and relax. But at the moment something to just while away some time sounded good to you.
"Oh fine...alright." She said, at first huffing before making a wry little smile to let you know that being upset was all just a little facade on her part.
"We'll go with Monty Python!" She said, raising a finger to get the attention of Raelamiel who gave a sagely nod and then looked back at Joseph as he fumbled around with the device connected wirelessly to the projector, fingers tapping away at the keys to type in the title and a few mouse clicks setting the film to full screen, English subtitles and making sure the brightness was just right as the room went dark to let the projector work without interference.
"Very...retrograde." Samus said as she looked at the projector. You had your own examination of it, mind breaking it down into its components. A simple light-emitting device that projected the image formed by the electronics within onto a screen that would "catch" the image without any noticeable artifacts or impact to the image quality. A cheap way to put an image onto a large surface, but certainly a hard cry from the holographic visual media you were used to; your eyes able to catch the fuzz that would be easily missed to normal human eyes from the low definition of the video.
"Well, if it gets the job done..." You said, getting a nod of agreement from her.
"Still, I could think of a dozen ways to improve it." She said, hrming as she nestled into your arm once you found your seat, your own head finding its way onto her shoulder as she pulled the nearest blanket around you until you settled into a comfortable spooning position on the nearest available couch. Quite warm and snug if you had to say so yourself.
"Heh, something I thought I'd be saying." You said as you pulled a pillow up and laid your head against it.
"Shhh, guys." Eleyra said as Alyrsero settled his head into Kaeliyae's lap quite close to yourself, letting her stroke his hair while Lelithax grumbled and snuggled a bit close to her; Ormothin sitting below Alyrsero as he scratched at the back of his head; getting a smile out of the exodite.
Vista sat at the arm rest of the couch you were on, legs rather close to your head and looking down at you with a smirk; Chris propping up some pillows to sit below Samus while Zach and Quetzal flanked him, Raelamiel, Joseph, Tyrius, and Alice finding their way behind you on the rather large...couch bed...what is this thing exactly? Oh well...it's very comfortable and quite large.
All in all, a very comfy cuddle pile.
...
Hrm, there's something funky going on with the subtitles at the opening credits. Some bizarre diatribe about Moose making heavy abusage of nonstandard characters. There has to be something wrong with...no...no you sensed that it was just...Ah...Ahah.
"Heh..." You let out a little chuckle once the causeways of destiny confirmed this was indeed intentional; Samus making a breathier giggle while Alyrsero raised a brow and Kaeliyae tittered out loud with little concern as to who heard, Tyrius simply smiling and Raelamiel spelling out "lmao".
"What is a moose?" Ormothin asked.
"Clearly some form of predator." Lelithax said with self-righteous arrogance, curving her lips into a cruel smirk.
"...What...no...they're antlered herbivores." Chris said, looking at the Eldar girl like she had just spouted nonsense and quickly getting a scowl from her pulling her legs away from your own.
Messages apologising for the inconvenience of the subtitle malfunction followed, trying to assure the audience that the situation had been resolved.
It was not resolved.
Laughter, infectious and bold, spread across the room a little more as an argument played out. You felt good.
...
You were expecting many things, but the film being too cheap to show any horseback riding and simply having pretend galloping while someone banged coconuts together was definitely...it was something ridiculous enough to get Samus to laugh out loud.
Kaeliyae laughed loudest, ever appreciative of comedy and only occasionally looking back at the other groups on different sitting surfaces before returning her focus to the film, her joy and cheer almost infectious in its radiance.
What slew you though, was the question that gave voice to a wriggling seed of wonderment inside of your head. Where did he get those coconuts? Not simply the question, but the increasingly strange diatribe that followed.
Migration, the habits of various forms of swallows, and bungled proverbs drowned out any attempt at forming conversation, and you couldn't help but let your belly convulse with some guffaws which only doubled as Arthur and Patsy left in disgust to leave the guards to their pointless questioning.
...
"Bring out your dead!" So far the sequence looked joyless, a grotesque display of abject plague ridden misery that made your stomach do a few loops at the sight of such squalor.
The Earthers, at least those who had already seen the film, were already giggling with anticipation. But you, the Eldar, and the Witwickys all remained silent.
"I'm not dead!"
It was there that the entire sequence devolved into farce.
An impossible, absurd argument regarding the old man's state of mortality ensued, finally resolved with actively killing him to close the contradiction, getting widespread giggling.
"Guess he is now." Korlanil said, causing the giggling to explode into true guffaws.
Laughter than only intensified to shrieking when the King by right of not having shit all over him rode on by.
...
"Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony!"
"I don't see why that's a joke...that's just true?" Samus said, a nod of agreement following from you, Alyrsero, and most others.
"If some human wench lobbed a scimitar at me, she had better proclaim me Emperor." Lelithax snorted before Kaeliyae pinched her side and got a sharp "ow!" out of her.
...
"Tis but a Scratch!"
"Hrm, nurglite, or perhaps an Ork." Alyrsero said sagely.
"I've had worse."
"Maybe he's a regenerator?" You said before the Black Knight lost his other arm.
It seemed to be over, Arthur was in prayer to God in thanks for victor-
THUMP
"Chicken!"
THUMP
"Chicken!"
When the obvious was pointed out the response born of seeming insanity or simple brazen overconfidence of "It's just a flesh-wound." Brought the group to near tears.
A leg came off, and he was still at it, boasting of his invincibility, the inevitability of his triumph, the sheer adamant refusal to even face the truth that he was crippled for life. Accusations of insanity were thrown and then ignored until the last limb came off and he finally conceded to a draw, only to be left ranting and raving as his foe left him behind; screaming impossible threats.
This broke you, nobody maintained their composure.
...
The sequence regarding Witch Burning seemed to land hardest on the Eldar who quickly exploded into unrestrained, howling laughter and excited chatter in Eltharin about certain habits of humanity and how recursive history truly was.
Some of it felt a bit meanspirited though, sucking out a lot of your own mirth as you looked down to Lelithax in particular who was positively giddy with often cruel commentary on the "filth" of humanity.
Until Alyrsero pinched her leg with his hand, getting another protest of "ow" from her and a small smirk from her sibling.
She looked at you and Samus and then murmured. "I wasn't referring to you two...you are...interesting for half-humans..." She said, trying her best to not offend while Samus rolled her eyes.
...
"It's only a model"
"True." You muttered to yourself.
The song that followed almost immediately caught you off guard; having turned off your distant sight to maintain the surprise of watching a film; a necessary thing to avoid knowing what you'd be watching in advance.
The musical number seemed...generic in an intentional, farcical way even as it was periodically interrupted with cat abuse, serf abuse, and a stark reminder that this was the dark ages and dungeons were not nice places as an almost surreally happy prisoner clapped his hands for the beat.
Then it got a bit meta, referring to how the rhymes they were given were often unsingable until concluding with "I have to push the pram-a-lot" out of nowhere.
"Oh, such woes are well known to me. How could my empathy for them not be?" Kaeliyae said with a sad sigh once she calmed down.
...
"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!" Such an esoteric insult made you start to wheeze out loud.
The siege transcended into absurdity with thrown animals and a trojan horse reference the Eldar seemed utterly at a loss with until the laughter started again with the trojan rabbit being thrown back at the English with everything else.
"They must be a mighty people, these French." Elendria said.
...
"Brave sir robin ran away"
Samus tried to contain her laughter behind puffed cheeks while the others started to snigger.
"Bravely ran away away oh brave sir robin."
"This bard is just bombing him with facts though?" Olla said with a smug smirk on her face.
...
"Ni!"
"Why are they reacting so negatively to that word?" Alyrsero asked.
"Why is he so tall?" You pondered.
...
"Aww, it's such a cute little thing!" Samus said with starry eyes as she stared at the little rabbit.
"Yeah...maybe we could get one?" You offered as she looked at you, nodding with excitement.
"One rabbit stew coming right up."
"Oh the poor creature...I can't watch." Ormothin said, averting his gaze before you felt a shock through your system as the rabbit instead tore the man's head off in an eyeblink.
The following battle was not one of glory or honour but a bunch of very silly men dying very ridiculously to a puppeted peril until finally their valour fell to the hollering and hooting laughter of the crowd watching,
The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch though produced a look of recognition in Lelithax though.
"Hrm, the Black Templars have those." She murmured before the angelic choir was followed by a sudden, thunderous detonation.
...
"Until suddenly the animator had a fatal heart attack, and the cartoon peril was no more."
"Convenient." You mused.
...
The film ended the only way it could, a battle with the french followed by policemen from nowhere ending the entire film to the dumbfounded cackling of the group.
...
Life of Brian was largely much less...universal. You were vaguely aware of the religious lore of Christianity but you never actually met anyone of the faith. Samus similarly, knew rather little of the religion save for that Ian was semi-practicing Jewish and that faith had an intertwined history with Christianity.
There were some laughs, such as the stoning scene or the fumble of the Magi, but it just felt...not quite as universal? Seeming to require at least some basic familiarity with the story being parodied.
The "splitter" sequence struck a chord though. Your mother wrote of so many movements that withered and faltered due to division over petty squabbles whenever the conditions for them began to wane. It wasn't funny so much as sad. Samus enjoyed it though, giggling mostly to herself.
The conjugation scene sparked widespread laughter amongst both Earthers and outversers though.
The "what have the romans ever done for us" scene made you angry though. You scowled while Samus ground at her teeth.
Biggus Dickus slew you though. Unable to restrain yourself against the upswell in laughter at the stupidest of jokes.
"He has a wife you know."
Oh no...
"Incontinentia Buttocks."
"CEGORACH BLESSED MY SIDES!" Kaeliyae howled in ecstatic laughter until she started to...genuinely float into the air as she seemed to lose control of her telekinetics, Alyrsero grabbing at her leg and helping to pull her back down.
"Darling, don't float so far from my reach." Alyrsero said quietly while Lelithax gave her a little smooch to the side of her mask.
"How do you love someone you've never seen the face of?" You asked, getting a scornful glare from Lelithax and a sigh from Alyrsero as he rubbed at Ormothin's head while he renestled his scalp into his belly.
"You don't need to see every pore to feel love for someone. As much as I would like to." He responded.
"Her or me?" You said, Alyrsero looking away and coughing nervously while Samus tittered again.
...
The alien sequence that followed was a bizarre segue with no explanation, no purpose beyond getting Brian out of danger, and scarcely any comprehensible dialogue beyond screaming, wacky sound effects and bad models.
"The old human view of space warfare is...hrm...very silly." Idaliryn said, chewing on a nail a little.
When it was over...no reference at all or even the barest acknowledgement was made. It happened, and it would be forgotten.
...
The ending of the film was in what you suspected was true pythonesque direction; a farce as a pleasant tune was sung while Brian tried to find the "bright side of life" while he died on the cross.
You didn't like it as much as the Holy Grail, but you felt like you just didn't jive with a lot of the cultural context. The Earthers loved it, but you, the Witwickys and the Eldar were often just confused.
...
Meaning of Life felt at times, meanspirited. Filled with seething contempt for the great majority of people.
"Every sperm is sacred" Had you in stitches though. The jokes about catholicism landed completely flat but the song itself was sung with such proud earnesty that you couldn't help but do your best impression of a baboon while it played.
The film was mostly just kind of weird, though it had its stand out moments like a...oh my that is...definitely one way to do sex education. You bit your lower lip a bit and blushed.
Using a song full of little facts about the universe to convince someone to part with their organs though was quite clever you admitted, but the jokes and skits all had that meanspirited energy you weren't fond of, while Samus seemed to mostly just scowl at a lot of the darker humour.
Your eyebrows raised at the sight of the man choosing to die by being chased by a large number of topless, uncensored young women off a cliff though, but the Grim Reaper's meeting with the Americans fell flat because you had quite frankly; not a very good idea of how Americans worked.
The meaning of life being a short list of empty platitudes got you to laugh though, chuckling to yourself. While everyone here had gone through you and Samus' ships for enhancements, most of you were nodding off shortly after the last credits rolled and the projector turned off. gathering in a single massive pile of about thirty six teenagers and several dogs all on a single couch bed as they merged through magic; some snuggling with each other, others keeping to themselves.
Your dreams were quieted by the presence of so many other esoterics, though you felt the horizons that you could see in your dreamscape expand significantly. Nothing eventful happened in your sleep, which was fortunate given your tendency towards nightmares. Though some of your dreams were less than safe for print.
You woke up some time later, at what you figured was about eight or so, Samus stirring as the two of you untangled from each other's arms and slowly picked yourselves up.
"Hey guys, we've got breakfast in the kitchen if you'd like. Or maybe we could go out, try some pancake place. I've got school though so I've only got an hour. But if you want I guess I could bring some of you as like...guests and we could eat at Statesman?" Alice said, standing in front of you and waving her hand in front of you as you rubbed your eyes and looked up.
"Huh...I..." You said before blinking a few times and shaking your head.
Ah, November third was a Wednesday this year.
"Or maybe I dunno, you could just explore around the base or Paragon...or hang around with some of the kids who don't attend class." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
Actions:
[]: Have breakfast as a group in the dorm kitchens.
[]: Go out to a restaurant for breakfast.
[]: Visit/attend Statesman Hero School for a day.
[]: Explore the Starsetter Base
[]: Roam around paragon for a bit
[]: Hang with the starsetters who don't attend school.
[]: Spend time inside to learn about this dimension from afar.
[]: Write in
