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currentlylurking · 5 years

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Mechanism

(Originally written for Phic Phight, edited and posted for World Building Week Day 1: Sandbox Characters)

“Danny finds out that the Master of Time is actually an automaton created by the Observants. Clockwork still is his own person, but without using the key the Observants have to wind him up, he would stop working and 'die', if only temporarily. He doesn't want to work for them but has to. Danny doesn't like any of this.” Phic Phight Prompt by Ghostlyhabato.

Or: Danny commits treason in the name of helping a friend.

So. Danny had made a lot of mistakes in his life, but for the most part they’d worked out pretty well! Accidentally tripping Dash in elementary school had gotten him a determined bully, but also a best friend in Sam. Turning on the portal had gotten him electrocuted, but also given him superpowers.

Breaking into the Observatory was highly illegal and would probably get him killed, but if it worked, then Clockwork would be free.

.-.

Clockwork hadn’t told him about, well, anything to do with his body. Danny didn’t blame him, not really - Clockwork wanted to protect him. The Observants were power-hungry eyeball dicks, and they’d already made it clear that they were fine with killing him. Despite that, Danny would have preferred to find out any way other than he did.

It was the evening of a massive mission to figure out what exactly Vlad’s latest plan was. ‘World Domination’ was a weird and unsatisfying answer, so while Danny and Jazz got their parents to trap him in a family dinner, Sam and Tucker snuck in to copy all of his files and see what the state of his lab was like. The plan had gone successfully - Vlad had been too busy being a creep to realize there was an ulterior motive - and the trio met in Sam’s batcave (also known as her audio/visual room) to check out the files. There, while trying to deal with a malfunctioning remote, they found a security clip from several months ago, back when Vlad still lived in Wisconsin.

The Fright Knight carried a limp and unconscious Clockwork into Vlad’s old lab and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor. Vlad took a moment to float and gloat as he waved a large, green key. On the second watch through, Danny recognized it as the same key that he’d used to lock Pariah up.

After far too long of just letting Clockwork lay there, Vlad finally placed the Crown of Fire in a ghost-proof cabinet and stopped his monologue. He turned to Clockwork, and pointed the key at him. After a moment, Fright Knight came over and the two bent over Clockwork.

Suddenly, Clockwork gasped, and the two pulled back. He sat up, a hand on his head, and stared at Vlad in confusion. Then he saw Fright Knight, and the confusion became fear.

“Hello,” Clockwork said.

Vlad didn’t return the ‘hello,’ because he was a jerk. “Arise, automaton,” he said instead because again, he was a jerk. “I am your new master.”

Clockwork looked unimpressed. “I have a name.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Fright Knight said, “it hasn’t mattered since you turned your back on our king. Stand and face your new master, unless you’d like to spend a few more centuries forgotten in a closet.”

Clockwork gave him a long look before he floated off the ground. He frowned at Vlad, his arms crossed.

“I’ve been told you were created by the Observant Council to monitor time.” Vlad circled Clockwork like a stupid, creepy shark. “Explain that.”

Clockwork didn’t say anything. Vlad whirled around and grabbed Clockwork by his chin, and squeezed his cheeks as he pulled Clockwork closer.

“Don’t forget,” he held up the key, “I hold the power of your core in my hand.” He released Clockwork and went back to circling him. “We can do so much for each other, as long as you do what I say. So make this easier for all of us, Automaton, and just tell me how you work.”

“Clockwork,” Clockwork said. “My name isn’t ‘Automaton.’ It’s Clockwork.”

Vlad scowled for a moment before he lunged forwards and shoved the key into Clockwork’s case. For a second, Clockwork looked shocked, and Vlad whispered something in his ear. Clockwork collapsed, and he didn’t move again.

Vlad snapped his fingers, and Fright Knight came over to help drag Clockwork out of the camera’s view.

After the clip had ended, there had been a moment of silence among the trio. Then Danny had screamed and Sam and Tucker had to convince him that overshadowing the TV would not be a remotely functional way to save Clockwork.

.-.

When Vlad had released Vortex on Amity Park and Danny had to clean up that mess, he’d returned Vortex to the Observants. Not because he wanted to, but because as Tucker had said, if they wanted to help Clockwork they needed to know the enemy territory. Sam and Tucker had covered his suit with a hundred tiny cameras and sent him in. The Observants had welcomed his ‘show of faith in their council’ and been thankful that Danny returned Vortex without them having to lift a finger. He’d taken his time getting to the room the jailer Observant was in, and at the time had been sure he’d gotten a decent map of the place.

Now, he realized he was an idiot.

He was also lost.

The Observatory was one big pretentious maze, and nowhere near as cool as placed named ‘the Observatory’ should be. He hadn’t been caught yet, but he’d also had to turn human and dive through five walls already to avoid Observants in the halls. Even if his map was right originally, he was so far off from it that he might as well burn it for warmth instead. Plus, someone had the bright idea to draw a bunch of eyes on the walls, and that just made Danny paranoid. Every step he took made him hate his stupid plan more.

But for Clockwork’s sake, he kept going.

.-.

It took just under an hour to find the next time in the security footage that Vlad and Fright Knight dragged out Clockwork. Again, they dumped him on the ground, but this time the second Clockwork started to stir Vlad passed the key off to Fright Knight and dropped a metal disk beside him. A domed shield sprung up around Clockwork before he’d even sat up.

“Did you have a nice nap?” Vlad asked, “Perhaps you’ll be willing to be a bit more reasonable now that you’ve rested.”

Clockwork said nothing. He stared at the floor.

“Hm, have you used up all your quips?” Vlad asked, and slowly took a few steps closer to the dome. “How incredibly unfortunate. I was almost hoping you’d make this interesting, but this works just as well.” He glanced at Fright Knight, and on the other side of the screen, Tucker had to hold Danny back from flying into the TV to punch Vlad’s stupid, evil smile right off his face.

“What do you want me to do?” Clockwork sounded so defeated, and Tucker didn’t manage to hold Danny back this time.

They were right; overshadowing the TV did not help.

.-.

An Observant came around the corner.

Danny froze.

The Observant froze.

Danny caught sight of a bright green key in their hand.

“Guards!” The Observant screamed, and Danny coiled his ghostly tail like a spring. The second the Observant looked back at him, he launched himself forwards and switched back to his human form. His hands curled around the key as he passed through the Observant, bending them back, and ripping the key from their shocked fingers with the weight of his entire body. He tucked, rolled, and tried to dive through a wall. The key wouldn’t follow. It wasn’t a real world item.

Uh-oh.

Danny poked his head back into the hallway to see seven furious Observants floating there, glaring at him, and reaching for the key in his hand.

Danny pointed a finger gun at the nearest one. “Sup?”

“Step out of the wall,” they demanded, and Danny did. “Drop the key.”

Danny switched right back to his ghost form and took a deep breath in. If we was going to be caught anyway, he might as well go out in style. “NO!”

.-.

After they had, er, ‘fixed’ Danny’s attempt to overshadow the TV, Tucker found where they’d left off.

Vlad had smirked, leaning in towards Clockwork like the jerk he was. “Very good! And they say old technology is obsolete. Now, I’ve been told you have time powers?”

Danny expected a sarcastic comment, something along the lines of ‘my name is Clockwork. No, I have space powers.’ Failing that, a glare. All he got was Clockwork giving Fright Knight an anxious glance.

“That’s right,” Clockwork said.

“Can you travel through it?”

Clockwork was silent for a second. “I’ll... need to make a portal - a mirror. It’ll take some time. But yes.”

“Can you take people with you?”

Clockwork glanced at Fright Knight again. “...It’ll take a bit longer. But yes.”

“Good,” Vlad said. He sounded exactly like the smarmy dick they all knew he was. Sam whacked Danny with a pillow when he stood up, ready to fight the TV once again.

On the screen, Vlad continued. “Get started on that then. Don’t try and leave this lab.”

Clockwork’s lip twitched in the faintest trace of annoyance. “I can’t just do it,” he said. His voice was carefully neutral. “I need tools. And a work space.”

“Of course you do,” Vlad said, and stepped away from Clockwork. He turned towards Fright Knight, and Clockwork looked down.

They hadn’t skipped a section of the footage, they’d made sure of that. Besides, Vlad was still in the same pose. It was Fright Knight and Clockwork who had changed positions. Halfway across the lab now, they were both engaged in a vicious tug-of-war over the key. The footage of Vlad whipped around to face them as Fright Knight brought up his knee and smashed it into Clockwork’s case. Glass shattering pierced the poor quality audio, and on the other side of the screen, the trio’s excited whoops turned to terrified screams.

Clockwork was knocked back, into a bench at an angle that looked like it had nearly broken him in half, and he fell to the floor in a lump. But he had the key in his hand.

Fright Knight bent down as Vlad ran over, spitting Russian curses as he reached their side. Fright Knight’s fingers grazed the key, and Clockwork pulled it under his broken form.

“Y-you,” Clockwork’s voice caught and dragged. Some syllables he struggled with. Others stretched out for far too long, or were distorted to the point they barely sounded like anything but clicking and grinding. Despite the trio’s best effort, they barely managed to translate any of what he said. “N-n-no. This - it’s -it’s mine. Minemineminemine -” Clockwork jerked with a gasp, and the words stopped.

Vlad switched to his ghost form and smacked Fright Knight. “You’ve broken it!”

“It just needs to be rewound,” he kicked a shard, “and that case replaced. If you’re as smart as you say, that should be easy.” He kicked Clockwork aside now, and reached for the key once more.

It was then that perhaps twenty Observants all appeared in Vlad’s lab.

On the footage, Vlad screamed. Danny would have enjoyed his fear, it it wasn’t for the fact that he’d just watched someone he considered a friend being seriously assaulted. None of the trio took any joy from Vlad’s fear as he backed up, hands raised. Fright Knight followed suit. He hadn’t managed to grab the key. That was still on the ground next to the beat, broken, unmoving form of the Master of Time.

“Observant High Council,” Vlad said, trying to regain all the control over this mess that he’d lost the moment he screamed. “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

One Observant grabbed the key. Another two carelessly lifted Clockwork off the floor by his arms. Clockwork’s limp head lulled forwards as they pulled him up.

“Excuse me,” Vlad started, “I believe that’s mine -”

“You are charged with damaging property belonging to the Observant High Council.” Five of them said at once, “What is your plea?”

“Wha- that’s yours?” Vlad tried to regain his composure. He turned to Fright Knight as a furious snarl began to climb up his features. “My apologies. I was unaware. Of course I would have returned it to you if I had been informed -”

“Be silent,” an Observant said, and miraculously, Vlad shut up. “Do not push the blame for your actions onto another. What is your plea?”

“Again, my apologies,” Vlad said. “I have done nothing wrong, I merely wished to understand this strange automaton. If I had known of your ties to it -”

“So you are guilty?” The one holding the key interrupted.

“I have not -” Vlad didn’t get to finish his sentence. The Observants raised their hands, and everyone in the lab disappeared. All that was left was a long, green stain where Clockwork had laid, many shards of broken glass, and a few small gears. After a day of empty footage, an Observant appeared to collect them.

The next time Vlad was seen in his lab was nearly three weeks later. He came through his portal frazzled, furious, and alone.

.-.

The trio didn’t know a lot about Clockwork. Danny knew the most, and from that he knew he couldn’t just show up and say “hey, I know about you potentially being a robot or something? Just wanted to say I’m totally cool with it.” Not only would Clockwork freak out at him, but that wouldn’t solve anything.

It was difficult to tell how that evolved into ‘let’s rob the ruling power of the Ghost Zone’ but there had been a few common themes. All this had taken place before Danny and Clockwork met, and Clockwork had been repaired by then. He’d had his own, albeit tiny, place. Danny had never seen Clockwork and the Observants together, but from the way Clockwork talked about them he definitely didn’t like them.

Everyone had been calling Clockwork ‘it,’ like they were just some thing. Vlad had said the Observants created them, and they’d called him ‘their property.’ They hadn’t handled him like they were worried about hurting him worse. Fright Knight had told Clockwork to listen to Vlad unless he wanted to be forgotten in a closet for a few more centuries.

It hadn’t been a decision, really. They’d pooled everything they’d learned together, and the trio knew without a doubt that none of them would be another person who treated Clockwork like garbage. They were going to help him, no matter what.

No matter what.

.-.

Danny dropped to his knees and his human form. Injured Observants had been blasted through the walls that had been caught in his wail, and an alarm blared in the distance. He glanced down at his hands; the key was still clasped tight enough in his left hand that his knuckles had turned white.

He’d gotten caught. They’d know he’d stolen the key. Danny would have a warrant out for his arrest long before he got to Clockwork’s - if he even got out. If they didn’t catch him first. But Danny had the key, and the second he got to the tower it would stay with Clockwork, right where it belonged.

Clockwork had saved his life, and now Danny was going to return the favour. He was going to do this. He was going to get out, get to Clockwork’s, and save his friend. He was going to do it.

Danny picked himself up off the floor, one hand on his ribs, and started to limp down one unshattered hall. The alarm blared above him, and he swore more than before that this time, the eyes on the walls really did follow him as he left.

#I wrote this at the end of April and didn't want to edit it so it's lived in a google doc ever since #But!! Excuse to post it so!!#Danny Phantom #World Building Week #Currently Talking #wbw19 #wbw19 Day 1 #things i write #this was specifically catered to be full of tropes the prompter loves bc I Aim To Please

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virgilmydarkstrangeson · 4 years

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Yellow-Eyed Beast - Lupus AU

Happy Halloween!!

Summary: The Extermination was chaos, and Virgil had fled without turning back. Now, he was the lone Lupus still alive. At least, he believed he was. Pairing: Deceit / October, Deceit is Damian and October is Toby Trigger Warnings: Mentions of mass murder/extermination of a town, swearing, sympathetic Deceit Word Count: 1,643

~~~

During the Extermination, all was chaos. Damian was roughly woken up by Remy, his older brother, who picked him up as quickly as he could on seeing that Damian was still groggy. Screams were filtering in through Damian’s sleep-fogged mind, and he immediately became scared. What was happening? Where was their dad?

Remy put him down just outside their house, before grabbing his hand and beginning to run. Damian could smell smoke as he struggled to keep up with his brother, figures of all shapes blurring past him. In the distance, for a split second, Damian thought he saw Virgil from school, sprinting off in wolf form, but when he tried to go after him Remy told him to stay by his side or he would get worse than grounded.

It wasn’t until they were far away from the city that Damian saw their dad, pacing and looking more scared than Damian had ever seen him.

“Boys!” Their dad almost shouted upon seeing them, Damian still in his pyjamas and half-wrapped in a blanket. Damian got swept up in a hug, allowing him enough of a respite to begin to fall back asleep, unable to make out what his dad and Remy were talking about.

When Damian next woke up, he was curled up in what felt like a large bowl, and he opened his eyes to see the side of a basket, barely big enough to hold him. The world beyond was dusty and yellow, completely unlike the forests back home, and he wondered why they had travelled so far. Turning over, he noticed that his dad was in wolf form, carrying the basket he was in, and several other wolves were around them, all carrying various belongings. Everyone seemed so tired, and the sun was hanging low in the sky. Had he slept through the whole day?

Once the group had settled down for the night, the grown-ups remaining in wolf form to provide warmth for the younger people, Damian broke the silence, staring out into the vast expanse of the world while sat next to Remy.

“What happened? Why aren’t we at home?” Remy sighed, rubbing his eyes before turning to Damian, clearly trying to hold back tears, because he was a cool teenager, at least that was Damian’s guess.

“Our home’s gone, bud, but we’re searching for a new one that won’t be taken away from us.”

“Oh…” A few minutes ticked by, as Damian tried to think of what else to say. He decided to ask “Do you… know what happened to Virgil?”

“Nobody’s seen him, the adults would’ve easily picked him out from a group of animals.” Remy paused, before adding “I’m sure we’ll see him soon though. We’ll meet up with him and his parents when we build our new home.”

That was Damian’s hope, that he kept close to his chest for the rest of the journey to a secluded woodland, and the many years building new houses and market stalls and all manner of attractions to keep the younger Lupi entertained. Even when he was an adult, Damian still held onto that hope, as more of their old clan found them, including one of Virgil’s mothers and his siblings. That day was particularly hard, as none of them had heard anything from Virgil since the Extermination.

The land had shifted since the chaos of that day. Lupi were extremely ancient beings, having been around long before the first pure humans, and had witnessed the rise and fall of multiple empires and the growth of human civilisations. One such small group was the village of Ferncombe, England. It had sprung up not too far from the new Lupi Clan and had stayed a constant through the hundred of years, to the point that now, several of the adult Lupi had taken up jobs around the village, mingling and gaining friendship with the humans. It was strange, how similar they seemed to be, and how easily the Lupi integrated into human society.

It had been a mistake, really. Damian had been observing the village late one night, pitch-black fur bristling against the slight breeze. The Clan had sworn to never be in Ferncombe once the sun had set unless held up at work, but Damian was curious to what the humans got up to in the dark. It was fascinating, watching lights flash on from everywhere, and humans walking to and from buildings Damian had never seen open during the day. He wanted so badly to join in, revel in the artificial light, that he didn’t even realise he had begun to walk closer to the village until he heard a surprised shout, which snapped him out of his daze.

Standing a few feet in front of him was a group of humans, all looking to be in their early teens, staring at Damian dumbfounded. Immediately, he recognised Toby and Elliott, two people who regularly came into the shop Damian helped out at, and he froze. Oh no, he had just broken the most sacred code among his Clan: to never be seen in wolf form by humans. However, it wasn’t until Toby reached a hand out to touch him that Damian’s reflexes kicked in, causing him to growl before turning and sprinting off into the woods, hoping against hope that he wasn’t being followed.

Damian slowed down once he reached the clearing where most of their buildings had been built, trying to seem calm and not at all freaked out, at least until he heard footsteps behind him and a voice, confident and loud.

“Found you! Now- whoa…” Damian whirled round, instincts now on high alert as Toby stood at the edge of the clearing, and Damian could only imagine what was going through the human’s mind at seeing a woodland settlement filled with huge wolves and people living together. “Holy… Dr Picani!?” Oh great, of course, he had to go and know Damian’s dad, leader of the Clan and the worst possible person to know of Damian’s mistake.

“T-Toby?” Emile asked, walking over and giving Damian a confused yet enraged glance. “Why, whatever are you doing here?”

“I was following this big dog! It is yours?”

“Oh, uh… you could say so, yes.”

“Damn, I was hoping if my dads saw it then they’d let me ke- what the fuck!?” As Damian turned to see what had caused Toby’s outburst and was horrified to see Remy run into the clearing and change into his human form, yellow smoke forming around him as he did, the signature for their bloodline.

“Oh boy…” Emile sighed, “Guess the wolf’s out of the bag? And Toby you should really watch your language, there are kids here and you’re still young yourself.”

It had taken a lot of explaining, but Toby eventually understood who they were, and was in fact extremely on board with the idea, persistently asking if he could get bitten to transform into a werewolf himself, to which Damian, now in human form, would constantly remind him that it was Lupus, not werewolf, *that* word was offensive to their kind. Toby had seemed so alright with their existence that it sparked the beginnings of a co-habitation between Lupi and humans. The Clan slowly revealed themselves, and some even moved into Ferncombe as permanent residents, including Damian. Oh, the internet was a wonderful thing, Damian learned. So much information at your fingertips!

Another added bonus of living in Ferncombe was, undoubtedly, Toby. Now he was 24 and had only recently touched Damian for the first time, which was evident by the soulmark that had formed on Damian’s wrist. Luckily, they both already liked each other, so weekly dates with Toby were always enjoyable, even more than the internet.

Oh, the internet. It was a Tuesday when the internet solved Damian’s deepest, longest problem from thousands of years ago.

On this Tuesday, it was warm, and Damian was finishing up his shift at one of the local cafes, he enjoyed being surrounded by coffee and pastries and the good community. He ran a hand through his hair, momentarily revealing the scar over the left half of his face from when they were building the Lupus settlement, before deciding to take a walk through the woods. However, that plan would never take hold, as he heard somebody call his name.

“Dee!” It was Toby, hurriedly walking down the road to meet him. “Babe I have to show you this video right now,” he was speaking extremely fast, and Damian couldn’t even read the expression on his face.

“What is it? Are you okay?”

“Won’t be until you watch this,” Toby thrust his phone into Damian’s hands, so Damian sighed.

“Okay okay, I’ll watch it.”

The video showed a grey-furred wolf, that appeared to be the height of a larger-than-average person, barreling through the streets of a city before colliding with an inhumanly disfigured creature. The pair brawled, deep growls filling the audio to the point that nobody recording could be heard, and then a purple smoke surrounded the area. A head, a human head, reared out of the smoke, and it looked to be a guy in his 20s, with dark hair and eyes that were glowing red, as well as teeth too long to be human. The guy collapsed, next to another, bleeding person, and the video shut off, showing Damian his own stunned expression.

“Where… where is this?” were the first words that came to Damian’s mind once he recovered from the initial shock.

“A town in America, don’t know exactly where but I’m sure it’ll be in the news, why? Do you know him?”

“Maybe…”

If Damian’s hunch was right, then Virgil was alive, in America, and severely injured. And now that he knew, he needed to know if there were any other Lupi with him.

~~~

Taglist:

@noahlovescoffee @canadian-crofters @infinitysgrace @alltimevirgilant @peanut0303 @trans-logan-sanders @theunoriginaldaisy @max-is-tired @creativity-killed-thekitten @uwillbeefoundtonight @flamingfawkes @gabe-killed-me-with-ace-cream

#thomas sanders #deceit sanders #october sanders #deceit x october #lupus!deceit #lupus au

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topweeklyupdate · 6 years

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TØP Weekly(/Monthly) Update #52: I’m Gonna Jumpsuit Out a Window (6/30/18)

When all the cryptic weirdness surrounding dmaorg.info sprung up nearly two months ago, everyone was extremely hyped. So much content! So many theories! It really felt like hiatus was over.

There was just one problem: there were no new songs licensed or registered under the band’s name, which meant nothing was coming out. Rabid music fans have known for years that there is truly no such thing as a “surprise” music release: for legal reasons, almost all song titles show up on online registries several days, if not weeks, before they are made available to the public. And, indeed, after the initial wave of teases wrapped up, the Clique returned to a quasi-hiatus state, punctuated only by the occasional addition to the Dema lore.

This Thursday, June 28, that all changed. Let’s talk about it.

This Week’s TØPics:

Finally, Some Good F*cking Food: Two New Song Titles Registered

Dema Recap: Cheetahs and Trenches and Cryptic Nonsense, Oh My!

One Year Later: What Do We Really Know About This Hiatus?

Editorial: When the Discourse Gets Too Much (and When It’s Just What We Need)

Major News and Announcements:

In the biggest piece of real news that we’ve received since the hiatus, two new song titles have been registered on the PPL music licensing database: “Nico and the Niners” and “Jumpsuit”. This is a highly reputable source, and not even truly a “leak” as so many have called it. The pages are managed directly by labels’ legal teams to ensure that anyone who wishes to play music in their media, advertisements, or establishments knows what songs are licensed to which artists and what steps to take to legally license them. “Heathens” was first spotted here over two years ago, not to mention countless other songs from various other artists. The two songs were just removed from the day after they were found listing, but Reddit detectives have already discovered untitled tracks with the same registration codes listed under an unknown Warner artist (ya’ll ain’t slick).

The fact that this posting was accompanied by further activity from the band only confirms that there’s some real nonsense going on. Not only did we get new Dema content (which we’ll get to) but, perhaps even more wild, Tyler Robert Joseph liked something on Instagram. Dude’s alive.

In all seriousness, Tyler Joseph’s social media habits do little to help us understand just what the hell “Nico and the Niners” is. The bigger story (and the one I’ve been slacking on reporting the last two months, my bad) is the sporadic updates to dmaorg.info. Back in early May, we got our first bit of content after the initial reveal in the form of a new letter from Clancy. The letter itself is a pretty well-written YA protagonist internal monologue, with Clancy yearning to find a place that truly feels like home outside the walls of Dema. But, Tyler being Tyler, there’s more to it than that: the date attached to the paragraph matches that of the band’s last social media post, and missing letters from throughout the note together spell out the coded message “You are still sleeping.”

The second update, posted in late May, is this lovely gif of a cheetah running under letters moving in a quick sequence. After slowing it down, the letters spell out the message “U still don’t know his real name do u?” Again, there’s much more to the post when you take the time to dig in. The listed date matches Josh’s appearance at the APMAs, the first mention of Dema. The file name for the gif is “3lurr” meaning the “he” in the question may in fact be Blurryface. Most significantly, the spaces between this message’s words were filled with letters that, when taken out separately and placed in sequence, repeatedly spell out “Nico,” perhaps answering the gif’s own rhetorical question.

So who is Nico? Well, it matches the names of one of the nine bishops in the “Compass” picture from April, which would seem to make him one of the ‘niners” who rule Dema. It’s increasingly looking like this album is really going to double down on covering a weird and fleshed out concept rife with metaphors, and I. Am. Here for it (as long as the music’s, ya know, good).

The final (for now) Dema post was released just yesterday in the wake of all of the sudden new activity. It is the first photo that seems to be wholly original, with no one as yet having tracked down where it’s from. It’s a pretty badass image, with twenty-one (goddammit) figures standing at the edge of some cliff or pit. Some have speculated that this could be album artwork, and it would certainly make for a very good cover. But that’s just the surface.

The image’s jpg name is an assortment of letters that, when deciphered using a basic alphabet sequence code, translates into “Trench”- possibly another new song? BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Typing that jpg number sequence or “trench” into the “violation code” section of the dmaorg.info url reveals a heavily-distorted audio clip. Sound engineers on Twitter and Reddit have tried reversing and pitch correcting the snippet, but have not truly succeeded in deriving anything from it beyond that it seems to be Tyler singing “So did they obey/bury you?” But what he’s saying honestly doesn’t matter to me half as much as this fact: after over a year, we finally got to hear Tyler Joseph’s voice. That’s got me on Cloud Nine, baby.

Pictured: The Clique (I know I used this joke last time, sue me)

So what does all of this cryptic nonsense and Reddit deciphering ultimately tell us? Frankly, it’ll be hard to say until we actually have our hands and ears on new music. The Clique has compiled so many different theories about what these little snippets of photos and garbled words mean that there’s no way they can all be true. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that there was an actual plan for this roll-out stretching back at least a year and that Tyler is not (as some salty fans have suggested) just throwing out a bunch of “fake deep trash.” Each piece of the Dema content has matched up in some way with the lyrics from the shutting eyes last year:

“You’ll have to come and find me.” -> The original discovery of the website.

“My pretty sleeper.” -> The “You are still sleeping” hidden message.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could just lay down...” -> “...and wake up in Slowtown” (and slow down the cheetah gif).

“I will fear the night again...” -> “[I hope I’m] not my only friend.” (the caption for the cliff picture)

Beyond all of that, the revelation of “Nico and the Niners” being part of the actual album should be taken as a real source of validation for all of those Reddit warriors out there: At least some of this stuff means something. (Now wtf is “Jumpsuit” about...)

Other Shenanigans:

Potential leaks from radio stations and some common sense theories have pegged a single release for the band as coming in the next two weeks, either July 6th or 13th. With all that in mind, I thought we’d look back on the weird conspiracy chart I’ve been keeping in my closet and recap what exactly we know about the band’s activities over the last year.

The short answer is: not much. After Josh’s performance at the APMAs, there have been no interviews, no public appearances, no social media posts. Josh has certainly been much more active than Tyler, which just makes sense for his much-less introverted personality. He contributed drums to Lights’ last album (though those recordings were done well before the hiatus). He apparently hopped into the studio with Drake Bell, (though I have no idea if any of that music has seen the light of day). He’s been fine taking group photos with Fueled by Ramen colleagues, other friends from the music industry, and, of course, Debby, who he almost definitely is back with. As for Tyler... well, beyond a few Jenna photos from a few months back and the odd fan encounter, there’s been nothing, which is why that eight second audio clip hit me like a Mack truck.

There are a few other things the truly obsessed have been able to find that I don’t necessarily want to reward by reposting here- I really want to try to keep it about the art. But we can pretty safely guess from Jenna and Jordan’s social media that the duo have been in Columbus, LA, and New York together a few times the last few months, likely for studio sessions and label meetings. Perhaps we’ll find out more about what transpired during the “hiatus” in the weeks and months to come, perhaps not. One thing’s for sure: it’s finally, finally (almost) over.

Editorial:

The last note I wanted to leave everyone on is something a little different for this blog, but still something I still think is worth talking about. Anyone who has been visiting the Twenty One Pilots tags on any site over the last several months can tell that the fanbase has not been taking the band’s absence well. And I’m not just talking the usual overblown crying for new music or young kids worshiping their idols a little too much. That’s always been there. This is different.

A whole host of the old crowd- the update accounts, the podcast hosts, the quasi-groupies who got barricade every night- have turned pretty hard from the band, particularly from Tyler. Some just have no interest in the music of Twenty One Pilots in the year 2018 AD; they’ve discovered other topics, other genres, other artists that speak more personally to where they are in life, and have just moved on. Others have expressed deeply personal distaste for the band itself for a whole host of political and social reasons that I’m not going to get into here- that’s a debate for another time, and probably for another account.

The point is, digging through social media to try to find updates and memes has been difficult when the most dependable sources also pepper in jab at whether Tyler’s learned to carry burdens yet every few posts. And while those folks are certainly more than entitled to their opinions and feelings (I even agree with many of them), it’s hard to deny that there are large swathes of the Twenty One Pilots’ fandom that just aren’t much fun to be in right now, just like there’s large swathes of the world in general where it feels like we’re not permitted to assume the best in people and just be happy with the things that used to make us happy. For a few weeks, I’ve honestly been wondering if I wanted to keep running this account in the next era. I just wanted to go back to the time before I had to share Twenty One Pilots with the world, when this was just my band, the one that made me feel understood and valid and worthy at a time where nothing else really did

Sasha Geffen’s insightful and deeply personal piece on the band’s music for AV Club, which focuses on how Tyler Joseph depicts and discusses suicidal depression, helped bring me back to that time. Music journalists have frequently gotten everything wrong about Tyler Joseph’s songwriting, to the point where I have often felt like they were listening to different music than me. But Geffen gets it. She sees that Tyler does not talk down to his audience about the problems they’re dealing with; he’s always been right there with us, and always offering concrete and practical ways of getting through depression one day at a time. He’s an insightful and compassionate dude, way more than people give him credit for, and it shows in his art. I had almost forgotten that. I needed that reminder right now, before everything ramps up again. I hope that article offers some comfort for any of you who also want to remember why this band is still so special, all these years later.

See you all (hopefully) next week. Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

#twenty one pilots #tyler joseph #josh dun #dema #top weekly update #fueled by ramen #music #av club #bands

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empireaust · 7 years

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Twin Peaks Season 3, Parts 3 & 4: The Empire Review

★★★★

Mere days ago, having been blindsided by the surrealism of the opening two hours, we felt pretty sure the WTF levels would settle down as things fell into place, relative normality resuming. What fools we were. The beginning had nothing on what has happened since – if anything, it gave us a false sense of security. The first episodes seemed to be about sadness. These ones bring madness.

As mentioned previously, Lynch has firmly stated that he sees this season as a film in 18 parts, and the third and fourth instalments cement that notion – make no mistake, this is pure cinema. We are all watching the glass box now, transfixed, awaiting seismic events. It’s rare – unprecedented maybe – to have an entire television series shot a year before broadcast, as is the case here, but it is now clear that the last 12 months have been spent furiously turning that footage into art.

Cooper’s journey out of the Red Room was a thrill. What does one even call these places he found himself in? There was some sort of netherworld, starring a lady with no eyes, who flailed at him, accompanied by audio effects that sounded like vicious slashing, and juddering glitchy visuals that looked like 19th century film stock. Then he was in – space? Elements of Eraserhead and even The Elephant Man sprung to mind, while now standard Red Room riddles (“When you get there you will already be there”) made Cooper the star of a particularly bizarre Choose Your Own Adventure.

The most grounded moments were when characters actually acknowledged how strange things are. In episode three we were introduced to a third Coop doppelgänger, bouffant businessman Dougie, who collapsed at the same time as Evil Coop had a funny turn after crashing his car. Both of them vomited up something disgusting, possibly Black Lodge food Garmonbozia. “What the fuck was that?!” asks prostitute Jade as Dougie hits the floor. Meanwhile, now in the Red Room, Dougie himself said, “I feel funny,” sounding uncannily like one-time YouTube sensation David After Dentist. When his hand started shrinking, he said, ‘That’s weird,” a real LOL moment, of which there were many. One can only imagine the fun Lynch and Frost had cooking this stuff up.

So Cooper is back in the real world, but the real world is not back in him. Having emerged from a plug socket that looks like a tortured, screaming face (RIP Josie Packard), he’s now a lost soul, with seemingly no idea who he is, talking like he has Alzheimer’s, walking like he’s Frankenstein. Suffering him doddering about aimlessly is sad, and it’s a marker of how bizarre Twin Peaks has got now when you think he might be better off in the relative comfort of the Red Room. But it’s also hilariously wacky, and despite our best wishes for Coop to find himself again soon, we’re enjoying our time with Mr Jackpots

Meanwhile, with isolated sequences that make even less sense, like Dr Jacoby spraypainting shovels and Michael Cera cameoing as an absurd tribute to Marlon Brando in The Wild One, Lynch seems to be inserting possibly inconsequential short films into the show. Consistency of tone means nothing to him. When Bobby, now a Deputy Sheriff, sees Laura’s photo and Angelo Badalamenti’s music pipes up, his distraught reaction is so overplayed, and accompanied by Robert Forster’s unfeeling look at him, the whole bit seems to be almost mocking the nostalgia of it all. Soon after that, Cooper is reunited with his coffee, but immediately spews it out. Lynch will not give us what we think we want. He’s having a ball.

These two episodes were off the hook. One Coop doppelgänger was mad enough, but we knew it was coming, and God forbid we should get used to anything, so Lynch gives us another one. We now know that new Twin Peaks is operating on many different levels of batshit. It’s fabulously unpredictable. “Albert, I hate to admit this, but I don’t understand this situation at all,” says Lynch himself, his very own Mount Rushmore face inhabited by Gordon Cole. Good to know.

Big questions

Who is Dougie?

In the Red Room, MIKE says Dougie has been manufactured by someone for a purpose, fulfilled now that he’s in the Red Room, right? Manufactured by who? All signs lead to BOB. Maybe. Note that Dougie was wearing the Owl Cave ring, previously seen on Teresa Banks and Laura Palmer before they died.

What is Blue Rose?

The disembodied spirit head of Garland Briggs uttered it to Cooper in space (how amazing to write these sentences as if it’s normal), and later, Albert mentions it to Gordon after meeting Evil Coop. It was previously mentioned in Fire Walk With Me, and most likely concerns supernatural happenings, probably Black Lodge related.

Who has been pressing Coop’s suit?

Seriously he’s been stuck in the Red Room for 25 years. You might theorise he’s been frozen in time in there, although he’s visibly aged, so that doesn’t quite work. What’s he been eating? Garmonbozia, right?

Alex Godfrey

It Is Happening Again TWIN PEAKS The Return – 22 May Same Day as U.S. Only on Stan

#david lynch #twin peaks #kyle maclachlan #agent cooper #stan

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