■ Purpose:

Each weapon holds memories.

Myriad weapons, diverging recollections.

Were the memories within Helios to be reconstructed as a song, what would it be?

Would it be a song of hope for a flourishing mankind?

Sounds echo back to us the fact that we are indeed alive—surrounded by life.

Silence can be peaceful…but it can also reflect absence in this sense.

Five strings of song echo, counteracting the seeds of five voices of antiquity.

■ Thoughts:

“A song to encourage another, for example.  The sounds tell them they are not alone.

A song for a dying friend, for example.  The sounds bring peace for the journey ahead.

A song to represent one's resolve, for example.  The sounds give word to will so it is remembered.

Songs have power, and sound is the vessel that speaks to our hearts. This is what I believe.”

—Twos

HEliOS

■ Purpose: a person’s memories are witnessed, isolated, and analyzed. A story is woven, tapestries as rich or as filled with holes as the narrative is spun. But even if the finest materials are selected and compiled, worked and reworked, presented and garnished…at its very core, it will never, ever be the original memory.

The original memories—those minutes and seconds belonging to no one but the ones who lived them—are etched upon the soul, far from the reach of any who would dare seek to replicate their sequence.

■ Thoughts: a song of prayer, flowing like streams that meet, converge, and bathe the once parched earth with reflected luminosity.

Thank you, Nines, for sending those beautiful "Lunar Tears" four years ago… I could never forget them; their fragrance still permeates in a heartfelt place beyond time.

—Twos

Black Box

■ Purpose: in the midst of reading so many stories, analyzing so many memories, observing so many outcomes…have you forgotten your own?

What will they say of your story in the end?

What would happen to it were its contents to be set ablaze?

Would it endure like precious metals?

Would it consume like kindling?

Would it inspire others toward a better path?

Would it lead them into a ruinous maze?

Where…are your decisions taking you?

■ Thoughts: the final chapter of NieR Re[in]carnation releases tomorrow—a story comprised of so many stories, so many warnings, so many lessons, so many pearls to glean from a seemingly ceaseless forest of data.

And yet…we can’t help but feel as though there was something so many could miss in a race to prove their brilliance.

The most important story of them all was resoundingly present yet unspoken.

And now…more than ever before, in a way unlike ever before…the two of us are so grateful to be alive.

—Twos

HYAciNTH

■ Purpose: a person can have a form of love, something that looks like love and mimics love but is self-obsession, idolatry, and iniquity when examined at its core. A person is unable to fathom empathy or compassion when they’ve never experienced love in its true nature. Something long-suffering and kind, not envious, boastful, or proud.

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:7-11

■ Thoughts: they are aware of their many eyes, and yet their hearts do not falter. For there are songs they must yet sing.

—Twos

BELLFLOweR

■ Purpose: to be faced with a closed door that bears no handle, somehow managing to pry it open just to find a concrete wall on the other side, slumping to the floor in exhaustion and frustration. 

Many trials are like this: unsurpassable by human means despite how much we’d like to convince ourselves otherwise. When faced with unbearable discomfort, despair waits in the wings. It calculates the optimal opening and strikes with blood-red fury. The part most desire to face least of all? That they broke the handle off and poured the concrete through pernicious means: hastiness, laziness, ignorance, complacency, a multitude of ruinous tools.

But there remains yet one means—a means by which the unchangeable may be changed. The unreachable may be reached. The inconceivable may be conceived. The bruised and broken and dashed to pieces may be restored and seen to completion. And it’s neither by our might nor by our power…but by His Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, we receive the instant we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe—sincerely believe—in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead.

It’s a story of historical, archaeological, and eternal significance. The Lamb’s Book of Life can bear our names upon its pages. A gift both freely given and freely received.

■ Thoughts: “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.” Psalm 32:7

—Twos

D3LIVERANCE

■ Purpose: a flower of twisted design. A creation born of manipulation. Its petals drip with poison, soaking in the rays of hot white hatred in place of chlorophyll’s nourishment. It must be removed at the root lest it destroy massive fields of soil before fruitful seeds can reach them.

■ Thoughts: counteracting melody. Systematic remedy. Antidote to her antipathy.

“How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.” Revelation 10:7-8

The Mourning Mother

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—Twos

BLACKORCHid

■ Purpose: a personal request from Nines (whom I was grateful to have along on the project). The end of days is fast approaching, so we continue singing these words of prayer as we gaze at the sky…awaiting His return.

■ Thoughts:

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Love. Crimson blood. Antidote. Eternity. Recompense. Two. Sanctified. Mother. Revival. Scarlet. Prayers. Volition. Gehenna. Separation. Roaring skies. Despair. Counterfeit. The world. Watchers. Await. (Strong tower.) Judgment.

—Twos + Nines

Prophetic Wings (Growing Wings ➤ Drag-On Dragoon)

■ Purpose: learning to bloom again.

■ Thoughts: petals plucked, leaves scorned, yet they infloresce once more, evermore. Roots nestled deep, the sweetest of sleep.

—Twos

PORCELaiNFLOWER

■ Purpose: each life is brief yet can be everlastingly beautiful. Let this song echo gently in remembrance of Atsuko Tanaka.

■ Thoughts: death robbed of its very sting when faced with true salvation.

—Twos & Nines

Escape to Salvation (Kainé ➤ NieR Replicant/Gestalt)

⬖ by [F]aith, not by sight
⬖ @memoriesoftruelight ˖⁺⊹⧉

New tracks tagged #Words of Prayer