■ Purpose: hearing "Normandy" after DOD3, it almost seemed like an android’s rendition of an Utautai’s song. A song of war, of reservations, of limitations, of regrets, of realizations.

The choice of that song for Marie’s performance still stands out to me. After noticing the names of some of her weapons being references to flowers, her rendition—no, perhaps “Normandy” itself—took on a different meaning. Except her version was more like a lilting dance of possibilities. As she made peace with what was, she gazed upon what is, determined to not be shaken, deciding how she could make even the slightest difference in the midst of it all. 🎧🪽

■ Thoughts:

"The girl sings in the virtual world, attempting to
cheer the war-weary populace. Yet while she has
garnered great popularity and attention, her
good intentions do not reach everyone."

—Twos

Song of Intention (Normandy ➤ YoRHa)

■ 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

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

New tracks tagged #songs of prayer