What a Fabulous Work of Art! /// Music Monday #50

Hey, guess what time it is? You got it!

Today's song is a very special one for me, because it's going to be used for an upcoming series of mine. (A quick heads-up: there are a couple uses of "damned" and "hell" in the song, but they're proper usages.)

"Instruments of Cyanide"

Composed by Will Ryan

If you're familiar with the indie video game scene, particularly that of the horror genre, you might've heard of a game called Bendy and the Ink Machine. With a visual style that hearkened back to the old cartoons, it basically asked, "What if Walt Disney was evil?" Upon its release, it took the gaming world by storm. One of the things it spawned was a whole slew of fan songs. I've heard a number of good ones, but I think this one is one of my favorites, if not my absolute favorite.

Will Ryan (otherwise known as the YouTuber DAGames) makes his own music, which is a combination of his own stuff and video game songs. He often does rock/metal, but there are times when he branches out and tries something new. This is the middle ground, as I believe "Instruments of Cyanide" would be classified as symphonic rock or something.

Will's got a pretty powerful voice on his own, something that's needed for his musical niche. In this song, he's joined by two other YouTube musicians: Caleb Hyles and Chi-Chi. Both of them also have great vocal prowess. A fourth YouTuber, OblivionFall, created the lyric video, and his talent shows.

In the context of the game, they're each singing as different characters. Chi-Chi is the voice of Susie Campbell, the actress who plays Alice Angel; Caleb plays the Projectionist; and I'm really not sure who Will is. Boris, maybe? This probably doesn't make any sense without knowing the original game, which I suggest you should check out.

While I love it for its ties to the game, I love it even more for another reason: it has hugely inspired a trilogy I plan to write. This is all rather hush-hush at the moment, but I basically want to write three connected trilogies. The first is the Portal Chronicles, which you've heard about if you've been on my blog for a while. The second is called the Titan Saga, and the third has no name as of yet. The Titan Saga will be a sequel to the Portal Chronicles . . . and I really can't say much due to spoilers. Trust me, things are gonna get really cool.

Will, Caleb, Chi-Chi: if you, for whatever reason, happen to be reading this . . . thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my art. Your masterpiece of a song has inspired so much of the Titan Saga in its early stages of creative birth. I could go on about how certain lyrics mean different things within the context of my trilogy, but I'd rather not give anything away. Suffice it to say that you deserve to go in the acknowledgements. Without this song, I really have no idea what the sequels to the Portal Chronicles would look like. Thanks again.

Sorry I was so vague in some parts of this post, but like I said, I'd hate to give stuff away. Thanks for reading! What'd you think of the song? Do you have any that inspire your own stories? Do share all!

Frequent Infrequency . . . Potentially?

Sorry that I'm posting one of these again, but there's not going to be a "real" post for today. My evenings have all been filled this week, I've got stuff that needs doing, and on top of all that, I'm doing a walking challenge with my work. I try to get 10k steps in per day, and that also eats up a good chunk of time. Plus, I didn't really have any ideas as to what I should talk about.

In fact, rather than me having to write up a similar message every time, I might as well say that I'm not sure how frequently I'll be posting over the next while. Suffice it to say that if you don't see a post from me on a Friday, it's probably not happening. I'll stay on track with Music Monday posts, but my "regular" ones might occur a little less often for the time being.

That's all from me for now. If you got any questions, leave them in the comments, and I'll try to answer them promptly. Thanks for understanding and for bearing with my lackluster performance these past few months. Enjoy your weekend!

Not Much Longer Now . . .

Mark shook his hand vigorously and sat up straight in his chair. "Sheesh. These invitations will be the death of me."

Warren snorted from his spot at another desk. "That'd be a little anticlimactic for Shattered, wouldn't it? 'And thus, Mark died from having to fill out too many invitations, even after he escaped suvorens and skirmishes.' Our readers would be more than a little miffed."

"The Author could always choose to revive me."

"Why would he bother? It's not like you've contributed to the story."

"Oh, aren't you the wise guy?" Mark rolled his eyes.

Warren turned to him and grinned. "You're too easy to bug, you know that?"

"I say everyone gets their fair share," David piped up. Warren chuckled at that.

"Tell me," Mark said after a moment, "why were we designated by the Author to invite his other protagonists to this anniversary thing? We're his newest creations."

"Not exactly." David put his pen down and rotated his wrist. "Ours was actually the first novel he ever attempted, except we were a lot different then."

Warren tapped his chin. "My memory's a little foggy on that, but weren't we soldiers at the time? Ones who acted more immaturely than we do now as grad students?"

"Pretty much. It was so bad that the Author went out of his way to do a whole series on his blog where he went through the original story and poked fun of a whole bunch of stuff."

"It's good that things have changed," Mark said. "But that doesn't answer my question. Why were we selected?"

"Probably because he trusts us the most," David said. "We're old friends."

"True enough." Warren bit the end of his pen for a moment. "Hope none of those nemeses of ours decide to crash the party."

"They'll be too busy planning to take over the world or finding items of power," David said. "They couldn't be bothered."

"You sure about that?" Mark asked as he went back to writing the invitations. There were just a few left, and the sooner they finished, the better. "If I were one of them, and I heard the Author himself was holding a big celebration without inviting one of the most important groups of characters . . . I'd be a little miffed."

"I really don't think they're that petty," David said. "In fact, it would be a golden opportunity for them to unleash some heinous plot."

Warren shook his head. "Whatever the case, I'm gonna stay alert. No need to get caught off-guard."

Half an hour later, the rest of the invites were all written up and sealed in fancy envelopes. "Perfect!" David clapped his hands. "You guys know your routes, so let's be on our way. Not much longer now!"

"What about the reader?" Warren asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Leave 'em one too."

Mark hastily wrote up another invite and left it on his desk. Once the trio left, all was still for a while. Finally, curiosity got the better of you, and you leaned in to grab the paper. It read in scrawling ink:

You are officially invited to Josiah Dyck's blogoversary celebration. The Author is hosting a party for two years of blogging, and he'd love to have you join in the festivities! No gifts or RSVP required. The event is being held on June 21st. We hope to see you there!