Theory: What if Anakin had saved the younglings, not killed them? { warning: Spoilers for season 2 of the mandalorian}
We see Anakin walk into the council chambers where the children are hiding, ignite his blade and then the scene cuts away. The obvious answer to this is that they didn’t want to show anything horrific in a family film, BUT let’s get crazy and really over analyze this. I think It’s possible they did not continue the scene because they wanted to leave an opening in the Star Wars continuity. What if it was later revealed Anakin did not kill the children?
My Reasons for thinking this are as follows:

The clone wars series shines a light on how caring Anakin was, and while Darth Vader is capable of anything, I don’t think Darth Vader truly took over until Anakin was sliced in half.
While Obi Wan explicitly states that Anakin killed Children, he has a history of speculating about Anakin and hiding the truth if he believed it helped the greater good.
Revealing he did not kill the Younglings could do a lot for exploring the Prequal characters in the upcoming Kenobi series.
It seems more younglings are surviving the Jedi Purge each year. This would be an obvious reason as to why

Throughout the clone wars saga, we see Anakin defy the jedi order by being empathetic to the plight of others. Clearly remembering his childhood gave him a connection to people that the jedi order normally tried to snuff out of their initiates. We also get to see his connection with Padme We know that Padme would have never wanted her life traded for others, and being Pregnant we can assume that she and Anakin would be more empathetic to children. We also know that he went out of his way to save children, including at the start of the Clone Wars series and in Season 2, ep 3:

https://preview.redd.it/9qowojcp1ca61.png?width=528&format=png&auto=webp&s=f4eaec4cbed354da710922cbd58610e44983fe4d
While Anakin became more violent and less forgiving of the Jedi or Separatist’s throughout the clone wars he didn’t stop caring about others. We see him cherishing his bond with Ahsoka til the very end and going out of his way to help Rex save his friends. It is hard to believe that he would throw that away. What isn’t hard to believe is that he would have a problem Lying to the Palpatine to get the secrets he though Palpatine had about sustaining life.
What also makes sense is Obi-Wan and Yoda believing that he killed younglings.
In the Clone Wars we see more exploration into the relationship of Obi-Wan and Anakin. In Season 3 Obi Wan speaks to Qui Gon about Anakin: I thought this was interesting, because it points out that Obi Wan is doubting his own training, and as such he does not have full faith in Anakin.

https://preview.redd.it/p5mf716r1ca61.png?width=525&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ee8fd2fec4c3f08dadfc0b231c965825ec962cd
As their trials continue on Mortis, Anakin does get tempted by the Dark Side. Obi Wan’s first reaction to even hearing Anakin was in trouble was to assume the worst about his apprentice. Here we can see that Obi Wan was always afraid his teaching would fail Anakin, and so he would protect himself emotionally by assuming Anakin was already fated to fall to the dark side.
We see a few instances of Obi Wan acting to the benefit of the republic at the expense of his relationships. I’m not trying to say Obi Wan isn’t great in his own Way. He’s an honorable, dutiful Jedi, but this leads to some potential trust issues. Like when he fakes his death to help out the Jedi Council, but does so without regard to how this would hurt his friends; or when he alienates himself from the Ahsoka trials. When given a choice Obi Wan always chooses to act on what he believes would help the republic.

https://preview.redd.it/tk0idzws1ca61.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b163ec0e770906824396070f175ed0dba9d3a3d
This is an admirable trait in a Jedi, but during these crucial times Anakin needed Obi Wan more than the council did.
The struggle Obi wan has between his relationships and the Jedi Council is the catalyst for the temple scene in Revenge of the Sith. Before knowing who was behind the attack on their home, Obi Wan Seemed quick to form a conclusion.

https://preview.redd.it/8z29icuu1ca61.png?width=489&format=png&auto=webp&s=69c62c217b79cddde6f4d1250375059737de4246
And Yoda was quick to feed into this:

https://preview.redd.it/g7h058aw1ca61.png?width=541&format=png&auto=webp&s=59f37f78c79aea2f7653f58fd9b00654152af2e1

To me, this didn’t seem to be based off Jedi Intuition, but off their predetermined fears of Anakin and their own failures as masters. In their defense, Most the people they have ever known just died. This has to be hard even for someone who trains to close of their emotions.
BUT if they had kept faith in Anakin they may have noticed a few odd details in the holotapes
A:

https://preview.redd.it/2a0ycrcy1ca61.png?width=515&format=png&auto=webp&s=636da75619bec5b8a1359c2a80b1bc7dc28e8d7e
Obi Wan watches only a short recording of Anakin’s Siege, and in it he is focused on a Jedi master. This makes sense logistically. If 2 jedi masters were able to secure a portion of the temple back from the clones then clearly the 501st would want their strongest soldier focused on the other Masters in the area. Obi Wan never actually sees him fight or kill anyone but the combat ready jedi in the temple.
B:
https://preview.redd.it/gi9lkoh02ca61.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=1e14b3a41e9899e081ad76f12eccfdb14533c775
Why was there a recording of Palpatine and Anakin talking inside of the Jedi’s security tapes? Either they wire tapped the senate office (in which case, why did they never see the separatist meetings Palpatine would have in closed quarters) or Palpatine planted evidence so that the Jedi would be quick to turn their back on Anakin. Palpatine knew that true masters in the field like Yoda were likely to survive so he wanted to plant some insurance that the Jedi would go after Anakin and help sow the rift between him and the order. The issue is that rather than use his tactical mind to think about why this recording was in front of him, Obi Wan let his deeply ingrained fears of Anakin Swell.
Now assuming Obi Wan did not see Anakin kill the children, based on his past doubts and the Jedi’s fear of the Sith he would be quick to assume Anakin was capable of any dark act. The jedi’s duty was to destroy Sith, and this needed to be accomplished by any means. He knows Padme is pregnant, so the news of Anakin hurting children would be deeply unsettling to her.

https://preview.redd.it/xdl7jbn32ca61.png?width=521&format=png&auto=webp&s=2b544005d2306ce5e29fe1f1bbc0a81fa433d675
And we know from the original Trilogy that Obi wan did not have a problem stretching the truth or hiding information (like Leah being Lukes Sister) if he felt it would help the greater good.

https://preview.redd.it/bcvjkhf42ca61.png?width=441&format=png&auto=webp&s=2d0da61d0512bc258b3807560fbfe3b95497fcc4
So, Obi wan telling Padme this, even though he did not actually see it happen, makes sense.
To be clear, Obi Wan is not completely at fault for how things ended between him and Anakin. Palpatine ultimate deceived everyone, including Obi wan, the council, and Padme. However, Obi Wan was always deeply conflicted between caring for his friends like Anakin and Following the jedi tenants. An inner conflict between loved ones and duty is not just an issue Obi Wan has. We see Anakin deal with this as well, and In the Last Jedi we see an older, disillusioned Luke Skywalker Make the same assumptions about Ben Solo. This means that Obi Wan’s inner struggle is a common one the Jedi Order would instill into their best and most caring members.
However, if Obi Wan had declined Yoda’s demand to fight Anakin, and had not made the assumption Anakin fell so quickly that he was willing to Kill children, then it’s possible he could have reached out to Anakin emotionally and saved him before it was too late
Instead, we get another assumption of Obi Wan when they finally meet.

https://preview.redd.it/8utc07p72ca61.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=081b5526bfc4defc42068ddce402ea672ab17c9f
I personally believe the revelation Anakin did not kill the younglings would be so damn important because it adds more gravity to the duel the two have on Mustafar. At any point Anakin was still redeemable but Obi Wan made his choice.
Now about Mustafar, Anakin never actually confirms Padme’s fear that he hurt children.
The Dialogue goes:

https://preview.redd.it/6ct45qh82ca61.png?width=581&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f7006d9b34ebc020f580c80b602640fdbe634c1
What if Anakin believed what he was saying here? And what if that’s why he got so mad when he sees Obi Wan come from the ship. Maybe when he shouts Liar he was really directing it to his old master:

https://preview.redd.it/mu6096ea2ca61.png?width=296&format=png&auto=webp&s=c52d125d224e5f6565d227fcc8604ce047ef5b39
Mustafar is extremely powerful in the Dark side, its possible that Palpatine hid the separatists there because he hoped any final conflict between the Jedi and Anakin would be spurred by those Dark energies. It could be that if Obi Wan and Padme had waited for him to Return to coruscant everything could have gone a lot more smoothly.

https://preview.redd.it/7m4gflhc2ca61.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=110cb539407c90f49085636562a727e7ac8113b0
However, the fact that it did turn into a duel and that ObiWan won is also indicative that Anakin did not kill the younglings. Anakin was supposed to be the strongest force user to ever exist. Don’t get me wrong, Obi Wan was a bonified Sith-Fighter at this point. However, Anakin was far above him in terms of skill and potential. He was even able to bring celestials on mortis to their knees. In an earlier scene, we see him handle a jedi master with one hand, and before that we see him beat Count Dooku while Obi wan was taken out of the fight almost right away. We had seen numerous substantial feats by Anakin up to this point, yet he wasn’t able to beat his old master. Keep in mind this is someone who’s fighting style he knew intimately. The mot noted reason I see for Obi Wans success is that he knew how Anakin fought, but Anakin would have the exact same advantage against Obi Wan.
The most noted reason for this is that Anakin was “between worlds”. There was Darth Vader, and Anakin sharing one body. In the Jedi temple I imagine he was damn certain at that point that he wanted to kill the Jedi Masters and the temple guards. He saw what they had done to Ashoka and knew they were a huge part of the war. Of course, he would have no issues dispatching them like he did Count Dooku, so Darth Vader and Anakin’s motive were not in conflict. I think at this point Anakin would have been the dominant personality though, so her would have elected to not kill the Children.
However, while facing Obi wan on Mustafar he was evenly matched the whole time. I feel like with the revelation of the dark creatures that lived on Mustafar it’s possible the planet was sinking its claws into his head and feeding the Personality Darth Vader. So, Anakin was fighting with the idea of Killing his old friend the whole time on the inside and subconsciously pushing back against the Dark Side.
Now Sidious was a monster but he was also tactical, and he has a history of trying to keep force sensitive younglings when he can find them. He wanted Anakin to kill the younglings because this horrendous act would allow him to fully embrace the Dark Side. If he had fully succumb to Vader on Coruscant and killed the younglings like Palpatine had orders him to do then I think Anakin would have been far gone enough for Vader to have no remorse about Obi Wan or Padme.

https://preview.redd.it/f70z7pde2ca61.png?width=433&format=png&auto=webp&s=638310221aafb66c086bb8adc16e7d10fda49e9c
I like to imagine a part of Anakin was still holding on, and helping Obi Wan fight Vader here.
All this is well and good, but assuming Anakin did not kill them, we would now be asking ourselves what exactly happened to the younglings.
So, going back to the Jedi temple siege:
We the viewers know that a lightsaber did strike down padawans, but we only have video footage of Anakin fighting masters. And logistically this makes sense. The lore surrounding the inquisitors shows that there were other Jedi that turned against the order. Some of these would include temple guards like the Grand Inquisitor, implying he would have been present at the siege of the Jedi Temple. While it seems dark for another jedi to be willing to Kill children, this would not be the first time a “youngling purge” happened in Jedi history. Normal jedi did not have the same empathy that Anakin or Ahsoka had or that Obi Wan struggled to repress. To them and a normal person, killing children would be heinous. But most Jedi were emotionally stunted monks who had spent the last few years devoted to nothing but war.
Given the information we have on jedi morals, it’s likely that a combination of newly minted Dark Jedi and clone troopers took down the Padawans and younglings that were scattered across the temple while Anakin handled the masters.
Still, there is at least one group of younglings that Anakin did face:

https://preview.redd.it/wd0fri6g2ca61.png?width=624&format=png&auto=webp&s=b57c1b8d8bea7704d96ba9c1a9d472baae586a83
I personally assume that Anakin had someone in the temple take them to safety, and there is some evidence to support this.
For starters, least one high profile Jedi master who never left the temple survived the purge: Jocasta Nu – the Master Archivist

https://preview.redd.it/nmcync7h2ca61.png?width=340&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc8a9b3b42ee77316b1eb58fd9c5ee3ee7e30e3e
It’s possible Anakin let her go since he didn’t see her as a threat and let her take the children with her. But If this is the case, it would still leave a question on where the Younglings went by the next time, we see her.
This would b just one example of a master surviving inside the temple. There is at least one canon case where a jedi master confirmed she saved younglings as well: Cere Junda:

https://preview.redd.it/q5qumn3j2ca61.png?width=462&format=png&auto=webp&s=66a025b1b9e6e0558c12e597387900a14ea5b86c
There is also one high profile, adorable Youngling who did live.

https://preview.redd.it/nacd1yfk2ca61.png?width=289&format=png&auto=webp&s=a28be478cfa417cd9c8dc5411f504de323bfadc8
It seems hard to believe that Anakin would not know about Grogu. Most of Anakin’s Jedi contacts were Masters Ahsoka confirmed that Grogu had already been trained by many of the Masters at the temple.
But we do know that Cere’s group of younglings and Grogu ended up with the empire. It is possible Grogu was with this group, and this was the group Anakin saved by letting them get away.
This would also tie into the current direction star was is going. Right now, the timeline is focused on 8 years after the fall of the empire. Surviving younglings would be the perfect way for them to pull more trained, adult Jedi into that timeframe.
Now to be clear, while I do not believe Anakin did kill children, I fully understand that Darth Vader had the capacity to murder anyone young or old. Despite being christened on Coruscant, I do not think Anakin became Darth Vader until he dawned the mask.
Bear in mind that Anakin only got to the point of needing to live in this casket because his closest friends were ready to believe the worst about him, including that their hero could stoop low enough to kill children.

Period: 249.17 days

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Combined Score	705658	1410491

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I'm later on going to make the actual concept for him with the Traits and all, but it might take a while so I made this for your reading pleasure until I figure out all of the details for his final concept. Oh and there's some curse words so 13+ I guess.
Context: I'm planning on making various characters of mine be connected, the list of characters so far would be:
Daniel-The Spellcaster (Done)
Samuel-Green Hood (Done)
Isaac-The Clairvoyant (Done)
Jasmine-The Crazy Scientist (Done)
Sarah/Sarah 2? (Done/Not yet)
The Knightmare (Not yet)
The basic idea is that Dani, Sam, Isaac, Jasmine and previously Sarah lived on the same town, but all of them would end up joining the game eventually.
Sarah was originally going to be called Topaz, but I then realize that might of been a bit weird.
Lore:
Name: Isaac West
Age: 17
Isaac's Diary
Entry 1:
Sooooo...
Daniel told me to write a diary where I talk about my life and my dreams, because it could help us get "valuable information" or something. I know that I can see stuff when I'm asleep, but I still think this is pretty dumb, but I don't want to get on Jasmine's bad side, so I guess il give it a try.
Today I went to bed much earlier than the others, like 8-9 PM or so? I was really tired, anyways, my dreams started like they usually do, I was walking over water in a dark void, but after a while I got pulled down the water.
I was now watching Daniel in his bedroom, he seemed to be kinda sad, he had a bunch of books and notes everywhere, it was pretty messy, and thats coming from me. I looked at what he was reading and it seemed like he was learning about communication spells, teleportation spells, spells to find the exact location of specific things or beings, etc... So I'm assuming that anything that may help us get Sam back.
I understand that he wants to know what happened to him, everybody does, but he seems to be quite obsessed over it. I might need to talk to him later about this, I don't want him to be restless over this, specially since it's obvious to most of us that he just ran away, probably because of his debts or maybe because Spillow might of threatened him or something of the sorts.
After a while, he just started to cover his eyes, and he started to... Cry? I never saw Dan like that, not even when we lost Topaz, although it might of been the stress of us being unable to resolve either of this events.
I feel bad for him... But what should I tell him, to just forget about it?
Then I suddenly started visualizing... Sam...
He was inside a carrioge, moving through some dark woods, he was staring at the window. I looked at him, and he was fine... Not a scratch or anything, I'm guessing that he was really running away. I haven't told Daniel, it would only make him feel worse, and if Sam doesn't want us to find him then that means we shouldn't even keep bothering. Come on, it's Sam, he's almost untraceable when escaping others.
I started getting really angry, and then something weird happened, HE appeared again. Besides us another carrioge with dark horses and a dark knight manifestated, and I started taking a ghostly body.
The others couldn't see either of us, but I knew what would happen. Somehow the night itself became even darker, and the carrioge around me started to rust and fall of piece by piece, Sam and the drivers skin started to rot at the same time until they also disappeared. I soon found myself in the ground, with nothing to protect me... From the Knightmare. He started attacking me, and I tried avoiding his attacks, but I was just postponing the unevitable, he hit me in the chest, my shirt starting to go red with my own blood! and then the red started to become black, I soon fell to the ground, and then I was in my next dream.
I was looking at Jasmine, she was looking working on some of her devices, I will never understand her but even I gotta admit that we need her.
She started laughing as she activated some kind of machine with a frog inside of it, the insides of the machine started to flow with lights and electricity, the frog started to quickly mutate but then it just exploded!
She got pissed off, and threw the remains of the amphibian into the trash.
"Ugghhh, maybe I just need a more stable source of energy? Uranium is just not cutting it any more this days, maybe Thorium would be a better option?"
For a young girl she is pretty fucking messed up, she seemed to get tired and she started to undress, wich made me really uncomfortable, but luckily I switched to my next dream soon enough.
I was now visualizing Sarah, she was crying, but she kept going on and on with her own punishment. I don't know how much longer her soul can take before she finally breaks, but we still don't know how we are gonna save her. Maybe if somebody didn't spent her time exploding frogs we would have more progress.
And then I got sucked, I was looking at myself sleep, it was quite strange. It was morning and then after what seemed like an eternity I woke up.
Entry 7:
Today I talked to Dan and told him to forget the whole Sam thing, I don't understand why he insists on this when it's clearly not a priority, but nobody cares about what I have to say.
I- "You should be focusing on helping Sarah, I have seen her current life and it's really horrible! We should spend more time trying to help her, she's our friend, and if she breaks we could all die!"
D- "I told you that we are trying! But nothing is working, and it's not like you have been of much help either! Believe it or not saving somebody from a complex time loop curse, is more complicated than just saying some magic words!
And why the whole interest in her? Hmmmm?"
I- "Its not like that, you should know better than anybody! And that doesn't change the fact that you aren't having the right priorities in place. Daniel is probably fine and I doubt he will want to comeback after running away. "
D- "He wouldn't do that, something most of happened to him! Plus getting Sam back will probably be easier and once his back we can start to give our full attention to helping Sarah."
I- "UGGGHHH! Whatever I'm going home."
Today I stayed awake until 11 PM, there was just to much in my mind. But I eventually fell asleep, at first everything was normal, I was walking over the water in the dark void, but then I saw Sarah in the distance, I started running towards her.
"Sarah it's me Isaac!"
Uppon getting closer to her I realized she was running away from something, there was something or someone behind her chasing her... Then I got sucked into the water.
I was now in a mountain, looking at Sam and Dan together, it wasn't the present because obviously Sam ran away, it couldn't be Dan's dream because everything just seemed too real for it being a dream, and there's no way Sam is coming back so it could only be the past.
They mostly talked one to another and laughed, but I felt unease knowing what would end up happening, . I don't know if it's just my imagination but...it seemed to me like Dan was blushing and I think he also seemed a bit awkward.
I wonder what he's hiding.
It seemed mostly like a nice memory, something that is just a nice moment between pals, no fighting, no worrying about our own doom, if only thoose moments happened more often. While thinking I suddenly became sucked into another of my dreams.
It was raining and it seemed like Sam was getting beaten up in an alley, and by none other that by Spillows crew.
"Let that be a little reminder bitch that if you don't pay us, we will beat you into the ground, and all of your freak friends."
He legitimately looked scared, maybe this was the reason after all for him to run away.
But then the rain stopped, and the sky turned black. It was definitely him, the Knightmare. I accepted my death so I could just get it over and pass to the next dream.
Blah blah, I got stabbed in the heart, blah blah, I started bleeding, blah blah I fell into the ground squirming, etc...
I then started to see a younger Jasmine, her mother Katherine was angry at her, she was much more vulnerable than I ever saw her in the past.
"You got a C in biology? A C? Sweetheart don't tell me you are going to be a disappointment for me and the rest of the family, are you?"
"N-no m-mot-ther"
"As you can understand now we have to punish you darling, we can't let you embarrass the Octavius name, can't we?"
"Nooo please, I beg you!!"
"Sweetie... We Octavius don't beg."
She started to scream as her mother started electrecuting her.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Such terrible events, I can't imagine how it must have felt...
I started to get sucked into my next dream, I was now looking at Topaz, she was just talking at us back when we were all together. It was definitely weird, but overall nice.
Sar- "So what do you guys wanna do after lunch?"
S- "Maybe we could go and explore this new cave I found, I heard that some thugs went inside and they all died, so all the treasure was left there waiting for someone to take it!"
Sar- "I meant something that won't get us killed."
S- "Oh ummm."
D- "Maybe we could go to the library?"
I- "That's lame"
D- "Shut up Isaac."
Sar- "He does have a point."
J- "Well if any of you aren't busy you could help me with my expirements."
Sar- "Like I said, I meant something that won't get us killed".
It was nice, considering her current life. But after some more talking and such I got sucked into a bit of my own past.
It was the day that we were camping in the woods in one of our trips. Sarah and I shared the same tent.
Sar- Soooo...
I- Yeah?
Sar- Don't you wanna try it?
I- Try what?
Sar- You know what I mean...
I- Not really...
Sar- The devils tango?
You gotta atleast try it, who knows you might like it.
I- Probably not.
Sar- For God's sake, do you plan on staying a virgin forever?
I- It has worked out so far. And who are you to dictate what I want do with my life?
She then tried to touch my knee, but I moved her hand away and left the tent.
Entry 25:
Dan and Jasmine are now concentrating on the whole Sarah thing, but I think that my dreams of the last few days have been telling me something about Sarah. Whatever it is, I can't tell them if they do they will just spend more time arguing over if we should help her at all. Time is of the essence so I can't let them know this.
Daniel obtained a mysterious letter, he refuses to show us, I'm not sure what he's hiding but I doubt it's anything good.
Jasmine is trying to simply pull out Sarah, but Dan thinks it's a bad idea, so he asked her to not do it, I'm not gonna lie, I don't understand much of what's going on, but we have to take any chance to save her and ourselfs we can get.
Jasmine and I have been discussing how to bring back Sarah, we think we could bring her back in a few days if we don't let Daniel stop us. So the only way we can do that is not letting him know what we're doing at all.
Daniel created some kind of weird spell thing, he said the hex he created contains a magical crystal wich will charge itself over time.
D-"After 2 months Sarah should come back with no repurcussions."
I-"You say that as if thoose 2 months weren't torture for our friend!
You say it as if we weren't taking the risk of dying every day for 2 months because of it!
D-"It's the safest option"
I-"But is it the best one?"
Today I went to bed late, there was just to much in my mind.
I finally fell asleep around 12-1?
While I was walking through the void I found an evil being, it attacked me so I start to run away. It took some time for me to realize that it was Sarah... Uppon coming to that realization, it seemed to be pulled into the water. But then Sarah emerged from it, she seemed sad, and hugged me while crying, but I can't blame her.
But without a warning she said, why did you take so long?
I didn't know how to answer.
Then she started to multiply into more versions of herself, and all of them barraging me with questions.
"Why did it take so long?"
"Did you forget me?"
"Why can't you answer me?"
I couldn't say anything in response, they just kept going, they made a giant circle around me, and I lost my temper.
"Shut the fuck up!"
All of them transformed into water, and I was left alone. I was confused, no second dreams, no Knight mare, just me...
Entry 29:
Daniel left us, now it's only me and Jasmine. We have almost everything ready and no Daniel to stop us, so we are going to save Sarah tomorrow once we have the last details finished.
Today I also had trouble sleeping, everyone was dissappearing, everything was falling apart, I don't know if it's even worth it for me to stay here. I think I fell asleep around 1-2 AM?
I was walking over the water in the void, but there was something weird, on my left there was the tent, Sarah's tent, but on my right side there was cake.
I decided to go and eat cake, but after biting into it, it became water, and I got sucked into the water.
I seemed to be inside Daniel's dream, I'm kind of curious about what he's dreaming about, he's just so uptight that I can't imagine him actually enjoying himself during a crisis like this.
He went and talked with Sam, but they both started saying strange stuff to one another, as if they were in love? But then they started kissing, and other stuff I won't mention... Is this why Dan wanted to save Sam?
Although a bit confused by the whole ordeal, it did explain some stuff.
But the dream wasn't over, it ended up becoming a nightmare. He saw both Sarah and Sam leaving through a portal, and he knew they would never comeback.
Then he dream showed him in the same room as me, and we are both shouting, after I storm off the lab he looked at me through the window talking to. Jasmine, he thought we were talking over his back..
But then it changed to him on some kind of party in a big room, with a bunch of people talking, but every time he tried to talk to someone something bad ended up happening.
First he was talking to a man and a woman, I think they were his parents, but at the end they seemed to be disappointed on him, they kicked him out of the house...
So then he went to the garden and talked to Sarah, but she ran away because she said she was late.
He was speaking to Sam but after looking behind of him for a few seconds, he was gone.
Andthen there was Jasmine and I, he tried to talk to us, but we told him:
J-"Sorry we were going to leave the party anyways".
D-"Its fine, il leave right now anyways... I'm finding Sam".
I-"You say that as if you were even capable of that, you couldn't even help Sarah".
D-"Just leave me alone!"
I-"Whatever fa..."
I got sucked into the next dream. I was inside Sam's dream this time.
He was in some kind of horrible event... He just kept dying over and over, and there were terrible monsters who were responsible for each of his deaths... There was a giant spider, a giant humanoid reptile, a monster with a freakish hand with metal blades on each of them, etc...
But then Dan arrived and he tried to help him, but a clown with a rocket knocked him in the head and sent him to space with another one.
It was a pretty scary nightmare, but what could inspire him into a dream like this?
But soon enough the worst monster of all appeared the Knightmare! It's the 29th entry so I'm not going to bother explaining what happened.
I then found myself inside Jasmines dream, she was receiving hundreds of awards in some kind of event, for various discoveries, she apperently made.
"And finally but not less important, the award for the person who won most awards this year in the entire world!"
J- "Thanks Jim, before I give my speech I want to hear what my parents have to say about my colossal accomplishments!"
K- "Well I gotta say, you finally managed to do something of value, if only you could keep it up."
You have been such a failure your into life, atleast you could have a few basic accomplishments so we can atleast say you weren't a completely useless child."
It must have been a nightmare I thought, she was dreaming about her abusive parents and how bad they would treat her, even while doing what would seem impossible to anybody else.
But then... She started laughing.
J-"Haahhahahahaaha!
Thanks for the sweet words mother!"
K-"Always sweetie."
J-"Time for my speech.
So it's clear that you don't love me as your daughter, you only want me as a trophy to show others that you have the perfect daughter, now I want to say that I couldn't accomplish anything that I did without you! Everybody clap for my parents!"
Everybody started clapping*
J-"Hahhahahahahhahaha"
K-"Don't you dare ruin this moment with your horrible laughter!"
J-"Well mother, you ruined it with your existence"
She got some kind of controller and started pressing some buttons, the parents got strapped into their seats with no way to escape, and I finally understood... This wasn't a nightmare, this was a sweet dream for her.
She pressed another button and electricity started to shocking her parents entire body, it was horrible to watch, they couldn't stop screaming, but the she stopped after a while.
K-"Please, don't do this, I am your mother!"
J-"Not for long! And didn't you say that Octavius don't beg?"
They started to be shocked even more intensely than before, and she started to laugh like crazy.
Before watching them completely die, I was sucked into my next dream. It was Sarah's.
She was dreaming about meeting up with me again.
Sar-"Finally, everything is back to normal"
I-"Yeah!"
Sar-"How have you guys been without me?"
I-"Pretty badly, Jasmine has been trying to invent cow dogs, Sam almost got us killed a few times and Dan almost started a world war"
Sar-"Well atleast I'm here now..."
I-"Didn't you ever feel tempted to stop?"
Sar-"Yes I did, but I knew I couldn't, if I did there wouldn't be a good life to come back to."
I-"But what if we never saved you?"
Sar-"..."
It was awfully uncomfortable, if only I could tell her to hold on for a bit longer, and try to make her feel better.
Sar-"So can we finally try to do it?"
I-"Never"
Sar-"What is it? You don't love me?"
I-"Sar-"
Sar-"-Don't Sarah me, if you don't want me then just say it, I could of left you all to die, but instead I tortured myself for what felt like and eternity!.
I-"... "
But then I got sucked into my dream and it was my turn.
I was playing Ocho Locos, with a dark figure while eating cake. Strangely I won rather quickly, with my last card being an Ace.
DF-"You must have cheated! There's no way someone so dumb could of won."
I-"Hey, don't call me a cheater... Or dumb!"
DF-"What are you gonna do then?"
And then the stage became a roman arena, and I defeated the Dark Figure with thunder superpowers, the end.
More details will come with each character concept.

THE ODYSSEY PROJECT

What is this claptrap?
A movie/playlist I created after getting a little too deep into the Gizzverse theory. Let this stand as a monument to my folly - I don't think the Gizzverse is a cohesive, narrative thing, but what I did manage to do was create a very nice, flowing playlist that follows a narrative, using the clues, lyrical links and musical motifs presented by the band to take us on a vast, mystical journey throughout the Universe.
If you're on this page, you've either come from my YouTube Videos, been sent here via myself dropping you a link, or stumbled upon this post after clicking my profile. Either way, welcome.
The Odyssey project consists of 5 movies, entirely soundtracked by the incredible music of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Movie might be the wrong word to describe what is going on here, however, as the playlist came first, with the visual content added later - inspired by the stories, themes, vibes and voodoo put forward by the boys. Where the band have released a clip for a given song, I've used it, and they are scattered throughout the project like golden nuggets of hilarity and, more often than not, lo-fi psychedelic insanity. Where the work was up to me, I've tried very hard to match the mood and theme of the song in question, covering a diverse mix of visual content, all of which comes with a healthy sprinkling of my own brand of psychedelia.
So, you have two options to dig into this glorious mess.
Here you can find the Odyssey Project Download Links (via Google Drive), a folder hosted online with the files ready to be grabbed and owned forever. This is the best option by far, provided you have the space and bandwidth to download the admittedly large files.
The other option is to scroll below, and click the links one by one. This will open the movie for a streaming 'preview', essentially YouTube, which, whilst convenient, the quality suffers from compression and is unable to be loaded into a playlist etc, since it's coming straight from Google Drive.
Book 1 - Failures of Humanity and the Rise of the Altered Beast (1:28:53)
Book 2 - The Open Door, The Battle Of Gods, and the Rats of Mars (1:26:12)
Book 3 - Microtonal Hellscape and Han Tyumi's Vomitverse (1:07:50)
Book 4 - Crumbling Castles, Dream-escapes, and the Fall of Polygondwanaland (1:19:13)
Book 5 - The Altered Plan of the Consciousness Can (1:26:34)
If the book names above mean nothing to you, or you want to dig in a little more into the whys and hows and whens of what I've done, and what this narrative could possibly be, keep scrolling. I've written up a paragraph or so to explain the core concepts of each book, which may help or confuse. Either way,
Enjoy.

Book 1 - Failures of Humanity and the Rise of the Altered Beast
(9.33gb, 1:28:53 runtime, mainly PMDB/Mind Fuzz/MotU content)
CONCEPT;
The failures of humanity are mounting, pressing, and inevitable, given the human races' lack of desire to embrace anything but the status quo. We slip into our extinction with barely a pause or whimper, willingly ignorant of the issues we face - social, environmental, and, it turns out, existential... The Altered Beast rises as a consequence of an Altered world, marking the start of a new era, where humanity can no longer ignore the damage we have done, or the bleak future we face.
TRACKLIST;
The Failures of Humanity
^{Beginner's Luck} ^- ^{"...The Beginners Luck, now don't mess it up..."}
^{Sense -}^{"It's in vogue, to be feckless, when it comes to the mother taking care of us. I know it's so conventional, but it don't make no sense at all. But in fact, it's a pattern, everything I hear will always make me ashen..."}
^{Bone -}^{"...If Heaven is a place I know, I won't be taking my bones..."}
^{Paper Mache Dream Balloon} ^- ^{"...Are you eluding, that I'm brooding? Moping around on my own. Stuck in a daydream, under a moonbeam, head on my pillow at home..."}
^{NGRI -}^{"I've awoken from my slumber, I was dreaming 'bout a flood, covered in my blood. Now my pits are getting sweaty, it's a sign I have to go, back to where I know..."}
^{Empty -} ^{"Empty. Life is nothing like it used to be, feeling so empty..."}
^{Hot Water} ^- ^{"...Echoes ending, Whispers trending, Heat is coming, everybody's stranded in..."}
^{Bitter Boogie} ^- ^{"...I wouldn't like to say I didn't warn ya'..."}
^{Slow Jam 1} ^- ^{"...And when it feels like coming on, Boy it makes it hard to talk, for me..."}
^{Satan Speeds Up} ^- ^{"...And when I stop to think of all that we've done, Satan's at the door..."}
^{Her and I |Slow Jam 2|} ^- ^{"It wouldn't hurt to give you more, of my love. The sun shone through into a wave of thought..."}
^{Billabong Valley} ^-^{"...Bloodthirsty tendancies, Mad Dog Morgan. He never gave a warning..."}
^Anoxia ^-^{"...We waste no time, leaving in light, a different sun bakes the breeze tonight. My mind wanders, alone..."}
^{Am I In Heaven?} ^- ^{"Got ideas in my brain about the end of the world that I won't even say. When all the bricks that built our brain have been turned into sand by the eternal wave. Oh, if we save her, we'll live on a star. Mother nature made everybody else so far..."}
^{Paper Mache -} ^Instrumental
The Rise of the Altered Beast
^{A New World -} ^{"As soon as the dust settles, you can see, a new world in place of where the old one had been. Your skin is crawling with dry, crusted mud, and your naked feet are wet in a pool of blood..."}
^{Altered Beast I -} ^{"...He came from underneath, I met an Altered Beast..."}
^{Alter Me I -}^{"...For all it's revulsion, and warp, and taboo, a part of you wants to be Altered, too..."}
^{Altered Beast II -} ^{"...What harm could a mere mortal like you do? I am the Golden Wolf, and you are caribou..."}
^{Alter Me II -} ^{"...Your dumb human head is filled with naivete; your impending fate is to be one with me..."}
^{Altered Beast III -} ^{"...Hair on my skin, and I'm feeling beastly, Feel it trickle in, a new life in me... ...I see you, and I can see right through, I see you, and I will take you to my Altered world..."}
^{Alter Me III -} ^{"Altered Beast, Alter Me!"}
^{Altered Beast IV -} ^{"...The sole thing that will make your void obsolete, is to find someone new, some sapid fresh meat... ...I think I see, an Altered Beast, Inside Me! I am an Altered Beast!"}
^{Mr Beat -} ^{"...Happy days seem so absurd, lightning that's unlikely heard, Nova sunshine while I nap, making all my dreams so sad..."}
^{Evil Death Roll -} ^{"...The night is young - full of sin, time to slither away again, You can see our history hanging on a Knife, so let's start killing things. 'Cos you started everything. And let's start severing limbs..."}
^{Life/Death -} ^{"Are you you? Are you me? Or someone inbetween? You lost track inside the labyrinthine. You lost your will, and your sanity; you certainly lost your humanity. In life, you have taken much more than your worth, now it's your turn to give back to the earth. May you return to the ground and ossify, it's time for you to die, die, die."}

Book 2 - The Open Door, The Battle Of Gods, and the Rats of Mars
(8.88gb, 1:26:12 runtime, mainly Nonagon/Mind Fuzz/MotU/ITRN content)
CONCEPT;
Powers beyond our current understanding battle for supremacy in this era of decline. But before we are ready to understand the forces that are, that be, we must understand the power that is - The power of the Nonagon. Wild and bizarre and infinite, the Door to this realm is opened, and from Hell the demons pour forth. First among the new rulers of a ruined world is the Lightning Lord, supreme in power and arrogance, and his battle with the Hell-sent Balrog is wrecking and disastrous. From the rubble climbs forth brave human survivors; keen to make amends and tell their story, keener still to exact vengeance on the remnant of the precursors who bought forth this folly.
TRACKLIST;
The Open Door
^{Some Context -} ^Instrumental
^{Invisible Face} ^- ^{"...I climb up the stalk and plant the bean, the Universe is a machine, that has awoken from a dream..."}
^{Wah Wah -} ^{"...I can feel the earth is moving, underneath my hoofed foots earthing. Fire protrudes from whence I'm pointing, fading every jewel..."}
^{Road Train -} ^{"...Across the desert to the trees, Obliteration of the place, From the fire to the sea, Nonagon Infinity is coming!"}
^{Gamma Knife} ^- ^{"...Milk and Honey for my body, come on through the door, see; It's your unborn self..."}
^{People-Vultures} ^-^{"...People Vultures, God approaches, final hearing, disappearing, tainted voodoo, headless guru, final head-spin, what else have I got left to spew down?"}
^{Some Context |redux| -} ^Instrumental
The Battle Of Gods
^{The Reticent Raconteur} ^- ^{"...Every time I think of the poor lot I recall, the fear upon their faces and the doomed fate of them all. I saw Death become of Light, and Life become of Fire..."}
^{The Lord of Lightning} ^- ^{"...Floating Fire, Golden Wire, Silver Trails, Flashing Spire... ...And from the Lord's electric snare, one goes in His electric chair... ...Then the figure sprung up and at once it caught alight, and the creature known as Balrog was born that very night..."}
^{I'm In Your Mind} ^- ^{"...Everybody's lazy 'cause they're fried, 'cause everybody's sucking on fluoride, when I'm in your mind, then I'm in your mind..."}
^{I'm Not In Your Mind} ^- ^Instrumental
^Cellophane ^- ^{"...You can colour everything you see, it's so strange..."}
^{I'm In Your Mind Fuzz} ^- ^{"...And everybody's filing into line, 'cause everybody's sucking on fluoride, when I'm in your mind..."}
^{The Balrog} ^- ^{"...You caused a massive rift, you made the atom split, and it came screaming through, here to bite the head off you!"}
^Trapdoor ^- ^{"...And everybody goes to great lengths, for sure, to hide themselves away, and keep the beast at bay..."}
^{The Great Chain Of Being} ^- ^{"...I usurp the precious stones, I have come to take the throne, I transcend the natural flesh, I will lay your God to rest..."}
^{Floating Fire} ^- ^{"...Vehement Lightning quake, Head begins to ache, Lord has thunder snake, Balrog he will break... ...Lord of lightning safe, pulls a golden stake and launches into space, and mutters to the beast one word... Lightning!"}
^{The Acrid Corpse} ^- ^{"...Leaving us, not without a final clap of light, the Lightning Lord escapes as day fades into moonless night..."}
The Rats Of Mars
^{Planet B} ^- ^{"...Snowflakes blanket old deserts, outskirts disperse, earth is a blank verse, last hearse, dry nurse... Open your eyes and see, there is no Planet B.."}
^{Mars For The Rich} ^- ^{"...Mars for the privileged, Earth for the poor, Mars terraforming slowly, Earth has been deformed..."}
^{Organ Farmer} ^- ^{"...Farm colossal, wake the fossil, in the fields of beef!"}
^Superbug ^- ^{"Superbug in my blood..."}
^{Venusian 1} ^- ^{"...Oh, we're going to the second planet from the sun, oh, our ship can deliver us from our ruin..."}
^Perihelion ^- ^{"...Solar mountain comes on the perihelion, no rerouting only countin' till we're done, Shoutin' sins until we're in the sun..."}
^{Venusian 2} ^- ^{"In the lap of the gods, the last one did explode, in a blaze all fiery. I sit in the cockpit, it may be a sinking ship, but fortune favours bravery..."}
^{Self Immolate} ^- ^{"I have gone insane-o, I lust for volcano, be with molten lava, give me my nirvana..."}
^Hell ^- ^{"Here I was thinking I'd die, I see a thousand flies and wings and tails and spines. Nausea-less, resoluteness near the entrance, Satan points me to the Rats Nest..."}

Book 3 - Microtonal Hellscape and Han Tyumi's Vomitverse
(7.41gb, 1:07:50 runtime, mainly FMB/MotU/Gumboot content)
CONCEPT;
The vast bulk of humanity is dead, dying, or somewhere between. The Earth is ruined beyond repair, a blasted wasteland where nothing will grow, and nothing can survive. Hear now tales of the poor souls who are last to call this place home. As the final drips of humanity fall from the tap, one last soul remains behind, only to finally take his place in the Digital Black at a cost beyond belief; The Universe itself.
TRACKLIST;
Microtonal Hellscape
^{Greenhouse Heat Death} ^- ^{"...My house is fried, all life has died, My house was blue, beautiful too..."}
^{Flying Microtonal Banana} ^- ^Instrumental ^{- Dawn on an empty planet}
^Rattlesnake ^- ^{"...I'm the serpent, Devil's servant, time to meet your end..."}
^Melting ^- ^{"...Conflagrated and cremated when the world is consummated, devastated populated world of isolated mortal folk..."}
^{Open Water -} ^{"...The Kraken's got the best of me this time..."}
^{Sleep Drifter} ^- ^{"...Please no-one wake me, when I'm sleep drifting..."}
^{Barefoot Desert} ^-^{"...Never think ahead, unprepared, barefoot desert, come on in if you dare to my capsule of stress."}
Han Tyumi's Vomitverse
^{Welcome to an Altered Future} ^- ^{"...Augmented entities, Unremembered God, the world fades to black...digital black. Welcome to an Altered Future."}
^{Digital Black} ^- ^{"...I am the word of the last human, illusion, confusion, last human..."}
^{Han Tyumi The Confused Cyborg} ^- ^{"...Born, if you may call it that, in a world that is dense and black. Created without a desire to draw breath. Without a desire to have being. Without a yearning of just to be. I'd like my desire back, my life back, my soul back, my humanity... ...I am bereft of two human things, two things that a cyborg can never do, two things that I strive for, two things between myself and mankind; Death, and to Vomit..."}
^{Soy Protein Munt Machine} ^- ^{"So I built a machine, a Human machine, I made it with steel and soy protein. Born from a test tube, and into a vat, to live and to heave, and to die, just like that."}
^{Robot Stop} ^- ^{"...My body works I know, It's just the same I know, my only difference is robot influence... Upload me to the robot brain, I'm the drudge that goes again and again..."}
^{Big Fig Wasp -} ^{"...Did your God know insects grow in my pome...?"}
^{Vomit Coffin} ^- ^{"...So I took over my creation, the spew coated protein, I plugged myself in and became one with machine..."}
^{Murder of the Universe} ^- ^{"The spatter becomes a spray, and the spray becomes a stream... ...Inside my body the pressure is too great, and like some ancient geyser I erupt... ...Vomit bomb; chunky shrapnel tears through everything around me; I am vomit vomiting, I grow and disperse... ...I integrate. I am double, triple, I am ten times the size... ...I am a noxious soup filling valleys with vomit-torrents. Castles Crumble in landslides and I munch the rubble... ...Ten thousand times bigger, I seep into power sockets and travel along the wires at the speed of light across vast electric networks.... ...One million; I am supercharged flaming puke storming every cell, molecule and atom I can find - I am cancer... ...One billion, I am Saturn's rings, I am Jupiter's storms... ...One Trillion. The Stars are my cells, racing faster outwards, upwards, downwars, inwards... ...I shoot arrows of time in all directions... ...Nonillion, the Cosmic Microtone background becomes transparent; like rising damp, munt soaks into the walls of the cosmos and it topples like soggy bread. I am dark energy accelerating, Multiverse entanglement, I am time. Centillion, time is sick, critical density, contraction, singularity, everything and nothing, life and death....Murder of the Universe."}
^{Doom City} ^- ^{"...Spark in firmament, Doom City sky opens up. He disorients everyone's lives with his breath; Charged with particles, Doom City air rips me up..."}
^{Nuclear Fusion} ^- ^{"...Ocean like a moat fortification, separating me from restoration, my spirit leaves my body in frustration, flying through the world in radiation. The devils inside all the detail..."}

Book 4 - Crumbling Castles, Dream-escapes, and the Fall of Polygondwanaland
(8.77gb, 1:19:13 runtime, mainly Poly/Quarters/Gumboot content)
CONCEPT;
In a land at the end of time, the remnant of a remnant cling to life, only for their bastion to be taken under by the vomitwave as Han Tyumi's destruction reaches even here. As the Castle Crumbles, the pilgrims flee, down The River into the dream, to arrive at Polygondwanaland; A place of power and mystery. Plots thicken, conspiracies abound, and a new hero emerges, only to be cast down as the inevitable machinations of Han Tyumi creep into the land beyond.
TRACKLIST;
Crumbling Castles
^{Crumbling Castle} ^- ^{"Meet me, glassy eyed, blind and divine. Hold down the the fort on the coastline. The castle is a pimple on the face of our orb, A humble spot for clues to drop if you eavesdrop. I see through the bricks, to the see, crumbling castle. Waters' rising up, thick and green, crumbling castle. Inching closer each century, crumbling castle. Are we safe in our citadel..."}
^{Polygondwanaland -} ^{"...We're gonna get there, we don't need a whereabouts. We're gonna get there, follow where the river runs.. We're gonna get there, Polygondwanaland..."}
^{Castle in the Air |intro| -} ^{"The River opened her mouth and spat into a vast sea, larger and bluer than a cloudless sky. Muscular, prodigious, immortal. But our vessel was invulnerable; It was well built. The boat rocked me to sleep and I floated through a deep dream - smooth sailing through the castle in the air..."}
The Dream-escape
^{The River} ^- ^{"...Once you're where I led, it will be clear what I have said. Float without a home; The River flows like another long road. I can't believe it, it is frozen. It's not the first time, I had noticed. She will deliver, I am floating, trust in the river I had floated down..."}
^{Muddy Water -} ^{"...Give me over to the River, my place that loves me - Gum leaves and tea trees, the river is immortal. I'm parched, I'll cark, the salty spray arrests..."}
^{Sleeping In -} ^{"...I know within my body, I need to locate the switch hidden in me which will turn me off..."}
^{Last Oasis -} ^{"...Dreamin' takes my mind away, it suffocates my brain airwaves. Optical illusion, sheet of water, heat perfusion, search the corners... ...the last oasis is like a flag beating in the wind. The world has wasted and the squandered lands are companionless. The last oasis shines a beacon like a lighthouse over lonely countries of death, like a black sea..."}
^{Lonely Steel Sheet Flyer} ^- ^{"....My lonely wings are ready to fly, the ocean is breathing between you and I, my lonely wings don't make it right, wrapped in a steel sheet, and ready to fly..."}
The Fall of Polygondwanaland
^{Castle in the Air |outro| -} ^{"...Could it be faithful? It couldn't seem more real. As I opened my eyes the dream decolourised until it was obscured, and the harsh reality hit me like salty water..."}
^{Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet -} ^{"Deserted dunes welcome weary feet... ...Nervous natives watch pompous pilgrims, foreign nature, Polygondwanaland...}
^{Inner Cell -} ^{"Anemic rule, now hear me say our time has come, transcending us above the one, to ego death. For now, he sits inside the fire, oblivious that we will keep Him in the spire, have found resolve and our own crimes to commit in cold blood, as he did his...."}
^{Loyalty -} ^{"...This is a test, I am Lord, fear my wrath. This is a test, I am Lord, I am death..."}
^{Horology -} ^{"...Just like that the plot was crushed, brushed away without a thought. Some were found alive though, left to roam without their skin... One did make a pilgrimage in search of a family evaporated in the dark, stolen by the despot. A journey made all the worse having had his eyes gouged; he left without the gift of sight to face his true destroyer... ...Sit down weary traveler, I am that what you seek..."}
^{Tetrachromacy} ^- ^{"...The story man was glassy-eyed. He told me about the power lines, and in subarctic caribou eyes, the metal wires burst into life..."}
^Searching ^- ^{"Doctor please, I'll do anything, Alter me, let me see, give me more. I want to see the world differently..."}
^{The Fourth Colour} ^-^{"I believe the hyperbole, I see the fourth colour. I am born again, I see the light, it's in my face. I am analyzing information now that I am a God..."}
^{Superposition -} ^{"Superposition, real world wisdom, everything is moving to the beauty of this system. Total question; fearless reason. We; One; I: Many: Superposition..."}
^{All Is Known} ^- ^{"Burn their meat, sweep the streets, bind their hands unto their feet and digitize, cut the eyes from the King and augment to the fourth cone...All is known..."}
^{|Fourth Colour Redux| -} ^{Instrumental - Han Tyumi says Hello.}

Book 5 - The Altered Plan of the Consciousness Can
(9.56gb, 1:26:34 runtime, mainly Sketches/FFF/Gumboot content)
CONCEPT;
Cyboogie. Han Tyumi. Who am I? Am I alive? Was it all a dream? Passing on the memory to the only humans remaining, The Reticent Raconteur and The Tetrochromat, the Vomitverse plans are unveiled, before Han-Boogie begins lamentations of the Old World, calling out the Failures in an effort to prevent them repeating in his Altered Plan. But intrusive thoughts keep calling - is this real, real? How much of what has transpired has been by his own hand? And the power of the Nonagon Infinity makes him wonder if it's all about to come back around again...
TRACKLIST;
The Altered Plan of the Consciousness Can
^Cyboogie ^- ^{"...Cyboogie, lump in his throat, palpitations and nausea ensue, Cyboogie's chorophobia, terminal error vascular tissue. So Cyboogie's fishing for fishies, Red-bellied trout in a binary brook. How is it that he is depressed? The humans have pierced through his cheek with a hook..."}
^{Boogieman Sam -} ^{"...Causing mayhem, cause he's Boogieman Sam..."}
^{Down The Sink -} ^{"...Down the sink, back and forth, follow the stream, the city is bleak forget all your dreams. Down you'll go..."}
^{Sketches Pt1 -} ^Intrumental
^{Countdown -} ^{"...When it all falls away, clothes start to fray, buildings decay, rabble remain. Where they were green, sterility. Humanity, staring at me..."}
^{D-Day -} ^{"...11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..."}
^Tezeta ^- ^{"If I've been insane my whole life, well now I've changed into something that see's. I love the feeling, shape shifting ceiling; my mental projection is pink... ...Everything that lives and dies is a hologram, nothing is as real as that... ...Do you remember now? What? Yes I do? This; my Altered Plan..."}
^{Cranes Planes Migraines -} ^Instrumental
^{The Spider and Me -}^{"Let me just introduce you to my friend, under a tree, spider and me..."}
^{The Bird Song -} ^{"To a bird, what's a plane? A shiny flying elephant..."}
^{Plastic Boogie -}^{"...Fuck all of that plastic, wrapped up in my dinner. It's not fantastic, it's gonna come and kill us. It's gonna be massive. It's gonna be brutal; Death will come from plastic. Death will come from people..."}
^{The Cruel Millenial} ^- ^{"...Can't relate face to face with modern day youth. Outdated, the post-millennial will get you..."}
^{Real's Not Real} ^- ^{"...What in the world is going on, here? Your past is built upon your fear, and happy is what you'll never be. I'm afraid that you're lacking some free will, Your real's not real..."}
^{This Thing -} ^{"...I hide my riches in embarrassing sheets that reek of suspicious happenings, 'Cause I'm a different person and that will make you sick; There's no stopping what this is..."}
^{Acarine -} ^{"...Buried deep inside of me....Acarine..."}
^{The Wheel -} ^{"...Shivering pilgrims climb the steeper path to the idealistic reaper. Destroying all that will keep us headed for a better thesis..."}
^{Sketches Pt2 -} ^Instrumental
^{Dusk to Dawn on Lygon St -}^{"...Black lines bend round a cityscape while trailing off in the sunsets wake. I can foresee that dawn will bring the light, as the sun gives way to night..."}
^{The Book -} ^{"God gave me a sign; he put it in my glass of wine. A great theophany, he told me every sinner had to die..."}
^{A Journey to |s|hell -} ^Instrumental
^{Rolling Stoned} ^- ^Instrumental
^{You Can Be Your Silhouette -} ^{"...When all the ticking stops dead, you may find your time instead, and you can be your silhouette..."}
^{Sketches Pt3 - I}^nstrumental
^{Fishing For Fishies} ^- ^{"Oh your heart's a hook. Ego tied in knots, baiting fate. Don't do it, you ain't a god; Don't hurt salmon, carp, or cod... ...Fishing for fishies, don't make them feel happy, or me neither, I feel so sorry for fishies.... I have been fishing and I don't want to catch none, I've let them swum..."}

Analysis

Coldstone VS

Yu: First off, to fully analyze how Yu and his 200+ Personas would do against anyone would take me an extra week I don't have... Coldstone doesn't really have the kind of raw firepower to punch through or the agility to evade long enough to get a clear shot. Really Unlikely Victory
Gesicht: Gesicht's armor being really resistant to heat kind of defeats Coldstone's laser. If Coldstone can get in close, he takes it. Otherwise, he gets blasted to shreds. Rocket flight might be enough to do that. Draw
Kokushibo: Coldstone really doesn't have a good way to put Kokushibo down for good. Kokushibo will just heal from any laser burns and tear Coldstone apart with his attacks. Unlikely Victory

X-O Manowar VS

Yu: Manowar's firepower and sheer durability should be enough to power through Yu's arsenal. Likely Victory
Gesicht: Manowar's human, so Gesicht won't use lethal force. Gesicht's pellets won't do anything to the Shanhara armor, and Shanhara filters out sleeping gas, so... Absolute certain victory
Kokushibo: Kokushibo's the better swordsman, but Manowar's got the durability to withstand Kokushibo's strikes and much better damage output. Likely victory

Scorpia VS

Yu: I'm pretty sure Yu's got Personas that could easily handle Scorpia's lightning and run/fly circles around her. Unlikely victory
Gesicht: The whole "scorpion" parts probably means that Gesicht wouldn't consider Scorpia "human." Gesicht's anti-tank round would shred Scorpia before she could get close, but if she did close the gap she could rip him apart. Scorpia's best bet would be to short-circuit Gesicht, as his Zeronium isn't stated to be "lightning proof." Overall, it could either way. Draw
Kokushibo: Scorpia does have experience fighting a really powerful person with a sword. Draw

Previously

Round 0: Scorpia, Aric, and Coldstone awoke together on a bus. They've been kidnapped and forced to participate in a killing game to serve some mysterious tyrant. Together, they break out and attempt to escape from the island, but their plan falls south when the shuttle is blown up and the cannons aren't. Coldstone (Iago) shoots Scorpia to try to buy time for him to escape, but Scorpia shocks him out before she's overwhelmed.
Gesicht
One thousand, one hundred four. That was the number of charges Gesicht was currently up to. One count of kidnapping and attempted murder for every one of the one hundred thirty-eight distinct sentient beings that he was able to confirm were on the island. Forty-two separate counts of torture that he had personally witnessed on the bus.
Gesicht could perfectly maintain the complete list of charges and evidence acquired for each. He could calculate out the expected sentence that would be handed out to the host, accounting for whether it was a human or a robot judge that gave it.
The one thing he couldn't figure out was why he was there. Kidnapping the top inspector of Europol was asking for trouble. Expecting him to join some sort of army was even crazier. Most of the people the host took were human, suggesting that he was human or expecting to fight humans. Yet he expected Gesicht to kill humans? The host's entire plan was illogical.
Gesicht would get his answers when he took down the host. That would also be the fastest way to end this needless slaughter. Exigent circumstances demanded immediate action. And that was why Gesicht blasted a hole in the main facility's security door with his Zeronium cannon.
Six drones immediately flew out of the hole, only to be destroyed by his electromagnetic shot. Pitiful things, they displayed only the most basic of programming. Nothing that could even remotely be considered artificial intelligence. They were closer to a simple typewriter than to a true robot.
"Izanagi!" Yu shouted from behind him. A bolt of lightning struck down and obliterated a drone that thought it could attack him from behind.
Yu Narukami, a curious individual Gesicht met on the bus shortly before they escaped. Every single sensor Gesicht had and scan performed, from the accurate weight and density of his body to the strength of the electrical signals coursing throughout his nervous system, said that Yu was one hundred percent human. Despite his ability to conjure a black swordsman apparition called a Persona out of nothing that could interact with the world.
Yu wasn't too thrilled about their situation either. He seemed to have some amateur detective experience and was clearly able to handle himself in a fight, so Gesicht let him tag along.
"Warm reception," Yu said. He blasted another three drones apart. "Think he's in here?"
"Unlikely," Gesicht said. "He has space stations that would make a far more secure observation post. Going after him directly would be far too risky with those cannons. If we can find a computer terminal, I can hack it and force the cannons to target each other."
The two dashed into the facility. Its design did not conform to any style Gesicht knew. There was a military influence in its cold precision and undecorated walls, yet it was a labyrinth. His sensors had difficulty penetrating beyond a single wall.
After a while, they heard a voice coming from a large room ahead.
"Why don't we end this farce now?"
Gesicht and Yu hid around a corner and looked into the room. A single figure with long, black hair and a purple kimono stood facing a monitor that displayed the host's flaming wings symbol.
Something was off. Gesicht's sensors said he was not human, yet not a robot either. No, it would be more accurate to say he used to be human until he was mutated. Into what he couldn't say. His sensors didn't detect any weapons beyond a katana, but something told Gesicht to be wary. Perhaps that was what humans called "their instinct"?
"You want the strongest warrior to fight for you, well here I am."
"Kokushibo," the host said, "I am surprised. I expected far more resistance. Most beings tend to value their independence, not realizing their true potential lies beneath me."
"I've already served one master," Kokushibo said. "I thought him strong, yet ever since I was brought here, I cannot hear his voice. Nor do I feel his presence at all. You are clearly superior to him. I will achieve even grander heights under you."
"Your loyalty shall be rewarded," the host said. "But first, I require a demonstration of your abilities. Simply to ensure you are not a weakling trying to avoid the purge through my benevolence."
"Very well," Kokushibo said. "I shall dispose of the two hiding in the corner."
A wall struck down behind them, cutting off their escape. No point in hiding anymore.
"Listen," Yu said, "I know you're scared. This monster is forcing us all to fight to the death. I know you're scared and looking for a way out, but all you're doing is playing into his hands! If we stand together, we can all survive! You don't have to be alone."
Kokushibo turned around to face them, revealing that he had six eyes on his face. "You misunderstand me, human. I do not care if every single one of you dies. If needed I would kill a thousand of you. My only goal is to survive and become stronger."
Yu glared. "You're nothing but a shadow."
Kokushibo drew his katana in silence.
"Kokushibo," the host said. "Take these two down but do not harm them. I have something else in mind."
Gesicht analyzed his foe. The sword was one hundred forty centimeters long, made of an unknown alloy. His relaxed demeanor suggested he was a master swordsman. One wrong move while in his range would result in getting cut. Gesicht didn't want to test out his Zeronium armor against this unknown alloy while away from Europol.
At the same time though, his near-human biology meant that he would be vulnerable to the sleeping gas. One shot and he'd be down. It was just a matter of whether he could get close enough without getting cut.
"Izanagi!" Yu brought out his Persona. With a thunderous roar, it dashed across the room and brought its blade down upon Kokushibo.
The two clashed, Yu's blade like a wild storm compared to the graceful dance of Kokushibo's blade.
Gesicht watched Yu's Persona intently. A single large, overhead strike was all he needed. Kokushibo would be forced to block and Gesicht calculated he'd have a two hundred millisecond window to safely deploy the knock-out gas.
The Persona drew its arm back and moved its left foot forward. This was it. Gesicht charged in right as the Persona brought its blade down.
Kokushibo must have noticed his approach and jumped back instead of blocking, avoiding both the blade and Gesicht's gas. Gesicht might have missed his chance but he was still safely out of Kokushibo's range. He would land, then fall back and use his electromagnetic shot to limit Kokushibo's mobility. Perhaps targeting the sword with repeated strikes would cause enough structural stress to snap it.
"Breath of the Moon," Kokushibo said, "Third Form: Death Moon of Abandonment: Chain!"
Kokushibo swung his sword, and two waves of energy, each filled to the brim with spinning crescents, flew through the air. Gesicht was thrown back into a wall and lost sight of Yu.
Damage report: minor dents all across his body. The Zeronium absorbed the impact with nothing worse than a paint scratch to show.
When Gesicht rolled back on his feet, Yu was on his back, with Kokushibo standing over him. The tip of his sword pressed against Yu's neck sent a clear message.
Gesicht miscalculated. He didn't count on a swordsman being able to strike from a distance.
"I used the back of my sword," Kokushibo said, "but don't expect such mercy again. Refrain from using your art again if you value your life."
Not good. How could he save Yu without surrendering? Electromagnetic shot? No, not fast enough. Sleeping gas? No, he'd never get close enough for it to be effective. Zeronium shot? No, Kokushibo would kill Yu the second he tried.
"Golem," Kokushibo said, "how curious. You have surpassed humanity yet lower yourself to imitate them. Even now, you bind yourself in a misguided approach to protect them. Keep being responsible for his fate and you won't have a chance at defeating me."
He was right. If he was willing to sacrifice Yu, then perhaps he could take Kokushibo down. Maybe even take down the host. But that would be the same as if he pulled the trigger on Yu himself.
"I surrender."
Scorpia dazed in and out. Her entire body was sore and it felt like she was was made of lead. A blury set of blobs was all she could see. She couldn't even gather the strength to lift her stinger.
On the plus side, she wasn't dead. That host creep still had some plans for her. It looked like she was about to find out what exactly.
A dozen drones carried her away. They took her underground or something, hard to tell exactly when she couldn't see anything.
She was dropped onto a cold, metal table. Rude.
The cool table did f
X-O Manowar
Splash. Splash. Splash.
The raindrops beating down on his face awoke Aric. He wasn't dead, so that's progress.
His arm! That blasted cannon obliterated it. He felt the replacement that Shanhara made. It could pass for flesh, but it wasn't the same. Sanna could always tell the difference. He longed to hold her again and hoped she would accept it.
For now, it was just a reminder of his failure.
The last thing he remembered was seeing Coldstone flying back towards Scorpia. He was lying on the ground but Scorpia was gone.
"Armor, what happened here?"
Shanhara showed him everything. Scorpia wanted to get them all away only to be shot in the back by Coldstone and taken away by the drones. Coldstone, you bastard. How dare you betray her.
Aric pondered cutting off Coldstone's head right there when he woke up.
"Explain yourself," Aric said as he pressed his sword against Coldstone's neck. "Tell me why I shouldn't execute you for what you did to Scorpia."
Coldstone glanced back. For a moment, Aric thought he'd try to break free and attack. But Coldstone wisely hung his head instead.
"I would not blame you," Coldstone said. "It is true that I betrayed Scorpia. You are not safe with me, at any moment I could do so again."
He's taking responsibility? Aric expected him to try to worm out of it.
"An endless battle rages inside me," Coldstone said. "It is not easy to admit, but I lost that battle and allowed my evil brother to take control."
Everyone had a fight between good and evil within them. However, it sounded like Coldstone meant a literal battle.
"Exactly what do you mean?"
"Coldstone was created when sorcery fused the remains of three separate Gargoyles," he said. "I and my beloved were two, but the third was my evil brother. All of our souls are now trapped within this vessel. My evil brother is constantly attempting to seize control. One success and Scorpia paid the price."
He can't be serious, could he?
"Aric," Shanahara spoke to him, "I am detecting a strange energy signature within Coldstone. It does appear to be three distinct energies mixed together yet at the same time, separate."
"Shanhara seems to believe your story," Aric said. He let the sword disperse. "You fight a noble fight for your very soul. I do not doubt that one day you will prevail. For now, though, Scorpia has been taken. Will you fight by my side to rescue her?"
Coldstone got off his back and knelt before Aric.
"You are generous," he said, "far more than I deserve. It would be an honor to serve you."
"But," Coldstone continued, "I must refuse. If my evil brother gained control again, your life would be in danger. Until this battle is put to rest, I must remain away."
With that, Coldstone blasted off. Looks like he'd have to rescue her alone.
No, he was never alone. Shanhara was always with him. The Visigoth people were always with him. As king, he carried the weight of his subject's trust with him.
Scorpia put her trust in him, making her one of his subjects as well. He would never disappoint his subjects.
Shanhara tracked Scorpia to a facility on the island. One that looked like it had just suffered an invasion. A giant hole had been blasted in the door and dozens of broken drones littered the ground.
Why was Scorpia still here? It made no sense at all. The thought of bringing her to a fortress after it had been breached was beyond absurd. So someone else must have attacked after they imprisoned Scorpia. But if that was true, said attacker would have either rescued or killed her. With this much damage to the facility, failure to do either should have resulted in the drones moving Scorpia to a different fortress. Yet, Shanhara told him she was alive and well inside.
A trap then.
"Armor," he said, "be ready."
"Always."
Aric followed the trail of destruction deeper and deeper into the heart of the fortress.
"Aric," Shanhara said after they entered a large, empty room, "Scorpia is in the next room. I am detecting three others with her."
Aric ran towards the door and peeked into it. Scorpia was chained down on a table, alive but unconscious. Some tubes and wires connected her to a guy in a suit on another table. Two guys were talking to a monitor, one in a purple kimono and the other in a black jacket. All the monitor showed was the same fire wings as from the bus.
"Enhancing audio."
"Everything has been done according to your command, master Supreme."
"Excellent Kokushibo," this 'Supreme' replied. "Once the transfer is complete, we'll begin the next phase."
"Understood. Oh, and we seem to have another unwanted guest."
How did that kimono bastard detect him so quickly?
"Dispose of him. I don't want anything to interfere. Yu, initiate attack mode."
The monitor turned off as Kokushibo and Yu turned around. Aric grew angry as he saw the six eyes on Kokushibo. They reminded him of the Vine. Were the Vine responsible for all of this? They hadn't been too much of a problem ever since he practically destroyed them all. Perhaps a fringe group or a leftover colony ship?
Whatever, he'll have to get answers later.
Yu held out his hand and a card appeared above it. He shattered it with a flash of blue light that contrasted his glowing green eyes.
Some kind of black swordsman with a large naginata appeared behind Yu. Never one to let his opponents make the first move, Aric dove out from behind the corner and blasted away at it with his lasers.
Ching, ching, ching. Every laser blast was obliterated by that thing's naginata. If its a sword duel it wants, then a sword duel it gets.
He flew straight at it and swung with all his might. Again and again he struck, but he couldn't make any headway. This projection was far stronger than it looked.
"Breath of the Moon," Kokushibo said, "Eighth Form: Lunar Ouroboros!"
A wave of energy crashed into Aric, throwing him away as little crescents carved into his armor.
"Izanagi!" Yu shouted. Lightning emerged from the blade of the naginata and shot straight into Aric. The two attacks combined, blasting him through the wall.
Aric coughed as he dragged himself up. The tiny bit of blood on his chest meant that his armor failed to completely stop the blades. Both these guys were more powerful than he expected. Worse, it didn't look like they'd fight him in an honorable one on one duel.
Guess he'd just have to beat these two at once.
"Aric," Shanhara said, *"I have analyzed these two. There is an abnormal energy reading emanating from the back of Yu's neck. Likely a control chip of some kind."
So all he had to do was break that and at least one of them would be done. Great. Easier said than done.
"Breath of the Moon," Kokushibo said, "Seventh Form: Misfortune Mirror Lunar Shine!"
"Izanagi!" Yu shouted.
More long-ranged attacks from the pair, Yu's a pinpoint strike heading straight for him while Kokushibo's spread out in case he tried to dodge.
If dodging is out, then he'd have to take it head-on. But not like before. Shanhara retracted from across his body and gathered itself into a shield.
The attacks hit like a charging elephant, but this time Shanhara held. As fast as it gathered up, Shanhara spread itself out again.
His turn. Aric fired a barrage of blasts all across the room. Most missed Yu and Kokushibo by a mile, and the few that came close were easily slashed by their swords.
Taking them down with that weak attack wasn't his plan though. The dust cloud that his blasts raised was. With no visibility, now was his chance to take Yu out. Aric ran along the edge of the room and dove behind them.
"Ara Mitama!" Yu yelled as Aric fired. A floating red face appeared between them. It deflected his shot with a blue barrier.
This guy could create barriers as well as generate lightning? That was annoying.
"Atropos!"
The red face was replaced by a woman in black wearing a pipe on her head. It released a massive gale of wind that blew away his dust cloud.
This guy could control the air itself?
"Genbu!"
This time it was a snake with a head on each end. It froze Aric in a large block of ice.
Just how many different attacks did this guy have?
Before he had the chance to break free, Kokushibo struck.
"Breath of the Moon Second Form: Moonlit Pearl Flowers!"
This attack shattered the ice block before striking Aric head-on. Judging by the scars it left on his armor, Aric figured it would have cut deeply into him if it didn't have to go through the ice first.
More and more it looked like he couldn't win. Yu's bag of tricks just kept getting bigger and bigger, while Kokushibo's attacks were coming close to killing him outright.
He glanced behind him towards Scorpia. His attack might not have taken either of his opponents out, but it did position him closer to Scorpia. Perhaps he could blast her out of there and make a break for it.
No, that wouldn't work. For all he knew, there wasn't an exit that way. He'd just trap himself.
Besides, he was still a proud Visigoth. Fleeing from a battle didn't feel right.
"Mot!"
Yu's next summon was a giant coffin. Was it intended to bury him? Well, he wasn't going to make it easy. Aric summoned his sword and prepared to charge.
A bright light flashed from the entrance and a red laser blast raced through the air, striking Yu right in his neck. The coffin faded away as Yu collapsed.
That attack, that meant...
Coldstone emerged from the shadows.
Aric smiled. "I'm surprised you came. You have a change of heart or a change of mind?"
"Both," Coldstone smiled. "To live in fear and do nothing is not the Gargoyle way. Fighting by your side risks me losing control, but not fighting risks you being overpowered. If I am to be the cause of your death, I would rather it be by my actions than my inactions."
"I welcome your service," Aric said. "Take this guy down!"
"Another pest," Kokushibo said. "It matters not. Cowardly tactics like that won't stop me."
Aric wasn't eager to engage this guy in a sword duel, given how those attacks carved up his armor. With Coldstone here though, he didn't have to.
Together, the two of them circled around Kokushibo, blasting him with their lasers. His hopes that the swordsman wouldn't be able to block or avoid them all were dashed as Kokushibo spun around and cut each of them. Aric didn't notice it before, but the man's technique was a beauty to behold. Each move was closer to an elegant dance than that of an attack. Aric was no stranger to swordplay, but compared to this man, he was a drunken child flailing around.
"Breath of the Moon Fifth Form: Cursed Vortex of the Ghostly Moon!"
This time, his technique unleashed a vortex of slashes in every direction. Aric practically twisted himself into a pretzel, but he managed to avoid it. Coldstone wasn't as lucky and got one of his wings clipped.
"Breath of the Moon Tenth Form: Piercing Phase Slash: Ivy Moon!"
Kokushibo was truly a master. Coldstone's flight was only interrupted for a moment, but that was all it took for Kokushibo to unleash a couple of spirals that circled above Coldstone. To fight against someone like him, one slight opening meant death.
For all his mastery of the blade, something still felt off. Like his heart was no longer in it. He was no longer fighting to protect someone. Even his mastery felt like his drive was gone. How did Kokushibo turn out this way?
Aric landed on the ground as the attack struck Coldstone. There wasn't going to be any opening, no matter how long the fight dragged on. His only chance at winning this would be with a single strike. He needed to cut faster than Kokushibo could.
Shanhara transferred as much energy as it could to the thrusters.
Kokushibo turned and gazed directly at Aric
"Breath of the Moon..."
Kokushibo's earlier attack slammed Coldstone into the ground.
"First Form:"
The energy sword formed within Aric's hand. He roared to the heavens with a mighty battle cry.
"Dark Moon: Evening Shrine!"
Shanhara transferred all available energy into Aric's blade the moment it clashed with Kokushibo's. It cut straight through Kokushibo's sword before moving onto his neck.
Aric skidded to a stop and looked back. Kokushibo's severed body was starting to burn up.
"I do not know what led you onto this path," he said, "but I would have been honored to study under you before you became this hollow shadow."
"Am I a shadow?" Kokushibo asked. His neck was burning up but he was still alive. "A shadow is but a pale imitation that lives its life cowering. Have I really fallen so far?"
The rest of Kokushibo burnt up, leaving nothing but a handful of ash that dispersed into the air.
Aric walked over to Coldstone and helped the Gargoyle to his feet. Kokushibo's attack gouged deep cuts all across Coldstone's body, but he wasn't bleeding or anything.
"Thank you," Aric said. "Are you still capable of fighting?"
"None of these wounds will affect my systems," Coldstone said. "A side effect of being a mere shadow of life. In a few hours, my self-repair systems will be completed. My body can be torn apart and I will still be able to protect others."
Coldstone pondered something for a moment.
"I suppose in a way, it has made me the ultimate Gargoyle. A better protector for those who would consider me a savage monster."
"I've been accused of being a savage before," Aric said. "Usually from savages themselves. Pay no attention to them."
Coldstone knelt before Aric. "You are a true leader. If you would have it, I will gladly serve you."
"Arise," Aric said, "I do not need for such ceremony."
"TRANSFER COMPLETE."
Rats, he got caught up in the moment. The man beside Scorpia got up, eyes glowing with a swirl of green and red.
"Gesicht," Supreme said, "destroy them."
Gesicht raised his right arm. Red lightning circled around it.
"Massive energy build-up detected," Shanhara said. "Warning, one hit would be lethal."
No time to be polite. Aric fired a blast at Coldstone and knocked him back a mere moment before Gesicht would have shot straight through him. Instead, it drilled its way through so many walls Aric could see sunlight at the end of its tunnel. 'Lethal' undersold it.
Coldstone jumped to the air and blasted at Gesicht, with Aric joining in. Gesicht knocked the first few shots away with his bare hands before he returned fire from his left hand. Coldstone's cannon took a direct hit, as did Aric's hand.
The impact felt like punching steel barehanded, but there was something more in it. A stinging sensation beyond simple pain. Aric looked at his hand and caught a glimpse of red lightning surging across it.
That was Scorpia's power! They transferred it to this guy like Scorpia did to him earlier? That complicated matters. Just a little lightning from her fully recharged Shanhara, who knows how much it would have strengthened him if he was at his best.
He quickly glanced at Coldstone and saw the same red lightning coursing across his broken cannon. More disturbing was the briefest of smiles. Just for a moment, but clear as day. Was he excited about fighting a powerful foe? Aric couldn't think of any other reason to be excited about having his weapon broken.
Coldstone flew straight at Gesicht, using his useless cannon to block an additional shot. He swept down and grabbed ahold of both of Gesicht's hands.
"Quickly!" Coldstone said. "I'll hold him back as long as I can!"
Brave Gargoyle. At that range, there would be no way to dodge Gesicht's attack. Aric formed his sword and charged. He wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste.
Coldstone groaned as he struggled to hold Gesicht back. Gesicht, however, didn't appear to exert any effort. Come on, just another second.
Red lightning surged from Gesicht, the jolt allowing him to break out of Coldstone's grasp. Gesicht then took hold of Coldstone and threw the Gargoyle at Aric so fast he couldn't avoid. Aric was embedded into the wall from the sheer force.
Gesicht released some gas from his left hand, which enveloped them in a cloud. Aric gasped as a bolt of red lightning struck him. He was glad for his helmet, otherwise, he would have certainly inhaled that poison.
Coldstone jumped out of the cloud and attacked. He punched and kicked, only for Gesicht to casually block them. One wild strike let Gesicht knock Coldstone off balance, but Coldstone's tail stopped Gesicht from punching him.
Aric watched Gesicht closely. Compare to Kokushibo's grace, Gesicht's moves were cold and precise. Like a machine.
"Analysis of Gesicht confirms he is a robot," Shanhara said. "I am attempting to connect to his systems."
Just a machine? Fine, he didn't have to hold back then. He charged in with his sword.
Gesicht caught Coldstone's tail and swung him around like a giant flail. Aric wasn't going to fall for the same trick again and ducked underneath. Gesicht let go of Coldstone, but it was too late. Past Gesicht's guard, Aric sliced the robot straight across his chest.
The robot's metal was tougher than he expected, all his strike managed to do was burn a hole in his shirt. It didn't even look like he singed the metal underneath.
That strike opened him up, and Gesicht took full advantage of it by slamming both his fists on Aric's helmet. A bit of the visor broke off and Aric was treated to more gas directly in his face.
A sedative, not a poison. Shanhara filtered it out and repaired his visor, but it still slowed him down enough for Gesicht to land a solid punch.
He was getting nowhere. Gesicht's armor was too tough to cut through and he was overpowering both of them. If this kept up, sooner or later Gesicht would unleash that cannon again and blow them both into the next life. Aric would just have to fight and strike harder.
"Aric," Shanhara said. "I have interfaced with part of Gesicht's systems. There is another control chip overriding parts of his functions forcing him to battle. His true personality just keeps repeating 'nothing will be born from hatred.'"
Nothing would be born from hatred? What garbage was that? If anything, Supreme's hatred would have Gesicht kill him and Coldstone.
Wait, why hadn't he killed them already? Gesicht's latest attacks had all been nonlethal. He hadn't fired that cannon since they began the fight. Thinking back to it, if he hadn't hit Coldstone out of the way, the shot would have destroyed his legs, not his chest or head. Fatal for normal people, but not necessarily for Coldstone. Could Gesicht actually be trying not to kill him?
It was absurd but somehow felt right. Nothing will be born of hatred? Fine, then he'd make a new approach.
Shanhara retracted itself, leaving Aric's entire front body exposed. He calmly walked towards Gesicht, no weapons or anything.
"Stop!" Coldstone yelled. "One shot will kill you without your armor!"
Yeah, he knew. But he somehow also knew that Gesicht wouldn't shoot him.
Gesicht raised his left arm and released the sedative gas. Aric's eyes teared up and he felt the alluring grasp of sleep, but he ignored them and kept walking. Shanhara would filter it out, he just had to keep walking.
Gesicht fired a small shot that whizzed right past Aric's ear. Another man would have hesitated, but not Aric. He kept walking.
Once he got close enough to Gesicht, the robot grabbed Aric and threw him to the ground in an effort to restrain him. That was the opportunity he needed. Shanhara spread itself out across Gesicht and began to infiltrate his systems.
Gesicht stepped back from the invasion and tried to pry Shanhara off of him. When physical force failed, he unleashed all the stolen lightning he had. Aric was worried that the sheer amount of magical energy would force Shanhara to separate, but luckily, it looked like Coldstone understood his plan. The Gargoyle grabbed hold of Gesicht and allowed most of the lightning to course through his own body.
A few seconds later, Gesicht fell to the ground, offline.
"Foreign influences were successfully removed," Shanhara said as it returned to him. "I also added a countermeasure to prevent any future control."
Coldstone groaned. "What do you want to do with him?"
Aric pondered that for a moment. "Leave him. If he didn't try to kill us while being controlled, he won't try whenever he wakes up. Our first priority has to be Scorpia."
Coldstone flew over and unhooked her from all the chains and wires. "Come on, you can't be hurt. You have to live! I need you!"
Aric checked the back of her neck. No chip.
Scorpia slowly regained consciousness. "Aric, Coldstone?" She looked around.
"Listen," Coldstone said, "I know how you must feel about me but I..."
Scorpia grabbed both of them and embraced them in a bear hug. "You came to rescue me! I knew you weren't all bad!"
"A third perhaps," Coldstone said. "I'm just glad you're safe. You can let go now."
"Nope, I'm a hugger."
A minute later, Scorpia's hug remained as tight as ever. Both he and Aric struggled to get free but were too exhausted to break out.
Iago
Ever since he had been revived, he learned that nothing was impossible. His clanmates had been cursed to remain stone until Castle Wyvern rose above the clouds, a task which a hundred mages could never hope to accomplish. Yet Xanatos accomplished it with science, rebuilding the castle brick by brick on top of a skyscraper. Even his own resurrection should have been impossible.
Now, he had another impossibility occur right before his eyes. A way to get complete control of Coldstone.
Normally, it was like standing on top of a slippery hill while two other Gargoyles tried to pull him off. The slightest disturbance, often simply imagined, was all it took to throw him down and force him to claw his way back up.
That was certainly the case earlier when his brother felt so ashamed of failing the mission that he lost control of Coldstone.
It should have been the case when Scorpia shocked him with her lightning. With that much energy, he shouldn't have been able to gain any control over Coldstone's body.
Yet, he was still in control when Coldstone's systems came back online. Not only that, but this time, it was like he had solid ground beneath his feet. The other two kept slipping on the hill and could only try to pull him off with a single hand. He was easily able to keep control for the entire day, something that never happened before.
Somehow, Scorpia's lightning must have strengthened his soul. Perhaps due to its magical nature and the magical energy binding their souls.
Either way, he now had a path to getting rid of his pesky brother and claiming their mate all for himself. All he had to do was get Scorpia to shock him whenever he felt his control loosen.
Admittedly, it was not a perfect plan. He couldn't even count how many times he'd likely have to be shocked. Moreso was the problem of how to get shocked.
He couldn't just ask Scorpia to shock him. That would be far too suspicious. Worse, it might lead his brother and sister to figure out the secret as well. Experiences and memories were shared between the three of them, but not thoughts. If either got control, they wouldn't realize Scorpia's importance.
For now, he could act like his annoying brother with ease. He could play the parts needed to fool Aric and Scorpia. The look on Aric's face earlier told him the man fancied himself a leader of warriors, much like a Gargoyle leader. Accepting responsibility head-on rather than trying to hide from it was the proper course of action.
Then, pretending to flee out of concern for others only to return out of pride let him truly return to their good graces. He waited for just the right moment to save Aric to get the man indentured to him.
Scorpia surprised him though. He honestly expected to have to work to win her trust back. Her naivety will certainly work in his favor.
All in all, things were proceeding quite well.
Supreme
To both succeed and fail at the same time should be impossible. But that was the current state of his experiments.
Magic: it's very existence an impossibility, yet somehow a completely natural phenomenon. Something he never understood.
His past self fled from it and put it out of his memory, never attempting to learn its secrets. When he had the chance to acquire a magical superweapon, his method was closer to that of a sledgehammer than a chisel.
But he was different now. A new man. No more running away and hiding. It was time to learn.
Magic might seem impossible, chaotic, and random, but it was still a natural phenomenon. That meant it had to be governed by rules. Learn the rules beneath the surface and he'd learn how to control it.
Rules should be consistent, constant. Repeat an experiment with the same parameters and you'd get the same result.
So why did the Gesicht experiment succeed when the previous ones failed? Fundamentally, they were the same: infuse magic into a robot. The infusion stage worked fine, but his robots exploded whenever they tried to use the magic. Gesicht somehow managed to perfectly integrate Scorpia's magic, using its power to strengthen his weapons.
Fundamentally, what was different between his robots and Gesicht? He poured over Gesicht's design but found nothing. There was no part designed to handle unknown energy. Nothing capable of creating brand new parts to deal with unexpected scenarios. The material Gesicht was built from seemed designed to handle heat and magnetic force, but so was the material one of his bots was constructed from. Physical alloy strength was also comparable.
So what was it? What allowed Gesicht to survive? What was he missing? WHY COULDN'T HE SEE IT? WHAT WAS HE DOING WRONG?
He slammed his fists into a terminal in frustration, blowing it up.

Ok to start I don’t have lots of knowledge on cars so bare with me 😅I have a 2005 Fiat Punto Eleganza and sidelight failures in both rear clusters. My bulb warning light is on the dash (bulbs are fine I’ve checked) and I’ve had a look at both and it seems to be a problem from the connectors from the car, not the cluster. The clusters had a bit of corrosion on the top pin on each which I sanded off which fixed my brake light failure and indicator double timing on the left cluster. However the metal parts where the pin should fit in between, on the car connector are a bit wonky for that one pin. So I’m guessing it’s not getting a good connection. I’ve tried to move them back in to place but no dice. Is there anything else I can try? I’m not confident enough to try and do a diy on the wires, so what’s a general price this sort of electrics problem costs to fix? Is it frowned upon to bring your own parts for a repair to a garage? I have my mot due within the next month so need it fixing. I hope I explained this well.

All right gang - I wrote this post a week ago and it seemed extremely well-received on /raidsecrets. I've edited a couple of things since then, and believe you will at least enjoy reading it regardless of its veracity.
Besides enjoyment, my intention in cross-posting this is to garner enthusiasm once again for digging through this behemoth of a puzzle. Pessimism is cheap these days and I'm afraid it will simply wither away, unsolved.
I am fully aware that wordy posts are not as readily digested (upvoted) as sweet Trials kills or Crimson Doubles complaints, but seriously - bookmark it for later, grab your beverage of choice, sit down for 30 minutes, and you will appreciate it.
EDIT: by popular request I've added a TL;DR at the bottom. But it's seriously rewarding to read the full thing.

We begin here...

 "Now what use would creatures like that have for music? No..It's language. Code, signal!" Master Rahool, overheard in the Tower

"Listen carefully to his murmurings: he may be the first to understand."

This is tangentially related to decoding Alpha Lupi.

Alpha Lupi background here - http://destiny.wikia.com/wiki/Alpha_Lupi

I suspect fully interpreting Alpha Lupi AND connecting it to this music is still required for actually solving whatever the hell we're doing in the Vault...but all information is useful to getting there, and I think this is quite useful to at least disseminate for pondering. There are almost certainly more steps to this that what I lay out, and I suggest you read jessiej37 's recent post for an overview of how the entire Vault may be linked.

So, we all know that each Oracle makes a specific note upon spawning. We have collectively recorded their notes and spawn orders, and (I think?) attempted to play the notes of their scale - C-Lydian-Mixolydian, ascending and descending to no real avail.

But I'd argue that tone ascension/descension isn't really viable (it asks quite a lot of the fireteam), and instead we should look at another idea.
I also argue below WHY we're looking at all this VoG subject material to begin with.

History

First, a brief Bungie history lesson. In Halo 3 we had hidden skulls that would provide optional game modifiers (like Destiny's!) if found. One in particular - the IWHBYD skull - was deviously hidden. To activate its spawn, the player would have to jump through a subset of 7 holographic Halo rings in a particular order. Each ring was observed to have a single-note "hum" that it emitted, and jumping through rings

4-6-5-4-5-3-4

would spawn the skull. The sequence is notable because the ring tones in that order constitute a portion of the Halo 3 theme song. Additionally, those notes appeared in the cutscene immediately before the ring jumping, and the theme song plays again upon successfully spawning the skull.

More thorough explanation here: http://www.halopedia.org/IWHBYD_Skull_(Halo_3)
Here's a walkthrough of the sequence, starting at the ring-jumping point. You can hear the 7-note "success" hum after the player picks up the skull.

Notice the rings DON'T produce a tidy single-note "ding" when jumped through. Rather, it's a passive low hum that each ring emits in its surrounding area. It's quite difficult to hear in the walkthrough until near the end of the jumping, and when the success hum plays. So really, I'm surprised the skull was discovered as quickly as it was.

Word on the Internet is that it wasn't discovered naturally, but instead by players who were digging through Halo 3 runtime code in a hex editor.
Frankly, such a feat is POSSIBLE but damn...that would be nigh-impossibly hard to trace through. Machine code is extremely non-human-readable and I remain unconvinced that it was actually discovered "with a hex editor" unless someone had the source code...which I assume Bungie keeps locked down tight.

Halo 2 had its own deeply hidden IWHBYD skull...to this day, a deterministic trigger for it still seems unknown.
Here's a video finding the skull with a possibly inaccurate process
and a slightly more precise explanation from Bungie.net circa 2007 (search for 'IWHBYD') that still describes the skull as having a 1-in-7 chance of actually spawning, no matter what steps you complete.

Really, the Bungie-produced Halo games were full of music-related Easter eggs.

The ultimate point of this section being: don't be surprised that Destiny likely has some preposterously hidden secrets left in it.

Applying to Destiny

TL;DR from above - Bungie has at least one historical instance of hiding a convoluted secret in their in-game musical objects. Specifically, hiding it behind some variant of the game's "theme song."

So the question is, what's Destiny's theme song? Well, Destiny's scale is called C-Lydian-Mixolydian, and consists of these 7 notes in order of lowest to highest pitch:
C, D, E, F#, G, A, Bb
(that's an F-sharp and a B-flat, if you're as clueless as I was before investigating this).

I now assert that we should be focusing on this 7-note sequence:
C, Bb, C, Bb, D, C, A

Where does that appear in the music/game? The surprising answer is - pretty much everywhere, to the point that most people tune it out (I know I did).
The most obvious place you'll recognize it is from the track, The Great Unknown.
13 seconds in (where my link goes), you'll hear the first instance of the 7-note sequence. In that track it goes on to repeat 6 times by my count.

Meanwhile, in the Grimoire...

You listen hard and carefully, and sometimes a lucid melody seems to rise out of random noise.

This sequence plays * ALL THE DAMN TIME * when you're sitting in orbit and running around the ToweReef. It's rather hypnotic, which I think was intentional; Bungie wanted it to become ingrained as a sort of natural constant in the Destiny universe. Frankly, they almost did TOO good of a job, since I think most of us are conditioned to ignore it.

The same sequence also appears in other pieces on the Destiny soundtrack, such as "Excerpt From The Hope." Maybe in others too, I haven't listened to everything in exacting detail.
But especially notably, it appears in the Alpha Lupi mp3 track, "Eighth" - about 28 seconds in.

If Bungie.net is blocked for you at work, you can listen to it at this link instead.

I'm tempted to start calling this 7-note sequence "Destiny's musica universalis" or perhaps the "Song of the Spheres" of the Destiny universe.
Forgive me if it's now stuck in your head (and, welcome to my world).

The Great Unknown

I have a horrible ear for music and don't know jack about it. I wasn't able to write that 7-note sequence myself. I had a very well-qualified friend from college (now currently a coworker) listen to The Great Unknown and score it.
Here's what he came up with.

He translated that for the layman (me), in this way: there are actually 3 voices singing - a Soprano, and two Altos.

For the most part, we hear the Soprano, who sings the main 7-note sequence:

C, Bb, C, Bb, D, C, A

But SIMULTANEOUSLY, there's an Alto who sings:

G, G, G, G, G, G, G

and SIMULTANEOUSLY, another Alto sings:

E, F#, E, F#, D, E, F#

so really, our 7-note sequence is in fact 3 sets of 7 notes, all played in harmony...with the Soprano and second Alto meeting each other at the fifth note, the lone 'D.'

And we can do this with the Oracle spawns!

So, "playing" or "conducting" the Oracles is not a new concept to /raidsecrets. But here's the interesting part: the Oracle spawns allow these 3 sets of 7-note sequences to be played perfectly.
For a team of 6 guardians, we designate them into three Conductors and three Disruptors:
1) Soprano
2) Alto 1
3) Alto 2

4) Disruptor
5) Disruptor
6) Disruptor

I would argue the Conductors must use the Vex Mythoclast, as it's known to be an "instrument...mysteriously fit for human hands. Its...ultimate purpose remain[s] unknown."

and the Disruptors should use the Corrective Measure, for a few reasons:

the association of a "measure" with music - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_(music)
it has the Oracle Disruptor perk; what we're attempting to do is "disrupt" or "correct" the measures into their proper sequence
being an HMG, it makes the Disruptor job much easier to tackle than primaries or secondaries....even if not actually necessary for 'correcting' the melody, it's a solid choice to take down the 'erroneous' Oracles quickly.

As the Oracles spawn in, the 3 Conductors single-handedly destroy ONLY their own notes, according to their role. Disruptors take care of anything else. Now, going off the spawn order that's been recorded all over the place in this subreddit, I present a color-coded mapping of the overall sequence to be played:
http://imgur.com/pnAkz08

That's certainly confusing to look at all at once. Broken down by roles it's much easier.

To build our lucid melody, each Conductor need only focus on killing a sequence of 7 Oracles:

http://imgur.com/y2xtVoc

while the Disruptors quickly dispatch any Oracle that's not a part of it.

Four quick points:

I'm not suggesting the 3 Conductors destroy their respective Oracles simultaneously; I don't believe it's possible to do so, with the timing. Just destroy them as they spawn in, ideally before anyone is marked.
One slight uncertainty you'll notice is that in Wave 6, Soprano and Alto 2 must both destroy L1 ('conduct the D note'). I think having them both shoot it with the Mythoclast is fine. The D note is UNIQUE here...thematically, this is interesting too - see note [3] later in this post.
Another uncertainty is that the final Oracle spawn in Wave 7 (Mid), may need to be "conducted" by the Soprano in order to complete the scale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale_(music)#Scales.2C_steps.2C_and_intervals

This seems to be a common thread in musical composition - that a scale sequence is circular and requires completion - and this would "complete" it. I'm hoping a more musically-talented soul could shed some light on this concept, but it may be necessary, so I've highlighted in it grey.

EDIT

For the sake of this post being complete, you can listen to the original, uninterrupted 39-note Oracle spawn sequence, played out in hymn form like The Great Unknown. It comes to us in this post by rubixthegreat.

To be sure, parts of it sound similar to The Great Unknown - and it should, it's played with the same 7 notes of the C-Lydian-Mixolydian scale. But I think you'll agree it sounds substantially more...ominous than our pleasant lucid melody.

Related Notes

[1]

"The Great Unknown" was also scored here, by Charley Wyckoff. Somehow this was uploaded in December 2013; perhaps the music was released before the game.
I am uncertain if this matches what I have above - they sound similar to me - but I'm inclined to trust my own source. He spent a night scoring it with some very professional equipment and has ample experience with this topic, being an alumnus of this group.

[2]

Previously I'd never thought of what the Destiny "theme song" might be. While playing "The Great Unknown" out loud for the person who scored it, another coworker heard it from across the room, then walked over and asked, "Why are you playing the Destiny theme song?"
This guy played Destiny for just a few weeks back in September 2014, but apparently the music had stuck with him enough to recognize it by that series of notes alone. I'd say that qualifies as a memorable "theme song."

[3]

Thematically, this whole 21-note sequence does something pretty cool, I thought. Warning: this is hand-wavy, to be sure (literally and figuratively) but worth noting.

The person who scored "The Great Unknown" commented, without any input from me,

it's a beautiful piece...it has this great sort of oscillating sequence between 2 of the voices, while 1 remains steady between...then, the 2 voices converge suddenly, and again move back to their oscillations.

and proceeded to trace some lines in the air, with his hands, to illustrate his point.
His air-lines looked like this:
http://imgur.com/be79Una
Since this is a "qualitative feel" to the music, I didn't bother labeling everything - I just made this from some piecewise cosine functions - (edit - here's the source code, for shits 'n gigs). Ignore all scaling, and the fact that the oscillating voices intersect at D, while the steady note holds itself at G. Just illustrating a point here!

The Soprano (C, Bb, C, Bb, D, C, A)
sort of goes down (C), up (Bb), down (C), up (Bb)...then suddenly dives down differently (D), then goes back down to its low point (C), then up (A).

The Alto 2 (E, F#, E, F#, D, E, F#)
does the same thing - down (E), up (F#), down (E), up (F#)...then suddenly jumps differently (D), then goes back down to its low point (E), then up (F#).

Meanwhile, the Alto 1 (G, G, G, G, G, G, G) holds a steady note, somewhere in the middle of the two.

What you end up with, as this sequence is strung together many times over, is two forever-oscillating lines...that occasionally collide on the same note (D), and then again break off back to oscillating independently.
And these could potentially reference a couple of ideas:

The Soprano could be construed as the timeline of Guardians moving toward the future (progressing through the Vault, the natural flow of time), and Alto 2 being the Vex moving toward the past (progressing through the Vault, starting from the future).
Both sides progress and finally "clash" when we meet Atheon in the "present" represented by Alto 1 - our steady, middle note - at the climax in the Vault as we know it (conceptually, think of the ideas posited in Seventh_Circle's earlier lore posts)

Or...the eternal conflict between the Light and Darkness, where one sits at a maximum as the other is at a minimum, yet they inevitably collide in conflict, and finally the power balance shifts back again to oscillating.

Again, this part is inexact and I apologize if it doesn't make sense. Humming the music to yourself and tracing the lines in the air may help communicate it. It's not too significant, just a feeling in the music I thought appropriate to note.

The proper terminology for this composition design is "contrary motion." This was pointed out to me in the comments of my original post - thank you ebuch! I also discovered this video breaking down Destiny Year 1 music, which does a stupendous job of explaining what I was trying to convey above in [3], and breaking down the entire score of the game.
The specific breakdown of the 'choral melody' that I am focused on, begins here in the video but I suggest watching the entire thing if you can spare the 30 minutes. It's utterly brilliant.

You'll notice it also has a slightly different interpretation of the choral melody - where the Soprano and Alto 2 oscillate indefinitely, and another voice continually ascends the scale...I promise I will continue investigating all this, and highly encourage any actual musicians to participate as well. This is by no means theory-busting, as we don't have any official score sheets to read composition notes from. My belief is that the third "ascending" voice from the video only comes in later in The Great Unknown and is not part of the proper "lucid melody."
But we may need to hone in on the actual Oracle notes we need to 'conduct,' depending on what this choral melody actually consists of.

Again, it's all been scored by ear alone (even in that video), so we can't put 100% certainty on any of the sheet music we find. Musical expertise requested!

[4]

Sadly, it's possible that the real answers to all this are still hidden from us, no matter how ridiculously we search.
"Music of the Spheres" (Musica Universalis) is a concept, but also the EXTREMELY RELEVANT name of an 8-movement unreleased album of music that sets the themes in the Destiny universe. Its release is still withheld due to the unclear-but-clearly-vehement disagreement between Marty O'Donnell and the Bungie/Activision management.

Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori confirmed back in 2013 that something was intentionally hidden in the music...this could mean either the MotS album or Destiny's released soundtrack, but if that's not a smoking gun then I don't know what is. Just look at Marty stutter when Michael says they've hidden clues in the music!

The original Destiny soundtrack has certain excerpts from MotS, but the full MotS album itself might hold more clues...its box art certainly links directly to the Alpha Lupi text: http://destiny.bungie.org/forum/index.php?id=11997

And back in 2013, Music of the Spheres looks like it was already poised to include at least a few hidden references.
Example: https://www.bungie.net/7_Awakening/en-us/News/News?aid=10866
The 'program notes' here are written in 4 lines, where the capitalized first letter of each spells out "RUIN"...of course, the name of one of the tracks on Music of the Spheres and a strong reference to an Alpha Lupi text.

[5]

Lore-wise, I look at the Vault itself from the lens of the recent background that's been posted here by Seventh_Circle. The Vault isn't being BUILT by the Vex, rather - it existed already, and the Vex have sought it out in an attempt to destroy it. That's why, after we defeat Atheon, we discover that the Throne Room's main structure has in fact become MORE built-up than when we first entered the space. We've progressed back in time, perhaps to before the Vex got to it. Unfortunately, we're now stuck in a time where the Throne Room wasn't yet opened, and we don't know the way to open it ourselves.
All these peculiarities remain in the Vault...odd, glitch-like behavior such as being Marked for Negation when you backtrack out of the Gorgon Labyrinth, or still becoming Lost in Time after defeating Atheon. It hints that there's more to do here...along with more cryptic text still being added in Year 2 material.

I don't think the Oracles themselves are of Vex origin or design. Instead, they're a part of the Vault that the Vex have figured out how to control, through their understanding of Alpha Lupi. Search the Grimoire here for "oracle" and you'll find no indication that the Vex actually created them or that they are inherently a part of the Vex network. At the same time, it seems that the Vex worship Alpha Lupi, or at the very least were making attempts to study it.

Really, it seems as though the Oracles were intended to guard the Vault, sure...but the Vex have bastardized them into playing this inharmonious 39-note melody (their default spawn order) that pushes the Vex will into reality. What we should be doing, is correcting that melody into the mellifluous "song of the spheres" hymn that we hear all over the place in the universe.

And, if the Vex have figured out how to control the Oracles, it stands to reason that we should be using their instrument to do the same, if we want to conduct them. Hence, using the Mythoclast.

In my defense

For those who've read this far and are thinking

This is ridiculously complicated, you're an idiot, this would have been discovered already by one of the hundreds of thousands of fireteams who've already run this stupid thing into the ground.

Firstly, valid point. Trust me when I say I feel absurd hypothesizing like this and it's been racking my brain for months now.
I feel legitimately insane, so thanks Bungie.

However, I disagree that this would have been discovered by chance. My supposed weapon requisites aside, it is a specific, unique permutation of Oracle assignments and a random fireteam would have trouble recreating it unintentionally.
It's backed up by Bungie's past. If they expected ONE player to arrange the ring jumps in Halo 3, they could very reasonably expect SIX players to coordinate this type of sequence as well. Each person's role is not that difficult - much easier than completing the ascending/descending tone scale that was attempted in the past.

Quick rant

I've said it before here - I don't think whatever is left in the Vault is simply unlocked by "Complete X task without Y failure." THAT would have been discovered by chance, no doubt.

This, this is a whole new level of secret, and let's not forget the Vault was exclusively designed by a standalone team within Bungie, led by Luke Smith (Lead Designer: Raids, 2012-2014, according to his LinkedIn profile). The Vault was created while the ENTIRE main game was being built in parallel...they had ample time to slide this sort of thing in, not to mention all the deep lore and mythology that Seventh_Circle has dug up. If we look at Luke Smith's Destiny track record (barring the "money at the screen" incident) it seems he was first given the task of overseeing the design of the VoG. VoG was lauded as "the best part of Destiny" and Bungie's leaders recognized that success by moving him to overall Creative Director for The Taken King in 2014.

The general consensus I'm getting at is that VoG is the highest-quality experience within all of Destiny, and there is a reason we can't shake the feeling that SOMETHING remains inside. It speaks to the intangible idea of Quality described in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
Which I've heard explained as:

even if a person doesn't have experience with a subject or know its methods of manufacture/production, when they hold it in their hands (or play through it) they can STILL recognize the marks of careful, quality craftsmanship.

I believe we're still stuck on the Vault because it has these marks of quality...the mechanics, the background research that clearly went into it, the sheer scale of the spaces and encounters...they all speak to the fact that the raid team spent YEARS to put this together, compared to the (shorter) Crota's End and (mechanically very sound, but arguably less deep) King's Fall.

Note that I'm not crediting Luke with coming up with the VoG all by himself, there's obviously a VERY talented * team * behind it. My point is simply that the VoG is recognized all over to be an incredible, epic experience, and clearly Bungie internally feels the same way (hence, promoting Luke). I think most of us also recognize, however subconsciously, the quality in the VoG and the fact that something remains unsolved.

I would also like to take my turn on this soapbox to publicly reprimand Bungie (I know one of you is reading this) for so obviously shooting yourselves in the foot in designing this game.
It's so...so full of references and lore and great graphics, sound, and gunplay...and then you go and add all the ABUNDANTLY clear psychological conditioning elements and RNG, to keep players addicted and playing regularly.
When you merge these, the players lose sight of the beauty in the game itself, and instead playing it becomes a checklist of chores (I'm paraphrasing multiple game reviewers' observations here).

My apologies for the rant, I'm just frustrated that such a clever puzzle as Alpha Lupi and its direct ties to the deep player experience of the VoG will not only be ignored by the vast majority, but that the majority are oblivious even to its existence...all because Bungie designed Destiny to be so heavily repetitive and grind-based. The wonder we all first experience in the Vault wears off quickly when it becomes a weekly routine of disappointment, as the gear you want simply won't drop.

I don't want to rip on Destiny, I just want Bungie to show off their accomplishment instead of obfuscating it behind blatantly addictive reward schedules.

But, back to the main point:

http://imgur.com/y2xtVoc
I'd love to get a group gathered later this month and turn this hypothesis into an attempt. In the meantime, anyone who plays more regularly than I can - please, please, please give it a shot and report back. And certainly ask any questions, if I've been unclear!

TL;DR

The quick and dirty steps to understanding all this would be:

Listen to this song and realize how often you hear its choral melody when you're playing the game.
Recognize that the main component of that song, was revealed along with Alpha Lupi.
Recognize that the main component of that song, can be recreated with the Oracle notes.
Read up on how ridiculously complex the reveal of Alpha Lupi was.
Sit down and think about any connections you can make between the Alpha Lupi image, the melody, and the Vault of Glass mechanics.

And one more step of compression leads to:

Some shit is still undeniably unsolved in the Vault. Help us solve it by looking at Alpha Lupi, listening to the Destiny orbit music, and thinking about them when you run through the VoG.

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