| Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute | |
|---|---|
| |
| Appears On | The Afterman: Ascension |
| Track | 2 |
| Length | 7:51 |
| Produced By | Coheed And Cambria Michael Birnbaum Chris Bittner |
| Preceded By | The Hollow |
| Followed By | The Afterman |
Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute is the second song on the 2012 album The Afterman: Ascension.
This song is the first in the Key Entity Extraction suite, dealing with the character Sirius Amory entering the Keywork to learn more about its properties. Each song represents a different soul he comes into contact with and their memories that he is forced to experience.
The tune played twice durring the 0:35-0:42 mark is a reprise of a bass line played durring the ending instrumentation in The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut.
Lyrics
If you had the courage to stop me
From turning into what would be
The worst in everybody's eyes
Hey, I'm no angel or the devil of your conscience
To tell you who to be
Good, bad, ugly or otherwise
If you had good common sense
Your choices would be gleaming flawless
I want no part in this self-deprecating, worthless chemistry
We made our beds, to lie in them proud
Proud of our great mistakes
This warring knife, the flash of it's blade
Turn about face, I implore you, brother
Don't walk away, Don't walk away from me...
Because this is our war
Oh, you think they've had it all
While you were left with nothing
Oh, you've taken the fall
For them to walk all over
You've made your bed, so soft and comforting
These dreams await, The Great Good Morning
We made our beds, to lie in them proud
Proud of our great mistakes
This warring knife, the flash of it's blade
Turn about face, I implore you, brother
Don't walk away, Don't walk away from me...
Because this is our war
Oh, we've got you by the throat... Ha, ha ha!
All you want to be....
Welcome, oh, to the everlasting all-time low
Please put your hands together
For the ever failing one man show- Domino!
Ladies and broken gentlemen
The undisputed champ of misery
And in this corner, we find his challenger
The pride of Utopia, the greatest thing ever
If you could recall, one moment of your past
That defined you to be, that made you the man
We've come to love, All the above
Oh, this disaster binds us absolute
A thousand lies you tell yourselves
That no one ever loved you right
But I would do anything for you...
The question fits the question mark
Your signals crossed, your message lost, Ha ha!
Spoken word passage
This wall won't hold forever
Your time has come, it's now or never
We made our beds, to lie in them proud
Proud of our great mistakes
This warring knife, the flash of it's blade
Turn about face, I implore you, brother
Don't walk away, Don't walk away from me...
Because this is our war
One by one, we are together, we fall together
One by one, we are together, we fall together
Brother, don't be afraid...
We are together, we are together
Brother...
We are together, we fall together...
Inspiration
"I wrote Domino just before the final Michael Todd episode. We tried everything
we could to help him, but despite so much potential and support all around him,
he couldn't avoid the pitfalls of this world that we, as a band, reside in"
Story
Previously in the Afterman Arc: The Hollow
"It's incredible," Sirius can't help but say aloud into his helmet, as he floats about in the wonderous blue, nothing the shades shifting and swirling from navy to the lightest aquamarine. He fumbles for a suction container from a compartment in his suit, to begin collecting samples. He considers whether the color changes are a result of energy shifts--possibly the molecules circulating to maintain equilibrium--; then he does something completely new to him; Sirius puts the container back and allows himself a few profound moments of enjoyment. He is the very first person who has been to this place, the first man to ever question the information known to be true about the haze, though it had surrounded every world the same since the beginning of existence. Seventy-eight planets filled with being who accepted what they'd been told about the blue without hesitation. But not Sirius.
A sense of accomplishment rushes through him. Pure adrenaline. The persecution by his scientist peers seems worth it now that he is here. Then... something...
Sirius is bewildered, as from out of the silence, tiny scattered noises begin to fill the space around him, leaking into his helmet.
La la la...la la la la.
The eerie whispers grow. Louder still, they sneak into his consciousness, as the glow of the Keywork begins to pulse and move, ever so subtly, like a million maggots weaving within it. The haze becomes dense, from transparent to translucent. The micro-movements strengthen, gaining more definition until Sirius can make out human shapes and heads squirming to get out, as if an endless sheer blue veil was pulled taut over them and they can't seem to escape. All Mother cannot identify the composition of what they are seeing through scientific classification of any sort. She scans all of her databases and comes up with over 100 words, borrowed from every dialect within Heaven's Fence, and though Sirius cannot make sense of it, the words all have nearly the same translation: Souls.
Without warning, one entity forcefully makes his way through the mass of entities, pushing them aside with pure muscle. This is the soul of Domino, who bursts from the mass into Sirius, overcoming and possessing him, his essence churning through every organic fiber in his body. He struggles desperately for control.
"I am unable to process your brain wave function, Sirius. Troubleshooting now," drones All Mother. But Sirius cannot respond. He cannot move to check whether the electrodes secured at the base of his skull have come loose. He is with Domino, viewing him through the eyes of a voyeur. He is Domino, sharing the entity's every emotion, the most intense of these being the feeling of complete hopelessness. Sirius' possession by the entity gives him a dual perspective, a perfectly clear view of the impact of another person's choices in life, juxtaposed with the reasons and traits that drove the choices in the first place. Domino hasn't learned much in his afterlife and feels that this human, the only one ever to enter the Keywork, could be a conduit to return to the living world.
Sirius finds himself in a vast maze, constructed of the memories that torment Domino's consciousness, the blurred images dripping down the walls like liquid holograms and solidifying before him. He's unsure how to navigate the maze on his own, but Domino's soul shows him where to begin...
In Domino's living body, he was a boxer with incredible potential. His biggest supporter and trainer, was his younger, newly married brother Chess. The brothers were a great team, but as Domino ran up the ranks undefeated, he demanded more of Chess's attention and time. Domino had begun to feel slightly envious of his brother's new found happiness--like a third wheel--when his flawless record began to attract the attention of a local organized crime boss, Kriptor Noncruss. Kriptor saw potential in Domino, showing up at the gym and at his fights, planting dreams of big, beautiful things in his mind, promising Domino money and fame, while he reaped the payout on Domino's fights. Chess disapproved of his brother's involvement with such a seedy character, even as Kriptor continued to wedge Chess out from Domino's life.
Left: Krip, Right: Chess
Giving way to Kriptor's allure, Domino became increasingly willing to do anything to get to the top, doping himself up to win fights as his talents started slipping. Eventually he became so addicted to the drugs, money and fame that he started taking bigger risks for his "friend," dependent on a man who took advantage of him in every way possible.
Sirius navigates each phase of Domino's life as if he were a train on a pre-determined path, leading up to an eventual destination, though he has no idea what that might be or how long he'll be forced to travel for it. He fights against the desires of Domino, trying to extract the entity from his mind. He reaches into the morphing walls of the maze, trying to find a way out, but his manipulation does nothing. Intuition pushes him forward, promising a release if he can just keep going...
A memory begins to coagulate, thickening and darkening just before a new scene bubbles up inside, bursting from within the gelatinous exterior of the wall and flooding the maze with images of the interior of a packed stadium of screaming fans. It is here Domino was pitted up against the reigning champion of the ring, Saul "the Ghostmaker" Maven in what was meant to be the fight of the century. The damage to his body and lack of focus was too much and he lost the fight in a stunning knockout, unlocking the floodgate to his complete decline. At his lowest--homeless, a "has been" and too broke to feed his addiction--Krip offered him a quick solution. If Domino would help him out with an armored car heist, he'd share the big pay out. Domino saw it as his chance at redemption. Trying to mend the relationship with Chess, Domino offered him a role in the plan--knowing he could've used the money, after all and would do anything to help his older brother. The heist went horribly wrong, with Chess getting shot.
Sirius watches all of this happen, as if it were occurring in real time, feeling all the pain and desperation of Domino as the final scene begins to play. All Mother continues her attempts to communicate, but her voice remains white noise to Sirius. Domino is lying propped up against the wall on the street, helpless as his brother slumps to the cobblestone and takes his last breath.
Completely devastated, he realizes what he's done. Domino puts the gun in his mouth and suddenly, the perspective changes and Sirius is Domino, holding the gun.
Let go of me, Domino.
Not a chance, man. You're gonna take me back down there.
Sirius is acutely aware that this is a definitive moment; the single most regretted event in Domino's life. This must be the destination the maze has been easing him toward; the exact moment Domino's complete and utter destitution.
Domino putting gun in mouth.
Suddenly, he understands. This is the way out.
Sirius pulls the trigger, severing the possession Domino has on him. Domino screams; a hair-raising, unearthly sound that, in turn, resonates a destructive frequency through the All Mother, who transmits the tone through her hard connecton to Sirius' ship, causing it to explode in the quiet of space.
The story continues on: The Afterman...
Background
'I wrote Domino just before the final Michael Todd episode. We tried everything we could to help him, but despite so much potential and support all around him, he couldn't avoid the pitfalls of this world that we, as a band, reside in.'
Music Video
Coheed and Cambria - Domino the Destitute