Author's Notes (And Set Up For an UnfunnyJoke):

The Poorly Named Tragedy of NiGHTS took about four months to write, from the first line that popped into my head ("He is a book that nobody has read") to the writing of these authors notes ("Author's Notes (And Set Up For anUnfunny Joke)"…get it?). All things considered, it turned out as good as I could have hoped for.

And frankly, even if it had turned out a lot worse, the sheer fun of sitting under trees with a pen and scrap of paper for hours on end would have been enough for me. There's nothing like letting go of it all and just seeing what pops into your head at the spur of the moment. And then obsessively tweaking every little detail of every single line until it all falls into some sort of coherent whole.

These lyrics are influenced by:

The Everglow by Mae. If you see this album in a record store somewhere, buy it without hesitation. It is a brilliantly brilliant psycho-freaking-logical journey of epic proportions and it will bring untold joy into your miserable life.

So Much for the Afterglow by Everclear. I'm not going to tell you to buy this album. You should already have it. Almost every track is OMFG amazing. It is depressing as hell in a good way.

Beethoven's Last Night by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. ToN's story-telling structure was unceremoniously pilfered from these wonderful people. Beethoven's Last Night is interesting and deserves a listen at least.

The Bible by Various Artists. Yeah, the f'ing Bible. Prayer of the Righteous Son is a straight-up imprecatory Psalm. Aside from being interesting and the foundation of a major religion, if you ever want to understand Western literature/poetry, you need to read this book.

Let's see, what else…never expect to see MP3s of this shit. I can't sing or play any instruments and my friends who can would pierce their own genitals with a rusty fork before writing music for a NiGHTS rock opera. If you're interested in what the tune was meant to sound like, I have some crappy .wav files of myself singing them horribly off-key.Request at your own risk.

BONUS SUCKAGE:

So, not every song and chorus made it into the final cut. This is because many of them sucked to an extent that they create a vacuum and nature itself had to destroy them.

But some of them were pitiful enough to be humorously bad. So, even though doing so may constitute a crime against humanity, I'm going to expose you to their hideous glory now.

This first one is sappier than making sweet, sweet love to a maple tree:

"Brighter Days"

Emmalina:

Other people have their dreams
But never us, or so it seems
Now I must wait for brighter days
But know that I will wait - always

Uh, yeah. I think I need an insulin injection now.

Before taking the easy way out and writing lyrics to Sowing Seeds, I wrote about 5 bajillion ending songs for this monstrosity. Here is one of them:

"Just a Dream"

NiGHTS:

Hey, now, what's this you're saying?
Bite that tongue and quit complaining
It's not like it seems
After all, I'm just a dream

Life is a river flowing
No one knows just where it's going
Shed no tears for me
After all, I'm just a dream

Because that is just exactly what NiGHTS would say after having the shit beat out of him by a bunch of 'maren. NEXT!

"Grow Your Own Damn Wings"

NiGHTS:

But for all the tears you cry
And for all the words you say
I'm another fading night
On another dawning day

And if life is just a dream
Then when all of this done
No one can really know about
What other dreams may come

Another chance to fly
And an empty sky above
Every breeze that comes along
Is another one to love

So for everywhere you go
And for all the things you scream
Life is just an empty boat
Riding on an empty stream

Dear God, it hurts to even look at it. Seriously. What horrible corner ofthe collectiveunconciousdid that crawl out of?

Finally, a song that was never part of this fic, but was very much NiGHTS influenced. Well, NiGHTS and a friend saying 'And then we fly blind.' Yeah. Its horrendousness is so great that it could only have been written by an angst-ridden teenager. Which is exactly what happened.

"Flying Blindly"

A long time ago
I began to lose my way
And wander all alone
Oh how I curse that day

For years I wandered, hopeless
And those years soon took their toll
And I thought the whole thing pointless
And my heart soon became cold

But then I met somebody
Who had further lost their way
And I knew I had to help them
Oh, now I can see that day

So then we walked together
Though we never spoke a word
And the journey became kinder
And I didn't mind the cold

Chorus:

Won't you fly with me?
Won't you sail and soar?
Won't you share with me,
So we'll both have more?

Flying blindly
Isn't all that bad
If you'll fly with me
And you'll hold my hand

Though we may have had to weather
Many an angry storm
We just held onto each other
And we never came to harm

And we walked in silence
Then we walked in noise
In the evening starlight,
I would hear your voice:

"Though we walk in hardship,
And the world's unkind,
I know we will make it,
Though we're flying blind."

And the night was lovely
With the stars above
We forgot our worries
And we fell in love

Chorus

Waking up that morning
We were not alone
When we found each other
We had found our home

So our journey ended,
We were happy, for
We had found our families
And we found much more

Chorus x2

Flying blindly
Isn't all that bad
If you'll fly with me
And you'll hold my hand

Well, after that round of extraordinarily painful verse, I think I'm ready to nip off and shoot myself. Remember kids, every time you write a bad poem, Reala crucifies a baby Nightopian.

ZILTRON OUT.