The One I'm Not (Twenty One Pilots)

Inspiration

Jenna invited Tyler to go to church with her the Sunday before their release show. Tyler hadn't been to church in a while due to college and music, but he agreed to go for her. He didn't want Blurryface to interfere with his religious struggles but boy was he interfering. 

what do you believe, tyler?

do you believe in Him?

do you believe in me?

Tyler walked in hand in hand with Jenna into the beautiful church. He had been in it once before, for the gig he performed, but he felt different this time. He was overwhelmingly nervous and if he could he'd run out of there right then and there, but he couldn't. It wouldn't be right. 

What even was right? Was right, sitting down and listening to the pastor talk about his religion? Was right holding onto Jenna's hand and staring into her beautiful eyes, making sure that she was happy? If so, he knew he was doing right. 

However, what prevented him from getting up and leaving? What about that was so wrong? Was it the fact that his morals were in play? That it'd be rude and leave him with guilt? If he was in control of his own body why couldn't he just do what he wanted? Why were there restrictions? His mind was wandering so much that by the time he was finally paying attention, the ceremony had ended.

Jenna introduced Tyler to some of the members of the church and he honestly didn't remember any of their names nor did he want to. He only remembered one name and that was the name of a little girl with down syndrome, named Ruby. Ruby was an adorable little girl who liked to ask many different questions. He didn't know why but this little girl inspired a lyric in his mind that he had to get down.

When Jenna dropped Tyler off, he immediately got the lyric down and began writing.

Ruby, I hope I see you
I've waited all this week
For you to walk my way
Your soul will capture me

Your momma painted your room
A shade of pink, she said
But with your great arrival
That shade has turned to red

Ruby, take my hand
Please lead me to the promised land
Tell me, where am I from
Your eyes say,
Sha-da-di-da-dum

Ruby, you're royalty
In your homeland they all call you Queen
Tell me, where are you from?
Your eyes say,
Sha-da-di-da-dum

You're an angel fallen down
Won't you tell us of the clouds
You have fallen from the sky
How high, how high?

You're true and pure
You hold the cure
We're all diseased
You hold the key

You're an angel fallen down
Won't you tell us of the clouds
You have fallen from the sky
How high, how high?

Tell our dad I'm sorry

You're an angel

Tell our dad I'm sorry

Tyler and Josh worked in the basement all night finishing the song. They finally finished at three o'clock in the morning and their album was finally done. They had talked about what they wanted on the album cover and Tyler knew what he would like. He showed Josh a picture of a little boy in a baseball uniform on a baseball field. Josh didn't know completely why Tyler wanted it on the cover, but they both agreed on it and settled with the cover. 

They placed the cover in a CD case and put the CD inside of it with all their songs. This was their first album together as Tyler and Josh as Twenty One Pilots, and they knew it'd be Regional At Best.

_________________________________________________ 

Twenty One Pilots had another gig today. It was the day before their release show, but they decided to do it anyway despite all the stress with the show. The gig was in Indiana, a show not in their home state. They had been out of state before in Kentucky but this show felt different. There was something about being in a different state where no one knows who they are, that Tyler and Josh felt unknown.

Although they felt unknown, there was an unspoken feeling between Tyler and Josh as they were setting up for the show. Mark had talked to them about making a music video one day and that unspoken feeling chose that one day to be today.

"Ode To Sleep intro take two." Tyler said.

They were standing outside of the venue filming the take. When the time came to perform there were only twelve people in the crowd. They didn't take that as a bad thing though. There was only the feeling there that this would be a perfect way to start the music video for their song 'Ode to Sleep.'

Josh wore the gorilla suit Mark bought and Tyler wore his skeleton hoodie. They stood in front of the crowd as the music started in the background. They were both fully masked staring into the crowd. Tyler let the music take him over as he unzipped the hoodie so that he could sing. When the chorus came both Tyler and Josh became unmasked and played their hearts out. The crowd was clapping along, but not seeming to understand the music. By the time the song was about to end Mark followed Tyler off stage as he walked backwards towards the crowd and when the song ended he fell backwards onto an audience member. The audience member tried to catch him but just let him fall as Mark got the shot.

There wasn't a good reason to capture footage that night. When Mark came to edit it that afternoon as they got back home to Ohio, both Tyler and Josh agreed it wasn't done yet and left it there to be unfinished... for now.

______________________________________________________________ 

"Tyler, Josh, would you mind helping me clean out the attic? There's monsters up there." Mark said walking into the living room.

"Monsters?" Tyler asked.

"There's an attic?" Josh added in.

They had just finished editing what they had for the "Ode To Sleep" music video and were getting ready for the release show tomorrow.

"Yeah, there's some stuff up there from when I put stuff up there years ago and also from the past owners. Who knows maybe we'll find a treasure map or something. Plus I think some of my old camera stuff may be up there." Mark said.

"Well, okay. We'll help clean." Tyler said.

"Well follow me then!" 

They followed Mark to the second floor and to the end of the hall. Mark moved the plant that was there and a rope came out behind it. Mark pulled on the rope and a ladder dropped down leading to the attic.

"After you." Mark motioned to them.

Tyler and Josh climbed up the ladder followed by Mark. It was pretty dark up there so they used their phones as flashlights. 

"Let's just go through some boxes and see what we can find." Mark said to them.

They each picked a box and looked through it.

Mark found some creepy porcelain dolls in his box.

"My mom collected these..." He explained.

"Sure, Mark." Josh joked.

Josh found a couple of photo albums in his.

"Awh, look at little Marky!" Josh said showing the pictures to Tyler.

"Stoppppp... but I was fricking adorable." Mark said taking the photos away from him.

Tyler finally opened his box and inside of it was a old worn out accordion.

"Why do you have this?" Tyler asked taking it out.

"Hmm. It must of belonged to the past owner because I don't own an accordion." Mark explained.

Tyler started playing it. When he pulled the accordion out it made a melodic sound with also a symbolic noise like a noose rocking.

Tyler shook his head, "Ah, I don't know. This is a very uh, different instrument... but I like it."

They finished cleaning up the attic and Tyler took the accordion for himself. The symbolic noise like a noose rocking that was played scared him, it reminded him of his ceiling fan but he liked how it played a melodic sound. He liked how it played something he feared while also played something he didn't fear. It reminded him of Blurryface for he feared him, while he also didn't fear him. It's a weird way of thinking but Tyler thought of it as his own and that's all he ever wanted.