The Day the World Ends: Chrono Trigger 1.1

[intro: tolling bells, low strings, company enters in fractured tableaus] [COMPANY:] Hear the plates jump from the shelf Hear the girders speak for themselves Hear the stations choke and stall Hear the warning through us all A clock strikes twelve and does not chime The air goes tight as drawn-out twine We do not run, we only brace And watch the noon lose all its face [verse: featured solo lines over pulsing orchestra] [WOMAN:] My tea went black across the floor The window bent, then was no door [MAN:] The clinic lights died one by one At half past twelve, we lost the sun [YOUNG VOICE:] I grabbed my brother by the sleeve He asked me what we get to leave [COMPANY:] The pavement rolled beneath our feet And every prayer missed half a beat [chorus: full company lament, broad unison with layered altos and tenors] [COMPANY:] This is the day the world ends No pleading hand can make it bend No steel, no saint, no law defends This is the day the world ends This is the day the world ends With cups half-filled and unpaid debts With open mouths and folded hands This is the day the world ends [verse: new solo fragments, wider orchestration, deeper dread] [OLD WOMAN:] The school bell rang, then split apart The sound went straight into my heart [OLD MAN:] I closed the till, I wrote the sum As though a pen could stop what comes [BOY:] A white-hot line ran through the square And every face was raw with prayer [COMPANY:] The towers leaned, the rail lines screamed The end arrived just as we dreamed Not in our sleep, not far away It came by noon, in full array [build: rising percussion, staggered entries, name the terror] [SOLOISTS:] Name it Lavos Say it plain Not blind weather Not passing pain [COMPANY:] A buried pulse below the stone A will so large we are made small No eyes to meet, no throne to storm Just light and sound that judge us all [chorus: larger, harsher, final apocalyptic statement] [COMPANY:] This is the day the world ends No mother’s arms can make it bend No buried vault, no wall defends This is the day the world ends This is the day the world ends Remember us by common things A plate, a coat, a child’s small hand This is the day the world ends [outro: stripped coda, slow company unison fading to low cluster] [COMPANY:] If any dawn comes after this Let someone speak of who we were Not mighty names, not crowns, not kings Just human mouths and human hands The clock struck twelve The ground replied And all we loved Stayed at our side