Work Text:
Blurryface was supposed to talk.
Tyler was supposed to hear his mass brought-to-life insecurities talk with a beat, a final motivation prep to give one heck of a show for the fans, to show him.
Harshly enough, it was like blurryface talking, whispering in his ears all over again.
But he was screaming. Tyler was screaming.
The lights were out, and a steady rhythm Tyler hasn’t heard in years starts to play.
Usually, the screaming fans would’ve drowned out the soft music but one by one abruptly halts their cheering, listening intensely to the song that would precisely be heard after three in the morning, some stood around in confusion, wondering if this was a new intro.
I won’t take much of your time
At that moment, Tyler couldn’t feel the relief that the curtains were up and wearing his mask on top of that. He still felt exposed, completely naked.
To hear his pleads echo in an eerily quiet arena filled with over 20,000 people was the most excruciating feeling he’s ever felt. This tops Blurry. It tops the nights his rest were crying, It tops the nights he realized he could take his own life so easily, It tops all the appointments, It tops the basement writing, It tops his attempt, It tops everything and Blurry was holding his muscles in place with masochistic agony.
It wasn’t comprehensible. This had to be a dream, a nightmare.
I just want you to see what I have made inside these lines
It was like everything he worked so hard for up until this point, broke out of their carefully placed jars, glass everywhere and hope flies around him in zig zags, not knowing where to go. They all knew but Tyler was home. The air felt tighter.
Tyler stared ahead at the silk curtain, paralyzed.
His name being called out was nothing but the whispers and hope confused on what to do now.
“Tyler!”
TylerTyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Help Us TylerTyler Tyler Tyler
“Tyler!”Tyler
It’s as good as I can be
It’s as good as I can be
His hearing starts to become muffled, his sight slowly distorting in ways he didn’t know it could. He could see his hopes, much resembling to the ball of lights visual for Hometown circling at incredible speed around him. The whispers were sharp grey masses. A dark cloud with lightning. Was he the only one choking up? Where was everybody else?
This is all that I can be
This is all that I can be
A red blurred figure appears, his voice is painful to Tyler. Nothing but a slow inhuman low voice while something echoed in the background.
“Tyler,”TylerTyler
How did it know his name?
“Can you hear me? Breathe!”
Something grasped his shoulders.
Another blurred figure appears but it was black.
“They are doing everything to stop it.” It shouts.
“They aren’t trying enough! It should have been cut the first second it fucking played!”
All that I can be
Another figure but clear as day appeared behind the blurred ones, one he was familiar with. His face was ugly.
As he spoke, everything started to swirl, black spots you see in the corners of your eye when you rub them grew large out of thin air. Tyler suddenly felt very faint.
“Time is running out.”
“Where’s Mark?” The red one shouted.
The black figure got too close. “C’mon man, snap out of it. Breathe, c’mon. It’s alright.”
Tyler TylerTylerTyler Tyler Tyler Tyler TylerTyler Tyler TylerTyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler Tyler
Head tilted down, knees on the ground
And I will ask, “Please. SA- “
A scream like no other cut off, echoing into lost time.
The fans started to cheer, thinking it was part of the show.
The lights were still off, the curtain still up. At that moment, everything Tyler was seeing disappeared.
Josh and Brad suddenly in front of him, he almost fell back off the pedestal, startled.
Brad caught Tyler and Josh ripped off Tyler’s mask, slightly gasping when his eyes were stinging red with tears, he was on the bridge of passing out. Josh’s mask was pulled back like a beanie.
He held Tyler’s face. “Tyler? It’s me. Josh. It’s Jishwa. Can you hear me?”
Josh couldn’t see any signs of Tyler focused on anything. He was frightened out of his mind.
Tyler’s mouth was slightly agape, as if to stutter something but his head started to shake furiously, his body twitching. He dropped the microphone, creating a loud piercing shriek.
Brad lifted him up. “He needs to go backstage. There’s no way he can finish the show.”
“But-“
“Josh. There is no way he can finish the show.”
Tyler started to gasp for air, his hands roaming the air and Brad’s shoulders.
“Medic! Where are the Paramedics? Get them here now!”
A crew’s brief pitiful explanation to 20,000 people and a couple hours later, Josh didn’t want to go anywhere near social media for the rest of his life. They’ll never hear the end of this.
Josh looked over at Tyler, an IV hooked up into his arm. He took off Tyler’s red coat and unbuttoned the first few buttons on his white collared shirt so that choked up feeling would be gone. He took his time wiping off the excess paint on his neck and hands.
They were still at the arena, backstage at a small First Aid department. The paramedics more or so likely sedated Tyler to make his body relaxed, make him sleep from his episode. They explained it was quite normal for people to be paralyzed out of fear and have trouble coming back to reality, but Tyler’s was a little more severe. Kicking, screaming, desperate for air was something they’ve never seen. They had no choice.
Family were notified and Josh explained through FaceTime he had everything under control until they arrived. Tyler probably wouldn’t like that but luckily, tonight’s show was in Columbus so home was merely a drive away which Tyler probably wouldn’t like that either.
Josh sighed in Frustration when Mark walked in.
“I did my best to help the sound guy stop the song earlier as best I could but some of the tech got jammed and wouldn’t cooperate with us. I ended up breaking the CD.” Mark took out sharp pieces of what used to be Tyler’s original solo album from his pocket, sheepishly smiling.
Josh chuckled. “It’s fine Mark. I knew you were helping.”
Mark took a stool and sat beside Josh.
Both of them dreaded questions at the moment but interrupted the silence either way.
“How did the-“
“How long has he-“
They spoke in unison.
“Sorry. You first.” Josh chuckled again.
“Uh. How long has he been sleeping?” Mark fiddled with his hands.
“Since they put him to sleep. Couple hours. It’s almost one.”
Mark nodded. “That’s good. He needs it.”
“Yeah… How did the CD even start playing?”
“It was my copy. I brought it to show Tyler that from this,” Mark let the sharp pieces fall on the ground. “to a sold out arena in Columbus.”
“It still blows my mind.”
“I played it while you guys were doing interviews.”
“Ah. So I wasn’t hearing TB Saga in my head?”
Mark let out a laugh. “No. It was playing all day so the sound must have been low or something until the show started which explains why out of all the others, Save started to play. It restarted or shuffled. I don’t know. Like I said, the stupid tech was jammed.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself Mark. This isn’t your fault. It was an honest mistake and that can be forgiven.”
Mark softly smiled as he played with the broken CD with his shoe.
“…How’s everyone? Social media wise.”
“I think you should delete twitter for a while.” Mark slowly looked up at Josh who groaned.
“Great. That bad?”
“I wouldn’t say bad. Just… Yeah, no, it’s bad.”
“What about our clique?”
“Some are worried to death. Some are being supportive. Some think Tyler is dead.”
“That’s our clique alright.”
“Wouldn’t be the clique if the clique wasn’t the clique.” Mark joked.
“Hm.” Josh agreed. “I just want Tyler to wake up.”