Heartbeat Clocktower

"Just before he died, a lonely man created a small, small theatre in the middle of the forest..."

- Gear

Heartbeat Clocktower is a song released by Akuno-P originally on piapro on October 1, 2009 and later became part of Prelude to Forest on February 7, 2010. It is the fifth song in the Clockwork Lullaby Series, describing the experiences of Gear in Evil's Theater.

Plot
The song concerns a mysterious clocktower and its guardian, Gear. The dead owner, embodiment of Greed, and former guardian of the clocktower, the "Collector," created a theater for the "Collectibles" where they forever enact their story. Gear's main concern is to keep the Clockworker's Doll "with ugly burns on her body" alive through the clocktower, and if it stops, she will die.

Performing his task day by day, he describes other inhabitants of the clocktower, including the Master of the Graveyard, who devours any helpless visitor who had enough bad luck to end up at the theater, as well as a "pretentious" servant girl, who "indulges in selfishness," but secretly expresses sadness for the loss of her "other half".

He also observes how Kayo's Scissors and the Venom Sword continue to be "dormant". Gear mentions that "when the entire songs are recited," it is believed that Utopia will be created. Realizing that the clock is going to stop soon, and that the Doll's time is running short, Gear takes out his heart and sacrifices himself to power the clocktower. As a result, his sacrifice saved the Clockworker's Doll, but causes him to be part of the clocktower, unable to leave.

Composition
KAITO's original VOCALOID voicebank is utilized, along with backing from Kagamine Rin and Len's VOCALOID2 voicebanks. Notable instruments used are piano, violin, bass guitar, electric guitar, french horn, and flute.

The song opens up with an instrumental, with the first verse beginning on 0.41. At 1.15, a brief instrumental plays, and cuts back to a second verse by 1.26. The first chorus begins at 1.50, and a variation of the opening instrumental plays at 2.11. The shortened third verse begins at 2.23,followed by the second chorus at 2.45. At 3.07, the bridge begins, followed by an extended instrumental at 3.19, accompanied by the "lu li la" melody. The final chorus begins at 3.42, followed by a variation of the opening instrumental at 4.10. The song ends abruptly at 4.32.

Lyrics
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Handbeat Clocktower
Handbeat Clocktower shares a similar melody and arrangement with Heartbeat Clocktower, as well as containing similar imagery.

Miniature Garden Girl
Miniature Garden Girl details the events that occurred prior to Heartbeat Clocktower, describing the life and near-death of the Clockworker's Doll and the event that led to her gaining severe burns.

Master of the Court
Master of the Court recounts the goals of the Clockworker's Doll after the events of Heartbeat Clocktower, as well as her interactions with other members of the theater.

Master of the Graveyard
Master of the Graveyard details the life and interfaces of the Master of the Graveyard as alluded to by Gear in Heartbeat Clocktower.

Capriccio Farce
Capriccio Farce recounts the later exchanges of the theater inhabitants after the happenings of Heartbeat Clocktower, as it details their later attempts to convene and locate the Sin of Wrath.

Appearances
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Conceptualization and Origin

 * The song's title references Gear's sacrifice, where his heart is connected to the clocktower, letting his heartbeat power it and keep the Clockworker's Doll alive.

Curiosities

 * During the song PV, the Seven Deadly Sins are represented by gears colored with the respective sin's color, with each of the awakened vessels of sins' appearance being complimented with their gear turning in a corner of the PV.
 * During the titular sequence, the six gears representing the collected vessels of sin come together to form the songs logo, a grey gear; towards the end, a green gear representing the vessel of Wrath is seen falling on the edge of the screen, alluding to how it is the last vessel to be collected.
 * While Gear sings about the doll's inevitable death with the clocktower broken, the teal gear representing the vessel of Sloth is seen spinning at a much slower pace than the gears for Pride and Gluttony.
 * The song was rearranged by mothy to promote the The Daughter of Evil: Praefacio of Blue, titled "Handbeat Clocktower", a track sung by Kyle Marlon and included in Four Melodies of Evil ~The Daughter of Evil Novel Music Collection~ as part of Story of Evil.
 * Interestingly, both songs maintain a grey gear in their song PV with Heartbeat Clocktower's gear turning blue, representing Gear, and the final silhouette seen with the gear in Handbeat Clocktower being Kyle.
 * During the song's "Lu Li La" chorus, the images of the vessel owners followed by the Latin name for their respective sin appear translucent over Hänsel and Gretel; at the end of the sequence, the names of the four Masters' domains from End of the Four appear in the four corners of the song PV.
 * Their order of appearance in the PV follows the order of their song release.

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