The History of Arthur White: Tokyo Nights

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Will to Art on 2 January 2013.

The Sweet World master tapes disappeared. Agniesczka got tired of Arthur's flightiness and divorced him.

A bootleg of the master tapes had surfaced in Japan and become a huge seller, so Will decided to travel to Japan to tour and sue, with the thought that even if they couldn't win the lawsuit, they could record the second album and have a built-in audience hungry for it. He used this quest to get a little leverage with the record company, who wanted the case of their missing tape solved and wanted their advance and lost potential profits recouped.

The group began a tour of Japan. The hard work over the past two years had kept Arthur from mass except on Sundays. One night, a waitress said she was a huge fan and asked if he'd like to go sightseeing. She ended up introducing him to members of her cult, although Arthur didn't understand that at the time. The more time he spent with them, the more free he felt.

They encouraged him to relinquish all of the baggage and burdens that were causing him trouble. Arthur decided to make a break with the Sweet World, stranding them in Japan and creating a grudge that lasts to this very day. Arthur brought cult member Silent Rick with him to do a BBC television special, then announced on TV that he was leaving the Sweet World and launching a new band with his new friends from Japan.

When they returned to Japan, the cult kept Arthur in hiding so Will couldn't get to him. Will had to give up his lawsuit in order to figure out how to get The Sweet World home with no money. Arthur had given it all to the cult.

Inside the cult, Arthur formed Apotheosis. The cult also convinced him to give them the master tapes and rights to his old songs as a way of breaking with his tortured past.

After a while, Arthur asked why the cult asked him to renounce so much, but never filled the emptiness with any substance. They responded by teaching him an arcane meditation technique. Arthur began meditating and promptly saw the woman from the Sweet World, whose baby was now crying. She showed him the true nature of the cult, which had been stealing his music, keeping him from mass, breaking up his family, and siphoning his spiritual powers. She warned him to leave immediately and showed him a vision of a freighter docking twenty miles down the main road.

Arthur snuck out of the compound, walked all night, and boarded the freighter that morning. The freighter eventually brought him through the Panama Canal to New York, where customs officials contacted Will about the starving, passportless stowaway.

Will drove out and brought Arthur back home.