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birdo-is-here · 2 years ago

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analysis/description (in some cases) of Chonny Jash’s Tally Hall/Joe Hawley/Miracle Musical covers because apparently the new hyperfixation has emerged. Most of these are just my interpretation, and there’s many ways someone can interpret these! (I would like to say i am no academic genius or anything, i get Bs in english, at best an A- every so often, this is nothing professional so i’m not trying to make it sound professional, this is just me rambling about a thing i like a totally normal amount)

Let me know if there’s anything you’d like to add to this analysis

TW: Talks of suicide (i mean it when i say let me know if i missed any TWs! I can be incredibly dumb sometimes and miss/forget them)

Analysis under cut

Spring & a storm + Never meant to know:

It's a bit difficult to relate these ones to the CJ’s narrative, since there’s no added or changed lyrics (aside from an added line in S&aS that goes “So observe these blues and greens, and embrace this harmony, all you see and you and me, we came from the stars …”) you also can’t find heart or mind (and potentially soul?) in them.

We do know that this may be intentional though, seeing as not long ago CJ redid the “Spring & a Storm” cover. They might be made to make the covers look relatively normal, just of a guy covering a band he likes, until it's not that of course.

Hidden in the sand:

This is where it gets a bit more like the Chonny Jash we know and love. From what i’ve gathered this one is about a man who gets rejected by a woman. The man tries to write her a song to try “win her back,” but his frustration at her and life in general leads him to make the lyrics sound angry and resentful, maybe not intentionally. Even when the frustration went away, he couldn’t make the lyrics work.

This is a fun one, and one of my favorites of CJ’s covers. Still no immediate sign of Mind or Heart in this one, though there is some speculation this one is sung by Heart instead of Soul, since in the Mucka Blucka cover, he’s the one to make the reference to Hidden in the sand, as well as the reference to the Haiku cover — which is most likely based on the same or similar situations.

Ruler of Everything:

Now THIS cover is where it gets good. It starts off with the usual lyrics of “Juno was mad, he knew he’d been had, so he shot at the sun with a gun …” Until it quickly shifts into the usual CJ sound, also with our first traces of Mind! Right away when listening to the next part talking about how “Juno” in this situation missed, and so he “got what he deserved,” you can easily hear Mind singing along with Soul. Even in the beginning you can very barely hear Mind singing, until you can hear him much better in the next part.

The paragraph immediately after that doesn’t include Mind, although the next pre-chorus you can very easily hear our bestie again.

“Juno” in this situation is most likely to be Heart, when you listen to Mind’s attitude towards him as well as the evidence in Mucka Blucka: “And right is he (i) missed, my eyes in a mist, i finally realised, i shot at myself …” Here Heart is the one to say “I” instead of “he” in that first line, as well as the rest of that verse.

Speaking of this next pre-chorus, the lyrics go as follows: “You understand, mechanical hands are the ruler of everything …” Now as we know, Mind is VERY commonly referred to as an “automaton” or “robotic”, most often by Heart. This is probably due to his habit of using logic and reasoning instead of his emotions. Knowing this, makes that line very interesting! Going back to Mucka Blucka YET AGAIN we are looking at the reference to Ruler of Everything where the lyrics go: “But mechanical hands decided where the heart would be: Just apathy.” This also includes CJ’s cover of Just Apathy, which we��ll get into later. This probably means that, as a result of Heart trying to shoot Mind, they end up having a chat where Mind explains his reasoning for never using his emotions to dictate decisions, or something like that to be honest I got a bit lost on that one.

Now we get to the “do you like how i walk” part, which is sung by both Heart and Mind, Heart of course doing the “goofier” lyrics with Mind butting in to sing the “consequential” line, i'm not typing the whole verse out. When Heart sings the “disintegrates into chalk” line, this may be an allusion to his blindness, it clearly has a bit more importance seeing as Mind also joins in when he sings this, who knows though.

The first half of the flibbity-jibber-jabber verse (yes, that one) seems to be sung by our boy Soul, with the second part sung by Heart and Mind. The lyrics don’t really change from the original here, but my bets are they’re all going through some sort of either identity or existential crisis.

And finally, the last verse is sung in a duet by both Heart and Mind, both singing specifically about mind, with the only lyrical variation between the two versions being Heart says “you” while Mind says “I”. This is probably Heart accepting that Mind does have the high ground in this situation, and there’s not much he can do about it.

Variations on a Cloud:

This cover is a doozy! Mainly just a trio between Heart, Mind and Soul with some lyrical changes (mainly being from Soul). This is excluding one of the last parts, where the three start singing all at once completely out of harmony.

In this part Soul’s lyrics are almost completely original, where one of his lyrics is: “They say we're not worth the time, they wouldn’t spare us a dime, while they spend all their days devouring cocaine and wine,” This seems to be a jab at people who don’t do anything to help others who need it, such as people mental illnesses or physical diseases, even though they have the funding to do so.

This also includes another one of Soul’s lines: “I’ve suffered agony, relentlessly, helplessly since you came,” He’s probably saying this to Heart and Mind, for obvious reasons.

Also on that last line, “Join if you wish,” it might say something if Heart’s was the one to stick around the longest before all the texts disappeared, idk just something to point out.

I’m sure there’s more to this one, but I couldn’t find much for it apart from that last section.

Bad Day:

This one’s a bit more complicated, it doesn’t seem to directly include Mind or Heart in it.

There’s a good chance this one isn’t involved in the narrative being built here and was just a song about CJ’s health, which is what it most likely is. Though there are a few lyrics that feel a bit off, such as the repeated line of “let us sing,” as well as “you want me to sing? Fine,” But it’s also very easy to tie this to Chonny’s fans requesting songs so often, who knows.

It might also be a way of speaking the truth about one’s health instead of just the normal lyrics, which I got from the last part of the song where it goes: “Fine I'll play the happy version, free from sadness and perversion, eyes be blocked from devastation …” but who knows with this one.

Haiku:

Haiku!!! Love this one, really nice and wholesome amirite haha. Anyway, going back to Hidden in the sand, there’s a good chance this cover is likely based on the same story as Hidden. The first half of this song is about a man trying to figure out how to write a haiku for someone.

The next half is the actual haiku, which seems normal at first, until in typical Mr. Jash fashion, it turns out our subject has been stabbed, where at first he thought the love-interest had stabbed him, saying “i swore that i smelled your smell” until it goes on to say “but i stabbed myself,”

From what I've gathered, he asked a lady out, and she rejected him, so he tried to write a haiku/song for her, which he struggled to write for a while, until he finally did it, but it still wasn’t enough for her as she turned him down again.

Let’s see if this relates to the Heart, Mind and Soul narrative. At first glance it doesn’t seem like it does, but when you look more into it (as well as the Mucka Blucka cover referencing BOTH songs), you might be able to see it at least has some symbolism to Heart and Mind’s fallout.

Banana Man:

This one probably doesn’t have as much to do with our narrative we're analyzing here, mainly meant to criticise the issues with the original song, so I won’t be saying too much about it.

I suppose It CAN still be debated that it DOES include Mind and Heart, seeing as you do have a voice with Mind’s lower octave, as well as a few lines that might reference them, such as the part that goes: “forget about the voices lying deep inside, the one that’s screaming screaming and screeching, proclaiming wrong and right,” although that line can also very well be interpreted as someone’s morals that might say “hey this is kinda weird,” so we’ll see.

It states in the cover’s description that the song is meant to over-dramatize an argument Jash may have been having with a “past version of himself as well as people who refuse to acknowledge things that can be good but have problems” so this cover is most likely just that, not really much to do with our narrative and more about the problems with the song.

There is still some evidence of Mucka Blucka briefly referencing the song in the cover, as well as some of the lyrics and of course, being able to hear a voice similar to Mind’s in it, so maybe they’re vaguely involved, idk.

We’re Gonna Win:

Now THIS is a good one! I’d say this cover is where it really starts getting into the narrative of our favourite guys, with the “plots” of each song being a bit more clear.

This cover, as we know if you’ve heard it, is a combination cover of Rob Cantor’s “I’m gonna win” and Tally Hall’s “All of my friends”, and it’s definitely one of my top 5 fav covers!

The song starts with the first verse and chorus of Cantor’s “I'm gonna win,” seemingly being another trio between Heart, Mind and potentially Soul, though the chorus does sing a bit of “all of my friends” sung by Mind.

There’s a brief intermission with a distinct “click” sound, similar to a finger click or a light switch, before the second verse and chorus switches to the lyrics of “all of my friends” with a bit of “im gonna win” in the background also sung by Mind.

It then goes into the bridge, where the first actual lyrical change happens, where instead of saying either song’s actual lyrics, it goes “but we’re not so different, you see” before it goes back into both of the songs’ respective lyrics sung by both Heart and Mind, until they start singing at once, “but it’s just you and me, it’s just myself and I, we are all that we need, we are all that survives,” Now i don’t normally bring up the actual music video here, but it might be important to mention that this next part i’m gonna talk about here, up until this point as usual, Mind and Heart’s sections have been split up as black and white, but here it is entirely black, with the funny little face you see so often appearing coloured. Coolie!

In this section they are almost singing in harmony, with only the lyrics being different and some parts being dragged out a bit more. Here is possibly one of the few times they’ve been in agreement about something, basically singing about how they’ve harmonized their tones, but they’re not done, they’ll keep singing no matter what until they're “dead in the ground.” fun times!

So one can depict this as the boys finally coming to an agreement about something, at least (most likely) temporarily. That’s how i’m gonna depict it as there’s not much else to see it as.

Welcome to Tally Hall:

This is the one where we finally got the name for this little narrative, “Chonny Charming Chaos Compendium” quite a mouthful! And why i’m just calling it CCCC.

This one mostly seems like an introduction to the Jash himself, at least for the first half. When we get to the second half, we hear our first glimpses of Heart and Mind, who sing their own parts for a bit, with yet another reference to mind being some sort of robot. Whereas the first half seemed fairly normal and was just him covering the song normally, the first bit of the second half is much more like Chonny Jash’s usual style, until it goes back into the ‘normal’ cover.

Like i said, seems mostly like an introduction to Jash himself, admittedly I don’t listen to this one as much (im so sorry) so i haven’t had as much time to hyper analyse it, but maybe i’ll come back to this one day and look more into it.

Just Apathy:

I love this one! It’s so good! Definitely an underrated one compared to the others, for both Chonny and Tally Hall!

This one is fairly easy to understand, it seems to be an exchange between Mind and Soul, (or Mind and Heart, it’s a bit hard to tell) with a bit of Heart/Soul appearing at times. It seems to be highlighting their apathy to things in general, and trying to justify it.

“I’m sick and tired of holding fire, when all I feel is violence,” Wanted to single this line out, firstly, because i want to MARRY it, it is AMAZING, and also because, it being sung by Heart, can also allude to the grudges he holds.

Greener:

This one is mostly a metaphor, the “yards” being mental health. And Soul is either experiencing mania, delusional or is actually doing a bit better here. Mind also briefly shows up in this one to state that he doesn’t think this better mental health state will last, so thank you Mind appreciate it.

This one seems to be our subject, potentially Soul, seeing someone’s mental state is pretty bad and being like “same bestie,”

I haven’t got as much to say about this one either, this one is a bit clearer to me than others have been, so that’s gamers champion.

The Whole World & You:

This one is always gonna be in my top 5 favourites because it’s actually the one to introduce me to CJ in the first place! That’s right, not the mind electric, so there’s a few bragging rights for me.

This is a very funky one, with Mind very prominent in it, not so sure Heart is though - still unsure if this is Soul or Heart singing in this, but it seems like Soul so i’ll say it’s Soul. This one seems like, partially, a eulogy to Tally Hall, while also bringing our favourite CCCC lads into it.

As usual with some of the covers Jash does, it starts off sounding like a “normal” cover, before it goes into the narrative we’re familiar with. I should mention, they’ve been mention “Blues and greens” a lot in these recent covers, including greener, and this one, probably as a reference to the first cover he did, Spring & a storm.

We also hear a small tease to the mind electric when he says “Love, duality” at 1:29, ain’t that fun, speaking of this part. An interesting line would be when he says “So when the darker side had found out about the songs, i’d hidden for so long, i finally had the courage to say say ‘this is what i can do’” While Mind is heard singing in the background the whole time about him passing his “test”, this might be him talking about or TO Heart, but it’s a bit dubious.

The next part, when analysing the lyrics, seems fairly passive aggressive, with Soul (or Heart) saying “I hope you’re happy now, I've merged dark and light,” And Mind adds in “I must admit you took your sweet time,” in response. He then says “This slope I'm headed down has turned to a slide,” and mind’s line is “I always knew that we could be intertwined,” and finally Soul/heart says “So i’ll throw my hands up high and enjoy the ride,” while Mind says “You played Dr. Jekyll so I played Mr. Hyde” and the back and forth goes on for a bit, until they finally say at once “But at least now i’m mine,”

It then goes on for both of them to start singing “Please don’t just laugh and clap right now, this is serious, i'm not delirious,” which is most likely in reference to that last line, and how others may not believe it, perhaps the other side that wasn’t featured in this song.

After that the eulogy for Tally Hall happens, we know this because he says “consider this a eulogy to the colourly band that used to be” (And colourly is definitely a word trust me The Jash said so)

Be Born:

This one is a big one, and definitely a cover i need to listen to more often

This one seems to be sung by Mind, directed at Soul, saying there’s no good or evil here, they’re both just fucked up individuals who rlly need some therapy (paraphrasing), “But what if I told you, I am not the villain? What if I told you, you’re the same as I? …”

Also included are the first glimpses of their names (since we haven’t had any mention of their names til this point) by mentioning Heart and Mind a few times.

It also repeats how at one point, Mind was the one in charge, but not anymore, probably due to our buddy Soul.

So basically Mind humbles Soul THOROUGHLY in this song. Including the end, where Mind states, directed at Soul, “these facts entwine to form a sign, to craft your voice in heart and mind. So make your choice, and make it right. Will we be ours? Or will you die?” So basically, Soul has to choose between the two of them, or else he’ll just run himself into the ground from depression. Yay..!

Going back to the idea that Mind used to be the host, now run by Soul or Heart, it seems like whichever one is “running the vessel” is, consequently, getting very tired of it, as Mind says “So if you’re sick, and if you’re tired, then soothe your heart with songs inspired,” This seems to also be directed at Soul, due to that last point of him saying that Soul has to make a decision.

Special:

From Soul’s perspective, it mainly seems to be about his struggles in terms of his morals and how ‘special’ he is.

One line that is definitely in reference to Heart and Mind would be: “If there’s one person in this world that I can’t trick it’s myself,” It’s pretty self-explanatory. Soul can’t lie to Mind and Heart, they know about him too well.

He later goes on to say “And anyway, who am I to fret like this? Maybe a keychange can pull me out of this abyss.” The tone of the song changes significantly, going on to say with a more hopeful tone to it “Sooner or later I shall find myself and make amends with the me left on the shelf,” Soul wants to make amends with Mind (we can tell the “me left on the shelf” is Mind thanks to our bestie Mucka Blucka cover, where it references this, and the “me left on the shelf” part is sung by the one and only automaton man)

They eventually go on to sing 4 different lyrics at once, two being the usual special lyrics (one of which uses we/us pronouns instead of i/me pronouns, and also fades into the lyrics of Time Machine by Miracle Musical) and the other two being two different sets of lyrics from Variations on a cloud.

This is also the cover where he starts using live action more instead of just the funky little face with lyrics and blacks and whites.

Two Wuv:

Again, from Soul’s perspective, but more about the public’s opinion of his duality. Specifically, parents, family, as well as churches and whatnot.

“Father, saint and Mary, I hope you understand … I think that you’ve been playing this wrong, I've come around a thousand times but I'm still singing this song,” This line is directed at the churches, how he’s gone there so many times but praying has never worked, he’s still making this music, he’s still got issues.

“I wrote a couple rhymes, over tunes I didn’t write, In an attempt to reconcile what keeps me up at night,” In reference to the last song, where Soul tried to make amends with Mind.

You can also use the next line, “But as ideas began to grow, and the tracklist followed suit, the halves I once reviled had finally settled their dispute,” the songs and ideas are a metaphor for Soul’s mental state, and when it started deteriorating, Mind and Heart decided to “settle their dispute”. This is also told from Mind’s perspective in "Storm & a Spring,” where he sees a “soul so deep, and dark, and eternally cold, and an oath formed from us both that it would stay whole,” Mind and Heart made an oath to keep Soul together.

“The person you see is a dark, divided man, but the fact is that is just who I am, and I can’t keep selling this facade when I know that it’s a scam,” This one is fairly self-explanatory, his family knows that he is suffering like this, but he’s come to accept it, and he can’t keep acting like he’s okay when everyone knows he’s not.

“But I think for the first time in my life, that these oddities that bonded me aren’t worth the fucking strife,” Despite Mind and Heart making an oath to keep Soul bonded, he can’t deal with them and the constant alienation from society they bring him.

“Fog so thick and hazy” may be a reference to Heart’s blindness, as well as the one quote from Mucka Blucka “… My eyes in a mist, I finally realised I shot at myself …” though it feels a bit out of place, so possibly not.

This is also the cover where CJ brings the boys signature colours into the videos, the electric guitar having a blue edge, likely to symbolise it’s Mind playing the guitar.

This can also have two meanings to it, obviously the one we’ve just covered, but also the idea of being queer in a christian household or town, and having to deal with the issues that brings. “I refuse to be the person that my parents eulogise,” and “… But i’m an egoistic queer under any definition of the word,” these are normally interpreted as coming out to your parents and them not accepting you or being different to what they wanted you to be. The line “Fog so thick and hazy, calls for holy light,” can be in reference to how people might say he needs “God’s guidance”.

The Bidding:

This is a good one! First song I was there to experience be released, it’s also in the favs list. This is mostly Mind and Heart arguing while Soul suffers in the background. I'm not gonna go hugely into detail with every little line in this one for Heart and Mind’s parts because it can all be summed up as “they fightin’” but i’ll go more into detail for Soul’s and whatnot.

Mind seems pretty much tired of the arguments, but still adding to them and egging Heart on. He points out how Heart keeps “putting in his dimes” or, contributing to the argument.

Heart’s part is him pointing out Mind’s hypocrisy, and how he is doing the exact same thing he is, yet he acts so much higher than Heart.

Soul’s chorus is him trying to get them to stop arguing, saying “time is short, life even more, yet you wage this silly war,” they have these petty arguments so often they’re letting life pass them by. He then threatens to “tie the rope” if you catch my drift.

The next part of the chorus is Mind and Heart singing in harmony about how they have been in “total agony” ever since the other came around, they then lose the harmony, going back to insulting each other.

Soul obviously notices that temporary harmony, and urges them to try again, saying that even if it is just from them insulting each other like children they harmonised none-the-less, saying even if they won’t do it for each other, he wants them to do it for him, that he doesn’t know how much more he can take of their arguing, but if they can harmonise maybe he can finally be himself.

In this section they are briefly able to harmonise to say one word, and then say the last sentence “this dissonance could disappear” in harmony. Let's go girlies!

Mucka Blucka:

Hooey! finally the song i mentioned so much! to be fair it’s absolutely littered with references that are really useful for evidence, soooo…

This one seems like a sort of recap of Mind, Heart and Soul’s characters, with several references to past songs as well as the very much more in-your-face reveal of our boys' names (though technically they were revealed last song, but I didn’t notice that until 20 minutes ago soo… shhhh) and also the plethora of chicken puns.

We also get a retelling of Heart and Mind’s fallout, where Heart shot at Mind, which led to Heart going blind, and him realising that he kind of brought that upon himself.

Time Machine by MM also makes a reappearance in this one, at the very end using the melody of the original song.

The state they’re all in is often described as a “personal hell” or the likes, they’re all trapped and suffering for eternity here.

“It’s painful to admit, but even I can see through my bullshit,” can be seen as a reference to the Special cover, where Soul mentions how he can’t really trick himself, aka Mind and Heart.

Dream:

Mind and Heart’s fights have gotten worse, seemingly physical, and Soul seems to be getting increasingly paranoid, thinking they’re trying to take control and probably kill him.

You may have noticed, Mind and Heart have not been trying to do this, they’ve been far too busy being mad at eachother. Outside of them arguing, they’ve still been trying to keep Soul together (as far as i’m aware) so them trying to kill him is a bit contradictory, isn’t it? But maybe they don’t realise that their arguing is slowly breaking Soul down, mentally and possibly physically, so he may be assuming they’re doing this on purpose to usurp him.

Still they’re arguing, and it seems in this song Mind and Heart are possibly getting ready for another fight, and Soul is having a breakdown over it because he wants to live, so he decides to try one more time, what this is? I have no clue, it’s probably obvious and i’m just stupid and sleep deprived, maybe something like giving them one more chance to sort their issues i have no idea.

The Heart Acoustic:

Yeah that’s right i’m splitting them up. You’ll catch me dead before I put the TWELVE MINUTE SONG into it’s own section. Fuck that.

Anyway, here’s where we first see Heart’s face with the blindfold, as well as his perspective on things. It seems He wants everyone to stay alive, but he knows that “one plus one can’t equal two if happiness is both our truths,” He knows that Soul will have to pick ONE of them.

It’s also where we first see signs of Heart’s chest pains, since he’s seen several times holding his chest in the way someone would if it was hurting.

“… And you beg for it to stop, but you’ve already dug your lot in the ground,” This line is likely in reference to later on in the song, during Mind’s part where he mentions how Heart “fell into a hole he dug for him”

He antagonises Mind saying he tricked Soul into becoming what it is, and while he certainly had a part in it, if we’re talking about the constant arguments wearing Soul down, we know that both of them had a part in that.

In the last verse of Heart’s acoustic, he once again calls Mind an “automaton freak” and saying he doesn’t care anymore, the “vessel” is becoming worn.

I also noticed how Heart barely gets that last “fare” out before it immediately switches into Mind’s perspective, how kind.

The Mind Electric:

Mind is a really good one, although it’s the shortest, he certainly uses the time well to give us the good ol’ tiktok audios

As stated previously, Mind switches in and is IMMEDIATELY singing, like a millisecond intermission before he’s insulting Heart. You go dude, I think.

The first paragraph is pretty much a diss track on Heart, insulting him CONSTANTLY, before it shifts to the second paragraph where he keeps insulting him, but also saying his logic is the absolute!

Third paragraph is a little different, he mentions how Heart probably sees him as just a “simple, cynical machine,” (which he does, admittedly), but despite that, he still has Soul’s best interests in mind (pun not intended).

He goes on to say he doesn’t enjoy covering these songs — likely because he’s the one most often there in the covers, maybe not the main focus but he’s THERE. He then says he’s knows its “hard to see my rhyme behind the entropy, but if he’d just once humour me, he’d see we need to live life logically,” The “he” in this situation is most likely Soul, but it might be Heart.

He goes back to insulting Heart, saying he sounds profound but it’s “insincere,”

“See how his feet miss the ground, and he falls inside a hole he dug for me.” This line is in reference to Mind and Heart’s fallout, which we all know by now.

He then goes on to say “Though I seem harsh in all my assessments, we each seek a life lived in the light …” Yeah no shit half the song has been you insulting Heart, anyway, he goes on to say that they can’t live in this “light” because Heart has been hella resentful and stubborn.

And now unlike the transition between Heart to Mind, the transition from Mind to Soul is much different. Mind gets PLENTY of time to say that last word, in fact he gets to enunciate the T iin “akaryocyte” before it switches, lucky him!

The Soul Eclectic:

Now unlike Mind’s part, Soul waits like a whole 10 years before singing, adding distortions and instrumentals for a whole 5 second intermission before the “Yo”.

He introduces himself to the audience as The Soul, his name (which he promptly doesn’t say, thanks man), your host or insane. The whole range!

Mind and Heart then butt in briefly to once again try to persuade Soul to make a choice on who to pick, through insults at each other, ofc.

Now Soul is much different in this song, he’s aggressive and snippy, probably at his limit, saying “you seem to forget, you answer to me,” reminding them that they can’t be too pushy or smth idk.

He still goes on to say however, that neither Heart or Mind is wrong or right.

“You must be so arrogant to think that either of you can control The Soul so wholly, when to be one whole you can’t hold solely” This one’s pretty self-explanatory. He’s reminding them that it needs to either be BOTH of them in harmony here, or that it would have to be shared with Soul himself.

The next verse is another reminder of his power over the two, he’s the “lord” in this situation.

After an intermission, he goes on to say “‘Cos I’m not nearly kind enough to leave you parasites inside me …” Fun times! Surely I don’t need to explain that one, I am very tired.

There’s another intermission, with some additional lyrics that i don’t need to get into bc we get the message, before they bring in the next section with all three saying “I am me”, not quite at once.

We then get to the serfs work the ground verse, where the lyrics remain mostly the same, except for a small shift saying “See how the brain plays around, and it splits what once was whole down into three,”

We then get to the Demo 4 section, that’s right WE GOT DEMO 4 IN THIS BITCH i literally screamed when I heard that part not even joking. Anyway, you know this you’ve probably heard the song. The first part of the Demo 4 section is sung in unison by Heart and Mind, as they pretty much insult each other repeatedly.

The next part is sung by Soul, and how they are always fighting, never hearing what the other has to say.

And then the last verse. God help me. It pans to a clip of Soul singing the last part, with his usual red lipstick, but with Heart’s nail paint and Mind’s blue guitar. He’s given Mind and Heart one last chance to sort their shit out, or else he’s gonna “take them down with him” if you know what I mean. Yeah. Fun times!

Storm & a Spring:

Mind slays yet again in this, and once again it is directed at Heart!

“One time I tried to sing … But it was nothing fucking new.” Ironically enough, this one DOESN'T seem to give much new information, but instead reinforcing some old information we got from Mind’s perspective, such as the oath and seemingly the idea that Heart can’t/won’t let them “live in the light” (likely a metaphor for healing or letting go of old grudges).

It DOES however, proposes the idea of Mind’s headaches for (I think) the first time, (at least visually) seeing as several times throughout the song he’s holding/rubbing his head.

“You thought they were listening? …” This is most likely talking about Soul, maybe both Mind and Soul, never actually listening to Heart’s laments.

“I’m sure you really sang your Heart out, … that’s how it seemed. … Looks can be deceiving.” This line might be one of the few new bits of information we get, or not and my brain didn’t connect it to anything idk. It seems like Soul/Mind tried to ‘kick Heart out’ (possibly kill him) but it didn’t work. It might also be a reference to Heart and Mind’s fallout, which resulted in Heart’s blindness, but that's a theory.

There’s also hints that Heart may have tried to off himself, but Mind stopped him because it would’ve also killed Soul, but I admit I cannot find much evidence for this outside of the song.

“So if you insist on crying, while our host is slowly dying, then i’ll cut you loose and spare this noose the deadweight,” as well as “if i left it to you, you’d fall under its weight and kill it too,” are some key points, it might also be a new event that happened between TMA and S&aS, so who knows.

Part I: Night:

Fun fact about this one, for some reason I thought the song was started by Mind for so long. Like as of writing this the song is about a month old right?? I only realised a couple of days ago that it was started off by Heart. And I'm sure you can tell by this entire post that I probably listen to Chonny Jash a bit more than the average person, right? So why the hell did I not notice it till now? My brain works in mysterious ways dawg.

Another thing I noticed when drawing them once that has absolutely nothing to do with their lore (as far as i'm aware) is the fact that Heart is absolutely DRIPLESS. Like Mind and Soul have these cool jackets going, Soul with the fur and Mind with the hot-topic, but Heart just has his hoodie and sweatpants, and I find that hilarious. I think I will draw that.

Anyway, within the first 30 seconds, as I just mentioned, the song is started off by our bestie Heart, and we can also see two fairly brief clips of Mind and Soul sitting down, facing the camera. Very interesting! Maybe they’re finally having group therapy (wishful thinking)

“Open the window, look out and see me,” This quote is started off by Heart, but then fades into Mind by time he says “out”, this is clearly meant to give the image of Heart opening the window, looking out, and seeing Mind! wow!

“Tonight, I’m arriving alive and alight, … All the black, and the gray, and the white,” The boys have finally made up! They’re “in the light”, and harmonising!

The next verse, sung by our boy Soul, seems to be him inviting Mind and Heart to “look out through” his eyes.

Basically this one seems fairly upbeat, right? The best outcome, everyone’s united, Soul doesn’t want to kill Heart or Mind, Heart and Mind don’t seem to want to kill each other, they all WANT to unite, it’s a good outcome!

Although, from what i’ve gathered of the bridge here, they’re not fully sure it’s real, something feels off, Heart and Mind still seem to be at least a little passive-aggressive, but we don’t get to hear much else about it as it fades into the last chorus.

Part II: Light:

So I'm not the greatest at expressions, especially reading them but I figured I could do it this time seeing as their faces are there this time.

Something I noticed in the first few seconds as it switches between Heart and Mind is Mind’s expression. Not really sure how to describe it, but I find it very interesting. In the first shot of him it’s pretty unreadable, he’s just staring ahead into the camera, a little stoically maybe, the second time is pretty much the same, only he blinks slowly, but the third and fourth times seem VERY interesting to me. Now it might just be the autism misinterpreting facial expressions here, but he seems almost solemn? maybe regretful even. In the third part he looks away from the camera, his eyes downturned, and the fourth is him in that same expression, looking down away from the camera.

Now that previous analysis is very interesting considering what Heart’s lyrics are going to be about. “Sitting in the sight of that which blinds [sun], tore me at the seams. Harsh palpitations that tunneled my view, eyesight grew warped, distorted and skewed.” Now anyone with a brain (That of which i certainly have and noticed the first time I heard the song yes certainly) would know that Heart is describing how and why he went blind. Heart’s eyes are extremely sensitive to light, and considering the other two want to live in the light, that is a problem! It’s likely why he wore the blindfold previously if he wasn’t blind then. Now as we established in the Night section, we know they’ve all managed to start living in the light, and so I'm sure I don’t need to explain any more.

Now the next verse is also very good (this whole song is ngl), it’s sung by our bestie Mind once again, and it seems like he’s finally having some empathy for Heart here, at least a little maybe. possibly. “Striving to be right, I fight this sordid fight against the other one,” He says, it seems like he’s finally admitting that these arguments with Heart have not been justified in any way, they’ve been stupid and infantile, simply looking to win the arguments.

“Transmute the pain to kinetic energy,” Now if you’ve taken your science classes children, you’d know that kinetic energy is the action of movement. He probably got physical with Heart at times, which we do have some evidence of in Dream, where Soul describes them as “covered in their blood and sweat,” which is not usually something that can be achieved just verbally, unless you’re in an anime maybe but I don’t think this counts as an anime.

“Tonight you’ve survived out of pity and spite, all night you have vied for your place in the light,” slay Soul, you go, clearly he’s speaking to both of them here.

“But I won’t be split in two, won’t be him or you, we will be combined whether that be dead or alive, let’s blur these lines,” He doesn’t want either of them to become him, he wants them to be combined, all sharing a place if u know what I mean.

“Please help decipher this life that we lead, for each step that we take, the answer takes three,” I got a feeling this one is directed at Heart, seeing as he would probably be least willing to figure things out or go into the light (if they’re the same, i’m not totally sure), and also the fact that Heart’s part is immediately after, and while it’s not a response, it feels like a response, yk?

After Heart’s verse, Mind and Heart then go on to sing the chorus in unison one more time (altered at the beginning to fit Soul’s “split in two” segment from before), two halves of their faces have been split to form one full face, and our boy Soul appearing at the very end with “mine,” all three then go on to take turns singing some lines about how “something must feel lest they rot,” and how things ARE different. They’re understanding each other more. “Something has shone,” seems like the best line to use.

“All of the else will fade away” they then all sing in unison, Mind and Heart’s faces split to form a whole new face, with Soul’s layered over the top.

And now this last verse sung by Heart is about him accepting the others and his own humanity. “That sad, sulking mess. This human you’re being,” FUCK OFF /pos

And finally, the second last chorus sung by Heart at first, “tonight i’m arriving alive and alight,” im sure i need not say anymore about that. It then transitions into another mix of all three faces, saying “with doubt consigned to drought let ardour sprout cos …” This brief statement basically means, even in doubt, let passion grow. Normal-wordified.

And finally, the last chorus is sung by all three mixed together still, where basically they sing about how they’re going to combine, they’re all onboard, they’re letting that “ardour sprout,” “fuse the moon, and sun, change your point of view, let us variate these hues” or, more familiarly, “blur these lines,” you go girls!

A theory I have is that Night & Light is more based on the same experience, night being the more upbeat “wow everything instantly turned out great!” ending where we’re kinda left “in the dark” about it perhaps. While Light is the more realistic approach, where they had their own struggles to go through, and still have more struggles to go through, but they’re trying now, working together, and that's a REALLY big step.

And that’s it! Final thoughts have been reposted (if you’ve already seen this and are coming back to it to see it has more added to it, you didn’t notice anything. For some reason it didn’t paste some of the end, very mean of it)

“All of the else will fade away” they then all sing in unison, Mind and Heart’s faces split to form a whole new face, with Soul’s layered over the top.

And now this last verse sung by Heart is about him accepting the others and his own humanity. “That sad, sulking mess. This human you’re being,” FUCK OFF /pos

And that’s it! I’m gonna reblog this with some “final thoughts” that didn’t really need to go into the whole post.

#chonny jash #cj mind #cj heart #cj soul #Birdo babbles #i wish i was joking when i say this took me around 8 hours #man i can’t believe i did this instead of assignment work #long post

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arcticdementor · 4 years ago

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There is an old adage in business; talent goes where the money is.

There will shortly be a new adage; talent avoids where the Woke is.

Google and Amazon became the powerhouses they are today because a generation ago (ouch) they were willing to spend big to get talent. And they got it. It says something about the level of people they were getting that one of the questions on Google’s employment application was, how many books have you written? This was before internet publishing was a thing.

Unlike the Dickensian workhouse conditions for the Microserfs up north at Redmond, the googlers were treated like princes. One of the big winners when the company finally went public was the company chef, not food service’s director you understand, but chef as in actual chef.

…

The Woke will always find a reason to hire other Wokelings. Diversity is usually a good excuse but there is always a way to justify hiring someone who is utterly unqualified for her job. And those that are actually good at their jobs have to take up the slack for the useless dead weight. It used to be a “blonde with a great rack.” Now it’s a “three-hundred-pound, hippo with a purple mental-illness haircut.”

The thing is the blonde was always cheerful, nice to everyone, and pleasant to look at. She at least made the work environment more enjoyable. On the other hand, the whale with the purple hair is constantly shrieking and demanding submission to the SJW narrative from everyone that she comes in contact with. During working hours instead of doing her job, she is organizing witch hunts to get people fired. She and her comrades make life miserable at that company.

Here’s my big point: Every top tier worker in that field will know about this and avoid that company like the plague in the future.

…

Disney Parks now has that same problem with the Imagineers.

There was a reason Disneyland was such a cut above county carnivals and that reason was…Europe?!?!

It’s true. European amusement parks go back a long time, some of them are older than the United States. Walt was impressed by the pristine look and feel of European amusement parks. The reason they were cleaner and more highbrow was because they were parks first and foremost. Europeans for centuries would travel to a certain locale to “partake of the waters,” or they would go somewhere with beautifully manicured gardens or magnificent concertos.

The hawkers, vendors, and amusements would follow. However, the men running the parks would demand high standards from these camp followers. Since these people became permanent residents, it was easy for them to settle in and take snobbish pride in their professions and workplace.

The result was a higher quality experience for European parkgoers.

American amusements were unfortunately dominated by carnival culture. Dusty, grungy, chipped paint, gaudy lights, and fleece the rubes, then get out of town. American carnivals consisted of ripoff games, creaking rides, and strippers who had young bodies with aging faces. Kids always wanted to go but parents could see what was beneath the gaudy surface. It was tolerable as a once-a-year thing, but so far as respectable middle-class families were concerned it was just as well that the carnies left town after two or three weeks.

After a trip to Barcelona’s Tibidabo, Walt Disney decided he was going to change all that.

Disney repeatedly said, “Disneyland could only have been built by a movie company.” And he was right. Nobody else would have approached problems in quite the same way as a film company. Walt’s people understood perspective in a way that most architects and engineers simply could not. His parkgoers were viewed as an audience, they weren’t just there to go on rides they were there for a holistic experience. The park employees were called cast members for a reason.

Each of Disneyland’s three amusement parks had stories to tell. And they were very American stories. Main Street USA was a step backward in time to an innocent America that knew nothing of the horrors of the Great War or World War Two, the desperation of the Depression, and fear of atomic weapons. Frontierland told parkgoers tales of myth heroes of the American people. The tall stories of frontier heroes like Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. While Frontierland looked back with pride on the achievements of the past, Tomorrowland looked forward to an optimistic American future.

As for Fantasyland, those stories were about as Americanized as you can get. All of my readers are probably well aware of little details that got filed off, like stepsisters cutting off their own toes or why Hansel and Gretel were really in the Woods all by themselves and what Prince Charming actually did with Sleeping Beauty. But fantasyland didn’t have any of those little details. It was a place of beauty, heroism, and of course magic.

At Disney Parks the backstory has always come first. And all of the park rides have them

…

When Walt Disney was at the Tibidabo he saw the Automata Museum, he tried repeatedly to buy it over the years. They were the kind of thing he would become obsessed with. The man who built a ¼ scale ridable railroad in his backyard had to have some of this own.

Taking the initials of his name; Walter Elias Disney founded WED Enterprises and began building his own automatons which he called, animatronics. The men who designed them were christened, Imagineers.

The Imagineers were the men who made the dreams happen, they were the illusionists who created the magic. Make you an audience think they were taking a trip to the moon? No problem. Take a cable car ride to the top of the Matterhorn? Easy. Convince people they were in a mansion surrounded by 999 ghosts “with room for one more”? Give me a real challenge.

Okay, that last one was a real challenge as it turned out. Disneyland has nowhere near the room that Disney World would have in years to come. The Imagineers needed to figure out how to get the Haunted Mansion’s passengers from the assembly station to the start of the ride when there were railroad tracks between these two points and keep the audience engaged in the story at the same time. The solution was to build the world’s largest open elevator and make it part of the story. Which is how the Stretching Room came to be.

The Imagineers have had their fails as well. The Yeti on Expedition Everest was the largest animatronic Disney ever built. And it was only briefly in operation because as it turned out the rest of the ride was under-engineered. The robot-monster was so big it was damaging the roller coaster during its act.

Well, anyone can have a bad day. My point is that, traditionally, the Imagineers successes are so big their failures really standout.

Note my use of the word “traditionally.”

The old guard of Imagineers as represented by the likes of Joe Rohde, found themselves out of a job this year. Pushed out from below by the Young Turks of the Stories Matter group.

Far from viewing the audience as their public to be entertained, the Stories Matter Imagineers clearly and obviously view it as a class in need of education. Although, the Stories Matter crowd is often desperate to show how clever they are. Remember how the old school guys wanted to keep the crowd in the moment at the Haunted Mansion? The new generations of Imagineers could care less about that. Witness the Stargate and Death-Taco that are now hideously disfiguring the beauty of the World Showcase Lake at Epcot.

Now they are moving on to the backstories. The Jungle Cruise ride is being refurbished on the fly without closing it. They don’t have any choice the movie will be out before they could close and reopen. They are also frantically retconning the backstory of the ride to make it much more Woke.

#dark herald #arkhaven comics #disney #google #read the whole thing

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canidrook · 5 years ago

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Can we talk about the food service industry?

I was in the food industry for about a decade, before I joined the military. The military was what you’d expect (or maybe not). But I to this day have more food service industry related traumatic stress dreams and panic attacks than I did with any of my military service history.

It’s terrifying, the way your are dehumanized not just on one side but all sides. I had way too many managers and shift supervisors relegate me to “mindless automaton that needs no rest”. I’m talking clopening shifts, working while I was sick (several times) under threat of loosing my job, and taking shifts on days I was not scheduled because they knew I needed the money.

On top of that you deal daily with people who think of you as nothing but the same service robot you’ve been relegated to by your employers and or management team. I’ve had customers threaten my life when I was alone because my manager or shift supervisor was on break. I’m not talking because they wanted the money in the safe, I mean over a cup ‘a joe.

At one point there was a much older and stronger older customer that stalked me at my store and one day waited for closing to try and “ask me out on a date”. The doors were locked and we were obviously closed but he knocked on the door anyways. I came and told him we were closed and that he could come back tomorrow. He became insistent that I come outside and talk with me about our “relationship”.

I, being a bullied scared lanky twink, was terrified. I mean he was obviously going to murder me. So I walked in the back and waited for my manager to come back from smoke break.

I’m happy to report that I did not get murdered, and that after that he never showed up at the store again. I think my manager said something, there’s always good ones. There has to be good ones supporting the system, otherwise it wouldn’t work. And the terrible thing is that it does work. These industries, by design work in a way that views it’s workers as disposable. They view the jobs they create as not worth having so the public does as well.

Now I’ve only brought up the counter side of the experience. The drive through experience can be as traumatic as they get sometimes. I would never work at a drive thru again. The way people talk to you is just unreal. Like you’re not a real person. To the customer it’s a shared trauma with the people behind them. For the people behind the window it’s fucking 1-5 min chat roulette, but less horny (sometimes) and more mean kids from high school.

My point being, that I’m thinking of going back to it for a while, to have income. The virus is really making income an issue, and I could use the extra money. I guess I’m just not sure about it.

#food service industry #wtf is going on #wtf #seriously wtf #how is this possible #send help #please help #the strugge is real #struggling artist #need to vent #should do any work with clear thinking and firm intention #make art #this turned into a rant #fair wages #raise the minimum wage #minimum wage #tips #blog post

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deathrequest · 6 years ago

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OH FUCK YALL I NEVER SENT THE AUTOMATED PLAYERS AU WHOOPS

ok so like this entire thing is based on the fact that welcome to tally hall heavily implies the band is just singing automatons. so yeah. inventor bora and his friend casey shea decided to build a robot band who accidentally became sentient and just kinda dick around doing what only tally hall can do (sharing a single braincell)

for each of the bot’s specific design things: rob is golden! where bora got that gold is a mystery never to be solved. he’s made of clockwork (bc of cuckoo) and has a giant wind-up key sticking out of his back that you cant see in that pic bc perspective. sometimes he randomly winds down during performances and zubin or casey or whoever has to wind him back up again

andy is silver, and is steam powered! he was the first bot to begin writing his own songs when he first started humming the whole world and you! this is an old pic so the grate in his chest has been abandoned solely in favor of the chimney exhaust pipe thing sticking out of the left side of his head (“yknow for the steam” -bora)

joe, copper, is the oldest bot! as a result he’s pretty oxidized. he’s made of clockwork, and he sometimes s-s-stutters a la rabbit from spg, as well as being able to speak in reverse. his one goal before powering down for the last time is getting to visit hawaii

ross! ross is half silver half brass and was the last bot made! he was built as a replacement drummer for steve (but not to replace steve himself) and as a result is made up of mostly spare parts. he’s gas powered, and the goggles on his head were actually casey’s originally

zubin is copper just like joe, and is a special dieselpunk bot. he wears his hair in a ponytail bc “sometimes he can get overheated and catch fire, but it’s fine it’s only happened once” -bora. he also tends to malfunction the least steve (not pictured) was a brass drummer-bot who ended up running away to become a traveling salesman. it’s okay tho, the band sometimes gets letters sent from him

#feel free to ask questions or draw the bots they own all of my uwus #tally hall #rob cantor #zubin sedghi #joe hawley #ross federman #andrew horowitz #bora karaca #casey shea #sharing sotries #the automated players

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kyrieanne · 5 years ago

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In which I try to convince another person to watch Parks and Rec

In a recent hangout, @elizabethminkel, @imaginarycircus, and I were trying to convince @flourish to watch Parks and Recreation. I made the argument that if they like Star Trek: Voyager they will like Parks & Rec. So Flourish agreed that if I made a post laying out my Parks & Rec is Star Trek Voyager in sitcom form argument, they would move it up on their watch list.

So Flourish, here you go...

KA’S GENERAL ADVICE TO STARTING PARKS & REC

Start with Season 2. You can go back and watch Season 1 later. It’s only 6 episodes and they were still getting the tone for Amy Poehler’s character just right. Starting in Season 2, all of Leslie Knope’s co-workers know she is good at her job no matter how out there they (for good reason) think she is.

Pawnee is a character. Kind of like how the Simpsons have all these secondary and tertiary characters that rotate through — so does Pawnee and the town as a character becomes a damn delight in watching the show. Treat yo’ self to this article on the fabulous murals in Pawnee City Hall. (For the record, my favorite Pawnee citizen is this man:

It’s more serialized than you expect a sitcom to be. You won’t be confused by the story no matter what episode you watch, but the real gold of Parks is watching it as serialized television with real arcs. Assume you’ll want to keep watching once you start.

MEET THE CREW

JANEWAY | Leslie Knope - Leslie Knope is the sitcom version of a young Janeway — kick ass, smart, hardworking, and ambitious. The Leslie you see in Season 7 is probably closer to the Janeway you see when Voyager begins. Both of these stories center on a woman leading, one at the beginning of her career and the other at the pinnacle of it (cause obviously Voyager made Janeway a damn legend). What they have in common all along the way is a literal crew. Janeway is in the wild, Wild West, without the bureaucracy of Star Fleet, and Leslie Knope is navigating the endless bureaucracy of local government. Both are rule followers until the rules fail to make sense; then they are willing to do anything to care for the people under their charge.

CHAKOTAY | Chris Traeger - They’re both in charge of things. They both principled characters who know what they believe. Often, they are both foils for other characters and they always come through.

TUVOK | Donna Meagle - Both bosses. Both totally who they are and if you don’t like it then that’s a you problem.

TOM PARIS | Tom Haverford - Obsessed with pop culture. Flirts. Got something to prove. Their stories veer in different directions, but they start in a similar place.

B’ELANNA TORRES | April Ludgate - Each woman is unique, but they were both young and savvy. Torres struggles with the two halves of who she is (Klingon/Human) and April, over the course of the series, struggles with apathy vs. earnestness. Like how Janeway gives Torres a shot as Chief Engineer, Leslie Knope will never give up on April and the show rewards the viewer with a great female-female mentorship.

DOCTOR | Ron Swanson - Iconic grumps who find people extremely irritating. The Doctor is a bit more naive than Ron, but both evolve into more than they could have ever imagined. The Doctor, like Ron, gets all the best one liners.

SEVEN | Ben Wyatt - He’s a ‘numbers robot’ and she’s Borg. Both begin their character arcs a little traumatized by their pasts and without real human relationships. Overtime, they become emotive, hopeful people who show they care by taking action often at a deep personal expense. (see what Ben Wyatt does in “The Trial of Leslie Knope”)

HARRY KIM | Ann Perkins - A really damn good friend and person, both of them. Both have terrible luck in romantic relationships for most of their respective series.

NEELIX | Andy Dwyer - Andy is funnier than Neelix and Neelix is smarter than Andy, but both have a tendency to drop a piece of wisdom when you least expect it.

JOE CAREY | Jerry Gergich - He’s there! He’s got a family! No one can quite remember his name.

KES | Mark Brendanawicz - Kes goes out as a alien beam of light; Mark will have a similar-ish fate.

SESKA | Tammy 2 - You will love Tammy 2. She is a sex-positive Seska — over everyone’s shit and completely insane.

THE BORG QUEEN | Eagleton - Pawnee’s rival town full of suburban automatons.

KA’S VERY SPECIFIC PITCH TO FLOURISH

First off, there’s that meme - “Be the Leslie Knope of whatever you do.” Janeway is the Leslie Knope of Star Fleet Captain. Trust me on this.

Second, I know you aren’t super into comedies, though you love Brooklyn Nine Nine and The Good Place. But hear me out…

Voyager is a sci-fi drama that is often the red-head step child of the Star Trek franchise because it isn’t dark and political like Deep Space Nine, philosophical like The Next Generation, etc. It had all the hallmarks of Star Trek — adventure, drama, an ethos of hope — etc, but it was also FUN.

Parks is a comedy — I won’t pretend it’s got the angst of a drama, but it is a comedy of IDEAS, a hallmark for any Mike Schur show. Where as The Good Place was about philosophy, Parks is about community. Voyager is about getting home; Parks and Rec is about making the place you call home better. Like Voyager, it takes people who owe nothing to each other and forms a community. Nothing will make you feel FEELINGS like the end of “End of the World” (Season 4, Episode 6) or the end of “The Trial of Leslie Knope” (Season 4, Episode 9), episodes where characters reach dramatic, but quiet life changing moments where they see the world differently than they did before. They change. I think that’s probably what I’m trying to say — Parks and Rec characters change and grow with as much narrative arch as any drama.

Watching that is a damn delight.

KA’S FAVORITE EPISODES BY SEASON

Season 1

“Rock Show” (Episode 6)

Season 2

“Hunting Trip” (Episode 10)

’94 Meetings” (Episode 21)

“Telethon” (Episode 22)

Season 3

“Flu Season” (Episode 2)

“Harvest Festival” (Episode 7)

“April & Andy’s Fancy Party” (Episode 9)

“Road Trip” (Episode 13)

“The Fight” (Episode 14)

Season 4

“The Treaty” (Episode 7)

“Smallest Park” (Episode 8)

“Win, Lose, or Draw” (Episode 22)

Season 5

“Halloween Surprise” (Episode 5)

“Leslie and Ben” (Episode 14)

Season 6

“The Cones of Dunshire” (Episode 9)

“Moving Up” (Episode 21 & 22)

Season 7

“Leslie and Ron” (Episode 4)

“One Last Ride” (Episode 12 & 13)

#parks #star trek voyager

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iknownothingihearnothing · 6 years ago

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Game of Thrones 8.1 “Winterfell”

OMG.

ZOMGGGGGGGG.

Them dang ol’ dang ol’ Thrones are BACK!

It’s been twenty looooooooooooong months of GoTlessess. Winter came. And left. And damn came again. And now winter has come for our heroes in the glory of springtime.

Can’t you just hear the little birdies chirping? The bees buzzing? The white walkers moaning as they shamble beyond the wrecked Wall in their endless quest for dominance and human flesh?

You’d be forgiven if you don’t entirely remember what happened last season. Jon bent the knee to Dany after he and some of his Merry Men--the Amazing Tormund Giantsbane included--ventured Beyond the Wall to capture a wight in order to prove to Cersei that, yes, the undead were indeed real and not a conspiracy cooked up by Ser Alyx of House Jones in order to get her to let her guard down just enough for Dany and Co. to steal her crown and she sailed in on Drogon like a badass and rescued them. No damsel in distress here. So Jon lost his King in the North status but he gained a lady friend, and by “friend”, I mean--

After seeing the wight for herself, Cersei promised to send the Lannister army up North to fight for the living. But, you know...

Gratefully, our handsome Kingslayer, however, has some scruples. Finally having had enough with Cersei’s crazy bullshit, he tells her he swore to fight for the living and that is what he is going to do, damnit, and takes himself North-way, leaving his sisterlover and their maybe bun in the oven behind in the capital.

The biggest reveal, of course, was the confirmation of the long running theory of R+L=J. AKA, Rhaegar Targaryen went off and married Lyanna Stark in secret, she got preggies with Jon/Aegon and, dying in the Tower of Joy, Lyanna made a young Ned Stark promise he’d always take care of her son. So he lied to everyone, that he was his bastard kid to protect him from the “all Targaryens must DIE” Baratheon rule (that non-Aryan head of hair helped, I’m sure) and raised him in Winterfell as a Stark but not a Stark.

Now Jon Snow, who started the series knowing nothing, will soon know all.

Including that he’s technically been fucking his aunt but what’s a little incest between friends on Game of Thrones?

Oh and also Viserion was taken out and the Night King revived him to knock down the wall. We have an undead dragon, people!

Let’s get into it, shall we?

We gots a new opening, which is cool. The now defunct Wall looks like it is entirely made of ice cube trays.

We start in on a little boy who is trying to see all the hubbub but can’t glimpse over the adults, harking back to the pilot when the Baratheon-Lannisters visited the North to offer their thanks for helping overthrow the Mad King and to hook up Sansa and the Joff. Said “hubbub” being Dany, Jon, and their army entering the North. Arya’s also there, wearing a far less fabulous outfit than Dany is, frowning at the Hound’s appearance but relieved at Gendry’s.

He has traded a small boat for a horse.

If you were taking bets on how soon Tyrion would make a junk joke, I hope you had down “within the first few minutes”:

Varys rightfully calls him out on his hypocrisy; he hates imp jokes but loves eunuch jokes. How can he be cool with that?

Obvs, because Tyrion has balls and Varys doesn’t, duh.

#Woke, Tyrion is not.

As the procession moves throughout the town, people are glarin’ and starin’ and Dany is obviously uncomfortable, poor lamb. Jon tells her that Northerners don’t “accept outsiders easily”. So, to use an analogy, Jon is the one guy from his small town in Pigeon Butt, Arkansas, who is welcoming to everyone when the rest of the residents are all “You ain’t from ‘round here, are ya?” *changes magazine in rifle*

I’d be annoyed if I were Dany. I mean, lugging my ass all the way up to the damn frigid North, freezing my tits off, with a fucking army and two dragons, all to save everyone’s asses, and they’re copping a ‘tude? Pfft. Y’all can kiss my Southern butt.

One of the dragons roars and Dany smiles because at least that is familiar to her, but of course the townspeople scatter while Arya stands there grinning in delight. Dragons! Cool!

The Lady of Winterfell, however...

The look to the camera she gives is like “Oh ffs.”

Jon rides into the Winterfell courtyard and when he sees Bran for the first time since he was a boy he, delighted, hops down from his horse to hug and kiss him. “Look at you! You’re a man!” And when the robot that used to be Bran replies “Almost” like the automaton he is, Jon’s face gets, well...

And, I must add, how WEIRD it is to me that, amid all these Qyburns and Sansas and Davoses, BRANDON is a popular name in Westeros/Ye Old Timey serfdom alterna-England. To me, Brandon is THIS guy:

Brandon is Jason Priestley and a delightfully 90s name, not to mention the moniker of way too many boys I went to school with. I keep expecting to see Nat round one of the corners of Winterfell with a megaburger.

Jon hugs Sansa and asks after Arya, who is “lurking somewhere”, and hesitantly introduces his girlfriend to his sister. It’s the nightmare Meet the Parents except the parents are dead, everyone’s about to die, and it’s fucking cold as balls.

Dany, the poor lass, tries to ingratiate herself by complimenting Winterfell’s “beauty” (eh?) as well as Sansa’s (yes, Sophie Turner is a fox and Joe Jonas would agree) but Sansa’s having none of it:

BranBot breaks in on the Mean Girling, telling Dany that the Night King has Viserion and the Wall has been de-Walled. At the Great Hall, Young Umber says that they need more men and horses “if it pleases my Lady. And my Lord....and my Queen. Sorry.”

The Queen thing is, uh, gonna take some getting used to.

Sansa tells Young Umber to collect his people and Jon is called “Your Grace” after giving an order and little Lyanna Mormont, that badass, rises slowly like a boss.

She continues like “Yo, we crowned you King in the North, you gave it up, wtf are you now? Just a regular old lord, I guess?”

And Jon busts out this truth--although he was honored to be crowned, the choice was either keep his title or save the North. He chose the North. I gotta side with Jon on this one, sorry, Lyanna. I love you, but y’all Northerners are being stubborn dumbasses. Crowns and titles reallllllllly don’t mean much in the wake of DYING HORRIBLY BY LEGIONS OF UNDEAD.

Tyrion tries to calm the storm between the Northerners and the visitors, telling them that Jon risked his life to prove he wights were a threat; the Lannister army was soon going to join them in fighting for the Not Dead cause. There are grumbles amongst the peanut gallery and Tyrion concedes that they “have not been friends in the past”--

--but they all had to work together now. Sansa, still holding onto stubborn Northern pride, wonders aloud how the hell how they are gonna feed Dothraki, Unsullied, and two dragons? “What do dragons eat anyway?”

Dany: “Whatever they want.”

Booya!

Obviously, I would bend the knee to Daenerys. I likely fall over though. Hope she doesn’t mind.

Tyrion goes to speak to Sansa, whom he has not seen since season four, Joffrey’s non-wedding to Margaery, to be precise. You remember that.

Yes, Sansa, it indeed had its moments. Unfortunately, with Joffrey gone, we got Ramsay in his place so....

Sansa apologizes belatedly for bolting right after the Joff’s murder, which, admittedly, was a wee bit hard for Tyrion to explain, her being his wife and all. He kinda had to go to trial. Hire Oberyn to fight the Mountain for him. Again, we all know how that turned out.

Squishy squishy!

Sansa also can’t believe Tyrion truly is convinced the Lannister army is on its way to the North based on Cersei’s word alone. “I used to think you were the cleverest man alive,” she lays down before walking away.

Sansa has turned into Shade-sa.

Now it’s time for a Jon and Arya reunion! Yay!

Jon: How’d you sneak up on me?

Arya: How’d you survive a knife through the heart?

Jon: I didn’t.

So Jon and Arya show each other their swords and Jon asks her if she has ever used hers and we the audience watching are like--

And then they talk about Daenerys. Jon is a wee bit pissed that Sansa is unappreciative of him risking his and his Merry Men’s asses to save the whole frigging kingdom, understandably so, and, fucking weak, Arya defends “her family”. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE HELLO DON’T YOU SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE?! NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR PETTY “I DON’T LIKE MY BROTHER’S GF, SHE’S NOT FROM HERE, SHE CAN’T UNDERSTAND US!” NONSENSE! THE DEAD ARE COMING, DAMNIT!

In K.L., Creepy Qyburn rushes to tell Crazy Cersei that the wights have broken through the Wall. Her response?

If there is one thing on this mixed up continent we can count on it’s that Cersei will do the most fucked up shit to keep that crown on her blonde head. Including letting ice zombies lose on at least one of her kingdoms.

Just off the coast of the capital, Yara is still being held prisoner of her Uncle Euron, AKA Guyliner Greyjoy. What is it with pirates and guyliner and leather pants? Euron, Captain Hook, Jack Sparrow...While poor Yara, the rightful Queen of the Iron Islands, is tied up, Euron introduces Crazy Cersei to the captain of the Golden Company, who promises all these men and horses and weapons and things. ‘Cept no elephants, much to Cersei’s dismay. They’re not good for long sea voyages.

Euron wants to talk “in private”.

Which in Westerosi-speak is:

Cersei tries to put him off; she told him after the war. “Wars can last years,” Euron counters. He’s given her weapons, the Iron Fleet, the Golden Company (whose captain is named Harry Strickland, that is so out of leftfield in a world of Eddards and Tywins), what else does he need to prove that he’s totally Team Cersei?

Well, Cersei doesn’t wanna lose the only ally she has left in this war she still sees herself fighting so...

Euron:

Elsewhere in the capital, Bronn is trying to get his offtime on with three ladies who cannot stop talking about how frigging cool and scary the dragons they saw attacking K.L. were and Bronn is obviously only an afterthought. A watercooler, if you will. When Creepy Qyburn interrupts and lets Bronn know that Cersei is looking for him.

The gist is Qyburn has been sent to hire Bronn on Cersei’s behalf to execute Tyrion and Jaime in case they don’t survive their “Northern adventures”. And she wants him to use a crossbow to do it because she has a keen sense of poetic irony.

Bronn:

Bronn might be my favorite.

In Cersei’s chambers, Euron is getting dressed (because he just got Queened, you see; this show can never be accused of being subtle) and immediately asks her how he “compares to the fat king”. Cersei tells Euron that Robert had a different ladyfriend every night but still had no idea how to please a woman. Sad for Robert.

Then he asks about “the Kingslayer” and Cersei wonders if he wants to lose his head. But he’s arrogant and she likes that (and he apparently doesn’t mind that she had a torrid affair with her twin brother; they’re either perfectly matched or perfectly psychotic). Just before Euron leaves, he says:

Prooooooooobably not aware that Cersei’s belly just may be currently occupied at the moment.

Cersei smiles holding aloft her ever present goblet of wine as Euron leaves. IDK if she is simply humoring an ally or if she actually finds Euron grossly charming. I mean, he’s hot and all but he’s also a pig but hey I’m sane so what do I know.

On Euron’s ship, Theon and his buddies launch an attack against the assholes who have captured Yara. Theon unties her and she headbutts him for abandoning her like a sister would (”You left me, your Queen, to our bastard of an uncle! You dipshit!”), then extends a hand to help him off the floor and they say no more about it.

Yara suggests they go back to the Iron Islands; they’ll all need a place to go if Dany and Co. fail in the North, a place where the dead can’t follow. But Theon obviously wants to go to Winterfell and fight for the Starks, to make up for betraying them and being an absolute fucklord, so Yara commands it. “What is dead may never die, but kill the bastards anyway.”

In the North, Dany is worried about Drogon’s and Rhaegal’s lack of appetites. They “only” ate eighteen goats and eleven sheep. IDK, that sounds like a lot to me but again, what do I know? I’ve never owned a dragon. I should ask the Munsters.

Dany and Jon go visit the dragons, who are restless cus they don’t be likin’ the North. And why would they? They’ve been all over and in much warmer climes and now they’re stuck in some frozen over craphole where no one washes their hair and wears the same clothes for two weeks straight.

Dany wants to fly them to give them some exercise and urges Jon to get on top of Rhaegal while she flies her trusty Drogon. Jon is, obvs, hesitant. He’s never ridden a dragon, he doesn’t know how. Well, no one does until they’ve ridden a dragon! So, Jon climbs on top of Rhaegal, braces himself, and off they go.

And it’s hilarious.

And Dany’s totally into it. Jon’s holding onto Rhaegal, screaming like a girl and Dany’s like “Oh YEAUH I’m all about this”. When they touch down at a really pretty spot in front of a waterfall to get bizzay, she’s looking like she’s falling deeper in love with him and the dragons are looking like, well, like they are watching their mom get bizzay.

Kinky. You don’t see Dragon Mom-Dragon Cuckold-Ex King of the North videos on PornHub. That’s a niche they should tap into.

This scene was totally unnecessary for the plot and probably cost a lot of money to render and was hysterical. Who knew dragons had kinks? I mean, I guess they are entering their hormone-fueled adolescence and missing internet and Playboy outlets so...this is the next best thing?

Sorry about that, boys.

Arya and the Hound run into each other for the first time since season three, where she left him to die but first robbed him. “You’re a cold little bitch, aren’t you? Guess that’s why you’re still alive.”

She also runs into Gendry and asks him to make her a weapon, to which he hesitantly complies.

Inside Winterfell, Sansa receives a letter from House Glover letting them know that they wish the North luck but House Glover will remain in the woods. It’s a classic piss off. Even though House Glover promised to always stand by House Stark. No, Sansa denies. He’d stand behind the King in the North. They’re gearing up for another argument. Jon counters that they needed allies. He brought home armies and dragons!

UGH!

Sansa, I love you, but Lort Almighty!

Yeah ok, the Mad King was, well, mad, but A) Dany is not her father and B) ICE ZOMBIES WITH AN ICE DRAGON ARE COMING! SOON! THEY ARE ON THEIR WAY RIGHT NOW! ALL YOU PEOPLE ARE BEING HARD-HEADED IDIOTS!

Dany and Jorah go to visit Sam to thank him for curing Jorah of his Greyscale. Dany asks Sam if there is anything she can do for him to repay him. Sam asks for a pardon for taking some books from the Citadel and a sword from House Tarly; it’s been in his family for generations. And that is when things get--

Daenerys explains that she offered to let Randyll Tarly keep his lands and titles if he bent the knee, but he refused, and we all know what happened to him.

At the info that his daddy is toast, Sam seems to take in stride because Randyll was a dick but when Dany adds that Dickon stood by his father and was also roasted Sam excuses himself.

How good was John Bradley in this scene? He conveyed so much emotion in a single facial expression, just a shift of the eyes, a downturn of the lips. You could totally tell he was barely holding it together.

Sam goes outside and spots BranBot, who urges him to tell Jon the truth with his emotionless visage. After all, he’s not his brother.

He finds Jon in the crypt and they hug it out until Jon notices the look on Sam’s face. He thinks something’s wrong with Gilly or Little Sam until Sam confesses that Dany had Randyll and Dickon executed. Sam asks him if he would have done this if he’d been in her place. Jon argues that he’d executed men who had disobeyed him in the past, but he’d also pardoned men who refused to kneel. Jon parries he wasn’t a king like Dany is a queen.

Sam claims he is. And he doesn’t mean King of the North.

He and Bran worked it out. Sam had a High Septon’s diary. Bran had...BranVision. Jon’s father was, of course, Rhaegar Targaryen and his mother was Lyanna Stark.

He’s Aegon Targaryen, Sixth of his Name, Protector of the Realm, yada, yada, yada.

Jon’s like “You better not be bullshitting me, man!” And Sam’s all “Would Dany bend the knee and give up her crown to save her people like you did, bro?”

Jon:

On the grounds of Winterfell, the hunting party, consisting of Tormund Giantsbane, Dolorous Edd, and five times resurrected Beric Dondarrion (be careful, Beric, Melisandre isn’t around to resurrect you again), is, uh, hunting when half the party jumps out screaming “Stay back! He’s got blue eyes!”

Brienne needs to get on that. They’d make adorable, and huge, blue-eyed babies.

Eventually, they find poor Young Umber, the first casualty of this season, nailed to a door with his innards and body parts creating a spiral pattern around him. He awakens zombified and the party lights him on fire, causing the whole spiral of gore to become alight in flames.

Ugh.

Everyone has a fucking sigil on this show. Even he dead guys.

The episode ends with Jaime finally riding into the North, climbing down off his noble steed to fulfill his promise to fight for the living, and...

Your past sins have caught up with you, Jaime.

#game of thrones #game of thrones recap #got #game of thrones 8 #got season 8 #Lena Heady #nickolaj coster-waldau #isaac hempstead wright #Kit Harrington #emilia clarke #pilou asbæk #alfie allen #gemma ward

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the-shipping-machine · 6 years ago

Text

More Dark AU dribbles

“Brass,” Mad said to the hooded figure in front of him, dark mist surrounding his fists. “I do not wish to fight you.”

“And so do I.” The automaton said, playing with the dagger in his hand. “Yet, a duty is a duty.”

“A duty it is.” Mad sighed, then looked at the shadow creatures that watched. “You guys should leave. I don’t want any of you to get hurt because of some family drama.”

“But. Mr. Mad...” One shadowy figure asked.

“That’s okay, Joe.” Mad said, giving him a sad smile. “I knew this day would come.”

Joe stepped aside, staring down at the floor.

“Well, then,” Mad said, looking at the hooded automaton. “Let’s see if you can do what you promised to your bunch of foolish mortals.”

Without a warning, Mad charged at the robot, the mist growing larger and larger, as his smile grew wider and eyes went blacker. It was hard for Brass to block his brother’s attacks, yet was easy for him to attack him as well.

Most of the shadow creatures around them decided to leave until only Joe remained, staring in horror as the battle goes on. He knew Brass is strong, yet knew his beloved’s strength as well. He didn’t want Mad to be murdered by some god-wannabe. Hell, he was ready to die again only so Mad wouldn’t have to be murdered by some god-wannabe.

His thoughts were cut short by a painful scream, and when he looked up, he saw Mad on the floor, trying his hardest to get up. Black liquid was coming out of his injuries and the mist around his fists became weaker and weaker.

Brass kept on striking, and Joe knew he had to do something. He charged at the automaton quickly disarming him. He later sat beside Mad, holding him gently as the man lost consciousness.

“Leave.” Joe glared at Brass.

“Fine. I guess he deserves his death slow and painful.” Brass responded, before turning around and leaving.

“Blyat.”

That was the first word to come out of Mad’s mouth as he slowly opened his eyes and sat on the bed. He has been unconscious for a while and finally woke up. All of his injuries have been treated.

“Thank god, you’re awake!” Joe said, sitting next to Mad and kissing him gently.

“Wouldn’t have if you haven’t saved me back there.” Mad said. “Does everyone think I’m dead?”

“Only Brass,” Joe responded. “I let the others know.”

“Good. Let him think I’m dead.” Mad said. “The element of surprise might help us in the next time.”

Joe handed him a cup of black tea and Mad thanked him.

“You should probably rest for a while.” Joe suggested. “Your powers are gonna be weak for a while. I’ll help you with the other shadow creatures.”

“That’s a good idea, Joe.” Mad said, taking a sip of his tea and holding his boyfriend’s hand gently. “Thank you.”

“No problem, my love.” Joe said.

“I just hope that the rest of my siblings are okay.” Mad sighed, looking at an old photo of him with his siblings from the good days.

“And if not, we’re going to be there.” Joe said, kissing his cheek.”

“Yeah.” Mad said, laying his head on Joe’s shoulder. “Yes we will.”

#little misters by dr. wondertainment #little misters #dark! little misters #mr. brass #mr. mad #scp #scp-1504 #joe schemo #schemad

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theoiljoint · 7 years ago

Text

Confrontation

{Follows Verdict}

“It’s not really over,” Tipsy was saying to the first group to meet her at the door of The Oil Joint. But her voice was cheerful and her eyes were bright. “I still have to file for adverse possession and that will take awhile, especially with all the other claims that will be going in at the same time.”

“You still won, Tonic,” Joe said, holding the door open for her.

“We did, didn’t we,” she said, beaming. Trayvon had almost fainted when the verdict was announced in their favor. For her part, she’d held herself pretty well together until she and Shi had gotten out of the courthouse. But then she’d thrown her four arms around his neck and let him swing her around, the both of them laughing in relief.

More cheers went up as Tonic rolled through the doorway, whoops and hollers and a few attempts at chants. It was like a standing ovation; she couldn’t even see her bar at the other side of the room. She felt like she was glowing.

Elijah snaked through the crowd and reared up, throwing her arms around her boss with a squeal. “You won!” she cawed. “I didn’t understand any of the words but they said you won and everybody’s so happy—!”

“We did win, Elijah,” Tipsy said, patting the leviathan’s chassis and easing her back down to the floor. “Thank you for watching the bar for me while I was away.”

Elijah grinned a yellow grin and took one of Tipsy’s hands in her own. “I have a surprise for you!”

“Oh?”

“Somebody’s here!”

“Everybody’s here, I think.”

“This one’s special!”

Their progress was slow, as everyone who had originally wished Tipsy luck now wanted to congratulate her. Elijah huffed impatiently, claws clacking against the floor; Tipsy almost had to laugh. But as they approached the bar, she saw ‘bots with drinks in their hands.

“Elijah, did you make those drinks?” she asked.

“Nope!” Elijah chirped. “Your friend did! He said you taught him how.”

That… narrowed the list quite considerably.

“Klaus…?”

But it was not Klaus she saw when they finally broke through the crowd. It was someone else standing behind the counter, someone else with his hands braced on the bar, her bar, someone with brass teeth and a mane of RCA cables who looked at her with eyes she’d hoped to never see again.

Tonic screamed.

Elijah caught her boss as she jerked backwards, fins flaring in surprise. The dead robot behind the counter laughed, even as all heads turned toward their scene.

“Hello, Tipsy,” he said, the calm, friendly persona beginning to slip. “I’ve missed you.”

“Controller,” Tipsy gasped, hands clutching at her face and chest. “You, no, no! You’re dead! He promised me you were dead!”

The Controller tsked, shaking his head slightly. “Funny. You should know that the dead don’t always stay dead. That was always the plan, after all. Your plan.”

“What’s going on?” Someone asked, the crowd beginning to murmur even as they backed away from the scene. Shi appeared at Tipsy’s shoulder, engine growling, but stayed back as Tipsy’s hand desperately grabbed at his arm. The Controller grinned, or bared his teeth, at him, and slid one hand under the bar.

“Another guard dog? Well, listen closely. I think you’ll find this very interesting.” The Controller raised his voice to be heard over the crowd. “You all are here to congratulate Tipsy Tonic, correct? To show support for your beloved barkeep? To celebrate her victory as one for your community? Then I have dire news, friends.

“You all have been duped.”

The Controller placed the briefcase on the counter, a glint of mania creeping into his optics as Tipsy began shaking her head.

“You entrusted her with your secrets, with your lives. But do you know who she is? What she is? What she’s done?

“Let me show you!”

And with that, he unclasped the briefcase and shoved it forward, spilling its contents on the ground at Tonic’s wheels. Pieces of processors, memory banks, mem.dat cartridges—the brains of dozens of robots—clattered to the ground, scattered like caltrops. Most ‘bots backed away in horror; those that didn’t just stared.

“Your precious Tipsy Tonic,” The Controller crowed. “Is a murderer.”

Elijah looked up at her, optics round and bright. “Ms. T?” she asked quietly. But Tipsy did not respond.

“More than fifty automatons,” The Controller continued. “Met their ends under Tonic’s hands. I saw. I was there. She removed their memories as they died. Oh, she said she meant well. She said we would restore them. That we would build them new bodies, bring them back to life. We were saving them. But that never fucking happened, did it, Tipsy?!” He slammed a fist on the bar, shaking the glasses left behind. “I was left to be the back-up, I had copies of their memories—all of their memories—in my head! And you never once made a move to get them out! No,” he growled, bracing both hands on the bar again. “No, you wanted to back out. You had fun for a few years, but in the end you were a coward. You didn’t want to own up to what you did, you just wanted to stop. You wanted it to all go away.

“Well, it’s here now, Tonic. I’m here now. And I’m going to make everything go away. Your bar, your friends, your precious community. I don’t have to open your head again to break you. No,” he said, brass teeth glinting. “In the end, you brought it all upon yourself.”

Tonic was still looking down, staring at the processors.

“Nothing to say, barkeep?” The Controller chided. “Come on. Amuse me. Before the crowd rips you apart.”

“It was your fault.”

He stopped smiling. “Say that again.”

“It was your fault,” Tipsy said more forcefully, raising her head. “Everything you’ve said I did, I did, but it was your fault, not mine.”

“It was your idea, your plan, your hands,” The Controller snarled.

“And it was your responsibility to tell me I was wrong!” Tonic’s eyes were bright, bright white. “I took them apart, but you guided me to their beds, you showed me where to cut. You said I was saving them! I was so young—!”

“You were never—"

“I was 7 years old!” She shouted the words, one hand pointing at her chest, to where her Core lay underneath. “You had decades on me! And you acted like my ignorance was some miraculously preserved innocence. I was there for you to teach, for you to imprint with memories you copied long before I met you! Don’t act like it started with me!”

The Controller looked at her with wide eyes, his jaw clenched. He didn’t look at the scowling, growling crowd behind her, the ‘bots rolling up their sleeves.

“I wasn’t some goddamn mastermind,” Tipsy said, straightening up. “I was a stupid, young robot that you used as an excuse. I made mistakes I can never, ever fix, but I won’t take responsibility for yours. I won’t feel guilty for what you did to me!”

“No less than what I endured,” The Controller hissed.

“No!” Tipsy rolled forward, letting go of Shi. “No, don’t stand there and act like you were the victim! You pretend like I pushed you to do it—you volunteered. You copied memories because you liked having them. And how many did you take by yourself, Controller? How many were there that I never even saw?

“How many processors did you wire into me the night you tried to kill me?

“You’re no saint, Connie. No martyr. I’ve spent every day for the last thirty years trying to atone. I’ve helped people. I’ve grown. While apparently you’ve festered.

“You wanted to hurt me? You failed.

“I’m stronger than you, now.

“I’m stronger than everything you put me through, every burden you laid on my shoulders, every bit of baggage you left behind.

“I am my own.

“So, get out.

“Get the hell out of my bar.”

The Controller looked at her. He lifted one hand and rubbed it across his chin thoughtfully, where his lips would be. Then he smiled.

“Okay.”

And then he was vaulting the counter, landing with a crunch upon the processors and cartridges, closing the distance between them with one, two steps, his hands reaching for her throat—

Elijah’s jaws closed on his arm, and with a jerk of her head, broke it and sent The Controller spinning into the floor.

All hell broke loose.

Someone grabbed Tonic from behind and pulled her away as the crowd rushed forward. She slumped, her bravado beginning to give away to shock and panic, but she refused to sob even as oil dripped down her arms. She didn’t watch what happened to The Controller, but she could hear his furious screams over the tumult. She found herself in the backrooms with Shi, unable to make out the words he was saying.

“I’m okay,” she repeated, regardless of whether or not he was asking. “I’m okay, just… just tell me when it’s over.”

Soon enough, The Controller’s battered chassis was dragged outside, hanging by his arms between two ‘bots, followed by a few stragglers. He made no resistance as they hefted him up and over the lip of the dumpster. No sound.

“He’s got a few days to get out,” someone said, grabbing the open lid.

“And if he doesn’t, to hell with him.”

And then, darkness.

#confrontation #tipsy tonic #elijah #the controller #ic #ic update

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