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Америка: Horrorshow
This Girl is Taking Bets - Thea Gilmore
Natasha keeps talking, trying to tell them about the Foundation, the resources she’s pulled together so they can make their own choices, all those things she didn’t have when she fled Madame that she wants to give them here and now and fuck Clint and his hush little baby song how could something so hackneyed suddenly feel so true?
This girl is the plunge pool she is cocaine and kodak Now she's out setting sail on the ocean of the soundtrack This girl is the shaking hand the rattling cup With a button and a note saying things are looking up
Like O, Like H - Tegan & Sara
Georgia’s name was given to her by Kudrin because her thinking scowl reminded the woman of a Chechan she used to know. Like one amusingly names a pet. Georgia does not remember her original name, but every new language she learns only emphasizes that nouns are arbitrary anyway.
Then I was four plus a ten I was swinging fists Like nails in a board Pull your hands inside of you Six years until I'll be through I was four plus a ten I was swinging back
My Violent Heart - Nine Inch Nails
Peyton was one of those re-adjusted by Trinh in the basement, and it took a lot of sessions to break through the cold-blooded efficiency that Kudrin had put into place. Peyton has full recall of that last breakthrough session, when every last thing that had been done to her snapped clear into place, but she will never tell Trinh.
Into fire you can send us From the fire we return You can label us a consequence Of how much you have to learn
Science vs. Romance - Rilo Kiley
Catherine convinced herself early on that she was simply living in a dystopian novel, and it will take another year or so living in the tower for her to really believe that any of this is real. It will be an ugly reckoning.
Facts versus romance You go and call yourself the boss But we're not robots inside a grid Text versus romance You go and add it all you want Still we're not robots inside a grid Zeros and ones
Lead Me Into the Night - The Cardigans
“We were orphans. People took us in, but it’s not the same as family. And they weren’t always...kind.” Draga waves, dismissive and the smoke trails and drifts like it was holding the thought. “Radek wanted his mother to think of me like that, an orphan. A lost princess.” She takes another drag and her voice is quavery but it’s hard to tell if the emotion is rage or loss or a combination of both. “He wanted to be my family. What do you say to that?”
I went too far, yes I came too close I drove away the one that I loved the most Now I ride the tide on a boat made of sand I’m sailing for another to guide me to land
Cheerleader - St. Vincent
“What am I doing?” Natasha asks, interrupting Clint, vodka cold in her hand, so icy that her fingers are numbing because embracing the cold seems to make more sense than fighting it and she’s shaking with it. “Playing house, and pretending to be normal. How could anything normal survive that?”
Clint puts his hand on her shoulder and shakes her, hard. “You aren’t normal,” he says, voice edged. “Neither am I. But we still get to be happy. Or at least, we deserve the chance to figure out how to be.”
I know honest thieves I call family I've seen America With no clothes on
Human Being - Clare Bowditch
Khadijah is the second oldest survivor, and mentally the healthiest, but it was Khadijah who ‘authorized’ the illicit use of the theta-inducer to adjust some of the students who posed the greatest risk to the eventual coup. The ones who were loyal to Kudrin, who were too mercenary, who would sell them out. It was either that, or take them out. There were a couple that the group as a whole did decide to assassinate. They were able to salvage the rest, with a few late night trips to the basement.
I was once a child in a house by the sea. I may be made of matter, but my heart's all hope and memory. I became a child in the heart of a ship. I fell in the water cause the water called me into it
Bury Our Friends - Sleater-Kinney
Trinh is the one who suggested using the basement equipment for their own ends, and she is the one who ran it, both for Kudrin and for their own sabotage sessions. Trinh is always going to be one step to the right of becoming a supervillain, her brain running so fast it outpaces everything else.
Exhume our idols and bury our friends We're wild and weary but we won't give in We're sick with worry These nerve less days We live on dread in our own guilded age
Human Hands - Bowerbirds
Ameena was one of Kudrin’s first American Red Room students, and the oldest survivor. Her depth of perspective is unique, unmarred by any memory wipe, and she’s been playing possum for a long time, doing what she had to do to stay alive, consolidate power, temper the worst of the brutalities. She had always assumed she’d ride that ship down as she sunk it.
On its hind legs, rears this storm, and the pines bend from its wily sword. Yet there is no war, no war, No quarrel here at all. And the deer shake in their hooves and shield their fawn. And when the rain comes, the rain comes. No judgement falls. Yet there is hate all around.
Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy) - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
Mellie/Melody was somehow the sole survivor (missing, presumed dead) after a tornado literally ripped her home and family apart. At sixteen she begins bardic training on Asgard, and between her very non-theatrical guardian Sif, and Loki-as-Odin intrigued by a Midgardian with a whiff of seithr, it’s reassuring that she’s practiced at riding tornados.
I Believe in Miracles - The Ramones
Dominique kicks around in a few bands until her late twenties, then takes the Trust tuition money to earn a PhD in stellar dynamics. Gifted in empathy and creating connections, she inherits the mantle of Sagan and DeGrasse Tyson as a popular science educator.
I used to be on an endless run. Believe in miracles 'cause I'm one. I have been blessed with the power to survive. After all these years I'm still alive. I believe in miracles. I believe in a better world for me and you.
Almost Home - Moby
Luz is the one person on Earth capable of eliciting paternal feelings from Tony Stark, due to her pairing of engineering genius with Rhodey’s dead-eyed unimpressed stare.
So (And the stars fell from the sky) Let it go (Falling down into the sea) Wake up, wake up, wake up (Still I don't know if it's right) We're almost home (If this world is right for me)
What How When Where (Why Who) - Ani DiFranco
Gigi runs her fingers through her hair. “All of my assets exploded in my face, and I am here until I am disposed of once more.” She laughs, “Draga would tell me, a gun in the face is easier to handle than a knife in the back. I thought, what does she know? She’s the one who got the strength, I got the strategy. I think we both just got screwed.”
what what what what what now you're out in the open how how how how how do you think you can hide? when when when when when will you find some nice soft sand where where where where where you can bury your pride?
Strange - The Feeling
Aisha is a genius at mathematics and logical operations. Her relationship with JARVIS is what eventually tips him over into true AI, a deep interface with a very different mind from Tony, which helps him bridge the gap to being able to model wetware style thinking.
Cause people gonna see you How they wanna see you People gonna rate you People gonna hate you People gonna shove you People gonna love you People gonna do whatever Makes them feel they own you better
Goodnight Demonslayer - Voltaire
Marisol has always been able to sense the Hulk within Bruce, from the moment they met in the basement. The Hulk sees in Marisol the kind of kid he wished Bruce had been–fearless and viciously protective–but the grass is always greener in the other cranium, because that same sick horrified fear is in there too, just severed, screaming into the void.
I won't tell you, there's nothing ‘neath your bed I won't tell you, that it's all in your head This world of ours is not as it seems The monsters are real but not in your dreams Learn what you can from the beasts you defeat, you'll need it for some of the people you meet
Your Misfortune - Mike Doughty
Sumi planted the seeds of the coup using specific phrases, words, metaphors and images. She’s the one who coined ‘brainstrain’ in order to keep some kids from being culled for health reasons. She’s been waging a war of words for years, a true warrior poet, insidious like subliminal advertising, catchy like a jingle, as devastating as a fool making fun of a king.
I can be the friend you want I can be your confidante I can be the right reminder at the right time Throwing out the lifeline