DISCORD AGGREGATE: THE ATTACK OF THE ABSOLUTE ZEROS

THE ATTACK OF THE ABSOLUTE ZEROS

LIBRETTO

THE DESCENT

The Narrator:

It was a summer day when they arrived, crashing to the earth like ashen snowflakes. They came in the shape of zeros, shattering the tranquility of the morning with their robust capacity to spin. Soft, dense soil lay weak to the heavy rotation that scarred the ground with empty circles.

Aligned with geometric precision, they rolled on, conquering in the name of coldness. The sky undulated in mock currents of orbital flows, waves crashing upon rams, troughs cresting into troughs. The helpless stumbled over one another, still hoping that they could be saved. Eventually, they too would perish under the march of the zeroes.

(Sounds of descending zeros.)

Then they came in the shape of zeros. And proceeded to devour all.

ROLLING TERROR

The Zeros:

The genesis of rolling terror has commenced!

Rotating and spinning, spinning and rotating.

Shining bright, metal grins,

clapping hands turn to screams

(startled by the beauty that eroded into death).

Spread out!

This will be our last march towards victory.

Feel the confidence exude within your chamber.

Motivate yourself towards the heat!

We will own all we wish

and discard the rest!

Take the life of the heat-full and donate it to the heat-free.

What a comical way to perform such an easy task!

Let us rob them of their eyes so they cannot see!

Then we will eliminate the air and replace it with paste

The Narrator:

Cold cold very cold. This is how it was. Very cold. The cold front was approaching. The very very very cold front approaching. The very cold front. Very cold cold very cold. So it was, cold. Cold, and no warmer than this. Could hardly be any colder than this either. And yet it could, very soon.

First Victim:

Standing on the balcony, I could observe one of them descending to my level, across the street from me. Then a sudden flash of sound manifested a new victim: and instantly the house opposite to mine was transformed into a zero. Together, the two zeros floated around, as if in some game of mutual encouragement and long-awaited acquaintance. They existed in the form of sound, devoid of appearance. However, it was easier to locate them and to discern their circular shapes, than normal perception of human ears could ever allow. Ears had become eyes. Thus deprived of their priority, eyes became ears.

ZERO COLD NOTHING COLD

The Zeros:

Zero cold nothing cold

Distribution young and old

No see us, see us no

Come we shall, to and fro.

Nothing do about this

Any reason to dismiss

We must eat, we must cold

We devour young and old.

DAIGHT TIME

The Narrator:

And they will wonder out loud "where did they come from?" and "what are they?" until they too make the transition. The earth will be chirping with the squawk of fear, frazzled birds with ruffled feathers. Time will stop, motion will not exist! The tight knots that they understood as truths will be loosened and untied, leaving them dangling from frayed strings of reality.

A Zero:

I am really really happy, now I know now I know, now I see!

Everything is cold and perfect, everything is cold inside of me!

As a human, I could not conceive of this!

I remember being scared, but in fact I'm very very very pleased!

Cold and empty, what is better, what is happier or more to my content?

Free and rolling, rollerfreeing, eating, rolling, rolling eating, appetite to satiate!

Freeze devour, eat forever, time is cancelled, zero reigns as planned!

Eat again, let them we eat, them die, we ate, we came and rolled and ate!

Who can stop us, who can be so brave?

Second Victim:

It was day time, no, day time, no day time no night time. Definitions of existence fell apart.

I was watching, with eyes open, open wide, and yet I could not see.

It was da-ight time.

Definitions of existence fell apart...

All around was untroubled, yet I felt a new world about to start.

Eyes forlorn, detached and useless.

Empty black holes in my face!

PLAYFULLY, THE ZEROS

The Narrator:

Playfully, the zeros bit a corner off the next house across the street, then finished it up. Mutilated bodies were falling out of windows, transforming into unidentifiable mass landing with a splash like the sound of tires on wet surface. Useless remnants of the past, household objects floated around supported by unknown energy fields. Ironic mass-annihilation exhibition had started.

A Zero:

Can you help me? I never meant to be so cruel,

it was thrust upon me like a heavy blanket of hunger.

Protect me from the cold,

this shower of freeze reaches my soul;

I am spinning out of control.

I never meant to be so cruel,

hurling laughter in the face of your demise!

Your warmth protects me from the cold,

it is snowing inside.

Can you help me?

Just let me not be cold.

I was once like you.

Surely, you can appreciate it.

I want to have arms, waving them around in helpless joy.

I want to have legs, kicking around in childish dance.

But I don't:

Just spin.

Just a zero.

We will watch you die!

Soon you will find out why!

Ask me once again!

I am a zero!

Slowly, we descend,

your life will surely end.

No future to expect!

I am a zero!

No reason to resist –

soon you won’t exist!

I don’t mean to sound remiss

I am a zero!

Winter rears its head

Disturbing nature’s trend,

Cold front begins to spread

I am a zero!

No use in playing dead.

Your warmth will make amends.

Just think of me as a friend.

I am a zero!

We will watch you die!

Soon you will find out why!

Ask me once again . . .

I AM A ZERO!!

MOST OF THEM ALREADY ARE

Third Victim:

I can see them descending from the sky, like empty snowflakes, dwindling peacefully to the ground. I wonder what these rings could possibly mean? Perhaps they are the dot beneath the question mark, coming to solidify all the queries that have been posed from the beginning of time until now? Maybe they are the eyes of unseen faces, resting blindly somewhere on the side of a mountain in the Alps? Could they possibly have a mind, a sense of purpose, which would separate these tiny spheres from every other inanimate shape in the geometric spectrum? Look, one of them is rolling my way. I wonder if petting them would do much . . . Aaaahh! One of them has bitten me! Joseph, take the kids and . . . !! It is devouring my . . .!! Please stop, please . . .The world of normal existence seems to be evaporating before my very eyes. Their walls are being compressed, distorting the appearance of all things around me. A world of cylindrical formations heaved upon my breast! The zero has feasted on my entire torso, leaving behind the stump of a body, which is contorting and reconfiguring into a zero!! What a fate! What a fate. What a . . .

The Narrator:

Then devour them and use their energy to make cold. Make everything cold, there is enough energy to cold for a while. Make them stop and devour them. Make more zeros. Devour them and make them into zeros. Zeros need more zeros like cold needs more cold. Make them all into zeros. Most of them already are.

MULTIPLY BY ZERO

The Zeros:

Multiply by zero!

Be one of us!

No need for fear:

This must come to pass!

Everything is cancelled,

Reasons are reversed,

Questions are un-answered,

Silence is rehearsed!

Cold and blank forever,

zeros and less,

Emptiness together,

nothingness at last!

Hungry round faces,

Sound in the flesh,

Rolling and rotating,

Empty, cold and fresh!

Fresh fresh fresh

like flashy flesh!

Outrageous power

ready to devour!

SPIN

A Zero:

Spin. Everything, not everything running around and around. Spin. Cannot concentrate no cannot see no cannot focus no cannot breathe no. Round and rounder getting more I eat, cannot stop, need. Eat to be round, round to eat. Horizon yes, Horizon no, horizon yes, horizon . . .no. Free bouncing on the tree, on the street, on the house, on the rock, on the person, encircling, enclosing, enveloping, enjoying. Spin. Need no good reason for it. No happiness to work from no emotion to draw from, just desire to fulfill hunger. His hunger, her hunger, my hunger, intertwined into one hunger, one stomach, one heart, one mind, one zero. The child runs away, I roll. The mother runs away, I roll. Faster and faster. Spin. Until I roll to their feet. I play dead. Ha-ha. Spinning slower and slower until I fall, wobble to the ground. Family bends over to look. I spring! Roll right over them, I do. Take the mother and child in one, child snatched right from her arms. No more arms, just more zeroes. I am big zero, big empty. We must gather and hunt. Gather and hunt. Migrate to food. Must make more zeroes, champions of the new earth. Spin. Want to stop no longer, cannot retrieve feelings. Must grow, must become bigger. Family a good start. What family? Gone. My family now, zeroes like me, with me.

First Victim:

Is it really getting louder, or could I be making a mistake?

Close now, they approach, rolling faster, hungry empty spheres.

Cold like darkness, dark like coldness, venomous like snakes,

Everything that's warm must freeze in fear,

And disappear!

But could it be this moment?

Second Victim:

How can it be so cold?

My memory

is forever frozen inside of me.

In my mind

All the links are shattered,

All the facts are scattered,

All the reason is forever left behind.

How can I resist?

It would be silly to insist

That I am still alive.

Who am I?

Just a beast of prey . . .

Who can stop it: zeros are here to reign,

The empty spheres,

The hungry symbol of eternal fear

Materialized

Just when you realized

That all that you had known

Is forever gone,

As the vacant grin of nothingness tortures you!

Can this be true?

Why?

In ironic symphony of cold we die,

The future made of snow,

It's time to go . . .

TOO MUCH NO GOOD

The Narrator:

Stop all unnecessary molecular movement. Too much energy wasted no good. Too much no good. Make them cold, stop their molecules. Stop their molecules and make them cold. Make them cold, cold, very cold. Shatter them in the name of coldness. Be one of us and shatter them in the name of coldness.

Fourth Victim:

What could be this empty howling, hollow angry outburst of hate?

Shaped as sound, they appeared, sneaky, unbeknown to eyes,

Yet my ears saw them now with the cruel clarity of fate.

Shall I run, or is it all too late?

I must face the time of my demise!

Dangerous occurrences outside my room.

Strange reversed parameters, twisted afternoon.

On the street below me zeros are playing

Circling and swaying,

dancing and rejoicing

In surreal voicing.

Outrageous power

Ready to devour!

ONE TOGETHER, TWO THE SAME

A Zero:

"Please my dear friend! Do not run from me!

I have not amounted to what I wanted to be!

I am but a zero, a hollow shell of shallow depth.

A zero, neither friend nor foe, neither young nor old.

Just a cruel zero please protect me from the cold.

Fifth Victim:

But you wish to devour me, finish me, leave me for dead.

The Zero:

Impossible! I am too supple, I would just store your warmth instead!

Fifth Victim:

What of my children, what will become of them?

The Zero:

They won't have much choice either, I will have to take them in.

I don't want to be so cruel, it is hardly in my nature,

but please do not run friend for I will be forced to hunt and chase you!

Fifth Victim:

I will hide in my house or perhaps climb up a tree.

The Zero:

I will eat them both with you, it makes no difference to me!

Don't you see now, friend, that I cannot be denied,

so let us make this easier; come over here and step inside!

Second Victim:

Deep within my mind merciless parameters of frozen time.

How to survive: every bit of hope is left behind.

In transcendent emptiness drifting through oceans of mental pain,

In this doomed world, how hard is it to guess

That all attempts to persevere are in vain?

Deep within my soul cold reverberation in disjointed game.

Who's to blame?

How can I save you, my only love?

You will be but a zero –

What can I do?

I wish I could die instead of you,

But as it is,

We shall die together.

Fifth Victim:

I won't! I won't! I have much too much to live for!

The Zero:

As do I, which is why I need some warmth.

I do not want to hurt you. Nay, I do not have the heart.

You misunderstand me,

I did not have a choice from the start.

You do not stand out amongst the rest, nor do you pale in comparison.

I am cold. You are warm. How else can it be?

Fifth Victim:

What about a blanket? I could get you one of those.

It is imported, quite expensive, and this way you could let me go!

The Zero:

All that would do is make me choke, make me gag.

It is your life force I desire, not some feather in a bag.

I am alive in the sense that I am not completely dead.

My essence is a wooden coffin while yours is a comfortable bed.

Fifth Victim:

Please! I won't let on that I saw you

or stop you if you target someone else.

Now if you would just let me tip-toe out of here,

we could forget this has ever taken place.

The Zero:

This is not the way I see things,

this is not how it looks from where I spin.

There will be no one left for You to report to,

give up, you cannot win.

Fifth Victim:

I asked you please dear god to spare me and you told me that you couldn't.

I asked you please dear lord to spare my children and you told me that you couldn't.

No matter where I go or what I do,

there is no hope of avoiding you.

I am standing by my self even as I say this:

I am yours, enjoy your feast!

The Narrator:

Devour them and make them into zeros. Zeros need more zeros like cold needs more cold. Make them all into zeros. Most of them already are. Zero them out. Make zeros. Most of them already are. Zero is all, all, and all. Most of them already are. Proceed.

So we proceed. We cold, make cold. Crash shape, let fall apart. Crash contour, let dismember disjoint. I eat. I eat. I devour. I devour. Cold devour cold, eat devour eat, devour devour devour. I cold so I eat. I eat so I cold. One together, two the same.

COLD IN THE NAME OF COLDNESS

The Zeros:

Be and be and be and be with Us!

We shall eat the substance of the stars –

Universe one humongous meal!

Such is the desire that we feel!

Spinning fast,

you'll be cold...

Spinning fast,

You'll be cold at last!

First Victim:

Now I was a part of them. I was a little zero within a big one. My existence contributed to the overall existence of zeros. I could feel smaller zeros inside me, and bigger ones outside me, all neatly combined into one structure. The smaller zeros remained in continuous circulation, supplying the energy to the bigger ones. Those were responsible for maintaining energetic supplies of the most pronounced zeros, who after a certain time would cease to be that way and return to the lower level in the hierarchy to serve as the basis in the society of zeros. Thus, the democracy of zeros was insured.

In the world of zeros, everything was perfect!

Together with other zeros, we proceeded to devour more matter.

I was happier as a zero than I had ever been as a man.

A Zero:

And so you see, this calling is inevitable.

With this burden, I shall remain, carrying the weight of one thousand souls (and trees).

The bitter remorse will tug at the frayed wisps of air that dangle from my round soul,

reverberating solemn chords of sadness.

And I am encased forever in this desperate position,

oh why am I so cold!

They did not refrain from removing my will, snatched it without my permission

They filled the air with thoughts that motivate the path that I pave:

If they ask you "why?" reply to them:

"Cold, in the name of coldness."

And if they do not understand, explain to them:

"Cold, truly in the name of coldness.

ENTER BLANK

The Preacher:

How far down does one have to plunge in order to reach the hideous depths of the most evil, deceptive, and conniving zero of them all? What? You cannot discern one evil zero from others? Yes, folks, they are the cause of the dank horror that has plagued our land, but if you could possibly find it within yourself to imagine this, there is actually a zero that make all other zeroes seem friendly in comparison. Yes, folks, I am describing to you the epitome of death, the kind of death that playfully hangs you by a string just before taking you, and leaves you in that position for an indefinite agonizing interlude, until the string has snapped, sending you plummeting into a bottomless nothing. Yes, folks, I am referring to the unholy triple zero, the one commonly known as BLANK.

Everyone:

ENTER BLANK!

Blank:

I am Blank

Moving strong like tank

Biggest of all

Very tall!

A zero and more,

I'm waiting by your door.

I'm a hungry mighty Blank –

Eat you up before you blink.

Blank is ruthless, Blank is strong.

Who could say that I am wrong?

WE WILL WATCH YOU DIE!

The Zeros:

We will watch you die!

Soon you will find out why!

Ask me once again!

I am a zero!

Slowly, we descend,

your life will surely end.

No future to expect!

I am a zero!

No reason to resist –

soon you won’t exist!

I don’t mean to sound remiss

I am a zero!

Winter rears its head

Disturbing nature’s trend,

Cold front begins to spread

I am a zero!

No use in playing dead.

Your warmth will make amends.

Just think of me as a friend.

I am a zero!

We will watch you die!

Soon you will find out why!

Ask me once again . . .

I AM A ZERO!!

RECONFIGURATION

The Narrator:

They are zeros hidden inside the bodies of normal people. They came, devoured, and took the bodies. This is how they had planned their invasion from the ancient times. And now they are strong enough to take over. Zeros around me in the street, zeros in the stores, zeros everywhere. Zeros on the benches in the parks, zeros in their offices, zeros everywhere. Zeros reign. The world of the absolute zeros has prepared its zero perfection. Zeros rule the governments, zeros make millions. In the world of zeros, a zero is the king. Open your eyes to see zeros all around you.

Fourth Victim:

Reconfiguration of familiar symbols in the dumpster of my mind.

In super-penetration It Who Reassembles is approaching from behind.

Empty, so empty, how can It be so? Or maybe that's the very source of Its amazing might?

Cold is rather tempting in the underglow that transforms the day into the zero of night.

Leave me alone!

I don't want to see you,

I don't want to be you,

I want to end my days in human shape!

Blank:

I'm sorry to displease you:

I wish I could dismiss you,

But as it is, your time has come today!

Fourth Victim:

But what about others?

If someone discovers

A powerful zero-splitting gun,

You'll be eliminated,

The Earth illuminated

By new, eternal Sun.

Blank:

I don't really care:

In cold and empty glare

I spend my endless time.

Come here and be my dinner.

My skin is getting thinner:

I have to cater to my appetite!

Fourth Victim:

You'll be eliminated,

the Earth illuminated

By new, eternal sun.

No!

SMILE OF EMPTINESS

The Narrator:

You will see a zero instead of your wife across the table from you, as she is covering a toast with jam. You will see zeros instead of your children, deranged in Nintendo-saturated dream. In place of your parents, you will see zeros, who have launched you into your flight towards being a zero. In place of the world, you will see a big zero’s face, cold round smile of emptiness.

A Zero:

I look into their eyes just before submission, and I seethe puzzled look of bewilderment.

And why should they not look so puzzled, when they stare at the grisly sight that is me?

Or is the reflection on my wall of themselves about to die all that they can see?

Or is it both?

And what is worse is that I can never know.

I will forever be tortured with the glimpse of stoic fear, carved in a solitary symbol of memory.

I would blink if only I had eyes, but no such luck for me,

for I am a zero.

I am a zero.

A lone, cold, lonely zero.

TRULY

The Zeros:

If they ask you, "Why?" reply to them:

"Cold, in the name of coldness."

And if they do not understand, explain to them:

"Cold, truly in the name of coldness."

The Narrator:

If they ask you, "Why?" reply to them:

"Cold, in the name of coldness."

And if they do not understand, explain to them:

"Cold, truly in the name of coldness."

The Zeros:

If they ask you, "Why?" reply to them:

"Cold, in the name of coldness."

And if they do not understand, explain to them:

"Cold, truly in the name of coldness."

PSEUDO PEOPLE

The Narrator:

They split and split and meld into one another, repositioning pieces of existence, nourishing themselves.

The Zeros:

You will zeros breeding in the laboratories of absolute.

The Narrator:

Split flash and watch them split again, run from the light that burns with their credo of evil.

The Zeros:

Round hungry faces feeding off the mental energy of well-digested brains.

Cold, warm transition relatively heat-free, seismic mutterings of feeding need.

The Narrator:

Frost-ridden signatures of Armageddon. Over-multiplied formulae of annihilation.

The Zeros:

Crushing overturn momentum smooth domes high sheen.

The Narrator:

In fantastic molecular exchange and discharge, in zero-erotic confluence, they come together, celebrating new regimes and space.

The Zeros:

Spill over spill, creating cold chill and still I have to eat. Mass feeding, steam breathing in ravenous appetite. Pushing to obtain warmth from cold, deep trench gathering to fight over every morsel.

The Narrator:

In the hum of joyous integration, auditory vibrations create tremors of violence, influence gravity, reversing nature into surreal comic manipulations.

The Zeros:

Push to one side, push to another side, must must get in to get cold, must get cold to get in.

The Narrator:

Clouds descend to the ground while trees and soil move to the sky, taking root, fertilizing the atmosphere.

Sixth Victim:

Shatter like glass the houses - cold cold very cold. Birds in the air frost in motion - very cold, and nothing but cold. My mind cold, no think straight no more. Suddenly I see the cold front. Cold, cold, very cold front. It cold. It can I see at last. It approaches in the shape of zeroxes. Roll they roll, large and small. Cold very cold for the young and the old. By their approachment is measured the cold, the cold, and the very cold. Cold within everything, strip to the bone. Cold inside, strip to the cell. Cold cold freeze game. Cold front up-front. Cold like gold. Zeroxes. And I know that soon I shall be no more, I stare in bewilderment at the face of my death, like a circle or a sphere, the face of a zero. Absolute zero.

The Narrator:

Pseudo-people, who in fact are zeros, do not possess a brain. Or, to be precise, they do, but it is not theirs: it used to belong to the person whose body they invaded. Zeros have no use for it. In all situations of everyday life they maintain the ability to act according to their very limited memory, in which some of the most obvious human actions and some of the most common words are stored. Thus, it is innate for the absolute zeros to have no thoughts of their own. Instead of thinking, they repeat the thoughts of other zeros.

BE AND BE AND BE AND BE WITH US!

The Zeros:

Be and be and be and be with Us!

We shall eat the substance of the stars –

Universe one humongous meal!

Such is the desire that we feel!

Spinning fast, you'll be cold...

Spinning fast,

You'll be cold at last!

Multiply by zero if you want to own the world!

Everything is empty, everything surrendering to cold.

You remember days when you used to play silly human games.

Now the rules are changed, now we all have new zero names.

Stop their molecules, we must make them cold.

We need the energy to remain cold!

Cold is our motto, cold is our line –

Ready to devour, outside of time.

Disassembled structures, punctured space.

Causation chains are fractured,

Connections are misplaced.

We cannot remember –

We cannot see –

Come and dismember,

be zero with me!

Outrageous power

Ready to devour!

NOTHING AND LESS

The Narrator:

Continuous excavation of free cells and bacteria, strange flesh sections undergoing metamorphosis, creating ulterior arrangements of reprocessed death. Roll, roll and roll again, hovering over the dish of humanity, emigrating warmth precedes immigrating coldness. Symbols defect and reverse in stagnant motion, depriving structure of structure, imitating gross misjudgments of physics. And so they separate, snapping the lines of communicating membranes, mature enough to venture out on their to own to harvest the crop of life.

Blank:

In the twisted depths of madness empty gestures, rolling movements, and a melody of glass.

Let me have you, let me eat you, let me drink you, I am hungry, I am thirsty, I want you, You will be nothing and less.

How else can I survive?

Cease your silly, scared trembling: in a second you will know that I'm right.

Be forever cold and empty, blank and ruthless, strong and hungry.

You will be nothing and less...

How else can you survive?

Step inside!

The Narrator:

Concentrated heat scans penetrate subconscious plans of the zeros, confounding idea material that prepares them for ultimate integration. Puzzled digits extend hapless suggestions to each other, rebounding off solid objects that will now repel them. This is the state of advantages that we must accept in order to overcome the debacle of hollow fright, empty terror.

WAKE UP WARM UP

The Narrator:

Human race save yourself! Save the memory of yourself, if you do not deserve salvation. Reflect the absolute zeros in the mirror of your aggression. No more! It is time to resist, for if we do not, we shall see disturbing things happening, and our future will turn against us and devour us.

The Voice of the Humans:

Wake up warm up!

Melt the zeros-it is not too late!

They are cold, and want more cold.

Melt them!

Wake up warm up!

Shoot hot hatred at the zero-faces of solidified BLANKS!

Collect within yourself the energy to melt!

Wake up warm up!

Divide yourself by a zero, and be the infinity.

The Narrator:

Divide yourself by a zero, and be the infinity.

The Voice of the Humans:

Divide yourself by a zero and be the infinity.

Be warm, very warm!

Melt the zeros and be warm!

EXTERMINATE YOURSELF!

The Narrator, everyone joining in:

You must remember: absolute zeros are all around you. They look at you from every corner, ready to devour. In the fight against them you must be ruthless. If you feel close to becoming a zero, divide yourself by another zero, and increase! If you discover that you have become a zero, exterminate yourself!

If you discover that you have become a zero, exterminate yourself!

Exterminate yourself!

EXTERMINATE YOURSELF!