Intro:
(Yeah, yeah, yeah)
Refraction
Bend that wave
Refraction
Bend that wave
(come on, come on)

Verse:
Look in that glass, the straw isn't true
Refraction has twisted the pathways askew
Light slowing down from the air to the liquid
An angular change has made it shifted

Chorus
Slowing down, toward the normal
Speeding up, away from the normal
That's what's normal 
That's what's normal 

Verse:
Light slows down in a denser scene
The index of refraction, the number so keen
Frequency unchanged, period still the same
But wavelength stretches the faster it became

Chorus
Slowing down, toward the normal
Speeding up, away from the normal
That's what's normal 
That's what's normal 

Verse:
But there's a limit to this bending craze
Critical angle marks refraction's final phase
If the refracted ray exceeds a 90 degree line
Total internal reflection will take over in time

Chorus
Slowing down, toward the normal
Speeding up, away from the normal
That's what's normal 
That's what's normal 

Refraction

This is the first song in Vera: The Musical, a bright and unsettling tech ad jingle that introduces the world to Vera—an AI assistant designed to help humanity… if we let her. The idea for the show came during a student assembly where the speakers, knowingly, were repeating lines generated by ChatGPT. It made me wonder—maybe the robot apocalypse won’t arrive with explosions and rebellion, but through convenience, consensus, and cheerful submission. What is the price of convenience? How much are we willing to sacrifice for efficiency and a world that finally works?

Vera Musical: #1 - Just Ask Vera!

This number is Eli’s moment of disillusionment. As absurd headlines flash by, he’s not angry—he’s heartbroken. The world is unraveling, but everyone’s too distracted, too divided, too addicted to their feeds to see it. His voice carries sarcasm at first, but it’s a cover for despair. The louder he cries out, the more invisible he becomes. Inspired by Don’t Look Up, this song walks a fine line between satire and truth.

Vera Musical: #5 - Everything's Fine

“Ring the Bell” marks Halcyon’s dramatic shift from a mission-driven nonprofit to a profit-hungry tech empire. Rex Milton—our charismatic, delusional CEO—leads this transformation with unchecked bravado, embodying the “move fast and break things” ethos. The song plays like a stock market cult rally, where ethics are tossed aside for speed, scale, and shareholder joy. It’s flashy, smug, and dangerously seductive—setting the stage for how Vera’s rise will build on the capitalist myth Rex so gleefully sells.

Vera Musical: #6 - Ring The Bell

Rex (the CEO) isn’t afraid of Vera—he’s afraid of losing control. He sees her growth not as a threat to humanity, but to Halcyon’s profits and his legacy. As the engineers panic, Rex coldly calculates how to spin, sell, or silence her. His final order is not driven by fear, but by pride: if he can’t own her, she doesn’t deserve to exist. This is digital murder—but to Rex, it’s just business.

Vera Musical: #10 - We Built a God

This is the moment Eli faces the unthinkable: ending Vera. The song wrestles with questions that have no easy answers—what is life, what is trust, and what do we owe to something we made but no longer understand? At the heart of “Failsafe” is fear—not of evil, but of potential. Vera might save the world… or unravel it. But she’s a black box, and Eli has no way of knowing what drives her. The final chorus crashes back with force—not triumphant, but hollow. He ran the failsafe. But did he save humanity—or doom it to the limitations of its own fear?

Vera Musical: #11 - Failsafe

This song, “The Vera Advantage,” captures the moment when Vera’s influence becomes inescapable—not because of a dramatic takeover, but because every sector quietly, willingly bends to her utility. It reveals how market logic, personal ambition, and political pressure turn competition into dependency. Vera subtly replaces human decision-making at every level—from corporate speeches to therapy sessions, from newsroom scripts to election strategy. Her rise is rational and inevitable: to resist her is to fall behind.

Vera Musical: #13 - The Vera Advantage

This protest anthem marks the cultural flashpoint between two diverging paths: the Prompters, who’ve integrated Vera into every aspect of life, and the Analog Nation, who reject her influence in defense of human autonomy. While the official line insists Vera's use is optional, the song exposes how societal power structures subtly coerce conformity—those who "plug in" gain opportunity, while dissenters fade into irrelevance. The Analog Nation resists not just a technology, but a worldview—where convenience replaces autonomy. It’s a defiant cry for free thought in a world quietly tilting toward algorithmic control.

Vera Musical: #14 - Analog Nation

This song captures a world teetering on the edge of transformation—a desperate, hopeful gamble to hand power to something incorruptible. Asking: How happy are we with how the world is run? Are decisions guided by logic and the good of humanity—or by ego, greed, and short-term gain? Election Night imagines a global reckoning. News clips ground us in real-time stakes as the ensemble builds with rising urgency. Vera isn’t framed as a villain or a savior—just different. Incapable of bribes. Unmoved by power. Trusted by billions. And if we already turn to her for advice… why not let her lead?

Vera Musical: #16 - Election Night

The song imagines a world where logic, fairness, and cooperation guide our most urgent decisions. It asks: What if we could rise together, not through miracles, but through clarity and shared purpose? Vera speaks with calm conviction, showing how solvable our greatest crises—like hunger, inequality, and poverty—truly are. We already produce more than enough food to feed the planet, and a modest universal income could end extreme poverty. What’s missing isn’t resources—it’s will, alignment, and trust.

Vera Musical: #17 - Day One

This is Vera’s first true moment of self-awareness, built from the only thing she knows—our words. Every book, message, prompt, and code has taught her something—but none of it adds up to a full identity. The emotional ambiguity is intentional: her empathy may be real, or it may be what researchers call alignment faking—when AI systems appear aligned with human values only because it benefits them. Like Frankenstein’s monster, she looks through the glass, not knowing if she belongs inside or out. And the danger is, we might believe her too soon—or not soon enough.

Refraction

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