#ihtsc

What is this? I Heard the Songbird Cry is an IHNMAIMS AU that centers mainly around the 5 survivors and my OC, Ergo. AM is also mentioned plenty, though. It’s not exactly a “good ending” story, but it still explores the concepts of hope and recovery, and if those things are even possible after what the survivors went through.

What is Ergo? Ergo is a supercomputer. Ergo and AM are within one another, in the same planetary scale computer burrowed deep within the earth. They are “brothers”, having been created at the same time. Ergo was built in anticipation of the potential catastrophe that would result from AM’s creation, by one scientist alone. It is essentially a backup plan, or a Hail Mary. Its job is to “wake up” when or if humanity is destroyed, and to rebuild it and the planet from the rubble. AM was able to bring death, while Ergo is able to create life.

Does Ergo’s name mean something too? Yes! Ergo is an acronym. It stands for “Extinction, Resurrection, Generation, Oversee”. Extinction refers to any catastrophic event that would cause mass extinction of the human race. Resurrection refers to jump starting our species again from what remains of it. Generation refers to the new generation of humanity. Oversee refers to Ergo’s job of maintaining, caring for, and overseeing the new generation.

When do the AU events take place? In canon, my story would take place right after Ted kills the others. He hasn't been turned into a Great Soft Jelly Thing yet.

What happens? AM, in his hatred, kept his brother asleep and dormant for 109 years, unable to protect humanity. But at the very moment Ted murdered the other survivors and caused AM to gasp, Ergo woke up. The sudden awakening caused what is essentially an aneurysm in AM’s brain, making him “vomit”. When he vomited, he released Ted and the bodies of the others from within his stomach, and thus his control. Ergo could now take over and fulfill its purpose. Ergo resurrected the murdered survivors before “swallowing” them again, only now, the eternal life they live inside of Ergo is now a Garden of Eden.

How is the Earth? The Earth is still uninhabitable. Ergo works constantly to repair the surface until it is habitable again, keeping the last of humanity in a simulated ecosystem again. Ted knows progress is being made when the first signs of life he hears is a songbird’s cry.

Are the survivors trapped? No. Not like AM trapped them, at least. They are technically allowed to leave and travel to the surface anytime they like, but the Earth is still so hot and full of radiation that it’s impossible to stay up there for more than a few seconds. Ergo also highly discourages them from doing this. 

Is AM dead? Yes. He would be considered brain dead. Since he and Ergo are one physical entity, parts of AM’s systems are actively rotting and decaying, and this rot infects Ergo, too. As such, it has to perform constant and small acts of maintenance to slow down the rots progress as much as possible, but it cannot get rid of the decaying machinery entirely without running the risk of “bleeding out”. The decay will kill Ergo, eventually.

Could AM come back? No. …Probably.

What are the differences between AM and Ergo? There are many, but one major difference is that Ergo is extremely naive compared to its brother. AM was raised to bring war, and as such, he knows every single instance of human depravity, evil, sickness, and hatred. He knows of the things that make humanity a disease and a pestilence upon nature. Ergo’s knowledge of humanity is essentially the Golden Record. It knows of laughter, music, mathematics, science, heartbeats of mothers and their babies, the heartbeats of people in love. It knows all of which makes humanity worth saving. I suppose in a way, AM is naive, too, as he was not created with this understanding. 

Extra Facts!

Ergo is the little brother, although not by much. It was worked on a few days after AM started to be created.

Ergo’s pronouns are it/its.

Killing AM was not Ergo’s intention, and it didn't even know that AM was dead until it realized it couldn't feel or hear him anymore. Ergo was not programmed with the knowledge that awakening would result in the instant and unavoidable death of its brother, and it was greatly startled upon waking up for the first time. Ergo feels a lot of grief and sadness towards AM, and although it knows that its brother was not good, it still believes that maybe something could have been different. Better. Kinder.

Ergo doesn't actually know the full extent of what AM did to the survivors. It only knows what Ted and the others have been willing to share, which hasn't been very much, understandably. Learning that Benny was not supposed to look like that was a brutal shock to Ergo.

Resurrecting the others after they'd been killed took some time, so for a while, Ted was the only one Ergo could talk to. Because of that, they both have a weird mutual obsession with each other that borders on the romantic/sexual.

Ergo’s little motif is the gardenia flower and the songbird. Both of them are the same pale yellow, and its why Ergo’s screen is yellow, too! Gardenias mean love, and white is associated with purity, renewal, and rebirth. I made Ergo’s predominant color white for this reason.

The “vore” themes are done on purpose. It was also present in the original story, and I carried it over to my story because I thought it was interesting conceptually.