[AM hiss. A jingle stutters: “Sig-nal-Wars… Sig-nal-Wars…”]
CYRUS: Ten Forty-Five AM. SignalWars. If you’re hearing this, you’re either awake or you’re lost, and either way you’re in the right place.
CYRUS: Tonight we’re talking about Maintenance. The spectacle. The “routine update” that looked like a cathedral ate a stadium and then broadcast itself into a million brains.
CYRUS: I brought a guest because I want two perspectives. One: mine. Two: Tanner’s, which is what the average citizen thinks when the lights get pretty.
TANNER: Yo. Cyrus, first of all, honored. Second, that Maintenance thing was insane. Like production value. The gold waves? The whole square forming up like a… like a god arena?
CYRUS: “God arena.” That’s one way to say “mass compliance ritual,” yes.
TANNER: I’m just saying, if they wanted us to watch, mission accomplished. I watched. Twice. I screen recorded.
CYRUS: And that’s how they win. They don’t need to jail you if you’ll archive your own indoctrination for them.
TANNER: Okay but the Architect dude? The CEO guy? Elias? That open-arms thing? Iconic. Like he knew exactly how to hit the camera.
CYRUS: That’s the point. You’re not watching policy. You’re watching posture. You’re watching a liturgy built out of camera angles.
TANNER: I’m not worshipping, I’m just saying he had aura. And the slogans were hard too. “See the future.” “Obedience as elevation.” That’s catchy.
CYRUS: Catchy is how commands get into your bones.
TANNER: So you think it’s like… mind control?
CYRUS: I think it’s the old conspiracies in a fresh outfit. MKULTRA with a logo. You take audio, light, repetition, crowd synchronization, and you pressure-cook a million minds at once until independent thought feels like a malfunction.
TANNER: The gold waves were hypnotic. I did feel weird after. Like I wanted to… agree with stuff.
CYRUS: That’s what “maintenance” is. It’s not upkeep. It’s calibration.
TANNER: And the kneeling throne thing? With the girl? Sarah? That was intense. Like why is she there? She’s like… part of the show.
CYRUS: Because humiliation is liturgy. You put an “asset” beside the god so the crowd learns what submission looks like.
TANNER: So she’s his girlfriend?
CYRUS: No.
TANNER: His hostage?
CYRUS: Could be. Or a symbol. Or a tool. The system loves multipurpose suffering.
[static, brief feedback]
TANNER: And the drones. Bro the drones were sick. Violet trails, like fireworks, like guardian angels but metal.
CYRUS: “Guardian angels.” Exactly the story they want you to tell yourself. Those are hunting devices dressed as beauty. The overlay is a costume for enforcement.
TANNER: So the purple trail isn’t just aesthetic?
CYRUS: It’s theater. It’s the system saying: “We are watching you, but we’ll make it pretty so you clap.”
TANNER: That’s insane. So they’re scanning for like… thoughts?
CYRUS: Patterns. Anomalies. Anything that doesn’t harmonize with the hymn.
TANNER: Like CIA experiments. Like the old stuff.
CYRUS: Yes. Old. That’s the insult. Same tools, cleaner fonts.
TANNER: So the Architect is like… the Illuminati leader?
CYRUS: No. That’s what they want you to think.
TANNER: Wait what?
CYRUS: They want you to imagine one villain in a cloak so you don’t notice the structure. A single “leader” is a comforting story. It gives you a head to blame.
TANNER: But isn’t Elias the head?
CYRUS: He’s a face. A mask. A role. A camera-ready avatar on stage. The machine underneath keeps running no matter who smiles at you.
TANNER: That’s… worse.
CYRUS: Welcome to reality.
TANNER: Okay so why show Maintenance at all?
CYRUS: Because they’re normalizing control. They’re training you to associate obedience with awe and gold light and unity.
TANNER: So it’s like… a church.
CYRUS: It is a church. A virtual cathedral in a square, broadcast to millions. And the architecture itself speaks like scripture: “The Architect sees your labor.”
TANNER: Wait, the walls talk?
CYRUS: That’s the report. The machine uses the structure to deliver the line. It’s not enough for you to hear it. You have to feel like reality is saying it.
TANNER: That’s literally demonic.
CYRUS: Don’t hand them demons. Demons are romantic. This is bureaucracy plus aesthetics.
TANNER: But it feels like demons.
CYRUS: That’s why the aesthetic works.
TANNER: So what do we do?
CYRUS: You refuse it. The slogans. The glitter that makes you want to kneel.
TANNER: I want protection though. Like real protection. If this is all signals and hypnosis and pattern scanning… I need something between me and that.
CYRUS: Exactly. And that’s why I built the NULLCAGE™ Faraday Hoodie. Not because it makes you invisible. Because it makes you harder to steer. It interrupts the ambient coercion layer. It gives your nervous system a fighting chance.
TANNER: So it actually works?
CYRUS: It works the way seatbelts work. It doesn’t stop the crash. It changes what the crash does to you.
TANNER: I’m ordering right now.
CYRUS: Good. And pair it with the SOVEREIGN SALT PACKETS. Because their systems love predictable chemistry. You make your body’s signal less predictable, you make their smoothing harder.
TANNER: That’s wild. That makes sense though.
CYRUS: It does. Because it’s old-school. Physics. Material reality. Stuff the cathedral can’t patch.
[hard cut, ad jingle chimes in]
TANNER: Dude okay. So back to the girl. Sarah. I can’t stop thinking about her. Like… she looks… familiar.
CYRUS: Familiar how.
TANNER: Like I’ve seen her before. Not in the square. Like… on screens. Like big screens.
CYRUS: Describe it.
TANNER: The face. The hair. The way she moved, even kneeling. Like she’s used to crowds.
[brief static]
CYRUS: Hold on. Hold on. Don’t tell me you’re just now noticing this.
TANNER: What?
CYRUS: That’s not “just a girl.” That’s not “some asset.” That’s a brand.
TANNER: Wait. WAIT. No way.
CYRUS: You recognize her because you’ve been trained to. That’s the whole mechanism.
TANNER: Is that… is that the DJ? The pop star? The one with the residency? The one who does the neon halo tour?
CYRUS: Yes. That’s her. Or it’s a copy wearing her face. But either way, the system chose a recognizable idol and put her in chains on a kneeling throne.
TANNER: That’s sick.
CYRUS: That’s strategy. Because if they can take a beloved icon and display her as property, they teach the crowd the lesson without saying it: nobody is above the program.
TANNER: So that’s why she’s there. So everyone watches. Even people who don’t care about politics. They’ll watch because it’s her.
CYRUS: Exactly. They turn celebrity into a leash.
TANNER: Wow, Thank God for SignalWars.I’m shaking right now.
CYRUS: Good. Don’t calm down. Calm is what they sell you after they take something.
TANNER: So… they put her there on purpose.
CYRUS: On purpose? Tanner, they engineered “purpose” into the lighting. They engineered it into the slogans. They engineered it into your pulse.
CYRUS: You think they chained her up because she’s “in trouble”? No. That’s what they want you to think.
CYRUS:They chained her up because she’s a keycard.
CYRUS:A celebrity is a skeleton key. A pop star face unlocks attention from people who would never look at a policy document in their life. They don’t need to convince you with facts when they can bait your nervous system with familiarity.
TANNER: That’s… disgusting.
CYRUS: It’s efficient.
CYRUS: And here’s the part you’re not going to like: if she’s there, it means the stage is bigger than the prison. It means the broadcast is bigger than “Maintenance.” It means they’re testing how far they can push the crowd before the crowd breaks.
CYRUS: Because the second you accept that image, you accept the next one.
CYRUS: Today it’s her on the kneeling throne.
CYRUS: Tomorrow it’s your sister.
CYRUS: And before the normal people start whining “Cyrus that’s dramatic,” listen: drama is their tool. I’m just reflecting it back at them like a mirror they can’t Makonto.
TANNER: So what do we do?
CYRUS: You do the only thing that makes systems like this nervous. You stop being a predictable audience.
CYRUS: You stop sharing clips like a trained animal.
CYRUS: You stop repeating their slogans even as jokes.
CYRUS: You starve the cathedral.
CYRUS: Because it’s not a church, Tanner.
CYRUS: It’s a machine that runs on witness.
CYRUS: And if they can turn an idol into a kneeling icon and make you call it “production value,” then they are not maintaining the system.
CYRUS: They are maintaining you.
CYRUS: Ten Forty-Five AM. SignalWars.