Tiger Rock | The Monty Within | Bleeding Heart
Rock an' roll!
"But the AI part of our minds," Kane continued, "can also be our worst enemy. My theory is that we all would live better if we had full knowledge of the fact that this non-sentient—and therefore, really, nonhuman—part of us has a lot of control over what we say and do."
High-schooler Kane is working on his senior thesis, one about how the left and right sides of the brain operate differently. He believes that the left side works similar to an A.I. that makes the human productive, with the right side being the sentient part. After presenting his ideas to some confused seniors, Kane becomes convinced that the new game Fazcade Tag-Team is utilizing the same theory that he's been writing about. In investigating, he gets himself zapped and short-circuiting the game. Following, he starts hearing the voice of the game's Montgomery Gator A.I. talking inside his head... and taking over more and more of his life.
The twentieth Tales from the Pizzaplex story, and the second of the seventh book, Tiger Rock.
Tropes related to “The Monty Within”:
- Academic Athlete: Kane is a sports star and huge jock, but he also loves learning and researching non-sports-related topics.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Monty AI, upon hooking up with Kane's brain, immediately begins trying to ruin his life and cause him physical harm. There is a possibility that the AI is somehow connected to the Mimic virus, as Kane quickly notices that the Monty AI in the food-fight mainly just copies what Orville is doing.
- Animal Lover: Kane specifically mentions being uncomfortable with Sperry's studies on splitting brains in animals. Sienna, meanwhile, is a huge sloth fan.
- Animal Motifs: Sienna is obsessed with sloths, and collects anything sloth-shaped. Kane also seems to be lowkey associated with bees, as he's woken up from a dream about a bee grabbing him, and distinctly notices a bee buzzing in his backyard before going to the Pizzaplex with Archer, once he's there, though, Archer jokes that he's big enough to be an elephant like Orville.
- Attention Whore: The Monty AI is this, reflecting the apparent ego of the actual animatronic. He keeps insiting that he knows what's right for Kane, despite constantly ruining his life.
- Big Brother Worship: Kane's little brother Archer absolutely adores his big brother and loves his attention and approval.
- Books vs. Screens: Kane makes a quick snarky remark about the kids in the audience putting down their phones and games in order to read Jill Bolte Taylor's book.
- Bully Magnet: Archer apparently has only one friend, and they both "got picked on at school all the time."
- Call-Back: When selecting their initial characters for Fazcade Tag-Team, Archer quickly picks the "purple-blue" Bonnie, and is paired with Glamrock Chica. Kane eventually picks Orville Elephant, who is apparently obscure in-universe, and is paired with Monty.
- Character Catchphrase: Matching Monty's in-game "Rock and roll!"
- Chekhov's Gun: The woodshop's woodcutter saw.
- Color Motifs: Kane likes the color gray, and has his room very decorated in it, something Monty dislikes. However, even before his possession, Kane is described as wearing a dark green polo, connecting him to the green gator.
- Cool Shades: Monty's classic star-shaped sunglasses.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Monty forces Kane to saw himself in half with a woodcutter.
- A Day in the Limelight: Technically it's not Monty, but an AI replicant of Monty utilized for an arcade game. It still acts like Monty, though.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Kane likes the colors gray and black, and his interior designer mom gave him a very neutral bedroom.
- Demonic Possession: Kane is possessed by an AI that is either malfunctioning or actively malicious, and makes him hurt himself and others, ending with him being forced to kill himself.
- Disappeared Dad: Kane's dad left the family to run off with an office nurse.
- Dream Intro: The short starts with Kane groggily awakening from a dream about a bee pulling him from a sky-sailboat.
- The Dutiful Son: Kane is often helping his mother around the house, usually with his brother. He began taking woodshop classes so he would be able to help her with DIY projects.
- Enemy Within: Literally; the Monty AI takes over Kane's left brain and starts slowly taking over his entire body.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Kane gets these immediately following his possession, and it only gets worse.
- Fighting from the Inside: Originally, Kane is able to push Monty's thoughts out of his head. He gets weaker and weaker until Monty has full control of his body.
- Good with Numbers: Nerdy Archer, who's "loves science and numbers" and is doing a project on Kane's baseball stats.
- Goth: Kane spots an annoyed girl next to him and Archer in the Fazcade Tag-Team who has "heavy goth-look makeup and multiple nose and eyebrow rings."
- Grand Theft Me: Monty eventually manages to completely take over Kane's body, and uses it to kill him.
- Grayscale of Evil: Subverted, as protagonist Kane really likes gray and black, and antagonist Monty finds those colors boring.
- Green and Mean: The Monty AI technically doesn't have a physical form, but it's heavily associated with the actual animatronic.
- Green Gators: Monty.
- Hot-Blooded: Monty, as always. Even ignoring the tempramental AI, Kane recalls that the animatronic Monty is the "most aggressive" of the Glamrocks, always roaring and destroying things.
- Jerkass: The Monty AI acts like this to everyone, insulting whoever it comes across and trying to make Kane's life actively worse.
- Karmic Death: In an ironic turn, Monty forces Kane to split himself down the middle with a woodcutter, effectively splitting his brain into the two halves Kane was obsessed with studying.
- Lovable Jock: Kane is the school's star baseball player, who deeply loves his family and girlfriend and tries hard to be nice to everyone.
- Monster of the Week: A version of Montgomery Gator's AI.
- Murder by Suicide: Frustratedly telling Kane he needs to "go away," Monty uses his control over Kane's body to force him to split himself in half with a table saw.
- Mysterious Past: Apparently, just before the Pizzaplex opened, Sienna and Kane had their first date at a Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria, meaning one had been recently open a little before the story.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The original release for the book titled this short "The Manshi Within," possibly a typo, or possibly to hide Monty's involvement.
- New Technology Is Evil: Of course, this story relies on an evil AI taking over someone's brain.
- No Full Name Given: Not a lot of surnames in this story.
- Parental Abandonment: Kane's dad, a doctor, left the family in order to be in a relationship with an office nurse. Kane hasn't forgiven him, and thinks of him as a jerk.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Sienna, who's on the varsity volleyball team and long-distance track.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: At the end of the presentation, a student asks if the thesis is somehow anti-technology.Reg got to his feet. “Well, it sounds to me like a kind of ‘video games cause society’s problems’ thing.”Kane frowned and made a face. What? he thought. He hadn’t even mentioned video games.“Go on,” Ms. Stockton said.“Well,” Reg said, running a hand over his dark brown buzz cut, “he seems to be saying that what we’re exposed to is what goes into this computer in our brain, and that’s what messes us up. It’s the same thing that people say about video games.”
- Pride: The Monty AI is extremely proud of itself and its decisions, despite it constantly ruining everything for Kane.
- Kane also references the actual Monty being "pretty egotistical."
- Ragin' Cajun: It seems that Monty still has his in-game accent.
- Real Men Cook: With his dad gone and his mom working long hours, Kane's been getting pretty good at cooking in order to keep him and Archer fed.
- Recursive Canon: Kane specifically says that Orville is known from Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: With Monty being an evil alligator AI.
- Sanity Slippage: Monty slowly takes more and more control of Kane, causing him to act out in public around his friends and girlfriend.
- Sharing a Body: Once the Monty AI hooks into Kane's brain, it starts slowly taking over his bodily functions, starting with his right limbs and slowly moving onto the entire body.
- Shout-Out: Kane references Siri and Alexa specifically in his essay.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: Played for Horror as Monty takes over Kane's body and uses it to self-harm and eventually kill himself.
- Truth in Television: Kane's essay references actual scientific studies done by Meinard Simon du Pui
, Arthur Ladbroke Wigan, Roger Sperry, and Jill Bolte Taylor.
