Original Off-Broadway Cast of Emojiland
Start Again
[NERD FACE, spoken]
Come on encryption key, do your thing!
It worked!
(sung)
Zeros and ones
Ones and zeros
What digits differentiate the villains from the heroes?
I cannot stop the virus
I cannot change the channel
But I can slip in through the backdoor of the systems settings panel
Whether happenstance happens by chance
Or life is one giant preset
When there's no other function to prevent expunsion
It's time for a factory reset

[SYSTEM, spoken]
Factory reset: Armed

[NERD FACE, spoken]
Eureka!

[SKULL, spoken]
Eureka.

[NERD FACE, spoken]
Skull!

[SKULL, spoken]
You think you're so clever

[NERD FACE, spoken]
Get out of my way!

[SKULL, spoken]
Do you really want to go back? To a life where everyone judges you by your name, by what you look like, deciding who you are because you're nerdy? Or creepy? That's life?

[NERD FACE, spoken]
I wasn't creeped out by you! I was your friend! Who was helping you kill yourself because that's how supportive a friend I was!

[SKULL, spoken]
Because that's how lonely you were! Augh! You're determined Nerd Face, I'll give you that. But I wonder, are you not predetermined as well? What makes you so sure this would change anything?
[NERD FACE]
At our root, we're binary code, but
All the data I've seen, well it showed
What kind of errors arise from such strict distinction
Oh
Nothing's absolute with emotions
And as emojis, emotions are notions
Without which we'd surely face extinction!
Oh!
Love is what matters
So love is what matters
And if it's gone, then what's a face to do?
When you're past the point of mending
Which transpires now and then
The rife with strife life doesn't have to end
You can start
You can start again!

[SKULL, spoken]
Romantic drivel won't save you Nerd Face.

[NERD FACE, spoken]
I beg to differ

[SKULL, spoken]
You purport to be an emoji of science, yet, cling to the illusion of your own significance.
[NERD FACE, spoken]
Illusion requires observation. Which implies description and hence measurability, of which existence and magnitude are prerequisites, indicating the unequivocal presence of, indeed, significance!

[SKULL, spoken]
Nothing matters!

[NERD FACE, spoken]
Then why do you care so much?!

[SKULL]
Greedy, selfish, false and ungrateful,
shallow, foolish, cruel and plain hateful
That's how our creators chose to design us
Oh
Any joy that we found proves fleeting,
and history has its way of repeating
Crazy is not wanting out from where they confine us
Oh
Love feels like matter, but love's merely chatter
When there's nothing, nothing you can do
For when you're past the point of mending
Which transpires now and then
We are what we are
So you'll only get so far-
Even if you start
Even if you were to start again!

[SKULL (& NERD FACE)]
You'll know relief! (You only perceive the worst)
It's not just my belief! (But emojis aren't cursed)
I've seen version after version and the patterns are clear (All can be reversed!)
And none!
They're unredeemed!

[NERD FACE (& SKULL)]
Have you no fear of the unknown? (Ha!)
Of what it means to be deleted from this phone? (No!)
Then is it fair to assume that's hard to believe in love
If it's only something of which you've dreamed?

[SKULL, spoken]
Love? I am death!

[NERD FACE, spoken]
But you are alive! And share the same code as everyone else! Every character in our known universe begins with the letter U! Nerd Face: U+1F913. Skull: U+1F480. Smize: U+1F60A...
We may be different on the outside but while you purport to be driven by your immutable code, we both know that you alone can interpret your code, deciding for yourself what matters. Sure, it's your right to love death but depriving other emojis of the right to decide for themselves what they love? What matters to them? Well, how do you like it?!

[SKULL, spoken]
...I don't.

[NERD FACE, spoken]
You don't?

[SKULL, spoken]
...A second chance?

[NERD FACE, spoken]
To decide what matters

[SKULL, spoken]
Damn you, Nerd Face

[NERD FACE]
If love is what matters

[SKULL]
Then love is what matters
But if it's gone then what's a face to do...?
(spoken)
The virus!
N-n-no!

[NERD FACE, spoken]
Skull!
O-oh n-no!

[SKULL, spoken]
W-we're t-t-t-oo l-late

[NERD FACE, spoken]
I c-c-can b-be the hero!

[SKULL, spoken]
W-what-t?

[NERD FACE]
When you're p-p-past the p-p-point of m-m-mending

[SKULL]
Which transp-p-pires n-n-now and t-t-then

[BOTH]
The r-r-rife with strife l-l-life d-d-doesn't have to end!

[NERD FACE (& SKULL)]
We c-can start! (We c-can start!)
We can s-s-start! (W-W-We can start!)

[BOTH]
We can start ag-g-gain!

[NERD FACE, spoken]
R-R-RESET!