A/N : Alright, this is more of a filler chapter, but meh. This sort of expains how the Empire finds out who's doing their job and who isn't though. Plus, we also find out why the Foodening stopped, with a cameo from a show I keep meaning to watch. This also shows my beta reader what happens when I'm feeling mischievous - I try to shove a certain word into each paragraph. I'll let you guess what it is.
By the way, the Control Brain's name is pronounced go-loan-yen.
Disclaimer: Invader Zim does not belong to me, yada yada yada. I'm eating a burger!
The mighty control brain loomed over an Irken, who was at his mercy, with a wire stuck into the tiny creature's PAK. He, Golon'yn, had been hand-picked for the position of Judge of Position Efficiency by both the Tallest and control brains that were higher ranked than him. He was young, smart, and eager to do the job. He would see how well the Irken was doing in their position, train them if they were doing it incorrectly, give them a new job if he thought they were more suitable to be something else, and if they had stopped doing their job with no good excuse, he would ship them off to be put in one of the sillier-looking bodies. He'd always thought Irkens were the least silly-looking people in all the universe – others had four arms, or feetless legs, or were just weird looking.
The Foodening was over since another time anomaly had occurred. He'd heard it was because of some silly-looking guy in these silly clothes with a silly blue box that could time travel, but he thought that was silly. Golon'yn's workload had increased, but he didn't mind. He happily sifted through the massive amounts of Irkens.
He released the drone he'd been working with. "Alright, see you after the next Foodening, I hope!" Then, he called the next Irken into his Judgement Chamber, or as the other Judges of Position Efficiency liked to call it, the "Silly Chamber." They'd even talked an Irken to hang a sign over the door that said "Silly Chamber." He thought that was silly.
"Hello, Sizz-Lorr!" He liked to greet Irkens, even if the others thought it was silly and his voice was deep and intimidating. The Frylord was intimidating as well, and Golon'yn guessed his voice was deep too. Sizz-Lorr didn't say anything, though, so Golon'yn carried on with his work. "Okay, it seems that you didn't do your job for a while, but you were pardoned from that by the Tallest themselves! Lucky you!" Golon'yn was often told that his cheerful disposition sounded sarcastic because of his voice, but he often told those people that they were being silly and they usually shut up. "Also, you worked on days you'd set aside for vacation, so that would have made up for a lot of it! So, I'm increasing your pay by a couple thousand monies per Irken Orbit!"
Sizz-Lorr seemed surprised. "Really?"
"Yes! We're set until your next evaluation. We're a bit ahead of the clock, though, so if you'd like, we could talk a bit."
"Uh... talk?"
"Of course, silly!" Golon'yn loved talking to the Irkens, even if the other control brains thought it was silly. "I've been pretty busy, so I haven't seen the news,"
"Oh, well... a fleet of Resisty ships was spotted. They didn't tell us what they were up to before shooting at the ship that saw them, but they did confirm that Tallest Purple is alive. Battered, shaken up, but alive."
Some of Golon'yn's circuits cooled in relief. He liked Purple, and he was pretty sure Purple was fond of him too. He'd had a small position on the Massive (that he'd thought was pretty silly) before he'd become a Judge of Position Efficiency, and he and Purple talked together a lot, often about things that frustrated the Tallest. The two had kept in touch after Golon'yn had been moved to Judgementia for his new job. When he'd heard Purple had been captured, he'd been so distraught, he almost hadn't been able to do his job! That would have been really silly! "Well, I'm glad he's safe."
"'Safe' is not the word I'd use. Alive, but in the hands of the Resisty, he's definitely not safe." Sizz-Lorr crossed his arms, as if to drive this home.
"But they wouldn't just kill him, that would be silly!" Golon'yn argued. "Their leader's smart – he knows that a Tallest is a good barganing chip. He could probably... get a... ooooh, dear..."
"Is... something wrong?"
"No, no, it's fine... I just realized something. Silly me!" He opened the door. "You can go now, I need to fix a few things."
"Okay, go right ahead." Sizz-Lorr nodded and left. Golon'yn immediately contacted Tallest Red. "My Tallest! This may sound silly, but I think I know what Lard Nar wants!"
A/N: I am so, so sorry if "silly" no longer looks like a word.