the year is 2158. i am in a room, and in the room a film is playing. a man appears on screen, and i bolt upright, pointing.
"that's the Serpent," i say, "from the 2011 crossover comic storyline Fear Itself. he's odin's secret bad brother and he breaks captain america's shield and thor gets a big sword to fight him."
the exam's administrator nods. i've identified the post-credits easter egg in just 18.4 milliseconds—well below the 21 millisecond average, and .6 ms below the qualifying threshold for service in the Disney Strategic Intelligence Corps, "The Mouse's Ears." my heart swells with pride. at last, after years of training, i'd be securing Disney brand supremacy in clandestine tactical operations across the Intercorporate Span.
just then, a Warner Bros. Discovery stealth destroyer breaks from its geostationary position in low orbit. its high-yield neutron bombardment descends seconds later towards the exam facility. moments before he's destroyed, Goofy—here to present the new corpsmen with their badges—looks skyward, his eyes drawn to a growing flicker of green among the sweep of stars.
"Gwarsh," he says, and is gone.