Help!

This week I am not presenting a piece of writing but a loose, and I mean loose, collection of research, questions and scenes for “The Circle of Fifths.”

I am really unsure of what direction to take this piece. I am aware that I am probably over thinking stuff and I feel like I’m going round in circles here!

So here is my list of stuff to consider… Some of this is connected in my mind but I am not entirely convinced that it all fits together…

Research.

• The black hole at the centre of the milky way has been “dormant” for a long a time. Approximately 200 years ago there was a “flare” as it sucked in matter for the first time in ages.
• Maria Theresia von Paradis was an Austrian musician and composer who lost her sight at an early age, and for whom her close friend Mozart may have written his Piano Concerto No. 18 in B-flat major. She was also in contact with Salieri, Haydn, and Gluck. She died in February 1824

• Karl G Jansky was an American physicist who whilst trying to work out why the trans-Atlantic radio telephone signals were constantly being interrupted, inadvertently discovered a radio signal from the centre of the universe.
• On May 15^th 1933 Jansky was interviewed on NBC Radio and the “radio of the stars” was broadcast to the nation.
• The “signal” comes from Sagittarius A – the region where the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way is.
• Jansky noise is the term used for any high frequency static disturbances of cosmic origin

• NASA has a project to “sonify” the electro-magnetic information they get from their various space born telescopes. This process assigns a note to each separate wavelength on the electromagnetic spectrum as seen in telescope images. They often assign different “instruments” too.
• Stephen’s Quintet – a collection of 4 galaxies in orbit around each other, with a 5^th galaxy in close proximity, has provided a pretty beautiful, but odd, piece of music. Others – some taken from the Voyager probe information, are very eerie and have a ghostly quality.

• The Music of the Spheres was a long held philosophical belief among early scientists and astronomers (from Aristotle onwards) that the universe, and everything contained within, made music as it turned and moved.

• Dark Matter. This takes up space and holds mass. It does not reflect, absorb or radiate light – not enough to be detected.
• Scientists think it makes up to 27% of the universe.
• It’s believed to exist in a large web-like structure through the whole universe.
• It is composed of unknown particles
• Dark Energy – may compose roughly 68% of the universe.
• Something like Dark Energy must exist to explain the accelerating expansion off the universe.

• Big Crunch – one of the theories (not widely believed anymore) that the universe will expand only so far. When it reaches its outer limit then the universe contracts into a singularity. This is the potential next Big Bang.

The Beyond

I am changing its name to “Gloam” from now on, the Beyond is now a “place.”

At the moment I am modelling Gloam on Dark Matter/Dark Energy

What is its purpose?

• Does it destroy consciousness – it has up till now tainted everything and has turned The Many into an almost mindless entity – as it learns about/from it?
• Does it ultimately just destroy the universe (thus destroying consciousness) through expansion?

If Gloam acts like Dark Energy, and acts according to what we know about Dark Energy, is that reason enough for it to be bad? (See above on Dark Energy/Matter.)

So far, I have written Gloam as a creature, a child, born into the cosmic void before the “Big Bang.”

It is clever but totally alone. It is single minded and determined. Gloam wants to, in fact, needs to learn – it is Gloam’s vocation. It has only known this way to exist and interact with the universe. These are actions are known and comfortable and hard to see beyond or change, no matter how (self) destructive that might be. (Mad Scientist vibes.) Gloam is causing the expansion and eventual death of the universe.

Gloam has witnessed the birth and death of many universes: The Old Ones* who reside in The Beyond create and maintain the cycle of the universe from Cosmic Inflation/Big Bang through expansion and eventual Heat Death and the Big Crunch

*they need a better name than this!

With each Big Bang the universe is different and has slightly different conditions each set up for Gloam to experience and test.

In “our” Big Bang, Gloam encounters humanoid (advanced?) consciousness for the first time. Which has been created by the Families – they are present in all universes as part of the Bahamût but could be a new variant in each iteration of the universe (I’ll tie in music/music of the spheres/consciousness somehow this will tie in with the Sirens.)  

There is something about the meeting of the Bahamût and Gloam’s artefact in our Universe that precipitates conflict in our Universe:

• What does the Young Bahamût find when she connects with the artefact?
• How is that different from before – because the Bahamût have encountered Gloam before (?)
• Do the Bahamût have another role, other than seeding each universe, to play? Whose side are they on? (possibly aligned with The Old Ones who reside in The Beyond?)

• If the Bahamût and the Families have created an advanced consciousness, are they trying to protect it from The Old Ones/Gloam?
• To what end?
• Do they want to stop the expansion of the universe and its eventual collapse/rebirth?
• Are the Families – through The Circle – trying to safeguard conscious thought in our universe?

• What part does the Hunt have in all this?
• What are the Five Prizes needed for?
  • Are they a way to appease Gloam – giving it the best consciousness for it to test?
  • Are they these consciousness a way to cage or trap Gloam?
  • Emyr’s gift as a male siren – a conductor – precipitates a change in the dynamic of the Prize. What is that?

• Does this tie into the black hole flare 200 years ago?
  • Every 200 hundred years or so the Hunt takes place.
  • Every 200 hundred years the Circle offers up 5 consciousnesses – the strongest Sirens
  • Maria Theresia von Paradis was one of the Sirens offered up as a Prize in 1824.

• Does this appease The Old Ones? Are they the ones who send an army to fight the Families and stop their meddling?
• I do want an epic battle sequence in this story!

Emyr

Emyr is a male siren – and as such is a conductor. Not just in the baton at the head of an orchestra conductor but as a being who is able to conduct the music of the spheres and the sirens through his mind and body unlike any other siren in history… in some way he is a danger to Gloam and The Old Ones (esp. The Old Ones) 

Scenes to write:

These are in no particular order… there needs to be more!

Add to Part One

Jansky 1

Jansky returns to his lab with more data. Realises that the repetition of the mystery signal is not every 24 hrs as he first thought but every 23 hrs and 56 minutes. A colleague thinks the answer is in the movement of the stars in relation to earth.

Part Two

Jansky 2

A family in suburban America are listening to the radio interview that Jansky gives in 1933 – they hear the “radio signal from the stars” – the father is sceptical. The mother smiles – as a siren this is “music” to her – a tune direct from the Bahamût

Aunty Carol

The Sirens find Emyr and the Families.

Aunty Carol is a major part of Emyr’s life. She helped Anwen to “train” Emyr, despite the Siren’s reservations about Emyr and what Anwen thought Emyr was destined for – we learn more about Emyr being a “conductor”

More scenes

Emyr coming to understand his power as a “conductor”

Travelling to the Circle (where is it? How do they get there?)

We meet The Coruscation – so we can learn what is actually happening!

The Sirens communicating across the universe – getting ready for Battle 

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Part Three

Prologue

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The Emmissary

A being sent from The Old Ones (I think this is the union of the Young Bahamût and the Artefact) to explain why the Families must leave Gloam to its experiments

Emyr and Anwen

Emyr meets Anwen in their old house but this is not quite their home – a vision thang. Anwen tells Emir about the songs that the Bahamût have passed to her.

Battle Sequence:

Battle 1

The Dark Armies Mass – the families and the Sirens ready themselves for battle.

The Redemption of the Many

Gloam releases The Many from the hold it has on them. Need a fucking good reason for this?

Battle 2+3

We move from family to family across the battlefield and across the universe (so we can see the Sirens from all planets in battle?)

The families struggle to get Emyr, Peck and The Herald to the Portal

The Portal

Jynn sacrifices herself to save Peck and get Emyr, Peck and The Herald to the Portal

Emyr on the Road

A dream/out of body experience – we see Emyr walking along a deserted valley road, the wind whistles through the wire fencing. Is he alone?

(This is possibly part of the final confrontation in The Beyond?)

Final Confrontation

Emyr, Peck and The Herald confront Gloam/The Old Ones. Peck’s ability to manipulate all elemental song, with Emyr’s ability to conduct the Sirens and the ancient songs of Bahamût overpower Gloam/The Old Ones.

Epilogue

Epilogue 1

Emyr is alone (where?) recovering from the battle. The Herald visits him.

Epilogue 2

We see an older, happy Emyr, we see scenes of him with his family, with Peck and her pupil, with the Brother and the Sister, at his Mother’s grave with the Herald close by…  we finish with his granddaughters singing to him on his birthday.