763 – Veserium Adventure

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, and friends of beyond the binary, it's time for the podcaster who's one singular sensation just to put you to sleep, patrons. Thanks for helping me do that. Good night. Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind-racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep? Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. All you need to do is get in bed and turn out the light and press play. I'm going to do the rest.

What I'm going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you can set aside whatever is keeping you awake. Whether those are thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, your changes in time, temperature, just stuff. Everybody's got stuff going on. Sometimes the stuff keeps us awake, right? Here's something. I've talked about stuff before, but stuff in bed, especially here's one thing you should not have in bed with you … stuffed shells. Holy moly. That could mean … I mean originally I was thinking of the pasta shells that are stuffed, but also if you get stuffed shells … what else would you stuff shells with? Well sand most likely.

Some shells come stuffed with their own … or crustaceans of course. Excuse me. All the hermits of the world. Are you stuffed in there? Are you wedged in there? No you just live there. Okay great. I'm here with the hermit crab. Actually, could I get back to you? Because I think we could probably create a metaphor for the podcast, but I've got to get to the intro. Maybe later, dude. Okay.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to send my voice across the deep, dark night. I'm going to use lulling, soothing, creaky dulcet tones. Pointless meanders. Superfluous tangents. Senseless dialogue possibly with the hermit crab. All of it is to take your mind off stuff and help you fall asleep.

If you're new, I'm glad you're here. Let me try to give you a couple of heads up here. This is a podcast that's really silly, so that's one thing. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So, if this is your first listen, let's see if you could just passively kind of watch it go by, almost a bit like, I guess sometimes I've seen hermit crab races. But this would be more like if you're, let's just say you're totally relaxed. You're chilling on the beach and a hermit crab is at a safe distance, because I know that might not be everybody's thing. It's just crawling, moving around. You'd say, “Huh, there it go. Moved a little bit to the left.” And then it went back down to, was that a shell, or was that, oh, there it goes. It moved two inches and then sat back down. Oh, the hermit crab's interrupting me. Oh that's not what you do? Okay, well this is a metaphor, thanks.

But just kind of consume this podcast, see if you can consume it passively. No pressure. Here's just structurally what to expect. Show starts off, this is the first divergent path of the podcast is that show starts off with a few minutes of business, and then it has an intro. Intros are around 12 minutes, anywhere from 12 to 14 to 16 to 18 to 17 to 15 to 13, sometimes 11 minutes of me explaining what the podcast is. But it really is, for most listeners a part of the show.

So, if you're new, kind of give, here's the thing. You give the intro a few times too. But eventually, once you find how you like to listen, some listeners skip ahead to the story, about 18 minutes. Some listeners start the show as they're getting ready for bed. And then a lot of people, they just listen to the intro as they wind down. Some listeners fall asleep within the first few minutes. But there's no pressure.

But the intro is kind of a show within a show. I guess that's my thing. Or that's what I was trying to explain.

Then there's some business between the into and the show, or the, yeah, the story portion. And then tonight, yeah, will be a bedtime story, and at the end of the show are some thank yous. So, it's structurally what to expect. This is one of the few podcasts, you don't need to listen to it. You could kind of listen to it, generally the reaction I'm shooting for is like, “Huh, hermit crab, eh?”

Like, they say, “Scootch, tell us about …” a lot of podcasts have exciting guests on. Founders, explorers in space, leaders of great movements and artists who ground break, visionaries who … well, I had a hermit crab on. Well it kind of … it was intermittent, kind of intermittent interview with a hermit crab. So, oh, but this is the only podcast you don't need to listen to, is what I was saying, where you go, “Hm, hermit crab, eh?” What's what I was saying, yeah. Like that could be your reaction to the whole podcast, you say, “Hm, Sleep With Me, eh? Yeah, I think I fell asleep to it. Other than that, I don't recall.”

So, that's, oh yeah, so that's the structure of the show. Don't need to listen. But here's the other thing: There's no pressure to fall asleep. You don't need to. You can when you do. And what I mean by that is the shows are about an hour. Because I'll be here, so you drift off at your leisure. I'm here to keep you company as you drift off, to escort you, to walk at your side, to take your mind off of stuff with my silly banter. And just in case you can't sleep, I want you to know I'm going to be here until the very end. Putting in my time.

Oh, wait, a hermit crab's interrupting me. Oh, you don't have anything to add? Okay. If you have any comments, just interrupt me. Okay. I'm doing great. Wow. It's the last thing I expected a hermit crab to say to me. Oh, go ahead. Great job. Okay, wow. There's nothing crabby or hermitty about this hermit crab. It's funny. Oh, I mean I'm serious. Usually, I mean honestly I didn't, even when I thought I would interview a hermit crab, I thought it'd be more interesting. I was thinking more about that you live in a shell than that you, I mean maybe the hermit's, I didn't even think about the crabby stuff until you were just so nice to me. Yeah.

But I can imagine like you're probably used to sand. Oh, no, sand still can bug you, yeah, 'cause what I was telling the listeners was no stuffed shells in bed. Exactly, right? You wouldn't want whatever … is that ricotta cheese in there? You don't know 'cause you're a crab. Of course not, but, you wouldn't want any shells. They'd be more filled with sand and then stuffed with sand. You're probably right about that. You're a really observant hermit crab. Comes with the territory. Yeah, I bet you have a good view 'cause you really have your … whatever they have. Is there a term like ‘nose to the ground', ‘eye on the floor' or something? Because that really makes me think of you.

Well, anyway, I don't even know what I was telling the listeners, so, okay. They could … oh, yeah. I'm going to be here to the end if you can't fall asleep. And the reason I make the show, is because I've been there, tossing and turning and I know how it feels. And for me, I just want something to take my … you know, a little bit of company and a little bit of redirection. Say, “Hey, Scootch. Seems really frustrating, can't sleep there. Don't even know why. Huh. Wow. That's irritating.”

Anyway, believe it or not, I could tell you a story, I've been talking to this hermit crab, and I could tell you about it, instead, it oh, wow. Really. You talked to a hermit crab? Yeah, well it came on the podcast that we make. Or will. Well wait, I suppose I'm here for you. Yeah, just yeah, believe it or not, the crab was neither crabby, nor hermitty. Yeah, it was actually cool. Oh, you're welcome, you are a cool crab. One cool crab; there hermit crab. Did you … do people still get hermit crabs? They do. Do you need … because I was just thinking, if I had a store, like I'd say “Well, that's one cool crab, the hermit crab. Come on in, Saturdays only. It's crab day.” Oh every day's crab day? Yeah, well you'd probably rather be on the beach, huh.

Yeah, so I guess I won't have a store. Well, okay, I guess that's it, so I guess we share the same advice. I guess it's harder to work with a friendly character, believe it or not. You're just too, you're too kind. No, you are crab.

You know what would be funny, is here's an idea. Like this is a thought experiment. Just me, and you hermit crab. Are you familiar with the Muppets? You are. Oh this is great news, great news then. I don't know if this has ever happened on the Muppet Show, so I guess this would be fan fiction. But what if there was an episode where you came, well no, okay, I had one idea but it already changed. What if there was an episode, this probably did happen. You're familiar with Miss Piggy and Kermit right? Okay, great. You think you know where I'm going, well. I guess originally I was thinking, what if there was an episode where you and Miss Piggy started seeing one another romantically. Yeah. But then I was thinking it would be more likely that Miss Piggy would kind of hire you to kind of make Kermit kind of jealous, which I think has probably happened before, I just can't picture it. And then she could call you her Hermie, you know, like Kermie. Yeah I mean, it just has a ring to it, you're right, especially in Miss Piggy's voice. Yeah.

And that's the only, that's one of the only celebrities I do, which I can't do on the podcast is Miss Piggy. But I can only do hiya when she karate chops. That's the only Miss Piggy I can do. You can imagine I sound just like her. Just like that. And then I can say something, something frog, but I can't actually say any words. But I can almost kind of get it when she says “[inaudible 00:11:36] frog”, like this bedtime Miss Piggy voice.

But that's just an idea. Anyway, I gotta get back to the listeners. It's been great Hermie. That's just weird that I was calling you Hermie, and then there's a band, Herman and Herman Hermits or something. That has nothing to do with hermit crabs, okay. Well that's great to know too, I can move on then.

So anyway, I'm glad you're here if you're a new listener. This podcast is a bit different, but it's really here to just keep you company and take your mind off stuff. Bit goofy. If you don't like it, if you've listened this long, I mean almost every listener, and we've got a decent amount of listeners … including a decent amount of people I hear from have been listening since the show, like for six years. But, like every listener, what I mean is like every listener that's a regular listener says you've got to listen to it two or three times. Like, before you decide. Make a judgment on the podcast, I guess.

And that's not really for my benefit, that's just for your benefit, because if it can help you, that's great. You get put to sleep. And you get some comfort. But if you, two or three tries, or right away. There are some people that right away say this podcast isn't for me. I had something that was like sleepwithmepodcast.com/nothankyou and they'll have some of the resources, there you go to try to help you fall asleep.

So that's, I guess that's why I'm here, is to take your mind off, to keep you company, and help you fall asleep. I really appreciate you coming by and checking out the show. I work very hard. I yearn and I strive. And what do you say we keep the show going. These are a couple of ways we do that.

Alright everybody, so tonight's episode is a crossover with my friends over at Veserium, you can find everything they do at veserium.com, I'll link to it in the show notes. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the members, I had an event, a Patreon Patricon. Ray and … like, couldn't believe the amazing work they're doing.

Veserium is an electronic music duo that creates a live show like you've never experienced before. They've created this tone sculptor technology. You've got to go to their YouTube page and watch some of their videos. They have, they create sounds out of thin air. Like, their bodies and … like all X, Y, and Z. Its really tough to describe. But they create music from thin air. I mean, like, and they do this amazing show that I know Sleep With Me listeners would love.

Also, you'll love the music. Because it's like this EDM music, but you know, I've had extensive talks with Ray, kind of coming up with ideas for the show about … taking EDM and adding this deep, deep human element, and this human connection to it. But when you go to see them live, they're wearing these suits that create the music. So when they move their fingers, their arms, their bodies, that's how they're sculpting the sound. Three dimensions. The suits are a part of the show. Oh yeah, Veserium is breathing a human element into EDM and pioneering a distinctly expressive sound filled with bass lines and melodies. And it's … you could learn more, but it's Ray and Michael. And they kind of looked at the technology and then they built their own. So they're not only musicians, they're makers, they're tinkerers. If you kind of watch the YouTube videos, you kind of see they complement each other. Michael's working on the software, Ray's working on the hardware. And they combine creativity and engineering. Crafting sounds which have never been heard before. And as a result, quoting from their website, “Re-engineering the DNA of electronic music.”

And it's really original, I mean, well, like I don't know what I love more. That Ray is just a cool, curious, really a person I connected with. And then he's making with Michael this amazing project, amazing music. But it's very new, and like, it's just cool. So that's what I'm making this episode about is that I just like … so impressed. And, but what's interesting is you know, like, it's been a while since I've been able to do this. And actually do it in a passive way, which is you go out to the transverse lane and kind of see what's going on out in these other dimensions. Oh, to backup, they have an album on their website that you can listen to. It's an interactive album, 2045. That's kind of the inspiration for this episode.

Also, Ray and Mike, Michael won't totally, like so I … okay let me, if you're a new listener, you've started listening in the last couple years, it's been a while since I've gone to the transverse plane. So to quickly try to explain that, what the transverse plane is is a, it's behind this bed and breakfast I used to tell bedtime stories at. And it's basically like if you go out behind like, you know a bed and breakfast, sometimes they have their garden, they have cottages, they have a duck pond. If you go all the way back sometimes they have like hiking trails, and if you go past all that at this particular bed and breakfast, there's something called the transverse plane. Which is kind of an intersection of planes of reality and possibility. It's like we've talked about, like with the idea of dimensions beyond three dimensions. And yeah, alternative time lines and universes and stuff are out there.

And this one time, you know, sometimes I fancy myself a little bit too fancy, and I said Ray, Mike, I want to like … I have a bunch of credits because they stopped paying me at this bed and breakfast. And they, you know people that run a bed and breakfast, they're very, they know what they're doing especially if they've being doing it a while.

And eventually, when I was working there, they said well we don't really want you taking payment from the customers and no tips. And I said okay. So they originally, well a couple times I stayed there, so I had to like work off that. But after I did that I said, okay, am I going to start getting paid for entertaining your customers? And they said sure, we can pay you this much, or we could give you this much in credit which was way more. You know, like they said we could pay you $50, or we could give you $400 in credits for every bedtime story. And also like free tea, you know tea, finger, tea, cucumber sandwiches and breakfast. And I what I didn't realize is I would never have the occasion to go to a bed and breakfast, because going to one alone is … you accept it, it's a little bit too frilly to sleep in alone. But so, anyway, not about me.

So I said to Ray and Mike, I said well what about a team building trip? You could stay there a couple nights at the bed and breakfast, I could stay there. Then at least I have some sort of closure that I'm closing out, I'm using some of these credits I have. And of course, they didn't really know me that well so then I said … they said first of all Scootch, is this really happening, or is this going on. And I said don't worry about it, it's the transverse plane. It's where fantasy and fiction, and reality all blend into initially a realm of cotton candy that you pass through into worlds known and unknown possible and what we would say is impossible, but isn't. You know, cosmic stuff.

And I said it'll be good for team, they said well what will we do? I said we'll go for like, a late breakfast. We'll, you know, go for walks. And you two just take some r&r time. I didn't tell them about the … this is where things got interesting, because I didn't tell them about the transverse plane. I just said let's go for a hike. And this has never happened before. So this is a new story, and it's a new thing that happened. Which is pretty cool, because like, I've always talked about narrative voice on this show. And you know, I get confused with that for second person, first person, third person. So this was cool.

But so, I took them out for the hike but I didn't tell them about the transverse plane until we were out there walking, like behind the duck pond you go through some brambles. On this hike, and it's nice. But you get a lot of bird sounds. But then everything gets a little hazy. And then this time, normally it's not all cotton candy, but then all of a sudden you open up into a world where there's … it's a little bit fuzzy. This time it was kind of like a different, like a rainbow or a … whatever it's called. Like a fading colors, a spectrum of colors just between in the oranges and the reds, but like it was so … if you had a rainbow of just orange and just reds.

And it seemed to be some sort of like, baked Alaska that I've seen in movies. I don't know if I've ever had that. Like on the edges, as we're walking down. And they said, what's going on? I said oh, I was going to tell you but this is the transverse plane. This is where we do the team building and the mission, you know, mission questing and the focusing and the repurposing. Because I really, then I, like also I avoided like actual … deep human personal connection telling them what a big fan I was or what they were doing until we were standing there in the middle of this vibrant Baked Alaska. Like teetering on the intersection of multiple universes.

And I said well I'm just a big fan of yours and want to make sure, and they said well we kind of have … and I said, well, there's no transverse plane doesn't work, we can't really … we can't, we're on a mission now. And actually, the transverse plane it exists with some sort of great purpose, where it teaches life lessons. And then they started to say, well is it real or not, because you know sometimes, you get your elbow scraped and a real life lesson. And I just patted them on the shoulders, and we walked further.

And the next thing I knew, I was actually observing them. They were, like I was now a narrator observing them entering this world. And the two of them, we got, they kept walking. Eventually, it stopped being shades of orange and red Baked Alaska spectrum, and they walked into, now this has never happened before either. They walked into not like a … trying to think of the way to describe it. Like, a benign nothingness I'll say, just to, because it was like a … well it didn't seem like, they were just floating.

Now they were both comfortable, because also I was narrating. Like IRL for them. I guess it's not IRL. Because it was an alternate, like inner seas of universes. And possible timelines. But like, I was narrating the whole time even for them, so it was comforting. I mean, I don't want to pat myself on the back, but my narration can be comforting I think. I think we can all agree on that.

And then they looked at me, and I realized they were kind of looking at me because they were hearing something other than me, so then I stopped narrating. Which, you know, I don't do on the podcast, except for like punchlines. But because these two are musicians, I was aware of it because I'm a podcaster, there was something sonically happening. So another reason it was comforting, was they weren't in nothingness, they were in a realm, and this was a discussion that went on between the two of them observing things as musicians. They were in realm of purse sound. But not just pure sonic sound, pure, just music. And again, this is in another world. If you listen back to analyze to what's beyond the fourth dimension, a lot of those are dimensions that either, that are just different than ours, that exist. And in this dimension, the only thing that existed was pure sound. Pure music. All music.

So they went back and forth, they said Ray did you hear that, Mike did you hear that. What is that. It's all the sounds in … no it's music, well it's all the melodies, and harmonies, bass lines. You know, there was backbeats, there was downbeats. Upbeat, and other musical terms I'm not even aware of. Piccolos, maybe not easily to pick out a piccolo. They were like jeez. And also, because I get to go out there a lot, I'm a little bit more … this isn't a humblebrag, but I do have a bit different resiliency, because I have been exposed to these alternative timelines, both by the transverse plane and then when I made that fan fiction machine powered by my ruing of Roose Bolton. That was way back in the day. I used to use that to go into worlds of fan fiction.

Again, like just naturally I developed some resiliency that times happens on a much different scale out there. And especially when you're in a world that isn't like ours, that wasn't a construct of their analysis of the world. It was just a world where they were surrounded by pure sound. So physically giving you an embodiment of it is tough. Like it was comfortable, like they were just kind of hanging out.

Like you know those chairs that no one has, okay so there's those butterfly chairs, right. Usually sometimes people have them? And then there's those butterfly chairs that have cushions on them. And usually, you see these more than you get to use them, but sometimes you'll go, I think I sat in one that had like, cushions and it was corduroy. And when you sit in that, when you don't own it, I think this is like what happens. Like when you're visiting somewhere and you sit in a butterfly chair, you know a butterfly chair is just the style of it, it's got like a wire frame, a wire metal frame and then … a bit like those chairs that people use to go sit at sporting events now that fold up, but a billion times more comfortable. Like when you're visiting somewhere and you sit in one, or you're at a store that's trying to, they're incredibly comfortable.

I don't believe I've ever owned one, but my assumption is that once you own it, the comfort and the utility kind of magically vanish. But that's kind of how Ray and Mike were feeling in this … like to give you, if you, just to give you a physical construct. To help you process it, and to help them, I was also narrating this because as they were descending into a real that had both time, like Jeremy-Bearimy type realm. It realizes it has so many Good Place crossovers, but … I was saying like, okay, you're just sitting, chilling and it seems like there's nothingness around you, but it's actually a comforting bathwater level plasma. And you're in a … well maybe not. A room, and you're sitting in a super comfortable butterfly chair.

And then they started tall, like Mike said “Ray, how long has it been, how long have we been here? How long?” That question just kept echoing, echoing, echoing. And then the music was playing it back. And it became, not just a question of how long had they been visiting this realm, but of like … since they're musicians, they're kind of lost in the music, and they hadn't established any communication with any sentience until just right now. Like, when they started to think like, because there's something about them asking that in an inquiry way. Not just interpersonally, but … not existentially, but directly to this universe. The universe would then be able to communicate with them, like how long … it's kind of like, it's not a polite question really to say how old are you, but if it was polite. I think with the universe, you could probably ask it because you wouldn't understand the question anyway.

Even the Big Bang, they'd say well, that was whatever, you've like 1749, they'd say okay. Well that doesn't make, even I would say that doesn't make sense. Because Columbus, didn't Columbus sail the ocean blue 1492. And they say never the exact question. So, there they are sitting in these butterfly chairs in a world, a universe, in existence of pure music. And they're asking how long, but they were also subtextually asking in wondering. Well how old is, where are we? What is this? How long has it been here, why are we here? Also, they were kind of not holding hands but every once in a while they would touch each other's forearms because they're such close friends to reassure one another that they were also there present with them.

You know, so maybe sometimes they were saying, is Scooter going to keep talking or is the universe going to communicate with us. Also they would tap each others shoulder when they thought something I said was funny. But then the universe started to answer those questions, kind of via music, but I'm going just going to interpret it straight into bedtime story language.

It said “a long time, this is another world you're in,” you know, you crossed over the transverse plane to Scooter, and now you're in another timeline. And they said “well what timeline, where are we, what year?” And the Universe said “I think you know what year it is, the two of you are here for a reason, of course you know what year it is.”

And at first they said 2019, and the Universe said, rolled its eyes musically. And they said “2045, then?” And they looked at one another. And the Universe waited, tapping it's foot in, and they said “2046, probably.” And the Universe was very encouraged by the fact that they got that very … very quickly. And they said “The singularity,” to one another. This is something they're very interested in. And they said “Yes, a singularity has spread across all timelines. This is just one of the possible singularities. You and your world had a way of processing what that means.”

“We're here to focus on the singular part. This universe is only musical possibility. You two just happen to be guests here, but you're the only guests we've ever had and you're guests we invited.” And they said “Scooter knew about this?” And the Universe said “Nah, no, because if he was supposed to come this way, he would've gone the wrong way.” All meaning, everything in this universe occurs through pure music.

And they kind of said back “Well that's pretty cool, we love music, like this is, we're here for a reason huh? To enjoy like” … and then they paused because they thought about it, they said “Well what about our world? The world we're from?” And the music spoke back, like “Singularity, like yeah, like fill in the blanks.” And they said “We don't need to.”

“So in this world, every essence is music. What about our world?” And it said “Well, well it's 2046.” And they said “Okay.” Like, huh. And the music also [inaudible 00:33:06] they said “Singularity's never cool. One thing, like, here we are in a world of pure music. Of all the music, in every music, in one, you know, all that. You know, philisoph- even whole philosophy is music. It's not even understandable for your brain to know, no offense,” the music said. But it said “We have no ears. Can you imagine that? You're the first ears to be in our world.” And they both did the mind blown thing.

They said, “Singularity, in this universe created, you know, like in some sense a reverse Big Bang, I mean a Little Bang.” And again, different kind of singularity because it's a different kind of world, but it said it created a world where the singular thing is music. But there's nothing. And they said “Oh boy.” They said “You show us and it makes a sound, this is like a parallel,” and they said “yeah, Scooter, SCooter's humming.” Because they did figure out pretty quickly I could communicate with them, I could narrate. When I wasn't narrating I could also hum. So I was recommending things.

They said “You should listen to him, makes this podcast you should check out,” not important, I guess I'm getting distracted. So the Universe then said “We need your help,” and they said “to bring you ears to hear, we've got our ears, you want more ears on your universe of music? Are you going to send us back to bring people to listen to you?” And the Universe said “No, that would be nice, but that wouldn't change anything.”

And like, I actually asked this, I said “Well is there a universe where there's only ears?” And they said “Well ears are a construct of many different things.” And I said “Well, mus-.” And then, they said “Scoot, stick to narrating, you're a disembodies narrator.” And the Universe said “No, no, no, we need you to shift things. This was … this was a singular, like across all timelines. So we need you to go back to whatever…”

And then the music, this was the interesting question for singular music to ask. Said “What do you call, what are you guys going to call the time after the aughts anyway. We need you to go back to that decade. That post-aughts decade. Whatever it's going to be called.” And I said “Well maybe I should listen to My Brother, I started humming about My Brother, My Brother and Me,” I said “Go listen to that for an answer.”

They said “You're here for a reason. You two are the sound shapers. Maybe you could just…” They said “We've been singing to one another.” And I said “Well, okay, let's not overanalyze it,” but they said “If we can send you back to shape the sound, to continue your vision you already had the vision. We just need to empower you to carry it out.” But they said, “But unfortunately have also gone backwards, so we have to send you back to your time.” They said “They'll see you when you get there, but you are the sound shapers. Like you have to go back and shape the sound forward and backward.”

And they said “To get ears back here to listen to you.” And they said “No, no, no, no. Save all timelines. Scoot also don't speak for Ray and Mike.” And they said “Actually, we're sound sculptors. It's a little bit different than shaping, but we do some sound shaping too.” And they said “How do we get back there?” But these two, Ray and Mike, they're so swift, they said “Wait a second, we have to get to back, the music is just existing here. The music is just existing here.”

So then they got out of their butterfly chairs, and they started to like, kind of move around one another, like kind of cats prowling a floor. Kind of looking for the right place to lie down or sit down or give it a bath. Then they started to move their bodies through the air, and they could sense now that there was this, you know, they were in a world of all music. Like, just that awareness empowered them. And then they looked, they started having fun almost instantly. They knew this was a big mission. But they started to … like this was their wheelhouse.

And they said “What do you think, how do we go back?” And they said, Mike or Ray said “Chronograph.” And they started weaving these gears and mechanisms, and we started to hear ticking. And basslines. And they were shaping sound in a way that was like pure sound. Then they started spinning it in reverse, and they were still shaping it, and designing it, and adding things and adding sounds. You could hear the different gears turning, springs clicking, and even the sounds of the like, slight metal stress in a good way. And their moving their hands and their fingers and their elbows. Even their knees, like when you have to hold, you know, when … because I guess I wasn't doing anything, because I was disembodied. Like they, you know, they'd be holding one thing with their knee. They're shaping sounds and sculpting it.

And the next thing they knew, the time started to shift, and the world started to shift. And soon they were in another world. And, you know, sort of typical for these scales, they started to see themselves on a green hill, a peak of a green hill as time and things started to solidify. Which at first for them, it took a few minutes to get used to. Like, they had, they're surrounded by physical form, just like in our world. But it wasn't, it didn't look like our world. It did look like our world, but a version of it they were unfamiliar with.

Further was like a green hill, there was trees. There was air. There was sounds, but also the sky was full of data. Like, data clouds and like … so it was a bit of a mash up of our world and some sort of Matrix digital world. And they said “Oh boy,” and they said “Well what year is it?” And then they looked in the chronograph time machine and it said 2019. And they said “Huh.” It was a little bit dark because the sky was full of data against a kind of blank screen, and it was in kind of dark mode, so the sky was dark, the data was light but moving and … you know, brightness was probably turned down a bit.

Next thing you saw was a little spark moving towards them, flying, and as it got closer they realized it was like a firefly. And it started to fly around them, and they started to just feel more comfortable, they said “Okay, we're here to help.” And the firefly said “I'm here to help you.” And they said “Is this our world? The world we came from before Scooter took us on a hike in a bed and breakfast … we're supposed to be team building, is this a dream?” And the firefly said “No dream of mine, but yeah this is 2019, even though it doesn't look anything like it. This is your world, this is your timeline.”

And Mike said “This kind of feels like a realm of like, iceberg salad.” And yeah, the firefly said “Yeah, the world is progressing towards a vanilla singularity, vanilla. Not the flavor vanilla, but you know what I mean.” Even the music, they started to hear it because they're musicians and they're attuned to it, and they can read the data in the sky. They could see that most of the music, and then they started to even look at the tones of color around them were all very neutral. And gener- … not gener- … yeah, well generic, in a broad sense. Does that mean the same thing?

Everything was dull, and the firefly told them again “Now, everything has to serve a distinct purpose. It's a tight nice, you know, art's been relegated to.” And the firefly said “There's not much time, you know, we have to go.” And the firefly said “I brought your suits with something from, like a, your friends in music. Like original suits, original software. You know, I know you were 2.0. and now, we're 2.0.1+.”

And the firefly started to spin around them. And this was fun, because like, you know when spritely characters spin around you, you get the giggles. Especially when they're trailing you, magical dust behind them as this firefly was. And so they were saying “Googly, googly, googly, goo,” and they started to … their suits started to appear on them. And they started to kind of feel, as they should have, heroic and purpose driven, though they didn't know. And they said “What's next?” And the firefly said “You must hurry.” And they looked off and two hills away was a mountain, as these tales are known to have.

And on the top of the mountain was where the data was streaming out of a castle, and they said “Are those server towers?” And the firefly said “Yeah, they only thing they can … like the data store is also self-cooling. So it has a lot of water moisture. And that's what cools the servers that keep this…” and they said “What kind of singularity is this?”

And it said “A singularity in development, you have to…” and then the firefly said “Oh no, I must go. And so must you”. And then they heard the call, the yelping of puppies, puppy-poos, also known as … well, what's a … you know, the kind of, you know the Snows from Game of Thrones, their pets. Wolfies, we call them. And they heard that, and they looked at one another. And they wondered, and they said “Okay, that's got to be driven by the data, you know, the castle and the data center.” And they wondered, and they started to go, they said “Well what do we do?” And then they saw the puppies coming.

And they both were, they said “We can't be licked by puppies, because of our suits. It may, you know, Ray put a lot of work into this, it could interrupt the USB hubs.” And then Mike said “Well it could mess up the software connections.” So he said “Ray, hold off the puppies from kissing us, and I'll sculpt a conveyance out of sound.”

And so, first, Ray went to work kind of creating a different sound puppy toys which is probably … I've seen a lot of cute things on this podcast, and a lot of characters, you know, making, dealing with these kind of c-o-n-f-l-i-c-ts in creative ways. But these two young men are very creative. So Ray kind of formed a, first he like formed balls with jingling things in them. Then hopping things that made like the dog's squeak, squeaky squeakers. Then he was creating like, it was just all sorts of things. Then he was creating more puppy barking, yelping in the background. Puppy's snoring so some puppies were falling asleep. Some puppies were like, chasing toys. Some puppies were trying to find these disappear … then Ray was making the squeakers disappear. Some puppies were being called and then he even had it so, somehow he even shaped the sound so it would pet the puppies. And I said “That's some powerful auditory power.”

So very quickly, the Wolfie-poos were dealt with. And then Mike, he was trying to, he said “What's a good,” and then he just created giant … what are those called, notes. And they have done these notes. But then the notes became sentient, because he poured so much work into it. So it was like a bit like a musical note, and also like a seahorse. But they could fly. So it was like a floating musical note, which is kind of like a … you know, you just climb on the back of it, put your arms around the neck. You know, just, I don't know if those are half-notes. But you know, you know it, you can picture it in your head.

And so they hopped off, and they said “We've got to get past the walled garden and into the data center.” And then on the way there they started to say “Well, what are we going to do when we get there? What is it we need, like I said we don't have a plan.” And they both said “Scooter.” And then Mike said “Let's take it up into the sky.” So as they were flying, they got into the data clouds and they started to analyze that. And they said “This is also musical data too. Like, there's something at work here a bit beyond our comprehension, but let's figure out what we should do.”

And kind of Ray said “Well if the music and the tones of this world are dull.” And then they said “Okay, like yeah, what's streaming out especially over these airwaves, the free ones, freely streaming, is it not all … it's kind of all like a, you know, like a saltine crackers.” And yeah, they said “Singular, like, or becoming singular.” And they looked at one another and said “It's got to be a heist, we've got to go into the data center. Somewhere they must be hiding a great diversity of music and colors and of humanity. We've got to unlock that, and show it to the world one more time so they know that while singularity originally meant one thing, it could also mean one thing.”

And they kind of looked at me, because they said “Scooter, do you,” and I said “Well I realize that it has like, another,” and then I said “Yeah, this is a, they said to keep up the good work guys. Keep riding those notes. You're doing great. Get back to that heist you two … Promethei.” And they said “We like that.” And they used their suits, and then people started to notice them. The world was still inhabited with human beings.

It was a bit like that Apple commercial back in like the 1980s. People just dressed dull, you know. A world of … not boring like this podcast. Unitary. So they flew towards this, the data center, and they said “The best kind of heist is … is sneaky kind. We got to get in there,” and they said “Well what are we going to do?” And they said “It's a software/hardware, we'll split up.” And Ray said “You get in through the software, I'll do a hardware move and create a distraction so you can get in to the data center and find what we're looking for.”

And so they split up, and Ray went to the front of the castle, Mike went around and kind of waited. You know, and there was things guarding the castle data center that they were aware of. And, what Ray did, is Ray just walked right up and knocked on the door, and again, he started seeing this like, the door had [inaudible 00:50:34] said “Yeah, what are you, like … doorkeeper or whatever. Oh like C3PO in the Jedi movie.” Oh no wait, that was somebody else. But imagine if, like someone like that who'd say “What are you here for”.

And Ray said “I'm here for the opening, the jester position that's open. To talk to the royal, to perform for the royal family.” And the thing said basically “This doesn't compute.” And Ray started using Ray's suit which has these powers to sculpt sound to make funny stuff, and like … you know juggle stuff, and like have stuff spill. You know, like pretend Ray is a waiter, and carrying. And even these robots were cracking up.

And then Ray did another, more straightforward performance that was also like, where Ray was doing a little EDM and performing. They said “Oh no, no. That's … but these kind of things are banned.” And they said “Of course, for the regular people.” Ray said. “But for the royal family, your great leader, I've heard so many things about. Wisest of the wise, so wizened and wise. They don't have to follow the rules of the people. Of course we all know that.”

And the robots, you know, looked at one another, of course knowing that, yeah. And they said “Okay, come on in. We weren't aware of the opening of a position, but that would make sense since you're not supposed to be here but you are.” And they let Ray in. He ended, and like, one thing that the robots don't realize that … because Ray was in hardware, but also music, is that Ray can also sculpt the power of sympathetic vibrations. So once the door was shut behind, Ray started this sympathetic vibration that basically, kind of like … you know, they unscrewed everything on these robots. Like a slave vibration.

And Mike's out there, sees kind of the … other guards are saying huh, what's going on, and then the guards, the other guards, or keep-an-eyers or whatever, they start to kind of fall apart because of the sympathetic vibrations spreading throughout the castle. You know, just a sympathetic vibration to disassemble things. Nothing major. And so Mike went and tapped into the data center. The same time, Ray went to the royal hall. [inaudible 00:53:18] for an audience and there Ray stood at the base of this giant server tower. Air cool, you know, air and water cooled by water vapor in the air.

And the data center was … “Oh, you got past my minions, I see you're here to … you know, I'm the singularity.” And Ray said “One singular sensation.” Then they said “What, did Scootch throw that in there?” And Ray said “Yeah.” And as Mike was tapping in and Mike was in the back, and Ray had the attention of the server … it went on a long expo- … Ray said “I'm here for the jester job, actually I'm still here for that. I don't think you realize what a singularity would happen, I don't know what singularity's happening in this timeline. But this seems to be some sort of singularity of vision. And we've seen other places. And that doesn't work, a singular vision.”

And then Ray started to show the server, using Ray's power of intuition, gut, and imagination, Ray actually performed an entire EDM musical without lyrics, only dancing and things. Of what the server could expect in a world if its singular vision was carried out. And it became this singular source of intelligence and sentience and that nothing else … you know, no other view point, or diversity of existences could exist. And mostly just had the servers attention while Mike's in there taking all the … like he says, “Okay, you know, funky beats, download them. High hat, hits, this. Love, hope, generosity. Compassion. Those are also in there. This wasn't just a music thing. It was everything we hold dear. Learning something new. Hearing someone's true experiences that you've never experienced and and yet connecting with them deeply.

There was a part of the server dedicated to that, and not only was Mike downloading it, Mike was streaming it right back into the data cloud, and it was creating its own storm. And also, as this giant server started to look at stuff, it started to heat up and because this storm was kind of absorbing some of the water vapor that Mike was creating, and absorbing it into sound … whatever, real clouds, not sound clouds. Sound data clouds. The server started to overheat, but Ray kept performing. Then Ray was just … after that, Ray was just improving. And Mike would, had already started the process.

I mean, once you fill a cloud with funky beats, a base of empathy and compassion, and like love and hope … and yeah, imperfection. It was an imperfect cloud. Which is wonderful. They started to spread across the world, and started raining data and funky beats down. But data that changed the world from playing, and washed away what the server had been trying to achieve.

And right as the server was reaching kind of max load due to no longer being water vapor or air breeze to cool it, everyone in the world, the server. And then Mike, he came and found Ray, started to have this awakening. And everywhere where the data and the water was washing over, it started to awaken to say hey, let's just stay curious. Like, just like these two roommates. And they started to kind of notice, again, because they … like they had had some resiliency because they had traveled to other worlds. But they started to notice the world changing.

What was really important to them was that they were at one another's sides. They said “Yeah, we were college roommates, and it was this curiosity and our love of music; the wondering. Why doesn't someone do, why can't you make music in the air. Why isn't there depth to it? Why isn't there this cool technological layer to it that also adds this human layer to it at the same time.” It also kind of thinks about song and music across the time, like starting with those tribal drums. And each individual in this universe was having it's own awakening.

And again, it became another Small Bang, going forth. Now, at the same time, Ray and Mike kind of started to notice that the world they were in was drifting away and my narration was kind of becoming more focused in, and soon they saw that I was standing there with them. And we're actually caught in a real rainstorm. Kind of standing while the Baked Alaska was washing away from them, I said “Come on, let's go back inside.” And I said “Believe it or not, this bed and breakfast has a hot cocoa cabin. It's just for having hot cocoa which is like, it has a fireplace too.”

And we went in there, and we sat down by the fire and they recounted their tale to me. In their own eyes and their own experience. And they said “We've always thought about changing what singularity could be, making it a positive thing.” And I said, “See, this is what kind of, you see the kind of level of team building I accidentally inspired? I'm so proud of the two of you. So inspired by the two of you. You know, they needed to drag you two into alternative universe,” but I said “you two really are heroes. Like in this world you might just feel like you're hustling. And creating, and you're journey's starting out, but in other timelines … you're heroes. So I want you two to keep at it, keep up the amazing work.”

And I want everybody else to check out Veserium. Or go see them when they're on tour. And have your own awakening. Or start your own thing. Creating your own thing. Thank you. Also, I said “Sorry about that, I thought we were just going to go into the transverse plane, I didn't realize we'd be going to layers of alternative timelines.” But, I said “Thanks, and goodnight, guys.”