Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories.
Tonight we're gonna be hopping back into the spaceship universe
for this suggestion or these suggestions, I should say.
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Martin.
Speaker 3: It's Rowan from race Bridge. I want to do a
music planet where people are music notes and their Rex
comes to steal their music.
Speaker 4: And when.
Speaker 3: Rex comes, he brings like this tiny or actually big,
like big vacuum that secks up music. And thanks, I
love your podcast.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 1: Awesome suggestion, Rowan, it looks like we might have one
from your brother here too.
Speaker 5: I'm Josh from Bracebridge, and I'm gonna have a suggestion
for a music planet where they sing everything that and
then it comes to life, and that.
Speaker 6: There's a toinail and if any swing and if they
get struck in the tornado, that that makes them can't sing,
so they have to get in their houses and it
steals their beat.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I love your podcast. By all right, well, thank you
to Rowan and Jacks for those suggestions. I will say,
in combining all those things together and making it one
cohesive planet, I might have to change a few details,
but I hope you like what ends up there. As
far as announcements go, I just want to remind everyone
that we do have a March contest on to share
the podcast on kind of any kind of social media
and be entered in a draw for a guaranteed story idea.
Now there's pretty much no wrong way you can do it.
If you share the podcast in any way that works
for you with other people, you can fill out my
Google form letting me know how you shared it, and
I will put you in the draw. The winner gets
a guaranteed story idea and the option of a little
interview at the beginning of it to tell us all
about your idea. I ran this last year at about
the same time for a few months straight, and I
believe I even interviewed Rowan and Jacks, the people who
suggested this episode, because they do a pretty awesome job
of sharing the podcast with everyone they can in and
around Bracebridge. But now it's that I'm again just in
case we have a commercial break, I'll put it right
here perfect Now, close your eyes, get as comfy as
you can in that bed, and imagine yourself doing what
the kid in the story does. Imagine yourself waking up
on spaceship. Good morning, Spaceship says, You sit up, finding
yourself on the couch of the ship. Oh good boy,
it ag spaceship. You answer, I believe I have discovered
a very interesting planet. Oh cool, I could go for
a little adventure. What did you find? You ask, I
believe it is a music planet, a planet largely made
up of musical notes that have been put together, almost
like programmable matter. Uh cool, I mean, I don't even
really know what that means, but it sounds like a
fun thing to check out, you answer. Setting course, Spaceship says.
The ship turns just a little bit downward, and you
continue at super hyper drive until suddenly stopping high above
an absolutely beautiful planet. At first, it looks like a
pearl hanging in space, shining with soft colors like pink
and gold and turquoise and violet. But as you get closer,
you notice that the colors seemed to ripple. The whole
planet glows in little pulses, as if light itself is
breathing in and out to a beat, like the beat
of a song. And then, even up in the vacuum
of space, you hear it music. It drifts through Spaceship's
sensors and speakers, not one song exactly, but hundreds of
tiny little melodies weaving through the ship. Some are bright
and bouncy, some are slow and dreamy, Some sound like humming,
and some sound sort of like laughter. Oh you whisper.
The closer you get, the more beautiful the planet becomes.
The clouds below are shaped in long, curling swirls, almost
like treble clefts. Gray shining rivers curve over the land,
and loops and arcs like silver ribbons on a page
of music. Forests grow in bands of color and hearing.
You see little towns with towers and rooftops rising, and
all sorts of different shapes. Prepare to land. Spaceship says,
his engines soften, and he glides down towards the ground.
Light dances over the window. Tiny bursts of color flicker
around the ship like fireflies. When the ship lands, the
ramp lowers with a little hiss. Immediately, warm air flows inside.
It smells kind of like flowers and fresh bread and
rain on top of stone, if that makes any sense.
And there's something else in the air too, something impossible.
It smells the way singing might smell, if singing had
a smell, bright and clean and happy. You step down
on the ground. The grass beneath your feet is soft
and springy, and every step makes the faintest musical note,
a little dough, a little ray, tiny shimmering me. You
try another step, and this time it gives you another note.
Soon you're carefully walking in a small circle, just to
hear the tune the ground makes under you. Remarkable Spaceship says,
the surface appears to be mildly responsive to rhythm. You
look over to the town nearby. It's one of the
prettiest places you've ever seen. Small houses curve and spiral,
as if they were shaped by wind and song instead
of bricks and wood. Shop roofs hark up like wings.
Statues stand in the middle of little squares, some shaped
like giant harps, some like singing birds, some like people,
with open mouths and streams of carved notes floating around them.
Colorful banners hanging between buildings, shifting gently in the breeze.
Little fountains rise and fall, and really cool patterns, each
splash sounding almost like a song of its own, and
moving through the streets. Are people or well. At first
you think they're tiny, floating symbols made of light, but
then one comes closer and you realize it's a living
music note. It's small and glossy and black, like a
note written on paper, but it shines at the edges
with sort of rainbow colors. It has bright eyes, tiny
little arms, and little feet. The tap in time as
it walks and makes the same notes your feet did
as you walked. It bobs slightly with each step, as
if even walking for it is kind of like dancing.
The little music note stops in front of you and
gives a cheerful bow. Hello, it says, or sort of sings.
Its voice is clear and sweet, and as it sings
or speaks, two tiny golden notes float out of its
mouth and drift upward before dissolving into sparks. You blink
in surprise.
Speaker 4: Welcome to the music planet, Hello, you say, ah, happy
to be here. I am called Quaver, says the note proudly,
and I am on welcoming dooty today, which is a
very important dooty because it involves smiling, bowing, and showing
people around. That does sound important, It is extremely important,
says Quaver. Visitors become cranky if you don't know how
to show.
Speaker 1: Them to the snack stand. H I guess that's accurate,
you respond. Quaver floats up a little higher, circling in
front of you. Would you like a tour? I can
show you the singing gardens, the melody market, the chorus square,
the instrument fountains, and the house making circle. We are
very proud of the house making circle. You nod right away. Uh, yes, please,
you say. Quaver turns and begins skipping down the path
you follow through the town, while spaceship shrinks behind you
and sort of floats behind as you walk. You notice
something extraordinary. Nothing here seems still at all. The houses
don't wobble exactly, but they seem to hold a little
hum inside them. Decorations hanging from windows chime and the breeze.
The statues themselves seem to sort of resonate with music
of their own. Even the food displayed in little stands
as a sort of musical quality, as if it's made
up of vibrations of sound. It all looks alive, you say,
Quaver glances back at you with a smile. That's because
it is all made from song, all of it. You
ask all of it, Quaver responds. He leads you through
the wide open square in the center of town. In
the middle is a circular stage made of smooth, pale stone.
Around it stands several music notes, with people of all
different shapes. Some are round and bold, others are long
and elegant. Some are brightly colored. Some sparkle a gink
around the stage. A crowd is gathered. Ah, what happens here?
You ask? Here, the little note says, is where we
sing things into existence? You stare at the stage. You
mean you really like literally sing things into existence? Of course,
how else would you make a house? You open your
mouth and then close it again. Spaceship answers for you.
On most planets there is usually a somewhat more annoying
construction process. He explains, how dreadful. Quaver answers. A few
more note people float onto the stage. They arrange themselves
in a little semi circle. Quaver lowers its voice to
a whisper. Watch carefully, this one is one of our
best building songs. The notes on the stage take a
breath together, and then they begin. They weave together a
beautiful melody, And as they sing, little musical notes rise
out of their mouth and begin to spin around them.
You stand completely still, just watching as the notes float
and gather and connect and then build themselves. A glowing
outline appears in the air, floors, walls, windows, then a
curved roof with little decorative swirls. The shining notes knit
themselves together with beams and edges and doors and shutters,
until in front of your eyes, right there on the square,
a beautiful little house forms out of pure music. The
sound ends, The last node hangs in the air for
a moment like a star. Then there's silence. The house
stands complete. Quaver turns to you, glowing with pride. See it,
says that's amazing. You respond, yes, Spaceship adds, I am
also impressed. You walk up to the building and place
a hand on the wall. It feels warm and as
if it's humming gently. And then, somewhere far away, just
at the edges of your hearing, you hear a different
sound that Spaceship says does not sound like local music.
Quavers smile, falters, and above the town a shadow begins
to pass by. You look up, and at first all
you can see is a dark shape sliding across the
glowing sky. But then the shape lowers and your eyes widen.
It's a spaceship, but not just any spaceship. It's shaped
like a giant t rex head, unmistakably one of Rex's
or Rex's clones. The ship hovers over the square with
a great mechanical growl. When whips through the town, banners flap,
the little musical notes below begin to huddle together, their
bright edges trembling. Then a hatch opens in the ship's belly,
and a metal platform lowers down standing on it, wearing
his normal white lab coat fluttering in the wind. Is
a Rex clone. For those of you who might not know,
Rex is an evolved t Rex scientist, and he looks
as annoying and dramatic as ever. Right here, citizens of
Music Planet, he booms, Rejoice, your civilization is about to
become useful. Nobody rejoices. Waver hides partly behind your leg
I do not like him. That's because your edit sincs
are excellent, you say. The Rex paces across the platform
as though he's giving a lecture to a room of
adoring people for years. He announces, I have searched for
a better building material for my ship. Metal is heavy,
crystal is fragile, self folding nanofoam is expensive, and it
gets stuck in events. But now I have discovered your
marvelous musical matter. He points directly at the buildings of
the village. Programmable, responsive, reformable, structurally elegant matter. You sing
it one way, it becomes a house. You sing it
another way, it becomes a bridge, or a wing, or
a laboratory, or perhaps a Nacho dispenser or something. He pauses,
mostly the laboratory, though for my cases. Quaver peeks out
from behind you. We are not programmable matter. We are people.
The Rex clone squints down at Quaver. Yes, yes, obviously
people ish anyways, very charming, also unbelievably useful. You step forward,
activating your watch, allowing your space suit armor to fold
around your body. Leave them alone, you say, O, it's you.
I thought you might be here, and spaceship do ah well.
Rex pulls a lever beside him. Immediately, the belly of
the t Rex ship opens wider, and a massive tube
drops down from underneath it. The tube glows with pulsing
red light and begins to whine louder and louder. What's
that you ask. It appears to be a gigantic vacuum device.
Spaceship answers, the rex Clone laughs. Not just a vacuum device,
a resonant extraction engine. It identifies the musical structures of
your town and pulls them apart at the very note level.
Quaver gasps, and the other music people begin to cry
out and frighten little melodies that still sound absolutely beautiful. Somehow,
no Quaver shouts, but the engine is already starting. A
swirling force tears through the square. You watch in horrors.
The beautiful new house on stage begins to shimmer, Its
walls tremble. Then cloning notes start to peel out of it,
one by one, then in streams, and then in a
rushing cloud. They rip through the air and vanish into
the clones vacuum machine thingy. The house caves in and disappears.
The whole crowd cries out. Then the extraction beam swings
across the town, absorbing a statue that looks like a harp.
A food stand loses its shining trays, its shelves, it's
striped roof, and even its little sign. Across the street,
a whole shop folds in on itself as the notes
are torn free from the walls. Oh no, he's taking everything,
you yell, yes, Spaceship says, that seems to be his
very rude plan. All around you, the town begins to
become well undone. The carved arch over the square disintegrates,
The fountain loses its graceful stone and becomes a swirl
of notes. Platters of glowing food vanish right out of
people's hands, tables, doors, lamps, benches, flower boxes, roof tiles,
market stalls, statues, signs. Everything that's ever been made of
song rips apart and is sucked in to Rex's ship.
The air that had been so full of beauty is
now just full of frightened sounds from the little note people.
Our homes, quavers says, our market, our gardens. You look around,
A little note family stands where their house once was,
staring at the empty space. A cluster of little note
children try to gather up floating scraps of melody, as
if they could somehow push them back together. Even the
snacks stand as on. The people look absolutely devastated, and
then Rex's ship begins to change, as if the outsides
are sort of reforming themselves. New fins unfold. A turret
rises from the back. Decorative ridges form along the neck.
A set of extra engines bloom near the tail. He
cackles in delight. Look at that. It works even better
than I imagined. A responsive instant ship upgrades. Soon, my
entire vessel will be made out of adaptive musical matter.
He leans over the railing and points a tiny clad you,
and there's nothing you can do about it. Stop, you yell,
but Rex's clones ship starts moving fast away. You race
through the streets that are becoming emptier by the second.
A row of decorative towers is stripped bare before your eyes.
All around you, the town becomes bare and open. Well.
Rex says, I think that will do for my first collection,
though I may return later for more. He begins raising
the platform back into the ship. No Waiver says, You
look at the ruined town and feel a heavy sadness.
That is one of the rudest things you've ever seen.
We can rebuild, Quaver says weakly, But he stole so
many notes, so many songs, it will take a very
long time. You look up at Rex's ship. Its hull
is glowing with streams of stolen music, weaving through it
like veins of light. Spaceship flies over beside you. He
may have taken what they already sang into existence, but
that is not the same as taking music itself. What
do you mean, you ask, I mean, as long as
the people here have the ability to create music, they
can recreate everything that has been taken. And you say,
maybe they can create something to stop him altogether. Quaver,
I have an idea. What if you guys sing into
existence like a giant cannon that can shoot down Rex's ship,
or like I don't know, uh, tear it apart using
sound vibrations or something that is an excellent idea. Yeah,
Quaver looks back at the others. They all nod in unison,
and then they begin to sing. The musical notes leave
their mouths, They swirl around in the air, and then
bit by bit, they start forming themselves into what looks
like a gigantic cannon. It starts as an outline, and
then the pieces begin to fill in, until eventually there's
a gigantic sound cannon standing in front of you. Now, fire,
Quaver says, flying over to the cannon and hitting a
gigantic button on it. The cannon aims itself at Rex's
ship and unleashes a blast of pure sound energy. As
the energy hits his ship, the ship begins to shake.
The little pieces of programmable music matter that we're making up.
The new fins and engines start to crack and break
apart into their original music notes, and then the hull
of Rex's ship itself starts to crack. You see a
small explosion, and the ship starts to fly down towards
the ground to some sort of crash landing, leaving behind
the programmable music matter. The ship explodes in the distance,
but you see a smaller ship take off from it,
an escape pod, you realize as you watch the much
smaller t Rex shaped head shoot off into the sky.
Then the music people begin to save once again. This
time the little musical notes weave their way up into
the sky over towards the debris of musical notes that
is now falling like rain from well Rex's ship, or
what's left of it. The little music notes from the
song catch the other musical notes that Rex originally absorbed.
They fly through the air, they weave above the city,
and they begin quickly forming themselves back into the same
village that was there before. The bakeries are recreated, the
stores and statues are recreated. The houses and street lamps
come back into existence, looking even better and more beautiful
than before. Actually, the people stop singing, but you can
feel the resonant sound of the village being rebuilt. It's
full once again. Thank you, Quaver says, you have saved
our city. Ah here, welcome. Rex is kind of my fault.
After all, he tends to follow me around and try
to stop my plans. We have sort of a love
hate relationship. You might say. You explain interesting, Quaver response. Anyways,
I guess I better go. It was really cool meeting
you guys, and well seeing how you create matter out
of song really neat. Spaceship glows in front of you
and then grows larger and larger until it's a normal
sized ship once again, and you climb back aboard the ship.
The doors close behind you, and spaceship flies up into
the air, through the treble cleft shaped clouds and out
into space once again. You just lay down on the couch,
the lights dim, you close your eyes, and you just
listen to the sound of the ship, the humming coming
from all around you. Rising and falling, And as you listen,
you just focus on your breath, noticing as your stomach
rises and falls, and with each breath you try to
let go of a little more tension from your muscles.
You start with your legs, letting go of any tension.
Then you move on to your arms, and your shoulders
and your neck, and with each breath you sink down
a little bit deeper. And the deeper you sink, the
better you feel, and the better you feel, the deeper
you sink, until it feels like you're floating on a cloud.
You still hear the beautiful melodies singing inside your mind
as it wanders off to thoughts of new dreams, new adventures,
and new songs to come. Good night.
Speaker 2: Everyone must.
Speaker 7: Never Union Nacion music.
Speaker 5: M more.
Speaker 7: Union Kicking Thing