ATUM (synopsis)

ATUM continues the story of the same character who was the subject of 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness ("Zero") and 2000's Machina/The Machines of God ("Glass") – the prior two concept albums by The Smashing Pumpkins. The character is now much older than portrayed in the prior albums, and is now known as "Shiny".

Characters

 * Shiny – Also known as Zero and Glass and now in his 70s. He is a former artist of great fame, before being exiled to space due to his perceived danger to society.
 * June – A passionate life-long admirer of Shiny who is about "one generation" younger than him. Through illicit bribery she has exiled herself into space so that she can be closer to Shiny.
 * The Seraphim – A choir of Greek celestial angels.
 * Osirah – A non-binary, socially aware teen who is part of a hacker group known as 'Hopus Dei'.
 * Nighthawk – A young man and Osirah's closest comrade in 'Hopus Dei'.
 * Hopus Dei – A facile hacking group consisting of Osirah and Nighthawk, among others.
 * Dr Aesh – A legendary hacker and 60s-esque hippie psychonaut.
 * The Night Watchman – The only security guard at a long-abandoned amusement park called 'Dream Dream'.
 * Ruby – The lead dancing robot at Dream Dream's show pavilion, depicted as a 1930s sassy showgirl.
 * The X+I – Pronounced "X and I",the government authority that oversees all dissonant activity.
 * Los Machinas – A newly formed Machines of God tribute band.

"Atum"
As this song has no lyrics, it merely sets the mood for the ATUM story. As Corgan describes it, the image is that we (the listener/viewer) see a small, yet beautifully designed spaceship floating in space above Earth. At this point you don't know what it is. The scene then cuts back down to Earth, where we discover it is full of mayhem, mass riots, "descent and unhappiness, and a lot of strife." Next we float back to space, zooming past the spacecraft we saw earlier and on to the "dark side of the moon" (an intentional Pink Floyd reference), where we see pyramids and crystal towers. At this point we are riddled with the sense that the world and everything we know about it isn't as real as we have been led to believe. We then float past Mars and we see the face on Mars as well as more pyramids. Finally, we float toward the Sun and realize it's not the sun we thought it was. This lays the ground for the rest of the story that is to follow.

"Butterfly Suite"
The scene opens up with a view of two vastly separated spaceships, one to the left, and one to the right. The left spaceship contains the main character, Shiny, whom due to being deemed as a danger to Earth, had been exiled into space. In the right spaceship contains June, a girl who unbeknownst to Shiny is deeply in love with him and has been most of her adult life. Unlike Shiny who was exiled, June willingly bribed her way to go into one of the spaceships so that she could be near Shiny. By this time, both had been in space for roughly 20 years. Every morning, June wakes up and sings her love song to Shiny (which is meant figuratively; space is in a vacuum so sound wouldn't travel). "Butterfly Suite" is the love song she sings, addressing how June has sacrificed most of her adult life to be near Shiny.

Everyone who has been exiled into space is given a code, that when entered into their spacecraft, will send them on "The March of Life". This causes the spacecraft to break orbit and head toward the Sun as a form of "honorable suicide", especially given the overpopulation of Earth in this story.

In the middle of the song during the breakdown is when Shiny punches in his code. After two decades, and not knowing of June's existence at all, Shiny has had enough and decides to take his March of Life. June watches helplessly, recognizing that this is the brutal end of her love affair.

The last portion of the song addresses how June has come to the realization that her worst fears have come true, but yet because of her destiny she must do something. As Corgan explained it, "Shiny is her butterfly that she's chased into the heavens."

"The Good In Goodbye"
In the story of ATUM, "The Good In Goodbye" is sung by seraphim angels, known simply as The Seraphim. The track begins with a beeping sound effect, which signals that the main character, Shiny, is breaking out of Earth orbit and onto the Sun as a form of noble suicide, known as "The March of Life." The angels are singing to Shiny. He seemingly is doomed to die, but the seraphim are foreshadowing that he is very important in this moment and his destiny isn't over yet. As Shiny passes by the dark side of the moon, he notices unexpected things on its surface, and ultimately realizes that the universe and the world presented to him are not what they seem.

"Embracer"
In the "Butterfly Suite" episode of the Thirty-Three podcast, we learn how June is deeply in love with Shiny, both of whom have been exiled into space in different places. Shiny one day punches in the code on his spacecraft that ignites the "The March of Life" – a "noble suicide" of sorts that sends his spacecraft into the sun.

In "Embracer", the narrative returns to June while she is in space. She sees Shiny is on The March of Life, but feels she must do something about it. Recalling from earlier in the story, June purposely put herself into space exile just to be near Shiny, and thus must decide what to do when his time came. As typical for her, she first sings to him, realizing his place in her life, his importance as an artist and a muse to the people of Earth. Ultimately though she decides against taking The March of Life with him.

June refuses to accept Shiny's decision to die and instead takes action. Unlike other exile spacecrafts, Jane's was secretly equipped with a device allowing her to send anonymous messages down to Earth. Using what is a primitive message board in this story, June sends a cryptic message that only fans of Shiny would recognize. The problem is Shiny, as a 20-year exile, had long been forgotten and all written accounts of him (digital and otherwise) have been purged. Corgan said he was "snuffed out" by algorithms along with his older portrayals Zero and Glass. The message nonetheless states Shiny has taken The March of Life and is hoping someone can change his course. Although she has faith that she can save the man she loves, as Corgan puts it, "it's the equivalent of putting a message in a bottle into the ocean and hoping somebody finds it."

"With Ado I Do"
In the last song, "Embracer", June sent a "digital message in a bottle" on some futuristic message board from her spacecraft to Earth, telling the world that Shiny has taken "The March of Life". Only those who knew Shiny and his music from decades ago would be able to make sense of the message.

Back on Earth, a woman named Osirah who is a member of a hacker group called 'Hopus Dei', along with her friend Nighthawk, are discussing the message and its meaning. Nighthawk suggests they ask an older "stoner hacker dude" known as Dr. Aesh about it. He hears it and instantly recognizes who it is about, and tells the others about the musician Shiny who was exiled into space. Although he acknowledges he wasn't ever a fan of Shiny's music, he produces an old demo tape of his music. "With Ado I Do" is the song on the demo tape, containing Shiny's cryptic message to the world of his experiences just before he left the planet 20 years beforehand.

As explained earlier in the story, when Shiny was exiled into space, he was irreversibly digitally erased from all of Earth, so Osirah and Nighthawk have no means to find more information about Shiny now that they know that is what the mysterious message is about. Osirah listens to the demo tape provided by Dr. Aesh and was unable to make any sense of it. What she doesn't realize is this was Shiny's last ever recording, and it contains a hidden message. Shiny intentionally made the song sound bland so as to not attract the same attention he would have received back in those days of fame.

Osirah, now curious who Shiny is, shares the song online and asks others to interpret it. However as soon as she posts it, it is instantly removed. Believing it to be some sort of computer malfunction, she attempts again, only to see it again removed. It becomes obvious there's some sort of artificial intelligence or automation shielding the world from hearing Shiny's music.

As a hacker, Osirah brings the song to the crystal web and asks the same question, this time noting it was suppressed on the normal internet. As the crystal web doesn't have the same moderation, the song remains online and quickly attracts replies from people all around the world. The people say they remember Shiny and were huge fans of his music. Osirah then replies to June via the message board, not realizing it's a message being sent to space, simply saying "people care."

"Hooligan"
"With Ado I Do" is the long lost song by Shiny that was sent to Earth by his fellow exile and admirer June. That song was heard on Earth by a hacker named Osirah. She did not have much of a response to the song, but nevertheless felt compelled to do something about it considering it seemed to have so much meaning. Osirah begins to realize she has become an important figure in the story of Shiny. As Billy Corgan described it, "she finds for the first time in her life that she has a value outside herself."

Osirah is bridging the communication about Shiny from June to the people of Earth, and she knows this information is banned, considering Shiny had been wiped from all digital footprints on Earth when he was exiled. This gives her somewhat of a rebellious feeling. Especially given she is a hacker, she knows she is in some way doing something illegal. The larger issue however is that she is getting herself involved in something far more ominous than she thinks, but the subversiveness of the idea seems rebellious and she's attracted to that. "Hooligan" is the song describing her emotions.

"Steps In Time"
We're now back in space with June after she's received the message from Osirah. June knows Osirah is on Earth, but Osirah doesn't know June is in space. June is amazed that there's someone on Earth who cares about Shiny's suicidal "March of Life". June writes back to Osirah, telling her in an encrypted message that if she wants to find out who the real Shiny is, she should go to specific geographic coordinates. There is a "treasure" hidden at these coordinates.

"Steps In Time" is basically June's celebration that her message was received and Shiny is remembered. She's metaphorically facing towards Shiny and saying "see, I was right, people do miss you", and that he doesn't know how important she is to him. June's destiny to save Shiny is now coming to fruition.

"Where Rain Must Fall"
Now that June has heard the good news from Earth that people still care about Shiny, she is excited and feels that her destiny to be with Shiny is now sealed. "Shiny's love is in her grasp, at least psychologically," explained Corgan. "Where Rain Must Fall" is meant to represent the fantasy of what June's life will be like with Shiny. She takes a "starway" to the stars to reach him. This line was originally worded as "stairway to the stars" but Corgan felt that was "too obvious." 

"Beyond The Vale"
We are now back on Earth where Osirah and her friend Nighthawk have the geographic coordinates to a treasure chest that was given to them by June. They do not know the coordinates and message came from space. They think it has something to do with Shiny, but generally speaking they don't fully understand what they're doing and think it's all some sort of internet game.

Osirah and Nighthawk drive to an abandoned warehouse to find the chest to find they are being followed by "the government authority that oversees all dissonant activity", known as the X+I (pronounced "X and I"). The agency is seeking to intercept them and kill them both, as they aren't supposed to have what's in the chest, and whatever it may be is very dangerous to the government authority. Osirah and Nighthawk get out of their car when the X+I fires laser guns at them. They're able to evade the shooting by running into the warehouse. They narrowly escape with both the chest and their lives.

"Beyond The Vale" is sung from the perspective of the X+I. The agency all wear the same clothes and look very similar, without an apparent leader. When they speak, they all speak together as one. Corgan referred to them as the "gray area of authority." 

"Hooray!"
Osirah and Nighthawk have fled the X+I via car, throwing out their cell phones as they know they're being tracked. They pull over in the middle of the night to open the treasure chest they had found. Inside they find an antiquated hard drive. Because of the old technology, Nighthawk determines that there are only so many places left on Earth with compatible ports for this model of hard drive. They decide to go to an amusement park that both Nighthawk and Osirah visited as a child, called "Dream Dream." The park has long been closed, but they know that there used to be old dancing robots, and those likely have the connections for the hard drive.

As Osirah and Nighthawk explore the old amusement park trying to find the robots. They are discovered by a security guard known as The Watchman, who instead of calling the police, actually assists them in locating the robots, also turning on the lights and electricity to power them. The robots are a group, with their lead robot named Ruby. Unlike the other robots, Ruby is still in very good condition. As Ruby is powered up, she sings her signature song, "Hooray!". 

"The Gold Mask"
Osirah and Nighthawk found Ruby – a robot depicting a 1930s sassy showgirl – that interfaced with the strange hard drive that was left on Earth by June. "The Gold Mask" is the song that is played when the connection with the robot is made. What happens is Ruby's AI-generated personality fuses with Shiny's "pure essence personality." Before Shiny was exiled to outer space, the X+I created pure personality profiles in order to build artificial intelligence that detected disobedience in the public. It was meant to prevent more people like Shiny from influencing others. June, with her wealth and connections, was able to acquire Shiny's personality profile. Thus, Osirah and Nighthawk are effectively able to talk to Shiny through the robot, however the personality profile did not include emotions. Corgan argues that this replica of Shiny's consciousness "is actually more dangerous than Shiny himself" because it lacks emotion. He further explained that Shiny "represents a dissonant intellect that actually knows how to oppose a true totalitarian system which the X+I is. And yes, stripped of emotions, stripped of human frailty, Shiny's conscience is world-class dangerous."